Title: Overture for a drama : for full orchestra /
Authors: Finney, Ross Lee, 1906-1997,; Finney, Ross Lee, 1906-1997.; Toller, Ernst, 1893-1939.; Brico, Antonia
Year: 1937
Subjects: Finney, Ross Lee, Manuscripts.; Overtures Scores.; Music Manuscripts
Abstract: Holograph revision (M#2) of early work by Ross Lee Finney, incorporating pencil annotations to the original M#1, entitled Prologue to a social drama, located in the Library of Congress. Additional manuscript notations in ink by composer "M#2" on title page; in pencil in another hand "no. 31". Score originally signed with a pseudonym "Villa Noel" (that is, Villa Noël), likely for blind submission. On title page and at end of score: Villa Noël, Menton-Garavan, Nov. 12, 1937; title page spelling is "Villa Noel", includes additional notation in later, different hand: Ross Lee Finney, Chemin St. Jacques. Overture for a drama is based on the composer's dance-drama Man and the masses (1936), a pantomime version of Ernst Toller's Masse-Mensch. This holograph was originally owned by Antonia Brico, the first female conductor of the New York Philharmonic.