Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 6, N-Q Review by: Martin Cooper The Musical Times, Vol. 96, No. 1348 (Jun., 1955), pp. 308-309 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/936716 . Accessed: 09/12/2014 05:27 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
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THE MUSICAL TIMES
[his] intention of accepting Hitler's cultural policy' he agreed to continue his 'musical career in Germany as a free man' (sic), Goebbels having amiably cheated him back into activity, if not into office: 'We leave it to you to decide how you will work with us. I am satisfied that you should serve your music in your own way, and I give you my word that you can remain an unpolitical musician, and I am sure that the Ftihrer will confirm what I have said'. And so the sorry story continues-the story of a man of defiant integrity who, nevertheless, was psychologically incapable of leaving his mothercountry, even though she had left him. There is abundant proof not only of his profound resistance to the r6gime, but of his continued and very active concern for its victims. Every reader must decide for himself whether and how far Furtwangler's conduct is to be condemned, but perhaps we had better make sure first that we ourselves have, or would have had, a cleaner record. The translation is bad and gets virtually all technical terms wrong, both musical and philosophical (' perception ' for 'Schopenhauer's Vorstellung [idea]), but, as Mr. Riess's German prose borders on the intolerable, Miss Goldsmith's version makes much better reading, except where she obscures Furtwangler's own lucid style. Since the translation of his ' Gesprache fiber Musik ' is highly defective, too, the English reader is bound to get the impression that Furtwangler was unable to
June 1955
express himself (one reviewer has indeed already said so); whereas, in point of fact, his spoken and written language was crystal-clear. HANS KELLER
Books Received Mentionin this list neitherimpliesnorprecludesreview in afuture issue. 'Clara Novello: 1818-1908.' By Averil MackenzieGrieve. Pp. 338. GeoffreyBles, 18s. 'Smetana: Letters and Reminiscences.' By FrantiSek Bartos. Translated from the Czech by Daphne Rusbridge. Pp. 293. Prague:Artia, 21s. 'Charles Ives and his music.' By Henry and Sidney Cowell. Pp. 245. New York and London: Oxford UniversityPress, 27s. A Handbookto the performanceof the 48 Preludesand Fugues of J. S. Bach, accordingto the rules of the Old Tradition. Part 1, 1-24. By Fritz Rothschild. Pp. 78. A. & C. Black, 10s. 6d. 'The Rhythm of Twelfth-century Polyphony: Its theoryand practice.' By WilliamG. Waite. Pp. 254. New Haven: Yale UniversityPress; Oxford University Press, 60s. Leith Hill Musical Festival: a record of fifty years of music makingin Surrey. Pp. 94. Epsom: Pullingers. ' Musiqueet Po6sieau XVIe.siecle.' CentreNational de la RechercheScientifique,Paris. 'Introducing Handel' \ By Kitty Barne. Pp. 90. Dent, 6s. each. Introducing Mozart' 'Improvisation on the Organ.' By Hennie Schouten. Pp. 60. Paxton, 8s. 6d.
Grove's Dictionaryof Music and Musicians Vol. 6, N-Q curious will be entertained soon after opening this sixth volume by the article on National Anthems, compiled by Donald R. Wakeling. It is extraordinary how difficult some countries find it to pick on a 'national hymn' and stick to it, and the South American republics seem to favour several at a time. It is a far cry from the characteristic march-song or sub-operatic melody of Latin countries-with fanfares, much dotted the rhythm and Italianate ornamentation-to solemn hymns or chorale-like melodies favoured by northern peoples. Even they, however, present problems to those who have to consider crowdperformances. Thus Denmark's 'Kong Kristian stod' ranges over the interval of a twelfth in the first two bars. I was puzzled by one anthem, said to belong to ' Holkar's Dominions '-anonymous words with music by Jad-and I have plainly not kept up with the latest developments in national self-determination. A pleasing example of a really improbable anthem is the 'march for military band composed for the Sultan of Zanzibar by Sir Donald Tovey'. It happens that articles on individual composers are not the most interesting feature of this volume, but the following should be mentioned. Knud Jeppesen contributes a sound article on Nielsen, but confuses his readers by twice referring to himself in the text as though he were not the author. Frank Walker's essay on Pergolesi is a model of scholarship and contains many interest-
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ing sidelights on contemporary musical history. The editor himself writes guardedly on Prokofiev. ' Whatever the intrinsic value of his music may be, it has the merit of refusing to force itself on the listener's attention or to capture his affection by any means which are not legitimately and absolutely musical', he says. But he rather qualifies this compliment by adding that 'no music that refuses to compromise with sentiment and to stimulate sympathy can be expected to strike many hearers as pleasing'. R. A. Streatfield's original article on Puccini has been allowed to stand, with its preposterous assertion that much of the music of 'Tosca' is 'hardly more than incidental music'. The second part of the article, by Ferruccio Bonavia, shows greater sympathy with the composer. Once again Robert Donington contributes two of the most thorough and scholarly of the new articles, those on Ornamentation and Ornaments. These cover between them eighty pages and are richly illustrated, so that the reader is presented with what is virtually a small book on the subject. Thurston Dart displays an equally wide and profound knowledge of his subject in the article on Notation. The organ is treated most handsomely. Hopkins's original article has been revised and enormously enlarged by a team consisting of W. L. Sumner, LI. S. Lloyd and Reginald Whitworth. G. D. Cunningham contributes essays on
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June 1955
THE MUSICAL TIMES
Organ Arrangements and Organ Playing. In this last he regrets that the too frequent 'lack of sympathy and understanding between organists and musicians in general deprives the organist of the inspiration and stimulus which come from cooperation and friendly rivalry. Possibly this may explain why the standard of organ-playing is not so high as that on other instruments. But it is rising, and the number of gifted young players augurs well for the future'. Dr. Cunningham admits that 'the organ was almost completely neglected by the great masters since Bach'. He speaks of three exceptions only-Mendelssohn, Franck and Brahms-though he mentions other composers. A. J. Hipkins's article on the Piano has been added to by Rosamond Harding, as has FullerMaitland's on piano-playing (presumably by the editor). It is strange to read there that 'the influence of men like . . . Tchaikovsky in Russia encouraged the quieter style of playing'. This should be borne in mind by pianists who have their eye on the B flat minor concerto. Stranger still is the severe moral disapprobation aroused by the use of 'blind octaves '. This is referred to as ' objectionable by nature' and ' a trick which is hardly a compliment to the musical sense of the listener'. Why, I wonder? Is it because the result sounds more difficult than it in fact is? Real or apparent difficulty is an entirely irrelevant consideration and the ' trick ' should be judged on the musical merits of the result. ' Blind octaves' have a place in brilliant piano music,
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just as glissando passages have; and both probably deceive the amateur. But then so does the simplicity of, say, the slow movement in a Mozart concerto, which sounds very much easier than it is. The article on Opera has been brought up to date by the editor. His section on 'Opera in England ' gives considerably more space to Rutland Boughton than to Benjamin Britten, of whose outstanding gifts as an operatic composer there is no suggestion. A new feature is a chronological list of the most important operas to appear between 1600 and 1953. This was a formidable undertaking but has the advantage of showing the student at a glance something of the character, if not the extent, of operatic production in any one year. An amusing sideline is provided by Stanley Phillips's article on Musical Postage Stamps, a series to which this country has unfortunately contributed nothing. What a chance was missed two years ago, when we might have had a handsome Dunstable twopenny. Alec Hyatt King's list of Musical Periodicals will be of great use to the research student ; and B. Bellamy Gardner's analysis of Prodigy, though inconclusive, will provide a choice of answers for those who are plagued by the uninitiated to say just why they are reluctant to attend concerts conducted by children of 9 and uninterested in pianists of 10 who rattle through both books of the Paganini variations. MARTIN COOPER
The Musician'sGramophone By DYNELEY HUSSEY enormously the gramophone is expanding the range of musical experience available to us all, is exemplifiedin the latest batch of records which embrace a Mass by Dufay and two oratorios by Honegger. Midway between the fifteenth and twentieth centuriesthere are examplesof sacredmusic by Lully and Couperin, as well as a furthervolume of the dateless,ageless Plainsongaccordingto the practice of Solesmes. The Benedictinesof Solesmes were chiefly responsible for the reformationof the manner of performing plainsong in accordance with the historical evidence. And, while their interpretationof the evidence is not universallyaccepted,it is at least basedupon reasonable grounds, and their singing makes the music sound beautiful and the most perfect vehicle for the liturgy, aloof and hieratic, and yet not stereotyped. The previous Decca ' volume' of five 12-inchdiscs, containing a Mass, Antiphons, Introits, Hymns and other pieces, was the subject of an article by Mr. Alec Robertson in May of last year. The new issue of four 10-inch discs contains selections from various settings of the Mass with Antiphons, and a complete Missa pro Defunctis (LX3118-21). As before, the singing of the monks underthe directionof Dom Gajardhas a serene perfectionwhichcomes from a whole-hearteddevotion. As performancesthese are models for the practice of plainchant,and the recordingis excellent, with just the right amount of resonanceto soften the edges without blurringthem. Dufay's 'Caput' Mass representsthe earliest complete setting of the liturgy hitherto availableon record (OL50069). It is sung by the Ambrosian Singers, with a trombone, played by James Whelan, discreetlysup-
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porting the cantus firmus from time to time.
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performanceis directedby Denis Stevens,whose name is a guarantee that, so far as is humanly possible, regardwill have been paid to questionsof scholarship. For the ordinary listener the important thing is that the music sounds entrancing, not quaint or antique, but, by any standard, beautiful. Something seems to have gone wrong at the beginningin the singing of the Antiphon 'Venit ad Petrum', which provides the phrase which Dufay used as the musical text for his setting of the Ordinaryof the Mass. Otherwiseperformance and recording are excellent, and the disc is recommendedto connoisseursof polyphonic music. We do not expect of the Court of Louis XIV or of his favourite, Lully, the otherworldlinessof plainsong or of fifteenth-centurypolyphony. What we get in the setting of the 'Te Deum' recorded on DucretetThomsonDTL93043 is a splendidand pompoussetting of the hymn, which can surely take its place beside Handel's settings. Its trochaic rhythm sometimes dances along in a profane manner, but generally the music seems the perfect complement to such seventeenth-centurychurchesas Val-de-Gracein Paris or L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Provence with its golden
gesticulatingsaints. It is given a suitably magnificent performanceunder the directionof PierreCapdevielle. The solo quartet may not be ideal, but the chorus sings well and is admirablysupportedby the orchestra of strings,trumpetsand drums,and the organplayedby A. Geoffroy-Dechaume, who seems to have been responsiblefor the scholarly ' realization' of the work in accordancewith the seventeenth-centurypractice. Couperin's 'Messe Solenelle', recorded on DTL 93039, is not a setting of the liturgy, but a sequenceof
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