NET Festival; The World of David Amram
- Series
- NET Festival
- Episode Number
- 66
- Episode Number
- 105
- Episode
- The World of David Amram
- Producing Organization
- National Educational Television and Radio Center
- Contributing Organization
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/512-9c6rx9460v
- NOLA Code
- WODA
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- Description
- Episode Description
- "The World of David Amram" is a documentary-performance program focusing on one of the most active figures in serious music, the 38-year-old American composer, conductor and virtuoso French horn player David Amram. The program follows him from participating in a session on his French horn with a jazz group in Tompkins Square, on New York Citys Lower East Side, to Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center, where Erick Friedman performs Amram's violin sonata. Amram conducts a huge benefit evening of his own music at Jones Hall, in Houston, Texas (November 30, 1968). From this event, the NET program includes a large portion of his cantata "A Year in Our Land." The work, using quotations from the writings of James Baldwin, John Dos Passos, Jack Kerouac. John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, and Walt Whitman, is performed by members of the Houston Symphony and the University of Houston Choral Group under the direction of Merrills Lewis.?The program climaxes with the world premiere of "Three Songs for America," an original work for camera commissioned by NET from David Amram and filmmaker Tom Bywaters, who has spent a year and a half documenting Amrams career. A work for baritone and small instrumental ensemble, the songs have lyrics taken from the writings of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. These three men had visions, hopes and plans for the future of America. All three lost their lives in a search for this future. Visually each song will be interpreted in a film sequence in which historical landmarks will be intercut with scenes from contemporary American life.?The performance segments are framed with sequences showing the works in preparation and rehearsal. The program also shows Amram's hectic private life as a successful musician. A success story in the classic American tradition, Amram has documented his rise to fame in the recently published autobiography "Vibrations: The Adventures and Musical Times of David Amram." The book, in his own words, tries to show what a life in music is like. "The greatest quality of his book is zest," said a New York Times reviewer. "He relishes everything. He is always moving forward to meet life."?David Amram has been called a "perfect modern musician of the theater," but he has also received wide critical acclaim for his chamber music, choral works, operas, and orchestral works. Born in Philadelphia in 1930, Amram began to study the piano at the age of seven, and later the trumpet and French horn. In 1948 he entered the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and a year later transferred to George Washington University, where he received his B.A. in European History. During this time he played the French horn with the Washington National Symphony, then continued performing as a draftee with the Seventh Army Symphony, making a tour for the State Department upon his discharge. In 1955 he entered the Manhattan School of Music, also playing as a jazz musician with Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, and with his own group at New York's "Five Spot." In 1956, he began an association with the New York Shakespeare Festival, which resulted in 21 scores for its productions. For three years he served as musical director for the Phoenix Theatre, and for the first two years of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater. During the 1966-67 season, he was appointed the first composer in residence to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.?His music for major New York theatrical productions includes Arthur Miller's "After the Fall" and Archibald MacLeish's "J.B." His film scores include "The Manchurian Candidate," and "Splendor in the Grass." His two operas are "Twelfth Night" and "The Final Ingredient," a Passover opera which was repeated annually for three years on ABC Television. For NET, David Amram wrote the music for "Far Rockaway," an original play by Frank D. Gilroy which was broadcast on "Lincoln Center/Stage 5 Three Premieres," and also the familiar percussion music accompanying the "NET Playhouse" logo. The young American bass-baritone Roberto Termine will sing David Amram's "Three Songs for America" when this work has its world premiere on "The World of David Amram." The 23-year-old Mr. Termine, a native New Yorker, has appeared in productions with the Metropolitan Opera Studio, the Hunter College Opera Workshop, Manhattan School's Opera Theatre, and the New Haven Opera. He makes his orchestral debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 24 in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust." Mr. Termine is the recipient of grants from the Liederkranz, Kosciusko, and Lucrezia Bori Foundations.?NET FESTIVAL The World of David Amram" is a production for NET by Tom Bywaters. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Episode Description
- 1 hour piece produced by NET. This aired as NET Festival episode 66 on April 22, 1969 and as NET Festival episode 105 on January 27, 1970. It was originally shot on film in color.
- Broadcast Date
- 1970-01-27
- Broadcast Date
- 1969-04-22
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Performance
- Documentary
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Conductor: Amram, David
Executive Producer: Venza, Jac
Interviewee: Amram, David
Performer: Termine, Roberto
Producer: Bywaters, Thomas
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2309798-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 1 inch videotape: SMPTE Type C
Generation: Master
Color: Color
Duration: 0:58:32
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2309798-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Color: Color
Duration: 0:58:32
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2309798-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Duration: 0:58:32
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- Citations
- Chicago: “NET Festival; The World of David Amram,” 1970-01-27, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 12, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-9c6rx9460v.
- MLA: “NET Festival; The World of David Amram.” 1970-01-27. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 12, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-9c6rx9460v>.
- APA: NET Festival; The World of David Amram. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-9c6rx9460v