Goldmark, Passim

Nathanael Turner*, Mitchell Arnold, DMA, Mikylah Myers, DMA
School of Music, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation Category: Human Engagement (Oral Presentation)

Student’s Major: BM in Violin Performance

All that persists of Goldmark’s output in the repertoire today is his A minor violin concerto. Both performers and critics have often made overarching statements about this concerto, which hasn’t recently enjoyed the popularity of some of its romantic cousins. This has allowed such statements to go broadly unexamined. Phillip Huscher, in program notes for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, invokes Goldmark’s love for Mendelssohn. The liner notes for Vera Tsu’s 1996 Naxos release claim that this work is a “development of the musical language of Mendelssohn,” suggestive of his “idiom,” and that it exists “firmly in [Mendelssohn’s] tradition.” Mendelssohn certainly was a titanic cultural figure during the formative years of Goldmark's career, however, study of Goldmark’s concerto and memoir indicates less of a great Mendelssohnian influence and more of a wide-ranging network of inspirations in the compositional process. Despite the presence of Mendelssohn-like “turns of phrase,” similar key area/figuration combinations, even quotes, these are present from various sources, and the alleged Mendelssohnian characteristics appear in arguably less convincing ways than the influences of composers whom Goldmark knew, worked with, and admired. Among them, Liszt, Brahms, and Wagner. With such a thick layer of attribution looming over Goldmark in the public consciousness, the task at hand is to elucidate his influences, and not expect that the listener distinguish such influence by “private intuitions, but from a study of [the] musical imagery.” We must examine the “expressive vocabulary” used by Goldmark and seek out the origin of its several contents.

Funding: U.S. Department of Education. Federal Work Study

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course