The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-26
MUSIC STUDY CLUB

There Is a place where Beauty,
 Peace and Silence
 Throng the deep woods with dryad
 presences,
 Where in tho hush of slow serenity Fortunate men see visions face to
 face;
 Where lightfoot hours hold Time
 within their hands
 And let the gun pour down his gold
 uncounted."
 Here each man hath his House Of
 Dreams untold,
 His Jeweled dreams to carry back
 again
 Tn fantasy, in color or in song, Back to a world for their lack. Lingers the silken murmur. of the
 pines,
 Nipples the brook. and gleams the
 shifting sky
 Within their chords or dances down
 their script"
 Is this not expressive of that workshop" where artists of all af- filiations seek to spend the summer? It is in no sense a school, or institu- tion, but retreat where busy work CTS in the various creative arts may escape the pressure of city life, and in absolute seclusion, yet at the same time under the most inspiring condi- tions, be free to give expression to the best that is within them.
 Edward MacDowelFs dream has be- come a glowing and palpitating real ity. American poets, playwrights, sculptors, painters and musicians are actnually having the opportunity, which he begged might be granted them, to work for a season each year .1s had found to obe ideal. Peterbor- ough, Is in fact, a great plaoI of llb- eratton There the shackles of ordi- nary existence are for d season re- moved. The mind is set free to lnedi- tate, to dream, to Arrange and co-or- dinate experience. The disturbing, the almost maddening element to the artist in the endless hurry and con fusion of metropolitan life is just the lack of opportunity to stand aside and sort and relate to each other the flood of daily impressions. Peter borough exists for the purpose of giving the artist that solitude for age American can find scarcely any where else, The studios, beautifully built, each one with it's fireplace for chilly days, are scattered over some 800 acres. Each studio is al oasis by itself, hidden from the others, masked uelRnDOGS. The worker sees nothing but the sky overhead and the varying emerald of trees on all sides. No sounds reach him, but the animated arguments of birds and the winds in the shrub berries. Here. no callers, no insfstent telephone bells, no social demands whatever, disturb the blissful peace of the palmy morning hours. Local Musician nt Peterborough.
 Amidst such environm ent, no won der Ferdinand Dunkley has been ln- spired to compose many new things. A letter from him few days ago was most interesting, and realizing his many friends are eagerly awaiting news of his soJourn at Peterborough, excerpts fIFm his letter are g1Yen here:
 Work has been so fascinating since l came here have not found nRlch time for letter writing. When you get into the making of a compo- sition, 1t is the hardest thing to break away from 1t. I have completed four songs and have done part Of 8 sym phonic work, also a chorus for wom- ems voices. There are not many composers here at present-Ethel Glenn Hier and myself and for a Henry F. Gilbert. Arthur Nevin was here, but is away for two or three weeks experimenting a production of Mother Goose" at Cooperstown, N. Y, which is being given for the benefit of the Mcdowell colony. But there is rather fine lot of poets and writers. And several painters and sculptors working here now. It Is a new experience for me to be thrown with so many of them, and I am en- toying it. This is a most wonderful place to work in. My one-room stu dio is big enough for a three-roome ed cottage, if partitioned, and it looks out over woods and hills not unlike from Shades mountain. It is 10 min utes' walk from living quarters and almost as far from all other studios The only Interruption during the day Is when the truck brings my lunch. All the windows screened and a love- ly screened-in porch. Last night was the annual local benefit for the Mac Dowell association, postponed from last week, because of Hardings death. Poets recited their poems, there was a splendid little one-act play by Belle MacDiarmid Ritchey and several of Miss Hier's songs were sung. The imported (grand opera)