Joan La Barbara: “Signing Alphabet” (1977), from Sesame Street, with animation by Steve Finkin

You’ve got to love this fusion of avant-garde audiovisuals and classic kid culture from the golden days of Sesame Street. Vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara (who recently gave a stunning performance of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices at the Philadelphia Museum of Art) creates a beautiful sound-poem out the ABCs, accompanied by cleverly morphing animations teaching the hand-shapes of the American Manual Alphabet. 

June 12, 2011, 1:25pm