Speaking of Music:
Nicolas Slonimsky, March 12, 1987

Tune into an evening of Nicolas Slonimsky's highly comic logorrhea as he is interviewed on March 12, 1987 as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Speaking of Music series. Host Charles Amirkhanian hardly needs to ask a question of his 92-year old Russian-born guest, the father of the "grandmother chord." An erudite musicologist, conductor, composer, pianist, and author of many books including “Music Since 1900”, “Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns”, and “Lexicon of Musical Invective”, Slonimsky engages in a wide-ranging discussion of 20th century music and musicians, from Scriabin to Zappa.

Musical highlights include Slonimsky playing two of his own compositions written specifically for the evening, "Objets Trouvés in the Dodecaphonic Environment," and the "52nd Minitude." He sings and plays his jingle "Children Cry for Castoria," and charms the audience by playing a Chopin etude with an orange, and the Tannhäuser Overture with a brush.