Eugène Bozza: A Thematic Index by Lois Kuyper-Rushing

Abstract

Reviewed by: Eugène Bozza: A Thematic Index by Lois Kuyper-Rushing David Floyd Eugène Bozza: A Thematic Index. By Lois Kuyper-Rushing. (Music Library Association Index and Bibliography Series, vol. 42.) Middleton, WI: Music Library Association and A-R Editions, 2020. [xxxvi, 581 p. ISBN 9780895798879 (paperback), $150.] Indexes. Eugène Bozza: A Thematic Index by Lois Kuyper-Rushing is the first comprehensive thematic catalog of the music of Eugène Bozza (1904–1991). It offers both [End Page 91] a stepping-stone to future investigations of Bozza’s life and work and a reassessment of Bozza as much more than a composer of wind chamber music. The book, available exclusively in paperback, is a substantial volume in both its content and impact. Creating a detailed, accurate, and comprehensive thematic catalog for Bozza—a prolific composer who often reused melodies and rearranged works with new instrumentations, sometimes under new titles—is a lengthy, circuitous, and difficult task, and one which necessitates a dedicated scholar to carry it through to completion. The author, Lois Kuyper-Rushing, is singularly qualified for such an undertaking, considering her experience researching Bozza’s music. Two highlights of her previous work include a doctoral dissertation, “A Thematic Index of the Works for Woodwinds by Eugene Bozza (b. 1905)” (DMA diss., Louisiana State University, 1989), which was the first to comprehensively document this portion of the composer’s oeuvre, as well as an article detailing archival research in France that led to the discovery of several unpublished works (“Reassessing Eugène Bozza: Discoveries in the Bibliothèque Municipale de Valenciennes Archive,” Notes 69, no. 4 [June 2013]: 706–20). Overall, the index is a success. Its greatest strengths are the thoroughness of the indexing for unpublished and undated works, the novel inclusion of references to thematic similarities, and the biographical sketch of Bozza. The index, however, also has some issues. The impact of occasional typos in entries and minor errors in the notation of the incipits is relatively insignificant to the work as a whole. The more significant issues are the errors in cross-referencing between entries and the lack of a general index. Despite these oversights, its strengths as a contribution to the scholarship generally outweigh its weaknesses. Preceding the thematic index is a biographical sketch that offers both a well-rounded presentation of Bozza’s life and a look at the relationships between the events of his life and his compositional output. Bozza, primarily known in the United States for his woodwind chamber music, in fact composed for a wide variety of ensembles and genres throughout his career. His works include symphonies, vocal music, concertos, etudes, and an abundance of solo and chamber works for brass, strings, piano, percussion, and yes, woodwinds. Although most often remembered as a composer, he was also a violinist and conductor. From 1939 to 1948, Bozza served as the conductor of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Having held a leadership role in the Opéra-Comique during the Nazi occupation, he faced intense scrutiny from the Parisian arts establishment after the war, and it is suggested in historical research that his termination in 1948 may have been a consequence of this. In 1950, he was appointed director of the École nationale de musique in Valenciennes, where he remained until his retirement in 1975. He continued to live in Valenciennes until his death in 1991. The preface to the index explains the structure of the catalog and the contents of a standard entry. The index lists 298 distinct pieces, 258 of which are “dated and/or published” and 40 of which are undated. They are organized chronologically and assigned “KR” (Kuyper-Rushing) numbers. KR 1 to KR 258 are the dated and/or published works, and KR 259 to KR 298 are the undated works. Each entry includes the title as it appears on the source, brief version descriptions where multiple versions exist, the instrumentation, the names or number of movements, the dates for composition and publication, the author of any lyrical or spoken text, dedications, and any general notes needed to add clarity. [End Page 92] The incipits provided for each entry are transcribed from manuscripts and...