{"id":2310,"date":"2022-05-31T19:53:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T23:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2310"},"modified":"2022-05-31T20:00:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T00:00:43","slug":"how-i-wish-we-had-something-like-that-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2022\/05\/how-i-wish-we-had-something-like-that-today.html","title":{"rendered":"“How I Wish We Had Something Like That Today”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Fill in the blanks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cThis was performed and broadcast to millions<\/em> of people. And something that should resonate with all of us today is the confluence of fine art and popular art and a mass medium \u2013 something we\u2019ve lost in this era, when we\u2019re being sliced into ever narrower shards of demographics. The brilliance of what xxx and xxx did was to embrace all of us, in the best [Walt] Whitman spirit. To make all of us one nation, one community. How I wish we had something like that today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blanks read \u201cBernard Herrmann\u201d and \u201cNorman Corwin.\u201d The speaker is Murray Horwitz, former head of cultural programing for National Public Radio. And the source is my latest \u201cMore than Music\u201d NPR documentary, broadcast yesterday. Its topic: the radio plays of the 1930s and 1940s generally, and the Corwin\/Herrmann \u201cWhitman\u201d (June 20, 1944) specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hear yesterday’s 50-minute show, click\u00a0here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Murray\u2019s lead, I chime in to suggest that \u201cWhitman\u201d (starring Charles Laughton, music by Herrmann, scripted and produced by Corwin) was \u201can act of democratic faith in a democratic American audience,\u201d achieving \u201ca kind of optimum engagement, reaching the largest possible audience without diluting Whitman\u2019s verse. We\u2019re very far from that ideal in today\u2019s world of social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here again is Murray, from the same show: \u201cRadio was IT \u2013 the only broadcast medium. And there were only four national networks. So pretty much everybody in the country was listening to the same stuff.\u201d  And the stuff was a product of live commercial broadcasting, often presented non-commercially without ads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The further pertinence of \u201cWhitman\u201d is inescapable. He espoused inclusive American ideals. He healed the ripped national fabric after the Civil War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does the Herrmann\/Corwin \u201cWhitman\u201d matter today? In effect, it\u2019s a 30-minute composition for narrator and orchestra, awaiting attention. The baritone William Sharp, who takes the part of Whitman in the PostClassical Ensemble \u201cWhitman\u201d recording<\/a><\/strong> on Naxos, says: \u201cIt speaks to us so strongly,\u201d a \u201cmagically wonderful thing\u201d to hear were orchestras to program it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Herrmann is part of the \u201cnew paradigm<\/strong>\u201d <\/a>\u2013 the new narrative for American classical music \u2013 that I propose in my book Dvorak\u2019s Prophecy<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. I continue to regard him as the most under-rated 20th<\/sup> century American composer<\/a><\/strong>. Why aren\u2019t our orchestras programing his Moby Dick<\/em> cantata? It\u2019s certainly not because Herrmann doesn\u2019t sell. We\u2019re talking about the composer of Psycho<\/em>, Vertigo<\/em>, and Citizen Kane<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participants in yesterday\u2019s radio show, in addition to Murray and Bill, include Alex Ross of The New Yorker<\/em> (a huge Herrmann fan) and the Whitman scholar Karen Karbenier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next \u201cMore than Music\u201d NPR documentary will air July 4. The topic (tracking Mark Clague\u2019s superb new book) is the unlikely history of the \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d \u2013 which we\u2019ll hear performed by Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, and Jose Feliciano, among others. And we\u2019ll sample verses you\u2019ve never heard before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, my thanks to Rupert Allman and Jenn White of WAMU\u2019s \u201c1A\u201d for believing in what Rupert calls \u201clong-form radio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u201clistener\u2019s guide\u201d follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

00:00 \u2013 We start with the shower scene from Psycho, \u201cto get everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2:30 \u2013 Orson Welles and the birth of radio drama: \u201cThe War of the Worlds\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8:07 \u2013 Bernard Herrmann hypnotically sets Whitman\u2019s paean to the grass — \u201chandkerchief of the lord\u201d \u2013 consecrating the young Civil War dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12:30 \u2013 Herrmann\u2019s unforgettable invocation of \u201cAmerica the Beautiful,\u201d a \u201cteeming nation of nations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15:50 \u2013 Whitman and Herrmann extol a great democratic citizenry, \u201cimmense in passion, pulse, and power.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

19:57 \u2013 Murray Horwitz: \u201cRadio was IT.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21:12 \u2013 Radio\u2019s biggest star: FDR. The first \u201cfireside chat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24:29 \u2013 Whitman\u2019s \u201cradical vision of democracy\u201d explored by Whitman scholar Karen Karbinier (\u201cHe strikes a perfect balance between individuality and community\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

31:29 \u2013 Dorothy Herrmann describes her notoriously irascible father reacting to a prelminary screening of Psycho<\/em> (\u201cDid you ever see such a piece of crap?\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

32:54 \u2013 Herrmann\u2019s sublime Clarinet Quintet, featuring clarinetist David Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

39:04 \u2013 Alex Ross on Herrmann (\u201cone of the most original composers of any century,\u201d \u201ca very great talent, one that we\u2019re still very far from appreciating and celebrating in full.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To purchase a related Bernard Herrmann DVD (\u201cBeyond \u2018Psycho\u2019\u201d), click here<\/strong>.   <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fill in the blanks: \u201cThis was performed and broadcast to millions of people. And something that should resonate with all of us today is the confluence of fine art and popular art and a mass medium \u2013 something we\u2019ve lost in this era, when we\u2019re being sliced into ever narrower shards of demographics. The brilliance of what […]<\/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-2310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Bg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310","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=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}