Roger Sessions: A Biography (review) Melissa J. de Graaf

Notes, Volume 66, Number 3, March 2010, pp. 528-530 (Review)

Published by Music Library Association DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/not.0.0283

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/376398

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] 528 Notes, March 2010

(i.e., the composer’s eventual emigration to and is thus the only article in Sándor Veress: Switzerland), but also due to the decisive in- Komponist—Lehrer—Forscher to deal with the fluence of two major ideological currents of third major topic indicated in the title. the era: nationalism and communism. Taken as a whole, this collection fulfills Veress studies may therefore provide a wel- its prime goal admirably by calling wider at- come widening of horizon to music histori- tention to a generally neglected figure of cal investigations in these three fields, twentieth-century music, whose life and which have until now been almost exclu- work can nevertheless help us understand sively dominated by case studies focusing several of his better-known contemporaries on Germany and the Jewish Diaspora. as well. Since the volume grew out of a Andreas Traub’s essay finely illustrates this single-day conference on the occasion of thesis by identifying Verlust und Utopie (loss the hundredth anniversary of the com- and utopia) as the keynotes of Veress’s life poser’s birth, the editors were of course not and work, while Willson’s second contribu- in the position to ensure all-round coverage tion provides another illuminating study of Veress’s career—the virtually complete about the composer’s relationship to com- silence on the pre-1945 years is therefore munism before his settling in Switzerland understandable, though quite unfortunate. in 1949. As she suggests, Veress’s solid posi- (And all the more so, for we do learn tion in the Hungarian musical establish- [p. 220] that the composer’s letters to his ment before the end of World War II may brother, now preserved as part of the easily have been something he felt pressed Veress estate in the Paul Sacher Founda - to compensate for by joining the Commu - tion in Basel, document this period in con- nist Party in May 1945. The composer’s fi- siderable detail.) At the same time, all read- nal years in his homeland are also dis- ers will no doubt wish the editors had cussed in the article by his son Claudio added a brief chronological overview of Veress, which thoughtfully argues that each Veress’s life, as well as a work list, in the ab- of his father’s works in the period 1945–48 sence of which some of the received infor- could be read as intentionally ambiguous, mation about such a little-known figure and their seeming “political correctness” in seems difficult to put into context. This mi- fact hides resolutely subversive ideas. nor flaw and the inevitably uneven quality The collection also features a few analyti- of the contributions aside, the bilingual cal essays. Both of Bodo Bischoff’s studies volume represents a welcome widening explore particular aspects of Veress’s Das of our rather narrow traditional canon of Glasklängespiel, a five-movement work for twentieth-century composers worthy of chorus and orchestra to texts by Hermann study. If perhaps not a Granitfundament that Hesse. In a less theoretical manner, Doris Veress’s statue could be erected on, it does Lanz examines Veress’s changing relation- achieve a small but much-needed step to- ship with dodecaphony, a technique he cat- ward a fuller understanding of a fascinating egorically rejected in a note dated July chapter in European music history. 1951, but nevertheless adopted in a work Balázs Mikusi completed as early as August 1952. National Széchényi Library, Budapest According to Lanz’s intriguing interpreta- tion, through this apparent turning against one of his earlier aesthetic principles the Roger Sessions: A Biography. By composer might in fact have sought to per- Andrea Olmstead. New York: Rout- petuate another, more important artistic ledge, 2008. [xvii, 441 p. ISBN preference: the quest for synthesis he so ad- 9780415977135 (hardcover), $120; mired in the works of his former mentor ISBN 9780415977142 (paperback), Bartók. (Intriguingly, by 1954 Veress went $47.95.] Illustrations, bibliography, as far as to draw a parallel between compos- index. ing with a Reihe, and arranging folksongs.) The final essay by Péter Laki deals with Roger Sessions receives surprisingly little Veress’s most important ethnomusicologi- attention despite his status as one of the cal contribution, his collection of csángó most significant American composers of folksongs (the Csango people are a the twentieth century. His music is per- Hungarian-speaking minority in Moldavia), formed, but not regularly; there are record- Book Reviews 529 ing reviews and scholarly articles, but not gious, political, sexual, and financial. She many. Until the publication of Frederik weaves these elements into her narrative, at Prausnitz’s Roger Sessions: How a “Difficult” times using them to challenge received wis- Composer Got That Way (New York: Oxford dom about the composer, such as his sex- University Press, 2002), there existed no ual ambiguity as a young man, which not full-scale biography on the composer. Yet even his family knew about. Most chapters this is a composer whom Richard Dyer of include a detailed discussion of one or the Boston Globe calls “perhaps the most more musical works. Olmstead divides his influential of all American composers” life into six chronological chapters: “Family (liner notes, Roger Sessions and Donald History,” “Yale through the Cleveland Insti- Martino: Piano Sonatas, New World tute,” “The European Period, 1925–1933,” Records, 80546-2 [1998], CD), and whom “The Decade 1936–1946,” “The Trial of Leighton Kerner of the Village Voice called Lucullus through Montezuma,” and “The the greatest symphonist since Mahler. I wit- Last Two Decades.” She pays special consid- nessed personally the long standing ovation eration to his early life, including a far too accorded to the composer and his Piano detailed account of his family pedigree. Concerto at the Boston Symphony Or- The extreme attention to detail is at times chestra several years ago. The bulk of the overwhelming, hampering the narrative work on Sessions has been done by Andrea flow. Minutiae such as each semester’s Olmstead, his erstwhile colleague at grades for classes while at Harvard, and lists Juilliard, whose previous books on the com- of all his reading material (whether or not poser include Roger Sessions and His Music they proved relevant to his life and music) (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, at times obscure the story of his life and 1985), Conversations with Roger Sessions work. Yet the painstaking research is quite (Boston: Northeastern University Press, often tremendously fruitful. A thorough ac- 1987), and The Correspondence of Roger count of the composer’s relationships with Sessions (Boston: Northeastern University his parents and close friends sheds light on Press, 1992) (all available for free down- the composer’s thoughts, feelings, and at load at the author’s website (http://www times artistic frustrations. His significant .AndreaOlmstead.com, accessed 25 Septem - (and intimate) friendship with George ber 2009). It is to be hoped that the present Bartlett, who died when Sessions was work, Roger Sessions: A Biography, will jump- twenty-four, reveals layers of his personality start a well-deserved, renewed interest in previously hidden. Earlier books and bi- the composer and his music. ographies, including Prausnitz’s Roger This book goes far beyond all previous at- Sessions, make no mention at all of this im- tempts, including the author’s own publica- portant and emotional episode in his life. tions, to delineate the composer’s life. Given the great attention to detail in Drawing on newly discovered letters, un- much of the book, the cursory treatment of published interviews and articles, and another important event in his life is sur- Sessions’ own prose accounts of events in prising. After having been unfaithful to his his life and in the world, Olmstead paints first wife, Barbara Foster Sessions, a few an honest but sympathetic portrait of a years into their marriage, his wife began an composer frequently thought of as brainy. affair while alone in Paris in the spring of The inclusion of many lengthy excerpts 1926 while he was in Florence. Her infi- from Sessions’ correspondence gives the delity resulted in a pregnancy and subse- reader a very different view from that of the quent abortion and hospitalization from “mathematical” composer, resulting in a complications. She would never be able to strong sense of his personality—his nervous- have children after that. Olmstead covers ness, his excitability, his passion, his self- this in one scant paragraph, with little elab- doubts, his tendency toward self-analysis oration on either party’s comments, (e.g. “My problem seems to me to be above thoughts, feelings, or reactions. all one of coordination and regulation, and In general, however, what Olmstead above all perhaps one of controlling the does best is reveal the nuances of Sessions’ tempo of my nervous rhythm” [p. 193]). character. Very much appreciated are the Olmstead traces five areas of Sessions’ frequent excerpts from comments on par- life throughout the book: musical, reli- ticular composers, works, or trends in 530 Notes, March 2010 music. They uncover his nature, his completely. She fails to mention it again for thoughts, and his passions beautifully, re- several pages or even chapters. For exam- sulting in an intriguing, somewhat contra- ple, upon the death of his close friend dictory image of the composer: from his George Bartlett, she includes a paragraph actions and behavior he seems frequently in which she describes the various emotions irresponsible, defensive, and selfish; yet he Sessions must have felt. It’s poignant and is clearly also thoughtful, principled, and well written. The last sentence of the para- honest. Olmstead takes great pains to assert graph comes out of nowhere: “Sessions “his lifelong ability to make and keep began to set Whitman’s Leaves of Grass” friends” (p. 202). He was well liked, charm- (p. 134). One might suppose that this ing, and personable: “warm, lovable, wise, could be her idiosyncratic way of transition- and friendly, Sessions struck almost every- ing to the topic of his Leaves of Grass setting, one he met as someone worth speaking but she drops the subject completely, fin- with” (p. 202). In the end, the reader is ishing the chapter with no further mention drawn in as much as any acquaintance of of the work. The only other mention of Sessions during his lifetime must have Walt Whitman’s work comes two hundred been: we find him likable, charming, and pages later. We find an example of missing sympathetic, despite his infidelity, irrespon- information in a paragraph about Eleanor sibility, and selfish moments. Foster, Sessions’ sister-in-law. The para- The benefit of this insight is almost graph ends with the sentence: “Eleanor, negated by the author’s frequent forays too, went to Europe” (p. 148), yet the au- into psychoanalytic commentary. In small thor has not yet mentioned anyone else’s doses this may be acceptable, but the perva- going to Europe. As an example of an in- siveness begins to grate. It was with misgiv- consistency, at the beginning of a para- ings that I encountered the following state- graph about Ernest Bloch and his family, ment, halfway through the mini-chapter on the author refers to Bloch’s wife as the Symphony no. 2: “Perhaps this is the Marguerite Schneider and at the end of the moment to try to explain Sessions’ person- paragraph as Marguerite Bloch. Taken ality in terms of psychological motivations” alone, these examples seem minor and (p. 276). Olmstead draws on vocabulary unimportant, but the pervasive occurrence from Karen Horney’s Neurosis and Human of these idiosyncrasies makes the entire Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization first half of the book laborious reading. (New York: Norton, 1950) and acknowl- Fortunately such problems seem to vanish edges the speculative nature of her discus- around the middle of the book, and the im- sion. Surprisingly, the section was logical, portance of the content certainly makes the insightful, and appropriate to the larger effort worthwhile. narrative of Sessions as a composer. Per - This book is crucial for any scholar, li- haps it is the frequent off-hand psychologi- brarian, student, or musician interested in cal comments that seem out of place, while American music of the twentieth century. this separate, more deliberate section was Despite some issues of writing style, the im- both welcome and necessary. Had it oc- portance of this book cannot be overem- curred earlier in the book, Olmstead may phasized. Olmstead opens up Sessions’ life have felt less need for the many off-hand to the public for the first time, allowing the remarks. reader an understanding entirely impossi- More detrimental to the narrative flow of ble until now. The detail, thorough and the book are the many idiosyncrasies of painstaking scholarship, and sympathetic Olmstead’s writing style. Information is treatment of this complex figure in presented out of order, paragraphs jump American musical life are well deserved from topic to topic, and there are numer- and most welcome. Let us hope that with ous gaps in logic, inconsistencies, and miss- this in-depth reference to Sessions’ life, ing information. She presents information scholars and performers will find new im- in the wrong paragraph or several para- petus for focusing on the wealth of music graphs too late: material that should come he has left us. at the beginning of a topic thread comes in the middle or the end. At times she intro- duces an important topic in the middle of a Melissa J. de Graaf chapter, in one sentence, then drops it University of Miami