The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

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)