Mimeograph on off-white paper. 5 pages printed on one side. Includes roster of BMC community.
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE COMMUNITY BULLETIN
College Year 11 Summer Bulletin 10
Monday, September 4, 1944
CALENDAR:
Ernst Krenek, Dean of the School of Fine Arts at Hamline University in St Paul, Minnesota, will speak this evening on “The Composer and the Interpreter.” Mr Krenek is the composer of ten operas, among them “Jenny Spielt Auf”, given by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1929. He is the composer also of number of chamber music compositions and of symphonic and vocal music. He was at one time lecturer and professor of music at Malkin Conservatory in Boston, at the University of Michigan, at the University of Wisconsin and at Vasaar College. Mr Krenek is the author of “Ueber Neue Musik,” “Music Here and Now” and other books and of a biographical essay on the composer Gustav Mahler.
On Tuesday evening the Music Institute will present a concert of music by composers on the teaching staff and among the students of the Institute. The program will include the first movement (Allegro Moderato) of Marcel Dick’s String Quartet Number 2, played by Rudolf Kolisch, Lorna Freedman, Marcel Dick and Nikolai Graudan; the second movement (Andante) of Jeanette Siegel’s Sonata for Piano, played by the composer Sonata for Piano by Virginia Seay Pleaser, played by Ernst Krenek; Two Epitapha (Gigue and Motet), played by Joanna Graudan; four songs for woman’s voice by Edward Steuermann, sung by Ann Dick, accompanied at the piano by the composer; and the Third Sonata for Piano, Opus 92, Number 4, by Ernst Krenek, played by the composer.
On Wednesday evening the Summer Music Institute will give its Tenth Concert, the first of two programs of music by Arnold Schoenberg. Ernst Krenek will open the program with an address, “Arnold Schoenberg at Seventy.” After an intermission, Edward Steuermann will play Three Piano Pieces, Opus 11; and Rudolf Kolisch, Lorna Freedman, Marcel Dick, and Nikolai Graudan will play the String Quartet in D Minor, Opus 7.
On Thursday evening JB Neumann will give the third in his series of slide-illustrated lectures. He will speak on “The Evolution of Modern Art.”
On Friday evening Barbara Morgan will give an address on Photography. Miss Morgan has photographed the American Southwest, modern and historical architecture, and paintings and sculptures of the Barnes Collection. She has specialized in her on dance photographs and photomontage. Her work has been exhibited in many of the important museums in the United States. Miss Morgan has published a photographic book, Martha Graham, and has written articles on aesthetics and the technique of photography for art and photo magazines.
On Saturday evening the Summer Music Institute will give its Eleventh Concert, a program of music by Arnold Schoenberg. Lotte Leonard, accompanied by Heinrich Jalowetz at the piano, will sing Two Songs, Opus 6: “Verlassen” and “Ghasel”; Edward Steuermann will play Five Piano Pieces, Opus 23; and Lotte Leonard, accompanied by Dr Jalowetz, will sing the Song of the Dove from “Gurrelieder.” After an intermission, Clara Silvers and Simon Sadoff will play Chamber Symphony Number 2, Opus 388.
NEW ITEMS FROM LAST WEEK:
“We have to humanize the machine to give it social purpose by directing our energies towards the reconstruction of our inner world,” said Walter Gropius, Harvard professor of Architecture on Monday evening in his second address at Black Mountain College. He was talking about the post-war use of machine-made materials to build quickly and effectively the domestic and business structures that will be greatly needed.
“The new philosophy in architecture has stopped the reactionary trend of thinking about the machine as an anti-human influence; on the other hand, it has recognized the predominance of human and social requirements and has accepted the machine as the modern vehicle of form to fill these requirements. Architects are convinced that the machine properly used will be beneficial, that the repetition of prefabricated basic building elements can make for both beauty and utility.”
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By means of slides, Mr Gropius illustrated how buildings of the future can avoid uniformity despite the standardization of materials.
The Harvard professor described the model communities “planned the bring back that social initiative and spirit of cooperation that we lost with in the last generations,” the attempts at improved planning started under the New Deal. “What has been created in the TVA and in the Greenbelt towns will not be soon forgotten, for these are the stepping stones towards a new era,” he said. In reply to the criticism that the cost per unit in these experiments has been too high, he added. “Laboratory work is always costly. Greenbelt has already paid its dividends in being a striking example of a possible better way of housing and living.”
Mr Gropius spoke of the vigorous remonstration of people for more than a generation against congestion. “We expect the city of tomorrow to stretch its borders much farther than it does today, dissolving at the same time its chaotic conglomerations of incoherent functions and piled-up building masses into smaller units. These we hope to see loosely scattered over the whole region, more in keeping with the human scale. Such spreading, spacious cities would accomplish on historic and long due: the reconciliation of town and country.”
Mr Gropius believes that the relation of places of work to places of living must form the pivot of all reconstruction work. “In the past, we have given little thought to the fact that the working places generate the income of the people and with it the rent people can afford to pay for their homes. Even public housing authorities have disregarded the interdependence of working place and home when they rebuild new housing schemes in slum areas from which the factories have long since moved away.” Mr Gropius suggested a possible solution to present living ills: “The existing cities should be relieved of congestion and high blood pressure” by removing those people who cannot be permanently employed. Resettled around several small industries in new ‘neighborhood units’ or ‘townships’, these people would regain their productive capacity and purchasing power. Such a policy calls for transferring endangered production as well as purchasing power from a sore spot in the old city area to a sound, new city. This transfer of idle labor would relieve the sick body of the old city, improve its circulation and open new living space for its rejuvenation. Simultaneously, the stranded workers could be reclaimed for production at a much lower cost per capita than the old town had to pay for slum clearance on expensive land and for unproductive relief.”
Mr Gropius believes that the new townships should settled along super highways and be connected by a fast feeder road with the old city center; that the neighborhood units should be surrounded by their own farm belt as “a space of nourishment” which could absorb at least a small part of unemployment labor in times of industrial crises; that the community itself should own the land; that dwelling lots should be rented though the houses may be owned; that the administrative set-up of a neighborhood unit should take the form of a self-contained unit with its independent local government. “Public officers should be within immediate reach of the initiative of the voters, to secure a more direct exchange between the will of the people and their administration. The community interest and spirit lost in the chaos of the fast-growing large cities can redevelop from here and favorably influence the growth of distinct characteristics of the community.”
Mr Gropius added: “If the average individual or family is isolated from the community, their growth will wither, their mind will dull. The reciprocity of influence from individual to individual is an important for our inner development as food is for our body. It is ironic that where people live closest together today their social life is thoroughly disintegrated. The communal life in today’s cities is destitute. The average family is left much alone in the desert, utterly
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In want of that beneficial neighborhood spirit which we still saw in settlements of the pre-machine age. Overwhelmed by the potentialities of the machine, human greediness has obviously interfered with that biological cycle human companionship necessary for the healthy life of the community and of its component parts, the families.”
“In ancient times the artist who set out to paint a lady, carefully built a scaffolding of geometry around the lady; then, when he had completed with work, he removed the scaffolding, and there on the canvas was the portrait of the lady. The modern artist is even more consciousness: On his canvas at the end of his work is the geometric scaffolding, and the lady has disappeared.” Thus, Jean Charlot, quoting Cocteau, contrasted most of the art of former times with so-called modern art, in his lecture at Black Mountain College on “Abstract Art and Josef Albers.” The lecture was attended by the entire college and visitors from Black Mountain and Asheville.
“Abstract art does not concern itself with eyes and noses and mouths; it is not the portrait of a king or a pretty girl or the picture of a cow. It is a lifting of the veils, if you will. It is a getting the spirit.”
According to Mr Charlot, the modern photographer has taken over a great deal of the work formerly done by the artist. “Thus the artist of too can rise above imitation, above the holding of the mirror up to nature. He can get behind the appearances of men and things to the essences, the essentials, the meanings. He can move from the limitations of portraits of his uncles and his aunts and the social lights of his time to the limitless world of the telescope and the microscope.”
Mr Charlot spoke in detail of the modern abstract artist Josef Albers and his paintings, a number of which he exhibited and explained. He characterized Mr Albers as “a saint of painting,” though not in the canonical sense. A saint, he said, “is someone who does more than avoid the most obvious sins, who has a deep and definite aim, who loves God.” He spoke of the habit of this artist to do over and over again the same artistic theme. “If he finds in his artistic endeavors that one area does not cooperate with another area, he tirelessly and painstakingly tries other techniques, other pigments. In this artist is the true spirit of purification.”
Mr Charlot spoke of Mr Albers as being a spokesman of the modern age. “He is not as escapist, as some people think. His life is rooted in the time. But he does not accept the upheaval, the chaos of the present day. He recreates his own bounds and brings about an artistic order, an order much more strict than is evident in the world today. There is freedom in the art of Albers but freedom within great limitations, freely chosen.”
After the choral concert on Saturday evening at Black Mountain College, the Dining Hall became an arena, and the whole college community participated as actors or as spectators in a colorful Spanish bull fight. The dramatic burlesque was prepared and directed by Jose de Creeft, the sculptor and a member of the faculty of the summer Art Institute. There was a matador; there were toreadors, picador-mounted horses, ferocious bulls, Spanish ladies with long eyebrows and eyelashes and with flowers in their hair, a Spanish president, cigarette girls, arena shovelers, and a civil guard. The admission price to the spectators gallery was a cigarette and a nickel.
Mr de Creeft was the matador. He was assisted in his bull-slaying by two toreadors, Janie Stone and At Gropius, and by two pleaders, mounted on horses. The picadors were Marianne Keep and Helen Marden; the horses were Theodore Dreier and Kenneth Kurtz, two members of the College faculty. There were three bulls; the first one was Mary Kriger the second double-strength bull was made up of Betty Kelley and Patsy Lynch; the third bull was Roxane Dinkowitz. Molly Gregory and Lorrie Goulet were arena shovelers. The arena doorman was Theodore Dreier, Jr
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John Reiss was the president of Spain, Ruth O’Neill was his wife, and Marilyn Baeuer was his sister. Richard Albany was the civil guard. Hazel Harris and Faith Murray were Spanish ladies. Carol Ostrow and Kathryn Swartzbaugh were cigarette girls.
The entrance of the president of Spain and the entrance of the fighters were accompanied by Spanish music played by Fred Cohen and Simon Sadoff.
Costumes and properties for the occasion were created by art students under the direction of Mr de Creeft.
The Music Institute at Black Mountain College presented a number of the summer students in a workshop program on Sunday evening in the College Dining Hall. The concert included compositions by Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bela Bartok, and Christoph Wilibald von Gluck.
The concert began with two movements of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A Major, Opus 26, played by Trudi Straus, Gretel Lowinsky, Muffie Vaughn, and Simon Sadoff. This composition was followed by Pamina’s Aria and the first scene of the Second Finale from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Paula Lenchner sang the role of Pamina; and Jane Mayhall, Harriette Lyford, and Liese Kulka sand the roles of the three spirits.
Ruby Gevertz, accompanied by Jeanette Siegel and Simon Sadoff, played the theme and variations from the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Bartek.
The concluding number of the program was the final scene from von Gluck “Orphee et Eurodice.” The cast of singers included Harriette Lyford as Orphee, Josephine Pater as Eurodice, and Jane Mayhall as Amor.
The Chamber Music Workshop numbers were conducted by Rudolph Kolisch; and the Operatic Workshop numbers were conducted by Lotte Leonard, Heinrich Jalowetz, Frederic Cohen and Elsa Kahl, assisted by Jean Charlot and Johanna Jalowetz.
WITH FORMER STUDENTS:
News Notes:
Among the visitors last week was Maude Dabbs who came up from Maysville, South Carolina for two days.
Gisela Kronenberg arrived yesterday from Chicago for a ten days’ visit at Lake Eden.
In the Mail:
Junelaine Smith writes from Long Beach, California: “Now I am attending school…in about a month I hope to be a ground mechanic at the Ferry Command Base in Long Beach with the AAF…my job is Civil Service and I had a hard time getting it, as the age limit is 24 or over; but I just wouldn’t go home. I am studying electricity; the theory, practical work, and trouble shooting. It is all very new to me, but very interesting…”
Lieutenant George Hendrickson writes from Calcutta, India: “I may work on a show in my spare time. Right now it is a bit undecided, but I have been working on the sketches. I hadn’t touched a paint brush in two years..”
Private Isaac Nakata writes from somewhere in Italy on August 29: “I have been out of the hospital almost six weeks now. I was in it just three and half weeks. I’m completely healed…so I should rejoin my unit in a week or two.”
WITH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF:
In the Mail:
Anna Moellenhoff writes from Chicago on August 22: “We still are dreaming of visiting you all at Lake Eden, but the ‘when’ is a problem…
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Fritz’ practice started almost two successfully; he has an overcrowded schedule and little time to himself. I have been housewifing all summer, liking and disliking it simultaneously…I am still wondering what I should do when household help will be available in the future, but I must confess that the tropical temperature, or better say the climate of this summer has greatly subdued my energies….Nevertheless, we are all happy to be in Chicago….We are going to see the Allan Slys this week and Hyalie Yamins and family in September on their way through Chicago…Betsy King has visited us twice on her way through Chicago.”
ROSTER OF PEOPLE OF THE COLLEGE COMMUNITY
As of September 4, 1944
Students:
A Richard Albany
S Adele Albert
M Lili Balint
M Abby Barnett
S Marilyn Bauer
A Roberta Blair
W Jagna Braunthal
S Mary Brett
S Sam Brown
A Kathryn Burmaide
A Ernest Costa
A Irene Cullis
S Gwen Currier
S Roxane Dinkowitz
M Abelle Dinkowitz
S Dan Dixon
S Charles Forberg
W Emily Frey
M Ruby Gevertz
S Lorrie Goulet
W Ati Gropius
M Phyllis Gross
M Alberta Halstead
A Suzette Ramill
M Beverly E Holmes
S Betty Kelley
A Hazel Harris
A Margaret Kennard
M Ada Kopetz
S Mary Kriger
S Liese Kulka
A Hazel Larsen
M Paula Lenchner
M Ursula Lewis
S Harriette Lyford
A Mary Ruth Lyford
S Patsy Lynch
M Monika Lanyi-Mann
S Helen Wright Marden
M Jane Mayhall
S Arlyn McKenna
S Archie McWilliams
S Ruth Miller
S Faith Murray
A Amaui Nimmanahaeminda
A Dorothy Noyes
S Ruth O’Neill
M Iris Okun
S Ginger Osbourne
S Carol Ostrow
M Josephine Pater
S Viera Pevaner
M Jenny Pitcoff
S Janet Rees
A John Reiss
A Dorothy Rosen
S Gloria Rosenfield
M Simon Sadoff
S Laille Schutz
M Louise Schmidt
A Betty Schmitt
W Harold Schuyler
M Virginia Seay
M Janette Siegel
M Clara Silvers
Sec Olga Schwartz
S Jane Slater
A Nancy Smith
S Tanya Sprager
A Joan Stack
M Alma Stone
W Jane R Stone
S Margaret Strauss
A Kathryn Swartzbaugh
M Muffie Vaughn
S Jeanne Wacker
Staff:
Henrietta Barth
Mrs Otto Billing
Peggy Emery
Mimi French
Gerda Hagendorn
Nell Rice
Mrs A D Stone
*H McGuire Wood
Esther Coppock
Faculty:
Anni Albers
Josef Albers
Fred Cohen
Frances de Graaff
Theodore Dreier
Molly Gregory
Heinrich Jalowetz
Elsa Kahl
Marianne Kopp
Kenneth Kurtz
Edward Lowinsky
Erwin Straus
Trudi Straus
Robert Wunsch
Music Faculty:
Marcel Dick
Lorna Freedman
Nikolai Graudan
Joanna Graudan
Rudolf Kolisch
Ernst Kolisch
Lotte Leonard
Edward Steuermann
Art Faculty:
Jean Charlot
Belle Boas
Jose de Creeft
Barbara Morgan
JB Neumann
James Prestini
Families:
Maja Bentley
Mrs Charlot
Ann Charlot
Johnny Charlot
Martin Charlot
Ann Dick
Suzie Dick
Barbara Dreier
Edward Dreier
Ted Dreier, Jr
Mrs Krenek
Johanna Jalowetz
Helene Kopp
Henry Leonard
Gretel Lowinsky
Naomi Ruth Lowinsky
Margaret Steuermann
Kitchen and Maids:
Margaret Dougherty
*Malony Jones
Malrey Few
*Kathleen Gardner
*Willie Gardner
Jack Lipsey
Gertrude Lytle
*Jessie Lytle
Maude Roundtree
Will Smith
Guests:
Gisela Kronenberg
*Not living on campus
