Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Glasgow: Kailyard or Coal Yard?
- 2 The Active Society: Bringing the Heroes of Modernism to Glasgow
- 3 Chisholm's Scottish Inheritance
- Interlude: The Love of Sorabji
- 4 A Trojan Horse in Glasgow: Berlioz, Mozart and Gluck
- 5 The Ballet & The Baton as Weapons of War
- Centre-Piece Pictures from Dante & Night Song of the Bards: A Journey from West to East
- 6 From Italy to India and Singapore
- 7 Under Table Mountain
- 8 On Tour in the USA and Europe
- 9 Soviet Ambassador: Chisholm behind the Iron Curtain
- Interlude: The Love of Janáček
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- Appendix 1: The Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music
- Appendix 2: Patrick Macdonald Sources for Chisholm's Piano Works
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Discography
- Selected Compositions
- Index
6 - From Italy to India and Singapore
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Glasgow: Kailyard or Coal Yard?
- 2 The Active Society: Bringing the Heroes of Modernism to Glasgow
- 3 Chisholm's Scottish Inheritance
- Interlude: The Love of Sorabji
- 4 A Trojan Horse in Glasgow: Berlioz, Mozart and Gluck
- 5 The Ballet & The Baton as Weapons of War
- Centre-Piece Pictures from Dante & Night Song of the Bards: A Journey from West to East
- 6 From Italy to India and Singapore
- 7 Under Table Mountain
- 8 On Tour in the USA and Europe
- 9 Soviet Ambassador: Chisholm behind the Iron Curtain
- Interlude: The Love of Janáček
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- 10 Chasing a Restless Muse: The Heart's Betrayal
- Appendix 1: The Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music
- Appendix 2: Patrick Macdonald Sources for Chisholm's Piano Works
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Discography
- Selected Compositions
- Index
Summary
It seems likely that it was in 1944 that the Anglo-Polish Ballet toured Italy for ENSA – the Entertainments National Service Association. The tour included Rome, Perugia, Naples, Bari and Ancona. Chisholm was at the helm. The date has been given as 1943, but the tour extended well into the following year, as Rome was not liberated until June 1944. However, the tour must have been following reasonably closely on the action for, on one occasion, Chisholm narrowly escaped being killed, the two lorries in front of his being hit by land-mines.
This was at the time when cigarettes were the most powerful weapon of barter between army personnel & the civilian population. Italians, and therefore Italian orchestras were zoned. They could only travel within a very restricted area it being impossible, for instance, to take an orchestra from Rome to Naples or vice versa. This meant that I had dealings with a large number of Italian orchestral musicians. They were very fine fellows although one had to keep a wary eye out to avoid being waylayed in the street with the constant cry of ‘Bon jouro [sic] Maestro – cigaretto please? – molto grazie, maestro.’ On the other hand I got several extra orchestral rehearsals by giving each member of the orchestra 5 cigarettes at the end. I need hardly say that the Italian Musicians Union did not function very efficiently in ‘43 and ‘44.
It was when they were at Rome's Argentinia Theatre that he took the opportunity to look up Casella, with whom he had performed at the Active Society Concerts (see Chapter 2). Casella, who lived nearby on the banks of the Tiber, was ill and depressed by the war. He was a fascist and a great Mussolini supporter, facts which did not prevent the left-wing Chisholm from arranging for food-parcels to be sent to the Casellas from ENSA stores.
Towards the end of World War II, when British and American forces occupied Italy as far north as Ravenna, I called on Casella … His wife opened the door and told me she was doubtful if her husband could see me as he had been ill, on and off, for the past two years.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Erik Chisholm, Scottish Modernist (1904-1965)Chasing a Restless Muse, pp. 122 - 132Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009