(DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

ROMANTIC 1810–1920 199

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Le Sacre du printemps
246–251 ■ November Steps 314–315 ■ L’Amour de loin 325

















Gustav Mahler

The second of 14 children of
Jewish parents, Mahler was
born in 1860 and spent his
childhood in the Czech-
of unknown regions. The decisive Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde speaking town of Iglau (now
impetus for the cult of exoticism while staying at the Hotel Bellevue in Jihlava). He gave his first
came in the 19th century, as the Italian town of Cortina. The peaks piano recital at age 10 and five
European powers busily pursued of the Dolomites provided a dramatic years later entered the Vienna
backdrop for his compositions.
global empire-building rivalries. Conservatory. His cantata Das
At home, industrialization created klagende Lied (1880) showed
rapid growth in towns and cities, east. Operas were set in alluringly amazing early self-awareness,
with populations living and foreign settings, such as Giuseppe exploring a spectral, folk-tale
world in a vivid orchestral
working in oppressive conditions Verdi’s Aida (1871), a fictional story style. A stellar conducting
that generated an inner need for of ancient Egypt. In orchestral career led to the composer’s
psychological escape. music, Russia’s Nikolai Rimsky- appointment in 1897 as artistic
Korsakov based his symphonic director of the Vienna Court
Selling the exotic suite Scheherazade (1888) on Opera. Mahler wrote most
The world of literature latched stories from a collection of Middle of his music—largely song
onto the sales possibilities of exotic Eastern folk tales that became settings and symphonies—
subject matter, as in the South Seas known as The Arabian Nights. The during summers among the
tales of Robert Louis Stevenson French composer Claude Debussy Austrian lakes.
(1850–1894) or the romanticized found the piano especially suitable Departure from the Vienna
Native American world depicted for suggesting images of remote Court Opera in 1907 was
in The Song of Hiawatha by Henry worlds, using Javanese melodies followed by conducting work
Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). in Pagodes (Pagodas), from his in New York. Mahler died soon
Exoticism also flourished among Estampes (Engravings) of 1903. after returning to Europe from
America, in 1911.
painters. French artist Paul Gauguin
(1848–1903) moved to the French Life through new eyes
Polynesian island of Tahiti in 1891, Before he composed Das Lied von Other key works
to explore new avenues of artistic der Erde, Mahler did not seem to be
expression, aware that the European influenced by the growing European 1888–1894 Symphony No. 2
vogue for the exotic would ensure love of exoticism. His choice of texts (“Resurrection”)
1892–1901 Des Knaben
sales of his work in Paris. for his songs and symphonies had Wunderhorn (The Boy’s
European classical music, too, come mostly from one particular Magic Horn)
was drawn to the imagined sounds area of Austro-German culture: the 1908–1909 Symphony No. 9
of enticing worlds to the south and folk poetry, usually anonymous, ❯❯





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200 EXOTIC WORLDS IN MUSIC


Romantic themes and images in Das Lied von der Erde

The Wanderer Wine
A solitary protagonist A goblet of wine beckons
searches for comfort for the Wanderer, representing
his lonely heart and solace both joy in life and a desire
in the face of life’s brevity. for oblivion.






Galloping horses
Some maidens are
drawn to handsome A howling ape
young men who An ape cries out on
a tombstone in the
appear on horseback, moonlight, symbolizing
but their passion is
fleeting and unfulfilled death and the transitory
nature of life.
as the horses carry
the riders away.




Setting sun and rising moon An extinguished lamp
Darkness approaches as the The light of love burns bright
inevitable end to the day, just as but cannot burn forever and
death will follow life—but with will, in time, fade, to be taken
the promise that a new day will over by the darkness of death.
dawn and nature will persist.


assembled by Achim von Arnem of serene acceptance of life and serenity and clarity which I had
and Clemens Brentano in their death, rather than the keenness for acquired. I have to start a new
collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn turbulent self-dramatization of both life as a complete beginner.”
(The Boy’s Magic Horn), published displayed in western Romanticism. Bethge’s adaptation of the
in 1805 and 1808. For Lieder eines When Mahler read a copy of Die original Chinese texts was not
fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a chinesische Flöte (The Chinese particularly faithful. He knew no
Wayfarer, 1885–1886), Mahler had Flute)—a collection of Chinese Chinese and used a German
written his own texts in a similar poems adapted by German poet translation of a French translation
folk style, with a wide range of Hans Bethge—in autumn 1907, the of the original. In effect, Bethge’s
emotional moods projected against composer was already familiar with poems were beautifully written
the surrounding, vividly perceived the artistic world within its pages. paraphrases, evoking an emotional
world of nature. Mahler’s life was also in a turbulent world that was by turns anguished,
state, coloring his view of life and poignant, idyllic, resigned,
East meets West death. The devastating death of drunken, or quietly radiant, all
Mahler did not, however, ignore his four-year-old daughter in the reflected in exquisitely drawn
eastern culture. The song cycle summer of 1907 was followed by scenes from nature. This approach
Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the the onset of a heart condition that connected more to the world of
Death of Children) composed in required Mahler to slow down. In German lyric poetry that was
1901–1904 was based on poems a letter to the conductor Bruno familiar to Mahler than to the
by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866), Walter, his former assistant at the 9th-century Chinese originals, with
a German professor of eastern Vienna Court Opera, Mahler wrote: their ultra-concentrated diction.
languages. Rückert’s writings were “I have always known that I must Still, Mahler alluded to exotic
influenced by the eastern concept die … but all at once I have lost the influences by using the oriental





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ROMANTIC 1810–1920 201


Einsame im Herbst” (“The Lonely
One in Autumn”). Then comes a
group of three shorter settings,
prominently colored by the
pentatonic scale, recalling the
Is it at all bearable? Will it innocent happiness of youth and Mahler’s struggles are
drive people to do away the joys of springtime. The final those of a psychic weakling,
with themselves? setting, “Der Abschied” (“The a complaining adolescent
Gustav Mahler Farewell”), is longer than the other who enjoyed his misery,
five songs combined. Two different wanting the whole world to
poems are here separated by an see how he was suffering.
orchestral interlude and lead Harold Schonberg
eventually to a conclusion with American critic
words added by Mahler himself:
“Everywhere the dear earth
five-note “pentatonic” scale blossoms forth in spring and grows
(distinct from the Western seven- green again! Everywhere and
note scale), providing an element forever, distant horizons gleam
of local color that his European blue: forever … forever …”
audiences would easily recognize. The music seems not so much to Mahler’s deepest creative and
to end as to dissolve into this vision, personal concerns than to a fashion
Large ambitions in which awareness of human for “exoticism for exoticism’s sake,”
In Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler mortality is transcended by the but, without that fashion and the
managed to combine his two perception that life and the natural inspiration Mahler found in Eastern
principal musical concerns—song world will timelessly be renewed. culture, Das Lied von der Erde
and the symphony—in a single The work as a whole relates more could not have existed. ■
large-scale work for the first time.
In his Second, Third, and Fourth
Symphonies, there had been a
substantial overlapping of the two
genres; in Das Lied von der Erde
their fusion is so complete that
neither can be separated out. A
tenor and mezzosoprano alternate
in the six song settings, and Mahler
deploys a large orchestra with
exceptional sensibility to mood and
color, often with the finesse of a
chamber group of solo instruments.
The opening “Das Trinklied vom
Jammer der Erde” (“Drinking-Song
of the Earth’s Sorrow”), music of
wild and despairing fatalism, is
followed by the desolate depiction
of a mist-covered lake in “Der


Mahler’s diverse influences are
satirized in this caricature of him
conducting his Symphony No. 1 in D
major, from a November 1900 edition
of Illustriertes Wiener Extrablatt.





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NATIONALISM






















1830–1920























































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NATIONALISM






















1830–1920























































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204 INTRODUCTION




Bed rˇich Smetana Russian composer Gabriel Fauré’s Antonín Dvo rˇák’s
establishes Czech opera Modest Mussorgsky Requiem introduces Symphony No. 9,
with The Bartered Bride, writes Pictures at an a new, more subtle inspired by Native
incorporating Czech Exhibition, inspired by the style to the form, American music and
themes and written in death of the Russian artist inspiring other African American
the Czech language. Viktor Hartmann. French composers. songs, premieres.






1863 1874 1887–1890 1893


1869 1875 1890








Mily Balakirev In Norway, Edvard One of Russia’s “Five,”
establishes the “Five,” Grieg completes the Aleksandr Borodin
a group of Russian music for Henrik Ibsen’s adapts the 12th-century
composers who sought Peer Gynt. Based on a epic prose poem The Lay
to create music with a folk tale, the work of Igor’s Host to develop
Russian identity. becomes a national epic. his opera Prince Igor.


s the 19th century Nationalism in music did not Russian composers who became
progressed, a growing confine itself to subject matter. known as the “Five” or “Mighty
A mood of nationalism Composers incorporated folk songs Handful” (Aleksandr Borodin,
developed, and people sought and dances into their music or César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky,
individual identities as nations composed their own melodies and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov),
distinct from the old empires. The using elements of a particular whose work later influenced Pyotr
dominant culture in Europe was tradition of folk music, such as Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander
Germanic, and this was especially its scales and rhythms. Glazunov, and, in the 20th century,
true of the music being written for Sergei Rachmaninoff.
the concert halls and opera houses. Russia leads The wave of nationalism gained
A tradition of folk music thrived The first signs of nationalism momentum in the mid-19th century,
almost everywhere, as regional and in music came from Russia, especially as the Austro-Hungarian
local cultures of the many different which had started to assert its Empire crumbled. Countries were
people asserted themselves. It was independence from European proud of their own folk culture, and
this that provided the inspiration culture at the beginning of the especially their music. Chopin
for composers wishing to establish Romantic period. Mikhail Glinka’s tinged much of his piano music
a musical identity that matched the operas were based on Russian with inflections of folk melodies
nationalistic ideals of their people. stories, with Russian folk tunes from his native Poland, and wrote
Opera was an obvious starting presented in the Romantic style, several polonaises, while Liszt
point, as it could be based on inspiring more than a century of incorporated Hungarian dance
national history and legends, but distinctively Russian music. Quick styles into his work. More overtly
the same ideas were also expressed to take up the baton, Mily Balakirev nationalistic was Bedrˇich Smetana,
in programmatic orchestral works. gathered together a group of who became a champion of Czech





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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 205




The seven-scene opera Jean Sibelius’s Isaac Albéniz’s
Sadko by Nikolai Finlandia is Iberia suite conjures
Rimsky-Korsakov composed as a form up the landscapes of
evokes a Russian epic of protest against the Southern Spain and
poem about a merchant actions of the Russian the Jewish quarter
from Novgorod. Empire in Finland. of Madrid.






1898 1900 1908


1896 1900 1919








American composer In England, Edward Spanish composer
Edward MacDowell, Elgar’s The Dream of Manuel de Falla’s
a member of the Gerontius applies the ballet El sombrero de
Second New England dramatic devices of late tres picos premieres
School, publishes Ten Romantic opera to a choral in London, with sets
Woodland Sketches. work with great success. by Pablo Picasso.


nationalism with operas in his Americans had a long-established in the process of unification, but
native language on Czech themes. folk culture, the more recent settlers their cultures—especially their
Later Czech composers included had yet to develop one. As a result, musical cultures—needed little
Antonín Dvorˇák and Leoš Janá cˇ ek. composers such as Louis Moreau reinforcement. The same was true
Nationalism in music spread Gottschalk borrowed from the to a lesser extent of France, but
north into Scandinavia, too, with songs and dances of slaves in the composers such as Gabriel Fauré
folk-inspired music from Edvard Southern States and the melting and Camille Saint-Saëns sought
Grieg, Carl Nielsen, and Jean pot of sounds in places like New to distance themselves from the
Sibelius, and south to Spain, where Orleans. These forms eventually Germanic Romantic-style and
composers such as Isaac Albeniz evolved into ragtime and jazz. wrote music that was lighter
and Manuel de Falla tapped into a The spirituals of the African and more transparent.
particularly rich source of folk music. slaves influenced popular song In Britain, where composers
writers, such as Stephen Foster. generally accepted German
American sounds Along with the hymn tunes sung domination of music, Edward
As Antonín Dvorˇák discovered by the early settlers, they formed Elgar embraced the richness of the
when he visited the US at the end the basis for an American classical orchestral sound and harmonies
of the century, America had also tradition pioneered by Edward of German music but pursued a
developed its own musical voice, MacDowell and Charles Ives. nationalistic intent, with evocations
a mix of styles and traditions that of the English landscape and
reflected the diversity of its people. In Europe themes. Later English composers,
It was also a young culture, finding Some countries did not feel the such as Ralph Vaughan Williams,
its way after centuries of following same need to flex their nationalist came to use this style as a vehicle
Europe’s lead. Although Native muscles. Italy and Germany were to carry folk tunes. ■





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206


MY FATHERLAND


MEANS MORE TO ME



THAN ANYTHING ELSE



THE BARTERED BRIDE (1866),
ˇ
BEDRICH SMETANA






he second and best-loved Marenka are united in the end, and
IN CONTEXT of Czech composer Bedrˇich Jenik is revealed as the long-lost
T Smetana’s operas, The son of Vasek’s rich father. The opera
FOCUS Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevesta), is is a melding of French and Italian
19th-century Czech opera
about two young lovers—Marenka influences with inspiration from
BEFORE and Jeniken—in a Bohemian Czech folk settings and traditions,
1826 František Škroup’s village. They want to marry, but particularly dances such as the
Drátenik (The Tinker), widely Marenka’s parents, swayed by the polka and the furiant.
regarded as the first Czech village marriage broker, intend her
opera, has its premiere. to wed Vasek, the simple-minded A new Czech identity
son of a wealthy landlord. Jenik and During the 1860s and 1870s,
1842–1845 Czech poet Smetana almost single-handedly
and historian Karel Erben created Czech opera by writing
publishes a pioneering operas in the Czech language.
collection of Bohemian Czech culture had long been
folk songs. influenced by the Habsburg
Empire. By the mid-19th century,
1865 Karel Sebor’s opera The Bartered Bride is only however, nationalist aspirations
Templari na Morave a toy and composing it was were strong, and these grew in
(The Templars in Moravia) is merely child’s play! … At the 1860 when the imperial authorities
performed to local acclaim at time of writing, it was handed greater powers to the
Prague’s Provisional Theatre. my opinion that not Czech parliament in Prague. Funds
even Offenbach could were raised to build a theatre for
AFTER compete with it! Czech drama and opera, and it was
1901 Rusalka, Antonín Bedrˇich Smetana here that Smetana’s first two operas
Dvorˇák’s most successful were premiered. He completed six
opera, is premiered at Prague’s more operas, along with a cycle of
National Theatre. symphonic poems called Má vlast

1904 Leoš Janá cˇ ek’s opera (My Fatherland), celebrating Czech
Jen u °fa is performed for the first landscapes and culture. ■
time in the Czech city of Brno.
See also: The Magic Flute 134–137 ■ The Barber of Seville 148 ■
Der Freischütz 149 ■ La traviata 174–175 ■ The Ring Cycle 180–187







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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 207


MUSSORGSKY


TYPIFIES THE GENIUS



OF RUSSIA



PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (1874),
MODEST PETROVICH MUSSORGSKY






he Russian composer Boris Godunov in January 1874,
IN CONTEXT Modest Mussorgsky’s which marked the public high point
T Pictures at an Exhibition of his career. The piano suite was
FOCUS is a piano suite in 10 movements. not performed in the composer's
Nationalism in 19th- Each movement was inspired by lifetime, but its intensity and
century Russian music
the work of fellow Russian Viktor complexity, and distinctly Russian
BEFORE Hartmann, an architect and artist. subject matter, helped to achieve
1815 In St. Petersburg, Mussorgsky belonged to a the ultimate ambition of the “Five”
Venetian-born Catterino Cavos generation of composers who, in to give Russian music its own
composes Ivan Susanin, the the 1860s, gave Russian music unmistakable voice. ■
first opera about Russian its first distinctive voice. He was
characters, based on Russian part of a group nicknamed the
history, and incorporating “Five,” also known as the “Mighty
Handful,” who sought to create
Russian folk music.
music without being confined by
1836 Mikhail Glinka’s A Life western European conventions.
for the Tsar has its premiere Besides Mussorgsky, the “Five”
in St. Petersburg. It is the first were Mily Balakirev (1837–1910),
all-sung opera by a native the group’s initial guiding spirit;
Russian composer. Aleksandr Borodin (1833–1887), a
scientist as well as a musician;
AFTER César Cui, best known as a critic;
1896 Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov,
undertakes the first of his who played a key role in mentoring
revisions of Mussorgsky’s a new generation of composers,
opera Boris Godunov. For including Aleksandr Scriabin The early, alcohol-induced death
decades, these remain the and Sergei Rachmaninoff. of Mussorgsky, painted here by Ilya
most-performed versions. Pictures at an Exhibition Repi in 1881, the year that he died, left
was composed shortly after the Rimsky-Korsakov and other composers
1922 French composer premiere of Mussorgsky’s opera to finish or revise his work.
Maurice Ravel produces an
orchestrated version of See also: Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■
Pictures at an Exhibition. Romeo and Juliet 272 ■ Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony 274–279







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208


I AM SURE MY MUSIC


HAS A TASTE OF COD



FISH IN IT



PEER GYNT (1875), EDVARD GRIEG








ncidental music has probably
IN CONTEXT existed as long as theatre
I itself. It was intrinsic to
FOCUS Shakespeare’s plays, which include
Music for the theatre
cues for instrumental music as well
BEFORE as songs—some 100 in total—
1810 Beethoven writes the although no scores have survived.
incidental music to Goethe’s By the late 1700s, Europe’s
tragic play Egmont. major theatres would employ
a substantial orchestra, and
1843 Shakespeare’s A sometimes vocal soloists and
Midsummer Night’s Dream a chorus, to accompany plays.
opens in Potsdam with Examples of incidental music
Mendelssohn’s music. of the 18th and early 19th century
include Mozart’s Thamos, King of
1872 Grieg composes music Egypt (c.1773–1779), Beethoven’s
for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s Egmont (1810), and Schubert’s
Sigurd Jorsalfar, celebrating Rosamunde (1823), which were
King Sigurd I of Norway. of sufficient quality to make it “The Dance of the Trolls” was
AFTER into the concert hall. illustrated in macabre style by the
British artist Arthur Rackham for
1908 La Mort du duc de Guise, The music that Felix an edition of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.
a film with a score by Camille Mendelssohn composed for a
Saint-Saëns, opens in Paris. German-language production of
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer productions of Oedipus at Colonus
1915 Edward Elgar writes Night’s Dream was one of the most and Racine’s Athalie in 1845. In
the incidental music for The successful pieces to make such a 1849, Robert Schumann wrote
Starlight Express, a children’s transition. It was first staged in music to accompany Byron’s
play by Violet Pearn. Potsdam, Germany, in 1843, dramatic poem Manfred.
including a masterful overture
written when the composer was Norwegian collaboration
just 17. While under the patronage When Henrik Ibsen, Norway’s most
of Frederick IV, king of Prussia, celebrated writer, completed Peer
Mendelssohn would go on to Gynt, based on a Norwegian folk
compose incidental music for hero, in 1867, he thought of it as a





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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 209

See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■
Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Finlandia 220–221 ■ Appalachian
Spring 286–287

that reference the major characters
and scenes in the drama: Åse;
Anitra, a Bedouin chief’s daughter
whom Peer tries to seduce; Ingrid,
the farmer’s daughter he abducts
I have also written on the eve of her wedding; the troll
something for the scene kingdom into which he stumbles;
in the hall of the mountain and Solveig, the faithful woman
King … it absolutely reeks who waits patiently for his return.
of cow pies, exaggerated
Norwegian provincialism, Genre in decline Edvard Grieg
and trollish self-sufficiency. Later examples of incidental
Edvard Grieg music that survive outside their Grieg was taught to play the
original theatrical contexts include piano by his mother, a music
Fauré’s and Sibelius’s music for teacher in the Norwegian
Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy’s town of Bergen, where he was
Le martyre de Saint Sébastien, born in 1843. As a teenager,
Elgar’s The Starlight Express, and Grieg met the internationally
Sibelius’s The Tempest. Incidental acclaimed violinist Ole Bull,
poetic drama, to be read rather music is still commissioned for who urged his parents to send
than staged. Seven years later some theatrical productions but him to study at the Leipzig
when Ibsen adapted his work for is generally performed with fewer Conservatoire. There, he was
a full-scale stage production, he musicians or even prerecorded. influenced by Schumann and
invited another internationally Modern examples include Michael Mendelssohn; it was only
later, in Copenhagen, that
renowned Norwegian artist— Tippett’s music for The Tempest Grieg became interested in
Edvard Grieg—to compose music and Harrison Birtwistle’s Oresteia. the Norwegian folk tunes that
for the first production. Grieg had Some characteristics of the genre inspired his music.
already produced successful have migrated to film, television, In 1867, Grieg married his
incidental music for Bjørnstjerne and even video games. ■ cousin Nina Hagerup, for
Bjørnson’s play Sigurd Jorsalfar. whom he composed many
The collaboration between Ibsen songs. The following year, he
and Grieg would elevate Peer Gynt wrote his one piano concerto,
to the status of national epic. which, like Peer Gynt, brought
lasting fame. In later life, he
Emotive music devoted himself to smaller
Grieg eventually produced more The more he saturated piano works, especially the 10
than 20 individual pieces for the his mind with [Peer Gynt], volumes of Lyric Pieces, some
numerous cues in Ibsen’s five-act the more clearly he saw that of which draw on folk idioms.
Grieg died in Bergen in 1907.
drama, reflecting the emotional he was the right man for a
mood of each moment—from the work … so permeated with
uproar of the Hall of the Mountain the Norwegian spirit. Other key works
King to the grief-filled death of Nina Hagerup
Åse, Peer Gynt’s mother. Grieg Grieg’s wife 1868 Piano Concerto in A
later assembled eight of the most minor, Op. 16
1872 Sigurd Jorsalfar
substantial of these into two 1884 Holberg Suite
orchestral suites, which have 1902–1903 Slåtter (Norwegian
become standard concert-hall Peasant Dances)
works. They include movements





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210


I WANTED TO



DO SOMETHING




DIFFERENT





REQUIEM (1887–1890), GABRIEL FAURÉ





IN CONTEXT

FOCUS
Requiem Mass
BEFORE
1837 Hector Berlioz composes
his Grande Messe des morts
(Requiem), for a large choir,
enormous orchestra, and four
offstage brass ensembles.
1874 Verdi’s operatic Requiem,
for four vocal soloists, double
choir, and orchestra, has its
first performance.
AFTER
1913 Fauré’s opera Pénélope is t is unlikely that Fauré wrote Fauré plays the piano at the home
premiered. While the influence his Requiem in direct response of the Catalan composer Isaac Albéniz
of Wagner is more apparent I to the death of any individual, (right). With them is the Belgian
than in earlier works, it still although the recent deaths of his composer and conductor Léon Jehin
has an understated quality. parents may have focused his mind and Albéniz’s pupil Clara Sansoni.
on the project. The composer stated
1948 Maurice Duruflé that his main motivation was to the Sequence section, with its
completes his Requiem, produce an original requiem. He passage on the Dies Irae (Wrath
which, like Fauré’s, includes was familiar with the form having of God), which so many previous
the Pie Jesu, Libera me, and spent years as a choirmaster and composers had used as an
In paradisum sections. organist, during which he had opportunity to produce loud and
accompanied numerous funerals. dramatic music. This was replaced
The differences began with the in Fauré’s first version of the score
text. Fauré set a shortened version by a setting of Pie Jesu, a prayer to
of the Latin Mass for the Dead, Jesus for everlasting rest, at the
omitting, among other passages, end of which he also added an





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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 211

See also: Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott 78–79 ■
St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Elijah 170–173 ■ The Dream of Gerontius 218–219


Fauré’s setting for the extra movement, In Paradisum, that
Requiem Mass comes not from the Mass but from
the burial service.
The unusual selection of texts is
The opening prayer, the Introit matched with a distinctive choice
et Kyrie, is restful with of instruments to accompany the
sudden changes of dynamics.
mixed choir and soloists—no violin
section, but only violas, cellos, and
double basses, a harp, trumpets,
horns, trombones, organ, and
timpani. In addition, a solo violin
The offering of the Eucharist, Gabriel Fauré
the Offertory, is reverent, soars above the harp and lower
calm, and peaceful. strings in the Sanctus. Fauré clearly Born in 1845 in Pamiers in
intended the work to be played by southwest France, Gabriel
this unusual ensemble, but upon Fauré showed an early musical
receiving the score in 1890, his talent and was sent to the
publishers requested a version École Niedermeyer de Paris.
Angelic strings and harp for full orchestra. An arrangement The school’s focus was on
are broken by rich brasses with added violins and woodwind church music, and when
in the Sanctus. instruments was published in 1900; he left, Fauré worked in a
many musicians, however, favor succession of jobs as church
the earlier version. organist in Brittany and then
in Paris, in both places giving
Serenity and calm private music lessons to
A prayer to Jesus, the Pie The music of Fauré’s Requiem is supplement his income.
Jesu, is sung by a pure solo skilfully restrained, matching the In later life, Fauré became
soprano voice. themes of consolation and eternal Professor of Composition at
the Paris Conservatoire and
rest in the text. It has relatively finally its Director. Although
few loud passages, in contrast to his busy professional life left
requiems by composers such as him little time for composing,
Berlioz or Verdi. Fauré was seeking Fauré produced many short
A quiet melody sung by a style that differed both from the piano pieces, notable chamber
tenors switches to the more dramatic, Romantic approach music, including two piano
intense Agnus Dei.
of composers such as Wagner in quartets and two piano
Germany, and the lyrical bel canto quintets, two orchestral
style of choral writing, then popular suites, many fine songs, and
in France, with its emphasis on a a string quartet completed in
1924, the year he died. By this
Libera Me is a pensive singer’s virtuosity. His is more time highly acclaimed, Fauré
then fierce section dealing carefully balanced, with subtle was given a state funeral.
with judgment. changes in harmony and dynamics.
Although the work was not
immediately well received, Fauré Other key works
opened new avenues for French
music, paving the way for later 1879–1883 Piano Quartet
In the In paradisum, French composers, such as Ravel No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15
1894 “La bonne chanson”, Op. 61
soprano voices bring a and Debussy. Fauré’s is now one 1919 Masques et
tranquil conclusion. of the most popular settings of the bergamasques, Op. 112
Requiem in the choral repertoire. ■





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212

IN CONTEXT
THE MUSIC OF THE FOCUS

Nationalism and folk music
PEOPLE IS LIKE BEFORE

1723 Czech composer Dismas
Zelenka writes his Ouverture
A RARE AND à 7 concertanti.

1776 Czech-born Johann
LOVELY FLOWER Baptist Vanhal publishes
Six Symphonies, Op. 23, works

SYMPHONY NO. 9, “FROM THE NEW that influenced Classical style.
1862 Bedrˇich Smetana
ˇ
WORLD” (1893), ANTONÍN DVORÁK composes the opera The
Brandenburgers in Bohemia,
which is a great success.
AFTER
1904 Leoš Janá cˇ ek premieres
°
his opera Jen ufa, which uses
“speech tunes” based on a
Moravian dialect of Czech.
1905–08 Béla Bartók and
Zoltán Kodály visit Hungarian
villages to research and record
traditional songs and dances.





ohemia, the largest and
westernmost region of
B the Czech Republic today,
was formerly part of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire. For centuries,
its capital Prague enjoyed a rich
musical life, strongly influenced by
German and Austrian composers.
In the late 18th century, Mozart
visited five times, wrote a “Prague”
symphony (No. 38), and premiered
his opera Don Giovanni in the city.
By the mid-1800s, however,
fueled by a failed revolution in
1848, a nationalist movement
was underway that would have a
powerful impact on all the arts. In
music, both Bedrˇich Smetana and
Antonín Dvorˇák began to use





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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 213

See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Finlandia 220–221 ■ The Lark Ascending
252–253 ■ Janá cˇek’s Sinfonietta 263 ■ Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 270–271


The Bohemian polka, illustrated here
by Herrman Koenig, is attributed to
Anna Slezáková, who danced the steps
to a folk song in 1834. Dvorˇák’s earliest
surviving composition was a polka.


older Smetana was already
cultivating a reputation as a
champion of a Czech style of music
after spending most of his early
creative years in Sweden. Antonín Dvorˇák
Smetana’s first language was
German, and he had only recently The son of an innkeeper,
begun to study Czech when he Dvorˇák was born in a village
responded to a contest to compose north of Prague in 1841. He
a Czech opera. He submitted The shared his father’s passion
for the violin, and from 1857
Brandenburgers in Bohemia, which he also studied the organ in
premiered in 1866, and went on to Prague, playing the instrument
produce many celebrated works in in several orchestras.
classical European symphonic and Czech, such as The Bartered Bride, By the early 1870s, Dvorˇák
chamber forms to produce works a set of symphonic poems called had taken up composition
of a strongly patriotic nature that Má vlast (My homeland), and full time and was married to
incorporated the spirit of regional Vlatava, which paints the course Anna, with whom he would
folk songs and dances. of the river running through Prague. have nine children. Dvorˇák's
Inspired by Smetana’s Czech career was aided by Johannes
Two composers operas, Dvorˇák composed Alfred Brahms, who sat on a panel
Dvorˇák was an accomplished in 1870, but it was not performed in that awarded Dvorˇák a grant
keyboard player and violinist, his lifetime. His next, The King and to pursue his music. He also
recommended Dvorˇák to his
who had played in several Prague the Charcoal Burner, was at first publisher, who encouraged
orchestras when he joined the one rejected as unplayable, though him to write a set of Slavonic
at the city’s Provincial Theatre in eventually accepted after extensive dances. Their publication
1866, conducted by Smetana. The rewrites. Dvorˇák gave up his ❯❯ changed his fortunes; new
commissions at home and
from England soon followed.
Time signature
of 2 quarter note Dvorˇák directed the National
beats per bar. 1st Beat 2nd Beat 1st Beat 2nd Beat Conservatory of Music in New
York from 1892–1895, before
returning to Prague to teach
and write new works based
on Bohemian folk tales. He
died from a stroke in 1904.

Other key works
Emphasis Emphasis
1878 Slavonic Dances, Book 1,
Originally a Bohemian peasant dance, the polka Op. 46
has two strong beats in each bar, inviting dancers to 1885 Symphony No. 7, Op. 70
step in lively, bouncing fashion. It became a popular 1900 Rusalka, Op. 144
ballroom dance in the 1830s.





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214 NATIONALISM AND FOLK MUSIC


place in the theatre orchestra to character. His Czech Suite (1879), to pressure to accept, after his
concentrate on composition, and for example, has two movements family heard that the salary he
the critical success of his stirring completely modeled on Bohemian would earn per annum was
hymn of Czech national pride The folk dances: the polka, in the equivalent to working 25 years
Heirs of the White Mountain (1873) second movement, and the slow at the Prague Conservatory.
marked the beginning of his “sousedská” in the fourth. Dvorˇák’s Among the talented students
recognition as a composer. seventh and eighth symphonies that Thurber encouraged to apply
By 1880, Dvorˇák had cemented were also particularly Bohemian— to her conservatory, regardless of
his reputation as the greatest of the seventh has clear Slavonic gender, ethnicity, or disability, was
the Czech nationalist composers, influences, while the eighth sounds an African American singer, Henry
particularly through his Slavonic like a joyful folk celebration. (Harry) Thacker Burleigh, who
Dances (1878; 1886), inspired by enrolled in 1892, contributing to
Brahms’s Hungarian Dances (1869). The New World his fees by working as a handyman
However, Dvorˇák’s approach to By the end of the century, Dvorˇák’s and cleaner in the building. His
his orchestral dances was quite fame was spreading beyond his singing attracted the attention of
different from that used by Brahms. homeland to England and the Dvorˇák, and Burleigh later recalled
Whereas the Viennese composer United States. In 1891, New York singing old African American
made verbatim use of traditional musical philanthropist Jeannette hymns to the composer: “I gave
tunes for his collection, Dvorˇák’s Thurber asked Dvorˇák to direct her him what I knew of Negro songs.”
lively dances did not borrow but National Conservatory of Music.
were newly composed orchestral Knowing that he had done much to Listening and responding
works imbued with national establish Czech music, she wanted These “Negro spirituals,” as they
him to inspire her students to find a came to be known, were among
path toward an American national the musical ideas that Dvorˇák
Harry Burleigh was the first black musical style. Dvorˇák, however, drew on in his Symphony No. 9
composer to write down spirituals,
influencing future American music. was reluctant to leave Prague for (“From the New World”), in which
Dvorˇák greatly admired his fine a long contract and initially turned he turned his attention from his
baritone voice and the songs he sang. down the offer, although he gave in native folk music to that of his
adopted home. “From the New
World” was inspired by both
plantation songs and Native
American chants; Dvorˇák felt
strongly that this music of the
poor of America could serve as
the rootstock for a national musical








In the negro melodies of
America I discover all that
is needed for a great and
noble school of music.
Antonin Dvorˇák













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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 215


Structure of the
Ninth Symphony





The first movement,
Adagio (leisurely), is written
in sonata form. This section
builds to a rousing climax.











The second movement,
Largo (slow, dignified),
contains a solo that has
become one of the most
recognizable pieces of music
For his voyage to a new world, the evoking Longfellow’s description ever composed.
Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969, of the death of Minnehaha, Dvorˇák
Neil Armstrong took a recording of uses the stentorian chords of the
Dvorˇák’s Sympony No. 9 and is said low wind instruments to introduce
to have listened to it as he stepped out.
the beautiful melody of the cor
anglais. Here, he also drew on the
style. While some people hear old Eastern European tradition of
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” in funerary brass music, maintained
the symphony’s first movement, in America by the trombone choirs
at its premiere, Dvorˇák denied of Moravian (Czech expatriate) The third movement is
using existing Native and African communities, who would announce Scherzo (very lively). Its
American songs. Dvorˇák believed a death with the playing of bright tunes and snappy
there was a distinction between trombones from the church belfry. rhythms are reminiscent of
Czech folk dancing.
inspiration and imitation—whether
singing under his breath in the Lasting influence
orchestra pit or going straight from In spring 1893, Dvorˇák’s family
work to jot down ideas, his method joined him in the Moravian
was not to copy but rather to listen community of Spillville, Iowa,
then respond in his own voice. enjoying the company of their
As well as these musical styles, Czech compatriots as he completed
Dvorˇák was inspired by Henry his Symphony No. 9—the echoes of
Wadsworth Longfellow’s Ojibwe which would be heard in the music The fourth movement,
romance The Song of Hiawatha of American composers, such as Allegro con fuoco (fast and
(1855) in writing his symphony. Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, fiery), combines earlier
The third movement (Scherzo), for and Duke Ellington. Dvorˇák himself themes of the piece with
example, was suggested by the returned to Prague in 1895 and marchlike music.
scene in Hiawatha at the feast again took to composing works
where the Native Americans dance. inspired by the dances, legends,
For the second movement (Largo), and folklore of his homeland. ■





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216


MUSIC IS A


LANGUAGE OF



THE INTANGIBLE



WOODLAND SKETCHES (1896),
EDWARD MACDOWELL






he first music published choral melody is sung in unison
IN CONTEXT in North America were and then in counterpoint but with
T tunes in the Bay Psalm scant regard for traditional Western
FOCUS Book, a compilation selected standards of harmony.
American nationalism
from European psalters by the
BEFORE 17th-century emigrants who settled America’s first
1640 The Bay Psalm Book is in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Bohemian-born Anthony
published in Massachusetts. By the late 18th century, however, Heinrich, who lived in the United
American-born composers such as States from 1810, is generally
1834 Anthony Heinrich William Billings and Daniel Read, considered the first “professional”
composes The Treaty of who formed part of the First New American composer. Inspired by
William Penn with the Indians, England School, began to publish different parts of the United States,
a concerto grosso. music that marked a distinct he developed a more dissonant
departure from European models. harmonic language than had been
1848 Stephen Foster publishes These composers, who were heard elsewhere and was the first
the song “Oh! Susanna,” which usually self-taught, were writing American to write for a symphony
becomes an instant hit. new types of sacred music, such orchestra. More famous, however,

1863 Louis Moreau Gottschalk as the “fuguing tune,” in which a was the virtuoso pianist, Louis
publishes Battle Cry of Moreau Gottschalk, who studied
Freedom, based on an in Paris and was feted by Chopin
American Civil War song. and Liszt. Returning to America in
1853, he toured widely, performing
AFTER his own works that would often
1897 John Philip Sousa’s reference the indigenous music
march The Stars and Stripes A house of dreams untold, and instruments of the New World.
Forever premieres. it looks out over the As American tastes evolved, a
whispering treetops, and new group of composers emerged—
faces the setting sun. now known as the Second New
Edward MacDowell England School. The strongest
influence for these composers was
the German Romantic tradition,
and a number of them studied in
Europe. The best remembered of
this group is Edward MacDowell.





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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 217

See also: Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Ives’s Symphony No. 4 254–255 ■
Rhapsody in Blue 258–261 ■ Ionisation 268–269 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287


He was mentored by Liszt, who contemporaneous Lyric Pieces, due
introduced the young composer to to their inherent nationalism and
publishers in Leipzig during his celebration of the countryside.
time in Germany. Woodland Sketches is an opus
of ten pieces. Possibly inspired by
Country life MacDowell’s move to the farm that
MacDowell published orchestral later became the artist’s colony
works, concertos, sonatas, and bearing his name, they celebrate
songs but is universally identified not only the landscape but also the
with miniature piano pieces, and everyday American experience. In
most particularly the Woodland parts such as “A Deserted Farm” Edward MacDowell
Sketches of 1896. Following on from and “At an Old Trysting Place,”
a tradition started by Mendelssohn they also borrowed some melodic Born in New York in 1860,
and Schumann—writing suites of material from Native American MacDowell studied the piano
short works aimed at the amateur songs. Tending toward starker from early childhood and, at
domestic market—these could also textures than European Romantic the age of 17, was offered a
be seen as a counterpart to Grieg’s piano music, and occasionally scholarship to the Paris
verging on impressionistic harmony, Conservatoire. After his time
as in the more complex “By a in Paris, he went to Frankfurt
The MacDowell Colony in New Meadow Brook,” these sketches to study composition with
Hampshire, pictured here in 1948, has Joachim Raff. Raff introduced
supported thousands of artists since contain elements that became a him to Franz Liszt, who
1907. MacDowell’s pianist wife, Marian, part of the American musical arranged a performance of
led the colony for almost 25 years. language of the 1920s and 1930s. ■
MacDowell’s First Modern
Suite, Op. 10 in Zurich.
In 1888, MacDowell
returned to New York and
premiered his Piano Concerto
No. 2. He was then invited to
create a department of music
at Columbia University. Eight
years later, he resigned in a
dispute over courses. Amid
the bad publicity, MacDowell
suffered a nervous breakdown
and further health problems.
He never recovered. Just
before his death in 1908, he
and his wife established the
MacDowell Colony, where
artists of all kinds are
supported in residence.

Other key works
1883 First Modern Suite, Op. 10
1890 Piano Concerto No. 2,
Op. 23
1892 Indian Suite, Op. 48







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218


THE ART OF MUSIC


ABOVE ALL THE OTHER

ARTS IS EXPRESSION


OF THE SOUL


THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS (1900), EDWARD ELGAR







n 1898, Edward Elgar was composers wrote oratorios—large-
IN CONTEXT commissioned to write a new scale choral works on sacred themes.
I large-scale choral piece for the Few of these pieces stood the test
FOCUS 1900 Birmingham Festival. Elgar, of time, and Elgar decided to
English choral tradition
a Catholic, chose to set the poem produce something different.
BEFORE The Dream of Gerontius by Cardinal Oratorios, like the operas of
1846 Mendelssohn’s oratorio John Henry Newman. In the poem, Mozart, were usually made up of
Elijah has its first performance Gerontius, a devout old man, separate musical “numbers,” such
in Birmingham, England. dreams of his death and the journey as arias and choruses. But with the
of his soul immediately after he work of late Romantic composers
1857 At the Handel Festival in dies. Elgar poured his own heart such as Richard Wagner, opera had
London, England, choirs of up and soul into the work, inscribing it evolved; Wagner’s operas consist
to 2,000 sing Handel’s Messiah with a quote from the social thinker of music that flows continuously,
and other oratorios. John Ruskin that began, “This is without a break, enabling the
the best of me.” composer to build huge climaxes
1882 Wagner’s Parsifal, based England had a strong tradition and express deep emotions. Elgar
on a 13th-century German epic of amateur choral singing in the used this technique for The Dream
poem, is his last and, for some, late 19th century, and many English of Gerontius, rejecting the term
his greatest opera. “oratorio” due to this lack of breaks
AFTER between pieces. Like Wagner, he
1903 Elgar continues to employed a large orchestra with
develop large-scale choral a substantial brass section and
works with The Apostles. percussionists to reinforce the
climaxes and underpin the most
1939–1941 Michael Tippett There is music in the air, dramatic moments.
composes his secular oratorio music all around us, the world
A Child of Our Time, which is full of it and you simply take The soul’s journey
extends the oratorio still as much as you require. The Dream of Gerontius is in two
further with the inclusion Edward Elgar parts. Part One portrays the death
of American spirituals in of Gerontius. It includes the gentle
the score. prayers of his friends by his
bedside, his passionate credo,
“Sanctus fortis”—which expresses
both his steadfast faith and his





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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 219

See also: Great Service 52–53 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Elijah 170–173 ■ The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■
A Child of Our Time 284–285


The Dream of Gerontius
Gerontius
encounters God
Gerontius and is judged.
awakens in a
place without
time or space.
As life drains Gerontius
from his body, is lowered into the
Gerontius joins The guardian angel lake of Purgatory and
with his assistants of Gerontius takes promised that he will
in prayer. him to the one day reawaken to
judgment throne. God’s glory.


anxieties—and the final swell of of his friend and publisher August time that develops late Romantic
singers and orchestra in the chorus Jaeger, who asked for something operatic style into a choral work,
that exhorts Gerontius to “Go forth more dramatic than the composer’s combines it with resourceful
upon thy journey, Christian soul.” first attempt. The piece ends with orchestral writing, and produces
In Part Two, Gerontius’s soul is the soul being taken in the arms a setting of unusual power.
guided by an angel past demons, of the angel and dipped into the The Dream of Gerontius quickly
who sing a sardonic fugal chorus, soothing waters of Purgatory. transcended the question of
and a choir of angels, whose hymn doctrine that almost denied it
“Praise to the Holiest in the Height” From disaster to success an early performance in Worcester
begins with a dramatic triple forte Due to poorly prepared performers, Cathedral, Cardinal Newman’s
and ends in intricate eight-part The Dream of Gerontius had a words seeming too Catholic for
harmony. This leads toward the disastrous premiere in Birmingham the Anglican Church. Its emotional
climax, a deafening orchestral in 1900. However, after acclaimed force and abiding themes of loss
crescendo as the soul is finally led performances in Germany, the work and hope in the face of death
to judgment. Elgar rewrote this established itself as one of Elgar’s continue to exercise a universal
climactic passage at the insistence masterpieces—a daring work for its appeal to audiences of every faith. ■

Edward Elgar Born in 1857 near Worcester, Although depressed by World
England, where his father owned War I, in 1919 he wrote his
a music shop, Elgar was largely a String Quartet, Piano Quintet,
self-taught musician. As a young and Cello Concerto. After Alice’s
man, he played in orchestras and death in 1920, Elgar composed
gave music lessons, marrying little. He received many honors,
Alice Roberts, one of his pupils, in but his music was out of fashion
1889. She encouraged him to move when he died in 1934.
to London and spend more time
on composition. His breakthrough Other key works
work was Enigma Variations
(1899), after which he wrote a 1899 Enigma Variations
series of large-scale compositions, 1901–1930 Pomp and
including The Apostles (a choral Circumstance Marches
piece), a violin concerto, and two 1905 Introduction and Allegro
symphonies, which brought him for Strings
recognition in Britain and Europe. 1919 Cello Concerto in E minor







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220


I AM A SLAVE TO MY


THEMES, AND SUBMIT



TO THEIR DEMANDS



FINLANDIA (1900), JEAN SIBELIUS








ut of all the musical For nearly 700 years, up to the early
IN CONTEXT nationalism that took 19th century, Finland had been part
O shape during the 19th of the Swedish empire, and the
FOCUS century in the four Nordic nations language of the educated and
Finnish musical resistance (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and governing classes was Swedish.
to Russian political Sweden), Finland’s was perhaps When Sibelius was born into a
domination
the most powerful. In Jean Sibelius, Swedish-speaking family, Finland
BEFORE Finland produced a composer as a nation still did not exist. Since
1848 German-born Fredrik who, even more than Norway’s 1809, it had been a Grand Duchy of
Pacius (1809–1891) composes Edvard Grieg, Sweden’s Franz Imperial Russia, which imposed a
the song Vårt land (“Our Berwald, and Denmark’s Carl
Country”), to Swedish words Nielsen, captured the essence of Sibelius captured the epic beauty
by Finnish poet Johan Ludvig his people and nation as they of Finland’s landscape, seen here in
strove to throw off the shackles
Runeberg. After Finland’s of foreign domination. a view over the taiga forest, in the
independence in 1917, a majestic string settings of Finlandia.
Finnish translation, Maamme,
is adopted as the country’s
national anthem.

1892 Sibelius becomes a
national celebrity when he
first conducts his part-choral
“symphonic poem” Kullervo,
with texts from the Finnish
national epic poem Kalevala.

AFTER
1917 Sibelius composes a
Jäger March in support of
the Finnish Jäger Batallion,
trained in Germany to fight the
Russian Empire in World War I.








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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 221

See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■ Peer
Gynt 208–209 ■ Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287


The development resented autocratic rule. Against
of Finnish motifs this uneasy backdrop, the Finnish
in Finlandia language, spoken by urban and
rural workers, became associated
with a growing national resistance.
Opening brass Sibelius had been to a Finnish-
fanfare signifies the speaking school, so when his talent
Russian menace. as a composer propelled him to the
forefront of Finnish cultural life, he
was ideally positioned to respond
to the cultural interests of both Jean Sibelius
linguistic communities. Besides
Calm woodwind and mastery of powerful, large-scale Johan Sibelius (he adopted
fervent strings tell of symphonic forms, he had a flair for the French version of his first
Finnish endurance and popular “light music” and sought name later) was born in the
hope for the future. out examples of Finnish folk music. town of Hämeenlinna in 1865.
At first, he wanted to be a
A Finnish fightback virtuoso violinist, but his
In 1899, Russia proclaimed its student years in Helsinki,
“February Manifesto,” which Berlin, and Vienna led him to
Loud and sudden concentrate on composing.
emphasis (fortissimo) cracked down on Finnish autonomy In 1892, after the success of
represents the turbulent and nationalism, including a ban on his choral symphony Kullervo,
anguish of the people. political rallies and the closure of a he married Aino Järnefelt,
Finnish-language newspaper. An with whom he went on to
evening of “Press Celebrations” was have six daughters.
organized in the capital, Helsinki, Further success, including
officially in support of the Press the symphonic poem (single-
Pension Fund but was in reality a movement symphonic work)
Energetic and confident gathering of patriotic resistance. called The Swan of Tuonela
new melody asserts pride The evening included the display of 1895, and then the first of
and resistance.
of specially painted tableaux, for seven symphonies, spread his
which Sibelius was asked to name abroad. The onset of
compose the music. The last of throat cancer in 1908, though
these, “Finland Awakes,” portrayed successfully treated, brought
the region’s proud achievements in a darker mood that influenced
The building of the calming culture and industry. the austere Symphony No. 4
(1911). In the 30 years before
Finlandia tune, redolent of Sibelius then arranged some of his death, in 1957, troubled by
Finnish folk music, symbolizes the music for concert performance, self-criticism, alcoholism, and
emerging clarity. revising “Finland Awakes” as the pressures of fame, Sibelius
Finlandia, its very title aimed at released few works.
international recognition for a
country known to every Finn as
Suomi. Released in 1900, the work Other key works
Triumphant allegro swept the musical world, and its 1892 Kullervo
climaxes in a rallying popularity remains undiminished, 1902 Symphony No. 2
with the central hymnlike tune
cry for the Finns. 1924 Symphony No. 7
widely seen as Finland’s unofficial 1926 Tapiola
national anthem. ■





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222


SPANISH MUSIC


WITH A UNIVERSAL



ACCENT



IBERIA (1906–1908)
ISAAC ALBÉNIZ






he piano suite Iberia Barbieri—a composer and critic
IN CONTEXT by Isaac Albéniz is a who helped to revive the native
T collection of 12 solo pieces, opera tradition, the zarzuela.
FOCUS published in four cuadernos (books). Catalan composer Felipe Pedrell
Nationalism in Spanish Influenced by his friend Claude also renewed interest in Spain’s
music
Debussy and the Impressionist art musical heritage, both in classical
BEFORE movement, Albéniz called these and folk and dance music.
1874 Francisco Asenjo solo pieces “impressions”—each Inspired by Pedrell, Albéniz and
Barbieri’s El barberillo de seeks to evoke a different place or his contemporaries drew on the
Lavapiés (“The little barber aspect of life in Spain. The pieces rhythms of Spanish dances, such as
of Lavapiés”) is his most in the last two cuadernos are the northern jota and the fandango
successful zarzuela (traditional challenging to play, inspired by the and zapateado from the south, as
Spanish opera), a form he virtuoso skills of Catalan pianist well as Arabic-inspired melodies
that evoked Spain’s history as
Joaquim Malats, for whom Albéniz
played a key role in reviving.
wrote them. Nearly all of the pieces Al-Andalus, a Muslim land. ■
1890 Felipe Pedrell publishes in Iberia are inspired by Andalusia,
Por nuestra música (“For our southern Spain, reflecting Albéniz’s
music”), in which he explores great love of the region. The single
Spain’s musical heritage. exception is “Lavapiés,” which
echoes the joyful buzz of the Jewish
AFTER quarter of Madrid. [Albéniz represents] the
1915 Manuel de Falla’s Noches reincorporation of Spain into
en los jardines de España Historical influences the European musical world.
(Nights in the Gardens of In the mid-19th century, Spanish Joaquín Rodrigo
Spain) mingles French music came alive after centuries Virtuoso pianist (1901–1999)
modernism with inspiration of domination by foreign sounds.
from Spanish folk music. Romantic nationalism swept
across Europe after the Napoleonic
1939 Joaquín Rodrigo’s Wars; in Spain, this gave rise to
Concierto de Aranjuez evokes figures such as Francisco Asenjo
the history of the former royal
summer palace of Aranjuez. See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■
Finlandia 220–221 ■ El sombrero de tres picos 223 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287







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NATIONALISM 1830–1920 223


A WONDERFUL MAZE


OF RHYTHMICAL



DEXTERITIES



EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS (1919)
MANUEL DE FALLA






he ballet El sombrero
IN CONTEXT de tres picos (The Three-
T Cornered Hat), with music
FOCUS by the composer Manuel de Falla,
20th-century Spanish was first performed by Sergei
music
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in
BEFORE London’s Alhambra Theatre. Based
1897 Ruperto Chapí’s La on a novella by Pedro Antonio de
revoltosa (The Troublemaker) Alarcón, it is a comedy about the
is one of the most popular magistrate of a small Andalusian
zarzuelas of the decades town, who falls in love with the
before World War I. wife of the local miller. The ballet
was choreographed by the Russian
1911 In Barcelona, Enrique Léonide Massine, who also danced
Granados premieres the first the part of the miller, with sets and
part of his piano suite costumes by Pablo Picasso.
Goyescas, inspired by the Falla grew up in the port city Manuel de Falla composes at the
paintings of Francisco Goya. of Cádiz in Spain’s far south but piano in this 1925 portrait by Daniel
studied at the Madrid Conservatory Vázquez Díaz, who painted the most
AFTER where, like many composers of his famous and influential Spanish
1920 Igor Stravinsky’s ballet generation, he was influenced by figures of his time.
Pulcinella is premiered in Paris Felipe Pedrell’s explorations of the
by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, country’s traditional music. Falla de tres picos. Its success in Madrid
choreographed by Massine, made his name with an opera, La brought it to the attention of Sergei
with sets by Picasso. vida breve (“Life is short”), inspired Diaghilev, who then commissioned
by the cante jondo (“deep song”) of de Falla to compose the music
1961 Catalan musician his native Andalusia. In 1917, Falla for an expanded version with full
Eduard Toldrà conducts a and the impresarios María and orchestra. Like La vida breve, it
concert version of de Falla’s Gregorio Martínez Sierra created an uses Andalusian melodies and
unfinished work Atlántida at early, shorter version of El sombrero also contains cante jondo songs. ■
the Liceu in Barcelona.
See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■
Finlandia 220–221 ■ Iberia 222 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287







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1900–1950

















































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MODERN






























1900–1950

















































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226 INTRODUCTION




French composer Arnold Schoenberg’s English composer Ralph George Gershwin writes
Claude Debussy’s Pierrot lunaire Vaughan Williams Rhapsody in Blue for solo
10-minute symphonic demonstrates his composes The Lark piano and jazz band,
poem Prélude à concept of serialism— Ascending, inspired by featuring large contrasts
l’après-midi d’un faune using all 12 notes of the the English landscape in musical texture
premieres in Paris. chromatic scale. and folk music. and structure.






1894 1912 1914 1924


1906 1913 1917 1927








The Wreckers, an opera The premiere of French pianist Erik Charles Ives’s
by British composer Igor Stravinsky’s Satie’s ballet Parade Symphony No. 4, which
and suffragette avant-garde ballet debuts, incorporating incorporates hymns,
Ethel Smyth, Le Sacre du printemps “noise-making” gospel tunes, and band
premieres in Germany is greeted by a riot instruments such music, is performed for
to great success. in Paris. as a typewriter. the first time.


s the 19th century drew to pieces that harked back to After World War I, a group of
a close, composers began medieval and ancient music and young French composers known
A to realize that they were at the same time made reference as Les Six (Francis Poulenc, Darius
facing a crisis point. Wagner had to popular Parisian café music. Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Georges
undermined tonality, the system of Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine
major and minor keys that had been French developments Tailleferre) picked up on the
the cornerstone of Western music, Satie’s lightness of touch was simplicity and wit of Satie’s music.
and introduced a style that some also noticeable in the music of his Poulenc, in particular, cultivated
found overemotional and lacking in contemporary, Claude Debussy. an urbane style, unashamedly
clarity. The new generation reacted Yet Debussy chose a different classical in its tonality, setting
against Wagner’s music in various way of creating a new musical the style for neoclassicism, which
ways, attempting to find a new language. Rather than reacting was especially strong in France.
musical language that better against the lack of clarity that
expressed modern times. came with a weakened tonality, Twelve-tone serialism
As a result, the first half of the he embraced it, using exotic Meanwhile, in turn-of-the-century
new century was characterized harmonies as an impressionist Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg
by various “-isms”: impressionism, artist uses different shades of struggled to come to terms with
expressionism, atonalism, serialism, color. Although he disliked the the implications of the breakdown
neoclassicism, and more. There term, he was a pioneer of musical of tonality. After some early works
was one composer, however, who impressionism, which was further in the Late Romantic style, he
defied such classification, Erik refined by Maurice Ravel, and stretched tonality to its limits
Satie. He adopted a dry and witty influenced the strikingly colorful and beyond, creating a violently
style, with peculiarly static piano compositions of Olivier Messiaen. expressionistic style that was





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MODERN 1900–1950 227




Austrian composer Edgard Varèse’s Olivier Messiaen stages Aaron Copland
Anton Webern’s Ionisation premieres the first production of demonstrates American
instrumental work as one of the first Quartet for the End of Time nationalism with
Symphonie further concert hall pieces in the German prisoner Appalachian Spring,
develops Schoenberg’s written solely for a of war camp where he Martha Graham’s ballet
ideas on serialism. percussion ensemble. is being held. about young pioneers.






1928 1933 1941 1944


1930 1937 1941 1945








Commissioned by one-handed Having been denounced British composer Michael Benajamin
pianist Paul Wittgenstein, by Stalin, Dmitri Tippett completes his Britten revives
Maurice Ravel writes Piano Shostakovich writes pacifistic oratorio A Child of British opera with
Concerto in D for the Left Hand, his Fifth Symphony, Our Time, influenced by events Peter Grimes, a
infused with jazz-infuenced which is acclaimed from his life and Jungian stirring drama about
rhythms and harmonies. by the Soviet regime. psychoanalysis. a bullied outcast.


completely atonal, without reference in 1913, he shocked audiences with Benjamin Britten and Michael
to any key. The difficulty of creating his discordant portrayal of Russian Tippett in the next generation.
a cohesive structure led him to folklore in Le Sacre du printemps. Another collector of folk music was
develop a system of composing in The music was both primitive and Béla Bartók, who, like Stravinsky,
which, instead of a having a “home ultra-modern, and a world away did not integrate the songs and
key,” all 12 notes of the chromatic from the Romantic conception of dances of his native Hungary into
scale are given equal importance folk-inspired orchestral music. an existing style but used them
and arranged in a series. This Russian modernism was short- to create a new, modernist style.
12-tone serialism became the lived: after the revolutions of 1917, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and
compositional method of choice the Soviet authorities decried Bartók all spent their final years
not only for Schoenberg but also anything that smacked of elitism. in the US, which had become a
for his students Alban Berg and Stravinsky, like several other center for new music. In the first
Anton Webern (known as the Russian composers, spent the half of the 20th century, it had
“Second Viennese School”). rest of his life abroad. given birth to ragtime and jazz and
Nationalism was far from dead, popular tunes by masters of the
Shock of the new however, as the late works of Jean genre such as George Gershwin.
In addition to these influential Sibelius and Leoš Janá cˇ ek show. It had also seen a very American
French and Viennese composers, It had also taken root in England, tradition of experimentalism
there was a highly significant thanks to composers such as Ralph emerge, starting with Charles Ives,
Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky. Vaughan Williams, who toured the and attracting émigrés such as
Stravinsky made his name writing country collecting folk tunes. The Edgard Varèse, which would come
ballet music in the style of the distinctive nuances of English folk to shape the course of musical
Russian nationalist composers, but music shaped the styles of development into the 21st century. ■





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228 IN CONTEXT


I GO TO SEE THE FOCUS

Impressionism
SHADOW YOU BEFORE
1891 Gabriel Fauré’s “Cinq
mélodies ‘de Venise’” uses
subtle, elusive harmonic
HAVE BECOME progressions, similar to the
“impressionist” style.
1882–1892 Ernest Chausson’s

PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE Poème de l’amour et de la mer
contains passages and chord
(1894), CLAUDE DEBUSSY progressions, which more
vividly prefigure the harmonic
language of Debussy’s Prélude.
AFTER
1912 In the ballet Daphnis
et Chloé, Maurice Ravel uses
fast-moving “dots” of sound,
the musical equivalent of a
pointillist painting.
1928–1929 The young Olivier
Messiaen composes his
Préludes, a collection of pieces
heavily influenced by Debussy.





omposed between
1891–1894, and based on
C the poem by Stéphane
Mallarmé, Claude Debussy’s first
published orchestral work Prélude
à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to
the Afternoon of a Faun) has since
been hailed as the first significant
“impressionist” musical work. Later
the composer Pierre Boulez even
claimed that the work marked the
very beginning of modern music.
Debussy’s musical language
was an ideal counterpart to
Mallarmé’s symbolist poetry. The
composer described the work as
“the general impression of the
poem … it follows the ascending





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MODERN 1900–1950 229

See also: The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■ Das Lied von der Erde 198–201 ■ Parade 256 ■
Quartet for the End of Time 282–283


deep sensuality of the moment.
Debussy’s interpretation of the
poem sought to replicate this
sensuality, in an almost subversive
upheaval of musical language.
Its use of timbres seemed
essentially new, of Debussy and Wagner
exceptional delicacy and This subversion is evident in
assurance in touch. Debussy’s unmistakable references
Pierre Boulez to the prelude from Wagner’s
Tristan und Isolde. That prelude Claude Debussy
opens with a yearning cello line
(the “longing” motif) followed by a Born in a Parisian suburb to
half-diminished chord (the famous a shop owner and his wife, in
“Tristan chord”). Debussy’s Prélude 1862, Debussy began music
also begins with a single line—a lessons at the age of seven,
shape of the poem, as well as the characterful flute flourish—before and at 10 he embarked on a
scenery so marvellously described landing on a half-diminished chord. decade of study at the Paris
in the text.” In the poem, a faun Wagner’s Tristan chord then begins Conservatoire. By 1890, he
awakens from an afternoon nap, a chromatic progression ending in had composed more than
recalling a moment of arousal at an unresolved imperfect cadence ❯❯ 50 songs, but fewer larger-
the sight of a pair of water nymphs. scale pieces, of which many
The faun tries to embrace the were not published and
nymphs, but they disappear into The Greek god Pan pursues the some never completed.
nymph Syrinx in François Boucher’s
In the 1890s, he established
nothingness. Mallarmé’s poem work. The amorous faun Pan featured the impressionist style for
is evocative, yet fundamentally in many of Debussy’s works, including which he is best remembered.
ambiguous, focusing on the “La Flûte de Pan” and “Syrinx.” His String Quartet (1893)
demonstrated many of the
traits that were established
in the Prélude à l’après-midi
d’un faune, the culmination
of which were his symphonic
masterwork La Mer (1905)
and his only published opera,
Pelléas et Melisande (1902).
In his later career, he focused
on smaller-scale forms,
composing many of his
best-known piano works,
including L’isle joyeuse (1904),
and his two books of Préludes.
Debussy died in Paris in 1918.

Other key works

1902 Pelléas et Mélisande
1903 Estampes
1903–1905 La Mer







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230 IMPRESSIONISM


Debussy follows a fairly traditional one or two common pitches or by
tonal structure that stops the piece subtle semitonal shifts. Debussy
from sounding incoherent. manipulates his audience’s
Nine bars after the arrival of the listening experience by subverting
tonic key, Debussy even quotes their expectations of what will
Wagner’s “desire” motif in the come next; unusual harmonies
clarinet, getting as far as the catch our attention, and we listen
third note, which he distinctively closely to their “color” and effect,
accompanies with Wagner’s own hence, the reason why this sort of
dominant-seventh harmony so it is harmony is often called “coloristic.”
unmistakable. Debussy strips the The pulse of the Prélude is slow
chord of Wagner’s context, making beneath the surface filigree. While
it sound not tersely dissonant but mostly in triple meter, some of the
lushly exotic. Turning the unfinished passages are in duple time, which
motif back and forth in descending contain bars of two or four beats;
and ascending chromatic scales, likewise the subdivision of the
Debussy makes Wagner’s profound beats varies between compound
utterance into his own plaything. time (each beat of the pulse
The Afternoon of a Faun was subdivided into three) and simple
adapted into a ballet by Vaslav Nijinsky Technical experiments (divided into two). Triple and duple
in his first choreography for the Ballets The Prélude is notable for its use rhythms sometimes coexist; in the
Russes. It premiered at the Théâtre du of “Debussian” added-note chords. middle section, the accompaniment
Châtelet in Paris, in May 1912.
While dominant sevenths, ninths, plays triplet cross-rhythms against
11ths, or 13ths are easy to find in the duple melody, moving attention
(above which an oboe plays the four the works of Wagner and Liszt, away from any regularity of pulse
chromatically rising notes of the Debussy strips them of any toward the music’s rich textural
“desire” motif). Debussy’s chord, expectation that, for example, fabric. While impressionist music is
however—shimmering amidst a a dominant chord must always
harp glissando—dissolves into resolve to its tonic. Rather
a seemingly unrelated dominant than working toward resolution, Sasha Waltz & Guests, a German
dance troupe, reinterprets L’Après-midi
seventh, colored by the horns Debussy progresses chromatically d’un faune as a brightly colored and
with a major ninth and sharpened in unexpected directions: often, provocative beach scene at Sadler’s
11th. Unlike Wagner, Debussy’s chords are joined to each other by Wells Theatre, London, in 2015.
work contains little tension—
each chord is to be appreciated
for the sensuality of its sound.
The similarities to Wagner’s
work make Debussy’s subversions
all the more obvious. Like Wagner,
Debussy also states his opening
melody twice more—each time
over increasingly lush harmony.
This establishes E major as the
tonic (“home”) key of the piece, but
the ambiguity of the chords used
up to this point—which do not
point clearly to a single key—
means that the arrival at E major
goes all but unnoticed in the
moment. Despite this seeming
ambiguity, under the surface,





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MODERN 1900–1950 231


Orchestra for Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
The original orchestra for Debussy’s Woodwind Harps Strings
symphonic poem consisted of woodwinds,
strings, harp, and horns, together creating
a delicate, sensuous sound world.
Solo flute
Percussion

Two other flute parts

2 violin parts Viola
Antique Cymbals
Two oboes Two harps
Brass
Two bassoons


English horn



Four horns Clarinet Cello Double bass


sometimes considered less technical percussion “antique cymbals” Debussy's work premiered in Paris
than other genres, Debussy’s color the latter part of the piece in December 1894, and Stéphane
experimentation with rhythmic with their delicate, bell-like tone. Mallarmé was invited to hear it.
techniques shows that atmosphere The orchestra does, however, have While he had initially opposed the
and technicality can coexist. two harps, which help to create composition of music based on
a more luxuriant sound. Long his poem, Mallarmé came out full
Staging the piece sections use divisi in the strings, of praise, writing to Debussy that it
Debussy’s orchestra is moderately sometimes playing sur la touche— went further “in nostalgia and light,
sized: its only brass instruments over the fingerboard, where the with finesse, uneasiness, and
are four horns, and only two tone is more mellow. richness” than his own work. ■

Debussy and impressionism

The word “impressionism” is lead to numerous possible
controversial when applied to progressions, putting the focus
music. Debussy himself—its on the sensual effect of each
I wasn’t expecting most iconic exponent—railed chord, while obscuring its role in
anything like that! The against it. “I’m attempting the structure that underpins the
music prolongs the emotion ‘something different,’” he wrote piece—just as Monet’s focus on
of my poem and conjures in 1908, “[that] imbeciles call colors and eschewal of lines
up the scenery more impressionism, just about the communicates more about the
vividly than any color. least appropriate term possible.” sense than about the details
Stéphane Mallarmé Despite this, Debussy’s work is of his subject. Both Debussy
as much a musical equivalent and Monet have been called
to Monet as to Mallarmé. His “antirealist,” but for Debussy,
tonally ambiguous harmonies appealing to the very senses
(which do not clearly suggest by which music is heard, was
one particular resolution) could “more real” than realism.







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I WANT WOMEN TO TURN



THEIR MINDS TO




BIG AND



















DIFFICULT JOBS









THE WRECKERS (1904), ETHEL SMYTH






























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234 FEMALE COMPOSERS


omen were writing
IN CONTEXT opera from the form’s
W first days. The earliest
FOCUS known opera by a woman, La
Female composers
Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola
BEFORE d’Alcina (The Liberation of Ruggiero I feel awfully full of
1644 The Venetian composer from the Island of Alcina), by power—deadly sure of
and singer Barbara Strozzi Francesca Caccini, was first what I am doing—I love
publishes her first book of performed in Caccini’s native city to see how I am
madrigals (Il primo libro of Florence in 1625. For Ethel getting to orchestrate
di madrigali). Smyth, however, writing a three- better and better.
act “grand opera”—serious in Ethel Smyth
1850 In France, the premiere theme, with no spoken dialogue— Letter to librettist Henry Brewster
success of Louise Farrenc's at the turn of the 20th century
Nonet for wind and strings was an ambitious undertaking,
allows her to negotiate equal both because she was female and
pay as professor of piano at the also because she was English,
Paris Conservatoire. British opera having been almost
extinct since Henry Purcell.
AFTER to spread their wings. Cécile
1913 French composer Lili Life beyond the piano Chaminade (1857–1944) and
Boulanger is the first woman For much of the 19th century, Augusta Holmès (1847–1903), both
to receive the Prix de Rome for female composers were associated French and near contemporaries
her cantata Faust et Hélène. with piano and chamber music of Smyth, wrote major orchestral
suited to the domestic sphere. works, as did Amy Beach (1867–
2000 Finnish composer Kaija Composers such as Louise 1944), who was the first American
Saariaho premieres her five-act Reichardt (1779–1826), Clara woman to write a symphony—the
opera L’Amour de loin (Love Schumann (1819–1896), and Fanny Gaelic Symphony (1896).
From Afar), based on the Mendelssohn (1805–1847) were Some women also wrote opera.
12th-century troubadour Jaufré known for “art songs,” or Lieder Thirty years older than Smyth,
Rudel, at the Salzburg Festival. (poems set to music for voice and the French aristocrat Marie de
piano). Toward the end of the Grandval (1828–1907) was a prolific
century, female composers began composer whose works included
a symphony (now lost), an oratorio
(Stabat Mater), and seven operas,
the last of which, Mazeppa, based
on a poem by Byron, was staged
with some success in Bordeaux in
1892. Three years later, Augusta
Holmès’s third and final opera,
La Montagne noire, was produced
at the Paris Opéra. Smyth was in
the French capital at the time and
saw the work. In common with
many others, she was disappointed


The audience prepare to leave after
watching an opera at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden, London, in
1910—the year The Wreckers had its
first performance at the venue.





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MODERN 1900–1950 235

See also: La traviata 174–175 ■ The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■ Tosca 194–197 ■ Peer Gynt 208–209 ■ Peter Grimes 288–293 ■
L’Amour de loin 325 ■ blue cathedral 326


by the opera but sympathized winning wide recognition, though make their living by luring ships
with the composer, writing later: it was still difficult to get the work onto the rocky shore and plundering
“knowing what I do about the staged in her own country. For the them. The drama of the opera
difficulties of opera composers, British, opera was chiefly an upper- centers on two lovers, Thirza and
especially plus the handicap of class entertainment put on by Mark, who are opposed to this
sex, the astonishing fact about foreigners in London during the thievery. Thirza is the young wife
it was that it existed at all.” social season. When Smyth first of Pascoe, leader of the wreckers
By then Smyth had embarked submitted The Wreckers to the but also the village preacher—a
on her own career as an opera Royal Opera House in Covent dual role not at all incongruous to
composer. Crucial encouragement Garden, the managing committee most of the villagers, who see no
had come from the German told her: “To announce a new work contradiction between their ❯❯
conductor and Wagner champion by a new composer is to secure an
Hermann Levi, a friend for whom absolutely empty house, and in
Smyth had played on the piano future no opera will be produced
one of her earlier choral works, here that has not established its
Mass in D (1891). Impressed by the success abroad.”
drama of the music, Levi told her:
“You must at once sit down and A Cornish tale
write an opera.” Completed in 1904 and first
Taking up the challenge, in 1894 performed two years later in
Smyth completed her first opera, a Leipzig, The Wreckers is set in
comedy called Fantasio, staged in a remote village on the coast of
Weimar in 1898. Her second, Der Cornwall in the late 18th century.
Wald (The Forest), was produced The villagers are “wreckers,” who
in Berlin and London in 1902 and
a year later at the Metropolitan
Opera in New York—the first opera Two composer sisters, Nadia (left)
and Lili Boulanger, pose together in
by a woman to be performed there. 1913. Nadia was also an influential
By the time Smyth wrote The teacher, whose students included
Wreckers, her third opera, she was Aaron Copland and Philip Glass.

Ethel Smyth The daughter of a French mother campaigner Emmeline
and a British major-general, Ethel Pankhurst (possibly a lover of
Smyth was born in the English the openly lesbian composer)
county of Kent in 1858. At the and devoted the next two years
age of 19, she went to Germany to the Suffragette cause. In later
to study music at Leipzig years, she was hampered by
Conservatory, where her fellow deafness and so turned to
students included Grieg, Dvorˇák, writing instead of music. She
and Tchaikovsky. Back in England, was made a Dame of the British
she started to win recognition for Empire in 1922 and died in 1944.
musical composition in the 1890s,
championed by such diverse Other key works
figures as the exiled French
Empress Eugénie (widow of 1891 Mass in D
Napoleon III) and the playwright 1894 Fantasio
George Bernard Shaw. In 1910, 1914 The Boatswain’s Mate
Smyth met the women’s suffrage 1924 Entente cordiale







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236 WOMEN COMPOSERS

































looting and their faith. Mark has As the waves rise, the lovers sing Wreckers seize cargo from a ship
been secretly lighting beacons their final duet, a bridal song: “Our that has foundered on the Cornish
to warn ships off the rocks. last ecstasy thy embrace, O sea!” coast, in an etching from the 1822
When the villagers discover book Scenes in England by the
that a night of plundering has Bringing the opera to life Reverend Isaac Taylor.
been sabotaged by Mark and Smyth’s inspiration for the opera
Thirza, they condemn them to had been a walking holiday in The music, meanwhile, was firmly
death as “adulterers and traitors,” Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. rooted in the German tradition.
imprisoning them in a sea cave Here, she had heard tales of the Trained in Leipzig, as a composer
that fills with water at high tide. wreckers of old and of the religious Smyth belonged to a lineage that
revival in 18th-century Cornwall led passed from Beethoven through
by the founder of the Methodists, Brahms—whom Smyth, throughout
John Wesley. A sea cave called her life an avid social networker,
Piper’s Hole in the Isles of Scilly had known in Leipzig—to Mahler,
had given her the idea for the cave just two years her junior. With such
in which the lovers Thirza and Mark a clear Germanic background, the
Between whiles I would lie meet their death. Her librettist, as influence of Wagner (himself born
on the [Cornish] cliffs, buried with her two previous operas, was an in Leipzig) was inescapable,
in soft pink thrift, listening to old friend, Henry Brewster. The son despite Smyth once protesting,
the boom of the great Atlantic of a Bostonian father and English “I never was, nor am I now, a
waves against those cruel mother, Brewster had been raised Wagnerite in the extreme sense
rocks, and the wild treble in France and was more at ease of the word.” The Wreckers shows
cries of the seagulls. writing in French than in English, clear Wagnerian traces, such as
Ethel Smyth so they decided that the libretto the rich orchestration, evoking the
would be in French, which Smyth coast and seascapes of Cornwall,
also spoke and wrote fluently. The and the use of “leitmotifs”—musical
libretto was composed through themes associated with particular
correspondence between Brewster individuals and emotions. At the
in Rome and Smyth in Surrey. same time, the drama has a marked





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MODERN 1900–1950 237


The sea in opera




The whole English
attitude toward women
in fields of art is ludicrous …
There is no sex in art. How
you play the violin, paint, or
compose is what matters.
Wagner, The Flying Dutchman, 1841 Bizet, The Pearl Fishers, 1863 Ethel Smyth
The atmosphere of the North Sea breathes The changing moods of the sea reflect the
throughout. The sea is there to be conquered ups and downs of the relationship between
but ultimately emerges victorious. two friends and their ultimate reconciliation.





lovers Thirza and Mark, torn
between passion and moral
responsibility, strike a new, raw
note in British operatic music.
Ethel Smyth, The Wreckers, 1904 Vaughan Williams, Riders to the Sea, 1932 The premiere
The orchestration evokes Cornish seascapes. The impressionistic music captures the Her work completed, it then took
Powerful but impassive, the sea brings both power of wind and ocean in this lament for
prosperity and discord to the village. sons lost at sea set in an Irish fishing village. Smyth two years to get The
Wreckers staged. The premiere,
when it eventually came, was in
Leipzig’s Neues Theater, Brewster’s
libretto having been translated
into German. To Smyth’s fury
the director had made cuts to the
third act, although the first-night
Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, 1945 Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, 1951 audience greeted the “mutilated”
Four Interludes each represent a different The sea represents an implacable backdrop version with thunderous applause.
mood of the sea. The sea is a metaphor for to the turbulence of human affairs and a After the director refused to
the struggle of the individual. final, peaceful resting place.
reinstate his cuts for subsequent
performances, an enraged
British character in its setting late 19th and early 20th centuries. Smyth stormed into the theatre
and themes. The hymns and other Although imperfectly worked out, early the next morning and
choruses sung by the villagers, for the basic drama of the opera is removed all the scores she could
instance, bear the clear imprint of compelling with strong characters find in the orchestra pit. There
the English oratorio tradition. and situations. It takes on serious would be no more performances
Derivative though the music themes of greed, love, moral of The Wreckers in Leipzig.
is in many ways, Smyth had conflict, and religious fanaticism. Smyth then caught a train to
nonetheless achieved her objective At its best, as in the prelude to Prague, where another performance
with The Wreckers. She had written the second act, “On the cliffs of was scheduled. This proved an
a viable British opera that could, Cornwall,” the music is colorful even greater disaster, since the
for the first time, bear comparison and atmospheric. Although orchestra had not rehearsed
with the works of the major indebted to Wagner’s Siegfried, properly, leading to damning
continental opera composers of the the second-act duets between the reviews in the local press. The ❯❯





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238 FEMALE COMPOSERS

Female conductors In 1911, Smyth wrote “The March of
the Women” as a Suffragette rallying
Only in the 20th century did cry. An active protester, she was
women begin to conduct sentenced to two months in Holloway
orchestras. When the role Prison, in 1912, for smashing a window.
emerged in the 19th century,
it was monopolized by male
composers, with women Many contemporaries were
confined to conducting generous in their praise of The
choirs. In the 1930s, the Wreckers. Writing in 1910 in the
Dutch-American Antonia second edition of The New Grove
Brico conducted the Berlin Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
Philharmonic, and the French the British music critic John Fuller
composer Nadia Boulanger Maitland observed: “It is difficult
became the first woman to point to a work of any nationality
to conduct London’s Royal since Wagner that has a more
Philharmonic. In the 1950s, direct appeal to the emotions, or
Margaret Hollis achieved that is more skilfully planned and
renown as a choral director, carried out.” The novelist Virginia
founding the Chicago Woolf was more ambivalent. In
Symphony Chorus in 1957,
and, in 1976, Sarah Caldwell 1931, she, her husband, Leonard,
was the first female composer had better luck at the and her lover, Vita Sackville-West,
conductor at the Metropolitan next location, Vienna, where accompanied Smyth to see The
Opera, New York. Mahler was director of the opera Wreckers at the Sadler’s Wells
It took another 30 years house. He expressed an interest in Theatre, London. She noted in her
for a woman, Marin Alsop, seeing Smyth, but the person she diary that the opera was “vigorous
to become chief conductor of actually met was his second-in- & even beautiful; & active &
a major American orchestra, command, the conductor Bruno absurd & extreme; & youthful: as if
the Baltimore Symphony Walter. He was impressed but some song in her had tried to issue
Orchestra. In 2013, Alsop could not promise a production. & been choked.” Beecham in his
scored another first for a Back in London, Smyth’s memoirs, published in 1944, was a
woman when she conducted experiences were similarly whole-hearted enthusiast, judging
the Last Night of the Proms checkered. In 1908, a concert The Wreckers “one of the three or
in London’s Albert Hall.
version of the first two acts was four English operas of real musical
well received by many critics but merit and vitality written during
overshadowed by personal sadness. the past forty years.”
Brewster, who was in the final
stages of liver cancer, had traveled Blazing a trail
from Rome for the performance. While Woolf’s judgment is perhaps
He died less than a month later. the one most modern critics would
The next year, The Wreckers— come closest to, Smyth’s role in
now translated by Smyth into opening up a path for later female
English—was successfully staged composers is beyond doubt. In
at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, The Wreckers, she took on one
conducted by the young Thomas of the most ambitious forms of
Beecham. The conductor also composition. Through her talent,
included it in his first season at the perseverance, and sheer drive,
Marin Alsop conducts the Royal Opera House the year after, Smyth established herself as a
Swedish Radio Symphony although it suffered by comparison serious composer. She went on to
Orchestra in 2009. She has led with a new work being performed write three further smaller-scale
orchestras in the UK, Brazil,
and the US. at Covent Garden that season: operas—two one-act comedies
Richard Strauss’s Elektra. and Fête galante (1922), a “dance-





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MODERN 1900–1950 239


drama” based on a short story of Wreckers, at least at first hand.
the same name by Smyth’s friend Yet his first opera, Peter Grimes,
Maurice Baring. premiered in 1945, has almost
Where Smyth led the way, many uncanny parallels with Smyth’s
others have followed. In Britain work. Both operas are set in remote
alone, a generation of female Miss Smyth is one of the coastal areas, where a pair of
composers born in the decade that few women composers one protagonists find themselves
The Wreckers was composed and can seriously consider to at odds with the rest of the
first performed included Elisabeth be achieving something community, which is in the grip
Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy, and valuable in the field of of evangelical religion and set on
Imogen Holst. The work of Lutyens musical composition. violence against them. Both employ
included nearly 200 scores for film Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky the device of the protagonists
and radio, as well as the operas singing onstage while a chorus of
The Numbered (1965) and Isis and villagers perform a hymn offstage.
Osiris (1969). Best known for her And both include powerful
13 string quartets (1933–1984), orchestral evocations of the sea,
Maconchy also wrote five operas, endowing it with a personal
including The Sofa (1957) and The presence and force so great that
Departure (1961). Holst, only child Musgrave include Mary, Queen the watery element becomes a
of Gustav Holst, while a less prolific of Scots (1976), and Simón Bolívar key presence in the work.
composer, proved a tireless (1995), while the successes of Whether Britten was aware
assistant to Benjamin Britten. In Judith Weir include A Night at of The Wreckers or not, Smyth’s
the late 20th century, the work of the Chinese Opera (1987), The work clearly played some role in
two Scottish composers won world Vanishing Bridegroom (1990), revitalizing a distinctively British
acclaim. The 10 operas of Thea and Blond Eckbert (1994). tradition of opera, both in terms of
music and subject matter. In this
Male heirs sense, major male composers of the
Dressed in red, the title character of It is not only female composers 20th century, such as Britten and
Judith Weir's opera Miss Fortune takes
center state at the United Kingdom who were influenced by Smyth. Michael Tippett, can be counted
premiere of the work at the Royal Opera Surprisingly, Benjamin Britten among the inheritors of Smyth's
House, Covent Garden, in 2012. seems not to have known The musical mantle. ■


































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AN AUDIENCE











SHOULDN’T LISTEN WITH



COMPLACENCY










PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21 (1912),

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG










































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242 PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21


ntil the end of the 19th and other composers, including
IN CONTEXT century, music had been Alexander Scriabin and Béla
U largely dictated by a tonal Bartók, started to experiment
FOCUS system, in which keys, chords, and further, escaping from traditional
Atonality
scales complemented each other to harmony, and chords and melodies
BEFORE create melody and harmony that based on diatonic (major and minor)
1865 Richard Wagner’s opera were pleasing to the ear. Even scales, instead exploring more
Tristan und Isolde is first where dissonant, or unsettling, dissonant 12-note chromatic scales.
performed—a turning point in passages were used in a piece of The Austrian composer and critic
the move away from tonality. music, it was still resolved onto a Joseph Marx coined the term
consonant, or harmonious, chord. “atonality” for this music, which
1894 French composer Claude The seeds for the unraveling had no recognizable tonality, or key.
Debussy uses ambiguous of this tonal tradition were sown Schoenberg gave it full rein in the
harmonies and fluid harmonic by Richard Wagner. In his operas, works of his middle period (roughly
progressions in his Prélude à especially Tristan und Isolde (1859), 1908–1921), of which Pierrot lunaire
l’après-midi d’un faune. Wagner undermined the concept of is arguably the most influential.
music written in one key by moving
1899 Schoenberg stretches through a range of different, often Tonality taken to the limit
the bounds of tonality to its unrelated, keys, without settling on The use of chromatic scales to
limits in his string sextet any one, and introducing dissonant create new harmonies had become
Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4. chords for dramatic effect. A few the norm among composers at the
AFTER decades later, Arnold Schoenberg end of the 19th century, especially
in Austria and Germany. But in
1917–1922 In his Five Sacred the early years of the new century,
Songs, Op. 15, Austrian Arnold Schoenberg poses with Schoenberg came to realize that
composer Anton Webern uses his second wife, Gertrud, and their tonality, the system of major and
a similar small ensemble to children, in 1950. Gertrud wrote the minor scales that had formed the
that of Pierrot lunaire and libretto for Schoenberg’s one-act opera basis of Western music since
Von heute auf morgen (1928–1930).
develops many of the same
compositional techniques.
1921–1923 The Suite for
Piano, Op. 25, is the first of
Schoenberg’s works to use
his 12-tone serial method
of composition throughout.

1922 French composer Edgard
Varèse’s Offrandes for soprano
and chamber orchestra has its
premiere in New York.
1965 An ensemble, the Pierrot
Players, later known as the
Fires of London, is founded to
perform Pierrot lunaire and
other new works.













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MODERN 1900–1950 243

See also: The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■
Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21 264–265 ■
Ionisation 268–269 ■ Gruppen 306–307

legacies of Haydn and Mozart, and
Wagner. He was not alone in trying
to find a new way of approaching
these legacies. In France, for
example, Erik Satie was producing
The expression, “atonal coolly detached and often static
music” is most unfortunate— music, and Claude Debussy was
it is on a par with calling developing his free-flowing style
swimming “the art of using the less dissonant of the
not drowning.” chromatic harmonies.
Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg
Embracing dissonance
In his early forays into atonality, Born in 1874 in Vienna to a
Schoenberg used chromatic chords Jewish family, Schoenberg
to create an ethereal atmosphere was primarily self-taught
through an unexpected but still in music but took theory
lessons with the composer
harmonious combination of notes. Alexander Zemlinsky, whose
the 17th century, was being However, his interest in the new sister, Mathilde, Schoenberg
stretched to its limits. In 1908, he expressionist movement of writers married. In 1898, he converted
also faced a personal crisis when and artists in Vienna led him to to Christianity, hoping for
his wife, Mathilde, had an affair with develop a starker musical language. greater acceptance in
the artist Richard Gerstl, who then Above all, he saw his task as the Viennese cultural life. His
committed suicide. Schoenberg’s “emancipation of dissonance,” first compositions, in a late
resulting sense of despair was allowing a dissonant chord to Romantic style, were well
reflected in a more chaotic, free stand by itself as a harmony, not received. In the 1920s, after
chromatic style, with little tonal as a “subsidiary” chord requiring his “middle period” rejection
structure, first in a setting of “Du resolution onto a consonance. This of traditional tonality, he
lehnest wider eine Silberweide” by was similar to Debussy’s use of invented a new method of
the German symbolist poet Stefan chromatic chords, but Schoenberg composition, systematically
George, and more dramatically in did not confine himself to mild using all 12 notes of the
chromatic scale.
his String Quartet No. 2, which dissonance; he also boldly used With the rise of Nazism,
moves in and out of keys, seemingly harsh and jarring dissonances. ❯❯ Schoenberg felt increasingly
at random, and adds the surprise vulnerable in Europe, and in
of a soprano voice to its third and 1933 he moved to the US,
fourth movements. having reverted to Judaism
Soon, Schoenberg recognized a during a short stay in Paris.
drawback to his new compositional He became a US citizen in
technique: while free chromaticism 1941 and spent the rest of
allowed a more varied harmonic It is the organization of a his life in California, where
range for emotional expression, piece which helps the listener he died in 1951.
it lacked the structural discipline to keep the idea in mind, to
of classical forms, such as the follow its development. Other key works
sonata, which are based mainly Arnold Schoenberg
on relationships between keys. 1899 Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
1909 Erwartung, Op. 17
Schoenberg therefore set about 1926–1928 Variations for
finding a way to reconcile atonality Orchestra, Op. 31
with classical structure and 1930–1932 Moses und Aron
romantic expression—the opposing





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244 PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21


The unsettling nature of the with a distinctive structure of tone
free chromaticism employed by intervals, which could then be
Schoenberg is due largely to its subjected to freer atonal treatment.
lack of formal structure; without
some kind of organization or sense A new music takes shape
With a grotesque giant of progression, it is unpredictable In 1912, the Viennese actress
bow, Pierrot scratches on and offers little relief or resolution. Albertine Zehme commissioned
his viola. Like the stork Schoenberg, nevertheless, felt the Schoenberg to write a song cycle,
on one leg, He bleakly need to harness this freedom to setting verses from Pierrot lunaire:
plucks a pizzicato. avoid a musical anarchy that could rondels bergamasques by Belgian
Albert Giraud limit his expressive range. He symbolist poet Albert Giraud.
turned to some pre-classical formal Schoenberg chose 21 of Giraud’s
structures in which the emphasis 50 poems for his Pierrot lunaire,
was more on counterpoint than using the German translation by
harmony. These included imitative Otto Erich Hartleben. He saw the
devices, such as canons and work, though, not as a collection
fugues, as well as simple forms, of songs sung in sequence but as a
The resulting music chimed well such as the rondo and passacaglia melodrama. It was to be a dramatic
with expressionism and had a (a style using the repetition of recitation accompanied by a small
disturbing, often nightmarish effect. a theme or sequence of chords ensemble of instruments, in a
Where Wagner’s unresolved over which there are certain “light, ironical, satirical tone,”
harmonies evoked anticipation, variations). Within these structures, with echoes of both the Italian
yearning, or unrequited love, Schoenberg used as his building comedy form commedia dell’arte,
Schoenberg’s created anxiety and blocks small fragments or motifs from which the Pierrot character
apprehension. Rather than express that consisted of a handful of notes originated, and contemporary
emotions, his atonality dealt with cabaret performances.
psychological states. Schoenberg The poems present surreal
would have been aware of the Pierrot and Columbine, played by and often grotesque glimpses of
Alexander Zaitsev and Mara Galeazzi,
research being carried out in look to the moon in a production of the world of the commedia dell’arte.
Vienna at the time by the founder Pierrot lunaire at the Royal Opera Their mystical quality is matched
of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. House, London, in 2007. by Schoenberg’s settings. Without
tonality, the music creates an








To call any relation
of tones atonal is as
little justified as to
designate a relation
of colors aspectral or
acomplementary. Such an
antithesis does not exist.
Arnold Schoenberg













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MODERN 1900–1950 245


is highly structured. Hartleben’s
translation is in a German rondel Sprechstimme
form: each poem has 13 lines split
into three stanzas. Line one is Although the vocal line in
repeated at lines seven and 13, and Pierrot lunaire is usually
performed by a soprano,
line two is repeated at line eight. Schoenberg did not intend it
Schoenberg’s settings employ a to be sung but rather recited,
variety of similarly strict formal like the cabaret songs and
techniques. Schoenberg uses small melodramas that were popular
motif “cells” of notes as the basis at the time, in a style he called
for forms such as passacaglias and sprechstimme (“speaking
canons, presenting them in various voice”). He first used the
guises: transposed up or down, technique in his cantata
in retrograde (played backward), Gurre-Lieder but realized
and inversion (upside down). its full potential in Pierrot
The piece is written for a lunaire. Here, the vocal line
Audience and orchestra fight in a quintet playing seven instruments: is notated conventionally,
1913 cartoon from the newspaper Die with precise indications of
Zeit titled “The upcoming Schoenberg piano, violin (also playing viola), both rhythm and pitch, but
concert,” satirizing the anger that the cello, clarinet, and flute (also sprechstimme is indicated by
composer’s new music could provoke. playing piccolo). The combination small crosses on the stems of
of this pared-down ensemble and the notes. Later, Schoenberg
Schoenberg’s stark scoring and abandoned specific pitch
unsettling atmosphere, and the atonality provided a sharp contrast indications for sprechstimme,
dissonance of the harmonies suits to the Romanticism of the 19th replacing the five-line staff
the strange and sometimes violent century and proved that there was with a single line and no clef.
imagery. Like the poems, the music a viable alternative to tonality. ■


Tonality Atonality


Gravitates around Origin Freely composed
a home key



Based on Can use
major or minor scales Melody all notes of the
of the home key chromatic scale



Based on Not
major or minor chords Harmony restricted to major or
of the home key minor chords



Resolves Does not
into consonant major Dissonance resolve into consonant
or minor chords chords







US_240-245_Schoenberg.indd 245 26/03/18 1:01 PM

I HAVEN’T UNDERSTOOD




A BAR OF MUSIC







IN MY LIFE, BUT I HAVE

FELT IT






















LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS (1913),


IGOR STRAVINSKY



























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248 PRIMITIVISM AND MODERNISM


lthough the turn of the her peers in another frenzied ritual.
IN CONTEXT 20th century saw an Slower pieces follow—“Evocation”
A increasing fascination and “Ritual Action of the Ancestors,”
FOCUS with the exotic, no music really after which the victim dances
Primitivism prefigured the explosion of violent wildly for the onlookers until she
and modernism
primitivism that was Le Sacre du dies of exhaustion.
BEFORE printemps (The Rite of Spring). Igor
1889 Debussy is inspired to Stravinsky’s ballet portrayed a Folk origins
experiment with the “exotic” brutal scenario—a pagan ritual in Stravinsky may have been inspired
sound worlds of non-Western which a sacrificial virgin danced by Sergei Gorodetsky’s poem
musical traditions after herself to death to “propitiate the “Yarila,” in which two priestesses
hearing Javanese Gamelan god of spring.” sacrifice a young linden tree to a
at the Exposition Universelle. The work was first staged by sage. The concept was developed
Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in collaboration with Nikolai
AFTER in Paris in 1913, choreographed by Roerich, a leading artist-scholar
1923 Darius Milhaud’s ballet Vaslav Nijinsky—a performance with expertise in Russian folklore.
La Création du monde, that famously led to a riot. From its While many of the details of this
inspired by African folk plot alone, it is not difficult to see scenario have some basis in folk
mythology, premieres in Paris. why. Part one introduces a strange history, its main event is fictitious:
and primitive world in which a human sacrifice was certainly not
1949 Olivier Messiaen’s succession of rituals takes place. a feature of Slavic folk religion. The
Turangalîla-Symphonie—his These are characterized by wild savagery of Le Sacre was intended
most famous large-scale energy (as in “The Augurs of to shock and served to debunk
orchestral work—draws Spring/Dances of the Young Girls,” the romanticized notion of ancient
inspiration from Le Sacre “Ritual of Abduction,” “Spring folklore so prevalent in the arts by
du printemps. Rounds,” and “Ritual of the Rival the end of the 19th century.
Tribes”)—until the arrival of the If the brutality of the subject
Sage, who stoops to kiss the earth, matter was exaggerated for its
prompting an orgylike “Dance of shock value, the music was no less
the Earth.” In part two, as night so. Stravinsky drew a significant
falls, a sacrificial victim is chosen amount of thematic material in the
from among the “Mystic Circles of work from existing Lithuanian folk
Young Girls” and then “glorified” by tunes, but these melodies were so

Igor Stravinsky Born near St. Petersburg in 1882, France in 1920, but after the
Stravinsky’s formative influence deaths of his wife, mother, and
was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, daughter (shortly before World
his teacher from 1902–1908— War II), Stravinsky emigrated
however, Stravinsky continually to the United States, where his
assimilated new styles. His first later works would incorporate
ballet for Diaghilev, L’Oiseau de serial technique. In spite of his
feu, catapulted him to fame at its failing health, his creative spirit
Paris premiere in 1910. His early remained strong until two years
aesthetic was in line with late before his death, in 1971.
Romanticism, as was popular in
Russia, but his musical language Other key works
developed from Experimentalism
in the 1910s into distinctive 1910–1911 Petrushka
Neoclassicism after his wartime 1922–1923 Octet
exile in Switzerland. Stravinsky 1930 Symphony of Psalms
and his family settled down in 1953–1957 Agon







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