Centre and Periphery, Roots and Exile

Description

This book examines the impact place and displacement can have on the composition and interpretation of Western art music, using as its primary objects of study the work of István Anhalt (1919–2012), György Kurtág (1926–), and Sándor Veress (1907–92). Although all three composers are of Hungarian origin, their careers followed radically different paths. Whereas, Kurtág remained in Budapest for most of his career, Anhalt and Veress left: the former in 1946 and immigrated to Canada and the latter in 1948 and settled in Switzerland. All three composers have had an extraordinary impact in the cultural environments within which their work took place.

In the first section, “Place and Displacement,” contributors examine what happens when composers and their music migrate in the culturally complex world of the late twentieth century. The past one hundred years produced record numbers of refugees, and this fact is now beginning to resonate in the study of music. As Anhalt himself forcefully asserts, however, not all composers who emigrate should be understood as exiles. The first chapters of this book explore some of the problems and questions surrounding this issue.

Essays in the second section, “Perspectives on Reception, Analysis, and Interpretation,” look at how performing acts of interpretation on music implies bringing the time, place, and identity of the musician, the analyst, and the teacher to bear on the object of study. Like Kodály, Kurtág considers his work to be “naturally” embedded in Hungarian culture, but he is also a quintessentially European artist. Much of his production—he is one of the twentieth century’s most prolific composers of vocal music—involves the setting of Hungarian texts, but in the late 1970s his cultural horizons expanded to include texts in Russian, German, French, English, and ancient Greek. The book explores how musicologists’ divergent cultural perspectives impinge on the interpretation of this work.

The final section, “The Presence of the Past and Memory in Contemporary Music,” examines the impact time and memory can have on notions of place and identity in music. All living art taps into the personal and collective past in one way or another. The final four chapters look at various aspects of this relationship.

Sujets

• Cultural Studies
• History
• Music

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 06 août 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554582969
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

C ENTRE AND P ERIPHERY , R OOTS AND E XILE
C ENTRE AND P ERIPHERY , R OOTS AND E XILE
Interpreting the Music of Istv n Anhalt, Gy rgy Kurt g, and S ndor Veress
F RIEDEMANN S ALLIS , R OBIN E LLIOTT , AND K ENNETH D E L ONG, EDITORS with assistance from Aaron Dalton
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Centre and periphery, roots and exile : interpreting the music of Istv n Anhalt, Gy rgy Kurt g, and S ndor Veress / Friedemann Sallis, Robin Elliott, and Kenneth DeLong, editors.
Majority of essays initially presented at the symposium Centre and periphery, roots and exile, at the University of Calgary, 22-25 January, 2008. Cf. Introd. Includes bibliographical references and index. Also available in electronic format. Most essays in English; includes 3 essays in French ISBN 978-1-55458-148-1
1. Anhalt, Istv n, 1919-. 2. Kurt g, Gy rgy. 3. Veress, S ndor, 1907-1992. 4. Composers-Hungary-Biography. 5. Immigrants-History-20th century. 6. Music-History and criticism. I. Sallis, Friedemann II. Elliott, Robin, 1956- III. DeLong, Kenneth, 1944-
ML 390. C 397 2011 780.92 2 C 2011-902745-3
Electronic monograph. Also available in print format. Most essays in English; includes 3 essays in French. ISBN 978-1-55458-172-6 (PDF)
1. Anhalt, Istv n, 1919-. 2. Kurt g, Gy rgy. 3. Veress, S ndor, 1907-1992. 4. Composers-Hungary-Biography. 5. Immigrants-History-20th century. 6. Music-History and criticism. I. Sallis, Friedemann II. Elliott, Robin, 1956- III. DeLong, Kenneth, 1944-
ML 390. C 397 2011b 780.92 2 C 2011-902746-1
Cover design by Sandra Friesen. Cover photo of Istv n Anhalt by Walter Curtin, reproduced with the permission of the Walter Curtin Estate. Cover photo of Gy rgy Kurt g by Sibylle Ehrismann, reproduced with the permission of the photographer. Cover photo of S ndor Veress reproduced with the permission of Claudio Veress. Text design by C. Bonas-Taylor.
2011 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca
This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100% post-consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy.
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
To Istv n Anhalt on the occasion of his ninety-second birthday
CONTENTS
List of Examples
List of Plates and Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
FRIEDEMANN SALLIS
F IRST W ORD
1 Istv n Anhalt: A Character Sketch
JOHN BECKWITH
2 Kurt g, as I Know Him
GERGELY SZOKOLAY
3 A Kind of Musical Autobiography : Reading Traces in S ndor Veress s Orbis tonorum
CLAUDIO VERESS
P LACE AND D ISPLACEMENT
4 Of the Centre, Periphery; Exile, Liberation; Home and the Self
ISTV N ANHALT
5 Istv n Anhalt s Kingston Triptych
ROBIN ELLIOTT
6 Istv n Anhalt s The Tents of Abraham : Where Music Cannot Heal, Let It Be Restored
WILLIAM BENJAMIN
7 Which Displacement? Tracing Exile in the Postwar Compositions of Istv n Anhalt and M ty s Seiber
FLORIAN SCHEDING
8 Letters to America
RACHEL BECKLES WILLSON
9 Roots and Routes: Travel and Translation in Istv n Anhalt s Operas
GORDON E. SMITH
10 Le fonds Istv n Anhalt ( MUS 164) Biblioth que et Archives Canada : auto-construction du compositeur et r le du lieu dans son uvre
RACHELLE CHIASSON-TAYLOR
P ERSPECTIVES ON R ECEPTION , A NALYSIS, AND I NTERPRETATION
11 Sewing Earth to Sky: Istv n Anhalt and the Pedagogy of Transformation
AUSTIN CLARKSON
12 Gy rgy Kurt g s J t kok: A Voyage into the Child s Musical Mind
STEFANO MELIS
13 Arracher la figure au figuratif : la musique vocale de Gy rgy Kurt g
ALVARO OVIEDO
14 Dirges and Ditties: Gy rgy Kurt g s Latest Settings of Poetry by Anna Akhmatova
JULIA GALIEVA-SZOKOLAY
15 Interpreting Gy rgy Kurt g and George Crumb: Through the Looking Glass
DINA LENTSNER
T HE PRESENCE OF THE P AST AND M EMORY IN C ONTEMPORARY M USIC
16 Gy rgy Kurt g et Walter Benjamin: consid rations sur l aura dans la musique
JEAN-PAUL OLIVE
17 What Presence of the Past? Artistic Autobiography in Gy rgy Kurt g s Music
ULRICH MOSCH
18 Listening to inner voices : Istv n Anhalt s Sonance Resonance (Welche T ne?)
ALAN GILLMOR
19 Music Written from Memory in the Late Work of Istv n Anhalt
FRIEDEMANN SALLIS
F INAL W ORD
20 On Doubleness and Life in Canada: An Interview with Istv n Anhalt
The Contributors
Index
LIST OF EXAMPLES
The editors have identified the typeset music and diagrams, whether previously published or not, as examples (in English) and exemples (in French). Scans of manuscript material, whether published in facsimile or not, are identified as plates (in English) and figures (in French). Music in which both printed and manuscript symbols are used (as in Gy rgy Kurt g s J t kok ) are categorized as examples .
Example 2-1 S ndor We res, Orb n, S ndor We res and Amy K rolyi, Tarka forg 120 vers az v tizenk t h napj ra [Coloured Windwheel: 120 poems for the twelve months of the year] (1958)
38
Example 2-2 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [Games I] (1973-78) Hommage Csajkovszkij
40
Example 2-3 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [Games I] (1973-78), Hommage Beethoven
42
Example 3-1 S ndor Veress, I. Quartetto per 2 Violini, Viola e Violoncello , 24, ending of movement I
46
Example 3-2 S ndor Veress, Orbis tonorum per orchestra da camera , 108. Open ending of movement VIII
46
Example 7-1 Istv n Anhalt, Fantasia for piano (1954), m. 1
117
Example 7-2 Istv n Anhalt, Sonata for Violin and Piano, basic tone row
119
Example 7-3 M ty s Seiber, Ulysses , Movement 3, basic tone row
119
Example 7-4 Istv n Anhalt, Sonata for Violin and Piano (1954), mm. 1-3
120
Example 7-5 M ty s Seiber, Ulysses , Movement 1, mm. 1-10
120
Example 8-1 S ndor Veress, Sinfonia Minneapolitana , Movement 1, mm. 19-23, Theme 1
138
Example 8-2 S ndor Veress, Sinfonia Minneapolitana , Movement 2, mm. 191-97, version of Theme 1
138
Example 8-3 S ndor Veress, Sinfonia Minneapolitana , Movement 3, mm. 278-91, version of Theme 1
138
Example 8-4 S ndor Veress, Sinfonia Minneapolitana , Movement 1, mm. 101-8, Theme 2
139
Example 8-5 B la Bart k, Cantata profana , Movement 2, mm. 180-88, string parts
143
Example 8-6 B la Bart k, Concerto for Orchestra, Movement 1, mm. 39-50, trumpets
147
Example 9-1 Istvan Anhalt s Operas
177
Example 9-2 Intersecting Concepts and Istv n Anhalt s Music
179
Example 12-1 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [Games I] (1973-78), Totyog s [ Toddling ], with clusters delineated and numbered
243
Example 12-2 The mental representation of musical images
246
Example 12-3 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [Games I] (1973-78), Totyog s [ Toddling ], clusters 1, 2, 7, and 8
247
Example 12-4 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [ Games I] (1973-78), Totyog s [ Toddling ], structural diagram showing the chiastic arrangement
249
Example 12-5 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [Games I] (1973-78), Hommage Paganini
251
Example 12-6 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [Games I] (1973-78), Unottan [ Bored ]
253
Example 12-7 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [ Games I] (1973-78), Unottan [ Bored ], diagram of the first formal section
254
Example 12-8 Gy rgy Kurt g, J t kok I [ Games I] (1973-78), Unottan [ Bored ], diagram of the second formal section
256
Exemple 13-1 Gy rgy Kurt g, Kafka-Fragmente , Op. 24 (1985-87), pour soprano et violon, " Sonntag, den 19. Juli 1910 (Berceuse II) , D but du fragment I-11
268
Exemple 13-2 Gy rgy Kurt g, Kafka-Fragmente , Op. 24 (1985-87), pour soprano et violon, " Die Guten gehen im gleichen Schritt , D but du fragment I-1
269
Exemple 13-3 Gy rgy Kurt g, Kafka-Fragmente , Op. 24 (1985-87), pour soprano et violon, " Der begrenzte Kreis , fragment III-6
270
Exemple 13-4 Gy rgy Kurt g, Kafka-Fragmente , Op. 24 (1985-87), pour soprano et violon, " Einmal brach ich mir das Bein , d but du fragment I-13
270
Exemple 13-5 Gy rgy Kurt g, Kafka-Fragmente , Op. 24 (1985-87), pour soprano et violon, " Ruhelos , fragment I-4
274
Example 14-1 Gy rgy Kurt g, Four Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova , Op. 41 (1997-2008), [ Pushkin ], mm. 1-10
288
Example 14-2 Gy rgy Kurt g, Four Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova Op. 41 (1997-2008), [ To Alexander Blok ], mm. 1-5
290
Example 14-3 Gy rgy Kurt g, Four Songs to Poems by Anna Akhmatova , Op. 41 (1997-2008), - [ The Wailing Lament ], mm. 1-20
294
Example 15-1 Rimma Dalos, [ Dream ], conce