{"id":1002,"date":"2018-04-08T18:30:30","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T22:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2018-04-08T18:30:30","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T22:30:30","slug":"the-art-and-alchemy-of-conducting-and-mahlers-fourth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2018\/04\/the-art-and-alchemy-of-conducting-and-mahlers-fourth.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Art and Alchemy of Conducting” — and Mahler’s Fourth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As all Mahlerites know, the opening of the Fourth Symphony is both magical and mutable. A preamble of chiming sleigh bells and flutes dissipates to a cheerful violin ditty that coyly retards as it ascends to the tonic G. Mahler writes \u201cetwas zuruckhaltend\u201d (\u201csomewhat held back\u201d). But really anything goes.<\/p>\n

The champion retarder is Willem Mengelberg, in a famous 1939 recording with his Concertgebouw Orchestra. It sounds like this.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since this passage is inherently playful, conductors can get away with that and we gratefully smile. Since Mengelberg was a Mahler disciple whose performances Mahler liked, since Mahler was well-known to change his mind about such details, since Mahler\u2019s other disciples (e.g., Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer) take a much smaller retard, there is no official version.<\/p>\n

Mahler himself last conducted the Fourth Symphony in New York \u2013 with his New York Philharmonic in 1911. We know two pertinent details about that performance, which came a decade after the symphony was composed. The first \u2013 barely believable — is from a member of the orchestra interviewed by William Malloch in 1964. He testified that Mahler had the violins swoop up to the G with a glissando starting perhaps an octave lower. The second detail is something I just learned from John Mauceri\u2019s recent Maestros and Their Music:<\/a> The Art and Alchemy of Conducting. <\/em><\/p>\n

Mauceri \u2013 a conductor teeming with ideas about how music should be performed \u2013 discovered that Mahler\u2019s New York score bears a notation in the conductor\u2019s hand that insists that the sleigh bells and flutes not retard along with the violins \u2013 a startling instruction, because if followed literally it demands that for one and half beats the sleigh bells and flutes are out of synch with the first violins (and also the clarinets, by the way).<\/p>\n

Mauceri recounts sharing this discovery with his mentor Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein, it turned out, was aware of it already. Then why didn\u2019t you do it? Mauceri asked. \u201cBecause I chickened out,\u201d Bernstein said. And then Bernstein changed his mind. As Mauceri notes, it\u2019s all documented in sound.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a> is Bernstein\u2019s New York Philharmonic recording.<\/p>\n

And here<\/a> is Bernstein\u2019s subsequent Vienna Philharmonic recording, in which the sleigh bells and flutes don\u2019t slow down.<\/p>\n

The difference is so subtle you might call it insignificant but it is not. What Mahler is suggesting, in 1911, is that he has composed a kind of musical mosaic in which the two components, rather than blending, are wholly distinct. (Mauceri likens the effect to \u201ca musical cross-fade . . . the aural equivalance of what happens in a movie when one scene dissolves into another.\u201d) And indeed this was a direction Mahler pursued in his later symphonic style. Personally, I now prefer the passage without the \u201ctraditional\u201d retard in the sleigh bells and flutes. It would be interesting to hear it juxtaposed with a Mengelberg retard in the violins.<\/p>\n

Mauceri\u2019s book shares other such details. It remarkably succeeds, it seems to me, in combining a fluent narrative for neophytes \u2013 what does a conductor do? \u2013 with detailed examples felicitously described.<\/p>\n

In Porgy and Bess<\/em>, for instance, Mauceri observes that both \u201cSummertime\u201d and \u201cA Woman is a Sometime Thing\u201d bear the same metronome marking. And yet today we always hear the first sung slower than the second. Both, Mauceri points out, are lullabies \u2013 and Gershwin, he believes, is making a point of that. Mauceri follows suit in his own Porgy and Bess<\/em> recording.<\/p>\n

The composer whose intentions most interest me is Antonin Dvorak. I feel I know a few things others do not. There is no question in my mind, for instance, that the violin tremolos in the C-sharp minor section of the New World<\/em> Symphony\u2019s famous Largo were inspired by the chill of winter. We know from Michael Beckerman\u2019s pathbreaking research that Dvorak was here inspired by the death of Minnehaha, in Longfellow\u2019s famous Hiawatha<\/em> poem of 1855. If you read that passage, it\u2019s partly about the weather:<\/p>\n

Oh\u00a0the\u00a0long\u00a0and\u00a0dreary\u00a0Winter!
\nEver\u00a0thicker,\u00a0thicker,\u00a0thicker
\nFroze\u00a0the\u00a0ice\u00a0on\u00a0lake\u00a0and\u00a0river,
\nEver\u00a0deeper,\u00a0deeper,\u00a0deeper
\nFell\u00a0the\u00a0snow\u00a0o’er\u00a0all\u00a0the\u00a0landscape,<\/p>\n

The opening of the Scherzo of the New World<\/em> Symphony was inspired by the Dance of Pau-Puk-Keewis at Hiawatha\u2019s wedding. That, I am sure, is why Dvorak introduces a triangle \u2013 it\u2019s inspired by the bells on his moccasins. The reason I am sure is that there is also an Indian dance in Dvorak\u2019s American<\/em> Suite \u2013 and it, too, uses a triangle.<\/p>\n

And what difference does that make? Dvorak did not write a programmatic symphony. He did not expect us to hear the tremolos and think: \u201cwinter.\u201d We are not intended to know that the triangle has anything to do with footwear. Rather, these are private associations that guided Dvorak toward delicious instrumental touches.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it seems to me that knowing that the G minor theme of the first movement of the New World<\/em> Symphony is an elegiac \u201cIndian\u201d theme does tangibly bear on musical interpretation. As with the C-sharp minor \u201cIndian\u201d theme in the third movement of the American<\/em> Suite, we have here a plaintive tune for unison oboes and flutes, a flatted seventh, a drone accompaniment, and a pianissimo reprise. I like the conceit that the hushed reprise (which in the case of the symphony is assigned to second violins, not firsts) evokes the fated extinction of the Native American. All of which suggests to me that this little theme deserves a slower tempo than the main Allegro molto. And everything I know about the symphony\u2019s first conductor, Anton Seidl (the hero of my book Wagner Nights<\/a>: An American History<\/em>), tells me that he would have slowed down here.<\/p>\n

Bernstein was a conductor who happened to insist that there was nothing \u201cAmerican\u201d about the New World<\/em> Symphony. When he recorded it with the New York Philharmonic, he would not have known about its close relationship with The Song of Hiawatha<\/em>, because Beckerman hadn\u2019t yet discovered all that. In his Philharmonic recording, he takes the G minor theme briskly \u2013 at 3:03\u00a0here.<\/a> See if you think it conveys Dvorak\u2019s empathy for the Native American.<\/p>\n

How important are a composer\u2019s intentions, whether implicit or explicit? My thinking is more lenient than Mauceri\u2019s. I prefer \u201cSummertime\u201d at a slower tempo than \u201cA Woman is a Sometime Thing.\u201d We know that Gershwin told John Bubbles, the original Sportin\u2019 Life, to pick his own tempos. Was he equally lenient with Abbie Mitchell and Edward Matthews? Based on other reports, I would say: very probably.<\/p>\n

My favorite performance of any Porgy and Bess<\/em> number is Ruby Elzy\u2019s version of \u201cMy Man\u2019s Gone Now\u201d at the Gershwin Memorial Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It combines the pathos of a Billie Holiday with the high notes of a Leontyne Price. It also is shaped by an un-notated range of tempo and nuance no singer would attempt today.<\/p>\n

Stravinsky is the antipode who insisted that there was only one correct way to interpret his music. But Stravinsky\u2019s own Stravinsky recordings don\u2019t back that up. He also insisted that his music was only about itself. And yet there can be no doubt that the finale of his Symphony in Three Movements was inspired by specific newsreel images of World War II. This is a topic I have addressed at length in this space<\/a>. Here<\/a> is the evidence.<\/p>\n

A lot of the music we hear \u2013 a lot more of it than we realize \u2013 was inspired by stories, characters, and pictures. The opening of Mahler\u2019s Fourth is a likely example. The New World<\/em> Symphony is an example. The Symphony in Three Movements is an example. For the most part, the evidence is unrecoverable. But the attempt can matter. Wagner, in one of his essays, said the highest goal of musical interpretation is to extrapolate such meanings (he offered as an example a story for Beethoven\u2019s Op. 131 String Quartet).<\/p>\n

Anyone conducting the New World<\/em> Symphony needs a story for the idiosyncratic ending \u2013 why is there a dirge, and a final chord diminishing to silence? In this instance, we can plausibly infer that Dvorak is thinking of the ending of his source poem \u2013 Hiawatha departing into \u201cthe purple mists of evening.\u201d And what about that funeral march in the slow movement of his G major Symphony? The entire movement is obviously story-based. But we have no clues at hand. So conductors have to invent a story and run with it. Many don\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n

I remember once asking this question of Gerhardt Zimmermann, a wonderful Dvorak interpreter who now teaches at the University of Texas, Austin. \u201cWhat\u2019s the slow movement of the Dvorak G major Symphony about?\u201d His story tumbled right out. I no longer remember what it was, and it isn\u2019t important. It doesn\u2019t matter if it happens to conform with Dvorak\u2019s story, whatever that might be. What matters is that the story works for Gerhardt.<\/p>\n

(For much more on Dvorak’s extra-musical meanings, here<\/a> is the pertinent “PostClassica<\/a>l” broadcast. And here<\/a> is a pertinent article for the Times Literary Supplement<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As all Mahlerites know, the opening of the Fourth Symphony is both magical and mutable. A preamble of chiming sleigh bells and flutes dissipates to a cheerful violin ditty that coyly retards as it ascends to the tonic G. Mahler writes \u201cetwas zuruckhaltend\u201d (\u201csomewhat held back\u201d). But really anything goes. The champion retarder is Willem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-ga","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}