Peter Gay - Aimez-Vous Brahms. Reflections on Modernism

7/25/2019 Peter Gay - Aimez-Vous Brahms. Reflections on Modernism

1/21


2/21

Aimez-vous

rahms?

Reflectionsn Modernism

BY PETER

GAY

I

begin

with

a scene from one of Franoise

Sagan's

cool

and

meretricious

ictions.

aule,

the

worldly, gingprotagonist

f Aimez-

vous Brahms receives letter rom

younger

man,

recent,

romising

acquaintance, nviting

erto a concert nd

asking

her,

n

passing,

Do

you

like

Brahms?" Puzzled and

intrigued,

aule

hunts

mong

her

records o find,back to back with Wagneroverture he knowsby

heart,

Brahms oncerto he has never istened o. The

coupling

s

improbable,

venmore

mprobable

han he

ouplings agan

normally

manufactures.Whatever he

probabilities,

aule

puts

on

the Brahms

concerto,

utdoes not isten o the

nd;

ts

very

pening epels

her,

he

says,

too "romantic." or

her,

knowing,

modern

woman,

Brahms s

pass.

x

Paule

speaks

for

he

generalpublic,

the

public

certain hat

Brahms

was a

musical

reactionary,

oo

"romantic,"

which is to

say:

sentimental,

ow

in

emotional

ppeal,

a museum

iece

on theorder

of

antimacassars,hinasculpturend virginal rides.Brahms s a dusty

relicfrom hose

old

days.

His

symphonies

nd concertos re

staples

f

our

musical

repertory;

he reviewer

cribbling

is

hasty

verdict n a

program ncluding

Brahms'

Fourth

Symphony

or

Second Piano

Concerto inds he

emptation

rresistible

o call them warhorses."He

is more

ikely

o assess the

performance

han

appraise

the music a

tribute

o

its

familiarity.

It is a tribute

oncealing

derision.

Familiarity

has

always

bred

contempt,

nd our

sensibility

as

elevated

he

ontempt

hat

amiliarity

breeds ntoan article f faith.

he

atmosphere

f

high

ulture hatwe

* I wish o acknowledgeid from he National Endowment or heHumanities,rant

#RO7779 3 224.

1

Aimez-vousBrahms?

1959).

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3/21

Aimez-vousBrahms?Reflectionsn Modernism 17

have been

nhabiting

or

nearly

century

usually pitomized y

that

shorthand

ame,

Modernism is rather ike the Hell

that

George

Bernard haw's JohnTannervisits

n

his

dream:a

place

where ll is

reversed.

ere,

unpopularity

s the

precondition

f

popularity,

t least

among

the

ophisticated

onsumers f

the rts.

And the obverseholds

just

as true:

popularity

ngendersunpopularity, gain

among

the

sophisticated.

n

our

high

ulture,

s

in

Don Juan's

Hell,

one mustbe

damnedto be

saved,

and

the saved are damned.

Ifthis s aparadox, t s not cheapone. t s, n ny vent, otmine. t

pervades

the

performing

rts,

literature,

nd

thought.

Since the

Impressionists

irst efied

heFrench

Academy,

ainting

as

produced

a

parade

of

movements,

ach more

soteric han ts

predecessor.

ince

the

Symbolists

irsthut hemselvesnto heir

xclusive

nclaves,

oetry

has

spawned

schools

of

increasing ifficulty.

ince

in

his late

years

Henry

James

designed

monuments f

discrimination

making

evere

claims on their

public,

the novel has

ventured into

formal

experimentation,

inguistic

dventures,

nd

planned

incoherence.

Sculpture,

architecture,

hilosophy

and,

more

recently,

iterary

criticism ave been onquered y vant-gardes oing heirolitary ay,

despising

ot

merely

he ommonbut ven he

ducated

nderstanding,

looking

over

their houlder

with

a curious

mixture f

self-pity

nd

truculence. nd

modern

musichas

gone

as far s it s

possible

o

go

in

the ultivation

f

ncomprehensibility,

ts

urrendero the

machine,

r

to chance. t is

composedby

the

very

ew,

or he

very

ew.A

few rue

believers

part,

to attend a

concert

of

contemporary

music

is to

document ne's

membership

n

a

coterie,

r to

race,

desperately,

ven

masochistically,

fter cultural rain hat eft he tation

ong go.

The

recent ounterattack f common-sense

raditionalists,

ftenvirulent

andgenerallybtuse,s doubtlessmorepernicioushan he berrations

it

professes

o

combat;

Hilton Kramer has called

it,

in

a brilliant

polemic,

The

Revenge

of the

Philistines."2

ut

our

distasteforthis

vulgar,

ven

unsavory

eaction annot

ompel

us to

treat

berrationss

masterpieces.

And

these aberrations re

only

the

most

egregious

exemplars

f that

pervasive

Modernist haracteristic:he

will

to fail.

High

culture has become an

industry

f

self-fulfillingrophecies.

Anticipating,

ndeed

craving, misunderstanding,

afflement,

nd

rejection,

Modernists have manufactured rtifacts bound to be

misunderstood,

affling

and

rejected.

n

its

ode,

to succeed to be

understood ythepublic, praised bythereviewer,ubsidizedbythe

2

Commentary,

ol.

CIX,

5

(May,

1975),

pp.

35-40.



4/21

18 PETER GAY

patron

is to

failwhere t

really

matters:

n

one's

artor one's

thought.

To sell is to

sell out.

Many

critics nd

historians,

t once

uncritical

nd

unhistorical,

ave

taken

the Modernists t

their elf-destructive which s to

say,

self-

serving

word;

they

have

professed

o

recognize

Modernist

rtists,

writers,

nd

philosophers

y

wo

ssential,

istinct ut

related,

ualities:

alienation nd

difficulty.hey

will

oncede hat he

rmy

f Modernism

is a

large,

ll-assorted

roop complete

with

ome notable

exceptions:

good bourgeois

rtists ike Edouard Manetand

Max Liebermann. ut

theywill nsist hatngeneral,heir efinitionoldsgood:theModern s

the

disruptive tranger.

I

Brahms,

n this

efinition,

ails o

qualify

s a Modern.

He is a

classic

and

seems,

from ur

perspective,

o have been

born that

way

-

a

composer

who

was never

young.

He

appears

not alienated but

conformist,

ot

difficult

ut

accessible. To

begin

with:

he

scarcely

sounds like an alienated experimenter. is symphonieshave the

expected

four

movements.His

chamber

music

moves

within

the

predictable

onfines

aid down

by

his lassical

predecessors,

nd

sounds

at first

earing

ather

ike

late,

somewhat

nfamiliar

eethoven.His

Lieder

march

n

the

paths

marked ut

by

Schubert

nd his

followers.

t

is not n accident

hat or ll his

repeated

ut

half-hearted

xplorations,

Brahms

never entured

ntothemusical

genre

which,

n

the

nineteenth

century,

fferedroublemakers heir

inest

pportunity:

he

pera.

The

familiar anecdotes

that cluster about him

only

underscore the

impression

hathe ooked to the

past

forhis

nspiration,

nd to the

past

alone. Brahms tudied arliermusicwith heearnestness f thedevout

conservative,

nd

put

the eal on

his

antiquarian assion by

collecting

musical

utographs

f

the

composers

he

most dmired:

Bach,

Haydn,

Mozart,

Beethoven.

Brahms'musical

olitics

xpress

he ame

tyle

f

hinking.

e

led,

or

(which

s much

the same

thing)

was

widely

hought

o

lead,

the

party

that

opposed

Liszt,

Wagner,

and Bruckner

the

self-proclaimed

Musicians f the Future.

And,

almost

by

definition,

he musicianwho

rejects

he

Music of the

Futuremust

peak

for he Music

of the

Past.

Perhaps

the

most

damaging

piece

of

evidence

onvicting

rahmsof

conformisms the ong, ormentedestationfhis First ymphony.t s

a familiar

ut true

tory:

rahms arried

he dea ofa

symphony

bout

withhim

for

manyyears.

As

early

s

January

854,

he could tell his



5/21


mentor,

obert

Schumann,

hathe had

already

rchestratedhe

first,

and

composed

the second and

third

movements.

n

the

1860s,

he

punctuated

his letters o his closest friends

with

allusions to

that

symphony.

ut instead f

completing

he

composition

o slow

in

the

making,

he

adopted

a series

of

strategic

etreats: he firstPiano

Concerto f

1859,

he First

tring

extet f

1862,

he

Piano

Quintet

f

1865. And as late as the

early

1870s,

he

could

sense

the

oppressive

presence

f Beethoven:

I'll

never

ompose symphony,"

e s

reported

to have said. "You have no idea how the

ikesof us feelwhenwe

keep

hearinguch a giantbehindus."3 It was not until1877,whenhe was

forty-four,

hat e dared

tep

before he

public

with

isFirst

ymphony,

a

delay

so

emphatic

hat

t

eloquently isplays

an unsurmountable

respect,

n invincible

umility,

efore he classics

of his craft.

Brahms'

way

of ife

eems

perfectly

onsistent

ith

uch

imidity.

he

mildest f debauches

apart,

he

lived

soberly,modestly,

olemnly;

is

lifelong

achelorhood s a

symptom

f

bourgeois

owardice

ather han

a

badge

of bohemian

freedom.

here was no madness

n

his

ife,

s

in

that

f his beloved

Schumann;

e

provoked

no salacious scandals

uch

as those

marking

he ifeof

Liszt;

he

made no

move to

compete

with

Wagner

n

prophesying

new

religion

f art. Brahms

ought

financial

security,racticed

nnocent

leasures,

njoyed

ecent

ompany;

he was

a slave

to the thic

f

work,

much ike bank

clerk r a

shop keeper.

He

had

been

young

manof

almost thereal

eauty

who entered

almost

fled nto

middle

ge

behind

he

ppropriate

isguise

f

bushy

eard,

the

very

mblem

f

respectability.

More

important:

rahms

s not difficult

ut

easy.

He

strikes

he

modern

ar,

n

fact,

s

all too

easy,

with hose

ong yearning

melodies

announced

by

the

cello,

and the hick

esounding

utti

roduced

by

his

sizable

orchestra.

ven his

chamber

music

-

that

demanding, pare

genre

hat eveals

ll - often ounds

ddly ymphonic.

Muchof t acks

the

cerbity,

he

dry

wit,

he

ntimacy

f classical

chamber

music;

with

its

ll-too-pleasing

hemes

nd sonorous

coring,

t

pproaches

t times

the

kindof

music

played

by

a discreet

nsemble

n

resort otels

o

the

clatter

of

spoons

and the hum of conversation.

Possibly

the

most

devastating ortrait

f

the

"easy"

Brahms

omes

from

George

Bernard

Shaw,

the

perfect

Wagnerite.

omparing

Brahms,

n

1920,

with

Elgar,

Shaw

thought

him

to have

been,

"with a

facility

s

convenient

s

Elgar's,"

a "musical sensualist

with

intellectual

ffectations,"

ho

"succeeded only as an incoherent oluptuary, oo fundamentally

3

Reportedly

remark

made

to Hermann

Levi, qu.

in Kurt

Stephenson,

"Der

Komponist

rahms

m

igenen

Urteil,"

rahms-Studien,

d. Constantin

loros

1

74),

Vol.

I,

p.

15.



6/21

20 PETER GAY

addleheaded

to

make

anything reat

out of the

delicious musical

luxuries e

wallowed n."4 t was

bad

enough

o be

a

voluptuary,

ut o

be an incoherent

oluptuary

was to

throw

worseemotions fter ad.

The

iteraturef

condescension

hathas

collected roundBrahms he

"romantic

lassicist,"

s too

familiar o

require

ecital.

wantto

recall

only

one

telling

nstance.

n

his

Steppenwolf,

ermann

Hesse has

his

narrator mble his

way through

fantastic

ream

theatre;

herehe

encountersMozart

and,

as

the two talk about

music,

glimpses

mysterious

cene.

n

a distant

alley,

bscured

yfog

nd

clouds,

he sees

a

procession

ed

by

a

dignified

ld

gentleman

ith

long

beardand a

melancholyxpression,eading

train f

bout

ten

housand

men,

ll

in

black;

Mozart dentifies

im: "You

see,

that s Brahms.He

strives or

salvation,

ut that

will

ake

quite

some time."And the

narrator

earns

that

hosethousands f men

n

black

are

themusicianswho had been

compelled

to

play

all of those

superfluous

Brahmsiannotes.

"Too

heavily

rchestrated,"

ays

Mozart,

too muchmaterial

wasted."5 hese

are

the ounds we have

come

to call

-

loosely,

n

fact

naccurately

"romantic." To be

sure,

Hesse

consigns Wagner

to

the

same

predicament;Wagner,too, drags a black-coatedtrain of weary

musiciansbehindhim.

Rather ike Franoise

Sagan,

Hermann

Hesse

yokes

hese wo

dversaries

ogether.

ut t

s Brahmswho

s

the

model

of thosewe

may

call,

adapting

Brecht,

ulinary

omposers.

Whatever

staturewe

assign

o Hesse as a

writer,

e s

a

prince

mong

Modernists,

and it

s

chilling

o see how

pitilessly

e

places

Brahms

n

the

amp

of he

enemy,

he

anti-Moderns.

hat,

not

long

after

he

Steppenwolf

was

published,

Arnold

Schoenberg

hould write n

essay

entitled

Brahms

the

Progressive"

ould

appear

to be littlemore

han

bit

of

personal

perversity.

II

These re

the urrentonvictions

bout Brahms.

heir esemblance

f

historical ealities

s,

however,

urely

oincidental.

n

1874

-

that

s,

fifteen

ears

after ts first

erformance

the

Viennesemusic critic

EduardHanslick istened o

Brahms' irst

iano Concerto.

Hanslick

was

a

dependable

riend nd consistent

upporter

f

Brahms,

et

he found

himself

eflecting

hat Brahms s not

among

hose

who

obligingly

eet

you halfway.

e needs o be

thoroughly

nown,

evotedly

tudied.

But

4 "Sir EdwardElgar,"first ublishednMusic and Letters, anuary 920;collectedn

George

Bernard

haw,

How to become Musical

Critic,

d. Dan

H.

Laurence

1960),

p.

312.

5 Der

Steppenwolf

1927),

p.

271.



7/21


then,"

he

added, Brahms,

"amply repays

our

efforts nd our

confidence."6

ix

years

arlier,

he

composer

Max Bruch

had

angrily

reproached

his

friend,

he

conductor,

Hermann

Levi,

for

being

"an

exclusive anatic orBrahms'music." And Bruchhad

boasted,

with

mixture f

pride

nd

anxiety,

hat

people

oved his

compositions;

hey

"do

not wonder t

it

from cold

distance,

s

they

o with

ome of the

works

iyour

dol."

7

Thiscold distance

ersisted. hortly

fter

rahms'

death,

J.

. ."

wrote

o the London

ournal,

Musical

Opinion,

rom

Berlin hat Brahms s

very

much nvidencethiseason: he

sualfate

f

composerswho wroteOvertheheads' of their ontemporaries."8hree

years

ater,

n

anonymous

ritic

oted

n

the ame

periodical

hatwhile

therewere ome who

thought

ighly

f

Brahms,

n

general

is

position

among

he

great omposers

s still matter fdebate

mong

musicians.

Some can see

neither

eauty

or motion

n

his

music,

nd declare hathe

is

never

ikely

o reach he

verage

music over

xcept

n

one or twoofhis

songs."9

A

review

f the iterature

mplyproves

those

unable to

find

either

eauty

r emotion

n

Brahms'music

n

a

sizable

majority.

In

short,

he

public

found

Brahms

ifficult.

nd

serious

ritics,

ike

professional

usicians,

greed

with

mateur

erformers

r

istenershat

Brahmswa.sdifficult.In872,Hans onBulow,

erhaps

hemost amous,

probably

the most influential onductorof the nineteenth

entury,

recommended

rahms'Variations n a Themeof

Haydn,

work hat

presents

s

with

o

puzzles

whatever,

s a

composition

e had

"grown

o

love

gradually,"

ut

one he still

thought

o be

"terribly

ifficult

furchtbar

chwer."10 wo

years

ater,

writing

o

Frits

Hartvigson,

pianist

he

respected,

ulow

described

rahms' irstPiano Concerto s

"very

eautiful

ndeed,"

ut

dded

that t

was

not

eally

piano

concerto

proper."

And he

thought

t

ess

ikely

o

please

the

public

han he

piano

concerto

f Hans von

Bronsart, composer

now

wholly orgotten.

In

February

889,

correspondent

rote rom

eipzig,

hat

great

musical

center,

hat he hirteenth

oncert f ts

Gewandhaus

Orchestra ad

been

6

Hanslick,

Concerte,

Componisten

nd Virtuosen er letzten

nfzehn

ahre.1870-

1885

2nd

edn.,

1886),

p.

111.

7

Bruch o

Levi,

26

April,

1868. HermannLevi

Nachlass,

Bayrische

taatsbibliothek,

Mnchen.

Quoted

in

Wilhelm

Lauth,

"Entstehung

und

Geschichte

des

ersten

Violinkonzertes

p.

26 von Max

Bruch,"

n

Max Bruch

tudien,

d. Dietrich

Kamper

(1970),

p.

63.

8 Musical

Opinion

nd Musical

Trade

Review,

Vol.

XXI,

No.

243,

December

,

1897),

p.

200.

9 Musical

Opinion,

Vol.

XXIII,

No.

272

(May

1,

1900),

p.

554.

10 Bulow to Frau

Laussot,

December

13,

1872.Hansvon

Bulow,

Briefe,

d. Marie von

Bulow,

Vol.

V,

1872-1880

1904),

p.

107n.

11

April

10,

1874.

Briefe,

ol.

V,

p.

161.



8/21

22 PETER GAY

comparatively

ll-attended,

nd

"the

unreserved

eats

empty," ossibly

because

ts

program

ad included such

heavy

dishes s Brahms'First

Piano

Concerto nd d'Albert's

Overture

o

Esther'' He concededthat

d'Albert ad

played

he

Brahms

so

exquisitely"

hat thad made

"deep

impression,"

utthat

mpression

as

not

one of

uncomplicated elight;

echoing

Bulow,

no doubt

unwittingly,

e

pronounced

he Brahms

iece

to

"exceed

n

every

way

the

egitimate

imits f

concerto."Audiences

appreciated

hevirtuosos ho

managed

o

play

ll ofBrahms' otesmore

or ess

correctly.

nd

they

dmired he heer

ngenuity

f the

omposer

for xploringhe rontiersf uch raditional orms s thevariation. ut

thekind f

unreflectivemotional

urrender,

he

ributes

f

pious

ilence

or

wooning

ssent,

hat

would

greet ruly

romantic,"

enuinely opular

composers,

erenotfor im.

They

were eserved

or

Richard

Wagner

or for

Robert

Volkmann,

composer

ow name o

pecialists

lone. At

the

leventh

ewandhaus

oncert

f

he

1888-1889

eason,

Volkmann's

D-Minor

Symphony

formed,"

hereviewer

eported,

a

fitting

limax"

and

aroused

great

nthusiasm"

"as,"

he

took

care to

add,

"it

lways

does."

It

was

precisely

reat

nthusiasm hat

Brahms

arely

roused.

12

So

innovative,

o

self-consciously

odern

composer

s Richard

Strauss found Brahms' music inaccessible. n

January

1884,

after

listening

o

a rehearsal fBrahms' hird

ymphony

n

Berlin,

ewrote o

his

father,

distinguishedrofessional

musician,

hathis head was still

"buzzing

with

ll this

obscurity.

candidly

onfess hat haven't

yet

understood

t,

but t s so

obscure nd miserable

n

ts

nstrumentation,

that

n

the

first

nd lastmovement could makeout

only

wo onnected

ideas

of four

bars each."

13

He added thathe was

keeping

his

opinion

within

he

amily,

ince here

was,

n

Berlin,

omething

f Brahms ult

a

cult,

might

nterject,

argely

onfined o Brahms' ld friend

oseph

Joachim nd

Joachim's

upils. nterestinglynough,

trauss

hanged

is

mind n

repeated earings:

n

February

he could

report

ome hathe

had

by

now istened

othenewBrahms

ymphony

hree

imes,

and iked

it better

ach

time,

o

that

am

now almost enthusiastic"

4

that

12

See,

forboth

oncerts,

he

Monthly

Musical

Record,

Vol.

XIX,

No. 218

February

,

1

89),

p.

31. It is

fair o add that t times

Brahmshad reason to

take

pleasure

n

his

audiences.

n

that

very

eason

1888-1889,

he

premiere

n

Vienna

of

Brahms'Double

Concertoforviolin

nd cello

brought

im

"the cheers f an

enthusiastic

udience,"

while,

n

Budapest,

hefirst

ublic

performance

f histhird

iolin onata

produced

n

"ovation." Music

in

Vienna,"

Monthly

Musical Record

February

1,

1889),

p.

32.

13

January

,

1884.

Richard

Strauss,

Briefe

n die

Eltern,

882-1906,

d.

Willi

Schuh

(1954),

p.

32.

14Briefen dieEltern, . 38.There s an excellenturvey f GermanBrahms riticismn

one

nfluential

eriodical uring

rahms*

ost reative

eriod:

mogen

Fellinger,

Das

Brahms-Bild

er

Allgemeinen

Musikalischen

Zeitung

1863

bis

1882)/'

in

Heinz

Becker,

d.

Beitrage

ur Geschichte er

Musikkritik

1965),

pp.

27-54.



9/21


10/21

24 PETER GAY

spoke

for

minority

n

thecritical

raternity.

ore

representative

as

the London reviewer

ho

found,

n

the 1888-1889

eason,

that

George

Henschel's

onducting

rahms9econd and Third

ymphonies

ad not

sated his

appetite;why

not,

he

asked,

put

the

First nd Fourth n the

program

s

well,

hus

ompleting

he remarkableeries?"He was

glad

to have attended

"good performance"

f the

Second,

the

"most

cheery"

f Brahms' our

ymphonies,

nd

thought

hat

t, oo,

was

"too

rarely

heard."20

n

like

manner,

colleague,

who

had

objected

to

Henschel's

nadequate

ehearsals nd hurried

empi,

escribed rahms9

Third

Symphony,

the most conciseand

genial"

of his

four,

s a

composition

hat

was

"strangely eglected."21

ater

n

the same

year,

commenting

n

Brahms'

much-debated

First Piano

Concerto,

a

correspondent

n

London called

t

"a

strangely eglected

work."22 hat

was the

principal

one sounded

in

the

musical criticism f the

day:

Brahmswas not

ust neglected,

e was

strangely

eglected.

It

is

apparent,

hen,

hat

difficulty

id

not

preclude

steem.Butwith

Brahms it

was esteem

chilled

by

a sense

of

duty.

Most

of his

contemporariesngested

rahms

ike some nutritious ut

unpalatable

diet:he wasgoodfor ne. Brahms aw this uiteunsentimentally.ear

the

nd ofhis

ife,

alking

with is

friend

nd

eventual

iographer,

ax

Kalbeck,

he

asked:

"My

God,

whatdo

you

want? have

got

far

nough.

People,

friends nd

opponents

like,

respect

me. Even

f

people

don't

love me

-

they

espect

me,

and that s themain

thing.

don't ask for

more."23

And,

of

course,

neglect, trange

r

otherwise,

s a relative

matter. rahmswas

performed,

ut ess

consistently

han

his

present-

day

staturewould ead us to

expect.

Consider

he

Halle

Orchestra f

without

is

brainlessness,

herefinement

nd

inspiration

f Mendelssohnwithout is

limitation nd timid

entility,

chumann's ense of harmonic

xpression

without is

laboriousness,

hortcoming,

nd

dependence

n external

oetic

timulus "As for

Brahms: Brahms,who alone toucheshim nmerebrutemusicalfaculty,s a dolt n

comparison

with

him."

Music in

London1890-94,

vols.,

Vol.

Ill

(edn. 1932),

p.

94.

Needless

o

say,

Goetz's

ymphony

as

disappeared

rom he

repertory,

hile hedolt

Brahms s

doing

well;

probably

he

nly omposition

fGoetz till

widely

erformed

s

the overture o his

opera,

The

Taming

f

the

Shrew.

20 Musical

Opinion March

1,

1889),

p.

276.

21

Musical

Times,

Vol.

XXX,

No.

551,

January

,

1889),

p.

22.

22

Musical

Opinion

September

1,

1889),

p.

576. The reviewerwas

willing

o

forgive

Brahms "the notorious reminiscence

rom the Ninth

Symphony

n

the

opening

subject,"

ecause the oncerto reflects

he

pirit

f Beethoven." e

thought

hework

"remarkable or

genuine

randeur

f

style

nd a wealthof ideas seldom

qualled

in

compositions

fthe

present

ay,

nd without

whichno virtuoso's

epertoire

houldbe

consideredomplete." ngland, s I havesaid,gaveBrahms generous earing airly

early,

but these re accentsrare

even

for

England.

23

Quoted

n

Stephenson,

Der

Componist

rahms

m

eigenen

Urteil,"

rahms-Studien,

Vol.

I,

p.

14.



11/21


Manchester,

rominentmong ymphony

rchestras

n

Europe,

wned,

managed,

nd conducted

by

Sir Charles

Halle,

as

receptive

o music

from

isnative

Germany

s he was

to that fhis

doptedEngland.

n

his

twenty-concert

eason

of

1890-1891,

Halle

drew,

s

usual,

heavily

n

German

omposers:

e

put

on his

program

Volkmann's ello

concerto,

Reinecke's

uite,

From the Cradle

to

the

Grave,

and Raffs Lenore

Symphony,

ffered

many

elections

rom

Wagner's

music

dramas,

nd

spread

out

-

as did

every

onductor,

verywhere

a rich

diet

of

Beethoven: hree f Beethoven's

ine

ymphonies,

wo

of

his

five

iano

concertos,he violinconcerto, hree vertures,he choralfantasia,

song,

a

piano

sonata,

and

the Missa Solemnis.

n

the

same

season,

Halle's Orchestra

erformed

hree f Brahms'Lieder nd the German

Requiem,

but none

of Brahms'

ymphonies,

vertures,

nd

serenades,

and neither f

his

piano

concertos.

WhilteHalle found ccasionto offer

the violin oncerto

f Brahms'

ld friend

oachim,

e foundnone for

Brahms'

wn.

This was

typical.

n

1891-1892,

n adventurouseason

n

which

Halle

experimented

ithan all-Mozart

evening

nd a

program onsisting

entirely

f the

third

cts

of

Lohengrin

nd

Tannhauser,

rahmswas

represented y two Lieder and one HungarianDance. Like other

conductors

ntent n

filling

heir

alls,

Halle

could not fford o affront

his

public

too

often.However

ndependent

n

spirit,

owever idactic

his

purposes,

is

programming

ad

to reflect

ublic pinion,

nd

public

opinion

was

tepid

bout

Brahms.

Public

opinion

changed

over the

years,

and

public performance

changed

with t. Butnot

drastically.

n

thedecade

dating

rom rahms'

death

n

1897 to the

year

1906,

the Halle

Orchestra

layed

his First

Symphony

performed

nly

nce

before)

hreemore imes.

he

Second,

widely hought

hemost heerful

or,

the

east

depressing amongBrahms'

ymphonic

works,

njoyed

omewhat

greater cceptance:

t

had

been

played

ive

imes efore

nd was now

played

four

imesmore.

The

Third nd Fourth

ymphonies,

n theother

hand,

considered

ar

more

formidable,

ere ach

played

only

twice

n

thatdecade.

Wagner

and

Beethovenwere

performed

ar more

often,

oth

beforeBrahms'

death

and after.

While

Brahmswas

scarcely forgottenomposer,

he

was

anything

ut

a

popular

favorite.Audiences

id not mind

hearing

him,

but

did

not ask

for

more:

if Halle

was

induced to

repeat

his

Lohengrin-Tannhauser

rogram

within

he same

season,

no

similar

requests

or

Brahms re on

record.24

24

Computed

from

printed

programs

nd a

handwritten

Complete

List of Works

Performed

858-1907,"

enry

WatsonMusic

Library,

Manchester.Michael

Kennedy,



12/21

26 PETER GAY

The

performance

ecord

of

the Philharmonic rchestra f Berlin

confirmshe

mpression

leaned

from heHalle. Berlin s an

interesting

test

ity

orBrahms.

t

was

here,

n

March

4, 1889,

hat

he

great

Hans

von Bulow had

brought

is

good

friend o conducthis own

D

minor

Concerto,

with

Bulow

t the

piano:

to

complete

he

riumphantvening,

Brahmshad conducted

he

Academic

Festival

Overture

with

Bulow

performingreditably

t thedrum.

Moreover,

s a

private

rchestra f

recent

foundation,

he Orchestra

had,

from ts

beginning

n

1882,

rapidly layed

tselfnto heforefrontf

European

nsembles.

n

1895,

after he short

eigns

f such charismatic onductors s

Bulow,

there

began

the

principate

f Arthur

Nikisch,

who

was to establish his

unquestioned

uthority

ver

players,

udiences,

nd critics like. And

Nikisch

played

Brahms,

ess

frequently

han

Beethovenbut more

frequently

han

Wagner.

n

thefirst

wenty ears

fhis

tenure,

aithful

subscribers

ould

count

on

hearing

ll

of

Brahms'

ymphonies

nd

concertos everal

times,

s well as his

overtures nd a number f his

choral

compositions.

Even less than at

Manchester,

Brahms was

scarcely

forgotten

an

in

Berlin.

It is hardtoknowhow to interpretuchfigures. s Nikischhimself

noted,

he was

n

no

position

o

dictate

o

visiting

irtuosos,

nd

n

those

days,

n

Berlin s

elsewhere,

o

symphony

oncertwas

complete

without

at least ne soloist.

5

Besides,

owever

nchallenged

ikisch's

uthority

might ppear,

he was

only

ne

element,

f

powerful

ne,

n

a

complex

field

of

force,

involving

ntricate accommodations and mutual

concessions

among

conductors,

players,

soloists,

critics,

rival

orchestras,

ighly laced

bureaucrats,

nd the

public

-

or, rather,

publics.

Moreover,

whenever

Nikisch

performed

Brahms,

did he

TheHalle Tradition: CenturyfMusic 1960), ddsuseful tatistics.ncidentally,he

demand

for

Wagner

was so

stormy,

hat Halle

repeated

hat

Lohengrin-

annhauser

evening

nce

more

n

the

following

eason,

n

1892-93.

n the ast decade of Brahms'

life,

rom 887to

1896,

heHalle Orchestra

layed

Brahms'

ompositions

hirty-eight

times,

Wagner

0 and Beethoven

12 times.

n

the

following en-yearpan,

from 897

to

1906,

he

figure

or

Brahms ose from

8 to

59,

while hatforBeethoven

eclined

slightly

o

110;

Wagner

rose to

148.

25 In

an

unpublished reply

to

a

critic

accusing

Nikisch of

vastly

over-valuing

Tschaikowsky,only

published

fter is

death),

Nikisch

made the

point

hat tatistics

of

performances

o not

wholly

eflect

he onductor's

aste,

ince we are

seldom

n

a

position

o influence soloist's hoice of

programs."

ee Ferdinand

Pfohl,

Arthur

Nikisch,"

n

Arthur

Nikisch:ben und

Wirken,

d.

Heinrich

hevalley

1922),

p.

81.

The rage forsoloistswas general;Michael Kennedy, he historian f the Halle

Orchestra,

xplicitly

otes that the 1901-2 eason

"began

with n innovation

a

purely

rchestral oncert."

The Halle

Tradition,

.

149.



13/21


perform

im

s a classicor as a rebel?26 he

category

f the classical"

differed

arkedly

n

those

ays

from urcurrent efinition:he

lassical

farewe

expect

to

encounter

ften

Haydn symphonies

nd Mozart

piano

concertos

were lmost

wholly

bsent

rom

Nikisch's

rograms.

In

contrast,

e

gave hospitality

o German

omposers

ike Alexander

Ritter,

elix

Draeseke,

or Xaver

Scharwenka,

houghnormally

or

single ppearance.

But

they

nd their ind

figure

armore

prominently

than

foreign

adical ike

Claude

Debussy,

who,

n

those

wenty ears

between

895 nd

1914,

ppears

n

a

Philharmonic

rogram nly

once,

with

single erformance

fhisL Apr s-midi 'un aune. ncontrast

German

xperimenter,

ichard

Strauss27,

as

in

the scendant:

t s a

commentary

n

the stateof musical

taste

n

Berlin

t

the

turn

f the

century

hat he

Philharmonic

hould have

played

Straussmoreoften

than

Mozart,

nd

more han wice

s often s

Haydn.

Brahms, hen,

was

comfortably

or,

rather,

uncomfortably lodged

between

the

ancients

and

the moderns:

not ancient

enough

to

be,

like

Haydn,

slighted;

ot

modern

nough

o

be,

ike

Strauss,

itillating.

t was a critic

in

London

who,

n

1890,

laced

his

position

most

precisely.

omparing

Brahms'TragicOverturewithLiszt's

Dante

Symphony,

e found he

two

works

very

widely

ontrasted,

hough

ach

belongs

o

themodern

school;

but

Brahms dheres

o classic

precedents,

hereas

Liszt casts

them side

. . ,"28

rahms

was a conservative

ifficult odern

lassicist.

Most of

Brahms'

ontemporaries,

hen,

hought

im

unimaginative

and

solid,

a technician

who

was,

at

best,

n

apt disciple

f his

betters.

One

widely

ead

German

musical

historian,

rofessor

mil

Naumann,

listed

Brahms

mong

the followers

f

Schumann,

n

the

company

of

AlbertDietrict

nd

Robert

Volkmann,

nd devoted

ess

space

to

him

than to Raff.29

AnotherGerman

critic,

urveying

he

condition

of

26 In thepassageI have ust quoted (see note25), Nikisch nstructivelyalls Brahms

composer

whom

I

am

already

ounting" mong

ourclassics."

The

"already" uggests

Brahms' ransitional

tatus.

intend o

explore

what

here all "fields f

force"

n

a

forthcoming

ook.

27 It s

nteresting

o

note hat venHermann

evi,

oward he nd ofhis

ife,

ad

to

admit

that for all his commitment

o the Music

of the

Future,

he could no

longer

fully

understand ichard

trauss:

evi to Paul

Heyse,

a. December

1899

half year

before

Levi's

death):

Auch ch

vermag

traussnicht

mehr u

folgen

"

Heyse-Archiv,

ol.

VI,

Levi Letter

no. 44. Hand

Schriften

bteilung,

ayrische

taatsbibliothek,

Munich.

28

Musical

Times

July

1,

1890),

p.

407.

29

See

Naumann,

Deutsche

Tondichter

5th

edn.,

1882),

h.

12,

"Die

Gegenwart,"

p.

346-377

passim.

This ow estimate

ates from he

first dition f

1871,

when

Brahms

hadalreadypublished greatdeal ofdistinguished usic;by 1882,hehad added the

violin oncerto

nd his

firstwo

ymphonies,

utnoneof

heseworks aused

Naumann

to revisehis verdict.

or a

survey

f these

minor

omposers,

ee Rudolf

Louis,

Die

deutscheMusik

der

Gegenwart

rd.

edn.

1912).



14/21

28 PETER GAY

chamber music

in

1890,

praised

Brahms,

but for

understanding

Beethovenbest and

following

im

most

closely.30

he

year

before,

Brahms'one-time

riend nd admirerHermann

Levi,

long

after he

friendship

ad soured

and

the

admiration

lapsed, put

it more

economically

nd

more

avagely

whenhe

calledBrahms n

"epigone."

1

It was

a

word,

t

seems,

hat

ame

easily

o the

pen.

n

themidst f

an

appreciation,

he once famous

criticPaul

Marsop

called his

favorite

among

ll

of Brahms'

ompositions,

he

German

Requiem,

derivative

piece:

"the tribute hat n

epigonepresents

o

the

mmortals."32

Brahms' tributes" erenot lways he ubject fderisiveeflections.

One

English

mateur

poet published

n

1891

a sonnet

hat

reflects

sunnier iew:

Brahms,

trong,

elf-governed

oul,

be this

thy

praise,

That

in

a fitful

ge

thou didstrefrain

From methods

alse,

rom

iberties

rofane:

For

thou hast

gathered

n

tradition's

ays

The

flowers f full-blown

hought

hat

rown

hy

days.

Hark, nthymellowmusic, trong nd sane,

Beethoven's armonies

ibrate

gain,

And fill

our

listeningpirit

with maze.

His mantle

ests

upon

thee. Art

not thou

High

Priest

f

Music's

mysteries

n

his

stead,

The

ealous guardian

f the

aws divine?

So men shall

call thee

Master;

even

though

now

They

follow

fter ther

gods

than

thine,

And

trample

ut the

footprints

f the

dead.

33

One

listener's

plagiarist,

t

would

appear,

was

another

listener's

classicist.

30 In

short:

Brahms'

minence

n

chamber

music

composition

ies

in

his

capacity

o

imitate.

He, too,

has not

arried

he

hamber

music

tyle

orward.

We

still tandwhere

we

stood

sixty

years

go."

Neue

Zeitschriftr

Musik,

Vol.

CXXXVI(1890),p.556.

31 Levi

to an

unidentified

orrespondent,

ecember

15,

1889.

Oesterreichische

Nationalbibliothek,

Wien,

Autograph

195/46.

For

Levi,

on

whose instructive

testimony

have drawn

freely

ere,

ee Peter

Gay,

"HermannLevi and the Cult of

Wagner,'*

he Times

Literary

upplement

April

11,

1975),

pp.

402-404.

32 "JohannesBrahms,"Musikalische ssays 1889),p. 194.

33

Musical

Times,

Vol.

XXXII,

No. 578

(April

1,

1891),

p.

210.



15/21


III

The

19th-centuryeputation

of

Brahms, then,

embraces

two

incompatible

lements:

e seemed t once

traditional

nd

difficult.

ut

the

paradox

s

only

pparent.

ome words f he

English

onnet

oint

o

its resolution:

rahms,

he

poet

tells

us,

has

gathered

n

tradition's

ways

The flowers f full-blown

hought.

Similarly,

n

English

eview alled

Brahms' ourth

ymphony,

n

1890,

"one of themost bstruse nd least nspired f thecomposer's arger

works."34

n

the ame

tenor,

rahms' ntimate

riend,

he

distinguished

surgeon

nd

gifted

mateur

ianist,

heodor

Billroth,

riticized rahms

for

having

too little

ensuality

zu

wenig

innliches

in

his

art,

s

composer

and

performer

alike."35

Phrases like

"calculating

intellectuality,"

mathematical

music" nd

"dry

pedantry,"

abstruse,

intellectual"

nd

"unintelligible, ry,

deliberate nd

uncongenial",

"emotional

mpotence"

wamp

the critical iterature. rahms

was the

Browning

f

music.

6

Even

Brahms'

Double Concertofor Violin and

Cello,

which

t

would

take ome

maginative

fforto

find

ngrateful

o

the

magination,

roused t least heManchesterGuardian o

precisely

that

reflection:

Those who look

upon

music for the

expression

of

emotion

will find little

.. to arouse

the

feelings."37

he same

newspaper,

eporting

n thefirst

Manchester

erformance

f Brahms'

34 See

Musical

Times,

Vol.

XXXII,

No. 581

(July

1,

1890),

p.

407. Italics mine.

The

reviewer

oes

exempt

he slow

movement,

a

gem,"

from his

general

tricture.

he

charge

f

ntellectuality

uns

hrough

he

Marsop

essay

have

ust

quoted.

Brahmswas

"a restless

tudent

ein

rastloser

erner;"

with few

exceptions

here

s

"always

something

eavy

and

dry

-

etwas

Dumpfes

und Trockenes

in the Brahmsian

orchestration;"

here

s

"always omething

eliberate,

ntellectualized Gewolltes

Brahms'

ragic

ision

Tragik."

nd o forth.

hough,

t the ame

time: This cholar

andthinkern oundwas, t the ametime, poet einDichter."Johannes rahms,"

Musikalische

ssays,

pp.

184-195

assim.

35 This

n themidst f

paean

to

Brahms.

Billroth,

greeing

with

Hanslick,

o Professor

Lubke,

December

4,

1867.

Briefe

on Theodor

Billroth

8th

unchanged

dition,

910),

p.

73.

By linking

Brahms

o Bach and Beethoven

n

this

complaint,

Billroth

nly

confuses

matters

urther;

n

any

event,

he

thought

rahms'

ntellectualism

ot some

defect

n

sensual

powers

but

the

consequence

of a deliberate

olicy.

36 The first

uotation

s from

Musical

Opinion April

1

1 9

1

,

p.

255;

the

thers,

n

order,

from

he Boston

Gazette

January

4,

1878);

Boston

Daily

Advertiser

October

31,

1882),

Boston Gazette

November

,

1884);

J. F. Runciman

Boston]

Musical Record

(January

1,

1900);

New York

Times

February

8,

1896),

all

quoted

from

Nicolas

Slonimsky,

d.

Lexicon

of

Musical

Invective:Critical

Assaults

on

Composers

ince

Beethoven's

Time

edn., 1965),pp. 68,

70, 71, 79,

182.

The

Lexicon,

a

shrewdly

gathered

reasure,ontains nsults o other omposers s well,though ewhave so

single-minded

group

of

assailants s

Brahms.

37

Kennedy,

The

Halle

Tradition,

.

60.



16/21


17/21


String

extets,

nd

the Second

Symphony.

nd

ust

as he had

thought

the Fourth

Symphony

"cold"

composition,

from

which both

"originality

nd

the heat of

inspiration

were

absolutely

bsent,"

so

Pougin

now

found he

Third

acking

n

"inspiration,"

nd thework s

a

whole,

gray".41

eed

I

add

that

gray

s

the color of

the brain?

Pougin

was

speaking

forhis

colleagues:

Brahmsdid

not rank

very

high

withFrench ritics.

n

April

1892,

eflecting

n

the

oncert

eason

just

past,Hyppolite

arbedette

riticized

he wo

eading

onductors

n

Paris,

Charles Lamoureux

and Edouard

Colonne,

for

their timid

programming,nd proposedthat hey laymoreHaydnand seekout

the

minorworks

f Beethoven

r

Mendelssohn.

hen,

moving

own

to

a

lesser

rank,

o

"Niels

Gade,

Brahms,

Rubinstein,

aff,"

Barbedette

suggested

hat

they,

oo,

might

have

some

interesting

vertures

r

symphonic

works

worthy

f

resurrection.

he

company

nto

which

Berbedette,

n articulate

nti-Wagnerian

ritic

or

e

Mnestrel,

laced

Brahms

s,

from ur

perspective,

stounding

ut

from

isown

perfectly

natural.42

ot even

the

pious

hyperbole

hat

marks,

nd

mars,

most

obituaries

ould

wholly

rase

he

dutiful

ppreciation

hatFrench

music

critics

rought

o

Brahms,

he ntellectual.

Writing

n

Le Mnestrel

n

mid-April

897,

ust

afterhenewsof Brahms' eathhadreachedParis,

O.

Berggruen

oted

his rare

ntellectual

ultivation."

ut

ven

Brahms'

prolific

utput

f

songs,

Berggruen

hought,

ould

not

qual

the

uality

of

Schumann's,

r even

Robert

Franz's,

Lieder:

"To tell

the

truth,

t

most a

dozen

or so

of his

songs

have become

popular."

The

German

Requiem,

which

had

made

Brahms

famous,

was a

work

he

never

surpassed;

his vocal

music

hows

him to

have been an

"inquiring

nd

abstract

spirit."

Brahms'

instrumental

music

displays

the same

character:

arely truly

lowing

melody nywhere.

erggruen

onceded

that nemust dmireBrahms' ift ormaking ombinations,

is

powers

of construction

nd

his

sovereign

ontrol

of

the means

of

musical

production

all

(need

say?) qualities

of an

intellectual

raftsman.43

The

French,

n

short,

hared

nd

underscored

he

opinion

of

Europe:

Brahmswas

a cerebral

omposer.

IV

I

have

submitted

ufficient

vidence,

think,

o substantiate

my

argument

hat

our

favorite

ommonplace

about

Brahms,

his

easy

41

"Revue des

grand

concerts,"

e

Mnestrel,

1st

Year,

No. 5

February

,

1895),

.

36.

42 Le

Mnestrel

58th

Year,

No.

16

(April

17,

1892),

p.

127.

43

"Ncrologie,"

e

Mnestrel

3rd

Year,

No.

15

April

11,

1897),

pp.

113-115.

erggruen

concedes

hat

ome of

Brahms' ate chamber

music,

ike

he larinet

works

written or

his

friend

Muhlfeld,

re

"ravishing;"

or the

rest,

Brahms

s "laborious

and

solid,"

deserving

espect,

o

more.



18/21

32 PETER GAY

romanticism,

as held

by

an

insignificant

inority

n

his

ifetimend

for ome

years

fterhis death. wantto

note,

briefly,

hat

the

other

commonplace,

is

conformism,

s at least

open

to

question.

We are told

that he

distinguishing

ark fthe

vant-garde

s to

be

at odds with he

"bourgeois

ivilization" f ts

ge.

"

Now,

Brahmswas

distinctly

t odds

with

his

age. Compared

to the

giants

of the

eighteenth

nd

early

nineteenth

entury,

e would

nsist,

ver nd over

gain,

the

musicians

ofhistimewere

ulgarians:

ninventivemitatorsr brash

ccentrics:

I

don't like

us,"

he said.

"Wir

gefallen

mir

nicht"45His own

way

of

confrontinghedepressingituation f modernmusicwas tocompose

with

that mixtureof

respect

and

disrespect,

f

adaptation

and

independence,

hat haracterizes he true ultural nnovator.

Even Brahms9 hoice of textsfor his

copious

vocal

compositions

provides

lues

to

depths

unsuspected

nd

unexplored.

An

earnest

f

unsystematic

eader,

e drewhis

nspiration

rom

npredictable

asses

of

printed

materials

anging

rom he

nsipid

o the

profound,

rom

he

sentimentalo the

experimental.

nd at least two of his

most

moving

works for voice and

orchestra,

he

Song

of

Destiny

and the

Alto

Rhapsody,

tilize exts

trikingly

uperior

o the

workaday

oetic

astes

of thenineteenth-centuryermans.Brahms' chicksalslied s a setting

of a

poem

that Hlderlin nserted nto his

novel,

Hyperion.

With ts

painful

nd

yearning

ontrast

etween

lear-eyed,

nchanging

Greek

gods

and

restless,

ever

suffering umanity,

t

was more

than

conventional

ostalgia;

whenBrahms ame

upon

Hlderlin n

1868,

his

poetry

was little nown nd his

message

uncertain.

6

And when

oon

after rahms ecided

o

composeportions

fGoethe's ark

Harzreise n

Winter,

e fell

pon

a text

which,

hough yGermany's

most elebrated

Dichter,

was like

Hlderlin's

verse,

far from

being

a

popular poem.

Brahms'

etting

f

Goethe's

ines,

with

ts

splendid

nterweaving

f

contralto, rchestra nd late-enteringhorus, s unforgettable:he

lonely

raveler f

Goethe's

oem

s

estranged

rom

he

world,

n

danger

of

transforming

elf-hatredntohatred f

others,

ating

himself

p

and

appealing

o a

divinity

o show

him

he

way

out.

Such

choices,

nd the

music

Brahms

composed,

seem like

prophetic nticipations

f the

Modernistmalaise and the Modernist

ensibility.

This s the

point

of

my ssay.

t is doubtless

nteresting

nd useful

n

itself

o

document

he dramatic

hift

n

Brahms'

eputation,

ut

that

44

Presumably,

o is

the

onservative;

ut

n

thisneat

pattern,

he

onservatives seento

hatethe

present

nd

hanker or he

past,

while he

vant-garde

ates he

present

nd

fantasizes he future.

45 See

Stephenson,

Der

Komponist

rahms

n

eigenen

Urteil," rahms-Studien,

ol.

I,

pp.

11-13.

46

Consider

hebrief reatment

n

HermannHettner's

lassic

volume,

iteraturgeschichte



19/21


story

olds few

urprises.

he

history

f

taste

s,

after

ll,

full

f such

shifts

o which

not even

Dante,

not even

Shakespeare,

have been

immune.

Only stability

needs

explaining.

But

more went into the

making

of our

Brahmsthan this. What

changed

was not

merely

judgment

ut a

mode of

udgment.

Brahms

he

frigid

ntellectual as

become

Brahms he

ultry

entimentalist.his s more

han

widening

appreciation,

t s more than n act

of

earning.

t

warns hehistorian

thatnot

valuations

lone,

but ven

presumably

table

ategories

re far

from

ermanent

r bsolute.

t s not

imply

hatwe

havecometo ike

or detest whatoncemainly uzzledourelders, utrather hatwhat

one

century

aw as

the

product

f ntellect

nother

entury

as come

to

see as the

product

f

motion.

sychologists

ave

ong

hrown oubton

the

proposition

hat hemental ctivities

e call

"reason" nd

"passion"

are

mutually

xclusive

nd

wholly

nalterable,

nd historians

must

ake

their

point

and

relativize heir

perception

of

these

psychological

forces.47

o

do so

will

tighten

heir

grip

on

the events

hey

eek to

understand

y taking

hem ut

of their wn mental et.

I

can

illustrate,

oth

whathas

happened

o Brahms

n

particular

nd

the hameleon

ature f

reason"

nd

"passion"

n

general

yciting

he

analogous

history

f

mpressionist

ainting.

he Monets nd Renoirs

that

oday,

n

cheapreproductions,

dorn

hewallsof

gushing eenagers

just

past puberty,

ere corned

nly centurygo

as offenses

o

good

taste,

as

violations

of nature.

Degas,

the

misanthrope,

with his

awkward,

sweating

ballerinas,

exhausted

jockeys

and

depressed

prostitutes

as been victimized

y

a

change

in

sensibility

hat

has

trivializedhis beautiful

ugliness

to mere

prettiness.

f

we

read

Schoenberg's

ssay,

Brahms he

Progressive,"

ith

uch hifts

n

mind,

we

will

read

it with

new

comprehension.

he radical innovations

n

harmony

nd

rhythm

hat

Schoenberg

iscerns

n

Brahms'

workhave

been absorbed ntothe mainstream f tastewith he

passage

of

time;

what

once

mystified

nd alienated listeners

now

lies

comfortably,

almost

azily,

n

our

ear.

But

am after till

igger ame

than his.

am

offering

he

history

f

Brahms'

reputation

s an

argument

or the need to reexamine

he

history

f the

high

culture

we inhabit.

The

prevailing

ccount sees

modern culture

emerging

rom the irrevocable

plit

between the

Modernist

vant-garde

nd the Academic

Establishment. he makers

of our

mind,

rom ezanne to

Kandinsky,

rom

Kierkegaard

o

Marx,

der Goethezeit 3rd edn. 1876; reprintedwith unaltered ext 1970), pp. 591-99;

appreciative

ut

rather

erfunctory.

nterestingly,

he ittle

ssay

endswith he

very

lines

that Brahms

et

to music.

47 For a

specific

pplication

of this

dea

to the

psychology

f

music,

ee Leonard

B.

Meyer,

motion nd

Meaning

n Music

(1956).



20/21

34 PETER GAY

fromNietzsche o

Freud,

from

Wagner

to

Schoenberg,

were

great

outsiders,

espising

he modernworld nto which n unkindfatehad

plunged

them,

hating

the mass-manufacture f

vulgarity,

he

stranglehold

fthe

bourgeois,

herewards vailable o bad taste nd

the

lamentable

ecay

of

civility.

There

s,

of

course,

s

I

noted t the

beginning,omething

n

all

this,

but ess thanwe have

thought.

do notwant o

argue

from

xceptions:

there re

always

exceptions.

want to

argue quite generally

hatthe

material have

presented

nvites s to

revise,

n

two

ways,

hecurrent

account of how ourModernistensibilityrose:wemustrethinkhe

distance f the

vant-garde

rom ts

contemporary

stablishment,

nd

the relative hare of the

past

in

its

aggressive

work.That

mysterious

activity

we call

creation,

which has

fascinated nd defied so

many

investigators,

s

always

n

act offusion.However

rgent

he

mpulse

f

defiance r the ssertion

f

originality,

here re elements

n

the reator's

world hat

he

accepts

nd

incorporates.

What he

sees

as his"world"

s,

after

ll,

not an

undifferentiated ass of

stupidity,neptitude

nd

hostility,

ut a series of

environments f

which at least some are

admirable r

prove nescapable.

he

rebel's

ndividuality

an

never

e as

totalas hewould ike to think.

Doubtless theword

creativity,

ith

ts

resonanceof a divine

power making

omething

ut of

nothing,

s,

however

flattering,

rofoundly

misleading. nspirationdepends

on

knowledge

nd

technical

ompetence

s

much s

it

does on some

private

alchemy

nique

o the

reator;

e builds t

east

partly

with

ricks e has

got

from thers.

The creator s

quite

s enmeshed

n

the

tradition.We would see this

more

plainly

han

we

normally

o

if

we

used

comprehensive

erms ike

present

nd

world,

r

tradition nd

past,

in

the

plural.

Nor,

forthat

matter, re presents nd pasts insulatedfrom one another: Manet

quoted

seventeenth-centurypaniards

o discomfit

ineteenth-century

Frenchmen

ust

as,

a hundred

ears

before

im,

Diderothad

exploited

ancient

agans

to assail

contemporary

hristians. o

turn o the

past

or,

rather,

ne

past

-

may

be themost ffective

ay

of

preparing

he

future. am far

rom

isparaging

he

daring

f he nnovator r

denying

the

reality

f nnovation.

8

am

only

rying

o

give

realistic

ccountof

both.

I

return o

my

tarting oint.

Brahmswas both traditionalist

nd

an

innovator,

oth

a

conservativend a

radical,

both a craftsman

nd

a

creator;he was an emotional ntellectual, ithout rippling onflicts,

48

I

have dealt

with

Diderot's

and

the ther

hilosophes1)trategies

f

exploiting

what

have

called

"the useful nd beloved

past"

in

The

Enlightenment:

n

Interpretation,

Vol.

I,

The Rise

of

Modern

Paganism 1966);

and

I deal withManet's

n

my

Art

nd

Act:

On Causes in

History

Manet,

Gropius,

Mondrian

1976).



21/21


without

paradox. Only

a handful of critics have discerned

this

compound

f

qualities

n

Brahms.

An

anonymous

eviewer,

riting

n

the Boston

Daily

Advertiser

n

1878,

was disturbed

nough

by

the

First

Symphony

o

defineBrahms s "a modernof the moderns."His

"C

minor

ymphony,"

e

added,

"is a remarkable

xpression

f the

nner

life

of this

anxious, introverted,

ver-earnest

ge,"

a

shrewd,

f

tendentious

ppraisal.

9

Billroth,

f

ourse

armore

ppreciative,

alled

his

good

friend

our mostmodern

omposer,"50

hile

s

early

s 1869

an obscure

ritic,

.

Kleinert,

erceptively

uggested

hat

while

Brahms

had listened o the old masters losely nd intelligently,e had byno

means

mitated

hem,

ut

had, rather,

bsorbed

what

hey

ad to teach

and

gone

his own

way:

"We are

confronted ithmodernmusic."51

These were

solated

oices,

nd

they

ave remained

solated;

n

our

day

it has been

Schoenberg

who said

of

Brahms,

he

would have been

a

pioneer

f

he had

simply

eturned

o Mozart."

And

he

mmediately

dds:

"But he did

not ive on

inherited

ortune;

e made one of

his own."52

have

written

his

ssay

to

show

that

Schoenberg

was

right

n

both

of

these

ssertions,

nd that he

onsequences

fhis

being

ight

re,

for

he

historian, othing

ess than

momentous.

And,

yes, aime

Brahms.

49

(January

8,

1878),

quoted

in

Slonimsky,

exicon,

p.

68.

50

In

a

freely

endered

ut

doubtless

argely

uthentic

onversationhatHanslick

ecords

holding

with

Billroth,

n

Hanslick,

Aus meinem

eben,

2

vols.

1894),

Vol.

II,

p.

302.

Marsop

s rather

morehalf-hearted:Brahms oo

belongs mong

hediscoverers f he

modern.

nly

we

must

roup

him

mong

those

who,

rather

han

blazing aths

nto

yet

unknown

ands,

demonstrate itherto

eglected

beauties and charms

among

old

familiar

hings."

Musikalische

ssays,

p.

191.

51

Quoted

n extenso

n

Max

Kalbeck,

Johannes

rahms,

vols,

n

8

1904-1914),

Vol.

II,

pp.

1,

273-4. Kalbeck's

biography, espite

ts

patent Brahms-worship,

emains

he

classic.

52 "Brahms

he

Progressive,"

1933,

revised

n

1947),

n

Style

nd Idea

(1950),

p.

99. The

wholeessay pp. 52-101) s of central elevance o this ubject. n preparingt,as a

lecture,

e

wrote o Hans

Rosbaud

on

January

,

1933:

Would

you

be

interested

n

a

lecture n Brahms?

think

might

ave

something

o

say

on that

ubject

hat alone

can

say.

To be

sure,

my

ontemporaries

nd thosewho are older han am have ived

through

he

age

of Brahms Brahmszeit

,

but

they

re not Modern.' And

the

younger

rahmsians o

longer

know he

Brahms

radition rom heir wn

experience

and are also for the most

part reactionary.'

ut :

I

am

thinking

f the

theory

f

composition,

necdotes " Arnold

Schoenberg,Briefe,

elected nd edited

by

Erwin

Stein

1958),

pp.

185-6.On March

18, 1939,

he

explained

o Alfred rankensteinhat

he had orchestrated

rahms' iano

Quartet

n

G-minor

ecausehe oved

he

piece,

nd

had known Brahms'

tyle

for

almost

fifty ears.

Briefe, .

223;

I

do not want

to

overstate he

solation f

Schoenberg's erception

f Brahms

and,

with

hat,

my

wn

originality).

record

my

indebtedness o a

long essay

by

Donald Francis

Tovey,

"Brahms' hamberMusic",1 29, onvenientlyeprintedn generousollection fhis

essays,

TheMain Stream

of

Music and Other

Essays,

d.,

Hubert Foss

(1949;

edn.

1959),

pp.

220-270.

Brahms'

problematicmodernity

s also

noted,

briefly

nd

perceptively,

n

Ivor

Keys,

Brahms'Chamber

Music,

BBC

Music Guides

1974).

Documents

Peter Gay - Aimez-Vous Brahms. Reflections on Modernism