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12-2015 Lost Chords and Christian Soldiers: The aS cred Music of Sir Arthur Sullivan by Ian C. Bradley (review) Julian Onderdonk West Chester University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Onderdonk, J. (2015). Lost Chords and Christian Soldiers: The aS cred Music of Sir Arthur Sullivan by Ian C. Bradley (review). Notes, 72(2) http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/not.2015.0148

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Journal of a Tour . . . Undertaken to Collect ignored his music because he had “too Materials for a General History of Music. The little sensation for their needs” (p. 514). most interesting passages are not the ones Neither did his efforts to establish musicol- in which he lectures on the past, but the ogy as a legitimate subject of study at snapshots of his famous contemporaries: Harvard University, where he was a lecturer Johannes Brahms visiting the Hochschule until he reached the retirement age of as Joachim’s personal guest (pp. 118, 129); sixty-five, meet with success. Without a se- the Viennese pianist Wilhelm Berger re- cure position and income, Leichtentritt porting on the hostile atmosphere among withdrew from the public, carrying out his musicians in Vienna (pp. 138–39); Franz scholarly work “at home, sustained by an in- Liszt’s old maidservant Miss Pauline, still in nate optimism” (p. 514). Leichtentritt’s A charge of the Hofgärtnerei at the time of Musical Life in Two Worlds was thus tellingly Leichtentritt’s visit, personally receiving vis- lopsided: the European side, especially af- itors “with enthusiastic pride and vivacity” ter it receded into memory, became a (p. 138); Richard Strauss at the premiere of golden age, hardly equaled by the unful- his Salome in Dresden, which Leichtentritt filled promises of the New World. It took attended and described as “the most sensa- decades before Leichtentritt and his fellow tional operatic event of the entire twentieth German refugee colleagues’ “innate opti- century” (p. 146); and the Meiningen mism” overcame resistance and musicology Orchestra performance of Brahms, which became established in American academia. surpassed even that of the great Berlin or- Leichtentritt did not live to document the chestras under Nikisch and Weingartner change. He left his extensive library and (p. 130). manuscripts to the University of Utah, from Of particular interest is Leichtentritt’s where his student Leroy Robertson trans- encounter with Arnold Schoenberg. No ferred his papers to the Harvard Musical fan of Schoenberg’s modernist scores, Association, which published his autobiog- Leichtentritt wrote some unfavorable re- raphy with Mark DeVoto’s copious foot- views of the composer. Their personal rela- notes. Leichtentritt’s autobiography is not tionship started off badly. In the 1920s an easy read: its language is often heavy Leichtentritt was charged to approach the and too detailed (long passages from famous man and ask his help with the es- Leichtentritt’s travel diaries could have tablishment of an International Society for been omitted). But it is a precious resource Jewish Music. Schoenberg’s angry refusal for those interested in the intellectual life “to collaborate in any activities for Jewish of interwar Europe and the United States. music” shocked the Berlin Committee. Through Leichtentritt’s memoir we see Leichtentritt “felt so insulted by the haugh- that American musicology owes a great tiness of his phraseology and the utter lack debt to German refugees intent on saving of sympathy and cooperation that [he] di- what they could of their old world. rected to him one of the shortest, but most Europe’s loss was our gain. violent letters of reproach that [he has] Klára Móricz ever written” (p. 410). After emigrating to Amherst College the United States, Schoenberg and Leichtentritt ended up as honorary presi- dents of a Jewish Music and Art Society in Boston. The irony of the situation was not Lost Chords and Christian Soldiers: lost on Leichtentritt. The Sacred Music of Sir Arthur After such an illustrious musicological ca- Sullivan. By Ian C. Bradley. London: reer in Germany, the United States could SCM Press, 2013. [xii, 239 p. ISBN only disappoint. Leichtentritt’s attempts to 9780334044215. £25] Appendices, bib- publish English translations of his most im- liography, discography, index. portant German books, the two volumes of the History of the Motet and his Musical Form, Few serious composers have suffered as failed initially: there seems to have been no much as Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) market for such books in the United States. from their association with “light music.” Nor could he build a reputation as a com- Collaborating with W. S. Gilbert on the poser: famous conductors, he complained, celebrated Savoy operas—The Mikado, The 346 Notes, December 2015

Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, and others— the offspring of my liveliest fancy, the chil- Sullivan achieved enormous fame and dren of my greatest strength, the products earned a reputation as a musician of unsur- of my most earnest thought and most inces- passed grace and wit. Such accolades were sant toil” (p. 1). typically double-edged, however, and were Bradley is fighting a series of overlapping often accompanied by regret that a com- prejudices here, and he wisely tackles them poser of such promise should waste his tal- one chapter at a time. First is the strong ent on mere “fooling.” Sullivan himself felt bias against Sullivan’s music, the blame for the truth of the criticism and throughout which he lays squarely at the feet of an elit- his career endeavored to silence his detrac- ist British musical establishment long suspi- tors with “serious” cantatas and odes, songs, cious of popular and material success. (He orchestral and chamber music, and even a makes an interesting analogy between grand opera. These works were successful Sullivan and another industrious English - to a degree, but their popularity began to man of the popular theater, Andrew Lloyd wane in the early twentieth century in the Webber, whose music has likewise been re- wake of a general reaction against all things viled by critics.) Second is the sentimental- Victorian. Indeed, the theory grew up in ity of Victorian religious culture itself, these years that Sullivan had not merely which he engagingly explains and defends prostituted himself but was, in fact, consti- with reference to tumultuous times. Here, tutionally incapable of writing anything but the social upheavals of the industrial revo- insincere and vulgar music. The light- lution, the strict antimaterialism of the weight frivolity of the Savoy operas, and the romantic movement, above all the mawkish sentimentality of parlor favorites nineteenth-century crisis of faith (to which like “The Lost Chord,” seemed for many to an exaggerated religious expression would mark his true métier as a composer, with seem to be a kind of counterintuitive and the consequence that his serious music, it- counterfactual response) are all seen to self shaped by a similar Victorian aesthetic, play their part. A third, biographical chap- was dismissed as a matter of course. ter tracing the composer’s years as a boy These critics reserved special censure for chorister in the Chapel Royal provides an Sullivan’s sacred music: the anthems, opportunity to explore Sullivan’s staunch hymntunes, sacred cantatas, oratorios, and royalism and the worldliness that devel- songs that likewise partook of this emo- oped partly as a consequence of the aristo- tional world. Part of their complaint was cratic contacts he made there. But Bradley with the outright sentimentalism of also makes it clear that the experience in- Victorian popular religion itself, the end- troduced him to some of the most impor- less procession of guardian angels, heav- tant figures in Anglican musical circles— enly thoughts, and “sacred” hearths and Thomas Helmore, Frederick Arthur Gore homes that directly inspired Sullivan’s lilt- Ouseley, Joseph Barnby, and John Stainer ing melodies and syrupy harmonies. But among them—and asserts that it had a sig- the composer’s materialism and worldli- nificant impact on his religious faith. ness, his notorious womanizing and gam- Having thus introduced the main themes bling, played its part too, suggesting an ele- of the book, Bradley goes on to deploy ment of false piety in these works and them in a genre-by-genre discussion of the ultimately fueling the charge of artistic in- sacred music itself. Chapter 4 focuses on sincerity. According to Ian Bradley, how- Sullivan’s sixty-one original hymntunes ever, Sullivan’s religious faith was genuine, (and seventy-five harmonizations and/or the product of a “spiritual quality of inno- arrangements of existing melodies), thor- cence” (p. 13) and a principled Broad oughly classifying them by style and mood Church liberalism that stressed a non- and defending them against the attacks of dogmatic approach to the gospels. If later critics. Bradley rightly sees these tunes worldly pleasures prompted him to empha- as central to the Victorian hymn explosion, size the secular in his music, still a strong one of the most striking cultural develop- “spiritual yearning” remained (p. 183). As ments of the age, but rejects the suggestion he put it in an 1885 newspaper interview: that the composer jumped on the publish- “My sacred music is that on which I base my ing bandwagon and wrote them merely for reputation as a composer. These works are money. Chapter 5 mounts a similar defense Book Reviews 347 of the eighteen sacred solo ballads and cluding Sullivan’s, is beautifully addressed, eight part-songs, parlor genres whose popu- and an important passage on improved larity peaked in the Victorian period and standards in nineteenth-century church whose often “morbid sentiment” (p. 104) music provides a context in which to assess prompted some of his most treacly music. Sullivan’s contributions in that area. Bradley acknowledges all this, and yet in- There are a few errors and lacunae. sists that these works resonated personally Johann Sebastian Bach was hardly the with Sullivan, who knew death firsthand, “founder” of the oratorio (p. 28), nor did and that these works were in no way cyni- that genre typically employ hymntunes for cally motivated by financial gain. Chapter 6 congregational singing (p. 128) (Stainer’s examines the large-scale choral music, fo- The Crucifixion is unusual in this regard). cusing especially on the sophisticated li- Bibliographic references—author’s names, brettos of the oratorios The Prodigal Son and article titles, etc.—are sometimes missing, The Light of the World (compiled by Sullivan and more than a few passages crying out himself, possibly with the assistance of for citation receive none. Of more concern George Grove) as evidence of his biblical is the imprecise identification of the “musi- learning and broad churchmanship. cal establishment,” a bogeyman throughout Bradley notes in these sacred works a the book, which Bradley wrongly treats as a strong dose of Savoy secularism and energy unified block. The groups variously in- that livens up this often dreary genre. voked under this label—popular journalists Chapter 7 tackles the twenty-odd anthems of the day, highly-placed church musicians and liturgical works, dwelling especially on like Stainer and Barnby, the “academics” of the two Festival Te Deums that the com- the so-called English Musical Renaissance poser wrote for national occasions and that (including Charles Villiers Stanford and likewise mix sacred and secular elements, Hubert Parry), twentieth-century hymnolo- while chapter 8 provides a brief survey of gists like Erik Routley—occupied very dif- select moments in the secular works, in- ferent critical niches than are asserted here, cluding some of the Savoy operas, that shed and indeed the first two were sometimes light on Sullivan’s religious views. A con- very supportive of the “serious” Sullivan, as cluding ninth chapter sums up the main the discussion clearly shows. Finally, it is a points of the book. shame that there are no music examples in Bradley’s knowledge of the Sullivan cor- the book. However understandable, the de- pus and literature is vast: he neatly refers cision to omit them means that assessing to many of the composer’s works and the quality of Sullivan’s music, especially the smoothly incorporates opposing scholarly sentimental works so crucial to the central viewpoints in a wide-ranging discussion. He argument, remains unfulfilled. is also very good on the larger context, ex- Whether Bradley makes his case about plaining not only the psychological and Sullivan’s religious faith is a more difficult sociological causes of Victorian sentimen- question. Inconveniently, the composer was tality, as noted, but also where Sullivan’s quite reticent about his religious obser- church music fits within the party factional- vance, and this compels the author to piece ism of Anglican worship (though he is a lit- together somewhat impressionistic evi- tle inconsistent when measuring the influ- dence from diaries and letters, not always ence of Tractarianism here). Important convincingly. He makes too much of trends in domestic and community music Sullivan’s “more than occasional” church making—advances in piano manufactur- attendance after quitting his last organist ing, government-sponsored music training, post in 1872 (p. 16), a tellingly convoluted Tonic Sol-fa instruction, church music pub- phrase whose doubtfulness is confirmed by lishing, and oratorio performance—are the intelligence that, in later life, the com- pithily presented and judiciously related to poser usually went to church, not on his the culture of “self-improvement and adult own, but only when visiting aristocratic education” (p. 29) that was one of the friends and patrons (p. 62). The notion defining features of the era. Developments that Sullivan’s faith won over the cynical in art music, too, receive due attention. and ever-ironic Gilbert in their collabora- The crucial impact of Felix Mendelssohn tion on the sacred music drama The Martyr on the religious tone of Victorian music, in- of Antioch seems like wishful thinking. Even 348 Notes, December 2015 the erudite biblical knowledge displayed belief may well have been a cliché of the in the oratorio librettos offers no proof of period, a commonplace of Victorian secu- belief, because elaborate textual cross- lar culture just as it is of our own, but it is referencing was typical of the genre and hard to escape the conclusion that was indeed a professional necessity. Equally Sullivan’s most fervent moments of devo- unconvincing is Bradley’s attempt to tion arose in response to the death of loved repackage Sullivan’s faith as “spirituality.” It ones, and that he found relief on those oc- is doubtless true that the composer was un- casions in the process of praying. Nor does stintingly kind and generous, attracted to it seem that he ever wavered in this view. In the ethical ideals of freemasonry, and all his scourings of the letters and diaries, worked hard to soften Gilbert’s vicious Bradley has found no evidence of an adult satire and invest Savoy characters with “no- crisis of faith or struggle with belief, as bility and dignity” (p. 175). But these and there surely would be if this onetime choir- other proofs of a deep humanity are still boy ever drifted towards serious doubt. something different from active religious What he does find, though, is a suggestion faith. The fascinating idea that Sullivan’s of guilt, or at least of inadequacy. One of music intentionally combines and recon- the most striking observations of the book ciles the sacred and the secular, the worldly is that the themes of repentance and of and the unworldly, “high” and “low,” in a God’s unwarranted mercy and grace domi- manner akin to Ludwig van Beethoven’s nate the sacred texts that Sullivan chose to Ninth Symphony, is a worthy one that de- set. Could it be that he viewed his sacred serves further exploration. But it remains a music, which as noted above he valued poor vehicle to affirm conventional reli- above all, as a counterpoise, perhaps even gious belief if only because so broad a con- a corrective, to his worldly appetites? ception of “spirituality” is virtually indistin- However oblique, that would indeed be evi- guishable from nineteenth-century ideas of dence of religious faith. transcendental art. Ultimately, though, Bradley does success- fully make the case for Sullivan’s “simple, Julian Onderdonk trusting faith” in the afterlife (p. 181). Such West Chester University

ICONOCLASTS

Schoenberg and Redemption. By Julie Brown. (New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. [xiv, 259 p. ISBN 9780521550352 (hardcover), $99; ISBN 9781139949965 (e-book), $79.] Music examples, illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index.

Julie Brown’s Schoenberg and Redemption tract, “Judaism in Music” (1850). As she ar- newly testifies to the power of a composer’s gues, the two works provide key evidence self-expressive prose. Two documents from for Schoenberg’s motivation to strike out 1934 to 1935 unlock the door to Brown’s on a new path in composition as a means to original intervention in the populous arena redemption for himself as a Jew, and of of Schoenberg scholarship: an understand- German music. ing of the motivation behind Schoenberg’s Reinhold Brinkmann has observed: turn to atonality, or as he called it, the “Schoenberg’s foundation of the Viennese emancipation of dissonance. Schoenberg’s atonality as a new paradigm for contempo- confessional private essay “Every young rary music, besides being embedded in a Jew” (1934) and his Mailamm (American– music-historical process, was indeed the re- Palestine Institute of Jewish Musical flection of a very specific and problematic Sciences) address of 29 March 1935 are historical, social, cultural and psychical situ- fundamental to Brown’s evaluation of ation in Vienna around 1900” (Reinhold Schoen berg’s early acceptance of Richard Brinkmann, “Schoenberg the Contempo - Wagner’s Deutschtum and his anti-Semitic rary: A View from Behind” in Constructive