"I have often heard the statement made by foreign singers, as a demonstrated fact, that the German artists are artists in feeling indeed, and serious in their devotion, but that their singing is crude"
About this Quote
Seidl is quoting a stereotype with a musician's wince: praise that lands like a slap. Foreign singers, he notes, grant Germans the noblest traits - "feeling", "serious" devotion - then disqualify them with a damning closer: "crude". The line works because it captures a familiar cultural bargain in 19th-century music life: Germans get to be the deep ones, Italians and French the polished ones. Compliment the soul, dock the technique.
As a Wagner-associated conductor navigating international stages, Seidl is also doing politics by other means. The phrasing "as a demonstrated fact" is lightly barbed, exposing how quickly taste gets dressed up as evidence. "Crude" is not an acoustic measurement; it's a social verdict. It implies rough vowels, heavy tone, insufficient elegance - essentially, a mismatch with cosmopolitan standards that prized bel canto refinement and French clarity. In an era when conservatories, touring circuits, and national schools were solidifying, these judgments helped determine who got hired, who got reviewed, and whose tradition counted as "proper."
The subtext is defensive but not merely nationalist. Seidl isn't denying German intensity; he's questioning why intensity is treated as incompatible with finish. He points to an unfair double bind: be profound and be punished for it, or sand down the edges and risk losing the very seriousness everyone claims to admire. The sentence is less about vocalism than about how cultural hierarchies get laundered into "common knowledge."
As a Wagner-associated conductor navigating international stages, Seidl is also doing politics by other means. The phrasing "as a demonstrated fact" is lightly barbed, exposing how quickly taste gets dressed up as evidence. "Crude" is not an acoustic measurement; it's a social verdict. It implies rough vowels, heavy tone, insufficient elegance - essentially, a mismatch with cosmopolitan standards that prized bel canto refinement and French clarity. In an era when conservatories, touring circuits, and national schools were solidifying, these judgments helped determine who got hired, who got reviewed, and whose tradition counted as "proper."
The subtext is defensive but not merely nationalist. Seidl isn't denying German intensity; he's questioning why intensity is treated as incompatible with finish. He points to an unfair double bind: be profound and be punished for it, or sand down the edges and risk losing the very seriousness everyone claims to admire. The sentence is less about vocalism than about how cultural hierarchies get laundered into "common knowledge."
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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