Honegger - Symphony No. 4 - Dutilleux - Munch

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)

Symphony No. 4 "Deliciae Basilienses" (1946)

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013)

Métaboles (1964)

Orchestre National de l'O.R.T.F.
Charles Münch

(recorded 1967)

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This upload is only a pretext for uploading Chapters 1 & 11 of Honegger's memoir "I am a Composer" (1951). I've made this upload for a friend who doesn't know these chapters - and with a lot of other people in mind who I would guess also don't know these chapters ... people who listen to and make music in one way or another.

Some people may not agree with what Honegger writes (I agree with him, by the way) - but he was writing it - without any doubt and whether we agree with him or not - for those of us 'privileged' to live in the year 2015 (in several places, Honegger makes a specific reference to the year 2000 and afterward - so I'm not making this up). Unpopular ideas are never untrue on the basis of their unpopularity alone - they are merely unpopular.

In Chapter 1, which is a short letter to Bernard Gavoty (who requested this memoir from Honegger; Chapter 11 is actually a conversation between Gavoty and Honegger), Honegger says:

"It is likely that for a period of time ... a small group will persist in producing musical scores; and another will sometimes come to hear them. But they will attract less and less attention. ... I sincerely believe that in a few years the musical art as we conceive it will no longer exist. Like the other arts, it will disappear, though no doubt more speedily. We already see what is happening in our day; let us look at the evidence. No one any longer listens to 'music'; they come to view the performance of a famous conductor or a celebrated pianist. And that, as we know, comes nearer to the domain of sport than of art.

This point of view we shall develop later. ..."

And indeed, Honegger does develop this point of view in Chapter 11 - which is included in full with this upload. (This is a public service based on the conviction that in order to act - to do anything - it is first necessary to understand as well as possible where one is standing and what one is up against.)

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After everything, I just noticed
that I left the Honegger text out
of the upload - the reason for the
upload to begin with. My apologies.
But now the text is included.

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Digital material issued 2002. Includes
covers and notes.