12th June 1923. Facade.

In the early 20th century writer Edith Sitwell of the literary Sitwell family was to write some nonsense, avante garde, poetry, described as following in the tradition of Edward Lear. (1) 

Then her brothers suggested the verses be put to music and might benefit from a private performance.

So on a cold January night in 1922, 16 poems were recited at the Sitwell’s house in Chelsea with the composer William Walton, their lodger, reluctantly conducting the 6 musicians.

Edith pretentiously, described the piece, ‘as the start of an enquiry into the effect on rhythm and on speed and use of rhyme, assonance, dissonance, placed outwardly… in the most elaborate patterns’.

Outrageously musicians and reciter were behind a painted curtain with Edith proclaiming through a megaphone.

The public didn’t know what a ‘treat’ they had in store for Today the following year, at the Aeolian Hall, London, Facade went public.

However the London literati wasn’t ready for such an experimental work and the  performance was greeted with hisses and threats from the audience; ‘though there was considerable applause the house as a whole was infuriated… and so hostile that the performers were warned not to leave the hall until the audience had dispersed’.

Edith Sitwell by Roger Fry. 1912.

 

One review headline said it was, ‘drivel!, they paid to hear’. (1) Sitwell recalled, ‘Never was a larger and more imposing shower of brickbats hurled at any new work’.

The Daily Express loathed the work, but saw it as ‘niggingly memorable’. (2)

The Manchester Guardian said it was, ‘relentless cacophony’.(3)

The Observer condemned the verses and dismissed ‘the music as harmless’.(4)

Not the best collection of reviews!

The clarinet player, one of the 6 musicians, asked Walton, ‘Has a clarinet player ever done you an injury?

In the audience was Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolfe, and Noel Coward who walked out of the performance. Afterwards Coward wrote a review lampooning the Sitwells which caused a feud to last decades.

To put matters in context, the years 1921-2 were a time of literary experiment and revolt: James Joyce’s, Ulysses, and T. S. Eliot’s, Waste Land, come to mind. Within a decade Facade had become acceptable and Walton’s music was used for Frederick Ashton’s ballet of the same name.

(1) Palmer, Christopher, 1990.

(2) Daily Express. Poetry through the Megaphone. 13th June 1923. P.7/

(3) Manchester Guardian. Futuristic Music and Poetry. 13th June 1923. P3.

(4) Observer. Music of the Week. 17.6.1923. P10.

Ref: musicweb.international.com.

Ref: Succes de scandale. Michael Kennedy. 1989. Portrait of Walton. OUP.

Ref: music and history.com.

Ref: wikipedia.org/facade/Pics.

Ref: Punch Books. 5.6.1968, Review. Kenneth Alsop. Re staging of Facade.

Ref: Michael Kennedy. 1989. Portrait of Walton. OUP.