Completing Mahler’s Piano Quartet: A Study of Unfinished Music, Ethics, and Authenticities

Performers and scholars have argued for generations over what should be done with musical works that have been left incomplete by their composers. Though many attempts have been made to bring such works to completion, some scholars feel that these fragments should remain untouched because the pieces in question were left incomplete during the composer’s own career. With this debate in mind, I undertook a study and completion of Gustav Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A minor, a piece for which Mahler composed a complete first movement, Nicht zu schnell, and twenty-four bars of a second movement, Scherzo, when he was a student at the Vienna Conservatory. I began by analyzing Nicht zu schnell in order to understand Mahler’s treatment of motives, form, and harmony. In addition, I studied contemporary works by Schumann and Brahms. Based on my analyses, I then composed a completion of the Scherzo in a style that is, in my opinion, idiomatic of Mahler. After a performance of my completion, seventy percent of the audience responded with five on a scale of zero to six when asked in a survey how closely my Scherzo aligned with Nicht zu schnell. One hundred percent of the listeners ethically approved of the task of completing unfinished music. Adding to the discourse on musical completion, this paper addresses the musicological debate surrounding unfinished music, discusses my process of completing Mahler’s quartet, and assesses public reactions to the ethical issues, such as hubris, that often arise when an alternate composer completes an unfinished work.

PIANO QUARTETS OF L. BEETHOVEN: MOZART’S PROTOTYPES AND AUTHOR’S INITIO

Background. The article provides an analysis of L. Beethoven’s piano quartets through the prism of the ensemble writing and composition experience by W. A. Mozart. The disclosure of the successive ties between the two great Viennese classics in the field of chamber instrumental music contributes to the scientific understanding of the history of this genre, which is not sufficiently covered in musicology. The analysis revealed that the four piano quartets of L. Beethoven are focused on Mozart’s prototypes, or rather, on sonatas for violin and piano. It was found that the formative principles of Beethoven’s piano quartets grow from the above-mentioned compositions by W. A. Mozart, but the content and the ensemble-dramatic solution reflect the independence and originality of the young composer’s thinking, revealing the sprouts of a future mature style. The purpose of this article is to disclose the ways of rethinking the prototypes of Mozart in the piano quartets of L. Beethoven. The piano quartets of the latter serve as the musical material of the article: No. 1 Es-dur, No. 2 D-dur, No. 3 C-dur WoO 36, and No. 4 Es-dur op. 16. Results. L. Beethoven changes the algorithm of ensemble events contained in Mozart’s opuses, where the theme is presented in turn by piano, violin, followed by the conversation of the two. The composer immediately includes all members of the quartet in the presentation of the leading material, which specifies this genre, revealing its “intermediateness” between the intimacy of the trio and the “representativeness” of the concerto. Since the genetic origins of the genre of the piano quartet are the trio sonata, the string quartet and the clavier concerto with the accompaniment of a string ensemble, these genres influenced the type of Beethoven’s piano quartets. Thus, Beethoven’s Bonn quartets resemble in their writing a string quartet; and the piano quartet Es-dur op. 16 resembles a clavier concerto with orchestra. These compositions are related to the first of the above mentioned prototypes by the consistent application of the trio principle, which is expressed in various combinations of ensemble voices. In the timbre refraction, the trio-principle underlies the pairing of stringed instruments, where the bowed instruments form a strictly homophonic vertical with the traditional functional relationship according to the “upper voice ‒ bass ‒ middle” model. Another dimension of the trio principle arises when one of the string parts of the piano is displaced, as a result of which a multi-timbre sound field is formed. There is an obvious desire of the composer for the equality of four voices in the piano quartet. At the same time, the timbre uniqueness of the piano and the virtuosity of its part make it possible to recognize in it the leader of the ensemble union. Conclusion. The leading role of the piano in L. Beethoven’s piano quartets brings this genre closer to a piano concerto. At the same time, the piano has a variety of role functions: it can act as an equal partner, being one of the voices of the quartet score; as a concert instrument demonstrating its virtuoso capabilities; as a leader of an ensemble, a kind of conductor, giving impetus to performance, initiative in ensemble play. Similar functions can be observed in W. A. Mozart’s sonatas for violin and piano, which L. Beethoven was guided by.

Ernest Chausson

Amédée-Ernest Chausson (b. 1855–d. 1899) was born in Paris to a wealthy contractor and his wife. Although he obtained a law degree in 1876, music was his true passion. He entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied briefly with Jules Massenet and then with César Franck. Between 1879 and 1883 he made several journeys to Bayreuth and became an ardent Wagnerian. He served as secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique from 1886 until his death. Chausson and his wife, Jeanne, maintained an active salon that drew many prominent figures from all the arts, and he developed close relationships with many of them, most notably the young Claude Debussy. Despite his happy family life (which included five children) and comfortable surroundings, as a composer Chausson was beset with crippling self-doubts. Struggling to express his feelings with as much emotional honesty and satisfying artistry as possible, he continually found himself “erupt[ing] with rage at seeing how what I can do is so far from what I would like to do, from what I seem to hear in my head” (from a letter of 1884). Friends ascribed the melancholy in his music to this obsessive search for what Vincent d’Indy called “the better,” to a profound empathy with the suffering of others, and to deep apprehension that critics would dismiss him merely as a wealthy amateur imitating Franck and Wagner—as indeed many did. Despite his insecurities, Chausson composed notable chamber and orchestral works, a substantial body of mélodies, and one opera, Le roi Arthus. Most observers believed that Chausson finally achieved his own voice in the late 1890s, especially in the Piano Quartet of 1897. Tragically, however, his career ended soon thereafter, on 10 June 1899: riding a bicycle at his country estate, he apparently lost control going down a hill and crashed head-first into a wall. Pierre Louÿs’s eloquent condolence letter to Mme. Chausson summed up the general reaction: “There was never a more excellent man . . . I was struck, each time, by the . . . admirable goodwill that radiated through each gesture. At every moment of his life, he felt compelled to bring happiness to people. Everyone loved him.” As his student Gustave Samazeuilh wrote, Chausson “will occupy an eminent place in the history of French music; a just recompense for a life devoted totally to the good, to work, and to the Ideal.”

Under the sign of playing: C. M. Weber’s Piano Quartet

Background. A play principle is one of the essential properties of the artistic worldview and creative thinking of C. M. Weber. Declaring itself in works of different genres, it takes on many different shades, speaking in the form of comic, ironic, characteristic and carnival. In the instrumental opuses by the composer, the play aspect appears in complex of texture, articulation, intonation and thematic, dynamic and formative techniques that lead to immediate visual and theatrical associations. Expression of play principles in this genre sphere can be considered, on the one hand, as various types of ensemble dialogue, and on the other hand, as virtuosity, producing aesthetic pleasure and sincere joy. The Piano Quartet by the composer, a typical example of the instrumental and play beginnings in the work by C. M. Weber, is a part of repertoires of many ensembles, but it has not yet become an object of serious scientific interest. The question of the historical and stylistic affiliation of C. M. Weber is debatable, as evidenced by significant differences in the views of scientists on this issue. Some of them, as La Mara (1886), R. Teryokhin (1983), R. Mizitova (1999), see him as the custodian of the Viennese classical tradition, focusing on “mozartianism” of C. M. Weber, others, as J. Warrack (1976) and B. Smallman (1994), considered him as one of the pioneers of romanticism. The former notes the improvisational nature of the emergence of the quartet cycle, the latter ‒ the elegance of writing and the unusual form of the last part, which served as a model for creating the finale of instrumental opuses for subsequent romantic composers. The pianistic texture by C. M. Weber as reflection of the virtuosoromantic direction is described in the works of N. Kashkadamova (2006) and O. Skorbyaschenskaya (1993). The aforementioned works also note the unusual form-making of the composer and the fantasy nature of his Minuets-Scherzo, that anticipate the experiments of F. Mendelssohn and other romantic composers. I. Karachevtseva (2015: 24) takes a special position toward the work by C. M. Weber acknowledging it as “the quintessence of a new artistic and stylistic quality that defines the boundary between two historical eras”. Objectives. The purpose of this article is to identify the genre, dramatic and the shaping characteristics of the Piano Quartet by C. M. Weber as a manifestation of play logic. Results. The play principle is manifested at all levels of the text of Weber’s work: genre, compositional, dramatic, thematic. C. M. Weber does not resort to the typical of classical piano ensembles three-part cycle, but to the four-part, placing Minuet between Adagio and the Finale. In our opinion, the inclusion of the Minuet in the sonata cycle is due to the theatrical and playful mindset of C. M. Weber. This assumption is corroborated by the nature of the dramatic logic of the Piano Quartet cycle, where in each part the listener (including the performer) something unusual, captivating and witty lies in wait. Playful interest in the movement’s intrigue extends even to Adagio, which by its nature is less likely to surprise. The entire first section of this part is built of short statements, changes in the types of movement, rhythmic pulsation, contradicting dynamic shades, and ultimately figurative details, as a result of which instead of a holistic meditative theme, a dynamic, instrumental “mise-en-scene” arises. Equally fractional is the main part of the sonata Allegro, where the delicate phrase of the solo piano is suddenly interrupted by the irritated intonation of the sf and ff trills, and the exhorting statement of the string trio makes the piano to have second thoughts. We observe the play logic of the event canvas as the piano and string trio are endowed with their own thematicism, “personified”. The Minuet is unexpected in a minor modus (g-moll) in the context of a major composition (B-dur), the rapid change of textural-thematic units, and the simplicity of the trio theme ‒ in the spirit of rural German dances, contrasting the blasting extreme parts. The final rondo (Presto) plunges into a whirlpool of refrains and episodes, creating the impression of carnival fuss and kindling the listener’s “interest in continuation”, and the multipart composition turns into a comparison of musical “scenes”, anticipating the principles of constructing miniature cycles of R. Schumann. Conclusions. The thematic plethora of the Piano Quartet by C. M. Weber, a totally dynamic character, the violation of the classical linearity and predictability of the plot provide the author with a gargantuan opportunity of ensemble dispositions. The composer follows to the parity of communicants achieved by W. A. Mozart in his piano quartets, grouping them into various combinations. Among them, there are a dialogue of the piano and string trio, a melodic communication of the strings against the background of the figured movement of the piano, the solo of the string instrument against the background of keyboard chords, as well as the pianos’ solo in the context of dialogue at the composition level. Thus, assigning primary importance to the play principle, C. M. Weber signifies a universal factor in creating stylistic harmony, which covers figurativelythematic, compositional, ensemble spheres. In structuring of the cycle and its individual parts, in the course of the music-event process, in the art of ensemble writing, the composer showed his mastery creating the “second reality” that merges with play in its intrinsic value.

Story in Structure

This chapter presents intertwined readings of Schnittke’s Piano Quartet from four points of view: compositional, performative, esthesic, and analytical. Drawing on Schnittke’s description of the Quartet—“at first the attempt to remember” a fragment by Mahler “and then remembrance itself”—it analyzes the work as a rotational form: four passes through the fragment’s material, followed by a statement of the fragment itself. It discusses interpretive and practical considerations in depicting the journey to Mahler’s fragment. It shows that “memory” expresses Romantic irony through its evocation of a fragment from the past, denial of a clear temporal line, and search for an impossible perfection. And it dissects three techniques—rhythmic “formants,” contraction and expansion, and self-similiarity—employed by Schnittke to subvert temporal direction. Audience and performer viewpoints taken from a concert and interactive presentation supplement the authors’ interpretation. The authors’ live performance on audio (Ingolfsson, Eckert, Glyde, and Leong) complements the written text.

CONSTANT AND VARIABLE IN THE STYLE OF A RUSSIAN PIANO QUARTET

The process of the steady rooting of invariant genre features of a piano quartet is considered through the ratio between stable and mobile features. Here there is either the complete independence of the instruments, but on the principles of equal participation in the embodiment of musical content, or the variability in the relations of instrumental parts. As the main ones in the genre, the musical norms of the classic-romantic style and the stability of the timbre composition are established. It is noted that in Russian music the evolution of the piano quartet passed through different phases: genre stabilization and recovery, temporary stop and subsequent active development. Transformation processes went through different levels: structure, content, instrumental- timbre solutions, rethinking the functional roles of partner instruments. The movement from the traditional normativity of instrumental compositions to the difference of timbre combinations in the XXth–XXIst centuries was primarily predetermined by such factors as polyphonization of texture, the active introduction of polyphonic forms, new techniques of instrumentation. In the modern piano quartet, the central idea of chamber music making, the idea of co-creation generates both an extremely individualized form of embodiment and a free timbre composition. In conclusion, it is noted that the piano quartet genre has the ability to accumulate the leading style trends in chamber music of different eras.