Pauls Two Centuries in One

 

TWO CENTURIES IN ONE

MUSICAL ROMANTICISM AND THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY

 

Two Centuries in One

 Musical Romanticism and the Twentieth Century

Von der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock/ From the Rostock University of Music and Theatre  zur Erlangung des Grades eines/ in fulfillment of the degree of 

Doktors der Philosophie/Doctor of Philosophy -- Dr. phil./Ph. D –  genehmigte Dissertation/approved dissertation von/by

Herbert Pauls (Geboren am/Born on 30.10.1967  in Saskatchewan, Canada)

 

Erstgutachter/Main Reader:.......................Prof. Dr. Hartmut Möller  Zweitgutachter/External Reader:............................Dr. Robin Elliott (University of Toronto) Tag der mündlichen Prüfung/Defense Date.....22.10.2013 Tag der Einreichung/Date Submitted......24.01.2013

Ausgezeichnet mit dem Prädikat/ This dissertation was awarded with

magna cum laude

© 2014 by Herbert Pauls

Printed by McNally Robinson

 

Contents

Abstract

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction 1   Chapter 1: Background to the Problem

24

Historicism and evolutionary progress, twentieth-century twentieth-century style The academic decline of the “dissonance” paradigm Popularity and status: Two separate canons? Compromising composers and interfering dictators: Bumps in the road to emancipation Progress and the permanent revolution  

Chapter 2: Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival 93  

Regressive romanticism after the dissonant revolution Twentieth-century romanticism in an academic context

 

Contents

The Romantic Revival in the late twentieth century Independent record companies and the Romantic Revival Two major-label projects Record critics and the Romantic Revival

Chapter 3: Some Problems Problems of Definition

181

Late romantic composers as modernists Walter Simmons’ framework for defining twentieth  century romanticism  Nineteenth-century  Nineteenth-cent ury romanticism and the problem of Unterhaltungsmusik  Kravitt's conundrum: Popular romantic composers versus the idea of romantic alienation Romanticism as a moving target: Problems in the classification of Debussy, Prokofiev and Busoni  Neoromanticism and the revolt revolt against roman romantic tic notions of innovation and originality

Chapter 4: The Contemporaneousness of the NonContemporaneous ( Die  Die Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigkeiten) Ungleichzeitigkeiten) 256 The death of romanticism and the passage from the old to the new Morgan’s time line Dahlhaus's “no-man's land”: The generation gap between

the nineteenth and twentieth centuries The third way: The Schoenberg-Stravinsky polarity and the Immer-noc the  Immer-noch-Romantiker  h-Romantiker 

 

Contents

Chapter 5: Romantic Emotion Emotion and Melody Melody in the Modern Era 302  Emotional classicism versus dry Stravinskian neoclassicism: A loss of context Cracks in the anti-emotional facade  New defenders defenders of old emotion: emotion: “Brazen” romanticism romanticism in the twentieth century and the long tradition of “The Last Romantic” Melody as a reminder of old Romanticism

Chapter 6: Twentieth wentieth-Century -Century Musical Vocabulary ocabu lary   and the linguistic analogy 361   “Dead tonality” in the twenty-first century  New languages languages or new turns of speech? The rate of change in musical language versus spoken language Common language, innovation, and intellectual status Sergei’s shadow: Slow may be okay after all

Chapter 7: Conclusion  

423

Connoisseur turf or musical fodder for the less discerning?

Bibliography

438

 

Abstract

n outsta outstandi nding ng featur featuree of twenti twentiet eth-c h-cent entury ury music music has  been the divergence of European “art” music into two general areas which do not overlap to the same extent that they that hey do in prev previo iou us centur nturiies. es. That hat is is,, the the perf perfo ormin rming g repertoire is at odds, sometimes dramatically so, with a competing canon of works considered to be of greater importance from an evolutionary historical point of view. The practical result has been what one commentator recently called “two centuries in one.” Few composers were considered more untimely than those who wh o pers persis iste ted d in usin using g the the “old “old”” tona tonall and and roman romanti ticc-so soun undi ding ng idioms. However, However, the best of them contributed many core works to the daily repertoire, and we have now arrived at the point where

A

minor twentieth-century romantics are also proving to be of strong interest, particularly for discerning connoisseurs. Of comparable sign signif ific ican ance ce,, the the once once-c -com ommo mon n prog progre ress ss narr narrat ativ ivee of music musical al evolution, which hindered the academic reception of twentiethcentury romantic music for so long, has been almost completely abandoned aban doned today. today. We have also reached reached the point where some of 

the major romant romantic ic figure figuress have have been been recast recast as moder modern n or even even modernist. With the rise in academic respectability of areas like film and pop music, the use of “out-dated” tonal traditions in twentiethcentury music can now be seen in a more positive light. If it is now safe to say that film music and other popular genres were, to use a linguistic analogy, “conversing” in the musical language of their  time, one can also reasonably conclude that, at the most basic ix

 

 Abstract 

level, the musical language of leading modern romantic composers of concert music also belonged to its time. The term “romantic” has been controversial for over two centuries, and for twentieth-century music its application becomes  problematic in the extreme. However, However, since the word was used so extensively in the modern era, both positively and negatively, I have chosen to embrace it and examine what it has meant to the cla classi siccal musi sicc worl world d aft fter er 1900. 900. I have have als lso o off offere ered a few few thoughts thoug hts on what romanticism’ romanticism’ss unusually unusually strong presence presence in the modern era may signify for future historians, not least in how they define the crucially important idea of modernism itself.

x

 

Acknowledgements

I

t is not possible to complete a doctoral dissertation without the help of others, not least the many colleagues and friends with whom I have enjoyed stimulating discussions relating to the different themes found in the book that follows. But above all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my  Doktorvater , Prof. Dr. Hartmut Möller for his unfailing encouragement and guidance overr the last few year ove years. s. I also wish wish to thank Robin Robin Ellio Elliott, tt, who was the first to oversee my ambition to tackle some of the difficult and an d ofte often n high ighly cont conten enti tiou ouss issue ssuess of twent wentie ietth-c h-centu ntury historiography during my Masters Degree, and at various points thereafter continued to encourage me to go further. Going back earlier in life, my two main piano teachers have also proved to be a vital imp impetu etus in the long jo jou urney that culminated in this study of twentieth-century romanticism. First, I must remember Helen McMurphy, a small-town piano teacher in  Northern Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan. Little did she realize what profound effect

Thee Grea Greatt Pian Pianis ists ts would have on her Harold C. Schoen Harold Schoenber berg' g'ss Th over-eagerr ten-year-old over-eage ten-year-old Pathetique-attempting pupil when he spied it on her shelf, begged to take it home, and proceeded to read it many times over. That book did much to fire my imagination, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it permanently shaped my musical outlook. It also has the distinction of being the earliest

read book in my bibliography. Within four years, Mrs. McMurphy was packing me off to to the nearest University professor 200 km away. And so, for the next nine years it was the British pianist Robin Harrison who continued to shape my musical outlook. Besides helping me master xi

 

 Acknowledgements  Acknowledgem ents

the complete Chopin Etudes and other standard literature, his love of the great early twentieth-century pianists, violinists, conductors and singers also resonated deeply with me. Especially impressive wass his wa his vast ast rec record ord coll collec ecttion, ion, whic which h I spen spentt many hour hourss examining. His musical knowledge in a wide variety of genres was truly formidable, and much of it came from his library, as he read re adil ily y admi admitt tted ed.. I rem remem embe berr him him with with muc uch h fond fondne ness ss,, an and d sadness, as he was never able to see this book. Several years ago, I commented to him that I was trying to solve the problem of how to defend twentieth-century romanticism. He answered in a weary voice, Yes, somebody should do that, dear boy. I like to think that he would have approved of the final result. Also to be mentioned here are Maureen DuWors and Walter Kreyszig, both of whom gave me crucial help at a critical time near the end of my undergrad years. I also want to thank my old Grade 8 industrial arts teacher, Mr. Sontheim, who kept in touch over the year ears and and re rece cent ntly ly offere fered d som some pr prac acttic ical al suppo upporrt as this this dissertation was nearing completion. Last but not not le leas ast, t, I wou would like ike to gi give ve a si sin ncere cere and heartfelt thank you to my family, and above all my beloved wife, Elation, whose longsuffering and forebearance helped me through some so me diff diffic icul ultt ti time mes. s. Wit itho hout ut such such a be bedr droc ock k of supp suppor ort, t, this this

dissertation would never have been completed, let alone started.

xii

 

Introduction

I

n 1995, historian historian Glenn W Watkin atkinss took a moment moment to reflect on the nature of scholarly priorities in the field of twentiethcentury music history writing. “In retrospect,” he observed,

it is inevitable that a limited number of works tend to stand out as emblemati embl ematicc of the more general general crisis that seemed to suggest the final overthrow of the Romantic Age. No such event ever took  place, of course, but the degree to which the Romantic Agony lingered on is seldom dwelt on in the writing of the history of twentieth-century music.1 

What foll What follow ows, s, then then,, is an expl explor orat atio ion n of what what Wat atki kins ns call called ed “lingering” romanticism. However (and leaving aside the “agony”

caricature), we will revise his adjective slightly: We will begin with the observation that romanticism did not merely linger but actu ac tual ally ly cont contin inue ued d to fl flou ouri rish sh in man any y quar quarte ters rs,, ofte often n at th thee expe ex pens nsee of radi radica call new new way ways of comp compos osin ing g wh whic ich h alle allege gedl dly y displaced it. Watkins calls his lingering stream “romantic,” and so will we. For some recent scholars who tend to see major early twenti twe ntieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry compos composers ers such such as Richar Richard d Str Straus ausss and Jean Jean Sibeli Sib elius us as “mode “modern” rn” rather rather than than “roman “romantic tic,” ,” Watk atkins ins’’ way of applying the term has now become somewhat old-fashioned and even ev en prob roble lem mat atiic. But But thi this too shou shoulld be nothi othing ng new new, for for romanticism over the centuries has always been a much-contested and imprecise concept. Despite all of that, pondering the idea (in 1

Glenn Watk Glenn atkins ins,, Soun Sounding dings: s: Music Music in the Twent wentieth ieth Cent Century ury   (New Y York: ork: Schirmer Books, 1995), 170. 1

 

 Introduction

thee sens th sensee that that Wat atki kins ns conc concei eive vess it it)) can can st stil illl be usef useful ul as a spring spri ngbo boar ard d for for disc discu ussin ssing g a kind kind of mode modern rn-e -era ra musi musicc that that adva ad vanc nced ed think hinker erss over over the decad ecades es have have tende nded to see see as embarrassi embar rassingly ngly outmoded, outmoded, and which which has long been problemati problematicc for historians who have preferred to evaluate twentieth-century music according to what is still occasionally referred to as the “progressive” viewpoint. For our purposes, the term “romanticism” will be used to represent the general sound world of an international stream of composition that was extraordinarily resilient and diverse – too diverse, perhaps, to be seen as a single stream. The immediate reaction from some readers will no doubt be: How can you call this or that that twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry compos composer er romant romantic? ic? Well, ell, I can can only only reply that this is not the ultimate point of our argument. After all, how can we call Brahms a romantic today when he had actually represented the “classic” stream in the late nineteenth century? 2 Or  better yet, how can we now call Mozart and Haydn “classics” when their contemporaries considered them to be romantics? More to the point, behind the seemingly perverse selection of vague

 basic terminology lies a larger problem that has not entirely gone away aw ay.. Call Call them them what what you will will,, but but ther theree is no deny denyin ing g th that at “romantic” twentieth-century composers were long considered by many commentato commentators rs to be the most stylistica stylistically lly out of place as far as the dominant currents of their era were concerned. That is a  judgement we will directly challenge. As Watkins observed, romantic music was still being written in plentiful amounts in ever ev ery y deca decade de of the the twen twenti tiet eth h cent centur ury y, an and d wr writ iter erss li like ke hi him m cert ce rtai ainl nly y se seem emed ed to know know who the the mo most st roma romant ntic ic-s -sou ound ndin ing g 3

composers were.  However, figures tended to be absent from general historical accounts, assuch Watkins also confirmed. 2

3

The fifth edition of Grove still follows the pattern where Bach, Mozart, Beeth Be ethov oven en,, Me Mende ndelss lssoh ohn n an and d Bra Brahms hms are desig designat nated ed as cla classi ssica cal, l, whi while le Berlioz, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Wagner are romantic. See Nicholas Colmyn Gatty, “Romantic,” in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.  ed.  (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1954), 7:215. This will be discussed further in chapters one and two. 2

 

 Introduction

Arved Arve d Ashb Ashby y bega began n the the pref prefac acee to his his 2004 2004 book book The  Pleasuree of Modernist Music   Pleasur Music  wi with th the the fran frank k admi admiss ssio ion n that that modernist music still had “popularity problems.”4 In a sense, one could say that the music of romantic composers in the modern era also also expe experi rien ence ced d popu popula lari rity ty prob proble lems ms as well well.. But But the the cr crit itic ical al diff di ffer eren ence ce betw betwee een n the the two two fact factio ions ns (a (and nd “fac “facti tion ons” s” is not not too too strong a word) was that the very public popularity of the romantics was a large part of the problem: Indeed, and to a degree unprecedented in music history, public popularity and commercial success after 1900 had now become major stumbling blocks that  prevented many composers from being taken seriously in a deeper historical sense. Moreover, if lesser late-romantic composers could not match the immense popularity of major figures like Puccini, Rachmaninoff, and Strauss, that too could be cited as proof that they were out of touch with the spirit of their time. The romantics quite simply could not win. They were truly history’ history’ss losers. My basi basicc purp purpos ose, e, then then,, will will be to dire direct ctly ly ta tack ckle le the the general issue of twentieth-century romanticism in music, despite

the enduring confusion in defining what romanticism really means. The arguments and illustrations that emerge in the following pages will be used to insist in the strongest possible terms that post-1900 romantic composers, and the stylistic features that still permeated their music, should be allowed to help define the era in which they actu ac tual ally ly flou flouri rish shed ed,, even even if this this inev inevit itab ably ly give givess the the twen twenti tiet eth h century a much more romantic tinge than has hitherto been deemed acceptable accep table in music music historiog historiography raphy.. We will go even further and state sta te outrig outright ht that that anythi anything ng less less can only result result in a histor historica icall caricature of the modern period in music history. The follow following ing chapte chapters rs are emphat emphatica ically lly not   intended intended to  prove that radical modernism was of little import in the greater scheme of things: Film music, certainly, has proven otherwise, and has done much to give the most radical streams of composition a much-need much -needed ed sense of social social legitimacy legitimacy (for which which some present4

Arved Ashby, ed. The Pleasure of Modernist Music, (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2004), 1. 3

 

 Introduction

day defe defend nder erss of high high mode moderni rnism sm are are incr increa easi sing ngly ly grat gratef eful ul). ). Rather, what follows is a way of arguing that we need not be held hostage by what the great historian Richard Taruskin described as “the law of stylistic succession,” a concept that was entrenched in historical overviews throughout the twentieth century and more or less ensured that certain major composers, especially if writers thought they sounded too romantic, would be largely written out of histor his torica icall accoun accounts. ts. My insist insistenc encee on using using the term term romant romantic, ic, then,, is deliberately then deliberately chosen as a way of highlighti highlighting ng a peculiarly peculiarly twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury prob proble lem. m. Hope Hopefu full lly y, it will will make make a usef useful ul contribution toward seeing the post-1900 period in a manner that is able to properly acknowledge much music that is central to the repertoire but did not progress in the manner that some thinkers assumed was necessary. My goal, of course, can be seen as part of a much larger general project that scholars are now vigorously engaged in as they seek to move beyond the narrower parameters set by conventional historiography, which was traditionally built

around the extreme dissonance of the atonal revolution – and to a cert ce rtai ain n exte extent nt arou around nd the the dry and and mo more re mode modera rate tely ly diss disson onan antt neoclassicism as well. The strict application of the “law of stylistic succession” to musi mu sicc hist histor ory y has has come come unde underr a grea greatt deal deal of scru scruti tiny ny from from musicolog musi cologists ists in recent recent years. years. As Taruskin aruskin recalled recalled in his new and epocha epo chall 4300-p 4300-page age   Oxford History of Western Music, the form fo rmid idab able le Germ German an phil philos osop ophe herr Theo Theodo dorr Ad Ador orno no had had be been en an influe inf luenti ntial al propon proponent ent of this this law, law, and had helped helped to give give it cred cr edib ibil ilit ity y in the the batt battle le over over what what was was al allo lowe wed d to be deem deemed ed “mod “m oder ern. n.”” In Ador Adorno no’’s capa capaci city ty as one one of the the mo most st ar arti ticu cula late te defenders of dissonant modernism, he had played a powerful role in the intellectual movement that tried to force contemporary tonalroman rom anti ticc styl styles es,, with with thei theirr depe depend nden ence ce on “old “old”” harm harmon onic ic an and d melodic melod ic features, features, into the historica historicall margins margins.. Some of Adorno’s Adorno’s greatest scorn was heaped on the hugely popular Sergei Rachmanin Rachm aninoff off,, who, along along with Gershwin Gershwin and Tchaikovsky chaikovsky,, had (Ad (A dorn orno mai maintai ntaine ned) d) creat reateed “pro “prottoty otypes pes of the kin kind of hit hit 4

 

 Introduction

melodies that simultaneously had the effect of making intransigent musi mu sicc love lovers rs feel feel as thou though gh they they were were no none neth thel eles esss on a high higher er cultural level.”5 Adorno had mercilessly lampooned Rachmaninoff via an admittedly slight early work, the famous Prelude in C sharp minor of 1892, written when the composer was a nineteen-year-old student. In what can only be described as a major case of critical overkill, Adorno even claimed to have devised the term “Nerokom “Ner okomplex” plex” in order order to describe describe Rachmanino Rachmaninoff’ ff’ss much loved  but ultimately modest little piece.6  The Prelude, said Adorno, Adorno, was like a parody of the passacaglia form, and its handling of old technical conventions such as the familiar VI-V-I VI-V-I cadential formula were we re tired ired and worn worn out: out: “In “In thi this work work,, Rachm achmaanino ninofff has has completely emptied the late romantic idiom of all its content, and has thrown the resulting product onto the commercial market.”7 Onee of Adorno On Adorno’’s most most fundam fundament ental al con convic victio tions ns was that that “worn-out” romantic-sounding romantic-sounding idioms such as Rachmaninoff’s had

sold out to the market place. However, that view has now dated considerab consi derably ly,, as Tarusk Taruskin in makes clear in his 2005 Oxford History critique of Adorno’s position. Taruskin describesmusic how Adorno had promulgated the basic idea that the course of romantic had turned from avenues of possibly turned possibly sincere and spon spontaneo taneous us hum human an expression to mercantile fetishes that manipulate listeners, rob them of emotional authenticity, and reduce them to automatons. Romantic styles, [Adorno] argued, once co-opted by the movies, could only produce the effects of movie music, drugging and  paralyzing listeners with sensuous pleasure. Such a style was 5

6

7

Theod Th eodore ore Adorno Adorno,, “Or “Orph pheu euss in der der Unt Unterw erwelt elt,” ,” in Ges Gesamme ammelte lte Schrifte Schriften, n, Vol. 19,  Musikalisc  Musikalische he Schriften VI: Zur praxis des Musiklebens Musiklebens (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Suhrkamp,, 1970-c1 1970-c1986), 986), 552. (Prototypen von Schlager-melodie Schlager-melodien, n,  bei denen denen man unen unentwegt twegt sich gle gleichwohl ichwohl als Sta Standesperso ndesperson n fühlen soll.) Theo Th eodo dore re Ad Ador orno no,, “M “Mus usic icka kali lisc sche he War aren enan anal aly yse sen, n,”” in Gesammelte Schriften, V Schriften,  Vol. ol. 16,  Musikalisch  Musikalischee Schriften I-III: Impr Improvisationen ovisationen (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1970-c1986), 285. Ibid. Ibid.,, 286 286.. (So ha hatt Rac Rachm hman anino inoff ff in na nachr chrom oman antis tisch chem em Ver ersch schlei leiß ß sie voll vo llen ends ds vo von n alle allem m Inha Inhalt lt.. ...e .ema manz nzip ipie iert rt un und d al alss War aree au auff den den Mark Marktt geworfen.) 5

 

 Introduction

obsolete as art, available only as entertainment, which for Adorno wass so wa soci cial ally ly regr regres essi sive ve by de defi fini nitio tion. n. This This was was the the st stro rong nges estt in inv vecti ectiv ve eve ever mus uste tere red d on beh behalf alf of the the ‘law ‘law of sty tyli list stic ic succession.’ But the joke turned out to be on Adorno since...the modernist styles he regarded as the most artistically viable – that is, those least amenable to commercial exploitation because least sensuously appealing to passive consumers – have long since  been annexed by the movies as emotional illustrators, albeit for the opposite sorts of emotions. e motions.8

Taruskin’s comments were written in the context of his  his  defense of Korngold, Rachmaninoff and Medtner, all of whom represented twentieth-century composition at its most romantically regressive. They Th ey had had rare rarely ly been been trea treate ted d with with resp respec ectt in gene genera rall hist histor oric ical al accoun acc ounts ts of twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry mu music sic before before Taruski aruskin’ n’ss ground ground--

 breaking Oxford History. History.9  Much to Adorno’s Adorno’s consternation, lush sonorities, tunes and tona to nall harm harmo onies nies suc such as were were to be foun ound in the the musi sicc of composers like Korngold and Rachmaninoff had found new life in contem con tempor porary ary film film scores scores.. What What was even even more more insult insulting ing,, such such open op enly ly roma romant ntic ic-s -sou ound ndin ing g el elem emen ents ts were were free freely ly mix ixed ed and and matched with snippets of dissonant modernism as the dramatic need arose, devaluing the latter in the process. From film, it was  but a hop and a skip to broadway, broadway, light music and various other  popular idioms, all of which freely made continued use of older romantic styles – except that for these genres romanticism was not merely the past, but was clearly still part of a living present. Certainly,, the many artists operating in the most widely-circulating Certainly genres were up-to-date as far as the broader public was concerned, and were in no way seen as fossilized relics of the past. Should not the same be true of romantic twentieth-century composers in the “art” music tradition? Film music and other popular genres used to  be snubbed by scholars, but are now routinely studied and 8

9

Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, Vol. 3 , The Early Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 559. Ibid., 549-561. 6

 

 Introduction

analysed. In short, those areas are treated with proper respect by musi mu sico colo logi gist stss in gene genera ral. l. So too too shou should ld the the co conc ncer ertt musi musicc of composers like Rachmaninoff and Korngold. Paradoxically, the literature on twentieth-century romanticism is both vast and non-existent. It is vast in the sense that romantic composers are routinely discussed and reviewed in more journalistic settings. Also, countless modernist writers (such as Watkins) Watkins) have consistently described a broad range of post-1900 composers as romantics. But the literature is almost non-existent in the sense that, (as Watkins also indicated) few academic writers have tackled the issue directly and extensively. Few have tried to come to terms with the implications of the fact that many of the contempor conte mporary ary composers composers they were describi describing ng as romantic romantic would

simply not drop out of sight as far as the daily repertoire was conc co ncer erne ned, d, no matt matter er how how much much deni denigr grat atio ion n was was heap heaped ed upon upon them. the m. Modern Modernist ist-or -orien iented ted music music history history textbo textbook ok writer writerss have have often used the word romantic as a negative descriptor, mainly serving to emphasize the extent to which certain contemporary composers compos ers did not keep up with with the times. times. In typica typicall histor historica icall narratives, the matter of (outdated) romanticism would perhaps be mentioned briefly, only to be dropped abruptly, and the discussion would move on to more pressing historical concerns having to do with the growth of modernism. As can be expected, textbooks tend to be an accurate reflection of the state of research as a whole. In  basic research, writers have long had plenty to say about modernism, the atonal revolution, neoclassicism, serialism, chance music, spectralism and what have you, but have had precious little to say about the continued historical viability of the musical stream we are calling romantic. A look in Digital Dissertations Online (DDM) fails to turn up any extended treatments that directly consider the extent to whic wh ich h roma romant ntic icism ism cont contin inue ued d to flou flouri rish sh in the the musi musicc of th thee twentie tieth centu ntury, ry, and a DDM search on major romantic composers like Elgar and Rachmaninoff yields results in the single digi di gits ts.. In st star ark k cont contra rast st,, Scho Schoen enbe berrg has has al almo most st two two hund hundre red d 7

 

 Introduction

listings. It should be pointed out that Richard Strauss does now attract many graduate students, with around two dozen dissertations currently in progress. However, the dominant trend in Stra St raus usss stud studie iess focu focuse sess on plac placin ing g hi him m and and his his la late te roma romant ntic ic cont co ntem empo pora rari ries es squa square rely ly in the the cont contex extt of earl early y mode modern rnis ism m. Accord Acc ording ing to that that widesp widesprea read d schola scholarly rly view view, the late-r late-rom omant antic ic classification for composers like Strauss is “outmoded.” As As we will see in chapter three, the “modernization” of Strauss and others is a worthy not least because oneand of its basic is to greatly expand project, the definition of modernism thus stripgoals the most radical early ear ly twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry musica musicall revolu revolutio tions ns of their their exclus exclusive ive claims on what actually constituted true modernity in the music of

that time. In a sense nse, the the Str traauss uss pro proje jecct is my proje roject ct as wel ell, l, although I go a little further. Rather perversely perversely,, perhaps, one of my goals here is to encourage continued use of the term romantic in order to highlight the twentieth century’s many audible links to nine ni nete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry musi musica call style styless and and la lang ngua uage ges, s, and and al also so to remind ourselves that we need not be embarrassed by the many obviou obv iously sly ninete nineteent enth-c h-cent entury ury-so -sound unding ing stylis stylistic tic featur features es which which continued to survive and even flourish in the early modern period and after. In other words, we are celebrating those composers who chose to pursue a much more gradual gradual change change in musical musical language language and an d style style,, and and are are putt puttin ing g the the radi radica call early early twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury musical revolutions in the much larger perspective of our standard twentieth-century performing repertoire, which is undeniably still dominated by a preponderance of romantic-sounding works. We recognize that everyone has the right to listen to the music that  pleases them, and reject reject the urge to intellectually intellectually belittle those those who do not find pleasure in the most esoteric or “difficult” musical languages of the recent past. In particular, particular, we would like to honour those early twentieth-century composers who had the courage to  put the breaks on the excessively rapid rate of change in musical language for the simple reason that the standard repertoire would  be much the poorer without them. The use of the word romantic, 8

 

 Introduction

then, is a good way of clearly emphasizing the very substantial  benefits of gradual change as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth. The literature on romanticism, as the term applies to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is truly abundant, but useful academic commentary and extended treatment of twentieth-century rom ro manti nticism cism tend tendss to be foc focuse used main inly ly on rom romanti ntici cism sm’’s historical connection to the themes of alienation and innovation. Edward Kravitt’s 1992 essay “Romanticism Today” describes and 10 summa sum mariz rizes es this this situat situation ion..   A more more exte extend nded ed tr trea eatm tmen entt al alon ong g

similarly alienated lines is to be found in Leonard B. Meyer s 1989 book St Styl ylee and and Musi Musicc, whic hich, as Me Mey yer makes kes clear ear, inte in tent ntio iona nall lly y focu focuse sess on the the less less obvi obviou ouss mani manife fest stat atio ions ns of romantici roma nticism sm in the modern period period instead of its more obvious and audi au dibl blee conn connec ecti tion on to roma romant ntic icism ism.. The The more more obvi obviou ouss si side de of romanticism, Meyer states, can readily be found in the music of relati rel ativel vely y conser conservat vative ive modern modern compos composers ers like like Ralph Ralph Vaughan aughan William illiamss and Serg Sergei ei Prokof Prokofiev iev.. Taruski aruskin’ n’ss Oxfo Oxford rd History History   also deals extensively with the alienated side of romanticism, following it as it reached its full-blown state in the twentieth-century avantgarde. Formerly, textbook and overview writers dealing with the twentieth-century often tended to see the traditionally beautiful, melodic and tonal aspects of romanticism as something essentially alien to the spirit of the new and modern age. Writers then seized on these obviously romantic elements, using them as a stick with which to beat errant composers who refused to advance. Taruskin, however, turns the tables and frequently uses the word romantic to desc de scri ribe be how how inno innova vati tion on and and alie aliena nati tion on reac reache hed d thei theirr mos ostt exacerbated or “ugly” form in the twentieth century, as we will see in chapter three. And it is is undeniable  undeniable that, like traditional melody and beautifully blended harmonies and textures, innovation and alienation are also aspects of a historically rooted definition of roman rom anti tici cism sm.. The The la latt tter er el elem emen ents ts,, ther theref efor ore, e, ar aree used used to give give 10

See bibliography for more details on this and other sources listed in this literature overview. 9

 

 Introduction

emphasis to Taruskin’s less than flattering portraying of certain aspe as pect ctss of radi radica call mod oder erni nism sm,, an aest aesthe heti ticc mov ovem emen entt that that,, following the example of Leonard B. Meyer, Taruskin Taruskin occasionally describes as late-late romanticism. But our discussion is not about romanticism-as-alienation. Rather, it is about a more positive kind of romanticism, and is a sincere attempt to formulate a series of arguments and illustrations that th at give give us reas reason onss to take take tr trad adit itio iona nall lly y rom roman anti ticc-so soun undi ding ng twentieth-century composers seriously as a stylistic stream in their

own right. One of the few writers who has given us an extended  book-length treatment treatment of post-1900 romanticism romanticism in this sense is the Americ Ame rican an music musicolo ologis gistt Walt alter er Simmon Simmons. s. He has spent spent his life life rese re sear arch chin ing g twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur ury y tr trad adit itio iona nali lism sm,, whic which h he has has classifie clas sified d into various various sub-strea sub-streams. ms. His 2004 book, Voices in the Wilde ildern rnes ess: s: Six Six Amer Americ ican an NeoNeo-Ro Roma mant ntic ics, s, is one of the first studies of its kind to attempt to come to grips with the topic of twentieth-century romanticism. In his book, Simmons provides a much needed framework and sets a valuable precedent for what I have undertaken here. In their own way, various biographers and apologists for traditionally romantic-sounding twentieth-century composers write fr from om a mind mindse sett that hat is si sim mila larr to mine in that hat they hey all find ind themselves in a position of having to defend composers whom the academic establishment generally considered to be outdated, and therefore did not see fit to bother with. We will not attempt a comprehensive bibliography here, but will be content with a few examples that illustrate the point. Barrie Martyn’s biographies and  New Grove Grove articles  articles on Rachmaninoff and Medtner understand the issuess surround issue surrounding ing the alleged untimeliness untimeliness of the romantic romantic idiom after 1900, as does Christoph Flamm in his  Der russische  Komponist Nikolaj Metner: Studien und Materialien.  Materialien.  Lewis Foreman has published on a whole range of romantic twentiethcentu ntury British composers, above al alll Arnold Bax. Very significan signi ficantly tly,, Forem Foreman an is one of the main scholarly scholarly driving driving forces forces  behind the thousands of compact discs that document what has 10

 

 Introduction

come to be known as the English musical renaissance. His work is  but one of many examples that illustrate the depth of research that now enhances recording projects devoted to romantic twentiethcentur cen tury y music music.. Christ Christoph opher er Palme Palmerr has priori prioritie tiess that that are ver very y similar to Foreman. In 1979, Palmer issued a call for resurrecting the music of Cyr Cyril Scott, whom he called one of “the ‘lost generation’ of English Romantics.”11  Palmer has also written on George Dyson, Herbert Howells, film composers, and much else.

Brenda Bren dan n Carr Carrol olll has has been been inst instru rume ment ntal al in rais raisin ing g the the is issu suee of romantic traditionalism as it pertains to the crucial case of the once completely discredited Korngold, a composer who has enjoyed a substantial revival in the last forty years. Tomi omi Mäke Mäkelä lä’’s 2007 2007 Germ German an-l -lan angu guag agee bi biog ogra raph phy y of Sibe Si beli lius us,,  Poesie in der Luft,  Luft,  provides my dissertation with the  phrase  Immer-noc  Immer-noch-Romantiker  h-Romantiker , referring to composers who still cont co ntin inue ued d to writ writee in the the rom roman anti ticc st sty yle well well afte afterr 19 1900 00.. Fo Forr Mäkelä Mäk elä,, the twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry  Romantiker   comprised a so-called “Third Way” that continued to flourish during the rise of atonality and neocla neoclassi ssicis cism. m. They They includ included ed compos composers ers such such as Sibeli Sibelius, us, Ferruccio Busoni, Ronald Stevenson, and Samuel Barber. Of these, Stevenson should be further singled out here because he wrote a  History of Music in Music in 1971 that, despite its unique way of classifying traditiona tradi tionalist list twentieth twentieth-cent -century ury composers composers,, bespeaks bespeaks an atti attitude tude toward twentieth-century music that is not dissimilar to what will  be found here. Stevenson classifies a broad range of romantic trad tradit itio iona nali list stss as “nat “natio iona nal” l” comp compos oser ers, s, and and adds adds that that they they comprise by far the largest twentieth-century stream. Stevenson also pointedly emphasizes that, in reality, the most radical side of modern music hardly found its way to the public at all.   Writers on historic pianism also tend, almost by definition, to de defe fend nd at leas leastt som some repr repres esen enta tati tive vess of twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur ury y romanticism. A prime example is the New the  New York York Times Times critic  critic Harold C. Scho Schonb nber erg, g, who who (alt (altho houg ugh h he had had li litt ttle le good good to say abou aboutt 11

Christopher Palmer Christopher Palmer,, “C “Cyril yril Scott: Centenary Reflections, The Musical Times 120 (September 1979): 738. 11

 

 Introduction

modern music in general ral) defended the much-mal aliigned Rachmaninoff in both Th Thee Grea Greatt Pian Pianis ists ts   an and Th Thee Great eat Compos Com posers ers.. Schonberg is similar in outlook to the writer Abram Chasins, a late-romantic pianist and composer whose views on  post-1900 music come to the fore in his classic survey Speaking of  Pianists as well well as the the mor oree gloo gloomy my 1971 1971 book book  Music at the

Crossroads. Jeremy Nicholas, who also reviews for Gramophone magazine, is a pioneering Godowsky scholar and a major authority on romantic pianism. sm. Charles Barber has writ ittten the first  biography of the great Liszt pupil Alexander Siloti (1863-1945), and an d Jose oseph Herd Herdeer has has done one prim primaary rese reseaarch rch on Zygm Zygmun untt Stojowski (1870-1946). Like Godowsky, both Siloti and Stojowski were among the vast va st num number ber of compo ompose serr-pe -perf rfor orm mers in the the early arly mode odern gene ge nera rati tion on to keep keep the the rom romanti anticc aest aesthe heti ticc aliv alive, e, much much to the the frustration of radical modernists who felt publicly marginalized by them. Other performing composers of a similar romantic aesthetic weree Emil wer Emil von Sauer Sauer (1862(1862-194 1942), 2), Pablo Pablo Casal Casalss (1876(1876-197 1973), 3), Andrés And rés Segovi Segoviaa (1893(1893-198 1987), 7), and Fritz Fritz Kreisl Kreisler er (18 (187575-196 1962). 2). Many recent performers have staked a large part of their careers on this kind of post-1900 late-romantic music literature, which in turn wass mar wa margina ginali lize zed d en mass massee  by conventi conventional onal twentiet twentieth-cen h-century tury hist hi stor orio iogra graph phy y. It was was a mar margina ginali liza zati tion on that that many many la latt tter er-d -day ay roman rom anti tics cs felt felt keen keenly ly,, and and it was was ther theref efor oree not not surp surpri risi sing ng that that Chasins referred to the music history textbook survey genre as “mythologies of music” rather than histories of music. music.12  Marc Ma rc-A -And ndré ré Hame Hameli lin n has has beco become me know known n as a lead leadin ing g specialist in the works of composers like Godowsky, Rachmanin Rachm aninoff off,, Medtner Medtner,, Busoni, Busoni, Scriabin, Scriabin, Feinberg Feinberg,, Stev Stevenson enson,, Vlad Vl adig iger erov ov,, and and Sora Sorabj bjii – exac exactly tly the the kind kind of repe repert rtoi oire re that that concerns us here. Hamelin is also a composer in the same tradition (which he freely spices with many modernistic elements), and has 12

Abram Abra m Ch Chas asin ins, s,  Music at the Cro Crossro ssroads ads (London: Collier-Macmillan, Collier-Macmillan, 1972), 5. 12

 

 Introduction

recent rece ntly ly reco record rded ed and and publ publis ishe hed d his his Twelve Etudes  Etudes  for piano.13  Robe Ro bert rt Rimm Rimm,, a scho schola larr who who rese resear arch ches es gold golden en-a -age ge roma romant ntic ic  pianism, has written on the peculiar kind of musical unity shown  by the composer-pianists composer-pianists that Hamelin advocates – an aspect that Sorabji/Bu Sorab ji/Busoni soni scholar Marc-Andr Marc-Andréé Roberge Roberge is also keenly aware

of.14  Althou Although gh many many compos composers ers in this this circle circle lived lived throug through h the musica mus icall revolu revolutio tions ns of the early early twenti twentiet eth h centur century y, the music musical al universe univer se that that they they themse themselve lvess inhabi inhabited ted wa wass radica radically lly differ different ent from fr om that that occu occupi pied ed by mode modern rnis istt gian giants ts li like ke Scho Schoen enbe berrg and and Stravinsky, who were the “twin peaks” of the early modern period acccord ac ording ing to tradi raditi tion onal al hist histor oriiogr ography aphy.. Ri Rim mm make kess this this differ dif ferenc encee clear clear when when he uses uses the word romant romantic ic to descri describe be the composer-pianists of the early modernist era, and observes that the  period which ended with the deaths of Godowsky, Godowsky, Rachmaninof Rachmaninoff, f, and an d Medt Medtne nerr (t (tha hatt is is,, shor shortly tly befo before re the the middl middlee of the the twen twenti tiet eth h century) was “a very ver y romantic time.”15 Rimm also comments in his 13

14

15

Hamelin Hame lin him himsel selff als also o ha hass a tas taste te for so some me ve very ry ul ultra tra-mo -mode dern rn str strea eams, ms, although he performs this literature comparatively rarely. Seee Ro Se Robe berrge ge’’s arti articl cle, e, “The “The Bu Buso soni ni Ne Netw twor ork k and and th thee Art Art of Crea Creati tive ve Tra rans nscr crip ipti tion on,” ,” Ca (1991): ): 68 68-88 -88.. Cana nadi dian an Un Univ iver ersi sity ty Mu Musi sicc Revi Review ew 11 (1991 Roberge begins his article with the following words: “Recent research in the field of early twentieth-century music and musical life in Germany and Austria has shown that Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg were not active in a vacuum but part of a wider cultural context which included composers such as (to mention only two names) Alexander Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker, and that this group of composers had links with numerous artists and writers. It is now possible to see them in a much wider perspective or, or, in other words, as part of a network. This idea can also be applied to a number of fascinating figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries whose music, for a variety of re reaasons sons,, ha hass long long be been en ne neg glect lected ed:: na name mely ly,, Li Lisz szt, t, Alka Alkan, n, Buso Busoni ni,, Godowsky, and Sorabji – al1 of them, except for Sorabji, keyboard giants. Their contribution has been progressively rediscovered (or even discovered) in the last twenty years or so, as is evident in the explosion in the field of literature and discography. An indication of the existence of links between these composers is that, in most cases, anyone who plays, writes about, or simply listens to the music of one of these composers has also a strong interest in the music of the others. This would probably not be the case if they were not part of one and the same ‘family’ of artists.” Rimm made this comment in the course of interviews that he gave for a film about pianist Marc-André Hamelin, entitled Its entitled  Its all about the the music, Hyperion 13

 

 Introduction

 book  Hamelin and the Eight   that our current early twenty-first century era, with its focus on reviving forgotten romantic music, represents “a backlash against frequently astringent mid-twentiethcentury music.” Our time, says Rimm, “is highly receptive to the

 brand of musical romanticism put forth by The Eight.”16  Rimm’s training as a pianist, of course, has understandably played a role in the formation of his research interests. In that important sense, his musical background is similar to mine. Harold C. Schonberg is also very useful to our discussion of twentieth twentieth-cent -century ury romantici romanticism sm for another another reason: reason: As the chief chief musi mu sicc crit critic ic for the  New York Times during the 1960s and 70s, Schonberg was one of the major critical advocates of the late twenti twe ntieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry Romant Romantic ic Reviva Revivall that that Rimm Rimm was indire indirectly ctly referring to. The Romantic Revival was spearheaded in large part  by the pianist and musicologist Frank Cooper and was given treme tre mendo ndous us flair flair by pianis pianistt Raymon Raymond d Lewen Lewentha thal. l. Th Their eir tirele tireless ss work helped to encourage an understanding of romanticism as seen through the eyes of the Romantic Revival. As we will see, their Romantic Roma ntic Revival Revival work implied implied a kind of romantici romanticism sm that was conc co ncep eptu tual ally ly at odd odds wit ith h rom romanti ntici cism sm-a -ass-al aliienat enatio ion. n. The The “alienation” view essentially sees nineteenth-century romanticism as culmi culminat nating ing in disson dissonant ant modern modernism ism,, wherea whereass the Romant Romantic ic Revival sees romanticism as simply encompassing a very broad rang ra ngee of older lder st sty yles that hat were exte extend nded ed deep eep into nto in into to the twen tw enti tiet eth h cent century ury by tr trad adit itio iona nali list st comp compos oser erss li like ke Ko Korn rngo gold ld,, Palmgr Palm gren en and and Rach Rachma mani nino nofff, none none of whom whom reli reliqu quis ishe hed d the the tonality, melody and blended sonic surfaces that were passed on to them by the nineteenth-century. Cooper made a formal defense of his Romantic Revival in a 1979 book-length interview, written in conjunction with Jesse F. Knight, entitled The Romantic Revival: Setting the Record Straight. 17  There, one of his major points was

16

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68000, released in 2006, DVD. Robert Rimm, The Composer Composer-Pia -Pianists nists:: Ham Hamelin elin and the Eight Eight (Portland, Oregon,:Amadeus Press, 2002), 13. We will refer to Fran Frank k Coo Cooper’ per’ss idea ideass at vari various ous points in the pages that 14

 

 Introduction

that the spirit of nineteenth-century musical romanticism was not an aesthetic movement that was merely confined to the nineteenth

century itself. Rather, Rather, romanticism extended well into the twentieth century, and even to the present day. In order to highlight this fact, Coop Co oper’ er’ss Roma Romant ntic ic Revi Reviva vall fest festiv ival alss resu resurr rrec ecte ted d (alo (along ng si side de forgotten nineteenth century music by composers like Moscheles, Raff and Rubinstein) works such as an early unplayed version of Rach Ra chma mani nino nofff’s f’s Four Fourth th Conc Concer erto to and and a pian piano o co conc ncer erto to by the the romantic roma ntic Finnish Finnish composer composer-pia -pianist nist Selim Palmgren Palmgren (1878-195 (1878-1951). 1). Work orkss and transc transcrip ripti tions ons by compos composer er-pi -piani anists sts activ activee betwee between n 1900 and 1950 also appeared, as did works from the 1930s by Korngo Kor ngold, ld, a compos composer er who in the 1960s 1960s and 70s was was sti still ll being being critically shunned as “more corn than gold,” and was consequently avoide avo ided d both both in the conce concert rt hall hall and on record recording ings. s. Korngo Korngold’ ld’ss later restoration to the international repertoire is one of the great success stories of the Romantic Revival. His Violin Concerto has now become an obligatory work for the younger generation of top soloists, and operas such as Die as Die Tote Tote Stadt are staged frequently as well. Of profound significance for our discussion, many record companies in the late twentieth century began documenting the Romantic Roma ntic Revival for music lovers world-wide world-wide.. This commercial commercial trend tre nd has provided provided an invalu invaluabl ablee servic service, e, in that that it has enable enabled d curious music lovers everywhere to get a much more thorough knowledge of nineteenth and twentieth-century music. The world of sound recordings also brings us to another source of literature that th at dire direct ctly ly deal dealss with with the the kind kind of rom roman anti tici cism sm that that will will be concerning us throughout this volume: I am speaking here of the many thousands of record reviews from over the past three or four decades that have been warmly receptive to the more traditional and romantic side of twentieth-century music. In stark contrast to music history textbooks, the recording industry has constructed a musica mus icall world world where where twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry romant romantici icism sm not only only follow. 15

 

 Introduction

abound abo unds, s, but finds finds the most most welcom welcomee of homes. homes. As experi experienc enced ed

record collectors instinctively know, this segment of the classical recordin ding world has grown in direct response to a highlysophistica sophi sticated ted connoisseur connoisseur mindset mindset that is usually usually (but not always) always) diametrically opposed to the critical mindset that gave birth to conventional modernist twentieth-century twentieth-century historiography. historiography. This will  become clear in chapter two when we examine the musical tastes of those who choose the repertoire for six of the largest inde in depe pend nden entt cl clas assi sica call CD la labe bels ls (Nax (Naxos os/M /Mar arco co Po Polo lo,, Ch Chan ando dos, s, Hyperion, cpo, BIS and Albany). Needless to say, these labels owe their impressive economic growth to the fact that they have many like-minded customers.   Certainly, ly, within the pages of magazines like Gram Gr amop opho hone ne and  Fanfar  Fanfare, e, there have always been critical and  practical defenders for the most esoteric idioms as well. However, However, such su ch advo advoca cacy cy has has neve neverr been been any anywher wheree near near as pl plen enti tifu full or unanim unan imou ouss as in text textbo book ok over overvi view ewss (b (by y Mo Morrgan, gan, Watki atkins ns,, Griffiths, Antokoletz, Machlis, Salzman, Simms, Deri, et. al.) of twentieth-century music. Among front-rank performing musicians, Mauriz Mau rizio io Pol Pollin linii and Pierre Pierre Boulez Boulez are good good examp examples les of those those whose twentieth-century repertoires best reflect academic aesthetic  priorities. One could perhaps say that Pollini is the Robert Morgan of the concert hall, but for every Pollini who plays Schoenberg to the exclusion exclusion of Rachmani Rachmaninof noff, f, there there are a hund hundred red pianists pianists like Clib Cl ibur urn, n, Ashk Ashken enaz azy y and and Arge Argeri rich ch who who evid eviden entl tly y see see tw twen enti tiet ethhcentury music the other way around. And for every critic like Arnold Arnol d Whittall Whittall (an important important music music theorist theorist who also specializes specializes in reviewing radical modernism for Gramophone magazine), magazine),   there are several Gramophone reviewers such as Robert Layton (Sibelius scholar), Jeremy Nicholas (Godowsky scholar), Bryce Morrison (piano professor), Michael Kennedy (Elgar and Vaughan Williams scho sc hola lar) r) and and Andr Andrew ew Ache Achenb nbac ach h to ha hand ndle le the the delu deluge ge of CDs CDs cont co ntai aini ning ng the the kind kind of twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur ury y mu musi sicc that that is more ore directly applicable to themagazines tastes of the of their readers. Record review notmajority only reflect a general music 16

 

 Introduction

world consisting of revivals of rare repertoire, but also a world of major twentieth-century composers who never were forgotten by the public. Here, Puccini, Elgar, Rachmaninoff and Sibelius are recognized as absolutely central figures, which, of course, is utterly unthinkable from the traditional academic perspective. Composers like Puccini are representative of the side of twentieth-century music mus ic which which histor historica ically lly domina dominated ted the record recording ing and concer concertt world in much the same way that the more radical streams of mode mo dern rnis ism m domi domina nate ted d hist histor ory y text textbo book okss and and mu musi sico colo logi gica call research. In certain respects, the long-term academic and music indu in dust stry ry view viewss of the the twen twenti tiet eth h cent centur ury y are are so fund fundam amen enta tally lly contrary to one another that I have decided to reflect that fact in my main title, not only by using the word “romantic” but also by using Philadelphia Orchestra administrator Simon Woods’ phrase “two centuries in one.” Chapter one will provide some historical and  philosophical background background that will help explain why the twentiethcentury romantics were academically marginalized for so long. The so-called “progress narrative of musical evolution” is discussed, as are some examples of its eventual decline in academic influence. I have ha ve also lso asse ssembl bleed mat ateeri rial al that hat shows hows how how, in the the earl early y twentieth century, the road to progress was not without pitfalls. The chief point here is that, in reality, reality, most early twentieth-century com co mpo pose sers rs were were neve neverr very very cons consis iste tent nt in thei theirr loy loyalty alty to the the “dissonant” revolution. Furthermore, a vast number of composers of the period hardly participated in that revolution at all: Rather, they deliberately fought against musical radicalism in a principled mann ma nner er,, and and none none foug fought ht hard harder er than than th thos osee (s (suc uch h as Ho Howa ward rd Hanson, Joseph Marx, Nicholas Medtner and Hans Pfitzner) who were we re cate catego gori rize zed d by hist histor oria ians ns as comp comple lete tely ly unre unrege gene nera rate ted d rom ro manti ntics. cs. Rec Record ord cata catallogu ogue st staati tist stiics are dra drawn fr from om the the comprehensively stocked mail-order firm Arkivmusic.com, which serves to provide an informal “real world” snapshot, as it were, of where the standard repertoire is at as of 2012. The current classical record catalogue evinces musical priorities that are very much at 17

 

 Introduction

odds with the standard modernist-oriented history textbooks. This si sim mpl plee met etho hod d of cont contra rast stin ing g th thee two two si side dess sh show owss just just how how  plentiful the twentieth-century romantic traditionalists were in gene ge nera rall musi musica call li life fe,, and and the the shee sheerr exte extent nt to wh whic ich h some some of it itss leading public figures were written out of textbooks. As there is no  parallel the to dwhich the how music previous is reco re cord rded edinand an d extent perf perfor orme med vers versus us ho w deep deof eply ly it is centuries st stud udie ied d by historians, the question therefore can be phrased as follows: Why do we need two separate canons for composers born after 1850 – onee for on for acad academ emic icss and and the the othe otherr for for co conc ncer ertt ti tick cket et and and re reco cord rd  buyers – when the two sides (musicologists and the daily music world) largely seem to agree on a single canon of great composers who were born before 1850. In other words, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach are of top priority in both research and performance whereas with Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Schoenberg (18741951), the two areas are completely and utterly out of sync with one another. As a way of illustrating the plentiful nature of twentiethcentury traditionalism, chapter two briefly outlines how writers of historical overviews often admitted that throughout the twentieth centur cen tury y, the public public and the music musical al instit instituti utions ons they they suppor supporte ted d cont co ntin inue ued d to refl refleect and uph uphold old many mus usiical cal va valu lues es and  preferences that stemmed directly from the romantic era. Despite acknowledgement of this basic fact, the same writers nevertheless  proceeded to devote most of their attention to more radical developments. The bulk of chapter two is devoted to the Romantic Revival and its growing presence in late twentieth-century musical life. Far from being merely a revival of rare nineteenth-century music, I will also show how the musical values of the Romantic Revival are also at least somewhat applicable to the recovery of neglected traditionalist music composed in the modern era as well. During the course of the discussion, I will also point out that the Romantic Revival includes a very strong focus on the romantic virtuoso and salon-type repertoires which partially fell into critical disrepute with the onset of the modern era. Thus, the Revival’s 18

 

 Introduction

way of defining romanticism runs counter to a prevailing academic definition of romanticism which focuses on the growing fetish for originality and harmonic innovation, and the attendant alienation that th at re resu sult lteed whe when those hose valu valuees were ere take taken n to the their logi logica call conclusion. Incidentally, our discussion of the Romantic Revival would be much more extensive were it not for the fact that there are other aspects of romanticism in the twentieth century that also require our attention. Chap Ch apte terr thre threee deal dealss more more thor thorou ough ghly ly with with some some basi basicc  problems of defining romanticism in a twentieth-centu twentieth-century ry context. One of the most important points in this chapter relates to how a large numbe berr of roma omantic-s -so ounding composers from the Schoenberg Schoenber g era are now being re-catagorized in scholarly circles as modern or even modernist composers. This is being accomplished  partly as a means of academically rehabilitating them while at the same time getting rid of the problematic word “romantic,” with all its contradictions and negative connotations. But there is a twist here. The re-classification of romantic composers as modern(ist) is not being not  being accomplished accomplished by downplaying the the traditionally rom romanticanticsounding sonic surfaces of the more traditional and conservative composers and thereby emphasizing whatever dissonances can be found (as, for example, Dahlhaus and others did with Strauss’s works dating from just before 1910). Rather, the re-classification is accomplished by redefining ideaconfines of modernism itself, taking that notion far beyondthe thebasic narrow that resulted from its close connection to extreme dissonance. Daniel Albright succinctly succi nctly summed summed up the nature of the new scholarly scholarly conception conception of modernism when he suggested “a theory of modernism that might embrace embrace both Schoenbe Schoenberg rg and Pfitzner Pfitzner.” .” Albr Albright’ ight’ss broad  parameters are a far cry indeed from the old definition, which saw Pfitzner’ ner’ss role in music history mainly nly as a comp omposer and  polemicist who stubbornly held on to traditional romantic values and was one of modernism modernism’’s most backward backward and implacabl implacablee foes. Several other difficulties of defining romanticism are also explored in chapte chapterr three three,, includ including ing proble problems ms surrou surroundi nding ng the notion notion of 19

 

 Introduction

romanti roman tici cism sm-a -ass alie aliena nati tion on.. We will will al also so de deal al br brie iefly fly with with the the  problem that commentators have had in classifying composers like Debussy, Prokofiev and Busoni, all of whom dipped into more modernistic tendencies from time to time but still retained many elements that were audibly romantic in tone. Chapte Chap terr four four disc discus usse sess the the exte extent nt to whic which h twen twenti tiet ethhcentury romantic traditionalists were considered to be Unglei Ung leichz chzeit eitig, ig, or “unt “untim imely ely,” ,” and and I will will outl outlin inee st stra rate tegi gies es that that writers commonly used in order to emphasize such untimeliness. Thee firs Th firstt meth method od was was to si sim mpl ply y call call the the nine ninete teen enth th cent centur ury y “romantic” and the twentieth century “modern,” which, of course, is one reason reason why I have have delibe deliberat rately ely framed framed this this entire entire volume volume around the idea of romanticism in the twentieth century. Another related relat ed strategy strategy was to structure structure twentieth-c twentieth-century entury music history history around Schoenberg and Stravinsky, who were long seen as the invincible twin giants of early modernism, thus leaving very little room in the historica historicall constructi construction on for properly properly acknowled acknowledging ging a cont co ntem emp pora orary rom roman anti ticc st stre ream am of com compose poserrs li like ke Puc Pucci cini ni,, Rachmaninoff and Sibelius. Following the framework of Sibelius scholar Tomi Mäkelä, we therefore argue for a “third way,” a third stream of  Immer-n (compo pose serrs who who are st stil illl  Immer-noch-Romantike och-Romantiker  r , (com romantic). We will also discuss how the elimination of major lateromantic composers from the early twentieth century (and hence overviews of “modern music”) also resulted in them being dropped from all historical accounts in general, because they lived too late to be properly included in histories of nineteenth-century music and an d there herefo forre la lang ngui uish shed ed in what Carl Dahl Dahlha haus us cal alle led d an “aesthetic no-man’s-land.” Chapter five draws on colourful commentary by a few  prominent figures in the romantic-versus-mode romantic-versus-modernist rnist culture wars of the twentieth century. The purpose here is to emphasize the fact that latter-day romantics were indeed intent on explicitly upholding the age-old importance importance of emotion emotion and melody in music. music. In many cases, they upheld such tradition cases, traditional al elements to roug roughly hly the same same extent that many of their avant-garde opponents downplayed or 20

 

 Introduction

denigrated them. I feel that this point has been partially forgotten in our day, when advocates of high modernism like Paul Griffiths aree now ar now see seeing ing even ven the the most asc ascet etiic mod oder erni nist st idio idiom ms as unpr un prec eced eden ente ted d outp outpou ouri ring ngss of emot emotio ion n – Fe Fern rney eyho houg ugh h is as romantic as Franck, as Griffiths puts it. And theorist Joseph Straus is now revising the traditional academic image of an emotionless Stravinsky and making claims for the presence of deeply expressive content in this famously dry-sounding composer, even in his late serial works. To complicate things still further, I will also point out that some alleged anti-romantics from the earlier part of the century, especially Webern, were in fact highly romantic in te temp mper eram amen ent. t. This This expr expres essi sive ve si side de of earl early y twen twenti tiet eth-c h-cen entu tury ry radical modernism was obscured by the deliberately dry-sounding “white coat and stethoscope” (cf. William Bolcolm) mid-century  performance styles styles of Boulez and and Craft. In some ways, chapter six is possibly the most important of all. Here, I would like to develop the point that there did exist something approaching common-practice harmonic usage in the twentieth century. In large part, such usage derived directly from thee la th late te nine ninete teen enth th cent century ury.. Beca Becaus usee la late te-r -rom oman anti ticc harm harmoni onicc  patterns still dominated twentieth-century twentieth-century popular idioms, such harm ha rmon onie iess ther theref efor oree als lso o ser served ved to form form a de fact facto o  common language that the larger musical public understood instinctively, even if certain advanced composers spurned this widely-circulating musi mu sica call voca vocabu bula lary ry in thei theirr more more spec specia iali lize zed d and and es esot oter eric ic endeavours. We can therefore arrive at the logical conclusion that the most conservative twentieth-century “art” music composers – the so-called holdovers from the “romantic” nineteenth century – were indeed the ones who most faithfully mirrored the dominant musical language of their era. In this way, we can reject as overreaching, utopian and impractical the frequently-encountered claim thatt only the more tha more esoter esoteric ic mus music ical al langua languages ges truly truly refle reflecte cted d the spirit of the twentieth century. To be sure, such rarefied languages added much new flavour to music in the post-1900 era. As film scores so clearly showed, even the most recondite idioms were

21

 

 Introduction

capable of functioning rather well as illustrators of certain kinds of dram dr amat atic ic situ situat atio ions ns.. But But as the the ubiq ubiqui uito tous us love love sc scen enes es al also so dem de mon onst stra rate ted, d, and and as the the cred credit itss roll rolled ed,, in inva vari riab ably ly awas awash h in triumphantly resolved tertian harmonies, we were reminded time and agai and again n that that the the most most spec specia iali lize zed d mu musi sica call lang langua uage gess al almo most st alway alwayss st stil illl oper operat ated ed with within in a la larg rger er tona tonall an and d even even roma romant ntic ic-soun so undi ding ng conte ontext xt,, thus hus prov rovidin iding g a mod odel el for for how how the two two seemingly antithetical sides of the twentieth century could be seen as having a measure of unity after all. As a general remark, we should make clear from the outtset ou set that hat the twen twenti tieeth cent centur ury y perio eriod, d, as it is typi typiccal ally ly understood, normally includes composers who were born in the generatio gene ration n starting starting with Janáček (1854-192 (1854-1928), 8), who is often often called called “the first twentieth century However, fact that the first modernist pioneers are composer.” contemporaneous withthe a large number of late-romantic tonalists has allowed historians to freely classify comp co mpos oser erss as eith either er nine ninete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry or twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury according to style. Straddling the two centuries, this generation gradually began to flourish as the romantic generation of Wagner (1813-1883) and Brahms (1833-1897) passed on. The earliest-born figu figure ress in the the firs firstt “t “twe went ntie ieth th cent centur ury” y” gene genera rati tion on rem remai aine ned d  productive as late as the third (Puccini and Busoni died in 1924, Janá Ja náče ček k in 1928 1928), ), the the four fourth th,, (Elg (Elgar ar and and Hols Holstt died died in 1934 1934,, Respighi in 1936), the fifth (Rachmaninoff died in 1943, Strauss in 1949), or even the sixth (Vaughan Williams died in 1958) decades of the twentieth century. Thus their years of composing came too la late te for for them them to be prop proper erly ly incl includ uded ed in a typi typica call hist histor oric ical al overview devoted to the nineteenth century. Elgar wrote almost all of his important works between 1900 and 1920, and was in the midst of composing his eagerly awaited Third Symphony when he died in 1934. Puccini’ Puccini’ss historic historic run of great operas operas began with La with  La  Boheme in  Boheme  in 1895 and ended with Turandot  in   in 1924. Rachmaninoff completed his final half-dozen masterpieces in the last 15 years of his life, ending with the Symphonic Dances of Dances of 1940 and the final

revi re visi sion on of the Four Fourtth Conce oncert rto o in 19 194 41. The tradi radittion ion of 22

 

 Introduction

specifically specifical ly designati designating ng composers composers as “twentieth “twentieth-cent -century” ury” even when they date as back as far as Janáček does indeed result in a very long twentieth twentieth century century.. But scholars scholars ofte often n speak speak of a “long nineteenth century”18 as well, so a slightly longer twentieth century should not be too difficult a concept to grasp – especially if it helps sollve the so the pro problem blem of Dahl Dahlha haus us’’s “nono-man an’’s land, nd,” that that is, composers who apparently belonged to neither the nineteenth nor the twentieth centuries.

18

See for example Anthony Pople, “Styles and languages around the turn of the century cen tury,” ,” in The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, Music , ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). 23

 

Chapter One

Background Backgrou nd to the Problem One of the One the bi bigg gges estt chal challe leng nges es is the the labe labell ‘twe ‘twent ntie ieth th century’...people have ingrained in their souls a definition of wha hatt that that mea eans ns....it .it may com come fro rom m the fact fact tha hatt culturally there is a divide in the century...it’s almost like ther th eree are are two two ce cent ntur urie iess in on one. e. (S (Sim imon on Woods oods,, ar arti tist stic ic admi ad mini nist stra rato torr of th thee Ph Phil ilad adel elph phia ia Orch Orches estr tra, a, in a 1999 1999 interview)

Historicism and evolutionary progress, twentieth-century twentieth-cen tury style

A

s far as the general world of “classical” or “art” music is conc co ncer erne ned, d, tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury co comp mpos oser erss of a to tona nallromantic inclination have long been among the most frequently-performed composers of their time. Despite this, they have always been among the worst casualties of a very powerful

and influential philosophy of music history – one which has only rece re cent ntly ly be beeen chal challlen enge gedd effect fectiive vely ly in aca academ demic circl irclees. Contemplating the odd historical situation that latter-day romanticsoundi sou nding ng ton tonali alists sts found found the themse mselve lvess in can offer offer a great great dea deall of 24

 

 Background to the Problem

insight into why our general approach to hist insight historica orically lly eval evaluatin uatingg twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury mu musi sicc has has tr trad adit itio iona nally lly be been en,, to bo borr rrow ow the the words of Richard Taruskin, “fundamentally skewed.”1 By way of History of Western example, examp Ta Taruski ruskin, n, strange in his monum monumenta l Oxford  Music ,le, ponders the case ofental Puccini (1858-1924), who is

  usually usua lly ba bare rely ly men enti tion oned ed in bo book okss li like ke this this........Si Sinc ncee ther theree is absolutely no chance of Puccini’s being dislodged from his place in the operatic repertoire, no matter how much critical invective is heaped upon him, and no matter how little attention he receives from general historians, it is clear that something else is at stake. Thee crit Th critic ical al in inve vect ctiv ivee id iden enti tifi fies es hi him m as on onee of the the tw twen enti tiet ethh century’s emblematic figures. figures.2 

And what was the philosophy that wrecked havoc with Puccini’s critical reputation for so long? Taruskin identifies the culprit as historicism, a way of thinking which, as he puts it, views history as being “conceived in terms not only of events but also of goals.”3  On Onee of th thee most most impo import rtan antt goal goalss in the the earl earlyy mode modern rn  period was for composers to advance the language of music in such a way that both they and their compositions would have a chance to become enshrined in the annals of history. Compositi Comp ositional onal techniqu es and were sought out would the hope hopefully fully help them attaintechniques this goal, composers whothat followed proper rules of the game would, at the very least, be seen as contenders for the prize of immortality immortality.. If they were lucky, lucky, perhaps they could even ev en achi hiev evee the ul ulti tim mat atee sta status tus of be bein ingg se seeen as, say say, the the Beet Be etho hove venn of th thei eirr time time.. Th Thee hi hist stor oria iann Jo John hn Ca Cald ldwe well ll wa wass st stil illl defending the validity of such an approach at the end of the twenti twe ntieth eth century century and bri briefl eflyy sum summa mariz rized ed what what it too tookk to be a contender. He was speaking specifically of the British music scene

 but his remarks also encapsulated a philosophy of history that had 1

2 3

Rich Ri char ardd Tar arus uski kin, n, The The Ox Oxfo forrd Hi Hist stor oryy of Wes este tern rn Mu Musi sic, c, Vol. 3 , The  Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 665. Ibid., 664 Ibid., 665. 25

 

 Background to the Problem

long been applied on an international scale as well: It certainly would not be difficult to draw up a list of a hundred serious sinceestablished 1930, most still (Goehr, happily alive. AllBritish but halfmodernists a dozen orborn so firmly figures Birtwistle, Davies, Maw and Harvey certainly among them) must  be seen as still contending for the inevitably limited accolade of classic status...If it is true that the classics of literature are the writers who take pains to develop the language in order to cope with their semantic requirements, and that those who thereafter merely imitate them are of less account, then it follows that only thos thosee se seen en to be exte extend ndin ingg or ref refin inin ingg the the musica usicall la lang ngua uage ge,,  providing that this is necessary for their expressive purposes, are 4

likely to achieve permanence. permanence.

Certain goals were central to the now largely discredited  progress narrative of musical evolution. At the bottom of it all was the desire for (to use Caldwell’s words) “permanence,” or “classic st stat atus us.” .” In or orde derr to at atta tain in this this stat status us,, vari variou ouss comp compos osit itio iona nall methods were devised, including ever more sophisticated harmonic novelties. By the time the twentieth century arrived, the nature of such su ch no nove velt ltie iess ha hadd mo move vedd we well ll bey beyon ondd wh what at co comm mmen enta tato tors rs sometimes called “confines” “limitations” older tonal melodi mel odicc cus custom toms. s.the Although Altho ugh such sucor h custom cus tomss were wereofstill sti ll thr thrivi iving ngand in every ev eryday day usag usagee wh wher erev ever er musi musicc wa wass pl play ayed ed an andd hear heardd in th thee Wes este tern rn worl world, d, th this is simp simple le fact fact was was incr increa easi sing ngly ly igno ignore redd as musica mus icall thinke thinkers rs tried tried to cre create ate an int intell ellect ectual ual fra framew mework ork tha thatt woul wo uldd ex expl plai ainn th thee hist histor oric ical al ra rati tion onal alee be behi hind nd th thee most most re rece cent nt advances in musical language. In the most extreme cases, the latest novelt nov elties ies wer weree often often justif justified ied by assert asserting ing the declin decline, e, or eve evenn

death, of older tonal and melodic customs. As the above remarks in order such a framework to become established, it had imply, to be based on for a sweeping denial of everyday musical reality: Nearly everyone, after all, still consumed 4

Jo John hn Caldwe Caldwell, ll, The Oxfor Oxford His Histo tory ry of Eng Englis lish h Mu Music sic,, Vol ol.. 2, c. 1715 1715  present   pr esent  (London:  (London: Oxford University Press, 1999), 490. 26

 

 Background to the Problem

tonal music and enjoyed melodies that were similar to what the romantic era had to offer. But those who positioned themselves at the forefront of musical evolution felt obligated to do battle with these deeply rooted traditions, which, they strongly believed, were only holding up musical evolution. Composers who indulged indulged in the most radical advancements were thought to show great bravery and courage, in part because they dispensed with much of what the old rom ro man anti ticc tr trad adit itio ionn had had to of offe ferr, an andd in th thee proc proces esss will willin ingl glyy sacrificed easy popularity in order to advance the cause of musical evolution. In music history classes we heard much talk of pioneers who sacrificed quick success for greater goals, suffering isolation and even ostracism in the process. In 1937, Schoenberg wrote an essay about life on the cutting edge of musical advancement and encapsulated his feelings in the following way: “I had to fight for every new work; I had been offended in the most outrageous manner by criticism; I had lost friends and I had completely lost any belief in the judgement of friends. And I stood alone against a worl wo rldd of enem enemie ies. s.””5  In mod oder ernn parl parlan ance ce,, one one mi migh ghtt sa sayy that that Schoenberg was being a bit of a “drama queen,” but the problems he outlined were once considered by advanced composers to be very real, and the kind of contrary stance he took was indeed thou th ough ghtt to be a ne nece cess ssar aryy ingr ingred edie ient nt in main mainta tain inin ingg one’ one’ss “contender” status. For composers, the keen desire to reserve a place in music history had already been felt well before the advent of atonality around 1908-1910. For most observers, atonal aliity was unqu un ques esti tion onab ably ly the the supr suprem emee comp compos osit itio iona nall nove novelt ltyy of th thee early early

twentieth century, but long before it appeared, ways had already  been found to connect the ultimate goal of permanence with the latestt scie lates scientific ntific discoveries. discoveries. For many commentat commentators ors schooled schooled in late Darwinian science particular, the latest “art”nineteenth-century music had developed out of a long andin very gradual evolution 5

Arnold Schoenberg, “How one becomes lonely,” in Style and Idea: Selected Writi riting ngss of Arn Arnol old d Sc Scho hoen enber berg, g,ed. Leona eonard rd St Stei ein, n, tr tran ans. s. Leo Leo Blac Black, k, (London: Faber & Faber, 1975), 41 27

 

 Background to the Problem

that ultimately traced its roots back to the much less sophisticated, andd even an even down downri righ ghtt cr crud udee mus usic ical al ge gest stur ures es of th thos osee whom whom European Euro pean civilization civilization once like likedd to call “savages.” “savages.” The growth growth of music from such apparently primitive beginnings was codified in a scientific manner by leading thinkers like Herbert Spencer. 6 At the turn of the century, the historian and composer Hubert Parry also wrote of what he termed the early stages of “primitive” music amongg “savages amon “savages and semi-civi semi-civilized lized races.” races.”7  Following the latest scientific thought, Parry wrote in his once-popular textbook, The  Evolution of the Art of Music, that “the Bushmen [were] at the lower end of the human scale, and the Javese, Siamese, Burmese, and Moors, about the middle.”8  (Appropriately enough, Parry’s historical overview was published as Volume 80 in The  International Scientific Series, a series which also included important impo rtant publicati publications ons by Spen Spencer cer himself). himself). Parry also obser observed ved that although one may indeed belong to a more advanced race in thee ev th evol olut utio iona nary ry sens sensee (i (i.. e. th thee Eu Euro rope pean ans) s),, this this was was st stil illl no guarantee that comparably advanced music would always follow suit. Indeed, Parry noted that it had “even sometimes happened that race cess who have developed up to an advanced ced standard of intellectuality have not succeeded in systematizing more than a very limited range of sounds.”9  Parry’s opinions on race, coming as they did from a highly respec res pecte tedd tur turn-o n-of-t f-thehe-cen century tury Bri Britis tishh int intell ellect ectual ual,, will will per perhap hapss make uncomfortable reading for us today but it is important to highlight the evolutionary views of this leadin ding musical

commentator in order to properly emphasize the powerful effect that th at the sci scienti entifi ficc phil philos osop ophi hies es of th thee time ime had on lead leadin ingg representatives of the great European musical tradition. Proceeding 6

See, for example, Herbert Pro Spencer, Origin and Function(New of Music”, in  Illustrations of Universal Progre gress; ss; “The A Series of Discussions York: D. 7

8 9

Appleton and Company, 1865), 210-238. C. Hube Hubert rt H. Parr Parryy, The Evolution of the Art of Music , 4th  ed. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1905), 92. Ibid. Ibid, 7. 28

 

 Background to the Problem

further along his evolutionary line of reasoning, Parry went on to describe how the more advanced musical races also had their weaker, weaker or less developed, streams music,the of which Italian opera was an, example. He observed thatofwithin European musical scene it was “operatic audiences [who] have always had the lowest standard of taste of any section of human beings calling themselves musical.”10 In Parry’s view, the most sophisticated aspect of Italian opera was its melody, but the mere presence of fine melody was not enough to mask the fact that Italian opera’s musical forms and orchestration were still on the crude side – or if we would like to  put it in more more neutral scienti scientific fic terms, “less developed.” Ironically, in a now rapidly-dating style that embrac embr aced ed aspe aspect ctssasofa composer Me Mend ndel elss ssoh ohn, n, Br Brah ahms ms an andd Lisz Liszt, t, Pa Parr rryy hims hi msel elff was was be beco comi ming ng ex extr trem emely ely vuln vulner erab able le to the the char charge ge of repr re pres esen enti ting ng a cons conser erva vati tive ve,, or “l “les esss deve develo lope ped” d” st stre ream am of com co mpo posi siti tion on by th thee fi firs rstt deca decade de of the the twen twenti tiet ethh ce cent ntur uryy. In comparison to Schoenberg and the futurists, certainly, he was soon to find himself among the less evolved, along with the Italian opera he was disparaging. In any case, his remarks on the low status of thee op th oper erat atic ic genr genree stil stilll se serv rved ed to de demo mons nstr trat atee th that at Ital Italia iann op oper eraa comp co mpos oser erss ha hadd to deal deal wi with th prej prejud udic ices es that that we were re wide widesp spre read ad amon am ongg many many mu musi sica call in inte tell llec ectu tual als. s. Th Thee hi hist stor oric ic tend tenden ency cy to denigrate Italian opera went back at least to Schumann’s infamous dismissal of Rossini and the beloved bel canto tradition. Perhaps the biggest practical difference between Parry and Schumann was

that Parry had now merely added a veneer of scientific respectability to his musical prejudices (whereas Schumann had mainly operated under the guise of German national pride). But either way, the low ranking of Italian opera ran very deep in many musical circles throughout Europe. That general attitude, therefore, hadd al ha alre ready ady pr pred edat ated ed th thee scie scient ntif ific ical ally ly-b -bas ased ed ev evol olut utio iona nary ry  prejudices of the the post-1910 avant-garde. avant-garde. Wit ithh th thee arri arriva vall of Scho Schoen enbe berrg’ g’ss Vienn iennaa Scho School ol,, the the 10

Ibid, 306. 29

 

 Background to the Problem

 progress narrative of musical evolution to which Parry subscribed had itself evolved: It now read the history of music as a gradual increase in chromaticism which ultimately led to the grandioselyconcei con ceived ved and all all-em -embra bracin cingg chr chroma omatic tic uni univer verse se of ato atonal nality ity.. Composers who lived beyond atonality’s invention around 1910 coul co uldd ei eith ther er ob obey ey th this is ne newl wlyy-add -added ed “m “man anda date te”” an andd take take th thee appropriate steps that would reserve their place in the historical narrative, or (like Taruskin’s aruskin’s example of Puccini) they could ignore the mandate and pay the price of being written out of history. It is important to note here that the myth of increased chromaticism lead leadin ingg to aton atonal alit ityy wa wass lar large gely ly a po post st-1 -191 9100 Sc Scho hoen enbe berrgi gian an invention, as Ernst Roth (1896-1971) has usefully pointed out. Roth, who was formerly a child prodigy pianist as well as a trained musicologist, served for several decades as chairman of the music  publishing giant Boosey and Hawkes, and was personally acquainted with many composers of his time. In his autobiography he recalled the musical climate of his youth: When I made my first acquaintance with music, electric tramways were not the only astounding innovation: Richard Wagner too was the subje subject ct of viol violent ent destroyed debate debate.. There were serious exper experts ts who insisted that Wagner had all musical form and that his ‘endless’ melody was a contradiction in itself because form was definite and a fundamental requirement of all melody. I seem

to remember that the harmonic freedom of Wagner’s music was much mu ch les lesss deb debate ated. d. The ‘T ‘Tris ristan tan seque sequence nce’’ cer certai tainly nly sou sounde ndedd strange but it was not yet accused, as it is today, of corrupting our whole tonal system. system.11

Whatever the reasons for the alleged corruption of the tonal system, it remains a matter of history that musical composition did finally come to a critical point with atonality, which Schoenberg 11

Erns rnst Roth Roth,, Th Thee Bu Bussines inesss of Mu Mussic: ic: Re Refl flec ecti tion onss of a Mus Music Publ Publis ishe herr, (London: Cassell, 1966). There is an electronic republication available at Music Mus ic Web Internati Internationa onal: l: http://ww http://www w.musicwe .musicweb-in b-interna ternationa tional.co l.com/Ro m/Roth/ th/ index.htm. (accessed February 6, 2012). 30

 

 Background to the Problem

famously described as the “emancipation of the dissonance,” or, as he also put it, “air from another plant.”12  The birth of atonality heralded the arrival of a putatively superior chromatic universe whose who se unlimi unlimited ted “fr “freed eedom” om” contra contraste stedd with with a time time whe whenn music music was simpler, and was still governed by the old “limitations” or “confines” of tonality (to use typical clichés that would eventually work their way into many music history textbooks later in the twentieth century). From a scientific point of view, the arrival of atonality was simply presented as more evidence that music, like the phylogenetic tree, grew ever richer and more complex over time. As William Wallace wrote in 1914, just after Schoenberg’s atonality was unveiled to the world, The growth of Music as an organism is so definite that we can mark off each step as we ascend the scale, allotting this or that characteristic with some degree of certainty to its appropriate  period, and classifying a composer or a school of composition as we would some form of animal or plant life. We should not hesitate till we reached the last, the present stage, in which the “proliferation” has taken place with such immense rapidity as to defy systematic analysis.13 

Wallace expressed the belief that “It would be no feat for a

composer to write another Orfeo today, with his faculty developed through the knowledge and experience of composers since Gluck;  but practically every bar of a modern music student would have  been a gigantic achievement had it been written in 1762.” Further Further,, said Wallace, this state of affairs was “a sign of the art advancing towards maturity through one brain after another, each adding some so meth thin ingg th that at wa wass bey beyon ondd th thee imag imagin inat atio ionn of th thee prec preced edin ingg 12

13

This is the famous line in Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet, inserted at the point point where where the qua quarte rtett (a (and nd Wester esternn Music Music as well) well) beco becomes mes freely freely atonal for the first time. William illiam Wallace, allace, The Musical Faculty (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1914), 28. 31

 

 Background to the Problem

generation.”14  In th thee 1980 1980s, s, Ka Karl rlhhei einz nz Stoc Stockh khau ause senn was st stiill demanding that musical evolution” similar sens se nsee to wh what at musicians Walla allace ce had ha“serve d wri ritt tten en se seve vent ntyy yea ears rs inearl eaarlie ier r. As Stockhausen described it, New Music could “only mean music whiich is ful wh full of inv nveenti ntion an andd disc discoovery very and wh whic ichh bri brings ngs inte in terp rpre rete ters rs as well well as list listen ener erss a go good od st step ep fu furt rthe herr in th thei eirr development, not just any ‘contemporary music’ full of clichés.” 15 True to the intellectual spirit of the time in which he lived, Schoenberg attempted to cast his novel invention of atonality at least partly in the spirit and terminology of scientific advancement. Lik Like Wallace allace,, even he par partoo k ofpoint the evo evolut lution ionary ary an lan langua guage ge that thatot was thene current, totook the of drawing analogy the Darwinian concepts of ever-increasing complexity of life forms, and the survival of the fittest: “All progress, all development, leads from the simple to the complex, and the latest developments in music are the very ones to increase all those difficulties and obstacles against which anything new in music has always had to  battle.”16  Fur Furthe therr, Schoen Schoenber bergg insist insisted, ed, tonali tonality ty con contai tained ned “th “thee conditions that are leading to its annulment.” Th Thee tonal system was like biological life itself, in that “every living thing has within it that which changes, develops, and destroys it. Life and death are

 both equally present in the embryo.”17 As far as Schoenberg was concerned, tonality’s tonality’s ultimate demise was as much as scientifically foretold. foret old. This all seem seemed ed very logical to many advanced advanced thinkers, thinkers, andd for subs an bseequ quen entt gen ener erat atio ions ns of bel eliiev ever erss the these sor sorts of 14

15

16

17

Ibid., 26. It is important to point out here that many writers (like Cecil Gray) who questioned the efficacy of the Schoenberg revolution also spoke out against the fallacy of applying evolutionary theory to historical changes in musical style. Karlheinz Stockhausen, “To the International Music Council.”  Perspectives We hardly need add here that of New Music 24 (Autumn – Winter 1985): 43. We for Stockhausen, the idea of “New Music” was not simply any new score that was hot off the press. Rather, it had become something essentially ageless, going well beyond considerations of chronology. Joseph Jose ph Auner Auner,,  A Schoenber Schoenberg g Reader: Documen Documents ts of a Life, (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2003), 43. Ibid., 92. 32

 

 Background to the Problem

statements on the subsequent course of twentieth-century music almost assumed the status of scientific, if not gospel, truth. They al also so be beca cam me inex inextr tric icab ably ly wo wove venn in into to th thee fibr fibree of al alm mos ostt al alll historical narratives. Ideas such as the “demise of tonality” exerted a powerful influence influ ence on histo historians rians who attempted attempted to deci decide de which which strea streams ms of music were more highly evolved and therefore worthy of historical discussion and, just as importantly, which streams were not. A cl clas assic sic exam exampl plee is pr prov ovid ided ed in Robe Robert rt Morg Morgan an’’s wi wide dely ly used used hist hi stoory tex extb tboo ookk, Twentieth-Century Music  (199 (1991) 1).. Ther There, e, th thee author aut hor ob obser served ved that that Rac Rachma hmanin ninof off, f, for exa examp mple, le, attemp attempted ted to extend nineteenth-century tonal forms almost unchanged into the twentieth. Morgan therefore saw fit to give Rachmaninoff hardly more mo re th than an a page page in his his te text xtbo book ok on mo mode dern rn mu musi sicc – and and used used (squandered might be a better word) that valuable space mainly for thee pu th purp rpos osee of desc descri ribi bing ng how how the the co comp mpos oser er “r “ref efus us[e [ed] d] any any concessio conce ssions ns to the increasingly increasingly dominan dominantt new currents currents of music musical al thought.”18  In the the sa same me text textbo book ok,, Sc Scho hoen enbe berrg wa wass give givenn to topp  priority,, receiving almost thirty pages plus innumerable additional  priority

citations fact that Rachmaninoff 1943) wasthroughout one of thethe topbook. five The repertoire composers of his (1873time – while Schoenberg (1874-1951) could hardly crack the top twenty or thirty – carried no weight. Schoenberg made history while Rachmaninoff did not. Table 2 (see later in this chapter) gives us a rough idea of how ho w si sixx writ writer erss in the the la late te tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury pr prio iori riti tize zedd thei theirr overview coverage of the eighty most-represented most-represented composers (born  between 1850 and 1915) in the record catalogue. Morgan himself was extremely conscious kind ofcated historical message thatsers: was gene generated rated by the amount of of the spac space e allocate allo d to various composers: compo In a scholarly review article welcoming the publication of the 1980 18

Robert Robe rt Mor Morgan, gan, Twe wenti ntieth eth-Ce -Centu ntury ry Mu Music sic (New York, London: London: Norton, Norton, 1991), 112. Morgan took this quotation from “The Composer as Interpreter: An interv interview iew with with Norman Norman Cameron Cameron,” ,” Th Thee Month Monthly ly Music Musical al Rec Recor ord, d, 44 (November 1934), 201. 33

 

 Background to the Problem

 New Grove, Grove, he had extensively charted the rise and fall in the

academic status of various twentieth-century composers simply by noting how many any pages they had been given in 1980, and compared that coverage to the previous edition of Grove in 1954.19  Frank Howes, a historian of the early twentieth-century English musical renaissance, emphasized just how important relative space allocation was when one wanted to write a historical overview: All histories imply some criticism, even if it is only the criticism of selection and exclusion, and critics, especially if they have been  journalist critics, know that a rough-and-ready and by no means inva invali lidd crite criteri rion on of qu qual ality ity is sh shee eerr qu quan antit tityy – le leng ngth th eq equa uals ls value.”20

Howes’ criterion of space allowance was clearly taken to heart by Morgan Mor gan and many other academ academic ic writ writers ers who, in chronicli chronicling ng the musical events of the twentieth century, sought to demote central repert rep ertoir oiree com compos posers ers lik likee Sibeli Sibelius, us, Str Straus ausss and Rac Rachma hmanin ninof off, f, while elevating radical pioneers in their place.

The present-day decline of the “dissonance” paradigm

The amount of space that textbooks traditionally assigned to Rachmaninoff and Schoenberg was a prime example of how (to use Richard Richard Taruskin’ aruskin’ss highly highly cont contentio entious us phrase) phrase) myths myths becam becamee history..21 In his Oxford History, Taruskin has advanced one of the history most mo st powe powerf rful ul crit critiq ique uess ev ever er mou ount nted ed agai agains nstt th thee once once al alllembracing embra cing myt mythh surroundin surroundingg the coming coming of aton atonality ality.. And along along with him, a rapidly expanding groundswell of historians over the 19

20

21

Robert Morgan, “Music of the Twentieth Century: The New Grove – a review,” The Musical Quarterly 68 (April 1982): 262-270. Frank Howes, Th Thee Engl Englis ish h Music usical al Re Rena nais issa sanc ncee (L (Lon ondo don: n: Seck Secker er & Warburg, 1966), 196 6), 11. Richard Taruskin, The Oxford Oxford Histo History ry of Wester estern n Music, Music, Vol 4, The Early Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 353ff. 34

 

 Background to the Problem

 past fewview yearsofhasthis alsovenerable felt moretale and of more emboldened to take critical progress. Indeed, manya leading writers today dismiss the myth out of hand, and it can be readily stated that few topics in music historiography are a safer target for debunking now that we are well into the twenty-first century.. Alex Ross’s century Ross’s 2007 book The Rest is Noise, a prize-winning and best-selling history of twentieth-century music,   is a case in  point: Histories of music since 1900 often take the form of a teleological tale, a goal-obsessed narrative full of great leaps forward and heroic battles with the philistine bourgeoisie. When the concept of  progress assumes exaggerated iimportance mportance,, many works are struck from the historical record on the grounds that they have nothing new to say. These pieces often happen to be those that have found a broader public – the symphonies of Sibelius and Shostakovich, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Carl Orff’s Carmina burana. Two

distinct repertories have formed, one intellectual and one popular. Here they are merged: no language is considered intrinsically more modern than any other .22

When reading comments like those of Ross and T Taruskin, aruskin, it is im impo port rtan antt to re rem mem embber that that in the deca ecades des imm immedi ediat ateely following follo wing the Second Second W World orld War War,, the act of criti criticizin cizingg the then then-dominant philosophy of musical progress had not always been easy to engage in without academic repercussions. There was indeed a time when certain new and novel musical languages were assumed to have usurped other “less-advanced” musical languages (which also still happened to be in use), and we will have much more to say on this topic topic in chapter chapter six. In the heyday of high mode modernism rnism,, the philosophy of musical progress was explicitly used to justify at aton onal alit ityy’s ap appe pear aran ance ce on th thee worl worldd st stag age. e. An Anyy cr crit itic icis ism m of atonality, therefore, floundered on a scientific level at the very least. And when aesthetic disputes got really ugly, such criticism 22

Alex Ross, Th Thee Rest is Nois Noisee (New York: Farrar, Strau and Gioux, 1907), viii. 35

 

 Background to the Problem

couldd even coul even be inte interp rpre rete tedd on an ad hominum  level as well. An attack on atonality (such as that advanced by Hindemith), wrote Pete Pe terr Yat ates es in 1967 1967,, was was “b “byy im impl plic icat atio ion” n” al also so an at atta tack ck on Schoenbergg himself.23  Schoenber Thus it was to be expected that when advanced composers like Rochberg, Górecki and Penderecki abandoned the evol ev olut utio iona nary ry roll roller er-c -coa oaste sterr in the the 1970 1970ss and and re reve vert rted ed back back to tonali ton ality ty and romant romanticic-so sound unding ing sty styles les,, they they were were met met wit withh stiff stiff resistance at major avant-garde festivals. A notable example was the case of Górecki’s Symphony, a work that had first been  performed in 1977 Third at the Royan International Festival of Contemp emporary Art. In his 2003 reception history of this unabashedly neoromantic symphony, Luke Howard described how there had been “a lot of negative reaction to the work from the hard-line avant-gardists at the premiere. Six Western European

music journals reviewed the Royan festival that year, all of them Germ rmaan-la -language publica cattions, and all denouncing the symphony.”24 Similarly  Similarly,, strongly-formulated post-1945 critiques of at aton onal alit ityy suc uch h as thos thosee pu putt fort fo rthh Thomson by Hind Hindem emit ithh,likely Ro Roch chbe berrbe g, Bernstein, Lerdahl/Jackendoff, and were to rece re ceiv ived ed wi with th open open host hostil ilit ityy in acad academ emic ic jour journa nals ls..25  Today, 23

24

25

Peterr Yates Pete Yates,, Twen wentie tieth th Centur Centuryy Mu Music sic:: Its Evolu Evolutio tion n from from the End of the  Harmonic Era into the Pre Present sent Era of Sound (New York: Pantheon Books, 1967), 146 Luke B. Howard, “’Laying the Foundation’: The Reception of Górecki’s Third Th ird Symph Symphony ony,, 19771977-19 1992, 92,””  Polish Music Journal 6 (Wint (Winter er 2003 2003): ): http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/6.2.03/Howard.html (accessed June 18, 2012). Some key writings that have articulated the ongoing resistance to atonality  A Composer’ Composer’ss World: Horizons and over the decades PaulEliot Hindemith,  Limitation  Limitations. s. The are: Charles Norton Lectur Lectures, es, 1949-1950 1949-1950.. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952); George Rochber Rochberg, g, The Aesthetics of Survival: A Composer’s View of Twentieth-Century Music (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1984); Leonard Bernstein, The Unanswered Ques Qu estio tion: n: Six Six Talks alks at Harv Harvar ard d (Cam (Cambridg bridge, e, Mass.: Mass.: Harvard Harvard Universi University ty Press, Pre ss, 1976); 1976); Fre Fredd Lerda Lerdahl hl an andd Ray Jacke Jackendo ndoff ff,,  A Generative Generative Theory of Tonal Music  (Cambr (Cambridg idge, e, Mas Mass.: s.: MIT MIT Press, Press, 1983); 1983); Will illiam iam Thomso Thomson, n, Schoenberg’s Error (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).

Exa xamp mple less of ac acad adem emic ic re rece cept ptio ionn incl includ ude: e: Jo Jose seph ph Aune Aunerr, revi review ew of 36

 

 Background to the Problem

however, the climate has changed greatly, and such challenges to the older status quo have now become standard academic observati obser vations. ons. As Leon Bots Botstein tein,, the current editor of The Musical Quarterly,  has observed, such “sceptical reflection” is now the norm no rm.. Si Sinc ncee th thee 1970 1970s, s, Bo Bots tste tein in adds adds furt furthe herr, “t “the he cl clai aim ms of modernism – the ‘progressive’ art and music of the first half of the century” have increasingly come “under seige.”26  A very very clear clear example example of this this app appear earss at the end of Brian Brian Hyer’s “Tonality” article for the 2001  New Grove. Grove.  (Hye (Hyer’ r’ss  New Grove article has also been re-published in the recent Cambridge  History of Western Music Theory –  the   the Cambridge History series

 being one of the most prestigious projects in academic publishing.) publishing.) Hyer’s strongly-worded critique of the extent to which the historic role of tonality was demoted in accounts of twentieth-century

music also reflects the highly significant fact that many major edit ed itor oria iall deci decisi sion onss in the the impo import rtan antt mu musi sica calo logi gica call pu publ blis ishi hing ng circles no longer bow to the old progressive view with the same freq freque uenc ncyy th that at they they once once did. did. It is we well ll to reca recall ll he here re that that the the Grove  had commi  previous (1980) edition of  New Grove commissi ssione onedd the  pivitol article on tonality from Carl Dahlhaus, the greatest German musicologist of his generation. Dahlhaus’ Dahlhaus’ss well-known progressive views on twentieth-century music had guaranteed that the orthodox academic position, with its emphasis on the decline of tonality followed by the rise of atonalism, would be duly observed. In his 1980 article, Dahlhaus had dedicated the last page (a self-contained seccti se tioon tha hatt he app pprrop oprriate iately ly en enti titl tled ed “the the de decl clin inee of to tona nall harmo har mony” ny”)) to cha charti rting ng the final final stages stages of ton tonali ality ty’’s demise demise.. He

ended with some on Schoenberg’s and the subsequent rise ofremarks serialism, where “tonal dodecaphony harmony vanish[ed] William Thomson, in Theory and Practice 17 (1992): Schoenberg’s Error , by William

26

119-13 19-130; 0; Steve Stevenn D. Block Block,, “Geor “George ge Rochb Rochber erg: g: Progr Progress essive ive or Maste Masterr Forger?” Perspective  Perspectivess of New Music 21 (Autumn 1982-Summer 1983): 407409. Leon Le on Botst Botstein ein,, “O “Out ut of Hunga Hungary ry:: Bartók Bartók,, Moder Modernis nism, m, and and the Cultur Cultural al Politics Poli tics of Twentieth wentieth-Cent -Century ury Music,” Music,” in  Bartók and His World, edited by Peter Laki (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 4. 37

 

 Background to the Problem

altogether.”27 In dramatic contrast, Hyer chose to end his more rece re cent nt 20 2001 01 arti articl clee wi with th a stro strong ng crit critiq ique ue of the the prog progre ress ssiv ivee histor his torica icall viewpo viewpoint int fav favour oured ed by Dah Dahlha lhaus us twenty twenty yea years rs earlie earlierr. Among other points, Hyer observed that the framework used by Dahlhaus had resulted in the negative effect of allowing historians an excuse for eliminating vast tracts of twentieth-century music from standard historical accounts. As part of Hyer’s concluding remarks, he emphasized that the story of  the rise and fall of tonality is far from a neutral account of music history, but serves, rather, to situate atonal and twelve-tone music as the focus of musicological (if not cultural) attention. The fierce commit itm men entt of music historians and music theori rissts to

ultramodernist ultramode rnist narrative narrativess of evo evolution lution and progre progress ss butt buttresse ressess the hegemonic position of a serialism long since on the wane. It allows its advocates to characterize composers who continue to  pursue tonal idioms as regressive, but also to exclude popular music – which continues to embrace tonal materials – from music curricula: narratives of evolution and continuous development are conspicuous for their silences and elisions. The failure of these narratives to account for the continuous use and renewal of tonal reso resour urce cess in Ba Bart rtók ók,, Po Port rter er,, Co Colt ltra rane ne,, an andd Br Brit itte tenn (a (am mon ongg numerous other composers) alongside the music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern (not to mention the arcane experimentalism of Babbitt, Boulez, and Stockhausen) is remarkable.28

Anothe Anot herr go good od ex exam ampl plee illu illust stra rati ting ng th thee exte extent nt to wh whic ichh recent editorial decisions have allowed skeptical reflection to shape the content of major musicological publications is Christopher Butl Bu tler’ er’ss ar arti ticl clee on th thee all-i all-imp mpor orta tant nt to topi picc of early early tw twen enti tiet ethhcent ce ntur uryy in inno novvat atio ionn for for the Cam Cambri bridge dge Histor Historyy of Twentie wentieththCent Ce ntur uryy Musi Music. c. Predictably enough, Butler’s article was badly 27

28

Carl Ca rl Dahlh Dahlhau aus, s, “Ton “Tonali ality ty,” ,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and  Musicians,, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 19:55.  Musicians Brian Hyer, “Tonality” in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, edited by Thomas Christensen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 750. 38

 

 Background to the Problem

savaged by Robert Morgan, and Morgan’s reaction to Butler will  be discussed further further in chapter six. Alan Walker, the premiere Liszt scholar of the last forty years (and a strong supporter of the kind of musical values that made the late twentieth-century Romantic Revival possible – see chapte cha pterr two), two), is one of many many who have exp expres ressed sed the changin changingg academic attitude well. In his recent article advocating a revival of the music of Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960), Walker has outlined the philosophy thatof hadDohnányi’s once playedresolutely a strong role securing the temporary demise tonalinand romantic music.29 Although Walker’s Walker’s comments are not as forcefully worded

as Hyer s, he has also conscio consciously usly distanc distanced ed himself himself from the old academic orthodoxy: At the turn of the twentieth century something new and entirely unexpected began to happen to the language of music. The process was driven by a new attitude of self-awareness towards the history of music itself, and to the composer’s place within it. Briefly, the notion was put about that the vocabulary of music had to develop, had to do ever-new things, in order to be worthwhile. The greatest  premium was placed upon originality originality.. Musical vocabulary vocabulary,, so we were told, was something that could actually wear out through repetition, and would lose its expressive power unless composers sought to renew it. We were introduced to such concepts as ‘the rising norm of consonance.’ What that meant was that since the di disso ssonan nances ces of eac eachh gen genera eratio tionn wer weree tur turned ned int intoo con conson sonanc ances es through sheer repetition, the next generation had to incorporate ever-increasing dissonances in order to get the same expressive  power out of the the language.30

Wal alke kerr furt furthe herr rela relate tedd how how music musicia ians ns and and music musicol olog ogis ists ts like like him hi mse self lf were were “u “urrged ged to lo look ok at hist histor oryy” fo forr ex exam ampl ples es from from 29

30

Dohnányi is now rapidly assuming a small but firm niche in today’s international repertoire. Alan Walker, “Ernst von Dohnányi: A Tribute,” in Perspective  Perspectivess on Ernst von  Dohnányii (Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005), 18.  Dohnány 39

 

 Background to the Problem

Palestrina onward that apparently proved the point. But, as Walker’s skeptical language implied, the problems with such a reading of history were many. Most obvious, perhaps, was the fact that as an intellectual framework, the orthodox way of interpreting the larger flow of music history did not have the power to explain how almost all twentieth-century music that continued to be consumed on a daily basis managed to remain clearly tonal.  Nor could it explain how the best conservative music of many some-time radicals – Debussy, Hindemith, Bartók, Prokofiev, and even Schoenberg himself – tended to succeed much better (in

comparison to the same composers’ most radical works) as far as long lo ng-t -teerm rec recep epti tion on wa wass conc concer ernned. ed. And be besi siddes foc focusi using inordi ino rdinat nately ely on key exhibi exhibits ts lik likee the ver veryy chr chroma omatic tic prelud preludee to Tristan  (and ignor ignoring ing the four minutes of pure E flat that made up the entire Rheingold  prelude), such a “progressive” philosophy of history his tory end ended ed up art artifi ifici ciall allyy elevat elevating ing cer certai tainn early early twenti twentieth eth-century composers – those who believed and endorsed the progress myth mostofheartily to a higher stature within the hotly-contested  pantheon Great –Composers than their earned places in the general repertoire (their independent ability to generate ticket sales and revenue from recordings) ever warranted. As a di dire rect ct co cons nseq eque uenc nce, e, com compo pose sers rs wh whoo were were more ore skeptical of such “progress” and the (mis)use of scientific authority were reduced to near-zero status in historical accounts, no matter how frequently they were performed. However, However, the act of lowering a composer’s historical status on the basis of current scientific thou th ough ghtt tu turn rned edin out ou to be book a do doub uble le-e -edg dged ed sw ord. d. As Medt Me ner  pointed out a t 1935 funded by swor Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninof f,dtne ther applic app licati ation on of sci scient entifi ificc evo evolut lution ion to music music history history cou could ld just just as easily go in the direction of degradation instead of improvement. “Evolution “Evol ution,” ,” wrote Medtner Medtner,, “means “means both forw forward ard and back backward ward,, higher and lower, and finally (quite contrary to the opinion of those who identify it with progress...) it means both better and worse...”31  31

 Nicholas Medtner, Medtner, Th Thee Mu Musi sicc an and d the the Fa Fash shio ion, n, trans. Alfred J. Swann, (Haverford, Pennsylvania: Haverford College Bookstore, 1951), 106. 40

 

 Background to the Problem

 Not surprisingly surprisingly,, few on the cutting edge listened to the opinions of ultra-regressive musicians like Medtner and Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninof f, but it was precisely on the intellectual basis of what Medtne Med tnerr con consid sidere eredd to be a highly highly que questi stiona onable ble view view of his history tory that th at Sc Scho hoen enbe berrg som someh ehow ow mana manage gedd – thro throug ughh shee sheerr fo forc rcee of  personality,, and with an unprecedented lack of goodwill and love  personality from the public – to become installed as one of the fulcrums of musicc hist musi history ory,, there thereby by “hijackin “hijacking” g”32  (Str (Strau auss ss scho schola larr Mo Mort rten en Kristiansen does not consider that too strong a word) the crucial

definition of early twentieth-century modernism by forcing the catteg ca egor oryy to be de defi fine nedd too exclu xclusi sive vely ly in term termss of extre xtrem me dissonance. There was, in other words, an evolutionary harmonic  progression from the Tristan  prelude to Schoenberg’ Schoenberg’ss Three  Pieces, Op. 11, but ther theree was no suc such pro roggre ress ssio ionn from from the  Rheingold  prelude to Ravel’ Ravel’ss  Boler  Bolero o – or from from Tristan  to  Boler  Bolero o for that matter.  Nor Nor was there mention of a light-music lline ine from, say,, Moza say Mozart rt’’s  Eine kleine Nachtmusik,  throug throughh Of Offen fenbac bachh and Gottschalk, and on  to Ketelbey and Coates in the 1920s and the  popular works of Leroy Anderson and Malcolm Arnold after 1950. Selectivity was the order of the day, and any evidence for the  persistence of elements like clearly triadic gestures throughout the time of transition from tonality to atonality somehow got lost in the shuffle as self-consciously cutting-edge composers jockeyed for  position among the the immortals. In 1967, the Los Angeles critic Peter Yates wrote that “The most fundamental insight for the subsequent course of twentieth century music is what Arnold Schoenberg, who had it, called ‘the emancipation of the dissonance.’”33 And it was thanks above all to Schoenberg’s emancipation of the dissonance that Adorno could write: wri te: “The “The mu music sical al dis discor cord.. d...is .is the conspi conspicuo cuous us ide identi ntific ficati ation on 32

Morten Kristiansen, review of  Richar  Richard d Strauss's Orchestral Orchestral Music and the German Germ an In Inte tell llec ectu tual al Tradi raditi tion on:: the the Ph Phil ilos osop ophi hica call Root Rootss of Mu Musi sica call  Modernism  Modern ism  by Charles Charles Youma Youmans, ns,  Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music  Library Association 63 (December 2006): 374.

33

Yates, 30. 41

 

 Background to the Problem

mark of th mark thee mus usic ical al avantgarde.”34  When accorded a dominant  place in musical texture, unrelenting dissonance certainly did have an unusual ability to obfuscate and even obliterate clear tonal centres and the traditional long melodic line. Both of those musical features, traditional tonality and traditional conceptions of melody (both Adorno Adorno and Scho Schoenbe enberg rg found such melody primitiv primitivee – see chapter five), were still indispensable in a vast amount of late romantic music that was being written both before and after the

romantic music that was being written both before and after the emancipation of the dissonance took place around 1908-1910.  Nonetheless, musical modernity (in the specific sense of emancipate emanc ipatedd dissonan dissonance) ce) did become become well well-esta -establish blished ed in certa certain in influential circles, so much so that the idea of the autonomous diss di sson onan ance ce be beca came me on onee of the the pr prin inci cipl plee sh shap apin ingg forc forces es in th thee  production the kind of music that that tried to be as modern as possible. This Th is uniq niquely uely tw tweenti ntiet ethh-ccentur nturyy co conc ncep epti tion on of th thee rol olee of dissonance eventually developed a long tradition of its own, with supporters still in existence a century later. Thus, when a strongly modernist-oriented theorist like Arnold Whittall (writing in the early years of the twenty-first century) defines modernist music in the most succinct way possible in a journalistic setting, he can still  begin by b y referring to the kind of music that “does not use tonality, tonality, and is fragmented in form and texture.” 35 Back in 1971 1971,, the vastly vastly  prolific commentator David Ewen, a writer of many books aimed at popularizing classical music, had also given a definition that was very similar. In the introduction of his Composers of T Tomorrow’ omorrow’ss  Music, Ewen  broadly broadly defined modernist music as scattered melody andd shap an shapel eles esss fo form rms. s. Tonal onalit ityy wa wass disc discar arde ded, d, an andd si sign gnif ific ican antt refinements of the atonal principle included serialism and chance operations.36  34

35

36

Theodor W. Adorno, “What National Socialism has done to the Arts,” in  Essays on Music,  ed ed.. Richa Richard rd Lepper Leppert,t, Writ ritten ten by Adorno Adorno in Englis Englishh (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 380. Arnol Ar noldd Whitt Whittall all,, re revie view w of Th Thee Ple Pleasu asure ress of Mo Mode derni rnist st Music Music,, edited by Arved Ashby, Ashby, in Gramophone 82 (February, 2005), 95. David Ewen, Co Com mpo possers of Tom omo orr rro ow’s w’s Music ic:: A No Non n-te -technic ical al  Introduction  Intr oduction to the Musical Avant-Gar vant-Garde de Movement Movement (New York: Dodd, Dodd, 42

 

 Background to the Problem

Popularity and academic status: Two separate canons?

When evaluatin evaluatingg histo historical rical periods and comp composers osers dating from fro m the years years bef before ore 1900, 1900, his histor torian ianss active active thr throug oughou houtt the twen tw enti tiet ethh cent century ury gene genera rally lly tr trie iedd to find find a way to buil buildd key

histor hist oric ical al tu turn rnin ingg poin points ts an andd hist histor oric ical al tend tenden enci cies es arou around nd comp co mpos oser erss who who re rema main ined ed ce cent ntra rall to th thee conc concer ertt an andd re reco cord rded ed repertoire as it existed throughout the twentieth century. Despite a certain circularity in the reasoning, the lines of music history that  became established in the public consciousness were simply the li line ness th that at emer erge gedd wh when en the the mos ostt-pla -playyed comp ompos oseers we were re connected together, together, at least as far as pre-1900 eras were concerned. The composers who were the most thoroughly represented in post1900 19 00 hist histor oric ical al acco accoun unts ts of eight eightee eent nthh and and nine ninete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry music therefore tended to be the same figures who received the  bulk of present-day performances and recordings, which is another way of saying that music history textbooks and classical record catalogues emphasized a similar canon of great composers. And we all kno know w who tho those se compos composers ers are. Tabl ablee 1 lists lists the number number of curr cu rreent ntly ly-a -ava vaiilabl lablee CDs fo forr th thee most pop opuular lar pr pree-19 19000 era com co mpo pose sers rs,, by peri period od,, in the com omppre rehe hens nsiv ivee catalo talogu guee of Arkivmusic.com, an internationally distributed specialist firm that aims to stock every classical CD in print:37 Table 1: Listings of available CDs at Arkivmusic.com for composers born before 1850 Renaissance/Early Baroque: Purcell 869 Monteverdi 545 Pachelbel 455

Byrd 454 Dowland 379 Praetorius 365

Mead, 1971), vi. 37

Arkivmusic.com, data as of January 2012. 43

 

 Background to the Problem Buxtehude 353 Palestrina 333 Frescobaldi 265 Des Préz 250 Schütz 237 Victoria 224

Gibbons 196 Scheidt 153 Marais 143 Lully 138 Morley 137 Dufay 127

Gabrieli 210 Lassus 207

Sweelinck 123 Allegri 120

Late Baroque: Bach 6969 Handel 2953 Vivaldi 1968 Telemann 835 Scarlatti 574 Albinoni 403

Corelli 323 Couperin 315 Rameau 311 Charpentier 231 Tartini 180

Classical: Mozart 7262 Beethoven 5593 Haydn 2327 Gluck 650 Boccherini 419

Bach CPE 416 Hummel 240 Pergolesi 218 Sor 215 Bach JC 206

Romantic: Brahms 3930 Schubert 3876 Verdi 3488 Tchaikovsky 3356 Schumann 2841 Mendelssohn 2669 Chopin 2483 Wagner 2369 Liszt 2193 Dvorak 1962 Rossini 1836

Bizet 1628 Saint Saens 1606 Donizetti 1431 Faure 1379 Gounod 1356 Massenet 1246 Grieg 1245 Strauss, Johann Jr. 1032 Mussorgsky 903 Rimsky Korsakov 901 Berlioz 888 44

 

 Background to the Problem Franck 887 Bellini 859 Weber 815 Bruckner 787 Offenbach 662

Meyerbeer 609 Smetana 543 Giordano 536 Paganini 518 Ponchielli 451

 As a methodology for determining greatness, the formula, “great composers equals most-played composers,” may seem a little too facile, like paint-by-numbers. It is certainly not immune from criticism on that count, but it is significant that nobody has yet devised a method that can fully displace it. If anyone today were to rate a Gluck far ahead of a Mozart or a Beethoven, they would be received with, at most, a certain amount of indulgence. Popu Po pula lari rity ty was was clea clearly rly fo foun unda dati tion onal al to th thee succ succes esss of Hay Haydn dn,, Beethoven and Mozart – both in their time and after. Contrary to the myth of greatness not being recognized in its own time, Haydn, Beet Be ethhov oveen and Moz ozaart rt,, fo forr exam exampple, le, we were re the thre threee most  performed composers in Vienna in the two decades following 38 1790.  Which of course brings up one of the burning questions that surrounds popular romantic composers who flourished in the first half of the twentieth century: Why do we judge the post-1850 generation – that is, the first early twentieth-century generation of composers – according to completely different criteria? That is a question to ponder as we continue to explore the problem of romanticism in the twentieth century. Andd ev An even entu tual ally ly th thee cr crit iter eria ia prob probab ably ly will will not not be an anyy different. There will come a time when the twentieth century tonal/atonal culture wars are a thing of the past, and historical methodologie iess such as that of pitting twentieth-centu ntury traditionalists against radicals (at the expense of the traditionalists) will wi ll no long longer er prov provid idee a cr cred edib ible le st stra rate tegy gy for for ho how w we asse assess ss compos com positi itiona onall gre greatn atness ess.. To put it ano anothe therr way way,, the sta statis tistic tical al 38

Seee Tia DeNor Se eNoraa,  Beethove  Beethoven n and the Construction of Genius: Musical  Politics in Vienna, 1792-1803 (Berkeley, London: University of California Press, Pre ss, 1995), 1995), 31. DeNora DeNora drew drew on data data su supp pplie liedd by Mar Maryy Sue Morrow Morrow’’s Concert Life in Haydn’s Haydn’s V Vienna: ienna: Aspects of a Developing Musical and Social  Institution (New York: Pendragon Press, 1989).   45

 

 Background to the Problem

frequency of dissonant chords in works dating from after 1910 will no longer be seen as an essential parameter for entry into the

canon. The only issue will be whether or not the music is able to command a significant audience in the twenty-first century and  beyond. As the composer and theorist George Perle remarked in a 1991 university commencement address, I suspect that the vitality and significance of contemporary musical culture will continue to be evaluated by posterity in the same way as we evaluate the vitality and significance of earlier musical cultures — by what it contributes to the permanent repertory of  performers — in other words, by the best of what its composers will have achieved.39 

Perle clearly associates “the best” with the permanent repertoire,  but his common-sense suggestion, coming as it does from a leading academic representative of twelve-tone music, has yet to  be properly applied in in his own circles to several of the most widely widely  performed early twentieth-century composers. Clearly, the more romantic-oriented composers from the early modern era, both major and minor, formed a very large group. In the 1930s, the British historian Cecil Gray noted that the early twentieth-century traditionalist group as a whole (as opposed to the neoclassicists and atonalists) comprised “the vast majority of crea cr eattiv ivee mus usic iciians ns”” duri uring the heir ir era, ra, and cur urrren entt mus usiical cal explorations of the period, as reflected in the record catalogue, would seem to confirm Gray's observation. But Gray also pointed outt th ou that at the hese se com ompo pose serrs had foun foundd th them emse selv lves es in a maj ajor or historical histo rical pred predicam icament. ent.40  To vary varyiing degr degreees, es, all of the mor oree 39

George Perle, “New Music and the Intuitive Listener,” in   The The Right Right Note Notes: s: Twenty-three Selected Essays by George Perle on Twentieth-Century Music

40

(Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1995), 299. Cecil Gray, ay,  Pred  Predicaments, icaments, or or,, Music of the Futur Futuree (Lon (London: don: Oxford Oxford University Press, 1936; reprint, Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969), (page citations are to the reprint edition). See longer quotation in chapter20 four. 46

 

 Background to the Problem

traditionalist and romantic-sounding figures, famous and not-so-

famous, encountered virtually insurmountable problems defending the aesthetic and scientific legitimacy of their apparently outdated musical language. For obvious reasons the minor figures stood to lose even more in the historical sweepstakes than composers like Puccini, Rachmaninoff and Strauss, all of whom continued to be  performed and recorded regularly regularly.. And it has only been in the last few years that the many of the lesser figures have finally gotten a  public hearing at all, thanks thanks to what Finzi sch scholar olar Stephen Banfiel Banfieldd called the “life line” of recordings. 41 Indeed, recordings have done more than any other medium to feed the present-day passion for musical exploration on the part of classical music connoisseurs across the globe. This important cultural trend has far-reaching implications for twentieth-century music historiography, and will  be discussed further further in chapter two. As Ad Ador orno no and and Wh Whit itta tall ll impl implie iedd earl earlie ierr, ac acad adem emic ical ally ly-certified entry into the musicological canon of Great TwentiethCentury Music was, to put it crudely, at least partly dependent on meet me etin ingg a suf suffi fici cien entt di diss sson onan ance ce quot quota. a. In st star arkk co cont ntra rast st,, the the widespread present-day connoisseur interest in the more romanticsounding twentieth century composers such as those we have just cited is based on entirely different criteria. Many music lovers have taken music history into their own hands, so to speak, and have deci de cide dedd th that at thei theirr own pr proc oces esss of mus usic ical al disc discov over eryy can can be something other twentieth than an “Easter hunt” 42 for the most “daring” (read: dissonant) centuryegg works.  Indeed, as one peruses 41

42

Stephen Banfield, Stephen Banfield, Gerald Finzi, An English Composer (London: Faber and Faber, 1997), 487. For musical works from previous centuries, a related exercise is to go cherry picking for dissonant and highly-chromatic highly-chromatic chord progressions progressions that “foresh “fo reshadow adow”” the coming of emancip emancipated ated dissonance dissonance.. I once once had a music music theory professor who largely constructed his 19 th  C Music analysis class around what one student in the class aptly called an “Easter Egg” hunt for half-diminished 7th chords (the so-called “Tristan” chord) in the works of various romantic composers. composers. One of the last works on the course syllabus for thatt semes tha semester ter was was the Berg Berg Sonata Sonata.. The impli implica catio tions ns were were obviou obvious. s. The Tristan chord had done its deed in driving tonality into the final throes of its 47

 

 Background to the Problem

thee va th vari riou ouss re reco cord rd re revi view ew maga magazi zine ness such such as Gr Gram amop opho hone ne and  Fanfaree from over the past few decades, it almost seems as though  Fanfar classical music connoisseurs of today – and the record labels that serve them – have been engaging in their own Easter egg hunt of sorts. In a seem seemin ingl glyy perv perver erse se tw twis istt on th thee old old evol evolut utio iona nary ry methodology, the goal for many classical music lovers and record collectors in recent years has been to find what they consider to be the most beautiful, melodious and romantic-sounding composers whoo li wh live vedd in the the twen twenti tiet ethh ce cent ntury ury.. Su Such ch a basic basic phil philos osop ophy hy  provides the essential stimulus for record critic Robert Riley’s Riley’s lifelong exploration of twentieth-centu twentieth-century ry traditionalists. As he explains in the preface of his 2002 book Surprised by Beauty: A Listener’s Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music,  “Much of what I have written is about modern music because it is the music of our time, and it is largely undiscovered territory. I have endeavoured to understand the nature of the crisis through which modern music  passed and the sources of its recovery.” recovery.” Reilly goes on to describe how “many [composers] simply soldiered on, writing beautiful music as it has always been understood. For this, they suffered ridicule and neglect. I believe their rehabilitation will change the reputation of modern music.”43 The kind of twentieth-century music that Reilly has been

43

existence (although I ampoint not convinced thatchose the professor that). But the significant is that he still to build actually his theorybelieved course around the increasingly discredited myth of tonal decline. Robert Rob ert Reilly, Reilly, Surp Surprise rised d by Beauty: A Listene Listener’ r’ss Guid Guidee to the Recover Recoveryy of  Modern Music (Washington, D. C.: Morley Books, 2002), 14-15. Reilly’s  book contains short essays exploring the music of Adams, Antheil (his later moderat mod eratee works), works), Arnold, Barber Barber,, Argento, Argento, Duruflé, Duruflé, Elgar, Elgar, Finzi, Finzi, Ferber Ferber,, Lieberma Lieb ermann, nn, Morto Mortonn Gould, Gould, Harr Harris, is, Holmboe Holmboe,, Janáček, Janáček, Lajtha, Lajtha, Malipiero Malipiero,, Martin, Martinu, Mathias, Nielsen, Poulenc, Roussel, Rubbra, Saeverud, Schick Sch ickele ele,, Schmid Schmidt,t, Shost Shostak akovi ovich ch,, Sib Sibeli elius, us, Tchere cherepni pnin, n, Tubin, ubin, Tveitt Tveitt,, Vainb ainberg erg,, Vasks, asks, Einojoha Einojohani ni Rautavaa Rautavaara, ra, Vaughan aughan Williams, illiams, and VillaillaLobos. Also included are revealing interviews that Reilly himself conducted with Diamond, Menotti, Rautavaara, Rütti, and Rochberg. Articles on Cage and Schoenberg are included in order to illustrate how, in Reilly’s view, twentieth-century music went awry. 48

 

 Background to the Problem

explori expl oring ng,, revi review ewin ing, g, an andd ad advo voca cati ting ng ov over er the the past past coup couple le of decades certainly has a very dedicated and passionate following in the highly specialized world of classical music connoisseurs. In direct response to this phenomenon, we will be emphasizing again and again that such explorations provide a significant financial driving force behind the recent resurgence of twentieth-century traditionalists like Korngold, Medtner, Bax and George Lloyd on compact disc. Lloyd, who was one of the most regressive of all, even became the musical cornerstone of Albany Albany Records when that label was founded in 1987, as we will see in chapter two. Albany is now one of the six largest independent classical record labels in the world, and the story of its rapid growth is an apt reflection of how classical clas sical musi musicc conn connoisse oisseurs urs have become become cutting-e cutting-edge dge expl explorers orers in their their own own rig right, ht, huntin huntingg ind indefa efatig tigabl ablyy for com compos posers ers who did not, for a variety of (usually very principled) reasons, progress in the way that advanced thinkers insisted was necessary in order to  become the heirs heirs of the so-c so-called alled Great Tra Tradition. dition. As the last one hundred years have decisively shown, the general musical public that ratified Beethoven and Wagner, not to mention many of Schoenberg’s own finest contemporaries, never really came around to Schoenberg’ Schoenberg’s dissonant revolution itself, and this is very evident in today’s recording and concert statistics. In 1944, Roger Sessions said of Schoenberg’s Schoenberg’s works: “It goes without saying that performances have been very few, and their real impact limited.”44  Since Sessions made this comment, the situation has admittedly changed ever so slightly, but even today, very little adva ad vanc nced ed music sic, inc ncllud udiing tha hatt of Scho Schoeenber nbergg hi him mse sellf, is  performed with any real frequency despite decades of the most intense academic advocacy on its behalf. Table 2 lists the number of commercially available CDs thatt con tha contai tainn wor works ks by eighty eighty lea leadin dingg rep repert ertoir oiree compos composers ers  born  between 1850 and 1915 – that is, those who were generally active thro th roug ugho hout ut the the Scho Schoen enbe berg rg era. era. As wi with th Tab able le 1, we are are usin usingg 44

Roger Sessions, Roger Sessions on Music: Collected Essays , ed. Edward T. Cone (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 365. 49

 

 Background to the Problem

record reco rd ca cata talo logu guee da data ta fr from om Ar Arki kivm vmus usic ic.c .com om,, on onee of th thee most most comprehensively stocked classical CD shops in the world. In order to clearly show just how different the daily practice of the classical musi mu sicc wo worl rldd is in co comp mpar aris ison on to th thee acad academ emic ic conc concep epti tion on of twentieth-century music, we are contrasting the record catalogue  presence with the amount of space that several major textbook writers have chosen to assign to each composer. In this catalogue, thee read th reader er will will no note te th that at Sc Scho hoen enbe berg rg ra rank nkss at th thee 34th  position among a broad range of his contemporaries, while Berg is at 46, and Webern ebern is much much fur furthe therr down down at 74. Sch Schoen oenber berg’ g’ss rankin ranking, g, incide inc identa ntally lly,, wou would ld be much much lower lower wer weree it not for his histor torica ically lly “uni “u nimp mpor orta tant nt”” ea early rly to tona nall wo work rkss like like Verklä erklärt rtee Na Nach cht, t, wh whic ichh Schoenberg scholars have traditionally tended to ignore in favour of the atonal works. Ironically I ronically,, it is precisely these early works that allow to enjoy fairly respectable position in the record Schoenberg catalogue, although hisarelatively modest ranking in relation to the top figures in no way corresponds to his august position in academic circles. circles.45  The record catalogue data, of course, reflects the tastes and  preferences of the record-buying public, those who vote with their wall wa llet ets. s. Is th thei eirr hist histor oric ic judg judgem emen entt wr wron ong? g? Ev Even en fo forr th thos osee observers having only a cursory familiarity with some of the lesser-known names listed in Table Table 2, it will be apparent that much of th the e earl early twen twenti tiet ethcent uryy musi mu sicc highly in the theromanti Ar Arki kivm vmus usic ic.c .com om catal catalogue ogue isy comp comprise rised dh-ce ofntur tonal and romantic-sou c-soundin nding g composers of major and minor stature. Clearly, for today’s musiclovers, academic notions lik likee the “death of romanticism” and the “deathh of tonality” “deat tonality” cannot be said said to carry a lot of weight. weight. As far as commentators in the philosophical tradition of Schoenberg and 45

We have only analysed a sampling of the many music history textbooks and overviews that have been written over the last few decades. Some like Hodier have been even more adamant in eliminating the tonal traditionalists from the historical record. There is also the important general overview of  Musik im Abendland ) which we will discuss at the beginning of Eggebrecht Eggebrec ht ( Musik chapter three. In that 800-page book, Eggebrecht devoted a total of 73 pages (out of the 77 pages he reserved for the twentieth century) to atonality. 50

 

 Background to the Problem

Table 2: Number of available CDs for composers born between 1850 and 1915, compared with their coverage in major history textbooks organ 199 1991 1 Watk Watkins ins 19 1995 95 Salzman alzman19 1988 88 An tokol etz 1992 Si mms 1986 M C D s Morgan Ma ach l i s 1979 554 pp

728 pp

330 pp

546 pp

450 pp

694 pp

Debussy

2435

10 pp

42 pp

6 pp

9 pp

9 ½ pp

17pp

Puccini

2258

¼ pg

ment ioned

1 ½ pp

ment ioned

ment ioned

m ent ioned

Ravel

2013

4 pp

37 ½ pp

2 ½ pp

2 pp

7 ½ pp

9 pp

Strauss

1918

6 ½ pp

13 pp

3 pp

1 pg

5 pp

9 pp

Rachmaninoff

1894

1 ¾ pp

ment ioned

ment ioned

ment ioned

not hing

m ent ioned

Prokof iev

1545

5 1/3 pp

4 ½ pp

1 ½ pp

11 ½ pp

3 pp

10 pp

Shostakovich

1451

6 ¾ pp

4 ½ pp

1 ½ pp

8 pp

4 ½ pp

10 ½ pp

Mahler

1310

10 pp

19 pp

1 pg

ment ioned

6 ½ pp

10 pp

Stravinsky

1137

25 ½ pp

64 pp

10 pp

32 ½ pp

23 pp

21 pp

Elgar

1100

1 pg

ment ioned

ment ioned

4 lines

ment ioned

½ pp

Britten

939

6 pp

6 pp

1 ¼ pp

11 pp

5 ½ pp

13 ½ pp

Sibelius

947

2 ½ pp

not hing

½ pg

5 ½ pp

5 ½ pp

1 pg

Gershwin

921

3 lines

1 ½ pp

4 lines

ment ioned

ment ioned

6 pp

V Williams

915

4 ½ pp

3 ½ pp

½ pg

8 pp

3 pp

7 ½ pp

Bartók 

875

15 pp

18 pp

4 pp

34 pp

12 pp

17 pp

Leoncavallo

732

ment ioned

not hing

ment ioned

not hing

not hing

not hing

Falla

721

3 pp

1 ½ pp

½ pg

5 ½ pp

3 ½ pp

2 pp

Mascagni

715

ment ioned

not hing

ment ioned

not hing

not hing

not hing

Poulenc

715

3 ½ pp

8 pp

1 pg

5 ½ pp

2 pp

5 pp

Villa Lobos

630

2 1/3 pp

ment ioned

½ pg

9 pp

ment ioned

2 pp

Copland

606

5 pp

9 pp

½ pg

7 ½ pp

5 ½ pp

13 pp

Albeniz

580

¼ pg

ment ioned

ment ioned

1 pg

ment ioned

m ent ioned

Hindemith

555

8 ½ pp

13 pp

4 pp

8 pp

10 ½ pp

8 ½ pp

Giordano

543

ment ioned

not hing

ment ioned

not hing

not hing

not hing

540

ment ioned

1 ½ pp

ment ioned

ment ioned

ment ioned

1/ 3 pg

Barber Granados

534

¼ pg

ment ioned

ment ioned

2 ½ pp

4 lines

m ent ioned

Satie

529

7 pp

12 pp

2 pp

3 ½ pp

3 pp

5 pp

Holst

503

3 pp

ment ioned

ment ioned

ment ioned

¼ pg

m ent ioned

Janáček 

489

2 ½ pp

not hing

1 pg

1 ½ pp

¼ pg

8 pp

Reger

483

1 ½ pp

ment ioned

ment ioned

ment ioned

2 pp

m ent ioned

Scriabin

476

7 pp

3 ½ pp

1 pg

4 ½ pp

5 pp

1 pg

Lehár

460

nothing

not hing

not hing

not hing

not hing

not hing

Rodrigo

459

nothing

not hing

ment ioned

6 lines

not hing

not hing

Schoenberg

450

29 pp

56 pp

10 ½ pp

29 pp

30 pp

26 pp

Kreisler

432

nothing

not hing

not hing

not hing

not hing

not hing

Messiaen

431

6 pp

10 pp

1 pg

2 pp

9 pp

6 pp

Walton

414

2 pp

1 pg

ment ioned

ment ioned

ment ioned

2 pp

Respighi

405

5 lines

6 lines

¼ pg

not hing

not hing

½ pg

Glazunov

366

nothing

ment ioned

not hing

ment ioned

ment ioned

m ent ioned

Martinů

360

nothing

not hing

ment ioned

not hing

ment ioned

½ pg

Khachaturian

358

nothing

not hing

ment ioned

1 ½ pp

not hing

m ent ioned

51

 

 Background to the Problem

(Table 2, continued) Ives

340

11 pp

8 ½ pp

3 ½ pp

10 pp

12 ½ pp

14 pp

Howells

338

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Nielsen

337

½ pg

ment ioned

m entioned

1 ½ pp

¼ pg

1/ 3 pg

Milhaud

320

2 pp

4 pp

1 ½ pp

5 ½ pp

3 pp

2 pp

314

13 ½ pp

42 ½ pp

3 ½ pp

25 pp

11 pp

11 ½ pp

Berg Sousa

294

not hing

ment ioned

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Cage

279

7 pp

7 ½ pp

3 ½ pp

5 pp

11 pp

7 ½ pp

Kodaly

278

1 pg

ment ioned

½ pg

4 pp

½ pg

2 pp

Ibert

272

not hing

not hing

m entioned

nothing

not hing

6 lines

Grainger

268

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Korngold

263

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Stanford

262

m ent ioned

not hing

not hing

m ent ioned

not hing

mentioned

Bloch

259

m ent ioned

not hing

½ pg

m ent ioned

not hing

3 pp

Turina

250

m ent ioned

not hing

m entioned

m ent ioned

not hing

not hing

Delius

248

½ pg

not hing

4 lines

m ent ioned

ment ioned

2 ½ pp

Tarrega

238

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Weill

237

6 pp

2 ½ pp

2 ½ pp

½ pg

ment ioned

8 ½ pp

Vierne

226

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Busoni Szymanowski

221 221

3 pp 1 ½ pp

ment ioned ment ioned

½ pg not hing

m ent ioned 2 pp

2 ½ pp ¼ pg

1 pg ½ pg

Du Durufl rufl é

217

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Dupré

215

not hing

ment ioned

not hing

nothing

not hing

not hing

Orff 

215

2 ½ pp

1 pg

¼ pg

½ pg

not hing

2 ¼ pp

Enescu

204

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

not hing

½ pg

Honegger

204

2 pp

½ pg

1 pg

5 pp

2 ½ pp

2 pp

Ponce

199

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

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Bridge

199

m ent ioned

not hing

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m ent ioned

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mentioned

C-Tedesco

190

not hing

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nothing

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Ireland

190

not hing

not hing

not hing

nothing

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not hing

Lutosławski

176

1 ½ pp

4 ½ pp

6 lines

1 pg

1 pg

¼ pg

Moreno-Tórroba

168

not hing

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nothing

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Warlock 

168

not hing

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mentioned

Webern

167

16 pp

14 ½ pp

4 ½ pp

9 ½ pp

6 pp

12 pp

Ba x

162

m ent ioned

not hing

not hing

m ent ioned

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Suk 

156

not hing

not hing

m entioned

m ent ioned

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Finzi

155

not hing

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nothing

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Françaix

151

not hing

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m entioned

nothing

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6 lines

Carter

150

5 pp

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1 ¼ pp

5 ½ pp

9 pp

9 pp

Dohnányi

147

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Adorno were concerned, the general audience was superficial in their musical appreciation appreciation:: They wanted clearly tonal musi musicc and obvi ob viou ouss me melo lodi dies es.. They They re rema main ined ed st stuc uckk in th thee (rom (roman anti tic) c) nineteenth century. century. Against all better musical judgement, they were inexplicably inexplica bly attracted attracted to roma romantic nticism’ ism’ss late late-arri -arriving ving twen twentieth tieth-century epigones. And, they showed little enthusiasm for the more

52

 

 Background to the Problem

radical music whic radical whichh was suppose supposedd to have supe supercede rcededd the kind of music of they so stoutly continued to defend. To draw upon a second statistical example, Douglas Lee of Vanderbilt University has compiled a survey of the most frequently  performed twentieth concert the 46 United States during century the yearsorchestral 1990-2000.  He repertoire mourns thein fact that some key avant-garde figures are not present in his survey. Upon perusing the data in Lee’s survey, we cannot fail to notice one really glaring omission: Schoenberg fails to make Lee’s list at al alll. Not ev even en the presu resum mably bly pop popul ular ar or orch ches esttral ral ve vers rsiion of Verkl erklärte ärte Nacht is pre presen sentt am among ong the top sev severa erall hundre hundredd mostmost performed orchestral works  –  this,   this, despite Schoenberg having an inestimable advantage in that many of his finest contemporaries had alrea already dy beenAmong exclude excluded d from Lee’ Lee’sscomposers statistica statisticallare compilat comp ilation ion on stylistic grounds: Amo ng the excluded such popular figures as Debussy, Strauss, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, and Respighi  – although for unexplained reasons Lee does include Nielsen, Vau augh ghan an Willi illiam amss an andd Ra Rave vel. l. As a si side de note note,, Le Lee’ e’ss evid eviden entt diffic dif ficult ultyy in cho choosi osing ng his lis listt of “legit “legitima imate” te” twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry comp co mpos oser erss effe effect ctiv ively ely demo demons nstr trat ates es the the haza hazard rdss of ar arbi bitr trar arily ily deciding, via non-chronological methods, who is “in” and who is “out.” “ou t.” Or, Or, in oth other er words words,, whi which ch twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry com compos posers ers actually count as twentieth-century music. Let us now consider consider a majo majorr exam example ple of twentiet twentieth-cen h-century tury  programming by one of the world's top orchestras. As we will see, the list of composers was drawn up partly to make a historical  point. For the 2000 concert season, the Philadelphia Orchestra decided to devote their entire season to twentieth century music. At first glance, this seemed to be a very daring move on the part of the orchestra, given the negative connotations of the label “twentiethcentury music” among so many music lovers. The administrators of the orchestra, however, were acutely aware of the historical implications of their task – and its potential to challenge some 46

See Douglas Lee,  Masterwork  Masterworkss of 20th-C -Cen entu tury ry Mu Musi sic: c: The The Mo Mode dern rn

 Repertory of of the Sympho Symphony ny Or Orchestra chestra (New York, York, NY: NY: R Routledge, outledge, 2002). 53

 

 Background to the Problem

ingrained academic assumptions about the twentieth century which had long since percolated down to the broad mass of music lovers. Critic Peter Dobrin summed up the season’s programming in the following manner: But ju But just st ho how w rad radic ical al is th thee or orch ches estr tra’ a’ss se seas ason on?? Ma Many ny of the the composers from the orchestra’s 1999-2000 season are Romantic throwbacks: Barber, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, Elgar. All continued to write lush, largely tonal music as the walls of tonality crumbled around them.47 

Table able 3 give givess a list list of th thee work workss feat featur ured ed in the the Phil Philad adel elph phia ia Orchestra’ss 1999-2000 main series:48 Orchestra’ Table 3: Philadelphia Orchestra programming for the 2000 Season. The focus is exclusively exclusively on music from the twentieth century. Bach/arr. Stokowski “Ein’ feste Burg ist

Bernstein Overture to Candide

unser Gott”  “Sheep May Safely Graze”  “Wachet  “W achet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”

 Serenade (after Plato’ P lato’ss Symposium) Britten Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia (Peter Grimes)

 Toccata  Tocca ta and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Copland Suite, Appalachian Spring

Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915

 Overture to The School for Scandal  Violin Concerto Bartók  Piano  Piano Concerto No. 3  Violin Concerto No. 2  Concerto for Orchestra Berg Violin Concerto 47

 Symphony No. 3 Debussy La Mer  Dutilleux Timbres, espace, mouvement, ou La Nuit etoilee Elgar Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major  Faure Masques et bergamasques Gorecki Symphony No. 3

Peter Dobrin, “Phila. Orchestra Will Leave Old Masters Behind In Its 100 th Century,” ,” The Philadelphia Season, Every Piece Will Be From The 20 th  Century  Inquirer  Inquir er (Feb (February ruary 18, 1999): 1999): http://ar http://article ticles.ph s.philly illy.com .com/199 /1999-02 9-02-18/ -18/new news/ s/ 25503576_1_philadelphia-orchestra-joseph-h-kluger-20th-century-music/3 (accessed July 13, 2012).

48

This list was briefly circulated by the Philadelphia Orchestra’s administration  but is no longer posted online. on line. I have a copy in my possession. The list can  be reconstructed reconstructed by going going to the orchestra’ orchestra’ss archives. 54

 

 Background to the Problem Gruber Frankenstein!! Hannibal One Heart Beating ( Centennial

Commission) Hindemith Mathis der Maler  Holst The Planets

Respighi Gli uccelli Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals Schickele American Birthday Card

 Bach Portrait  Eine kleine Nichtmusik 

 Uptown Hoedown  What Did You Do Today at Jeffrey’s House Schoenberg  Gurrelieder   The Unanswered Question Schuman Songs with piano  Lachian Dances Scriabin The Poem of Ecstasy Janáček  Lachian Shostakovich: Festive Overture, Op. 96 Kernis Lament and Prayer, for violin and  Piano Concerto No. 1 orchestra  Symphony No. 5 Knussen The Way to Castle Yonder, Op.  Symphony No. 14 21a  Violin Concerto No. 1 Kodály Suite from Hary Janos Sibelius Symphony No. 7 Liebermann Flute Concerto  The Swan of o f Tuonela LutoslawskiCello Concerto Mahler Adagio, from Symphony No. 10  Violin Concerto  Das Lied von der Erde Stenhammar Piano Concerto No. 2  Kindertotenlieder  Still Symphony No. 1 (“Afro-American”)  Symphony No. 5 Strauss Symphonia domestica, Op. 53 Stravinsky  Chorale-variations on 'Von Martinů Symphony No. 4 Himmel hoch’ Mussorgsky/arr. Stokowski A Night on  Concerto in E-flat major (“Dumbarton Bald Mountain Oaks”) Nielsen Symphony No. 4  Le Sacre du printemps Two wo Poulenc Concerto in D minor for T  Suite from L’Oiseau de feu (1919 version) Pianos  Suite from Pulcinella Prokofiev  Piano Concerto No. 3  Symphony No. 5 Takemitsu Asterism, for piano and orchestra  Violin Concerto No. 1  riverrun, for piano and orchestra  Piano Concerto No. 2 Rachmaninoff  Piano Tippett The Rose Lake, a song without  Symphonic Dances words  Symphony No. 2 Rautavaara Symphony No. 8 (Centennial Varèse Arcana Commission) Varèse/Beaumont Un Grand Sommeil noir  Vaughan Willi Williams ams Fantasia on a Theme by Ravel Bolero Tallis  Pavane pour une infante defunte Walton Viola Concerto  Piano Concerto for the Left Hand Webern Im Sommerwind  Piano Concerto in G major   Valses nobles et sentimentales Weill Suite from The Threepenny Opera Honegger Symphony No. 3 (“Liturgical”) Ibert Escales Ives Second Orchestral Set

In defe defend ndin ingg th thee Ph Phil ilad adel elph phia ia Orch Orches estr tra’ a’ss ch choi oice ce of repertoire, Simon Woods, artistic administrator of the orchestra, remarked in an interview with with the American Musi Musicc Center's Frank 55

 

 Background to the Problem

Oteri that “one of the biggest challenges is the label ‘twentieth century’...people have ingrained in their souls a definition of what that means...it may come from the fact that culturally there is a divide in the further century...it’s almost one.” Woods observed that like there are two centuries in if you look at this from a historical perspective, there are two quite di diffe fferen rentt str strand andss goi going ng throug throughh the cen century tury.. One str strand and... ...run runss thro rouugh Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Copland, and Sam amuuel Barber....the Barber ....the other strand...starts with Schoenber Schoenbergg and runs through Webern and Elliott Carter. One of the big problems is that I do think we have been brain-washed by the intellectual establishment to believe that somehow the Schoenberg-Carter strand is somehow culturally more valued than the other. 49

The various illustrations that I have just given, taken from the daily music world, serve as practical illustrations of a comment Whittall made in his 1999 overview of twentieth-century music. As far as the sta standa ndard rd repert repertoir oiree was was concer concerned ned,, admitt admitted ed Whitta Whittall, ll, “Sch “S choe oenb nber erg’ g’ss ow ownn ea earl rlyy ch chal alle leng nges es,, like like the the  Five Orchestral Orchestral  Pieces and  Erwartung , and and thos thosee of ot othe herr tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy  pioneers from Ives to Webern, have not managed a comparable 51 the degree acceptance, less elevation to the(cf. canon.”50of  Suc Such h ongoin ongoinggstill “po “popul pulari arity ty pro proble blems” ms” (cfsummit . Ash Ashby by))of   are free freely ly ackn acknow owle ledg dged ed by co cons nser erva vati tive ve and and ra radi dica call alik alike. e. Paul Paul Griff Gri ffit iths, hs, a dedic dedicate atedd life-l life-long ong pro propon ponent ent of radica radicall twenti twentieth eth-century streams, now finds himself with no alternative but to concede (in the updated 2010 edition of his much-respected 1978 survey Modern Music: A Concise History from from Debussy to Boulez ) that th at po post st-S -Sch choe oenb nber ergi gian an mode modern rnis ism m “rem “remai ains ns un unfi fini nish shed ed.” .” Its Its 49

Simon Sim on Woods oods an andd Josep Josephh Kluge Klugerr, [inter [intervie view w with with Frank Frank Oteri, Oteri, edito editorr of  NewMusicB  NewMusicBox], ox], “The Philadelphia Orchestra.” Sept. 1, 1999. http://www. http://www newmusicbox.org newmusic box.org/articles/the-ph /articles/the-philadelphia-o iladelphia-orchestra/ rchestra/ (accessed March 29,. 2012). 50 Arnold Arn old Whittal Whittall,l,  Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1999), 5. 51   See also note 4 in the the introduction. introduction. 56

 

 Background to the Problem

 principle objectives, Griffiths now realizes, have thus far failed to materiali mate rialize: ze: As Grif Griffiths fiths retro retrospect spectively ively outlined the prob problem, lem, the artistic goals of high modernism had ultimately been twofold. That is, is, th they ey we were re devo devote tedd to “mai “maint ntai aini ning ng mus usic ic’’s pr prog ogre ress ss,, and...ins instal tallin ling g prog progrressive essive music music within within the genera generall reperto epertory ry [emphasis added].”52  It ca cann nnot ot be em emph phas asiz ized ed to tooo st stro rong ngly ly he here re th that at many many lead leadin ingg mo mode dern rnis istt fi figu gure ress we were re inte intent nt on, on, as Grif Griffi fith thss pu putt it, it, “installing” their favoured music in the repertoire, even at the expe ex pens nsee of cont contem empo pora rary ry musi musicc th that at wa wass alre alread adyy es esta tabl blis ishe hed. d. Charles Wuorinen, for example, issued the following statement in 1988: I would implement my notion of balanced programming which would reflect the following proportions: one quarter the standard repe repert rtory ory - Be Beet etho hove ven, n, Brahm Brahmss an andd so on on;; on one-q e-qua uarte rterr 20 20th th-century classics – Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Bartók; one quarter present-day established composers – Babbitt, Boulez, Cart Ca rter er,, Be Beri rioo, Ma Mart rtin ino, o, Pe Perl rle; e; an andd on onee qu quar arte terr the the ne new w an andd untried. The last 80 or 90 years would get a hearing and the young would have a chance to be themselves. themselves.53  

It is clear from Wuorinen’s list that there was to be little (if any) room ro om in his his “b “bal alan ance cedd prog progra ramm mmin ing” g” rese reserv rved ed for for po post st 1900 1900 composers on the order of Sibelius, Elgar, Rachmaninoff, Barber and others of a similarly tonal-romantic orientation. And in a formal state tem ment dating from 1984, Stockhausen similarly recommended that 50 percent of all concert programming should  be devoted to New Music. He further explained that “in this

context, New Music [could] only mean music which is full of invention and discovery...not discovery...not just any ‘contemporary music’ full of 52

53

Paul Griffiths, Modern Music and After  (Oxford:   (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), xvii. Joan Peyser, “Wuorinen’s Bleak View of the Future,” The New York Times (Sunday, June 5, 1988). 57

 

 Background to the Problem

clichés.”54  There is also the example of Boulez the conductor, which is important because of his long career as a front rank conductor. Like Wuorinen and Stockhausen, he too had a highly exclusivist approa app roach ch to twe twenti ntieth eth cen centur turyy con concer certt pro progra gramm mming ing.. During During his  professional association with William Glock, who was Controller of Music at the BBC from 1959 to 1972, the BBC programmed a grea gr eatt de deal al of radi radica call fa fare re,, ofte oftenn to howl howlss of excl exclus usio ionn from from supporters of living composers like Malcolm Arnold and George Lloy Ll oyd. d. Boul Boulez ez also also attem attempt pted ed to appl applyy hi hiss mo mode dern rnis istt-or orie ient nted ed  programming philosophy during his New York Philharmonic te tenu nure re in the 197 9700s. And eve venn tod oday ay,, his twe went ntie ietthh-ccentur nturyy conducting repertoire remains very limited. That is to say, Boulez has rarely if ever conducted any standard works (no matter how central to the repertoire) by Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Respighi, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Sibelius, Nielsen, Britten or Prok Pr okof ofie ievv. An Andd Bo Boul ulez ez not not on only ly av avoi oids ds most most of th thee st stan anda dard rd twentieth-century repertoire, but also conspicuously avoids taking  part in the countless countless revivals of minor twenti twentieth-century eth-century com composers posers of a more conservative stripe (as conductors like Neeme Järvi do). Although Boulez does program Mahler nowadays, this only began after Bernstein’s ground-breaking advocacy in the 1960s. In the 1950 19 50ss Bo Boul ulez ez and and hi hiss Da Darm rmst stad adtt coll collea eagu gues es had had be been en deep deeply ly dismissive of Mahler and remained so until the Romantic Revival, which we will be discussing in chapter two, had made Mahler impossible to ignore any longer. Like Li ke Wuo uori rine nen, n, St Stoc ockh khau ause sen, n, an andd Bo Boul ulez ez,, Sc Scho hoen enbe berg rg

 believed that the progressive philosophy of composing was poised to produce produce music for the future perfo performin rmingg cano canonn (not merely the musicological canon), and that he was “destined” to become part of the Great Tra Tradition dition going back to Bach, Beethoven, W Wagner agner and Brahms.55  Today oday’’s rep repert ertoir oiree bears bears alarmi alarmingly ngly sca scant nt evi eviden dence ce of 54

55

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Stockhausen, "T "Too the International Council,"  Perspective  Perspectivess of New  Music 24 ( Autumn-Winter  Autumn-Winter,, 1984), 43. Schoenberg wrote: “I venture to credit myself with having written truly new 58

 

 Background to the Problem

that prediction. Instead, as we have seen in our earlier examples, those honours have largely gone to a diverse and multinational group of other composers in Schoenberg’s generation including Debussy, Puccini, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel (to mention only the five most-performed figures born after the 1850s). As Leon Le on Bots Botste tein in te ters rsely ely ob obse serv rved ed in a 1999 1999 edit editor oria iall fo forr  Musical Quarterly, “The historical paradigm generated by Schoenberg and his followers about the progressive course of music and the end  point of twentieth-century music turns out not to have been a convincing predictive hypothesi h ypothesis.” s.”56  The recent publication of Arved Ashby’s The Pleasur Pleasuree of  Modernist Music dem emon onst strrat atees th that at som omee of to toda dayy’s most  passionate defenders of the century-old modernist paradigm are clearly not ready to give up just yet – a clear indication that the tonal-ato tonal -atonal, nal, roma romantic ntic-mod -modernist ernist culture wars of the past decades decades still have some fight left in them today. During his brief stint as a reviewer for Gramophone magazine, Ashby attempted to keep the  battle going in a more journalistic setting, taking advantage of the fact that classical music review magazines have a much broader non-scholarly readership than scholarly journals. Thus, in a review welcoming Andrew Ford’s Illegal Harmonies, a recent modernistoriiented or nted su surv rvey ey of twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy musi usic, As Ashhby warne arnedd Gramophone readers that certain (unnamed) writers were already working toward dismantling the academic status quo that he and Ford were still devoted to upholding:

Don’t look now, but some people are trying to rewrite 20thcentury music history. There is more revenge than redress to their changes, which rely more on implicit ad hominem attacks than convincing aesthetic arguments. The real wish is to demote the

56

music which, being based on tradition, is destined to become tradition.” See “National Music ic,” ,” in Styl Stylee an and d Idea Idea:: Sele Select cted ed Writi riting ngss of Arno Arnold ld Schoenberg,ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black,   (London: Faber and Faber, 1975, rev. 1984), 174. Leon Botstein, “Rethinking the Twentieth Twentieth Century Century,” ,”  Musical Quarterly  83 (1999): 148. 59

 

 Background to the Problem

high modernists – sideline Schoenberg, marginalise Babbitt, and vilify Boulez.57 

Around Arou nd the the sa same me time time as Ash Ashby by wr wrot otee thes thesee word wordss in 20 2002 02,, a young you ng com compos poser er and jou journa rnalis listt nam named ed Matthi Matthias as Kriesb Kriesber ergg als alsoo came out fighting in another publication aimed at an even broader readership. For the New York York Times Times, Kriesberg wrote: It is tediously commonplace to proclaim that 12-tone music and its successor, the far more broadly conceived, powerful and elusive languages collectively defined as serialism, were dead ends – as if music might just as well have proceeded from Mahler through Rachmaninoff to Barber and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich without any of thos thosee trou troubl bles esom omee de devi viat atio ions ns th that at le lead ad othe otherw rwis isee rea reaso sona nabl blee  people to see red. red.58

But what made Kriesberg himself “see red” was in fact how the majority of observers, both public and professional, had privately  been prioritizing the music of the twentieth century all along. Y Yale ale University’s John Halle immediately wrote a letter of response to Kriesberg’s article , reminding him that serialism was no longer in a suffic suf ficien iently tly str strong ong ins instit tituti utiona onall pos positi ition on to con contin tinue ue making making its claims of historical primacy at the expense of the true twentiethcentury repertoire heavyweights:

Matthi Matt hias as Kr Krie iesb sber ergg s ar arti ticu cula late te ad advo voca cacy cy fo forr the the se seri rial alis istt tradition...is undercut by his failure to name a single work of this soon-to-be century-old practice that has the kind of secure place in the concert hall that its adherents were predicting. While the absence is revealing, however, it should not be overstated: that dodecaphonic works will occupy an important, but nonetheless in indis dispu putab tably ly per periph iphera eral,l, reg region ion aro around und a cen center ter dom domina inated ted by 57

58

Arved Ashby, review of  Illegal Harmonies,  by Andrew Ford, in Gramophone 81 (Aug 2004): 101. Matthias Kriesberg, “The Musical God That Failed? Says Who?”  New York Times, 16 April, 2000. 60

 

 Background to the Problem

nonserial – inde nonserial indeed, ed, largely tonal – 20th20th-centu century ry work workss by Bartók, Stra St ravi vinnsk skyy, Si Sibbel eliu ius, s, Ra Rave vel, l, Ra Rach chm man anin inof off, f, Sh Shos osta tako kovi vich ch,, Prokofiev, Strauss and others only means that some serialists were 59 great composers but lousy prophets.  

Halle’s response to Kriesberg – Halle usefully lists several key romantic twentieth-century composers composers in his letter – underlines how today’s performers and music lovers have taken advantage of the opportunity to construct their own historical lineages, just as Schoen Sch oenber bergg himsel himselff had onc oncee traced traced a histor historica icall lin linee bac backk from from himself. Notably, he had formed his line of musical antecedents by using a selection the most predecessors, popular composers from previous generations: Of hisofimmediate he chose Brahms and Wagner, and continued the line back to Beethoven and Bach – an illustrious heritage indeed. As Taruskin Taruskin observed in one of the most important segments of his massive Ox Oxfo forrd Hist Histor oryy, (he  provocatively  entitled the section “How Myths Become History”) Schoenberg then proceeded to replay the same personal line in forward motion, now presenting it as the central line in the general history of music.60 In doing so, the great atonalist implicitly placed himself on the same high level occupied his predecessors, all of whom (incidentally) commanded a vast by public – thereby inflating thee impo th import rtan ance ce of his his pe pers rson onal al mu musi sica call jo jour urne neyy. In th this is way way, Schoenberg saw his mission as the fulfillment of the deepest

currents of music history rather than simply as a personal odyssey. As we have already described, the resultant myth found many believers and reached its fullest flowering with the post-1945 cold war generation of modernists. modernists.61 It subsequently weakened, as 59

  John Halle “Serialism; Not Prophets,” New York York T Times, imes, 30 April, 2000.

60 61

Theuse Early Century, Taruskin, My frequent of Twentieth the term “cold war”353ff. as a descriptive adjective for post1945 modernism may require some explanation. Simply put, it is a direct acknowledgment of the cold war's direct financial impact on fostering mid and late-twentieth-century modernism. Indeed, there is a rapidly growing literature that attempts to come to grips with the massive decades-long CIA funding of the most radical post-war musical developments. See especially Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War   by the British 61

 

 Background to the Problem

the promise of progress proved to be a mirage and erstwhile atonal defenders turned into skeptics en masse. Today, as a result of the long-t lon g-term erm sh shift ift away from ato atonal nality ity and serial serialism ism,, many many in the academic world are now feeling free to challenge, as never before, some long entrenched attitudes toward historical conceptions of twentieth-century music which arose as a result of that myth. We have already seen this in the comments of Taruskin, Ross, Hyer, Walker, and Botstein earlier in this chapter, and will see further exam ex ampl ples es from from sc scho hola lars rs such such as Ch Chri rist stop ophe herr Bu Butl tler er,, Step Stephe henn Banfield, Bryan Gilliam, James Hepokoski, Daniel Albright, and Christopher Hailey later on. It has become increasingly clear today that the Rachmaninoff-to-Barber Rachmaninof f-to-Barber strand mentioned by Simon W Woods oods of the Philadelphia Orchestra is indeed central to how general audiences and record buyers have, consciously or unconsciously, insisted on seeing the twentieth century all along, even during the decades when their views went largely unheeded by those who wrote the investigative journalist Francis Stonton Saunders (London: Granta Books, 1999). Much research still needs to be done in this area. In volume five of his Oxford History, Taruskin clearly states that the most important theme in post-

1945 avant-garde music was “the cold war and its as yet insufficiently acknowledged (not to say tendentiously minimized) impact on the arts.”

Explaini Expla ining ng more more fully fully,, Tar arusk uskin in co conti ntinue nuedd (in the 2009 2009 pre prefac facee to th thee reprinted edition of his original 2005 Oxfor Oxford d History): “The conditions that stimulated the rise of the postwar European avant-garde avant-garde were largely created  by the Office of Military Government, Government, United States (OMGUS), the Amer Am eric ican an occu occupy pyin ingg fo forc rcee that that,, fo forr on onee part partic icul ular arly ly te tell llin ingg examp xample le,, financed and at first administered the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Ferienkurse, at which total serialism, European-style, was born – in far more direct response to Soviet arts policy than has ever been publicly admitted. Thereafter, Thereafter, it was the music of the American avant-garde, chiefly represented by John Cage and Morton Feldman Feldm an,, and and enthu enthusia siasti stica cally lly propag propagate atedd by lav lavish ishly ly subsid subsidize izedd West German radio stations (which, in the words of Björn Heile, ‘competed for  prestige but not for resources’), resources’), that set the tone for European experim exp erimenta entation. tion. (This (This unpreced unprecedente ented, d, much vaunted vaunted public public support support for avant-garde music lasted, of course, only – and exactly – as long as the cold war; wa r; it came came to an abrup abruptt end end with with Germa Germann reuni reunific ficati ation. on.)” )” The Oxford  History of Western Western Music, Vol. 5, Music in the Late Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), xix. 62

 

 Background to the Problem

hist hi stor oryy book books. s. At th thee sam same time time,, rece recent nt defe defend nder erss of th thee high high mode modernist rnist aesthet aesthetic ic (like (likeitKriesber Krie sbergg and Ashby) alsosafe haveand a poin point. As Kriesberg implies, perhaps is a Ashby little )too easyt. nowada now adays ys to cri critic ticize ize Schoen Schoenber berg’ g’ss kin kindd of modern modernism ism for its apparent failure in the public arena. Perhaps, then, we can settle for Halle’s middle-g -grround solution – which is to say that the Schoenberg revolution brought forth “great composers but lousy  prophets.” However, However, in calling composers in the atonal tradition “lousy prophets,” we must also remind ourselves that hindsight is always clearer than foresight. the twenty-first (and especially in the light ofTo present-day public century interest observer in re-discovered late-romantic rarities), it seems fairly banal to point out that Schoenberg would havee had far greate hav greaterr long-t long-term erm public public succe success ss had he contin continued ued along the lines of his two big successes ( Verklär erklärte te Nacht Nacht and Gurrelieder ), ), instead of falling prey to what is now generally conceded to be a badly flawed evolutionary teleology – and even worse, applying that teleology in a way that was meant to justify his most esoteric ideas as the culmination of all of music history. Whatever our specula ulations, we must take the words of Scho Sc hoen enbe berrg’ g’ss cr crit itic ics, s, incl includ udin ingg ou outs tspo poke kenn an andd re regr gres essi sive ve

contemporaries contempor aries such as Nicholas Nicholas Medt Medtner ner,, Geor George ge Dyso Dyson, n, Daniel Daniel Mason and Hans Pfitzner, much more seriously when they express caution in regard to the most extreme revolutionary trends of their time. Indeed, we will be drawing on the words of these commentators (all are noted writers in addition to being lateromantic composers) as we progress. It is far too simplistic and inadequate to simply dismiss such critics as hopeless reactionaries who refused to participate in musical evolution.  Pace  Ashby (see earlier), such criticism does not auto au toma mati tica call llyy assu assum me that that on onee is mo moun unti ting ng at atta tack ckss on an ad hom ho minum inum le leve vel. l. We ca can, n, if we like like,, even even ho hold ld Scho Schoen enbe berrg to account for blatant artistic musical miscalculation. For example, he thought that with his new tone rows he was developing a more sophisticated kind of melody. melody. Why did nobody want to whistle any 63

 

 Background to the Problem

of thos those? e? W Wer eree they they ev even en able  to? Did Schoenberg, despite his considerable intellectual acumen, fundamentally misunderstand misunderstand the nature natu re and value of melod melodyy in the historic historic sense? sense? We We will explor exploree the question of melody further in chapter five. But in any case, we must concede that the proverbial mailman never did evolve to the  point where he could could finally whistle atonal mel melodies. odies. W Wee must give more than a half-hearted nod of agreement to the famous old oneliner uttered by Schoenberg himself, and fully recognize that in the twentieth twen tieth century century there really was much more music to be written in C major. Compromising composers and dictators: Bumps in the road to emancipation

In his 1961 overview Since Debussy, sy, An Andr dréé Ho Hodi dier er repeated an observation that had already become commonplace among commentators in the preceeding decades. He wrote that some of the greatest composers of our time completely reversed

dire direct ctio ions ns to towa ward rd th thee en endd of th thei eirr ca care reer ers. s. Th Thee ex exam ampl ples es of Schönberg, and Stravinsky have taught us that even the noblest creator can lack insight to the point of implicitly repudiating his greatest achievements. And they are not isolated examples: Berg, Bartók, and Prokofiev were just as uncertain and inconsistent in their orientations. This is probably just another sign of the strange times in which we live.62

In glancing back on the early decades of the last century, we can see in retrospect – with all the clarity ofof20-20 hindsight –were that less the omens for Schoenberg’s emancipation the dissonance than promising, especially given the bold claim that it represented thee tr th true ue sp spir irit it of th thee ag agee an and, d, mo more reov over er,, se seem emed ed to fit fit in into to an apparently fail-safe scientific paradigm. Many were dazzled and 62

André Hod André Hodier ier,, Since Debussy: A View of Contemporary Music,  trans. Noel Burch (New York: Grove Press, 1961), 210-211. 64

 

 Background to the Problem

seduced not only by the hope of progress but also by the promise of abso absolu lute te fr free eedo dom m – wh whet ethe herr in a st stri rict ctly ly musi musica call se sens nsee or in  political terms. Many were also dazzled by Schoenber Schoenberg’ g’ss own considerable intellectual force. But, at the same time, all was not well. The fatal weakness, of cou course rse,, was that that the gene general ral music music world world showed showed little little or no intention inten tion of fina financial ncially ly supportin supportingg the kind of music musical al evol evolution ution that th at had had pres presum umab ably ly cu culm lmin inat ated ed in aton atonal ality ity.. This This co cont ntra rast sted ed greatly with the extent to which the general musical public had once supported Monteverdi, Beethoven and Wagner. As a general  principle for all music to aspire to, atonality was clearly unworkable. To begin with, it had little use in church music, teaching pieces, salon-like sheet music for sale, broadway, pop tune tu nes, s, love love musi musicc in fi film lms, s, band band mus usic ic,, pi pian anoo co conc ncer erto toss for for virtuosos to take on tour, and so on. Most early twentieth-century com co mpo pose sers rs,, ma majo jorr and min inor or,, re reco cogn gniized that hat re real alit ityy and instinctively dug in their heals. Such deeply-rooted resistance, of course cou rse,, fru frustr strate atedd gen genera eratio tions ns of progre progressi ssive ve music musician ianss from from

Schoenbergg to Stockhausen. Schoenber Here the oft Here oft-re -repea peated ted sev sevent enteen eenthth-cen centur turyy par parall allel el with with Monteverdi and his contemporaries – composers who came up with a  seconda prattica  that that actual actually ly did produce produce tunes that that the  public could whistle (and which may have had something to do with the fact that opera enjoyed continuous and widespread public acccep ac epta tanc ncee) – wa wass no nota tabl blyy ina nade dequ quat ate. e. Fo Forr our mor oree re reccent ent twentieth-century age, it is highly indicative that many composers, including the most important trend-setters from the early decades after 1900, did not maintain consistent sympathy with some of the most radical advances of their own time. These composers sampled what Ford called “illegal harmonies” 63 only to abandon the front li line ness of pr prog ogrres ess. s. Thei heir evi vide dent nt un unea ease se aptl aptlyy ref efle leccted ted the 63

Andrew Ford, Illegal Harmonies: Harmonies: Music in the 20th Century (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1997). See especially chapter 1 where Ford contrasts the “illegal harmonies” of John Cage with the “legal harmonies” found in harmony textbooks. 65

 

 Background to the Problem

confusion confu sionscene. that was running in Paul the early twentieth twentiet cent century ury musical It was a timerampant when, as Henry Lang h(perhaps the gre greate atest st Americ American an his histor torian ian bef before ore Taru aruski skin) n) per percep ceptiv tively ely remarked, a normal development was very hard for a composer to maintain. Lang observed how the avant-garde’s “submission to materialism and technicalism, and a resultant hunger for sensation andd bl an bluf uff, f, crea create tedd an atmo atmosp sphe here re in whic whichh phil philos osop ophi hica call an andd aesthetic judgments were vacillating and a normal and purposeful deve de velo lopm pmen entt of ar arti tist stic ic indi indivi vidu dual alit ityy was was mad adee exce exceed edin ingl glyy difficult.” .64  Thus, Thu s, the early early twenti twentieth eth centu century ry witnes witnessed sed muc muchh fitful fitful dabbling in modernist techniques due to what Lang aptly termed the “va “vacil cillat lating ing”” aesthe aesthetic tic judgem judgement entss of compos composers ers.. Thi Thiss is a  phenomenon which we will now briefly bring to the center of our discussion. The arbitrary and erratic “on and off” attitude on the  part of the international composing community toward new developments is very significant for our overall theme of romantic

music in the twentieth century because the shaky and unpredictable composing environment that partly resulted from such stylistic uncertaint unce rtaintyy was one of the outstanding outstanding char characte acteristi ristics cs of the early twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy music usic scen scene. e. In Inco cons nsis iste tenc ncyy of purp purpos osee in composing was instrumental in generating a very unstable cultural  background against which consistent romantics like Strauss, Bax, Rach Ra chma mani nino nofff and and Medt Medtne nerr trie triedd to st stay ay true true to thei theirr ar arti tist stic ic  principles.  Not least, the “on and off” attitudes toward the most advanced techniques also brought to light a critical (if not fatal) weakness in the progress narrative, which is another way of saying that there were a few too many blips in the evolutionary path. The hese se bli lips ps led to muc uchh fr fruustra strati tion on on the part part of th thee mos ostt  passionately devoted progressives – a frustration that was reflected in Hodier’s comment at the beginning of this section. Like many othe ot hers rs,, Ho Hodi dier er was was cl clea earl rlyy nonp nonplu luss ssed ed by th thee fact fact th that at so some me 64

Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization (New York: York: Norton, 1941), 1025. 66

 

 Background to the Problem

composers had briefly contributed to musical evolution only to  back away from the front front lines, thus thwarting thwarting the course of nature. nature. As his words showed, modernist composers who retreated to a mellower tonal idiom were not always well-received by their more consistently radical colleagues. Schoenberg blasted Krenek with pages of vitriol when the latter, after having written atonal string quartets and symphonies, had sud sudden denly ly em embar barked ked on a tonal, tonal, neo neorom romant antic ic phase phase betwee betweenn about 1925 and 1930. 1930.65 And Bartók was famously dismissed by Leibowitz as ain“compromiser” forearly the highly dissonant idi idiom om fou found nd works works from from the eaabandoning rly 1920s like the First Viol iolin in Sonata.66 As befit an emancipated musician, Leibowitz took as his starting point Schoenberg’s Schoenberg’s chromatic universe and its autonomous or “emancipated” conception of dissonance. To over-simplify a little, any compositions that were not dissonant enough – and

therefore theref ore dep depart arted ed from from the Vien ienna na School School s new crite criteria ria for musical musi cal greatness greatness – were open to being attac attacked ked as compromi compromises. ses. The general idea of the compromising composer was eventually adop ad opte teddofon a br broa oadd scal sctoale. e. Pete Peterrrange Yates ates,of , for fo r ex exam ampl ple, e, ap appl plie iedd a theory compromise a wide early twentieth-century compos com posers ers with with a rel relati ativel velyy conser conservat vative ive rep reputa utati tion on (in (inclu cludin dingg Sibelius, Falla, Vaughan Vaughan Wil Williams, liams, Bloch, and Nielson) in his 1967 surv su rvey ey of tw twen enti tiet ethh cent centur uryy mus usic ic,, care carefu full llyy show showin ingg how how compromise “weakened” the musical outputs of each composer, ultimately preventing them from achieving true greatness.67 But the principle of compromise can be seen from another angle as well. David Cooper, in his 1996 Cambridge handbook on Bart Ba rtók ók’’s Con onccert rtoo for Orc Orche hest stra ra,, neat neatly ly tur urnns the table abless on Leibowitz by suggesting that the real compromise in Bartók’s life 65 66

67

See Schoenberg’s over-the-top polemic against Krenek in Auner, 194-196. René Re né Leib Leibow owit itz, z, “Bèl “Bèlaa Bart Bartók ók,, ou la poss possib ibil ilit itéé du comp compro romi miss dans dans la musique contemporaine,” Les Temps Temps moderne moderness 3/25 (October 1947), 705-34. “Béla Bartók, or the Possibility of Compromise in Contemporary Music,” Transitions Forty-Eight 3 (1948), 92-123. Adorno compared works like the 1939 Violin Concerto to late Brahms. Yates, see especially chapter 20. 67

 

 Background to the Problem

was when, in the 1920s, the great Hungarian composer temporarily capi ca pitu tula late tedd to the the pres pressu sure re of the the aton atonal ally ly-o -ori rien ente tedd prog progre ress ss narrative of musical evolution, thereby producing borderline-atonal sonatas and quartets.68 As Cooper reasonably implies, compromise can just as easily occur when a composer resists his own natural stylistic inclinations and succumbs to avant-garde pressure (or, as Medtner put it, “fashion” n”)). Following one’s true musical inclination, as Bartók chose to do, may lead to musical roads other than those dictated by an artificially constructed (and perhaps dubious) evolutionary reading of history. When Cooper’s book on Bartók was first published, such a theo th eory ry of com omppro rom mise con onst stit ituuted ted a fres freshh pe pers rsppecti ective ve in musicology,, as Amanda Bayley pointed out. 69 W musicology  Wee can also add that Cooper’s idea has a great deal of potential for how we view the

troubled troubl ed twenti twentiet ethh cen century tury as a whole, whole, and we will will sug sugges gestt here here that it is possible to read the entire twentieth century in the light of Cooper’s re-definition of the concept of compromise.   Taking this new line of reasoning a little further, the most unreconstructed roman rom anti tics cs (lik (likee Rach Rachma mani nino nofff, Dohn Dohnan anyyi, Bo Bowe wen, n, Lloy Lloydd and and Medtner) would now take their place among the least com co mpr prom omis isin ingg co comp mpos oser erss of th thei eirr tim time ra rath ther er th than an th thee most ost compromising. Their understanding of harmonic language, and their conception of melody, after all, conformed rather closely to the demands of the vast majority of classical music lovers – those who still insisted on supporting the kind of new music that was shaped at least in part by the “old” common practice harmony and tonality (we will explore this further in chapter six). Also, their ways of using harmony melody were removed the harmonic language and and melodic styles of not filmfar and popularfrom idioms. This, of cours course, e, had an eighteent eighteenth-cen h-century tury paralle parallell as well, well, in that thee wo th work rkss Ha Hayydn and and Moza Mozart rt wr wrot otee fo forr ar aris isto tocr crat atss shar shared ed a 68

69

Cooper Coop er,, David, David, Bartók Bartók:: Co Conce ncerto rto for Or Orch ches estra tra (Cambridg (Cambridge: e: Cambridge University Press, 1996, reprinted 2004), 83-84. Aman Am anda da Bayl Bayley ey,, re revi view ew of  Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra Orchestra, by David Cooper, in Music & Letters Letters 78 (August 1997): 460. 68

 

 Background to the Problem

common harmo rmoni nicc langua uagge with all the popular operas, divertimentos and serenades of the time. In these vital respects, therefore, the most romantic post-19 -1900 comp omposers did not comp co mpro romi mise se thei theirr muse muse by givi giving ng in to wh what at Paul Paul He Henry nry La Lang ng earlier called “sensation and bluff.” In other words, they somehow managed to pull off the feat of achieving “a normal and purposeful development” during a time when, as Lang pointed out, such a goal had been rendered extremely difficult. difficult. Medtne Med tnerr dev develo eloped ped a metho methodd of ill illust ustrat rating ing his upup-sid sideedown theory of compromise. In direct opposition to Leibowitz’s fully chromatic universe, Medtner took as his starting point the  pure triad, thus proceeding from a point of consonance rather than a point of extreme dissonance, and went on to devote several pages

of his 1935 book Muse and the Fashion to describing his position. Unde Un derr th thee head headin ingg “com “compr prom omis ises es of st styyle,” le,” Me Medt dtne nerr wr wrot ote: e: “’Modernistic’ music has as its foundation the sum total of the compromises of all the styles of past music.”70 Directly challenging what he saw as the flagrant misuse of the Tristan chord as a historical justification for later progressive music, Medtner pointed out that many of Wagner’s strongest musical effects were not at all dependent on extreme chromaticism. Rather, Wagner’s r’s chromaticism, or lack of it, depended entirely on dramatic need. This was a point that Parry had also insisted on back in the 1890s, well before the invention of atonality atonality..71 As both Parry and Medtner observed, many of Wagner’s most memorable ideas were actually very consonant and triadic in outline. Medtner cited W Wagner’s agner’s own words, which the latter had written upon penning the closing pages 70

71

 Nicholas Medtner, Medtner, Th Thee Mu Muse se an and d the the Fa Fash shio ion, n, tran trans. s. Alfr Alfred ed J. Swan Swan.. (Haverford, Pa.: Haverford College Bookstore, 1951), 72. See espec especial ially ly Parry Parry’’s descr descript iption ion (d (dati ating ng from from just just before before the atonal atonal revolution) of Wagner’s diatonicism, pages 324-326 The Evolution Evolution of the Art of Music. “Whe When he [Wa [Wagner ner] want ntss to expre xpresss someth thin ingg very ery straightforward and direct, like the character of Siegfried, he uses the most simple diatonic figures; but when he wants to express something specially mysterious, he literally takes advantage of the fact that human creatures understand understa nd modern music through their feeling for tonality, tonality, to obtain a weird and supernatural effect by making it almost unrecognisable.” 325. 69

 

 Background to the Problem

of Tristan: “O, what a marvel, such a triad! I feel as if everything disappeared against it; when it sounds again, it is, as if after all the madn ma dnes esss an andd an ange gerr and and fr frui uitl tles esss se sear arch ch,, Brah Brahma ma re retu turn rned ed to himself...”72  From Fr om a ev evol olut utio iona nary ry twe twentie ntietthh-ccentur nturyy avan avantt-ga gard rdee  perspective, nothing could possibly have seemed more reactionary, reactionary, not to menti mention on unscie unscienti ntific fic,, than than Med Medtne tner’ r’ss appare apparentl ntlyy inv invert erted ed view of compromise. But times change. Today, with the progress narrative nownoinlonger complete within musicology, ideas should seemdisarray any more ludicrous than theMedtner’s cold war ideas of Leibowitz and others who had once proceeded from the

 putatively scientific basis of autonomous dissonance and on that  basis had prematurely dismissed a vast trove of tonal and romantic music that was destined to become part of the standard repertoire in the later twentieth century and beyond. Admitted Adm ittedly ly,, even in relation relation to comp compositi ositional onal mode moderates rates like like Al Alfr fred edoo Case Casell llaa in the the 1920 1920ss and and 1930 1930s, s, Medt Medtne nerr wa wass as conservative as could be, and took a certain pride in that fact. However, one can still find numerous examples of more advanced comp co mpos oser erss fr from om Me Medt dtne ner’ r’ss time time who who also also show showed ed that that at le leas astt some of his basic reservations were widely acknowledged across the stylistic spectrum. We can begin by observing that very few of the some-time radicals actually wished to match the consistent radi ra dica cali lism sm of th thee real really ly extr extrem emee pion pionee eers rs su such ch as Web eber ernn or Varèse, neither of whom ever returned to tonality. Seen from the vantage point of the tonal and romantic side of twentieth-century musicc that music-lo musi music-loving ving connoiss connoisseurs eurs now valu valuee so highly highly,, such caution or vacillation may have been well-placed. Consistency, at least in the Webernian sense, did not prove to be of long-term advantage in getting one’s music on the stage before the public, or  putting bread on the table for one’ one’ss family. family. Webern himself, once a leading role model for the post1945 cold war avant-garde, was destined to contribute very little to 72

Wagner, quoted by Medtner, Medtn er, 108. 70

 

 Background to the Problem

the daily musical life of the later twentieth century and beyond, as we can see from his exceptionally weak presence in the record catalogue catal ogue today today.. And unlike unlike Schoenber Schoenberg, g, Weber ebernn had few if any tonal works on the level of the former’s r’s Verk erklär lärte te Nacht, Nacht, Gurrelieder or the brilliant orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor to act as a “consolation prize,” and thus help bolster a weak presence in the record catalogue and the concert hall. As a direct result, Webern still ranks very low in the repertoire today. As far as th far thee musi musica call pu publ blic ic is co conc ncer erne ned, d, he rem remai ains ns the the mos ostt shad sh adow owyy fi figu gure re in th thee Vie ienn nnes esee trin trinit ityy. In th thee comp compre rehe hens nsiv ivee

arkivmusic.com catalogue (which aims to stock every classical CD in prin print) t),, Web eber ernn now now has has less less repr repres esen enta tati tion on on CD than than approximately 75 of his composing contemporaries contemporaries ((T Table 2 in this chap ch apte terr li list stss the the top top eigh eighty ty comp compos oser erss bo born rn be betw twee eenn 1850 1850 an andd 1915). 191 5). Varèse, arèse, anothe anotherr exc except eption ionall allyy con consis sisten tentt mo moder dernis nistt who never returned to clearly tonal textures and traditional melody, melody, is in even worse shape: He ranks at about 140 in the same record catalogue. Hanss Stucke Han Stuckensc nschmi hmidt dt com commen mented ted that that Str Straus auss’ s’ss retrea retreatt from Elektra (1909) to Rosenkavelier (1911) represented the first example of what would become a long tradition of composers taking a regressive stance in the twentieth century. 73 Or, as Robert Morrga Mo gann me memo mora rably bly summ summed ed up St Stra raus uss’ s’ss care career er in hi hiss 19 1991 91 university textbook, the great German composer spent the last forty years of his life composing in a “time warp.” 74  After After Stra Strauss’ uss’ss retreat, there arose a long stream of composers who followed suit in a similar manner. Maxyears Regerof(1873-1916) became clearly diatonic in the last five his life. Sibelius didmore not venture  beyond the bleak harmonic austerities found in his Fourth Symphony (1911) (1911) – which, in any case, were intended as a critique of the latest radical trends rather than as an affirmation. Instead, Sibbel Si eliius bec ecam amee mo more re expa xpansi nsive and di diat atoonic nic in hi hiss Fif Fifth 73

74

Hans Heinz Hans Heinz Stuckensc Stuckenschmid hmidt,t, Twentieth Century Music,   trans. R. Deveson (London: World University Library, 1969), 111-1 111-112 12 See our discussion of Morgan’s textbook in chapter four. 71

 

 Background to the Problem

Symphony, not to mention the fact that he kept on composing all kinds of occasional works and salon-like pieces. In the 1930s and 1940s, even Schoenberg often gave in to what he himself described as a deeply rooted “longing” to return to his former tonal late-romantic idiom (ironically, he succumbed to this longing just after having castigated Krenek and Eisler for going in much the same direction). 75 There were many others as well. Prokofiev, besides allowing his always-present lyrical side to have an ever-increasing presence in his music, chose not to exploit

further the dissonant intensity of his second and third symphonies from the 1920s. Instead, he dedicated himself to writing many expa ex pans nsiv ivee and and op open enly ly melo melodi dicc work workss like like the the popu popula larr ball ballet etss  Romeo and Juliet   and Cinderella, as well as the Fifth Symphony andd th an thee Seco Second nd Violi iolinn Co Conc ncer erto to.. Alth Althou ough gh Pr Prok okof ofie iev’ v’ss la late terr stylistic departures did indeed fit in with Soviet musical policy, policy, it i t is much too facile to maintain that Prokofiev wrote more melodically simply because he was “encouraged” to do so by the Soviet regime. And despite his later stylistic approachability, he too was ultimately denounced like every other major Soviet composer in the infamous Moscow conference of 1948.76  Prokofiev wrote his most experimental music in the 1920s while he was in exile, at prec precisely isely the time when the Soviet scene as a whole was also at its most radical. Those were the giddy years of artistic freedom that accompanied the Bolshevik revolution. In the period from 1917 to 1929, the Soviet avant-garde was as vigorous as anywhere in the world, but here too, one could find many comp many compos oser erss wh whoo aban abando done nedd radi radica cali lism sm we well ll befo before re Stal Stalin in infamously began clamping down on music in 1929. By that time, as Peter Deane Roberts has pointed out, the ultra-radical Soviet 75

76

Arnold Schoenberg, “On Revient Toujours [One always returns],” in Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg, ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black (London: Faber & Faber, 1975), 109. For a direct account of the 1948 Zhdanov purges, in which Shostokovich, Prok Prokof ofie ievv, Khac Khacha hatu turi rian an,, Mias Miasko kovky vky and and many many ot othe hers rs were were brut brutal ally ly denounced and publicly humiliated, see Alexander Werth,  Musical Uproar Uproar in  Moscow (London: Turnstile Press, 1949). 72

 

 Background to the Problem

avantavan t-ga gard rdee ha hadd alre already ady la larg rgel elyy ru runn ou outt of st stea eam. m.77  A prime example was Arthur Lourié, whose ultra-radical musical stance had originally enjoyed the support of Lenin and his culture minister Luna Lu nach char arsky sky.. Lour Lourié ié th then en abru abrupt ptly ly fors forsoo ookk his his way ways, s, le left ft th thee Russian avant-garde in disgust, and moved to France where he wrote articles inveighing against what he saw as the spiritual emptiness of materialistically-oriented materialistically-oriented modernism.78 Shostakovich

rarely if ever returned to the dense and impenetrable textures of his Second Symphony and First Piano Sonata, neither of which, in any case, had much success. More successful were the bright and tonal First Piano Concerto of 1933 and the Cello Sonata of 1934, both of whic wh ichh were were writ writte tenn well well be befo fore re Stal Stalin in’’s ma majo jorr cr crac ackd kdow ownn on Shostakovich’s  Lady Lady Macbet Macbeth h  in 193 1936. 6.  Al Alll th thre reee work workss had had immediately taken their place in the repertoire. Thr hrou ouggho houut th thee early arly mod oder ernn era, ra, a vas astt num umbe berr of comp co mpos oser erss main mainta tain ined ed,, at th thee very very le leas ast, t, so some mewh what at to tona nall and and romantic-sounding idioms regardless of whether they lived in free countries or in totalitarian regimes under brutal dictators who interfered directly with the arts. In this crucial respect, politics ultimately made little difference. It is indicative that many of the more mo re ad adva vanc nced ed Ge Germ rman an an andd Russ Russia iann co comp mpos oser erss beca became me mo more re melody mel ody-or -orien iented ted and less less dis disson sonant ant after   they had fled to free countries like Britain and the United States. In other words, few took advantage of new-found political freedom to ramp up their dissonance quota.79 One thinks of Ernst Toch, Arthur Lourié, Egon 77 78

79

Peter Deane Roberts,  Modernism in Russian Piano Music, Vol. 1. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1993), 124. See Arthur Lourié and S. W. Pring, “The Crisis of Form,”  Music & Letters 14 (April 1933): 95-103. Another good demonstration of Lourié’s later views ca cann be fo foun undd in “Mus “Musin ings gs on Musi Music, c,”” Th Thee Music Musical al Qua Quarte rterly rly 27 (April 1941): 235-242. An exce xception tion was Kren renek, whose prol olif ific ic to tonnal and neor neorooman manti ticc – neoromantic was Krenek’s own description – period in Europe after 1925 was followed by a return to atonality with the 1933 opera  Karl V. Krenek’s return to atonality also coincided with his subsequent move to the United States. Stat es. See John Stewart, Stewart,  Ernst Krenek: Krenek: The Man and his Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991). 73

 

 Background to the Problem

Wellesz, Paul Hindemith, and even Schoenberg. Nor did any of the most consistently romantic composers take advantage of newfoun fo undd poli politi tica call fr free eedom dom by comp compos osin ingg in, in, say say,, a more more aton atonal al mann ma nner er.. He Here re one one can can ment mentio ionn nume numero rous us flee fleein ingg émigrés  who foll fo llow owed ed th thee to towe weri ring ng ex exam ampl plee of Ra Rach chma mani nino nofff: Al Alex exan ande derr Gretch Gre tchani aninov nov,, Nichol Nicholas as Med Medtne tnerr, Sergei Sergei Bortki Bortkiewi ewitz, tz, Hans Hans Gál, Gál,

Eric ichh Wolfgang Korngold, and Mario Castel elnnuovo-Tedesco.  Notably  Notably, , the two became figuresofin“che Hollywood, and from that thoroughly thorlatter oughly-disc -discredit redited edmajor stronghold stronghold “cheap” ap” romantic romantic film scores exerted untold influence on later twentieth-century film music. A very very important tenant in the mythology of modernism has  been that dictators dictators artificially uphel upheldd old tonal and romantic romantic idioms in composition and performance. At the same time, they were said to have held up true musical evolution by stunting the growth of twentieth-century radicalism. That is, they encouraged (by brute force if necessary) the Ungleichzeitig    or “non-contemporaneous”  persistence of worn-out romantic idioms. As the careers of many composers show, this “dictator” theory does have some merit. Howe Ho weve verr, it al also so ha hass de deep ep fl flaw aws. s. In the the 2003 2003 The Cambridge Companion to the Orchestra, Carter and Levi remarked that it was “somewhat ironic that the conservative policies towards repertory upheld by repressive regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union have also been replicated in many orchestral programmes in democratic countries.”80 But one could argue that there was really no at styles being supported byd thee irony th mu musi sica calall: l publ puTonal/romantic blic ic in bo both th fr free ee and anwere d auto austill tocr crat atic ical ally ly co cont ntrol rolle led countries alike. Moreover, the harmonic language of conservative composers most closely matched the language of popular music in  both free and autocratic settings. This fact alone should help shed light on why a very common idea in twentieth century historiography – that dictators like Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini 80

Tim Carter and Erik Levi, “The history of the orchestra,” in The Cambridge Comp Co mpan anion ion to the Or Orche chestr stra, a, ed Colin Lawson (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 18. 74

 

 Background to the Problem

destroyed radical musical trends – is considerably less than half the truth. tru th. Such Such a view view fai faile ledd to rec recogn ognize ize tha thatt radical radical departur departures es in compos com positi ition on could could oft often en bet betray ray an ala alarmi rmingly ngly sel self-d f-des estru tructi ctive ve streak str eak as well, well, in tha thatt som somee compos composers ers del delibe iberat rately ely spu spurne rnedd the  public’ss musical tastes to an unprecedented degree. Not  public’

surprisingly surprising ly,, ticke ticket,t, shee sheett music music,, and record record sales sales were adjusted accordingly. Tarus aruski kinn us usef eful ully ly poin pointe tedd ou outt th that at th thee Nazi Naziss did did inde indeed ed havee offic hav official ially ly tol tolera erated ted twe twelve lve-to -tone ne com compos posers ers,, a fact fact tha thatt was almost never included in historical surveys of twentieth-century music before his groundbreaking Oxfor Oxford d History. Partly as a result result of this revelation, Taruskin Taruskin was forced to conclude that “the idea of ‘Nazi esthetics’ [was] entirely incoherent both as theory and as  practice.81 Soviet policy was not much more consistent. Indeed, it is much closer to the truth to say that dictators tended to interfere with everyone across the aesthetic aesthetic spectrum, spectrum, ofte oftenn with without out rhy rhyme me or reason. If there was any reason at all, it was to keep the top composers (whoever they were at any given time) politically in line. In Soviet life, the crackdowns therefore had an alarmingly arbitrary element to them, and artists could never be sure where they th ey st stoo ood. d. Fo Forr exam exampl ple, e, a nu numb mber er of Pr Prok okof ofie ievv work workss were were  banned following the infamous 1948 Zhdanov crackdown, but the official off icial list of banne bannedd work works, s, with some of Proko Prokofiev fiev’’s harmless harmless  potboilers on Soviet themes mixed in, made little aesthetic sense from any perspective, modernist or otherwise.82 81 82

Taruskin, The Early Twentieth Century, 754. Dorot Do rothe heaa Redepe Redepenni nning ng expla explains ins furthe further: r: “T “The he list list of bann banned ed works works... ...is is arbitrarily drawn up with deliberate intent: only in this way could music directors and programme planners be so thoroughly alarmed that they would not venture to include any works by Prokofiev in the repertory at all.” See “Sergey Prokofiev,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (London: MacMillan, 2001), 20:416 Solzhenitsyn gave an penetrating account of how such psychological torture worked in the Soviet system. Above all, he emphasized its arbitrariness, and made clear that it was designed to keep the citizenry off balance. The natural reaction to the midnight knock on the door was usually: What have I done to deserve this? But there was no reason, and the victim searched for one in 75

 

 Background to the Problem

It is no su surp rpri rise se to fi find nd th that at ma many ny comp compos oser erss in the the free free world – those working outside the sphere of dictators – also sharply backed away from extreme radicalism. This parallel trend

was ac was ackn know owle ledg dged ed by Pa Paul ul Grif Griffi fith ths, s, who who wa wass a part partic icul ular arly ly  passionate defender of the twentieth-century musical avant-garde in its many guises. Commenting on Prokofiev’s transformation from “brittle Neoclas lassicism...to a full-he -hearted return to Romanticism,” Griffiths wrote: It woul uldd be wro wrong to att ttri ribu bute te the the So Sovvie iets ts’’ so soft ften enin ingg of  Neoclassicism entirely to political intervention, for the tendency was general. Copland and Harris, for instance, were leading the way towards a Romantic American nationalism, expressed most notably nota bly in the former’ former’ss balle ballett  Appalachian Spring (1944) and the latter’s Third Symph S ymphony ony (1937) (1937)..83

Curiously enough, Griffiths didAnother not explore the deeper of this return to romanticism. example of theimplications free-world move from extremism to populism in the 1930s was George Antheil, who retreated from his 1920s fascination with hammering dissonances and airplane propellers and proceeded to compose a cycle of six very traditional-sounding symphonies. Stylistically, those tho se works works rou roughl ghlyy par parall allele eledd the mod modera erate te populi populistst-rom romant antic ic cont co ntem emppora orary idi diom omss fo fouund in the midd ddle le sy sym mph phon onie iess of Shostakovich, Copland’s Third (which, as Whittall has remarked, 84

almost himself) the symphonies of Roy“out-Soviets” Ha Harr rriis an andd Shostakovich Da Davvid Diam iamon ond. d. Like Like and man any y ot othe herr on on/o /offf modernists, Antheil also contributed to the golden age of film music and even found time to compose and record a set of

83

84

vain. As Solzhenitsyn observed, that was the whole point in a state which divided div ided its citizens citizens under a rule of terror terror.. See the author’s author’s unforg unforgetta ettable ble description of how arrests worked under the Soviet system, in The Gulag  Archipelago,  Arc hipelago, 1 1918-1956 918-1956 (New York: York: Harper Harp er & Row Ro w, 1973), 3-23. See A Concise History of Avant-Garde Music from Debussy to Boulez (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 80-81. Composition in the Twentieth Ce Century ntury,, 158. Whittall, Musical Composition 76

 

 Background to the Problem

Valentine waltzes for piano. Henry Cowell, too, abandoned his once-shocking tone

clusters (besides many short pieces in the “tone cluster” genre, ther th eree is al also so an inte intere rest stin ingg la larg rgee-sc scal alee “ton “tonee-cl clus uste ter” r” pian pianoo concerto from 1928) for a cycle of around 20 comparatively ordinary and diatonic-sounding symphonies and a long series of Hymn Tunes. recorded Cowell’s by 1952 for Szigetiand (andFuguing immediately himViolin in theSonata same written year) was about as tuneful and tonal as any popular music from the same decade. The same went for the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, which were also recorded in the 1950s. 85  Leo Ornstein, in the 1910s, 191 0s, ini initia tially lly pro produc duced ed muc muchh mus music ic of unprec unprecede edente ntedd density density,, dissonance and fury, culminating in works like the manic Suicide in an Airplane and the 1917 Violin Violin Sonata Op 31. However, However, by the early 1920s, Ornstein had more or less completely abandoned the   was another front of musical radicalism. André Jolivetmusic anoth . This Frenchlines composer had first heard Schoenberg’s in theer.1920s, and subs subseque equently ntly went on to study with Varèse Varèse.. Both Schoenberg Schoenberg and Varèse turned out to be formative influences, and Jolivet duly  began his career as an atonalist. However, in the 1930s he backed away aw ay from from his his ra radi dica call me ment ntor orss an and, d, toge togeth ther er wi with th Me Mess ssai aien en,,  became part of a neoromantic movement in France that strove for greater warmth and accessibility, thus earning Boulez’s eternal enmity. Partly out of social concern, Kurt Weill’s works from the late laterr 1920 1920ss (l (lik ikee  Mahagonny) had already begun pulling away from from th thee esot esoter eric ic ex expr pres essi sion onis ism m of hi hiss yout youth. h. In hi hiss fina finall tw twoo decades, Weill “sold out” completely by writing several broadway musicals in the United States. The American-born Marc Blitzstein was originally a Schoenberg pupil but moved into music theater 85

The Violin Sonata released by Columbia in 1955 on ML 4841. In the same decade, the Fourth Symphony was recorded by Howard Hanson for Mercury (MG 40005), and the Fifth Symphony was recorded by Dean Dixon and the Wiener (1951). Symphoniker for the American Recording Society label, ARS 2 77

 

 Background to the Problem

and populism in the 1930s due to his devout communist belief that

music should be relevant to the masses. In doing so, Blitzstein was repr re pres esen enta tati tive ve of com compo pose sers rs fr from om a wide wide va vari riet etyy of nati nation onal al settings: Mikis Theodorakis in Greece, Hans Eisler in Germany, and Alan Bush and Christopher Darnton in England were similarly mot otiv ivat ated ed to us usee mor oree mod oder erat atee co com mpo posi sittio iona nall st styyles and technique techni quess in part part bec becaus ausee of the their ir deep deep com commun munist ist convic convicti tions ons.. Colin McPhee abandoned the dry and brittle idiom of his 1928 Piano Concerto and went off to Java where he became immersed in the dulcet tones of the gamelan. Ernst Toch Toch started out as a brilliant compositional prodigy in a romantic style and went on to become a leading avant-gardist in 1920s Germany. Germany. He later regained some of his previo previous us ton tonal al dir direct ectnes nesss and ly lyric ricism ism aft after er emigra emigratin tingg to America. Another Another Schoenberg Schoenberg pupil, Egon Wellesz, abandoned the atonality atona lity of his works works before the 1930 1930ss and for about two deca decades des wrotee mus wrot usic ic that that incl includ uded ed a reas reason onab ably ly to tona nall an andd ro rom man anti ticcsounding piano concerto from 1939 and four tonally expansive, almost Brucknerian symphonies. In the 1950s, Wellesz returned to a more expressionist and atonal idiom for the rest of his nine sympho sym phonie nies. s. Howeve Howeverr, his older older way of usi using ng ato atonal nality ity had now  been superceded by newer techniques. His re-entry into the modernist fold was clearly too little and too late for the young turks of Darmstadt, who had now moved on to total serialism, aleatoric techniques, pointilism and moment forms. Schoeck temporarily cultivated a morepoint advanced idiom inOthmar the 1920s, a phase which reached its highest with works like the Bass Clarinet Sonata, Op. 41 (1927-28). He had desp de sper erat ately ely de desi sire redd to be pe perf rfor orme medd by the the Sc Scho hoen enbe berg rg-D -Den entt International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), but that organization persisted in rejecting his works.   Frustrated with the new music scene, he therefore returned to his old lush and tonal idio id iom m (a (alb lbei eitt no now w stif stiffe fene nedd so some mewh what at with with a spri sprink nkli ling ng of modernist elements), which he thenceforth maintained up until his de deat athh in 1957 1957. . Ot Otto tori rino nothe Re Resp spig ighi hi from also also 1917 br brie iefly flytowr wrot otee in mo more re modernistic manner in years 1919 (thea most 78

 

 Background to the Problem

extreme point is perhaps represented by the 15-minute orchestral work,  Ballata delle gnomidi fr from om 1919 1919)) wh when en Ca Case sell lla’ a’ss orga or gani niza zati tion on for for mo mode dern rn music music,, the the So Soci ciet etàà Ital Italia iana na di Mu Musi sica ca Mode Mo dern rna, a, was was gi givi ving ng its its fi firs rstt conc concer erts ts in Italy Italy.. Howe Howeve verr, th thee  popular composer of  Pines of Rome rapidly broke with Casella’s hard-edge hardedgedd modernism modernism for aesthetic aesthetic reas reasons. ons. The Italian Italian futurist futurist Francesco Pratella, who had originally composed in a Mascagnilike idiom, abruptly changed his romantic musical style and wrote hiss fa hi famo mous us futu futuri rist st mani manife fest stoo in 19 1910 10.. But But with within in a hand handfu full of years, Pratella had returned to writing in a more traditional style again,, well before Mussolini again Mussolini was to consolida consolidate te his grip on powe powerr in the mid 1920s. In Britain, William Walton forsook the dissonant expressionistic idiom of his very early, Berg-like D minor string quartet. Arthur Bliss, too, was at his most radical early in life, as was Lord Berners. The Danish genius Rued Langgaard, a very  principled romantic composer who thought that romantic music was the music of paradise, paradise, had a brie brieff and very modernistic modernistic phase that th at wa wass repr repres esen ente tedd by th thee  Insectarium  of 1917 (a work still occasionally encountered in New Music concerts). The German orga or gani nist st Sigf Sigfri ridd Karg Karg-E -Ele lert rt,, alre alread adyy an expe experi rien ence cedd comp compos oser er,, decided decid ed in mid-caree mid-careerr to destroy destroy about 20 works. As he desc describe ribedd it, he “began again in C major, and prayed to the muse of melody.”86  Even the bel belov oveed Jo Joaq aquí uínn Ro Roddrigo rigo st star arte tedd out by writing some dissonant and bitonal piano pieces in the 1920s but aban ab ando done nedd th that at pat path an andd in inst steead ga gave ve th thee wo worl rldd so some me ve very ry memorable music, including the two most famous guitar concertos of th thee twen twenti tiet ethh cent centur uryy. The The co comp mpos oser er and and scho schola larr Ro Robe bert rt Simpson wrote four atonal symphonies at the beginning of his career but destroyed them and went on to affirm his own personal view of tonal aliity in 11 sy sym mphonies and 15 string quartets. Throughout his scholarly career, Simpson remained an outspoken advocate of twentieth century tonal traditionalism and made a 86

Quoted in Frank Conley Conley,, “Sigfrid Karg-Elert,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 2001), 13:377. 79

 

 Background to the Problem

 point of defending unfashionable early twentieth-century twentieth-century tonalists like Nielsen and Reger in the post-1945 era. The scholarly journal of the Robert Simpson Society is appropriately (and provocatively, considering the generation Simpson belonged to) named Tonic. We will hear again from Simpson later. of the abovethe examples (and that many more could still be added) All clearly confirm observation composers in general had pulled away from the extremism of the 1910s and 20s in an effo ef fort rt to reac reachh out out to thei theirr publ public ic on once ce ag agai ain. n. Paul Paul Hind Hindem emit ithh represented one of the biggest symbolic about-faces of the early twentieth century. After having been one of the best and brightest of the radical German faction in the 1920s along with Toch and others, othe rs, Hinde Hindemith mith went on to forsake forsake that path. With With publicati publications ons like A Composer’s Composer’s World (the famous 1949-50 Norton Lectures), he became one of the post-war avant-garde’s most powerful and articulate opponents. He composed many works in the manner of thee Sy th Sym mph phon onyy in E fl flaat and the the exp xpan ansi sive ve  Mathis der Maler symphony (Mathis is still one of his most-performed works) and a long lo ng seri series es of fi fine ne so sona nata tass fo forr a wide wide va vari riet etyy of inst instru rum men ents ts.. Signif Sig nifica icantl ntlyy, the ser series ies inc includ luded ed ins instru trume ments nts (like (like the Eng Englis lishh horn, tuba and double bass) with almost no solo repertoire. Not surpri sur prisin singly gly,, the theyy are still still much much app apprec reciat iated ed by instru instrume menta ntalis lists ts everywhere. In 1948, Hindemith famously revised the great songcycle Das Marienleben in order to greatly clarify its underlying tonal basis. basis. In 1955 1955,, he was the reci recipient pient of the Sibelius Sibelius prize and upheldd that beleague uphel beleaguered red comp composer oser,, whom René Leibowitz Leibowitz in the same decade was declaring to be “the worst composer in the world.”87  On that that oc occcasi asion, on, Hind indemi emith mad adee the the fo folllowi lowing ng observations: We see now owad aday ays, s, ho how w mus usic icaal cr creeat atio ionn has fr freq eque uenntly deggen de ener erat ated ed in into to an esot esoter eric ic ar artt of tone tone-j -jug ugggli ling ng,, in wh whic ichh experiment and sensation seem to be the all-important factors, and 87

René Leibowitz, “Sibelius, le plus mauvais compositeur compositeur du monde [Sibelius, the worst composer in the world],” (Liège: Éditions Dynamo, 1955). 80

 

 Background to the Problem

the question how a composer should should satisfy his listeners is grossly neglected. Now, a prize of the kind of the present one will by its very nature only be given to musicians who have outgrown experiments for experiment’s sake and sensations for sensation’s sake...88 

Hindemith was to the cold war avant-garde in the post-1945 “zerohour ho ur”” er eraa what what Ge Geor orge ge Roch Rochbe berrg woul wouldd late laterr beco become me to the the American Amer ican avant-garde avant-garde of the 1970s. Both compose composers rs had initially initially  been among the leading radicals of their respective generations. Both had also achieved long and brilliant academic careers. And  both were later treated with the full measure of extra disapproval, even hatred, that is specially reserved for apostates who were too articulate and influential in turning others away from what they considered to be harmful radicalism. Karol Szymanowski is yet another in our large and diverse group of “back-tracking” composers who became concerned about thei th eirr re rece cedi ding ng publ ublic in the 192 9200s and 30 30s. s. Thi hiss tro roub ublling ing  phenomenon, Szymanowski came to believe, was very closely rela re late tedd to Sc Scho hoen enbe berrg’s g’s eman emanci cipa pati tion on of th thee di diss sson onan ance ce.. As a resu re sullt, Sz Szyyman anow owsk skii cl claari riffied ied hi hiss hype hyperr-int -inteens nsee and ultr ultraachromatic idiom in the 1920s and 1930s and in the process became more critical of his radical Austrian colleague. Before Schoenberg, Szyma Szy mano nows wski ki wr wrot ote, e, diss disson onan ance ce had had been been “u “use sedd to ex expr pres esss  psychological conflicts, as ‘colour’, as ‘mood’; they never existed as a formal absolute value in their own right.” Schoenberg, he said, crossed the rubicon, separating himself forever from his past…He did this with a sense of complete responsibility for his actions and in ful fulll con consci scious ousnes nesss of the sig signif nifica icanc ncee of his dec decisi ision… on…W We should be completely mindful of the gravity and the consequences 88

Paul Hindemith, “Ansprache zur Entgegennahme des Sibelius-Preises,” in  Aufsätze, Vorträge, Vorträge, Rede Reden, n, ed. Giselher Schubert (Zürich and Mainz: Atlantis Atlantis Musi Mu sikb kbuc uchh-V Ver erla lag, g, 1994 1994), ), 291291-29 292. 2. Hind Hindem emit ithh wrot wrotee hi hiss resp respon onse se in English. 81

 

 Background to the Problem

of that step.89 

John Foulds in England was another one-time radical who harboured serious reservations about the Schoenbergian revolution. To a great greater er degree than most, Foulds Foulds was one of the most daring innovators at the turn of the century, as was Percy Grainger, who even claimed to have invented atonality before Schoenberg, such “patent office” claims being very important to many composers at that time.90 Foulds was already using quarter-tones in the 1890s, long before Alois Haba, and polytonality before Darius Milhaud. Unlike Szymanowski, Foulds was able to accept atonality, at least occasi occ asiona onally lly,, althou although gh such such acc accept eptanc ancee did not philos philosoph ophica ically lly hind hi nder er Foul Foulds ds fr from om simu simult ltan aneo eous usly ly usin usingg a sum sumpt ptuo uous us and and expansive romantic idiom for major works like his long-forgotten twotw o-hhou ourr mas aste terp rpie iece ce,, th thee 19 19224 World Requiem, Requiem,  whic whichh ha hass recent rece ntly ly be been en pe perf rfor orm med an andd re reco cord rded ed (for (f91or Chan Chando dos) s) by the the musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein.   Foulds’ approach to composing, like Busoni’s, was to use radical modernist techniques only when he really felt he needed them. However, Foulds could not accept what he felt were the emotionally crippling limitations of serialism, or dodecaphony. 92 Honegger, incidentally, later agreed with wi th Foul Foulds ds on this this la latt tter er poin pointt an andd spok spokee out out st stro rong ngly ly ag agai ains nstt serialism in his autobiobraphy. autobiobraphy. True to his word, Honegger’s music shows the use of atonality as an occasional expressive device, 89

90

91

92

Karo Ka roll Szyma Szymanow nowski ski,, Szymanowski on Music: Selected Writings of Karol Szymano Szy manowski, wski, trans. and ed. A. Wightman (London: Toccata Press, 1999), 222. In his letters to Ronald Stevenson in the 1950s, Grainger was still insisting that he had anticipated both the atonalism of Schoenberg and the irregular rh rhyythms thms of Stra Stravi vins nsky ky's 's  Rite of Spring.  Se See Co Comr mrad ades es in Ar Art: t: The The Corre Cor respon spondenc dencee of Rona Ronald ld Steve Stevenson nson and Per Percy cy Grainge Graingerr, 1957-61 1957-61,, ed. Teresa Balough B alough (Toccata Press, 2010). We can finally hear this vast work for ourselves thanks to Leon Botstein’s acclaimed revival in London, which has now been released by Chandos. Botstein is also noted for advocating many other neglected twentieth-century twentieth-century romanticand works byPfitzner. composers such as Joseph Marx, Richard Strauss (the late composers operas), Hans John Foulds, Music Today: Today: Its Heritage from the Past, and its Legacy to the  Futuree (London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, Limited, 1934), 252-253.  Futur 82

 

 Background to the Problem

while rejecting twelve-tone techniques. techniques.93 Others echoed the cautionary stance of Szymanowski and Foul Fo ulds ds.. Two of th thee be best st ex exam ampl ples es are are Cl Clau aude de De Debu buss ssyy an andd Ferruccio Busoni. They are frequently cited, correctly, for their towe to weri ring ng in infl flue uenc ncee on the the mos ostt ra radi dica call st stre ream amss of twen twenti tiet ethhcentury modernism, but their unhappiness with some of the actual deve de velo lopm pmeents nts th thaat tran transspi pirred well well wi with thin in th theeir life lifeti tim mes is understandably less dwelt upon in modernist-oriented musicological literature. Debussy and Busoni are credited with having developed many original ideas that were adopted by later composers. However, However, both composers were scarcely fifty years old  before seeing even newer ideas proliferate among slightly younger members of their own generation. Debussy seems not to have left us with a direct account of his opinion of the slightly younger Schoenberg, but we have it on the authority of the well-connected and highly cosmopolitan Casella (who was a life-long Schoenberg supporter and led the Italian chapter of the ISCM) that the great French Impressionist was “interested in all contemporary music,  particularly that of Stravinsky up to and including Petrouchka. He hadd no symp ha sympat athy hy for The Rite of Spring   and cordially detested Schoenberg.” 94  Busoni, as much as anyone in his era, advocated a new sense sen se of fre freedo edom m in mus musica icall la langu nguage age which which certa certainly inly sou sounde ndedd radical at the time. 95 Infrequently cited, however, is his reaction to those whose music he, together with Schoenberg and Stravinsky, Stravinsky, in no small measure helped to shape. Writing in an undated article near the end of his life (he was only 58 when he died in 1924), Busoni was profoundly disturbed. Everywhere, not least in Germany, Germany, similar symptom s ymptomss of revolution 93

94 95

Arthur Honegger, I am a Composer Composer,, trans. Wilson O. Clough (New York: York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966), 117-118. Alfredo Casella, Music in My Time trans. S. Norton (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955), 118. Ferr Fe rruc ucci cioo Buso Busoni ni,, Sketch tch of a Ne New w Esth sthetic tic of Music sic (N (New ew York: ork: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1911).

83

 

 Background to the Problem

appear in mu appear music sical al end endeav eavou ours… rs…evi eviden dently tly the out outbr break eak of thi thiss  present-day movement is a post-war expression: in the sense of  being transferred, new conditions bring about new manifestations, in art they call forth new expression and the supposed prerogative of the individual to proclaim it. The principle of one single indi indivi vidu dual al is pu push shed ed fo forw rward ard;; ma many ny ev even en ren renou ounc ncee this this an andd hammer on the principle of freedom of opinion; the idea of establishing those of their predecessors is simply scorned. The older men, who appear to be liberal and open-minded, are in search of a seeming juvenescence in it, which they agree with and follow and which gives them the illusion that they are at the head of th thee mov ovem emen entt. Th Thee you outh th of the dem emon onst stra rato tors rs an andd the irreg irregul ulari arity ty of th their eir prod produc uctio tions ns se seem em to be the the ou outs tstan tandi ding ng features of the movement; gift and ability are only a secondary consideration…  96  consideration…

Speaking of atonal expressionism, Busoni added prophetically (in a comm omment that could not have been aimed at anyo nyone but Schoenbergg himself): Schoenber From it we have got some possibilities which we add gratefully to our useful means and of which we shall make use from time to time. There is a kernel of truth in each of the big movements. The error lies in emphasizing this fact, for then one thinks and acts in an exclusive, exaggeratedly intolerant and rridiculous idiculous way. way. 97 

Busoni is one of the most complex personages in the history of music and it is entirely in keeping with his character that, despite his enduring reputation as a fountainhead of twentieth-century radical modernism, he also plays a vital role in radical modernism’s exact aesthetic opposite, the late twentieth century Romantic Revival.98  In Busoni’s time, and in the decades that 96

97

Ferruccio Busoni, “What is happening at the present time,” in The Essence of Music and Other Papers, trans. Rosamond Ley (New York: Dover, 1957), 41-42.

98

Ibid., 42. Busoni’s massive Piano Concerto, Op. 39 and Bach transcriptions benefited 84

 

 Background to the Problem

follow foll owed ed,, th thee rom roman anti ticc and and mode modern rnis istt st stre ream amss we were re high highly ly antagonis antag onistic. tic. Indee Indeed, d, aesthetica aesthetically lly spea speaking, king, they could could not have  been further apart. apart. Casella Case lla was the main drivi driving ng forc forcee behind behind the Italian wing of the Internati International onal Society for Contempo Contemporary rary Music in the 1920s and 30s. In that capacity, capacity, certainly, certainly, he was not one to be accused of  pandering to public taste. Ironically, Ironically, he had begun his own career as a composer of big symphonies of Mahlerian length that were st styyli list stic ical ally ly pa para rall llel el to Re Resp spig ighi hi’’s earl earlyy Sinf Sinfonia onia Drammatic Drammatica a. Upon Up on en enco coun unte teri ring ng Sc Scho hoen enbe berrg’s g’s late latest st mus usic ic,, Ca Case sell llaa then then suddenly plunged into a very dissonant period between 1913 and 1920. Following Following that brie brieff phase, phase, he retreated retreated just as abruptly abruptly and  began to compose in what he would later call his neoclassic/romantic style. By his Third Symphony of 1939, he had lar largely gely retu return rned ed once once ag agai ainn to a late late ro roma mant ntic ic id idio iom m, no now w harmo har monic nicall allyy upd update atedd a little little..99  Nev Nevert erthel heles ess, s, he contin continued ued to  praise, defend and perform Schoenberg Schoenberg in Italy throughout the 1930s while the fascist government was in power. It needs to be st stat ated ed he here re th that at Case Casell lla’ a’ss ac acti tivi viti ties es had had Mu Muss ssol olin ini’ i’ss gene genera rall appr ap proova val. l. The lat atte terr even ven too took si side dess wit with Case sellla aga gain inst st Respig Res pighi’ hi’ss vir virule ulently ntly ant anti-m i-mode oderni rnist st ma manif nifest estoo of 193 1931, 1, which which called for a return to nineteenth-century romantic values. values .100  And gr grea eatly tly fr from om the the Roma Romant ntic ic Revi Reviva val. l. In addi additi tion on to re revi vivi ving ng negl neglec ecte tedd ninete nin eteen enthth-ce centu ntury ry compo composer sers, s, the Roma Romanti nticc Reviva Revivall was was also also open open to resurrecting (according to the theoretical framework articulated by Frank Cooper) the “regressive” side of twentieth century music, including original works and transcriptions by early twentieth-century composer pianists such as Buso Busoni ni,, Godo Godows wsky ky,, Frie Friedm dman an,, Saue Sauerr, Me Medt dtne nerr and and ot othe hers rs.. One One of Palmgr Pal mgren en’’s piano piano conce concerto rtoss and and a longe longerr, unp unper erfor formed med 1928 1928 versi version on of Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Concerto were played by Gunnar Johansen in the 1970 19 70ss at Coop Cooper er’’s Fest Festiv ival al of Negl Neglec ecte tedd Roma Romant ntic ic Mus Music at Butl Butler er University. Cooper also programmed works by Korngold in order to make the point that the romantic stream was still flourishing deep in the twentieth 99

century. RomanticofRevival benow discussed further inbychapter two. and All threeThe symphonies Casellawill have been recorded both Naxos

100

Chando Chan dos, s, as part part of large largerr recor recorded ded survey surveyss of Casell Casella’ a’ss music music th that at both both labels are currently engaged in. See the extended quotation from Respighi’s manifesto in chapter five. 85

 

 Background to the Problem

yet, Casella too was finally moved to take note of the dangers of certain radical developments. In his 1938 autobiography autobiography,, he wrote: There have been too many experiments of all kinds in the last thir irty ty yea earrs; th they ey have infinit iteely enri ricched the sonoro rouus  possibilities of the art, but they have alienated the public and created a lack of contact between it and the artist, which must be overcome at the earliest possible time.101 

Also in 1938, Bartók reiterated Casella’s portrait of misdirected compositional efforts. Pleading for a return to simplicity simplicity,, he added, The reason why we have in the last twenty-five years attained the greatest confusion from the creative point of view that very few composers concentrated their efforts toward thisisgoal, and also  because musical creation has relied ttoo oo much on the unique value of the most unexpected and sometimes least appropriate means of expression to convey the inventive idea. That is what the Snobs called ‘inventive Genius.’102 

It is impo important rtant here to note that the essence of what Bartók and Casella were saying was fundamentally not all that different from from a st stat atem emen entt that that Med edtn tner er al also so made made in the the mid-19 id-1930 30s. s. Althou Alt hough gh Medtne Medtner’ r’ss tolera tolerance nce level level for unr unrem emitt itting ing disson dissonanc ancee was admittedly much lower than Casella’s or Bartók’s, he too  pointed out the confusion, as he put it, the “running to and and fro.” All those ‘isms’ – devil’s tails that have grown on our conceptions of art – are nothing but preconceived problems. The ‘progressive’ art of our times, having lost its real centre of gravity, has begun to rotate around all sorts of problems. But this new, arbitrary, centre can never be solid, and thus we are constantly running to and 103

101 102

103

fro.  

Casella, 234. Bela Be la Bartók, Bartók,  Bela Bartók Essays (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976, 1992), 516. Medtner, 128-129. 86

 

 Background to the Problem

Progress and the permanent revolution

 Not everyone felt that returning to a more tonal-romantic kind of musical expression (as represented by the late works of Bartók and Casella) was the answer to the problems of early twentieth-century modern music reception. Even less (for some) was the answer to be found in a return to the really lush kind of romanticism found in Medtner’s own music. For Elloitt Carter in 1940, this led to a real dilemma. As Carter saw it, a composer now had to decide between (a), simply repeating himself or (b), being original and losing his audience. Using Sibelius as an example, Cart Ca rter er note notedd th that at ther theree were were curr curren entl tlyy a grea greatt many any pu publ blic ic  performances Finnish composer’ composer “feew impo “f import rtaaof nt the co cont ntem empo pora rari ries es have have’s music, been een sand o easy earemarked sy on tthat he heir ir audiences audie nces.” .” However However,, in admitting admitting that Sibelius Sibelius’’s (old) (old) roma romantic ntic way of comp composin osingg new music still found a ready audience audience,, Carte Carterr also could not help but observe that the more advanced composers did not have it so easy. “Performances of contemporary ballets and operas, or frequent repetitions of the same work, which might help the public to understand the more varied output of other composers, have not occurred.” Thus, Carter came to what he thought was the only inevitable conclusion: One kind of new music does not always lead to comprehension of another; usually each is a new attack on a new problem of expression. So, if a composer doesn’t compose the same piece, over ov er an andd ov over er ag agai ainn un unde derr di diff ffer eren entt ti titl tles es,, an andd thus thus tra train in his his auddie au iennce to get get th thee poi oinnt, he wi will ll ha havve a ha hard rd tim imee be bein ingg understoo unde rstood... d...if if he has somethi something ng new to say and insists on say saying ing it, he will develop faster than his audience; he will leave his public

and then his public will leave him. One contemporary composer after another has suffered that fate. 104 104

Ellio Elliott tt Carter Carter,, “The “The New New York Season Season Opens, Opens, 1939,” 1939,” in The Writings of  Elliott Carter: An American compose composerr Looks at Modern Music , ed. Else Stone and Kurt Stone (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1977), 64-65. 87

 

 Background to the Problem

Carter was faced with a real Hobson’s Choice, or so he thou th ougght ht.. Ho Howe wevver er,, it is al also so po posssi sibble th that at his pr prob obllem wa wass ultimately of a different nature. In reality, his predicament may well have been the consequence of harbouring a too-uncritical at atti titu tude de towa toward rd to the the prog progre ress ssiv ivee view view of hi hist stor oryy which hich we described at the beginning of this chapter. As Carter’s “dilemma” showed, such a philosophy was already wrecking havoc on the care ca reer erss of co comp mpos oser erss ev every erywh wher ere, e, ca caus usin ingg th them em to fors forsak akee th thee  blessing of an ever-hopeful, ever-hopeful, long-sufferi long-suffering ng and expectant musical  public – and ultimately inducing composers to exchange that  blessing for a mess mess of moderni modernist st pottage. It was true that antipathy to new works and trends had occurred from time time composers like Cart Ca rter er ha had d no now w evid evto iden entl tlyy throughout re reac ache hedd the thhistory, e po poin intt but wh wher eree they they we were re  perhaps a little too willing to deliberately generate some of that antipa ant ipathy thy on pur purpo pose, se, jus justt for future future’’s sak sake. e. Carter’ Carter’ss his histor torica icall reasoning was not as solid as he thought. Indeed, we can look at musical reception over the past few centuries in the opposite way. We can observe all of the instances in which the new was eagerly embraced and the old was simply thrown away in the process. Before the year 1800, few music lovers even wanted music that wa was s mo more re th than an 25 performers year yearss ol old. d. and An Anddcomposers thro throug ugho hout utgrew th thee wealthy nine ninete teen enth th century, publishers, on the latest music. It was left to the twentieth century to turn the antipathy-toward-the-new principle into an overworked caricature whose who se featur features es bore bore only only a pas passin singg resem resembla blance nce to the ups and downs of musical reception in previous centuries. In the formation of such a caricature, quoting and shaming those who resisted musi mu sica call adva advanc ncem emen entt in pa past st ce cent ntur urie ies, s, thro throwi wing ng thei theirr ow ownn

ridiculous-sounding words back at them, therefore became a staple ingredient modernism.in upholding the mythology of twentieth-century radical Carter was clearly implying that if one resisted the most radical advancements, one would pay nothing nothing less than the price of obsolescence for one’s one’s own music. Because he and others sincerely 88

 

 Background to the Problem

 believed that musical conservatism was ultimately a sure ticket to obso ob sole lesc scen ence ce,, they they were were will willin ingg to pay pay the the pr pric icee of im imme medi diat atee rejection, which they quite naturally assumed would be temporary, assuming of course that they already had the stuff of greatness in thei th eirr ow ownn mus usiica call make keup up.. As Ca Cart rteer pu putt it in 1946 1946,, “we “we composers think our desire to write durable music a far-sighted one, though to our performing and publishing friends it often seems very stubborn of us...” At same time Carter believed in the strong likelihood that posthumous humiliation would be visited upon those who resorted to writing “easy music”: Some of us like to think, perhaps naively, that we could turn out the kind of work that would be immediately successful at once if we wanted to. But many of us feel that a little of this goes a long way. Sometimes what we think is our best work catches on with the public, to our own surprise and delight, though in a way this is disturbing too. We have all seen the public go wrong so often in matters of serious music. We think of all those works, now a part of our reper repertory tory,, that were com complete plete failures when they were first  played. That thought makes us suspicious. suspicious...you ..you can see what I mean when I say sa y that everything is a proble problem m to a composer.105 

Around Arou nd 19 1950 50,, Cart Carter er,, now now appr approa oach chin ingg hi hiss midmid-fo fort rtie ies, s, suddenly matured and abandoned his populist idiom for a more advanc adv anced ed sty style le that that bec becam amee famous famous for its alm almost ost impen impenet etrab rable le com co mpl plex exit ityy. He had had al alre read adyy sp spen entt the the firs firstt pa part rt of hi hiss care career er comp co mpos osin ingg in the the Co Copl plan and-H d-Har arri riss vein vein,, th thou ough gh wi with thou outt th thei eirr comparable public success (even today, most of the works Carter

wrote bef wrote before ore he was was forty forty are rarely rarely if eve everr enc encoun ounter tered) ed).. Aft After er graduating from populism around 1950, Carter now rapidly grew in av avan antt-ga gard rdee pr pres esti tige ge an andd acqu acquir ired ed ma many ny foll follow ower erss in th thos osee circles. Among his most passionate admirers was the brilliant  pianist and scholar Charles Rosen, who became one of Carter’s 105

Elli Elliot ottt Cart Carter er,, “The “The Co Comp mpos oser er’’s Viewp iewpoi oint nt (194 (1946) 6),” ,” in  Elliott Carter: Coll Co llec ecte ted d Es Essa says ys an and d Le Lect ctur ures es,, 19 1937 37-1 -199 995 5 , ed. Jo Jona nath than an Bern Bernha hard rd (Rochester, N. Y.: University of Rochester Press, 1997), 3-4. 89

 

 Background to the Problem

most lo most loyyal de defe fend nder ers. s. To th thee end end of th thee twen twenti tiet ethh ce cent ntury ury and and  beyond, Rosen promulgated the great modernist master’s  philosophy permanence: us thatbyitthe is unlikely thatofmuch of the easy“Experience music of ourteaches time promoted enemies of modernism will survive into the future,” 106  warned Rosen, echoing Carter’s words from half a century earlier. At another point, Rosen wrote that “The music which has endured for centuries...was rarely easy at first. With few exceptions it met in the beginning with some incomprehension and even resentment.”107  Forr th Fo thes esee obse observ rvat atio ions ns,, Rose Rosenn had had the the ap appa pare rent ntly ly so soli lidd supp su ppor ortt of so some me re rese sear arch ch coll collat ated ed in Nich Nichol olas as Sl Slon onim imsk skyy’s ente en tert rtai aini ning ng and and muc uchh-qu quot oted ed  Lexicon of Musical Invective. Slonim Slo nimsky sky’’s gen genuin uinely ely hum humoro orous us boo bookk record recorded ed muc muchh adv advers ersee rece re cept ptio ionn (m (muc uchh of it or orig igin inal ally ly ut utte tere redd “o “off ff th thee cuff cuff”) ”) of ne new w works from over the centuries, with a special emphasis on works thatt wen tha wentt on to bec become ome establ establish ished ed in the sta standa ndard rd per perfor formin mingg repertoire.108 But Rosen, so astute and brilliant in other ways, did not reckon with another possibility: Now that we are well into the twenty-first century, century, and are better able to see the twentieth century itself as “the past,” there is every reason to believe that a new lexi lexico conn of mu musi sica call in inve vect ctiv ive, e, on onee th that at wi will ll fo focu cuss on dura durabl blee romantic and traditionalist twentieth century music – music that survived in the face of decades of powerful critical disparagement from fro m Carter’ Carter’ss own com compos posing ing fra frater ternit nityy – wil willl eve eventu ntually ally be  published as well. A twenty-first-century twenty-first-century  Lexicon of Musical

 Invective will inevitably show the degree to which the twentieth-

century avant-garde sought to reject a vast amount of contemporary music that did not conform to the progress narrative of musical evolution but nonetheless ended up in the standard 106

107 108

Charles Rosen, Charles Rosen, Crit Critical ical Entertai Entertainmen nments: ts: Musi Musicc Old and New New.. ( Cambridge, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000), 294. Ibid., 6. See Slonimsky's Lexicon of Musical Invective (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, originally pub. 1953). 90

 

 Background to the Problem

repertoire. There will be no shortage of material to draw on. With the passing of the twentieth century, it is becoming very apparent apparent that, that, perhaps perhaps for the first time time,, those who exercise exercisedd caution toward new developments, especially the kind created in the wake of Schoenberg’s atonal and twelve-tone departures, had a valid point. Certainly, many of the cautious composers we have cited in this chapter (Debussy, Szymanowski, Busoni, Bartók) are  by no means resolutely rear-guard rear-guard figures figures like Nicholas Medtner Medtner.. It is one thin thingg for a commentat commentator or to suffer future embar embarrassm rassment ent for having criticize zedd a work that will eventually become a  programming staple in concert halls everywhere. That was the strength and of Slonimsky’s book. very different is ge gene nera rate tedd beauty wh when en we read read crit critic icis ism m of But co comp mpos oser ers, s, work works, s,effect an andd musical trends that never did properly become established in the repertoire. In those cases one understandably tends to be a little less sympathetic. Certainly Cert ainly,, as Y Yale’ ale’ss John Hall Hallee point pointed ed out earl earlier ier in this chapter, it cannot be denied that very little music representative of the more extreme elements of atonal modernism has entered the regu re gula larr re repe pert rtoi oire re sinc sincee Scho Schoen enbe berg rg publ publis ishe hedd hi hiss firs firstt aton atonal al expe ex peri rime ment nts, s, inthe th1910, e Three hrthe ee composer Pian Pianoo Piece iepresented cess Op them 11. At thcomplete eirr first irst  performance as athei  break with the past. In other words, the Op 11 pieces represented a revolutionary new departure from the tonal and heavily-W heavily-Wagnerian agnerian late late-r -rom oman anti ticc idio idiom m th that at Scho Schoen enbe berg rg ha hadd be been en us usin ingg ov over er th thee

 previous decade. The composer emphasized this point very clearly in his program note for that concert: “But now that I have set out along this path once and for all, I am conscious of having broken through every restriction of a bygone aesthetic.”109  Taruski aruskin, n, An Antho thony ny Pop Pople, le, Jos Joseph eph Auner Auner and ma many ny oth others ers have pointed out that Schoenberg was initially slow in realizing the  professional advantages of portraying his atonal break as something that was more akin to gradual evolution rather than 109

 Auner, 78. 91

 

 Background to the Problem

outright revolution. Indeed, Schoenberg in later years expended considerable effort in modifying his original “rebel” stance. He now claimed that his music was in fact deeply rooted in tradition. Inddee In eed, d, he fou ounnd it exp xped edie ient nt to dis ista tannce him himse sellf from from the revolu rev olutio tionary nary rhe rhetor toric ic of that that ori origin ginal al 1910 1910 progra program m ann annota otati tion, on, instead inste ad prefe preferring rring (for publ publicity icity purpose purposes) s) to emphasize emphasize what he called the smooth evolutionary nature of his music development. But in Schoenberg’s case, to speak of abrupt revolution or smooth evolution was ultimately a matter of semantics. Either way, his adva ad vanc ncee into into a di diss sson onan antt ch chro roma mati ticc un univ iver erse se la larg rgely ely fail failed ed to connect with the broader public, except, perhaps, as a colouristic device devi ce us used ed by co comp mpos oser erss of fi film lm musi music, c, mu much ch to the the elde elderly rly Elliott Carter’s eternal chagrin at the end of the twentieth century, as we will see in chapter six. Most humbling of all, Schoenberg’s music failed to carve anything close to a place of primacy in the concert hall pantheon along side leading composers from Bach to Shoosta Sh stako kovi vicch, a po posi sittio ionn tha hatt the inve invent ntor or of ato tona nali lity ty so desperately desired. Music historians are now in the situation of having to come to grips with the implications of this reality reality.. Reservations toward the most radical advances of the early twentieth century have not completely gone away as far as the musical public is concerned. This in itself is something new in the history of music. Atonality, a direct product of evolutionary and

 progressive philosophy, philosophy, is now a century old, and something of its initial rejection is still reflected in the kind of twentieth century music that concert goers and record connoisseurs generally prefer, as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s repertoire for their 2000 season showed sho wed earlier earlier – and which in tur turnn was merely merely a reflec reflectio tionn and confirmation of general record catalogue trends. On the other hand, many romantics whotowere still active duringpresence the time today. of the atonal revolution continue enjoy a considerable In the next chapter we will further discuss the presence of this so-called conservative stream, which for better or worse has so often been labelled “romantic.” 92

 

Chapter Two  

Persistent Romanticism and the Persistent Romantic Revival “It is a fa “It fall llac acyy comm common on to admi admini nist stra rato tors rs in the the musi musicc  business – record companies, symphony orchestras, concert soci so ciet etie iess – th that at the the pu publ blic ic year yearns ns for for list listen ener er-f -fri rien endl dlyy music.”1  (Cha (Charl rlees Rose sen, n, comm ommen enti ting ng on the ap appa pare rent nt succ su cces esss of co com mpo pose sers rs like like Sam Samue uell Barb Barber er and and Malc Malcol olm m Arnold).

Regressive romanticism after the dissonant revolution

n chap chapte terr on onee we disc discus usse sedd the once once-d -dom omin inan antt “p “pro rogr gres esss narrative of musical evolution” and how that idea shaped the outlook of modern-era composers and commentators alike. We also observed that some of the most radical compositional techniques that were developed after 1900 had an inconsistent rece re cept ptio ionn at best best,, even ven am amon ongg man anyy of the most ad adva vanc nced ed

I 1

Charles Charl es Rosen Rosen,, Criti Critical cal Entert Entertainm ainments ents:: Mus Music ic Old and New (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000), 311. 93

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

com co mpo pose sers rs.. It is now my inte intent ntio ionn to more fu full llyy desc descri ribe be romanticism's the twentieth willso-called find that this presence presence is partly in reflected in the century. success We of the Romantic Revival, which has been responsible for rescuing from oblivion many forgotten nineteenth-century composers as well as rarely encountered works by more important composers. Even more mo re im impo port rtan antl tlyy, such such a revi reviva vall ha hass exte extend nded ed to ro roma mant ntic ic composers who reached deep into the twentieth century and were  previously written off because of their failure to evolve musically. musically. Inttentio In ntionnal ally ly or not, not, th thee Rom omaanti ntic Rev eviv ival al,, has has ser serve vedd to emphasize stylistic,despite harmonic that linked the the natural two centuries, the and factmelodic that suchcontinuity obvious links were sometimes downplayed by advanced commentators and composers. For better or worse, we are using the word “romantic” to describe a certain stream of twentieth-century composers. It is an imperfect and notoriously imprecise label that we will gradually attempt to define as we proceed (see especially chapter three). For now no w, the term erm’s ge gene nera rall asso socciat iation with with “r “reegr greessi sive ve,” ,” or “con “c onse serv rvat ativ ive, e,”” or “bac “backw kwar ardd-lo look okin ing” g” co comp mpos oser erss will will be sufficient to set the stage. The romantics included composers as

diverse in style and national mileau as Puccini and Respighi in Italy,, Elgar and Vaughan Williams Italy Williams in England, Sibelius in Finland, Racchma Ra hmanin ninoff off in Rus ussi sia, a, (and (and th thee harm harmon onic icaally lly exte xtende nded romanticism of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Khachaturian in the later Soviet Union), Granados and Turina Turina in Spain, and Strauss and Korn Ko rngo gold ld in the the Aust Austro ro-Ge -Germ rman an worl world. d. Th Thei eirr pr pres esen ence ce in th thee twentieth century constituted a very broad phenomenon in general musi mu sica call li life fe,, an andd Germ German an scho schola lars rs so som met etim imes es refe referr to thei theirr  persistence in the repertoire, in the face of critical marginalization, as the  Gleich Gleichzei zeitig tigkie kiett des Unglei Ungleichz chzeit eitigk igkeit eiten en  (or, the cont co ntem empo pora rane neou ousn snes esss of th thee nonnon-co cont ntem empo pora rane neou ous) s).. We will will explore this paradox more thoroughly in chapter four. Looking back, it should have been no real surprise that near ne arly ly al alll wide widely ly-c -con onsu sume medd tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy mu musi sicc of the the 94

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

“serious” variety owed a direct debt to the kind of common  practice harmonies that had once been so prevalent in nineteenthcentury music. In reality, this was because musical language in the wider social sense actually continued to evolve and change at a rate ra te roug roughl hlyy pa para rall llel el to th thee ve very ry grad gradua uall ch chan ange gess in sp spok oken en language, as we will see more clearly in chapter six. In sum, the “dissonant” revolution hardly touched the kinds of music that the general public heard, played and sang on a daily basis. Rightly or wrongl wro nglyy, dis disson sonant ant mod modern ernism ism’’s overal overalll rep reputa utatio tionn among among the  public was more as an occasional (and perhaps irritating) addition to the concert menu. Or, on a more positive note, highly dissonant sono so nori riti ties es and and te text xtur ures es were were of ofte tenn enco encoun unte tere redd as colo colour uris isti ticc devices that had been incorporated, for special dramatic purposes, into otherwise ultra-romantic-sounding film scores, of which the default musical idiom was more or less defined by the no-holds barred romanticism of composers composers like Korngold and Rac Rachmaninoff hmaninoff (unlike the former, the latter refused to write film music but both had an indelible influence on the general idiom of countless later film composers). composers). Film musi musicc represent represented ed an entirely new genre in

the histthe history ory“talkies” of music, music,were andinvented. tru truly ly came camIn e of afte after r the late sense, 1920s when thisage very important Rachmaninoff and Korngold were fundamentally important to the  basic sound of twentieth-century music if we interpret this time  period in a broader anthropological or social sense rather than in thee tr th trad adit itio iona nall acad academ emic ic se sens nsee of it be bein ingg prim primar aril ilyy an era era dominated by “dissonant” music. The fact that hundreds, even thousands, of minor composers – whether (to take more or less random examples) Deems Taylor (1885-1966) in New York, Harl MacDonald (18991955) in Philadelphia, Pablo Casals (1876-1973) in Catalonia, Seli Se lim m Palm Palmgr gren en (1 (187 8788-19 1951 51)) in Fi Finl nlan andd or Ales Alessa sand ndro ro Lo Long ngoo (186 (1 8644-19 1945 45)) an andd hi hiss so sonn Achi Achill llii (1 (190 9000-19 1954 54)) in Ital Italyy – st stil illl somehow sounded quite romantic was also no surprise. How could it have have bee eenn an anyy di difffere ferent nt,, du duee to th thos osee compo ompose serrs’ cl clos osee chronological proximity to the so-called Romantic Era, and the fact 95

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

that neither they nor many of their composing colleagues saw the necessity or wisdom of a dramatic and revolutionary tonal break with the past? They were an extremely heterogeneous lot, as the above names show, and were represented in locations as far-flung as Australia (where the father of classical composition was the  prolific Alfred Hill, 1869-1960) and Japan (Hisatada Otaka, 191 191111951, or the slightly more updated Prokofiev-like romanticism of Hisato Ohzawa, 1907-1953)2  in additio additionn to North Amer America ica and all the European and Slavic countries. There was the composer-pianist Panc Pa ncho ho Vl Vlad adig iger erov ov (1 (189 8999-19 1978 78)) who who ta taug ught ht the the inte intern rnat atio iona nall virtuoso pianist Alexis Weissenberg. Vladigerov was the father of Bulgarian classical music in the Western tradition, and wrote five romantic piano concertos, orchestral works and much else. Eduard Tubin ubin (1905(1905-198 1982) 2) and Heino Heino Eller Eller (18 (188787-197 1970) 0) were were leadin leadingg figure fig uress in Estoni Estonia. a. Johan Johan Halvor Halvorsen sen 1864-1 1864-1945 945), ), Ey Eyvin vindd Aln Alnæs æs (1872(18 72-193 1932), 2), and Gei Geirr rr Tveit Tveittt (19 (190808-198 1981) 1) wer weree import important ant in  Norway.. W  Norway Wilhelm ilhelm Stenhamm Stenhammar ar (1871-1927), Kurt Atterberg (1 (18878871974) and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942) were active in

Sweden. Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) and Joaquín Rodrigo (19011999) were prominent in Spain. Most of the leading performing musicians one could name also saw no need to renounce the musical styles of the nineteenthcentury. Included in this illustrious company were figures like Arturo Art uro Tosc oscani anini, ni, Wilhelm ilhelm Fu Furtw rtwäng ängle lerr, Sir Th Thoma omass Beecha Beecham, m, Pabl Pa bloo Casa Casals ls,, Frit Fritzz Kr Krei eisl sler er,, Jasc Jascha ha Heif Heifet etz, z, Andr Andrés és Sego Segovi via, a, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Benjamino Gigli, and John McCormack. Even those few performers who did show a measure of curiosity concerning recent modernist experiments rarely felt the need to snub the traditionalists. Some popular performers like Walter Gieseking, Leopold Stokowski, and Dimitri Mitropoulos, forr ex fo exam ampl ple, e, oc occa casi sion onal ally ly ch cham ampi pion oned ed Sc Scho hoen enbe berrg bu butt it is 2

Many of Hill’s symphonies and string quartets can now be heard on Marco Polo/Naxos. Otaka wrote a lovely flute concerto that was played by Rampal. Ohzawa has two Naxos discs showing him to be a populist blend somewhat along the lines of Antheil, Gershwin, Ravel, and Prokofiev. 96

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

im impo port rtan antadvocates t to po poin inttofou out t that that they they ne neve vert rthe hele less ss music rem remai aine ned ev even en stronger recently-composed romantic byd living composers.3 In the most fundamental anthropological sense, then, continuing the tradition of romantic music was still very important for early twentieth-century performers and their audiences. When  performers did play play twentieth-centu twentieth-century ry music, therefore, therefore, it generally tended to be of the ungleichzeitig  (non-contemporaneous)   (non-contemporaneous) variety. Latter-day romantics often commiserated with each other,  but in some notable instances did not form a common cause. In 1961, looking back on his earlier years, the American critic and composer Virgil Thomson called his own clearly diatonic music “neoromantic” with full knowledge of what such a description meant in the Stravinsky-Schoenberg context of the 1920s and 1930s: 3

Dmitrii Mitrop Dmitr Mitropolo olous us (18 (1896 96-19 -1960 60)) was a dedic dedicate atedd advoc advocate ate of Krene Krenek’ k’ss twelve-tonee works, and a 1949 recording survives of Mitropoulos conducting twelve-ton

Krenek’s atonal Third Piano Concerto from the keyboard (re-released on compact disc, AS disk 512). However, as Krenek’s biographer John Stewart notes, Mitroupolos “had composed duringBut the despite twentieshis andcuriosity had an intellectual interest himself in the twelve-tone technique. about this ‘scientific music,’ as he often referred to it, it was not music close to his heart; what he really liked was the music of Rachmanin Rachmaninoff. off.”” See Ern  Ernst st  Krenek:  Kre nek: The Man and his Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 246. Like Mitroupolos, Walter Gieseking (1895-1956) sometimes played the most dissona diss onant nt moderni modernist st scores as well (there exists exists a piano piano roll of Giesekin Giesekingg  performing Schoenberg’ Schoenberg’ss Three Pieces, Op 11, 11, listed at the Arnold Schoe Sch oenbe nberg rg Websit ebsite) e).. At the same same tim time, e, howe however ver,, Gie Giesek seking ing was was also also a major exponent exponent of the big romantic contemporary concertos of Joseph Marx, Hans Pfitzner and Rachmaninoff. In the last decade of Gieseking’s life, the twentieth-century portion of his repertoire was mostly devoted to Debussy and Ravel. As for Leopold Stokowski, he was perhaps the most omivorous of all when it came to twentieth-century music. He often programmed the most radical works wo rks,, and fe fearl arles essly sly broad broadcas castt the Schoe Schoenbe nberg rg Piano Piano Con Conce certo rto with with the  NBC Orchestra Orchestra in 1942 against against Toscanini’ Toscanini’ss wishes. But Stokowski Stokowski espe especially cially thrived in the large symphonic works of living romantic contemporaries like Gliere, Glie re, Khachat Khachaturia urian, n, Mahler Mahler,, Rachman Rachmaninof inoff, f, and the local local Philadelp Philadelphia hia composerr Harl MacDonald. Last, but certainly not least, we compose w e can also mention Stokowski’s own ultra-romantic orchestral transcriptions of Bach. 97

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

A smallish branch of the neoclassical and Impressionist group is sometimes called, or used to be, neo-Romantic, though the term is embarrass emba rrassing ing because of its earlier association association with such heirs of real Romanticism as Sibelius and Rachmaninoff. I mention this group because I am one of its founding fathers, along with Henri Sauguet. We seem to have started it in Paris about 1926...It was our scandal, in an objective time, to have reopened the old Romantic vein and to have restored, in so far as our work was successfu succ essfull at all, private feelings to their form former er place among the legitimate themes of art.4 

Despite attempting to reopen a place for human expression in an object obj ective ive and neocla neoclassi ssical cal time, time, Tho Thoms mson on was was nev nevert erthel heless ess still still able ab le to writ writee that that Si Sibe beli lius us wa wass “vul “vulga garr, se self lf-i -ind ndul ulge gent nt,, and and  provincial beyond all description.”5  That much quoted comment wass an unca wa uncann nnyy pr pree-ec echo ho of Le Leib ibow owit itz’ z’ss infa infamo mous us Si Sibe beli lius us--

 bashing exercise in the 1950s. 1950s.6 In the same paragraph, Thompson also wrote that Sibelius’s “populace-pleasing power is not unlike the power of a Hollywood class-A picture.” 7  In the historical context of the mid-century mid-century,, linking current romantic music styles to film music was one of the most devastating (and effective) ways of discrediting contemporary composers that critics could muster. In certain cases such negative judgements may simply have  been uttered for reasons of national pride. English, Scandinavian, and Russian twentieth-century romantic composers did not easily gain entry into the Great Tradition, Tradition, which in any case was partly an invention of German musicologists who followed the intellectual tradition of historians like Franz Brendel (1811-1868) and Hugo 8

Riemann Riema nn (1849-191 (1849-1919). 9).   Engla England, nd, for exampl example, e, was was infamo infamousl uslyy 4

5 6

7 8

Richar Ric hardd Koste Kostelan lanetz etz,, ed., ed., Virgil irgil Tho Thomson mson:: A Reader Reader.. Selected Selected Writin ritings, gs, 1924-1984, (New York: Routledge, 2002), 163. Ibid, 48. René Leibowitz, “Sibelius, le plus mauvais compositeur compositeur du monde [Sibelius, the worst composer in the world],” (Liège: Éditions Dynamo, 1955). Ibid. Franz Fra nz Brend Brendel el and and Hugo Hugo Riema Riemann nn were were highly highly influe influenti ntial al and and proli prolific fic write wr iters rs whose whose histor historica icall ov overv erview iewss were were widely widely studi studied ed.. See Brend Brendel’ el’ss 98

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

 branded “das Land ohne Musik” by Oscar Schmitz.9  Thus, it was not uncommon for someone like the brilliant British writer Donald Francis Tovey to also be a stout defender of a primarily German cano ca nonn of Grea eatt Com ompo possers, ers, even ven wh whiile the Eng ngli lish sh mus usic ic renaissance led by Elgar, Delius, Holst, and Vaughan Williams was flourishing around him. Dating back at least to Schumann’ Schumann’ss rejection of Rossini, the entire ent ire Italia Italiann opera opera tradit tradition ion (in (inclu cludin dingg Verd erdii and – especi especiall allyy – Puccini) had a difficult time gaining entry into the pantheon, as we saw in chapter one. So did Russian music, including Tchaikovsky, despit des pitee the fac factt tha thatt he has easily easily held his posit position ion as Russia Russia’’s most-perfo most -performed rmed comp composer oser for the past 150 years. years. Tchai chaikovsky kovsky’’s nearest Russian-born challenger remains Rachmaninoff, who has fare fa redd even even wo wors rsee at the the ha hand ndss of hist histor oria ians ns..10  Strauss famously

referred to the music of Rachmaninoff as “gefühlvolle Jauche” 11  (Although Mahler, on the other hand, showed exceedingly high respect toward Rachmaninoff in 1910 when the two performed the new Third Concerto in New York). At root, Strauss’s comment may well well have have been been colour coloured ed by lon long-s g-stan tandin dingg Ger Germa man/S n/Slav lavic ic disputes which also had political overtones. In any case, Strauss, as Schoenberg pointed out, was at heart a German nationalist who Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Deutschland und Frankr Geschichte Frankreich eich von den ersten christlichen christliche n Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart (Leipzig: Heinrich Matthes, 1852),

9

10

11

of whic whichh the the eig eighth hth edit editio ionn appe appear ared ed in 1906 1906.. See See al also so Riem Rieman ann’ n’ss Gesc Ge schic hichte hte de derr Musik Musik seit seit Bee Beetho thoven ven (Berlin and Stuttgart: W. Spemann, 1901). Riemann’s massive  Lexicon went through twelve editions between 1882 and 1975. This Th is was was the the titl titlee of a book book by Osca Oscarr Schm Schmit itz, z,  Das Land ohne Musik: englisch eng lischee Gese Gesellsch llschaftsp aftspro roblem blemee (M (Mun unic ich: h: G. Müll Müller er,, 1904 1904). ). Th Thee book book rapidly went through several subsequent editions as well, with the fourth edition appearing in 1914. There is a good discussion of Tchaikovsky’s academic reception in Richard Taruskin’ aruskin’ss essay, essay, “Cha “Chaikov ikovsky sky and the Human: Human: A Centenn Centennial ial Essay,” Essay,” in  Defining Russia Musically: Musically: Historic Historical al and Hermeneutic Hermeneutical al Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 239-307. A loose translation would be “emotional manure.” Quoted in Maria Biesold, Sergej Rach Sergej Rachmani maninoff, noff, 187 1873-19 3-1943: 43: Zwis Zwische chen n Moskau Moskau und New York ork.. Eine  Künstlerbiographie  Künstlerb iographie (Weinheim, Berlin: Quadriga, 1991), 414. 99

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

 believed (as Schoenber Schoenbergg himself most emphatically did) in the inherent superiority of the German musical tradition. 12  On the flip side of Russian-German nationalist tensions, Tchaikovsky in the late late nine ninete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry al also so desp despis ised ed th thee mu musi sicc of Brah Brahm ms, although at the same time both he and Brahms represented what was then seen as the conservative element in the fight against the  progressive Wagner Wagner.. Rachmaninoff and Strauss also had a unity of sort so rtss in that that th they ey were were both both very very popu popula larr wi with th thei theirr pu publ blic ic.. Furthermore, both were considered by the later avant-garde to be among the most conservative and romantic contingent in twentiethcentury composition.

Twentieth century romanticism  in an academic context

As two of the most famous representat atiives of late romanticism in the generation leading up to 1950, Strauss and Rachma Rac offferh were we resessbyofany objec objectiv me among ong m us usihmanin ica call ninof pow owe rhou ouse their heir time. imtive e.e Ameasu s asurem two tworement ofenttheam to top p fiv fithe ve repertoire composers of the twentieth century, century, they not only had an unassailable presence in the daily concert life from their earliest years onward, but were also clearly superior in many basic facets of sheer musical ability to pioneers like Schoenberg, Ives, Varèse and Stravinsky. Strauss was an astonishing compositional prodigy with a facility comparable to that of Mendelssohn and Saint Saens. He was justly admired for his sensitivity to the human voice, 12

Schoenberg, in one of his more unvarnished moments, wrote in 1914: “My friends know it, I have often said to them, I never had any use for all foreign music. It always seemed to me stale, empty, disgusting, cloying, false, and awkw aw kwar ard. d. Witho ithout ut exce except ptio ion. n. Now Now I know know who who th thee Fren French ch,, Engl Englis ish, h, Russians, Belgians, Americans, Americans, and Serbians are: barbarians! For a long time this music has been a declaration of war on Germany...Now we shall send these mediocre purveyors of kitsch back into slavery, and they shall learn to honor the German spirit and to worship the German God.” see Joseph Auner Auner,,  A Schoenbe Schoenberg rg Reader: Documen Documents ts of a Life (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), 126. 100

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

orchestral wizardry and dazzling dramatic genius, and composed what are still considered to be some the finest German art songs, tone poems, and operas of his era. He was also one of the best German conductors of his generation, and to top it off was a morethan-able pianist in his youth. Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninof f, for his part, was generally regarded as being among the very greatest Russian conductors of his generation, as Prokofiev (no close friend) and others confirmed. confirmed.13 Rachmaninoff was alsoasuniversally admired (even those denigrated his music) mus ic) a pia pianis nistt lit litera erally lly wit withou houtt by pee peer r. Hiswho sco score re readin readingg and memorization abilities measured up to the greatest in history, and it

was was partly because of this facility that he was able to master a large performing repertoire seemingly overnight after fleeing the 19177 Bolshe 191 Bolshevik vik Revolu Revolutio tionn and embar embarkin kingg on an intern internati ationa onall careerr as a piani caree pianist st at the astonis astonishingl hinglyy late age of 45. A Ass the awestruck Percy Grainger later remarked, Rachmaninoff was now able to pose as a specialist in piano performance, which had previously  been a side line during his Russian years when he had dominated the musical scene as a composer and opera conductor. 14  Rachmaninoff’s position in the daily music business has always stood in the greatest possible contrast to his treatment by the academic world. Indeed, his case is very similar to Puccini in this regard. Considering his truly immense public stature today, it is of no small interes interestt to our topic of romantici romanticism sm in the twenti twentieth eth century that Rachmaninoff has long numbered among the most academically maligned of all major twentieth-century composers. 13

14

See Sergey Prokofiev Diaries, 1907-1914: Prodigious Youth, trans. Anthony Phil Ph illi lips ps (Lon (Londo don: n: Fabe Faberr and and Fabe Faberr, 20 2006 06), ), 72 725. 5. Th This is is an es espe peci cial ally ly sign signif ific ican antt obse observ rvat atio ionn on the the part part of Prok Prokof ofie ievv, who who was was in awe awe of Rachmaninoff’s general stature even though the two compatriots had an uneasy relationship due to Rachmaninoff’s disapproval of Prokofiev’s more ra radi dica call mome moment nts. s. Prok Prokof ofie ievv al also so had had th thee hi high ghes estt prai praise se for for impo import rtan antt Rachmaninoff works like The Bells, even though he felt that t hat Rachmaninoff’s Rachmaninoff’s general attitude toward composition was not very progressive. Percy Grainger, “The specialist and the All-Round Man (1943),” in Grainger on Music,  ed. Malcolm Gillies and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 314. 101

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

His still-uncertain stature in mainstream musicology is an accurate litmus litm us test of the status of romantica romantically-o lly-orient riented ed music in the cold cl clim imat atee of Mo Mode dern rnism ism du duri ring ng hi hiss time time and and af afte terr. De Desp spit itee hi hiss mastery of craft, memorable musical qualities, and preternatural abilities abili ties as a pianist pianist and cond conductor uctor,, he has not been consider considered ed fit to define his generation in any way. Although he was merely the tip of a much larger romantic iceberg in contemporary music, he somehow ended up being seen as a stylistic anomaly in his era. The comp omposer who “drove a car for thirty years, enjoyed speedboats, had a distinctly 1930s house built for himself, met

Walt Disney, lived among movie stars in Beverley Hills, and died two year ears before the dropping of the first atomic bomb,” supposedly did not belong to the twentieth century.15  Eve venn wo worrse, se, his com omppos osiition tional al craft raft wa wass cal alle ledd in into to question. quest ion. The nownow-infam infamous ous and much-quoted much-quoted arti article cle in the 1954 Grove’ss Dictionary   called him “highly gifted, but also severely Grove’ limited.” It spoke of his “monotonous textures,” and “artificial and gushing We are “The also told that he popular had less success individuality Taneyev.tunes.” And, finally: enormous some than few of Rakhmaninov’s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded it with much favour.” 16  Harold C. Schonberg bluntly called this article “one of the most outrageously snobbish and even stupid statements ever to be found in a work that is supposed to be an objective reference.”17 The 1954 Grove was part of a long tradition of dismissal. In 1940, Paul Henry Lang had voiced the opinion, already common in 18

many circles, that Rachmaninoff’s music would not survive.  But 15 16

17

18

The illustr illustratio ationn is Barr Barrie ie Martyn’ Martyn’s. s. See  Rachmanino  Rachmaninoff: ff: Composer Composer,, Pianist, Conductor (Aldershot, Hants: Scholar Press, 1990), 12. Ericc Blom, Eri Blom, “Serg “Sergei ei Rak Rakhm hman anino inovv,” in Gr Grove ovess Dictio Dictiona nary ry of Mu Music sic and  Musicians,, fifth ed.,  vol. 7,  ed. Eric Blom (New York: St. Martins Press,  Musicians 1954), 27. Haro Ha rold ld C. Schonb Schonber erg, g, The Lives Lives of the the Gr Grea eatt Compo Composer sers, s, th thir ird d ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997), 529-520. Paul Henry Lang wrote: “Scriabin and Rachmaninoff were still entirely under [Chopin’s] [Chopin’s] spell,” and “were not able to derive from Chopin’s heritage more than ephemeral compositions, dated at the time of their creation.” See 102

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

few wr few writ iter erss ma matc tche hedd the the inve invect ctiv ivee of Paul Paul Ro Rose senf nfel eld, d, whos whosee chapter on Rachmaninoff in his 1920 book  Musical Portraits must rank among the most gratuitous and drastic put-downs of any major composer past or present.19  Althou Although gh Ros Rosenf enfeld eld began began his arti ticcle in a promi omising manner, by clai laimin ingg that he found Rachmaninoff to be an accomplished and charming workman, he lost no time in adding that the composer’s very best works lacked distinction and vitality. vitality. The article rapidly went downhill from that

 point onward: The st The styyle is str tran anggel elyy sof oftt and and unr nreefr fres eshhing. ing. Em Emooti tioon is communicated, no doubt. But it is emotion of a second or even third order. Nor is the music of M. Rachmaninoff ever quite completely new-minted. Has it a melodic line quite properly its own? One doubts it. Many of the melodies of M. Rachmaninoff have a Mendelssohnian cast, for all their Russian sheen. Others are of the sort of sweet spiritle lesss silken tune generally characteristic of the Russian salon school. Nor can one discover in this music a distinctly original sense of either rhythm of harmony or tone color...In color...In all the music of M. Rachmaninof Rachmaninofff there is something strangely twice-told. From it there flows the sadness distilled by all things that are a little useless...he writes concerti of the old type. He writes pieces full of the old astounding musical dislocation. Phrases of an apparent intensity and lyricism are negated by frivolous and tinkling passagework. Take away the sound and fury signifying nothing from the third concerto, and what is left? There was a day, perhaps, when such work served. But another hasa succeeded it. And M. Rachmaninoff comes amongst us like ver y charming very and so amiable ghost.20

Rosenfeld managed to fill about seven pages with vitriol similar to thee abov th above, e, and and if noth nothin ingg else else,, hi hiss comm commen ents ts wi will ll even eventu tual ally ly  become part of a new  Lexicon of Musical Invective that will be 19

20

 Music in Western Western Civiliza Civilization tion (New York: Norton, 1941), 814-815. Pauul Rose Pa sennfeld feld,,  Musical Portraits: Interpr Interpretations etations of Twenty Modern Composers, (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1920), 169-176.

Ibid., 171-174. 103

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

compi pilled in order to demonstrate how twentieth-century commentators wrote off composers who were later destined to  become central in the daily life life of the classical classical music worl world. d.21  Not surprisingly, surprisingly, historical surveys covering the twentiethcentury period have generally portrayed Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff in a manner that is nothing short of abysmal, as Table 2 in chapter one showed. Indeed, their coverage of this composer (or, more precisely, their

lack of coverage) could now said to judgement. constitute one of modern musicology’s major lapses in be historical Mark Morris, the author of a popular guide on twentieth-century composers, ri righ ghtl tlyy obse observ rved ed in 1994 1994 th that at Rach Rachma mani nino nofff’s f’s trea treatm tmen entt wa wass “shabby.”22 A cursory look through textbook overviews certainly  bears this out. In 1961, Joseph Machlis stated outright that Rach Ra chma mani nino nofff di didd no nott belo belong ng in a text text on twen twenti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy music.23 In the second edition from 1979, Machlis dropped this st stat atem emen entt and and its its ac acco comp mpany anyin ingg ne nega gati tive ve para paragr grap aph, h, an andd no now w mentioned the composer only three times in passing, as a part of vari va riou ouss li list sts. s.24  In 1992, Antokole oletz lik likewise mentioned Rachmaninoff only in passing.25 In 1994, Paul Griffiths referred to him hi m once once in the the fina finall ch chap apte terr of hi hiss avan avantt-ga gard rdee su surv rvey ey,, as an “unregenerated romantic.”26 Watkins (1995) mentioned his name only on ly when hen he was was refe referr rrin ingg to tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy roma romant ntic ic 21

Thee full Th full title title of Nich Nichol olas as Slon Slonim imsk skyy’s memo memora rabl blee book book is  Lexicon of  Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’ Beethoven’s Time

22

23

24

25

26

(New York: York: Norton, Nor ton, 1953). 1953) . Mark Morris, A Guide to 20th-Century Composers (London: Methuen, 1996), 326. Joseph Machlis, Intro  Introduction duction to Contemporary Music, 1st ed.   (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1961), 108. Joseph Machlis, Intr  Introduction oduction to Contempor Contemporary ary Music, 2nd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1979), 213, 221, 228. Elliott Antokeletz, Twentieth Century Music (Englewoo (Englewoodd Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1992), 100, 302, 303. Paul Griffiths, Modern Music: A Concise History History,, re revv. ed. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994), 191. In the 1978 edition of this book, Griffiths did not ment me ntion ion Rachman Rachmanino inoff ff at all, all, even even as a foil foil to mode moderni rnist st trends trends.. See  A Conc Co ncise ise His Histor toryy of Ava vantnt-Ga Garrde Mu Music sic (New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1978). 104

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

composers in passing. Peter Hansen (1978) did not list Rachmaninoff in the index of his survey at all,27 and neither did Bryan Simms (1986).28  Eric Salzman (1988) gave the composer one sentence.29 These standard surveys of twentieth-century music confirm the bizarre state of affairs in which a fully equipped composer who was active until the 1940s, and has been central to

the international international repert repertoire oire since the 1890s 1890s,, “has had hardly hardly any 30

critical appraisal at all.”   It is rather like dropping Schubert or Mendel Mend elss ssoh ohnn fr from om a nine ninete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry su surv rvey ey.. For For st stud uden ents ts learning about the most important music (and musical issues) of thee twen th twenti tiet ethh ce cent ntur uryy, it is an om omis issi sion on of eq equa uall pr prop opor orti tion ons. s. Scho Sc hola lars rs who who igno ignore redd Rach Rachma mani nino noff’ ff’ss trul trulyy imme immens nsee role role in twentieth-century music did a grave injustice to their profession.  William Austin, considering that his overview came out in 1966 during the heyday of cold war modernism, surprisingly did somewhat better than the writers mentioned earlier earlier.. Devoting more tha than n two pag es toforRac Rachma offf (Schoe (Sc hoenbe nberg wa wass and giv given enVespers. fif fifty ty), ), Austin hadpages praise thehmanin soloninof piano works, thergsongs, The larger instrumental works were found to be structurally weak, whatever that meant (Austin did not elaborate).31  But commendably, Austin resisted the temptation to mingle his praise with cynicism, unlike Arnold Whittall in 1999. Allowing Rach Ra chma mani nino nofff ha half lf a page page,, Whit Whitta tall ll com combine binedd ne near arly ly ev ever eryy favourable comment with a negative one. Thus, we read that “the  popular indestructibility indestructibility”” of the Second Concerto , the  Paganini  Rhapsody, and many shorter piano works “may have more to do  Rhapsody, 27 Pete Pe terr S. Hanse senn,  An Introduction Introduction to Twentieth Century Music,  4th  ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1978). 28 Bryan Bry an Simms, Simms,  Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure Structure (New York: Schirmer Books, 1986). 29 Eric Salzman, Twentieth-century Music: An Introduction, 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1988). A fourth edition from 2002 does nothing to rectify Salzman’s view. 30 Harold C. Schonberg, The Lives of the Great Composers, 3rd ed.   (New York: W. W. W. Norton Nort on & Company, Company, Inc., Inc. , 1997). 31 William Austin, Music in the Twentieth Twentieth Century Century (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966), 68-69. 105

 

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with the short-term memorability of tuneful melody than anything else, but such factors are complemented by the structural strengths as well as the emotional power” of the Second Symphony , Third Concerto , and Symphonic Dances. Revealing his personal, technoessent ess ential ialist ist att attitu itude de tow toward ardss twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry romant romantic icism ism in

general, Whittall concluded that Rachmaninoff’s music was “both utterly personal and also entirely persuasive in its revitalization of traditional essences – an achievement that makes the failure of so 32 many other attempts to repeat the trick the more obvious.”  Deep down, Whittall seemed to question the sincerity of the composer’s idiom in general (why else would he have referred to it as some sort of trick?) but one would be hard pressed to find a more inappropriate image of this very sincere composer. More respectful than Whittall was Robert Morgan in 1991. Morgan began his coverage by stating that around 1900, Russian music “enjo joyyed special prominence in Western musi siccal composition,” and further, that Scriabin and Rachmaninoff were the country’s most important figures. This sounds like a promising  beginning to what could be a chapter or two of solid coverage for these two composers, especially considering the overall  prominence of Russian music in the twentieth century standard repertoire. Morgan, however, went on to devote only two pages to Rachmaninoff. The composer’s only failing seemed to be that he 32

Arnoldd Whitt Arnol Whittall all,,  Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 37. Since the 1970s Whittall has also been one of Gramophone  magazi magazine ne's 's ma main in revie reviewer werss of the high high moder modernis nistt literature. Except for his reviews of Britten, he rarely crosses paths with the cons co nserv ervati ative ve side side of the twenti twentieth eth centur centuryy (tha (thatt part part of the re reper pertoi toire re is handled han dled by more sympathe sympathetic tic Gramopho Gramophone ne reviewer reviewerss including including Layton, Layton,  Nicholas, and Aesenbach). Thus it is pertinent here to mention a very rare case where Whittall did meet Rachmaninoff in the pages of Gramophone. Thee item Th item under under re revie view w was was a large large CD box box devot devoted ed to Hans Hans Rosba Rosbaud ud,, a conductor known for his modernist sympathies (and hence given to Whittall for review). Whittall called the inclusion of the Second Concerto “the most expendable” expenda ble” item in the Rosbaud box, and tried to praise the performance by saying that “even this brings out the work’s genuine strengths, never overindu indulg lgin ingg the the tear tear-j -jer erki king ng hist histri rion onic ics. s.”” se seee revi review ew of Hans Hans Rosb Rosbau aud, d, Gramophone (Nov 2004): 66. 106

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

“never abandoned the tonal and formal conventions of nineteenthcentury music and thus remained throughout his life outside the main currents of twentieth-century musical developments.” This,

ultimately, was why Morgan did not give the composer more space. But, as Morgan admitted, “the antimodernist sentiments of composers like him have been a persistent and important factor in modern musical life [my italics].”33  Although Morgan declined to explore the implications of such anti-modernist persistence, the general tone of this particular comment may nonetheless have signalled a slight thaw in his basic attitude toward latter-day romantic composers, especially when we note that only a decade earlier (in a review essay discussing the 1980  New Grove Grove co cove vera rage ge of tw twen enti tiet ethh ce cent ntury ury co comp mpos oser ers) s),, Morgan had been much more dismissive of Rachmaninoff. In that article, he had made an uncharacteristically sarcastic comment on Rachmaninoff’s dramatically increased 1980 New Grove Grove coverage (which Morgan compared to the infamous 1954 Grove’s  Dictionary  article), stating that Rachmaninoff was a composer “whom the New Romanticism (or whatever it is) has apparently taught us to love once again.”34 Like Morgan, Morgan, Davi Davidd Brow Brownn also gave Rachmanino Rachmaninoff ff two  pages in a 1973 overview on twentieth-century twentieth-century music. Brown, also a great Tchaikovsky scholar, spoke of Rachmaninoff’s “nostalgia, which is both the most appealing and the most repelling side of his music.”35  Br Brow ownn fo foun undd the the conc concer erto toss un unev even en,, with with the the Second Concerto “full of high-pressure cantilena.”36 Almost perversely perversely,, he felt that the best of Rachmani Rachmaninof nofff (who is univ universal ersally ly regarded as one of the greatest pianists in history) is found in works “in which the piano is absent.” This contrasts with Morgan, who found that 33

34

35

36

Robert Robe rt Morg Morgan an,, Twent wentiethieth-Cent Century ury Musi Musicc (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,, 1991), Company 19 91), 112. Robert Rob ert Morgan, Morgan, "The New Grove: A Review Review," The Musical Musical Quar Quarterl terlyy 68 (April 1982), 262-270. Davi Da vidd Brow Brown, n, “R “Rus ussi sia. a.”” In  Music in the Modern Age,  ed. F. Sternfeld (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973), 26. Ibid., 26. 107

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

“much of the life of his music resides in the virtuoso keyboard writing.”37 Brown rightly singled out the First Symphony,  Isle of

the Dead, Dead,  an and The Bells for praise, but the many songs, and epochal choral contributions like the Vespers, were not mentioned.

He tr trie iedd to be ob obje ject ctiv ivee in hi hiss su summ mmar aryy: “[Ra “[Rach chm man anin inof off’ f’s] s] essentially soft-centered lyricism may not be the stuff of which really great music isthat made, its best itthe is far from despicable.” Perhaps believing he but wasatrescuing composer from his detractors, Brown concluded, “It is a pity that in our hard-bitten, cynical age his very real gifts as a composer are still underestimated.”38  The question that Brown leaves unanswered is, if he truly believes Rachmaninoff is undervalued, why does he continue the trend of marginalizing the composer, and damning him with  phrases like “far from despicable”? despicable”? In response to Brown and others, one might add that in today’s world of performanceto and recordings, the songs are considered by musical many connoisseurs be among the finest of all Russian art songs. Vespers is considered by musicians in the choral field to be a peak of Russian Orthodox music, and an unquestioned monu mo nume ment nt in tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury a cappel cappella la  choral choral litera literatur turee in gene ge nera ral. l. The The Ce Cell llo o Sona Sonata ta is a firm part of the standard cello repertoire, despite an extremely difficult difficult role for the piano. Most of the orchestral works are standard fare. The concertos need no defenc def ence. e. Eve Evenn the com compar parati ativel velyy unsuc unsucces cessfu sfull  First and  Fourth Concertos are recorded almost as frequently as Prokofiev’s Third or the two Ravel Concertos. The solo piano works, despite their difficulty, are uncommonly well laid out for the instrument, as  befits Rachmaninof Rachmaninofff ’s stature as one of the major pianists in history. Few pianists in the world (Pollini is one) can resist this impo im posi sing ng body body of work work.. Rega Regard rdin ingg Rach Rachma mani nino nofff’s f’s key keybo boar ardd output, David Burge has said, As ti time me gi give vess pers perspe pect ctiv ivee to hi hiss acco accomp mpli lishm shmen ents ts,, it is 37 38

Twentieth-Century Music, 112. Morgan, Brown, 28. 108

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

 possible to see that the best of his work exhibits not only

compositional craft of a high order but also an emotional message that is becoming increasingly meaningful. And the challenge to the pianist’s resources remains incomparable. 39 As Harold C. Schoenberg remarked, “What more does a composer have to do to prove himself?”40  Burge is one of many academic writers who are finally treating Rachmaninoff with the respect that is normally accorded all central figures in the repertoire, regardless of the personal musical preferences of individual commentators. Even better, this new respect for Rachmaninoff’s towering achievements in music hist hi story ory ha hass fi fina nally lly been been ackn acknow owle ledg dged ed in the the seve sevent nthh (2 (200 006) 6) editio edi tionn of Grout’ Grout’ss fam famous ous fiftyfifty-ye year ar-ol -oldd tex textbo tbook. ok. The sev sevent enthh edition was extensively rewritten under the supervision of J. Peter Burkhhol Burk olde derr. In com common wi with th man anyy oth theer sc scho hollars ars tod oday ay,, Burk Bu rkho hold lder er clea clearly rly re reco cogn gniz izes es th that at one one can can apply apply th thee idea idea of innovation to twentieth-century music in a much broader sense than th an musi musico colo logy gy ha hadd tr trad adit itio iona nally lly allo allowe wed. d. Inde Indeed ed,, inno innova vati tion on nowa no wada dayys ex exte tend ndss we well ll beyon beyondd the the high high mode modern rnis istt crit criter eria ia of harmonic novelties, dissonant combinations and fragmented forms. In one of the most positive textbook paragraphs ever accorded the great Russian master, we can now read that Rachmaninov is renowned for his melodious Some have dismissed his music as passionate, old-fashioned, but likeidiom. other composers in the first modern generation, he sought a way to 39

40

David Burge, David Burge, Twentieth-Century Piano Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1990), 60. Haro Ha rold ld C. Schonb Schonber erg, g, The Lives Lives of the the Gr Grea eatt Compo Composer sers, s, th thir ird d ed. (New York: W W.. W. W. Norton & Company, Company, 1997), 1997), 520. It is timely here to repeat repeat Roger Sessions’ wise words, written in 1978 (surely not intended as a defense of Rachmaninoff): “In my view it is an all too common error of our times to invoke a facile historicism as a valid basis for both musical effort and musical judgement. One should never forget that it is music, and music alone, that determines musical history.” history.” See  Roger Sessions on Music, ed. E. T. Cone (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 360. 109

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

appeal to listeners enamored of the classics by offering something new and individual yet steeped in tradition. Rather than introduce innovations in harmony, as did Strauss, Debussy, and Scriabin – which would have violated both his temperament and the demands of th thee au auddie ienc ncee fo forr to touuring ring vi virt rtuo uoso soss – he fo focu cuse sedd on othe otherr elements of the romantic tradition, creating melodies and textures that sound bothtraditions fresh andsuch fa miliar. familiar . As inopera, the best popular music, or long-standing as Italian Rachmaninoff made his mark not by stark departures from convention but by doing the conventional in a way no one had done before... Such qualities were not enough for those who demanded innovation in harmony,  but Rachmaninov’s Rachmaninov’s music ultimately won a place in the permanent repertoire most of his contemporaries would have envied.41

It is truly a sign of a new era in scholarship when a central university textbook finally allows Rachmaninoff to be “timely” or  gleichzeitig  rather  rather than “untimely” or ungleichzeitig . As we have already mentioned, composers like Strauss and Rachma Rac hmanin ninof offf wer weree merel merelyy the tip of a ver veryy lar large ge lat late-r e-roma omanti nticc iceberg. That iceberg may have been almost completely occluded in adva advanc nced ed circ circle less bu butt it mo most st cert certai ainly nly st stil illl carr carrie iedd im imme mens nsee weight in public life, and even Schoenberg’s titanic advancements in musical language could not budge it. In retrospect, romanticism’s apparent non-existence in the twentieth century was due more to wishful thinking than actual fact – rather like the twoyear old child who thinks he is hiding when he covers his eyes with his hands. The paradox, then, is this: On the one hand, the mostt obv mos obviou iouss man manife ifesta stati tions ons of tradit tradition ional al ninete nineteent enth-c h-cent entury ury rom ro manti ntici cism sm – wh whiich mea eant nt,, above bove all, ll, the the deli delibe bera rate te and conscious preservation of several centuries worth of accumulated tonal elements and directly-spun melodic archetypes covering the full range of moods – were treated by advanced musicians as though they no longer existed, and were repeatedly pronounced dead with assurance and finality. 41

J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca,  A History of Western Music, 7th ed. (New York and London: Norton, 2006), 791. 110

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

And yet at the same time, the “old” musical trappings of the nineteenth-century and earlier somehow seemed to go on lurking in every corner of the new century. In 1999, Botstein somewhat cryptically spoke of “the much-discussed strange twentieth-century care ca reer er of th thee nine ninete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry trad tradit itio ions ns of mu musi sicc maki making ng,, 42  particularly of concert music re-creative concert conce rt performa perfthose ormance.” nce.”   Bo Bots tste tein in’’s composition ob obse serv rvat atio ionn and refe referr rred ed to a musical musi cal fact of life that historical historical overv overviews iews usually mentioned mentioned in  passing, only to rapidly move on and drop the topic from the discussion. “Notions of what music is and what it ought to do,” said Salzman (also somewhat cryptically) in 1987, “reached their full development between 1700 and 1900 and have been  bequeathed to us surprisingly intact.”43 Regarding the general “art” music scene in the United States, Carol Oja, in her  Making Music  Modern (2000)  ,, ever-so-briefly made reference to an American stream of romantic composition that, as she put it, “meandered” its wayy thr wa hrou ouggh the entir ntiree cent ntur uryy. Writ ritin ingg from from a reso resollute utely mode mo dern rnis istt bi bias as,, Oja Oja obse observ rved ed th that at roma romant ntic ic co com mpo pose sers rs (s (she he ment me ntio ione nedd a so som mew ewha hatt rand random om list list of na nam mes which hich incl includ uded ed Jacobi, Dello Joio, Starer and Ward) “have consistently seemed unperturbed as a parade of modernist fashions has passed them  by.”  by .”44  “The twilight of romanticism has been long and eventful, nor is it over yet,” wrote Arnold Whittall at the end of his 45    Romantic Music, a  1987 survey of the nineteent nineteenth-cen h-century tury scen scenee.45 But, Bu t, as Whitta ittalll also lso add ddeed so som mewh what at omin ominou ousl slyy, “t “the he most ost consistently romantic twentieth-century composers have usually  been the most conservative. conservative.””46  There was, of course, a familiar subtext here in the use of the word “conservative.” For Whittall, it 42

43 44

45 46

Leon Botstein, “Rethinking the Twentieth Century,” Century,” The Musical Quarterly 83 (Summer 1999): 146. Salzman, 2. Carol Ca rol Oja, Oja,  Making Music Modern (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 167. Arnold Whittal, Romantic Music (London: Thames & Hudson, 1987), 184.   Ibid., 183. 111

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

was decidedly not a compliment. And sure enough, it was the same conservative twentieth-century composers mentioned at the end of hiss ni hi nine nete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry over overvi view ew wh whoo we were re deni denied ed adeq adequa uate te covera cov erage ge in his twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry overvi overview ew.. Paul Paul Gr Grif iffit fiths, hs, who had a slightly better excuse in that his 1978 overview of modern music  wa wass ex expl plic icit itly ly in inte tend nded ed to co cove verr on only ly th thee mo more re ra radi dica call streams, also did not feel obligated to make more than a brief note of the same romantic phenomenon: Wil illi liam am Wal alto tonn (b (b.. 19 1902 02)) an andd Samue Samuell Ba Barb rber er ha have ve fo foun undd it  possible to perpetuate late romanticism into the century’ century’ss last quarter. Indeed, it is one of the unusual features of music since 1900 that many composers have chosen to take a ‘conservative’ stance, working with materials and methods which might have seemed exhausted and outmoded by the current of advance in technique and sensibility.47 

However, Bryan Simms, in his supposedly more general twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy su surv rvey ey (1 (198 987) 7),, devo devote tedd no more more sp spac acee to romantic roma ntic streams than had the specifica specifically lly avant-gar avant-garde de surve surveyy of Grif Gr iffi fith ths. s. Simm Simmss mer erel elyy pa paus used ed oc occa casi sion onal ally ly to ob obse serv rvee its its  presence. For example, he noted at one point that “several compos com posers ers”” like like Straus Strausss and Pfitzn Pfitzner er rep repres resent ented ed an unb unbrok roken en tradition of romantic composition until the 1940s. 48 (Simms could have easily written “several dozen,” or even “several hundred” instead of merely “several”). Elsewhere, Simms took another brief moment to hint at the existence of a very large romantic stream when he made the following comment about the English musical scene: The conservatively classical language popular there during the interwar period was an uninterrupted continuation of the romantic 47

48

Paul Griffiths, A Concise History of Modern Music fro from m Debussy to Boulez (London: Thames & Hudson, 1978), 23. Bryan Bry an Simms, Simms,  Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure Structure (New York: Schirmer Books, 1986), 141-142, 429.  112

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

tradition brought into the twentieth century by composers such as Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius. Their musical idiom was carried on by William Walton, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, none of whom placed primary emphasis on innovation or stylistic experiment.49 

Simmss furt Simm furthe herr ad adde dedd th that at “T “The he clas classi sicc-ro roma mant ntic ic trad tradit itio ionn of English music was carried to its greatest heights in the twentieth century by Benjamin Britten,” whose music “grew from the same soil as that of Vaughan Williams.”50  Unlike Whittall, Salzman, Griffiths, Simms and Griffiths, Glenn  Watkins’ atkins’ 1995 survey survey Soundings  took the time to devote several pages to weighing the implications of the twentieth century romanticism issue more fully. Like Simms and others, Watkins also listed a broad composers whom, felt, repres rep resent ented ed therange mo most st oflogica logcontemporary icall con contin tinuat uation ion of the romant rom antic icheeth ethos, os, and his list of names names will serv servee to give us a good indication indication of the stylistic range of twentieth-century romantic traditionalists. While describing the 1970s New Romanticism of Rochberg, Penderecki and others, Watkins observed that “It would be well to recall once agai ag ain, n, howe howeve verr, the the he heal alth thyy stra strain in of roma romant ntic icis ism m that that had had flou flouri rish shed ed ever everyywher wheree and and in virt virtua uall llyy ever everyy deca decade de of th thee twentieth century.”51  By way of illustration, he listed the violin concertos of Sergei Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, Menotti, and William Walton, Dmitri a stylistically diverse Gian-Carlo and multinational group of composers. Elsewhere, during a discussion of expr ex pres essi sion onis ism, m, Watki atkins ns fu furt rthe herr enri enrich ched ed his his list list of ro roma mant ntic ic comp co mpos oser erss by no noti ting ng th that at Ho Howa ward rd Hans Hanson on’’s Symp Sympho hony ny No No.. 2 , Samuel Barber’ r’ss  Adagio fo forr stri string ngss , Ser Sergei gei Rachmani Rachmaninof nofff ’s Sympho Sym phonic nic Dances Dances,, and Ric Richar hardd Straus Strauss’ s’ss  Four Last Songs, “all staples of the concert hall – were written at a time, in the fourth andd fi an fift fthh deca decade dess of the the cent century ury,, when when post post-r -rom oman anti tici cism sm was was 49 50 51

Ibid., Ibid. 297 Glenn Gle nn Watkins atkins,, Soun Sounding dings: s: Music Music in the Twent wentieth ieth Cent Century ury  (New York: Schirmer Books, 1995), 650. 113

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

supposedly long since dead.”52 In another comment that reiterated his main point, Watkins described how   Lingering romantic values continued to play a vital role in such subs su bsta tant ntia iall com compo pose sers rs ou outs tsid idee th thee av avan ant-g t-gar arde de as Vau augh ghan an-William illiams, s, Barbe Barber, r, Proko Prokofiev fiev,, Bloch Bloch,, Britt Britten, en, Shos Shostakov takovich, ich, and Rach Ra chma mani nino novv... ... Un Unfa fash shio iona nabl blee as it may se seem em thro throug ughh thei theirr exam ex ampl plee th thee Ne New w Ro Roma mant ntic icism ism of the the 19 1970 70ss an andd 19 1980 80ss wa wass undoubtedly more readily accomplished. That the reintroduction of Ze Zem mli lins nsky ky’’s wo work rks. s.....in into to th thee co conc ncer ertt re repe pert rtooir iree no nott on only ly followed the Mahler revival in the 1950s and 1960s but coincided with the rising fashion in the 1970s of the music of Alban Berg, the most Romantic of the Viennese trinity, is already a matter of history. 53

Ending Endi ng with with a wo word rd of admo admoni niti tion on to hi hiss acad academ emic ic te text xtbo book ok-writin wri tingg collea colleague gues, s, Watkins atkins the thenn “ca “cauti ution[ on[ed] ed] wri writer terss of suc suchh histories to take the measure of their story from a broader range than the narrow edge of the avant-garde.”54  It is clea clearr fr from om th thee comp compos oser erss ment mentio ione nedd abov abovee that that Watki atkins, ns, like Simm Simms, s, associate associatedd twent twentiethieth-cent century ury roma romantici nticism sm with a very wide stylistic range of composers. For him, the main crit cr iter eria ia se seem emed ed to be th that at th they ey stil stilll us used ed to tona nali lity ty an andd the the lo long ng melodic line, and, especially, were outstanding symbols of avantgarde resistance. In a word, they were seen as conservatives. These feat fe atur ures es – cons conser erva vati tism sm,, tona tonali lity ty,, th thee lo long ng melo melodi dicc line line,, an andd resist res istanc ancee to the ava avantnt-gar garde de – are of the utmost utmost import importanc ancee to keep ke ep in mind as we grad gradua uall llyy fo forrmul ulat atee ou ourr de defi fini nittio ionn of romanticism in the twentieth century.  The observations from historical overviews that I have just cited show the extent to which overview writers (even when, like Watkins, they admitted that something was perhaps wrong with the traditiona tradi tionall acade academic mic textbook picture) picture) were content to give little 52 53 54

Ibid., 170. Ibid., 356. Ibid., 356.

114

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

more than lip-service to the indisputable fact that many in the twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy had had re rema main ined ed lo loyyal to ni nine nete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry musical traits. Such academic resistance to the continued presence of “outmoded” romanticism had its beginning in the early years of the twentiethCentury” century,was and already Dahlhaus observed used that the phrase “bad  Nineteenth commonly as “a jingoistic catchphras catch phrase... e...among among avan avant-gar t-gardists dists aroun aroundd 1920.” 1920.”55  But But de desp spit itee such su ch ab abus use, e, the the grea greatt majo majori rity ty of mu musi sicc love lovers rs and and perf perfor ormi ming ng musicians were not yet prepared to jettison the sonic surfaces of the nineteenth-century so quickly. Hence Hen ce romant romantici icism’ sm’ss stu stubbo bborn rn per persis sisten tence. ce. Indeed Indeed,, the  basic musical language of the twentieth-century romantics continued to tap into very deep cultural roots. The musical idioms that begconsumed grassroots grassroot s elevel onosta dail da ilyycontinued bas asiis tto hrou hroug ho houut the the and twent weused ntie ieth that the centur nt uryy were er almo lm inconceivable without the triadic, tonal, and melodic basis that had al alwa wayys be been en so cent centra rall to what what we st stil illl co comm mmon only ly thin thinkk of as rom ro man anti ticc mus usic ic.. Th This is ba basi siss di dire rect ctly ly trac traced ed its its root rootss – lar large gely ly without ironic distancing techniques or recourse to dialectic theory  – to immediate forebears in the nineteenth-cent nineteenth-century ury.. As the nineteent ninet eenth-cen h-century tury gave way to the twentieth twentieth,, this long long-stan -standing ding tonal ton al fou founda ndatio tionn contin continued ued to foste fosterr a vas vastt body of mus music ic,, both both “serious” andmusical “popular,” that evidenced the same kind of evolution in materials that one would normally seegradual in any spoken language.56 Throughou Thro ughoutt the twent twentieth ieth century century,, ther theree existed existed a vast and tona to nall peda pedago gogi gica call lite litera rattur uree, re repl plet etee with with com commonon-pr praact ctiice harmonies and melodies in the commonly understood sense of the terms. There were the ubiquitous Sunday morning church services with an unbr unbroken oken tonal tradition tradition of hymnody hymnody and litur liturgical gical music stretching back centuries. Indeed, the liturgical setting is as good a 55

56

Carl Dahlhaus,  Nineteenth Century Music  (B (Ber erke keley ley:: Univ Univer ersi sity ty of California Press, 1989), 390.

See especially our discussion, in chapter six, of Stephen Banfield s article on  bourgeois  bourg eois tonality before before 1940. 1940. 115

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

 place as any to illustrate the gradual evolution of harmony in standard composers from Bach through to the popular John Rutter in our time. There were also the many grass-r grass-roots oots choral societi societies es whoo lo wh love vedd th thee kind kind of tw twen enti tiet eth-c h-cen entu tury ry mu musi sicc repr repres esen ente tedd by Elgar, Howells and Rutter. Howells, who died as late as 1982, contributed more than anyone else to defining the distinctive sound of twentieth-century Anglican church music – a type of literature that has always been central to the international world of choral music. Classical radio programm amming over the decades also chronically avoided the most advanced musical terrain. In the year 2000, Milton Babbitt wrote a short article for the American Music Center that addressed this issue from the most unrepentant of avant garde perspectives. The article gives us Babbitt’s reaction to what was already a long-standing tradition of classical music  broadcasting: I turn on the radio every morning and every night. But more often that not, I turn it off and put on a CD because in all the many years of listening to some half-dozen public stations, I have not heard a note of the most influential music of the twentieth century. Mainly what I hear are the complete works of Arnold Bax, or Delius Delius,, or Gerald Finzi. Finzi. For example, I have never heard the piano concerti of Stravinsky Stravinsky,, Schoenberg Schoenberg,, Sessions Sessions and  and Carter. Carter. Instead  Instead they play Sir Hamilton Harty and Harty and Herbert Howells... and the announcers tell us how important and beautiful their music is! These announcers even suppress the names of contemporary composers when they  broadcast live concerts. I have documentation of this... It’s an outrageous situation...It pains me to think of the view of twentiethcentury centu ry mus music ic and even nine nineteent teenth-cen h-century tury music that you get on these self-righteous public stations. It makes me very angry, I confess.57  57

Milton Babbitt to (NewMusicBox, the question, “When do2000). you listen to fortunate the radio and what do youresponds listen to?” (NewMusicBo x, May 1, We We are

to have this brief and informal NewMusicBox web article because Babbitt neve ne verr ment mention ioned ed such such compo composer serss in hi hiss more more forma formall ac acade ademic mic writin writing. g. http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/When-do-you-listen-to-the-radio-and116

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Babbitt’s list of composers usefully illustrates how late twentieth-century classical radio broadcasters, when they wanted to expl explor oree le less sser er know knownn re repe pert rtoi oire re,, foun foundd plen plenty ty that that wa wass of inte in tere rest st si sim mpl plyy by surv survey eyin ingg th thee mus usic ic of th thee mo most st rom roman anti ticcsoundi sou nding ng twe twenti ntieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry com compos posers ers.. The The music music that that made made Babbitt “very angry” was drawn principally from the most tonal and romantic streams of twentieth-century musical composition. This music has enjoyed phenomenal growth among connoisseurs in th thee past past se seve vera rall deca decade des, s, an andd com compose posers rs like like Bax, Bax, a self self-described “brazen romantic,”58 have virtually defined the aesthetic approach of many independent record labels when it comes to deciding what streams of post-1900 music they will devote the  bulk of their energies energies to recording. Forr most of hi Fo hiss life life,, Bax Bax (188 (18833-1 -19953 53)) was ce cert rtai ainnly redolent of the worst kind of latter-day romantic excess in the eyes of the avant-garde. He was representative of the kind of twentiethcentury music that Babbitt’s own textbook and monograph-writing colleagues were taking such pains to exclude from the university curriculum. It is therefore understandable that Babbitt found the musi mu sica call co cont nten entt of conn connoi oiss sseu eurr-d -dri rive venn cl clas assi sica call ra radi dioo ba badl dlyy distorted from a historical point of view – to the point where he mome mo ment ntar aril ilyy lost lost hi hiss pr prof ofes essi sion onal al de deco coru rum m and and la lash shed ed out out in frustration. After all, he and his colleagues had been working exceedingly hard for decades to write off these composers on evolutionary and stylistic grounds, only to have their prescriptive and carefully-planned historical framework of twentieth-century music effortlessly overturned by a groundswell of music lovers who had developed formidably sophisticated tastes forged forged by years andd ev an even en deca decade dess of expl explor orat atio ionn in mu musi sica call re regi gion onss that that were were considered terra incognita in history textbooks. “I am well aware,” said Eric Salzman in the preface to his

twenti twe ntieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry overvi overview ew,, “that “that Sch Schmi mitt, tt, Sch Schrek reker er,, Ghe Ghedin dini,i, 58

what-do-you-listen-to-Milton-Babbitt/ what-do-you-listen-to-Milton -Babbitt/ (accessed April 3, 2012). Lewis Foreman, ed., Far  Farewell ewell My Youth and Other Writings by Arnold Bax, (Aldershot,t, Hants: Scolar Press, 1992), 168. (Aldersho 117

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Grainger and Gliere, Weiner and Weinberger, Alfven, Zemlinsky, and a host of greater and lesser lights do not appear.” 59 In giving his reasons for avoiding what he described as a “long list of alsorans,” up collectors naming a broad assortment of composers whom Salzman dedicatedended record and regular readers of record review magazines were already intimately familiar with, thanks to thee reco th record rdin ingg in indu dust stry ry’’s “lif “lifee line line”” (cf. (cf. Ba Banf nfie ield ld)) co conn nnec ecti ting ng unfash unf ashion ionabl ablee compos composer er with with unfash unfashion ionabl ablee public public..60  Although Salzman’ss “also-rans” rarely appeared in historical overviews, they Salzman’ were beginning beginning to make their presence felt in the rapidly-growin rapidly-growingg record catalogues of Chandos, Hyperion, BIS, cpo and Naxos, at thee sa th same me ti time me th that at Sa Salz lzma mann wa wass se seei eing ng hi hiss twen twenty ty-y -yea earr-old -old textbook its third edition (1988). also-rans may not have beenthrough introduced to music students viaThe academically certified historical accounts, but they were rapidly becoming well-known to connoisseurs and readers of record review journals worldwide. On a personal note, these same record review journals were where I also first learned about the “other side” of twentieth-century music. I became a regular reader of magazines like Gramophone,  American Record Record Guide, Guide, and Fanfar  Fanfaree in the mid-1980s. By th thee lat late twe wenntiet tiethh ce cent ntur uryy, wh whaat Wat atkkins ins calle lled “lingering” nineteenth-century trappings61  were also enjoying a resurgence in contemporary composition. Many composers like the former serialist George Rochberg now made a public and  professional point of “returning” to tonality and romantic sounding idioms. In reality, however, they were adopting a musical attitude that an even larger number of consistent traditionalists like Samuel Barb Ba rber er and and Willi illiam am Walto altonn ha hadd be been en foll follow owin ingg all all alon along. g. Th Thee ample amp le pre presen sence ce of romant romanticic-sou soundi nding ng ton tonali alists sts in the 1950s 1950s and 1960s is easily demonstrated via today’s record catalogue, despite

Simm’s protestations that 1970s neoromanticism was reviving a 59 60

61

Salzman, x. Stephen Banfield, Gera Gerald ld Finz Finzi: i: An Engl English ish Compose Composerr (London: Faber and Faber, 1997), 487. See page one of the present volume. 118

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

long-gone long-g one rom romant antici icism sm that that had finall finallyy fad faded ed aw away ay in the the194 1940s 0s with the deaths of Strauss and Pfitzner. The real truth of the matter was tha thatt (al (along ong wit withh Bar Barber ber and Walt Walton) on) many many com compos posers ers like like Gian Carl Gian Carloo Meno Menott ttii (1 (191 9111-20 2007 07), ), Mari Marioo Cast Castel elnu nuov ovoo-T Ted edes esco co (189 (1 8955-19 1968 68), ), Er Erne nest st Bl Bloc ochh (188 (18800-19 1959 59), ), Ne Nedd Ro Rore rem m (192 (19233- ), Leonar Leo nardd Berns Bernstei teinn (1918(1918-199 1990), 0), Mal Malcol colm m Arnold Arnold (19 (192121-200 2006), 6),  Nino Rota (1911-1979) (1911-1979) and George George Lloyd (1913-1998) had ma made de a  point of never leaving the tonal fold during the post-1945 heyday of serialism and chance music. Glenn Watkins summed up this everyday reality when he wrote that the sense of [the neoromantic] revival for most audiences of the 1970s wassuch of necessity weak because their musical culture had supported values right along...The revival was strongest and most discernible among composers who had spent much of the  preceding decade in different waters and for whom such a mode of expression constituted a turn.62 

Simms, then, did not properly acknowledge W Watkins’ atkins’ po point, int, al alth thou ough gh so som me othe others rs di didd at leas leastt make make pa pass ssin ingg me ment ntio ionn of a continuous stream mid-twentieth-century romantics. But death or no death, a widespread neoromantic and neotonal wave did sweep through avant-garde circles in both Europe and North America. Headed by such notable inter ternational figures as Rochberg, Raut Ra utav avaa aara ra,, Pä Pärt rt,, Gore Goreck cki, i, and and Pe Pend nder erec ecki ki,, it cr crea eate tedd unto untold ld controversy and bitterness within orthodox avant-garde ranks. The “neo” or “new “new”” romantici romanticism sm also earn earned ed some passing comments comments in the the majo majorr hist histor oric ical al su surv rvey eys, s, whic whichh di didd mu much ch to esta establ blis ishh neoromanticism as a late twentieth-century historical category. category.63

Varèse scholar Jonathan Bernhard is one of the most hostile among those writers who were less than enthusiastic about the latetwenti twe ntieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry neorom neoromant antic ic mov moveme ement. nt. In wha whatt can only only be 62 63

Watkins, 650. See Watkins, 645-651; Simms, 428-430; Morgan, 481-483; Salzman, 207209; Machlis, 2nd ed., 420. 119

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

described as a glaring case of editorial misjudgement on the part of the publishers, Bernhard was commissioned to write a chapter on tonal composition in the United States from 1960 to the present for the 1998 Cambridge History of American Music. Under the general heading “New and Newer Romanticism,” Bernhard described how most of the contemporary composers presently being played by American orchestras followed the example of Rochberg, Rorem and Bernstein. The majority, said Bernhard, were “identifiable, in different ways and to greater or lesser degrees, as ‘Romantics.’” 64  Post-1960 Post -1960 comp composers osers belo belongin ngingg to Bernhard’ Bernhard’ss roma romantic ntic category included Corigliano, Tower, Zwilich, Albert, Danielpour, Paulus, Larsen, Daugherty, Kernis, and Rouse. Bernhard ended his discus dis cussio sionn of recent recent Ame Americ rican an tonaltonal-rom romant antic ic compos composers ers with with some forcefully articulated comments that usefully encapsulated the drastic extent to which many academic writers had historically desp de spis ised ed th thee pr pres esen ence ce of a ro roma mant ntic ic st stre ream am of art art mu musi sicc in th thee twentieth century: We have, it seem emss, retu turn rneed to the era of Bernste teiin and Koussevitzky,, when conservatively minded conductors control our Koussevitzky major orchestras and, if they play American music at all, show interest mainly resuscitating ‘forgotten’ old (tonal) or in latching ontoin the latest trend, or in arguing theirmasters, case that modernism was an aberration and that the true American music is and always was tonal. But if those who do not remember history are are co connde dem mne nedd to rep repea eatt it it,, nev ever erth thel eles esss on onee ca cann sa sayy tha that neotonality the second time around is different from the first; the second wave of modernism in between has vastly expanded the

64

Jonathan Bernard, “Tonal traditions in art music since 1960,” in Cambridge  History of American Music, ed. David Nicholls (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 559. Many of the younger neoromantic composers name na medd by Bernha Bernhard rd also also popula populate te th thee top ten lists lists of the mostmost-per perfor forme medd American orchestral works. See Orchestra Repertoire Reports from the years 2000 to 2009, which have been published on the internet by the League of Amer Am eric ican an Orch Orches estr tras as,, http http:/ ://w /www ww.a .ame meri rica cano norc rche hest stra ras. s.or org/ g/kn know owle ledg dgeeresearch-innovation/knowledge-center/surveys-reports-and-data/orchestrarepertoire-reports.html (accessed Oct 25, 2012). 120

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

resources available to a composer working in any idiom, even under the restrictions usually considered to operate if that idiom is tona tonall – an andd ev even en th thou ough gh ma many ny com compo pose sers rs no now w wr writ itin ingg tona tonall music, mus ic, especial especially ly the youn young, g, prefer as a matter of public relatio relations ns not to acknowledge what they have learned from modernism. It is difficult to make reliable predictions on the basis of developments that are so recent, but one could hope that, in all respects that matter, the expression ‘return to tonality’ is a misnomer, that composers, audiences, performers, and critics will eventually tire of the dwelling on the past and other retrogressive aspects of this movement, and that the progressive elements that shine forth in som so me of it itss be bett tter er pro rodu duct ctss wi will ll wi winn ou outt in the the tw twen enty ty-f -fir irst st century..65 century

Bernhard’s feeling of powerlessness in the face of the rise of (neo) romanticism in North America was understandable. He was, after all, attempting to fight an aesthetic movement that had almost inca in calc lcul ulab able le hi hist stor oric ic de dept pthh and and mom omen entu tum. m. In 20 2005 05,, Tar arus uski kinn called the late twentieth-century neoromantic movement a “vast middle ground,” which was inhabited by former avant gardists of all kinds – although we should add here that not all of those composers were comfortable with being labelled romantics. 66  But whatever we want to call such composers, there is no denying that (as Taruskin pointed out) many of the newly minted “romantics” named by Bernhard had formerly been radical composers. The best of them had been lauded and highly esteemed by their modernist colleagues, as many overview writers also pointed out. Their mass

exodus from exodus from the front lines lines of the col coldd war ava avantnt-gar garde de cau caused sed irre irrepa para rabl blee da dam mag agee to th thee old old pr prog ogre ress ss narr narrat ativ ivee of mu musi sica call evolution.

65

66

Jonathan Bernard, “Tonal traditions in art music since 1960,” in Cambridge  History of American Music, ed. David Nicholls (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 566. Richard Rich ard Taruskin, aruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music,  Vol. 5, The Late Twentieth Century (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 516. 121

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

The Romantic Revival in the late twentieth century

  Alo Along ng with with the ris risee of Roc Rochbe hberg rg’’s neo neorom romant antici icism, sm, a  parallel historical development also gathered steam, and it is equally vital to our general discussion of Romanticism in the Twent wentie ieth th Ce Cent ntury ury.. In the the 19 1960 60s, s, a you oung ng pian pianis istt and and scho schola larr named Frank Cooper developed a passion for rare romantic music. He acted on his passion in a pract practical ical way, way, and beca became me one of the lead leadin ingg th theo eore reti tici cian anss and and or orga gani nize zers rs of a very very no nonn-ac acad adem emic ic grassr gra ssroot ootss mu music sical al mov movem ement ent widely widely-kn -known own in late late twe twenti ntieth eth-century music journalism as the Romantic Revival. Cooper saw his musical mission as essentially complementary to the reformed neoromanticism of Rochberg and others.67 What Cooper did after the 1960s was tap into a grow growing ing realiza realization tion among the publ public, ic, as well we ll as the the new new ge gene nera rati tion on of scho schola lars rs,, th that at ther theree exis existe tedd a verita ver itable ble tre treasu asure re tro trove ve of rare rare and forgot forgotten ten rom romant anticic-sou soundi nding ng composers who were crying out for re-discovery. These composers included figures who, in many cases, had lived up until the mid twentieth-century and even more recently. Among their ranks were an entire late-romantic generation of composer-pianists such von as Leopold Godowsky, Nicholas Medtner, Emil von Sauer, Ernst Dohnányi, and Ignaz Friedman. They were led by Rachmaninoff, who, in restropect, has towered over them all. The later romantics had done little or nothing to advance

the course of music history after about 1910, and had consequently  been thrown into a vast historical hinterland by Babbitt and his hist hi story ory-w -wri riti ting ng coll collea eagu gues. es. They They were were pa part rt of what what Da Dahl hlha haus us termed the “debris of the past,”68 and were casualties in the mad race to achieve ever-more sophisticated harmonic and structural innovations. became clear to music lovers However, who caredsomething to exploreelse the gradually music of these apparently 67

68

Je Jesse sse F. F. Knigh Knight.t. The Romantic Revival – Setting the Record Straight: A Conversation with Frank Cooper. Walkerton, Ind.: Lion Enterprises, 1979. Carl Dahlhau Dahlhaus, s, “Neo-Ro “Neo-Romant manticism icism,” ,” in 19th 19th-Cen -Century tury Music 3 (November, 1979), 100. 122

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

“regressi “regre ssive” ve” com compos posers ers a lit little tle more more close closely ly:: Like Like those those in the  progressive stream, they too had tried to forge an aauthentic uthentic musical style that conformed to their image of what contemporary music should be like. A few im impor portan tantt ear early ly twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry rom romant antics ics lik likee Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Strauss had never actually seen their  public popularity decline to any appreciable degree. 69 Indeed, it is safe to say that the public profile of all three composers steadily rose over the course of the twentieth century, and we have now reac re ache hedd the the po poin intt wher wheree we are are scro scroun ungi ging ng fo forr ju juve veni nili liaa and and fragments, fragm ents, just as we do for Mozart and Beethoven. Beethoven. W Wee can see a good example of this in BIS’s complete Sibelius Edition, which has advanced Sibelius Sibelius scholarshi scholarshipp to an incalcula incalculable ble extent. extent. But slight sli ghtly ly les lesss fam famous ous twenti twentieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry rom romant antics ics wer weree not so fortunate. fortu nate. After their their deaths, deaths, composers composers like Korngold, Korngold, Medtner Medtner,, Baxx and Dohn Ba hnán ányyi all sli slipp ppeed off the musi siccal rada radarr al alm mos ostt completely,, although their revival is occurring at a rapid rate today completely today.. Many others could be mentioned mentioned as well. There is, for example, example, a vast va st co corp rpus us of Scan Scandi dina navi vian an ro roma mant ntic ic musi musicc (S (Ste tenh nham amm mar ar,, Atterberg, Alfven) from the twentieth century being explored at  present. This Th is rena renais issa sanc ncee is espe especi cial ally ly noti notice ceab able le in the the reco record rd cattal ca alog ogue ue,, a fa fact ctoor tha hatt was was al alre read adyy begi beginn nniing to wiel wieldd its its

influence in the early years of the twentieth century. In a negative 69

Even in the case of Sibelius, he was well-represented on recordings and in concert even during his lowest point in the 1950s and 1960s. Almost every vio violini linisst play played ed the the Violi iolinn Co Conc ncer erto to in D mino minorr, an andd many many le lead adin ingg cond co nduc ucto tors rs stro strong ngly ly advo advoca cate tedd the the Sy Symp mpho honi nies es,, in incl clud udin ingg Bern Bernst stei ein, n, Ormandy Orm andy,, Barbiroll Barbirolli,i, and von Karajan. Karajan. The alleged alleged mid-cen mid-century tury decline decline in Sibelius’ popularity was more a case of wishful thinking than reality. reality. This was also truemore of Rachmaninoff andby Strauss, and the fact remained that over the decades, and more works the leading twentieth-century romantic composers took their place in the daily repertoire. Now, even a once-rarely  played work like Strauss’s Strauss’s hour-long hour-long  Alpine Symphon Symphonyy (64 (64 li list stin ings gs at Arkiv Ar kivmu music sic.co .com) m) far surpa surpasse ssess the orche orchestr stral al versi version on of Schoe Schoenb nber erg’ g’ss greatest hit (Verklä erklärte rte Nacht Nacht,, wh whic ichh has has 48 li list stin ings gs). ). Inde Indeed ed,, th thee  Alpine Symphony now comes very close to  Don Quixote (77) and Ein Heldenlebe Heldenleben n (89) in frequency of recording. 123

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

sense, the text sense, textbook book writer and Bartók scholar Elliott Antokelet Antokeletzz  blamed the recording industry as one of the major reasons for the demise of the first major avant-garde revolution of the 1910s and 1920s: Through the new media, an average listener could select music that was easily understood and appreciated. This contributed to the eclipse eclip se of esote esoteric ric contempo contemporary rary styles during the 1930s 1930s by more cons co nser erva vati tive ve mus usic ical al id idio iom ms. As a re resu sult lt,, man anyy co com mpo pose sers rs attempted to combine modern musical features with traditional forms and textures in order to reconcile the divergent tendencies 70

and bring contemporary sonorities to the general public.

From a mo From more re posi positi tive ve angl angle, e, Gera Gerald ld Fi Finz nzii bi biog ogra raph pher er Stephen Banfield wrote of how, “With the arrival of the mono and then the stereo LP from the late 1950s onwards, recordings were  beginning to act as a lifeline between unfashionable composer and unfashion unfas hionable able public.” public.”71  On Onee of the firs firstt re reccor ordd labe bels ls to be exclus exc lusive ively ly devote devotedd to this this his histor toric ic tre trend nd wa wass Lyrita yrita,, founde foundedd in 1959 19 59.. Lyri rita ta emba embark rked ed on a miss missio ionn to re reco cord rd a ho host st of rece recent nt British a century later, criticcalled Rob Barnett,traditionalists. editor of theLooking British back Musichalf Society Newsletter,

Lyrita the standard-bearer for the return of a generation of British lyricists and romantics.”72 Among the fledgling label’s recordings were works by Gustav Holst (1874-1934), Arnold Bax (18831953 19 53), ), Jo John hn Ir Irel elan andd (1 (187 8799-19 1962 62), ), E. J. Moer Moeran an (1 (189 8944-19 1950 50), ), Gerald Finzi, (1901-1956), Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971), W William illiam 70

Elliott Antokoletz, Twentieth Century Music (Englewoo (Englewoodd Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992), 242.

71

Gerald ld Finz Finzi: i: An Engi Engish sh Composer Composer (London: Faber and Stephen Banfield, Gera Faber, 1997), 487. Rob Barnett made the comment while reviewing one of Lyrita’s rare 1960s forays into more modernist repertoire. See review of Elisabeth Lutyens, Quin inccunx nx,, et etc. c.,, BB BBC C Symp Sympho hony ny Orch Orches estr traa with with vari variou ouss so solo lois ists ts and and cond co nduc uctor tors, s, Lyr yrita ita SRC SRCD.2 D.265, 65, in  MusicW  MusicWeb eb International International (Apr (April il 2008): 2008): http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Apr08/Lutyens_ Quincunx_SRCD265.htm (accessed June 12, 2012).

72

124

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Alwyn Alw yn (1905(1905-198 1985), 5), Georg Georgee Lloyd Lloyd (19 (191313-199 1998), 8), and Malcol Malcolm m Arnold (1921-2006).pianist One of York Lyrita’s first projects was a recording of the now-elderly Bowen (1884-1961), who was featured in his own works. In 1963, Roger Fiske in Gramophone maga ma gazi zine ne gr gree eete tedd th this is re reco cord rdin ingg with with re rema mark rkss th that at offe offerr som somee insight into the nature of the aesthetic climate at that time: York ork Bo Bowe wenn (1 (188 8844-19 1961 61)) is re reme memb mbere eredd wi with th af affec fecti tion on by English musicians, including many past students of the Royal Academy of Music. His output as a composer was prodigious, and embraced almost every form of instrumental music, yet he found time as well to become a professional pianist and a good violinist and horn player. This record is dated 1960, at which time York Bowen was 76, and it is sad that its appearance was delayed until after his death.... What can one say today of his music? All of it is well written, and much is good of its kind, in fact so good as to raise tricky aesthetic problems. Some of the Op. 102 Preludes have as much quality as Rachmaninov’s, which indeed they here and there resemble in style. Why then are Rachmaninov’s still played and liked, while Bowen’s remain virtually unknown? The answer, surely, is that they were written too late. To succeed, music must

appear when its style still seems fresh, and it will then gain a  place in people’s people’s affections that will withstand the inevitable change of fashion. But if it appears when its style has lost novelty appeal, people won’t be bothered with it however good it is, even though they continue to enjoy music of similar quality that they have known for years. The Third Programme has dug up a number of composers from the distant past who suffered a similar fate in their own day, and it could well be that in the distant future, when music is too to be old-fashioned, someone willYork hold itBowen’s up for admiration andold condemn 1963 for not liking it better .73

In the the cont contex extt of the the Br Brit itis ishh musi musica call sc scen enee afte afterr 19 1945 45,, 73

Roger Fiske, review of  Bowen: Piano Works, York Bowen, piano, Lyrita Q RCSI7 (LP), Gramophone (August 1963): 50. 125

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Banfield also related how composers like V Vaughan aughan Willi Williams, ams, Finzi and even the beloved Elgar had been “nationally sidelined in the harshly modernistic and international climate of the 1960s led from the top by William Glock at the BBC.” 74 Despite the strength and influence of the avant-garde, the move to record unfashionable tradit tra dition ionali alist st com compos posers ers gat gather hered ed ste steam am,, goi going ng from from str streng ength th to strength. Indeed, recorded revivals over the next few decades were to prove so successful successful that in 2007, the Elgar/V Elgar/Vaugh aughan an Williams illiams scholar Michael Kennedy (on the occasion of the 150 th anniversary of Elgar’s birth) was able to look back on a very good fifty years of romantic resurgence – a resurgence resurgence that labels like Ly Lyrita rita had done so much to help foster:   Perhap Perh apss as a re reac acti tion on to th thee we well ll or orch ches estr trat ated ed av avan antt-ga gard rdee campaign camp aign in the 1960s and 1970s to persuade persuade us all that salv salvation ation lay with serialism and the new wave of Boulez, Stockhausen and others, a number of romantic and post-romantic composers whose name na mess ha hadd no nott be been en ment mentio ione nedd (e (exc xcep eptt in de deri risi sion on)) in many university music departments for decades came storming back into  public favour favour,, supported by long-playing recordings and, later,

compact discs - Mahler (he had a foot in both camps), Bruckner, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Puccini, Sibelius and Elgar. 75

The dramatic increase in recordings of latter-day romanticsounding composers, as described by Banfield and Kennedy, has  been especially significant in the late twentieth century because, as Whit Wh itta tall ll obse observ rved ed in 1999 1999,, th thee musi musica call clim climat atee of ou ourr time time is “dominated as much by the collecting instincts of CD buyers as the  preferences of concertgoers – perhaps more.”76 The importance of the long-term trend toward a musical culture where connoisseurs 74

75

76

Stephen Banfield, Gera Gerald ld Finz Finzi: i: An Engl English ish Compose Composerr (London: Faber and Faber, 1997), 486-487. Michael Kennedy, “Elgar’s magic formula,” The Telegraph (May 12, 2007): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3665085/Elgarsmagic-formula.html (accessed June 12, 2012). Whittall, Musical Composition Composition in the Twentieth Ce Century ntury,, 349. 126

 

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would glean most of their knowledge from recordings cannot be over-estimated: For avant-gardist and Romantic Revivalist alike, record rec ording ingss had long been been one of the most signif significa icant nt me means ans of advocating composers. Back in the late 1950s, Milton Babbitt had also regarded the presence of comprehensive recording projects as a sure sign of a contemporary composer’s rise in stature. To this end, Babbitt proudly noticed how Anton Webern’s output, which during the composer’s lifetime was regarded (to the very limited extent that it was regarded at all) as the ultimate in hermetic, specialized, and idiosyncratic composition; today, some dozen years after the composer’s death, his complete works have  been recorded by a major record company company.. 77 

Whittall (199 Whittall (1999) 9) name namedd seve several ral composers composers of cons conservat ervative ive inclination who had already seen large symphonic cycles recorded (Malcolm Arnold, Arnold, Havergal Brian, Ala Alann Hovhaness, Eduard Tubin, Vagn Holmboe, Robert Simpson). A Ass Whittall implied, such ccycles ycles 78

(and a great many others could be added)  have become sought77

78

Milt Mi lton on Babb Babbit itt, t, “W “Who ho care caress if you list listen en,” ,” re repr prin inte tedd in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, ed. E. Schwartz and B. Childs (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1967), 250. A few of the more traditionalist twentieth-century symphonic cycles that are now no w readil readilyy avail availab able le on CD can be mentio mentioned ned here: here: Lajth Lajtha, a, Moyzes Moyzes,, Tournemire, Melartin, Halvorsen, Ropartz, Enescu, Miaskovsky, Vainberg, Glière, Gliè re, Gretchan Gretchaninov inov,, Petterson Petterson-Ber -Berger ger,, Atterber Atterberg, g, Alfven, Alfven, Alwyn, Alwyn, Bax, Cres Cr esto ton, n, Case Casell lla, a, Hans Hanson on,, Hill Hill,, Ivano vanovs vs,, Ll Lloy oyd, d, Ma Mart rtin inu, u, Ra Rang ngst strö röm, m, Röntgen,, Schmidt, Villa Lobos, Weingartner Röntgen Weingartner,, Weigl, and Ward. One of the most unusual is Rued Langgaard’s cycle of sixteen symphonies. Langgaard, a self-described romantic romantic who died in 1952, was, partly for personal reasons, alway lwayss seen seen as an outs outsid ider er in his his nati native ve Denm Denmar ark. k. An org organ anis istt and and impr im prov ovis iser er of geni genius us (o (onn the the leve levell of Marc Marcel el Dupré Dupré), ), he was was al also so a compositional prodigy, and had an entire concert of his works performed by the Berlin Philharmonic when he was only nineteen. He developed into a religious mystic who believed that the ideal music of Paradise would be romantic. Today, following decades of total neglect in his homeland, about half of his over 400 works have now been recorded by Danacord, the leading Danis Da nishh label. label. The Langg Langgaa aard rd schol scholar ar Bendt Bendt Viinho iinholt lt Nielse Nielsenn has has also also  publishedd a 560-page  publishe 560-page catalogue of the works and is the writer and editor of the scholarly Langgaard Langgaard Website. See http://www.langgaa http://www.langgaard.dk/indexe rd.dk/indexe.htm. .htm. 127

 

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after in the CD catalogue. Whittall alsobeing commented on how early items twentieth-century opera was currently reassessed. In acknowled ackn owledging ging the cont contribut ributions ions of Pfitzner Pfitzner,, Shrek Shreker er,, Korngold, Korngold, Zemlinsky, and Siegfried Wagner (romantics all), Whittall now made ma de the the ex extr trem emel elyy im impo port rtan antt ac acad adem emic ic ad adm mis issi sion on th that at “t “the he  picture, sustainable during the century’ century’ss middle years, of Richard Strauss as the sole exponent of a dying tradition, resisting the atonal threats of Berg ( Wozzeck ) and Schoenberg ( Moses  Moses und  Aron), has been significantly revised.” 79 Later, in another telling admission, Whittall also wrote that the partial rehabilitation of Schreker, Zemlinsky and Korngold since 1970 was part of a wider enthusiasm for the kind of unin inhhibited late roma omanticism that could be regarde rded as rep represe resent ntin ingg he hero roic ic re resi sist stan ance ce to the the gr grim im as astr trin inge genc ncie iess of  progressive expressionism, rather than a timid failure to transcend them.80

Whittall’s words are especially valuable because they come from a strongly strongly mode modernis rnist-ori t-oriente entedd comme commentato ntatorr who, in addition addition to his scholarly work, has been a regular Gramophone  record reviewer since the 1970s. Whittall had long been an articulate voice in the musicological tradition that viewed the 1950’s to the 70s as the heyday of serialism and chance music. In that general view vi ew of mu musi sicc hist histor oryy, the imme immedi diat atee post post-w -war ar deca decade dess we were re cons co nsid ider ered ed to ha have ve be been en fo foll llow owed ed by a re resu surrgenc gencee of more more accessible tonal idioms, as represented by the neoromanticism of Rochberg and the minimalism of Glass and Reich. The immediate  post-war also a time the Princeton and Darmstadtdecades brancheswere of atonal/serial highwhen modernism were locked in mo mort rtal al comb combat at as to wh whoo repr repres esen ente tedd the the mo more re “sci “scien enti tifi fic” c”

79

80

See also Rued Langgaard’ Langgaard’ss Compositions: an Ann Annotated otated Catalogue of W Works orks (Odense Universitetforlag, 1991). Arnol Ar noldd Whitt Whittall all,,  Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 72 Ibid., 74. 128

 

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method of composition.81  It was an era when the high modernist movement (unbeknowst to them, they were aided by massive infusions of cove co vert rt CIA mon oney ey)) sti still se seeemed to beli believ evee in the even eventu tual al  possibility of widespread public attention and acceptance outside of the hib hibern ernal al cloist cloisters ers of spe speci ciali alist st avant avant gar garde de ven venues ues like like Prince Pri nceton ton,, Darms Darmsta tadt dt and Dartin Dartingto gton. n. Goddar Goddardd Lie Lieber berson son,, for example, was a composer of modernist inclinations, as well as  being one of the most powerful figures in the North American recordinginindustry. Lieberson vice of Columbia Records 1949 and presidentbecame in 1956. Hispresident rise in the recording  business coincided with the advent of LP technology technology,, and he took advant adv antage age of the explod exploding ing cla classi ssical cal LP market market to ins instig tigate ate an ambitious program of support for the musical avant-garde as well as milder forms of modernism. During the 1950s, the scholarly

 journal  Musical Quarterly reviewed many of these recordings, a highh poi hig point nt of whi which ch (as Babbitt Babbitt men mentio tioned ned earli earlier) er) was was the first first compl pleete Webern cy cyccle on four mono LPs. As a side note, Lieberson Liebe rson also dire ctly responsi ble for Columbia mbia’ ’s, vast and illu il lust stri riou ouss was re reco cord rded ed directly le lega gaci cies esresponsible of Be Bern rnst stei ein, n,Colu Or Orma mandy ndy, Serk Serkin in,, Francescatti, Stern, Gould, and Boulez. Clearly, from the industry  perspective, New Music was in exceptionally fine company company,, and the future seemed promising indeed. In 2004, Richard Toop, a musicologist and former student of Stockhausen, looked back on those halcyon times and outlined the growing recording catalogue devoted to the mid-century wave of modernism. He capped off his Cambridge History survey of that scene withinthe following words:Grammophon’s “Definitive official sanction wasa  provided 1969 by Deutsche Grammophon’ s decision to issue six-di six -disc sc set entitle entitledd  A  Avant-Gar vant-Garde, de, which had three successors in 81

The Ameri The America cann journa journall  Perspective  Perspectivess of New Music saw it as part of their mission to debunk what they considered to be the pseudo-science being  propagated  propaga ted by the rival German New Music journal  Die Reihe. See John Backus’ article “Die Reihe – A Scientific Evaluation,”  Perspective  Perspectivess of New  Music 1 (Autumn, 1962). 129

 

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subsequent years; by this stage, those with ears to hear had plenty to listen to.”82 Toop also drew attention to the fact that Cage was  being released by the specialist firm Folkways, the premiere of his “notorious” Concert for Piano and Orchestra was available on LP, and RCA Records was issuing Berio, Boulez, Brown, Penderecki, Pous Po usse seur ur,, an andd Stoc Stockh khau ause sen, n, am amon ongg othe others rs.. An expe experi rim men enta tall comp co mpos oser er,, Davi Davidd Be Behr hrma man, n, wa wass ch chie ieff pr prod oduc ucer er fo forr Ody Odyss ssey ey,, Columbia’s budget line. As Toop implied, these were unusually good omens for High Modernism. But something else was about to occur at the major record labels as well. Record companies had also taken note of a musician who was of a completely opposite aesthetic persuasion. He was as fanatical about furthering his own musical agenda as Stockhausen, Wuorinen and Boulez were about implementing theirs. However,

this person was involved in a type of musical archaeology that was completely compl etely contra contrary ry to the arcane arcane ivory-towe ivory-towerr aest aesthetics hetics of High Modernism. He would dress up in nineteenth-century capes for his conc co ncer erts ts.. Hi Hiss choi choice ce of comp compos oser erss incl includ uded ed hi hith ther erto to al almo most st completely unknown and forgotten figures like Alkan, Rubinstein and Henselt. His name was Raymond Lewenthal, and it was not long  before historians began began to contemplate contemplate the large largerr implications to be drawn from the kind of musical research that Lewenthal and many others like him were undertaking. In 1974 , Martin Cooper cast his scholarly gaze around the then-current musical scene and saw a “picture of a sharply divided musical world” which consisted of “a smal sm alll grou groupp of ava avantnt-gar garde de  pioneers almost out of sight of the main body of performers and listeners, who concern themselves83 with musical musical arch archaeol aeology ogy and indis indiscrim criminate inate truf truffle-h fle-hunti unting.” ng.”   Also in the early 1970s, the historian Rey Longyear was compelled to take note of the rapid growth of the movement, especially as it 82

83

Richard Toop, “Expanding horizons: the international avant-garde, 1962-75,” in Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century  Music, ed, Cooke and Pople (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 466. Martin Cooper, ed., The Modern Age 1890-1960, xviii. 130

 

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applied to the revival of romantic music. The first edition of his  Nineteenth-Century  Nineteenth-Cent ury Romanticism in Music had appeared in 1969, and for the preface of the second edition in 1973, Longyear now wrote of the aesthetic shift that was taking place in the music world: In the few years that have elapsed since the writing of the first edition there has been a great upsurge of interest in the music of th thee nin ineete teen enth th ce cenntu tury ry,, espe peci cial ally ly in tha that of it itss negle eglect cted ed composers. Festivals of Romantic music have given listeners an opportunity to hear works in live performance that are mentioned in his isto tori ries es of mu musi sicc bu butt ha hadd be been en un unpe perf rfoormed rmed fo forr se sevver eral al decades. Unfamiliar operas of the period have been revived, and

record companies have shown a new interest in the lesser-known works of a musically prolific and vital century. Much formerly unavailable music has been reprinted or has appeared in new editions prepared by enterprising publishers. Younger scholars are in incr crea easi sing ngly ly in inve vest stig igat atin ingg th thee bu buri ried ed tr trea easu sure ress of mus usic ical al Romanticism. The nineteenth century is no longer an era to be rejected and distained, but is now a frontier for investigation by enterprising scholars and perfomers. 84

Lewenthal, then, most certainly qualified as one of Martin Cooper’s truffle-hunters and musical archaeologists. In giving the Rom Ro manti anticc Rev eviv ival al of the the 1960 1960ss and 70 70ss so muc uchh gl glam amoour, ur, Lewe Le went ntha hall did did much much to insp inspir iree and and pave pave the the way way for for fu futu ture re explorers, who, by the end of the century, had expanded into a veri ve rita tabl blee army army.. Bu Butt Lewe Lewent ntha hall wa was, s, at the the ou outs tset et,, perh perhap apss an unlikely prospect for a concert pianist. He had worked as a child actor in Hollywood, and did not begin to properly concentrate on the piano until the age of 15. However, he progressed rapidly and wass so wa soon on stud studyying ing at Ju Jull llia iard rd wi with th the the le lege gend ndar aryy go gold lden en age age romantic virtuoso and pedagogue Olga Samaroff. He gave his orchestral debut in 1948 at the age of 20 and immediately set about 84

Rey M. Longy ngyear,  Nineteenth  Nineteenth-Century -Century Romanticism in Music, 2n 2ndd ed. ed. (Englewood (Englewo od Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973), ix-x. 131

 

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 performing and recording the standard repertoire. Among his reco re cord rdin ings gs were were Beet Beetho hove venn sonat onatas as an andd Ra Rach chm man anin inof offf an andd Gershw Ger shwin in Con Concer certos tos for Westmi estminst nster er,, a new and very very pro proli lific fic record label that had just sprung up during the initial LP explosion of the 1950s. But unlike most of his fellow music students, Lewenthal went on to play much more than the usual standard fare. Certainly, he busied himself with learning the central works from Beethoven and Chopin Chopassion, pin to Rac Rachma hmanin ninof off f and had Proko Prokofie v. But he also als had a  burning a passion which anfiev opportunity to oflourish during the long convalescence that followed a tragic Central Park

mugging incident in 1953 when both of his hands were broken, and hiss br hi bril illi lian ant, t, ra rapi pidly dly-g -gro rowi wing ng co conc ncer ertt ca care reer er wa wass te temp mpor orar arily ily reduced to tatters. It was during this time that Lewenthal took the opportunity to travel and work abroad. He taught piano students, rebuilt his piano technique and devoured rare nineteenth-century romantic music with the ardour of someone newly in love. He scoured the the libraries andReubke second-hand of and the world for rare scores like elusive Pianoshops Sonata the complete operatic transcriptions of Thalberg Thalberg.. With all this preparation behind him, Lewenthal finally reentered enter ed the music music world world in the early 1960s in spectacul spectacular ar fashion. fashion. In 196 9622, he ga gave ve a twowo-hou hour lec lectu ture re rec ecit itaal devo devote tedd to th thee completely forgotten Alkan.85 The broadcast attracted a great deal of attention and had to be repeated due to popular demand. It was soon followed up with a successful recital at New York’s Town Hall in 1964, again devoted to Alkan, and Lewenthal’s career was  back on track.86 Likee Hensel Lik Henseltt and Godow Godowsky sky,, two le legen gendary dary gol golden den-ag -agee  pianistic heros, Lewenthal literally practiced day and night, 85 86

The entire two-hour Alkan broadcast is now posted at youtube.com. Harold C. Schonberg welcomed this concert with the following review, “Lewenthal is offering Alkan at Town Hall; Pianist back after 13 years absence.” New York Times (September 23, 1964): 54. Such was the success of the concert that Lewenthal immediately followed it with another Alkan  program at at Carnegie Hall Hall in 1965. 132

 

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mastering master ing many many scores scores of appall appalling ing diffic difficulty ulty.. Sub Subseq sequen uentt allallAlkan recordings for RCA and CBS became ame best sellers. Especially notable were his revivals of once-standard concertos by Scharwenka, Rubinstein and Henselt. Besides resurrecting Alkan’s Symphonie  fo forr solo pi pian anoo and Grand Grandee Sonate Sonate, Le Lewe went ntha hall also also defended the much maligned Liszt, who was the spiritual center of the late-twentieth-century Romantic Revival. Thus, listeners could once again hear Liszt’s Liszt’s Hexameron and a re-creation of the famous Liszt-Thalberg duel of 1837. Lewenthal’s inclusion of Liszt in his revivals was a clear indication of how, as Alan Walker wrote,

Liszt’s fate has always been inseparable from that of the romantic era in general. During the first half of the twentieth century, much of the the ro rom man antic tic re repe pert rtory ory fe fell ll in into to de deli liqu ques esce cenc nce, e, an andd Li Lisz szt’ t’ss reputa rep utatio tionn su suffe ffered red more more tha thann mo most. st...O ..Only nly whe whenn the Rom Romant antic ic revival got underway, underway, in the 1950s, could Liszt be viewed in a new and altogether more favourable light. light.87 

Lewenthal’’s extr Lewenthal extraord aordinary inary zeal beca became me a model model for many musi mu sici cian anss of the the ne next xt ge gene nera rati tion on.. One One of the the by-n by-now ow co coun untl tles esss  participants in the Romantic Revival is Samuel Magill, formerly a cellist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. Now  busy performing and making recordings, Magill recalled in a 2011  Fanfaree mag  Fanfar agaazi zinne inter ntervi view ew how how he got got st star arte tedd on the ra rare re romantics. His musical journey demonstrated how one interesting musica mus icall dis discov covery ery would invari invariabl ablyy lea leadd to anothe anotherr, and he is a good example of the immense attraction that ro rom mantic redi re disc scov over erie iess ha have ve ex exer erte tedd on perf perfor ormi ming ng music musicia ians ns who who are are constantly on the look-out for something new and stimulating to  play: My passion for neglected romantic music was inspired by the ser erie iess of re reco cord rdin ings gs an andd fe fessti tiva vals ls org rgan aniz ized ed by the the pian pianis istt 87

Alan W Walke alkerr, “Franz “Franz Liszt,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and  Musicians,, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 2001), 14:785.  Musicians 133

 

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Raymond Lewenthal in the late 1960s. I bought his recording of the Rubinstein D-Minor Piano Concerto while still in high school and I began a lifelong pursuit of detective work to unearth many such scores. The way I discovered the Alfano Sonata and Concerto is that, while playing Turandot so often at the Met, I had always admired his masterful ending of the opera. I wondered if this composer wrote any cello or chamber music. Then I found the Sonata in the Library of Congress and immediately fell in love

with it. sAfter readingand through it for the first It time, realized the Sonata profundity otherworldly vision. wasIlike no other sonata I had ever heard, though it has many influences, influences, from Ravel and Puccini to more modern composers, as well. Then, what to  pair it with for a CD? I found the Piano Quintet to be cut from the same cloth, so when I bought the music for the Concerto, I found that its neo-Classicism seemed a delightful contrast. Perhaps later we can pair the Quintet with the Violin Sonata. And his three string quartets need to be recorded, too.88 

Along Alo ng with with Lewent Lewenthal hal,, ano anothe therr im impor portan tantt dri drivin vingg for force ce  behind the 1960s Romantic Revival was the young pianist and musicologist Frank Cooper, whom we have already referred to several times. Cooper began his university career as a young  professor of piano at Butler University, University, where he founded the Festival of Neglected Romantic Music in 1968. This was the first  public concert series to systematically present rare scores from the rom ro man anti ticc er era, a, an andd many any pe perf rfor orm mer erss asso associ ciat ated ed wi with th th thee ne new w Romantic Revival appeared at Cooper’s festival. Lewenthal, of co cour urse se, ,rewa was s cha as re regu gula larrnnar gues gu as we were othe r sp spec ecia the thistet lite litera ratu ture su such Gu Gunn ar est, Joha Jot,hans nsen en, , reJo Jorrot geherBo Bole let, t, iali and anlist dstssviol viin olin inis Aaron Rosand. Cooper led the Festival until 1977 and is now a Professor of Musicology at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami, where he more recently founded the Miami Piano 88

Willi illiam am Zago Zagors rski ki,, “Une “Unear arth thin ingg Buri Buried ed Musi Musica call Treas reasur ures es,” ,”  Fanfar  Fanfaree (January/February (January /February,, 2010): http://www.fanfarearch http://www.fanfarearchive.com/artic ive.com/articles/atop/33_ les/atop/33_ 3/3330070.aa_Unea 3/333007 0.aa_Unearthing_Bur rthing_Buried_Musical_T ied_Musical_Treasures.htm reasures.htmll (accessed (accessed June 19/2012). 134

 

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Festival in 1998. During his career he has also served four terms as  president of the American Li Liszt szt Society. Society. During the 1960s, the same era that standard twentiethcentury music history textbooks usually reserved for serial and aleato ale atory ry mu music sic,, Le Lewen wentha thall and Coope Cooperr bur burst st on the music music scene scene with the counter-claim that the time was ripe for a resurgence of roman rom anti tici cism sm,, and and the the tw twoo mu musi sici cian anss then thence cefo fort rthh be beca came me key

fi figu gure ress in the the Roma Romant ntic ic Revi Reviva vall of th thee 1960 1960ss and and 70s. 70s. Wrote rote Lewenthal: A Romantic revival? Take a look around. Jules Vern’s romantic imagi im aginin nings gs hav havee com comee tru true. e. We are on the moon. Look at the young. Where are the antiseptic ‘modern’ crew cuts of a few years agoo? Lo ag Long ng ha hair ir,, fa fannta tast stic ic ge getu tups ps,, 19 19th th-c -cen entu tury ry be bear ards ds an andd moustaches and sideburns are the order of the day...’Mod’ now means me ans,, in ma many ny ways, ways, ‘Ro ‘Rom’ m’;; inv involv olveme ement, nt, cau causes ses,, pro protes tests, ts, idealism, escape from reality (not necessarily aided by drugs!) and, at the89same time, increased social consciousness – these are all ‘Rom’.

Lewent Lewe ntha hall beca became me invo involv lved ed in vari variou ouss impo importa rtant nt reco record rdin ingg  projects. Schirmer commissioned him to edit a volume of Alkan and a collection of works for the left hand. As preposterous as this may have sounded to those who were banking on the eventual  public triumph of twentieth-century radical modernism, Lewenthal’s Romantic Revival took off, with no small help from the Baroque same recording revival.companies that were also concurrently assisting We have already mentioned that the young British label Lyrita, which handled the music of the twentieth century English Renaissance, was also founded during this time. Lyrita’s favoured repertoire was soon to be taken up and explored on a much more extensive scale by major independent labels including Hyperion 89

Raymond Lewenthal, liner notes to Anton Rubinstein, Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor, etc. Columbia MS 7394 [1970]. 135

 

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and Chandos, and many smaller labels such as Dutton. There was also the prolific budget label Vox. Vox. Founded back in the 1940s, they  jumped on the Romantic Revival bandwagon in the late 1960s and  began releasing a broad swath of romantic concertos and solo works performed by artists like violinist Aron Rosand and pianist Michael Ponti.

The produc productiv tivee Po Ponti nti fir first st sprang sprang int intoo promin prominenc encee in the 1960s with a busy concert career in Germany and elsewhere. Along side Lewenthal’s highly polished and carefully executed  projects (using major orchestras) for RCA and Columbia, Ponti  began recording mostly-rare romantic music for Vox at a furious rate that matched the headlong tempos he loved to employ as he fearle fea rlessly ssly dispat dispatche chedd obscur obscuree concer concerto to after after obs obscur curee concer concerto. to. If Lewenthal cultivated the very image of a keyboard hero right out thee ni th nine nete teen enth th-c -cen entu tury ry itse itself lf,, Pont Pontii pres presen ente tedd a co cont ntra rast stin ingg  business-like image, although he certainly shared Lewenthal’ Lewenthal’ss  passion romantic repertoire well as Lewenthal’ Lewenthal’s outsized capacityfor forthe sheer hard work at theaskeyboard. In 1972,sthe daily newspapers announced the 34-year-old Ponti’s Ponti’s arrival in the United States. He was  balding and not especially romantic-looking, but playing the music of the Romantic Revival, the 19th and early 20th century musi sicc wr wriitt tten en by co com mpo pose serrs who are for orggotte ottenn or nea earl rlyy forgotten, many of whom were also virtuoso pianists. Some critics say that Ponti plays this music with the bravura and style of a Horowitz.90

Ponti was just then embarking on his first concert tour of Ameeric Am rica, havi having ng alre lready es esttablis blishhed hi him mse sellf in Eur uroope after fter winning the 1964 Busoni Competition. When he arrived in New York, he had already made a good number of recordings for Vox. This was when Vox, as Time magazine reported, “wanted to record 90

Mary Campbell, Campbell, “Pianist “Pianist fina finally lly comes out of ‘hiding,’” ‘hiding,’”  Eugene Register Register-Guard  (May  (May 8, 1972), 11. 136

 

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what seemed like the whole of the romantic piano literature and asked Ponti to be the performer.” performer.”91 Time also noted that Ponti could already play 50 concertos “at the drop of a hat.”92 And his sold-out Carnegie Hall Debut in March, 1972 provided a good indication of

his formidable capabilities. He performed a long and appallingly difficult program (including the Brahms Paganini Variations  and Stra St ravi vins nsky ky’’s Th Thrree Scenes Scenes fr from om Petr Petrouchka ouchka), ca capp ppin ingg of offf th thee evening with no less than nine encores that the audience had selected from a mimeographed list of 48 virtuoso showpieces that the pianist had distributed before the concert. In attention-getting style, the recital lasted almost three and a half hours. Clearly Ponti already had a vast repertoire at his disposal – a direct result of his willingness to learn at short notice. “If people asked me to play this or that, I would say, yes, I knew it, and learn it in a hell of a hurry.”93 It was Vox Records who helped establish Ponti as an internati intern ationa onall force force to be reckon reckoned ed wit with. h. Consis Consistin tingg of ext extens ensive ive andd sy an syst stem emat atiic re repe pert rtoi oirre surv survey eyss at bud budge gett price rice,, the Vox record rec ording ingss wer weree purcha purchased sed in lar large ge qua quanti ntitie tiess by librar libraries ies and curiou cur iouss mu music sic lov lovers ers everyw everywher here. e.94  Ponti Ponti himsel himselff comme commente ntedd further that “Vox asked if I knew the complete piano works of Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Scriabin, and some others they wanted me to do. I said, ‘Oh, yes.’ Actually I learned about 98 per cent of them from scratch.”95 And so it came came to pa pass ss that Pont Pontii  become known to collectors far and wide, helping spread the gospel of the Romantic Revival to turntables in living rooms across  North America and E Europe. urope. Onee by on On one, e, com complet pletee cyle cyless by th thee abov abovee-me ment ntio ione nedd com co mpo pose sers rs,, and muc uchh else lse – incl includ udin ingg a long long se serries ies of rar aree rom ro man anti ticc pi pian anoo co conc ncer erto toss (a (alw lway ayss a favo favori rite te genr genree of reco record rd 91

(no author given) “Bravura in the Coop,” Time (June 12, 1972), 92 Ibid. 93   Campbell, 11. 94 The Saskatoon Public Library in Western Canada where I grew up owned many of Ponti’s recordings. 95 Campbell, 11. 137

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

collectors)) by Raf collectors Raff, f, Rubinstei Rubinstein, n, Rein Reinecke, ecke, Medt Medtner ner,, Bala Balakirev kirev,, Lyapunov, Henselt, D’Albert, Goetz, and Litolff – came tumbling out of obscurity and onto the record players of hungry, novelty-

seekingg con seekin connoi noisse sseurs urs in far far-fl -flung ung loc locati ations ons.. Callin Callingg Po Ponti nti “te “tenn  pianists in one,” the distinguished musicologist and pianist Harris Goldsm Gol dsmith ith rema remarke rkedd in a 197 19722 iss issue ue of  High Fidelity  magazine: “For the past year or so, it would almost seem that one out of two new piano recordings featured a young American named Michael Ponti.”96 In his recordings, Ponti raced through the music at top speed, and the exhumed concertos were accompanied by regional and often ill-rehearsed orchestras like Radio Luxembourg and the Hamburg Sy Sym mphony. ny. As was to be expected under such circumstances, the results were variable but the piano playing was often tremendously exciting. Collectors took note and the ground was set for a later and more extensive recorded survey of the rom ro manti ntic pia iano no co conc ncer erto to litera teratu ture re,, begun egun aro roun undd 19 19990 by Hyperion Hype rion records (see later in this chapter), chapter), who shared the Vox  philosophy of recording extensive and complete catalogues of repertoire, much of it rarely encountered in the concert hall. Earlier in this chapter, we cited various commentators who wrot wr otee of how how a ve very ry trad tradit itio iona nall-so soun undi ding ng bo body dy of twen twenti tiet ethhcent ce ntur uryy mu musi sicc wa wass begi beginn nnin ingg to pr prov ovid idee a fe fert rtil ilee gr grou ound nd of exploration by classical musical connoisseurs after the 1950s. The reasons for this development were not difficult to fathom. Many  passionate and dedicated music lovers were simply growing tired of yet another Beethoven or Tchaikovsky symphony cycle and wanted want ed somethin somethingg new to listen listen to. At the same time, they largely rejected the harshest climes of New Music. A few critics, however however,, even ev en when when they they were were skep skepti tica call of th thee exag exagge gera rate tedd cl clai aims ms of hist hi stooric rical impo porrtanc tancee adva advanc nced ed by pro roppon oneents nts of rad adic ical al compositional streams, occasionally looked on the new Romantic Revival with some bemusement. Such a view was apparent in Richar Ric hardd Fre Freedm edman’ an’ss art articl iclee about about Pon Ponti ti in a 1972 1972 issue issue of  Life 96

Harris Goldsmith, “Ten Pianists in One,” High Fidelity (March 1972): 69. 138

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

magazine:

So bo bore redd ha have ve co conc ncer ertt au audi dien ence cess be beco come me wi with th the the el elec ectr tron onic ic  bleeps, burps and squiggles which pass for “serious” music these days, to say nothing of the chestnuts of the standard repertory, that a great romantic Revival is now afoot. Not the Standard Brands romantics like Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, mind you, but their il illl-fa fate tedd fo forg rgot otte tenn co cont ntem empo pora rarie ries. s. Ad Adol olff vo vonn He Hens nsel elt, t, Xa Xave verr Scha Sc harw rwen enka ka,, Jo Joac achim him Ra Raff ff.. Ba Bach ch,, Be Beet etho hove venn an andd Br Brah ahms ms ar aree lo losi sing ng gr grou ound nd to Medt Medtne nerr, Mo Mosc sche hele less an andd Mo Mosz szko kows wski ki,, al alll keyboard giants in their time whose brilliant but empty concertos and etudes more or less went down with the Titanic.97

More receptive to the revival of minor romantic composers was the Pulizer Prize-winning critic Harold C. Schonberg. In his position as chief music critic of the New York Times, Schonberg became the main critical advocate of the Romantic Revival in its first two decades. In 1977 he described how, In the last few decades, avant-garde music alone of the arts failed to achieve any kind of following, and the current, enthusiastic exploration of minor romantics is in many respects a reaction to the sterilities imposed on the public by strict serial music and its offshoots. 98 

In 196 1967, 7, the Los Angele Angeless critic critic and his histor torian ian Peter Peter Yates ates (whose musical tastes were very different from those of Harold Scho Sc honb nber ergg in New New York) ork) had had also also no noti tice cedd that that ne new w mo mode dern rnis istt music was being passed up in favour of revivals of older music. In frustr fru strati ation, on, Yate atess dis dismis missed sed concer concert-g t-goin oingg and record record-buy -buying ing devotees as dilettantes who thwarted the progress of music. “The dilettantes,” said Yates, “are usually aware of the best but prefer 97

98

Richard Freedman, “A romantic with steel fingers: The pianism of Michael Ponti,” Life (April 21, 1972): 29. Harold C. Schonberg, “Neo-Romantic Music Warms a Public Chilled by the  New York York Times (March 20, 1977): Arts and Leisure Section, Avant-Garde,” 69. 139

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

the more easily fashionable...and for the same reason rush in a

the more easily fashionable...and for the same reason rush in a  body to admire new new,, fashionable recoveries from the past.”99  The “fashiona “fas hionable ble recoveri recoveries” es” that Yates Yates referred referred to were obviously a thin th inly ly-v -vei eile ledd refe refere renc ncee to ei eith ther er the the Earl Earlyy Musi Musicc Revi Reviva val, l, the the Romantic Revival, or both. Certainly, the Romantic Revival was already receiving much press in the United States, not least from York Times Times. And Schonberg, together Harold Schonberg of the New York with Lewenthal and Cooper, was engaged in a vigorous campaign on behalf of the Romantic Revival at exactly the same time that Yates was penning his words in the late 1960s. In addition, many record reviews of newly revived works were also appearing almost mont mo nthly hly in le lead adin ingg clas classi sica call ma maga gazi zine ness like like  High Fidelity  and Gramophone, which Yates was all too aware of . He also saw the  potentially negative historical implications for New Music, and  believed that those “dilettantes” who loved to recover old music

were also “the most vindictive against new composers.”100  Howe Ho weve verr, Yates ates cr cruc ucia ially lly ne negl glec ecte tedd to me ment ntio ionn that that the the music lovers whom he was labeling “dilettantes” were often very well we ll educ educat ated ed pr prof ofes essi sion onal alss fr from om disc discip ipli line ness othe otherr th than an music music.. Such listeners had a deep knowledge of the standard repertoire, something I myself have long known from personal experience. When I worked as a record store clerk in the late 1980s and early 1990s, my customers included a doctor who was ordering Malcolm Arno Ar nold ld symp sympho honi nies es (t (thi hiss wa wass th thee time time when when they they were were almo almost st thirty a disc ingeCanada). asked if I had ever ev er hdollars ea eard rd of Geor George Lloy oyd, d, Another and high igdoctor hly rec ecom omm meme nd nded ed that hat com co mpo pose serr to me. me. An Anot othe herr re regu gula larr cust custom omer er was was a refe refere renc ncee libr librar aria iann at the the Un Univ iver ersi sity ty's 's mai ainn br bran anch ch.. He was was espe especi cial ally ly interested in twentieth-century traditionalist symphonic music, and once asked me what he should get for his thousandth CD. I suggested Bax and Tubin symphonies, but he already had them all 99

Peterr Yates Pete Yates,, Twen wentie tieth th Centur Centuryy Mu Music sic:: Its Evolu Evolutio tion n from from the End of the  Harmonic Era into the Pre Present sent Era of Sound (New York: Pantheon Books, 1967), 59. 100 Ibid. 140

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

(I should have known). There was also a political science professor whoo ca wh came me in into to th thee stor storee every every week, week, and and who who had had perh perhap apss the the largest lar gest CD colle collection ction of all. His twen twentieth tieth-cent -century ury tastes were not dissimilar to those of the other customers. And so on.

Independent record companies and the Romantic Revival

Of crucial economic importance for the Romantic Revival, manyy of Yate man ates’ s’ dile diletta ttante ntess evi eviden dently tly had dee deepp poc pocket ketss and the fi fina nanc ncia iall mean meanss to pr prov ovid idee the the notnot-in inco cons nsid ider erab able le fund fundss that that eventually allowed a whole range of new independent record labels like BIS, Hyperion, Chandos, cpo, Albany and Marco Polo/Naxos to sudd sudden enly ly ri rise se up an andd fl flou ouri rish sh ju just st as CD tech techno nolo logy gy wa wass emerging emer the internationa internat scene. labels I have just list li sted edging are are on se sele lect cted ed sim simional pl plyy lbeca bescene caus use.e The they theyrecord are are si six x of th the e lar large gest st companies of their kind, according to data taken from Arkivmusic.com’s comprehensive classical catalogue. catalogue.101  Within a few years of their founding, each company had already amassed a vast catalogue, and all were were filled to the brim with what Y Yates ates had derisively termed “fashionable recoveries from the past.” Such recoveries found ready buyers everywhere that classical music was sold so ld.. Klau Klauss He Heyymann mann’’s hy hype perr-pro -proli lifi ficc Ma Marc rcoo Po Polo lo/N /Nax axos os conglomera congl omerate the way withananimpressively asto astoundi undingly nglydeep busy recording recording schedule. Intetheledprocess he built catalogue of well over 6000 CDs within a quarter of a century. The most dedicated collectors of classical recordings have grown to love Naxos/Marco Polo, Albany, BIS, cpo, Chandos and 101

The Arkivmusic.com data is as follows: Naxos/Marco Polo (6256 releases availab ava ilable), le), Chandos Chandos (1896), (1896), BIS (1813), (1813), Albany Albany (1235), (1235), cpo (1084), (1084), and Hype Hy peri rion on (106 (1069) 9).. Berl Berlin in Clas Classi sics cs (1 (117 179) 9) is not not in incl clud uded ed in my su surv rvey ey  because they focus mainly on the eighteenth eighteenth and nineteenth nineteenth centuries. Also among amo ng the large independe independents nts are Centaur Centaur Records Records (1068) (1068) which releases releases much rare material, andods, Harmonia Mundi (1068), which has many interest inte resting ing romantic rari rarities ties from all periods, peri from early music to twentieth twen tieth-cen -century tury avant-garde music. The totals are as of mid-2012. 141

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Hyperi Hype rion on be beca caus usee th thei eirr cata catalo logu gues es are are care carefu full llyy plan planne nedd by entr en trep epre rene neur urss wh whoo are are also also like like-m -min inde dedd musi musicc lo love vers rs.. They They ar aree “dilettantes” in the best sense of the word and deeply value their customer base in a personal way that only kindred spirits can. The foll fo llow owin ingg two two post postss fr from om the the Chan Chando doss webs websit itee illu illust stra rate te th this is  beautifully  beautifully, , record and give insight into howthink. the First major independent label valuable owners and their customers is a note note from from Ra Ralp lphh Co Couz uzen ens, s, ma mana nagi ging ng di dire rect ctor or of Ch Chan ando doss Records: For all those that have and will post new recording ideas on this forum we at Chandos/TheClassicalShop say many thanks. I know you all appreciate a response from us and a positive one at that and  please believe me there is nothing we would like to do more, but there are only so many hours in a day and we cannot possibly answer every posting. Therefore please accept that every new idea coming from you is read, noted and hopefully sometime in the future acted upon. When there is some specific news regarding one of th thes esee po post stin inggs we wi will ll mak akee su sure re a suita uitabl blee re resp spon onse se / announcement is made on this forum...Its wonderful that there is still so much great music to be discovered and recorded and rest assured we will do what we can within this declining CD market to bring as many new pieces of music to the public as possible. We We thank you for your support.102

Upon posting the above note of appreciation, Couzens immediately received the following response from a customer: Mr. Couzens, Thank You so much for acknowledging everyone! The assurance that we are heard, and that it matters, means very much. I can’t imagine how intricate it is to balance subjective wish wi shes es wi with th ec econ onom omic ic pr pragm agmati atism sm in su such ch a pr prec ecari ariou ouss tim time. e. Thank you for carrying on in that circumstance. You’re one of us, to too: o: a de deep eply ly-f -fel eltt mus usic ic lo love verr wi with th sinc sincer eree pas passion sion.. It is so 102

“New Repertoire Ideas,” discussion topic in the Chandos Forum. http://www. classical-mp3.co.uk/index.php?topic=28.0 (accessed February 18, 2012). 142

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

elevating to also glimpse the sheer musical scholarship which  pervades this forum. forum. 103 

The above exchange drawn from the Chandos Website forum (a list of the composers discussed in the forum is given in the footnote) gives good indication of themajor type of musical aesthetic that shapes the aphilosophy of several independent record companies. They engage in musical activities that both reflect and addd to th ad thee gr grow owin ingg publ public ic kn know owle ledg dgee of th thee ki kind nd of twen twenti tiet ethhcentury composers who emphasized a healthy continuity with their  past rather than a radical break from it. To musicians who are not very fam famili iliar ar wit withh the spe specia cialis listt cla classi ssical cal record recording ing scene, scene, these these developments may come as something of a surprise, for they have  been relatively swift. And to repeat, it cannot be emphasized strongly the inc this chaenough pter arethatow nedindependent and operlabels at ateed bwe y are clasdiscussing sical musi sic connoisseurs of vast musical knowledge. They have an unerring instinct for sensing how sophisticated music lovers think, and plan their release schedules accordingly. Besides covering a great deal of the standard repertoire, many of the leading classical music entrepreneurs in the recording 103

Ibid. In the section of the Chandos Forum devoted to discussing artists and repertoire,, one can find discussion threads (all started by customers) devoted repertoire to many rare romantic romantic compose composers. rs. In compiling compiling the following following list, I have simpl simplyy gone gone throug throughh all the titles titles of the forum forum di discu scussi ssion on thread threadss from from  beginning  beginn ing to end. From this, we discover that customers have been asking Chan Ch ando doss abou aboutt comp compos oser erss such such as the the follo followi wing: ng: Rufi Rufina nats tsch cha, a, Pott Potter er,,  Napravnik,, William  Napravnik William Gaze Cooper, Cooper, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninoff, Holbrooke, Cowen, Mack Ma ckenz enzie, ie, Raff, Raff, Bowen Bowen,, Ric Richa hard rd Rod Rodney ney Benne Bennett, tt, Ina Ina Boyle, Boyle, Rozsa Rozsa,, Halvo Ha lvorse rsen, n, Holst, Holst, William illiamson son,, Ch Cham amina inade, de, Arthur Arthur Benjam Benjamin, in, Stanfo Stanford rd,, Grai Gr aing nger er,, Cyri Cyrill Scot Scott, t, Mela Melart rtin in,, Casa Casade desu sus, s, D’In D’Indy dy,, Br Brul ull, l, Sull Sulliv ivan an,, Coleridge-Taylor, Mahler, Oberthur, Drysdale, Mackenzie, McEwen, Brian, Leig Le ight hton on,, Goos Goosse sens ns,, Schr Schrek eker er,, Wal alla lace ce,, Balf Balfe, e, Korn Korngo gold ld,, Bern Berner ers, s, Herrmann,, Smyth, Horatio Parker, Herrmann Parker, Britten, Bliss, Bantock, Melachrino, Dale, Milford. There are also discussion threads in the same forum that are devoted to romantic concertos, as well as 19 th and 20th century symphonies. Nearly all of above composers and topics fit at least partially into the category of twenti twe ntieth eth-ce -centu ntury ry ro roman mantic tic tradit tradition ionali alism. sm. See http:/ http://ww /www w.class .classica icallmp3.co.uk/index.php?board=5.20 (accessed February 18, 2012). 143

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

 business are very conscious of their role as ground-breakers ground-breakers in the industry and tend to focus on composers of various periods who are considered by informed music lovers to be unfairly neglected. Indeed Ind eed,, cal calls ls for the need need to redres redresss such such histor historica icall injus injustic ticee are repeated constantly and will certainly be familiar to all readers of thee maj th ajor or re revi view ew maga magazi zine nes. s. Fo Forr many many list listen ener erss an andd cr crit itic icss interested in traditionalist twentieth-century romantic composers, reco re cord rdin ings gs of this this acad academ emic ical ally ly unde underr rrat ated ed segm segmen entt of th thee repertoire have been revelatory. Composers representing musical idioms that had been long been counted unimportant because they did not break new ground in an evolutionary and progressive sense have been recovered in large quantities. In 1998, on the occasion of an impo importa rtant nt new new bi biog ogra raphy phy of Ko Korn rngo gold ld,, th thee reco record rd cr crit itic ic,,  publisher and musicologist Martin Anderson took the opportunity to look back on the previous two decades of musical revivals. He remarked how the 1980s and ‘90s are proving to be the decades of The Great Rehabilitation. Again and again over the past decade or so, a com co mpo pose serr pr prev evio ious usly ly co cons nsid ider ered ed mar argi gina nal, l, a qu quas asii-pr priv ivat atee enthusiasm, has been restored to a position of genuine public esteem. One of them is Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a man at whom it was once de rigueur  to  to look down your critical nose.104

  Ande An ders rson on hi hims msel elff was was also also ta taki king ng an acti active ve part part in the the revival reviv al move movement ment by publishing publishing many useful monograp monographs hs under his Toccata Toccata Press imprint, which he founded in 1981. According to his website, Toccata Press was “expressly dedicated to tackling important subjects that other publishes have failed to address.” 105   Not surprisingly, surprisingly, many of Anderson’s Anderson’s neglected composers were twentieth-century traditionalist/romantic composers who had been overlooked overl ooked by hist historian orianss becau because se of the relentles relentlesss academic academic focus 104

105

Marti Ma rtinn Ander And erson son,, review rev of “The “Th e Last LastTempo Prodig Prodigy y: A(July Biogra Bio1998): graphy phy30.of Eri Erich ch Wolfgang Korngold byiew Brendan Carroll,” 205 Martin Anderson, “About us,” Toccata Press, http://www.toccatapress.com/ cms/about-toccata-press.html (accessed April 11, 2012). 144

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

on atonal atonality ity,, serial serialism ism,, and other other hig highh mod modern ernist ist stream streams. s. Thus, Thus, scholars schol ars and conno connoisseu isseurs rs have now been able to enjoy impo important rtant ground-breaking monographs devoted to Franz Schmidt, Georges Enescu Ene scu,, Han Hanss Pfi Pfitzn tzner er,, Ronald Ronald Ste Steven venson son,, Ado Adolf lf Bus Busch, ch, Dimitr Dimitrii Shostakovich, Bohuslav Martinů, Ralph V Vaughan aughan Williams, Arthur Butt Bu tter erwo wort rth, h, Ha Have verrgal gal Br Bria ian, n, He Heit itor or Villa illa Lobo Lobos, s, E. J. Moer Moeran an,, Vagn Holm Holmboe, boe, Karo Karoll Szymanow Szymanowski, ski, Carl Fles Flesch, ch, Adrian Boult, Boult, and Ludvig Irgens-Jensen. Anderson also later founded the record label Toccata Classics for purposes similar to his Toccata Press venture, thus joining the ranks of revival-oriented record labels. When Hyperion’s Ted Perry passed away in 2003, Anderson’s obituary summed up the influence of record label founders like Perry, Perry, who had started Hyperion in 1980: His enthusiasms refashioned music history, particularly in British music. His espousal of the works of Robert Simpson established its composer, composer, hitherto a little-known outsider outsider,, as tthe he most powerful British symphonist since Vaughan Williams. He went over the head of received critical opinion to find an audience for Sir Granville Bantock’s music. music.106 

Hyperion’s large catalogue (about 1500 CDs) fairly burgeons with trad tradit itio iona nali list st repe repert rtoi oire re al alon ongg the the trad tradit itio iona nali list st line liness of the the composers mentioned ins ongoing the above obituary. We already mentioned menti oned the company’ company’s ongoi ng proj project ect to record reco rd have rare romantic  piano, violin, and cello concertos, many of which were written by composers who were still active long after 1910, the time of the at aton onal al revol evolut utio ion. n. Al Alm mos ostt ent ntir irel elyy abse bsent from from Hy Hype peri rion on’’s cata ca talo logu gue, e, ho howe weve verr, are are com compo pose sers rs re repr pres esen enta tati tive ve of Hi High gh Modernist Moder nist streams streams,, unle unless, ss, like Bart Bartók ók they already already have one foot firmly planted in the traditionalist camp. We mentioned earlier in this chapter that Ralph Couzens of Chandos Records did not care forr Sch fo Schoe oenb nbeerg and “m “mat athe hem mat atiical mus usiic” but but pre refferre erredd to 106

Martin Anderson, “Ted Perry, 1931-2003,” in  Internationa  Internationall Record Record Review, Review, Vol. 3, No. 12 (April 2003): 19.

145

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

concen conc entr trat atee on wh what at he called lled the the mor oree “r “rom omaantic ntic si sidde” of twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy mu musi sic, c, incl includ udin ingg co comp mpos oser erss of th thee Br Brit itis ishh twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntury ury musi musica call rena renais issa sanc ncee an andd othe otherr st styl ylist istic ical ally ly  parallel composers from around the world. Ted Perry’ Perry’ss Hyperion Records, then,Hyperion is very similar Chandos in this regard. When begantotheir now-famous  Romantic Piano Concerto series, they expressly sought to continue in the spirit of the Ponti’s Vox recordings, but with better orchestras and less hasty  production values.107  By the time Hyperion reached Volume 50 in 2010, they had already recorded well over one hundred (mostly) rare romantic piano concertos and concerted works, which far surpassed the output of Ponti’s Vox project. Besides covering the rich early and mid-nineteenth-century repertoire (Herz, Moscheles,  Romantic Piano Concerto W eb eber er,,has Rubi Rubins nste tein in,, Goet Goetz, z, etc. etc.), ), th theeworks series also encompassed many by composers of the Rachmanin Rachm aninoff off-Scho -Schoenbe enbergrg-Strav Stravinsky insky generatio generation. n. The fact that thes th esee la late te ro roma mant ntic ic co comp mpos oser erss ar aree cont contem empo pora rane neou ouss with with early early twentieth-century radicals is very important to highlight once again as we continue our task of establishing a place for romanticism in the apparently apparently alien modernis modernistt musical musical clim climate ate that many thinker thinkerss claimed had so exclusively defined the early twentieth century. Mich Mi chae aell Spri Spring ng,, the the plan planne nerr of th thee Hype Hyperi rion on se seri ries es,, expl explai ains ns::

“Obviously, I’m working very1820-ish broadly up through whole of material, starting from about until,the well, any range time, as long as stylistically it fits. The latest we’ve done is the Dohnányi Second, which is 1947, I think.”108  The Hyperion project is far from over, and due to its financial success, is projected to continue for years to come. “The reason we got to Volume 50 is fundam fun dament entall allyy bec becaus ausee it sells,” sells,” says says Spring Spring..109  As one would expect,t, there are plen expec plenty ty of enthusias enthusiastic tic buyers who are ready with sugges sug gesti tions ons for many other other romant romantic ic con concer certos tos.. A good pla place ce to 107

108

Colin olin Clar Clarke ke,, “The “The Roma Romant ntic ic Pian Pianoo Conc Concer erto to and and Mike Mike Spri Spring ng of Hyperion,” Fanfar  Fanfaree (May/June 2010): 28.

108 109

Ibid. Ibid., 32. 146

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

observe this is in the Uns Unsung ung Compo Composer serss  fo foru rum m, whic whichh is speeci sp cifi fica call llyy devo devote tedd to rare rare rom roman anti ticc musi sicc. Many Many of the corr co rres espo pond nden ents ts in th that at foru forum m fo foll llow ow th thee de deve velo lopm pmen entt of the the Hyperion series very closely, closely, and some are in personal contact with Michael Spring himself.110 Hyperion has evidently convinced a significant number of  present-day connoisseurs that the romantic concerto tradition was st stil illl in muc uchh bett better er shap shapee duri during ng th thee earl earlyy mode modern rn er eraa than than academic acade mic conceits conceits like “the deat deathh of romantici romanticism” sm” would seem to indi in dica cate te.. In Tab able le 4 we se seee the the exte extent nt to whic whichh Hy Hype peri rion on ha hass resuscitated a vast number of ungleichzeitig (untimely) composers andd conc an concer erto tos. s. In ac acco cord rdan ance ce with with Pa Paul ul He Henry nry Lang Lang’’s maxi maxim m (which introduces chapter four) that “nothing disturbs the picture more than taking a composer’s dates as criterion,” the reader is urged here to make special note of the birth and death dates for the foll fo llow owin ingg 43 co comp mpos oser erss wh whoo ar aree repr repres esen ente tedd in Hy Hype peri rion on’’s extensive project: Table 4: The Romantic Concerto in the Rachmaninoff-Schoenberg generation, as resurrected by Hyperion: Anton Arensky (1861-1906) Eugene d’Albert (1864-1932) Felix Blumenfeld (1863-1931) Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) York Bowen (1884-1961) Feruccio Busoni (1866-1924) Frederic Cliffe (1857-1931) Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (18521955) Ernö Dohnányi (1877-1960)

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) Alexander Goedicke (1877-1957) Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) Joseph Holbrooke (1878-1958) Jenö Hubay (1858-1937) Henry Holden Huss(1862-1953) John Ireland (1879-1962) Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909) (1876-1909) Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) Sergei Lyapunov (1859-1924)

Frédéric (1868-1943 (1868-1943)) Georges d’Erlanger Enescu (1881-1955)

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1847-1935)

Robert Fuchs (1847-1927) 110

Joseph Marx (1882-1964)

Unsung Composers can be found at unsungcomposers.com. 147

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

 Nikolai Medtner Medtner (1880-1951) (1880-1951) Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) José Vianna da Motta (1868-1948) Henryk Melcer (1869-1928)

Arthur Somervell (1863-1957) Charles Stanford (1852-1924) Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) Zygmunt Stojowski (1870-1946)

Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941) GabrielJan Pierné (1863-1937) Max Reger (1873-1916) Emil von Sauer (1862-1942) Franz Xaver Scharwenka (1860-1924) Ernest Henry Schelling (1876-1939)

Richard Strauss (1856-1915) (1864-1949) Sergei Taneyev Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1875-1940) Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) Haydn Wood (1882-1959)

An interesting interesting pattern can be discerne discernedd by those who have  been following Hyperion’ H yperion’ss explorations of the piano concerto, that most archetypical of golden age romantic genres: Hyperion often follows romantic concertos works bysuccessful the samerecordings composers.ofCollectors can expectwith thatother solo  piano cycles, c ycles, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire will appear 111 in the the mont months hs an andd yea ears rs th that at fo foll llow ow..111   Th Thus us,, we ha have ve mor oree Dohnányi, Bortkiewicz’s symphonies and a cycle of his piano worrks, wo ks, St Stoj ojoowsk wski pian pianoo works, rks, a Medtn edtner er so sonnat ataa cy cyccle by Hame Ha meli lin, n, La Lamo mond nd’’s sy symp mpho hony ny and and othe otherr orch orches estr tral al work works, s, D’Albert’s piano sonata and solo works. Hyperion has also begun sister cycles devoted to rare romantic cello and violin concertos. Already Alr eady, , ncer music mu sic lovers ers hav e been beeth ne able abl ete toRoma explor lore e /ear con concer certos tos and ot othe her r co conc erte tedd lov wo work rksshave fr from om the la late Roexp mant ntic ic/e arly ly mode modern rn gene ge nera rati tion on by Dohn Dohnány ányi, i, d’Al d’Albe bert, rt, Some Somervi rvill lle, e, Stan Stanfo ford rd and and Enesco. Enes co. Again, Again, these are composers composers whose care careers ers stretched stretched far into the twentieth twentieth century century.. Moreo Moreover ver,, they were ofte oftenn outs outspoken poken opponents of radical modernism, and commentators are observing that their presence in the recording catalogue has implications for how ho w we ev eval alua uate te the the mu music sic wr writ itte tenn in th thee ea early rly decade decadess of the the twenti twe ntieth eth centu century ry.. Astrid Astrid Konte Konterr spell spelled ed this this out cle clearl arlyy in a

conversation Jonathan Plowright, who Hyperion arti ar tist st an andd ha haswith s revi revive vedd ro roma mant ntic ic conc concer erto toss isand anadregular solo solo wo work rkss by 111

Many more details for all Hyperion releases, including the full authoritative  booklet notes, notes, can be found at hyperion-records.co.uk. 148

 

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Stojow Stoj owsk skii (187 (18700-19 1946 46)) and and Mel elze zerr (186 (18699-19 1928 28), ), an andd has has al also so reco re corde rdedd the the comp comple lete te Ba Bach ch tr tran ansc scri ript ptio ions ns of Walte alterr Ru Rumm mmel el (1887-1953): Many of the works introduced by Plowright were written between the turn of the century and the 1930s, a period that is commonly understood as having created a break which led to the development of New Music. The fact that this era also gave birth to an immense variety of different musical styles is something that we are only gradually beginning to grasp. Plowright, then, is making a contribution toward helping us arrive at a more accurate  picture of music music historiography historiography..112 

When Ted Perry first founded Hyperion in the early 1980s, he supported his fledgling record label by working as a cab driver. Thi hiss was not enti entire rely ly at atyypica ical, as se sevveral eral ot othe herr im impo port rtaant entrepreneurs also had non-musical backgrounds. Dilettantes in the  best sense, they went into the recording business simply because they th ey we were re pa pass ssio iona nate te ab abou outt ex expl plor orin ingg ra rare re re repe pert rtoi oire re that that le less ss expl ex plora orato tory ry ma majo jorr la labe bels ls te tend nded ed to igno ignore. re. Th Thei eirr ne new w sp spec ecia iali list st la labe bells rapid apidly ly fi fill lleed a nic niche and and foun foundd many any like like-m -min inde dedd custom cus tomers ers.. Chief Chief among among such such dilett dilettant antes es must must be Naxos/ Naxos/Mar Marco co Polo founder Klaus Heymann, a German businessman who cannot read notes but has an insatiable appetite for early twentieth-centu twentieth-century ry romantic rarities by composers along the stylistic and philosophical line liness of Re Resp spig ighi hi,, Furt Furtwä wäng ngle lerr, Me Medt dtne nerr an andd Pfit Pfitzn zner er.. An Andd Heymann’s entire commercial enterprise, more than any others, 112

Astridd Konte Astri Konterr, in inter tervie view w with with Jonath Jonathan an Plowri Plowrigh ght,t, “Leid “Leidens ensch chaft aftlic liche herr Anwa An walt lt ro roma mant ntis isch cher er Musi Musik, k,””  Klassik Heute (n.d.)  http://www.klassikheute.com/kh/z_exc heute.co m/kh/z_exclusiv/plowrig lusiv/plowright.shtml ht.shtml (accessed, (accessed, April 11, 11, 2012). (Viele (Viele

derr von de von Plow Plowri righ ghtt vor vorgest gestel ellt lten en Wer erke ke ents entsta tand nden en in der der Zeit Zeit um di diee Jahrhundertwende biszur in die 30er Jahre,der eine musikgeschichtliche Periode, die als Umbruch hin Entwicklung Neuen Musik verstanden wird. Dass diese Zeit aber eine immense Vielfalt von unterschiedlichsten Stilen hervor her vorgeb gebrach rachtt hat, gelangt gelangt nur zögernd zögernd ins Bewusstse Bewusstsein. in. Insofern Insofern trägt trägt Plowright wie nebenbei zu einer Korrektur der Musikgeschichtsschreibung  bei.) 149

 

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completely turned the classical recording world upside-down after 1990. 199 0. He drama dramatic tically ally underm undermine inedd the ma marke rkett str streng ength th of the major labels, not least by forcing even the biggest competitors to compete at the budget level. Heymann came by his passion for romantic music honestly. honestly. Of special interest to our discussion of the Romantic Revival, it turns tur ns out tha that,t, in his earlier earlier years years,, Heyman Heymannn had been regula regularly rly expo ex pose sedd to th thee work work of roma romant ntic ic revi reviva vali list sts. s. His His mo moth ther er wa wass a good friend friend of pianist pianist Micha Michael el Ponti Ponti’’s mother mother,, and Klau Klauss often went to Ponti Ponti’’s concerts. concerts.113  As we al alre read adyy sa saw w earl earlie ierr in th this is chap ch apte terr, Pont onti wa wass a ro rom man anti ticc revi reviva vali list st in the the tra tradi dittio ionn of Raymond Lewenthal, and had become famous among dedicated record col record collec lector torss for resurr resurrect ecting ing and record recording ing num numero erous us rare rare rom ro man anti ticc pi pian anoo co conc ncer erto toss an andd so solo lo work works. s. Po Pont ntii ev even entu tual ally ly recorded some eighty LPs for Vox Records, most of which have since been re-released on CD. In 1982, 1982, Hey Heyman mannn fou founde ndedd Mar Marco co Pol Poloo “as a hobby hobby.”114  Given Heymann’s background, it was not surprising that the initial focus of his “Label of Discovery” would be romantic music. A glance at Marco Polo’s current 900-CD catalogue still confirms this. It is dedicated above all to romantic, late romantic and early twentieth-century composers. great significance is the fact that special emphasis is placed onOfseveral outspoken anti-modernists from fro m the Schoen Schoenber bergg era: Respig Respighi, hi, Pfi Pfitzn tzner er,, Fur Furtwä twängl ngler er and Medtner (We will briefly discuss the aesthetic views of each of thes th esee figu figure ress in ch chap apte terr fi five ve). ). Also Also cent centra rall to Ma Marc rcoo Po Polo lo’’s catalogue is a huge amount film music and light music, genres which continued to embrace nineteenth-century tonal and stylistic

features deep into the twentiet features twentiethh cent century ury.. As can be expected, expected, both of these genres have also been vitally important in the on-going 113

114

See Klaus Heymann, “Too Many Records,”  Internationa  Internationall Recor Record d Review 4 (June, 2003): 96. Klau laus Heyma eymannn, in inte terrvie view with ith Feli Felixx Hil ilse se,, “Wir haben ben unse serre Haus Ha usauf aufga gabe benn gema gemach cht,” t,” klas klassi sik. k.co com m (July 2007), 2007), http http://po ://portra rtraits.k its.klass lassik. ik. com/people/interview.cfm?KID=13501 (accessed April 11, 2012). 150

 

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Romantic Revival. To list some examples from the Marco Polo catalogue, there are extensive or complete cycles of Leopold Godowsky (10 CDs – still in progress), Fritz Kriesler (13 CDs), Johann Strauss, Jr. Jr. (53 CDs), Joseph Strauss, 27 CDs, Han Christian Lumbye (60  projected CDs), Émile Waldteufel Waldteufel and a large survey of twentiethcent ce ntur uryy Brit Britis ishh ligh lightt mu musi sicc fr from om co comp mpos oser erss like like Er Eric ic Co Coat ates es,, Edward German and Richard Addinsell. Notable too are many cycles of conservative twentieth-century symphonies by composers suchh as Charle suc Charless Tour ournem nemire ire,, Hen Henri ri Sau Sauget get,, Lászl Lászlóó Laj Lajtha tha,, and Alexander Moyzes. A statement from the introduction to Marco Polo’s 2003 catalogue sums up their essential musical credo, and, of course, that of Klaus Heymann He ymann himself: For many years Marco Polo was the only label dedicated to recording rare repertoire. Most of its releases were world première reco record rdin ings gs of wo work rkss by rom roman anti tic, c, La Late te ro rom man anti ticc an andd Ea Early rly Twentieth Century composers, and of light classical music. One earl ea rlyy fiel fieldd of ex expplo lora rati tion on la layy in the the wo work rk of la late terr rom roman anti ticc composers, whose turn has now come again, particularly those whose careers were affected by political events and composers who refused to follow contemporary fashions. Siegfried Wagner, Pfit Pf itzn zner er,, Sc Schr hrek eker er,, En Enes escu cu,, Re Resp spig ighhi, Ma Mali lipi pier ero, o, Pi Pizz zzet etti ti,, Castelnuovo-Tedesco..115 Castelnuovo-Tedesco

Heymann has recently commented in an interview that if there were a major recording project he would still like to do – and one that would be particularly close to his heart – it would be a

complete edition of Hans Pfitzner.116 For the last several decades, Pfit Pf itzn zner er wa wass of prim primar aryy in inte tere rest st to mo mode dern rnis istt-or orie ient nted ed mu musi sicc 115

Klaus Heymann, “Marco Polo - The Label of Discovery,” introduction to the  Marco  Mar co Polo Catalo Catalogue gue (2003), 2. 116 Klaus Kla us Heyman Heymann, n, interv interview iewed ed by Gr Gramo amoph phone one magazine, “Naxos founder Klauss Heymann Klau Heymann on what lies ahead for classica classicall recordin recordings,” gs,” Gramphone website feature (August 24, 2010), http://www.gramophone.co.uk/ features/ focus/the-future-of-liste focus/the -future-of-listening-will-be-a ning-will-be-an-all-you-e n-all-you-eat-formula at-formula (accessed (accessed April 11, 2012). 151

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

historians only for his implacable resistance to the atonal avantgarde after 1910. Heymann went start asult second 1987.. Naxo 1987 Na xoss Re Reco cord rdss on wa wasto s th the e re resu lt,, an anddclassical it is now nomusic w th thee label lar largest gein st classi cla ssica call record record label in the world world (wi (with th abo about ut 5500 5500 ite items ms in its catalogue). Naxos focuses – if one can call it that – on establishing com co mpl plet etee cycl cycles es of more ore or less less al alll the the st stan anda dard rd co comp mpos oser ers, s, supplemented with an equally vast range of rare material as well. The company divides its production into many sub-labels. There are the complete lieder of Schubert and the complete piano music of Liszt (the latter still in progress). There are sub-labels devoted to Spanish Classics, Japanese Classics, 21 st   Cen Centur turyy Classic Classics, s, and  American Classics. The here re are also lso the vast vast Organ  an and Guitar  Encyclopedias, both by definition full of the more conservative side of twen twentieth tieth-cen -century tury music: The standard standard organ literature literature has always remained rooted in a liturgical context, and the bulk of the standard guitar repertoire after 1900 was shaped mainly by the musi mu sica call ta tast stes es of Andr Andrés és Se Sego govi viaa (189 (18933-19 1987 87). ). Se Sego govi viaa was was famous famo us for his romantic romanticized ized transcri transcription ptionss of Bach and other other pre1800 composers. Equally important for the future of the guitar reperto rtoire, he surrounded himself primarily with a large constellation of highly traditionalist contemporary composers like Castelnuo Caste lnuovo-T vo-Tedes edesco, co, Villailla-Lobo Lobos, s, Torrob orroba, a, Turina urina,, Ponc Ponce, e, and Tansman. The American Classics series also offers a good example of Heyma Hey mann’ nn’ss mus musica icall priori prioritie ties. s. First, First, as he pro promi mised sed,, the ava avantnt-

garde would not be totally neglected, even though they are not really to his taste, which runs more to late romantic composers like Pfitzner Pfitz ner and Respighi (“Perso (“Personally nally,, I am not all that enth enthusia usiastic stic about listening to modernist music,” he stated in an interview). 117  True rue to his his wo word rd,, th ther eree is so some me Cart Carter er (inc (inclu ludi ding ng th thee st stri ring ng quartets, the populist and now-forgotten early Symphony No. 1, and the much more stylistically forbidding Piano Concerto), two 117

Heymannn interv Heyman interview iew,, “Wir “Wir habe habenn unsere unsere Hausa Hausaufg ufgabe abenn gemac gemacht. ht.”” (Ich  persönlichh höre mir moderne  persönlic moderne Musik nnicht icht besonders besonders gerne an.) 152

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

discss of Cage disc Cage’’s pr prep epar ared ed pi pian anoo ou outp tput ut,, di disc scss of Babb Babbit ittt an andd Wuorinen, and so on. However, the bulk of the releases (close to 200 CDs so far) are of a different nature. Antheil (including the  populist-sounding later symphonies), Barber Barber,, Copland, Bernstein, Cres Cr esto ton, n, Diam Diamon ond, d, Hans Hanson on,, Ro Roch chbe berrg, Pist Piston on,, Sc Schu huma mann and and Rorem are all the subject of comprehensive ongoing surveys, as is thee co th colo lour urfu full Iv Ives es wh whoo wr wrot otee man anyy sc scor ores es that that do not not soun soundd espe es peci cial ally ly “m “mod oder ern” n” to toda dayy – an and, d, as Tarus aruski kinn ha hass obse observ rved ed,, actual act ually ly fit fitss the modern modernist ist templa template te rat rather her poorly poorly.. Thus, Thus, many many comp co mpos oser erss re repr pres esen ente tedd in th thee  American Classics  series have a subs su bsta tant ntia iall co conn nnec ecti tion on to tw twen enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy ro roma mant ntic icis ism m an andd tonality. Nearly all Ives of the except forrepresents occasionala avantgardists and certain andmusic, Copland works, highly conservative idiom and/or a reaction to the most extreme stylistic departures advocated by the twentieth-century twentieth-century avant garde.  American Classics  also also explor explores es an ear earlie lierr pre pre-Co -Copla pland nd generation of composers as well – those who flourished at the time of Ra Rach chma mani nino noff ff,, Scho Schoen enbe berrg and and Stra Stravi vins nsky ky.. Th They ey incl includ udee Carpenter, Chadwick, Converse, Foote, Grofe, Hadley, Herbert, Loeffler Loef fler,, MacDowell MacDowell,, Maso Mason, n, McKay McKay,, Sousa Sousa,, and Stron Strong. g. In the words the Macdowell biograph biogthe rapher er Alan Levy, Levy , scio they were subject subje to “t “the heof grea gr eattMacdowel er eras asur ure” e” l by th e more mo re se self lf-c -con onsc ious usly ly (b (but ut not noctt consistently so) modernist Copland generation.118 However, thanks to the in init itia iattive ive of Na Naxo xos, s, the first irst Ame America ricann gen ener erat atio ionn of

twentieth-century composers is now being reassessed and enjoyed  by interested music lovers. It should be noted that Naxos’  American Classics  se seri ries es is sign signif ific ican antt not not on only ly beca becaus usee of Heymann’s unequaled international distribution and sales network. This particular series is also one of the most popular of the many imag im agin inat ativ ivel elyy co conc ncei eive vedd repe repert rtoi oire re surv survey eyss plan planne nedd by the the indefatigable Heymann.119  118

See the relev relevan antt chapt chapter er in Alan Alan Levy Levy,,  Edwar  Edward d Macdowell, an American  Master,, (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998), 239-251.  Master 119 This, according to an informal survey conducted by the Naxos website. See naxos.c nax os.com. om. As of early early May, May, 2004, 2004, this part of their their website website is no longer 153

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Other owne Other owners rs of lar large ge independ independent ent classical record labels are not far removed from Heymann’s personal musical tastes. One of thes thesee is Pe Pete terr Kerm Kerman ani, i, who who is pres presid iden entt of th thee fine fine Alban Albanyy Symphony (located in the city of Albany, New York). Kermani and some so me of his his co coll llea eagu gues es disc discov over ered ed that that th they ey en enjoy joyed ed Geor George ge Lloyd’s (1913-1998) big romantic symphonies so much that they deci de cide dedd to star startt th thei eirr own own label abel,, Al Albban anyy Rec Record ords, in 198 9877 specifically for the initial purpose of making Lloyd’s music more readily available to the record-buying public. This fascinating story is related in more detail in their catalogue description of Lloyd’s Symphony No 11, a work composed as recently as 1986: Here’s the work that started it all. Back in 1977 Albany Symphony Here’s Symphony  president Peter Kermani heard a BBC broadcast of Lloyd’ Lloyd’ss Sym Sy mph phony ony No No.. 8 wh whic ichh ab abso solu lutel telyy en enth thra rall lled ed him him.. Wh When en an oppo op portu rtuni nity ty stru struck ck in 19 1984 84,, he di disp spat atch ched ed Al Alba bany ny Sy Symp mpho hony ny manager Susan Bush to London to commission a new symphony, which resulted in the wonderful Symphony No. 11 from George Lloyd. This present writer was at the premiere on October 31, 1986 and, like the rest of the audience, was absolutely captivated  by the work; a piece that blended both thrills and repose, and  pageantry and sentimentality-plus many memorable tunes (imagine, in this day and age, a third movement which was an elaborate and kaleidoscopic waltz!). We all believed that George

Lloyd was England’s greatest musical secret revealed. This work, alongg with several of his other sym alon symphoni phonies, es, was initi initially ally released on Conifer, but Kermani and Bush were eager to make Lloyd the cornerstone of a new recording venture called Albany Records. 120 

As of 2012, ten Lloyd CDs are still still list listed ed among among Alba Albany’ ny’ss top 80 selle sellers rsn –du a ring vindi vindicatio cation n 60s ofsJohn Ogdon’ n’s vali valiant ant advocacy in nGrea Great Brit Br itai ain duri ng th the e 1960 19 and and Ogdo 19 1970 70s. s.s At th that at advoc time time,, acy Ogdo Ogdon ha haddt 120

available. Promotional blurb on the Albany website for the recording of Lloyd’s Symphon Sym phonyy No. 11. 11. http://ww http://www w.albanyre .albanyrecord cords.co s.com/Mer m/Merchan chant2/m t2/merch erchant. ant. mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY060 154

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

introduced Lloyd’ introduced Lloyd’ss First Piano Conc Concerto erto,, which which the BBC aired.121  Later Lat er,, Ogdon Ogdon also also convin convinced ced Glock, Glock, the strong strongly ly moder modernis nisttoriented controller of BBC Radio 3, to broadcast more of Lloyd’s music, and the BBC finally relented with the Eighth Symphony in 19777. Tha 19 hatt 19 19777 br brooad adca cast st,, th then en,, was was the the cru ruccial ial event vent tha hatt sere se rend ndip ipit itou ousl slyy in intr trod oduc uced ed Kerm Kerman anii to Lloy Lloyd’ d’ss mus usic ic an and, d, ultimately, to the founding of the biggest American independent classical record label. To this day, a total of 27 George Lloyd CDs (including twelve symphonies, four piano concertos, concertos for violin and cello, choral works and sundry piano and chamber works) occupy a central place in the Albany CD catalogue, both as an aesthetic statement and (as their list of best-sellers indicates) in terms of sales as well. The case of George Lloyd provides a good illustration of the fact that commerce and artistic idealism are not necessarily as mutually exclusive as High Modernist philosophy would always have us believe. Despite its initial focus on the living British composer George Lloyd, Albany Records soon branched off into what was to  become their main future task, which was to record twentiethcentury American music. Not surprising, given the Albany team’s fond fo ndne ness ss fo forr Lloy Lloyd’ d’ss musi music, c, they they im imme medi diat ately ely be bega gann devo devoti ting ng them th emse selv lves es pr prim imar aril ilyy to reco record rdin ingg th thee work workss of th thee twen twenti tiet ethh

centur cent uryy Amer Americ ican an mod oder erat atee roma romant ntic ic/n /neo eocl clas assi sica call st stre ream am,, including Harris, Schumann, Menin, Gillis, Diamond, and Morton Gould. Also prominently featured were many populist operas by comp co mpos oser erss such such as Me Meno nott tti, i, Robe Robert rt War ard, d, Ca Carl rlis isle le Floy Floydd and and Douuglas Do glas Moore ore. Each ach of the hese se com ompo pose serrs has lon ongg enj njoy oyeed frequent performances across the United States over the last few decades, especially at the more regional and college levels. We We will recall that Carol Oja had described such composers as representing a romantic stream of composition that “meandered” through the 121

In the late 1960s, Scottish BBC broadcast the premiere of Lloyd’s First Piano Concerto in a performance by Ogdon. An archival recording of that historic event has recently been posted on youtube. 155

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

enti en tire re tw twen enti tiet ethh cent century ury wh whil ilee mo mode dern rn curr curren ents ts “pas “passe sedd them them 122

 by.”  by .”   Albany’s policy of recording the conservative stream of cont co ntem empo pora rary ry mu musi sicc has has fo foun undd eage eagerr an andd wi will llin ingg co conn nnoi oiss sseu eurr support. It is not at all surprising that, due to their timely initiative, they have now grown into one of the largest of all independent record labels, along with Chandos, Hyperion, BIS, cpo and Naxos. In a 1999 interview article with Kermani (undertaken as part of a much mu ch la larrger ger arti articl clee surv survey eyin ingg th thee br broa oade derr Am Amer eric ican an cl clas assi sica call recording scene), critic Steve Smith summarized the position of Albany Records in the general world of classical music: Kermani points to the examples of the British labels Chandos and Hyperion as being analogous to his goals for Albany, recording important imp ortant but neglected music by lesse lesserr known known com composers posers to give a fuller, truer representation of a nation’s native music: “There’s  just so much gorgeous American music that is not brought before the public,” he says, “and it’s a crying shame.” And with Albany, Kermani is in the serious business of acquainting record buyers with the music that’s been missing from their lives. 123

As Smith relates, Kermani and his colleagues clearly believe in thee hi th hist stor oriical cal sign signif ifiican ance ce of the ki kind nd of musi musicc they hey ar aree advocating. “We’re talking about the most important part of the American repertoire,” Kermani insists. “We never are going to  be able to determine how we are going going to exist in the future and the present if we don’t pay proper homage to the past. That, I think, is the mission of Albany Records.”124  Kermani’s  preferred repertoire is unapologetically mainstream rather than esot es oter eric ic or mave maveri rick ck,, to us usee a te term rm th that at has has rece recent ntly ly ga gain ined ed

122

See note 44. 123 Steve Smith, interview with Peter Kermani, “Off the Record! A HyperHistory of American Independent New Music Record Labels,”  NewMusicBox  NewMusicB ox (June1, 1999), http://www.newmusicb http://www.newmusicbox.org ox.org/articles/Off /articles/Off-the-theRecord-A-HyperHistory-of-American-Independent-New-Music-RecordLabels/2/ (accessed April 11, 2012). 124 Ibid. 156

 

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 popularity in the American concert world.125  Hi Hiss company company theref ther efor oree ma make kess avai availa labl blee to th thee curi curiou ouss music music love loverr a va vast st repository of repertoire that was historically disparaged and mar argi gina nali lize zedd in man anyy im impo porrtant tant text textbo boook over overvviews iews of American music, including those by Gilbert Chase and Wilfrid Mellers. Mellers, for his part, had long been extremely dismissive of the more traditionalist composers. He represented a scholarly viewpoint that could not have been more diametrically opposed to Kermani, an orchestral administrator and recording executive who built his business initiative around an unmentionable like George Lloyd (perhaps the ultimate latetwentieth-century regressive composer). Music in a New Found  Land , a classic cold war era survey of American American music, showed the extent to which Mellers wrote off the American moderate stream. strea m. This becam becamee especially especially clear when, after Mellers had spent spe nt 200 pag pages es analyz analyzing ing the mos mostt rad radica icall develo developme pments nts in American music, he momentarily paused and wrote: “So far we have traced the deepest lines in the evolution of American

music torest Cage.” Mellers, Ives-to-Cage wass the wa thfrom e most moIves st inte intere stin ingg hist hiFor stor oric ical ally ly – the or as he put put it, it, line th thee “deepest” and “most revelatory.” Then the invective began in earnest: With the exce exceptio ptionn of Copl Copland, and, the com composer poserss we have discussed discussed in detail are not those most frequently played in the States. There is a tiny audience of initiates for the music of the avant-garde; there is a slightly larger ‘minority’ audience for tough modern music that is not afraid of the nervous tensions of our urban lives; but there is a much larger middle brow audience for a softer modern music that will wi ll of offer fer us opp opport ortuni unitie tiess for nos nostal talgia gia or se self-d lf-dram ramatiz atizatio ation. n. Thou Th ough gh we ar aree to told ld th that at Tch chai aiko kovs vsky ky an andd Ra Rachm chmani anino noff ff ar aree slipping a little in the popularity-poll, it would still probably be 125

For the defin For definitiv itivee aca acade demic mic discu discussi ssion on of the “mave “maveric ricks” ks” conce concept, pt, see Michael Broyles, Maverick  Maverickss and Other Traditions in American Music (New Have and London: Yale University Press, 2004). 157

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

true to say that the middlebrow concert-going public finds its most direct satisfaction in the music of these neurotic misfits. They were composers of talent – in Tchaikovsky’s case a composer of genius:  but also composers of adolescence, of arrested development development.. A larg largee pu publ blic ic’’s de dedi dica cati tion on to ad adol oles esce cenc ncee ca cann nnot ot be a sig signn of emotional health...nothing...could be cozier than to regress to our memories of lost childhood and youth...such regression was a dominant theme both in American literature and in the music of the American conservatives.126

oficpreface chapterThe thaabove t wascomments devoted ted were to thwritten e mosby t rway oma omanti nt Americ rito cana composers, and were intended to set the tone for Mellers’ discussion of Barber and Menotti, both of whom followed in the tradition tradi tion of Tchai chaikovsky kovsky and Rachm Rachmanin aninoff off,, two composers composers who were labelled “neurotic misfits,” or, as Mellers also called them, “comp “co mpose osers rs of arrest arrested ed develo developme pment. nt.”” But althou although gh Meller Mellerss in 1964 may have dismissed post-1950 American representatives of

the mo most st romant romantic ic str stream eam of compos compositi ition, on, suc suchh compos composers ers wer weree evidently good enough for Albany Records and a large loyal base of recor ecordd-b -buy uyin ingg con onno noiisse sseur urss who he help lped ed make ake Kerm Kerman ani’ i’ss  business venture one of the largest and most successful of its kind in the classical music world at the end of the twentieth century. The independent Swedish label BIS possesses another CD catalogue with a strong focus on twentieth-century traditionalism. It is ow owne nedd and and mana manage gedd by Robe Robert rt vo vonn Ba Bahr hr,, an andd devo devote tess its its energies above all to Nordic music. As all regular readers of the major review magazines know, this is an area of the repertoire that is much loved (and therefore financially supported) by record collectors. Currently numbering about 1400 CDs, the BIS cattal ca alog ogue ue fe feat atur urees a very ery lar arge ge pr proopo porrtion tion of less less-f -fam amil ilia iarr twentieth-century composers, both conservative and radical. Von Bahr places more emphasis on avant- garde music (for instance, 126

Wilfrid Mellers, Music in a New Found Land (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1964), 194-195. 158

 

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there than are do ahnumber is enterof prireleases sing coldevoted leagues toatXenakis Hy Hypperioand n, Skalkottas) Albany or Chandos. However, the bulk of BIS’s twentieth-century repertoire has an und undeni eniabl ablee ton tonalal-rom romant antic ic slant. slant. In additi addition on to the large large Tubinn and Holmboe cycles we have just mentioned, there is a truly Tubi gargan gar gantua tuann Sibeli Sibelius us comple complete te editio editionn that that run runss to 65 CDs. CDs. Carl Carl  Nielsen, Denmark’ Denmark’ss finest composer, composer, is very well represented, as are Hugo Alfven, Ernest Bloch, Alexander Glazunov, Shostakovich, Bohuslav Martinů, Nino Rota, Geirr Tviett, Joonas Kokkon Kok konen, en, Har Haral aldd Sae Saever verud, ud, Wilhelm ilhelm Stenha Stenhamm mmer er,, Lars-E Lars-Erik rik Lars La rsso son, n, an andd Da Dagg Wir iren en.. BIS BIS prov provid ides es a very very rich rich and and us usef eful ul catalogue for those who choose to explore a side of twentiethcentury centu ry music that did not attem attempt pt to reno renounce unce its tonal ties to the nineteenth century. Unquestionably, pride of place in the BIS catalogue is occupied by their complete Sibelius cycle. Upon release of the

series final volume in 2011, von Bahr wrote: Ever since founding BIS in 1973, I had had a dream to record ‘every-note-he-everwrote’ by Sibelius – one of music history’s great treasures.” 127  Robert von Bahr finally realized this long-standing ambition after 25 ye years ars of ind indefa efatig tigabl ablee record recording ing act activi ivity ty and a cor corres respon pondin dingg amount of scholarly labour. The project’s project’s completion demonstrated impres imp ressiv sivee music music ind indust ustry ry sup suppor portt for an all allege egedly dly “ba “backw ckward ard”” twen tw enti tiet ethh-ce cent ntur uryy com compo pose serr who who ha hadd be been en on onee of the the ma majo jorr vict vi ctim imss of mod oder erni nist st-o -ori rien ente tedd hi hist stor oryy writ writin ingg at its its mo most st unco un comp mpro romi misi sing ng (as (as de demo mons nstr trat ated ed by the the hist histor oric ical al surv survey eyss of Mach Ma chli lis, s, Yat ates es,, Sa Salz lzma man, n, Simm Simms, s, Gr Grif iffi fith ths, s, Deri Deri,, Mor orga gan, n, Stuckenschmidt, Woerner, Hodier, et. al.). BIS’s feat of musical scholarship also helped transform their resident CD booklet writer, Andrew Barnett, into a Sibelius authority of international repute. In 2007 Yale University Press published Barnett’s long-awaited 500 page monograph of the compose composerr and his m music. usic. 127

Robert von Bahr, “The Sibelius Edition: A foreward by Robert von Bahr,”  BIS Website  [2012], http://www.bis.se/bis_pages/bis_sibelius-edition.php (accessed June 23, 2012). 159

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

Like BIS, the independent German label Classic Produktion Osnabrück (which is generally known by the lower-case initials cpo) cp o) al also so co cont ntai ains ns so some mewh what at more more ra radi dica call fa fare re th than an do eith either er Hyperion or Chandos. For example, cpo has devoted issues to Jean Barraque and Bernd Alois Zimmerman and has recorded cycles of sympho sym phonie niess by the Schoen Schoenber bergg discip disciples les Humphr Humphrey ey Searle Searle and Egon Eg on Wel elle lesz sz (t (the he la last st fo four ur of his his ni nine ne sy symp mpho honi nies es are are la larg rgely ely at aton onal al). ). Th Ther eree is ev even en a fasc fascin inat atin ingg re reco cord rdin ingg of th thee ultr ultra-r a-rar aree Berg-lik Ber g-likee 1928 V Violi iolinn Conc Concerto erto of Joseph Joseph Hauer, Hauer, a now-shado now-shadowy wy figur figure e who bitterly bitterlyover andthe unsuc unsuccessf cessfully ully fought fough t again against st Mention Schoenber Schoenberg for many decades “patent” rights to atonality. Mentio n cang also be made of a survey of Allan Petterson’s 16 symphonies and two violin concertos, all of Mahlerian length and might. However, a great many of cpo’s big cycles are devoted to twentieth-century trad tradit itio iona nali list sts, s, emph emphat atic ical ally ly in incl clud udin ingg the the mo most st ba back ckwa ward rd and and

unapologetic romantics. There are major orchestral cycles covering the works of George Anthei eill (his lat ateer populist set of six symphonies), Kurt Atterberg, Paul Hindemith, Wilhelm PetersonBerger, Toch (aKorngold, sometimeDarius avantMilhaud, -gardist). Ture A lRangstrom, andmark reand cent Ernst cpo achievement is the first recorded cycle of the twelve symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos. These symphonies are mostly late works in Villa-Lobos’ more expansive and romantic vein, all in formidably accomplished and very well-reviewed performances. Sinc Si ncee 19 19991, cpo po’’s chi hieef re repe pert rtoi oire re pla plann nneer has be been en Burk Bu rkhhar ardd Sc Schm hmil ilgu gunn, who arr rriive vedd at cp cpoo afte fter ha havi ving ng just just completed compl eted a diss dissertat ertation ion on Korng Korngold. old. Conveni Conveniently ently enough, his new job of findin findinggof int intere eresti sting ng repert rep ertoir oiree coinci coi ncided ded with wit h cpo cpo’ ’s recording sessions Korngold’s complete orchestral works, for which Schmilgun was then serving as an orchestral violist. It was during these sessions that cpo made the seredipitous discovery that Schm Sc hmil ilgu gunn wa wass a Ko Korn rngo gold ld ex expe pert rt,, and and th ther eref efor oree as aske kedd him him to write the scholarly notes (a standard policy for cpo). 128 Needless to 128

Schmilgu Schmil gunn provi provide dess mu much ch usefu usefull backgr backgroun oundd in an in inter tervie view w wit withh Ilj Iljaa  Nieuwland.  Nieuwlan d. See “Burkhard “Burkhard Schmilgun: Schmilgun: Talking Talking to a m musical usical treasure-hunter treasure-hunter,” ,” 160

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

say, the ultra-romantic subject matter of his Korngold dissertation happened to fit in exceptionally well with the general musical aesthetic that was shaping cpo’s rapidly growing catalogue. In common with the majority of classical record collectors (and like Heyma Hey mann nn,, Kerm Kerman anii an andd Couz Couzen ens) s),, Schm Schmid idgu gunn hi hims msel elff is not not especi esp ecially ally enthus enthusias iastic tic abo about ut the most most radica radicall twe twenti ntiet eth-c h-cent entury ury music: Classical music, ‘art music if you like’, has become an intellectual exercise, not a hedonistic pleasure in the lazy chair. The other day, I heard a discussion about the influence of birdsong on music, and all sorts of bird songs were played – of an incredible rhythmic and melodious diversity. But it was all tonal – and that is exactly the reason why so much atonal music doesn’t connect with the public.

We lack the internal sensor to process something that someone has  put to paper and which may make mathematic sense, but doesn’t reach you on an aesthetic level. Understand me, some of it is very interesting, but it can also be very impenetrable.129

Other ongoing projects in cpo’ cpo’ss early years included at least 15 CDs comprising the complete organ, piano and harmonium works of Karg-Elert (1877-1933). As we noted in chapter one, Karg-Elert was a composer who, in mid-life, renounced the avantgarde and began again in C major. Another major cpo recording  project encompasses the lieder lieder,, orchestral works and chamber works (around 15 CDs) of Pfitzner, one of the most prominent and outou t-sp spok oken en an anti ti-m -mod oder erni nist stss du duri ring ng the the tim time of Scho Schoen enbe berrg. Pfitzner. as we mentioned in our discussion of Marco Polo and  Naxos, was also one of Klaus Heymann’ Heymann’ss favorite composers. Overall, cpo’s cpo’s catalogue seems to be especially focused on German romant rom antic ic contem contempor porari aries es of Str Straus auss. s. Bes Beside idess Korngo Korngold, ld, Pfi Pfitzn tzner er and Karg-Elert, there are many more Germanic composers of lateromant rom antic ic mus music ic in cpo cpo’’s catalo catalogue. gue. I hav havee listed listed abo about ut thi thirty rty of

129

MusicWeb MusicW eb Interna Internationa tionall (n. d.), http http://ww ://www w.musicwe .musicweb-int b-intern ernation ational.c al.com/ om/ classrev/2007/june07/Schmilgun.htm (accessed June 23, 2012). Ibid. 161

 

Persistent Romanticism and the Romantic Revival

these composers together with their dates in a footnote. 130 In sum, cpo’’s cat cpo catalo alogue gue is una unans nswer werabl ablee proof proof of the highly highly-ro -roma manti nticc sound world inhabited by the Austro-German contemporaries of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. cpo also reflects the musical priorities of connoisseurs, and provides plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the way historians have traditionally painted the early twentieth century. Over Ov er the the last last fe few w yea ears rs,, cpo cpo ha hass al also so been been devo devoti ting ng an extended series (at least 13 releases so far) to the many stage works of Franz Lehar (1870-1948), who was still active in the Nazi era and whose wildly wildly popular popular 1928 opere operetta tta  Friederike was banned(!) in Germany during the 1930s. Additional cpo discs of Lehar’s