Friedenstag and Daphne: an Interpretative Study of the Literary and Dramatic Sources of Two Operas by Richard Strauss. By Kenneth Birkin. pp. [xi] + 321. 'Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities'. (Garland, New York & London, 1989, $60. ISBN 0-8240-0186-9.)

The fates of Friedenstag and Daphne have diverged increasingly in recent years. While the latter is gradually achieving a measure of musical arid dramatic respect, Strauss's opera about the close of the Thirty Years War remains a rarity in performance. Given that Die Liebe der Danae also has failed to win a regular place in the repertory, the operas that Strauss composed in collaboration with Joseph Gregor are the area of his output most in need of critical evaluation. Kenneth Birkin's extremely valuable thesis does not quite achieve this, since the music for Daphne and Friedenstag takes second place to literary matters for all but the final chapter. What it does achieve is to put the history of the conception of the two works on a footing firm enough to supersede the accounts of their genesis in such Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/72/3/493/1062670 by guest on 01 October 2021 standard works as those by Norman Del Mar and William Mann. In doing this, Birkin has also accomplished the valuable task of restoring the three-cornered correspondence of Strauss, Gregor and Stefan Zweig to something resembling completeness (Roland Tenschert's published edition of the Strauss-Gregor letters has some gaps). As an exercise in archival detection, Birkin's work makes good reading, and his resume of the search for Zweig's letters to Gregor enlivens the appendices. The role of Zweig in this collaboration emerges with a new clarity; the relevance of his scenario for Friedenstag (from which Gregor set out) to his biography of Erasmus is tellingly illustrated by Birkin. Forced to make a public break with Strauss partly because of the latter's 'foolish behaviour' and 'public gestures' (pp. 73-76), Zweig nonetheless contributed greatly at the level of ideas and basic conceptions to the operas; Friedenstag 'took its form and dramatic substance directly and exclusively from him' (p. 84), while he was also responsible for such details as introducing Daphne's opening monologue (p. 176). As Birkin convincingly demonstrates, the whole ideological stance of the two works, including their linkage, stems in part from Zweig's stance in the 1930s; as a result, too, the intellectual cloudiness of Friedenstag partakes of Zweig's rather ill-defined position in the face of the Nazi menace. What is most interesting is the manner in which Strauss gradually assimilated the matter of Daphne to a Nietz- schean programme as old in his output as Guntram. Those readers who groan at yet another potted thesis summary of Nietzsche by a musician will be compensated by the manner in which Birkin ties the subject into the account of the genesis of Daphne, with the figure of Peneios growing surprisingly in stature (only to recede into the background again as Clemens Krauss counselled a purely orchestral ending). That there may even have been an element of self-identification with Peneios on Strauss's part is an aspect of the opera that may have occurred to few listeners. Birkin's work is not without its minor drawbacks and questionable points. The Dresden opera house was surely destroyed in February 1945 (rather than 1944 as on pages 89-90). An attempt to correct Strauss over a matter of history has resulted in an extraordinary muddle over the origin of the Friedenstag idea (which originally had nothing to do with 1648) on Birkin's part. By imagining that a reference by Strauss to 'Henry Ill's celebrated Peace of Constance of 1043' should be Frederick Bar- barossa's Treaty of Constance of 1183, Birkin sets off on a tour round the Synod of Sutri (1046, not 1043 as he imagines), Pope Clement II (not Clement III), and his reform programme (which sounds suspiciously like Pope Leo IX's reform programme; pp. 97-98). Strauss was obviously thinking not of the Treaty of Constance of 1183 (in this context the reddest of herrings) or of the Synod of Sutri (was Strauss ever interested in church history?) but of the 'Day of Indulgence' promulgated at Constance in 1043, by which all warring magnates and individuals were counselled by Henry III to renounce feuds and enmities; sadly, the writers such as Del Mar and Mann who simply trust Strauss at this point are more accurate than Birkin, whose suspicions may have been aroused by some remarks by Zweig that he does not reproduce. I also remain puzzled why the description 'Die Frau' was too 'symbolic' to 'stimulate his imagination' in Friedenstag but perfectly adequate for the role of the dyer's wife throughout the history of Die Frau ohne Schatten (p. 113); nor is it clear what the latter opera is doing in the list of Strauss's operas inspired by Greek myth (p. 171). In the few pages devoted to the music, Table A (p. 258) does not seem to provide any sort of systematic foundation for the study of key rela- tionships in Strauss (nor is the similarity between Birkin's approach and the vital if eccentric theories of Erno Lendvai pursued). Finally, it is a matter of some regret that this valuable addition to Strauss scholarship should not have reached a wider public through some medium other than a collection of theses. Much of it is a visual mess (in fairness, the other volume in this series which I have seen, Peter Stacey's study of

493 Boulez's Pli selon pli and Berio's Laborintus II, is not open to such a charge). There are plenty of misprints, some stodgy sentences which Birkin would surely now not tolerate, and various ugly usages; I care neither for Zweig's 'schismic' personality nor for 'correspondental discussion', while 'Nietzschian' is used so consistently as to make one wonder what was wrong with the more natural 'Nietzschean'. Evidence of editing is virtually non-existent. JOHN WILLIAMSON

The Evolving Keyboard Style of Charles Ives. By Michael J. Alexander, pp. 245 + vi. 'Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities'. (Garland, New York & London, 1989, $51. ISBN 0-8240-0185-0.)

Keyboard instruments were of fundamental importance to Charles Ives, in both his life and his Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/72/3/493/1062670 by guest on 01 October 2021 music. Between 1888 and 1902 he was a church organist, writing many sacred choral works with organ accompaniment, as well as a number of solo organ pieces. He produced a large quantity of piano music, including the two sonatas, the Three-Page Sonata and a series of Studies. A high proportion of his chamber and orchestral pieces feature keyboard instruments, ranging from the early Holiday Quickstep (December 1887) to the monumental Fourth Symphony (1906-16). And almost all of his 150-plus songs have keyboard accompaniments. Remarkably, given this wealth of musical material, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to Ives's keyboard writing: Wiley Hitchcock's 1977 monograph includes a pertinent chapter, and a few articles and dissertations have also appeared. Michael Alexander's new book, adapted from his Ph.D. thesis (University of Keele, 1984), therefore fills an important gap in the Ives literature. Of the book's five principal chapters, the first four are concerned with detailed explorations of par- ticular influences on Ives's keyboard style —his early experiences and training, the impact of folk per- formance, New England vocal styles and 'ethnomusicology' — and his attitudes towards sound and its notation. Chapter 3 —'Popular Pianism: a Catalyst for Transition' — is fascinating in its piecing- together of his involvement with 'Eastern Ragtime' and its effect on his music. The fifth main chapter deals with the practical realization of these various and varied influences in the sets of Take-offs and Studies (1906-9). At all times, Alexander displays an excellent knowledge of Ives's music and of its at- tendant literature, both specific and general. One regTets, though, that it has not been possible to take on board the most recent developments in Ives scholarship, notably the work of J. Peter Burkholder and the lively debate over Ives's (and John Kirkpatrick's) dating of the manuscripts. On the negative side, one might wish for more solid analysis of Ives's works than is provided in Chapters 3 and 6 and in the rather curious appendix. And it is tantalizing to find that some of those pieces which are analysed are currently unavailable in print: while the Set of Five Take-offs appeared in 1985, only five of the extant Studies have been published. Furthermore, while Alexander argues strongly against the use of some recent editions of Ives's keyboard pieces —those produced by the most eminent of Ives scholars, John Kirkpatrick, and with the approval of the Ives Society —he provides no real contrary evidence in favour of Henry Cowell's earlier editions. The reproduction of the book —as might be expected from a text printed directly from a typed dissertation —leaves much to be desired. In particular, the spatial separation of the prose, notes and music examples is frustrating to the reader, while the examples themselves are rather scrappy and at times difficult to decipher. The lack of an index is very regrettable; and at $51 the book is preposterously (and prohibitively) expensive. Alexander's keen and incisive scholarship deserves better (and cheaper) public exposure than has been provided here. DAVID NICHOLLS

Expression and Structure: Processes of Integration in the Large-Scale Instrumental Music of Dmitri Shostakovich. By Richard M. Longman. 2 vols. pp. 675. 'Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities'. (Garland, New York & London, 1989, $158. ISBN 0-8240-8421-7.) Ideology, Style, Content, and Thematic Process in the Symphonies, Cello Concertos, and String Quartets of Shostakovich. By Eric Roseberry. pp. xii + 568. 'Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities'. (Garland, New York & London, 1989 [1990], $102. ISBN 0-8240-2039-1.) The paucity of scholarly work on Shostakovich is alarming, but not inexplicable. He is clearly one of the most significant composers of the present century, yet one whose biography is impossible to write 494