Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 7 (1927-04)

290 The Phonograph Monthly Review 1 Beethoven’s Symphonies? One Hundred Years After By RICHARD G. APPEL (Concluded) I T is a great tribute to the inherent sound judgment of the musical public that through all the years it has recognized in Beethoven's Quartets the noblest expression of his genius. That this appreciation has persisted is a tribute to Beethoven rather than to the musical educator, for until comparatively recently less has been done to promote an understanding of the quar- tets than of any other branch of his music. The symphonies and piano sonatas have had many explanatory analyses. In the English language, however, there exists as yet no readv handbook of the quartets. True, the Oxford University Press has recently brought out a fine little book on the first six of them, by W. H. Hadow, but there are sixteen altogether and until the whole series of quartets is covered a lacuna in our educational apparatus remains. Of course there are references to them in chap- ters of different books, but for a single survey in one volume one has to depend on a chapter in the rather expensive series, The Art of Music, published by the University Society in 1916 or on an excellent brief summary in Walker's Beetho- ven first published in London in 1905; or on Matthews: The Violin Music of Beethoven. There are also short notes in a recent edition of Hol- land's Beethoven. While for manv years there have existed more or less permanent String Quartet organizations in this country it is significant that none of them consistently undertook to educate their audiences by annotated programs. Consequently they have had to depend on a very limited audience made up of a personal following of the players or else attracted by the social prestige of the patronage. Certainly few educational institutions include a detailed study of chamber music in their courses, or if they do, it is so inclusive as to be more encyclopedic than inspiring. While we owe a great debt of gratitude to such pioneer organizations as the Mendelssohn Quintet C ] ub of Boston and the Kneisel Quartet who car- ried the best of chamber music far and wide over our land, it is none the less true that if an edu- cational side had been added, the fruits of their work would have been more permanent. It is not too much to say that the phonograph has done more for chamber music than has been ever done before. Because it has at least pro- vided the first essential of appreciation—the op- portunity of frequent hearing. Just as the symphony is primarily an art form for the crowd, the quartet is primarily for a small group, not necessarily the elite, or exclus- ive. If it grew up or reached its height in the courts of the nobility that was only incidental to their musical interest and capacity to pay for it. Chamber music is no less an art of the poor. It does not require a large hall or organization to produce it—a small room and a few instru- ments suffice. Its origin is much less conspicu- ous than the orchestral or operatic form and the phonograph has contributed much in restoring the quartet to its domestic place. Most biographies are taken up with so much chronological detail (or padding! that one looks in them in vain for help in understanding Bee- thoven's quartets. And when there appears to be some reliable information, as for instance Wegeler's account of the first ones, Thayer comes along and proves that he is utterly wrong. The story of the gradual discovery of the quar- tets is not one of the least interesting connected with Beethoven scholarship. In a way the Quar- tets were responsible for the whole field of study for it as their complete incomprehensibility by the Russian writer Oulibicheff that provoked the studies by Lenz which marked the beginning of the critical study of Beethoven. Schindler, Thayer, and many others were primarily con- cerned with the chronological details rather than the psychological or purely musical matters. Even such a widely informed critic as Calvocoressi when reviewing a book on Beethoven's quartets apparently has not really traced the . quar- tet research to the root. It is not within the scope of this article to trace in detail the growth of knowledge about the quartets. Each general book has some material and each general book on chamber music also contains some informa- tion. The first exhaustive and special study of Bee- thoven's Quartets was that by Helm (Leipzig, 1885). As was said before. Walker (London, 1905) devoted a chapter to the chamber works. In 1910 Hugo Riemann brought out a book on the Quartets. A year later D'lndv included men- tion of several of them in his book on Beethoven. The most complete study up to date embodying the researches of all his predecessors is that of Marliave, a Frenchman who lost his life in the War. His work was completed by another and published by Alcan in Paris, 1925. There is a severe criticism of this work in a recent number of “The Chesterian," the critic finds some pas- sages from Helm in the work without apparent acknowledgment. Undoubtedly he is indebted to Helm for he frequently does quote from him and it might be that the editor in preparing the work for publication had sketches which he may not have correctly identified. The work goes into fi