Geoffrey Cahn oral history collection on Weimar music, 1977-1983

Biographical Note

Geoffrey S. Cahn was born in 1947 in London and moved to the United States in 1948. He received a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in 1969, a Master of Arts in History from Jersey City State College in 1971, a Master of Philosophy in History from St. John's University in 1980, and a PhD from St. John's in 1982. His dissertation was titled "Weimar Culture as seen through American Eyes." During his career he was a substitute teacher in Jersey City, legal assistant at Cahill Gordon and Reindel, and a guidance counselor and department chair of history at Yeshiva University High School in New York City. He married Mary Lichtenberg in 1971, and they had one daughter

Scope and Contents

The collection's forty interviews were conducted by Geoffrey S. Cahn for his dissertation "Weimar Culture as seen through American Eyes." In his research, Cahn has examined the initial rejection of the music of Weimar Germany in the United States during the 1920s-1930s and the influence that this music had on American composition in the subsequent decades. The collection's narrators include composers, musicians, critics, professors, and writers. The collection's narrators are Milton Babbitt, Jack Beeson, Julius Blum, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Wen-Chung Chou, David Diamond, Lehman Engel, Ross Lee Finney, Alfred V. Frankenstein, John Gutman, Peter Gay, Miriam Gideon, Morton Gould, Stanley Green, Lou Harrison, Hans Walter Heinsheimer, Matthew Josephson, John Kander, Ulysses Kay, Fritz Kramer, Meyer Kupferman, Otto Luening, Norman MacArthur, George Perle, Vincent Persichetti, Steve Reich, Claire Reiss, George Rochberg, Ned Rorem, Eric Salzman, William Schuman, Elie Siegmeister, Nicolas Slonimsky, Robert Starer, Lys (Bertlies) Symonette, Virgil Thomson, Lester Trimble, Hugo Weisgall, and Charles Wuorinen

Subjects

• Cahn, Geoffrey S., 1947-
• Composers--Interviews.
• Germany--History--1918-1933.
• Interviews.
• Music--Germany--20th century--History and criticism.
• Music--United States--20th century--History and criticism.
• Oral histories (literary works)

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2023