I've Got the Tune

Last updated
I've Got The Tune
Radio opera by Marc Blitzstein
Librettist Marc Blitzstein
LanguageEnglish
Premiere
October 24, 1937 (1937-10-24)
Broadcast on WABC from Manhattan, New York

I've Got the Tune is an American radio opera with words and music by Marc Blitzstein. Dedicated to Orson Welles, it was commissioned by CBS Radio for its experimental series, the Columbia Workshop . Its first performance was broadcast October 24, 1937, with a cast that included the composer, Shirley Booth, Lotte Lenya and Norman Lloyd. The performance was conducted by Bernard Herrmann.

Contents

Background

Irving Reis had worked with Marc Blitzstein on the 1937 film The Spanish Earth . [1] As Reis was the founder of the Columbia Workshop, it is probably through their collaborative work on the film that they became acquainted with one another, and how the CBS commission came about. [2] A contract was drawn up, dated August 12, 1937, requesting a "musical dramatic work … suitable for radio broadcasting" and specifying limits on the number of performers. Blitzstein wrote for seven principal players and an orchestra of twenty-four. [2]

The work was dedicated to Orson Welles, [3] who was to have played the role of the composer, Mr. Musiker, in the CBS Radio premiere. Blitzstein took over the part himself when Welles was consumed with rehearsals for the Mercury Theatre's debut stage production, Caesar . [4] : 121 

Along with The Cradle Will Rock and his subsequent work, No For an Answer, I've Got the Tune represents a kind of lyric theatre that grew out of European and American traditions of the 1920s and came into its own by the mid-1930s. The resulting works were "unique amalgams of [Blitzstein's] own twentieth-century idiom with the adopted techniques clearly within the strict proletarian precepts he had formulated under the guidance of social concepts taught and practiced by Hanns Eisler, along with Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill." [5]

Synopsis

Scene 1

Walking up Broadway. [6] Mr. Musiker introduces himself as a composer with a tune lacking a text. He is in search of a secretary to help find a text. He interviews Beetzie, a stenographer, while they both walk up Broadway ("Beetzie is my name"). Musiker explains his task of trying to find the right words to fit the tune, singing it to Beetzie ("Every measure note for note"). Although Beetzie finds Musiker's tune "screwy" she takes the job.

Scene 2

Madame Arbutus's apartment. Musiker and Beetzie visit Madame Arbutus from Stuttgart, a "priestess of the new music, the new poetry, the new art." She describes her creative process ("On scotch and art"). Musiker tries to play his melody for he but she interrupts, extemporizing her version of the tune ("The moon is a happy cheese tonight"). Upon exclaiming ""Ah! it is so grand to be so bored! You can afford the kind of music you cannot stand," Beetzie says to Musiker "Let's get out of here!"

Scene 3

A scene in a wood. Beetzie and Musiker hide behind a bush as they watch Captain Bristlepunkt and his followers, the Purple Shirties, induct Private Aloysius Schnook as a new recruit. The Purple Shirties sing their version of Musiker's tune ("How peaceful is our captain!"). The induction ceremony begins as Schnook reveals he joined only to retain his business clients. Captain Bristlepunkt urges Schnook to vow death to the mongrels who "run the stores and banks in ev’ry town", whips Schnook, and then has Schnook whip himself. Horrified by the scene, Beetzie and Musiker run away.

Scene 4

An apartment building. While relaxing on a building's roof, Musiker prevents a Suicide from killing herself ("And so, the last thing too"). She sings her own version of Musiker's tune ("There is a girl I know") before fleeing Musiker's grasp as she leaps off the roof.

Scene 5

Beetzie and Musiker recount the transformations of the tune indicative of the places they have been around the world: A Chinese lullaby, an Italian organ-grinder waltz, a Tin Pan Alley song ("The Hangover Blues"), and an African war dance. They then encounter a group of high school students celebrating Field Day, singing leftist songs such as "Pie in the Sky," "Hold the Fort" and "Solidarity Forever." The children immediately adapt Musiker's tune ("Because this is our day"). Excited, Musiker proclaims "Here's where my tune belongs!" He offers to give it to the group, but a high schooler responds "Mister, you can't—it's ours already." The group then sings the tune complete with the words "Because this is our day! We’re singing songs of May! That’s why we sing today! Because we’ll rule tomorrow, we can sing today!"

Sources and plot analysis

In I've Got the Tune Blitzstein explores the composer's role in society. [2] The message he apparently wanted to convey was that an artist can overcome isolation by serving the people. [7] It also dealt with a serious socially-relevant theme that Blitzstein considered to be necessary for a significant twentieth-century work. [8]

Blitzstein's sketches shed light on the sources for inspiration and his original intentions. The idea of a journeying idealist accompanied by a practical-minded sidekick could have based on Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, which is mentioned several times in Blitzstein's previous project The Spanish Earth. [7] Earlier drafts have Beetzie's name as "Gracie" — an indication that at one point Blitzstein modeled the secretary on Gracie Allen, a parallel apparent in Shirley Booth's delivery with a similar voice. [7]

Blitzstein originally thought of a tango for the salon scene led by "Mrs. Plush." This was to be a parody of Josephine Porter Boardman Crane, for whom Blitzstein once performed "The Rich" from The Cradle Will Rock , only to be met with incomprehension by Crane. [9] Captain Bristlepunkt and the Purple Shirties are an amalgam of the Nazi brown shirts and the Italian fascist black shirts. Bristlepunkt is clearly a mixture of Hitler and Mussolini. [7] The sketches are more explicit in articulating Antisemitism by references (later deleted) to the "Lewish race." [9]

At one point he considered a male part for The Suicide, not wanting to draw attention to his wife's death from anorexia the previous year. [7] In early drafts Blitzstein had planned an additional scene in Tin Pan Alley, at the office of Finaigler, Kibitz and McGuire, who would have already adapted the tune. ("The Hangover Blues" is a vestige of this discarded scene.) [9] Rather than a "Field Day," Blitzstein had intended the final scene to take place on May Day with the high school children assembling at Union Square in Manhattan, a known location for political activism and communist rallies. [7]

Productions

RoleVoice typePremiere Cast, October 24, 1937
Conductor: Bernard Herrmann 		First staged production; Blitzstein
playing the piano, February 6, 1938
Musikerspeaking role Marc Blitzstein Marc Blitzstein
BeetzieMezzo-soprano Shirley Booth Peggy Coudray
Madame ArbutusSoprano Adelaide Klein Adelaide Klein
Captain Bristlepunkt Kenny Delmar Kenny Delmar
Private Aloysius SchnookTenor Norman Lloyd Norman Lloyd
The SuicideSoprano Lotte Lenya Olive Stanton
A Choral Director Hiram Sherman Maynard Holmes

Broadcast

As reported, the live broadcast was in danger of going over-time. Despite signaling from the broadcast crew, conductor Bernard Herrmann didn't see any of the signalling but finished the work on time. [10]

"It was a beautiful little work of Marc's," wrote Norman Lloyd. "In the booth at CBS while we did it sat Orson Welles, John Houseman and Kurt Weill. There were always exciting people around — people who became legends, but in those days we were all just working." [11] : 52 

Reception

Richard Gilbert of Scribner's Magazine praised the work over recent CBS commissions, remarking on the work's idiomatic use of radio as well as its "substance," "vitality" and "comparative simplicity." [12] On the other hand, Aaron Copland noted the work's "hectic, nervous mood" and found "a synthetic quality about it that no amount of ingenuity and talent can hide." [12]

Adaptations

I've Got the Tune received its stage premiere on February 6, 1938, in a program that included works by Aaron Copland, Hanns Eisler, Lehman Engel, Alex North, Paul Bowles, Earl Robinson, Harold Rome, Virgil Thomson and Count Basie. The concert was a benefit for the magazine The New Masses and took place at the 46th Street Theatre. [12] The performance presented what was done on air. [13] The program was hosted by Orson Welles. [4] : 121  [14] : 309 

Welles arranged for the work to be reprised at the Mercury Theatre on two Sunday nights in February 1938. [4] : 121  At its first presentation (February 20, 1938) it shared the bill with Ben Bengal's Plant in the Sun. [14] : 310  [15]

Despite the staged performance, Variety criticized the performance as a rendition of what was done on air, noting that the work's "present construction defeats its intentions." Declaring it being created for uncritical left leaning audiences, Variety said that the main problem was that it had several episodes which lack integration with each other. The unnamed critic found the tune of the title had an "evasive quality" that prevents the audience from remembering it and distances them from the story. [13] [16]

The work's Boston premiere took place December 5, 1970, at Harvard's Lowell House, in an adaptation by (and starring) Leonard Lehrman, attended by Blitzstein's nephew Christopher Davis and Leonard Bernstein. Musiker himself was beaten as "the mongrel", "Field Day" became "May Day," as in Blitzstein's original plan, the "Hangover Blues" scene was reinstated, and the final chorus became appropriately militant. Press response was very positive. This was probably the most successful performance the work ever had. Most recent were three performances honoring the 2005 Blitzstein Centennial. A recording on Original Cast Records incorporated the Suicide Scene from the 1970 production, recorded by WHRB.

Recordings

A transcription of the broadcast was issued by Musicraft Records GM 212/281 in late 1937. [14] : 308  The 1970 Boston premiere was recorded by WBAI Dec. 8, 1970 and first broadcast in 1995. Original Cast Records CD OC 6217 of the Blitzstein Centennial Concerts of Feb. 27, Mar. 5 & Mar. 6, 2005 included the complete 2005 production, except for Scene 4, taken from 1970.

Miscellaneous

Blitzstein donated the manuscript for I've Got The Tune to an auction held February 20, 1939, at Hotel Delmonico, for the benefit of German refugees. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orson Welles</span> American filmmaker and actor (1915–1985)

George Orson Welles was an American director, actor, producer, and screenwriter who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time.

"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera. The song sings about a knife-wielding criminal of the London underworld from the musical named Macheath, the "Mack the Knife" of the title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Blitzstein</span> American composer

Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed translation/adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937), and he contributed two songs to the original 1960 production of Hellman's play Toys in the Attic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Houseman</span> British-American actor and film producer (1902–1988)

John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane and his collaboration, as producer of The Blue Dahlia, with writer Raymond Chandler on the screenplay. He is perhaps best known for his role as Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the film The Paper Chase (1973), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role as Kingsfield in the 1978 television series adaptation.

<i>Cradle Will Rock</i> 1999 American historical drama film

Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 American historical drama film written, produced and directed by Tim Robbins. The story fictionalizes the true events that surrounded the development of the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein; it adapts history to create an account of the original production, bringing in other stories of the time to produce a social commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the labor movement at the time and the corresponding appeal of socialism and communism among many intellectuals, artists and working-class people in the same period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercury Theatre</span> Former independent repertory theatre company in New York City

The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also released promptbooks and phonographic recordings of four Shakespeare works for use in schools.

<i>The Cradle Will Rock</i> Musical

The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. Set in Steeltown, USA, the Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed includes a panoply of social figures. It follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers and combat the powerful industrialist Mr. Mister, who controls the town's factory, press, church, and social organization. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, although Blitzstein included popular song styles of the time.

<i>Algiers</i> (film) 1938 American drama film

Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. Written by John Howard Lawson, the film is about a notorious French jewel thief hiding in the labyrinthine native quarter of Algiers known as the Casbah. Feeling imprisoned by his self-imposed exile, he is drawn out of hiding by a beautiful French tourist who reminds him of happier times in Paris. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name.

<i>Too Much Johnson</i> (1938 film) 1938 film by Orson Welles

Too Much Johnson is a 1938 American silent comedy film written and directed by Orson Welles. An unfinished film component of a stage production, it was made three years before Welles directed Citizen Kane, but it was never publicly screened. It was shot to be integrated into Welles's Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gillette's 1894 comedy, but the film sequences could not be shown due to the absence of projection facilities at the venue, the Stony Creek Theatre in Connecticut. The resulting plot confusion reportedly contributed to the stage production's failure.

Regina is an opera by Marc Blitzstein, to his own libretto based on the play The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman. It was completed in 1948 and premiered the next year. Blitzstein chose this source in order to make a strong statement against capitalism. In three acts, the musical style has been described as new American verismo, abounding in the use of spirituals, Victorian parlour music, dance forms, ragtime, aria and large, symphonic score.

<i>The Spanish Earth</i> 1937 film

The Spanish Earth is a 1937 anti-fascist film made during the Spanish Civil War in support of the democratically elected Republicans, whose forces included a wide range from the political left like communists, socialists, anarchists, to moderates like centrists, and liberalist elements. The film was directed by Joris Ivens, written by John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, narrated by Orson Welles and re-recorded by Hemingway, with music composed by Marc Blitzstein and arranged by Virgil Thomson.

<i>Pins and Needles</i>

Pins and Needles (1937) is a musical revue with a book by Arthur Arent, Marc Blitzstein, Emmanuel Eisenberg, Charles Friedman, David Gregory, Joseph Schrank, Arnold B. Horwitt, John Latouche, and Harold Rome, and music and lyrics by Rome. The title Pins and Needles was created by Max Danish, long-time editor of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU)'s newspaper Justice.

The Airborne Symphony is a work by American composer Marc Blitzstein for narrator, vocal soloists, male chorus, and large orchestra that premiered April 1–2, 1946. A history of human flight, the symphony uses music that the United States Army Air Forces, in which Blitzstein served during the World War II, originally commissioned for use in film.

<i>Me and Orson Welles</i> 2008 film

Me and Orson Welles is a 2008 period drama film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and Claire Danes. Based on Robert Kaplow's novel of the same name, the story, set in 1937 New York, tells of a teenager hired to perform in Orson Welles's groundbreaking stage adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar who becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">48th Street Theatre</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The 48th Street Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 157 West 48th Street in Manhattan. It was built by longtime Broadway producer William A. Brady and designed by architect William Albert Swasey. The venue was also called the Equity 48th Street Theatre (1922–25) and the Windsor Theatre (1937–43).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orson Welles theatre credits</span>

This is a comprehensive listing of the theatre work of Orson Welles.

There isn't one person, I suppose, in a million, who knows that I was ever in the theatre.

The Comedy Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan that opened in 1909. It presented the first Broadway appearances of Katharine Cornell and Ruth Draper, as well as Eugene O'Neill's first Broadway play. Shuttered in the wake of the Depression, it reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre — the venue for Orson Welles's groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and other productions for the Mercury Theatre repertory company. In 1939 it began presenting classic Yiddish theatre. The building was demolished in 1942.

<i>Caesar</i> (Mercury Theatre) 1937 stage play by Orson Welles

Caesar is the title of Orson Welles's innovative 1937 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a modern-dress bare-stage production that evoked comparison to contemporary Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Considered Welles's highest achievement in the theatre, it premiered November 11, 1937, as the first production of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented an acclaimed series of productions on Broadway through 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maybelle Marston</span> American opera singer

Maybelle Zenobia Berretta Marston was an American contralto singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<i>Orson Rehearsed</i> 2021 film/opera by Daron Hagen

Orson Rehearsed is a 2021 American independent film by Daron Hagen about Orson Welles which combines elements of opera film, documentary film, and Surrealist cinema. The narrative follows a 2018 staged production of Hagen's eleventh opera integrating extensive pre-shot films and electro-acoustic tracks in which, poised in the bardo between life and death on the night of his demise, Welles takes stock of his life. Directed by Hagen based on his own screenplay and musical score, the film was produced by Burning Sled Media and the Chicago College of Performing Arts. It stars Robert Orth, Robert Frankenberry, and Omar Mulero as Welles, and features the Fifth House Ensemble.

References

  1. ↑ Pollack 2012, p. 196.
  2. 1 2 3 Pollack 2012, p. 199.
  3. ↑ "I've Got the Tune". The Marc Blitzstein Web Site. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
  4. 1 2 3 Welles, Orson; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (afterword) (1994). Pepper, James (ed.). The Cradle Will Rock: An Original Screenplay. Santa Barbara, California: Santa Teresa Press. ISBN   0-944166-06-7.
  5. ↑ Robert J. Dietz, "Marc Blitzstein and the "Agit-Prop" Theatre of the 1930s," Anuario Interamericano de Investigacion Musical, vol. 6 (1970), p. 65. (JSTOR access by subscription)
  6. ↑ Pollack 2012, p. 200-201.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pollack 2012, p. 201.
  8. ↑ Robert J. Dietz, "Marc Blitzstein and the "Agit-Prop" Theatre of the 1930s," Anuario Interamericano de Investigacion Musical, vol. 6 (1970), p. 64. (JSTOR access by subscription)
  9. 1 2 3 Pollack 2012, p. 202.
  10. ↑ Robert Reinhart, "Drama in Control Room Overshadows Irving Reis' CBS Lads and Lassies," Variety (October 27, 1937), 38.
  11. ↑ Lloyd, Norman (1993) [1990]. Stages of Life in Theatre, Film and Television. New York: Limelight Editions. ISBN   9780879101664.
  12. 1 2 3 Pollack 2012, p. 204.
  13. 1 2 "Dramatizing Air Show," Variety (March 23, 1938), p. 58.
  14. 1 2 3 Lehrman, Leonard (2005). Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN   9780313300271.
  15. ↑ "'Plant in Sun' Repeated … Also 'I've Got the Tune'". The New York Times. February 21, 1938. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  16. ↑ "New Theatre League," Variety (February 23, 1938), p. 58.
  17. ↑ Pollack 2012, p. 198.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.