by Alex Ross
Thomas Adès, Milton Babbitt, Osvaldo Golijov, the late György Ligeti, Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, and the late Alfred Schnittke generously spoke to me about their music. John Adams served both as a subject of the book and as an inspiration for its style. Judge Ronald Schoenberg, of Brentwood, California, and Dr. Christian Strauss, of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, graciously showed me the homes of their forebears. Donald Mitchell, Carlos Moseley, the late David Raksin, the late John de Lancie, Russell Campitelli, and Milton Weiss told stories of a fading century. Frances Stonor Saunders guided me toward documents in the National Archives. Sylvia Kahan shared the Princesse de Polignac’s correspondence with Stravinsky. Douglas Yeo of the Boston Symphony answered questions about the trombone glissando.
I leaned heavily on the scholarly advice of Amy Beal, Marva Griffin Carter, Donald Daviau, Chris Dempsey, Richard Giarusso, Lydia Goehr, Chris Grogan, Donald Meyer, Simon Morrison, Severine Neff, Rebecca Rischin, Malcolm Rowat, and Marc Weiner. Walter Frisch at Columbia, Mark Katz at Peabody, Karen Painter at Harvard, Steven Stucky at Cornell, Jeffrey Kallberg at the University of Pennsylvania, and Peter Bloom at Smith let me road-test sections of the book in academic settings. I am desperately grateful to a brilliant group of scholars and experts who read and commented on parts of the manuscript: Joseph Auner, Michael Beckerman, Peter Burkholder, Louise Duchesneau, Laurel Fay, Robert Fink, Kyle Gann, Bryan Gilliam, James Hepokoski, Peter Hill, Ethan Iverson, Gilbert Kaplan, Michael Kater, Kim Kowalke, Howard Pollack, James Pritchett, Anne Shreffler, Judith Tick, Hans Rudolf Vaget, and Pamela Wheeler. Christopher Hailey, Eric Bruskin, and Charles Maier went through the entire manuscript with great care, writing mini-essays on each chapter. Richard Taruskin, a major influence on my writing, performed merciless surgery to merciful effect.
I owe more than I can say to my piano teacher, the late Denning Barnes, who indoctrinated me into modernity by way of Berg’s Piano Sonata, and also to my teachers Paul Barrett, Paul Piazza, Ted Eagles, Robert Kiely, and Alan Lentz. For help of all kinds I thank Charles Amirkhanian, William Berger, Björk, Will Cohen, Alvin Curran, the Goldstines (Danny, Hilary, Josh), Colin Greenwood and Molly McGrann, Dave Grubbs, Bob Hurwitz, Laura Kuhn of the John Cage Trust, Chris Lovett, Raphael Mostel, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Barry Shiffman, Michael Tilson Thomas, and John McLaughlin Williams. Part of the book was written under the auspices of the American Academy in Berlin, where Gary Smith created a Café Museum atmosphere and Yolande Korb braved an ice storm to bring me nineteen volumes of the diaries of Goebbels. Some late-stage work was done courtesy of a Fleck Fellowship at the Banff Centre in Canada. The precocious Patrick “Pack” Bringley fetched documents from all over Gotham and offered astute advice. Tiffany Kuo spent a long hot summer checking every page of the manuscript in its monster incarnation, bringing to bear her own deep knowledge of the field. Jens Laurson commented incisively on German matters. Alex Abramovich took time off from his massive music history to make some translations from the Russian. Nigel Simeone kindly supplied the photograph of Messiaen in Utah.
The book grew out of fifteen years of work as a music critic. For the chance to practice that peculiar calling I thank David Elliott at WHRB; the great Leon Wieseltier at The New Republic; Edward Rothstein and James Oestreich at the New York Times; Joel Flegler at Fanfare; Louis Menand and Henry Finder at The New Yorker; and Tina Brown, who brought me to The New Yorker full time. Much of this material emerged from richly meandering conversations with Charles Michener, my longtime New Yorker editor. Daniel Zalewski, my virtuosic current editor, was hugely helpful in the later stages and somehow read the book in his nonexistent spare time. Martin Baron is the greatest fact-checker that ever was and ever will be. (Leave on author.) Aaron Retica, Liesl Schillinger, Dan Kaufman, and Marina Harss also checked parts of this book over the years. David Remnick, the Mahler/Strauss of magazines, gave me permission to pilfer my New Yorker articles, time to finish the book, and freedom to indulge my passions.
Tina Bennett, my agent, pushed me to write this book when the twentieth century was not yet dead and gave me hope whenever I felt lost. Eric Chinski, another recovering teenage Doctor Faustus addict, bushwhacked through the manuscript countless times; without his precision-targeted editing and moral support it would never have assumed readable form. In a phrase, he and Tina brought the noise. The project first took shape at Houghton Mifflin, and I am extremely grateful for their interest. Jonathan Galassi honored me by acquiring the book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux when Eric moved there. Christopher Potter, while at Fourth Estate, showed keen sympathy. David Michalek did me a great favor by taking the author’s photo. Various people at FSG labored zealously on my behalf: Gena Hamshaw smilingly took care of innumerable hassles, especially with respect to the photos; Zachary Woolfe affably handled text permissions; Ingrid Sterner copyedited the manuscript with brilliant attention to detail; John McGhee oversaw production (and a panicky author) with a punctilious eye, knowledge of the avant-garde, and vast patience; Laurel Cook vigorously and enthusiastically undertook the intricate task of publicizing the book; Charlotte Strick designed a beautiful cover.
None of the above would have happened as it did without the generosity of Alex Star. Jason Royal, Jack Ferver, Sean O’Toole, Paula Puhak, Michael Miller, and various friends around New York kept me on the road toward sanity. Malcolm and Daphne Ross gave me, with so much else, their love of music; I owe them everything. Penelope and Maulina, my personal assistants, lent feline expertise. My wonderful husband, Jonathan Lisecki, has been with me from the beginning of this saga to the end, enduring seven years of distraction with love, and I dedicate the book to him and my parents together.
INDEX
Abbado, Claudio
Abendroth, Hermann
Abstract Expressionism
“Ach, du lieber Augustin,”
Adamo, Mark
Adams, John, Doctor Atomic, El Niño, Harmonielehre, Lo Fi, musical background of, Nixon in China
Adès, Thomas, Asyla The Tempest
Adorno, Theodor W., attacks Copland, attacks Sibelius, and Berg, as Mann’s musical adviser, Minima Moralia, Philosophy of New Music, Schoenberg on
African-American music, Dvorčák and, Gershwin and, see also Cook, Will Marion; jazz; Joplin, Scott; Still, William Grant; Vodery, Will
Agon (Stravinsky)
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Akhmatova, Anna Poem Without a Hero
Akimov, Nikolai
Akoka, Henri
Albert, Viktor
Albright, Daniel
Aldeburgh, England
Aldeburgh Festival
aleatory music
Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein)
Ali-Zadeh, Franghiz
Allgemeiner deutscher Musikverein, (All-German Music Association)
Alorwoyie, Gideon
Also sprach Zarathustra see Thus Spake Zarathustra
Altenberg, Peter
Amar Quartet
American Conservatory, Fontainebleau
American Federation of Musicians
Americans for Intellectual Freedom
Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger)
Ančerl, Karel
Andersen, Hans Christian
Anderson, Julian
Anderson, Marian
Anderson, Paul Allen
Andrews, Dana
Andriessen, Louis: De Staat
Ansermet, Ernest
Antheil, George
Airplane Sonata, Ballet mécanique, A Jazz Symphony, Sonata Sauvage
anti-Semitism: in Hitler’s Germany, in New York, in Paris, in Vienna, Wagner and
Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
Apollinaire, Guillaume
Apostolov, Pavel
Appalachian Spring (Copland)
Aranyi, Francis
Armstrong, Louis
Arnold, Matthew
Arnold, Maurice American Plantation Dances
Arnshtam, Lev
Ashbery, John
As
hley, Robert The Wolfman
Ashley, Tim
atonality, Bartók and, in Hitler’s Germany, Ives and, Liszt and, Schoenberg and, Webern and
Auden, W. H., as Britten collaborator, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats,”
Auner, Joseph
Auric, Georges Adieu New-York
Auschwitz
Austin, William
Avraamov, Arseny: Symphony for Factory Whistles
Ayler, Albert
Babbitt, Milton Composition for Four Instruments, Composition for Twelve Instruments, Fabulous Voyage, Three Compositions for Piano, “Who Cares If You Listen?,”
Babel, Isaac
Bach, Johann Sebastian and jazz
Baker, Chet
Bakhtin, Mikhail
Balanchine, George
Baldwin, Hanson
Ballets Russes, gives premiere of Rite of Spring
Balmont, Konstantin
Bang on a Can
Banville, Théodore de
Baraka, Amiri: Blues People
Barber, Samuel, Adagio for Strings, Dover Beach Essay for Orchestra, First Symphony, Second Symphony
Barney, Matthew
Barney, Natalie
Barnum’s Original Skeleton Dude
Barraqué, Jean Piano Sonata
Barrault, Jean-Louis
Barron, Louis and Bebe
Bartók, Béla, Algerian travel of, Allegro barbaro, in America, Bluebeard’s Castle Cantata profana, Concerto for Orchestra, as folk-music researcher, Fourteen Bagatelles, The Miraculous Mandarin, modernist tendencies of, on modern music, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, Out of Doors, Piano Concerto No. 1, Piano Sonata, Quartet No. 1, Quartet No. 2, Quartet No. 3, Quartet No. 4, Quartet No. 6, Rhapsodies for violin and Shostakovich, Two Elegies, Violin Concerto No. 1, Violin Concerto, No. 2, violin sonatas
Baudelaire, Charles
Bauer, Ludwig
Baumfeld, Maurice
Bax, Arnold
Bayreuth Festival, in Nazi period, postwar
Bayreuther Blätter
Beal, Amy
Beatles, “A Day in the Life,” and avant-garde “Hey Jude,” Revolver Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band White Album
Beaumont, Étienne de, Comte
bebop, and the minimalists
Bechet, Sidney
Bechstein, Edwin
Bechstein, Helene
Beckerman, Michael
Beckett, Samuel: The Unnamable
Beethoven, Ludwig van, S ymphony No. 3 (Eroica), Symphony No. 5, Symphony, No. 9
Beethoven Quartet
Beiderbecke, Bix
Belasco, David
Bell, Raymond
Beller, Steven
Bellincioni, Gemma
Benditsky, Alexander
Benjamin, George: Sudden Time
Benjamin, Walter
Benn, Gottfried
Benois, Alexander
Berberian, Cathy
Berg, Alban, Altenberg songs, and Gershwin, in Hitler’s, Germany, Lulu Lyric Suite musical background of Piano Sonata Salome influence on, as Schoenberg’s pupil, as soldier in World War I, Three Pieces for Orchestra, twelve-tone music of, Violin Concerto, Wozzeck
Berg, Conrad
Berg, Helene (née Nahowski)
Berg, Hermann
Berg, Johanna
Bergen-Belsen
Berger, Arthur
Berio, Luciano, Coro Folk Songs, Sequenza I, Sinfonia Thema, (Omaggio a Joyce)
Berlin, cultural atmosphere of
Berlin, Irving, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “That Mysterious Rag,”
Berlin Court Opera, later State Opera
Berlin Philharmonic
Berlin Staatskapelle
Bernhardt, Sarah
Bernstein, Leonard, “The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music,” Candide, Chichester Psalms, Fancy Free First Symphony(Jeremiah), on Mahler, “Maria,” Mass, On the Town, in postwar Germany, Third Symphony (Kaddish), Trouble in Tahiti, West Side Story
Berry, Chuck
Beyer, Robert
Biddle, George
Billy the Kid (Copland)
Birtwistle, Harrison Punch and Judy
Bizet, Georges Carmen
Björk “An Echo, A Stain,”
Black, Brown, and Beige (Ellington)
Black Mountain College
Blake, William
Blaukopf, Herta
Blech, Leo
Blitzstein, Marc The Cradle Will Rock, Regina, The Threepenny Opera (translation)
Blumauer, Manfred
Boeuf sur le toit, Le (club)
Bolcom, William Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Böhm, Karl
Bolshoi Theatre
Bormann, Martin
Boston Symphony
Botstein, Leon
Boulanger, Nadia
Boulez, Pierre, and Cage, founds IRCAM, kisses Shostakovich’s hand, Le Marteau sans maître, and Messiaen, Piano Sonata No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 2, Piano, Sonata No. 3, polemics of Polyphonie X, Répons, Le Soleil des eaux and Stravinsky, Structures 1a theorizes total serialism, violence as leitmotif for, Le Visage nuptial
Bowie, David
Bowles, Jane
Bowles, Paul
Boyer, Lucienne
Bradley, Scott
Brahms, Johannes
Branca, Glenn
Brand, Max: Maschinist Hopkins
Braun, Eva
Braxton, Anthony
Brecht, Bertolt The Baden-Baden Learning Play About Acquiescence, Hangmen Also Die, Der Lindberghflug, “Mack the Knife,” Die Massnahme (The Measures Taken) (with Eisler), Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny The Threepenny Opera and Weill The Yes-Sayer (with Weill)
Brecht, George
Brendel, Alfred
Brett, Philip
Brice, Fanny
Bridcut, John
Bridge, Frank
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Britten, Benjamin, Albert Herring, in Aldeburgh, in America, Ballad of Heroes, Billy Budd, A Boy Was Born, The Burning Fiery Furnace Cello Symphony Curlew River Death in Venice Elegy for Viola falls in love with Peter Pears, Gloriana The Holy Sonnets of John Donne homosexuality of Les Illuminations literary sources of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Nocturne On This Island Our Hunting Fathers Owen Wingrave Paul Bunyan Peter Grimes Prince of the Pagodas The Prodigal Son Quatre chansons françaises The Rape of Lucretia relationships with boys and young men, Serenade Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo as Shostakovich’s friend Sinfonia da Requiem Suites for cello The Turn of the Screw Violin Concerto War Requiem Winter Words
Brno Conservatory
Broadway musical theater, Bernstein and, Kern and, Weill and
Broch, Hermann: The Death of Virgil
Brooks, Henry Anderson
Brooks, Louise
Brooks, Van Wyck
Brother Walter
Browder, Earl
Brown, Earle
Brown, James
Brown, Julie
Brown, Royal
Broyles, Michael
Brubeck, Dave
Bruckmann, Hugo
Bruckner, Anton
Symphony No. 4 (Romantic) Symphony No. 7
Brüll, Karl-Albert
Brüning, Heinrich
Bryant, Allan
Bubbles, John W.
Büchner, Georg Woyzeck
Bukharin, Nikolai
Bulgakov, Mikhail The Master and Margarita,
Bull, William Tillinghast
Bülow, Hans von
Bunch, Kenji: Confessions of the Woman in the Dunes
Buntes Theater, Berlin
Burgess, Guy
Burkholder, J. Peter
Burleigh, Harry T. “Gospel Train,”
Burns, Ralph A.
Burns, Robert
Burns, Walter Noble
Busbey, Fred
Busch, Ernst
Buschbeck, Erhard
Busoni, Ferruccio Berceuse élégia
que, Doctor Faust, Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music
Bussotti, Sylvano
Butterworth, George
Cage, John, Black Mountain Piece, and Boulez, Concert for, Piano and Orchestra, Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra, Credo in Us and Feldman, Imaginary Landscape No. 1, Imaginary Landscape No. 4 “Lecture on Nothing,” Music of Changes, prepared-piano pieces, presents Satie’s Vexations, Silence, Sixteen Dances String Quartet in, Four Parts, Water Music, as West Coast composer, Williams Mix
Cahill, Thaddeus
Cai, Jindong
Calatrava, Santiago
Cale, John
Campitelli, Russell
Canetti, Elias
Capitol Palace, Harlem
Captain Beefheart
Cardew, Cornelius “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism,”
Carney, William H.
Carpenter, Humphrey
Carroll, Lewis
Carter, Elliott, Cello Sonata, Double Concerto, First String Quartet, Piano Concerto
Carter, Marva Griffin
Caruso, Enrico
Casals, Pablo
Cat That Hated People, The (Avery)
Celan, Paul
Cendrars, Blaise
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Cerha, Friedrich
Cézanne, Paul
Chabrier, Emmanuel: España
Chadwick, George Whitefield
Chamberlain, Houston Stewart
chance music
Chanel, Coco
Chaplin, Charles
Char, René
Charles, Ray
Chat Noir, Paris
Chausson, Ernest
Chávez, Carlos
Chen Yi
Chevalier, Maurice
Chicago Opera Company
Chicago Symphony
Chin, Unsuk
China, music in
Chocolate Kiddies (Wooding)
Christian Science
Christian X, King of Denmark
CIA, see Central Intelligence Agency Cimarosa, Domenico
Cincinnati Symphony
Citizen Kane (Welles)
City, The (Steiner and Van Dyke)
Clarke, Kenny
Claudel, Paul
Clay, Lucius
Clermont-Tonnerre, Elisabeth de
Cliburn, Van
Clockwork Orange, A (Kubrick)