BERIGAN Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 never heard of him before finding a 99 cent cd in a sam goody bin. He looked a bit like Bix at least on this one cover.(If Bix was trying to look mean! ) Seems he was just about the earliest avant guard American composer, if we are to believe what we read on the web...I like what I have heard so far....here is another story on him.... http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20...73617-4256r.htm So, gotta believe the way many on this board are up on music in and outside the world of jazz, someone has heard of him, or is a fan.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Wood Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 I have the Ballet Mechanique, which is available on Naxos, and is fantasic to listen to -- yes, in the vein of Satie or Varese, but very much his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 He's a local guy. Last year, Livingston also helped launch the first Antheil festival in the composer's hometown of Trenton, N.J. Or so he'd like to think. The Trenton Avant Garde Festival has been celebrating his birthday for years. Don't know if they still do. I heard Ballet Mécanique at Bang on a Can a few years ago. Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 I have several of his symphonies, recordings both on Naxos and CPO. Seem to remember that there were a number of musical similarities between Antheil and Shostakovich. Haven't listened in a while, but remember this being some pretty decent music. I'll revisit some, and get back to you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 He's an interesting character, a maverick, and an interesting "side-road". I bought my first Antheil lp around 1959 - it was on Everest. His "press" makes him much more important than his product - BUT he's worth exploring. "Earliest avant guard American composer" - Hah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 His "press" makes him much more important than his product - ..sort of like making a mountain out of an Antheil? B-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 He's an interesting character, a maverick, and an interesting "side-road". I bought my first Antheil lp around 1959 - it was on Everest. His "press" makes him much more important than his product - BUT he's worth exploring. "Earliest avant guard American composer" - Hah! as if Charles Ives didn't exist... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMX Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 (edited) The Antheil on Naxos is the way to go. There's a recording of his 4th and 6th symphonies; they're okay but there were better symphonies being written during that period. George Antheil was also an author and inventor. As reported here, Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invented a radio frequency-hopping torpedo control system. Although rejected by the US Navy the idea was later taken up by the cellular telephone industry. As cellphones move from place to place they are assigned new, unoccupied frequencies to jump to - called a "hand-off" (I worked in cellular for 10 years). Here's an excerpt from the previously mentioned website: Antheil knew practically everybody in Paris's literary, artistic and musical circles, but in 1933 he returned permanently to the United States. He became a film composer in Hollywood and a writer for Esquire magazine, producing a syndicated advice-to-the-lovelorn column and articles about romance and endocrinology. He even published a book titled Every Man His Own Detective: A Study of Glandular Endocrinology. In 1939 he set an article to Esquire about the future of Europe that proved impressively accurate: It predicted that the war would start with Germany invading Poland, that Germany would later attack Russia, and then the United States would be drawn into the conflict. He met Hedy Lamar in the summer of 1940, when they were neighbors in Hollywood and she approached him witha question about glands: She wanted to know how she could enlarge her breasts . In time the conversation came around to weapons, and Lamarr told Antheil that she was contemplating quitting MGM and moving to Washington, D.C., to offer her services to the newly established National Inventors Council. They began talking about radio control for torpedoes. The idea itself was not new, but her concept of "frequency hopping" was. Lamarr brought up the idea of radio control. Antheil's contribution was to suggest the device by which synchronization could be achieved. He proposed that rapid changes in radio frequencies could be coordinated the way he had coordinated the sixteen synchronized player pianos in his Ballet Méanique. The analogy was complete in his mind: By the time the two applied for a patent on a "Secret Communication System," on June 10, 1941, the invention used slotted paper rolls similar to player-piano rolls to synchronize the frequency changes in transmitter and receiver, and it even called for exactly eighty-eight frequencies, the number of keys on a piano. Lamarr and Antheil worked on the idea for several months and then, in December 1940, sent a description of it to the National Inventors Council, which had been launched with much fanfare earlier in the year as a gatherer of novel ideas and inventions from the general public. Its chairman was Charles F. Kettering, the research director of General Motors. Over its lifetime, which lasted until 1974, the council collected more than 625,000 suggestions, few of which ever reached the patent stage. But according to Antheil, Kettering himself suggested that he and Lamarr develop their idea to the point of being patentable. With the help of an electrical engineering professor from the California Institute of Technology they ironed out its bugs, and the patent was granted on August 11, 1942. It specified that a high-altitude observiation plane could steer the torpedo from above. Despite Antheil's lobbying, the Navy turned its back on the invention, concluding that the mechanism would have been too bulky to fit into a torpedo. Antheil disagreed; he insisted that it could be made small enough to squeeze into a watch. And he thought he knew why the Navy was so negative: "In our patent Hedy and I attempted to better elucidate our mechanism by explaining that certain parts of it worked like the fundamental mechanism of a player piano. Here, undoubted, we made our mistake. The reverend and brass-headed gentlemen in Washington who examined our invention read no further than the words 'player piano. 'My god,' I can see them saying, 'we shall put a player piano in a torpedo.'" History kicks ass. So does Hedy Lamarr. Edited September 8, 2004 by DTMX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 His "press" makes him much more important than his product - ..sort of like making a mountain out of an Antheil? B-) Worst pun I've heard in ages. OUCH!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted September 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 ... He met Hedy Lamar in the summer of 1940, when they were neighbors in Hollywood and she approached him witha question about glands: She wanted to know how she could enlarge her breasts . In time the conversation came around to weapons... Man, if I had a nickel for every time I had a conversation like this with a woman.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted September 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 The cd I just purchased.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted September 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 tracks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.L.M Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 (edited) Two CDs worth to listen to: - GEORGE ANTHEIL: STRING QUARTETS/ THE MONDRIAAN STRING QUARTETS (ETCETERA) (publish in 1990. OOP?) ANTHEIL wrote three string quartets in 1927, 1928 et 1947. The two first (and particularly the first, his best IMO) are reminiscent of the work of the avant-garde of the time. ANTHEIL knows very well his SCHOENBERG, BERG. Even if it's far to be as radical as the Viennese, both compositions shows that the guy has a great talent. The third is in a neo-classic vein, when the "bad boy of Music" has turn definitely his back on the avant-garde and choose to be a "neo-classic" instead. If you know a bit about string quartets you will notice the influence of BEETHOVEN (but who wasn't influence by?) but also the close relation of this composition with the string quartet of DVORAK op. 96 called the "American" quartet. GEORGE ANTHEIL: SONATAS FOR VIOLION AND PIANO 1923, 1948/ VERA BETHS & REINBERT DE LEEUW (AUVIDIS-MONTAIGNE) (published in 1994. OOP?) ANTHEIL wrote four sonate for violin and piano (and a sonatine). Three are feature here. The two first are under the influence of STRAVINSKY throught the dissonance and the radical use of a strong ryhtmic patern. The third is a neo-romantic composition but with a lot of rythmic energy. Interesting but not at the same level than its predecessors. Edited September 8, 2004 by P.L.M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrome Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 She wanted to know how she could enlarge her breasts . In time the conversation came around to weapons, Seems like a natural segue to me ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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