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Musicians of To-Day By: Romain Rolland (1866-1944) |
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BY ROMAIN ROLLAND AUTHOR OF "JEAN CHRISTOPHE" TRANSLATED BY MARY BLAIKLOCK WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CLAUDE LANDI [Illustration: Decorative] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1915
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION BERLIOZ WAGNER: "Siegfried" "Tristan" CAMILLE SAINT SAËNS VINCENT D'INDY RICHARD STRAUSS HUGO WOLF DON LORENZO PEROSI FRENCH AND GERMAN MUSIC CLAUDE DEBUSSY: "Pelléas et Mélisande" THE AWAKENING: A SKETCH OF THE MUSICAL MOVEMENT IN PARIS SINCE 1870 Paris and Music Musical Institutions before 1870 New Musical Institutions The Present Condition of French Music
INTRODUCTION
It is perhaps fitting that the series of volumes comprising The
Musician's Bookshelf should be inaugurated by the present collection of
essays. To the majority of English readers the name of that strange and
forceful personality, Romain Rolland, is known only through his
magnificent, intimate record of an artist's life and aspirations,
embracing ten volumes, Jean Christophe . This is not the place in which
to discuss that masterpiece. A few biographical facts concerning the
author may not, however, be out of place here. Romain Rolland is forty eight years old. He was born on January 29,
1866, at Clamecy (Nièvre), France. He came very early under the
influence of Tolstoy and Wagner and displayed a remarkable critical
faculty. In 1895 (at the age of twenty nine) we find him awarded the
coveted Grand Prix of the Académie Française for his work Histoire de
l'Opéra en Europe avant Lulli et Scarlatti , and in the same year he
sustained, before the faculty of the Sorbonne where he now occupies the
chair of musical criticism a remarkable dissertation on The Origin
of the Modern Lyrical Drama his thesis for the Doctorate. This, in
reality, is a vehement protest against the indifference for the Art of
Music which, up to that time, had always been displayed by the
University. In 1903 he published a remarkable Life of Beethoven ,
followed by a Life of Hugo Wolf in 1905. The present volume, together
with its companion, Musiciens d'Autrefois , appeared in 1908. Both
form remarkable essays and reveal a consummate and most intimate
knowledge of the life and works of our great contemporaries. A just
estimate of a composer's work is not to be arrived at without a study of
his works and of the conditions under which these were produced. To
take, for instance, the case of but one of the composers treated in this
volume, Hector Berlioz. No composer has been so misunderstood, so
vilified as he, simply because those who have written about him, either
wilfully or through ignorance, have grossly misrepresented him. The essay on Berlioz, in the present volume, reveals a true insight into
the personality of this unfortunate and great artist, and removes any
false misconceptions which unsympathetic and superficial handling may
have engendered. Indeed, the same introspective faculty is displayed in
all the other essays which form this volume, which, it is believed, will
prove of the greatest value not only to the professional student, but
also to the intelligent listener , for whom the present series of
volumes has been primarily planned. We hear much, nowadays, of the value
of "Musical Appreciation." It is high time that something was done to
educate our audiences and to dispel the hitherto prevalent fallacy that
Music need not be regarded seriously. We do not want more creative
artists, more executants; the world is full of them good, bad and
indifferent but we do want more intelligent listeners . I do not think it is an exaggeration to assert that the majority of
listeners at a high class concert or recital are absolutely bored. How
can it be otherwise, when the composers represented are mere names to
them? Why should the general public appreciate a Bach fugue, an
intricate symphony or a piece of chamber music? Do we professional
musicians appreciate the technique of a wonderful piece of sculpture, of
an equally wonderful feat of engineering or even of a miraculous
surgical operation? It may be argued that an analogy between sculpture,
engineering, surgery and music is absurd, because the three former do
not appeal to the masses in the same manner as music does... Continue reading book >>
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Biography |
History |
Music |
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