Literary Views The Structure Of Melody

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31327, 25 March 1967, Page 4

Literary Views The Structure Of Melody

(Reviewed by J. A R.J A History of Melody. By Bence Szabolcsi. Barrie and Rockliff. 313 pp. It is only very gradually becoming known that, in recent years, Hungary has an established enviable position in the world of music education. Not only is it producing fine artists but, and more important it has succeeded in producing a whole generation of people literate in the language of music. Signs of this are appearing with increasing regularity. And each piece of evidence seems to point to generating factors which the sophisticate would describe as “old hat.” namely, the cultivation of true folk music and a thoroughly graduated course of study through all levels of the music education system. Even more pertinent to the ardent believer in pedagogy or method is the quite obvious fact that, in Hungary, music’s organisation and its teaching system are both firmly under the control, if not the dictatorship, of one man, the composer, Zoltan Kodaly. Its spirit is impelled by two men. both composers, Kodaly and Bartok. The recent publication in English by U.N.E.S.C.O. of “Musical Education in Hungary” edited by Frigyes Sandors, and the book under review, reveals this significance with obvious clarity. Sandor’s symposium points to permeating philosophy and methods of the Hungarian organisation, whereas Szabolcsi’s “A History of Melody” displays the rich scholastic fruits of such a system. As one of Kodaly's most highly regarded pupils and a colleague. Professor Szabolcsi! followed a distinguished) career at the Budapest' Academy. This present study of melody, lovingly translated by Cynthia Jolly and Sara Karig, is the result of a long period of research. It would be easy to describe this as a history of melody, painstakingly organised, plotting a sure course from the

primitive to the modern and taking into account those fingerprints of melodic vocabulary which differentiate Bach, say, from Vivaldi and which separate the baroque from the rococo, but such a generalisation would overlook grossly more significant, if somewhat intangible, points of interest. To the author melody is not merely a series of notes and rhythms. His thesis takes into account the speech rhythms of the vernacular and leads him to consider aspects of nationalist and even ethnic cultural development. Copious quotations testify to the Professor’s thorough- : ness. At times, there are so many that one begins to wonder just what melodic originality is. Take the common chord, for instance. Writing of the classical period. Professor Szabolcsi asserts that “folk-music was still the principal influence” and that “it made them (composers) aware of the polyphony latent in the melody of the common chord.” He then quotes fifty instances —Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and one or two others—most of them familiar tunes!

' Aided by a comprehensive awareness of the literature of each era, Professor Szabolcsi brings to bear on its music the comments and the beliefs of contemporary writers. The products of art and architecture likewise are links in his argument. At times one wishes that more was made of the underlying harmonic structure which so clearly influenced the course of melody. Szabolcsi does make this point on occasion but seems content to- underplay it. To describe late and postWagnerian melody as “artificially constructed stifled, stunted and decadent” is a view which might be more convincingly tenable were the fetters of an insistent chordal progression to be explained in some detail. Even then, it might be argued that postRomantic melody gained its character, if not its originality, from the composers’ preoccupation with embellishing an already complex series of harmonies. But, as can be observed, the author takes melodies as he finds them. One might guess he likes “a good time” earthy, of the people, whistleable and memorable. The plan of the book bears this out. From a music derived from man’s “natural sounds” he traces melody, phase by phase, to the present century with its folky pre-occupations, its mediaevalism and its occasional barbarisms. A final chapter, in which the concepts of geography and musical history are related, is as stimulating as any, and betrays the essence of the scholar’s credo; his belief that man, his environment, his ethnic background and the melodies to which he gives utterance, are mutually involved if not indissolubly bound together. It is a satisfying end to a fascinating piece of research.