47. évfolyam / 3. szám (2009)

“Extemporized” and planned musical form
Rules and strategies in concertos by Vivaldi and J.S. Bach
Gergely Fazekas

According to Leonard B. Meyer, “rules constitute the highest, most encompassing level of stylistic constraints” and “strategies are compositional choices made within the possibilities stablished by the rules of the style”. Focusing on several 18^th century theoretical writings by Quantz, Scheibe, Mattheson, Riepel and others, the present essay attempts at a historically adequate definition of the rules of the so-called ritornello form. The opening movements of two E-major violin concertos – Vivaldi's RV 265 (op. 3, no. 12) and J.S. Bach's BWV 1042 – are analyzed in detail to demonstrate how the same rules can generate two completely different compositional strategies: Vivaldi’s dynamic, linear concerto form is contrasted with the more static, planned form of Bach’s.

The Appearance of Edward Grieg’s Works in Hungarian Musical Life (1877-1907)
Mária Eckhardt

This article deals with the history of the appearance and spread of Grieg’s works in Hungary in Grieg’s life-time. The first Grieg composition performed publicly in Hungary was op. 20 Foran Sydens kloster (by the Association of Music Lovers in Budapest, 6^th April 1877). This cantata is dedicated to Franz Liszt, whose support for the young Grieg and their various encounters are briefly surveyed in the introduction. Further Grieg compositions appeared on the concert programmes of the National Conservatory (from 1878 on) and the Academy of Music (from 1882 on). At the latter, some of Grieg’s music became officially part of the curriculum in 1890/91. (Appendices 1 and 2 give a survey of the Grieg performances at these two institutions, including first Hungarian orchestral performances of the Piano Concerto op. 16, the Holberg Suite op. 40 and the To elegiske melodien op.34.) Grieg’s chamber music reached Hungary early: in addition to performances of the violin sonatas op. 8 and op. 13 by students at the National Conservatory and the Academy of Music, where professors Jenõ Hubay and David Popper were especially committed to Grieg, the String Quartet op. 27 was premiered in 1882 by a professional ensemble.
After the first Budapest performance of the Ballade op. 24 on 25^th January 1889 by Liszt’s pupil Eugène d’Albert, this major piano work became extremely popular among young Hungarian musicians. At about the same time, some of the Lyriske stykker op. 12 and other easier piano pieces were popularized by musical supplements in Hungarian journals. Grieg’s lieder, frequent items in student concerts at the Academy of Music, entered Hungarian homes in the Peters editions (together with Grieg’s piano music). A characteristic example is the library of Emma Schlesinger, later the wife of Kodály, now in the Kodály estate. The Orchestra of the Philharmonic Society began relatively late to include Grieg’s music in its programmes, but after the overwhelming success of the 1st Peer Gynt suite (on 14^th January 1891) they performed the 2nd Peer Gynt suite op. 55 scarcely two months after its publication (23^rd March 1893).
In 1894 Artur Nikisch and in 1897 Hans Richter, who was especially appreciated as a conductor by Grieg, also gave Hungarian first performances with this orchestra (op. 42 Bergliot and op. 32 Den Bergtekne). In the mid 1890’s there was a „Grieg boom” in Hungary, as part of the special interest in Scandinavian culture. Some letters written by Hungarians to Grieg are quoted as examples from the Eduard Grieg Archives of the Bergen Public Library, among them letters from the composers Ede (Eduard) Poldini and Ernõ (Ernst von) Dohnányi, Grieg’s personal friend. As a conclusion, the relation of the young Kodály and Bartók to Grieg’s music is discussed. Although the young Bartók knew a considerable number of Grieg pieces, the Norwegian composer became important for him only around Grieg’s death (1907) and afterwards when he began to study folk music intensively. For a detailed discussion of this topic, a recent summary by Vera Lampert is referred to.

“More Painting in Sounds Rather than Expression of Feeling”
Some Remarks on Liszt’s Beethoven Reception
Péter Bozó

The paper aims to contribute to a more complex understanding of Liszt's reception of Beethoven. The initial historiographical essay explores Franz Brendel's concept of a New German School, as presented in his speech in Leipzig in 1859 („Zur Anbahnung einer Verständigung"), and examines the role Beethoven played in Brendel's interpretation of the history of music. The second part of the paper analyses the first published version of Liszt's Schiller Lieder as an instance of the composer's reception of Beethoven and his use of Swiss local colour in his music. It shows how the 1848 version of Liszt's attacca song cycle follows Beethovenian models and seeks to explain why Liszt used in it a minor variant of a rani des vaches melody. The paper also points out how Liszt sought to correct weaknesses in his composition when revising it.

My forthcoming study on "Form, Meaning and Genre in the Scherzo of Mahler's Second Symphony" is going to be published in Studia Musicologica this year.

Finding Time Again
Time Approach in Alexander Scriabin’s Prelude Op. 74 Nr. 1
Ádám Ignácz

Allen Forte published a study entitled A Theory of Set-Complexes for Music in the winter of 1964, in which the affective and controversial theory of set-complexes was first introduced. This theory had a great influence on the post-2^nd-worldwar Scriabin-reception too – it contributed to the development of regarding the Russian composer as one of the important forerunners of serialism. Despite all its advantages, Forte and his follower's method has a serious deficiency: it concentrates only on spatial correspondences, while practically ignoring the dimension of time.
In my study I try to find out: what can be revealed from the last piano pieces referring to Scriabin's time-concept? Is it possible to use the results of the set-theory in this kind of an analysis? The Prelude Nr. 1 of the Op. 74 series has an unusual answer to these questions.

Relation of Sound-System and Time-Dimensions in Anton Webern’s String Quartet
Máté Csaba Szigeti

Present study shows how the coherencies of sound elements define time-dimensions in Anton VVebern's piece, Streichquartett Op. 28. Re-defining the structure of sounds (not only in historical aspect, but in the connection of the prevailing creation of musical composition) makes necessary to reconstruct the time-units as well. The main question of the formal analysis may be how these two properties of structures (usually examined separately) affect each other, particularly in the case of those pieces in which either of them appears already in the phase of pre-composition. (For instance, the early musical praxis of cantus firmus technique, proportional canons, treatment of all material imported from outer sources into the composition (e.g. folksong-arrangement), the serial techniques of the 20^th century, rhythmical structures, etc.)

Francesco Petrarch on the Enjoyment of Music
Réka Lengyel

The text edited here is the twenty-third dialogue in Book I of Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae (1366), a voluminous treatise on moral philosophy, which was extremly popular among later scholars (as is indicated by the large number of its manuscripts and editions), contributing most to the writer's European reputation. This manual of short and wise phrases and sentences, mostly quoted or paraphrased from classical Roman and medieval authors, is designed to be used by the readers in each situation that occurs in their life, by discouraging pride in prosperity and giving consolation in adversity.
Petrarch's opinion and arguments on the sweetness of music (what "the modern reader may find disappointing"—as Rawski says) reflects the ancient music theory: the music has a great way of touching people, a magical power, but we should enjoy it soberly and moderately and avoid indulging ourselves in the emotions, the joy and happiness evoked by listening or singing music. Due to the success of the whole book, our dialogue was certainly among the main sources from which Renaissance and later authors obtained these topics.
A new comparative examination of 17 early (late 14th to late 15th century) manuscript and 8 printed edition of De remediis (among them the first 15th editions) brought to light some error in the text of the dialogue known to us today. One of these errors seems really relevant, it occurs in the last sentence of the dialogue. In almost all of the printed editions (except the first two) we find this: Nec sine causa divini Plato vir ingenii musicam arbitratus est ad statuni sive correctionem morum ac reipublice pertinere. But this text redaction doesn't agree with that of the manuscipts (and the first two printed edition), in the place of the word correctionem we find corruptionem. (We must note that no autograph edition of the book survived.) Regarding the fact that small mistakes and oversights in a manuscript often lead to misinterpretation or confuse the reader, we suppose that the error was caused by the mistake or oversight of the editor of 1492 text redaction, but it might be also the printer who was at fault. The important fact is that—as it seems—this corrupt version of the text (with its errors and not only in the case of our dialogue) served as a basis for all the later redactions and many translations. So the text published here for the first time is the new, corrected, critical edition of the dialogue I. 23. which intends to present us the closest version to the original autograph edition.