Volume 6, Number 2 · February 17, 1966
Report from the MLA
By Richard Stern
The day after Christmas, 1953, I broke out of the rippled aluminum siding of our Iowa house for three Chicago days of MLA.[*] City lights, city sights, old friends, old teachers, shop talk, and, first, a job to unlock the aluminum cage for good and all. On the Rock Island Rocket I sat beside the head of the Iowa Music Department, Philip Greeley Clapp, and remembered my friend Higgins, the pianist, stuck in Conway, Arkansas, at 'the friendliest college in the south.' Mr. Clapp was off for his own convention, he must be 'hiring.' By Moline, I was into Higgins's talents and misfortunes, sure that I could see rising in Clapp's gentle bulk the charter of Higgins's liberation from amical Arkansas. I described Higgins's encounter with the Englishman who told him that he could not give recitals with such a name, not in England, couldn't even accompany a soloist, might, just might get work pushing a piano onstage. 'Names don't mean,' groaned Mr. Clapp, 'that much.' But of course they did, and that was it for Higgins, and that was the sad omen for that MLA.
Feature, 1566 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |