Scarecrow
Press is one of the leading publishers
of books on music and academic work,
so it was with great excitement that
I looked forward to this book. There
can be few personalities as remarkable
as Ferruccio Busoni. He was a top pianist,
a composer, and a visionary. His knowledge
of literature, art and music was formidable,
and it informed his all-inclusive theories
of art and music. His ideas, which embraced
world music and non traditional media,
are influential today. His cosmopolitan
lifestyle, his rejection of cliché
and his openness to innovation, all
mark him as a man for our times. Yet
he is still relatively little known,
and mainly for his somewhat limited
repertoire as a composer. He doesn’t
fit any neat pigeonhole. Indeed, his
ideas may prove to be his legacy: Edgar
Varèse called him "a figure
out of the Renaissance", who "crystallised
my half-formed ideas, stimulated my
imagination, and determined, I believe,
the future development of my music".
(Couling p. 202.) Busoni believed that
"music was born free and to win
freedom is its destiny", and that
it was just in its infancy as an art
form.
This is perhaps the
first readily available full biography
in English for decades. The 1934 Edward
Dent biography is still around but is
not up to date. Anthony Beaumont’s pioneering
study, Busoni the Composer, undoubtedly
the best survey, is particularly strong
on musical analysis. There’s certainly
a market for a comprehensive book on
Busoni, which demonstrates just how
relevant he is to modern thinking. Indeed,
a really good account could do much
to regenerate interest in Busoni’s reputation.
Delia Couling’s book
is well researched and relies heavily
on Busoni’s letters. This is both its
strength and weakness. Busoni’s correspondence
was voluminous, even by the standards
of the day. There is so much material
that a researcher has to be extremely
selective about what’s included. Couling
does good work on Busoni’s childhood,
showing his relationship with his parents,
both relatively unsuccessful musicians
whom their child supported with his
greater talent, from an early age. This
aspect of his life is relatively undocumented
and could be the subject of a study
on its own, like Stuart Feder’s analyses
of Charles Ives and Gustav Mahler. Couling
also conveys something of the flavour
of Busoni’s wanderings in her accounts
of his numerous journeys. After all,
she refers to him as an Ishmael, abandoned
in the desert. But we really don’t need
to know about his holidays, for example,
in detail. How the rootlessness shaped
his mind and art, might be more interesting.
Nearly half the book is taken up with
Busoni’s life up to 1894, when he moved
to Berlin. The background is interesting,
but it was in the 20th century
that Busoni transformed himself and
became most productive and creative.
Beaumont draws a parallel with Mozart:
there’s no point discussing the juvenilia
if it means occluding Don Giovanni.
Couling is also to
be lauded for careful research into
her sources. For example, she takes
the trouble to identify people Busoni
met and corresponded with, even if they
were of minor importance. Some of them
must have been interesting in their
own right. But Busoni knew everyone
worth knowing, and it would be useful
to know more about his relations with
Sibelius, Schoenberg, etc. Couling is
particularly good on Busoni in America,
for example in his interest in Native
American music, for which she gives
credit to the pioneering woman researcher
who taught him about it. Again, though,
Busoni was such a personality that he
could generate dozens of books on his
own. Somehow, there comes a point in
which detail and a broadly focused approach
must balance. For example, Busoni’s
interest in Native American music produced
his own Red Indian Fantasy. It
also was a foretaste of the modern interest
in world music and in percussion. This
may go beyond strict biography, but
is important as it shows why Busoni
was and is a man to be reckoned with.
Similarly, more analysis would be helpful,
even if it may be speculative. What
is Busoni’s place in music history?
What impact did his unconventional ideas
on opera have? Why was he eclipsed so
early and so thoroughly? Why did Schoenberg
take precedence as musical thinker,
rather than men like Busoni or Valen?
There could be more on his music, like
Doktor Faust, for example, or the way
his pianist background shaped his compositions.
These ideas do go beyond Busoni and
into the realm of European music in
general, and they could be controversial,
but they are valid in assessing what
Busoni means.
Couling’s fidelity
to the subject’s own words is admirable,
However, the volume of his writings
makes it difficult to present a full
account without circumspect editing.
Busoni was such an overwhelming character
that one can be blinded by the sheer
light of his presence : standing back
might allow a clearer focus. Moreover,
as Couling does point out, Busoni was
a man of contradictions, whose very
complexities can generate study.
At 354 pages, including
footnotes and in fairly large font,
this is not a huge blockbuster. It would
be an invaluable introduction to Busoni,
but it presupposes that readers will
already be familiar the subject. Yet
it is precisely those who don’t know
Busoni that should be reading a new
book on him, because there really is
little else. Beaumont, published 1985,
remains the best and most thorough analysis,
though it’s more of a study "from"
the music rather than of the amazing
man himself and does not cover other
aspects of Busoni’s career, like his
conducting, performances and libraries.
Much as I enjoyed this book, it makes
me dream of another, more substantial
one in the future, perhaps double the
size both in terms of weight and content.
There is just so much to the amazing
subject that the possibilities go far
beyond the niche market for music books.
And please – footnotes at the end, not
after chapters! Many thanks, then, to
Couling and to Scarecrow Press for starting
what could be a major shift in the assessment
of modern thought and modern music.
Anne Ozorio
