Caliban Reborn: Renewal in Twentieth-Century Music by Wilfred MellersReview by: William W. AustinNotes, Second Series, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Dec., 1967), pp. 259-261Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/894662 .

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BOOK REVIEWS

Compiled and edited by WILLIAM C. HOLMES

4,

Caliban Reborn: Renewal in Twentieth-Century Music. By Wilfred Mellers. (Vol. 36 in the series "World Perspectives," ed. by Ruth Nanda Anshen.) New York: Harper and Row [c1967]. [xviii, 195 p.; $6.50]

W. H. Mellers, composer, teacher, and prolific writer, is the first representative of music in the series of slim books on World Perspectives planned and edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen. Previous authors in the series include such religious think- ers as Maritain, Tillich, Suzuki, Radha- krishnan, and D'Arcy; leaders in the physi- cal sciences like Fred Hoyle, and Werner Heisenberg; biologists, historians, sociolo-

gists, psychologists, a linguist, a critic, an economist, and two artists-Walter Gropius and Joyce Cary. The new book thus merits consideration for both music libraries and general libraries.

As contributor to the series, Mellers im-

plicitly commits himself to the editor's recognition of a "crisis in consciousness made articulate through the crisis in sci- ence," to her "hope in society and pride in man's decision as to what his destiny is to be," and to her devotion to "the ul- timate moral power at work in the uni- verse." Explicitly he undertakes to con- sider in what ways composers of the twentieth century have departed from Western European tradition, and what this departure means for anyone interested in their work. He assumes that his readers are concerned with cultural meanings more than either techniques or sheer fact, not to mention mere entertainment. He assumes they are interested in composers more than performers or scholars or the various overlapping audiences for music.

Mellers has been writing articles and books for more than twenty years on the meaning of musical styles and of particu- lar pieces in relation to the crises of culture. His scholarly book on Couperin (1950) expressed his most persistent and penetrating thought on the nature of civilization and music's place in it. His

earlier articles on contemporary music from Faure and Satie down to Rubbra and Blitzstein included many valuable original insights of the same sort; Mellers takes seriously the belief that composers have something to say about the way we live, and he studies their music chiefly in order to interpret its message. In his more recent books, addressed especially to non- musicians, he omits documentation, and he sometimes writes too fast to make all his profundities convincing: he finds and proclaims composers' messages without apparently having needed to study the mu- sic itself as carefully as he studied the whole work of Couperin. His interpretive language often sounds glib, sometimes awkward. His organizing schemes serve to frame quite various discussions of any and every sort of music, old and new, folk, art, pop, and classic. Still, he usually gives evidence of first-hand knowledge of the pieces he discusses, and almost al- ways he is generously sympathetic with each composer's distinctive qualities. Thus his discussions can be useful to various readers in spite of their loose organiza- tion. Moreover the messages he reads off for us are stimulating. He preserves a hope in society of some sort, along with full recognition of horrors and absurdities; he preserves the pride of composers (including himself) in deciding among endless possi- bilities; he affirms "the identity between human and divine, between flesh and spirit." Thus he is qualified to represent music in the World Perspectives series, better qualified than most writers in Eng- lish.

So well qualified is Mellers that the task is hardly a challenge for him. He satis- fies the demand of the occasion without exerting his full powers. Here as in his

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other recent books he writes not as a scholar but as a composer addressing sym- pathetic, musically untrained listeners. He thus leaves me unsatisfied in the vague hope that this occasion might have in- spired him to new philosophical thinking. It strikes me as odd and significant that Mellers mentions none of the other au- thors in the series, whereas he quotes Marshall McLuhan four times. I think this is even regrettable. But my disap- pointment is still only a qualification of my admiration. Mellers has an adequate stock of ideas, adapted chiefly from those that were fresh in literary criticism when he was starting out to write, and it is marvelous for any writer to keep up to date as well as he does in the music of all continents and all social classes. It is a good thing too that the editor evi- dently refrained from specifying how mu- sic should fit her concerns, trusting a musician like Mellers to expose his own perspectives. The perspective he chooses for organizing scheme and title serves well enough, though he could doubtless have done as well with any of several other schemes.

By his title Mellers means that twen- tieth-century music has often rejected the heroic rationalism and obsessive materi- alism of post-Renaissance Europe, which Shakespeare symbolized in Prospero's book and magic wand, renounced at the end of The Tempest. Variously incorporating and regenerating various features of Ori- ental, African, "primitive" musics, the Europeans and Americans that Mellers discusses are acknowledging Caliban, "this thing of darkenesse," as an inalienable part of ourselves, indispensable for the perfect revelation of our perfect identity. Mellers does not merely celebrate this rebirth. He warns that it may sometimes be an evasion of responsibility. But he concludes that twentieth-century primitivism may after all correspond to Beethoven's noble submission to suffering, which makes his music, especially his late works, "imme- diately pertinent to our future."

In a preface Mellers notes that some parts of the book are not new. Several sections he has published previously, with- out reference to the Caliban framework, and without the confining limits of space. Among these are the very interesting interpretations of Stravinsky, Satie, Varese,

Orff, Cage, Britten, Maxwell Davies, and Bob Dylan.

Perhaps the chief new section is a chap- ter on Messiaen, Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, and Berio. Mellers has heard more of all these men's music than most of us interested in them have a chance to hear, and he has glanced at all their published scores with a discerning eye before setting out to interpret their mes- sages. He likes best their most recent works: Chronochromie, Pli selon Pli, Mo- menti, Cori di Didone, Circles. His ap- preciations of these pieces, which so far most writers have described either with hostility or with an uncomprehending ad- miration, make the book worth recom- mending, not only to anyone who has profited from Mellers before, but also to readers with some literary sophistication who simply seek an introduction to the musical avant garde.

Mellers hopes his readers will consult the scores of the music he discusses, but more likely they will turn to records. For the Messiaen-to-Berio chapter the sounds are what the reader needs; the scores alone, without records or good live per- formances, cannot help much, even for the most expert reader of Beethoven scores.

For the chapter on Debussy's Pelleas and the preceding eight pages on Webern, scores would be more useful, but the non- score-reader need not skip these pages altogether. The juxtaposition of Weber and Debussy is especially interesting to me. Though it is a bit exaggerated to say that "Webern's early music is related to Debussy's revolution no less directly then to Schoenberg's," yet I am glad to learn that this affinity seems so clear to Mellers.

Another pleasing point is the passing recognition of Bart6k as "one of the most 'central' traditionalists," and of Bart6k's balanced "affinities equally with the static 'present' of Debussy and with the becoming of Beethoven." Bart6k by this very token deserves more space in the book than he is allotted. Perhaps Mellers will find time, now that he is settled as head of the Music Department at the new University of York, England, after his three years in America, to give Bart6k something like the attention he once gave Couperin.

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Perhaps also the World Perspectives series will return to music before it ac- cumulates another thirty-five volumes. Perspectives quite different from Mellers's might help as much or more to show relations between music and the sci- ences, or to show music as one means

Perhaps also the World Perspectives series will return to music before it ac- cumulates another thirty-five volumes. Perspectives quite different from Mellers's might help as much or more to show relations between music and the sci- ences, or to show music as one means

available, with others, for striving against fear and prejudice. Mellers will doubt- less be content if his effort stimulates a few readers to think for themselves on these matters.

WILLIAM W. AUSTIN Cornell University

available, with others, for striving against fear and prejudice. Mellers will doubt- less be content if his effort stimulates a few readers to think for themselves on these matters.

WILLIAM W. AUSTIN Cornell University

Franz Liszt: Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, 1835-1886. Gesam- melt und erliutert von Margit Prahacs. (Aus dem ungarischen iiber- tragen von Tilda Alpari.) Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1966. [484 p.; $10.50]

Franz Liszt: Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, 1835-1886. Gesam- melt und erliutert von Margit Prahacs. (Aus dem ungarischen iiber- tragen von Tilda Alpari.) Budapest: Akademiai Kiad6, 1966. [484 p.; $10.50]

What a pleasure it is to read, study, and review a fine book! And that pleasure is augmented by the book's importance, for there is a vast amount of new infor- mation in the expansive and meticulous annotations which come from Margit Prahacs after many years of devoted al- legiance to Hungary's premier musician. Would that all books of letters written by great men were so carefully prepared- not only in the presentation of the orig- inal texts, but also in the explication and historical documentation. The compiler- editor surely deserves a high accolade for her labors, but it must be said here that standards of scholarship are high in Buda- pest and anything less than excellent would be rare indeed.

Here are over 600 letters and messages of Liszt preserved in Hungarian collec- tions. Most of them exist intact. A few have disappeared or are extant only in copies, but these few-as reproduced in this book-can be accepted as un- questionably authentic. A few more are preliminary drafts, a device that Liszt was fond of using as he grew older and more particular in his method of communicat- ing. All of these letters appear in the language in which they were written (French or German) with the (sometimes eccentric) spelling and punctuation and

'Last September at the Ljubljana Meeting of the International Musicological Association, Professor Austin was awarded the Edward J. Dent Medal for "distinguished work in musi- cology," namely his Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966). NOTES offers its congratulations. News of the award comes as no great surprise to the read- ers of NOTES, for they had been told of the book's significance by H. Wiley Hitchcock in his review in the December 1966 issue, pages 254-7.-Ed.

What a pleasure it is to read, study, and review a fine book! And that pleasure is augmented by the book's importance, for there is a vast amount of new infor- mation in the expansive and meticulous annotations which come from Margit Prahacs after many years of devoted al- legiance to Hungary's premier musician. Would that all books of letters written by great men were so carefully prepared- not only in the presentation of the orig- inal texts, but also in the explication and historical documentation. The compiler- editor surely deserves a high accolade for her labors, but it must be said here that standards of scholarship are high in Buda- pest and anything less than excellent would be rare indeed.

Here are over 600 letters and messages of Liszt preserved in Hungarian collec- tions. Most of them exist intact. A few have disappeared or are extant only in copies, but these few-as reproduced in this book-can be accepted as un- questionably authentic. A few more are preliminary drafts, a device that Liszt was fond of using as he grew older and more particular in his method of communicat- ing. All of these letters appear in the language in which they were written (French or German) with the (sometimes eccentric) spelling and punctuation and

'Last September at the Ljubljana Meeting of the International Musicological Association, Professor Austin was awarded the Edward J. Dent Medal for "distinguished work in musi- cology," namely his Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966). NOTES offers its congratulations. News of the award comes as no great surprise to the read- ers of NOTES, for they had been told of the book's significance by H. Wiley Hitchcock in his review in the December 1966 issue, pages 254-7.-Ed.

capitalization that Liszt himself employed. Let no reader think, therefore, that the book is filled with typographical errors- there are surprisingly few-this is the way the composer wrote. He was an ex- ceedingly intelligent man, but lacking in scholastic discipline: it was more impor- tant for him to get his message across than to delay over the niceties of pedantic correspondence.

The letters themselves occupy 244 pages. Some are very short-a telegram, a line on a calling card, an invitation-some are quite long, running more than a printed page. They are amazingly varied, showing Liszt in even more facets than we commonly associate with him. He could joke and laugh, he could (as we know) help others, he could discourage untalented aspirants, he could concern himself mightily over pedagogical admin- istration, he could quarrel (or "politely disagree") with a friend and then make up, he could give technical musical coun- sel and advise publishers, he could seize upon a brilliant youth and plead for financial aid beyond his own powers of assistance. All of these traits and others, too, are abundantly exposed in these let- ters, to such an extent and in such a vari- ety that their perusal is a constant joy and satisfaction.

Nevertheless, the full understanding of the letters depends very largely upon Dr. Prahacs' splendid commentary. (Let it be said here that Tilda Alpari's German translation seems excellent.) The histori- cal and biographical information supplied by the editor is astonishing. Quantitatively (160 pages, in smaller type) it equals or surpasses the epistolary section, and qualitatively it rates high praise. She has traced the background of each let-

capitalization that Liszt himself employed. Let no reader think, therefore, that the book is filled with typographical errors- there are surprisingly few-this is the way the composer wrote. He was an ex- ceedingly intelligent man, but lacking in scholastic discipline: it was more impor- tant for him to get his message across than to delay over the niceties of pedantic correspondence.

The letters themselves occupy 244 pages. Some are very short-a telegram, a line on a calling card, an invitation-some are quite long, running more than a printed page. They are amazingly varied, showing Liszt in even more facets than we commonly associate with him. He could joke and laugh, he could (as we know) help others, he could discourage untalented aspirants, he could concern himself mightily over pedagogical admin- istration, he could quarrel (or "politely disagree") with a friend and then make up, he could give technical musical coun- sel and advise publishers, he could seize upon a brilliant youth and plead for financial aid beyond his own powers of assistance. All of these traits and others, too, are abundantly exposed in these let- ters, to such an extent and in such a vari- ety that their perusal is a constant joy and satisfaction.

Nevertheless, the full understanding of the letters depends very largely upon Dr. Prahacs' splendid commentary. (Let it be said here that Tilda Alpari's German translation seems excellent.) The histori- cal and biographical information supplied by the editor is astonishing. Quantitatively (160 pages, in smaller type) it equals or surpasses the epistolary section, and qualitatively it rates high praise. She has traced the background of each let-

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