The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music:

A Beacon of American Musical Modernism

Chadwick Thomas

Doctor of Musical Arts in Clarinet

DMA Essay Proposal

April 15, 2024

Introduction

For the DMA Essay, I propose researching “The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music,”

a concert society in Hartford from 1928-1941 led by A. Everett “Chick” Austin, Jr., Director of

the Wadsworth Atheneum. Austin and The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are

responsible for several great artistic achievements. The best known is the 1934 premier of

Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s opera Four Saints in Three Acts. Other events include the

Hartford Festival of 1936 and the premier of Ernst Krenek’s ballet Eight-Column Line in 1938.

They produced many other concerts and recitals which are basically forgotten today. Some

innovations seen in programs of the Friends and Enemies include the performances of works for

piano roll, creating or commissioning set designs from notable artists to accompany chamber

music performances, and innovative programming which often juxtaposed works from the

Baroque, Classical, or Romantic periods with contemporary works by American and European

composers.

There is not any published paper which is dedicated exclusively to The Friends and

Enemies of Modern Music. My starting point for learning about the society was the biography of

Chick Austin by Eugene Gaddis: Magician of the Modern. There are brief mentions of Friends

and Enemies or its concerts in books about Virgil Thomson, Ernst Krenek, and many others, but

no currently available resource provides a complete narrative of its history. There are some

concerts and programs about which nothing has been written.

A thorough examination of this concert society would be valuable to the history of

Hartford and important to the study of American musical modernism. My work could lead to

reintroduction of rarely heard musical works into the canon. Chick Austin’s primary mission,

beyond his love of art and performance, was to expose and educate the public on contemporary
trends in the arts. Today, we face many of the same challenges Austin did in finding ways to gain

public appreciation of contemporary music and art. I believe that an examination of the past can

give musicians tools to reach broader audiences in the future.

Literature Review

There is not any publication dedicated exclusively to The Friends and Enemies of

Modern Music. As mentioned, Eugene Gaddis’s Magician of the Modern is the comprehensive

biography of Chick Austin. The book mentions several of the society’s concerts and provides

details into the circumstances surrounding those events. However, many of the lower-profile

concerts are not mentioned, and there is little commentary on the musical content of any

concerts.

The composer most involved with Friends and Enemies was Virgil Thomson. The

premiere of his opera Four Saints in Three Acts and his Second String Quartet were two

important achievements of the society. He played or conducted in other concerts, primarily in the

mid-1930s. Thomson mentions his relationship with Chick Austin and his activity in Hartford in

his autobiography.

I will also consult writings by and biographies of as many of the following people related

to Friends and Enemies as possible. All the following were key people who performed or had

works performed or displayed by the concert society.

Composers: Jere Abbott, George Antheil, Paul Bowels, John Spencer Camp, Elliott Carter, Avery

Claflin, Aaron Copland, Ross Lee Finney, Clifton Furness, Federick Jacobi, Werner

Josten, Ernst Krenek, Henri Cliquet-Pleyel, Henri Sauguet, Rodger Sessions, Ruth White

Smallens
Performers: Harold Berkley, Reginald Boardman, Ione Coy Quartet, Eva Gauthier, David Keiser,

John Kirkpatrick, Theodate Johnson, Philharmonic Scholarship Quartet

Artists/Designers/Authors: Alexander Calder, Christian Bérard, Maurice Grosser, Pavel

Tchelichew, Florine Stettheimer, Gertrude Stein

Project Methodology

I visited the Wadsworth Atheneum Archives and viewed most of the existing concert

programs from concerts of Friends and Enemies. There are hundreds of documents there which

are part of Chick Austin’s papers, including Austin’s letters pertaining to organizing concerts and

lists of donors and patrons of the society. In addition to revisiting these documents, I plan to visit

Virgil Thomson’s papers archived at Yale University, Jere Abbott’s papers archived at Smith

College, and other archives related to composers or performers as I discover more information in

my research. Continued study of books, papers, and newspaper archives related to the musicians

and artists listed under Literature Review will allow me to create a comprehensive narrative of

the concert society’s history. Additional questions I plan to explore in my paper include:

Why were the living composers works selected to be programmed? Many the musicians and

artists are connected to Harvard University or lived in Paris in the 1920s or 1930s. Many were

bisexual or gay.

Why were these artists and ensembles engaged to perform?

Have the society’s ideas of modern music prevailed in the past century?

What aspects of the society’s approaches to promoting modern music can or should be

implemented today?
Timeline

May-June 2024: Continue reading Chick Austin Papers, Virgil Thomson Papers, Hartford Times

and Hartford Courant Archives, and Biographies about Relevant Musicians/Artists

Summer 2024: Begin First Draft

Fall 2024: Completion of First Draft

Winter 2024: Make revisions

Early 2025: Final Submission

Chapter Outline

Chapter 1: Background information Chick Austin and the Wadsworth Atheneum

Chick Austin was appointed director of the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1927, and his tenure

lasted until 1944. He believed the Wadsworth should be a “living museum” and expanded

its offerings to include film and live performance of music and dance. He also believed it

should be the Wadsworth’s mission educate the public on the most modern advances in

the arts.

Chapter 2: Beginnings The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music: 1928-1930

The first concert of the Friends and Enemies of Modern Music was December 12, 1928,

at 84 Scarborough St in Hartford. The concert featured Harvard Professor Clifton Furness

and his student, the now famous Elliott Carter, playing a recital of music for four-hand

piano. Additional solo and chamber music concerts continued through the spring of 1930

which included repertoire by Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Malipiero among others.

Chapter 3: Virgil Thomson and Four Saints: 1932-1935

 Virgil Thomson, who was living in Paris, came to America in 1932 seeking a presenter

for his new opera Four Saints in Three Acts. He performed excerpts from the opera in a

Friends and Enemies concert at Chick Austin’s Scarborough Street home. This led to the

1934 premier of Four Saints, the premiere of Thomson’s String Quartet No. 2 in

Hartford, and his designation as musical director of Friends and Enemies from 1934-

1936.

Chapter 4: The Hartford Festival of 1936

After Four Saints, the most spectacular event of the society was the Hartford Festival,

which included 6 events in February 1936. An orchestra concert featured composers from

Connecticut. Performances included Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Satie’s Socrate. A new

ballet by Balanchine set to music by Mozart was given its premier. The chamber music

concert of the festival juxtaposed Baroque works with contemporary pieces by Thomson,

Henri Sauguet, Henri Cliquet-Pleyel, and others. Many works in this concert were being

performed for the first time in America.

Chapter 5: “Why Modern Music is So Unpopular”: 1936-1938

The years following the Hartford Festival continued to diversify the programming of the

society. An announcement from spring 1937 advertised two upcoming concerts: a

harpsichord recital by Alice Ehlers and a lecture-recital on “The History of Jazz and Its

Place in Modern Music” by Paul Nordoff. The 1937-38 season included two events with

Ernst Krenek which included a lecture titled “Why Modern Music is So Unpopular” and

the premiere of his ball Eight-Column Line.

Chapter 6: Final Years: 1938-1941

 The economic conditions surrounding America’s entry into World War II stifled Austin’s

plans for continued Friends and Enemies concerts, and it appears that the last concert of

the society was a January 1941 recital by Brazilian soprano Elsie Houston. At this point,

the Board of Trustees of the Wadsworth Atheneum was dissatisfied with Austin’s modern

taste in the visual and performing arts. A growing rift between Austin and the

Wadsworth’s Board of Trustees led to his forced resignation from his position as director

in 1944.

Chapter 7: Conclusion

The Conclusion will summarize the importance of Chick Austin and The Friends and

Enemies of Modern Music to the musical history of Hartford and of the United States. I

will also discuss what qualities and practices of the concert society could be applied to

producing concerts today.

Selected Bibliography

Coote, Albert W. Four Vintage Decades: the Performing Arts in Hartford, 1930-1970. Hartford:

Huntington, 1970.

Gaddis, Eugene R. Magician of the Modern: Chick Austin and the Transformation of the Arts in

America First ed. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2000.

Gaddis, Eugene R, Ann Brandwein, Angela Lansbury, Geoffrey Gross, and Wadsworth

Atheneum Museum of Art. Magic Façade: The Austin House. Hartford Hanover:

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Distributed by University Press of New England,

2007.
Gaddis, Eugene R. Avery Memorial Wadsworth Atheneum: The First Modern Museum. Hartford:

Wadsworth Atheneum, 1984.

Houseman, John. Run-Through: A Memoir 1st Touchstone ed. New York: Simon and Schuster,

1972.

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and Wadsworth Atheneum. A. Everett Austin Jr.; a

Director’s Taste and Achievement, 1958.

Shand-Tucci, Douglass. The Crimson Letter: Harvard, Homosexuality, and the Shaping of

American Culture. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.

Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History. Third Edition. New York: Norton,

1997.

Stein, Gertrude. Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. New York: Random House, 1955.

Watson, Steven. Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein Virgil Thomson and the Mainstreaming of

American Modernism. First Edition. New York: Random House, 1998.

Weber, Nicholas Fox. Patron Saints: Five Rebels Who Opened America to a New Art 1928-1943.

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Concert programs, letters, and other documents from:

- Wadsworth Atheneum Archives: A. Everett Austin, Jr. Papers

- Smith College Libraries: Jere Abbott Papers

- Archives at Yale: The Virgil Thomson Papers

- Wesleyan University Special Collections and Archives: Henry-Russell Hitchcock papers

- LOC: Ross Lee Finney Papers

- Harvard Archives: Werner Josten collection

Hartford Courant Archives Database

Scores of all works performed.

Advisor

Dr. Akane Mori