The Test of Time Radio broadcasts, 1982, KAIR, University of Colorado
Each show is approximately 30 minutes
« STAN BRAKHAGE (SB): Hi, my name is Stan Brakhage and I’ve very kindly been asked by Len Barron first of all, to try to make a weekly radio program, to share some of my thoughts about the arts, and most especially to share with you some of the recordings of poets, of music, some of the plays and dramas that I’ve collected over the years - things that are very, very
special to me and that I’d like to be able to give somehow to people at large. What we heard at the beginning, which will be the Introduction music for this program from now on, is Gregorian chant - specifically some parallel organums. They’re directed
by Denis Stevens and they’re part of a Musical Heritage Society Series called « The History of European Music, Volume Two. » And like a great deal of what I’ll be playing on this program they’re out-of-print and obscure to begin with - not well known. They were recorded by the Accademia Monteverdiana Holy Trinity Church, London, and what they essentially
represent to me are a high point for me personally of music from the fifth- through the thirteenth-centuries. I want to lay emphasis on the word ‘personal.’ I have to be free in doing this kind of program to be nothing but personal, which is to say sometimes, often maybe, always a fool in a way. I’ll mispronounce things and falter now and again and my knowledge is one
that comes, is ‘amateur’ in that sense of ‘lover.’ And maybe I have stature in the world more specifically in relationship to film but otherwise film doesn’t represent itself very well on the air and the best you’ll have of that is opinions from time to time. For
instance I want to encourage film that’s as out of the mainstream as some of the music and some of the poetry that I’ll be presenting. And most specifically would like to encourage people to go to the ‘First Person Cinema’ which is every Monday night at eight o’clock in the Fine Arts Building at the University of Colorado, where you’ll be able to see a variety of films
made most individually in the one sense, but in the other, to me, though that’s a hard-to-prove, as an attempt to make art. »
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The following transcripts are from a weekly radio program that Stan Brakhage hosted on K.A.I.R., the University of Colorado’s campus radio station, in 1982. In transcribing these audio tapes I’ve tried to remain as faithful to Brakhage’s voice as possible. However, in some instances, stutters, pauses and missteps have been eliminated in order to improve the rhythm and flow of the text. Where I’m unsure of the proper spellings of names or titles I’ve indicated so in the script. Please email me with corrections, comments or questions. — Brett Kashmere
Contributo di
Juan Pablo Macías