The Other Nabokov
Daniel Wolff at Renewable Music is the lucky winner of a coveted seconding linking in two days here at the Fredösphere. (And no, Daniel, I did not pick up any snobbish attitude from you at all. I am gradually coming to realize my distaste for complexity snobs is founded on a fear of my own tendency to show off. That, and my use of complexity to dodge the hard work of evaluating my own work in terms of aesthetics, beauty, and emotional openness. I have met the enemy, and he is me. No, wait, not me, it's really Umie. Umie made me do it!)
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| Umie the Umlaut says, "Bwa-ha-ha!" |
Anyway, today's topic is Nicolas Nabokov. Daniel asked if the mostly forgotten Nabokov needs (re-)evaluation. I am unable either to remember or reevaluate Nabokov since I had never heard of the guy until I I got a copy of American Music Since 1910 by Virgil Thomson from the local library and noticed its introduction was written by some guy named Nabokov (and was relieved that it made no mention of underage girls). The very next day, I noticed the name again at Renewable Music.
Here's a bit from Nabokov's introduction:
One of our century's distinguishing features is fairly obvious -- the quickening pace of change, the extraordinary profusion of experimentation, and (what could have been foreseen since Wagner) the concomitant breakdown of so-called "academic" rules and traditions. Rarely before in the short history of Western music has there been such an accélération de l'histoire to use the title of a famous essay by the French historian Daniel Halévy.I'd like to know what he means by the breakdown of academic rules, since, when he wrote this, serial technique was still influential. And the (implied) regret at the lack of rural sensibility seems odd, although there's no doubt about the lack. Today, 35 years after Nabokov wrote these words, I can think of only one current U.S. composer with an vibe rooted in a specific region: John Luther Adams, with his white, silent Alaskan landscapes. Are there others?
Another early discernible aspect of this century's musical production is its variety. Dozens of different aesthetic and technical trends (often contradictory) coexist peacefully (or not) and fill the publishing houses and blue-printing presses, or gather dust on conductors' shelves and piano-tops. Perhaps a more particular, sociological distinguishing mark of this century's music is its increasing urbanization. Although rural elements, materials, and folkloristic memories still linger in it, they are purely reflective. In one way or another all of twentieth-century music has served urban needs and reflected urban life and urban outlooks. There has been little plein-air stuff produced by the composers of this century. Our musical trouts do not hop around in brooks and mountain streams; they are flown in by airplane and served blue or sautéed in megalopolitan restaurants. As for our present-day advanced music it is recorded and fractured on tape, seasoned and peppered by electronic sound, and salted by computers. All of it addresses itself to city dwellers, not to rural folk.
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
3 Comments:
Looks like I've won an extacta with two in a row at the Fredösphere. Thanks!
Actually, I think that the "rules" Nabokov was referring to were the traditional academic rules of harmony and counterpoint, not the emerging serial techniques (which N.N. seemed to have abhored).
The most detailed biographical information I have found on Nabokov is in "How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art" by Guilbaut and Goldhammer, mostly a study on cold war cultural politics, and in the letters between Stravinsky and N.N. (in the second volume of the Stravinsky Selected Correspondence).
Curious fellow, played an important role in the reconstruction of cultural life in Germany, especially Berlin, after the Second War. He was a very strong Stravinsky partisan, but that seems to have had little lasting impact in Germany (Stravinsky is still underplayed in Germany). But finding out anything meaningful about N.'s music has been very difficult. What I have heard so far is undistinguished, but I can still be convinced otherwise.
Best regards,
I suggest Chas Smith in the vein of JL Adams.
Robert Gable
http://rgable.typepad.com/aworks/smith_chas/
I was also going to suggest Chas Smith. Peter Garland also has something of the sandy American southwest in his music.
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