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Once upon a time in America, iconoclasts thrived, eccentrics flourished, and genius abounded. Join State of the Arts for a celebration of four American Originals.
walt whitman
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is Camden’s famous son, yet he lived there for only the last 19 years of his life. Self-published in 1855, Leaves of Grass charted a new path for poetry, with its organic, free verse, and its enigmatic proclamations of the United States as “the greatest poem.” For the remainder of his life, Whitman continually revised and added to Leaves of Grass: although the first edition contained only 12 poems, the “death bed” edition has over 300. In 1860, Whitman added new poems that at the time were considered extremely graphic and sexually explicit. The 1870 edition marks the inclusion of poems based on Whitman’s Civil War experiences. As Leaves of Grass continued to evolve, it became for Whitman a symbol of America itself – wildly diverse, yet joined into a whole. With the surprising success of the 1882 edition, Whitman was able to buy a house in Camden for $1,750, where he lived until his death. The Camden years mark the period of Whitman’s greatest acceptance and public acclaim; it was during this period that he became “the good gray poet.” The Walt Whitman house on Mickle Street (now Mickle Boulevard) is open to the public. State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner visits the house as she explores the importance of place, specifically Camden, in Whitman’s poetry through interviews with scholars and excerpts from Whitman’s writings.
 Listen to an 1890 wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reading “America”.
“America”
Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
by Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass, 1892 Deathbed edition
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Frontispiece of 1855 Leaves of Grass: Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Whitman in his bedroom at 328 Mickle Street
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edward weston
Edward Weston: A Legacy, was a 2005 exhibit at the Montclair Art Museum that included 80 photographs by one of the masters of twentieth-century photography. His name evokes images of anthropomorphic still lifes, striking nudes, dramatic coastal landscapes, and stark dunes that embody the brilliant compositions, sharp focus, and exquisite tonalities of the Straight Photography movement. Weston's belief in the purity of natural form and the transcendent beauty in the commonplace led him to create some of the most indelible images in the history of the medium. After years of subsidizing his art with commercial work, Weston was granted a Guggenheim, the first photographer ever to receive one. He and his companion took an ambitious road tour, during which Weston began to experiment with landscape as never before. Whether in the canyons of Death Valley, the snowfields of Yosemite, or the forests of the Pacific Northwest, these travels had a liberating, energizing effect on Weston. State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards focuses on the work created during Weston’s “Guggenheim Project.”
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Photographer Edward Weston
Boat Builder. Wilmington, Delaware, 1935. – by Edward Weston
Juniper. Sierra Nevada, 1937. – by Edward Weston
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harry partch
Harry Partch (1901-1974) was one of America’s most innovative and individualistic composers. In the 1960s and 70s young admirers lined up around the block to hear his New York concerts. Partch invented his own unique tuning system based on dividing the octave into 43 small intervals. Western music had always used a 12-tone scale. He also invented dozens of unusual instruments made from everyday materials that can play these pitches. Partch’s entire collection of instruments is now housed at Montclair State University, where Partch’s protégé Dean Drummond looks after them and uses them for teaching and performances. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz visited Drummond recently for a demonstration of the remarkable instrument collection as the composer and conductor mounted a performance of Harry Partch’s 1952 musical drama Oedipus.
 Hear an extended excerpt from Partch’s Oedipus
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Harry Partch behind glass bells
Harry Partch with one of his atonal creations
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in search of alexander
Alexander McCurdy was one of the giants of the organ world. He was the head of the organ departments at both the famed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Westminster Choir College in Princeton for over forty years. Although he retired over 35 years ago and died over 20 years ago, his students still imitate his manner, extol his deep impact and recount favorite stories about their influential teacher. In May 2005, Westminster celebrated McCurdy’s 100th birthday with a day of concerts at the Princeton Chapel and Westminster’s Bristol Chapel. McCurdy students from around the world converged for the celebration, including concert organists John Weaver and Joan Lippincott. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz, who is also Alexander McCurdy’s grandson, looks back at his grandfather’s legacy.
Hear McCurdy play a Bach Prelude and Fugue
Hear the McCurdys play “Clair de Lune” by Debussy
Hear McCurdy lecture on the art of accompanying
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Alexander McCurdy at the organ
Alexander McCurdy and his grandson, Eric Schultz
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On NJN2: Friday, October 23 - Thursday, October 29, 2009
@ 5:00 pm • 11:00 pm
