George Antheil

George AntheilBorn in the United States, Antheil moved to Paris in 1922 where he became known as the "bad boy of music". He lived in a small flat directly over Sylvia Beach's bookshop and was one of Ezra Pound's special enthusiasms. Joyce attended a private performance of Antheil's Ballet Mechanique, a part of which he said was like Mozart (JJ 557-558), and he was also present at the Ballets Suédois on 4 October 1923 when the composer played his Sonata Sauvage, Airplane Sonata and Mechanisms. Antheil then concocted a magnificent plan for an electric opera which used the "Cyclops" episode of Ulysses as its libretto. The idea fascinated Joyce, but Antheil disappointed him by turning to other work. Dirk Van Hulle and William Brockman