THE ATONAL TRAIL
Sirs:
In his article attacking . Schoenberg
and atonality (PARTISAN
REviEW,
May 1948), Mr. Nabokov says that
what escapes me "is the fact that
Stravinsky is working in a completely
new direction." In order to prove this
he says: "Stravinsky is not concerned
with the further evolution of harmony,
but (1) with the problem of musical
time and its measurement, (2) the
function of the interval, (3) the ex–
tension of a phrase, (4) the juxtaposi–
tion in
time
of several melodic lines."
I assure you: there is no need to be
a specialist on music in order to per–
ceive the nonsense of such statements.
( 1) I fail to see where the problem
lies. At any rate, the only way to be
concerned with it is to write music
and, I confess, that I cannot see
Stravinsky's originality in this respect
As to the "measurement," if Nabokov
refers to a compositional activity, it
is obvious that every composer measures
musical time
in
as far as he is con–
cerned with the length and propor–
tions of the various sections of his
piece, so that such a statement seems
quite senseless. (2) The same may
apply here; I should like to add in
parentheses that nobody has given
greater care to the "function of the
interval" than Schoenberg. The 12-
tone technique being entirely based
on this consideration, a fact which
Nabokov seems to ignore. (3) This
has been one of the basic principles of
musical composition during the last ten
centuries, and mentioning it as some–
thing particular to a certain composer
is just as ridiculous as, let us say,
stating that a certain writer is con–
cerned with the usage of nouns and
verbs. (4) I should be grateful to Mr.
Nabokov if he could let me know where
else--except in time--it is possible to
juxtapose melodic lines.
943
So far, however, Mr. Nabokov has
only given us a few tautological ban–
alities; in the next sentence he be–
comes delirious :"The whole question
of time
+
space
+
linear and chordal
harmony which create the fourth di–
mension of music - rhythm - is the
real preoccupation of Stravinsky's
art."
How can one add time to space?
What has music got to do with space
at all? What is linear harmony (the
definition of harmony being that it
deals with chords) ? What is the fourth
dimension (I doubt that Mr. Nabokov
knows the answer) ?. How can its pre–
sence be explained in music, where
there are precisely no dimensions a
dimension being specifically a sp;tial
concept! How can one say that this
fourth dimension is
rhythm,
of which
a little further, Mr. Nabokov says (cor–
rectly for once) that it is one of the
three elements of music! Is it then
an element or a dimension? How can
one become the other and, besides,
are not all composers concerned with
this element?
Once again, it would be quite sim–
ple to show the same confusions and
contradictions all through the article
which induces me to draw the
follow~
ing conclusion: the fact that a theore–
tical defense of a composer who be–
trays a total creative impotence turns
?ut to be equally impotent, this fact
1s
not astonishing. Thus, by printing
Mr. Nabokov's paper, P.R. has con–
tributed greatly to the establishment
of a true picture of what generally
goes on in the musical world of today.
But maybe, just because of this sad
state of affairs, there are better and
higher tasks for a review which de–
cides to run articles on music and
maybe this is mainly what I have
been trying to express in this letter.
Rene
Leibowitz
Paris, France
