Foreword by Israel Rosenfield

Foreword by Israel Rosenfield Almost all the best-kno wn works of Johann Sebastian Bach, for example— The Well- Tempered Keyboard, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the Italian Concerto, the Art of Fugue— are educational, models of composi- tion to be studied and played at home: the kind of public concert at which they could be played did not exist during Bach’s lifetime, and he could never have envisaged a concert per for mance of any of them. In fact, public per for mance of most of these works is largely an inven- tion of the twentieth century. — Charles Rosen, Critical Entertainments If music was composed for “private” concerts— “Bach played for himself,” as Charles has written— Catherine and Charles played for themselves and their own duo. They gave a series of private concerts, of private discussions and private dinners on lit er a- ture, architecture, science, and, of course, music. They both enjoyed writing. And Catherine enjoyed translating as well. Catherine suggested to Charles Foreword that they do a book together, and Charles said he would love to do the book but only with Catherine. Catherine knew Charles and the circle of musicians that w ere close friends of her family— Elliott Car ter, Arthur Berger, Dimitri Mitropoulos, among others—since her childhood. Her mother was a painter and her father a violinist. Her mother pre- pared superb dinners, and her father played sonatas with Charles. They lived for music. But music was not their only bond. Catherine had a doctorate in comparative lit er a ture from New York University and Charles a doctorate in French lit er a ture from Prince ton University. Catherine’s father was French, and she was raised in France and had a bilingual education. Her mother was Rus sian, and she spoke Rus sian and studied Rus sian lit er a- ture at Sarah Lawrence College and Harvard Uni- versity. Charles had visited France on a Fulbright. Their private concertsw ere a plea sure in themselves, the preparation of another kind of represen- tation— a public one. There was no better public than Catherine. She was not passive. She discussed things with Charles and helped his ideas take shape. One could make an analogy with the music of El- liott Car ter and Cubist paintings. They both depend viii Foreword on multiple points of view. It was these multiple points of view that created the plea sure of discussions, writing and playing. As in Schubert’s and Schumann’s lieder or the so- nata “Les Adieux” of Beethoven, where the past and pre sent are represented simul ta neously, there was in the dialogues of Catherine and Charles the presence of musicians and artists they had known and who came to life in their discussions. Thesedialogues are a work unto themselves and they resonate with an enlarged conception of music; they give two plea- sures: one muscular and the other intellectual. Charles has written on the Double Concerto of Elliott Car ter: “When the work was written, players—at least in private—w ere taken aback by the lack of a central rhythm that would have made ensemble playing easier, just as paint ers felt a curious anxiety with the loss of central point of view in Cubist paintings. A multiplicity of points of view has become central to the artistic imagination of the twentieth century.” It is the multiple points of view, the wonderful synthesis of liter a ture, science, painting, and, of course, music that makes the book of Catherine and Charles a joy, a plea sure to read and think about. ix .

Load more