Early Music Defended Against Its Devotees: a Theory of Historical

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Early Music Defended against Its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performance in the Twentieth Century Author(s): Laurence Dreyfus Reviewed work(s): Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Summer, 1983), pp. 297-322 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/742175 . Accessed: 01/12/2012 19:03

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SUMMER, 1983 Vol. LXIX, No. 3 scH7I RM f THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY

Early Music Defendedagainst its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performancein the Twentieth Century

LAURENCE DREYFUS

Tryingto develop a new theory,we mustfirst takea stepback from the evidence and recon- siderthe problem of observation. - Paul K. Feyerabend,Against Method

A Theoryof EarlyMusic?

ITHIN thecultural phenomenon called "Early Music," there W has been little,if any, philosophical reflection on itsown activ- ity.There is,of course, a largeand growingliterature which charts the day-to-daycourse of historicalperformance. But thelanguage hereis pragmatic,designed to answerthe question: How ought we to per- formthis? This concernmay be entirelylegitimate. But once we wish to explore the motivationsunderlying this question, to understand why late twentieth-centuryculture should place such a value on historically"correct" renditions of centuries-oldmusic-in effect,

297

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 298 The Musical Quarterly once we wish toarticulate a theoryof Early Music-there seemsto be a conspiracyof silence.' When thequestion is raisedat all, we are most ofteninformed that Early Music resultedfrom the progress of modern musicology.But thismerely displaces the problem onto musicology. More commonlythe question is answeredwith a logic thatsounds oddlytheological: "Thou shaltperform the music in accordancewith thecomposer's intentions, for this is (H)is will." Authenticrenditions, it appears, are ethicallysuperior to inauthenticones. Many people apparentlyfind this argumentpersuasive. Yet as a justificationfor historicalperformance, much less a theoryof genesis and structure,it is evasive and empty.Small wonderthat the criticsof Early Music remainunconvinced and continueto view it as a hoax or nuisance. But ifEarly Music is indeedsomething more than a passingantiquar- ian fad, then it requiresa theoryembracing both explanation and critique.A theoryshould no doubt answerthe detractors. But, curi- ously,it mustalso rescueEarly Music fromits moralizingdevotees. But what is "Early Music?" Certainlynot only theset of musical objectscomprising the older repertories of European music.For this definitionwould gloss all too neatly over the firstquestion of a theoreticalinquiry: namely,Why has a sectorof "serious" music culturedevoted itself to therecovery of forgottenrepertories, instruments,and practices?It is thereforemore useful to defineEarly Music as a late twentieth-centuryensemble of social practicesinstead of restrictingit to the workswhich occasion the interest.To be blunt: EarlyMusic signifiesfirst of all people and only secondarilythings. A brieflisting of theactors and theirprops is necessary.First there are the performers(professionals and amateurs of varyingprofi- ciency),together with the teachersand scholars,this last group pri- marilymusicologists but also otherhumanists interested in dance, theater,iconography, and culturalhistory. Then thereare thosein the supportingprofessions such as luthiersand otherinstrument makers, music publishers,newspaper critics, concert managers and agents, recordcompany executives, and sound engineers.And complement- ing theseactive participantsare the consumers-the ever-growing audiences,who are mostheavily concentrated in WesternEurope and (increasingly)in NorthAmerica, but who bynow span theglobe from

1 The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980),for example, does not contain an articleentitled "Early Music," nor any coherentdiscussion of the twentieth- centuryrevival of earlierrepertories, instruments, and practices.

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Melbourne to Moscow. We must mentionthe visible tools of the trade-those exteriorsigns of Early Music-the "original instruments": both antique and reconstructedviols, "baroqued" violins, pluckedlutes, harpsichords and organs,winds of endlessvariety, and a vastarray of percussion. Only thendo we arriveat themusic itself: a massivecorpus extendingfrom liturgical chant of the Middle Ages throughClassical symphoniesof theeighteenth century and (at the presentwriting) casting a covetousglance at thenineteenth century. Finally thereare the keysthat unlock the doors to historicalrecon- struction:the didactic treatises, the archival documents, and theico- nographical and notationalevidence which formthe basis for the discipline"performance practice." If thereis an idea whichcements together this diverse collection of people and things,it is authenticity.Whether or not it is named,this highlycharged concept underlies every conscious act of EarlyMusic. One mightwonder exactly what is meantby it. First,as a regulative ideal, authenticityexpresses a supposed opposition to the self- aggrandizingindividualism prevalent in Mainstreammusical praxis. In the typicalversion of thiswidespread myth, the individualMain- streamartist harnesses the musical text to his own will, thereby glorifyingself-expression at theexpense of the composer's intentions. A musicianhumbled by authenticity, on theother hand, acts willingly in theservice of the composer, thereby committing himself to "truth," or,at thevery least, accuracy. But there'sthe rub. For ifwe peerbehind theuplifting language, we findthat one attainsauthenticity by follow- ing the textbookrules for "scientific method." Early Music, in other words,does notpreach some empathetic leap intothe past in an act of imaginativeVerstehen. What it has in mind is a strictlyempirical programto verifyhistorical practices, which, when all is said and done, are magicallytransformed into thecomposer's intentions. Au- thenticityin EarlyMusic, then,is groundedin a philosophicalposi- tion I shall call objectivism.By "objectivism"I mean above all the epistemologicalproposition that knowledge is assuredby accurately describingthings in the world withouttaking stock of the biased vantage point fromwhich the (human) observerperceives the phe- nomena. Only bymaintaining this strict separation of subject-object can Early Music restrictitself in practiceto empiricalaccumulation and researchwhile claiming authenticityin principle as a moral value.

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Adornoon EarlyMusic

There is no betterdiagnosis of this objectivismthan thatof the Frankfurt-Schoolcritic, Theodor W. Adorno,in thefew passages he devotesto "historicalperformance.''2 To be sure,Adorno is no friend of EarlyMusic. Having evengone so faras to castigateStravinsky for his causticreturn to a pseudo-Baroqueidiom-branding it a regres- sion in consciousness--thismandarin of modernismis unlikelyto have anythingkind to sayabout EarlyMusic's wholesaleevacuation of the twentiethcentury.3 On theother hand, Adorno'spronounce- mentspierce forcefully through the well-intentioned but pitiful apol- ogeticsthat characterizes most discussions of EarlyMusic. Although his conclusions,as we shall see,are quite wrongheaded,his orientation providesan excellentintroduction to a more comprehensive theory. Adorno'smost substantive criticism focuses on theillusive objec- tivitywhich underlies the notion of Werktreue--loyaltyto the musical work.He pointsout thatwhile no one would claim thatthe essence of a musicalwork is tantamountto thesum of historically demonstrable factssurrounding its performance,the "fansof old music" go right ahead claimingthat authenticity is guaranteedby reconstructing the relevantinstruments, texts, and practices.But in so doingEarly Music has no room forcrucial nonempirical considerations--such as emo- tional expressionor the meaning of a work-without which, all would agree, music making is inconceivable.As Adorno puts it: "Objectivityis not leftover once the subject is subtracted."4More perniciously,he sensesthat this theoretical exclusion actually encourages theliquidation of subjectivity. That is,since the daily preoccupa- tion of Early Music stressesthe objective retrieval of historicalprac-

2 Adorno discussesthe matterin threeplaces: (1) in a 1951article entitled "Bach gegen seineLiebhaber verteidigt" ("Bach DefendedAgainst his Devotees"),later collected in a volume called Prismen(Berlin, 1955; Frankfurt, 1967), pp. 178-79,trans. Samuel and ShierryWeber as Prisms (London, 1967;Cambridge, Mass., 1981),pp. 145-46;(2) in the chapteron "Types of Musical Conduct" fromthe Einleitung in die Musiksoziologie(Frankfurt, 1973), Gesammelte Schriften,XIV, 187-90;trans. E.B. Ashtonas Introductionto theSociology of Music (New York, 1976),pp. 9-11; (3) in an articlefrom 1966 entitled "Der MissbrauchteBarock" ("The Abused Baroque"), collectedin thevolume Ohne Leitbild(Frankfurt, 1967), pp. 133-57,esp. pp. 149-55. 3 Philosophie derneuen Musk (Tubingenf,1949; Frankfurt, 1975), Gesammelte Schriften, XII, 188,trans. Anne G. Mitchelland WesleyV. Blomsteras Philosophyof Modern Music (New York, 1973),p. 207. 4 Adorno,Prismen, p. 176;Prisms, p. 144.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 301 tices,it fostersthe attitude that subjectivity in interpretation(whether in performanceor in criticism)is irrelevantor, at best,unknowable. While proudlyproclaiming its historical credentials, Early Music manages to overlooksome glaringinconsistencies. For example,the concernto reproduce"the Baroque sound" uncriticallyabsolutizes a nineteenth-centuryconcept of orchestrationthat did not yetexist in theearly eighteenth century. In otherwords, the reconstruction of the original instrumentsverifiably used by a medieval,Renaissance, or Baroque composeris takenas essentialto themeaning of themusic beforethe idea ofessential instrumentation becomes historically oper- able. On a deeper level, Early Music has imposed the notion of authenticityon composersfor whom the term is meaningless;in other words, for those who have not yet imagined the metaphysicsof Goethe's Fassung letzterHand, throughwhich the intentionedtext becomesdiscrete from its reproduction.5 In one sense,then, the histo- ricistsare bad historians;they fail to takestock, as do all objectivists,of theirown historicity. Adornoalso pointsout thatobjectivism tends to relegate questions of aestheticvalue and critique to a secondary,if not meaningless, statusunder the guise of furthering rigorous scholarship. The bedrock of this position is of course the prevailing doctrineof historical relativism,according to which no artisticepoch is regardedas superior to any other.This assertionis in itselfnot too problematic.But in a neat sleight of hand, the objectivistextends his relativisma step further,so thateach workof art mysteriously becomes the equal ofits contemporary.We maybest observe this tendency in modernmusi- cology,which has producedan enormousapologetic literature de- signedto rescue the "minor masters." Often prompted by a searchto discoverthe origins of a genre(e.g. "Jacques Buus wrote the first and longestmonothematic ricercar") or theantecedents of a style(e.g. "Sammartini'ssymphonies contain the kernel of the mature Classical style"),this Kleinmeister-compulsion figures as a levelingdevice by whichall worksare reduced to a manifestationofthe lowest common denominator.One can easilysee how congenialthis doctrine (or methodologicalconsequence) is toEarly Music, which treats all Ger- manBaroque composers by one normof German "Baroque" performancepractice. As Adorno so impudentlyputs it: "They say Bach, but

5 See Georgvon Dadelsen, "Die 'Fassung letzterHand' in derMusik," Acta musicologica, XXXIII (1961), 1-14.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 302 The Musical Quarterly meanTelemann."6 Forwhat we havehere is nothingless than a grand nivellementof value so thatone interpretsBach, forexample, only in termsof themost common features of periodstyle. Adorno triesto cast theobjectivist sensibility in a psycho-social mold by seeingit as a formof contemporaryressentiment, an angry, puritanicalresistance to thereign of emotionprevalent in therecep- tion of the Mainstream Classical repertory.By fusing together Nietzscheand Freud,albeit in a somewhatobscure manner, Adorno has distilleda powerfulinsight. For although on thesurface the Early- Music enthusiastappears as highbrowas the traditional"Classical music" buff,his aestheticintent is of a whollydifferent order. One might,for example, say thatthe Mainstreamlistener is attractedto music, usually of a late-Romantichue, because of the low cost of affectiveoutput: he feelsdrained yet fulfilled by identifyingwith the emotionalebb and flowof the piece. The Early-Musicfan, on theother hand,not onlycurbs his pleasurableresponse to themusic, but brags about his commandof authentic historical facts-the justification for theinstruments and editionsused, forexample. Indeed,he is proud not to be emotingover Tchaikovsky'sPathetique and considershis sobrietya markof superiority. But thissomewhat peculiar stance may in factstem, according to Adorno, from a desireto liquidateRomantic subjectivity,which appears as a formof promiscuity. The ironyhere is thatthe puritan has implantedthe civilized ban on the uninhibited expressionof feelings(the mimetictaboo) directlyinto theart form whose purpose it was, in the firstplace, to sublimateit.' Music, a cultural outlet for sdcially imprisonedsubjectivity, is then transformedinto a place ofcontainment, a prisonfor feelings. If Adorno is right,then objectivism is not some value-freeconsumer choice, but, above all, a rationalizationfor a defensiveposture. The tablesare now turned.For, as Adornosees it, the Early-Music fansare theones who,in theirobjectivist zeal, havedistorted the great musicof the past. As forBach, "They havemade him intoa composer fororgan festivals in well-preservedBaroque towns,into ideology."' It must be made clear,however, that Adorno is not proposingas a superior alternativethe standard neo-Romantic practice of the

6 Adorno,Prismen, p. 177;Prisms, p. 145. 7 On the mimetictaboo in culture generally,see Max Horkheimerand Theodor W. Adorno,Dialektik der Aufkliarung (Frankfurt, 1969). pp. 149-50;Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans.John Cumming (New York, 1972),pp. 141-42. 8 Adorno,Prismen, p. 163;Prisms, 136.

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Mainstream-theGreat Conductor leading theswarming chorus and orchestrain enervatingrenditions of thePassions. Ratherhe is ques- tioningwhether anything was gained by exchangingone distortion for another.(Later we shall see that much was gained.) However, Adorno'ssolution, if it can be called that,is notreally an answerat all but a retreatinto the innersanctum of the FrankfurtInstitute. For fromwithin this theoreticalsanctuary it is easy to condemnevery contemporaryattempt to performBach as ideologically tainted. Adorno prefersinstead to see Schoenbergand Webernas the true interpretersof Bach, forhaving channeled their engagement with the past into "contemporary"orchestrations of his keyboardworks, they remain"loyal to his heritageby breakingfaith with it."' They then are Bach's truedevotees. This displacementfrom reception onto production(that is, fromperformance onto composition)is a neat trick, but it will delude no one. And yet,Adorno may have no otherchoice. For ifEarly Music is groundedin a neuroticneed to repressfeelings, how can it be anythingmore than a dredgingoperation for historical residue? Beforerecoiling from Adorno (either in shockor in amusement), one ought to localize thesource of his discomfort.For Adorno did not know Early Music as it blossomed in the late 1960sand 1970s but confrontedthe more barbaric gropings of the 1950sand a bitbeyond. (He died in 1969.)This was theperiod of the "sewing-machine" style, sometimescalled the "Vivaldi revival,"when German chamberor- chestrasenthusiastically took up "terraceddynamics," when historically mindedconductors urged players to stop "phrasing,"and when repeatsigns in the music occasioned a blaze of premeditatedembel- lishments."Motoric rhythms," it seemed,revealed a new species of musicalgratification-the freedom from feeling. "Let themusic speak foritself" was thebattle cry. In practice:substitute brittle harpsichords forgrandiloquent Steinways, pure Baroque organsfor lush Romantic ones,cherubic choirboys for wobbly prime donne, intimate ensembles foroverblown orchestras, the Urtext for doctored editions, then one is trueto Bach (or whomever)and his intentions.The musicalresults of thisearly purism were so sterilethat we can hardlycriticize Adorno for having missed the seeds of a criticalnew development.Instead, he focused insightfullyon the grimaced faces of the sanctimonious participants.

Adorno,Prismen, p. 179.

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But,Adorno aside, thequestion remains whether the situation in EarlyMusic todaydiffers so fundamentallyfrom that of the 1950s. The latter-dayEarly-Music enthusiast will likely object: "Wait just a moment!We've come a long waysince the 1950s."In thishe is surely right.Of course one would not want to commita geneticfallacy, mistakingthe origin of a phenomenonfor its subsequentform. On theother hand, one mustgrant that the objectivist program of authenticityand its relatedrelativism remain wholly intact. It is merelythe sum of factsabout instruments,practices, and circumstanceswhich has swelled:the method appears more impressive, even sophisticated. But if we honestlyevaluate theartistic quality of most Early-Music performances,then there are ample instancesof wretchedrenditions ground out by stony-facedchampions of authenticityto grant to Adorno'sdiagnosis a good measureof truth. WhatAdorno cannot account for-and thisis a crucialpoint-are EarlyMusic's manifestsuccesses. His theoryis, for example, unable to deal witha performersuch as GustavLeonhardt. For hereis someone who has readthe treatises, consulted the proper sources, is technically withoutpar, yet arrives at thought-provokingradical interpretations. Perhaps,one could saywith no smallirony, Adorno has suspendedhis own dialectic.For I hope toshow thatit was thissame deception in the realm of ideas-the objectivistprogram of authenticity--whichfos- tered, paradoxically, one of the more critical developmentsin twentieth-centurymusic. But one does not discoverthe real advances of Early Music, as most would have it, in the outward signs of historicity-the"original" instruments,verifiable performing forces, or text-criticaleditions-but in therevised operations in theminds of the players.This means thatthe most crucial interpretivesectors of performance-articulation,phrasing, tempo, rhythm,and tone production-do notremain metaphysical universals beyond the grasp of historybut emergeas weapons thatforce Mainstream culture to confrontits own historicity.At its mostsuccessful, Early Music does not returnto thepast at all but reconstructsthe musical object in the hereand now, enablinga new and hithertosilenced subject to speak. To surveyand connectthese seemingly discrete moments within Early Music is, as I see it, theaim of an adequate theory.

The Birthof EarlyMusic and theRepression of thePresent The arrivalof Early Music coincided with the most profound crisis in European musical culture in which the middle-class public

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 305 soundlyrepudiated an avant-gardethat dared to forsaketraditional tonality.One mightsay thatboth EarlyMusic and earlymodernism occupy nearlyanalogous positionswith regardto the Mainstream. Whereas the avant-gardestrode forward in advancing the cause of historicaltime, Early Music tookan equidistantleap in theopposite direction.But while theavant-garde could not fail to recognizethe graveconsequences of its actions, Early Music was blissfullyignorant of its historicalstatus. For to maintainequilibrium in a mythical kingdomof thepast, replete with courtly values and (palpably) har- moniousrelations, Early Music paid a price:it forcibly repressed every sign of thepresent. This is not to say thatEarly Music was pointedlyantimodernist. Its day-to-dayactivity, with few exceptions, made sureto brushaway theproblems of torturedhumanity, like all formsof antiquarianism, into therecesses of theunconscious. What it promisedwas a senseof stability,an illusion of serenity,a "haven in the heartlessworld." Neitherwas EarlyMusic in anysense a Neo-Classicmovement. It was not remotelyinterested in convertingliving composers to thejoys of pre-Romanticidioms. Nor was it even concernedto integrateitself into Mainstreaminstitutions: from the first it saw itselfas something apart fromthe real world. Indeed, Early Music drew a wondrous curtainon realityand celebratedits devotion to thepast byresurrect- ing the relics of that beckoning age-the "antique" instruments themselves.To the same extent,then, that "modern music" circa 1890-1914exposed theraw nerveof social disharmonyin theform of the neuroticutterance, Early Music redressedthe imbalance by re- pressingthe nightmarish present and mountinga grandrestoration of theglorious past. Whereasthe Mainstream had said "no" to modernism, EarlyMusic forgotit was traumatized. This kind of amnesia surfacesin thework of Arnold Dolmetsch, perhaps the most famous pioneer in Early Music. For despite his enormouspretentions to historicalaccuracy and empiricalmethod,'0 one sometimesgets the impression that he not only wishedto revive thepast, but actually to improveon it. Take, forexample, his recon- structionof the harpsichordin a now-forgottenaccount fromthe 1930s by his pupil Robert Donington." We learn, perhaps to our

10 Dolmetsch's major work was his Interpretationof the Music of the Seventeenthand EighteenthCenturies (London, 1915). 11Robert Donington, The Workand Ideas of ArnoldDolmetsch (Haslemere, 1932), p. 8.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 306 The Musical Quarterly surprise,that Dolmetsch was notentirely happy withhis reconstruc- tive labors. Even afterscrupulously rebuilding a historicalcopy, it seemsthat theold harpsichordhas certain limitations [and produces]a jangle,slight in thetreble but audible in thebass. [Moreover,the] use of thedamper-raising pedal (correspond- ing to the sustainingpedal of the piano) is renderedimpracticable, precluding a numberof effectsof greatmusical value. The solution:

[Dolmetsch's] new instruments,which remedythese historicaloversights, have provedboth purer and moresustained than any previousharpsichord.'2 One could easilymake light of Dolmetsch's "fidelity" to history,but I findmuch more interestingDonington's view that the Dolmetsch "improvements"are good commonsense. Progress marches on, and it is irrelevantthat two hundred years have meanwhileintervened. Not only,then, is therepudiation of theworld as is forgottenbut also the grandretreat itself. EarlyMusic as Defamiliarization

How ironic,then, that Early Music, cowering from harsh reality, ought to turnaround and administerthe same shock which,at its inception,it sought to stifle. For thereis no escapinga relativelyrecent trendin which criticstreat Early Music as if it werea rebelliousand rampagingmodernism. Of course this metamorphosisfrom traum- atizedrefugee to agentprovocateur was a gradualprocess. But begin- ning in the1970s it becameclear thatEarly Music was nota harmless bit of antiquarianism but a sweeping movementable to rock the foundationsof Mainstreammusical culture. For what had been thoughtof as durableand traditionalmasterpieces, especially of Ba- roque music,became alienated, indeed "defamiliarized" in a disturb- ing departurefrom expected norms. I referhere to thepriem ostran- enie ("device of making strange") made famous by the Russian Formalists.For in a similarway to the processes of literary production, the operationsperformed by Early Music "tear the object out of its habitual context . .. and force a heightened awareness."'" One per- ceivesthis most vividly in EarlyMusic's ability to inflectlong melodic

12 Ibid., pp. 9-10. 13 VictorErlich, Russian Formalism (The Hague, 1955; New Haven, 1981), pp. 176-77.See also FredricJameson, The Prison House of Language (Princeton,1972), pp. 50-54.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 307 lines witha seriesof mercurialgestures, to defusegrandiose cadences intogrammatical ending points, to endowdance rhythmswith unex- pectedlilts and graces,and to deploya wide varietyof tonal colorsin new ways.The Mainstreamlistener, who believeshis preferredmas- terpiecesforever safe from tampering, is now compelledto sit impo- tentlyby as an unwittingiconoclast knocks down his favoriteClassi- cal knick-knacks,reminding him preciselyof thatfractured frame of mind,which, with Great Music, he hoped to forget. Defamiliarization,moreover, displaces theattention from the in- terpreteronto thecomposition. Consider, for example, the way one usuallyjudges performancesof, say, the Elgar Cello Concerto(Casals, Fournier,Rostropovitch, DuPre). Then contrastthis with theusual mannerof reviewing performances of Bach's BrandenburgConcertos (eithera Mainstreamor an Early-Musicrendition). With the Elgar, we admire (or object to) various "interpretations"based on the per- former'sapproach to sound, tempo, Romantic feeling,and taste. What is strikingis that any particularjudgment leaves the Elgar concertountouched. Questions regarding its meaning or value rarely appear on the agenda. Not so with our Early Musicians tampering with the BrandenburgConcertos. The choice betweenperforming styleshere is anythingbut value free,for preferring one overthe other amountsto a manifestopro or contraauthenticity. Are you in favorof respectingBach's intentions,or are you a proponentof theelan vital? The aestheticevaluation here is irrelevant:the point is thatthe "meaning" of J. S. Bach gets mentionedin the firstplace. All at once, it becomesmost important to takesides: you eithersubscribe to authen- ticitytout court, seek compromises to appease thepurists, or else put up withinauthentic renditions of famous Baroque musicwhile making appropriateapologies formoral weaknessesin thisarea should you be takento task.'4

14 Interestingin thisregard is an articlein The New YorkTimes, March21, 1982,entitled "The RebornBach Aria Group." "The Bach AriaGroup playson moderninstruments.'We all have gratitudeand admirationfor people like Nikolaus Harnoncourt,who have done so much workwith authentic instruments and performances,'says Mr. [Samuel] Baron. But it does not mean that his is the only way. You don't have to reconstructthe Globe Theatreto presenta meaningfulShakespeare performance .... My personal hero was Karl Richter,the German conductor,who did so muchto clean up Bach performancepractices. Yet I feltsad thatat theend ofhis lifehe had todefend himself [because he was] behindthe times in mattersof authenticity.... [Even] withoutgoing to theold instruments,there's a lotof scrubbing up todo." In otherwords, theguilty modern player realizes he had betterrid himselfof outmoded practices. But note that EarlyMusic is not reallya respectedcolleague but an inimicaladversary.

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Throughthe logic of defamiliarization, Early Music turns around, forgetsthe moment of its genesis,and repeats(albeit in mutedform) theprovocation incited by its cultural adversary: it co-optsthe defiant screamof theearly avant-garde and itselfbecomes a threatto estab- lishedmusical values. Perhapsthis disruption can be explainedas a repetitioncompulsion. Freud describes the analysand's predicament in this way: "He is obliged to repeat the repressedmaterial as a contemporaryexperience instead of ... rememberingit as something belongingto thepast." 15 WhyEarly Music should need to forgetits original raison d'etreis not hard to imagine. Afterall, who today would freelyadmit thewish to live as a fixturein an antique shop, a perhaps valuable but dead museum piece? Who, moreover,would enjoyconceding that he has givenup on any meaningfulcontempo- raryart, and (what is worse)that he secretlywishes to annihilatethe specterof modernism?Thus thereare perfectlyplausible reasons why fantasiesof this order are concealed beneath such comfortable webs as authenticityand thecomposer's intentions. We can also understand why defamiliarizationin Early Music is not ordinarilyaccorded its due recognition:the disruption was unintentional.

The Language of Resistance

To theextent that defamiliarization within Early Music mimicked theprovocation first voiced by the avant-garde, it has also encouraged similarforms of resistance.On thesurface, this resistance manifests itselfin the sober calls formoderation: to revivehistorical perfor- manceis admirableto a point,but not ifit becomesfanatic. Yet ifwe examinethe metaphors used in theseinvocations to thegolden mean, itappears that Early Music has committedan inexcusableviolation of social mores,as if it has exhibitedsome horribledisease in polite society.The affrontthen demands some act of censurein orderto expose it, a public rebuke which the criticrationalizes as social responsibility. Consider firsttwo newspaperreviews of works by Schoenberg performedduring 1913-14:

Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony-self-torture of a flagellant who whips himself with a cat-o'-nine-tails while cursing himself! When a conglomeration of horns

15 SigmundFreud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Leipzig, Vienna,Zurich, 1920); rev. ed. trans.James Strachey (London, 1961),p. 12.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 309 pushes upwards throughthe strings,it sounds like the words,"You, monster!"A hideous modernsound of the scourge!Schoenberg's unappeasable natureis made clear: recklessself-mutilation and a recklessadmission: "I am like that!" A sortof cat-music,whining, wailing, desperate.... Schoenbergis uncontrolled.... He bares his breastin a furyof penitenceand shows his scars-and thespectacle is shocking. And yet,if people mentionBrahms's chastity, one ought to speak of Schoenberg's shamelessness.[Ernst Decsey, (Berlin) Signale, Feb. 4, 1914]16 Or else:

I fearand dislikethe music of ArnoldSchoenberg. ... It is thedecomposition of the art,I thought,as I held myselfin myseat. ... Whatdid I hear?At first,the sound of delicatechina shiveringinto a thousandluminous fragments. In thewelter of tonali- tiesthat bruised each otheras theypassed and repassed,in thepreliminary group of enharmoniesthat almost make the nose bleedand theeyes water, the scalp to freeze,I could not geta centralgrip on myself.Schoenberg is thecruelest of all composersfor he mingleswith his musicsharp daggers at whiteheat, with which he paresaway tiny slicesof his victim'sflesh. Anon he twiststhe knife in thefresh wound and youreceive anotherhorrible thrill. . .. Everycomposer has his aura; theaura ofArnold Schoen- bergis, forme, theaura of originaldepravity, of subtleugliness, of basestegoism, of hatredand contempt,of cruelty, and of themystic grandiose.... Ifsuch music making is everto becomeaccepted, then I long forDeath theReleaser."7 There is, I regretto say,not much in Early-Musiccriticism that rivalsthe honestyand literarycompetence in thesetwo texts.'8But a superiorcompetitor is foundin GerardZwang, a Frenchsurgeon and self-proclaimedsexologist, who, in his book of 1977,A Contre-Bruit, launches an unprecedentedattack on the infamyof Early Music.'9 Zwang complains thatFrench National Radio has succumbedto a conditionhe calls "Necrobaroquisme."In respondingto theallures of theauthenticity craze, he claims,the radio has propagatedthree evils: boys supplant women in churchchoirs, period instrumentsreplace "modern"ones, and worstof all musicianstune to Baroque pitch(a

16 Cited and translatedby Nicholas Slonimskyin his Lexicon of Musical Invective(New York,1952), pp. 156-57.I havemodified the translation slightly. 17James Gibbons Huneker, The New York Times, Jan. 19, 1913. Quoted in Slonimsky, pp. 153-54.Neither Decsey nor Huneker were ordinary philistines: Decsey was a pupilof Bruckner andan importantAustrian writer on music.Huneker popularized the works of Richard Strauss, and countedamong his friends G. B. Shawand HavelockEllis. 18Only in theearly days when, for example, a diaryentry of two Victorian ladies records attendinga Dolmetschconcert in 1892.They describe "toothache calling unto toothache ... physicaltorture ... nothingdivine in it." Cited in Margaret Campbell, Dolmetsch: The Man and hisMusic (Seattle, 1975), p. 69.Considering Dolmetsch's infamous dilettantism, this may simply beaccurate reportage. 19Gerard Zwang, A Contre-bruit(Paris, 1977).

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 310 The Musical Quarterly semitonebelow contemporary).Here is a sample of Zwang's tirade againstEarly Music:

A grandioseproject that only ends in . . . puttingback into circulationmusical vehicleswhich ought neverto have leftthe garage .... That is, old nails, bagpipes, jew's harps,screeching fiddles, out-of tune cigar-boxes whichonly proliferate like malignanttumors in thepoor bodyof Music insteadof gracing .., attics and fleamarkets. ... All thisworthless antiquarianism is vitiatedby a defectrendering it null and void: theyplay a half-stepbelow pitch.And this,no (real) musiciancan bear.... Luckyare thosemusic lovers with relative pitch. For theothers, it is impossibleto listenwithout discomfort,nausea, withoutclenching one's teeth. His solution:

I sayit in all tranquillity.Gustav Leonhardt and consort,Nikolaus Harnoncourtand sons,Frans Bruggen and assistantfifers, Kuijken &8 Co. are thepolluters of the musical environment.They createanti-art, anti-music. ... And it is withthe greatest joy that [I] would see all thoseguilty of musicaloutrages thrown into prison. Imprisonment mustbe coupled withthe destruction, by fire, of those old buggieswhich they have the effronteryto call musical instruments.20 More thansixty years separate Zwang fromDecsey and Huneker, yetthe strident tone and thearray of metaphors are strikinglysimilar. Pathologyis mostfrequent among theimages, with torture, murder, sin,and criminalityfollowing close behind.Zwang's own specialties includereferences to war, terrorism, and pollution,all ofwhich enrich an alreadyfertile field. Now it is clear why Schoenberg'scritics re- spond to him the way theydo. With Zwang, however,the "symp- toms"-low pitch, instrumentaland vocal sonoritiesper se-are simplytoo trivialto account forhis uncontrolledanger. Instead,it appears thatZwang is victimizedby a processof musicaldefamiliari- zation which has robbed him of prized possessions.2'It is less the Baroque violin that upsets Zwang's sensibilitiesthan the Baroque violinist'stinkering with musical fundamentals.22For Early Music

20 Ibid., pp. 41, 15, 16. 21 His complaints centerconsistently on repertorywhich he already knew; he abuses, moreover,not the typicallymediocre Early-Music dilettante but the leading playersof the advanceguard. 22 An example would be EarlyMusic's use ofvibrato which it sees as an additiveingredient similarto an ornament.Since vibratoin Mainstreampractice is omnipresent,it is tautological, or to use Roman Jakobson'sterm, "unmarked" with respect to expression:since italways refers to individualwarmth, it is almostmeaningless. In EarlyMusic, on theother hand, vibrato takes on a "marked"value whichenlarges the field of expression: senza vibrato no longerhas to mean senza espressioneas in evenadvanced contemporary music. Early Music thereforecriticizes the notionof expressivity as one metaphysicalunit either present or absent,viewing it insteadas a rangeof emotionsexperienced by the musicalsubject.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 311 enablesa powerfuland sometimesdisturbing insight into a historical subjectnot yetregimented by the dictatesof the cultureindustry, a subjectlocated beyondthe epistemological horizon of conventional "expressivity."In addition,it servesto underminethe mythic quali- ties of harmonyand restitutionwhich neo-Romanticculture had imputedto Baroque music.This, then,is perhapswhy Schoenberg's Chamber Symphonyof 1906 and Leonhardt'sBach in 1977 wreak similarhavoc. Musicologycontra Early Music

It is themusicological community, however, which offers the most substantiveresistance to Early Music. This may seem paradoxical. Afterall, thescholars were the ones who had nurturedEarly Music by discoveringthe musical repertories comprising it, by editing them so rigorously,and bypublishing the treatises. But above all themusicol- ogistschampioned the historicist view that music was conditionedby itstime. From here it was buta shortstep to thenecessary conclusion: Baroque musicrequires Baroque performancepractice. Indeed, it was largelythrough musicological lobbying(or so the storygoes) that Bach-Stokowskiwas deletedfrom symphony programs in the first place. But beginningin the 1960s,it became clear that the Early- Music progenywere coming into conflictwith theimplicit goals of postwarmusicology: accumulating, venerating, and (sometimes)em- balming theEuropean culturalheritage.23 The most significantform of musicological critique thriveson reprimandingEarly Music forits inadequate scholarship:that the specificpractices which Early-Musicadherents have read about in treatisesand seen confirmedin the musical notationare based on a faultylogic. The mostvisible proponent of thisview is undoubtedly FrederickNeumann, who has claimed since the 1960s that several importantconventions of Early Music are historicalmisinterpreta- tions.24According to him EarlyMusic has fallenprey to a "childhood disease" (again, pathology!)which

23 All theseactivities are understandableresponses to the demotionof high cultureby contemporarysociety. The question is whetherapologetics, however appropriate, is method- ologicallyjustifiable. Being limitedto thepositive, this orientation is oftenunable to deal with truth.On this point see Adorno,Philosophie, p. 33; Philosophy, p. 26. But fora brilliant antidoteto Adorno'snegativity, see Hans RobertJauss, Asthetische Erfahrung und literarische Hermeneutik,Bd. 1: Versucheim Feld der asthetischenErfahrung (Munich, 1977), trans. Michael Shaw,Aesthetic Experience and LiteraryHermeneutics (Minneapolis, 1982), pp. 13-21. 24 For a listof Neumann's publications,see his biographyin The New Grove.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 312 The Musical Quarterly is caused by a somewhatnaive trustin the infallibilityof historicaltreatises, the symptomsof [which]are manifestedin a faultyinterpretation of thesedocuments.25 Neumann's strategyis to show how theevidence of the treatises does not warrantthe conventional practices of Early Music. For in- stance,he claims thatthe overdotting of Frenchovertures, a promi- nenttrademark of Early Music, is a mythinvented by Dolmetsch. Not onlydo thewitnesses who allude to it (such as J.J. Quantz) arrivetoo late toconfirm a Baroque practice,but even notational evidence which pointsto overdottingargues for the contrary-that composers had to prescribeit because a conventionnever existed. Although it is not oftenmade explicit,Neumann's dismissal of Early Music's prized conventionsgives the clear impressionthat "modern" playersare perfectlyjustified in retaining the received wisdom of the Mainstream-"Play as written!"-since so-calledhistorical performance is a hoax. This is why,in a sense,Neumann stresses that the lesson his work teachesoutweighs the importance of his findings.As he puts it: Whenwe play theovertures, sarabandes, chaconnes, etc. of Lully, Rameau, Handel and Bach,it is a mistaketo deprive them of their majestic dignity in favorof thefrantic styleof jerks and jolts.[He is referringhere to overdottingin Frenchovertures.] In any case, for many listenersa prolongedseries of such jerks and jolts can be rather irritating.Others might find such a stylestimulating, perhaps because it reflectsthe nervoustensions of our age; theyhave theprivilege of theirtaste, but mustcease the claim of historicalauthenticity.26 Fromthe range of metaphors, one would thinkthat Early Music is somerevolutionary force trying to topplethe ancienp rigime. Not only does Early Music dethronethe monarchs("depriving them of their majesticdignity"); it compels themto do a sortof rock-and-roll(the twofold"jerks and jolts"). The keyfigure here is surelyBach, whom Neumann has takenspecial pains to protectfrom the suggestion that his overturesought to be dotted,that inequality ought to apply in his music, or that his trillsought regularlyto begin fromthe upper neighbor.Even thetitle of Neumann's recent monograph is revealing: Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music with Special Emphasis on J. S. Bach (Princeton,1978). No doubt Bach is the centerpieceof muchtwentieth-century work in performancepractice,

25 Neumann,"The dottednote and the so-called French style," Early Music, V (1977),311, trans.Raymond Harris and EdmundShay. The articlefirst appeared in Frenchin theRevue de musicologie,LI (1965). 26Neumann, "The dottednote," p. 323.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 313 but the"special emphasis"alludes to his almosticonlike status: Bach is viewedas a monument,which, if defaced,must contend with the wrathof the worshippers. This is whythe tone of Neumann's critique is so formidable. But tone is not substance,and thatis why this readingof Neu- mann's motivationsin no wayendangers his argument.Therefore, to disarm Neumann means to examine his methodologicalpremises. But by thisI do not only mean catalogingerrors in his logic.27 For Neumann's strengthlies in his claim that Early Music lacks the empiricalsupport to proveits argument. But theblame lies less with insufficientevidence than with Early Music's relianceon theempiri- cistmethodology in thefirst place. Specifically,Early Music has been forcedby its own fetishfor the historically accurate "fact" to succumb to the debatable view thatempiricism saves all, thatonly the most cautious inferencesmay be drawnfrom the "evidence," and thatonly thatwhich is demonstrableby verifiable data (theneo-positivist twist) is admissible. But if we look at thereal developmentof EarlyMusic, we do not findpassive bodies of factsinducing careful inferences. Instead there have been musicianscoming up with ever-changingtheories to explain what theywere reading in thetreatises, finding in thenotation, and learningabout theinstruments. Not onlyis theempiricist method- ology unhelpfulin thestudy of performancepractice: it was nevera model forthe progressof Early Music.28Instead, historical performance mustbe recognizedas an evolvingand necessarilyincomplete paradigm ratherthan as a set of documentedindex cards set atop inferencesculled fromfreshman logic texts.Viewed this way, Neu- mann no longerposes such a threat,since he can merelyknock down strawmen, and offerinstead the much touted"freedom" of Main- streamconventions. What he contributes,on the other hand, are useful anomalies that oblige Early Music to refineits hypotheses, rejectinga powerfultheory only when it can be replacedwith some- thingbetter. 27 David Fullerhas done a wittyjob ofthis in an articleentitled "Dotting, the 'French Style' and FrederickNeumann's Counter-Reformation," Early Music, V (1977),517-43. The religious metaphor is particularlyapt, for what betterway to describe Early Music than as a Reformation-thereturn to thetrue religion, the idols removedfrom church, and eventhe theses nailed to thedoor. The JesuiticalNeumann plies sophisticalarguments designed to confound the faithfuland reinstatethe supremacy of MotherChurch. 28 See, in thisregard, Paul K. Feyerabend,Against Method (London, 1975)and Sciencein a Free Society(London, 1978),and also Allan R. Keiler,"The EmpiricistIllusion: Narmour's BeyondSchenkerism," in Perspectivesof New Music, XVII (1978), 161-95.

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EarlyMusic and theAesthetic of Novelty

The repertoriesof medievaland Renaissance music, unlike Ba- roque and Classical music, had of course neverparticipated in the phase ofdefamiliarization, for they had neverbeen familiar in thefirst place. Instead,one mightconsider how theygave a new lease on lifeto thetraditional aesthetic category of novelty. According to thishistori- cal impulse,the objet d'art,like thecommodity, is requiredperpetu- ally toregenerate itself in a newguise. Built into this important motor in thehistory of art are, at first,a sense of "progress"in thearea oftaste and, later,a formof planned obsolescence.But it was of courseearly twentieth-centurymodernism which wreakedsuch havoc with the aestheticof novelty,confronting it with its own undesirableconse- quences-innovative artworkswhich conflicteddirectly with an op- posed aestheticof gratification.Thus, althoughthe stylistic development of the avant-gardewas conceivedas eminentlyrational (the Schoenbergsand Co. continuallyinsisted on theirdirect links with the past)29 the European middleclasses took thepath of leastresistance and dedicatedthemselves to a predictablestandard repertory. If we locate therevival of medievaland Renaissancemusic in this historicalcondition (which, tellingly,has changed littleover the courseof thiscentury), then it becomesclear thatthis sector of Early Music kills two birdswith one stone.First, it promisesprogress by producingan ever-"new"source of musical rarities for the future. And second,it promisesto be divertingand pleasurable.Thus, ifyou are concernedthat the Philharmonic has programmedBrahms's Second Symphonyfor the thirdtime this season, you can attendan Early- Music concert,where many repertories are still underheavy excava- tion and prospectsfor a regular supply of historicalore remain excellent. Along withthis reconciliation of noveltyand gratificationgo all thelatter-day accoutrements of thecommodity: the exaggeration and deceptionof advertising;the promiseof the good life; the hint of piquancy; thedemotion of aesthetic quality; and theprecipitous drop in artisticniveau. These themescan be readilyobserved in a newspaper blurbannouncing a subscriptionseries to theWaverly Consort ("America'sforemost early music ensemble")in which I have itali- cized items of interest.Note how peculiar this language would sound

29 Or,as CharlesWuorinen put itin 1975:"Credo in unam musicam."Liner notes to String Trio et al., Nonesuch H-71319.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Music 315 in a notice for a Mainstreamchamber-music series. The Waverly series,entitled "Italia Mia," features:

Four brand new and exciting programs-saluting fivecenturies of great Italian music and the seven colorful and historic cities in which it flourished... at the courts of the Medici, Sforzas and Gonzagas... under Brunelleschi's fantastic dome forSanta Maria del Fioreor Michelangelo'sglorious ceiling for the Sistine Chapel ... in themosaic vastnessof San Marco,the gilded palazzi along the Grand Canal and thejewel-box theatreof La Fenice.10 Brilliantly Gifted Solo Singersand Players,50 Medieval, Renaissanceand Baroqueinstruments, including viola da gamba-vielle-nun's fiddle-rebec--lute-vihuela -theorbo-sack but -gemshorn -cornetto--oud- shawm-rauschpfeife-citole-dulcian-psaltery... For the past eight seasons the WaverlyConsort's Alice "Tully Hall serieshas beensold out bysubscription six monthsin advance,with hundreds turned away at thebox office.To share the treasurableexperience of the 1982-83season, subscribeNOW and avoid disappointment.30 EarlyMusic and theFlight from Envy The failureto confrontthe cultural products of one's own timeis a featurewhich Early Music shares,by and large,with the Mainstream. Wherethey differ most pointedly is in theirresponse to theproblem of social envy. Whereas the Mainstreamis forcedby the competitive nature of societyto deal, for betteror for worse, with notions of value-both theprincipal actors and themusical objects are publicly recognizedas salable commodities-EarlyMusic likesto pretendthat the problem does not exist. Denying envy,however, is hardlyan antidote.On thecontrary, the denial is costly.For whatoften appears as a pleasant diversionfrom present-day tensions, a utopian romp throughthe courts of Europe, may in factintroduce, by way of music, conditionswhich are farmore coercive than thosethat Early Music soughtto escape in thefirst place. Having firstcelebrated its liberation, EarlyMusic turnsaround and proffersa more secure set of chains. By consideringthe repression of envy, it becomes possible to explain why Early Music so often seems to take on the trappingsof a severe monasticorder, a disguisewhich otherwise eludes analysis. Let us considerthe status of envywithin other sectors of serious music.31 For the contemporary"advanced" composer,for example,

30 The New York Times, May 16, 1982. 31 The standardwork on the sociologyof envyis Helmut Schoeck,Der Neid (Freiburg, 1966),trans. Michael Glennyand BetsyRoss as Envy:A Theoryof Social Behavior(New York, 1969).Freud treats the question of social envybriefly in Group Psychologyand theAnalysis of theEgo, trans.James Strachey (London, 1959).Melanie Klein'sEnvy and Gratitudeattempts to augmentpsychoanalytic thinking on thispoint.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 316 The Musical Quarterly the encounterwith envyis simplyunavoidable. Today's composer realizesfrom the start that mass adorationis not in thecards. He has thereforecompensated for his enviousdesires vis-a-vis successful "en- tertainers"before the first drop of ink falls on thepage. This maytake theform of a snobbishelitism ("Who caresif you listen?"),32 a venge- ful vigil awaiting the vindicationof posterity,or a retreatinto the hermeticcocoon of New-Musiccircles, where the injured give one anothercomfort. Within Mainstream Classical music,too, envy and its relatedguilt are obvious. Performersacross the social spectrum muststruggle with auditions, juries, competitions--not to mention managers,contractors, and critics.In response,the "artist" feels com- pelled to achieveat theexpense of his colleagues,to admire(i.e. envy) his superiors,and feela measureof guilt about thosewhom he has vanquished. Although most musicians would not put it in these terms,envy, a pervasivefeature of all social life,cannot fail to be a daily factof lifein Mainstreammusical culture. It was probablycapitalist development of the late Middle Ages whichfirst brought envy into special prominencein theWest. First it legitimizedthe covetous wish for the desired object through the ideology of the marketplace,making accumulation ("enlightenedself- interest")tantamount to social progress.It later masked the guilt (caused by the fantasticenactment of theenvious desireas much as fromthe discomfort of being envied) with the idea offormal equality. The social contractthat resulted requires that envy be omnipresentat thesame timethat its identityremain covert. Perhaps this is why,in AmericanEnglish forexample, the historicalsense of "envy" has eitherbeen neutralized(as in: "I envyyou your tripto Europe") or confusedwith jealousy (which requiresa thirdparty). With either meaning,the ugly wish to see thedownfall of someoneperceived as superioris obscured,either by suppressingthe original definition or by maskingit underthe sign of an acceptableRomantic triingle.33 Withinthe sphere of artistic production, our culturealso tendsto

32 The titleof an articleby Milton Babbitt, High Fidelity,VIII (1959),38. The originaltitle, "The Composer as Specialist," was deleted by the magazine and the now infamous title substitutedwithout the author's permission(private communication from Milton Babbitt). Although it has littleto do with the substanceof Babbitt'sarticle, the catchierphrase has achieveda kind of notorietyand can serveas an exaggeratedemblem standing for the tragic isolationof thecontemporary composer. SS Rescuingthe distressed damsel from a brutishsuitor is a preferablefantasy to disposing of a secretlyenvied enemy whose veryexistence is galling.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EarlyMusic 317 underestimatethe creative power of envy. For just as envyunderwrites theaccumulation of capital, it also sponsorsthat particular form of artisticprogress prevalent in theWest since the Renaissance: learn the master'scraft, admire (envy) him, and thenoutdo him (read:do him in). The generallydestructive and inhibitingeffect of the"evil eyeof envy"is therebytransformed into a productiveact, whose identifying sign is thepresence of something"new."34 If the musical Mainstreamrepresents, as it were, an idealized versionof postindustrialsociety, with its transactionsdesigned to coordinateand rechannel the harmfuleffects of envy,then Early Music mustbe characterizedas a special psychologicalhaven where envyis notsupposed to exist. It is as ifEarly Music signals a returnto a presumedstate of innocencebefore envy became institutionalizedas themotor of social progress.A Brechtiantable comparing the domi- nant social code of Early Music with thatof the Mainstreamhigh- lightsthese differences in a revealingway:

Early Music Musical Mainstream

1. The conductoris banished. 1. The conductoris thesymbol of au- thority,stature, and social difference. 2. All membersof the ensembleare 2. The orchestrais organized in a equal. hierarchy. 3. Ensemblemembers play a number 3. The "division of labor" is strictly of instruments,sometimes sing, and defined,with one playerper part. commonlyexchange roles. 4. Symptomatic grouping: the 4. Symptomatic grouping: the consort--like-mindedmembers of a concerto-opposing forcesstruggling harmoniousfamily. forcontrol; later, the one against the many. 5. Virtuosityis not a set goal and is 5. Virtuositydefines the professional. implicitlydiscouraged. 6. Technical level of professionalsis 6. Technical standardsare high and commonlymediocre. competitive. 7. The audience(often amateurs) may 7. The audience marvelsat the tech- play thesame repertoryat home. nical demandsof therepertory. 8. The audience identifieswith the 8. The audience idealizes the performers. performers.

34 Beethoven'srelationship to Haydn,for example, particularly as depictedin Maynard Solomon'sBeethoven (New York, 1977), typifies the process I am referringto.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 318 The Musical Quarterly

EarlyMusic Musical Mainstream

9. Programsare packed withhomog- 9. Programs contain contrasting eneous worksand are oftendull. items and are designed around a climax. 10. Criticsreport on the instruments, 10. Criticscomment on theperformer thecomposers, pieces and that"a good and his interpretation. timewas had by all."

As thisschematic comparison makes clear, Early Music attempts to hold envious desiresin check by negatingevery sign of social difference.It is as if,with the absence of thetyrannical father-master (who epitomizesdifference), the childrencan live togetherin peace and fellowship.Some formof thisprocess, in which social envyis transformedinto group solidarity, occurs no doubtin all social forma- tions.Early Music simplydisplays a superiortalent in thisregard, but withan importantdifference: the repression of envy leaves in itswake an enforcedroutine and a uniformmediocrity. The colorless and suffocatingatmosphere encountered so oftenin Early-Musicperfor- mancesis thereforenot merelythe result of inferiortechnique but the pricepaid foravoiding thereality of envy.35

EarlyMusic and "the Rules"

Consciously,this "aetiology of the Early-Music complex" depends on a peculiarunderstanding of performance practice, that it is in facta set of rules which guaranteescorrect musical behavior.But these rules-to theextent that theories about historicalperformance can be discussedas a coherentset-are subjectto a precariousdialectic: they defineEarly Music at thesame timethat they endanger its viability as critique. Viewed fromoutside Early Music, the rules appear as a secret, powerfulcode, a concreteyet somehow inscrutable body of knowledge which assurescorrect interpretation. As such, theywield enormous

35 The seeminglyimproved standards of Early Music duringthe last few years are probably due lessto realtechnical progress than to an influxof conservatory-trained musicians joining the ranks in the hope of escaping the debilitatingstruggle for existence on the "outside." These refugeesfrom the Mainstreambelieve they have eluded thecut-throat competition of the "real world." But theirnew-found freedom is largelyillusory.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EarlyMusic 319 influenceon Mainstreammusicians, who would like nothingbetter than to get theirhands on the code and know the awful truth.36 In factthey really wish to halt thethreatening advance of EarlyMusic througha neat expropriationof its secrets.By acquiring therules, it seems--particularlythose that deal with marginallyunimportant areassuch as ornamentation-theseMainstreamers will be able to take a comfortablemiddle road, keep to theirmodern instruments, retain theirviews on phrasingand articulation,and forestallcriticism by the growing number of Early-Musicadherents. But tryas theymay, somethingis always amiss: the rules do not work well on modern instrumentsand oftenseem contradictoryand counterintuitive.The Mainstreammusician then becomes resentful: "Since musicis a living art,I reservethe right to make myinterpretations relevant to modern audiences." Of coursethe appeal to relevanceis somewhatdisingen- uous, consideringthat "contemporary" ideas are warmed-overpracti- ces of Vienna in the 1920s prettiedup by the perfectionismof the recordingindustry. No matter.The rulesof EarlyMusic have such a prestigeand jurisdictionthat they must be circumventedby an uneasy compromiseor rejectedoutright. This special status which the Mainstreamgrants to the rules cannotbut be a sourceof pride to EarlyMusicians who havesworn the oath of allegiance. No need now to takea daring interpretiveleap; properapplication of the rules guaranteesaccurate "period style." The rulesalso ensureidentity by difference: we have somethingyou lack. Historically,of course, the recovery of the rules had beenintegral to thereconstitution of the musical object. But now, it seems, the rules have lost theirexperimental potential and becomedogma, dispensed as an elixirtransporting the rankest amateur into authentic, historical time. Here again EarlyMusic differsfrom the Mainstream. The modern violinistin theconservatory working up theSibelius concerto believes he is expressinghis innermostfeelings through the music. The typical Early Musician,on thecontrary, distrusts his intuitiveimpulses as a harmfulresidue of a Mainstreamupbringing. Instead, he reads the proper treatises,invests in expensive facsimiles,consults source- criticaleditions, and worriesthat he is deviatingfrom the proper style. The playersoon comes to fearthe rules as harshproscriptions. Style

36 This is partlyto compensate for the guilt they feel at theirirreverence toward the musical texts:they too are trainedto view artas moral improvement.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 320 The Musical Quarterly no longerelucidates but only inhibits.This is why,within much of Early Music, experimentationis discouraged,and deviancefrom the normsis brandedheresy.

The Revoltof theAdvance Guard

The hegemonyof the rules in EarlyMusic has meanwhilecome to be repudiatedby the leading musiciansin themovement. This was bound to happen: ifthey spoke honestly,they would admitthat they had neverregarded performance practice as anythingmore than an initial stimulusto breakwith the Mainstream.But at least fromthe pronouncementsof the 1960s,it certainlyseemed as if theseplayers had discovereda scienceof interpretation.They werethe ones, after all, who had exploited the slogans of "authenticity,""original instruments,""first version," and "composer's intentions."Perhaps these gimmicks of advertisingwere once useful, but they have backfirednow thatthey have become common property. On theother hand, the advance guard has now overcompensatedin the opposite direction.(They were also tiredof the accusation that theywere unfeelingantiquarians.) Hence: "The moreI readthe treatises the less I know." And as often:"I play only fromthe heart." These disclaimers,while appearing to contradictthe underpin- nings of EarlyMusic, can be safelydisregarded. For theproof of the puddinglies notwith rationalizations post festum but with the status of theperfoimances. And here,in myjudgment, the advance guard has continuedan admirable tradition:funneling the raw material informedby historicalcritique through the contemporary subject to expresssomething new and complex.If the outward signs of revolt are symptomatic,they attest to a growingrift between professional and. amateur.This distancemay in factprove useful in safeguardingthe independenceof theantiobjectivists. For thosein theadvance guard have programmaticallyavoided preordained formulas, which is why theirinsights resist duplication by students. At best,they have created an inimitableantistyle.37

37 The constraintson the futuredevelopment of theadvance guard stemlargely from the demandsof therecording industry, which encourages technical flawlessness and homogeneous expression"in theage of mechanicalreproduction." Once theperformer is preoccupiedwith "sound forsound's sake" it becomesdifficult to formulatenovel approachesto interpretation. One wondersif thecritical moment of EarlyMusic has passed.

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Early Music as Hermeneutics

In circumscribingthe scope of thisinvestigation, I drew a distinc- tion betweenEarly Music as a social ensembleand the repertoryit takesas its primaryobject. This was above all a tacticalmove, designed to put the spotlighton the actorsinstead of the play, as is usually done. But the distinctionalso proves useful in the way it highlights another pair of terms familiar to the humanistic disciplines-the interpreterfaced with a text.Indeed, Early Music can be viewedas a classical hermeneuticactivity, in thatit attemptsto ferretout meaningshidden beneath th? surface. Seen in thisway, we mightconsider Early Music with respectto what Paul Ricoeur has called thetwo poles of hermeneutics.38The firstpole, originatingin biblical exegesis,takes the restoration of meaning as itsgoal. As such, the interpretationfigures largely as a revelationof the sacredand maintainsan attitudeof respect toward the symbol. The secondpole, on the other hand, attemptsa demystificationof meaning, which underliesthe symbol as a disguise.This hermeneuticsis suspiciousof the symbolbut hopes, throughits interpretation,to minimizethe illusion. Althoughinterpretive styles are often reduced to one formor theother, Ricoeur observesthat the great modern interpreters of the second school-he names Freud,Marx, and Nietzsche-manage to mediatestrategically between both poles. As a consequence,demystification and semanticrestoration are not logicallyprior to each other, but are inextricablylinked. If Mainstreamcritics of Early Music have misjudgedit, it is because theyhave yet to acknowledge the hermeneutic circle enveloping theiropinions. Admittedly,Adorno sufferedfrom no such naivete. But he jumped too quickly,perhaps, into the second hermeneutic mode, therebyneutralizing his own dialectic. To its credit,Early Music is one of the few interpretivestrategies to have bravedboth hermeneuticpoles, albeit with varying degrees of success. Perhaps this is its mostprofound statement to the twentiethcentury: with only a religious respect for historical reconstruction-the objectivist stance-the revelationtends to unveil a mirroredimage of theinter- preter. But with only a perfunctorydismissal of historical

38 Paul Ricoeur,Freud and Philosophy,trans. Denis Savage (New Haven, 1970),pp. 26-27. See also John Thompson's introductionto Ricoeur'sHermeneutics and theHuman Sciences, trans.,ed. JohnThompson (Cambridge,1981), p. 6.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.215 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:03:02 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 322 The Musical Quarterly performance-Adorno'sskepticism-the demystification remains in- complete. For Early Music cannot do without both modes of interpretation-restorationand critique-if it is to signifybeyond a dead past and point to an idiom not yetinvented.

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