Eric Wagner on Joseph Kerman

[Today is the birthday of musicologist Joseph Kerman. Eric Wagner, who has a particular interest in classical music and Robert Anton Wilson's interest in it, penned this short tribute to Kerman. The online reading group Eric led on Kerman's The Beethoven Quartets remains available on the right side of this page. The Management.]

By Eric Wagner
Special guest blogger

“Reviewing a PBS program on intelligent dogs, a television columnist jokes that while some dogs may be smart, his lhasa apso always breaks down in the middle of the “Rach 3.”

    • Joseph Kerman, Opera and the Morbidity of Music, pg. 26

In the winter of 1990-1991 I reread Erich Leinsdorf’s The Composer’s Advocate. Leinsdorf recommended Kerman’s The Beethoven Quartets, so I checked it out of the library. It blew me away. I read all of Kerman’s books. I keep coming back to them again and again. From 2000-2021 I taught high school music history, and I used Kerman’s textbook Listen for the classical music section of the course. It also helped with the world music and jazz sections. I feel so grateful for Kerman’s critical intelligence and humor. I keep returning to writing as I discover music new to me or get deeper into music I thought I knew.

Kerman also turned me to a lot of other writers on classical music, especially Charles Rosen. No matter where my life has taken me over the past thirty-three years, I keep finding fresh inspiration in Kerman and Rosen’s writing. They make me listen to music with fresh ears and to dig deeper into how music fits in with all the other aspects of life. 

Beethoven/Kerman reading group, Week Eighteen

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

Kerman Week 18 – Op. 135

This week please finish the book and listen to Op. 135 and the last movement of Op. 130. Please comment on this week’s reading.

I hope all goes well. People often roughly divide Beethoven’s work into three periods. The quartets fall into these periods quite nicely. At the end of each period he tends to look backward and compose in a somewhat Haydnesque manner. One can see this in Symphony #2, Symphony #8, and both works in this chapter, Op. 135 and the new ending to Op. 130.

Pg. 362: “Muss es sein” means “must it be?” “Es muss sein!” means “It must be!” Bob Wilson plays with this in Schroedinger’s Cat.

Pg. 362-363: Pantalone, Spavento, and Brighella come from commedia dell’arte. Melusine refers to a water spirit. I had forgotten that Proust’s narrator compares Gilberte to Melusine. Wikipedia says “Melusine appears to have inspired aspects of the character Mélisande, who is associated with springs and waters, in Maurice Maeterlinck's play, Pelléas et Mélisande, first produced in 1893.  Claude Debussy adapted it as an opera by the same name, produced in 1902.”

Pg. 373: I like Riezler’s notion of seeing both versions of Op. 130 as organic. This reminds me of model agnosticism. The two versions of the quartet seem like two universes. One doesn’t have to prefer one to the other or question the artistic validity of the quartet as a whole as Kerman does. Of course, Kerman does a great job of illuminating the wonderful things Beethoven does in both versions of the quartet.

Pg. 375: Kerman says of contemplating the Beethoven quartets, “it has a way of shutting out other prospects.” Often when I finish this book, I don’t know what to listen to next. I consider these quartets as perhaps the greatest music ever written. Where does one go from here?

Pg. 376: I love the reference to “chthonic powers” – very Lovecraftian.

Pg. 379: When he discusses the personalities of individual quartets, it reminds me of how Crowley discusses getting to know the 78 tarot cards as individuals over the course of a lifetime.

As Schroeder would say, only six days until Beethoven’s birthday.

Kerman/Beethoven reading group, Week Sixteen

"Coversheet of Beethoven's Op. 130 as published in Berlin on June 2nd, 1827." (Caption and illustration via Wikipedia).

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

This week please read sections 1 – 3 of chapter 10 (pg. 303 - 327) and listen to Op. 130 repeatedly. Please comment on this week’s reading/listening and continue to comment on previous weeks’ readings/quartets.

I hope all goes well. Kerman emphasizes this quartet’s problematic nature due to the fact the Beethoven decided to remove the original finale and publish it separately. Please keep in mind that Beethoven contemplated breaking up the Hammerklavier and the Ninth Symphony in a similar fashion. Beethoven sometimes felt ambivalent about his most radical compositions.

I love how Bob Wilson wrote about the Hammerklavier. Op. 130, with its original ending, seems the quartet analogue for that sonata, ending with an earth shaking, unprecedented fugue.

Pg. 321 – “And the Great Fugue, Schindler’s ‘Monstrum aller Quartett-Musik’ - who would have thought of yoking this giant with a midget like the Presto second movement?” I once saw the Phoenix Suns play the Washington Bullets when 7’7” Manute Bol and 5’3” Muggsy Bogues both played for the team. They would often come off the bench at the same time, and, with their bright blue and red uniforms, I found the visual effect quite trippy.

Beethoven/Kerman reading group, Week Fifteen

Kerman Week 15 - Fugue

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

This week please read chapter 9 (pg. 269 – 302) and listen to Op. 133 and the first movement of Op. 131 repeatedly. Please comment on this week’s reading/listening and continue to comment on previous weeks’ readings/quartets.

I hope all goes well. I love this chapter, and I find these two fugues endlessly fascinating. The theme of fugue links this chapter with two works of central importance to Bob Wilson, the Hammerklavier and the Ninth Symphony.

Pg. 272 – Kerman sees the first movement of Op. 131 as a clue to the music Beethoven might have written if he had lived longer. Phil Dick said the same thing about the new ending to Op. 130. (I sometimes think of “I’ve Got a Feeling” as a clue to the sort of music the Beatles might have made if they didn’t break up.)

Pg. 274 – I find it interesting that Kerman finds the Op. 131 fugue Beethoven’s most accomplished. I love the reference to Alice’s White Knight on this page.

Pg. 276 – The connection with Bach “Art of Fugue” makes me think of Goedel Escher Bach, another Wilson favorite.

Pg. 300 – I like that Kerman comes right out and calls Op. 131 Beethoven’s greatest quartet. I don’t know if I agree, but I like his forthrightness.

Pg. 302 – Kerman emphasizes the power of repeated listenings. Kerman wrote a wonderful textbook called Listen, and he often emphasizes the power of listening, for which one needs neither virtuosity nor a deep knowledge of music theory.

Kerman/Beethoven reading group, Week Eight

The Borromeo String Quartet. For a live recording by them of this week's piece, go here. Photo by Richard Bowditch.

Kerman Week 8 – Op. 59, No. 2 – The First Half of Chapter 5

By Eric Wagner, special guest blogger

This week please read sections 1 - 3 of chapter 5 (pg. 117 - 134) and listen to Op. 59, No. 2 over and over again. Please comment on this week’s reading/quartet and continue to comment on previous weeks’ readings/quartets.

I hope all goes well. I just attended a talk by a master guitar builder from Fender. I wonder about the whole musical process – the building of instruments, the training of musicians, the recording of music with producers like Oz Fritz, the work of musicologists like Joseph Kerman, etc. I wonder how changes in the world will change the world of music, especially how the wild politcal world of America in 2018 will shape the world of the future. I have listened to this quartet a lot this week, but I have run out of time to write. I hope to write more next week. Please keep listening, reading, and commenting.

Beethoven/Kerman reading group, Week Six

La Malincolia

Kerman Week 6 – Op. 18, No. 6 – The Last Third of Chapter 3

By Eric Wagner, special guest blogger

This week please read sections four and five of chapter 3 (pg. 71 - 86) and listen to Op. 18, No. 6 over and over again. Please comment on this week’s reading/quartet and continue to comment on previous weeks’ readings/quartets.

I hope all goes well. We have reached the end of the Op. 18 quartets. When I first read this book in 1991, this section blew me away. I photocopied the music for “La Malinconia” and put in over my desk at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital where I worked at the time.

I do find myself going back to the table of contents over and over again because I do not remember the keys of the Op. 18 quartets. When Kerman refers to the F-major quartet, I go back to the table of contents to see, oh yes, Op. 18, No. 1.

I love the comment Kerman makes on page 76 before he begins his close analysis of “La Malinconia”, “(And about time, the analytical-minded read may grimly exclaim.)” The rest of the Op. 18 quartets blur together in my mind, but “La Malinconia” continues to fascinate me. Alas right now, it seems a perfect mirror for my psychological state in trying to stay caught up on my paperwork at work.

Tom asked me about my 11:32 Beethoven piano sonata project from six years ago, so I’ve attached an old blog:

11:32

The Seer of Cleveland asks, "Can you explain again why you are listening to each sonata 11 times? I know you explained that before, but I can't find the answer."

I find it fascinating how much access we have to music in 2012 C.E.  For most of human existence, to hear music one had to hear live people (or birds, dolphins, waterfalls, etc.).  During my lifetime I've mostly heard recorded music.  Now, I love recorded music, but I think in a McLuhanesque sense our whole relationship with music has changed over the past 150 years.  (I love Paul Schrader's essay on the film canon which deals tangentially with this issue -  .)  I remember reading an article about a guy who said his father had a life goal of hearing all nine Beethoven symphonies.  The father traveled all over Germany to accomplish this goal.  Now with recordings one can easily listen to all nine in one afternoon.

I have mostly used music as background for the past thirty or so years.  I have it on while driving, reading, working, etc.  I have tried over the past few years to spend more time just listening to music.  In Finnegans Wake the number 1132 shows up over and over.  The fact that the Big B had written 32 piano sonatas nagged at me for years, and I decided to listen to each sonata eleven times.  I find it hard to find time sometimes, but over the past two years I've made it through the first 23 sonatas.  I find it a wonderful legal means of consciousness alteration much like reading great poetry out loud.

Week One, Kerman's 'The Beethoven Quartets' reading group

This week's illustration is Robert Anton Wilson's "Classic Cowboys" Beethoven T-shirt, which Joshua Hallenbeck purchased during last year's auction of Wilson's personal items. Photo courtesy Joshua Hallenbeck.

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

Kerman’s The Beethoven Quartets – Week 1: Chapter 1

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome.

The game plan:

8/13 Week 1 Chapter 1 Op. 18, No. 3

8/20 Week 2 The first half of Chapter 2 Op. 18, No. 1

8/27 Week 3 The second half of Chapter 2 Op. 18, No. 2

9/3 Week 4 The first third of Chapter 3 Op. 18, No. 5

9/10 Week 5 The second third of Chapter 3 Op. 18, No. 4

9/17 Week 6 The final third of Chapter 3 Op. 18, No. 6


9/24 Week 7 Chapter 4 Op. 59, No. 1

10/1 Week 8 The first half of Chapter 5 Op. 59, No. 2

10/8 Week 9 The second half of Chapter 5 Op. 59, No. 3

10/15 Week 10 The first half of Chapter 6 Op. 74

10/22 Week 11 The second half of Chapter 6 Op. 95

10/29 Week 12 Chapter 7

11/5 Week 13 The first half of Chapter 8 Op. 127

11/12 Week 14 The second half of Chapter 8 Op. 132

11/19 Week 15 Chapter 9 Op. 133

11/26 Week 16 The first half of Chapter 10 Op. 130

12/3 Week 17 The second half of Chapter 10 Op. 131

12/10 Week 18 Chapter 11 Op. 135

12/17 Coda

Please read chapter one this week and listen to Op. 18, No. 3.

Former members of the Illuminati in Bonn in the 1780’s formed the Reading Society. They included Beethoven’s important early teacher Neefe, and they commissioned the young Beethoven’s Emperor Joseph Cantata which Robert Anton Wilson repeatedly praised. I think of this reading group as our contemporary Reading Society.

Joseph Kerman’s book appeared in 1966, 52 years ago. Germany existed as two countries then, with Bonn, Beethoven’s home town, as West Germany’s capital.

Pg. 8 of my edition: Maecenas acted as a patron to Horace, Virgil and other poets in Rome during the reign of Augustus. Maynard Solomon has pointed out the importance of the classical world of Greece and Rome to Beethoven. (Please let me know if my page numbers work for any other editions of Kerman’s book.)

Pg. 11 – I disagree with Kerman about considering Haydn’s piano trios as secondary works. Charles Rosen has a great chapter about those trios in his book The Classical Style which didn’t appear until 1971 or 1972. (Kerman loved that book).

Pg. 27 – The use of the generic pronoun “He” for a composer shows the changes in the English language since 1966.

Pg. 28 – The discussion of Tovey’s writing here makes clear his huge influence on Joseph Kerman.

Please post your comments on this chapter and this quartet. See you next week.

The next reading groups

The next online reading group discussion here will be Eric Wagner, leading us through a discussion of Joseph Kerman's book, The Beethoven Quartets.  Of course, we'll be listening to music, too. Eric plans to provide his first weekly piece on August 6, with the group starting work on August 13, and then running for 18 weeks through December 10.

It might be time to make sure you can get your hands on the book, and the ability to listen to all of the quartets; I have put the book on hold at my local library and I've been downloading recordings. If your local library has a music service such as Freegal or Hoopla, you should have no trouble listening to all of the quartets.

Perhaps it's also time to talk about reading groups beyond Eric's. It seems to be we ought to consider going through the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, now that all three books have been republished by Hilaritas. This year is pretty much spoken for with Eric's discussion group, but how about if we go through those novels in 2019?