Material Pleasures: the Still Life in the Fiction of AS Byatt

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Material Pleasures: the Still Life in the Fiction of AS Byatt University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2009 Material pleasures: the still life in the fiction of A. S. Byatt Elizabeth Hicks University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Hicks, Elizabeth, Material pleasures: the still life in the fiction of A. S. Byatt, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, , University of Wollongong, 2009. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/3546 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact Manager Repository Services: [email protected]. MATERIAL PLEASURES: The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt There are . things made with hands . that live a life different from ours, that live longer than we do, and cross our lives in stories . (Byatt, A. S. “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” 277) Elizabeth Hicks ABSTRACT This thesis explores the ways in which English writer A. S. (Antonia) Byatt’s veneration of both realism and writing informs her use of ekphrasis, investigating the prominence of the still life in her fictional output to 2009. In doing so it distinguishes between visual still lifes (descriptions of real or imagined artworks) and what are termed for the purposes of the study ‘verbal still lifes’ (scenes such as laid tables, rooms and market stalls). This is the first full-length examination of Byatt’s adoption of the Barthesian concept of textual pleasure, demonstrating how her ekphrastic descriptions involve consumption and take time to unfold for the reader, thereby elevating domesticity and highlighting the limitations of painting. In locating what may be termed a ‘Byattian’ aesthetic, this study combines several areas of scholarship, particularly literary criticism of Byatt and others, food writing, and feminist and postmodernist criticism. It investigates the ways in which Byatt’s still lifes demonstrate her debt to both French writer Marcel Proust and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of nineteenth-century Britain. The study also shows how, in her depictions of paintings by artists such as Henri Matisse, Byatt subtly engages with the issue of female representation. Further, it explores similarities between her writing and that of English modernist author Virginia Woolf. The study reads a number of Byatt’s verbal still lifes as semiotic markers of her characters, particularly with regard to economic status and class. Further, it reveals how her descriptions uniting food and sexuality are part of her overall representation of pleasure. Finally, it discusses Byatt’s use of vanitas iconography in her portrayals of death, and shows how her fiction’s recurring motif of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” teases out the still life’s inherent tension between living passion and ‘cold’ artwork. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the generosity and assistance of my family, especially my husband Warren and children Iris, David, James and Thomas. Their love, patience and constant support have been invaluable throughout my study. I also wish to thank my sisters Kate Lyons-Dawson and Jo Lyons for their excellent proof-reading skills and consummate professionalism. In addition, I am indebted to my parents Kevin and Eilis Lyons, and my other siblings, Terry, Fiona, Jen and Pat, who have all given me encouragement, academic and otherwise, throughout my life. This study has been considerably enhanced by the opportunity to present my research at the Virginia Woolf Society Conference at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, in 2005. I wish to acknowledge my appreciation of the Arts Faculty of the University of Wollongong in contributing financially to my attendance at the conference. I would also like to thank the Willa Cather Foundation, and Dr. Robert Thacker in particular, for the excellent organisation of the 2007 Cather conference at Tarascon, France, during which I had the privilege of hearing and meeting Dame Antonia Byatt. I also wish to acknowledge Ms. Byatt’s generosity in responding so readily and generously to my e-mail query. My supervisor, Dr. Louise D’Arcens, has contributed substantially to this thesis, providing detailed reading and insightful commentary. In particular, I am grateful for her suggestions regarding the vanitas still life and the Proustian direction. I also wish to thank my co-supervisor, Dr. Anne Collett, for encouraging my inclusion of Woolf. In addition, I would like to acknowledge both the assistance of my initial supervisor, Dr. Cath Ellis, and the considerable insight gained from Dr. Dorothy Jones’s seminar on food memoirs at the University of Wollongong in April 2007. Finally, I wish to thank Professor Gerry Turcotte for his encouragement when this thesis was merely an idea. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF ARTWORKS .................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 1 The Still Life and Ekphrasis ................................................................................................ 17 Previous Scholarship ........................................................................................................... 29 Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 40 PART 1 THE LIFE OF ART ...................................................................................................... 46 CHAPTER 1 AESTHETIC PLEASURE .................................................................................. 47 The Proustian Vision ........................................................................................................... 48 The Pre-Raphaelite Influence .............................................................................................. 70 The Bourgeois Interior ......................................................................................................... 81 The Life of Art ..................................................................................................................... 90 CHAPTER 2 POSTMODERN PLEASURE ............................................................................. 99 Framing the Artworks ........................................................................................................ 102 Framing the Narrative ........................................................................................................ 115 PART 2 THE ART OF LIVING............................................................................................... 129 CHAPTER 3 DOMESTIC PLEASURE.................................................................................. 130 The Woolfian Heritage ...................................................................................................... 131 Female Representation ....................................................................................................... 154 The Art of Living ............................................................................................................... 159 iv CHAPTER 4 MORTAL PLEASURE ..................................................................................... 182 Food as Symbol and Ritual ................................................................................................ 183 Food and Sexuality ............................................................................................................ 203 Food and Death — the Vanitas .......................................................................................... 214 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 230 WORKS CITED............................................................................................................................. 233 v LIST OF ARTWORKS Fig. 1. Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, Mauritshuis, The Hague ......................................... 51 Fig. 2. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, The Skate, Louvre Museum, Paris ............................. 56 Fig. 3. Édouard Manet, Bunch of Asparagus, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne ............... 61 Fig. 4. Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin (Merlin and Vivien), Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool ................................................................................................... 72 Fig. 5. Vincent Van Gogh, Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saints-Maries, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam ............................................................................................................................... 82 Fig. 6. Henri Matisse, Luxe, Calme et Volupté, Musée D’Orsay, Paris ................................... 86 Fig. 7. Henri Matisse, Le Nu Rose, Baltimore Museum of Art................................................ 96 Fig. 8. Diego Velázquez, Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, National Gallery, London .....................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Helen Lempriere Mid-20Th Century Representations of Aboriginal Themes Gloria Gamboz
    Helen Lempriere Mid-20th century representations of Aboriginal themes Gloria Gamboz The best-known legacy of the While living in Paris and London in half of the 20th century has created Australian painter, sculptor and the 1950s, Lempriere was influenced some contention, and these works are printmaker Helen Lempriere by anthropological descriptions of now being reinvestigated as part of (1907–1991) is the sculpture prize Australian Indigenous cultures, and a broader examination of emerging and travelling scholarship awarded in developed a highly personal and Australian nationhood. A study of her name. Less well known, however, expressive mode of interpretation Lempriere’s life, influences and key are her post–World War II works that blended Aboriginal themes with works provides an insight into the exploring Aboriginal myths, legends her own vision. The appropriation cultural climate of post–World War II and iconography. Twelve of these of Aboriginal themes by non- Australia, and the understanding of are held by the Grainger Museum Indigenous Australian women Aboriginal culture by non-Indigenous at the University of Melbourne, and artists like Lempriere in the first women artists. have recently been made available on the museum’s online catalogue.1 They form part of a wider collection of works both by, and depicting, Helen Lempriere, bequeathed by Lempriere’s husband, Keith Wood, in 1996.2 The collection is likely to have come to the Grainger Museum through a mutual contact, the Sydney- based curator, collector and gallery director Elinor
    [Show full text]
  • Imagery of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings Informs Australian Messaging to the Post-War USA
    arts Article Cultural Tourism: Imagery of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings Informs Australian Messaging to the Post-War USA Marie Geissler Faculty of Law Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia; [email protected] Received: 19 February 2019; Accepted: 28 April 2019; Published: 20 May 2019 Abstract: This paper explores how the appeal of the imagery of the Arnhem Land bark painting and its powerful connection to land provided critical, though subtle messaging, during the post-war Australian government’s tourism promotions in the USA. Keywords: Aboriginal art; bark painting; Smithsonian; Baldwin Spencer; Tony Tuckson; Charles Mountford; ANTA To post-war tourist audiences in the USA, the imagery of Australian Aboriginal culture and, within this, the Arnhem Land bark painting was a subtle but persistent current in tourism promotions, which established the identity and destination appeal of Australia. This paper investigates how the Australian Government attempted to increase American tourism in Australia during the post-war period, until the early 1970s, by drawing on the appeal of the Aboriginal art imagery. This is set against a background that explores the political agendas "of the nation, with regards to developing tourism policies and its geopolitical interests with regards to the region, and its alliance with the US. One thread of this paper will review how Aboriginal art was used in Australian tourist designs, which were applied to the items used to market Australia in the US. Another will explore the early history of developing an Aboriginal art industry, which was based on the Arnhem Land bark painting, and this will set a context for understanding the medium and its deep interconnectedness to the land.
    [Show full text]
  • Emu Island: Modernism in Place 26 August — 19 November 2017
    PenrithIan Milliss: Regional Gallery & Modernism in Sydney and InternationalThe Lewers Trends Bequest Emu Island: Modernism in Place 26 August — 19 November 2017 Emu Island: Modernism in Place Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest 1 Spring Exhibition Suite 26 August — 19 November 2017 Introduction 75 Years. A celebration of life, art and exhibition This year Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest celebrates 75 years of art practice and exhibition on this site. In 1942, Gerald Lewers purchased this property to use as an occasional residence while working nearby as manager of quarrying company Farley and Lewers. A decade later, the property became the family home of Gerald and Margo Lewers and their two daughters, Darani and Tanya. It was here the family pursued their individual practices as artists and welcomed many Sydney artists, architects, writers and intellectuals. At this site in Western Sydney, modernist thinking and art practice was nurtured and flourished. Upon the passing of Margo Lewers in 1978, the daughters of Margo and Gerald Lewers sought to honour their mother’s wish that the house and garden at Emu Plains be gifted to the people of Penrith along with artworks which today form the basis of the Gallery’s collection. Received by Penrith City Council in 1980, the Neville Wran led state government supported the gift with additional funds to create a purpose built gallery on site. Opened in 1981, the gallery supports a seasonal exhibition, education and public program. Please see our website for details penrithregionalgallery.org Cover: Frank Hinder Untitled c1945 pencil on paper 24.5 x 17.2 Gift of Frank Hinder, 1983 Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest Collection Copyright courtesy of the Estate of Frank Hinder Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest 2 Spring Exhibition Suite 26 August — 19 November 2017 Introduction Welcome to Penrith Regional Gallery & The of ten early career artists displays the on-going Lewers Bequest Spring Exhibition Program.
    [Show full text]
  • PL205 the Gaze Course Description Texts Requirements
    Fall 2021 PL205 The Gaze Instructor: Prof. Dr. Katalin Makkai Email: [email protected] Office hours: By appointment This course is an OSUN network online course and will take place via Zoom. Course description This course explores a range of ways in which human relationships—with each other, with society at large, with the world in which we live—have been conceived as structured in terms of a “gaze” or “look”. We begin with the idea of the human being as (in part) constituted by a need, or desire, for recognition in the eyes of another. We then turn to consider analyses and critiques of modern Western society as based on a pernicious culture of seeing, drawing from work in philosophy, cultural criticism, feminist theory, psychoanalysis, film, and fiction. Texts All readings will be provided during the semester electronically. We will be examining readings closely during class. To make the most of the online format, please print the readings out before class, or have them available on a device different from the one you use to join class. This will help to build a sense of community, because then we’ll all know that you are looking at us, and not a PDF, when you are looking at your screen. Requirements ATTENDANCE Attendance at all classes is a crucial part of the education offered by Bard College Berlin. To account for minor circumstances, two absences will not affect the participation grade or require documentation. Any further absences should be discussed with the instructor. Bard College Berlin does not offer credit for any course in which a student has missed more than 30% of classes, regardless of the reasons for the absences.
    [Show full text]
  • The ONE and ONLY Ivan
    KATHERINE APPLEGATE The ONE AND ONLY Ivan illustrations by Patricia Castelao Dedication for Julia Epigraph It is never too late to be what you might have been. —George Eliot Glossary chest beat: repeated slapping of the chest with one or both hands in order to generate a loud sound (sometimes used by gorillas as a threat display to intimidate an opponent) domain: territory the Grunt: snorting, piglike noise made by gorilla parents to express annoyance me-ball: dried excrement thrown at observers 9,855 days (example): While gorillas in the wild typically gauge the passing of time based on seasons or food availability, Ivan has adopted a tally of days. (9,855 days is equal to twenty-seven years.) Not-Tag: stuffed toy gorilla silverback (also, less frequently, grayboss): an adult male over twelve years old with an area of silver hair on his back. The silverback is a figure of authority, responsible for protecting his family. slimy chimp (slang; offensive): a human (refers to sweat on hairless skin) vining: casual play (a reference to vine swinging) Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Epigraph Glossary hello names patience how I look the exit 8 big top mall and video arcade the littlest big top on earth gone artists shapes in clouds imagination the loneliest gorilla in the world tv the nature show stella stella’s trunk a plan bob wild picasso three visitors my visitors return sorry julia drawing bob bob and julia mack not sleepy the beetle change guessing jambo lucky arrival stella helps old news tricks introductions stella and ruby home
    [Show full text]
  • I AM ALIVE - from Eggs to Electrolux
    I AM ALIVE - from eggs to electrolux An adaption of Margaret's Preston's autobiographical essays- Why I became a Convert to Modern Art, The Home, Vol.4, June 1923 From Eggs to Electrolux, Art in Australia, 3rd series, No 22, December 1927 Margaret Preston in the gallery amongst her paintings- a monologue for two performers MARGARET PRESTON - A vociferous firebrand of twenty and a quiet watchful little girl devised, designed and directed by SUZANNE SPUNNER Performers - JULIA HARARI as Margaret Preston and ZOE STOCK as the little red haired girl commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria for the Public Programs, presented at MARGARET PRESTON ART and LIFE, NGVA, January 15-18, 2006 dedicated to our dear friend, BRIDGET WHITELAW (1950-2004) Curator Prints & Drawings, Australian Art at the NGV ________________________________________________ PROPS- one tall wooden artists stool, a dinner plate, a glass bowl of fresh eggs COSTUMES- MP the little girl- striped ticking pinafore, dark dress, green hair ribbon MP the young woman - long striped ticking skirt, white blouse, green tie ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ MP - The woman whose paintings you see all around you - is alive, and so is the girl who was that woman, before she knew who she was, even what her name was…. Once upon a time when I was a little girl - just twelve years old - like that little girl - I borrowed my mother's best dinner plates and covered them all over with stove black. And onto the blacking I painted flannel flowers. The result so impressed my mother that she determined to have me properly trained.
    [Show full text]
  • Gordon Bennettcv
    Gordon BENNETT: Curriculum Vitae 1955-2014 Born Monto, Queensland, lived and worked in Brisbane 1986-88 Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts), Queensland College of Art, Brisbane 1990 Winner of Aberdare Art Prize, Ipswich City Council Regional Gallery, Ipswich 1991 Winner of the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship 1993 Artist in Residence, University of Melbourne, MacGeorge Fellowship 1994 Winner of the Contemporary Art Excellence Award, Nudgee College, Brisbane 1995 Australian Network for Art and Technology Summer School, Brisbane 1995 Winner of the Pine Rivers Art Prize Winner of the Logan City Painting Prize 1996 Anniversary Creative Arts Fellow, Australian National University, Canberra 1997 Winner of the SCEGGS Redlands/ Westpac Art Award, Sydney 1997 Winner of the John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1998 Winner of the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton 2014 Awarded Griffith University Arts, Education and Law Outstanding Alumnus of the Year and Queensland College of Art Outstanding Alumnus of the Year 2016 Recipient of Tate Modern and the Museum of Contemporary Art inaugural Acquisition Program purchased jointly through the Qantas Foundation Solo Exhibitions 2016 Gordon Bennett: Home Décor (after Margaret Preston), Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Gordon Bennett: Moving Images Part I, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Gordon Bennett: Moving Images Part II, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Gordon Bennett: Home Décor / Ancestor Figures, Milani Gallery, Brisbane 2015-18
    [Show full text]
  • Making Modernism Student Resource
    STUDENT RESOURCE INTRODUCTION The time of Georgia O’Keeffe, Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith was characterised by scientific discovery, war, rapid urbanisation, engineering and industrialisation. Rather than working toward tonal modelling and ‘imitative drawing’ techniques, these women artists were driven toward abstraction by theories about colour and distortion initiated by the Fauvists in Europe, as well as by their own fascination with the depiction of light. Arthur Wesley Dow’s design exercises — influenced by Japanese aesthetics (Orientalism) that aimed to achieve harmony using notan, or ‘dark and light’ — were being taught around the world, including to O’Keeffe at a Georgia O’Keeffe / Ram’s Head, Blue Morning Glory (detail) 1938 / Gift of The Burnett Foundation 2007 / University of Virginia summer school; here in Australia, Collection: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Preston was reading about them. 1, 2 BEFORE VISIT ‘ Do not go where the path may RESEARCH – What is Modernism? Write a definition lead, go instead where there that considers the following terms: rapid change, is no path and leave a trail.’ world view, transportation, industrialisation, innovation, experimentation, rejecting tradition, realism, abstraction. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), North American essayist and poet Locate on maps the cities, regions and other places significant to O’Keeffe, Preston and Cossington Smith, including New Mexico, Sydney Harbour and England. DEVELOP – Use Google Earth to find and take screen ‘ Lasting art is endlessly interesting shots of these locations and the vehicles in use at the time. because its meaning is constantly remade by each generation, by each REFLECT – Consider the impact of travel on artists, individual viewer.’ seeing new countries and landscapes for the first time.
    [Show full text]
  • An Evening with Pat Metheny with Antonio Sánchez, Linda May Han Oh, and Gwilym Simcock
    Thursday, October 25, 2018, 8pm Fox Theater, Oakland An Evening with Pat Metheny with Antonio Sánchez, Linda May Han Oh, and Gwilym Simcock Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Pat Metheny was born in Lee’s Summit (MO) on one of the very first jazz musicians to treat the August 12, 1954, into a musical family. Starting synthesizer as a serious musical instrument. on trumpet at the age of eight, he switched to Years before the invention of MIDI technology, guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was work - Metheny was using the Synclavier as a compos - ing regularly with the best jazz musicians in ing tool. He has also been instrumental in the Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-band - development of several new kinds of guitars, in - stand experience at an unusually young age. cluding the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Metheny first burst onto the international jazz Pikasso guitar, Ibanez’s PM series of jazz guitars, scene in 1974. Over the course of his three-year and a variety of other custom instruments. stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the It is one thing to attain popularity as a musi - young Missourian quickly displayed his soon- cian, but it is another to receive the kind of to-become trademark playing style, which acclaim Metheny has garnered from critics and blends the loose and flexible articulation peers. Over the years, he has won countless polls customarily reserved for horn players with an as Best Jazz Guitarist along with awards includ - advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility— ing gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter a way of playing and improvising that is mod - from Home, and Secret Story .
    [Show full text]
  • DB Music Shop Must Arrive 2 Months Prior to DB Cover Date
    05 5 $4.99 DownBeat.com 09281 01493 0 MAY 2010MAY U.K. £3.50 001_COVER.qxd 3/16/10 2:08 PM Page 1 DOWNBEAT MIGUEL ZENÓN // RAMSEY LEWIS & KIRK WHALUM // EVAN PARKER // SUMMER FESTIVAL GUIDE MAY 2010 002-025_FRONT.qxd 3/17/10 10:28 AM Page 2 002-025_FRONT.qxd 3/17/10 10:29 AM Page 3 002-025_FRONT.qxd 3/17/10 10:29 AM Page 4 May 2010 VOLUME 77 – NUMBER 5 President Kevin Maher Publisher Frank Alkyer Editor Ed Enright Associate Editor Aaron Cohen Art Director Ara Tirado Production Associate Andy Williams Bookkeeper Margaret Stevens Circulation Manager Kelly Grosser ADVERTISING SALES Record Companies & Schools Jennifer Ruban-Gentile 630-941-2030 [email protected] Musical Instruments & East Coast Schools Ritche Deraney 201-445-6260 [email protected] Classified Advertising Sales Sue Mahal 630-941-2030 [email protected] OFFICES 102 N. Haven Road Elmhurst, IL 60126–2970 630-941-2030 Fax: 630-941-3210 www.downbeat.com [email protected] CUSTOMER SERVICE 877-904-5299 [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors: Michael Bourne, John McDonough, Howard Mandel Austin: Michael Point; Boston: Fred Bouchard, Frank-John Hadley; Chicago: John Corbett, Alain Drouot, Michael Jackson, Peter Margasak, Bill Meyer, Mitch Myers, Paul Natkin, Howard Reich; Denver: Norman Provizer; Indiana: Mark Sheldon; Iowa: Will Smith; Los Angeles: Earl Gibson, Todd Jenkins, Kirk Silsbee, Chris Walker, Joe Woodard; Michigan: John Ephland; Minneapolis: Robin James; Nashville: Robert Doerschuk; New Orleans: Erika Goldring, David Kunian; New York: Alan Bergman, Herb Boyd, Bill Douthart, Ira Gitler, Eugene Gologursky, Norm Harris, D.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Adapted Screenplays
    Absorbing the Worlds of Others: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Adapted Screenplays By Laura Fryer Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of a PhD degree at De Montfort University, Leicester. Funded by Midlands 3 Cities and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. June 2020 i Abstract Despite being a prolific and well-decorated adapter and screenwriter, the screenplays of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala are largely overlooked in adaptation studies. This is likely, in part, because her life and career are characterised by the paradox of being an outsider on the inside: whether that be as a European writing in and about India, as a novelist in film or as a woman in industry. The aims of this thesis are threefold: to explore the reasons behind her neglect in criticism, to uncover her contributions to the film adaptations she worked on and to draw together the fields of screenwriting and adaptation studies. Surveying both existing academic studies in film history, screenwriting and adaptation in Chapter 1 -- as well as publicity materials in Chapter 2 -- reveals that screenwriting in general is on the periphery of considerations of film authorship. In Chapter 2, I employ Sandra Gilbert’s and Susan Gubar’s notions of ‘the madwoman in the attic’ and ‘the angel in the house’ to portrayals of screenwriters, arguing that Jhabvala purposely cultivates an impression of herself as the latter -- a submissive screenwriter, of no threat to patriarchal or directorial power -- to protect herself from any negative attention as the former. However, the archival materials examined in Chapter 3 which include screenplay drafts, reveal her to have made significant contributions to problem-solving, characterisation and tone.
    [Show full text]
  • Dana Podcast Transcript
    Transcript of Dana Podcast—Pat Metheny’s Brain on Music Guest: Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City on August 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age. Mr. Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974. With the release of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he reinvented the traditional "jazz guitar" sound for a new generation of players. Throughout his career, Mr. Metheny has continued to re-define the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument. As well as being an accomplished musician, Mr. Metheny has also participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later (1996). Over the years, Mr. Metheny has won countless polls as "Best Jazz Guitarist" and awards, including three gold records for Still Life (Talking), Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won 20 Grammy Awards in 12 different categories. Host: Bill Glovin serves as executive editor of The Dana Foundation. Prior to joining Dana Mr. Glovin was senior editor of Rutgers Magazine and editor of Rutgers Focus.
    [Show full text]