Milford chronicle., 1935-03-08
COMPOSES "MARY POP
PINS SUITE" FOR ORCH.
[C0HfiHned from Frn Pagel


Mortimer Browning, the Green
wich House musical director, a list
Of whose activities would include
teaching at a girls college, writing
songs for -.awTence Tibbett and act
ing in a Broadway show, sat in his
manuscriDt-strewn apartment at
3Ol East Thirty-eighth Street yester-
/ day afternoon and talked of the
Mary PO9pins Suite" for orchestra
which he is in the midst of writing
A month OF so ago he read MARY
! POppins." and was so struck with
the idea of putting the book TO mu-
sic that lie Immediately wrote 10
the author, Miss P. L. TraVers, and
received her permission to write a
suite for il.
The movements, he explained, will
be named after various chapter
headings; hence, the first move
ment will be called East Wind"
and the last West Wind" just as
in the book. MARY POppins" con-
Germs a nursemaid and her several
imaginative charges.
Mr.. Browning, who for the last
few years has been writing concert
pieces for Luerezia BOrl, Gladys
SwarthOut, Lawrence Tibbett, and
others, in addition to teaching, is
intensely American in his musical
interests. Although no jingOist, he
described himself yesterday as "rab-
i'd on the subject of American COM I
pOsers."
The music Of Mr. Browning in I
elines more to the modern melOdic I
school than the ultra-discOrdant !
one. Il haze never cared particular
ly for Debussy." he explained, but, |
on the other hand, he is tremend-
Ously interested in such people as
the late Charles Critics. Virgil
Thompson and Louis Gutenberg. the
latter of Emperor Jones" fame. He
vas swept away" he said, by the
music in Mr. ThOmpson's -Four
Saints in Three Acts"
Mr.. Browning. who is a graduate
Of the Peabody Conservatory of Mu-
sic. in Baltimore, does not feel him
self tied down by academic ideas:
When IL is necessary, l make my
Iwn rules" he said.
Dressed in a gray tweed sport /
acket, white canvas slacks and a
iambOyant. canary-yellOw tie, he
alked quickly and genially.
The living-rOOm was sparsely fur ,
lished except for a large grand pi- +
no which dwarfed everything else !
n the room, and stacks of manu- +
cripts, half-finished scores, and nu- :
IerOus issues Of "The Musical Di- h
est"
Mr.. Browning still speaks with a
light Southern accent. although he +
as been living in New York for the |,
ast thirteen years. Born in Balti-
lOre, he attended Baltimore City
Ollege before entering the COnser- 4
atOry. In 1914 he married Pauline ,
bbOtt. daughter Of the late S. John
bhOtt, Delaware State Senator. He g
ecame a teacher at Greensboro
0llese, in North Carolina. In 1922,
e won a Percy Granger. scholar T
alp and came to New York, where Ia
e has been ever since. 6,
Greenwich House, in Barrow 7
Ireet. has occupied Mr.. BrOwning's u
me. more or less, for the last ten n
ears. He has written all the music n
II the plays which children there, "
atween the ages of four and fifteen, N
We semi-aDnually. Often he takes m
lown folk tunes of the places with af
hich the plays are concerned, and q
caves them into a musical score, ei
It more often he writes an entire y
original score. as in the case of G.
he Talisman" which Greenwich NJ
1use is presenting in March. r
His only other suite is one for the u
anO, and is called ''KemptOwn," in r,
nor Of his fathers birthplace in
lryland, which he described as
beautiful and truly American No
raj district" ~