Charles T. Downey at Ionarts pays tribute to pianist Alfred Brendel on the occasion of his last concert in the U.S.
We had gathered to give tribute to an astounding career of sixty years at the piano, to the mark the man has left on the fairly narrow repertoire that was his signature. Brendel devoted himself not to Apollo or to Dionysus, but to the cult of eloquent sound. A Brendel performance rarely says too much but is committed to and achieves, especially in Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert, the elegant expression of every detail in the score.
Also at Ionarts, Michael Lodico reports on the conversation with Brendel the next night at the Austrian Embassy in Washington. Brendel spoke on a variety of subjects, and was asked specifically about humor in Haydn’s music and Brendel’s article “Does Classical Music Have To Be Entirely Serious?” Humor is based on a departure from established forms and expectations, and to understand humor in anything, one has to understand the framework and share the expectation. Brendel wrote:
Why does classical musical lend itself so readily to comic effects? Because it seems to me to reflect, in its solid and self-sufficient forms and structures, the trust of the Enlightenment in rational structures that rule the universe. The spirit of classical music seems to imply the belief that the world is good, or at least that it could become so. For the Romantics, there was no sense of order to rely upon; it had to be found and created in oneself. The open and fragmentary structures of romantic music, as epitomized by the fantasy, aimed to be as personal, and exceptional, as possible. Where, as with Berlioz, surprise becomes the governing principle of composition, and music a succession of feverish dreams, comic effects have little chance; they have to be achieved as an assault on what is proper and predictable.
Brendel is correct, and we should answer the question: No, classical music does not have to be entirely serious. For those who like to contemplate the future of classical music (or, indeed, the future of our culture in general), this would be a good place to focus some attention. Our capacity for humor may be a good bellwether.
Will Rogers said, “I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth.” And G. K. Chesterton said, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly; devils fall because of their gravity.”
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