{"id":1887,"date":"2020-10-15T12:35:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T16:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2020-10-15T12:35:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T16:35:45","slug":"bernard-herrmanns-whitman-a-subversive-yet-inspirational-entertainment-for-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2020\/10\/bernard-herrmanns-whitman-a-subversive-yet-inspirational-entertainment-for-today.html","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Herrmann&#8217;s &#8220;Whitman&#8221; &#8212; A Subversive Yet Inspirational Entertainment for Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3XM6wpfTv7c?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1944, Bernard Herrmann collaborated with the producer Norman Corwin on \u201cWhitman,\u201d a half-hour dramatic presentation invoking America\u2019s iconic poet to rally the home front during World War II. It was heard by millions of listeners. It\u2019s a classic exemplar of a forgotten creative genre: the radio drama.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The clip at the top of this column samples a moment of hypnotic eloquence: Herrmann\u2019s treatment of Whitman\u2019s famous meditation on the graveyard grass \u2013 witness to Civil War dead, young and old. This derives not from the original broadcast, with Charles Laughton, but from a new PostClassical Ensemble Naxos CD, featuring William Sharp as Whitman and PCE eloquently conducted by Angel Gil-Ordonez. The remarkable visual treatment, by Peter Bogdanoff, derives from PCE\u2019s latest \u201cMore than Music\u201d film: \u201cBeyond\u00a0<em>Psycho<\/em>\u2013 The Musical Genius of Bernard Herrmann.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yTPWJWLKSy8\">Here<\/a><\/strong> is the entire film, which features commentary by Angel and myself &#8212; plus Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener, Murray Horwitz on radio drama, Dorothy Herrmann on first seeing <em>Psycho <\/em>with \u201cDaddy,\u201d and Alex Ross on Herrmann\u2019s insufficiently appreciated legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.naxos.com\/feature\/Bernard-Herrmann.asp\">Here<\/a>\u00a0is more on the CD, which also features terrific performances of Herrmann\u2019s Clarinet Quintet (my favorite chamber work by any American) and his\u00a0<em>Psycho<\/em> Narrative for string orchestra (not to be confused with the better-known, and far inferior,\u00a0<em>Psycho\u00a0<\/em>Suite) \u2013 a portrait of Herrmann \u201cin the round.\u201d\u00a0As readers of this blog may recall, I consider Herrmann the most under-rated 20<sup>th<\/sup>century American composer. Here is something Alex Ross says in our film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBernard Herrmann was absolutely one of the most original 20<sup>th<\/sup>-century composers of any country. I\u2019m very happy that this CD is expanding our sense of Herrmann\u2019s achievement, bringing a little known score to light . . . What strikes me about this combination of Herrmann pieces is that the emotional range is huge. It\u2019s a very great talent that\u2019s on display here, one that we\u2019re very far from appreciating and celebrating in full.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is something Murray Horwitz says in our film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn 1944, radio was IT \u2013 the first instant mass medium. Corwin\u2019s radio dramas reached as many as 60 million listeners \u2013 that\u2019s nearly half the American population. . . . This confluence of fine art and a mass medium is something we\u2019ve lost today.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And here, from the film, is Bill Sharp:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I hear Whitman\u2019s words illuminated by Herrmann\u2019s music, I really find it quite overwhelming. It speaks to us today on so many levels \u2013 when you hear \u2018The President and all the government are here for you, not the other way around.\u2019 . . . It\u2019s just incredibly beautiful. I think that for modern audiences and presenters, it could be a magically wonderful thing to hear, very different from what audiences expect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, finally, here is Walt Whitman, supported by Bernard Herrmann, extolling American democracy, \u201ca teeming nation of nations\u201d \u2013 words that today sound both inspirational and&nbsp;&nbsp;subversive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tdEHNWXnvCA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1944, Bernard Herrmann collaborated with the producer Norman Corwin on \u201cWhitman,\u201d a half-hour dramatic presentation invoking America\u2019s iconic poet to rally the home front during World War II. It was heard by millions of listeners. It\u2019s a classic exemplar of a forgotten creative genre: the radio drama.&nbsp; The clip at the top of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-ur","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1893,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions\/1893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}