eCommons

 

Miller, Paul D

Permanent URI for this collection

Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.

It's with humor and skepticism that my remix of 'Jonny Spielt Auf" is now titled "Jonny Spielt Jazz." I present it as a form of therapy for society. In the remix everything remains as its been before, but the "script" is adjusted for a digital context - Bauhaus theater sets become architectural diagrams interacting with the music and actors, blueprints for a different vision of a past that we experience only through recordings. With the original opera, the defeated Germany of World War I tries to leap over its shadow, that is to say, all that has been repressed and suppressed. With my remix, we are brought full circle; it's a journey with no maps, save what we make up as we go along. This undertaking isn't so unusual - turn on the TV, watch a movie, check out an updated website: the motifs are all there in different forms.

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Item
    2005 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal
    Miller, Paul D (2009-03-13T16:32:55Z)
    First performed in 1927 at the height of the Weimar Republic, Ernst Krenek's opera "Jonny Spielt Auf' went down in history as a so-called 'jazz opera'. The narrative portrayed the story of a black musician who played in a hotel band that used music to lure the masses into a new era of social freedom and equality. With a New Media grant from the Rockefeller Foundation I envision expanding the 45-minute musical performance I am composing for Munich's Intermedium media arts festival into a full multi-media opera with live stage performance, a fourpiece jazz ensemble and innovative live video projections that interact with the performers. With funds from the grant, I will be able to purchase the specialized technical equipment necessary for presenting the opera in traditional theaters that have hosted my current piece, Rebirth of a Nation, which is touring internationally through Spring 2005.