Virtuoso Codes of Violin Performance: Power, Military Heroism, and Gender (1789-1830)

Author(s): Maiko Kawabata

Source: 19th-Century Music , Vol. 28, No. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 089-107
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ncm.2004.28.2.089

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to 19th-Century Music

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 MAIKO
KAWABATA
Virtuoso
Codes

Virtuoso Codes of Violin Performance:

Power, Military Heroism, and Gender
(1789–1830)
MAIKO KAWABATA

To speak of a Romantic violin virtuoso as “he- commanded orchestras like an army general,
roic” has become a cliché, and like most clichés and played military music that seemed to glo-
it is entrenched in unexamined assumptions. rify the foregrounded individual. To many,
Take Paganini, for instance. We tend to re- Paganini seemed to emblematize military, not
member him as the archetypal Romantic art- Romantic, heroism.
ist, heroic in the Byronic sense; as a sovereign Paganini was not the only violinist who was
power blazing a path across Europe with his understood in this way. In the peculiar perfor-
unique virtuosity; as externalizing some innate mance culture of the decades following the
quality in the possession of unusual individu- French Revolution, it was not uncommon to
als. Yet the understanding of virtuosi as inscru- invest violinists with qualities of heroism,
table geniuses was a phenomenon that emerged power, and virility. We can glimpse just how
only long after Paganini’s death. In this article I much the nineteenth-century imagination dif-
want to suggest an alternative historical basis fered from our own by considering the bizarre
for the image of the virtuoso as hero. During violinist Alexandre Boucher (plate 1).1 Although
his own lifetime, Paganini was understood as forgotten nowadays, Boucher was very well
“heroic” not only because he resembled Byron known in the early 1800s, when he laid unique
but because he wielded his bow like a weapon, claim to the heroic title “Napoléon of the vio-
lin” through sheer coincidence, by bearing an
uncanny resemblance to the young military
This article grew out of a dissertation supervised by Susan
McClary. Many thanks go to Mitchell Morris, Elisabeth
Le Guin, and Anne Mellor, who made up my dissertation
committee. I benefited immeasurably from the opportu-
1I am grateful to Elisabeth Molle of the Agence
nity to present parts of this paper at the 2003 meeting of
the American Musicological Society, and from numerous Photographique de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux for
discussions with wonderful friends and colleagues, espe- her assistance in procuring a photograph of Girodet’s por-
cially Nadya Zimmerman, Dana Gooley, Michael trait of Boucher. The photograph is from a copy housed at
Beckerman, Lydia Goehr, and Jann Pasler. Finally, a spe- the Chateau de Versailles, the original portrait having been
cial thank you to my patient editor, Ruth Solie. destroyed in 1870.

19th-Century Music, XXVIII/2, pp. 89–107. ISSN: 0148-2076, electronic ISSN 1533-8606. © 2004 by the Regents of the Univer- 89
sity of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through
the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpress.edu/journals/rights.htm..

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 19 TH
CENTURY
MUSIC

Plate 1: Girodet, Alexandre Boucher.

Courtesy of the Art Resource Center.

general “in both face and figure.”2 Everyone episodes of “performance art” would Boucher
who encountered him agreed on the resem- commence his program of virtuoso violin mu-
blance, which Boucher exploited to the fullest. sic. He became extremely popular as an eccen-
He prefaced his violin performances with im- tric performer and as a formidable violinist, in
personations of Napoléon, taking up his well- some circles admired even more than Paganini.3
known poses—the proud stance with his hand
in his jacket, his manner of wearing his hat,
even his way of taking snuff. Only after such
3For more information on Boucher, see George Vallat,
Études d’histoire de moeurs et d’art des musicale:
Alexandre Boucher et son temps (Paris: n.p., 1890); Therese
2
Spohr encountered him in Brussels in 1819. See The Mu- Devrient, Jugenderinnerungen (Stuttgart: Carl Krabbe,
sical Journeys of Louis Spohr, trans. and ed. Henry Pleasants 1905), pp. 249–50; and Adolf Weissmann, Berlin als
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961), p. 197. Musikstadt: Geschichte der Oper und des Konzerts von

90

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 MAIKO

                              
Moderato
          KAWABATA

          

        
Virtuoso
   Codes

5
                                  
      

                   

Example 1: Charles de Bériot, “March,” mm. 1–8.

Boucher’s act represented the extreme form of over again, to military bands. Take, for instance,
a wide-ranging phenomenon, a culture of per- the march in ex. 1, which makes an entire
formers and audiences who understood violin- military band of the violin, by Charles de Bériot,
ists as emblems of military heroism, even a violinist in the generation after Paganini. The
though not all violinists were fortunate enough violin repertory was saturated with musical
to resemble Napoléon. Virtuoso violin perfor- codes signaling the military: marches and fan-
mance was richly nuanced—aurally and visu- fares, imitations of trumpets and even of entire
ally—with codes of military heroism. Violin- bands—in other words, military topoi.
ists from Paganini to Boucher, Spohr to Lipinski, In this article, I argue that virtuoso codes of
wielded their bows like swords and commanded performance—a network of physical and musi-
armies of orchestral musicians, inviting com- cal gestures—combined to create the overall
parison with military leaders, ancient and mod- impression of the violinist as a hero, as a sym-
ern. Reviewers proclaimed them the Scipios, bol of military power. What I designate as “he-
Alexanders, and Napoléons of the violin. roic codes” were of course only one set within
Violinists’ military aura was created not only a larger semiotic network regulating the mean-
by the spectacle of performance but also by ings attached to virtuoso violin performance,
specific characteristics of the music they played. among them codes of diabolism, vocality, ex-
Our view of the violin repertory from the early oticism, and gender. Virtuoso codes provide a
1800s has been almost completely dominated way to frame a cultural critique of musical
by the staggering virtuosity of Niccolo Paganini. performance. By attending to the unique signi-
Certainly, the celebrated violinists had their fying powers of instruments and instrumental-
tricks, for example, multiple stops, left-hand ists, I am questioning typical accounts of musi-
pizzicato, astonishing new forms of bowing; cal meaning that privilege scores and assume
bel canto singing on the violin was also a pre- performers to be transparent vehicles for the
requisite for any solo player. But what the composer’s vision.
“Paganini eclipse” has obscured, historically This article is part of a larger project seeking
speaking, is a thread running through virtuoso to understand instrumental virtuosity as not
violin music: along with Paganini, many vio- only a musical phenomenon but a cultural one
linists of the time made reference, over and as well. In the so-called Age of Revolution
(1789–1848) a wave of virtuosity swept across
many cultural arenas besides musical perfor-
1740 bis 1911 (Berlin: Schuster and Loeffler, 1911), pp. mance—such as cooking, automaton-building,
128–29. One report comparing Boucher favorably to crime-detection, and chess—as historian Paul
Paganini was George Ludwig Sievers’s article in Caecilia
(1825): “[Paganini] is a silhouette, but nothing more, of
Metzner has shown. 4 My work builds on
Alexander Boucher. The two, so far as I know, have never
seen each other, but they are such kindred souls that
Paganini has become Boucher’s son. . . . There is style to
Boucher’s madness, but with Paganini this is wanting” 4
Paul Metzner, Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill
(quoted in G. I. C. de Courcy, Paganini: The Genoese, 2 and Self-Promotion in Paris during the Age of Revolution
vols. [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957], (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
I, 238). 1998).

91

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 19 TH Metzner’s by attending to a host of cultural the melding of preponderant military-heroic
CENTURY
MUSIC contexts for violin performance: the French codes in the music, the public’s image of vio-
Revolution, the Napoléonic myth, and codes of linists as military heroes, a vocabulary of per-
manliness, among other factors, suggested pre- formance gestures, and the traditional symbol-
viously unimagined sources for virtuoso power. ism of the instrument. Military-heroic themes
A cultural critique of violinists is as urgent and ideas permeated virtually every aspect of
as it is timely. While virtuosi of the piano and violin composition, performance, and reception,
of heavy metal music have received critical from the notes themselves to the symbolic
attention, violinists have, oddly, never been meanings of performers and instruments, each
studied in this way. This is all the more per- of which I shall take up in the following. Fi-
plexing since musicians from Liszt to Eddie nally, the study of violin virtuosity also reveals
Van Halen have been indebted, in varying de- power codes as gendered and musical perfor-
grees, to Paganini’s example. While it is true mance to be an arena reflecting gendered con-
that the violinist has had several excellent bi- ceptions of power in society.
ographers (from Schottky to de Courcy), the
existing scholarship on Paganini remains fixed Musical Codes
in the positivist approaches of biographical re-
construction and classification of techniques.5 Military topoi were hardly localized in violin
Our ideas of nineteenth-century violin perfor- performance, but were ubiquitous in instru-
mance need to be brought into line with recent mental music at large, not to mention in op-
developments in scholarship, as audience be- eras and in the music of military bands them-
havior at opera houses and piano concerts has selves. The music of marching bands was rec-
been studied in the framework of cultural his- ognizable to virtually any audience; they were
tory.6 a very popular part of everyday life in major
In a sense, virtuosity is power, and it is mean- European cities, playing in street parades, at
ingful as social negotiation too. Arguing against state ceremonies, and at especially mounted
the understanding of power as something pos- public spectacles.8 I hardly need add the torrent
sessed or wielded by sovereign command, Fou- of revolutionary songs hollered and whistled in
cault proposed a decentered model in which the streets of Paris, the noisy and numerous
power arises only in the strategic or tactical fêtes, and the strains of music spilling out of
interaction of individuals, groups, or institu- public dance halls and cafes, theaters, and con-
tions.7 So to conceptualize Paganini as a sover- certs.9 Naturally it followed that many com-
eign subject, the sole agent of his success, gives posers and performers of instrumental genres
a very incomplete picture; in addition to his appropriated band music in their works and
own musical and personal qualities, Paganini performances—indeed it was a strategic, even
had the good fortune to arrive on the scene at a an obvious, choice. Symphonies of Haydn and
time ripe for the rise of the touring violin vir- Beethoven, the renditions of battles or marches
tuoso. The discourse of virtuosity arose through by pianists from Steibelt to Liszt, Romberg’s
Cello Concerto, op. 31, the E  Clarinet Con-
certo of Weber, and the Oboe Concerto of one
5
Julius Maximilian Schottky, Paganini’s Leben und Treiben William Ling incorporated military themes that
als Künstler und als Mensch (Prague: J. G. Calv’esche, often sent audiences into clamors. They ben-
1830); and de Courcy, Paganini: The Genoese. Recent stud-
ies of Paganini include Niccolò Paganini e il suo tempo,
ed. Raffaello Monterosso (Genova: Comune di Genova,
1984); and Robin Stowell, “Niccolo Paganini: The Violin
8For more on public military spectacles, see Gooley, The
Virtuoso in Excelsis?,” Basler Jahrbuch für historische
Musikpraxis 20 (1996), 73–93. Virtuoso Liszt, chap. 2; and Scott Hughes Myerly, British
6
James H. Johnson, Listening in Paris: A Cultural History Military Spectacle: From the Napoleonic Wars through
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, the Crimea (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1995); and Dana Gooley, The Virtuoso Liszt (Cambridge: 1996).
9For more on this topic, see Adélaïde de Place, La Vie
Cambridge University Press, 2004).
7
See, for instance, Power/Knowledge, ed. Colin Gordon musicale en France au temps de la révolution (Paris: Fayard,
(New York: Pantheon, 1980). 1989).

92

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
  
                   
MAIKO
 
25
        KAWABATA

          Virtuoso
Codes
ff
             
             
         
                         
     
 
      
30
           

 
  
          

       
 ff
decresc.

                                 
           


Example 2: Paganini, “Allegro marziale” from Violin Concerto No. 3, movt. I, mm. 25–34.

efited from the huge popularity of military we think of as the unity of works was not often
bands, and so did “military” music for solo experienced. Indeed, a performance culture in
violin. which the substitution of one slow movement
If violinists were “heroic,” so too—in a broad for another was common practice suggests that
sense—were pianists, woodwind players, trum- concertos hung together somewhat loosely and
peters, and so forth. But violinists had special that the cultural work done by each movement
reasons for being seen as heroic figures over may be treated, to a certain extent, separately.
specialists on other instruments, even if not in Some concertos explicitly heralded their he-
the ways we have been accustomed to believe; roic-military character with suggestive titles:
rather, as we will see, there were reasons why the “Allegro marziale” of Paganini, the Con-
heroic codes worked particularly well on the certos militaire of Paul Alday le jeune and of
violin. Karol Lipinski, not to mention François Prume’s
Focusing on the concerto, and especially on Concerto heroique, and it is not difficult to see
first movements—on the ways in which or- how such works earned their names. Paganini’s
chestras imitated military bands, and on the “Allegro marziale”—the first movement of his
highly stylized role of the violin soloist—can Concerto No. 3—demonstrates all the hall-
help to illustrate why contemporaries heard marks of military music: the dotted rhythms,
violinists as emblems of military heroism. He- the stiff melody, and especially the euphoric
roic codes were usually confined to first move- use of cymbals to amplify the splendor of a
ments, though finales sometimes recalled the triumphant procession (ex. 2). The “Allegro
military topoi of opening movements by em- marciale” of Lipinski, Paganini’s Polish rival,
ploying similar instrumentation (trumpets and also evoked a victorious march: note the trum-
drums); whereas lyrical second movements pet fanfare and dotted rhythms (ex. 3).
served as contrast and drew on a different set of Concertos that begin by mimicking military
elements within the cultural context (for in- marches in this way were legion—as one can
stance, codes of vocality, femininity, and sub- see from the excerpted tutti scores from
jectivity). Polonaise movements in particular Rudolphe Kreutzer and Charles de Bériot (exs.
made it easy to accommodate military fanfares 4 and 5). Notice the fanfares, the angular melo-
and gestures (see, for instance, Spohr’s Con- dies, and the dotted rhythms. Even Beethoven’s
certo No. 2 and Paganini’s Concerto No. 3). In Violin Concerto—not usually considered one
a time when the three movements of a con- of his essays in the “heroic” style—signals the
certo were not always played sequentially, what military with the famous timpani strokes that

93

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 
                      
19 TH
 
21
         
CENTURY
MUSIC 
        

     
  
 
                     
        

 
                          
25


        
     
                                 
 
           

Example 3: Lipinski, “Allegro marciale” from Concerto Militaire, movt. I, mm. 21–28.

 
Allegro moderato     
  

      
                                   
                              
   

 
6
       

    
 
             
                 
  
Example 4: Rudolphe Kreutzer, Concerto No. 14, movt. I, mm. 1–8.

  
11
               

                          
      
ff
      
                                    
          
  

        
17
        


    
        
        
     
   

Example 5: Bériot, Concerto No. 1, movt. I, mm. 11–18.

94

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
        
MAIKO
                    
28
          
KAWABATA

          

   
Virtuoso
    Codes

 
             
    




     
 

                  
            
33


                  
 
   
             
         

Example 6: Beethoven, Violin Concerto, movt. I, mm. 28–34.

 !       
 !  !   !   !   !    

153          


  
 dim.

Example 7: Lipinski, “Allegro marciale” mm. 153–57.

                    
          
Solo
36



 energico

Example 8: Bériot, Concerto No. 1, movt. I, mm. 36–39 (solo).

initiate the work. They have a “march-like char- radiance and serenity. They have tended, for
acter.”10 Indeed, in Beethoven’s time the mili- the same reason, to underplay the importance
tary association of the timpani was more clearly of a recurring passage employing thundering
audible than in modern times as the drums timpani that, together with the dynamics, af-
were smaller and struck with harder sticks, fect, and overall rhythmic drive, may suggest
which is often overlooked because commenta- battle music (ex. 6).
tors have been intent on emphasizing the work’s I turn now to the violin entry, where mili-
tary-style characteristics proliferate alongside
all the expected virtuoso techniques. More of-
ten than not, the violinist took up martial
10Boris Schwarz’s phrase in “Beethoven and the French themes from the opening tutti and gave them a
Violin School,” Musical Quarterly 44 (1958), 436. Of course,
Beethoven also relied on timpani to construct the military virtuoso spin by introducing higher registers
character of works like the Coriolan Overture, the Em- and ornaments. Take, for instance, Lipinski’s
peror Concerto, and the Symphonies Nos. 3 and 5. These way of recasting the military march on the
are the works more usually associated with Beethoven’s
“heroic” style—works of the middle period concerned with violin an octave higher than the orchestra’s
grand utterances and masculine display. Opus 61 rarely version (ex. 7, cf. ex. 3). And in Bériot’s Con-
joins this category despite having its own “heroic” style. certo No. 1, the solo makes its swashbuckling
Leon Plantinga has, however, compared Beethoven’s use
of timpani in the Emperor Concerto with “the timpani entrance with an energetic theme that, in this
strokes that had haunted the Violin Concerto, whose mar- high register, would hardly seem out of place in
tial intent he had made clear in the cadenza to its piano a heroic tone poem of Richard Strauss (ex. 8, cf.
transcription, composed at about the same time as the
Fifth Concerto.” See Beethoven’s Concertos: History, Style, ex. 5). (It is interesting to note in connection
Performance (New York: Norton, 1998), p. 272. with these examples an observation of Pierre

95

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 $
      
19 TH
   " " " "
      
CENTURY
           
222
MUSIC
                        

                
 

# #        

        
   # #    
    
" " " "     
                             
225

             


  
      
            


             
 



cresc.
ff ff
        
             
                
 
 

     

Example 9: Paganini, “Allegro marziale,” mm. 222–27.

Baillot in his treatise of 1835 that the timbre of able individual holding his own against the
the violin could assume “the warlike brilliance amassed orchestra—an act of individuation ef-
of the trumpet.”11) fected in the shared musical language of mili-
As these examples show, the soloist alone tary topoi. And although the dynamic of one
was perfectly capable of accommodating mili- and many, individual and group, had always
tary elements and gestures. Yet nowhere did been paradigmatic of the genre, with the new
the violinist seem more heroic than when pit- political resonances of military-style music, the
ted against the gigantic forces of the orchestra. concerto came to define this dynamic in new,
The drama of a concerto lies in this basic prin- aurally discernible terms: as the relation of a
ciple of inequality: as the critic Fétis observed, valiant commander to amassed forces, or of a
the effect of a Paganini concerto was completely general to his army.
undermined when a pianist substituted the pow- Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that juxta-
erful orchestra.12 By recasting the orchestra’s posing passages of extreme virtuosity with gran-
martial themes in virtuoso style, the soloist diose martial tuttis would not have had a pow-
distinguished himself musically as a remark- erful rhetorical effect. In Allegro movements,
solo sections typically cultivate an intensifica-
tion in virtuosity and culminate in some sort
of flourish on a discord, the resolution of which
11
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot, The Art of the coincides with the commencement of the tutti
Violin, trans. Louise Goldberg (Evanston, Ill.: Northwest- section. Consider Paganini’s “Allegro marziale,”
ern University Press, 1991), p. 8.
12
In Brussels (1834), Paganini had been prevented from re- for instance, paying particular attention to the
hearsing and thus from playing “any of his big concertos.” end of the solo passage leading into the
Instead, he played “the great sonata on the G string” (prob- orchestra’s march (ex. 9). This downbeat ges-
ably the Sonata Militaire) with a pianist, prompting Fétis
to remark, “but what a difference between this sonata ture—where the last note of the solo phrase
reduced to the sparse accompaniment of a pianoforte and and the first note of the tutti phrase coincide—
the same work reinforced with all the power of an orches- had always been the rule of thumb in violin
tra, as it was conceived and as he always played it in
Paris!” (Quoted in de Courcy, Paganini: The Genoese, II, concertos, going all the way back to Vivaldi
153, from an article originally published in L’Indépendent). and Torelli. But in a “military” concerto the

96

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
simultaneity of the solo’s forthright closure and The so-called French concerto played a key MAIKO
KAWABATA
the martial tutti might well have combined to role in the formation of the violin’s heroic codes. Virtuoso
suggest a triumphant arrival, inviting listeners This historically important subgenre emerged Codes
to hear the orchestra’s subsequent music as a at the height of the revolutionary decade (1789–
kind of victory march for the soloist, who has 99), when the opera became “the people’s the-
only just labored through a virtuoso journey to atre” and antiaristocratic sentiments ran high.
arrive at a hero’s welcome. Such arrival points Some eleven of Viotti’s concertos and four of
recur over the course of a concerto, accumulat- his star pupil Rode’s can be counted from this
ing in repeated confirmation of the soloist’s period. Under Napoléon’s rule as First Consul
heroism. Nowhere is the rhetorical effect of and later as Emperor, the French Concerto flour-
“heroicization” more heightened than at the ished: between 1799 and 1815 many more were
conclusion of the cadenza, leading into the fi- composed and performed by all three of Viotti’s
nal “victory march.” A military concerto cre- principal disciples—eight by Baillot, eleven by
ates the image of the heroic violinist in part Kreutzer, and eight more by Rode. Following
through musical persuasion. the Bourbon Restoration, market forces increas-
ingly controlled public musical performances,
Historical Context in which the virtuosi were in the ascendant.
Their popularity surged, especially after the
Heroic codes were hardly isolated in Violin death of Napoléon in 1821, at which point his
Concertos; rather, they emerged in the celebra- myth as a promoter of French Revolutionary
tion of martial virtues characterizing musical ideals escalated. The “heroic” violinist was thus
culture from the time of the French Revolu- a phenomenon that, though it later changed
tion. The celebration of bravery and leadership with the times and in political subtext, had its
seemed to spill over into the “military” con- roots as far back as the French Revolution.15
certos of Rode, Baillot, and Kreutzer, the first The French concerto’s hallmark was, as vio-
Frenchmen to take the lead in violin history lin historian Boris Schwarz has noted, its “ide-
over from Italians and Germans. Their concer- alized march character”—and indeed a “mili-
tos came to be played by virtually every vir- tary pulse” pervades the opening movements
tuoso of the time.13 They came to influence of many of Viotti’s concertos.16 Alongside the
compositional choices too: the numerous mili- characteristic meter (always duple or quadruple)
tary-heroic codes found in the works of Spohr, and tempo (moderately fast), three additional
Paganini, Beethoven, and others were derived, musical features contributed to the marchlike
ultimately, from these Parisian models. In this aspect of these concertos: four-square phrases
respect, the concertos of Beethoven and and both dotted and dactylic rhythms in the
Paganini—the only ones we remember nowa- theme. It is worth noting that none of Viotti’s
days—are mistakenly known as singular phe- concertos included timpani in its orchestra-
nomena, for they were stylistically in keeping
with a newly set French standard.14
producing notable virtuosi like De Bériot, Ernst, and
Sarasate—the perpetuation of heroic codes was ensured
through didactic channels. Of course, the Paris Conservatoire
13
They formed the staple of Boucher’s repertoire. Spohr was itself a direct outcome of the French Revolution, origi-
performed Rode’s Quartet in E  (a quatour brillant, i.e., a nally being an institution for training instrumentalists for
violin solo with trio accompaniment) more than any other military bands. See The Early Romantic Era: Between Revo-
work on his tours in the first decade of the century. Even lutions 1789–1848, ed. Alexander L. Ringer (Englewood
Paganini played French concertos in the early part of his Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991), pp. 8 and 33.
European tours (at which time he had only composed two 15
For an excellent summary of musical life in Paris 1789–
of his own eventual six concertos); he performed concertos 1848, see Ralph Locke, “Paris: Centre of Intellectual Fer-
of Rode and Kreutzer at his first appearances in Vienna ment,” in The Early Romantic Era, pp. 32–83. Interest-
and Paris, in all likelihood a calculated strategy to ingrati- ingly, Napoléon may have spurred enthusiasm for the vio-
ate himself with the locals. lin concerto’s Italian musical language (as employed by
14
It is worth noting here that because the French school of Viotti) by endorsing Italian opera in Paris, for which he
violin playing (founded by Baillot, Kreutzer, and Rode) had developed a taste during his campaigns.
based at the Paris Conservatoire was the premier training 16
Schwarz, “Beethoven and the French Violin School,”
ground for violinists throughout the nineteenth century— pp. 433–34.

97

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 19 TH tion—their evocation of military marches was observed that “as the social pattern of the audi-
CENTURY
MUSIC achieved rather through the manipulation of ence changed, the concerto acquired a nervous
meter, tempo, rhythm, and phrase structure intensity, a militant boldness, a technical bril-
(though Mozart saw fit to add trumpets and liance geared to impress an unruly public.”18
timpani to the orchestration of Viotti’s Con- The French concerto’s “martial airs, bellicose
certo No. 16, probably to amplify its military defiance, stark realism, sweeping passion, and
quality). The character of the opening theme characteristic grandeur and pomp” redefined
and the incorporation of military fanfares were what “military” meant, because society itself
also important factors. Viotti’s embrace of such was undergoing a major restructuring.19
military elements clearly influenced his pu- The “military” content of the French con-
pils. Kreutzer’s concertos often commenced certo shared the musical language of revolu-
with martial themes (for instance, the arpeg- tionary operas. The grandest setting for the mili-
giated triad and dotted rhythms in his Con- tary style, the opera house staged musical dra-
certo No. 14) and accommodated martial fan- mas trumpeting the virtues of individual hero-
fares (as in mm. 56–60 of his Concerto No. 19). ism in celebration of new Republican ideals.
Rode took the step of including horns and kettle- Viotti and his students forged special connec-
drums in the scoring of his Concerto No. 7, tions with opera composers like Cherubini and
which was interestingly one of the few works Méhul in several ways. The violinists followed
Paganini programmed in his epoch-making Paris compositional trends in “terror” and “rescue”
appearances that he did not compose himself. operas, which blatantly displayed Republican
And Baillot himself wrote many military zeal (required to avoid censorship) by including
themes, for example, in his Concerto No. 2 patriotic songs such as the Marseillaise, or by
(and in the tellingly titled “Rondo militaire” invoking a martial spirit through marches and
movement from an early string trio). fanfares. In addition, Viotti, Rode, Kreutzer,
Mozart may have anticipated the military- and Baillot led the Paris Opéra at various stages
style characteristics of the French concerto in of their careers; Kreutzer himself composed nu-
his Violin Concerto No. 4, K. 218 (1775), whose merous opera scores; and Viotti was instru-
well-known opening incorporates a military fan- mental in establishing a new opera house for
fare. However, it is important to recognize that Paris, the Théâtre de Monsieurs (later the
a gulf separates the semantic potential of 1775 Théâtre Feydeau). Such relationships ensured a
military topoi from those after 1789. The march close affinity between opera and concerto per-
“topic”—with its “moderately quick duple formance. Indeed, as one historian has noted,
meters, dotted rhythms, and bold manner”— the French concerto was “a product of the mood
had long been established in the expressive lan- of the Revolution, a blood brother of the youth-
guage of the Classical style and carried with it ful operas of Cherubini, Méhul, representing
the association of aristocracy; as Leonard Ratner the best qualities of the French nation.”20 Fi-
has observed: “If the minuet, the queen of 18th- nally, one has only to consider that the usual
century dances, symbolized the social life of setting for a violin concerto in the 1790s was
the elegant world, the march reminded the lis- the opera stage. As Adélaïde de Place has ob-
tener of authority, of the cavalier and the manly served in her study of musical life in France at
virtues ascribed to him.”17 Thus, the earlier the time of the Revolution: “It was standard
military-style pieces for violin reflected a con- practice to conclude certain theatrical perfor-
siderably different social order from the one
the French Revolution inaugurated. The French
concerto’s military splendor celebrated the mili-
18Schwarz, “Beethoven and the French Violin School,”
tary leadership of individuals in the midst of
p. 435.
social upheaval. Hence Schwarz is right to have 19Schwarz, French Instrumental Music (New York: Da Capo

Press, 1987), p. 70.

20Arnold Schering, Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts

bis auf die Gegenwart (Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel, 1905),

17
Leonard Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and p. 169, translated and quoted by Boris Schwarz in
Style (New York: Schirmer, 1980), p. 16. “Beethoven and the French Violin School,” p. 435.

98

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
mances with a piece of instrumental music Visual, Performative, and Symbolic Codes MAIKO
KAWABATA
usually performed by a celebrated virtuoso.”21 Virtuoso
Music historian David Charlton has sug- Identifying military topoi in the concerto rep- Codes
gested that in revolution-ravaged France the ertory does not tell the whole story. Those
arts dramatized and “replayed” recent heroic familiar figures arose in a context of techno-
events.22 Unlike rescue operas like Cherubini’s logical and historical change that further en-
Lodoïska, however, “military” concertos rarely couraged the view of the violinist as valiant
represented conflicts of the battlefield—it is military commander. Various elements in the
not as if the violin and orchestra waged war on cultural discourse of violin virtuosity—the cult
each other. Rather, their martial spirit evoked of Napoléon, the symbolism of the instrument,
heroic marches and fanfares associated with and newly codified methods of bowing—coa-
military processions and the emblematization lesced to sustain this image.
of the relationship between a valiant general Epithets in contemporary reviews indicate
and his troops. The quasiprogrammatic nature that solo violinists were understood to be em-
of a “military” concerto was probably evident blematic of military heroism; overtones of hero
to contemporaries. E. T. A. Hoffmann observed, worship—a phenomenon that would sweep
for instance, of Romberg’s “Military” Concerto through histories and biographies within a gen-
for Cello and Orchestra, op. 31: eration or two—resounded in response to per-
formances.24 The violin writing in the late con-
The whole work, with its grace and cheerfulness, certos of Viotti prompted Baillot to declare,
painted a picture of carefree, soldierly life, perhaps
“it’s impossible not to attach a poetic meaning,
at summer camp, rather than of battle and slaughter.
not to see in action some of Homer’s heroes”;
If music is to concern itself with such specific im-
pressions, then it is quite true that more sharply most likely Baillot was recalling the heroes of
defined rhythms can suggest a military quality, for the Iliad, who stood for “martial virtue” in
quite apart from marching, they recall the more pre- contemporary French discourse.25 Baillot him-
cise rhythm with which soldiers go about their lives self was later praised as “le Talma des violons,”
in general.23 an epithet referring to the great actor much
admired for his portrayal of revolutionary-era
This concerto suggested to Hoffmann “a pic- heroes, and especially for his violent gestures
ture of carefree, soldierly life”—not exactly pro- on the stage.26 By the 1830s and into the 1840s
grammatic but not devoid of extramusical ref-
erence either. Military concertos for violin, I
believe, “signified” in a similar way. Moreover, 24
See especially Peter Gay’s illuminating discussion of the
Hoffmann conceded that “more sharply defined lofty biographies of Nelson, Frederick the Great, and other
rhythms can suggest a military quality,” heroic figures as serving a psychic need for monolithic
“great men” in what he terms the bourgeois experience
rhythms amply foregrounded in the concertos (The Naked Heart [New York: Norton, 1995], pp. 157–70).
discussed above. Hoffmann further imagined 25
“Il est impossible de ne pas y attacher un sense poétique,
marches as evocations of the military life, and, de n’y pas voir en action quelques-uns des héros d’Homère”
(quoted in Arthur Pougin, Viotti et l’école moderne de
indeed, this is exactly what violinists were violon [Paris: Schott, 1888], p. 124, from Baillot’s Notice
imagining in their concertos as well. sur J.-B. Viotti). In history painting, “martial virtues . . .
could be exemplified, and thus dignified, by episodes from
or allusion to Homer’s Iliad. Indeed in the eighteenth cen-
tury ‘Homer’ became the underpinning reference, a sort of
code, for the attempts by the anti-rococo party to steer
21
Adélaïde de Place, La Vie musicale en France au temps painting back to a more public-spirited notion of art”
de la révolution, p. 242. (Christopher Prendergast, Napoleon and History Painting
22
See David Charlton’s intro. to Music and the French [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997], p. 86).
26
Revolution, ed. Malcolm Boyd (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- Le Miroir (28 Jan. 1822), quoted in Brigitte François-
versity Press, 1992), p. 7. Sappey, “Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot (1771–1842)
23
E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Musical Writings: Kreisleriana, The par lui-même,” Recherches sur la musique française
Poet and the Composer, Music Criticism, ed. David classique 18 (1978), 128. Talma, who earned fame for his
Charlton, trans. Martyn Clarke (Cambridge: Cambridge role in the revolutionary play Charles IX of Marie-Joseph
University Press, 1989), p. 391, from “Letters on Music in Chenier (1789), was said to have been a favorite of
Berlin: First Letter,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 17 Napoléon. George Hogarth remembered him as one of the
(11 Jan. 1815). “greatest tragedians,” known for their use of “violent and

99

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 19 TH it had become a commonplace to compare vir- pouvoir comme un musicien aime son violon”
CENTURY
MUSIC tuosi with military rulers.27 [I love power as a musician loves his violin].32)
Such comparisons represented quite a shift The new image of violinists as military he-
since, in the generation before Baillot and Rode, roes can be attributed, secondly, to the emerg-
the more common allusion was to figures from ing symbolism of the bow as a sharp weapon. A
ancient Greek mythology (Apollo, Hercules, reviewer described Paganini as having his bow
Zeus, and so on).28 There were at least two “at his side like a sword.”33 Not until the 1780s
reasons for this shift. Obviously, the mythol- and 90s did the bow begin to resemble a sword,
ogy of Napoléon as a valiant military general thanks to a revolution in craftsmanship. The
willing “to take heroic risks” provided a model updated “Cramer” bow supplanted the old
of the ideal hero that was easily enough dis- arched model; it was straighter, concave rather
placed onto violinists.29 Goethe may have con- than convex, sharper at the tip, and thus came
tributed to this trend when he observed that to resemble a sword or rapier. The bow could
Paganini and Napoléon shared a certain “de- thus be transformed into a sharp weapon in the
monic” quality needed to set a man apart from popular imaginary: “With three or four whips
others.30 When violinists were compared with of his bow [Paganini] elicited points of sound
Scipio and Alexander, Napoléon was still the that mounted to the third heaven, and as bright
implied point of reference because Napoléon as the stars.”34 The transformation occurred at
was often likened to these ancient leaders.31 a time when the symbolic affiliation of the
(As an aside, Napoléon declared, “J’aime le sword itself was loosening its ties to aristo-
cratic culture and its codes of chivalric virtue,
to become an instrument of the newly empow-
imperious gestures in the parts of tyrants” (Musical His- ered bourgeois individual.35
tory, Biography, and Criticism [2nd edn. London: John W. The bow’s symbolism and the violinist’s im-
Parker, 1838], II, 203). See also Will and Ariel Durant’s age as a military hero were reinforced in the
discussion of Talma in The Age of Napoleon: A History of
European Civilization from 1789 to 1815 (New York: Simon culture of virtuosity well into the nineteenth
and Schuster, 1975), p. 138.
27
Allgemeine Wiener Musikzeitung (1843), cited in Freia
Hoffmann, Instrument und Körper (Frankfurt: Insel, 1991),
32
pp. 192–94. Quoted in Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Napoleon,
28
Baillot admiringly called Viotti “the Jupiter of the vio- p. 242, from The Mind of Napoleon, ed. J. Christopher
lin”: “On sait l’admiration que Baillot éprouvait pour Herold (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), no.
l’incomparable talent de Viotti, qu’il appelait ‘le Jupiter du 36. Note that he did not say “trumpet” or “piano.” Also
violon’” (Arthur Pougin, “Le Testament de Viotti,” consider the perspective of an influential writer: “Napo-
Ménestrel 68 [1902], 364). leon is dead; but a new conqueror has already shown him-
29
Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of self to the world; and from Moscow to Naples, from Lon-
Western Cultural Life (New York: Perennial, 2001), p. 483. don to Vienna, from Paris to Calcutta, his name is con-
30
“The demonic is that which cannot be explained in a stantly on every tongue.” Thus Stendhal proclaimed the
cerebral and a rational manner. It is not peculiar to my arrival of Rossini in 1823. The Rossini revolution filled a
nature but I am subject to its spell. Napoléon possessed void left by the death of the conqueror, in Stendhal’s view,
the quality to the highest degree. Amongst artists one and he understood the emergence of Paganini—a compa-
encounters it more often with musicians than with paint- triot and close friend of Rossini—as a part of this revolu-
ers. Paganini is imbued with it to a remarkable degree and tion. Life of Rossini, trans. Richard N. Coe (New York:
it is through this that he produces such a great effect” Riverrun, 1985), pp. 8 and 351.
33
(quoted in de Courcy, Paganini: The Genoese, I, 361–62). “Dem Bogen als Degen an der Seite,” Kometen 41 (1830),
31
As Christopher Prendergast has shown, Napoléon was a quoted in Schottky, Paganini’s Leben und Treiben, p. 336.
34
“hermeneutic puzzle” or “interpretive enigma,” “a figure A “Mr. Gardiner of Leicester,” quoted in Philip J. Bone,
around whom fluctuate so many mythical identities . . . The Guitar and Mandolin: Biographies of Celebrated Play-
endlessly metamorphosing” into designations as varied as: ers and Composers (2nd edn. London: Schott, 1972), p.
“‘fils de la Révolution,’ ‘Robespierre à cheval,’ ‘Sauveur de 266.
35
la Patrie,’ ‘Usurper’, ‘Ogre,’ Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Consider, for instance, Peter Gay’s observation that al-
Julius Caesar, Justinian, the new Charlemagne, Ghengis though military bearing and codes of honor hinted at the
Khan, Attila the Hun . . . the Messiah, the Antichrist” aristocratic origins of student duels, by the early nine-
(Napoleon and History Painting, p. 22). Notice the parallel teenth century these codes had shifted to accommodate
with Henri Blanchard’s reference to Alexandre Boucher as the aggressive needs of bourgeois society. See The Cultiva-
aspiring to be nothing less than the Alexander, the Caesar, tion of Hatred (New York: Norton, 1993), p. 14. Compare
the Socrates, and the Napoléon of violinists in “Physiologie the shorter “dagger bow” of the Baroque period, played, as
du Violon,” Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris 6 (25 Aug. the name implies, with a “stabbing” motion rather than a
1839), 331. “whipping” one.

100

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
century. The bow-as-weapon was surely the bow.40 Meanwhile, a contemporary poem of MAIKO
KAWABATA
telling image underlying the popular “violin- Friedrich August Kanne merged images of weap- Virtuoso
duels” of the era, in which violinists such as onry and sexual potency: as Paganini grasps his Codes
Paganini and Lafont and Clement and Viotti bow, a magic tone shoots up like an arrow and
competed against each another.36 The subtext penetrates the soft clouds of the heavens.41
of violin-duels, like that of beer-duels and liter- Bringing the bow’s symbolism to bear on the
ary-duels, drew on cultural codes of real, bloody performance setting of the concerto proves re-
sword-duels of the early 1800s.37 Such fantasies vealing, for it was by wielding his instrument
persisted late into the century, as illustrated of command and leading the armylike orches-
for instance by a Viennese caricature of violin- tra that the solo violinist assumed the figura-
ists Joachim and Sarasate meeting in a clash of tive role of an army general, especially since
bows, with Joachim’s bow even appearing as a soloists often served the function of the mod-
“mighty blade” to one of his reviewers.38 Writ- ern conductor in this era, and orchestral play-
ers too contributed to the fantasy of violinists ers—frequently under-rehearsed—obtained their
in competitive combat. In Roger de Beauvoir’s cues by watching the violinist’s bow move-
sensational novel Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges ments.42 A London reviewer reported of a
(1840), the violinist “tops Jarnoweck in a con- Paganini performance, “with the tip of his bow
test on the violin by ‘executing an Air of Correlli he set off the orchestra, in a grand military
[sic], using his bejewelled riding-crop instead of movement, with a force and vivacity as sur-
a bow’!”39 Indeed, popular literature of the time prising as it was new.”43 The Italian violinist
realized the full potential of the bow as a Pugnani was described as “a general in the midst
weapon. In E. T. A. Hoffmann’s fantastical short of his soldiers,” directing the orchestra by us-
story “Councillor Krespel,” the title character, ing his bow as the “baton of command.”44 The
an eccentric violinist and violinmaker, “injures” sight of a violinist-general commanding and
his wife by brushing her aside roughly with his regulating the bow strokes of ranks and ranks
of violinists seated at the forefront of the or-
chestra made the violinist a more compelling
leader of the orchestra than another solo in-
36
Accounts of such duels may be found in de Courcy, strumentalist could be: the “military” image of
Paganini: The Genoese, passim; Odet Denys, Qui était le the violinist emanated less from the violin than
Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1739–1799)? (Paris: Pavillon, from the bow.45
1972), pp. 197–98; and Robert Haas, “The Viennese Violin-
ist, Franz Clement,” Musical Quarterly 34 (1948), 21.
37
Peter Gay’s fascinating discussion of the Mensur—the
40
German student duel—as “aggression checked by accepted See Tales of Hoffmann, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (London:
rules” (p. 9) touches on the cultural work it did in bour- Penguin Books, 1982), pp. 159–83.
41
geois society as a gentlemanly ritual, as perpetuating the Cited in Schottky, Paganini’s Leben und Treiben, p. 21.
42
“fantasy of manliness,” the “virile self-display [that] in- The metaphor of solo violinist as military leader had
formed the duellist’s erotic economy” (p. 30), and negoti- been widespread since at least the late eighteenth century
ating the codes of honor codes and heroism (p. 112). See through the popular image of “the violinist who wields
The Cultivation of Hatred, pp. 9–33, esp. pp. 10–13. his bow aggressively like a sword.” Charles Rosen, “On
38
“Musikalischer Saison-Bilderbogen” from the Musik- Playing the Piano,” New York Review of Books (21 Oct.
historischen Museum des Herrn F. Nicolas Manskopf 1999), p. 49.
43
(Frankfurt) rpt. in Karl Storck, Musik und Musiker in Gardiner quoted in Philip J. Bone, The Guitar and Man-
Karikatur und Satire, opposite p. 128. The quotation ap- dolin, p. 266.
44
pears in Musical World 38 (17 March 1860), 167. Quoted in Pougin, Viotti et l’école moderne, p. 32, n. 1,
39
Quoted in Gabriel Banat, “Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, from Giovanni Battista Rangoni, Saggio sul gusto della
Man of Music and Gentleman-at-Arms: The Life and Times musica, col carattere de’ tre celebri suonatori di violino
of an Eighteenth-Century Prodigy,” Black Music Research Nardini, Lolli e Pugnani (Livorno: Dans l’impr. de T. Masi,
Journal 10 (1990), 196, n. 19. Although this account is 1790): “Il dominait dans l’orchestre, comme un général au
fictional, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges was in reality an milieu de ses soldats. Son archet était le bâton de
accomplished swordsman. He is in fact the only violinist commandement, auquel chacun obéissait avec la plus
known to have fought an authentic duel—he fenced with grande exactitude.”
45
the Chavlière d’Eon in London in 1787. For more on this Charles Burney’s famous description of the Mannheim
“virtuose de l’épée et de l’archet” (Lionel de la Laurence’s orchestra as “an army of generals” was only one instance
sobriquet) and especially the play on swordsmanship/bow of the prevalent metaphor of the orchestra as an army in
technique, see Denys, Qui était Le Chevalier de Saint- the late eighteenth century; for more on this, see John
George and Banat. Spitzer, “Metaphors of the Orchestra: The Orchestra as a

101

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
                                  
 2 
19 TH
CENTURY

4
MUSIC 

6                                              
  


Example 10: Boccherini, String Quartet in D Minor, G. 172, mm. 1–12.

 
                                      (    
March guerrière
 '   

 
ff

      
 
7



Example 11: Catel, “Marche guerrière” from Sémiramis, act I, sc. 5, mm. 1–8.

Along with the new bow came an array of course of an extensive discussion of musical
technical possibilities increasing the type, range, character (by which is meant “the general color
and volume of sounds to be drawn from the given to the expression of the composition”),
violin. An important development was the huge Baillot’s treatise illustrates how the violin may
increase in dynamic range and control over ar- assume a “martial” character.47 As examples of
ticulation the new bow enabled. Simulta- “martial” and “triumphant” playing, Baillot
neously, the old practice of holding the violin excerpts the third movement of a Boccherini
low on the arm (with the left hand propping up String Quartet (in 24, a march) and the “Marche
the instrument) was superseded by the modern guerrière” from Catel’s little-known tragédie
method of securing the violin under the chin, lyrique of 1802, Sémiramis—as shown in exs.
stabilizing the instrument parallel to the ground 10 and 11.48 These examples certainly contain
and freeing up the left hand.46 Employing the “military” traits (dotted and dactylic rhythms
“Cramer” bow on the newly secured violin predominate in both), but when performed in
enabled the player to draw louder, more pen- Baillot’s style they acquire an even more “mili-
etrating sounds. The development of new bow- tary” quality: elsewhere in the treatise he indi-
ing techniques and the development of the new cates just how these rhythms are to be ex-
model of bow went hand in hand. We know ecuted. The section entitled “Bow Strokes for
from a didactic source that violinists in the Alternating Long and Short Notes” advocates a
early 1800s deliberately cultivated a new bow-
ing technique that made possible for the first
47
time the execution of tight dotted rhythms—a Baillot states that musical character “can be divided into
four principal accents which serve as the source of the
key ingredient of the military style. In the others.” These are: simple: naïve (including such expres-
sive modes as semplice, pastorale, etc.); vague: undecided
(vivace, agitato, etc.); passionate: dramatic (appassionato,
militare [sic], etc.); calm: religious (tranquillo, religioso,
Metaphor,” Musical Quarterly 80 (1996), 234–64. Informa- etc.). The “martial” character appears under the accent
tion on the new practice of “Violindirektion” as exercised “passionate: dramatic.” Interestingly, Baillot notes that the
by Hanssens, Saint-George, Rolla, Spohr, Habeneck, et al. four accents “correspond naturally to the four ages of life
can be found in Adam Carse, The Orchestra (New York: and the general progression of the human soul,” suggest-
Chanticleer, 1949); and The Orchestra in the XVIIIth Cen- ing that the martial character is attainable only at a stage
tury (2nd edn. Cambridge: Heffer, 1950). of quite some “spiritual” maturity (for want of a better
46
As every student of music history knows, Spohr invented term). See The Art of the Violin, pp. 351 and 355.
the chin rest in the 1820s. 48
Ibid., p. 371.

102

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 MAIKO
Allegro assai
 '  KAWABATA
       

                Virtuoso
Codes

Allegro assai
 '   
       

                  


Example 12: Viotti, Violin Concerto No. 2, Allegro assai, mm. 1–4.

method of bowing dotted rhythms—down-down bows and down-bows creates a visual demon-
up-up—which today is known as “hooked” bow- stration of order, control, and regularity. Ar-
ing: ticulating the shorter of the two notes clearly
requires an advanced bow technique unavail-
The violinist often encounters passages composed of able to Mozart’s generation, which confirms
long and short notes. It is important for him to fix the argument that “military heroic” codes were
his attention on these passages, since the bow strokes formed neither in composition alone nor in the
they need are almost never indicated. If the notes are mere climate of hero worship, but in the act of
played as written—each note with a separate bow,
performing and in a style that was new in the
one long and one short (which is, however, proper in
time of Baillot.51
certain cases)—this inequality makes the passage
awkward and inconvenient. Indeed, since the long
note generally requires a greater amount of bow and Gender Codes
the shorter note a lesser amount, the result is that at
the third and following notes, the bow gets closer Virtuoso codes of violin performance were
and closer to the tip, and finally the violinist runs gendered in several ways, ways so obvious to
out of bow. Another result is that if the violinist, in contemporaries as to have been transparent.
order to avoid this inconvenience, lengthens the short From the new symbolism of the violin as a
note by bringing the bow back a little and placing it feminine form (now no longer the “king of
where it will have room, he acts against the nature instruments”) and the bow as a phallic symbol
of the passage, for a short note must be played not
to the sexual connotations of male violinists in
only in a shorter space of time, but also with less
the act of performance, gender codes were ubiq-
bow, so that it will have the proper character for its
length.49 uitous. Perhaps the most familiar aspect of the
violin as gendered lies in descriptions of its
The alternation of up- and down-bow strokes, “voice” as feminine. Certainly the association
so awkward with the “Cramer” bow, had been of the violin’s long, singing lines with sopranos
standard practice with the old model of bow, has a venerable tradition. Heroic codes were, in
and Baillot spares no words to justify the new contrast, gendered masculine because military
technique. One of the examples he gives (ex. heroism and the exercise of power were the
12) illustrates the hooked bowing, which gives province of males; furthermore, the sight of a
a decisive character to the “military” style open- violinist lashing around with the bow, attack-
ing of Viotti’s Violin Concerto No. 2.50 Hooked ing the string aggressively, and disciplining the
bowing disciplines the bow arm and gives a resonance of that string with tight dotted
“militaristic” impression by enabling even bow rhythms seemed to enact sexual domination.
strokes: the distribution of the bow in propor-
tion with the rhythmic values 3:1 on both up-
51
It is safe to assume, I think, that in 1835 (when the
treatise was first published) Baillot was documenting a
practice that he and his colleagues had long been employ-
49
Ibid., p. 208. ing themselves, and teaching at the Conservatoire under
50
Ibid., p. 209. the mentorship of their master, Viotti.

103

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 19 TH (Perhaps violin performance offered a nine- long, hard, straight bow, an instrument of male
CENTURY
MUSIC teenth-century approximation of a modern spec- power and domination, that brought her to
tacle, the heavy metal rocker smashing up his sound.55 This function of the bow deepens its
guitar in a testosterone-induced display.) comparison with the sword (discussed earlier),
Such ideas more often than not found their the sword being a symbol of masculine (phal-
expression in the negative, when women vio- lic) power and an instrument for inflicting
linists appeared on the stage, prompting re- harm.56 For an explicit expression of the bow’s
viewers to reveal their assumptions in response sexual symbolism, we must fast-forward a hun-
to a spectacle that disrupted the gender codes dred years or so to the work of early-twentieth-
of violin performance. A handful of women century artist Melchior von Hugo. “Der Gei-
performed the music under discussion during ger” pictures a skeleton or “Death” dragging a
Paganini’s lifetime, and they were seen as suc- grotesque phallus-bow across the torso of the
cessful only when imitating masculine displays woman-violin.57 The image captures the grisly
of power. It was not until as late as 1843 that a power dynamic of male domination and female
Viennese critic gave the extraordinary violinist submission that, not coincidentally, was a con-
Teresa Milanollo her own “heroic” epithet: vention of the Gothic novels enjoyed by many
compared with the “Scipios, Alexanders, and of Paganini’s contemporaries.58
Napoléons of the violin,” she stood out as the Inherent in the idea of “heroic” violin per-
“Joan of Arc.”52 formance was the player’s masculinity, per-
Though known for centuries as the “king of formed or even confirmed by the act of wield-
instruments,” the violin in our period was ing and applying the bow. Traces of gendered
widely viewed as a “feminine” instrument. How virtuoso power can be found as far back as the
it switched genders is not known. Neverthe- time of Leopold Mozart. His famous treatise on
less, whether because of the soprano range of violin playing had explained his method for
the instrument, or because of its curvy “femi- tone production by means of ithyphallic imag-
nine” form, the violin was often in metaphor a ery: “Owing to the strong down-pressure of the
woman or girl, as this extract from the Allge- finger, and strong gripping of the bow, the joints
meine Wiener Musikzeitung (1843) makes clear: become hardened and a strong masculine stroke
is achieved thereby.” He advised students to
We have heard several violins: Paganini’s was bi- “take pains always to play with earnestness
zarre in sorrow and burlesque in joy; Lipinski’s a and manliness.” For him as for many others, a
heroine or indeed une brave; Lafont’s a lady of the
strong tone (synonymous with a masculine
Parisian salon, elegant, insinuante; Spohr’s German,
tone) originated in the proper handling of the
powerful, more thought than word; Beriot’s a lovely
girl, touching, naïve, enticing, without strong ten- (phallic) bow. His understanding of the seminal
dencies; Ole Bull’s a Cachucha-dancer, striking cas- power of the bow is evident in the subtext of
tanets, pirouetting thoughtlessly; Ernst’s a charm- his statement, “bowing gives life to the notes.”
ing, languishing, melancholy beauty, somewhat wist-
ful, a dove still in flight.53
55
Consider Will and Ariel Durant’s choice of metaphor for
The violin stood in for a young woman’s body, Napoléon’s love of France: “He loved her as a violinist can
love his violin, as an instrument of immediate response to
which the player coaxed to sound: “His violin his stroke and will” (The Age of Napoleon, p. 258).
cries like a woman,” remarked a French critic 56
The conflagration of manly, virile, and heroic codes of
of Paganini.54 While the violin embodied a dueling have been noted in n. 37 above.
57
See Eduard Fuchs, Geschichte der erotischen Kunst
woman and “spoke” in her voice, it was the (Munich: A. Langen, 1922–26), III, 405. I am grateful to
Lisa Parkes of UCLA for bringing this illustration to my
attention.
52 58
Allgemeinen Wiener Musikzeitung (1843), 407, quoted Recall the grisly murder of Elisabeth, Victor Franken-
in Hoffmann, Instrument und Körper, p. 194. stein’s fiancée, near the end of Mary Shelley’s novel. For
53
Ibid., pp. 188–89. Man Ray’s famous photograph “Ingres’s more on this literary convention, see Anne Williams, Art
Violin” creates a visual pun between the violin and a na- of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic (Chicago: University of
ked woman with f-holes painted on her back. Chicago Press, 1995), p. 104; and Anne K. Mellor, Roman-
54
L’Entracte (28 March 1831), quoted in Johnson, Listening ticism and Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University
in Paris, p. 267. Press, 1988), pp. 220–32.

104

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
It was as if the player inseminated the body of have seemed natural, even desirable, among MAIKO
KAWABATA
the violin by assaulting it with the bow: “What male performers were impermissible, transgres- Virtuoso
can be more insipid than the playing of one sive when undertaken by females. Spohr sar- Codes
who has not confidence to attack the violin castically stated that he was used to hearing
boldly.”59 the instrument mishandled by women. As Freia
Sexual and violent metaphors of violin per- Hoffmann has noted, the violin was a man’s
formance were far from few in nineteenth-cen- possession and bitterly defended against being
tury reviews. To take one example, a London handled by women.63
reviewer applauded the virility of Joachim’s per- The sexist assertion that “the violin was an
formance by commenting that his Guarnerius improper instrument for a woman” was so over-
violin, “though sufficiently good for an ordi- whelming as to convince the young German
nary player, was scarcely capable of resisting prodigy Gertrude Schmöhling to abandon the
the energy of his attack.”60 More recently, Freia violin altogether.64 Other female violinists con-
Hoffmann has also noted that the form of the tinued performing even in the face of such preju-
violin’s body made it the ideal, erotically dice. When Louise Gautherot appeared in Lon-
“possessable” object; whoever handled this body don, one reviewer remarked on her “great abil-
and brought it to sound experienced an increase ity,” but went on to add that “the ear, how-
in masculinity.61 The violin was understood as ever, was more gratified than the eye by this
a feminine agent, responding to (if victimized lady’s masculine effort.”65 Even as late as 1830,
by) masculine control. The wooden box needed the unsuitability of the violin for women play-
to give the illusion of “coming to life,” of being ers was loudly proclaimed and even deemed
animated, for the image of the player’s virtuoso universal.66 Simmering under the surface of such
power to be sustained. charges against women and their violins—ap-
The suggestion that “heroic” male violinists pearing to be “improper,” “ungratifying,” or
carried the implication of rampant heterosexu- “not suited”—were the unspeakable sexual con-
ality is strengthened by observing that women’s notations of violin performance.
performances carried taboo connotations of ho- Reviewers sought to defuse or neutralize the
mosexuality, as Freia Hoffmann has also ob- homosexual taboo by insisting that women’s
served. Women violinists battled against the performances were really “masculine” efforts—
perceived impropriety of publicly handling a in accordance with Leonore donning mascu-
symbolic feminine body (as well as a phallic line dress in the heroic title role of Beethoven’s
object) and of the vigorous arm movements Fidelio. Opinion as to whether this was a good
required to play. The violin had long been con- or a bad thing appears to have been divided
sidered an “inappropriate” instrument for a along national lines. We have seen typical as-
woman because it was thought to compromise sessments from English critics condemning or
her decorum.62 Physical exertions that would
63
I am greatly indebted to Freia Hoffmann’s work on this
topic. See Instrument und Körper, pp. 187–94.
59 64
Leopold Mozart, A Treatise on the Fundamental Prin- Quotation from T. L. Phipson, Biographical Sketches and
ciples of Violin Playing (Augsburg: J. J. Lotter, 1756), trans. Anecdotes of Celebrated Violinists (London: Bentley, 1877),
Editha Knocker (London: Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 246. For more on Schmöhling, see pp. 238–54; and
pp. 96, 97, 114, 96. Hanslick, Geschichte des Concertwesens in Wien, I, 103.
60 65
Anon., “Philharmonic Concerts,” Musical World 22 (15 William Parke, Musical Memoirs (London: Colburn and
May 1847), 312–13. Bentley, 1830), I, 120, cited in Thomas B. Milligan, The
61
Hoffmann, Instrument und Körper, p. 188. Concerto and London’s Musical Culture in the Late Eigh-
62
This is evident, for example, in the comments of Carl teenth Century (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1983), p.
Ludwig Junker of 1784 (“we find it . . . ridiculous when we 139.
66
see [a lady] playing the violin with large sleeves moving “Madame Paravicini, the violinist, gave a concert here,
back and forth”) and Karl Heinrich Heydenreich of 1800 in which she at once delighted and surprised a numerous
(“the arm movements which violin players must make audience by the correctness and spirit of her performances.
and the faces which they pull would do unfailing harm to Still there is something not suited to a female in the man-
femininity”). Quoted in Rita Steblin, “The Gender Stereo- ner of treating this instrument, a fact universally admit-
typing of Musical Instruments in the Western Tradition,” ted, and which no skill or address can get over” (“Foreign
Canadian University Music Review/Revue le Musique des Musical Report: Vienna,” Harmonicon 8 [October 1830],
Universités Canadiennes 16/1 (1995), 138–39. 437).

105

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 19 TH only begrudgingly accepting the performances in vogue not just in music but in culture at
CENTURY
MUSIC of women violinists. By and large women vio- large. The image of the hero was popularized
linists in the German-speaking lands earned by, for instance, Byron’s involvement in the
public acclaim when they were seen to adopt Greek war of independence, and tales of mili-
“masculine” traits. Consider the pretext of the tary bravery were ubiquitous among plays, pan-
following assessments. In Berlin, the same tomimes, and children’s books.69 In the world
Paravicini was considered alone among all fe- of music, from Liszt’s violent piano perfor-
male violin players “because her playing is so mances to the bombastic choruses of Italian
masculine-powerful.” Luigia Gerbini was re- and French operas, “schlocky” militarism
nowned in Leipzig for her “great agility and earned the enthusiasm of crowds who loved
solidity in all types of bowing, which she em- nothing more than to respond to rabble-rous-
ployed powerfully in the fastest and most sig- ing.70 Consider also what historian Peter Gay
nificant passages like a man.” Marianne Crux, has argued, that hero worship took on a fantasy
who around the turn of the century appeared in element within the bourgeois experience be-
many courts and public concerts, was appar- cause theirs was, in Carlyle’s assessment, an
ently raised “in the mornings as a man and in “unheroic” age. Gay observes that “nineteenth-
the afternoons as a woman.”67 As late as 1826, century nostalgia for ancient legendary giants
the Viennese were “amazed at the strong bow bestriding the earth; the adulation of military
stroke” of Paravicini, and a year later she was leaders, concert singers, or piano virtuosos; the
praised for her “masculine and noble perfor- susceptibility to those pseudo-heroes, the dema-
mance of the concerto of Rode.”68 In these in- gogues—all were symptoms of an inner void
stances, the use of “manly” or “masculine” as waiting to be filled with idealized images.”71
terms of praise sought to preserve the hetero- The suggestion is that hero-figures compen-
sexuality of performance: if the violin was femi- sated for the seeming emptiness of everyday
nine in form, then its player needed to be experience; that art did not so much imitate
performatively “masculine”—whatever the bio- life as compensate for it. Perhaps it was be-
logical gender. cause heroically coded violin performances sup-
These women soloists were playing the same plied these “idealized images” to audiences that
kinds of “heroic” repertory as their male coun- they were once so popular.
terparts, a repertory so imbued with masculine Finally, when we speak of Romantic virtuosi
heroism that the women were seen as succeed- from Liszt’s generation onward we tend to think
ing when playing in a “masculine” manner. It back to the example of Paganini as a stable and
would not be until the late 1830s and 40s that fixed phenomenon. Our idea of heroic perform-
women violinists like Teresa Milanollo began ers needs to be revised to recognize that the
to be accepted as legitimate performers on their virtuoso codes pianists and guitarists claim to
own, feminine terms. The far-reaching legacy have garnered from the example of Paganini
of masculine heroic codes can be seen to the did not originate with him. They were actually
extent to which they helped impede social ac-
ceptance of professional women soloists.
69
Scott Myerly has documented how the popularity of mili-
As we have seen, violin virtuosity brought into tary spectacles helped to create a fashion for all things
play a host of musical, visual, performative, military in culture at large in British Military Spectacle,
symbolic, and gender codes specific to the his- pp. 139–65.
70
For more on “rabble-rousing,” see Charles Rosen’s dis-
toric era. The popularity of “heroic” violinists cussion of clamorous Paris opera audiences roused to fever
throughout this period was part of a wider phe- pitch (The Romantic Generation (Cambridge, Mass:
nomenon, military-heroic themes and images Harvard University Press), chap. 11, esp. pp. 599–602). When
the virtuoso Liszt created an image of military valor
through his commanding and violent piano performances
in the 1830s, he gave bourgeois listeners an outlet for
67
Quoted in Hoffmann, Instrument und Körper, pp. 190– aggressive impulses, as Dana Gooley has argued in
91. “Warhorses: Liszt, Weber’s Konzertstück and the Cult of
68
Hanslick, Geschichte des Concertwesens in Wien, I, 240, Napoléon,” this journal 24 (2000), 62–88.
71
n. 2; and Hoffmann, Instrument und Körper, pp. 190–91. Gay, The Naked Heart, p. 159.

106

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
a more widespread phenomenon in the world meated virtually every aspect of a violin concerto’s MAIKO
composition, performance, and reception. In the fa- KAWABATA
of violin performance, and a host of other vio- Virtuoso
linists, critics, and audience members contrib- mous concertos as with countless now-forgotten Codes
works (of Viotti, Kreutzer, Rode, Baillot, Spohr, Alday,
uted to a culture of virtuosity characteriz-
ing violinists as “heroic.” l De Bériot, Lipinski, and Prume), the combination of
military topoi with the soloist’s leading role charac-
terized the violinist as a military hero. Simulta-
Abstract. neously, the tendency to compare violinists to mytho-
Beyond its glossy surface of virtuosity and lyricism, logical or historical figures became increasingly fo-
a violin concerto is replete with a vocabulary of hid- cused on the image of military leaders (Scipio,
den and (on second glance) not so hidden gestures. Alexander, and Napoléon). All the while, the act of
From Beethoven’s timpani strokes to Paganini’s performance exuded masculine codes of power, partly
marches and fanfares, the genre employs a host of through the symbolism of the bow as a weapon. Taken
“heroic” elements and gestures borrowed from mili- together, it is these codes of military heroism and
tary band music. In the period 1789–1830 these bor- gendered power that shaped the culture of violin vir-
rowings were hardly restricted to a purely musical tuosity, itself an outgrowth of a larger cultural trend
level. Rather, I argue, military themes and ideas per- stemming from Napoléon’s own military heroism.

IN OUR NEXT ISSUE (SPRING 2005)

ARTICLES Karen M. Bottge: Brahms’s Wiegenlied and the Maternal Voice

Peter Dayan: On Nature, Music, and Meaning in Debussy’s

Writing

J. P. E. Harper-Scott: Elgar’s Invention of the Human:

Falstaff, Opus 68

Aidan J. Thomson: Elgar and Chivalry

107

This content downloaded from

140.182.176.13 on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 18:45:11 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms