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- From: diarmuid@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Diarmuid Pigott)
- Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
- Subject: Re: Brahms
- Date: 19 Nov 1992 13:04:32 +0800
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- Lines: 25
- Message-ID: <1ef790INNrf@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
- References: <BxMIBJ.FFE@news.udel.edu>
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-
- George Mulford (mulford@bach.udel.edu) wrote:
- : Does anyone know _Jean Christophe_ by Romain Rolland? Can anyone explain
- : to me why its eponymous protagonist is so antagonistic toward Brahms? Is
- : he modeled on Richard Strauss, and did Strauss feel that way? Does
- : Christophe change his mind at the end? (I confess I didn't make it all
- : the way.) Did Rolland himself feel the same way? Does anyone care?
-
- I'll have to check on the book I have to see if this is exactly as I
- remeber it, but I have a report of a conversation with Strauss
- deploring both the form and the development of Brahms. The old story of
- "if only Brahms hadn't been classicaly obsessed, he would have written
- great music".
-
- I can't even remember if I kept the book. It was called something like
- "The Problems of Music", and I went through it disagreeing with
- everything, when I got to the chapter on "The problem of jewishness in
- music"! Talked about the racial stereotypes as demonstrable in music, the
- loftiness of Strauss and the meanness and shallownes of Mendelsohnn and
- Mahler. I then thought - uhuh - and put the book down unfinished.
-
- The conversation was definitely reported as verbatim, but the context
- makes it open the doubt.
-
- The question is whether I turfed it out or filed it with other offensive
- books.
-