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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Has an American composer, a living American composer's music been featured on your station this week?
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EVERYONE: |
Yes!
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
Absolutely.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
That's very good to hear.
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
Every week.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
How much contemporary music gets played on your station?
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
Not enough.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Why isn't there more? Why can't there be more?
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CHRIS KOHTZ: |
Could I ask to be more specific? Because this comes up year after year, and we say contemporary music, and contemporary music - do you mean music by living composers?
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Yes.
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CHRIS KOHTZ: |
20th Century music?
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Well, now we can't really say 20th century anymore, can we?
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DEANNE POULOS: |
21st century music...
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
How about this? Music written by someone living or by someone who was alive during your lifetime or the lifetime of someone you know who's older than you... I compiled this list a couple of years ago... [LOIS REITZES waves The Century List at FJO.]
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Oh my God, there it is. I divided contemporary music into live Americans, dead Americans, live foreigners, and dead foreigners. [Everyone laughs.]
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BOYCE LANCASTER: |
Pretty well covers the whole thing.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Yeah. The idea was that all of the music was by someone whom you or someone in your life could have known.
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
I play a lot of it, and I mix it in as much as I possibly can. I've started programs off with John Cage. At 7 o'clock in the morning.
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BOYCE LANCASTER: |
Four and a half minutes of dead air? [Everyone laughs.]
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
Actually, I've been practicing that and I've got it down to 2 minutes. [Everyone laughs.] I skip the repeats.
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CHRIS KOHTZ: |
It shows my ignorance, but we actually have a recording in our library of 4'33" and I've never looked into it to see who, what, when, where, why, and I know that in John Cage's aesthetic, there's a reason for that, but still, I just have to laugh when I look at the recording of that.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Well, if it's a live recording, you get the audience sound.
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CHRIS KOHTZ: |
Even if it's not a live recording, there's ambience, there's everything else.
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LOIS REITZES: |
How do you fit John Cage into early music? I thought you played Renaissance music...
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
I had on a piece of music by John Cage which was very quiet and pleasant.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
Oh, was that one of the choral pieces done by the Ars Nova Vocal Ensemble? Their Cage disc is so great...
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CHRIS KOHTZ: |
...And Stephen Drury's recording, the piano stuff, there's really nice, beautiful stuff on there. The piece "In a Landscape." It's a beautiful Satie-esque little tune.
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FRANK J. OTERI: |
And some of those Number Pieces are just heavenly...
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
I try to mix as much as I can. I stick with music in the early hours that is of an early type, but not necessarily "early."
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LOIS REITZES: |
I see. So it doesn't have to be confined to a particular century.
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BOYCE LANCASTER: |
...It can have that flavor...
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CHRIS KOHTZ: |
...very much the sound of the piece...
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ROBERT J. LURTSEMA: |
Arvo Pärt is a good example.
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