Composer and Critic: Two Hundred Years of Musical Criticism [Norton Edition 1971]

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$2.45 N497

COMPOSER AND CRITIC Two hundred years of music criticism

BY MAX gbaF Composer and Critic is the most humane and en¬ lightened, as well as comprehensive, treatment of the subject this writer has yet encountered.”—Virgil Thomson, New York Herald Tribune Book Review

Qomposer

and

Qritic

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Composer and TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF MUSICAL CRITICISM

BY

Max (jraf

The Norton Library W • W • NORTON & COMPANY • INC • NEW YORK

Copyright 1946 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. First published in the Norton Library 1971

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published simultaneously in Canada by George J. McLeod Limited, Toronto

. Norton & Company, Inc. is the publisher of current or forthcoming books on music by Putnam Aldrich, William Austin, Anthony Baines, Philip Bate, Sol Berkowitz, Friedrich Blume, How¬ ard Boatwright, Nadia Boulanger, Paul Brainerd, Nathan Broder, Manfred Bukofzer, John Castellini, John Clough, Doda Conrad, Aaron Copland, Hans David, Paul Des Marais, Otto Erich Deutsch, Frederick Dorian, Alfred Einstein, Gabriel Fontrier, Harold Gleason, Richard Franko Goldman, Noah Greenberg, Donald Jay Grout, James Haar, F. L. Harrison, Daniel Heartz, Richard Hoppin, John Horton, Edgar Hunt, A. J. B. Hutchings, Charles Ives, Roger Kamien, Hermann Keller, Leo Kraft, Stanley Krebs, Paul Henry Lang, Lyndesay G. Langwill, Jens Peter Larsen, Jan LaRue, Maurice Lieberman, Irving Lowens, Joseph Machlis, Carol McClintock, Alfred Mann, W. T. Marrocco, Arthur Mendel, William J. Mitchell, Douglas Moore, Joel Newman, John F. Ohl, Carl Parrish, Vincent Persichetti, Marc Pincherle, Walter Piston, Gustave Reese, Alexander Ringer, Curt Sachs, Denis Stevens, Robert Stevenson, Oliver Strunk, Francis Toye, Bruno Walter, J. T. Westrup, Emanuel Winternitz, Walter Wiora, and Percy Young. SBN 393 00497 X

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

9

FOREWORD

II

THE AUTHOR PRESENTS HIS CREDENTIALS

15

I.

VIENNA AROUND

ENCE

III.

I9OO

GENERAL

II.

BRUCKNEr’s PERSONAL INFLU¬

POSITION

OF

THE

MUSIC

CRITIC

Chapter One THE AGE OF REASON

30

Chapter Two THE NEW ESTHETICS

34

I.

DESCARTES

MAN

II.

ESTHETIC THEORY; BOILEAU

III. THE GER¬

ESTHETICIANS

Chapter Three THE FIRST MAGAZINES I.

ENGLAND

II.

GERMANY

AND

40

SWITZERLAND

Chapter Four THE FIRST MUSIC CRITICS

46

HAMBURG I.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC

CRITIC

II.

JOHANN

MATTHESON

PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681-I767)

(1681-I764)

III.

GEORG

IV. JOHANN ADOLF SCHEIBE

(1708-1776)

BERLIN I.

THE

III.

BERLIN

OF

THE

AGE

OF

REASON

II.

THE

THEORISTS

FRIEDRICH WILHELM MARPURG (1718-I795)

LEIPZIG I.

LEIPZIG:

THE

CITY

AND

THE

CHRISTOPH MIZLER (17II-I778) (17x8-1804)

IV.

UNIVERSITY III.

II.

LORENZ

JOHANN ADAM HILLER

MUSICAL CRITICISM IN THE GENERAL MAGA¬

ZINES

5

6

Contents

THE FIRST CONFLICT BETWEEN CRITIC AND COMPOSER

69

THE BATTLES AGAINST THE BAROQUE; THE MUSIC CRITICS IN THE FIGHT

86

Chaper Five

Chaper Six

I.

BAROQUE AND THE AGE OF REASON

OPERA

IN

PARODY

FRANCE V.

III.

FRENCH

II.

CRITICS

ITALIAN BAROQUE IV.

THE

SPIRIT

OF

THE BERLIN SCHOOL, A PRELUDE TO THE CLASSIC

ERA

Chaper Seven

MUSICAL CRITICISM AND THE CLASSICS: THE ATTITUDE OF THE COMPOSERS

Chaper Eight

HAYDN AND THE CRITICS MOZART IN MUSICAL CRITICISM

Chapter Nine Chapter Ten I.

12.0 i

BEETHOVEN AND THE CRITICS

Beethoven’s

first

years

in

Vienna

action TO BEETHOVEN S EARLY WORKS

III.

i

ii.

critical

re¬

CRITICISMS AFTER

1800 Chapter Eleven

I.

THE

II.

MUSICAL MAGAZINES IN THE AGE OF THE CLASSICS 1

NEW

LITERARY

STYLE

REICHARDT AND HIS MUSICAL WRITINGS

MAN AND AUSTRIAN MUSICAL CAL

EXEMPLIFIED

MAGAZINES

BOURGEOIS

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

IN

MUSICAL

FRANCE

PERIODICALS AND

IN

III. IV.

ENGLAND

GERMANY

OTHER EARLY

V.

THE

GER¬ MUSI¬ NEW

SOCIETY

THE FIRST MUSIC CRITICS IN DAILIES AND WEEKLIES I THE DEVELOPMENT OF ^MANTICISM IN GERMANY 1

Contents THE NEW BEETHOVEN CRITICISM

Chapter Fourteen I.

E.

T.

MARX V.

A.

(I776-I8^^)

HOFFMANN

III. J.

F.

REICHARDT

II. IV.

BETTINA BRENTANO (1785-1859)

NER AS CRITICS FEUILLETON

III. IV.

VII.

ROBERT

LISZT I

HECTOR

SCHUMANN

RICHARD WAGNER

2.06 II.

PERFORMER

BERLIOZ

AND

IV.

THE

CRITICS

CRITIC.

VI.

THE

FETIS YOUNG

(1803-1869}

(^1810-1856}

III.

III.

OTHER

END V.

Chapter Eighteen

II.

CARL

MARIA

VON

THE UNDERWORLD

THE CRITICS AND WAGNER

1904)

HEINE AND WAG¬

THE FIGHT AGAINST WAGNER. ED¬ UARD HANSLICK. THE BIRTH OF MOD-. ERN MUSICAL CRITICISM IN EUROPE x4x

Chapter Seventeen

IV.

RELLSTAB

MUSICAL CRITICISM IN THE DAILIES: THE

WEBER (1786-18x6)

I.

LUDWIG

ROBERT SCHUMANN AND CARL MARIA VON WEBER AS MUSIC CRITICS. THE UNDERWORLD 12.5

Chapter Sixteen

I.

BERNHARD

MUSICAL CRITICISM IN THE MAGAZINES

ROMANTICS

I.

ADOLF

VI.

THE NEW SOCIETY AND ITS MUSICIANS

V.

i88

PARIS, 1830

Chapter Fifteen I.

1

OF

II.

OPPONENTS

ROMANTICISM.

EDUARD HANSLICK (18x5—

AND

DEFENDERS

ISOLATION

THE RISE OF THE DAILIES.

OF

OF WAGNER ARTISTS

THE MUSIC MARKET

MODERN MUSICAL CRITICISM

GERMANY ENGLAND

II. V.

AUSTRIA RUSSIA

AND VI.

AND

BOHEMIA

X64 III.

FRANCE

THE UNITED STATES

EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE OF MUSICAL CRITICISM

3XX

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