A wayfaring stranger in the new world: Ernst von Dohnanyi's American Rhapsody

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The Hungarian composer--pianist Ernst von Dohnanyi (1877-1960, born Dohnanyi Erno) left his home country during World War II, in 1944, and after five years of wandering throughout Europe and South America he finally settled in the United States. As a professor of the Florida State University, Tallahassee, the seventy-two-year-old composer lived a modest and quiet life in his last ten years--a life that was very different from his earlier one, which had been full of fame and power. (1) The plunge in status, isolation from international cultural life, defenselessness against the political slanders made against him in the postwar period, and daily difficulties as an emigre all left marks on his creativity. (2) A radically different creative environment mostly appears in his single-movement orchestral American Rhapsody (op. 47), which can be assumed to mark an adaptation to his new country and a tribute to it. This is how one earlier analyst, Laura Moore Pruett, interpreted the work even in the title of her study, "Dohnanyi's American Rhapsody, op. 47: An Emigre's Tribute to the New World," which served as a starting point for my investigations. (3) It may seem surprising that the bibliography of the American Rhapsody is so slight, but it is true for much of the whole Dohnanyi-oeuvre. It is widely known that his works were quite neglected in Hungary during the first forty years after his death because of the expectations of the Communist regime (1949-89). Interest in Dohnanyi has grown from the late 1990s, which had its political reasons, but systematic research--started simultaneously in Hungary and in the United States--was also prompted by a musicological shift. (4) Namely, the problems of Dohnanyi-reception could not be narrowed to solely the political: the evaluation of his musical works had some aesthetic dilemmas as well. He proved to be a "conservative" (postromantic) composer, with no inner need to fit either to contemporary compositional trends or to Hungarian national musical idioms of the twentieth century during his long creative path (from the 1890s to his last work in 1959). The motivations of his "belatedness" need further investigations, but it must have had a deep conviction; otherwise he would not have ignored the continuous disapproval of his many critics throughout his life. In this article I would like to interpret the American Rhapsody in the light of the composer's compositional oeuvre, his conservatism, and to investigate what this work may have to tell us about Dohnanyi's late American period.

A Rhapsody?

The American Rhapsody was written for the 150th anniversary of Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio. Why was a professor from the Florida State University commissioned to write a festive work to celebrate a different university? Actually, Dohnanyi was more closely connected with that institute in some aspects than with Florida State. In his American years he had several concert tours throughout the country, and the venues were usually university towns such as Athens. (5) He established excellent ties with these smaller towns, where he appeared several times. These may well have been the most decisive bonds of his American years. In Athens there arose almost a cult around Dohnanyi and his appearances there. As one music critic put it in 1957: 

                    This reviewer has written so many passages about our perennial and    celebrated visitor, Dr. Ernst von Dohnanyi, that to do so again is    to revert to a habit. Nevertheless, the annual visit of this world    renowned musician to our campus never fails to be of interest,    never fails to bring encouragement and renewed enthusiasm to our    musical community. (6)

Indeed, the spring semester of 1957 was already Dohnanyi's tenth season at OU. From 1948, he spent some weeks there every year as a concert pianist/conductor, and he was a uniquely popular visiting professor. He became intimate friends with the OU president John Baker already on his first official visit. Their wives and children became close friends, too, and the Dohnanyis always lived with the Bakers during their annual stay in Athens. As Andrew Schulhof, Dohnanyi's American manager, gratefully wrote to the Bakers: 

                    I was so happy to hear that Mr. Dohnanyi is living in your home,    because from his past letter I know how much your friendship means    to him. Since he is in Athens he writes in a wonderful mood--he is    again as happy as he used to be ten years ago and you have done    miracles with your kindness. (7)

The commission of the American Rhapsody dates from 1951--$1,000 for an orchestral work without any other specific demands was, by the way, a very generous gesture by John Baker. (8) As a comparison: Dohnanyi was asked to compose a similar piece for Florida State a year before, in 1950, but Dean Karl Kuersteiner did not offer any royalty for the work, while specifying the song to be arranged and the form of the composition, too. So Dohnanyi did not even accept that one. (9) The Rhapsody was first played in February 1954 in Athens in what was then called Memorial Hall--and, as we know, it was a huge success. But it was not an easy success at all. The piece is a result of sometimes quite bitter struggles since Dohnanyi did not generally like to compose for commission; he very rarely did so before his American years. (10)

However, the Rhapsody was not (and surely was not intended to be) a large-scale work: it is a fifteen-minute, one-part composition that can be heard as a multi-movement form drawn into one. This is how the composer introduced it in the original program note, which represents one of Dohnanyi's longest self-analysis of his works. 

                    The work begins with the popular, "On Top Of Old Smoky" freely used    as Introduction. The first main part consists of 3 variations on    the White Spiritual "I Am A Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (Andante quasi    adagio). The third variation leads imperceptibly into the middle    section, a gay Kentucky Mountain Song, "The Riddle" (Allegretto    vivace). This is interwoven with the universally known "Turkey in    the Straw." After a short return to the first measures of the    "Wayfaring Stranger" worked up contrapuntally, the third,    concluding part begins as a quick Presto. The well-known "Sweet    Betsy From Pike" appears in one of two Country Dances. The work    ends with a few measures of "Alma Mater Ohio" together with one of    the Country Dances and referring once again to "Old Smoky." (11)        To make this account easier to follow, let me distinguish five    sections (A, B, C, D, E) of key dramatic importance. Each of these    are independent units, although the introduction (A, bars 1-44) and    the return of the "Wayfaring Stranger" melody (D, bars 217-36)    cannot be described as separate forms (fig. 1).        This unusual genre was labeled a rhapsody, a term that Dohnanyi    said placed no limits on his creativity, as it implied formal    freedom, digression, and a "rhapsodic" character. He added that    opus 47 might even have been named "American Fantasia." (12)    Indeed, Dohnanyi's earlier pieces titled "Rhapsody" are really    diversified in form. The "Rapsodia" movement of the Symphonic    Minutes (op. 36, 1933-34), for example, is simply a repetition (six    times) of a theme; while the pieces of his Four Rhapsodies for    Piano (op. 11,1903-4) are loose strands of materials in different    tempi and character--as successors to Brahms's piano rhapsodies.    The American Rhapsody is not similar to any of these, however, or    to the slow-quick structure of the Liszt and Bartok rhapsodies.    (Instead, the whole piece has a kind of accelerating arch.) Among    the possible models one should take into consideration is    Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (originally also titled American    Rhapsody'.), which is also an unbound form. Of course, the    "freedom" of form employed by Gershwin and by Dohnanyi seem to be    very far from each other. The disciplined, traditional approach    taken by the latter composer is exemplified in the way his    seemingly free overall form is made up of traditional units: a slow    introduction (A) is followed by a three-section variation (B),    joined later by a fourth variation (D), surrounded by two trio    forms (C, E--the second with a type of theme more reminiscent of a    rondo).        Yet the links between the sections are somewhat problematic. At    the cusp of B and C, for example, the last motif of the "Wayfaring    Stranger" melody becomes the start of a section of "The Riddle"    (bars 134-46). Although the composer writes that "the third    variation leads imperceptibly into the middle section," those    measures in which a motif of "Wayfaring Stranger" slowly alters to    a motif of "The Riddle" do not fit snugly into the musical    sequence. The other units are also linked loosely, and the units of    form are dramatically independent yet too brief for the rhapsody    simply to appear as an attacca juxtaposition of smaller    instrumental forms. One wonders what this strange aggregate, though    quite conventional in its elements, can refer to. What does the    brokenness and unevenness of it mean, and what relation does all    this bear to the basic melodic material?

"... something American ..."

In his program note Dohnanyi admitted that he knew the commission would require some sort of American topic. "This led to the idea," he wrote, "of using American folk tunes for a Rhapsody, much as Liszt did in his Hungarian Rhapsodies." (13) However, the appropriate American material was not found easily at all: first Dohnanyi was considering well-known local student songs (similar to Brahms's Academic Festival Overture), then he asked the Bakers for help, and finally, he chose the melodies on his own from a popular and charmingly illustrated publication found in most American homes with a piano: Margaret Bradford Boni and Norman Lloyd's Fireside Book of Folk Songs, published by Simon and Schuster in 1947. (According to the autograph, the two country dances were borrowed from the personal collection of Hollace E. Arment. (14)) His choice was surely influenced by one special aspect: he wanted to avoid melodies by a known author. For example, he marked some melodies in his own copy of the Fireside Book, which he later lined through and warned himself: "Foster" (i.e., Stephen Foster). (15) Apart from this, the melodies of the American Rhapsody are actually quite dissimilar, and just knowing the source scarcely gives us any clues as to why Dohnanyi chose them. (16)

The looseness of the overall form can be ascribed partly to the diversity of musical material. Most imposing is the white spiritual entitled "Wayfaring Stranger," its Aeolian mode (or possibly Dorian, as the sixth degree is missing), pentatonic stock of tones (an attribute establishing associations with Hungarian folk music), polysyllabic lines, and a "domed" (aaba) structure. The two lines of "Old Smoky," on the other hand, offer minimal basic musical material. "The Riddle" has a clear structure with its dance step and simple Mixolydian alternation of fifths, while "Turkey in the Straw" seems overly complicated in its motifs and "Sweet Betsy" with its many simple tone-repetitions. The composer's hierarchy and choice of themes is reflected in the way he presents, treats, and shapes them. "Turkey" and "Sweet Betsy," for instance, appear only in a fleeting comic episode in section E, hence they are not organic to the work. "Sweet Betsy," in fact, appears just once, as a counter theme in the development of the country dances. Still, such simple tunes with lighthearted subject matter--especially if appropriately orchestrated--can serve to provide a witty interlude, which is probably why they came to Dohnanyi's attention. The "Old Smoky" was probably chosen for an expressly motivic reason: it must have been brought into the Rhapsody for its fanfare-like melodic opening of triads. He may have been drawn to the country dances and "The Riddle"--so much more emphatic than the previous passages--since they too provided raw material ripe for motivic treatment. He used the motifs of the first country dance (ex. la) in many different ways. For example, he pushed the elements about freely onto successive tonal planes (ex. 1b) or used the motives simultaneously and transformed them into non-melodic enhancement (ex. 1c). So it seems that Dohnanyi's criteria when making his choices were almost entirely musical, rather than historical associations or texts or any interrelations between these.

The sole exception seems to be "Wayfaring Stranger," where he expressly underlined its independence and intangibility, therefore setting it at the peak of his treatment hierarchy (ex. 2a). Elsewhere he is inclined to hurry along the development of a melody on its first appearance. But for "Wayfaring Stranger" he leaves ample time, making it an untouched island in the compositional process, its intimate tone standing in stark contrast to its colorful, even brash environment of the rest of the piece. Unlike the other melodies, which Dohnanyi breaks up, the tune of "Wayfaring Stranger" is left whole, even during the variations. Furthermore, the form it follows proves to be the fullest in the composition. So it is fair to assume that for some reason this melody had greater significance for Dohnanyi.

In her writing about this piece, Pruett surmised that Dohnanyi saw in "Wayfaring Stranger" a symbol of his own destiny in the difficult wandering years that followed his emigration. (17) This insight gains credence from a comment in the Song of Life, a biography of Dohnanyi written by his third wife, Ilona von Dohnanyi: (18) "I knew that this voyage could bring us wealth, fame, and comfort, I feared that we would instead remain unhappy aliens and wayfaring strangers forever." (19) This theory is justified by the fact that according to the correspondence, Ilona von Dohnanyi was working on her book with the greatest intensity right after the compositional works of the Rhapsody. (20) So it is possible that the expression emerged in the text of the biography in progress. Pruett drew out this justifiable assumption into a programmatic interpretation for the diverse characters of the variations. (21) But in view of the Dohnanyi-oeuvre there must be another hidden program based on the "Wayfaring Stranger" symbol.

Hearing the spiritual played on English horn in American Rhapsody over a pedal point in the strings, it is not hard to compare it with the slow movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony. Yet there is a deeper relation discernible in the composer's own works. In terms of these the orchestration of the "Wayfaring Stranger" melody is irrefutably reminiscent of the variation movement of Dohnanyi's own Symphonic Minutes (op. 36, 1933-34)--a piece composed in the composer's most renowned period in Hungary and which had become of his most popular works (ex. 2b). (22) There is a resemblance with the variation theme of this piece in its focus on the English horn, in the plaintive subject, and in the melody itself: its upward fifths and Dorian tinge. The similarity of the two melodies is clear even given the difference in their origins--a white spiritual from the nineteenth century and a sixteenth-century Hungarian church song. (23) The dramatic similarity between the two passages becomes even plainer in the variations. There is kinship in the soft woodwind decoration (exs. 2c-d) of the theme of Variation I--creating a new flexible melody--and in the strong character, fabric, and span of the second variation (exs. 2e-f). Moreover, in the emotional Variation III, the Rhapsody recalls the extremely sensitive third variation of the Symphonic Minutes. In this case, however, the similarity derives not from actual musical elements but from the tone of the antecedents (a softly vivid variation as in the first one, a combative as in the second, and a sublime and emotional as in the third). Likewise, the analogously developed subject and variations with a similar texture appearing in conspicuously the same order suggest that Dohnanyi simply rewrote the variations of Symphonic Minutes using new material. So the set of variations do not appear to be conceived musically in a strict sense: the subject is not determined by its own musical attributes, but rather is derived from the crystallized scheme or variation strategy of an earlier composition. In this light, it is worth searching for ties to in the composer's earlier works.

The Connections of the American Rhapsody

"The orchestral coloring effects, weaving with counterthemes against the prominent 'Wayfarin' Stranger' and 'Sweet Betsy from Pike,'" wrote one listener in the Ohio University Post, "created a clear and lucid pioneer tapestry containing brilliant harmonic-picturization." (24) The orchestral and thematic colorfulness is the most characteristic feature of the composition, indeed. And this feature recalls two other compositions of the Dohnanyi-oeuvre: his Orchestral Suite in F-Sharp Minor (op. 19, 1909) and the famous Variations on a Nursery Song (op. 25, 1913-14). The latter piece is definitely Dohnanyi's best-known composition today, and it was much admired during the composer's life, too, especially in certain countries. "The English are mad about this piece," wrote the composer in a letter about his Nursery Variations with some self-irony, since he did not regard it his best opus. (25) It is maybe because his most often performed piece of this genre is not typical of his usual approach to variation method, which is more organic and inherited from Beethoven's and Brahms's "development" procedures. On the contrary, the theme of the Nursery Variations (an internationally known children's song "Baa-baa Black Sheep" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in English) is not an actual motivic starting point for the variations, rather a symbol, a symbol of simplicity and humor. These variations are often interpreted as style-caricatures of other composers and musical genres. The variation movement in the Suite in F-Sharp Minor is similar to this: each variation is not a motivic development of the theme, but rather a different character-picture. As a critic of the 1910 premiere wrote about this piece: "The composer is not afraid of reminiscences, he is not puzzled about justifications. This is what makes Dohnanyi's Suite special and unique: the reminiscences and the free, kaleidoscope-like, daringly used thematic materials." (26) So let's see what reminiscences can be found in a later relative of these "kaleidoscope" pieces, the American Rhapsody.

To begin with, the opening of the Rhapsody is closely connected with the Nursery Variations: the solemn tone, in both cases, hides some irony. As the innocent main theme is preceded by a pseudo-tragic introduction in the Nursery Variations, so the grandiose beginning of the Rhapsody is based on an even simpler, almost trivial melody of "Old Smoky." Besides this parallel dramaturgical situation, the two introductions are similar in musical aspects as well: the dominance of the brass section, the dotted rhythms of the strings, and the ending that dies out.

"The Riddle" section (C) also has a relationship with the Nursery Variations (ex. 3). The second variation of the latter is also built up of two contrasting phrases as the main part of the C: a major motif with an emblematic fifth, and a descending, chromatic, staccato answer to it.

The trio of section C is built on an analogous principle, since each line of "Turkey in the Straw" is followed by contrasting musical material, which is also similar to the second Nursery variation. However, its characteristically comic orchestration (clumsy intonation of the theme in the brass section opposed by a graceful answer in the high woodwinds) also recalls the fourth Nursery variation--where the piano is accompanied by a curious combination of the lowest and highest woodwinds--and even more the texture of the fifth variation of the above-mentioned Suite in F-Sharp Minor. (See the descending main melody framed by the staccato pedal point and the chromatic woodwind "exclamation mark" at the end of the phrase, ex. 4.)

The American Rhapsody also evokes moments in other Western music. In his liner notes for the Chandos recording, Matthew Rye noticed a resemblance to Johann Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz in the introduction of the Rhapsody, probably because of the similarity of the "Old Smoky" time with the main theme of the other piece (major triad and descent to the sixth degree). (27) Regarding the introduction, one could also mention Liszt--namely in connection with the grandioso closing theme of the Faust Symphony. Dohnanyi evokes the style of Liszt's Hungarian works (or: the verbunkos style in general) in the Variation II of the "Wayfaring Stranger" melody. Moreover, when hearing the graceful country dances over an organ pedal point, concert audiences might even be reminded of some final movements in Haydn's symphonies. While the influence of Liszt's legacy hardly needs explication in the musical thinking of a Hungarian composer--who after all was a student of Liszt's pupil Istvan Thoman--the Haydn reminiscence needs some comment. As a pianist, Dohnanyi did not play many Haydn works, though he led some of his symphonies as chief conductor of the Hungarian Philharmonic Society. In his American years, however, his interest in Haydn seemed to increase, several times conducting performances of The Creation (including in Athens in 1955). (28)

But when finally, the unwieldy "Sweet Betsy" appears suddenly in the cavalcade of the final climax, that is clearly not from Haydn. Another musical allusion makes it sinister: its resemblance to Mahler's characteristic two-dimensional moments of banal and tragic--as for example the third movement of Symphony I (picturing the hunter's funeral) which was also in Dohnanyi's repertoire as a conductor (ex. 5).

Other listeners may find yet more reminiscences. But one thing is clear: as Dohnanyi in the "Wayfaring Stranger" section borrowed the variation scheme and dramaturgy from the Symphonic Minutes, so did he borrow or reuse well-functioning textures from his other, earlier works (mainly from his former character variations) and, in a wider sense, from the musical universe of a European musician. Given that the American Rhapsody is so full of nostalgic reminiscences of Dohnanyi's past, is there anything about it that can be said to be original to his American years?

"From the New World"--Dohnanyi's Americanism

Dohnanyi basically felt welcome in the United States (especially if we regard his close, personal circles); he was proud to adopt American citizenship in 1955. He definitely adapted himself to a new home country at the age of seventy-eight, since it was impossible for him to return Hungary. As an emigre and as a one-time powerful musical figure of the earlier, right-wing political regime, his person was undesirable in Communist Hungary. (29) Moreover, as it is widely known, in early 1945, Dohnanyi's name was published on some nonofficial lists of war criminals in a Budapest newspaper. (30) Although the charges never became official, rumor spread quickly in the musical world and caused serious difficulties for him when he tried to re-enter into concert life after World War II. (31) Even after he left Europe in 1948, his political affairs were still not at an end. Ironically, during the bleakest years of McCarthysm, Dohnanyi was fighting the accusations of some newspapers (such as the New York Times and Boston Sunday Herald Sunday) as being anti-Semitic and a war criminal. (32) These American accusations probably came from a Hungarian source, Ferenc Gondor, who wrote articles against Dohnanyi in his own Hungarian-American journal, Az Ember. (33) Gondor even corresponded with Attorney General Tom C. Clark and Leon Goldstein from the American Veterans Committee about Dohnanyi. (34) As was the case in Hungary a few years before, the charges never proved to be true. But as it had happened to him in Europe, Dohnanyi lost many concert possibilities because of these rumors.

Dohnanyi did not reply officially to the American accusations (except from a notary statement in 1948), and he stayed clear from politics, probably because of an increased wariness. (35) Many of his friends, though, helped him to clear his name. Among these were his manager Andrew Schulhof; the violinist Albert Spalding; John Kirn, an acquaintance from postwar Austria who lived in Ohio and who played important role in building a relationship between Ohio University and Dohnanyi; and OU's president John Baker. But Dohnanyi himself, apart from some few exceptions, avoided any political explanations to his existential difficulties (even in private letters to his aforementioned friends). In his interviews, the only political discussion he engaged in was when asked about the tragic 1956 Hungarian revolution against the communist dictatorship. (36) (He also gave charity and commemorative concerts connected to the 1956 events.) Even more important, he avoided politics as a composer: he refused, for example, a commission from a group called the Hungarian Freedom Fighters to write a "1956 Revolution March." (37) Of all these it seems that the most "political" work of his last period might very well be the American Rhapsody, since it strives for national feeling both in its title and its raw musical material, and it could be interpreted as a gesture of conformation to a new country, new traditions, new nationalisms.

Dohnanyi, of course, had no affinity with the actual political or social aspects of musical Americanism, insofar as it embodied an accessible, antimodernist style of writing. But comparing the Americanist composers' folk song-based pieces from the latter half of the 1930s, his Rhapsody from the 1950s seems once more to be anachronistic (or only "quasi-Americanist"). Dohnanyi did not strive for an "American" musical language. Instead, he used his (folk)song-themes rather loosely. No melody, apart from "Wayfaring Stranger," appears in its entirety. The delayed fourth line of "Old Smoky" becomes almost unrecognizable; "The Riddle" only appears in a very simplified melodic fragment; and "Sweet Betsy" is never played to the end of the tune. It seems that Dohnanyi's use of folk song for compositional development is tied far more to his European past than in seeking for new expressions in his American present.

If one seeks a parallel for the situation of the Rhapsody, it is Dvorak's Symphony "From the New World," a work reflecting the impressions of an alien. A Dvorak model might seem to be anachronistic in the 1950s since during the twentieth century many other European composers (such as Edgard Varese, Darius Milhaud, or even Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Bartok) wrote music about visiting or emigrating to America. (38) But there are at least two unmistakable connections: first, Dohnanyi's musical conservatism and his use of earlier European models; and second, because of the obvious allusion to Dvorak when orchestrating the "Wayfaring Stranger" theme.

In examining these factors behind Dohnanyi's Americanism it should be emphasized that the American Rhapsody would never have been composed without Dohnanyi's connection to Ohio University and his strong support from the Baker family. As Dohnanyi's wife wrote in a letter to the Bakers: 

                    Each visit during the past six years has filled our hearts with    joy, gratitude and delight.... it is your friendship that has given    us so much consolation through all the past years of    disillusionments and hardships, it has illuminated our life and    made us feel in this country "at home!" (39)

It is noteworthy that he did not give up the work despite the desperate lack of inspiration, which made the genesis of the work a quite long period. He complained about this many times, saying, for example, "I was studying old American folk songs in vain, since I did not feel any inspiration to compose that short little piece." (40) We must add that he himself was skeptical about the American style of his work: 

                    One should not expect in this American Rhapsody a style which is    commonly called "American"--wrote in his self-analysis--because the    tunes used in it bear no relation to the so-called popular type.    They are of considerable age, certainly once imported from Europe    but known and sung in this country so widely for such a long time,    that it is with full right they are called American Folk Tunes.    (41) All this suggests that American Rhapsody is not simply a    homage to a new home country. It is, indeed, a tribute not just to    America but rather to specific American people, especially to those    who gave him the possibility to a new creative life in his old age.

A Summary?

Dohnanyi did indeed mention Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody series as a model for his work, perhaps for the underlying formal concepts, perhaps for the stylistic and qualitative heterogeneity of the melodies arranged, but probably also because the term "rhapsody" in his case also suggested a kind of a fragmentary whole. (42) The "whole" whose fragments the composer wished to recollect, in this case, was not that of a folk melody tradition, but those of the composer's own life (his models and his own music). It is questionable how much this was a conscious decision. But there is no doubt that the American Rhapsody, despite its modest length, gives the impression--coming so late in Dohnanyi's life--of summing up his compositional style. (43) Besides, one can't help but feel some deeper significance in the serious way in which the "Wayfaring Stranger" melody was set. One can accept that Dohnanyi saw in the wayfaring figure a symbol of his own destiny, but it is equally possible that he was inspired by the entire text of the spiritual. As the wayfaring stranger of the lyric wanders, preparing for consolation in the next world, so does Dohnanyi "wander" through the earlier stages of his career, recalling the tone of his colorful pieces. Though the Rhapsody's timbre is bright and lively, in line with its promotional function, the recollections turn out not to be all entirely positive in tone. Composer and listener come to realize that deep down the present must make do with a rather pointless revival of a brighter past; the busy, attractive surface disguises in a way the lack of an actual message.

It shows at several points how Dohnanyi too was aware of its problems and limitations. One prominent case of irony and self-deprecation that appears behind a fresh, smiling mask occurs in a phrase in section D, where the "Wayfaring Stranger" melody returns in a tragic guise. The sound may well deceive listeners, as there are grounds for a reading of the wayfaring stranger as a tragic symbol. Yet the "punchline"--hard indeed to identify when listening--has escaped analysts of the work. Under the woodwind imitation of the subject can be heard the strings in a counterpoint with the most comic of the melodies, "Turkey in the Straw." What is more, it appears in a strongly altered, more grotesque form. (44) So there is no understanding of section D as just a romantic climax, for the composer blends into the work's wistful tone elements of the banal and the distorted, which convey a self-disparagement.

Because of all these features, the American Rhapsody is an emblematic piece of an emigrant's last creative period. It draws attention to the most important feature of Dohnanyi's late style, namely that his American works fall into two groups, those tied closely to his past oeuvre and retrospective in style, and those in which he tried out new means of expression, and this division coincides with whether he was writing to commission or not. Although commissions were crucially important in Dohnanyi's last period because of his financial circumstances, he did compose some works without hope of a public performance. His shocking last piece, for example, the Passacaglia for Solo Flute (op. 48/2), which has a quasi-twelve-tone main theme, was written for John Baker's young daughter, although the composition was clearly too difficult for her at that time. Another idealistic example was the curiously structured Perpetuum Mobile of his Three Singular Pieces for Piano (op. 44/3), which Dohnanyi never played publicly. The Burletta (op. 44/1), from the same series, is also something new for Dohnanyi. Its bizarre sound comes with a kind of asymmetric, yet purposefully organized structure and resembles modern compositions that Dohnanyi had earlier criticized for being too rational or nonmelodic. It seems that Dohnanyi, in his late works, felt a strong urge to look beyond the boundaries of his own conservative style.

Of course, it is left up to the interpreter to decide whether these experiments represent playfulness and irony or doubt. But musical experimentation was obviously a private matter for Dohnanyi, since he experimented less in his works for larger ensembles. He did not aim to employ contemporary techniques in those compositions intended for a wider public: the Violin Concerto no. 2 (op. 43, commissioned by the violinist Frances Magnes), the Stab at Mater (op. 46, commissioned by the Denton Civic Boy Choir), and the American Rhapsody itself. The Concertino for Harp (op. 45), as a failed commission, lies between the two groups. It exemplifies this duality of experimentation and looking back: after two movements reminiscent of Debussy--a stylistic excursion--the third clearly returns from these unsuccessful attempts to Dohnanyi's typical, largely Brahms-like harmonic musical language as a homecoming from a foreign world.

Though it may seem that Dohnanyi's conservative style remained unchanged till his last works, it is clear that his struggles with the political charges, the difficulties of his American career, and his isolation made him reconsider whether his path was right. This is why his American works differ in many aspects from the earlier pieces: he tried to draw into his style new harmonic elements, composing strategies, or, as in the American Rhapsody, new inspirations and raw material. But while Dohnanyi was "wandering" through a new, American landscape, he was also "wandering" in his memories. The duality between his experiments and his strong nostalgia, shown in this piece, too, means the American period must be seen as one of the most interesting chapters in the composer's life.

NOTES

This study is based on the author's PhD dissertation titled "Dohnanyi amerikai evei, 1949-1960" (Dohnanyi's American Years, 1949-1960) (Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, 2010) and is supported by the "Momentum Program" of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I would like to thank Brian McLean and Michael Pisani for their help in revising the English text.

(1.) After a brilliantly successful, worldwide career as a young piano virtuoso and composer, he became the leading figure of Hungarian musical life in the 1930s as director of the Liszt Academy of Music (and leader of the Piano Master Class), director of the Music Division of the Hungarian Radio, and director (chief-conductor) of the Philharmonic Society.

(2.) About Dohnanyi's political affairs, see James A. Grymes, "Ernst von Dohnanyi and Communist Hungary in the Early Cold War," Acta Musicologica 84, no. 1 (2012): 65-86; and Veronika Kusz "Dohnanyi amerikai evei, 1949-1960" (PhD diss., Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, 2010), 21-27.

(3.) Laura Moore Pruett, "Dohnanyi's American Rhapsody, op. 47: An Emigre's Tribute to the New World," in Perspectives on Ernst von Dohnanyi, ed. James A. Grymes (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005), 165-79.

(4.) In Hungary, the Dohnanyi scholarship finally gained an institutional background in 2002 when the Dohnanyi Archives of Budapest of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was established (now part of the Archives and Research Group for 20th-21st Century Hungarian Music of the same institution). The five volumes of the Dohnanyi Dohnanyi Evkonyo [Dohnanyi yearbooks], published by the Institute for Musicology, showed how various types of basic research commenced. The Archives have also obtained a large amount of musical source materials. Meanwhile in the United States, the International Dohnanyi Research Center was founded by James A. Grymes to organize a Dohnanyi Festival in Tallahassee (also in 2002). They publish some important publications about Dohnanyi, mainly based on the sources in the Dohnanyi Collection of the Warren D. Allen Music Library, the Florida State University (abbreviated hereafter as FSU). See, for example, Perspectives on Ernst von Dohnanyi, n. 3. (There are currently negotiations with the Hungarian Academy to purchase the Dohnanyi Collection. At the time of this writing, the collection still resides as FSU.)

(5.) His only one concert in New York City took place in Carnegie Hall, on November 9, 1953; he played his Piano Concerto no. 2. Some concerts in other major cities: San Francisco (1951), Chicago (1954), Minneapolis (1957).

(6.) Paul Fontaine, "Celebrated Musician a Master in Field of Chamber Music," Athens Messenger (March 28, 1957).

(7.) Andrew Schulhof's letter to John Baker (December 18, 1948), Dohnanyi Collection, FSU.

(8.) In his American period Dohnanyi got $2,500 from Frances Magnes for his Second Violin Concerto and $500 for his Stabat Mater from the Denton Civic Boy Choir.

(9.) See Kuersteiner's memorandum to Dohnanyi, June 19, 1950 (Dohnanyi Collection, FSU).

(10.) He wrote in his memoirs: "I remember well that the American Rhapsody was under preparation for two years, since I was studying the old American folksongs in vain, I did not feel the inspiration to make up that itsy-bitsy piece, and it was only two years later, when time came for me to compose that work satisfyingly." (Originally, in Hungarian: "Emlekszem, az 'Amerikai Rapszodia' ket evig kesziilt, mert hiaba tanulmanyoztam a regi amerikai nepdalokat, nem ereztem ihletet, hogy azt a rovidke darabot osszehozzam, s csak ket ev mulva jott el az ido amidon vegre ugy alkothattam meg ezt a muvet, hogy megelegedette tett." Dohnanyi Erno: Bucsu es uzenet. Munchen: Nemzetor, 1962, 33. Dohnanyi's memoirs were published in English, too, as Message to Posterity, but the two versions are not exactly the same. The quoted sentence occurs only in the Hungarian version.)

(11.) Dohnanyi's program note, n.d. For the original document see Ohio University: "Baker Files."

(12.) Myron Henry, "Would Join OU Faculty: Interview with Composer von Dohnanyi Furnishes Interpretation of 'Rhapsody,'" Ohio University Post, February 26, 1954.

(13.) Dohnanyi's program note, n.d. For the original document see Ohio University: "Baker Files."

(14.) On the musical autograph it is misspelled as "Armend." Hollace E. Arment (d. 1976) musicologist and singer, was a professor at Florida Community College.

(15.) Dohnanyi's own copy of the Fireside Book is still to be found at his former Tallahassee house (the owner of which is Dohnanyi's grandson).

(16.) Some of the melodies were actually very popular in those years. The prominent folksinger Burl Ives called his CBS radio program Wayfaring Stranger. He released his recording of the song in 1944 and published his autobiography as Wayfaring Stranger (New York: Whittlesey House, 1948). Moreover, Ives recorded three other melodies of the Rhapsody ("Old Smokey," "The Riddle," "Sweet Betsy") in one of his later albums (1955, also titled Wayfaring Stranger). Dohnanyi probably knew about him, although neither the recordings nor the book could be found in the private library of his Tallahassee house.

(17.) Pruett, "Dohnanyi's American Rhapsody," 171.

(18.) Ilona Zachar-Salacz's (Ilona von Dohnanyi) and the composer's relationship started in 1938, already during Dohnanyi's second marriage (Ilona was thirty-three years younger than Dohnanyi). They left Hungary together (and with Ilona's two children) in 1944, and lived in a harmonious marriage till the composer's death. Ilona was an amateur writer. She has some novels in Hungarian, and a biography about her husband: Ilona von Dohnanyi, A Song of Life, ed. James A. Grymes (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002).

(19.) Ibid., 168.

(20.) Documented in the family letters; see Dohnanyi's sister's letters in 1954-56 (Dohnanyi Archives, Budapest).

(21.) Pruett, "Dohnanyi's American Rhapsody," 171 and 173.

(22.) The Symphonic Minutes was originally written as incidental music to a dance-production, namely a "dance-legend" (The Holy Torch) of Elsa Galafres, Dohnanyi's second wife. The symphonic piece itself was well known by the Hungarian audience and was also played twice during his American period, though not in Athens.

(23.) Dohnanyi's source for the Hungarian melody: Artur Harmat and Sandor Sik, eds., Szent vagy, Uram! (Budapest: Egri Nyomda, 1931), 229-30.

(24.) Robert Schesventer, "Two OU Musical Landmarks Witnessed at Concert Sunday," Ohio University Post, February 1954.

(25.) Erno Dohnanyi's letter to his sister, Maria, November 6, 1947. See Dohnanyi csaladi levelei (Dohnanyi's family letters), ed. Kelemen Eva (Budapest: Szechenyi National Library--Gondolat--Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2011), 200-201.

(26.) "[A zeneszerzo] nem fel a reminiszcenciaktol, nem tori a fejet indoklasokon. Es ez adja meg Dohnanyi Suite-jenek azt a sajatos, egyeni jelleget: a reminiszcenciak, es a szabad, kaleidoszkopszeru meresz tematika." Dezso Jasz, "Dohnanyi uj Suite-je [Dohnanyi's New Suite]," in Zenei irasok a Nyugatban (Musical Writings in Nyugat), ed. Breuer Janos (Budapest: Zenemukiado, 1978), 38.

(27.) Matthew Rye, "Dohnanyi: American Rhapsody." CD-Booklet (Chandos 9647, 1998).

(28.) See, for example, in Dohnanyi's memoirs, Bucsu es tizenet (cited in n. 10 above), 23.

(29.) He held the three leading positions of Hungarian musical life from the 1930s: director of the Liszt Academy of Music, director of the Musical Division of the Hungarian Radio, and chief-conductor of the Philharmonic Society.

(30.) "Miert haborus bunos az elmenekiilt Dohnanyi Erno?" [Why is Erno Dohnanyi an escaped war criminal?], A Reggel, May 7, 1945.

(31.) The research into Dohnanyi's political affairs has just started. See a recently published article on this topic, James A. Grymes, "Ernst von Dohnanyi and Communist Hungary in the Early Cold War," Acta Musicologica 84 (2012): 65-86.

(32.) "Hungarian Revival: Country's Music Struggles to Feet Despite WOES," Hew York Times, March 9, 1947; "Emil Havas, Dohnanyi," New York Times, March 23, 1947; "Jewish Agencies Strongly Oppose Dohnanyi's Wellesley Concert," Boston Herald, November 14, 1948.

(33.) See, for example, [Ferenc Gondor], "Dohnanyi," Az Ember (The Man), March 15, 1947; Ferenc Gondor, "Herr von Dohnanyi, heraus!." Az Ember, November 20, 1948.

(34.) Ferenc Gondor's letter to Tom C. Clark, February 5, 1949. (See the letter of Ilona von Dohnanyi [Grymes], 206-7.)

(35.) "I, Ernst von Dohnanyi, herewith declare that 1) I never was a member of any national socialist party.... 2) It is not true that I was Szalasi's 'musical aide' or 'advisor.' ...3) It is not true that I made the Hungarian Academy of Music 'Judenrein' or 'Aryanized.'" Dohnanyi's notary statement; November 26, 1948, Kilenyi-Dohnanyi Collection, FSU.

(36.) See, for example, Martin Dyckman, "Hungarian-Born Dohnanyi Marvels at Courage of Anti-Russian Patriots," Florida Flambeau, November 2, 1956; Ann Waldron, "Wife Of Composer at FSU: Ilona Is a Bit Younger than the Maestro," Tampa Sunday Tribune, July 28, 1957.

(37.) Letter of the Hungarian Freedom Fighters to Dohnanyi; May 17, 1959 (Kilenyi-Dohnanyi Collection, FSU). His wariness in this question is understandable: in the 19201930s he wrote some small "political" pieces for similar commissions (Hitvallds [National Prayer], 1920, Magyar Jovo [Hungarian Future], 1920, Magyar indulo [Hungarian March], 1933), the existence of which later became a count against him. See, for example, "Already in 1933 Dohnanyi had composed the Gombos March in tribute to the Hungarian Prime Minister Gombos, who was among the very first to pull Hungary into the orbit of the Axis." Andrew Stk's letter to Leon Goldstein, July 5, 1949 (Kilenyi-Dohnanyi Collection, FSU).

(38.) See, for example, Richard Taruskin, "Americans in Paris, Parisians in America," in Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 5 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 599-613.

(39.) Ilona von Dohnanyi's letter to the Bakers of March 7, 1954, Ohio University: "Baker Files."

(40.) "hiaba tanulmanyoztam a regi amerikai nepdalokat, nem ereztem ihletet, hogy azt a rovidke darabot osszehozzam." Dohnanyi's memoirs (Bucsu es iizenet), 90.

(41.) Dohnanyi's program note, n.d. Ohio University: "Baker Files."

(42.) "In choosing the sort of the work, it was obvious that something American would be appropriate. This led to the idea of using American folk tunes for a Rhapsody, much as Liszt did in his Hungarian Rhapsodies"--wrote Dohnanyi in his program note. He surely knew about Liszt's concept of rhapsody (namely that in the Hungarian Rhapsodies Liszt endeavored to reconstruct a presumed gypsy epic), since he had a copy of Liszt's On Gypsies and Gypsy music in Hungary (published in Hungarian in 1861) in his private library.

(43.) After the completion of the American Rhapsody Dohnanyi did not work on a new composition for several years. After about five years of creative silence, he only wrote two little flute pieces, Aria for Flute and Piano, op. 48/1 and a Passacaglia for Solo Flute, op. 48/2.

(44.) It is worth noting that someone (possibly a conductor of the work) bracketed this countersubject in the composer's facsimile, probably as a part to bring out. However, it is still odd that Dohnanyi, who was a brilliant orchestrator, would make such a mistake. Much more probable is that he tried to keep this little gesture hidden.

Veronika Kusz is a research fellow of the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. She studied musicology at the Liszt Academy of Music, and received her PhD in 2010. She was a Fulbright Fellow in 2005/2006, conducting researches in the Dohnanyi Collection of the Florida State University, Tallahassee. She is the author of several studies (mostly in Hungarian) on Dohnanyi and other Hungarian composers such as Zoltan Kodaly and Pal Jardanyi. Her dissertation about Dohnanyi's American years is to be published in 2015. 

                    Figure 1. Structure of the American Rhapsody. Written by Ernst von Dohnanyi. Copyright (c) 1953 Associated Music Publishers, Inc. (BMI). All rights reserved. Used with permission.  A: Introduction  1st start (Allegro)      2nd start  On Top of Old Smoky  measure 1                m.25  B: Theme and variations  Theme           Variation 1   Variation 2   Variation 3 (Andante ...)   (Poco piu     (Allegro)     (Tempo del                 mosso)                      tema)  Wayfaring Stranger  M.45            m.64          m.93          m.116  C: Scherzo  Main part (Allegretto    Trio     Recap, of main part vivace)                           (Allegro vivace)  The Riddle               Turkey   The Riddle + Turkey  m.145                    m.170    m.194  D: Interruption  (Adagio)  Wayfaring (+ Turkey)  m.217  E: Scherzo-Rondo  Main part     [Theme 2]                 Trio            Recap, of [Theme 1]                                               main part, (Presto)                                                Coda  1st country   2nd country   1st + 2nd   Sweet           1st + 2nd dance         dance         country     Betsy + 1       country dance                             dance       country dance   (+ Old Smoky)  m.237         m.324                     m.384

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Gale Document Number: GALE|A396310842