Jean Berger (1909–2002): a Biographical Chronology
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AMERICAN MUSIC RESEARCH CENTER JOURNAL Volume 18 2010 Thomas L. Riis, Editor-in-Chief American Music Research Center College of Music University of Colorado at Boulder THE AMERICAN MUSIC RESEARCH CENTER Thomas L. Riis, Director Laurie J. Sampsel, Curator Eric J. Harbeson, Archivist Sister Mary Dominic Ray, O.P. (1913–1994), Founder Karl Kroeger, Archivist Emeritus William Kearns, Senior Fellow Daniel Sher, Dean, College of Music William S. Farley, Research Assistant, 2009 –2010 K. Dawn Grapes, Research Assistant, 2009–2011 EDITORIAL BOARD C. F. Alan Cass Kip Lornell Susan Cook Portia Maultsby Robert R. Fink Tom C. Owens William Kearns Katherine Preston Karl Kroeger Jessica Sternfeld Paul Laird Joanne Swenson-Eldridge Victoria Lindsay Levine Graham Wood The American Music Research Center Journal is published annually. Subscription rate is $25.00 per issue ($28.00 outside the U.S. and Canada). Please address all inquiries to Lisa Bailey, American Music Research Center, 288 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0288. E-mail: [email protected] The American Music Research Center website address is www.amrccolorado.org ISSN 1058-3572 © 2010 by the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS The American Music Research Center Journal is dedicated to publishing articles of general interest about American music, particularly in subject areas relevant to its collections. We welcome submission of articles and pro - posals from the scholarly community, ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 words (excluding notes). All articles should be addressed to Thomas L. Riis, College of Music, University of Colorado at Boulder, 301 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0301. Each separate article should be submitted in two double-spaced, single-sided hard copies. All musical examples, figures, tables, photographs, etc., should be accompanied by a list of captions. Their placement in the paper should be clearly indicated. If a manuscript is accepted for publication by the edi - torial committee, the author will be asked to supply a brief biographical paragraph and an electronic mail attachment with the text, sent to [email protected]. Once accepted, the preparation of final copy in electronic form will require the following: abstract of no more than 200 words; article text in MS Word with list of references (.doc). Musical exam - ples and figures for final production should be high resolution tiff or eps images. In general the AMRC Journal follows the formats and guidelines of the Journal of the American Musicological Society and The Chicago Manual of Style , 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). For further instructions on footnotes, bibliography, discographic references, etc., please consult this volume or the research assistants. CONTENTS Preface . vii THOMAS L. RIIS Jean Berger (1909–2002): A Biographical Chronology . 1 LINDA L. GIEDL Jean Berger: A “Good Neighbor” in the United States . 39 CAROL A. HESS Composer Meets Critic, Part Two: Selected Excerpts of the Jean Berger/ Henry Pleasants Correspondence . 53 with an introduction by LINDA L. GIEDL In Honor of Jean Berger and His Gifts . 97 TOM MACCLUSKEY Contributors to This Issue . 107 Preface Like many of his fans, I first met Jean Berger through his music. The small Protestant church in whose choir I sang during my adolescence included his short anthem, “The Eyes of All Wait Upon Thee,” in its library. On first hearing, I was captivated by its graceful lines and mild dissonances and enjoyed performing it privately at my piano for years. During this same period, my high school choral director led us through a reading of Berger’s “Brazilian Psalm,” although its rhythms proved too tricky for us teenage amateurs, and it was rapidly shelved. Fast-forward three decades to the 1990s at the beginning of my director - ship of the American Music Research Center in Boulder. Part of my charge was to build the center’s archival collections of living composers, and I noted in the course of my research that Jean Berger apparently still resided in Denver. This fact was confirmed by a chance meeting with Rita, Jean’s wife, shortly after I had rediscovered his name. Though not then living with Jean, Rita assured me that they were still the best of friends and that I shouldn’t hesitate to contact him mentioning her name as I did so. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn about this brilliant, sly, witty, charming, determined, and highly productive man. When we finally met in person—in Denver over lunch as I recall—we hit it off immediately. In the course of time, the Jean Berger Collection was created at the AMRC, and concerts of his music were performed with the help of my faculty col - leagues and Denver’s St. Martin’s Chamber Choir under the direction of Timothy Krueger. In 2000, this journal published a significant portion of the correspondence between Berger and the Philadelphia-trained, London- based music critic Henry Pleasants. The present volume is entirely devoted to the life, music, and impact of Jean Berger. It has finally come to fruition owing to the care and generosity of several individuals: Jean’s son and heir Jonathan Berger; Jean’s mentee, one-time colleague, and long-time friend, Tom MacCluskey; and Jean’s devoted former student Linda Giedl. (Rita Berger died in 2006). Linda’s pro - fessional experience, as musician and journalist, made her the perfect indi - vidual to compile a chronology of Berger’s life and an edition of his letters. Her unstinting care and dedication has been crucial to this enterprise. I can - not express too strongly my gratitude for the work of these three, but espe - cially for Linda’s help. T.L.R. Linda L. Giedl Jean Berger (1909–2002 )— A Biographical Chronology What is it that fills my life’s space and, with it, time? I do believe that for me it is motion. time does not slow down anymore. We have to . somehow fill it with enough substance of value . that there may be no regret when moving only knows one more target beyond which there is no going. letter to a friend, May 9, 1989 JEAN BERGER, 1990. Courtesy of the American Music Research Center. 2 American Music Research Center Journal This chronology does not attempt to catalog the many hundreds of perform - ances, professional engagements, articles and lectures, commissions, composi - tions (about 300), premieres, and awards that occupied Jean Berger from the 1930s until his death in 2002. Nor does it offer conclusions that might be reached with a comprehensive study of his manuscripts and published scores. Rather, it strives to present the long sweep of his life, important formative events, professional high points, key relationships and positions, and choices that ultimately shaped the life of this “highly complex personality.” Dates and places mentioned are meant to suggest, but can only hint at, the extent and fre - quency of his professional and personal travels. Most content derives from Berger’s own recollections as recorded in oral interviews, published articles, his diaries and scrapbooks, two unpublished memoirs, and hundreds of his many thousands of letters, personal and professional. Berger’s memory of events was remarkably detailed and consistent, but there are discrepancies. Generally speaking the choice has been 1) to leave the details and/or dating of some events approximate, 2) to select the most convincing, or logical, of sev - eral accounts of the same circumstance, or 3) to finally ferret out indisputably correct dates/facts, some from outside sources. 1909 SEPTEMBER 27: Born in Hamm, Westphalia, in north central Germany, the first child and only son of orthodox Jewish parents. Not citizens of Germany, his Polish mother and Austrian father (Emanuel Schlossberg) are part of a west - ward migration of Jews from Eastern Europe, whose eventual hoped-for des - tination is the United States. They name their son Artur. 1911 MARCH 12: His only sibling, a sister Claire, is born. He will share with her an indissoluble lifelong bond despite catastrophic ruptures, dislocations and permanent settlement in different parts of the world, all precipitated by the rise to power of National Socialism in 1933. 1914 A maid reports to Artur’s mother, when he is not yet five, “People are say - ing the war has started.” AUGUST 3: Germany declares war on France. The family’s struggles now involve the search for enough to eat. (“Rutabaga and all sorts of ‘Ersatz’ became our food.”) Artur’s most powerful childhood memory is a happy one: propelling his four-wheeled toy “Hollander” cart by pushing and pulling a wooden handle. These childhood voyages of dis - covery awaken such “transcendental bliss” in the boy that spontaneous free roaming (“unimpeded mobility”) becomes his manner of living in the world. 1915 –18 As he begins grammar school at a small one-room school for both orthodox and German “Reform” Jewish children, his father is conscripted as a soldier in the Austrian army. With war raging around them, mother and children Jean Berger (1909 –2002)—a Biographical Chronology 3 spend extended periods in Ludwigshafen, in the Palatinate near the Alsatian border, on the west (left) bank of the Rhine River where Artur’s maternal grandparents live. Artur begins to observe and form impressions of his grandfather (Leib Engel) and of what it means to live an utterly disciplined and committed orthodox life, moment-to-moment, day-to-day. Will look back on his family life “with some satisfaction”—their faith was genuine and strong, and “life had a purpose.” Because Artur’s school is tied to a syna - gogue, the children provide music for the Reform services held there. Without formal training, learns the rudiments of keyboard playing and score reading.