896 - HONEGGER, Arthur (1892–1955), Swiss composer. Fragmentary autograph manuscript. 1½ pages, in-4 format. No place, no date [circa 1957]. Black ink with corrections in blue ink. Deletions, additions, and corrections likely by another hand.

HONEGGER, Arthur (1892–1955), Swiss composer. Fragmentary autograph manuscript. 1½ pages, in-4 format. No place, no date [circa 1957]. Black ink with corrections in blue ink. Deletions, additions, and corrections likely by another hand. HONEGGER CRITICIZES THE EXCESSES OF MUSIC. Manuscript excerpt from his book *Je suis compositeur* (pp. 176–178, Éditions du Conquistador, 1957). In it, he criticizes the field of music and its excesses. “In 1919, Satie advocated ‘furniture music’—music that was played without being listened to, comparable to wallpaper pasted on a wall. Today, we have reduced the Mass in B-flat or the Quartet, Op. 132, to that level. Concerts are more numerous than ever. But they have become showcases for piano or conducting virtuosos. The impresario demands the orthodox program: a Beethoven festival for the conductor, a Chopin recital for the pianist. The public rushes to the box office without even knowing the programs. Once again, it is not the music that matters, but the virtuosity of the performance. We live in an age when a six-year-old girl is placed in front of an orchestra so that people can marvel at her haphazard gestures! One wonders why so many great masters of the past wrote so many works, since they never arouse the curiosity of performers. All the more reason, then, why would young, unknown musicians presume to enter an already overcrowded arena? The curse—and the word is no exaggeration—that weighs on “our profession” is precisely this. Music is not dying of anemia, but of excess. There is too much output, too much supply for too little demand. Alongside French composers or those living in Paris, there are, in other countries, men of great talent (genius remains the preserve of the dead) such as Hindemith, Prokofiev, Malipiero, Dallapiccola, Hartmann, Toch, Eck, Orff, Britten, Walton, Abril, Franck Martin, Beck, Nabokoff, Barber, Copland, Shostakovich… and so many others, snubbed by orchestras… Let us face the reality of an obvious state of stagnation [...].” He then addresses young composers, etc.