George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of the early 20th century. Spending much of the 1920s in Europe, Antheil returned to the United States in the 1930s, and thereafter spent much of his time composing music for films, and eventually, television. As a result of this work, his style became more tonal. A man of diverse interests and talents, Antheil was constantly reinventing himself. He wrote magazine articles (one accurately predicted the development and outcome of World War II), an autobiography, a mystery novel, and newspaper and music columns. In 1941, Antheil and the actress

Hedy Lamarr Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actress ...

developed a radio guidance system for Allied

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es that used a code (stored on a punched paper tape) to synchronise random frequencies, referred to as

frequency hopping Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly changing the carrier frequency among many distinct frequencies occupying a large spectral band. The changes are controlled by a code known to both tra ...

, between a receiver and transmitter. It is one of the techniques now known as

spread spectrum In telecommunication and radio communication, spread-spectrum techniques are methods by which a signal (e.g., an electrical, electromagnetic, or acoustic signal) generated with a particular bandwidth is deliberately spread in the frequency d ...

, widely used in telecommunications. This work led to their being inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also oper ...

in 2014.

Early life

Antheil was born George Johann Carl Antheil, and grew up in a family of German immigrants in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. His father owned a shoe store. Antheil got his education in the Trenton public schools. He was raised bilingually, writing music, prose, and poetry from an early age, and never formally graduated from high school or college, flunking out of Trenton Central High School in 1918. According to Antheil's autobiography, ''The Bad Boy of Music'' (1945), he was "so crazy about music", that his mother sent him to the countryside where no pianos were available. Undeterred, George simply arranged for a local music store to deliver a piano. His somewhat unreliable memoir mythologized his origins as a futurist, and emphasized his upbringing near a noisy machine shop and an ominous prison. George's younger brother was

Henry W. Antheil Jr. Henry William Antheil Jr. (September 23, 1912 – June 14, 1940) was an American diplomat killed in the shootdown of the Aero Flight 1631 by Soviet aircraft in the wake of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. Biography Antheil was born ...

; he became a diplomatic courier and died on June 14, 1940, when his plane was shot down over the Baltic Sea. Antheil violin

Antheil started studying the piano at the age of six. In 1916, he traveled regularly to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

to study under Constantine von Sternberg, a former pupil of Franz Liszt. From Sternberg, he received formal composition training in the European tradition, but his trips to the city also exposed him to conceptual art, including

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

. In 1919, he began to work with the more progressive Ernest Bloch in New York.Linda Whitesitt, Charles Amirkhanian, and Susan C. Cook, "Antheil, George eorg(Carl Johann)", ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers; New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 2001) Initially, Bloch had been skeptical and had rejected him, describing Antheil's compositions as "empty" and "pretentious"; however, the teacher was won over by Antheil's enthusiasm and energy, and helped him financially as he attempted to complete an aborted first symphony. Antheil's trips to New York also permitted him to meet important figures of the modernist movement, including the musicians Leo Ornstein and Paul Rosenfeld, the painter John Marin, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and Margaret Anderson, editor of '' The Little Review''. At age 19, Antheil was invited to spend the weekend with Anderson and a group of friends; he stayed six months, and the close-knit group, who included

Georgette Leblanc Georgette Leblanc (8 February 1869, Rouen – 27 October 1941, Le Cannet) was a French operatic soprano, actress, author, and the sister of novelist Maurice Leblanc. She became particularly associated with the works of Jules Massenet and w ...

, former companion of

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

, were to become influential in Antheil's career. Anderson described Antheil as short with an oddly shaped nose, who played "a compelling mechanical music", and used "the piano exclusively as an instrument of percussion, making it sound like a xylophone or a cymballo". Intensely engaged in his music, during this period, Antheil worked on songs, a piano concerto, and a work that came to be known as "The Mechanisms". Around this time, von Sternberg introduced Antheil to his patron of the next two decades: Mary Louise Curtis Bok, later the founder of the Curtis Institute of Music. Assured by von Sternberg of Antheil's genius and good character, Bok gave him a monthly stipend of $150, and arranged for him to study at the Philadelphia Settlement Music School. Though she came to disapprove of his behavior and his work, for the next 20 years, she continued to respond favorably to his letters. As her financial support enabled Antheil to maintain a degree of independence in his work, many observers believed he should have given her more credit in his autobiography for the length and extent of her contribution to his career. Antheil continued his piano studies, and the study of modernist compositions, such as those by Igor Stravinsky and members of the

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in ' ...

group of French composers. In 1921, he wrote his first in a series of technology-based works, the solo piano ''Second Sonata, "The Airplane"''. Other works in the group included the ''Sonata Sauvage'' (1922–23) and subsequently ''Third Sonata, "Death of Machines"'' (1923), ''"Mechanisms"'' (), both composed in Europe. He also worked on his first symphony, managing to attract

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...

to premiere it. Before the performance could take place, Antheil left for Europe to pursue his career. This may have diminished his chances for success in his native country.

Berlin and Paris

On May 30, 1922, at the age of 21, Antheil sailed for Europe to make his name as "a new ultra-modern pianist composer" and a "futurist terrible". He had engaged Leo Ornstein's manager, and opened his European career with a concert at

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

. The concert featured works by Claude Debussy and Stravinsky, as well as his own compositions. He spent a year in Berlin, planning to work with

Artur Schnabel Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th centur ...

, and gave concerts in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Vienna, and at the

Donaueschingen Festival The Donaueschingen Festival (german: Donaueschinger Musiktage, links=no) is a festival for new music that takes place every October in the small town of Donaueschingen in south-western Germany. Founded in 1921, it is considered the oldest festiva ...

. As he had desired, he achieved notoriety, but often had to pay the concert expenses out of his own pocket. His financial situation was not helped by Mrs. Bok's reduction of his stipend by half, though she often responded to requests to fund specific aspects of his concerts. He met Boski Markus, a Hungarian and niece of the Austrian playwright

Arthur Schnitzler Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Biography Arthur Schnitzler was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarchy ...

, who became his companion and whom he married in 1925. In the fall of 1922, Antheil took advantage of a chance meeting to introduce himself to his idol Stravinsky in Berlin. They established a warm intimacy and the more established composer encouraged Antheil to move to Paris. He went as far as arranging a concert to launch Antheil's career in the French capital, but the younger man failed to show up, preferring to travel to Poland with Markus. The Antheils finally arrived in Paris in June 1923, in time to attend the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet ''

Les Noces ''Les Noces'' (French for The Wedding; russian: Свадебка, ''Svadebka'') is a ballet and orchestral concert work composed by Igor Stravinsky for percussion, pianists, chorus, and vocal soloists. The composer gave it the descriptive title " ...

'', but the relationship with Stravinsky did not survive for long. Stravinsky snubbed the younger man, having discovered that Antheil had boasted that "Stravinsky admired his work". The breach devastated Antheil, and was not ultimately repaired until 1941, when Stravinsky sent the family tickets to a concert he was giving in Hollywood. Paris Rue de l Odeon 12

Despite the inauspicious beginning, Antheil found Paris, at the time, a center of musical and artistic innovation, to be a "green tender morning" compared to the "black night" of Berlin. The couple lived in a one bedroom apartment above Sylvia Beach's bookshop Shakespeare and Company. Beach described him "as fellow with

bangs Bang or bangs may refer to: Products * M1922 Bang rifle, a US semi-automatic rifle designed by Søren Hansen Bang * Bang, a List of model car brands, model car brand * Bang (beverage), an energy drink Geography * Bang, Lorestan, a village in I ...

, a squished nose and a big mouth with a grin in it. A regular American high school boy." She was very supportive, and introduced Antheil to her circle of friends and customers including Erik Satie, Ezra Pound,

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

, and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

. Joyce and Pound were soon talking of an opera collaboration. Pound, in particular, was to become an extravagant supporter and promoter of Antheil and his work, comparing him variously to Stravinsky and James Cagney, and describing him as breaking down music to its "musical atom". Pound introduced Antheil to

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

, who in turn helped launch Antheil into the musical salons of Paris; Pound also commissioned Antheil to write three violin sonatas for his mistress, Olga Rudge. In 1924, Pound published ''Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony'', as part of his campaign to boost Antheil's reputation. The book may have done Antheil more harm than good, and the composer was to distance himself from it in his memoir. Natalie Barney helped produce some original works, including the First String Quartet in 1925.Suzanne Rodriguez ''Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris'' (New York: HarperCollins, 2002): 249. . Antheil was asked to make his Paris debut at the opening of the Ballets suédois, an important Paris social event. He programmed several recent compositions, including the "Airplane Sonata", the "Sonata Sauvage", and "Mechanism". Halfway through his performance, a riot broke out, much to Antheil's delight. According to Antheil, "People were fighting in the aisles, yelling, clapping, hooting! Pandemonium! ... the police entered, and any number of surrealists, society personages, and people of all descriptions were arrested ... Paris hadn't had such a good time since the premiere of Stravinsky's ''

Sacre du Printemps ''The Rite of Spring''. Full name: ''The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia in Two Parts'' (french: Le Sacre du printemps: tableaux de la Russie païenne en deux parties) (french: Le Sacre du printemps, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral ...

''." The riot was filmed and may in fact have been engineered, as the Marcel L'Herbier movie ''

L'Inhumaine ''L'Inhumaine'' ("the inhuman woman") is a 1924 French science fiction drama film directed by Marcel L'Herbier. It has the subtitle ''histoire féerique'' ("fairy story", "story of enchantment"). ''L'Inhumaine'' is notable for its experimental ...

'' needed a riot scene set in a concert hall. In the audience were Erik Satie,

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, and Francis Picabia. Antheil was delighted when Satie and Milhaud praised his music. Reactions to his first performances were cool at best. His technique was loud, brazen, and percussive. Critics wrote that he hit the piano rather than played it, and indeed he often injured himself by doing so. As part of his "bad boy" behavior, Antheil provocatively pulled a revolver from his jacket and laid it on the piano.

''Ballet Mécanique'' and later work in Europe

Antheil's best-known composition is ''

Ballet Mécanique ''Ballet Mécanique'' (1923–24) is a Dadaist post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray).Chilvers, Ian & Gl ...

''. The "ballet" was originally conceived to be accompanied by the film of the same name by experimental filmmakers Fernand Léger and

Dudley Murphy Dudley Bowles Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968) was an American film director. Early life Murphy was born on July 10, 1897 in Winchester, Massachusetts, to the artists Caroline Hutchinson (Bowles) Murphy (1868-1923) and Hermann Du ...

(with cinematography by

), although the nature of the collaboration is mysterious. The first productions of Antheil's work in 1925 and 1926 did not include the film, which turned out to last around 19 minutes, only half as long as Antheil's score. George Antheil noisemaker

Antheil described his "first big work" as "scored for countless numbers of player pianos. All percussive. Like machines. All efficiency. No LOVE. Written without sympathy. Written cold as an army operates. Revolutionary as nothing has been revolutionary." Antheil's original conception was scored for 16 specially synchronized player pianos, two grand pianos, electronic bells, xylophones, bass drums, a siren and three airplane propellers, but difficulties with the synchronization resulted in a rewrite for a single pianola and multiple human pianists. The piece consisted of periods of music and interludes of silence set against the roar of the airplane propellers. Antheil described as "by far my most radical work ... It is the rhythm of machinery, presented as beautifully as an artist knows how." The Léger-Murphy film and Antheil's score were finally performed together at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, in 1935. Antheil assiduously promoted the work, and even engineered his supposed "disappearance" while on a visit to Africa, so as to get media attention for a preview concert. The official Paris première in June 1926 was sponsored by an American patroness who at the end of the concert was tossed in a blanket by three baronesses and a duke. The work enraged some of the concert-goers, whose objections were drowned out by the cacophonous music, while others vocally supported the work, and the concert ended with a riot in the streets. On April 10, 1927, Antheil rented New York's Carnegie Hall to present an entire concert devoted to his works, including the American debut of ''Ballet Mécanique'' in a scaled-down version. He commissioned elaborate backdrops of skyscrapers and machines, and engaged an African American orchestra to premiere his '' A Jazz Symphony''. The concert started well, but according to the concert's promoter and producer, when the wind machine was turned on, "all hell, in a minor way, broke loose." During the gale, audience members clutched their programs and their hats, one "tied a handkerchief to his cane and waved it wildly in the air in a sign of surrender." Much to the amusement of the audience, the untested siren failed to sound on cue, despite frantic cranking and reached its climax only after the end of the performance, as the audience was clapping and leaving the hall. American critics were hostile, calling the concert "a bitter disappointment" and dismissing the ''Ballet Mécanique'' as "boring, artless, and naive" and Antheil's hoped-for riots failed to materialize. The failure of the ''Ballet Mécanique'' affected him deeply, and he never fully recovered his reputation during his lifetime, though his interest in the mechanical was emulated by other prominent composers such as

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 t ...

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, ...

, and Erik Satie. In 1954, Antheil created a modified version of the work for percussion, four pianos, and a recording of an airplane motor. In the late 1920s, Antheil moved to Germany, where he worked as assistant musical director of the municipal theatre in Berlin, and wrote music for the ballet and theatre. In 1930, he premiered his first opera '' Transatlantic''. This work, which involved American politics, gangsters, a bathtub scene and a Childs Restaurant was a success at the Frankfurt Opera. In 1933, the rise of the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

made Antheil's ''avant garde'' music unwelcome in Germany, and in the depths of the Depression, he returned to the US and settled in New York City. He re-entered American life with enthusiasm, organizing concerts, working on committees with

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

and

Wallingford Riegger Wallingford Constantine Riegger ( ; April 29, 1885 – April 2, 1961) was an American modernist composer and pianist, best known for his orchestral and modern dance music. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but spent most of his career in New York Ci ...

, and writing piano, ballet, and film scores, as well as an opera '' Helen Retires'' about Helen of Troy; the latter proved a flop. His music had moved away from more extreme aspects of modernism, and more tonal, neoromantic aspects were by now discernible in his work.

Hollywood

In 1936, Antheil travelled to Hollywood, where he became a sought-after film composer, writing more than 30 scores for such directors as

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

and Nicholas Ray, including '' The Scoundrel'' (1935) and '' The Plainsman'' (1936). The Antheils' only child, a son named Peter, was born in 1937. Antheil found the industry hostile to modern music, complaining that it was a "closed proposition", and describing most background scores as "unmitigated tripe". He became increasingly dependent on more independent producers such as Ben Hecht to give him work, such as '' Angels Over Broadway'' (1940) and '' Specter of the Rose'' (1946). He also wrote the score for the independent film ''

Dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

'' (1955) and '' In a Lonely Place'' (1950) starring Humphrey Bogart. Antheil was confident in the ability of his music to save a weak film. "If I say so myself, I've saved a couple of sure flops". Besides writing scores for movies, he continued to compose other music, including for ballet and six symphonies; his later works were in a more romantic style and influenced by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, as well as American music including jazz. Works such as Serenade No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 4, ''Songs of Experience'' and ''Eight Fragments from Shelley'', written in 1948 showed a self-described desire "to disassociate myself from the passé modern schools of the last half-century, and to create a music for myself and those around me which has no fear of developed melody, real development itself, tonality, or other understandable forms." His 1953 opera ''

Volpone ''Volpone'' (, Italian for "sly fox") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-perfor ...

'' was premiered in New York in 1953 to mixed reviews, while a visit to Spain in the 1950s influenced some of his last works, including the film score for ''

The Pride and the Passion ''The Pride and the Passion'' is a 1957 Napoleonic-era war film in Technicolor and VistaVision from United Artists, produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and starring Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren. The film co-stars Theodore Bikel ...

'' (1957). He also accepted a commission from the CBS Television network to compose a theme for their

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

and documentary film series ''

The Twentieth Century ''The Twentieth Century'' was a documentary television program sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Company that ran on the CBS network from 20 October 1957 until 4 January 1970. It was hosted by Walter Cronkite. The opening and closing theme ...

'' (1957–1966), narrated by

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

Other interests

Apart from music, Antheil had many other pursuits. In 1930, as Stacey Bishop, he wrote a murder mystery called ''Death in the Dark'' with a character based on Ezra Pound. He was the film music reporter and critic for the magazine ''Modern Music'' from 1936 to 1940, writing columns considered lively and thoughtful, noting the comings and goings of musicians and composers during an era when the industry was flirting with more "modern" scores for films. He was disappointed, however, and wrote that "Hollywood, after a grand splurge with new composers and new ideas, has settled back into its old grind of producing easy and sure-fire scores." Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he participated in the

Hollywood Anti-Nazi League The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League (later known as the American Peace Mobilization) was founded in Los Angeles in 1936 by Otto Katz and others to organize members of the American film industry to oppose fascism and Nazism. It was run by the American ...

, putting on exhibits of artworks banned in Nazi Germany such as those by Käthe Kollwitz. He also published a book of war predictions, entitled ''The Shape of the War to Come''. In 1945, he published a memoir called ''Bad Boy of Music'', which became a bestseller. Antheil wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper relationship advice column, as well as regular columns in magazines such as '' Esquire'' and ''

Coronet A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. A coronet differs from other kinds of crowns in that a coronet never has arches, and from a tiara in that a coronet completely encircles the head, while a tiara doe ...

''. He considered himself an expert on female

endocrinology Endocrinology (from '' endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental event ...

, and wrote a series of articles about how to determine the availability of women based on glandular effects on their appearance, with titles such as "The Glandbook for the Questing Male". Another book of "glandular criminology" was titled ''Every Man His Own Detective''.

Frequency-hopping spread-spectrum invention

Antheil's interest in this area brought him into contact with the actress

, who sought his advice about how she might enhance her upper torso. He suggested glandular extracts, but their conversation then moved to

es. During World War II, Lamarr realized that a single radio-controlled torpedo could severely damage or sink enemy ships causing irreparable damage. However these radio-controlled torpedoes could easily be detected and jammed, by broadcasting interference at the frequency of the control signal, thereby causing the torpedo to go off course. Using knowledge of torpedoes gained from her first husband – munitions manufacturer

Friedrich Mandl Friedrich Alexander Maria "Fritz" Mandl (9 February 1900 – 8 September 1977) was chairman of Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik, a leading Austrian armaments firm founded by his father, Alexander Mandl. A prominent fascist, Mandl was attached to ...

(a suggestion Hedy Lamarr publicly denied) – Antheil and Lamarr developed the idea of using frequency hopping: in this case using a

player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern im ...

roll to randomly change the signal sent between the control center and torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 frequencies on the spectrum (88 black and white keys are on a piano keyboard). The specific code for the sequence of frequencies would be held identically by the controlling ship and in the torpedo. This basically encrypted the signal, as it was impossible for the enemy to scan and jam all 88 frequencies because this would have required too much power. Antheil would control the frequency-hopping sequence using a player-piano mechanism, which he had earlier used to score his ''Ballet Mécanique''. On August 11, 1942, was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey", Lamarr's married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping, though novel, soon met with opposition from the U.S. Navy and was not adopted. The idea was not implemented in the US until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba after the patent had expired. Perhaps owing to this lag in development, the patent was little known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr a belated award for her contributions. In 1998, an Ottawa wireless technology developer, Wi-LAN Inc., acquired a 49% claim to the long expired patent from Lamarr for an undisclosed amount of stock. Lamarr and Antheil's frequency-hopping scheme shares some concepts with modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as Bluetooth, COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections, and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones. Blackwell, Martin, and Vernam's 1920 patent Secrecy Communication System (1598673) seems to lay the communications groundwork for Kiesler and Antheil's patent, which employed the techniques in the autonomous control of torpedoes.

Later life

Antheil died of a heart attack in the New York City borough of Manhattan. His legacy included three accomplished students,

Henry Brant Henry Dreyfuss Brant (September 15, 1913 – April 26, 2008) was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques. Biography Brant was born i ...

, Benjamin Lees, and Ruth White. He is buried in Riverview Cemetery, in Trenton, New Jersey.

In literature

"Antheil's my man." Mrs. McKisco turned challengingly to Rosemary, "Antheil and Joyce. I don't suppose you ever hear much about those sort of people in Hollywood, but my husband wrote the first criticism of ''Ulysses'' that ever appeared in America." (

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

, ''

Tender Is the Night ''Tender Is the Night'' is the fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in French Riviera during the twilight of the Jazz Age, the 1934 novel chronicles the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young p ...

'')

Written works

* ''Death In the Dark'', a crime novel edited and published by T. S. Eliot (1930) * ''Every Man His Own Detective: A Study of Glandular Criminology'', New York City: Stackpole Sons (1937) * "The Shape of the War to Come", a pamphlet (1940) * ''Bad Boy of Music'', Garden City, New York: Doubleday (1945; various reprints and languages)

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * *

Listening

Art of the States: George Antheil
''Second Sonata for Violin'' (1923) and ''Dreams'' (1934–35)
Piano Music
''Fourth Sonata'', ''Sonate Sauvage'', ''Woman Sonata'' performed by Guy Livingston

Three works performed by the San Francisco Symphony
New Music Jukebox: George Antheil
Three works performed by the American Composers Orchestra

''Antheil Plays Antheil''

''The Complete Works for String Quartet'' by Del Sol Quartet,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

*, , ,
''The Original American in Paris'' – text of a programme written for BBCr3
by Michael Maxwell Steer in 1988
Antheil
by Paul Lehrman

''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

''
Antheil and ''Futurpiano''
at LTM
Antheil's life and works
curated by Les amis de George Antheil (Paris)
Guy Livingston talks about the Ballet mécanique
broadcast by ConcertZender Radio, Utrecht

Life, works, and context of George Antheil on Radio Suisse Romande (2015)
Hearing Antheil's 'Lost Sonatas' Again
NPR interview with pianist and musicologist Guy Livingston. May 23, 2014
Bad boy of music: the rise and fall of George Antheil
ABC broadcast. February 24, 2015 *, George Antheil interview by Truman Fisher ( KPPC-FM Radio; 1958)

External links

* * *
Composer's entry
on

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...

's database {{DEFAULTSORT:Antheil, George 1900 births 1959 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American inventors 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American pianists 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists American classical composers American classical musicians American classical pianists American contemporary classical composers American expatriates in France American experimental musicians American film score composers American male classical composers American male essayists American male film score composers American male classical pianists American people of German descent American opera composers Classical musicians from New Jersey Composers for piano Contemporary classical music performers Experimental composers Futurist composers Jazz-influenced classical composers Male opera composers Modernist composers Musicians from Trenton, New Jersey Outsider musicians Pupils of Ernest Bloch Trenton Central High School alumni