Miles Massicotte

Lecture-Recital Abstract
11/30/17

Rescuing George Antheil: Exploring the composer’s treatment of “Jazz” in his Sonate Sauvage
for solo piano

In our time the most remembered compositions of George Antheil are his body of work

written from 1919-1926, primarily in Berlin and Paris. This early style, commonly characterized

as avant-garde, futurist, or “ultra-modernist” (in the composer’s own words) is typified by his

piano sonata entitled Sonate Sauvage (1923). In this work Antheil incorporates all the themes

that are characteristic of this early style, and in particular the influence of Jazz on the work is

present throughout. My lecture-recital will focus on how Antheil treats Jazz in the Sonate

Sauvage, from a theoretical as well as a cultural standpoint.

To try and describe George Antheil’s legacy is considerably difficult. Biographical

information is somewhat limited, and hindered by his sometimes apocryphal autobiography

entitled Bad Boy of Music (1945). In addition to this, scholarly research is scant. This is part

perhaps due to the largely negative reception his work received when first premiered in the

United States, permanently tarnishing his reputation. Born in 1900 in Trenton, New Jersey,

Antheil moved to Europe in 1922 with the goal of establishing himself as a pianist and

composer. Antheil was a child prodigy, and entirely self-taught, until he moved to Europe, where

he variously studied with Constantine von Sternberg (pupil of Liszt), Ernest Bloch, and in all

likelihood Igor Stravinsky, with whom he quickly made friends upon his arrival in Berlin in Fall

1922. Antheil’s work from this era most resembles Stravinsky’s at first glance, and the elder

composer was an early champion of Antheil. Stravinsky’s support, along with the support of

numerous other members of the so-called “Lost Generation”, such as Ezra Pound (who wrote a
treatise on Antheil’s music), James Joyce (who collaborated with Antheil on an unfinished opera

based on the author’s seminal Ulysses), and Erik Satie, helped ensure Antheil short-lasting fame

in Paris. His October 1923 piano recital at the Champs-Elysses, as an opening act for the Ballet

Suedois, caused a small riot, and his infamous Ballet Mecanique was well-received critically.

However, the disastrous premiere of this same work in Carnegie Hall in 1926 was met with cat-

calls and derision, and saddled the composer with a reputation for being a charlatan, and virtually

ended his composing efforts in his early style.

Throughout this period, Antheil composed many pieces either directly labelled as “Jazz”

or otherwise highly influenced by Jazz music, such as Jazz Sonata (1922), Jazz Symphony

(1925), Symphony no. 1 “Zingaresca” (1920) (containing a movement entitled “Ragtime”), and

the Sonate Sauvage. Antheil furthermore wrote a significant essay entitled “Negro on the Spiral”,

published in 1934. In it, he espouses his theory that the “Slavic” music of Stravinsky, particularly

in The Rite of Spring and Les Noces, exhausted European art music up to that point of all

possibilities, and that the only creative path forward forthwith lies in “Negroidian music”. He

takes two approaches in this essay in distinguishing these two disparate styles of music that he

recognizes. The first is theoretical; Antheil claims that “Negroidian” or “African” music is

marked prominently by syncopation (such as in Rag-time, and latter Jazz), and general

compactness of affect. The second is more complicated. Antheil claims that the qualities that

made Jazz immediately popular as a phenomenon and distinguish it from traditional European art

music are derived from an innate difference in the races themselves brought upon them by their

different geographies.
 Antheil’s statements about race throughout this essay can be very difficult to stomach to

modern ears, and many come off as frankly racist. Nevertheless, I believe Antheil’s Sonate

Sauvage, along with his other “Jazz” works from this era, do catch glimpses of a certain Jazz

spirit frequently missed by other composers of the same era who emulated Jazz style. In my

lecture-recital I will demonstrate how the Sonate Sauvage firstly fits Antheil’s own descriptions

of “Negroidian music” in his essay, secondly that the Sonata is an effective composition in its

own right, and thirdly detangle what are casually generalized racist sentiments in his musical

philosophy that are no longer relevant to a fruitful discourse from what is still musically valuable

in his work.
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