Javier A. Tabush

CHAPTER 1

 

“As memory reaches back along the vista of the years, the increasing distance adds to the difficulty of seeing clearly and choosing between those incidents which make a deep impression, and those, which, though perhaps more important in themselves, leave no trace, and in no way influence one’s development.”

 

“I must say that my constant work at improvisation was not absolutely fruitless; for on the one hand, it contributed to my better knowledge of the piano, and, on the other, it sowed the seed of musical ideas.”

 

CHAPTER 2

 

“I always did, and still do, prefer to achieve my aims and to solve any problems which confront me in the course of my work solely by my own efforts, without having recourse to established processes which do, it is true, facilitate the task, but which must first be learned and then remembered.”
 

“It was only later that I realized to what extent those exercises had helped me to develop my judgment and my taste in music. They stimulated my imagination and my desire to compose; they laid the foundation of all my future technique, prepared me thoroughly for the study of form, of orchestration and of instrument, which later I took up with Rimsky-Korsakov.”

 

CHAPTER 3

 

“The score of this work unfortunately disappeared in Russia during the revolution.”

 

CHAPTER 4

 

"My profound emotion on reading the news of war, which aroused patriotic feelings and a sense of sadness at

being so distant from my country, found some alleviation in the delight with which I steeped myself in Russian folk

poems."

 

CHAPTER 5

 

“Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present. By the imperfection of his nature, man is doomed to submit to the passage of time – to its categories of past and future – without ever being able to give substance, and therefore stability, to the category of the present.”

 

CHAPTER 6

 

When I left Switzerland to settle in France I brought

away some sketches of an idea suggested by M. Alfred Pochon, leader of the Flonzaley String Quartet. The Flonzaley, a group of Vaudois musicians, taking their name from that canton, performed in the United States for a considerable time. M. Pochon wished to introduce a contemporary work into their almost exclusively classical repertoire, and asked me to write them an ensemble piece, in form and length ofmy own choosing, to appear in the programs of their numer- ous tours. 

 

 

CHAPTER 7

 

"I have retained one memory, which is particularly dear to me, of my short stay at Weimar, where the Soldat was

very warmly received by the public. I made the acquaintance of Ferruccio Busoni, whom I had never met before and who had always been described to me as an irreconcilable op- ponent of my music. I was therefore very much impressed by the sincere emotion that I saw he was feeling while my music was being played, which was confirmed by him that same evening. "

 

 

CHAPTER 8

 

"My first public performance of the Concerto took place

at the Paris Opera on May 22 at a Koussevitzky concert, after I had played it a week earlier to an intimate gathering at the Princess de Polignac's with Jean Wiener playing the accompaniment on a piano"