Until now, Roberto Gerhard's writings, broadcasts and lectures have been scattered throughout a variety of publications and archives. Now a comprehensive selection, edited by Meirion Bowen, has been published by Ashgate under the title Gerhard on Music.

Gerhard’s writings are here arranged thematically to emphasize the evolution of his musical interests. They reveal his early attachment to Spanish and Catalonian musical traditions, broadening into a fascination with folk music of all kinds. The five years (!923-8) which Gerhard spent studying with Schoenberg, which proved crucial in unlocking his own creative individuality, yielded subsequently an important series of writings – reminiscences of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, technical investigations of the problems and possibilities of twelve-note music and so on. This selection of Gerhard’s writings range from some of his polemical writings of the 1930s, when he was a prominent member of the avant-garde in Barcelona, to later broadcasts and lectures given in the UK and USA. All display his breadth of culture and insight into the nature of creativity amongst both artists and scientists.

Publisher: Scolar Press (Ashgate Publishing)
ISBN no: 0 7546 0009 2
Price: £49.50

Chronological list of writings

This section is based upon the list of Gerhard's writings compiled by Margarida Estanyol in the booklet Centenary Robert Gerhard (Generalitat de Catalunya: Departament de Cultura, September 1996), 35-37. It is here modified or corrected and presented (in English) in a slightly different format.

1918 La canco popular catalana: Catalunyan Archives of Ethnography and Folklore (Barcelona, 1918), 5

1922 L'obra de Felipe Pedrell: in Revista Musical Catalana, vol. XIX (September-October 1922), 231-232

1930-1936: Articles in Mirador

Prelude: 50 (30 January 1930), 7
Coral: 54 (6 february 1930), 5
Orquesta Pau Casals: 55 (13 February 1930), 5
Fuga: al Mestre Millet: 56 (20 February 1930), 5
Fuga (acabament): al Mestre Millet: 57 (27 February 1930), 5
Elogi del Saxofon: 58 (6 March 1930), 5
Concert al Liceu: 59 (13 March 1930), 5
La Banda Municipal: 60 (20 March1930), 5
Opera: 61 (27 March 1930), 5
Conzertstuck: 62 (3 April 1930), 5
Coda: 63 (10 April 1930), 5

Variacions: 64 (17 April 1930), 5
Com escolteu musica? 65 (7 April 1930), 5
Com escolteu musica?II: 66 (24 April 1930), 5
(Untitled): 95 (27 November 1930), 5
Film sonor 96 (4 December 1930), 6
La Musica i el film sonor, 97 (11 December 1930), 5
Un princep fa opera moderna, 99 (25 December 1930), 5
Hanns Eisler, 101 (8 January, 1931), 5
L'opera russa de Paris, 104 (29 January 1931), 5
Bela Bartok, 105 (5 February 1931), 5
Bela Bartok a 'Audicions intimes', 106 (12 February 1931), 5
Els compositors madrilenys, 107 (19 February 1931),5
Segon concert Conxita Supervia, 109 (5 March 1931), 5
Artur Rubinstein, 111 (19 March 1931), 5
C. Badia d'Agusti, 112 (26 March 1931), 5
Francesc Costa, 114 (9 April 1931),5
Pau Casals, 115 (16 April 1931),5
Ildebrando Pizzetti, 118 (7 May 1931),5
Ernesto Halffter, 119 (14 May 1931),5
Baltasa Samper, 120 (21 May 1931),5
Musica aplicada 124 (18 June 1931),5
Edicions, 129 (23 July), 5
Edicions de musica: Xavier Gols, Suite pour piano, 131 (6 August 1931),5
Rodolfo Halffter 'Sonatas de El Escorial' , 133 (20 August 1931),5
La questio de la radio, 140 (8 October 1931),5
Un hoste illustre: Arnold Schoenberg , 140 (8 October 1931),5
Conversant amb Schoenberg, 145 (12 November 1931),5

Arnold Schoenberg 165 (31 March 1932),5
Anton Webern (Musica da Camera), 166 (7April 1932),5
La SIMC a Viena, 182 (28 July 1932), 5
La SIMC a Viena (continued), 185 (18 August 1932),5
La SIMC a Viena (concluded), 187 (1 September 1932),5
El Mestre Amadeu Vives 202 (15 December 1932),5
La musica contemporania (Report from Prague I), 348 (3 October 1935), 8
'Suite' de musica contemporania. (Report from Prague II), 348 (17 October 1935) 8
'Suite' de musica contemporania. (Report from Prague III), 348 (17
October 1935) p?
Primer concert de l"Orquesta Pau Casals 350 (31 October 1935), 8
La vida musical. (Recent concerts I), 351 (7 November 1935), 8
Francesc Martorelli 351 (7 November 1935), 8
La vida musical. (Recent concerts II), 353 (21 November 1935), 8
'Maria del Carmen' de Granados 351 (7 November 1935), 8
Una nova orquesta de 'camera' 356 (12 December 1935), 8
Alban Berg 361 (16 January 1936), 8
Al Conferencia Club: 'La musica a la cort d'Alfons el Magnanim' 364 (6 February 1936), 8

1935 Musica I poesia Quaderns de poesia, Year I (July, 1935), 2, 18-22

1945 England. Spring, 1945: Tempo 11 (old series, ed. Ernest Chapman, Spring 1945), 2-3; reprinted in Tempo 100 (new series, ed. David Drew, July 1972), 4-8

1951 On Music in Ballet I: Ballet, 3 (April 1951), 19-24; II, 4 (May 1951), 28-35

1952 Tonality in twelve-tone music: The Score & MA magazine 6 (May 1952), 23-35

1954 On composition with twelve notes in J. Rufer,Composition with Twelve Notes (London/New York: Rockliff/Macmillan, 1954), First published as one of several contributions by different composers to the Appendix of Josef Rufer, Composition with Twelve Notes, English transl., Humphrey Searle (London, 1969), Appendix I, 183-5

Reply to George Perle: The Score & MA magazine 9 (September 1954), 59-60

1955 Twelve-note composition explained BBC Radio talk: 2 April 1965

1956 Pau Casals simbolo de la nacionalidad catalana: (1) Libro blanco de Cataluna (Buenos Aires); (2) Published in Revista de Catalunya , 1956, 16 (in Spanish, Catalan and English)

The Contemporary Music Situation: The Score & MA magazine 16 (June 1956), 7-18 (Originally a talk given at Bedford College for Women, London)

Developments in twelve-note technique: The Score & MA magazine 17 (September 1956),61-72

Schoenberg reminiscences: Lecture given at Dartington Summer School of Music, published posthumously in Perspectives of New Music (Princeton, NewJersey) Spring-Summer 1975, 57-65

Twelve-note technique in Stravinsky: The Score & MA magazine 18 (December 1956), 38-43

1957 Sound and Symbol BBC Radio talk, 13 August 1957

1958 A propos Mr Stadlen: The Score & MA magazine 24 (July 1958), 50-57

The composer and his audience BBC radio talk, 3 October 1958, first published in Rollo Myers (ed.), Twentieth-Century Music (London, Calder & Boyars, 1960), 52-61

Introduction to Symphony 2 BBC radio talk, 25 October 1958

1959 Concrete and electronic music composition An illustrated talk given at the 'Music, Libraries and Instruments' Conference in August (?) 1959. Later published under its present title in the Hinrichsen Music Yearbook, 11 (London, 1961), 30-38.

Symphony 2 programme note for first performance by BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, London, 27 November 1959

Roberto Gerhard's Symphony: Radio Times (October 1959), 9

1960 Functions of the series in twelve-note composition: two lectures given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, spring 1960

Is New Music Growing Old? Lecture given at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor on 17 May, 1960 and published in the University of Michigan Official Publication vol. 62, 18 (August 10, 1960, School of Music series, 2), 3-14 Introduction to 'Lament on the death of a bullfighter': BBC radio talk (26 January 1960?)

1961 Some lectures by Webern: The Score & MA magazine 28 (January 1961), 25-28

Thoughts on 'Art and Anarchy: The Listener, 1669 (23 March 1961), 519-520 Irrelevant art: talk on BBC Radio (11 March, 1961) Reluctant Revolutionary: article on Schoenberg in The Sunday Telegraph (December 3, 1961), 11

1962 Musa y musica hoy: Revista Shell (Venezuela, December 1962), 64-69

1963 Primitive folk music from Spain BBC radio talk, 6 january, 1963

1964 'The Plague': The Listener, 1826 (March 26, 1964), 553

1965 Sound Observed: two BBC radio talks (28 January & 3 February 1965)

1992 Apunts: Cultura (Barcelona, January 1992), 29-42

Translations:

Beween 1929 and 1934 Gerhard was active as the translator into Catalan of various important books on music. These are as follows:

Hugo Riemann: Dictado musical (Barcelona: Labor, 1928) and Composicion musical (Barcelona: Labor, 1929)

Hermann Scherchen: El arte de dirigir la orquesta (Barcelona: Labor, 1933)

Hans Scholz: Compendio de armonia (Barcelona, Labor, 1928[?])

Ernst Toch: La melodia (Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Labor, 1931; reprinted in 1985)

Fritz Volbach: La orquesta moderna (Barcelona, Labor, 1928)

Egon Wellesz: Musica bizantia (Barcelona, Labor, 1930)

Johannes Wolf: Historia de la musica (Barcelona, Labor, 1934)