Jack Delano
Encyclopedia
Jack Delano was an American
photographer for the Farm Security Administration
(FSA) and a composer
noted for his use of Puerto Rican folk material.
, Ukraine
and moved, with his parents and younger brother, to the United States
in 1923. Between 1924 and 1932 he studied graphic arts/photography and music (viola
and composition
) at the Settlement Music School
and solfeggio with a professor from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. After being awarded an art scholarship for his talents, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
(PAFA) where, from 1928 until 1932, he studied illustration and continued his musical training. While there, Delano was awarded the Kesson traveling fellowship which he took to Europe
where he bought a camera
that got him interested in photography.
After graduating from the PAFA, Delano proposed a photographic project to the Federal Art Program: a study of mining conditions in the Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
anthracite coal
area. Delano sent sample pictures to Roy Stryker
and applied for a job at the Farm Security Administration Photography program FSA. Through the help of Edwin Rosskam and Marion Post Wolcott
, Stryker offered Delano a job at $2,300/year. As a condition of the job, Delano had to have his own car and driver's license, both of which he acquired before moving to Washington, D.C.
Before working at the FSA, Delano had done his own processing and developing but did neither at the FSA. Other photographers working for the FSA include Walker Evans
, Dorothea Lange
, and Gordon Parks
. In 1943 FSA was eliminated as "budget waste" and subsumed into the Office of War Information (OWI).
He travelled to Puerto Rico
in 1941 as a part of the FSA project. This trip had such a profound influence on him that he settled there permanently in 1946.
With his wife Irene (a second cousin to fellow photographer Ben Shahn
) he worked in the Community Division of the Department of Public Education producing films, for many of which Delano composed the score. Delano also directed Los Peloteros, a Puerto Rican film about poor rural kids and their love for baseball. The film remains a classic in Puerto Rican cinema.
Jack Delano's musical compositions included works of every type: orchestral (many composed for the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra
), ballets (composed for Ballet Infantil de Gilda Navarra and Ballets de San Juan), chamber, choral (including Pétalo de rosa, a commission for Coro de Niños de San Juan
) and solo vocal. His vocal music often showcases Puerto Rican poetry, especially the words of friend and collaborator Tomás Blanco
. Blanco, Délano and his wife Irene collaborated on children's books. The most prominent of these remains a classic in Puerto Rican literature: The Child's Gift: A Twelfth Night Tale by Tomás Blanco
, with illustrations by Irene Délano and incidental music (written on the margins) by Jack Délano.
His score for the film "Desde las nubes" demonstrates an early use of electronic techniques. Most of his works composed after he moved to Puerto Rico are notable for using folk material in a classical form.
Orchestral
Chamber and instrumental music
Vocal
Film scores
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer for the Farm Security Administration
Farm Security Administration
Initially created as the Resettlement Administration in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty...
(FSA) and a composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
noted for his use of Puerto Rican folk material.
Biography
Delano was born as Jacob Ovcharov in Voroshilovka, 120 miles southwest of KievKiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and moved, with his parents and younger brother, to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1923. Between 1924 and 1932 he studied graphic arts/photography and music (viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
and composition
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
) at the Settlement Music School
Settlement Music School (Philadelphia)
Settlement Music School is a community music education organization with branches in and around Philadelphia. Founded in 1908, it is the largest community school of the arts in the United States serving 15,000 students each year, regardless of age, race, or financial means through outreach and at...
and solfeggio with a professor from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. After being awarded an art scholarship for his talents, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
(PAFA) where, from 1928 until 1932, he studied illustration and continued his musical training. While there, Delano was awarded the Kesson traveling fellowship which he took to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
where he bought a camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
that got him interested in photography.
After graduating from the PAFA, Delano proposed a photographic project to the Federal Art Program: a study of mining conditions in the Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
-Notable people:*Boxing heavyweight great Muhammad Ali had his training camp in Deer Lake.*Charles Justin Bailey, commanding general of the 81st Division in World War I, was born in Tamaqua on June 21, 1859....
anthracite coal
Anthracite coal
Anthracite is a hard, compact variety of mineral coal that has a high luster...
area. Delano sent sample pictures to Roy Stryker
Roy Stryker
Roy Emerson Stryker was an American economist, government official, and photographer. He is most famous for heading the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression and launching the documentary photography movement of the FSA.After serving in the infantry...
and applied for a job at the Farm Security Administration Photography program FSA. Through the help of Edwin Rosskam and Marion Post Wolcott
Marion Post Wolcott
Marion Post was a noted photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty and deprivation. She was born in New Jersey. Her parents split up and she was sent to boarding school, spending time at home with her mother in Greenwich Village...
, Stryker offered Delano a job at $2,300/year. As a condition of the job, Delano had to have his own car and driver's license, both of which he acquired before moving to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
, Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
, and Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
. In 1943 FSA was eliminated as "budget waste" and subsumed into the Office of War Information (OWI).
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
in 1941 as a part of the FSA project. This trip had such a profound influence on him that he settled there permanently in 1946.
With his wife Irene (a second cousin to fellow photographer Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
) he worked in the Community Division of the Department of Public Education producing films, for many of which Delano composed the score. Delano also directed Los Peloteros, a Puerto Rican film about poor rural kids and their love for baseball. The film remains a classic in Puerto Rican cinema.
Jack Delano's musical compositions included works of every type: orchestral (many composed for the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra
Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra
The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra is Puerto Rico’s foremost musical ensemble, and one of the most renowned orchestras of the Americas...
), ballets (composed for Ballet Infantil de Gilda Navarra and Ballets de San Juan), chamber, choral (including Pétalo de rosa, a commission for Coro de Niños de San Juan
San Juan Children's Choir
The San Juan Children's Choir is a children's choir from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The group was founded in 1966 by its director, Evy Lucío Córdova, whose founding members included Gloria Tristani, who went on to become the first Hispanic member of the Federal Communications Commission, and Giannina...
) and solo vocal. His vocal music often showcases Puerto Rican poetry, especially the words of friend and collaborator Tomás Blanco
Tomás Blanco
Tomás Blanco was a Spanish film actor. He appeared in over 140 films between 1942 and 1983.He was born in Bilbao, Spain and died in Madrid, Spain.-Selected filmography:* Apartado de correos 1001...
. Blanco, Délano and his wife Irene collaborated on children's books. The most prominent of these remains a classic in Puerto Rican literature: The Child's Gift: A Twelfth Night Tale by Tomás Blanco
Tomás Blanco
Tomás Blanco was a Spanish film actor. He appeared in over 140 films between 1942 and 1983.He was born in Bilbao, Spain and died in Madrid, Spain.-Selected filmography:* Apartado de correos 1001...
, with illustrations by Irene Délano and incidental music (written on the margins) by Jack Délano.
His score for the film "Desde las nubes" demonstrates an early use of electronic techniques. Most of his works composed after he moved to Puerto Rico are notable for using folk material in a classical form.
Selected compositions
- Ofrenda Musical (Musical Offering) for viola, horn and string orchestra (1959)
- El sabio Doctor Mambú, Ballet for children (1962); libretto by the composer
- Concertino classico for C trumpet and small orchestra (1968)
- Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1983)
Chamber and instrumental music
- Sonata in A minor for viola and piano (1953)
- Sonata for violin solo (1960)
- Sonatina for flute and piano (1965)
- String Quartet (1984)
- Tres preludios (3 Preludes) for piano (1985)
Vocal
- Esta luna es mía for soprano solo, female chorus and piano (1962); words by José P.H. Hernández
- Me voy a Ponce for mixed chorus (1965); words by José Agustín Balseiro
- Tres cancioncitas del mar for medium voice and piano (1969); words by Nimia Vicéns, Ester Feliciano Mendoza and Carmelina Vizcarrondo
- Cuatro sones de la tierra for soprano and piano (1974); words by Tomás BlancoTomás BlancoTomás Blanco was a Spanish film actor. He appeared in over 140 films between 1942 and 1983.He was born in Bilbao, Spain and died in Madrid, Spain.-Selected filmography:* Apartado de correos 1001...
- Pétalo de rosa, Suite for a cappella children's choir (1993); written for the San Juan Children's ChoirSan Juan Children's ChoirThe San Juan Children's Choir is a children's choir from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The group was founded in 1966 by its director, Evy Lucío Córdova, whose founding members included Gloria Tristani, who went on to become the first Hispanic member of the Federal Communications Commission, and Giannina...
Film scores
- Los Peloteros (1953)
External links
- Interview of Jack & Irene Delano by Richard Doud of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution (June 12, 1965)
- Photography of Jack Delano
- Bound for Glory, exhibit featuring color photographs by Delano and others.
- http://www.shorpy.com/jack-delano-photos Handpicked selection of photographs at Shorpy
- Columbus Museum of Art Web page on Delano's 1940 photograph Miner at Dougherty's Mine, Near Falls Creek, Pennsylvania (click on picture for larger image)
- Portrait of an Artist: Jack Délano by Francisco J. Cabán-Vales, Musiké