San Francisco's Hugo Friedhofer

source: Music and Dance in California

Hugo Friedhofer (1901-1981) is often named as the only native Californian among the famed film soundtrack composers of cinema's golden age with a career that started in 1929 with the advent of sound motion pictures and that ended only in 1974.  

He was born in San Francisco to active professional musicians, cellist Paul Friedhofer and vocalist Eva Koenig.  Hugo Friedhofer studied cello from the age of 13 with his father, but an early interest in art led him to attend San Francisco's Polytechnic High School. He dropped out at age 17 along with a group of fellow pacifist students who protested the firing of an antiwar teacher at the school. 

The Polytechnic High School Orchestra. (The cellists are seated behind the conductor's stand)

source: The Polytechnic Journal December 1917

After this he drifted away from art and towards music and moved to Berkeley where he studied music with Domenico Brescia. A biography of Friedhofer tells of him joining the People's Symphony Orchestra directed by Alexander Saslavsky at the age of 19. That organization only came into being in the fall of 1922 when he was 21; a San Francisco Chronicle article from that time lists Friedhofer as a member of that orchestra's cello section.  

This biography also mistakenly gives the year of his elopement with Elizabeth Barrett as 1920.  Records in the Ancestry.com database show that they were wed on March 13, 1923 in Napa, California. On the license he gave his occupation as "composer" and his employers as the People's Symphony.  Two days after their wedding they participated in a performance by Dilley's Puppets at Wheeler Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.  Percy Jay Dilley was a commercial artist and puppeteer who was active in North California for many years. Friedhofer composed the music for the show and his new wife performed it on the piano.

There are notices of him performing chamber music in the Bay Area between 1919 and 1922 in the San Francisco Chronicle, Examiner and Call. In an interview, he recalled taking his first movie theater orchestra job at theater "in the Polk-Larkin section" of San Francisco. This was likely at the Royal Theatre on Polk Street playing under director Maurice Lawrence, probably as a member of his "Royal Orchestra."

Maurice Lawrence now conducting the Royal Orchestra 

source: San Francisco Chronicle July 11, 1921

In 1924 Friedhofer joined The Artists' Ensemble a small semi-classical ensemble led by Oliver Alberti that performed at the Castro Theater.  Alberti gave him the opportunity to create arrangements for the group. Around 1927-1928 he played in a string orchestra at the Granada Theater on Market Street led by Andrea Setaro. Setaro, who soon moved to Hollywood, wrote backgrounds for silent movies and sometimes asked Friedhofer to make arrangements and contribute passages.

With the success of the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, the first major "talking" picture, work for cinema musicians quickly dried up. Friedhofer took advantage of the arranging and composing skills he acquired as well as his connections in the movie world and moved south to work in Hollywood. At the invitation of another San Francisco composer and arranger, George Lipschultz, Friedhofer joined the Fox Film Corporation in July 1929. He started out orchestrating other composers work, but within a few years became a skilled and prolific composer for several Hollywood studios.

He was nominated nine times for Academy Awards and won an Oscar for his 1947 soundtrack for the best years of our lives. Read some entertaining and insightful interviews with him in Hugo Friedhofer: The Best Years of His Life: A Hollywood Master of Music for The Movies.

Films in our DVD collection with soundtracks by Hugo Friedman include:

An Affair to Remember (1957)

Captain Carey U.S.A. (1950)

Homicidal (1961)

The Letter (1940)

Lifeboat (1944)

The Sea Hawk (1940)

Bibliography:

Artists in California, 1786-1940 by Edan Milton Hughes, 3rd edition (Crocker Art Museum, 2002).

Hugo Friedhofer: The Best Years of His Life: A Hollywood Master of Music for The Movies. edited by Linda Danly (Scarecrow Press,1999).

"The Lights of Market Street," San Francisco Examiner (July 11, 1928).

"The Lost scores: The M-G-M Collection and Hugo Friedhofer's 'Body and Soul'," M.A. Thesis by Christa Lorenz (California State University, Long Beach, 2010). [accessed through the Dissertation Abstracts database]

Music and Dance in California, edited by José Rodriguez, compiled by William J. Perlman, 2nd edition (Bureau of Musical Research, 1940).

The Polytechnic Journal (Associated Students of Polytechnic High School, December 1917)

"Saslavsky to Direct Notable Event," San Francisco Chronicle (November 19, 1922).

"Setaro's Score to Be Widely Used: Music for 'Fire Brigade' Makes Hit," San Francisco Chronicle (February 2, 1927).

Presentation: David Bowie

 A talk and slide show with Richie Unterberger

Author and rock historian Richie Unterberger shows and discusses vintage performance clips of David Bowie. These will span the prime of his career, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. During this time Bowie evolved through a series of surprising styles, from the folk-rock/psychedelia of "Space Oddity" and his rise to glam superstardom in the Ziggy Stardust era to his exploration of blue-eyed soul and electronic rock.

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several Bay Area colleges. His next book, to be published by Taschen in 2022, is San Francisco: Portrait of a City.

This virtual program is offered as a one-time event only by agreement with the presenter. This program will not be recorded.

Wednesday, April 13th

12pm - 1:30pm

Register HERE

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library

New German Cinema, Alexander Kluge, and Yesterday Girl

Often over-shadowed by two neighboring schools of cinema - Italian Neorealism and French New Wave - Neuer Deutscher Film (New German Cinema) made significant contributions to the artistic and intellectual development of world cinema. Cinephiles are familiar with the names such as Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder for their famous German films, but not many have heard of the director of the 1966 film Yesterday Girl (Abschied von Gestern).

While browsing through our film collection, I made a series of discoveries about a film I had heard of but never felt curious enough to either watch or read up on. Yesterday Girl was directed by Alexander Kluge. Intrigued finally, I learned that Kluge, though not as well-known as Herzog, Wenders or Fassbinder or even Margaretha von Trotta, was central to the emergence of New German Cinema. Apart from being a pioneering filmmaker to the New German Cinema, Kluge is a respected philosopher and writer of fiction.

 To cut a long story short, after the World War II, a group of people felt that current German cinema had failed to reflect the reality of its people’s postwar struggles and aspirations. Kluge, with other like-minded filmmakers and intellectuals, put forth the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962 which declared the death of the old German cinema with a belief in its rebirth. Adapted from his own short story, Anita G, Yesterday Girl depicts the economic and psychological struggles of a young woman of Jewish origin who moves to West Germany from East Germany. 

Yesterday Girl was the first German film to win a major international award bagging the Silver Lion at Venice in 1966. Mr. Kluge would repeat this feat with his next film Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed two years later. 

We have the DVD of the wonderful Yesterday Girl as well as Kluge's later film Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave.  

Films on DVD:

Abschied von Gestern (Anita G.) = Yesterday Girl; written and directed by Alexander Kluge (Facets Video, [2008]) (88 min.) black and white.

Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin = Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave; written and directed by Alexander Kluge (Facets Video, 2008) (91 min.) black and white.

Reading List:

European Cinema, edited by Elizabeth Ezra (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Gender and German Cinema: Feminist Interventions, volume II: German Film History / Germany History on Film, edited by Sandra Frieden, et al. (Berg, 1993).

The German Cinema Book, edited by Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter, Deniz Göktürk, Claudia Sandberg, Second edition (British Film Institute, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020).

The New German Cinema by John Sandford (Barnes & Noble, 1980).

New German Cinema: A History by Thomas Elsaesser (Rutgers University Press, 1989).

Top Fifteen Most Requested Books in the Art, Music and Recreation Center, March 2022

Often rock memoirs top these lists of titles most in demand (think of books like Just Kids by Patty Smith, Life by Keith Richards, or Girl In A Band by Kim Gordon). With by far the longest waiting list of any of our books, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is not only a rock music memoir as an Asian-American's poignant tale of coming of age through adversity. 

There are a number of other memoirs among current titles including 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by artist Ai Weiwei, All About Me! by writer and director Mel Brooks, The Chiffon Trenches by fashion journalist André Leon Talley, Will by actor Will Smith, Putting The Rabbit in the Hat by actor Brian Cox, Enough Already by actress Valerie Bertinelli.

Worn is an wide-ranging socio-cultural history of clothing. The Method traces the history and influence of this school of acting. The mystery behind a posthumously famous photographer is revealed in Vivian Maier Developed. Camera Man focuses on actor and director Buster Keaton to examine societal and technological developments in the early 20th century.  Dilla Time provides both a biography and musical analysis of the late hip hop producer J Dilla.

Two sports and recreation books complete the list. Blood In The Garden tells the tale of the NBA's rugged New York Knicks of the early 1990s.  Seven Games traces the history of the enduringly popular, but less than rugged, games of checkers, backgammon, chess, go, poker, scrabble, and bridge.

1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Alfred A. Knopf, 2021).

2. 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei, translated by Allan H. Barr (Crown, 2021).

3. All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks (Ballantine Books, 2021).

4. The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by André Leon Talley (Ballantine Books, 2020).

5. Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser (Pantheon Books, 2022).

6. The Method: How The Twentieth Century Learned To Act by Isaac Butler (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022).

7. Will by Will Smith with Mark Manson (Penguin Press, 2021).

8. Putting The Rabbit In The Hat: A Memoir by Brian Cox (Grand Central Publishing, 2022).

9. Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story Of The Photographer Nanny by Ann Marks (Atria Books, 2021).

10. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of Cinema, And The Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens. New York : Atria Books, 2022.

11. The Beatles: Get Back by the Beatles featuring photography by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, edited by John Harris from transcripts of the original sound recordings. (Apple New York, 2021).

12. Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today by Valerie Bertinelli (Mariner Books, 2022).

13. Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife Of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas with musical analysis by Jeff Peretz (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).

14. Blood In The Garden: The Flagrant History Of The 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring (Atria Books, 2022).

15. Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder (W.W. Norton & Company, 2022).

See also:

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in November 2017

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in January 2017

The Most Requested Art, Music & Recreation Books - December 2015

The 25 Art, Music and Recreation Center Books with the Most Holds in April 2015

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in December 2013

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in May 2013

Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in Demand, Late December 2012

Gil Scott-Heron - The Last Holiday

The Last Holiday of Gil Scott-Heron's posthumous memoir is the Martin Luther holiday. The impetus behind several of the chapters of this book is an appreciation of Stevie Wonder who was a leading force in creating this holiday. This appreciation includes a personal account of Scott-Heron's participation in Wonder's Hotter Than July tour of 1980 and 1981 that included his Rally for Peace on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Dr. King's birthday, January 15, 1981.

Stevie Wonder and Gil Scott-Heron on the Hotter Than July tour (source: Smithsonian: Because of Her Story)

The Last Holiday was evidently compiled from a number of uncollected writings in addition that included his experiences with Stevie Wonder.  The first half of the book devoted to his youth up through days at Lincoln College when he crossed the threshold into professional success as a writer.  His musical and performing career takes up much of the remainder of the book.

Of course, Gil Scott-Heron has a way with words making this memoir a pleasure to read. His experiences in the Jim Crow South and of his participation in its integration are fascinating and of great historical value. He was born in Chicago while his mother working there. His father was Gil Heron, a footballer of Jamaican origin who Scott-Heron described as "young, exotic and worldly," and played almost no role in his life. I was always fascinated by the the singer's unusual name, but his actual proper name was Gilbert Scott Heron, un-hyphenated. His middle name Scott was his mother's family name and a name of some stature in Jackson, Tennessee where he grew up.  

The only family photograph in the book presents his grandfather, the family patriarch and local legend, his grandmother, who was the strong early influence in his life, and their children, his mother, aunts and uncle who were all strong presences in his life. He wrote movingly of his grandmother in the two part song "On Coming From A Broken Home" on his final album I'm New Here. He related that: "Womenfolk raised me, and I was full-grown before knew I came from a broken home."  He lived with his grandmother in Tennessee while his mother was still earning a living in Chicago. After his grandmother's death when he was 12, he moved to the Bronx to live with his mother. He described the process of coming to know, love and respect the mother he had barely known up until then. 

A teacher persuaded him to apply to the prestigious and exclusive Fieldston School. His description of the process and his time at the school is very poignant.  Our Ancestry.com database offers a clue to his experience. We can see in a 1965 class picture that his fellow students are relaxed and informal; some of the boys have shaggy hair. Scott-Heron is positioned in the far-left corner of the photograph and is the only student in a coat and tie. He has a very serious, clean-cut demeanor. He did not recall his time there with fondness. Far from experiencing blatant racial discrimination, he mostly describes feeling like an outsider - "preferring to hang out with each other instead of some guy who just got there."

Ancestry.com has another surprise. The database shows that Scott-Heron lived (or was at least headquartered) in Oakland, California resident in 1994 and in San Francisco in 1995. He was a frequent performer at Kimball's East in Emeryville during that time.

The last half of the book gets into his musical career -- some of the people he crossed paths with, some of his memorable performances. He described the attraction and challenge of working in the song medium - "You have to tell stories in a limited number of words, a few lines." He also emphasized that he "always liked to give a very personal and constructive viewpoint to whatever I was writing about." 

Gil Scott-Heron always defied categories. He was a musician, songwriter, poet and novelist. His music was also hard to pin down to a single genre. His recordings were spoken word, jazz, rock, rhythm and blues and soul. He expressed dismay at finding his records filed under "Miscellaneous" in a record store. When asked "What do you call your music?" he replied "Mine." 

He never had a top 40 song or even a top 200 song. Eight of his singles made the Top 100 R&B charts and some of his albums sold well.  But his contribution has definitely been acknowledged. He won a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2012 and was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 2021. He has been been given entries in all the important music biographical encyclopedias. Our Black History Bulletin, Ethnic Diversity Source and Biography in Context databases will lead the curious to a large number of articles and entries about Scott-Heron.

We have CDs of Scott-Heron's music for loan. You can also listen to several albums streaming online.

Bibliography:

Elwood, Philip, "Times are Right, and He's Right-On: Gil Scott-Heron performs with the best band he's had," San Francisco Examiner June 17, 1994.

Goffe, Leslie. "Gil Scott-Heron The Minister of Information," New African (November 2012) [In the Black History Bulletin database]

Joel Whitburn's Top R&B Singles 1942-2016 (Record Research, 2017).

Scott-Heron, Gil, The Last Holiday: A memoir (Grove Press, 2012).

Main Library Barn, pt. 2 - The House of the Book

On the pre-pandemic date of December 26, 2019 this blog introduced the barn within San Francisco Public Library's Main Library. The term "barn" was coined by the reviewer in the California Construction Link newsletter. Properly speaking we should refer to this architectural element as architect James Ingo Freed wished - "The House of the Book."

Freed described the House of the Book as "the working space for the librarians which is aligned with Market Street." The boundaries of this building within a building incorporate the Market Street / South of Market street grid angle into the larger building's rectangular alignment.

The rooftop terrace on the 6th floor clearly shows this juxtaposition. In the Google Earth rooftop view this terrace forms a right triangle, the two edges parallel Hyde and Fulton Streets while the hypotenuse parallels Market Street and is the outer wall to the 6th San Francisco History Center.

This structure runs at a 34 degree angle and aligns with the intersection of the lines formed by the circular columns inside the building.

The Market Street angle is reflected by the hypotenuse of the points where the imaginary line continued by pillars 7 and 11 meets the outer wall at Hyde Street and pillars 10, 11, 12 and 13 meet the entrance at Grove Street. (See Main Columns, pt. 2)

This entry will illustrate these juxtaposed grids on the public spaces of the Library. On the 6th floor terrace, the barn's edge is at the pillared wall outside the Skylight Gallery.

Viewed from the Skylight Gallery, the windowed entrance to the San Francisco History Center again follows the "barn" angle parallel to Market Street and Eight Street.

The entrance to the Book Arts and Special Collections Center is set at this angle against San Francisco History Center. The gated entrance parallels Larkin Street and the History Center Wall (at the left of the photo) parallels Market Street.

The barn's boundary is evident at the Main Library's southeast corner on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors. The Market Street grid meets the Larkin Street grid at this emergency exit where the Oversize reference books are shelved on the 4th floor.

The copy rooms on the these floors also jut out at the Market Street angle in contrast to the Larkin Street angle of the study rooms at the left.

It's difficult to visualize, but the stray round pillars in the copy rooms of the 3rd, 4th and 5th floor also are aligned with the Market Street angle. (I have highlighted this pillar in red).  In the diagram near the top of this entry, you can see this relationship between the pillar in the foreground (#11) and the copy room pillar (#14).

Entering the Children's Center on the second floor, you immediately come face-to-face with the barn's footprint at a Market Street angle behind the curved (semi-circular) reference desk.

The barn also comes into play in more subtle ways on the 2nd floor.  Here we see the wall outside the Children's Creative Center angled with the barn's Market Street angle toward the owl-bedecked wall at a Grove Street angle.

Here the wall at the back aligned with the barn's grid elides with the Larkin Street edge of the building at the left.

On the library's lower level the Koret Auditorium aligns with the footprint of the barn, although this is hard to sense when you are there.  

The Grove Street entrance immediately aligns the visitor into the Market Street grid.

The stairs into the lobby and the ramps both abut the edge of the "barn."

Looking south, the ramp points at the Market Street angle toward Grove Street.  The wall at the left edge, beneath the ceremonial staircase parallels Grove Street. An arch seen above the end the ramp parallels Hyde Street.

The Grove Street entrance is a very complicated space and merits a future entry of its own.

Previous entries about the architecture of the San Francisco Public Library Main Library:

The Altes Museum and the Main Library (March 6, 2019)

Rotunda Resonances in the San Francisco Main Library (March 25, 2019)

 Labrouste's Libraries, Structural Columns and the Main Library (May 9, 2019)

Main Library Columns, pt. 1 (June 13, 2019)

Main Columns, pt. 2 (July 18, 2019)

The Main Library's Barn (December 26, 2019)

Bibliography:

Freed, James Ingo, "San Francisco Main Library" in Newspaper Clipping Files: SFPL New Main - Exhibits - subfolder

"San Francisco's Newest Landmark Opens," California Construction Link (May 31, 1996) in Newspaper Clipping Files: SFPL New Main Library - folder

Music History in Images

Germany has produced some of the best scholarly and encyclopedic projects for hundreds of years. One such set is the Musikgeschichte in Bildern [Music History in Pictures] series published by between 1961 and 1989. These books were assembled by some of the best European scholars of the time.  So while the scholarship may be lost to most American readers, these volumes are still an incredible visual resource.

Series I - Musikethnologie = Music Ethnology

This project was divided into four series.  The first one is focused on music ethnology, what is often called ethnomusicology.  The volumes in this series capture the traditional music of various regions, often through photographs of musical performance and musical instruments.  Those not knowing German lose a great deal in not following the descriptive text, but still gain a great deal through the vivid images.  Our set is incomplete, but includes volumes on Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and South Pacific Islands), Native Americans, Southeast and South Asia and all regions of Africa.

source: Volume 1/4 South Asia - Famous North Indian Dhrupad singers Moinudden and Aminuddin Dagar, accompanied by Suraiya Dagar on the tanpura (photo: Gurmeet Singh)

Volume 1/1 Ozeanien = Oceania 

Volume 1/2 Amerika: Eskimo und indianische Bevölkerung = Native American Inhabitants of America.

Volume 1/3 Südostasien = Southeast Asia

Volume 1/4 Südasien: Die indische Musik und ihre Traditionen = South Asia: Indian Music and its Traditions

Volume 1/8 Nordafrika = North Africa

Volume 1/9 Zentralafrika = Central Africa

Volume 1/10 Ostafrika = East Africa

Volume 1/11 Westafrika = West Africa

Series II - Musik des Altertums = Music of Antiquity

The second series, Music of Antiquity presents images showing musical activity from the earliest civilizations that have left behind a visual record. These depictions of ancient musical life can only give us the dimmest sense of what this long-lost music sounded like.

source: Volume 2/2 Mesopotamia - A terracotta relief of a performance of an arched harp from the Old Babylonian era between ca. 1950-1530 BCE (in the Louvre)

Volume 2/1 Agypten = Egypt

Volume 2/2 Mesopotamien = Mesopotamia

Volume 2/4 Griechenland = Greece

Volume 2/5 Etrurien und Rom = The Etruscans and Rome

Volume 2/7 Alt-Amerika Musik der Indianer in präkolumbischer Zeit = Ancient American Music of the Pre-Columbian Indians

Volume 2/8 Altindien = Ancient India

Volume 2/9 Mittelasien = Central Asia

Series 3: Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance = Music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

The third series presents the earliest musical notations of the West and images of European music-making taken from paintings and drawings. 

source: Volume 3/9 Musical Life in the 16th Century - Music-Making Women, oil on oak, in the Rohrau Castle, Austria

Volume 3/2 Islam.

Volume 3/3 Musikerziehung: Lehre und Theorie der Musik im Mittelalter = Music Education: Music Theory and Learning

 
Volume 3/4 Schriftbild der einstimmigen Musik = Manuscripts of Monophonic Music

Volume 3/5 Schriftbild der mehrstimmigen Musik = Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music

Volume 3/8 Musikleben im 15. Jahrhundert = Musical Life in the 15th Century

Volume 3/9 Musikleben im 16. Jahrhundert = Musical Life in the 16th Century

Series 4: Musik der Neuzeit = Music of Modernity

Music of Modernity draws from European paintings, drawings, lithographs, books and magazines from the 17th century until the 20th century. Volumes depict operatic performances, concert life as well as the music of social dancing.  The humorous illustration below shows a chain-reaction during the galop with other participants in a gallery below and a sizable orchestra in the balcony.

source: Volume 4/5 Dance in the 19th Century - The great Galop by Johann Strauss (1839), print by Andres Geiger after a painting Christian Scholler

Volume 4/1 Oper Szene und Darstellung von 1600 bis 1900 = Opera Scenes and Presentations from 1600 to 1900

Volume 4/2 Konzert: öffentliche Musikdarbietung vom 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert = Concerts: Public Music Performance from the 17th to 19th centuries

Volume 4/3 Haus- und Kammermusik Privates Musizieren im gesellschaftlichen Wandel zwischen 1600 und 1900 = Domestic and Chamber Music Private music-making in social change between 1600 and 1900

Volume 4/4 Tanz im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert = Dance in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Volume 4/5 Tanz im 19. Jahrhundert = Dance in the 19th Century