Carl Sandburg: Modernist?

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 6:00pm
Hemmerdinger Hall at NYU, 100 Washington Square East

An event curated by Paul Berman, featuring:
Cornelia Foss
Lukas Foss
Edward Hirsch
Geoffrey O'Brien
Meghan O'Rourke
Harvey Shapiro
Sean Wilentz
The Greenwich Village Singers, directed by Mark Mangini

In the years around 1914, when he wrote "Chicago," Carl Sandburg was a leading figure in the American modernist movement -- a poet not just influenced by Ezra Pound, but championed by Pound. As late as 1943, Sandburg's poem "Prairie" inspired a major work of modernist music, a cantata for chorus and orchestra by the very young composer Lukas Foss, which was performed by the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitsky and later by the New York Philharmonic. But that was long ago. Today, Sandburg's early modernism has been overshadowed by his later work. He has been largely forgotten by other poets, and his modernist aspect, entirely forgotten. Foss's cantata, in its complete version, has disappeared from the repertory and is unavailable even on CD -- though Foss went on to be recognized as one of America's major modernist composers, as well as a conductor and pianist.

On April 4, in an event curated by Paul Berman, the editor just now of the American Poets Project edition of Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems, the poets Edward Hirsch, Geoffrey O'Brien, Meghan O'Rourke, and Harvey Shapiro, together with the historian Sean Wilentz, will read from Sandburg's work and comment on it. The Greenwich Village Singers, directed by Mark Mangini, will perform a portion of Lukas Foss's Sandburg cantata, with the composer himself at the piano. The painter Cornelia Foss will exhibit her new painting of Sandburg and will recall the friendship that she and Lukas Foss maintained with the poet.

This summer, in celebration of Lukas Foss's 85th birthday, the Brooklyn Philharmonic will give two complete performances of the Sandburg cantata -- at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, on June 28 (with the Greenwich Village Singers), and at the Channing Estate, Bridgehampton, NY, on July 7 (with the Choral Society of the Hamptons).

The April 4 event is free and open to the public.

For further information on the New York Institute for the Humanities, call 212-998-2100 or visit www.nyu.edu/fas/institute/nyih.

The New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU was established in 1976 for promoting the exchange of ideas between academics, professionals, politicians, diplomats, writers, journalists, musicians, painters, and other artists in New York City-and between all of them and the city. It currently comprises 186 fellows. Throughout the year, the NYIH organizes numerous public events and symposia.