Soundhound

Musicology - A Digested read- - Arnold Schering and Rudolf Kolisch on Beethoven

  

I suppose that musicology can never be described as a fashionable activity. In the what's in and what's out lists it never quite makes it to either. Sometimes though, people spend a great deal of time, studying and writing about a subject and then the next generation never sees it. I think this is a pity, so I have tried to write as briefly as I can about two musicologists, with very different views on Beethoven. I was hoping a brief summary of their two approaches might encourage people to find their dusty tomes or look them up on online.

 

Two very contrasting approaches to Beethoven string quartets are made by Arnold Schering (1877-1941) and Rudolf Kolisch (1896-1978)  Both were first educated as violinists but their lives were in just as much contrast as their writing. Schering blatantly collaborated with the Nazis after their rise to power,  and seemed to be in public, fully adhering to their doctrines. Kolisch, on the other hand,was forced to become a refugee from the Nazis, both because of his Jewish heritage and his long association with Arnold Schoenberg and the second Viennese school.

In a way Kolisch's great survey of Beethoven's works - "Tempo and Character in the work's of Beethoven" came about as a result of being short of money and a refugee in New York in the 40's. This short book, which is unbelievable in the thoroughness and intense logic of it's approach, catalogues every work of Beethoven (!) , giving Beethoven's own metronome marks when specified and then making a very educated guess at what other tempo markings would have been, based on the character and tempo description of the movement. So when you look up a movement of a string quartet for example, you get a table in the back of the book with metronome marks, and a section in the front with a character description, and a list of all other movements by Beethoven with similar traits ( it is mind-blowing!) So just as an example when you look up a Scherzo movement from opus 18 no.1, you find there are five categories of Scherzo 1. True Minuet (slowest) 2 Waltz Minuet 3 Allegro Scherzo 4. the real Allegro Scherzo  ( quicker this is opus 18 no.1))5. Presto Scherzo It is astonishing that Kolisch could have studied all of these works, spotting patterns, both in character, time signature and tempo, and then classified them in this encyclopedic way. This book is almost unknown now in English speaking circles,  (it is out of print) but as a starting point when studying these works, as long as it is not take too literally, it is invaluable.

With Schering and his works on Beethoven String Quartets ( in Beethoven in neuer Deutung)  it is impossible to take him and his writing literally. It is as if he has mystically conjured up connections, between what Beethoven was reading at the time he was composing certain works. So for example the quartets opus 74 ( Romeo and Juliet), opus 95 ( Othello) opus 127 ( The Merry Wives of Windsor) opus 130 ( A Midsummer Nights Dream) and opus 131 ( Hamlet) are the Shakespeare quartets. He writes Shakespeare's text in German under certain themes and each quartet is transformed into a drama in music where specific scenes from the plays are depicted in different movements. It is quite a daring creative leap that Schering makes and for me, I cannot always understand these leaps. Having seen Hamlet and played opus 131 right next to each other, for me they exist in separate, distinct worlds and I cannot take the music as a  literal representation of the play. Having said, you admire the immense creativity involved in coming up with these links.

Beethoven by all accounts said that Shakespeare was his idol, and that he knew his works as thoroughly as he did his own scores. Beethoven gave his friends Shakespearian nicknames, so tubby Schuppanzigh was " Milord Falstaff" and  young Gerhard von Breuning was "Ariel"  There is also a famous conversation where Schindler asked Beethoven for the key to two piano sonatas opus 57 and opus 31 no.2 and Beethoven replied " Just read Shakepeare's Tempest".  So Schering has a jumping off point, which he uses with incredible imagination.

Musician Poets

 

 

 

 

                                         

Paul Celan -Todesfugue  

The poet reading his own poem:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVwLqEHDCQE

Somebody drew my attention to this recording today. You don't have to understand German, to apprecite this. You don't even have to understand the meaning of the words, you can just listen to the way Celan intones and times the rhythm of his speech. The stress, phrasing, repetition and slowing up, at the end of words he really wants us to remember is extraordinary. Musicians can learn a lot from poets. You also do not have to understand a language, to listen to it and hear it as if it is music.

Sometimes as English speakers we apologise for not knowing or understanding other languages, but I think the first step is just to listen for a while. Allowing your ear just to swim through the sounds and be ignorant.(hopefully temporarily!) Later on, you can find out what the words mean and try and understand their deeper  significance. Of course there are always English translations but how different it is to hear a poem spoken in it's original language by a great interpreter. Looking at it on the page does not have the same effect.

In the german language this poem is iconic and a national symbol. I cannot explain the deep resonances of this poem in a short blog post. And actually all I am trying to do, is encourage people to hear the music in language and the language in music. 

Many  artists and musicians have been inspired by this great poem. I will just name a few, in case you have not come across them.

Anselm Kiefer has  made a whole series of artworks inspired by Celan, below I have just put two of them,  named after the German and Jewish icons of the poem  Margarete (1981)  and Sulamith (1983) ( Sulamith comes from the Song of Songs)

 

Harrison Birtwistle has set the poem to music  in " Pulse Shadows", as has Hans- Jürgen von Bose and Samuel Adler to name but a few. Phrases from the poem have been used in punk rock songs (Slime) and even book titles ( a biography of the philosopher Martin Heidegger  who collaborated with the Nazis )

But for me it is the recording of Celan at the start of this post, that stops me in my tracks.

Rudolf Kolisch and Eugene Lehner, vanishing traditions

 

The Kolisch String Quartet  in one of it's many incarnations.

 

The Kolisch Quartet existed from 1921-44, Rudolf Kolisch in the picture (far right , playing violin left handed) was the first violin for the quartet's entire existence

It is very difficult to make a short blog post about these two remarkable musicians. Eugene Lehner was the longest surviving viola player of the Kolisch Quartet (1926-39). ( see the extensive player list on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolisch_Quartet ) The Kolisch Quartet played from memory and were responsible for the premieres of Berg´s Lyric Suite, Schoenberg's Third and Fourth string quartet, Bartok's Fifth and Sixth String Quartets and  Webern's Second String Quartet. And one more time  -they played from memory! They, and other members of the quartet at various times, trained as composers as well as musicians. Kolisch studied composition with Schoenberg and Lehner with Kodaly. The idea of playing from memory apparently developed naturally with the players spending a very long time studying the new scores in order to do them justice.  They also perhaps had a heightened ability to memorise and understand scores, having trained as composers. They apparently found that they could react quicker to eye contact and physical cues, when there were no music stands in the way.

I am focusing on these two players,  and will explore  them later in other posts because their lives and what they acheived were so remarkable. Yet in English speaking musical circles, many young students today have never heard of them. Kolisch's texts on musical interpretation and his survey on character and tempo in Beethoven are out of print in English ( can still be read online) and have to be ordered specially in German. And yet they provide a vital link in a fast vanishing way of approaching music.

The quartet ended up as refugees from Nazi Germany, and landed in the States at the outbreak of war. They valiantly tried to keep their ideals alive, but spending hours studying scores when money has to be earnt was a great challenge. There are sad letters from Kolisch to his brother-in-law  Arnold Schoenberg, about his desperate search for work, trying to find pupils or orchestral jobs. Both Kolisch and Lehner ended up eventually finding good work environments  and both taught chamber music at the New England Conservatory in Boston, amongst other activities.

I have put a link to a Kolisch Quartet recording of Schubert, just so that you can get an idea of them. For me it sounds incredibly fresh and modern, a performance fuelled by direction and structure. Kolisch  stated  "My point of view is decidedly for the music and against the instrument" ( from his lecture " Religion der Streicher" )He meant that musical decisions had to made for sound structural reasons and not because of instrumental and technical compromises.

Link to Schubert String Quartet D887 First Movement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YUmT8FPqZc

"Writing About Music is like dancing about architecture" Shostakovitch and Rothko

This famous quote has disputed origins,  (see http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/)and maybe in the end it is not so important where it  actually came from. More important is that the person had a point !

Sometimes when you try and express the effect certain music has on you, it would be more effective to avoid words altogether. When I was trying to learn Shostakovitch's last quartet, as soon as I had played it a few times it connected in some way with the experience of walking round an art gallery  where Mark Rothko's last  works  were collected: works like "Untitled, Black on Grey" http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artwork/3535

The overwhelming feeling in that room of Rothko paintings was of quiet despair, but there was also a sort of serenity there too. There was very little variation in the colours or forms he used, but the collective effect of all the paintings together was overwhelming.

It was the same for me, playing and listening to Shostakovitch's last quartet. Shostakovitch writes six movements all marked Adagio and for long stretches the only dynamic is pianissimo.  Listening to it you are aware of somebody who is struggling to stay alive. He is supposed to have said himself that the first movement should be played " so that flies drop dead in mid-air and the audience start leaving the hall  in sheer boredom " The same feelings of quiet despair hang in the room  when listening to this music.as did for me when looking at the Rothko paintings.

I tried reading dissertations on the Shostakovitch, and they diligently listed keys and structure, but of course they could not describe in words the chemistry created by the music between listener, player and composer So maybe the quote at the start of this post is true. On the other hand we can at least try to put some of our reactions to music into words and see whether our reactions are shared by our fellow listeners.