rdp@teddy.UUCP (08/21/85)
[] I must aggree with the several people who have objected to the discussions flying back and forth about Nazi-ism and music. The person who originally posted the article seeking information may or may not have been right to do so, but all the rest of you who have been throwing comments about concerning his intentions or who is or isn't gay or a Nazi or a gay Nazi or whatever are definitely doing the newsgroup a disservice. Let's keep these discussion between people via private mail or small scale fisticuffs, but let's get them off this news group, please. As for myself, I have been discouraged by the lack of discussion concerning early (earlier) music. Poulenc and Ives are OK (I guess, though I don't particularly care for them myself). But is there anyone out there interested in discussion concerning MY favorite subjects, such as Baroque keyboard music? I am somehwta partial to the French Baroque Claviscinists (Couperin, Rameau, D'Aquin, Balbastre, D'Anglebert, and so forth) and the earlier Flemish period (Jan Pieterszoon Sweelink, Preatorius, etc.). I also have a keen interest in the instruments of the period, having built a dozen or so harpshichords, clavichords, etc., and also restored some real spiffy French and Flemish style organs during my stays in Belgium. Let's branch out, boys and girls (and gays and Nazi's, for that matter)! Dick Pierce, prop. OnderGrunde Orgelbauw
rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (08/23/85)
[] I love baroque keyboard music (i.e., I like to listen to it), but I don't know anything about it and don't think I want to. As a record collector of the cheap variety, I naturally accumulated a lot of records of that stuff over the last quarter century. Nonesuch is loaded with it, for one example. I am a frustrated organist, among other things. Desire but absolutely no talent. Not even a Salieri. Go ahead and talk about whatever moves you. Maybe it will strike a responsive chord. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg
carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) (08/23/85)
Prefatory note: I don't understand what is wrong with discussing biographical information about famous musicians in this newsgroup, as long as the subject of discussion is the musicians themselves. Is there a net.biography for such topics? Should discussion of e.g. Mozart's journeys be moved to net.travel? In the light of frequent complaints of lack of activity in this newsgroup, it seems silly to complain when a discussion is started that concerns music and that a number of people apparently find interesting. There are some of us out here with a scholarly interest in musical biography. OK? In recent years several biographies of composers have appeared that attempt to apply concepts from psychoanalysis and psychiatry, as well as the methods of historical research, to understand a composer's personality and even his music. I would like to mention several that I have come across: ---Wolfgang Hildesheimer, *Mozart*. This is a fascinating biography that goes far beyond previous ones in its attempt to give a realistic portrayal of this mysterious man. (No, Mozart wasn't gay.) Recommended as a corrective for those whose impressions of Mozart have been shaped by the film *Amadeus*. Here is an excerpt: This, precisely, is the sorry nature of trite biographies: they find easy explanations for everything, within a range of probability we can comprehend. The primary source and the motivation are the same: wishful thinking. Given their inequality of powers, the writer's identification with the hero, his fixation on him, makes his effort at representation profoundly untruthful.... To posterity, all past conflicts seem resolved into harmony, illuminating the age itself with melancholy but soothing beauty. Thus, for example, Bernhard Paumgartner characterizes Mozart's stay in Vienna after the break with the Archbishop in 1781: "The city on the Danube embraced the storm-tossed artist with maternal arms, becoming the homeland of his maturity." This sentence is a classic example of extreme repression.... That other body of work which endeavors to stick honorably "to the facts" is usually built on conclusions that not only hide their foundations but also assume that contemporary sources, particularly autobiographical evidence, are reliable and objective. We know that autobiographical statements are not necessarily objective, and Mozart's are anything but.... ---Maynard Solomon, *Beethoven*, a remarkable psychobiography of the composer. Solomon reveals Beethoven's extraordinary delusion (Solomon's term) about his origins: that he was born in 1772 rather than 1770 (in spite of his baptismal certificate) and that he may have been the illegitimate son of a king! Beethoven only renounced this fantasy on his deathbed. Solomon suggests that its source was Beethoven's childhood experience of feeling unloved and unwanted. Solomon also discusses the composer's music in relation to his psychic life. Although L.v.B. spends a good many hours on Dr. Solomon's couch, the book contains no mention of any homosexual attachments, and indeed, it seems extremely unlikely that he ever had any. It is known, however, that Beethoven had a few brief liaisons with women and that he visited prostitutes with some frequency. He was apparently psychologically incapable of forming a stable and close relationship with a woman. ---Peter Ostwald, *Schumann*. Schumann, who died (apparently of self-starvation) in an insane asylum, has always been a fertile subject for psychological speculation. Ostwald, a psychiatrist, has written a biography which gives especial attention to Schumann's tortured psyche and discusses the problem of diagnosing his various ills, on the basis of up-to-date scholarship. It appears that Schumann *may* have had one or two brief homosexual attachments, but he was primarily heterosexual, if it is in fact meaningful to apply such labels to a man whose emotional life was so chaotic. ---Frank Walker, *The Man Verdi*. This isn't really a psychobiography, but all Verdiphiles will want to read this. Noted Verdi scholar Philip Gossett calls it a classic. ---Robert Gutman, *Richard Wagner*. I have only glanced at this, but it appears to be a biographical study which explores the seamier side of Wagner's life. I would be interested in reading in this newsgroup about biographies that others have enjoyed, as well as works of musicology and criticism (let's hear it for GBS). Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes
greg@olivee.UUCP (Greg Paley) (08/26/85)
The musical biographies that I find I most enjoy reading have to satisfy the following requirements: (1) Provide some insight into the artistic process of its subject beyond what I could derive myself from listening to the music. (2) Supply factual information as to dates, people and places relevant to the musician's life. I am, however, wary of a writer's claims about who influenced whom, or those who construct a theory about a particular artist (especially those who want to group artists into particular "classes" or "schools") and selectively edit the known facts about the actual incidents in their subject's life so as to fit that theory. (3) Be well written enough that the biography could be enjoyable as a work of prose apart from the inherent interest its subject matter would arouse. These are, granted, hard to find. For clarity, wit, insight, and an enlivening style of writing, one of my favorite writers is W.J. Turner. Unfortunately, most of his works are out of print. If you can find them in a library, I recommend his books on Berlioz, Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner (don't be put off by the miniscule length of the latter, it's a gem). Other books that I've found outstanding in this regard have been J.W.Sullivan's book on Beethoven and Frank Walker's biography of Hugo Wolf. I enjoy reading all of the critical writings of George Bernhard Shaw. Even those dealing with performances of music that doesn't particularly interest me by performer's I've never heard of (such as his report on his first hearing of Boito's "Mefistofele") I find worthwhile because of the sense of humor, marvelous descriptive ability, and the general mental process involved in drawing conclusions. Aside from the Turner book on Berlioz, there is his own autobiography. Unfortunately, I know of no good translation. I find those of Newman and Cairns inadequate at depicting the virile, bracing quality of Berlioz's use of the French language. If you have any degree of reading knowledge of French, by all means try to find a copy of the original. I highly recommend Harvey Sach's biography of Toscanini - a very welcome antidote to the muck churned out by George Marek, the dubious "insights" of Chotzinoff and others. Also fascinating are B.H.Haggin's "Conversations with Toscanini" and, especially, "The Toscanini Musician's Knew" - a collection of remarkable interviews with instrumentalists and singers who had worked directly with Toscanini over varying lengths of time. - Greg Paley
rwfi@ur-tut.UUCP (Robert Fink) (09/25/85)
Re music biographies: Dont forget Stendhal's : Life of Rossini! It's not exactly factual, but the writing is first rate and unfailingly entertaining. (Stendhal, by the way, wrote "Le Rouge et le Noir").