Re: GG - Debussy

[Bradley Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

At 12:55 PM 11/5/00 -0800, john burke wrote:
> (Jim Morrison quoted Debussy:)
>
> > "In Bach's music it is not the character of the melody that stirs us, but
> > rather the
> > tracing of a particular line, often, indeed, of several lines, whose
> > meeting, whether by chance
> > or design, makes the appeal.  Through this conception of ornament the music
> > acquires an almost mechanical precision of appeal to which the audience
> > reacts.  Let no one think that there is anything unnatural or artificial
> > in this.  It is infinitely more 'true' than the wretched whimperings 
> and the
> > tentative
> > wailings of lyric drama.  Above all, the music keeps its dignity..."

It would be interesting to know if Debussy wrote that comment before or 
after composing "Pelleas et Melisande."

> I think this is interesting as a particular, context-specific view of
> Bach?an essentially anti-Romantic, early Modernist view. It¹s of a piece
> with the view that exalts the fugues, and especially Kunst der Fuge, above
> everything else, and values counterpoint and (perceived) intellectuality
> even in the less abstract works like the keyboard suites and concerti
> grossi.
>
> But what about, for example, ³Erbarme dich², or the duet from the cantata
> BWV 140, or the opening ³Kyrie² of the B minor Mass? Surely what stirs us
> here is, in part at least, the character of the melody? Surely the emotional
> power of these pieces has something in common with ³lyric drama²?I suppose
> Debussy meant chiefly opera?even if not with ³wretched whimperings² and
> ³tentative wailings²?

Ah yes, the St Matthew Passion, "the opera Bach never wrote."  It was 
staged a few years ago by Jonathan Miller, conducted by Paul Goodwin....

Agreed, Bach was no slouch at writing emotional melodies.  And I wonder 
what Debussy thought about the part of the St Matthew where Bach depicts 
squawking chickens in the oboes d'amore.

As a *real* tangent, check out the album "Passion" by the Australian Art 
Orchestra, a jazz fusion 
group.  http://www.aao.com.au/aao/the_music.html#passion  They build parts 
of the St Matthew into an even more intense and shattering experience than 
it already is.  Wow!

Surely Debussy couldn't have foreseen a late 20th century pop group named 
Sweetbox basing their hit song "Everything's gonna be alright" on a Bach 
melody, replete with wretched whimperings and tentative wailings.  Yet the 
song is compelling (in part) *because of* the Bach melody in there.


> I don¹t mean to say that Debussy was ³wrong² while later admirers of Bach
> are ³right,² only that Debussy¹s comments tell us more about him, and the
> aesthetic climate of his time, than about his ostensible subject.

Absolutely.  That's true of almost any criticism of art: it says at least 
as much about the critic as about the object.  The same extends to 
performers like Gould, whose performances themselves are criticism of the 
pieces....  As has been said here before, "Glenn Gould's Bach" as opposed 
to "Bach played by Glenn Gould."

Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
clavichord CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks 
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot