The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-18
AntheiI: Composer Of the
Machine Age
By A. B. MAGH


The body of Antheil is short. His straight hay
colored hair obedenty over his head. His
is full and gently upturned at the end His solemn,
firm lips slightly snarling The color of his eyes
could not
The torso of Anthei bows. The audience applauds,
shouts, gestculates, waves hankerchiefs.
At Carnegie Hall, New York, on Sunday evening,
April TO- George Anthei, the twenty-sx year-od Tren-
ton boy composer who had conquered eclectic Paris,
hurled Ills and defiant music at the sandpatters,
the peGants, the concert lobbyists the serious stu
dents, the worshippers of his native land
The standpatters shuddered. Ugh, how barbarous!
Many of them left before the over Others,
from their exalted towers in the press sprnked the
music of Antheil with good-humored condescension.
The music of Anthei is rigidy contemporaneous. 1t
is rooted firmly in the machine jazz, in the mechani
cal rhythms of our hypermechanistc age. 1t is a
sophisticated music, but sophistication is its dress,
neither flesh bone. And its there springs a
massive energy an overwhelming sense of life.
And the music Of Antheil has learned how to laugh,
to stick out its tongue and thumb its How much
of laughter is there in the music of the past? The
austere Beethoven sometimes in the scherzos of his
symphonies permitted himself little laughter, play
fully without impudence. Can anyone imagine Brahms
laughing?
In his Sonata for Violin, Piano and Drum Anthe
laughs suave, satrical laughter poking fun at sent
mental banalities, the sob melodies of bygone day.
The Jazz Symphony. Negro eaping naked and sar-
oonc, SyncopaIed perpendcuarly, without curves 1t
jazz ferocious and strong animaIlike nothing SOFT
,Gothing dangerous.
NOV
And then the Ballet Mecanique Antheis most daring
work. No wonder the audience shouted laughed,
jeered Kissed while the great tread of the
plunged on relentlessly. The Ballet Mecanique is a
gigantic mechanical chorus, a pounding of mighty
hammers of sound This huge, infinite whirling OF
wheels, the of machinery the of an aero
plane, bells ringing mady, monster of sound eaping
upon the brain-t is too much for human nerves. I'm
der this insistent tona attron the sublimated mad
ness and ferocity of the machine age human nerves
give way-they require psychological exhaust
valve.
No wonder the audience shouted, laughed, ieered
Kissed While the bodies of the players the pianos
swayed in a catalepte rhythm and Antheil pumped
away darkly at his mechanical piano.
The music of Anthei is a mass music This is In
conradistncon to the music that has been dominant
since Beethoventhe music of personality. The music
OF Stravansky is also music, but Stravinsky goes
back largely to the past for his inspraton-to prim
tive worship in lie Sacre de Prntemps to folk
tale in "L'Oiseau de Feu" Anthe's music, however,
is an expression, magnified submation of the
mechanistc city life of day.
Both Stravinsky and Antheil have extraordinary
sense Of rhythm. But Anthel has gone even further
than Stravinsky his rhythms subtly manipu-
lated He be gentle crushing, he can be keen
and precise as whip, he be treacherousIy IN
gratiating
Compared to the Jazz Symphony, George Gershwin's
Concerto in is sentimental and texturally flabby
Compared to the Ballet Mecanique, Honnegger's i'm
pressions of locomotive, Pacific 231, is a mere
mechanical toy.
Antheil sitting at the piano is rapt and memorable
His hands rise and fall the keys like cool pisons-
plunge and hiss, plunge and hiss. And they beat out
lean, uncompromising music that swift and terribly
alive.