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Chapter 15. Act Three: Scene One
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CHAPTER 15 act three: scene one In what was roughly the last decade of Herbert’s life, he continued his theatrical activities and developed and expanded them in important ways. Although he created seventeen stage musicals in this period, only a few of them were significant achievements in themselves. Their importance lies in more than the quality of Herbert’s musical contribution . His output in this period is significant because it represents something new. During his first period Herbert copied and personalized the European operetta tradition; in his second he transformed that tradition into a form that, because of its theatrical and sociological focus, became what he called American operetta; now, in his third period, he worked to develop what may be called the dance operetta. In each of his later compositions it is the dance, in its various forms and movements, that assumes an increased structural importance. More than underpinning the composition, it drives and unifies the work. It is also the vehicle for Herbert’s continuing success. The new rhythms of a new century demanded pride of place in the stage musicals of the ’teens and twenties, and this new force continued unabated; the famous influence of George Balanchine for the development of musicals in the thirties and forties, and later of Agnes de Mille’s story ballets, were the mature fruit of a tradition that begins with the works of Herbert’s third period. As the dance became an equal player with music and text, it transformed one of the central characteristics of Herbert’s works. From the days of his earliest successful composition, Herbert’s soprano leads were spunky, independent-minded ladies whose charm for audiences was based on the quirky nature of their characters. Whether it was Smith or Blossom or MacDonough writing the book, all Herbert’s heroines shared these qualities. The Nielsen-Scheff-Trentini type became the lynchpin of the Herbert operetta. Now singing and acting ability were no longer enough. The women who portrayed Herbert’s new ingenues had to dance. What is more, the best of these, Christie MacDonald in Sweethearts , Wilda Bennett in The Only Girl and Eleanor Painter in The Princess ‘‘Pat’’ brought to their performances a natural, unforced quality that 444 supplants the arch artificialities of their predecessors. Perhaps the new style went hand-in-hand with the ability to dance. Whatever the mechanism of change, change there was: the diva was dead, replaced by the singing danseuse. Further, Herbert’s gift for instrumental theatricality was not lost on his contemporaries. Florenz Ziegfeld hired Irving Berlin to write songs for his Follies, but it was Herbert who supplied the music for his historic dance extravaganzas. Indeed, the last composition Herbert wrote was a sketch for a dance number for the Tiller sisters, slated for the Follies of 1924. Though his primary activity remained composition for the stage, Herbert ’s most interesting achievement in this period perhaps lay in his involvement with the developing art of film. Fortunately we have his detailed correspondence with the producers of Fall of a Nation. It traces the trial-and-error process through which Herbert developed the compositional techniques needed to provide effective musical underscoring for the silent film. During the same seminal period that saw D. W. Griffith developing the close-up, photomontage, and tracking shot, Herbert, in a parallel activity, broke new ground and showed the way to the generation of film composers who followed in his footsteps. Some of the people who were associated with Herbert became important pioneers in the nascent film industry. William Le Baron, who provided the libretto for Her Regiment , became an important producer at Paramount. Werner Janssen, the little boy who ‘‘auditioned’’ for Herbert in his father’s rathskeller, went on to compose successful film scores. Max Steiner and William Axt, who became legendary figures in the history of Hollywood as creators of some of the greatest film scores, served apprenticeships with Herbert as roadcompany conductors. Herbert was very careful in his selection of musical associates and, typically, he saw them as co-creators. The musical director is a creator and inventor. He is able to take a completely flat production and animate it so that life oozes from it and turn a hopeless failure into a positive success. He is the white hope of many a composer who could safely leave his treasured work in [a director’s] hands who, with his little tricks and nuances often brought...