Ricardo Viñes’s Pianistic Legacy: An Evaluation of his Articles, Recordings, Compositions, and Pedagogy
by
David Potvin
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Faculty of Music University of Toronto
© Copyright by David Potvin 2020
Ricardo Viñes’s Pianistic Legacy: An Evaluation of his Articles, Recordings, Compositions, and Pedagogy
David Potvin
Doctor of Musical Arts
Faculty of Music University of Toronto
2020
Abstract
Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943) was a Catalan pianist who spent most of his career based in Paris. He premiered many of the major piano works by Debussy, Ravel, and other French, Spanish and
Latin American composers of the early twentieth century. He had a reputation among his peers as a pianist who possessed an extraordinary technique, who was selflessly committed to the integrity of his musical performances, and who sacrificed further career success to promote the music of lesser-known composers. His legacy is that of a contemporary music specialist.
Literature on Viñes is based mostly on his diary, which he kept between 1885 and about
1914, testimony by his students, press reviews and homages by his peers. The English literature on Viñes is lacking a study of his published articles, compositions and recordings, and has not convincingly challenged Elaine Brody’s assertion that Viñes was essentially a self-taught pianist.
This dissertation examines that material and finds that Viñes’s articles indicate his preference for romantic musical ideals, his compositions belie his purported technical prowess, his recordings
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reveal some technical limitations, and his training and teaching methods are rooted in the French piano school tradition. This dissertation also adds new information on Viñes to the English literature from French and Catalan sources, including the only French biography of the pianist by
Mildred Clary. Viñes’s legacy of disseminating contemporary music over the course of his career was well earned, but not selflessly. The research in this dissertation demonstrates that Viñes capitalized on his association with contemporary composers to cultivate a reputation as a new music specialist, which was a career direction that played to his strengths.
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Acknowledgments
When reflecting on those who supported me during this project, I am reminded of the proverb It takes a village to raise a child. I believe it is also applicable to this paper, and I am very grateful to all those who helped me realize this dissertation from its infancy as an idea to a complete document. Thank you, Ryan McClelland, for all your edits, and for the conversations that helped keep me on the right track. Thank you, Marietta Orlov, for your pianistic observations with this project, for your tireless guidance with my musical development, and for believing in me. Thank you, Sarah Gutsche-Miller, for your insight into French musical culture and for helping me navigating the resources I needed for my research. Thank you, Marlene Goldman, our conversations on Viñes and about writing were an essential part of my work. Thank you, Dr. Peter Keefe for helping me keep the faith in myself necessary to see this through and for helping me keep it all in perspective. Thank you to my family. Marc, Janice, Grampy and Grammy, your continued encouragement and check-ins were always appreciated. Thank you to my friends who were always up for chatting about the project, including Michael Lee, Asher Armstrong, Elizabeth Fox, Robin Roger, and many others who are not named here. Thank you most of all to my fiancé Leandra Desjardins for your unlimited support. You gave me the courage to press on with this project and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments...... iv
Table of Contents ...... v
List of Examples ...... vii
The Viñes Narrative ...... 1
1.1 Introduction ...... 1
1.2 State of the Literature...... 2
1.3 Biographical Vignette ...... 6
1.4 Critical Reception ...... 12
Viñes the Writer: Articles on Music ...... 24
2.1 Liszt and the Spirituality of Romanticism ...... 27
2.2 Viñes the Verticalist ...... 32
2.3 Instinct Over Analysis...... 36
Viñes in Performance: The Recordings ...... 41
3.1 Viñes’s Pianism as Exhibited on Record ...... 44
3.2 Viñes the Faithful Interpreter? ...... 48
3.3 Viñes’s Recording Legacy ...... 55
Viñes the Composer: 4 Hommages pour le piano ...... 56
4.1 Background ...... 56
4.2 Pianism ...... 59
4.3 Musical Convictions ...... 65
Training and Pedagogy: Viñes as an Exponent of the French School of Piano Playing in Contemporary Repertoire ...... 78
5.1 Training ...... 78
5.2 Lessons with Viñes ...... 93
5.3 Viñes as Pedagogue ...... 103
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Challenging the Narrative ...... 109
6.1 Review of the Arguments ...... 109
6.2 Toward a New Understanding ...... 113
Bibliography ...... 118
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List of Examples
Example Page Example 3.1 De Falla, Danza ritual del fuego, mm. 22-39……………………………50 Example 3.2 De Falla, Danza ritual del fuego, mm. 85-102…………………………..51 Example 3.3 De Falla, Danza ritual del fuego, mm. 238-248…………………………51 Example 3.4 De Falla, Danza ritual del fuego, mm. 123-128…………………………52 Example 3.5 De Falla, Danza ritual del fuego, mm 53-58………………………...... 53 Example 3.6 De Falla, Danza ritual del fuego, mm. 249-273……………….....…...... 54 Example 4.1 Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, mm. 53-60………………………………….60 Example 4.2a Viñes, Menuet spectral, mm. 31-32...……………………………………60 Example 4.2b Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, m. 39………………………………………..60 Example 4.2c Viñes, Thrénodie, m. 5…………………………………………………...61 Example 4.2d Viñes, Crinoline, mm. 19-20…………………………………………….61 Example 4.3a Viñes, Menuet spectral, mm. 5-6………………………………………...61 Example 4.3b Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, m. 63…………………….………………….62 Example 4.3c Viñes, Menuet spectral, m. 26…………………………………………...62 Example 4.4 Viñes, Crinoline, mm. 53-56…………………………………………….62 Example 4.5 Viñes, Thrénodie, m. 36………………………………………………….63 Example 4.6a Viñes, Menuet spectral, m. 16…………………………………………...64 Example 4.6b Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, mm. 19-20………………………………….64 Example 4.6c Viñes, Thrénodie, mm. 11-12……………………………………………64 Example 4.6d Viñes, Crinoline, mm. 30-31…………………………………………….64 Example 4.7 Viñes, Menuet spectral, mm. 17-28……………………………………...67 Example 4.8a Viñes, Thrénodie mm. 21-26 and mm. 41-42…………………………....68 Example 4.8b Viñes, Crinoline, mm. 4-8, mm. 36-40, and mm. 46-52………………...69 Example 4.9 Viñes, Menuets spectral, mm. 5-8……………………………………….70 Example 4.10 Viñes, En Verlain mineur, mm. 1-6……………………………………...70 Example 4.11 Viñes, Crinoline, mm. 30-34…………………………………………….71 Example 4.12a Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, mm. 35-36………………………………….71 Example 4.12b Viñes, Thrénodie, mm. 19-20……………………………………………71
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Example 4.12c Viñes, Menuet spectral, m. 16…………………………………………...72 Example 4.12d Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, m. 20………………………………………..72 Example 4.13a Viñes, Menuet spectral, mm. 9-14……………………………………….74 Example 4.13b Viñes, En Verlaine mineur, mm. 11-12………………………………….74 Example 4.13c Viñes, Crinoline, mm. 67-68…………………………………………….74 Example 4.14 Viñes, Menuet spectral, mm. 5-6, En Verlaine mineur, mm. 5-6, Thrénodie, mm. 5-6, and Crinoline, mm. 57-58…………………………76
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Chapter 1 The Viñes Narrative 1.1 Introduction
Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943) was a Catalan pianist who is recognized today for his premieres of the most important piano works by Debussy and Ravel. He is also known for his participation in ‘Les Apaches,’ an informal artistic group formed originally to champion Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. Viñes had a significant impact on the musical scene of his day, and scholarship on Viñes notes how his performances entranced and mystified audiences during a successful career that spanned decades and continents.1
Viñes reportedly had an insatiable curiosity for literature, art, and the occult. His curiosity led him to become involved in the work of many young composers, and he gave numerous premieres while building his reputation as a champion of modern music. His early success with premieres by Ravel and Debussy gave him the reputation of having a prophetic sense for new works. As he consistently programmed new works by other, more obscure composers, a narrative developed about his career: Viñes was a pianist who selflessly promoted works by obscure composers, with little regard for how his repertoire choices would hamper his own success.2
In music scholarship, Viñes is often encountered as a footnote in discussions about Debussy and Ravel. He is usually presented as the genius pianist with a brilliant technique, whose joyful and generous spirit led him to selflessly sacrifice his own career to support young composers. Here was a pianist who divined the secrets of modern music and ushered in a new age of piano music. This portrait of Viñes is a retelling of the narrative that developed around him during his lifetime. The reality of his career is more subtle and is only beginning to be understood in the English literature. His technique had limitations and was better suited to contemporary pieces; perhaps if he had performed only the pieces of a typical virtuoso, he may
1 Paul Roberts, Reflections: The Piano Music of Maurice Ravel (Montclair: Amadeus Press, 2012), 133. 2 Léon-Paul Fargue, "Un héros de la musique: Ricardo Viñes," in Portraits de famille (Paris: J. B. Janin, 1947), 221- 222.
1 2 have not found a place in history. As a foreigner in protectionist France, he learned to network as an essential exercise at an early age, a practice he kept up throughout his life. While his outwardly vivacious and joyous personality was emphasized by many who have described his character, his diary reveals that he was, at times, a deeply troubled person.
Viñes’s musical legacy is mostly understood through his reputation with critics and through his diaries. This dissertation aims to augment that understanding with an exploration of his articles, compositions, recordings, and memoirs by his students. Studying Viñes reveals myriad paradoxes. Among them, Viñes was a contemporary music specialist who seemed to prefer romantic musical ideals, and he possessed a dexterous piano technique, yet wrote pieces that were not technically challenging. This dichotomous state seemed to be the essence of his life and career. Perhaps the best person to sum this up was Viñes himself, who coined his personal motto in 1895: “In religion, philosophy and morality, obedience; in art and literature, independence.”3 Viñes had three primary motivations in his life: spirituality, his curiosity for and his promotion of avant-garde art, and his enduring identification as a Spaniard. These influences appear in all of his work and present a legacy that is always complicated, at times troubling, but generally inspiring.
1.2 State of the Literature
Most of the biographical literature on Viñes is in French and Catalan. Two biographies are in Catalan. Juan Riera’s “Ricardo Viñes: Evocación” includes biographical sketches drawn from the author’s time with Viñes and his access to documents pertaining to his career. 4 The collaboration between Montserrat Bergada, Màrius Bernadó, and Nina Gubisch-Viñes, Ricard Viñes i Roda (1875-1943): Testimoni d ’un temps,5 is the most thorough biography, and includes much exclusive information on his relationships with musicians, other artists, and his hometown of Lleida. Mildred Clary’s French biography, Ricardo Viñes: Un pèlerin de l’Absolu,6 is organized in a series of vignettes, documenting important events in his life, his relationship with
3 Juan Manuel Bonet, “Kaliédoscope ou notes pour ‘A Quest for Viñes,’” in Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes, ed. Màrius Bernadó (Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 396. 4 Juan Riera, “Ricardo Viñes (Evocación),” lllerda 29 (1968): 127-201. 5 Montserrat Bergada, Màrius Bemado, and Nina Gubisch-Viñes, Ricard Viñes i Roda (1875-1943): Testimoni d ’un temps (Lleida: Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs, 1994). 6 Mildred Clary, Ricardo Viñes, Un pèlerin de l’Absolu (Arles: Musicales Actes Sud, 2011).
3 other musicians and artists, and his inner emotional life. It seems to have been inspired by Nina Gubisch-Viñes’s PhD dissertation “Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondence,” though Gubisch-Viñes’s dissertation focuses more on Viñes’s inner as life revealed in his diary.7
English scholarship is far behind in understanding of Viñes’s life and faces two major obstacles. First, a lot of meaningful information about Viñes is available only in Catalan. In this regard, Esperanza Berrocal’s dissertation “Ricardo Viñes and the Diffusion of Early Twentieth- Century South American Piano Literature” contributes to the English scholarship with her literature review that includes the two sources in Catalan listed above, as well as others in Catalan, French, and English.8 It is the most thorough compendium in English of relevant source material on Viñes, up to 2002. It also provides information about Viñes’s tours in South America that were previously unavailable in any language. As part of my research, I roughly translated Mildred Clary’s monograph into English. Some of the information in her book relevant to this dissertation is already available in English through Elaine Brody’s work on Viñes. However, translating Clary’s work has allowed me to present some information in this dissertation that was hitherto unavailable in English, such as details of Viñes’s relationship to his patron Henry Isaac Butterfield, information about his experiences at the Paris Conservatoire, and information surrounding his compositions and career as homme de lettres français. Translating Clary’s book has also been useful for corroborating or challenging Brody’s work.
Second, access to Viñes’s diary and other artifacts from his life is restricted. The diary is in the possession of his great niece Nina Gubisch-Viñes, and almost all meaningful scholarship on his life, in all three languages, has involved direct collaboration with her. The Catalan biography and Clary’s book are both the result of extensive collaboration with Gubisch-Viñes. Brody’s two English chapters on Viñes, “The Spaniards in Paris,” and “Viñes in Paris,” are based mostly on access to his diaries through partnership with Gubisch-Viñes.9 They focus on
7 Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondance” (PhD diss., Université de Paris Sorbonne, 1977). 8 Esperanza Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and the Diffusion of Early Twentieth-Century South American Piano Literature” (PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 2002). 9 Elaine Brody “The Spaniards in Paris,” in Paris the Musical Kaleidoscope: 1870-1925 (New York: G. Braziller, 1987), and “Viñes in Paris: New Light on Twentieth Century Performance Practice,” in A Musical offering: Essays in honor of Martin Bernstein, ed. Edward H. Clinkscale and Claire Brook (New York: Pendragon Press, 1977), 45- 57.
4 his activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and provide an interesting snapshot into life as a young musician in Paris during the Belle Epoque. Brody was working on a complete English biography of Viñes, but she was never able to complete this project before her death in 1987. No other English scholar has taken up that mantle. An exciting project of collaboration between Nina Gubisch-Viñes and the University of Montreal to translate Viñes’s complete diary to French has also been stalled.10 Other artifacts, such as scores, letters, and programs, are either scattered across continents, or still missing. David Korevaar and Laurie J. Sampsel’s article “The Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder” hints at how hidden materials relating to Viñes can be.11 Hundreds of his scores were purchased in the 1950’s by the University of Colorado Boulder from a now unknown dealer. They were only recently rediscovered in the library and organised into a collection. None of the scores in this collection or in other collections also listed in Korevaar and Sampsel’s article include materials relating to any major composer. Undoubtedly there are more uncovered documents related to Viñes yet to be found.
There has been some Viñes scholarship published since Berrocal completed her exhaustive literature review. One significant volume is Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes, which was published in Catalan with a French translation as an appendix.12 It contains articles by Viñes scholars including Gubisch-Viñes, Bernadó, Bergada, and Berrocal, as well as historical portraits about him by figures such as Georges Auric and Leon-Paul Fargue. New information about his relationship with the exiled Queen Isabella of Spain is of particular interest in this source. Matthew G. Goodrich’s DMA dissertation on Viñes’s relationship with the Apaches includes a summative biography, a discussion of Viñes’s pianism, and speculation on his relationship with Debussy and Ravel.13 It provides a useful overview of what characterized his pianism from a pianist’s point of view. Other scholarship has been published in
10 Information on this project can be found here: Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “Ricardo Viñes: L’Homme aux cent visages,” in Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes (Lleida: Institut Municipal d'Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 385 n.1 and Matthew G. Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches” (DMA diss., University of Washington, 2013), 161. The translated diary is apparently ready for publication, but Goodrich reports it as “delayed indefinitely.” 11 David Korevaar and Laurie J. Sampsel, “The Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder,” Notes, second series, vol. 61, no. 2 (December 2004): 361-400. 12 Màrius Bernadó ed., Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes (Lleida: Institut Municipal d'Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007). 13 Goodrich, Matthew G. “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches” (DMA diss., University of Washington, 2013).
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Catalan, such as the program notes by Bernadó to accompany a recreation of Viñes’s historical concert series in 1905.14 This pamphlet draws attention to the work Viñes did disseminating little known works from the whole history of keyboard instruments, and includes background information about the hall, repertoire, and Viñes. Though it has been almost two decades since Berrocal’s literature review, information about Viñes in English is still scattered throughout different sources.
Other artifacts written by Viñes are more readily available. His discography of complete recordings was released with Clary’s monograph, and includes the information on the date and location of recordings.15 His complete articles have been published in a collection edited by Màrius Bernadó.16 They appear in their original languages: French, Spanish, and Catalan. The miniatures he composed, 4 Hommages pour le piano, were published as a set soon after his death.17 He wrote other works that were never published, though three autograph manuscripts of his mélodies are included in the appendix of Nina Gubisch-Viñes’s dissertation.18 While scholars have published a considerable amount of research on Viñes and his pianism in light of his diary, very little work has been done to understand his work in the context of his recordings, published articles or compositions. This dissertation will address this, with chapters on his articles, compositions, and recordings. Engaging with this material fills an important gap in the English literature on Viñes. A subsequent chapter on his training and pedagogy challenges the generally accepted belief that he was a self-taught pianist in terms of technique; reviewing accounts of his teaching reveals Viñes was more influenced by the musical traditions to which he was exposed at the Conservatoire than is usually accounted for by the current scholarship. By augmenting the English literature with information published in other languages and by examining his articles, compositions, and recordings, this dissertation interrogates the narrative surrounding Viñes. The ensuing discussions contribute a nuanced look at his capabilities as a pianist and at his legacy.
14 Màrius Bernadó, Paris 1905. Viñes, Una Historia Del Piano: Cuatro conciertos históricos (Madrid: Fucació Juan March, 2015). 15 Missing is a fragment of Hommage à Rameau that Viñes recorded. 16 Ricardo Viñes, Escrits Musicals de Ricard Viñes, ed., Màrius Bernadó (Lleida: Universitat de Lleida, 1999). 17Ricardo Viñes, 4 Hommages pour le piano (Barcelona: L'Institut Français en Espagne, 1945). They are also available at https://imslp.org/wiki/4_Hommages_pour_le_piano_(Vi%C3%B1es%2C_Ricardo). 18 Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondance” (PhD diss., Université Paris Sorbonne, 1977), 424-448.
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1.3 Biographical Vignette
Both dissertations by Berrocal and Goodrich contain biographies of Viñes spanning his entire life and career.19 The article by Koravaar and Sampsel also contains a succinct biographical sketch.20 While there is still room for an in-depth biography on Viñes in English, a full biography of Viñes is beyond the scope of this dissertation. What follows is a brief overview of his life and career, with information drawn primarily from Mildred Clary’s biography, material by Jane Brody, and the aforementioned sources by Berrocal, Goodrich, and Koravaar and Sampsel.
Viñes was born in 1875 in Lleida, Spain. In 1887, he began studying at the Barcelona conservatory, and he won a first prize in their annual competition after less than one year of study. Viñes, his mother, and his brother moved to Paris that year. He gained entry as an auditor into the class of Charles de Bériot at the Paris Conservatoire, and he was admitted as a regular student two years later. There, he met Maurice Ravel, marking the beginning of a close friendship and fruitful artistic partnership. It was also around this time that Viñes began keeping his diary, a practice he continued until the First World War. After several attempts in the Conservatoire’s annual competition, he was awarded a first prize in 1894. This prize marked the end of his training at the Conservatoire, and he made his recital debut at the Salle Pleyel in 1895.
Following his prize, Viñes’s career began to take shape. He went on concert tours to countries including Russia, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and England. He established himself in French high society and was frequently invited to the prestigious salons of Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux, Princess Edmond de Polignac, and Cipa and Ida Godebski. Parisian salons occupied an important part of a performer’s calendar, allowing them to try out repertoire, make important connections, and drum up audiences for public recitals. In 1900, a salon acted as a catalyst for one of Viñes’s most important musical connections as he met Claude Debussy for the
19 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 6-34 and Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 3-53. 20 Koreevar and Sampsel, “The Ricardo Viñes Collection,” 362-368.
7 first time at Éduard Dreyfus-Gonzales’s salon.21 Soon after, Viñes went to Debussy’s house to play his Suite pour le piano for the composer.
In the early 1900’s, Viñes had an important working relationship with Ravel and Debussy. He premiered almost all their pieces for the piano during the first decade of the 20th century. The complete list is as follows: Ravel’s Menuet antique, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Jeux d’eau, Miroirs, and Gaspard de la nuit; Debussy’s Pour le piano, Masques and L’Isle joyeuse, Images I and Images II.22 Images II included the piece Poissons d’or, which Debussy dedicated to Viñes and which is the only piece the composer ever dedicated to a living musician.
The premieres Viñes gave of Debussy’s and Ravel’s music were received with praise for both the pianist and the composers. On the premiere of Ravel’s Miroirs, Jean Marnold wrote the following in the Mercure Musical: “With infallible fingers, Ricardo Viñes unfurled a deliciously sonorous arabesque, and encored the Alborada to applause that was addressed both to him and the music.”23 Scholars have speculated about Viñes’s influence on the development of their piano writing, as Viñes was close to both composers. He spent many hours playing the piano with Ravel during their student days, and Viñes worked extensively with both Debussy and Ravel in preparation for premieres. Brody’s hypothesis is based on how much Debussy’s writing evolved after he met Viñes.24
In 1902, Viñes began to associate with a group of young artists and musicians who would later call themselves Les Apaches. The group had its origins in attending performances of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande to voice its support from the audience. By 1903, Les Apaches were well established as they met regularly in each other's homes to share their projects and discuss art and philosophy. The group was centered around Viñes and Ravel,25 and the
21 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 121. 22 Curiously, Ravel premiered Debussy’s d’Un Cahier d'esquisses, the piece that was probably supposed to complete a triptych with Masques and L’Isle joyeuse. See Roy Howat, The French Art of Piano Music (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 200-202. 23 “De ses doigts infaillibles, Ricardo Viñes en déroula délicieusement l’arabesque sonore et dut bisser l’Alborada del gracioso au milieu d’applaudissements qui s’adressaient à la fois à lui et à la musique.” Jean Marnold, review in Mercure Musical, February 1, 1906, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 116. 24 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 50. 25 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 42.
8 members were eclectic in their political beliefs and vocations, though they were connected by a shared appreciation of the avant-garde. They were supportive of each other and championed each other’s work in public. Viñes premiered music by many composers who were members of the group, including Déodat de Séverac, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Florent Schmidt, and of course Ravel. Writers among their ranks such as Émile Vuillermoz and Dimitri Calvocoressi defended their music and ideals in the press. Les Apaches grew over time, and eventually included Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla in its ranks. The outbreak of World War I put an end to their meetings.
Viñes exemplified the spirit of the Apaches.26 He was perennially curious, and an autodidact by nature. He taught himself English so he could read the work of Edgar Allan Poe in the original language, and his diary includes long reading lists of symbolist and occult authors. He was always on the lookout for new trends in art, literature and music, and reports indicate that he felt at home engaging with all three disciplines. As Victor Seroff wrote, “They used to say in Paris that one could see Viñes anywhere and everywhere. As a matter of course he went to concerts, but also he never missed an art exhibit, a new play, a lecture, or an informal gathering of the literati, where he would astonish them with his encyclopedic knowledge, or by hour long recitations of poems by Verlaine, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé.”27
Socially, Viñes had a gregarious and generous personality, and he loved to share his knowledge with all audiences. Léon-Paul Fargue, poet and Apache, remembered his irresistible enthusiasm in an homage to Viñes: “Among those who knew him at any time in their life, who could resist the image of a talkative Ricardo, excited, literally jumping on his friends, grasping them forcefully by a button on their jacket, in his haste to make them share his love of people and things, his lovely effusions, his fads always sure and motivated? No one, no doubt.”28 Viñes’s personality made him a perfect candidate for a career in contemporary music. He cultivated relationships with a wide variety of composers, and audiences followed his
26 See the chapter “Ricardo Viñes: Les Apaches Exemplar,” in Goodrich’s “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 97- 103. 27 Victor Seroff, Maurice Ravel (Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), 308. 28 Léon-Paul Fargue, "Un héros de la musique: Ricardo Viñes," in Portraits de famille (Paris: J. B. Janin, 1947), 221-222.
9 performances to keep abreast of the latest musical trends. He also became known for lecturing from the stage about the pieces on his programs.29
Viñes’s reading habit also brought him to a faith in Catholicism and the occult – practices that he saw as complementary – which he held throughout his adult life. Raised an atheist, he became a Catholic in 1898 and attributed his conversion to the writings of Ernest Hello.30 Viñes found a refuge in religion from a turbulent inner life. In contrast to his outward personality, his diary revealed that at times he was depressed. This was partly due to the tension in his family life. His mother demanded he spend less time reading so that he could find performance opportunities to bolster the family’s finances. Viñes maintained a belief throughout his life that God had ordained for him a higher purpose than just being a musician, which may explain why he devoted himself to supporting lesser known artists and why he undertook forays into writing and composition. His spiritual beliefs had negative effects on his life as well. Scholars have speculated that it may have contributed to a cooling of friendship with Ravel, an atheist.31 Viñes had a habit of pushing his beliefs on his friends who did not always appreciate his religious fervour.32 He also had an obsession with the occult discipline of numerology, which probably contributed to a gambling habit that had devastating effects during his later tour to South America. Despite these difficulties, Viñes always presented himself to the public in a positive light, with energetic performances.
By 1905, a Viñes premiere all but guaranteed what Elaine Brody called a “successful performance.”33 He gave premieres by Les Apaches and other composers as the “appointed pianist of the Société Nationale,”34 at the Schola Cantorum, and on programs of the Société musicale indépendante, which was established in part by fellow Apaches members and who
29 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 54. 30 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 58. 31 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 228. Viñes, an anti-Semite, was on the opposite side to Ravel in the Dreyfus affair. 32 Several diary entries indicate tension between Viñes and his friends resulting from discussions of Hello’s writing and religion. See Ricardo Viñes, Journal inédit de Ricardo Viñes: Odilon Redon et le milieu occultiste (1897-1915), ed., Suzy Levy (Paris: Aux Amateurs de Livres, 1987), 125, 131-2 and 134. 33 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 46. 34Jann Pasler, “A Sociology of the Apaches: ‘Sacred Battalion’ for Pelléas,” in Berlioz and Debussy: Sources, Contexts and Legacies: Essays in Honour of François Lesure, ed., Barbara L. Kelly and Kerry Murphy (Aldershot, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007), 163.
10 sponsored a tour to Berlin so Viñes could introduce the German public to contemporary compositions. He programmed a wide variety of works which are obscure today. In 1905, Viñes gave the Paris premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s piano concerto, which reflected the Apaches’ interest in Russian music. The success of Viñes’s premiere of selections from En Languedoc by Viñes’s friend and fellow Apache Déodat de Séverac resulted in its publication.35 In 1911, Viñes premiered another Russian work, Sergei Lyapunov’s piano concerto. At times, Viñes’s reputation as a pianist outshone the appreciation for the repertoire he programmed.
Viñes’s association with contemporary music lasted his entire life. Not only did he program works by Debussy, Ravel and de Severac throughout his career, but he was constantly adding new pieces to his repertoire by composers that he met. After the First World War, he supported the new wave of the avant-garde by programming works by Les Six and the École d’Arcueil. During three tours to South America, he disseminated new French works in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, while incorporating works into his programs by composers he met there. Upon his return to France, he would present works he discovered overseas. By 1925, Viñes had amassed enough pieces dedicated to him that he performed a program comprised entirely of these compositions.36
Viñes’s third tour to South America evolved into a six-year settlement, from 1930 to 1935. He toured Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, playing in venues both prestigious and modest. During his stay he augmented his already prodigious repertoire with pieces by composers he befriended there. He introduced the South American public to contemporary South American and European music, and he also programmed pieces by Bach, Beethoven, and the Romantics. While there, he faced several challenges. Viñes’s love of gambling and an infection in his thumb, which stopped him from performing for an extended period of time, depleted his funds to the point that he struggled to support himself. He had to delay his return to Europe several times because he could not afford the fare for a journey home. However, his popularity in Buenos Aires came to his aid, and the composer Federico García Lorca offered to treat the premiere of his piece La Zapatera prodigiosa as a benefit to Viñes. In a letter to his niece, Elvira Viñes, the
35 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 140. 36 While he was always adding new works to his repertoire, Viñes never became interested in pieces that were either atonal or used the 12-tone technique.
11 pianist shared his disbelief when the entire audience turned toward his box and gave him a standing ovation, shouting “Viva Viñes.”37
When Viñes finally returned to France, he gave a homecoming recital in January of 1936. This was a highly anticipated event, and potential audience members had to be turned away from the sold-out concert. L’Action française pronounced: “The most important event of the beginning of this year, was without contest, the return to Paris by M. Ricardo Viñes.”38 The critics missed Viñes and his particular brand of performing, and it was very favourably reviewed. However, after this recital, Viñes’s popularity began to wane, perhaps due to increased competition from other touring pianists, or a diminishing of his own abilities. Recitals were less frequent, and he performed at times for low fees.
During the Second World War, Viñes travelled to Barcelona. Once there, he never went back to France and he gradually lost contact with his friends and family members outside of Spain. In 1940 he met his last student, Maria Canals, and through his connections with Spanish artists and high society, he was able to perform in some recitals. However, he was living in poverty, and his sense of dignity prevented him from reaching out for more support. He gave his last concert in March of 1943 and died the following month in Barcelona at the age of 68. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in a Franciscan habit next to his mother in his hometown of Lleida.
Three principle character traits were present throughout Viñes’s life. First, he was a deeply spiritual person. While Viñes considered himself a Catholic, he did not have his first communion until the age of 32, and he practiced a type of mystic Christianity that included occult practices. Second, he was intensely curious, and drawn to all that was avant-garde. He is remembered for his many premieres, though he never did abandon traditional repertoire. Finally, he identified proudly as a Spaniard, often sharing stories about his native country in lessons, and returning frequently for visits and concert tours.
37 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 239-40. 38 “Le plus important événement de ce début de l’annéee, a été, sans conteste, la rentrée à Paris de M. Ricardo Viñes.” Lucien Rebatet, review in L’Action Française, January 24, 1936, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 244.
12
1.4 Critical Reception
While discussions of Viñes’s pianism appear in Berrocal and Goodrich, and his approach to technique and interpretation will also be discussed later in this dissertation, this section examines the public reception of his playing.39 It includes reviews covering the span of his career, which were mostly positive. Overall, critics noted that his performances were characterized by a commitment to musicianship over virtuosity, and they remarked on his humility in programming music by his contemporaries.
Viñes’s reputation as a pianist was partly based on his pianistic facility. Certainly, he was a highly capable pianist and he programmed some of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire, such as Balakirev’s Islamey and Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, and critics remarked on Viñes’s technical facility throughout his career. In 1894, Arthur Pougin described his first prize performance at the Conservatoire’s competition as "A pleasant execution with a certain elegance, accompanied by liveliness, skill, energy and a brilliant technique.40 Later that summer, the Keighley Herald reported a performance of “rare taste and virtuosity,” at Viñes’s patron’s English country estate.41 After the premiere of Miroirs ten years later, a review in Le Mercure Musical acknowledged his “infallible fingers.”42 At the premiere of Liaponuv’s piano concerto in Paris, a critic remarked on Viñes’s “furious dexterity who juggled with the thousand-and-one pearls of impressionistic colours.”43 However, writers rarely mentioned Viñes’s technique without also emphasizing the qualities of his musicianship. Viñes’s playing, while at times energetic, relied on subtlety. Reviewers often used contrasting language as they endeavored to articulate what made his playing special. This review from his 1936 homecoming concert summarized the qualities of his playing:
39 See Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 105-118, Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 37-42, Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 169-176, and Michelle Sauvage, “Ricardo Viñes: Interprète de Piano et Pédagogue” (Masters thesis, Université de Paris Sorbonne, 1993). 40 “Chez M. Viñes, une execution aimable et non sans élégance, de la vivacité, de l’habileté, du nerf et du brillant.” Arthur Pougin, review in Le Ménestrel July 29, 1894, 2. 41 “Un goût et une virtuosité rares.” Anonymous review in the Keighley Herald, February 17, 1894, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 79. 42 “De ses doigts infaillibles…” Jean Marnold, review in Le Mercure Musical, February 1, 1906, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 116. 43 “Sa dextérité fureteuse qui jongle avec les mille et une perles des sonorités impressionnistes.” Pail Locard, review in Le Courrier Musical, April 15, 1911, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 95.
13
No person has a sonority so varied, so nuanced, so singing, so clear, and when required, so incisive. And what nimbleness to his technique. So light and so lively at the same time. No one knows how to give a habanera or a tonada its proper rhythm like him. In his playing he displayed something that is sober and fiery and supremely elegant, he never falls into excesses of languor, and could not be more modest. His playing always remains extremely sensitive, but he only needs to do it lightly, without pressing. And he has an art of “finishing,” a phrase which is extraordinary, without any affectation, nor marked insistence, and with a je ne sais quoi of captivating deliciousness and supreme planning. We have found emotion with the great rare pianist that we can love so much, who is always the same, true to himself. And with such simplicity! 44
The quality of his performance was attributed to moderation, which, in the French piano school, was a key ingredient of good taste.
A sense of restraint seemed to make Viñes’s performances unique among pianists.
Considering him a model pianist for others to emulate was a theme that critics repeated throughout his career. In 1916, Jean Marnold wrote, “If there is a virtuoso who can be cited as the model for all others, it must be Ricardo Viñes. His mastery of the instrument is absolute, without equal, possibly, and one finds in him, in addition to his perfect incomparable technique, a reverence devoted to the work he plays. Virtuosity is for him no more than a medium he puts at his service and his mastery, a sensitivity that is touching and enthusiastic which is entirely consecrated to the faithful interpretation of a work of art.”45 After one of Viñes’s last recitals
44 “Rien de plus personnel que sa sonorité si variée, si nuance, si chntante quand il le faut, si nette, et, au besoin, si incisive. Et quelle prestesse dans la technique. Si légère et si nerveuse à la fois. Personne ne sait donner comme lui à une habanera ou à une tonada son rythme proper. Il y a dans son exécution quelque chose de sobre et de fier et de suprêment élégant, qui ne tombe jamais dans les excès de langueur mais ne s’en defend point non plus par de la sécheresse. Toujours son jeu reste extrêment sensible, mais il lui suffit d’indiquer d’une touche légère, sans appuyer. Et il aun art de <
14 before his first South American tour, L’Echo Musical commented on “the conscientious and magnificent effort” from Viñes whose performance did not resemble most recitals, “with which we have been infuriated.” He received particular praise for his Chopin, as a “prestigious interpreter who never indulges in pretentious interpretations and of the clumsy sentimentalism of pianists that we hear commonly.”46 By the time Viñes returned from his third and longest tour of
South America, great pianists from all over Europe were making concert appearances in Paris.
However, Alexis Roland-Manuel still missed his distinct brand of pianism, which had something the other pianists lacked:
Viñes returned to us after an absence of six long years, a time while music was occupied, in France at least, with an offensive return to the dilettantism of virtuosity. The interpreters who came to us from the four corners of Europe, were, like the Italian proverb says, too frequently to music as translators are to literature. Each proposed to us his subjective view of the musical universe, particularly the Debussyist and Ravelian world. Certain ones have seduced us, Gieseking charms us. However, none unite absolute integrity to profound sensitivity like Viñes; none can preserve such magnificent unity of tone, while having such diversity of expression.47
According to Roland-Manuel, Viñes had a unique ability to be expressive without fragmenting the music.
According to critics, Viñes’s personality never overpowered the music. This seemed to result in a homogenous relationship between the pianist and the music he played, where, at
Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 363. I was not able to independently verify this source after searching through Gallica’s online database of Le Figaro editions. 46 “L’effort conscientieux et magnifique...ne ressemble en aucune manière à la plupart des récitals don’t nous avons été excédés…Cet interprète prestigieux qui ne se livre jamais aux interprétations preétentieuses et de sensibilité maladroite des pianistes qu l’on entend couramment.” J.L., review in L’Echo Musical, August 31, 1919, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 223. Few remarks on Viñes’s performance of standard repertoire are readily available. 47 “Viñes nous est rendu après une absence de six longues années, durant lesquelles la musique ne fut guère occupée, en France tout au moins, que d’un retour offensif du dilettantisme de la virtuosité. Des interprètes nous sont venue des quatre coins d’Europe, qui furent trop souvent à la musique ce que le diction italien veut que les tranducteurs soient à la littérature. Chacun nous a proposé sa vue subjective de l’univers musical et singulièrement du monde debussyste et ravélian. Certain nous on séduits, Gieseking nous a charmés. Aucun pourtant, à notre gré, n’allie comme Viñes, l’absolue rectitude à la profonde délicatesse; aucun ne conserve aussi magistralement l’unité du ton dans la diversité des valeurs expressives.” Alexis Roland-Manuel, review in Le Courrier Royal, February 1, 1936, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 243.
15 times, audience members did not hear the piano, but just the music. Le Figaro reported that this was what set him apart from other pianists: “It does not seem like he plays the piano, but the music itself. He’s more than a virtuoso, he’s an artist, and there are very few artists like him, possibly there is none like him among virtuosos.”48 In his compendium of contemporary musicians, Henri Barraud noticed an intriguing effect due to this apparent integration when he wrote, “When this living symbol of artistic integrity plays, it’s not the pianist one hears, but simply the music.”49 By disappearing into the music, Viñes revealed something profound within it. In a 1925 review, Jean Arkel remarked that Viñes was “More than ever in possession of his total mastery and this permanent “inwardness” in expression which, in the silence of suspended breaths, suddenly renders the august presence of music discernible to the less clairvoyant.”50 For
Viñes, this was his prime goal as a performer and he passed it on to his students. Joaquin Nin-
Culmell told Elvira Viñes of the pianist’s quasi-mystical advice while he was studying with
Viñes. He recalled, “Disappear, and the composition is born. Forget your own existence and
Debussy or Ravel or Poulenc express themselves.”51 Leo-Pol Morin, another student of Viñes, had a slightly different take on the pianist’s interpretations. According to Morin, Viñes’s personality did not disappear, but was inextricably linked to his interpretations. Discussing
Viñes’s relationship to contemporary music, he wrote, “The personality of Ricardo Viñes is, so
48 “Il ne semble pas qu’il joue du piano, mais la musique elle-même. C’est plus qu’un virtuose: c’est un artiste, et un artiste comme il y en a très peu, peut-être n’y en a-t-il pas même un seul parmi les virtuoses.” Jean Marnold, review in Le Figaro, 1916, quoted in in Clary, 174. I was not able to independently verify this source after searching through Gallica’s online Le Figaro database. 49 “Quand joue ce vivant symbole de la probité artistique, ce n’est point le pianiste que l’on ecoute, mais simplement la musique.” Henri Barraud, Pour comprendre les musiques d’aujourd’hui (Paris: Le Seuil, 1968). Quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 174 and Bernadó, “Viñes en perspective,” 364. 50 “Plus que jamais en possession de sa totale maîtrise et de cette permanente <
16 to speak, mixed with it; It is of the same substance and has become the frame for this music.
With Ricardo Viñes, the piano is not an ‘instrument of hammers.’ It becomes a sensitive, immaterial, atmospheric element that he sets in motion with its own sensibility. It is his own sensitivity combined with a beautiful intelligence, which reveals to him the deep meaning of these works which then become in his prodigious hands miracles of organized sound.”52 Both students believed that Viñes revealed something profound in his performances, though they disagreed on how he achieved this.
Some critics considered Viñes’s moderation in his playing a sign of humility. In contrast to self-serving virtuosos, his performances reflected a higher moral character. Another concert review stated, “Before this great figure of contemporary music, we are uncomfortable to talk about virtuosity. There is another quality in this interpreter Viñes, so dazzling is he: an inspiration which has always guided and led a magnificently selfless love for music.”53 Later in his career, his interpretations were marked by the same characteristic. After his 1936 homecoming recital, “his superior technique is never used for anything other than the passionate and selfless service of artistic and noble causes.”54
52 “La personnalité de Ricardo Viñes se trouve pour ainsi dire confondue dans cette musique; elle est de même substance et elle en est devenue sa charpente visible. Avec Ricardo Viñes, le piano n’est plus un <
17
It would be a mistake to think that critics reached a positive consensus on the sober manner of his playing. While some interpreted it as modesty, others found his playing cold. This was a dichotomy Viñes contended with over the span of his career, beginning with these reviews of his performance at the 1894 Conservatoire competition. One review in Le Pays reported,
“Modest as much as capable, Mr. Viñes will be honoured, we have no doubt, in this art which fascinates him. Despite his young age, he is already a master, with so much authority and personality in his playing. There is fair and delicate feeling in his style. He is a poet, whose fingers manage to give the illusion of a delicious song accompanied by a harmonious orchestra.”55 Here, Berthe de Presilly attributed the delicacy and modesty in his playing as a sign of an artistic personality. Arthur Pougin interpreted it differently. His review described Viñes’s performance as: “A pleasant execution with a certain elegance, accompanied by liveliness, skill, energy and a brilliant technique; not much originality yet, but overall interesting and thoughtful.”56 Reading between the lines, both agreed that while his playing was interesting and energetic, there was also something understated about it. Pougin considered it detrimental to
Viñes’s performance, attributing it to a lack of originality, while Presilly thought it was an asset.
Viñes dealt with this type of reception across the Atlantic, too. During one of his tours in
South America, the Argentinian composer Armando Panizza found that “he played in an intimate manner, that he served art more than he did profit…his way of playing, sober, could not please
55 “Modeste autant que capable, M. Viñes arrivera au faîte des honneurs, mous n’en doutons pas, dans cet art qui le passionne, et dans lequel, malgré son jeune âge, il compte déjà comme un maître, tant il y a d’autoriteé et de personnalité dans son jeu, de sentiment juste et délicat dans son style. C’est un poète, don’t les doigts parviennent à donner l’illusion d’un chant délicieux, accompagné par un orchestre harmonieux.” Berthe de Presilly, review in Le Pays, July 23, 1894, 3. 56 “Une execution amiable et non sans elegance, de la vivacite, de l'habilite, du nerf et du brillant; point de personnalite encore, mais un bon ensemble bien corsé et ferme.” Arthur Pougin, review in Le Ménestrel July 1894.
18 those who admired the ‘flashy’ interpretations.”57 Even Marguerite de Saint Marceaux, whose diary was full of compliments for Viñes’s performances in her salon, once remarked: “Viñes played the principal piano pieces by Debussy for us after dinner, inspired by the enthusiasm of his friends, his playing was superior. His fingers fly. I did not find it profound, this music does not have a place for it, but his fantasy is charming.”58 Her opinion may have had more to do with the music than his playing. Even the critics who appreciated his playing found his personality lacking. This comparison of Viñes to Rachmaninov, while still part of a positive review, illustrated that Viñes was “always worried about obeying the will of the composer,
Rachmaninov’s [playing] on the contrary, was a lot more personal. We say these two great artistic characters...are unified by a magnificent trait: their generosity.”59 This critic could appreciate the simplicity of Viñes’s playing, but in general it was a polarizing feature of his performances. Viñes himself was convinced that the subtle style of his playing had a special quality, no matter the piece. In his diary, he complained when a critic called his playing cold.
“It’s completely the opposite! My manner of playing, has the same thing in that can be found in a painting by Whistler, a complex depth and an apparent simplicity.”60
Perhaps some reviewers did not appreciate Viñes’s subtlety because it simply did not project. Some scholars have remarked that technical limitations may have prevented his
57 “Qu’il joue de manière intimiste, qu’il sert l’art plutôt qu’il n’en profite, sa manière de jouer, sobre, ne peut plaire à ceux qui admirent les interprétations <
19 interpretations from coming across in larger halls. His biographers commented that “His technique...was distinguished by the richness of his sonorities and dynamics, but unfortunately, he could not surpass the intensity achieved by some of his contemporaries. The distribution of terraces, the search in variation without sudden contrast within a seemed suppleness and flexibility, his sober style, incisive and varied, were undoubtedly, the fruits of a mature reflexion
[sic] on the music.”61 Viñes’s technique possibly prevented him from creating a large sound, and his small concerto repertoire probably attests to this; he may not have been able to contend with an orchestra.
Though not all reviewers were convinced of Viñes’s interpretations, the overwhelming consensus seems to be that his programming choices did a great service to contemporary music.
Critics noticed Viñes’s unorthodox repertoire choices early in his career, and they attributed it to his moral character. After a concert in 1902 at the Société nationale, a critic saluted Viñes’s efforts with this review: “We have already had the opportunity to remark on the enthusiasm with which this young artist put his talent in service of new works that are sometimes unattractive, he studies them to their depths. By the elegance and perfection of his playing, and the effects that he managed to obtain with his sound, he put much care in his interpretation. It’s for these reasons that R. Viñes had to encore the Barcarolle in A minor by Fauré, a pure musical gem.”62 Already halfway through his career, Vuillermoz proclaimed that Viñes’s name would remain connected to the history of composition during the first century.63
61 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 38. 62 “Nous avons déjà eu l’occasion de dire avec quel empressement ce jeune artiste met son talent au service d’oeuvres nouvelles si ingrates soient-elles, les étudiant à fond avec autant de soin qu’il met dans l’interprétation, par l’élégance et la perfection de son jeu et les effests qu’il obtient dans la conduite du son. C’est pour ces raisons que R. Viñes dut bisser la Barcarolle en la mineur de Fauré, un pur bijou musical.” Anonymous review in Le Monde Musical, April 30, 1901, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 137. 63 Emile Vuillermoz, review in Paris-Midi, April 8, 1911, quoted in Gubisch-Viñes, “L’Homme aux cent visages,” 380.
20
This sentiment anticipated the theme in the obituaries and tributes that were published after
Viñes’s death. His legacy was framed as one of sacrifice. Robert Bernard of L’Info Musicale wrote that he forfeited “his own glory and, even more, his own fortune to play unpopular, audacious, and obscure works.”64 Ingelbrecht found these sacrifices to be indicators of a strong work ethic. “Among the youngest people of 1900, this one disdainful of easy success, pursued all his life the call of serving the cause of his contemporaries. Albéniz, de Falla, Debussy, Ravel, found in him the perfect and indefatigable interpreter who must have contributed greatly to the demand of their works.”65 Vuillermoz echoed his earlier assertion writing that Viñes “played an important role in French artistic life, tied into the struggle of aesthetics from the early 20th century… During a time when the genius of Debussy and Ravel was met with indifference, and sometimes the hostility of fools, Viñes, with courage, self-sacrifice and unwavering faith fought their battles for them on stage.”66 Jean-Aubry highlighted the contrast between Viñes’s career with other pianists: “Whilst others were employed...securing on the basis of safe works a tumultuous celebrity, Viñes, hailing from Spain, while still a mere youth, took up in turn defense of the modem French, Russian, and Spanish schools with profound intelligence and warm affection…In our day there is none who has made known more music or better.”67 That Viñes programmed contemporary music early on was interpreted as a sign of wisdom beyond his years.
64 Quoted in Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 19. 65 “Parmi les jeunes de 1900, celui-ci, dédaigneux des succès aisés, poursuivit toute sa vie cet apostolat de servir la cause de ses contemporains. Albéniz, de Falla, Debussy, Ravel, trouvèrent en lui l’interprète parfait et infatigable qui devait contribuer pour une grande partie à imposer leurs oeuvres.” Désiré-Emile Ingelbrecht, “La mort de Ricardo Viñes,” Harmonie, June 19, 1943, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 253. 66 “Cet Espagnol a joué, en effect, un rôle très important dans la vie artistique française…À l’époque où le génie d’un Debussy et d’un Ravel – pour ne parler que de ces deux là – se heurtait à l’indifférence et, parfoic même, à l’hostilité des foules. Ricardo Viñes, avec un courage, une abnégation et une foi que rien ne pouvait entamer, livra pour eux le bon combat sur toutes les estrades de concert.” Émile Vuillermoz, Comoedia, May 8, 1943, quoted in Màrius Bernadó, “Viñes en perspective,” 364. 67 George Jean-Aubry, French Music of Today, trans. Edwin Evans (London, 1920), quoted in Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 19.
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His early success with Ravel and Debussy gave Viñes the reputation of a pianist who could discern which pieces would later gain posterity. He was described as possessing “the capacity of choosing unique repertoire. The present, like the past does not have, for him, any secret, as well as the future...His keen eyes are those of a prophet; his tender moustaches, those of an apostle.”68
Audiences were drawn to his performances in the hopes that they might hear the premiere of a piece which would be later an indispensable part of the repertoire. However, his success in anticipating which works would be popular can be attributed to luck as much as any prophetic power. During the first decade of the 20th century, when Viñes was premiering some of the greatest piano works by Debussy and Ravel, he premiered works by many other composers who have since faded into obscurity. His recordings also include pieces by Latin American composers who are neglected in today’s concert programs.
Indeed, it seemed that reviews were a better indication of popularity a piece could expect; just because Viñes was performing a premiere did not mean the piece would be guaranteed success, as Brody asserted.69 While premieres of many pieces by Ravel and Debussy were reviewed positively, a critic wondered after Viñes’s premiere of pieces by Satie: “But why is it necessary that the compliance of M. Viñes-Roda makes himself the accomplice of certain pieces, sometimes futuristic - usually very ‘pretentious’ - like he inserts too often in his programs?”70
Satie’s works, while not entirely obscure, do not occupy modern piano recital programs to nearly the extent that pieces by Ravel or Debussy do.
68 “Il possède également cette capacité unique de choix du répertoire. Le présent, comme le passé n’ont, pour lui, aucun secret, tout comme le gutur…Ces yeux aigus sont ceux d’un prophète; ces moustaches tendres, elles d’un apôtre.” Emiliano Aguirre quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 237. 69 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 46. 70 “Mais pourquoi faut-il que la complaisance de M. Viñes-Roda se fasse complice de certaines pièces, quelquefois futuristes – le plus souvent très <
22
The characterization of Viñes as a pianist who sacrificed fame to devote himself to contemporary repertoire is not entirely accurate either. He was not indifferent about his popularity. For his first concerts in South America he programmed a synopsis of the piano literature because he was afraid that if he programmed a recital of entirely modern works, audiences would be sparse.71 In fact, he regularly programmed pieces from all periods. He performed concerti by Bach, sonatas by Beethoven, and the music of Chopin and Schumann throughout his life. His programs can be divided into three types: encyclopedic programs, programs dedicated to one or two composers (which included Chopin, Schumann, Debussy,
Ravel, Satie, de Séverac, and Falla), and programs based on nationality or area.72 One of Viñes’s great successes was of the first category, a series of four historical concerts in 1905 that surveyed the entire timespan of the keyboard literature. He would regularly perform programs of the second category at festivals featuring the works of a single composer, and Viñes participated in festivals celebrating Chopin, Liszt, and his contemporaries. The third type of programming could be found on his tours, with the purpose of disseminating works by less popular composers. As a whole, Viñes’s programming throughout his life was varied, and he adjusted his recital programs based on the venue and audience.
Nevertheless, Viñes’s recitals contributed to the popularity of contemporary composers, who freely expressed their gratitude. Erik Satie was one of those who was grateful to Viñes for his work premiering the composer’s little-accepted compositions. In a letter he wrote,
“Courageous Artist who premieres the music of an old fool: it’s a pleasure for me to thank you for playing my Vocations electriques. Without the help of your spiritual talent, my little things
71 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 61. 72 Sauvage, “Ricardo Viñes: Interprète et Pédagogue,” 77, quoted in Berrocal “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 42.
23 would have seemed very meagre. You cannot believe how superiorly you played. Thank you, my old accomplice…”73 Manuel De Falla was also grateful for the effort that Viñes dedicated to his music, calling him a “brave champion of that avant-garde.”74 Perhaps the most touching tribute to Viñes was one by his student Francis Poulenc. In a letter addressed to the pianist’s niece
Elvira Viñes he wrote, “Chère Elvira, Your letter, which was forwarded to me while I was away, moved me to tears. Thank you for the music, thank you for the photographs. I will do whatever you want in memory of my dear Viñes, whom I adored and to whom I owe EVERYTHING in my musical career, both as pianist and composer…You can be sure that I will speak out loudly and clearly about all I owe to Ricardo.”75
Viñes’s choice to program contemporary music probably helped, rather than hindered, his career. Though he programmed a variety of music, critics remarked mostly on the new pieces he played, and he developed the reputation of a contemporary music specialist. That this became his legacy may be because he excelled in that repertoire compared to music written earlier. The subtle shifts of character and colour of Debussy’s music, the sparser textures that accompanied lyrical melodies in the music of the later avant-garde, and the idiomatic rhythms present in many
Latin American pieces were best suited to his performance personality. Despite the way that his contemporaries framed his work as sacrificial, his unique programming choices cemented him as an important part of the history of avant-garde piano music.
73 “Courageux Artiste qui joua le premier la musique d’un vieux fol. C’est un plaisir pour moi de vous remercier de ce que vous venez de faire pour mes Vocations électriques. Sans le secours de votre spirituel talent, mes petits trucs eussent parus bien minces. Vous ne pouvez croire combien vous avez supérieurement joué. Merci mon vieux complice…” Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 184. 74 Manuel de Falla, “On Performances of His Music: Manuel de Falla,” in Ravel Remembered, ed. Roger Nichols (London: Faber and Faber, 1987), 79. 75 Poulenc, Francis, Echo and Source: Selected Correspondence 1915-1963, ed. Sidney Buckland (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1991), 174-175.
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Chapter 2 Viñes the Writer: Articles on Music
Up to this point, the narrative surrounding Viñes focused entirely on his contributions to contemporary music. Based mostly on his diary and on reports by favourable critics, many of whom were friends with Viñes, the Viñes legend has emphasized his wide range of contacts, his unorthodox programming choices, and his formidable pianistic capabilities. While these sources provide important information, they form only part of Viñes’s legacy.
Viñes’s articles, recordings, and compositions have been underrepresented in English scholarship; they have been acknowledged, but not studied. Because these are the only works Viñes consciously produced for posterity, they are by their very nature an indispensable part of his legacy. The next three chapters study his articles, recordings, and compositions. The studies contained in them show how he situated himself as a member of the cohort of contemporary focused musicians, they demonstrate that his spirituality informed his musical convictions, and they reveal how he expressed his identity as a Spaniard in his career. They also corroborate certain aspects of his pianism that have been noted by critics and other scholars. These next three chapters add another dimension to the Viñes narrative by finding his personality and musical traits in his own works.
Alongside his piano performances, Viñes developed a reputation as a man of letters. He began writing poetry during his student days as an exercise to improve his French, and it developed into a serious hobby that occupied him over the course of his life. His colleagues admired the way he handled the French language, and his friend, the poet Léon-Paul Fargue, described his writing as “French the most pure, or the most picturesque.” 76 In 1925, several prominent French writers, including Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Henri de Régnier, Paul Valéry, Léon-Paul Fargue, and Jean Cocteau attended an event held to honour “Ricardo Viñes, hommes de lettres français.”77 Though none of Viñes’s poetry was published during his lifetime, this event was a fitting tribute to a person who had an intense interest in reading and writing French literature.
76 Mildred Clary, Ricardo Viñes: Un pèlerin de l’Absolu, (Arles: Musicales Actes Sud, 2011), 199. 77 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 199.
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Viñes had more publishing success with his prose work on musical subjects. He produced nine articles that appeared in periodicals between 1910 and 1936. He published in French, Spanish and Catalan, which demonstrated his talent for languages. Most of his articles were about contemporary music: two articles were written in memory of Enrique Granados,78 one was an abridged transcription of a masterclass he gave on works by contemporary Spanish composers,79 two were responses to questionnaires about the direction of French music and on interpreting modern works,80 and the longest article (published first in Spanish, then in French), entitled “Three Aristocrats of Sound,” discussed Satie, Ravel and Debussy.81 Viñes also submitted a letter to the editor of a Lyon journal in response to an article comparing Beethoven and Chopin’s music,82 and he wrote two articles on Franz Liszt.83
The interest in Viñes’s articles and opinions was due almost entirely to his reputation as a new music specialist. Thanks to his involvement in the premieres of Ravel and Debussy’s music, he was described as having a prophetic sense for pieces that would be later be considered essential works of genius. Two periodicals approached him to write on this subject, and his responses to questions about the future of French music and on the talent required to interpret modern pieces were published as articles. A radio interview, the only recording of his voice saved for posterity, was about his relationship with Debussy. Of the three articles published on subjects other than contemporary music, two were published under special circumstances – the
78 Ricardo Viñes, “Breu epistola a N’Enric Granados I Campina,” La Revista Musical Catalana 13, no. 150, June 15, 1916, reproduced in Màrius Bernadó ed., Escrits Musicals de Ricard Viñes, (Lleida: Universitat de Lleida, 1999) 30-33. And Ricardo Viñes, “Granados intimo o Recuerdos de su estancia en Paris,” Revista Musical Hispano- Americana, VIII, III époque, no. VIII, August 31, 1916, reproduced in Bernadó ed., Escrits Musicals 34-47. 79 Ricardo Viñes, “Les Espagnols: Cours d’interprétation de M. Ricardo Viñes,” Le Monde Musical, September 30, 1936, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 267-270. 80 Ricardo Viñes, ‘Réponse à un questionnaire d’enquête sur la musique française du journal Excelsior,’ Excelsior, 692, October 7, 1912, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 262-264. And Ricardo Viñes, “Opinions de virtuoses sur l’interpretation,” Le Courrier Musical et Théâtral 29, no. 19, November 15, 1927, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 264-265. 81 Ricardo Viñes, “Tres aristócratas del sonido, (semblazas de Claude Debussy, Erick Satie, y Maurice Ravel),” La Nación, February 11, 1934, reproduced in Bernadó, Escrits Musicals, 51-62. Later published in French as “Trois Aristocrates du son,” Le Monde Musical 46, no. 12, December 31, 1935. 82 Ricardo Viñes, “Beethoven et Chopin (Lettre à M. Knosp),” Revue Musicale de Lyon, April 11, 1910, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 258-9. 83 Ricardo Viñes, “Pensées sur Franz Liszt. A Franz Liszt, genie boycotté” Le Courrier Musical, 14, no. 2, June 1, 1911, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 259-260. And Ricardo Viñes, ‘Liszt précurseur,’ Musica, 109, (October 1911), reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 260-261.
26 centenary of Liszt’s birth. “Tres aristócratas del sonido,” his article about Ravel, Debussy, and Satie – the first two composers with whom he was very closely associated – was so popular in Argentina that he was asked to translate it to French.
The content of these articles reveals his musical convictions, which remained consistent over the course of his writing career. They reveal him as a musician who held Romanticism as the highest ideal in art and music. He characterized this movement not by musical texture or compositional techniques, but by spiritual profundity. For him, Romanticism was evident in works from both the Romantic and modern eras, and he reserved the term to describe pieces regardless of their place in chronology. He also contributed to the debate between the horizontalists and verticalists in two of his articles,84 defending Debussy, Ravel and Satie against the followers of Vincent d’Indy. Viñes’s articles lacked academic rigour. His arguments relied on composer physiognomies rather than musical analysis, and he routinely presented opinions as facts.
Taken on its own, Viñes’s literature on music contributes little to music scholarship. However, examining his articles can help with understanding his legacy for two reasons. First, by advocating for his verticalist friends, Viñes emphasized his relationship with contemporary composers, confirming his association with the avant-garde musical movement. Second, his praise of spiritualism in Romantic music presents an intriguing contradiction for a man who devoted a significant amount of effort to promote music by contemporary composers. The examination of his articles that takes place in this chapter will explore how Viñes reconciled his musical and spiritual convictions. Nina Gubisch-Viñes noticed this duality in her great-uncle’s personality when she wrote that he was both “the man of the past, deeply rooted in the nineteenth century, which was about to be extinguished, and the man of the future,... who became defender of everything that at that time, the atonalist apart, represented the avant-garde, namely Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Falla, Roussel or Van Gogh, Cézanne, Picasso and Bonnard.”85
84 These arguments appear in Viñes’s “Tres aristócratas” and “Réponse à un questionnaire.” The horizontalists who followed Vincent d’Indy were dogmatic in their formal prescriptions, and the verticalists represented avant-garde composers like Ravel and Debussy. 85 Esperanza Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and the Diffusion of Early Twentieth-Century South American Piano Literature” (PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 2002), 14.
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The first section of this chapter is about Viñes’s Romantic ideology and contains discussions of his articles on Liszt and Romanticism, with further examples of how he found the spirit of Romanticism in the music of Debussy and Satie. The second section presents his antagonism toward the “horizontalist” school, which he felt was an attack both on composers he championed and on the spirit of Romanticism itself. The third section examines his style of argument, which often emphasized his relationship with contemporary composers. The resulting conclusions suggest that while Viñes performed pieces from both Romantic and contemporary eras, he saw a common inspiration behind all of them.
2.1 Liszt and the Spirituality of Romanticism Viñes did not delineate between Romantic and modern music. He instead grouped music into two schools, classical music, and a later musical period that began with the compositions of Anton von Webern. To describe the more recent era, he used the word Romantic and modern interchangeably. 86 To define the characteristics of Romantic music, Viñes invoked a passage by Stanislav Fumet: “It must be said that in the centuries of Baudelaire, Wagner and Nietzshe, art had entered a new phase, that it had, in a way, married the powers of the soul. Such, if you will, is the great Romantic contribution, the imprint that Romanticism has left on human history.”87 For Viñes, any music that he considered reaching for something greater was touched by the spirit of Romanticism. It follows then, that Romantic or modern music demanded more esoteric interpretive gifts from the performer. But if we locate the border zone around the age of Romanticism, and take Webern as the delimiter of the two schools, rightly or arbitrarily opposed, I answer, without hesitation, affirmatively, and declare that indeed, taken as a whole, modern music, by the very fact of its infinite complexity, requires from the performer incomparably more intellectual and, above all, sensitive gifts, than its sister of long ago… Also, demonstrating this, we can see that a little girl of 10 years old can play a Bach prelude or a Mozart sonata with adorable perfection, but, on the other hand, she will murder and render literally unrecognizable a little waltz by Schubert, a nocturne by Chopin, a page by Schumann, or a simple Feuillet d’Album by Grieg. This, easily verifiable, suffices to demonstrate that certain intimate things, personal and from the domain of the soul, are absolutely necessary to interpret the Romantics and moderns without
86 Viñes “Opinions,” 264. All page numbers for Viñes’s articles will refer to the location either in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, or Bernadó Escrits Musicals, depending on where they were reproduced. 87 “Il faut dire qu’au siècle de Baudelaire, de Wagner et de Nietzsche, l’art était entré dans une phase nouvelle, qu’il sétait, en quelque sorte, marié aux puissances de l’âme. Tel est, si l’on veut, le grand apport romantique, l’empreinte ineffaçable que le romantisme a laissée sur l’historie de l’homme.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 56.
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betrayal…while those with only professional ability and a code of rules faithfully applied can give us an honorable version of any classical work.88
Viñes argued that a successful interpretation of any Romantic or modern piece required the performer to draw from the “domain of the soul,” demonstrating his conviction that Romantic music is characterized by a spiritual aspect. After the above excerpt, Viñes went on to explain that not all piano music written after the classical era could be characterized as touched by the spirit of Romanticism, as there were certain pieces written badly for the piano, presumably without any profound inspiration.89 Viñes used the term Romanticism to describe any piece written after the classical era that he believed was stimulated by a spiritual muse. That he remarked on the sensitivity required to convincingly interpret Romantic and modern music was possibly an act of self-promotion; by the time he wrote this article Viñes was already known, for better or for worse, for the subtlety of his performances and for the way he revealed something profound in his interpretations.
Viñes considered Liszt to be the greatest contributor to the Romantic movement, and championing his role in the Romantic movement was the basis of Viñes’s literary campaign to elevate the composer’s status. 1911 marked the centenary of Liszt’s birth, and Viñes took part in the celebrations by publishing two articles that commented on Liszt’s musical contribution. 90 For Viñes, Liszt’s innovations were underappreciated by an uneducated public led astray by musical authority figures. He remarked on “the persistence of the prejudices adopted blindly by the gullible flock of music lovers, whose opinions the bad shepherds of public opinion quickly
88 “Mais si l’on situe la zone frontière vers l’époque du Romantisme, et que l’on prenne Weber comme délimitateur des deux écoles à juste titre ou arbitrairement opposées, je réponds, sans hésiter, affirmativement, et déclare qu’en effet, prise en bloc, la musique moderne, du seul fait de son infinie complexité, exige de l’interprète incomparablement plus de dons intellectuels et surtout, sensitifs, que sa soeurette du temps jadis, …Aussi, prouvant ce que j’avance, peut-on voir telle fillette de dix ans jouer, avec une adorable perfection, un prélude de Bach ou une sonate de Mozart et qui, en revanche, assassinera et rendra littéralement méconnaissable une petite valse de Schubert, un nocturne de Chopin, une page quelconque de Schumann ou un simple Feuillet d’Album de Grieg. Cela, vérifiable à chaque instant, suffit pour démontrer que quelque chose d’intime, personnel et du domaine de l’âme, bref, intransmissible, est nécessaire absolument pour traduire, sans trahison…tandis qu’avec un code de règles de style fidèlement appliquées, tout musicien un peu sérieux vous donnera une version plus qu’honorable de n’importe quelle oeuvre classique.” Viñes, “Opinions,” 264-5. 89 Viñes, “Opinions,” 265. 90 Viñes, “Pensées sur Franz Liszt. A Franz Liszt, génie boycotté,” and “Liszt Précurseur.”
29 made concrete and commonplace.”91 This terrible prejudice was a complete misunderstanding of Liszt’s legacy, “for even today despite some isolated eloquent protests, we are far from finished with the annoying cliché of Liszt being considered exclusively as a legendary virtuoso and composer of physicality and difficult pieces of bravura.”92 Viñes maintained that Liszt was much more than a composer of difficult piano music. His true artistic contribution had nothing to do with the piano, but with the profound content of his music.
For Viñes, Liszt marked the “epitome of… the most generous art movement we've ever recorded,” Romanticism.93 Viñes did not specifically state what it was that made Liszt’s music great, he described him only as “the prodigious creator of authentic new values, the noble and great spirit which, for half a century, was the ardent spiritual home from which ideas and benefits radiated splendidly…”94 In suggesting what was necessary for Liszt to be appreciated once again, Viñes hinted at what he believed made Liszt’s music so innovative. He wrote, “As for the popularity of Franz Liszt's works, I do not think this is likely to happen – and always for psychological rather than musical reasons – until a spiritualist awakening has occurred in the minds of our contemporaries.”95 Viñes attributed this misunderstanding of Liszt as a symptom of the naturalist school’s influence, a literary movement that rejected Romanticism in favour of detachment and objectivism. Viñes targeted their “pseudo-literary classicism” as a “contagious phobia for anything” that emphasized emotion.96 Liszt’s music expressed something that could only be ascertained by an audience who could appreciate spiritual profundity, something that
91 “A constater la persistance des préjugés qu’adopte à l’aveuglette le crédule troupeau des mélomanes don’t les mauvais bergers de l’opinion ont vite fait de concrétiser le sens en de sonores et perfides lieux communs…” Viñes, “Pensées sur Franz Liszt,” 259. 92 “Car encore aujourd’hui, et malgre les eloquentes protestations de quelques isolés, on est loin d’en avoir fini avec l’agaçant cliché d’un Liszt exclusivement consideéré comme virtuose de légende, auteur, tout au plus, de sportifs, entraînants et difficiles morceaux di bravura.” Viñes, “Pensées sur Franz Liszt,” 259. 93 “Liszt a le tort de personnifier – et avec quelle superbe impertinence! – le plus généreux mouvement d’art qu’on ait jamais enregistré.” Viñes, “Liszt Précurseur,” 260. 94 “Oui, du prodigieux créateur d’authentiques valeurs nouvelles, du noble et gran esprit qui, un demi-siècle durant, fut l’ardent foyer spirituel d’où rayonnèrent splendidement les idées et les bienfaits...” Viñes, “Pensées sur Franz Liszt,” 259. 95 “Quant à la popularité des oeuvres de Franz Liszt, je ne la crois guère probable – et toujours pour des raisons psychologiques plutôt que musicales – tant qu’un révail spiritualiste ne se sera franchement produit dans la mentalité de nos contemporains.” Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 261. 96 “Cette fameuse ‘peur de l’emphase’ sévissant en contagieuse phobie depuis qu’un renouveau de pseudo- classicisme…” Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 260.
30 would not be possible with the pervading influence of the naturalists. For Viñes, Liszt was the composer who most effectively married art to the powers of the soul. In describing Liszt as an “abbé,” 97 Viñes was not just referring to the great composer taking holy orders late in his life, he was also a spiritual leader in the musical realm.
Viñes considered Liszt’s influence to be wide-reaching, even though it was not acknowledged. This was a composer who “not only influenced Wagner, Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss, and masters of the Russian school, to the offense of some tendentious biographers I add César Franck too, who was very affected, and also most of the composers who have been called (completely arbitrarily, to me) ‘impressionists.’”98 Viñes considered the music of Satie and Debussy to be particularly touched by the spiritual influence of Romanticism. He described Satie’s music as using a “pilgrim harmonic system,”99 signifying that Satie’s exploration of harmony was akin to a spiritual one. Viñes also believed that Debussy’s music “having married art with the powers of the soul,” was marked by “a mysterious extra-terrestrial accent, and a paradisiacal and transcendental emotion.”100 Viñes found the spirit of Romanticism most present in his favourite pieces by Liszt – the oratorio Christus, the Sonata in B minor and the Faust Symphony101 – and in these pieces by Debussy: La mort des amants, (from 5 Poèmes de Baudelaire), La Grotte (from 3 Chansons de France), the third ‘lied’ [sic] from Le promenoir des deux amants, Hommage à Rameau (from Images book 1), the death of Mélisande (from Pélleas et Mélisande) the piano preludes Feuilles mortes, Les sons et les parfums, and La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune, and “finally, above all, the Andante of the Quartet.”102 This sense of spirituality and otherworldliness was to be what Viñes appreciated most in music, and the piano pieces listed above, with the exceptions of some passages in the Sonata by Liszt,
97 Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 260. 98 “Je pense que Liszt a non seulement influencé Wagner, Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss et les maîtres de l’Ecole russe – j’y ajouterai César Frank, très atteint, lui aussi, n’en déplaise à certain biographes tendancieusement réticents – mais encore la plupart des compositeurs qu’il est convenu – fort arbitrairement, selon moi – d’appeler ‘impressionnistes.’” Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 260. 99 “Peregrino sistem armónico…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 53. 100 “Pues ese haberse desposade el arte con las potencias del alma que, perspicaz, advierte Fumet en el hecho romántico, es justamente lo que da el misterioso acento supraterrestre, paradisíaco y da emoción transcentental a la música de Debussy.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 56. 101 Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 262. 102 “O, en fin, por encima de todo, el Andante del Cuarteto…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 56.
31 are not technically difficult. This may explain some of Viñes’s motivations in programming uncomplicated miniatures later in his life, and why his compositions were not technically difficult. Viñes considered technical writing and spirituality not readily compatible.
Viñes believed that even if Liszt’s spiritual influence was not acknowledged, the composer’s technical innovation affected even the least spiritual composers. According to Viñes, Liszt’s modernization of piano writing influenced contemporary musical culture so much that composers who made a point of avoiding Romanticism still unconsciously made use of his advancements. Viñes considered Liszt’s influence so ubiquitous that “when listening to modern music one does not recall Franz Liszt's music, whereas it is impossible to hear Liszt without thinking, at any moment, about such and such a page of modern music.”103 By explaining in his articles that Liszt’s contribution of injecting spirituality into music influenced some composers, and that Liszt’s technical innovations permeated the works of those who rejected Romanticism, Viñes believed he proved Liszt’s legacy was more than that of a simple keyboard magician and should be appreciated as such. Viñes asserted that Liszt’s genius was proved by his all- encompassing influence when he wrote, “The assimilation is thus complete, and the influence is already in our blood. We no longer imitate Liszt, but we live off of him. The most demanding and ambitious person could, it seems to me, be satisfied with less glory.”104
For Viñes, Liszt’s influence on composers of his day was not just due to the latter’s technical innovations. Viñes was more impressed with the spiritual revolution Liszt’s works represented, which paved the way for composers such as Satie and Debussy to continue marrying the powers of the soul with their art. This idea of Romanticism in Liszt’s music as a spiritual precursor to the compositions by Viñes’s contemporaries was a key part of how he rationalized his musical preferences with his belief that he was striving for a higher purpose.
Despite its innovations in texture and harmony, avant-garde music did not represent a ground-breaking shift in musical direction for Viñes. He considered Romantic music and modern
103 “Qu’en écoutant de la musique moderne on peut fort bien ne point se souvenir de celle de Franz Liszt, tandis qu’il est impossible d’entendre du Liszt sans penser, à tout moment, à telle ou telle page de musique moderne…” Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 261. 104 “L’assimilations est donc complète, et l’influence étant déjà passée dans le sang, on n’imite plus Liszt, mais on en vit toujours. L’ambitieux le plus exigeant pourrait, ce me semble, se contenter d’une moindre gloire.” Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” 261.
32 music as requiring the same pianistic gifts. Importantly, he believed composers from both eras could be inspired by the same spiritual muse. Thus, Viñes programmed, studied, and promoted avant-garde music without ever seeing the need to re-evaluate his conservative musical convictions.
2.2 Viñes the Verticalist Viñes not only championed with works of his colleagues by arguing their spiritual qualities. He defended their music in the context of a debate between the ‘verticalists’ and ‘horizontalists,’ debate in which Les Apaches had an idealistic stake: Moreover, d’Indy’s dogmatic emphasis on the teaching of counterpoint (and refusal to acknowledge harmony as a separate subject of study) was irresponsibly exploited by the young critic Émile Vuillermoz [member of Les Apaches], who in 1905 unleashed a fatuous journalistic war. According to his ideological distortion, the ‘verticalist’ party of Debussy, Ravel and the Impressionist school represented the future with their cult of experimental harmonies and orchestral effects, whereas the ‘horizontalists’ of the Schola remained imprisoned in their outdated formal and contrapuntal procedures.105
Viñes subscribed to Vuillermoz’s representation of the issues and attacked the horizontalists led by Vincent d’Indy. By doing so, Viñes clearly delineated his support for the avant-garde composers whose music he included in his programs. In his articles, Viñes engaged with the horizontalists on two fronts: melody and harmony.
Viñes’s first attack on the horizontalists appeared in a 1912 survey article. The question was designed to provoking controversy: “Do you think that melody, in the simplest and most popular sense of the word, prevails over the harmonic and contrapuntal combinations that are now honored?”106 In his response, Viñes criticized d’Indy’s school of thought, which venerated the formal structures he perceived in the music of Franck and Wagner. Viñes complained, “Banished and repudiated by the Wagnerians from the beginning, and later kept ostracized by most of Franck’s disciples who, themselves would have been ashamed of the slightest
105 Robert Orledge and Andrew Thomson, “Indy, (Paul Marie Théodre) Vincent d’,” Grove Music Online, accessed May 15, 2020, https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13787. 106 “Estimez-vous que la mélodie, au sens le plus simple et le plus populaire du mot, l’emporte sur les combinaisons harmoniques et contrapunctiques aujourd’hui honorées?” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 262.
33 incriminating contact with such a person [Franck], the adorable and divine melody cannot return too soon from its exile to be finally reintroduced in the fullness of its rights unknown for too long.”107 This was a position that Viñes maintained over two decades later when he commented on the horizontalists “stubbornly denying that there was, in Wagner, the least truly melodic phrase.”108
Viñes believed that without a melody, a piece was missing an essential element. “To banish [the melody] forever from music would deprive music of its noblest and most expressive element - the lyrical element, that is, the human element…”109 Even the counterpoint of Bach was unsatisfactory without a melody because “despite the immense genius of Johann Sebastian Bach, nine tenths of his work leave the most fervent listener unsatisfied, as if waiting for something that never happens. No matter how much we are interested in the purity of the lines, the richness of the details and the infinite resources of invention of this prodigious art, if it is almost exclusively geometric and decorative, the eternal twirling of these thousand drawings with overly kaleidoscopic combinations results, alas! by annoying and making us feel the need for a central subject, a character, a soul, finally!”110 Viñes displayed considerable antipathy toward the counterpoint written by his contemporaries, some who “honourable as they are” were “proud of the poverty and ugliness of the themes they had chosen.”111
107 “Un jour proscrite et répudié par les wagnériens de la première heure, et plus tard maintenue dans le même ostracisme par la majeure partie des disciples de Franck qui, eux aussi, eussent eu honte du moindre contact avec une aussi compromettante personne, l’adorable et divine mélodie ne peut que revenir bientôt de son exil, pour être enfin réintégrée dans la plénitude de ses droits trop longtemps méconnus.” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 262. 108 “…Entre armonistas y melodistas, estos últimos negando tozudamente que hubiese, en lo que de Wagner se iba conociendo, la menor frase verdaderamente melódica.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 53. 109 “La bannir à jamais de la musique, ce serait priver celle-ci de son plus noble et expressif élément – l’élément lyrique c’est-à-dire humain…” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 262. 110 “Dépit de l’immense génie de Jean Sébastien Bach, les neuf dixièmes de son oeuvre laissent le plus fervent auditeur insatisfait et comme dans l’attente de quelque chose qui n’arrive jamais. C’est qu’on a beau s’intéresser à la pureté des lignes, à la richesse des détails et aux infinies ressources d’invention d’un art prodigieux mais presque uniquement géométrique et décoratif, léternel tournoiement de ces mille dessins aux combinaisons par trop kaléidoscopiques finit, hélas! par agacer et faire sentir le besoin d’un sujet central d’un personnage, d’une âme, enfin!” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 262-3. 111 “…Nombre de musiciens – par ailleurs honorables – n’ont pas rougi de composer… Il s’en trouve même, parmi ces étranges Orphées qui poussèrent le paradoxe jusqu’à être firs de l’indigence et de la laideur des thèmes par eux dûment choisis.” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 263.
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Viñes’s interest in the spiritual combined with his defense of his contemporaries when he chastised the horizontalists for their disregard for harmony. Viñes considered polyphonic writing to be lacking in spiritual inspiration. While melody was the human element of music, Viñes associated harmony with the “music of the spheres,” an archaic philosophical concept that regarded the movement of celestial bodies as a type of music. 112 In making this association, Viñes drew from his confidence in astrological precepts in his belief that music had a spiritual power. D’Indy, who refused to see harmony as a discipline worth teaching at the Schola Cantorum, created what Viñes considered a school of intellectualism that fostered an incapability of appreciating the most important aspect of music, its ability to connect with the soul of the listener. He decried that “it was very common to see the concert halls, big or small, profusely sprinkled with white by an endless number of their unhappy music papers, almost sunk their heads in their scores, they listen with their noses.”113 These audience members were not listening, they were reading. Viñes saw hope in Ravel, Debussy and Satie, whose pieces, linked by their harmonic (and spiritual) innovations, emerged in the face of prevailing horizontalist trends.114
Viñes’s attack on the horizontalists was a feature of his Romantic musical sensibilities. His teacher, Charles de Bériot, was known for emphasizing lyricism in his lessons, a trait Viñes would later adopt when he began teaching. Viñes may also have perceived this as a dispute with spiritual implications. His mystic approach to Catholicism, which included accepting occult practices as having religious merit, probably clashed with the mission of the more dogmatic d’Indy to reform the music of the Catholic liturgy by reviving contrapuntal works. Viñes rationalized his acceptance of his contemporaries’ adventurous harmonies by emphasizing the mystic nature of such innovations. Any music that was spiritual in nature was influenced by Romanticism, no matter how avant-garde.
112 “Música de las esferas.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 53. 113 “…Fuera cosa muy corriente el ver las salas de concierto, grandes o chicas, profusamente salpicadas de blanco por un sin fin de papeles de música cuyos desdichados poseedores, casi hundida la cabeza en sus partituras, parecíen escuchar con las narices.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 55. 114 Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 53.
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Viñes’s antagonism toward the d’Indy school was not only in response to the criticism directed at his colleagues Debussy, Ravel and Satie. He complained about the breadth of their attacks which encompassed a wide range of composers: They dared to speak not only of Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, all the Russians and the immense Liszt, but even Mendelssohn, even Schumann!, even Chopin! and even, but it is credible? – Even Mozart! – But then it should be asked: of which crime or horrendous transgression were they blamed? Essentially the vertical crime, very simply the works of all those delinquent composers sounded good, or did not completely correspond to the canon, mold, pattern or... recipe imposed by the Great Lama of the Sect, blindly adopted by an infinity of obedient "cells" – what a Bolshevik anticipation! – which spread their tentacular network of propaganda, not only in France but also throughout Europe and both Continents.115
The “Great Lama,”116 was d’Indy, of course, and Viñes took the opportunity to sprinkle his right-wing politics into this attack him. Viñes regularly programmed music by all the composers he listed, except Mozart. It seems his attack was born from personal motivations as much as ideological ones.
During his career, Viñes maintained a repertoire that was mostly comprised of Romantic and modern works, often with homophonic textures. He programmed very few contrapuntal works and no atonal or twelve-tone pieces. Viñes considered the combination of the melodic and harmonic elements a metaphor for his pilgrim attitude toward life: the human supported by the spiritual. By programming music from both eras that shared this trait, Viñes emphasized their similarity. He also helped play his part in expelling intellectualism from concert halls, and he invited audiences to join him when he wrote, “The important thing, if we want to hasten this return [of the melody], is to get used to and obsess over pieces with melodies, and to no longer consider as music these miserable little pieces of phrases called themes, where two or three notes
115 “Y cuán no se ensanarían con estos mozalbetes – armonistas o verticalistas de nuevo cuño y sin pergaminos de notoriedad – cuando osaron habsclas no ya tan sólo con los Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, todos los Rusos y el inmenso Liszt, sino hasta con Mendelssohn, hasta con ¡Schumann!, hasta con ¡¡Chopin!! y hasta pero ¿es creíble? – hasta con ¡¡¡Mozart!!! – Mas entonces se dirá: ¿de qué delito u horrendo crimen se les culpaba? Pues muy llanamente del delito esencialmente vertical, de que las obras de todos esos infelices sonaran bien, o no correspondiesen del todo a los canones, molde, patrón ó…receta impuestos por el Gran Lama de la Secta y ciegamente adoptados por infinidad de obedientes “células” – ¡qué bolchevique anticipación! – las cuales extendían su red tentacular de propaganda, no solamente en Francia sino también en toda Europa y a ambos Continentes…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 54-55. 116 A Lama is a spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism.
36 make up the whole phrase.”117 An avowed verticalist, the convictions Viñes presented in his literary pursuits were reflected in his performance practices as he fought the horizontalists both on stage and on paper.
2.3 Instinct Over Analysis
Viñes’s arguments were based on opinion, and he rarely provided any factual analysis as evidence. His least compelling arguments were ones where he took the conclusion as “obvious,” and provided no analysis to support his claims. For example, in a discussion on the influence of art on music, he contended, “The influence of literary and plastic arts on French music seems so obvious to me that I will confine myself to pointing out how much this influence – so general today – was, in short, always traditional in France,” before then listing composers whom he believed were influenced by visual art, such as Josquin des Prez, François Couperin, Hector Berlioz, Emmanuel Chabrier, d’Indy and Debussy. 118
Even in his impassioned defense of Liszt, Viñes contended no analysis was needed to understand what made the great composer’s works so innovative, as long as the person surveying his works was not prejudiced. He asserted, “The richness, brilliance and originality of Liszt’s works imposes itself in such an imperious way on anyone not encumbered by the most foolish and unjust of legends, that I don’t believe I am giving a personal opinion, but am simply presenting the evidence of fact by affirming the immense significance of this work aesthetically, and from the point of view of music’s history.”119 In fact, Viñes believed that even if one were to undertake a technical analysis of Liszt’s work, it would provide no illumination. He expressed this when he wrote, “Ah! if [Liszt] had been one of these specialists with reasonable pretensions, and whose labelled products encourage analysis! But how can we do justice to the complex
117 “L’important, pour peu que l’on tienne à hâter ce retour, c’est de s’habituer et habituer les autres à ne plus considérer comme de la musique ces misérables petits bouts de phrase cuistrement appelés thèmes, et don’t deux ou trois notes faisaient tous le frais.” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 263. 118 “L’influence de l’art littéraire et des arts plastiques sur la musique française m’apparaît si évidente que je me bornerai, sur ce sujet, à faire remarquer combien cette influence – si générale aujourd’hui – fut, en somme, chose toujours traditionelle en France…” Viñes, “Réponse à un questionnaire,” 263. 119 “La richesse, l’éclat et l’originalité de l’oeuvre de Liszt s’imposent de si impéreuse façon à tout exprit non prévenu par la plus sotte et injuste des légendes, que je ne crois pas émettre un avis personnel, mais souscrire simplement à l’évidence d’un fait, en affirmant, très haute, l’immense portée de cette oeuvre, aussi bien esthétiquement parlant, qu’au point de vue, plus général, de l’histoire de la musique.” Viñes, “Liszt, précurseur,” 260.
37 innovator who has the audacity to undertake everything, and the insolence to succeed!...The question of knowing what degree of intrinsic perfection such works possess seems like a useless trick, convinced that I am and of their value, and of their timelessness!”120 Apparently, Viñes was confident that his instinct was a sufficient measure of a work’s artistic value.
For Viñes, recognizing a composer’s inspiration was essential to understanding their music, thus illuminating its content more than any musical analysis. Technical scrutiny was not necessary if one knew the composer well enough. Viñes expressed his discomfort with technical evaluation in the first article he published. In it, he criticized Gaston Knosp’s analysis of a musical fragment from one of Beethoven’s notebooks.121 Knosp concluded that his analysis demonstrated an anticipation of Chopin’s musical innovations in Beethoven’s work, thus linking the two composers. Viñes was not convinced, and used a physiognomic analysis, a pseudoscientific assessment of character through interpretation of facial features, to argue there could be no musical connection between the composers: As for their pieces, there is no doubt that a slow and methodical work of comparison did not reveal, here and there, more or less striking analogies, but these analogies would only relate, I am sure, to the technical and purely external element of the comparative passages, without ever reaching the essential part of their inspiration, that is, what comes not from the artist's profession but directly from the sensitivity of the man. And what’s more, a simple comparison of Beethoven and Chopin’s portraits will reveal the essential secret to anyone who does not thumb their nose at the science of physiognomy. Was there ever a more obvious antithesis than that of the two faces? One big, solid, and square, the other fine, oval, and almost diffusing spirituality? The comparison inspires one to ask oneself if those faces really belonged to two inhabitants of the same planet. Certainly, Beethoven was already a Romantic and he went, as such, to make his influence felt on his cadets the Webers, Wagners, Berliozes, but his rural and idyllic Romanticism, of the Rousseau genre, expressed itself above all by naive transports of enthusiasm in contemplation of the spectacle
120 “Ah! s’il se fut agi de l’un de ces spécialistes à prétentions raisonnables, et don’t les produits étiquetés encouragent l’analyse! Mais comment rendre justice au complexe novateur qui a l’audace de tout entreprendre, et l’insolence de tout réussir!...Combien vaine dès lors m’apparaît la question de savoir quel degré d’intrinsèque perfection de telles oeuvres possèdent persuadé que je suis et de leur valeur, et de leur pérennité!” Viñes, “Liszt, précurseur,” 261. 121 Knosp was a journalist living in French Indo-China (Vietnam) who, according to Jann Pasler, developed into the first Francophone comparative musicologist. See Jann Pasler “The Music Criticism of Gaston Knosp: From Newspaper Journalism in Tonkin to Comparative Musicology (1898-1912),” Revue belge de Musicologie 66, (2012), 203-22.
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of beatific nature, while Chopin, resolutely subjective, voluntarily rejected bird song, brooks, and greenery to focus entirely on his internal drama.122
Having proved, in his opinion, that Beethoven and Chopin where of opposite character by examining their physical attributes, Viñes believed he convincingly explained why there could be no musical connection between the two.
Viñes also engaged in character analysis to help explain the music of his contemporaries. His masterclass on Spanish composers, recorded in an article, included a lengthy preamble with anecdotes about each composer’s character and habits.123 Elsewhere, Viñes evoked Mompou’s personality to describe what made his music distinctly Catalan.124 Viñes’s most extensive character portrayals were of Satie, Ravel, and Debussy, and they made up the bulk of his article about them.125 Debussy’s appearance, chubby, with a beautifully ugly head whose protruding brow sheltered feline eyes “suggested the romantic image of an Italian mercenary captain or that of some honest calabrese bandit.”126 Ravel was slight, elegant and lordly, with the “vague air of a comfortable jockey already withdrawn from the field.”127 Satie’s “quirky silhouette” seemed to offer a “hymn to the goddess Length,” and his top hat ascended “toward the stars, as if already
122 “Quant à leurs oeuvres, nul doute qu’un lent et méthodique travail de comparaison n’y fit découvrir, çà et là, des analogies plus ou moins frappantes, mais ces analogies ne porteraient, j’en suis sûr, que sur l’élément technique et purement extérieur des passages comarés, sans atteindre jamais le fond, l’essentiel de l’inspiration, c’est-à-dire, ce qui vient direcetement non pas du métier de l’artiste mais de la sensibilité de l’homme. Et bien, cette chose essentielle, une simple confrontation des portraits de Beethoven et de Chopin en livrera le secret à quiconque ne fait pas fi de la science physiognominique. Vit-on jamais, en effet, plus flagrante antithèse que celle de ces deux visages? L’un gros, massif et carré; l’autre fin, ovale et presque diaphane de spiritualité? C’est à se demander s’ils appartiennent vraiment à deux habitants de la même planète. Certes, Beethoven fut dejà un Romantique et il allait, comme tel, faire sentir son influence chez ses cadets, les Weber, les Wager, les Berlioz, mais son romantisme idyllique et rural, genre Rousseau, se manifeste surtout par de naïfs transports d’enthousiasme au spectacle de la nature béatement contemplée, tandis que celui de Chopin, résolument subjectif et, pour ainsi dire, autosite, dédaigne volontiers chants d’oiseaux, ruisselets et verdures pour être tout entir à son drame intériur.” Viñes, “Beethoven et Chopin (Lettre à M. Knosp) 258-9. 123 Viñes, “Les Espagnols,” 267-8. For a more detailed discussion on Viñes’s pedagogy, see “Viñes as Pedagogue” in this dissertation. 124 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 90. NB: Clary does not provide a citation for this, and I have not been able to locate the article. She provides only the information that this was an interview after a 1921 concert at the Salle Pathé in Paris. 125 Viñes, “Tres aristócratas.” 126 “…todo lo cual sugería la romántica imagen de un redivivo condottiere o la de algún honesto bandido calabrés…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 52. 127 “…vago airecillo de acomodado jockey ya retirado del turf…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 52.
39 ignoring the things of this rascal world.”128 Viñes not only described their faces and bodies, but their literary preferences (Satie’s the most French, Debussy’s the least129), their culinary partialities (Ravel enjoyed “alarming doses of pickles,” and Satie loved sugary coffee so much that to give him a sugar cube during the rationing days of the Great War was to “fill him with a limitless childlike joy”130), and their politics. This information was presumably in service of understanding their musical innovations, though Viñes never explicitly linked the two.
In commenting on the politics of the Three Aristocrats, Viñes betrayed his own unsavory prejudices. A political conservative and avowed anti-Dreyfusard, Viñes could not help but criticize Ravel’s left-wing beliefs.131 He called them “embarrassing” and accused the composer of suffering from a “case of bovarism.”132 Viñes could not understand how this man, to whom he used to be so close, who used to delight in works by Baudelaire, Huysmans and Edgar Allan Poe, and who projected such a patrician air could hold beliefs that privileged the “vulgar.”133 Viñes seemed to forgive Satie for running in an election as a Communist because the composer converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. Both Satie and Ravel were given some respite for their contributions to the war effort, which coincided with Viñes’s political ideals.
Viñes made no comment on Debussy’s political associations, though he did contend that Debussy’s reputation as “Claude de France” was a misrepresentation of his oeuvre (“mumbo jumbo of decorative resonance”134), which was “until 1914, of cosmopolitan intellectual heritage.”135 When writing about Debussy’s influences, Viñes stated: “but I refer to Debussy
128 “…oponíase, estrafalaria, la silueta de Erik Satie, que parecía ofrendar un himno a la diosa Longitud…que semejaba ascender hacia los astros, como desentendiéndose ya de las cosas de este pícaro mundo.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 52. 129 Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 55-56. 130 “Ravel, por las dosis alarmantes de pickles…regalarle a Satie un terroncito de azúcar era colmarle de un gozo sin límites y casi infantil.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 55-56. 131 Ravel was in the camp that maintained the innocence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer falsely convicted of treason, while the antisemitic Viñes’s diaries abound in derogatory language toward Dreyfusard 132 “…su idiosincrasia mental me pareció siempre de asaz embarazosa y ardua clasificación…curioso caso de bovarismo…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 58. 133 “…mas cuyos ideológicos entusiasmos…maguer tanto refinamineto, solían ir…hacia especíemnes de lo peorcito y más repelentemente vulgar…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 58. Ravel was a dreyfusard, Viñes was not. 134 “Claude de France, musicien français y otras monsergas de decorativa resonancia…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 56. 135 “…hasta 1914, de cosmopolita acerva intelectual…” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 56.
40 taken en bloc.”136 This article was published during the time that scholars were debating Debussy’s legacy as a French composer. Viñes managed to comment on the matter in his own way.
For Viñes, the information he provided about his composer colleagues’ character was supposed to illuminate their music. By avoiding any analysis of the actual music written by the composers he discussed in his articles, his arguments amount to little more than truisms. His method, which favoured instinct over intellectualism, may have been a symptom of his lack of formal schooling, and the confidence he had in his autodidacticism. However, the stories he wrote about his composer friends emphasized his relationship to them, and by extension his authority with French avant-garde music.
As much as he praised the spiritual innovation of Romanticism, Viñes situated himself as an avant-garde artist in his articles. By not including Brahms among the Romantic composers he defended, and by criticizing d’Indy and his movement, Viñes positioned himself against music that was considered formalist. For him, musical genius was a gift, and he did not seem to ascribe any particular merit to the rigour of composing. The same attitude could be seen in the type of evidence he provided in his arguments: his instinct was a more than adequate replacement for any technical analysis.
136 “…mas yo me refiero a Debussy tomado en bloc.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 56.
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Chapter 3 Viñes in Performance: The Recordings Though Viñes produced a limited discography, his recordings provide a medium to assess critical reception of his playing during his lifetime. His recorded performances corroborate the descriptions of his colleagues, as they reveal a pianist who had ample pianistic facility, but a harsh tone in louder passages. Viñes’s playing also featured subtle colour changes, and a liberal use of the pedal. Due to the suboptimal quality and limited repertoire of his recordings, made in 1929, 1930, and 1936, it is impossible to gauge exactly what Viñes the pianist sounded like. Therefore, this chapter engages in a limited discussion of his pianism revealed in his recordings.
Viñes’s recordings revealed more than just his pianistic traits. First, the large portion of avant-garde repertoire in his discography supports his reputation as a contemporary music specialist. The scale of the pieces Viñes recorded hints at his preference for short character pieces.137 Finally, a study comparing Viñes’s recording of Manuel de Falla’s Danza rituel del fuego with a contemporary recording by Artur Rubinstein reveals that the reputation Viñes had for honouring composers and his fidelity to the score is well founded. Viñes’s recordings not only illuminate his pianistic ability, they confirm his reputation for playing contemporary music.
Viñes was wary of recording, and it is remarkable that he left any of his performances to posterity at all. Mildred Clary, his biographer, explained why Viñes was hesitant to make recordings: [Viñes] completely detested the concept of recordings and he thought they resulted in artificial interpretations. In his eyes, the public was the sine qua non for a good interpretation. Without them, inspiration was lost. Sadly, there exist few recordings that attest to his talent. He never played a piece two times in the same way. Each time, he made some sort of modification, his performances were always different. Freezing an interpretation by recording it made him nothing but uneasy.138
137 The maximum length of a recording during the period when Viñes was in the studio was around four to five minutes. Most of the pieces he recorded are well under that threshold, so the limits in recording technology were probably not a major consideration in his repertoire choices. 138 “Ce qui explique le fait qu’il détestait tout le concept de l’enregistrement et des interprétations organisées artificiellement. A ses yeux, un public était le sine qua non pour un bonne interpétation. Sans lui, manguait l’inspiration. Malheureusement, il n’existe que peu de documents enregistrés qui attestent de son taleent. Il ne jouait jamais un morceau deux fois de la même façon. A chaque fois, il y apportait quelque modification, toujours différente. Figer une interprétation par un enregistrement ne pouvait que lui déplaire.” Mildred Clary, Ricardo Viñes: Un Pèlerin d’absolu (Arles: Musicale Actes Sud, 2011), 173.
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Multiple scholars have echoed this assertion. Paul Roberts remarked that Viñes distrusted recordings for their inaccurate representations of performances that lacked the inspiration of an audience,139 and Elaine Brody mentioned that Viñes avoided them because they lacked spontaneity.140 Viñes’s student, Léo-Pol Morin, shared this belief.141 Viñes’s lessons included long conversations, so his opinions on recordings probably came up in lessons, though this belief was not adopted by all students. One of his other students, Marcelle Meyer, had a prolific discography. In any case, Viñes’s mistrust of a recording’s ability to accurately represent one of his performances softened enough that in 1929 he embarked on the first of three recording projects.
There is no information about what prompted Viñes to abandon his hesitance for recording. Perhaps an improvement in recording technology convinced him that his performances could be more accurately captured. Until the mid-1920’s, records were made acoustically, a process by which a horn was placed close to the instrumentalist to capture soundwaves which moved a stylus that etched a disc or wax cylinder. Records made by acoustical recording had many limitations and low fidelity to the original performance. Electronic recording, introduced in 1925, yielded superior results. The use of microphones to capture soundwaves and convert them to an electrical signal provided a much higher fidelity. Viñes made his recordings after the introduction of this new recording process.142
In 1929 and 1930, Viñes recorded the following sixteen pieces for the French Columbia company at Studio Albert in Paris (the recording dates are in parentheses): ● C.W. Gluck’s Gavotte from Iphigénie en Aulide, arranged by J. Brahms (June 17, 1929) ● Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Major, K. 29 (June 17, 1929) ● Isaac Albeniz’s Granada from Suite Espagnole, op. 47, no. 1 (June 7, 1930), and Torre Bermeja from Douze Piezas caracteristicas, op. 92, no. 12 (November 4, 1929)
139 Paul Roberts, Reflections: The Piano Music of Maurice Ravel (Montclair: Amadeus Press, 2012), 133. 140 Elaine Brody,“Viñes in Paris: New Light on Twentieth Century Performance Practice,” in A Musical offering: essays in honor of Martin Bernstein, ed. Edward H. Clinkscale and Claire Brook (New York: Pendragon Press, 1977), 55. 141 Claudine Caron, “Chroniques des concerts du pianiste Léo-Pol Morin (1892-1941): pour un portrait de la modernité musicale au Québec, (PhD diss., Université de Montréal: 2008, 322. Morin studied with Viñes in 1914 and kept up an association with him until the early 1920’s. 142 Esperanza Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and the diffusion of early twentieth-century South American piano literature” (PhD diss., The Catholic University of America, 2002), 137 states Viñes also recorded for the Radio Nacional in Barcelona in 1940. This must have been a live broadcast because no copy of any recording from this exists.
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● Manuel Blancafort’s L’orgue del carroussel and Polca de l’equilibrista both from Le Parc d'atraccions (November 4, 1929) ● Claude Debussy’s La Soirée dans Grenade from Estampes (November 7, 1929) ● Joaquin Turina’s Miramar and En los jardines de Murcia from Cuentos de España, op. 20, nos. 3 and 4 (both recorded November 13, 1929) ● Alexander Borodin’s Scherzo in A flat Major (April 23, 1930) ● Isaac Albeniz’s Oriental and Seguidillas from Cantos de España op. 232, nos. 2 and 5 (June 6, 1930) ● Claude Debussy’s Poissons d’or from Images II (June 1930) ● Manuel de Falla’s suite from El amor brujo, including Danza del terror, Danza rituel del fuego, and Romance del pescador (June 1930)143
The pieces in this first recording project are consistent with Viñes’s reputation for performing Spanish and French music. Spanish pieces make up the largest portion on Viñes’s discography. Viñes personally knew all the Spanish composers whose music he recorded, and though he lived in Paris for most of his life, he never lost his affinity for Spain. Viñes premiered both pieces he recorded by Debussy, and Poissons d’or was dedicated to him. The other pieces included in this project reflect Viñes’s wide-ranging musical interests. Including a piece by Borodin reflected the interest in Russian music that Viñes shared with Les Apaches. The Gluck and Scarlatti were indicative of Viñes’s habit of programming repertoire from different time periods; his recitals often surveyed early keyboard works along with Romantic and contemporary repertoire. By choosing to record French, Spanish, Russian and Baroque music, Viñes was cementing his place in the history of contemporary music, while still conveying his interest in historical keyboard music.
Viñes undertook his second recording project soon after returning from his almost six-year settlement in South America. On July 22, 1936, he recorded the following six pieces for Gramophone at Studio Albert in Paris: ● Albeniz’s Tango from Deux danses espagnoles, op. 164, no. 2, and Serenade espagnole, op. 181 (originally published as ‘Cadiz’ in Suite espagnole op. 47, no. 4) ● Pedro Humberto Allende’s Tonadas de caracter popular Chileno, nos. 6 and 7 ● Carlos Lopez Buchardo’s Bailecito ● Caytano Troiani’s Milonga from Ritmos argentinos
143 These dates come from the back flap of Clary, Ricardo Viñes. They contradict the ones provided by Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 134, which she quoted from Viñes’s biography by Bernadó, Bergadà and Gubisch-Viñes. The dates in Berrocal state that all the pieces were recorded in 1930, except for Granada and the pieces by Blancafort, which were released in 1931. I take Clary as the authoritative source on the recordings, because of her extensive background in French radio.
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Unsurprisingly, this project includes 3 pieces by South American composers whom Viñes met during his stay there. Pedro Humberto Allende’s 12 Tonadas de caracter popular chileno were Viñes’s most programmed works during his South American tour, and he gave their premiere in Paris. After Viñes introduced this work to Europe, it enjoyed some popularity on recital programs.144
3.1 Viñes’s Pianism as Exhibited on Record A thorough examination of Viñes’s recordings has not been undertaken in the English literature on his pianism, possibly because he recorded these pieces after the peak of his career. To be sure, there are moments that display remarkable sensitivity and an impressive command of the keyboard, while the technology used to record his performances was not advanced, and the recordings may not give a completely accurate representation of his abilities. However, the recordings are of a high enough quality to examine aspects of his pedaling, technique, sound quality, and treatment of tempo. While critics often attributed Viñes’s avant-garde repertoire choices as a detriment to his career, the performances exhibited in his recordings suggest that repertoire may not have been the only factor in hampering his success.
Pedaling
According to his contemporaries, Viñes’s playing was characterized by subtle use of the pedals.145 It is impossible to discern when he used the una corda pedal in these recordings, but his frequent use of the damper pedal is obvious. This is consistent with reports stating the use of the damper pedal was an essential part of Viñes’s pianism. Specifically, Poulenc remembered that Viñes could play clearly in a wash of pedal,146 and there is evidence that Viñes instructed his students to keep the pedal held down for long periods of time in Ravel’s Jeux d’eau.147
Viñes’s use of the pedal was only sometimes musically advantageous. In his recordings of pieces by Albeniz, Viñes followed the composer’s instructions to hold down the pedal for a
144 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 198. 145 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South America Repertoire,” 37, and Roberts, Reflections, 134. 146 Francis Poulenc and Claude Rostand, “Poulenc at the Piano: Advice and Favourites,” in Poulenc, Articles and Interviews: Notes from the Heart, ed. Nicholas Southon (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2014), 191. 147 Roberts, Reflections, 176.
45 measure at a time. This was a habit Viñes carried over in the bulk of his recordings, and he did not mitigate this by half-pedaling. Many passages in his performances sound blurry. For example, Viñes’s pedaling obscured the runs in the Scarlatti sonata, a practice that would be entirely inappropriate in a performance of this work today. Many of the pieces by Albeniz, which called for biting and energetic rhythms, were smoothed over by pedal. In the Borodin Scherzo, Viñes did not observe the staccato markings in the main theme, though it is impossible to tell if this was due to his overpedaling, or finger legato. Contrastingly, Viñes used the pedal sparingly in the Gluck Gavotte, which created a portato effect in passages that Brahms indicated to be played legato with slurs. In general, Viñes’s playing often lacked articulated clarity. While the recording technology may have contributed some to this lack of transparency, I attribute it to overuse of the pedal.
Sound Quality and Technique
Viñes’s recordings corroborate the claims that he could not produce the power of some of his contemporaries.148 His forte passages were harsh. This was especially evident in Albeniz’s Seguidillas where the chords that punctuated the melody crashed jarringly, as well as in the climax of Poissons d’or where the chords sounded severe. Similarly, in the second of Allende’s Tonadas, Viñes struck the sustained melody notes in a way that gave them a metallic quality and the forte chords sounded brittle. Matthew Goodrich speculated that Viñes’s technique involved considerable tension in his hands and arms,149 a technique which would produce a harsh tone at a loud dynamic. It was perhaps for this reason that Viñes avoided voicing the soprano line too much, and it would at times become obscured by accompanying textures. It seems that by the time of these recordings, Viñes was unable to project the notes above the middle register of the piano without producing a harsh tone.
Viñes was more successful at voicing melodies in the tenor register, which he did by making the bass and soprano very quiet. Indeed, the most compelling passages in his recordings were those in which Viñes played in softer dynamics, and he seemed to be able to make decrescendi continue indefinitely. Some passages were remarkably delicate and transparent
148 Berrocal, “Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 38. 149 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 113.
46 despite the static of the recording. This quality stands out particularly in the middle section of the Gluck Gavotte, where Viñes achieved a music-box-like effect, and in De Falla’s suite from El Amor Brujo, where the interludes were haunting and mysterious. Viñes would often insert subito pianissimos when a motive repeated creating a warm tone and an arresting effect. Considering the sound quality and subtle shading evident in his softer playing, it is easy to understand Viñes’s appeal as a pianist; the sensitivity that critics lauded in his playing is evident from these recordings. Unfortunately, Viñes was not able project the same musical intensity in louder passages.
In his recordings, Viñes’s playing never sounds laboured, but the lack of editing afforded by contemporary recording technology may have contributed to the large number of inaccuracies in his recorded performances. The Scarlatti has a surprising number of inaccuracies. While standards for note-perfect recordings are now much higher than in the first half of the twentieth century, many pianists from Viñes’s time recorded accurate performances.150 Perhaps Viñes did not want to record more than one take for some of the less cleanly played recordings, as there are passages where Viñes displayed a masterly facility for the instrument. The repeated-note passage near the end of La Soirée dans Grenade or in the first theme of Falla’s Danza del Terror demonstrates excellent control. In Poissons d’or, the tremolos shimmer and his scales and arpeggios were a prime example of French jeu perlé.151 I suspect that in maintaining a formidable repertoire, which only grew throughout his career, Viñes did not spend much time polishing his interpretations.
Viñes stressed multiple times that he believed a good technique should never be a means for empty virtuosity, but that it should always be in the service of the musicality.152 Perhaps in the pieces where he made many mistakes, the wrong notes did not matter to Viñes because his recorded performance conveyed what he wanted. In any case, the mistakes cannot be attributed
150 Enrique Granados’s 1913 recording of Scarlatti’s Sonata in B flat major, K. 190 is more accurate than his classmate Viñes’s. Enrique Granados, pianist, Keyboard Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 190/L. 250, by Domenico Scarlatti, recorded 1912, La Ma de Guido, LMG 30602004, streaming audio, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJYXBWaJmY. 151 “Rapid, clean, even passage work in which each note is bright and perfectly formed, like each pearl on a necklace,” Charles Timbrell, French Pianism: A Historical Perspective (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1999), 38. 152 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171.
47 to overwhelming technical challenges, as his technical limitations had more to do with his inability to create a large, rich sound, rather than his facility for getting around the keyboard.
Tempo and rhythm
Viñes exhibited little concern for keeping a steady tempo. The Scherzo by Borodin and the Gavotte by Gluck are the only pieces in which Viñes did not significantly alter the tempo throughout. In the pieces by Albeniz and Turina, Viñes’s nonchalant approach to tempo created an inspiring improvisatory character, and the slower tempos he chose for cantabile sections created a compelling contrast with more rhythmic dance passages. Viñes displayed an affinity for the rhythm in these pieces, and his rubato sounds natural and appropriate. In these instances, his rhythmic fluctuations helped characterize the rhythm, as one critic noted after Viñes’s 1936 homecoming recital: “No one knows how to give a habanera or a tonada its proper rhythm like him.”153 At times, however, Viñes’s tempo changes seemed to indicate a lack of control, like in Albeniz’s Torre Bermaja, where Viñes sped up during the sixteenth-note triplet passage that returns in the middle of the piece, and especially throughout the Scarlatti sonata, where Viñes rushed so often and sporadically, his tempo was not clear at all.
Viñes’s recordings of both pieces by Debussy merit a special discussion here, since they are the pieces in his discography that are probably performed the most today. He played La Soirée dans Grenade at an unusually fast tempo and rushed during the tempo giusto passages. His performance emphasized the nobility of the Habenera rhythm present in this piece, and his unsentimental interpretation of this piece reflects Debussy’s own piano roll recordings. However, Viñes did not bring out the sensuousness of the harmony that is such an integral part of a successful performance of this work.
Viñes’s performance of Poissons d’or is taken at a more typical tempo, but the way he accentuated the first and last beat of the 3/4 time signature gave some passages a rustic dance- like effect. This does little to evoke glittering fish flitting about. The pianist Maurice Dumesnil recalled that, in a lesson on Poissons d’or with Debussy, the composer coached him to play it
153 Paul Landormy, review in La Victoire, 1936, quoted in Clary, 245.
48 like Viñes,154 and Viñes had a reputation of authority for Debussy’s music, having premiered many piano pieces by him. However, Viñes’s interpretation may have diverged from Debussy’s in the years between his performances during the first decade of the twentieth century and the time of his recording project.
Viñes did not always follow a composer’s tempo directions even when they were more explicit. In both Tonadas by Allende (the only two pieces with the tempo indications marked in the score) Viñes played faster than what the composer indicated. This difference is striking in Tonada no. 7, marked Lento♪=88, and which Viñes plays at a healthy Andante (his performance is approximately♪=144-152). Viñes’s insistence on playing at a tempo faster than what the composer desired is well documented in the case of Le Gibet from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Ravel confessed in a letter to a friend that he did not want Viñes to record the piece because he insisted on playing Le Gibet faster than Ravel wanted; the pianist was wary of boring the audience.155 It seems that Viñes was confident to pick the tempos on his own, even when they were not what the composer directed. This can be heard in his recordings as he regularly adjusted the tempo throughout his performances, though there were few tempo indications that instructed this.
3.2 Viñes the Faithful Interpreter?
Viñes had a reputation for his humility as a performer and his interpretations were described as faithful. Elaine Brody asserted that he reformed the piano recital to include complete works during an age where pianists would play only single movements of a sonata and they would abridge or add to works to suit their own taste.156 This section aims to determine if Viñes deserved the status of a faithful interpreter who disinterestedly adhered to the score.
Viñes sometimes small made alterations to the pieces he played. In Albeniz’s Granada, he added extra notes to fill out a left-hand chord, and he added an extra two measures of introduction. Viñes modified the rhythm in the main theme of Albeniz’s Serenade, lengthening
154 Maurice Dumesnil, “Pianist and Coach: Maurice Dumesnil,” in Debussy remembered, ed. Roger Nichols (London: Faber and Faber, 1992), 160-161. 155 Roberts, Reflections, 14. 156 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 53.
49 an eighth note to create a dotted rhythm. In Debussy’s Soirée dans Grenade, Viñes stylized the triplets by holding the first note longer so that the rhythm became an eighth and two sixteenth notes in many places. Holding the first note of a triplet too long seems to be a habit of Viñes’s, as he did the same in the De Falla’s Danza del Terror. Finally, Viñes rolled chords at least as often as he did not, and he regularly dislocated the first melody note of a phrase from its accompanying bass note. This last habit was a common performance practice that has since continued long after Viñes made his recordings
The following section aims to further explore the extent to which Viñes adopted the performance practice of following the score closely. It compares Manuel de Falla’s Danza rituel del fuego, as recorded by Viñes, with his own pedagogical prescriptions and to a contemporary recording made by Arthur Rubinstein. By comparing the recording to Viñes’s teaching, this will consider how well Viñes’s playing held up to his own musical ideals. By comparing his recording with Rubinstein’s, it aims to directly compare Viñes’s fidelity to the score with a pianist who does not have the reputation of making changes to the score either.
Viñes’s instructions for interpreting de Falla’s Danza rituel del fuego, were concise: “Chant the rhythm well and separate each note of the right hand, giving it an almost barbarian impulse. One must make the syncopations clear and play them with the spirit of improvisation like a gypsy, arriving at the end with a series of dry and haunting chords which should be played a tempo giusto in strict rigor.”157 In his recording, Viñes put accents on beat one of each measure in the first theme, and with the right-hand melody, he ignored the slurs in measures 24 and 28, “separat[ing] each note of the right hand.”158 In measures 26 and 30 (Example 3.1), Viñes accented the notes of the first beats so strongly, and played the triplets so lightly, that the latter are almost inaudible. By keeping a strict, accented rhythm with the left hand and doing the same on the beat notes in the right hand, Viñes gave the piece a brusque character, fitting of a
157 “Bien scander le rythme et faire à part chaque note de la main droite, afin de lui donner une impulsion presque barbare. Il faut bien mettre en relief les parties syncopées et déclamer avec sa fantaisie des improvisations à la gitane, pour arriver, enfin, à la série d’accords secs et obsédants des dernières mesures qui doivent être frappées a tempo guisto dans la plus stricte rigueur.” Ricardo Viñes, “Les Espagnols: cours d’interprétation de M. Ricardo Viñes,” Le Monde Musical 29, no. 17, September 1936, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 270. 158 “…faire à part chaque note de la main droite...” Ricardo Viñes, “Les Espagnols,” quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 270.
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“barbarian impulse.” In the second theme group, in measures 101, 105, and those with the same rhythm, Viñes created a barbaric character by rushing the sixteenth notes and accenting the second beat.
Danza rituel del fuego does not have very many syncopations; when they do appear in measures 38 and 39, Viñes played them with the same accented treatment as the notes which fall on the beat elsewhere (Example 3.1). This did nothing to create an improvised atmosphere. Example 3.1 Danza rituel del fuego, mm. 22-39
However, by accenting the melody notes on the beat so strongly that the faster notes sound like decorations and not a part of the melodic structure, Viñes created a spirit of improvisation. For example, the sixteenth notes in the passage preceding the syncopations (from measures 33-37) were less articulate and played like a trill. In measures 79 and 87 (Example 3.2), he played the triplets so fast and lightly that they can hardly be heard amidst the longer melodic notes. The coda sounded particularly improvised, as the triplets in measures 241-245 accelerate so rapidly
51 that the beat is temporarily lost (Example 3.3). Finally, while the last chords do not sound haunting, Viñes played them crisply and exactly in time.
Example 3.2 Danza rituel del fuego, mm. 85-102
Example 3.3 Coda of Danza rituel del fuego, mm. 238-248
Viñes’s performance in this recording generally kept to the directions he gave in his masterclass on Danza rituel del fuego.159 He clearly interpreted this piece as a study of contrasts
159 Ricardo Viñes, “Les Espagnols,” quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 270.
52 between the thumping, barbaric rhythm of the ritual dance, and gypsy-like improvisations. However, he did take some liberties with the score. His trill at the beginning was two bars shorter than it should have been, though when it returned in measure 59, it was the correct length. He took some liberties with the rhythm as well. In measure 126, he stylized the first triplet so much that the rhythm sounded like the same dotted rhythm from measure 124 (Example 3.4).
The dynamics in this recording lacked finesse and subtlety. For example, the hairpins indicated for the first trill were not observed, and there is hardly any difference in sound between the mezzo forte in measure 24 and the fortissimo in measure 40. However, there were sudden changes in dynamics. Viñes created a completely new colour for the pianissimo in measure 67, which was set up by the decrescendo in the preceding bars. The pianissimo in measure 83, which Viñes played subito, is even more effective, and the fact that it comes across so well on a recording of this quality is a testament to Viñes’s tone control. One wonders what effect it would have had during a live performance. Considering the arresting change in dynamics in the middle section, the lack of dynamics elsewhere in the piece may have been due to the relatively poor recording quality. (This recording was part of Viñes’s first batch in 1929, and the recordings of this group have a lot of static, with the piano sounding distant. There is a remarkable improvement in clarity and sound quality in the second group of recordings from 1936.) Viñes’s reported ability to play a melody clearly while keeping the damper pedal down for long periods
Example 3.4 Danza rituel del fuego, mm. 123-128
53 is also on display in the first theme group as one can hear the bass notes resonating for two measures at a time, while the right-hand melody is still clear (Example 3.5).
Example 3.5 First theme group of Danza rituel del fuego, mm. 53-58
If Viñes took liberties with the score and some dynamic markings, did he deserve his reputation as a pianist who kept fidelity to composers’ wishes? Comparisons can be made between Viñes’s 1930 recording of the Danza rituel del fuego with Arthur Rubinstein’s from the same year.160 Rubinstein’s trill at the beginning corresponded to the notated length, but his interpretation was much less faithful to the score elsewhere. He added octaves to the bass accompaniment that begins in measure 22 (refer back to Example 3.1), and fifths to the accompaniment in measures 53-58 (Example 3.5). He also added the F-E sixteenth notes written out in measure 53 to measures 55 and 57 (Example 3.5). In the coda, Rubinstein created extra excitement by replacing the scales in measures 244, 248, and 252 with glissandos (Example 3.6). His execution of the last chords would not have passed muster in Viñes’s course on Spanish musicians, as Rubinstein accelerated them to the end. Rubinstein’s dynamics also lacked subtlety, he eschewed the pianissimo marked in measure 67, and compared to Viñes’s interpretation, the change of colour to pianissimo in measure 83 was less striking.
160 Arthur Rubinstein, pianist, Ritual Fire Dance, by Manuel De Falla, recorded 1930, Documents 203161, [1999], streaming audio, accessed June 21, 2019, https://utoronto-naxosmusiclibrary- com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/catalogue/item.asp?cid=203161.
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Example 3.6 Coda of Danza rituel del fuego, mm. 249-273
Danza rituel del fuego is a transcription of an orchestral work, so one could argue that liberties with the score are warranted, provided they aid in creating a more orchestral effect on the piano. However, most of Rubinstein’s alterations were not additions taken from the orchestral score except for the fifths he added in measures 53-58, which appear in the viola part. In any case, this transcription was written by De Falla himself, which lends it a unique type of authority. When viewed in the light of this other contemporary recording, Viñes’s reputation as a faithful interpreter can be well understood. Viñes made some modifications of the score in his performances, but compared to other performers of his day, he could be relied upon for a generally faithful performance.
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3.3 Viñes’s Recording Legacy
Viñes’s repertoire choices confirmed his reputation as a contemporary music specialist. Musically, the pieces he picked were also consistent with his position as a verticalist, which he articulated in his articles.161 He picked pieces that were lyrical miniatures that did not adhere to complicated musical formulae. Some of them were touched with melancholy, like his compositions, and it was in these doleful passages that Viñes’s performances were most effective.
The pianistic characteristics displayed in Viñes’s recordings match what his contemporaries wrote about his playing, but only to a certain extent. The praise he received for making his personality disappear in service of the music was hyperbolic; while his recorded performances were not sentimental, Viñes’s personality was evident in all the pieces he recorded. Similarly, the acclaim he garnered for his subtle shifts of dynamics was exaggerated, as his rich palette of colours was evident in only softer passages. The most accurate claim about Viñes’s playing was that he selflessly adhered to the score in his performances. This seems to be true, at least when compared to his contemporaries. Thus, Viñes’s recordings are a testament to the avant-garde side of his musical personality, through repertoire choice and in how he only sparingly modified the scores.
161 For a discussion of Viñes’s participation in the verticalist versus horizontalists debate see section 2.1.3 “Viñes the Antagonist” in this dissertation.
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Chapter 4 Viñes the Composer: 4 Hommages pour le piano
Viñes’s compositions have been generally disregarded by scholars.162 However, an examination of his published pieces, Quatre Hommages, which is lacking in the English literature, contributes to understanding both Viñes’s characteristics as a pianist and his broader legacy. The first part of this section explores the background of his compositions and finds that by choosing to frame them as Hommages dedicated to avant-garde artists, Viñes reinforced his association with this artistic scene. The second part examines the more practical aspects of executing the pedaling and fingering in these pieces. It queries the assertion made by Elaine Brody and Michael Goodrich that Viñes’s fingerings tended to favour keeping the hand contracted, as well as the reports that his playing relied on subtly using the pedals. The final part discusses how Viñes’s musical convictions, including his stance in the verticalist/horizontalist debate, are expressed in these compositions. This section will demonstrate that Viñes’s compositions are consistent with the pianism displayed by his articles and recordings, and with his reputation according to his contemporary critics.
4.1 Background
Viñes’s Hommages were not his first foray into composition. He wrote some small pieces, (entitled Réverie, Caprice, and Impromptu) during his student days to impress young women.163 Soon after he graduated, he wrote a handful of mélodies using poetry by Charles Baudelaire, a reflection of the interest Viñes developed in symbolist poetry as a young man. His diary indicates that in 1899 and 1900, he took his settings of La mort des amants, La vie antérieure, and Parfum exotique to Henri Duparc, who expressed his appreciation for them.164
162 Esperanza Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and the Diffusion of Early Twentieth-Century South American Piano Literature” (PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 2002), 45. Berrocal states, “The opinion of Brody who said that “most of the music he left is hardly worth mentioning,” seems to prevail.” 163 Mildred Clary, Ricardo Viñes, Un pèlerin de l’Absolu (Arles: Musicales Actes Sud, 2011), 209. 164 Ricardo Viñes, ed. Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “La Journal inédit de Ricardo Viñes,” Revue Internationale de Musique Française 1, (June 1980): 95, 98. Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 46 also includes Léon-Paul Fargue’s praise for Viñes’s compositions.
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Aside from the Hommages, Viñes’s other works were never published, and there is no evidence that they were publicly performed.165
Viñes’s Quatre Hommages were published as a set in 1945, two years after his death.166 He wrote these pieces during the last two decades of his career and dedicated them to his artistic colleagues. In 1927, Viñes composed the first of these pieces, Crinoline, dedicated to the poet Léon-Paul Fargue. The two were close friends and members of Les Apaches.167 Crinoline was first published in the June 1927 issue of the journal Feuilles Libres, an edition devoted entirely to celebrating Fargue. Viñes gave its premiere in 1928, at Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana. Crinoline was the only one of Viñes’s Hommages dedicated to a non-musician.
Viñes dedicated the other three Hommages to the memory of his composer friends after they died. On May 15, 1927, La Revue internationale de musique et de danse announced that Viñes had composed Thrénodie in the memory of Erik Satie and dedicated it to Jean Cocteau. Viñes performed the premiere of his piece at a concert in commemoration of Satie on June 30, 1929. In his will, Satie had planned a dance for his funeral, and Viñes obliged this wish, labelling the first section “Dance Sacrée.”168 In 1934, the dancer Ekaterina de Galanta choreographed and performed a dance set to Thrénodie at the Teatro Odeón in Buenos Aires, while Viñes was on tour in South America.
A decade passed before Viñes composed his next two Hommages. Viñes dedicated Menuet Spectral to the memory of Maurice Ravel, and premiered it on March 19, 1938 at a recital in Ravel’s memory. His performance was apparently a very moving experience which brought Ravel’s brother Édouard to tears, and Viñes was asked to encore his composition.169 Less is known about En Verlaine mineur, which was dedicated to Gabriel Fauré, other than the
165 Full manuscripts of La mort des amants, La vie antérieure, and Parfum exotique are included in the appendices of Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondence” (PhD diss., Université de Paris Sorbonne, 1977), 424-448. 166 Viñes, Ricardo. 4 Hommages pour le piano: Menuet spectral, En Verlaine mineur, Thrénodie, Crinoline, (Barcelona: L’Institut Français en Espagne, 1945). 167 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 152, documents how Viñes and Fargue attended “at least 40” (according to Fargue) performances of Pelléas et Mélisande together, and how they consoled each other on the occasion of the death of Viñes’s mother, and Fargue’s father in 1907. 168 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 210. 169 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 210.
58 fact that it was finished in 1939.170 Viñes planned to write two other pieces in the memory of Debussy and De Séverac, but they were never completed.171
References to their dedicatees can be found throughout Viñes’s four published pieces. Viñes explained the significance of his title Menuet spectral in an interview, when he stated, “As the first work that Ravel dedicated to me was the Menuet antique, I found it natural to dedicate a work in the same form to his memory.”172 Ravel composed Menuet antique in 1895, a time when he and Viñes were very close, and Viñes gave the premiere on April 18, 1898. En Verlaine mineur, dedicated to Fauré, contains two references to Fauré’s setting of Paul Verlaine’s Clair de lune, composed in 1887, the same year that Viñes arrived in Paris. Aside from the obvious reference to the poet in the title, Viñes inserted a line from the poem between the staves of measures 13 and 14: “Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur.”173 In Threnodie, the instructions and narrative descriptions that appear throughout it are reminiscent of those that appear in Satie’s pieces, a hallmark of his humourous style: the “Choeur des pleureuses” (choir of mourners) wail in minor ninths in the middle of the “Cortège funèbre” (funeral procession), the last two notes are to be played “lumineux” (luminous), and certain notes are labelled with the instrument that they are supposed to mimic, such as the “percussion,” “cuivres” (brass), “crotales” (a type of very small bell used in religious ceremonies), and “gong.” Crinoline contains no overt references to its dedicatee Fargue, however there are features of the piece of which both composer and poet may have had a shared understanding, such as the subtitle “La Valse au temps de la Montijo” (Montijo is a municipality on the west coast of Portugal) and a stanza of poetry Viñes included under the title from Auguste Villiers-de-l’Isle-d’Adam’s L’Amour suprême.
170 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 82. In the preface of the Quatre Hommages, there is no mention of this date, only that En Verlaine mineur must have been written after 1924, the year of Fauré’s death. There is not much information about the relationship between Viñes and Fauré, though Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 136-38 provides some information: in his diary Viñes confessed his admiration for Fauré on the occasion of learning three Impromptus by the composer; they spent much time with each other at salons (having met through Duparc); Fauré gave Viñes a photo signed “with my affections;” and by all accounts they were very friendly toward each other and respected each other. Clary finished her discussion stating Viñes “never missed a chance to visit the master…” 171 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 82. 172 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 210. 173 “They seem not to believe in their own happiness,” translation mine.
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By dedicating his pieces to important figures of the avant-garde art movement, Viñes reinforced his place in this artistic milieu. His pieces contain references to poetry, and probably have other inside jokes that would have been well understood by his close friends in this circle. I do not contend that Viñes was cynically attaching the names of his famous colleagues to his compositions to gain publicity. He wrote his pieces to express his dedication to the people he loved. As Nina Gubisch-Viñes believed, Viñes felt God had a destiny for him that was more just being a pianist.174 Writing these pieces to honour his friends was part of Viñes’s way to fulfill his greater destiny, while honouring those most important to him. In the context of understanding Viñes’s legacy, they reinforce his connection with avant-garde artists of his day.
4.2 Pianism
While claims have been made about Viñes’s pedaling (Edward Lockspeiser contended that it was the foundation of his playing), and his fingering (Brody and Goodrich asserted that a study of the fingerings in his personal scores revealed Viñes preferred to keep his hand contracted), no study in the English literature has presented an analysis of these practices.175 The following discussion on Viñes’s fingering indications in his Quatre Hommages, and the required pedaling to faithfully execute his score aims, interrogate the validity of those claims. Examining these practical elements necessary to perform his pieces also illuminates Viñes’s habits as a pianist.
Fingering
Viñes routinely marked fingerings in his personal score collection, and some passages have finger markings on every note.176 His Quatre Hommages are no exception and abound with finger indications.177 Some passages, such as measures 53-60 in En Verlaine mineur, contain
174 Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “Ricardo Viñes: L’Homme aux cent visages,” in Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes, (Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 378. 175 For a discussion on Viñes’s pedaling in his recordings, see section 2.2.2.1, “Pedaling” in this dissertation. 176 Matthew Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches” (DMA diss., University of Washington, 2013), 110-111, and Elaine Brody, “Viñes in Paris: New Light on Twentieth Century Performance Practice,” in A Musical Offering: Essays in Honor of Martin Bernstein, ed. Edward H. Clinkscale and Claire Brook (New York: Pendragon Press, 1977), 55. See also Goodrich, 135 n.388, and David Korevaar and Laurie J. Sampsel, “The Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder,” Notes 61, no. 2 (12, 2004), 370-71 for other mentions of the fingerings in Viñes’s scores. 177 There is no suggestion in the publication’s preface that the fingerings of them are editorial, by the precedent set in Viñes’s personal scores, they must be his.
60 fingerings indicated on almost every note (Example 4.1). Through the wealth of these indications, some patterns of Viñes’s fingering preferences emerge.
Example 4.1 En Verlaine mineur, mm. 53-60
Viñes always switched fingers when repeating notes, in some instances to facilitate moving the hand in preparation for a large interval or change in direction, in others it appears to be a matter of habit and comfort. In measure 31 of Menuet Spectral, (Example 4.2a) switching to finger 3 on the E moves the hand down, in preparation for the next chord. Passages with this same reasoning can be found in the other three pieces. In measure 39 of En Verlaine mineur, (Example 4.2b) switching from finger 3 to 2 when repeating the F sharp makes it easier to reach the D. In measure 5 of Thrénodie (Example 4.2c) switching to finger 3 when repeating the G opens the hand preparing it to reach the seventh that follows, and in Crinoline’s measures 19-20 (Example 4.2d) switching to finger 2 on the F frees up the thumb to begin the next phrase more comfortably. Example 4.2a Example 4.2b Menuet spectral, mm. 31-32 En Verlaine mineur, m. 39
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Example 4.2c Example 4.2d Thrénodie, m. 5 Crinoline, m. 19-20
In other instances, switching fingers on repeated notes is less obviously beneficial. Near the beginning of Menuet Spectral, in measure 5 (Example 4.3a), the switch to finger 4 on the A helps to bring out the articulation (notice the slur on beat 1), but requires crossing the 3rd finger over the 4th, before switching again from finger 5 to 4 on the two Cs. This fingering, while elegant, makes the passage more complicated to play than executing the rising scale from G to C with fingers 2 to 5. In measure 63 of En Verlaine mineur (Example 4.3b), switching to left-hand finger 2 on the A sharp sets up an uncomfortable cross over the thumb up to the F sharp, and simply repeating finger 3 would make for less complicated fingerwork. Viñes was reported to have a large hand, so he would not have found it uncomfortable reach from B to F sharp with fingers 2 and 1. This suggests that he had a fingering philosophy that avoided placing the thumb on black keys, which is corroborated by the fingering of Menuet spectral, in measure 26 (Example 4.3c), where Viñes instructs the pianist to put the thumb on the D instead of the E flat.
Example 4.3a Menuet spectral, mm. 5-6
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Example 4.3c Example 4.3b Menuet spectral, m. 26 En Verlaine mineur, m. 63
Viñes sometimes preferred to cross fingers other than the thumb. In measures 53 and 55 of Crinoline (Example 4.4), the fingering indicates crossing finger 5 under 4, and finger 4 under 3, respectively. In measure 53, this clever fingering helps avoid stretching the hand to reach the notes that follow. Using 3-4 in measure 55 keeps the hand contracted. These examples corroborate the claims by Brody and Goodrich that the fingerings they found in Viñes’s personal scores were designed to keep the hands contracted as much as possible.178 Considering that Viñes neglected other fingering options that would facilitate a more open and relaxed hand, this seems to be the case. Goodrich also averred “passage works are fingered such that the same finger does not play on two same notes in close proximity,”179 and Viñes’s habit of not playing repeated notes with the same finger may be an extension of that philosophy. However, his compositions do not contain any rapid passagework, so it is difficult to ascertain the validity of this statement based on the fingering in his compositions alone.
Example 4.4 Crinoline, mm. 53-56
178 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 55, and Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches, 110. 179 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 111.
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Example 4.5 Thrénodie, m. 36
Goodrich’s final observation about Viñes’s fingerings was that “Slow, legato passages are marked liberally with finger substitutions that allow for a continual finger legato.”180 There are no finger substitutions indicated in Viñes’s compositions, and the articulation, which features many short slurs, does not indicate long legato lines. However, there is one example of organ- like fingering in measure 36 of Thrénodie, (Example 4.5) where the right-hand finger 2 must cross over finger 3. Viñes wanted the pianist to use the fingers, rather than the pedal, to create legato in the first two beats, while holding the A flats in each hand. As Goodrich stated, “Given Viñes’s constant use of the pedal, in these cases he clearly envisages the pedal as a coloristic tool, not as a substitute for finger connection.”181 Other features of Viñes’s compositions indicate that pedaling was an essential part of his piano playing.
Pedaling
Viñes’s compositions require imaginative and careful pedaling. For example, measure 16 in the Menuet (Example 3.6a) is a half cadence, where the first phrase comes to rest on the dominant. The low D is a dotted half note, which should sound during the whole measure, but the B flats and F natural would create a very dissonant effect if the pedal is fully held the entire measure. The pianist should half pedal for the jump in register to mitigate the dissonance from the first B flat, while still sustaining the low D. (With his large hand, Viñes could probably hold the D and F#.) The left-hand leap to an F natural in beat two while sustaining the bass note implies that
180 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 111. 181 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 111.
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Viñes wanted some harmonic ambiguity, combining resonance of the raised and lowered leading tone in with pedal.
Example 4.6a Example 4.6b Menuet spectral, m. 16 En Verlaine mineur, mm. 19-20
Example 4.6c Example 4.6d Thrénodie, mm. 11-12 Crinoline, mm. 30-31
En Verlaine mineur has an extended dominant bass note in measures 19-20 (Example 3.6b) which needs to be held with the pedal as the left-hand melody ascends (though it also shows that Viñes could probably hold the A with finger 5 while playing the B flat with finger 2). Measure 11 of Thrénodie (Example 4.6c) requires the pedal to hold the chord from beat 2 while the left-hand leaps down to play eighth notes in beat 3. In Crinoline, in measures 30-31, (Example 4.6d) the tied G flat and bass D flat call for the pedal to sustain them. In these passages, a clumsy use of the pedal will create a muddy sonority. If the performer carefully employs half pedaling, this can create a hazy effect.
Passages where long bass notes require the pedal to resonate while other dissonant notes sound above are numerous throughout the Quatre Hommages. By writing dotted half notes in the bass, Viñes communicated the necessity of holding the pedal for the whole measure, a technique that he practiced in his recordings. Considering the sophisticated pedaling required in Viñes’s
65 pieces to convincingly interpret the above passages, he had a masterful control of the pedal, at least in pieces of this texture. In passages like these, Viñes’s habit of using a lot of pedal, and his alleged ability to “play clearly amid a welter of pedal,”182 undoubtedly had an influence on how he wrote them.
The fingering indications in Viñes’s pieces and the careful pedaling required by his compositions exemplify some of his pianistic habits. As Brody and Goodrich stated, he preferred to keep his large hand contracted. He composed textures that required subtle pedal technique, one of the hallmarks of his pianism. The style and form of his compositions also typify his broader musical convictions.
4.3 Musical Convictions
Several facets of Viñes’s musical personality are displayed in his Quatre Hommages. First, his adoption of the verticalist philosophy, which he shared with other avant-garde composers, is exhibited in characteristics of his compositions.183 Second, Viñes indulged in an occult practice by employing an identical rhythmic pattern in his four pieces, which was probably inspired by his interest in numerology. Finally, the atmosphere of his pieces evokes the melancholy that Viñes thought was an essential part of the Catalan musical voice. In these pieces, Viñes synthesized three major forces of his personality: the promotion of avant-garde music, spiritual convictions coloured by a belief in the power of occult practices, and his love of Spain.
Verticalism
Viñes’s Quatre Hommages place them squarely within the avant-garde body of work. Viñes subscribed to the verticalist philosophy (opposed to Vincent d’Indy’s horizontalists): the purpose of composing was to make music sound pleasant rather than comply with strict formal elements. In his introduction to the 1945 publication of Quatre Hommages, French critic Paul-Jacques.
182 Francis Poulenc and Claude Rostand, “Poulenc at the Piano: Advice and Favourites,” in Poulenc, Articles and Interviews: Notes from the Heart, ed. Nicholas Southon (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2014), 193. 183 The horizontalists, led by Vincent d’Indy, promoted polyphony and other formulaic devices in composition. The verticalists were more interested in making works that sounded pleasing. For more discussion on Viñes’s participation in this debate, see section 2.1.3, “Viñes the Antagonist.”
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Guinard184 emphasized Viñes’s role in this debate when he wrote, “Moreover, let us never forget the distinction that Viñes made between "counterpointists,” [horizontalists] concerned with questions of form, structure, writing cerebral music, and “harmonists” [verticalists] concerned with making the music sound pleasant, however thin it was. The harmonists for Viñes were Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Mompou; it was to them that his preferences went, it was with them that he sided.”185 Certainly, Viñes expressed his position in his articles, but his pieces also represented the musical convictions of this camp. Guinard explained, “Viñes must be linked to our contemporary French school: this conclusion applies to the first reading of his works and in particular his pieces for piano.”186 Verticalist musical characteristics can be found in the Quatre Hommage’s form and texture.
Like most of the pieces written by the avant-garde composers who Viñes championed, the Quatre Hommages are cast in miniature forms. Three of them, Menuet Spectral, En Verlaine mineur, and Thrénodie are in ternary form, while Crinoline is in binary form. These forms are also typical of character pieces for piano throughout the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, plenty of which Viñes had in his repertoire. Both Menuet Spectral and En Verlaine mineur, which are in G minor and D minor respectively, use the tonic major in their middle sections, and Thrénodie, which is in G sharp minor uses the enharmonic key of A flat minor for the “Cortège funèbre” (funeral procession) in the middle. The binary-form Crinoline, in A flat major, is the only piece that ventures away from the tonic, modulating to the subdominant D flat major in its B section before returning to the home key. Viñes did not engage in any experimental modulation in these pieces.
Neither did Viñes innovate with the phrase structure of these four pieces. The A sections of all four pieces are organized in two parallel phrases: 16 measures each in Menuet Spectral, En
184 Guinard was the director of the French Institute in Spain from 1932-1962. A celebrated critic of Spanish art, Guinard devoted his life to cultural exchange between France and Spain. 185 “Au demeurant, n’oublions jamais la distinction que Viñes établissait entre <
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Verlaine mineur and Crinoline, and 8 measures in Thrénodie. In each piece, these two phrases are nearly identical to each other, except for the first phrase ending in a half cadence, and the second phrase closing in the tonic. In the ternary pieces, Viñes used the same phrase lengths in the middle sections, with some variation, ending with an extra phrase of dominant preparation. The B section of Crinoline provides a structural contrast; it uses irregular phrase lengths and introduces new material before the 8 bars of dominant preparation at its end. Of his four published pieces, Crinoline is Viñes’s most adventurous piece in terms of form. However, all four pieces typify the miniature form favoured by the avant-garde verticalists.
Example 4.7 Menuet spectral, mm. 17-28
Viñes’s Quatre Hommages are predominantly of a homophonic texture. This texture, ‘thin’ and ‘pleasant’ as Guinard stated, was a hallmark of the verticalist philosophy. The brief polyphonic passages in Viñes’s compositions served the purpose of decoration and were not fugal in process. In Menuet spectral, the second phrase of the A section is bolstered by a descending tenor melody in measures 17-22 (Example 4.7), and in Verlaine, the left hand
68 provides supplemental melodic commentary to the soprano in almost the entirety of the A section. These supporting lines were not truly independent but embellished the melody. Thus, the above passages adhered to the verticalist philosophy of making the music sound pleasant.
Example 4.8a
Thrénodie, mm. 21-26
Thrénodie mm. 41-42 Combination of material from m. 22 with material from m. 25
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In Thrénodie, and Crinoline, Viñes was more formulaic in his approach to some polyphonic passages. Viñes cleverly combined the B section’s contrasting thematic material in measures 41-42 where he took only the second half of the Cortège funèbre’s thematic motive and modified the rhythm (Example 4.8a). He did the same in measures 46-52 of Crinoline (Example 4.8b), although this time it is thematic material from both the A and B sections. The instances of polyphonic texture in all four pieces are so brief, that they do not interrupt Viñes’s “thin” and “pleasant”187 approach to texture.
Example 4.8b
Crinoline, mm. 4-8, the main thematic material from the A section
Crinoline, mm. 36-40, the main material from the B section
Crinoline, mm. 46-52, the A section material in the right hand, the B section material in the left hand
187 Guinard, “Preface,” 2.
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Within the homophonic texture of Viñes’s pieces, he developed a personal harmonic voice. Through his use of suspensions and passing tones, he created a sense of harmonic ambiguity throughout these pieces. For example, in measure 7 of the Menuet (Example 4.9), the first beat’s half-diminished seventh harmony provides contrast to the tonic harmony that supports the other measures in the first phrase. However, by sustaining the D from the measure before, Viñes ensured that at least some memory of tonic harmony continues throughout the passage.
Example 4.9 Menuet spectral, mm. 5-8
The introduction of Verlaine (Example 4.10) is built over a dominant pedal point, but the A minor 7 chord in measure 2 and the open A7 chord in measure 4 do not necessarily suggest a melody in D minor to follow. Later, in beats 2 and 3 of measure 6, the left hand plays a G minor 7 chord and then an E. This small motion, combined with the sustaining G in the bass and the G and B flat in the right hand reinterprets the harmony of the entire bar from subdominant to supertonic, in effect combining the two harmonies in this measure.
Example 4.10 En Verlaine mineur, mm. 1-6
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The cadence in measures 19 and 20 of Thrénodie mixes predominant and dominant harmony thanks to the non-raised 7th note. Crinoline, which is in A flat major, does not have the lowered 7th. However, Viñes still uses a passing note to create harmonic ambiguity. Measures 31-33 have pre-dominant harmony (Example 4.11), subdominant in measures 31-32, and a ii7 chord in measures 33. The sharp 5 passing tone of E natural which appears in all three of these measures alludes to half diminished ii harmony, adding increased instability to these chords.
Example 4.11 Crinoline, mm. 30-34
The harmonic ambiguity in these pieces is strengthened by Viñes’s preference for modal writing. The pieces in a minor key do not have a raised leading tone, unless it appears in a half cadence’s dominant chord. This gives them an Aeolian flavour and creates a melancholy atmosphere. In two of the pieces, En Verlaine mineur and Thrénodie, the raised leading tone is not used in the cadence that closes their A sections; instead one can interpret the last two chords in measure 36 of Verlaine (Example 4.12a) as minor dominant 7 to tonic, and in the last beat of measure 19 of Thrénodie (Example 4.12b), subdominant harmony sets up a plagal cadence where the tonic chord is delayed by a lower appoggiatura in beat one of measure 20. The lowered seventh is so pervasive that even in the half cadence measures that have dominant harmony, such as in measure 16 of Menuet (Example 4.12c), or measure 20 of En Verlaine mineur (Example 4.12d), the lowered 7th appears with the leading tone in the same measure.
Example 4.12a Example 4.12b En Verlaine mineur, mm.35-36 Thrénodie, mm. 19-20
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Example 4.12c Example 4.12d Menuet spectral, m. 16 En Verlaine mineur, m. 20
While Guinard remarked on Viñes’s sophisticated use of harmony, he did not consider it particularly innovative. He wrote, “We find in [Viñes] the harmonic curiosity and refinement of all modern composers. But this curiosity and refinement only manifest themselves with great tact, a great apropos, never in a gratuitous or arbitrary way. Viñes was rather inclined to refine classical harmony, with its appoggiaturas and passing notes, than to use unheard of sound aggregations. His writing is more reminiscent of the Ravel of the Valses nobles et sentimentales than Debussy’s.”188 However, I believe Viñes succeeded in composing an atmosphere that was uniquely his own. The harmonic ambiguity and tendency to modality in his music creates a melancholic mood. According to Viñes, this atmosphere was uniquely Catalonian, which distinguished his pieces from those of the French composers to whom they were dedicated.
Spanish Influence
Though he spent most of his life in Paris, Viñes never gave up his affinity for his native country. He regularly visited Spain, kept Spanish pieces in his repertoire, and compositions by Spanish composers constituted the bulk of his discography. Certainly, the characteristics he described in Mompou’s quintessentially Catalan music were used to describe Viñes’s own personality. It is fitting that his music conjures the country to which he always felt so closely connected.
The melancholy evoked in Viñes’s Quatre Hommages was, according to Viñes, the quintessential feature of the Catalan spirit. In response to an interview question about who “best represents the values of the Catalan race,” Viñes answered it was Mompou, who had “a strongly
188 Guinard “Preface,” 2.
73 independent character, and a strong tendency to solitude and misanthropy, his music is tinted with the brightness of the Mediterranean, charged with the visions of the old Hellenics, Mompou doesn’t turn away from his vigorous Spanish spirit, austere and elegant...Catalan in origin, his music possesses the virility and boldness of a Catalan language that has softened its edge with lofty spiritual harmonies.” 189 In explaining the hallmarks of Catalan music, Viñes evoked a sensuous combination of vivacity, and sobriety. Guinard noticed them in Viñes’s music when he wrote, “But underneath the very French exterior of the work of Viñes, there was a soul with a very Iberian, very Catalan background. In his unique way, with a solid and balanced approach, subtle harmonies envelop tasty melodies that freely gush out like popular songs, and charge them with a melancholy that is both sensual and bittersweet. It's not from our country, at least in this form. It is curious to see Viñes, in the middle of this very evolved, very refined, sometimes even a little adulterated musical world, preserve such a fresh inspiration.”190 In form and texture, Viñes’s pieces are of the avant-garde French school, embodying verticalist convictions. In atmosphere, they evoke the spirit of Catalonia.
Other Features: Grace notes, a Rhythmic Motive, and Technique
Two other characteristics of Viñes’s compositions merit attention, because they further contribute to our understanding of Viñes’s pianism and musical convictions. Grace notes appear frequently throughout Quatre Hommages, which contribute to the atmosphere of melancholy and could possibly reflect Viñes’s efforts to precisely notate the common performance practice of playing the melody note slightly after the bass note. The main themes in his compositions, with the exception of Crinoline, use an identical rhythmic pattern, which could have reflected Viñes’s interest in numerology.
Viñes employed grace notes primarily as an atmospheric device in his compositions. They were a form of musical mimicry, such as the “crotales” and “gong” found in Thrénodie where the grace notes help create an orchestral effect. This effect can also be heard in measures
189 Clary. Ricardo Viñes, 90. She cited this as an in interview in Le Monde Musical, September 30, 1936, an article that she also included in the appendix of her book. However, there is no mention of Mompou in the article she reproduced, and in the text where she quotes the interview, she wrote that Viñes was quoted after a concert in Toulouse in 1921. 190 Guinard, “Preface,” 2.
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10, 12 and 14 of the Menuet (Example 4.13a) where the grace note at the end of each motive acts as a commentary. Generally, the grace notes added colour, like in measure 12 of En Verlaine Mineur (Example 4.13b), and in the last measure of Crinoline (Example 4.13c).
Example 4.13a Menuet spectral, mm. 9-14
Example 4.13b Example 4.13c En Verlaine mineur, mm. 11-12 Crinoline, mm. 67-68
The grace notes throughout Viñes’s pieces also contribute to the melancholy atmosphere. They create a feeling of longing. In measure 54 of En Verlaine mineur the grace note D reaches up an octave, or in Crinoline’s measures 57 and 59, where they do the same in a passage labelled expansif et tendre avec abandon. Elsewhere, grace notes provide pungency, particularly those that punctuate the ends of melodic fragments, such as in measures 10 and 12 of the Menuet, or in the last measure of Crinoline. They add humour in the B section of the Menuet helping to create a caricature of delicacy in the passage labelled (Dans la vitrine aux figures en porcelaine). Viñes used grace notes with remarkable versatility, and they appear so often in his pieces that they must have been a natural part of how he heard music.
It is also possible that Viñes wrote out these grace notes to reflect the practice of “dislocation,” where the performer plays the melody note slightly after the bass
75 accompaniment.191 This habit was prevalent in the performances of early to middle 20th century pianists. In Viñes’s own recordings, he regularly dislocates the melody from the bass, and recordings by other pupils of his teacher, Charles-Wilfred de Bériot, feature dislocations for expressive purposes in varying degrees.192 In an effort to be precise and exacting, qualities that composers like Ravel and Debussy were known for, perhaps Viñes was aiming to write the performance practice of dislocation into his compositions. Whether he did this consciously or not, the dislocated effect caused by so many grace notes in Quatre Hommages is similar to the effect Viñes achieved in his recordings. The recurring rhythmic motive present in Viñes’s pieces may be a reflection of his spirituality. As an avowed Catholic who believed that occult disciplines were legitimate spiritual practices and compatible with his religion, he believed that numbers held a significant spiritual import, and his interest in numerology was well documented in his diary.193 Viñes also knew of at least one precedent by his colleague Ravel, who used numeric symbolism in Miroirs.194 Viñes wrote Menuet spectral, En Verlaine mineur and Thrénodie in 3/4, a time signature that has long held religious significance in its representation of the holy trinity. In these pieces, Viñes used the following rhythmic motive for the main melodies.
It also appears in Crinoline at the climax in the B section. While the repeated appearance of this rhythm (Example 4.14) may be a coincidence, it seems to play such a major role in each of these compositions that I believe Viñes attached some significance to the pattern. It may have been a code or signified something spiritual. Ironically, Viñes’s dogmatic use of a rhythmic motive was in direct opposition to the verticalist philosophy that generally eschewed strictly adhering to
191 Neal Peres da Costa, Off the Record: performing practices in romantic piano playing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 45. 192 This includes Paul Loyonnet, Joaquim Malats and Enrique Granados. Peres da Costa, Off the Record, 48-50 contains a 3-page chart of early 20th century piano recordings, that places Viñes in the category of not using dislocation in his recordings of pieces by Gluck, Scarlatti, and Debussy. However, there is dislocation evident in Viñes’s recordings of Spanish and South American composers. 193 See Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 65-67, and David Korevaar, “Ravel’s Mirrors,” DMA diss., (The Juilliard School, 2000), 18. 194 Korevaar, “Ravel’s Mirrors,” 59-68.
76 formulae. Viñes’s spiritual life was so important to him that it trumped his participation in this musical debate. Finally, the Quatre Hommages are not technically difficult pieces. Considering they were written by a pianist praised for his command of the piano, the absence of passage work, complicated rhythms or arpeggios is striking. Indeed, the only technical challenge in his pieces is in the use of the pedals. Viñes had little patience with difficult pieces “badly written for the instrument,” and he considered them a symptom of composers writing too much for the piano “without heart.”195 He also hinted that he did not find it possible for technically difficult pieces to be profound. When listing the pieces he felt were the most spiritually touched, he mostly included pieces that were slow, not technically difficult, and were harmonically innovative.196
Considering Viñes considered harmony as the “music of the spheres,”197 it was fitting that this
Example 4.14
En Verlaine mineur: mm. 5-6 Menuet spectral: mm. 5-6
Thrénodie: mm.5-6 Crinoline: mm. 57-58 spiritually sensitive man chose to focus his efforts on creating atmospheric harmony rather than developing interesting technical challenges.
195 “…certaines oeuvres récentes passant pour diaboliquement difficiles et qui ne sont, j’ose l’assurer, que mal écritres pour l’instrument…Morale: on écrit beaucoup trop pour le piano sans l’aimer…” Ricardo Viñes, “Opinions de virtuoses sur l’interpretation,” Le Courrier Musical et Théâtral 29, no. 19, November 15, 1927, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 265. 196 Ricardo Viñes, “Tres aristócratas del sonido, (semblazas de Claude Debussy, Erick Satie, y Maurice Ravel),” in Escrits Musicals de Ricard Viñes, ed., Màrius Bernadó (Lleida: Universitat de Lleida, 1999), 56, and Ricardo Viñes, “Liszt précurseur,” in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 261. For a discussion of Viñes’s opinions of spirituality in music see section 2.1. “Liszt and Spirituality of Romanticism” in this dissertation. 197 “Música de las esferas.” Viñes, “Tres aristócratas,” 53.
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This examination of Viñes’s pieces reveals they were influenced by the three major motivations of his life: spirituality (which encompassed religion and the occult), his commitment to avant- garde ideals, and his love of Spain. Their dedication to avant-garde figures contributes to Viñes’s connection with this art movement, while Viñes’s idiomatic harmony and his use of a single rhythmic motive in these pieces inject them with his unique musical and spiritual personality. They form an important part of Viñes’s multi-faceted legacy.
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Chapter 5 Training and Pedagogy: Viñes as an Exponent of the French School of Piano Playing in Contemporary Repertoire
In extant scholarship Viñes is painted as a very individualistic character. How well does this apply to his career as a student, and how unique were his teaching methods? The boldest assertion about his training, by Elaine Brody, was that he was largely self-taught. Based on other evidence, this chapter will demonstrate that his pianism was entirely a product of his training at the Conservatoire. Discussions of his repertoire and his experiences with the Conservatoire competition will also show how he conformed to their standards. His extraordinary curiosity led him to become interested in the avant-garde while he was a student, but he did not begin to fully explore this repertoire until after he graduated. Testimony of his teaching, given by his students, show that he passed on the French piano school tradition to his students in the study of contemporary music, even in his role as a supplementary teacher. Viñes, whose authority was derived from his relationship with the composers whose music he taught and performed, demonstrated that faithful interpretation of contemporary music did not require a revolutionary new way of playing the piano.
5.1 Training
During his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, Ricardo Viñes was a model student. His experience there exposed him to the musical values of the French piano school where “good taste is praised and futile virtuosity is criticized; expression, style, and grace are the most important qualities for a pianist, not velocity. Technique must always be put to the service of interpretation.”198 Viñes developed a taste for the avant-garde during his student years, which ran counter to the values of the Conservatoire. However, he never rejected his training throughout the entirety of his career, and he applied all that he learned at the Conservatoire to the performance and interpretation of avant-garde piano works. His playing exemplified the French musical philosophy to which he was introduced at a young age.
198 Audrey Abela, “Piano at the Conservatoire de Paris During the Interwar Period: A Study in Pedagogy and Performance Practice” (DMA diss., The City University of New York, 2016), 31.
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Before Paris
Viñes’s prodigious talent was evident early on. He received his first piano lessons from his mother, then with Joaquin Terraza, an organist in Lleida where the Viñes family lived.199 When he was ten, his family moved to Barcelona to enroll him in the conservatory there. He was under the minimum entry age of 12, so he studied privately with Joan Bautista Pujol, professor at the conservatory, until January of 1887 when he was admitted to Pujol’s class at the institution.
At the Barcelona Conservatory, Viñes was introduced to the French school of piano playing, which had been widely disseminated in Spain by that time. His teacher, Pujol, was one of a growing number of Spanish pianists who had been trained at the Paris Conservatoire and who had brought the French school of piano playing to Spain.200 The following description of the ‘Catalan’ school resembles the French one: “The ‘Catalan’ school of piano playing is characterized by special attention to clarity of voicing, tone color, and most especially, subtle use of the pedals. It is a tradition that was begun by the Catalan pianist Juan Bautista Pujol.”201 Pujol disseminated French pedagogy rather than introduce a distinct Catalan school, and his young pupil benefitted from his instruction.
Viñes’s potential was evident when he won a first prize at the Barcelona conservatory’s end of year competition that July. His mother received advice from Isaac Albeniz, who was on the jury of that year’s competition, that they should take young Ricardo to Paris to continue his musical development by enrolling him at the Paris Conservatoire. According to Albeniz, if Viñes remained in Barcelona, he could look forward to a career of playing in cafes and teaching wealthy children after a short career as a “flash in the pan” prodigy. Albeniz believed Viñes could have a substantial career in Paris.202 On his advice, Viñes, his mother, and his brother moved to Paris later that year so he could study with Charles de Bériot. Viñes’s teacher in Barcelona, Pujol, must have also had some influence in the family’s decision, as he sent at least
199 Matthew G. Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches” (DMA diss., University of Washington, 2013), 7. 200 Montserrat Bergada, “Les pianistes catalans à Paris: Une époque retrouvée,” in Ricard Viñes: El Pianista de les Avantguardes, ed., Màrius Bernadó, (Lleida: Institut Municipal d'Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007.), 421. 201 Mark Hansen,“The Catalan School of Pedaling,” in The Pianist’s Guide to Pedaling, by Joseph Banowetz (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), 220. 202 Mildred Clary, Ricardo Viñes: Un Pèlerin d’Absolu, (Arles: Musicale Actes Sud, 2011), 16-17. According to Viñes, Albeniz offered to adopt him before deciding to suggest that he go to Paris
80 two other students, Joaquin Malats (another first prize winner at the Barcelona conservatory) and Enrique Granados, to study in Paris with de Bériot.203 In effect, Viñes’s early path followed a pattern of other precocious Spanish pianists. The similarity between Pujol’s Catalan school and the French school ensured continuity in the philosophy of his education.
Studies with de Bériot: Technique, Interpretation, and Disagreements
The process by which Viñes was admitted to the Conservatoire included auditions and bureaucratic hurdles. After arriving in Paris in October of 1887, he played for Alexis-Henri Fissot, who was an organist and professor of a women’s piano class at the Conservatoire. Pleased with Viñes’s performance of Julius Schulhoff’s sonata in F minor (which had been the assigned piece at Barcelona’s July competition), Fissot wrote Viñes a letter of introduction for de Bériot.204 In November, Viñes passed the admission test to the Conservatoire but was admitted only as an auditor because the quota of foreign students per class had already been filled that year.205 The prevailing nationalist sentiment in the years succeeding the Franco-Prussian War undoubtedly had an influence on the Conservatoire’s policy of admitting only two foreign students per class. These experiences introduced Viñes to what would become two prominent features of his life in Paris, networking and navigating his foreigner status. While auditing de Bériot’s class, Viñes took private lessons with him until November of 1889, when he was finally admitted as a full-time student at the Conservatoire.206
203 De Bériot had Spanish roots as the son and nephew of Spanish mezzo-sopranos Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot, respectively. That his studio attracted many Spanish pianists is probably no coincidence. 204 Elaine Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,” in Paris the Musical Kaleidoscope 1870-1925 (New York: G. Braziller, 1987), 170. 205 Brody, “Spaniards,” 170. In 1886 Ambroise Thomas, the Conservatoire’s director, wrote a letter to the minister of public education decrying the high number of foreign students populating Conservatoire classes. The following year a regulation was put in place for there to be a limit of two foreign students per class. Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation: Documents historiques et administratifs (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1900), 273-274. 206 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 10, states Viñes “joined compatriots Malats and Granados,” which would go against the school’s foreign student policy. However, Montserrat Bergadá asserts that Queen Isabella, exiled to Paris in 1868, had intervened on Viñes’s behalf to help him gain entry into the Conservatoire. This may help explain the discrepancy. Viñes had already successfully lobbied her for a larger Spanish stipend so he would have had some connection to her. Montserrat Bergadá, “Les pianistes catalans a Paris: une epoque retrouvee,” in Ricard Viñes: El Pianista de les Avantguardes, ed. Màrius Bernadó (Lleida: Institut Municipal d'Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 423.
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Studying privately with de Bériot prepared Viñes for his teacher’s unorthodox class dynamic. Often at the Conservatoire, students had at least one private lesson per week with their professor’s assistant to help prepare them to play for the group class.207 Paul Loyonnet, who studied with de Bériot beginning in 1903, claimed that he did “not really” have an assistant, and there is no evidence that Viñes ever took lessons with one. Having studied with de Bériot privately for two years while auditing his class before being admitted as a proper student at the Conservatoire, Viñes likely accomplished much of the technical work that he would have undertaken while working with an assistant. It also gave him time in advance to absorb de Bériot’s teaching philosophy, a useful advantage for playing in a class where the professor did not have much patience for students who did not have their pieces well prepared.208
De Bériot’s pedagogy exemplified the French piano school. Its major principles are as follows: “importance of finger technique, minimization of the role of the upper arm, disapprobation of futile virtuosity, emphasis on good, delicate, and refined sense of style (bon goût), importance of true legato and emulation of the voice, sobriety of expression, and sparse use of rubato.”209 This tradition also included generous use of the pedals for shading and atmosphere, the development of excellent sight reading, and relying on a method book of exercises to build good technique. De Bériot impressed on his students the importance of developing a tasteful interpretation that included sophisticated pedaling, and beautiful sound colour. He used an innovative system of flashcards to improve their sight reading.210 He taught his students a piano technique which required them to keep their fingers close to the keys at all time, which by extension requires little use of arm weight. He introduced his students to his fundamental pedagogical concepts through his method books.
De Bériot wrote two method books and Viñes worked on at least one of them as part of his piano technique training. Mécanisme et style: Le vade-mecum du pianiste (Mechanism and
207 Charles Timbrell, French Pianism: A historical perspective, (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1999), 29. 208 Timbrell, French Pianism, 189. 209 Audrey Abela, “Piano at the Conservatoire de Paris During the Interwar Period: A Study in Pedagogy and Performance Practice” (DMA diss., The City University of New York, 2016), 34. 210 Elaine Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” in A Musical Offering: Essays in Honor of Martin Bernstein, ed. Edward H. Clinkscale and Claire Brook (New York: Pendragon Press, 1977), 54. Brody found flashcards with varying rhythmic complexities in an assortment of Viñes’s belongings sold by a dealer in the United States.
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Style, a Handbook for Pianists) contained exercises for finger independence, and there is evidence in Viñes’s diary that he excelled in his work on these exercises. In an entry from December 21, 1888, soon after he was admitted as a full student in de Bériot’s class, he wrote “I played some of the 'mécanisme' and Monsieur de Bériot told the students that I would surpass them all.”211 Paul Loyonnet, one of de Bériot’s last students, explained the fundamentals of the technique the Viñes developed through his work on the exercises. De Bériot’s “main technical idea... was that the fingers should always be close to the keys, to make an impression on them, rather than to strike them.”212 His time studying privately with de Bériot undoubtedly had an impact on Viñes’s mastery of these exercises and de Bériot’s technique.
Both Elaine Brody and Mildred Clary have asserted Viñes was self-taught in terms of piano technique.213 However, descriptions of his playing contradict this claim. Gonzalo Soriano, a Spanish pianist who became close with Viñes during his later years, wrote that Viñes kept his wrist, which was very supple, quite low, and he caressed the keys to create a sound that was particularly evocative.214 Edward Lockspeiser also wrote that Viñes touched the notes before playing them.215 Brody herself described his piano technique thus, “He preferred a supple, relaxed wrist maintained at a lower level than was customary at that time so that he could touch the notes before depressing them.”216 Low wrist or not, keeping the fingers very close to the keys was consistent with de Bériot’s instruction.
Technique was only part of de Bériot’s pedagogy, and Loyonnet believed the main emphasis of his teaching was “interpretation, interpretation, interpretation.”217 In pursuit of a meaningful interpretation, he taught his students that they needed to be critical listeners, have refinement of touch, clarity, a singing tone, and meticulous use of the pedals. Loyonnet
211 David Korevaar and Laurie J. Sampsel, “The Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder,” Notes 61, no. 2 (2004): 371. Viñes’s copy of volume 1 of this work is contained in a collection of Viñes’s scores at the University of Colorado at Boulder. 212 Timbrell, French Pianism, 189. This is consistent with how de Bériot’s teacher Thalberg taught “one should catch the keys, not strike them from above,” quoted in Timbrell 46. 213 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 55. Clary also asserted Viñes was self-taught in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171. 214 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171. Soriano also claimed that Viñes was double jointed. 215 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171. 216 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 55. Brody must have found this information from diary entries not available to the public, the entries I have read do not contain any mention of technique or discussions about it with his teacher. 217 Timbrell, French Pianism, 188.
83 considered pedaling one of the most positive aspects of de Bériot’s teaching.218 Viñes did not readily adopt all of these precepts, which led to some tension between student and teacher.
Viñes was an independent person, both in terms of some of his practice methods, and in taste. He did not always follow de Bériot’s precept of critical listening, as he bought a dummy keyboard to work out passages that required lots of repetition, concerned that over-practicing them would cause them to lose spontaneity.219 On matters of interpretation, Viñes confessed his misgivings about de Bériot’s instruction in his diary. He complained, “If I play the pieces the way he taught me in public, they find me cold and timid. On the other hand if I play for him before a concert and let my personality be expressed through the music, he is shocked, he wants me to do everything his way, all while telling me to play how I feel, it makes no sense! Oh! Not having the courage to back up his opinions! How horrible it is to be a victim of weak characters like Bériot!”220 Viñes found it difficult to reconcile his own personality with de Bériot’s musical instructions, and it seems that de Bériot was trying to teach Viñes to rein in his own musical exuberance in service of refinement and good taste, a hallmark of the French style.
Viñes’s rebelliousness as a piano student may have been influenced by a feeling of conflicting aesthetic priorities. As a student, Viñes developed an insatiable appetite for reading symbolist writers and contemporary art, which fostered his taste for the avant-garde in general. De Bériot, firmly a musical conservative, did not share Viñes’s taste for modern artists. 221 He did not have the patience for Viñes’s exuberant attempts to persuade him of their value, which hurt Viñes. There is evidence of at least one heated argument between the two on this subject. Viñes recorded in his diary how an argument ended when de Bériot retired to bed early after threatening that he might no longer want to see Viñes. He complained about the disrespect de Bériot showed toward Georges Rodenbach, a Belgian symbolist poet about whom Viñes wrote a poem which he shared with his teacher. Some years after Viñes finished at the Conservatoire, de
218 Timbrell, French Pianism, 185. 219 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 54. 220 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 104, implies that this was a reaction to an 1899 argument about Rodenbach, but she did not cite this quote. This seems like it was probably from his student days. 221Ricardo Viñes, “Boyhood and Student Years: Ricardo Viñes,” in Ravel Remembered, ed. Roger Nichols (London: Faber and Faber, 1987), 3-9 contains diary excerpts outlining some of the activities Viñes and Ravel undertook together while students. See also David Korevaar “Ravel’s Mirrors,” (DMA diss., The Julliard School, 2000), 3-6.
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Bériot also criticized the work of Viñes’s friend, the painter Maurice Fabre.222 Viñes’s taste for the avant-garde, which developed early in his student years, instigated a considerable amount of tension between de Bériot and him.
Despite their disagreements, both teacher and student learned to tolerate the other’s taste and they shared each other’s company for many years after Viñes finished his studies at the Conservatoire. De Bériot even invited Viñes to perform at his monthly public masterclass in the early 1900’s. Loyonnet described the dynamic at these performances when he recounted, “Always [Viñes] played the so-called ultra-moderns, Debussy and Ravel, and I remember how Bériot would listen to this music with the same indulgent smile that one would show when a child misbehaved! He didn’t really understand this music, and never under him did we play a single really modern work.”223 Loyonnet’s sketch sums up the relationship between Viñes and his teacher. Viñes’s diary also indicates that he maintained an affection for his teacher, despite their contrasting views, and, according to Clary, it “abounded in phrases that were kind to him.”224
Perhaps Viñes maintained his respect for his teacher because he eventually adopted most of de Bériot’s advice in his playing. Critics praised the way Viñes’s virtuosity served the music and how he also used the pedal remarkably well. His recordings indicate that he played with a shallow touch, consistent with de Bériot’s technical instruction, but the melodic line is always clear. The fingering in his scores was engineered for maximum legato to contribute to
222 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 104 states the entry was from 1899, but a quote from the same diary entry in Marta Giné and M. Angels Julia, “Ricardo Viñes: littérature et spiritualité,” in Ricard Viñes: El Pianista de les Avantguardes (Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 412 is cited as undated. Viñes’s tone may have had something to do with the intensity of this argument. Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 104, contains both Viñes’s and de Bériot’s recollections of that evening. In his diary Viñes wrote: “he got seriously angry…because I defended all that he unjustly attacked. (Mais se fâcherait-il sérieusement…car je défendrai toujours ceux qu’on attaque grossièrement et injustement.)” De Bériot wrote in a letter to Viñes’s brother: “Youth is presumptuous, and I don’t think your brother, Ricardo, will be the one to change this assessment. Last night he found it appropriate to give me a lecture on painting, literature, and music. My 50 years of experience in art did not weigh one ounce in the balance, and I had to bow the judgement and wisdom of a child of whom I could be his grandfather. (La jeunesse est présomptuesuse, ce n’est pas à coup sûre votre frère Ricardo qui modifiera cette appréciation. Hier soir, il a trouvé le moyen de me faire la leçon sur la peinture, la littérature et la musique. Mes cinquante ans d’expérience en art ne pèsent pas une once dans la balance et je dois m’incliner devant le jugement et la sagesse d’un enfant dont je pourrais être le grand- père.)” 223 Timbrell, French Pianism, 187. 224 “Le journal de Viñes abonde en phrases chaleureuses à son égard.” Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 105.
85 lyricism.225 Loyonnet was not convinced that Viñes’s performances exemplified de Bériot’s teaching, recalling that Viñes’s performances as a special guest in their class lacked “sober expression, real brilliance and admirable touch.”226 However, in his teaching, Viñes cautioned his students against working on technical passages without remembering the musical goal. This pedagogical precept, which emphasizes the quality of interpretation rather than cleanliness of virtuosity, was fundamental in de Bériot’s teaching. Viñes not only adopted the most important part of de Bériot’s pedagogy, he valued it enough to pass it on to his own students.
Competition and Repertoire
The most important event on the Conservatoire’s calendar was the annual competition, held in July. Timbrell argued that the curriculum at the Conservatoire was designed to prepare students to achieve the best possible outcome at the competition, rather than provide a well-rounded education. 227 The competition, open to the public, was a proving ground for students who strove for a coveted first prize. The first prize signified they were ready for a career as a piano virtuoso; its attainment usually ended their studies at the Conservatoire. A committee of pianists who taught at the Conservatoire and distinguished pianists from Paris bestowed the awards, which were the first prize and second prize, and lower first certificate and second certificate. These were categories of merit, and some awards were given to more than one student, or not at all.
Preparations for the competition began in the spring when professors put forward their promising students to participate in a preliminary recital. Competitors were picked to compete in the July competition based on their stage presence and the enthusiasm of applause they received from the public.228 Those who qualified would perform the same morceau de concert (concert piece) and a sight-reading piece in July. Viñes competed four times, and his relationship with this competition included many disappointments. His diary reveals he usually expected a better prize than he received, but throughout his experiences de Bériot was a source of support and encouragement.229
225 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches, 111. 226 Timbrell, French Pianism, 188. 227 Timbrell, French Pianism, 29-34. 228 Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris” 174. 229 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 69-75, contains an in-depth account of Viñes’s experience with the competition as told by his diary.
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Viñes first competed in 1891, and he felt that he played well, but was disappointed to earn a second certificate (the lowest award) instead of a prize.230 In 1892 he entered again, but he recorded in his diary that he was not confident of his chances, and circumstances prevented him from playing his best. He was the first to perform, so the audience had not yet completely arrived. He claimed that this deprived him of the inspiration needed to give a successful performance, and he was distracted by the empty seats. His award, a first certificate, was an improvement, but he was upset with himself for not feeling fully committed to his performance and did not practice for a month after the competition.
When he participated in the 1893 competition, the audience was large and enthusiastic. The audience applauded him as he walked on stage, again halfway through his performance, and before he began his sight-reading assignment. Despite the audience’s enthusiasm, he was completely passed over for any award. After the prizes were announced, the audience congratulated Viñes and forcibly demanded an explanation from the jury concerning their ranking of the performers. In his diary, Viñes recorded the names of the newspapers, Le Petit Journal, Le Figaro, Le Matin, and Le National, that favourably reviewed his performance and complained about the competition committee’s choice. Le Figaro commented his playing was good enough for a first prize, if not at least a second prize.231
1894 was Viñes’s last chance in the competition because five years was the maximum course of study for students at the Conservatoire (Viñes began his studies in 1889).232 Viñes recorded in his diary that when he finished the morceau, he had to bow three times before sight reading that year’s selection by Charles-Marie Widor, a member of the jury. He was awarded a first prize to thundering applause.
Constant Pierre’s list of annual competition results reveals a trend: eventual winners successively earned a higher award until they attained a first prize.233 Viñes’s progression would suggest that he was due for a second prize in 1893, but he was passed over completely.
230 An anonymous report in Le Figaro, July 24, 1891, stated Viñes played with good taste. 231 Charles Darcours, “Concours du Conservatoire,” Le Figaro, July 23, 1893, 3. Georges Street, “Au Conservatoire,” Le Matin July 23, 1893, opined that it was an injustice Viñes was forgotten by the jury, and recorded that the audience voiced its disapproval. 232 Timbrell, French Pianism, 29. 233 Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique, 587-588.
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According to the reports from the press, he played well enough to warrant one. Even if he played terribly, the precedent set by the preliminary round meant audience reaction played an important part in how the committee awarded competitors, and the audience’s enthusiasm for him should have earned him at least one of the awards. Perhaps the committee had an ulterior motive for denying Viñes his prize. A musician from his home town of Lleida published his opinion on the matter suggesting that Viñes was deprived because he was a foreigner.234 During the years Viñes was a student, first and second prizes were not collectively awarded to more than two non- French pianists, and in 1893, the two pianists who won first prize, Stefan-Leopold Niederhofheim and Joaquin Malats, were from Austria and Spain, respectively. It is anyone’s guess as to why they received the award instead of Viñes.
Viñes’s experience at the Conservatoire most likely reflected French musical culture’s xenophobia, and this may have exacerbated his nascent rebellious streak. In his early years as a competitor at the Conservatoire, Viñes often blamed the jury as much as himself for not being awarded the first prize. Though Viñes may have developed a personal sense of taste that contrasted that which the Conservatoire’s musical authorities valued, by 1894 his performance style conformed enough to warrant an award.
At the Conservatoire, Viñes studied the canonical repertoire valued by its authority figures. The morceaux de concert assigned at the Conservatoire’s annual competitions while he was a student give a good example of this repertoire. They were Carl-Maria von Weber’s Sonata in A flat major, Op. 39, Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade no. 1, Op. 23, Allegro de concert, Op. 46, and Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, and Camille Saint-Saëns’s Thème Varié, Op. 97 (commissioned by Ambroise Thomas for the competition).235 Being able to convincingly interpret Romantic music was an essential part of what the Conservatoire’s leadership looked for in assigning merit to its most talented students, and Viñes’s repertoire at the Conservatoire reflected this.
Aside from the works listed above, Viñes studied other pieces which, according to Brody, were assigned by de Bériot. These included virtuoso pieces to help develop Viñes’s technique including etudes by Liszt-Paganini, Anton Rubinstein, and Isidor Philipp. Pieces like La
234 Article quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 72. 235 Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique, 584.
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Triomphale by Éduard Wolff, and others by French composers Godard, Durvernoy, and Chevillard proved useful for Viñes’s many salon performances.236 Viñes’s diary lists other repertoire he studied as a student. His repertoire reveals preferences for Schumann (the Etudes symphoniques, and Carnaval), Chopin, (the C sharp minor and B flat minor Scherzi, the Barcarolle, the Fantasie in F minor, the Ballades in A flat major, F minor, and G minor, a few Nocturnes, Mazurkas and “many, many” Preludes and Etudes), Franck (Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, and Prelude, Fugue and Variations), and sonatas by Beethoven.237 These pieces all align with the musical values at the Conservatoire, and formed the bulk of his repertoire in the years immediately following his studies.
The program of Viñes’s first public recital on Februrary 21, 1895, the year after he finished studying at the Conservatoire, follows this trend. Lasting over two hours, Viñes divided his recital into three parts. The first included repertoire staples: Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata), Robert Schumann’s Carnaval, Chopin’s Berceuse, and a Nocturne in C minor. The second part featured Franz Liszt’s Un Sospiro and de Bériot’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor, with the orchestra part arranged for a second piano. The third part was a display of virtuosity, and included shorter showpieces: Les Myrtilles from Poèmes Sylvestres by Théodor Dubois, Valse Chromatique, Op. 88 by Benjamin Godard, Sérénité, by de Bériot, a transcription of the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Moszkowski’s Tarantelle and finally the Liszt-Paganini etude, La Campanella.238 This repertoire catered to the public taste for virtuosity, the requirements of the conservatoire to study Romantic masterworks and pieces by French composers, and the tradition of conservatoire students to perform pieces written by their professors.
236 Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,” 177. Whether he studied pieces by Jean-Baptiste or Alphonse Duvernoy is not clear. 237 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 54-5. 238 This information is compiled from Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,”182, Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 175, and Bernadó, “Viñes en perspective,” 371. The sources disagreed on the exact programming and didn’t cite a press source. Presumably, the authors drew this information from their own access to Viñes’s diary or other family memorabilia. Clary listed only “two pieces of Chopin” and “a nocturne by Chopin,” while Brody and Bernadó provided more detail. Though Brody failed to specify which nocturne in C minor was on the program, Bernadó indicated it was probably Op. 48 no. 1. All three included an unspecified Menuetto by Schubert; according to Bernadó it was in B minor. Only Bernadó lists who transcribed the Mendelssohn, Théodore Ritter. Serenité by de Bériot was included in the program by Brody and Bernadó but was not present in Clary’s list.
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Viñes, who would be later known for his association with contemporary music, did not start performing this type of repertoire regularly until after he finished studying at the Conservatoire. Curiously, he was introduced to the music of Gabriel Fauré in 1896 by de Bériot, and though he was excited about hearing Debussy’s string quartet in 1893, there is no evidence that he started to play Debussy’s piano music before 1897 when he loaned Ravel his copy of Debussy’s Rêverie.239
Viñes’s interest in performing contemporary music became evident in 1898. The program of a recital he gave in Brussels that year marks a crossover between the two types of repertoire. Like his 1895 Salle Pleyel recital, it included canonical offerings (Beethoven’s Variations in C minor and Tausig’s arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor) and virtuoso showmanship (Theodor Leschetitzky’s Intermezzo in Octaves, Op. 44 no. 4). It also included Edvard Grieg’s Albumblatt, Op. 12 no. 7 and The Music Box Op. 32 by Anatoly Liadov,240 both contemporary works by composers outside of France. Viñes’s first performance of a piece by Maurice Ravel, Menuet antique, also happened in 1898. Four years after he finished studying at the Conservatoire, Viñes began a serious engagement with contemporary music.
Though Viñes studied canonical repertoire at the Conservatoire, his experience as a student enabled him to successfully pursue a career in contemporary music. His excellent sight reading and strong technique, both a result of Conservatoire training, enabled him to learn new music quickly, and equipped him to handle new challenges in contemporary music, such as Ravel’s Scarbo. His experience with the Conservatoire competition may have given Viñes the confidence to pursue a career performing unconventional works. When he was passed over for an award in 1893, the resounding outcry from both the audience and press implied he did not need the approval of authority figures to build a following. The audience’s reception may have influenced the committee’s decision to award him a first prize in 1894 as much as his playing did, considering that Loyonnet did not find Viñes to be a convincing talent. Nonetheless, a first prize was an exclusive achievement and it legitimized his abilities as a virtuoso pianist. His
239 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 121. 240 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 53. Programming music by a Russian composer anticipates the interest in Slavic music that would later be a pillar of Les Apaches culture.
90 reputation as a Conservatoire-approved pianist would have played an important role in his ability to disseminate contemporary music.
Extra-curricular Activities
While he was a student at the Conservatoire, Viñes engaged in many extra-curricular activities which proved useful for his career when he was no longer a student. He had an intense schedule of reading and exploring artwork, feeding his appetite for art and literature daily. Brody hypothesized that his lack of a formal education outside of musical studies inspired him to self- educate,241 but Viñes’s status as an outsider probably gave him an extra impetus to learn the ins and outs of French culture and involve himself in French society. When he first moved to Paris, his contacts were mostly drawn from the expatriate Spanish community. He became close friends with his compatriot Enrique Granados, who likewise studied piano with de Bériot. Viñes’s diary records their daily adventures and their aesthetic education. For example, he and Granados befriended a critic for Le Ménestrel, who helped them practice speaking French, which, in turn, supported their introduction to French theatre.242 Viñes’s diary also records the wide variety of activities he and his equally famous classmate and friend Ravel undertook: trips to art galleries, concerts and making music together, experimenting with new harmonies and sight reading music. Viñes was also a voracious reader. He and Ravel would recommend books to each other; the annual reading lists in Viñes’s diary are formidable.243
Musical performances outside of the Conservatoire helped Viñes forge a valuable network of musicians and socialites. For example, he played a transcription of Emmanuel Chabrier’s Gwendoline for rehearsals with the composer at the Maison Musicale during the fall of 1893, and also received coaching with Camille Chevillard. The latter would go on to become the conductor of the Orchestre Lamoureux, an important contact for Viñes. 244 Viñes’s close friendship with Granados and Ravel, which developed over their student years, may have influenced his musical personality and career direction. Viñes championed their music very early in his performing career, and his respect and admiration for these two friends influenced him
241 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 48. 242 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 29-30. 243 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 29. 244 Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,” 177-8.
91 follow their coaching very closely. Humbly accepting a composer’s advice became a quality that Viñes was known for later in his career. Announcements in newspapers likewise attest to Viñes’s musical activities while he was at the Conservatoire: he accompanied singers, frequently performed in salons – sometimes with his brother Pepe – and he also played during the intermissions at theatre productions.245 While these were all valuable for establishing his career, the salon performances proved to be the most lucrative of his extra-curricular endeavors.
Newspaper reports indicate that Viñes was performing at salons as early as 1891. He was paid for these performances, and his family relied on the income he earned. His mother acted as his manager, negotiating the fees.246 She prodded him to seize as many of these opportunities to play as he could. For his part, Viñes resented the heavy performance schedule, preferring instead to pursue his love of literature. According to Brody, extra-curricular musical activities were common for conservatoire students. Viñes’s resentment at his mother’s insistence on filling his calendar with performances was, in this regard, idiosyncratic. Despite his objections, the ample opportunities he had to play for diverse audiences provided him with invaluable experience. His mother also took advantage of the growing interest in his talent, steadily increasing the fees he charged as a public performer.
Salons played an important part in building a musician’s reputation. In the salon circles, Viñes became known for his gregarious personality and immense knowledge of French literature and art. Details from the press who reviewed the salons also suggest that his Spanish heritage was an important part of Viñes’s brand as a performer at these intimate events. The papers often referred to him as “the young Spanish pianist,” and he was known for playing Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole and accompanying his brother Pepe, who sang Spanish songs.247
245 Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,” 176-177 indicates Viñes performed during intermissions of comedies at the Salle Duprez, earning 40 francs before audiences of 500. 246 Myriam Chimènes, “Ricardo Viñes dans les salons Parisiens,” in Ricard Viñes: El Pianista de les Avantguardes (Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 424. 247Press records include the following in chronological order: Gil Blas, February 10, 1891 reports Viñes performed some Chopin Nocturnes at a cafe. Gil Blas, June 2, 1891 reports Viñes played a concerto with de Bériot at Mme. Davydoff’s salon. Le Gaulois, March 13, 1893, reports Viñes received a standing ovation for a performance of Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole at a salon hosted by Mme. Charles Fauvel. Gil Blas, May 17, 1893, reports Viñes performed at a salon hosted by Mme. Adam. La Presse, December 20, 1893 reports Viñes played with “plein de brio” at a meeting of the Société Philotechnique. La Presse, Dececember 23, 1893 where Viñes appears in a list of artists for an upcoming performance at the Théâtre Olympia.
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Guests at the salons Viñes frequented included music critics, artists, and directors of piano firms and concert halls. Meetings at salons resulted in lasting friendships with the painter Odilon Redon and Claude Debussy. Viñes’s popularity at the salons also provided significant financial dividends. On one occasion, Viñes met the English textile baron Henry Isaac Butterfield.248 He became Viñes’s patron in the years immediately following his studies at the Conservatoire. In 1895, Viñes signed a contract, ostensibly to be Butterfield’s secretary for a year.249 In reality, with Butterfield’s support, Viñes embarked on what amounted to his grand tour with stops in London, Munich, Venice, Milan, Geneva, and Nice. The luxurious voyages they took together contributed to Viñes’s cultural education.250 On a practical level, Lord Butterfield played an important role by providing Viñes’s family with financial stability.
Salons also presented performers the opportunity to capitalize on their reputation and drum up support for public recitals. Viñes was no exception, as he distributed tickets for his debut recital at the Salle Pleyel to Spanish socialites he knew from performing at salons. Members from high society comprised such a significant part of his audience that his friends, aware of the class discrepancy, did not stay to mingle after the recital but left immediately.251 Taken together, the relationships Viñes forged with the salon hostesses and attendees helped to smooth Viñes’s transition from student to professional pianist.
In the salon circles, Viñes became known for his gregarious personality and immense knowledge of French literature and art. This, along with his pianistic talents, contributed to his acceptance into French high society, which in turn helped secure him favourable newspaper reviews and enthusiastic audiences for his recital hall performances. His reputation as one of Paris’s great pianists helped legitimize his performances of new music for audiences that may
Le Gaulois, January 1, 1894 reports great success for Viñes at the salon hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bilhaud. Le Matin, May 12, 1894 records that Viñes performed at the Godebski’s salon, playing solo pieces and accompanying his brother Pepe who sang. Le Gaulois, June 18, 1894 reports Viñes participated in a benefit concert. 248 Butterfield was married to Theodore Roosevelt’s niece, and she was on of the ladies-in-waiting at Napoleons III’s court. Though Clary, refers to him as “sir,” there is no evidence he was knighted. In fact, it was his son who was knighted. 249 There is evidence that the two were acquainted since at least 1894. Le Matin, September 14, 1894 reports that Viñes performed at Cliff Castle in Yorkshire, Butterfield’s Estate, with his brother and other singers. 250 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 80-81. 251 Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,” 181-2.
93 have been less tolerating of its performance. His reputation also drew very talented students to him for lessons.
5.2 Lessons with Viñes
Information about Viñes in his capacity as a pedagogue describes a teacher who gave valuable technical advice, but stressed the importance of an imaginative interpretation. The most thorough accounts of his teaching come from Maria Canals’s memoir, from Viñes himself – in the form of an article that documented a masterclass he gave on Spanish repertoire —and in fragmentary accounts from earlier students. 252 He taught that one must develop independent fingers, keep technical work in perspective as a means to an end, project the melodic line, and understand the music to bring out its character. These tenets were aligned with those of the French piano school, and avoiding empty virtuosity in the pursuit of musical excellence is a universally accepted premise of good piano pedagogy the world over. This gave his students a familiar point of reference from which to approach contemporary repertoire.
Technique
There are few accounts from students about studying piano technique with Viñes. Indeed, some students, like Von Sauer and Morin, studied concurrently with Isodore Philipp whose reputation was built on his technical exercises. Presumably, students did not come to Viñes for technical advice. However, he still helped his students with technique when they needed it, and Meyer found Viñes’s technical advice valuable. She told Poulenc after she performed Petrushka, “thanks to Viñes, that’s not as hard as you think.”253 The two main areas of his technical advice were in finger control and pedaling.
There is only one account about Viñes’s pedal method by Poulenc, who asserted that Viñes taught pedaling better than anyone else. Poulenc recalled that Viñes would hit Poulenc’s shin with his cane when the young man did not change the pedal enough.254 In her discussion of Viñes’s pedagogy, Canals stated Viñes insisted that learning to use both pedals was an essential
252 Ricardo Viñes “Les Espagnols: cours d’interprétation,” Le Monde Musical, Paris, September 30, 1936. This article is reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 267-270. Notes will cite the location in Clary. 253 Poulenc and Rostand ‘Poulenc at the Piano,’ 192. 254 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 189.
94 part of crafting a meaningful interpretation. Considering how Viñes used the pedal in his own performance may give an insight into how he taught. Poulenc believed Viñes’s finger technique helped him play clearly in a wash of pedal, and Viñes’s recordings are also quite resonant, yet clearly articulated, suggesting that he used a lot of pedal. It seems that Viñes kept the pedal depressed for long periods of time to sustain the harmony, but his articulation was still clear; essentially Viñes’s pedal technique relied on strong finger technique.
According to Canals, Viñes believed developing finger independence was a prerequisite for students who aimed to create a successful interpretation. She wrote, “One must also obtain absolute independence of each finger, so that one can measure out the weight of each finger.”255 To achieve this control, however, Viñes did not advocate for the type of technical training that was part of his Conservatoire education. Canals remembered, “He was not a fervent partisan of doggedly working on exercises and etudes for hours, above all for the students who were already technically advanced...In his opinion, and according to this pedagogy, one lost precious time, time that was better used to form a repertoire and work on one’s musicality.”256 Instead, he suggested that students hone their technique with the aim of mastering the repertoire they were practicing. In this way, “He was in accordance with Cortot on the question of extracting the most difficult passages in the piece to work on them with all possible exercises to overcome their difficulty, before reintegrating them into the piece.”257 This was a departure from Viñes’s earlier habit of practicing difficult passages on a silent keyboard, though he still maintained the French tradition of using exercises to improve technique.
Canals was the only student who recounted Viñes’s direction on how to physically approach the keys, in reference to Ravel’s Jeux d’eau and Scarbo. In both pieces his technical direction was to help achieve a specific musical goal. In the opening of Jeux d’eau, Viñes told her, “One should play with the fingers close to the keyboard, without articulating, it should be
255 “Il faut également obtenir l’indépendance absolue de chaque doigt, afin de pouvoir doser le poids du pianissimo au fortissimo.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171. 256 “Il n’était pas fervent partisan du travail acharné sur des exercices et des études durant des heures, surtout pour les élèves déjà avancés techniquement… A son avis, en suivant cette pédagogie, l’on perdait un temps précieux, temps utilisé de façon bien plus profitable pour se former un répertoire et travailler sa musicalité.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171. 257 “Il était en accord avec Cortot sur la question d’extraire les passages les plus difficiles du morceau et de les travailler avec tous les exercices possibles pour vaincre la difficulté même, avant de les réintégrer à l’oeuvre.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary Ricardo Viñes, 171.
95 smooth, fluid and flexible.”258 In the case of Scarbo, Viñes told her to keep the fingers as close to the key as possible for the repeated 32nd notes at the beginning “in order to obtain a melted sound.”259 His advice to keep the fingers near the keys and touch them before playing mirrors the French school technique he learned from his teacher de Bériot, and demonstrates a connection that Viñes forged between French technique and authentic interpretation of Ravel’s music.
Interpretation
As with his instruction in technique, in matters of interpretation Viñes instructed his students with the same principles he learned at the Conservatoire. He taught his students the importance of lyricism and of projecting the melodic line, a preference he picked up from his teacher de Bériot. Canals explained the melody was always important to Viñes, writing, “Viñes advised to contrast decoration with personality, symbolism with lyricism, to tone down the passages of pure harmony so that the melodic themes would come out.”260 Examples of this instruction can also be found throughout Viñes’s masterclass. In Albeniz’s Almería, Viñes said, “Make sure to sing out, letting the accompaniment flow smoothly underneath, and make sure the hands are independent.”261 In Triana he advised, “The theme in the left hand, in the F major passage, must be brought out, and at the same time blurred.” 262 In Granados’s Goyesca no. 4 (Quejas, o La Maja y el ruiseñor), Viñes instructed, “The theme must be announced with a bold sonority, but with a sort of resigned lethargy. Do the legato well, and always think of imitating the violin bow.”263 Emphasizing the legato touch for a melody was an important part of Viñes’s French piano school training, and again, is an important tenet for piano pedagogy in general.
258 “Il faut le jouer avec les doigts près du clavier, sans la moindre articulation, bien lié, fluide et flexible.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 272. 259 “Ces triples croches doivent être jouées en levant les doigts aussi peu que possible, afin d’obtenir une sonorité fondue.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 275. 260 “Viñes conseille d’opposer le décor au personnage, le symbolisme au lyrisme, d’estomper les passages de pure harmonie pour faire ressortir les thèmes mélodiques.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 172. 261 “Mettre le chant très en dehors, laisser couler fluide l’accompagnement en dessous, et maintenir les deux mains bien libres et indépendantes.” Viñes, “Les espagnoles,” reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 268. 262 “La reprise du Thème de la main gauche, dans le passage en fa naturel, doit être bien chantée, et, en même temps, estompée.” Viñes, “Les espagnoles,” reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 269. 263 “Le thème doit s’énoncer dans une sonorité grasse, mais avec une sorte de lassitude résignée. Bien faire le legato, et toujours penser à imiter l’archet d’un violon.” Viñes, “Les espagnoles,” reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 269.
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According to Canals, Viñes taught how rhythmic restraint, another tenet of the French piano school, was required for an authentic Ravellian performance: ...Viñes told me that it was Ravel who had created that which he called the “measured rubato”! The great difficulty of interpreting Ravel’s works is that one must apply flexibility to the absolute rigour of the metronome, the rallentando is an antiravelian principle. The flexibility must be uniquely obtained by mastering sonority, always avoid marking the beginning of a measure….Another essential aspect for him is to establish a relationship between the rubato and the tempi [mouvements] that surround it. Finales do not slow down, the phrase must dissolve into pianissimo by melting the sonority with the pedal…The tempi must be alive, but without jolts.264
In the place of manipulating time, Ravel wanted pianists to create nuances of sound colour, which necessitated the pianist to have absolute finger independence and pedal control. These were skills in which Viñes excelled and which emphasized in his teaching.
Viñes also taught Canals that the right tempo was important for bringing out the character of Ravel’s music. She remembered, “On the interpretation of Jeux d'eau, Viñes said that Ravel did not want too fast a tempo. It is a joyful and sweet theme that must be announced without haste, that must be sung but may not be sentimental at all.”265 On La vallée des cloches, “We must not rush the movement. Everything is destroyed if we rush!”266 For Ondine, “Viñes told me that Ravel did not want the movement to be too slow…In Ondine, we find the rubati characteristics of Ravel's writing, that is to say, the ‘rubati doses’ of which Viñes spoke. However, in the middle of the great variety of nuances and flexibility essential to this piece, it is always necessary to keep the unity of tempo.”267 For Viñes, rubato was not anathema in Ravel’s
264 “Viñes me disait que c’était Ravel qui avait créé ce qu’il appelait le “rubato dosé”! La grande difficulté dans l’interprétation de l’oeuvre de Ravel est qu’il faut appliquer la flexibilité à la rigueur absolue du métronome, le rallentando étant en principe antiravélien. La flexibilité doit être obtenue uniquement par la maîtrise de la sonorité, en évitant toutefois de marquer le premier temps de la mesure… Un autre aspect, pour lui, essentiel, c’est le rapport à établir entre le rubato et les mouvements qui l’encadrent. Les finales sont sans ralenti, la phrase doit se dissoudre dans le pianissimo, par la sonorité fondue dans le pédale…Les tempi doivent être vivants, mais sans secousses.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 271. Ellipsis in the source. 265 “Sur l’interpretation de Jeux d’eau, Viñes disait que Ravel ne voulait pas d’un mouvement trop rapide. Il s’agit d’un thème joyeux et plein de douceur qui doit être énonce sans précipitation, qui doit être chanté mais de manière pas du tout sentimentale.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 272. 266 “Il ne faut pas précipiter le mouvement. Tout se détruit si l’on se précipite!” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 273. 267 “Sur l’interpretation d’Ondine, Viñes me disait que Ravel ne voulait pas que le mouvement fût trop lent…On trouve, dans Ondine, les rubati caractéristiques de l’écriture de Ravel, c’est-à-dire inscrits dans le mouvement, les “rubati dosés” don’t parlait Viñes. Cependant, au milieu de la grande variété de nuances et la flexibilité
97 music, but had to be kept in the context of good taste. Its effectiveness also depended on the piece. In Le Gibet, Canals considered a strict tempo to be one of the keys to an effective performance of this work. She recalled, “Viñes’s interpretation of Le Gibet was miraculous. Captive, I asked him to play it several times for me, and he, with extreme kindness, indulged me. I remember his interpretation as if it were now, there are feelings that cannot be forgotten. The tempo was absolutely fixed, the haunting bell, and the multiple nuances were always inscribed in his unique velvety sound....Its rhythmic structure gave the piece grandeur that one could only dream of.”268 It is interesting that Canals found Viñes’s performance of Le Gibet so compelling; Ravel purposefully avoided asking Viñes to record Gaspard because he felt Viñes did not observe the tempo marking strictly. In any case, her preamble on the “measured rubato” indicates that Canals believed Viñes’s instructions on tempo came from the composer himself.
As noted earlier, Viñes stressed that technical instruction was a means to an end. Reflecting on her lessons on Ravel’s Scarbo, one of the most technically difficult pieces in the piano repertoire, Canals highlighted this aspect of Viñes’s pedagogy when she explained, “We notice, once again, that even for the most difficult masterpieces, technique by itself is never but a simple means, certainly an essential one, but one which should never become the goal if we want to achieve what the composer or any other person with a true musical instinct wants. It is something that seems obvious, but Viñes insisted a lot on it, and it was that which distinguished the truly great interpreters from those who believed they were!”269 In the French piano school, students were likewise encouraged to keep the musical end at the forefront of their mind while practicing. This principle was the one Viñes stressed the most in his teaching, which was perhaps the most conventional part of his pedagogy.
indispensable, il faut toujours garder l’unité du mouvement.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 274. 268 “L’interprétation du Gibet par Viñes était miraculeuse. Captivée, je lui ai demandé de l’exécuter plusieurs fois pour moi, et lui, avec une gentillesse extrême ne se faisait pas prier. Je me souviens de son interprétation comme si c’était maintenant, il y a des sensations qui ne s’oublient pas. Le tempo était absolument inamovible, la cloche obsédante, et le multiples nuances toujours inscrites dans cette sonorité veloutée qui lui était propre… La structure rythmique lui conférait la grandeur rêvée.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 274. Ellipsis in the source. 269 “On constate, une fois de plus, que même pour les chefs-d’oeuvre les plus difficiles à exécuter, la technique par elle-même n’est jamais qu’un simple moyen, certes indispensable, mais qui ne devrait jamais devenir le but si on veut arriver à ce que souhaite le compositeur ou toute autre personne possédant un instinct musical infaillible. C’est une chose qui semble évidente, mais Viñes insistai beaucoup là-dessus, disant que c’était cela qui différenciait un véritable grand interprète de ceux qui croyaient l’être!” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 275.
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To fully realize a piece’s musical potential in performance, Viñes believed his students had to understand different facets of the music. This included internalizing the structure of the music they were studying. One of the essential precepts Talayrach learned from Viñes was the “necessity of understanding the work’s architectural structure and making it emerge.”270 Canals explained it this way: “One must also linger over understanding the music of the great masters, thus analyzing the construction of their works.”271 This type of analysis could be achieved just with the score, but the amount of time Viñes devoted to talking about art and culture during his lessons indicates he believed a student needed to understand more than a piece’s architecture for them to fully understand the composer’s intentions.
In his lessons, Viñes took full advantage of both his close association with the composers whose music he taught, and his profound knowledge of the cultural milieu that stimulated their creations. Students remembered they were filled with anecdotes and discussions of literature, art, and theatre.272 Talayrach remembered the intensity of a lesson with Viñes, where he “dissected, explained, pointed out the nuances, poeticized. This one-hour lesson lasted at least two, and I left intoxicated [groggy], but happy for a long time.”273 A tangential discussion on the lives and habits of the composers whose works would be studied appeared as the preamble to his masterclass on Spanish pieces, and probably resembles some of the stories he told in private lessons. Viñes regaled his students with details including Albeniz’s hospitality to young Spanish painters, Turina’s scholarly pursuits, and Granados’s lethargic personality.274 He also relayed anecdotes that attested to his personal bonds with many of the composers such as the story of how Albeniz offered to adopt Viñes as a child, or the memorable night in a small Spanish village when De Falla announced that he was going to write a piano concerto (which would become Nuits dans les jardins d’espagne).
270 “La nécessité de connaître la structure architecturale de l’oeuvre et de la faire ressortir.” Caron, Ricardo Viñes, 330. 271 “Il faut aussi s’attarder à la compréhension musicale des grands maîtres, ainsi qu’analyser la construction de leurs oeuvres.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, 171. 272 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 48. 273 “…il disséquait, expliquait, colorait, poétisait. Cette leçon d’une heure en durait au moins deux, on et sortait groggy mais heureux pour longtemps.” Caron, “Leo-Pol Morin,” 331. 274 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 267.
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Canals’s writing also contains anecdotes about the literature that inspired the pieces she studied with him. Her introduction to Ravel’s Noctuelles, for example, highlights Viñes’s personal relationship with the composer:
About Noctuelles, [Viñes] told me that Ravel had been inspired by a sentence from Léon-Paul Fargue, dedicatee of the work: “The Noctuelles depart their rafters, in clumsy flight, crowd the beams.” The Noctuelles are butterflies of the twilight; the traits of the musical line are very capricious, imitating their zigzag flight. The harmonies are very fluid, the rhythm unstable, the sonorities misty. The Noctuelles are looking for each other... In the middle, a dark and expressive episode packs the dream into the moment the light dies... After this expressive sentence, one must be attentive to the sudden shift of Ravel's mood, after the sadness, which is expressed by an arabesque.275
Canals’s memoir is full of discussions of literature, indicating these were a central part of her lessons with Viñes.
Canals’s memoir demonstrates the value she placed on the close connection Viñes had with the composers whose works she studied. Some of Canals’s discussions of pieces by both Debussy and Ravel were devoid of any technical instructions and included only information about Viñes’s history with the pieces. In her discussions that offer musical and technical advice, she framed Viñes as an intermediary between composer and student. Canals explained that her teacher’s friendship with Ravel made him privy to secrets about his music:
Viñes had seen the birth of almost all of Ravel’s piano music. By times, Viñes suggested to him some modifications to give to one passage or another. In his turn, Ravel maintained his world of fantasy, enchanting gardens, gnomes, little devils, elves, a world in which he was the king, and Viñes the grand prince of interpretation par excellence.
...To his friend, Ravel had communicated the most intimate secrets related to his compositional intentions, such as the detailed manner which he wished his works
275 “A propos de Noctuelles, il me disait que Ravel s’était inspiré d’une phrase de Léon-Paul Fargue, dédicataire de l’oeuvre: ‘Les Noctuelles des hangars partent d’un vol gauche, cravater d’autres poutres.’ Les noctuelles sont des papillons du crépuscule; les traits de la ligne musicale, très capricieux, imitent leur vol en zigzag. Les harmonies sont d’une grande fluidité, le rythme instable, les sonorités brumeuses. Les papillons se cherchent…Au milieu, un épisode sombre et expressif condense le rêve au moment où la lumière meurt…Après cette phrase expressive, il faut être attentif à l’agilité de l’humeur de Ravel, au revirement, après la tristesse, qui s’exprime par une arabesque.” Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 272. Ellipses are in the source. This information is also found in Émile Vuillermoz, Maurice Ravel, par quelques-uns de ses familiers (Paris: Éditions du Tambourinaire, 1939). This book was published three decades before Canals’s memoir, so it is possible she read it there and remembered Viñes telling her this in person.
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were interpreted: exaggerated breaths, dazzling crescendi, the resolution of ornaments, mordants, the rigour of tempi that were not modified by rubato….276
That Viñes offered suggestions on how to change some passages is a bold claim and not corroborated anywhere else. It highlights Canals’s conviction that Viñes was somehow an integral part of these pieces’ conceptions, and how she believed the practical advice she learned on tempo and rhythm was essential for interpreting Ravel’s music authentically.
Canals’s section on Debussy’s repertoire is much shorter than the one on Ravel’s and is comprised mostly of anecdotes. Its brief musical insight also highlights Viñes’s proximity to the composer. Canals revealed that Viñes was frustrated with what he perceived as an inauthentic way of interpreting Debussy’s music that had become prevalent. She wrote, “While he was analyzing the way to interpret these pieces and Debussy’s music in general, Viñes pointed out to me the misunderstanding that existed among many pianists concerning how to attack the keys. Debussy absolutely did not want the pianissimi to be underplayed. The fingers should always be in contact with the keyboard with a deep attack, completely contrary to the idea that the music of Debussy must be played ‘superficially,’ or ‘thin skinned.’”277 This statement was preceded by a a story of how Debussy asked Viñes to perform some of the composer’s works for him on his deathbed, underscoring Viñes’s authority on Debussy’s music. If Viñes instructed Canals to play Debussy with a sound quality that was unconventional compared to other pianists, she was convinced that was the way Debussy wanted it.
Viñes delivered all his storytelling and composer-directions to help his students achieve what critics routinely praised in his own playing: the ability to bring out something beyond the
276 “Viñes a vu naître presque toute la musique pour piano de Ravel. Parfois, Viñes lui suggérait des modifications à apporter à tel ou tel passage. A son tour, Ravel l’entretenait de son monde de fantaisie, ses jardins féeriques, les gnomes, les petits diables, les lutins…un monde dont il était le roi, et Viñes le grand prince de l’interprétation par excellence. …A son ami, Ravel avait communiqué les secrets les plus intimes se rapportant à ses intentions compositionnelles, ainsi que la manière détaillée dont il souhaitait que son oeuvre fût interprétée: les respirations exagérés, les crescendi éclatants, la résolution des ornements, les mordants, la rigueur des tempi à ne pas modifier par le rubato…” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, 271. Ellipses mine. 277 “Tandis qu’il analysait la manière d’interpréter ces compositions et la musique de Debussy en général, Viñes me faisait remarquer le malentendu qui existait parmi beaucoup de pianistes en ce qui concernait l’attaque des notes. Debussy ne voulait absolument pas que les pianissimi restent sans être enfoncés. Les doigts toujours en contact avec le clavier, l’attaque profonde, tout fait le contraire, donc, de l’idée que la musique Debussy doit être jouée ‘superficiellement,’ ‘à fleur de peau.’” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, 276.
101 notes. For Albeniz’s Almería from the second book of Iberia, Viñes expressed a dramatic agenda when he instructed, “In Almería, it is very important to get the essentials right. It is necessary to establish periods, to determine the color, the site, the character, and sometimes to leave everything in the wave of a soft atmosphere, that gives calmness and leaves a little rest to the listener whose attention should not be tense and solicited without respite.”278 He wanted the students to remember that as performers, they must not forget they are engaging the audience, and adjust their interpretation accordingly. His masterclass contains many descriptions of musical character as his way of reminding students that expressing this character was their ultimate goal as performers. He shared this belief with Ravel, and explained that to properly interpret his music, “It is not sufficient to observe the nuances, one must insinuate them, one must not want a forte or a piano, one must reflect on what these mean. Increase your contours, ventilate your interpretation, step back from the horizon, understand you have come a long way, and have a long way to go. Ravel doesn’t like music without an ulterior motive, which doesn’t communicate more than just the notes.”279 More than just the notes, a performance should express character inspired by the literature, art, or place that stimulated the piece’s creation. While the instruction of bringing out meaning behind the notes is common among most piano teachers and is the goal of all serious pianists, Viñes’s method of delivering this instruction, through stories about composers he knew and descriptions of literature and art, was what made him a unique teacher.
Viñes also insisted that his students cultivate their own curiosity. Many of the pieces Viñes taught were born out of literary inspiration, and his niece remembered that when someone asked what was the most important activity for a virtuoso, Viñes exclaimed, “he must read!”280 Cultural appreciation would enrich his students’ personalities, and thus their interpretation. As
278 “Dans Almería, il est très important de bien arrêter les choses essentielles. Il faut établir des périodes, déterminer la couleur, le site, le personnage, et laisser parfois le tout dans le vague d’une molle ambiance, cela donne du calme et ménage un peu de repos à l’auditeur dont l’attention ne doit pas être tendue et sollicitée sans répit.” Viñes, “Les Espagnols,” reproduced in Clary, 268. 279 “Il ne suffit pas d’observer les nuances, il faut les insinuer. Il ne faut pas vouloir un forte ou un piano, il faut le re-méditer. Elargissez vos courbes, aérez votre interprétation, faites reculer l’horizon, que l’on comprenne que vous venez de loin, et que vous allez plus loin encore. Ravel n’aime pas la musique dans laquelle il n’y a pas d’arrière- pensée, que l’on devine, sous les notes, quelque chose de plus que ce qu’elles disent.” Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 170. It is not clear who Clary quoted in her text, but context suggests it is from Canals’s memoir. 280 “Il faut lire!” Nina Gubisch-Viñes “Ricardo Viñes: L’Homme au cent visages,” in Ricard Viñes: El Pianista de les Avantguardes (Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 378.
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Canals put it, “Viñes always said that the reflection of who we are appears in the mirror of our interpretations.”281 Drawing inspiration from the same source as the composer, a student could allow their personality to shine through their performance in an authentic way. His student Léo- Pol Morin believed that “the interpreter must recreate the work from their own personality, without which all performances would be the same.”282 This pedagogy, which Morin shared with Viñes, highlighted the role that having a rich imagination inspired by literature and other cultural pursuits played in a successful interpretation.
Conclusions
Viñes, the composers who wrote the music he taught, and the students to whom he gave lessons were all steeped in French pianistic traditions. The French school placed a high value on tasteful interpretations. Viñes cultivated a unique status as a specialist teacher of contemporary music, and talented students sought him out to augment their interpretive acumen in this repertoire. Through his methods, he exemplified how applying established pedagogical practices to avant- garde works was not just accepted but celebrated.
In light of his role in the dissemination of contemporary music to his students, Viñes’s contribution as a pedagogue is probably underrated. He helped his students understand this music by using established pedagogical methods with which they were already familiar. He inspired them with his exuberant personality and stories about composers’ personalities. Though the pieces he taught were avant-garde, he taught them as an extension of the French school rather than a rejection of it, making the pieces accessible to his students and disseminating them to a new generation.
281 “Viñes disait toujours que le reflet de ce que nous sommes apparaît dans le miroir de nos interprétations.” Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica, reproduced in Clary, 275. 282 “L'interprète doit recréer l'oeuvre à partir de sa propre personnalité, sans quoi toutes les interprétations seraient semblables.” Caron, “Leo-Pol Morin,” 345.
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5.3 Viñes as Pedagogue
Though Viñes is not remembered as an eminent pedagogue, he taught piano throughout most of his life and developed a significant reputation as a teacher for French and Spanish contemporary music, the repertoire in which he specialized. Talented students sought him out for instruction in this repertoire, and many of his students developed substantial careers in contemporary music. The testimony offered by a small number them pertains almost exclusively to the instruction he gave in his specialty and their memories suggest that Viñes’s approach to teaching was generally in line with the French piano school philosophy. It was his association with the composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Granados, and Albeniz, and his role in premiering their works that drew students to him and gave him the status as a unique teacher.
Teaching Biography and Reputation
Viñes began teaching while he was still a student at the Conservatoire, and he recorded in his diary that he had a private student as early as 1890.283 Upon winning a first prize in the conservatoire’s competition, Viñes was in demand as a teacher. At de Bériot’s recommendation, he was offered a professorship at the conservatoire in Bucharest. Because he did not want to isolate himself, he declined the invitation.284 According to Brody, around the turn of the century he began teaching piano at the Schola Cantorum once a week, and was promised the best students at the school.285 He also enjoyed various other associations with musical institutions. In
1901 he was appointed the chair of the piano department at the École des Roches,286 he served on the board of the École Superieure de Musique et Déclamation in 1906, in 1922 he was a jury member at the École Normale,287 in 1936 he was a jury member for the Franz Liszt piano competition, and the same year he taught masterclasses at the École Normale, commentaries
283 Brody “The Spaniards in Paris,” 176. Chimènes, “Ricardo Viñes dans les salons parisiens,” 425 corroborates this, stating it was thanks to de Bériot that Viñes found his students. 284 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 73. 285 Brody, “The Spaniards in Paris,” 185. This is not corroborated anywhere else, though Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 73 does mention he met his friend, Déodat de Séverac while the latter was a student there, in 1901. 286 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 147. 287 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 66. Presumably also he taught piano there, as Berrocal asserted Aaron Copland was one of his students during that time.
104 from which were published as an article.288 Though he sat on the committee at the Paris
Conservatoire that judged exams and competitions from 1904-1906289 and in 1926,290 he was never offered a piano professorship there. Teaching at the Conservatoire would require renouncing his Spanish citizenship for a French passport, which, for Viñes, was out of the question.291
His relationship with the Spanish conservatories is less clear. Berrocal reports that Frederico Sopena, a friend of Viñes and later director of the Madrid conservatoire, regretted that Viñes had never been offered a position in any conservatory while he was living in Spain. Other biographers maintain that Viñes was offered a position at the Madrid conservatoire and he turned it down.292 His last student, Maria Canals, believed Viñes turned down the Madrid position because he preferred to teach privately and give his students individual attention rather than be part of the standardized group environment that prevailed in conservatories.293 Presumably, Viñes had quite a number of private students during his career. In his last days, his niece observed that he had “very few students” which suggests this was not the norm.294
Because he was not associated with an institution, records of Viñes’s teaching are scattered and include the testimony by his pupils including Francis Poulenc, Léo-Pol Morin, Marcelle Meyer, Angelica Morales von Sauer, Maria Canals, and Francois Talayrach. Additional information comes from other scholarly writing on them. These musicians all developed substantial careers in music and considered Viñes’s expertise in French and Spanish music an invaluable part of their training. This suggests that though Viñes is not known as a prominent
288 Ricardo Viñes, “Les Espagnols: Cours d’interprétation de M. Ricardo Viñes,” Le Monde Musical, September 30, 1936, reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 267-270. 289 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 145.” 290 Claudine Caron, “Chroniques des concerts du pianiste Léo-Pol Morin (1892-1941): pour un portrait de la modernité musicale au Quebec” (Ph.D. diss., Universite de Montreal: 2008), 199-200. Viñes sat on the committee from May to August 1926. 291 Berrocal “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 42-3. Berrocal cites the opinion of his niece. Viñes was a Francophile, but he was also a Spanish patriot. Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 252 states that his original epitaph included his response to the suggestion that he renounce his Spanish citizenship to become a French citizen. He replied “the greatest honour and greatest glory is to be a Spaniard.” 292 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 251. This information also appears in Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 43. 293 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 43. 294 “…à cause de la guerre, il avait peu d’élèves…” Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 250.
105 piano teacher today, he had a reputation as a serious pedagogue specializing in contemporary music, and it enabled him to recruit some very talented students.
Not all the students who shared testimony about Viñes became professional pianists, but they all credited him for his influence in their education before they pursued careers in music of varying degrees of prominence. French pianist Marcelle Meyer began her lessons with Viñes after she won a first prize at the Paris Conservatoire in 1913, as a student of Alfred Cortot. She is often described as one of Viñes’s most brilliant students. She established a career as a French virtuoso pianist whose commitment to performing new music led her to have a close association with Ravel and Les Six. Francis Poulenc began studying with Viñes in 1914 at the age of 16. Though Poulenc did not pursue a career as a performer, he considered Viñes an invaluable part of his musical development, going so far as to say that musically, he owed Viñes everything.295 He credited Viñes for his decision to pursue a career writing music and he became one of France’s most eminent twentieth-century composers. 296 Léo-Pol Morin, originally from Québec, also started studying with Viñes in 1914 after taking lessons with Raoul Pugno and Isodor Philipp.297 He went on to enjoy a career of some prominence as a pianist, music critic, and composer. His interest in contemporary music led him to start Le Nigog in 1918, a journal devoted to the avant-garde. In it, he published an article entitled “The Piano - Its music - An interpreter” that proclaimed Ricardo Viñes as the pianist best suited to play contemporary music.298 Mexican pianist Angelica Morales von Sauer studied with Viñes and Philipp concurrently in 1925. She went on to enjoy a distinguished performing career in Western Europe and Mexico, and she taught at conservatories in Vienna and Mexico City. Spanish pianist Maria Canals was Viñes’s last student. She met him met in 1942 through the composer Manuel Blancafort while Viñes was living in Barcelona, prohibited from returning to France due to World War II. At 28 years old, Canals was already an established pianist when she met Viñes, having made her concerto debut over a decade earlier. She studied with Viñes until his death in
295 Francis Poulenc, Echo and Source: Selected Correspondence 1915-1963, ed. Sidney Buckland (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1991), 174. 296 Francis Poulenc, “My Teachers and My Friends,” in Poulenc, Articles and Interviews: Notes from the Heart, ed. Nicholas Southon, (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2014), 191. 297 Caron, “Léo-Pol Morin” 56. 298 Léo-Pol Morin, ‘La Piano - Sa musique - Une Interprète’ in Ricard Viñes: El Pianista de les Avantguardes (Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007), 459-562. Originally published in Le Nigog 1, no. 8 (1918): 262-266.
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1944. Canals developed an international concert and teaching career and established a music conservatory and piano competition in Barcelona. Other notable piano students of Viñes, as listed by Berrocal, included François Talayrach, who credited Viñes with his discovery of contemporary repertoire; Viking Dahl, a Swede who moved to Paris in 1917 and went on to become a composer of some prominence in his home country; Dutch pianist Georg van Renesse; French pianist Marie Panthes; Joaquin Nin-Culmell, who moved to Paris in 1923 and received a first prize from the Paris conservatoire in 1934; and Jane Mortier, who was a champion of modern works. 299 Mortier featured Satie’s works during her United States tours of the 1920’s, and was the first pianist to give a complete performance the first book of Debussy’s preludes.300 It was these students’ shared interest in learning to interpret contemporary music that brought them to Viñes.
Viñes’s students had varying degrees of commitment to contemporary music. Poulenc was already interested in the repertoire for which Viñes was known, and he played some Debussy preludes at his first lesson. Poulenc remembered his “passionate admiration” for Viñes, because “he was one of the rare professionals to play modern music.”301 In contrast, Léo-Pol Morin’s early lessons with Viñes began with a focus on standard repertoire, including Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3, and Liszt’s Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este. Lessons soon switched to a focus on contemporary music such as Ravel's Sonatina and “some Spanish pieces (probably by Manuel de Falla, Granados, and Joaquín Turina)”302 When Morin returned to Canada because of World War I, the repertoire he performed in his native country indicated his new preference for contemporary music. In the Fall of 1914, Morin offered a recital featuring Ravel’s Sonatine, Debussy’s Clair de lune, and Albeniz’s Iberia, among other standard repertoire by Chopin and Liszt.303 Later recital programs leaned more heavily toward French repertoire, including pieces by Franck, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, and other pieces by contemporary
299 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 43. Caron, “Léo-Pol Morin,” 56 includes the information on Talayrach. 300 Caroline Potter, Erik Satie: A Parisian Composer and His World (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2016), xxvi. 301 Francis Poulenc and Claude Rostand, “Poulenc at the Piano: Advice and Favourites,” in Poulenc, Articles and Interviews: Notes from the Heart, ed. Nicholas Southon (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2014), 191. 302 Caron, “Léo-Pol Morin,” 56. 303 Caron, “Léo-Pol Morin,” 70-71.
107 composers which were dedicated to Pugno and Viñes.304 A review of Morin’s recital in April of 1916 suggests that his lessons with Viñes had a notable effect on his playing. The author reported, “[Morin] was best in the Debussy numbers, the pitturesque [sic], delicate music with all sorts of shades and twilight effects suited his temperament much better than the heavier Prélude of Cesar Franck, with which he opened the concert. He seemed much at home with Maurice Ravel and played the Sonatine, in three movements, with a delight which his audience felt with him.”305
Marcelle Meyer’s eventual close relationship with Ravel allowed her to enjoy the same privileges as Viñes did for interpreting Ravel’s music. However, her first husband believed it was from Viñes that she learned how to authentically interpret Satie’s pieces.306 Von sauer was less devoted to contemporary music, and she maintained a diverse repertoire throughout her career. She moved to Paris specifically to augment her repertoire with modern music, and with Viñes, she studied Ravel’s Sonatine and Jeux d’Eau, de Falla’s Andaluza and Noches en los Jardines de España, Albeniz’s El Puerto and Triana from Iberia, and Turina’s Mujeres Españolas, among other works.307 She later said she felt “indebted to [Viñes] for having enlightened her in the poetry of French music and the color and vitality of Spanish music.”308 Canals recorded her memories of Viñes’s personality and teaching in her autobiography, Una Vida dins Musica.309 In it, she recounted lessons on works by Ravel and Debussy. She also considered herself an ambassador of Spanish music, and in a way, carried on Viñes’s legacy with her repertoire. All of his students expressed gratitude for what he taught them in the realm of contemporary music.
304 Caron, 83. “Léo-Pol Morin,” Pieces included Gabriel Grovlez’s Recuerdos, dedicated to Viñes, and Tintements de clochettes by Raoul Pugno. 305 Anonymous, “Good recital is given by French artists at Ritz,” The Montreal Daily Star, April 17, 1915, quoted in Caron, “Léo-Pol Morin,” 74. 306 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 112. A thesis by Lisa Harrinton, “In Search of Marcelle Meyer” could contain more information, however it does not seem available for public access. 307 María Eugenia Tapia, “Angelica Morales von Sauer: An Account of Her Performing and Teaching Career” (DMA diss., The University of Texas at Austin, 1995), 20-21. 308 Tapia, “Angelica Morales von Sauer,” 21. 309 Maria Canals, Una Vida dins la Musica: Histories en Rosa i Negre (Barcelona: Edit. Selectica, 1970). The excerpt on lessons with Viñes is reproduced in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 271-277. Notes will cite the location in Clary.
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Viñes’s relationship with some of his students went beyond piano lessons. Poulenc recalled that after beginning with a 30-minute lesson each week, he imperceptibly began to spend his “life with this hidalgo with the face of a kindly inquisitor.”310 As a mentor, Viñes wrote letters of introduction for Paul Vidal and Ravel so Poulenc could meet the composers, and he campaigned for his acceptance into the conservatoire.311 It was also thanks to Viñes that Poulenc met Erik Satie and Georges Auric; the latter was a fellow young composer who became close friends with Poulenc, and Satie later became Poulenc’s mentor in composition. Viñes continued to support his students after their piano lessons concluded. Viñes helped Poulenc’s career by premiering many of his early pieces: in Madrid, the Trois pastorales in 1918, and in Paris, the Mouvements perpetuels in 1919, and the Suite pour piano in 1920. Viñes’s virtuosity was apparently an inspiration to Poulenc as well. When Morin returned to Europe after the War, he resumed his association with his former teacher, as the two shared a performance at the Spanish embassy in Paris in 1922.312 Meyer performed with Viñes in 1925, and Canals shared at least one concert with him in 1942.313 By promoting their careers after lessons concluded, Viñes in turn helped endorse more performances of contemporary music.
Though Viñes is not remembered as a pedagogue today, the diversity of his talented students suggests that he had a reputation for giving high quality instruction. Some of his students studied with other prominent piano teachers either before working with him or concurrently. Von Sauer, and Morin worked with Philipp, and Meyer was a student of Cortot. They perceived Viñes as having a unique expertise in contemporary music that they were unable to take advantage of with their other teachers. They were all grateful for his instruction on contemporary music, and their testimonies indicate that his lessons were indeed a valuable part of their education. By passing on the information he received from the composers whose works he performed, Viñes disseminated contemporary music in his capacity as a teacher and mentor.
310 Paul Roberts, Reflections: The Piano Music of Maurice Ravel (Montclair: Amadeus Press, 2012), 222. 311 Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 190. 312 Caron, “Léo-Pol Morin,” 134. 313 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 229, and Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 250, respectively.
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Chapter 6 Challenging the Narrative 6.1 Review of the Arguments
The evidence in this dissertation re-evaluates three assumptions about Viñes’s career. First, he was not largely self-taught, as Brody claimed in her research.314 Second, his technique had some limitations, contrary to the claims made by some friendly critics. Finally, Viñes programmed a wide variety of repertoire, and did not focus only on contemporary music. Viñes’s musical interests were not limited to avant-garde music, but they were constrained by his preference for pieces that exemplified verticalist ideals.
Elaine Brody’s assertion that Viñes was largely self-taught has been challenged, but not yet refuted. Because she based her claim on a reading of his diaries, which are not available to the public, it is impossible to claim that information in Viñes’s diaries disagrees with her assessment. However, other evidence sufficiently proves his technique and even some of his musical personality were directly influenced by his training at the Conservatoire. Berrocal suggested that Viñes may not have been self-taught because he participated in a rigorous schedule of classes at the Conservatoire, but she did not offer any discussion on the development of Viñes’s technique.315 Goodrich claimed that “There may be merit to [Brody’s] assessment; however, many of the elements Viñes would have discovered correlate in large part to descriptions of his training.”316 In fact, the evidence in chapter three of this dissertation indicates that Viñes was almost entirely a product of his Conservatoire training. His piano technique as described by his contemporaries (keeping the fingers close to the keys and touching them before depressing them) is consistent with how his teacher, de Bériot, taught. His subtle use of the pedals was an important part of the training he received both in Barcelona and in Paris. His musical convictions, which favoured lyrical pieces and homophonic textures, were also influenced by his time working with de Bériot. Even if reports that Viñes kept his wrist unusually low are true, this does not indicate he was self-taught, and does not amount to a
314 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 55. 315 Berrocal, “Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 38. 316 Goodrich, “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches,” 110.
110 substantial development in pedagogical philosophy. 317 While the French school, which long prized finger dexterity and economy of movement, underwent later innovations in piano technique, including the application of more arm weight, Viñes did not play any part in these developments.318 I believe that information on Viñes’s training and technique offer a thorough enough account of his pianism to convincingly refute Brody’s claim even without scrutinizing diary entries to which she alluded.
Viñes’s technical prowess is harder to assess. Certainly, his facility was acknowledged by many critics, and he maintained difficult virtuoso pieces in his repertoire, such as Ravel’s Scarbo, and Balakirev’s Islamey. However, many favourable reviews were written by his friends. Enthusiastic descriptions of Viñes’s playing by Georges Jean-Aubrey Léon-Paul Fargue, Émile Vuillermoz, Roland-Manuel, and Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi have been included in this dissertation; all of these writers were members of Les Apaches. Viñes’s frequent visits to high profile salons gave him other opportunities to mingle with the press.319 While he was lauded for his technique earlier in his career, later reviews seem to indicate a decline in virtuosic ability. For example, reviews of his 1936 recital, given on the occasion of returning to Paris from South America, discuss only his power of interpretation (as Roland-Manuel put it, “none can preserve such magnificent unity of tone, while having such diversity of expression”), not his technique.320 Recordings from the same period of his career also indicate some technical limitations which may have been detrimental to his interpretations of Romantic repertoire. He remained popular with audiences throughout his career, but this may have been due to the novelty of his programming as much as the power of his interpretations.
Viñes was praised for his interpretations of contemporary music, and he is generally regarded as a contemporary music specialist. He received some recognition for a series of four concerts in 1905 that surveyed the entire history of the keyboard literature. In fact, he programmed a wide variety of repertoire throughout his whole career, including baroque,
317 Berrocal, “Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 38 and Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 171. 318 Abela, “Piano at the Conservatoire de Paris,” 2-3. 319 Chimènes, “Ricardo Viñes dans les salons parisiens,” 425. 320 “Aucun ne conserve aussi magistralement ‘unité du ton dans la diversité des valeurs expressives.” Alexis Roland- Manuel, review in Le Courrier Royal, February 1, 1936, quoted in Clary, Ricardo Viñes, 243.
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Romantic, and contemporary repertoire. He played pieces that he considered spiritual and not formulaic, and he consciously programmed pieces that reflected his position in the debate between the verticalists and horizontalists. For example, he programmed pieces by Liszt and Schumann, but not by Brahms, a composer venerated by d’Indy’s movement. Even his programming of Beethoven’s last sonata, Opus 111, a work in which the first movement is steeped in contrapuntal tradition, was probably spiritually motivated. In his journal, Viñes recorded a conversation with his friend Odilon Redon, a painter and fellow mystic, where Redon remarked on the “suspended fluid” found in Beethoven’s masterpiece, an occult term taken from a publication by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.321 Viñes did not restrict his programming chronologically but limited his repertoire choices based on his spiritual convictions.
Viñes rationalized his musical convictions with his spiritual ones. He considered Romanticism the highest ideal in art, a movement he characterized by vague spiritual aspirations. For Viñes, composers that married harmonic innovations with melody were divinely inspired and created a perfect conduit for profound meaning. The use of strict compositional devices like counterpoint stifled true creativity. Viñes believed that a composition’s value was based on the spiritual content he perceived in it. By extension, he took the position that a work’s technical complexity was not necessary for it to have musical profundity. Viñes not only articulated these positions in his articles, where he condemned the horizontalists, praised Liszt’s spiritual innovations in music, and chastised composers for writing difficult music for the piano “without heart.” 322 His ideals influenced his other work as well. Viñes recorded and composed pieces with homophonic textures. Despite his ample facility at the keyboard, Viñes chose to record pieces with only modest technical challenges, and his compositions have fewer technical complexities still. Viñes ascribed a deeper meaning to his choices in programming and composition, even though his musical convictions are consistent with those of his artistic milieu.
As a pianist, Viñes was a product of his Conservatoire training. He internalized the values of lyricism and favouring Romantic works. The combination of these musical values with his
321 Viñes, Journal, 14 (April 20, 1899). The term was probably from the novel The Coming Race, or, Vril: The Power of the Coming Race. In this story, Bulwer-Lytton’s subterranean race uses Vril, a fictitious substance, as source of energy. Redon most likely meant that it was present in Beethoven’s Sonata. 322 “Morale: on écrit beaucoup trop pour le piano sans l’aimer…” Ricardo Viñes, “Opinions de virtuoses sur l’interpretation,” reproduced in Clary, 265.
112 intense spiritual convictions motivated him to program a certain type of repertoire; generally he played character pieces and tried to pick pieces with a profound atmosphere. Though his programming drew from the full chronological range of keyboard repertoire, he received little acknowledgement for his performances of pieces that were not contemporary, which may indicate that his technique was uniquely suited to playing new music, and hampered his interpretations of the Romantics. Viñes seemed to have fully internalized the technique and musical values of his Conservatoire training and successfully applied them to his interpretations of avant-garde piano music. Viñes demonstrated that a pianist could premiere many new works as part of a successful career, but that these works did not require a reinvention of piano technique or musical conception.
The research for this dissertation was subject to one main limitation: access to primary source material, including letters, photographs, concert programs, and the diaries. Access to this material is difficult for two reasons. First, most of it, including the diary, seems to be tightly controlled by Viñes’s niece. Her last academic activity appears to have been around 2011, when she undertook a project – which has since stalled – to translate Viñes’s diaries into French and publish them. Had this diary been available, entries about technique from Viñes’s student days would have been useful to assess whether he was largely self-taught. However, the research in this dissertation could only draw from diary entries that Gubisch-Viñes allowed to be published in other sources. Many of Viñes’s other artifacts are either scattered or missing. These would help complete the picture of his activities, and access to scores by Viñes, particularly those with annotations in his own hand, would help clarify some other claims about his fingering and pedaling. While many scores are available from the University of Colorado at Boulder, this dissertation focused only on the annotations in his published pieces. Access to more of Viñes’s recital programs may have helped provide a more thorough assessment of his programming habits, like how often he performed works from various musical eras.
Second, there is a significant language barrier for English scholarship. There are books by Catalan and French scholars who have presented valuable information based on their access to first-hand anecdotes, and material he and his family owned like letters, photographs, and the diaries. For a complete English account of Viñes’s life and activities it may be more time- effective to translate the already available primary source material, rather than forge the relationships necessary to get access to it again. However, even with translations in place,
113 information on Viñes is so scattered that it may be impossible to fully account for his musical activities. The approach of this dissertation, which relied on secondary sources in English and French, and drew from various anecdotes by those who knew Viñes, may be the only option for Viñes research if more primary source material does not become more readily available.
6.2 Toward a New Understanding
Researching Viñes presents a paradox. He appears in most discussions of Debussy and Ravel, and the reader is often presented with the narrative of a brilliant pianist lauded by critics who programmed contemporary music. However, details on his career are sparse. If Viñes was such an important player in the establishment of the avant-garde French school, how is it that his career seems to have faded into obscurity so quickly? His limited contributions to posterity explain this to some extent; his few recordings made later in his career do not offer a full account of his activities. Viñes’s selectivity in how he chose repertoire, especially as his career developed, may offer a more compelling reason for his one-dimensional legacy.
Viñes’s early association with Ravel, Debussy and Les Apaches anticipated the path of his career. Viñes, who was always eager to discuss artistic innovations, developed friendships with forward-looking composers throughout his lifetime. He associated with composers who innovated with harmony and often wrote homophonic music, and the contemporary repertoire that Viñes programmed reflected this. He also promoted their ideals in his articles and compositions, and he recorded their music. Viñes’s closest friends were involved in avant-garde art, and his musical activities mirrored their own.
Though Viñes expanded his repertoire throughout his life through his association with many young composers, he never outgrew his early reputation as the pianist who foresaw the genius of Ravel’s and Debussy’s piano music. This testimony by a young composer about a performance by Viñes sums up the public opinion of his brand as a performer. The author, a Chilean, recalled, “In 1926 I attended, at the Salle Pleyel, in Paris, the triumph of Allende. Ricardo Viñes, the delightful pianist, linked to the glory of Debussy and Ravel, performed four Tonadas by Allende in a program of modem pieces by
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Hindemith, Rosenthal, Trepard, Ferrond, Fairchild, and Koechlin.”323 The author, delighted that music by his countryman Allende was being performed in Paris, still knew Viñes as Debussy’s and Ravel’s pianist, and not necessarily as a contemporary specialist.
This was a topic of some tension in Viñes’s career. Viñes never eschewed his connection with Debussy and Ravel. He chose to write his most substantial article on the subject of Debussy, Ravel, and Satie, was inspired to write music for the purpose of honouring those composers, and the authority of his pedagogy seemed to partly hinge on his relationship with those composers. Yet, he did not consider his association with them as the foundation of his career. Certain decisions indicate he sought independence from his connection with these composers, as he consistently programmed baroque and Romantic music, chose to record mostly Spanish and South American pieces, and made statements such as this: Of me, they have said at times, that I am a “specialist” of French music. Other times of Russian music… This is not exactly true. I would have liked to perform the Romantics: Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin...and Schubert, who was Debussy’s great aversion and he must have always imagined him dressed as a notary and holding a fishing rod. But I could not focus on them. My life took a more agitated and lively direction...And I have a spirit that is active and vibrant that needs to diffuse, animate, propagate, and to fight for the novel...I wanted to learn Chinese, Arabic, Russian, I have been a lover of all that is original, exotic... It's impossible to for me to calmly take refuge anywhere…324
Viñes was always interested in finding new pieces to add to his repertoire, and Ravel and Debussy were not the only famous composers whose music Viñes premiered. Viñes played a major part in the beginning of Poulenc’s career. However, he never became closely connected with the younger composer’s works the way he had with Debussy’s and Ravel’s, possibly because Viñes was at a later, busier, point in his career. In the early 1900’s the
323 Berrocal, “Ricardo Viñes and South American Piano Literature,” 198. 324 “De moi, on a dit par périodes, que j’étais <
115 premiere of new works by a new pianist seems to have cemented Viñes’s reputation in the public eye, which has remained to this day. Later in his career, Viñes favoured compositions by French, Spanish, and Latin American composers, in miniature form with homophonic texture. He privileged these works for spiritual reasons (he believed stricter forms were dogmatic and spiritually stifling) and preferred miniatures so that he could present works by a wide variety of composers. For much of his career he stayed relevant by regularly introducing the public to new repertoire. But as the world grew increasingly cosmopolitan and pianists brought other innovative works in larger forms with more complicated textures to Paris, Viñes was no longer the only pianist who was introducing the public to new masterworks. His pieces, while contemporary, were all essentially in the same genre, and he did not embrace the emancipation of dissonance. He searched for the novel while his musical ideals stayed rooted in the past.
This duality of Viñes’s musical personality can be seen in his pedagogy, where he trained his students in the traditions of the Conservatoire and applied these methods to avant-garde pieces. While Viñes may have considered the music of Satie, Ravel and Debussy innovative in its use of harmony or compositional techniques, he perceived the work of these composers as the continuation of the innovations of Liszt. Viñes’s early career represents a synthesis of a new musical direction with the traditions he maintained from his Conservatoire days. Viñes’s curiosity was always confined by his conservative ideals in music, politics and religion. Thus, we are left with the legacy of a pianist whose tastes fit perfectly with the great composers of early French avant-garde piano music, but never adapted to the advances in music that challenged his convictions.
There is still more scholarship to be undertaken to fully understand Viñes’s musical contributions. One promising area of research could be in the field of performance practice, focused particularly on how Viñes made innovations in recital programming. Brody claimed that by offering thoughtful programs of complete works, Viñes “reformed” the recital, which up to that point had generally been made of short pieces, sometimes incomplete, that were aimed to impress the audience.325 Indeed the precedent Viñes set with his four historic recitals of 1905,
325 Brody, “Viñes in Paris,” 53.
116 which surveyed the entirety of the keyboard literature from early 17th century pieces to contemporary music, seems to have prevailed; today’s recitals often offer pieces from a range of time periods, sometimes including a token contemporary piece. A thorough examination of standard practices in recital programming both before and during Viñes time, compared with his own programming habits could reveal the extent of his influence in how recitals were programmed.
A thorough account of Viñes’s recital programming would also help determine the significance of his work in disseminating contemporary music. Berrocal has already studied his contributions in South American music, but more can be done for his French and Spanish repertoire. For example, a comparison of Viñes’s programs with the programs of his pianist colleagues would help determine if Viñes really was the only pianist who regularly performed pieces by Debussy and Ravel during certain time periods, as many of his admirers claimed. Did Viñes truly go against the grain by regularly programming music by contemporary French composers? Perhaps a canon of contemporary music developed quickly, and Viñes maintained his reputation as a contemporary specialist by giving numerous one-off premieres. Engaging with questions like these could substantially alter the way Viñes’s contributions in contemporary music are perceived today.
Finally, a more complete account of Viñes the pedagogue would contribute to a more thorough understanding of his influence on the development of performance practice in contemporary music. Did Viñes’s relationship to Ravel and Debussy affect how he taught compared to his colleagues who may have had less access to these composers? A comparison of how Viñes and other prominent French pedagogues taught contemporary French repertoire would allow us to evaluate the uniqueness of Viñes’s approach. Once this is established, other questions remain. Did his relationship with these composers have a significant impact on his teaching? Does Viñes’s pedagogy have a lasting influence, or have the interpretations he passed on to his students been lost? Answers to these types of questions have implications for any pianist today who plays Debussy, Ravel, Satie, de Séverac, or numerous other composers with whom Viñes worked closely.
The lack of information available about Viñes’s pedagogy is probably due to the period when Viñes was most prolific as a pedagogue, which seems to be during the middle part of his
117 career in the 1910’s and 1920’s. By this time, he had stopped writing in his diary, which may be partially to account for the lack of in-depth scholarship about this time in his life. A review of his letters and concert programs, along with uncovering more anecdotes from students and others who knew him would be necessary to give a clearer picture of his career, especially as a pedagogue. While some of this material may already be available in other languages, piecing it together with material in the possession of Gubisch-Viñes or other private collectors would be a formidable task.
For me, part of the allure of studying Viñes has been the challenge of unravelling numerous paradoxes about his life and personality. For example, Viñes combined conservative musical influences with a curiosity about the avant-garde, he was a contemporary music specialist who was uninterested in musical innovations in atonality, and he was known as a contemporary music specialist, but he performed music of all eras. This project has presented the opportunity to trace the myths and legends about his career and reconcile them with a more subtle reality. Certainly, there is still room for another in-depth biography on Viñes, possibly in English, that tackles the dichotomies he presents to researchers. This project would require the piecing together of information and artifacts scattered to such an extent that it may well be impossible to present an exhaustive account of his life and activities and any overarching study of his career may still need to rely on speculation. For a subject as mercurial as Viñes, it is only fitting that he may very well always remain at least somewhat enigmatic.
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Bibliography
Books Banowetz, Joseph. The Pianist’s Guide to Pedaling. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. Barraud, Henri Pour comprendre les musiques d’aujourd’hui. Paris: Le Seuil, 1968. Bergada, Montserrat, Màrius Bernadó, and Nina Gubisch-Viñes Ricard Viñes i Roda (1875- 1943): Testimoni d ’un temps. Lleida: Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs, 1994. Bernadó, Màrius. Paris 1905. Viñes, Una Historia Del Piano: Cuatro conciertos históricos. Madrid: Fucació Juan March, 2015. Bernadó, Màrius, ed. Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes. Lleida: Institut Municipal d'Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007. Brody, Elaine. Paris the Musical Kaleidoscope: 1870-1925. New York: G. Braziller, 1987. Canals, Maria, Una Vida dins la Musica: Histories en Rosa i Negre. Barcelona: Selecta, 1970. Clary, Mildred. Ricardo Viñes: Un pelèrin de l’Absolu. Arles: Musicales Actes Sud, 2011. da Costa, Neal Peres. Off the Record: performing practices in romantic piano playing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Fargue, Léon-Paul. Portraits de famille. Paris: J. B. Janin, 1947. Howat, Roy. The French Art of Piano Music. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Jean-Aubry, George. French Music of Today. Translated by Edwin Evans. London: Paul, 1926. Nichols, Roger, ed. Debussy Remembered, London: Faber and Faber, 1992. Nichols Roger, ed. Ravel Remembered. London: Faber and Faber, 1987. Pierre, Constant. Le Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation: Documents historiques et administratifs. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1900. Potter, Caroline. Erik Satie: A Parisian Composer and His World. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2016. Poulenc, Francis, Echo and Source: Selected Correspondence 1915-1963. Edited by Sidney Buckland. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1991. Roberts, Paul. Reflections: The Piano Music of Maurice Ravel. Montclair: Amadeus Press, 2012. Schmidt, Carl B., The Music of Francis Poulenc. London: Pendragon Press, 2001. Seroff, Victor. Maurice Ravel. Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, 1970. Southon, Nicholas, ed. Poulenc, Articles and Interviews: Notes from the Heart. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2014. Timbrell, Charles. French Pianism: A Historical Perspective. Portland: Amadeus Press, 1999. Viñes, Elvira. Souvenirs (family archive). Viñes, Ricardo, Escrits Musicals de Ricard Viñes Edited by Màrius Bernadó. Lleida: Universitat de Lleida, 1999.
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Viñes, Ricardo. Journal inédit de Ricardo Viñes: Odilon Redon et le milieu occultiste (1897- 1915). Edited by Suzy Levy. Paris: Aux Amateurs de Livres, 1987. Vuillermoz, Émile, Maurice Ravel, par quelques-uns de ses familiers. Paris: Éditions du Tambourinaire, 1939.
Articles and Chapters Brody, Elaine. “Viñes in Paris: New Light on Twentieth Century Performance Practice.” In A Musical Offering: Essays in Honor of Martin Bernstein, edited by Edward H. Clinkscale and Claire Brook, 45-57. New York: Pendragon Press, 1977. Korevaar, David and Laurie J. Sampsel. “The Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder." Music Library Association. Notes 61, no. 2 (12, 2004): 361-400. Morin, Léo-Pol. “Le Piano – Sa Musique – Un Interprète.” In Ricard Viñes: el pianista de les avantguardes, edited by Màrius Bernadó, 459-462. Lleida: Institut Municipal d’Accio d'Acció Cultural de Lleida, 2007. Orledge, Robert and Andrew Thomson. “Indy, (Paul Marie Théodre) Vincent d’.” Grove Music Online. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://doi- org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13787 Pasler, Jann, “A Sociology of the Apaches: 'Sacred Battalion' for Pelléas.” In Berlioz and Debussy: Sources, Contexts and Legacies: Essays in Honour of François Lesure, edited by Barbara L. Kelly and Kerry Murphy, 149-166. Aldershot, England and Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2007. Pasler, Jann “The Music Criticism of Gaston Knosp: From Newspaper Journalism in Tonkin to Comparative Musicology (1898-1912).” Revue Belge de Musicologie 66, (2012): 203-22. Riera, Juan, “Ricardo Viñes (Evocación).” lllerda 29 (1968): 127-201. Viñes, Ricardo. “La Journal inédit de Ricardo Viñes,” edited by Nina Gubisch-Viñes. Review internationale de la musique française, 1 (June 1980): 153-248. Viñes, Ricardo. “Beethoven et Chopin (Lettre à M. Knosp).” Revue Musicale de Lyon, April 11, 1910. Viñes Ricardo. “Breu epistola a N’Enric Granados I Campina.” La Revista Musical Catalana 13, no. 150, (Barcelona: June 15, 1916). Viñes Ricardo. “Les Espagnols: Cours d’interpretation de M. Ricardo Viñes.” Le Monde Musical, September 30, 1936. Viñes, Ricardo. “Granados intimo o Recuerdos de su estancia en Paris.” Revista Musical Hispano-Americana, VIII, III époque, no. VIII, (August 31, 1916). Viñes, Ricardo. “Liszt précurseur.” Musica, 109, (October 1911). Viñes, Ricardo. “Opinions de virtuoses sur l’interpretation.” Le Courrier Musical et théâtral 29, no. 19, (November 15, 1927). Viñes, Ricardo. “Pensées sur Franz Liszt. A Franz Liszt, genie boycotté.” Le Courrier Musical, 14, no. 2, (June 1, 1911).
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Viñes Ricardo, “Réponse à un questionnaire d’enquête sur la musique française du journal Excelsior.” Excelsior 692 (October 7, 1912). Viñes Ricardo, “Tres aristócratas del sonido, (semblazas de Claude Debussy, Erick Satie, y Maurice Ravel).” La Nación, February 11, 1934. Later published in French as “Trois Aristocrates du son.” Le Monde Musical 46, no. 12, (December 31, 1935).
Dissertations Abela, Audrey. “Piano at the Conservatoire de Paris During the Interwar Period: A Study in Pedagogy and Performance Practice.” DMA diss., The City University of New York, 2016. Berrocal, Esperanza. “Ricardo Viñes and the Diffusion of Early Twentieth-Century South American Piano Literature.” PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 2002. Caron, Claudine. “Chroniques des concerts du pianiste Léo-Pol Morin (1892-1941): pour un portrait de la modernité musicale au Quebec.” PhD diss., Université de Montréal, 2008. Goodrich, Matthew G. “Ricardo Viñes and Les Apaches.” DMA diss., University of Washington, 2013. Gubisch-Viñes, Nina “Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondence.” PhD diss., Université de Paris Sorbonne, 1977. Korevaar, David. “Ravel’s Mirrors.” DMA diss., The Juilliard School, 2000. Sauvage, Michelle, “Ricardo Viñes: Interprète de Piano et Pédagogue.” Masters diss., Université de Paris Sorbonne, 1993. Tapia, María Eugenia. “Angelica Morales von Sauer: An Account of Her Performing and Teaching Career.” DMA diss., The University of Texas at Austin, 1995.
Press Reviews Anonymous review. Le Figaro, July 24, 1891. Anonymous review. Le Gaulois, March 13, 1893. Anonymous review. Le Gaulois, January 1, 1894. Anonymous review. Le Gaulois, June 18, 1894. Anonymous review. Gil Blas, February 10, 1891. Anonymous review. Gil Blas, June 2, 1891. Anonymous review. Gil Blas, May 17, 1893. Anonymous review. Keighley Herald, February 17, 1894. Anonymous review. Le Matin, May 12, 1894. Anonymous review. Le Matin, September 14, 1894. Anonymous review. Le Monde Musical, April 30, 1901.
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Anonymous. “Good recital is given by French artists at Ritz.” The Montreal Daily Star, April 17, 1915. Anonymous review. La Presse, December 20, 1893. Anonymous review. La Presse, December 23, 1893. Arkel, Jean. L’Antiquaire, February 24, 1925. Brussel, Robert. Le Figaro, 1916. Darcours, Charles, “Concours du Conservatoire.” Le Figaro, July 23, 1893. Cellier, Laurent. Le Monde Musical, April, 1914. Ingelbrecht Désiré-Emile. “La mort de Ricardo Viñes.” Harmonie, June 19, 1943. J.L. L’Echo Musical, August 31, 1919. Landormy, Paul. La Victoire, 1936. Locard, Pail. Le Courrier Musical, April 15, 1911. Marnold, Jean. Mercure Musical, February 1, 1906. Marnold Jean, Le Figaro, 1916. Panizza, Armando. “Musica sobre Ricardo Viñes.” Metropolis, May, 1930. Pougin Arthur. Le Ménestrel, July 29, 1894. de Presilly, Berthe. Le Pays, July 23, 1894. Rebatet, Lucien. L’Action Française, January 24, 1936. Roland-Manuel, Alexis. Le Courrier Royal, February 1, 1936. Street, Georges. “Au Conservatoire.” Le Matin, July 23, 1893. Tolleron, Roger. L’Art Musicale, March 13, 1936. Vuillermoz, Émile. Paris-Midi, April 8, 1911.
Recordings Granados Enrique, pianist. Keyboard Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 190/L. 250, by Domenico Scarlatti. Recorded 1912, La Ma de Guido LMG 3060, 2004, streaming audio, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJYXBWaJmY. Rubinstein Arthur, pianist. Ritual Fire Dance, by Manuel De Falla. Recorded 1930, Documents 203161,1999, streaming audio, accessed June 21, 2019, https://utoronto- naxosmusiclibrary-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/catalogue/item.asp?cid=203161. Viñes, Ricardo, pianist. Enregistrements Historiques de Ricardo Viñes. Included with Mildred Clary’s Ricardo Viñes: Un pèlerin d’Absolu
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Scores Viñes, Ricardo. 4 Hommages pour le piano: Menuet spectral, En Verlaine mineur, Thrénodie, Crinoline. Barcelona: L’Institut Français en Espagne, 1945 De Falla, Manuel. Danse rituelle du feu (pour chaser les mauvais esprits). London: J. & W. Chester, Ltd., 1921.