UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA LIBRARIES KISLAK CENTER Music in the Pavilion Béla Bartk in New York, 1927. Daedalus Quartet December 9, 2016 Music as Translation www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/music_series.html Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18 No. 1 I. Allegro con brio II. Adagio afettuoso ed appassionato III. Scherzo: Allegro molto IV. Allegro Béla Bartk (1881-1945): String Quartet No. 3 Prima parte – Seconda parte – Recapitulazione della prima parte – Coda Intermission Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in C# Minor, Op. 131 I. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo II. Allegro molto vivace III. Allegro moderato – Adagio IV. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile – Pi mosso – Andante moderato e lusinghiero – Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio ma non troppo e semplice – Allegretto V. Presto VI. Adagio quasi un poco andante VII. Allegro ,~ w..1,, , I ~ ~ D Page from the manuscript of Bartk’s Tird String Quartet (1927). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Music as Translation Béla Bartk and the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia Tristan Paré-Morin Beethoven and Bartk have sometimes been paired together, but few writers have described their connection in more elegant terms than the French musicologist Pierre Citron: “If the music of the late Beethoven and of Bartk is beautiful, it is not because it seeks to please, but because it translates, without trying to gratify the ear, the internal intensity of visionaries.” Tere are various ways of thinking about translation in music, between languages, between mediums, or even between performances. We may think about works that translate visual or poetic images into sounds (as with Beethoven’s Op. 18 No. 1, second movement); or we may consider how musical themes are translated into diferent arrangements, as in a theme and variations (Beethoven’s Op. 131, fourth movement). However, tonight’s program invites us to think about translation in broader terms, along Citron’s lines. How are musical works translating the inefable, that is, the aesthetic “visions” of their composers? And how are composers translating the ideas developed by earlier composers into new musical works? — in other words, how did Bartk translate Beethoven’s innovations in his music? At the center of tonight’s concert is Bartk’s Tird String Quartet, one of the most technically challenging pieces written by the Hungarian composer. Tis concert presents it between two of Beethoven’s quartets—one early, the other late—allowing not only Bartk’s modernism, but also his debt to the Viennese master, to appear in a new light. Moreover, by hosting the concert at the location where the original manuscript is currently preserved, we are honoring the work’s historical connection with Philadelphia, and more specifcally the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, which organized a chamber music competition in 1928 in which Bartk’s quartet shared the frst prize with a Serenata by Italian composer Alfredo Casella. (Documents relating to the competition, including Bartk’s original manuscript, are on display this evening.) Te Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia Te Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia was founded in 1820, and is today the oldest continuing musical organization in the United States. Its purpose was “the relief of decayed musicians and their families, and the cultivation of skill and difusion of taste in music.” In addition to presenting a concert series with the Society’s orchestra, the Musical Fund Society founded a musical school to foster local talent, and, in 1824, built a concert hall that quickly achieved an international reputation for its acoustics. Due to declining revenue and increasing cost of maintenance, the hall was sold in 1924. After having become a storage warehouse in the 1940s, plans to restore it as a performance space in the 1960s were unsuccessful, even if for some years (1974-1989) the building was designated National Registered Landmark. Today, its façade is still standing on Locust Street near Washington Square. Highlights of the Society’s early history included the frst American performance of Mozart’s Die Zauberfte in 1841, some of Marian Anderson’s earliest performances in 1916-17, and many other musical frsts. But the Musical Fund Hall itself also welcomed political meetings and social events such as the Republican Party’s frst convention in 1856, commencements of the University of Pennsylvania, and even basketball games. Te Society’s orchestra moved to the Academy of Music in 1868 and fnally merged with the Philadelphia Orchestra when that organization was founded in 1900. Almost two hundred years after its founding, the Society continues its activities to this day, following its original purpose of “difusion of taste in music,” of which the 1928 chamber music competition is a notable milestone. “Will Tey Bring Forth New Haydn or Beethoven” Te competition, announced in 1925, attracted a lot of attention worldwide, especially in regards to its three prizes totaling $10,000. One newspaper described the prizes as “far larger than have ever been ofered before in the hundreds of competitions which have taken place all over the world in the last few years.” According to this newspaper, there had never before been a prize exceeding $1000. Because of the hefty sum of $10,000 (divided into prizes of $5000, $3000 and $2000), the expectations were high: it was projected that the “leading composers of the world” would enter the competition. One reporter of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article titled “Will Tey Bring Forth New Haydn or Beethoven,” in which he stated that “the Musical Fund Society, if it is to get its money’s worth … must raise up a Haydn or a Schumann.” We will see that for many critics, such hopes to discover the new “genius” of the twentieth century were not met at the premiere performance of the winning pieces. Tose critics exposed the gulf that already existed between the audience’s expectations for accessible music in the same vein as the “classics” (Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann) and the state of new concert music in the 1920s. When the contest was announced, and again three years later when awards were given to the winners, many critics expressed a lack of faith in the artistic value of modernism. For instance, the San Francisco reporter wrote that if Mozart were to participate, he would win it easily, “unless—and that’s the hope—even now there is a Beethoven waiting to emerge from some garret.” When the competition closed on December 31, 1927, no fewer than 643 compositions had been received by the Society (one of which was indeed a string quartet dedicated “to the memory of Beethoven”). Te frst prize went jointly to the Italian composer Alfredo Casella for his Serenata, Op. 46, and to the Hungarian composer Béla Bartk for his Tird String Quartet. Two other prizes went to Harry Waldo Warner (violist of the London String Quartet) and Carlo Jachino (from Italy). Bartk in Philadelphia Bartk completed his Tird String Quartet in Budapest in September 1927. Two months later, on December 18, he arrived in America for a nationwide concert tour, his only visit to the USA prior to his immigration to the country in 1940. Te tour, which lasted until February 29, 1928, began with concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and then with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is interesting to note that Bartk was in Philadelphia on the day that the competition of the Musical Fund Society closed. Te composer could have submitted his newly-composed string quartet in person while in town, perhaps at the urging of some local musicians. More arresting, however, is the fact that the conductors leading the orchestras during Bartk’s tour, Willem Mengelberg (in New York) and the Hungarian Fritz Reiner (in Philadelphia and in Cincinnati), were both on the jury for the chamber music competition. It is tempting to ponder the risk of a bias in favor of Bartk’s quartet when the two most eminent members of the jury were familiar with the composer’s latest works performed during his tour (including the American premiere of the First Piano Concerto). Tey would undoubtedly have been able to identify the distinctive style (and handwriting) of the author of a “String Quartet in C#” despite the fact that all entries needed to be submitted under aliases. Te four prize-winning compositions were frst performed at a special concert at the ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel on December 30, 1928. Casella’s Serenata, with its melodic profusion, short movements and lively rhythms, was received with “immense applause, the most spontaneous and sincere of the concert.” Bartk’s quartet, on the other hand, fared less well. Te music critic of the Evening Public Ledger acknowledged that Bartk’s quartet “is one of the most difcult compositions ever put down on paper.” Nonetheless, the work was “an excellent specimen of ultra-modern composition, showing all that knowledge of musical composition which Bartk possesses to so great a degree. If composition proceeds upon the lines which the ultra-modernists believe it will, this quartet will take a very high rank some day. If not——.” On the other hand, there were numerous critics for whom the competition was a failure. In the Evening Bulletin, one could read: “Certainly, there was little in the works ofered … to hold forth much promise for the future, musically speaking, either of the composers or the times in which they live.” Te reviewer did not spare his invectives: “A string quartet by Bartk had threatened to empty the ballroom before it reached its dreary end. Te composer alleged his work is in the key of C-sharp minor. Possibly it was.