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    Notes on Chopin
    Notes on Chopin
    Notes on Chopin
    Ebook79 pages58 minutes

    Notes on Chopin

    By Andre Gide

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    About this ebook

    An inspiring discourse on the power of music from one of the twentieth century’s most important figures, André Gide André Gide, one of the great intellectuals of the twentieth century and a devoted pianist, invites readers to reevaluate Frédéric Chopin as a composer “betrayed . . . deeply, intimately, totally violated” by a music community that had fundamentally misinterpreted his work. As a profound admirer of Chopin’s “promenade of discoveries,” Gide intersperses musical notation throughout the text to illuminate his arguments, but most moving is Gide’s own poetic expression for the music he so loved. This edition includes rare pages and fragments from Gide’s journals, which relate to Chopin and music.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilosophical Library Open Road
    Release dateFeb 14, 2012
    ISBN9781453244654
    Notes on Chopin
    Author

    Andre Gide

    André Gide (París 1869-1951) fue poeta, narrador y memorialista. Premio Nobel de Literatura, su obra es una defensa de la libertad moral en una época en la que la homosexualidad se consideraba una enfermedad y un delito. Conocer la explotación colonial de Francia, que registró en Viaje al Congo, lo llevó al comunismo, al que renunció tras visitar la Unión Soviética y escribir Regreso de la URSS.

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    • 3/5
      An interesting, if somewhat terse and thick, treatise on Chopin and other classical composers. While intriguing, I didn't ultimately feel there was that much of everlasting value.3 stars.

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    Notes on Chopin - Andre Gide

    D E D I C A T I O N

    I DEDICATE these pages to the memory of the Reverend Father, director of Monte Cassino, who, a few years before the war, received me in that famous monastery. Here is why:

    Dom Adelberto Gresnitch, whom I had met in Rome, had very kindly invited me to go into retreat for a short time at Monte Cassino. We had several mutual friends, including Maurice Denis, who had just done his portrait. Dom Adelberto, who was of Dutch origin, spoke several languages equally well. A highly cultivated man, his conversation was captivating. I accepted his offer at once. The order of Saint Benoit is a hospitable order; that is, certain rooms and halls are set aside for travelers. But Dom Adelberto thought quite rightly that it would be more interesting for me to participate intimately in the monastic life. He therefore arranged for a cell to be put at my disposal and for me to take my meals, not with the tourists, but in the great refectory of the order. I expected to spend only three days at Monte Cassino; but these days were so instructive, the big cell had so fine a view and the society of the Benedictines was so charming, that I lingered with them for a whole unforgettable week.

    I should, upon entering the monastery, have paid my respects to the Reverend Father, but he was ill and sent word to me that he could not receive me at once. It was not until the morning of my departure that he permitted me to express my gratitude to him. This formality appeared to me to be a painful duty which, I admit, made me quite apprehensive, and it was tremblingly that I entered an enormous hall where the Reverend Father awaited me and where Dom Adelberto, who ushered me in, left me.

    The Reverend Father was extremely aged. Of German origin, he spoke Italian and French admirably; but what was I to say to him? He was in a big armchair, which his weakness prevented him from leaving. He bade me sit down near him. And his kindness was such that I quickly felt at ease. As soon as the first greetings were done with, we began to talk about music.

    I know that you love it, he said, "and that you have been performnig these last few evenings in the company of Dom Adelberto and some of our other people. I have much regretted not being able to be with you, for I too love music very much. I have been told that you have been able to put our mediocre piano to good use. I too played the piano. But for a long time I have had to give it up and content myself with reading without performing. Are you aware that reading music silently in this way and hearing it in imagination is a perfect joy? Yes, when I have to remain lying down, as often happens, it is not the Church Fathers or other books that I send for, but rather musical scores."

    He paused for a few moments, anxious to see whether I was following him, then:

    And what do you think I send for?… No, it’s not Bach; it’s not even Mozart … It’s Chopin. And he added: That is the purest of music.

    The purest of music. That is quite right, something I should have hardly dared say and am anxious to shelter with all the authority of so important and so aged a religious dignitary. Surprising words, but they will be understood by those for whom the music of Chopin is not (or at least is not merely) that profane and brilliant thing which performers present to us in concerts.

    But the most surprising thing about those words is that they were uttered by a German; for, it seems to me, there

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