Plague-list
Posted May 30, 2020
Amidst the astonishing measures taken in response to the coronavirus, it serves us well to be reminded of the many contagious and deadly diseases which were common not so long ago. Our art bears the record of this. Hopefully, perspective and gratitude for the improvements in sanitation and medicine of the past century can be gained by learning about these works and their composers.
Mozart - Violin Sonata No. 21 in E minor, K. 304
The violin sonata in E minor, K. 304 was written by a 22 year-old Mozart in 1778 around the time of his mother’s death. She passed away due to a brief and unidentified illness while the two were having a miserable stay in Paris. Mozart wrote to his friend Joseph Bullinger, “this was the saddest day of my life– I am writing this at 2. a.m. – I have to tell you that my mother, my dear mother, does not live any longer… I believe that she was meant to die – God wanted it that way… I am therefore asking you, dear friend, please keep my father well for me, encourage him so that he won’t take it the hard way…”
K. 304 is in two movements and only 12 minutes long. Its brevity heightens its poignancy. The second movement is a gem in ABACA form. Grief and nostalgia are commingled in the A sections. The B and C sections offer a respite - perhaps happy memories of his mother. Alfred Einstein (brother to Albert) wrote that the C section was a “brief glimpse of bliss.” I can’t help but hear the word “mutter” on the two-note slurred appoggiatura gestures in the C section.
Szeryng and Haebler do a lovely job.
Mozart - Requiem in D minor, K. 626
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was unceremoniously buried in a mass grave.
In 1784 Emperor Joseph II forbade funerals and burials in the churches, crypts, and cemeteries within the outer walls of Vienna. He was turned off by opulent and expensive Viennese funerals, and in times of epidemic (a not infrequent problem in Vienna) corpses could accumulate quickly and diseases readily transfer from the dead to the living.
Mozart’s burial was in accordance with Emperor Joseph II’s regulations. His corpse was briefly consecrated outside of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, brought to St. Marx Cemetery without a funeral cortege, removed from the coffin so the coffin could be reused, and placed in a grave with four other bodies. There is no confirmation if an “Economy Coffin” was used. (Designed by everyone’s favorite necrophobe EJII, “Economy Coffins” had flaps on the underside through which corpses could be dropped into graves.)
In 1855 a gravestone was erected at the presumed burial site. It has since been moved to the illustrious 32A Group at the Zentralfriedhof, which includes Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Johann Strauss Jr.
Mozart’s cause of death is disputed. The most recent theory is that he fell victim to an epidemic streptococcal infection, but the fact that Mozart’s grieving wife clung to his corpse in the hope that she would contract and die from the same disease - and failed - suggests something non-communicable, possibly trichinosis (a parasitic disease that in Mozart’s case is presumed to have been transmitted through bad pork). While his death may not have been caused by epidemic, the circumstances of his burial were.
The full story of Mozart’s Requiem will be spared, but what is sufficient and essential here is Mozart’s mental state while composing the Requiem. With his health deteriorating, Mozart wrote in a letter, “I know I have to die…I write for myself.” In context, and since Mozart was only working on the Requiem at that time, it is clear he was referring to the Requiem. It was left unfinished at the time of his death, and underwhelmingly “completed” by his student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr.
There are many great recordings. John Eliot Gardiner’s historically informed approaches to classical and early Romantic masterpieces are always worth a listen, and Celibidache…if you haven’t experienced the arresting, slow, and pomade-heavy musical phenomenon that is Sergiu Celibidache…this is as good a place as any to start.
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 74, Pathétique
Cholera besieged the Romantic Era, with multiple and lengthy outbreaks throughout the 19th century that claimed millions of lives. Its most famous musical victim was, possibly, Tchaikovsky in 1893. Possibly, because he might have committed suicide, which might have been court ordered because his homosexuality was found out, or, was a result of his lifelong battle with depression.
The circumstances of Tchaikovsky’s death and the Pathétique Symphony are similar to that of his idol, Mozart, and his Requiem. Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of the Sixth Symphony on October 28, and died on November 6. Did he intentionally or even subconsciously write his own “symphonic requiem” knowing that he would soon die from cholera/was planning suicide, or was this a tragic coincidence?
The music is circumstantial evidence, but there is no denying that this symphony is about death. That being said, many composers wrote pieces about death and did not die immediately afterwards. The moniker “Pathétique” was suggested by his brother, and the original Russian would be better translated as “passionate” in English. The idea of succumbing to fate was suggested in the Fourth and Fifth symphonies’ successful resistance against it - creating a “three movement” symphonic cycle that Tchaikovsky was conscious of. He toyed with calling the Pathétique “A Program Symphony,” but sent it to his publisher simply as his Sixth Symphony in B minor, without even the word “Pathétique.” He took great pride and joy in composing the symphony, describing it many times in letters as “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose,” and after the score of the Sixth Symphony was sent to the publisher, his brother recalled that “I had not seen him so bright for a long time past.”
As for timeline, Tchaikovsky started the symphony in February of 1893, completed it in August, conducted the premiere on October 28, and died on November 6. That is a long time to be planning suicide, court ordered or not, if only waiting to complete a magnum opus. The CDC says that cholera symptoms “can take anywhere from a few hours to 5 days to appear after infection,” so it is impossible that Tchaikovsky contracted fatal cholera during the composition of the symphony. The direct evidence suggests Tchaikovsky did not intend to write his own Requiem.
As per the question of suicide/cholera, we just don’t know. In every likelihood Tchaikovsky consumed unboiled water that was contaminated with cholera shortly after the premier of the Pathétique, but it is impossible to say whether it was an accident or an intentional means of suicide without bringing disgrace on his reputation or his family.
Many good recording options, but the tension in a concert hall after the last note fades into silence cannot be captured by microphones. Go to a concert.
Puccini - La Bohème
La Bohème (1896) is about the lives and loves of poor, artistic 20-somethings (Bohemians) in 1840’s Paris. The seamstress Mimi falls in love with the poet Rodolfo on Christmas Eve. A few months later Rodolfo suspects Mimi has “consumption” (possibly tuberculosis - consumption was a 19th century catch-all term), and leaves her with the hope she finds a wealthy lover who can better take care of her. In the spring Mimi dies, leaving Rodolfo heartbroken.
The 1972 Decca recording of Karajan, Pavarotti, Freni, and La Scala is nigh on definitive. The young Pavarotti’s headstrong and heart-strong style fits Rodolfo perfectly (and his high C in Che gild manina is legendary, 3:20) and Freni is every bit his equal as Mimi. What’s more, the chemistry of these childhood friends is audible! La Scala and Karajan are superb.
In the same vein is Verdi’s La Traviata (1853), about a reformed Parisian courtesan who succumbs to tuberculosis after happily falling in love with a good man.
Liszt - Grandes études de Paganini
One of the most significant musical encounters of the Romantic Era came about because of the second cholera pandemic. In 1832 violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini played a benefit concert at the Paris Opéra House for the victims of the cholera outbreak (Imagine! This was possible because the bacteria that caused cholera were transmitted through contaminated food and water, not air-borne). A young pianist named Franz Liszt was in the audience.
This concert was an artistic awakening for Liszt, and he set the goal to become the “Paganini of the Piano.” Liszt wrote in a letter to his student, Pierre Wolff:
For a whole fortnight my mind and fingers have been working like two lost souls. Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Byron, Hugo, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber are all around me. I study them, meditate on them, devour them with fury; besides this, I practice four to five hours of exercises (thirds, sixths, octaves, tremolos, repetition of notes, cadenzas, etc.) Ah! provided I don’t go mad you will find in me an artist! Yes, an artist…such as is required today.
It worked. Liszt perpetuated and heightened the Romantic idea of the Virtuoso: a hero-genius-composers-performer. Imitating Paganini’s violinistic feats, Liszt revolutionized piano technique and textures, which in turn had an impact on the orchestral writing of himself and others. He also championed “programmatic” music, which became one of the major distributaries of Romanticism.
Two piano works were directly inspired by this musical encounter with Paganini. The Grande Fantasie de Bravoure sur La Clochette (1832, the year Liszt heard Paganini) is a grand piano working-out of Paganini’s La Campanella. The more famous and impressive work is the Grandes études de Paganini (1838), a sadistic piano-mashup of Paganini’s 24 Violin Caprices.
Trifanov! Trifanov! Trifanov! He is a Virtuoso after Liszt’s heart.
André Caplet - Conte Fantastique (après Le Masque de la Mort Rouge)
The macabre novelty of Le Masque de la Mort Rouge couldn’t be resisted.
André Caplet was a Prix-de-Rome winner, a conductor, composer, friend of Debussy and transcriber of many of Debussy’s piano works for orchestra. Caplet served in the First World War, and died in 1925 from the effects of gas poisoning suffered in the war.
Le Masque de la Mort Rouge is a tone poem from the year 1908, based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Masque of the Red Death. A brief synopsis: after a deadly plague, known as the Red Death, has killed half the people in his land, Prince Prospero summons a thousand of his healthy friends and retires “to the deep seclusion of one of his crenellated abbeys.” After a few months Prince Prospero decides to throw a lavish masked ball. At the ball a mysterious guest, disguised as a victim of the Red Death, shows up. His presence causes quite a lot of distress and medical emergencies, which prompts Prince Prospero to try to kill him with a dagger. It does not work. The Prince dies first. Everyone rushes on the Red Death, only to find nothing under the garments and mask, and in a few moments, everyone is dead. “And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”
Recent archival research shows that Poe struck out an additional line, “Three cheers for Darkness, Decay, and the Red Death! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!”
Poe was likely inspired by cholera when writing this story. The speed at which the Red Death worked, the year of writing, and the scenario itself all suggest cholera. I suspect that Poe read Heinrich Heine’s 1832 account of cholera in Paris (you can wave to Paganini and Liszt if you’d like), in which Heine calls the disease a “masked executioner” and, in creepy language that Poe would have savored, describes a masked ball at which most of the attendees suddenly fell ill from contaminated water.
That night the balls were more crowded than usual; excessive laughter almost drowned the roar of music; people grew hot in the chahut: a dance of anything but equivocal character; all kinds of ices and cold beverages were in great demand — when all at once the merriest of the harlequins felt that his legs were becoming much too cold, and took off his mask, when, to the amazement of all, a violent-blue face became visible.
Caplet’s tone poem has three sections, Moderé - Assez animé - Largement, which follow the arc of the story: ominous opening - rollicking good time - mysterious guest seriously kills the vibe.
There aren’t many recordings, but this is a solid one with Lily Laskine and Quatuor Via Nova.
Epilogue: Cholera
Cholera really did besiege the Romantic era, something I did not realize until beginning to write this. Between 1817 and 1923 there were six different outbreaks that in aggregate spanned the whole globe. The twice-mentioned 1832 outbreak in Paris killed 20,000 out of a population of 650,000 - over 3% of the population (for perspective, 3% of New York City’s current population is 251,000). The third outbreak, 1846-1860, was the deadliest. It claimed one million lives in Russia, one of which was the mother of fourteen year old Tchaikovsky. In the U.S., cholera became rampant on the Oregon and California trails, particularly afflicting those who came west for the California Gold Rush in 1849. The fifth, 1881-1896, hit Russia in 1892-1893 and (probably) killed Tchaikovsky and 267,890 others. Improvements in water treatment, food safety, and plumbing have for the most part removed the threat of cholera.
Mozart Violin Sonata
Mutter, Anne-Sophie. “W.A. Mozart by Letter.” www.anne-sophie-mutter.de/en/page/projekte/das-mozart-projekt/mozart-biography-letters/. Anne-Sophie Mutter. Web. 6, April 2020
Jaffe, Jane Vial. “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Violin Sonata in E minor, K. 300c (K. 304).” www.parlancechamberconcerts.org/parlance-program-notes/violin-sonata-in-e-minor/. Parlance Chamber Concerts. October 2014. Web. 6, April 2020.
Mozart - Requiem
“St. Marx Cemetary.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Marx_Cemetery. Wikepedia. 24, December 2019. Web. 7, April 2020.
Egghardt, Hanne. “Vienna and Death.” www.virtualvienna.net/the-city-its-people/typical-viennese/vienna-and-death/. Virtual Vienna. Web. 7, April 2020.
“1791 Last Months.” www.mozart.com/en/timeline/life/la-clemenza-di-tito-magic-flute/. Mozart.com. Web. 7, April 2020.
“Zentralfriedhof - Famous Graves.”www.visitingvienna.com/sights/zentralfriedhoffamousgraves/. 19, March 2020. Web. 7, April 2020.
Bakalar, Nicholas. “What Really Killed Mozart? Maybe Strep.” www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/health/18mozart.html. The New York Times. 17, August 2009. Web. 7. April 2020.
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 74, Pathétique
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Cholera - Vibrio cholera infection.” www.cdc.gov/cholera/general/index.html. USA.gov. 11, May 2018. Web. 18, April 2020
Service, Tom. “Symphony Guide: Tchaikovsky’s Sixth (‘Pathetique’).” www.theguardian.com/music/ tomserviceblog/2014/aug/26/symphony-guide-tchaikovsky-sixth-pathetique-tom-service. The Guardian. 26, August 2014. Web. 18, April 2020
“Death of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky. Wikipedia. 2, April, 2020. Web. 18, April 2020.
“Cholera Outbreaks and Pandemics.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera_outbreaks_and_pandemics#First,_1817%E2%80%931824. Wikipedia. 15, April 2020. Web. 18, April 2020.
Puccini - La Bohème
“La Boheme.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me. Wikipedia 2, April 2020. Web. 10, April 2020.
“La Traviata.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata. Wikipedia 24, April 2020. Web. 27, April 2020.
Liszt - Grandes études de Paganini
“Franz Liszt: Biography.” www.windrep.org/Franz_Liszt. 20, April 2020. Web. 23, April 2020
Walker, Allen. Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Publishing, 1987. Print. pgs. 174-175
Caplet - Conte Fantastique après Le Masque de la Mort Rouge
Nichols, Roger. “André Caplet Biography.” www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/698d6fa5-003a-46d3-af1c-12298f4ef94aBBC. Web. 22, April 2020.
“The Masque of the Red Death.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death. Wikipedia. 4, April 2020. Web. 22, April 2020.
Heini, Heinrich. “The Cholera in Paris.” The Works of Heinrich Heine, Vol. 14 Translated by Charles Godfrey Leland. www.poetsandprinces.com/?p=281 Poets and Princes. 10, March 2010. Web. 22, April 2020.