Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Office of University Relations
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
    Date: 4/14/98
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple  97

Editors: Photo accompanies release -- Please note local interest
TV ANCHOR DONNA BRITT TO NARRATE SLU PERFORMANCE OF FACADE
     HAMMOND -- Baton Rouge television anchor Donna Britt will be the guest narrator
when Southeastern Louisiana University faculty members perform William Walton's Facade at
7:30 p.m. April 21 at the Pottle Music Building Auditorium.
     Facade was a collaboration between composer William Walton and the poet Edith
Sitwell that set Sitwell s "abstract" poems to Walton's  music. The narrator task is to recite, not
sing, the words in level tones and in a strict rhythm. Sitwell chose the poems' words for their
sound, color, and rhythm, rather than their sense or meaning. Walton s music connects the poems
and their ideas and brings out the satiric characters of the words.  
     "This is the toughest thing I've ever done, but it's fun," laughed Britt, who has a
bachelor's degree in music education and has frequently narrated works with the Baton Rouge
Symphony and the Louisiana State University A Cappella Choir. 
     Walton's music will be performed by Southeastern professors Frankie J. Kelly, clarinet;
David Wright, saxophone; Mark Auffarth, trumpet; and Karen Jung, cello. They will be joined
by graduate students Kris Kean, flute, and Alexander Slovatchevski, percussion, and senior
music education major Jamie Weatherford, bass clarinet. Southeastern Director of Bands Frank
Dubuy will be guest conductor.
     Although the Facade is now one of Walton s most popular compositions, the first public
performance in 1923 was not well received by the audience nor the critics, said Jung, an assistant
professor of library science. For the performance a monstrous head was painted on the curtain
                                 (MORE) 
WALTON FACADE -- Add One
 
and a megaphone was fitted in the large mouth of the head.  Edith Sitwell recited the poems
through the megaphone from behind the curtain so that the personality of the reciter would not
get between the poems and music. In her autobiography, Sitwell says that she was advised not to
come out from behind the curtain after the performance.  Some of the criticism was a result of the
poor sound quality was produced by the megaphone; some of the words could not be heard. 
When the work was revived a the Aeolian Hall on May 29, 1942 the Sitwell used a microphone. 
     For additional information about the performance, contact the SLU Music Department,
549-2184.
                                 - SLU -
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