Mellers - On Writing About Music

8/9/2019 Mellers - On Writing About Music

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On Writing about MusicAuthor(s): W. H. MellersSource: The Musical Times, Vol. 82, No. 1177 (Mar., 1941), pp. 96-98Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/921036 .Accessed: 26/11/2013 12:42

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March 1941 THE MUSICAL TIMES 97

points out (a) how the typical Puccini melody(like the French sentimental peratic aria) beginsto develop, but soon slows down and comes to astandstill; ' psychologically t is the expressionof a feeling hat lacks the power to stretch ut ina

longmelodic

sweep,but soon loses

energynd

rests before a fresh tart'; (b) how the melody,often n a minor key, is usually built on simplefalling diatonic scale progressionswhich c) tendto be broken up into brief hrases by the frequentappearance of the 'final' interval of the fallingfifth; nd (d) how Puccini unconsciously ries tocounteract this falling tendency by groupingthese brief usually two-bar) phrases n sequenceswhich rise. ' These sequences have the effect fa forcible screwing up of melody which wouldmuch rather fall,' and thus induce a peculiarneurasthenic flush into the limp and spinelessmode of feeling he origins of which have beendescribed above. 'The tired melody,' says Dr.Carner, is Puccini's most personal creation andembodies perhaps his finest deas.'

Now this is a piece of textual criticism ivingrise to an account of Puccini's representativesignificance hat is, or so it seems to me, un-answerable. It is an epitome of what musiccriticism ught to be. Unfortunately, owever,this treatment eems to be applicable mainly tocomposers-such as Franck and Puccini, Chopinand Delius-whose work s of a somewhat narrowand idiosyncratic nterest. The more profound,complex and 'central' are the experiencesinvolved, the less possibility here seems to beof backing up one's personal opinions with an

'unanswerable' displayof

criticalmethod.

Thus there are few who would deny that Elgar'suse of the brass and his sequencesand descendingsevenths are intrinsically mportant aspects ofhis technique; but whereas ome think his brassvulgar and his sevenths nd sequencesglutinous,others think his brass stirringly eroic and hissevenths and sequences ardently expressive.I believe one can demonstrate airly learly thatElgar's technique isn't factitious as Franck'soccasionally tends to be; but it is a much moredifficult ndertaking o justify the judgment ofsensibility that still remains to be made-toexplain why Elgar is (as he seems to me at hisbest undubitably o be) a great composer.

When one turns to such a difficult nd imper-sonal a composer as Mozart one can hardly sayanything precise about the reasons a melodicphrase s so and not otherwise : one can suggestwhy at this point or that it departs from on-vention, but one can do little to indicate the'local manifestations' of an 'interesting com-plexity of feeling.' Yet I don't know that this sa difficulty o peculiar to music criticism s itsuperficially ppears. If it is true that what iscommunicated n a musical composition an onlybe the music tself, his s equally if essobviouslytrue of a poem also. Because we cannot atpresent say anything validly critical about

Mozart I do not think we should assume thatwe shall always be unable to.Connected with this is the problem of quota-

tion: the music critic cannot even put the textbefore his readers s can the literary ritic. Thelegitimate function of musical quotation is, as

I have indicated, for location purposes; onerefers he reader to this or that passage of thescore as an example of the sort of thing on whichone bases this or that judgment. But to quotelong passages from orchestral cores is patently

impracticable,nd even if it were

possible,the

impression the reader would get from ookingover the quotation wouldn't be the same as thatwhich he would get from hearing the workperformed. Music,unlike painting, s an art thatunfolds tself n time nor, when you are listeningto music, an you go back to pick up any threadyou inadvertently et slip, as you can when youare reading poetry. Moreover, no two perform-ances of a given work will ever be exactly alike(excepton the gramophone). The presence f theperformer yet nother lement whosepsychologyhas to be taken account of) introduces omplica-tions that the student of poetry doesn't have tocontend with. It is true that the dramaticcritic has to face similar difficulties, ut dramaticcriticism s in almost as rudimentary conditionas musical.

Critics nowadays often make a show of being'objective,' and are so concerned to see everypossible aspect of the case that they forget, rare unable, to have a point of view of their own.When we have toiled through their equableimpersonal pages we may have gained an iotaof playful esthetic cultivation, but we compre-hend the music in question neither more wiselynor more deeply. The cult of objectivity n musiccriticism, dmirable enough n theory, oo oftenamounts o a refusal-which becomes n inability-to

makefirst-hand

udgmentsat all. The

important hing, would say, is for he critic oavoid being taken n by the bogus or pinchbeck;to build up his own criterion f value, and toestablish his responses nto some soTtof organi-zation which will give him a point of referencewhen he comes to approach new and unfamiliarworks of art-a point of reference which thusdoes not depend on the application of non-aesthetic and a priori standards. The criticshould, of course, try to make allowancesfor hewaywardness of his own psychologicalmake-upand for accidents of circumstance nd environ-ment, but nothing can excuse him from thefirst-hand ffort f honesty n his response. It isthe businessof the artist o respond t first-handto life, nd unless he does so he will never begingenuinely to create: it is the business of thecritic o respond t first-hand o the work of art,and unlesshe does sohe willnever begingenuinelyto criticize. Thus there s even something o besaid (I believe) for the musical ournalist; for fone can be a really honest ournalist-this is verydifficult-one has gone a long way towards beinga good critic. Good journalistic reviewing,would say, consists in frankly making moraljudgments which may serve as a basis for dis-cussion criticism onsists in the analysis andexposition of these udgments.

For all its imperfections nd inadequaciesmusic criticism s a serious calling n so far as itis directed to the training f true musical sensi-bility, s opposed to the spurious ort which theabstract nature of the art sometimes tends toencourage n musical academies. Knowledge is,

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98 THE MUSICAL TIMES March 1941one well knows, necessary enough, and to itthere can be no short uts but knowledge s notsynonymous with education. No one can claimto be' musically educated who s not emotionallyeducated as well; in the relatively rtificial nd

non-creative ociety n which we are all obligedto live, some sort of training of sensibility, fcritical discrimination, would seem to be asindispensable to musical culture as to any othercivilized department f art or life today.

Of This and ThatJy W. R. ANDERSON

READERbearing a family name honouredwherever hurchmusic s known oesmethe kindness o feed that'insatiable appe-tite for wonders' to which some time ago I con-

fessed. He tells me that he, who is inclined tosing harp, eemsto make choirs ing harp, oo-even before he has taught them. For example,as a member of a certain congregation he hadrealized that the choir sang flat; yet when hetook over the control f the music, but before hehad taken any practice, the choir sang sharp,as soonas he played the organ, and this tendencycontinued during my tenure' (it should be addedthat his wife has checked all this she has a verykeen and exact ear, and indeed, calls him toaccount for his sharp singing). Secondexampleshe, singing some carols to his organ accompani-ment (the first ime she had done so) told himthat she 'had a great fight not to sing sharp.'They are convinced that it has nothing to dowith his registration. In fourteen years atanother church there was always the tendency

[forthe choir] to

sing sharp,which was not

present when my deputy played. He has an ideathat thought-transference s at work, but thisseems very far-fetched.' Can anyone fetch anearer hot ?

Equally queer-sounding, ut easier to under-stand, was the story f the man whom Mr. Agatemet, who got asthma every time he heard GodSave the King.' 'The poor fellow was a greatlover of opera, and after very Wagnerian crisishad to retire to the cloak-room o inject adre-nalin.' (We might, in a fantastic, hopefulhomeopathy, try adrenalin on our Wagner-haters ? Or something lse beginning with thesame letter.)Another f Agate's stories, old him by Moisei-witsch, s of table-rapping n a country house.The pianist wasnot taking part. The table rappedout 'L-I-S-Z-T,' over and over again, arid ondifferent ights, t would appear. One eveningit ran over to the piano, and began knocking nthe rhythm f the Polonaise in E, including hetrill.' No trickery was observed. More marvels,please

One of few ecent roadcast' first erformanceswas of Aaron Copland's 'Outdoor Overture.' Iam always glad to hear American music, thoughmuch of the recent

outputsuffers

rom he jazz-touch. This little nine-minute amble picks upbits of cheerful tune and treats them, withxylophone trimmings, with a sort of Russianirresponsibility. The orchestration oundedbrit-tle, and I felt omething f French shrillness n

the expression f the ideas. All in all, a cheerfulbustle, and not much more.- ' First broadcastperformance' as marked gainst Harry Farjeon'sthird ViolinSonata (L. Hirsch and Joan Boulter),twenty-one minutes of springing, nviting musicwith tunes of great verve and resource. In aplanned ramble there were many typically variedphrase-lengths, nd extensions no 'tough' har-mony, but optimistic music n a spirit hat ruledthirty years ago, and that I, for one, hope willcome again.- Herbert Ferrers's'Kubla Khan'was sung by Henry Cummings, with orchestra(8 minutes). There was a ready response o thepoet's imagery, in massive colour effects ndobvious melodic leads; far from present frets,this went back beyond Farjeon, into, say, the'90's. But does such poetry, n present perspec-tive, demand setting - Arthur Benjamin'sfive-movement iano Suite (Irene Kohler) lastedfifteen minutes. It was cut off fter the 'Tam-bourin,' the interval-signal eing reiterated. Ihung about, taking time from ther work, o seeif the music would be resumed. It

was,but one

movement had vanished. An apology was givenat the end but could not an announcement avebeen made that it was hoped soon to resume ?An 'Air' had modal strength-a sort of Puritangrace. I thought here was a little French tinge,in key-usage. We must hear the Suite again.-Frank Merrick played, with tremendous pirit,a Concerto of Field's, which seemed endless.Grateful s we are for what Field taught Chopin,I am afraid a whole concerto was beyond theformer's ower of sustentation. There are prettypleasances, demure or sparkling, ut such acresof um-tiddly-um-tiddly-um. pianist's Field-day, indeed, but one listener's prairie-aeon.

'La Traviata' (with cuts) seemed rather hardvoiced; or was it the reproduction, owadays sotantalizing The virtues of discipline werestrong, otably n quick taking-up but the effectwas a bit breathless. At any rate, we gotthrough that monotonous recit. all the better.The hero was cut off or he news, ust as he hadbegun ' Di Provenza.' (I have given up trying oaccount of these B.B.C. guillotinings; after all,we get the B.B.C.,good and bad, boons and bans,Jekyll nd Hyde, that we deserve.) should thinkrehearsal wasvery horough. Reading Mapleson'smemoirs, came across his statement (among

many queer tales) that all the years Patti touredfor him she had a clause freeing her from anycompulsion to attend a rehearsal, and that shenever went, whoever lse was singing nd howevercomplex an ensemblemight be.- Harry Isaacsand York Bowen played to admiration on two

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Mellers - On Writing About Music