tempo as an organizing principle in the 1924 film Ballet mÉcanique an analysis and other essays on modernism and futurism margaret fisher tempo as an organizing principle in the 1924 film ballet mÉcanique an analysis, and other essays on modernism and futurism Includes charts and tables Tempo as an Organizing Principle © 2016 Margaret Fisher Toward a Theory of Duration Rhyme © 2013 Margaret Fisher RADIA © 2012 Margaret Fisher Directing the Light Flux © 2006 Margaret Fisher Ezra Pound’s Radio Operas © 2002 Margaret Fisher As Performance Art Is © 1984 Margaret Fisher All rights reserved including international and world rights. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval, or by means of any virtual technologies) without permission in writing from the publisher. Second Evening Art Publishing 1420 45th Street #16, Emeryville, CA 94608 USA. www.secondeveningart.com Fisher, Margaret (1948-). ISBN 978-1-941357-01-9 1. Art and motion pictures. 2. Modernism and Futurism 3. Film and media studies. 4. Performance Art. 5. Ezra Pound. I. Title for bob The essay Tempo as an Organizing Principle in the 1924 Film Ballet Mécanique: An Analysis will be published in an expanded form to place analysis within the context of Ezra Pound’s nascent theory of great bass, in Companion to Ezra Pound and the Arts, Roxana Preda, editor (Edinburgh University Press, 2019). The essay Toward a Theory of Duration Rhyme first appeared in Le Testament, an Opera by Ezra Pound, 1923 Facsimile Edition (Second Evening Art, 2011). RADIA: Introduction to Pino Masnata’s Gloss of the 1933 Futurist Radio Manifesto is excerpted from RADIA (Second Evening Art, 2012). Directing the Light Flux, Scripts for Cellular Movement first appeared in Performance Research, Vol. 11, No. 1 (April 2006): 21–26. Outtakes: Ezra Pound’s Radio Operas, The BBC Experiments 1931–1933 includes unpublished material prepared for the book published by The MIT Press, 2002. As Performance Art Is was first published in Japanese in the Journal Image Forum, No. 47 (August, 1984): 51–54. contents tempo as an organizing principle in the 1924 film ballet mÉcanique tables 1-3: ratios drawn from the film’s schemata 1 table 4: tempos in the film ballet mÉcanique toward a theory of duration rhyme 30 the echo of Villon in ezra pound’s music and poetry sound graph 1: pound reading hugh selwyn mauberley sound graph 2: pound reading canto XVii radia: the 1933 futurist radio manifesto and pino masnata’s gloss 48 tables of broadcasts by futurists 1925–1943 tables of broadcast-related output by futurists 1925–1943 directing the light fluX scripts for cellular movement 90 outtaKes: ezra pound’s radio operas the bbc experiments 1931-1933 96 as performance art is 120 t empo as an organizing principle in the 1924 film Ballet mÉcanique: an analysis schemata of the film Ballet mÉcanique Little Review, Vol. X, No. 1 [Autumn/Winter, 1924–1925]: 42–44 Little Review Records. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee The 1924 film Ballet mécanique by French painter Fernand Léger and four Americans – cinematographer Dudley Murphy, photographerfilmmaker Man Ray, poet Ezra Pound, and composer George Antheil – takes viewers on a roller coaster ride through hundreds of film fragments in a fast-paced montage that juxtaposes objects, people, and machines in surprising and unpredictable ways, and at such dizzying speeds as to produce the sensation of cacophony and the perception of randomness in the images. Fragments played an important role in modernist aesthetics of the early twentieth-century, their use rooted in experiments in perception and cognition from the previous century. Rejecting random procedures, Léger wrote that the shots, image sequences, and overall arc of the film were to adhere to a rational and temporal plan, which he published twice 1 as a diagram accompanied by his explanation. Complicating a correspondence of diagram to film are the many revised film prints that Léger issued throughout his lifetime. The painter had footage shortened, lengthened, divided, re-distributed, re-ordered, removed, added, and tinted. Murphy’s biographer Susan Delson identifies ‘four distinct versions’ among the surviving prints, plus ‘variants.’ The earliest is believed to have screened at the Vienna premiere on 24 September 1924, sponsored by Frederick Kiesler for his Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik (International Exhibition of New Theater 2 Technology) (Delson 199 n.2; 206 n.113). Film critic Judi Freeman identifies this print, 15 minute 47 seconds at 20 frames per second, as the ‘definitive version’ (hereafter, Kiesler print; Freeman 1996, 45). Although Léger modified the film even before its premiere, specific shot sequences in this and later prints contain artifacts of the original temporal plan that was to guide the montage of images. Measurement with 1 The diagrams were republished in 1975 by Standish Lawder (132, 135). 2 Also see, Lehrman 2010, 191–205. Murphy’s film print, now lost, contained nudity; one print issued by Léger contains still frames of his paintings. a metronome of the various speeds in the Kiesler print confirms an imperfect yet convincing correlation to the specifications codified within the diagram. Despite the impression of chaos and randomness that the film imparts, the temporal construction, as Léger made clear, follows identifiable contingencies and procedures. Among the numerous rational, mathematical, and interrelated strategies adopted by the film’s makers are those of fast cutting and periodic motion. The interrelated speeds are calculated as integral multiples of a reference speed. These strategies can be identified in the film’s visual materials as well as the editing rhythms. To date, scholars have meticulously logged the frame counts of accessible prints but have not measured speeds. Characterizations of the film in terms of rhythm have been little more than generalized and unsupported claims. Part of the problem stems from a reliance on the word rhythm to explain number-based procedures. Because ‘rhythm’ implies motion but not measurement, its invocation is unsatisfactory as the analytical counterpart to frame counts. Below, I have used the term rhythm more broadly to suggest both strategy and emphasis or style. I use the words ‘speed’ and ‘tempo,’ which point to measurement rather than strategy or style, to address the structure of the film. Léger himself specifies that contrasting speeds structure the film, ‘. . . slow and rapid passages, rest and intensity – the whole film was constructed on that’ (Léger 1973, 50). (Interestingly, a text that accompanies both diagrams employs the word rhythm once, where its use only creates confusion.) For this study I extract numerical values from both diagrams to obtain the film’s theoretical speeds and compare these values to speeds sampled from a digital copy of the Kiesler print. The results are outlined in tables that accompany the analysis. This study concludes, Tempo is the underlying organizing principle on which the film Ballet mécanique is structured. 2 A follow-up to this study will be published in 2019. It interprets the findings in the context of Ezra Pound’s nascent theory of ‘great bass,’ the poet’s attempt to claim rhythm as the essential form that underlies and determines the success of an artwork. Léger in an earlier article for Little Review wrote of his interest in the surface qualities obtained by means of rhythmic construction (patterns, shapes, light, and motion); they were ‘objective, realistic and in no way abstract’ (Léger LR 1924–5: 42–5). The film’s subject matter, ‘flat, without depth’ (ibid.), includes numbers, shapes, words, common objects, facial close-ups, and long shots of people in various environments, their shadows and reflections. Contrasting shots described as ‘cartes postales’ (postcard imagery) offer depth: a garden swing, amusement park games and rides, parading troops, speeding cars (ibid, 43). Footage also includes still shots, some of which effect the complete absence of light. Plot and narrative are absent, reflecting the filmmakers’ common goal to make a ‘pure film,’ described by Murphy as one that is independent of other arts (Freeman 1996, 31). In a droll perversion of the mad scientist in the laboratory, Murphy shot and re-shot a vast number of motion experiments in the studio. The resulting montage of shots tests the viewer’s tolerance for repetition as well as disorientation and suggests a new way of experiencing time. Today, viewers are prepared by modern media to recognize images at breakneck speeds, and by training to look for semantic markers and interlocking visual patterns. Though Ballet’s shock value has lessened over time, its montage of objects from everyday life still wars against the viewer’s experience, perceptual limitations, and psychological habits. The battle is won in the first minute and a half. The force majeur: rhythm. 3 chronology The story of Ballet mécanique varies from one account to another, including those by the principals, and warrants further study. The following overview describes two diverse projects that were underway when one of them, a Pound-Léger-Antheil project, was reconceived as Ballet mécanique. Best known is the Murphy-Ray collaboration. The two artists shot footage in Paris for a loosely-defined project sometime between summer and mid-October 1923. Activity ended when Ray, not expecting to finance expenses, withdrew, permitting Murphy use of footage he had shot (Ray 1963: 266–7). Léger meanwhile drew Pound into his orbit as he created set designs for ballet and film. The two men, neighbors since Pound’s 1921 arrival in Paris, developed a strong friendship over studio visits. The painter dedicated his lecture ‘L’esthétique de la machine’ to Pound (Léger 1923), who in turn wrote Léger’s WWI experiences into The Cantos (C XVI/72-4). Pound met the twenty-two year old Antheil in June of 1923 (Lilly, EP/DP, 24 June 1923). Hoping to keep him in Paris, he hired the young composer to revise the rhythms of his own opera Le Testament, completed just two years prior. Pound also wrote of their vague plans for a ‘spectacle 3 musicale’ that may have intended film (Lilly, EP/DP, 3 November 1923). This was the Pound- Léger-Antheil axis. The two embryonic projects merged after Murphy visited Pound on 18 October (Lilly, EP/DP, 20 October 1923). Intrigued by the filmmaker’s description of the art of cinema, the poet offered financial help and ventured an experiment, ‘Have thought up a new stunt for him if he comes again Tuesday’ (Lilly, EP/DP 20, 31 October 1923). 3 Mauro Piccinini, George Antheil’s biographer, writes about the role of this ‘spectacle’ in the history of Ballet mécanique (forthcoming, Companion to Ezra Pound and the Arts (Edinburgh, 2019). I am grateful to him for bringing this information to my attention. 4 The twenty-six-year-old did return, entering Pound’s sphere of friends and influence and acquiring Léger and Antheil as collaborators. He began experimenting with Pound’s 3-mirror vortoscope, originally built for the photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn in 1916 (Lilly, EP/DP 28, 31 October 1923). Having a solid background in optical lenses, Murphy developed other techniques to exploit the effects obtained with prisms. Under his technical prowess, Ballet became a novel exercise in rhythm and motion created by masks, mirrors, prisms, re-photography, and by the editing process itself. William Moritz writes that Pound and Léger ‘hounded [Murphy] in the editing room’ (Moritz 1996: 129). With no training in film the poet was guiding the filmmaker in the making of the earliest montage. He was, in fact, hosting two projects, tangential to his poetry – music and film – to explore duration and tempo as primary organizing principles in art. From early November when he installed a grand piano to facilitate Antheil’s work, his flat at 70 bis rue Notre Dame des Champs headquartered both projects (Moody 2014: 57). Before long, the poet was migrating the meter and tempo experiments of his opera over to ‘his’ film. On 16 and 19 November, Murphy wrote that a film made with and paid for by Pound was almost complete (Delson 2006: 52; Freeman 1996: 33 n.19). arithmetical construction ‘from one end to the other the film is subjected to an arithmetical constraint, as precise as possible (number, speed, time)’ (léger lr 1924–5, 43). In 1924 Léger published a second, finely-ruled version of the diagram. Based on the earlier hand-drawn schematic, it was accompanied by Leger’s French text. He published the earlier schematic in 1925 (the frontispiece to this volume) with his text translated into English. In the text he explains the formulaic procedures used to obtain precise cutting of some of the 5 film’s fast animations. Three of the formulae can be paired to footage in the Kiesler print (Léger, LR 1924–25, 43). fast cutting Five animations of circles and triangles, all quite similar, conform, albeit imperfectly, to this formula from the text: ‘6 images a second for 30 seconds’ Each animation contains (approximately) 6 images per second. Durations, however, are 7.5 seconds and less, shorter than the formula specifies. The five animations together, however, total about 27 seconds, suggesting they were conceived and/or shot as a single block and subsequently divided and dispersed throughout the Kiesler print. Thirty seconds of material represents a significant duration in the film, and the artists may not have found the sequence viable in its entirety. ‘3 images a second for 20 seconds’ We can match this example to the film’s animation of wine bottles. It contains (approximately) 3 images per second and has a duration of 20 seconds. ‘10 images a second for 15 seconds’ We can pair this example to the film’s first instance of a ‘penetration.’ As the fastest moving animation in the film, at (approximately) 10 images per second, it is a probable match to Léger’s formula. If this pairing is accurate, the duration of 7.33 seconds in the Kiesler print suggests the original sequence was halved, with some frames lost in the editing process. Other instances of fast cutting give the illusion of a single shot. They perfectly illustrate statements Pound made in his signature book on music, Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony, published the year of Ballet’s premiere. With Antheil as counsel, Pound securely presented his ideas as axiomatic. One such axiom holds that the lower frequencies of tempo and of the rhythms governed by tempo constitute the true basis of harmonic form. The originality of the statement for its time is found in the presumption of 6 a single continuum shared by the lower frequencies of rhythm and the higher frequencies of tone-vibration or pitch, and the hegemony of influence of the lower over the higher frequencies. In Pound’s words, The percussion of the rhythm can enter the harmony exactly as another note would. It enters usually as a Bassus, a still deeper bassus; giving the main form to the sound . . . . Rhythm is nothing but the division of frequency plus an emphasis or phrasing of that division’ (Pound 1968a, 27). One way to think about this approach to harmonic form is to apply the principle to a different discipline, such as poetry, The percussion of the rhythm [e.g., caesura, exclamation, accent] can enter the words exactly as another word would, giving the main form to the verse. In film, The percussion of the rhythm [the beat] can enter the shot sequence in film exactly as another image would . . . giving the main form to the picture or scene. Keeping in mind that Pound formed his ideas for the book concurrently with the making of the film, we find textbook examples of his axiom in Ballet. A close-up of the model Kiki’s eyes and nose alternate with a closeup of her face upturned—eyes, nose, and mouth. The editing rhythm creates the illusion of continuous action on a single plane; i.e., the rhythm forms an illusory image (speeds below are written as a metronome mark [MM], which indicates beats per minute): 2 images, ≤1/3 second each, alternate 5x for c.3 seconds (MM=100) The formula repeats at twice the speed: 2 images, ≤1/6 second each, alternate 4x for c.1 second (MM=200) A second example uses rapid cutting between two contrasting shots—a circular hat and a horizontal shoe. The illusion of yet a third image is created by means of the formula: 2 images, 1/3 second each, alternate for 14 seconds (MM=100) 7 periodic motion The omnipresence of periodic motion throughout the footage demonstrates a different application of rational procedure. It dominates Ballet in a way not seen in other films of the period. Strategies of regular and recurring periodic motion are contained within the imagery and the editing rhythms: repetition; vertical and horizontal flipping of the image; delineation of the four cardinal directions and diagonal axes; oscillation; and pendular arcs. The sense of an underlying tempo arises from this regular and recurring motion. Periodicity may have characterized footage from the Murphy-Ray collaboration. We don’t know if this was intentional, or if the new team selected certain footage from the earlier collaboration precisely because it contained periodicity. Periodicity was also key to Pound’s decade-long interest in musical frequencies. And it can be traced to Léger, who produced designs with oscillating elements for Marcel L’Herbier’s film L’Inhumaine. This quality of periodicity attests to aesthetic and artistic convergence across three stages of the film’s construction. In the Kiesler print, oscillating, spinning, pulsing, pumping, and pendular motions with more or less periodicity (never absolute) dominate almost all spatial and temporal axes. a graph of interrelated speeds 8 the Kiesler diagram is a finely-ruled schemata printed in the catalogue of the Vienna internationale ausstellung neuer theater-technik (international exhibition of new theater technology), produced by frederick Kiesler for the film’s 1924 premiere. This diagram is made to the same scale as the earlier hand-drawn diagram and can be considered a detail; it does not show the left terminus of the broken diagonal line. Both diagrams depict three axes of interlocking speeds. The rectangles in the diagram above are drawn with more care and consistency taken in the line lengths and their joins at right angles than those of the earlier diagram on which it is based. Other differences include changes to the placement and number of squiggles. projector speed ‘two coefficients of interest upon which the film is constructed: the variation of the speeds of projection: the rhythm of these speeds’ (léger lr 1924–5, 43). A more functional translation of the citation’s second part could clarify the word ‘rhythm’: ‘The variation of the speeds of projection: their effect on all [interlocking] speeds.’ The text reveals Ballet to be a selfreflexive construction; i.e., it assigns a major role to the projector speed, an external source of film motion of which the audience is generally unaware. Its variability sets the terms of rhythmic accord. Projector speed is responsible for the illusion behind all film art: film images do not move. Rather, a thin strip of black film separates each still frame. The viewer sees a flicker when the projector does not meet a speed threshold corresponding to the retina’s ability to blend images (16–24 frames per second, or fps). With optimal projection speed, each subsequent image blends with the previous one to give the desired illusion. It is unlikely, however, that the filmmakers had this degree of control over the equipment and projection speeds when the film was screened. 9 Taken at face value, each diagram purports to chart the following: 1) Contrasts in speed to create variety. The curved and angular squiggles indicate an interruption to the rhythms of the image groups. 2) Projector speed. The dashed diagonal line, ‘Tension toward speed’, indicates constant acceleration (Léger 1924–5: 44). Its slope indicates rate of change; its right terminus, maximum projector speed (and possibly duration). 3) Image speed. Seven rectangles indicate discrete groups of image content that divide the film ‘into seven vertical parts […] which go from slow to rapid’ (Ibid., 43–4). To determine relative image speed, I measured the height and width of the rectangles and then converted these values to ratios. table 1 Using a digitized file of the Kiesler print and metronome software, I logged the tempos of the slowest shots. These were MM=50. I assigned 4 this as the ‘tonic’ or reference speed of Ballet mécanique’s first image group. Multiplying each ratio by 50, I obtain the speeds for image groups #2–7 , expressed as integral multiples of the tonic: 50x1/1=50, 50x(9/8)=56, 50 x(3/2)=75, 50x2/1=100, 50x(9:4)=113, 50x3/1=150, 50x4/1=200. table 2 4 Note that my speed values are not frames per second (which are tied to projection speed), but beats per minute (as transferred to digitized media). I sampled speeds from the 2006 DVD based on the 35mm b/w Kiesler print digitized by film archivist Bruce Posner (Frank and Lehrman 2006: disc 2). Note also, the first rectangle is not a true square. A diagonal line from rectangle 1 to 7 along the upper left edges shows that relative sizes do intend a square for rectangle 1. 10 These particular ratios, representative of common intervals of the musical scale, reveal the full musical paradigm of the design. In musical terms, the ratios are in series: the unison (tonic), 2nd, 5th, and octave. The series then repeats, ratios of the 9th and 12th having the same position in the scale as the 2nd and 5th, but one octave higher. The repetition confirms 5 the ratios are not coincidental, nor randomly chosen. table 3 The series holds additional interest as it involves only the prime numbers 2 and 3. With these two primes one can produce all twelve tones of the Western musical scale. This unexpected discovery reveals the richness of conception behind the design. It also identifies the designers of Ballet’s rhythmic construction to be persons conversant with music theory: Antheil and Pound. In particular, the reduction of speeds to musical ratios, further reduced to prime numbers, which in themselves have the potential to generate the entire chromatic scale, adumbrates the poet-composer’s 5 This is demonstrated by the Circle of Fifths, a teaching tool for music theory known to composers and string players. It involves only the primes 2 and 3, and the ratios (3:2) the perfect fifth, and (2:1) the octave. I am grateful to Paul Lehrman for cautions concerning its limited relevance to pitches derived from the harmonic series. 11 theory of ‘great bass’, the claim that bass frequencies, including those out of hearing range, exert a defining influence on the perception of higher frequencies in music. The application to film was not for acoustic purposes but to test the reach of rhythmic accord within the art of image montage. In this light, I suspect Pound conceived the design, and depended on 6 Antheil to some extent to render the details. My final comments return to the subject of projector speed. In the Kiesler diagram the originating projector speed occurs at 40% the height of the first rectangle, whose value is shown above to be 50. This yields a theoretical and viable projection speed of 20 fps. Because this calculation is based on relative values, it does not offer proof of the filmmakers preferred projection speed at this or any other point in the film. Also, in the Kiesler diagram, the origin of the diagonal broken line – the projector speed – is implied. It intersects the rectangles precisely at their center point, maintaining a consistent 2:1 tension between image and projection speed. The earlier diagram from Little Review shows the dashed diagonal line intersecting a faintly-drawn baseline that extends through all rectangles. As there can be no fractional frames or fractional speeds, the value at the intersection must be 1, shown in Tables 2 and 3 as the ‘base’ speed. 6 For these reasons, I earlier limited my description of the diagram as being published rather than authored by Léger, who had no aptitude for math or science (Freeman 1994: 232). Nothing in Murphy’s biography suggests he would generate this idea for film. Trained in music and optics, he undoubtedly understood the principle behind music ratios. Antheil would have known the Circle of Fifths, as would Pound, who studied the classical music textbooks (Fisher 2003b: 16 n.41). Regarding Pound and music, see Fisher and Hughes (2003), Cavalcanti: A Perspective on the Music of Ezra Pound; and Fisher (2013), The Transparency of Ezra Pound’s Great Bass. 12 rhythmic analysis: Ballet mÉcanique . Sampled speeds are from the 1924, 35mm b/w Kiesler print available on DVD (Frank and Lehrman 2006, disc 2) 13 table 4 sampled speeds in the digitized Kiesler print were measured as events-occurring-on-the-beat and have a margin of error +/- 5. simultaneous tempos within a single shot are represented by two+ images to a row. entry points of recurring shots are logged side-by-side in multiple left-hand columns. 14 testing the tempos of table 2 against tempos in the Kiesler print, i find a limited palette of recurring and relative speeds that concur (table 4). they do not, however, match the diagram’s trajectory of a slow-to-fast progression. the tempos do, however, suggest a ‘zoning’ of speeds, a possible artifact inherited from the slow-to-fast design. 15 findings While the sampled speeds are dependent on the transfer speed used to digitize the film, arguments about relative speeds and ratios hold at any transfer speed. The sampling shows concurrence with the diagram speeds in Table 2. Speeds do not, however, follow the diagram’s trajectory of incremental increases or zoning specific to image groups. The terms speed and tempo are used interchangeably below, with ‘speed’ used more generally, and ‘tempo’ used when the shot rhythms suggest a musical analogue. The speeds apply to both image and editing rhythms. Image and editing rhythms with ratios of 2:1 and 4:1 appear frequently enough to conclude these ratios are intentional. The fastest speeds have a ratio of 5:1, or five times that of the tonic speed (two octaves + a major third). Concurrence with tempos indicated in Table 2 is at times fitful, often due to damaged film frames and truncated sequences. Of the tempos in table two, the tempos most frequently logged in the film are 50, 55-6, 100, 200, and 240+. Tempos of 75 and 113 are significantly less frequent. The tempo 150 enters halfway through the film and is, for all intents and purposes, the tempo Antheil assigned to his music for the film, MM=152 (Antheil 2003, xvi). With this scheme, Antheil’s percussive music could not fail to coincide with the image rhythms a good percentage of the time, even though he did not compose to the image. This finding begs the question, did Antheil structure his music according to values shown in the diagram? Findings showing concurrence between film and diagram are bolstered by images of a working metronome in three discrete shot sequences, one of which features Murphy’s face, and all of which have a tempo of MM=50, the diagram’s tonic speed. It appears Murphy tried to achieve specific tempos in both the camera work and the montage. 16 After the opening titles, the film imparts a general feeling for an underlying tempo of 100, reinforced throughout by tempos at half, double, and triple this speed. This finding contradicts the diagram. Incremental increases in projection and image speed would preclude the sense of an underlying tempo. Other than a first image group, I was unable to positively identify other image groups in the film that conform to the diagram’s zoning of speeds. Identification of the ‘penetrations’ is partly facilitated by obvious contrasts in speeds, but inconclusive without secure identification of the image groups. A first image block following the film’s titles can be readily matched to the diagram, whereas image blocks #2–7 are less obvious. Two shots of equal duration bookend this first block – Katherine Hawley (Murphy’s wife) on a garden swing right side up; then upside down. Like the overture to the ‘Sirens’ chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the eight shots and one penetration that comprise this image block preview much of what follows in the film: images, animation techniques, editing techniques, contrasts of periodic motion with non-periodic motion (the analogy in music would be tone contrasted to noise), and the predominant recurring tempos of 50, 55, 100, 200, and 240+. Simultaneous tempos occur when Hawley, a trained dancer, fits two head movements at MM=100 inside the time her swing takes to complete half a cycle at MM=50, an example of what one could refer to as ‘harmony’ in the rhythms; in this case, the octave ratio 2:1. The first image-block all but announces that the 2:1 ratio of the octave is the backbone of the film’s rhythmic organization. 17 conclusion Ballet mécanique grew out of the desire of Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy, and Ezra Pound to produce a pure film according to each artist’s definition, one constructed solely from fragments, its montage developed according to rhythm rather than narrative. The use of periodicity across three distinct stages of the film’s assembly attests to a remarkable convergence of creative minds even as the footage reveals each artist pursuing their own aesthetic. Diagrams of the film’s construction, published by Léger in 1924 and 1925, chart speeds of relative value. When converted to musical ratios, these speeds reveal a model of rhythmic accord, the basis of which rests on two sources responsible for the film’s motion but hidden from the viewer: the projector and the still frame. These particular ratios are multiple integers of the film’s fundamental speed (with its value of 1, below what the eye sees as motion), and its tonic speed (with a value of 50). While it appears the film’s sequences were shot and edited to match speeds indicated in the diagram, the earliest surviving print conforms only fitfully. As a visualisation of musical structures, Ballet mécanique demanded exacting cinematography and editing. It became the most notable achievement of Dudley Murphy’s early period of visual symphony films. The skills needed to consolidate Pound’s ideas and experiments into a blueprint for film montage were uniquely within Antheil’s ken, as were the skills to invent a strategy by which to base a film on rhythm, calculate the film’s rhythms as a set of ratios with limits that conform to a Pythagorean process, and provide measurements for representing those ratios as graphic images. Antheil, as a thoroughly trained musician obsessed with creating a body of music structured on time, was an ideal and apparently active contributor to the film beyond composing its musical accompaniment. 18 The film’s transfer to DVD gives viewers a better opportunity to also understand the film as an expression of Léger’s interest in objectivity and surface qualities. It is the film’s rhythmic organization of imagery, however, that survives as one of Ballet mécanique’s most objective and lasting qualities, one that does not change over time. acknowledgements I am particularly indebted to Bruce Posner, film archivist responsible for the 2001 digital transfer of Ballet mécanique, and Paul Lehrman, music editor responsible for the 2000 syncronisation of Antheil’s music, who kindly granted permission to transfer the film’s digital file to my computer for analysis; and to Mauro Piccinini, George Antheil’s biographer, for generously granting me access to documents at the core of his research, and for meticulous review of facts and arguments. Larry Polansky, Ami Radunskaya, and Bob Hughes brought unparalleled expertise in music ratios and mathematical models to bear on their reading of this chapter, answered many questions, and made invaluable suggestions. John Shepard at the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley; Archivists at Getty Research Institute Library, and at the Library, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, arranged access to Kiesler’s program for the Vienna Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik. 19 Bibliography archival sources Lilly Library, Ezra Pound Manuscripts EP/DP Microfilm, Letters, Ezra Pound to Dorothy Pound. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Little Review Records, Mss 001, Box 10, Folder 27. published sources Antheil (S 1925), ‘My Ballet Mecanique,’ De Stijl Vol. VI, No. 12 (May): 141–44. —. (LR 1924–5), ‘Abstraction and Time in Music,’ Little Review Vol. X No. 1 (Autumn/Winter): 13–15. —. (1945), Bad Boy of Music, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company. —. (2003), Ballet Mécanique, music score, Ed. Susan Feder, New York: Schirmer. Coburn, Alvin Langdon (1978), Alvin Langdon Coburn Photographer, An Autobiography, New York: Dover. Delson, Susan (2006), Dudley Murphy, Hollywood Wild Card, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Fisher, Margaret and Robert Hughes, eds. (2003), Cavalcanti, A Perspective on the Music of Ezra Pound, Emeryville, CA: Second Evening Art. —. (2002), Ezra Pound’s Radio Operas, The BBC Experiments, 1931–1933, Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. —. (2013), The Transparency of Ezra Pound’s Great Bass, e-book <https://ganxy. com/i/111943/> Frank, Ron and Paul D. Lehrman (2006), Bad Boy Made Good: The Revival of George Antheil’s 1924 Ballet mécanique, 2-DVD Set, New York: EMF Media. Freeman, Judi (1994), ‘Léger and the People, The Figure-Object Paintings and the Emergence of a Cinematic Vision, in Gijs van Tuyl, Fernand Léger, The Rhythm of Modern Life, 1911-1924, Munich and New York: Prestel: 231–7. —. (1996) ‘Bridging Purism and Surrealism: The Origins and Production of Fernand Léger’s Ballet Mécanique,’ in Dadaist and Surrealist Film, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 28–45. Kiesler, Frederick (1924), catalog, Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik, Vienna: Kunsthandlung Würthle & Sohn. Lawder, Standish D. (1975), The Cubist Cinema, New York: New York University Press. 20 Léger, Fernand (June 1, 1923), L’Esthetique de la Machine, lecture, Paris: Baraque de la Chimère, boulevard St. Germain. __. (LR 1924–5), ‘Film by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy Musical Synchronism by George Antheil,’ Little Review Vol. X, No. 1 (Autumn/Winter): 42–4. __. (LR 1926), ‘A New Realism - The Object (Its Plastic and Cinematographic Value),’ Little Review Vol. XI, No. 2 (Winter): 7–8. —. (1973), Functions of Painting (New York: Viking Press). Lehrman, Paul D. (2010), The History and Technology of Ballet mécanique, dissertation, Tufts University. Moritz, Wiliam (1996), ‘Americans in Paris, Man Ray and Dudley Murphy,’ in Lovers of Cinema, The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919–1945, Ed. JanChristopher Horak, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 118–136. Museum of Modern Art (1984), Circulating Film Library Catalogue, New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Posner, Bruce, et al (2001), Unseen Cinema, 7 DVD set, Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment. Pound, Ezra (1927), Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony with Supplementary Notes (1924), Chicago: Pascal Covici. —. (2010), Ezra Pound to his Parents, Letters 1895–1929, Eds. M. de Rachewiltz, et al., Oxford: Oxford University Press. —. (2011), Le Testament, an Opera by Ezra Pound, 1923 facsimile edition, music score, M. Fisher and R. Hughes, eds., Emeryville, Second Evening Art. Ray, Man (1963), Self-Portrait, New York: McGraw-Hill. Reilly, William J. (1926), interview, ‘When Is It A Moving Picture? Dudley Murphy Helps to Answer the Question,’ Moving Picture World Vol. 80 No. 1 (May 15): 209. Whitesitt, Linda (1983), The Life and Music of George Antheil, 1900–1959, Ann Arbor MI: UMI Research Press. 21 Second Evening Art Publishing 1420 45th Street #16 Emeryville, CA 94608 USA