THE FIRST HARTFORD FESTIVAL

THE history of the Friends and Enemies of Modern Music goes back to 1929. For five
years the society presented concerts of music by twentieth century composers at a time when
little contemporary music was currently performed in Hartford. In 1934 in connection with
the opening of the Avery Memorial the Friends and Enemies presented the opera "Four
Saints in Three Acts" by Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. The success of
this production in Hartford was followed by a considerable New York engagement and a
briefer Chicago engagement the next season.

The most interesting event of 1935 was perhaps the concert at which four contemporary
American composers played their own and each others' music, but that season one act of the
opera "Hester Prynne" by Avery Claflin was given a complete production. In the fall of 1934
the opening of the American Ballet had brought to the Avery much of the same audience
interested in the productions of the Friends and Enemies of Modern Music which had
supported the Thomson opera the previous year.

The Friends and Enemies have therefore been encouraged to present this year a Hartford
Festival, in association with The Wadsworth Atheneum, in which many forms of contempo-
rary musical art are represented. The Festival includes several absolute first performances

[8]

and other productions of relative novelty in America. For the musical events, in addition to
artists of the first rank, settings of equal interest have been provided wherever appropriate
in the hope of continuing the standard set by the production of "Four Saints in Three Acts."

The Friends and Enemies in their work are in large part dependent upon the financial
assistance of outside patrons, who have again been most generous in their support. It is the
knowledge of this outside interest, which makes of the Festival an event not of local but of
national and even international importance. Presenting music of the highest quality with
the cooperation of musicians, dancers and painters of international reputation, it is the
ambition of the Friends and Enemies to give to Hartford, conveniently located as it is in rela-
tion to Eastern population centers, something of the artistic importance which in Europe
has existed for many centuries in cities that have never been national metropolises. The
experience of Bayreuth and Salzburg, to mention but two European Festivals, the inspiring
example of Bethlehem in this country, and many other less famous group events lead the
Friends and Enemies to announce this present Festival as the first of a series. Tentative
plans are already underway for productions of new and old operatic works of distinction in
succeeding years.

For this reason the direction of the Friends and Enemies would much appreciate the
possibility of extending the list of those to keep regularly informed of their major activities. If
you have attended any of the Hartford productions and would be interested to hear of the
plans for the future as they mature, will you fill out and leave with an usher the slip below.
As it is possible that you may know of others who have not been informed of the Festival or
who have been unable to attend this year, perhaps you would also indicate the names and
addresses of such of your friends as might also be interested.

[9]

NOTES

I. The Festival Overture was written in 1896 and first performed by the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra on February 10th, 1903. John Spencer Camp was born in 1858.

II. Roger Huntingdon Sessions was born of New England ancestry in Brooklyn in 1896. He studied under Horatio Parker at Yale and taught at Smith College, 1917-1921. The music for Andreyev's "Black Maskers", Sessions' first important composition was composed and produced in 1923, and has since often been played by orchestras.

III. The Concerto for Violoncello and orchestra by Frederick Jacobi was written in Switzerland in 1932. It was given its first performance in Paris in the Spring of 1933 at the Ecole Normale, Alfred Cortot conducting and Diran Alexanian (to whom the work is dedicated) as soloist.

Eleanor Aller, the soloist of the present performance, is the daughter of a well-known teacher of 'cello in Los Angeles and is at present a student of Mr. Felix Salmond at the Juilliard Graduate School, New York.

The composer would like it to be noted that this is not a concerto in the usual sense of the word. There is little in it of a "virtuoso" nature, and it was not written with the purpose of exploiting the instrument or its performer. The composer feels the 'cello to be predominantly lyric in nature and has treated it as such. The work is introspective and intimate. The three movements were inspired respectively by the Ninetieth, the Ninety-first, and the Ninety-second Psalms, and they present, in a way, three different aspects of the same religious mood, the tender, the more buoyant and the more poignantly dramatic. The structure, however, is more or less classic and the harmonic substance a very definite return to a pure and open style. For these reasons the composer has preferred to call the work "concerto" rather than to give it a title which might be more picturesque. The orchestra, without percussion, consists of two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings.

IV. The incidental music for Hamlet was written by Ruth White Smallens eight years ago, and was used for the Norman-Bel Geddes production of Hamlet two years later. The composer was born in Meriden and studied composition with Ernest Bloch and Roger Sessions. Her music was an important adjunct of Bel Geddes' Paris production of Jeanne d'Arc, and has been heard in the New York performances of "Arabesque" and "Damn the Tears."

The music is now presented, exactly as it was written, in a series of sketches rather than as a suite. It is scored for two trumpets, one horn in F, a bassoon, an oboe, a flute, a clarinet, two 'cellos, guitar and piano, a gong and four timpani.

V. The prize of two hundred dollars, won by Ross Lee Finney, was offered by Mr. and Mrs. Morris Joseloff. The judges of the competition were Harold Berkeley, Aaron Copland and Colin McPhee.

VI. The Concerto Sacro of Werner Josten for string orchestra and piano is in two parts. The first part (not played in this concert) consists of "Annunciation" and "Miracle". The composition as a whole describes the life of Christ based on an idea derived from the Isenheim Altar at Colmar by Matthias Grunewald. The Concerto Sacro was written in 1925 and first performed by the Juilliard Orchestra in March, 1929, and two weeks later by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then it has been played by all the major orchestras. Werner Josten was born in 1888 in Eberfeld, Germany. He is a Professor at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.

[11]

# NOTES

by Iris Barry

## I. A TRIP TO THE MOON

Méliès made hundreds of films between 1896 and 1914. His experience as an illusionist and magician helped him to exploit the camera's resources, so that he quickly hit upon stop-motion photography for magical transformations and disappearances, used a close-up as early as 1896 and made the first film by artificial light. His influence can be traced in innumerable films but most markedly in French advance-guard work like Cocteau's *The Blood of a Poet*.

Clearly, Méliès regarded the film literally as a series of tableaux vivants, though he achieved a continuity by overprinting the end of each scene on the beginning of the next. As in most early narrative films, the scenery is disposed and the characters move horizontally as on a stage in view of an audience.

The beautiful painted backcloths, movable scenery and stylized props Méliès himself designed, and executed in grisaille: he was an enthusiastic student of Prud'hon, Delacroix and other Romantic painters. Méliès notably developed screen narrative by ransacking literature for stories to tell and by telling them in his own energetic and imaginative manner.

*A Trip to the Moon* was made when most films were only three minutes long. It displays the richness of Méliès' invention and humor: his zooming close-up of the face of the moon is masterly and the whole film is charmingly unrealistic and gay.

This print is incomplete: there should be thirty instead of the present twenty-five tableaux. Scenes of rejoicing when the explorers return to port are missing at the end.

## II. A FOOL THERE WAS

In a sense, every film is a document, since every film reflects something of the attitude to life, as well as the outward appearance of life, in the country of its origin at the time it was made.

There is a distinct flavor of 1914 about A FOOL THERE WAS. The film was based on a current play of the same name inspired by the Kipling poem, which in turn was inspired by a painting of Philip Burne-Jones'. There is little trace, however, of any descent from the 'nineties about its principal character. This villainess is much more robust and determined than she is langorous: she is thoroughly at home with automobiles and telephones. Throughout the film both the clothes and the *moeurs* are typically pre-war but emphatically twentieth-century.

[ 15 ]

A FOOL THERE WAS is memorable not only because it was a very long and very ambitious film for its date, but because it gave the word "vamp" to the English language. As the incarnation of this new and aggressive variety of the *femme fatale*, Theda Bara became famous overnight. She was apparently the first screen player to be the object of a strenuous publicity campaign, designed to create artificially for her a striking personality. Born Theodosia Goodman, the actress was a "circumspect and demure" young woman who sewed quietly between scenes. It was given out that she was half-Arab, a seeress, and inscrutably but frightfully evil. She was constantly posed and photographed with skulls, with snakes, with incense burners, and she was condemned thenceforth to a career of wickedness on the screen through forty subsequent films.

Frank Powell, who directed the piece and who appears in it as the doctor, had acted in many films under D. W. Griffith, and had afterwards been director of his No. 2 Biograph Company. The influence of Griffith can be seen here in the free cutting, and in the irising-in and irising-out of the brief "vision" in which the husband recalls his happy domestic past. It is perhaps clearest in the lighting of certain isolated shots, notably in the "firelight effect" when Miss Bara wears a semi-classical negligee, and in the lurid blacks and whites of the final sequence.

Another striking revelation of the difficult conditions under which films were made in the early days is afforded in the scene at the entrance to the pier: bystanders in full view of the camera stare with undisguised curiosity and amusement at the goings on of the actors.

A FOOL THERE WAS has its infelicities, but it was a remarkable essay for its date and the very complicated plot is competently managed by the cutting. Films in 1914, only just attaining their present customary length and still taken seriously by very few people, were struggling with an energy and an invention which are truly admirable, to achieve size and distinction and to create new conventions, new laws for the medium.

### III. THE WHIRL OF LIFE

Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle popularized the new type of ballroom dancing appropriate to jazz music—one-step and foxtrot—which became the rage in Europe as well as in America just before the war. (See Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., Vol. 7, pp. 22–24.)

This was the only film that the Castles made together: Vernon Castle was killed in 1915. In 1914, the young couple were internationally famous: everything Mrs. Castle did or wore was immediately copied and she undoubtedly played a notable part in establishing the type "modern girl." The fact that she appeared in this film with a new style in hairdressing, created especially for her, the "Castle Bob," was an event. The Lucille clothes she wears were somewhat in advance of fashion, and contrast markedly

[ 16 ]

even with those worn by Miss Bara in "A Fool There Was," made in the same year. All of Mrs. Castle's clothes, but particularly the bathing suit, are the freer and simpler type of garment demanded by the new athleticism.

"The Whirl of Life" was six reels long, its story based largely on the experiences of the Castles in Paris and elsewhere, though a generous measure of melodrama in the form of kidnappings, escapes and even a rescue by the marines, was added to pad out the plot. Two sections have been chosen, one from the first reel and one from the last, which emphasize both the rhythm and the style of the Vernon Castles' dancing.

## IV. CINEMA

Usually known as *Entr'acte*, this film was produced and first shown as an integral part of the ballet *Relache*.

It will be observed that the cast includes the composer and three well-known modern painters.

Produced in the same year as *Ballet Mécanique*, *Entr'acte* represents the opposite, even antagonistic, tendency in advance-guard films. *Ballet Mécanique* is related to the cubist-abstract painting tradition; *Entr'acte* to the dada-surrealist half-literary half-pictorial movement. The somewhat tenuous story in *Entr'acte* of a light-hearted murder and a fantastic funeral is informed with the dada spirit of mockery, irreverence and unreality.

The irresponsible humor, the visual wit of *Entr'acte* mark it very definitely as René Clair's. His comic vein is, at least in part, in the tradition of Mack Sennett whose comedies were and are venerated in Paris. In the magical scenes the influence of Georges Méliès can certainly be traced. The slow-motion of the funeral procession is a felicitous use of the stock-in-trade magic of the cinema, all too rare nowadays save in scientific and sport films.

For the student of the cinema, *Entr'acte* is of special interest holding as it does a key-position in a historic succession of the cinema. The pioneer Méliès very signally influenced the American film during the first decade of this century. Mack Sennett's slap-stick comedies and the work of Chaplin in turn made a profound impression on the French cinéastes. The influence of Méliès, of Sennett and of Chaplin is marked in *Entr'acte*, while from *Entr'acte* itself (along with other films by René Clair) stem the two considerably later Bunuel-Dali surrealist films and, with a fresh infusion from Méliès, Cocteau's *The Blood of a Poet*.

In *Entr'acte*, Erik Satie enters to the left, Picabia to the right of the screen, both in slow-motion, at the beginning of the picture. Duchamp on the left and Man Ray on the right play chess. Jean Borlin, the principal dancer in the ballet, is the murdered sportsman, while Mlle. Friis is the flower-like ballerina.

[17]

### III. HARTFORD GOLD RESERVE

Mr. and Mrs. W. Ross McCain
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene E. Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Brown
Mr. and Mrs. Frank C. Hatfield
Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Goodman
Mr. and Mrs. Richard B. Lewis
Mr. and Mrs. John P. Ramsey

Mrs. W. Ross McCain — Leader

Mr. and Mrs. C. Morgan Aldrich
Mr. and Mrs. Graham H. Anthony
Mr. and Mrs. H. Bissell Carey
Mr. and Mrs. A. Morgan Pease
Mr. and Mrs. Peter M. Fraser
Mr. and Mrs. C. Gilbert Shepard

### IV. SOUTH SEAS

Miss Katherine Long
Miss Jane Crary
Mr. and Mrs. Paul P. Swett, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Darling
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Hilles
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Carson
Miss Nancy Allen
Miss Leontine Terry
Miss Mabel Walker
Miss Martha Blake
Miss Mary Bird
Miss Thora Bird
Miss Honora Kammerer
Miss Dolly Rutledge
Miss Riddle
Mr. George Gilman, Jr.

Miss Katherine Long } Leaders
Miss Jane Crary

Mr. John Bunce
Mr. John E. Ellsworth
Mr. Ford H. Cooper
Mr. Noyes P. Crary
Mr. Arthur L. Shipman, Jr.
Mr. Arthur W. Gregory, Jr.
Mr. Richard A. Cosmus
Mr. Thomas Hewes, Jr.
Mr. Herbert Whiting
Mr. Conrad Zimmerman
Mr. Harry Perkins
Mr. and Mrs. John Hart
Miss Grace White
Miss Helen Cutler
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Crane

### V. BLACK AND WHITE

Mr. and Mrs. Austin D. Barney
Mr. and Mrs. J. Ellicott Hewes
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walton Deeds
Mr. and Mrs. Barclay Robinson
Mr. A. Douglass Dodge
Lieut.-Com. and Mrs. Harold G. D. Hunter
Mrs. Percy G. Kammerer
Miss Elizabeth Titcomb
Mr. and Mrs. Harold N. Chandler
Mr. and Mrs. Lansing Carpenter
Mr. and Mrs. Philip C. Barney

Mrs. Austin D. Barney } Leaders
Mrs. J. Ellicott Hewes

Mr. and Mrs. Otneil Williams
Mr. and Mrs. George D. Chase
Mr. John J. Byrne
Mr. Weymouth Murrell
Mr. Ralph B. Reeve
Mr. Wilson Jainsen
Mr. Joseph Hawthorne
Mr. J. Thomas Oakes
Mr. Lester A. Shippee
Mrs. Henry S. Robinson

### VI. A NIGHTMARE SIDE SHOW

Mr. and Mrs. James T. Soby
Mrs. E. Howland Kyburg
Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Matisse
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Calder
Mr. R. Kirk Askew, Jr.

Mrs. James T. Soby } Leaders
Mrs. E. Howland Kyburg

Mr. Allen Porter
Professor Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Winslow Ames
Mr. Arthur Gerhard
Mr. John C. Parsons

Costumes designed by Alexander Calder and executed by him and by Winslow Ames

XI. ON VA AU CIRQUE

Miss Lucy Goodwin
Mrs. James W. Cooper
Mr. and Mrs. Sherman Kent
Mr. and Mrs. David Tuttle
Mr. George Pierson
Mrs. Robert Hillyer
Mr. Nathaniel Saltonstall
Mr. Nathaniel Whittier
Mr. Victor Martin
Mr. Frederick L. Van Ness

Miss Lucy Goodwin—Leader

Miss Marjorie Cheney
Mr. and Mrs. Farwell Knapp
Mr. John C. Taylor
Mr. Pomeroy Day
Mr. Robert H. Schutz, Jr.
Mrs. Wilton Graff
Mr. Philo Higley
Miss Mary Nettleton
Mr. and Mrs. Edward T. Nettleton

Mr. Charles Strickland
Miss Alice Burrage
Miss Betty Cheney
Miss Eleanor St. John
Mr. Thomas Mabry
Mr. David Cheney
Mr. Ross Whittier
Mr. Charles Nagel
Mr. H. H. Skerrett

Costumes designed by Lucy Goodwin

XII. LES RUINES DE HARTFORD: 3095

Mr. Jere Abbott
Mr. Eugene Berman

Eugene Berman — Leader

Mr. Robert Hart
Miss Arlene Johnson

XIII. BEGGARS

Mr. George Balanchine
Princess Retto Mikelaze
Miss Lucia Davidova
Mrs. Francis Robbins, Jr.
Miss Alma Clayburgh
Miss Kay Halle

George Balanchine — Leader

Miss Gloria Braggiotti
Miss Margot Taylor
Miss Marya Mannes
Mr. Geoffrey Gorer
Mr. Edward M. M. Warburg
Mr. Lincoln Kirstein

Costumes designed by Pavel Tchelitchew
Special Music by Nicholas Nabokoff
Words by Charles Henri Ford

XIV. SURPRISE

Mrs. Kenneth F. Simpson

Mrs. Kenneth F. Simpson — Leader

Miss Marian Morehouse
Miss Rosemary Carver
Costumes by Halicka

XV. SOUVENIER DE BAYREUTH

Mr. Nicholas Nabokoff

Mr. Nicholas Kopeikin

XVI. POETS

Miss Ruth Elizabeth Ford
Mr. Charles Henri Ford
Mr. Parker Tyler
Mr. Peter Lindamood

Miss Ruth Elizabeth Ford — Leader

Mr. Steve Cole
Mr. Robin Thomas
Mr. John MacAndrew
Mr. Blanchard Kennedy
Costumes designed by Pavel Tchelitchew
Special Music by Vernon Duke

XVII. PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA

John Goodwin — Leader

Miss Tilly Losch

Mr. John Goodwin
Costumes designed by John Goodwin

The decorations of the Avery Court were designed by Pavel Tchelitchew and executed by A. Rapaport under the direction of Paul W. Cooley. The hands, legs and faces were painted by Tchelitchew. The special lighting used during the Ball was devised by Feder.

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