Los Angeles: the First Biennium and Beyond
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Music in Southern California: A Tale of Two Cities 51 RoBINSON, Al.FREO. Life in California: during a residence SPll::R, LESLIE. "Southern Diegueño Customs," Univer ofsevera/ years in the territory (New York: Wiley & sity of California Publications in American Ar Putnam, 1846). chaeology and Ethnology, xx (1928) Phoebe ScHWARTZ, HENRY . "Temple Beth Israel," JSDH, Apperson Hearst Memorial Volume. xxvu/4 (Fall 1981). TREUTLEIN, T11 EODORE E. "The Junípero Serra Song at SERRA, JUNIPERO. Writings, ed. Antonine Ti besar San Diego State Teachers College," JSDH, xxm/2 (Washington: Academy of American Franciscan (Spring 1977). History, 1955- 1966). 4 vols. VAN DYKE, T. S. The City and County of San Diego (San SILVA, ÜWEN FRANCIS DA, ed. Mission music of Califor Diego: Leberthon & Taylor, 1888). nia, a col/ection oj old Ca/ifornia mission hymns WATERMAN, T. T. "The Religious Practices of thc Die and masses (Los Angeles: W. F. Lewis, 1941). gueño lndians," University of California Publica S1MONSON, HAROLD P. "The Villa Montezuma: Jesse tions in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Shepard's Lasting Contribution to the Arts and Ar vm/ 6 (1910). chitecture," JSDH, xix/2 (Spring 1973). WEBER, FRANcis, comp. and ed. The Proto Mission, A "Sorne of the Prominent Composers Residing in the Documentary History of San Diego de Alca/a (Hong West," Pacific Coast Musician, xx1v/6 (February Kong: Libra Press, 1979). 16, 1935). Los Angeles: The First Biennium and Beyond Encyclopedia Coverage IN 1960, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, encapsulating his prime source book, Howard vm, 1213-1217, pioneered with a city article on Los Swan's Music in the Southwest, /825- 1950. Angeles. However, its quality was compromised. After MGG, next carne Soviet Muzykal'naia Written in 1959 by an author who represented him entsiklopediia (Moscow, 1975), 111, 331-332, with self as director of graduate studies in a university a 522-word Los Angeles city article by M. M. that never promoted him abo ve assistant professo r, ÍAkoviev (no bibliography). Profiting from data the article begins with the wrong Spanish name for supplied by Nicolas Slonimsky on such details as the the settlement founded September 4, 1781, and names and seating capacities of concert auditoriums continues with typical Anglo-Saxon disdain for ali in the Southland area, this article also correctly dis aspects of Los Angeles musical culture related to tinguished the University of Southern California either Spanish or Mexican traditions. from the University of California al Los Angeles. Only Congregational, Methodist, Episcopal, and However, thc latter university, known familiarly Unitarian denominations are saluted for any contri as UCLA, <lid not become the "southern branch" butions to musical life-never Roman Catholic or of !he University of California until 1919 and did no! Jewish faiths. Among colleges and universities become !he University of California at Los Angeles founded by churches, only those started by Protes- until 1929. So far as Los Angeles is concerned, such 1an1s gain listings. Only European holdings of a statement as the following is !herefore false: libraries in !he Los Angeles area win mention. No "Music courses which were started at the University composer, conductor, or performer native to Los of California in 1904 were converted into a four-year Angeles intrudes in the article. Instead, everyone study program beginning in 1915." mentioned was born elsewhere. Errors of fact, such To say that the Los Angeles Philharmonic was as itemizing Leonard Bernstein as a prominenl film founded in 1919 "at the initiative of a group of pa composer-instead of Elmcr Bernstein-immedi trons of the arts" is incorrect. At the sole initiative ately start cropping up as soon as the author stops of one patron, and onc only, William Andrcws 52 INTER-AMlc.RICAN MUSIC REVlEW co Clark, Jr., thc Los Angeles Philharmonic was Stravinskys quit Los Angeles to establish thcir last of foundcd (and maintaincd to hb death). The Soviet rcsidence in New York City-further emphasized re author names no musicians in Los Angeles until ar these two S's. Funding for these concerts carne from p! rival of thc first conductor of the Philharmonic in several sources: the National Endowment f or the th 1919, London-born Waltcr Henry Rothwell. Aftcr Arts, the California Arts Council, the Los Angeles N ignoring evcryone in Los Angeles bcfore 1919, County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles ÍA.kovicv asscrts that "musical life in Los Angeles County Music and Performing Arts Commission, ~l on ly beca me more active during t he ycan, 1930-1940 and thc Cultural A ffairs Dcpartrnent of the City of e, as a rcsult of an influx of musicians, principally Los Angeles. a1 cmigrants from European countries." The The consultants "in planning the festival con Europcan-born cmigrants whom he names read in ccrts" wcre Petcr Heyworth and Lawrencc Morton. wª' this order: Schoenbcrg, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Hcyworth (according to The New Grove) is "an w Toch, Korngold, Castelnuovo-Tcdcsco, Piatigorsky, English critic educated at Chartcrhouse and Balliol f( and Heifetz. College, Oxford," whosc "principal arca of interest d The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Must remains 20th-century central European music and h cians ( 1980) articles t hat touch on Western Unitcd musical life." To justify choosing music solcly from e1 States citics uniformly cxah thc prescnt at thc ex "The Goldcn Years, 1934-1969" (page 7 of the 87- 11 pense of the past. Espccially is this true of Los An page program booklet "compiled and editcd by Or geles. In the Los Angeles city article, Howard Swan rin Howard"), the English critic Heyworth invokcd b contends that the arca lacked a suitable concert hall the statures of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Accord beforc thc Mu~ic Center \\Cnt up in 1964. Noel ing to Heyworth, thcse two as much dominated their a Goodwin's article on Zubin Mchta ratcs thc Los An cpoch as did Wagner and Brahms the late Romantic r1 geles Philharmonic Orchestra as an "undistin era. Heyworth thcrefore thought it "more uscful" d guished" entity beforc the Bombay-born conductor for him and Morton "to conccntrate our attcntion took the reins in 1962. When doing so, Goodwin ig on these giants" during Los Angcles's bicentennial nore<; Artur Rodzinski, Otto Klempercr, and Eduard music festival. a van Beinum, who had previously conducted the The handful in Royce Hall December 5, 1981, for g same orchestra. the onc orchestral concert of the festival series to in ~ elude composers othcr than thc two S's heard works So far as disdaining the Los Angeles past is con hy Ernst Toch, Adolph Wciss, Lukas Foss, George cerned, f oreign encyclopedia article writers do not Gershwin, Osear Levant, Ernst Krenek, and Halsey stand alone. lnstead, they join hands with numerous Stevens. However, even this December 5 program Los Angeles-based critics and managers. How less began an<l ended with Stravinsky (Greeting Prelude than avidly interested was the management of the 1955; Circus Polku /942). In Daniel Cariaga's los Los Angeles Philharmonic in local roots became ob Angeles Times review ("A 'Made in Los Angeles' vious during the bicentcnnial events celcbrating the Marathon," December 7, Part Vl, page 5, columm founding of Los Angeles. Except for an undcrre 2-3), he referred to the then 73-year-old Steven~. hearscd bevy of short, mostly inconsequential works who had taught at the University of Southern by othcr composers from afar who visitcd or resided California (hereafter USC) from the age of 40 (and in Los Angeles sometime between 1934 and 1969, who had taught Michael Tilson Thomas), asan "im "The Festival of Music Madc in Los Angeles in portant musicologist, critic, and teacher, as well a\ Celebration of the Los Angeles Bicentennial," composer." presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Compared with Schoenberg and Stravinsky, form of three subsidized concerts November 28, De Stevens does rank as a small "s." But, ironically it cem bcr 5 and 13, 1981, at Royce Hall, U niversity of was Schocnberg himself who in his essay entitlc<l California at Los Angeles (hereafter UCLA), con "Encourage the Mediocre" (Music and Dance in sisted solely of international works composed by California, Hollywood: Burcau of Musical Schoenberg aml Stravinsky during their residences Research, 1949, 9-13) argued most pcrsuasively in Los Angeles. The chosen time span-October I, against prevalent altitudes. Thc petulant pooh 1934, when Schoenberg rented 5850 Canyon Cove poohing of everything not already consecratcd as a in Hollywood Hills, to Septernber 14, 1969, when the classic for the agcs leads to musical rigor morris, 7 Music in Southern California: A Tale of Two Cities 53 contended Schoenberg. Nor was he arguing in behalf any appropriate encyclopedia coverage of Los An of neglected works that might be sorne day resur geles has to begin and continue with "small things." rectcd and declared "great." Among sculptors and Emerson said it aright when he insisted that "he who painters, continued Schoenberg, minar masters of despiseth small things shall perish by littlc and the past and present find eager buyers and collectors. littlc." Not so, minar composers. Altitudes that resultcd in the 1981 "Festival of Los Angeles-now the second city of the nation Music Made in Los Angeles" still prevail. Thus, any (third city with 2,966,763 population according to encyclopedia atlention given che "minar musicians" 1980 census)-covers 644 square miles; Los Angeles active in Los Angeles beforc (and after) Schoenbcrg County, the most populous county in the nation and Stravinsky, any description of t he locales in (7,477,503 inhabitants), covers 4083 .2 square miles which concerts wcre given before the Music Center and contains 76 other incorporated cities, including was completed, and any rccognition accorded local Bevcrly Hills, Long Beach, Pasadena, and Santa residents for what "little" they did accomplish will Monica.