Max von Schillings: Violin Concerto Nr. 2

[John Boyer]

Mr. Holmes, you seem to be confusing two points here. At first you seem to assert that the listener cannot separate the knowledge of the composer's character from the music, but then you suggest that the composer's character is reflected in the music.

In the first instance, Wagner's music, for example, will be beautiful until we learn that Wagner is a horrible person. After that our reaction to the music is tempered by the knowledge of Wagner's character. It ceases to be beautiful because we are now aware that the person who created is morally corrupt.

In the second instance, Wagner's character is always reflected in the music and therefore is never beautiful. It is always the ugly, corrupt reflection of its corrupt creator. 

I completely reject the second instance, as I don't believe that any musical composition, painting, or sculpture can, with no other evidence, reveal the moral nature of the person who created it. The music of Mendelssohn does not sound morally superior to the music of Wagner.

The second instance is simply a matter of personal reaction. My knowledge of Wagner being a proto-Nazi or Kahlo being a Stalinist lowers my opinion of them personally and can dampen my enthusiasm for their work, but this is a purely personal reaction utterly separate from their work.

[Alan Howe]

And, with that, I think we should return to the subject of the thread - although it's unlikely to be developed further as the work concerned doesn't actually exist(!)

[eschiss1]

and in a different sense from that in which the subjects of certain other threads probably don't exist, the subjects of certain dramas. Agreed.

[John Boyer]

And, with that, I think we should return to the subject of the thread - although it's unlikely to be developed further as the work concerned doesn't actually exist(!)

In that case, if Schillings's second violin concerto doesn't exist, then we shall have to create it. What will this new opus of Herr Schillings sound like? I propose a shorter work of lighter character. Stung by criticism of the length and density of his Op. 25, I imagine that Schillings will go in the opposite direction in his new but imaginary concerto.  I also imagine a formal innovation in the first movement.  The work will have a somewhat neoclassical character, as was the trend in the day, and so we will have a formal ritornello, but there will be no double exposition. Rather, the violin upon its entry will begin the development section.

I have high hopes for it!

[Alan Howe]

Excellent. I'm now awaiting the audio - perhaps AI can help?