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Tag Archives: Clifford Odets
Odets on Romanticism (Beethoven, Haydn, Stendhal)
Entry from Journal March 25, 1940 Life was mysterious and impressive to Beethoven, and like a true artist, he was gratified when it showed his face to him. The caprice of fortune he understood very well, the uncertainties of life … Continue reading
Odets: on “form”
Entry from Journal March 24, 1940 Form, form. I go crazy when I hear some of these goofs say I have no form! Debussy had no form? Certainly not — he had none of Beethoven’s form! And some of Beethoven’s … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Music
Tagged Beethoven, Clifford Odets, The Time is Ripe
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Clifford Odets’ Journal
Clifford Odets (playwright in the 30s and 40s – inspiration to Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and more – immortalized a second time by the Coen Brothers in “Barton Fink”) kept a journal throughout his tumultuous life. One year of that … Continue reading
Odets: Beethoven vs. Brahms, old forms, new forms
Entry from Journal March 24, 1940 You cannot live in old forms, or work in them, when your life has brought you ahead to a new point. Try better to keep a child in last year’s coat. It is simply … Continue reading
Odets: “an inner light”
Entry from Journal March 17, 1940 The bad reviews of Night Music [Odets’ latest play] threw me back on myself, but that was good, that is very good, that is as it should always be! But the self independent, resolute! … Continue reading
Odets: “all of 20th century life”
Entry from Journal – In this entry he describes the out-of-town tryout of his new play “Night Music” – It would be the last play the Group Theatre did as a company. The failure of “Night Music” was the death … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Clifford Odets, The Time is Ripe
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Odets on Stella Adler: “smoke-eyed and neurotic”
Entry from Journal February 22, 1940 Stella Adler was there with a party, smoke-eyed and neurotic — usually when you are dying she is more dramatic about the event than you are!
Posted in Books
Tagged Clifford Odets, Stella Adler, The Time is Ripe
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Odets: Moussorgsky
Entry from Journal February 1, 1940 In the Moussorgsky songs, if you do not have the emotion you do not have the song, not even the shadow of the song. Chekhov could hope to find and did find actors to … Continue reading
Odets: On Beethoven and Cezanne
Entry from Journal January 27, 1940 Perhaps this constant uncovering of the self is one of the prime impulses in the creative mechanism, it and the constant effort to relate the self to persons, things — a woman — outside … Continue reading
Odets: “the cellar”
Entry from Journal January 23, 1940 But one must make sure to write from a firm core even though, in my opinion, an attempt to reach as broad an audience as possible should always be taken into consideration. I thought … Continue reading