Richard Strauss &Romain Rolland: Correspondence, Diary &Essays by Rollo Myers; RomainRolland; Richard StraussReview by: A. R. J.Music & Letters, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Oct., 1968), pp. 396-398Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/732313 .

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and 'Salome'; in Rolland's dual aspirations ("Je suis, de nature, un musicien qui, detourne de son art, s'exprime en litterature"); in his conception of the musical interdependence of France, Germany and Italy; but above all in his association with Malwida von Meysenbug. It was no coincidence that this patron of Rolland's youth had supported Nietzsche, for we see in this earlier philosopher a kindred spirit, a pessimistic reflection of the forward-looking European, as well as a link in the Rolland- Shaw relationship.

Mr. Sices traces in 'Jean-Christophe' the twin growths of decadence and national prejudice which bedevilled the musical scene in the early years of the century. Today, however, this view of a period which pro- duced the major works of Debussy, Strauss and Stravinsky, seems curiously old-fashioned. We look upon this decade as the dawn of a new spirit rather than a romantic sunset. And in any case the main confrontation is now between the popular and the sophisticated styles. Here Rolland seems to have foreshadowed some of our recent musical excesses. He wrote in 1905:

I want to mention the greatest danger which threatens music in Germany. There is too much music in Germany. This is not a paradox. I do not believe that there can be a worse misfortune for art than an uncontrolled superabundance of art. Music drowns musicians.

At about the same time he imagines the music Jean-Christophe would have conceived, had he been a Frenchman:

Je vous mettrais ensemble dans une symphonie chorale Aux armes, citoyens!, L'Inter- nationale, Vive Henri IV!, Dieu protege la France!-toutes les herbes de la Saint-Jean ... je vous ferais une de ces bouillabaisses, i vous emporter la bouche! Qa serait rudement mauvais .. mais je vous reponds que Ca vous flanquerait le feu au ventre, et qu'il faudrait bien que vous marchiez!

"Rudement mauvais is what it would be", comments Mr. Sices laconically. Who were the composers Rolland had in mind? Surely not Ives, or Shostakovich, or Messiaen. Yet this far-sighted critic seems definitely to have had a premonition of the extravagances in certain latter-day works.

E. L.

Richard Strauss & Romain Rolland: Correspondence, Diary & Essays. Ed. by Rollo Myers. pp. xvi + 239. (Calder & Boyars, London, 1968, /2 Ios.)

There is no doubt that in reading the correspondence between two eminent people we choose the best way of looking over their shoulders to see each reflected in the other. When one of them is a complex personality, the more correspondence between him and others the better, for in this

way the central figure emerges all the more clearly. Richard Strauss's correspondence with Hugo von Hofmannsthal has

been available in translation for some years, and offers us a splendid view of both composer and poet. Strauss's other correspondence with his own

parents, with Hans von Bulow, Stefan Zweig, Clemens Krauss and

Joseph Gregor all exists in the original German, and none of it has yet been translated. But now we have one of the most fascinating, most

revealing and most devastatingly candid collection of letters in a new

English translation: between Richard Strauss and the brilliant French intellectual novelist and music critic, Romain Rolland. This corres-

pondence, together with pertinent fragments from Rolland's diary as well as two of his essays, was first published in 1951 in French. Now it has been translated (by whom?) into an admirably idiomatic and purely flowing English which not only represents exactly the spirit and expression of the

original but is a delight to read in its new form. Rollo Myers has added a

396

and 'Salome'; in Rolland's dual aspirations ("Je suis, de nature, un musicien qui, detourne de son art, s'exprime en litterature"); in his conception of the musical interdependence of France, Germany and Italy; but above all in his association with Malwida von Meysenbug. It was no coincidence that this patron of Rolland's youth had supported Nietzsche, for we see in this earlier philosopher a kindred spirit, a pessimistic reflection of the forward-looking European, as well as a link in the Rolland- Shaw relationship.

Mr. Sices traces in 'Jean-Christophe' the twin growths of decadence and national prejudice which bedevilled the musical scene in the early years of the century. Today, however, this view of a period which pro- duced the major works of Debussy, Strauss and Stravinsky, seems curiously old-fashioned. We look upon this decade as the dawn of a new spirit rather than a romantic sunset. And in any case the main confrontation is now between the popular and the sophisticated styles. Here Rolland seems to have foreshadowed some of our recent musical excesses. He wrote in 1905:

I want to mention the greatest danger which threatens music in Germany. There is too much music in Germany. This is not a paradox. I do not believe that there can be a worse misfortune for art than an uncontrolled superabundance of art. Music drowns musicians.

At about the same time he imagines the music Jean-Christophe would have conceived, had he been a Frenchman:

Je vous mettrais ensemble dans une symphonie chorale Aux armes, citoyens!, L'Inter- nationale, Vive Henri IV!, Dieu protege la France!-toutes les herbes de la Saint-Jean ... je vous ferais une de ces bouillabaisses, i vous emporter la bouche! Qa serait rudement mauvais .. mais je vous reponds que Ca vous flanquerait le feu au ventre, et qu'il faudrait bien que vous marchiez!

"Rudement mauvais is what it would be", comments Mr. Sices laconically. Who were the composers Rolland had in mind? Surely not Ives, or Shostakovich, or Messiaen. Yet this far-sighted critic seems definitely to have had a premonition of the extravagances in certain latter-day works.

E. L.

Richard Strauss & Romain Rolland: Correspondence, Diary & Essays. Ed. by Rollo Myers. pp. xvi + 239. (Calder & Boyars, London, 1968, /2 Ios.)

There is no doubt that in reading the correspondence between two eminent people we choose the best way of looking over their shoulders to see each reflected in the other. When one of them is a complex personality, the more correspondence between him and others the better, for in this

way the central figure emerges all the more clearly. Richard Strauss's correspondence with Hugo von Hofmannsthal has

been available in translation for some years, and offers us a splendid view of both composer and poet. Strauss's other correspondence with his own

parents, with Hans von Bulow, Stefan Zweig, Clemens Krauss and

Joseph Gregor all exists in the original German, and none of it has yet been translated. But now we have one of the most fascinating, most

revealing and most devastatingly candid collection of letters in a new

English translation: between Richard Strauss and the brilliant French intellectual novelist and music critic, Romain Rolland. This corres-

pondence, together with pertinent fragments from Rolland's diary as well as two of his essays, was first published in 1951 in French. Now it has been translated (by whom?) into an admirably idiomatic and purely flowing English which not only represents exactly the spirit and expression of the

original but is a delight to read in its new form. Rollo Myers has added a

396

This content downloaded from 128.235.251.161 on Thu, 4 Dec 2014 16:32:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

most interesting and scholarly essay to this edition, which makes Gustave Samazeuilh's original introduction seem partly superfluous.

The correspondence runs between May 1899 and November 9Io0, after which there is a gap of seven years until January 1917. Thereafter there are only five letters until the last one of February 1926, in which Rolland thanks Strauss for sending him a manuscript score of the song 'Durch allen Schall und Klang', a contribution to his 6oth birthday. Regrettably the reproduction of this score does not allow of easy reading: it is too small. The musical core of the correspondence is undoubtedly the detailed argument over the French translation of 'Salome'; the biographical interest lies in the very direct diary notes by Rolland of Strauss's appearance, manner, character and behaviour; and there is a fascinating undercurrent of political unrest between Germany and France which the two protagonists fight against without avail.

We find ourselves rubbing shoulders, so it seems, with Debussy, Ravel, d'Annunzio and other bright stars, while we watch the inevitably bored expression on Strauss's face as he sits and listens to French music. These detailed descriptions-always by Rolland-never cease to delight, and often to surprise. Take, for instance, the account of Strauss as con- ductor (very different in 1898 from the placid and economical figure on the rostrum in later life): "His great body twisted askew as if struck by both hemiplegia and St. Vitus's dance at the same time, his fists clenched and contorted, knock-kneed, tapping with his foot on the dais". We hear of a lunch which was about to take place between Strauss and Debussy on 25 March i906 (but the reader must consult Edward Lock- speiser's biography of the Frenchman to discover what happened). Strauss admired Debussy's craftsmanship but completely failed to under- stand his musical utterance. He did not like 'Pelleas': " 'but it's just Parsifal' he says to me [Rolland] at one passage... But he always comes back to his rather scornful praise: 'It's very subtle'". Rolland did his best to try and educate him towards French music, but Strauss never failed to be vexed at the fact that the French pronounce some words differently when sung from when they are spoken. He considered this to be very silly. On the other hand Debussy admired Strauss, although he came nowhere near understanding him as a man, and said of him: "'He has the sound disease'. The noise disease [Rolland adds]. It's rather true.-Like Berlioz, whom he in many ways resembles".

Although Rolland has the lion's share of this book in so far as sheer number of words is concerned, he does not emerge as forcefully as Strauss does. In fact, all the tragedy which is implicit in the work of these two men to effect an artistic rapprochement between France and Germany finally lands on Rolland, whose tactics were naive to a degree. His fondness, not so much for Germans and German music as for the wish to understand them, was his political undoing. He was branded by his own countrymen in the First War as "the only neutral Frenchman", mainly as the result of his 'Audessus de la melee' in I9i4. His nomination for the Nobel Prize was forcibly delayed for a year, and then he was named by the Germans as one of their chief enemies. Nothing could seem more futile, more pathetic, more tragic than this total rejection of Rolland, whose ideals had got him nowhere. They had nevertheless got many French per- formances for Strauss. Strauss, who wished essentially to be left alone and free to compose, saw peace in a purely selfish way. He suffered too. His fortune in London was confiscated, and this altered his life in that he was forced to earn from conducting when all he had planned to do after I914 was to compose. Through his 'patriotic' compositions he was stigmatized as the typical Hun composer, but he was a good German and sat quietly

397

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in Garmisch, seldom raising his voice except to complain at the way in which the war was interfering with his work.

Rolland's pacifism was active, and failed. Strauss's was passive, and failed too-particularly later, in I944-5. In this book they are both seen as being desperately interested in peace and understanding between their two countries, and this common aim-though from completely different motives-brought about a strong affection between them. But where some of Rolland's remarks are as nails in the coffin of their ideal, many of Strauss's silences shove its lid a little further over. Here is a very useful addition to the Strauss bookshelf. Nowhere else has the oddness of the composer been contrasted with the seeming normalcy of his corres- pondent so as to achieve such opposite results. A. R. J.

Dodecachordon. By Henricus Glareanus. Facsimile of the 1547 Basel edition. pp. [xx] + 470 + [v]. 'Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile'. Second Series: Music Literature, Vol. LXV. (Broude Brothers, New York, I967.)

Glareanus's demonstration that there were not eight modes but twelve was not the work of a pioneer. His purpose was to provide a logical interpretation of the music of the past. More important still was the fact that, unlike so many theorists, he dealt with actual music. His pages are full of the usual quotations from ancient writers and unhelpful comments on the Greek modes; but they also include a very substantial number of complete musical examples. Riemann thought that 'Dodecachordon' was more valuable as an anthology than as a theoretical treatise. Albrecht, in MGG, disagreed with this view: but I am inclined to think that Riemann was right-which is not to deny that Glareanus's text is worth reading. A definite personality emerges from these pages, and the occasional digressions and reminiscences add to the attraction. Most significant of all is the fact that he does not restrict himself to technical analysis but finds room for aesthetic judgments, of which the most celebrated is his appreciation ofJosquin:

Nemo hoc Symphoneta affectus animi in cantu efficatius expressit, nemo felicius orsus est, nemo gratia ac facilitate cum eo ex aequo certare potuit, sicut nemo Latinorum in carmine Epico Marone melius.

Josquin compared with Vergil-it might almost be a Romantic author speaking. It is superfluous to add anything about the quality of the reproduction of this volume, except to say that it is completely up to the very high standard set by its predecessors. J. A. W.

REVIEWERS

A. D. McC. Andrew McCredie J. A. W. Editor A. R. J. Alan Jefferson J. S. W. John Weissmann B. W. G. R. Bernard Rose J. W. K. John Klein D. C. B. David Brown M. C. Mosco Garner D. W. David Wulstan N. D. Natalie Dolmetsch E. L. Edward Lockspeiaer P. F. W. Peter Williams E. P. Elaine Padmore P. le H. Peter le Huray E. R. Edmund Rubbra R. T. B. R. T. Beck G. A. Gerald Abraham R. W. Ronald Woodham H. F. R. Hans Redlich W. L. S. W. L. Sumner J. A. C. John Caldwell

398

in Garmisch, seldom raising his voice except to complain at the way in which the war was interfering with his work.

Rolland's pacifism was active, and failed. Strauss's was passive, and failed too-particularly later, in I944-5. In this book they are both seen as being desperately interested in peace and understanding between their two countries, and this common aim-though from completely different motives-brought about a strong affection between them. But where some of Rolland's remarks are as nails in the coffin of their ideal, many of Strauss's silences shove its lid a little further over. Here is a very useful addition to the Strauss bookshelf. Nowhere else has the oddness of the composer been contrasted with the seeming normalcy of his corres- pondent so as to achieve such opposite results. A. R. J.

Dodecachordon. By Henricus Glareanus. Facsimile of the 1547 Basel edition. pp. [xx] + 470 + [v]. 'Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile'. Second Series: Music Literature, Vol. LXV. (Broude Brothers, New York, I967.)

Glareanus's demonstration that there were not eight modes but twelve was not the work of a pioneer. His purpose was to provide a logical interpretation of the music of the past. More important still was the fact that, unlike so many theorists, he dealt with actual music. His pages are full of the usual quotations from ancient writers and unhelpful comments on the Greek modes; but they also include a very substantial number of complete musical examples. Riemann thought that 'Dodecachordon' was more valuable as an anthology than as a theoretical treatise. Albrecht, in MGG, disagreed with this view: but I am inclined to think that Riemann was right-which is not to deny that Glareanus's text is worth reading. A definite personality emerges from these pages, and the occasional digressions and reminiscences add to the attraction. Most significant of all is the fact that he does not restrict himself to technical analysis but finds room for aesthetic judgments, of which the most celebrated is his appreciation ofJosquin:

Nemo hoc Symphoneta affectus animi in cantu efficatius expressit, nemo felicius orsus est, nemo gratia ac facilitate cum eo ex aequo certare potuit, sicut nemo Latinorum in carmine Epico Marone melius.

Josquin compared with Vergil-it might almost be a Romantic author speaking. It is superfluous to add anything about the quality of the reproduction of this volume, except to say that it is completely up to the very high standard set by its predecessors. J. A. W.

REVIEWERS

A. D. McC. Andrew McCredie J. A. W. Editor A. R. J. Alan Jefferson J. S. W. John Weissmann B. W. G. R. Bernard Rose J. W. K. John Klein D. C. B. David Brown M. C. Mosco Garner D. W. David Wulstan N. D. Natalie Dolmetsch E. L. Edward Lockspeiaer P. F. W. Peter Williams E. P. Elaine Padmore P. le H. Peter le Huray E. R. Edmund Rubbra R. T. B. R. T. Beck G. A. Gerald Abraham R. W. Ronald Woodham H. F. R. Hans Redlich W. L. S. W. L. Sumner J. A. C. John Caldwell

398

This content downloaded from 128.235.251.161 on Thu, 4 Dec 2014 16:32:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions