“I doubt if there is a greater, more exhaustingly emotional experience possible than hearing your own music brilliantly performed, performed big, by a great orchestra, with those twenty violins picking up the fugues that were imaginary to you, and a renowned conductor welding the whole thing into something far better and more impressive than you had dreamed.”
—
Lionel Barrymore first started to write classical music when he was about thirty years old. Music was his greatest passion, besides art (he initially wanted to be a painter). Barrymore had a huge record collection and an amazing musical knowledge. He was even able to recognise a composer in the first two bars. The multi-talented actor had created numerous compositions, many of which he wrote when he was already in his sixties. Studying with Hungarian composer Eugene Zador, Barrymore had tried his hand at everything —symphonies, fugues, piano suites, operas etc.. He candidly admitted that, while composing his music, he had "borrowed from everybody except the studio gateman", thereby noting that "nothing is new" and that everyone else, with the possible exception of Richard Wagner and Claude Debussy, was a borrower too. ("For the most part, every melody you hear is "Tristan-like" or taken straight from Debussy", he thought.)
Barrymore was quite modest about his musical achievements and ultimately felt that people shouldn't take him too seriously as a composer. Nevertheless, he was immensely proud and excited —as one can imagine— when several of his compositions were performed by real conductors and orchestras, some of them even renowned.
The first time a Barrymore composition was performed in public was in 1940. The symphonic suite Tableau Russe was played by the Los Angeles WPA Symphony Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl and was next used in the film Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941). Following the death of his brother John in 1942, Barrymore started working on a tone poem as a tribute to John, called In Memoriam. On 22 April 1944, it was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.
Partita was, as Barrymore himself called it, "a more ambitious composition" and was one of the highlights of his musical career. The piece was first played by Fabien Sevitzky and his Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on 20 March 1944. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Artur Rodzinski also performed Partita on 31 March 1946, broadcast on national radio as part of a program that included a symphony by Beethoven and an overture by Brahms. It was about the latter performance that Barrymore later said: "Listening to Partita with Rodzinski and the great New York Philharmonic was, I have to confess with no modesty and no shame, an enormous experience... An orchestra of one hundred pieces, the best musicians in the world, performing me! I took care to be alone that Sunday when they played Partita because I did not want anybody to see me weep."
Other notable compositions by Barrymore include his piano compositions Scherzo Grotesque and Song Without Words, which were published by G. Schirmer in 1945; Opera Buffa, which was performed by the Burbank Symphony Orchestra under Leo Damiani in 1949; and the theme song of the radio program Mayor of the Town (1942-1949) of which Barrymore later said: "... this had a pleasant ring which I always liked, though I could never quite decide where I stole it."
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Article from THE ABC WEEKLY, 23 September 1944
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One of the conductors Barrymore had worked with was Fabien Sevitzky of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (already briefly mentioned above). Apart from Partita, Sevitzky had performed several of Barrymore's compositions, although the first piece he conducted was not an original composition but Barrymore's orchestration of Edward MacDowell's piano suite Sea Pieces. After that first collaboration the two men had stayed in touch through letters, with Barrymore from time to time submitting work for Sevitzky's consideration. Other Barrymore works that Sevitzky eventually performed include Preludium and Fugue in December 1944 and a Piano concerto in 1946.
From the Barrymore-Sevitzky correspondence which lasted several years, here are two letters written by Barrymore in 1944. The New York concert mentioned in the second letter possibly refers to the concert at Lewisohn Stadium later that summer (on 2 August), where Sevitzky would again perform Partita, this time conducting the New York Philharmonic.
Transcript:
February 4, 1944
Chatsworth,
California.
My dear Mr. Sevitzky,
Yesterday I sent special delivery score and parts. Please tell me (as I know you will) whether you like it or not. If not, I will completely understand and try again.
I think Hollywood would be indeed most fortunate and grateful if you consented to conduct here again.
For myself, (entirely off the record), Mrs. Irish has been kind enough to ask me to do the speaking in "Peter and the Wolf", and I have as cleverly as I could evaded it. But I am going to say that if they were lucky enough to get Dr. Sevitzky for some concerts I would be most happy to do it under him. In any case I will do this at once, and I feel sure you will be "encircled" and "attacked" by the Bowl immediately!
So, I am looking forward eagerly to seeing you here this summer!
With all fond wishes,
Yours very sincerely,
(signed 'Lionel Barrymore')
Lionel Barrymore
Transcript:
June 7, 1944
Dear Dr. Sevitzky
Thank you very much for your letter of May 25th. Concerning your questions about tempi, everything you suggest is all right. The tempo of the Fugue, however, is about 120-124. #16, 2nd bar, the 5th note is C natural as in the score. The 5th bar after 16, 5th note is F natural, as you say.
Thank you in advance for sending the recording to me. I am anxiously awaiting it. I know the performance will be marvelous in spite of the short rehearsing time. I am praying to God that the New York concert will materialize, and since you are the conductor and knowing God's wisdom in all things, I know it will happen!
Since you have done me the great honour of permitting me to submit a Prelude to you, I have thought of nothing else since I got your letter, and believe me, you will have it in ample time. I only pray that it will be worthy of your consideration.
It will be a great pleasure to see you in person on your visit to Hollywood, and I am looking forward to meeting you.
Yours very cordially,
(signed 'Lionel Barrymore')
All quotes in this post taken from
We Barrymores (1951), by Lionel Barrymore and Cameron Shipp.
Barrymore's tribute to his brother John
In Memoriam can be listened to
here;
Tableau Russe here (as performed in
Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day). Other works by Barrymore
here and
here.
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