Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers
- Producing Organization
- WGBH Educational Foundation
- Contributing Organization
- Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
- WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/15-246q623v
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- Description
- Program Description
- Aaron Copland meets the Soviet Composers is a half-hour studio production kinescope of an interview between Copland and six Soviet musicians, musicologists and/or composers who were traveling in the US. My impression is that this was a visit in return for one made to the USSR by an American group earlier that included Menned (?), Sessions, Harris and Kay (?). The setting for the interview is a recreated concert hall stage with the guests sitting in players' chairs and Copland and his translator located where a solo instrumentalist would be seated. The questions appear to have been scripted in advance - and scripts placed on the music stands. The responses from the Soviets appear to have been ad lib. Copland's questions were translated into Russian by an American (?) of Russian origins, Nicholas Slonimsky, himself a musician. The Soviets spoke in Russian and were heard through simultaneous translation. The translator was unseen and uncredited. The Soviet guests include (in order of answering questions): Dmitri Kabalevsky, Boris Yarustovsky, Tikhon Khrennikov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Konstantin Dankevich and Fikret Amirov. Kabalevsky was asked about the knowledge of American music in the USSR; Yarustovsky on the influence of American music on Russian music; Khrennikov on the reactions of Soviet musicians to the visit of four American musicians earlier (in the exchange program?); Shostakovich on American jazz and its influence; Dankevich on younger Soviet composers and Amirov on the adaption of native musical types to series music. Follow-up questions were added to fill the program to a half-hour including Copland to Shostakovich on American understanding of his music as compared to Soviet understanding of it (approx. 865 feet in). This latter segment may be useful as an outtake. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Description
- Black and white kinescope negative with separate (English) optical track.
- Broadcast Date
- 1959-00-00
- Date
- 1959-00-00
- Asset type
- Program
- Genres
- Talk Show
- Topics
- Music
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Director: Noble, Paul
Executive Producer: Davis, David M. (David McFarland), 1926-2007
Host: Copland, Aaron
Producer: Whitelaw, Jordan M., 1920-1982
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
Production Unit: Media Library and Archives
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_5109 (WNET Archive)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Master
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WGBH
Identifier: 00977A (WGBH Item ID)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Master
-
WGBH
Identifier: 00977A (WGBH Item ID)
Format: Betacam
Generation: Master
-
WGBH
Identifier: 00977A (WGBH Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Kinescope
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WGBH
Identifier: 00976A (WGBH Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Optical track
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WGBH
Identifier: 00977A (WGBH Item ID)
Format: VHS
Generation: Copy: Access
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers,” 1959-00-00, Thirteen WNET, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 4, 2026, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-246q623v.
- MLA: “Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers.” 1959-00-00. Thirteen WNET, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 4, 2026. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-246q623v>.
- APA: Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers. Boston, MA: Thirteen WNET, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-246q623v