In 1925, composer W. Franke Harling (1887-1958) set out to make an opera that experimented with jazz. This concept made headlines across the musical world, “New American Music Drama of Redemption Utilizes’ Jazz” is just one example from Musical America.[1] What makes this opera unique is it premiered 10 years before the opera that is most associated with jazz operas, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Why are the operas of Harling no longer performed? Who is Harling, why did he write jazz operas, and what can we learn from this dynamic period of American Music?
Harling’s family emigrated to the United States from England when he was four years old. He went back to England to study music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and composition in Brussels. Harling became the musical director at West Point where he wrote official hymns for the Marines “The Corps.”[2] In 1925, he set out to compose a jazz influenced opera, A Light from St. Agnes which premiered at the Chicago Civic Opera Company in 1925. This opera is significant because it’s the first opera to use jazz as a significant part of the score and included four saxophones to the orchestra. Harling viewed jazz as uniquely American, and how the style of music works when telling stories,
“But although my opera is a ‘jazz’ tragedy to one who has read the score, that little four-letter word, meaning syncopated rhythm, has come to have so flippant and insincere a definition that I fear it may place me among those who have not seen the score in the musical comedy category. For this reason I had to explain that my drama is only a ‘jazz’ opera rhythmically, as Strauss’ Rosenkavalier is a waltz opera, and intrinsically only inasmuch as it reflects the life of the French-Americans of the small community which is its locale.” [3]
A Light from St. Agnes is set in Louisiana, with a tavern at the base of a hill and a chapel at the top of the hill. The opera tells the story of a girl in the mid 19th century leading a “jazz” life and transforms to a spiritual life only to die at the hands of a former lover. The structure of the opera follows the popular style of Verismo opera that was popular in Italy. Harling had great hopes for this opera, “Now the time is ripe for American jazz opera. In A Light from St. Agnes I have made a bold attempt not only to justify its existence but to do a little pioneer work in musical nationalism, with the hope that it will arouse some dormant Yankee Moussorgsky!”[4]
The premiere of the opera was a hit. “Author of Opera in English Kissed by Frenzied Mob” exclaimed The Atlanta Constitution.[5] The New York Times praised the work as “the last, and in some respects the best American opera that we have thus far presented to Chicago operagoers.”[6] The claim of the first opera to use the saxophone received some pushback, like this Nov. 15th, 1925 “Letter to the Editor” in the New York Times.
Enrico Barraja was correct in his assessment and quite knowledgeable on the history of the saxophone in opera. In fact he includes one opera that I have yet to come across, Edoardo Mascheroni’s Lorenza.
A Light from St. Agnes won the David Bispham medal which is given to the composer of the best musical composition of the year.[7] Subsequent performances of the opera were given throughout the country, and it became the first American opera to premiere in Paris.[8] With the success of this opera, Harling set out to write another jazz opera, Deep River. In this opera, Harling continued to elevate jazz into the work of serious music.
“I consider jazz fundamentally American. In ‘A Light From St. Agnes’ I scratched only the surface, realizing the danger of making the jazz innovation in serious music too drastic for an audience used to the classics. But in ‘Deep River’ I have thrown overboard every musical law, all set rules, to emphasize the fact that jazz is not a thing to be deformed and travestied in cheap dance halls, but to be taken seriously as a new rhythm, a new contribution to music, the most important in the last hundred years. I try to prove in ‘Deep River’ that jazz can be used quite as effectively to express tragedy as comedy.”[9]
Deep River was set on a Louisiana plantation in 1835. The story mixes different aspects of Creole culture and voodoo in the antebellum South. Deep River was also the operatic debut of Julius Bledsoe, making it one of the first operas to have an integrated cast.[10] The reviews praised the choral writings of Harling, calling it the strongest features of the work.[11] Less than one month after it’s debut on October 4, 1926, Deep River folded after losing $100,000.[12]
The failure of the opera is related to the very subject of the opera. The aristocratic class of opera goers would not dare to see operas centered around Black Americans.[13] The music critic Oscar Thompson, blasted composers like Gershwin, John Alden Carpenter, and Harling for their attempt to elevate jazz into serious musical works, quoted below:
“The possibility of a successful jazz opera is a remote one. The idiom is one of the most unlikely conceivable as a medium for dramatic musical speech. Its jerkiness, its essential dance character, and its inelasticity of accent cripple declamation at the outset. The most languorous waltz would be no more inappropriate to the expression of tense and tragic emotion than the knee-knocking Charleston.”[14]
Thompson’s saved his vitriol for one instrument in particular,
“It is doubly absurd, in view of the regency of the saxophone’s identification with this so-called American music, to find its employment in the score of an American opera spoken of as one of the racial details of that opera. As has been pointed in these columns before, the saxophone was used experimentally in continental opera orchestras from the time of its invention in the eighteen-forties. That it never habituated itself there was not because its qualities were unknown. Composers found their ensemble more to their liking without it—that was all. That a saxophone ‘virtuoso’ should now be able to attract an audience to a New York concert hall has nothing more to do with Negro music than would a similar craze over the harmonica or the ocarina.”[15]
The opinion this music critic showcases the difficulty composers faced when incorporating jazz and stories of Black Americans into serious music. The failure of Deep River was repeated ten years later when Gershwin lost $70,000 on Porgy and Bess.[16] The segregated audience of the major opera houses were not ready to support the musical talents of Black Americans.
After the failure of Deep River, Harling noted “it is almost impossible for an American opera composer to make consistent headway in this country unless he has exceptional opportunities offered him. There are only two companies, the Chicago Opera Company and the Metropolitan, with the means adequately to mount a new opera The average young composer hasn’t a chance in turning to the Metropolitan. And quite naturally, for an operatic institution such as the Metropolitan cannot afford to act as an experimental laboratory for native composers.”[17] This observation is extremely pertinent if you are familiar with the Met’s history. They have premiered an handful of new works by American composers scattered throughout their 140 year history. The frustration at the major opera houses not supporting American opera is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago.
With the failure of Deep River, Harling turned to a new institution for his musical endeavor. In 1928, he becomes one of Hollywood’s major composers of the transitional period from silent movies to talkies. Looking through his catalogue, Harling wrote the soundtracks for a diverse array of movies at the dawn of sound cinema. Listening to his scores gives us an idea of his style, showcased in this 1930 film, Honey which features “Sing You Sinners,” a spiritual number sung by a large cast of Black Americans.
“Sing You Sinners” was just one of the hits Harling composed. This song has been covered by many singers including Tony Bennett. Harling composed music to fit the wide range of stories featuring the working class up to royalty. Harling scored music to F. W. Murnau’s South Sea story Tabu, Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg’s many collaborations, and opera-inspired stories like Madame Butterfly. In 1939, he won an academy award for Stagecoach. The audience for movies was the middle and working class, and Harling was able to write music that appealed to a diverse audience, the very thing he was unable to do when he wrote operas.
Harling may have been the first to claim he wrote a jazz opera, but researching this has lead me to uncover even earlier American operas that use the saxophone. Tune in for more jazz operas, this only the beginning.
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[1] Henrietta Malkiel “New American Music Drama of Redemption Utilizes’ Jazz” Musical America (April 11, 1925), 402. Koenig, Karl. Jazz In Print (1856-1929): an Anthology of Selected Early Readings In Jazz History. E-book, Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2002, https://hdl-handle-net.proxy.lib.duke.edu/2027/heb07734.0001.001.
[2] HOPKINS TO STAGE A JAZZ OPERA HERE: ‘DEEP RIVER,’ PLAY OF LOUISIANA, WILL BE WORK OF STALLINGS AND HARLING. ‘SPIRITUALS’ WILL BE IN IT HARLING, WHO WILL WRITE THE MUSIC, SCORED CHICAGO SUCCESS WITH “A LIGHT FROM ST. AGNES.”. (1926, Jan 19). New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/hopkins-stage-jazz-opera-here/docview/103968145/se-2
[3] Henrietta Malkiel “New American Music Drama of Redemption Utilizes’ Jazz” Musical America (April 11, 1925) 402. Koenig, Karl. Jazz In Print (1856-1929): an Anthology of Selected Early Readings In Jazz History. E-book, Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2002, https://hdl-handle-net.proxy.lib.duke.edu/2027/heb07734.0001.001.
[4] ibid.
[5] AUTHOR OF OPERA IN ENGLISH KISSED BY FRENZIED MOB: ENTHUSIASTS AT PREMIERE BY CHICAGO OPERA COMPANY PURSUE COMPOSER, WHO ESCAPES TO HOTEL. BANJO, SAXOPHONE ARE INTRODUCED YOUNG BOSTON CONDUCTOR HOBSONIZED BY 200 ENTHUSIASTIC MEN AND WOMEN WHO HUG HIM. (1925, Dec 27). The Atlanta Constitution (1881-1945) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/author-opera-english-kissed-frenzied-mob/docview/499474738/se-2
[6] New operas out west — “A light of st. agnes”. (1926, Jan 10). New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/new-operas-out-west-light-st-agnes/docview/103915321/se-2
[7] “The Descent of Jazz Upon Opera” Literary Digest (March 13 1926) Koenig, Karl. Jazz In Print (1856-1929): an Anthology of Selected Early Readings In Jazz History. E-book, Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2002, https://hdl-handle-net.proxy.lib.duke.edu/2027/heb07734.0001.001.
[8]HARLING OPERA FOR PARIS: AMERICAN COMPOSER’S WORK TO BE GIVEN THERE ON JUNE 19. (1929, May 26). New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/harling-opera-paris/docview/104774048/se-2
[9] Harling’s “deep river”. (1926, Sep 05). New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/harlings-deep-river/docview/103731285/se-2
[10]Mantle, B. (1926, Oct 10). “DEEP RIVER” MOVES WITH A SLOW CURRENT: “DEEP RIVER” MOVIES WITH A SLOW CURRENT. Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/deep-river-moves-with-slow-current/docview/180776695/se-2
[11]Special to The New York Times. (1926, Sep 22). OPERA ‘DEEP RIVER’ MAKES A BIG HIT: HARLING’S NATIVE WORK, WITH JAZZ AS A FEATURE, HAS PREMIERE IN PHILADELPHIA. HIGHLY ORIGINAL IN FORM BLEDSOE, NEGRO BARITONE; LOTTICE HOWELL, SOPRANO, AND ARDELL TENOR, CARRY OFF HONORS. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/opera-deep-river-makes-big-hit/docview/103693598/se-2
[12]”DEEP RIVER,” NATIVE OPERA, LOST $100,000: PLAY WHICH STARRED ROSE MCCLENDON, BESSIE ALLISON AND OTHERS, FAILED TO APPEAL. (1926, Nov 13). The Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/deep-river-native-opera-lost-100-000/docview/201843078/se-2
[13] Jennifer Fleeger, Sounding American: Hollywood, Opera, and Jazz. Oxford University Press, 2014, pg. 12.
[14] Oscar Thompson “Jazz, as art Music, Piles on Failure.” Musical America, (February 1926), 454. Koenig, Karl. Jazz In Print (1856-1929): an Anthology of Selected Early Readings In Jazz History. E-book, Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2002, https://hdl-handle-net.proxy.lib.duke.edu/2027/heb07734.0001.001.
[15] ibid.
[16] Fredric Dannon “A Lost Operatic Masterpiece Written by White Men for an All-Black Cast was Found and Restored. Can it be Produced without Controversy?” Billboard. (march 27, 2023) https://www.billboard.com/pro/lost-blues-opera-harold-arlen-johnny-mercer-stage-theater/
[17] By, H. N. (1926, Nov 21). NATIVE AMERICAN OPERA PROVES ELUSIVE: PATRONS, PRIZES AND FOUNDATIONS MULTIPLY TO DEVELOP OUR OWN COMPOSERS AND MUSICAL ART OUR NATIVE AMERICAN OPERA. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/native-american-opera-proves-elusive/docview/103653648/se-2
the Operatic Saxophone 