theScandalousLifeofFrankieandJohnny

 

THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF FRANKIE AND JOHNNY  


FRANKIE AND JOHNNY was originally composed on commission from Ruth  
Page, and then presented by her in collaboration with the Chicago Federal Theater. It  
was completed in March, 1938 and first produced at the Great Northern Theater in  
Chicago, June 20, 1938. Scheduled to run for a few nights only, the work created a  
sensation and ran for six weeks through traditionally unremunerative July. In 1945 the  
Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo bought the ballet, and for a number of seasons FRANKIE  
AND JOHNNY was an established work in their repertoire. Alleged “extremes” in  
the choreography created a problem with censors in certain communities, and eventually  
the pressure won out; the work was dropped. It was resuscitated, however, in Paris in  
May 1950. There it was the subject of a typical French artistic scandale. The adherents  
of Serge Lifar used the performance to demonstrate their anger at the treatment he had  
received in America, and the next morning the New York Herald-Tribune and other  
Gotham papers were delighted to report that at last an American work had received the  
“chair-throwing” treatment that had been reserved until then for such revolutionary  
works as Le Sacre du Printemps and L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune. After the premiere,  
counter-demonstrations began, the famous artist Le Corbusier wrote a panegyric for the  
press, and the ballet was performed 20 times in the month.  


Formally, FRANKIE AND JOHNNY consists of an introduction and a suite of .  


seven dances described by the composer as follows:  

1. STOMP (The doings around town)  

2. BLUES (A duet between Frankie and Johnny)  

3. RAGI (The barroom scene; Johnny goes off with Nellie Bly; Frankie comes  
looking for him; the local denizens help, Nellie and Johnny get away)  

4, RAG II (The bartender’s dance. The bartender tells Frankie what’s what,  
in the meantime offering himself as a substitute)  

5. TUNE (Frankie whips herself into a frenzy and goes off to get her gun)  

6. FOX-TROT (Frankie catches Johnny with Nellie Bly and shoots Johnny)  

7. ONE-STEP (The funeral. Everybody gets roaring drunk and Frankie and  
Nellie end up crying on one another's shoulders)  

Throughout the piece, a ttio of Salvation Army lasses wanders through the scenes  
beating cymbal, tambourine and bass-drum, and commenting on the action. At the end,  
they get three glasses of beer and sing the final lyrics with their feet on the coffin,  
as if it were a bar-rail.  

The whole is an astoundingly virtuosic orchestral setting of the familiar American  
folk tune. In the recorded version, the Blues is omitted. Otherwise, this is the complete  
music used for the ballet.  


ABOUT MOROSS  

Jerome Moross was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., August 1, 1913. He was educated in  
New York public and high schools and has a large number of newspaper clippings that  
testify he was the youngest student ever to graduate from a Metropolitan public school.  
He graduated from New York University at 18. During his Senior year at collge,  
he also held a Juilliard fellowship.  

Moross’ works for the stage have brought him the major portion of his recognition  
to date. The first was his score for “Parade’’, a revue produced by the Theater Guild  
in 1935. A ballet, “American Pattern’’, was produced at the Chicago Opera in 1937.  
His most successful work so far has been his contribution to “Ballet Ballads’, a folk  
dance production staged on Broadway in 1948 by the American National Theater and  
Academy. It has been performed since in Los Angeles, Cleveland, and in dozens of Little  
Theaters and colleges throughout the country. His most-performed piece, however, is  
his score for Garcia Lorca’s drama, “Blood Wedding’, which has been unusually  
popular with Little Theater groups. Moross also completed “The Golden Apple’, a  
full-length work for the theater which was produced on Broadway in 1952.  

Moross’ activity has been most pronounced in the fields of theater, radio and films,  
but he has not omitted formal concert works. His First Symphony (1942) was premiered  
by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Seattle Symphony in 1944. His “Tall Story for  
Orchestra’ was commissioned by the Columbia Broadcasting System and performed over  
that network in 1938, with Howard Barlow conducting. Other works for orchestra  
include Paeans, Biguine and The Wolf Waltzes.  


MONO — _D-408  
bisonic stereo* STEREO — DST-6408  


INDIAN SUITE  
(SUITE No. 2, OPUS 48)  


by Edward MacDowell  
(b. New York City, December 18, 1861; d. January 24, 1908)  








Scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons,  
4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion and strings  








The INDIAN SUITE was composed from 1891-1892. The source for its material  
was Theodore Baker's “Die Musik der Nordamerikanischen Welden”, which Henry  
F. Gilbert had consulted when requested to do some research by MacDowell. Gilbert  
wrote that MacDowell changed all the main themes “in the direction of musical beauty,  
and enough of the original tune has been retained to leave no doubt as to its  
barbaric flavor.”  


The thematic material consists of Iroquois and Chippewa themes, harvest songs,  
a love song of the Iowas, a song found among East Coast tribes with certain aspects  
of the Iroquois scalp dance, a Kiowa woman’s song of mourning, a women’s dance  
and war song — both Iroquois.  


The INDIAN SUITE was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in  
New York on January 23, 1896. In its use and recognition of native themes it is  
contemporaneous with Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 5 from the New World.” Though  
completed before the Dvorak, it received its first performance three years later. Of its  
first performance one critic wrote, “Beautiful, but not Indian,” and another said,  
“Indian, but not beautiful.”  


ANALYSIS (with MacDowell’s own markings)  


I. LEGEND: “Not fast; with much dignity and character, E minor, 2/2.”  
Allegedly inspired by Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s Indian legend 'Mrdntowona.”  


Il. LOVE SONG: “Not fast; tenderly, A major, 6/8.” Woodwind announces  
principal theme at once, This is developed in a pattern involving two sub-  
sidiary phrases — one appears as a response in the strings, the other as a tune  
of more definite character.  


Ill. IN WAR TIME: “With rough vigor, almost savagely, D minor, 2/4.” Two  
flutes in unison, unaccompanied, give the main theme. Sub theme comes  
answering through two clarinets in unison, also accompanied. Elaborate work-  
ing out of this material in rondo-type scheme. Note frequent rhythm changes  
between 2/4 and 6/8.  


IV. DIRGE: “Dirge-like, mournfully, in G minor, 4/4.” Unison violins muted  
supply chief subject. They are joined by violas, all performing against an  
iterated tonic G in the piccolo and two muted horns, one of which is on  
stage and one in the wings. Theme is intimately related to that of first  
movement. Passage closes with a quaint phrase by the oboe.  


V. VILLAGE FESTIVAL: “Swift and light, in E major, 2/4.” Material mostly  
derived from the first movement — various themes are developed in a generally  
sprightly survey of dance rhythms. Typically, the composer is concerned with  
mood — this time festal.  


MacDowell returned to the United States after many years abroad as both student  
and teacher. In 1887 he settled in Boston, concertized and taught. His international  
reputation secure, he was in large part responsible for the recognition of Amercian  
composers. He carried the struggle further when, in 1904 he resigned from Columbia  
University in protest over the proper position of music and the fine arts in the  
curriculum.  


MacDowell was, in the words of Lawrence Gilman ‘‘A romantic of the finer order  
because, true to the subtler genius of his art, he devotes himself, in his practice of it,  
to a rendering — extraordinary for vividness and felicity — of those essences and  
impressions which have seemed to me to be the ultimate of the romantic spirit in its  
dealings with life.”  





* Electronically reprocessed from monaural tapes.  





DESTO RECORDS, 12 East 44th Street, New York, N. Y.  


Recorded under a grant from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University