le jardin retrouvé: the music of frederic mompouby wilfrid mellers

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Le Jardin retrouvé: The Music of Frederic Mompou by Wilfrid Mellers Review by: James William Sobaskie Notes, Second Series, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Dec., 1993), pp. 596-598 Published by: Music Library Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/898474 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 21:38 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Music Library Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:38:21 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Le Jardin retrouvé: The Music of Frederic Mompouby Wilfrid Mellers

Le Jardin retrouvé: The Music of Frederic Mompou by Wilfrid MellersReview by: James William SobaskieNotes, Second Series, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Dec., 1993), pp. 596-598Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/898474 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 21:38

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Music Library Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:38:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Le Jardin retrouvé: The Music of Frederic Mompouby Wilfrid Mellers

NOTES, December 1993 NOTES, December 1993

to separate the lives of artists from their working milieux. This is particularly in- structive in the case of a composer who took dreamy inspiration from recondite Gaelic legend and life in the isolated far west of Ireland, but whose astonishing technical proficiency was the product of a rigorous academic training and decidedly earthbound capacity for hard work. Un- fortunately, this delicate balance is nearly undermined by Foreman in his single- minded pursuit of the details of Bax's imaginative life. For example, Bax's sudden realization of his own mortality, movingly described at the impressive conclusion of the autobiography, prompts Foreman to provide a note retracing the route of Bax's bicycle journey in the Dublin Mountains, where this epiphany took place. That Bax joined his enigmatic Russian lover at Lau- sanne station en route to Ukraine appar- ently merits a contemporary engraving of the railway terminal with the caption: "the station as [Bax] would have know it" (plate 45). Foreman clearly feels the need to counterbalance his copious commentary on the people and places of Bax's public life with similar documentation of his private life; and he no doubt feels justified in doing so since Bax himself placed a high pre- mium on these events as "fresh food for art" (p. 60). But one suspects that Fore- man's occasional exercises in microbiogra- phy derive more from a personal enthu- siasm for Bax and his music than from a discreet weighing of their scholarly value. On the whole, such descents into a realm bordering on hero-worship run the risk of limiting the book's appeal solely to Bax enthusiasts-surely, if unfortunately, a minority-and of obscuring its many, more general attractions.

But it may be that any work on Bax will necessarily circulate only among Baxo- philes. As such, Foreman's book is valuable as a companion volume to his biography, the research for which clearly turned up much of the material presented here. Bax's writings do shed light on the mind of a quixotic composer. Their availability may even help to revise received opinions about his music. The autobiography, for one, shows a restraint and cogency that will sur- prise those who are skeptical about Bax's artistic discipline. Its successful fusion of structure and emotion puts one in mind of

to separate the lives of artists from their working milieux. This is particularly in- structive in the case of a composer who took dreamy inspiration from recondite Gaelic legend and life in the isolated far west of Ireland, but whose astonishing technical proficiency was the product of a rigorous academic training and decidedly earthbound capacity for hard work. Un- fortunately, this delicate balance is nearly undermined by Foreman in his single- minded pursuit of the details of Bax's imaginative life. For example, Bax's sudden realization of his own mortality, movingly described at the impressive conclusion of the autobiography, prompts Foreman to provide a note retracing the route of Bax's bicycle journey in the Dublin Mountains, where this epiphany took place. That Bax joined his enigmatic Russian lover at Lau- sanne station en route to Ukraine appar- ently merits a contemporary engraving of the railway terminal with the caption: "the station as [Bax] would have know it" (plate 45). Foreman clearly feels the need to counterbalance his copious commentary on the people and places of Bax's public life with similar documentation of his private life; and he no doubt feels justified in doing so since Bax himself placed a high pre- mium on these events as "fresh food for art" (p. 60). But one suspects that Fore- man's occasional exercises in microbiogra- phy derive more from a personal enthu- siasm for Bax and his music than from a discreet weighing of their scholarly value. On the whole, such descents into a realm bordering on hero-worship run the risk of limiting the book's appeal solely to Bax enthusiasts-surely, if unfortunately, a minority-and of obscuring its many, more general attractions.

But it may be that any work on Bax will necessarily circulate only among Baxo- philes. As such, Foreman's book is valuable as a companion volume to his biography, the research for which clearly turned up much of the material presented here. Bax's writings do shed light on the mind of a quixotic composer. Their availability may even help to revise received opinions about his music. The autobiography, for one, shows a restraint and cogency that will sur- prise those who are skeptical about Bax's artistic discipline. Its successful fusion of structure and emotion puts one in mind of

the symphonies, those other products of the later Bax, which evidence a similar- and equally convincing-balance of form and highly charged expression. Similarly, the wholly linear narrative structure of the story "Ancient Dominions" can be seen as the literary counterpart of the early "form- less" tone poems. The prose instructs us about the music, for it is precisely in the cumulative emotional effect of the fluent and stunningly imaginative writing that its structure resides, and perfectly so.

Ultimately, the reception of Bax's music probably hinges on one's view of the artistic merits of the Celtic Twilight. To date, his music has been judged by the critical values of a Central-European musical rationalism to which this sensibility is wholly alien. As the publication of Foreman's volume makes abundantly clear, an honest assessment of the music of this most Irish of English com- posers must depend on other, no less wor- thy standards of criticism.

JULIAN ONDERDONK New York University

Le Jardin retrouve: The Music of Fre- deric Mompou. By Wilfrid Mellers. Il- lustrations by Robin Hildyard. York: The Fairfax Press, 1992. [x, 139 p. ISBN 0-907209-03-3. (Available from the Fairfax Press, P.O. Box 59, York Y01 1QQ England.)]

Artistic renewal has been a persistent theme in the work of Wilfrid Mellers. His Studies in Contemporary Music (London: Dobson, 1947), which contained some of the first truly insightful writing on Gabriel Faure and Albert Roussel available in En- glish, analyzes a variety of solutions to the problem of developing an individual mu- sical language in the modern era. Caliban Reborn: Renewal in Twentieth-Century Music (London: Gollancz, 1968) examines more systematically the vital interplay between tradition and originality, while The Masks of Orpheus: Seven Stages in the Story of European Music (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987) undertakes a metaphoric jour- ney through five centuries of crisis and change, revolution, and rebirth. Le Jardin retrouve is a much more intimate story of

the symphonies, those other products of the later Bax, which evidence a similar- and equally convincing-balance of form and highly charged expression. Similarly, the wholly linear narrative structure of the story "Ancient Dominions" can be seen as the literary counterpart of the early "form- less" tone poems. The prose instructs us about the music, for it is precisely in the cumulative emotional effect of the fluent and stunningly imaginative writing that its structure resides, and perfectly so.

Ultimately, the reception of Bax's music probably hinges on one's view of the artistic merits of the Celtic Twilight. To date, his music has been judged by the critical values of a Central-European musical rationalism to which this sensibility is wholly alien. As the publication of Foreman's volume makes abundantly clear, an honest assessment of the music of this most Irish of English com- posers must depend on other, no less wor- thy standards of criticism.

JULIAN ONDERDONK New York University

Le Jardin retrouve: The Music of Fre- deric Mompou. By Wilfrid Mellers. Il- lustrations by Robin Hildyard. York: The Fairfax Press, 1992. [x, 139 p. ISBN 0-907209-03-3. (Available from the Fairfax Press, P.O. Box 59, York Y01 1QQ England.)]

Artistic renewal has been a persistent theme in the work of Wilfrid Mellers. His Studies in Contemporary Music (London: Dobson, 1947), which contained some of the first truly insightful writing on Gabriel Faure and Albert Roussel available in En- glish, analyzes a variety of solutions to the problem of developing an individual mu- sical language in the modern era. Caliban Reborn: Renewal in Twentieth-Century Music (London: Gollancz, 1968) examines more systematically the vital interplay between tradition and originality, while The Masks of Orpheus: Seven Stages in the Story of European Music (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987) undertakes a metaphoric jour- ney through five centuries of crisis and change, revolution, and rebirth. Le Jardin retrouve is a much more intimate story of

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Page 3: Le Jardin retrouvé: The Music of Frederic Mompouby Wilfrid Mellers

Book Reviews

renewal, however, taking as its subject a fascinating, though relatively little-known Catalan composer.

Federico Mompou (1893-1987) was born in Barcelona and trained in its con- servatory, but went to Paris at an early age, where he was drawn to the music of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and especially Eric Satie. He soon developed a personal idiom that was to serve him over sixty years - lyrical, evocative, often quite poignant- composing mainly piano pieces, songs, and liturgical works. Capsulizing his aesthetic by the term recommencement, Mompou cul- tivated a nostalgic return to simplicity and innocence in his music, what Mellers de- scribes as "a longing for the Forgotten Gar- den of Childhood" (p. 2). His distinctive musical voice was discovered by turning in- ward and to a distant past, as Mellers ex- plains: "Discarding many of the techniques of a Europe grown weary if not moribund, he has sought renewal in prehistorical spells, charms and incantations; in the sung and danced games of children; in religious rites and secular festivities of an indigenous culture; and to a lesser degree in memories of his Church as it may have been in its medieval and early Renaissance heyday" (p. 1). An investigation of the potency of these resources via a survey of Mompou's most representative works forms the core of Le Jardin retrouve.

The book begins with an illuminating es- say on the social and cultural history of Spain that establishes a rich context for un- derstanding Mompou's development. In the second chapter, Mellers examines the genesis of the composer's style as it unfolds in the set of nine sketches for piano, Im- presiones intimas, which date from 1911. He demonstrates that Mompou's melodic ma- terials are often modal, even pentatonic, though their accompaniments can be quite chromatic and dissonant. He also identifies two types of characteristic linear elements, the cri (a primitive, yell-like gesture) and rune (a more distinctive melodic-rhythmic pattern), which are shown to be integrated with more extended melodies in the com- poser's textures (pp. 27-28). Chapter 3 res- onates with Mompou's mysticism and prim- itivism, concentrating on his exploitation of bell-like sounds in such works as Cants ma- gics (1917), Charmes (1920-21), and the Four Songs on Catalan texts (1925-28). It is

clear from Mellers's discussion of these compositions that Mompou must be re- garded, along with Satie, as one of this cen- tury's first true minimalists! The fourth chapter, "Mompou's 'Ludi Puerorum'," re- veals through the window of Scenes d'enfants (1915-18) how entering the world of the child expanded the composer's art.

Mompou's cultural heritage pervades his music, and chapter 5 investigates its effects in the several of the Canfons i dansas for piano which were composed at various times over half a century. These works in particular reveal his great rhythmic variety, which ranges from the unmetered and un- barred to the strongly syncopated. While Mompou remained untouched by most of the rapidly changing European tradition, he occasionally reinvigorated his creativity by drawing inspiration from a much earlier composer, Frederic Chopin. Chapter 6 traces this influence in a number of the Preludes (1927-51) and in the monumen- tal Variations sur un theme de Chopin, based on the well-known A-major prelude of Chopin's op. 28. In the final chapter, Mellers turns to Mompou's choral music for the Catholic Church, notably the Cantar del alma (1961), Improperia (1964), and Vida interior (1966), and concludes with a dis- cussion of the composer's collection of pi- ano pieces called Musica Callada (1959-67). This "quiet music" represents the consum- mation of Mompou's art in Mellers's view, the "garden regained" expressed in the book's title.

Mellers writes not so much as a theorist or musicologist, but as a sympathetic com- poser eager to confide the features of Mom- pou's style that he has found most salient and essential. In this he is quite successful, and many will be prompted to seek out full scores and some of the many recordings made by Alicia de Larrocha, the composer, and others. The text is illustrated by sixty- eight music examples, most rather brief, but they adequately convey the flavor of Mompou's music. Unfortunately there are no detailed analyses of complete works, so a firm impression of Mompou's formal structures, his methods of achieving coher- ence, and what is meant by the intriguing notion of "circular time" (p. 54) are all dif- ficult to obtain. And while an emphasis on breadth over depth may be understand- able in a survey like this, the book's lack of

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Page 4: Le Jardin retrouvé: The Music of Frederic Mompouby Wilfrid Mellers

NOTES, December 1993 NOTES, December 1993

documentation, bibliography, index, and a complete list of works is more regrettable, since Mellers's enthusiasm is bound to in- spire further interest and-one hopes- more research. Still, Mompou's ouevre is honored here.

Elegantly bound and handsomely printed on heavy stock, with six wistful sketches by Robin Hildyard, Le Jardin re- trouve recalls an earlier age when a book could be a work of art as well as a new world to explore. It will be of interest to readers who might be curious about an un- common Spanish artist, intrigued by the process of renewal, or excited by the pros- pect of discovering a unique and deserving repertory.

JAMES WILLIAM SOBASKIE Minneapolis

Les Compositeurs et leurs ceuvres. By Ernest Ansermet. Edited by J.-Claude Piguet. (Langages.) Neuchatel: a la Baconniere, 1989. [372 p. ISBN 2-8252-0214-2 (pbk.). FS39.]

Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969) is prima- rily known to the world of music for his work with the baton. In this capacity he was not only a principal conductor for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, but he was the founder of the Orchestre de la Suisse Ro- mande in Geneva, an ensemble he directed for nearly half a century. He is further known for championing the works of Igor Stravinsky and those of his countrymen Arthur Honegger and Frank Martin. His recorded output is extensive and a signif- icant portion of it has recently been reis- sued in a 12 CD-set (London 433 803-2).

Recordings, however, are but one facet of Ansermet's multifaceted testimony con- cerning twentieth-century music. There is also a voluminous correspondence, partic- ularly involving composers with whom he worked, and a substantial body of analyt- ical, critical, and theoretical writings that cover a broad spectrum. Primarily through the efforts of Claude Tappolet and Jean- Claude Piguet, a growing number of vol- umes of important correspondence have already been published including Anser- met's exchanges with Martin, Stravinsky, R.-Aloys Mooser, Jean Binet, and other

documentation, bibliography, index, and a complete list of works is more regrettable, since Mellers's enthusiasm is bound to in- spire further interest and-one hopes- more research. Still, Mompou's ouevre is honored here.

Elegantly bound and handsomely printed on heavy stock, with six wistful sketches by Robin Hildyard, Le Jardin re- trouve recalls an earlier age when a book could be a work of art as well as a new world to explore. It will be of interest to readers who might be curious about an un- common Spanish artist, intrigued by the process of renewal, or excited by the pros- pect of discovering a unique and deserving repertory.

JAMES WILLIAM SOBASKIE Minneapolis

Les Compositeurs et leurs ceuvres. By Ernest Ansermet. Edited by J.-Claude Piguet. (Langages.) Neuchatel: a la Baconniere, 1989. [372 p. ISBN 2-8252-0214-2 (pbk.). FS39.]

Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969) is prima- rily known to the world of music for his work with the baton. In this capacity he was not only a principal conductor for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, but he was the founder of the Orchestre de la Suisse Ro- mande in Geneva, an ensemble he directed for nearly half a century. He is further known for championing the works of Igor Stravinsky and those of his countrymen Arthur Honegger and Frank Martin. His recorded output is extensive and a signif- icant portion of it has recently been reis- sued in a 12 CD-set (London 433 803-2).

Recordings, however, are but one facet of Ansermet's multifaceted testimony con- cerning twentieth-century music. There is also a voluminous correspondence, partic- ularly involving composers with whom he worked, and a substantial body of analyt- ical, critical, and theoretical writings that cover a broad spectrum. Primarily through the efforts of Claude Tappolet and Jean- Claude Piguet, a growing number of vol- umes of important correspondence have already been published including Anser- met's exchanges with Martin, Stravinsky, R.-Aloys Mooser, Jean Binet, and other

Swiss and French composers (e.g., Corre- spondence Ernest Ansermet-Igor Strawinsky (1914-1967), ed. Claude Tappolet [Gene- va: Georg, 1990- ]). Piguet has also turned his attention to collecting and issuing a multitude of miscellaneous essays and com- mentaries written by Ansermet between 1910 and 1968.

In the present book, Piguet presents writings concerning thirty-seven composers (arranged alphabetically) and their works (arranged chronologically by the date of Ansermet's essay). Composers covered range from Heinrich Schutz and J. S. Bach to Martin and Dmitri Shostakovich. With eight or nine essays each, Bela Bart6k, Al- ban Berg, Claude Debussy, Honegger, Martin, and with twenty-eight, Stravinsky receive the largest coverage among the 135 essays, most of which have appeared earlier on record jackets, in concert programs, or in assorted journals. Only a few represent unpublished papers read at conferences or similar materials. In length the essays range from one not-quite-twenty lines in length (concerning George Templeton Strong) to several approaching ten pages, one of which discusses Debussy.

As commentaries originally intended to inform the average concert patron or arm- chair listener, these essays generally do not attempt to analyze the music in detail com- parable to, say, Sir Donald Francis Tovey's justly famous notes for the Reid Orchestra in Edinburgh. In fact, the essays on such standard repertory as late Haydn, Beet- hoven, or Brahms symphonies are little more than brief glimpses of high points in each work placed in historical perspective. Music examples are few and when present at all generally only reproduce significant themes. The true value of the collection, rather, lies in the essays on twentieth- century composers personally known to Ansermet and whose works he prosely- tized. In these essays one finds the enthu- siasm and zeal of a seasoned evangelist ea- ger to sway the willing listener in his cause. High on Ansermet's agenda were the works of Bart6k, Ernest Bloch, Honegger, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Martin. Tower- ing over all, however, were the many pre- serial compositions of Stravinsky, not a few of which Ansermet himself premiered.

Piguet is to be commended for putting together an excellent and representative

Swiss and French composers (e.g., Corre- spondence Ernest Ansermet-Igor Strawinsky (1914-1967), ed. Claude Tappolet [Gene- va: Georg, 1990- ]). Piguet has also turned his attention to collecting and issuing a multitude of miscellaneous essays and com- mentaries written by Ansermet between 1910 and 1968.

In the present book, Piguet presents writings concerning thirty-seven composers (arranged alphabetically) and their works (arranged chronologically by the date of Ansermet's essay). Composers covered range from Heinrich Schutz and J. S. Bach to Martin and Dmitri Shostakovich. With eight or nine essays each, Bela Bart6k, Al- ban Berg, Claude Debussy, Honegger, Martin, and with twenty-eight, Stravinsky receive the largest coverage among the 135 essays, most of which have appeared earlier on record jackets, in concert programs, or in assorted journals. Only a few represent unpublished papers read at conferences or similar materials. In length the essays range from one not-quite-twenty lines in length (concerning George Templeton Strong) to several approaching ten pages, one of which discusses Debussy.

As commentaries originally intended to inform the average concert patron or arm- chair listener, these essays generally do not attempt to analyze the music in detail com- parable to, say, Sir Donald Francis Tovey's justly famous notes for the Reid Orchestra in Edinburgh. In fact, the essays on such standard repertory as late Haydn, Beet- hoven, or Brahms symphonies are little more than brief glimpses of high points in each work placed in historical perspective. Music examples are few and when present at all generally only reproduce significant themes. The true value of the collection, rather, lies in the essays on twentieth- century composers personally known to Ansermet and whose works he prosely- tized. In these essays one finds the enthu- siasm and zeal of a seasoned evangelist ea- ger to sway the willing listener in his cause. High on Ansermet's agenda were the works of Bart6k, Ernest Bloch, Honegger, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Martin. Tower- ing over all, however, were the many pre- serial compositions of Stravinsky, not a few of which Ansermet himself premiered.

Piguet is to be commended for putting together an excellent and representative

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This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:38:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions