Jean Marnold

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Georges Jean Jules Morland (19 April 1859 – 17 April 1935),[1] better known by the pen name Jean Marnold, was a French music critic and translator.

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Jean Marnold was born at the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. He was Jacques Morland's older brother. Marnold was a music critic notably at the Courrier musical (1901–1903), the Mercure de France (since 1902) and the Mercure musical (1905–1907). He co-founded with Louis Laloy, the Revue de la Quinzaine. In the estimation of Laloy, Jean Marnold possessed "a rare erudition, a tight logic and a way of writing as sharp as picturesque".[2]

He was one of the first to defend the music of Claude Debussy, devoting six articles to the Nocturnes and hailing the "brilliant triumph of Pelléas". However, Debussy does not seem to have appreciated him too much, probably because Marnold also greatly admired Maurice Ravel, whom he hailed as early as 1904 as "one of the masters of tomorrow".[3]

Marnold is known to have written in the Mercure de France in defense of Ravel when the latter failed to win the Prix de Rome in 1905.[4] He then became friends with the composer who dedicated to him Le Gibet, the second piece of the piano suite Gaspard de la nuit (1908).

Jean Marnold took part in various controversies of his time. During the World War I, he was indignant at the idea that German music should be banned in France. In 1915, under the title of "Wagnerophobia", he intended to reply to a series of articles by Camille Saint-Saëns, "Germanophilie" published in L'Écho de Paris.[5]

In the summer of 1910, as Jean Marnold wrote an ironic article about the role of the music publisher A. Z. Mathot at the Société musicale indépendante, the latter challenged him to a duel and sent his witnesses, Georges Casella (1881–1922) and Paul-Louis Hervier (1882–1954). At first, the duel was avoided and an agreement was reached with the two witnesses of Marnold, Louis Laloy and Alfred Vallette, director of the Mercure de France. The whole incident was dealt under the arbitration of Claude Farrère and the fencer Eugène Rouzier-Dorcières (1872–1916).[6][7][8] But, in November 1910, a duel between Marnold and Mathot took place, with Alfred de Saint-Preux and Louis Laloy as witness on the one hand and Willy de Blest-Gana and André de Fouquières on the other. The duel with swords was refereed by Rouzier-Dorcières and ended in the defeat of Marnold, wounded in the thigh.[9][10]

Two weeks later, in the same month of November 1910, Jean Marnold had a duel with Georges Casella, which ended in the victory of the latter, Jean Marnold having been wounded in the arm.[11][12][13][14] A brief and rare silent Gaumont newsreel of this duel survives, which was publicly screened at the Musée Grévin at the end of November 1910.[15]

In February 1926, Jean Marnold almost had another duel, this time with the director of the Paris Opera, Jacques Rouché, in connection with Maurice Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges.[16][17][18][19] An official report was drawn up and published in the press by the witnesses of both parties to close the dispute: the general controller of the army Eugène Mauclère (1892–1974) and the honorary prefect David Dautresme for Rouché; the former deputy of Corrèze, Amédée Descubes-Desgueraines, and General Lecomte-Denis for Marnold.[20]

Jean Marnold was also a translator from German into French. He and his brother Jacques Morland translated Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy.[21] He also translated Ernst von Wolzogen and Richard Strauss', La Nuit de la Saint-Jean in 1908.

Jean Marnold was married to Marie Hortense Biart. Their daughter, Georgette Marnold (1890–1974), was a close friend of Maurice Ravel. It was she who found the composer's new home, the Belvedere, in December 1920. Coincidentally, Jean Marnold is buried in the cemetery of Lévis-Saint-Nom, about 15 km from Montfort-l'Amaury, where Maurice Ravel lived (1921–1937).[22]

After Jean Marnold's death, Georgette Marnold insisted on defending her father's honor in two open letters, challenging several defamatory statements made by Dominique Sordet in L'Action française,[23][24][25] including the accusation that Marnold was Jewish. Excerpt from the first letter: "It is common knowledge that my father was not a Jew and that his pseudonym Marnold was the anagram of his name Morland. His father was from the Vendée, his mother, born Majesty, was born in Paris where he himself was born on rue de Louvois. His paternal great-grandfather was the general baron de Morland, who died gloriously at Austerlitz; his maternal great-grandfather, Dr. Vignardonne, was a surgeon under the Empire in the army of the King of Holland, and, having returned to Paris, received the medal for the cholera epidemic in 1833. I add that my father was very proud of his purely French origins".[26]

Notes

  1. ↑ Dumesnil, René (1935). "Echos. Jean Marnold," Mercure de France, No. 885, pp. 664–66.
  2. ↑ Laloy, Louis (1928). La musique retrouvée 1902-1927. Paris: Plon, p. 129.
  3. ↑ Debussy, Claude (2005). Correspondance (1872-1918). Paris: Gallimard, p. 2273.
  4. ↑ Marnold, Jean (1905). "Variétés. Le Scandale du Prix de Rome," Mercure de France, No. 191,‎ pp. 466–69.
  5. ↑ Cheyronnaud, Jacques (1991). "'Éminemment français': Nationalisme et Musique," Terrain, No 17,‎ p. 91–104.
  6. ↑ Marnold, Jean (1910). "Musique," Mercure de France, No. 315, pp. 536–43.
  7. ↑ "Échos. Procès-verbal d’arbitrage," Mercure de France, No. 317 (1er septembre 1910), p. 187–88.
  8. ↑ Cornejo, Manuel (2009). "Deux Épisodes Méconnus de la Première Saison de la Société Musicale Indépendante (avril-juin 1910). Deux Documents Oubliés dont une Lettre Cosignée par Maurice Ravel," Cahiers Maurice Ravel,‎ pp. 84–100.
  9. ↑ "Le Duel Marnold-Mathot," Le XIXe Siècle‎ (11 novembre 1910), p. 3.
  10. ↑ "Le Duel Marnold-Mathot," Le Rappel‎ (11 novembre 1910), p. 3.
  11. ↑ "Deux Duels," La Liberté (22 novembre 1910), p. 1.
  12. ↑ "Sur le pré," L'Aurore‎ (22 novembre 1910), p. 2.
  13. ↑ Bridau, Philippe (22 novembre 1910). "Duels," Action française,‎ p. 4.
  14. ↑ Paris, Jean de (22 novembre 1910). "Informations. Duels," Le Figaro,‎ p. 3.
  15. ↑ "Musée Grévin," Le Journal, (26 novembre 1910), p. 5.
  16. ↑ "Un Incident à l’Opéra-Comique. M. Rouché Gifle un Critique Musical," L’Écho de Paris‎ (2 février 1926), p. 2.
  17. ↑ "Les Théâtres. Une Agression," Le Gaulois‎ (2 février 1926), p. 4.
  18. ↑ "Un Duel entre MM. J. Rouché et Marnold?," Paris-Soir‎ (3 février 1926), p. 3.
  19. ↑ Ravel, Maurice (2018). L'Intégrale: Correspondance (1895-1937), Écrits et Entretiens. Paris: Le Passeur Éditeur, p. 1058.
  20. ↑ "L'Incident de l’Opéra-Comique," L’Écho de Paris (4 février 1936), p. 5.
  21. ↑ A translation still in print.
  22. ↑ Le Flem, Paul (20 avril 1935). "Le Critique Musical Jean Marnold est mort," Comœdia, p. 2.
  23. ↑ Sordet, Dominique (26 avril 1935). "Chronique musicale. Jean Marnold," Action française,‎ p. 5.
  24. ↑ Sordet, Dominique (3 mai 1935). "La Musique. Les Concerts," Action française,‎ p. 5.
  25. ↑ Sordet, Dominique (31 mai 1935). "Le Phonographe," Action française, p. 5.
  26. ↑ Sordet, Dominique (24 mai 1935). "Chronique musicale. Une lettre de Mlle Marnold," Action française, p. 5.

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