Dvorák to Duke Ellington 0195098226, 2003002793, 9780195098228

Citation preview

A Conductor

Explores

y

America's Music and

African

Its

American Roots

Maurice Peress

In the negro melodies of America

discover

I

$T-

that

all

needed

is

of music.”

Drawing upon research

a

and noble school

for a great

—Antonin Dvorak

remarkable mix of intensive

and the personal experience of a career

devoted to the music about which Dvorak so presciently spoke,

Maurice

convincing narrative

and

Peress’s lively

treats readers to a rare

and

delightful glimpse behind the scenes of the

burgeoning American school of music and beyond.

In

Dvorak

Duke

to

recounting

the

Ellington Peress begins ,

music’s

formative

Dvorak’s three-year residency

(1892—1895), and Will Marion

would

New

York

Cook and Rubin Goldmark, who become

in turn

Dvorak

of the

his students, in particular

the teachers of Elling-

We

Gershwin, and Copland.

ton,

years:

as director

National Conservatory of Music in

by

famed Chicago World’s

to the

follow Fair of

1893, where he directed a concert of his music for

Bohemian Honor Day.

Peress brings to

light the little-known African

ence

at the Fair: the

American

piano professors, about to

be ragtimers; and the gifted young

Dunbar, Harry

T.

Burleigh,

artists

direc-

part of this story; working with

ducting

the

Bernstein’s

Duke

Elling-

and Beige'

comique,” Queenie Bie\ con-

world

premiere

of Leonard

Mass and reconstructing landmark ;

American concerts Ballet

himself a

is

ton on the “Suite from Black, Brown his “opera

own

Colored Persons Day.

Peress, a distinguished conductor,

and

its

Frederick Douglass, to organize their

gala concert for

Paul

and Cook, who

gathered at the Haitian Pavilion with tor,

pres-

at

which George

Antheil’s

Mecanique George Gershwin’s Rhapsody ,

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2017 with funding from

Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/dvoraktodukeelliOOpere

Dvorak

to

Duke

Ellington

*

A Conductor Explores America s Music and

Its

African American Roots

Maurice Peress

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2OO4

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

Oxford

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Salaam

es

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Kuala

Copyright

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Toronto

© 2004 by Hold That Tyger, Inc.

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198

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10016

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is

a registered

trademark of Oxford University Press

No

All rights reserved.

may be

part of this publication

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in

reproduced,

any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopving, recording, or otherwise,

without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Chapter

17

appeared

in different

form

in

Black Music Research journal

Quotes from “Simple Song,” “Agnus Dei,” and “Fraction” from Mass:

and Dancers, by Leonard

Players,

no. 2 (Fall 1993).

A Theatre Piece for Singers,

Bernstein, texts by Leonard Bernstein

used by permission of Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing

13,

and Stephen Schwartz, are

Company LLC,

Publisher.

Quotes from Langston Hughes, “Cross,” from The Wear)' Blues, are used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf,

New York,

N.Y.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peress,

Maurice.

Dvorak

to

Duke

Ellington

African American roots p.

/

:

a

conductor explores American music and

its

by Maurice Peress.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN

0-19-509822-6

1.

Music — United States— African American

I.

Title.

M L200 P47 2004 .

780'. 973

— dc2i

2003002793

987654321 Printed in the United States of America

on

acid-free paper

influences.

2.

Peress,

Maurice.

To Lorca,

Paul,

and Anika

I

wrote

this

book

for the

been no conscious plan found

his

and now

I

musically curious with catholic

to

my research. am

feel the

need

to

put

less traveled it

who

paths of American music history

some coherent

all in

There has

a performer, a conductor,

I

way through some

tastes.

order.

I

view black and

African American as culture, not simply as skin color. I

wish to thank those teachers

of music

who

first

unlocked

for

me

the mysteries

— before language and without end — Gerald “Jerry” Cnudde, Her-

schel “Harry” Freistadt, Philip James,

Thanks and passion

also to for

and Martin Bernstein.

my Czech friends who unselfishly shared their knowledge

Antonin Dvorak: author Josef Skvorecky and music scholars

Dr. Jarmil Burghauser and especially Dr. Jitka Slavikova,

me through

Dvorak’s

who

literally

walked

Bohemian homes and haunts and provided me with

pre-

cious copies of holograph letters and manuscripts from his time in America.

Thanks

to several wise

fellow musicians: sky;

and knowledgeable American music scholars and

my lifelong musical brothers,

John Lewis and Howard Brof-

and Dick Hyman, Mark Tucker, Elbe Hisama, Wayne

and, in particular, Reid Badger,

who

middling incarnations and urged I

fered

also wish to

me

Maureen

my

manuscript

in

its

Dean

who

Root,

earliest

and

ever on.

thank Sheldon Meyer of Oxford University Press,

a contract

Buja,

me

read

Shirley,

who

of-

based upon a two-page treatment; and associate editor believed in

my book even

though

it

needed much more

work and who eventually led velous, insightful editor, I

had expert

me

to the book’s

“without

Manuela Kruger, who supplied

editorial

assistance^ well from

daughter, Lorca Miriam Peress,

who between

my

whom” — my

that order gifted

mar-

and more.

and generous

her acting, teaching, and

di-

recting assignments arranged for clearances and vetted the manuscript

through to

my

raw

its

sundry computer program upgrades.

read aloud for the

Acknowledgments

first

time,

finally,

deepest thanks

my ever patient “ear” for new and my forever soulmate.

dear wife, Ellen Waldron Peress,

text,

And

often

Contents

Introduction 1

3

Antonin Dvorak Comes

America

to

2

America and Negro Music

3

Dvorak’s

Symphony From

5

9 the

New World

19

4 The Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893

29

5

The National Conservatory

6

Paul Laurence Dunbar, Clorindy, and “The Talented Tenth”

7

James Reese Europe

8

George Gershwin and African American Music

9

Leonard Bernstein

of Music of America

61

79

10

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

11

The Clef Club Concert

12

Will Marion

13

George Antheiks Ballet Mecanique

Cook

41

83

99

115

119

67

14

Bernstein’s

15

Duke

Mass

lyj

Ellington

153 *

Queenie Pie

16

Ellington’s

17

Ellington’s Black

Afterword

Notes

,

161

Brown and Beige

191

201

Selected Discography

241

Selected Bibliography

243

Index

245

171

Art appeals to that part of our being

dependent upon wisdom;

an acquisition

.

which

which

is

is

not

a gift

and not

... to the latent feeling of fellowship with all

living to the

— Joseph

.

to that in ns

creation [which] binds together

and the

.

Conrad

unborn.

.

.

.

the dead to the living

»

Introduction

now have wanted

For some time

what

I

whom

I

learned from I

my

work

as a

to write a

book about American music —

conductor, some of the composers with

shared the exquisite pain and pleasure of a world premiere (Leonard

Bernstein’s

Mass Duke

Morton Feldman’s Rothko

Ellington’s Queenie Pie

Chapel David Amram’s Autobiography for Strings), and what I discovered I

searched and

sifted,

preparing for

which George Gershwin’s Rhapsody

Mecanique were given new

Some might

Brown and

life.

as

unusually broad.

am now pleased to find that am I

Where once

immense

There

is

I

I

have been con-

simply followed

not alone. Other

artists

my muse and

are letting their roots

who are moved many more people

there was a cultural divide between those

by Dvorak and those take

Blue, Ellington’s Black,

consider the range of American music

cerned and involved with

show.

in

re-ereations of historic concerts at

James Reese Europe’s Clef Club orchestra, and George Antheil’s Bal-

Beige, let

my

as

who

dig Ellington,

pleasure from both. These

I

now

find that

names

are not selected at

random.

an unbroken line that connects the Czech master and the American

composer and orchestra leader with one another.

The

first

music

I

knew was Dad’s Arabic

folksongs,

accompaniment of his oud, and Mamma’s Yiddisher of the sweetest purity.

seeing

my

becoming

I

which he sang

liederle,

sung

to the

in a voice

didn’t understand the words. But the experience of

parents away from their endless store- and housekeeping chores, transfixed as they reconnected with their youthful

dreams

in

3

marked

strange fading faraways,

power of music.

versal

and passing

it

on.

I

me

forever.

have spent

my

They introduced me music feeding on

life in

The odd combination

to the unithis

of my parents’ background

power

— my fa-

>

community

ther was from the ancient Jewish

from a small Polish mill town — opened

to

it is

no surprise

that

it

was

be the music of America, the multi-ethnic nation that welcomed them,

wherein I

I

me to the affect of all manner of mu-

Ellington used to say, “beyond category.” So

sic, as

my mother came

of Baghdad;

I

parked

began

my soul.

my professional musical life as a freelance trumpeter and arranger.

played at Bach concerts and on Broadway.

quintet of lovely Players

I

young

harpists,

wrote pop arrangements for a

I

“The Angelaires.” For

arranged Renaissance and baroque music that

my Chamber

we intoned

Brass

in the old

German Turmsonate tradition from atop the tower of Stanford White’s Judson Memorial Church during the Greenwich Village Outdoor Art Show. In the army

wrote dozens of arrangements for big band. Count Basie once read

I

down one

of my originals, “Mad’s Pad. ”

How

beginnings into a symphony conductor

American music has never ceased

to

he welcomed

pointing

me an

me

assistant

evolved from these fragmented

who worked

closely with giants of

amaze me.

Leonard Bernstein made possible in 1961

I

my American music adventures when

into the land of the

conductor with the

symphony

New York Philharmonic.

tinued to work with “Lenny” over the next twenty years.

conducting the world premiere of

Kennedy Center

A

for the

his

Performing

university post gave

me

orchestra by ap-

Mass

for the

The high

I

con-

point was

opening of the John

F.

Arts.

the freedom to pursue

my

later interest, re-

constructing and presenting historical American music concerts from the first

half of the twentieth century, trying to better understand the roots of our

American music. otic relationships

I

uncovered

far

more than

I

anticipated about the symbi-

— Mother would have said “one hand washes the other” — new and fresh many lines led me

between musicians, black and white, out of which was forged “African American” music. As

I

researched these concerts,

a

Antonin Dvorak, who spent the better part of three years (1892-95) in America as the director of the National Conservatory of Music. Among his to

dozen or

so composition students

were two who would become the teachers

of Ellington, Gershwin, and Aaron Copland. vations

and

his radical

The Bohemian

statement that “the future American school would be

based upon the music of the Negro,” and

my conviction

fulfillment of Dvorak’s prediction, inspired this book.

Introduction

master’s obser-

that Ellington

is

the

1

Antonin Dvorak Comes In 100 years

America

will

be the center of music

—Antonin Dvorak, quoted by former

I

It

could have been

half advanced to a far less,

bank

for the

to live

money— $15,000

in Prague. Dvorak’s

but his family enjoyed a comfortable

of his apprentice years,

and

an organist,

violist,

missions for

new works

when he supported

W. Zeckwer

and work

in

life in

his

America.

per year for two years, one-

annual income

at the

time was

Bohemia. The hardships

composing with odd

itinerant piano teacher, rolling in

for the world.

pupil Camille

have always wondered why Dvorak came

America

to

were well

jobs as

With com-

past.

and an active catalog of over ninety com-

positions, including seven operas, eight

(depending

phonies, and dozens of smaller works, Dvorak was

how one counted) sym-

far too

busy

to

accept the

composing chair offered him by the Prague Conservatory. The Dvoraks and their six healthy children,

in Prague.

They

also

aged four

to fourteen, lived in a sizable

apartment

enjoyed their cherished country house, Vysoka, a con-

verted farm cottage with an apple orchard and pigeon coops set in gentle hills

on the No.

I

estate of Mrs. Dvorak’s brother-in-law.

don’t think that

It

money

Count Vaclav (Kunic) Kaunitz.

alone induced Dvorak to come.

could have been wanderlust, the pleasures of travel. Unlike Johannes

Brahms, Dvorak’s close friend and mutual admirer, who, “haunted by visions of seasickness,” ate

1

wouldn’t

travel to

England

from Cambridge University, or Piotr

to receive

Ilyich Tchaikovsky,

America

for twenty-five days

cess ...

was racked with homesickness and with

I

and couldn’t wait

back home”), 2 Dvorak came

to

an honorary doctor-

to

who came

to

escape (“Despite [my] sucall

my soul

enjoy touring. Between the

craved to fall

come

of 1884 and

5

the spring of 1891 he crisscrossed the English channel nine times to direct

concerts of his music in London, Birmingham, and other major cities his proficiency in English. 4

which explains

secutive years in for a third.

The

America and,

Atlantic was

after a

Dvorak agreed

summer

—

spend two con-

to

break in Bohemia, returned

no English Channel. This was more

like

emi-

grating. It

could have been

for love.

Dvorak might have needed distance be-

tween himself and Countess Josefina (Kunicova) Kaunitzova, requited, love. Like

his

Mozart before him, Dvorak married the

woman who had once captured his heart. And there who say he never quite got over this passion, blow

is

first,

sister

un-

of the

reason to believe those

else to explain Dvorak’s

last-minute revision of his Cello Concerto, the crowning glory of his Ameri-

can works, on the occasion of Josefina’s death

in 1895?

coda, working in a song of his she admired, “Leave

cannot comprehend

this ecstasy

Dvorak expanded the

Me Alone

with which love has

.

.

.

me”

filled

You

really

(opus

82).

The song had provided the theme for the second movement, but this time Dvorak adds a new countermelody for the solo cello, which one perceptive Dvorak scholar has

identified as another of Josefina’s favorites (from the final

duet of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin ), conjuring up another emotionally significant text: 4

Finally,

convictions

me

your

“Happiness was so easy

could have been

it

made America

tired,

your poor,

/

to reach,

politics.

it

was so close.”

Dvorak’s strongly held humanist

particularly attractive.

Its

welcome

Your huddled masses yearning

to

call,

“Give

breathe

free,”"

5

had already beckoned tens of thousands of his Czech-speaking countrymen to

emigrate to the United States. Dvorak and his folk-inspired music were

Bohemia and Moravia

closely identified with the national struggle to free

from the domination, cultural

Empire,

as well as political, of the

Austro-Hungarian

he inherited from the father of “Czechish” music, Bedfich

a role

Smetana. Indeed,

it

was Dvorak’s nationalist credentials that attracted

Jeanette Thurber, founder of the National Conservatory of ica, to hire

him

as their

new

director, for at the top of her

Music of Amer-

agenda was the

es-

tablishment of an American school of composers. Dvorak’s influence on American music and musicians his

work

at

is

evidenced by

the conservatory, by the widespread news coverage his novel ideas

attracted,

and by the distinguished and ongoing teacher-student legacy he

initiated.

Correspondingly, the impact of the

enormous.

remain

He produced

his best

New World

a flurry of “American” works,

known and

loved: the

Symphony

in

on Dvorak was

among them

E Minor From (

four that the

New

World), the Humoresques, the “American” String Quartet in A, and the Cello

Concerto. 6

Dvorak 6

to

Duke

Ellington

Be

it

money, wanderlust,

love, or politics;

whatever the combination of

causes that drew Dvorak to American shores, one of the most significant cul-

American

tural

exchanges

in

wife,

Anna, and

their

on September

Hoboken,

history

was about

to

two oldest children boarded the

17, 1892,

when Dvorak, his SS Saale in Bremen

begin

and, after nine stormy days, debarked onto a pier in

New Jersey.

Antonin Dvorak

Comes

to

America

7

*-

2

America and Negro Music In the Negro melodies of America for a great

I

discover

that

all

is

needed

and noble school of music. They are Pathetic,

tender, passionate, melancholy, solemn, religious, bold, merry,

gay or what you

will. It

purpose. There

is

that

is

music

that suits itself to

any

mood

or

nothing in the whole range of composition

cannot be supplied with themes from

this source.

American musician understands these tunes and they

The move

sentiment in him.

— Antonin

Dvorak, New York Herald May ,

Dvorak’s famous

most important

announcement

appraisal,

and they move sentiment

would

later

is

21,

1893

often foreshortened, omitting perhaps his

“The American musician understands these tunes in

him” — an acute observation

find a parallel in “the weird

few years

that only a

and intoxicating

effect”

on

listeners

of the Scott Joplin rags, a desired effect noted by the composer himself.

1

Narratives about the infectious peculiarities of African-rooted music

appear throughout American

World

fell

ago by

my old German-born

We

under

its

history.

Even the

point brought

spell, a

home

gigue. Sachs,

me

who

suites,

among them

almost a half century

in seventeenth-

the allemande, courante, and

took great satisfaction in upending assumptions, surprised

chaconne could be traced back

Creole/African zarabanda

,

a

known

as the

sarabande and

to Africa via sixteenth-century

Spain and the Caribbean. According

dances of

to Sachs, the “lewd, lascivious”

dance so beguiling

church, metamorphosed over time into the slow,

more than

New

musicology professor, Kurt Sachs.

us with his discoveries that the courtly dances

New

to

were studying the origins of the dances found

century European classical

the

earliest settlers of the

it

was outlawed by the

stately sarabande.

the sarabanda,” the African-derived chacona also ,

But “even

known

as the

chacona mulata was sensuous and wild, the “most passionate and unbridled ,

of all dances.” 2 Sachs’s deductions were stored in

my

youthful jazzer’s

memory

bank.

9

Now that am I

and

trying to tie things together, searching for ever-larger

continuities,

I

wonder

if

the ecstatic zarabanda the ,

*

themes

Negro melodies

that

#

caught Dvorak’s attention, and Joplin’s/’weird and intoxicating” rags share

some

extraordinary “affect”

rists— that spans time

music history— the

I

borrow

a useful

term from baroque theo-

and distance. Are the main themes of America’s black

camp

slave gatherings,

bilees— connected by some For a time,

— to

common

meetings, minstrelsy, and

ju-

thread?

found myself entrapped

in historical quicksand,

drawn ever

deeper into questions about America’s black music history before Dvorak

came on the scene. And from what I have learned, and from everything know as a performer, the answer to my question is yes. Place Congo in old New Orleans (present-day Beauregard Square) was known for its Sunday afternoon slave gatherings “when not less than two or three thousand people would congregate to see the dusky dancers,” who repI

resented different African tribes: “Kraels, Minahs,

Congos and Mandringas,

Gangas, Hiboas and Fulas.” 3 America’s schalk,

first

said to

is

internationally celebrated musician, Louis

have witnessed these dances

as a boy,

and

it

Moreau was

his

Gott-

“Bam-

boula, danse de negres” (1846) that established his early reputation as a liant pianist

Woman

contains a “Place

Even

it

Congo”

earlier slave gatherings

England. In

when

and composer. Ellington’s dramatic narration

New York’s

was known

A Drum

were commonly held throughout after the

as Potter’s Field, “the Blacks

“camp meetings,” during

New

[danced] joyful above, while

than one thousand of both sexes, divided into numerous

In

a

Revolutionary War,

the sleeping dead reposed below. In that held could be seen at once

own

Is

section.

Washington Square,

ing and singing, each in their

bril-

little

more

squads, danc-

tongue.” 4

the religious revival

movement

of the late

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Negro congregants “instantly

formed

a

superb choir.” They created their

Testament stories, “singing tune

hymn

books.”

after

tune

own

versions of

— scarce one of which were in our

They could even be heard doing

the Ring Shout in their tents,

slapping their thighs and shuffling in rhythm. 3 For religionists, these

there were those

hymns and Old

many

of their white co-

Africanized Christian expressions were too darn hot. Yet

who found

the music irresistible.

A remarkable article about spirituals and shouts sung by black Civil War soldiers

appeared in the Atlantic Monthly

white army ister,

officer,

member

to

Duke

June 1867.

It

was written by

a

Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a Unitarian min-

of the Secret Six (a group of Bostonians

and financial support

Dvorak

in

for

Ellington

John Brown’s

raid

on

who

provided moral

Flarper’s Ferry),

and Flarvard

gentleman. Higginson describes the music he encountered d

hirty-first

South Carolina volunteers, the

mustered into national service

first

in the Civil

when he

led the

regiment of freed slaves

War. 6 Recalling that

Sir

Scott had collected Scottish ballads “from the lips of ancient crones,

be

to

Walter ”

7

Hig-

ginson found himself

brought into the midst of a kindred world of unwritten songs.

I

had

for

many years heard of— “Negro Spirituals,” — could now gather on their own soil these strange plants, which had before seen as in museums alone. Often in the starlit evening, entering the camp — [I I

I

have

silently

approached some glimmering

fire,

|

round which the

dusky figures moved in the rhythmical barbaric dance the Negroes call a “shout,”

chanting, often harshly, but always in the most perfect

time,

some monotonous

best

could,

I

Writing

— perhaps with my hand

— the words of the song, like

refrain.

some captured

I

in the darkness, as

in the safe covert of

have afterwards carried

bird or insect,

and then

after

to

it

my pocket,

my tent,

examination, put

by. 8

it

Higginson’s article included nineteen song Minstrelsy, the ersatz

young music

director in

one afternoon

texts, alas,

Negro entertainment

well before the Civil War, crossed

office

down

Corpus

my

that swept across the nation

path in the early 1960s when, as a

Christi, Texas,

to find a minstrel

not the music.

I

arrived at the

symphony

troupe rehearsing in “my” auditorium!

The show was a mostly amateur affair sponsored by the local Lions Club. Added to the blackface characters, insulting race jokes, and corny banjo tunes were equally offensive parodies of Jewish, figures. Dressed in long black

gabardine coats, with paste-on hook noses and side locks, they shrugged and

whined

as the rest of the

their tambourines.

Over time

I

I

cork-blacked cast

whooped and

hollered and rattled

was mortified. 9

have

come

sage through minstrelsy, the

to

understand that we cannot expunge our pas-

dominant American entertainment vehicle of

the nineteenth century. Black social historians such as

begun

Mel Watkins have

beneath the stereotypes, the cross-dressing, and the ludicrous

to dig

“cork” masks, dissecting the humor, the social satire, and the banjo-fiddle-

and-bones music, the better

For

of

all

its

to

understand our American

as

its

was profound,

10

contorted cartooning, minstrelsy played an enormous

part in the process that brought

Americans

past.

America

own. Furthermore,

its

for black entertainers

to

embrace the music of African

impact on black music and musicians

would ultimately reclaim

their birth-

right.

America and Negro Music 11

Several “authentic” all-black minstrel troupes advertising themselves as “the real thing” arose in the

last

quarter of the nineteenth century.

They

el-

t

evated the form, twisting the parody back on

meanwhile finding

African American roots,

com-

in minstrelsy a vehicle for displaying their skills as

bandsmen,

posers, violinists,

its

and dancers, the whole now

actors, singers,

For the finished,

ried to the highest professional standards. 11

car-

classically

trained black musician, such as the violin teacher of David

Mannes, John

Thomas Douglas

game

And, irony of that African

“Black,

(1847-1886), black minstrels were the only

American performers wore

Brown and

Yes,

mask became

ironies, the cork-black

it

in town.

form

so intrinsic to the

on stage

as well. In his

poem

Beige,” Ellington celebrates the end of black minstrelsy.

Harlem!

Land of valiant youth,

makeup from your

You've wiped the

And shed your borrowed

face,

spangles.

You’ve donned the uniform of truth. 12

Besides Corpus Christi, past in

the

unexpected places:

poem

I

have

in a

across vestiges of the black minstrel

photo of James Reese Europe’s Clef Club, in

of Ellington’s quoted above, and in an interview with Eubie Blake.

In the late 1970s

did an on-camera interview with Eubie Blake in his

I

comfortably furnished brownstone

was

come

for a television

home

show I dreamed up

in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

for

my orchestra, the

Kansas City Phil-

harmonic, about the influence of ragtime on symphonic music. n the

show “Twelfth

Street Rag,” after the familiar song that took

what was once Kansas Eubie Blake was

alert,

terview ended and

thought.

charming, and

we were packing

“Remember,” he

tickler extended, “I It

City’s tenderloin strip.

took

We

who came

time

past ninety at the time,

up, Eubie called

looking

me

full in

me over. He had a

all,

talking about ragtime.

out of minstrelsy in the

new

all-black

what seemed

artists

late

14

1890s and

who appeared

Perhaps remi-

moved smoothly

into

Broadway musicals, which, more often

wear cork. The most celebrated of these

Williams,

a gra-

he worked with, including

than not, retained minstrel “cakewalks” and “walk arounds.” to

final

the face, that long piano

to realize the significance of

were, after

the ragtime era via the

ued

name from

as always, smartly dressed. After the in-

niscing brought Blake back to the old-time several

its

We called

never wore cork!”

me some

tuitous remark.

said,

Well

It

Many

transitional figures

in blackface as late as 1919,

when he was

contin-

was Bert

a star of the

Ziegfeld Follies.

The high

Dvofak 12

to

Duke

point of Eubie Blake’s career

Ellington

came when he and

his song-

writing partner. Noble Sissle, helped launch the second wave of all-black

Broadway musicals with

tured the jazz-age hit “I’m Just Wild about Harry.”

generation of the

cork-wearing

“New Negro” and such

artists

Along

their electrifying Shuffle

the

It

was

(1921),

which

fea-

this generation, the

Harlem Renaissance, not

that of

Williams, that Eubie Blake wanted to be

as Bert

identified with. If

ever there was a

Moses of African American music, one who

handedly led black musicians and

and

sionalism,

pride,

it

their

music

single-

into the land of respect, profes-

was James Reese Europe. Europe formed a cooperative

brotherhood of Negro musicians, setting fee standards where there had been chaos and hurtful competition. His Clef Club Orchestra was the most celebrated large-scale

would cut

Negro ensemble of its time. Jim Europe reads

like a

man who

wide swath between himself and the degradations of minstrelsy.

a

The most

familiar

image of Europe shows him standing with great

nity, the central figure in a

marvelous panoramic photograph taken on the

occasion of his Clef Club’s Monster Melange and Dancefest, held on 11,

the

1911, in

fying glass:

room

floor

Manhattan Casino.

it is

me

for

a

dig-

I

have gone over

primary source. Europe

is

this

May

photo with a magni-

surrounded on the

by a huge string orchestra of almost sixty players. In addition

ball-

to the

usual violins, cellos, and basses there are thirty-five strumming instruments guitars,

harp guitars, banjos, and mandolins. There are also ten

gle trap

drummer, and one

Behind room,

sits

brasses. 16

this

flute.

are

all in

formal

pianists, a sin-

attire. 15

impressive array, on the raised orchestra stage of the ball-

which includes the usual woodwinds and

vet another band,

They

They

—

are fronted by a thirteen-man minstrel line in white trousers

and black

coats; six

blackface.

Among

hold banjos, others hold tambourines, and several are in

the “tambos” was

Henry

S.

Creamer, composer of “After

“Way Down Yonder in New Orleans.” The Interlocutor is Henry Troy, a lyricist and book writer who wrote “Gin House Blues” to music by Fletcher Henderson. William Tyers, among the most learned of Eu-

You’ve Gone” and

rope’s musical colleagues, directs the minstrel band.

about

to cut off the

strelsy.

A known

He

generation of musicians

who

1-

Jim Europe was not

carried the torch from min-

simply brought them along.

highbrow counterpart as Jubilees

to black minstrelsy,

Negro vocal ensembles

were established long before Dvorak

arrived.

The most

celebrated of these was the Fisk Jubilee Singers, formed in 1871. Elegant in dress

and manner,

this

group of nine singers and

a pianist, all

former

slaves,

presented their slave songs and spirituals in churches and on concert stages

How apt

up and down the East Coast. 18 the

Hebrew word

for the ram’s

is

the epithet “Jubilee,” taken from

horn of celebration and the symbolic number

America and Negro Music

Society.

Historical

Maryland

of

Courtesy

rear.

the

in

stage

the

on

band

minstrel

blackface

the

Note

1911.

n,

May

fifty.

On the Jubilee — the

Testament mandates that slaves be freed and that I

mammoth

Jubilee, a

19

fields lie fallow.

he Fisk Jubilee Singers made an enormous impression

World Peace

— the Old

Sabbath of Sabbaths, forty-nine plus one

the second

at

assemblage held in Boston

June 1872.

in

Others performing included the Johann Strauss orchestra, the Grenadier

Among

Guards from England, and the French Garde Republicaine.

American musicians were two Negro Lewis. 20

Henry

violinists,

Williams and

F.

A twenty-five-foot bass drum was built for the occasion. With number

choristers, the total

of performers

The World Peace Jubilees were bandmaster Patrick

came

F. E.

massed

to over 20, 000. 21

the creation of the celebrated Irish-born

Gilmore, the composer of the Civil

S.

the

War

“When

hit

Johnny Comes Marching Home.” A contemporary description of the Fisk bilee Singers’ appearance at the second

idea of the

World Peace

maddening mix of racism and adulation

Jubilee gives us

Ju-

some

American

that African

musicians encountered:

The immense audience

of 40,000 people was gathered from

all parts

of the land; and the color prejudice that had followed the [Jubilee] Singers everywhere reappeared here in the shower of brutal hisses that

greeted their city' is

insult.

appearance. But the

first

air

of that radical

New

not kindly to colorphobia, and a deluge of applause drowned the

And

day or two

a

Mrs. Julia

after,

Ward Howe’s

the Singers had a proud revenge.

stirring lyric,

“The Battle-hymn of the

Republic,” was on the program, to be sung to the

theme song of black

[the “unofficial

soldiers”

air

who

of “John

orchestra in E-fiat [making the high note a

and the

first

verses

.

.

.

a painful failure.

.

.

.

Fired by the

color was at stake, they sang as

word of that

wind of delight.

The

.

.

.

forth the

some

if

trumpet that

which others had

through the great Coliseum

old

shall

Mr. White’s masterly

great audience were carried

One

in with the

man

failed.

as if

bow held

the

away on

When

Every

a whirl-

was conspicuous, bolding

in the other.

drill

sounded

above his head with one hand, and whacking out upon

applause with the

never

extent the reputation of their

inspired.

the high notes

line rang

first

out of a trumpet.

cello

them

to

come

.

.

.

remembrance of their reception on

previous day, and feeling that to

had made easy

singers of Boston

Jubilee Singers were to

“He hath sounded

verse beginning, call retreat.”

The

to the

G at the top of the staff]

some colored

taken by

Brown”

fought for the

Union], But for some unexplained reason the key was given

were

England

his violonit

his

the grand old chorus,

“Glory, glory, hallelujah,” followed, with a swelling

volume of music

America and Negro Music

U

HARPER’S WEEKLY.

Figure

2.2

Detail from illustration of Gilmore’s second

Boston, June 1872.

Dvorak 16

to

Duke

Drawn

Ellington

for Harper’s

“World Peace Jubilee,”

Weekly by Thomas Worth

from the great orchestra, the thunder of the bands, and the roar of the artillery,

the scene was indescribable.

cheers and shouts It

“The

of,

Jubilees!

was worth more than

a

.

T

.

The

he Coliseum rang with

Jubilees forever!”

Congressional enactment in bringing

that

audience

The

success of the Fisk Jubilee Singers at the

to the true

mediately led to an invitation Flouse. bilee’s

ground on the question of “civil

During the next two decades, with changes music and

artistry

would become known

The name

other Negro singing ensembles. At times eral unofficial

Land and

Thanks

to

which began

to

at the

White

in personnel, the Fisk Ju-

concertgoers throughout

the “Jubilees” was appropriated by

more than one

“official”

— and sev-

in 1884,

included appearances in the

Asia.

ensembles

like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the idea of

pendent African American meetings, and Civil strelsy,

World Peace Jubilee im-

— ensembles were on tour at the same time. The Jubilees’ final

six-year-long world tour, Floly

rights.” 22

appear before President Grant

to

the United States and Europe.

War

art

an inde-

music, drawn from slave gatherings,

bivouacs,

became

a reality.

And

camp

thanks to min-

America’s popular music was indelibly marked “African American”

and well positioned est

.

enthusiasms of

to

grow on

its

a world-class

into the center of the serious

own. Nevertheless,

Czech composer

it

would take the hon-

to thrust

“Negro” music

— read “European” — music establishment.

America and Negro Music

U

•»

>

3

Dvorak’s

Symphony

From

New World

the

Dvorak arrived

United States on September

in the

28, 1892, as the

country

was feverishly putting the finishing touches on the four hundredth anniversary celebration of

Columbus’s landing

in the

New World.

T here was a na-

What had transpired over the last four centuries? What had we become? Where were we heading? In apposition to the small role Christopher Columbus was assigned for tional taking of stock.

the relatively tame 1792 celebrations, the master navigator was held forth as

an iconic figure

Any

for the

United States and

its

growing sense of empowerment.

misgivings intellectuals might have had about the catastrophe

bus had brought upon Native Americans and enslaved Africans

duced the practice of slavery phoria. (The

in the

more recent 1992

Colum-

— he intro-

New World — were swept aside

in the eu-

celebration, sobered by revisionist debates,

stands in stark contrast to what Dvorak encountered.) Starting

on Monday, October

hattan, draped in bunting to a revelry that

and

and glowing with

continued unabated

was flooded with flotillas

10, 1892,

visitors.

New York

Man-

electric light signs, played host

for three days

The Hudson and

City’s island of

and

nights. T

he borough

East Rivers teemed with naval

private boats that sailed out to greet them. Nightly fireworks ex-

ploded from atop

tall

buildings and gushed out in fiery “Niagras” from the

flanks of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Temporary arches, designed by Stanford White,

were erected across Fifth Avenue. And the seventy-six-foot-high Columbus

U

Monument,

the largest stone of

which weighed

niously raised by proud Italian

workmen

Columbus

stands.

From

it still

temporary quarters

his

huh

principal

where

Circle,

in the center of the

was ceremo-

newly named

1

just off

for the all-day parades,

thirty-six tons,

Union Square, the

Dvorak wrote

and

staging area

to his friend Karal Bastar,

noting the exact hour as well as the date:

New York Clarendon early just

imagine row

after

morning

at 7

Hotel,

hours 18

14

/io

g2

2

row of marchers], an incredible procession of |

people working both in the

fields of industry

and the

crafts,

and huge

numbers of gymnasts — among them members of the Czech Sokol — and crowds of people from the

And

colors. in the

all

and

.

.

.

I

sight!

haven’t got

The

man

And you should

enough words

original plan of having

Drake’s “American Flag”

bus Day, October

Dvorak fered a

time

in

fire

nationalities

12,

dawn

and

until 2:00

Thousands upon thousands of people, and an hear

all

Well, America seems to have demonstrated of!

many

also

of this went on uninterruptedly, from

morning.

everchanging

arts

at

to describe

Dvorak

the kinds of music!

all it is

new

the Metropolitan

all it is

.

.

capable

3

it all.

direct a

and

.

cantata setting of Rod-

Opera House on Colum-

was foiled on two accounts: the

text “did not get to

be completed,” and the Metropolitan Opera House

to

suf-

that forced the cancellation of the entire 1892-93 season. Dvorak’s

Columbus Day concert,

moved forward

to

his official introduction to the

October

21,

In place of the cantata,

Columbian Te Deum,

and

to

New York public, was

Carnegie Hall. 4

Dvorak conducted the world premiere of

his

directing the Metropolitan [Opera] Orchestra, soprano

Clementine DeVera-Sapio, bass Emil Fischer, and

a chorus of three

hun-

The concert was preceded by a twenty-minute oration, “Two New Worlds: The New World of Columbus and the New World of Music,” which dred. 5

was projected from the stage

in those

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, by then son’s address

pre-microphone days by Colonel a venerable Americanist. Higgin-

could well have planted the idea

celebrated American work, the

Symphony

for the title of

no. 9

(

From

the

Dvorak’s most

New

World),

which was completed within the next seven months. The speech was quoted in part in the next

morning’s

New York Herald.

The triumphs of our land in music ... lie in the future. ... If we were all made of unmixed English blood, we might have long to wait for them. great

Dvorak 20

to

.

.

.

We are

German

Duke

not

cities

Ellington

all

of English blood.

We stand

in

one of the

of the world and the other great musical race of

Europe

making our very byways

is

guest tonight [Dvorak]

.

new world

help add the

.

Italian.

may consent

.

.

.

.

Let us hope that our

and may

to transplantation

Columbus

of music to the continent which

found. 6

Higginson’s theme underscored the sanguine expectations of Jeanette

Thurber, whose gallant

were remarkable

for

efforts

on behalf of American music and musicians

her time. In i886 using her social position and wealth, 7

Company, dedicated

she established the American Opera English, and a

sister institution,

the National Conservatory, for the training

of American-born singers here at tours

opera sung in

to

home. The opera company made

several

under the baton of Theodore Thomas, the leading American conduc-

tor at that time, before

its

funding started

energies toward the Conservatory,

composers

as well as singers.

which began

Modeled

She then turned her

full

training instrumentalists

and

to dry up.

Conservatoire de Paris, where

after the

she herself had studied, the National Conservatory of Music of America was,

according

to the

Carnegie Hall program

for

Dvorak’s belated

Columbus Day

concert, “founded for the benefit of Musical Talent in the United States

conferring

its

benefits free

upon

all

.

.

.

applicants regardless of color or gender] |

sufficiently gifted

gram goes on

.

.

.

and unable

to pay.”

to explain that the tuition

To

assuage her backers, the pro-

was “loaned”

with the understanding that they would pay

budding

to the

artists

back once their careers were

it

established. 7 I

wonder

if

Colonel Higginson spent time with Dvorak

after the concert,

perhaps talking about the spirituals and ring shouts he so eloquently lauded in the Atlantic

Aionthly ?

The choice

of Higginson as the keynote speaker at

the concert cannot be a simple case of serendipity. There appears to have

been

a plan afoot.

Whether

divine or

woman-made,

it

would come

to play

out most dramatically. 8

self

Higginson was not the only African American musical resource fore Dvorak.

A young

student assistant

at

the conservatory. Dvorak saw in Burleigh a reflection of

achieved a measure of success and reward that

I

set be-

baritone, Harry T. Burleigh, was assigned to be his

himself as a student and befriended the youth:

gle

it-

it is

“If in

my own

some

to

was the son of poor parents and was reared

in

extent

career

due

I

have

to the fact

an atmosphere of strug-

and endeavor.” 9

When

Burleigh

choir at the

St.

first

Philip’s

arrived in

so large,

he joined the

men and

boys’

Free African Church, the second oldest African

Methodist Episcopal Church

“when attendance

New York,

at Trinity’s

in the country;

it

traces

Sunday afternoon African

and the African-American parishioners

Dvorak’s

its

origin to 1809,

service

had become

so dissatisfied with having to

Symphony From

the

New World 21

worship separately, that they reached a decision

to set

up

their

own

congre-

gation.” 10

was then located In the tenderloin

Philip's

St.

district at 161

West

Twenty-fifth Street, less than a mile from Dvorak’s house on East Seven-

became

teenth Street. Burleigh

had established

nity that

itself

part of the large African

around

American commu-

many of them

St. Philip's,

in

apartment

houses built and managed by the church.

There were

at least

two other musicians from

St. Philip’s

enrolled at the

National Conservatory: Edward B. Kinney, the church’s organist and choir-

who was

master,

who

member of Dvorak’s

composition

class;

and Charles Bohn,

studied piano and perhaps organ as well. This explains

men and boys’

Philip’s toric

a

why

the

St.

choir performed under Dvorak (and Kinney) at a his-

concert held in Madison Square Garden in 1894 that featured the con-

servatory’s African

men and

American

students. Eighteen years later the St. Philip’s

boys’ choir participated in another historic concert,

Europe’s Clef Club Concert

at

Carnegie Hall,

this

James Reese

time under the direction

new organist and choirmaster Charles Bohlen — Bolin had taken a Germanic spelling for his name. 11 Burleigh, Bolin, and perhaps Kinney 12 were among the first of what, under Dvorak’s prodding, would soon become well over 150 African Americans among the 600-plus students enrolled at the of their

conservator)/'.

Dvorak led the Conservatory orchestra, which met twice leigh served as the orchestra’s librarian

and timpani.

bass

can

attest that the

conductor’s lot

is

filled in

week. Bur-

on double

a lonely one.

drudge

or-

is

jobs.

Dvorak and Burleigh apparently worked well together. During

ond year his

The

among the few orchestral musicians we get to talk with off podium, and the one we depend upon for a myriad of editorial details and

chestra librarian

the

I

and copyist and

a

at the conservatory,

Dvorak wrote

to his

his sec-

family back in Prague that

son Otakar, age nine, “sat on Burleigh’s lap during the Orchestra’s

hearsals

and played the tympani.” 13 Victor Herbert,

re-

a lifelong friend of

Burleigh’s, 14 described the Dvorak-Burleigh relationship in a letter sent in 1922 to Carl Engel, chief of the

Music Division of the Library of Congress:

“Dr. Dvorak was most kind and unaffected and took great interest in his pupils,

one of which, Harry Burleigh, had the

of the thematic material for his it is

...

I

have seen

this

denied

some

— but

true.” 15

Burleigh learned his blind

many

crier

and lamplighter

Dvorak

to

of the old plantation songs from the singing of

maternal grandfather, Hamilton Waters,

freedom from slavery on

22

Symphony.

privilege of giving the Dr.

Duke

a

in 1832

bought

his

Maryland plantation. Waters became the town

for Erie,

Ellington

who

Pennsylvania, and as a young boy Burleigh

helped guide him along Harry sang in the his

Pauls

St.

Mother’s singing

father

all

The

his route.

after

men and

hoys’ choir. Burleigh also

chores and

harmonized while helping

At various times in his long

family was Episcopalian, and young

how he and

“remembered and grand-

his [stepjfather

her.” 16

life

— he

died in 1949

age eighty-one

at

—

Burleigh described his student days with Dvorak. Taken together, his writings provide insight into Dvorak’s ongoing Negro music education while he was

composing what would become the symphony From Dvorak used

to get tired

supper. ...

gave

them

1

spirituals

music) into the

during the day and

him what knew I

then

I

New World.

the

would sing

of Negro songs

to

him

after

— no one called

— and he wrote some of my tunes (my people’s

New World Symphony. 17

Dvorak began working on various “American” themes

mid-December

in

1892, filling eleven pages of a sketchbook.

Low, Sweet Chariot”]

Part of this old “spiritual” (“Swing in the

second theme of the

first

movement

Dvorak saturated himself with the

spirit

.

.

.

be found

will

given out by the

flute.

of these old tunes and then in-

own themes. There is a subsidiary theme in G minor in the first movement with a flatted seventh [a characteristic passed on to jazz, known as a “blue note”] and I feel sure the composer caught this

vented his

peculiarity of

he used

most of the

to stop

In January 1893

me

and ask

if

that

from some that

was the way the

sang

I

him;

to

for

slaves sang. 18

D v °Dk began a continuous sketch for the symphony:

When

Dvorak heard

that

as great as a

is

slave songs

me

sing

“Go Down Moses,” he

said, “Burleigh,

Beethoven theme.” 19

This, for Dvorak, was the ultimate compliment.

compose dozens of themes before accepting one

He made

his students

as appropriate for “devel-

opment.” He would then have them wrap the theme around the skeleton of an existing Beethoven sonata, imitating, measure by measure, the modulations

and key

relationships. 20

Dvorak began working on the

full

score in mid-February 1893.

Dvorak of course used Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, note It

was not an accident.

He

did

it

quite consciously.

.

.

.

for note.

He

.

.

.

tried to

combine Negro and Indian themes. The Largo movement he wrote after

he had read the famine scene

great effect

on him and he wanted

in Longfellow’s to interpret

Burleigh’s grandmother was part Indian

may

Dvorak’s

it

Hiawatha.

It

had

a

musically. [That

help to explain

Symphony From

the

why

New World 23

Dvorak often equated or confused Indian with African American music.] 21 *

•

Burleigh’s influence was profouhd. Within one week,

May 21-28,

1893,

about Dvorak’s views on Negro music and the completion

a spate of articles

new symphony appeared in the New York Herald and, by means of newspaper’s new “exclusive” Atlantic cable, its sister paper, the English-

of his the

language Paris Herald.

The

New

oft-quoted

melodies of America

discover

all

that

is

needed

came out on Sunday, May 21.

of music,” 22

speed of light and

Herald

ing. Paris

I

York Herald interview that begins, “In the Negro

made

It

for a great

traveled

and noble school

under the Atlantic

the front page of the Paris Herald the following

stringers

were quickly dispatched

morn-

Vienna and Berlin

to

the

at

to in-

terview famous musicians about Dvorak’s curious theory. So strong was the

notion of

German

musical authority that French musicians of note, such

Camille Saint-Saens, conveniently nearby

Among ist

in Paris,

as

were not consulted.

those interviewed were Joseph Joachim, a distinguished violin-

and pedagogue, who may have already been exposed

music through

his student, Will

to

American Negro

Marion Cook; Anton Rubinstein, the

pianist,

composer, and founder of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory; and Anton Bruckner, the Viennese composer and organist. Their reactions to Dvorak’s theory appeared on the front page of the Paris Herald on three consecutive days, Friday through Sunday,

May

26-28, and, thanks to cable, in the

York Herald in a single condensed article on Sunday,

New

May 28. What would

normally take several days by steamship was being accomplished in hours.

But there was more. Elsewhere

in the

May

bomb

that

ploded the time

28 edition of the

had been ticking

New all

York Herald Dvorak ex,

week:

ANTONIN DVORAK ON NEGRO MELODIES The Bohemian Composer Employs Their Theme And Sentiments A New Symphony Dr. Dvorak’s explicit

phony

reflects the

announcement

ing

editorial

it

as a

.

will

be a surprise

.

the

coming Amer-

to the world. 23

strokes

Dvorak empowered American musicians of

all

by setting a “great and noble” example, meanwhile apprising the genabout something that

perhaps afraid

24

.

.

“welcome utterance.” 24

eral public

Dvorak

.

.

page also took notice of Dvorak’s Negro melody idea, describ-

With two bold stripes

newly completed sym-

Negro melodies, upon which

ican school must be based

The

that his

In

to

Duke

to

acknowledge.

Ellington

in

my view they already suspected

but were

Dvorak

notions about the future of America’s music,

s

now broadcast on

both sides of the Atlantic, created no small amount of controversy, catching the

American music establishment

off guard.

The

Indianapolis Freeman, a

black weekly, would recall a decade later that Dvorak’s prediction

American white people

the ears of the

the naysayers were the

American composers Edward MacDowell and John

Knowles Paine. MacDowell was ica

been offered

a pattern for

Bohemian Dvorak canism

in art

still

.

“We

particularly bitter:

an American national music costume by the to

do with Ameri-

remains a mystery.’’ 26

On the other hand, Dvorak’s ideas provided just the needed by composers Indian music.

have here in Amer-

though what Negro melodies have

.

.

Among

heavy clap of thunder.” 25

like a

upon

“fell

When

who were especially interested in his own composer-governed Wa

Arthur Farwell,

like

imprimatur that was

Farwell established

Wan

Press in 1902, his declared intention was to “launch a progressive

ment

for

American music, including

lenge to go after our

own

folk

Black musicians were

move-

acceptance of Dvorak’s chal-

a definite

music.” 27

ecstatic.

The Freeman

Dvorak’s

article recalls

statements as “a triumph for the sons and daughters of slavery and a victory for

Negro race achievements,”

referring to

Dvorak, our greatest friend from

far across

him

“Pan

as

[father]

Antonin

the sea.” 28 According to William

Warfield, the distinguished bass-baritone and former president of the National Association of

Negro Musicians,

this

bond whth Dvorak

on

“lives

in

black music circles.” I

was curious about the interviews with “Eminent Musicians from Berlin

and Vienna” about Dvorak’s “Negro Melody Idea” rized in the

New York Herald, and them

of the Paris Herald to read

I

that

found an opportunity

had been summato visit the

morgue

unabridged form. The com-

in their original

ments of Joachim, Rubinstein, and an American composer, Arthur reported by an

unnamed

spectfully curious,

and

Josef Joachim:

...

It

may be

a very

American Negro melodies

into

melodies would then give the

Anton Rubinstein:

seemed thoughtful and

Berlin correspondent,

in the case of Bird

most

to try

ideal form,

and merge the

and

that these

National American Music.

tint to the

... If there

is

a great literature of these

melodies, Dr. Dvorak’s idea

is

possible.

.

.

.

allow Negros free musical education. That

They may develop

a

new melody.

In twenty five years or

fifty

years

...

we

re-

insightful:

good idea an

Bird, as

It is

shall

Negro

Ah, so they are going is

very interesting.

.

refreshing of course.

to

.

.

.

.

.

perhaps see whether the

Negros can develop their musical talent and found a new musical style.

Dvorak’s

Symphony From

the

New World 25

Arthur

Bird: ...

I

wonder whether the Negro melodies

sad, musical, [would] lose

frpm being instrumented

.

.

.

simple,

29 .

>

The comments from Vienna, under Douche,” were

Cold Water

the heading “A

hospitable to Dvorak’s thesis:

far less

“German musical

literature,” Professor

Anton Bruckner declared,

“contained no written text emanating from the Negro race, and however sweet the Negro melodies might be, they could never form the

groundwork of the future music of America.” Evidently Bruckner never heard of Beethoven’s African Polish friend, the

composer and virtuoso

composed

George Polgreen Bridgetower. Beethoven

violinist

a violin sonata for Bridgetower titled

name

rededicated to Rudolphe Kreutzer, whose

mulattica,”

“II it

carries

which he

later

still.

The final comments, which were not included in the New York Heralds summary article, were attributed to Hans Richter, conductor of the first performances of the Ring enna’s] Imperial

at

Bayreuth. His post as “the celebrated leader of [Vi-

Opera Orchestra and Philharmonic Concerts” would be

taken over by Gustav Mahler three years reporter’s voice

Richter]

is

we hear

much

as

later. It

is

the

unnamed Viennese

as the maestro’s 30 :

very enthusiastic concerning America and believes greatly

|

in

its

future music, but he could not realize that this could

from the Negro [more

racist

race, nor

wordd he admit

Hungary, every man,

music

woman and

for a gypsy to play

from written

31

sets

of interviews from Berlin and Vienna are a ease

study of reportorial spin in action.

I

have learned not

to take

newspaper

crit-

too seriously ever since Peter Pretsfelder, a clever press agent, chastised

me when

I

complained about

reviews,” he said. It

was

a

long semi-favorable revue: “Don’t read your

a

“Measure them!”

busy eight days

at the

two Heralds, and the

have happened spontaneously. Thanks

commercial cable, “tongues

.

.

.

to the

be-identified

eminence

ternational publicity

grise at the

campaign

32 .

to

Duke

Ellington

I

could not

miracle of the paper’s

have no doubt that some

New York

By now

her friends and supporters, and the

Dvorak

articles

new

were wagging” over “Doctor Dvorak’s Bold

Declaration” on both sides of the Atlantic.

26

spoke of the gypsy race of

.

These conflicting

ics

He

child of which plays by ear, but said

was quite an exceptional thing

it

that persons playing by ear

assumptions] could be taught music properly, or had ever

given evidence of talent in this respect.

that

emanate

it is

New

Herald designed

yet-to-

this clever in-

obvious that Jeanette Thurber,

York Herald, which had been

staunchly pro-abolition, shared strong

— and

in

my

view noble,

if

naive-

ideas about racial equality. Dvorak’s enthusiasms were a tonic.

On Wednesday of this stormy week, Dvorak completed the scoring of his New World Symphony, and in keeping with “

signed and dated

it:

his

Fine Praised be to God! ,

normal

May

morning.” In an unusual gesture, Dvorak returned to

add a euphoric note: “Family

One it

as

could view

this

“famous entry

both a revelation and

ones— vesting them scribe

it

all.”

34

a

as

New World

months

he carefully

One

24, 1893,

in the

to the score later that

Southhampton! (telegram

1;

day

33

some quaint exuberance. 33

symbolic dedication

with the

written about only seven

arrives at

practice,

I

)-”

see

— the blessing of his loved

energy and sense of future he had

earlier: “I

haven’t got

Dvorak’s impressions of America were

enough words

to de-

now

for all

captured

time in his symphony, a symphony that “reflects the music of the Negro.” Artists are sensitive heralds of

new

spirit in

something

the world around them.

have long

I

change; they are the

American language,

felt.

I

first

to

recognize a

believe that Dvorak was aware of

Black Americans, more often than not, dominate

fashion, dance,

and music— what we

move, and what we hear— a truth revealed

to

see, the

way we

Dvorak over one hundred years

ago.

Within Spillville,

to

spend

cestry,

a

week, Dvorak and his reunited family would leave by train

Iowa, a quiet

their

who

olin studies

summer.

told

little It

Czech-speaking farm

was Joseph

Dvorak about

J.

Kovarik, an

village,

from the Prague Conservatory

to the

where they were

American of Czech an-

who had

Spillville. Kovarik,

for

transferred his vi-

National Conservatory

at

Dvorak’s urging, earned his keep as the maestro’s American secretary and

amanuensis. They made the

a large

Grand Central Depot on

their six children,

thrills

lively

group

Forty-first Street

and an aunt (not

route they sampled the

Chicago World’s

and

as they

boarded the

and Park Avenue: the Dvoraks,

Josefina), plus Kovarik

of The World’s

train at

and

a cook.

En

Columbian Exposition of 1893,

Fair.

Dvorak’s

Symphony From

the

New World 27

r-

•*

>

4

The Chicago World s Columbian Exposition of 1893

The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 celebrated America, its industry, and its people. It was among the first events of its kind to honor the achievements of women. Almost overnight, the fair and Chicago became a gathering place for the nation’s gifted

and talented from every

scientific

and

artistic disci-

pline. Little

remains of the original

fair.

Surreal silvertint photographs offer

proof that a magnificent White City, a combination of Venice’s Piazza San

Marco and

the

Roman Forum,

pear like Atlantis. But the

fair’s

were meticulously recorded

These contain long

lists

arose for

one glorious summer only

to disap-

countless exhibitions and day-to-day events

in thick official state

and

institutional

of participants, a kind of who’s

who

volumes.

at the fair.

The

blatant exception was black America. In

my search

behind the

for

official

evidence of African American music

at the fair

I

found,

neglect of Negro achievements, a complex and broad-

ranged black presence. There were the

elite

Negroes who worked and

gathered around the Haitian Pavilion. They conspired to produce "Colored People’s Day,” an “honor day” event mixing race politics and high art that constituted their brief

moment

from the Gold Coast

via Paris, the so-called primitive, yet highly sophisti-

cated denizens of the

in the sun.

“Dahomey Village,”

There was an African

tribe direct

disdained, however, by most of the

Haitian Pavilion crowd. Finally, there was the ever-looming large musical

underbelly of the fair— the piano “professors” (soon

to

become

ragtimers),

29

Figure

4.1

Chicago World

s

Fair 1893.

View

across the

Court of Flonor,

east to west.

Photograph by C. D. Arnold courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

hootchy kootchies,

the

’

the sideshows, and the surrounding pleasure

my

houses.

Most

ing the

emergence of ragtime,

and

significant to

story a

is

the role played by the

fair in

hasten-

“rhythm” that would shape popular music,

no small amount of classical music, over the next three decades. Nine years after the fair closed, an ironic postscript to all three of these

in turn

black presences arrived in the form of a “Negro Musical quite a

stir

Comedy”

on Broadway and enjoyed an even greater success

Created by

many

homey and

boasts a masterful score by Will

of the elite

artists

who were

at

the

fair, it

was

that

in

made

London.

titled In

Marion Cook, chock

full

Da-

of rav-

time. I

Dvorak 3°

he Dvorak family detrained

to

Duke

Ellington

in

Chicago on June

4, 1893, to

spend

a

day

They would

at the fair.

of the

visit

summer. Dvorak himself returned from

an extended ten-day gala concert he

day” event.

The

His

1

stay.

New York

again on their way back to

first

Spillville in early

end

August

for

four days were spent in preparation for a

conducted on “Bohemian Day/’ August rest

at the

another “honor

12,

of the time was for taking in the sights.

A contemporary

diary reports that

Dvorak spent

went

to the

part of each day sightseeing

Austrian restaurant,

“On

the

and

visiting.

At night he

Midway,” where he took

his

meals and enjoyed imported Pilsner beer. The Tavern Old Vienna] |

also boasted a touring [strolling] brass band.

The band members

got

quite excited

when Dvorak

began

Austrian and Slovenian dances. Dvorak soon discovered

to play

that the musicians

first

came

into the restaurant

were largely Czech and got absorbed

.

.

.

and

in conversa-

tion with them. 2

It is

and saw

more than a

likely that

Dvorak

also heard Edison’s early

phonograph

demonstration of projected images, harbingers of the immense

changes that the performing

The composer was

would undergo

arts

besieged by

visitors.

in the

Among them

approaching century.

was Theodore Thomas,

conductor of the Chicago Symphony and overall music director of the

who

arranged

to

have a string quartet

come

to

fair,

Dvorak’s hotel, the Lakota, to

read through the “American” Quartet, just completed in Spillville.

Harry T. Burleigh was also

in

Chicago, rehearsing music

People’s Day.” At the Dvorak Archives in Prague

Burleigh that Dvorak had saved from the

and ink

in

came upon

a letter

from

of 1893. 5 Written with pen

longhand on three sheets of Hotel Lakota stationary and appar-

Dvorak the day

ently left there for

leigh introduces his friend Will ple’s

summer

I

“Colored

for

Day” concert,

to

after his

“Bohemian Day”

Marion Cook,

concert, Bur-

director of the “Colored Peo-

Dvorak:

August

13,

1892(3]

Dear Doctor, I

want

to

introduce to your consideration Mr. Will

M. Cook,

[here he begins to write “vi” for violinist, then writes over

mer

pupil of the great Joachim. [Cook wished to be

poser, not a violinist,

composer.] Mr.

and

and Joachim,

Cook

He

has

known

his biggest credit,

“fo as a

was also

I

for-

com-

a

meet you and speak with you about

his

composed an opera [“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”], the

pal role of which

”)

has marked ability in the line of composition

desires very greatly to

work.

it

a

princi-

will sing.

You remember

I

sang Mr. Kinney’s two songs

at

your

last

The World’s Columbian

concert

Exposition 31

*r-

at

the Conservatory last May. [This line

Burleigh as Dvorak’s intimate.

very curious

is

if

we

think of

believe that by mentioning Kinney,

I

Cook by association as another gifted know that Cook would not abide a racial de-

Burleigh wanted to establish

Negro composer.

We

scription.] I

am

going away from Chicago to-day but

Cook

you, and Mr.

have Burleigh work a

will leave this note for

and see you. [Victor Herbert arranged

will call

Grand Union Hotel

in Saratoga’s

that

summer

to as

wine steward and occasional singer with the orchestra. Burleigh

would be returning

to

Chicago

in less than

two weeks

for the

“Colored

People’s Day” concert.] I

sincerely trust

Hoping you cess

and

that

you

will

work and give him your opinion.

be blessed with continued good health and suc-

will see

I

will listen to his

you

Conservatory next September

in the

I

have

the privilege to remain

Yours very

truly,

Harry T. Burleigh

Dvorak was leaving in

which

to

a

in getting through.

Cook had but five days busy Maestro. The ever-enterprising

on August

arrange a meeting with the

Cook succeeded

command

for Spillville

suspect he impressed Dvorak with his

I

of German. His music for “Uncle

good impression

following month.

as well, for

Cook

Cook was on

18, so

Tom’s Cabin” must have made

joined Dvorak’s composition class the

a roll,

but he had another audition

convincing his old mentor Frederick Douglass

to

speak

at

to pass:

“Colored People’s

Day.”

That “Colored People’s Day” had been placed gust 24), toward the

waning days of the

the fair directors, was but one of

many

tor of the fair’s Haitian Pavilion,

The

fair,

late

and only

on the calendar (Au-

after

much

slights that inclined

prodding of

Douglass, direc-

toward boycotting the whole proceeding.

Haitian Pavilion, the unofficial headquarters for “Colored People’s

Day,” was the one place

don Johnson, on

a

at the fair

summer

where African Americans

like

James Wel-

break from his job as a country schoolteacher in

Henry County, Georgia, might have taken some pride and

felt at

home. 4

who was working as a carpenter and “chairboy,” met the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar at the Haitian Pavilion. Dunbar, then twenty-one, was

Johnson,

serving as a clerk for Douglass, the proud, battle-weary abolitionist fighter.

And

it

was

at the

Haitian Pavilion that Will Marion

with Douglass, an old family friend,

Cook

sat

down

who had once helped fund

to

reason

his violin

studies in Europe.

Cook

Dvorak 32

to

prevailed.

Duke

When

Ellington

the

announcement

for

“Colored People’s Day”

appeared lass

in the

was the lead

Daily Columbian the ,

official

newspaper of the

Doug-

fair, 5

attraction:

At 2:30 in Festival Hall the Honorable Frederick Douglass deliver an oration

famous “Black

“Race Problem

Patti,”

in America.’’

Mme.

will

S. Jones,

the

Mr. Sidney Woodward of Boston, Mr. Harry

Burleigh of the National Conservatory of Music of America, will sing selections from the

famous opera “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” written

by Mr. Will M. Cook. Miss Hallie Q. Brown, the distinguished elocutionist will recite stirring

and

patriotic selections.

The famous

Jubilee Singers will render their quaint and plaintive plantation

melodies. Mr. Joseph Douglass, the gifted violinist [grandson of

Frederick Douglass and a teacher of James Reese Europe] will play several selections.

In a review of the concert that appeared two days later 6

made

of the Jubilee Singers. But two other National Conservatory musicians

Cook were

besides Burleigh and

placement Plato

no mention was

on the program:

a last-minute re-

for Sissieretta Jones with the extraordinary appellation Desiree

(Mme.

Jones canceled because her “advance” didn't arrive in time);

and Maurice Arnold companist

listed

Strathotte, Dvorak’s favorite student,

for the entire

3,000 in attendance,

program.

among them

The

announced

report

“2,000 blacks

.

who was

the ac-

that there

were

professors, teachers, Bish-

. .

ops, [and] musicians.” Douglass spoke for nearly

tunity to lash out at the directors of the fair

and

an hour, taking the oppor-

at a

nation that had turned

its

back on Reconstruction:

The management

of the fair slapped the face of the colored race,

[which suffered] unchristian, unconstitutional treatment.

Negros love our country.

We fought for

it.

treated as well as those that fought against

.

.

.

We

We ask only that we be it.

.

.

.

Judge us not by com-

parison with Caucasian civilization, but with the depths from which

we came. 7 Picking up the theme set by Douglass, Paul

“Ode

to the

And

Dunbar

read an original

Colored American”:

their deeds shall find a record

In the registry of

Fame.

For their blood has cleansed completely Every blot of Slavery’s shame.

So

all

honor and

to those

all

glory

noble sons of Ham

—

The World’s Columbian

Exposition 33

The gallant colored

soldiers

Who fought for Uncle

Sam! 8

On May 4, directly under the Daily Columbian masthead, a line drawing appeared with a caption announcing “The Arrival of the Dahomans” Sixty-seven subjects of King Behanzin, ruler of

camp on

Midway

the

Plaisance. [They

Dahomey

came] from

[sic].

up

[set

and bush

cities

re-

|

gions along the slave coast of the Gulf of Guinea,

were shivering] from the cold raw

air [as they]

West Africa. [They

groaned along under

women

heavy trunks. There were two children and twenty

among

party,

in the

the latter [were] seven of the bravest “warriors”

.

.

.

Ama-

and deterzons hideous with battle scars and with the lines of crueltv j mination on their months.

.

.

.

[The Dahomans] have been en route

faces.

Through an

interpreter they said the climate

much

better than that of Paris

week.

The camp

is

in

.

.

.

for

was

where they were on exhibition

mourning

for

two

one of the band who died

for a

in

New

York. [They] brought along toenails and part of his wool and will carry

them back

to Africa.

Their cheeks were branded

names.

Some were unbranded. A few

their family

wore

a

Godo

The Midway ris’s

or

which

rose well over

ments were staged — a place

to get

two hundred

of the

as

a place

feet

above the ground, 10

where

exotic entertain-

away from the heady formal pavilions ded-

good works.

The Dahomeyans were skirts

spoke French and

emblazoned by George Washington Gale Fer-

was part carnival, part restaurant row, and

icated to man’s

childhood with

T cloth. 9

Plaisance,

gigantic wheel,

at

assigned a

Midway, according

camping ground

to a sinister

at the farthest out-

hierarchy of human development

conceived by the “Head of the Department of Ethnology

Ward Putnam. Putnam was

World’s Fair,” Frederick

for the

Chicago

a professor of anthro-

Harvard University and a proponent of social Darwinism. In 1993 I came upon the culmination of Putnam’s madness at a fair centenary exhibit pology

at

mounted facts

at the

Chicago

on display were

Museum

a pair of nude, life-sized figures,

posites of students attending

held up

of Science and Industry.

at the fair as “the

Harvard and Radcliffe

Among the

male and female, com-

in the 1890s,

realities, for

for

its

34

Encampment,

Sitting Bull’s

the Chinese Village, the Indian Bazaar, and Cairo Street— famous

“hootchy kootchies” and their danse du

Dvorak

compromised

Dvorak’s favorite beer stop, “Old Vienna,” was

placed amid other outcast groups: the Bedouin

Camp,

which were

most advanced examples of human development”!

In fact, Putnam’s “order of human development” plan was

by practical

arti-

to

Duke

Ellington

ventre.

ARRIVAL OF TIIE DA1IOMANS.

Figure “The

4.2

Arrival of the

for the

Dahomans.” Drawn by Huit

Daily Columbian

The presence

,

May 4,

of the

1893.

Dahomey

Village was taken as an affront by the

Haitian Pavilion intelligentsia, but Henry Krehbiel, music

York Tribune a great admirer of Dvorak and ,

among

critic

of the

New

the earliest serious stu-

dents of Indian and African American music, was fascinated by what he saw

and heard I

there:

listened repeatedly during several days to the singing of a

minstrel

who was

the village,

if

certainly the gentlest

not in the entire

hut, a spear thrust in the

melodies in .

a

.

.

upon

a faint

.

.

.

All

ground by

high voice.

a tiny harp.

fair.

.

.

.

and

day long he

his side,

To

least assertive sat

and sang

.

.

.

person in

beside his little

his gentle singing

His right hand

descending

played over and over again thirds;

hand he syncopated ingeniously on the highest of two

A more

striking

homans was made

little

he strummed

descending passage of dotted [quarter and eighth notes] in

his left

Dahomen

with

strings.

demonstration of the musical capacity of the Da-

in the

war-dances which they performed several

times every forenoon and afternoon. T hese dances were accompanied

by choral song and the rhythmical and harmonious beating of drums

and

bells.

.

.

.

Berlioz in his supremest effort with his

mers produced nothing nious

drumming

Berlioz’s

to

compare

army of drum-

in artistic interest with the

harmo-

of these savages. [Krehbiel was probably referring to

Requiem, which employs ten drummers playing twelve

The World’s Columbian

ket-

Exposition 35

tledrums that span the entire chromatic

We| attempted

scale.]

to

|

make

a score

.

.

.

but were thwarted by the players who, evidently

di-

when we took out our notebooks, mischievously manner of playing as soon as we touched pencil to

vining our purpose

changed

their

paper. 11

Judging by Krehbieks account,

Dunbar could

find

I

hard to believe that

it

Cook and But we do

Dahomeyans as well. Bert Williams and George Walker— their future In

being drawn

resist

to the

know that vaudeville stars Dahomey collaborators — “with an added coat of black,” filled in as extras at the 1894 San Francisco World’s Fair when some members of the Chicago Dahomey troupe were late in arriving. The outcome of this experience was described by

Mary White Ovington,

tional Association for the

They became

sociologist

and cofounder of the Na-

Advancement of Colored People (NAACP):

in turn spectators

and studied the true African. This

contact with the dancing and singing of the primitive people of their

own

race had an important effect

upon

their

art.

Their

lyrics recalled

African songs, their dancing took on African movements, especially Walker’s.

Anyone who saw Walker

and the most

artistic

no coincidence

for the 1902

runaway

most African

of their plays, must have recognized the savage

beauty of his dancing It is

in “Abyssinia,” the

when he was masquerading

as

an African king. 12

Dahomey was the back-to-Africa state of choice Dahomey — music by Will Marion Cook, lyrics by

that

hit In

Paul Dunbar, libretto by Jessye A. Shipp, and starring Williams and Walker. 13

The Broadway show, which reopened on a

May

in

London

at the

Shaftesbury Theatre

1903 for a highly successful run of seven months, does indeed have

scene with Williams and Walker and the cast in spoof not

atavistic

uncommon

musicians, including

The

Duke

in

full

jungle regalia, an

shows by African American authors and

Ellington’s Queenie Pie.

unifying element of In

Dahomey

is

ragtime.

Its

rhythmic gestures

not only infuse the show’s strutting banjo tunes, such as “Emancipation

Day,” a Negro high holiday that Ellington also interprets in Black Brown and ,

Beige ragtime also hides just below the surface of the most charming and ;

gentle of Cook’s ballads, “Brownskin

She

ain’t

no

violet,

She

ain’t

no

red, red rose

An

tho’ the lily of

She’s sweeter yet

She

ain’t

no

Nor mornin’

Dvorak 36

to

Duke

de

I

valley’s

knows.

tulip rare

glory fine;

Ellington

Baby Mine”:

sweet

But mongst de flowers

kaint

fair

none compare

With brownskin baby mine. 14 The emergence of ragtime, immediately following and ot the fair, has often

as

an outcome

been suggested but never explored. Enough hard and

circumstantial evidence placing ragtime at or around the

fair

has surfaced to

warrant a closer look.

The wheels

clicked merrily and the brothel doors stood ajar. Concert

saloons blossomed out with extravagant shows.

.

.

.

Beer flowed, cham-

pagne corks popped, the “professors” [an honorific players]

double

for

and Negro bands played gay tunes, and the shifts.

.

.

.

Chicago

.

.

barroom piano

girls

worked

the wickedest wide-open town in the

.

nation. 1S

We know that among the fair

hundreds of entertainers who flocked

were several important ragtime players and composers. Scott Joplin was

there, as

were Ernest Hogan and Jessye

“Dream Rag”

in

it

off of

the window. Pickett later told Blake, Fair.” 16

known sical

him” by watching

“I

learned

it

Ragtime historian Rudi Blesh suggests Bear was the

as Jack the

would place him

was playing

Pickett. Pickett

his

one of Baltimore’s innumerable brothels when thirteen-

year-old Eubie Blake “learned

real

at the fair as well. 17

[‘The

Dream

through

Rag’] at the

that the piano “professor”

author of “The

We

his fingers

Dream

[Rag],”

which

can only imagine the myriad mu-

among ragtime players at the fair and the their memory banks. We do know that within

interchanges that took place

vastness of what was stored in a

to the

few years of the

fair’s

closing, ragtime sheet

music

caught on

sales

“like

wildfire.” 18

A

handful of obscure

articles

about ragtime

at the fair

were published,

mostly in Negro newspapers. In a 1915 interview in the Chicago Defender

,

Will Marion Cook, by that time an established composer and conductor and a respected authority

on “Negro music,” places ragtime

About 1888 marked the time.” [Cook in

and quick growth of the so-called

would have been eighteen

Europe], As

far

back

the Mississippi had

ence

starting

as 1875,

Negros

commenced

at the

a

to evolve this

running

start

time and

still

musical figure

but

at the

fair:

“rag-

studying

in questionable resorts

to ragtime’s predecessor, the cakewalk],

Chicago, “ragtime” got

directly at the

along

[a refer-

World’s Fair in

and swept the Americas, next

Europe, and today the craze has not diminished. 19

The distinguished researcher Lawrence Gushee has turned up an even earlier Cook interview from 1898, when he was still an unknown composer

The World’s Columbian

Exposition 37

struggling in

New York. Cook was

responding

to the proposition that

music — as exemplified by such ephemeral “clap-trap compositions

New Bully/

‘The to

Hot Time

‘A

in the

Old Town/ and

Me’” — was degenerate when compared with

Cook

Negro as

.

.

Coons Look Alike

‘All

“soul stirring slave melodies.”

responded:

One

special characteristic of these songs

companiment.

.

.

is

the

much

fifteen years ago,

ports,

and

grew out of the

particularly those of Turkey, [literally,

when

the

odd rhythms of the

worked out the

upon them; and

“rag.” at

Chicago, the “Mid-

well filled with places of amusement

where the pe-

music of the “muscle dance” was continually heard, and

worthy of note that

it is

time the popularity of the “rag” grew with

after that

astonishing rapidity and

until

of Negro sailors to Asiatic

visits

During the World’s Columbian Exposition

way Plaisance” was

unknown

belly dance] soon forced itself

trying to reproduce this they have

culiar

advertised “rag” ac-

This kind of movement, which was

.

about

danse du ventre

became general among Negro

pianists. 20

Cook’s evasive answer was atypical; he rarely missed an opportunity

back

More

significantly, the interview

at the

friend in Ernest

word “rag”

came

at the very

time he had found a

Hogan, the composer of the offending

Me.” Published

the

to

musical snobbery that plagued him throughout his career.

strike

to

.

in 1896,

“All

Hogan’s song contained the

in print; 21 the sheet

new

Coons Look Alike

first

musical usage of

music offered an optional piano arrange-

ment, a “Choice chorus, with Negro ‘Rag’ Accompaniment,” suggesting that ragtime began as a rhythmic imposition, dare

we

say improvisation,

on an

al-

ready composed piece. This was exactly the way Eubie Blake demonstrated

ragtime for our television show in 1979, playing Chopin’s “Funeral March” straight, “as

they were going to the cemetery,” and then ragged— with rag ac-

companiment— “when flourish, clinching the

Ernest

connected

his

own

to his controversial

versations that he

home

argument. “That’s Ragtime!” and he beamed.

Hogan had

Years of the Negro in

ing

they headed home.” Eubie ended the music with a

in 1908,

Show

ideas about the birth of ragtime,

song “All Coons Look Alike

Business,

Tom

had with Hogan. Their

in

Chicago

strongly suggests this

.

.

.

Me.”

In 100

Fletcher reconstructs several conlast

toward the end of Hogan’s

Hogan was out

to

which he

seeking a

meeting took place

in a nurs-

life:

little

happened during the

“sport” [the chronology

fair

or soon after].

.

.

.

The

piano player seemed very blue. “He must of had something on his

mind,” said Hogan, “because he was plunking and talking .

.

Dvorak 38

.

Each night found me

to

Duke

Ellington

in that

same house asking him

to himself.

to play

and

sing that song.

when

I

left

.

.

t

.

here was no protection for songs in those days, so

Chicago the song

left

Laughing, [Hogan] asked

he played exceptionally

Me” and

Alike to

well.

with me.”

me

He

hand him

to

concertina which

[his]

Coons Look

started playing “All

while he played he talked. “Son,” he

said, “this

has caused a lot of trouble in and out of show business, but

good

for

walks of

show business because life.

was given

With

Its

ers.

money was short in all song, a new musical rhythm

popularity grew and

That one song opened the way Finding the rhythm so

for a lot of

sold like wildfire.

who

great, they stuck to

would have been

lost to the

Cook and Hogan

(via Fletcher)

that ragtime, without fair’s

own

played just by ear their

world

if

I

it

.

.

.

trail,

torians have

come

The

had not put

in

ragtime players were

creations of music it

which

on paper.” 22

do more than simply confirm the notion

ground. Instead of the anonymous, noble-

accompanying documentation

to

.

which there would not be an American music, took

catalytic proving

that

.

and now you get

savage image traditionally imposed on African American of a paper

.

colored and white songwrit-

back rooms and cafes and other such places.

root in the

it

without the word ‘coon.’ Ragtime was the rhythm played

hit songs

the boys

was also

it

time

at the

the publication of that

to the people.

song

expect— we

find here

musics— for want

that art

and cultural

his-

composers who, through the ap-

plication of accurate notation, attention to form,

harmonic refinement, and

adroit piano voicings, crafted the improvisations of the piano “professors” into a coherent

whole and delivered

Dvorak headed back

a

music

to Spillville via the

that

seems

inevitable.

Chicago, Milwaukee, and

St.

Louis

Line, crossing the “sweeping currents” of the Mississippi River at Prairie du

Chien.

He

detrained a short time afterward at Calmar, just across the north-

east border of Iowa;

from there he traveled the

a horse cart. 23 In the

summer of 1993, accompanied by a few Czech

I

made

Dvorak anniversary pilgrimage

a

Spillville,

tion.

where we attended the Dvorak

few miles

Chicago and

in Spillville

Rock

Island.

And

tiny

farm village of

now

a

Iowa City)

to

we

crossed the

Spillville

fields.

seemed caught

these days as the Bili Clock House, was intact. is

friends, 24

Centennial Celebra-

in a

squarish brick house where the Dvorak family spent their

family slept,

on

the river obliged us with a rare breaching of

banks, flooding the surrounding towns and

The

to Spillville

(via

Driving through endless miles of corn-fruited plains,

Mississippi at its

to

last

modest museum.

The upper

The summer, known time warp.

floor,

where the

In a glass case Indian artifacts

with a stub of a pipe used by Dvorak. Lying nearby

is

a fading

Dvorak

The World’s Columbian

mingle letter.

Exposition 39

The

Clock House reminded

Czechoslovakia, the

ited in

Dvorak

them

Bili

left

it

when he died

laurel wreaths

and

little

me

homespun

of another

upstairs study in Vysoka,

in 1904.

shrine

which remains

The vV&lls are covered with

awards,

framed

a place of honor,

diploma of honorary membership presented

in glass,

and

hangs a

New York Phil-

Dvorak by the

to

as

among

large presentation ribbons lettered with the date

venue of long-ago concerts. In

vis-

I

harmonic

Society. At the back of Dvorak’s desk, along with other reference

books,

copy of the harmony

is

a

used by the National Conservatory,

text

dently sent in advance of his trip to familiarize

him

Dvorak’s handwritten notations indicate he gave

a

also a guide to

is

New York

it

with their program.

thorough review. There

r88o) with photos of the harbor teeming with

(c.

sailing ships. Scattered along the windowsills

and wainscoting

students with grateful greetings. Three photos stood out ers:

Chief Big Moon;

evi-

are photos of

among

all

the oth-

Large Head; and John Crow.

his wife,

memoir

Dvorak’s son Otakar wrote a

about

in 1961

boyhood

his

trip to

America. Although sixty-eight years had passed, he had never forgotten the

met

Indians he

in Spillville.

He

described

ing to a tribe of thirty or so Iroquois the creek. .

.

.

.

.

.

My father was

who

them

“medicine men” belong-

as

lived in tents “south of town, across

interested ... in their songs

and instruments.

Father received photos from the Indians. These photos were

among my

father’s prize possessions.” 25

The high

point of the Spillville Dvorak Centennial Celebration was a

grand parade led by a high school marching band huffing out a Sousafied “Goin’ Home,” from the

New World Symphony. The band

was followed by

Antonin Dvorak

him were

a horse cart carrying Otakar’s son,

son and grandson, Antonin IV and Antonin V,

Czechoslovakia coat and with a

man”

“the old

beard, Antonin Dvorak

who had

on the

were beginning

III

last leg

train It

still

winds

its

traces the bittersweet route of

to turn, a

reminder that the family were about

East Seventeenth Street.

The

others

Dvorak detrained

would return

into the

smoke and

to

String Quartet.

The

leaves

to separate

their parents

on

Prague.

soot of the

Depot, 26 he was carrying the completed scores of his

new “American”

Dvorak and

of their end-of-summer journey of 1893.

Antonin would remain with

his

like

way alongside the broad

little

and

traveled from

looked every centimeter

once again. Otakar and

When

his

to all of us pilgrims.

The Maple Leaf Limited sweeps of the Hudson estuary. his family

Beside

Dressed in a nineteenth-century hat and

for the occasion. full

III.

Grand Central

New World Symphony

They would both be premiered

at

Carnegie Hall during the 1893-94 season, the most triumphant of the composer’s

life.

Dvorak

to

4°

Duke

Ellington

5

The

National Conservatory

of Music of America

The at

National Conserv ator)' of Music of America was represented in

the brilliant Carnegie Hall premiere of Dvorak’s

the

New World on December )

Antonin and Otakar the student

sat in a

composer

for

16, 1893.

whom

From

(Strathotte), 1

B.

Thurber,

Philharmonic on the stage below. Scattered

players;

and

sat

proudly

in

an equally

cello section of the

in the balconies

who had copied some

on the stands of the

(

Dvorak had the highest hopes. Jeanette

prominent box nearby. Victor Herbert led the

resting

no. 9

Dvorak, his wife, and their two sons

box of honor with Maurice Arnold

Thurber and her husband, Frances

dents: Harry T. Burleigh,

Symphony

force

full

New York

were other

of the orchestra parts

a fifteen-year-old cornetist,

stu-

now

Edwin

Franko Goldman (the future composer and director of his own “Goldman”

who had

band),

already played

some of the music from

he tested the trumpet passages they

sat well I

for

Dvorak

as

Seidl or

to see if

on the instrument.

slow movement,

call for a

symphony when

he was orchestrating

wonder how many students were present

tuba player.

the

The

when

the conductor,

Anton

at the first rehearsal

of the

Seidl, sent for the orchestra’s

tuba player thought he had the week

off, for

tuba in the score. But a last-minute decision was

Dvorak — to reinforce the bass trombone

Dvorak did not

made — by

either

part with a tuba, further

underpinning the mysterious chorale that opens the Largo movement and sets a

somber mood

“Goin’

Home”

tune.

for the

hauntingly beautiful English horn solo, the

And

thousands of performances ever since, a lone

at

41

tuba player sounds the seven notes at the beginning and end of the slow

movement and then remains

trapped onstage for the

rest of the

symphony

with nothing to do.

The English horn (Strathotte)

solo

made

a lasting

impression on Maurice Arnold

and two of his fellow composition students, Harvey Worthington

Loomis and William Arms as “a study or sketch for a

Dvorak had described the slow movement

Fisher.

longer work, either a cantata or an opera

on Longfellow’s 'Hiawatha.”’ 2 But how do we explain later, just

when

.

.

.

based

that thirty or so years

the copyright was running out, Loomis, Arnold, and Fisher

—

independently of one another— fitted the English horn tune from the Largo

symphony with

of the

came up

Negro

a

own

text,

“Goin’

tually established itself as a

coincidence.

I

Home”

1923);

but

published? Arnold

it

Mine” (New York: H. Flammer,

with “Mother

“Massa Dear” (Boston: C. C. Birchard, using his

and had

spiritual text

1927);

Loomis used

was Fisher’s adaptation

it

(Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1922), that even-

popular Negro

think that Dvorak told

spiritual.

members

This has

to

be more than

of his composition class that

Negro

the English horn solo was conceived as a wordless

spiritual

— for Hi-

awatha!

What was

outcome of Dvorak’s prediction about

the

a

new

school of

American music?

How

three in particular:

Rubin Goldmark, grandson of a Hebrew cantor and nephew

did his students at the National Conservatory fare,

of the celebrated Viennese

composer Karl Goldmark; Maurice Arnold

(Strathotte), Dvorak’s “favorite”;

and proud,

feisty

Will Marion Cook, a

man

ahead of his time? 3

Rubin Goldmark (1872-1936) became

best

known

in 1924,

he headed the composition department

Art and

its

Goldmark a

as a teacher. Starting

at the Institute

of Musical

successor, the Juilliard School, holding the post until his death. also

founded the Bohemian Musical Society. In the winter of 1917,

Brooklyn-born teenager, Aaron Copland, began studying privately with

him, a relationship that lasted until Copland

began work with

his

new

and

Paris four years later

left for

teacher, Nadia Boulanger.

George Gershwin,

ever in pursuit of a conservatory equivalency diploma,

came

to

Goldmark

for-

for

a short period in 1923. 4

While Goldmark was Trio, op.

1,

still

which he dedicated

conservatory on

May 8,

to his teacher.

1893, a few

The Piano licks,

Trio, op.

no Indian tunes or

Dvorak

to

Duke

Ell ington

r,

The

trio

weeks before Dvorak

Victor Herbert offering his “kind assistance” as

be the piece that moved Dvorak

composed

studying with Dvorak he

to declare,

cellist.

was premiered

Piano at

left for Spillville,

The Piano

“Now there

a

brio

is

the

with

said to

are two Goldmarks.”

contains no overt Americanisms, no cakewalk

spirituals. It

sounds Viennese. Goldmark’s more 5

mature, unblushingly American symphonic work The Call of the Plain

which

(1925),

I

dusted off for a Dvorak American Legacy concert

Prague Spring Festival in 1992, 6 pales

and blues-inspired works that writing around the

same

1930s.

comparison with the

Copland and Gershwin, were

his star pupils,

I

talked with the conductor, composer,

and pub-

who had studied with Rubin Goldmark in the early Cohn retained a vivid memory of his teacher, in particular the hun-

Arthur Cohn,

dreds of themes he wrote, and the months

“lost,”

lowed him

I

begin composing

to

revisions of the

own

fresh ragtime-

time.

In the winter of 1993 lisher

in

at the

teacher, Dvorak.

To my

several students of

Cohn

surprise

star

true for his fellow romantic composers, Tchaikovsky if

Goldmark were

alive today

Goldmark’s

The same

and Brahms, but

he would have

ever

has risen and sunk be-

neath the horizon several times during the twentieth century.

ger that

finally al-

Goldmark

did not recall

work with Dvorak. Dvorak’s

his

Goldmark

pointed out that similar “endless

theme” had been reported by -

making known

in earnest.

before

his

I’ll

is

wa-

Dvorak apprentice-

ship engraved on his calling card.

Nor did Cohn

recall

Goldmark mentioning Aaron Copland, whereas

“he rarely missed an opportunity ready composed the Rhapsody

in

to

bring up Gershwin.” Gershwin had

Blue

,

An American

in Paris,

and the

ano] Concerto in F, and was the darling of Broadway by the time

studying with Goldmark. Copland’s big pieces Billy the

Kid

(1938), and,

above

all,

— El salon

al-

(Pi-

Cohn was

Mexico

(1936),

Appalachian Spring (1944) — were yet

to

come.

Goldmark was

particularly proud, said

with his Lullaby for string quartet.” Ira

Cohn,

Edward

that

he “helped Gershwin

Jablonski, a longtime friend of

Gershwin and the biographer of George, dismisses the import of the

Goldmark-Gershwin ‘studied’ with

can hardly be claimed that Gershwin

relationship: “It

Goldmark.

.

.

.

They met perhaps

three times.” In

my

view,

three meetings between a master teacher and an advanced musician

happens

to

be a genius can be deeply influential.

Gershwin did not As

is

live

long enough

to issue reflections

often the case, various spokespersons have arisen to

saddens

me

that the only statements

phers are dismissive or poke fun at a

and respected ...

a

New York.” 8 Had

he

comium

who

most sought lived,

on

fill

his early years.

the gap.

And

it

about Goldmark by Gershwin biogra-

man Jablonski

after teacher of

himself describes as “fine

piano and theory then in

Gershwin might have contributed

alongside that of Copland,

who

his

own

en-

wrote a moving tribute to his

teacher in 1956 on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Goldmark’s death:

The Conservatory

of

Music of America 43

He was one

of the outstanding musicians and composers of his period.

American musicians

.

.

.

tend to forget that only half a century ago so-

music was thought of as an exotic growth

called classical

can landscape. Because of that,

had

their

music

men

work cut out

for

in a bleak native

thVmen

Edwin Franko Goldman, chestra, recalled

environment. ... In a very

the

a debt,

young trumpeter

Maurice Arnold

the conservatory was

to acclimatize the art of

first

if

for

real sense these

no other reason

in a

in Dvorak’s conservatory or-

memoir: “My

Maurice Arnold, who

harmony at

instructor in

in those days

Dvorak was very fond of him, and considered him

promising pupil.”

10

Maurice Arnold was born his

in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1865.

mother, a piano teacher. In 1883 Arnold

College of Music

to

study composition in Europe.

time and already a fine pianist and

he found, Heinrich Urban, attempted

to

imbue

dependently arrived his

compositions

Th is was around

a

in Berlin,

a suite with a at the idea of

“|

Negro Plantation

Mau-

his

most

first

lessons

left

the Cincinnati

He was

eighteen at the first

because] he discouraged spirit.” 11

teacher

me when

Arnold had

I

in-

incorporating African American music into

decade before he began

the

His

Arnold rejected the

violinist.

as

was known

rice A. Strathotte.

came from

that

possible our present day musical flowering. 9

make

they helped

of Rubin Goldmark’s time

them: they had

were the pioneers, we owe them

Ameri-

in the

same time

his studies at the conservatory.

that the Boston-based

composer George

Whitefield Chadwick was composing a Scherzo (1884) for his Second Sym-

made “American references.” 12 Arnold’s particular interest was duly noted by Dvorak: “Among my pupils ... I have discovered strong talents. phony There

that

is

one young

man upon whom am I

building strong expectations. His

compositions are based upon Negro melodies, and

I

have encouraged him in

this direction.” 13

On his

January

23, 1894,

still

new symphony, Dvorak

flushed with the enthusiastic reception given

directed the National Conservatory

Chorus and

Orchestra in a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden for the Herald's Free Clothing Fund. This concert has received the Dvorak canon.

Upon examination we

little

see that this was not

New York

attention in

some quiet

school recital for parents and friends, but rather a significant Thurber-Dvorak

“event”

— the

conservatory on parade. Especial attention was given to the

achievements of its African American students,

whose work was being held up to

as

in particular

Maurice Arnold,

an example of the new American school

come.

Dvorak was the drawing

card.

The Herald

review reported that “long

before the hour fixed for the opening, the [Madison Square Garden] hall

Dvorak 44

to

Duke

Ellington

Figure

5.1

Sissieretta Jones

wearing

medals awarded on her concert tours. Unsigned

drawing

for the

New York

Herald, January 24, 1894.

was

filled

with an

immense throng

of people.

.

.

There was hardly standing

.

room,” 14 and that the large and distinguished audience included Maestro

and Mrs. Anton

Seidl.

The

review also noted that “each

ception, belonged to the colored race.” Sissieretta Jones fair for

— the

with one ex-

’

1

same “Black

Cook’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

soloist,

Patti”

— was

who

did not

show up

at the

the featured guest star of the

evening. 16 For the grand finale she joined with “baritone soloist” Harry

Thacker Burleigh, an all-Negro Stephen

Foster’s

who conducted. artist in

ple

“Old Folks

at

choir,

and the orchestra

Home,” arranged

performance of

occasion by Dvorak,

Jones’s portrait appeared in the Herald rendered by a staff ,

those pre-photoengraving days.

bosom

for the

in a

replete with medals

It

shows her formally posed, her am-

and awards. There

is

a smaller portrait of

Burleigh.

Dvorak bestowed

a high

both) African American

over his baton.

Edward

honor upon two of his students — one (possibly

— when

he invited them

B. Kinney, organist

to the

podium and turned

and choirmaster of

St. Philip’s

A.M.E. Church, directed the orchestra and the 130-voice

all-black choir,

among them

the “Inflamma-

tus”

the boy sopranos and altos from

St. Philip’s, in

from Gioachino Rossini’s Stabat Mater, with

Sissieretta Jones as soloist.

The Conservatory of Music of America 45

Maurice Arnold led the orchestra

brand-new composition, American

in his

Plantation Dances. '

Dvorak referred

“When

I

first

to this

came here upon

study and build

a settled conviction.

uct of the

work

And

soil.”

ap earlier Herald interview:

in

last

.

year

was impressed with

I

plantation melodies

— and

it

this idea

has developed into

These beautiful and varied themes

down

saying so Dvorak sat

fingers lightly over the keys.

It

was

— to

at his

are the prod-

piano and ran his

his favorite pupil’s adaptation of a

southern melody. 17

was delighted

I

safely sion.

copy of Arnold’s American Plantation Dances

to find a

New York

tucked away in the stacks of the

18 It

was published

Public Library Music Divi-

form of a condensed autograph score — most

in the

own hand — and instrumented for a standard European symphonic ensemble, with one exception. The fourth movement calls for probably in Arnold’s

“blocks of sandpaper,” which were used by kit or trap

drummers

in the

dance

bands and theater orchestras of the early 1900s. The sandpaper blocks un-

rhythm

derline a triplet

in the

woodwinds,

into a rollicking cakewalk. This in a classically scored work,

must be the

hut also the

There were no orchestral carefully notated indications

recreated a

American Plantation Dances, which at

Queens College and with

inet,

striking

is

no. 7, the

because

it

usage of sandpaper blocks

pop-music

effect. 19

score and a set of parts of the

full

performed with

I

the Karlovarski

The second movement,

Festival in 1992.

first

first

that soon accelerates

be found, but by following Arnold’s

parts to

I

rhythm

a

my student

orchestra

Symphony at the Prague Spring

a lilting skipping

dance

for solo clar-

reminds everyone of the celebrated Humoresque

dah-dadah-dadah-dadah one

that introduced so

many

of us to

Dvorak. They share the same gavotte rhythm, phrase lengths, and plagal cadences.

The

porters.

There

7 by a year

clarinet tune is

really

must be the one

no other candidate.

and probably was

ment, in the

light of

Dvorak was

its

.

would go over I

picture a

predates the

Goldman’s memoir, conjures up

greatly interested in the Negroes,

named

T. Burleigh.

It

Dvorak tinkled out

.

Craig, a clarinetist .

Often when the

to Bailey

and put

happy Papa Dvorak

for the re-

Humoresque

no.

inspiration. Arnold’s choice of solo instru-

In the students’ orchestra there were a violinist

that

first

his

at the

and especially

number

named

a lovely image:

of them.

I

their music.

recollect a

first

Bailey and in particular Harry

clarinet

had

a solo passage,

Dvorak

arms around him and cry Bravol

Free Clothing

Fund

concert, bursting

with pride as Arnold conducted his American Plantatio?r Dances and Bailey tootled forth, his theory

Dvorak 46

to

Duke

Ell ington

made

manifest for

all to

behold.

movement

Arnold’s final

by

oboe and accompanied by busy

tfie

swing about the

last

time with his head.

ise

wish

movement that And am pretty I

were

gallery front, they I

figures in the strings.

all

sure that under cover of that friendly

patting ‘juba.’” 20

could report that Arnold’s more mature music

I

chamber works

lished

I

la

Midway

Ventre,’” recalling his

companist

for

sets

one

the

visit to

who were

r2

Yorkville, then Manhattan’s

ac-

is

not described as a Negro by two contemporary

Edwin Franko Goldman and

that

reviewed the Free Clothing

Arnold lived

as a

concert.

the

at

end of

o East Eighty-ninth Street, was in the heart of

German

district. 22

a lasting impression I

Fund

white person

1

am reminded ,

college student and that

black pride

in a

Maurice Arnold”

“Cross,” the genesis of The Barrier an opera

Meyerowitz that made

on

me when

I

had the pleasure of conducting

My old man died in a fine My ma died in a shack. I

prominent participation

careful to so designate:

address,

last

Hughes poem,

Danse du

he must have been African American. John

New York Herald reporter who His

two pianos, eight hands, and

for

a passing reference to “the black student

book Dvorak, 21 yet he

life.

Among

Chicago World’s Fair when he was the

the

Strathotte’s

There can be no doubt his

pub-

from before or during Arnold's

Plaisance, ‘souvenir of the famous Persian

to thinking that

Clapham makes chroniclers

fifteen of Arnold’s

“Colored People’s Day.”

Maurice Arnold program

all

prom-

fulfilled the

listed in the catalog of the British Library.

time with Dvorak: a “Valse elegante”

in his

studied

are a few provocative pieces that date

“Dance de

such a gay

is

nearly every boy in the choir marked

of his American Plantation Dances.

them

And according

Herald review, the performance was a toe-tapper: “There

to the

swung out

builds into a full-blown cakewalk,

wonder where I’m gonna

of a Langston

composed by Jan saw

as a

it

young

in rp6r:

big house.

die,

Being neither white nor black? 23

Does Arnold’s have

to

crafted,

among

do with is

his

ambivalence about

his

double identity? The bulk of

many

name

or his “modesty”

his later work, while well

undistinguished. Perhaps one could find

his larger,

those of so

lifelong

more

interesting

music

unpublished works, but Arnold’s manuscript scores, other American composers of the period, including

like

Cook

and Europe, have disappeared. 24

Dvorak and the well-meaning rightly believed that the

of a

new

folks at the

Herald and the conservatory

American Plantation Dances pointed

school, but there were miles yet to go.

Dances, despite

its

inspired

moments,

in the direction

The American

clings safely to tradition.

Plantation

Except

for

The Conservatory of Music of America 47

throwing in a

lick

on sandpaper blocks, Arnold was

an African American landscape using

tion of trying to paint

first

many of the unique

canceling out

palette, thus

Dvorak and,

attracted

unenviable posi-

in the

qualities in

a

European

Negro music

that

he astutely observed, “moved sentiment in”

as

American musicians.

Over the next three decades, evolve, with

its

a

own unique sound.

new kind

of American orchestra would

instrumentation would allow a

Its

style

of inflected playing that mirrors the language and song of the people from

which

flows.

it

How

were the American Plantation Dances which Dvorak had touted ,

so mightily, perceived by other African

tory— in eral

Concert. 25

violinists in the I

time during the 1893-94 season. According

I

was barred

because I

.

.

couldn’t play;

Cook left the to

conservatory some-

an oft-quoted memoir that he

later:

.

from the

wouldn’t play

I

Fund

conservatory orchestra at the Free Clothing

say “might have been,” because

wrote a half century

at the conserva-

Marion Cook? Cook might have been one of sev-

particular, Will

Negro

American students

my

classes at the National

my

fingers

Conservatory

fiddle in the orchestra

had grown too

anyway; Harry T. Burleigh was

his pet.

and counterpoint teacher, thought

I

stiff.

.

.

.

under Dvorak.

Dvorak didn’t

like

me

Only John White, the harmony

had

talent,

and

insisted that

I

at-

tend his classes. 26

The

had grown

“fingers

stiff’

remark resonates with another

Cook’s abandoning the violin in anger

One

story

about

after a critic offered qualified praise

Tom

who knew Cook as early as 1908, when he (Fletcher) was managing the path-breaking Memphis Students ensemble, “the first modern jazz band,” led by Cook. 2 " The tale is further dramatized by Duke Ellington, who devotes a chapter to Cook in his auby referring

to his race.

tobiography, Music

When

Is

.

.

he [Cook]

.

first

returned to

newspaper

Fletcher,

New York

and did

a brilliant critique the next

“the world’s greatest

Dad Cook

is

My Mistress.

Carnegie Hall, he had per

source

Negro

a

day

office

.

.

.

and smashed

splintered instrument, life. 28

48

Duke

newspa-

took his violin and went to see the reviewer at the

greatest violinist in the world!”

to

in the

at

violinist.”

it

across the reviewer’s desk. “I

not the world’s greatest Negro violinist,” he exclaimed.

Dvorak

concert

Ellington

He

“I

am

am

the

turned and walked away from his

and he never picked up

a violin again in his

Cook did

up

pick

Clef Club Concert

historic

to believe

is

meals

Carnegie Hall

at

joined lames Reese Europe's

in 1912.

But what

I

find hardest

Cook's story that he was fed up because Burleigh “was Dvorak’s

pet— the

pet.” Dvorak’s real

does Cook’s

when he

the fiddle again

memoir

when he was

gratefully recall

traveling

beat— was Maurice Arnold. Not only

fellow to

how

Burleigh staked

up from Washington,

way; in an interview he gave during the

bed and

to a

trying to break into Broad-

London run

touted Burleigh, transforming aspiration into

him

fact:

Dahomey Cook

of In

,

“Soon you

will

have the

opportunity of seeing a negro composer of serious music in London. to

refer

I

Mr. Harry T. Burleigh whose chamber music and symphonies are well

known.” 29

Cook was heading toward

If

a parting of the ways with

Dvorak and the

Lund concert would have

National Conservatory, the Lree Clothing

forced

the issue. Violinists were ubiquitous in those days. Nevertheless, the directors

would have wanted every

of the conservatory

And

that symbolic event.

I

violinist of color

on parade

at

doubt that Dvorak, who remarked upon the lack

of wind instrumentalists at the conservatory, would have noticed Cook’s ab-

among

sence

from

a

dozen

or

more

which has the ring of an

classes,”

saw himself as a golden boy. at

violinists.

He was

Nor would he have “barred him

official

dictum. No,

I

think that

Cook

enrolled in the Oberlin Conservatory

age twelve. With the financial assistance of Lrederick Douglass, he was

then sent

to Berlin,

of Mendelssohn,

where he joined the

violin class of Joseph Joachim, friend

Schumann, and Brahms. Cook, who had

excerpts of his

opera performed at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, could not bear the idea of literally playing “second fiddle” behind Sissieretta Jones at a special concert that

and

pupils,

music I

tra

as

Dvorak presented

to

show

certainly not for a composer-conductor

tame

as

off his African

who wrote

under Dvorak,” before or

after the

venient way to deal with his envy. all

I

He was

as a

fiddle in the orches-

Lund event, was a conwonder if Cook came to the realiza-

Dvorak’s enthusiasms about African American music, the his students

were not where Cook was

composer. Beethoven’s formulations were of no interest

already working out his

Tom’s Cabin” he had

my

Lree Clothing

also

European models he imposed upon heading

plans.

arias,

own

African American idiom

— the

to

him.

“Uncle

following the play, were no doubt sung in dialect 30

— and

Within the year Cook and Paul Laurence Dunbar would sign

a contract with the

music publishers W. Witmark and Sons

for Clorindy:

Origin of the Cakewalk a novel musical theater piece that ,

ceived, though

The

Negro-inspired

Maurice Arnold’s.

believe that Cook’s stubborn refusal to “play

tion that for

American

it

had

yet to be

basic difference

committed

The

Cook had con-

to paper. 31

between Arnold’s and Cook’s Negro-inspired mu-

The Conservatory

of

Music of America 49

sic

home

was vividly brought

me when

to

I

recorded their works in a single

on September

session with the Prague Radio Orchestra

Dances

chestra read through Arnold’s American' Plantation

(European)

friend.

The 11s

as if

it

known

oboe,

to the

onto the dance

On

floor.

far

more

for

its

or-

were an old

only challenge was getting two cakewalk tunes to

Arnold assigned them both than for beckoning

The

24, 1998.

lyric

fly.

singing

the other hand, the tunes in

Cook’s overture from In Dahomey, which require the underlying, steadily

prodding pulse of ragtime, took some time

to settle in.

For the grand finale of the Free Clothing Fund concert, Dvorak made his

own

setting of

Stephen

as “a very beautiful

“Old Folks

Foster’s

American

folk

song

.

.

.

at

that

Home,” which he described

he Foster] happened

to write

|

down

[author’s italics].

American music

is

music

that lives in the hearts of the

people, and therefore this air has every right to be regarded as purely national.” 32

These days Dvorak would be

work under copyright. In majority' of African

Old Folks

at

was

such a statement about

a

he was simply echoing the sentiments of a great

fact

Americans.

Home”

liable for

W.

E. B.

Du

Bois himself thought that

“The

justifiably part of black heritage. 33

The Dvorak archive in Prague holds the sheet music from which Dvorak made his soli, chorus, and orchestra version of “The Old Folks at Home,” five pages sliced out of a collection of minstrel songs “old and new” published

by the Oliver Ditson Company; with an arranger’s

credit, “As

Sung by

E. P.

who

paid

Christy” (Christy being the very successful minstrel troupe leader

Foster for the right to claim the song as his own). 34 Dvorak’s orchestration

music

follows the printed

Burleigh and

Madame

in almost every detail.

assigns the verses to

Jones and adds a few touches: a rising arpeggiated

figure that leads into the choir’s entrance

harmonization of the

He

refrain, “All the

and

world

is

his

own

dark and dreary.” Only as an

afterthought does Dvorak affix his name, squeezing

Stephen Foster’s name: “Arranged

for Soli,

fine four-part choral

it

between the

title

and

Chorus, and Orchestra by An-

tonin Dvorak.” 35

The Herald s ’

reviewer reported that just before Dvorak began the finale,

Mr. Friedlander, a

violinist,

stepped out of the ranks and presented Dvorak

with a gold-fitted baton of ebony as a

token of loving esteem

was too

much overcome

to their distinguished director.

by his feelings

chestra by gestures that were their kindness than

Dvorak 5

°

to

Duke

commenced is

to

conduct. Appropriately

the apostle of national music, the

directed with his baton was his

Ellington

the or-

more eloquent of his appreciation of

enough, seeing that Dr. Dvorak

number he

He thanked

any words could have been, and then taking up

the beautiful present he

first

to reply.

Dr. Dvorak

own arrangement

of

America’s most popular folksong, “The Old Folks

at

Home,” which he

scored specially for this concert. 36

At the end of the concert, Dvorak,

who

and saved every

fastidiously dated

scrap of paper carrying his sketches as well as his finished scores, gave the

“Old Folks

work

at

Home”

manuscript

to

Burleigh as a

that “lives in the hearts of the people” to the

music

him. 3

for

Goldman

recalled the concert

‘Swanee

rus participated in

River,’

ous event, one of those rare concerts

nurturing

human

Above

being.

all,

thereby returning the

man who embodied Negro years later: “a

fifty

and Dvorak beamed with

The Free Clothing Fund concert reads

are magically joined.

gift,

when

as

It is

joy.” 38

an intensely poignant yet

off as

no wonder

an unusually

warm and

that after the composer’s

death in 1904, Sylvester Russell, a leading black journalist with a national lowing, was

moved

to close his obituary: “If it

musicians alone could flood his grave with Yet,

many

in the

audience

at the

joy-

the performers and the audience

Dvorak comes

A mensch.

Negro cho-

fol-

were possible the Afro-American

tears.” 39

Madison Square Garden Music Hall

were aware that Jeanette Thurber’s unique conservatory,

as

dramatized by the

concert before them, was but a tiny oasis in a vast desert of bigotry.

The prom-

The incidence of lynchings — practically the only mentions of African Americans came across as I thumbed through hundreds of pages of the Daily Columbian — was at its height. And ise

of Reconstruction was long broken.

1

coursing

its

way between the lynchings and the

love-ins

was a small but stub-

born third stream of thought: a rejection by members of the black tual elite, the “talented tenth,” led

zation, the whitening, of

Negro

by

W.

intellec-

E. B. D11 Bois, of the Europeani-

art.

The Conservatory

of

Music of America 5

1

6

Paul Laurence Dunbar, Clorindy

,

and “The Talented Tenth”

Some prominent opment

of

own

black intellectuals with ideas of their

Negro genius” were 1

at

odds with the

conservatory, and their supporters in the press,

Washington, D.C., on December

8,

efforts

“for the devel-

of Dvorak and the

on behalf of Negro music. In

1896, John

Wesley Crummell,

a distin-

guished African American minister, brought together a high school Latin

and

teacher, two fellow clergymen,

a

young poet

to explore the idea of form-

ing a black learned society, an African Institute.

The

poet, Paul

Dunbar, had already distinguished himself by introducing Negro his poetry, consecrating as authentic folk art that

The

in minstrelsy.

five

men

dialect into

which had been parodied

agreed on a statement of purpose:

To promote

the historical and literary works of

gather in

archive valuable data, historical or literary works of Negro

authors.

its

To

aid,

cious assaults, in

endeavor

all

the lines of learning and truth.

was

left

articles.

among American

They considered

Negro

authors.

To

by publications, the vindication of the race from

nual collection of original

tion

Laurence

To

Negros. 2

women

unresolved. For their second meeting 5,

that Crispus Attucks, the

Edward Burghardt Du

publish an an-

raise the standard of intellectual

inviting distinguished black

symbolic day of March

To

vi-

to join,

but the ques-

Crummell chose

the

the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, the day first

African American hero, was killed. William

Bois, a twenty-eight-year-old classics teacher

from

53

Wilberforce University with a doctorate in anthropology, joined the group,

now expanded to nineteen. At the suggestion of Dunbar, described by Crummell as “the shining star ... a model of the younger men of genius on whom the future of their people depended,” it was agreed their name be changed from the African Institute to the American Negro Academy. They were no longer outsiders looking back; they were now full and equal citizens looking ahead."

Crummelks

At

invitation,

Du

Bois submitted a paper that he read to the

assembly, “The Conservation of the Races.”

For the development of Negro genius, of Negro

Negro

spirit,

by one vast

have

for

only Negros

ideal,

bound and welded

can work out

humanity

...

if

the

in

its

Negro

is

literature

and

of

art,

together, Negros inspired

fullness the great

message we

ever to be a factor in the world’s

history— if among the gaily-colored banners that deck the broad ramparts of civilization

is

hang one uncompromisingly black, then

to

it

must he placed there by black hands, fashioned by black heads and hallowed by the

travail

of two hundred million black hearts beating in

one glad song of jubilee. 4 Further into the paper,

Du

Bois narrows his sights and offers a musical

ref-

erence:

We are the people whose subtle sense of song has given America only American music, pathos and

only American

its

humor amid

its

mad

it

was

educated blacks

for

to discern the truth within,”

as “a

to turn to their

and

Du

its

only touch of

money-getting plutocracy.

Dunbar’s poetry had been discussed sary

fairytales,

its

demonstration of how neces-

own

Bois’s paper

race

and

seemed

history in order

to

be urging

just

such an approach. 5 Nevertheless, once the enthusiastic applause subsided, several

members

rose to question

Du

Bois’s views,

and an

all-too-familiar

mem-

separatist-versus-assimilationist debate ensued. 6 Before adjourning, the

bers

drew up

a wish

list

of forty-nine leading black intellectuals they

would

invite (all males).

Despite the academy’s professed interest in “Negro literature and it

arts,”

wasn’t until 1903 that a musician was invited to join, and then only as a

“corresponding member.” 7 This honor was bestowed upon Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, an African English

composer who called ragtime “the worst

The academicians apparently liked their music bland, at least on the record. Cook wrote about such high-minded blacks — among them his own mother, an Oberlin graduate in the class of 1865 — who “loved the Dunsort of rot.”

bar lyrics but weren’t ready for Negro songs.”

Dvorak 54

to

Duke

Ellington

Only

a

few months before the academy meetings began, Dunbar met

Cook in New York City. Cook had been on a “long siege of persuasion” get Dunbar reinterested in Clorindy 8 One such skirmish must have taken

with to

.

when

place in September 1896,

brought Cook, Dunbar, Williams and

fate

Walker, Victor Herbert, and the Casino Theater eventually

Clorindy would

make history— together.

According recitation

— where

Dunbar’s journal,

to

was the same month he gave

this

under Edison’s new “focusable

lamps”

[electric

at the

a

Lyceum

|

Theater on Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue. 9 Dunbar also traveled out to Far Rockaway to letters (a

visit

meeting that led

hung out with Cook,

William Dean Howells, the dean of American

to a

glowing review

in

Harper s Weekly ). 10 And he

Weldon Johnson, his friends from who introduced him around New York’s

Burleigh, and James

the Chicago World’s Fair days,

show business crowd. Among those he met were Johnson’s poser

J.

Rosamond Johnson. 11 Wouldn’t these young African American

be curious about the appearance, tertainers,

in a

white show with music written by

The Gold Bug was opening on

Burleigh’s friend Victor Herbert? Herbert’s

September

minute the producers turned color line, but to no avail.

saw

it.

to the

“a

most dismal

dovetails neatly with Cook’s

Washington, D.C., ideas for Clorindy

Whether

for

lasted three days.

Locke written

flop

.

.

in 1936,

But Cook evidently

Cook

recalls that

memoir about going up

to

riot.”

New

12

The

This

York from

meetings with Williams and Walker about his newest

12 .

or not Burleigh,

and vaudeville

sicals that

so at the last

lift,

W and W an overnight

.

Dunbar, and the Johnson brothers caught The

Gold Bug with Cook, they constituted cians,

a

popular vaudeville team, breaking the

The show

In a letter to author Alain

Gold Bug was

The show needed

the Casino Theater.

21 at

artists

time on Broadway, of black en-

for the first

Williams and Walker,

com-

brother, the

who

stars

a core

group of black

together would create the

new

Americanized Broadway, moving the Great White

waltz to ragtime. Clorindy

:

The Origin

of the

musi-

writers,

all-black

Way

Cakewalk was the

mu-

from the

first to

break

through.

Dunbar and Cook ington, D.C.,

finally

sometime

came

together to work on Clorindy in

in the winter of 1897-98.

since the Chicago World’s Fair, a time less

men

in their twenties,

erick Douglass.

wrote:

When

“He was no

proper hue

/

And

soft

in

more mature and focused

evil

influence of a living legend, Fred-

1895 a ^ a § e seventy-seven,

To

Dunbar their

They were now

a far

Each had since encountered — and

sur-

.

what was

pair.

father-

and crime he gave

tongued apologist

hurled at

Four years had passed

when Dunbar and Cook, two

came under the

Douglass died

14

Wash-

.

.

/

evil’s

sin

due.”

vived— new, enormously powerful mentors. Cook’s disillusionment with the

Paul Laurence

Dunbar and Clorindy 55

well-meaning Dvorak did not seem helped

eronian notions of Crummell and

from the

crush his

Dunbar was probably

clarify his goals.

We

to

spirit. It

might even have

relieved to set aside the Cic-

Negro Academy.

the’ American

have both men’s versions of their Clorindy collaboration. Working

letters

Dunbar

and personal interviews, Paul Dunbar’s biographer assembled version in 1907:

Cook and his [to see Dunbar

Will Marion

came

over

brother John were in Washington and asking,

“How about

finishing Clorindy ?”

|

Paul agreed.

It

was

just

what he needed — comic

England and the seriousness of his

ships in

The

first

relief after his hard-

novel [The Uncalled

three gathered at John’s house, around the big piano. John

future Clef

|.

[a

Clubber thumped out the rhythm with musician’s magic |

Will

as

Sometimes

loud. fit

hummed

the tune. Paul walked back and forth, a

rhyme wouldn’t come,

composing out

or a balky phrase refused to

the meter.

“Here,” Will said. “Have another beer.” Refreshed, Paul began dictating again. Will scribbled

jumped up

to

cally

One

.

.

.

of the

“We’ve got

A cakewalk.

Clorindy

s

subtitle

Cakewalk. Will read off the names of their

[six]

a hit show,” Will said, slapping Paul enthusiasti-

on the back. “Wait

of the songs,

the words beneath the notes and

do an impromptu dance.

was The Origin songs.

down

till it

gets to

“Who Dat Say Chicken

New York. in Dis

You’ll see.”

Crowd?,” became the

hit of

the show:

Who dat say chicken

in dis

crowd?

Speak de word agin’ and speak

Blame de

lan’ let

white folk rule

Who dat say chicken set the

— the

Chicken ater.

it,

in dis

crowd?

word “chicken” with an upward leap of

short-long, ragtime

snap

loud

lookin’ fuh a pullet

I’se

Cook

it

rhythm — also known

as the

doo-dah

“hook,” in current songwriter jargon, that

in Dis

Crowd?”

on every one’s

first

a third lick

power— “de

a catchy,

and the Scotch

made “Who Dat Say

humming list as they left the

But underneath the clever dialect and spanky rhythms

mentary. Dunbar juxtaposes

on

lan’ let

lies social

white folk rule

it”

the-

com-

— with a

simple search for sustenance.

Cook’s version of their collaboration dates from 1944, the last year of his his idea for a

life. 16

show about the

Cook

5

6

to

Duke

Ellington

memoir

written in

how Williams and Walker

origin of the cakewalk

same time he was “barred from

Dvorak

recalls

a

and

that

it

liked

was around the

classes at the National Conservatory.”

Cook

The Big Feature of

'Summer

E.E.Rice's

nights'.'

Dat Say Chicken Did Crowd.

IN

Words by

l

Music by

Will. Marion

Laurence Dunbar. BUSHED BV

Cn«a Amcaro

^o**"

Figure

e.

Co Lonoon Ena.

—

WnAutv Rovce

moved back

to

“Who Dat

Co ToPonTo. Cam

Say Chicken

Washington but he

't

^o**"

°eCl

I

libretto

(which was never used)

finally got

one hand, Cook’s

Dunbar

[sic]

and

fifty-year-old

from the signing of the contract

the winter of 1897-98; but there assigns to

Dunbar. According

to-be, “auditioned for Paul

role in Clorindy

.

must have stayed

.

.

in

to

is

Dis Crowd,” 1898

in

didn’t give up: “After a long siege of per-

Paul Laurence

suasion

lasted

t

6.1

Sheet music cover,

On

w,

&

i§S

a

to

consent

few of the

to write the

Clorindy

lyrics.”

memory was

accurate, the “siege”

in 1895 to their actual collaboration in

reason to question the minimal role

Mercer Cook, Abbie Mitchell,

his

mother-

Laurence Dunbar and Harry T. Burleigh

before she ever

met my

father.” If this

is

true,

Cook for a

Dunbar

touch with Clorindy well beyond the all-night session

they both describe. 17 Will Marion

Cook

continues:

Paul Laurence

Dunbar and Clorindy 57

[We

were] fortified by two dozen bottles of beer, a quart of whiskey

a porterhouse steak cut

ate raw.

Without

finished

all

up

.

.

with onions and red peppers, which

.

.

.

.

we

piano or anything but the kitchen table, we

a

the songs,

all

the libretto and

but a few bars of the en-

all

sembles by four o’clock the next morning.

According

to

Cook and Dunbar wrote

both narratives,

the book and

songs for Clorindy in one inspired and beery night. As for the conflicting

Rashomons — a paradigm

collaboration story

of every theatrical “if it weren’t for

have ever known

I

truth. Nevertheless, the

rest of their

me”

— somewhere between them lies the

product of their

efforts,

reworked and cakewalked-up

by the theater-smart Ernest Hogan, would produce a triumph. Cook’s de-

opening night, July

scription of the

My chorus sang like

1898,

5,

is

exultant:

meanwhile

Russians, dancing

like

Negroes,

black angels!

When

the

sounded, the audience stood and cheered

for ten

minutes.

and cakewalking

were

at last

on Broadway, and there

the minstrel!

were going

like angels,

Gone

Linkum

the Massa

a long, long way.

now

it is

Cook

learned that

Casino Roof Garden, ditions for

new

chorus and his fessionalism

.

Negroes

.Gone was the uff-dah of

We were artists and we memoir and

Cook danced

felt entitled.

forgotten

to his

Ultimately,

it

mind

own drumwas Cook’s

for Clorindy.

Rice, producer of Rice’s

Summer

Nights for the

Thirty-ninth and Broadway, was holding weekly au-

Cook showed up

acts.

own

at

Ed

.

but incidents that stuck in his

clear that

mer. Proud, defiant, and worldly, he

chutzpah that turned the corner

stuff!

.

in his Clorindy

his brother John’s role at the piano,

have the ring of truth. By

.

.

18

Cook may have compressed time about

to stay.

note was

last

uninvited with his already-rehearsed

orchestrations to offer excerpts from Clorindy. His pro-

must have impressed John Braham, the English conductor of

— he had conducted the American premiere of Gilbert H.M.S. Pinafore — since Braham turned the baton over to

the Casino orchestra

and Sullivan’s

Cook

for tbe audition.

up

an

to

shouting,

irate

“No

19

In his

memoir, Cook remembers

Ed Rice when he walked nigger can conduct

my

that

Braham

in late to the auditions

stood

and began

orchestra on Broadway!” 20 Nonethe-

Cook and Dunbar’s show crossed the color line on merit, and the Clorindy company, with Cook at the helm, was officially invited to appear.

less,

Clorindy was scheduled to in the

start late, after

hope of attracting regular theatergoers up

“where the patrons could dine and watch

show downstairs

Dvorak 58

eleven o’clock in the evening,

to

Duke

let out.

Ellington

Cook

to the

Casino Roof Garden,

lighter entertainments” after their

reports that the plan worked:

“When we

finished the opening chorus, the house was packed to suffocation.

audience heard those heavenly Negro voices and took Clorindy The Origin of the Cakewalk despite :

,

hour

in length

and

its

comedy piece with an

nnder-the-stars venue, was the original

The

big

to the elevators.”

its

being only about an

first

score— written, composed,

all-Negro musical-

directed, conducted,

choreographed, and orchestrated — by African Americans on Broadway.

James Weldon Johnson, the 1890s through

a firsthand chronicler of black art

World War

poser to take what was then

II,

describes

known

Cook as

as rag-time

“the

and work

first it

and

artists

from

competent com-

out in a musicianly

way. His choruses and finales in Clorindy, complete novelties as they were,

sung by

a lusty chorus,

were simply breath-taking. Broadway had something

entirely new.” 21

Neither the stuffed lievers in

shirts at the

American Negro Academy nor the be-

Dvorak’s prophecy at the National Conservatory could have envi-

sioned the direction that African American music was taking.

Dunbar and

Cook would soon be joined by other gifted Negro musicians and playwrights. Among the more prominent were Bob Cole; the Johnson brothers, James Rosamund and James Weldon; and James Reese Europe. “Nothing would stop us,” said

Cook, “and nothing did

for a

decade.”

Paul Laurence

Dunbar and Clorindy 59

7

James Reese Europe

In 1912

David Mannes established

his reputation as a

music educator by

or-

ganizing the Music Settlement School] for Colored People. Mannes’s path |

crossed with that of James Reese Europe and his Clef history

was made when Mannes invited them

to

Club Orchestra, and

appear

at

Carnegie Hall

in

a benefit concert for the school.

My own in the first

Mannes

path crossed with that of David

trumpet chair

of our regular Saturday

in the

Mannes School

morning

of

in 1949.

I

was

Music Orchestra

rehearsals, held in the

charming

sitting at

if

one

small

concert hall built behind the adjoining pair of elegant East Side town

houses that

made up

the school. Maestro Carl

Bamberger stopped the

hearsal

and introduced the founder of our school

elderly

man

in his nineties, at least six feet tall,

looking, with a good head of pure white hair. a

wonderful smile.

He

talked to

11s

He

left 11s to

re-

Mannes was then an

11s.

thin,

and distinguished

stood very straight and had

what

I

cannot remember),

our work.

It

was unimagin-

Mannes School that knew then — most of the facwere Viennese transplants who communicated in German with one

able that anvone at the J ulty

to

bone

briefly (about

stroked something out on a fiddle, and

1

another

— had

I

any connection with African American music, no

namesake. Nowhere School of Music

in today’s

is its

less

its

chronology of the Mannes College [nee

predecessor, the

Music Settlement School

for

Col-

]

ored People, acknowledged.

61

Music

In his autobiography,

he met

his teacher,

Is

My Faith Mannes tells the

story of

,

man who

John Thomas Douglas, “the

how

my

helped shape

life”: *

One morning when West Twenty-fifth St. Philip's

was practicing

I

Street, in the

and

Tenderloin

district,

A.M.E. Church], the doorbell jangled

Mother opened the door short

basement of our house

in the

stout,

to a rather fine-looking

[215

up the block from

in our areaway.

Negro, well-dressed,

wearing a moustache and a goatee a

la

Napoleon

III. 2

In response to his mother’s broken (Yiddish-inflected?) English, Douglas

“proceeded

German” and introduced himself as

speak in good and fluent

to

a violin teacher, saying that

it

was apparent that her son,

little

David, badly

needed one. As a young

John Douglas played

violinist,

musical entertainment companies: the Elyer eratic

and dramatic plays on black

Minstrels, stars as

two upscale black-owned

who

Sisters,

history,” 2

toured “refined op-

and the “All-Negro” Georgia

one of the most famous companies of its kind, which featured such

Sam Lucas and James

Slippers.”

for

During

this

Bland, the composer of “Oh,

period Douglas copyrighted his

Ball (1868), possibly the

first

own

Dem

Golden

opera, Virginia’s

opera written in the United States by an African

American. Around 1877 Douglas was apparently sponsored by wealthy Philadelphians — Mannes believed they were employers of Douglas's mother

— to study in

Dresden and

Paris. It

was shortly

United States that David Mannes, then

a

Mannes’s memory of Douglas remained

He composed much

after

Douglas’s return to the

boy of thirteen, became

vivid

even

his pupil.

sixty years later:

were ample evidence.

He

occasionally played at entertainments given

by people of his race, but outside of his friends few knew of his tence.

He

home

music, of which piles of manuscript in his

tried to enter a

symphony

exis-

orchestra in this country, but

those doors were closed to a colored man. Being of a modest and

retir-

ing nature he was not able to insist on being heard. Douglas was like a fish

out of water, ahead of his time by thirty or forty years. 4

despondent and

later

on began

to drink. ...

I

He grew

recall so vividly

my play-

ing Mazas, Pleyel and Viotti duets with him, for two violins, violin and viola,

and

cello

and

way

violin. In this

play with better rhythmic values.

I

I

learnt to read at sight

believe

I

was

his only pupil,

there never was a question of payment. ... In order to

meager income he

remember

his

62

to

Duke

and played

but

augment it

to

his

remarkably.

performance of his own arrangement of the “Tann-

hauser March.” ...

Dvorak

learnt to play the guitar

and

Ellington

I

was always aware of his

artistic

and

intellectual

I

and envied him

superiority,

awakened the

me

desire in

musical erudition; an envy which

his

how much John Douglas meant

Now do you

knowledge.

for further

realize

me?

to

So began David Mannes’s “cherished plan of founding the Music Settlement [School] for Colored People in

The Third

memory

of

my old

Street Settlement School, the

music school settlements “planted

first

friend

and teacher.”

of several

New York

in poorer neighborhoods, especially

City

7

among

the foreign population,” opened in 1894." In 1910

Mannes, by then the dash-

ing concertmaster and assistant conductor of the

New York Symphony,

came

be-

the Third Street Settlement’s director and immediately set out to

establish a

new Settlement School

Mannes was

its

in

Harlem, which he opened

in 1912.

driving force, and he put himself in charge of engaging

African Americans to the faculty. 6 This led to his friendship with James Reese

Europe.

It

was Europe

who

suggested that the Clef Club orchestra play

new Music Settlement School

benefit for the

for

Colored People

in

at a

its first

year of operation.

Through

Walter Damrosch, musical director of the

his brother-in-law,

New York Symphony and a darling of New York society, Mannes to patrons, the press,

and Carnegie Hall, where he often conducted the

York Symphony’s concerts

cert artists,

ployment

and for

connections

and all

Du

to

.

Bois:

.

.

new

school,

of his musicians.

“New York’s

first

this as

New

an opportu-

depth and range, in the mecca of con-

its

to publicize the concert,

the races the

music

in all

support the

some

Jim Europe saw

for children.

Negro music,

nity to present

had access

which was already providing em-

Mannes and

embracing

a

board used their

his

few concepts from Dvorak

formal concert exclusively of Negro music.

Of

Negro alone has developed an actual school of American and

national, original,

real.

.

.

.

And

this

concert will be from be-

ginning to end a concert of Negro music by Negro musicians.”

The

first

Clef Club concert was

a great success. 8

It

led to

more Carnegie

Hall concerts on behalf of the school by Europe and his “Negro

Orchestra.” 9 Their third and

last

Times: “an interesting concert.

an

art

of their own.” 10 But a

or two of a

sip

its

New

York

are beginning to

form

appearance was praised by the .

These composers

or so later,

Musical America began urging

attention during the

Haydn Symphony.”

Critics writing for ica get to read a

.

week

that Europe’s orchestra “give

ment

.

Symphony

coming year

to a

move-

1

monthly or weekly magazines such

as

Musical Amer-

handful of instant newspaper reviews and have time

to gos-

with other reviewers before writing their own. Musical America was

offering not just another review, but a consensus. Perhaps Jim

forewarned about

this slight.

Something ticked him

off.

Europe was

Three days

after the

James Reese Europe 63

Carnegie Hall concert there appeared a bold and painfully frank interview

New York Post titled “The Negro’s Place in Music.” me as a tongue-in-cheek send-up, reeking with sarcasm.

with Europe in the

Much

of

reads to

it

Europe called upon

“Our people

horns.

would have

to

racial stereotypes to explain his lack of

are not naturally painstaking” was his reason for

Ie also

1

why he

import a black oboist from Africa, where “Sudanese boys be-

Bands

gin receiving rigorous training in the British Regimental twelve.”

ohoes and

noted that the month of the Negro

ceedingly difficnlt to

make him more than

is

so

at the

shaped that

a passable player of the

age of “ex-

it is

French

horn.” Only in South Africa, where “prolonged training has corrected this

handicap,” would he be able to find black French hornists fact that

movement

without oboes and horns “a

phony” was out of the question. Later

— unsaid was the Haydn Sym-

or two of a

in the article

Europe

offers his

own

manifesto:

We have developed a kind else

you think,

is

different

of symphony music that, no matter what

and

distinctive,

and that lends

playing of the peculiar compositions of our race.

come

.

of my

.

.

from

own

.

.

.

itself to

the

My success

had

a realization of the advantages of sticking to the

music

people.

Europe’s strongest opinions were saved for the African English composer

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who could be back

that traces

to

said to follow a

European

tradition

Haydn:

much among white men: he absorbed the and technique of white men to such an extent that

Coleridge-Taylor lived too spirit

and feeling

his race

sympathy was

work.

partakes of the finish

It

real

Negro music,

and

feel as they do.

a

partially destroyed.

His work

is

not real Negro

and feeling of the white man. To write

Negro must

live

with the Negros.

He must think

12

By the time of the fourth annual Carnegie Hall concert on April 1915— which Europe and

his

renamed Tempo Club begged out of at the

12,

last

minute — the dichotomy between the white-controlled board of the school

and

its

director,

J.

Rosamond Johnson, was growing. Ignoring

Haydn, Johnson presented mostly African American music,

bit of

strictly in classical

Negro forms, such

as spirituals.

the tenor Roland Hayes in one of his earliest

white

the call for a

members

a financial

The

concert also included

New York

appearances.

crunch, closed

twenty years too soon.”

64

to

Duke

The

of the board were soon gone, and the school, suffering from six

months

later.

Mannes’s only public response was, “Our school came into

Dvorak

albeit

Ell ington

He

did not give

life at least

up supporting African American mu-

sic

and musicians. In the

final

chapter of his book,

Mannes

“Credo,”

titled

declares his sympathetic “devotion to the college for colored people, Fisk University of Nashville, of which

the debt David

have been elected a trustee.”

I

And

so

ended

Mannes owed John Thomas Douglas.

Savants at the Music Settlement School, the National Conservatory, the

American Negro Academy, and Musical America squeeze the Negro music genie into a schnapps

music had I

a destiny of

its

own.

tried, in different

ways, to

But African American

bottle.

Just before his death in 1919,

Europe wrote:

have come back from France more firmly convinced than ever that

We have our own racial feeling and make bad copies. We won France

Negros should write Negro music. if

we

try to

copy whites we

will

.

by playing music which was ours

[i.e.,

not a pale imitation of others, and

must develop along our own Europe was touching on an ing along “our

own

lines”

if

the

we

new

are to develop in

— using European models or develop-

that, rather

Negro composers.

as

and growing up with and intrigued by Ne-

many

gro music for the better part of two centuries, and

posing music

America we

lines. 13

issue

living

.

rage called jazz] and

— that affected white as well

American whites had been

.

of them were

com-

than being a “pale imitation,” was indistinguishable

from that of African American composers. What Jim Europe was courageously and insightfully arguing

the preservation of “racial feeling,”

for,

less in

the printed notes, as almost

strates,

than in the way the music

all is

of the Clef

repertoire

performed — incisive rhythm,

tonal palette, nonpitch sounds, African

language and dialect, priority given

Club

and

to the

in turn

Caribbean

lies

demona

wider

survivals in

dance, blurring of the lines be-

tween audience and performer, and between performer and composer — holistic

“performance practice” aesthetic, inseparable from the mere nota-

tion of the music, that has eluded scholars of African

American music

throughout the twentieth century. I

been

wonder how if

different the direction of

Europe hadn't died

so young.

He had

American music would have

the ear of the public and the re-

spect of his fellow musicians, and his mission was clearly defined. His sud-

den

loss,

which made the

front page of

most major newspapers, was no

traumatic to his time than Martin Luther King until Ellington to the

Jr.’s

emerged from the Cotton Club

was

to

less

my generation. Not

in the early 1930s

and “took

road” 14 both here and abroad would there be an African American

mu-

sical leader to take his place.

The double

helix of African

American music was drawing

tight, pro-

ducing the generation of Gershwin, Ellington, and Copland, the American school that Dvorak anticipated. Born within a year of one another, these com-

James Reese Europe 65

were marked by

posers' formative years

were

brilliant ragtime pianists

ment of equilibrium

a proliferation of

seem

The

in the history of Ailierican

three

when onr musical

music, alike,

when

jazz

and

lan-

classical

so far apart.

Gilbert Seldes was struck by this in 1924

critic

Seven Lively Arts, which equated vernacular American masters:

— all

— and early jazz bands. Theirs was also a mo-

guage was commonly held by white and black didn’t

ragtime

George Herriman’s Krazy Kat with Picasso

that the satirical cartoonist

was

a

when he wrote

artists

(it is

his

with European

a little-known fact

New Orleans), White-

mulatto Creole from

man’s jazz with the music of Stravinsky, and Jim Europe’s conducting with

Muck, former music

that of Karl

“Jazz burst

upon

chestra leaders in

composed his

hand

his

at

a startled

1915,’’

first

director of the Boston

world

said Paul

at

the touch of a

Whiteman. 16 By

piece, “Soda Fountain Rag.”

composing, a song, “Lola,” and

a

1915,

to “the daring decision to

George Gershwin had composed

prophesied in

its title

him throughout

Dvorak 66

spend

to

Duke

his

his

hundred or more

1915 Ellington

By

1915,

or-

had already

Copland had

tried

“Waltz which makes sense,” |

and came

Symphony. 15

my life

as a

|

musician”; 17 and by

“Ragging the Traumerai.” Already

was the highbrow-lowbrow duality that would haunt

life.

Ellington

8

George Gershwin and African American Music

Gershwin’s supreme Folk Opera,’’

is

achievement, Porgy and Bess, “an American

perhaps the best-known American music-theater piece of the

twentieth century.

where

artistic

It is

in the world,

truck affair in the

a rare night that Porgy

be

it

a full-blown

Czech Republic.

ing hundreds of arrangements. gloss

on Porgy and

Its

and Bess

production

not onstage some-

La Scala or

at

songs enjoy a

is

life

a

bus-and-

of their own, inspir-

The metamorphic Miles Davis-Gil Evans

Bess, recorded in 1958,

is

regularly performed live at con-

certs of jazz classics.

Speaking of jazz

Gershwin’s

classics,

“I

the twelve-bar blues as the jazz musician’s

monic scheme of choice. Charlie

Got Rhythm”

is

second only

jamming and composing

Parker’s “Anthropology,”

Sonny

to

har-

Rollins’s

“Oleo,” and Ellington’s “Cottontail” are arguably the most familiar of well over 150 jazz compositions built

As

I

see

it,

and hear

it,

Gershwin’s symbiotic connection with African

American music goes beyond the turn of the century. out,

I

have a grain of truth:

upon “Rhythm” changes.

that of most white

American musicians horn

have imagined Hollywood scenarios little

George, the

sprawled outside the Manhattan Casino

street

at 155th

that,

it

at

turns

ragamuffin on roller skates,

and

8th, listening to

one of

Jim Europe’s bands; Gershwin, the Tin Pan Alley dandy spending endless hours

at

black and tan clubs, that “ear” of his sopping

it

up.

We must assume, if only from his legendary “party piano” prowess, that Gershwin was blessed with

total

musical recall and the ability to play

at

once

67

what he imagined or retained with these art.

gifts,

in his inner ear.

know dozens

I

who possess the genius to create original when his parents bought an upright piano

but only a handful

Gershwin was already twelve

for his brother, Ira.

But he had been doodling around on a

ment, feeling his way through a slowly pedaled piano family's surprise, size

.

.

Two

when

and began

.

years later

of musicians

roll

friend's instru-

or two,

and

the piano arrived, “George twirled the stool

to play

to the

down

to

an accomplished version of a then popular song.”

Gershwin dropped out of high school

to

become

1

Tin Pan

a

Alley pianist and song plugger at Remick’s, a music publisher that “issued

more ragtime compositions than

its

next ten competitors combined.” 2

Gershwin had more-than-casual encounters with black music and musicians.

anist

He

did study, for a typically short time, with the master ragtime pi-

Luckey (Charles Luckeyeth) Roberts (1887-1968).

In a 1962 interview

with jazz historian Terkild Vinding, Roberts recalled: Bert Williams and Will Vodery [an African American musician

who

me to He was sell-

was Ziegfeld’s principal orehestrator| were the ones that got teach Gershwin.

.

.

.

He

didn’t have a tune in his

head

[!].

ing orchestrations at Remick's and stood behind the counter. Will

Vodery

said:

him

“Son, help

along. He’s very ambitious.”

play jazz, but he had two good hands for the classics.

everything

I

played, cause

.

.

.

He

couldn’t

George knew

was teaching him. 3

I

Eubie Blake spoke of Gershwin’s ragtime piano

skills:

“James

me of this ofay piano player at Remick’s

son and Luckey Roberts told

John-

P. .

good

.

.

enough

to learn

some of those

terribly difficult tricks that only a

could master.” 4 Gershwin also picked up ideas from listening ragtime virtuosos Les Copeland and

Mike Bernard, and gave

few of us

to the

white

credit to their

influence while describing their techniques in the introduction to George

Gershwin

s

Song Book

a limited edition of “party piano” arrangements of his

,

hit tunes. 5

By the time Gershwin

left

Remick’s in

1917,

he was moving away from

ragtime piano and becoming enamored of the Broadway songs of Jerome

Kern and

Irving Berlin.

companying pop

He was studying classical

composition and piano, ac-

singers, recording player-piano rolls,

His musical education would never stop.

and going

to concerts.

Nor would ragtime and

the blues

ever leave his side.

Soon

after his

Remick period Gershwin

string quartet, a bluesy affair

ure, Blue

Monday

Blues

he

tried his

later recycled as

an

hand

aria in

at a

piece for

an ambitious

fail-

— an operatic episode “ala Afro-American [sic]" that

played for one night as part of the George White Scandals of ig22. 6

Buddy DeSyRa’s

Dvorak 68

to

Duke

“letter

Ell ington

opera” libretto for Blue

Monday

Blues weaves

a tragic tale of a lovers’ quarrel set in a

seem

be trying

to

to portray

Harlem

Negro pathos and

sexuality— fantasized and whispered about, characters and low-life dialogue prevail. later versions,

is

casually tossed about in

if

Gershwin and DeSylva

bar.

and especially Negro

passion,

rarely seen onstage

The word

“nigger,”

some misguided

— but stock

expunged

effort to

in

add au-

thenticity.

The

story: Joe

game. He

in a craps

whom

South,"

and Violet

he hasn’t seen

She

is

from Vi, who

response

amazing resemblance

instantaneous:

is

The telegram

like you.”

“My

“down

Joe gave

arrives. Little

me

visit

He

very possessive and jealous.

is

mine,” and goes offstage before

immediately “hit upon” by

bustler (he bears an

a big score

long while, telling him that he can

for a

my Mother, Mother

“I’m going to see

Vi’ enters.

made

awaiting a return telegram from his mother

is

her. Joe has kept his plans sings,

(Vi) are lovers. Joe has just

Little

Walker, a manipulative

to the future Sportin’ Life). Vi’s

use on guys

this revolver just to

Walker,

who knows about

Joe’s plan,

wastes no time in telling Vi that “Joe’s going South in the morning, that

telegram

is

woman down there.” “You

from another

he!” she hisses. Seething

with jealousy, Vi confronts her lover, demanding to see the telegram. Joe

warned you never

fuses. “I

music throbs

to

cheat on me!” she shouts, and shoots him.

and Vi

as Joe lies dying,

rips

open the telegram. In

a

she reads aloud: “Your mother has been dead for two years, wire

coming.” Vi “It’s all

wails,

forgive

Honey,” and with

right

ing to see

“Ob

my Mother, Mother

If this

me

Joe, forgive

re-

The

monotone if

you’ll

me,” and collapses. Joe

be

says,

dying breath he sings a reprise of “I’m go-

his

mine.”

stereotypical libretto wasn’t

enough

to sink

Monday

Blue

the sometimes charming, often crude musical score and

Blues

,

its

pit orchestra-

tion— one of the few examples of Broadway scoring from the

1920s that has

survived

— did

as worthless

a

show

little to

keep

it

Theater orchestrations were thought of

ephemera, more often than not tossed out with the scenery once

closed. Will Vodery’s original orchestration for Blue

found among ingly bland

his papers in the Library of

and

literal.

still

Monday

in the pit for the

scoring for an English music-hall orches-

from the time of Gilbert and Sullivan: woodwinds and brasses

a string

ensemble with

addition was a trap

extra violas to provide

rhythmic back

drummer. Vodery ignored the

jazz

Whiteman and

possible that

Monday

jazz color

Blues does have

and

The one

band sounds — banjo,

Ferde Grofe.

Whiteman’s musicians, among the

added some of their own Blue

his principal arranger,

in pairs

beats.

saxophones, rhythm tuba, and colorful jazz mutes for the brass ate with

Blues,

Congress, 7 turns out to be surpris-

Even with the Paul Whiteman band

Scandals of 1922, Vodery was tra

afloat.

— we associ-

Of course

it is

hottest players of the day,

and phrasing.

some good songs and

a flashy ballet built

George Gershwin and African American Music 69

on

would resurface two

a tune that

erwise

with naive opera cliches and corn; Gershwin inserts the “good

rife

it is

Rhythm.” Oth-

years later as “Fascinatin’

evening, friends”

— for my younger readers, the “how old are you” — tag on

the closing chord, ending sourly on a flatted seventh. But the major cause of the show’s failure was in

The Harlem

casting.

its

Monday

characters in Blue

Blues were played by white

singer-actors in blackface, a crucial mistake that

Gershwin would not

Broadway audiences, who only

welcomed with open arms

a season earlier

the all-black musical hit Shuffle Along,

clung

strelsy style that

Monday

to

A

Jolson

1

wonders

was

it

if

the real thing. fhe use of black-

fatally

brought down hv

into the 1930s. Blue

anomalous book and orchestra-

its

its

min-

as a vestige of the old

and Eddie Cantor well

Blues was no doubt hobbled by

but

tions,

r

knew

cannot be explained away

face, in this instance,

forget.

adherence

One

to the color line.

an African American cast was ever considered. 8 In perhaps the

only reference

he believed

I

ever heard

his 1947

him make about

race,

show Beggar's Holiday, with

a

Duke

Ellington said that

book by John Latouche,

did not succeed because people “were not ready for an integrated love affair

on Broadway.” 9

Monday Blues was an important step in Gershwin’s career even if brought him together with Whiteman, for this would lead to their

Blue only

it

landmark collaboration on the Rhapsody

Monday on.

Blue two years

in

later. 10

But Blue

Blues also indicates that Gershwin was drawn to black themes early

By the time he turned

to

Porgy and Bess a decade

a crucial aesthetic realization

later,

he had come

to

about his Negro-influenced music. Gershwin

recognized that what he heard in his inner

ear, the fulfillment of his

muse,

could only be realized through the voices of African American singers. 11 In spite of race,

we

still

all

of the obvious shortcomings attached to characterizing a

recognize that the “racial feeling” to which James Reese Europe

referred thrives

and continues

to evolve in a large part of the

African Ameri-

can community. Leontyne Price, the most distinguished Bess of all time, told a

young African American

singer in a master class that her rendition of

Man’s Gone Now” lacked the “cultural context sic.” tell

Price then asked,

from the way you answered

about.”

Then

must be

“like

dersonville,

moaning

is

big-city

Dvorak

ma’am’

that

in

based

Duke

...

I

can

you know what I’m talking

how the

song’s sighing refrains

church”

is

exactly

respectively of the

what Gershwin experienced visited with

in

Hen-

DuBose and Dorothy Hey-

book and the play Porgy on which the

— for another round of southern acculturation. Gershwin, the

man-about-town, had already spent the better part of the

to

mu-

captured in the

in church.” 12

North Carolina, when he

ward— authors opera

‘Yes,

is

my getting sisterly about it?

she described and demonstrated

“Moaning

70

“You don’t mind

that

“My

Ell ington

summer

of

1934 steeping himself in the music and

munity on the Sea Islands

off the coast of Charleston,

exact setting of the Heywards’ Porgy.

com-

of the venerable Gullah

life

South Carolina — the

Heyward described

the Hendersonville

encounter:

We were about to enter a dilapidated meeting house by

my arm

caught

one

to

which

.

cabin that had been taken

group of Negro Holy Rollers, [when] George

a

and held me. The sound

that

through long familiarity,

.

.

as a

I

had arrested him was the

attached no special impor-

tance.

But now, listening with him, and noticing the excitement,

began

to

catch

its

extraordinary quality.

voices raised in loud rhythmic prayer.

It

1

consisted of perhaps a dozen

The odd

thing about

it

was that

while each had started a different tune, upon a different theme, [the

whole] produced an effect almost terrifying in Inspired

.

.

.

George wrote

producing

Bess]

hurricane.

1

primitive intensity.

simultaneous prayers

a terrifying invocation to

God

[for

Porgy and

in the face of the

"

The “simultaneous ish prayer

six

its

prayers”

remind

me

of a davenning

minyan

,

a Jew-

group, something Gershwin was familiar with. Each davenner

(worshipper) picks up the

mode

or key center established by the cantor or

prayer leader and takes off on his own, embellishing the

important phrase or word with raised voice. the whole congregation ular passage or the

comes together

end of a

emphasizing an

On musical cues from the leader,

for special

section. This

text,

is

tunes that mark a partic-

precisely

how Gershwin

scored

the storm scene.

Gershwin was not the only Jewish composer of the period who pelled to write pieces about African Americans. Besides Porgy (1935), there

(1927),

is

The Emperor Jones

(1921),

felt

com-

and Bess

by Louis Gruenberg, and Show Boat

by Jerome Kern and Edna Ferber.

The phenomenon

transcends

simple parallels of simultaneous song prayer, or similarities between the

poignant modes of Jewish cantorial improvisations and black music, both of

which may share

a

common

North African-Middle Eastern source.

I

see

these African American-inspired pieces by Jewish composers and librettists as private

a

metaphors of their own suppressed mix of angst and cultural pride,

change of ethnicity being I

remember my own

a

way of coming out from

hiding.

1930s consciousness “not to be too Jewish.”

How of-

we were encouraged to sublimate, or even hide— yet never to give up — our Jewishness! Changing one’s name, from Beilin to Berlin, Gershovitz to Gershwin, Kaplan to Copland, was quite common. Bernstein, in a biting im-

ten

itation of his

mentor, Serge Koussevitzky, told

tioned him: “Vid da

name

me how

“Koosy” had cau-

Boynschtine, a chob you’ll neveh hev.”

The Holo-

George Gershwin and African American Music 71

caust and the establishment of Israel forever abolished such sophistry.

A

younger Jewish generation would now write about themselves.

So we find the conductors Koussevitsky and the

Fritz

Reiner programming

performances of twenty-six-year-old Leonard Bernstein’s Jeremiah

first

Symphony

in the winter of 1944;

death camps had

by

become common knowledge.

symphony, Bernstein

as

In the third

he mourns

his

of the Nazi

reality'

from Lamentations,

sets a biblical text

Hebrew, “the cry of Jeremiah

original

time the dreadful

this

movement of his to

be sung in the

beloved Jerusalem, it.” 14

ruined, pillaged and dishonored after his desperate effort to save

Kurt Weill was perhaps the

first

his Jewish origins in the gigantic

New York

in 1936.

1S

composer

to

put his

art at the service of

pageant The Eternal Road produced in ,

Arnold Schoenberg, Gershwin’s friend and erstwhile

teacher, signaled his return to the Jewish fold in 1939 most appropriately, with

declamation Kol nidre, which uses

his orchestral

as

its

text a prayer that

some

scholars believe was introduced into the liturgy as a disavowal for Jews forced to

convert during the Spanish Inquisition, thus opening the door for their

return.

Had Gershwin lived on

into the

“it’s

OK to be Jewish” generation, his orig-

— to write a work for the Metropolitan Opera based upon the Jewish mystical folk tale “The Dybbuk” — might have come to pass. Instead, his folk plan

inal

opera Porgy and Bess was performed for the In the

time

at the

Met

in 1993. 16

of 1967, while preparing for a stage production of Porgy

fall

Corpus

Bess in

first

Christi, Texas,

I

visited with

and

Alex Steinert, the assistant con-

ductor and rehearsal pianist for the original 1935 production. Steinert, a Harvard

man who had won

share his

me

a Prix

memories of Porgy

,

de

Rome

in

composition, seemed eager to

clearly the pinnacle of his career.

He showed

the score he conducted from: not a full orchestral score but a heavily

marked piano-vocal score

made

to tighten for

full

of paper clips indicating cuts, the excisions

Broadway parameters the longer, slower, operatic pace of -

Gershwin’s original scored bles’s

way with the

played for

me

ladies, his

own

infatuation with a

Bub-

young dancer. He

recordings cut on huge eighteen-inch discs, the stylus needle

moving from

inside to out; these were air checks of the original Porgy cast

singing excerpts from the

ducted.

Steinert reminisced about the cast— John

show at a Gershwin memorial concert

He showed me movies

Alvin Theater.

It

was

my

Steinert con-

of the storm scene he took from the pit of the

introduction to a rich trove of Porgy

and Bess

leg-

endry and memorabilia. In 1992,

I

spoke with other musicians

arrd Bess production, tracking

them down from

orchestral parts they used in 1935-36.

Dvofak 72

to

Duke

Ellington

who

I

played for the original Porgy the signatures they

was trying

to

put an end

left

on the

to the “or-

chestration question” that has followed

Because, in his original

accompaniment

jazz-band

Got Rhythm ”

Rhapsody

for his

in

Blue in 1924, 19 the orchestra-

— An American in Paris the Concerto in F, Variations, and Porgy and Bess — were looked upon with sus,

Gershwin saw the “orchestration question”

picion.

grave. 18

from grace, Gershwin did not orchestrate the

subsequent scores

tions of all his “I

fall

George Gershwin beyond the

challenge to his

as a

le-

gitimacy as a serious composer, and he had to defend himself from whispered

published imputations that the scoring of his music was done by

as well as

others.

Thomson, who seemed unable

Virgil

“the Gershwins”

came up

remarks whenever

to resist outre

our conversations, volunteered that Alexander

in

Smallens— who conducted the premiere of Thomson’s Four months before he did the same

Acts just six

and

reorchestration” on Porgy

rageous crack

“I

do not

like

.

Bess,

for

Porgy

— had done “wholesale

an imputation that

conflicts with his out-

gefilte fish orchestration,” 20

.

Saints in Three

made

in his review

.

of the work in 1935. Milton Rettenberg, a childhood friend of the Gershwins

and the

first

pianist to play the

than once that

man]

said that

The

at the

Rhapsody

Blue

in

after

George, told

me more

opening-night party for Porgy and Bess, “Paul [White-

George should have

original Porgy

and Bess

let

Adolf [Deutsch] do the scoring.” 21

and score

orchestral parts

bound photo

(a

reproduction of Gershwin’s manuscript) are housed with the papers of the

Theater Guild, the producers of the show,

Manuscript Library

at

Yale University.

entirely in Gershwin’s hand. tration and, to

The

my surprise, none

full

The

at the

Beinecke Rare Book and

four-hundred-plus-page score

is

score contains no changes in orches-

of the major cuts. Like Steinert, Broadway

conductors rarely bring cumbersome

full scores into

the

pit.

The

full

score at

the Beinecke was a reference copy for checking suspicious notes in the parts or, as

and

I

discovered, for penciling out

strings to

started to

reduce the

size,

all

and the

but the necessary parts in the brass

cost, of the orchestra

dwindle and the show was about

to

Sometimes reorchestrating can be done “hits”

when audiences

go on the road. 22

in the parts.

But outside of a few

penciled into the drummer’s music to underscore stage action

the cuts

—

I

ing written

found no emendations

comments

left

in the parts.

I

did find, however, fascinat-

there by the players.

In Gershwin’s time, orchestral parts were

(Nowadays computer programs produce work was established would

still

copied out by hand.

print-quality parts.)

the

was the single hand-copied

same

set that traveled

Only when

a publisher invest in the engraving

of multiple sets of scores and parts for sale and/or rental. 23 So in 1935

— and

set

of parts for Porgy

a

and printing

all

that existed

and Bess now at Yale,

with the show from Boston to

New York

and

that

George Gershwin and African American Music 73

A core group of instrumentalists— usually the first violinist, a lead trumpet, and the drummer—

was used again on the road

traveled with the show.

mark on

The

and dated

players signed

for

East and

were hired

rest

locally.

tours.

Many if not most of these

their parts as a matter of pride, like leaving one’s

mountain summit or deep

a

West Coast

Some added

in a cave.

cryptic messages

along the borders or on the occasional blank page, such as a warning to the

One

next user about a difficult passage.

ning time from night

Gershwin

With

well past eleven. Another recorded the night that

One comment

died.

in

is

Chinese characters.

the help of an old union directory,

who had

the “first-run” pit musicians

they were eager to

drummer. Denecke

and

retired

I

was able

to

contact several of

signed their names. Without exception,

about their time with Porgy.

tell stories

Henry Denecke,

for

Boston, before the cuts were implemented,

to night. In

show came down

the

player kept a record of the show’s run-

living in Wisconsin,

was the show’s original

studied with and later joined his father,

first

who

played

Joseph Rumshinsky in the Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue. Denecke

also played percussion for the

and Bela Bartok’s Music

and

for

world premiere of Edgard Varese’s Ionisation

Two Pianos and

his wife, Ditta Pasztory, at the pianos

“But Porgy and Bess," he

One

said,

Brown, the

was “the high spot

star

our

timpani.

lives .” 24

He

told

me

who

told

work

his

by tradition, the librarian

also,

that at the

came

sonal valet/driver, Paul Mueller,

no intention of allowing

tried to turn

to

me that while

to pick

up the

parts.”

in

Many celebrated composers with

in

plete

composer

and demonstrating .

26 Strictly

more than

When

to

the time

came

per-

25

meet have asked

for

help

in the

He made

a

not for others, that he was a com-

Broadway composers such

sew costumes

located

of his Broadway shows, keeping his

for himself, if

Berlin suffered no such doubts.

I

acknowledges several orchestrators

many

per-

.

printed score of Mass. But Gershwin had something to prove. habit of scoring the overtures for

Porgy

on many of Gershwin’s most

a deadline to

Be-

Gershwin had

be tossed away with the scenery.

he was

in orchestrating. Bernstein publicly

for the

end of the run, “George’s

sonal secrets, he had never heard about a ghost orchestrator

hand

away Ann

whom Denecke knew from his Juilliard days.

of the show,

pit orchestra.

Mueller,

in

Goodman on

Chicago when the clerk

drummer, Denecke was

and Bess

and Sol

composer

Porgy and Bess recollection that stayed with Denecke was being in

the check-in line at a hotel in

ing a

Percussion, with the

Kern and Irving

as

They were not expected

to orchestrate

any

27 .

for scoring his

Broadway-bound

folk opera Porgy

and Bess the whole orchestration

affair so

haunted him that he

monumental

task that

no Broadway composer since the

scoring

it

himself, a

days of Victor Herbert would have considered undertaking.

Dvorak 74

to

Duke

Ellington

insisted

Even master

on

or-

chestrators such as Bernstein,

pended upon others

Morton Gould, Kurt Weill, and Ellington

de-

Broadway shows. 28 The composer's

to orchestrate their

place was in the house, watching and listening to the total work and making

himself available

music— not

of the

eleventh-hour inspirations, and reworkings

for refinements,

buried in a smoke-filled room with a gang of copyists

scratching out parts.

more than enough evidence

find

I

On

chestrations were his own.

in

Gershwin’s scores that his

the one hand, there are

some

or-

fine touches

might not have survived the formal con-

in his earliest orchestrations that

servatory education he coveted: the solo role he assigns to a bluesy, derby-

muted

jazz

trumpet

slow

in the

movement

of the Concerto in F, and the

four taxi horns in his American in Paris their ,

and B)

brilliantly

worked

random

into the fabric of the work.

pitches (G, A-flat, A,

But there are too many

examples of naive, meaningless, and even counterproductive scoring that

journeyman

indicate an apprentice or a

help,

it

eral of his

There

is

a recording of Gershwin

Porgy and Bess orchestrations on July

began with the

the music

is

first

real

in F, his first full-fledged

Damrosch and

ing

Porgy

safe,

19, 1935,

pit orchestra. 80

Any

a tryout of sev-

months before

re-

listener familiar with

the

making sure

A decade

for a private orchestral reading of his

symphonic

New York Symphony. 81

These tryout

his orchestrations

ear-

Concerto

orchestration, before sending

with apocryphal stories about a ghost scorer. it

conducting

time he checked out his orchestrations.

Gershwin had arranged

jibe

Gershwin was getting

aware of changes that Gershwin subsequently made.

instantly

This was not the

ter

If

there were the tryout sessions, private orchestral readings of his

orchestrations.

lier

work. 29

wasn’t very special.

Then

hearsals

at

it

to

sessions

Wal-

do not

They show Gershwin

play-

“sounded" before putting them be-

fore the public.

Several of the principals from the forthcoming production sang in the

Ann Brown, a recent graduate of Juilliard, sang Bess; Todd Duncan, a member of the music faculty at Howard University, sang Porgy; and Abbie Mitchell, who starred in Clormdy and In Dahomey Porgy and Bess tryout session:

,

sang Clara. This

is

the only recording

“Summertime.” Born

in

we have

Baltimore in the early 1880s of Jewish and African

American parentage, Mitchell must have been She

is

in

of Abbie Mitchell singing

in

her early

fifties at

the time.

marvelous voice, sounds appropriately youthful, and convincingly

blends classical diction and dialect. Morton Gould was the orchestral pianist,

and we can hear him playing piano solo.”

The recorded

and

opening “Jasbo Brown honkytonk

tryout session offers a rare glimpse of Gershwin re-

hearsing from the podium. efficient,

a hit of the

He comes

off a

thorough professional, seasoned,

clear.

George Gershwin and African American Music 75

How could this take-charge guy with the

compromised three months

“original cast” recording to be

Victor

How did

company?

Gershwin

Lawrence Tibbett

orchestra in

orchestra

singers,

did a

I

Corpus

Branch, the minister of the only African

by the

rationalize the flouting of his

RCA

dictum

Helen Jepson

as Bess

and Clara, and

as Porgy? 12

In the spring of 1968

my

later

and Bess when Brown, Duncan, and Mitchell

that only black voices sing Porgy

were replaced by two white

Hell’s Kitchen accent allow the

full dress

production of Porgy and Bess with

When

Christi, Texas.

St.

asked Reverend Harold

I

John the Baptist Church

American member of the

mounting Porgy and

Bess, his

was not threatened.” Then he countered, African American talent to show

itself in

how he

city council,

first

Corpus Christi and

in

felt

response was that his

about our

“manhood

would be an opportunity

“It

for

our town.”

Porgy and Bess presents dramatic and vocal challenges that only superb

can meet, and

artists

it

has led to operatic careers for

many black

cans. Nevertheless, in the 1960s

and Bess like

as a

critics

and

African Ameri-

artists

dismissed Porgy

white man’s exploitation and plagiarism of black

art.

Others,

Reverend Branch, were conflicted. Ellington’s angry assessment of the

work — “Gershwin’s lampblack Negroisms” — still I

stings.

was not surprised by the controversy and emotion Porgy and Bess gen-

erated, but

I

was unprepared

for

its

The Corpus

mysteries.

And I came away from

took place in spring of 1968.

much

and Bess belongs

to life as

does to the Heywards and the Gershwins.

it

We

were fortunate

Guillaume — now

whom 31

I

had met

in

as

to the

black singer-actors

engage William Warfield

to

a television actor,

Vienna — sang

Christi production

that experience believing

that Porgy

ers.

many

who

to sing Porgy.

then a classically trained

Sportin’ Life.

Our

bring

it

Robert

lyric

tenor

Bess was Martha Flow-

Clara was sung by a young student from Texas Southern University in

Houston, Faye Robinson,

who went on

to a fine career in opera.

TSU

also

supplied our Porgy ensemble and choir, which was under the direction of

Ruthabell Rawlins. 14 I

remember

well

my

took the music to a level far

more music

in the

I

first

rehearsal with the choir

had never imagined

room than appeared on

in

— how their singing

my mind’s

the page.

It

ear.

T here was

was richly layered

with expressive details; like an oriental carpet or mosaic, step away and the details

blend into a shimmering, lustrous whole.

During the rehearsals

for

Porgy and

at the

aware of an arcane underlife that has attached

who on

eral

way

to

Corpus

Christi

and meet with the

me

I

was made

the work. Irving Barnes, if

he could stop by T’SU

choir.

He had been

in sev-

major productions of Porgy and Bess and had some pointers he would

Dvorak 76

itself to

sang the role of Jake, the Fisherman, asked

his

performance

to

Duke

Ellington

them.

like to give

1

said,

“Be

that inspired the choir to

my guest.”

do something

In the final scene Porgy

New York to find

Bess.

1

tells

He begins

suspect 1

shall

forget.

Row

to sing the closing song,

and the company answers, “I’m on

a familiar

sentiment

God when

never

the folks of Catfish

My Way,”

for African

was what Barnes told them

it

Americans,

that

he

is

My Way to a

Heav’nly Lan’,”

a spiritual of faith

and

trust in

made

the sopranos hold a

B above

the staff— not the

most comfortable note — for

five

sings “but you’ll be there.” T

he sopranos rejoin the others on the four

is

supposed

my han,” again

measures, meanwhile the

ending on high

B.

At

to cut off, leaving the orchestra to play

as the curtains close.

rium reopened

for

When

this

I

last

bows, the chorus was

still

holding the

found myself crying. Later that night,

as

of the cast final

bluesy phrase

the curtain in Corpus Christi’s Del final

Mar Audito-

chord with the

They were

hold-

still

my family and

leaving the cast party, the choir gathered around us and sang,

on

rest

point the whole cast

out the

sopranos on high B! The curtain closed and reopened. ing the chord.

it

and Bess anthem.

On the final “Oh Lawd,”

words, “to take

to

“Oh Lawd, Pm on

faced with the impossible. In Corpus Christi the choir

into a personal Porgy

going

I

were

“Oh Lawd,

I’m

My Way.” J

J

George Gershwin and African American Music 77

9

Leonard Bernstein Never look back upon roads not taken. The roads yon did they are the story of your

take,

life.

— Virgil Thomson, on his ninetieth birthday

My curiosity about Dvorak and American recently, but

Bernstein,

its

who

music came

seeds were planted in the 1960s.

my symphonic

jump-started

who reawakened my

love for jazz, the

first

to the surface rather

Had

career,

I

and Duke Ellington,

part of this

book — my idiosyn-

on African American music and musicians from the

cratic take

the twentieth century, with Dvorak as splendid guidon

come

first

— could

half of

not have

about.

When harmonic

Bernstein was appointed music director of the in 1958,

tensibly to develop stairs

not met Leonard

he

New York

Phil-

instituted a novel assistant conductors’ program, os-

American

talent.

One

neighbor and musical colleague

of the

at the

first

to

be chosen was

Mannes School

my up-

of Music, Stefan

Bauer Mengelberg, nephew of the famous Dutch conductor. What seemed a

world away suddenly came within reach, and In February 1961 a letter arrived

ing

me

at the

to

meet Bernstein

at a

I

too applied.

from the Koussevitsky Foundation

invit-

gathering to be held in his studio apartment

Osborne, Stanford White’s massive brownstone-and-stained-glass

edifice that stands diagonally across the street

from Carnegie

1

Fill.

In the in-

tervening years, an eruption of towering glass-sheathed buildings has formed a

canyon around Fifty-seventh and Seventh, and the Osborne’s once proud

now seems tired and squattish. But thought was crossing the Rubicon when I entered the lobby on a Friday afternoon, March 10, 1961. I was playing a pair of Young Audience concerts earlier that day with my brass stance

I

1

79

quintet, the I

just

Chamber

Brass Players, thinking

waited about; besides,

crammed

brass players

would be

I

less

nervous than

needed the money. After the concerts, we

I

if

five

into a small sedan, with the tuba as a sixth passenger. >

By the time

I

struggled out of the car

when

it

dropped

me

off for

my

meet-

my Irish tweed suit and hand-loomed wool tie were a Under my arm, in the hip fashion of the day, carried my

ing with Bernstein,

rumpled mess.

I

green corduroy trumpet bag.

The Osborne was

intimidating: a long canopy, liveried

cage elevators. “Yes, Mr. Bernstein

toned the elevator man.

He

in

is

and

in silence.

entered the studio to find

seated about, not

had

my

knowing whether

horn with me.

my hands

Its

the second floor,” in-

lever across the crescent-shaped

five or six

to talk or

familiar tubes

and

other

men

in their twenties

study the ceiling.

twists

I

was glad

I

under the corduroy kept

occupied.

Bernstein arrived, cigarette in hand.

resumes,

2DD on

bird-

pause the ancient hydraulic car floated up

brass guide, I

hand

pivoted the

after a second’s

Studio

doormen,

all

He

explained that according to our

of us were qualified to be assistant conductors with the Philhar-

monic. Therefore he was following the lead of Harvard’s Medical School:

when ical

faced with

more deserving applicants than they had room

came up

school faculty

whom to

To

things

start

One

a conductor.

and

frustrated fellow

that Bernstein

said that

was time that ticed,”

he

a player

when was

a

1

I

piano so that he could demon-

to

in several or-

be charlatans (oops).

told Bernstein the truth: that

was

now

when was I

gether and

I

for

Boy Scout

ing arrangements,

I

I

“It

used

a

little

boy, and that

to

fit

I

my dad sang

also explained

two bugles together, making

a kind

could get the “in-between notes,” and that even

and conducting whenever the opportunity

leading an orchestra that totally focused,

When

heart

would be chosen.

I

was

had been curious

playing the trumpet professionally, teaching theory, writ-

became

felt that

I

I

me on his oud. That got him!

with the music. I

become

said.

of sliding trumpet, so

only

to

from the ranks, one with orchestral experience, be no-

and played Arabic folksongs

I

at the

sit

and passionate about music ever since

though

help

immediately questioned the entire pro-

he found most conductors

When my turn came,

that

why he wanted

Bernstein asked each of us

conducting prowess. Another told of playing viola

strate his

chestras

in a social setting to

accept.

off,

demanding

ceeding,

med-

the

with the novel idea of holding cocktail parties,

where they would meet and observe the candidates

them decide

for,

all

arose,

of my musical interests

it

was

came

to-

without nervousness, and fully occupied

the gathering ended,

I

was the

first

to leave. In

my

Among the many part-time gigs had at the time was teaching harmony, I

Dvorak 80

to

Duke

Ellington

and theory one day

sight-singing, I

worked with teenagers

tween

would swim

I

came from my

call

at the

in the

me

wife warning

Y pool, which

that “a very

Coates, called. She wants you to phone her monic.’’

I

was

still

at

my wet bathing suit when

in

Ninety-second Street YMHA.

and adults

in the afternoon

an hour

for

week

a

once;

1

I

was when a

lady,

Miss Helen

where

is

haughty it’s

about the Philhar-

Miss Coates,

herself as “Mr. Bernstein’s personal secretary,’’ told

sen to be one of his assistants. She said that

in the evening. In be-

me

that

would receive

who I

introduced

had been cho-

a confirmation in

the mail, “But say nothing to anyone about this until the official announce-

ment appears

newspapers.”

in the

A month

passed. Finally, the

Herald Tribune on April

Named

by Philharmonic

The heading

1961.

in the

New York

read “3 Assistant Conductors

and below were three postage-stamp-

for 1961-62,”

and the simple caption, “John Canarina and Maurice

sized photos

two

12,

announcement appeared

New Yorkers,

and

Seiji

Our Philharmonic

Peress,

Ozawa, of Japan.”

year began in late September with a four-day tour to

Philadelphia, Baltimore,

Richmond, and Washington, D.C. Bernstein con-

ducted Beethoven, Strauss, Ravel, and the glorious American soprano Eileen Farrell sang

Wagner

The

excerpts.

May with

season ended in late

an hom-

age to Stravinsky on his eightieth birthday, coupled with the Piston Violin

Concerto with

Then came

a

soloist

Joseph Fuchs, and the Brahms Second Symphony.

week of acoustical

testing of the

new Philharmonic

magnificent orchestra was humbled in the cold space and the sound wizard Maestro Feopold Stokowski was called

podium and asked tuba as well,

E

for the first

flat!”

Hall.

at the last

in.

Our

minute

He mounted

the

two chords of the Eroica — “Trombones and

Whap, whap went the band. He

stood listening and gave

his prophetic assessment: “It will never do.”

In between, there were thirty-three

weeks of subscription concerts,

in-

cluding the notorious Glenn Gould-Bernstein brouhaha over the Brahms

Piano Concerto with public disclaimers by Bernstein

First

with Mr. Gould’s interpretation spect to

him

as

an

artist”

.

.

.

but

I

have agreed

to

—

“I

do not agree

conduct out of re-

— which set off a mini-scandal. There was my official

debut with the orchestra, Eric

Satie’s

tongue-in-cheek Parade, a Dada ballet

score punctuated with ragtime, pistol shots, ratcheting roulette wheels, and a clattering typewriter with bell. “Just stand there

Fenny. You

dozen

I

a

it

happen,” said

sixty-three soloists, four

or so recordings, four televised

special television broadcast of

eon with

let

bet.

There were eleven guest conductors, hearsals, a

and

Carmen formal ,

Young

balls,

weekly

re-

People’s Concerts, a

and

doddering dowager, Minnie Guggenheimer.

a hysterical

lunch-

1

studied 134 major works in rehearsal and performance, score in hand.

Leonard Bernstein 81

When

I

left

the Philharmonic

I

had enough repertoire

eral seasons in a regional orchestra.

I

also

had what

finishing school” diploma, earned by hanging

around

me through sevcall my “orchestral

to get I

a world-class maestro,

who became “Nonnie Helen” to my children, taught stage deportment, how to bow and recognize the orchestra and soloists, and green room etiquette by commen-

his

band, and the formidable Miss Helen Coates. Miss Coates,

tary

and example; she conveyed

and

to us the social

political

persona appro-

priate for a maestro.

Meanwhile,

my musical

Columbia Artists, overnight, Christi In

my

Goodman,

Columbia helped me season Jul ius

I

I

was

still

on

first

get a two-year contract with the

music directorship with

me

a roll

as

an

assistant

two years

conductor

later

heard Black Brown and Beige ,

Dvorak 82

to

“I

Duke

The New York Philcover their summer con-

and

at

the

that

I

the Joffrey Ballet's

fast,

career.

first

too slow.”

White House

Festival of

met Duke Ellington and

for the first time, setting the stage for

my double

Ellington

to

know— too

made an appearance summer of 1965. It was there

ual return to jazz

a professional orchestra.

when I became

Joffrey Ballet

the Arts in the

Corpus

worked with Andres Segovia, Mischa Elman, Benny

live-music conductor. Said Bernstein,

The

signed on with

Katchen, and Alexander Brailovsky.

harmonic retained certs.

I

the most powerful of classical music managements. Almost

Symphony, my first

world had been reconfigured.

my grad-

io

Gershwin’s Rhapsody I

sincerely believe in jazz.

America and

I

feel sure

of past and present.

it

it

expresses the spirit of

has a future

want

1

think

I

to

Blue

in

— more of a future than

help that future pan out.

— Paul Whiteman, in Paul Whiteman and Margaret McBride, Jazz

One would

be hard pressed

to think of

an American musical event that has

been written about more than Paul Whiteman’s launching of George Gershwin’s

Rhapsody

music for

in Blue.

society parties

was about

to

become one

corn-fed, cheery bear of a

won

and played

of the

1

He made

first

hit records for Victor,

radio orchestras.

A

and

Denver-born,

man, mild mannered and well spoken, Whiteman

over the movie colony during his hand’s extended run at the Alexander

Hotel in Los Angeles. For ences and charmed as his

in

liners

up and down the East Coast where James

Reese Europe’s bands once held sway. his

the brightest stars in popular

bands crossed the Atlantic on ocean

in the 1920s. His

some of the same

Whiteman was among

months

in 1923

he delighted London audi-

British aristocrats with his natural

manner

as well

music. T he following winter Whiteman’s flagship orchestra was hack

New York,

home

many

five

appearing nightly

at the

posh Palais Royal Restaurant, their

port since 1920. Vincent Sardi Sr. was captain of the

hibition, high society

came

dance — to the music of the

in droves to eat

hottest

and

to listen

staff.

Despite Pro-

— and especially to

dance band of the moment. Whether

it

was the London audiences’ warm reception of his music, the urgings of cultural intellectuals

such

band was planning timely intuition,

as Gilbert Seldes, the

to play at the

somewhere

news

that the

Vincent Lopez

Metropolitan Opera House, or his

in the fall of 1923

Whiteman embraced

own

the idea

of presenting his music in a formal concert setting. In preparation for

my sixtieth

anniversary re-creation of the Aeolian Hall

83

concert of 1924— “Same Day,

Whiteman sidemen who

eral

Same Hour, Same Block” —

I

interviewed sev-

played in the original concert. Violinist Kurt

Henry Busse

Dieterle painted a vivid picture of the hand's ace trumpeter,

(pronounced “bus-ee”)— his raccoon led galoshes,

and

derby hat, and

coat,

his ever-present cigar

2

1

.

can

easily

stylishly

unbuck-

imagine Busse walking

the few blocks through the theater district from the Palais Royal on Forty-

eighth and Broadway to Aeolian Hall between Forty-second and Forty-third Streets just west of Fifth

thousand-mile

Avenue;

in cultural terms, however, the

For Busse was about

trek.

to set

up

walk was a

on the same

his horns

stage

New York’s leading classical trumpet teacher, Damrosch’s New York Symphony. This must have evoked

where Max Schlossberg, played in Walter

mixture of pride and trepidation, but there

a curious

comed

no doubt he wel-

the challenge. Busse was famous, the recording star of “Whispering”

and “Hot Lips," and wonders

if

No

a Erst.

is

he

rich,

felt his

earning

much more than

the

symphony boys. One

behavior to be slightly sacrilegious. This was, after

all,

dance band had ever before appeared on that or any other Ameri-

can concert-hall stage — James Reese Europe's 1912

Club Concert had long been

forgotten

“just before jazz”

Clef

— and the whole of musical New York

buzzed with excitement. Aeolian Hall, one of New York’s most prestigious concert

up the lower

third of a nineteen-story building

been

titled his

concert “An Experiment in

Tuesday afternoon, February

Today such

a

lieved they

had

12,

which has since

New York

Company’s

showroom. Whiteman

Modern Music.”

It

was scheduled

for

1924, at three o’clock.

program would be

in 1924, jazz bands, black

why

building,

radically reconfigured, also served as the Aeolian Piano

corporate headquarters and their primary

took

on the then-upscale business

The

thoroughfare of West Forty-second Street.

facilities,

billed as

“An Experiment

and white, encouraged by

a place at the forefront of the

in Jazz.”

But

critics like Seldes, be-

newest trends in music.

And

not? All of the master composers of Europe were borrowing from them:

Stravinsky, Ravel,

Milhaud, and

Satie, to

name

a few.

The

scribed, in the Victorianisms of the time, as the concert that

of jazz” and

“made an honest woman out

on Lincoln’s birthday,

as the

as patrons

Carl

“made

of jazz,” and, because

“emancipation proclamation of

Whiteman’s “experiment” was

event was de-

brilliantly

it

a lady out

took place

jazz.”"

planned and staged. Enlisted

and patronesses were American culture mavens Gilbert Seldes and

Van Vechten; music

critics

and

writers

Deems Taylor, O. O.

McIntyre,

and Fannie Hurst; prominent musicians Walter Damrosch, Leopold Godowsky,

Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Moritz Rosenthal,

and Leopold Stokowski; opera divas Amelita Galli-Curci, Alma Gluck, and

Mary Garden; and

Dvorak 84

to

Duke

financier Otto Kahn, the president of the Metropolitan

Ell ington

Opera.

Whiteman

Palais Royal.

to the

band’s luncheon rehearsals at the

Together they raised and contributed money, wrote program from the

notes, spoke glowingly It

them

invited

stage,

and packed the house with

glitterati.

was the highlight of the 1923-24 concert season.

The

follow-up was equally

was repeated

brilliant.

The

“experiment,” with a few changes,

Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia’s Music Academy.

at

tour was booked by the impresario F. C. Coppicus, tan

who

A spring

ran the Metropoli-

Opera Musical Bureau. Whiteman and Gershwin rode with the band,

now twenty-four strong

(an extra saxophone was added), in a pair of specially

outfitted railroad ears.

Aboard were three Chickering grand pianos — two

— all care-

white ones for the band and an ebony concert grand for Gershwin

husbanded by Emil Neugebauer, the tuner and technician

fully

for the cel-

ebrated concert pianist Joseph Levine. Before the heyday of radio, touring

and recording were how Whiteman brought public.

And

this

major concert

was a whirlwind

halls of

such

tour:

cities as

Cleveland, Cincinnati, and

St.

tenberg (another sideman

got to

tail

to the attention of the

twenty concerts in eighteen days in the Rochester, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis,

Ann

Louis. In

know and

Arbor, Michigan, Milton Ret-

the source for

herein described), a recent graduate of Columbia

hood

friend of the Gershwins, took over as the

for the rest of the tour.

the

I

band

his

Gershwin had

new George White Scandals

returned to

of 1924.

New York, they recorded

his “experiment”: the

Rhapsody

Herbert’s Suite of Serenades.

to get

in

Soon

to

in

Blue piano

New York

to

boy-

soloist

prepare for

Whiteman and his band the two big new pieces from

after

(for Victor)

Blue with Gershwin ,

The Aeolian

of the de-

Law School and

Rhapsody

back

much

as soloist,

and Victor

Hall concert was clearly the high

point of Whiteman’s career, one he tried in vain to repeat as he sought out “other Gershwins” and staged other “experiments.” Inevitably, the slow

of the Rhapsody in Blue

became

mustachioed caricature became Gershwin’s Rhapsody

is

his

musical signature,

just as his bald,

theme round,

his logo.

indisputably the

first

American

shaped from blues and ragtime that crossed over

to find a

the standard orchestral repertoire, albeit at

in a

first

orchestral

work

welcome place

symphonized

Dvorak’s prediction was coming true, and dance-band leaders

in

version.

— Europe,

Cook, Whiteman, and Ellington — were among those pointing the way.

Whiteman and

his chief arranger,

Ferde Grofe,

checked out Ellington’s “Washingtonians,” who were playing

at the Holly-

In the winter of 1923-24

wood (soon

to

be the Kentucky Club),

just

two blocks north of the Palais

move uptown to the Cotton Club and world fame was Though they claimed that they “couldn’t steal even two bars

Royal. Ellington’s three years away.

of Duke’s amazing music,” 4 something always rubs off on professionals like

Grofe and Whiteman. Ellington recalled Whiteman’s

visits

and how he

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue 85

Figure

10.1

Miguel Covarrubias caricature of Paul Whiteman. Courtesy of Maria Elena Rico Covarrubias.

“showed

his appreciation

by laying a big

fifty

dollar bill

on

ns.”

He

credits

Whiteman for leading the country to embrace syncopated music, “which he had made whiter .” Another important black dance-band leader to whom Whiteman and 5

.

.

.

Grofe regularly listened was Fletcher Henderson. Henderson, a Fisk graduate

who had

played piano in Will Marion Cook’s jazzy upgrade of the Clef

Club Orchestra,

the “Southern Syncopaters,” led the house

land Ballroom, four blocks north of the Palais Royal.

Dvorak 86

to

Duke

Ellington

band

at the

Rose-

Whiteman and Grofe

probably heard Louis Armstrong’s electrifying effect on the Henderson band in the fall of 1924.

back and forth between bands, within

Inevitably, musical ideas flowed

bands, and from soloists to arrangers. Riffs

were soon written down; In his pathbreaking

a collaborative art

book Early Jazz

in 1924

ing Louis Armstrong and

form was being created en masse.

Gunther Schuller

6 ,

cornet licks that found their way into a

’Long Mule,” recorded

became head arrangements and writes about Busse

Don Redman arrangement

of

“Go

by the Fletcher Henderson band and featur-

Coleman Hawkins.

Armstrong’s impact on jazz and dance bands was cosmic. His improvisa-

were no mere

tions

the-spot.”

Much

ad-libs but, in the

of the vocabulary of jazz was codified for

And Redman was among the

strong.

licks into his

He

his passion for jazz.

tled Jazz, giving full credit to

its

America three hundred years ago

wrote a book in 1925

ti-

came

to

African American origins: “Jazz in chains

.

.

priceless freight destined

.

whole nation dancing.” He stayed abreast of its

lating the

time by Arm-

and incorporate Armstrong’s

to absorb

first

all

arrangements.

Whiteman maintained

to set a

words of John Lewis, “eompositions-on-

newest trends into

his carefully scripted

stylistic

.

.

.

changes, trans-

brand of music

— “All

I

did

Whiteman hired Redman to write special arrangements for his band in the new Armstrong-inspired style and engaged his own improviser, the “hot trumpet man” Bix Beiderbecke. Two years later, Whiteman engaged William Grant Still, another conservatory-trained black was

to orchestrate jazz.”

In 1927

composer-arranger, as a full-time

Seeing

Whiteman on

another, and for est

me

Hollywood film

member

film, fiddle in

of his arranging

hand, fronting

an all-important, reason

in 1920 to his last

his

staff.

band, suggests yet

for his success.

From

appearances on television

his earli-

in the rp^os,

Whiteman handling his violin as if he were bouncing a baby on his shoulder. They are totally connected, innocently and infectiously at ease — the fiddle and Paul. “He trembles, wobbles, quivers— a piece of jazz jelly” was how Olin Downes described Whiteman, who was well over six feet tall we

see

and weighed three-hundred-plus pounds,

in his enthusiastic review of the

Aeolian Hall concert. 8

This was the

man who convinced

timely “Experiment in called

it

phonic

“the

hall.”

first

Modern Music.”

jazz concert that

And about the

the rich and famous to support his

was ever given

longhairs

who were

Damrosch, Rachmaninoff, Heifetz and

Whiteman

later

in the sacred halls of a

sym-

In a radio interview,

Kreisler

present,

and

he

said,

“There was

several others [pause]

we

probably gave them a light haircut.” 9

The program was band recording,”

it

carefully designed. In recognition of the

“first

jazz

opened with “Livery Stable Blues,” complete with mock

Gershwin’s Rhapsody

in

Blue 87

Figure

10.2

Miguel Covarrubias sketch of Whiteman and

his Orchestra at

Hall, April 21, 1925, repeating their successful

“Experiment

Music” concert, featuring Gershwin playing for the sponsors of the

his

Rhapsody

Modern

in in

Blue

American Academy of Rome. Note the

of Oscar Levant and Gershwin in the lower

left

Carnegie

profiles

corner.

Courtesy of Maria Elena Rico Covarrubias.

horse whinnies and chicken squawks in the raucous inal

Dixieland Jazz Band.

Whiteman then

served

hokum

up

his

style

of the Orig-

most favored

Palais

— one for virtuoso banjo multiple-reed wizard Ross Gorman —

Royal arrangements. T hey included two solo turns player

Mike Pingatore and one

for

along with exact renderings of his hit records (he was very proud of

Dvorak 88

to

Duke

Ellington

this)

“Limehouse Blues” and “Whispering.” There were crowd-pleasing “knucklebusters” by the dashing novelty piano virtuoso

Zez Confrey. Sheet music

Confrey ’s “Kitten on the Keys” had already outsold Scott

for

“Maple Leaf Rag,” and their popularity.

For

all

his player-piano-style novelties

these,

Whiteman

Joplin’s classic

were

at the

peak of

played his violin while directing

the band.

When a

the audience returned for the second half, they were greeted by

much augmented

Palais Royal band.

The

rhythm players were now joined by eight For the

extra string bass.

down

his violin

violins,

two French horns, and an

Whiteman put

time in his dance-band career

first

and took up

three reeds, four brass, and five

a baton.

He

led the twenty-three-piece

ensem-

ble as a proper stand-up conductor, dressed, as was the orchestra, in the cus-

tomary daytime formal cutaway, with striped pants and ascot

tie.

Whiteman led newly arranged versions of “standard selections,” including Edward MacDowell’s “To a Wild Rose” and Rudolf Friml’s “Chansonette,” later known as the “Donkey Serenade.” hen came the ultimate test of the “experiment”: two new works by Victor Herbert and Gershwin that t

had been commissioned especially

Whiteman recognized dream of moving

their

in

for the occasion. 10

Gershwin

a

kindred

They shared

spirit.

a

music out of the dance palaces and music theaters and

onto the concert stage, but he had no way of knowing whether Gershwin

would produce

a

winner. While Gershwin’s better Broadway songs had been

— an Aeolian Hall recital by the emEva Gauthier in November 1923 — Whiteman had witnessed

well received in a formal concert setting

inent soprano

firsthand the failure of Gershwin’s operatic scena Blue

Confrey was the insurance policy; he would Confrey naturally received equal all

Monday

Blues.

Zez

also help guarantee a crowd.

Gershwin. Gershwin was by

billing with

accounts an especially winning pianist, and Whiteman’s idea that he com-

pose “a jazz piece for solo piano and orchestra” turned out to be inspired. Virgil

Thomson, one

Aeolian Hall concert and recollections:

“My

hands with

my sixtieth

starts

ing, ful

the

both the original 1924

anniversary re-creation, wrote

the whole thing

me of his lick,

fitting

to

an

and the composer’s beau-

off,

have Victor Herbert compose a work

choice. Despite his Irish birth (1851) and

1

for the

European

train-

Herbert had by 1924 become a highly respected, beloved, and success-

“American” composer, conductor, and solo

itan

at

their lightly fleet fingers, also his singing piano tone.”

Whiteman’s decision concert was a

who was

chief memories of that premiere are the clarinet

upward glissando which tiful

of the special few

cellist. 12

The

Opera production of Herbert’s opera Natoma had been first

time a work by an American composer and

librettist

1911

Metropol-

notable:

it

was

about American

subject matter sung in the English language had appeared on the Met’s stage.

Gershwin’s Rhapsody

in

Blue

89

ip

By accepting the commission, Herbert gave Whiteman’s concert the vote of confidence

it

needed

in the eyes of the serious

music establishment.

— for

guess that the novelty of a Herbert premiere

a jazz

It is

my

dance band! —

helped bring out John Philip Sousa, Rachmaninoff, and possibly Stokowski

on

snowy Tuesday afternoon.

that

The program worked

which since 1984 has toured the United

cert,

The

does. 1 ’

still

magic back then and our re-creation of the con-

a

States,

Canada, and Europe, and inspired

secret of the program’s success lies in the artful

way Gershwin transforms the same ragtime and blues harmonies, the and

brass

and the banjo and tuba rhythms

sax colors,

been listening and toe-tapping

to

fiddle,

audience had

that the

throughout the evening into

a

masterwork

with immediate appeal. With his Rhapsody in Blue for solo piano and jazz

band, Gershwin took a giant leap for American music. Reconstructing the Aeolian Hall concert gave

w ith

original

me

hands-on experience

Whiteman band arrangements, including Grofe’s

chestration for the

Rhapsody

win did not orchestrate

in Blue,

and

this particular

I

began

to

masterful or-

understand

why Gersh-

work himself. Working from Gersh-

win’s two-piano score, Grofe orchestrated the second (accompanying) piano part for the

augmented

jazz

band he and Whiteman chose

for the concert.

There were unusual choices of instrumentation to be made, and they were further complicated by the doublings.

The brass and rhythm section doublings were straightforward, but the three reed players covered eleven instruments in

ophone, from baritone

to sopranino,

all: five

different sizes of sax-

and every woodwind

symphonic

in the

family except the bassoon but including the rare and exotic heckelphone.

Add

to this eight violins (divided four ways),

horns.

Such

ensemble would

a hybrid

set

another string bass, and two

unusual scoring problems before

The complex reed doublings were the most what instrument, how long to get it ready, when to

the most experienced composer.

obvious

— who

plays

switch.

Furthermore, the scores

hand the

tailored to

first

the

fit

page of score

for the

or “reed 3,” to indicate “Ross,’’ to indicate

was raised line

to

an

skills

leading jazz bands of the period were

of the individual players.

Rhapsody

what was

who was

art

for the

to

in Blue,

When

Grofe

laid out

he did not write “trumpet

be played on a given

staff,

1”

but “Busse” and

playing. This practice extended to

all

bands and

form by Ellington, who would switch the trumpet-lead

between “Gootie” and “Rex”

(the

same

for

trombone and

sax players)

within a composition because he wanted their particular sound or style for a

given passage. The jazz band, being an American invention, places value

upon the

individual,

Dvorak

Duke

90

to

upon

Ell ington

his or her particular instrumental expertise

and

in-

terpretive contributions.

player by player ing, not It

one

Grofe knew the intricacies of the Whiteman hand,

and instrument by instrument, but however brilliant his

single note of the

must be noted

Rhapsody

in

Blue

Gershwin possessed

that

a

is

his

scor-

own. 14

composer’s keen ear

for in-

strumentation. There are instrumental indications in the holograph (original

Monday

manuscript) of Blue

Blues as well as in the two-piano holograph

score of the Rhapsody. In fact, his orchestrational

skills

were about

to

be put

to the test.

Hard on the heels of the Rhapsody's triumph came

a

commission from

new concerto for solo piano and “orchestra”— generic, faceless, European — to be completed in time for the upcoming New York Symphony season (1925). Starting with the Concerto in F, for solo piano and

Walter Damrosch

orchestra,

for a

Gershwin scored

of his concert works himself even as he con-

all

tinued studying composition and orchestration with every fashionable teacher that

would have him. 15 In preparation for

my reconstruction

sulted several original sources of the

holograph

in the Library of

of the Aeolian Hall concert,

Rhapsody

in Blue:

I

con-

Gershwin’s pencil

Congress (the two-piano score he prepared

for

Grofe), Milton Rettenberg’s 1924 manuscript copy of the same, a photocopy

Whiteman Collection at Williams recording by Whiteman with Gershwin

of Grofe’s original score in the

College,

and the June

as

soloist. 16

per side

The

10, 1924,

short recording time available in 1924

piano

— under seven minutes

— forced Gershwin to make cuts. Nevertheless, the recording, on two

sides of a twelve-inch disc, in the score or parts.

I

have

is

chock-a-block with details never written

to

assume

that during the road tour,

down

which im-

mediately preceded the recording sessions, some of the jazz embellishments

added by the players or Gershwin became “frozen” — such dles of turning notes (gruppetti) that flavor a phrase,

and

hollers that clarinetist Ross

in the familiar

and klezmerlike whoops

introduced here and there, not only

Gorman

who was

present at rehearsals for the concert, over-

suggest to Gershwin that he could play the opening clar-

inet run with a long ip/finger slur instead of the simple scale that 1

written,

bun-

opening.

Milton Rettenberg, heard Ross

Gorman

as the little

and Rettenberg claimed

called that Victor Herbert

came

that

to

Gershwin loved

it.

had been

Rettenberg also

re-

one of the rehearsals and gave conducting

Whiteman for his Suite of Serenades 17 Herbert also took the time to help Gershwin, who was having second thoughts about the slow theme of the Rhapsody in Blue the centerpiece of the work, by reassuring him that it pointers to

,

,

was most appropriate. Herbert suggested

to

Gershwin

that

he

set

it

up by

ex-

tending the piano arpeggios that introduce the slow section, giving time for

Gershwin’s Rhapsody

in

Blue 91

the excitement of the preceding cadenza to cool down. Herbert later turned to

Rettenberg and

know what

said, in

do with

to

Victor Herbert’s

an

wish

aside, “I

I

had written

that theme.

and Rettenberg’s passing

little dig,

clude Leonard Bernstein on

this

list.

Rhapsody

it

on,

in Blue.

It

only one of

is

pains

‘

all. It is

paste of flour

me to

in-

Bernstein’s overall praiseworthy assess-

of the work begins with the disclaimer,

position at

would

it.”

a long line of envious deprecations of the

ment

I

“The Rhapsody'

not a com-

is

a string of separate paragraphs stuck together with a thin

and water .” 18

Charles Schwartz, in his well-documented

begrudging biography

if

Gershwin: His Life and Music attacks the Rhapsody in Blue for

its

“lack of

,

musical development in the best sense .” 19 Schwartz touts the

Gilman, who found the work “so his

Appendix

Schwartz

from

.

for the

writes: “[His]

[a]

.

I,

Lawrence

critic

derivative, so stale, so inexpressive .” 20 In

most part an essay about Gershwin’s “Jewishisms,” popular tunes and large-scaled works seem

to spring

motley mixture of Jewish melodic characteristics and overt Amer-

.

Gershwin

icanisms.” Schwartz then challenges

“He had

works:

loads of chutzpah, but practically

nique of large scale composition.

somehow

put together pieces that

.

.

as a

composer of serious

no grounding

Mainly by following

.

manage

in the tech-

he

his instincts,

to fall into the serious

music

cat-

egory .” 21 Schwartz got dangerously close to Constant Lambert’s racist and anti-Semitic outburst, with

Gershwin

as his target, in his

book Music Ho!:

In point of fact, jazz has long ago lost the simple gaiety

the charming savages to the negro

who wants

to

whom go

it

home

owes

its

.

.

.

The

nostalgia of

has given place to the infinitely

weary nostalgia of the cosmopolitan Jew I

birth.

and sadness of

who

has no

home

to

go

more to.

.

.

.

he importance of the Jewish element in jazz cannot be too strongly

emphasized.

.

.

.

There

is

an obvious link between the exiled and per-

secuted Jews and the exiled and persecuted negroes, which the Jews, with their admirable capacity for drinking the beer of those

knocked down the

skittles,

have not been slow in turning

who have

to their ad-

vantage. But although the Jews have stolen the negroes’ thunder,

although

I

in

Pan Alley has become

a

is

is

that small section of

genuinely negroid. Hie “hot” negro records

still

and not merely galvanic energy, while the blues have ity

that places

Rhapsody

in

them

far

Blue has proven

Like most ot Gershwin

Dvorak

to

92

Ellington

s

itself to

music,

it

.

it

have a genuine

a certain auster-

above the sweet nothings of George Gershwin

thiive.

Duke

.

commercialized Wailing Wall,

the only jazz music of technical importance that

.

22 .

be critic-proof and continues

to

generates an immediate resonance

and larynx of anyone who ever

in the feet

thrilled to

ragtime lieks or Puccini’s

arching tunes, which, without the genius of inspiration, no master of form

can match. The scale of Rhapsody 80 percent of which

companiment

mind.

in

Gershwin had Rhapsody

Blue

in

is

theme. Beginning

makes

is

Blue

in

and conceived with

for solo piano,

form

Its

a plan

is

modest, a sixteen-minute work,

is

my view,

logical and, in

and carried

it

out

in the traditional bines

the chromatic scale but F.

key of

sible, in the

E

It

arrives

key of

midcourse,

way ter

the

a savvy

Blue

principal motives

— the

AABA

Gershwin met key and back.

all

the notes of

away from

B-flat as pos-

keys,

its

way back

to the

key of B-flat for

that preclassical

tune create

for the first

measures.

in the closing

young Broadway songwriter, was confronting

same challenge

of the

Rhapsody

in

B-flat,

as far

triumphant restatement of the clarinet motive

Gershwin,

structure of

major, for the hauntingly beautiful slow theme. With

even more variants the Rhapsody works its

ac-

supported by a key scheme that revolves around the slow

and the horn’s response — through eleven

clarinet call

hand

coherent.

The

brilliantly.

way with ever-developing variants of its two

its

a jazz

composers faced.

How

in his

own

does a mas-

time a sustained, integrated work?

this

challenge with his tonal arch, working his way to a distant

The

structure holds his ever-flowing font of ragtime piano im-

provisations together, improvisations that rarely lose sight of his two principal

immense piano chops enabled him

motives. Meanwhile, his

to write bril-

liantly for the instrument.

Gershwin might have taken

his lead

from one of his

Claude Debussy, who challenged the academy and

of

means and

tripartite exposition,

Olympian model

which

against

composers,

fellow-traveling critics

form, perfected by Beethoven

for exalting sonata-allegro

favorite

— with

its

economy

development, and recapitulation

all

large scale pieces of

— as the

music were

to

he

judged:

should

I

like to see a

formed on

a single

kind of music free from themes and motives or

continuous theme.

The development

will

that professional rhetoric, it

will

F

which

is

that amplification of material,

the badge of excellent training. But

be given a more universal and essentially psychic conception.-"

Almost from

no longer be

at the

same time, the German

straitjacket

rench music by Debussy and Ravel and

movements

in all parts of

music was carving out

its

was being removed

— coincident with nationalist

Europe — the newly emerging African American

own

path.

Here was

a

premacy of the beat obliges melody and harmony rhythm. American composers such

as

music

in

which the

su-

to share center stage with

Copland and Gershwin

elevate

rhythm

Gershwin’s Rhapsody

in

Blue 93

w-

where others elevate harmony and melody. Moreover, American composers continued to use traditional harmony— harking back to ragtime, bines, and part-sung spirituals

— well past the time that

doned elsewhere. Infused with

fascinatin’

it

had been superseded or aban-

rhythm,

this

music forms a unique

in the history of twentieth-century art.

and remarkable strand

Kurt Sachs offered the notion that opera composers write in established

and familiar

order to

styles in

make

Other musicologists have developed posits that there

is

a limit to the

easier for the listener to absorb the text.

it

“harmonic rhythm, which

a theory of

number

of harmonies the

human

ear can

absorb in a given span of real time. Mozart, for example, does not change

chords on every quarter note of fast-moving music, whereas harmonies

change on each beat of a slow-moving Bach chorale. Taken together, these theories suggest a musical “golden

American music requires more

mean,” perhaps explaining why African

established, familiar

harmony

to

balance

its

complex rhythm — a Euro-African symmetry. This was the musical language Gershwin Until

inherited, the language of his

Sam Adler’s

1971 recording of the

billed as the Berlin

Symphony, using

Grofe score

band,

now

what

I

This

is

for jazz call

Rhapsody

I

parts

had assumed

Rhapsody

in

I

Blue with what was

adapted from the original 1924

that the only edition available

symphony

the “Hollywood Bowl” version for full

the orchestration

grew up with and

of several expansions that Grofe and others

conducted, and

first

made

symphonic orchestration, published

the full

in Blue.

of his jazz

band

was

orchestra.

it is

the last

original. In

shortly after Gershwin’s un-

timely death in 1937, the all-important banjo and saxophones are listed as optional instruments.

Grofe seems not

to

have had the heart

together.

But even when they are included

swamped

in a rich orchestral sea,

in a live

to discard

them

al-

performance, they are

along with the snappy dance rhythms that

distinguish the work. I

began performing the jazz-band orchestration

creation concert,

I

felt

formance movement, formers

who

a further responsibility to a collaboration

for

my

re-

between musicologists and those per-

tempi, size offerees, and especially performance

number

But

emulate the “authentic” per-

specialize in historic replication by

instruments, mutes, and

in 1976.

way of original instruments, style.

I

duplicated the exact

of players. Hard to find were the E-flat so-

pranino saxophone, the heckelphone, and a slide whistle sensitive enough

to

play the chromatics in “Whispering.” 1

he sopranino saxophone

is

the smallest of that family, higher in pitch

than the more familiar B-flat soprano

D\'orak 94

Bechet, and

more sensuous and penetrating sound in the upper register than E-flat clarinet or, some might say, the flute. The heckelphone extends the

possessing a the

made popular by Sidney

to

Duke

Ellington

range of the oboe family downward into the baritone

even further

register,

than the English horn, and with a weightier and more colorful tone. 24

My new once worked

Whiteman

Paul for

Whiteman, the drummer Herbert

up with the sounds of the

and

late 1920s

recordings

I

his

had been studying and

Although he grew

Harris.

dance bands, before he

early 1930s

would engage any musicians, Harris refreshed

Whiteman

man who had

orchestra was assembled by a

memory by listening to

transcribing,

t

he musicians

Harris assembled were not your Epical big-band players, but an

sortment of fine studio players

Among them were several

who were

amazing

capable of playing in any

1920s aficionados. Banjoist

the

Eddie Davis was

as-

style. full

of

information about Mike Pingatore, Whiteman’s banjoist and lifelong friend, said to have

been

in the

band longer than Whiteman because “Paul came

Our tuba player and bass saxophonist, Vince Giordano, was an avid Whiteman researcher and the leader of the “Nighthawks,” late to the first rehearsal.”

a

popular society dance band that specialized

even had a Renaissance music healthy curiosity for

Dean can

listen to a

all

specialist,

in

music from the

We

1920s.

Allan Dean, a trumpeter with a

kinds of good music played on a cup mouthpiece. 25

Busse recording and analyze his

and

style, his vibrato,

— the way Busse rushes a phrase and pauses, waiting for the band to catch up — and come up

other subtle nuances such as his peculiar use of rubato

with an amazing replication.

At the

their respective instruments.

ings of the 1920

Many

of the other musicians did the first

orchestra rehearsal,

Whiteman band performing

same on

played record-

1

pieces they later played in the

Aeolian Hall concert. Musicians took copies home; detailed listening

them was worth more than

a

to

thousand words or the most painstaking nota-

tion.

For the “role” of Gershwin, we engaged the American pianist Ivan Davis.

Symphony, but he had

Ivan had recorded the Rhapsody with the Detroit

never heard the jazz band version, nor was he a jazz pianist. credible ear and a terrific sense of time. style.

He

I

He

has an in-

helped him with the 1920s ragtime

contributed his finely wrought phrasing and singing tone. The

tuoso jazz

sty list

and composer Dick

Hyman

did the

vir-

Zez Confrey honors.

As the day of the concert approached, we became something of a media sensation.

Hyman and

on National Public Radio. digging out old

1

appeared on the Today show.

All the

New York

Whiteman and Rhapsody

in

I

was interviewed

newspapers did feature Blue

stories

from the archives.

Aeolian Hall had long ago been converted into office spaces, but to hire

Town

Hall,

articles,

I

was able

an acoustically sensitive mid-sized auditorium that was

only a block away. By the afternoon of the concert,

and more than 600 potential

ticket buyers

all

1,495 sea f s

were turned away.

were

sold,

Among the

Gershwin’s Rhapsody

in

110-

Blue 95

who attended were Morton Gould, Virgil Thomson, and Lester Lanin. The Gershwin family took a box. Whiteman’s granddaughter came with her family. She brought me a blue carnation to wear, as Whiteman had throughout his career. There were three members of the 1924 Whiteman hand still tables

around: Milton Rettenberg, housebound in

who was

living in a nursing

Dieterle,

who

home

New York; pianist Henry Lange, and eighty-one-year-old Kurt

in Kansas;

played violin in the concert of 1924 and was

playing

still

“TV

dates” in Los Angeles. 26

come

Dieterle agreed to tel

had him

New York for the

to

as a courtesy guest).

suggested he bring his fiddle. Carl John-

I

Whiteman

son, the curator of the

Collection at Williams College, called to

say he was bringing a gold-clad baton that

we

played the Rhapsody,

him

He

audience.

to the

I

occasion (the Carlyle Ho-

Whiteman had

invited Dieterle to join us

on

used. Just before

stage

ceremoniously presented the baton

the front desk of the fiddle section.

Our

and introduced to

me and sat in

Lamar

concertmaster,

Alsop, gra-

ciously turned over the solo violin interlude (in the middle of the slow section) to Dieterle.

had unwittingly tapped

I

mentioned above

of the people for

most of those senior

sixtieth anniversary

box

us,

and concertgoing days

Hall that afternoon have ended. T he

tight little

music

circles and,

am happy

I

office. 27 I

asked Virgil

he blurted out, “But they in

Town

New York’s

formance with the one he heard

would be

no longer with

concert was a triumph, in the hall, in the press, in the

After the concert

nally,

Many

an astonishing and timely nostalgia.

are

citizens at

buzz that went around to say, at the

into

Thomson

in 1924. all

He

if

he could compare our per-

tried to

beg

off.

I

pushed. Fi-

we do now.” This

played lighter than

keeping with the quieter sound environment of the 1920s.

Today’s singers and instrumentalists are consciously or unconsciously

competing with high powered, in-your-face cinematic sound and recordings.

Broadway

theaters have

been turned

into veritable

sound

mikes and shotguns (long-distance microphones), the

studios.

live

With body

onstage sound

is

amplified and “massaged,” making the extreme ranges crackle and woof un-

Broadway gypsies hoof their way through complicated

naturally.

mouth along with prerecorded chorus cle

Choir

size. Pit

parts

to

Mormon

another building.

And

is

veritable

music director) and piped back

the whole at the

is

mixed on

to sing

and play

Three days

and the

Dvorak 96

1

to

aftei

board (by the

We have forgotten

lightly.

the d

’atro Sistina for a

Duke

a

audience through dozens of

loudspeakers, and through monitors for the cast on stage.

how

Taberna-

musicians play into individual microphones; sometimes

the “pit

in

blown up

steps as they

Fillington

own

Hall concert

we were on our way

week of gala performances and

to

Rome

a television broad-

cast.

The audiences came dressed

and black

tie.

gram, which

silk scarves,

Within the year would come our recording of the

entire pro-

won

a

folks

who were

Birth of the

at the original

Rhapsody

Jr.,

a television producer. In

stage to greet us after the concert;

in

Blued we occasionally

who heard

Aeolian Hall event, and some

one of the performances during the 1924 Busse

dresses, boas,

Record of the Year award from Stereo Review.

On our tours with “The met

“shimmy”

white

in

tour. In

Colorado we met Henry

Los Angeles two Ferde Grofe

Jrs.

came on

one was an adopted son from Grofe’s

first

marriage, the other his biological son from his second marriage.

When the excitement of the Town Hall sided,

all

of the hype

and the media began work of art, and is

its

I

had bought into and passed on

to

nag

at

me. Despite

curiosity to

had tapped

in

its

Rome

to willing

intrinsic merits as

tour sub-

audiences

an inspired

public acclaim as a breakthrough event. Rhapsody in Blue

but one chapter in the American music

my

concert and the

know more,

somewhere

back. In a few years

to pass

in the

my muse

led

story.

The whole

enterprise piqued

on more: the African American more.

middle of the

me

to

story,

and

I

I

knew I would be

Dvorak, Will Marion Cook, and Jim

Europe.

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue 97

11

The Clef Club Concert my

Jim Europe was the biggest influence

in

He was

the roots and forces

at a

point in time at which

of Negro music

And he

all

merged and gained

musical career.

widest expression.

[their]

furnished something that was needed.

— Eubie

Blake,

in

Lawrence T. Carter, Euhie Blake:

Keys of Memory

Thanks

to the

devoted and thorough research of Reid Badger, James Reese

Europe (1881-1919) music

history. 1

is

at last

being retrieved from the fringes of American

Europe was one of the

brightest lights of the African

Amer-

ican music world, which he helped guide and shape during the twenty

between Scott Joplin and Louis Armstrong — between the publi-

ical years

cation of the of the

Hot

first

Five.

ragtime

hit,

“Maple Leaf Rag,” and the seminal recordings

Europe, a charismatic conductor, founded

ming and choraling “Negro Orchestra,” the

first

moves

crit-

a

unique strum-

He formed one

the Clef Club.

of

hot dance bands, interpreting the African American rhythms and

that fueled the

untimely death fighters,”

at

first

American dance

craze. Just

age thirty-nine, Europe’s 369th

was introducing

a

new music

plain his obscurity

— was

What Europe

compose

a hit.

amazed musi-

Europe would be the

did not do

— and this

first to

helps exSissle

in his last years, as the godfather

which reestablished black musicals on Broadway and,

the words of the critic

his

“the Hell-

But he was recognized by

and Blake, close collaborators with Europe of Shuffle Along,

Army Band,

they called “jazz” to

cians and the public of France. James Reese

be crowned “King of Jazz.” 2

months before

and author Gilbert Seldes, “paid honor

in

to [Europe’s]

memory.” 3 With some humility

1

believe that

Europe’s 1912 Clef Club concert

at

my reconstruction

Carnegie Hall, the

and re-creation of

first

all-black event

99

held there, and

name

broadcast on National Public Radio helped bring Europe’s

its

to the attention of the

musical public once again. >

began

It

as a

“wouldn’t

it

be fascinating

to

hear” idea that

Judith Aaron, executive director of Carnegie Hall. to reconstruct three of the hall’s historic concerts

It

I

broached

to

took form as a contract

— concerts originally pre-

Duke Ellington, George Antheil, and Jim Europe. My idea proved timely. The hall was looking for a popular, preferably black, music project, one that would impress the National Endowment for the Arts, which had been chiding Carnegie Hall for its elitism. The Carnegie Hall Foundation could perhaps afford to lose their NEA grants hut not the more important

sented by

prestige

and imprimatur the grants then represented

The mark

hall’s

promotional team came up with a

Jazz Concerts.”

I

argued

for

in the art world.

title for

the series: “Land-

“Three American Landmark Concerts,”

The Clef Club concert took place The Antheil concert, despite its con-

preferring not to characterize the music.

before the word “jazz” had surfaced.

nections to jazz and ragtime, was mostly an avant-garde event from the 1920s.

And

Ellington,

we know, was beyond

category.

But these were public-relations

who lived and breathed labels. They stuck with their title. The concerts were scheduled to take place in one festival week

folks,

1989.1.1

had

months

six

very different hands.

Tyger Productions”

to find the

music and

incorporated myself, choosing the

I

after

my

came

an end

to

in the

name “Hold That

Mom’s Warsaw

Polish family, which, with one excepghetto, the old ragtime

title

deeper symbolism. Hold That Tyger formed a small but efficient

were

off I

took on a staff.

We

and running. 4

began researching the Clef Club concert with

May 2,

and three

mother’s maiden name, Tygier. With the odd

spelling that referred back to tion,

to hire choirs, soloists,

in July

1912,

a

copy of the original

Carnegie Hall program in hand:

Part

I

Clef Club March

Jas.

Reese Europe

Clef Club Orchestra conducted by the composer ,

2.

Song,

Gal”

“Li’l

Words by Paul Laurence Dunbar The composer 3.

(a)

Dance

(b)

“You’re Sweet to Your

[singing

of the Marionettes

Just the

Same”

J.

Rosamond Johnson

and playing]

Hugh Woolford

Mammy Johnson

Versatile Entertainers Quintette

Dvorak 100

to

Duke

Ellington

4-

vous— Valse

(a)

l out a

(b)

Panama— Characteristic dance

Petite

5.

Wm. Wm.

H. Tyers H. Tvers

Clef Club Orchestra, conducted by the composer (a)

Song, “Jean”

Henry

(b)

Song, “Snwanee River”

Foster

[sic]

T. Burleigh

Miss Elizabeth Payne 6.

Benedictus (from an original Mass)

Choir

of St. Philip's

Church, NY, Paul C. Bohlen, organist

Part 7.

“Swing Along,”

a

Paul C. Bohlen

II

Negro melody

Will Marion

Cook

(See page 10 for words.)

Clef Club Chorus, Will Marion Cook, leader 8.

Piano Solo, Danse Heroique

J.

Rosamond Johnson

The composer 9.

(a)

“Hula” — Hawaiian Dance

Europe

(b)

“On Bended Knee”

Burleigh

Clef Club Orchestra ro.

“By the Waters of Babylon” Choir

11.

of St. Philip's

(a)

Dearest Memories

(b)

The

(c)

Take

(d)

Old Black Joe

Coleridge-Taylor

Church, Paul C. Bohlen, organist

Belle of the Lighthouse

Me

Back

to

Dear Old Dixie

Royal Poinciana Quartette 12.

“The Rain Song,” words by

Alex. Rogers

Will Marion

Clef Club Chorus, Will Marion Cook, assisted by

13.

Cook

leader,

Deacon Johnson’s Martinique Quartette Enrope

(a)

Lorraine Waltzes

(h)

March, “Strength of the Nation,” dedicated to the proposed Colored

Regiment

Europe Clef Club Orchestra

The program encompassed an

impressive mix of

styles,

from banjo-

driven vaudeville tunes to liturgical works for men’s and boys’ choir accom-

The Clef Club Concert

panied by pipe organ. There were formal marches, waltzes, concert virtuoso piano solo, “traditional” choral selections,

the Versatile Entertainers Quintet,

out to be a harbinger of

which had

and

arias, a

ensemble,

a featured

a style of playing that

turned

jazz.

This wide-ranging musical palette was the work of the black music

no one has ever explained why there was not

yet

Joplin’s

on the program. Joplin was

he have been

left out, in light

living in

Harlem

elite,

work of Scott

a single

How could

at the time.

of the global spirit with which Europe selected

the repertoire for the concert?’ sent copies of the program to scholars

1

try

asking

them

help

to

me

locate the

and

collectors across the coun-

music that had long been out of print.

My

special connection at the Library of Congress,

the

American Music Division, sent

a care

Wayne

head of

Shirley,

package of Clef Club pieces,

in-

Wayne went into the chamber of last resort, the Copyright Office hie. From the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University, and from Vincent Giordano, who cluding the band parts for Europe’s “Hi! There! March,” for which

has one of the largest privately

came

sets

owned

collections of musical Americana,

of parts for the “Clef Club March.”

Among

J.

Rosamond Johnson’s

papers at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

I

found the un-

published manuscript of his “Dance Heroique,” a virtuoso piano solo written in a style that

posed cated

while he was a student

it

it

can be best described

to his teacher,

at the

Boulevards

New

meets Joplin.” Johnson com-

England Conservatory and dedi-

Charles F. Deunee, a student of Hans von Biilow.

Another lucky find was the Mass

Church on

as “Liszt

134th Street,

between

in

G by Charles Bohlen. At St.

Adam

sic minister,

A

Gerald Morton.

I

met with

St. Philip’s

pulled open a large metal cabinet. Filed

of choral parts for the

Mass

Samuel Coleridge -

aylor’s

work sung by the choir

Morton

— and before that for Dvorak. asked him of the Mass in G by his predecessor, Charles

by chance he had a copy

He

mu-

choir had once sung at

Carnegie Hall with the Clef Club

Bohlen.

their

very fine organist and conductor,

was, of course, interested to learn that the

if

Malcom X

Clayton Powell and

— previously Seventh and Lenox Avenues —

Philip’s

in

6

among

I

the Bs was a set

G, the same ones used seventy-six years

earlier.

“By the Waters of Babylon,” the other sacred

for the

Carnegie Hall concert, was there

as well.

Coleridge - aylor was hailed in the United States by Booker T. Washington as “the foremost musician of his race,” and, as

we know, he was

vored by the American Negro Academy.' Jim Europe had Coleridge-

1

aylor’s

little

fa-

interest in

music. Nevertheless pressure must have been put upon

him by his younger sister, Mary, the assistant director and the accompanist of the prestigious Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Choral Society of Washington, D.C., established in 1903.

Dv orak 102

to

Duke

Ellington

Mary Europe was

the musical equal of her brother. In 1894,

when

she

was nine and Jim was fourteen, they both entered a citywide composition

Mary took

contest.

the

prize;

first

Jim came

in second. 8

fluence extended into the theater and jazz world as well.

certs,

I

was

sitting

Frank Wess. cert,

We were sharing the Band

Basie

Billy Eekstine,

“I

for ten years with

Goodman, Dizzy first

you are doing the Clef Club concert

see

If it

weren’t for Miss Europe,

con-

Gillespie,

introduce

to

week,"

later this

my music teacher

might not have be-

I

|

come

a musician.”

We had

with Benny

as well as

Dunbar High.

Paul

Frank had played

that evening.

artist

for the Ellington

from Washington, D.C.; Maty Europe was

said Frank. “I’m |

conducting duties

and Eddie Heywood. 9 Frank was one of the

the flute into jazz.

at

backstage in Carnegie Hall with the veteran jazz

which was being given

Count

the

On the opening night of the Landmark Jazz Con-

Porgy, was her student.

first

Mary Europe's inTodd Duncan, the

began engaging

artists to

a lot of explaining to do, for

musicians, as he had been to

were the bass-baritone,

Bill

the trumpeter, Joe Wilder,

and play the Clef Club

sing

repertoire.

James Reese Europe was unknown

me before

I

began

my research. The

I

most

to

exceptions

Warfield; the choral conductor, Jester Hairston;

whose

father

was

a

Clef Clubber; and

a

few of the

“strummers,” the banjo, guitar, and mandolin players.

We engaged the

Boys Choir of Harlem. They would join with the

from the Morgan State University Choir of Baltimore 7

to

form

a

boys’ choir for the sacred works. Following Europe’s example,

Nathan

men and I

invited

Carter, the conductor of the choir, to lead them, as Charles

Bohlen

had done

in 1912.

Johnson’s

“Li’l

And

I

asked William Warfield,

who was

singing

Gal," to act as host and narrator where

I

felt

it

J.

Rosamond

was needed.

thanks to Walter Gould, Morton Gould’s brother and a knowledgeable

publisher of American choral music, Jester Hairston, a living legend,

on board as

men

to lead

came

Will Marion Cook’s “Swing Along" and “The Rain Song,"

Cook had done

in 1912.

10

Sophisticated and proud of his Negro heritage,

the eighty-eight-year-old Hairston

made

the

young

singers

from Morgan State

University comfortable with Cook’s dialect song “Swing Along":

Swing along chillun, swing along de Lif’ yo’

head

Swing along

an’ yo’ heels

lane,

mighty high;

chillun, ’taint agoin’ to rain

Sun’s as red as a rose in de sky.

Come

along Mandy,

White White

come along

Sue;

folks watchin’ an’ seein’

folks jealous

when

what you do,

you’se walkin’ two by two,

So swing along chillun, swing along. 11

The Clef Club Concert 103

Pianist

Leon

Heroique” and

who

to

Bates was engaged to play

Rosamond Johnson’s “Dance

J.

accompany Warfield and mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad,

sang Burleigh’s

art

song “Jean.” 12

Jim Europe’s Clef Club Orchestra was unique. In addition sized orchestra with the standard instrumentation of strings, brasses,

and percussion, there was the

to a salon-

woodwinds,

mass of strumming players who

large

sang— a combination first exploited on a smaller scale by Will Marion Cook and Ernest Hogan in their Memphis Students’ Ensemble (1905), of

also

which Europe was

member.

a

At an earlier Clef Club “Symphony Orchestra” concert

gram

listed sixty-nine

and bandoris

(a

strummers

in

all.

There were

banjo-mandolin hybrid also known twenty-seven

like violins into

many as twelve

thirty-seven

mandolins

as the banjoline), divided

and ten seconds. There were nine tenor

firsts

banjos and twenty-three harp guitars theorbo, with as

1910), the pro-

(c.

(a

modern

version of the Renaissance

unfretted bass strings to pluck). According to

David Mannes, the Clef Club ensemble had “a beautiful

sound

like a gi-

We were able to engage thirty eager strummers in all — ten each

on man-

soft

ant balalaika orchestra.” 13

dolins, banjos,

one found

and guitars— but had given

11s.

Bob Ault heard about

rip

on finding any harp guitarists when

some

the concert through

guitar-banjo

grapevine and offered to drive from Brentwood, Missouri, to take part in

it.

Europe’s uniquely instrumented Clef Club survives in the lore of the banjo, guitar, and mandolin world.

mers played only chords, and by

One story still

told

is

Clef Club strum-

that

Europe himself hinted

ear.

news-

at this in a

paper interview, explaining that his unusual orchestration “gives that peculiar

strumming accompaniment

steady

’ten pianos.’

The

result

of Negro harmony.” 14

can catch anything

way

it’s

I

written,

if

is

a

they hear just

it

once or twice, and

make up something a

But there has dolins

to

and bandoris

be more into

firsts

put

if it’s

just play

“They

too hard for ’em the

else that’ll

former Clef Club

whether the strummers did more than figure, they

essentially typical

also told musicologist Natalie Curtis,

once asked Marion Cumbo,

music they could

and mandolins] and

background of chords which are

Europe

why they

[of guitars, banjos,

go with

cellist

born

it.”

15

in 1898,

rhythm. His answer: “All the

in.” 16

to the story.

Why would

and seconds

in

strum chords? Europe was himself a trained

one divide the man-

symphonic fashion simply

violinist

who

took up the

to

man-

dolin— which is tuned and fingered exactly like a violin — out of expediency. r Some strummers, of course, played by ear. But in order to play the music

that Europe’s

program called

for,

those

who

played

bandori needed an advanced single-string technique

Dvorak 104

to

Duke

Ellington

first

mandolin and

— expert coordination

between

fingered melodies and figures in the

fast

pick in the right. take

them

virtuosos

The

firsts

would

also

need

into the higher positions. As

among

Another

we

left

story

I

were single-string

will see, there

heard from several of our banjoists and in Europe’s orchestra

guitarists

were good singers to

fill

was that

who “ghosted”

in the ranks. Lest

unjoyful noise in their enthusiasm, their instruments were

And why

outfitted with rubber strings. ers

technique that could

a left-hand

on whatever strumming instrument Europe needed

make an

fluttering

Europe’s banjoists.

many of the strummers they

hand and the

wouldn’t pay

for a

mere

singer,

not? In the days

when

nightclub own-

Bing Crosby and Morton Downey

w'ere fitted out with silent guitars or banjos by

Whiteman,

as

was Noble

Sr.

Sissle

by Europe.

Eor our re-creation the singing was the

Morgan

State University

left to

the Boys Choir of Harlem and

Men’s Choir. They were placed on

behind

risers

the orchestra that fanned out in a long crescent across the Carnegie Hall stage.

one

There were

in the center.

also seven pianos spread about, three

either side

and

The piano strummers, who most of the time chorded along

with the rhythm section, were

Club March,”

on

let

as reported in a

Well before the

loose in the ragtime finale of Europe’s “Clef

review of the 1912 event.

rehearsal, urgent requests for parts

first

from strummers. They wanted

to

“woodshed,”

a

began coming

modus operandi

in

that or-

who pride themselves on their sight-reading ability, would rarely admit to. But we did not find parts for these instruments in any of the published orchestrations we located. So began writing mandolin, banjo, chestral players,

I

and

guitar arrangements myself, a task that sent

society

and banjo club publications. And

making

a case for themselves

of the chord

Tom

names onto

and

just in case the

a few' “fakers”

the guitar

me to studying old mandolin

and banjo

rumormongers were

had slipped

in,

I

wrote

many

parts as well.

Show Business, Clef Club probably

Fletcher explains, in his 100 Years of the Negro in

how many,

if

not most, of the strummer-singers of the

learned their parts:

When new songs became party

and

Club]. the

invite Bill Tyers [treasurer

They would

new

After he

popular, the musicians would stage a

songs. Bill

all

and

assistant director of the

Clef

bring their banjos, guitars and mandolins, and

would play them over while the gang

listened.

had played the melody two or three times, they would have

fixed in their minds.

They would

harmony and

in

it

learn the words, an easier matter be-

cause they could read and write. After that the

little

Bill

would teach the boys

about an hour or so everybody was up

to date. 18

The Clef Club Concert

came from a cohort of about five or six guitar, banjo, and mgndolin players who had gotten together to practice on their own. They serenaded me over the phone: “Is this the

A week

or so before our

first full

sound you wanted?" they asked.

was so choked up

I

I

my

could hardly express

how beautifully they blended and how steady and even was rhythm. The best part is the strummers’ crescendo. At our section re-

amazement their

hearsal,

at

found that

I

tremolo that

raises

strummers could produce

thirty

you out of your

Using the “period ear" recordings, I

rehearsal, a call

I

did

some hard

I

a

smooth, swelling

seat.

developed from transcribing 1920s Whiteman

listening to the few

Europe and Cook recordings

could find and wrote orchestrations where they did not exist— in particu-

lar for

The most fun was

Cook’s “Swing Along” and “The Rain Song."

and then orchestrating, Burleigh’s “On Bended Knee.

ing,

find-

In the 1912

Carnegie Hall program booklet, under a section entitled “Words of Songs," a printed text

was included

“On Bended Knee," and

for

the caveat, “With

apologies to the composer for slight rearrangement."

Oh, look away yonder— what do

A band of angels after me. Come to tote me away from

I

fiel’s all

’Cause nobody knows the trouble I

assumed

see?

green

I’ve seen!

was a Burleigh song (with

this

a

borrowed

someone, perhaps William Tyers, had arranged usual combination of singer-players.

I

contacted

it

all

last line),

Clef Club’s un-

my

sources to be on

of

“On Bended Knee"

work by Burleigh

and based upon the old

“Nobody Knows the Trouble

more than

1912,

published

fifty

19

I’ve

Seen." By

— his lifetime total would top four hundred — but no one came up After

in a collection of Burleigh’s

1910.

titled

of Burleigh’s songs and choral arrangements had been

“On Bended Knee.”

with

that

for the

the lookout for a vocal or choral spiritual

and

Each piece

is

ston, Burleigh’s wife

some sleuthing discovered I

the elusive

title

piano pieces, From the Southland, published in

introduced with an inspirational

poem by Louise

Al-

— thus the inclusion of a text, her poem, in the program

booklet.

“On Bended Knee” ends with a musical quotation of the familiar spiritual “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” for which Burleigh devised the most delicious Dvorakian harmonies. The familiar and As one might expect,

moving phrases

cry out,

the unusual palette

if

made

not for words, for available to

hummed support. a cornet

tune produced a fresh “made in America” sound.

106

to

Duke

Ell ington

was drawn

to

me. And the combination of delicately

strumming mandolins, choral humming, and

Dvorak

I

warmly singing the

One

Europe's “Clef Club March” was described in the

final challenge:

reviews as a rousing opener, with the strummers “bursting into singing” at the trio

and masses of ragtime

pianists playing

Henry Creamer’s words nor Europe’s

away

at the end. 20

But neither

rag piano parts appear in the published

them — wrote some appropriate words and

versions.

So

variation

— making sure to add my own caveat: “apologies to the composer for

I

supplied

a piano-rag

liberties taken.”

The

conservative style of most of the Clef

aficionados, who, cert

Club music

upon hearing about our reconstruction

from the early years of the

century',

expected a

lot

surprised even

of an all-black con-

of ragtime syncopation.

But the marches are right out of Sousa, the waltzes from Victor Herbert.

A

few hotter numbers are ragtime inspired: William Tyers’s boisterous havanaise “Panama,” Will

Marion Cook's showstopper “Swing Along,” and the

pieces played and sung by the Versatile Entertainers Quintet.

The out of a

search for the music of the rpr2 Clef

total of

Club Concert was

twenty-one compositions, only

gratifying:

five substitutions

had

to

be

made. For example, the songs performed by the Versatile Entertainers — the

“Dance of

Same

’

and “You’re Sweet

the Marionettes”

— had not come

Moreover,

I

to light, neither

didn’t have a clue as to

Mammy

Your

to

on recordings nor

how

Just the

as sheet

music.

the group might have sounded.

Were they singers, players, or both, and if players, on what instruments? 21 The day of the concert was fast approaching and I was about to give up when Frank Driggs, a jazz historian, came up with a recording of a Versatile Entertainers Quartet (also known as the Versatile Four) that was recorded in Great Britain in February 1916 (His Master's Voice, C-654). Three of the four musicians on the recording were members of the Versatile Entertainers

Quintet

Carnegie Hall

at

in 1912

“banjoline” player; Charles

heard playing on

—

!

They were Anthony Tuck,

Wenzel

Mills, pianist

New Orleans riverboats as early as

and

vocalist

vocalist

1907);

and

(who was

and Charles Wes-

who played cello and drums. summer of 1913, Tuck, Mills, and Johnson were members

ley Johnson,

In the

band sent

to

France by Jim Europe

Cafe de Paris and the Casino

in Deauville.

abroad and established themselves thus the

as

The

and Vernon Castle

at

three Versatiles remained

“household names

England” 22 —

in

HMV recording, which provided me with an authentic example of

their singing

and playing

What heard on I

string

to play for Irene

of a

the

style.

HMV recording was an electrifying virtuoso single-

plucking technique.

No

chording strummers these. The Versatiles’

banjo playing was wild and “jazzy,”

as

was their singing, and

the word “jazz” was yet to be officially introduced to

at a

New York.

t

time

when

Reseuweber’s

he Clef Club Concert

Cafe on Eighth Avenue

Columbus

off

bands, including the Versatile Four,

New

up from

Orleans

— irony

catchy enough to match

its

foi;

Circle had been featuring hot black

some time when

— an

of ironies

its

formances— a an ensemble

own

against the

name

a

If

heard on the

I

we could match

HMV recording

the Versatile’s per-

task— we would demonstrate that there was

Jim Europe’s historic and wide-ranging concert that played

a style of syncopated

music that would soon make

rubric jazz. Admittedly, clarinet,

ODJB.

devilishly difficult

at

band with

all-white

brought

music, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.

But the Versatile Entertainers Quartet could hold

in 1917 they

it is

a place for itself under the

hard to equate banjos with the ODJB’s cornet,

and trombone. But the aggressive drumming of Wesley Johnson,

in

reminds one of ODJB’s Tony Sbarbaro.

particular,

Hanging over

a tape

HMV 78s for hours,

copy of the old

I

transcribed,

note for note, the Versatile Quartet’s performance of “Winter Nights,” by

Schwartz, and Wilber Sweatman’s

thought

“Down Home

to the fact that these songs

Rag.”

I

gave not a second’s

were different from those performed

at

the Clef Club concert in 1912, or that there was one less Versatile Entertainer.

Our four musicians — ban joists Martin (Aubert) Ayodele and Eddy Davis, pianist Frank Owens, and trap drummer 23 Chuck Spies (there was no cello on the

HMV recording) — had the necessary skills and caught the just-before-

jazz at

sounds dead on. At the concert, the audience went wild.

microphone

the

saying, “Eat your heart out,

ODJB,” an

I

found myself

invidious

com-

parison that has since been independently taken up by a team of British jazz researchers:

When

the Original Dixieland Jazz

Band

brought with them a new

1919, they jazz. In all

style of

artists

these groups that preceded

ODJB

But

1

had

less

and

than a week

five or six

to turn the

truly national popular-

fifty-two singers into

times over a two-week pe-

New Clef Club

Orchestra of sixty-

an early-twentieth-century vernacular

that could play waltzes, marches, characteristic pieces,

The musicians we assembled — from mandolin way

pits,

new name,

the Versatile [Quartet] Four. 24

three players

band

a

who came to England many of whom were black. Of

one obtained

Our new Versatile Quartet rehearsed riod.

music with

in April

playing syncopated music

from the end of the nineteenth century,

.

England

other respects, however, they were merely continuing a line

of American

ity ..

arrived in

and ragtime. 25

societies, pizza parlors,

and the rich pool of New York freelancers — easily played

through the marches and waltzes

at the first reading.

But

it

Broad-

their

way

took several passes

before the ragtime tunes began to click into the “eight to the bar” frame. 26

Dvorak 108

to

Duke

Ellington

One for the

might think that playing

in

ragtime

average American musician. But for those brought up on swing, or on

bebop and

rock, not to

mention the

classical repertoire, the playing of rag-

time and the related dance music of the 1920s playing as

would he second nature

style

Swing

particularly difficult.

is

distinguished by a rolling triplet “twelve to the bar" inner beat.

is

And

swing bands and combos moved into the smaller clubs, where they were

danced

listened rather than

to,

swing and bebop players devised ever-looser

time and phrase structures. Lagging behind (playing

off)

the beat

became

the

thing to do.

To

play in ragtime,

nervous dancing

we have

to relearn the

style of the 1920s,

how

way ragtimers supported the

they respected and constantly

and landed squarely on the beat "eight

iterated, reinforced,

to the bar,”

re-

not

twelve.

“Eight

to the bar” 2

denotes that there are eight pulses in a normal four-

come on

beat measure (whether they Joplin, four eighth notes);

accounted

for.

and

four quarter notes or, as with Scott

that every pulse, or subdivision,

is

present and

Joplin illustrates this in his "Ragtime Primer,” lining

up the

notes of a ragtime phrase with vertical dotted lines from bass clef to treble,

from

hand

left

show how

to right, to

to

keep the eight pulses steady and

RAOTIMF SCHOOL OF »y SCOTT JOPLIN Composer at “ Maple Leaf

REMARKSby

all

'What

is

acurriloualy called ragtime

classes of musicians. That

article

-will

be better

is

Rag'.’*

an invention that

is

here to stay. That

is

nowoonoeded

publications masquerading under the name of ragtime are not the gemdna these exercises are studied. That real ragtime at the higher class 1*

all

known when

rather difficult to play is a painful truth whioh most pianists have discovered. Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at"hateful ragtime”no longer passes formusioal culture To assist amateur players in giving the “Joplin Rags” that weird and intoxioating effect intended by the composer is the object of this work .

Exercise No.l. It is evident that, by giving each not*, its proper time and by scrupulously observing the ties, you will get the effect. So many are careless in these respects that we will specify each feature. In this number, strike the first note and hold it through the time belonging to the second note. The upper staff is not syncopated, and is not to be played. The perpendicular dotted lines running from the syncopated note

below to the two notes above will show exactly never play ragtime fast at any time.

Slow march tempo (Count

Figure

From

its

duration

.

Play slowly until you catch the swing, and

Tito)

11.1

Joplin’s School of Ragtime, self published in 1908.

The Clef Club Concert

locked together. Only then can the desired “weird and intoxicating effect” be achieved.

A simple

shifting of accent within the

striking effect.

motor pulse of ragtime creates

For example, an unsyncopated measure “eight accent on the

a natural stress

a

to the bar,” has

of every pair of poises:

first

dada-dada-dada-dada; dividing the bar 2222. If

displace the natural accent of the second pair,

we

habanera

we

get the havanaise or

effect:

dadada-da-dada-dada; dividing the bar 3122 If

we

displace the accent of the

first

Cook

Turkish “belly dance” rhythm

and second

pairs

we

get a variant, the

talks about:

da-dada-da-dada-dada; dividing the bar 12122 Finally,

we

remove the accent of the

the habanera and

we go back to

if

third pair,

get the magical ragtime syncopation:

dadada-da-dada-dada; dividing the bar 332 Joplin loves to

ond

strain

combine

or even further displace these syncopations.

(measures 9-16) of “Maple Leaf Rag”

dada-dada-dadada-da

dadada-dada-dadada

/ /

first

last (off-beat)

/

323

2222 first

measure and not accenting the

two pulses of the second measure, the bar line

of Stravinsky.

sic

/

pulse of the

This displacement of the bar

toire

/

dada-dada-dada-dada;

dividing the phrase 223333

By accenting the

du soldat

line,

I

am

is

displaced or obliterated.

convinced, caught the keen ear

have often performed the “Ragtime Dance” from his L’his-

I

(1918) as

an example of the influence of African American mu-

on European masters. T he work

is

scored for a prototypical ragtime en-

semble-violin, cornet, trombone, clarinet, drums, double interloper, a bassoon rives largely

sec-

an eye-opener:

is

dada-dadadada-dada

The

— but

it

has

become

bass,

and one

me that the entire work de-

clear to

from Stravinsky’s fascination with ragtime’s motor rhythms and

mixed meters,

a

game

of displaced accents where the eighth note

is

king.

The

respected twentieth-century music critic H. H. Stuckenschmidt concurs:

“The polyrhythms we observe

in L'histoire

du soldat would be unthinkable

but for the jazz records which [conductor Ernest Ansermet brought Stravin|

sky from

America during the

First

World

War.” 28

In ragtime, the “weird and intoxicating” Joplin effect

comes from

play-

ing or improvising off-beat, “displaced” accents over a steady and heady beat

Dvorak

no

to

Duke

Ell ington

of eight pulses per measure. gravity'.

Our

bodies, following our ears, take

“Swing" ups the ante, offering more places

And

steady beat of twelve pulses per measure.

for

defying

displacement over a

the pulses can be real or im-

jazz— African American music — everyone

plied, for in

off,

a

is

drummer.

Listening to vocal and jazz band recordings of the 1920s has led

me to be-

lieve that “swing" entered

our consciousness and overtook ragtime through

when

the most popular bands, such as those of Fletcher

the blues. At a time

Henderson and Paul Whiteman, were playing uptempo, two-beat dance tunes with a straight eight-to-the-bar pulse, blues singers such as

Ma Rainey were al-

ready rocking and swinging the slower blues tunes, tentatively on some, like

“Lucky Rock Blues"

(1924),

Black Bottom” (1927). blues recordings that

back-up band

for

even hear some swinging on

I

W.

but with full-out tripletizing in

C. Handy’s

Memphis

Ala Rainey included the

Fletcher Henderson Band

— Coleman

before bands would swing

The

in 1922.

Don Redman, and

Hawkins,

new swing music

notation of the

made

One

saxophone section from the

all-star

It

uptempo tunes twelve

Rainey’s

earlier instrumental

Blues Band

Bailey— and Henderson himself playing piano.

“Ma

was only

a

Buster

matter of time

to the bar as well. 29

did not follow

suit.

Swing arrange-

ments, sheet music, and eventually bebop “charts” were written with even eighth notes! This practice continues today.

The music

looks like “eight to

the bar," but players automatically produce the long-short “twelve to the bar”

rhythm of swing unless

To

practical side to this.

There

specifically told to “play straight eighths.”

is

a

notate the long-short rhythms as they are really

played requires a more complex musical arithmetic, either groupings of quar-

and eighths with

ters

triplet brackets or writing

out the whole thing in

when everyone knows how to do it as Sometimes composers and arrangers who want a swing

12/8,

both of which are tiresome

if

nature.

effect resort

to dotted eighths

and

sixteenths,

which

is

by second

not only rhythmically inaccurate

but tedious to notate as well. 30

Here or I

lies

the danger of putting a sheet of ragtime music in front of jazz

symphonic musicians who are used

have heard

Rhapsody American

in

anachronism intrude

this

by the

Both should know

Domino, feel.

the

into a

tripletizing.

performance of Gershwin’s

lost

its

New York

Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

when Chuck

Berry, Fats

and the Beatles brought back the “eight

to the bar"

hegemony

over popular music

We were due for a change. feel

It

seems

that a

fundamental rhythmic

our bodies in space, occurs about every

emerged around

An

better.

Elvis Presley,

way we

swinging the eighths or

Blue by the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle and

in Paris

Swing

to

1895,

swing began taking over

mid-1950s, right on schedule,

came

rock and

thirty years.

in the late r920S,

shift,

Ragtime

and

in the

roll.

The Clef Club Concert

Jazz musicians

became paranoid. Rock and

Many asked

dance craze they could master. death of swing, of jazz Ellington’s tells in his

sister,

According

itself.

he thought

his

it is

themselves whether

is

not so

young beauties

At about the same time

it

would end

much

was the

The

how

for

move

change

to

in

on her

that his

music

Queenie.)

as the deaths of the principal

keepers of the flame,

movement

sprang up to revive and document the recent past and to reaffirm jazz as first

shot across the

tional treasure,

bow came

launched

“The Entertainer”

a Scott Joplin revival with a period

to top off

Repertory

Within two years Chuck

Hall. 31

Ensemble and George Wein sponsored the

Company under the

In the decade following,

direction of Dick

derson into

New York’s

some of these same Hall,

fancier cabarets

fellow-travelers

and

on the

were rehearsing

for the

“eight to the bar” approach that

the Clef Club repertoire. But Will

I

at

Israels

the

New

founded

New York Jazz

his circle attracted audi-

Whiteman and Luther Hen-

bars,

and

I

found myself with

stages of Town Hall

and Carnegie

conducting Gershwin, Ellington, and Cook where once

When we strict

performance of

Hyman. 32

Vince Giordano and

ences hungry for the acoustic delights of Paul

art.

Schuller, a na-

an all-American orchestral concert

England Conservatory’s Jordan his National Jazz

when Gunther

Alay 1972

in

ter-

go on with his work.

Ellington (1974) and Louis Armstrong (1971), a jazz repertory

The

he

story

about an aging mil-

trying to

at the sea

world had undergone, and his quandary over

how

this

new

Ruth Ellington Boatwright, Duke

about Ellington’s bewilderment

(Ellington never revealed

wasn’t just another

world had been undermined.

opera comique Queenie Pie

lionairess fighting off scheming ritory as

to

roll

I

Clef Club re-creation, was able

to

breathe

did Mozart. it

was with a

into

life

much

Marion Cook’s “Swing Along” was the

of in-

evitable exception that proved the rule.

“Swing Along” was

first

heard in 1903

don production of In Dahomey

33 ,

It

as a

new curtain-raiser for the Lon-

stopped the show

concert and again at our re-creation in 1989.

at the 1912

And although

it is

Clef Club

subtitled “rag-

time march,” “Swing Along” contains elements of blues and swing, anticipating styles that would not be fully established for several decades.

During seeped

in.

rehearsals,

’

tried to

make

to

do exactly what

no rhythmic anachronisms

Cook also wrote the text, said. The words “swzngalong

it

(c/udada dada), though written in even eighth notes, insinuated a

subtle, long-short, tripletlike inner

song, the strutting and joyous

and

sure that

Nevertheless, “Swing Along,” for which

seemed here and there chillun

I

lilt

into the reading.

mood turns

Toward

the end of the

dark and pensive, the music slows,

a harmonic-melodic-textual juxtaposition that

the blues appears: a four-bar phrase turns to

minor

we

usually associate with

as the text

is

repeated, the

tune leans on lowered thirds and sevenths (blue notes), and a tonic-seventh

Dvorak 112

to

Duke

Ellington

chord resolves toward the subdominant (Cook uses a diminished seventh on

The

the raised-fourth scale step).

blues form, whether twelve, sixteen, or eight

bars in length, invariably begins with repeated strains going from

minor and with The

this

W. C. Handy’s “Memphis

1909 and published in either that he was into In

Cook’s bluesy coda

1912.

ahead of his time — as early

Dahomey! — or

he added

that

quent publication by G. Schirmer

as the

in

composed

in

“Swing Along” indicates

as 1898 or 1903

this hint of

in 1914.

when

it

was put

an emerging form into the

We

tried playing this bluesy pas-

when

I

harmonies changed. And of course

I

sage straight, but the section began to

bend the notes

Blues,” was

Clef Club performances and the song’s subse-

final strains for the 1911-12

to

to

order of harmony.

blues,

“first”

major

make

sense only

asked the band let

the straight

eighths swing.

Jon Pareles, in the .

.

.

New York

brought

“the most

who

my re-creation

reviewed

Times (July

memorable

remarked that our “rainbow coalition

17, 1989),

to life a fascinating

of the 1912 Clef Club concert

moment

pieces were by Will

in

American music.” Noting

Marion Cook

.

.

.

that

dialect songs that

maintained their tuneful directness,” Pareles saw Cook’s line “White

folks

watchin’ to see what you can do,” from “Swing Along,” as “slyly appropriate to the original concert.” Pareles

summed up

those black musicians who, like Jessye sical tradition,

Wynton

Marsalis,

in different nority' to

those

who had

passed

had conquered

ways since 1912

.

.

.

at the

Norman, had triumphed

it

in the clas-

by completely, and those who,

“as a sideline”

[and that]

make themselves heard

shadowed

it

the evening by pointing out that

all

have “proved themselves

those ways for

in the majority’s

like

members

of a mi-

musical culture were fore-

Clef Club.” 34

The Clef Club Concert

12

Cook

Will Marion

I

have been intrigued by Will Marion Cook, a catalytic figure and an angel

of black music

who seems

to

show up

for a short yet efficacious

notable African American music event, from the 1890s to

Dvorak

to

The sic

in

Duke

II,

from

Cook and bis association with symphonic mumind when he was preparing for his first appearance

conservatory-trained

Carnegie Hall: “[Cook] was

things he used to Black,

tell

me

Brown and

viser to countless Jessye,

World War

at every

Ellington.

was on Ellington’s

poem

time

I

a brief

but strong influence

never got a chance to use until

Beige.’” 1

American

music educator and

artists

.

...

.

I

Some

.

of the

wrote the tone

“Doc” Cook was mentor, guide, and/or besides Ellington.

Among them

original choirmistress for Porgy

ad-

were Eva

and Bess and Four

Saints in Three Acts; the composer Harold Arlen; and the jazz saxophonist

Sidney Bechet,

whom Cook discovered

in

acter in Josef Skvorecky’s historical novel

radio broadcasts spring

Cook

is

up every time he

Dvorak

in

is

the central char-

Love, 2 and articles and

rediscovered. 3

A full

biography of

long overdue, but here are some highlights.

After the success of Clorindy,

through the early

The

last

Cook

1910s, directing

songs for shows, and conducting. zation.

is

Cook

Chicago.

and arranging

He

also tried his

of the Williams and

(1907), featured Cook’s scena “T* Ain’t

Alec Rogers. In

it,

four

men

(a

rode out the wave of black musicals for choruses,

hand

at

composing

musical dramati-

Walker musicals, 4 Bandanna Land

Gwine Be No

male quartet) drop

in

Rain,” with words by

on Simmons’s house,

n5

sit

around the wood

stove,

and have

a

sung debate about signs of impending

“Any time you hear de cheers .an'

rain:

rheumatics dey last

words

also

performed

jints

on de rack

is

in four-part

tables crack

‘Look out

/

harmony). The scena,

at the 1912

/

An' de folks wid

fu' rain, rain, rain

retitled the

.

.

(the

!”

.

“Rain Song,” was

Clef Club concert and was warmly received

at

our

1989 re-creation.

Cook’s theatrical

sensibilities,

and

marriage of black ver-

in particular his

nacular text and music, are evidenced in some of his other works from

around the same time: “Exhortation: Alex Rogers

A Negro

Sermon,” again with words by

and “An Explanation: The Scene, the Charge, the Ex-

(1912);

Weldon Johnson (1914). These dramatic settings were as close as Cook would get to the Negro opera he was never able to complete. Besides “Uncle Tom's Cabin” and

planation,” a

scene with words by James

trial

“Saint Louis ’Ooman,” mentioned by

Cook

memoir, he was working

in his

with his son Mercer on an opera about the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint

L’Ouverture in his

last years.

Cook and Mercer must have

cannot help but wonder what inner conflicts

I

suffered

when Cook’s wife and

Mercer’s mother

world premiere of Gershwin’s “American folk opera,” Porgy

appeared

in the

and

Abbie Mitchell brought her sophisticated musicianship and

Bess.

time of stage experience

“Summertime” marks

No doubt the In

Dahomey.

to the role of Clara,

the opening

moments

whose sublime rockabye

Palace in 1903,” Abbie Mitchell

Dahomey company went

off to

tells

how Cook and

other

Buckingham Palace

London

at their

London production

of

memoir, “A Negro Invasion of Buckingham

day of nine-year-old Prince Edward, the future

remained behind

aria

of the opera. 5

highpoint of Cook’s career was the

In an unpublished

a life-

to

Duke

members

perform

of the In

for the birth-

of Windsor, while she

lodgings with Mercer, their

newborn baby,

disappointed and confused that she had not been included. 6

At the palace, King George let?

— referring to Mitchell

V

by the

first

‘Where

is

‘She ain’t no vio-

line of the song,

“Brownskin Baby

inquired,

Mine,” which stopped the show on opening night — and sent footman and

a private carriage to fetch her. “His Majesty, the

up the performance 1

until

I

in

In

Dahomey'

which “Brownskin Baby Mine” During

this

in twenty-two-year-old

London, who was moved

Cakewalk Smasher

time

King

(Where

is

Cook had

116

to

Duke

Ellington

.

held

is

a

for solo

to

compose what he

called his

piano (completed in 1909), in

freely quoted.

chance meeting

in

London with

his old vi-

“Wo

ist

die

Cook proudly told him he was now a comown music at the Shaftesbury Theatre. 8 Cook

tne violin?),

poser and was conducting his

Dvorak

.

Percy Grainger,

olin teacher, Joseph Joachim. In response to Joachim’s inquiry

Ceige?

.

arrived,” wrote Mitchell.

he show had another devotee

newly arrived

his liveried

New York

and Mitchell returned

to

London

might explain why he

success. This

1904-5 season

for the

felt

and White which opened

same

that spring at the

,

had only recently triumphed. Principal

high on their

on

safe to take

music director of The Southerners

controversial, project:

theater

A

:

his next,

Study

where

In

in

all-black chorus.

Black

Dahomey

were played by whites

roles

The Southerners bravely employed an

face, but

it

still

in black-

The New

York Times reported:

When .

.

the chorus of real live coons walked in for the cake

mingling with white members of the

.

night

there were those in the

who trembled in their seats. T he Negro composer of the Mr. Will Marion Cook succeeded in harmonizing the racial

audience score

cast,

last

.

.

.

.

.

.

broth as skillfully as he had harmonized the score. 9

Cook’s triumphs

Schirmer

Clef Club concert led

at the 1912

with G.

to a contract

choruses and scenas. In 1918 he or-

for the publication of his dialect

ganized the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, a jazz orchestra with

Whiteman’s hybrid orchestras by almost

string contingent that anticipated

The Syncopators

decade.

Cook and

his orchestra set out

jazz sh ies, this time with

bought

his first

a

also sang spirituals a cappella. In the spring of 1919

on

a

up where James Reese Europe

take

a large

European

left off,

Sidney Bechet

soprano sax while

in

he expected

tour. I’m sure

to

introducing the newest American

as the leading soloist.

Bechet also

London. T he Syncopators opened

at the

Royal Philharmonic Hall, impressing the Swiss conductor Ernest Anser-

met — “the astonishing ing”— and garnered

ham and

a

perfection, the superb taste, the fervor of

second

command performance

Palace featuring Bechet and

members

their

own.

Theater

A reorganized

in 1921.

Back

Cook

much

chestra that toured with a musical

show

Bucking-

Europe

of the tour, but

to

many

form small bands on

Syncopators appeared in Montmartre

in the LJnited States,

at

of the band. Internal bickering

a tragic boating accident literally scuttled

of the players, Bechet included, remained in

for

play-

its

Cook formed

at the

Apollo

Clef Club Or-

a

that included the singer

and actor

Paul Robeson. 10

Cook’s furiously guarded self-respect seems 1927. In a letter published in the tises

Carl

veals a

Van Vechten

broken

Men

like

not ours.

have suffered a setback

New York News on

for his controversial

October

29,

Cook

in

chas-

book Nigger Heaven 11 and

re-

spirit:

you can stop our habit of weak imitation. The

You

tell

us that Anglo-Saxon civilization

the only right one. evil.

to

Then you

You

expect

tell

11s

to

us that

all

white

is

is

good,

fault

is

yours,

the best perhaps all

black,

bad and

he proud of and develop something that

Will Marion

Cook

we have been

taught

is

Help us

inferior.

to

develop a race conscious-

ness, a pride of things Negroid.

Cook then names Negro artists who have “reached the heights” and those “unfinished artists who need heaps of study.” In a closing paragraph Cook gives vent to his bitter disappointment:

Too much

praise

years from

becoming

and too

I

came

end of his

fail

as has

.

.

earned

Now

a master.

humanity, of the Arts and does not

easily

Cook was

his pride.

He

and wrote pathetic

letters to

the

Jews,

responded with a special grant.

remark made

teristic

Americans

to

to

when he was remember him. There were

in the 1940s,

apparently quite

ill,

some

The

royalty

mostly alone,

letters

money coming

me

remind

in.

Along,”

a great

far cry

from the Clef Club Concert of

many

which

.

.

.

and

all

lilting,

press present,

and there was

a

stir

how

I

intend

and the en-

when

the or-

“Swing

the musicians, while playing their fiddle or jerking

tune in good four-part har-

swelling, thunderously bursting forth

and winding up

is

representative white musicians

their banjos, joined in singing this rousing

in a frenzy.

storm of applause, there

w-as

When

it

no one

once that he had heard the

.

.

.

on the big fermata,

had ended, followed by

in the

audience that did not

“real thing,” the true

a feel

Southern Negro

Idiom, worked out with clever musicianship and genial verve into a truly artistic manifestation. 13 j

Dvorak 118

to

AS-

of an uncharac-

chestra started to play the fascinating rhythms of Cook’s

for

toward the

American Society of Composers,

the hero of Carnegie Hall,

New York musical

mony,

race

into madness.”

1912,

tire

my great genius

me by John Lewis: “Our country drives many African

Cook’s disillusionment seems a

May 2,

as a lover of

lashed out at publishers, whites, and

Arrangers, and Publishers trying to keep

CAP

to see that

is

for thirty-five

Your job

late.

Cook wrote

maintain

to

too

me

kept

Will Marion Cook.

.

(he died in 1944). 12

and struggling

it is

as a critic,

across a series of letters that

life

money

Duke

Ell ington

D George Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique The scene

is

a beautiful theater of the

Champs-Elysees,

filled

among whom one

with an audience of more than 2,000 people

can distinguish James Joyce, Serge Koussevitsky, Ezra Pound, Darius Milhaud, Nadia Boulanger, Marcel

Knopf

.

.

.

Duchamp,

Alfred

each and every one buzzing with the excitement

and expectation of hearing

for the first

George Antheil! who proceeded

to

time anywhere

.

.

.

outsack the “Sacre”

with the aid of a Pleyela.

—Aaron Copland,

in

Aaron Copland and Vivian

Perlis,

Copland: 1900 through 1942

When

I

was

no small way intrigued by

in

set

out to re-create George AntheiPs 1927 Carnegie Hall concert,

rious" Ballet

Mecanique which

his avant-garde signature piece, the “noto-

started riots in Paris at the

,

Theatre Champs-

Elysees in June of 1926 and laid an egg the following year, April

New York’s Carnegie

Hall.

memoirs by musicians

I

Few American music

histories

10, 1927, in

and contemporary

mention the Ballet Mecanique

as well as others fail to

— and for the most part, derisively: Deems Taylor, “as a comedy hit

it

was one

of the biggest successes that ever played Carnegie Hall”; Gilbert Chase, “An-

made

theil

the headlines and reaped the ephemeral rewards of a succes de

Goldman

scandale ”; and Richard Franko

“The

(son of

greatest public sensation of the time.”

1

Edwin Franko Goldman)

Now

that

I

have studied, per-

formed, and recorded the immensely complex, original Ballet Mecanique, it

pains

me to see how the

music, in

my view a fascinating work of genius that

represents yet another strain in our jazz-age lineage, was eclipsed by the

hoopla surrounding

New York’s Ballet lines

half

dozen

Mecanique caused

began

at

daily papers its

to appear: “‘Ballet

Boiler Factory to

it.

Seem

as

Quiet

were fed

Paris debut.

stories

about the

Cartoons and provocative head-

Mecanique’ To Din Ears of New York / Makes as

Rural Churchyard”; “Seeks a Technic

Express Skyscrapers and Subways in Tone”; “A Riot of Music.”

placed in the fashionable

the

riots

New

[sic]

An

ad

Yorker magazine unblushingly declared

it

n9 *

Figure

13.1

Miguel Covarrubias sketch of George Antheil.

Courtesy of Maria Elena Rico Covarrubias.

New Yorker

would be “an event no in

America of George Antheil

can afford

to

in a concert of his

miss— the

own

Antheil was apparently determined to attract as sible,

good or bad — it didn’t seem

to

matter— even

The musical

ambitious and revolutionary work.

were forewarned. They were being invited

first

appearance

works.”

much

at the

publicity' as pos-

expense of his most

public and the critical press

to witness

and participate

in a

Dadaist cause celebre.

A

stellar array

opened with

a

new

of

artists

was assembled

for the concert.

The

first

half

performed by the Musical Arts Quartet.

string quartet

T his was followed by the Second Sonata

for Violin,

Piano and Drum, played

— immortalized in the Gershwins’ party song “Mischa, Yascha, Toscha, Sascha — with Antheil presiding at the piano and

by violinist Sascha Jacobsen

”

2

on the Arab drum. W. C. Handy’s “all-negro” orchestra, under the direction of Allie Ross, closed the

first

again with Antheil as piano the Ballet

half with another premiere,

soloist.

The

entire

A

Jazz

Symphony

second half was taken up with

Mecanique which employed an unusual ensemble of multiple ,

,

pi-

anos and sundry percussion instruments, including a so-called “aeroplane propeller,”

Dvorak 120

to

under the direction of the

Duke

Ellington

British

conductor Eugene Goossens,

with Antheil presiding over an especially constructed Welty-Mignon player piano.

AntheiPs erstwhile concert manager, the publisher and Broadway pro-

ducer Donald Friede, carried the ther by for

commissioning

Carnegie Hall! In

set

his

jazz-

and machine-age metaphors even

designer Joe Mullens to create two backdrops

book “F/op Mecanique

Friede describes the scene at the concert. For the entire

back of the stage was covered by

first

painted drop that showed

a

American

flag in

hand, while the

around the buttocks.

cally

suspended

a

71

,

half of the concert, the

Negro couple dancing the Charleston, the left

—

The Mechanical Angel

a gigantic

her

fur-

man

girl

holding an

clasped her enthusiasti-

For the Ballet Mecanique there was

...

cyclorama with a

futuristic city of skyscrapers as the

background. In the foreground was a

series of

enormous noise making

machines.

Add

unwieldy, overblown version of the Ballet Mecanique that

to this the

Antheil assembled. There were ten “live” pianists, eight more than had ap-

peared in

Paris,

engaged

at the

urging of the Baldwin Piano

Company, which

Among them

were two young

provided nine-foot concert grands for

all.

American composers, Aaron Copland and Colin McPhee. They were joined by eight xylophonists and four bass drummers from the

monic, and

at least four

read music)

who were

“mechanical

effects” persons

which produced an amazing

sat

at the

America

to

music.

edge of the

He

lost,

and thudding

clusters.

Goos-

Rochester Philharmonic and teach

to lead the

for his

performances of new and

stage.

to

on and

offstage.

This must have been anticipated by

judge by his description of the rehearsals:

The moment tailed

rolls,

led this ungainly collection standing atop a table at the

Mayhem followed, Goossens,

didn’t

variety of disembodied, wild, machinelike

Eastman Conservatory, was known

difficult

(who probably

Antheil overseeing his piano

sprays of sound, ragtime licks, long ostinatos,

who came

Philhar-

assigned to a battery of electric bells, a siren, and “aero-

plane propellers .” 4 Front and center

sens,

New York

the percussion instruments were added

teamwork [between the

“live” pianos

ensued.

complished only

According

to

I

tried to

temper

a tolerable

blew the audience into

disarray.

fray,

near pande-

this at the final rehearsal,

balance

some accounts

of the de-

and the player piano] was

and when the aeroplane propellers joined the

monium

much

but ac-

5 .

of the concert, the “aeroplane propeller”

Some responded

airplanes out of pages torn from their programs

and

in

kind by making paper

floating

them

George Antheil’s

at the stage.

Ballet

Mecanique

Drawn Figure

for the

Herald Tribune h\

J

.

.

S.

I

OUSCV

13.2

Cartoon of Ballet Mecanique concert. Drawing for the

An

New York

Herald by T.

S.

Tousey, April

out-of-control siren continued wailing

and the dignified walking

stick.

Deems

critic

is

away well

after the

Taylor raised a white

flag

Mecanique w as heard r

piece ended,

on the

affair as a

of his

tip

bad

joke,

persists.

Sixty-two years passed before

what

1927.

The reviews that followed treated the whole

and so began the legend, which

real Ballet

12,

my

restaging of the 1927 concert

again.

Two years

later

came

the

and the

first

CD of

arguably the most revolutionary American work of the twentieth

century. 6

The American filmmakers

Man

Ray and Dudley Murphy had been

shooting lengths of film in Paris in 1923-24, preparing a

Dvorak

to

Duke

Ellington

satirical

Dadaist

mon-

Ballet

Figure

Mecanique

13.3

Photograph of a Picabia sculpture entitled Ballet

Mecanique

tage with the intended

Francis Picabia.

The

Picabia’s Dadaist

made ring,

out of axle

resembled a

title

of Ballet Mecanique after an abstract sculpture by

sculpture,

which appeared

as a

magazine 39 1 (“Dessin de Machine," August 1917), was supports from a Model- Ford that, when formed into a ’

1

circle of curvaceous ballerinas leaning out

The filmmakers

ran out of money, but Ezra

film

name and

a

to the

rescue

Leger lent

his all-

Chaplinesque sculpture that was animated

for the

and — to the dismay of Man Ray and

film’s editing.

American film, to

and backward. 7

Pound came

by getting the French painter Fernand Leger into the important

photo on the cover of

act.

Murphy— also got involved

in the

At the same time Pound proposed that Natalie Barney, an

heiress

and patron of the

be composed by his

arts,

new young

underwrite a musical score for the protege, the

American composer

George Antheil. Born

in

Trenton,

New

Jersey, July 8, 1900, Antheil

can composer of avant-garde music

to

be taken

was the

at all seriously in

George Antheil’s

first

Ameri-

Europe.

Ballet

He

Mecanique 12 3

established himself as a singular concert pianist dapest,

and composer

in Berlin,

Bu-

and Vienna during the 1922-23 season — “he comes from the dance

and becomes, with the dance rhythms, In addition to his

He then moved to Paris. and Bach— his own pieces,

electrical/' 8

mainstays— Chopin, Debussy,

Sonata Sauvage “Mechanisms,” and the Airplane Sonata, which exploited ,

his

demonic technique, provoked welcome demonstrations among the

prone Dada

set.

With Ezra Pound’s

of the intellectual, literary, and visual

The

practice of

accompanying

became

help, he

riot-

“notorious,” a darling

arts circuit. 9

silent films with

piano music had long

been established, and ragtime was often the vernacular music of choice. was

a short logical step for Antheil

youth

— who

It

played for the “silents” in his

— to compose music for a player piano, or a Pianola,

10

some

of it in rag-

time, for this “American” film.

The Pianola

is

an instrument— some might say

a

machine — that can

convert any normal piano into a “reproducing” player piano.

about the

size

and shape of a small spinet but

it

powered by

The

when

front of the Pianola contains a player-piano

foot pedals, with the usual spools

fed “digital” information,

it

into a

mechanism,

and tracker bar exposed.

punched out on paper

is

positioned

normal concert grand or upright, convert

in front of a

player piano.

cabinet

has no keyboard or piano

works. At the back of the Pianola are eighty-eight levers that,

and secured

Its

rolls,

It is

that pneumatically sets

the piano keys in motion. For our purposes, the terms player piano, Pianola,

and the French Pleyela are interchangeable. Antheil's player-piano score was transferred onto

hand,

at the

Maison Pleyel

factory

jector

nine

rolls,

and Pianola speeds

who

collected

in a

new music, such

as

of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. u Since film pro-

are adjustable, an exact coordination

age and sound was theoretically possible, and to of the “silent” film Ballet

punched out by

and made available commercially

three-roll set for player-piano enthusiasts

Pleyel’s version, in

rolls,

Mecanique

this

between im-

day contemporary prints

retain the title credit

“Synchronisme

Musical de George Antheil.” The collaboration between the filmmakers and Antheil was short

lived.

The film and the music had already assumed separate lives by the fall of 1924, when they were premiered independently within five days of each other. 12 “ Ballet

Mecanique,

a film

by Feger,” was presented in silence

at a

Musik und

Theaterfest organized in Vienna by the architect, sculptor, painter, and stage

designer Frederick Kiesler on September

25.

13

Ballet Mecanique, the Pianola

music, was “played” (foot-pedaled) by Antheil on a single player piano, private hearing in Salle Pleyel

on September

16,

at a

before an audience that in-

cluded the James Joyces, the Hemingways, Natalie Clifford Barney, and

Dvorak 124

to

Duke

Ellington

other Paris intellectuals. Benoist-Mechin wrote an ecstatic revue for La revue

european. Janet Planner

summed

it

“Good but

up,

Antheil soon began searching for ways

hoped

to

awful.”

expand

At

his score.

he

first

pianos to a single player piano or Pianola mecha-

to attach sixteen

nism. Like several other of his ideas,

proved to be beyond the reach of the

this

available technology. Pie then wrote additional parts onto the player piano

score for electric bells and “aeroplane motors,” noisemakers that

company

would

ac-

the player piano: a version that was never performed.

Finally, in 1926 Antheil wrote out a

carefully scratched out in

driving force of the

pen and

new score, 399

densely packed pages

Above the old Pianola music — the

ink.

work which remained intact— he created

parts for a per-

cussion ensemble: two “live" pianos, three xylophones, and four bass drums.

The noisemaking machines were now

clearly identified as eleven electric

doorbells (of specific pitch) and three airplane propellers “large

wooden,” and “metal” — to which he added

was the scandalous score performed

in Paris in 1926

a fire

and

— “small wooden,” engine

in

siren.

This

New' York the

fol-

lowing year.

The

was radically 1952-53.

The Paris-NewYork player-piano version recomposed by Antheil when he finally had it published in

story does not

end

there.

By dispensing with the player piano and long

the work’s most original and novel far

more

practical to perform.

The

stretches of silence

concept— Antheil made

to disturb

upon by Antheil

or his publisher.

It

— was, for obvious

would be

One

ho did not have the

reviewer, w

with which to compare, wrote that with the creation of the

is

version

better not

any publicity value the 1950s revision might inherit from the “scan-

dalous” work of the 1920s.

“‘Ballet

new

extent of the revision— the rolls contain

twenty-seven minutes of music, the revised version sixteen reasons, not dwelled

the

—

Mecanique’

.

.

.

now sounds

like

an ebullient and

original score

new

version,

lively piece that

actually pretty in places.” 14

In the spring of 1988, a in

up

Blue ” concert in

made

it

West Coast

convenient

an abandoned church

for

tour of

me

“

The Birth of the Rhapsody

to visit the

in Berkeley, California,

scores of the Jazz

Symphony and

sion of the Ballet

Mecanique were

Antheil Archive, set

where the holograph

the 1926 Paris-New York player-piano verstored.

It

w^as also the

home

Amirkhanian, avant-garde composer, Pacifica Radio new music theil’s I

of Charles

host,

and An-

musical executor.

my

re-

would be simple compared with the search

for

had naively assumed that gathering together the music

creation of Antheil’s concert

for

the Clef Club concert music, or the transcribing of old recordings for the Aeolian Hall concert.

The

revised score of the Ballet

Mecanique could be found

George Antheil’s

Ballet

Mecanique

in

any good music

library,

and

were available

parts

for hire

from Antheil’s

publisher, as was material for the other works on the program. All

would

it

take was a telephone call. After only a cursory score,

I

thumb-through of the Ballet Mecanique holograph

realized that the published revised score was but a distant relative of

the original before me.

We would

New York player-piano

version at our forthcoming concert.

The

of course have to play the 1926-27 Paris-

archive had neither a matching set of orchestral parts nor a set of the

all-important player piano rolls that corresponded with the wild music metic-

ulously laid out in the score.

New

parts for the “live” instruments

could be

extracted from the score, but the player-piano rolls were another story.

Locating an original

set

of

and

rolls

top priority, a search that soon had player-piano enthusiasts, piano roll

copiers

a proper player piano

me

became my

floundering in a netherworld of

roll collectors,

piano

roll

suppliers,

and piano

— the pirates and the legal ones. This arcane community was of

course divided into warring camps.

It

was not until Amirkhanian put

me

in

touch with Rex Lawson, a professional British “Pianolist,” and his partner,

Dennis Hall, president of the Friends of the Pianola both of whom I

live

and breathe Pianola

Institute of

history, science,

stopped being spun one way and another.

I

and

England,

repertoire, that

was particularly fortunate

ing led to Lawson, because he could coordinate piano

roll

in be-

performances with

a conductor. 15

When designed

to

Rex Lawson “plays” the Pianola, he actually humanizes what was be an automaton.

He

uses foot pedals to work the bellows,

with his knee he guides a speed controller.

make

it

He also works a series of levers that

possible to bring out particular passages in the high,

registers of the

concert,

piano

Lawson

at

medium,

or low

hand. During rehearsal breaks for our Carnegie Hall

entertained,

and exasperated, our eight

“live” pianists with

well-realized performances from rolls of the most difficult

adding expression and rubato with I

and

Chopin

etudes,

real artistry.

learned that there was a set of original Ballet Mecanique

rolls at

the

They had been presented by Antheil to his Mary Louise Curtis Bok. But the Curtis Insti-

Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

American sponsor,

principal

tute librarian

would not allow the

belief that they were fragile

and

rolls to

that

leave the premises in the mistaken

once played on

a Pianola they

would be

compromised. 16

The Antheil one of the piano rolls

“live” pianists

rolls.

He had

we engaged

us.

Marc-Andre Hamelin of Canada,

to play for

our re-creation, also collected

only recently bought an original set of Ballet Mecanique

— for fifty cents! — at the annual deaccession sale held by the Music Di-

vision of the

Dvorak 126

gods were watching over

to

New York

Duke

Ellington

Public Library and was happy to lend

them

for the

concert.

me

I

immediately sought

whole subset of piano

to a

have a

to

set

of back-up

rolls

made, which led

computer

roll copiers: digital

copiers, photo-

graphic copiers and mechanical-transfer copiers, each one insisting that theirs

was the only reliable system.

off to

Lawson

London with

in

a

I

had

digital copies

photocopy of the

made and

sent

them

score so he cordd pre-

full

pare for the concert.

Lawson drew horizontal on the

lines

lines

on the

him

score, thus enabling

to follow

the middle of a roll during rehearsals.

how

glided past the brass tracker bar, which

hands

correspond with the bar

my beats and find his place in

By performance time

ends of tricky runs by peeking over

to catch the

pianist’s

rolls to

is

at the

had learned

I

moving

roll as

it

not very different from watching a

bring in the orchestra at the end of solo piano runs in the

to

Beethoven Fourth Piauo Concerto.

Vince Giordano had connections to

in the

Pianola world and arranged

have Randy Herr, a restorer of player pianos, run through the

worked up quite piano while I

sweat— on

a

made

I

for the startling

music the

music of a complexity beyond the playing

human hands

that

which separates

it

— he

foot-powered Steinway concert grand player

his

a cassette recording for study purposes.

was not prepared

rolls

stemmed from

rolls

17

produced, a

futurist

even four,

capabilities of two, or

Antheil’s unique “time canvas” concept,

from most music yet composed by

1924.

This was the

Pi-

anola music that captivated the Joyces and the Hemingways in Salle Pleyel.

As

a

“Synchronisme Musical,”

Dudley Murphy’s

Now that festations,

Antheil in

it

Man

would have overwhelmed

Ray and

film.

come to know the Ballet Mecanique in all of its maniI understand why both Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland held awe. In his autobiography Virgil Thomson quotes from a letter he I

have

wrote about Antheil from Paris in the winter of 1926-27:

My estimate have been cility

let

of

him

justified

as “the first

had

it

composer of our generation” might

not turned out eventually that for

and ambition there was

in

him no power

Mecanique,” written before he was

of growth.

.

all his fa-

.

.

The

twenty-five, remains his

Bal-

most

original work. 18

Copland described

his reaction to the Paris

his friend Israel Citkowitz: “I

conviction

— the boy

which shows

it.”

is

am

a genius.

honestly

Need

I

premiere in a 1926

bound

to repeat

add that he has yet

my

letter to

unshakable

to write a

work

19

Despite the disclaimer, Copland carried his enthusiasm back from Paris to

New York

that

same year and, ever the supporter of patronage

for his fel-

low composers, talked up the idea among friends of bringing Antheil back

for

George Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique 12 7

a concert.

Copland

called

I

in 1989 to invite

him

to

while hoping that he would be a font of information.

memory of the Carnegie

tle

Paris

He

he had but

said

‘'lit-

Hall event,” but he did remark that “Antheil had

by the ear!”

At the archive piano concerto, a

onr re-creation, mean-

photocopy

was

I

titled

for

on the

ication that appears

an

earlier

title

page:

theiPs Carnegie Hall concert

By holding

up

an

earlier one.

tle

and dedication: “Americana

it

was already familiar with

I

through

it

perfomance 20 and recognized the ded-

“To Evelyn Friede

[wife of

Donald, An-

manager] with appreciation and affection.” But

with the actual manuscript in hand,

October

examine the holograph score of AntheiPs

A Jazz Symphony.

had used

I

also able to

I

saw that

to the light

for

I

this

dedication was pasted over

discovered the work’s original

Whiteman and

Paul

ti-

his orchestra, Paris,

1925.”

Antheil evidently composed his Americana for Whiteman’s second “Ex-

periment

in

Modern Music,” which was held

ber 29, 1925, hoping to follow,

“experiment.”

It

if

can be no coincidence that within

Rhapsody

Copland and Antheil began composing AntheiPs Americana was scored,

piano and

a

Carnegie Hall on Decem-

not overtake, Gershwin’s success at the

the enthusiastic reception given the

certos.

in

their

as

in

own

news of

a year after the

Blue reached

first

Paris,

both

jazz-inspired piano con-

was the Rhapsody

in

Blue

,

for solo

hybrid jazz orchestra. 21

For reasons unknown, Americana was not included on the Whiteman concert; the big

Monday

Blue

new piece

of the evening was a revised version of Gershwin’s

Blues under a

new

title,

135th Street.

only to be brought out for AntheiPs

shelf,

own

Americana went on the

1927 Carnegie Hall event un-

own new title, A Jazz Symphony. To go Whiteman, and Gershwin, one better, W. C. Plandy’s “all Negro” orchestra was engaged to perform it, with der

its

Antheil as piano

Handy too

soloist.

evidently found the mixed, Stravinskyesque rhythms of the work

complex and

enlisted Allie Ross, associate conductor of the

my own

phony,

to take over.

Tyers’s

and Jim Europe’s Clef Club dance bands, appeared

olin soloist with the to follow

Ross was a musician after

Harlem Symphony, and

Louis Armstrong

at

heart.

led a hot jazz

Harlem Sym-

He

played in

as a classical vi-

band good enough

Connie’s Inn in 1929. 22

Ross and Handy’s orchestra were allowed unlimited rehearsals, twentyfive in all.

of

Harlem

Most of the

later

millionairess

ones were held in the ballroom of the mansion

Madame

A’lelia

the hair-care entrepreneur, Ellington’s

comique Queenie

From theil

model

J.

Walker,

for the title role in his

opera

Pie.

reports, Ross

and the orchestra made the piece

their

own. An-

noted on the holograph that “‘A Jazz Symphony’ received an ovation

Dvorak 128

all

Walker, daughter of C.

to

Duke

Ellington

at

— a fact usually forgotten because of the scandal of the Ballet

premiere

its

Mecanique which followed

it.” 2

’

During the intermission of the premiere performance, Samuel Chotzinoff, critic for the

A

New

York World interviewed Gershwin and others about

Jazz Symphony, which they had just heard. Gershwin remarked,

compare

can't

sonance

.

.

.

Antheil’s jazz with mine.

He

deals in polytonalities

was

jazz

fine.” Gilbert Seldes

phony was simply grand. ”

than Stravinskv. J

The

loose use of the

New York to the

Gershwin and

to

word “jazz” was

word

music

better

noun, and

it

was

typical of the time. “Jazz”

was being tacked onto every

dance band or symphony orchestra that had the

or blues. Louis

said succinctly,

24

moving from verb for

dis-

was the most enthusiastic: “The jazz sym-

better jazz than

It is

and

and the French. His music has moments of

follows Stravinsky

humor.” The unusually gifted actor and singer Paul Robeson

“The

“I really

Armstrong had only recently,

fast

music

sort of

slightest hint of ragtime

introduced

in the fall of 1924,

the sort of open-ended improvisation for which

we now

reserve

jazz.

A Jazz Symphony

posed no unusual challenges

to Ivan Davis,

our

vir-

tuoso solo pianist, nor to our excellent orchestra of freelance jazz musicians

and studio players who played

for

ous maxixe played by the

orchestra and punctuated by raucous glissan-

full

dos on the slide trombones;

our re-creation concert.

could easily be mistaken

it

It

opens with a

for a

joy-

work by Gersh-

win or Ellington. But the piece quickly turns toward parody, quoting from Joplin’s “Entertainer”

and

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring

as well as a long-forgotten rag

tune

that,

and

”

Lees was right about Antheil’s obsession with

tune shows up in three of the four works offered it

at

Symphony, and

denza of his Second Sonata

Toward

it

solo over a steady (four-four)

all

his

work

as

.

.

.

My

it

makes

a strong

show-

Symphony, Antheil

beat— not,

as

would-be jazz

writes a

would be expected,

upon the

to in his 1927

for the fea-

player to “emis

probably

program notes when he described

“an expression of the American Negro in symphonic music, a

action towards

sound

‘Oh

Baby.” This

the tricks of the trade.” This gesture toward authenticity

what Antheil was referring

.

and Drum.

tured solo piano, but for a (jazz) trumpeter, calling

ploy

.

can be heard buried in the hnal brutal ca-

for Violin, Piano,

the middle of A Jazz

“Oh My

.

the Carnegie Hall concert:

provides the principal motive for Ballet Mecanique,

ing in the Jazz

soldat,

according to composer Benjamin

Lees, former student and friend of Antheil, was “George’s favorite

Baby.

du

L’histoire

Negro

jazz as

like ‘In [By] the

away from ‘sweet

jazz’

which

in a

few years

re-

will

Shade of the Old Apple Tree.’”

What Gershwin, Robeson, and Seldes called “Antheil’s jazz” really boils down to whatever “tricks of the trade” Handy’s trumpet player came up with

George Antheil’s

Ballet

Mecanique 129

V.

'

that night, plus a few collages

the jungles of North

had

and quotes, anthropological

America and

cleverly

mounted up

stuff

gathered in

for display. Antheil

on Picasso and Stravinsky, not Sidney Bechet.

his sights

A Jazz Symphony does not deconstruct the rhythmic and tonal of jazz, as does Stravinsky in L’histoire du soldat, nor does jazz’s

and Sonata

joyed a brief affair with

music, Ending

Satie,

My Lady Jazz, Antheil

useful as parody

it

noble savage.

and Ernest Krenek

Antheil winds up

ennese waltz but of a

G Major (1931)

Violin (1923-27). Like most European composers

for

tivism, or the

lovingly recast

it

blues gestures, as does Ravel in his Piano Concerto in

elements

to

A

1

and

as a

trivializes

symbol of low

who

en-

African American exotic primi-

life,

include Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Erik

in this category.

Jazz

Symphony with

a delightful caricature of a Vi-

be played mit Schwung which ,

far different variety.

The

last

literally

sound we hear

means “with swing,”

a snarling,

is

augmented

“joke” chord. It

was

Ezra Pound’s significant other, the American

for

Rudge, that Antheil composed the Second Sonata

Drum. The work was premiered 1923

at the Salle

Olga

violinist

and

for Violin, Piano,

du Conservatoire

in

December

and bears the dedication “For Ezra Pound, best of friends.” Copland de-

scribes

how Pound

“with his striking red beard

Pound was

ately turned pages.”

although the

latter

According

to

claim

is

much

said to have played the

drum

part in the coda,

probably apocryphal. 25

Charles Amirkhanian, the Second Sonata

what Antheil called

is

written in

his “synthesized jazz idiom,” a style of composition

work of the then-unknown Charles

iniscent of the

in evidence, passion-

rem-

Ives that quotes other

works. 26 Violinist Charles Castleman and pianist (and

drummer) Randall

Hodgkinson opened our Carnegie Hall concert with the Second Sonata. 27

The

am able to identify include “By the Shade of the Old Debussy’s Reverie “Come Back to Sorrento,” “Silver Threads

“quotations” that

Apple Tree,”

I

,

among the Gold,” and the aforementioned “Oh My Baby.” The work ends quietly with an evocative reference to the tune that made an enormous impression on the thousands who flocked to the Midway Plaisance in the summer of 1893. Over a haunting havanaise drum rhythm (da dadada-dada-dada) the violin plays scraps of the pervasive “Hootchy Kootchy,” y

transporting tre

not only back to the

11s

fair,

but also to the veiled danse du ven-

of Tunisia in North Africa, one of Antheil’s favorite vacation spots.

Antheil also brought to Carnegie Hall his String Quartet no. first

performed

tion of

130

on July

violinist

Dvorak

concert

titled

to

on the

Duke

7, 1924.

Olga

Mme. Ezra Pound” at Rudge (presumably Mme. Pound) was

quartet. Also

Ellington

It

was

“Musique Americaine (Declara-

Independence)” and presented by “M.

Salle Pleyel first

at a private

1.

et

on the program was

the the

a repeat of Antheil’s

Drum

Sonata and two pieces by Pound. “Fiddle Music” and “Strophes de

Villon.”

At onr re-creation concert, the Mendelssohn String Quartet 28 played Antheil’s quartet most earnestly. Like myself, they

me

confused by the music, which struck

composed by an ungifted academician

as

must have been

greatly

— a work that had

parody

been

trying to impress his colleagues,

tongue-in-cheeky, mildly modern, and frankly boring, unlike any other work of AntheiPs

have ever heard, seen, or read about. In a

I

can patron Alary Louise Curtis Bok, 29 founder of the Curtis

new

Philadelphia, Antheil explained the idea behind his It is

very radical

— and

it

desperate banality. But

sounds exactly

Matisse.

It

trying to

harmonize

it

I

with a

.

.

.

.

.

.

mongrel Hungarian

in

I

15,

June of 1987

district, off

and shrine

archive,

larger-than-life -sized plaster eratic

(November

at

.

.

.

hope, or a

I

Budapest

themes — but doing

1924)

her

home

in

Venice. She

the

Guidecca Canal, was

Pound, who had died there

to

head of the poet,

its

of age. Rudge’s small two-story

at ninety-three years

house, located in the “English”

museum,

quartet:

like a third rate string orchestra in

Olga Rudge

was then spry and lucid

table

the banality of Picasso

brilliant success.

visited with

Institute in

and perhaps offend you by

will surprise

it is

Ameri-

letter to his

a

a veri-

in 1972.

A

copy of the white marble “Hi-

Head” by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, dominated the

sitting

room.

asked about the violin sonatas Antheil composed for her. “Why, they’re

around here somewhere,” she

Without

replied.

a second’s

pause she jumped

up on the daybed and began opening overhead drawers and pulling down valises;

I

was encouraged

to sort

through stacks of paper in the

Holo-

attic.

graphs of the Second and Third Sonatas did turn up, as well as one for un-

accompanied allowed I

me

to

solo violin,

and some Antheil

have them

all

found no music

letters

and reviews. She kindly

in the attic, only a pile of old

newspapers emblazoned

photocopied.

with anti-Semitic and anti-black headlines. in

They had been mailed

to

Venice from America. Apparently Pound’s reputed remorse over

Axis broadcasts during tor of T. S. Eliot’s

World War

II

was

public consumption.

for

poem The Waste Land had comforted

Pound

his pro-

The

himself with

edi-

racist

trash in his last days.

Rudge described Antheil well scrubbed face

.

.

.

in the 1920s as “too funny, very small, with a

looked

like a virgin

choirboy or schoolgirl.” She

quoted then dismissed what must have been an Antheil epithet, “‘Young

American

in

poking fun

at

Montparnasse’

— a good

piece of advertising set up by Ezra,”

Pound’s characterization of Antheil

as

“America’s answer to

Stravinsky.”

George Antheil’s

Ballet

Mecanique

Rudge

she knew: the Russian aristocrat

and Nadia]

girls [Lily

ican heiress

my

De

violin case

Madame

career and the famous people

who

Boulanger,

Schumann

in order’'; playing

“kept those two

Amer-

sonatas with the

Polignac in Venice (“she sent her gondolier around to carry .

.

Stravinsky entered to turn pages”); playing Beethoven,

.

Mozart, and Veracini for Mussolini in talk English”). 30 let

own

preferred talking about her

To my

Mecanique and

surprise,

Rome on

Rudge had

the via Rasella (“he liked to

little

memory

of Antheil’s Bal-

glamorous Paris premiere even though Pound was

its

its

godfather.

would have

I

in 1927.

union directory,

I

in

New York

who had

three octogenarian pianists

formance

back

better luck

that

(1987) interviewing

fall

played in the Ballet Mecanique per-

With the Manhattan phone book and an old Local 802 located

them

in a matter of minutes.

Madeline Marshall, age eighty-seven, remembered “a and the audience throwing paper airplanes toward the

me

more, but she dismissed

lot

stage.

of nonsense”

pressed her for

I

she did the music.

as

Stephanie Shehagovitch, age ninety-one, remembered dancing with Paul Robeson at the party following the concert. AntheiPs music “was foreign to us

.

.

we grew up on Bach and Beethoven.

.

difficult for the

my

It

was unwieldy,

it

was

aeroplane propeller people to find their entry.” Her remark [

confirmed

...

)

impression that the “mechanical effects” people were not

reading musicians. “There were strange lapses ... an unholy mess.” Shehagovitch

remembered

that the

renowned

pianist Walter Gieseking

the Baldwin Piano Factory during a rehearsal. After listening for a

ments, he commented,

“I

Marion Morrey (Mrs. Adel

memory It

much

wish you

pleasure,”

and

Richter), age eighty-four,

came to few mo-

left.

had the most

vivid

of all:

was easy [rehearsing] with Goossens, not with Antheil. Gieseking

and Hindemith

visited rehearsals.

harmonic. Antheil played “in the

.

.

.

The

pit [sic].”

battery was

But

I

from the Phil-

could not hear the

Pianola.

There

down.

was played well. [There was] no disturbance or laughing dur-

It

are influences

from “The Rite of Spring”

We played to the

ing performance.

end with

.

.

.

boiled

a flourish!

Marion Morrey on the aftermath: It

was a one-time

P ork

stunt.

World called

it

.

.

.

The

piece dropped from sight.

“a quiet day in

the Deauville nightclub afterwards. liant blacks,

Sue

Dvorak

to

told

Paul Robeson, and

any Russian family.”

Ellington

We all went to

There were many celebs

Madame

Walker.

me she had once given a talk at Cornell

Duke

The New

It

.

.

.

bril-

was spectacular!

University and was able

to play excerpts

the rag theme, P.

from memory.

“Oh My

could have kissed her

I

she sang to

me

Baby.” Madeline Morrey and her old beau, Richard

Snow, who attended the 1927 performance, sat in aisle seats at ours. The Ballet Mecanique takes twenty-seven minutes to perform, too long

for a single

pauses

new

r

roll.

It is

— while the spent roll

roll is inserted.

perforce divided into three sections by short

rewound from

is

two and

formed into

A series roll.

at the

a

“Oh My Baby” (Dah Dah

roll,

Baby” appears again

where the ragtime tune

accompany looped images

to

an idea of Murphy’s. The him shows

a

washerwoman gaining the

cuts back as well.

in

trans-

is

in the

first

him,

top of a

tall

then “cuts back” repeatedly, and we see her climb-

ing again and again. Another loop shows a

During

girl

on

music

a swing. Antheil’s

several of these minimalist ostinatos, Antheil sub-

the time frame for a subgroup of instruments, an orchestra within

the orchestra, sending associate with Varese In a letter to the

it

off

and

on

its

own

metric voyage, a device

we normally

Ives.

music

critic

aud encyclopedist Nicolas Slonimsky on July

an unusually clear description of his conception:

1936, Antheil proffered I

My

of “minimalist” ostinato passages appears at the end of the

set of Paris street steps,

first

solo cadenza.

These were apparently meant

tly shifts

da Dah) dominates the

a

for solo Pianola, interposes itself shortly

beginning of the third

demonic

and

off the receiving spool

opening rush of glittering sounds. “Oh

after the roll

piano

but another jaunty ragtime tune,

roll,

21,

when

personally consider that the Ballet Mecanique was important in

one particular

.

.

.

that

it

was conceived in a new form, that form

specifically being the rolling out of a certain time canvas with musical

abstractions

and sound material composed and contrasted against one

another with the thought of time values rather than tonal values. ...

I

used time as Picasso might have used the blank spaces of his canvas. I

did not hesitate, for instance, to repeat one measure one hundred

times;

I

did not hesitate to have absolutely nothing on

for sixty-two bars [Antheil

twenty seconds in

is

my piano

rolls

referring to 62 eighth-note rests, over

real time];

I

did not hesitate to ring a bell against a

certain given section of time or indeed to do whatever

with the time canvas as long as each part of

it

I

pleased to do

stood up against the

other. 31

Antheil complains that he “was completely misunderstood by those morons

who

listened to the Ballet

critics,

Mecanique

conveniently forgetting his

in 1927,”

own

meaning the Carnegie Hall

collusion in the circus atmosphere

that prevented serious listening. Yet there could have

been method

in his

madness.

George Antheil’s

Ballet

Mecanique *33

I

one find

for

much

so

it

hard to imagine that the composer would have invested

and thought

care

work

into a

that

moment of fame. There

brief, if blazing,

was simply

be sacrificed

to

who wonld admire

are those

for a

a rev-

olutionary aesthetic that requires such elaborate sacrifice; for such people the

event later

am

is

On the other hand, here am more than seventy years

the work of art.

I

and writing about the

studying, performing,

still

and

intrigued by Antheil,

so

man and

his

music.

I

were Morton Gould and John Cage, who

attended our dress rehearsals. In fact, an elaborate sacrifice

when,

the piece

dramatized in the closing moments of

is

cadenza, the Pianola

after a fiendish

down. Antheil may very well have borrowed

this

— the machine — breaks

notion from his Third Piano

Sonata, Death of Machines (1923). T he Pianola stutters and

on

moment

followed by a is

and over again:

a single phrase repeated over

of silence. As the

According

music

that silence

Slonimsky,

is

used

own

theil did offer his

month

to

trill

and leaping

clusters,

7

“machine winds down, the phrase ’

and Antheil introduces increasingly longer

stretched out even more,

lences.

a

becomes stuck

this

is

the

first

si-

time in the history of Western

an integral part of a musical composition. An-

as

Pound

explanation in a letter written to Ezra

the very

of his Carnegie Hall concert:

The

Ballet

Mecanique here

stopped. Here was the dead line, the

I

brink of the precipice. Here at the end of this composition where in

long stretches no single sound occurs and time here was the ultimate fulfillment of ing without touching

it.

my poetry;

itself acts as

here

I

music;

had time mov-

32

To my relief, our audience

got the idea and did not interrupt the twenty-

second-long silence with applause. Ballet Mecanique ends with a

final parox-

The ensemble builds to a huge climax. The siren peaks, and the last sounds we hear, a final burst of the ragtime lick '‘Oh My Baby” hangs in the

ysm.

spent fireworks.

air like

Once

I

had the piano

rolls in

hand and had found Rex Lawson, the

creation of the 1926—27 Paris— New York Ballet

smoothly.

1

he Baldwin Piano

re-

Mecanique went quite

Company was happy

to

provide us with nine

concert grands (one for Lawson’s Pianola), especially after

I

told

them

that

Baldwins were used in 1927. given their parts in advance,

went without c. 1911 in

as

a hitch.

Our eight pianists and six xylophonists were and we came together for section rehearsals that

Lawson flew

in

from London with

Meriden, Connecticut) crated

his Pianola

safely in the cargo bay,

and

(made as

soon

he was squared away we had a maestro-soloist rehearsal.

By

this

time

Herr tape, but

Dvorak

to

Duke

it

I

nad learned

was

like

Ellington

to follow the

holding on

Pianola music from the Randy

to a kite in a

hurricane.

With Lawson

able to control speed and nuance, the Pianola music

when we rehearsed came together.

herent, and

quickly

became

more

far

co-

with the rest of the orchestra, the piece

Different challenges were posed by the eleven pitches of electric bells

and the enigmatic “aeroplane

propellers.”

It

seemed impossible

electric bells with the specific pitches that the score called for;

across a 1927

then

newspaper photograph of Antheil demonstrating

He had

bells before the concert.

settled for a rack of six

doorbells of different sizes, each with find in a well-stocked hardware store

its

own

— and

button

came

I

his electric

randomly pitched

— about all one can

had them

I

assemble

to

replicated.

still

That

left

the “aeroplane propellers.”

How does a propeller sound? The best propeller substitute Antheil devise in 1927 was a

huge hand-cranked ratchet the

beer barrel and

size of a

a whirring electric fan with a leather strap held across

its

could

blades. (His 1952 re-

vised version calls for recorded airplane sounds.) For our re-creation, the electric fan

gerous.

I

and

strap idea

was not about

was vetoed by the Carnegie Hall

to disappoint the critics

design a

mount

for a

percussionist,

concentrated his

we had

a scenic

shop

huge, real wooden propeller that activated a ratchet.

This contraption was twirled

man and

dan-

and those who read about An-

“aeroplane propellers” in the history books. So

theil’s

staff as too

efforts

at

appropriate points in the score by our prop

Ted Sommer,

for

its

Meanwhile Ted

visual effect.

on an assortment of hand-held

ratchets according to

cues in the music. Several of the ideas Antheil conceived for his Ballet

ahead of their time. For example,

his first notion, to

ing simultaneously from one set of

computerized player pianos. 3 to fulfill

An thed's unusual

electric bells thanks to

puter-age

skills.

— the new verb

He is

’

rolls,

Mecanique were

have sixteen pianos play-

can be accomplished today with

When it came time to record,

I

was

finally able

requirements for “aeroplane propellers” and pitched

Gordon

digitally

Gottlieb, a master percussionist with

“sampled” several

“MIDIed” — them

to a

then connected

electric bells,

keyboard.

Gordon

com-

did the

same

the aeroplane propellers again by sampling recorded sounds of vintage craft.

for air-

We could start and stop the propeller sounds instantly, and they could

be produced in three pitch ranges. At the mixing sessions keyboard, onto open tracks

instrumental tracks

I

played, via the

— they ran parallel with the “live,” already-recorded

— the exact pitches of electric bells and fistfuls of idling

asthmatic aeroplane motors, or an entire airfleet cruising and climbing. With the passage of more than theiFs

fifty

years,

computer technology made possible An-

machine-age conceptions.

Antheil,

umphs

who came

to

New York fully expecting he would

repeat the

tri-

of his concerts in Europe, never fully recovered from the disappoint-

George Antheil’s

Ballet

Mecanique

H5

ment of his Carnegie

He began

to see

Hall debut.

He

returned to Paris “heartsick and broke.”

himself as the “bad boy of music

”

34

and

in

time

moved

— endocrinology and lonely-hearts letters were among his areas of expertise — Hollywood, where he wrote film music and did magazine

to

but he also taught composition privately

articles

35 .

AntheiPs iconoclastic ideas and music furnish an unforeseen counterpoint to the “Dvorak to

Duke

Ellington” story.

It

was the

brilliant

and

brittle

instrument of ragtime, the piano, not the intoxicating effect of syncopation

harmony,

against a steady beat nor the seductions of jazz

that

occupied

his

genius. In ragtime Antheil found the material for one of the most unusual

works of the century; meanwhile he developed on his

him with

links

Ives,

own an

aesthetic that

Cage, and Morton Feldman rather than with

his con-

temporaries Gershwin and Ellington. I

inal

wish

I

could say that

my disinterment and

Paris-New York Ballet Mecanique led

work.

The

pression:

critics

who attended wrote

“Whether

‘Ballet

is

more fun

its

it

7

is

music or not

Page’s:

hear about than they are

to

New York Times found sequel;

Tim

to a revised evaluation of the

differing opinions. Bill Zakariasen’s im-

Mecanique

certainly fun” was countered by

exact realization of the orig-

“One

debatable, but

Allan Kozinn in the

and Varese,

yet “not without

angular, mechanistic and repetitive xylophone and piano lines

foreshadow some of Steve Reich’s music.” Susan

Elliot, writing in the

York Post, agreed: “The work’s use of pulsation,

slow harmonic

and

ever-so-subtly shifting meters

Reich or Terry Riley, For

Dvorak 136

to

it’s

of those works of art that

to actually hear.”

derivative of Stravinsky

is

now

who

its

would suggest

that

it

movement

was Antheil, not

invented minimalism .” 36

though, the “happening” continues to eclipse the music.

Duke

Ellington

New

H Mass

Bernstein’s

My

most

vivid

ducting the

image of Leonard Bernstein

New York

Philharmonic

panying Louis Armstrong in souls swinging in perfect ers

who completed

Harlem

hillside

1

harmony before

Art.

Lewisohn Stadium, accom-

— two happy

the sweltering masses of New York-

The Stadium Concerts

was

It

a time

when

took place on a

three exuded optimism and

all

The stadium could accommodate

7,500 people, and there were

“listened for free” while leaning

ment windows. Through

the

human mass

most particularly ald Early,

in the old

lnm con-

surrounded by the campuses of City College and the High

many more who that disparate

a 1956 film clip of

C. Handy’s “Saint Louis Blues”

the equation.

School of Music and opportunity.

W.

is

else

their tene-

power of music, Bernstein and Armstrong turned

into a congregation, a transformation

in jazz clubs. In the

“where

on pillows from

1

have sensed

words of the black social historian Ger-

have the races really

come

together, really syncretized

their feeling?” 2

A like

melding almost always occurs when

love-in finales,

one

what he once described

gets a girl.”

autos-da-fe,

No

to

me

I

conduct one of Bernstein’s

as “a Jewish

ending

.

.

.

every-

matter the cruel, unpredictable world of earthquakes,

and betrayals

that constantly greet Candide’s optimism; the

meaningless murder of Tony in the insane, unending gang wars of West Side Story; the Celebrant/Priest of Mass driven

that loved

Psalms

mad

by the very same community

and exalted him; the destruction of innocence

— in each

in the Chichester

instance Bernstein ends a tragic tale with a paean of hope:

137

“There’s a place for us/’ “Almighty Father incline

“Make your garden grow/’ Thine

Neh Maatov voo ma nahim” (“How good

“Hi

ear,”

it is

when we

live

together as brothers”). In each instance he calls forth the power of music on

behalf of universal peace.

my

Bernstein changed

life.

When

I

Erst

met

Bernstein,

even remotely heading toward the musical career

became friend.

my

me, over the next two decades,

for

When

my

he heard about

1

my

Lenny

side

when I

recited this prayer reaffirming

I

time

I

father gave

me

to

could count on

me

as his

Lenny was

in his Fairfield,

Symphony, which was

the

my

in the face of death. this

of music on his Arabic oud.

gift

whom,” could depend on he opened the door to a mu-

“without In turn,

grew up believing beyond

I

symbolically be by

my

I

my energizing any project he assigned. world

was the congre-

realized the impossibility of his ever being a “father” to

think

to

Lenny, who often referred

sical

It

for-

My real

“devoted son.”

my faith

my

kind of concern

was naive enough

ever. In

He would

mentor, and

He

sent a telegram in

phonetic Hebrew: “Y’heh sh’meh rab-bo m’vorach. ...” gational response to the mourner’s kaddish.

was in no way

have since enjoyed.

model,

father’s death,

1

my

reach.

Connecticut, studio working on his Kaddish

originally intended to

honor

his father (“while he’s

when the awful news came about the assassination of the president in Dallas. He immediately changed its dedication to John F. Kennedy. The Bernsteins knew the Kennedys. Miss Helen Coates spoke of play dates between their children, and I remember Lenny’s mischievous story about a still

alive!”)

dinner party

and we

all

at

the

went

Kennedy White House: dance the

upstairs to

In the spring of 1964

I

“Stravinsky

fell

asleep in his soup,

twist!”

traveled

my

up from

post in Texas to attend

Lenny’s rehearsals, performances, and recording sessions of his Kaddish

Symphony

with the

New

York Philharmonic. 3 The work was huge and

complicated: two choirs, extra-large orchestra, soprano I

left fired

up with the idea

must perform the work on,

that

my

soloist,

and

narrator.

Texas orchestra and Texan choirs

or close to, the

first

anniversary of the

Kennedy

tragedy. I

hoped

that Felicia Montealegre,

mances, would do the same at

Columbia

Artists,

skeptical about

in

Corpus

who

New York

Christi, but according to her

she was “unavailable.”

what might happen

narrated the

My

guess

is

perfor-

manager

she was probably

in the wilds of south Texas.

And

so

we

en-

who had made a distinguished career as a singer— she created the role of Magda Sorel in Menotti’s opera The Consul— but by that time she was appearing more often as a dramatic actress. The work required a big concert choir, and ours came from North Texas State gaged, in her place, Patricia Neway,

University, near Dallas.

Dvorak

D8

to

Duke

Ellington

I

formed and trained

a children’s choir in

Corpus

Christi. Like the city,

was

it

“Anglo” kids and included

a vibrant

mix of brown-skinned Mexican and

my daughter

Lorca.

1

fearing

them

com-

sing the

plicated rhythms, in Hebrew', by heart, their trusting eyes never leaving is

one of my treasured memories. The performance, on November

was our own Texas kaddish

Lenny and

it

16, 1964,

was transcendent.

Felicia were, for obvious reasons, curious to hear the tape of

our performance. fire in

Kennedy, and

for

We listened to

it

together while lying on rugs in front of the

Avenue penthouse apartment.

the library of their Park

My tenure as assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic been shared with the impressively

charmed everyone with

and steady John Canarina, who

solid

his droll sense of

had

humor and impressed even

Bern-

h is encyclopedic knowledge of repertoire and conductors, and

stein wi th Seiji

me,

Ozawa,

young, and brilliant talent from Japan

a doll-like,

vated everyone.

was hard

It

to

ommended me lot project for

in

capti-

my Texas performance of KadHe began to call on me to conduct his

be noticed. But

dish got Lenny’s undivided attention.

music — Candide

who

Chicago, West Side Story

at

Lincoln Center.

for the co-directorship of a fascinating

the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

And

He

also rec-

music and dance

eventually, he asked

me

pi-

to

be his assistant conductor for the world premiere of Mass. In the early spring of 1971

gensburg lier at

the

for a guest

Vienna

was staying

conducting

State Opera.

in a suite that

room was dominated by manuscript paper.

was passing through Vienna on

1

a

stint. 1

my way to Re-

Lenny was conducting Der Rosenkava-

visited

him

Gustav Mahler

at the

Hotel Sacher, where he

said to have used.

is

huge Bosendorfer piano.

On

A double window' looked out over the

its

The

rack was

It

some

Karntnerstrasse and

the opera house where, in the love-’em-and-leave-’em scenario that thrives on,

sitting

Vienna

Mahler triumphed and crashed.

was Passover eve, April

next room, trying to get started quietly singing

me

9,

and while Lenny was on the phone

in the

a place at the Israeli Consulate’s seder table,

and playing from the manuscript.

It

was

a

I

song about

when he came back. He crossed his fingers, revealing a Lenny I had not yet known — afraid, unsure, curious about this thing he wrote, as if it had a life of its own. He said he didn’t know if it was lovely as of yet. “We’ll see. I’m writing a Mass ... for

a tree, delicate

and

sad. 4 “That’s beautiful!”

I

said

Kennedy.”

A few months passed. Lenny asked me to direct another Candide- to-endaW-Candides production, my fourth. The saga of Candide, a score in search of a libretto, is summed up in a remark made to me by Virgil Thomson. spent a memorable evening alone with him at a little French restaurant in the West Thirties. He was close to ninety. Nevertheless he insisted on walking back home to Twenty-third 1

Bernstein’s

Mass 139

Street, tripping over

catching himself I

mentioned

what seemed

The

just in time.

be every curb on Eighth Avenue and

conversation got around to Candide, and

John Latouche had worked on

that the poet

his teeter-tottering

to

it.

Virgil stopped

long enough to cackle, “Everyone worked on Candide.

It

didn’t help.”

Candide, the musical, has stubbornly remained in limbo ever since

Heilman withdrew her book following the show’s

lian

Lil-

on Broad-

short run

way. She believed the hard-hitting political satire she adapted from Voltaire

had been turned into

“Make Your Garden Grow” (and grow

hope of the grand

finale,

grow

final straw.

for

.

.

.

was the

),

She read

Voltaire’s

much from a world

that

is

message quite

Go

Heilman, “Make Your Garden Grow” meant:

and don’t expect too

The optimism and

a soft tits-and-ass entertainment.

off,

to stay.

Lenny had

inevitably going to disappoint his best to

while a small

cast,

lyrics

she

and no book.

a master score

There were some concert performances and tor telling the Voltaire story

and

.

find a quiet place,

Heilman would not be swayed beyond allowing the few

had contributed

.

differently;

and push you down, yet again. Yes, Lenny’s music was ravishing, date, but

.

a tour

“package”

— a narra-

accompanied by two pianos,

sang the delicious send-ups of Rossini, Puccini, and Gilbert and Sullivan.

Meanwhile

Candide ” became one of the most frequently

the “Overture to

performed American works

for orchestra.

This was the status of Candide

when Gordon Davidson and found a way of putting it back on stage in 1966. Gordon and I met on Broadway a few years earlier. I was playing trumpet in a stage band, and Gordon was second assistant stage manager for NorI

man

Corwin’s The Rivalry,

a

dramatization of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. 5

We struck up a friendship and became a director-conductor team, mostly doing operas together:

The

New York

Barrier in

in 1961 (libretto

by Langston

Hughes and music by Jan Meyerowitz, both of whom attended mances), and Carmen, La Boheme, and Cosi fan tutte in Corpus I

had permission from Lenny

do

to

the perforChristi.

a concert staging of Candide in

Cor-

pus Christi for the 1965-66 season. Gordon was of course going to direct. But the

Corpus Christi Symphony was going through

feast-or-famine cycle that

a

down phase

most small American orchestras experience. The

prospective Candide was canceled, but fate stepped in and

up

for

our

versity of California, in

— music

written for

Dvorak

Duke

Ellington

tell

excited.

Candide

that

summer season

of plays at the Uni-

We went to Bernstein for permission to do

Los Angeles instead of Texas.

Lenny was genuinely

140

to direct a

Los Angeles.

ing than he blurted out, “Don’t

to

more than made

loss.

Gordon had been engaged Candide

in the usual

No sooner did

Uncle

He

he give us

his bless-

Lillian.”

presented us with his “Pandora’s box”

had not made

it

into the

Broadwav show.

P erhaps some of it would help the

first

out our “concert version,” which

flesh

Los Angeles Candide would

understood that Gordon intended

tacitly

would be some dancing and was

It

to let the

O’Connor and

don on

new

a

7

script

character of

in the future, played the three

still

pessimist,

and Voltaire

the stage designer, Peter Wexler, worked with Gor-

based upon Voltaire. They tried

man’s book but inevitably a jokes.

Mickey and Judy

whom the

and the Narrator— optimist,

roles of Pangloss, Martin,

himself.

Family was

in All in the

was

piece “evolve.” There

version of

putting on an instant musical. Carroll O’Connor, for

Archie Bunker

it

a unit set.

summer— a grownup

miraculous

a

be called, even though

officially

what

is

little

slipped

in,

work around Hell-

to

some

especially

left-leaning in-

Wexler’s wife, Connie, did the costumes.

The

“Pandora’s box” contained several treasures, in particular the aria

“Nothing More than This,” which would strengthen the

Candide searches endlessly

for a w'orld of

Candide.

role of

peace and harmony and

for his

childhood love, the beautiful and pure Cunegonde. (Like those of Pangloss

and Candide, her name a

“grand vagina.”)

a

dream, the

ness.

new

When

Candide

“Nothing More than This” expresses at

once.

material myself, including “Nothing

I

dressed in a white linen

suit.

his

anger and

More than I

This.”

picked

As we drove

him up

Bacall).

He

for the

he remi-

On

the

Wa-

time with “Bogey and Bacall” (Humphrey Bogart and Lauren insisted

putting on the

The

at the air-

to the hotel,

nisced about his Hollywood days working on the film score for terfront, his

bitter-

orchestrated and copied the

flew out a few days before the opening.

He was

in this case,

he has been chasing

finally realizes that

Everyone was doing three jobs

Lenny port.

aria

wordplay reflecting her true character,

is

first

on serving

room

me my “last supper” before the dress rehearsal,

service waiter's apron

and

a Russian accent.

Los Angeles Candide w as a big success. 6 At the time, planning ;

Los Angeles Music Center w as underway, and our Candide produc7

tion played

director of

no small its

Gordon Davidson's appointment

part in

resident

as the artistic

drama company, the Center Theater Group

Mark Taper Forum. He

made an immense

has since

at the

contribution to the

-

American

theater.

Five years (and three Candide s) in

Los Angeles working on

scheduled

a

later, in

the

summer

of 1971,

1

new Candide-to-end-al\-Candides

for a cross-country tour. If this lavish production, with a

was back that

was

new book

by Sheldon Patinkin and choreography by Michael Smuin, passed muster with

New York producers,

reappearance there since

Candide would continue on

its

Broadway,

to

short-lived but glorious succes d’estime in 1956. 8

Bernstein was also in Los Angeles, ostensibly to oversee the dide, but

he was mostly hard

its first

at

work

in

what he called

his

new Can-

“M ass factory,” set Bernstein’s

Mass

H

1

I?'-

up

two poolside cottages

in

an idea only

months

six

at

the Beverly Hills Hotel.

when J

earlier,

piano rack in Vienna, was about

Gordon Davidson was on cist

to

the

What had been

mostly

spied one of Lenny’s sketches on the

go into production.

Mass team,

as

were the composer and

Steve Schwartz and his partner, the writer John Michael-Tebelak,

together had created Godspell. Alvin Ailey flew in to discuss

And

there

I

came and

was doing another Candide and green with envy.

we held

opening,

Just before the

run-through of the

a private

new Can-

dide for Bernstein, followed by a production meeting with the directors

Lenny gave

staff.

was the introduction of an

been up

for

and

ns notes until well past two in the morning, mostly about

the script. His few musical

instead of “air.”

who

becoming the

choreographer. Various candidates for musical assistant to Lenny went.

lyri-

comments were about

“OO” sound

Lenny grabbed me

diction; his favorite “fix”

“OOWhere”

before “W,” producing

at the elevator:

“We must

hours getting the show scrubbed clean. “Lenny,”

I

I

had

whined,

“it’s

talk.”

7 '

almost three a.m.”

need you on Mass, he whispered.

“I

A week or so after Candide opened in Los Angeles, the musical direction of the show was turned over to my assistant conductor, Ross Reimuller, and began working full time on Mass. Lenny explained my role: “We will be the I

two sides of a two-headed coin.”

We would share rehearsals, and

I

would

take

over after he conducted the opening gala performance in Washington, D.C.

No work of Bernstein’s expresses more dramatically than does John

F.

Kennedy Center for

M

is

a kaleidoscopic

composed

ass,

for the

The form

is

from

The

Arabic dances, and a Chilean folk ballad.

and children’s

choirs, rock

musicians of every stripe and

young

priest, a

beloved leader

death of the

tragic

style.

first

—a

and

Catholic liturgy; the 9 .

In Mass, folk-

jazz scat stand

Hebrew

jowl with Mahlerian meditations for orchestra,

ple,” liturgical

Roman

voyage from Harlem to the Rhine

song, blues, marches, rock songs, black gospel,

sic,

grand opening of the

the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., at the

behest of Jacqueline Kennedy.

music

his passion for universal reconciliation

prayer,

cheek by

chamber mu-

characters are “street peo-

and blues

singers,

and dancers and

T he story follows the rise and

metaphor

fall

of a

for the ecstatic elevation

and

Catholic president, John F. Kennedy.

The time was

“Vietnam.” I

quickly learned the music Bernstein had already

mostly in sketch form sessions with

Lenny

— and went through

talking

it

with Gordon. Even after several

and playing through the work, Gordon was

searching for a dramatic line that would thread pieces

mandated by the Roman mass

had recast the Gospel of stein as

Dvofak 142

he searched

to

Duke

for

Ell ington

St.

ways

composed — it was

Matthew

liturgy.

its

way through

the formal set

John Michael-Tebelak, who

into Godspell,

to transform the

still

ancient

was there

to

ritual into

help Bern-

musical the-

Bernstein sought out liberal Catholic scholars as well, including Daniel

ater.

Berrigan, seeking information about obsolete or lesser-known elements of the

known

mass, such as the kiss of peace, and additions,

help

fulfill his

Once,

narrative

after a

could

10 .

long “listening” session, in exasperation and confusion one

“What are

of us ventured the inevitable question: ish

as tropes, that

boys doing, writing and working on a mass?”

three

.

.

.

four

.

.

.

Lenny welcomed

nice Jewthe ques-

own reasoning process: his search for an appropriate vehicle to inaugurate a new arts center named after our first Catholic president; the universal appeal of the mass, with its Roman, Greek, and Hebraic roots; and the possibilities it offered for dramatization. The choice, he tion

and took us through

seemed

said,

being able faith, that

his

he said he was comfortable with not

inevitable. Several times

to find

an explanation

for

everything— that one must accept, on

there are mysteries that cannot be understood.

Bernstein outlined his dramatic concept for the

Celebrant— the

central character

out hope for peace, yet he

“Dona

nobis

pacem”

is

section,

and

Like President Kennedy,

priestly leader of the

down by

struck

us.

his

own

followers.

During the

which grows from ceremonial chant

giastic rock-blues, all the well-established walls

into

an

or-

— between the rock and blues

bands and the symphonic wind and brass players, between the in

mass — holds

street singers

blue jeans and the robed liturgical choir— are breached, and the stage with a roiling mob.

filled

A pack

is

of protesters corners the Celebrant, threat-

ening and shouting, “Dona nobis pacem”

— “Give us peace now, not later.

Don’t you know you were once our creator?”

The Celebrant shrieks “Pa-a-cem” (“Peace”) and throws down the holy vessels. He is at once Christ being crucified and Moses smashing the tablets before the idolators. The Bernstein painted a picture of the final scene.

frenzied dancing, the blues shouting, the instrumental wailings, and the

tacking protesters are stopped cold. All

watch

in horror as the

stripping himself of

all

upon him. Pared down

fall to

Celebrant goes mad.

dances on the sacred

to his jeans

and

guitar strap,

he goes

Kennedy Center as he

to the rear of the

shouts,

and your War!” Lenny envisioned the scene on opening night about the

of the United States,

altar,

the encrustations of power his followers had heaped

bare stage and slams the door of the

cast spread

They

the ground, petrified.

He

at-

stage,

and the audience, Nixon and the

left sitting

there,

“Fuck you

for us: “the

entire Congress

abandoned, stunned. And

that’s

how

the piece ends.” I

knee-jerked, “Lenny, you can’t do that!”

next two months story to

than what

I

labored on

we had been

Mass with told.

I

He

only smiled.

blind faith, knowing no

And

for the

more

of the

was convinced that Bernstein, not one

be behind the trends, would ask Alan Titus (cast as our Celebrant) to bolt

Bernstein’s

Mass

H3

out of the set stark naked, nakedness having invaded the opera world at the

time

11 .

went

I

Tanglewood

to

to

audition young musicians for the stage band.

We needed no fewer than thirty-three players. They would enter from the audience

as a brilliant

marching band, playing, of all

happy

things, a strutting,

Kyrie (“Lord, have mercy”). Over the next hour and a half they would sub-

need

divide, as the

woodwind

and

sextets

tions, all the

and rock bands,

arose, into blues

churchy brass

trios,

band,

a gospel street

choirs, and/or big-band brass sec-

while being integrated into the drama and never leaving the

stage.

Putting only a few instrumentalists on stage for even a short scene trouble.

They have

to

be positioned so they can see the conductor and must

somehow be provided

with music stands and

outfitted with costumes. a

list

on

I

had

They

lights.

also

need

be

to

come back from Tanglewood with virtuosos of all races who moved well

was expected

of young, attractive instrumental

stage. Bernstein

means

to

recurring anxiety about a make-believe musician

this

he named “Burt Silverman” schlepping across the stage with

me

wearing one white and one brown sock. “Don’t bring

trombone

his

back any Burt

Sil-

vermans,” he admonished.

The elaborate stage band remains

Washington premiere

years after the

May Festival. A few days

cinnati

union had met and decreed

which

be no Mass." read in

all

arrived,

I

that “there

The town was

find a

was out of town this

of Mass

when

on

assumed

that

I

performers.

I

awaited the

first

come

all

choristers

and

march, carry

street people, lyres,

H4

to

up.

Duke

Ellington

all italiana reading of the piece,

of whom were prepared and refirst

musical run-through.

lyre, it

— the wind

Symphony— now surrounded

were themselves

visibly

and wear simple costumes. The

solo onto the stage floor so that

Dvorak

of

But by some coincidence, he

ended, the members of the stage orchestra

even freed himself from his

it

Sunday declaring the

Nick Webster, the general man-

together for a

and percussion players of the Cincinnati

making

had been

had more than once experienced the emotional impact

When the run-through

to

letter

12

hearsed separately, would

agreed

A pastoral

The Cincinnati Symphony,

to solve the ministrike.

the various choirs and orchestras,

weeping

lyres [with

.

time its

way

I

Two

was told that the musicians’

of the area’s Catholic churches the previous

would

By

I

already in an uproar.

course, sold out every ticket.

be overcome.

My response was, “Then there will

piece blasphemous and calling for a boycott.

ager,

to

would be no marching, no

music], and no costumes.”

to carry

challenge

did a production of Mass for the Cin-

I

after

a

by

moved. They

first

clarinetist

scratching out the notes for an important

would appear

to the

audience

as if

he were

The “ Mass factor) ” was moved from Los Angeles to New York for final casting. The company we were about to assemble would encompass a musical

and human

palette as diverse as

America

itself.

We auditioned dozens of

One day a young arrived wheeling along a speaker-amplifier. He plugged the

opera singers and Broadway belters for our Street Chorus.

man,

Tom Ellis,

power cord

into a wall socket

naivete, thinking,

and pulled out

"How does one make a

Bernstein was delighted. “After In our

first

all,”

he

a

Street

microphone.

grinned

I

Chorus out of ‘mike’

singers?”

said, “that’s his instrument.”

production of Mass the Rock Singers,

who come

out of the

Street Chorus, used hand-held, wire-cabled mikes for their solos, an

one

at his

image

associates with early rock singers. Ellis got the job. Like Ellis, every other

singer in the Street

Chorus had

our Street Singers, Louis his gospel

member

St.

somewhere

how we

of the tenor section, was also a male

descant for

him

One

of

in the entire

discovered that Carl Hall, a

with the highest and

falsettist,

ensemble. Bernstein wrote a solo

Confiteor (confession) sequence. 13

in the

Alvin Ailey’s

in the show.

Louis, serenaded us during lunch breaks with

piano magic. That’s probably

most piercing soprano voice

company

spread throughout the

Seven Ailey dancers were

Jamison

joined the Street Chorus.

Chorus singing

of superb dancers, mostly African American, was

cast.

“acolytes,” led by Judith

Street

a solo turn

We

in the role of the

ceremonial

cast as

High

Priestess.

The

rest

soon had some of the Ailey dancers in the

as well, thus creating

an ensemble with

a look

and

movement seldom seen on Broadway. The Street Chorus carries the bulk of the nonliturgical vernacular text of Mass. They ask questions and make commentary and are the heart of the show. From mid-July to early August, the Street Chorus of twenty-two singers and sixteen dancers, the thirty-three-member

stage

band (with

its

subsets), the

seven acolyte dancers, and the Celebrant, Alan Titus, rehearsed independently

and together using

several

rooms and one huge ballroom

sonic Hotel, around the corner from the Ansonia on

in the

Ma-

West Seventy-third

Street.

Time was gage people

to

flying,

and Lenny was

help orchestrate.

One

still

of

scores to various arrangers, principally

myself scored

on the stage

much

composing.

my

He was

jobs was to distribute his sketch

Hershey Kay and Jonathan Tunick.

of the Gloria before Bernstein took over. 14

logistics for the various

it

would send us

learned and “on

a

its

new

1

I

kept a check

instrumental groupings before sending

the orchestrations off to Arnold Arnstein, the master copyist. stein

forced to en-

section at the

Lenny

or Arn-

end of one day, and we would have

feet” the very next.

Arnstein was a beloved, respected, and feared character in the working lives

of composers of Bernstein’s generation, in particular Gian-Carlo Menotti,

Bernstein’s

Mass

H5

Samuel Barber, and William Schuman. He had a foul mouth and loved catching these giants of American music in mistakes. Arnstein’s “shop,” where he supervised the copying of musical

Mass was

parts for

modern

the

,

equivalent of a medieval monastery. In the hushed, smoke-filled room,

Pennypoints on semi-

scriveners, bent over their inkpots, scratched out with

transparent vellum paper the piano-vocal scores for the singers, dancers, and rehearsal pianists

and the

musicians in the

parts for the

and, in the case

pit,

of Mass those onstage. ,

was rarely able

I

away from

to get

a visit to Arnstein’s

down, from an endless shelf of oversized

composer— Menotti was

living

“How dumb can you

epitaph,

had rescued the piece from

get?,”

disaster

publication copies of works that

I

some work by

scores,

his victim of

— and with

choice

his favorite

how he, Arnstein, alone He would also slip me pre-

and oblivion.

was interested

in.

Mass among

were spread about, now more than one hundred and

members

a celebrated

demonstrating

Arnstein distributed the music for

four

without his pulling

the various forces that

fifty

strong.

The

twenty-

of the Berkshire Boys’ Choir were learning their parts at their

summer camp. The sixty-voice Scribner Chorale was hard at work in Washington. The New York contingent of seventy-eight dancers, singers, and musicians, three rehearsal pianists,

Seventy-third Street.

August

We all

and

a large production staff gathered daily

assembled

in

Washington the

two weeks of

last

begin rehearsals on the stage of the Kennedy Center’s

to

House. Arnstein followed the caravans

as well, setting

up shop

on

in

new Opera the Howard

Johnson Hotel, across from the Watergate, where he finished copying the parts for the

Washington-based freelance

players, a harpist, five percussionists,

and “Big

pit orchestra of thirty-one string

and two organists — playing

Al,” Allen electronic organs

— that would

“Tittle Al”

complete the musical

forces for Mass.

Even with the help he was creasingly clear that

time

getting from the orchestrators,

Lenny couldn’t be

in

two places

soloists himself, in particular

looks, Prince

destined

him

Hal

hairstyle,

little

told

me

that his ideal heroic

a catch. Lenny’s baritone, like

male voice was

West Side Story

Duke

Ellington

a baritone,

and cultivated tenor

voice.

But

Alan Titus, must he capable of deliv-

A in Mass

,

or Tony’s

15 .

Besides finding time to coach Titus and others, Bernstein

to

good

and capable of producing

ering a ringing high note, such as the Celebrant’s high B-flat in

tall

Celebrant.

clearer diction than the artificially extended

146

in-

innocent demeanor, and sweet, unforced voice

closer to the range of the natural speaking voice

Dvorak

He had

Alan Titus, the high baritone whose

to sing the role of the

Lenny once

is

once.

became

spend with the larger company, but he did coach several of the

to

there

at

it

still

had the

scene

final

Dona With

complete and the orchestrations

to

nobis pacem, and the final scene, which he had reserved for himself. a

work so

new

poser of a

and complex, the conventional wisdom

large

bound

how

music-theater work, no matter

or conductor, remain “in the house

during the

skilled as

com-

that the

an orchestrator

final stages of production

was

to prevail.

When

I

was given the awesome, delicious

sive structure

on opening

surely felt prepared.

and body.

My

night, of being

Mass had been

a glass!

task of

conducting

mas-

was about

I

I

my ear,

brain,

to enter the

world

drop by drop into

over.

this

heartbeat, of being Lenny, 16

its

filtered

journeyman days were

“Somebody, quick! Break

stage.

for all of the Sanctus, the

My fifteen minutes of fame are about

to begin!”

The announcement that would conduct appeared on I

the

New York Times on Labor Day. We were

was now

We were and

all

way.

opening on September

free to fine-tune the lighting, diction,

ance during our

the front page of

constantly mixing live and amplified sounds.

hand mikes

there were the ubiquitous

Once something at risk,

bal-

final rehearsals.

along with the rock band, which had

ement is

Lenny

and especially the sound

The Celebrant

the solo singers wore wireless body mikes, newly introduced

And

8.

or

its

someone on

and Mass was,

own

stage

for all intents

on Broad-

who

for the rock singers

sang

highly electrified sound system. amplified, every other aural

is

and purposes,

a

el-

sound-enhanced

production. Transitions from enhanced to acoustic sound hopefully went unnoticed, and both were perceived as “live.” But sometimes the contrast be-

tween

live

sound and patently

dramatic statement,

as, for

electric

example,

sound was used by Lenny

in tbe

to

make

a

opening sequence, which had

musical-political overtones.

Mass opens with

the house in total blackness. Disorienting sounds be-

gin to spew from four speakers that surround the audience.

1-

Running

at

painful levels, each speaker in turn blasts out a different twelve-tone Kyrie for

voice and percussion.

When

all

four Kyries are going full force, lights pierce

the blackness to reveal the Celebrant, who, with a single stroke on his folk guitar,

wipes out the

mad cacophony. Following

this acoustic miracle, the

Celebrant sings the gentle “A Simple Song”: “Sing Lauda, Laude”

to the

comments from

accompaniment of muted

his guitar

and

a

magical solo

At once Bernstein silences the toric

(chance)

music— with

strings

/

and harp, with quiet

enemy — overamplified

is

simple song

a

flute.

live folk-rock song.

Bernstein with mocking mastery,

God

Decadent

twelve-tone aleaart,

replicated by

vanquished by the even more

skillfully

conceived and crafted rock-based “simple” song. At the

last

New York

run-through, Bernstein and Alan Titus unveiled a

Bernstein’s

Mass

H7

surprise.

I

was looking forward

But he had been holed up

showing Lenny how well we were doing.

Corigliano

me

Jr.

was there and, sizing up the

down. Lenny turned the

pacem approached, the Celebrant

the

stick

moment when

I

his fa-

his piece.

Fortunately, John

felt.

me for a quick walk me as the Dona nobis

situation, took

back over

everything

threatened. Soon the

is

hands on

to get his

he took over the rehearsal, rather abruptly,

so,

to cool

composing away with

for days in hi$ studio,

Blackwing pencils, and could not wait

vorite

And

to

to

about

is

room was

come

to

apart

and

cast

was

and the

ablaze,

singing and dancing their protest to the band’s ten bar rock-blues:

We re

fed

up with your heavenly

silence,

And we only get action with violence, So if we can’t have the world we desire, Lord, we’ll have to set this one on

Dona

We

nobis

Dona

,

fire!

nobis.

reached the end of our music and Alan Titus, the Celebrant, cried out

“PA

.

CEM! PA

.

.

the holy vessels.

.

Lenny was

where they stood, and directors

staff,

CEMH PA

.

.

and

.

CEMH!” and

.

time

members

drop to the floor

of us— singers, dancers, musicians,

lived through Fraction, the

Lenny and Alan had been rehearsing pleads, with the cast

all

in secret.

mad

scene, which

The Celebrant

lying closest to him, with

music we have heard, ranging over two and

God. He exhausts

a half octaves

— don’t know — don’t no-bis mi this on the note E — mi in solfeggio] with so [on the note G — sol]. ...”

.

.

.Adonai

I

.

.

.

.

.

.

alone

is

only

|

mi

.

.

lost his

breath he keens a dirge: “Oh,

my legs

are lead

.

.

.

.

me

Mi-se

.

.

.

.

.

But

us

Celebrant, our all

I

mind,

his voice,

suddenly

and

his soul,

feel every step

and with

his last

Fve ever taken

/

And

How easily things get broken.” Lenny struck the (A major and C minor), which slowly faded into silence

Oh

deep polychord

as the left

in a

.

The Celebrant has

final

the

Dominum, ad

Miserere no-bis

Mi

.

all

and ending

babble of Latin, Hebrew, English, and solfeggio wordplay: “ad .

and

roars at

himself completely in a dazzling cadenza, a collage of fragments from

Dom.

down

feigned throwing

at the piano. Fie told the cast to

for the first

— heard

.

.

.

.

own Alan

Titus, walked out of the rehearsal area

splayed on the floor. Like the others,

I

asked myself,

and

“What have we

done? What now?”

We

found out

in

Washington, when Bernstein began, almost grudg-

ingly, to part with the final section of

Mass,

his “Secret Songs,”

breathed a bereft, leaderless, and fractured community back into rospect

I

realize that this

life.

which In ret-

manipulation of the company was Bernstein’s way

of protecting his message of peace from the inevitable criticism of the pessimists, the Voltaires

Dvorak 148

to

Duke

and Martins, of this world.

Ellington

end of Fraction the Celebrant makes

In the theater, at the

tonic descent into the orchestra pit

— no

slamming of doors

his cata-

or flinging of

— and the deep polychord fades ever so slowly into silence. me to hold the silence as long as dared — “You’ll know

curses at Congress

Lenny implored

I

when!”

A querulous

we

mirror image of the desolation entire

an earlier moment: the

flute breaks the silence, recalling

Mass community had

gether the “Almighty Father

and then listened

as a solo

first .

.

.

the

feel,

moment

assembled and, pleased with

Bless ns

and

all

when

of Epiphany,

who have

itself,

the

sang

gathered here

to.

.

oboe, from everywhere and nowhere, sounded

(over the four speakers) a cadenza, an Epiphany.

This time the music of Epiphany

sounded by

is

himself from where he was lying on the is

picked up by a child soprano: “Sing

is

the

The

of the stage. a secret

flutist,

The

song

/

who

raises

note

flute’s last

Lauda, Laude.”

A

It

harp joins

child passes the “kiss” in turn to a bass-baritone, thence to a

woman. Chains begins to

God

lone

of the “Secret Songs,” symbolizing the kiss of peace.

first

the flute.

lip

a

The

of “Lauda, Laude” canons begin to form.

The

filter in.

cast joins, helping

orchestra too

each other up, joining the “Lauda,

Laude,” one by one, two by two. Their rebirth gathers energy and power. As the music subsides, bassoonist and dancer, French horn player and Street

Singer are massed together downstage before the audience, forming a rain-

We hear the last “Lauda, Laude” sung from one side of the

bow of humanity.

rainbow by the unseen Celebrant and echoed from the other by an unseen child.

The mantle

puts forth the

has been passed.

hope

that

The

cycle can

now begin anew.

one of these voyages of faith

peace and redemption. As the

Bernstein

will transport us to true

final notes of the child

and the Celebrant

away, the cast sings, “Almighty Father, incline thine

ear:

/

Bless us

float

and

all

who have gathered here— / thine angel send 11s— / Who shall defend us all; / And fill with grace / All who dwell in this place. Amen.” The lights dim and we hear a voice, Lenny’s voice

The onstage

and

first

bringing together of

cast, choirs,

lights

members

(on tape): “The Mass

— was

all

is

ended; go in Peace.” 18

the elements of the production

and bands, and the

at a dress rehearsal for

pit orchestra

— the

with costumes, sound,

an invited audience that included

of the United States Congress. At the

end of the

first-ever

Mass

,

the

members of the company, and many in the audience, were shattered, in tears. The sadness and sense of loss — for the Celebrant, for our innocence, for John Kennedy— was palpable. That night Fed Kennedy came down the aisle to the pit to

thank

Every one of the

11s.

six

Fie

was deeply moved.

productions

emotional reaction. Mass proves

to

I

have worked on has produced

be greater than the

sum

of

its

this

parts.

Be-

cause the elements are perforce assembled only for an actual performance,

Bernstein’s

Mass 149

w*

the cast

how

has no idea

itself

deeply they will be affected.

A large part of the

power of Mass comes because the audience witnesses those onstage discovering their loss and confusion and giving themselves to the kiss of peace.

were told kiss

to fan out,

of peace, pass

it

touch a few of those on/’

The

sitting

previews. a

I

can

huge Coptic

how to

“pass

it

still

see Lenny,

cross dangling

on.”

Many

on the

conceit was that the

through the audience and hence into the world.

aisles,

kiss

We tried

in the

his neck, as

and

of peace

who had gradually become from around

The

audience.

to pass the kiss of peace into the

Lenny wanted

it

choirboys say,

he

1

would

pass

during one of the

possessed by

Mass

,

he showed the boys

audience shrank from their touch. His

final

gesture toward universal redemption was abandoned.

President Richard Nixon, though invited, did not attend the opening night.

According

to

columnist Jack Anderson,

it

was

Edgar Hoover who en-

J.

joined Nixon not to attend:

On

July

12,

1971,

Hoover wrote

to

White House major-domo H.

Haldeman and Attorney General John

R.

Mitchell, warning of “proposed

plans of antiwar elements to embarrass the United States Govern-

ment.” Composer Leonard Bernstein, Hoover correctly reported was

composing

a mass.

.

.

.

Daniel Berrigan had been asked

Latin verse to be sung to Lenny’s music.

words

will follow

officials,

an antiwar theme,” he

“The source advised the said.

“Important Government

perhaps even the President, are expected

mony and

it is

to write the

to attend this cere-

anticipated they will applaud the composition without

The

recognizing the true meaning of the words.”

source said the news-

papers would be given the story the following day that “the President

and other high ranking Government

officials

applauded an

government song.” Possibly because of Hoover’s

Nixon missed what the audience and

critics

anti-

hysterics, President

thought was a superb

performance. 19

Was the poolside

cottage of the Beverly Hills Hotel

pronounced the Celebrant’s

Mass

calls for the literal

so-called exit line,

Los Angeles.

We

1

“Fuck you and your War!”?

massing together of a universe of music and mu-

sicians in the cause of peace.

don Davidson and

Its

sheer size

is

mesmerizing. Yet

did a scaled-down version at the

dubbed

it

bugged when Lenny

“Mini-Muss.”

And

for

in 1973

Gor-

Mark Taper Theater

some

cast

in

members, the

magic, the message of universal peace, faded after several performances. In this

more intimate format— eight

instrumentalists onstage, three offstage,

twelve singers, three dancers, small children’s choir, and liturgical choir

—

it

was more play than pageant. Actors ask questions, and

Dvofak 15 °

to

Duke

Ellington

when

Bernstein

came

to see

it,

he had

a

sit-

down

with the company. Several of the performers expressed their frustration

with the ending. There was a leap of faith that science, conld not take.

They

tion at the end.

And

still

of them, in good con-

they found themselves having to act the emo-

hungered

Bernstein listened. Hard.

fest.

some

for

peace in onr time, but not

He came up

with an alternative ending: an

expression of doubt, a fragment borrowed from the Epistle section,

Word just

of the Lord,”

before

One

night

which was

to

hug-

a big

“

The

be sung by one of the doubters in the cast

we hear

Bernstein’s voice intone the “go in Peace” benediction.

we put

into the show, but

was dropped.

I

it

it

awkward,

felt

have Lenny’s holograph sketch.

So we wait

in silent treason until reason

and we wait

for the

season of the

Word

is

The

like

an “add-on,” and

text reads:

restored

of the Lord.

Bernstein’s

Mass

D Duke There

will

Ellington

one day come

Beethoven, burned

a black

to the

bone by the African sun.

— Will

Marion Cook, from

interview of

Mercer Cook

by Josef Skvorecky

For

my teenage dance combo, the “Mood

Ellington’s

heard on

my 78

Starlighters,

I

wrote arrangements of Duke

Indigo” and “Caravan,” trying to imitate the voicings

r.p.m. records.

It

was the

late 1940s,

ton’s music, along with that of other big hands.

I

and I was

a fan of Elling-

didn’t have a recording of

Black Brown and Beige, which had been premiered only a few years ,

in 1942.

But

I

might have heard

unconscious the provocative it

at least

title

some

I

part of

it

somewhere,

was stored away, together with

earlier,

for in

my

a sense that

was an important, serious work.

Duke Ellington and his Black, Brown and Beige entered my life in the summer of 1965 was settling in as music director of the Corpus Christi Sym.

phony.

I

was also “covering” — working

New York Ballet

as

an

assistant

conductor for— the

Philharmonic summer concerts and conducting

whenever they could

afford to

for the Joffrey

work with an orchestra. In June of 1965,

White House

the Joffrey Ballet was invited to represent

American dance

Festival of the Arts, hosted by President

and Mrs. Lyndon Baines Johnson,

and

in July, the

New York Philharmonic held a

Lincoln Center.

Duke

into a

museum,

walls of the public

Festival at

14,

1965, the

White House was

sculpture court, theater, and concert stage.

trans-

On

the

rooms hung paintings by Franz Kline, Ben Shahn, and

Marc Rothko, among Ray,

French-American

Ellington appeared at both.

For one jam-packed day, June

formed

at a

others,

and photographs by Stuart Eisenstadt,

Edward Steichen, and Alfred

Stieglitz.

Man

There were sculptures by Alexan-

F3

der Calder, Louise Nevelson, and Isamu Noguchi. selves

were

Many of the

artists

them-

in attendance.

The daytime performances began with an event titled “Prose and Poetry.” Mark Van Doren introduced readings by Saul Bellow, Catherine Drinker Bowen, and John Hersey. Robert Lowell, who declined to appear, a protest against the festival

was outside leading

because

it

was being held

while the nation was in the grip of the Vietnam War. American music, set apart from jazz, was represented by a short afternoon concert given by the Louisville Orchestra

mental pieces by

and introduced by Marian Anderson.

We heard

instru-

Ned Rorem and Robert Whitney and vocal works by Gersh-

win and Bernstein sung by Roberta

Peters.

A

program of drama followed,

with scenes from Tennessee Williams’s Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s

Death of a Salesman, introduced by Helen Hayes. The daytime presentations ended with film clips from Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, introduced by Charlton Heston. I

recall the prevailing

mood

many luminaries appeared polite

exchanges

The

self-conscious, in

around,

all

of that marathon day as

little

more. But that was about

White House lawn. Gene Kelly was the

let

performed Gamelan

Shadows

to the

but

festival,

to

first

and formal. The

awe of one another. There were

upon

evening’s entertainment took place

event for the entire

stiff

to

title

bers of the United States

Joffrey Bal-

by Lou Harrison and Sea

second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto I

in

G; Gilbert

conducted an orchestra recruited from

Marine Band.

on the

be the culminating

came American dance. The

music of the same

Kalish was the piano soloist.

change.

a stage erected

was

host. Jazz

to

mem-

Polite applause covered our exit; then

Kelly began reading his next introduction: It’s

a long road

musical way tails

of

still.

Duke

artists of his

from Congo Square

But jazz made

Ellington

and put her

there

had never been

A wall

And

so

Carnegie Hall, and a longer

Riding on the well-tailored coat

some twenty-two

years ago,

he and the great

ensemble, took lady jazz out of her off-the-racks cotton

dress

him.

it.

to

it’s

in a

long velvet gown. Ladies and Gentlemen, a

Duke

Ellington, jazz

with pride that

I

present the

would have had

“Duke .”

if

to invent

1

of applause rose in greeting as Ellington stomped out the tempo.

band kicked poets, actors

off with

“fake the

and dancers,

A Train,”

politicians,

were loosened, shoes and jackets came

The

and the motley crowd of artists and

and off.

glitterati I

melted into one. Ties

remember

smiles and dancing.

We

were caught up

sic.

Ellington followed with “one of our latest compositions”: selections from

the Far East Suite.

Dvorak

U4

to

Duke

in the delicious, delirious

He

embrace of Ellington’s mu-

then introduced portions of the featured work from the

Ellington

Carnegie Hall concert that Kelly referred

historic

the history of the Negro in America, Black the work for the

The band

time.

first

still

to:

“our tone parallel to

Brown and

,

Beige."

I

listened to

featured Ellington veterans Johnny

Hodges, Ray Nance, Lawrence Brown, and Harry Carney.

I

was

in orbit, car-

ried along by the audience’s obvious pleasure in Ellington’s music, in par-

haunting

ticular the

Nance

“Come

in

saxophone and

alto

Sunday.”

Having spent considerable time since scoring,

that magical evening studying,

and performing Black Brown and Beige, ,

I

now

performed and displayed work, no matter

when

fans

it

was

the Festival, Ellington was reaffirming his faith

at

than enthusiastic greeting by most

less

its

force behind the festival, thanked to

would not

mained onstage course, the I

to play

“Mood

let

set,

its

and

Lady Bird Johnson, the

real

the performers and

all

enjoy refreshments and view the

the audience

critics

presented.

first

After the Ellington Orchestra finished

everyone

realize that in choos-

American masterworks

ing to place his “tone parallel” alongside the other

in the

Hodges and Ray

violin solos of

art

artists

and sculpture on

Ellington and his orchestra go.

many

and invited display.

But

The band

re-

of his celebrated compositions, including, of

Indigo” and “Caravan” of my youth.

was bred up, wondering

take part in this important

how a symphony conductor like

music — music that spoke

to

me

as

myself could

profoundly

as

any other, music that reached out and embraced everyone. Later that evening

I

met

Ellington’s collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, at a reception in the

Room. To my

East

pleasant surprise, Strayhorn had heard of

ductor with some jazz in his soul.

asked

I

him

if

ceeded

“Why to

don’t you ask

me

introduce

ton countered, “What’s his

music and

chestra

and wanted

had no more I

jazz

and

When

wrong with

the

it

I

way

symphony

or-

and pro-

repeated the question, Ellingit

is?”

I

explained

how

I

loved

I

was

to offer.

New York

six

weeks

Philharmonic

later,

in his

on July

29, 1965,

own music

for

symphony

the experience disappointing.

when he came

Festival of the Arts con-

orchestral This time, however,

The

to

work The Golden Broom and the

Green Apple. Here was the hero of the White House ducting his

con-

now conducting my own symphony orsome of his bigger works. He was charming but

that

to play

for

yourself?” Strayhorn responded,

to Ellington.

met Ellington again

direct the

him

as a

Ellington or he, himself,

had ever thought about scoring Black, Brown and Beige chestra.

me

I

found

orchestration was four-square. 2 Jazz

— “oo-shoo-bee-doos” that any musician of my generation could scat with ease — were blurred by awkward bowings. And despite having the maslicks

ter jazz

drummer Louie

istically

uncomfortable in front of the

Bellson at his side, Ellington seemed uncharacter-

New York

Philharmonic. Louie Bell-

Duke

Ellington *55

son

the story of “playing a piece

still tells

New York

and there was no part

Phil,

Ellington never wrote out to

drum

improvise their own. But

for

the

me!’” Louie of course knows that

freedom

parts, giving total

this,

Duke and

never heard with

I

he was saying, went too

to his

far.

I

drummers

never figured

out what The Golden Broom and the Green Apple was doing on a French

American concert, but

women, one try)

his tonal essay (about

an encounter between two

worldly-wise and citified, the other a fresh naif from the coun-

enjoyed no more than a lukewarm reception.

ton and for his music, with which

symphonic

program

jazz

Jazz Quartet as guest

MJQ

The

for the

the

artists,

I

was frustrated

strongly identified.

Corpus first

I

Christi

I

for Elling-

began planning

Symphony with

the

a

Modern

of many collaborations to come.

was a very disciplined group with a repertoire of highly

or-

ganized pieces created by the erudite composer and swing and blues pianist

John Lewis. Behind the formally structured

settings, John’s sparse yet in-

tensely rhythmic urgings at the keyboard, in combination with the swinging,

and percussion work of Percy Heath and Connie Kay,

crystal-clear string bass

MJQ

gave the

The

bop.

one of the

beneficiary of all

genius Milt Jackson.

and

rhythm sections

this, their star soloist,

The dramatic

in the history of be-

was the vibraharpist and jazz

tension between John’s formal designs

Milt’s fighting to break free, with swinging flurries

fectly

placed punctuations,

knew

I

all-time great

large

that the

MJQ

is

what made the group

so singular

would work well within the more

symphony orchestra and

that

and leaps and and

per-

attractive.

rigid confines of a

John had already composed pieces

for the

quartet with orchestra.

Their

was

earliest availability

agreed to compose a

new

February 1967

reaching

tried

,

orchestral

ing and was given a forwarding

he was when he apologized

to

1967-68 season. Billy Strayhorn

for the

work

for this

him by phone

to see

concert as well. Around

how I

in the hospital for the Ellington Orchestra,

Green Apple.

felt

I

ceived from the the

Corpus

season.

office, set

up

I

in

decided

deserved

New York

Christi

When

it

I

far

his

to tackle

D6

to

be his

last

work.

The Golden Broom and justice

than

to present

it

it

had

at

the re-

one of

Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts during the 1968-69

went

to pick

up the score and

parts at Ellington’s library/

an elegant town house on Riverside Drive near noth Street I

met

Ellington’s

sister,

Ruth,

who was

publishing company.

hey were doing

Dvofak

to

composed

his illness,

Philharmonic and decided

In February 1970, with Ruth’s help, I

was

more symphonic

(since designated Ellington Place),

running

com-

number— at a hospital. had no idea how sick me for not being able to finish the MJQ piece.

“Blood Count,” Strayhorn’s musical commentary on

Around the same time,

the piece was

Duke

I

tracked

a one-nighter at a college

Ellington

down Duke and

on Staten

Island. 4

I

his band.

went back-

and announced myself

stage during intermission

wants you

and

have

I

We met at the White House

Black Brown and Beige.

to orchestrate

,

performed your Golden Brooml” This

just

unlocked the door, and Duke invited

me

conductor who

as “the

of information

last bit

He was

into his dressing room.

wearing only a towel and a stocking cap. Ellington was, of course, interested in hearing

and

the

Green Apple went

touched up the scoring “But why,”

nosebleed

in

was ready I

was

come

that

cleaned up the bowings and

I

had come

it

and might more

territory

“When

I

if

to the

it is

easily

be given

to a

very high but there

is

rehearsed the work in Cincinnati,”

we would

start

podium during if

the part

is

a break

He

way around

it.”

a

Duke

explained,

the second section at measure

and ask

too difficult,

It's

saxophone.”

the horn player had worked up the part, he’d raise his

musician’s feelings could be

me why

no one

hand

cut out his solo.

I

17,

On

embarrassed.”

is

more important than

actly in the maestro tradition.

much

guru. There was so to

The

logic

was Talmudic.

Duke went on

to learn.

the music I

itself

wasn’t ex-

had found

to explain that

a

new

he did not

introduce the saxophone into his symphonic works since the orches-

had so many wonderful colors of its own. The saxophone question would

come up

again,

and sooner than

me a

Ellington gave

ride

Duke was was

light.

in I

I

back

tone saxophonist Harry Carney,

thought. to

back with Joe Morgan,

man. ” As

I

About

next to the driver: bari-

sat

in the

band since the

man. The conversation

Joe about

“No chick wants

making such

to share

a big

her favors with

“You do

said,

it.”

“What?”

I

asked.

“You

my Black, Brown and Beige.” a

week

later,

we met

tration. His trusted assistant

at

Duke’s apartment

Torn Whaley

sat in.

to discuss the orches-

Whaley, who joined the

Ellington organization in 1941, had recently taken over responsibilities that told

1920s.

was getting out of the car on the corner of Sixty-

and West End Avenue, Duke

orchestrate

I

his publicity

remember Duke’s bantering with

a seventy-year-old sixth

Manhattan.

who had been

deal over Duke’s seventieth birthday:

He

off beautifully.

never found out what happened in Cincinnati, but the notion that a

I

tra

that

asked, “did you give such a high solo to the French horn?

the other hand,

want

him

told

few places, and that

in a

the orchestra that

knowing

I

for the question. “Yes,

all ears.

“I told

or

I

over.

how The Golden Broom

some

of the scoring

once were Strayhorn’s. Ellington talked about the music.

me the story behind the second section, “Come

Sunday,” about black

people standing outside a white church they could not enter and harmonizing with the beautiful music they heard from within, realizing that they

shared the same God.

He

supplied

me

with a tape of the January 23, 1943,

Carnegie Hall concert, an archival “location recording,” and full

scores for Black,

Brown and

all

Beige, published in 1963 by

a set of seven

Tempo

Duke

Music,

Ellington *57

his

own company. These were 5

the only

full

scores (jazz

band

orchestrations)

of his music that Ellington allowed to be published in his lifetime. Elling-

ton

composed almost

exclusively for his orchestra of hand-picked players,

and, like most big-band leaders, he guarded his scores from peering eyes.

Black Brown and Beige was the rare exception. ,

Duke

suggested that

I

band play at the White House day/’

same three

orchestrate the

Our

balked

at

I

had heard the

“Work Song,” “Come Sun-

Festival of the Arts:

and “Light.” These three sections made up the

Black.

sections

original

first

movement,

conversation turned to the scoring of “Come Sunday.” Ellington

the idea of using alto saxophone for the haunting solo that brings

“Come Sunday”

This time his reasoning had nothing

to a close.

Duke

using the available symphonic colors.

do with

did not want “to tempt anyone”

performance of Johnny Hodges.

into imitating the extraordinary original

Hodges had an uncommon,

to

bluesy, conversational

way of bending and

slid-

ing through a melody, reaching the true center of a pitch only at the resting

point of a principal note or phrase.

me, he would assign the solo in order to

We

encourage

met again

La Boheme

that

I

a

a

to

left

the band,

an instrument other than the

new and

few weeks

Hodges ever

If

alto

Duke

saxophone,

fresh interpretation.

later

was conducting

when Duke

for the

attended a performance of

Washington Opera

Society.

The

perb cast included Alan Titus as Marcello and the soon-to-be movie

Madeline Kahn, who

all

told

sustar

but stole the show with her comical interpretation of

Musetta. At the after-performance reception, Ellington was a center of attrac-

When

tion.

it

came time

evening was young

to leave,

who was

keyed up by the performance.

still

We

Duke.

as well for

bara Kheen, a friend of his

was

I

ended up

felt

the evening brought

me and

with Ellington on Queenie Pie had

While Beige was

my

orchestration of a

in the

still

planning

apartment of Bar-

a ballet consultant for the National

dowment for the Arts. High on Puccini and I

in the

the its

wine,

Duke

we

La Boheme

My later work night. 6

Symphonic Suite from Black, Brown and

stages,

an engagement

to

conduct the Chicago

Symphony at the Ravinia Festival in July 1970 came through. The management welcomed the idea of an Ellington premiere (my new tration)

on

a

program

Gershwin. With

this

that

En-

talked through the night.

closer together.

roots in that

The

festival

orches-

would include music by Bernstein, Copland, and

deadline

now

staring

me

in the face,

I

was bound

to

finish the score.

The Chicago Symphony

played the

new

orchestration amazingly well.

My trumpet-playing days were not that far behind aware of how

stylishly the orchestra’s

me, and

I

was particularly

legendary principal trumpeter, Adolph

Herseth, led the bra^s section, swinging the phrases and working away with his

plunger mute in the

Dvorak 158

to

Duke

Ellington

final

measures of “Light.”

Ellington,

tened July

I

am happy

to report,

to a private taping of the

5,

1970,

and made no

approved of

my

orchestration.

He

lis-

Ravinia performance, which took place on

fuss over

my orehestrational

decisions, nor did he

my using the alto saxophone in “Come Sunday.” His one caveat, into my memory— take a more deliberate tempo, especially for the

object to drilled

opening of “Work Song” — I have respected ever

Not long River

8 ,

after,

and Queenie

Duke Pie.

I

called

upon me

to

since. 7

work on

his ballet score,

The

was becoming one of Ellington's “symphony men.”

Duke

Ellington *59

*>

V

'

«

i6

Ellington’s

In the late

man

fall

of 1970, at Ellington’s insistence,

I

was engaged by Peter Her-

Adler, director of the National Educational Television

Duke

pany, to help for

Queenie Pie

prepare a piano-vocal score and eventually orchestrations

Queenie Pie what he ,

sion.

I

Opera Com-

slyly referred to as his

“opera comique,” for

did this periodically for the next three years, through the

of Ellington’s

summer

life.

NET Opera had given advance, after hearing sitting at the

last

televi-

him

Ellington a commission, and the requisite cash sing, play,

keyboard — the Duke

and

at his

tell

the story of Queenie Pie while

most charming

But the vocal

self.

score and script were slow in coming. Ellington was busy, on the road, keep-

ing his orchestra working in a shrinking market.

He was

getting ready to fo-

cus his creative energies on the Third Sacred Concert. Perhaps he

was running out of time.

and pry I

a score out of

My task was to bring Ellington

back

to

knew he

Queenie Pie

him.

caught up with Ellington and the band

in

January 1971 while they were

playing a two-week engagement at the Shamrock-Hilton Hotel in Houston,

Texas.

1

I

looked somewhat contrived, as nie Pie set-up.” Betty

if

McGettigan,

typing away at the script. uscript.

Duke had

said,

his traveling

Duke was on

to his suite.

The scene

“Quick, get out the Quee-

companion and

secretary,

was

the bed, surrounded by sheets of man-

He showed me where he stood

dozen or

and went up

arrived early in the afternoon

with the score and handed

so parodical television jingles

me a

half-

he had composed about Queenie’s

161 *

beauty products

(for

businesswoman

Queenie was

a highly successful

queen).

was EIJington’s idea

as a celebrated beauty'

It

to “interrupt” his tele-

commercials and news bulletins about Queenie’s

vision opera with

as well

and

life

times:

you are agreeable

If

Of your

favorite

guy

You can make him

hit the sky

apply some Queenie Pie

Just

And

try,

I

The most an

when

1973,

.

.

one trumpet,

Ellington was appearing at the

sixty-fifth floor

drums, two

bass,

vocalists,

Rainbow

NBC Building in Rock-

of the

band was scaled down:

efeller Center. Ellington’s tion,

.

.

work on Queenie Fie took place during the summer

intensive

deco heaven on the

art

.

.

mean, BUY.

months of 1972 and Grill,

eye

to the

a full (five-man) sax sec-

and the maestro

at the

concert

grand. 2 set

I

brought list I

up shop Pinned

in.

Duke’s dressing room, and we had a small piano

to the wall,

we had

of the tunes

would

in the

where he couldn’t miss

sets

drawn

so winningly in his

around three o’clock

Duke was one symphonic tone poem

wee

tween

into the

“dummy”

lyric,

counterthemes and orchestration.

his ideas for

and

my long check-

was

already committed to paper and those yet to be done.

write as he played: the tune, the

sometimes

it,

hours.

in the

the chords, and

We

worked be-

of those “night creatures”

of the

same name. Once,

morning, Ellington decided we should take

a

break and go to the Stage Deli, then an after-hours gathering place for showbusiness people.

waving

act.

When we

Ellington told

got to the street,

me

to relax

I

went

into

my New York

and quietly walked

taxi-

to the curb. In a

matter of seconds three cabs careened over, vying to pick us up.

was

It

Once

the

a

heady time.

word got around

pressing notes on cians, both I

me

as

down-at-the-heels

Duke cat.

creetly peel off a bill in the

Rainbow

that

in the catbird seat, backstage with the I

high,

flames and

wannabe flames — began

Miles Davis was

who came

to

many musirespects. More than

among

pay their

the

signaled his son, Mercer, to give “a taste” to

Mercer,

who was then managing the

from a large

Grill,

Duke.

passed unchallenged in and out of the great

to pass on.

humble and

watched

was

women — old

man’s dressing room,

once

I

Duke

roll

he carried and

slip

it

some

band, would

to

dis-

him. Out front

unobtrusively initialed table checks for his

friends.

One August night in

1973, Richard

Burton came

to the grill

with his teen-

age daughter, whose birthday was being celebrated. Ellington coaxed

on

stage,

Dvofak 162

to

and he began

Duke

Ellington

to recite

Shakespeare while the band played.

him up “I

usu-

ally get a big fee for this,”

quipped Burton." The audience wanted more. Bur-

poem of praise for Duke and the band. During the break Burton came backstage. Duke explained my presence and all the music paper strewn about. “It’s for a new opera comique, Queenie Pie," Ellington told Burton. “Here’s a number you could sing.” Ellington pulled out “Women,” a bluesy, slow’, swinging ballad, and before he ton finished with an “improvisation,” a talking blues

could think, Burton was reciting

to Ellington’s piano:

Women B

Women

eautiful

Coinin’ on like crazy Will she stay or go? Ellington began envisioning his plans for Queenie Pie. Lena his

choice for Queenie.

which was

ton’s orchestra,

and

Duke himself would to

I

would conduct

Elling-

be supplemented with French horns, a harp,

Queenie

a small string section.

narrate.

Horne was

Pie’s fantasy

scenes would especially

benefit from a broader orchestral palette: Synopsis: street in

The

first

scene opens on a beauty' pageant being held on a

Harlem. Mendelssohnian hymns of praise, sung by an assem-

blage of dignitaries, are being offered in Queenie’s honor, and there

an immediate response of affirmation, by “second-line”

style,

We soon

in jazzy

New

Orleans prance

street people.

Queenie barely scraped through

learn that

is

as the

winner. Clearly

her days on the beauty' queen’s throne are numbered.

The scene

shifts to

her boudoir. As she studies herself in the mirror,

the reassuring voice of her paramour, Big Daddy,

You Make

that

man, reminds Li’l

Daddy

Hat Look

her,

“

t

hose

has a solution.

land,” where,

little girl

He

Moon

on “Full

But

Pretty.”

Li’l

is

heard:

“Oh Gee,

Daddy, her trusted house-

competitors are cornin’ too close.”

conjures up a vision,

Midnight,”

“My

Father’s

a singing tree unfolds

Is-

its

arms and releases a magic potion.

Here Ellington

takes his inspiration

Hair Straightening Cream. Li’l this

Daddy: There’s

Li’l

from

Daddy

a thing that

Madame

C.

J.

Walker’s celebrated

confides in Queenie:

grows

in the heart of the tree,

thing someday will be the basic ingredient for every

product— medical, cosmetic, needs

is

for

someone

to

industrial

go and get

it.

and

modern

and physical energy. And

It’s

called the

NUCLI, and

all it it’s

yours for the taking.

Ellington's Queenie Pie l6 3

Queenie: Li’l

Daddy,

Li’l

Daddy: Two inches

Queenie: Will Li’l

Daddy: Daddy:

it

it

make

hair grow?

a day.

freckles go?

remove

A touch

a wrinkle?

in a twinkle.

Queenie: What about Li’l

Will

wipe ’em away.

Just

Queenie: Will Li’l

make

it

NUCLI?

this

a blister?

Daddy: She’d think her sweetheart

kissed her. 4

Queenie Pie boards her speedboat and lands on the

moon

midnight, and a

of tree sirens sings “Smile As

trio

nie and the boat crew dash off with the

“Hey Now,

nie strut-sings,

wrecked

I

and

You Go

sail

It is full

By.”

Quee-

into the sea.

Quee-

Don’t Need Nobody Now,” but they are ship-

as the first act ends.

The second changed

and grabbed

into skins,

beach

to see

island.”

We meet the hip

turned off their

air conditioners,

on “another uncharted

act opens

Harlemites from Act One. They have

to the

NUCLI

island.

just

their spears

and drums

as they

head down

what has washed up on shore. Queenie wakes up

to the

poke of a spear and the eerie chanting of “Eenuff, Iinoof, Angalong, Dangalong. ...”

They

sing a war song:

STICK IT IN JAB IT

PULL IT OUT GRAB IT

AND STICK IT RIGHT BACK ... IN AGAIN DON’T BE AFRAID TO WEAR WAR PAINT GOTTA LOOK MEAN, EVEN THOUGH YOU AIN’T (End of first part of the

synopsis)

Harlemites “going native” had already surfaced in Ellington’s plan for a 1940s musical he called “Air Conditioned Jungle,” and again in (194 1 ).

Jump

for Joy

5

These ironical send-ups of nativist cliches have a long history in black minstrelsy, as well as in early black

there

is

a similar

scene in

homey— and one can

full

Broadway

theatricals

jungle regalia in

find a parallel in the

— as already noted,

Cook and Dunbar’s

In

Da-

whooping and feigned scalping

in

American Indian Wild West shows. At the end of our second summer’s work on Queenie Pie, a progress-report-cum-audition for Ellington

Herman Adler and

his assistants),

on West Fifty-eighth

Dvorak 164

to

Duke

Street. Betty

Ellington

and the

which took place

I

put together

NET Opera folks (Peter

at

Duke’s

summer sublet

McGettigan provided an up-to-date

script.

I

prepared a vocal score of lead sheets. With a few of the singers from Mass

and myself chording

at the piano,

I

demo

prepared a rough-and-tumble

tape

of some of the best songs. I

assumed

and

that Adler

opera pros, would

his assistants, all

fill

in the

gaps as they listened to the tape while following the music, but Adler did not

have a jazz bone in his body. They

sat stone-faced,

words of the “keep up the good work”

and

left.

beauties in this score

swinging sexy

— the

struts for

royal family

his

moonlight and magic

blue

to

there

no such thing

is

my orchestra

the late spring

for a “serious”

demo tape. By this

I

London,

people ap-

time Ellington had checked I

was not on the short I

sent

him

list

seventy-

engaged three wonderful singers — Robert Guillaume, Lee

make

new demo

the

a terrific jazz trio, with

died on

May 24,

1974, be-

new music director for the news came. The Modern Jazz Quartet

Kansas City, being introduced

as well,

Duke

tape.

Tom Pierson at

the sessions.

Kansas City Philharmonic,

and we

when

all

the

cathedral, located

as the

took the same flight back to

the funeral, held at the Cathedral of

The

NET Opera

We spoke by phone a few times, and

we could schedule

was there

tape!”

(blue being his favorite color) for his birthday on April 29. In

the keyboard, to

in

demo

in Texas. Ellington left for

midwinter the

24, 1973. In

Hooper, and Ernestine Jackson — and

was

as a

Third Sacred Concert in Westminster Abbey before the

visitors.

irises

not hear the

kind. All he

himself into the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. of permitted

in front

Queenie and Big Daddy? Duke was very

on October

proved a budget

I

was mortified

music, the

soon headed back

where he gave

fore

few awkward

tree

exotic

“Remember, Maurice,

said was,

five

I

a

How could they, despite the unpolished performances,

of Duke.

I

variety,

mumbled

uptown

St.

New York to attend

John the Divine.

just

south of Columbia University and

on the edge of Harlem, has become the ecumenical heart and soul of cre-

New York.

ative

I

attended several of David Amram’s magical American In-

dian Thanksgiving concerts als

and memorial

at the cathedral

and have since attended funer-

services given there for Virgil

Roach’s African

drum

John Lewis; but

it

was

The huge crowd arranged a place for

Thomson, Alvin

Ailey

(Max

processional was awesome), Leonard Bernstein, and for

Duke

Ellington that

I

made my

first

pilgrimage.

of mourners overflowed into the streets. Ruth Ellington

me

near the family.

I

carried a rose in Duke’s honor. As

the casket was taken out, Alice Babs’s soprano soared to the highest reaches of the cathedral, and I

made

a

vow

to

their rightful journey.

A few months meeting

at

broke down.

I

help get Duke’s symphonic works published and on I

couldn’t imagine what would happen to Queenie Pie.

after

Duke’s passing, the

which they decided

that

NET Opera directors had a big

Queenie Pie without Ellington was not

Ellington’s Queenie Pie 165

a

good

idea. Fortunately,

There was no way

had gone ahead and recorded the new demo

I

could know'

I

lead to a full stage production.

It

at the ‘time,

American Music Theater

would take twelve

that

I

and principal

demo

brought the

of the theater

mained

orchestrator.

tape and

were

re-creation,

work

in 1973, a

It

Up

I

was engaged by

Band and

the

to serve as

mu-

was while working on that project

TV script of Queenie

festival’s artistic advisor,

as they

years.

Festival of Philadelphia to help reconstruct

Gershwin’s 1929/31 Broadway musical Strike sic director

but the tape would ultimately

on the strength of my Aeolian Hall

In 1985,

the

it

tape.

The

Eric Salzman.

and

in progress,

Pie to the attention

tape and script re-

was

it

my hope

that the

AMT Festival would be interested in a workshop production, along the lines of what they were doing at the time for

Anthony

Salzman was quite taken with Queenie a

new work by

and score

sic

and

The workshop

full

idea was

A young unknown writer,

responsibility for the book.

orchestrator, but

difficult negotiations, a deal

production

X.

and the notion of presenting

into a full stage production.

my first task was to

from the huge body of Ellington’s work

and

Malcolm

AMT Festival set out to expand the one-hour narrated tel-

George Wolfe, was given sic director

,

Ellington was extremely tempting.

scrapped, and the evision script

Pie

Davis’s opera

to flesh

I

would again be mu-

compile additional muout the score. After long

was struck with Mercer Ellington giving the

access to Ellington’s published and unpublished works, ex-

cept for those in the Broadway show Sophisticated Ladies. Mercer also relin-

quished

artistic

chestra be the

allow

me

Duke

add

to

control over Queenie Pie, with the proviso that the pit or-

a

Ellington Orchestra, which he was then leading.

French horn and

He

did

a synthesizer but balked at including

strings for the projected orchestrations.

Mercer provided

me

with photocopies from a huge cache of sketch-

books and loose sheets of music manuscripts that could find “new” music

for the

expanded Queenie

cess to the composer’s hideaway,

wondrous sea of sketches,

scraps,

I

felt

Duke Pie.

At

hope

left,

in the

first,

given free ac-

I

discomfited, then boozy, afloat in a

phone numbers, and more-or-less com-

pleted compositions. T here were countless melodies to blues changes and

dozens of Duke’s idiosyncratic scores, complete arrangements

for the

band,

written out in his peculiar shorthand system, ready to be copied.

Ellington laid out his scores in concert pitch on four staves. Four of the

saxophones, two alto and two tenors, are grouped together on the top ten with particular players’

stands alone

sounds.

On

trombones,

names

on the second

the third staff

is

staff,

166

to

attached. Harry Carney’s baritone sax line in treble clef,

in bass clef, share the fourth

Duke

Ellington

one octave higher than

the music for four “cors,” the trumpets.

are also frequently assigned by

Dvorak

staff, of-

and bottom

staff.

The

it

Three

brass players

name. Sometimes Ellington adds

a string bass

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Courtesy of Mercer Ellington.

line to the

trombone

Rarely are there any indications for the

staff.

or for himself at the piano

There were some

6 .

surprises in the sketchbooks: a score for a full sym-

phony orchestra — something Ellington was never known double column of anagrams, printed stationary, represented

in block letters

to

do himself 7 ;

for “Polka,”

On another sheet of hotel

a

on Detroit Hilton hotel

an evening’s worth of tunes Ellington was planning

have the band play— KLOP stands

Wisconsin .” 8

drummer

UWIZ”

stationery (the

to

for “University of

Shoreham Hotel and

Motor Inn of Washington, D.C.) Ellington scribbled out an

entire tune us-

ing but one line for a

clef. It

ically Ellingtonian

amazed

Dvorak 168

at

to

how

Duke

staff:

the E, or bottom, line of the treble

— maximum

well

it

was

expression through minimal means.

I

worked. There were poems, some quite personal.

Ellington

typ-

was

Figure

16.3

Ellington one-line staff on hotel stationery.

Courtesy of Mercer Ellington.

I

among the sketches: a end of Act One titled “Beautiful”;

did find interesting material for Queenie Pie

Queenie

soaring ballad for

to sing at the

three blues choruses that worked in counterpoint with one another that cast into a

canonic song called “Style”; and a blues

former trumpeter with Ellington and veloped into a show-stopper, “Blues

a brilliant

for

lick that Barry

Beige,

also established a

I

Two Women.” The

Queenie

Hall,

composer and arranger, de-

“new” songs were by George David Weiss. Using what

Brown and

Lee

re-

I

I

lyrics for these

learned from Black

leitmotif that

I

laced through-

out the work as transitional music and in dream sequences.

The producers

felt

there

still

remained

a

problem with Ellington’s non-

ending. Ellington had never really resolved Queenie’s tain her title as

When we

Queenie left

Pie, the reigning

dilemma

of how to re-

beauty queen of Harlem.

the story of Queenie Pie,

Queenie was

lying

on the shore

of “another uncharted island”:

Synopsis (continued): She wakes up on the beach to find herself sur-

rounded by “natives” and quickly

sizes

up the

situation.

Queenie

se-

Ellington’s Queenie Pie

169

duces the King with a

trilly

“Come

Mozartian parody,

My

into

Boudoir, Your Majesty,” only to erherge minutes later announcing her

triumph with

a growling, funky,

Ding the Gong, His Majesty's Queenie operatic style

— “Just lucky, “Then

I

fate

guess, just lucky”

decided

I

life. It

begins again in a breezy

— and builds to a false climax

should be a

real

Queen

circumstances thrown in-n-n-n.” Queenie holds the

mask comes ally

where the King's belong.”

at,

sings a soliloquy, the story of her

with the ironic,

pomp and

enigmatic shout, “Blow the Horn and

mean,

I

off,

and “in-n-n-n” turns

know where

wouldn't

into “n-n-if I

to begin.”

were

Woman

in

A

sion says, ‘No

re-

I

Wanna Be

the

a two-part form, a

transformed into jazz revelation.

rescue boat arrives but

Madam,

what

Town.”

classical aria

“Sorry,

The

Queenie then pours out her

For both of the above examples Ellington employs parody of a

the

all

last note.

to tell you,

soul in a heartachingly slow, slow, confessional blues, “I Don’t

Lonely-est

with

Crown

Prince, the King's son, intercedes:

but the Supreme Constitutional

Crown Head must

EVER

Document

of Deci-

leave this Islandin'"

Ellington ended his “opera comique” with Queenie imprisoned on the land.

She would never return

George Wolfe was

find herself

still

Harlem

brilliant.

characters, conceptions,

the ending. Wolfe has

to

to face the inevitable.

His book incorporated most of Ellington’s

and choice pieces of dialogue, and he reimagined

Queenie wake up from her magic-island “dream”

in her

is-

to

boudoir in Harlem. Queenie has acquired wisdom. to

her

new

competitor, Cafe O’Lay, taking comfort in the idea of living out her

life

with

She accepts the truth of her situation and turns over her crown

Big Daddy, the storyteller and Queenie’s paramour. Big Daddy, a composite

invention of Wolfe’s, serves throughout the play as the Ellingtonian figure.

Garth Fagin's dance troupe was incorporated into the company and pro-

movement that drew a

vided

vernacular

art.

fine line

In a matter of months

between Broadway cliche and precious

we

delivered an opera

comique

that re-

ceived critical acclaim everywhere except in the eyes and ears of the tough

Broadway oligarchy

that decides

Queenie Pie was moved Roger it

L. Stevens,

to

what shows book space

in their theaters.

Washington, D.C., by one enthusiastic producer,

chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center, where again

was well received. By that time, the winter of 1986-87, both George Wolfe

and

I

had

please the a full

to

other projects. Garth introduced

some changes, hoping

Broadway crowd, but Queenie Pie closed

house

Dvorak 170

left for

in early 1987, the

Duke

Ellington

same year I returned

to

in

Washington, D.C.,

to to

Black Brown and Beige. ,

*7

Ellington’s Black

Brown and Beige

,

My first hands-on

experience with Black, Brown and Beige had been the

chestration of the

Symphonic

and

his

band play at the White House

come

a

then

suffered

I

proponent of the work

work available

As with a

in

no doubts when for

symphony

The Symphonic

I

its

for

aesthetic,

of a jazz work

is

music

heard

I

Duke

Over time I would be-

original form, for jazz orchestra, but

players

to

make

back

at least a part of the

and audiences.

Suite

symphony

some

Festival in 1965.

plunged ahead

literary translation or a

composition

and

Suite, the extraordinary

or-

screen adaptation, recasting a jazz band

orchestra raises several issues,

practical.

some philosophic

many jazz purists, a symphonic adaptation in terms. Some Ellingtonians reject any kind

For

a contradiction

of re-creation, believing that the Ellington Orchestra died with him, and only

the archival location recording or Ellington’s later studio recordings and air

checks of excerpts can represent Black, Brown and Beige. Nevertheless, Ellington conceived his large-scale programmatic work for

the concert hall, and he had

Moreover, Ellington gave

it

published in 1963 so that others could play

his blessing to the idea of a

Perhaps he remembered the review of

who wore two hats for the

its

symphonic

it.

version.

1942 premiere by Irving Kolodin,

occasion, critic for the

New York Sun and

program-

171 *

“One can

note annotator for Carnegie Hall: ideas [Black,

only conclude that the brilliant

Brown and Beige contained would count

for

much more

if

]

scored for a legitimate orchestra, augmented by the solo instruments indi-

among the

cated for certain specific passages.” Kolodin’s encouraging review 1

many naysayers low

me to suspect that he got closer to the work than his fel-

leads

and gained respect

critics

for

by attending rehearsals and interviewing

it

Ellington in preparation for writing the program notes.

What, then, provised passages

some of

are is

the

first

to

the challenges

come

I

The handling

faced?

of im-

mind. But Black Brown and Beige has

to

,

no purely improvised passages. In Ellington’s autograph score of the work,

now

in the collection of his

music

at the

Smithsonian

Institution, the “im-

provised” solos, even the celebrated ones for tenor saxophonist

Most of these

are written out by the composer! to

symphonic instruments, and

ers

who cannot reproduce In

intact.

my

orchestration,

The

rarely

I

come

solos

horn sections.

I

also

I

and

a jazz

I

leave most, but not

all,

orchestral play-

of Ellington’s brass parts

freely

reworked

“call

for the string,

and respond”

woodwind,

or

keep intact the unifying jazz rhythm section

drummer — but drop I

remain part of the

the all-but-inaudible

As we know, Ellington rarely wrote out a drummer’s

Sonny Greer’s

be transferred

the improvisatory flavor of the original.

lightly amplified jazz bassist (the other basses

tion)

modern

across

blend rich harmonies so magnificently, and can

—

easily

saxophones — which whisper countermelodies and

parts for

toe with the brass

can

Ben Webster,

playing,

ing throughout, and

I

on

traps

part.

toe-to-

French

— a single string sec-

rhythm

But

I

guitar.

transcribed

and timpani, from the 1943 location record-

found many opportunities

for other percussion in-

struments as well.

My

single greatest challenge

was

to

capture the inflections, phrasing,

and coloring of Duke’s own magnificent orchestra. Informed by

formance

tradition, these sonifications

through notation. Nevertheless,

cannot be adequately conveyed

carefully transcribed dynamics, durations,

I

and rhythms, turning swinging eighth-note passages essary.

And added bowings I

that

a living per-

make

it

into triplets

where nec-

possible for a large string section to

swing.

Common

sense

tells 11s

that

an ensemble of seventy or more players

spread out on a big stage cannot be as rhythmically tight as a fifteen-piece jazz

band gathered around

a

swinging drummer.

monically rich, sweeping music such

as that of

On

the other hand, har-

“Come Sunday”

profits

from

the delicacy and sheen of massed strings.

For alto

“Come

I

went against Ellington’s wishes and used

saxophone. This decision was not

version, the alto

Dvofak 172

Sunday,”

to

Duke

saxophone makes

Ellington

made

lightly. 2 In

a solo

the original jazz-band

a dramatic entrance after a heaving, train-

— a splendid example of Albert Murray’s favorite Ellinglocomotive onomatopoeia’ — to which Ellington adds a few

musical figure

like

ton metaphor,

my symphonic

church-piano chords." In

and the ensuing silence

into the distance,

keening

alto

this perfect

humming

song over a

its

orchestration the train music fades is

broken by the entrance of the

thirteenth chord.

To deny

confluence of moment, melody, and instrument, an essential part

of Ellington’s genius, would in

One exchange

I

my view be

a sacrilege.

me

had with Ellington gave

a

glimpse of the loose

boundaries between composer, performer, and arranger that comfortable with.

When

I

to his attention

my feeling

When

protested that

I

I

Duke seemed

that “Light,” the last

ended abruptly. Duke agreed and

suite,

‘Come

ply said, “Use did.’’

brought

ending.

to write a bigger

it

I

new

section of the

than

ourselves

me

blithely told

wasn’t a composer, he sim-

made more money new ending to him over

Sunday.’ That tune should have

my

sang and played

ideas for a

me to stretch out and go even further, emWas this scenario in its own way similar to

the phone, Ellington encouraged

powering

me

outdo myself.

to

what happened between Ellington and Strayhorn? Duke’s inclusive way of introducing his music to audiences

— “one

of our latest compositions”

—

is

not purely self-effacement. In the

of 1987 John Lewis asked

fall

version of Black

me to conduct the original

jazz-band

Brown and Beige with the American Jazz Orchestra,

,

a

York-based repertory ensemble founded by Lewis and the author and

Gary Giddins.

I

had not forgotten Duke’s response

ception twenty-two years earlier,

symphony

for

orchestra: “What’s

when

I

at the

New critic

White House

re-

suggested that the work be rescored

wrong with

it

the

way

it

is?”

And

I

took on

the assignment with a large measure of curiosity' and as an act of personal re-

demption,

having ignored Duke’s original conception.

for

Original Jazz

Band Version

Ellington shied away from playing Black, Brown its

Carnegie Hall premiere.

He might

large

critics

seemed unprepared

movements — the

first

ever,

continue

Brown. the

title

to

perform

Of Beige he played

all

a

and extensive

six shorter sections,

rise

entirety after its

mixed

re-

a work: three

the

last

an un-

master of short forms. Ellington did, how-

or parts of the

first

two movements, Black and

only excerpts: the opening jungle-style music under

“War” and an evocative slow dance, “Sugar

With the

its

much too long.” 4 The 1943 au-

for so serious

two comprising

broken twenty-minute essay— from

in

have been intimidated by

ception: “brilliant, complex, highly original, but

dience and

and Beige

of the jazz repertory

movement

Hill Penthouse.” 5 in the early 1970s

Ellington’s Black,

came

a

Brown and Beige

m

renewed

Black Brown and Beige. Alan Cohen, a British jazz sax-

interest in

,

ophonist and arranger, edited Ellington's

me with — and performed and

one he had provided 1972.

tory

Tempo Music

score

recorded

it

— the

in

same

London

in

Hyman presented the same version with the New York jazz ReperCompany at the Smithsonian Institution in the mid-1970s. Jazz audiDick

ences were becoming more accustomed to hearing their music in concert halls,

and

in

symphonic proportions; Ellington’s “tone

of the Negro in America”

parallel to the history

over forty-four minutes long, as lengthy as

is

Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

The American

Jazz Orchestra performance of the original Black,

and Beige took place dation Building. that

I

would

It

in the historic Great Hall of the

was the

Cooper Union Foun-

of five such engagements, plus a recording,

first

direct over the next decade. 6

formance from backstage.

Brown

Dizzy Gillespie listened

He was brought to the

to the per-

concert by his protege, John

Faddis, the orchestra’s “power lead” and high-note trumpet specialist, literally

and

figuratively elevated the

Ellington’s spoken introductions,

AJO trumpet section. Bobby

which

I

who

Short read

had retrieved from the archival

cation recording of the 1943 Carnegie Hall premiere.

A year later,

lo-

in 1989

,

re-created that entire concert.

Ellington’s Carnegie Hall

Concert of January I

began by poring over

23, 1943

a

copy of the original program booklet. Ellington’s

concert took place on a Saturday, sandwiched between a pair of

Philharmonic subscription concerts led by Bruno Walter. And

my disbelief in

The evening was Russian

War

appearance

just to

mock

coincidence, the featured soloist was the Philharmonic’s con-

certmaster, John Corigliano

to

New York

billed as a

Relief,”

in music’s

to

imply there had been an earlier

mecca. But Ellington was purposely conflating

his

New Yorkers heard his music and

his

“Washingtonians” orchestra to

“Twentieth Anniversary Concert, Proceeds

which seemed

Carnegie Hall debut with the

The “Proceeds

Dvorak’s Violin Concerto.

Sr., in

first

time

at the

Russian

Hollywood nightclub.

War

Relief’

is

harder to explain. Like most

musicians of his generation, especially musicians of color, Ellington

made

sure he was perceived as apolitical. His fiercely held political concerns were

expressed in his music, not with speeches. Relief, a nonprofit corporation that

would

The (United

States) Russian

War

collect over $50 million by 1944,

was a broad-based organization that included highly politicized garment workers, black civic and political organizers,

Dvorak

m

to

Duke

Ellington

churchmen, and other union-

-

Many of these were

ists.

with the Nazis wore out

may have been ers

old lefties happily back in the fold after Stalin’s pact its

jazz devotees

were more apt

USSR joined the Allies. There

usefulness and the

among them,

but Russian

War

Relief support-

enjoy singing workers’ songs such as “Joe Hill” (by Earl

to

Robinson and Alfred Hayes) or tunes from the old country while strumming

on mandolins and

guitars.

On

the other hand, Ellington had every right to

expect that his frankly political work, a musicalization of the “history of the

Negro

in

America,” would

Besides the war-relief

fall

on sympathetic

activists,

ears.

there were also musical notables in

at-

tendance— among them Benny Goodman, whose presence was meaningful.

Goodman had hoped his

to

have the Ellington orchestra

start off the

landmark “Sing, Sing, Sing” concert, which had been held

Hall

on January

six years earlier,

best players:

finally

in

for

Carnegie

Ellington sent a few of his

16, 1938. Instead,

Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, and Cootie Williams. Duke was

wise to wait, and his sense of propriety

band

evening

played Carnegie Hall

days,” according to the

New Yorker8

won

The program

“pianist-leader”

Hammond,

Jimmy Lunceford

and

and

his

as

were Count Basie

with Jack Mills.

listing ran for three pages, starting

Ellington’s sixteen-man orchestra

Ellington and his

— “practically a social obligation these — the “King of Swing” was seated among

the “honored guests” in a box with John

with Marian Anderson and

When

out.

two

with the

members

vocalists. Ellington

is

of

listed as

Billy Strayhorn as “ass’t arranger.”

Program I.

Ellington-Miley

Black and Tan Fantasy

Ellington-Carney

Rockin’ in

Mercer Ellington

Blue Serge

Rhythm

Jumpin’ Punk ins II.

Ellington

Portrait of Bert

Williams

Portrait of Bojangles Portrait of

Florence Mills III.

Ellington

Black Brown and Beige ,

(A Tone Parallel to the History of the Negro in America) Intermission IV.

Ellington

The Flaming Sword

Ellington’s Black,

Brown and Beige 175

Dirge

Billy Strayhorn

Nofcturne

Stomp V.

Are Yon Stickin’

Ellington

(Chauncey Haughton,

clarinet)

Bakiff

Tizol

(Juan Tizol, valve trombone; Ray Nance, violin) Jack the Bear

Ellington

(Alvin Raglin, string bass)

Blue Belles of Harlem 9

Ellington

(Duke

Ellington, piano)

Cotton Tail

Ellington

(Ben Webster, tenor saxophone)

Day Dream

Ellington-Strayhorn

(Johnny Hodges,

saxophone)

alto

Rose of the Rio Grande

Warren-Gorman-Eeslie

(Lawrence Brown, trombone)

Trumpet

Ellington

in

Spades

(Rex Stewart, cornet) VI.

Don’t Get Around

Ellington

Performing

this

epochal

list,

Goin’

Up

Mood

Indigo

Much Anymore

veritably Ellington’s musical autobiogra-

phy, took over three and a half hours; the concert ended at midnight.

was

I

to find parts

Brown and

and scores

for all this

Beige. For the rest,

I

went

Smithsonian Institution archives In a truly important

in

music?

I

had the materials

Washington, D.C. act,

and with the help and support of

the Congressional Black Caucus, Duke’s son, Mercer,

He

turned over

for Black,

held in the

to the Ellington Collection,

and generous

agreement with the Smithsonian

Where

Institution’s archives

to their care the vast library of

had worked out an

during the

late 1980s.

autograph scores, manuscripts,

arrangements, and other materials that his father had saved and collected over the half century of his career (the sketchbooks

I

perused

were not included), thus making them forever available sicians. T

Queenie Pie

to scholars

he Smithsonian’s Duke Ellington Collection contained

half the music to

for

I

needed.

Some

pieces were incomplete.

The

rest

a

and mu-

little

over

would have

be transcribed. Fortunately, Carnegie Hall had installed a recording studio by the time

Dvorak 176

to

Duke

Ellington

The

Ellington played there, and acetate discs of the concert were made.

equipment was

by today's standards, and the single microphone

low-fidelity

employed was often overwhelmed by a booming location recording

brought

made

bass

drum; nevertheless,

possible transcriptions of the missing material

to light several deviations

this

and

from the printed program. 10

Transcribing, whether of a single-line jazz solo or of a complete arrange-

ment, has long been a cottage industry Paul

Whiteman acknowledged

Many

in the jazz

and big-band community.

transcribers as early as 1926:

conductors and arrangers can adapt an orchestration from hear-

ing a record played.

I

am

told that

when

a record

is

made by

certain

Eastern orchestras, arrangers of orchestras in the West and Middle

West gather

for the first playing with

paper and pencil.

have heard

I

[bands playing] some of our arrangements obtained in that way. 11

Young arrangers-to-be side the

learned their craft by transcribing and getting deep

work of Bill Challis, chief arranger

for

derson, and, of course, the Duke.

Some

wear out an old 78 with repeated

listenings.

has changed.

The accuracy

Others

of a transcription

Our

still

Hen-

or Fletcher

transcribers used a piano

of the recording and the good ears, listening transcriber.

Whiteman,

sat at a desk.

in-

and could

Not much

depends upon the quality

skills,

and musicianship of the

12

masterful transcriber was tenor saxophonist

Mark Lopeman.

I

took

additional passes at the recording and wrote phrase markings, dynamics, and expressive details into Mark’s transcribed scores before the parts were copied. After hours of close listening,

I

began

instrumental coloring had changed in the 1943 concert,

and how subtle was the

how much

to realize

Almost every long, sustained note

of

Duke and

as

Duke’s

to edit.

sax,

and gil

lifts

and when

Thomson

The

to

sax

and

rises

clarinet players

add portamento

and

end of a

who knew

falls;

exactly

they breathed

knew where

(tiny slides)

between

to

add

notes.

to-

little lilts

And,

as Vir-

lamented, the world was softer back then. Ellington’s guitarist

and bass player were the only band members using

These days everyone sax

band.

trumpet, and trombone sections phrased

one, shaping melodic lines with nuanced

gether and blended.

his

that Ellington wrote at the

phrase was snipped off in perfect unison by his players,

when and where

and

years that passed since the

fifty

artistry

jazz phrasing

gets a

microphone, even

mouthpieces and reeds are

edge sound of modern

mouthpieces and

brasses.

softer reeds,

“set

But

up”

to

in

‘Tight amplification.”

Carnegie Hall. Modern

match the power and

in the 1940s the saxes

which enabled them

to

cutting-

used hard rubber

produce

a

humming

“subtone.” Ellington’s players were working together

fifty

weeks

a year in the 1940s.

Ellington's Black

,

Brown and Beige *77

They learned scratch.

and complicated Black, Brown and Beige from

the long

But the

rest

of the program was put of their current “book/’ which

they could play practically from memory. For the Carnegie Hall re-creation 1

had

a

band of New York freelancers facing three hours’ worth of manuscript

music, only a small amount of which was familiar. eral old-time Ellingtonians

among them

the style,

Ellington’s clarinetist,

Roland Hanna,

a

engage

to

sev-

and younger aficionados who purportedly knew

from the Caribbean; Milt Hinton, rock-steady rian; Sir

was able

I

Jimmy Hamilton, flown up bassist

swinging virtuoso pianist

and

jazz

photo

who had made

histo-

a study

of Ellington’s keyboard style; Frank Wess, master big-band saxophonist;

John Faddis, trumpet genius. 13

We

were about

holy ground.

to visit

I

and pro-

vided the players with copies of the location recording, and the results were gratifying.

“Trumpet in Spades,” one of Duke’s eight mini-concertos, exploited Rex Stewart’s a

unique “half-valve” technique. Normally, when

trumpet or cornet valve

to

full

its

depth, the air stream

an extra length of pipe. But someone somewhere jazz history discovered that

in

by depressing the valve

entire vocabulary of buzzes, bends, groans,

and

is

our

less

a player depresses

redirected through

rich,

than

still

its

rusty whispers

uncharted

full

depth an

can be coaxed

out of the horn. Stewart was the undisputed master of the half-valve.

seemed

solos with “ghost” notes that

ment. John Faddis, best known

trumpet playing, came down

to

come from deep

inside the instru-

to earth

and recreated Stewart’s

solo.

which

It

was ob-

valve,

and

at

find a given sound.

asked Frank Wess to share the conducting and rehearsing duties with

I

me,

his

for his pyrotechnical altissimo (piccolo range)

vious he had spent long hours studiously analyzing with

what depth, he would

He humanized

partly to avoid

my being cast in the role of Duke

Ellington, but

portant to have the input of a highly respected veteran.

swinging jewels

like “Cottontail,”

Wess

led

more im-

most of the

and “Jack the Bear,” Duke’s homage

to the

legendary stride pianist which enigmatically features the bass; our soloist was Milt Hinton.

I

conducted the opening and closing sequences and of course

Black Brown and Beige. Frank also played the iconic Johnny Hodges ,

“Come

Sunday” solo using Johnny’s horn, which he had purchased from Hodges’s widow. Ours was

a reverent,

if

With the approach of the I

reserved, re-creation.

fiftieth

anniversary of Black,

proposed that Music Masters make a

original.

Unbeknownst

to

digital

Brown and

Beige,

recording of the jazz-band

me, the master drummer and composer Fouie

Bellson had been talking with Music Masters about recording his Ellington-

Strayhorn Suite, written while he was playing in Duke’s band in the 1950s.

We

were brought together and our projects merged. Fouie’s big band was

Dvorak 178

to

Duke

Ellington

augmented with Ellington alumni, among them trumpeters Clark Terry and Barry' Lee Hall and trombonists Britt Woodman and Art Baron. 14 As an added bonus, Joe Williams agreed

to sing his interpretation of

“The

Blues.”

For the American Jazz Orchestra and the Carnegie Hall re-creation,

had used the score and

were prepared by

parts that

British arranger

hen. Since Ellington had published only a fragment of Beige version of “Sugar Hill Penthouse”) the rest of the

minutes of

music— was

on

Alan Co-

truncated

movement— over

painstakingly transcribed by

tated a great deal of educated guesswork

(a

Cohen. This

his part, try ing to

I

fifteen

necessi-

hear around the

drum on the location recording. 15 By good fortune, Ellington’s sketches and his autograph score for Beige had come to light at the Smithsonian Archives just as I was getting ready to record. The highly respected and sorely missed Ellington scholar Mark bass

Tucker helped organize the collection and kindly provided

me

of the autograph, enabling

to correct the

Cohen

me

with a copy

time for the

parts in

recording. I

was particularly

ics alike, to a

at the hall

gratified

performance

on January

21,

by the reception given, by audience and

did with John Faddis’s Carnegie Hall Jazz

I

1999

(later

Brown and Beige have the wherewithal

better.

to

make what

I

now

perpetuate

I

“Did Black,

test.

itself as a fertile

The circumstances could

had the time and the resources

I

Band

broadcast on National Public Radio).

privately considered this “full circle” return the ultimate

of art and not just a historic oddity?”

crit-

work

not have been

and

to revisit the score

parts

and

consider a definitive edition, beautifully rendered by a

computer engraver. 16 The Carnegie Hall Jazz band,

a

superb ensemble of

who know their jazz history and revere Ellinghave been more dedicated. And by this time Ruth Ellington

musicians, led by John Faddis, ton, could not

Boatwright had introduced

me

to

an amazing document,

a thirty-three-page

double-spaced typescript by

Duke

Ellington titled “Black,

Brown and

a narrative

poem

that evidently

preceded the music and gave

me

Beige”:

consider-

able insight into his thinking about the piece.

George Wein, the

jazz warrior impresario

Hall Jazz series, warned

me

he remembered Black, Brown and Beige

that

be overly long and suggested that cut one measure.

When we

I

consider

finished he

pleasure, as was most of the audience,

The

critics

—

all five

and producer of the Carnegie

— concurred:

some

cuts.

Of course

came running backstage

which

rose as

‘“Black,

one

did not

wild with

end of Beige.

at the

Brown and

I

to

Beige’ brims with

gorgeous music and should be played more often.” “The Carnegie audience

jumped

to

its

feet

and cheered.

“Would have made third

and

least

.

.

.

That’s the sign of a living piece of music.”

the Maestro’s eyes moisten with gratitude

.

.

.

‘Beige,’ the

performed segment, offered more mysteries and

Ellington’s Black,

far

more

Brown and Beige 1

79

rhythmic complexities than the others.

themes

.

.

.

A

and

near-frantic welter of motifs

handled with unflagging authority and crispness by the Carnegie v

band.” ‘The dark familiar colors were beautifully reconstructed, and the

band approached the musical

narrative with reverent unity.’’ “Peress

and the

Carnegie Hall Jazz Band proved \Black, Brown and Beige] deserves

be

to

heard on concert stages throughout the world, during [Ellington’s] centen-

and

nial

for

many years

to

come.” 17

Black Brown mid Beige ,

to the

— “as

it

is”

— has “legs.”

I

music and Ellington’s fascinating poem. And

sciously following the “program” in

turn the audience, intuitively

felt

my mind

as

we

had grown ever closer I

believe that by con-

played, the band,

and

in

the signifiers in the work. 18

The Poem The poem the

first

Tucker

is

divided into three sections, titled movements “Black” takes up :

half while

“Brown” and “Beige” together share the remainder. Mark

writes that the

handwritten draft

lier

poem was finalized in the early 1940s, although an earmay date to the mid-i930S. 19 The poem traces the life

of Boola, a mythical African, through three centuries, beginning with his en-

slavement and painful crossing

bondage on It

a plantation

to

America on

a slave ship.

It tells

and how he regains strength from music and

of his faith.

follows Boola the soldier, fighting against America’s enemies, even while

enslaved;

and Boola the newly freed man,

and learns about the

as

he experiences emancipation

blues. “Beige,” the last part of the

in

Harlem, the “Black Metropolis,” during World

in

music alone was the immense

compose

about the history of Africans in America It

II.

To convey this

life

saga

task Ellington set for himself.

Ellington had been planning to

Carnegie Hall appearance.

War

poem, describes

a significant concert

for at least a

decade before

was known that he had an opera

in

work

his

first

mind. In

a

New York Times Magazine article just before the 1943 Carnegie Hall concert, Howard Taubman wrote: “Ellington’s most elaborate composition is an opera, still unproduced, called ‘Boola.’ ... He has taken some of the music from this opera and turned it into a half-hour tone poem for his band.” 20 Did Ellington intend this sprawling poem to serve as a libretto? Given the absence of set pieces (arias) and choruses, the poem initially seems more appropriate as a text for an oratorio. But the reality of the

date

was

may have

forced his hand. Ellington adjusted his plans, and his

finally expressed in

music by

Ellington musicalize his text?

Dvorak

Duke

180

Ellington

poem

his orchestra of marvelous jazz artists alone.

How did

to

impending concert

First

movement: Black, section one “Work Song.” ,

The opening

lines of the

A message

is

poem

read:

shot through the jungle by drums.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Like a tom-tom in steady precision. Like the slapping of bare feet across the desert wastes.

Like hunger pains ...

21

The opening section does indeed begin with kettledrums “in steady precision.” The poem goes on to describe Book’s catastrophic experiences with the torture

and displacement of

slavery for six pages before actually

men-

tioning the work song:

Out

of this deep

dream of freedom

Evolved the only possible escape

Freedom of expression

Out

of this great need for freedom

The work song was Not

in song.

born.

song of triumph. Not a song

a

Of burden. A song punctuated By the grunt of a heaving pick

Or axe. A song punctuated by And thud of a sledgehammer.

The “Work and saxophones

the swish

Song,” a pounding seven-note theme stated by the trumpets in unison,

is

distinguished by a quickly falling

ing third that outlines the tonic triad of E-flat. pears throughout Black at

Emancipation Day

,

Brown and

It

and

ris-

serves as a leitmotif that ap-

Whether

Beige.

fifth

the music depicts slaves

fearful of leaving the plantation, folks in their

Sunday

best singing a spiritual, the discovery of the blues, or sophisticated Elarlemites

going off to war, the “Work Song” theme shared by

Crouch,

all

in, a

and Ellingtonian, adds bone

development of the “Work Song”

tone saxophone explore the leitmotif of Harry Carney, for

whom

at

reminder of the

it

Stanley

22 .

section, Ellington has the bari.

Ellington was writing, the solo sounds improvised

motif is further transformed into of trumpets, and

— to which

roots

length In skilled hands, like those

even though Ellington wrote every note

tet

woven

African Americans, black, brown, or beige

writer, critic,

In the

is

shows up

a tightly

in

in his

manuscript score. The

harmonized

leit-

jazz fanfare for a quar-

another solo “improvisation” for the string

Ellington’s Black,

Brown and Beige 181

For

bass.

hammer rhythm hues from sounds

“Work Song” formulation, Ellington

his final

recasts the sledge-

of the leitmotif, selecting perhaps the most extraordinary of

spectrum, an evocative “plunger” trombone, which

his orchestral

human

like the cries of a

voice.

The plunger technique was first developed in Ellington’s band by “Tricky Sam” Nanton. Nanton placed a trumpet straight mute deep into his trombone bell. He then compressed and released the mostly high-pitched sounds (sometimes raucous gut-bucket growls) by manipulating

crown — a plumber’s

toilet

easy, but trombonists for

decades with

little

have been trying

marked

bell. It

sounds

emulate Nanton’s “plunger”

to

style

section closes with a softly held incomplete cadence.

saxophone reaches

alto

rubber

no success. 23

or

The “Work Song”

An

plunger— across the opening of the

a

out, introducing itself with a fragmentary tune

Religioso in anticipation of the second section of Black

,

“Come Sun-

day.”

“Come Sunday”

was made famous in

ton) by the great spiritual it

ensemble — in

1958.

by Elling-

and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who recorded

— the

with the Ellington orchestra

jazz

a vocal rendition (text

But

it

was

only time she agreed to appear with a

first

conceived

as a

purely instrumental

work, albeit one inspired by Ellington’s poetry:

Came

Sunday, Boola was

To

that pretty white

So

tall,

Who And

house with the steeple

shining there in the sun. Everyone

all

dressed up.

How

happy they seemed!

the white voices inside rang out

triumph

Subdued

Were

drawn

entered there was scrubbed and polished

When In

irresistibly

.

.

.

the blacks outside

approval.

When

would grunt

the white voices inside

raised in joyous song, the blacks outside

Hummed along, adding their own touches. Weaving Gorgeous melodic, harmonic, rhythmic

Thus

patterns.

the spiritual was born.

Highly emotional Worshipping of God Short, lyrical statements by solo

in song.

trombone and trumpet introduce the

“song,’ rendered not by voices, but as a collection of Religioso instrumental

“Come Sunday” follows the traditional thirty-two-measure AABA but there the similarity ends. The A section begins unusually on the

testimonies. pattern,

dominant seventh chord with an added thirteenth a series of abstract

Dvorak 182

to

Duke

harmonies.

Ellington

The music

slowly

in the

rises,

melody, the

first

in

“Weaving Gorgeous

melodic, harmonic, rhythmic patterns,” resting on nonchordal tones: a

and

ted fifth

A

a ninth.

In

/

breath: “the blacks outside

bones

down an octave and a half: triumph.” The music holds still, catching

closing phrase swoops

‘white voices inside rang out its

.

grunt

. .

Subdued

/

“amen” church cadence

slide a spiritual

flat-

Muted trom-

approval.”

into place, establishing

home,

the tonic chord.

When

I

“Come Sunday”

recorded

ored Duke’s admonition not

keeping

in

mind how

to

and Hodges’s poignant

Hodges

hon-

allow anyone to imitate Johnny Hodges.

And

poem with gentle insermons by Ray Nance’s warm and sweet violin

alto sax

—

I

asked Clark Ferry, a treasured jazz creator

with Ellington for almost a decade, to interpret what had been the

on

alto sax solo

Terry played the slow phrases tenderly

his flugelhorn.

and without an apparent breath, using circular breathing. One to this

I

Ellington realized the text of his

strumental colors— veritable

who was

with the Louie Bellson band,

“Highly emotional

/

Worshipping of God

in song.”

I

listens in

awe

suspect Ellington

would have approved.

The music titled

of Black closes with a joyous release, a hard-swinging section

“Light” after the poem:

Oh,

something new

well, here’s

lightens

But the

.

.

our song

.

spiritual slips in

And And

learn

The

slave

new

things.

dwelt in song

.

.

.

and out

.

Let’s sing

.

soft

.

.

.

Of color, complete

On

their

About

this.

Our work

.

as

we

see

Boola worked

.

song broadened, covering

Sometimes

To come.

.

lifts

.

sometimes loud.

all

things

A rainbow

with pot of gold. Paradise

way

to

heaven

in

tempo.

The pulse, the beat was ever present. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Second movement: Brown,

The poem “Brown”

section one,

“ West

Indian Danced

describes the historic battles fought by African Ameri-

24 cans on behalf of America. In each case, “Boola was there”: the Indian

bellion of 1652

on the

side of the colonials;

on the Boston

Commons

re-

along-

who “shed his black blood in the birth struggle / Of this in the War of 1812, his “heart was filled when came the great republic! seven hundred free Haitians / Of the Fontages Legion to descend / Upon the side Crispus Attucks,

British at the Siege of

the

Savannah”; with Nat Turner and the Abolitionists, on

Underground Railway and the

Civil

War battlefield,

in the

Ellington’s Black,

long struggle

Brown and Beige l8 3

that led to emancipation;

and

San Juan

finally, at

Hill in the

Spanish-Amer-

ican War, soon after which “Boola got the blues!”

The poem “West Indian Dance”

depicts Book’s reaction to Haitian

drums: the echo of Africa

Was

loud here

Tropical jungles. Savage drums Religious

This the

drums

.

.

more

.

.

Sexual drums

.

.

.

music of “West Indian Dance,” breaking away from

reflected in the

is

.

.

serious “tonalizations” of Black as Ellington unleashes the

drum-

driven island rhythms of the corrida (dash or sprint), exposing another facet of the jazz diadem, the “Latin tinge.”

The music of “Emancipation Proclamation,” the second section of Brown, slows down the pace a bit in order to celebrate the ultimate victory for African American soldiers, “His God-given rights

[sic]

to

be free!” In the

poem

Ellington tempers this elation, reminding the reader that while

sweet

to

be one’s own!

/

A sad note was sounded

plantations

where they had spent

was

in the hearts of old folk.” In-

would be thrown

stead of enjoying their retirement, they

“it

and

off the farms

their lives.

Ellington musicalizes these conflicting emotions by juxtaposing a swinging celebrational music, “Boola

elegant

jumped

for joy!”

humor by cornetist Rex Stewart— with

two of the older

folks.

— originally depicted with

a string of worrisome duets for

Their raspy voices are represented by a “plunger” trum-

pet and “plunger” trombone; they blend, they bicker, and finally totter

off,

shaking with age and resignation.

The poem “Brown”

new kind of music: the blues, a rewhen black soldiers returned from the

also describes a

sult of the love triangles that surfaced

Spanish-American

A

War

to find their ladies

medal hung proudly from

But where were her arms

his chest,

for his

head

And soon he learned someone had That’s how Boola got the blues. The Blues The Blues ain’t .

.

with other men:

to rest?

to lose

.

.

.

.

For “The Blues,” the third and

final

musical section of Brown Ellington

turned to his vocalist, Bette Roche. Only the

,

first

two

lines of the

song come

from the poem. Ellington expands upon them, creating an entirely new

Could

this

Dvorak

to

184

text.

be a model of how an operatic libretto would have evolved from

Duke

Ellington

poem? Note

his

opening three

that the

lines are

mirrored

at the

end of the

song:

The The The The And

Blues Blues ain’t—

Blues

ain’t nothin’

Blues ain’t nothin’ but a cold grey day all

nite long

it

stays that way.

Ain’t somethin' that leaves

Ain

t

you alone

nothin’ you should want to call your

Ain’t somethin’ with sense

enough

to get

own

up and go

Ain’t nothin’

Like nothin’

The The

know

I

Blues don’t Blues don’t

Ain’t

know nobody

as a friend

been back nowhere where

they’re

welcome back again

The low ugly mean Blues. The Blues ain’t somethin’ that you Sing in rhyme

The Blues ain’t nothin’ but a dark cloud markin’ time The Blues is a one way ticket From your Love to nowhere The Blues ain’t nothin’ but a black crepe veil ready to wear Sighin’

Cryin’ Feels most like Dyin’!

The The The

Blues ain’t nothin’ Blues ain’t—

Blues

Most of

Ellington’s musical

blues, a matrix

of ideas. Ain’t his

he never

tired of

gems

and one

“The Mooch,” “Creole Love

What They Used

to

Be” are

“extended concert pieces”

are formulations of the twelve-bar

all

for

which he would never run out

Call,” “Transblucency,”

twelve-bar blues.

and “Things

Even what he

— Grand Slam jam and Harlem — contain long

sections of twelve-bar blues. Yet, for the “Blues” section from Black,

and

Beige, he follows his

“First

you find the

called

mentor “Dad” (Will Marion) Cook’s

logical way,

and when you find

it,

avoid

it,

Brown

proscription:

and

let

your

in-

ner self break through and guide you .” 25 Starting with structure,

its

abstract,

almost atonal introduction, the harmony, bar

and melodic contour of “The Blues” section are

a jazz world

Ellington’s Black,

away

Brown and Beige l8 5

from the standard blues. Well into the piece,

after the singer finishes the first

chorus of the song and steps back

Ellington calls

bones

demonstration chorus of the twelve-bar blues

to wail a

and developed

A

Blues.”

to listen,

into a separate instrumental

upon

his trom-

— later recycled

work called the “Carnegie Hall

tenor sax interlude leads us back to the song,

its

final lick

quote of the “Work Song” leitmotif. Ellington’s song “The Blues”

being a

is

a

mas-

terpiece about the blues.

Beige Beige

one

the longest and the most enigmatic of the three

is

most

experience.

The

the

from the poetry. The poem “Beige” reveals

that departs almost entirely

Ellington’s

movements and

heartfelt philosophic testimony

about the African American

focus shifts from the metaphoric world of Boola to Harlem,

from the mythical

autobiographical

to the

26 .

Boola becomes Ellington:

Harlem! Black Metropolis!

Land of mirth! Your music has flung

The story of “Hot Harlem” To the four corners Of the earth! “Hot Harlem”

is

aptly expressed by the

we

Beige a tom-tom-driven music ,

days.

The

gle style

opening jungle-style music of

associate with Ellington’s

distinguished critic and author Albert

was

notion that

satire, is

wordplay— the asphalt

Cotton Club

Murray argues

jungle, not the

that the jun-

Congo; 2 ” an urbane

not supported by Duke’s descriptive words and phrases in the

opening stanza of “Beige” the poem: “primeval beat of the jungle ing

.

.

.

primitive jungle calls

wild

joyous

.

.

.

scorch-

.

exciting as Stravinsky!”

turns bitter, but Ellington’s

music does not follow.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

[sic].

The poem’s mood The poem asks: But did

it

[Harlem’s music] ever speak to

Of what you

really are?

Did

them

it

“The Is

say to

.

.

.

joy I’m giving,

the

foil

I

use to lose

my blues

And make myself an honest Did

it

That

Dvorak 186

to

speak to them

all

your striving

Duke

Ellington

living!”

them

To make your rightful place with men Was more than jazz and jiving!

How could

they

fail to

hear

The hurt and pain and anguish Of those who travel dark, lone ways The soul in them to languish .

Later in the

poem

.

.

Ellington welcomes the end of black minstrelsy and

Harlem’s newfound community pride and self-esteem: Yes,

Harlem!

Land of valiant youth, You’ve wiped the make-up from your

And shed your borrowed

face,

spangles.

You’ve donned the uniform of truth,

And

hid the hurt that dangles

In heart

You’ve

and mind. And one by one your shoulders straight

set

To meet each

unto you

Till justice

If

challenge and to wait is

done!

the music of Beige cannot be reconciled with the

pride found in the

poem, what, then,

is its

mix of anger and

story?

We know that Ellington originally intended that somewhere toward the end of Beige, the very

Once more,

last lines

of his

poem were

you’ve heard your country

Patient, willing to give your

Once more,

the

word

is

to

be sung:

call.

all.

sent to you

[sung from here on]

And Is

the black, the brown, the beige

ready for the chance to wage

The

fight for right ’neath the red,

Why not remind of Russian

War

white and blue!

the gala audience assembled in Carnegie Hall

Relief!

— in support

— that African Americans were again fighting for their

country while awaiting true emancipation?

The sung High School

section was tried out at a preview performance held in Rye

in

Rye,

formance, which

is

New

York, the night before the Carnegie Hall per-

where, according

to

one of Ellington’s admirers,

Barry Ulanov, “the ‘flagwaving’ finale featuring vocalist cut .” 28 Nevertheless, Ellington to the

made

Jimmy

Britton was

sure his message was heard.

He

Carnegie Hall audience before each of the movements, and

Ellington’s Black

,

critic

spoke

his ver-

Brown and Beige *

bal introduction to Beige, preserved

ends with a paraphrase of the

chance

for the

text:

to fight for the

on the archival “location” recording, 1

“The' Black, the Brown, the Beige

Red, White and Blue!” This serves

is

ready

one of

as

several clues to Beige’s musical narrative. 1

believe that the music of Beige

diers in

World War

Penthouse” party

II.

in

They are on

a

tells

a story

weekend

about a group of Negro

leave, attending a

teens, “Bitch’s Ball,” gaily

we hear

“Sugar Hill

Harlem. Following the excitement of the opening jun-

gle music, a stride piano belts out a tune that Ellington

turns sad as

sol-

announcing an

a dirge

composed

in his

But the

mood

all-night social affair.

based upon the four notes of the jungle theme.

Ellington then introduces a series of party dances, each again derived from the jungle theme, beginning with a slow seductive waltz. 29 Ellington’s written into the score, suggest a scenario as well. After the “Waltz,” a fox-trot,

“Cy-Runs,”

is

interrupted, by a fire siren or a vixen or both.

followed by a swinging “Rok

[sic]

titles,

medium

These are

Waltz”; a ballad, “Last of Penthouse”; and

“Sugar Hill Penthouse Reprise,” 30 a slow version of “Waltz.”

As the

last

slow dance, “Sugar Hill Penthouse Reprise,”

pered by closely harmonized saxes, a fanfare interrupts.

is

A morning church bell

nostalgia.

slowly expanded by the piano,

becoming a powerful cadenza

themes from the to

introduce the final shout-chorus. 31

day” and

“Work Song.”

ming with

I

“amen”

The “amen”

is

and trombones

entire score. Ellington’s piano returns in a

to go.

that explodes

anthem

into a patriotic, flag-waving, orchestral finale; a stirring

the trumpets above, while below the baritone sax

final

its

sounded.

is

time

It is

Gospel piano chords introduce a reprise of “Come Sunday”; cadence aches with

being whis-

is

sounded

strut

in

through

“medium

stride”

We hear bits and pieces of “Come Sun-

envision the

young

soldiers

and

their ladies brim-

the emotions of love, of God and country; and as they part, a final

trumpet scream

blots out all fears

and doubts.

This rich mix of jungle music, party dances, Sunday church atmosphere, and patriotic bombast reflects the complexity of the

munity described

in Ellington’s

poem. Ellington

is

Harlem com-

telling us that the

Amer-

ican Negro, black, brown, and beige, arrived here out of great suffering, built

enemies, gained freedom, and gave

this land,

fought

and

which reached out

jazz,

its

is,

spirituals, the blues,

to the “four corners of the globe.” Nevertheless,

while they march off again to of Beige, like the poem,

it

fight, true equality

after all, a political

is still

withheld.

The music

work — Ellington’s musical

ex-

pression of words later to be eloquently spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“How

Dvorak 188

to

long,

Duke

O Lord?”

Ellington

Ellington the

Composer

The autograph and

copyright scores of Black, Brown and Beige reveal

fascinating information about Ellington

s

composing

on the opening pages of the Beige autograph there different high-pitched vertical chords

notes) identified by the in

its

The numbers

For example,

practices.

are asterisks indicating six

— clusters (seven or eight interlocking

numbers 1 through

highest register, function as “hits”

the wild jungle

some

These

6.

by a clarinet

clusters, led

— short, sharp chords that punctuate

theme being grunted out by low trombones and baritone

are a shorthand for the clusters

when

sax.

next they appear, reliev-

ing Ellington from having to write out the seven or eight interlocking notes

On

every time.

the bottom margin of the

ton identifies the asterisks as “Piano

ano Theme”? The

page of the autograph, Elling-

Why are the clusters called “Pi-

Theme.”

clarinet notes at the top of the clusters spell out

first five

minor) a variant of the theme from “Work Song,” with

(in

and

falling fifth

Thus, its

first

new

characteristic

its

rising third. 32

at the very

moment Duke

is

introducing us to “Plot Elarlem” and

jungle-music leitmotif, a reflection of Boola, of the

past, shines

down

from above. Furthermore, the clusters are an example of “secret voicings,” the “Ellington sound,” which has often been explained away as the result of individual

musicians adding their

encouraged

this

own

quaint notion of collaborative composition through his con-

stant use of the first-person plural:

“Our impressions of the Far

cal of the musician’s stories that perpetuate this

and composer Thad Jones from the time he called, but the part

nearby player’s

Duke himself

dissonant, accidental harmonies.

myth

first

is

East.” Typi-

one about trumpeter

joined the band.

A tune was

was missing from Jones’s band book. Looking over

part,

he began blowing along, making up harmonies

went, only to hear Cootie Williams growl, “Get offa

The most remarkable

discovery,

as

he

my note!”

one already noted, was

the improvised-sounding solos in Black,

at a

that nearly all

Brown and Beige were

written by

Ellington himself, the most striking example being a long solo cadenza by

Ben Webster

in Beige. 33

Eleven chords are struck and held by the orchestra. Above each of these “stop chords,” the tenor sax plays a short solo. In the archival location record-

ing ing,

own after-licks and impeccable phrascritical notes are Duke's. And what notes! Above the first and the tenor sax quotes “Work Song.” Above the second chord we

we hear Ben Webster adding but the

third chord,

his

hear the tune from “Sugar Hill Penthouse.” Above the sax begins with the jungle that

is

about

theme and unwinds with

to follow, “Last of

a

final

chord the tenor

preview of the melody

Penthouse.” 34

Ellington’s Black,

Brown and Beige ,

l8 9

Here Ellington does

for his solo-filled

works what Beethoven did

piano concertos: composing cadenzas rather than leaving them,

had

it,

to the

improvising

skills

and good

would approve of my bringing attention his

taste of soloists.

I

for his

as tradition

doubt that Duke

to this parallel. In stark contrast to

contemporary Gershwin, who sought acceptance by the musical estab-

lishment

as a “legitimate”

Whenever we

composer, Ellington rejected the notion

talked about his music, he spoke of feelings or images

entirely.

— about

people standing outside a church they could not enter and harmonizing with the beautiful music they heard from within,

God.

How then

can

I

justify

knowing they all shared the same

analyzing his compositional secrets?

The answer lies in the realization that do this for myself, to legitimize my own passion for this music and that of others like me who, despite brainI

washing by the academy of our youth, have been drawn Ellington’s music. I

find myself

Not withstanding my sense

compelled

to

demonstrate

that

to

Duke would

how complex

is

music— a

not approve,

the compositional

process that creates his seemingly happy-go-lucky music, fining idea of jazz-inspired

and nourished by

how even

the de-

tenor saxophonist “taking off ” on an

improvised flight— was controlled, bent, premeditated by Ellington in the service of his

Dvorak 190

to

muse, and how he crafted

Duke

Ellington

his

music from

his

own

poetry.

Afterword

My own Thanks

story continues.

to

Duke

I

Ellington,

make I

all sorts

of joyful noises whenever possible.

have learned that what

I

believed to be separate

— the European world of Dvorak, Ellington's African American macrocosm, and Bernstein’s conflation of the two — are really one. All

worlds of music

the stories in

my

from Europe

to

book are about the

transfer of the center of creative

America, Dvorak being the prophet and Ellington

power

its fulfill-

ment.

Dvorak’s Neighborhood

I

have re-created Dvorak’s America,

in part,

by reading crumbling old news-

papers and playing his “American” works and those of his pupils. in his moccasins,” so to speak, here

In the

in

Czech Republic found everything

Prague not

I

far

from

also

“walked

and abroad. lovingly preserved

tained. Besides his country house, Vysoka, there

seum

I

his last

is

a

and main-

charming Dvorak Mu-

apartment. His archives are splendidly

preserved, and his birthplace, Nelahozeves,

is

now

a state-supported tourist

attraction.

In America, only a few vestiges of Dvorak’s are fast disappearing.

The Midway Plaisance,

Old World remain, and they

near the University of Chicago,

U *

1

55 66, 108-112, 202 n. 13, 225 n. 28

Oberlin Conservatory, 49

O’Connor,

“Oh My

Carroll, 141

Rainbow

Baby,” 129, 133, 134

“Old Folks 45

>

at

Home”

(Foster, arr.

Dvorak

Rainey,

Ma,

Rattle, Sir

1 5 °> 5

>

),

Grill,

Orchestration,

162-163

111

Simon,

112

Original Dixieland Jazz Band, 88, 108

Ravinia Festival, 158

Osborne

Rawlins, Ruthabell, 76

79-80

Ovington, Mary White, 36

Ray,

Ozawa,

RCA Victor,

Seiji, 81,

139

Man,

122-123, 153 76, 83, 85

Redman, Don,

87,

111,

200

Page, Tim, 136

Reich, Steve, 136

Paine, John Knowles, 25

Reimuller, Ross, 142

Pareles, Jon, 113

Reiner, Fritz, 72

Paris Herald, 24-27, 206 n. 24

Remick

Parker, Charlie, 67

Resenweber’s Cafe, 107-108

Pasztory, Ditta,

Rettenberg, Milton, 73, 85, 91-92, 96

74 Patinkin, Sheldon,

Payne, Elizabeth, 101

Peress,

3,

(publisher), 68,

Rice's

Summer Nights,

Ezra),

3,

138

Riley, Terry, 136

Peress, Lorca, 139

Ring Shout, 10

Performance practice, 65, 94-95, 106,

Roach, Max, 165

108-112

Roberts, Charles Luckeyeth, 68

Peters, Roberta, 154

Robeson, Paul,

Pianola, 124-127, 133, 134-135

Robinson, Faye, 76

Picabia, Francis, 123, 227 n. 7

Roche, Bette, 184

66

Pickett, Jessye, 37

Pierson,

Tom,

58

Richter, Hans, 26

100

Henry (Heskel ben

Picasso, Pablo,

69

Rice, Ed, 58

141

Peress, Elsie Tygier,

>

Ravel, Maurice, 130

74-75

(building),

.

165

Rock and

117, 129, 132

roll, 112

Rogers, Alex.,

101, 115, 116

Rollins, Sonny,

67

Pingatore, Mike, 88, 95

Roosevelt, President Franklin Delano, 194

Place Congo, 10

Rorem, Ned, 154

Plato, Desiree, 33

Roseland Ballroom, 87

Pleyela. See Pianola

Rosenthal, Moritz, 84

Index 252

Ross, Allie, 120, 128-129

Spillville, Iowa, 27, 31,

Rothko, Mark, 153

Bili

Clock House

Royal Poinciana Quartette, 101

Spirituals, 10-11

Rubinstein, Anton, 24, 25

St.

Rudge, Olga (Madame Ezra Pound),

St. Philip’s

39—40

A.M.E. Church

45, 101, 102,

,

223 n. 6

Rumshinsky, Joseph, 74

204

Relief, 174-175, 187

Free African Church, 21-22,

St. Philip’s

Russell, Sylvester, 51

War

in,

Louis, Louis, 145

130-132

Russian

39-40

n. 10

Staten Island, 156-157 Steichen, Edward, 153

Sachs, Kurt, 9-10, 94

Steinert, Alex, 72

Saint-Saens, Camille, 24

Stevens, Roger L., 170

Salzman, Eric, 166

Stewart, Rex, 176, 178, 184

Sandpaper blocks, 48

Stieglitz, Alfred, 153

San Francisco World’s

Fair (1894), 36

Sarabande, 9 Sardi,

Still,

William Grant, 87

Stokowski, Leopold,

Vincent

Sr.,

83

81, 84, 111

Maurice Arnold. See Arnold,

Strathotte,

Maurice

Satie, Eric, 81, 130

Sbarbaro, Tony, 108

Stravinsky, Igor, 67, 84, 123, 129

Scandals of 1922, 68

Strayhorn, Billy, 155-156, 173, 210 n.

Scandals of 1924, 85

Strummers, 104-105,

Schindler, Kurt, 226

n. 13

5

106, 107

Stuckenschmidt, H. H.,

110

Schoenberg, Arnold, 72

Stuyvesant, Peter, 192

Schroeder, Alwin, 196

Svorecky, Josef,

Schuller, Gunther, 87, 112

Swing, 111-112

Schwartz, Charles, 92

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” 23-24

115, 153,

212-213 n 2 § -

Schwartz, Steve, 142 Scott, Sir Walter,

“Talented Tenth,”

11

Scribner Chorale, 146 Seidl,

Anton,

41,

Taubman, Howard, Taylor,

45

51,

Deems,

53—59

180

84, 119, 122

Seldes, Gilbert, 66, 83, 84, 99, 129

Tchaikovsky, Piotr Ilyich,

Shaftesbury Theatre (London), 36, 116

Terry, Clark, 183

Shahn, Ben,

Shehagovich, Stephanie, 132

Theater Guild, 73 Theatre Champs-Elysees

Shipp, Jessye A., 36

39 L

Shirley,

153

Wayne,

(Paris), 119

12 3

Third Street Settlement School, 63

102

Short, Bobby, 174

Thomas, Theodore,

Shuffle Along, 12-13, 70, 99

Thomson,

Sissle,

5

Noble, 12-13 10 5 ,

Virgil, 73, 79, 96, 127, 139-140,

165

Four Saints

Slide whistle, 94

21, 31

in

Three Acts, 73

205-206

Slonimsky, Nicolas, 133, 134

Thurber, Jeanette,

Smallens, Alexander, 73

Tibbett, Lawrence, 76

Smetana, Bedrich, 6

Titus, Alan, 145, 146-149, 158, 232 n. 15

Smithsonian Institution, Duke Ellington

Tizol, Juan, 176

Collection, 172, 176, 179, 232 n. 4

Smuin, Michael,

Sommer, Ted,

141

135

Sopranino saxophone, 90, 94-95

Town

Hall,

21, 26, 51,

n. 22

95-97

Troy, Henry,

13, 15

Tuck, Anthony, 107 Tucker, Mark, 179, 200, 236

n. 19,

237

n.

30

Index 2 53 *

Tunick, Jonathan, 145

Wess, Frank, 103, 178

Tyers, William H., 15-16, 101, 105, 106, 107,

Wexler, Peter,

141,

230 n. 7

Whaley, Tom, 157

128

White House Ulanov, Barry, 187

158, 171

White, John, 212

Urban, Heinrich, 44

Whiteman,

Van Vechten,

Festival of the Arts (1965), 153,

Carl, 84, 117-18

Paul, 66, 69, 73, 83-90,

107-108

Versatile Entertainers Quintette, 100, 101,

Wild West shows, 164 Wilder, Joe, 103 Williams, Bert, 36,

107

55, 115

Williams, Cootie, 189

154

Vincent Lopez band, 83

Williams, Henry

Vinding, Terkild, 68

Williams, Tennessee, 154

Vodery, Will, 68, 69

Wilson, President Woodrow, 195

Voltaire, 140, 141

Witmark and Sons, 49 Wolfe, George C., 166, 170 Woodward, Sidney, 33

211 n. 15

Walker, George, 36,

Walker,

F.,

16

Woolford, Hugh, 100

55, 115

Madame A’lelia,

128, 163

Walter, Bruno, 174, 195

World Peace Jubilee World’s

Waltz, 55

(1872),

16-17

Columbian Exposition

Warfield, William, 25, 76, 103

“Bohemian Day,”

Washington, Booker

“Colored People’s Day,”

T.,

208

31

29, 31,

Dahomey Village,

29,

Waters, Hamilton, 22-23

Daily Columbiaii,

33, 34, 51,

Wa Wan

Haitian Pavilion, 29, 32

Washington (D.C.) Opera

Press, 25 172, 176, 189

Society, 158

Midway White

Webster, Nick, 144

City, 29

Wein, George,

Index

112,

179

George David, 169

Zakariasen,

Bill,

136

Z arabanda, 9-10

32-34

34-37 207

Plaisance, 34, 38, 191

Weill, Kurt, 72, 75

Weiss,

of 1893, 27,

29-40, 47

Webster, Ben,

128,

Whitney, Robert, 154

Versatile Entertainers Quartet,

Vysanka, Bertha,

111,

200, 221 n. 14

Varese, Edgard, 74

Vietnam War,

26

n.

n. 5

*

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 9999 04930 180 5

BAKER & TAYLOR

in Blue,

James Reese Europe’s Clef Club (the

al, '-black

first

concert at Carnegie Hall), and Elling-

ton’s Black,

Brown and Beige were

first

presented.

Concluding with an astounding look

at Elling-

Duke

Ellington

ton and his music, Dvorak offers

to

an engrossing, elegant portrait of the

Dvorak

and the

legacy, America’s music,

timable African American influence

Maurice Peress teaches at the

resides in

New

upon

York

inesit.

City.

He

Aaron Copland School of Music

and the Graduate School of the City University and guest conducts

in the

United

States

and

abroad.

Jacket design: Emily Kolp Jacket art: duke Ellington photo by Parks, courtesy of

Gordon

Parks,

© Gordon

the photographer. Duke Ellington orchestra

SCORE COURTESY OF MERCER ELLINGTON.

OXEORD UNIVERSITY PRESS wtvw.oup.com

Advance

Praise for \

Dvorak

to

Duke

Ellington

.

“In this lively account of his distinguished career as conductor, arranger, and music historian,

Maurice Peress connects the dots of American cultural history

in a novel yet plausible way.

establishes a convincing link

between the time of Dvorak

Unexpected

as

and our own

it

might seem, he

era as represented

by Duke Ellington. Mr. Peress s

role in recovering

and per-

forming forgotten American music, particularly that of African Americans, makes

for

fascinating reading.”

— Dick Hyman,

“Understanding the sweep from Dvorak to Ellington

jazz pianist, conductor,

calls for a scholar,

a musician,

astute reader of human circumstances if we are to grasp the circumference

American music

Peress took

in pursuit

on the

of

itself

responsibility

during the

first

is

and the gravity of

that

much

aesthetic bacon; he

better because of him.

—

0000

9

780195 098228

ISBN

0-1

and an

half of the twentieth century. Maurice

and the obligation of bringing home the

succeeded, and our understanding of our music

and composer

9-509822-6

Stanley

Crouch