On The Composer-Pianists

I finished Robert Rimm's The Composer-Pianists today, which, incidentally, was the first book I'd borrowed from a library since I left college. It's embarrassing, but I've always been fetched by the idea of owning a book - even one that I would end up reading no more than once -, and so most of the books I've read have been books that I also own, not always to my delight. (I'm looking at the lone Baldacci on my bookshelf.) I'm also extremely economical by nature, and since I wasn't able to find a used copy of Rimm's opus (dare I say job?) selling on Amazon for a cent, I was forced to search the Public Library's catalog, and voila! They had a copy sitting in their stacks, waiting to be put on hold. It ended up being a simple and altogether satisfying experience and one that I look forward to repeating. It's always great when you get nice things for free.

Reading Rimm, I didn't think he was able to offer a convincing reason for bestowing the distinction "The Eight" on Alkan, Sorabji, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Busoni, Godowsky, Feinberg, and Scriabin, at the expense of other great composer-pianists, other than that they had had an impact on him personally, and I thought his describing some of them as "legendary" (particularly Sorabji) overstepped pretty much all bounds of objectivity and landed somewhere in the vicinity of the used car salesman. Nevertheless, these eight (except, perhaps, Rachmaninoff) are hideously neglected in the standard repertoire, so any attempt to bring them into the mainstream is welcome.

I thought the chapters on Alkan, Sorabji, and Feinberg were the most illuminating, mostly because I knew so little about them biographically. Wikipedia becomes less and less reliable on the fringes of human knowledge. (Sorry, composer-pianists.) There were some amusing anecdotes, some tantalizingly rare photos (yes, I like pictures in my books), and some fascinating insights into how each composer thought and composed. An entire chapter was dedicated to the "erotic muse", and I must admit, even though the thought has subconsciously occurred to me before, I now see more clearly that a lot of music builds up to a climax, similar to sex. Rimm's use of headings like "Foreplay" and "Climax" made for uncomfortable reading on the bus. I must admit I never thought much of Sorabji. I tried listening to Opus clavicembalisticum ten years ago and thought it the spasms of a madman; I tried listening to it again after reading Rimm, and this time I saw that there was really something in it. I'm itching to check out Feinberg's transcriptions of Bach's Chorale Partitas. The anecdotes about Rachmaninoff and Godowsky (of which there are plenty more in Abram Chasins's Speaking of Pianists, which I'm also reading on the side) have been stowed away in my mental reserve of arcane knowledge about my favorite musicians and composers. Sorabji's colorful putdowns of critics and audiences will be the source material for any future flames I leave on FFn. Etc., etc. All in all, a good investment of my zero dollars.