Bernstein and Robbins: The Early Ballets (Eastman Studies in Music, 173)

323 Pages·2021·6.994 MB·English

by  Sophie Redfern

Bernstein and Robbins
Eastman Studies in Music
Ralph P. Locke, Senior Editor
Eastman School of Music
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A complete list of titles in the Eastman Studies in Music series
may be found on our website, www.urpress.com.
Bernstein and Robbins
The Early Ballets
Sophie Redfern
The University of Rochester Press gratefully acknowledges generous support from the
the AMS 75 PAYS Fund of the American Musicological Society, supported in part by
the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Copyright © 2021 by Sophie Redfern
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no
part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2021
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN: 978-1-64825-005-7 hardback
ISBN: 978-1-78744-928-2 ePDF
ISSN: 1071-9989 ; v. 173
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952098
Cover image: Jerome Robbins in Fancy Free, 1944. Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
The New York Public Library.
To Nigel Simeone, mentor and friend

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xv
List of Abbreviations xix
Editorial Note xxi
Preface xxiii
1 Setting the Scene: American Ballet and Jerome Robbins 1
2 Toward a First Ballet: Fancy Free Takes Shape 32
3 Creating Fancy Free: A Long-Distance Collaboration 65
4 The Music of Fancy Free: The Sketches and Score Explored 97
5 The Fancy Free Premiere and a Move to Broadway 151
6 Toward a Second Ballet: Bye Bye Jackie and the Creation
of Facsimile 176
7 The Music of Facsimile: The Sketches and Score Explored 203
8 The Facsimile Premiere and Legacy of the Ballets 236
Epilogue: Bernstein and Dance 269
Bibliography 271
Index 283

Illustrations
Figures
2.1. Paul Cadmus, The Fleet’s In!, oil on canvas, 1934 34
3.1. Oliver Smith set design for Fancy Free, preliminary sketch,
pencil on tracing paper, [1943–44] 69
3.2. Sailors in various combinations and poses as sketched by
Robbins, undated [likely late January/early February 1944] 79
3.3. Jerome Robbins self-portrait in a letter to Donald Saddler,
undated [mid-January 1944] 86
3.4. Oliver Smith set design for Fancy Free, color rendering,
watercolor, gouache and colored pencil on paper, 1944 96
4.1. Start of the Fancy Free Finale featuring Bernstein’s notes for
the copyist. Fancy Free autograph full score in pencil, vol. II 129
5.1. Advertisement for Ballet Theatre’s upcoming season published
in the program for the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of
New York concerts, Carnegie Hall, March 29 and 31, 1944 152
5.2. Advertisement for Ballet Theatre’s 1944 season opener at the
Metropolitan Opera House published in the New York Times,
April 9, 1944 155
5.3. Advertisement for Ballet Theatre’s season following the Fancy
Free premiere. LBC, SB/MF 3 165
5.4. Advertisement for Ballet Theatre’s two-week season extension.
LBC, SB/MF 3 166
8.1. Oliver Smith set design for Facsimile, color rendering,
watercolor and colored pencil on board, 1946 238
x illustrations
❧
8.2 and 8.3. Oliver Smith set designs for Facsimile, preliminary
sketches, watercolor and pen and ink on paper, 1946 239
Tables
1.1 Ballets produced by Ballet Caravan featuring original scores 21
2.1 Extract from Robbins’s later typed Fancy Free scenario showing
music, mood, and action simultaneously 41
3.1 Ballet Theatre touring schedule for February–March 1944 with
Robbins’s Fancy Free rehearsal time annotations 84
4.1 Fancy Free order of composition 99
4.2 Four sets of lyrics for “Big Stuff” 104
4.3 The start of the Fancy Free Finale as described in the scenario 125
4.4 Musical outline of the Fancy Free score 133
4.5 Musical description of Scene IV, the Pas de deux 134
7.1 Structure of the Facsimile score, including balletic action and
principal musical features 204
Musical Examples
4.1 “Big Stuff,” 1943 autograph sketch, LBC, 1066/19 101
4.2 “Nicest Time of Day,” later used as “Lonely Town” in On the
Town (1944), 1943 autograph sketch, LBC, 1066/19 101
4.3a Two-measure fragment, 1943 autograph sketch, LBC, 1066/19 101
4.3b Two-measure fragment in “Enter Three Sailors” (mm. 12–13),
published score 101
4.4 Opening of “Enter Three Sailors” (mm. 2–5), published score 101
4.5 End of Scene III with “Juke Box” indication, autograph sketch,
LBC, 1056/8 107