Saint-Saëns, Debussy, and Superseding German Musical Taste

Document generated on 09/28/2021 2:27 a.m. Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique Saint-Saëns, Debussy, and Superseding German Musical Taste in the United States Saint-Saëns, Debussy et la mise à l’écart des sensibilités allemandes en musique aux États-Unis James R. Briscoe and Chloé Huvet Transferts culturels et autres enjeux stylistiques Article abstract Volume 16, Number 1-2, Spring–Fall 2015 In an interview published in the October 21, 1908, issue of the Boston Transcript, Debussy had been asked to comment on American musical life. He URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1039617ar remarked, “The distinction of a country like [the United States] is that it DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1039617ar imbibes from all sources... it is less German bound than are the countries who hear little or no other music through chauvinism or antipathies.” This paper See table of contents examines the roles of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) and Claude Debussy (1862-1918) in driving such a modernist evolution. Saint- Saëns performed with and conducted the New York Symphony in 1906, including his symphonic poem Le rouet d’Omphale and playing solo piano in his Africa, Fantaisie pour Publisher(s) piano et orchestre. He thereafter appeared in both Chicago and San Francisco, Société québécoise de recherche en musique and critics could already hear the modernist aesthetic in formation. When conductor Frederick Stock, a stalwart champion of French music, led Prélude à “L’après- midi-d’un faune” in Chicago in December 1908, the symbolist ISSN dimensions of the new music were grasped by both critics and audiences, and 1480-1132 (print) Paul Rosenfeld wrote: “We should look to France for the latest gospel [of the 1929-7394 (digital) new musical advancement] […] Claude Debussy has broken through the limitation of the old, and shall we say he has found new musical dimensions?” Explore this journal Contemporaneously, the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande in New York dramatically impressed the new hearing on American audiences. To be sure, anti-German feelings after 1910, brought with the Great War, promoted such a shift from the aesthetics of the Gilded Age, but the new French music had itself Cite this article led the way since just after 1900. By 1923, Carl Van Vechten, in Music after the Briscoe, J. R. & Huvet, C. (2015). Saint-Saëns, Debussy, and Superseding German Great War, wrote, “It is not from the German countries that the musical Musical Taste in the United States. Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de invention of the past two decades has come. It is from France.” recherche en musique, 16(1-2), 113–119. https://doi.org/10.7202/1039617ar Tous droits réservés © Société québécoise de recherche en musique, 2017 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Saint-Saëns, Debussy, and Superseding German Musical Taste in the United States1 James R. Briscoe (Butler University) in collaboration with Chloé Huvet n an interview published in the Boston Transcript of works that were predominant in forming American hearing: 21 October 1908, Debussy had been asked to comment the Third Symphony (1886) and the tone poems Phaëton Ion American musical life. He remarked, (1873) and La danse macabre (1874) for Saint-Saëns, and The distinction of a country like [the United States] is Debussy’s Faun, Pelléas et Mélisande, and La mer (1905) that it imbibes from all sources, and in that way will were, although the Faun was central early on and Pelléas arrive more quickly than if it struggled into a foreign redoubled the modernist charge after 1908. voice and then groped out of it into its own personality Three stages of the early critical reception may be and individual strength—in short, it is less German bound than are the countries who hear little or no other noted. At frst, ambivalence among critics predominated. music through chauvinism or antipathies (Bauer 1908).2 However, if reports are to be trusted, audiences appeared mostly positive from the beginning. In the frst stage from In this article, I argue that, for United States critics and about 1902, critics had a perception of Debussy as either audiences, the new hearing of French modernism superseded a wonder or a wrecker, which slowly evolved towards that that of the late 19th-century American Gilded Age, grounded I of a carefully controlled, symbolist composer. Signifcantly, in German Romanticism. This short review examines although American listeners did not hear Saint-Saëns as a the roles of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) and Claude pathbreaking modernist, they understood him as the frst to Debussy (1862-1918) in driving such a modernist evolution. challenge “the Germans on their own turf.” In a second phase Three cities led the way; Boston, New York, and Chicago, of critical reception, from about 1908 and especially upon although other U.S. cities played a part. I argue that Saint- the frst hearing of Mary Garden singing Mélisande in New Saëns led the way for accepting new French Music, and York (19 February 1908 at the Manhattan Opera House),4 that in turn Debussy’s music promoted modernist hearing most held Debussy among modernist leaders, alongside in the U.S further than any other, including German new music. However, both French composers challenged and Strauss following the 1909 premiere of Garden’s Salome soon superseded the “German Romantic habit,” ultimately (28 January 1909 at the Manhattan Opera House). However, surpassing Strauss as the leading modernist. Scholars have Americans wearied of the post-Romantic German diet by discussed the critical reception of the new piano music but not about 1910, when one can see a third phase of reception. the impact of Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) or the symphonic By 1913 and although the U.S. was not fghting the Great works, especially Le prélude à “L’après-midi d’un faune” War militarily—she would join only in 1917 but sent war (1894). Signifcantly, from the Boston critic Philip Hale and civilian materiel from the outset—, strong political and his hearing “dreams of the soul […] ‘sleep-chasings’” sentiment in the United States helped drive musical taste (1902)3 and other reception after 1902, commentators did quite far, fnally completing the turn against German culture not press an impressionist interpretation unduly but instead and against Richard Strauss as a perceived modernist leader. sought to understand the symbolist intent of Debussy. Saint-Saëns’s reception in the US As mentioned before, three U.S. cities led the way before 1918: Boston with a distinctive edge, New York, and The music of Saint-Saëns, although not receiving abundant Chicago. Saint Saëns and Debussy each composed three exposure, had been heard in the United States at least from 1 Warm thanks to Chloé Huvet for her invaluable help with the references. It is to be noted that passages of this article are taken from Briscoe 2011. 2 The original interview was published in Harper’s Weekly on 29 August 1908, then republished in different journals, including the Boston Transcript. 3 Hale borrowed the expression “sleep-chasings” from Walt Whiteman. 4 The performance in New York featured the cast from the premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, in which Garden participated. Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique, vol. 16, nos 1 & 2 113 1887 onwards. Theodore Thomas, the itinerant German acknowledge for the solid, unshaken foundation and respect conductor turned permanent éminence grise at Chicago, for French music he issued in. premiered the Organ Symphony in New York (19 February 1887 at the Metropolitan Opera House) within a year of its Debussy’s reception in the US London premiere and its Paris second hearing. The German- The evolution of hearing Claude Debussy as a modernist, born Thomas was renowned for promoting Wagner to one breaking ground stylistically, and as a symbolist, one Americans, and he came to epitomize America’s Guilded paving the way toward new meanings, was quite rapid from Age by his German musical biases. Only very occasionally 1902 to 1918. For American critics and audiences, this did Theodore Thomas perform French music, although Chicagoans heard works by Massenet and d’Indy on single hearing superseded that of the late 19th-century Gilded Age, occasions; however German, Thomas relented and invited grounded in German Romanticism. Americans by 1918 d’Indy to guest conduct his music in the early 1890s. agreed that Debussy was central in driving a new way of hearing (Briscoe 2011; Kahan 2013). The American Civil Saint-Saëns planned to visit the United States as an War occurred fewer than forty years before Debussy’s honored guest at the 1893 Chicago World Exposition introduction, and only at war’s end did an American concert as performer and conductor, but the trip did not develop. music tradition begin. Around 1870, the Boston School After 13 years and under the aegis of the highly progressive of composers, including Amy Beach and Horatio Parker, and German-born Frederick Stock, Saint-Saëns came to had begun to establish German taste as the norm (Davis the United States in November 1906. Arriving in Boston 1989, 88-89; Chybowski 2008, 202-215), but America indisposed with a respiratory illness and too sick to perform, had scarcely the time to put down deep roots in teutonic Saint-Saëns continued his American tour to New York, Romanticism before the dawn of modernism, as Debussy playing solo piano in his Africa, Fantaisie pour piano avec himself observed.

Load more