Henry Kimball Hadley | |
|---|---|
 Hadley, c. 1900 | |
| Born | (1871-12-20)20 December 1871 |
| Died | 6 September 1937(1937-09-06) (aged 66) New York City, US |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1893–1937 |
| Spouse | Inez Barbour Hadley |
| Signature | |
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Henry Kimball Hadley (20 December 1871 – 6 September 1937) was an Americancomposer andconductor.[1]
Hadley was born inSomerville, Massachusetts, to a musical family. His father, from whom he received his first musical instruction inviolin andpiano, was a secondary school music teacher, his mother was active in church music, and his brother Arthur went on to a successful career as a professional cellist. In the Hadley home, the two brothers playedstring quartets with their father onviola and the composerHenry F. Gilbert on second violin.[2]
Hadley also studied harmony with his father and withStephen A. Emery, and, from the age of fourteen, he studied composition with the prominent American composerGeorge Whitefield Chadwick. Under Chadwick's tutelage, Hadley composed many works, including songs, chamber music, a musical, and an orchestral overture.
In 1893, Hadley toured with the Laura Schirmer-Mapleson Opera Company as a violinist. But he left the tour when the company encountered financial difficulties and was unable to pay his salary.
In 1894, he travelled to Vienna to further his studies withEusebius Mandyczewski.[1] Hadley loved the artistic atmosphere of the city, where he could attend countless concerts and operas, and where he occasionally sawBrahms in the cafes. He heard Tchaikovsky'sSixth Symphony while there, and it made a strong impact on him.[3] During this period Hadley also befriended the German-American conductorAdolf Neuendorff, who gave him advice regarding his compositions.
He returned to the United States in 1896 and took a position as the musical instructor at St. Paul's Episcopal School for Boys inGarden City, New York, where he worked until 1902.[1] He wrote some of his important early compositions during his time there, including his overtureIn Bohemia, and his first and second symphonies. He also found prominent conductors to perform them, such asWalter Damrosch,Victor Herbert,John Philip Sousa, andAnton Seidl. Hadley made his own debut as a conductor on 16 January 1900, at theWaldorf-Astoria hotel, leading a program mostly made up of his own works.
In an age when American orchestras preferred European conductors to home-grown ones, Hadley felt that he needed to establish himself in Europe. So he returned to Europe in 1904 to tour, compose, and study withLudwig Thuille in Munich. It is possible that his studies with Thuille were suggested byRichard Strauss, whom Hadley met shortly after arriving in Europe. Hadley composed hissymphonic poemSalome in 1905, not realizing that Strauss, whom he greatly admired, was working onan opera on the same subject. The work was eventually performed in at least 19 European cities, and he was invited to conduct it, along with his newly finished third symphony, with theBerlin Philharmonic in 1907. In the same year, he obtained a position as an assistant conductor at the opera house in Mainz. In April 1909, his first opera,Safié, premiered in Mainz under his baton.
Later that year he returned to the United States to take a position as conductor of theSeattle Symphony. In 1911, he became the first conductor of theSan Francisco Symphony. Hadley encountered some difficulties in San Francisco, where he tried to turn a group of theater musicians into a first rate orchestra. He brought a number of excellent musicians from the east, including his brother Arthur, to be principals in the new orchestra, but this created some resentments among the locals. Nonetheless, by his departure in 1915, the orchestra had made great strides.
Hadley returned to New York in 1915, where he made many appearances as a guest conductor, and premiered many of his best known works. In 1918 he married the lyricsoprano Inez Barbour, whom he had met in San Francisco, and who recorded his music as early as 1915. She thereafter sang many of her husband's works. Between 1917 and 1920 three of Hadley's operas received high-profile premieres, includingCleopatra's Night which bowed at theMetropolitan Opera on 31 January 1920. Hadley conducted some of the performances, becoming the first American composer to conduct his own opera at the Met, and the opera was revived the following season. Several critics judged it the best among the ten American operas to appear at the Met to that point.
In 1921 Hadley was invited to become the associate conductor of theNew York Philharmonic, the first American conductor to hold a full-time post with a major American orchestra. During his years there, his conducting received excellent reviews. As well as occasionally taking the helm for regular Philharmonic concerts, Hadley was assigned to lead stadium concerts during the summer, where he selected many works by American composers. He was eventually asked to regularly select American works for the Philharmonic to perform. He remained in this post until 1927, when he resigned.
In that same year, Hadley was invited to conduct the first half of the season of the Philharmonic Orchestra ofBuenos Aires, the first American to conduct the orchestra (the second half was conducted by legendaryClemens Krauss).
In 1929, Hadley was invited to become the conductor of the newly formed Manhattan Symphony Orchestra. He led the orchestra for three seasons, including an American work in every concert. He then stepped down due to his frustrations with fundraising for the orchestra in the wake of thestock market crash.
In 1930, Hadley was invited to conduct six concerts with theNew Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo. His visit to Asia was met with great enthusiasm, and he composed a new orchestral suite,Streets of Pekin, inspired by a side trip to China, and led its world premiere with the Japanese orchestra.
Henry Hadley was one of the most performed and published American composers of his day. He considered himself first and foremost an orchestral composer, to which his many overtures, symphonic poems, orchestral suites, and symphonies attest. He also wrote brief concertos for both cello (hisKonzertstück) and piano (hisConcertino, Op. 131).
Yet he also wrote a large number of stage works, including several operettas and musicals, along with his five operas. His 1903 Broadway musicalNancy Brown was created as a starring vehicle for the actressMarie Cahill. Though his operasAzora andCleopatra's Night received the most attention, his comedyBianca, which won a prize offered by the American Society of Singers for the best chamber opera in English, perhaps due to its modest demands, received a number of performances during Hadley's lifetime and a few afterwards, even in Japan in the early 1950s.
During his years in San Francisco, Hadley made friends among the city's elite, which led him to become a member of the exclusiveBohemian Club, for which he wrote three "music dramas", designed to be given a single performance outdoors at theBohemian Grove in Northern California. These works were very similar to operas, but also contained some spoken dialogue. Hadley later adapted music from these works to be performed as orchestral suites.
He also wrote a number of chamber works, although "he had no compelling desire" to compose them.[4] He produced aviolin sonata, twostring quartets, and twopiano trios. According to Tawa, his most noteworthy chamber effort was the quintet in a minor for piano and strings, Op. 50, written in 1919.[4]
Hadley also wrote a large number ofcantatas andoratorios, some of them, such asResurgam, conceived on a very large scale. His work as asong composer is also noteworthy. Villamil claims that "Of his nearly 200 songs many can still be recommended for their unaffected, buoyant lyricism."[5] She praises their "supple vocal lines" that are "sensitive to poetic concerns" and accompaniments that "can be inventive and provocative."[5] One of his choruses fromThe New Earth titled, "Song of the Marching Men," has been recorded.[1]
Hadley was also a pioneer in film music. He was filmed byWarner Bros. conducting theNew York Philharmonic in the overture to Wagner's operaTannhäuser, theVitaphone short that opened the program including its 1926 film,Don Juan withJohn Barrymore; this was the first feature film with a synchronized music and sound effects score, which was compiled and composed byWilliam Axt andDavid Mendoza, conducted byHerman Heller, and played by the New York Philharmonic. Subsequently, Hadley wrote a complete original Vitaphone score for the 1927 Barrymore filmWhen a Man Loves in which Heller conducted the "Vitaphone Symphony Orchestra" for the soundtrack.
In 1933, Hadley founded the National Association for American Composers and Conductors, which exists to this day. In spite of a cancer diagnosis in 1932, he decided to pursue his dream of establishing a summer classical music festival.
In the spring of 1934, Hadley scouted theBerkshire Hills of western Massachusetts for a site and support for his seasonal music festival. The region's well knownGilded Age summer colony had not entirely faded in spite of theGreat Depression. Hadley's inquiries led to the formidable and culturedGertrude Robinson Smith. Within a few months they staged three days of concerts in August with Hadley conducting sixty-five members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The first concert on 23 August was under the stars before an audience of 3,000, includingSara Roosevelt,the President's mother. For two more summers Hadley and Smith worked to achieve their vision of a permanent seasonal music festival. Initially known as theBerkshire Symphonic Music Festival, it soon became known asTanglewood.[6]
Hadley's cancer surgery was initially successful, and he continued his career as a composer and guest conductor. However, his popularity as a composer began to wane, as popular and especially critical opinion turned against the robustromanticism which Hadley's music embodied. The quick success of theBerkshire Philharmonic Festival's first three seasons was a dream fulfilled at the end of his life. Hadley's cancer recurred, and he died in New York City on 6 September 1937. He was buried atMount Auburn Cemetery.[7]
During his lifetime he was awarded several honors: an honorary doctorate fromTufts University in 1925, membership in theNational Institute of Arts and Letters and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters, and theOrder of Merit from the French government.[1]
The majority of Hadley's personal papers and scores are housed in theMusic Division ofThe New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. During his lifetime, Hadley's music was immensely popular, and was a regular part of the repertory of America's top orchestras, and was also performed in Europe. Many legendary conductors performed his music, includingGustav Mahler,Leopold Stokowski,Serge Koussevitzky, andKarl Muck. In recent years his music has been largely neglected, although a few recordings of his music have been issued. An enduring aspect of his legacy isTanglewood, the realization of his dream to create a classical summer music festival.
TheWorld War IILiberty ShipSS Henry Hadley was named in his honor.
The National Association for American Composers and Conductors established the Henry Hadley Medal, awarded annually for outstanding contributions to American music. The first medal was awarded toHoward Hanson in 1938; the last was given toMorton Gould in 1967. Other recipients includedSigmund Spaeth, MayorFiorello LaGuardia,Samuel Barber,Leopold Stokowski,Martha Graham andNadia Boulanger.[8]
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