Side d                                                                                                                    pp. 29-39

Playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under George Szell--playing the Mozart operas under Fritz Busch--other interests outside of music--gift for art--love of movies--earliest compositions--influence of other composers--Scriabin.

Side e                                                                                                                     pp. 39-50

Interest in geography--composing amidst chaotic surroundings--performance of an early string quartet movement--early music theory studies--Artur Rodzinski’s interest in his “Adagio” for orchestra--transcribing Duke Ellington’s music--transcribing Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto--various compositions written at the age of 18--the Horn Concerto premiere performance with Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony--composing while earning a living playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Side f                                                                                                                     pp. 50-58

Having to give up his horn career--premieres by Dmitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic of Dramatic Overture and Symphony for Brass and Percussion in 1956--the radio broadcasts of the premieres--getting noticed by Copland and Barber--jazz experiences--recordings with Miles Davis--coining of the term “Third Stream music”--performance of the Symphony for Brass and Percussion by Pierre Monteux--pendulum swings between the Schoenberg and the Stravinsky schools in the ‘50’s--the ‘war’ between the Schoenberg and the Stravinsky camps.

July 18, 1992

Side g                                                                                                                    pp. 58-69

Meeting Majorie, subsequently his wife--Marjorie’s piano teacher Edward Steuermann and his great influence--Steuermann as direct link to the Schoenberg circle--summer festival at Kenyon College and further immersion in the Schoenberg school--moving to New York with Marjorie--having a family--life in Cincinnati--teaching the French horn--early compositions.

Side h                                                                                                                    pp. 69-81

Early compositions--study of musical form--auditioning for and winning the job in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra--prior operatic experience on tour and with the New York City Opera--early interest in jazz--special admiration for Duke Ellington--first attempts at playing jazz in Cincinnati--going to Cleveland to hear and hang out with the Ellington band--seeing Duke Ellington at work composing.

Side i                                                                                                                     pp. 81-90

Appreciation of the difficulties of black life in the face of racism--direct experience of violent racist behavior in Cincinnati--hearing jazz in the black clubs in Cincinnati and meeting the musicians--playing for Ellington and being asked to join the band, maybe--early uses of the French horn in jazz--discovering bebop--attempts at playing jazz horn with Jim Buffington.

Side j                                                                                                                   pp. 90-100

Playing on Broadway in the summers--meeting and becoming friendly with John Lewis--becoming more heavily involved in the jazz scene as horn player, conductor and composer through association with John Lewis--writing about jazz--hosting a jazz radio program on WBAI with Nat Hentoff--doing radio series on contemporary music--receiving Brandeis University Creative Arts Award and organizing a festival of Third Stream music.

Side k                                                                                                                pp. 100-110

First Third Stream recording--philosophy behind the Third Stream concept--some personal philosophies--association with John Lewis--the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool sessions--freelance playing in jazz, popular and classical music--the vicissitudes of the jazz life--the artistic integrity and personal sincerity of the jazz scene--Miles Davis’ change of character in the early ‘60s--pride in his sons as uncompromising jazz players--the pressures of commerce on music and musicians--ease of moving between the jazz and classical worlds.

Side l                                                                                                                 pp. 110-123

The Met--the cynicism and lack of commitment of many orchestra players--the thrill of discovering the operatic repertoire under the great conductors--the tyranny of Reiner, Szell, et. al--the orchestral backlash against the tyrannical conductors--Harold Gomberg (NY Phil oboist) vs Szell--Mitropoulos’ support and the success of the Symphony for Brass--physical collapse due to overwork.

Side m                                                                                                               pp. 123-133

Decision to leave the Met Orchestra and freelance--Erich Leinsdorf’s resistance to leaving--decision to give up horn playing--beginning to conduct--the move into teaching--teaching at Yale--time in Berlin on DAAD/Ford Foundation fellowship.

August 24, 1992

Side n                                                                                                                pp. 133-142

Compositional influences--the twelve-tone system: reasons for adopting it and why it is not a compositional straitjacket--defining of personal style as synthesis of twelve-tone methods and tonal rootings--Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee--Spectra and why it is the most successful work musically--Symphony--consistency of style throughout oeuvre--writing the jazz histories and leaving the New England Conservatory--writing a large series of concerti--finding the “perfect” row, on which all subsequent work has been based, in the Violin Concerto, 1976.

Side o                                                                                                                pp. 142-151

Why this one row works--audience confusion in the face of, and unwillingness to like twelve-tone music--facility of composing with this one row and how it parallels common practice tonality--ignorance of formal musical scholarship--Alban Berg as role model--opera The Visitation--Rolf Liebermann’s commission--the Ford Foundation DAAD Fellowship.

Side p                                                                                                                pp. 151-162

Finding a subject: problems procuring Dürrenmatt’s The Visit and Ellison’s Invisible Man--own adaptation of Kafka’s The Trial to contemporary USA revolving around race issues--overwhelming success of premiere--the director Rennert and his conceptual differences on the piece--Liebermann’s company’s New York performances at the Met in 1967--presumed sabotage of performances of The Visitation--speculation on reasons for sabotage.

Side q                                                                                                                pp. 162-174

The controversial nature of the opera’s subject--a more successful production in San Francisco--reasons for the opera’s failing to enter the repertoire--becoming President of the New England Conservatory--early financial problems--renewing the faculty--starting a jazz department--the Ford Foundation’s bailing out of the Conservatory--reasons for the financial problems of the Conservatory.

Side r                                                                                                                 pp. 174-184

Further musings on the desperate financial state of the NEC--improvements to the school during tenure as President, especially greater unity--how the lack of a formal education or administrative background was an asset in restructuring the school--appointment by Leinsdorf to Tanglewood--the history of Tanglewood and what Koussevitzky’s vision was--Paul Fromm and the Fromm Foundation’s support for contemporary music at Tanglewood.

Side s                                                                                                                 pp. 184-195

The change of programming to a more modernist emphasis in the wake of Copland’s departure from Tanglewood--Leinsdorf’s compacting of the contemporary music concerts into a single festival within Tanglewood and its great success--expansion of duties at Tanglewood to assuming the role of artistic director--arrival of Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood--clashes with Ozawa over direction of the festival, especially Ozawa’s commercialization of it--decision to leave Tanglewood--starting a new festival and school in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Side t                                                                                                                 pp. 195-204

Interest in ragtime--Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha--performance of Treemonisha in orchestration by T.J. Anderson and its shortcomings--the American music festival at the NEC--Vera Lawrence and her ragtime and other scholarship--Lawrence and the Joplin Trust’s injunction against the Anderson orchestration of Treemonisha--Lawrence’s discovery of the Red Back Book of Rags--re-arranging and editing the Red Back Book.

Side u                                                                                                                pp. 204-213

Performance of rags in American music festival at NEC and its huge success--recording the rags for Angel and the success of that recording in sales and in winning a Grammy--being approached to work on the score for The Sting--Marvin Hamlisch adapts Red Back Book of Rags for The Sting soundtrack which becomes a great popular success--George Roy Hill’s reasons for choosing Joplin for The Sting soundtrack--Hamlisch’s reluctance to give credit to anyone other than himself for the success of the soundtrack--Doc Severinson’s setting up of Hamlisch’s exposure on the “Tonight Show”--large royalty incomes from the whole project.

Side v                                                                                                                pp. 213-223

Using the royalty payments from the Joplin projects to set up the two publishing companies and record company--acquisition of Alec Wilder’s catalog--the financial problems of keeping the publishing and recording companies afloat--European condescension toward American art music--the perceived youth, barbarism and immaturity of American culture--the great flowering of American culture in the twentieth century--European admiration of American iconoclast and popular composers and the corresponding unwillingness to acknowledge mainstream art music--serving on the MacArthur Foundation committee--educating other panelists about music, and, in turn, being educated by them about their fields--MacArthur Foundation’s willingness to take on fields ignored by other foundations.

Side w                                                                                                               pp. 223-223

Receiving a MacArthur Genius Grant--the MacArthur Foundation’s turning away from more idealistic projects and the diminishing funding resources for music.