Steven Watson

Bookworm

KCRW

Arts

4.5 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 1999

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Steven Watson &quotPrepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism" (Random House) &quotFour Saints inThree Acts" by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson was a modernistsneak-attack, the result of cunning and deliberation. Here's how they did it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.
0:07.1	You are a human animal.
0:11.1	You are a very special breed.
0:15.2	Or you are the only animal.
0:18.6	Who can think, who can reason, who can read?
0:22.9	The cowboys
0:23.6	To know, to know, to love,
0:30.6	To love with soul
0:32.6	For saints, prepare for saints,
0:34.6	It makes it well fish, For saints, it makes it well fish.
0:39.3	Four saints, it makes it well fish.
0:43.3	For saints, Prepare for saints
0:56.0	Saint Teresa, St. Mada, St. Settlement, St. Thomasina, St.
1:01.0	St. Philomena, St. Pellan, St. Pellan, St. Pellar, St.
1:04.0	Pilar, St. Bernard, St. Bernard, St. Bernard, St. Bernard, St.
1:10.0	St. Thomas, St. Paul, St. St. Cardinal, St. Plans, St. Paul, St. William, St. Gilbert, St. Settles, St. Arthur, St. Selma, St. Paul, Sir, St. C. Cranes, St. Clairne, St. Joseph.
1:16.6	Hello, and welcome to Bookworm. This is Michael Silverblant, and today we've got a special show.
1:23.5	What you've just heard is the opening chorus from the prelude of the opera Four Saints and Three Acts.
1:29.8	It's by Virgil Thompson with the famous libretto by Gertrude Stein.
1:34.7	My guest is Stephen Watson.
1:36.7	He has written a book called Prepare for Saints, which is a narrative of how Four Saints and Three Acts, an extraordinary modernist extravaganza,
1:49.3	made its way to New York from the etayets of Paris, from the ballet schools of London,
	...

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