Bellison's Clarinet Ensemble: A Story in Scrapbooks
by Margaret Thornhill
The scrapbooks are handsome, in the "moderne" style of the 30s, their contents neatly ranged: programs and clippings, archives of a performer's life. On close inspection, more than half of the programs are from Simeon Bellison's Philharmonic-Symphony Society Clarinet Ensemble, seemingly a complete set from the years 1932 through their "Jubilee Concert" in 1938.
Their owner, Harold Sachs (1916-1975), was a Bellison pupil and a member of the Ensemble who became its first chair and soloist in 1937 after his cousin Kalman Bloch moved to California to become the principal clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Born in New York City, Harold Sachs studied music at New York University, receiving both Bachelor's and Master's degrees. In addition to freelancing with orchestras and chamber music groups, he performed with the Philharmonic Symphony, the National Orchestra Association, and the 1942 Berkshire Music Festival under Serge Koussevitsky. Later that year, he enlisted in the Coast Guard and became concertmaster of the 25-piece Coast Guard Service Band, stationed at Manhattan Beach. On the original faculty of the High School of the Performing Arts (which later merged with the High School of Music and Art), he also taught at the Manhattan School of Music, and from 1960-75 was chairman of the music department at Forest Hills High School.
Harold died, too young, of brain cancer, in 1975. In 1980, I met his sons, Charles and Len, and his (late) widow, Miriam, best friends of my husband's family: buddies from sandbox and preschool, now my friends from annual visits and shared family celebrations. I've known Harold only through their anecdotes, crumbling pieces of music layered with Bellison's handwriting now in my own collection, and more recently, their family piano, which now lives in our living room.
As Charles and I leafed through the Bellison programs, I could see the growth of a little clarinet empire built by one of the most influential teachers of modern times, an intriguing parallel to Bellison's own performance life as soloist, chamber musician, and clarinetist with the Philharmonic Symphony of New York (later the New York Philharmonic).
Not Just Clarinets
Bellison's own publications state that the Clarinet Ensemble numbered 75 musicians, but this somewhat inflated number was not limited to clarinetists. Based on the available programs through 1938, the largest number of clarinetists in the group at any one time was actually around 51. Other instruments added for color and variety in different repertoire were harp, concertina, piano, organ and harpsichord, percussion, and trumpets rounding out the group to something under 70.
The early history of the ensemble varies with the telling. What's clear is that through the support of the Philharmonic Society Scholarship Committee, Bellison, already a famous and gifted teacher greatly expanded the reach and size of his studio. With the 1929 decision of the Philharmonic committee to award scholarships to junior and senior high school students in greater New York for private study (with Bellison) and ensemble performance, the Clarinet Ensemble was also guaranteed concerts in major halls and funds for instrument acquisition.
Using the third person, Bellison himself describes this evolution of the group in an "unpublished article from 1935":
"in 1927...the Committee on Ensemble Musical Training and Scholarships of the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York invited Mr. Bellison to accept a class of six pupils.
As an experienced clarinetist he knew that individual practice would not make a finished orchestra player; that ensemble playing was absolutely necessary...By the end of 1928 the ensemble of sixteen players had already given two recitals. In the following year the Committee provided Mr. Bellison with additional funds with the result that the remainder of the necessary instruments were purchased (from Leblanc--mt) in France.
To the ensemble was now added a harp, timpani, trumpet and concertina also from the scholarship program. This added colour made it a very original unit, which now numbered thirty players. Appearances now began at private and public concerts, which attracted the attention of both public and press.
The artistic playing of the ensemble began to draw clarinetists and other instrumentalists to seek to join the ensemble with the result that it now numbers 57 players."
(Simeon Bellison Archives at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance: A Catalogue by Claude Abravanel. A Publication of the Jersusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. 1993; 52 p.)
In 1932, the year of the first program in this collection, the ensemble numbered 18 players plus harp.
By 1938, the clarinets numbered 51: E-flat and A-flat clarinet (one player each), 10 firsts, 8 seconds, 6 thirds, 11 "clarini" (which may have been a training instrument made by Leblanc in those years), 4 bassets, 2 altos, 6 bass clarinets, and 2 contrabasses. This clarinet choir was supported by 14 non-clarinetists and three doublers performing on concertina, four trumpets, three harps, two timpani, two general percussion, xylophone, organ, guitar, and two keyboards.
The Players
The roster of the clarinet ensemble, "all trained by Mr. Bellison," reads like a "Who's Who" of clarinet society in the 20th century. David Weber, Kalman Bloch, Leon Russianoff, Kalmen Opperman, and David Oppenheim, were among the best known. Louis Klein was a member of the NBC symphony. Milton Rosenstock, a graduate of Juilliard in conducting and composition, was the music director for Broadway shows and the American Ballet Theatre. He died in 1982 at the age of 74. Rosalind Crost (Tiefer), who died in 2006, was one of the few women to perform with the group throughout its history. Initially E-flat clarinetist, she became pianist for the ensemble, accompanying her colleagues in solo clarinet works and performing the occasional solo piano work. Her obituary reveals the life of a busy musician who taught "music and history at Walton and Theodore Roosevelt high schools," performed with the Bronx Opera, the Hudson River Choral Society, and directed choral concerts. Richard Korn was the founder and conductor of the Orchestra of America, which advanced the cause of American music. Martin Zwick was principal clarinet with the Utah Symphony. Benjamin Spieler attended the Paris Conservatoire on a Fullbright scholarship and graduated with diplomas in flute, oboe and clarinet chamber music. He wrote excellent educational materials for young clarinetists and taught in the Philadelphia area. Sidney Jekowsky was a member of the New York Pops under Skitch Henderson. Stanley Hammer, who died in 2007 age 85, was a member of the Westchester, NY, symphony who also taught and played in dance and concert bands.
Joseph Genna is still alive and teaching in New Jersey, and on a recent day we had a phone chat before he rang off to meet a student. Now 90 years old, he was selected as a Philharmonic scholarship student when he was 19. This entitled him to lessons with Bellison and membership in the clarinet ensemble, which met on Saturday mornings. He remembers Bellison as a "wonderful, charming guy—very fatherly toward us." Originally playing the Albert system, he was asked by Bellison after a year of lessons to switch to the Boehm system, since a pro-level Albert clarinet like the one Bellison played was only available in Germany at that time. Genna still thinks longingly about the Albert system—he loved the roller keys. During WW. II, he was assistant principal clarinet of the 18th -19th Army/Airforce band which was stationed in Atlantic City. After the war, Joseph Genna became a high school language teacher, and taught clarinet privately, as he does to this day.
Kalmen Opperman, an early member of the group, celebrated his 90th birthday in December of 2009 with a public concert by his students at Carnegie's Weill Hall in Manhattan, conducting works performed by his own clarinet choir, and featuring his best known student, Richard Stolzman. A 46-year veteran of Broadway musical and ballet orchestras, he is still teaching private pupils in New York.
Repertoire for Soloists
Bellison's programs interspersed clarinet choir works with recital pieces for members of the ensemble, some playing exotic clarinets such as piccolo clarinet in A-flat or basset horn. Guest soloists (usually accompanied by piano) included opera singers or child prodigies on other instruments who attracted a wider audience, as well as auxiliary members who played concertina, trumpet, or piano.
Some solo clarinet works performed reflected the "salon" tastes of an earlier era, or Bellison's own repertoire. Kalman Bloch performed works such as the Lovreglio Duet with flute and piano and the Weinberg-Bellison Kleine Suite. A-flat piccolo soloist Herman Price performed the De Beriot Air Varie, basset hornist Milton Price performed Grieg's Soir dans les Montagnes, and Donald Lella played the Scene and Air from Bergson's Luisa de Monfort.
Works from the standard clarinet repertoire were infrequent, but included the von Weber Variations, Op.33, with Murray Deutsch (1933); Beethoven's Trio, Op. 11, 2nd and 3rd movements, with Kalman Bloch (1934; no cellist noted.) David Weber and a young Leonard Sharrow performed the Kegelstatt trio; David Weber also performed the Cavallini Carnaval de Venice on E-flat clarinet. In 1935, Kalman Bloch performed the Debussy Rhapsodie with piano. In November of 1936, Milton Rosenstock performed the "Polacca" from the Weber First Concerto. The Baermann Introduction, Theme and Variations were presented by by four different sections of clarinetists, including a "group of clarinis." And in 1938, the von Weber Variations were again performed, divided between six different clarinetists.
"All the music has been arranged by Mr. Bellison"
The Clarinet Choir repertoire consisted almost exclusively of orchestral arrangements made by Bellison himself. However, some programs included works by members, clarinetist Richard Korn (a quintet arrangement from Wagner's Meistersinger), and bass clarinetist, Theodore Gargiulo (1915-2006.) As a youth, Gargiulo studied piano and composition at the Manhattan School of Music and with a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, and later conducting with Fritz Stiedry of the Metropolitan opera. Gargulio's original Romanza and his arrangement of Borodin's On the Steppes of Central Asia were premiered in the 1938 Town Hall concert "to standing ovations." In his later career as a conductor, Gargiulo appeared at the Miami Opera Guild, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Opera, and others, and live orchestra performances of the restored version of Abel Gance's film Napoleon.
Sixty-seven of Bellison's own clarinet choir manuscripts are held in the Jerusalem Academy, donated in 1964 by his wife and daughter. Two-thirds of these are for large choir with added instruments. Not all of the titles in the archive are represented on programs, and not all of the works on the programs are present in the archive. Simeon Loring recently emailed me that Bellison's arrangement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony once came to him through David Weber, and was donated to the Air Force Band library. This story suggests that other ensemble manuscripts might still be still in private hands or lost. There is no evidence that these works were ever published.
Works arranged by Bellison fell into three main categories, as summarized in one of the earlier programs, music which defined his life experience: "Classical," "Hebraic," and "Russian."
Bellison's first task was to educate the members in the classical repertoire: arrangements of Mozart, Haendel, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, sometimes entire symphonies (Mozart Symphony #34; Beethoven's 7th.) Early programs feature Bach's “Air"; at the "Jubilee" Town Hall concert, an arrangement of a Rameau Suite drew raves from the New York critics. Crowd-pleasers included Grieg's Peer Gynt, Mascagni's Intermezzo, Franck's Panis Angelicus, and Sibelius' Valse Triste, and the Bizet Farandole. A nod to the clarinet literature was made by a clarinet choir arrangement of the second movement Andante of Brahms's Sonata Op. 120#1.
In the Russian category, Liadoff 's A Music Box, Rimsky-Korsakov The Czar's Bride, the Volga Boatmen Song (variously credited to Glazunoff and Bellison), Moussorgsky's Ballet of Chickens in their Shells from Pictures at an Exhibition, and selections from Tchaikovsky's ballets were popular.
In the Hebraic category, Bellison chose folk-inspired works by composers Jacob Weinberg (1879-1956), Gregorz Fittelberg (1879-1953), and Julius Engel (1868-1927), whom he knew.
Weinberg's pieces called Grandmother's Stories ( "Bobe-maisses") included Canzonetta, Allegro Vivo, March ("Soldier's Song"), The Maypole ("Children's song-dance" or "Kinderreigen") and Melodie. Selections from these appeared on many programs as clarinet choir works, or clarinet solos with piano. Bellison arranged the March and The Maypole for clarinet choir and created a Petite Suite that added muted trumpet, harp and percussion. In a Town Hall Concert, its movements are listed as Canzona, Andante Mesto, Allegretto and Alla Marcia.
Fittelberg's To the Wedding ("Zur Trauung," or "Tzu der chupoh") included two movements: Kale-Besezen (sometimes listed as Adagio, Recitative) and Procession, solo works that joined movements by Weinberg in a published suite for clarinet and piano arranged by Bellison (Four Hebrew Melodies, Jibneh-Verlag). It can be heard in a sensitive performance by Kalman Bloch on Simeon Bellison: Arrangements for Clarinet (Summit Records DCD 503). In the Ensemble concerts, Fittelberg's works were also were often performed as concertina solos by Murray Waltzer.
The Four Hebrew Melodies by Engel (Chassidic Song, Cradle Song, A Wedding Melody, and Chassidic Dance), arranged for clarinet ensemble by Bellison, figured prominently in a concert at the Bronx House Auditorium (1/35) and the same month in a benefit concert of Chassidic music in Town Hall for the American Palestine Music Association (MAILAMM.)
Always aware of his audience, Bellison skillfully tailored programs to fit the sponsors of the Ensemble's programs. Over the years, the group performed at venues that repeatedly included Carnegie Recital Hall and Town Hall, but also the MacDowell Club, the Jewish Club, the Bronx Club, the Girls Commercial School, the Neighborhood Music School and the Community Center Conservatory, the Hotel Delano, the Dalton School, the Jewish Daily Forward Radio Hour, the College of the City of New York(now CUNY), and the Jewish Congregation of Coney Island.
The sound of the group
I've found no indication that recordings survive. The best descriptions of the sound of the group come from the New York music critics:
"The character of sound produced by the group was unique and had decided charm and appeal, the preponderance of woodwind tone giving it an 18th century tang. Under Mr. Bellison's able baton, the young musicians played with an exhilarating enthusiasm and a correctness and elasticity that were a constant delight." NY Times, March 12, 1937
"Mr Bellison directed his apprentice-cohorts in a spirited performance of Haendel's delectable "Water Music". The playing was brisk and balanced, and the clarinet choirs made both Allegros sound like sea breezes whistling through a cave." (Italics mine.) NY Times, n.d., 1938
The Legacy
Bellison's ensemble remains of lasting interest to clarinetists. His group was unique for its time and a first for US audiences: a very large group of clarinetists taught by the same teacher, with orchestral ambitions and standards. A training ground for high musical achievers, not just in clarinet, but also composition, conducting, and teaching, the Ensemble provided an opportunity for musically gifted young people to grow and learn with peers. Many were children of Russian, Eastern European or Italian immigrants, more than a few sharing Bellison's own Russian-Jewish background. For these young people, their youth caught between the hardships of the Great Depression and the call to war, the Ensemble provided something of a safe haven, an idyllic time of performance and study. Bellison's influence continues, with pupils of his original students now educating a third generation.
As Joseph Genna put it when asked on the phone about Bellison's conducting:
"I really don't know about his conducting.... But he taught us. And it was fun."
______________________________________________
I would like to acknowledge the kind assistance of Charles Sachs, James Gillespie, Joseph Genna and Simeon Loring in preparing this article.
Biographical material of members of the ensemble sited was obtained from the following internet sites:
Rosalind Crost: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E6DF153AF933A0575AC0A9609C8B63
Theodore Gargiulo: http://www.makingstories.net/opera/Theodore%20Gargiulo%20biography_personal_version.pdf
Stanley Hammer: http://www.nyjnews.com/obituary/obit.php3?id=2202659
Sidney Jekowsky: http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Jekowsky_Sidney_385170045.aspx
Louis Klein: http://www.classicalrecordings.org/znbc/nbcplayers.html.
Richard Korn: http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=C0275&kw=
Milton Rosenstock: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/28/arts/milton-rosenstock-music-director-74-for-stage-and-ballet.html
Benjamin Spieler: http://classical-scene.com/2008/11/27/musing-on-mozart-and-studying-with-boulanger/
Martin Zwick: http://gpcw.org/bio-martyg.html
Additional information about Simeon Bellison: http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/Bellison.html
Copyright 2010, Margaret Thornhill. All Rights Reserved. A copy of this article originally appeared in the March 2010 issue of The Clarinet.
