Bad Boy Made Good – The Revival of George Antheil’s 1924 Ballet mécanique (2 DVDs) (2006)
Directors of documentary: Ron Frank & Paul D. Lehrman
Narrator: Tony Kahn
First complete concert performance of Ballet mécanique, by University of Massachusetts Lowell Percussion Ensemble & 16 player pianos
Extended interviews with six friends of Antheil on Extras DVD
Studio: Electronic Music Foundation/Ballet mécanique Project/EMF DVD 060
Video: 16:9 & 4:3 color
Audio: PCM Stereo & mono
Extras: Complete premiere concert of the original orchestration, the Leger/Murphy 1925 B&W silent film Ballet mécanique synced with a shortened version of the Antheil score, Extended interviews with Charles Amirkhanian, Henry Brant, David Raksin, Benjamin Lees, Truman Rex Fisher and Stanley Burnshaw
Length: Documentary – 72 min.; Extras – 101 min.
Rating: *****
This award-winning documentary was released in 2006 and broadcast on PBS, but somehow we just learned about it. It should be a must-have for any music lover into off-the-beaten-track music. In fact, there’s a great deal of beating going on in Antheil’s amazing cacaphonic piece: The San Francisco Examiner reviewed a performance of this newly-perfected version – which for the first time presents the work just as Antheil envisioned it in 1924 but found impossible to mount due to the technical challenges of synchronizing 16 player pianos. They said “Not since the meteor shower that wiped out the dinosaurs have you heard such a racket.”
That pretty well summarizes this noisy score, which was basically made possible by the work of MIDI expert Paul Lehrman, using a bank of Yamaha Disklaviers and some computer controls. Besides the 16 player pianos, Ballet mécanique also uses 3 xylophones, 4 bass drums, two regular pianos, 7 electric bells, a tamtam, a siren, and 3 airplane propellers. The latter two are played from recordings, but when Antheil tried to present his work in New York City in 1927 to follow up on its successful premiere in Paris, the siren refused to sound until it had been wound up thoroughly (then went off after the piece was over), and the propellers were pointed at the audience and nearly blew them away when they came on.
The documentary is a portrayal of both the forward-looking and innovative compositions and life of George Antheil, and the saga of his half-hour-long futurist noise composition which originally set Paris on its ear in 1924. Born in New Jersey, the composer who became known as the “Bad Boy of Music” was the toast of Paris, with friends including Stravinsky, Gershwin, Picasso, Hemingway, Joyce and Ezra Pound. I had forgotten that after coming back to the U.S. broke and forgotten, he was lured to Hollywood where he successfully composed the music for scores of films. Also that he was paranoid and typed long single-spaced diatribes to people he didn’t like. Antheil was definitely a wild musical rebel, and the Ballet mécanique is probably his most rebellious composition. His position in music history is important and more than just a footnote.
The fascinating documentary is the main interest here. The actual performance of the original work by the student group from the U. of Massachusetts is difficult to sit thru – I admit I had to fast forward several times. The half-length score accompanying the Leger film is more palatable; the two have never been matched up before. It’s a shame the sound for the complete performance is only PCM stereo – this is a work that cries out for hi-res multichannel reproduction to make its point. (It was recorded Ambisonically, but only in a ten-minute version.) Less effective is the standard CD that was issued with the DVDs (EMF CD 020). (See below) The Ballet mécanique is the featured work here, but just in standard 44.1K CD audio – at least the video coverage added some interest to the proceedings. The CD has six other percussion selections (TrackList below). The opening work by Cage and Harrison is a very early one and sounds almost staid next to the others. The second multi-player-piano piece by Richard Grayson is a premiere, and seems to be sort of a rehearsal for the 16 player pianos of the Antheil work. The movement from Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony may be the most listenable thing on the CD – in its transcription for player pianos reminding me of the audiophile discs by Harold Farberman and his percussion ensemble for F.I.M.
The six extended interviews on the second DVD are some of the most worthwhile items I have seen in any DVD extras section. The interviewees provide not only needed tidbits about Antheil, but also interesting views into their own artistic lives. The interviews were videotaped in 2002 and several of the older artists/composers have since passed away. I once interviewed David Raksin (composer of “Laura”) and he always had some great stories to tell, as he does here – about not only Antheil in Hollywood, but also about George Gershwin and others. Composer Charles Amirkhanian was the executor of Antheil’s music, and describes how that came about. Benjamin Lees has a wonderful (unprintable) story about Antheil, with whom he studied for some years. Radio host Truman Rex Fisher states that he much prefers Antheil’s brand of musical iconoclasm to Charles Ives’, whose contrariness he feels not quite believable. Stanley Burnshaw – who was in his 90s – had terrific stories about his life in Paris with the usual musical lights, including Gershwin. It was also great to see and hear the late Henry Brant, of whom I had never even seen a still photo. He was just as wildly innovative in his highly individual way as Antheil, being among other things a 20th century Gabrieli with his spatial music.
CD TrackList:
1. Double Music, for 4 percussionists (collaboration with Lou Harrison) – Composed by John Cage
2. Shoot The Piano Player, for player piano & electronics
- Composed by Richard Grayson
3. Mister 528, for multiple player pianos & electronics –
Composed by Richard Grayson
4. Ritmica No.5, for 11 percussionists –
Composed by Amadeo Roldan
5. Ritmica No. 6, for percussion ensemble
- Composed by Amadeo Roldan
6. Symphony No. 4 in A major ("Italian"), Op. 90 Finale "Saltarello-Presto"
- Composed by Felix Mendelssohn
7. Ballet mécanique, for pianola, 2 pianos, 3 airplane propellers, siren & percussion, W. 156b –
Composed by George Antheil
— John Sunier
