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Butor on Beethoven, or The Limits of Formalism

Michel Butor ' s Dialogue avec 33 variations de Ludvig van Beethoven sur un evalse de Diabelli (Par is : Gal l imard , 1971, 149 pp . ) is an ex t raord inary a t t em ptto wed musical exeges is and transposition d'art. Butor 's l i terary cri t icism has alwaysbeen marked by respect for h i s tor i ca l c i r cums tance and by a r emarkablesens i t ivi ty to what may be cal led the formal vi r tues of the work underdi scuss ionto those pa t t e rns , in terna l echoes , and para l l e l s which much moreth an expl icit s tateme nts , help to de l inea te the au tho r 's vis ion. N or has hiscur iosi ty bee n l imi ted to l i tera ture ; his "re pe r to i re " is cathol ic in the ex t re m e.B uto r ' s eru di t io n has always be en imp ress ive (his novels af ford evide nce inplenty) , and so i t i s not surpr is ing that when he decides to wri te about oneof the class ics of ins t rumental music, he should show a complete mastery ofthe r a th er spec ial t echn iques of the mus ic ian . N o am ate ur impress ioni sm , th i s(al though, as we shall see, a musician might at t imes suspect that i t is) ;the arcane myster ies of key relat ionships , s tumbl ing block for many non-musicians , hold no secrets for him, and the musical descr ipt ions are faul t less lyprecise.

As a resu l t , mu ch o f the book is di ff icul t goin g for the laym an, an dinde ed one w on ders i f wi thout the t echnica l know ledge which is as sum ed onevery pa ge , a re ad er wou ld really get an yth ing at all f rom th e bo ok. Yetthis i s not s imply a book for the musician and knowledgeable amateur ei ther .Butor himself has created a work of cons iderable formal complexi ty, and indoing so has used t echniques bor rowed f rom modern f i c t ion which mightwel l puzzle , or even exaspera te , the mus ic ian who expect s words to conveyinforma t ion an d ideas wi th d i rec tness and eco nom y. T o anyon e wil ling tofollow B uto r on bo th pla nes , the boo k is full of fascinat ion; w he th er tha tm ak es i t an u nqu al i f ied success for the hap py few, i s a que s t ion w hich n ee dst o be deb a t ed f u r t he r .

S t ruc tura l ly , the book compr i ses four b locks , which both ba lance eachoth er , an d bui ld on each othe r . T h e basic pa t te rn is clear f rom the f irstblock, and this wi l l serve as an int roduct ion to Butor ' s twin method ofmus icologica l commentary and poet i c evocat ion .

O n p age 5 , the dedica t ion : "po ur M arcel le M ercenier qui a su jo u er l 'opus120 lors d 'u n co nce r t -con fren ce le 17 sep tem bre 1970 Lige or ig ine de cepe t it ouv r age . " O n page 7, t he si ng le wor d PR O PO SI T I O N , and on page 9 :"O n jo u e la valse d e Diabel li : 0) Vivace." W e are to im ag ine , the refo re, acon cer t pe rfo rm an ce of Diabel li 's T h e m e , followed im me diately (page 10) by aspoken " In tervent ion" : "Tel es t l e thme que l ' d i t eur Anton Diabel l i , i ns ta l l V i enne , p r opos a en 1821 non s eu l emen t Bee t hoven ma i s une c i nquan t a i nede com po si teu rs de sa con naissan ce." (Bu tor , as is usual wi th him , kee ps inmind the h i s tor i ca l c i r cums tances of the work ' s genes i s , though he does notseem to know that Beethoven's f i r s t sketches for var iat ions on Diabel l i ' sWal tz da te in all probabi l i ty f rom 1819.) At th e end of this Int erv en t ion , apa rag rap h which conta ins the seeds of m uc h tha t is to fo llow: " II co m m enc epar t r ad ui r e le th m e de l 'd i t eur en ce lu i qu 'aura i t pu pro po ser u n pr in ce ,en une marche so lennel l e , une mlodie soul igne seulement par des accordsqui la suivent en toute f idli t, vraiment royale, laquelle, en souvenir de las ymp hon i e de Mo zar t, j e vous p r op os e de do nn er com me s u r no m J u p i t e r " ( p . 11 ).

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Next comes a "Gloss , " r a ther longer than the t ex t of the In tervent ion ,which ex plore s fur th er so me of the h in t s of the In terv en t ion . T h e next pag e(19) imp l ies th at the pianis t the n plays the f irst four va r iat ions . Bu t he d oe snot say "O n jo u e . . ." as he d id before ; the nu m be rs a re the re , an d th ete m p o indica t ions , but the res t is poe t ic , evocat ive:

V E R S A N T T E R R E S T R El 'hiver ,scnes de la vie lgante

t o n i q u e :1) Alla marcia maestoso, l e scept re m ajeurl 'ge d 'ta in, ou s i l 'on pr frede b r onze dans l a compos i t i onduque l ce m t a l en t r e :2) Poco allegro, i n t r oduc t i onau bal de la cour3) L'istesso temp o, soudain l er ega r d du doc t eu r Faus t s em l e au s our i r e des demoi selles dans la galerie4) Un poco pi vivace, laChande l eu r

T hi s is fo llowed by an oth er In terv ent ion a nd G loss. In th i s way we co nt inu eas f ar as Va r ia t ion 16 (p . 44) , each gr ou p of four var ia t ions be ing pre ced edby a numbered Intervent ion wi th Gloss . Despi te a few puzzl ing detai l s , towhich w e shal l re tu rn , th er e is no th ing par t icular ly di ff icul t in these for typages . T h e m us ica l com m ent a r y co ncen t r a t e s , a s on e wou l d expec t , on t he f o rma lfea ture s of the Var ia t ions . Any body w ho has wres t l ed with the score , know sth at i ts for m al fascination is infini te. Diabell i 's th e m e itself, with i ts two 16-barph ras es (which B uto r cal ls "wings ," a ha pp y p hra se) has i ts ow n pleas in gassymet r ica l sym m et r i es . Qu i te apa r t f rom the ex t rao rdin ary rang e of exp er ienc econ ta ine d in the V ar ia t ions , the work is an inex haus t ib le m ine of sugges t ionsfor how a theme can be var ied, whi le keeping to the class ical rules , whichwe re tha t the s t ruc tu re of the th em e should a lways be respected . Diabell i' stheme has the supreme vi r tue of a s t ruc ture which the ear as s imi la tesimmedia te ly ; th i s enables Beethoven to vary the in terna l pa t t e rns wi thout r ea l lylos ing s ight of th e essent ial f ram e. I t a lso ha s a clearly m ar ke d ha rm on ics t ru c tu re , which Be ethov en m odi fi es when i t su i ts h im, subs t itu t ing o th er ch ord sfor the do m ina nt ch ord which is the or ig ina l r es t ing p lace a t ba r 16 . T h e reis no real " tune" in Diabel l i ' s theme, but there are several melodic cel lswhich might be developed, and can f ru i t fu l ly l ine up the d i f ferent means ofme l od i c deve l opmen t empl oyed by Bee t hoven .

B ut o r follows up th ese hin ts , an d l is ts th e resul ts wi th ad m irab le e legan ce(whi le not avo iding the technical term s) . H e is par t icula r ly percep t ive o ndiverg encies , an d on grou pin gs . He not ices w he n Beethov en varies the bas ic16-bar l ength , when he omi t s the r epeat s ( in the theme, and in mos t of thevar ia t ions , the two "wings" are r e pe ated ) . H e ins is ts tha t some var ia t ionscannot be separa ted , but spot s two cases where par t of a bar i s " los t " in thenota t ion be tween the end of one var ia t ion and the beginning of the next(Diabel l i ' s Wal tz s tar ts on the thi rd beat of the bar) . Somet imes , I have to

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admit tha t I find him oversubtle , especia l ly when he derives conclusion s fromthe p r in ted page which the ear wo u ld not regis ter . One ins tance of th iswill suffice. The t h e m e has 32 b a r s , but as it s tar ts on the t h i rd b e a t of anu n c o u n t e d bar, and as the d o u b l e bar falls as a c o n se q u e n c e in the m i d d l eof bar 16, t h e r e are 34, not 32 divisions. Likewise says B ut or , the wo rk as awhole , has 34 u n i t s : the T h e m e ( u n c o u n t e d ) and 33 varia t ions . In l ike vein ishis very cur ious t rea tment of the "pivot ," or varia t ion 16; we sha l l re tu rn tothis . But t h e r e is general ly a fine consistency in his c o m m e n t a r y , as e v e ry th in gc o n t r ib u te s to re in forc ing the mathematical fascinat ion of the wo rk .

As well as giving a r igorous mus ica l commenta ry , Butor uses sugges t ivee p i th e t s , as our quota t ions have ind ica ted . To g u i d e us in the t o u r , tie says,he has "bap t ized" the var ia t ions . Hence the n a me " Ju p i t e r , " and the su b tit les which give some kind of n a r r a t iv e th r e a d to the g r o u p s of var ia t ionstha t are be ing p layed . T h is , as any musician knows, is d a n g e r o u s g r o u n d ,b e c a u se the works used have a habi t of t ak ing over and su g g e s t in g p a t t e rn swhich are not t h o se of the music itself. B u t o r is too in te l l igent to fallsquarely in to the t r a p , but in subtle ways he has yielded to the t e m p t a t i o n .For Var ia t ion 1, for e x a mp le , B u to r p ro p o se s the n a m e J u p i t e r by associationwi th Mo zar t . T ha t it is rega l cannot be d e n i e d , and the r e m a r k a b o u t thechords fol lowing the melody faithfully is very nice , br inging out in a wittysimile something which is t h e r e in the music . But I suspect the n a m eJ u p i t e r is mo re a rb i t r a ry . It is not in any case clear why B uto r shou ld f indany connect ion between this var ia t ion and Mo z a r t 's Ju p i t e r S y m p h o n y . Andla ter in the b o o k , the n a me Ju p i t e r t r i g g e r s off a hos t of mytholog ica l deve lopme n t s wh ic h do not seem to be bols te red by cor responding para l le l s in themusic itself.

Mu s ic a l c o mme n ta ry and poetic evocat ion do not h o we v e r ma k e up allth i s book , indeed they do not t o u c h on wh a t is its most o r ig ina l fea tu re .Al r e a d y in the f i rs t quarter of the book there have been some en igmas .T h e I n t e r v e n t i o n s , for e x a m p l e , w e r e n u m b e r e d I, III, V, VII. The " P r o g r a m "(as we shall call the p a g e s wh ic h c o r r e sp o n d to the per formance) le f t a lineb lank a f te r Var ia t ion 1 and also after 5, 9, 13. The r e a d e r of this reviewmay have no t iced tha t hav ing bap t ized the f i rs t var ia t ion Jupiter , the descr ip t iong iven when it is played says simply "le sc e p t re ma je u r ." T h e re are o t h e rins tances where the t i t les g iven during the c o m m e n t a r y are at odds wi th thetitles given on the " P r o g r a m . " A f i rs t explanat ion comes on p a g e 22, w h e r eButor re fe rs in passing to varia t ion 28 as M e r c u r y , and a d d s , in a p a re n th e s i s :" (que j ' appe l le auss i la m a r c h e f a n t m e ou la marche osc i l lan te ; pour mieuxba l i se r no t re exp lora t ion , j 'ai baptis les var ia t ions , mais pour b ien respec te rla d i m e n s i o n h y p e r p r o g r a m m a t i q u e de l ' oeuvre , j'ai d o n n c h a c u n e p lu s i e u r snoms; nous ver rons a ins i passe r d i f f ren ts a rguments t ro i tement l i s les unsa u x a u t r e s ) . " But we h a v e to wait unt i l page 33 and the discussion of the"pivotal" var ia t ion 16, before we fully realize Butor 's plan. Each wing of theT h e m e is played twice . Bu tor will m irr or that in his own a c c o u n t , by p a u s in gafter var ia t ion 16, and going back to the b e g i n n i n g . T h e r e is no way oft e l l ing whe ther he did th is in Lige in 1970; if so, the even ing mus t haveh a d the p r o p o r t i o n s of a p e r f o r m a n c e of Die Gtterdmmerung. Butor insis tsseveral t imes that the Diabelli variations can be ideally realized only in the s tudy ,a n d not in the concert hal l , and certa inly in r e a d in g the book he has givenus, we are free to t u r n the p a g e s of our score at B u to r ' s b id d in g . The( ima g in a ry ? ) p e r fo rma n c e r e min d s us t h a t we should not lose sight of thecumulat ive effect of the var ia t ions , and should l is ten to t h e m in g r o u p s .After Varia t ion 16, t h e n , we are to s tar t again , th is t ime with a di f fe ren t setof four In te rven t ions , coming after var ia t ions 1, 5, 9, 13. On the " P r o g r a m "

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a space was left wh ere these new interventions com e. Th ey are num bered ,obviously, II, IV, V I, V III . Before the second set of interventions, on p p. 47- 49 ,Butor writes "Au concert on a dispos les interventions de la faon suivante,"and details the first sixteen variations, indicating by roman numerals whereth interventions were introduced. Th er e are thus three separate descriptionsof the character of each variation. If we try to ima gine a p erform ancewhich stopped before and after every fourth variation, however, we shall findthat it jus t d oe s not work: we are not ready for Inte rvention II until wereach it , on page 54.

All this certainly makes for an ingenious pattern, conforming to the intricatevariations on 4-bar phrases, which Butor elucidates for us in Beethoven'sVar iations. T h e m iracle is that for so m uch of the time Bee thov en's scoredo es see m t o allow these interventions to com e at regular intervals. Buto r hasno difficulty i n sho win g that som e cou ples cann ot be separa ted. T h e flaw inthe system, however, is that (as Butor admits) Variations 16 and 17 arequite indissoluble, and yet that is the point where Butor wishes to introducenot merely a spoken intervention, but a reprise of all the music heard todate, analogous with the repeat of 16 bars which comes at the midpoint oft h e T h e m e itself. Butor's justification is, not surprisingly, in gen iou s, but sp eciousfor ail that. H e dete cts a "harmonic anomaly" in that the end o f Va riation16 and the beginning of 17 are pulled towards the dominant (l ike the correspo nd ing part of the Th em e) , but this seems to m e just not true. H e alsoholds that the beginning of the Theme fits perfectly onto the end of 16,but this also seems to me untrue; Variation 16 is the only Variation in whichth e last no te (D in the left han d) is unr esolve d. It is resolved by the C at thebeginning of Variation 17, and there is nothing comparable in the Themeitself the left han d is silent until the beg inn ing o f the first full bar. Butor'slabel for these Variations is the Ham m er and the Anvil . T h e c onte nd edreprise comes therefore "entre le marteau et l'enclume," which is an idiomakin to our "between the Devil and the deep blue sea."

The later parts of the book naturally complicate matters still more, asBeeth oven 's music stretches out into newer areas of expression . Butor writesa suggestive passage (p. 82-85) on the musical idioms hinted at in the work:idioms of Beethoven's contemporaries in the first half, but styles of the pastand the future combined in the second half. Pursuing his quest for significantgroupings of the variations, Butor uncovers some plausible mirror effectsbetween the two parts: for example, in the first half the groups of fourvariations tend to start with a March and end with a Waltz; in the secondhalf the groups begin with a Waltz, and end with canons or fugues.Inventive to the end, the descriptions of the different variations become moreand m ore explicit and (frankly) distracting. T hu s in the wake of Jup iter wefind Venus, the Earth, Mars, the Moon, Uranus, Saturn, with a page on themusic of the spheres, and even a l ink between sol=Sun and sol=the note G(a meaning quite impossible to anyone whose mother tongue is German).T h e "renversem ent de Jup iter par Saturne" which expresses the new a tmo spherethat characterizes the second half of Beethoven's work, also acts as a reminderthat paronage has passed from being the prerogative of princes (as withBach's Goldberg variations) to being the affair of music publishers l ikeDiabelli , and this in turn brings Nap oleo n into the l ists. On a m ore mo destlevel, the description of variations 14-20 as a storm sequence (p. 73), whichserves as the pretex t for introducing the gods, is mu ch mo re evocative. Th er e isalso an increasing use of literary parallels (Rousseau, Nerval, etc). These canat times be diverting (the apposite quotations from Midsummer Nitfit's Dreamfor the sequence Vars. 21-23 [pp. 113, 123-28] being particularly intriguing)

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and Butor i s r ight to remind us that the Diabel l i Var iat ions are Beethoven'smos t hu m or ou s work (p . 97) . O n pa ge 93 , Bu tor tr i es , admi t t ed ly ra th er half-hear ted ly , to m ake a case for the n um be r 36 as the go lden nu m be r , w i thi ts associat ions wi th the s igns of th e zodiac. T h e re is even , final ly, an un ex pe cte dtwist in th e dispo sit ion of th e inte rve ntio ns. So far , they have be en place dregularly ei ther before or after the f irs t of each set of four variat ions, andthe f inal eigh t interv ent io ns come w he re we exp ect . Ho we ver , on the tablewhich tel l s us where al l e ight intervent ions came in the concer t (p. 111 :"Au concer t on disposerai t les intervent ions de la faon suivante"; the correspo nd ing t ab le on p . 47 read "on a d i spos"once again the r ea l conc er tmel ts into an imaginary one) we f ind the three par ts of Intervent ion IXplaced a fter variat ion s 17, 18, an d 19 respectively, an d (for bala nc e is all)three in tervent ions (XIV, XV, XVI) p laced be tween Vars . 28 and 29 .

Butor ' s point in asking us to divide the whole work into two, as thetheme divides into two, and to divide i t fur ther into groups of four , correspondingto the p revalen t fou r-bar ph rase s , is m ore th an a clever , bu t point less , fo rma lex pe r im en t . I think h e is basically gra pp l ing wi th the di lem ma faced by al lmusical commentators , that thei r commentar ies , spr inging or iginal ly f rom a loveof the work, and f rom a convict ion of i t s coherence, ends by dr iving a wedgebetween the imaginat ive exper ience of the work and the mind which wants toreflect on that ex pe r ien ce . He assum es that we al ready have some familiari tywith the music (from early on, he refers to parallel incidents in later variat ions) ,an d that we are not repe l led by technical desc r ipt ions . Bu t he seeks to placehis commentary into a formal f ramework which wi l l i t sel f mir ror the complexi tyof Beethoven's Var iat ions , and cause us to reexper ience, on the level of words ,something of the fascinat ion we have f rom repeated hear ings of the music.His t r iple ser ies of images , his repet i t ions , the laying out of the two perform ance s in a di f ferent way, so tha t the interv ent ion s do no t always in te r ru ptthe f low of the mu sic at the sam e point , his del ib erate bl urr ing of the di f feren tseries, all this , i t m ust be re co gn ize d, crea tes effects for w hich we can f indanalo gues in ou r exper ienc e of the Beetho ven V ar ia tions . T h e re is poss ib ly n oc o m p a r a b l e tour de force in the history of transposition d'art. But ul t imately,die book must be classed on the level of cr i t ic ism rather than that of or iginalcrea t ion . W i thout Bee thoven , the book could not ex is t, an d wi thout a r e ad erable to t alk as an equal abou t Bee thoven , it could com mu nica te no th in g . Bu tit of fers such a re ad er a n exp er ie nc e of an intens i ty rarely foun d in cr i tic ism,and gives him, as well as insights into Beethoven's masterpiece, a sat isfyingforma l exp er ien ce which taxes an d exhi larates . T his is cer tainly on e im po r tan taspect of the Beethoven Var iat ions , which one can see as the obverse of theMass in D, which Beethoven was working on at the same t ime: they revealBe ethov en relax ing. David Ca irns (in his s leeve note to Ste ph en Bishop 'srecording) puts this view of the work well : "The whole work is in a sense ahu ge jo ke , a piece of Olym pian spor t at the ex pen se of poo r D iabell i ."But nobody relaxed at the same pi tch of creat ive intens i ty as Beethoven did inthis wo rk. W he re B uto r ' s boo k fall s shor t of Beeth ov en, i t seems to m e, is inthe ra ng e of the ex pe r ien ce . In o rd er to f ind some equiva lent for thes tagger ing var iety of express ion covered by Beethoven, Butor has to have recourseto over lapping pa t t e rns of images . But they remain shadows , images ofs om et h i ng , a t t em pt s t o cap t u r e a "g i ven , " he r e Bee t hove n ' s V ar i a t i ons .Beethoven ' s var i a t ions , on the o ther hand, do not cor respond to anyth ingat al l; wh at they hav e to offer us , they crea te as they go along . Like Bu tor ' snovels .

An t hony R . PughUniversity of New Brunswick

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