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Roger Sessions on Music Roger Sessions on Music COLLECTED ESSAYS EDITED BY Edward T. Cone PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS P R I N C E T O N , N E W J E R S E Y Copyright © 1979 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be found on the last printed page of this book This book has been composed in Linotype Janson Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey Contents Editor's Note Vll Preface IX I. The Composer's Craft The Composer and His Message (1939) 3 Music in Crisis (1933) 27 The New Musical Horizon (1937) 45 Song and Pattern in Music Today (1956) 53 Problems and Issues Facing the Composer Today (1960) 71 Style and "Styles" in Music (1961) 88 II. The Composer and His Audience Art, Freedom, and the Individual (1957) 105 Composer and Critic (1934) 120 America Moves to the Avant-Scene (1937) 123 To Revitalize Opera (1938) 137 The Scope of Music Criticism (1947) 146 Music in a Busines,s Economy (1948) 157 How a "Difficult" Composer Gets That Way (1950) 169 III. Education and Training Music and the Crisis of the Arts (1954) 175 New Vistas in Musical Education (1934) 187 The Composer in the University (1949) 193 What Can Be Taught? (1967) 204 IV. The Limits of Theory Heinrich Schenker's Contribution (1935) 231 Hindemithon Theory (1937) 241 Exposition by Krenek (1938) 249 Escape by Theory (1938) 256 The Function of Theory (1938) 263 v Contents V. Music and the World Confiict Music and Nationalism (1933) 27 I Vienna-Vale, Ave (1938) 282 On the American Future (1940) 288 American Music and the Crisis (1941) 295 No More Business-as-Usual (1942) 304 Artists and This War (1942) 313 Europe Comes 1:0 America (1945) 319 VI. Five Composers Ernest Bloch (1927) 329 On Oedipus Rex (1928) 339 Hindemith's Mathis der Maler (1934) 347 Schoenberg in the United States ( 1944, revised 1972) 353 Some Notes on Schoenberg (1952) 370 Thoughts on Stravinsky (1957) 376 In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky (197 I) 386 In Memoriam Luigi Dallapiccola (1975) 387 VI Editor's Note The essays that constitute this book are more accurately described as "collected" than as "selected." In reviewing Roger Sessions' output in this form—articles, lectures, ad dresses, spanning almost half a century—the editor found very little that should not be included. Some of the omitted items would have resulted in undue repetition: a lecture here that furnished material for an essay there, or an early attempt to deal with a subject that was superseded by a more definitive version. A few others were rejected as too nar rowly topical or occasional. Into this category fall some book reviews and some program notes for performances of Sessions' own works. The last would no doubt be of general interest, but Sessions feels that there is inevitably an ele ment of impermanence, if not of falsification, in all such self-explanatory attempts, and is loath to see them canonized, so to speak. Naturally, it has not been possible to avoid all repetition, nor would that have been desirable. The present collection affords the opportunity to follow certain themes as the author develops them through various stages of his own musical and intellectual development. In particular, his view of the problems created by the course of musical evolution in the nineteenth century and of the ensuing twentieth-cen tury crisis can be traced from his early "Music in Crisis" of l933-> through other essays in Sections i, iv, and vi, to the recent notes (19η2) appended to uSchoenberg in the United States." Other progressive themes, however, are not so overtly stated, but can be inferred by a comparison of the author's word with the composer's music. In this regard it is most interesting to read "To Revitalize Opera," an essay of 1938, in the light of Sessions' subsequent career as a composer of operas. With The Trial of Lucullus (1941) and Montezuma Editor's Note (1962) he brilliantly demonstrated that, like all his other speculation, his theorizing here had been based on intense personal conviction and was ultimately practical in its aims. The division of the essays into sections should be taken in no rigid sense, although it is hoped that each section, read consecutively, creates a unified effect of its own. Certainly that is true of Section iv, most of which was written as a unit, and of Section v, which comments on successive phases of the world conflict of 1933-1945. But in other cases one might well argue against the chosen grouping. uAmerica Moves to the Avant-Scene," for example, has close connec tions with Sections III and v, although it is placed in Sec tion 1; and "Music and the Crisis of the Arts," although given the leading position in Section 111, might equally well be assigned to Section 11. Within each group the essays are in general arranged chronologically. The only exceptions are the leading articles of Sections 1, 11, and 111, each of which was chosen because it seemed to strike the keynote of the section so accurately. The chronological arrangement may at times seem too strictly applied, as when an early account of Oedipus Rex is widely separated from the later remarks on Stravinsky. But one who reads the section in order will find that the sandwiching of the Schoenberg essays between those dealing with Stravinsky throws revealing light on the author's de veloping attitudes toward both composers. The essays are presented with a minimum of alteration from their original forms. A few references have been up dated; a few topical allusions, now irrelevant, have been de leted. The dates assigned to each article are normally those of publication, but essays originally delivered orally are dated accordingly. Introductory material and footnotes are by the editor, except as otherwise specified. EDWARD T. CONE Preface First of all, I wish to thank my dear friend Edward Cone for his initiative and his energy in collecting these various papers of mine, and his sensitive expertise in editing and classifying them. Those that were previously published, in some cases as much as fifty years ago—had to be sought out and gathered from a number of sources, in England as well as the United States; others were found among my own archives, often in the form of penciled sheets from which I originally read them, with no thought that they might eventually be published. Professor Cone has done a superb piece of work in selecting these, preparing them for readers, and classifying them in regard to their various topics. It is a happy privilege to express my warmest gratitude to him; and in view of his very high achievements both as a mu sician and a writer on music, I cannot help feeling very deeply honored. It has been both interesting and, in a very personal sense, enlightening, for me to re-read these papers. They reflect the nature of my own musical reactions through the course of the years which they cover, and through the various places where I have lived. The oldest among them were written in 1927, in Florence where I had already resided for two years. Since the preceding autumn I had occupied the guest house on Bernard Berenson's estate, where I spent the following year as well. I was a frequent guest at the Beren- son Villa, "I Tatti," where I met many people of distinction in the cultural world not only of Italy, but of other coun tries of Europe, as well as England and the United States. I became vividly aware of both the cultural and the political situation on the European continent as it was at that time. My principal musical contacts at that time, however, were formed by occasional visits to Paris, to Vienna, and to the United States, where my First Symphony (composed in