Other Minds Festival:
OM 11, Blitzstein Centenary Celebration Program, part 2, Songs from “The Cradle Will Rock”

Marc Blitzstein's best known composition is his 1936 musical “The Cradle Will Rock”. It is set in Steeltown, USA, and has a cast of characters consisting of "types" rather than individuals, all with suitable names to match, such as Larry Foreman, Dauber the painter, and Mister Mister, the owner of the steel mill. The words as well as the music are by Blitzstein. This program opens with Blitzstein's most famous song, “Nickel Under the Foot”, for which the audience will need to know that the terms "put and take" refer to a form of high-risk gambling on the stock market. “Joe Worker” is a wake-up call for laborers to organize. The inspired imagery of “The Cradle Will Rock” juxtaposes the rich exploiters, shielded from all care in a cradle high up in a tree, with the workers racing around at ground level doing their bidding. The storm that rocks their cradle is the mobilization of workers unionizing, who sing, "You can't stop the weather, not with all your dough!" The final song is a wake-up call to artists themselves and we ask you to join our soloists in singing it through the second time.