Frank Lloyd Wright interviewed by Mike Wallace (28 September 1957) talks about his philosophy of architecture and why New York City is not creative, and compares his approach to the Declaration of Independence. The piano brings out the steely grandeur in his towering ideas, and the jazzy energy of interviewer Mike Wallace.
lyrics
Wallace: I would like specifically, to know what you mean, how would you like to change the way that we live?
Wright: I would like to make it appropriate to the Declaration of Independence, to the centre line of our freedom; I'd like to have a free architecture, I'd like to have architecture that belonged where you see it standing, and as a grace to the landscape instead of a disgrace. And the letters we receive from our clients tell us how those buildings we built for them, have changed the character of their whole lives and their whole existence. And it's different now than it was before. Well, I'd like to do that for the country.
Wallace: When you come to New York, as you did today. And you see... Did you come by air?
Wright: Yes. I came by air.
Wallace: And you see the skyline of New York, this does not excite you, this does not exalt you in any manner?
Wright: Quite so.
Wallace: It does not?
Wright: It does not. Because it never was planned, it is all a race for rent, and it is a great monument, I think, to the power of money and greed trying to substitute money for ideas. I don't see an idea in the whole thing anywhere. Do you? Where is the idea in it? What's the idea?
Wallace: The idea is obviously, as it would seem to me, that a lot of people want to live together, as you point out, to make their livings, to make money, to... to enjoy what this large city has to offer. And I guess from time immemorial people have flocked more or less to one spot to exchange ideas as well as goods.
Wright: But my dear Mike, there was a justification for that. When there was no other means of communication than by personal contact. That's when the plans for this city you are living in now originated, it originated back there in the middle ages when the only way you could have a culture, the only way you could get social distinction or any education from it was by ganging up.
credits
from Stalin's Piano,
released May 17, 2019
Robert Davidson, composer, engineer, editor
Sonya Lifschitz, piano
Sonya Lifschitz & Robert DavidsonBrisbane, Australia
Sonya Lifschitz' bold adventurousness & unparalleled musicianship, described as “a life force of extraordinary density and
capacity” see her active as soloist, collaborator, artistic director, educator, radio personality and arts advocate.
Robert Davidson has been making music from language since childhood. With his ensemble Topology he explores a wide range of cross-genre collaboration....more
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