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Home , Ever Green, Herbert Stothart, Leonard Slatkin, Maurice Abravanel, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Robert Russell Bennett

.l Journal "f the G6 ;)illdi:b;$ GtililIffi 5300 Glenside Dr., Suite 2207, Table of Contents Richmond, VA 23228 T: (804) 553-1378; F: (804) 553-1876 Commentary page 1 E-mail: [email protected] . . . Advancing the Art and Profession [email protected] as page 2 Website: www.conductorsguild.org an Anti-Fascist Officers by Edward P. Castilano Emily Freeman Brown, President Michael Griffith, Secretary Tonu Kalam, President-Elect Harlan D. Parker, Treasurer The Common Denominator page 8 Sandra Dackow, Vice-President Harlan D. Parker, Past President by Gustav Meier Board of Directors page 24 Kirk Muspratt Wayne Abercrombie Lawrence J. Fried (1894-1981), Orchestrator Lyn Schenbeck Kristian Alexander Otis French* and Jonathan Sternberg* James Allen Anderson Jonathan D. Green* by George J. Ferencz James Ball Earl Groner Karen P. Thomas Chelsea Tipton, II Henry Bloch* Gordon Johnson Scores & Parts page 34 Michael Votta, Jr. John Boyd Thomas Joiner Claude Debussy’s Lisa White Mark Cedel John Koshak Prélude de l’après-mmidi d’un faune Burton Zipser* Allan Dennis Anthony LaGruth by Paul Vermel Duilio Dobrin Andrew Levin *Ex-Officio Advisory Council Books in Review page 35 Charles Ansbacher Adrian Gnam Maurice Peress Michael Charry Samuel Jones Donald Portnoy Maurice Peress, Dvorák to Sergiu Comissiona Wes Kenney Barbara Schubert Duke Ellington Harold Farberman Daniel Lewis reviewed by Thomas R. Erdmann Larry Newland Lesley Stephenson, Symphony Theodore Thomas Award Winners of Dreams: The Conductor and Patron Claudio Abbado Frederick Fennell Paul Sacher Maurice Margaret Hillis Leonard Slatkin reviewed by Lance Friedel Leon Barzin Sir Georg Solti Kurt Masur Max Rudolf Thelma A. Robinson Award Winners Beatrice Jona Affron Miriam Burns Laura Rexroth Steven Martyn Zike Eric Bell Kevin Geraldi Annunziata Tomaro Max Rudolf Award Winners David M. Epstein Gustav Meier Otto-Werner Mueller Gunther Schuller ***** Journal of the Conductors Guild Editor Jonathan D. Green Founding Editor Jacques Voois Production Staff Executive Director R. Kevin Paul Publications Coordinator Sarabeth Gheith Administrative Assistant Amanda Burton Production Quicker Printers The publication date of the present issue of the Journal of the Conductors Guild is December, 2004. Effective Volume 13, the Journal of the Conductors Guild has been published semi-annually, the two issues being numbered 1 and 2; the seasonal referneces remain unchanged, as is its length. The Conductors Guild reserves the right to approve and edit all material submitted for publication. Publication of advertis- ing is not necessarily an endorsement and the Conductors Guild reserves the right to refuse to print any adver- tisement. Library of Congress No. 82-644733. Copyright © 2004 by Conductors Guild, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0734-1032. Commentary

On this page my most over-worn mantra is that less than 10% of is actually conducting. We are cultural leaders, fundraisers, musical midwives, managers, and scholars. Many of the articles in this issue celebrate the achievements of conductors off the podium. Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II have often been credited as the public catalysts that brought about the removal of the Berlin Wall, but many of our members would place Kurt Masur at the head of that roster. Using the power of his influ- ence as a cultural leader, his work mocked the wall and clarified its obsolescence. Likewise, as Edward Castilano explains, Toscanini exerted considerable energies in the opposition of fascism in Europe before the Second World War.

George J. Ferencz provides us with an appraisal of the works of Robert Russell Bennett, a facile American composer most often remembered for his first-rate and , which occasionally eclipse some very worthy original works. Lance Friedel has reviewed a new biography of the Swiss conductor/philanthropist, Paul Sacher, who personally supported major commissions from many of the twentieth century’s most prominent , and subsequently conducted their premieres. His largesse created the pre-eminent repository of modern music manuscripts in the world.

Gustav Meier has combined his significant experience on the podium and a lifetime of study to produce “The Common Denominator,” which will be a chapter in a forthcoming book he is writing on conduct- ing. It is an elucidating study of the Deus ex machina of much of our repertoire, the internal temporal relationships that appear organically throughout great music.

Sometimes musical interrelationships transcend works and even single composers as Maurice Peress demonstrates in his new book, Dvorák to Duke Ellington, which is deftly reviewed here by Tom Erdmann. While most of these achievements occurred off of the podium, they remained in service of great music and the people who listen. For this we should be forever thankful.

Happy Reading, Jonathan D. Green

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 1 Arturo Toscanini as an Anti-Fascist

By Edward P. Castilano

In 1915, the world famous maestro, Arturo effort. The first of such activities was a concert Toscanini, abruptly and without official notice, mounting a chorus of 1,500 with multiple orches- left the Metropolitan Company where he tras at Milan’s outdoor arena on 26 July 1915. His was principal conductor for seven years. He decid- other no-fee projects included a limited opera sea- ed to return in haste to his native land of Italy as it son at Milan’s second opera house, Teatro Dal was poised to enter World War I. Even though the Verne, securing the services of the leading Italian position he vacated included a star-status salary, singers of the time: Enrico Caruso, Claudia the world’s best singers to work with, and an Muzio, Rosina Storchio and others. The funds established first-rate to conduct, his from the season were personally distributed by intense loyalty to Italy made his departure him to unemployed Milanese musicians.3 absolutely necessary. This article will investigate the origin of his patriotism and what political, However, Toscanini’s character would not allow career, and life decisions he made because of it. himself to be excluded from the war action. He Also to be explored is how Toscanini’s promi- formed a military band, rehearsed it, and brought nence as the most respected musician of the era it to the front lines in 1917 to inspire his fighting propelled him into being the moral leader of the countrymen. At the age of fifty, he was decorated opposition to Fascism. for bravery under fire and continued to organize benefit concerts throughout the war. He had Arturo Toscanini had developed his patriotic and offered so much of his energy and resources to the political views early in life. His father, a tailor, had cause that it necessitated the selling of his house to joined Garibaldi’s army as a young man to fight support his family. He rented the house from its for the “Risorgimento,” the reunification and inde- new owner until he was again receiving payment pendence of Italy. He instilled in his son the for his conducting and was able to buy the house importance of reunification, nationalistic ideals, back.4 These fervent wartime efforts exhibited the and of having a critical view of the Church and the profound sense of patriotism at the core of monarchy.1 Thus, with Italy on the brink of enter- Toscanini’s soul. The same fervor would enable ing World War I, Toscanini was in full agreement him to stand tall in the face of Italy’s next major with the approaching attempt to stem Germanic challenge, Benito Mussolini and Fascism. expansion.2 Therefore, Toscanini’s first signifi- cant career and political decisions were to break By the end of the war in late 1918, the stresses of from the Met, and to suspend all professional the conflict had forced Italy into a state of social engagements in order to return to Italy. However, and economic depression. Toscanini and many he did not stop conducting. He used his notoriety others were convinced that political reforms were to organize numerous benefit concerts in Italy, absolutely necessary. His beliefs about politics as mainly for musicians who had suffered either well as music were always clearly delineated and physically or monetarily as a result of the war upheld with enthusiasm. Thus, he was attracted to 2 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 the demanding reforms presented by Benito adopted a “wait and see” attitude.9 The new gov- Mussolini, a renegade journalist with political ernment leader visited Milan shortly after the elec- ambitions. Early in 1919, Toscanini attended a tion and was photographed with the entire opera meeting in Milan at which Mussolini advocated company including even Toscanini. It was soon radical, socialistic, Bolshevik-style reforms. In the after this that a dispute over the required playing parliamentary elections later that fall, Mussolini of the Fascists’ party hymn, Giovinezza (Youth), at submitted a slate of candidates which included the the beginning of public performances, and name of Arturo Toscanini. A friend and fellow sup- Toscanini’s refusal to do so, began. In addition to porter of the party convinced Toscanini that even other occasions deemed significant by the though there was no chance of winning the elec- Fascists, sometimes no more than a mob, tion, which they did not, the famous conductor’s Mussolini declared in 1925 that every 21 April, the name would serve to lend credence to the “Fasci di official birth-date of Rome, Giovinezza was to be 5 combattimento” party. played before every public performance of any kind of entertainment.10 In that year, the holiday During the war, Italy’s most prestigious opera fell on a La Scala performance date which house, Teatro alla Scala, was silent. A revival Toscanini purposely rescheduled as a rehearsal, process began in 1919, when a group of politicians dodging the command. Several months later on a and community leaders in Milan, calling them- visit to Milan by Mussolini, Toscanini was sum- selves the “Ente Autonomo” (Autonomous moned for a meeting. Mussolini delivered a Society), approached Toscanini to offer him com- vicious tirade at Toscanini including threats to La plete control of artistic, administrative, and finan- Scala and himself. The maestro was kept standing, cial matters in its resurrection. Since Toscanini had remained completely silent while staring at a spot been music director of La Scala at the turn of the on the wall, and restrained his own tyrannical tem- century and maintained a personal interest in its per. After being warned not to try the same trick well-being, he enthusiastically agreed. Following the following year, Toscanini cancelled the per- extensive preparation, La Scala re-opened in formance for that particular evening at the last December of 1921 with a production of Giuseppe moment. Upon a subsequent visit to Milan by 6 Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff. During this period, Mussolini, La Scala’s administrative staff was Toscanini began to convince the public that the art summoned. They were instructed to remove the of opera was not solely for amusement as in the defiant conductor or the leader of Italy would past, but that it was to assume a moral and aesthet- never return to Milan. He told them he planned to ic role in the life and culture of a society. In this attend the world premiere of Puccini’s great and sense, Toscanini became the undisputed leader of final work, Turandot, in a few days and insisted cultural life in Italy.7 that the party hymn be played as he entered the theatre. Toscanini was informed and again he While the Ente Autonomo and Toscanini were refused. The premiere took place as planned, with- leading the art of opera to its pinnacle, the party out Giovinezza and without Mussolini.11 formed by Mussolini was realizing that it could Toscanini had made it clear that the imposition of not gain power through elections and decidedly politics on his musical activities, let alone by the turned to trickery and violence. Upon these devel- Fascists, would never be tolerated. opments, Toscanini split from the party. In October of 1922, a scant three years later, with the Fascist This issue continued to infuriate Toscanini and the party poised for a rally on Rome, Toscanini is Fascists alike until his eventual withdrawal from declared to have said to a friend: “If I were capa- professional activity in Italy in 1931. He lived ble of killing a man, I would kill Mussolini.”8 A with great risk to his personal safety and that of his few weeks later, Mussolini was elected Prime family and friends. The defining moment came in Minister of Italy and Toscanini with many others, May of that year when Toscanini went to Bologna JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 3 to conduct a pair of commemorative concerts in festival which was to take place in 1933.14 honor of his departed friend and composer, . Once again, he rejected the When the spring of 1933 arrived, an attempt to directive of the city’s Fascist representatives to persuade him to change his mind about Bayreuth have Giovinezza performed at the beginning of the came from the newly elected Chancellor of first concert. Upon arriving at the theatre that Germany, Adolph Hitler: “….I am sincerely happy evening, the sixty-four year old maestro was for the hour when I shall personally be able, in attacked by a Fascist gang who repeatedly struck Bayreuth, to thank you, the great representative of him in the face and neck. He was ushered back to art and of a people [fascist Italy] friendly to his hotel with the mob in pursuit. After hours of Germany, for your participation in the great threats shouted at him from the street toward his Maestro’s work.”15 Toscanini’s carefully worded window, a member of his entourage, composer reply to Hitler’s eloquent invitation expressed the Ottorino Resphigi, courageously volunteered to hope that the political and social conditions in confront the mob. He was instructed that Toscanini Germany would soon return to normal: “…it must leave Bologna by 6:00 A.M. or his safety would be a bitter disappointment to me if any cir- could not be assured. With minor injuries and in a cumstances should interfere with my purpose to furious state, Toscanini departed with his wife and take part in the coming Festival Plays.”16 While at daughter to their home in Milan. Upon arrival, the festival of 1930, Toscanini had befriended sev- their passports were confiscated and the house put eral descendants of Wagner and in particular his under surveillance. When Mussolini was informed daughter-in-law Winifred, the widow of Siegfried. of the Bologna incident, he is said to have This was a full two years before Hitler had come expressed satisfaction: “I am really happy. It will to power and as it turned out, Winifred had been a 12 teach a good lesson to these boorish musicians.” close friend and admirer of Hitler, having supplied Toscanini was compelled to write to Mussolini him with stationary from the Wagner estate on describing what had happened so that “despite the which to write his book, Mein Kampf, his master silence of the press [which was controlled by the plan for the Third Reich, while imprisoned in Fascists] or false information, Your Excellency 1923.17 Winifred also extended an admiring invi- will be able to have a precise account of the event, tation to the maestro for his return to Bayreuth, but 13 and so that the event will be remembered.” when Toscanini replied two months later, it was to In 1929, Toscanini had received an invitation from the festival directly: “The sorrowful events that ’s son, Siegfried, to conduct at the have wounded my human and artistic feelings most revered musical event of German culture, the have not yet undergone any change…it is better Bayreuth Festival, launched by Wagner in 1876. not to think anymore about my coming to 18 Toscanini was engaged for four productions dur- Bayreuth.” Toscanini’s recordings and those of ing the summers of 1930 and 1931. In admiration other protesting musicians were promptly banned of Wagner’s music since his youth, he relished the in Germany, and Hitler was reported to have “seen opportunity to fulfill a life-long ambition to con- red” anytime Toscanini’s name was mentioned.19 duct at the “shrine” of German opera. He was so enthralled with this endeavor that he refused pay- Now that Bayreuth and the rest of Hitler’s ment for his services. The respect and admiration Germany were unacceptable to Toscanini, he of the Wagnerites, who previously could not fath- enjoyed an association with the Salzburg Festival om that an Italian could understand and lead the during the summers of 1934 through 1937. The greatest works in German grand opera, was easily production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger which won. Despite the great successes there, Toscanini he had tentatively planned for Bayreuth in 1933, was dissatisfied with the orchestra and with the would now take place a mere three miles from the management’s irrational method of scheduling German border in Salzburg, Austria in 1934.20 rehearsals. He decided not to return for the next His German followers from Bayreuth would now 4 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 have to cross the border to witness Toscanini’s the Toscanini family left for .24 production of a Wagner opera. Toscanini stated in public in 1935: “I make war on Mussolini and I Upon arriving in New York, Toscanini joined the throw Bayreuth in the teeth of Hitler.”21 By 1938 Mazzini Society. This was a group of liberal intel- the political climate had deteriorated to such an lectuals who had fled fascist Italy to the United extent that Austria was absorbed into the Third States. They were awaiting the fall of Mussolini Reich. Once again, Toscanini refused to conduct in and the re-establishment of an Italian republic.25 the land of Hitler. One member, historian Gaetano Salvemini, later wrote: “…our most effective argument in our crit- icism of fascism was Arturo Toscanini.”26 When In 1938, a new summer festival was fashioned on Mussolini was deposed in July of 1943, the Allies the shores of Lake Lucerne in politically-neutral recognized the legitimacy of the government of Switzerland, with Toscanini at its focal point. King Victor Emmanuel III and his new Prime Some of the concerts took place on the grounds of Minister, Pietro Badoglio. Because these officials Triebschen, Wagner’s home of six years. The fes- who had only recently renounced their Fascist tival was appealing to Toscanini because of its party ties were allowed by the Allies to lead the associations with Wagner and because of Italian government, Toscanini was enraged. The Switzerland’s neutrality. But his main interest was only public statement made by Toscanini in print in working with the abundance of orchestra musi- occurred at this time when Life magazine offered cians and soloists displaced from fascist Europe. to him the editorial article for the 13 September Again he conducted without fee, and the ticket 1943 issue. Using the basis of a letter written to income went directly to support the musicians.22 President Franklin Roosevelt by two former mem- bers of the now splintered Mazzini Society, At the conclusion of the Lucerne Festival of 1938 Toscanini constructed the lengthy editorial care- and before his concerts in New York with the fully, using English. In “To the People of newly formed NBC Symphony Orchestra were to America” Toscanini wrote: “Only the King of Italy begin, the Toscanini family returned to Italy for a and his bootlicker Badoglio, both despicable men, vacation. Mussolini was annoyed that thousands are your enemies….They are bound by alliance of people from Italy had crossed the border to with Germany, which they endorsed jointly with Mussolini….They cannot be the representatives of attend Toscanini’s concerts in Lucerne. He confis- 27 23 the Italian people.” Hoping to affect public opin- cated the maestro’s passport yet again. ion, the text continued expressing his intense Toscanini’s daughter spoke to Italy’s ambassador hatred for the former Fascists and disappointment to the , Fulvio DeSuvich, who then in the Allies’ consideration of allowing them to met with Mussolini to request the return of her remain in the government. However, the editorial father’s passport. The ambassador indicated that a garnered little support as the United States was worldwide objection to Toscanini’s detainment still deeply involved in the struggle against was soon to develop. Mussolini, realizing that this Germany and Japan, and the American public was “boorish musician” would become more of a prob- most likely only slightly relieved that the nuisance lem to him within Italy than outside of it, agreed to of Mussolini was over.28 return the passport but required Toscanini to request it himself. The anti-Fascist would have no It was during this time period that Toscanini must part of it. A plan for him to escape by hydroplane have felt that he could also fight his personal war was devised. The adventurous nature of the idea against Fascism directly from the podium. He attracted him, but he worried that reprisals toward hoped that in programming works by American his family would result. Finally, when his son composers, the patriotic spirit of the American Walter persuaded a Swiss journalist to begin concert and radio audiences would receive an informing the world press of the situation, extra spark. It was for this purpose that he may Mussolini relented. The passport was returned and have allowed his high level of artistic integrity to JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 5 waiver slightly. On several of his wartime concerts from Princeton: “You are not only the unmatch- with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, he conducted able interpreter of the world’s musical litera- obscure works by Morton Gould, Charles Griffes, ture…In the fight against the Fascist criminals, and Kent Keenan. The program of 1 November too, you have shown yourself to be a man of great- 1942 closed with ’s Rhapsody in est dignity.”32 Throughout the tyranny of the first Blue featuring and Benny Goodman. half of the twentieth-century, Arturo Toscanini’s Many other programs closed with the marches of immense artistic stature and strong personal con- John Philip Sousa.29 In June of 1942, word came victions distinguished him as the moral leader of that Dimitri Shostakovich’s new Symphony No. 7 anti-Fascism. “Leningrad” was about to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union. Both Toscanini and Stokowski BIBLIOGRAPHY wanted to premiere the work. An exchange of let- Chotzinoff, Samuel. Toscanini: An Intimate Portrait. ters ensued in which Toscanini professes that his New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956. fervent stand against fascism warranted the first Frank, Mortimer H. Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years. performance of this work by the anti-nazi compos- Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 2002. er. In his letter of 20 June 1942 to Stokowski, Freeman, John W., and Walfredo Toscanini. Portraits of Greatness: Toscanini. New York: Treves Toscanini argued: “…Don’t you think, dear Publishing Company.,1987. Stokowski, it would be very interesting for every- Haggin, B. H. Conversations with Toscanini. New York: body and yourself too, to hear the old Italian con- Horizon Press, 1979. ductor (one of the first artists, who strenuously ______. The Toscanini Musicians Knew. New York: fought against fascism) to play this work of a Da Capo Press, 1967. young Russian antinazi composer?” Stokowski did Hughes, Spike. The Toscanini Legacy. New York: Dover not agree and in a second letter Toscanini rea- Publications, Inc., 1969. soned: “…Try to understand me, my dear Marek, George R. Toscanini. New York: Atheneum, Stokowski ‘only because of the special meaning of 1975. this Seventh symphony’ I asked to be its first inter- Marsh, Robert Charles. Toscanini and The Art of preter. Happily, you are much younger than me Conducting. New York: Collier Books, 1954. Sachs, Harvey. Arturo Toscanini from 1915 to 1946:Art and Shostakovich will not stop writing new sym- in the Shadow of Politics.Torino, Italy: E. D. T. phonies. You will certainly have all the opportuni- Edizioni di Torino, 1987. ties you like to perform them… Be sure you will ______. The Letters of Arturo Toscanini. New York: never find me again in your way…”30 Toscanini Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. prevailed. In a matter of only ten days Toscanini ______. Reflections on Toscanini. London: Robson received the score, memorized it, rehearsed it with Books, 1991. the NBC Symphony, and gave the premier on 19 ______. Toscanini. Philadelphia and New York: J. B. July 1942. Lippincott Company, 1978. Stefan, Paul. Arturo Toscanini. New York: The Viking Arturo Toscanini’s complete defiance of his arch Press, Inc., 1936. Taubman, Howard. The Maestro: The Life of Arturo enemies Mussolini and Hitler came from his inner- Toscanini. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951. most being. He refused to conduct in Italy, Germany, Austria and even Russia due to their dic- ENDNOTES tatorial leaderships. This provides for us evidence 1Harvey Sachs, Arturo Toscanini from 1915 to1946: Art in that Toscanini always followed his unshakeable the Shadow of Politics (Torino: E. D. T. Edizioni di Torino, conscience in making life and career decisions. 1987), 4. Conductor witnessed two of 2Ibid., 5 these refusals and later stated: “I think he loved 3Harvey Sachs, Toscanini (Philadelphia and New York: J. freedom more than anybody in the world.”31 B. Lippincott Company, 1978), 132. Albert Einstein wrote with respect to Toscanini

6 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 4Sachs, Toscanini from 1915 to 1946, 6. 5George R. Marek, Toscanini (New York: Atheneum, 1975), 225. 6Howard Taubman, The Maestro: The Life of Arturo Toscanini (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951), 153. 7Sachs, Toscanini from 1915 to 1946, 8. 8Ibid., 9. 9Sachs, Toscanini, 154. 10Taubman, The Maestro, 188. 11Sachs, Toscanini from 1915 to 1946, 11. 12Sachs, Toscanini, 209-210. 13Ibid., 211. 14Ibid., 203-204. 15Sachs, Toscanini from 1915 to 1946, 78. 16Harvey Sachs, ed., The Letters of Arturo Toscanini (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), 138. 17Ibid., 138. 18Ibid., 138. 19Sachs, Toscanini, 226. 20John W. Freeman and Walfedo Toscanini, Portraits of Greatness: Toscanini (New York: Treves Publishing Company, 1987), 58. 21B. H. Haggin, The Toscanini Musicians Knew (New York: Da Capo Press, 1967), 155. 22Marek, Toscanini, 186-187. 23Freeman and Toscanini, Portraits of Greatnes; Toscanini, 60. 24Sachs, Toscanini, 267-268. 25Ibid., 270. 26Sachs, Toscanini from 1915 to 1946, 17. 27Freeman and Toscanini, Portraits of Greatness: Toscanini, 63. 28Sachs, Toscanini from 1915 to 1946, 17-18. 29Mortimer H. Frank, Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years (Portland Oregon: Amadeus Press, 2002), 67-69. 30Sachs, ed., Letters of Toscanini, 385-6. 31Haggin, The Toscanini Musicians Knew, 185. 32Freeman and Toscanini, Portraits of Greatness: Toscanini, 58.

*****

Edward Castilano received a Masters Degree in Performance '03 from Syracuse University and a Bachelor's Degree '76 from Eastman School of Music. He is Principal Bass of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and Professor of at Syracuse University. While at the Eastman School, Mr. Castilano studied double bass with Oscar G Zimmerman, who held the position of Principal Bass of the NBC Symphony Orchestra from 1938 to 1945.

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 7 The Common Denominator

By Gustav Meier

Connecting two different tempos by means of a common rhythmic unit, the common denominator is one of the conductor’s most useful tools in ascertaining a composer’s intent. Frequently composers indicate clearly that a note value in a new tempo is to be equal in duration to a note from the previous one. However, other composers notate tempo changes differently, less clearly, or not at all. A conductor will- ing to do a little detective work may find hidden, unmarked common denominators.

An equalizing sign directly above a bar line separating two tempos is the clearest notation of a common denominator. The notes on either side of the division point represent rhythmic units of identical duration.

Other ways of indicating common denominators are shown in the next examples:

Brahms Tragic Overture 206-209

Sibelius Symphony No. 2, I 239-240 8 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Strauss Till Eulenspiegel 5-6 &177-178

De Falla 3 Dances from the Three-Cornered Hat III

Shostakovich Symphony No. 12, I 464-468

Occasionally the equation is notated before or after the tempo change raising questions about which of the two notes relates to which of the two sections.

Rachmaninoff No. 2, III 1 before rehearsal 38

Often composers do not indicate common denominators between tempos; they become apparent only after a conductor compares the metronomic markings of each tempo.

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. IV 545-546 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 9 The easiest way to find a common denominator, not directly indicated by a composer, is to compare the metronomic markings of the old and new tempos and break down these markings into units of succes- sively faster and slower duration. Often this analysis reveals a common denominator.

Is there a common denominator? versus

There are several common denominators.

In some instances the notation of transitions is ambivalent, while in others the two sides of the equation do not correspond.

10 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Bernstein Divertimento for Orchestra, II. Waltz

A conductor may accelerate or slow down a pulse, reaching a tempo at the double bar that results in a common deniminator.

Debussy , I 35-38 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 11 Moderato assai a molto maestoso

Tschaikovsky Symphony No. 5, IV 503-504

The tempo of the Moderato assai e molto maestoso is clearly close to the tempo of the Andante maestoso at the beginning of the 4th movement, which is marked quarter = 80. If a common denominator with the Presto is intended, the Moderato assai e molto maestoso should be played at quarter = 72 which leads to a common denominator,eighth = dotted half. If a different tempo for the opening theme is desired (faster or slower than quarter = 80), a common denominator can be achieved by making a ritardando or acceleran- do in the bar before the Presto, reaching a quarter = 72 just prior to the tempo change into the Presto.

In the following Debussy example, two different metric units are connected simultaneously.

In the example below, the tempo of the introduction and the following can be connected with a common denominator (eighth = quarter) . If the conductor does not see a connection, the last is simply neutralized and a new tempo is established for the Allegro by giving an appropriate upbeat.

Matters become more complicated when ritardandos or accelerandos connect two sections and the score does not indicate if the original a tempo pulse or the pulse reached at the end of the ritardando or accelerando should be taken as the common denominator. 12 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Strauss Death and Transfiguration 63-67

The question here is whether the original Largo tempo eighth is to be the common denominator to the quarter of the new Allegro, or whether the final eighth pulse of the ritardando is the common denomina- tor. If the basic Largo tempo is circa quarter = 56 (eighth = 112, 2 x 56) then the Allegro is quarter = 112, ergo the final ritardando eighth cannot be a common denominator with the forthcoming quarter, because the Allegro would turn out to be too slow.

Before metronome markings were utilized and notated tempo relationships were in use, common denom- inators often could be identified by identical compositional material appearing in both of the connecting sections.

Mozart Symphony No. 39, I 2

Mozart Symphony No. 39, I 71-72

Mozart Symphony No. 39, I 23-30 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 13 Mozart Cosi Fan Tutte Overture 10-11

Mozart Cosi Fan Tutte Overture 231-234

Mozart Don Giovanni Overture 3032

Brahms Symphony No. 1, IV 28-29

Brahms Symphony No. 1, IV 47-51

Brahms Symphony No. 1, IV 407-416

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, I 411-412

14 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, I 1 (the Leitmotiv)

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, I 193 (Reappearance of the Leitmotiv in Moderato con anima)

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, I 27-28

Assuming that the tempo of the Leitmotiv is the same throughout the work, Tchaikovsky may have intended to relate all basic tempos of the four movements of the entire symphony to that pulse.

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, II 1-2

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, III 1-2

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, IV 1-2

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, IV 198-199

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 15 Conductors can utilize common denominators to connect sections although they are not indicated in the score. These artificial common denominators are established between two different tempos by using inner rhythmic units unrelated to the compositional content. These artificial common denominators are useful tools in facilitating transitions as long as they enhance the accuracy of the compositional intent.

Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, II 13 before C

Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture 1-2, 18-21

Beethoven Symphony No. 9, IV 626-627 (Assuming the Adagio starts a half not earlier (count 3 of bar 626).

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, II 65-66

16 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Stravinsky, Petroushka (1947 version) 2 before Figure 143

*****

CLOSE CALLS

Stravinsky, Petroushka (1947 version)

Verdi Falstaff, I i 9 before 8 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 17 Stravinsky, Petroushka (1947 version) 2 before Figure 123

Stravinsky, Petroushka (1947 version) 1 before Figure 170

Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, II 1 before N

18 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Copland Appalachian Spring 1 before 50

The common denominator is eighth = 368 (4 x 92) = triplet eighth = 360 (3 x 120). Often the 3 triplet eighth upbeat is done in the slower tempo, matching the 3/8 bar 3 measures later. Leonard Bernstein makes a rallentando throughout the first 5/4 bar, going from quarter = 184 to quarter = 120 in the sec- ond 5/4 bar. (See his score in the archives of the .) My suggestion is to divide the 5/4 into two bars, a 6/8 (dotted quarter = 122, eighth = 368 divided by 3) and a 2/4 (quarter = 120).

In the first Carter example, the tempo relationships between measures 295 and 296, and measures 299 and 300, are self-explanatory. However, the connection between measures 297 and 298 require further investigation so that the two tempos can be smoothly and accurately connected. The conductor can accomplish this by counting the 5 sixteenths of the last dotted eighth tied to an eighth unit of measure 297 (15/16 ) and then count dotted sixteenth septuplets on the 1st half of the 6/8 measure (measure 298). (Thedotted sixteenth septuplets are played by one of the soloists in measures 298.)

Carter Double Concerto 295-299

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 19 Carter Double Concerto 558-559

Beethoven Symphony No. 7, I 62-63 It is not necessary to conduct the second half of measure 62 in 3 quarter triplets. After the first quarter triplet the beat simply stops, showing the silence. A split second later, the third quarter triplet is given, serving as a pick-up for the forthcoming 6/8 tempo.

* The sixteenth upbeat changes to an eighth triplet, which equals the regular eighth of the forthcoming 6/8 Vivace. 20 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Beethoven Symphony No. 7, III 145-149

Debussy La Mer, I 2 before Figure 9

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FAR FETCHED!

In the following examples further ritardandos and accelerandos are utilized to create an artificial com- mon denominator.

Beethoven Symphony No. 2, I 33-34

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 21 In the following two examples, it is assumed that the 4- or 5-note upbeats preceding the Allegro sections should be equal in duration to the 4 sixteenth upbeats in the Allegro sections.

Beethoven Symphony No. 4, I 38-39

Beethoven Symphony No. 1, I 12-13

During one of Leonard Bernstein’s many visits to the conducting seminars at Tanglewood, he passion- ately stated that all subito tempo changes in the Classic period should be connected by a common denom- inator. He was looking for seamless connections.

Berlioz , V 19-22 22 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, V 28-30

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, V 38-40

Using artificial common denominators can be very helpful during initial score study. Eventually the tran- sitions will feel natural and musically correct.

Recognizing and utilizing common denominators may not seem a priority; however, those conductors who include careful study of common denominators as an integral part of score preparation will find the time spent well worth the effort.

Copyright © 2004 by Gustav Meier This article is a chapter from a forthcoming book on conducting.

Acknowledgement I am deeply grateful to Bill Grossman for his assistance and technical support for this article.

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Gustav Meier has been acclaimed in the music world as an outstanding conductor and a truly gifted teacher. He is the Director of the Graduate Conducting Program at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Music Director of the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony. Maestro Meier was director of the Conductors Seminar at Tanglewood from 1980 to 1996, and his aca- demic appointments have included the Yale School of Music, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan.

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 23 Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981), Orchestrator and Composer

By George J. Ferencz

To many, Robert Russell Bennett is best known rience of such a wide range that its gaining must in for his work as collaborator, which he once many details be accidental. Less successful men described as “providing whatever the composer are usually so because of a shortage of such acci- left out.” He was Broadway’s leading orchestrator dental experience. More successful ones always for decades, working on hundreds of musicals, bear out the same theory.1 and scored A Symphonic Picture of , NBC TV’s documentary In Bennett’s case, these experiences began with (“music by ”), concert medleys lessons with his mother and piano and, with his from many of Broadway’s most enduring shows, father, on and violin. His father led a band and, with longtime friend Robert Shaw, The Many that played for many a function in Kansas City and Moods of Christmas. Bennett’s most-played com- Freeman, , where the Bennett family position, in the U.S. and beyond, remains the lived for most of Russell’s school-age years. charming Suite of Old American Dances (1949) Bennett ended up gaining his “accidental experi- for , heard occasionally in his orches- ence” with his father’s ensemble, substituting on tral setting as well. whatever wind or percussion instrument might be missing from a rehearsal or performance. He was Less widely known are other aspects of Bennett’s for two seasons second violinist with the Kansas creative career: a few hundred “stock” dance- City Symphony, and a veteran pianist and organist orchestra orchestrations in the early 1920s; a in the theaters and vaudeville houses of both Guggenheim fellowship and study with Nadia Kansas Cities—Missouri and Kansas. Boulanger; original scoring and orchestrations in ; some two hundred concert works per- His high school education was supplemented by formed or recorded by such luminaries as Reiner, lessons in counterpoint and composition with Carl Stokowski, and Heifetz; scores for dozens of Busch, the Kansas City Symphony’s conductor. NBC-TV’s “Project Twenty” documentaries; Born in Denmark, Busch was a pupil of Engelbert Oscar, Emmy and . Humperdinck; he recalled Bennett’s ability to “solve the most difficult problems in counterpoint In his many published articles, Bennett candidly with the greatest ease.”2 Bennett would later attest discussed his craft and provided advice to aspiring to the value of this training in his commercial professional arrangers. He once wrote: scoring:

Orchestrators just happen. All the education in the If I were asked what the great asset one can world will not develop the peculiar gift required have in this work is, I should have to answer, unless it is already there, and if it is there educa- “counterpoint.” Here is where the admoni- tion alone is still inadequate to bring the gift up to tion of the teacher to his pupil to avoid specialist requirements. There must also be expe- forced voice-leading comes into its own. The

24 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 [theater] audience...has no idea what coun- going to Bennett for his pair of anonymous submis- terpoint is; but let it be stiff, forced or badly sions. Though Abraham Lincoln received a lavish distributed...and the general atmosphere premiere under Stokowski and his Philadelphia becomes charged with an unmistakable So Orchestra, neither prizewinner was recorded until What? What the public doesn’t know, which 1998.4 For those who know only his charming is plenty, it very nearly always feels, and that applies to the good things as well as the bad. commercial scores and light-hearted band works, Let me say that at no time in all the...years I they’re an ear-opening introduction to his uncom- have been at this work have I felt that one promisingly “serious” large-scale writing. note of the miles of exercises I did as a stu- dent was wasted on it.3 Bennett’s two decades of greatest visibility as an orchestral composer began after his return to the Bennett moved to New York in 1916 to further his U.S. in 1930, with America’s major symphonies career. Sidetracked briefly by Army service during programming his pieces regularly. His first opera, World War One, he worked first as a copyist for Maria Malibran, was staged at the Schirmer’s before beginning his arranging duties in 1935 with a cast that included Risë Stevens and at Harms. The “stock” dance-band arrangements several future members of the he turned out were often of new songs by com- roster. Among Bennett’s champions was Howard posers he’d soon be assisting on Broadway: Hanson, who led several Bennett works at the Gershwin, Kern, Romberg and the like. His initial Eastman School and included the Concerto theater orchestrations, in 1920, inaugurated a Grosso for Dance Band and Symphony Orchestra career that would extend until 1975, and he scored (1933) on an All-American program he conducted all or part of more than 300 shows, including many with the Berlin Philharmonic. The long-lined of the canonical works by Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, opening of its second movement is much in keep- Porter, Rodgers, and Loewe. Intent as much upon ing with Bennett’s appraisal of the slow, central a career in conducting or criticism as in compos- theme in Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody as “the ing, Bennett bravely set his commercial work best tune Gershwin ever wrote...such a grand, aside in the late 1920s and departed for Europe. It grand tune”5: (Example 1) was one of the most productive compositional periods of his life, living mostly in Paris and With the onset of the Depression—and the devel- Berlin and studying with . opment of sound pictures—many , Boulanger recognized that commercial work conductors and orchestrators headed west. would be necessary to support his wife and daugh- Bennett’s film assignments would include both ter, hence Bennett’s periodic journeys to London original scoring and orchestrations. Among those or New York to score such new musicals as Kern’s he assisted were Hollywood’s finest—Alfred (1927). Newman, , , and Dmitri Tiomkin. Bennett’s best-remembered contribu- Recognition via a pair of late-1920s composition tions are the RKO screen musicals for his contests—sponsored by Musical America maga- Broadway clients: Kern (Show Boat, Swing Time, zine and Victor Records—led to many perform- I Dream Too Much, High, Wide and Handsome), ances of Bennett’s original works by America’s Gershwin (A Damsel in Distress, Shall We Dance) leading conductors and . The two pieces and Berlin (Carefree). Perhaps the best of his con- submitted for the Victor competition were 1929’s cert pieces from the period is 1938’s Eight Etudes, Sights and Sounds and Abraham Lincoln: A performed by the orchestras of New York, Likeness in Symphony Form, both for large orches- Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los tra. The Victor judges (Stokowski, Koussevitzsky, Angeles. Bennett would later take on occasional Frederick Stock, , Olga Samaroff) film assignments, including (1947), opted to divide the $25,000 prize, with two-fifths with seemingly every classical music luminary of

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 25 Example 1: Concerto Grosso for Dance Band and Symphony Orchestra III. Andante con moto, (mm. 1-31) 26 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 the time among its cast, and the wide-screen directed the chorus, with Bennett tastefully adapt- Oklahoma! (1955), for which he’d receive his Oscar. ing Bizet’s original scoring. The pair would later collaborate on several RCA chorus-and-orchestra Russell Bennett composed nearly two hours of LPs,6 and their The Many Moods of Christmas band music for the 1939-40 New York World’s medleys remain holiday staples four decades after Fair, and again took up residence in Manhattan. He their creation. Shaw would write: resumed his position as Broadway’s pre-eminent orchestrator, and served as musical director for a “Robert Russell” is so exceptional a human pair of network radio programs, enabling a coast- being—wears so comfortably those attributes of to-coast audience to hear new compositions and kindness, honesty, humor and wisdom in a time arrangements weekly. His most-played concert when these are suspect as a press agent’s work during the war years was his Four Freedoms “image”—that it takes an inverted sort of hind- symphony (1943); President Roosevelt had postu- sight to see that perhaps once a generation nice lated four basic American freedoms in a radio guys finish first....it is exactly because he knows address, each captured in a painting by Norman the vast classical symphonic, operatic and cham- Rockwell and, in turn, by Bennett’s symphony. ber music literatures so intimately and so lovingly That same year, he scored Richard Rodgers and that this taste and invention remain unique in their Oscar Hammerstein’s initial collaboration, entertainment roles.7 Oklahoma!; Bennett would orchestrate nearly all of the pair’s shows that followed. One well- Other than the earliest compositions Bennett told received score from the period is his Overture to of writing for his father’s band (none survive), his an Imaginary Drama (1946). Another was 1941’s early pieces for the medium were those for the Concerto for Violin in A Major, last played by 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. These included Louis Kaufman and the London Symphony in the an up-to-the-minute concert march Fountain Lake 1950s, Bernard Hermann conducting. The evoca- Fanfare, a splashy TNT Cocktail, and his half tive closing measures of its second movement are dozen Tone Poems for Band. The Tone Poems, wrought from the simplest of harmonic means: each fifteen minutes in length, were scored as (Example 2) accompaniments to the narrated fountain-fire- work-and-lighting spectacles staged each evening Bennett’s long association with Robert Shaw at the NYWF’s Lagoon of Nations (the shows appears to have begun with 1943’s Jones, being designed by Jean Labatut of Princeton’s the updated all-black staging of Bizet’s Carmen architecture faculty). The band was a splendid one, scripted by Oscar Hammerstein. Shaw, who had described by Bennett as “one of the best ever only recently founded with his Collegiate Chorale, assembled,” with twenty-eight Sousa alumni as

Example 2: Concerto for Violin, II. Andante moderato (mm. 109–112) JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 27 well as members of New York’s Philharmonic- It has varied a bit through the years, but is remains Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and distinctive for its democratically equal numbers of NBC Symphony. Of all Bennett’s NYWF music, , , , and —including only the Fountain Lake Fanfare was published. many auxiliaries—piccolo(s), English horn(s), Excerpts from the Tone Poems were performed at etc. Orchestral brasses and modest complement of least once by the Goldman Band in the 1950s, percussion complete its makeup; distinguished by though they’re apparently unplayed since. Below their absence are saxophones and . is the first half of the short Prologue that preceded Boudreau has commissioned a who’s-who of com- each evening’s fountain spectacular at the 1939-40 posers to write for the AWS (for a time also known Fair; in it, one hears some of the harmonic lan- as the American Waterways Wind Symphony), guage that became commonplace in postwar and Bennett completed several for Boudreau’s American wind band literature: ensemble between 1957 and 1980. Though the tai- loring of the instrumentation to the AWS’s model In the late 1950s conductor Robert Austin has hindered the circulation of these pieces, all are Boudreau founded his American Wind Symphony, nonetheless Peters/Henmar rental items. Bennett’s then and now headquartered in Pittsburgh. first AWS score, his Concerto Grosso for Boudreau’s instrumentation model was not Woodwind Quintet and Wind Orchestra, has America’s “golden age” concert bands, but rather become the most-performed. Though full of vital- a one-on-a-part model based on orchestral winds. ity, its language is more abstract, and less conven-

Example 3: Tone Poems for Band: Prologue (mm. 1–14) 28 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 tionally tuneful, than his best-known band works. for example, effectively distribute a 3/4 vamp fig- ure across pairs of 3/8 bars: During the postwar years, Bennett became one of the few honorary members of New York’s Many school/university band libraries also include Goldman Band, regularly guest-conducting pre- his modest Down to the Sea in Ships (a transcrip- mieres of his compositions and arrangements. tion of his orchestral score for a 1960s NBC TV Bennett’s most-played pieces are undoubtedly the documentary) and one of Bennett’s last works, the Suite of Old American Dances (1949) and charming Autobiography. Wind conductors seek- Symphonic Songs for Band (1957). Both were ing a departure from these and the recorded by Frederick Fennell’s Eastman Wind Eastman/Fennell pieces might examine 1952’s Ensemble for Mercury Records (the Suite appear- Mademoiselle (a League of Composers commis- ing on the very first EWE LP) and deserve their sion, unpublished) and perhaps the little-known, “evergreen” status. The first of the Symphonic light-hearted Track Meet (Chappell, 1961), as well Songs includes several passages that seem not to as the American Wind Symphony and New York look quite the way they sound; the opening bars, World’s Fair commissions.

Example 4: Symphonic Songs for Band, I. Serenade (mm. 1–45) Copyright (c) 1958 by Chappell & Co. International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 29 While under contract to Chappell Music, Bennett Pittsburgh Symphony, commissioned Bennett to do prepared dozens of concert medleys, for both band the orchestral Symphonic Picture of Porgy and Bess and orchestra, of theater scores. Heard on count- and, because it was designed for recording, laid out less “pops” concerts, many of these have been the medley so that it would fit three 12” 78-rpm recorded, principally by John Mauceri, Erich records, with side breaks falling at fairly innocuous Kunzel, and John McGlinn. The majority were of points (in concert, of course, the medley is played musicals for which Bennett had done the original- without interruption). Critic Irving Kolodin referred cast orchestrations, though there are exceptions to it as “the best-sounding of all Gershwin scores (Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon, among others). for large orchestra,”8 and it has been frequently per- These medleys were designed to be accessible to formed and recorded, even though Gershwin’s own less-than-professional ensembles, and unfailingly suite is back in circulation under the title suggested “come off” well in concert. A few, however, were by his lyricist-brother Ira, Catfish Row. Reiner’s scored for no-less-than-full symphonic comple- original Pittsburgh Symphony recording (1944) has ment, and are generally lengthier and more been released on CD and is recommended, as is demanding technically. Two of these are the spe- Bennett’s own late-1950s reading of the work with cial Sound of Music and medleys the RCA Symphony musicians. Bennett also scored done in 1968 for the Pittsburgh Symphony (as dis- a Porgy and Bess “selection” for concert band tinguished from the bread-and-butter medleys (1942) and, decades later, completed a concert from the two shows which he’d done for Chappell medley featuring vocal soloists and chorus, careful- earlier). Another large-scale medley is A ly adapting Gershwin’s original pit scoring for stan- Symphonic Story of —“Ten dard orchestra. Highlights of Jerome Kern Melodies Down the Years from 1915 to 1940.” Bennett had already As Russell Bennett observed late in life, “The man done the “first arrangements” of most of these for in the street” has finally changed his greeting their original-cast productions, including “Smoke when we are introduced. For oh-so-many years, Gets in Your Eyes” (Roberta), “Ol’ Man River” when he heard my name...he would say as we (Show Boat), and “All the Things You Are” (Very shook hands, “Oh, yes, I know your Symphonic Warm for May), and he scored the Symphonic Picture of Porgy and Bess.” Now he says, “Oh Story shortly after Kern’s 1945 passing. yes! Victory at Sea!”

Perhaps the grandest Bennett medley of all—for Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, NBC televi- full orchestra with two harps, saxophones, and sion’s Victory at Sea was a 26-episode documen- banjo—uses the best-known melodies and under- tary of the U.S. Navy’s activities across the globe scoring from Gershwin’s 1935 “folk opera,” during the Second World War. Richard Rodgers Porgy and Bess. Bennett’s first Gershwin arrange- was engaged to do the orchestral background, ment was the “stock” dance orchestra scoring of though he accepted the assignment only with the Gershwin’s first hit, “Swanee,” in 1920. Bennett assurance that Bennett would be available as a col- would later become Gershwin’s most-sought laborator. Each half-hour episode’s underscoring orchestrator for both his Broadway and is nearly “wall-to-wall,” and Bennett estimated Hollywood musicals, and he is also known to have that he prepared at least eleven hours of music for given advice to Gershwin while the latter scored the 1952–53 series. The extent of Bennett’s contri- his first post-Rhapsody-in-Blue concert piece, the bution is little understood, and his friends in the . Some time after the 1935 premiere business repeatedly expressed regret that it hadn’t of Porgy and Bess, Gershwin prepared an orches- been better communicated to the general public. tral concert suite, though it was apparently forgot- What Rodgers wrote was a dozen themes—short ten after Gershwin’s untimely death in 1937. A piano compositions—totaling about 30 minutes of few years later, , then leading the music. This is the material developed by Bennett

30 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 in scoring the series, and it forms most of the the- Coins (1929) for pairs of sopranos and altos. Two matic material that is heard in both the underscor- other works from his Paris-Berlin years were pre- ing and the recorded “suites.” Still, a good deal of miered at Town Hall by Gerald Reynolds’s the soundtrack is entirely of Bennett’s devising, Women’s University Glee Club: the Nietschze being based in no part on Rodgers’s contributions. Variations and the amusing period piece Theme and Variations in the Form of a Ballade about a Lorelei. Bennett conducted the Victory at Sea soundtrack sessions with the same NBC Symphony musicians As noted above, the best-known of Bennett’s (including concertmaster ) Hollywood work is his late-1930s scoring for then being led by Toscanini for radio broadcasts RKO’s musicals with songs by Kern, Gershwin, or and recordings. The RCA LPs of the stirring suites Berlin. In recent years much of this material has were also prepared and conducted by Bennett; been recorded, principally by John Mauceri and bestsellers for decades, these have been re- John McGlinn, though its availability for concert released on CD. Performance materials for por- use is uncertain (many of the scores are in UCLA’s tions of the recorded suites are missing, though Special Collections). Bennett also completed a there’s some hope they’ll be reconstructed at a Gershwin in Hollywood medley for orchestra in future date. Bennett also completed one-move- the mid-1940s. Wind conductors might investigate ment “Symphonic Scenario” medleys for band, the extended “Stiff Upper Lip” dance sequence and for solo piano, both out of print. Bennett scored for the 1937 Gershwin film A Damsel in Distress; set in an English amusement Bennett’s best-known choral scores are his many park, it’s scored for small wind band with string arrangements of popular and traditional material contrabass and calliope(!). for chorus and orchestra, many in collaboration with Robert Shaw. For the Pittsburgh Symphony Interest in Bennett’s compositions and arrange- he was commissioned to prepare his ments has been stirred by the recent publication of Commemoration Symphony (1959) on melodies his memoirs, completed a few years before his by Pittsburgh native Stephen Foster. Another work death in 1981. The 1999 Naxos recording his in the same vein was commissioned by the Victor prizewinners, too, is a hopeful sign. Efforts National Symphony to celebrate our nation’s are also underway to prepare a new edition of bicentennial: The Fun and Faith of William Bennett’s long-out-of-print arranging text, Billings, American. Both the Foster and Billings Instrumentally Speaking (1975). scores may be performed with piano reduction; the choral writing holds up well, though consider- Many of the Bennett-scored “symphonic pictures” able color, weight and grandeur are lost. A unique are also out of print, though most are available association with Jack Wilson, music director at the from rental agencies or through the good graces of First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, led to other conductors. Dozens of Bennett scores were Bennett’s pair of late-1970s holiday works for never were published, and remained with his fam- voices and orchestra (or piano), four Carol ily following his death in 1981 (some were micro- Cantatas and The Easter Story. Both were pub- filmed by the Library of Congress a few years ear- lished by Lawson-Gould, though neither has cir- lier). Early in 2002, however, a large cache of culated as widely as The Many Moods of compositions & arrangements (most of the latter Christmas, to which the Carol Cantatas were from his network radio activities of the 1940s), intended to serve as a sequel. Enterprising choral including the holograph Victory at Sea scores, was conductors might also seek out his lively, though donated by his estate to the Music Archive at dated, Crazy Cantata #1 (chorus and soloists with Northwestern University, not far from the piano, 1945), and the Conductors Guild offices. The author is working has the holograph of the unpublished Aux Quatre with the Bennett estate and Archive staff to assist

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 31 interested researchers, who now have access to none of them had anything approaching his activ- these works. ity and success in the concert hall. The durability of his best-known compositions and arrangements Conductors have long lamented the availability of is a testament to their craftsmanship, and the nothing but condensed scores for many of author welcomes inquiries from conductors seek- Bennett’s compositions and arrangements. Some ing to explore Robert Russell Bennett’s lesser- recent improvements: 1) Hal Leonard’s new full known scores. score for the Suite of Old American Dances (the concert band original), prepared by Ed Higgins; 2) SELECTED COMPOSITIONS: full scores for at least a few of the “symphonic ACHRONOLOGY (FOR ORCHESTRA, EXCEPT AS picture” theater medleys, published by NOTED) Williamson, prepared by R. Mark Rogers of Southern Music; 3) full scores of many of the 1929: Sights and Sounds; Abraham Lincoln: A Organization’s most- Likeness in Symphony Form rented musicals; the firm had declined to do this 1930: March for Two Pianos and Orchestra for decades, for fear that they’d aid those trying to 1932: Concerto Grosso for Dance Band and “pirate” their shows. Orchestra 1933: Six Variations in Fox-Trot Time on a Theme Throughout his career, Robert Russell Bennett by Jerome Kern (chamber orchestra) responded with grace to publishers’ requests for 1935: Maria Malibran (opera) contributions to their magazines. Nearly all of 1938: Eight Etudes these have been reprinted in The Broadway Sound, 1939: Tone Poems for Band, Fountain Lake which affords the reader much insight into Fanfare (March), A TNT Cocktail (band) Bennett’s career(s) and personality. He remains 1945: The Enchanted Kiss (one-act opera on an O. best known by the company he kept: Gershwin, Henry story) Kern, Rodgers, Berlin, Loewe (and the stars of the 1941: Concerto for Violin in A Major Broadway stage) on one hand, and Reiner, Fritz 1943: The Four Freedoms: A Symphony after Kreisler, and Rachmaninoff on the other. He Four Paintings by Norman Rockwell viewed his commercial work pragmatically 1946: Overture to an Imaginary Drama (“there are worse ways to buy shoes for the 1947: Piano Concerto in B Minor baby”), and it helped him attain a Park Avenue res- 1949: Suite of Old American Dances (band; idence, but wasn’t shy about expressing his rever- also for orchestra, 1950) ence for the classics. 1952: Mademoiselle (band) 1955: Rose Variations (/trumpet solo Bennett served as president of the National w/band) Association for American Composers and 1957: Symphonic Songs for Band Conductors and was a founding member of the 1957: Concerto Grosso for Woodwind Quintet and American Society of Music Arrangers. He was Wind Orchestra widely regarded as “the Dean of American 1959: A Commemoration Symphony (w/chorus) Arrangers,” yet modestly dismissed this honor, 1959: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra noting that “the way you get to be dean of any- 1961: Three Humoresques (wind orchestra) thing is to live longer than everyone else.” 1963: Symphony (No. 7, dedicated to Fritz Nicholas Slonimsky perceptively observed that Reiner) Bennett was “haunted by success”—his stature as 1971: Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra an arranger diverting attention from his original 1974: Four Preludes for Band (dedicated to scores. Yet it is the scope of Bennett’s independent Gershwin, Youmans, Porter, Kern) creative work that distinguishes him from orches- 1975: The Fun and Faith of William Billings, trator-colleagues in New York and ; American (w/chorus) 32 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 1977: Autobiography (band) ENDNOTES 1977: Four Carol Cantatas (w/chorus) 1 “Orchestrating for Broadway.” Modern Music 9, no. 4 1980: Christmas Overture (wind orchestra) (May-June 1942), 148. 2 Kansas City Times, 3 May 1929. MUSIC THEATER CREDITS (SELECTED LIST) 3 “Orchestrating for Broadway,” 149. 4 Moscow Symphony Orchestra, William Stromberg, cond., Jerome Kern: Hitchy-Koo of 1920, Daffy Dill Naxos 8.559004. (1922), Stepping Stones (1923), Sitting Pretty 5 Bennett interview with Miles Krueger, New York, 8 (1924), Dear Sir (1924), Sunny (1925), The City September 1978. Chap (1925), Criss Cross (1926), Lucky (1927), 6 ”America the Beautiful,” RCA LSC-2662 (LP, 1964) has Show Boat (1927, also 1946 & 1966 revivals), the setting of The Star-Spangled Banner performed at the Blue Eyes (1928, London), (1929), opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics in . 7 The Cat and the Fiddle (1931), Music in the Air U.S. Army Band concert program, 10 November 1981, D.A.R. Constitution Hall., Washington, DC. (1932), Roberta (1933), Three Sisters (1934, 8 London), Gentleman Unafraid (1938, St. Louis), Program note for a New York Philharmonic-Symphony performance of the Symphonic Picture, 16 January 1954. Very Warm for May (1939). George Gershwin: George White’s Scandals of ***** 1924, Lady Be Good (1924), Tell Me More (1925), Song of the Flame (w/, 1925), Funny Face (1927), (1930), Of Thee I George J. Ferencz is editor of “The Broadway Sing (1931), Pardon My English (1933). Sound”: The Autobiography and Selected Essays : Face the Music (1932), Louisiana of Robert Russell Bennett and author of Robert Purchase (1940), Annie Get Your Gun (1946, also Russell Bennett: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood 1966 revival). Press, 1990). He prepared several entries, includ- Fritz Loewe: My Fair Lady (1956), ing Bennett’s, for the revised New Grove (1959). Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Ferencz Richard Rodgers: One Dam Thing After Another serves as music theory coordinator at the (1927), A Connecticut Yankee (1927), She’s My University of –Whitewater. Brief por- Baby (1928), Heads Up (1929), Ever Green (1930, tions of this article appeared in papers presented London), America’s Sweetheart (1931), to the Society for American Music and the College (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), Allegro (1947), South Music Society. Pacific (1949), (1951), (1953), (1955), (1958), (1959). Also Cinderella (both television and stage orchestra- tions, 1958). : Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), Gay Divorce (1932), (1934), (1935), Panama Hattie (1940), Something for the Boys (1943), Mexican Hayride (1944), Seven Lively Arts (1944), Around the World in Eighty Days (1946), Kiss Me, Kate (1948), Out of This World (1950), Alladin (television, 1958). : Bloomer Girl (1944). Burton Lane: Finian’s Rainbow (1947), On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965). Jule Styne: Bells Are Ringing (1956).

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 33 Scores & Parts

Claude Debussy’s Prélude de l’après-midi d’un faune

By Paul Vermel

Original Publisher: Jobert Reprint Publisher: Kalmus

34 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Books in Review

Peress, Maurice. Dvorák to Duke Ellington. and pride” [page 13]), the , the (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004); Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 where Dvorak 254 pp. couldn’t have helped but be exposed to Paul Laurence Dunbar and Harry T. Burleigh, the Reviewed by Thomas R. Erdmann author’s own recreation of James Reese Europe’s 1912 Clef Club concert at Carnegie Hall, George In much the same way the highly acclaimed his- Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique, Leonard Bernstein’s torical/scientific television show Connections, Mass, and Ellington’s Black, Brown, and Beige, to currently widely seen in America on any of the name only a few of the musicians, pieces, and Discovery Network cable stations, drew timelines events traversed, crossed, and passed through, and relationships between what might appear as with respect to the premise of the text. widely disparate scientific breakthroughs, Maurice Peress attempts to do the same with this The author is able to handle what could have been musical travelogue. The book’s main inspiration an organizational nightmare in an especially adroit and hypothesis is the search for the fulfillment of manner because he himself is an integral compo- one of Anton Dvorak’s statements, namely, “the nent of not only part of the process, but as a part future American school would be based upon the of the book. Peress, former assistant conductor of music of the Negro.” (Page 4) The author believes the New York Philharmonic under Leonard this statement was made manifest in the music of Bernstein and who conducted the premiere of the Duke Ellington and that a line exists from Dvorak maestro’s Mass, is perhaps best known today as to Ellington and from him to the recent present. Professor of Music at the School of Music and The CUNY Graduate Center where Set in a series of 17 relatively short chapters, he teaches conducting and research in American Peress starts with speculations (money, wander- music. Peress has in-depth and first-hand knowl- lust, love and/or politics) for the reasons Dvorak edge of the subject as he worked with Ellington, spent time in America (1892-95). None-the-less, edited and/or orchestrated five of Ellington’s sym- the author calls Dvorak’s American journey, “one phonic works, and has presented a number of crit- of the most significant cultural exchanges in ically acclaimed historically accurate concert American history.” (Page 7) The ruminations recreations. which follow are tied to a quasi free-flowing his- torical timeline moving from Dvorak’s initiation With an unparalleled background in music and into the music of Black Americans to his research, Peress is uniquely suited to delve into American students (among them Will Marion the topic at hand, and does so with skillful results, Cook and Rubin Goldmark), who would, in turn, proving, in a fashion, his proposition to be correct. be the teachers of future composers such as Even though Peress leaves out, in order to better Ellington, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland. stress his own hypothesis, composers like Roy Further topics such as black minstrelsy, James Harris and associates of his whose influence is Reese Europe (whom the author credits as having, still in observance in American classical music “single-handedly led black musicians and their today, there is not a graduate composition or con- music into the land of respect, professionalism, ducting major who would not benefit from reading

JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 35 this highly personal tome. and Celesta and ’s Metamorphosen. But of course there is much Dr. Thomas R. Erdmann is Director of the Elon more. Ms. Stephenson begins her biography with University Chamber Orchestra and Professor of an extensive look at Sacher’s ancestors in and Music and Education at Elon University, in Elon, around Basle, and how their attitudes may have North Carolina. He has published four books and shaped his thoughts about his capabilities and over 50 papers in a variety of journals. about his role in the community. Most striking, though, is how Sacher seemed to transcend his ***** rather parochial background, never fearing to min- gle with, and eventually become a leader of, Basle’s (and Europe’s) high society. Stephenson, Lesley. Symphony of Dreams: The Conductor and Patron Paul Sacher. (Lanham, It would be easy to see Sacher’s accomplishments MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2002); 353pp.; ISBN: as an outgrowth of his great wealth and political 0-8108-4959-3. standing, but in fact his beginnings were relative- ly modest. It was through his own hard work and Reviewed by Lance Friedel resourcefulness that he founded and conducted various ensembles including the Basle Chamber As a young man, just out of school, I formed and Orchestra, and also established himself as a tire- conducted a chamber orchestra in my home town less champion of contemporary music, well before that specialized in the performance of both early his marriage to pharmaceutical heiress Maja and contemporary music. Little did I know that I Hoffmann-Stehlin. Quite early in his life he had a was following in the footsteps of the noted Swiss vision of what he wanted to do in music, and he conductor and philanthropist Paul Sacher, one of never really wavered from it. His growing stature the most influential figures in 20th-century music. and financial resources, however, made it possible Sacher’s life and career are presented here in a for him to operate on a much larger scale, both as new biography by author Lesley Stephenson, who a conductor and as a patron of the arts. had extensive contact with Sacher in his later years, as well as with many of his family, friends Sacher’s choice of what to support came, by his and colleagues. own admission, from his personal ideas and tastes in music. He preferred the sound of string instru- Symphony of Dreams is an easy read, and an ments, and so he formed a string-based chamber enjoyable one. Ms. Stephenson does not attempt orchestra at a time when such groups hardly exist- an encyclopedic biography, a scholarly tome full ed. He commissioned works from many of the of minute detail, but rather gives us a touching leading composers of his time that would suit the overview of the man and his relationships. The constitution of that group, thus establishing the book is thus aimed at the general reader who sim- chamber orchestra as one of the important media ply wants to know more about Sacher’s life than of 20th-century music, during a period when com- would be found in, say, the New Grove. Her view posers were turning away from the excesses of the of her subject is both balanced and clear, delineat- late-romantic symphony orchestra. He liked music ing the various, sometimes contradictory, aspects with a “strong rhythmic element,” and had little of Sacher’s character. interest in atonal works such as those of the Second Viennese School. His long and impressive Paul Sacher is known to most of us as the founder list of commissioned works (given in the appen- and conductor of the Basle Chamber Orchestra, dix) is weighted somewhat toward composers with and as commissioner of works for that ensemble whom Sacher had a personal relationship, such as such as Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, Arthur Honegger, Conrad Beck, and Willy

36 JCG Vol. 25, No. 2 Burkhard, though Stravinsky, Boulez, Henze and many others are also represented. Through his dedicat- ed advocacy, Sacher’s influence on 20th-century music was inestimable, and reached far beyond the bor- ders of his native Switzerland.

Sacher’s personal life is well chronicled here also, continuing almost as a counterpoint to his musical endeavors. He was always a committed and integral part of his family and his community, much as his taciturn nature and his ambition made him seem to stand apart. Even his indiscretions seem to be a part of his overall sense of personal confidence and aspiration—that which he wanted to do, he did.

Ms. Stephenson captures the personality of the energetic yet secretive Sacher very well in these pages. Musicians might have wished for more in-depth discussion of his conducting, rehearsal methods, and relations with composers concerning the technical aspects of their music. And some samples of Sacher’s concert programs and reviews might have been welcome too, as well as a discography (I know that as recently as 1988 Sacher recorded Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with his protégé Anne-Sophie Mutter for Deutsche Grammophon. It would be interesting to know if recordings exist of him conducting the works he made famous.) But, all in all, Symphony of Dreams is well worth reading for anyone interested in the life and work of this pioneering conductor.

Conductor Lance Friedel was founder and conductor of the Providence Chamber Orchestra, and is now a freelance guest conductor living in Maryland.

*****

Erratum

On page 25 of Volume 25, number 1, an end quote appears prematurely as follows: Gergiev said that Musin "Was one of the greatest teachers of the century;" however, the quote should run through the two offset paragraphs, concluding with (Ardoin).

*****

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