Chapter 7 - Between Temple, Theatre, and Colony

Summary

My second year in Dallas was so busy that I hardly had time to write the pieces that were commissioned, so I decided to apply to the MacDowell Colony for a month in the summer so that I could write what was expected of me. Happily I was accepted the first time I applied and opted to go for the month of July. When I arrived in Peterborough, New Hampshire, after a short visit with the family in Worcester, I found a strange atmosphere pervading my fellow composers who were in residence. The question asked was “does he or doesn't he.” Now, this did not mean does he or does he not color his hair—the question on the famous Clairol commercial—but rather does he serialize or not. In those days the com¬positional establishment in the United States was starting to be divided between those composers who followed the Second Viennese School of twelve-tone and serial music and those who still wrote tonal or at least neo-tonal music. I was of the latter school and therefore was looked on with suspicion by some of my col¬leagues. Nevertheless, all the composers and certainly all the writers and visual artists got along quite well, and I had the most productive and informative sum¬mer possible. Some of my fellow composers in residence were: Gordon Binkerd, who became a lifelong friend; Nicolai Lopatnikoff, who was there with his wife the poet Sally Henderson Hays; Louise Talma; George Perle; Lee Hoiby; and Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky, who were doing their first electronic music experiments with a Wollensak variable-speed tape recorder. Many other artists were in residence including the famous poet Louise Bogan and the painter Van Wycht who created a large painting about my First Symphony.

In those days Mrs. MacDowell, at that time in her nineties, was very much a presence. She did not trust the morals of the colonists and therefore prevented the installation of any kind of lighting in the cabins to make sure that the studios were only used during daylight. Furthermore, there was to be no one visiting anyone unless invited. She was very strict about the regulations: everyone had breakfast together in the morning, lunch and mail were brought to the colonists at noon, and everyone assembled once more in the main house for supper.