Youthful Prodigy or Late Developer?
By Arthur Butterworth
At one time a universal
saying was that "children should be
seen and not heard", the implication
being, of course, that children, and
indeed all young people, naturally dependent
on their elders for material support
and essential well-being, should know
their modest and subservient place in
society; not have opinions nor expect
to dictate what should or should not
be.
There have always been
prodigies of one kind or another: sports-people,
athletes, mathematicians, chess-players,
authors, and not least musicians both
performers and composers. The most familiar
and long-remembered are perhaps young
composers whose names live on long after
the celebrity of an outstanding executant
musician has passed into history. The
most obvious example hardly needs mentioning:
Mozart, who began to compose music of
lasting significance when but a child.
There have been numerous others who
composed, even if not exactly in childhood,
certainly when no more than in youth.
The irony in many cases, however, being
that lamentably so many of them died
while still young, or at least what
we in modern times would regard as tragically
young, although probably in the times
in which they lived would not then have
been regarded as unusual to die young:
Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Weber,
Schumann, Bizet, (and even Beethoven,
less than sixty).
To have achieved universal
and lasting fame they all needed to
have made a lasting mark on the art
of music in their earliest years. As
far as Beethoven is concerned it has
been the notion of academics, musical
historians and other intellectuals arbitrarily
to divide his works into three distinct
periods of creation; although there
has perhaps never been total agreement
as to fine dividing lines between one
period and another, nor perhaps does
this matter all that much although it
is interesting to note how he evolved
from an early style to a later - perhaps
more profound - manner of communicating.
The comparison between - say - the earliest
piano sonatas and the last string quartets,
certainly demonstrates how far his creative
powers had developed. He was not quite
alone in the degree to which such evolution
is noticeable, but his is probably one
of the most self-evident situations.
On the other hand some
of the earlier composers lived long
lives, or at least by the standards
of their time: Handel until the age
of seventy-four (1685-1759) which must
have been a good span for those days
and even Bach, born in the same year,
until the age of sixty-five in 1750.
Despite what might
be thought a ‘good age’ or a tragically
‘short span’ the thing that matters
to later generations when considering
the present-day significance of earlier
composers is largely a matter of whether
the quality of the music had anything
to do with the age of the composer when
the particular piece of music was actually
created. Did composers - do they still,
for that matter - tend to write the
best music early or late?
There is no universally
agreed opinion about this, of some composers,
Mozart for instance, it can hardly be
said to have counted for much to consider
this when his life was so short anyway,
and so with Schubert and Mendelssohn,
although, as already remarked, with
Beethoven perhaps there can be said
to be a marked evolution in style as
he got older. But other composers, especially
those who lived quite long lives, it
is not always possible to be sure, or
agree. Some commentators prefer a composer’s
more youthful works, while others recognise
the evolution in style, and hence the
profundity of the music’s significance
which comes from a longer and deeper
experience.
A case in point is
Richard Strauss, aged 85 (1862-1949)
whose early works - for example "Don
Juan" - might interestingly be compared
with the "Four Last Songs", so the question
might be asked: which is the more characteristic,
or perhaps more compelling aspect of
Strauss? Similarly with Verdi who lived
almost to the age of 88 (1813-1901)
and who was still writing music well
into his latter years. In contrast to
such long-lived composers who continued
to write was Sibelius who lived until
the age of almost 92 (1865-1957) but
who for the last thirty years of his
life perplexed his admirers by not writing
anything new after "Tapiola" in 1926.
The tantalising question
is whether it was a good thing for aged
composers - Strauss and Verdi being
quoted - to have continued to create
into their old age; was the music they
produced as good as that of their comparative
youth when creative powers were at the
height; or does the much later music
show signs of decline in some way? a
lack of originality or that magic spark
of exuberant creation? is it repetitive
of something already more effectively
invented in the distant past? What of
Vaughan Williams? How do the later works,
- the 7th, 8th
and 9th symphonies, for example
- compare with "A London Symphony" the
"Pastoral Symphony", or the 4th
and 5th symphonies of twenty
and thirty years before?
Was it perhaps a good
idea on balance - for we are never now
to know - that the long-promised 8th
Symphony of Sibelius never appeared
at all. An even more tantalising situation
arose with the surprising appearance
of a version of Elgar’s Third Symphony,
realised so splendidly by Anthony Payne.
General opinion is that this was a revelation
and a most welcome addition to the Elgar
canon; for which we are immensely grateful,
but what might Elgar himself have thought?
Another British composer,
for a long time, some would say "unaccountably"
neglected, has in recent times come
to be re-evaluated, and this has given
us the opportunity to compare the early
works - such as the ubiquitous "Tintagel"
with the later symphonies. Did Bax (1883-1953)
himself hint at the notion that probably
he had, towards the end of his life,
already said all he wanted to say and
did not wish to create more? Is it sometimes
a matter of the realisation that not
only has a creative artist long since
said all he has to and simply has no
more to add, or that there is a feeling
of being out of touch with the present
times in which, after a long life, he
now feels himself to be marooned?
These are questions
listeners can ask of almost every kind
of music they are interested in, but
the answers are elusive.
Arthur Butterworth, ©
2007
