Thurston Dart

Author(s): Anthony Lewis

Source: Music & Letters , Jul., 1971, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 236-238
Published by: Oxford University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/734520

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Music & Letters

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 THURSTON DART
BY ANTHONY LEWIS

THE musical body politic requires a bracing injection from time to

time if it is not to relapse into complacent lethargy. From Tovey it
received a nobly generous dose, well fitted to tense up the contra-
puntal muscles; from Dent a more astringent mixture, stimulating
the operatic vocal cords and untwisting the tongue. From Thurston
Dart it got a veritable shot in the arm. For Dart the performer was
inseparable from Dart the scholar: his research was directed through
the ears and the fingers as well as through the intellect. No musical
problem could be solved satisfactorily, in his view, without reference
to sound and, in instrumental music, touch. For instance, at the end
of his life he was busy redistributing some of the keyboard works of
J. S. Bach among his sons, and part of the basis of this exercise
was the physical aspect of the figuration employed. When I tried
to rescue the C major concerto for two claviers for Johann Sebastian,
he replied: "But it doesn'tfeel like the old man's writing". This
technique of attribution might be regarded as a sample of Dart's
exhilarating audacity in this particular case, but there is a great
deal more behind the principle than has, perhaps, so far been
admitted. One can imagine it being highly relevant in testing the
authenticity of a newly discovered work by, say, Chopin.
Of such quality were the sparks that flew up from the Dart anvil.
A few might fade away quickly, but the majority would illumine a
hitherto obscure area before they were extinguished. The success
of his many distinguished pupils would often depend on their
ability to detect the particular gleam that would guide them amidst
the profusion that would pour from him. Once a direction had
been established, a line of fire could be concentrated and the project
would soon burst into flame.
For, to pursue the analogy, what a smithy it was! While the
Professor/Smith was tempering the fine edge of a Chambonnieres
rapier, one assistant would be trundling in large ingots of Byrd for
processing, while another would be extracting base metal from
Jacobean Consort Music and a third might be detecting flaws in
some bars of Dunstable. At the end of the production line there
would be a row of vans labelled 'Musica Britannica, c/o Stainer &
Bell' ready to receive some of the finished articles. For let there be
no mistake about it, it was Dart's scholarship and energy that guided
the 'Musica Britannica' volumes through the press. He undertook
the chief task of detailed editorial direction, checking and consul-
tation and carried it out with tremendous thoroughness, energy and

236

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devotion. That the thirty-odd volumes of the edition stand in part
as a monument to his memory I do not think any of the individual
editors would dispute.
Many would also wish to remember him as a performer, and
indeed there is plenty of scope for that. He was so self-critical as a
soloist that of recent years his appearances in that guise were few,
though I remember a masterly performance in the fifth Brandenburg
and several short but telling contributions on a variety of occasions.
Dart had the great gift, as a harpsichordist and clavichordist, of
judging the spacing of music, the commas and pauses, with wonder-
ful sensitiveness and accuracy. Consequently, phrases took on new
life and acquired fresh tension under his hands. The most fleeting
miniature could become an impressive experience under these
conditions, and such was the intensity of his expressive power that
I have known both performer and audience to be emotionally
exhausted after quite a short programme group. But the large-scale
works were equally under his control. He did great service to his
beloved John Bull (whose biography he did not live to complete)
by his magnificent recording of the Walsingham Variations. All
the spaciousness and grandeur of the work emerges in his inter-
pretation, and the brilliance of his execution persuades one to
overlook its occasional weaknesses.
Despite his many solo recordings Dart was probably known to
an even wider public as a continuo-player. As a soloist he was
outstanding, as a continuo-player he was supreme. After making
every allowance for differences of opinion about his style of realiz-
ation, his periods of inspiration (and they were frequent and
prolonged) surpassed anything I ever heard from any other player.
So many memorable touches come to my mind-the final whisk of
the monkeys' tails in the Monkeys' Dance in 'The Fairy Queen' and
the gentle cascades of falling tears at the end of 'The Plaint' in the
same work-that one could cite them endlessly. But beneath the
surface brilliance lay the all-important recognition that rhythmic
power lies at the heart of a good continuo realization. Dart would
never tolerate unrhythmical singing or playing. If singers or instru-
mentalists lacked rhythmic sense Dart was swift to instil it into them.
Many a shapeless performance has owed its eventual coherence and
impetus to his influence at the harpsichord.
Influential, indeed, he was over a very wide area-in methods
and disciplines of research, in source analysis and editorial practice,
in keyboard sonorities and Baroque textures in general, in the
reform of teaching attitudes and organization, in concert-giving
criteria and professional commitment-and without attempting to
complete the list one must refer to the marginal interests, marginal
perhaps but so valuable and so typical: in calligraphy (of which his
own was a fine example), in typography and layou t (the pages of
'Musica Britannica' and many other publications reflect his care

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and discernment in this respect) and in the sheer beauty of instru-
ments (he possessed many examples that gave rare delight just to see).
That shot in the arm Bob Dart gave us pervaded a great part of the
musical system-a part sorely in need of his stimulus, and braced
and invigorated by it we look back at his life and work with deep
admiration and affection.

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