Journal of Film Music 4.

1 (2011) 21-26
doi:10.1558/jfm.v4i1.21

ISSN (print) 1087-7142

ISSN (online) 1758-860X

ARTICLE

The Problem of Music in a Historical Film

Herbert Stothart, Trans. Giorgio Biancorroso, Ed. Giulio Ongaro1
Abstract: This article, originally written by Herbert Stothart in English, was published in Italian in 1937. In it,
Stothart discusses the problem of how to provide music for historical films and offers as a case study his own
score for MGMs 1936 film Romeo and Juliet.
Keywords: early music; film music; Herbert Stothart; historical films; Romeo and Juliet

The philosopher Schopenhauer defined music as the

direct objectivization of the essence of the world:
obscure, implacable, and tragic. In music the poet
Marcel Proust heard a message that only a few privileged artists are able to reclaim, only momentarily
and through brief epiphanies, from that lost land of
which life, this everyday life of ours, tends to destroy
even its memory, leaving behind for us only an anxious nostalgia.2

Un filosofo quale Schopenhauer ha definito la musica

come la diretta oggettivazione dellessenza medesima,
oscura implacabile e tragica, del mondo. Un poeta
quale Marcel Proust ha sentito nella musica il messaggio che pochi artisti privilegiati possono riportare,
a tratti e per brevi illuminazioni, da quella patria
perduta di cui la vita, questa vita quotidiana, tende
a spogliare anche il ricordo, non lasciandone che linquieta nostalgia.

We recall those statements, for they may be valuable in defining the function of the musical comment, the musical accompaniment to the sound film.
It is not true that symphonic excerpts, interludes,
etc., when synchronized to a scene that consists of
pure motion or pure action have the sole function of
drawing, through their rhythms and melodies, that
bit of attention which would otherwise be lost, thus
allowing the spectator to concentrate on what the
screen presents with the full force of the most vital
part of him/herself. Ideally, music should instead
have the function of seizing and communicating the
deepest secret and mysterious essence (as mysterious as life ultimately always is) of everything that
the pictures visualize. The purpose is clearly seen
in the case of those musical patchworks used to
underscore a dialogue, whose aim is precisely to
convey at their purest those feelings, emotions, and
passions hinted at by the characters through words
and gestures.

Ricordiamo quelle definizioni ed esperienze,

perch valgono forse a definire la funzione del commento sonoro, dellaccompagnamento musicale nel
film parlato. Non vero che i tratti sinfonici, gli intermezzi, ecc. che sincronizzano una scena puramente
mimica o dazione abbiano soltanto il compito di
assorbire coi loro ritmi e melodie quel tanto dattenzione, che altrimenti andrebbe disperso, e permettere
cos allo spettatore di concentrarsi, con la parte pi
viva di s stesso, in ci che lo schermo gli presenta.
Idealmente, la musica avrebbe invece lo scopo di
carpire e di comunicare il segreto pi profondo, lessenza occulta e misteriosa (come misteriosa sempre
la vita nelle sue determinazioni ultime) di ci che le
immagini visualizzano. Tale scopo si scorge pi chiaramente nelle musiche missate che fanno da sfondo
sonoro ai dialoghi: e che mirano appunto a trasmettere, allo stato puro, quei sentimenti, quelle emozioni,
quelle passioni che i personaggi accennano con le loro
parole ed i loro gesti.

Copyright the International Film Music Society, published by Equinox Publishing Ltd 2012, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffield, S3 8AF.

22 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

This problem has surely been felt by those European producers who entrusted the composition of
their important musical scores to such consummate
artists as Malipiero, Honegger, Pizzetti, Milhaud, or
Auriccomposers who were able to reveal the essence
of a dramatic situation through their luminous inspiration. American producers, for their part, responded
to this need by creating real specialists who grew
more and more adept at employing specific formulas
of rhythms, melodies, and orchestral sounds: formulas that never fail to attain specific emotional effects,
which the composers did not just recycle mechanically, but renewed and refreshed each time.

Il problema stato certamente intuito da quei produttori europei, che hanno affidato la composizione
delle musiche per i loro film pi importanti ad artisti
qualificati come Malipiero od Honegger, Pizzetti o
Milhaud o Auricin grado di rivelare lessenza di una
situazione cinematografica con la luce della loro ispirazione. Il cinema americano, da parte sua, ha invece
risposto a quellesigenza, creando dei veri e propri
specialisti, fattisi via via esperti di certe formule ritmiche e melodiche ed orchestrali; formule infallibili
per il conseguimento di speciali effetti emotivi e
non gi da loro meccanicamente ripetute, anzi rinnovate e rinfrescate ogni volta.

This is an important problem, not only artistically but also practically. From the point of view of
creativity, it involves everyone working with music:
composers, performers; from the point of view of
labor, whole categories of professionals, both from
the musical field and from similar and adjacent fields,
and naturally also sound technicians, who must strive
to attain the finest quality in recording sound. This is
another confirmation of the importance of cinema as
an industry destined to become a major force in drawing to itself with increasing power the most diverse
classes, enhancing their aptitudes, and increasing
their opportunities in their lives and work.

Ed problema dimportanza non solo artistica, ma

pratica. Interessa, dal punto di vista creazione (sic),
tutti gli artisti della musica: compositori ed esecutori;
dal punto di vista del lavoro, intere categorie di professionisti, sia del campo musicale quanto di quelli
finitimi ed affini, e naturalmente anche tutti i tecnici
del suono, tenuti ad ottenere il massimo rendimento
nellincisione. Ulteriore conferma dellimportanza che
il cinema riveste come industria e come organizzazione, destinata a chiamare a s, con sempre maggiore
intensit, le pi diverse classi, a svilupparne le attitudini ed a crescerne le possibilit di vita e di lavoro.

We would like to examine, by way of a rather complex example, how the score for the film Romeo and
Juliet was created. Judging from outside, one could
think that the drama alone, by Shakespeare, no less,
would be capable of holding the spectators interest in
the film. But think of the jarring effect produced by
dull or badly chosen music and, conversely, the highly
complementary role played by a successful musical
accompaniment that would magically transport the
spectator, as if on a flying carpet, right into the period
when the action takes place, into the core of the passion and pathos of the tragedy. For starters: is one
to choose modern music, with which the spectator
is already familiar, or music from that period? One
should not assume that the music of our time is more
beautiful than the music from the past, still practically unknown. The drama of Romeo and Juliet, which
features characters drawn from several centuries ago,
has preserved all of its emotional force, and contemporary audiences are as, and perhaps more, passionate about it than about a work written today, about
todays characters.

Vogliamo spiegarci con un esempio abbastanza

complesso: come furono realizzate le musiche del film
Giulietta e Romeo? Giudicando dallesterno, si potrebbe
anche credere che il dramma, di Shakespeare nientemeno, basterebbe da solo a tener desto linteresse
del film; si pensi invece alla stonatura che vi produrrebbero musiche generiche o mal scelte e alla collaborazione che pu invece recare uno sfondo musicale
adeguato, che trasporti magicamente, vero tappeto
volante, lo spettatore nellepoca dellazione, nel
cuore passionale e patetico della tragedia. E intanto:
musiche moderne, gi consuete allorecchio dello
spettatore, o musiche dellepoca? Non detto che le
musiche del nostro tempo sian pi belle che quelle
del passato, oggi praticamente sconosciute. Il dramma
di Romeo e Giulietta, svolgentesi tra personaggi di
parecchi secoli fa, serba ancora tutta la sua persuasione emotiva ed il pubblico moderno vi si appassiona
quanto pi che ad una storia doggi, scritta oggi.

The International Film Music Society 2012.

The Problem of Music in a Historical Film

23

One of the greatest love tragedies ever performed

on stage, Romeo and Juliets past is already marked
by a centuries-old history of great, spectacular stagings. Now film producers are thinking of presenting it
in a new and refreshing light, as the stage could not,
through technical solutions capable of bringing out
facts, accents, nuances that have until now remained
obscured. The score had therefore an arduous and differentiated role. First of all, it was necessary to convey
the essentials of the drama; pitch, as it were, characters from the past to a contemporary audience while
preserving enough of that modern character which is
necessary to a modern type of spectacle such as the
sound film.

Una delle pi grandi tragedie damore, che mai

siano state narrate, ha ormai nei secoli tutto un passato spettacolare, di grandi realizzazioni sceniche.
Ora i produttori cinematografici pensano di ripresentarcela in una maniera nuova e fresca e viva, quale
il teatro non avrebbe mai saputo raggiungere, che
savvale di una tecnica atta a rilevare, in ognuna delle
notazioni shakespeariane, fatti ed aspetti ed accenti
finora rimasti in ombra. Il commento musicale era
dunque chiamato a cmpiti ardui e disparati. Esso
doveva anzitutto sottolineare i valori drammatici;
intonare, per cos dire, il pubblico ai personaggi del
passato, e conservar tuttavia quellaura di modernit
tanto necessaria ad un tipo di spettacolo moderno
com il film parlato.

The first question was to decide which musical

style to adopt. The direction of the movie and the
way the dialogues are set created such a natural
feel that the words of Shakespeare appear to be, to
modern ears, as if they had been heard in a modern
discussion. The musical style had therefore to
respond to analogous needs. But it was nevertheless clear that the spirit of the drama would have
clashed with melodies, rhythms, and textures of a
decidedly modern character. Thus we decided from
the very outset that the music be as authentic as
Shakespeares dialogue (which was left untouched).
We decided to look for it within the same historical
period as the play. Wherever the stories take place,
be it Italy or Denmark, audiences associate Shakespeares dramas with Elizabethan England. Consequently, the use of old English madrigals was called
for. At the same time, since the drama takes place in
Verona, it was necessary to take into consideration
Italian music from the same period, too. At first,
some of us thought that Gounods beautiful Romeo
and Juliet could be a viable solution. But that score,
conceived as an opera, would have subordinated the
action to the music. Basically it was necessary to
strike the right balance: some ancient music, both
Italian and English, cannily arranged and mixed with
more modern compositions, would produce a result
at once effective and distinctive.

Prima questione: decidere che linguaggio musicale dovesse venire adottato. Nella regia del film e
nellimpostazione dei dialoghi s ottenuta una tale
naturalezza, che ad orecchi moderni le parole dello
Shakespeare paiono colte sul vivo di un colloquio
doggi. Lo stile della musica doveva quindi rispondere ad analoghe esigenze. Ma era chiaro peraltro
che lo spirito del dramma avrebbe contrastato con
melodie, ritmi, impasti sonori dimpronta nettamente attuale. Fu dunque deciso, fin dagli inizi
della preparazione del film, che la musica dovesse
risultare autentica quanto il dialogo di Shakespeare
(che non fu toccato). Essere, dunque, cercata nel
medesimo periodo storico. I drammi shakespeariani,
dovunque si svolgono, in Italia o in Danimarca, si
associano nella mentalit del pubblico allInghilterra dellepoca elisabettiana. Di conseguenza, si
imponeva luso degli antichi madrigali inglesi. E
daltronde, siccome la storia ha luogo a Verona,
occorreva pure tener presente la musica italiana del
tempo. Alcuni pensarono, dapprima, a risolvere il
problema con la bella partitura di Gounod per lopera
Giulietta e Romeo. Ma, concepita nella caratteristica
estetica del melodramma, quella partitura avrebbe in
certo modo subordinato lazione, per metter invece
laccento sulla musica. In sostanza era necessario
trovare un giusto mezzo; spunti di musiche antiche,
italiane ed inglesi, sagacemente elaborate e combinate con composizioni moderne, avrebbero realizzato
una formula caratteristica ed efficiente.

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24 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Historical material was sought through consultations with the most authoritative sources: whether Mr.
Percy Grainger, one of the foremost experts of Elizabethan music or Dr. Gustave Reese of New York University, there was no specialist who was not consulted.3
We also profited from Rudolph Dolmetschs English
recordings, Peter Warlocks collections, the research by
Professor William E. Strunk, Jr. of Cornell University,
the works collected at the Library of Congress in Washington, photographic copies of the ballad The Hunt
is Up as well as older ones. Cinema thus wants, and
knows how to ask for, the collaboration of musicologists and scholars; those, in other words, who would
seem to be furthest away from it.

Il materiale storico venne cercato attraverso le consultazioni pi autorevoli: da Mr. Percy Grainger, uno
fra i pi perfetti conoscitori della musica elisabettiana,
al Dr. Gustave Reese della New York University non
c stato specialista di cui non si sia chiesto il parere.
E furono messe a partito le registrazioni inglesi di
Rudolph Dolmetsch, le collezioni di Peter Warlook,
le ricerche del Prof. William E. Stunk, Jr. della Cornell University, le opere della United States Library
di Washington, con le copie fotografiche della ballata The Hunt is Up nonch di altre pi antiche. Il
cinema vuol dunque, e sa chiederla, la collaborazione
di musicologi e di eruditi; le persone cio, in apparenza, pi lontane da lui.

Naturally we consulted E. W. Naylors well-known

collection of seventeenth-century manuscripts, particularly strong on materials from the Elizabethan era.
It is in one of those manuscripts, for instance, that a
reference to the song Hearts-ease was found: we
were thus able to use it in the filmas, in fact, we
didabsolutely certain of its historical authenticity.
The same applies to the song Where Gripping Grief.
A curious document turned out to be crucial: the
Orchsographie,4 by Thoinot Arbeau,5 one of the most
brilliant French dance masters from around 1620. 6
Truly a gold mine of music from the period, the Orchsographie has provided us with the music for the films
folk dances and balls as well as the songs Ding Dong
Bell, Mistress Mine, and many others.

Naturalmente fu compulsata la famosa collezione di manoscritti secenteschi di E. W. Naylor,

che specialmente ricca in materia shakespeariana.
Della canzone Hearts-ease, per esempio, fu trovata
menzione proprio in quei manoscritti: poteva quindi
essere inserita nel film, come lo fu effettivamente, con
la certezza della massima fedelt storica. Lo stesso
dicasi per la canzone Where Gripping Grief. Addirittura provvidenziale riusc un curioso documento:
la Orchsographie, di Thoinot Arbeau, uno dei pi
brillanti maestri francesi di danza negli anni intorno
al 1588. La Orchosographie, che una vera miniera di
musiche del tempo, ha fornito le composizioni per le
danze popolari ed i balli del film, nonch le canzoni
Ding Dong Bell, Mistress Mine, e parecchie altre.

Among the Italian sources, sacred music, which we

used in choral scenes, was paramount. The opening
scenes are accompanied by the Salve Regina with a background of church bells. Needless to say, Gregorian chant
and Palestrinas music, when needed, have been quoted
literally and thus recorded, in their authentic form identical to the original, in the sound track. For the wedding
scene, we used a performance of the Versicoli7 (sung by
the soloist Henry Macou with responses by an a cappella choir). In the light of the use of many picturesque
and highly suggestive songs such as Un uomo vive a
Babilonia and Via, va via, o Morte by Arne, it is justifiable to claim that the material employed is as close as
any to the time and the locale of Shakespeares original.
Boosted by propitious winds, the exquisite and suggestive musical garden of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries seems to emit its enchanting and deeply persuasive whisper: the score for Romeo and Juliet ranges
from the Nunc Dimittis, composed in the Elizabethan
period, to the Christus Redemptus by Guglielmus Dufay,
works by William Byrd, John Bull, and finally Thomas
Weelkes, author of a famous Fantasia for viols.

Tra le fonti italiane, fu principalissima la musica

ecclesiastica, adoperata nei canti corali. Le scene dapertura del film sono commentate dal Salve Regina
con accompagnamento di campane. Inutile dire che
le musiche Gregoriane e quelle di Palestina (sic), dove
occorressero, sono state citate letteralmente ed incise,
autentiche ed identiche, sulla colonna sonora. Per la
scena nuziale, si eseguirono i Versicoli, (solista Henry
Marcou con risposte di coro a cappella). Se si aggiunga
che vennero opportunamente utilizzate certe arie piene
di colore, e riccamente allusive, quali Un uomo vive a
Babilonia e Via, va via, o Morte di Arne, parr lecito
conchiudere che il materiale adoperato quanto mai
pi vicino ai tempi ed ai luoghi di Shakespeare. La deliziosa e suggestiva foresta musicale dei sec. XVI e XVII
par che, sotto un vento proprizio (sic), si rimetta a dare
il suo murmure incantevole e profondo: passano, nella
partitura di Giulietta e Romeo, il Nunc Dimittis, la cui
composizione risale allepoca elisabettiana, il Christus
Redemptus di Guglielmus Dufay, lavori di William Byrd,
di John Bull, e infine Thomas Weeckes (sic), e lautore
della famosa Fantasia per viole.

The International Film Music Society 2012.

The Problem of Music in a Historical Film

25

As to the more modern elements of the score, the

melodic motive from Tchaikovskys fantasia Romeo
and Juliet was given preeminence, for it seemed to
give most effective expression to the love theme that
underpins the entire drama.

Quanto agli elementi pi moderni, fu tenuto presente soprattutto il motivo melodico della Fantasia
Giulietta e Romeo di Tchaikowski, che parve il pi
adatto ad evocare ed esprimere quel tema damore che
percorre tutto il dramma.

At this point we faced a new challenge: the choice

of instruments. The original instruments were, shall
we say, if not primitive, at least quite different from
our own: and, whatever they were, surely the music
was written for them. Our choice was to add some
color to the modern orchestra by adding some of the
ancient timbres. Whenever it was deemed appropriate, we employed the virginal, a kind of keyboard
harp, and a precursor of both the harpsichord (sound
is produced by plucking a string) and the piano (it is
a keyboard instrument). We also used the clavichord
and the harpsichord, which were already in use by
Shakespeares time. These are primitive versions of
the piano but with a different tone color. They were
most effective in adding color to a score otherwise
developed along modern criteria.

Nasceva qui una nuova difficolt: quella dello strumentale. Gli strumenti dellepoca erano, non diremo
pi primitivi, ma certo assai differenti dai nostri: e,
quali che fossero, le musiche di allora erano scritte
direttamente per essi. Fu dunque deciso di colorire
lorchestra moderna, facendovi entrare alcuni di quei
timbri. Il virginale, sorta di arpa a tasti, precursore
del clavicembalo in quanto il suono vera prodotto a
pizzico, del pianoforte in quanto era sonato per mezzo
di tastiera, venne debitamente impiegato. E cos pure
il clavicordo e larpicordo, che in quel tempo erano gi
stati creati. Si tratta in realt di pianoforti primitivi,
ma con un diverso suono, dimostratisi efficacissimi a
colorire una partitura modernamente elaborata.

The royal family of string instruments consisted

at that time mostly of the viol in all its different variants and the lute. We called upon orchestral players
from Europe to handle these vibrant and delicate
predecessors of our modern string instruments,
and those who had not mastered them already were
able to learn how to use them quickly. Brought back
to life so as to give sound to music written specifically for them, those instruments create and oppose,
against the timbre of the modern orchestra, pockets of
ancient sounds, imbued with the soul of the ancients.
They evoke spirits from far away, and touching spirits
at that, through which the passion of the love story,
the experience of the two Veronese lovers seems to
find itself, reaching us ever more alive, more our own
and immediate.

La famiglia regia degli strumenti a corda era in

quellepoca rappresentata soprattutto dalla viola nei
suoi vari aspetti, e dal liuto. A trattare questi sensibili
e vibranti antenati dei nostri archi furono chiamati
professori dorchestra europei, capaci dimpadronirsi
prontamente della loro tecnica, quando gi non ne
fossero padroni. Ridestati per dar suono a musiche
scritte appositamente per essi, quegli strumenti
creano e contrappongono, al timbro dellorchestra
moderna, delle isole di suono antico, pieno danima
antica. Evocano spiriti lontani, e cos toccanti, in cui
il palpito della storia damore, le vicende degli amanti
veronesi paiono riconoscersi, per giungerci ancor pi
vivi, ancor pi nostri ed immediati.

Cinema owes William Shakespeare, who wrote

about music some of the most touching words ever
written by a poet, a musical homage in exchange of
the gift asked from him.

A Guglielmo Shakespeare, che sulla musica disse

alcune delle pi struggenti cose che la poesia ricordi,
il cinema doveva questo omaggio musicale, in cambio
del dono che gli aveva chiesto.

In any case, we have wished to examine an example that in our opinion encompasses both the more
general question of the use of music in film and the
more particular one regarding the use of music in a
historical film.8

Comunque, abbiamo voluto analizzare partitamente un esempio che ci pare investa in generale la
questione della musica nel film, e in particolare quella
della musica nel film storico.

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26 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Notes
1 Il Problema della Musica nel Film Storico, published in the Italian journal
Cinema: Quindicinale di Divulgazione Cinematografica 1, no. 17 (10 March 1937):
178-80. English translation by Giorgio Biancorosso, edited by Giulio Ongaro.
The text was presumably written by Stothart in English rather than Italian
for the magazine, though no English text has been found. The article was
prefaced with the following remarks from the editors of Cinema: Herbert
Stothart, gi collaboratore di Franz Lehar e di Rudolf Friml, attualmente
compositore e direttore dorchestra alla Metro Goldwyn Mayer, stato
consultato da Cinema sul problema della musica per film. Riferendosi alla
sua pi recente esperienza, Giulietta e Romeo, il M Stothart ha dato concrete
indicazioni su quel problema in generale, e su uno dei suoi aspetti pi
complessi ed attuali (anche per i grandi lavori attualmente in cantiere in
Italia): la musica nel film storico. [Herbert Stothart, formerly a collaborator
of Franz Lehar and Rudolf Friml, currently composer and conductor at
Metro Goldwyn Mayer, was consulted by Cinema on the problem of music
for film. Referring to his most recent experience, Romeo and Juliet, Maestro
Stothart has given us some concrete pointers on the problem in general, and
on one of its most complex and relevant aspects (even for the great works
that are currently in production in Italy): music in a historical film.] Certain
proper names in the Italian text have been corrected/conformed with more
standard spellings, while duly noting (below) the spellings as given in the
text. Capitalized titles have been rendered in italics, and a number of musical
works italicized in the Italian text have been placed instead in quote marks.
2 Stothart is evidently alluding to ideas in The World as Will and Idea (Die Welt
als Wille und Vorstellung) by Arthur Schopenhauer and Remembrance of Things
Past ( la recherche du temps perdu) by Marcel Proust. Schopenhauer writes:
Music is as direct an objectification and copy of the whole will as the world
itself, nay, even as the Ideas, whose multiplied manifestation constitutes the
world of individual things. Music is thus by no means like the other arts, the
copy of the Ideas, but the copy of the will itself, whose objectivity the Ideas are.
This is why the effect of music is so much more powerful and penetrating
than that of the other arts, for they speak only of shadows, but it speaks of
the thing itself, The World as Will and Idea, Book 3, Section 52, p. 333 (3 vols.
trans. R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 18831886). Nowhere in his magnum opus does Schopenhauer define the essence
of the world as being obscure, implacable, or tragic, but rather, that Will
is the thing-in-of-itself, the inner content, the essence of the world (Book
4, Section 54, p. 354). However, perhaps by no coincidence, Schopenhauers
remarks about music quoted above are preceded in his discussion of the
fine arts by a section concerning the nature of tragedy, to which he refers in
introducing the topic of music, that tragedy presents to us at the highest
grades of the objectification of will [the] very conflict with itself in terrible
magnitude and distinctness (330). In Remembrance of Things Past (Vol. 2),
in the segment of The Captive entitled The Verdurins Quarrel with
Charlus,Proust writes of his fictional composer, Vinteuil: Each artist
seems thus to be the native of an unknown country, which he himself has
forgotten, different from that from which will emerge, making for the earth,
another great artist. When all is said, Vinteuil, in his latest works, seemed
to have drawn nearer to that unknown country When his vision of the
universe is modified, purified, becomes more adapted to his memory of the
country of his heart, it is only natural that this should be expressed by a
general alteration of sounds in the musician, as of colors in the painter. []
The lost country composers do not actually remember, but each of them
remains all his life somehow attuned to it; he is wild with joy when he is
singing the airs of his native land, betrays it at times in his thirst for fame,
but then, in seeking fame, turns back upon it, and it is only when he despises
it that he finds it when he utters, whatever the subject with which he is
dealing, that peculiar strain the monotony of whichfor whatever its subject
it remains identical in itselfproves the permanence of the elements that
compose his soul, Remembrance of Things Past (trans. C. K. S. Moncrieff; Vol.
2; New York: Random House, 1932), 558-59. But Proust does not say that it

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is everyday life that causes the artist to forget his unknown country, or, as
Stothart calls it, lost land. To make things even more interesting, in a later
section of Prousts novel, The Past Recaptured, one of the characters, Mme
de Cambremer, exclaims, Read over again what Schopenhauer says about
music (Remembrance,Vol. 2, 1092), and commentators have suggested that
Proust was strongly influenced by Schopenhauers ideas, especially about
music; see Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Proust the Musician (trans. Derrick Puffett;
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), who quotes Anne Henry,
declaring that Vinteuils score was written by Schopenhauer (p. 7). Though
it is not known whether Stothart was prompted to read Schopenhauer from
reading Proust, his widow, Mary, and orchestrator Leo Arnaud, related to
one of us (Rosar) that he was an erstwhile Wagnerian. He therefore might
well have been aware of Schopenhauers influence on Wagners thinking;
for example, Section 52 from The World as Will and Idea was reproduced as a
supplement (On the Metaphysics of Music) in Wagners book, Beethoven
(trans. Edward Dannreuther; London: William Reeves, 1880).
3 Two letters from Percy Grainger to Stothart, one dated 23 February 1936,
the other 25 February 1936, are in the possession of the Herbert Stothart
Estate, evidently in response to communications from Stothart (not found).
At the time, Grainger was residing in the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago. In
the first letter, Grainger writes: Dear Mr. Stothart, I promised to send you
some stenciled music (G. de Machaut, 13th century English, C. le Jeune, John
Jenkins String Fantasy, Negro American & Russian Folkharmonisations),
but unfortunately I could not do so until I got back to New York, where
the bulk of my music lies. But today I am sending you these stencils, &
also the synopsis-book of my 12 Melbourne lectures. I believe I did give
you that page Sources of Information (giving titles of books, addresses of
publishers, manufacturers of records, etc.) when we met in Los Angeles. If I
am wrong about this, please let me know & I will send it. I believe that Mr.
Carl Dolmetschs (son of Arnold Dolmetsch) address is at present as follows:
C/O Dr. Charles W. Hughes, 28 Ralph Ave., White Plains, N.Y. If there is
anything else that I have neglected, please let me know. Remembering our
meeting in Los Angeles with much pleasure, Yours cordially, Percy Grainger.
N.B. I am asking my publishers to send various things of mine that have an
old English flavor. Presumably the synopsis of 12 lectures to which Grainger
refers is Music: A Commonsense View of All Types. A Synopsis of Lectures Delivered
for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (Sydney: John Sands, 1934). In the
second letter, Grainger writes: I now have Mr. Carl Dolmetschs correct
address: 401 West 118th St., New York City, N.Y. He sails for Europe on
March 18, I understand. He is going to be in Chicago before that. I believe
he could be more useful on the Shakespeare film (suggesting music of the
period) than anyone in America I know of. No doubt he could postpone his
departure. Best Regards, Percy Grainger. With the two letters is a separate
list of names, addresses, and phone numbers, some of them appearing to be
in Graingers hand, but the last two evidently in Stotharts: Willem Durieux
(string ensemble), 135 West 74 St. NYC Trafalgar 7-4095; Dr. Charles W.
Hughes (old Spanish music), 28 Ralph Ave., White Plains, N.Y. (Hunter
College); Professor Gustave Reese, Publication Dept., G. Schirmer, 3 East 43
St.; NYC, Henry Cowell, School of Social Research, N.Y., and Percy Grainger,
7 Cromwell, Piano [?], White Plains, N.Y. For further details about those
consulted in the musicological research for Romeo and Juliet, see Linda
Schubert, A Brilliant New Symphonic Effect: The New Early Music in
Stotharts Score for Romeo and Juliet (1936) (this issue).
4 Stothart had Orcheosographie.
5 Stothart had Toinet.
6 Stothart had 1620 (Arbeau died in 1595).
7 Versicles?
8 For Stotharts other published writings on film music, see The Place of
Music in the Motion Picture, Film Daily (13 July 1933); Film Music, in
Behind the Screen: How Films are Made, ed. Stephen Watts (New York: Dodge
Publishing Co., 1938); Film Music through the Years, New York Times (7
December 1941); and The Orchestra: Hollywoods Most Versatile Actor,
Film Music Notes 3, no. 5 (1944): n.p.

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