Through the Seasons a Jack and Meggie Collection by Jennie May Through the Seasons: a Jack and Meggie Collection by Jennie May
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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Through the Seasons A Jack and Meggie Collection by Jennie May Through the Seasons: A Jack and Meggie Collection by Jennie May. The CBS Collection consists of music that was created or arranged as a part of the station's broadcast activity and which was stored in its New York headquarters. Biographical/historical information. From its founding in 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System always included music as a significant part of its radio programming. (In 1974 the company designated its initials, CBS Inc., as its primary name.) It was inevitable that the company would generate a large music library, in part due to its own varied needs, but also due to the Musicians' Union prohibition on the broadcasting of recorded music. (The prohibition began to be relaxed during the 1940s.) Under the leadership of its first music librarian, Julius Mattfeld (1893-1968, a former librarian of The New York Public Library's Music Division), CBS's music library acquired a large amount of popular and classical music. CBS was noted for introducing works by contemporary composers. The origins of this tendency are probably based on adherence to the Federal Communication Commission Acts of 1926 and 1934 which forced broadcasters to devote a significant portion of airtime to educational programming. (Non-adherence could result in an immediate revocation of a broadcast license.) To satisfy this requirement, CBS sought to increase the educational content of their programming by commissioning works from contemporary composers. (The Columbia Composers Commission was first awarded in 1936 and continued for several years after.) The use of notable composers for significant commissions extended into the era of television as can be seen in the wide variety of composers who wrote scores for The Twentieth Century television program). Another means of satisying the FCC requires was to present music in an educational format. The American School of the Air provided an opportunity to hear concert and recital music in the context of educational purposes. Programs devoted to topics such as music and allied arts, music from foreign countries, or musical life in America, were produced in an effort to enlighten the listening public. Popular music, however, was the corporation's predominant musical fare. CBS provided outlets for hearing the popular standards of the day as vehicles on variety shows as well as in condensed presentations of Broadway musicals, a practice that continued through the 1960s on television. A notable commission was Cole Porter's final musical Aladdin (1957) which was written expressly for CBS television. At the height of its musical activity in the 1940s, CBS retained numerous staff composers and arrangers, as well as commissioning works from composers. During the summer months when there were no broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic, the CBS Symphony Orchestra would be substituted. Under various guises the orchestra of CBS would play for different types of programs, running the gamut from classical to popular and jazz. (Benny Goodman and Mitch Miller were among the notable players who worked in the CBS orchestra at various times.) The change in union rules that allowed regular broadcasting of recorded music occurred during the 1940s. This obviated the need of such a large music staff. In 1950 CBS disbanded its regular orchestra. Meanwhile, the ascendancy of television over radio meant more resources would be channelled into that medium. Though some television work was based in New York City, CBS maintained the bulk of its television activities in its Los Angeles headquarters. In 1967, CBS's AM radio station switched from variety programming to an all-news format, and in 1971 the Ed Sullivan Show, one of CBS's last major variety shows to originate in New York City, was broadcast for the last time. The shifts in programming and from where it originated meant that CBS no longer needed an extensive in-house music library. As a result of vacating their long-time headquarters at 485 Madison Avenue, CBS presented their music library as a gift to The New York Public Library in 1974. Scope and arrangement. The CBS Collection consists of music that was created or arranged as a part of the station's broadcast activity and which was stored in its New York headquarters. The collection consists of original compositions or arrangements. Nearly all the formats are manuscript scores and parts. In the case of arrangements, published scores from which the arrangements were made are occasionally found. Originally known as the "X File" nearly all works have an X number. These numbers were generally assigned in chronological order. When a score lacks a date, these X numbers can be useful in determining an approximate date. The bulk of material consists of arrangements of popular songs. There are a number of staff arrangers represented such as Julius Burger, Carlyle Hall, Paul Leeman, Marty Manning, and Julian Work. Probably the most prolific arranger was Amadeo De Fillipi, who orchestrated many classical works for the CBS orchestra, including several songs by Charles Ives that probably received their first public hearing over CBS. (The Music Division has a small collection of music composition in manuscript that were donated by Mr. De Fillipi shortly before his death.) There are also several arrangements made by CBS music librarian Julius Mattfeld (who had an organ recital program that aired on Sunday mornings). A number of works by significant composers have been separated and cataloged separately. Included are works by John Cage ("The City Wears a Slouch Hat," call number JPB 95-3 folder 92), Aaron Copland ("John Henry," call number JPB 91-54; "Music for Radio," call numbers JPB 85- 138, JPB 91-52, JPB 91-53), Roy Harris ("Cowboy songs," call numbers JPB 91-16, JPH 91-1; "Time Suite," JPB 16-18) and Jerome Moross ("A tall story," call number JPG 90-3). Some of these materials are unique copies or the only existing sources of these works. Among the more significant original works in the CBS Collection are the scores to radio shows (by Oscar Bradley, Bernard Herrmann, Nicolas Nabokov, Fred Steiner, and others) as well as television shows, most notably The Twentieth Century. The composers who composed for this television series were among the most noted of the day and include George Antheil (who created the signature music for the series), Louis Applebaum, Georges Auric, Paul Creston, Alan Hovhaness, Norman Dello Joio, Hershey Kay, George Kleinsinger, Gail Kubik, Darius Milhaud, Mario Nascimbene, Alexander Tcherepnin, and Franz Waxman. Other television shows are represented by composers such as Alfredo Antonini (a staff conductor of the CBS Orchestra), Eugene Cines (later to be the music librarian at CBS), David Diamond, Jerry Goldsmith, Morton Gould, Roy Harris, Robert Hughes, Ezra Laderman, Laurence Rosenthal, Elie Siegmeister, Carlos Surinach, Hugo Weisgall, and Alec Wilder. Cole Porter's last completed musicals, Aladdin, was a 1957 television commission from CBS, and is well-represented in the collection in its original arrangements by the Broadway orchestrator Robert Emmett Dolan. CBS also maintained a separate music library at its offices in Los Angeles. Evidence shows that on occasion scores were sent back and forth between New York and Los Angeles. We have retained empty folders which, in addition to their administrative annotations, contain letters indicating that their contents were sent to the west coast. Today this collection is held by the University of California Los Angeles: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8x0nd51b/?query=cbs. In summary, the CBS Collection represents the New York City branch of an in-house library of a major radio and television entertainment corporation. Arrangement. The collection is organized in three series by physical size: Series I contains scores measuring up to 15" x 13", series II contains scores measuring up to 16" x 20", and the handful of items in series III contains oversized items. At Home in Palm Beach with Mimi McMakin. Designer Mimi McMakin’s family is one of the oldest in Palm Beach, having settled on the island when it was still swamp and seagrass. Her great- grandfather, who came to Palm Beach in the late 1800s from Brooklyn, had a Victorian kit house built and shipped down on a barge. Duck’s Nest, named after his wife, whom he called Ducky, is the second oldest house in Palm Beach. Steps away is a Gothic shingle-style church built in 1895. It was the only church within 50 miles, and worshipers had to make their journey by boat as no roads had yet been laid. By 1925, the congregation moved into larger quarters, now known as Bethesda-by-the-Sea, and the former church was absorbed into Mimi’s family lakeside compound. She grew up next door to the church, “terrified” by its gloomy facade, yet ironically in 1974, she decided to make it her home. From the outside, the former church looks much as it did over 125 years ago, however, inside Mimi has fashioned a personal scrapbook of a home filled with oddities, souvenirs, and heirlooms left over from generations of free spirits. Mimi’s daughter, designer Celerie Kemble, describes her childhood home and the inspiration it provided in shaping her career in her most recently released book, Island Whimsy. “Nothing was palatial or pristine or gilded the way the great houses of Palm Beach are, but it was – and is – a monument to romantic chaos that I have come to think of as the embodiment of home,” she said. In a recent interview published in House Beautiful, Celerie asks her mother, “I’m wondering, when you think of our home, if you could describe what carries through it consistently, what is its spirit no matter what room you’re in?” Mimi responds, “Time stands still in this house.