Music And Bad Manners (Paperback)

COPYRIGHT r9M, BY Alt r ignis resefved PRINTED Itf THK UNITED SXATSfl OF AMERICA To my Father Contents PAGE Music AND BAD MANNERS 11 Music FOR THE MOVIES 4 SPAIN AND Music t SHALL WE REALIZE WAGNERS IDEALS 165 THE BRIDGE BURNERS 169 A NEW PRINCIPLE IN Music 217 LEO ORNSTEIN Music and Bad Manners Music and Bad Manners SINGERS, musicians of all kinds, are notori ously bad mannered. The storms of the Titan, Beethoven, the petty malevolences of Richard Wagner, the weak sulkiness of Chopin Chopin in displeasure was appalling, writes George Sand, and as with me he always con trolled himself it was as if he might die of suffoca tion have all been recalled in their proper places in biographies and in fiction but no attempt has been made heretofore, so far as I am aware, to lump similar anecdotes together under the some what castigating title I have chosen to head this article. Nor is it alone the performer who gives exhibitions of bad manners. As a matter of fact, once an artist reaches the platform he is on his mettle, at his best. At home he or she may be ruthless in his passionate display of floods of temperament, I have seen a soprano throw a pork roast on the floor at dinner, the day before a performance of Wagners consecra tional festival play, with the shrill explanation, Pork before Parsifal On the street he may shatter the clouds with his lightnings as, indeed, Beethoven is said to have done but on the stage he becomes, as a rule, a superhuman being, an in Music and Bad Manners terpreter, a mere virtuoso. Of course, there are exceptions. Audiences, as well, may be relied upon to behave badly on occasion. An auditor is not necessarily at his best in the concert hall. He may have had abad dinner, or quarrelled with his wife before arriving. At any rate he has paid his money and it might be expected that he would make some demonstration of disapproval when he was displeased. The extraordinary thing is that he does not do so oftener. On the whole it must be admitted that audiences remain unduly calm at concerts, that they are unreasonably polite, in deed, to offensively inadequate or downright bad interpretations. I have sat through perform ances, for example, of the Russian Symphony So ciety in New York when I wondered how my fel low-sufferers could display such fortitude and patience. When Prince Igor was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House the ballet, danced in defiance of all laws of common sense or beauty, almost compelled me to throw the first stone. The parable saved me. Still one doesnt need to be without sin to sling pebbles in an opera house. And it is a pleasure to remember that there have been occasions when audiences did speak up In those immeasurably sad pages in which 12

General

Imprint:	Read Books
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	March 2007
First published:	March 2007
Authors:	Carl Van Vechten
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 14mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	248
ISBN-13:	978-1-4067-3912-1
Categories:	Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > General Books > Music > General
LSN:	1-4067-3912-X
Barcode:	9781406739121

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