1943: Music

Archives consist of articles that originally appeared in Collier's Year Book (for events of 1997 and
earlier) or as monthly updates in Encarta Yearbook (for events of 1998 and later). Because they were
published shortly after events occurred, they reflect the information available at that time. Cross
references refer to Archive articles of the same year.

1943: Music

War Uses and Postwar Plans.

It is noteworthy that the Office of War Information has turned for help to the contemporary
composers as well as to the performers and has come to regard their music as a vital and integral
part of the war effort to sustain the spirit of the fighters and to stimulate morale at home. Music
is also serving purposes of diplomacy, notably in improving relations with Latin American
countries and with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. One of the major broadcasting
companies, Columbia, bid close to $10,000 for the first performance rights in America of the
Eighth Symphony of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovitch. More important is the fact that
music and the musician have become the concern of the long-range planners, of those looking to
the postwar world, and that in a few instances steps have been taken to guarantee the support of
musical organizations 'by the people and for the people.'

Subsidized Music Projects.

The temporary subsidy of music by the Federal Government through the WPA created a vast
audience which came to value the contemporary composer and the performer as never before.
Late in 1942, President Roosevelt abolished the WPA, and thus many organizations created by
the Music Project were left to seek other means of support. It is, therefore, a fact of real and far-
reaching significance that by legislative action the State of North Carolina has become the first
state in the Union to subsidize its own symphony orchestra, and that Indianapolis, following the
example of Baltimore and San Francisco, will provide support of the local symphony orchestra
by means of a municipal appropriation of $25,000. New York State has provided a small but
nevertheless real subsidy for the Metropolitan Opera Company by exempting from New York
City real estate taxes that part of the opera house used for performance. With the opening on
December 11 of the City Center of Music and Drama, New York realized the means of offering
popular-priced entertainment to an audience that appreciates the best in the arts. A non-profit
corporation of 46 persons of diversified interests, headed by Mayor La Guardia and Council
President Newbold Morris, obtained from organized groups and individuals pledges amounting
to $70,000 to underwrite the first season. Harry Friedgut was appointed managing director. The
plan provides for an eventually permanent symphony orchestra, an opera company, and a ballet
ensemble. The Center is housed in the former Mecca Auditorium which was placed at the city's
disposal through tax foreclosure.

Security Asked for Composers.

With this trend toward organized subsidy comes the effort to extend the Federal Social Security
Act to include security benefits for musicians who are self-employed as composers, solo
performers, arrangers. This was the aim of the measure (H. R. 7534) introduced in September,
1942, in Congress by former Representative Thomas H. Eliot of Massachusetts. Although the bill
died in the 1942 session of Congress, it served to awaken interest in the need for legislation
designed to make the musical profession a more stable one. The impassioned plea for
systematized support of the composer made by Dr. Sergei Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, brought sympathetic and enthusiastic response from many quarters.

Music for War Aid.

Meanwhile, both the Army and the Navy are demonstrating more interest in creating
opportunities for musical activity in military service. The Corps Area Music Advisors who had
been commissioned before the disbandment of the Army Specialist Corps, were retained to train
song leaders and to organize choirs and glee clubs. According to a Bulletin of the National Music
Council 'these men have assisted in securing authority to enlarge existing military bands and to
procure the additional instruments needed. Many fine arrangers and composers have been
discovered among the enlisted men, whose efforts are encouraged through the playing of their
compositions. The Advisors also have been successful in organizing dance bands. They have
procured individuals from among the men to be put in charge and left to carry on the work as the
Music Advisor moves to another station.' The Bulletin reports also that, 'A new and interesting
Special Service unit for service overseas has been established. This unit is of company size and
is divided into service sections in which technically trained soldiers operate mobile canteens.
Four musical technicians are attached to each unit, trained to assist in carrying out musical
activities in the larger tactical organizations served by the units.
'A wide variety of musical material is available for distribution to the soldiers by the Music
Section of the Special Service Division including simplified instruction for playing the tonette,
ocarina, harmonica and ukulele, a song leader's training guide and a textbook, the 'Soldier Song
Leader.'
Army band leaders are trained at the Army Music School at Fort Myer, Virginia. For entrance,
the age and physical fitness requirements are supplemented by three months' previous service
and high rank among those taking a competitive examination covering conducting, theory,
arranging, and performing on an instrument. The curriculum of the two-months' course has been
adapted to meet the needs of the prevailing type of student sent by the new Army. This student is
often a well-trained musician and hence needs instruction in the non-musical functions of the
band leader rather than in music theory.
The band continues to be the musical 'focal point' of the Navy, gives three concerts a day on
board ships and at stations, accompanies callisthenic drills, and plays on formal occasions. In
addition, the navy has its own training school for bandsmen.
The United States Marine Corps boasts the first women's band, organized at Camp Le Jeune,
New River. N. C. It comprises forty-three members and functions as a post band, relieving men
for combat duty. Various camps and stations have developed choruses and orchestras. The
Cavalry Replacement Training Center at Fort Riley, Kansas, has a thirty-piece orchestra and a
mixed chorus made up of enlisted men and of women of the WAC.
Under the auspices of the Office of War Information, a committee of seven on music and
performance was formed in the spring. The members are Jack E. Joy, broadcast service chief of
the radio branch, War Department Bureau of Public Relations; Macklin Morrow, director of
music, overseas division; George Zackary, domestic radio bureau, OWI; Edward C. Gavreau,
procurement division, Treasury Department; Arch Mercey, motion picture division, OWI; John
Ogilvie, associate director, radio division, coordinator of Inter-American Affairs; Major Irvin
Vogel, U. S. A., Special Service Division of the War Department.
The OWI, claiming that 'Art music is desired and appreciated almost more than any other types,'
urged musicians to offer their services for entertainment at the posts and camps of the Army and
the Navy. Furthermore, the Bureau has developed a recording and broadcasting service to bring
music to our men on duty throughout the world. When Roy Harris's Folk Symphony was played
by the New York Philharmonic in January, the OWI recorded the performance and distributed
thirty-three copies to key broadcasting stations in Allied and neutral nations, and on the day the
Allies took Tripoli, the Folk Symphony was broadcast to American and Allied Forces in North
Africa. Furthermore, OWI microfilmed the score and sent copies to England and to the Soviet
Union, the text having been translated into Russian for the latter. The score and parts of William
Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony were also microfilmed and sent to various European
countries. The most extensive and systematic dissemination of 'war' works by contemporary
composers, now under way, resulted from the cooperative efforts of the League of Composers,
the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, and the OWI. The League commissioned
seventeen composers born or resident in America for short compositions not exceeding five
minutes' performing time, on patriotic themes associated with the war. The initial performance of
each work by the New York Philharmonic is being recorded by OWI. The works are being
broadcast and the records are shipped abroad to be further broadcast to our various outposts. Not
only do the troops hear these works but also the civilian population of the Allied Nations and
even of some occupied countries. The seventeen composers and their works are the following:
Bernard Rogers, Invasion; Bohuslav Martinu, Memorial to Lidice; Charles Ives, War Song
March; Roy Harris, March in Time of War; Douglas Moore, Destroyer Song; John Alden
Carpenter, The Anxious Bugler; Henry Cowell, American Pipers; Norman dello Joio, To a Lone
Sentry; Nicolai Berezowsky, Soldiers on the Town; Werner Josten, Before the Battle; Darius
Milhaud, Introduction and March Funèbre; Roger Session, Dirge; William Grant Still, In
Memoriam; Walter Piston, Fugue on a Victory Theme; Quincy Porter, The Moving Tide; Howard
Hanson, Fantasy for String Orchestra; Bernard Herrmann, For the Fallen.

Master Records for Service Men.

The Armed Forces Master Records, the non-profit organization created to establish master-
record libraries for service men, has aroused enthusiastic response and has recently worked out a
recorded music library for the Seabees (Construction Battalions) in the outpost islands of the
South Pacific.

USO Musical Activities.

The USO Camp Shows, Inc. continues to provide concerts for service men and under its auspices
from April to December 1942, 238 concerts were given before a total audience of 208,260. It has
organized its own orchestra, the American Symphony, which performs exclusively for members
of the armed forces at camps, forts, bases, and airfields. In a 28-week tour, the orchestra gave
225 concerts to an audience totaling 175,000 persons. Through USO, the WPA music library of
the Eastern Federal Music Project, containing 2,000 orchestral and choral pieces, is being
distributed to orchestras and choruses of service men on the eastern seaboard. The USO has
further extended its activities, now sending out music advisers to develop song leaders in camps
and communities.

Victory Concerts and Music Instruction.

Victory concerts are given in the public libraries and art museums of the larger cities, and the
58th Street Branch of the New York Public Library has open house on Sunday afternoons for
men and women of the armed forces to afford them an opportunity to play musical instruments.
A special department of the Musicians Emergency Fund in New York, the Institute of
Avocational Music, offers music instruction to soldiers and sailors.

Music Among Defense Workers.

Music is played in many war plants at so-called 'fatigue' periods of the morning and afternoon,
during lunch time, and during shift changes. More important however is the movement to
organize musical groups among the workers themselves. Such organizations are functioning at
the Ward-Leonard Electric Company, Mt. Vernon, New York, where a chorus of fifty rehearses
twice weekly; at the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, whose orchestra gave public
concerts in July and December; at J. A. Jones Construction Company, Brunswick, Georgia,
where a chorus and an orchestra collaborated with established organizations of the town.
In several localities, the expansion of war industries has increased or spurred musical activities
by bringing with increased population, new and interesting elements.

Music in Civilian Life.

Edwin Hughes, president of the National Music Council, reported that the sale of printed music,
popular and serious, had reached the greatest dimensions in fifteen years and concert managers
jubilantly faced an autumn season that promised the greatest profusion in musical events in the
last ten years. Everywhere, a new and different public has emerged, more varied, more widely
representative, which attends concerts and operas because it likes to hear music.
Coincident with the increasing public came a shortage of players, owing to the draft and the
'work-or-fight' directive issued in February by the War Manpower Commission. The directive
was 'aimed more at the entertainment field than that of cultural music activities,' and
consequently the major symphony orchestras suffered less than the dance bands. An immediate
result of the shortage was an increase in the number of women players in symphony orchestras.

Symphony Orchestras.

Performances of all Russian programs (in celebration of the 10th anniversary of our diplomatic
relations and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army) and an increase in the
number of American works presented mark in general the departure from the usual make-up of
orchestral programs. The survey made by the National Music Council of compositions
performed by the fifteen major symphony orchestras at regular subscription concerts included
140 performances of works by 60 American-born composers, who are: Josef Alexander, Samuel
Barber, Robert Russell Bennett, John Alden Carpenter, George Whitefield Chadwick, Abram
Chasins, Ulric Cole, Edward Collins, Carlton Cooley, Aaron Copland, Henry D. Cowell, Paul
Creston, Bainbridge Crist, Eric Delamarter, Martin G. Dumler, Herbert Elwell, Alvin Etler,
George Gershwin, Henry Gilbert, Rubin Goldmark, Morton Gould, C. Hugo Grimm, Howard
Hanson, Roy Harris, Bernard Herrmann, Edward Burlingame Hill, Alan Hovaness, Mary Howe,
Frederick Jacobi, Jerome David Kern, Kent Kennan, Jack F. Kilpatrick, Ivan Langstroth, Dai
Keong Lee, Daniel Gregory Mason, Frances McCollin, Harl McDonald, F. W. Meecham, Felix
Mills, Florian Mueller, Arne Oldberg, John K. Paine, Burrill Phillips, Walter Piston, Gardner
Read, Jr., Wallingford Riegger, Bernard Rogers, Milton Rosen, Hilton Rufty, John Charles
Sacco, Robert L. Sanders, William Schuman, Leo Sowerby, John Philip Sousa, William Grant
Still, Deems Taylor, Virgil Thomson, Harold Triggs, David Van Vactor and Elinor Remick
Warren.

New Conductors.

The opening of the 1943-1944 season found five of the major symphony orchestras playing
under new conductors. Desiré Defauw headed the Chicago Symphony; Erich Leinsdorf, the
Cleveland; Alfred Wallenstein, the Los Angeles; Karl Kreuger, the reorganized Detroit; and
Artur Rodzinski, the New York Philharmonic.

New York Philharmonic.

The New York Philharmonic made front page news with the announcement that fourteen players
were to be dropped. The fourteen, organized into a committee, appealed to the musicians' union,
Local 802, charging that Dr. Rodzinski, by his request for their removal, had damaged their
reputation and asking that he be suspended from conducting any orchestra in America. The
Union, however, maintained that the contractual terms including a six weeks' notice of
termination had been fulfilled and that consequently there were no grounds for dispute. The
vindicated conductor subsequently recommended that five of the fourteen men be reinstated and
the Symphony's Board of Directors agreed. Dr. Rodzinski's plans include better committee
organization and more thorough cooperation among players, conductor, and management. The
search for new and interesting American works is to be effected by means of a number of
'reading rehearsals' of manuscript scores which composers are invited to submit. In addition to
the new 'war' works commissioned by the League of Composers, the orchestra planned to
introduce novelties by Arnold Schoenberg, Vaughan Williams, Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith,
Bohuslav Martinu, Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Morton Gould and Bela Bartok.

New and Contemporary Works Used by Various Orchestras.

Other orchestras made public the new or contemporary works to be performed in the 1943
season. Alfred Wallenstein announced twenty-four 'first performances in Los Angeles' including
Creston's First Symphony; W. Schuman's A Free Song; Barber's Second Essay; Copland's
Lincoln Portrait and Billy the Kid; Gould's American Salute; Selections from Porgy and Bess,
Gershwin-Bennett; Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief; Harris's Third Symphony; Colas
Brugnon by Kabalevsky and Bachiana Brasiliera Nos. 2 and 5 by Villa-Lobos. Eugene Goosens
promised the following 'first in Cincinnati': Symphonies by Creston, Kabalevsky, Moross,
Walton and Haussermann, two American symphonettes by Gould, interludes from Harris's Folk
Symphony, Piston's The Incredible Flutist, Selections from Porgy and Bess, Barber's Essay, Ulric
Cole's new concerto for piano and also programs of contemporary Mexican music. The Boston
Symphony announced the following new works: Barber's Second Symphony; W. Schuman's Fifth
and Harris's Sixth, a violin concerto by Martinu, commissioned by the soloist, Mischa Elman,
and Stravinsky's Ode. To Pittsburgh, Fritz Reiner introduces a symphony by Leonard Bernstein,
assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic; a suite by Bartok and Pastorela by Paul
Bowles. Erich Leinsdorf gave Cleveland performances of scores by Barber, Gould, R. Thompson
and the Brazilian composer Francesco Mignone as well as the Opus Sinfonicum by Nikolai
Lopatnikoff, winning work in the $1,000 prize contest held in celebration of the orchestra's silver
jubilee, and the Second Symphony of Bohuslav Martinu, a work commissioned by and dedicated
to the Clevelanders of Czechoslovakian origin.

Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.

The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy has tried to develop a workers'
audience, asking the collaboration of the trade unions of Philadelphia in distributing to union
members specially priced subscriptions to their concert series. This organization led the way in a
rearrangement of the old-age retirement fund for its members when the Social Security Act's
ruling against employees of non-profit organizations necessitated the new plan. Ormandy
announced the world premieres of Hindemith's ballet overture Amor and Psyche and Martinu's
concerto for two pianos and orchestra. Other contemporary composers in the 1943 season
included Barber, Copland, McDonald, Bloch, Palester, Prokofieff, Shostakovitch, Sibelius,
Vaughan Williams, Milhaud, Walton, Weiner, Stravinsky, Ibert, and Strauss.

Operas and Opera Companies.

A review of the season's activities in the field of opera shows increasing enthusiasm for this form
of musical entertainment. This is indicated not only by the success of the Metropolitan Opera
season but by the experiences of newer opera companies and opera festivals in various parts of
the country. Festivals in Dayton, Newark, and San Francisco, all eminently successful, featured
well-known Metropolitan 'stars' in the conventional repertoires. More significant are the new
ventures such as the Hollywood Grand Opera Company, a resident group in Hollywood,
California; the New Orleans Opera House Association, a non-profit civic and educational
institution; the Hudson Grand Opera Association, Union City, New Jersey, a non-profit
community organization; the Opera Association of the Golden West, giving a series of summer
performances in various California communities including Long Beach, Los Angeles, Santa
Barbara, Pasadena and San Diego; the Shoestring Opera Company in New York; Michael
Kachouk's Russian Opera Company, a cooperative venture in its second season in New York; the
Washington Grand Opera Association, making its debut in December in Washington, D. C.; the
National Negro Opera Company which presented Verdi's La Traviata with an all-Negro cast at
Potomac Water Gate, Washington, D. C.
The New Opera Company in its third season in New York presented on January 31st, Pergolesi's
La Serva Padrona and Hindemith's Hin und Zurüeck, both in English; its productions of
Rosalinda and The Merry Widow continued as Broadway 'hits.' The Philadelphia Opera
Company in its fifth season presented seven operas in English, giving forty performances in
thirty-five cities and seven performances in the regular Philadelphia season. The company's tour
included Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. In addition, performances
of a condensed version of The Bat proved successful entertainment in seven different army
camps and naval stations. In the 1943-1944 season, the company, consisting of eighty singers
and players and carrying its own scenery, planned to visit eighty-one cities in twenty-five states
and Canada, totaling over one hundred engagements.

The Metropolitan, 1942-43.

The 1942-43 season of the Metropolitan Opera Company drew a diversified audience
representing a cross section of the city and its visitors. The personnel of the company included
forty-six native-born singers as against forty aliens. The repertoire was standard, including Aïda,
Forza del Destino, Il Trovatore, La Traviata (Verdi), Barber of Seville (Rossini), La Bohème, La
Tosea (Puccini), Boris Godunoff (Moussorgsky), Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, Magic
Flute (in English) (Mozart), La Serva Padrona (Pergolesi), Carmen (Bizet), Lucia, The Daughter
of the Regiment (Donizetti), Faust (Gounod), Lakme (Delibes), Louise (Charpentier), Manon
(Massenet), Das Rheingold, Walkuere, Siegfried, Goetterdaemmerung, Lohengrin, Tannhauser,
Tristan und Isolde (Wagner), Der Rosenkavalier, Salome (Strauss). In a post-season (non-
subscription) week, five of the most popular operas were given and a triple bill including
Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and 'Dance of the Hours' from La Gioconda. In addition, there
were twelve Sunday-evening opera concerts. The Spring tour included eight performances in
Philadelphia, four in Chicago, eight in Cleveland and one in Rochester.

Metropolitan's Jubilee Season.

The 1943-1944 season marked the Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the
Metropolitan Opera Company, and opened November 22 with a performance of Boris Godunoff.
This occasioned the greetings to the organization from Moscow sent by Samuel Samosud, artistic
director and chief conductor of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, People's Artist and Stalin Prize
winner.
The 1943-1944 season of the Metropolitan has been extended to twenty weeks. The new singers
in the company are Martial Singher, French baritone, Thelma Altman, Christina Carroll, Donald
Dame, Christine Johnson, Patrice Munsel and John Baker — all Americans. The last three were
winners of the Metropolitan auditions of the air. The fourth winner was James Pease.

An All-Negro 'Carmen.'

In concluding the review of opera, special mention must be made of two Broadway productions:
Carmen Jones, the modernized all-Negro version of the Bizet opera which opened in December,
with a new libretto by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, set to the original Bizet music by Robert Russell
Bennett, and the musical comedy, Oklahoma, the greatest hit of the season, music by Richard
Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd.

Festivals.
Three of the major annual festivals, the Berkshire Symphonic, the Bach Festival at Carmel,
California, and the Worcester were canceled owing to war conditions, the chief difficulties being
transportation and housing. Ann Arbor's May Festival marked a golden jubilee and featured the
Verdi Requiem which had closed the first May Festival of 1894. Varied programs marked the
Spring festivals held at Columbia, South Carolina, which closed with Brahms Requiem,
performed by the Southern Symphony Orchestra and the Columbia Choral Society; at the
University of Kansas in Lawrence; at Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia, its 31st annual;
at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, its 62nd annual Messiah festival; at the University of
Akron, Ohio; at Woodhaven, Long Island, closing with a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah;
at the University of Redlands, California, featuring a performance of Horatio Parker's Hora
Novissima; at Montreal, where the performance of Berlioz' Damnation of Faust marked the
climax of the three day program; at Converse College, Spartansburg, South Carolina, in which
soldiers from Camp Croft participated and which featured Gluck's Orpheus. The first of an
annual series of Piedmont Festivals of Music and Art was held at Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. It produced Flotow's Martha and closed with a performance of Haydn's Creation.

Specialized Festivals.

Bach festivals were held in May at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, (the 36th annual); at Baldwin-
Wallace College, Berea, Ohio (11th annual); at Garden City, Long Island (3rd annual); at St.
James Church, Philadelphia; and Bach works were featured in a festival in April at Furman
University, Greenville, South Carolina.
Other specialized festivals include the 11th annual Tri-State Band Festival held under the
auspices of Phillips University at Enid, Oklahoma; the Unity Festival in New York on January
18 sponsored by the American Slav Congress in which artists of Slavonic ancestry participated;
the third Festival of Jewish Arts presenting religious choral works and also instrumental pieces;
the Guitar Music Festival held in August at Cleveland under the auspices of The International
Guitar League; The Fine Arts Festival at Ward-Belmont School, Nashville, Tennessee, which
featured works by British and American composers; The Fifth Annual Festival of Modern Music,
First Congregational Church at Los Angeles; the Fourth WNYC American Music Festival from
February 12 to 22 in New York; a festival of American Chamber Music held in March at The
Museum of Modern Art, New York jointly sponsored by the Juilliard School of Music and The
Society for the Publication of American Music, presenting works by D. G. Mason, Van Vactor,
Loeffler, Moore, Stoessel, Harris, Jacobi, Giannini, Diebel, Morris Wagenaar, Cole, Q. Porter,
Diamond and Shepherd; the thirteenth annual Eastman School Festival in April at Rochester,
New York, directed by Dr. Howard Hanson which involved five orchestras, a choir, soloists and
a ballet corps and presented works by two Latin American composers, Camargo Guarnieri,
Brazilian and Domingo Santa Cruz, Chilean, new works by Sowerby, Phillips, Bergsma, Harris,
Kennan and Cowell, revivals of works by Gershwin, Chadwick, Wagenaar, R. Thompson,
Barlow, McHose, Canning, Hanson, Rogers, Powell, Bloch, Cadman, Tommy Goodman, and
ballet with music by De Lamarter, MacDonald, Griffes, Taylor, York, and Moore. In October,
the Eastman School held its annual Symposium of American Orchestral Music, directed by Dr.
Hanson and presenting works by Diamond, Cobb, York, Siegmeister, Delaney, Klenz, Kubik,
Vincent, Brown, Marvel, Nolen, Lewis, Inch, Becket, Elwell, Green, Jacobi, Pimsleur, Still, and
V. Thomson.
Festivals devoted to folk music included the 11th annual under the auspices of the National Folk
Festival association in May in Philadelphia, comprising 8 programs and 1,500 participants; the
13th annual American Folk Song Festival in June at Traipsin' Woman Cabin, near Ashland,
Kentucky, directed by Jean Thomas, and the 4th annual Folk Music of the Catskills at Phoenicia,
New York, sponsored by Camp Woodland.

Summer Music.

Attendance at summer concerts showed a marked increase over previous seasons in all the
established series such as the Lewisohn Stadium concerts in New York; Symphonies under the
Stars in the Hollywood Bowl; Robin Hood Dell concerts in Philadelphia; the Ravinia Series and
the Grant Park Open Air concerts in Chicago; the Sunset Symphonies at Potomac Water Gate,
Washington, D. C., the Little Symphony at St. Louis; also at the opera series given by the St.
Louis Municipal Opera in its 25th anniversary season, and the five week season of the Cincinnati
Zoo Opera Company. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a new orchestra, the Summer Symphony,
played in the Blatz Temple of Music in Washington Park, and in El Paso, Texas, the first out-of-
door concert series, the Pan American Starlit Symphonies, presented orchestral and operatic
works. The Toledo Symphony, which had disbanded in the fall of 1942, resumed activity for the
summer season giving 'Pop' concerts for war workers, and the Oklahoma Symphony reported
that its summer concerts were well attended by members of the armed forces and by defense
workers.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra inaugurated a summer series in Boston and Cambridge
consisting of seven double concerts involving symphonic and chamber ensembles. Chamber
music was the chief concern of the second annual series at the Manzano School, Albuquerque,
New Mexico, of the 10th annual series at Edgartown, Massachusetts, and of the 3rd annual series
at Meridian Hill Park, Washington, D. C.
One of the most interesting summer events was the series, beginning July 13, of free weekly
concerts in the Mall of Central Park, New York, and Prospect Park, Brooklyn, presented by The
Department of Parks in collaboration with the League of Composers. The programs combined
contemporary works with folk and traditional music. The ensembles participating were the Hall
Johnson Choir, the Schubert Musical Society of Harlem, Columbia University Band, National
Orchestral Association, Teachers College Chorus, the orchestra of the Sperry Gyroscope
Company and, in the opening concert, the American People's Chorus under Horace Grenell,
Chinese People's Chorus under Lin Liang, the Puerto Rican Chorus, Radishev Russian Chorus
and Folk Dancers and the African Group of Effiom Odok.

League of Composers.

The League, with active branches in Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles continued
its efforts to obtain hearings of commissioned works. It sponsored the following programs:
Music by Composers in the armed forces; Percussion Music by Cowell, Harrison, Roldan,
Ardevol and the conductor, John Cage (in association with the Museum of Modern Art); New
Music by Young Americans; an evening in honor of the visiting Brazilian composer, Camargo
Guarnieri; a series of broadcasts over WQXR of chamber music; a series of coast to coast
broadcasts over CBS of orchestral music by Berezowsky, De Falla, Jacobi, Palester, Roussel,
Sessions and Toch; a performance by the Columbia Theatre Associates at Columbia University
of the chamber opera A Tree on the Plains, commissioned by the League in 1942, music by Ernst
Bacon, book by Paul Horgan.
The interests of contemporary music were also served in New York by the Town Hall Music
Forum in three concerts of works by W. Schuman, Copland and various young composers, and
by the Five Serenades at the Museum of Modern Art which included premieres of works by
Stravinsky, Hindemith, Martinu, Arnell, Copland, V. Thomson, Chanler, Pittaluga, Guarnicri,
Bowles, Marcelle de Manziarly, and other contemporary works.

Radio.

The close of 1943 found the broadcasts of two of the foremost orchestras commercially
sponsored, the Boston Symphony by Allis-Chalmers and the New York Philharmonic by the
United States Rubber Company.
Broadcasts which had news value were Toscanini's concert with the NBC Symphony in
September on the day word came of Italy's surrender and the same conductor's American
program featuring Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Choric Dance No. 2 by Paul Creston and
Gould's Lincoln Legend; the Boston Symphony's performance under Koussevitzky on February
27 over NBC of Roy Harris's Fifth Symphony, dedicated by the composer to the Soviet Union. At
the request of the U. S. S. R. Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries the
Symphony was broadcast by short wave to Russia.
Among the many broadcasts of contemporary orchestral music were a weekly cycle of concerts
over CBS of the works of Charles Ives; the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Stokowski playing
works by Prokovieff, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Triggs, Williams and Milhaud; the Boston
Symphony's performances of works by W. Schuman, Dukelsky, Shostakovitch and Stravinsky. A
new opera, L'Incantesimo by Italo Montemezzi, was premiered by NBC October 9. Station
WQXR devoted five programs of piano music exclusively to contemporary works played by
Erno Balogh. The annual WNYC American Music Festival remains one of the outstanding
events for contemporary music through radio; it included this year works by Piston, Q. Porter,
Diamond, Dello Joio, V. Thomson, McBride, Gould, Copland, Kubik, Harris, Cowell, R. F.
Goldman, Berezowsky, Kerr, Jacobi, W. Schuman.

Records.

On August 1, 1942 James C. Petrillo banned the making of recordings for commercial radio use
by members of the American Federation of Musicians. After an impasse of thirteen months
certain companies signed agreements with the union whereby the company pays special fees
proportionate to the price of the record or transcription to be used. The two major recording
companies, however, have so far refused to sign contracts and the impasse continues for them.
These circumstances account for a considerable drop in the output of recordings and explain the
fact that among those issued are many representative of folk music by native singers of various
nations.

Awards.

Awards for musical excellence in 1943 were bestowed as follows:

Music Critics Circle: to Paul Creston for his Symphony No. 1.
Town Hall Music Committee: to Norman Dello Joio, for his Magnificat.
Paderewski Fund: to Gardner Read for his Symphony No. 2; to David Diamond for his Quartet
for Piano and Strings.
Pulitzer Prize: to William Schuman for his Cantata, A Free Song.
Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund: to Alexei Haieff.
Bearns Prize: to William Bergsma for his String Quartet No. 1.
Eizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal for Service to Chamber Music: to Quincy Porter.
Koussevitzky Music Foundation: commissions for symphonic works from Stravinsky, Bartok,
and William Schuman; commissions for chamber music from William Bergsma and Robert M.
Palmer.
Composers Press Publications: to Robert McBride for his woodwind quintet, Jam Session; to
Claire Leonard for the anthem, If I Speak With the Tongues of Men and Angels.
Juilliard School Publication Award: to Vincent Perssichetti, for his Dance Overture; to Herbert
Elwell for his Introduction and Allegro.
National Federation of Music Clubs: to Emerson Meyer for his Suite for Clarinet and Strings; to
Franz Borschein for his choral work, Joy; to Eunice Lea Kettering for her choral work, Johnny
Appleseed.

Music Abroad.

Mexico.

The most important musical event in Mexico was the debut of the newly-formed National Opera
Company in the Palace of Fine Arts, with Beethoven's Fidelio. The Symphony Orchestra of
Mexico, under Carlos Chavez, included in its 16th season a Festival of Contemporary Music and
a tour of Mexico and Southern United States.

England.

Government subsidy of music has been realized through the newly-organized Council for the
Encouragement of Music and the Arts, which sponsors popular-priced concerts throughout the
country.
A 'Prom.' concert of American works included Gershwin's Piano Concerto, Copland's Lincoln
Portrait, William Schuman's Third Symphony, and Hugo Weisgall's American Comedy, 1943.
The U. S. Army Negro Choir, consisting of 200 American Negro soldiers, gave a concert in
Albert Hall, London. Corporal Mark Blitzstein's Freedom Morning was included on the program.

Egypt.

Plans were completed for an American Music Festival to be held in January, 1944, in Cairo,
Egypt, and to include performances of these American works: Barber's Adagio for Strings; and
Essay for Orchestra; Harris's Third and Fifth Symphonies and Johnny Comes Marching Home;
Moore's Village Music; Sowerby's Concert Overture; Hanson's Symphony No. 1 and Merry
Mount Suite; Copland's Outdoor Overture and Billy the Kid Suite; Griffes's The White Peacock
and Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan; Gould's Pavane and Guarache; Cowell's Country Set;
Gallient's Pop Goes the Weasel; Thomson's music from The Plow That Broke the Plains; Dett's
Juba Dance; Fuleihan's Symphony; Guion's Turkey in the Straw and Sheep and Goat; Hadley's
In Bohemia; Taylor's Casanova; MacDowell's Indian Suite; Grofe's On the Trail; Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess (arranged by R. R. Bennett); Creston's Symphony No. 1; Kern's Showboat
Symphony for Orchestra.

Miscellaneous Items of Interest.

Jefferson Exhibit.

The Library of Congress arranged an exhibition of music commemorating the 200th anniversary
of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. It included manuscript letters to Charles Burney and Francis
Hopkinson and musical items from Jefferson's personal library.

Crosby-Brown Collection of Musical Instruments.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibited the Crosby-Brown collection of
instruments, which had been newly arranged and restored under the direction of Emanuel
Winternitz.

Peabody Conservatory Anniversary.

The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore celebrated its 75th anniversary on February
12.

Losses by Death.

Among notable musicians who died in 1943 were: Alice Nielson, opera singer; Sergei
Rachmaninoff, composer and pianist; Joseph Achron, composer; Albert Stoessel, composer and
conductor; Robert Nathaniel Dett, composer, teacher, and conductor; Percy Goedschius, theory
teacher, author, and composer; Alberto Jones, pianist, teacher, composer, and author; Dr. Paul
Stefan, musicologist and author; Pietro Yon, organist and composer; Thomas ('Fats') Waller, jazz
player.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.