MAYHEM BEHIND THE MUSIC / DID YOU KNOW? RIVALS EDITION II: WAGNER VS. POP CULTURE / DUELING MAESTRI & THE THIRD REICH

Wagner vs. Pop Culture:

Composer Richard Wagner

Many a composer and more than a handful of conductors, both German born and Jewish immigrants or nationals would flee the Third Reich during Nazi Germany’s tumultuous tirade across Europe. When it comes to the Nazi regime and the world of Western Classical music, its seems the only reference point for many a classical music layman is that of Richard Wagner and his alleged full-on hatred of the Jewish peoples. Few of whom who have heard his majestic works, and even fewer who realize Wagner was already 50 years in his grave by the time Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany - and remarkably fewer still - who have actually read Das Judenthum in der Musik, (or at least heard of it), take into consideration the culture and time in which artists native to Germany lived, suffered, and thrived. While it does nothing to excuse the tenure of his writings by present standards, it should be noted that at the height of 19th century Europe, Wagner was far from alone in his sentiments: In Russia, the composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky once referenced what he called “the crowd of dirty Jews” claiming their “accompanying odours” as having “spoilt my pleasure in returning to my beloved native land” in a letter to his patron; even in the century preceding him - to the west in France, the noted French philosopher Voltaire was making his mark not only as a pioneer of the French Enlightenment but also as an unabashed, very vocal anti-semite;^[1] and likewise, as the so called “Age of Reason” drew to a close, entire kingdoms and empirical rulers alike shared such disdain for the Jewish peoples, not the least of whom was Friedrich II of Prussia (better known as Frederick the Great), all of whom, despite exhibiting a raging streak of ugly anti-semitism, have been hailed as heroes by posterity – so why is Wagner exclusively hand selected for such public dissection in contrast to such iconic figures?

The dictator & former Chancellor of Germany,
Adolf Hitler

The answer lies in the mid-twentieth century, when an ethically challenged and convoluted Ruler in Adolf Hitler drew on personal and exaggerated interpretations of all things Wagner – even down to the late composers famously self-authored libretti, which the stalwart pro-Aryan would employ as his casus belli to incite further hatred of the Jews, which, in the case of Wagner, he hoped to use as an underhanded psychological tactic against his German brethren - by creating for them a "pop culture ideology," one which would seem to suggest that even icons ‘shared’ his own twisted axioms.

It is a rather tired argument – I daresay – even a cliché to state that the perpetrator of such prejudicial sentiment in fact surrounded himself with the very peers he disdained – but in Wagner’s instance, the composers relationships with peoples of Jewish Origin had been well documented – almost as much as the composers megalomanic and opportunistic traits. 

In studying Das Judenthum in der Musik, one sentiment becomes quite conspicuously clear: the diatribe, although arguably anti-semitic in nature, when taken into context of the popular sentiment that existed across Europe at the time of his existence, in tandem with Wagner’s rather petty and narcissistic personality toward western classical music’s current status quo (one remembers his innovative induction of gesamtkunstwerk into western classical music that would completely overhaul orchestral (and operatic) music as our predecessors knew it) contextually, Das Judenthum…was more of an affront to the accomplishments and influence of Jewish composers; two of whom the contentious composer made the subject of focus for the article in question: Felix Mendelssohn^[2] and Giacomo Meyerbeer– two men of high achievement and sentiment, who, conveniently, happened to be Jewish, and two composers in whom Wagner felt himself in intense competition, and in the case of Meyerbeer, in personal debt^[✡] (and we all know how Wagner treated those in whom he was indebted!) Somehow through posterity, thanks in part to an admirer in Adolf Hitler, who often bastardized and misinterpreted his musical heroes' sentiments (and even his libretti!) Wagner’s sleaze piece would become known only as a full blown diatribe against an entire group of people. 

Of course, it is entirely up to interpretation how Wagner would have felt in twentieth century Germany. I’d like to think that if Wagner were alive in the days of Hitler’s reign of terror, that the enigmatic composer would be living somewhere, possibly at his villa in Lucerne, in a continued self imposed exile, hiding from his debtors. Wagner's incessant need to be formally ever present and his manipulative and opportunistic streak made the feisty German a master of persuasion. 19th century Europe knew Wagner as a con, a debtor and a pot-stirrer who would say, or do anything to make himself known and to line his royal-like coffers. Personally, it is in this vein that I view Herr Wagner. It hardly makes the anti-Jewish sentiment any less viscous, but the man that single handedly convinced a King to sink an entire nation into 14 million marks of debt, is a man whose opinion flickers like a candle in the wind. I can hardly see him as a militant. 

What makes Wagner even more controversial are the innuendoes, spread chiefly amongst those who know neither the history of the man or of his music - who allege there to be symbols, as “blatant” as the alleged Masonic “propaganda” some conspiracy theorists swear they can find in the libretto of Mozart’s Don Giovanni – this time in reference to what Wagner himself once called “Jewishness in Music.” I haven’t found any, in all of my years spent studying this genre with an open mind. Wagner’s behemoth works, if anything, are an homage to Viking and Teutonic legend – "all encompassing works of art" that doffs it’s cap at the school of thought shared by the iconic German’s philosophical hero, Arthur Schopenhauer. Even if Wagner had been alive by the time WWII commenced, and, had he remained in the "Fatherland," this too, would bring the composer’s motive under continued debate. 

^[✡]Meyerbeer was instrumental from a financial standpoint (and as a dominating figure in classical music) in bringing Wagner’s early opera Rienzi to critical acclaim, assisting in staging the work at Dresden in 1841.

Dueling Maestri & the Third Reich:

Fast forward to over half a century later and the era that made Wagner a present day household name, and one would find factual ties amongst high ranking Nazi officials and living, breathing icons of Western Classical Music.

It was not uncommon during the Nazi regime for German national composers and conductors to remain on native soil, provided his oeuvre conformed to the repertoire set forth by the “Führer.” (It should also be noted, for posterity's sake, that whilst she doesn't speak for all victims of concentration camps, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, survivor of the notorious camp at Auschwitz, and avid detester of all things Wagner, declared once and for all to British producer Steven Fry that, while the hostages were forced to play music to “entertain” their German guards, the works of Wagner were never played. Her reasoning seems to make sense: “We certainly did not play Wagner…first of all you need to realize that this band…this a cappella as we used to call it - consisted of… you couldn’t play Wagner if you tried! [Wagner demands a big orchestra, and big] blowing instruments!”) Unravelingmusicalmyths has discussed such orchestrations and Wagner innovations at length in previous postings. They can be found within the Wagner Archives. 

Two icons of Western Classical Music, both of whom remained in Germany throughout the war, one of whom even shared Nazi membership would, like Wagner before them, become household names (yet, oddly, not for scandalous reasons, but chiefly based on talent, despite holding Nazi membership and profiting from the war): the conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and ‘upstart’ Herbert von Karajan.

Conductors of the Third Reich:
Herbert von Karajan

Both conductors thrived on Germany, and remained on German soil throughout the Reich's rein of terror, neither of whom are suggested to have held in their hearts any hatred for the Jewish peoples (in fact, Furtwängler was very vocal against the "Führer's" position). This is rather peculiar from a semitical standpoint in that both musician's chief reasonings for continuing to perform, almost exclusively for high ranking Nazi Officials, and in the case of von Karajan, holding Nazi membership - was based on economic gains. Apparently (although one has to wonder if the proper term should be "allegedly" if we are being fair to Wagner’s legacy, who remember, was 50 years in the grave at this juncture) that venomous spot was instead reserved for eachother! Just one viewing of Karajan’s beautifully televised performance of Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto no. 1 with pianist Alexis Weissenberg and the Berliner Philharmoniker is sufficient evidence enough of a megalomanic man, hyperaware of himself and his abilities, and his unabashed efforts, no matter how grand, to make his presence known (sound familiar?) At the commencement of WWII, however, Furtwängler was the man about town – the go-to conductor, and both the chocolate cake with the cherry on top.

It would be relatively early on in he war that Austria had been annexed to Germany, and with the monumental change brought the gift of the conductor Karajan (known about town as the “wonder”) from Salzburg who had captivated audiences during an especially dramatic orchestration of Wagner’s epic Tristan, which would aid the conductor in earning for himself a rather lucrative contract drafted by Deutsche Grammophon.

Whilst in Berlin, the Nazi party member and conductor would earn from his national and 'adopted national' peers an enthusiastic reception – this, in spite of the conductor working with a grievously small repertoire with which to choose from. There was Carl Orff, and Strauss..and other lesser known politically acceptable or neutral oevures at his disposal.

Conductors of the Third Reich: Wilhelm Furtwängler

The elder Furtwängler grew to despise the younger conductor, who had received heaps of praise by top officials of Rank, not the least of whom was Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda to Adolf Hitler, who much admired the young Karajan, and had him ‘shortlisted’ in his memoirs under the title of "Musicians blessed by God." 

As the stronghold of the Reich slowly began to crumble - with both officials and laymen diving into dueling factions, so too had the already contentious relationship between Furtwängler and Karajan. Bickering would come to a hilt when, whilst conducting at a performance of Die Meistersinger by Hitler’s most beloved of all composers, Richard Wagner, Karajan found his performance was less to the dictator's satisfaction. The deeply insulted Führer was furious: this newfound rage was more than likely spurned on by the conductor Karajan exchanging nuptials with a woman by the surname of Gutermann - who the Führer took to be Jewish – which she was, by a grandfather). The devious and opportunistic Furtwängler, who had already become the source of some contention amongst the 'elite' members of the Third Reich due to his protestations against anti-semitism in music, must have felt himself on the way out, and soon to become crestfallen from Hitler's good graces, as he immediately seized upon his nemesis’ downtime away from the sun by using his own influence in Austria to get maestro Karajan effectively banned from the nation’s annual Salzburg Festival for a whopping period of nearly 14 years! As if riding a tsunami as if it were a three foot high wave, the scandalous Furtwängler wasn’t yet finished trashing his competitor, denouncing positive reviews of his nemesis thusly : "If they [the critics] overrate material qualities such as the technique of conducting from memory, they are prizing hard work instead of artistic practice. They are aligning themselves with the stupid people who never seem to be in short supply, and who feel nostalgic for the circus when they are in the concert hall."

Yikes!

View below an excerpt from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 1, just one of a slew of lavishly produced 'films' created by the conductor Herbert von Karajan (the epic display of pretentiousness as frequently exhibited by this larger than life conductor is so piquant, it almost becomes delicious!):


Footnotes:

^[1]according to author Avner Falk, in his work “Anti-Semitism: A History and Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Hatred,” Voltaire’s intense hatred of the Jews may have been influenced by the Francophile King Frederick II of Prussia. Allegedly, Voltaire had fallen victim to the con in a Jewish jeweler by the name of Abraham Hirschl. He successfully sued and won judgement against the corrupt businessman, although Voltaire’s victory celebrations would be short lived: once Frederick (the Great) learned of the litigation, the enraged King expressed to Voltaire his disgust in what Avner references as “a Christian’s lawsuit with a lowly Jew." So disgusted was the King, he is alleged to have expelled the noted philosopher from court before having him placed under arrest!
  This in turn, prompted the humiliated and banished Voltaire to pen a series of scathing, robustly anti-semitical writings, referring to the Jewish peoples as a “stubborn,” “superstitious” race who practiced “hollowed usury.”

Avner references further quotes by Voltaire as originally re-published under the writer Chaim Potok: “They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts…I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race,” and “You have surpassed all nations in impertinent fables, in bad conduct, and in barbarism. You deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny.” (Potok 1978, pp. 365-366, quoting Voltaire 1764).

*Title available for purchase at Amazon.

^[2]So virulent a strain of anti-semitism across Europe existed at the time of Wagner, that even the patriarch Mendelssohn and his wife would denounce Judaism, forcing their son Felix into a (reformed) Christian Baptism at an early age and defiantly refusing to have their son circumcised (a tradition of the Jewish faith). So adamant was the father Mendelssohn that he and his wife would also seek baptism of the Christian faith in 1822, adopting the very gentile-sounding surname of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (which they had already used informally for nearly a decade prior). The patriarch Abraham would famously further drive such anti-Jewish sentiment home to his son when a penned the following proclamation in a letter to Felix: "There can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius." Even his immediate and extended family would help to progenerate Abraham's cause with an uncle to Felix adopting his surname after the German quarter (former) of Berlin: Luisenstadt.

There is some cause to believe Felix took offense to the religious and personal demands of his mother and father: Felix would frequently sign his correspondence under the neutral surname(s) Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in direct opposition to his father's urging for his son to drop the patronymic "Mendelssohn" from his signature altogether. Further evidence to support Mendelssohn's possible allegiance to the Jewish faith lies in the writings of his sister, Fanny, who once declared in a written exchange to her brother that the "name...Bartholdy...is one we all detest."

Whatever his religious allegiance, it mattered not to Wagner, who saw Felix as first and foremost, a Jew.

Did you know?

Friedrich II of Prussia was himself an accomplished composer and flautist, composing some 100 flute sonatas, a variety of symphonies and even a military march. Not only was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (son of Johann Sebastian) just one of many accomplished musicians employed at his royal court, the Prussian King even inspired the patriarch Bach to pen "The Musical Offering" (a collection of canons and fugues for keyboard) after meeting with the composer in Potsdam in 1747. The master of the baroque would dedicate his music to the King.

Listen below to a collection of Frederich’s “Der Große” (“The Great”) concertos for transverse flute:



-Rose.

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NEW DIGITAL SHEET MUSIC APP "NKODA" SEEKING BETA TESTERS FOR ANDROID, iPHONE, MAC OS, WINDOWS 10

nkoda, Boosey & Hawkes

It is destined to become a hot commodity for both professional and amateur musicians, conductors, students and scholars alike: the recently launched digital sheet music subscription app, "nkoda," presently available for purchase via iTunes, offers instantly accessible scores to users along with a fully integrated search and sort platform, allowing subscribers to download music for offline use, create playlists and share annotated files with other members.

Music publishing powerhouse Boosey & Hawkes recently announced it's partnership with the revolutionizing app, adding some 7,000 scores to the nkoda catalogue, joining 49 other publishers (and counting) presently adding music to the database. Currently, the app, launched on iTunes June 8, 2018 boasts an impressive 70,000+ completed scores, in both conductor versions and performing parts. Founder Lorenzo Brewer, himself a musician, created the app with the global market in mind: soon, subscribers from around the world will be able to access the massive digital archive - presently available in English - in Chinese, Spanish, Russian, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Korean.

Educational material is also featured on the helpful app, and will be present on future editions currently undergoing Beta testing on alternative formats. Those interested can apply now to test for Android (tablet), iPhone, Mac OS and Windows 10 here.
 
Boosey & Hawkes owns the copyrights to the music of many major players of 20th and 21st century classical music, including, to not limited to Stravinsky, Britten, Bernstein, Prokofiev and Richard Strauss. 

The late B&H music publisher Ernst Roth was instrumental in the 1950 production of the latter composer's Vier Letzte Lieder at Royal Albert Hall by publishing the four songs together as a single unit following the musician's death.

Listen to the performance below (Kirsten Flagstad performs with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler:


-Rose.

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SCHUMANN-HAUS LEIPZIG TO UNDERGO REDESIGN, WITH CLARA IN MIND

Schumann-Haus Leipzig | schumann-verein.de

Classical music insider website Slippedisc is reporting a major development at the Schumann-Haus in Leipzig - chiefly, that it is scheduled to undergo what on the surface, appears to be a not insignificant amount of remodeling, set to coincide with the 2019 Schumann Festival Week held annually in the Saxon city.

The breaking news site describes the renovation as one that will "knock down walls" to make room for Clara, the composer and wife of Leipzig icon Robert Schumann. 

The reconstruction is confirmed on the Schumann-Haus website in scant detail, save for the vague preface that the redesign will shower extra focus onto the Mrs., with a representative of the Schumann-Verein Leipzig promising the renovation will be a "newly remodeled museum, completely designed with Clara Schumann in mind."

This historical significance of this museum is exemplary: it was the first apartment shared by the Schumann's as a couple and played host as a leading salon for some major movers and shakers of the Romantic era: Hector Berlioz, Félix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt were all known to frequent the home, and it's where Robert Schumann famously composed his "Spring Symphony" (no. 1 in b flat major), from the comfort of his former study.

The renovated relic is scheduled to open in September 2019 in time for the yearly Festival, which, incidentally, coincides with Robert and Clara's wedding anniversary on the 12th of September (1840), and Clara's birthday, on the 13th (1819).

Listen below to Robert Schumann's "Spring Symphony," performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler (live recording, Munich, October 29, 1951:)


- Rose.

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TRIVIA & HUMOR XI: STDS, FLAYING, BEHEADING, HITLER'S MOST PRIZED COMPOSERS; "FATHER OF PSYCHOLOGY" PROVES USELESS / UNTAMABLE PLAYBOYS & THEIR MURDEROUS HAREMS OF HOOKERS REVEALED

Here at Unraveling Musical Myths, we have, on more than one occasion, “visited the dead” via horrific, gruesome – and, occasionally, even amusing – tales of grisly lore and gore, passed down to us through the musical ages; describing (in often macabre detail) the lengths some people will go to preserve, profit on – or even destroy – the legacy of some of Western Classical Music’s most iconic and beloved masters.

From bodies uprooted from their tombs and callously tossed in the corner of a funeral vault, to grave robbing and skull-heisting (we’ve even “bore witness” to tales of mob-like guard posts at the grave, to composers themselves engaging in bizarre episodes non-sexual necrophilia).

In this edition of TRIVIA & HUMOR, we begin our downward spiral into the seventh circle of hell with both the savagely barbaric and the surprisingly tender: two tales of post-mortem action by the living – in one instance, the tender: in 19th century late classical/early romantic composers Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven:

I LOVE YOU TO DEATH…AND BEYOND (OR SO IT WOULD SEEM)

Franz Schubert idolized Ludwig van Beethoven. The
pair ran in different circles and rarely met - however
this didn't stop Franz from wanting to be close to his
idol in life - and, so it would appear, in death.

As 31 year old Schubert lapsed in and out of consciousness in the final throes of what would, in posterity, be considered an early and agonizing death, the young Austrian master of the Art of the Lied grew delirious – a likely result of both neurosyphilis and mercury poisoning (the only tonic then available to treat the deadly disease which had run rampant throughout Napoleonic Europe). It would be during one of these moments of semi-consciousness (heavily marked by delirium) that the composer, believing himself already six feet under and buried alive, audibly posed the question “Am I resting next to Beethoven?” (Ludwig being both Franz’ muse and devotee during both icon’s lifetimes – with the younger Schubert even dedicating his Variations on a French Song - Op. 10, D.624 - to his idol). Those who witnessed the outburst took the bizarre moment of quasi-lucidity as a declaration of intent to be laid to rest alongside the composer’s musical hero. This wish was thrice granted, first by burying Franz as close as possible (a mere two plots away) to his beloved at Vienna's Währing Cemetery.

Beethoven, who had died only one year previous, had perished in Schubert’s hometown of Vienna in Austria. His funeral was both a grandiose and somber spectacle, with tens of thousands of mourners lining the streets of Vienna to witness the procession, and bid farewell to their maestro, each clamoring over one another to gain a closer view as the casket dolefully made it’s way to the cemetery, with Schubert himself at the helm, first as pallbearer helping to hoist the coffin, and, at graveside, acting as a torchbearer. By the time the Währing was shuttered in June 1888, a decision was made to move and re-bury both composers – this time side by side, with nary a plot between them to separate their vessels into eternity - at the recently opened Zentralfriedhof on the city‘s South side.

The now permanently gated Währing Cemetery became known as Schubert Park, and atop the vacant plots (forever preserved for their former inhabitants) stands a memorial dedicated to the two musical giants. 


8 Variations on a French song in E Minor, Op. 10, D. 624 - Schubert's dedication to his idol, Ludwig van Beethoven.

FLAYING A FORMER FRIEND

As for the barbaric, regular readers of Unraveling Musical Myths with be familiar with the ‘practice’ and cult of phrenology – a pseudo-“science” funded and operated by resurrectionists, shady surgeons and so-called scientists (in fact, keeping on the subject of both Beethoven and Schubert, the exhumation of the corpses of the composers for reburial in 1888 at the Zentralfriedhof was but the second time the graves of the musical giants were disturbed. In October of 1863, whilst still interred at Wahring, both composers’ coffins were exhumed for ‘scientific’ purposes – chiefly, for the study of phrenology – in which both musician’s skulls were examined, their skeletons analyzed, coffins refurbished, and re-buried (this time adjacent one another), with the exception of Beethoven – who was re-buried sans cranium. (You can read more about Beethoven’s well traveled and heavily dissected skull here at Unraveling Musical Myths. Shockingly, ‘testing’ on the relic has continued through the ages - well into the 21st century!) In today’s entry of TRIVIA… however, we re-visit the heisted skull of Herr Joseph Haydn, infamously looted from his grave by the cover of night (and by bribing the gravedigger, who had recently been robbed of all of his earthly possessions by French soldiers – or by men hired to dress as French soldiers) by Haydn’s friend, one Joseph Carl Rosenbaum, certified accountant and music devotee, and Rosenbaum’s quack of a friend, the self-styled ‘phrenologist’ Johann Nepomuk Peter, governor of the lower Austria provincial prison.

Haydn's skull.

The sick pair were said to have performed a “test-run” on de-fleshing human skin, muscle and tissue from a fresh corpse (as the heist of Haydn’s skull was to be acted upon with impending haste due to the popularity of phrenology and prolific nature of ‘resurrectionists’ then making the rounds at local cemeteries. The more famous the subject, the greater the profit for the heartless looter). The diabolic duo "practiced" on recently deceased Viennese theatre actress Elizabeth Roose, who had succumbed to complications during the process of childbirth in 1808.

Rosenbaum, being a confidante of the composer Haydn, of course knew well ahead (ahem) of time compared to other potential looters as to when his friend became terminally ill, and feigned sympathy for his close mate whilst all the while concocting a devious plan to not only steal his compadre’s skull, but to later hold it as ransom from Haydn fan and former employer Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy (“The Magnificent”) of Eisenstadt (whose family happened to be one of the most wealthy and influential families within the Austro-Hungarian empire).

To perform the "test run," Rosenbaum had to first secure the corpse of Roose, then proceed to decapitate her, and, finally, to soak her skull in a mixture of quicklime in order to eat away at the flesh. She would prove to be his first successful relic. With Haydn, however, it was different: perhaps succumbing to a soupçon of guilt for prizing his former close mate’s head, the friend-turned-foe set the skull down atop the table and proceeded to vomit at the very sight of the still life-like skull. Oddly, instead of doing the dirty deed himself, as he had de-fleshed Roose, Rosenbaum instead turned the cranium over to his personal physician (who he likely also bribed), who in turn sent it off to a Viennese Hospital for ‘cleaning.’ The chalky white skull, now unrecognizable as his one-time running mate, would be returned to the accountant Rosenbaum, who had already constructed an ornate black case for stowing the skull, adorned with golden lyre.

SCHUMANN MAY HAVE DOCUMENTED THE MOMENT HE CAUGHT SYPHILIS

Most fans of Western classical music know Robert Schumann, and his wife Clara, as composers of the romantic era. Fewer may be aware that the married duo were habitual diarists. At the behest of Robert, the young Clara (née Wieck, born 9 years after her spouse) would take turns with her more famous husband, documenting the joys, triumphs and tragedies of their martial union, in an effort to consult the diary in times of romantic strife and to reflect on the couple’s growth through better or worse.

One salacious subject concerning the musical couple - that of a double life shared on the part of the groom - was seemingly ‘proven’ by music historians who, upon inspecting the documents, found substantial evidence that would seem to show, without refute, that Clara knew exactly what she was getting into when she vowed to love her husband for "better or worse”. 

Robert’s early entries in the diary include an unabashed, very explicit blow-by-blow (pun intended) of his very salacious carnal relationship with a woman named Christel (Schumann would later refer to her as "Charitas"), whom the composer met through none other than fiancée Clara Wieck’s father! (Christel is believed to have been a member of staff  - a maid - at the Wieck household). 

During the same period as his romantic escapade with “Charitas,” Robert makes frequent reference to his declining health, making note of symptoms which, according to scholars of both music and medicine, are notorious markers for early stage syphilis.

Robert Schumann, you naughty boy. Pictured here
alongside his wife, Clara.

In one entry in particular penned by Robert after May 1831, the composer references his “John Thomas” – a hardly inconspicuous moniker for his genitals – and the immensely painful, persistent wound upon it. It was a gift that would keep on giving, awarded the wounded composer by one ‘Christel,’ whom Schumann would later adorn with what he referred to as "a more beautiful and appropriate name" –  the aforementioned moniker “Charitas” –  which, interestingly, is Latin for “Charity” (alternatively spelled "Caritas" after the Greek "Agape," or the practice of self-sacrificing love.)

The true full name of this seductive siren of Schumann's self sacrifice, according to recent research, was actually Christiane Apitzsch, and she was more than just a former maid to the Wieck household; more than just a lover to the gifted genius that she may very well have wound up killing through the composer’s later attempts at mercury treatment for advanced stage syphilis – but quite possibly the mother of the adulterous composer’s illegitimate daughter, Ernestine, born January 5th 1837! Schumann is believed to have attempted to pay off Charitas for her silence, and is alleged to have never met his daughter.

Clara was also not the only member of the Wieck clan who knew of her future husband's improprieties - upon discovering Robert was wooing his daughter, Friedrich Wieck, head of the Wieck household, threatened to shoot Schumann on sight if he continued courting his daughter!

It seems Robert paid Clara's father no mind - in lieu of the father Wieck's "permission" for Robert to "take his daughters hand" (which seems to have been legally required at the time), the betrothed sued Friedrich, winning a judgement on behalf of the court, which granted permission for the lovebirds to wed.
  
The couple married - warts and all - on September 12, 1840.

HITLER’S ADORATION FOR “MODERN” CLASSICAL PHENOM

MAYHEM BEHIND THE MUSIC: RIVALS III / DID YOU KNOW? MACABRE EDITION: RIVALS, LITERARY SCANDALS, ATTEMPTED MURDER & THE SLAVE TRADE

Industry & Idleness, Plate 10; William Hogarth

It’s time for another installation of Mayhem Behind the Music: RIVALS EDITION*.

Today’s entry features four of the most macabre and deeply disturbing actual events to hit the classical realm in the past 200-some odd years.
 
The sensitive reader is advised to peruse the following entries in this edition of RIVALS at his or her own discretion.

Read Past RIVALS entries:

• RIVALS I

• RIVALS II

*Featuring another entry for the Did you Know? Archives.

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here”–  Dante Alighieri; The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto III

I) Peri vs. Caccini

Let’s ease into this gently: we begin in 16th century Italy, at the premier of the world’s first opera, Dafne.

Prior to the creation of opera, there was the Florentine Camerata – an intimate gathering of musical minds, respected poets other artistic intelligentsia who would congregate in the private residence of one Count Giovanni de’Bardi to discuss their love of music and drama. It was here that the adoption of the recitative would find it’s genesis, formed by the amalgamation of determined spirit to create high art and a deep desire to both revive and make unique improvements on the Greek tragedy plays and dramas from which opera would find it’s inspiration. It would also be here that the composer Jacopo Peri would meet the celebrated vocal teacher, Giulio Caccini.

It was during one such meeting of classical music’s elite minds at the Camerata that Peri would famously utter the phrase:

“Abandoning every style of vocal writing known hitherto, I gave myself up wholly to the sort of imitation (of speech) demanded by this poem.”

Jacopo Peri in costume

He was referring to his adaptation of the play Dafne to music, (in what would generally considered by posterity as the first very basic, yet original opera) and just how he could effectively do as much justice to the script as he could to the music. As Peri and his contemporaries bounced around ideas whilst pondering this very question, the inspired Italian suddenly experienced an epiphany. By making this rather bold statement, Peri was at once declaring to his colleagues that he fancied himself quite the innovator and that it was he who knew of just the right technique to impact the masses across contemporary Europe, just as the Greeks had done for their citizens so many centuries previous.
 It was through the use of the phrase “hitherto” that Peri would publicly declare himself as the proprietor of the recitative (the “imitation of speech” [to music: halfway between singing and speaking].

This audacious proclamation would be the first of many statements that would both wound and rub the then burgeoning operatic composer Caccini the wrong way. It is a common belief that Caccini had authored an earlier work prior to Peri’s Dafne, which included a preface written by the author himself, declaring the fact that it had "occur'd” to him to “adopt a kind of song resembling speech and betraying a nobile sprezzatura del canto.” (a “noble negligence of song”).

To further rub salt in Caccini’s already gaping wound, it would appear to outside circles that the birth of the recitative - and, in effect the opera - was the collective brainchild of the Camerata as a whole as they frequently bounced ideas off one another, leaving much room for it’s exalted members to claim progenitorship.

Peri’s Dafne, now lost in the annals of music history, was premiered 3 years after Peri completed the composition at the Palazzo Corsi in 1598. Much to the chagrin of an enraged Caccini, Dafne was both written and performed entirely in this new style, and for the recitative’s induction into the world of classical music, Peri would find himself a much lauded commodity.

Caccini gets the last laugh

Giulio Caccini

Peri may have fancied himself a most celebrated and revered inventor, however the much beleaguered Caccini would stop at nothing to override his nemesis’ fame and discredit Peri’s future successes.

Caccini, who had laid in wait for some two years would make a most nefarious move, stalking, then pouncing at his prey with stealth-like precision in the year 1600, when he would not only steal the limelight from his arch rival, but also the subject matter of Peri’s second (and last) opera. Peri’s "Euridice, " based on the ancient Greek prophet Orpheus and his wife Euridice, was to be a landmark achievement for the 39 year old composer: it was written to serve as entertainment at wedding of Henry IV of France and Marie de’ Medici. This was truly an event for the history books.

Unfortunately for both Peri and posterity, the world’s second opera is remembered neither as a majestic opus for the likes of royalty nor as the brainchild of the Italian composer. Instead, the opera Euridice is commonly confused with the opera penned by Caccini – who not only chose for his work the exact same subject matter of his rival,  with the exact same title, but who also rushed to have his work published before Peri. So expedient was the quarrelsome Caccini, his Euridice would make it into print before Peri would even perform his own work at the Royal festivities!

Caccini wasn't finished prodding his nemesis: it is believed the nefarious composer attempted to ban his own followers from attending Peri's 'inferior' work!

Now that’s what I call “back—stabbery.”


II) "Cellist of Sarajevo" vs. Canadian author

Image: Wikipedia; photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Fans of Steven Galloway’s 2008 novel “The Cellist of Sarajevo” may be surprised to learn the inspirational subject for the Canadian novelist’s work, a Bosnian cellist by the name of Vedran Smailović was reportedly so outraged at being made the unwitting subject of inspiration for the award winning novel, he not only publicly denounced the work and that of it’s author in 2008, he demanded from Galloway an apology and financial reparation for what he referred to as “bloody fiction… using my picture and advertising their product with my name.”

In Galloway’s book, “Smailović” (rather, the unnamed character based on him) is depicted as a mournful hero: a lone cellist who, for 22 days in 1922 took to the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo to play for his fellow fallen men and women Albioni’s Adagio in G minor, miraculously dodging any sniper attacks in the midst of the siege that would claim some 14,000 lives by it’s completion.

Smailović, who had only learned of the existence of the semi-biopic by visiting a local bookstore, was anything but flattered:  

“It was like the explosion of an atomic bomb, emotions of anger and pain...How is this possible? They steal my name and identity. Nobody can take the rights to that from me.” 

To add further insult to injury, one of the main characters in Galloway’s novel is that of a female sniper, who becomes so enraptured by the beauty of the Adagio, she takes it upon herself to “protect” the so-called “Cellist of Sarajevo” from the sniper attacks of her comrades. In the novel the cellist would appear every day for 22 days, in the same location, at the same hour, to play the Adagio in honor of the 22 of his kinsman who perished by a mortar bomb attack as they queued for bread.

Image: Wikipedia; photo by
Mikhail Evstafiev

The real story of the cellist of Sarajevo is far more courageous, far more affecting - even in its contrasted muted tones. Smailović would set the record straight in an interview released shortly after the publication of the book:

"I didn't play for 22 days, I played all my life in Sarajevo and for the two years of the siege each and every day...they keep saying I played at four in the afternoon, but the explosion was at 10 in the morning and I am not stupid, I wasn't looking to get shot by snipers so I varied my routine...I never stopped playing music throughout the siege. My weapon was my cello.”

Perhaps most upsetting to the real cellist is the disruption of his private life. In the years following the siege, Smailović became something of a contented recluse, telling a local reporter

"For 10 years I have not wanted to go out. I don't want to be involved any more as a peacemaker or a public person.. I have a right to my privacy...I don’t want to go [out]…but now., because of this book, I am forced to.”

When prompted for a reaction to Smailović’s grievances, the author claimed incredulity. While Galloway has formally admitted both in media and through a letter of dedication to Smailović himself following the books release, that the work was indeed based on Smailović, he denies any wrong doing, in spite of the emotional distress he has caused his objet muse, and remains defiant in his stance that he owes Smailović no reparations for hijacking events of his life whatsoever, telling reporters that he knew Smailović “may not like the book” and “If I had, I suppose, sat down with him and taken up his time ... but I don't see how fiction writers can start paying their sources of inspiration. I would become a pariah of the literary world if I were to do that. .. What about the 25 people I interviewed whose stories are in the book? Should I pay them too?"

According to the latest updates on this tragic story, Smailović remains outraged at the actions, and lack of actions, on the part of Galloway. In an interview shortly after the books release, Smailović issued the rather mournful threat:

“If I do not get justice now, I will burn [my cello] back in Sarajevo."

Please don't!

The Adagio:


Fun Fact: The composition above, known colloquially as "Albioni's Adagio"  was in fact, not authored by Albioni! The piece was composed in 1945 by musician Remo Giazotto, and it is believed that if Albioni did indeed influence the work at all, his ownership can lay claim only in the work's bass line.


III) Outraged Ballerina vs. The Bolshoi Theatre

The Bolshoi Theatre at Moscow

This is perhaps the most upsetting entry to be featured in the Rivals archives yet. The details of the events that follow this preface have been, to the best of my ability, truncated (I hesitate to use the word censored, but in this instance, some of the details of unrelated events were so macabre in nature, I felt they had no place on my blog. I will provide links in the footnotes for the curious reader to follow so that he or she may be fully informed of the full extent of the Bolshoi’s extremely sordid history).

Sergei Filin in happier times

Back in 2013, Sergei Filin was living a regular life as Ballet Director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre in Russia. The historic theatre holds the distinction of being one of the oldest and most internationally respected opera companies in the world, and as such, is highly coveted by the most experienced and gifted dancers. The theatre is also, however, renowned as a haven for scandal, intrigue, and back-stabbery amongst its performing and advisory sects. If ever there existed on earth a classical arts den of iniquity, it would be the Bolshoi. From needles inserted into costumes to shards of glass strategically placed in the tip of a rivals toeshoe, to animal carcasses hurled on stage, the Bolshoi has played host to an innumerable amount of sadistic betrayals.

Perhaps none were so sadistic as the event that would occur on January 17, 2013 to Ballet director (and former ballerina) Sergei Filin as he made his exit from what should have been the safe confines of his home in Moscow. As Filin made his way to his car, he was savagely approached by a masked assailant, who threw a pitcher of acid directly onto his face, severely damaging both it and his neck which achieved third degree burns, and which ultimately left him blind in one eye.

Sergei Filin bloodied and bandaged following the brutal attack

Details of who was involved in the crime and what inspired the attack would eerily echo director Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psych-thriller Black Swan. In a confession given to police on the 5th of March that year, a man by the name of Yury Zarutsky admitted to having been in the employ of Bolshoi ballet company dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko alongside another hired partner in crime by the name of Andrei Lipatov who had hired the duo to perform the assault as a retribution for Filin’s passing over Dmitrichenko’s girlfriend at the time of the incident, dancer Anzhelina Vorontsova for the much coveted role of Princess Odette in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. When pressed by authorities, Dmitrichenko eventually relented to conspiring the attack, but adamantly denied instructing the nefarious pair to use acid to accost the victim.

Further examination of witness testimonies to the alleged assault revealed both shocking and appalling negligence on behalf of the Bolshoi Theatre's Officials. Most surprising of all were the telling statements issued by colleagues of Filin, that were disturbingly foreshadowing in nature: a Bolshoi official would reluctantly admit to authorities (and later, to the public via press conference) that Filin had known for some time of the possibility of an assault, and had informed Bolshoi general director Antoly Iksanov prior to the attack that he felt his life was in jeopardy. Colleagues admitted to knowledge of Filin’s car having it’s tires slashed, his cellphones having been intercepted and disabled, and his email account having been compromised, with private exchanges of the ballet director going public. Iksankov would later inform the press details of his meeting with an unsurprisingly nervous Filin:  

“Sergei told me that he had the feeling that he was on the front line…I told him, ‘Sergei, I’ve already been on the front line for the last two years, it is part of our profession, the profession of the leadership, so it’s normal."

The men have since been tried and convicted, with Dmitrichenko - the mastermind behind the venomous attack, receiving a paltry 6 years or his role in the events, with accomplices Yuri Zarutsky receiving the highest sentence of ten years and Andrei Lipatov with the lowest at just four years behind bars.

When pressed by the presiding judge for an apology by Dmitrichenko to his victim during sentencing, the smiling defendant suddenly became overcome by a defiant rage, declaring quite callously: “For what?”

The partially blind Filin has since been replaced as Ballet director by the Bolshoi Theater.

Footnotes:

Bolshoi Theatre's sordid history

IV) George Frederick Handel: Slave Master?

George Frederick Handel

George Frederick Handel, the much celebrated German-turned-British baroque composer is as much regarded by classical music aficionados today as he was lauded in his prime as both an iconic and prolific composer who carried with him a shrewd business sense and sense of majesty that he would invariably translate into a music form that was so dignified, so elevated, he would single-handedly reshape the national image projected by and from his adopted homeland.

There is, however, another side to the innovative composer, one that exhibits a rather startling state of amour-propre fueled by a blaring opportunistic streak. It is thanks in part to Handel’s lasting legacy that modern researchers have uncovered a semi-hidden past of the late composer.

It was in 2013 at the University of Texas that music librarian David Hunter discovered a most troubling history related to the composer, which would expand upon formerly suppressed disturbing details already known to just a hushed few within musical circles.

The infamous "Assiento" (contract)
granting Great Britain the
exclusive rights to trade in slaves
for profit in the Spanish Indies

For some time now, it has been a rather well managed ‘secret’ that Handel had an established connection via investment in the Slave trading mercantile “South Sea Company,” a British joint-stock company founded in 1711 which held a monopoly to trade with South America during the War of the Spanish Succession.
 Following the war, a series of ‘peace treaties’ under the general name the Treaty of Utrecht (named after the Dutch city) would grant, in the name of Britain’s reigning Queen Anne, a 30 year allowance for the British empire to trade in slaves for profit with a yearly capita of 4800 slaves, and with a quarter of the profits reserved for the King of Spain. Over the course of just four years, an estimated total of 170 000 African slaves were supplied to America and the West Indies for the sum of £8-£10 per head.

What Hunter would uncover in 2013 was a discovery that holds the potential of both further sullying the reputation of the robust composer, and, bizarrely, exposing to the musical realm a series of ironies that truly make the head shake.

“It was quite by chance” that Hunter would uncover yet another slave trading mercantile that was not only patronized by Handel, but a whopping third of the board of the prestigious Royal Academy of Music of which Handel was both founder and Master of Orchestra.

The mercantile in this instance was the notorious Royal African Company, a major player in the slave trade at the beginning of the 18th century. Founded and patronized by the Stuart dynasty (James II and Charles II of Great Britain), the Royal African Company held a monopoly over trading with West Africa, with half of the proceeds going to the reigning monarch and the other half to the company itself. To his astonishment, Hunter discovered a “…list of investors in the national archives at Kew; four of the stock transfer ledgers had been signed by Handel.”

The Royal African Company logo

The company was considered the prime ‘mercantile’ for the slave trade from the years 1680 to 1731, trading some 5000 iron branded slaves per annum, and drawing in considerable wealth for the established Londoners, which, it appears, very well may have included Handel himself.
 Hunter is quick to point out, however, that in contrast to scholarly writings depicting the composer’s well-known opportunistic streak, his 'hidden past' in terms of involvement in the slave trade has been neglected by more modern, assumingly race-neutral biographers.  In fact, one of the sole published accounts on this particular topic made its way to print in the mid 19th century, under the pen of  Handel biographer Victor Schoelcher, the 19th century abolitionist who has been credited as being “responsible for ending slavery in the French Colonies in 1848.”  After Schoelcher's publication, there has existed scant mention of the composers illicit activities, for reasons that are not fully understood, but which certainly make the mind ponder.

Did you know?

The unexpected death of Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt last month at the age of 86 had ultimately spurned on officials of the annual Salzburg Festival at Austria to finally admit to what classical music aficionados had long suspected: in a carefully worded statement issued shortly after the maestro’s demise, Festival officials effectively admitted to banning Harnoncourt from conducting or appearing at its festivities during the duration of rival conductor Herbert von Karajan’s lifetime. Karajan was no stranger to controversy and was once himself excised by the same festival many decades earlier, when a defiant Wilhelm Furtwängler orchestrated a 14-year ban on his nemesis beginning at the height of the second world war. It seemed Karajan took nothing away from the humiliating experience. By banning Harnoncourt from the Festival, the dynamic conductor would prove to Salzburg that he could give as well as he got!

THE STATEMENT:

“The Mozarteum Foundation was also responsible for his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic. After all, Herbert von Karajan did not want him to appear at the Festival during his lifetime. Karajan and Harnoncourt – those were separate musical worlds. However, they did have one thing in common: they were both after truthfulness in music. Both remained seekers throughout their entire lifetimes, but their searches took radically different paths.”

-Rose.

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