George Antheil
20th Century · 1900–1959
George Antheil called his autobiography Bad Boy of Music, and he earned the title early. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1900, he moved to Paris in the early 1920s and fell in with the avant-garde crowd around Joyce, Pound, and Picasso. His Ballet mécanique, scored for player pianos, percussion, sirens, and airplane propellers, caused an uproar at its 1926 Paris premiere, which was exactly the plan.
The scandal faded, and Antheil reinvented himself in Hollywood as a film composer while writing symphonies on the side. He also had one of the strangest second acts in music history: during World War II he and the actress Hedy Lamarr patented a frequency-hopping radio guidance system for torpedoes, an idea now cited as an ancestor of modern wireless technology.
Start with A Jazz Symphony to hear his 1920s energy in friendly form, then brace yourself for Ballet mécanique.
38 works in the catalog, across 5 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.
Chamber
- 6 Little Pieces, for string quartet, W.137
- Concert, for chamber orchestra, W.170
- Lithuanian Night, for string quartet, W.125
- Serenade, for string orchestra no. 1, W.189
- Solo Violin Sonata
- Sonata for Violin, Piano and Drums no. 2, W.131
- Sonatina, for violin and piano, W.140
- String Quartet no. 1, W.133b
- String Quartet no. 2, W.135, "For Sylvia Beach with love"
- String Quartet no. 3, W.142
- Trumpet Sonata, W.143
- Violin Sonata no. 1
- Violin Sonata no. 2
- Violin Sonata no. 4
Keyboard
- 2 Odes of John Keats, for narrator and piano
- 2 Toccatas, W.72
- 7 Mechanisms, suite, W.50
- 11 Valentine Waltzes, W.74
- Death of Machines, W.42, "Third Piano Sonata"
- Jazz Sonata, W.43, "Piano Sonata no. 4"
- La Femme 100 Têtes, 45 preludes inspired by etchings of Max Ernst, W.60
- Little Shimmy, W.45
- Sonata Sauvage, W.41
- Sonatina für Radio, W.58
- The Airplane Sonata, W.40, "Second Sonata"
Orchestral
- A Jazz Symphony For piano and orchestra
- Archipelago, 'Rhumba', for orchestra
- Capital of the World, W.249
- McKonkey's Ferry ; A Concert Overture
- Piano Concerto no. 1, W.205
- Piano Concerto no. 2, W.207
- Symphony no. 4, W.177, "1942"
- Symphony no. 5, W.186, "Joyous"
Stage
- Ballet mécanique For 4 pianos, 2 electric bells, 2 airplane propellers and percussion
- Capital of the World Ballet
- Dreams Ballet
- The Brothers, op. 1 Opera
Vocal
- 4 Stories for Peter, song-stories for voice and piano
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