What greater threat than depriving the audience of what it holds most dear?
Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser was performed in Paris for the first time in March 1861. The critical reaction was mixed. Some critics claimed that the opera was not at all suited for French taste.
Rossini’s French grand opera Guillaume Tell was performed for the first time on 3 August 1829 at the Paris Opera. Its theme is based on a fourteenth-century legend at the time when Gessler, an Austrian tyrant, reigned over the canton of Uri, a region in Switzerland. A hat was placed at the top of a pole before which villagers were obliged to bow. Guillaume Tell refused to do so and as punishment was forced, with his crossbow, to shoot off an apple placed atop his son’s head.
Sometimes he missed …
Today from Viafora’s “Gallery of Celebrities in Musical America we present the artist’s caricatures of the distinguished French composers Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns. We also include several interesting and amusing texts about them from Musical America. Why was Debussy “the most misunderstood man in the artistic world”? Why did Saint-Saëns insist on bringing his toothbrush to an evening soirée? Read on to find out!
Claude Debussy
Vol. 24 No. 26 ( 28 October 1916): 7; Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2.
“Keeping in Touch with World’s Music Growth Through the Piano,”
Vol. 13 No. 13 (4 February 1911): 13.
Vol. 13 No. 22 (8 April 1911): 7.
The following article was written by the soprano Maggie Teyte, whom Debussy personally chose to replace Mary Garden in the role of Mélisande for his opera, Pelléas et Mélisande.
Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2.
Read more from this article by clicking here: Maggie Teyte Corrects Some False Ideas About Debussy
Below, Mary Garden, who originated the role of Mélisande, speaks about her relationship with Debussy.
Debussy playing Debussy…
A 1900 photograph of Saint-Saëns alongside Viafora’s caricature of the composer as “Samson”
(left) Camille Saint-Saëns. photographed by Pierre Petit (1900); (right) Vol. 25 No. 2 (11 November 1916): 7.
“Echoes of Music Abroad,” Vol. 16 No. 11 (20 July 1912): 11.
Vol. 35 No. 9 (24 December 1921): 1.
Read more from this article by clicking here: “Musical World Loses Grand Old Man”
With the conclusion of this post, RIPM’s Curios, News and Chronicles signs off for a brief summer hiatus. We will be back in September with more compelling and entertaining material from the musical press. In the meantime, the staff at the RIPM Center wishes you a wonderful summer!
RIPM search tip: In the event that you wish to pursue research on these two composers, note that the name Debussy appears in the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals in 2,020 citations, and that of Saint-Saëns in 2,787 citations. In RIPM’s European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), Debussy’s name appears on 17,767 pages, and Saint-Saëns on 31,692 pages!
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
Last week, we featured Gianni Viafora’s caricatures of Puccini and of Mascagni from the artist’s “Gallery of Celebrities” in Musical America. Today we showcase his drawings of two more Italian composers, Ruggiero Leoncavallo and Italo Montemezzi. We also include several texts about the composers from Musical America, a remarkable, though little-explored documentary resource, and include links to articles sampled below! Read a section of a remarkable review of Montemezzi’s now-rarely performed opera, L’amore Dei Tre Re, “one of the most deeply affecting and full-blooded scores since Wagner,” and an absolutely scathing obituary of Leoncavallo, a man whose passing was, for one writer, “of no significance to music.”
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Vol. 24 No. 11 (15 July 1916): 7; Vol. 4 No. 9 (14 July 1906): 5.
Vol. 18 No. 25 (25 October 1913): 3.
Vol. 4 No.9 (14 July 1906): 10.
Vol. 30 No. 16 (16 August 1919): 2.
“…the demise of Leoncavallo is of no significance to music. So far as he mattered artistically the man might have died a quarter of a century ago.”
Read the entire blistering obituary here: Leoncavallo Passes
Another Viafora caricature of Leoncavallo
Vol. 18 No. 25 (25 October 1913): 4.
* * *
Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 3.
Read a section of this article by clicking here: Montemezzi “Success Unequivocal”
Italo Montemezzi
Vol. 24 No. 23 (7 October 1916): 7; Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 3.
“Let Simplicity Be the Composer’s Constant Objective, Adjures Italo Montemezzi,” Vol. 31 No. 4 (22 November 1919): 3.
Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 4.
A photograph of Montemezzi (left; in red) and Viafora (right; in red)
Vol. 31 No. 4 (22 November 1919): 3.
RIPM search tip: For more on Viafora and his drawings in Musical America, access the RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, as fill in the following fields: Periodical: Musical America (New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]), Keyword(s): Viafora.
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
It was in this way that Gianni Viafora, arguably the most important caricaturist of musical personalities during the first quarter of the twentieth century, was introduced to the readers of Musical America, a journal to which he contributed extensively. [1]
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce one of the cleverest caricaturists in this city, Mr. Viafora, who is to draw pictures exclusively for Musical America… The fine satire and subtle humor of Mr. Viafora’s sketches have long since made him a favorite with operagoers and opera artists alike and the readers of two continents, especially those of Italian and American nationality, are familiar with the name of the great artist. [2]
Gianni Viafora was born in 1870 in Cosenza, a city in Calabria, Italy; in 1899 he married the well-known soprano Gina Ciaparelli; and, three years later the Viaforas settled in New York. After contributing caricatures to publications in Chicago and New York and to magazines in Italy, Viafora became a regular contributor to Musical America in 1911.
His most extensive contribution to the popular music magazine appeared in a regular column entitled “Musical America’s Gallery of Celebrities,” which contains 222 numbered caricatures of some of the most celebrated musical personalities active in the musical life of the period. As demonstrated by his first and last caricatures drawn for this series, Viafora’s range of subjects extended from the most revered (Enrico Caruso) to those, while well-known at the time, all but forgotten today (Umberto Sorrentino).
Vol. 23 No. 7 (18 December 1915): 7; Vol. 32 No. 4 (22 May 19120): 7.
Furthermore, the manner in which Viafora drew his subjects clearly reflected his kind nature. For his drawings do not depict his subjects by grotesquely exaggerating a physical feature, which is the manner we today often recognize a caricature. Rather, his drawings often attempt to depict an aspect of the inner character of his subjects. Of course, there is the occasional big belly or large nose here and there. But more often than not it is a wrinkle, a frown, the position of a hand, the stance of an artist while performing, a slightly troubled countenance, a characteristic facial expression or a glimmer or a smile or sparkling eyes that reveals something special and unique about the nature of the subject. Here are a few more examples of drawings from Viafora’s “Gallery.”
More caricatures of this marvelous artist will appear in future postings. You can expect to see contemporary photos of Viafora’s subjects alongside the artist’s depiction of them, which allows one to appreciate the delicacy of his approach. And, accompanying each image will be brief texts from Musical America which we hope will offer insights into this extraordinarily rich and surprisingly little-explored documentary resource.
As you can see, no musical contemporary was safe from Viafora’s pen, not even his wife!
Vol. 27 No. 26 (27 April 1918): 7.
RIPM search tip: For more on Viafora and his drawings in Musical America, access the RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, and fill in the following fields: Periodical: Musical America (New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]), Keyword(s): Viafora.
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
[2] Musical America, Vol. 15 No. 2 (18 November 1911), 21.
This week we celebrate the birthday of composer, pianist, and bandleader Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, born 29 April 1899. Our forthcoming RIPM Jazz Periodicals collection contains a wealth of material related to Ellington, his music, his collaborators, and his band members that is otherwise unavailable or out of print. Ellington related content also includes news and reports from national and international tours, illustrations, photographs, articles, reviews of concerts, recordings, and festival performances, discographies, interviews, and advertisements.
At the same time we are also demonstrating the massive content of RIPM Jazz Periodicals, by focusing on a single journal issue from among the thousands in this collection: Jazz [First Series], Vol. 1 Nos. 5-6 (January 1943). The issue deals exclusively with Ellington and represents but a tiny fraction of references to him in RIPM Jazz Periodicals. In fact, with ninety-seven of the one hundred journals now uploaded to our database, Ellington’s name appears on an astounding 16,681 pages!
The front and back cover of the Ellington issue of Jazz
Jazz [First Series], Vol. 1 Nos. 5-6 (January 1943).
Here are the titles of the principal articles in the issue.
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Following is a selection of images from this issue…
Ibid., 7.
Ibid., 8.
Ibid., 14. 
Ibid., 24. 
Ibid., 5. 
Ibid., 11,19.
Ibid., 28.
And finally, some snippets from the articles…
Ellington and the history of music…
Ibid., 9.
Ibid., 18.
A young Ellington “attached” to a piano stool…
Ibid., 11.
Ellington and Strayhorn…
Ibid., 13.
The Duke and the Deb…
“A true master of jazz…”
RIPM search tip: Be on the lookout for more updates and posts on the RIPM Jazz Periodicals collection, coming soon!
Click here to subscribe to RIPM’s Curios, News, and Chronicles!
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
The French journal Musica (1902-1914) was published in Paris by the influential journalist and publisher Pierre Lafitte. Perhaps better known for his illustrated sports magazine La Vie au grand air (1898-1914; 1916-22), Lafitte’s affinity for illustrations is also evident in Musica, which regularly incorporated images of well-known composers and performers with accompanying articles. The journal’s editor, Xavier Leroux, was a composer and longtime teacher of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire.
Today, we present just a sampling of the many attractive illustrated covers of Musica.
Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn
Vol. 8 No. 84 (September 1909); Vol. 13 No. 143 (August 1914).
Richard Strauss and Gabriel Fauré
Vol. 9 No. 97 (October 1910); Vol. 4 No. 34 (July 1905).
Bedřich Smetana and Edvard Grieg
Vol. 12 No. 127 (April 1913); Vol. 6 No. 62 (November 1907).
Jules Massenet and Charles Gounod
Vol. 5 No 50 (November 1906); Vol. 5 No. 46 (July 1906).
Richard Wagner and a singer wearing the iconic helmet of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
Vol. 2 No. 13 (October 1903); Vol. 3 No. 23 (August 1904).
RIPM search tip: Musica (Paris, 1902-1914) is available in full-text in RIPM’s Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals. Select the journal in Browse Mode to view its contents according to a specific year of publication, volume number, and issue number. Select the journal in Advance Search Mode to search any keyword within its entire run of publication.
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
April 6th was the 47th anniversary of the death of the composer Igor Stravinsky, who first achieved international recognition for his three ballets commissioned by impresario Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913).
The illustration below appeared in the Harvard Musical Review less than one year after the first performance of The Rite of Spring.
Harvard Musical Review, Vol. 2 No. 7 (April 1914): 2.
The French journal Musica published these comments after the premiere of The Firebird.
The new work was, ultimately, the Firebird; which was the most important artistic event of this Ballet Russe season. It is an admirable spectacle … this tale danced in one act has exceptional musical value. For that very reason, and especially for that reason, it deserves special mention.
A true dance music that remains nevertheless real music! … that is well worth being especially praised.
It reveals a young Russian composer of the greatest talent: Mr. Igor Stravinsky.
Musica, Vol. 9 No. 95 (1 August 1910): 119.
Nearly three years later, news of the raucous premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring was reported widely in the musical press. Many reports remarked on the composer’s dissonant score, including the following comments, published in Musical America.
Musical America, Vol. 18 No. 12 (26 July 1913): 10.
This photo of an intense young Stravinsky in his studio in Petrograd, appeared three years later.
Musical America, Vol. 23 No. 9 (1 January 1916): 17.
In the same year, 1916, the following two short reviews of Stravinsky’s Petrushka demonstrate the reception of this work in the United States.
Musical America, Vol. 23 No. 13 (29 January 1916): 4.
By 1918, Stravinsky had already composed a seminal work in what is referred to as his “Neoclassical Period,” utilizing a small chamber ensemble. Entitled The Soldier’s Tale (1918), it was described in the following report as being unlike anything Stravinsky had previously composed.
Musical America, Vol. 29 No. 5 (30 November 1918): 27.
One of the artists with whom Stravinsky maintained a long term relationship was Pablo Picasso, who on several occasions, produced sketches of the composer.
Stravinsky, sketched by Pablo Picasso
Pro-Musica Quarterly, Vol.3 No. 1 (March 1924): 4.
Russian avant-garde painter Michel Larionov also sketched Stravinsky along with a few of his Ballets Russes colleagues, including the impresario Serge Diaghilev, French writer, playwright, artist and film maker Jean Cocteau, and French composer Erik Satie.
Modern Music, Vol. 3 No. 1 (November-December 1925): [2].
Nine years after Larionov’s sketch was published in Modern Music, the journal published yet another sketch of the composer by Picasso, in 1934.
Modern Music, Vol. 12 No. 1 (November-December 1934): [2].
RIPM search tip: For more on Stravinsky, use RIPM’s Combined Interface and search “Stravinsky” as a keyword.
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
Today, opera conductors are positioned between the audience and the orchestra, so as to visually lead both those singing on stage and the instrumentalists accompanying them. In the 19th century, however, engravings frequently depict conductors in what would be viewed today as a most unusual position—right in front of the stage, with their backs to the orchestra! See if you can spot the conductor in the following series of images.
A production of Fromental Halévy’s Charles VI at the Théâtre de l’Opéra.
L’Illustration, Vol. I (18 March 1843): 41.
An engraving from an 1848 production at the Théâtre de Trianon
L’Illustration, Vol. XI (22 April 1848): 128.
Another image of a Fromental Halévy opera production, this time of La Juive
L’Illustration, Vol. X (18 September 1847): 37.
A view from the stage at the Théâtre royal de Berlin
L’Illustration, Vol. IX (21 August 1847): 388.
A similar view, this time from the Grand-Théâtre in St. Petersburg
Ibid.
A horse race scene from Monréal and Blondeau’s Paris port de mer at the Parisian Théâtre des Variétés
L’Illustration, Vol. XCVII (14 March 1891): 236.
This collection of iconography captures a particular performance practice at a specific time in musical history. And as in the case of the final image above, which was featured in a recent post about the use of machinery to create scenic illusions at the opera, these illustrations also demonstrate the many different research inquiries that can be formulated from a single piece of iconography.
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RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
