Scan 53
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.5 L-m, 1900
40 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1in public for the first time, and subsequently she undertook concert tours introducing the instrument all over Europe.
3In 1909 Wanda Landowska published a book under the title of 'Musique ancienne', written in collaboration with her husband.1 In 1912 Pleyel built a new harpsichord 2 according to her specifications. She played on the new instrument for the first time at the Bach Festival at Breslau the same year. In 1913 Hermann Kretzschmar opened for her a harpsichord class at the Royal High School for Music in Berlin; but her activities there were interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war, and she and her husband were detained in Berlin as civil prisoners on parole. Towards the end of that war Henry Lew was killed in a car accident. In 1919, at the request of Hermann Suter, the director of the Basel Conservatory, Wanda Landowska went to Switzerland and played the continuo in Bach's St. Matthew Passion on the harpsichord for the first time in the 20th century. During the summer months of that year she held a series of master classes and gave several recitals at Basel, afterwards returning to Paris, where she established her home. In 1923 she visited the U.S.A. for the first time.
5In 1925 she settled at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt near Paris, where she founded her own École de Musique Ancienne, intended primarily for experienced musicians desiring to improve their knowledge of the styles and to learn the technique of the old instruments. There were both private and public courses, the latter taking place during the summer months only and specializing in the aesthetics of interpretation of the 17th and 18th centuries. The students, both singers and instrumentalists, took part in the performance of the works concerned as well as in discussions, analysis and criticism. Wanda Landowska built a large concert-studio in her garden, where the public lectures were held. In addition she held private courses once a week throughout the year.
7In 1940, when the Nazis were approaching Paris, Wanda Landowska had to abandon her school, her library of more than 10,000 volumes and her collection of old instruments. In 1941, after a short sojourn in the Pyrenees, and later in Switzerland, she found herself in the U.S.A. Her first recital, after an absence of fourteen years, took place in the Town Hall, New York. This event was followed by a series of recitals and concerts all over the U.S.A. She has been domiciled in America since, and lives at Lakeville, Connecticut. In 1951 she made recordings of the whole of Bach's 'Well-tempered Clavier' on the harpsichord.
9The first modern works composed for the harpsichord were written especially for Wanda Landowska, such as Manuel de Falla's 'Concerto' and Francis Poulenc's 'Concert champêtre'. Her campaign for the renaissance of music of the past and the harpsichord included successive concert tours in Europe, both Americas, Africa, etc., as well as the publication of essays, articles and lectures, and her classes at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt. Her compositions include a Serenade for strings and several works for string orchestra; a chorus for women's voices with orchestra; a 'Hebrew Poem' for orchestra; 'Polish Popular Songs' for solo voice, woodwind instruments, harpsichord and strings; cadenzas for Mozart concertos and for Haydn's Concerto in D major; more than a hundred songs for voice with pianoforte accompaniment; 'Polish Popular Songs' (a cappella) for the Orfeo Catala, Barcelona; many pianoforte pieces. She also transcribed for the pianoforte a 'Chaine de Landler' by Schubert, 'Valses viennoises' by Lanner and Country Dances by Mozart.
11Wanda Landowska's literary publications include the following:
13'Sur l'interprétation des œuvres de clavecin de J. S. Bach' ('Mercure de France', 15 Nov. 1905).
14'La Musique ancienne' (ibid., 1909).
15'L'Interprétation de Chopin' ('Courrier musical', 1 Jan. 1910).
16'I.e Clavecin ou piano dans l'exécution des œuvres de Bach' (S.I.M., 15 May 1910).
17'Les Allemands et la musique française au 18e siècle' ('Mercure de France', 1911).
18'La Nationalité de Chopin' ('Monde musical', 30 Apr. 1911).
19'Fur welches Instrument hat Bach sein "Wohltemperirtes Klavier" geschrieben?' (Z.f.M., 18 May 1911; Fr. trans. Rev. Mus., 1 Nov. 1927, Eng. trans. 'Dominant', Nov. 1927).
20'Les Influences françaises chez Bach' ('Courrier musical', 15 July 1912).
21'Pourquoi la musique moderne n'est-elle pas mélodique?' (S.I.M., 15 Mar 1913).
22'Über die C-dur Fuge aus dem I. Teil des Wohltemperirten Klavier' (B.-J., 1913).
23'Comment faut-il interpréter les Inventions de J. S. Bach?' ('Monde musical', July 1921).
24'Le Concerto en mi bémol majeur de Mozart' ('Tribune de Genève', 7-8 Jan. 1923).
25'Les Musiques d'aujourd'hui' ('Revue contemporaine', 1 Oct. 1923).
26'En vue de quel instrument Bach a-t-il composé son Wohltemperirte Clavier?' (Rev. Mus., 1 Dec. 1927).
27'A propos du 25e anniversaire de la Société Bach' ('Guide musical', 1930).
28'Chopin et l'ancienne musique française' (Rev. Mus., 1 Dec. 1931).
29'Sur les Variations Goldberg' (ibid., May 1933).
30'Sur l'interprétation de la musique à deux voix de J. S. Bach' ('Guide musical', Apr. 1936).
31'Handel, Bach, Scarlatti' ('L'Art musical', 25 Dec. 1936).
32'Les Suites de clavecin de Handel' ('Radio Magazine', 3-10 Jan. 1937).
33'A Note on Bach' ('New York Times', 15 Feb. 1942).
34'Tribute to Rameau' (ibid., Oct. 1942).
35'Strings Plucked and Struck' (New York Herald Tribune', 28 Feb. 1943).
36'Note on a Great Neapolitan' ('New York Times', 24 Oct. 1943).
381 Eng. trans. published New York, 1923.
392 Two keyboards, four sets of strings producing one 16 ft. register, two 8 ft. registers and one 4 ft. register. Among other features are a coupler and a lute stop.
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