The Berlin Years (1892-1935)

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The Berlin Years 1

Chapter 1 The Berlin Years (1892-1935)

1.1 Introduction

Little is known of the friendship between Robert Lachmann (1892-1939) and Henry George Farmer (1882-1965), two of the foremost scholars of their time, whose respective contributions to the field of Arab music reflected their dis- tinct interests. Lachmann, a comparative musicologist, music librarian, and Arabist, recorded and studied the music of the varied Arabic urban and rural cultures (Bedouin, Kabyle, and Chleuh) from North Africa: western (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia)1 and eastern (Libya and Egypt). His ultimate sphere of activity was centered in Palestine during the last four years of his life. Farmer, a historian and Arabist, was primarily interested in the study of extant Arabic treatises (beginning with the 9th century), from which he drew material to expound on the history and theory of Arab music (both vocal and instrumen- tal as practiced in the courtly and wealthy urban cultural centers of the Islamic world and utilized primarily for social entertainment) and its influences on Europe. Yet, considering their diverse interests and approaches, they shared a pro- fessional and congenial relationship over a period of fifteen years as borne out by Lachmann’s correspondence with Farmer.2 Comprising 65 items (52 hand- written and typewritten letters, plus thirteen postcards),3 Lachmann initiated the first of their exchanges on December 22, 1923 (from Berlin) and continued writing sporadically until September 15, 1938 (from Jerusalem), just eight months prior to his untimely death in Palestine on May 8th, 1939. Throughout their correspondence they never addressed each other by their first names. They met only twice in the course of those years: in Berlin during the month of September 1927,4 and again in Cairo as participants at the First International Congress of Arab Music (from Mar. 11th through Apr. 4th, 1932).

1 Also referred to as the Maghreb/Magrib (Arab. “West”) region of North Africa. 2 Housed in the Farmer Collection at Glasgow Univ. Library (FC 467). 3 Unfortunately, we possess only three replies from Farmer (ltr. nos. 12a, 24a, and 63a), plus a memorandum [no. 6a] pertaining to a letter he received from Lachmann in 1925. 4 Farmer was then in Berlin under the auspices of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust to ex- amine Arabic manuscripts at the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, where Lachmann had just been

The year prior to his first epistle, Lachmann had earned his doctorate at Berlin University (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität; known since 1949 as Hum- boldt-Universität).5 Previously, during his voluntary service with the Universi- ty Library, he had begun preparing for his examination in librarianship while undertaking studies in the field of musical ethnology. He had already begun recording examples of non-Western music at the Staatsbibliothek and later at the Phonogrammarchiv, where he interviewed and recorded excerpts from the performances of Middle Eastern and Asian musicians affiliated with the Hoch- schule für Musik. At the Hochschule there were Turkish, Egyptian, Indian, and Japanese experts who were on hand to help him seek out specialized literature. From the research involved in his doctoral thesis, plus the background material he absorbed for his recordings, he was eager to announce, in his initial letter to Farmer, that he was working on a monograph concerning Oriental music.6 At that time Farmer was settled with his family in Glasgow, Scotland, working primarily as musical director of the Empire Theatre, a prominent Music Hall in the city’s cultural life. His schedule at the theatre allowed him to pursue graduate studies at Glasgow University, which would earn him a Master of Arts degree in history and Arabic on July 4th of the following year. Both were musicians. Lachmann, during his adolescence, had studied violin, but evidence that he performed professionally is lacking (see n. 17 infra). Farmer was proficient on the violin, clarinet, and French horn, each of which he played during his fifteen-year stint (1896 to 1911) as a member of the Royal Artillery Band (in London) under the directorships of the noted Lieutenant Cavaliere Ladislao J.P.P. Zavertal (until 1907) and Major E.C. Stretton. On his own initiative, as a bandsman, he mastered the fundamentals of music theory (harmony and counterpoint) and orchestration, which served him well for ar- ranging and composing during his tenure at the Empire Theatre. Linguistically, Lachmann was fluent in German, English, French, Arabic, and Hebrew,7 with only a reading knowledge of Greek, Latin, Dutch, and Italian, whereas Farmer, whose fluency in reading Arabic, French, German, together

offered a permanent position. Their time together must have been limited, because Lachmann was ill (see ltr. no. 19). 5 He had already passed the required Staatsexamen (State examination, equivalent to a Master’s degree) in German, English, and French in 1920. 6 He was under contract with the Ferdinand Hirt Publishing House in Breslau. Having com- pleted the manuscript in 1926, it was not published until 1929 as Musik des Orients. 7 It was the last-named language that he studied assiduously with a private tutor from the time of his arrival in Palestine in 1935 (R. Katz, ‘The Lachmann problem’, 165).