|
Article Excerpt
After the death of the organist Charles Shatto on New Year's Day 1983, the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) inherited a substantial collection of manuscripts by Shatto himself, his wife Catherine Urner (1891-1942), and their composition teacher and mentor, Charles Koechlin (1867-1950). This article refers mainly to the Koechlin part of this archive, which I studied in detail after being first asked to assess it by John Emerson in 1984. An abbreviated checklist (with index) can be found in an appendix, and the manuscripts in question are now housed in the new Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library at Berkeley. But we should remember that, without Charles Shatto, there would have been no archive to classify, so I am sure we are all deeply grateful to him. The Urner part of the archive, which is presently being digitized at the F. Eugene Miller Foundation offices under the direction of Michael Meadway, contains over eighty songs by Catherine (ten of which were published in Paris by Maurice Senart in 1928), many American Indian songs, twenty-four choral works, eight orchestral works (including The Bride of a God, written in collaboration with Koechlin in 1929), seventy-four piano, and forty-three organ pieces, and thirty chamber works. Charles Shatto's arrangements of his wife's music are also included in the archive.
Koechlin's status as a composer has risen considerably over the last decade or so, thanks largely to the many superb compact disc recordings by conductors such as David Zinman, Leif Segerstam, and Heinz Holliger. Indeed, his complex and visionary symphonic poems need repeated hearings before they can be fully appreciated. During his lifetime, Koechlin suffered from the vicious circle that music must first be known to be played, and vice versa, and the prevailing quest for unknown pieces by great composers at the expense of great pieces by unknown composers has not helped his case. Neither has the substantial body of potentially worthy French composers who were Koechlin's contemporaries and, in most cases, friends. Although Koechlin worked constantly to get his music performed, his brief spate of publications and critical recognition in the early 1920s was overshadowed by his growing reputation as a teacher and pedagogue by the early 1930s. In 1942 the equally visionary writer Wilfrid Mellers championed him as being "among the select number of contemporary composers who really matter." (1) His astute prophecy came true, for Koechlin is now rated alongside Debussy (whose ballet Khamma he orchestrated in 1912-13) as an independent and original contributor to the development of modern French music. He was a pioneer of polytonality and polymodality from the early 1900s onwards, besides being a master contrapuntist whose idol was J. S. Bach. But above all, it was the sheer scale, luminous orchestration, and the enduring rhythmic freshness of his visionary symphonic works that have justified his elevation. Koechlin's reevaluation has also been helped by his devoted offspring, especially Madeleine and Yves Koechlin; by Otfrid Nies, who has established an archive of his music and writings in Kassel, Germany; (2) and perhaps a little by my own monograph on his life and works. This was originally written at the request of Professor Charles Cushing of UCB, and has since been published by Harwood Academic Publishers. (3)
Whilst on the subject of books, I must also recommend Barbara Urner Johnson's superb new monograph on her aunt, entitled Catherine Urner and Charles Koechlin: A Musical Affaire. (4) Through her wide-ranging research, and her access for the first time to the full range of correspondence between the two composers, she has uncovered a story of courage, devotion, and self-sacrifice that has shed new light on Koechlin, and on the musical scene in Paris and California in the 1920s and 1930s. Her book has also provided a unique perspective on the artistic struggle of a woman composer in twentieth-century America.
KOECHLIN AND URNER
First of all, I need to provide a brief resume of Catherine's story so that we can place the UCB collection in its proper perspective. Catherine was recommended to Koechlin by her harmony teacher at Berkeley, William McCoy, at a Christmas dinner in San Francisco in 1918 during Koechlin's first American tour (as the musical representative on a French cultural mission headed by Theodore Reinach). (5) During her postgraduate studies at UCB, Catherine had shown considerable promise as a composer, and she was the first student to win the coveted George Ladd Prix de Paris for 1919-21, which enabled her to receive regular lessons from Koechlin. She returned to Paris to study with him for four further periods: December 1922 to July 1923; June 1924 to June 1925; November 1928 to April 1929; and from September 1929 to June 1933, when she lived en famille in the Koechlin household. In the interim periods her lessons continued by post, and Koechlin began sending Catherine hand-copied examples of his work in progress. These form the basis of the important UCB archive. During these years, Catherine gave concerts in Paris to considerable acclaim, notably at the Salle Pellicle in March 1925, when she sang songs by Koechlin, Debussy, Brahms, and Schubert, and when the Krettly Quartet gave the premiere of her First String Quartet. She also sang in Florence in 1926, in Menton in 1932 (accompanied by Koechlin), and frequently in California.
In return, Catherine was instrumental in arranging Koechlin's three teaching visits to the United States: from May to October 1928 at Berkeley; from June to August 1929, when Koechlin won the Hollywood Bowl Prize for his symphonic poem La joie paienne, op. 46, no. 5; and from late July to late September 1937, when Koechlin gave lessons at Urner's studio near San Diego and wrote a great deal of music, some of it inspired by the movie stars Ginger Rogers and Jean Harlow (opp. 163-64; UCB MSS 68-79). Shortly after this, with Koechlin's encouragement, Catherine married the young Charles Shatto (on 10 October 1937), both of them sharing a love of their teacher's music. Sadly, their happiness was cut tragically short when Catherine was killed in a car crash in San Diego on 30 April 1942. Charles was driving, and although he was very badly burned in trying to save her, spending over one-and-a-half years in intensive care, he held himself responsible for her death and never really recovered from the tragedy. Due to the vagaries of the wartime mail service, Koechlin only learned about Catherine's death in a letter from Darius Milhaud written on 21 March 1945. As a tribute to his favorite American pupil, he orchestrated her Esquisses normandes in early November that year, and these manuscripts (MSS 134-35) form an important addition to the UCB collection.
But there is more to the Koechlin-Urner story than just being kindred artistic spirits, as Barbara Johnson has discovered. As she aptly puts it:
When Catherine and her mentor were reunited [in California] that summer of 1928, there was inevitably an explosion of passion between them.... Undoubtedly, their similar views of life, beauty and music led to the strong bond, and any intimacy between them developed in a natural way. Though Koechlin [at 60] was only three years younger than Catherine's father, he still seemed attractive, authoritative and romantic to her ... and he was vibrant and young at heart. (6)
He was also away from home, and as well as staying in hotels together, the lovers also enjoyed intimate trips to Lake Tahoe and the Grand Canyon. Indeed, the month of June 1928 retained a special ecstatic significance for them both. Koechlin's wife, Suzanne, received his regular reports in Paris and his justifications of a special relationship on artistic grounds with equanimity. It was not the first time Koechlin had been attracted to younger artists, and the way she wrote to him on 21 September 1928 suggests that she had also developed deep feelings for Catherine during her earlier visits to Paris:
Oh no, darling, not for a moment did I feel the slightest hurt or doubt in reading and imagining what there was between you and Catherine. I know both of you too well. I know that I can trust you both equally, and it was with joy and happiness that I read your letter expressing so much affection, even tenderness, for our wonderful friend. I love you both even more; I feel the beauty of the union of your souls blooming within me. Fear nothing and tell me of the emotions, so pure and natural, that you both feel. (7)
We should remember here that Suzanne was as naturally optimistic and artistically sensitive as her husband. But as well as being a serious and talented composer with a gift for melody, Catherine lived her short life to the fullest, and had strong emotional needs. She may well have regarded the Koechlins as European parental figures too.
At the end of Koechlin's visit, and much to his delight, Catherine decided she would return with him to Paris in October 1928. Once there, she rented a room near Koechlin, who often spent his nights with her, doubtless helped...
|
