NIKOLAI MEDTNER: PERFORMING IMAGINATION IN HIS SONATA REMINISCENZA, OP.38 NO.1 by Christopher John Miranda Submitted to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor of Music in Performance and Literature Indiana University May 2016 Accepted by the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music in Performance and Literature Doctoral Committee ___________________________________________ Menahem Pressler, Chair ___________________________________________ Jean-Louis Haguenauer ___________________________________________ Frank Samarotto ___________________________________________ Andre Watts May 1, 2016 ii Copyright © 2016 Christopher John Miranda iii With utmost affection to dear Mrs. Marina Geringas, without whom none of this would be possible iv Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Examples ................................................................................................................ vi Nikolai Medtner: Performing Imagination in his Sonata Reminiscenza, Op.38 No.1 ....... 1 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 76 v List of Examples Example 1. Theme 1 Introductory Theme. ....................................................................... 11 Example 2. Theme 2. ........................................................................................................ 13 Example 3. Theme 3. ........................................................................................................ 15 Example 4. Secondary Theme. ......................................................................................... 17 Example 5. Transitory Thematic Section. ........................................................................ 19 Example 6. (Transitory Thematic Section cont.). ............................................................ 21 Example 7. Theme 4. ........................................................................................................ 22 Example 8. Theme 5. ........................................................................................................ 24 Example 9. Transitory Theme Extension.......................................................................... 28 Example 10. Theme 6. ...................................................................................................... 31 Example 11a, b. Exposition Climax, Introductory Theme 1 ............................................ 36 Example 12. Development. Themes 4 and 5. ................................................................... 39 Example 13. Theme 5 and Transitory Theme. ................................................................. 41 Example 14. Developmental Episode 1. ........................................................................... 44 Example 15. Developmental Episode 2. ........................................................................... 46 Example 16a, b, c, d. Development Episode 3, Variation. ............................................... 48 Example 17a, b, c. Developmental Climax....................................................................... 52 Example 18. Recapitulation. Theme 7. ............................................................................. 55 Example 19a, b, c. Theme 7 Extension. ............................................................................ 57 Example 20a, b. Transitory Thematic Extension 2. ......................................................... 60 Example 21a, b, c. Climax - Theme 4, Bridge, Theme 6.................................................. 65 Example 22. Conclusion. .................................................................................................. 69 vi Nikolai Medtner: Performing Imagination in his Sonata Reminiscenza, Op.38 No.1 To be undeniably staunch in one’s artistic and moral compass is what often fuels the genius behind the mind, heart and work of the greatest artists in human history. Some find this passion along the way, changing their outlook manifested in their art as they go through life. Others, loyal and stubborn in their craft from the get-go, are determined to be their own unique, unwavering light shining through whatever may transpire around them. Such is the case of Nikolai Medtner, a musical composer who’s genius knows only the bounds of the greatest structures of music making in history, and the bounds of his own heart. Medtner is resolute in his unwavering approach that music be based upon the classics and the traditions from where it grew, baroque polyphony, melodic and harmonic structure and music’s higher artistic purpose. Amidst the constantly changing musical landscape around him Medtner remained defiant as ever, largely unchanging in style and outlook on art and self, all the while creating something new entirely. Sounds filled with rapture but always stoic and clean, compositionally perfect yet always leaving one guessing to their next unexpected flight of fancy. Deeply complex in contrapuntal texture, melodic and motivic unity, passion and darkness, pain and joy, the divine and the sinister, the delicate and the dance – but always maintaining through this the purest of musical intention and purpose, with a direct line to the listeners heart. It is very often that the greatest musicians and scholars are discouraged by the sheer compositional mastery, or cerebral qualities of Nikolai Medtner’s music. Medtner’s music is a truly rare clarity of complexity, what may at first strike the ear as mind over matter, it is only as one has the courage to further delve into it, that it continually reveals itself. The following essay will serve to introduce through Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata Reminiscenza Op. 38 No.1, just how 1 vast and overflowing his musical world is via an introduction on the life of Medtner; the music that greatly shaped his traditional, original style and his struggles to keep the integrity of his art; a thorough and detailed analysis combining a musical, performance, and piano technical analysis of the Sonata Reminiscenza; and a study and comparison of his musical culture, criticism and perspective through Medtner’s compositional and pianistic style. Medtner’s Canadian student Bernard Pinsonneault quoted the following from the Russian American music theorist and musicologist Joseph Yasser: If Medtner is sometimes accepted with reserve, it is because certain musicians hesitate to recognize him openly for fear of passing far behind the times. .These hesitant spirits are even more disposed to swallow the most incoherent constructions, no matter how corrupted (all as if they were the product of a wholesome art), rather than consent to recognize the work of a composer, who, like Medtner, has enough wisdom and will power not to depart from or stray from the true tradition of the masters. .He is not a sterile conservative but an unforeseen pioneer to whom music is not only a revival of the finished past, but, on the contrary, a formidable spirit creating for the future; not a renaissance, but a classic resurrection. (37) It is important to consider that much before becoming the masterful composer many are only now discovering him to be, Nikolai Medtner was arguably an even greater pianist. Born in Moscow in 1879 on Christmas Eve, he was born into a large artistic family of such rare, full support for Nikolai’s musical aspirations. At the age of six his mother gave him his very first music lessons. This tradition of art and its fundamentals supplemented with a unique and curious imagination has built up through the family generations. Even Medtner’s great-grandfather 2 Friedrich Gebhard who studied theology and music and “. Wrote plays and poetry . and, prophetically for the Medtner story, he worshipped Goethe, with whom he may have met and with whom he almost certainly corresponded (Martyn 1)”. Goethe becomes one of the main literary giants from which Medtner draws literature for his lieder, and even as a precursor to movements of his piano sonatas. Soon regarded as a piano prodigy at the age of six, he also gets the first inspirations for string playing and Chamber music – later his Violin Sonatas and Nocturnes, Piano Quintet - from his brothers’ violin lessons. Medtner’s wife Anna Medtner recounts, “. His eight-year-old brother Alexander began learning to play the violin, and Nicolas (Nikolai), of his own accord, and without outside help, to some extent mastered this instrument” (17). It is through accounts like this that one gets the clearest picture of Medtner’s zeal for all things music, and the ease by which he tackled it. Still, the artistic outlook with which his family lived proved just as important. His brother Karl was active in the community theater and in philosophy. His brother Alexander went on to lead a professional violin and viola career. And even more important than that, his brother Emil, not unlike his great-grandfather, developed a love for German culture and literature, including Goethe and Nietzsche and even became – “. Both leader of the cult of Wagner in Russia and guiding spirit of the Moscow symbolist poets” (Martyn 3). Medtner’s rich source of art cultured his desire to compose at a very early age, as without any compositional or theory training whatsoever, he would find any blank sheet