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

MODERN 1900–1950 249

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Ives’s Symphony No. 4 254–255 ■ Parade 256–257 ■
Ionisation 268–269


between the first two melodies—
the opening bassoon melody uses
a mode containing only the white
notes of the piano, but after around
40 seconds it is juxtaposed against
a new melody in a completely
unrelated mode (containing mostly
black notes). The accompaniment
bears little relation to either mode
but draws freely upon all the
notes. The effect in many ways
feels more dissonant than if
the piece was completely atonal,
because of the clashing of two
musical methods.

Percussive techniques
All other features are rendered
the more barbaric by Stravinsky’s
Dancers of the Ballets Russes pose example of this is the opening to orchestration. He calls upon huge
in costume for the first performance of the “Augurs of Spring,” in which a forces—large string, wind, and
Le Sacre du printemps at the Théâtre repeated chord is heavily accented brass sections are joined by a huge
des Champs-Élysées, Paris, in 1913.
in what seem to be arbitrary places battery of percussion instruments.
but are actually determined by a His tendency toward extremes is
reworked as to make the finished mathematical pattern imperceptible explicit from the opening bassoon
product uniquely his. While some to the listener. melody, pitched uncomfortably high
of the folk tunes Stravinsky used Stravinsky’s rhythms often in its register. Even more striking is
already contained irregularities of take the form of ostinatos (short, the “percussive” manner in which
phrase length, rhythm, or meter, repeating patterns), made the more he writes for the whole orchestra,
he greatly exaggerated these compelling by the perpetual driving especially the strings, who are
irregularities and introduced many pulse often underlying them, often called upon to play ❯❯
new ones, often fragmenting his usually at too fast a speed to be
melodies into units of unequal called a beat. “Glorification of the
length, mixed up and repeated in Chosen One,” for example, is mostly
seemingly unpredictable ways. driven by persistent eighth-note
movement, yet in the wildest
Irregularity and brutality sections of the “Sacrificial Dance,” [Le Sacre] had the effect of an
The savagery of Stravinsky’s work continuous 16th-note movement is explosion that so scattered the
is most strikingly realized in the the “motor” behind the music. elements of musical language
composer’s use of rhythm, where Stravinsky also uses dissonance that they could never again be
irregularity is also a defining to create a sense of savagery. While put together as before.
feature. The rhythms are frequently the folk melodies woven through the Donald Jay Grout
grouped into bars of differing piece are based on recognizable
lengths, but even when the meter scales (or “modes”), the harmony Music historian
looks regular on the page, he often tends to be dissonant—an effect
calls for notes to be stressed in often achieved by combining two
unpredictable places, to negate any modes (called “bimodality”). This
sense of order and expectation. One can be heard in the dialogue





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250 PRIMITIVISM AND MODERNISM


Differences between Romanticism and Modernism


Romanticism Modernism

Composers built on Composers consciously
historical tradition. break with historical
tradition.



Melodies are proportionally Melodies are fragmented
structured. or irregular and
sometimes absent.



Dissonances are resolved. Dissonances are freely
Uses one scale at a time. used. May employ different
scales simultaneously.


Rhythm is rational and
ordered, following Rhythm is irregular and
regular meter. unpredictable, with
unexpected emphases.



Orchestra uses Orchestra uses
conventional playing experimental playing
techniques. techniques.




passages of detached notes using on. Conversely, softer passages own words, culminating in the
repeated, short “down-bows” sometimes call upon mysterious- Sacrifical Dance’s “ecstatic,
(essentially hitting rather than sounding string harmonics. irregular jerks” of “primitive
stroking the strings); on numerous hysteria,” according to the dance
other occasions, they play pizzicato Dramatic premiere critic André Levinson. Other
(plucking the strings) or col legno The riot that broke out at the spectators, not members of Paris’s
(playing using the wood or the premiere in 1913 made the ballet elite, had anticipated the work’s
hard tip of the bow)—both of which infamous, but this was not just novelty and had come for it—some,
create a more incisive, percussive because of the music—in spite indeed, courtesy of free tickets
effect. Apart from this prevalence of its challenging nature—or even handed out by Diaghilev. Hisses
of staccato, articulated styles of Vaslav Nijinsky’s revolutionary from the boxes were quickly
playing, Stravinsky uses many choreography, although that and loudly condemned by the
other unusual techniques, such as certainly shocked, too. At the time, supportive faction; before long,
scraping the metal triangle stick Paris’s “high society” attended the the music was all but drowned
across the surface of the tam-tam, ballet expecting stylized elegance. out by those on both sides. Some
or the French horns playing with What they got were “knock-kneed spectators claimed that the furore
their “bells up” in order to increase and long-braided Lolitas jumping began before the dancers even
the volume and impact, and so up and down,” in Stravinsky’s came on stage. The dancer





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MODERN 1900–1950 251

Diaghilev and the
Ballets Russes

Sergei Diaghilev founded his
ballet company in Paris in
1909. For two decades until
his death, the Ballets Russes
performed regularly in Paris,
throughout Europe, and in the
Americas. While the company
prominently featured highly
skilled Russian dancers, and
often showcased Russian
composers and works, they
never performed in Russia.
In stark contrast to the
conservative Russian artistic
culture from which he hailed,
the progressive Diaghilev was
The last page of Stravinsky’s minimalism of the 1960s–1980s responsible for commissioning
handwritten score for Le Sacre shows as much as they permeated film groundbreaking new work
the chaotic nature of the piece, with scores and influenced popular from the leading composers of
some huge intervals between notes. the day. Chief among them
styles. Stravinsky’s particular was Igor Stravinsky, whose
style of modernism influenced commissions are among his
Lydia Sokolova, for example, later later composers in the trends of most significant pieces. He
reflected: “As soon as it was known primitivism, exoticism, and also commissioned works from
that the conductor was there, the experimental composition. Sergei Prokofiev, Erik Satie,
uproar began.” Some accounts Perhaps because Stravinsky’s and three members of the
suggest that blows were even musical style soon evolved in Parisian group of composers
exchanged and that as many as a neoclassical direction, the known as Les Six. Well-known
40 audience members were “Stravinskian aesthetic” was not artists often designed sets or
arrested for violence and disorder. only to influence future neoclassical costumes for his productions,
A year later, however, Le Sacre composers but also to reenergize such as Pablo Picasso, Henri
was performed in Paris without the performing styles of Baroque Matisse, and Coco Chanel.
dancers, and it was the greatest and Classical music in a way that
success of Stravinsky’s career. This can still be heard today. ■
fact may have contributed to the
composer’s later tendency to prefer
Le Sacre as a concert piece. For
Diaghilev, however, any publicity
was good publicity; he later
claimed that Le Sacre’s premiere
was “exactly what [he] wanted.” I heard, and I wrote
what I heard. I was the
Stravinskian legacy vessel through which
The influence of Le Sacre on Le Sacre passed.
subsequent music is hard to Igor Stravinsky
overstate. This is most strikingly Sergei Diaghilev (right) greets
seen in Stravinsky’s revolutionary Igor Stravinsky at Croydon Airport,
use of rhythm, which surpassed London, UK, in 1926. The pair
collaborated on four ballets,
anything seen before. Stravinskian including Le Sacre du printemps.
“motor rhythms” would drive the





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252


AND EVER WINGING


UP AND UP, OUR VALLEY

IS HIS GOLDEN CUP


THE LARK ASCENDING (1914–1920),
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS









he German domination of and William Byrd, whose artistic
IN CONTEXT English music in the late purity seemed to suggest a way
T 19th century persuaded forward. This, in turn, led Vaughan
FOCUS two young English composers— Williams and Holst to develop an
Folk songs and a national Vaughan Williams and his fellow interest in folk music, which was
music revival
student Gustav Holst—that English as much to do with social history
BEFORE music needed a fresh start, free as music. The realization that
1860 American scholar and from the influences of Beethoven, Britain’s Industrial Revolution had
folklorist Francis James Child Wagner, and Brahms. Vaughan
publishes his collection of Williams’s work as a church The song of the skylark, a mere
English and Scottish Ballads. musician led him to explore the speck in the sky in this work by David
unaccompanied choral works of Cox (1783–1859), delighted Vaughan
1878 Dvorˇák’s first set of the 16th- and early 17th-century Williams. The soaring violin mimics
Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, English composers Thomas Tallis the bird’s ascent in the sky.
include motifs and rhythms
from folk songs and dances.
1908 Bartók and Kodály visit
remote villages in Hungary
to collect Magyar folk songs;
Bartók writes For Children,
which includes 80 folk tunes.
AFTER
1926 Percy Grainger arranges
his Danish Folksongs Suite for
piano and orchestra.
1938–1939 Michael Tippett
writes his Concerto for Double
String Orchestra, which
includes some references to
British folk music.








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MODERN 1900–1950 253

See also: Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ The Dream of Gerontius 218–219 ■
Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 270–271 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287


how the bird sings in the sky, its
notes floating heavenward. The
music was composed for violin and
piano in 1914 then orchestrated
before its first performances with
There is no difference piano in 1920 and with orchestra
in kind, but only in the following year. The virtuosity
degree, between Beethoven of the solo violin part reaches back
and the humblest singer to the uncluttered purity of Bach’s
of a folk song. concertos. In the score, Vaughan
Ralph Vaughan Williams Williams quotes from Meredith’s Ralph Vaughan
poem describing the lark’s flight: Williams
“He rises and begins to round/He
drops the silver chain of sound/Of Born in 1872, the son of a
many links without a break/In country vicar, Ralph Vaughan
chirrup, whistle, slur, and shake.” Williams was brought up in
In the same way, the violin’s Surrey by his mother, who
emptied rural areas of much of opening solo soars upward in a was widowed when Ralph
their population, and their folk single unbroken phrase from its was three. After studying at
traditions, spurred Vaughan low register to its very highest, Cambridge University and the
Williams, Holst, and their fellow with the orchestra’s quiet Royal College of Music, he
composer George Butterworth accompanying chord breaking worked in London as a church
into going into the countryside off to leave the violin singing and organist and conductor and as
to collect English folk songs before trilling alone in the empty sky. editor of The English Hymnal.
they disappeared. Then the soloist and orchestra A period of private study
The composers were drawn to explore two main themes: a lilting in Paris in 1908 with Maurice
the naturalness of folk music and first one and a simple, balladlike Ravel helped to crystallize
Vaughan Williams’s true
to the pastoral landscapes from second. Neither of these is a folk musical voice. Military service
which it came. As their music song, yet each sounds as if it might in World War I interrupted a
began to reflect these influences, be, and neither could have been lifetime of composing, but
they were denounced as members written without the influence of his large output included nine
of a backward-looking “cowpat English folk music. ■ symphonies, four operas,
school” of composing, a term much choral music, and a
coined by British composer sequence of small, highly
Elisabeth Lutyens. In fact, they individual orchestral works,
had initiated a quiet revolution in including The Lark Ascending.
20th-century music that influenced After his death in 1958,
the Australian composer Percy his ashes were interred in
Grainger as well as Yorkshire-born It never seems to occur Westminster Abbey, London.
Frederick Delius in his orchestral to people that a man
masterwork Brigg Fair (1907). might just want to compose Other key works
a piece of music.
Pastoral inspiration Ralph Vaughan Williams 1903–1909 A Sea Symphony
The essence of this new musical 1910 Fantasia on a Theme
by Thomas Tallis
style is distilled in Vaughan 1922 A Pastoral Symphony
Williams’s The Lark Ascending— 1922–1951 The Pilgrim’s
based on a 19th-century poem by Progress
George Meredith, which describes





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254


STAND UP AND TAKE


YOUR DISSONANCE



LIKE A MAN



SYMPHONY NO. 4 (1916), CHARLES EDWARD IVES








any of the manuscripts of music making in his hometown of
IN CONTEXT the American composer Danbury, Connecticut—especially
M Charles Ives consist of a the local band and its rivals from
FOCUS patchwork of cutouts pasted over nearby towns, which, on national
Collage
new ideas. Ives often raided his holidays, would assemble within
BEFORE own compositions for inspiration, earshot of each other. Ives not only
1787 Wolfgang Amadeus reusing parts of them or sticking enjoyed the cacophony of different
Mozart simultaneously them into others. As a result, many tunes being played simultaneously
employs four separate of his compositions sound like but later set out to reproduce in his
orchestras in different time collage—different musical own works exactly what he heard,
signatures for Don Giovanni. fragments layered on top of each as in his Holidays symphony.
other. Many of these were scraps of
1912 Igor Stravinsky “pastes” music that he heard in his youth— Literary influences
a chord of a dominant seventh hymns of the Pilgrim Fathers, Ives lived a mere 150 miles (240 km)
on E-flat over a chord of F-flat gospel tunes, and brass band music. from Concord, Massachusetts—the
major in Le Sacre du printemps Ives loved to listen to the amateur epicenter of the Transcendentalist
and causes audience outrage. literary movement that included
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel
AFTER Hawthorne, Louisa M. Alcott,
1928 Henry Cowell composes and Henry David Thoreau. Their
his Concerto for Piano and works promoted the belief that true
Orchestra, whose three knowledge could not be attained by
movements are titled Why tonality as such should studying religion or academia but
“Polyharmony,” “Tone Cluster,” be thrown out for good I can’t rather came from reflection and
and “Counter Rhythm.” see. Why it should always contemplation of the self. Inspired
be present I can’t see. It by their ideas, Ives published his
1967–1969 Luciano Berio depends, it seems to me … Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord,”
composes his Sinfonia, the on what one is trying to do. in 1919, comprising movements
third movement of which is a Charles Ives named for each of the key writers.
collage of musical quotations. In the early 1920s—during
which time Ives worked alongside
fellow experimental composers
Henry Cowell and Carl Ruggles to
spearhead progressive American





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MODERN 1900–1950 255

See also: St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Le Sacre de printemps 246–251 ■
A Child of Our Time 284–285 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287


Henry Cowell, who worked with Ives,
was one of the most innovative of the
experimental composers, as evidenced
by his Mosaic Quartet (1935).

music—Ives began working on his
gigantic Fourth Symphony, the
apotheosis of his entire output. The
influence of the Transcendentalists
continued here, as Ives based the
second movement (“Comedy”) on
Hawthorne’s short story “The
Celestial Railroad”—a reworking of
John Bunyan’s allegorical work, The
Pilgrim’s Progress. “The Celestial
Railroad” tells of a railway journey
from the chaos and mundaneness
of everyday life.
second movement, Ives gathered triumph—before moving into a
Layered complexity a variety of sources to make his quieter passage. The first two
Ives’s multilayered composition famous layers: hymns, and gospel movements premiered in New York
style was at its best in his Fourth tunes, brass bands, and popular in 1927 and were the only parts of
Symphony, in which simultaneous, songs to represent small-town life; his great symphony that Ives heard
cacophonous eruptions of sound as well as atonality, polyrhythms, performed in concert. The simple
place the listener alongside the and grinding dissonances to third movement (the fugue) and the
pilgrims as fellow travelers inside convey Hawthorne’s “iron horse” fourth, a rhythmically challenging
that train. Ives also utilized lighter, locomotive heaving into motion. piece that required an extra
“offstage” sounds—ethereal flutes, The first movement, scored for a percussion ensemble, did not
a few strings, harp, a quarter-tone chamber orchestra, begins boldly— premiere until 1965, 11 years
piano, and women’s voices. In the maestoso, played with majesty and after the composer’s death. ■

Charles Edward Ives Born in Danbury, Connecticut, in resulted in an outburst of
1874, Ives was schooled by his experimental compositions,
father in band music, church mostly written before 1915.
hymns, and the music of J.S. Bach. Many of Ives’s pieces, however,
After four years of musical studies did not reach a wider audience
at Yale, he joined the Mutual Life until later in his life, after hand
Insurance Company and remained tremors and diabetes had forced
in the insurance business for the him to retire from composition.
next 31 years. Ives believed that He died of a stroke in 1954.
his insurance work was an
important life experience that Other key works
contributed to his compositions.
Ives also worked part time 1904–1913 Holidays symphony
as an organist in New York City 1906 The Unanswered Question
and spent every spare moment 1910–1914 Three Places in
composing. In 1908, Ives married New England
Harmony Twichell. Her influence 1911–1915 Concord Sonata







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256


I HAVE NEVER



WRITTEN A NOTE




I DIDN’ T MEAN





PARADE (1917), ERIK SATIE




t the end of the 19th An early example of Dadaism in
IN CONTEXT century, a new musical music was the work of Erik Satie.
A nationalism arose in His Trois Gymnopédies, the first of
FOCUS France. Young composers sought which was published in 1888, with
Dadaism in music
to free themselves from European their focus on repetition of rhythm
BEFORE traditions and imbue their art with and harmony and use of unresolved
1881 Le Chat Noir cabaret a sense of French, and particularly dissonances, are both hypnotic
club opens in Montmartre, Parisian, culture. This led to and static. Partly inspired by
in Paris. It becomes a meeting two strands of new music: the medieval French music, they reject
place for avant-garde artists, impressionist work of composers musical development in favor of
writers, and musicians. such as Debussy and Ravel, which the juxtaposition of ideas. Debussy
had parallels in the art of the was so impressed by the pieces
1907 Pablo Picasso paints period, and the music of Dadaist that he orchestrated two of them.
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, in composers, which celebrated
which he develops the ideas the absurd and challenged the Surrealism in music
behind Cubism, which will definition of what music might be. Satie was influential among young
influence Satie. French composers and well known
to other artists. When Jean Cocteau
AFTER heard his Trois morceaux en forme
1924 Satie’s ballet Relâche de poire (Three Pieces in the Shape
includes a surrealist film of a Pear), a piano suite for piano
sequence by French director duet, in 1903, he commissioned
René Clair. Satie to compose the music to a
ballet that eventually combined the
1930 Jean Cocteau produces talents of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet
La Voix humaine, a monologue Russes, choreographer Léonide
that Poulenc later turns into Massine, and Pablo Picasso. The
an opera. work, Parade, was described in



Inspired by his work as a cabaret
pianist, Satie incorporated jazz
influences into some of his music,
including the Ragtime movement from
“Parade,” later transcribed for solo piano.





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MODERN 1900–1950 257

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Quartet for the End of
Time 282–283 ■ 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ In C 312–313 ■ Einstein on the Beach 321


Noise-making instruments in Parade







Ticker tape



Pistol Typewriter
Erik Satie
Satie used a
variety of “found Born in Honfleur, France, in
sounds” in Parade in 1866, Satie was a natural
rebel. He spent two periods
order to add unusual at the Paris Conservatoire,
percussive first as a pianist and then
elements. as a composer, but left to
join the military in 1886.
Soon discharged, he moved
to Montmartre in Paris, where
he became a regular patron
of Le Chat Noir club.
In 1888, Satie published
Foghorn Milk bottle Gymnopédies, innovative
piano pieces. Always seen
Airplane propellor in a gray velvet suit (he had
seven of them), he lacked a
steady income and so resorted
Guillaume Apollinaire’s program Vexations (c.1893–1894), a piano to writing and playing cabaret
notes as a “kind of surrealism”— piece that may have been a joke— music. By 1912, he began to
three years before the eponymous the minimalist music consists of receive more attention from
art movement. Evoking the streets a bass theme and accompanying critics, especially for his earlier
of Paris, the music was scored for chords above it—which was never piano pieces. Commissions
“noise-making” instruments, such published in Satie’s lifetime. Satie’s followed, including two ballets
as a typewriter and a foghorn. score bore the inscription: “In order and the multimedia Sports et
to play the theme 840 times in divertissements. After his
Influential figure succession, it would be advisable death from cirrhosis of the
It was after this, in 1917, that Satie to prepare oneself beforehand, and liver in 1925, a great many
unknown works, including
formed Les Nouveaux Jeunes, in the deepest silence, by serious Vexations, came to light, found
a collective of six young French stillness.” Played by a relay team of in his chaotic apartment.
composers. Under the influence six, the first performance took more
of Cocteau, the group became than 18 hours, although it has since
Les Six, whose different styles been performed by a single pianist. Other key works
were united in their opposition Some critics saw the piece as pure 1888 Gymnopédies
to German Romanticism. experimentation; others as a 1914 Sports et divertissements
Satie also influenced much later reaction against Wagner. In the 1917 Sonatine bureaucratique
composers such as John Cage. 20th century, it became a key 1924 Relâche
In 1963, Cage published Satie’s work for conceptual artists. ■





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258

IN CONTEXT
LIFE IS A LOT FOCUS

Ragtime and jazz
LIKE JAZZ … influences

BEFORE
1895 Ernest Hogan publishes
IT’S BETTER WHEN “La Pas Ma La,” the first

ragtime sheet music.
YOU IMPROVISE 1908 Debussy publishes the
ragtime-inspired piano piece
Golliwogg’s Cakewalk.
RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1924), AFTER
GEORGE GERSHWIN 1927 Maurice Ravel completes
his jazz-inspired Violin Sonata
No. 2, which includes a second
movement called “Blues.”

1971 Polish composer
Krzysztof Penderecki and
American jazz trumpeter Don
Cherry perform the scoreless
Actions for Free Jazz orchestra.


he start of the 20th century
brought new genres and
T ideas to American music.
Many of them came from African
Americans, recently freed from
enslavement, whose dances
contained infectious and lively
rhythms that would grow into
ragtime piano and marches.
African American ideas combined
with Caribbean influences to
evolve into various forms of jazz.
As jazz spread to Europe,
classical composers were drawn
to it, but the improvisational nature
of this new type of music was not
a natural match for the carefully
notated and rehearsed world of the
concert hall. In the United States,
George Gershwin managed to
bridge the gap and incorporate
jazz on an orchestral scale with
Rhapsody in Blue. Others followed,
including composers who have





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MODERN 1900–1950 259

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ Ragtime and Joplin
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311
For such a popular music form,
ragtime was a surprisingly
Gershwin’s best-known large-scale
work was used as the title for a film short-lived phenomenon.
about his life, made eight years after Although first adopted by
his death in 1937. Adding to the film’s musicians unversed in musical
sense of realism, some of Gershwin’s notation, it started to spread
friends starred in it as themselves. widely after 1895, when
Ernest Hogan published the
Ragtime piano swept America, sheet music for his dance song
but it was not until John Philip “La Pas Ma La.” Within a few
Sousa, an American of German, years, ragtime music had
Spanish, and Portuguese descent, become popular across North
brought his syncopated brass-band America, in part thanks to
marches across the Atlantic in 1900 Scott Joplin, whose Maple
that ragtime really had an impact Leaf Rag, published in 1899,
on European music. Coming at a earned him the title “King of
time when young composers were Ragtime.” Joplin, born around
looking for ways to break out of the 1868, wrote a string of popular
ragtime piano pieces, earning
traditions of Romanticism, the new him enough from royalties to
sound, with its direct and acerbic buy him the time to write two
style, quickly took off among the operas, including Treemonisha
French avant-garde. (1911). The newly emerging,
Composers such as Erik Satie more improvisational jazz
tried to achieve the seemingly and Claude Debussy heard Sousa’s scene overshadowed ragtime,
impossible by melding composed music at the 1900 Paris Exposition which by the time of Joplin’s
and improvisational music. and responded by experimenting death, in 1917, was essentially
with ragtime. While Satie used it a part of musical history.
Ragtime reigns ironically in works such as the song
In 1853, the American composer La Diva de l’Empire, Debussy pitted
Louis Moreau Gottschalk recreated it against the Liebestod motif from
African American banjo-playing Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in
techniques with amazing accuracy his Golliwogg’s Cakewalk, as if to
in The Banjo, a popular virtuoso announce the passing of the old
piano piece. However, it was the guard. The modernist significance
rise of ragtime, and especially the of ragtime, with its implicit ❯❯
work of African American Scott
Joplin, that brought an energetic
new flavor to classical music in
the early years of the 20th century.
The term “ragtime” referred to
the music’s ragged rhythm, known
as “syncopation,” in which a steady I frequently hear
beat is accentuated by surprising music in the
weaker off beats. This unfamiliar heart of noise.
style captured the dynamic spirit George Gershwin
of the New World and, in discarding
the long phrasings and flexible Joplin’s 1902 piano piece
tempos of the 19th century, ushered The Entertainer headed a 1970s
ragtime revival, led by the pianist
in the sense of a more modern, and conductor Joshua Rifkin.
mechanized world.





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260 RAGTIME AND JAZZ INFLUENCES


rejection of a white European pianist and arranger Ferde Grofé.
tradition, was also seized on by The unmistakable opening clarinet
Igor Stravinsky, recently settled in glissando was also not Gershwin’s
France, in 1919, when he created own invention but rather that of
his dissonant Piano-Rag-Music, Whiteman’s clarinetist. Further
which pulls apart and rearranges You might lose your orchestrations by Grofé, in 1926 and
ragtime like a cubist painting. spontaneity and, instead 1942, were to fix Rhapsody in Blue
of composing first-rate firmly in the classical repertoire.
Jazz meets classical Gershwin, end up with Following the success of his
By the 1920s, ragtime had been second-rate Ravel. concerto, Gershwin traveled to
superseded in the United States by Maurice Ravel Paris to study composition. He
more improvisational and flexible to George Gershwin hoped to work with composers
styles of jazz, particularly in jazz such as Nadia Boulanger and
dance bands. One of the most Maurice Ravel, but all potential
popular bands was led by Paul tutors refused, concerned that such
Whiteman, who relied on carefully studies would endanger Gershwin’s
orchestrated arrangements, own style. Returning to New York,
using a large ensemble, rather he started on his most ambitious
than improvisation. He made down the offer, but Whiteman stage project, the opera Porgy and
continued attempts to introduce informed the press that he was Bess, which had its premiere on
the concertgoing public to the new writing the concerto anyway, and Broadway, in 1935. Styled as a “folk
jazz style, which he considered to so Gershwin’s hand was forced. opera,” it drew heavily on New York
be the first truly American music, Rhapsody in Blue premiered on jazz and African American folk
giving performances at New York’s February 12, 1924 and was instantly music such as spirituals and the
prestigious Aeolian Hall. It was acclaimed by both classical and blues in songs such as It Ain’t
for one of these events, titled “An jazz audiences, which included Necessarily So and Summertime.
Experiment in Modern Music,” that Sousa, now the elder statesman of The opera also incorporated many
Whiteman commissioned a young, ragtime, and the Russian composer classical techniques, such as
successful songwriter named Sergei Rachmaninoff. The piece leitmotifs (themes introduced to
George Gershwin to compose itself was only sketched out by the identify characters) and recitative
a piano concerto. When first inexperienced Gershwin, who left (speechlike song), and even
approached, Gershwin turned the orchestration to Whiteman’s elements of the polyrhythms and


African American genres that changed
the course of classical music















The cakewalk Ragtime Jazz
Enslaved plantation workers first danced the The music of African American composer Arising from the music of enslaved African
cakewalk, strutting in couples to syncopated Scott Joplin—such as the famous Maple Americans in the South, jazz was an
rhythms in parody of their white owners. Leaf Rag—and the marches of John Philip improvised form that drew on work songs,
The dance won European attention when Sousa brought the ragtime style out of a marches, and dance rhythms. It was
performed at the 1889 Paris Exposition. purely black idiom and into the mainstream. popularized in New Orleans in the 1890s. 





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MODERN 1900–1950 261





















George Gershwin

Born the second son of Jewish
immigrants in 1898, Brooklyn-
born Gershwin became
interested in music at the
age of 10. By the time he was
dissonance that Gershwin admired Insistence on a black cast for Porgy 15, he had a job as a “song
so much in the work of the Austrian and Bess—seen here on Broadway in plugger” in New York’s Tin
modernist composer Alban Berg. 1942—made Gershwin the subject of Pan Alley, playing the latest
criticism and prevented the opera from sheet music for prospective
A closer alliance being performed in opera houses. customers. He published his
In Europe, jazz continued to first song in 1916, but his big
influence classical composers, most This cross-fertilization between break came in 1920 when
Broadway star Al Jolson
particularly those who skirted the jazz and classical did not always performed the Gershwin song
middle-European cabaret scene. meet with approval. In 1957, the Swanee, after which he was
In Germany, the Austrian composer American composer Gunther invited to collaborate on a
Ernst Krenek’s 1927 opera Jonny Schuller, wary of unsatisfying number of Broadway musicals.
Plays, which tells the story of a jazz classical-jazz collaborations (such Following the success of
violinist, was an instant success, as Benny Goodman playing Mozart) Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin
with its then-subversive portrayal and unconvinced by the jazz he focused as much on classical
of jazz as a challenge to European found in composers such as Ravel traditions as jazz, with
tradition. Similarly, the German and Shostakovich, suggested a new compositions such as the
composer Kurt Weill used jazz genre—the “Third Stream.” This opera Porgy and Bess and the
elements in The Threepenny Opera— required performers to be proficient Piano Concerto in F running
produced in Berlin, in 1928—to in both classical and jazz so that alongside shows such as Girl
such effect that The Ballad of Mack composed and improvised music Crazy and Funny Face, which
the Knife became a jazz standard. could sit side by side. Schuller’s he wrote with his lyricist
brother Ira, and film scores,
In the 1930s and 1940s, the ideas influenced jazz musicians, including Shall We Dance. He
boundaries between jazz and such as John Lewis, Bill Russo, died in 1937 of a brain tumor.
classical works became more fluid. and Charles Mingus, who would
Jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman go on to lead the avant-garde “free
commissioned Contrasts, a piece jazz” style of the 1960s, while, in Other key works
for clarinet, violin, and piano, from the classical tradition, composers 1925 Piano Concerto in F
Bela Bartók in 1938, while Igor such as Hans Werner Henze, in 1927 Funny Face
Stravinsky’s 1945 Ebony Concerto Germany, and Krzysztof Penderecki, 1935 Porgy and Bess
was written for another jazz in Poland, took up the challenge, 1937 Shall We Dance
clarinetist, Woody Herman. including free jazz in their works. ■





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262


A MAD EXTRAVAGANZA


AT THE EDGE OF



THE ABYSS



LES BICHES (1924), FRANCIS POULENC








rancis Poulenc’s ballet Les sought to be of their time, drawing
IN CONTEXT Biches premiered with the inspiration from music halls,
F Ballets Russes in Monte fairgrounds, and American jazz.
FOCUS Carlo in 1924. Choreographed by Several went on to write for films.
French music after Bronislava Nijinska, it consisted Poulenc’s later work lacked this
Debussy
of eight dances for 16 female and playfulness. Following the success
BEFORE three male dancers. The title of Les Biches, he wrote the song
1888 Erik Satie composes was a play on the word biche, cycle Figure humaine. Composed
his Gymnopédies—three which means “doe” or “female during the Nazi occupation of
pieces for piano that feature deer,” but was also 1920s’ slang France, this set to music a defiant
dissonant harmonies and for “coquette.” The ballet has no ode to liberty and other poems by
repetitive simplicity. narrative: each dance uses simple the surrealist writer Paul Éluard. ■
melodies to evoke the spirited
1920 Darius Milhaud’s flirtations of youth with light and
surrealist ballet Le Boeuf sur whimsical musical language.
le toit (The Ox on the Roof)
premieres in Paris, inspired Les Six
by jazz and Brazilian tango. Simplicity and sharp humor were
qualities favored by Poulenc and
AFTER his fellow composers in the group
1932 Georges Auric composes dubbed Les Six—Georges Auric,
the score for Jean Cocteau’s Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger,
avant-garde film Le sang d’un Darius Milhaud, and Germaine
poète (The Blood of a Poet). Tailleferre. Influenced by the avant-
garde compositions of Erik Satie
1944 Trois petites liturgies and the art and writings of Jean
de la présence divine (“Three Cocteau, they disdained both the Alice Nikitina and Serge Lifar
small liturgies of the divine Wagnerian emotionalism of the practice for the Ballets Russes’ 1924
presence”) is composed by 19th century and the musical production of Les Biches. The pair also
danced together in Henri Sauguet’s
Olivier Messiaen during the impressionism of Debussy. They flirtatious La Chatte (“The Cat,” 1927).
Nazi occupation of France.
See also: The Nutcracker 190 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■
Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287







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MODERN 1900–1950 263


I COME WITH THE


YOUTHFUL SPIRIT OF



MY COUNTRY, WITH


YOUTHFUL MUSIC



ˇ
SINFONIETTA (1926), LEOŠ JANÁCEK



zech composer Leoš
IN CONTEXT Janá cˇ ek’s Sinfonietta has
C an unforgettable, rousing
FOCUS start, with more than two minutes
Czech nationalism
of brass fanfares. This then gives
BEFORE way to four further movements— My Military Sinfonietta
1879 Smetana’s cycle of each evoking parts of Janá cˇ ek’s with the fanfares will
symphonic poems, Má vlast native Brno—that culminate in be played at the Sokol rally.
(My Country), is an expression a final round of fanfares from Do you remember the
of musical nationalism, each the orchestra’s expanded brass Písek fanfares?
poem evoking a different section. Originally titled Military Leoš Janá cˇek
Czech place or legend. Sinfonietta, the piece captures
the brash sound and atmosphere
1886 Czech and Moravian of a military band, including a
folk music inspires Dvorˇák’s blazing trombone solo and bold
Slavonic Dances for piano duet, solo trumpets.
whose popularity helps to
launch his international career. Musical salute celebrated “the contemporary
A sinfonietta is an orchestral work, free man, his spiritual beauty
AFTER shorter and lighter in tone than a and joy, his strength, courage, and
1938 Janá cˇ ek’s pupil Pavel symphony. The 71-year-old Janá cˇ ek determination to fight for victory.”
Haas’s opera Šarlatán (The composed his for a gymnastics Another source of inspiration,
Charlatan) premieres in Brno, festival in Prague in the summer however, was Janá cˇ ek’s passionate
influenced by Moravian folk of 1926, two years before his death. friendship with a married woman
music and Gregorian chant. For the patriotic Janá cˇ ek, his work 37 years his junior, Kamila
saluted his nation’s rebirth as an Stösslová. The composer reportedly
1955 Bohuslav Martinu˚’s independent country following had the idea for the fanfares that
chamber cantata, The centuries of subjugation under the open and close the Sinfonietta after
Opening of the Wells, is the Habsburg Empire. Dedicated to the sitting with her in a park listening
first of a cycle of cantatas Czech armed forces, the Sinfonietta to a military band give a concert. ■
inspired by his native
Moravian highlands. See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■
Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 270–271 ■ Spartacus 309







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264


MUSICALLY, THERE IS


NOT A SINGLE CENTER OF

GRAVITY IN THIS PIECE


SYMPHONIE, OP. 21 (1927–1928),
ANTON VON WEBERN









ince Arnold Schoenberg can mean “note,” “tone,” or “sound.”
IN CONTEXT (1874–1951) developed his Serialism, on the other hand,
S method of composing works means “notes deployed in series.”
FOCUS “with 12 notes related only to each In that sense, argued Anton von
Serialism
other,” serial music has remained Webern, Schoenberg’s former pupil,
BEFORE contentious territory. Although the serialism was deeply rooted in the
1908 Arnold Schoenberg terms “serial” and “12-note” are musical tradition. The overlapping
enters new and modernist sometimes used interchangeably, repetitions of a “round” song like
harmonic territory in the last they emphasize subtle musical “Frère Jacques” or “London’s
two movements of his String differences. “Twelve-tone music” burning” are serial music—as are
Quartet No. 2. is a mistranslation of the word a choral motet by the Renaissance
Zwölftonmusik: in German, Ton master Palestrina, or a keyboard
1921–1923 In his Suite for fugue by Bach.
Piano, Op. 25, Schoenberg
evolves a complete musical Webern’s method
statement from a chosen Twelve-note music first developed
sequence of the 12 notes of from the “atonal” chromatic idiom
the Western chromatic scale. explored by Webern and his
contemporaries. Freedom from
AFTER traditional tonality had brought
1932 Schoenberg completes exciting new possibilities—and
the first two acts of the first- also the risk of musical anarchy,
ever fully 12-note opera, Moses with conventional melody or
und Aron. harmony now abandoned. Webern’s
instinct was to rationalize the
1955 Pierre Boulez’s Le situation. His 12-note method is
marteau sans maître (“The about creating a musical work out
hammer without a master”) of a “row” consisting of all 12 notes
is the first masterpiece of the
“post-serial” music championed
by the new, Webern-influenced Anton Webern (right) poses with
avant-garde generation. his fellow student in Vienna, Alban
Berg. Webern, Berg, and Schoenberg
were the principal composers of the
Second Viennese School.





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MODERN 1900–1950 265

See also: Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ The Art of Fugue 108–111 ■ Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Gruppen 306–307



of the Western chromatic scale, of the next so that four unbroken,
deployed in a chosen and fixed slowly intertwining musical chains
order, which can also be inverted, are formed. The second movement
or reversed, or both at once. This presents a fast-moving, tightly
material determines the music’s compressed sequence of variations
linear aspect, or melody, and the Greater coherence cannot on an initial idea, with each of
row’s component notes can also be achieved. … The entire these reversing from its midway
be superimposed to create chords, movement thus represents point in a mirror-image of itself.
or harmony. These notes can be in itself a double canon The 12-note row used by Webern
played for any length and in any with retrograde motion. here is itself symmetrical, creating
rhythm, as long as they are played George Benjamin a complex and self-referential work.
in the right order.
Clear yet complex
The short symphony Compared to the teeming
Schoenberg’s 12-note idiom often hyperactivity of Schoenberg’s
resembles a modernist take on style, the spare, delicate sonorities
the Classical musical language of of Webern’s symphony use a similar
Beethoven or Haydn. Schoenberg’s less than 10 minutes, in a marriage technical method to achieve a
other celebrated pupil, Alban Berg, of 12-note chromaticism and the different effect—the distilled
liked to deploy serialism as one “serial” spareness of Renaissance essence of musical sound itself.
element in an otherwise more freely pieces, such as Palestrina’s. It British composer George Benjamin
composed work, as in his nostalgic, covers just 16 pages of music. praised the symphony for its
Mahler-influenced Violin Concerto Beethoven’s First Symphony, by kaleidoscope-like intricacy: “Gone
(1935). Webern was a more austere contrast, is more than 60 pages long. is the mono-directional thrust of
composer, drawn to the spiritual Symphonie’s first movement Classical and Romantic music; in
purity of Renaissance choral consists of four simultaneous its place a world of rotations and
music. The two ultra-concentrated musical lines, deployed in widely reflections, opening myriad paths
movements of Webern’s Symphonie, spaced points of sound: each line for the listener to trace through
Op. 21, written for a small orchestra consists of a 12-note row whose last textures of luminous clarity yet
without double bass, together last two notes overlap with the first two beguiling ambiguity.” ■

Anton von Webern of structure: some of his musical
statements were only a few
Born in 1883, Webern was seconds long. He adopted the
raised in Klagenfurt, in the 12-tone method in 1924 and
southern Austrian region of used it until the end of his life. In
Carinthia. He studied at Vienna 1945, Webern moved to Mittersill,
University, graduating with Austria, for his family’s safety but
a doctoral thesis on the Dutch was accidentally and fatally shot
Renaissance composer Heinrich by a member of the occupying
Isaac. Webern studied American army.
composition under Schoenberg
from 1904–1908, becoming a Other key works
lifelong friend of the composer.
After 1908, Webern’s work 1908 Passacaglia for orchestra
began to combine extreme 1913 Five Orchestral Pieces
chromatic harmony with 1927 String Trio, Op. 20
unprecedented concentration 1938–1939 Cantata No. 1






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266


THE ONLY LOVE AFFAIR


I HAVE EVER HAD WAS



WITH MUSIC



PIANO CONCERTO FOR THE LEFT HAND (1929–1930),
MAURICE RAVEL






uring the 19th century, the traditionalism. Composers such
IN CONTEXT concerto grew in size and as Elgar, Richard Strauss, and
D scope in much the same Rachmaninoff continued to focus
FOCUS way as the symphony. In fact, on virtuosity in the solo part, which
Piano concertos for some examples, such as Ferruccio was balanced by a sumptuous
the left hand
Busoni’s Piano Concerto in C major, orchestration. In contrast, Modernist
BEFORE are essentially symphonies with composers such as Debussy,
1840 Charles-Valentin Alkan solo parts that enhance the Stravinsky, and Schoenberg took a
composes his Fantasie for the orchestral lines as much as they different approach. In some cases,
left hand, the first concert provide dramatic conflict. they took Classical and Baroque
piece for one hand. music as their models but used
New forms dissonant material to create
1878 Brahms publishes his With the rise of Modernism, the exciting neoclassical works.
Bach D minor chaconne for traditions of the concerto and the Prokofiev, Bartók, and Ravel
the left hand alone. form itself were challenged, leading continued to write concertos that
some composers to new avenues of resembled the Romantic form in
1902 Hungarian composer expression while others clung to terms of length, orchestration,
Géza Zichy, the world’s first and ethos, with soloists providing
professional one-handed dramatic conflict with the orchestra
pianist, writes the first piano in a structure that showed off their
concerto for the left hand. virtuosic abilities. However, in
these works, there is a far greater
AFTER
1931 Prokofiev completes his Great music must come focus on orchestral color and
nontraditional accompaniments.
piano concerto for the left hand. from the heart. Any music Wind and percussion instruments
1940 Benjamin Britten writes created by technique and often had equal roles to the strings,
Diversions for piano left hand brains alone is not worth the and a movement might even omit
and orchestra. paper it is written on. strings entirely, as in Bartok’s
Maurice Ravel Second Piano Concerto.
2012 Nicholas McCarthy is
the first one-handed pianist Restriction and freedom
to graduate from the Royal One composition that broke all
College of Music. conventions was Ravel’s Piano
Concerto for the Left Hand, a one-





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MODERN 1900–1950 267

See also: C.P.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in A major 120–121 ■ Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor 179 ■ Pictures at
an Exhibition 207 ■ Fauré’s Requiem 210–211


Louis Schwizgebel performs
Ravel’s Piano Concerto for Left Hand,
accompanied by the New York Youth
Symphony led by Joshua Gersen, in a
2013 performance in Carnegie Hall.


movement work with a slow-fast-
slow structure lasting less than 20
minutes—usually concertos were
structurally fast-slow-fast. The
piece was commissioned by the
Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein,
who was shot in the elbow and lost
his right arm during World War I.
Wittgenstein’s requirement of a solo
part for left hand alone was not as
restricting as it might seem. Ravel
realized that with the use of his
left-hand thumb for melodic
material (instead of the right-hand
fifth finger), it was possible to create of how to blend instruments in memory of the war, the reason
a fuller, more focused, and less different ranges and at different for the commission. Ravel’s
Romantic sound. With clever use of volumes. In this, Ravel was one concerto also includes rhythms
the pedal, the restrictions of using of the great masters. and harmonies influenced by jazz
only one hand were rarely apparent. and blues music. The piano part is
The art of conjuring musical Left-handed sounds rich, spanning the entire keyboard
character through orchestration The concerto features a large with athletic leaps, and so complex
required a thorough understanding orchestra that uses low pitches and that some pianists, such as Alfred
of each instrument’s qualities and darker sounds to give the work Cortot, angered Ravel by playing
playing techniques and knowledge an ominous quality—perhaps in with two hands. ■

Maurice Ravel Born to a Basque mother and a recognized as a great composer.
Swiss father in the Basque region During World War I, Ravel was
of France in 1875, Maurice Ravel an ambulance driver, which
entered the Paris Conservatoire limited his output. Following
at the age of 14 to study piano. a successful tour of North
He later focused on composition, America in 1928, Ravel received
studying with Gabriel Fauré and a blow to his head. He was
becoming acquainted with left unable to compose, and he
Claude Debussy. died of complications following
Gaining acclaim for early surgery in 1937.
works, such as the Pavane pour
une infante défunte (“Pavane for Other key works
a dead princess”), and Shéhérazade,
Ravel’s subsequent failure to win 1899 Pavane pour une
the coveted Prix de Rome in 1905 infante défunte
caused a national scandal. Despite 1912 Daphnis et Chloé
this, he was soon internationally 1928 Boléro







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268


SCIENCE ALONE CAN


INFUSE MUSIC WITH



YOUTHFUL VIGOR



IONISATION (1929–1931), EDGARD VARÈSE








he machine age of the Tides of Manaunaun included tone
IN CONTEXT early 20th century was an clusters to be played with the
T exciting time for avant- forearm, and he went one stage
FOCUS garde artists and thinkers. Their further in Aeolian Harp (1923),
The emancipation of noise
“Futurist” manifestos—most where the performer is required to
BEFORE famously, Italian painter and pluck and sweep the strings inside
1909 Marinetti publishes the composer Luigi Russolo’s Art of the piano rather than use the keys.
Futurist Manifesto, celebrating Noises (1913)—advocated making
a new era of speed, machinery, music out of noises that ranged City noise
and violence. from human shouts and screams Edgard Varèse was the first
to explosions and the sounds of composer to create a complete work
1923 Arthur Honegger’s machines in order to give music scored for a percussion ensemble,
Pacific 231 imitates the sounds a new dynamism. Although early in Ionisation (1931). He had studied
made by steam trains. Futurist events often ended up as at the Paris Conservatoire under
riots and there is little record of the the conservative Charles-Marie
1926 American composer music actually produced, their Widor, but after moving to New
George Antheil’s Ballet ideas influenced composers such York in 1915, he became fascinated
mécanique premieres in as Honegger, Prokofiev, and Antheil
Paris, containing airplane who variously composed music
propellors and a siren. depicting machine-made sounds.
1928 Léon Theremin patents
the first electronic musical The new piano
instrument, the Theremin. Although the 20th century was full Our musical alphabet must be
of experiments aiming to turn noise
AFTER into music, the most successful enriched. … Musicians should
1952 Étude, a work created early attempts came as composers take up this question in deep
from a single sound and its such as Prokofiev and Stravinsky earnest with the help of
manipulation on audio tape. started to treat the piano as a machinery specialists.
percussive instrument rather than Edgard Varèse
a melodic one. The American
composer Henry Cowell was
the first to understand the true
possibilities of unleashing the
“noise” of the piano. In 1917, his





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MODERN 1900–1950 269

See also: Ives’s Symphony No. 4 254–255 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ Symphonie pour
un homme seul 298–301 ■ 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ Six Pianos 320


by the sounds of urban landscapes. While the percussion layers create
Intrigued by the manifestos of the an industrial sound, Ionisation is
Futurists, but wishing to refine the not anarchic noise. The piece has a
cacophony they advocated, Varèse strong dramatic rhythm; in a letter
searched for ways in which he to composer Carlos Salzedo, Varèse
could suggest familiar industrial claimed to have written the piece
sounds within a tightly controlled for the flamenco dancer Vicente
compositional outlook. Escudero. Still, the piece was so
Ionisation requires 13 players difficult to play that percussionists
and more than 30 instruments, only of the New York Philharmonic,
three of which can play traditional engaged to record the piece for its Edgard Varèse
pitches. Varèse weaves together premiere at Carnegie Hall, New
their intricate textures to create a York, were dismissed, and Nicholas Born in France in 1883, Varèse
strange soundscape in which snare Slonimsky, who conducted the studied engineering at the
drums and claves coexist with a piece, brought in other performers insistence of his father before
güiro (a scraped gourd) and a cuíca, to play on the recording. eventually deciding to study
a Brazilian friction drum. The brash music in Paris. There, he was
sounds of the city are effectively The legacy of Varèse influenced by composers such
evoked through the use of a metal Ionisation may not be widely as Satie, Debussy, and Busoni.
anvil as well as the hand-cranked performed, but its influence on After being invalided out of
siren—an instrument used in many future music is undeniable. While the army in 1915, he emigrated
of Varèse’s works. John Cage denied being influenced to New York where he earned
by it, it is difficult to listen to his living as a conductor.
Cage’s First Construction (in Metal; It was in the 1920s that his
Dame Evelyn Glennie, the world’s 1939) without hearing parallels to music first started to attract
most celebrated percussionist, counts attention, but Varèse wrote
Ionisation alongside the works of John Varèse. The rock guitarist Frank sporadically—producing little
Cage and Steve Reich as the pinnacle Zappa also counted Varèse as one more than a dozen works
of the entire percussion repertoire. of his earliest influences. ■ as he searched for ways to
create truly electronic music.
Eventually, in the 1950s,
technology had evolved
sufficiently to allow him to
create Deserts for ensemble
and tape, and in 1958 his
Poème électronique, one of
the first works created by
manipulating magnetic tape,
was performed at the Brussels
Exhibition through 400
speakers in Le Corbusier’s
pavilion. Varèse died in 1965.

Other key works
1921 Amériques
1923 Octandre
1936 Density 21.5
1958 Poème électronique







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270


A NATION CREATES MUSIC.


THE COMPOSER ONLY

ARRANGES IT


STRING QUARTET NO. 5 (1934),
BÉLA VIKTOR JÁNOS BARTÓK









lthough heavily influenced and collecting thousands of Eastern
IN CONTEXT by German music, Béla European folk songs. In 1913, he
A Bartók’s individual voice also visited North Africa, again
FOCUS became increasingly evident after finding themes to incorporate in his
Reconciling folk music he began to collect music from his music. When his health rendered
and modernism
native Hungary in 1904. There is a him unfit for military service in
BEFORE clear evolution of style between the World War I, he again began to
1853 Liszt composes his Piano First Quartet (1909), which included compose. The success of his
Sonata in B minor, which had elements of folk music but was fairytale ballet The Wooden Prince
a profound influence on Bartók. influenced by Richard Strauss and (1917) led to renewed interest in his
Debussy, and his Fifth Quartet opera Bluebeard’s Castle (1911).
1895 Hungarian composer (1934), which premiered in 1935.
Ernö Dohnányi writes his
Piano Quintet, No. 1, Op. 1. Musical journey A Transylvanian village receives
Bartók (fourth from left) during one
In 1912, lack of interest in his works
1896 Richard Strauss writes from his publishers led Bartók to of his tours to record folk songs. His
Also sprach Zarathustra, a devote his time to studying folklore interest coincided with a growing
pride in traditional national culture.
work Bartók studied closely
after attending its Budapest
premiere in 1902.
AFTER
1953–1954 György Ligeti’s
String Quartet No. 1 is strongly
influenced by Bartók’s works.
1959 György Kurtág
completes his String Quartet,
Op. 1, effectively continuing
the Hungarian tradition of
string quartet writing.











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MODERN 1900–1950 271

See also: Also sprach Zarathustra 192–194 ■ The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Dvorˇák’s
Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Finlandia 220–221 ■ The Lark Ascending 252–253


From the 1920s, Bartók began to The time signatures of the highly
experiment with incorporating challenging central fast scherzo
percussive textures into his music, movement, marked Alla bulgarese,
vividly exemplified in the pizzicato features rhythms typical of
(plucked) fourth movement of his Bulgarian folk music, with nine
Fourth Quartet (1928). In the Fifth quavers in each bar, organized in
Quartet (1934), Bartók combined uneven groups of 4+2+3. A muted
this technical experimentation soft pattern of notes, performed
with the folk music that he had long faster than one can hear, introduces
been absorbing. The piece begins the Trio section—again reflecting a
in a simple 4/4 time signature but popular folk rhythm of 10 quavers Béla Viktor
soon includes intricate rhythmic per bar in groups of 3+2+2+3. János Bartók
mosaics and snatches of folk The fourth movement is a
melodies, accompanied by plucked variation of the second. Plucked Born in Nagyszentmiklos,
sounds and dissonant drones. At sounds replace the bowed strings Hungary, in 1881, by the age
the climax of the movement, a wild until an oscillating drone appears of 11 Bartók had made public
Hungarian dance is conjured out of in the viola, accompanying an appearances as a pianist and
a melody first heard near the start. ornate version of the theme. After composer. He later studied
The Fifth Quartet’s skeletal the restrained climax, Bartok adds at the Budapest Academy
second movement, like its fourth a stormy passage with tremolos of Music. Despite the strong
movement, includes “night music,” and loud unison outbursts. Some German cultural influence of
comprising eerie dissonances and spectacularly fast and furious his time, Bartók embraced the
imitated natural sounds; this style, music follows, and then the notes new Hungarian nationalism
created by Bartók, is often used in of the two violins ascend with and took to wearing national
his slow passages. Hushed chords tranquil phrases from the viola and dress. From 1905, he began a
accompany a desperately sad, cello, creating a heavenly chorale. long collaboration with fellow
Hungarian Zoltán Kodály to
almost breathlessly stuttering Soft, guitarlike slides in the cello popularize folk songs and
comment from the first violin. bring the movement to an end. gained a practical knowledge
After a restrained climax, the of string writing from both folk
music dies out with trills and Drama to the last and classical musicians.
a slide to silence in the cello. Although the finale recalls the first Bartók had a successful
movement, it is well disguised. career as a pianist, performing
Frenzied activity in all instruments, throughout Europe and in the
lightning handovers, and strong United States with musicians
dissonances are followed by soft such as the jazz clarinetist
scurrying music that becomes Benny Goodman. With the rise
louder and more insistent. The of fascism, he refused to play
With maturity comes the culmination is a massively loud, in Germany after 1933. In 1940,
wish to economize—to be harmonized melody with a he left Budapest for the United
more simple. Maturity is the resounding ending. The second States and died there in 1945.
period when one finds violin briefly plays the most simple
the just measure. and slow version of the tune with Other key works
Béla Bartók a rolling accompaniment. The
first violin then joins in, but in a 1911 Bluebeard’s Castle
1931 44 Duos for Two Violins
clashing key. However, this relaxed 1936 Music for Strings,
dissonance is not a conclusion; a Percussion, and Celesta
crashing interruption brings the 1939 Divertimento
work to a chaotic end. ■





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272


I DETEST IMITATION.


I DETEST HACKNEYED



DEVICES



ROMEO AND JULIET (1936), SERGEI PROKOFIEV








ollowing Russia’s October opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)
IN CONTEXT Revolution of 1917, when the Prokofiev turned his ballet into
F cold reality of Bolshevik rule orchestral suites.
FOCUS replaced the euphoria at the end of Despite the Stalinist purges,
Russian emigrés
tsarism, Russian composers faced Prokofiev returned to the Soviet
BEFORE a choice: whether or not to stay in Union in 1936, probably believing
1920 Stravinsky’s Symphonies their homeland. Much depended on that his fame would protect him.
of Wind Instruments, based on social status. Sergei Rachmaninov The same year, he wrote his most
Russian folk music, signals the chose exile, as did the privileged popular work, Peter and the Wolf. In
end of his “Russian phase.” Stravinsky, who was already living 1940, the first full-scale production
in Switzerland. The more lowly born of the ballet Romeo and Juliet took
1926 Living in New York, Prokofiev, who was sympathetic to place in Leningrad, but only after
Rachmaninoff writes Three Bolshevism, stayed, but in 1918, Prokofiev was forced to change the
Russian Songs, a rare tribute frustrated by the post-revolutionary orchestration, remove parts, and
to the music of his homeland. turmoil, Prokofiev accepted an offer reinstate the story’s sad ending. ■
to conduct in the United States and
AFTER remained there for the next 18 years.
1948 The Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Reluctant exile
the Soviet Union passes a Prokofiev kept ties with the Soviet
resolution accusing Prokofiev, Union and, in 1934, wrote Romeo
Shostakovich, Aram and Juliet. The music follows the The time is past when
Khachaturian, and other drama of the story—soft, humorous, music was written for
composers of “anti-democratic and intense in turn—but Prokofiev’s a handful of aesthetes.
tendencies,” and rejecting “the ballet was notable in that he gave Prokofiev
principles of classical music.” Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers a
happy ending. After two companies
1959 In Moscow, the full pulled out of staging the production
version of Prokofiev’s epic (amid concern over the authorities’
opera War and Peace is staged denunciation of Shostakovich’s
for the first time, six years after
the composer’s death. See also: Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Spartacus 309









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MODERN 1900–1950 273


BALINESE MUSIC RETAINED


A RHYTHMIC VITALITY BOTH

PRIMITIVE AND JOYOUS


TABUH-TABUHAN (1936), COLIN MCPHEE











amelan is an orchestra
IN CONTEXT that plays the traditional
G music of the Indonesian
FOCUS islands of Java and Bali. It is noted
Gamelan influences
for its wide use of percussion, such
BEFORE as drums, gongs, and chimes. The
1882 French composer music was first exposed to a wide
Louis-Albert Bourgault- Western audience at the 1889 Paris
Ducoudray writes Rapsodie Exposition, where a gamelan from
cambodgienne, which includes Java inspired composers such as
gamelan instruments. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Gamelan musicians perform in Bali.
1890 Erik Satie’s piano pieces Elusive sounds The pitch of gamelan music varies
Trois Gnossiennes echo the The freedom and constant variation between instruments, with most
Javanese gamelan music he of gamelan music made it difficult orchestras using a five-tone scale rather
than the seven tones of Western music.
heard at the Paris Exposition to capture. Therefore, in 1928, the
the previous year. German Odeon and Beka record
companies sent agents to Bali to Balinese, tabu-tabuhan refers to
AFTER make gamelan recordings. A year the rhythms and sounds of the
1945 John Cage’s Daughters later, Colin McPhee, a Canadian- percussive gamelan instruments,
of the Lonesome Isle is one of born composer and follower of which McPhee sought to recreate
many gamelan-inspired pieces “absolute music” (music that exists using a Western orchestra. In 1941,
written for “prepared piano”— for its own sake), heard one of the McPhee and the young Benjamin
a piano in which the sound is recordings. He was so mesmerized, Britten made a recording of some
modified by placing objects he set off for Bali and spent much gamelan transcriptions for two
on or between the strings. of the 1930s there studying the pianos. Britten would continue to
island’s music. draw inspiration from Balinese
1951 American composer McPhee’s three-movement music, along with other composers,
Lou Harrison writes Suite symphonic work Tabu-Tabuhan including Olivier Messiaen, John
for Violin, Piano, and Small was first performed in 1936. In Cage, and Philip Glass. ■
Orchestra, which includes
movements that reproduce See also: Parade 256–257 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■
the sounds of a gamelan. 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ November Steps 314–315







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REAL MUSIC



IS ALWAYS













REVOLUTIONARY









SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN D MINOR, OP. 47


(1937), DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH


































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276 MUSIC IN THE SOVIET ERA



IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Music in the Soviet era
BEFORE
1923 The Russian Association
of Proletarian Musicians
(RAPM) is founded, decrying
modernism in music and
claiming that all music should
be understood by workers.
1929 A concert performance of
Shostakovich’s opera The Nose
is attacked by the RAPM.

1935 Ivan Dzerzhinsky writes
the opera Tikhly Don (Quiet
Flows the Don), which, with its
patriotic theme and simple
melodies, becomes the model
of socialist-realist music.
omposers in the Soviet A poster dated 1920 urges workers
AFTER Union worked under severe to “Join the Communist Party!” and
1937 Sergei Prokofiev C restrictions during the reject the aristocracy, bourgeoisie, and
withdraws his Cantata for 1930s. They, like all artists, were Orthodox Church. Russian composers
the 20th Anniversary of the expected to serve the people, in had little choice but to do the same.
October Revolution after terms defined by the communist
criticism from the authorities. state, or face punishment. The anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s
1939 Prokofiev composes country’s leader, Joseph Stalin, death. But Shostakovich’s situation
Zdravitsa (“Hail to Stalin”) as liked patriotic songs and pieces changed on January 26, 1936,
part of the celebrations of with simple, appealing tunes and when Stalin went to see his opera
Stalin’s 60th birthday. conventional harmonies. Music that Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the
did not fit this pattern, especially Bolshoi Theatre. The work had
1948 Soviet Central music that was introspective, premiered two years earlier and
Committee secretary Andrei complex, or difficult to grasp at first been an immense success at home
Zhdanov begins a campaign hearing, was dubbed “formalist,” and abroad. Stalin, though, took
against “formalist” music in and its composers were forced into exception to it and left before the
which the form of the work is menial jobs, imprisoned, or worse. final scene. Two days later, an
more important than anything article in the state newspaper
it has to say. Walking a tightrope Pravda, headed “Muddle instead of
Dmitri Shostakovich survived these music,” denounced the opera. The
1974 Alfred Schnittke’s strictures until the mid-1930s. The anonymous article condemned the
Symphony No. 1, embodying authorities were pleased by works musical style of the piece, in which,
his “polystylism” form of such as his Symphony No. 2, it alleged, “singing is replaced by
composition, is premiered in written to commemorate the tenth shrieking,” and objected especially
Gorky after being turned away anniversary of the October 1917 to the lewd “quacks” and “hoots”
from Moscow. revolution, and Symphony No. 3, from the brass during the opera’s
subtitled “First of May” and sex scene. The work was taken off
premiered in 1930 on the sixth stage immediately.





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MODERN 1900–1950 277

See also: Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■ Romeo and Juliet 272 ■
Spartacus 309 ■ Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311


A campaign began against artists movement alone, there are loud
and writers who were not following onslaughts of brass, a toccata for
the party line. Over the next few woodwinds, and a fast virtuoso
years, this would result in the fugue on the strings. Frightened
deaths of prominent figures, such that this challenging mix might
as the poet Osip Mandelstam and offend the authorities, the composer
the writer Isaac Babel, both critical withdrew the work, which was not
of Stalin. Shostakovich himself was heard in public until 1961.
labeled an “enemy of the people,”
and some of his works, including A conflicted symphony
the opera The Nose (1928) and the Shostakovich then started from Dmitri Shostakovich
ballet The Limpid Stream (1935), scratch on what became his
were banned. Fearing punishment, Symphony No. 5. The work, like For the precociously talented
he packed a bag and waited for the its predecessor, features strong Shostakovich, born in
secret police to knock on his door. contrasts, but it also contains St. Petersburg in 1906, piano
In the end, Shostakovich was engaging melodies. The first main lessons began at the age of
spared a visit from the police and theme of the opening movement is three, and attendance at the
went on to complete his next major a lyrical, sad tune, initially played Petrograd Conservatory came
work, Symphony No. 4, in May softly on the violins. In the middle a decade later. His three early
1936. This is a far cry from his of the movement, this gives way to symphonies, written before he
previous two “revolutionary” a grotesque march, which gathers was 33, were well received,
symphonies—a more abstract in pace and volume, sweeping and he returned to the form
work, deeply influenced by Gustav up the whole orchestra, with loud after his first two operas were
Mahler, it is over an hour long and contributions from the brass and denounced by the authorities
in the 1930s. He also produced
requires a huge orchestra. Like a driving beat from the percussion. a series of emotionally intense
Mahler’s symphonies, it is a work of The initial, gentle theme returns string quartets, concertos, and
contrasts, setting tradition, in the and the movement ends quietly much theatre and film music.
form of almost banal dance themes with a violin solo overlaid with In 1960, Shostakovich joined
(including a Viennese waltz and an ringing chromatic scales from the the Communist Party (under
Austrian Ländler—a kind of slow celesta (a keyboard instrument that extreme pressure), and around
waltz), against more strident, sounds like a glockenspiel, used the same time he contracted
dissonant music. In the first by Mahler in two symphonies). polio and had several heart
The gentle ending of the first attacks. This did not stop him
movement contrasts strongly with composing demanding work,
the second movement, a scherzo such as Symphony No. 14
in the form of a waltz. The third (1969). When he died in 1975
movement, marked largo, sees a Shostakovich was widely
return to lyrical writing, with long regarded as Russia’s greatest
If they cut off both hands, melodies on the strings creating contemporary composer.
I will compose music a melancholy mood, punctuated
anyway holding the pen with woodwind solos. The final Other key works
in my teeth. movement, on the other hand,
Dmitri Shostakovich contains a brass-led return to 1933 Concerto in C minor for
loud, often aggressive, marchlike piano, trumpet, and strings
1943 Symphony No. 8
music. The piece rises in volume 1953 Symphony No. 10
to fortissimo (very loud) before it 1960 String Quartet No. 8 (“To
ends resolutely in the triumphant the victims of fascism and war”)
major chord of D. ❯❯





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278 MUSIC IN THE SOVIET ERA

Alfred Schnittke
and polystylism

In the 1960s, the Russian
composer Alfred Schnittke
(1934–1998) developed a new
way of writing music. He
mixed various musical styles
in the same piece, such as his
Violin Sonata No. 2 (1968) and
Symphony No. 1 (1969–1972),
and called it “polystylism.”
Shostakovich had achieved
something similar, but in
the works of Schnittke the
contrasts between musical
styles are often more violent
and surprising. His Concerto
Grosso No. 1 (1977), for
example, combines baroque
form, an atonal lament,
a tango, and pieces of the
composer’s own film scores,
to dramatic and even shocking The new work was a resounding When Germany laid siege to
Leningrad in 1941, Shostakovich
effect. Schnittke continued to success, its triumph at the premiere decided to stay, working as a fireman
compose polystylistic music on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad and finishing his Symphony No. 7,
into the 1980s, including the confirmed by a 40-minute ovation, which he dedicated to the city.
String Quartet No. 3 (1983). with many in the audience moved
He also wrote pieces that are to tears. Through the symphony’s
less obviously polystylistic, series of stark contrasts between In the piece, the symphony is
such as Symphony No. 8 gentle, melancholic music and described as “a Soviet artist’s
(1994), though even this work louder, faster passages, often in creative response to justified
contains elements taken from march-time, Shostakovich had also criticism”. By putting his name
Liszt, Wagner, and Russian managed the delicate balancing act to these words, the composer was
Orthodox chant. of preserving his own lyrical voice saying that he had bowed to the
while toeing the party line. will of the party. For men like
The communist authorities, Stalin, whose rule depended on
although at first suspicious of the submission and fear, the fact
work’s rapturous reception, took the that Shostakovich had accepted
brash, closing movement at face criticism in this way was a victory.
value, as an optimistic conclusion
using the direct musical language Hidden clues
of which they approved. One Soviet Although Shostakovich seemed
reviewer described the symphony’s to have caved in to the authorities,
ending as creating “an enormous for some listeners the symphony
optimistic lift.” Party members had carried hints of a more subversive
been encouraged to react in this message. It was as though the
way by an article that appeared in lyrical music represented freedom
Schnittke’s music was treated a Moscow newspaper a few days and self-expression, while the
with suspicion in the Soviet Union, before the concert. The article was aggressive outbursts and awkward
which he left in 1990 to settle in signed by Shostakovich, but it was dances parodied their ruthless
the German city of Hamburg.
probably written by a journalist obliteration by the triumphant
working for the Communist Party. communist state.





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MODERN 1900–1950 279



Ambiguous meanings in Symphony No. 5


Movement Overt meaning Possible meaning
First Use of minor tonality Not since the time
undermines the glorification. of Berlioz has a symphonic
A folk tune setting, Jaunty rhythms in the first composer created
glorifying the Slavic theme give way to less
people and their struggle assertive rhythms in the such a stir.
against oppression. second theme, creating an Nicolas Slonimsky
overall sense of ambiguity.
The Musical Quarterly (1942)



Second
An ironic spoof on the
A waltz, suggesting a traditional form, wittily
pleasant and romantic presenting the waltz as trite,
time for relaxation hackneyed, and sometimes
and enjoyment. brash. It is a satire that creates meaning would become clear, and
an unsettling atmosphere. audiences would see the work’s
martial references and triumphal
conclusion as ironic gestures.
Third Not so much a lament as a
A lament, reflecting on piece of nostalgia. References Hidden clues
those who suffered and to the Russian Orthodox Shostakovich’s acceptance by the
lost their lives in the Requiem hint at a yearning
battle for liberation from for religion rather than Soviet authorities lasted only a while. Any
tsarist rule. communism. lapses into music that seemed to
be discordant or introspective were
leapt on by Communist Party
Fourth A bombastic caricature of critics. The composer’s Symphony
A celebratory march, the military march. A more No. 8, written in 1943, was attacked
with a pensive and reflective section underlines by Soviet officials as “not a musical
peaceful middle the minor tonality of the home work at all, repulsive and ultra-
section, leading to a key but returns to a militaristic,
triumphant ending. triumphalist finale aggressively individualist,” and Shostakovich,
asserting the key of D major. denounced again, was forced to
resign from the Soviet Composers’
Union, although he continued to
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, on the face of it, is a write symphonies.
positive endorsement of the Soviet regime, but subtleties After Stalin’s death in 1953, the
in the music suggest a very different interpretation.
party line softened, but restrictions
on artistic creativity continued
It is likely that Shostakovich also passes, the vandal’s paint flakes until the fall of communism in the
left a particular clue to the deeper away, and the original image is 1980s. Until then, Soviet composers
meaning of the work hidden in the revealed again as a masterpiece. were unable to express themselves
score. The quiet passage in the The symphony’s original with complete freedom, especially
final movement of the symphony audience had no way of knowing in high-profile works, such as operas
contains a musical quotation from a of the presence of this quotation, and symphonies. As a result, many
song the composer wrote to words because at the time of the premiere produced ambiguous works or
by the Russian poet Alexander the song had not been performed. poured their most personal music
Pushkin. The song, called “Rebirth,” But many believe that Shostakovich into private forms, such as string
describes someone who overpaints meant to send a message to the quartets, which were less likely to
a picture by a great artist; as time future, when the symphony’s real attract the authorities’ attention. ■





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280


MY MUSIC IS


NATURAL, LIKE



A WATERFALL



BACHIANAS BRASILEIRAS (1930–1945),
HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS






razilian classical composer traditions of Brazil with elements
IN CONTEXT Heitor Villa-Lobos had two of Western classical music. In the
B lifelong influences. As a late 19th century, Latin American
FOCUS child, he became fascinated by the composers had begun to explore
Classical music in Central work of J.S. Bach after his aunt similar ideas. Composers such
and South America
gave him Bach’s collection of 48 as Alberto Nepomuceno used
BEFORE preludes and fugues, The Well- Brazilian folk melodies in works
1869 Brasílio Itiberê composes Tempered Clavier. He was also with conventional classical forms.
A Sertaneja, a rhapsody for captivated by the traditional music
piano, and one of the first of his own country and traveled Integrated styles
Brazilian classical works. widely, collecting folk music in With Bachianas brasileiras, a
northern and northeastern Brazil collection of nine suites of varying
1890 Alberto Nepomuceno and playing alongside musicians lengths written for different
writes his String Quartet No. 3 in his native Rio de Janeiro. combinations of musicians, Villa-
“Brasileiro,” which includes Increasingly, Villa-Lobos sought Lobos took this idea much further,
Brazilian folk melodies. ways of combining the rich musical integrating folk and classical
elements very closely. He did
AFTER this by applying the contrapuntal
1932–1933 Argentinian techniques of J.S. Bach to
composer Astor Piazzolla Brazilian musical forms, in a bold
writes his first tango. combination of apparently alien
traditions that fit together perfectly.
1939 Silvestre Revueltas A truly creative musician
Like Bach’s suites, each of the
composes orchestral music is capable of producing, nine pieces that form Bachianas
with Mexican rhythms for the from his own imagination, brasileiras has several dance
film La Noche de los Mayas. melodies that are movements. Villa-Lobos gave most

1946 Suite de danzas criollas, more authentic than of the movements two titles, one
Op. 15 by Argentinian folklore itself. drawn from Baroque music (such
composer Alberto Ginastera Heitor Villa-Lobos as Toccata or Fugue) and one a
uses folk melodies in a series corresponding Brazilian name
of dances for piano. (such as Desafio or Conversa).
In addition to drawing on popular
Brazilian forms like the Modinha,
a type of sentimental love song, the





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MODERN 1900–1950 281

See also: St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ The Art of Fugue 108–111 ■ Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 270–271



American soprano Lucy Shelton
performs Bachianas brasileiras No. 5,
which is scored for soprano and cellos,
at the Symphony Space in New York
City, in 2010.


composer also introduces elements
of program music, using the
instruments of the orchestra to
portray scenes such as a small
steam train traveling through the
Brazilian landscape in Bachianas
brasileiras No. 2.

Structure and influences
The suites of Bachianas brasileiras
are very varied in instrumentation. on the cello and soulful solos for America. This movement spawned
Some are for full orchestra, No. 1 is the saxophone and trombone. The a range of approaches, from the
for an orchestra of cellos, and No. 6 influence of Bach spans not only music of composers such as
is for just two instruments, flute his suites but also his Musical the Mexican Silvestre Revueltas,
and bassoon. The most famous of Offering, a collection of canons with its rhythmic drive and vivid
the suites is No. 5, for eight cellos and fugues, and the Two-part orchestration, to the works of
and a soprano soloist whose part Inventions, short keyboard pieces. Argentinian composer Astor
combines wordless vocalization Bachianas brasileiras was part Piazzolla, where classical elements
with lines from Brazilian poetry. of a wider movement among Latin are applied and adapted to the
Further Brazilian elements in American composers, combining tango. Villa-Lobos led the way
Bachianas brasileiras include music classical orchestration and forms in showing how a blend of South
heard by Villa-Lobos on his travels with certain elements, rhythms, American and classical elements
and a street urchin’s song from Rio, and themes drawn from the old could work and popularized
together with guitarlike pizzicatos native music of Central and South its results all over the world. ■

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in for use in music education, as
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1887. well as the Bachianas brasileiras.
Resisting family pressure to After 1945, he traveled widely
become a doctor and preferring again, building a vast body of
the company of musicians, he work—more than 1,500 pieces,
left home to travel through Brazil, including 12 symphonies and
supporting himself by playing 17 string quartets. Long after
the cello and guitar. his death in 1959, at the age
Between 1923 and 1930, he of 72, he has remained Brazil’s
spent most of his time in Paris, best-known composer.
where he absorbed European
music and composed prolifically, Other key works
completing his series Chôros,
a collection of instrumental 1919–1920 Carnaval das crianças
and choral pieces in 1929. After 1920–1929 Chôros
returning to Brazil the following 1953 Harp Concerto in A minor
year, he produced patriotic pieces 1959 Yerma







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282


NEVER WAS I LISTENED


TO WITH SUCH RAPT

ATTENTION AND


COMPREHENSION

QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME (1940),

OLIVIER MESSIAEN





arly in his career, Olivier “modes of limited transposition,”
IN CONTEXT Messiaen espoused a such as the whole-tone scale, which
E musical style that embraced can only be transposed up a tone
FOCUS sensuality in music, forming a before the same sequence of notes
Spiritual music in the group called La Jeune France recurs. Messiaen had studied at the
20th century
(Young France) with several other Paris Conservatoire with a series of
BEFORE young composers, in opposition to brilliant teachers who inspired him
1938 Devout Catholic Francis the neoclassicism of Stravinsky to explore Greek and Hindu modes,
Poulenc’s Four Penitential and others who looked back to while also instilling in him sound
Motets marks the composer’s 18th-century works for inspiration. principles of harmony, counterpoint,
return to sacred music. While Messiaen’s music was and composition, and encouraging
imbued with references to his his gift for improvisation.
AFTER Roman Catholic faith, his style was
1962 Benjamin Britten’s avant-garde. He experimented both Apocalyptic inspiration
War Requiem combines the with rhythm and what he termed Within a year of the outbreak of
antiwar poems of Wilfred World War II, Messiaen was taken
Owen with the traditional as a prisoner of war and held at a
form of the Requiem Mass. camp in Silesia (now in Poland).
Among his fellow inmates, he found
1971 British composer Sir three professional musicians, a
John Tavener writes Celtic clarinetist, violinist, and cellist,
Requiem, an early example My faith is the grand drama whose talents he could combine
of his many religious works of my life. I’m a believer, so I with his own piano keyboard skills.
embodying a sense of sing words of God … I give Embracing this rare instrumental
timelessness. bird songs to those who combination, Messiaen wrote his
dwell in cities … and Quartet for the End of Time, which
1981 Polish composer Henryk paint colors for those premiered in the camp itself.
Górecki writes Totus Tuus to who see none. The composer’s deep Christian
celebrate Pope John Paul II’s Olivier Messiaen beliefs are clearly indicated in his
third official visit to his extensive Preface to the score,
native Poland. which includes quotations from
the Book of Revelation. Its title
was a homage to the Angel of
the Apocalypse, who raises his





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MODERN 1900–1950 283

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ A Child of Our
Time 284–285 ■ Gruppen 306–307 ■ Apocalypse 322 ■ In Seven Days 328


hand toward Heaven saying, “There slow and expressive cello melody,
shall be no more time,” in reference accompanied by throbbing
to the suffering of the period in harmonies on the piano. In the
which Messiaen was writing. sixth movement, the quartet play
in unison to emulate the “seven
Reflective and evocative trumpets” of the Apocalypse,
In the first movement of the piece, negotiating complex dance
two birds, accompanied by a rhythms, dynamic contrasts, and
plaintive piano and whistling fluctuating tempos. A quiet melody
cello, set the bucolic scene. A loud follows and others interrupt until a
interruption heralds the second loud unison, accompanied by Olivier Messiaen
movement with a fast and frenzied cascades of piano notes, leads to a
unison in the strings, while a brutal, triumphant conclusion. The Born in Avignon, France, in
distant, slow melody, suspended violinist plays the last notes that 1908, Messiaen was a highly
by soft raindrops in the piano, slowly rise to a hushed, lonely end. musical child and studied
establishes the pattern of the Within its eight movements, at the Paris Conservatoire
reflective and unhurried mood that the Quartet contains most of the from the age of 11, publishing
characterizes the work. Cascades elements that characterize his eight Préludes while still
of notes end the movement. Messiaen’s distinctive style and a student. He was also a
In the third movement, the would later influence his pupils, deeply committed Roman
clarinettist plays a sad pastorale, including Pierre Boulez and Catholic from childhood
juxtaposed with very long notes Karlheinz Stockhausen. ■ onward and combined his
moving from silence to ear-piercing two passions as organist of
volume. Birdsong—something that La Trinité in Paris from 1931.
At this time, the composer
fascinated Messiaen and absorbed Guards patrol a German POW camp wrote a number of religious
his later years—reappears, adding in World War II. Messiaen composed organ pieces and also works
Quartet for the End of Time while
a surreal note. After a short trio a prisoner at Camp Stalag VIII-A, for his wife, the violinist and
interlude comes the spiritual center premiering the work to 5,000 fellow composer Claire Delbos, whom
of the piece—the fifth movement’s prisoners outside in freezing weather. he married in 1932.
In 1941, following his World
War II imprisonment in Silesia,
Messiaen was appointed
professor of harmony at the
Paris Conservatoire. During
the 1950s and 1960s, he
pursued his interest in
birdsong with a number of
works imitating their sounds.
Internationally acclaimed, he
died in Paris in 1992.

Other key works

1932 Thème et variations
1946–1948 Turangalîla-
symphonie
1951 Livre d’orgue
1959 Catalogue d’oiseaux







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284


I MUST CREATE


ORDER OUT OF CHAOS




A CHILD OF OUR TIME (1939–1941),
MICHAEL TIPPETT











IN CONTEXT

FOCUS
English choral tradition
in the late 20th century
BEFORE
1928 Constant Lambert’s The
Rio Grande premieres in a BBC
radio broadcast.

1931 William Walton’s cantata
Belshazzar’s Feast launches at
Leeds Festival.
1950 Herbert Howell’s
Hymnus Paradisi is sung at
Gloucester Cathedral as part of
the UK’s Three Choirs Festival.
AFTER
1962 The premiere of Britten’s
War Requiem marks the
consecration of Coventry n the 18th century, frequent A Child of Our Time is performed by
the English National Opera in January
performances of Handel’s
Cathedral, in the UK. 2005. Timothy Robinson, seated, sings
I oratorios in Britain established
1984 Tippett’s oratorio The a nationwide tradition of amateur the tenor solo from the second part:
“My dreams are all shattered.”
Mask of Time premieres in choirs and choral societies. These
Boston, Massachusetts. fueled the production of choral
works by British and foreign had continued to be a central
2008 James MacMillan’s composers, who often premiered activity. During the 20th century,
St. John Passion receives its their works at choral festivals. composers began to use the choral
first performance at London’s For many British composers, tradition to write oratorios or
Barbican Center. the production of choral music— cantatas for soloists, choir, and
for the church or the concert hall— large orchestra to comment on





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MODERN 1900–1950 285

See also: St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ The Dream of Gerontius 218–219 ■
Peter Grimes 288–293 ■ Einstein on the Beach 321


social and political events. Michael and oppression could drive a
Tippett’s secular oratorio, A Child marginalized person to commit
of Our Time, was inspired by the an unthinkable act.
three-part format of Handel’s
Messiah, as well as the structure Protesting inhumanity
of J.S. Bach’s Passions. However, Men were ashamed Tippett began composing A Child
instead of using chorales, as Bach of what was done. of Our Time in 1939, in the days
had, Tippett’s work contains There was bitterness after Britain declared war on
American spiritual songs, which and horror. Germany. He intended his work to
Tippett decided to include after A Child of Our Time be a protest against the disunity in
hearing the style in a radio Narrator, bass solo Europe and the fascist atrocities of
broadcast. He believed that these the Nazi regime. Tippett wrote
spirituals, with their origins as both the music and libretto. The
slave songs, had a universal work uses choral techniques, such
appeal that traditional hymns as counterpoint, arias, and triadic
did not. For example, 19th-century harmonies, and utilizes a bass
songs such as “Go Down, Moses” singer as the narrator vocalizing
were appropriated for the oppressed killing of a German diplomat by recitatives. While the oratorio has
Jews of the early 20th century. Herschel Grynszpan—a teenage two major moods, anger and grief,
Polish Jew—in November 1938. it ends on a note of hope, with the
Wartime context The act triggered Kristallnacht spiritual “Deep River”: “O don’t
Tippett was heavily influenced by (the “Night of Broken Glass”), an you want to go to that gospel feast.
his left-wing, pacifist beliefs. He officially sanctioned Nazi pogrom That promised land, that land
was sentenced to three months in against German Jews in which where all is peace.”
prison in 1943 for non-compliance Jewish property was destroyed and Concern with contemporary
with rules for conscientious some 200 Jews died. Tippett saw events is also shown by Benjamin
objectors. Tippett’s feelings about Grynszpan, who had acted in Britten’s War Requiem, which
World War II and its causes were response to the deportation of his added antiwar poems by Wilfred
expressed through A Child of Our parents by Nazi authorities, as a Owen to the standard text of the
Time, which tells the story of the perfect example of how tyranny Requiem Mass. ■

Michael Tippett Michael Tippett was born in went on to produce a sequence
London in 1905. He studied at of operas, beginning with The
the Royal College of Music from Midsummer Marriage (1955). In
1923 until 1928 and subsequently 1966, he received a knighthood.
took lessons from the counterpoint In Tippett’s later years, his
expert R.O. Morris. He then reputation grew internationally,
worked as a schoolteacher, first leading to US premieres for
making his mark as a composer The Mask of Time (Boston, 1984)
with his Concerto for Double and New Year (Houston, 1989).
String Orchestra (1939); he Tippett died in London in 1998,
followed this with the oratorio after suffering a stroke.
A Child of Our Time, which
premiered in 1944. Other key works
Perceived as an individual
voice in English music, concerned 1955 The Midsummer Marriage
with a variety of social, political, 1970 The Knot Garden
and philosophical issues, Tippett 1991–1992 The Rose Lake







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286


THE MUSIC IS SO KNIT …


THAT IT TAKES YOU

IN VERY STRONG HANDS

AND LEADS YOU INTO


ITS OWN WORLD


APPALACHIAN SPRING (1944), AARON COPLAND




n August 1944, the dancer and 90 minutes long and scored for only
IN CONTEXT choreographer Martha Graham 10 to 12 instruments, but Copland
I first heard the music that used 13. Graham had also chosen
FOCUS Aaron Copland had created for her the title Appalachian Spring, which
Contemporary American ballet Appalachian Spring, about a came from a verse of “The Dance”
nationalism
young couple ready to embark on by the American poet Hart Crane.
BEFORE married life in a Pennsylvanian
1911–1915 Inspired by local farmhouse in the early 1800s. She Clarity and simplicity
transcendentalism, Ives was pleased with what she heard Copland’s music had been heavily
composes his Concord Sonata. and praised its power to lead the influenced by his time as a student
listener into a singular world. in France in the early 1920s, when
1928 Virgil Thomson’s Four Graham commissioned the work he had been surrounded by people
Saints in Three Acts celebrates determined that it would be “a who represented all that was new
American diversity. legend of American living” and in the arts. In Paris, several young
“the inner frame that holds together composers were newly reworking
1939 Roy Harris conveys the a people.” She had also stipulated Classical styles and exploring
immensity of the American that the music should be about genres such as Modernism and
rural landscape in his Impressionism, eschewing the old
Symphony No. 3. German Romanticism of Brahms
AFTER and Wagner. Copland himself was
1947 Samuel Barber sets his particularly influenced by Igor
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 to Stravinsky, who was just entering
James Agee’s memoir of his So long as the human spirit his neoclassical phase. Stravinsky’s
Octet (1923) impressed Copland
childhood in rural Tennessee. thrives on this planet, music with its clean lines, crystal-clear
1989 Elliott Carter’s Three in some living form will textures, and concise structure.
Occasions for Orchestra accompany and sustain it and From this time, Copland’s music
celebrates the vigor and give it expressive meaning. became more open and its form
energy of America. Aaron Copland and instrumentation more tightly
controlled. The hardships of
1999 John Harbison composes World War I compeled him, like
The Great Gatsby based on Stravinsky, to write for smaller
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. orchestras. With Appalachian
Spring, he said, he was forced





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MODERN 1900–1950 287

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Le Sacre du
printemps 246–251 ■ Les Biches 262 ■ Romeo and Juliet 272

















Aaron Copland

The son of Russian immigrant
parents, Copland was born in
Brooklyn, New York, in 1900.
Studying in Paris with the
composer Nadia Boulanger,
he came under the influence
of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and
Poulenc. In collaboration
with Roger Sessions, he
ran the Copland-Sessions
concert series (1928–1931) to
encourage young American
composers. His own music
brought him worldwide fame
in the 1940s, although his later
Martha Graham performs as the warmth flooding the entire score, serialist works were less
young bride in Appalachian Spring at from the opening sense of dawn well received.
a New York theatre. The music, which breaking over a Shaker farmstead. Copland taught at the
Copland also reshaped as an orchestral The music perfectly captures the
suite, won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1945. new Berkshire Music Center
tenderness of young love, the gaiety in Massachusetts from 1940,
and buoyant dances of the ensuing and in 1951 he became the
to say what he had to say “in the wedding, and the most magical first American composer to
simplest possible terms.” What moment of all—the ending of the be appointed as Harvard’s
Graham had requested was ballet, when the newlyweds, alone Norton Professor of Poetry
perfectly captured in his skeletal for the first time, realize the sheer (poetry in its broadest sense).
musical language that created a immensity of what they have Around this time, he was
rich sense of space hitherto done. They are pioneers, about to falsely accused of communist
activities. In 1960, he moved
unknown in American music. start their life together in a new to Rock Hill, New York, where
country. Although they are safe he lived until his death in 1990.
Emotional inspiration in their home, they must tame and
Copland found his theme for the cultivate the unconquered land
work in the first line of a Shaker stretching out before them. Other key works
hymn: “Tis the gift to be simple.” These mixed feelings of 1930 Piano Variations
The Shakers were an American comfort, awe, fear, optimism, 1942 Fanfare for the
Protestant sect known for their vulnerability, and courage were Common Man
plain way of living. The clarity of transformed by Copland into pure, 1967 Inscape
texture suffuses the ballet, its deeply moving music. ■





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COMPOSING IS LIKE


DRIVING



















DOWN A FOGGY ROAD






PETER GRIMES (1945),


BENJAMIN BRITTEN




































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290 20TH-CENTURY BRITISH OPERA



IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
20th-century British opera
BEFORE
1689 First performance
of Henry Purcell’s opera
Dido and Aeneas.
1871–1896 Librettist W.S.
Gilbert and composer Arthur
Sullivan together produce 14
comic operas, including HMS
Pinafore and The Mikado.
1902 Edward German’s opera
Merrie England, a tale of fter Purcell’s death in 1695 The beach at Aldeburgh, the coastal
amorous rivalries at the court and on through the 18th village that inspired Peter Grimes. The
of Elizabeth I, opens at the A and 19th centuries, British opera was staged live here in 2013 to
Savoy Theatre in London. music was dominated by European mark the centenary of Britten’s birth.
1922 Following the success composers, such as Handel, Johann successors to Purcell. Elgar would
Christian Bach, and Mendelssohn.
of his orchestral suite It was not until the publication of never finish The Spanish Lady,
The Planets, Gustav Holst Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, his only attempt at opera, while
composes his one-act opera in 1899, that a British composer Vaughan Williams labored for
The Perfect Fool. began almost single-handedly to years on his first opera, Hugh the

AFTER revitalize the country’s music. Drover, working folk songs and
1955 Michael Tippett’s first At this time, British opera was idioms into the music in the hope
opera, The Midsummer in an especially perilous state. of creating a truly British work.
Marriage, is performed at The comic operas of Gilbert and When the opera opened in 1924,
Covent Garden. Sullivan were popular, as was it met with little initial success.
Edward German’s operetta Merrie The young Benjamin Britten
1966 The one-act opera England, but there were no serious disliked the English pastoral school
Purgatory, by Hugo Weisgall, and wrote of Vaughan Williams,
premieres at England’s “I am afraid I don’t like his music,
Cheltenham Festival. however much I try.” Britten had
hoped to pursue postgraduate
1968 The Aldeburgh Festival studies with the Austrian
includes the first performance composer Alban Berg, a student
of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera Music … has the beauty of of Arnold Schoenberg, whose
Punch and Judy. loneliness of pain: of strength Lyric Suite he admired, but was
and freedom. The beauty of dissuaded by his parents.
1984 Where The Wild Things disappointment and never In 1930, the year Britten began
Are, by Oliver Knussen to a satisfied love. his studies at the Royal College of
libretto by Maurice Sendak, Benjamin Britten Music in London, the Vic-Wells
receives its first performance company was formed in a bid to
at London’s National Theatre. champion British theatre, opera,
and ballet. In 1934, the Old Vic
Theatre became the center for
spoken drama and Sadler’s Wells





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MODERN 1900–1950 291

See also: Dido and Aeneas 72–77 ■ Tosca 194–197 ■ Peer Gynt 208–209 ■
The Wreckers 232–239 ■ A Child of Our Time 284–285


of Peter Grimes as the subject for
opera, but he also determined to
return to his native Suffolk.
In spite of the danger and
difficulties of crossing the Atlantic
I wanted to express in wartime, he and Peter Pears
my awareness of the traveled to England on a cargo
perpetual struggle of men vessel, the Axel Johnson. During
and women whose livelihood the 19-day sea journey, they worked
depends on the sea. together on the libretto for the new
Benjamin Britten project, surrounded by what Peter Benjamin Britten
Pears described as “callous, foul-
mouthed, witless recruits for Born in Lowestoft, England, in
company.” Such a setting for the 1913, Britten played the piano
beginnings of Britten’s first serious and composed from an early
opera was apt; the sea would form a age, studying with the
haunting backdrop in Peter Grimes. composer and violinist Frank
the headquarters for opera and Back home in Suffolk, Britten Bridge in his teens. In 1930, he
ballet (the Covent Garden Opera worked further on the libretto won a scholarship to London’s
Company, later the Royal Opera, with the writer Montagu Slater. Royal College of Music.
was not founded until 1946). Britten, a deeply sensitive man, From 1939 to 1942, Britten
Britten felt passionately that his wanted to explore the character and the tenor Peter Pears lived
country should have a permanent of Crabbe’s murderous outcast. in America. On their return
national opera company and Britten felt himself to be an outsider to London, Pears joined the
Sadler’s Wells Opera Company,
believed the Sadler’s Wells Opera in society and not only because of whose theatre premiered Peter
Company, which later became his pacifism. He had first met Peter Grimes, in 1945. The success
English National Opera, was a Pears in 1937, and the two suffered ❯❯ of the opera excited interest
good first step. in every new work by Britten.
Britten and Pears formed
Inspiration for Grimes the English Opera Group in
During World War II, Britten and his 1947 and in 1948 launched the
partner, the tenor Peter Pears—a Aldeburgh Festival. In 1962,
fellow pacifist—spent three years Britten’s War Requiem was
in America. While there, Britten premiered in the newly rebuilt
read George Crabbe’s poem The Coventry Cathedral. Britten
Borough, published in 1810, in was made a life peer in 1976,
which Crabbe devotes a whole a few months before he died
section to the villain Peter Grimes, of heart failure. He was the
first composer or musician to
a murderous outcast, who is hunted be made a member of Britain’s
down by his community. The long House of Lords.
poem depicts the people of the
Suffolk town of Aldeburgh, on
England’s east coast, and describes Other key works
the local flat landscape, the marshy 1946 The Young Person’s
terrain, the stony beaches, and the The soprano Joan Cross plays Guide to the Orchestra
the schoolmistress, Peter Pears is
suck and surge of the waves. It Peter Grimes (center), and Leonard 1951 Billy Budd
moved Britten so deeply that not Thompson is the apprentice in the 1961 War Requiem
only did he decide to use the story original 1945 production of the opera.





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292 20TH-CENTURY BRITISH OPERA


The main characters in Peter Grimes

Foes Friends


Mrs. Sedley (mezzo soprano)
Town gossip Ellen Orford (soprano)
A schoolteacher who sees the
good in Grimes and wants to
marry him.
Auntie (contralto)
Landlady of the pub



Swallow (bass)
Lawyer Captain Balstrode
(baritone) Retired sea captain


Bob Boles (tenor)
A fisherman and a Methodist


Peter Grimes Ned Keene
The Townspeople The antihero, he is violent, (baritone) Apothecary
(chorus) solitary, and an outsider.



because of their love for one fisherman, Peter Grimes has just but the relationship is halting.
another—homosexuality being been cleared of the death of an In the prologue’s duet “The truth …
illegal in Britain until 1967. apprentice but is warned not to the pity … and the truth,” Ellen
seek a replacement. Faced with the sings in the bright E major chord
Ovations for a masterpiece townspeople’s hostility, Grimes while Grimes begins in F minor.
The first performance of Britten’s yearns in vain for love and simple Gradually, Grimes gives way to
Peter Grimes took place at the domesticity with his friend Ellen Ellen, and the pair are in unison,
Sadler’s Wells Theatre on June 7, Orford, a widowed schoolmistress, but it does not last.
1945. The composer and conductor In defiance of local opinion,
Imogen Holst, who was later a Grimes procures a new apprentice,
codirector of the Aldeburgh and his fate is sealed. When Ellen
Festival, recalled the thrill of the spots a bruise and accuses him of
occasion: “No one in the audience mistreating the boy, local people
will ever forget the excitement of see Grimes strike her then leave.
that evening,” she wrote. When He wished for one to Forming a lynch mob, they advance
the tragedy had reached its quiet trouble and control; on Grimes’s clifftop hut to a drum
end and the opera was over, she he wanted some obedient beat suggesting impending doom
sensed that the audience knew boy to stand and bear the but find nothing amiss as Grimes
they had been listening to a blow of his outrageous hand. is away fishing. His apprentice,
masterpiece: “They stood up Peter Grimes however, has fallen down the cliff
and shouted and shouted.” to his death. His jersey is later
The popularity of the opera lay found washed ashore, and the mob
partly in its psychological drama advances on the hut once more.
and depth of characterizaton. A Doomed, Grimes rows out to sea
complex, lonely, and tormented and sinks his boat. The opera ends





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MODERN 1900–1950 293


the next morning when, to the Interludes (“Dawn,” “Sunday
mournful sound of a foghorn, Morning,” “Moonlight,” and
reports emerge of a sinking “Storm”), which are often performed
vessel too far out to be rescued. on their own. They serve to set the
scene, evoke the emotions of the
Building tension characters, and foreshadow the
The music of Peter Grimes has building drama, from gentle violins
astonishing tensile strength, and flutes depicting a coastal dawn
what Peter Pears called “The bare to an upsurge in the brass denoting
minimum of notes to convey the an approaching storm.
maximum effect.” Such economy Britten went on to write other
of style, already apparent in operas, including Billy Budd (1951)
Britten’s early works, such as based on Herman Melville’s novella
A Boy was Born (1933) and Les Billy Budd, Sailor, and Death in
Illuminations (1939), was skeletal Venice (1973), from the novel by
compared to the English pastoral Thomas Mann. In addition to
school of composition. In Peter carving a place for modern British
Grimes, the music expresses the opera in the international repertoire,
drama at all times. In the quartet Britten actively promoted music and
“Hi! Give us a hand!” in the first fellow composers. He also upheld
scene of Act One, for example, all the traditional elements of opera,
four characters sing at the same such as a good story, evocative
time, mimicking an argument, atmosphere, and a large and
while the mix of song, speech, and stirring chorus. Essentially, he
laughter in the chorus’s “Assign reclaimed the concept of opera
your prettiness to me” in Act Three as entertainment in an age when
conveys the natural simplicity of the minimalism ruled. ■
villagers. Conversely, at the end of
the opera, the canon of the chorus
evokes the menace of the crowd. Britten is memorialized in a
window by John Piper in Aldeburgh
Orchestral interludes are also Parish Church. The Burning Fiery
employed to great effect between Furnace, depicted here, evokes
acts, especially in the Four Sea Britten’s three “church parables.”

Music festivals music, founded by its citizens
in 1877. In Italy, it was the
Aldeburgh Festival, launched by centenary in 1913 of Verdi’s
Britten and his friends in 1948, birth that prompted the first
gained international status within operas at the Arena di Verona,
a few decades. It became the where the city’s annual festival
latest in a growing number of is held in summer.
international music festivals, As in Europe, classical music
including the Bayreuth Festival festivals in the US flourished
founded by Richard Wagner in in the 1870s, though the Handel
1876 to stage his own operas, and Haydn Society in Boston
and Salzburg’s festival of Mozart’s held its first triennial festival
as early as 1858. In the 20th
The English Opera Group century, the composer Henry
carry props into the Jubilee Hall Kimball Hadley staged concerts
for Britten’s Let’s Make An Opera in 1934 that evolved into the
during Aldeburgh’s 1949 festival. celebrated Tanglewood Festival.






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CONTEMPORARY














































































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CONTEMPORARY














































































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296 INTRODUCTION




Pierre Schaeffer In France, Iannis Polish composer
and Pierre Henry Xenakis composes Krzysztof Penderecki’s
create Symphonie Pithoprakta, a Threnody for the Victims
pour un homme piece inspired by of Hiroshima explores
seul from mathematical and sonorism with a 52-piece
recorded sounds. engineering principles. string orchestra.






1950 1956–1957 1960


1956 1958 1964








In the Soviet Union, Three orchestras Terry Riley writes
Aram Khachaturian’s simultaneously In C—one of the
ballet Spartacus, about bring Karlheinz first minimalist
the first-century slave Stockhausen’s Gruppen compositions, with
revolt against Rome, wins to life at its premiere no set number of
the Lenin Prize. in Cologne, Germany. performers or duration.


n the wake of World War II, Messiaen, their teacher at the elements of his compositions by
classical music became Paris Conservatoire, Pierre Boulez tossing coins and sorting yarrow
I increasingly experimental, and Karlheinz Stockhausen sticks or giving ambiguous graphic
as composers searched for more became the leading lights of instructions to performers. One
adventurous ways to rework the serialism, while Iannis Xenakis of his works (4´33˝) specified four
language of music. Turning their used it as a starting point for a minutes and 33 seconds of silence,
back on the past, they looked to music that was based on a in which only the ambient sounds
new sources of inspiration, such combination of mathematical of the auditorium could be heard.
as mathematics and physics, and and acoustic theories. Composers
overturned former concepts of also found rich inspiration in Ideas spread
structure. They even questioned technology, which provided access After the death of Joseph Stalin
fundamental aspects of music, to a whole new sound world. In in 1953, news of these fresh
such as what constituted a musical Paris, Pierre Henry and Pierre developments began to reach
instrument, the necessity of a Schaeffer pioneered a technique composers behind the Iron Curtain,
“performer,” and what music known as musique concrète, using where the Soviet-dominated
itself can be. sounds recorded onto magnetic regimes had censored music
In Europe, the postwar tape as their building blocks. that it considered degenerate or
generation pushed the serial At the same time, a young subversive. György Ligeti, born
method of composition pioneered American composer, John Cage, in communist Romania, made
by Arnold Schoenberg in the 1920s explored music determined by his way to the West via Hungary
further by applying the technique chance, or aleatory music, and in 1956 and developed an
to volume and duration as well examined the musical potential idiosyncratic style after coming
as pitch. Encouraged by Olivier of silence. He determined key across the music of Stockhausen





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CONTEMPORARY 297




Luciano Berio With minimal words Witold Lutosławki’s The American
uses collage and and no intervals, 25-minute Fourth composer Eric
quotation to compose Philip Glass’s Symphony is Whitacre adapts his
a kaleidoscope of Einstein on the Beach performed as one instrumental work
musical texture subverts the traditional continuous movement October to a choral
in Sinfonia. narrative of opera. of two sections. setting in Alleluia.






1968 1976 1993 2011


1967 1969 1977 2000








Toru Takemitsu Eight Songs for a Mad Canadian composer Jennifer Higdon
juxtaposes Eastern King by Peter Maxwell Raymond Murray composes and
and Western musical Davies, based on the Schafer’s biblically premieres blue
traditions in the words of King George III, inspired Apocalypsis cathedral, a work
orchestral work presents a new type of features multiple choirs, that epitomizes a
November Steps. “music theatre.” conductors, and orchestras. return to lyricism.


and his contemporaries, eventually against it. In place of complexity, who composed for Western and
finding inspiration in chaos theory some young composers advocated Japanese instruments, and the
and fractal mathematics. simplicity, or minimalism. Pioneered cross-cultural music of Kaija
As restrictions on the arts lifted by Terry Riley and given fresh Saariaho. Classical composers
in Poland, Krzysztof Penderecki impetus by Philip Glass and Steve also absorbed ideas from popular
and others leapt at the chance to Reich, the style was characterized culture, incorporating elements
create a new musical language, by repetition and the most basic of pop and rock music as well as
composing pieces for conventional of harmonies, partly inspired by jazz into their work, while also
instruments in “blocks” of sound the hypnotic qualities of some embracing the possibilities of
reminiscent of electronic music African and Asian music. A new technology. British composer
or, like Witold Lutosławski, they number of composers encouraged Thomas Adès’s In Seven Days,
introduced elements of chance improvisation by the performers. for example, is a multimedia
into their work. This eclectic In Riley’s In C, the order, duration, work, while American composer
approach to musical composition, and tempo of the composition are Eric Whitacre has explored the
incorporating elements of different determined by the musicians. possibility of “virtual” ensembles,
styles, was also a feature of the assembled via the Internet.
music of Luciano Berio, who Cross-cultural trends It is too early to say which
embraced musical collage. In the late 1960s, as political, direction classical music will take
social, and technological horizons in the 21st century, or what the
The birth of minimalism widened, the fusion and cross- next musical movement will be. But
Much of this new music perplexed fertilization of musical cultures history suggests that composers
and alienated listeners, and in became increasingly evident, will continue to find many new
1960s America, there was a reaction as in the work of Toru Takemitsu, means of musical expression. ■





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298 IN CONTEXT

SOUND IS THE FOCUS


Electronic music and
musique concrète
VOCABULARY BEFORE
1939 The first example
of electroacoustic music,
John Cage’s Imaginary
Landscape No. 1, uses
OF NATURE variable-speed turntables,
frequency recordings, muted
piano, and cymbal.

recordings of steam trains,
SYMPHONIE POUR UN HOMME SEUL 1948 Made entirely from
Pierre Schaeffer’s Étude aux
(1949−1950), PIERRE SCHAEFFER/ chemins de fer is broadcast
alongside his other early
PIERRE HENRY studies in sound.

AFTER
1952–1953 Olivier Messiaen
composes his only electronic
work, Timbres-durées,
although he later withdraws it.
1954 Edgard Varèse’s Déserts,
which alternates sections of
musique concrète with others
scored for an orchestra of wind
and percussion, is broadcast
from Paris on December 2.
1956 In Gesang der Jünglinge,
Stockhausen mixes sounds
derived from the voice of
a treble choirboy with
manipulated electronically
generated tones.

1958 Edgard Varèse writes
Poème électronique for the
futuristic Philips Pavilion,
a building designed by
Le Corbusier, at the World’s
Fair in Brussels.












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