ERIC SAMS:
MUSIC
REVIEWS
Schubert: Three organ fugues, ed. O. Biba. Doblinger/
Universal
Such is the magic of
Vienna
that it always seems possible to discover new Schubert sources by
taking a closer look at the old fines. Such serendipity was the
special gift of the late and much mourned Christa Landon; here are
three of her retrievals front the archives of the Wiener Männergesangverein,
now duly enshrined in the new Deutsch catalogue as
24 A-c. The editor's
textual comments look workmanlike and reliable; and the firm link
established between the first of these fugues and the Gloria of a
fragmentary Mass (new d24
E) is of more than passing interest to students of the lied. The
short-breathed and songful fugue subjects suggest a choirboy whose
voice and style alike were undergoing a vital change. One might have
expected some serious attempt to date these works; but the sole
relevant observation offered is “in all probability, the fugues were
composed in 1812”. Again, the argument that their freedom of form and
harmony shows their independence of Salieri’s tutelage seems to me
not only to misconstrue that relationship hut to defy common sense.
Otherwise almost all the foreword is devoted to a rather laborious
demonstration that this music is intended for organ, which may well
seem self-evident. The editor is confessedly baffled by a
“decrescendo wedge” used in a context where that effect is
impracticable. But Schubert habitually used exactly such a sign to
indicate an accent. In sum, then, the editor is more organist than
Schubertian – the precise converse, I should have thought, of most of
his prospective purchasers.
The
Musical Times,
Mar. 1979 (p. 250) © the
estate of eric sams
