Today from Viafora’s “Gallery of Celebrities in Musical America we present the artist’s caricatures of the distinguished French composers Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns. We also include several interesting and amusing texts about them from Musical America. Why was Debussy “the most misunderstood man in the artistic world”? Why did Saint-Saëns insist on bringing his toothbrush to an evening soirée? Read on to find out!

Claude Debussy Vol. 24 No. 26 ( 28 October 1916): 7; Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2.

“Keeping in Touch with World’s Music Growth Through the Piano,” Vol. 13 No. 13 (4 February 1911): 13.

Vol. 13 No. 22 (8 April 1911): 7.

The following article was written by the soprano Maggie Teyte, whom Debussy personally chose to replace Mary Garden in the role of Mélisande for his opera, Pelléas et Mélisande.

Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2. Read more from this article by clicking here: Maggie Teyte Corrects Some False Ideas About Debussy

Below, Mary Garden, who originated the role of Mélisande, speaks about her relationship with Debussy.

Debussy playing Debussy...

A 1900 photograph of Saint-Saëns alongside Viafora's caricature of the composer as "Samson" (left) Camille Saint-Saëns. photographed by Pierre Petit (1900); (right) Vol. 25 No. 2 (11 November 1916): 7.

"Echoes of Music Abroad," Vol. 16 No. 11 (20 July 1912): 11.

Vol. 35 No. 9 (24 December 1921): 1.

Read more from this article by clicking here: "Musical World Loses Grand Old Man"

With the conclusion of this post, RIPM’s Curios, News and Chronicles signs off for a brief summer hiatus. We will be back in September with more compelling and entertaining material from the musical press. In the meantime, the staff at the RIPM Center wishes you a wonderful summer!

RIPM search tip: In the event that you wish to pursue research on these two composers, note that the name Debussy appears in the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals in 2,020 citations, and that of Saint-Saëns in 2,787 citations. In RIPM's European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), Debussy's name appears on 17,767 pages, and Saint-Saëns on 31,692 pages!

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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Last week, we featured Gianni Viafora’s caricatures of Puccini and of Mascagni from the artist’s “Gallery of Celebrities” in Musical America. Today we showcase his drawings of two more Italian composers, Ruggiero Leoncavallo and Italo Montemezzi. We also include several texts about the composers from Musical America, a remarkable, though little-explored documentary resource, and include links to articles sampled below! Read a section of a remarkable review of Montemezzi’s now-rarely performed opera, L'amore Dei Tre Re, “one of the most deeply affecting and full-blooded scores since Wagner,” and an absolutely scathing obituary of Leoncavallo, a man whose passing was, for one writer, “of no significance to music.”

Ruggiero Leoncavallo Vol. 24 No. 11 (15 July 1916): 7; Vol. 4 No. 9 (14 July 1906): 5.

Vol. 18 No. 25 (25 October 1913): 3.

Vol. 4 No.9 (14 July 1906): 10.

Vol. 30 No. 16 (16 August 1919): 2.

“…the demise of Leoncavallo is of no significance to music. So far as he mattered artistically the man might have died a quarter of a century ago.”

Read the entire blistering obituary here: Leoncavallo Passes

Another Viafora caricature of Leoncavallo Vol. 18 No. 25 (25 October 1913): 4.

Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 3.

Read a section of this article by clicking here: Montemezzi "Success Unequivocal"

Italo Montemezzi Vol. 24 No. 23 (7 October 1916): 7; Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 3.

"Let Simplicity Be the Composer's Constant Objective, Adjures Italo Montemezzi," Vol. 31 No. 4 (22 November 1919): 3.

Vol. 19 No. 10 (10 January 1914): 4.

A photograph of Montemezzi (left; in red) and Viafora (right; in red) Vol. 31 No. 4 (22 November 1919): 3.

RIPM search tip: For more on Viafora and his drawings in Musical America, access the RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, as fill in the following fields: Periodical: Musical America (New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]), Keyword(s): Viafora.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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Last week, we introduced Gianni Viafora and his "Gallery of Celebrities" in Musical America.[1] Today we showcase his drawings of Puccini and Mascagni and compare them with contemporary photographs of the composers. We leave you to compare the skill and amusing refinement with which this all-but-forgotten artist depicts his subjects. We also include several texts from Musical America, a remarkable, though little-explored documentary resource, dealing with lesser-known elements of the composers’ lives. And, for the first time, we provide links to entire articles sampled below, no subscription required!

Giacomo Puccini 24 Vol. No. 1 (22 July 1916): 7; Vol. 29 No. 8 (21 December 1918): 1.

Note that Puccini is pictured lake-side, across from which is depicted his villa on Torre del Lago. Note also the tiny singing duck, perched on the end of the composer's hunting rifle!

Puccini the Hunter "...duck shooting, which he pursued with more energy than his composing..."

Watch this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYqIdOI_RdwPlease use your browser's back arrow to return to this post.(Warning: If you do not you will be watching random videos for days to come, over which we have no control!)

An anecdote:

"Personalities," Vol. 13 No. 13 (4 February 1911): 20.

Vol. 13 No. 7 (24 December 1910): 8.

To read the entire article, click here: "Puccini at Home"

Pietro Mascagni Vol. 24 No. 14 (5 August 1916): 7; Vol. 24 No. 2 (13 May 1916): 29.

Vol. 23 No. 25 (22 April 1916): 19.

Two anecdotes:

"What the Gossips Say," Vol. 6 No. 6 (22 June 1907): 14; "Echoes of Music Abroad," Vol. 15 No. 24 (20 April 1912): 12.

Vol. 16 No. 11 (20 July 1912): 27; Vol. 15 No. 24 (20 April 1912): 29.

To read both articles, click here: Mascagni's (in)fidelity

Mascagni at the piano...

More Viafora coming soon...

RIPM search tip: For more on Viafora and his drawings in Musical America, access the RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, as fill in the following fields: Periodical: Musical America (New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]), Keyword(s): Viafora.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, RIPM European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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[1] See H. Robert Cohen, “Viafora’s ‘Gallery of Celebrities’ in Musical America (1915-1920),” Music Cultures in Sounds, Words and Images: Essays in Honor of Zdravko Blažeković, (Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag, 2018): 535-569.

This week we celebrate the birthday of composer, pianist, and bandleader Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, born 29 April 1899. Our forthcoming RIPM Jazz Periodicals collection contains a wealth of material related to Ellington, his music, his collaborators, and his band members that is otherwise unavailable or out of print. Ellington related content also includes news and reports from national and international tours, illustrations, photographs, articles, reviews of concerts, recordings, and festival performances, discographies, interviews, and advertisements.

At the same time we are also demonstrating the massive content of RIPM Jazz Periodicals, by focusing on a single journal issue from among the thousands in this collection: Jazz [First Series], Vol. 1 Nos. 5-6 (January 1943). The issue deals exclusively with Ellington and represents but a tiny fraction of references to him in RIPM Jazz Periodicals. In fact, with ninety-seven of the one hundred journals now uploaded to our database, Ellington’s name appears on an astounding 16,681 pages!

The front and back cover of the Ellington issue of JazzJazz [First Series], Vol. 1 Nos. 5-6 (January 1943).

Here are the titles of the principal articles in the issue.

Following is a selection of images from this issue...

Ibid., 7.

Ibid., 8.

Ibid., 14.

Ibid., 24.

Ibid., 5.

Ibid., 11,19.

Ibid., 28.

And finally, some snippets from the articles...

Ellington and the history of music…

Ibid., 9.

Ibid., 18. A young Ellington “attached” to a piano stool…

Ibid., 11. Ellington and Strayhorn…

Ibid., 13.

The Duke and the Deb…

“A true master of jazz…”

RIPM search tip: Be on the lookout for more updates and posts on the RIPM Jazz Periodicals collection, coming soon!

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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Proposed by Marten Noorduin

Here are a few amusing reflections from the contemporary musical press about George Frideric Handel.

The American Musical Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1 (1 October 1834): [1]/1.

A corpulent man, Handel’s love of food and drink was a common subject of anecdotes. Some journals published accounts portraying the composer’s victual indulgences as acts of gluttony and greed.

The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer, Vol. 1 No. 39, (23 December 1820): 156.

Interestingly, this particular anecdote from The Euterpeiad is quite similar to one published two years later in a book entitled Anecdotes, Biographical Sketches and Memoirs by English novelist Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins. In this version, the “friend of Handel” is painter and engraver Joseph Goupy. “Enraged” that Handel stowed away a table of delicacies for himself, Goupy soon after created a piece of art “in which Handel figures as a hog in the midst of dainties.”[1] Known as “The charming Brute,” this depiction of Handel sitting at the organ surrounded by items of personal decadence has several iterations. The London journal Concordia (1875-1876) produced a facsimile of one of the engravings.

Joseph Goupy, “The charming Brute,” ca. 1750. Concordia, Vol. 2 No. 38 (15 January 1876): 37

Two other versions of Goupy’s scathing illustration of Handel contain many similarities: the wine cask organ bench, the lavish meats hanging from the organ, and the composer’s hoggish features.

Joseph Goupy, “The charming Brute,” ca. 1750. Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.

Joseph Goupy, “The charming Brute,” ca. 1750. Bridgeman Art Library.

Anecdotes about Handel also memorialized the composer’s sharp wit, sharper tongue, and, at times, bouts of irritability. The tale below tells of what might have happened if Handel reviewed someone else’s composition.

The Musical Journal, Vol. 2 No. 36 (8 September 1840): 150.

The Musical Herald, Vol. 6 No. 3 (March 1885): 56.

Those questioning the composer’s own musical decisions were subjected to perhaps worse vitriol.

The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer, Vol. 1, No. 32 (4 November 1820): 128.

The Harmonicon, Vol. 1 No. 9 (September 1823): [1p] 116/117.

Finally, as the anecdote below details, Handel’s propensity for criticism was apparently not only limited to others, but also to himself.

The Musical World, Vol. 38 No. 27 (7 July 1860): 435.

RIPM search tip: Searching “Handel” as a keyword in RIPM’s new Combined Interface reveals that his name appears at least once in an astounding 42,191 records! The RIPMPlus Platform’s Combined Interface search feature offers users fully integrated and simultaneous access to both the Preservation Series and to RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text with a single unified search results page.

[1] Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins, Anecdotes, Biographical Sketches and Memoirs (London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1822), 195ff, as quoted in Ellen T. Harris, “Joseph Goupy and George Frideric Handel: From Professional Triumphs to Personal Estrangement,” Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 71 No. 3 (September 2008): 432.