Page 139 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 139
putting music criticism to positive purpose: william glock ...
sic”.25 Glock had known and played Carter’s Piano Sonata of 1945–46, the
first of “three seminal works” that James Wierzbicki identified in his study
of the composer.26 The other two pieces from this list, the Cello Sonata of
1948 and the String Quartet No. 1 of 1952 quickly became familiar to Glock.
Carter took part in Glock’s Summer School at Dartington in 1957. From
1959 his music began to feature in the BBC’s Proms programmes, eventu-
ally a total of 27 works. Unlike for Roberto Gerhard, however, Glock was
much more sparing of performances with early performances when he was
at the BBC. There are only three: Variations for orchestra (24 August 1966),
Double Concerto (30 July 1970) and the Concerto for orchestra (10 August
1972), but these three works were at the time of the performances major
ones in Carter’s numerically modest output. An early performance of the
Double Concerto on Thursday 30 July 1970, appeared in a programme sur-
prisingly featuring anonymous Medieval dances, and music by J. S. Bach
and Francesco Landini. It was in a move like this that Glock was able to
draw attention to new and apparently unknown works. The Concerto for
Orchestra was performed twice in the Proms in the 1970s in two complete-
ly different contexts: the first in a 20th-century programme including works
by Cage, Messiaen and Stravinsky with the BBC Symphony Orchestra con-
ducted by Boulez. In a second Proms performance on 30 August 1975 (af-
ter Glock had left the BBC), Boulez conducted the New York Philharmon-
ic Orchestra in a concert which paired the Carter Concerto with Mahler’s
Ninth Symphony.
Clearly the two dozen performances at the BBC Proms of Carter’s mu-
sic after the end of Glock’s tenure of the post of Controller of the BBC’s Mu-
sic Division indicates that his successors carried on his support for Elliott
Carter. Meanwhile Glock’s position as Editor of Eulenburg Books put him
in a position to promote his cause in a different way. The first comprehen-
sive and outstanding analytical study of Carter’s music by David Schiff was
published by Eulenburg in 1983, under Glock’s editorship, transforming at
a stroke the reception of his music, especially in Europe.27 Although Cart-
er’s music was firmly established in the United States, and to some extent
in the United Kingdom, it had made only some headway in Europe. With-
25 William Glock, “A Note on Elliott Carter,” The Score and IMA Magazine 12 (June
1955): 47–52. Elliott Carter, “The Rhythmic Basis of American Music,” The Score and
IMA Magazine 12 (June 1955): 27–32.
26 James Wierzbicki, Elliott Carter (Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: University of Illi-
nois, 2011), 32–49.
27 Schiff, The Music of Elliott Carter, 1st edition.
139
sic”.25 Glock had known and played Carter’s Piano Sonata of 1945–46, the
first of “three seminal works” that James Wierzbicki identified in his study
of the composer.26 The other two pieces from this list, the Cello Sonata of
1948 and the String Quartet No. 1 of 1952 quickly became familiar to Glock.
Carter took part in Glock’s Summer School at Dartington in 1957. From
1959 his music began to feature in the BBC’s Proms programmes, eventu-
ally a total of 27 works. Unlike for Roberto Gerhard, however, Glock was
much more sparing of performances with early performances when he was
at the BBC. There are only three: Variations for orchestra (24 August 1966),
Double Concerto (30 July 1970) and the Concerto for orchestra (10 August
1972), but these three works were at the time of the performances major
ones in Carter’s numerically modest output. An early performance of the
Double Concerto on Thursday 30 July 1970, appeared in a programme sur-
prisingly featuring anonymous Medieval dances, and music by J. S. Bach
and Francesco Landini. It was in a move like this that Glock was able to
draw attention to new and apparently unknown works. The Concerto for
Orchestra was performed twice in the Proms in the 1970s in two complete-
ly different contexts: the first in a 20th-century programme including works
by Cage, Messiaen and Stravinsky with the BBC Symphony Orchestra con-
ducted by Boulez. In a second Proms performance on 30 August 1975 (af-
ter Glock had left the BBC), Boulez conducted the New York Philharmon-
ic Orchestra in a concert which paired the Carter Concerto with Mahler’s
Ninth Symphony.
Clearly the two dozen performances at the BBC Proms of Carter’s mu-
sic after the end of Glock’s tenure of the post of Controller of the BBC’s Mu-
sic Division indicates that his successors carried on his support for Elliott
Carter. Meanwhile Glock’s position as Editor of Eulenburg Books put him
in a position to promote his cause in a different way. The first comprehen-
sive and outstanding analytical study of Carter’s music by David Schiff was
published by Eulenburg in 1983, under Glock’s editorship, transforming at
a stroke the reception of his music, especially in Europe.27 Although Cart-
er’s music was firmly established in the United States, and to some extent
in the United Kingdom, it had made only some headway in Europe. With-
25 William Glock, “A Note on Elliott Carter,” The Score and IMA Magazine 12 (June
1955): 47–52. Elliott Carter, “The Rhythmic Basis of American Music,” The Score and
IMA Magazine 12 (June 1955): 27–32.
26 James Wierzbicki, Elliott Carter (Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: University of Illi-
nois, 2011), 32–49.
27 Schiff, The Music of Elliott Carter, 1st edition.
139
