Page - 220 - in Guido Adlers Erbe - Restitution und Erinnerung an der Universität Wien

© 2017, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847107217 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737007214 AdlerandMusicCriticism BN: Thecaseofarthistory isadmittedlyadifferentkindofcomparison.After all, inmusicyoudohave thecomposingandtheperformingcomponents separately. You’re expected to be able to perform something. You aren’t expected to be a composer. Adlermakes the point in his autobiography about the importance of being a participant.Maybe hemeans studying performance,butalsoplayingarole incontemporarymusical life.Beinga critic, being informed about contemporarydevelopments. Adler wrote a biographyofGustavMahler (1860–1911) soon afterMahler’s death.59He wrote sort of abookaboutRichardWagner (1813–1883),which consists, however, justofhisclass lectures.60Wagnerat that timehadjustdied.You have to remember that Adler was born in 1855. He was already pretty mature in the last years of the century. There’s an interesting bit in his autobiographyabouthisvisitwithWagner.Hewasabout twenty, twenty- oneyearsold,andhewasinvitedtoWagner’shome,becausehewasdoing some journalism, writing criticism. He runs intoWagner in one of the rooms, andWagner says tohim, “SiewidmensichderWissenschaft” and proceeds to dismiss the validity of scholarship.Adler tries to clarify, but Wagner continues his diatribe, stamping his foot, ranting. Fortunately, Adlersays,Cosimaappears, likea“deaexmachina,”saying,“Richard,rege dichdochnichtsoauf,”61andleadshimaway.ThebusinessaboutWagner’s anti-Semitismdoesn’t comeup. Musical InstitutionsandtheCriticalEditionofMusic PVB: Beingacritic,beingapartofcontemporarymusical life, itbringsus toa questionhereonourdiscussionsheetofbeingoutsidethe institutionsof musicology, that is, at theuniversity. Is there anyway itmakes sense to think of that as an influence fromAdler? I think about someone like JosephKerman62 (1924–2014),whoraises thequestionofcriticismagain inthe1980s. InKerman’sparticularcase ithasanEnglish influence,but thereis thatsense inwhichsomeonelikeLeonBotstein63(bn. 1946),who 59 GuidoAdler:GustavMahler.Wien:Universal-Edition1916. 60 GuidoAdler: RichardWagner. Vorlesungen gehalten anderUniversität zuWien. Leipzig: BreitkopfundHärtel 1904. 61 Adler:WollenundWirken(Anm.8),S. 16. 62 Joseph Kerman was an American musicologist of British heritage. He wrote widely on Renaissanceandnineteenth-centurymusic,aswellasmusiccriticism.Hetaughtprimarilyat theUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley. 63 LeonBotstein is anAmerican historian, conductor, and educator who immigrated to the UnitedStateswithhisEasternEuropeanJewishfamily,whichhadescapedWorldWarII.Asa scholarhehaswrittenprimarilyaboutJewsCentralEuropeanculture,andasaneducatorhe has servedaspresidentofBardCollege formanyyears. PhilipV.Bohlman/BrunoNettl220 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0