I find this post quite fascinating. It touches on a topic which I tried to raise a while back, specifically, the relation between Pound's poetry and certain styles of 20th century classical music Margaret wrote: << I don't know if this post will hold up against the humor, but I'll put it down for the record. . . Pound's article for New Masses regarding factory music was motivated by an interest in larger conceptual forms for rhythm than the "small bits" of rhythmic unity that could be found in concert music.>> Do you know if Pound wrote on or made many comments about other composers, aside from Antheil. I believe he also saw a performance of Antheil's opera, "Transatlantique", and it was at this performance where he briefly met Froebenius. <<The article based its interest on the accomplishment of Antheil's Ballet mecanique which according to Antheil and Pound was the first Western piece of music to achieve a large rhythmic form in space/time.>> What was the precise date of the performance of this work, and could it honestly be said the Antheil wrote "the first piece to achieve a large rhythmic form in space/time."? Had not Stravinsky and Prokofiev already acheived this in their early works, which were well known in France. <<Pound was looking for other "venues" so to speak. The article suggests the musically oriented person from among the factory employees could "compose" the sounds for their fellow-workers. >> Prokofiev had written by this time, I believe, the ballet "Pas d'Acier," which contained a final movement called "The Factory," a work of such force and mechanical brutality that he was accused simultaneously of being a "bolshevik" in the West, and a "bourgeois formalist" innovator in the Soviet Union. Artur Honneger wrote "Pacific 231" during the 30's, I believe, in a simlilar style, as a depiction of the force of a locomotive, gathering and picking up speed, the entire piece being a crescendo and accelerando, until the entire work collapses under the stress of excessive velocity. Erik Satie had written the ballet "Parade" which used typewriters, sirens, and other modern mechanical devices. The great French innovators known as "Les Six" (whose most notable member was perhaps, Francois Poulenc) were thriving during the twenties; they inspired Prokofiev to write his second symphony, which might be considered the most expanded spacio-temporal rhythmic rupture in the musical fabric of that era. I have not heard Antheil's ballet mechanique, and wonder if you would recommend it. Is it similar to Honneger, Satie, Prokofiev, or to Stravinsky (or is it perhaps like the work of Darius Milhaud? Milhaud wrote a very complex work to be performed by machinery, a work which only very recently---last year---- could be performed on the mechanical instruments suited to his very demanding specifications) "Since then of course, new music has taken on the challenge of larger forms, both rhythmic and arhythmic." I can hardly believe that Antheil's work, or any of the above mentioned works (including Prokofiev's second symphony) could have surpassed Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as the "first Western piece of music to achieve a large rhythmic form in space/time". That work premiered in Paris in 1911, as you probably know, and the performance precipitated riots. (Stravinky had to flee from a mens' room window to escape the mob; Maurice Ravel, who was present, was beaten on the head, when he tried to quiet some of the rioters. His attacker cried out to him, "Shut up, not another word, you Jew," although Ravel was not Jewish, of course.). May I ask, which of the twentieth century classical composers, in your view, is most similar to Pound? Whose music do you think, in tone, rhythm, colour, mood, scope and aesthetic effect, most closely resembles Pound's poetry? Regards, Wei ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com