ritical Entertainments MUSIC OLD AND NEW CHARLES ROSEN HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS (Cambridge, Massachusetts London, EnglandCHAPTER ONE The Aesthetics of Stage Fright iy physical symptoms of stage fright are those found in medieval medical treatises which describe the disease of being in love, The syndrome consists in trembling, distraction ofthe senses, chills and fever, nausea, and an inexplica- ble melancholy. Both maladies are purely cultural phenomena, not only in the sense that they are products of relatively sophisticated social orders, but also that they are in no way technically or physically necessary to those acts for which they prepare: as often as not, they may be the direct cause of a failure to perform sat- isfactorily. In neither case does the malady necessarily disappear or even age, however, the efficacy of certain magical formulas for the control of symp. ‘may increase as they are combined with more elaborate rituals. “Break a ferde,” “In bocca lupo,” “Hals und Beinbruck?—none of these has much force unless preceded by a complicated ceremony that varies votary: for pianists, the washing ofthe hands in hot water is but cracking the knuckles or yoga may be substituted provided the same pattern of behavior is adhered to at each performance. the only licid moment in an artist’s career” Moriz Rosenthal concert, however, is not a rational respons, but an act of fith which cannot be wiled but is given ony to the elect Iisa grace that is sufficient inthe old Jesuit sense: that is, insuffi but a necessary condition for sucess. Leopold Godowsky, scordiiakes the performance seem a spontaneous cre- he pianist who deviates from the text! “Playing by heart" is @ the public demand that from memory came the demand for tex- tuosity was also the age of Ger- as himself a scrupulous editor of srrangements of Bach's organ works the piano are, with one exception, models of strict adherence to the original the changes being the minimal ones required boards and pedal within the compass of two hands on. "The wicked amabiguity at the center of playing from memory is revealed at the was the first pianist to do away wi difficult taps for the memory are s the most famous example. While the mel JHered at each successive appearance, the bass pected but, with continuously varied syncopation, prise. Ihave never heard this piece played in public without at least one memory nly fitting, therefor n should be ascribed, by a story perhaps apocryphal, to Clara Schumann. She is supposed to have found herself trapped inside Mendelssob's Spinning Song like 4 squirrel in a cage, unable to find the ext as the opening theme went by yet ‘again, and finally remembering the only after having been round ei ‘wards expressed his warm appr In sad hhead. A piano recit crowd that shouts to the same ritual in another town the following evening—this is cough before the performer be- vier are you still going to th blandly asked me as I was about to walk on stage. “We the frst row and nudged his companion brutally in the ribs The Aesthetics of Stage Fright 9 ing difficulty of the cadenza at the begi of Brahms B flat tame ofthe per formers, the harsh lights—all this is meant to turn playing into performance, {nto a dramatic act midway between melodrama and the decathlon. The silence of the audience isnot that of a publ tens but of one that watches—like the dead hush that accompanies the unsteady movement ofthe tightrope walker poised over his perilous space. of the audience is largely unconscious, of course, but it derives {rom an intuitive understanding of the action that takes place on the stage. They Ienow that what they hear and see has no independent existence, bu is simply the vsble and audible sign of something that can reveal itself only inthis ion, They exact the tribute of stage right without rancor asa debt, impersonally contracted and acknowledged asa matter of course. Few audiences are hostile to the performer; most reserve their resentment for the composer, the in\ puppeteer. Even hardened enemies of contemporary music mat Sure and show their dsr by cheering the performers enthusiastically the moment the composer has lf the stage. But the public demands the tension ofthe public performance as an outward sign of the act. They know that the mac isnot what they hear but a p infin . tho have k glands do not po This explains the a inty of a botched perfor- ably) act as an anesthetic to the 1, recalcitrant pedal—one is reduced nerves. A piano. to doing one’s be because he is, for its sake, a10 Critical Entertainments “The conception of what is called “classical” mu perverse. Is the Serbian bard struck ‘meaning cannot be under- gle perfect performance ofa textis not signed essentially asa test of courage. Stage ff ment, a sacred madness. ‘The Aesthetics of Stage Fright 11 its complement, ind performance are made one and