Jennifer Stevenson: Musical Invective
There are many great composers we all revere. We've heard the three Bs - Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms - and some of the most famous and programmed composers of the world. But fame does not equal popularity, and critics of the day had many scathing things to say about these artists.
Inspired the the male critic who also inspired the namesake of Whistling Hens, Musical Invective is a multi-movement collection of stinging reviews meant to amuse and bemuse audience members and music lovers by recounting critics' biting words in a vignette in the style of each composer described.
I. Beethoven
II. Debussy
III. Webern
IV. L. Boulanger
V. Gershwin
This commission is sponsored by Mr. Wesley Green of Tucson, Arizona, and it was premiered on September 29, 2022 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Citations:
I. Beethoven
Die Zweite Symphonie ist ein krasses Ungeheuer, ein angestochener, sich unbänding windender Lindwurm, der nicht ersterben will und selbst verblutend im Finale noch mit aufgerecktem Schweife wütend um sich schlägt.
Zeitung für die Elegente Welt, Vienna, May 1804
[Beethoven's Second Symphony's a big crass monster, a hideously writhing wounded dragon, that refuses to expire, and though bleeding in the Finale, furiously beats about with its tail erect.]
II. Debussy
Debussy's L'après-midi d'un faune... The faun must have had a terrible afternoon... the poor beast brayed...and whinnied...and avoided all trace of...melody... The work gives as much dissonance as any of the most modern...works... all these...spasms!... When will the melodist of the future arrive?
Louis Elson, Boston Daily Advertiser, February 25, 1904
III. Webern
The program spoke of 'tonal pointilism,' 'tonal fractions' and 'differentials.' What the audience heard suggested odd sounds in an old house when the wind moans, the floors creak, the shades rustle, and the doors... alternately creak and croon. The work had von Webern's cardinal merit of brevity.
Oscar Thompson, New York Evening Post, December 19, 1929
IV. L. Boulanger
When a hen whistles there is consternation in the coop. ...The...hen in this case was Lilli Boulanger... The composer wanders, pecking at all the shining motives that tempt her. Isolde moans... [Faust] snores... Incoherency rules the vocal parts... Clever girl, but your music is Wagner réchauffée... More's the pity that she died so young... But women composers are at best whistling hens.
James Gibbons Hunekor, New York Times, December 27, 1918
V. Gershwin
How trite...feeble...and conventional... How [fussy, futile and] sentimental and vapid... Weep over the lifelessness of melody...so derivative, so stale, so inexpressive!
Lawrence Gilman, New York Tribune, February 13, 1924
-with great appreciation to Nicolas Slonimsky, author of Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time
