About

The story of a colorful life needs to be told with imagery - portraiture, artifacts, architecture, journalism.

HenryHadley.com is an evolving project. In it I wish to create a visually compelling tribute and glimpse into the life of a great and colorful musical personality, and help make the case for the importance of some of his works that may yet be under-appreciated or are need of recordings. The broad scope of Hadley's endeavors brings many people with very different backgrounds into contact with his life. I hope that my efforts will attract attention to the larger picture of Hadley's life and contributions, and give a good context when assessment of an individual piece is made. Hadley's biographers have done an excellent job, and serious students are encouraged to dig into the Boardman and Canfield biographies, as well as new papers by scholars such as Hannah Lewis. (Hopefully at some point all academic works such as Canfield's thesis will be available online or in libraries - yet another project for someone's retirement years!). This site will be commercial- free, freely available to all, while under my care and control.

I am an amateur and occasionally semi-professional symphonic performer in the Seattle area, with a lifelong interest in music, regional, and general history, and accompanying ephemera. I work full time as a software developer (although web development is strictly a hobby and I am no more knowledgeable than many of you). I also have a very patient family, including a loving and supportive spouse and two delightful daughters; we enjoy discussing our various musical interests but fortunately they keep me aware of the need to meet all the obligations of personal and family life.

My introduction to Hadley and his music came serendipitously through studying Seattle's history, specifically events of 1909, although the Seattle Symphony had already performed The Ocean shortly before that time. That in itself led to a much deeper interest in the fascinating story of American late romantic composers, in order to get a better personal sense of Hadley's place in America's musical history. Studying the few readily available written materials and listening to currently available recordings raised many questions and quickly led me into new areas of which I had not been previously aware. In particular it has stimulated a long standing interest in pre-1940 motion pictures, including those of the perhaps mis-named Silent Era. It has been exciting to see many new discoveries shared by others and I wish to ensure that I am not withholding any small part.

I acknowledge that this site has many shortcomings while under development; I have decided to release it as it is, at this time, as I find that many persons have only a slight knowledge of Hadley's involvement and contribution to American musical life, even in their own communities and areas of specialty. In my conversations I sense the need for a site of this sort to direct interested parties to, for more information. In trying to gather support for my own projects I believe it to be useful as is. I have concentrated first on an area of interest, stimulated by Boardman's 1932 assessment of the 1926-1927 film score to When A Man Loves. I hope that further assessment of this, and certainly of complex symphonic and chamber works, will be filled in by more qualified persons. I wish to keep this enjoyable for myself; still it is my goal to provide a high quality experience for the user in every way, including good navigation, audio examples, and meeting the best standards for providing references to sources that I can. I welcome feedback, criticism, and correction now and at any time in all matters whether to do with fact, judgment, or technology.

It was not possible for most of us, including myself, to hear the Hadley Vitaphone scores when I first became interested, and special appreciation is to be given to Warners for publishing the early Vitaphone films on DVD. Readers are encouraged to support all producers of Hadley recordings; hopefully a market will grow to support additional research and new live and recorded performances. Note that scores and/or manuscript for many important pieces - including such important works as the opera Azora, the oratorio Resurgam, and the film When A Man Loves - are considered missing, and any assistance in obtaining access to them is greatly appreciated.

I plan to make large versions of the thumbnail images on this side available, at all times, as soon as I am able. Except where noted, readers are encouraged to make the fullest use of images for every kind of use; I only request that credit be given to HenryHadley.com in commercial use or other distributed publication. Also, I would like to provide the best quality reproduction of images that I have direct access to; please inform me of your needs and I will make every effort to meet them.

It is my intention to make this site available to others who would like to share material about Hadley (the long-standing Hadley Facebook site is another excellent and worthy place to share material). There are many important manuscript scores whose location is unknown, and many photographs, programs, rare recordings, letters and other material that would be appreciated to help in the ongoing study of Hadley and his music.

My thanks to all who have helped make this site what it is. Without your encouragement and help in locating materials I would have nothing. Among others, I would like to thank conductor John McLaughlin Williams, Miles Krueger, Eric Anderson, Michael Maslan, Michael Fairley, Judy Cash, Bill Ecker, Ralph Bowman, William Blayney, Ray Brubacher, Larry Norman, Ron Edge, Carolyn Marr of the Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, Lawrence Kreisman of Historic Seattle, Ed Nolan and Fred Poyner of the Washington State Historical Society, Nicolette Bromberg Special Collections University of Washington, Gary Lundell, Connor Casey, and Kristen Kinsey at the University of Washington Special Collections, Dennis Anderson, former curator at the University of Washington Special Collections, Cate Gearhart and Jennifer Ward, University of Washington Suzzalo Library, Hannah Lewis of Texas State University - Austin, Leta Miller of University of California - Santa Cruz, David DeBoor Canfield, Rodney Sauer - Mont Alto Orchestra, Frederick Hodges, all who have posted recordings to YouTube, each of the great posters to the Hadley Facebook site, and last but certainly not least loving parents and family members who have always encouraged my musical life. To those I have left out, please know how much you are appreciated by me and by all who may enjoy this site and the life and music of Henry Kimball Hadley.

Daniel Kerlee, Seattle, Washington.

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