The Fall of Public Man (40th Anniversary Edition) by Richard Sennett

Author:Richard Sennett [Sennett, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2017-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

The performing artist had to be, however, a different kind of “special person” from the Romantic poet, painter, or essayist. The performing artist had to elicit a direct response from an audience, a different situation from that of a poet, who may in isolation conceive of his imagery and rhymes as creating a noble self. In addition to the direct presence of his audience, a Romantic conversion of art from skill to self had to be different for the pianist than for the painter because of the performer’s different relationship to his medium. No matter how personal he makes it, the Romantic pianist is still tied to a text, often not of his own making, created at a moment other than the moment right here and now in which he is bringing it to life before the audience. The Romantic performer, in making music an immanent experience, has therefore to play a text but also convert it into himself.

Contemporary reviews suggest how we would hear a Romantic musician working to make music seem immanent: pauses, retards, rubato would make the moment a sound was produced important; the deformation of rhythm would usually be at the expense of long lines, disciplined ensemble work with the orchestra, and a concern for the balance and tight weaving of parts. Those, in any event, would be concerns only of a performer presenting a text. The immediate attack, the sensuous tone, the stunning chord—such were the techniques for making music right now absolutely real.

What kind of personality was a musician who could do this perceived to have? On August 23, 1840, Franz Liszt wrote an obituary notice of Paganini’s death. He opened his essay with these words:

As Paganini . . . appeared in public, the world wonderingly looked upon him as a super-being. The excitement he caused was so unusual, the magic he practiced upon the fantasy of hearers, so powerful, that they could not satisfy themselves with a natural explanation.

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