Das Problem Mendelssohnby Carl Dahlhaus

Das Problem Mendelssohn by Carl DahlhausReview by: Eric WernerNotes, Second Series, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Dec., 1976), pp. 281-284Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/897576 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 03:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Music Library Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 03:21:21 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mulias

http://www.jstor.org/stable/897576?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


merely one of terminology, but of recogniz- ing the musical structures designated.

Mila is aware of the cantabile-cabaletta principle-"dialogizzazione dell'aria," he calls it-but rarely shows that it governs ensembles as well. Furthermore, too often the fact that a piece is a cabaletta seems to Mila sufficient grounds for condemning it as a display piece for the singer. But in case the "convenzionale," "consueta," "solita" cabaletta fails to appear on schedule, Mila never comments on its absence.

There are few close analyses of the music; a striking modulation, phrase structure, or formal procedure is likely to pass by unre- corded. There are also some disconcerting errors. For example, in identifying the key of a passage, Mila sometimes takes a domi- nant chord for the key (pp. 80 and 294) and sometimes overlooks a change of key

that has taken place (on p. 220 his alterna- tion of I and IV is actually between I and V7 in the key of IV).

Mila's book includes a list of works, an extensive bibliography, an index, 43 plates, and about thirty musical examples. It is accompanied by two phonograph records containing the "Six Romances" of 1845 and excerpts from Ernani, Alzira, and Attila. For comments on the recordings, see Bud- den's review (Music and Letters 56 [1975]: 415).

The principal attractions of Mila's book are its entertaining style and the stimulat- ing hypotheses it occasionally advances. However, the specialist will be disappointed by the lack of new biographical information and the flawed analysis of the music.

DAVID ROSEN University of Wisconsin, Madison

Das Problem Mendelssohn. Edited by Carl Dahlhaus. (Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, 41) Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1974. [212 p.; DM89.00]

Mendelssohn has reached respectability; he has even become a problem. The Ger- man musicologists connected with the pro- ject "The Nineteenth Century," sponsored by the Thyssen Foundation, have now come to grips with Mendelssohn -a composer of conflicting aspects, an artist who satisfied neither "romantic" nor "classic" postulates. The result is the present volume of studies, originally presented at a Mendelssohn Symposium in Berlin in November, 1972. There are, in all, fifteen essays treating important questions, often enough success- fully. It is the music, not the man, that always stands in the center of the discussion. Empty aesthetizing slogans or compilations of anecdotes are not to be found.

One of the chief focal points in many of the essays is the concept of Classicism. The editor, Carl Dahlhaus, is convinced that this term, even if not precisely definable, has a useful heuristic function. The en- deavors of Dahlhaus and others to explain and circumscribe both the conception and scope of Classicism as it pertains to Men- delssohn provide a strong unifying thread for the entire volume.

While most of the studies treat questions of musical style, genre, or compositional process, three deal with matters of biog-

raphy. Rudolph Elvers' article on Men- delssohn's estate treats matters that are as complicated as they are unpleasant, dispos- ing of them with great tact. Such tact was necessary, considering the hostilities within the family that were caused by Felix's testa- ment and its execution by his brother, Paul. Elvers neither palliates nor emphasizes the controversial issues, some of which reach into this decade, more than a century after Mendelssohn's death. (I suggest that the article be read in conjunction with Bankiers, Kiinstler und Gelehrte [Tiubingen, 1975], a collection of letters associated with the Mendelssohn family.)

Similar care for another sensitive topic marks Friedhelm Kemp's study of Mendels- sohn's Berlin environment, a rather ticklish subject because of the German-Jewish sym- biosis during and after the French Revolu- tion. Kemp handles this well within the limited space. (A correction: Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, not Berlin.) Such high marks cannot be given to Norbert Miller for his discussion of Mendelssohn's Italian journey. Miller relies on the published (expurgated) text of Mendelssohn's letters, leading him to several questionable conclusions, such as his claim that Mendels- sohn's image of Italy was determined by

281



that of Goethe (p. 24). Mendelssohn's indif- ference towards things archeological con- trasts with Goethe's strong penchant for them; and reports such as the ironical description of social life in Naples by day and night are not to be found in Goethe's travelogue.

In conjunction with his preface, Dahl- haus's essay on Mendelssohn and the tradition of musical genres sets the tone for most of the volume. His main concern is the separation of the term "Classicism" from "classical tradition." (I might point out that so profound a student of styles as Theodor Adorno did not distinguish between classical tradition and classicism [Nervenpunkte der Neuen Musik, p. 17].) Aside from pure terminological arguments, I cannot accept the statement that Mendelssohn belonged to a post-classical epoch, whose representa- tives "saw themselves . . . as latecomers, as imitators" [Epigonen] (p. 55). Mendels- sohn never uttered or wrote a word that could be so interpreted. On the contrary, his letters to Fanny and to Klingemann contain a number of passages revealing that he was aspiring to new ideas. Nowhere does he classify himself as a "latecomer." If one understands the term "Classicism" as a kind of second or post-classical style, however, then we are d'accord. It is regrettable that Mendelssohn's Psalms and liturgical works are not discussed, for here "the master had no models to imitate" (H. Kretzschmar).

Three essays on individual works or genres follow Dahlhaus's treatment of genre traditions: Arno Forchert offers a fine study of the "Textual Basis of Elijah and the Principles of its Musical Presenta- tion," in which he attempts to resolve the strange antinomy that imparts both strength and a somewhat problematic status to this work; Lars Ulrich Abraham writes about Mendelssohn's secular choral works and their place in music history; and Fried- helm Krummacher presents a study of the music to Midsummer Night's Dream.

Although it might appear at first blush that the subject of Abraham's study is less problematic than some of the others, one is disabused of this illusion at the outset of the article when one reads: "Popularity, understood as general esteem, is as a rule cause for suspicion to the historian and obfuscates his aesthetic judgment" (p. 79). Testing the thesis on some of Mendelssohn's contemporaries, such as Silcher, Loewe, and

perhaps Otto, one must admit its veracity within certain limits. But one can also point to "suspiciously popular" music by Wagner, von Weber, Schubert, and Schumann, as well as Mendelssohn. Perhaps one may boldly assert that what has maintained its place in the repertory for 150 years and more is of permanence, and probably of value. (This Janus-faced issue of popularity versus artistic standard is by no means new; the most profound thoughts about it may still be found in Schiller's celebrated review of Burger's poems.) Seriously though Abraham's disparagement of popularity must be taken, his procedure of adducing solely evaluations found in German dic- tionaries is unconvincing-all the more so when one considers the ch4nges in Men- delssohn's image that have taken place during the last century. After having surveyed numerous opinions, Abraham seeks to es- tablish more objective criteria. After ex- plaining the inclination "to suspect the . . . musically beautiful," he adds a number of observations which may serve as working suggestions for serious analyses: to be examined are such things as melodic contours, harmonic coherence, and the like. In each of these categories Abraham makes apt observations, which may serve as a basis for a comprehensive description of Men- delssohn's style. (A fine parallel to Abra- ham's study is Othmar Wessely's essay, "Bruckner's Knowledge of Mendelssohn's Music," in Bruckner-Studien [Vienna, 1975].)

Friedhelm Krummacher, one of Ger- many's young Mendelssohn experts, has contributed two articles to the present volume. The first is a dramaturgical and musical study of Midsummer Night's Dream. Here, the author's reply to those writers who thoughtlessly apply the expression "elfish" or "fairy" to all of Mendelssohn's scherzo movements is particularly meritorious. In his examination of Mendelssohn's development he comes to the conclusion: "Instead of loose juxtapositions of movements or ideas . . . we find the consistent formation of an original plan of composition; the naive trust in spontaneous invention . . . is being replaced by a more reflective mode of composing. . ." (p. 107). Also commenda- ble is the formal analysis of the Notturno, which is seen as a mixture of two types of "songs without words" -the so-called "choral song" and the song with "moving

282



basses." The same author's second study of Mendelssohn's compositional process in his string quartets is an ambitious attempt to postulate certain theses -hardly prova- ble ones -about Mendelssohn's mode of writing for strings. The highly technical article deserves serious and critical study by historians of nineteenth-century styles.

The next three essays are devoted to Mendelssohn's orchestral music: Martin Witte investigates the links to overt or covert programs in the symphonies; Mathias Thomas treats compositional manner in the overtures; Reinhard Gerlach conducts a similar study, comparing the sketches and the final version of the Violin Concerto.

Witte's topic is not very fruitful. Men- delssohn's reaction to suggested programs, except to that of the Reformation Symphony, was usually sarcastic. Aware of this fact, Witte limits himself to analogies with Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. He misun- derstands, or misquotes, a passage in Felix's letter of March 1, 1831, saying "in the second movement [of the Italian Sym- phony] . . . Naples should have a voice" (p. 126). The actual passage reads: "I shall and must wait with my Italian Symphony until I have seen Naples...." The author did not discover a different, hidden program-a memorial for Mendelssohn's old teacher, Zelter. Buried in the slow movement of the Italian Symphony is a quotation of Zelter's song, "Es war ein K6nig in Thule."

Thomas's study deals mainly with the genesis and revisions of the overtures to Ruy Blas, Hebrides, and Fair Melusina, and includes a detailed survey of the changes in orchestration of the last-named work. Although most of the facts presented here have long been known, their interpretation is quite interesting. The author might have reported the almost unknown failure of the overture to Midsummer Night's Dream in Paris in 1831, which Mendelssohn kept secret even from his parents. It is psycholo- gically linked to the revision of the Hebrides overture; for the first time in his life, Mendelssohn felt unsure of his judgment!

A thoroughly original thesis about Men- delssohn's habits of composing is offered by Reinhard Gerlach. Elsewhere he had stated that Mendelssohn's "creative memo- ries" of persons and events of his youth not only influenced his writing, but also suggested certain formal devices. He ex-

emplifies the theory here with reference to the famous Violin Concerto and its sketches. Gerlach's exposition is impres- sively laid out. It is too bad that we still know too little about the concrete associa- tions that evoked the passages quoted and revised.

In the first of the three essays that conclude this book, Susanna Gro,Bmann-Ven- drey examines stylistic problems in Men- delssohn's sonatas for organ. Although I disagree with her opening statement that the sonatas are "hardly ever played," she does reach some interesting conclusions. Stressing the "openness of the forms," and the "insertions of heterogeneous styles," she asserts that Mendelssohn had clearly in- tended these discrepancies, yet had done the utmost to veil them. That the closing Andante of the sixth sonata has the charac- ter of a "concealed dance" was new to me. I, along with most of Mendelssohn's contemporaries, had believed that it contained a clear allusion to "O rest in the Lord" from Elijah.

The word "in" used in the title of K. G. Fellerer's study ("Mendelssohn in the Piano Music of his Time") hints more at Mendelssohn's influence and his pianistic mannerisms than at the general style of his compositions. While I find contradictory Fellerer's statement that "Mendelssohn's personal art grows out of an eclectic man- nerism superimposed on a classic basis" (p. 195), his remarks on the piano fugues hit the nail on the head. (He seems not to be familiar, however, with the "Overture in G minor" for piano four hands, a work of consummate polyphony that has no peer before Reger.) Fellerer's remark that "Mendelssohn [in Leipzig] entered into opposition to Moritz Hauptmann, E. Fr. Richter, F. David . . . and in certain points also to R. Schumann" is challenging enough to whet any student's appetite for details. I have been unable to verify this statement. Hauptmann wrote about Mendelssohn only in terms of the highest respect, and David was the violinist to whom Mendelssohn entrusted the premiere of his Violin Con- certo.

The concluding study in this volume is a fine and polished essay on "Mendelssohn's Counterpoint" by Rudolf Stephan. After some interesting remarks on Mendelssohn's propensity for the minor mode, the author comments on Hauptmann's remarks on the

283



essence and style of counterpoint, touching upon "square" themes in fugues. These ideas are then applied to Mendelssohn's works. The last section compares apparent similarities between the late works of Beethoven and the works of Mendelssohn. The author refutes the alleged influence of Beethoven's op. 135 on Mendelssohn's quartet, op. 13, and points out that for chronological reasons alone Mendelssohn could not have known Beethoven's quartet. Stephan does not, however, characterize Mendelssohn's counterpoint, although such an exposition suggests itself. I can think of no more appropriate characterization here than the widely-despised term "elegant." (August Halm might have used the term "Attic counterpoint" -an expression he employed to circumvent "elegant" -in much the same way he applied it to the polyphonic writing of Mozart.) An excellent example of the inherently polyphonic thinking of young Mendelssohn is found

in the finale of the Double Concerto in A-flat for two pianos. It consists of a double fugue, with which the second (sonata) theme is intertwined. Mendelssohn made contrapuntal structures not for the "con- densation" of texture, but for integration. Similarly, in the finale of the Scottish Sym- phony, originally homophonically con- ceived, intensive contrapuntal treatment leads to a magnificent climax. Surely, this kind of polyphonic invention transcends the "ordinary type of musical expression which is fitting for special spheres...."

Das Problem Mendelssohndeserves the most careful attention. It contains the first pene- trating analyses of Mendelssohn's mature works, far from the slogans of program notes and biographies. It serves also as a valuable point d'appui for the difficult study of the evolution of musical style between Beethoven and Wagner.

ERIC WERNER New York City

William Billings of Boston: Eighteenth-Century Composer. By David P. McKay and Richard Crawford. Princeton: Princeton University Press, [1975]. [xii, 304 p.; $16.00]

America's inferiority complex in regard to its own artists is seen in the fact that it has taken slightly more than two hundred years for the definitive biography of Wil- liam Billings (1746-1800), who has been called "our first important composer," to appear. The product of a remarkable col- laboration between David McKay, an inde- fatigable researcher in the dustbins of local history, and Richard Crawford, a distin- guished authority on psalmody, this book not only presents wholly new data about a man whose life story has heretofore been plagued with lacunae, but also places his career in the context of the musical, reli- gious, and political life of his time.

The authors begin with a prologue trac- ing the history of music in New England from its founding. The topic of psalm singing, as it was practiced by the descen- dants of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, is concisely sketched with reliance upon a number of pioneering studies by Britton, Lowens, Daniel, Buechner, and others. Other topics covered are the problem of the alleged decline of psalmody, the estab-

lishment of the singing schools to remedy the defect, the publication of the first in- struction books, the development of the occupation of singing master, and the importation of later-day English tunebooks that provided models for the first composi- tionalefforts of Colonial Americans.

Having set the scene the authors turn to Billings's early years, which prove to be a fertile field for investigation. All that is conventionally known is examined thoroughly and dispassionately. The matter of his training as a tanner is explored and his association with the singing school movement, first as a scholar of John Barry and then as a master in his own right, is established. The authors rightly conclude that dual vocations were -a commonplace in early America and that it would be as a self-taught composer that Billings would make his mark in the world.

Succeeding chapters are devoted to reporting new facts about the composer's life, to analyzing the musical forms which he cultivated, and to establishing the bibliography of his works. This was no small

284



Documents

Das Problem Mendelssohnby Carl Dahlhaus