Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Commission to Harris BLUE NETWORK ENGAGES NOTED AMERICAN COMPOSER TO WRITE HIS SIXTH SYMPHONY—WORLD PREMIERE NEXT SPRING By Mark Woods President, Blue Nettvork Compatiy IT ISN'T OFTEN that business takes time out to become a patron of the arts, because such radical departure from the long prescribed methods of commercial operation is not without a certain aspect of danger. For, with the arts belonging to the people, no staff of financial wizards, however invincible on home grounds, dares trespass on public domain without strong elements of reasonable doubt. With this in mind, w-hen the Blue Network commissioned Roy Harris, the noted American composer, to write his sixth symphony, we made no demands or even requests. It was reward enough when he as- sured us that the commission would enable him to compose a major choral symphony created around an American scene, and probably dedi- cated to the American service men. Specifically, Harris will devote a full year to composing a work which will center around one of the many stirring events in the life of Abraham Lincoln—an event which will be as topical today, in this time of stress, as it was during Lincoln's presidency. The world premiere will take place in the spring of 1944, with the new symphony played by the Bos- ton Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dr. Serge Koussevitzky. It will be heard over the Blue Network, through whose facilities Harris' Fifth Symphony, first Fifth to be composed by an American, was heard both here and abroad on Feb- ruary 27 in its world premiere. The case of a corporate body be- coming a patron of the arts has its interesting points. While on the surface one might not anticipate such a procedure, a bit of thought on the subject should reveal the fact that when an industry owes its existence to the good will of the public, (and what industry doesn't?) it isn't too far fetched to hope that it might meet some of its obligations to the public in other ways than those with which the or- ganization is primarily concerned. There are the dividends which cannot be measured against the dollar sign—such as subsidizing of group insurance, hospitalization, old age pensions, housing develop- ments for employees, and last but not at all least, the cultural and spiritual enjoyment encountered with the presentation of a compre- hensive work of art. History tells us that the subsidy of the arts is nothing new. For centuries the creators have been carried through their trying days by patrons gathered from the ranks of royalty and riches. And that brings to mind the strange apathy which the patrons have ever shown toward lending assistance to the composer, truly the step-child of the arts. Certainly Mozart, and Schubert, and Beethoven, were any- thing but favorites of the gods, all of them taking little more than their tattered clothes to the grave. Tschaikowsky and Wagner were more fortunate to some extent, both having had what we now might term "sugar daddies." And Amer- ica's record is not better—consider Stephen Foster. It remained for Dr. Koussevitzky to make a strong case for the com- poser on the day of the announce- ment that Harris was being com- missioned by the Blue to write his sixth symphony. Dr. Koussevitzky, one of the greatest champions of all time for the cause of the living —living, mind you, not the dead— composer pointed out that when orchestras find themselves in hot water, they find themselves a finan- cier, that once the musician sur- vives his early martyrdom, he has easy sailing, and that the music goes round and round for the gain of all but lo, the poor serious com- poser. Without him the whole structure of music would dry up and blow away, yet he is permitted to shift for himself, to pine away in obscurity and, more to the point, insecurity. Now, this is no brief for a gran- diose plan to form a "feed the com- poser guild", but I am heartily in accord with Dr. Koussevitzky's theory that there should be some concrete interest in the practical ramifications of composing—per- mitting the composer to live. Lend- ing an ear to the composer is all right as far as it goes, but it stops too far short of lending the pocket- book, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, toward the upkeep of said composer. SERGE KOUSSEVITSKY (STANDING, LEFT) AND MARK WOODS JOIN ROY HARRIS (seated) in examining ONE OF THE NOTED AMERICAN COMPOSER'S SYM- PHONIC SCORES. RADIO AGE 171