Ode To Gravity:
The Art and Music of Gerd De Vries

Charles Amirkhanian presents a program on German composer and musicologist, Gerd de Vries, whose efforts to modernize the establishment’s music dictionary, Riemann’s “Musick Lexicon,” have been much appreciated by avant-garde composers. Due to his efforts, entries for such important composers as John Cage have gone from being just a couple of sentences long, to now filling up more than a page, in this well known musical reference work. In addition to discussing his editorial work de Vries also talks about his austere compositions for organ, which often contain only the minimum number of elements possible in a sound event. Included are organ performances by de Vries as well as a talk with the composer recorded during a walk downtown in Amsterdam on Jan. 19, 1974. This program also contains a discussion of the work of Peter Roehr, a conceptual artist whose work has been compared to that of Andy Warhol. (from KPFA Folio)