Leopold
Godowsky (1870 -1938)
Piano Music
Vol. II
The Polish-born,
American-naturalised Leopold Godowsky was born in Lithuania. "The superman of piano playing... a pianist for pianists" James
Huneker, 1901), he taught Heinrich Neuhaus, and included among his friends Rachmaninov
and Albert Einstein. In Henry C. Lahee’s Famous Pianists of Today and
Yesterday (London, Boston 1902), we read how his youthful conquest of the
salons of Paris led to his capture of "the most aristocratic homes in
London... the palaces of the Duke of Westminster, the Duke of Norfolk... lt was
during the many festivities in connection with the Queen's golden jubilee in
1887 that Godowsky was ordered to play at Marlborough House, when no less than
thirty crowned heads formed apart of his audience. On that occasion the
Princess of Wales was so much pleased with Godowsky's 'Valse Scherzo' that she
accepted the dedication of it by a special court order [published 11th July
1888]... There is no ostentation or frivolity in Godowsky's playing, but rather
largeness and broadness of style, brilliancy, grace, fluency, and poetic
feeling. He has an immense repertoire, and it is said that he can give from
sixteen to twenty different programmes without repeating a single number, and
every selection a more or less important classical work [witness his remarkable
series of recitals at the Chicago Conservatory between October 1897 and May
1898]".
Godowsky's
original compositions, his magnum opus - the 53 legendary elaborations
and transformations of Chopin's studies (22 alone for left hand, earning him
the sobriquet "Apostle of the left hand") - his transcriptions and
contrapuntal paraphrases, demand "a polyphonic brain, and fingers that
work in co-operation with the brain. My piano music is like an orchestra, with
different independent voices played by different instruments. It requires tonal
discrimination... [My compositions have] many voices (like Bach) and ...
genuine piano quality (1ike Chopin). If you bear this in mind, you have the key
to their interpretation" (letter, Berlin
21st July 1931). In contrast to Rachmaninov's massive
hands, Godowsky's were delicate -"chiselled out of marble" (Neuhaus)
- yet immaculately trained to "master wide stretches and dangerous skips
with the greatest of ease" (his pupil Clarence Adler). "Some of [my
music] is hard to read perhaps, but I insist that it is not difficult to play.
I have small hands and I write my music so that it is pianistic - to fit the
hand".
Godowsky was among
the last of the Romantic Bach revivalists, the forgotten final jewel in a
thunderous concert-grand tradition of leonine, iron-framed pianistic
glorification going back to Liszt and Tausig. In the foreword to his "very
freely transcribed" adaptations of the first two sonatas and first partita
for solo violin, published in New York on 5th May 1924, prefaced by a saying of
Confucius - "I am not concerned at not being known; I seek to be worthy to
be known", he says:
"It was with
awe and reverence that I approached these imperishable works of Johann
Sebastian Bach [1685-1750]... the most significant compositions for
unaccompanied solo [violin] in the literature of music. While... the mighty
genius of the cantor of the Thomaskirche is everywhere apparent, yet the
insurmountable limitations of [the instrument] were obstacles to the free
unfolding of the master's supreme powers in contrapuntal style and emotional
polyphony. The transcendental nature of his music, the profundity of his ideas,
the grandeur of his vision and conception are inseparable from the mightiness
of the organ and the vastness of a cathedral. Only the orchestra, and to a
lesser degree the piano, can express as impressively as the 'thunderer of
instruments' the monumental ideas and the bewildering complexity of Bach's
compositions. In these sonatas... one feels a colossus in chains, a giant
endeavouring to adjust his powers to the limitation of his medium of
expression.
"To explore
inner meanings; to probe hidden beauties; to give utterance to vaguely
suggested thoughts; to project undivulged ideas – in articulated subconscious
impressions - was for me a labour of love and an inexhaustible source of
inspiration.
“In venturing to
transcribe these works I fully realised the burden of such a responsibility. I
likewise took into consideration the possibility of the adverse critical
opinion which I was courting by treading on such sacred soil, by trespassing
the portals of tradition.
“In a number of
instances Bach himself has shown that he approved of transcriptions, arrangements,
adaptations and diversified versions of the same work. Nor has he limited himself
to his own compositions, for he has not hesitated to arrange freely works by
other composers of his period for instruments other than those for which they
were originally intended.
“However, in the
present instance I may be accused of greater intrepidity in that I have not
merely transcribed, but have created new contrapuntal parts and introduced
occasional harmonic modifications, while fully availing myself of the developments
of our modern pianoforte and the strides we have made in the technique of piano
playing.
“In extenuation of
such procedure... my endeavour has been to develop the polyphony and the
harmony in the spirit of the master and his period. At times aesthetic
considerations have prompted me to deviate slightly from this reverential
attitude, a course I believe Bach would not have disapproved, in view of the
amazing harmonic modernisms so frequently found in his compositions and
considering his very free amendments of his own and other composers' works.
“On several
occasions I have been tempted to slightly modify the architectural design in
order to give the structural outline a more harmonious form. Thus, when the
return to the first subject of a movement seems imperative, I have interpolated
apart of the main idea before the close of that movement.
“I wish to make it
clear that I have never introduced any themes, motives, or counter-melodies
which were not a logical outgrowth of the inherent musical content. Appended to
each transcription will be found the complete original text of Bach's
composition upon which these free elaborations were made. The performer is thus
enabled to discriminate fully and intelligently between the original thought of
the composer and the adaptations and elaborations of the transcriber.
"... In
editing these piano versions... no effort has been spared to make these
editions as complete as was within my power. Since infallibility is foreign to
human nature, I believe that in some instances my own conceptions could be
replaced by interpretations of a different character without injury to the art-
work. However, I do request the performer to notice and observe all marks of
expression, and to disregard them only when there is a logical reason for the
divergence... Repetitions [where marked] may be omitted in long and slow
movements...
"... Nothing
in the treatment of the piano is so elusive as the use of the pedal. The
quality of the instrument; the size and acoustics of the auditorium [studio];
the performer's degree of clearness, evenness and accuracy; his dynamic and agogic
adjustments; his general conception of the work -all influence the use of the
pedal in its distribution of harmonic and colouristic values...
"...The minimum
and maximum of speed shown by the metronome [Godowsky provided his own tempo
markings] should be interpreted as permissible tempo fluctuations in defining
the rate of speed at the beginning of the movement and also as tempo
undulations during the movement. Due to the character of the pianoforte tone,
to the augmented volume and range of dynamics, and to the added polyphony, the
tempo indications had to be occasionally at variance with the prevalent tempi
adopted by violinists...
"While
clearness and expressiveness in the upper, lower and middle voices are a sine
qua non in performing polyphonic music, yet it should be understood that
bass-notes demand even greater attention and discrimination."
Godowsky, his
biographer Jeremy Nicholas reminds us (1989), was "proud of these Bach
transcriptions, proud of the refined and restrained technique he applied to them
and of their musical scholarship and adroitness... when... they were
subsequently generally ignored, increasing doubt beset him as to his purpose in
life and the worth of his achievernents". Aesthetically, they are much
less translations from one medium to another, as highly concentrated
intensifications of pre-existent material. Godowsky's instincts as a composer
were always more keenly developed than his gifts as a copyist. Evident
throughout is not just a monumental pianism but -as the opening Adagio of
the First Sonata so powerfully bears out (with its 22 bars broadened to
43, exchanged voicings, augmented time values, re-aligned rhythmic balances,
added cadenzas, and emotionally-tensioned dynamics) -an obsessive passion for
re-creation through a language of burgeoning variation, embellishment and
textural discourse. Here is twentieth century Romantic Bach on a grandiose,
metamorphic scale.
Transcribed in
random order (each movement carefully dated), the First and Third
Sonatas are in the sonata da chiesa style (with slow introductions
and epic fugues); the Second (a dance suite) is in the form of a sonata
da camera .The solo violin versions appended to the published piano score
were taken from the heavily marked, dynamically corrupt performing edition of
Leopold Auer (some of whose ideas Godowsky may have borrowed).
Sonata No.1 in
G minor, BWV 1001
In his manuscript
(Cöthen 1720), following baroque convention, Bach w rote the Sonata No.1 in G
minor with a key signature of one B flat, adding the necessary E flat as
an accidental as and when needed. Godowsky substitutes the modern key
signature. Transcribed New
York City 1923. Dedicated to
Franz Kneisel.
[1] Adagio (Fantasia): Maestoso; 4/4. 17th November
[2] Fuga: Allegro con brio; 4/4. 27th October. Deciso
[3] Siciliana: Andante espressivo; 12/8; B flat major. 13th
November. Dolce. The siciliana was a 17th/18th century pastoral dance of
aria-like character.
[4] Presto (Finale}: Vjvace, con fuoco; 6/8. 8th
November. Bach's original was in 3/8 time.
Sonata
(Partita) No.2 in B minor, BWV 1002
The Sonata No.2
in B minor is a cycle of four binary dances, al1 in the tonic key
and each with their own “double” or variation. In his treatment, Godowsky turns
them virtually into a group of eight studies, independently addressing
different areas and problems of technique. Transcribed during a concert tour of
the Far East, partlyon board ship, 1922-23. Dedicated
to Rachmaninov.
[5] Allemande: Maestoso largamente ; 4/4. Harbin, Manchuria, 15th December 1922. In his Plaine and
Easie Introduction (1597),
Thomas Morley described the allemande as a “heavie daunce ... (fitlie
representing the nature of the people [German], whose name it carrieth) so that
no extraordinarie motions are used in dauncing of it". By Bach's time it
was already old-fashioned. (Bach specified no tempo; Auer proposed Adagjo.)
[6] Double: Moderato; 4/4. SS Gorjistan between Hong Kong
and Singapore, 5th February 1923. Sempre quasj
staccato
[7] Courante: Andante cantabjle; 3/4. SS Gorjistan between
Singapore and Batavia, Java, 10th February 1923. The testing articulation calls for a
sustained right hand melody, “molto espressivo”, with a detached accompaniment
in both hands, “staccato e leggiero”. Additionally, Godowsky invites the use of
the una corda pedal, and offers the pianist the opportunity to either
"entirely" omit the sustaining pedal "in the first part, or when
repeating the first part". The Italian courante was usually a brisk dance:
Godowsky's tempo reversal is correspondingly the more unusual.
[8] Double: Presto con fuoco; 3/4. 55 Gorjistan near Singapore, 7th February 1923. Egualmente e ben articolato. Godowsky
follows Bach's change of tempo, but exaggerates the contrast.
[9] Sarabande: Largo; 3/4. Shanghai, China,
1st January 1923. Molto espressivo. The Bachian sarabande was
typically modeled after the zarabanda francese, with the accent placed
on the second beat. By the eighteenth century it had become a slow, stately
dance. In its original form, however, it must have been quite different:
"a dance and song," says Mariana, "so lascivious in its words,
so ugly in its movements, that it is enough to inflame even very honest
people" .Philip II of Spain had to have it banned.
[10] Double: AIlegretto vivace; 9/8. Shanghai, 2nd January1923.
"Leggiero. Una corda. Senza pedale". Quickening the tempo was
Godowsky's idea, prompted perhaps by habitual tradition as well as Auer's marking,
staccato volant (flying).
[11] Bourree: AIlegro con spirito ; 4/4. Shanghai, 31st December
1922. This French dance-type derives from the Auvergne region. Bach's original was in 2/2 time.
[12] Double: AIlegro ; 2/2. Shanghai, 5th January 1923. Leggiero.
Una corda.
Sonata No.3 in
A minor, BWV 1003
Transcribed New York City, Atlantic
City New Jersey 1924. Dedicated to Leopold Auer.
[13] Grave (Fantasia): 4/4. New York, 18th February. Largamente
[14] Fuga: AIlegro confuoco; 2/4. Atlantic City, 2nd March. Energico
[15] Andante (Aria):
Molto espressivo e cantabile; 3/4; C major.
New York, 4th
January. "The repeats should be played with the soft pedal (una
corda)".
[6] AIlegro (Finale); 4/4. New York, 9th January. Deciso. Marcato. Godowsky ignores (or was unaware
of) the written-out terraced dynamics of Bach's original.
1997 Ates Orga
