Barrymore, the Composer

The Barrymore family has always been full of surprises. Grey, growling Lionel, 66 this week, has been etching for years well enough to exhibit with the New York Society of Etchers. Visiting musicians have found his musical conversation erudite. But not until this year did many people suspect that his musical hobby was anything more than hobbyesque.

The suspicion began to grow six weeks ago, however, when Fabien Sevitzky played Barrymore's Partita with the Indianapolis Symphony. And last week Eugene Ormandy led the Philadelphia Orchestra through a broadcast of Barrymore's In Memoriam, a warm, romantic, ingratiating tone poem dedicated to brother John. In connection with the broadcast, several hitherto unpublicized facts appeared: 1) Lionel Barrymore has been composing for the past 40 years; 2) he is as well acquainted with the techniques of composition as many a professional; 3) his unpublished compositions are numbered in the hundreds and include works for everything from solo oboe to full symphony orchestra.

A friend of the late Edward MacDowell and a pupil of the late Henry Hadley, Barrymore took up the piano at the age of 17. In his Hollywood home he has one of the most magnificent record collections in the movie colony. His favorite composers are Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Wagner, Debussy, Ravel and Anton Bruckner. He is a not-too-expert performer on the oboe. About In Memoriam last week he was characteristically unassuming: "If the great masters were listening . . . I'm sure they'd be gentlemen enough to consider the intent of my music rather than the execution."

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