I have a copy of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. It can be quite fascinating to see how differently things were viewed in the old days, and how much things change. There is a very laudatory article on Mozart, a half-page entry on Bruckner which dismisses him as a blundering incompetent (both articles by Tovey), and no entry for Mahler at all.
The article on Russia is also fascinating, describing in great detail the system of government based on a monarchy which is "autocratic" but since the 1905 reforms not "unlimited." It goes on to outline the complex rules of the Dumas which nevertheless allowed the czar to do whatever he wanted. You can almost feel change coming on.
The 1911 edition is prized for a few reasons. It was the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica that we assembled from contributions by true experts in the respective fields, rather than professional encyclopaedia writers. It is also loved by the home schooling crowd because most of the things they don't want their kids to know about weren't discovered in 1911, and certainly not printed. ;D
Sad to think that so much of what is written today is conveyed in such a transient media that may well be lost to future generations. (Just try to find a web page that you saw last year.)
Quote from: Scarpia on December 02, 2009, 04:40:10 PM
I have a copy of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. It can be quite fascinating to see how differently things were viewed in the old days, and how much things change. There is a very laudatory article on Mozart, a half-page entry on Bruckner which dismisses him as a blundering incompetent (both articles by Tovey), and no entry for Mahler at all.
I love reading that kind of stuff. I inherited a couple of "readers' guides" to literature, music and so forth, dating from much later (I think the 1950s or thenabouts). I remember an entry for Mahler, which gave a brief, neutral precis of his life and work, and ended with a rather pathetic-sounding sentence along the lines of: "Bruno Walter has tried to make his work popular in the United States, with limited success."
Bruckner also had an entry. It was very brief and noted that his popularity was limited to Germany and Austria.
By the way, how about composers who have lost popularity since then? Are there big laudatory articles on Gounod, Meyerbeer and the like?
Meyebeer gets a brief but very favorable mention, as does Elgar. Brahms gets a little more than a page. Beethoven gets 7 pages. Probably the most distinguishing thing about this edition is how some of the articles express very personal opinions, particularly those by Tovey.
Hehe, Rachmaninoff articles are notorious for these kind of "out of touch" opinions in the mid-century. I think the Grove article on that composer outright denigrated him until a hasty u-turn in a later edition.
I noticed that the 11th edition of EB is online. Here is the Bruckner article:
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Anton_Bruckner
Here's are a couple of choice extracts:
QuoteHis permanent reputation, however, rests on his compositions, especially his nine symphonies. In these gigantic efforts the influence of Wagner is paramount in almost every feature of harmony and orchestration; and if sustained seriousness of purpose and style were all that was necessary to give coherence to works in which these influences are stultified by the rhythmic uniformities of an experienced improvisatore and the impressions of classical form as taught in schools, then Bruckner would certainly have been what the extreme Wagnerian party called him, the symphonic successor of Beethoven, or the Wagner of the symphony.
QuoteThe most poetic and admired feature of his style is a slow growth to a gigantic climax, slow enough and gigantic enough for any situation in Wagner's Nibelungen tetralogy. The symphonies in which these climaxes occur are in obviously unskilful classical form, with only an outward appearance of freedom; and the Great Pyramid would hardly be more out of place in an Oxford quadrangle than Bruckner's climaxes in his four-movement symphonies with their "second subjects" and recapitulations.
Actually, I can't say I entirely disagree. ;D
Pray tell, what does it say about Medtner or Alkan?
Quote from: Scarpia on December 03, 2009, 10:09:35 AM
I noticed that the 11th edition of EB is online. Here is the Bruckner article:
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Anton_Bruckner
Here's are a couple of choice extracts:
Actually, I can't say I entirely disagree. ;D
That's a good description of the problem I have with his music as well.
Quote from: Corey on December 03, 2009, 11:10:28 AM
That's a good description of the problem I have with his music as well.
Well, I like Bruckner a lot, despite the grotesque nature of his music. ;D