The Salon
Saturday, November 13th, 2021
THE PROGRAM
Johann Christian Bach--Duo in A major
Luigi Boccherini--Sonata for harpsichord & violin in G minor
Johann Schobert--Quartet for harpsichord & strings
Three Literary Songs
Franz Joseph Haydn--String Quartet in G major, Opus 77 #1
Mlle de Lepinasse, one of the supreme Parisian salonierres. A person of uncommon wit. A woman of no position in society, she posed a competitive threat to du Deffand and an early friendship ended in icy disregard.
THE ARTISTS
Pascale Beaudin, soprano
Olivier Brault & Chloe Fedor, violin
Kyle Miller, viola
Loretta O'Sullivan, cello
Jeffrey Grossman & Andrew Appel, harpsichord
MEETINGS of GREAT MINDS
The light and the accomplishments of the 18th century Age of Reason continue to nourish the better actions and instincts in our 21st century. Among these accomplishments and structures, we celebrate the emergence and powerful role of women in the intellectual exchanges among people of genius in the institution of the Salon. The salon emerged in the early 18th century and flourished throughout Europe. Women took the helm in inviting and directing thinkers in an exchange of thought. Though often persons of wealth and social stature, France saw the success of salonnieres who were neither noble nor wealthy, and Germany even enjoyed the talents of Jewish women as well as Christians. Most salons were places of mixed interests and viewpoints through meetings with a focus on music were impressive and celebrated in the homes of both Felix Mendelssohn’s aunt, Sarah Levi in Berlin, and Benjamin Franklin’s admired Parisian friend, Mme. de Brillon.
The Marquise du Deffand (1696-1780) maintained a salon in 18th century Paris, bringing together the greatest minds of the city. Seated around a large table they would discuss those things that enslaved them to a darker past and would lead them on to what was seen as a luminous future, a future empowered by mind, by thought. In one famous exchange between the salonniere and the Cardinale de Polignac of Paris commenting on the miracle of St. Denis who, after having been decapitated on Montmartre, gathered his head and walked two miles to the town of St. Denis and placed his head on the spot where the great basilica was later constructed in his honor. In expressing some of her doubt, the Cardinal is supposed to have said, “But, Madame, do you not believe that our Holy Saint after martyrdom gathered his sacred head and walked two miles to St. Denis?” To which Madame replied that she had no problem with the two miles, only with the first step.
Here in an iconic comment, the Marquise du Deffand combines a sparkling wit while presenting a condemnation of magical thinking, the sort of thinking that enshrined kings, created castes in society, killed so many in superstitious medicine… the list goes on. Playing with ideas could be a building tool for what was seen as an enlightened future.
MUSIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The music valued in these salons was not the conservative French operas and suites that characterized the world of Versailles. Though this older music was powerful enough to make French-style central to all of Europe, by 1760 it had become restricted, decadent, and stultifying. The new music valued was an international style and the composers who took center stage were foreigners, immigrants to Paris. Boccherini and Schobert, Gluck, even Mozart.
We have to remind ourselves that in this Paris of bright thought a hellfire of revolution and instability festered. The volatile nature of “G minor,” of Storm and Stress, of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in which all society was portrayed as rotten, cast a shadow over the hopes of philosophers and artists, the guests of du Deffand. The best of Schobert and Boccherini, the often hopeless sentiments of popular songs as collected in music magazines, warns of an upcoming century of dashed hopes and seemingly endless violence.
WHEN THE STORMS HAVE PAST: LONDON
Haydn’s Opus 77 string quartets were written for London. England had already rebuilt itself through subversions and revolutions in the previous century. The execution of change to power and social structures had been hammered out and the ground under the London community was solid. They dealt with the issues that could improve society without having to reinvent it. It is no wonder that the gracious charm of J. C.: Bach could so completely satisfy the tastes and visions of Georgian society. No purifications of the Last Judgment were called for, but images of comfort and gentle optimism echoed or mirrored the time
Haydn’s string quartets mirror or imitate salon society and activity. It is a musical version of the Marquise du Deffand’s table with four minds in civil yet probing conversation. When Haydn brings his music of ideas, the sonata form, to England, he gives them, and us almost 300 years later, a formula in which musical thoughts are presented, examined, made into toys and prayers, into heroic tales and sentimental voyages. Haydn, in his musical language, gives us phrases as coherent as Jane Austen’s. Listen as an idea is played by one instrument and then tossed around the “room” of four players. Listen to how the idea can be seen in a different light (harmonized, fractured, quickened or slowed, hidden or showcased).
A COMPOSER FOR ALL CENTURIES
Haydn is often thought of as a musician’s musician. Why does Mozart not enjoy that same compliment? We may not all sense that music, just like words, is a language of ideas. Words are specific and musical phrases are abstract. But every period develops a vocabulary that makes a musical motif quite specific. The Baroque loved the chromatic descending line as an expression of lamentation or tragedy. The slow unfolding of arpeggios in Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata or Schubert’s Songs of the Harp Player expresses painful, romantic loneliness or alienation.
Unlike Mozart who is most often lyrical or vocal, Haydn’s phrases are rarely like a coloratura soprano’s line but more like the well-crafted bi-part sentences of an essayist or storyteller. The sonata form that Haydn masters is similar to the three-part essay form we studied in high school. There is an exposition of ideas and this is repeated so that those ideas can be well remembered. Then we are led into an exposition of those ideas. The materials we have just heard are turned upside down and backward. They are held to the light of observation and variation. They are tossed around from high to low. And after we have watched Haydn illuminate and expand on his ideas, taking us along tangents and tributaries, he recapitulates, restates the original ideas to clarify just where we started and where our examinations have taken us.
Like reading a great novel, you must listen and remember when hearing a Haydn work. If you miss an event or detail, you will be unable to follow his train of thought. You will be lost in pleasant but meaningless melody…hardly the stuff of genius from the greatest musician of his age, of the man who exemplifies reason, optimism, powerful thinking, and the best hopes for our world.
Andrew Appel
November 3, 2021
Hillsdale, NY