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

CONTEMPORARY 299

See also: Ionisation 268–269 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■ Pierre Schaeffer
4´33˝ 302–305 ■ Gruppen 306–307 ■ Pithoprakta 308 ■ Sinfonia 316–317
and Pierre Henry

n the aftermath of World Born in 1910 in Nancy,
War II, composers were among Schaeffer grew up in a family
I the many creative figures who of musicians. He, however,
studied engineering and
sensed a need for a new aesthetic. received a diploma in radio
They sought to create works that broadcasting from the École
would not be tainted—as they felt Polytechnique before joining
complex state-sponsored orchestral the French radio and TV
music and opera were—by any broadcasting company
connections with previous regimes, Radiodiffusion-Télévision
particularly the Third Reich, its française, in 1936. In 1949,
allies, and the countries it had Schaeffer met Pierre Henry,
occupied. Some turned to forms a composer and percussionist,
of serialism (in which notes are born in Paris in 1927, who
repeated in a specific order) had studied at the Paris
developed from the organic Conservatoire with the
structures of Anton Webern, an Pierre Henry, in concert in Paris in composers Nadia Boulanger
earlier exponent of serial music 1952, used four large circular receiver and Olivier Messiaen.
and one of the composers whose coils to show how sound transmitted Together they formed the
Groupe de Recherche de
work had been denounced as through four loudspeakers could be Musique Concrète, remaining
“degenerate” by the Nazi Party. shifted around a listening space. close collaborators until 1958
Others found a new beginning when the more prolific Henry
by recording ordinary, everyday Symphonie de bruits (“Symphony left to found his own
sounds and putting them together of sounds”). Founded in 1942 by independent studio called
into collagelike compositions theatre director Jacques Copeau Applications de Procédés
that merely needed to be played and his pupils as the center of the Sonores en Musique
on a disk or a tape, rather than Resistance movement in French Electroacoustique.
interpreted by live musicians in radio, the studio subsequently Henry continued to write
a concert hall. This was the origin became the cradle of musique electronic scores for films
of musique concrète, an early concrète. In collaboration with and ballet, as well as his
form of electronic music. Pierre Henry, who joined the incomplete La Messe de
It was at the Studio d’Essai de electronic studio in 1949, Schaeffer Liverpool, an electronic mass
la Radiodiffusion Nationale that developed his original Symphonie commissioned for the opening
of Liverpool Cathedral in
Pierre Schaeffer began work on the into the Symphonie pour un homme the UK in 1968. Schaeffer
seul (“Symphony for a lone man”), composed little more, although
premiered at the École Normale he continued writing and
de Musique in Paris, in 1950. Henry teaching; his pupils included
went on to run what was eventually Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneer
called the Groupe de Recherche de of electronic music. Schaeffer
Musique Concrète—the body that died in Aix-en-Provence in
Something new has been studied and developed musique 1995 aged 85. Henry died in
added, a new art of sound. Am concrète from 1951 to 1958. Paris in 2017, at the age of 89.
I wrong in calling it music?
Pierre Schaeffer The sounds of a life Other key collaborations
In its original form, the Symphonie 1950 La course au kilocycle
consisted of 22 movements using (radio score)
turntables and mixers. For a 1953 Orphée 53
broadcast in 1951, this number 1957 Sahara d’aujourd’hui
was reduced to 11, but then ❯❯





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300 ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE


increased to 12 for Henry’s 1966 and Eroïca, and a further two—
revision, which has become Collectif and Apostrophe—suggest
accepted as the official version. verbal exchanges. Strette, the title
The symphony is an explorative of the last and longest movement,
work utilizing recorded sounds like the Italian term stretto, which
and new techniques in a relatively is often used to describe fugues or
simple and also somewhat crude operatic finales, indicates a faster
manner, when compared with speed or richness of texture as
what would later be achieved in earlier sounds are reprised.
the field of electronic music. In his 1952 work, À la recherche
The first and seventh of the 12 d’une musique concrète (In search
movements of Henry’s 1966 revised of a Concrete Music), Schaeffer
version are titled Prosopopée 1 described the individual nature of
and Prosopopée 2, from the Greek the work and also listed some of its
rhetorical term prosopopeia, in sonic elements. He declared that a
which a speaker communicates in man could be his own instrument,
The soundtracks and effects the guise of someone else. Other using many more than the 12 notes
for most programs made by the
BBC were mixed in the control room movements are given musical of the singing voice: “He cries, he
at Alexandra Palace, London, until terms, such as Valse and Scherzo, whistles, he walks, he thumps his
the early 1950s. two are evocatively named Erotica fist, he laughs, he groans. His heart
beats, his breathing accelerates,
he utters words, launches calls,
Sounds used in the 12 movements of and other calls reply.”
Symphonie pour un homme seul The choreographer Maurice
Béjart, who sensed the further
Knocking, shouts, humming, whistling, and wordless
1. Prosopopée I expressive potential of the
singing.
Symphonie, used it as a score for
2. Partita Mostly someone playing a prepared piano. the dance piece that was also
called Symphonie pour un homme
3. Valse Made up of the distorted sounds of an orchestra playing seul, which he created in 1955. It
fragments of a waltz with various voices over the top. was Béjart’s first success and has
been revived several times.
4. Erotica A woman’s voice laughing and purring with pleasure.
A musical legacy
5. Scherzo Conversational speaking voices played at various speeds Although Schaeffer was appointed
and alternating with detached sounds from the piano.
professor of electronic composition
6. Collectif Relaxed voices over soft, sustained piano chords. at the Paris Conservatoire in 1968,
he composed few works after
The sound of footsteps alternates with various pitches 1962. He continued, however, to
7. Prosopopée II
from the piano.
pursue a vast range of artistic
interests and concepts, especially
8. Eroïca Busy clattering sounds with a voice played backward.
creative writing, theoretical studies
9. Apostrophe Male and female voices repeat lyrical phrases against short in musique concrète and other
rhythmic ideas on the piano. electronic techniques, and the
organization and running of groups
10. Intermezzo Sounds like fragments of a collective prayer against a tense, dedicated to the new genres.
percussive accompaniment.
Henry went on to explore the
11. Cadence Sounds of knocking on wood and metal. medium he had helped to invent
in collaboration with Béjart, the
12. Strette A loud, eruptive opening, then a summary of what has gone choreographer Alwin Nikolais, his
before, with percussive sounds, crowd noises, and sirens.
fellow composer Michel Colombier,





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CONTEMPORARY 301


and the British rock band Spooky the BBC launched its Radiophonic
Tooth. His work also influenced Workshop, which began to develop
composers of multiple electronic atmospheric music for radio and
music styles, including the British television, such as the Dr Who
musician and producer William theme (1963), written by the
Orbit, Mat Ducasse of the UK-based An opera for blind people, Australian composer Ron Grainer
band Skylab, and the UK music a performance without and realized by Delia Derbyshire.
producer and DJ Fatboy Slim. argument, a poem made Important works by Varèse (his
Other composers who worked of noises, bursts of text, Poème electronique) and the Greek
briefly at the Groupe de Recherche spoken or musical. Iannis Xenakis were created in
de Musique Concrète included Pierre Schaeffer European studios at this time.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Describing the Symphonie in In 1977, the Institut de Recherche
Boulez, and the veteran Edgard La musique concrète (1973) et Coordination Acoustique/
Varèse, who recognized the advent Musique (IRCAM) opened in Paris.
of a medium that he had longed Boulez was its head, and such
for all his life. However, the main figures as Berio and the French-
contributions to the genre born Slovenian composer and trombonist
in Paris were made elsewhere. Vinko Globokar were among its
In 1952, the German theorist staff. Since then, many composers
and composer Herbert Eimert to combine real sounds with have experimented and realized
inaugurated a department for electronics in his masterly Gesang compositions at IRCAM, using
electronic music at the radio der Jünglinge (1955–1956). electronics and latterly computers.
studios in Cologne. Stockhausen The organization has remained
joined him there and their focus New experimental spaces influential in making such
moved from sounds recorded in Studios similar to those in Cologne techniques part of classical
diverse contexts (as in musique began to open across the world in composition today. Major figures
concrète) to sounds that were New York, Tokyo, Munich, and in to develop work there include
electronically produced. Between Milan, where the Italian composers Jonathan Harvey, Harrison
1953 and 1954, Stockhausen Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna Birtwistle, George Benjamin, Kaija
wrote two influential studies in founded Europe’s third electronic Saariaho, Unsuk Chin, Gérard
pure electronics before going on music facility. In London in 1958, Grisey, and Tristan Murail. ■

Gesang der Jünglinge and Henry. It also reflects the
strong spiritual basis that
Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gesang Stockhausen’s work almost
der Jünglinge (“Song of the always possessed. Using
Youths”) was created in the electronically generated
studios of West German Radio tones and pulses, filtered white
between 1955 and 1956. Its text noise, and the voice of 12-year-
comes from the biblical Book of old choirboy Josef Protschka,
Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar Stockhausen created a fiery
had the Hebrew youths Shadrach, whirlwind of rich and complex
Meshach, and Abednego cast into textures, operating at different
a fiery furnace for refusing to speeds and dynamic levels, and
worship his image. Remaining utilizing the space around the
miraculously unharmed, they sang audience via four-channel
God’s praise from the flames. (originally five-channel) sound.
The biblical tale of Hebrew youths Some regard the work as the The result is a virtuoso creation
surviving in a furnace, depicted here first masterpiece created using that maintains a consistent
on a Bible study card (c.1900), was a the sound techniques developed momentum due to its perfectly
potent inspiration for Stockhausen. from the experiments of Schaeffer planned overall structure.







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302

IN CONTEXT
I CAN’T UNDERSTAND FOCUS

Indeterminacy, aleatory
WHY PEOPLE ARE music, and silence

BEFORE
1787 Mozart is thought to
FRIGHTENED OF write “Instructions for the

composition of as many
NEW IDEAS; I’M waltzes as one desires
with two dice, without
understanding anything
FRIGHTENED OF about music or composition.”

1915 Marcel Duchamp
composes Erratum musicale
THE OLD ONES for three voices, written by
drawing cards out of a hat.
4'33" (1952), JOHN CAGE AFTER
1967 Cornelius Cardew
completes Treatise, a large
graphic score with no
musical parameters.
1983 Morton Feldman
completes String Quartet No. 2,
his longest work exploring the
slow unfolding of music.




or centuries, “indeterminacy”
has been a compositional
F feature of classical music—
from Baroque works with a figured
bass that trusts the keyboard player
to fill in the harmony in a manner
not stipulated by the composer, to
the “musical dice games” that were
popular in the 18th century, in
which players threw dice to decide
on the order of a series of musical
ideas given by a composer. A
version of the game attributed
to Mozart, for example, has the
possibility of creating as many
as 45,949,729,863,572,161 waltzes.
In the 20th century, avant-garde
composers pushed the concept
further, and the term “aleatory





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CONTEMPORARY 303

See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ Gruppen 306–307 ■
In C 312–313 ■ Six Pianos 320 ■ Einstein on the Beach 321


Cage’s experiments in sound led to
his invention of the “prepared piano,”
in which the piano has its sound
altered by the placement of objects
on or between the strings.


view, espoused by Stravinsky,
that even interpretation was
unnecessary. The performer’s
only concern, it claimed, was
to reproduce the score without John Cage
interference. This attitude reached
its apogee with the advent of Born in Los Angeles in 1912,
integral, or total, serialism, in John Cage studied music
which virtually all the musical under Arnold Schoenberg and
parameters were controlled by Henry Cowell and used serial
the compositional system. techniques in his early works.
By 1939, he had started to
Cage the anarchist experiment with the prepared
For the American composer John piano, tape recorders, and
Cage, this imbalance of power other technology. His concert
music” was coined to describe toward the composer created at the New York Museum of
compositions in which chance a musical hierarchy in opposition Modern Art in 1943 brought
plays a significant role. Early on, to his socialist and anarchist him to the attention of a wider
musical community.
Dadaists—an avant-garde art beliefs. The only way this hierarchy In the years that followed,
movement—saw that chance could could be undermined, he thought, Cage explored Buddhism and
form a part of a new aesthetic. was if either the composer were other eastern philosophies and
French-American artist Marcel less or the performer more a part became fixated on the nature
Duchamp composed two aleatory of the compositional process. ❯❯ of music and its absence. His
works between 1913 and 1915, compositions brought fame
while Frenchmen Francis Picabia and infamy. Although he never
and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes fully abandoned notated
wrote works for performance at the scores, his experimentalism
Festival Dada in Paris, in 1920. led to him becoming an icon
of the Fluxus movement,
The composer’s role If you develop an ear for espousing “found” sound and
Although aleatory music originated sounds that are musical, it is materials. Plagued by poor
in pure experimentalism, it was like developing an ego. You health, Cage suffered a fatal
stroke in 1992 at the age of 80.
considered a serious concept by begin to refuse sounds that
the mid-20th century, a reaction to are not musical and that way
what had gone before. Ever since cut yourself off from a good Other key works
composers had moved from figured deal of experience.
bass to full notation, performers John Cage 1946–1948 Sonatas and
had gradually lost a sense of being Interludes
1958 Concert for Piano and
actively creative musicians, and as Orchestra
improvised ornamentation fell by 1974–1975 Études Australes
the wayside, and scores became 1987 Europeras I and II
more detailed, there had been a





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304 INDETERMINACY, ALEATORY MUSIC, AND SILENCE


This concept is particularly evident examines the human perception
in Cage’s Imaginary Landscape and experience of the space
No.4 for 12 radios (1951), in which between things as a focus in its
the “performers” manipulate short- own right. Cage became fascinated
wave radios and so require no by the idea of silence and went to
proficiency in an instrument. Harvard University to experience The first question I
Cage remains the composer, as its anechoic chamber, in which ask myself when something
the various frequencies that the all sound is absorbed. Cage was doesn’t seem to be beautiful
operators must find are detailed in shocked to find that even there, he is why do I think it’s
the score, but the sounds received could still hear two sounds—one not beautiful. And very
by the radios depend on when and high, one low—which turned out shortly you discover
where the concert takes place to be the sounds of his own body. that there is no reason.
and are therefore unpredictable. In 4´33˝, Cage sought to portray John Cage
The result is white noise interrupted his realization that even in musical
by snatches of speech and music. silences, there was no true silence.
While audiences new to 4´33˝
Musical silence tend to think the work is absurd,
Cage’s seminal work, 4´33˝, in the experience of hearing the
which the performers sit in silence ambient noises of the concert hall
for the duration (four minutes against which music is usually (which includes instructions for the
and 33 seconds), was inspired played is an enlightening one. performers), and in saying that the
by the idea of silence as a part of Curiously, the duration of the work, piece “may be performed by any
music. Musicians had long used roughly the length of the 78 rpm instrumentalist,” Cage is still allied
silence in music—Beethoven is record, was a direct challenge to the Classical tradition.
reputed to have said that the music to the commodification of music,
was in the silences—but for Cage particularly pop music, which Defining music
this was an engagement with the was a neatly packaged predictable The first performance of 4´33˝ in
Japanese idea of Ma, which product. In publishing the score 1952 opened the doors to further
speculation and experimentalism
into what actually constitutes
music. An extreme example was
written by one of Cage’s students,
La Monte Young, whose 1960 Piano
Piece for David Tudor #1 (the
American pianist and composer
David Tudor had also premiered
4´33˝) gives only the following
instructions: “Bring a bale of hay
and a bucket of water onto the
stage for the piano to eat and drink.
The performer may then feed the
piano or leave it to eat by itself.
If the former, the piece is over after
the piano has been fed. If the latter,
it is over after the piano eats or


An anechoic chamber in Bell
Laboratories, New Jersey, in the 1950s,
is lined with wedge-shaped pieces of
fibre-glass, which was commonly used
in such chambers to absorb echoes.





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CONTEMPORARY 305


One of John Cage’s aleatory methods
Music of Changes

In 1951, Cage was given a copy
of the I Ching by the American
composer Christian Wolff. Also
known as the Book of Changes,
this ancient Chinese text used
for divination inspired the title
Cage tossed I Ching Random numbers of Cage’s Music of Changes
coins to arrive were also derived and came to inform much of
at numbers that from the Chinese its content. Enthralled by the
are then fed tradition of sorting concept of chance music, Cage
into the I Ching, and counting yarrow wrote the piece by making
an ancient sticks and then used charts that, when used in
Chinese system to consult the I Ching. conjunction with the I Ching,
of divination. generated pitches, note
durations, dynamics, tempi,
silences, and even determined
how many layers of sound
Cage created a series of charts would be used. The resulting
to translate the results of his findings rhythms were too complex
into sounds (including silence), to notate. Cage therefore
duration, and volume. used proportional notation, in
which the distance between
notes on the page determined
decides not to.” Equally challenging notation was the graphic score. how long they were. In
to musical orthodoxy were some This generally presented very few addition to this, some parts
of American composer Morton parameters for the performers of the composition were to be
Feldman’s works, which sought and instead proffered a visual played on the piano strings
to redefine the act of listening by provocation against which they directly, and the pianist used
unfolding music very slowly on a could create music. Some of these beaters to create percussive
very large scale. Some listeners were a set of visual instructions sounds on the piano’s exterior.
used to classical works, which defining the broad shape of the The result was a piece for solo
average 25 to 30 minutes, were music, such as Cage’s Aria (1958), piano in four books, which
dismayed by his Second String but others presented complex and posed demanding challenges
Quartet (1983), which lasts some subtle imagery that bore little for David Tudor, Cage’s
customary pianist.
five hours in performance and relation to a performable sound.
defies conventional development. The preeminent example of
In music on such a scale, which a graphic musical score was
is seldom loud and never fast, and British composer Cornelius
where changes are subtle, each Cardew’s Treatise (1963–1967), a
sound takes on its own meaning. 193-page graphic score that allows
total interpretative freedom but
Graphic scores expects the performers to decide Every something
Composers also sought to create on the meaning of certain features is an echo
notation that might empower rather in the score beforehand. Indeed, of nothing.
than enslave the performer. In as traditions of performance began John Cage
his notation for Projections and to coalesce, graphic scores were
Intersections (1950–1953), Feldman seldom used as inspirations for
allowed the players to choose improvisation but as a way for
pitches and rhythms themselves. performer and composer to have
The most important new form of equal responsibility for the work. ■





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306


HE HAS CHANGED OUR


VIEW OF MUSICAL



TIME AND FORM



GRUPPEN (1955–1957), KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN








n 1955, Westdeutscher both for the way it developed
IN CONTEXT Rundfunk (WDR, the Studio for compositional technique and for
I Electronic Music of the West its huge orchestral soundscape.
FOCUS German Radio) commissioned
Total serialism
a new work from the German Structure and space
BEFORE composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. The key compositional technique
1948 In Paris, Pierre Schaeffer That August, he rented a room in of Gruppen lies in its structure.
gives concerts of musique Paspels, eastern Switzerland, and In the 1920s, composers such as
concrète, featuring prerecorded planned a large and ambitious new Arnold Schoenberg had devised
sounds electronically altered piece. Although he initially aimed a way of writing music based
and manipulated. to write an electronic piece, he on set rows of 12 pitches. Later
abandoned this idea in favor of composers, such as Pierre Boulez
1950–1951 Nummer 1 for two conventional instrumentation, and Stockhausen, took this
pianos and Nummer 2 for 13 eventually conceiving a large-scale technique further, using series or
instruments by Karel work for three orchestras playing groups of notes that determined not
Goeyvaerts pioneer the simultaneously. Titled Gruppen only pitch but also musical elements
technique of “total serialism.” (“Groups”), it became well known, such as the notes’ volume and
duration—a method often known
AFTER as total serialism. The title of
1970 Mantra, for two pianos Gruppen refers to this technique,
and electronics, begins as the work is based on 174
Stockhausen’s preoccupation formulae (short groups of notes).
with melodic-line formulae. Yet this was not the only influence
Repetition is based on on its structure: the contours of the
1980 Stockhausen finishes body rhythms, so we mountains that Stockhausen saw
Donnerstag (“Thursday”), identify with the heartbeat, from his window in Switzerland
the first of his Licht cycle or with walking, or inspired his organizational
of operas. The operas are with breathing. diagrams for the piece.
composed using the serial Karlheinz Stockhausen Stockhausen scored the work for
technique of “superformulae.” three orchestras, each with its own
conductor and playing at a different
tempo, thereby transforming the
usual conception of musical time.
The orchestras are arranged in a





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CONTEMPORARY 307

See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21 264–265 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■
Symphonie pour un homme seul 298–301


The BBC Symphony Orchestra
performs Gruppen for three orchestras
on a designated “Stockhausen Day”
at the BBC Proms in 2008, with Martyn
Brabbins, David Robertson, and Pascal
Rophé conducting.


horseshoe shape, with one in front
of the audience, one to its left, and
one to its right. A huge variety of
sounds comes from these three
locations—delicate high woodwind,
passages of plucked strings, and
powerful assaults from the brass.
The three-orchestra format also
allows the composer to use musical
space dramatically, with the focus
of the audience’s interest passing
from one orchestra to another.
Material played by one ensemble
can be picked up by another or
tossed around between all three.

Deviations from form to produce musical climaxes—one prominent brass chords and a piano
The most dramatic moments in highlighting violin solos by the cadenza. Despite these deviations,
Gruppen occur when Stockhausen three orchestral leaders, another Stockhausen became known for his
disregards the rigorous rules of involving percussive or plucked formulaic composition—as well as
total serialism. Three passages in sounds that bounce from one his experiments with spatialization,
particular abandon serial control of orchestra to another, and a third, which culminated in his Helicopter
tempo and range of notes in order near the end of the work, featuring String Quartet (1992–1995). ■

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Stockhausen studio of WDR. This led to
was born in wide-ranging works, from
the Cologne Gruppen to electronic works
Whenever I felt happy region of such as Kontakte (1958–1960).
about having discovered Germany in His last great work before his
something, the first encounter 1928 and death in 2007 was Licht, a
… with other musicians, studied at Cologne University cycle of seven operas.
with specialists, etc, was of Music. He later took lessons
that they rejected it. in Paris with Olivier Messiaen, Other key works
Karlheinz Stockhausen whose serial compositional
technique impressed him, 1955–1956 Gesang der Jünglinge
and with Pierre Schaeffer, from (“Song of the Youths”)
whom he learned about musique 1958–1960 Kontakte (“Contacts”)
concrète. In 1953, he began 1968 Stimmung (“Voice”)
working at the electronic music 1977–2003 Licht (“Light”)







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308


THE ROLE OF THE


MUSICIAN … IS



PERPETUAL


EXPLORATION



PITHOPRAKTA (1955–1956), IANNIS XENAKIS




t was Olivier Messiaen who
IN CONTEXT suggested that Iannis Xenakis
I should apply mathematical and
FOCUS engineering principles to musical
Music and mathematics
composition. Xenakis, who had
BEFORE studied engineering, was working The role of the
1742–1750 J.S. Bach writes in Paris for the avant-garde designer musician must be this
the Art of Fugue comprising and architect Le Corbusier after fundamental research: to
14 fugues and four canons. fleeing the anti-communist regime find answers to phenomena
in postwar Greece. we don’t understand.
1912 Arnold Schoenberg Iannis Xenakis
writes the hyperstructured Scientific basis
Pierrot lunaire. Pithoprakta, an early work whose
title comes from the Greek for
1933 Ionisation by Edgard “actions through probabilities,”
Varèse is premiered in New is typical of Xenakis’s technique,
York. Xenakis greatly admired which he called “stochastic,” a
Varèse’s originality. term relating to probability. Scored slides through different pitches) for
1936 Béla Bartók composes for 46 stringed instruments, two each instrument. Punctuated by
Music for Strings, Percussion, trombones, a xylophone, and a the wood block, trombones, and
and Celesta, incorporating wood block, the work was inspired xylophone, the effect is of a
symmetrical design. by the scientific theory that a gas’s seething, gaslike “sound mass.”
temperature derives from the Outlined in his book Musiques
1950–1952 Pierre Boulez movement of its molecules through formelles (Formalized Music, 1963),
extends the scope of space. Compiling a sequence Xenakis’s style has had a lasting
Schoenberg’s 12-tone method of imaginary temperatures and impact. Among others who cite his
by creating serial music. pressures, Xenakis translated the influence, Richard Barrett, a Welsh
theory to stringed instruments composer who studied genetics,
AFTER moving through their pitch ranges, says the book helped him decide
1960 Krzysztof Penderecki using a series of glissandi (rapid to become a composer. ■
creates blocks of sound in
Threnody for the Victims See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■
of Hiroshima. Gruppen 306–307 ■ Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311







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CONTEMPORARY 309


CLOSE COMMUNION


WITH THE PEOPLE IS THE

NATURAL SOIL NOURISHING

ALL MY WORK


SPARTACUS (1956, rev. 1968),
ARAM KHACHATURIAN






he ballet Spartacus, known with ordinary people and their
IN CONTEXT best in its revised 1968 music, were key inspirations in
T version, is a spectacle on a his music. The hauntingly exultant
FOCUS grand scale. Unlike most ballets, its “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia,”
Ballet in Soviet Russia
theme is not romantic but heroic— from Spartacus, and the “Sabre
BEFORE a slave rebellion led by Spartacus Dance” from the ballet Gayane,
1921 Mikhail Gnessin, who against his Roman masters. have been widely used in television
later taught Khachaturian, The ballet won Khachaturian and film. The full 1968 version of
writes the opera Abraham’s a Lenin Prize in the year of its Spartacus remains a staple of
Youth, one of several works composition. The Soviet regime Russian ballet repertoire. ■
on Jewish themes. felt it symbolized the Russian
people’s victory against tsarist
1927 Backed by the Kremlin, oppressors. Others, however,
The Red Poppy, a ballet with now see it as referencing Soviet
music by Reinhold Glière, repression. In 1948, together
premieres at the Bolshoi with Prokofiev and Shostakovich,
Theatre in Moscow. Khachaturian had been denounced
for bourgeois “antidemocratic”
1940 Prokofiev’s Romeo and music, but he had regained official
Juliet is widely regarded as the favor, especially after Stalin’s
greatest ballet written during death in 1953.
the Soviet period.
Childhood influences
AFTER Khachaturian had grown up in
1976 Armenian composer Georgia, steeped in the folk music
Edgar Hovhannisyan bases of Armenia and the Caucasian
his opera-ballet Sasuntsi Davit region. The melodies and harmonic Aram Khachaturian, photographed
on a ninth-century Armenian inflections of the composer’s in later years at the height of his
epic poem. childhood, along with his fame, won worldwide acclaim for
his highly popular ballets, Spartacus
commitment to “close communion” and Gayane.

See also: The Nutcracker 190–191 ■ Romeo and Juliet 272 ■ Shostakovich’s
Fifth Symphony 274–279







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310


I WAS STRUCK BY THE


EMOTIONAL CHARGE



OF THE WORK



THRENODY FOR THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA (1960),
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI






or many contemporary It is scored for a string orchestra of
IN CONTEXT listeners, Polish composer 52 players, each one with their own
F Krzysztof Penderecki’s 1960 individual line and with the string
FOCUS piece Threnody for the Victims of sections also divided into groups.
Music behind the Hiroshima signaled an innovative The 24 violins, for example, are
Iron Curtain
new phase of music in communist split into four groups of six each, to
BEFORE eastern Europe. Until then, much experiment with locations of sound.
1946 Stalin-appointed Andrei of the region’s music had adhered
Zhdanov imposes a policy of to a traditional, socialist-realist The cenotaph in Hiroshima’s Peace
“socialist realism,” championing style. In Penderecki’s Threnody, Park, Japan, commemorates those who
conventional music in eastern however, audiences were exposed lost their lives in the atomic bombing
Europe and shunning avant- to an unprecedented soundscape of Hiroshima, from which Threnody
garde compositions. of strings, wails, and whispers. takes its title.
1958 Russian composers such
as Edison Denisov and Sofia
Gubaidulina begin to emulate
western experimental music
and are dubbed dissidents
by the authorities.
AFTER
1961 Hungarian-born,
Austrian-resident György
Ligeti composes Atmosphères
for orchestra, with its sliding
and combining note clusters.
1970 Witold Lutosławski’s
Cello Concerto is premiered,
bringing him international
success in the wake of social
unrest in his native Poland.







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CONTEMPORARY 311

See also: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony 274–279 ■ Spartacus 309 ■
Lutosławski’s Fourth Symphony 323 ■ Ligeti’s Études pour piano 324


music and planned to call it 8'37",
in reference to its length. However,
even though the work had not been
inspired by the detonation of the
atomic bomb, he retitled the work
A profoundly disturbing Threnody for the Victims of
piece of apparently hopeless Hiroshima to increase the piece’s
cataclysmic atmosphere emotional impact before entering it
in a highly individual for a UNESCO prize in composition.
technique of composition. Penderecki also devised a
Karl H. Wörner unique, graphic way of notating Krzysztof Penderecki
Author his music. Instead of bar lines, the
composer gave timings in seconds Born in De˛bica, Poland, in
at regular points in the score to 1933, Krzysztof Penderecki
denote tempo. Blocks of quarter was educated at the Krakow
steps are shown on the score Academy of Music. Within
as horizontal bands. Penderecki two years of graduating in
also created additional symbols, 1958, he became well known
As the piece begins, these four such as a note stem that instructs for Threnody for the Victims
groups all play a note cluster near the player to bend the pitch up of Hiroshima. Many of his
the top of their registers. From or down a quarter step and subsequent pieces also
there, and throughout the piece, wavering lines indicating a pitch- employed unconventional
the group members play at different bending vibrato. Threnody made instrumentation, such as
pitches just a quarter step apart Penderecki’s name and influenced the typewriter and musical
saw. Still more popular
from each other in clusters of notes, other eastern European composers, was Penderecki’s St. Luke
causing a sense of unease that such as Henryk Górecki and Passion (1966), which
permeates the piece. Kazimierz Serocki, in Poland, and combined unusual textures
the Hungarian György Ligeti, to with a traditional form and
Playing with technique explore new sounds and textures Christian theme.
The Threnody is not structured and ways of writing music based In the 1970s, Penderecki
conventionally but around blocks on blocks of sound. ■ became a professor at the Yale
of sound—some of them based on School of Music. His output
the opening note cluster, others returned to a more conventional
on thinner textures, instrumental musical style in pieces such
lines, or other material. Much of as his Symphony No. 2 (1980).
the piece sounds striking because With a catalogue of works
of Penderecki’s instructions that in various forms, Penderecki,
players produce unusual timbres This was not really political who is still composing music,
is widely regarded as Poland’s
by means of irregular techniques. music … but it was music greatest living composer.
These include bowing the strings that was totally appropriate
on the bridge of the instrument, to the time during which
along the fingerboard, or between we were living. Other key works
the bridge and the tailpiece, or Krzysztof Penderecki
hitting the body of the instrument 1960 Anaklasis, for 42 strings
and Percussion
with the bow, or their fingers. 1970–1971 Utrenja
The result is a composition quite 1984 Polish Requiem
unlike any of its time. Penderecki 1988–1995 Symphony No. 3
conceived of the work as abstract





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312


ONCE YOU BECOME AN


ISM, WHAT YOU’RE



DOING IS DEAD



IN C (1964), TERRY RILEY








n 1950s’ America, a generation a new set of materials, including
IN CONTEXT of artists, such as Donald sound “samples” recorded on
I Judd, Richard Serra, and magnetic tape and played
FOCUS Frank Stella, championed a new on a repeated “loop.”
Minimalism
kind of minimalist art. Inspired
BEFORE partly by Piet Mondrian and Breaking new ground
1893 Erik Satie composes other artists of the Dutch De Stijl In C was the work in which Terry
“Vexations,” a piano piece that movement founded in 1917, it Riley defined the musical style that
is widely recognized as being relied on plain, often industrial, became known as minimalism. It
a forerunner of minimalism. materials and was free of any features a steady pulse, gradual
explicit meaning or influence. In transformation, and the repetition
1958 La Monte Young writes music, too, American composers, of short phrases or musical cells,
his Trio for Strings, considered including La Monte Young, Steve focusing the attention, not on a
to be the original work of Reich, and Terry Riley, looked to goal toward which the music is
musical minimalism. strip notation, instrumentation, progressing, but on a continuous
and rhythm to their barest process of change.
1960–1962 In Mescalin Mix, essentials. To this they added Riley did not begin with the
Riley develops the technique aim of writing a “minimalist” piece.
of repetitions using tape delay. In C emerged partly from his
AFTER experimentation with tape loops,
1967–1968 Philip Glass writes particularly when he collaborated
a succession of minimalist with trumpeter Chet Baker on the
pieces, including Gradus (for In C is revolutionary. music for a theatre production,
called The Gift, in Paris in 1963. He
solo saxophone) and 1 + 1 It introduces repetition recorded Baker and his musicians
(for amplified tabletop). as a primary then made loops from the tapes and
constructive force into
1971 The Who’s song “Baba Western music. played them back simultaneously
O’Riley,” dedicated to Terry Robert Davidson but starting at different times so
Riley, opens with a keyboard Composer and student of Riley they repeated out of sync.
riff inspired by trademark In C uses a similar technique
minimalist repetition. but with live players rather than
tapes. The piece consists of 53
musical phases of varying length
(none longer than 32 beats) that





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CONTEMPORARY 313

See also: 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ Six Pianos 320 ■ Einstein on the Beach 321



Seated at his keyboard, Terry Riley
accompanies the Lahore-born musician
Pandit Pran Nath—one of his earliest
mentors—in a concert at Le Palace
Theatre, Paris, in 1972.


can be played by any number of
instruments and ensembles of any
size, although Riley prefers a group
of between 25 and 30 musicians.
The performers play the phrases
in a set order but can repeat each
phrase as many times as they like,
creating a piece that can vary in
length from 20 minutes to several
hours. The musicians also start the
phrases at different times, so they
are not always synchronized. experiments from the late 1950s Riley has rejected the “minimalist”
The work is anchored by a and displays major differences label—and resisted being limited
rhythmic pulse provided by one from many other works in the by any kind of “ism.” In spite of
musician who repeats the C note genre. In most minimalist pieces, this, his work has been hugely
throughout—acting as a kind of the composer typically controls the influential on composers such as
metronome. This is usually played material much more tightly than Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars
on the piano or a percussion Riley, who leaves crucial decisions, in Britain, Americans Steve Reich
instrument, such as a marimba. such as the instrumentation and and Philip Glass, and the Estonian
the number of repetitions, to the Arvo Pärt, who have all embraced
A lasting presence performers. This is known as elements of minimalism in their
Although In C has been called “aleatory,” or chance-driven, work. Riley’s hypnotic musical
the first truly minimalist work, music (from the Latin alea, approach also influenced the rise
it followed a number of earlier meaning “game of dice”). of “ambient” music in the 1970s. ■

Terry Riley Born in California in 1935, Terry continued to combine with his
Riley met La Monte Young, with interest in avant-garde Western
whom he was to forge a new and music and jazz. In the same
radical approach to music, while decade, Riley began a long-
studying composition at the lasting collaboration with the
University of California. In the Kronos Quartet, producing
1960s, as well as pioneering the many works, including Sun
use of tape loops, Riley embraced Rings, which features sounds
electronic overdubbing, especially gathered from space.
on the album A Rainbow in
Curved Air (1969), on which he Other key works
played all the instrumental parts
himself—a major influence on 1969 A Rainbow in Curved Air
Mike Oldfield’s similarly virtuosic 1971–1972 Persian Surgery
album Tubular Bells (1973). In Dervishes
the 1970s, Riley studied Indian 1989 Salome Dances for Peace
classical music, which he has 2002 Sun Rings







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314


I DESIRE TO CARVE … A


SINGLE PAINFUL TONE AS

INTENSE AS SILENCE ITSELF


NOVEMBER STEPS (1967),
TORU TAKEMITSU









akemitsu composed In November Steps, Takemitsu
IN CONTEXT November Steps in his employs traditional Japanese
T secluded private cottage instruments—the shakuhachi
FOCUS on Mount Asama in central (an end-blown flute) and biwa (a
East meets West
Honshu, Japan’s main island. The short-necked lute). His aim in this
BEFORE only materials he had with him piece was not to blend their sounds
1903 Inspired by East Asia, were Debussy’s original manuscript into the Western orchestra but to
and the European trend of piano scores of Prélude à l’après- contrast their timbre with those of
exoticism, Claude Debussy midi d’un faune and Jeux, with a Western ensemble. He succeeded
mimicked Chinese and their multicolored notation and in reviving the essential nature of
Japanese melodies in Pagodes, handwritten commentaries. the Japanese instruments, creating
the first movement of his a striking intensity against the
Estampes (Engravings). orchestra’s sound stream, couched
in a unique tone language.
AFTER
1991 In his Quotation of A cosmic world of music
Dream, subtitled “Say Sea, Takemitsu was first exposed
Take Me,” from a poem by to Western Classical music,
Emily Dickinson, Takemitsu represented by such figures as
quotes Debussy’s La Mer. Debussy, Alban Berg, and Olivier
Messiaen, during military service
1998 Chinese American in World War II. He would later
composer Tan Dun dedicates create his own cosmic world
his Water Concerto for Water of music that infused these
Percussion and Orchestra to influences with Eastern and
the memory of Takemitsu. Japanese sensitivity. Inspired by
Debussy’s rare intuition, Takemitsu
came to recognize the “light and


The traditional biwa, used in
November Steps, is played here in 2007
in New York by Junko Tahara to music
by Joji Yuasa, an early member of
Takemitsu’s experimental workshop.





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CONTEMPORARY 315

See also: Das Lied von der Erde 198–201 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
228–231 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■ 4´33˝ 302–305


“one tone of the shakuhachi can
become Hotoke [God].” That is, a
single tone can embody cosmic
nature. In the West, by contrast,
tones are joined together into
I am a gardener of time. melodies, rhythms, and harmonies.
I want to create a garden Takemitsu never used conventional
connecting to infinite time. Western musical forms. Most of
Toru Takemitsu his works are short, reflecting
characteristics of Japanese
literature, such as Haiku poetry. Toru Takemitsu
Colorful sonorities are one
hallmark of Takemitsu’s music. As Born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1930,
the Western orchestra possesses Takemitsu briefly studied
perhaps the greatest capacity to composition with Yasuji Kiyose
shade of sound” and what he called create different tone colors, it is in 1948 but was essentially
a “density of tones.” From Messiaen, no coincidence that he wrote a self-taught. In 1951, he
Takemitsu learned “the conception large number of orchestral works. organized the experimental
of the form and color of time,” as Takemitsu also devised unique workshop “Jikken Kobo” with
he put it, and in fact wrote his compositional techniques, later the poet Shuzo Takiguchi and
piano piece Rain Tree Sketch II adopted by younger Japanese others pursuing avant-garde
(1992) in memory of the composer. composers. In the piano piece methods. Takemitsu’s
Unlike Messiaen, Takemitsu did Les yeux clos (“Eyes closed,” 1979), Requiem for Strings (1957),
not belong to a particular religion he created layers of simultaneous written after the death of
composer Fumio Hayasaka
but considered himself a religious melodies with slightly different note whom he adored, was praised
person. The act of composing was values so that each note makes a by Stravinsky. A decade later,
for him a prayer: he likened it to tiny anticipation, or delay, erasing the success of November Steps
“taking out a part of an eternal the sense of beats and creating a established his international
‘river of sound’ running through fluidlike texture. Takemitsu’s reputation as the leading
the world surrounding us.” Like music is wholly original—a unique Japanese composer. From the
his close friend John Cage, who juxtaposition of Japanese and 1970s, he used fewer Japanese
was fascinated with fungi, and Western musical traditions. ■ instruments in his works,
Messiaen, a passionate bird lover, preferring conventional
Takemitsu related deeply to the Western instruments and
natural world. As the titles of many more tonal sonorities, as
of his works indicate, he felt his in pieces such as A String
music was intimately linked to around Autumn (1989). He
both nature and the universe. composed a large number of
A Western tone walks works with Western idioms
Silence and sound horizontally but a tone and wrote music for more than
90 Japanese films. Takemitsu
Takemitsu had a profound interest of the shakuhachi rises died in Tokyo in 1996.
in the relationship between silence vertically like a tree.
and sound. The Eastern concept of Toru Takemitsu
“Ma,” an intense silence between Other key works
sounds, was for him contrary to the 1957 Requiem for Strings
Western idea of a musical “rest”— 1979 In an Autumn Garden
literally, a resting silence. In the 1994 Archipelago S.
East, too, according to Takemitsu,





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316


IN MUSIC … THINGS


DON’T GET BETTER OR

WORSE: THEY EVOLVE


AND TRANSFORM

THEMSELVES


SINFONIA (1968–1969), LUCIANO BERIO





IN CONTEXT

FOCUS
Quotation and collage
BEFORE
1906 American composer
Charles Ives writes “Central
Park in the Dark,” an early
example of musical collage.

1952 Imaginary Landscape
No. 5 by John Cage creates an
unpredictable collage using 42
records as its source materials.
AFTER
1977 Alfred Schnittke
composes his Concerto Grosso
No. 1 in an example of the he 1960s—a decade of The Swingle Singers perform in
collage technique that he profound social change— 1965, typically with only drums and
called “polystylism.” T reached its height in 1968, double bass as accompaniment. The
the year in which Luciano Berio’s French group made jazzy covers of
1981 The Adventures of Sinfonia had its first performance. both popular and classical pieces.
Grandmaster Flash on the These changes—the Civil Rights
Wheels of Steel showcases Movement, student protests, new Sinfonia—the title of which is
the virtuoso DJ mixing mass media channels, and the a deliberate allusion to the old-
techniques that were a clash of high art and popular fashioned symphony genre—
foundation of early hip-hop. culture—were happening on established Berio as one of the
streets and in homes around the most inventive composers of his
world, and all made their way into generation. Commissioned by
Italian composer Luciano Berio’s Leonard Bernstein and the New
dismantling and reconstruction York Philharmonic Orchestra, it is
of classical music history. best known for its extraordinary





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CONTEMPORARY 317

See also: Magnus liber organi 28–31 ■ Ives’s Symphony No. 4 254–255 ■
Symphonie pour un homme seul 298–301 ■ Gruppen 306–307


third movement, which consists of to stand alone. “O King,” the work’s
a whirl of musical quotations from second movement, was written in
Bach to Pierre Boulez. Running 1967 as a tribute to the Reverend
throughout its 12 minutes is the Martin Luther King Jr. After
largest quotation of all: the dancing, King’s assassination in April 1968,
spinning Scherzo from Mahler’s Berio decided to incorporate it
Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.” into Sinfonia, expanding that into
a work for four singers and full
The quotation technique orchestra and serving now as a
Composers had used quotation and memorial to the Civil Rights leader.
even collage techniques before; as Its text simply repeats King’s name, Luciano Berio
early as 1906, and before artists separated into “phonemes” (the
such as Picasso and Braque had smallest individual sounds of a Berio was born in the town
painted visual collages in the early word) and stretched across wide of Oneglia, Italy, in 1924. His
1910s, Charles Ives had layered intervals of time, as though father and grandfather, who
different melodies and musical evaporating into the air. were both organists, taught
styles in “Central Park in the Dark.” him to play the piano. After
More recently, John Cage had Other influences World War II, he went to study
begun experimenting with playing Sinfonia’s fourth movement is also at the Milan Conservatory,
records and differently tuned radios a lament, in which Berio mourns but an injury to his hand
simultaneously. In a way, quotation all of the lost heroes and ideas of forced him to give up piano
had been a part of classical music movements two and three. Unlike studies for composition.
since the masters of organum used these, the first movement is a study He married the American
Gregorian chants to make their in Brazilian origin myths, drawing singer and composer Cathy
Berberian in 1950, writing
polyphonic church music in the on text extracted from Claude Lévi- several works for her before
12th century. However, Sinfonia Strauss’s revolutionary, and recently their divorce in 1964.
was the first time quotation had published study in mythology, The Berio’s interest in the
been used to such an extent: it was Raw and the Cooked (1964). The avant-garde movement began
a whole movement for full orchestra, fifth and final movement, which in the 1950s, and he became
created almost entirely from Berio added only after the work’s Italy’s leading composer in the
borrowed materials. premiere, synthesizes and reflects genre. In 1955, he established
On top of all of this are the vocal upon the previous four. ■ an electronic studio in Milan—
lines. Eight singers perform from one of the world’s first—with
a text in which passages from Bruno Maderna. Berio was
Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable also a respected teacher of
are mixed with extracts from composition, particularly at
James Joyce, Paul Valéry, musical the Juilliard School in New
directions, and slogans from the York. His pupils included
Steve Reich and Grateful Dead
Paris protests. In order for the Using Mahler was a guitarist Phil Lesh. Berio died
singers to be heard, their voices tribute to Leonard in Rome in 2003.
needed to be amplified, and Berio Bernstein, who has done
turned to the Swingle Singers, so much for his music.
a popular group in their day, Luciano Berio Other key works
because of their familiarity with 1958 Thema (Omaggio
microphone technique. a Joyce)
Sinfonia is a five-part meditation 1966 Sequenza III
on the past and the future. The 1977 Coro
first part was originally intended





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318


IF YOU TELL ME


A LIE, LET IT



BE A BLACK LIE



EIGHT SONGS FOR A MAD KING (1969),
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES






ith some exceptions— to a traditional past rather than
IN CONTEXT such as the areas pointing toward an exciting
W of psychology and new future. As the 1960s arrived,
FOCUS imagination explored in the operas however, with their release of
Theatre and radicalism of Benjamin Britten and Michael long pent-up desires for social
in English music
Tippett—British classical music and political change, a similar
BEFORE after World War II was generally in revolution in classical music
1912 Arnold Schoenberg’s thrall to convention. Prominent new was about to erupt.
song-cycle melodrama Pierrot works, such as Sinfonia antartica
lunaire launches the concept (1952) by Ralph Vaughan Williams, New blood
of the avant garde. or William Walton’s Cello Concerto When Peter Maxwell Davies
(1956), were seen as looking back entered the Royal Manchester
1968 The ritualistic violence College of Music in 1952, he found
of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera a number of like-minded radical
Punch and Judy disconcerts fellow-students: composers
listeners at the UK’s Aldeburgh Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander
Festival, including its founder, Goehr, trumpeter and conductor
Benjamin Britten. Elgar Howarth, and pianist John
Ogdon. This new “Manchester
AFTER School” was an informal group of
1972 Maxwell Davies’s opera very different artistic personalities.
Taverner, an ambitiously While Goehr’s music related to the
dramatic portrait of the Tudor modern Austro-German tradition
composer John Taverner, is of the inter-war years, with its roots
first performed at the Royal in the style and technical method
Opera House, Covent Garden. of Arnold Schoenberg, Birtwistle
looked to reconnect with ancient
1986 Birtwistle’s “lyric theatrical ritual, particularly Greek
tragedy” The Mask of Orpheus,
a theatrical representation on
an immense scale of multiple The ravings of the mentally
versions of the Orpheus afflicted George III (1738–1820), King of
Great Britain and Ireland, provided the
legend, premieres in London. disconcerting basis for the libretto
of Eight Songs for a Mad King.





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CONTEMPORARY 319

See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ A Child of Our Time 284–285 ■
Peter Grimes 288–293 ■ In Seven Days 328


theatre. Davies meanwhile rebelled screaming and screeching,
against conventional teaching extremely high or low notes,
methods in the quest for a modern and even simultaneous notes
composing idiom developed from sung together in chords.
the musical techniques and
structures of Renaissance Europe. Fusion sounds
Although the work was a huge
Music theatre success, Davies soon moved away
In the 1960s, the avant-garde from composing purely avant-garde
genre of “music theatre” provided pieces. From 1972, he turned his
Davies with a vehicle for his attention to classical forms and Peter Maxwell Davies
modernist style. In music theatre, went on to write 10 orchestral
musicians shared the stage with symphonies, many of which were Born in Salford, Lancashire,
vocal and theatrical performers, inspired by his new home of in 1934, Davies won a place at
all taking part equally in the Orkney, Scotland. the Royal Manchester College
drama. The idea had its origins Over the course of his career, of Music. After further study
in Schoenberg’s groundbreaking Davies gained a reputation for in Italy, he taught music at
atonal work Pierrot lunaire (1912), polystylism—combining disparate Cirencester Grammar School,
with its new kind of part-singing, genres in one piece. By the turn of starting a lifelong commitment
part-spoken vocal performance the 21st century, classical music to musical education. After
and strong theatrical elements. in Britain had similarly moved far spells studying and teaching
In 1967, Davies and Birtwistle beyond the dominance of any one in the US and Australia, he
founded a chamber group to set of stylistic values. The music returned to England in 1966,
perform Pierrot lunaire and more of Jonathan Harvey mastered the where he gained a reputation
as a controversial figure in
contemporary pieces. It was called fusion of vocal, instrumental, and contemporary music.
the Pierrot Players, after the electronic sounds, whereas John A visit to the Orkney
Schoenberg work, and in 1970 Tavener successfully absorbed Islands in Scotland in 1970
reformed as The Fires of London. the music of Eastern Orthodox began a deep involvement
The group set out to stage Christianity into the Western with the islands and their
provocatively subversive dramatic concert hall. The music of Mark- culture. He settled on Hoy in
works in small venues. Among Anthony Turnage, meanwhile, 1974, later moving to another
these was Eight Songs for a Mad has boldly incorporated elements island, Sanday. In 1976,
King, portraying the unhinged of jazz into classical pieces. ■ he founded the St. Magnus
psychological world of the British International Festival, named
monarch King George III. Some of after Orkney’s patron saint,
the group’s players were deployed involving local people
on stage in cages to represent the alongside professional
caged birds that the king liked to musicians. Davies was Master
of the Queen’s Music from
talk to. Alongside the traditional Sometimes I suspect that 2004 until his death in 2016.
instruments used, such as violin, Davies himself may be a
cello, and clarinet, were unusual little bit mad.
examples, including a railway Peter G. Davis Other key works
whistle, steel bar, didgeridoo, Music critic (1983)
and toy bird calls. 1960 O Magnum Mysterium
1962–1970 Taverner
The vocal part, written for 1969 Worldes Blis
the South African baritone Roy 1976–1977 The Martyrdom
Hart, exploited an extraordinary of St Magnus
range of sounds, from singing to





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320


THE PROCESS OF


SUBSTITUTING BEATS



FOR RESTS



SIX PIANOS (1973), STEVE REICH








irst performed in New York Although his style was initially
IN CONTEXT in 1973, Reich’s Six Pianos controversial, by 1976 Reich’s Music
F employs the “phasing” for 18 Musicians was well received.
FOCUS technique the American composer In the 1980s, he moved away from
Late minimalism
had developed in the 1960s. The six strict minimalism, developing
BEFORE pianists play the same repeated richer harmonies and melodies.
1958 American composer eight-beat rhythmic pattern, but Notable later works by Reich,
La Monte Young completes each strikes different notes. The whose style has influenced both
his pioneering minimalist repeated pattern produces richly classical and popular music,
work, Trio for Strings. textured, shifting waves of sound include Different Trains (1988)
as the pianists move in and out of and The Cave (1993), a multimedia
1964 Terry Riley’s In C is an phase with each other. opera created with his wife, the
influential minimalist work; it video artist Beryl Korot. ■
uses simple musical fragments Rhythm and repetition
to create a wavelike sound. Reich was an early adherent of
the minimalist style that began to
AFTER emerge in the United States in the
1978 Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: late 1950s. Pioneered by La Monte
Music for Airports introduces Young and Terry Riley, soon joined
minimalism into popular by Philip Glass and Reich, it was a
music, helping to create the reaction against the serialism of
new genre of ambient music. European composers such as
Arnold Schoenberg and Pierre
1982 Minimalism and Boulez. In contrast to melodies and
medieval Gregorian chant harmonies based on the 12-tone
influence the Estonian Arvo chromatic scale, minimalism used
Pärt in works such as his repeated chords or sequences that Reel-to-reel tapes and other
St. John Passion. changed only by tiny increments recording equipment enabled Reich,
shown here in 1982, to perfect the
over the course of a piece. It was phasing techniques that he would
also marked by strong rhythms. then apply to live instruments.

See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Gruppen 306–307 ■ Threnody for the Victims
of Hiroshima 310–311 ■ In C 312–313 ■ Einstein on the Beach 321







US_320-321_Reich_Glass.indd 320 26/03/18 1:02 PM

CONTEMPORARY 321


WE WERE SO FAR


AHEAD … BECAUSE

EVERYONE ELSE STAYED

SO FAR BEHIND


EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH (1976),
PHILIP GLASS






reated in collaboration with
IN CONTEXT the avant-garde theatre
C director Robert Wilson,
FOCUS Philip Glass’s opera Einstein on the
Minimalism and opera
Beach was first performed in 1976,
BEFORE in Avignon, France. Inspired by the I was in that generation of
1954 Glass visits Paris and life of the physicist Albert Einstein, people who could look beyond
sees films by Jean Cocteau it has no plot but works through the borders of Europe and
that later become the basis for image, dance, and music, using North … and South America.
his operas, Orphée (1993), La recurring projected images to Philip Glass
Belle et la bête (1994), and Les evoke aspects of Einstein’s world.
Enfants terribles (1996). There is no orchestra but only an
ensemble of electronic keyboards
1965 In an early involvement and wind instruments. Words are
with avant-garde theatre, sparse and incantatory. The work
Glass writes music for Samuel has no intervals and lasts five
Beckett’s one-act Play. hours, during which the audience in his words, “on repetitive and
can come and go as they please. cyclic structures.” The result was
AFTER often hypnotic—arpeggio and
1977 David Bowie’s albums Powerful, hypnotic music harmonic motifs repeated for long
Low and “Heroes,” created Einstein on the Beach was the fruit stretches virtually unchanged.
with Brian Eno, will later of a decade of experimenting. Glass His success with Einstein
inspire Glass’s symphonies was classically trained, but like on the Beach was followed by
No. 1 (1992) and No. 4 (1996). Reich and others in the emerging Satyagraha (1980), Akhnaten (1984),
minimalist movement, he rejected and a number of other operas,
1990 Glass and Indian earlier styles. After transcribing film scores, symphonies, and other
musician Ravi Shankar some of Ravi Shankar’s Indian sitar works. Glass influenced musicians
release Passages, an album music and traveling in India and such as David Bowie, Brian Eno,
of chamber music that they North Africa in the 1960s, he began and the band Pink Floyd; their
have composed together. to develop a style of his own based, music also influenced his own. ■


See also: Gruppen 306–307 ■ In C 312–313 ■ Eight Songs for a Mad King
318–319 ■ Six Pianos 320







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322


THIS MUST BE THE


FIRST PURPOSE



OF ART … TO


CHANGE US



APOCALYPSIS (1977) R. MURRAY SCHAFER




onceived on the grandest feminism, sentiment, and art). This
IN CONTEXT scale, with multiple vision, clearly opposed to Schafer’s
C ensembles, singers, and ethics, is vanquished in the second
FOCUS instrumentalists, Schafer’s musical part, “Credo.” Here, Schafer adapts
Sonic ecology
spectacle Apocalypsis (1977) is 12 meditations from Giordano
BEFORE part of a long tradition in Western Bruno’s cosmological treatise De
1912 Mahler writes his Eighth art music that extends back to la causa, principio et uno of 1584.
Symphony, a bid “to imagine Monteverdi’s Vespers. An even Each starts, “Lord God is universe,”
the whole universe beginning earlier inspiration is Tallis’s motet creating a cumulative, ritualistic
to ring and resound.” Spem in alium, whose immersive effect. The last proclaims “Universe
use of eight five-voice choirs is one: one act, one form, one soul,
1966 Schafer begins Patria, influenced the 12 spatially arranged one body, one being, the maximum,
a cycle of large-scale music choirs used in the second part of and only,” encapsulating Schafer’s
theatre works conceived for Apocalypsis, “Credo.” spiritual and ecological beliefs. ■
special (often outdoor) spaces.
Opposing sound pollution
AFTER Schafer, who founded the study
1994 The Apocalypse by John of acoustic ecology in the 1960s,
Tavener is premiered at the pursues ecological themes in his
BBC Proms. work, opposing the gradual masking
2003 With Sonntag, Karlheinz of the natural soundscape by
Stockhausen completes his man-made noise. Such themes
seven-opera cycle Licht. are the subject of Apocalypsis.
The first part, “John’s Vision,”
2006 John Luther Adams’s tells of the destruction of the world
The Place Where You Go To using texts from the Bible’s Book of Schafer’s Apocalypsis is inspired by
Listen, a sound and light Revelation and a new Antichrist’s the vision in Revelation in which four
installation reflecting natural vision of good (cities, jet aircraft, horsemen, depicted here in a woodcut
rhythms, opens in Alaska. computers, and “the habit of by Christoph Murer (1558–1614), are
energy”) and evil (museums, the harbingers of the Last Judgment.

See also: Spem in alium 44–45 ■ Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69 ■ St. Matthew
Passion 98–105 ■ Elijah 170–173 ■ The Dream of Gerontius 218–219







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CONTEMPORARY 323


I COULD START OUT


FROM THE CHAOS AND



CREATE ORDER IN IT



FOURTH SYMPHONY (1993)
WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI






he life of Polish composer
IN CONTEXT Witold Lutosławski
T coincided with a turbulent
FOCUS period in Eastern Europe. At the
“Controlled aleatory” time of his birth in 1913, Poland
composition
was partitioned between Austria, It [music] always fascinated
BEFORE Prussia, and Russia. In World me, and I couldn’t imagine
1958 John Cage composes his War II, the composer was briefly any other profession
Concert for Piano and Orchestra. imprisoned by the Nazis, and after than musician, and
the war, he was hounded by the even composer.
1961 After hearing a snippet communist authorities. Only in Witold Lutosławski
of Cage’s Concert on the radio, his last years was Poland free.
Lutosławski uses “controlled While Lutosławski believed in
aleatory” for the first time in the autonomy of art, critics often
his Jeux vénitiens. perceive the reflection of outside
tensions in his music. Like many of
AFTER his pieces, his Fourth Symphony,
2003 Lutosławski’s Polish whose composition spanned the fall up is only partly predictable—they
colleague Wojciech Kilar of communism, has two halves—a may start at different times, for
composes September halting introduction, followed by a example. The method is evident in
Symphony (Symphony No. 3) decisive and conclusive statement. the Fourth Symphony’s first section:
to commemorate the 9/11 at three points, rhythmic music
attacks in New York City. An element of chance dissolves into disarray, like a false
From the early 1960s, a consistent start to a race, creating a sense of
2011 Liza Lim’s Tongue of feature of his music was his use of anticipation that is resolved in the
the Invisible is one of many “controlled aleatory” passages, in work’s more assertive second half.
contemporary works since which the coordination between The Fourth Symphony was
Lutosławski’s death that instrumental parts is partially Lutosławski’s last work. He died
combine controlled governed by chance. They may be in 1994, a year after conducting
improvisation with passages fully written out, but how they line its Los Angeles premiere. ■
in conventional notation.
See also: Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21 264–265 ■ Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony
274–279 ■ 4´33˝ 302–305 ■ Gruppen 306–307







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324


VOLCANIC, EXPANSIVE,


DAZZLING—AND



OBSESSIVE



ÉTUDES (1985–2001)
GYÖRGY LIGETI






he term “fractal” was first piano music of Bill Evans and
IN CONTEXT used in 1975 by the Thelonius Monk. To synthesize
T mathematician Benoit these influences, he turned to the
FOCUS Mandelbrot, though the concept is piano study, or étude, a form used
Fractal music
much older. It describes images, by Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy.
BEFORE surfaces, sounds, or other patterns Ligeti’s 18 Études all employ
1915 Debussy’s 12 Études made up of mini-versions of the rhythmic and melodic processes
introduce pictorial imagery whole, which they continue to that interact, conflict, and even
to the études genre. resemble however tiny they are cancel each other out. Their titles,
and however often subdivided. such as Disorder and Vertigo,
1947 Conlon Nancarrow The composer György Ligeti reflect the images their streams of
writes rhythmically elaborate first came across fractals in 1984, notes evoke. Works of fantasy, they
studies for a pianola. in images by the mathematician are a major contribution to the late
Heinz-Otto Peitgen. Ligeti 20th-century repertoire. ■
1959 Ligeti uses what he recognized that the principle of
later called “micropolyphony” internal symmetry had been
in his orchestral Apparitions. present in his music for years. He

1984 Charles Wuorinen’s had used a technique he called
Bamboula Squared employs “micropolyphony,” overlaying
a computer-generated tape multiple closely related versions In my music one finds …
partly inspired by Benoit of the same musical line to create a unification of construction
Mandelbrot’s work on fractals. dense, shimmering textures. with poetic, emotional
AFTER Studies in fractal style imagination.
2003 Ligeti’s student Unsuk Ligeti began to employ ideas György Ligeti
Chin completes her own set derived from mathematics and the
of 12 Études, continuing broader theory of chaos. He had
her teacher’s interest in also become interested in Central
complex rhythms. African music, the pianola studies
of Conlon Nancarrow, and the jazz

See also: The Art of Fugue 108–111 ■ Chopin’s Préludes 164–165 ■ Prélude à
l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Pithoprakta 308







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CONTEMPORARY 325


MY MUSIC



IS WRITTEN




FOR EARS





L’AMOUR DE LOIN (2000), KAIJA SAARIAHO




innish composer Kaija
IN CONTEXT Saariaho’s opera, L’Amour
F de loin (2000), was one of
FOCUS the first new operas of the 21st
Opera into the 21st century
century. The lavish production,
BEFORE premiered at the Salzburg Festival,
1992 Peter Sellars stages Austria, renewed excitement in the
Olivier Messiaen’s opera genre of grand opera involving large
Saint François d’Assise, in casts and orchestras; in the late
Salzburg, Austria; Saariaho 20th century, inexpensive chamber
finds it inspiring. operas had been more popular.
AFTER Love from afar
2003 The opera Rasputin by Written to a French libretto by
Finnish composer Einojuhani Amin Maalouf, L’Amour de loin is Kaija Saariaho works on a score in
Rautavaara receives its world based on a sketch of Jaufré Rudel, Paris, France, her home since 1982,
premiere in Helsinki. a 12th-century French troubadour, when she first studied at IRCAM, the
and his love for Clémence, a woman acoustic music research institute that
2008 The Minotaur by he has idealized from a distance— strongly influenced her early style.
Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto hence the title, meaning “love
by poet David Harsent is from afar.” The small solo cast is Since then, it has become one of
premiered at the Royal Opera complemented by a chorus and the most frequently performed
House in London. sizeable orchestra that features operas in the 21st century, with
accessible, consonant harmony, productions in Paris, London,
2015 Jennifer Higdon’s with electronic elements and New York, and Toronto.
grand opera, Cold Mountain, attention to tone color—all The success of L’Amour de loin
premieres in Santa Fe, New hallmarks of Saariaho’s style. led to renewed interest in grand
Mexico, United States. Following the opera’s world opera and further commissions.
premiere at the Salzburg Festival in Saariaho’s second grand opera,
Austria, critics praised its lyricism. Adriana Mater, followed in 2005. ■

See also: Peer Gynt 208–209 ■ The Wreckers 232–239 ■ Peter Grimes 288–293 ■
Einstein on the Beach 321–322







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326


BLUE … LIKE THE


SKY. WHERE ALL



POSSIBILITIES SOAR



BLUE CATHEDRAL (2000), JENNIFER HIGDON








he unifying theme of and experimental music that had
IN CONTEXT Jennifer Higdon’s music often alienated the general public.
T is her compositional To attract audiences, ensembles
FOCUS philosophy of communicating therefore chose to perform older
Return to lyricism
effectively. Her work blue cathedral works that entailed little risk.
BEFORE achieves this through her Higdon’s blue cathedral, however,
1984 The New York characteristic exploration of tone with its warmth, lyricism, and
Philharmonic programs color (the quality that gives an emotion, demonstrated that modern
“Horizons ’84: The New instrument its distinct sound), music could appeal to audiences of
Romanticism—a Broader combined with expressive lyricism. all ages and demographics, opening
View” draw mass public In the latter half of the 20th the door for an exciting period of
attention to Neo-romanticism. century, many artistic ensembles new music in the 21st century.
were struggling financially.
1991 John Corigliano’s opera Contemporary music had been Love, life, and death
The Ghosts of Versailles associated with trends such as Higdon was commissioned to
premieres at the Metropolitan post-minimalism, electronic works, write blue cathedral to mark the
Opera, New York City. It is 75th anniversary of the American
the company’s first new conservatory, the Curtis Institute of
opera since the 1960s. Music. Although initially conceived
as a celebration, the composer
AFTER was at the time mourning the
2009 Film composer, John death of her younger brother,
Williams’s On Willows and I don’t think you should Andrew Blue Higdon. Both events
Birches (Concerto for Harp and have to know anything informed the title: “blue,” in
Orchestra) premieres with the about my music, or anything memory of her brother Andrew, to
Boston Symphony Orchestra. about music in general, whom the score is dedicated, and
to enjoy it … I look at “cathedral” to represent Curtis as
2017 The (R)evolution of Steve music as a mirror. a place of learning and growth.
Jobs, by Mason Bates, opens Jennifer Higdon In this tone poem, Higdon’s
at Opera Santa Fe, Santa Fe, heavenly music suggests a
New Mexico. cathedral in the sky. It features
numerous solo instruments,
most prominently the flute and
the clarinet, to represent the





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CONTEMPORARY 327

See also: Symphonie fantastique 162–163 ■ Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor 179 ■ Das Lied von der
Erde 198–201 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ The Lark Ascending 252–253 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287
















Higdon siblings who played those The work premiered on May 1, The solo clarinet features
instruments. As Higdon is the 2000, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prominently in blue cathedral. It was
older sibling, the flute appears with Robert Spano as conductor. the instrument played by Higdon’s
first, followed by the clarinet. Musicians and critics lauded brother, who died of skin cancer shortly
before Higdon composed the piece.
This duet briefly returns near the Higdon’s ability to communicate
end, before the flute ceases, leaving the universal themes of love,
the clarinet (Andrew) to continue life, and death. The work’s strong The conductor initiated what
its journey alone. lyricism, exploration of orchestral would become known as the
Additional extended solos are color, and programmatic content Atlanta School of Composers,
presented by the English horn and made it a great success, and it a group comprising Higdon,
a violin; both are complemented became one of the 21st century’s Christopher Theofanidis, Osvaldo
by smaller instrumental melodies most popular compositions, with Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, and
that represent the lives a single some 600 productions (at all levels) Adam Schoenberg. Although
person touches in his or her journey. performed across the world. diverse in musical style, the
In the introduction and coda, composers are unified by their
Higdon also experiments with the The Atlanta School dedication to tonality and melody,
percussion section, utilizing some Following blue cathedral’s premiere, as well as their incorporation of
unorthodox orchestration, such as Higdon began a long and fruitful world music and popular culture.
crystal glasses and Chinese bells, association with the Atlanta Together, they have redefined the
to create an ethereal atmosphere. Symphony Orchestra led by Spano. genre of contemporary music. ■

Jennifer Higdon Jennifer Higdon was born in Concerto, Grammy Awards
Brooklyn, New York, in 1962, for her Percussion Concerto
and then moved with her family and Viola Concerto, and an
first to Atlanta and then to the International Opera Award for
Appalachian Mountains in her first opera, Cold Mountain,
Tennessee. After teaching herself based on the bestselling novel
to play the flute at the age of 15, of the same name by Charles
she began formal music studies Frazier. Her popularity allows
at 18 and went on to pursue her to compose exclusively
composition studies at graduate on commission.
level alongside two of America’s
most significant composers of the Other key works
20th century, Ned Rorem and
George Crumb. 2005 The Percussion Concerto
Higdon has received many 2008 The Singing Rooms
awards, including the Pulitzer 2009 Violin Concerto
Prize in Music for her Violin 2015 Cold Mountain







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328


THE MUSIC USES SIMPLE


BUILDING BLOCKS AND

GROWS ORGANICALLY

FROM THERE …


IN SEVEN DAYS (2008), THOMAS ADÈS








isual accompaniments to shapes, patterns, waves, and flows,
IN CONTEXT music have been known yet these are actually derived from
V for centuries, becoming pictures of London’s Royal Festival
FOCUS ubiquitous and infinitely more Hall and the Los Angeles Walt
Music and multimedia
varied in recent times. In British Disney Concert Hall, which jointly
BEFORE composer Thomas Adès’s In Seven commissioned the work.
1910 In Prometheus: The Days, a depiction of the biblical Adès and Rosner call their work
Poem of Fire, Alexander creation story, his collaborator Tal a “visual ballet,” and when used,
Scriabin calls for a “color Rosner’s video illustrates, enriches, the video is generally projected on
organ” to fill the concert hall and expands on the music—a set screens above the orchestra. The
with colored light. of variations on two themes, for music can also be played alone, but
piano and orchestra. Adès adds together the two create a powerful
1952 John Cage’s Theatre an unusual twist. His themes are multimedia experience. ■
Piece No. 1, with paintings not introduced at the beginning
by Robert Rauschenberg and but at the end, in a short final
dance by Merce Cunningham, movement, which distills the
is staged in North Carolina. core essence from the earlier six
movements corresponding to the
2003 Olga Neuwirth combines six days described in Genesis.
video, music, and theatre in In this music, creation evolves The better you play it,
her adaptation of David from chaos into order. and the closer you come
Lynch’s film Lost Highway. to his idiosyncratic vision,
Images enhancing sound the more wonderful
AFTER In Rosner’s visual accompaniment it sounds.
2010 Michel van der Aa’s to In Seven Days, images dance Simon Rattle
Up-close combines video opera and spin in time with the sounds,
(incorporating video images) echoing the music’s kaleidoscopic
and cello concerto. depiction of the balance between

2016 Everything Is Important chaos and order. The video is
by Jennifer Walsh uses music mostly abstract, with geometrical
and film to explore modern life.
See also: Ives’s Symphony No. 4 254–255 ■ Janá cˇek’s Sinfonietta 263 ■
Pithoprakta 308 ■ Ligeti’s Études pour piano 324







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CONTEMPORARY 329


THIS IS THE CORE


OF WHO WE ARE



AND WHAT WE


NEED TO BE



ALLELUIA (2011), ERIC WHITACRE




ric Whitacre, one of the Alleluia retains many aspects
IN CONTEXT most popular 21st-century from the choral tradition that make
E composers, is an advocate it just as gratifying to sing as to
FOCUS for the uplifting power of choral listen to: richly ringing harmonies,
Choral music in music. The majority of his works phrases that fit well with natural
the 21st century
are choral, including Alleluia (2011), breath, and allusions to ancient
BEFORE though the origins of that piece chant and Renaissance polyphony.
1921 Vaughan Williams are instrumental—a composition Yet in its mysterious folklike
writes “A Pastoral Symphony” titled October evoking the colors opening, and the way harmonies
(Symphony No. 3) that helps and radiance of autumn. Inspired are used as resonating chambers
establish the lyrical sound of by the 20th-century pastoralism of for the solo lines, it also achieves
the English pastoral school. English composers such as Ralph a contemporary sound. ■
Vaughan Williams, Whitacre had
1977 Arvo Pärt’s Missa written October for wind orchestra
syllabica, Fratres, and Cantus (actually school bands) in 2000.
in memoriam Benjamin Britten A decade later, Nevada-born
introduce a new style of Whitacre, who describes himself
devotional composition. as spiritual rather than religious,
decided to set liturgical text to
1997 Sir John Tavener’s Song music for the first time, choosing
for Athene, composed in 1993 the words “Alleluia” and “Amen”
as a tribute to a family friend, and uniting them with October,
is performed at the funeral of whose simplicity and elegance
Diana, Princess of Wales. transferred well to a choral setting.
AFTER
2013 Caroline Shaw wins the Eric Whitacre, pictured here in 2011
Pulitzer Prize for Music for her at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge,
Partita for eight voices. Britain, while Composer in Residence,
was inspired to write Alleluia by his
2014 Gabriel Jackson writes work with the chapel choir.
Seven Advent Antiphons, one
of his many liturgical settings. See also: Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■ Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69 ■
St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Elijah 170–173 ■ The Dream of Gerontius 218–219







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DIRECTORY















































































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DIRECTORY















































































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332

DIRECTORY







n addition to the composers covered in the preceding chapters
in this book, numerous others have also made an impact on the
I development of classical music. The music represented by those
listed here—many of whom were also teachers, scholars, and virtuoso
soloists—is diverse, ranging from the choral works of the great Spanish
composer of the Renaissance, Tomás Luis de Victoria, to the loud and
unsettling symphonies of Anton Bruckner, while the particular impact
of Mily Balakirev was in leading the circle of composers known as Russia’s
“Mighty Handful,” or “Five.” What unites them is the way they have
enriched the lives of their audiences and influenced the compositions
of their peers with new ideas or refinements of existing ones.


Italian (madrigals), French (chansons),
JOHANNES OCKEGHEM and German (Lieder). His sacred music JAN PIETERSZOON SWEELINCK
c.1410–1497 includes settings of the psalms, notably 1562–1621
a sequence of penitential psalms, Psalmi
Born in Flanders, Johannes Ockeghem Davidis poenitentiales (published in Dutchman Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
made his name in Paris at the court of 1584). His music has an emotional was the most influential performer and
King Charles VII and his successors, intensity, reflecting the words he set composer of organ music before J.S.
becoming one of the most celebrated to music, that preempts the Baroque Bach. Before the age of 20, he succeeded
composers of early Renaissance Europe. style of the 18th century. his father as organist at Amsterdam’s
Much of his work has been lost, but Oude Kerk (Old Church), where he
surviving compositions include 14 would later be succeeded by his own
Masses and 10 motets (religious choral TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA son. He wrote vocal music, both sacred
works) along with 20 secular chansons. c.1548–1611 and secular, but is remembered for
Ockeghem introduced richer, more his innovative organ works, in which,
sonorous harmonies to Renaissance Spain’s greatest Renaissance composer, among other things, he developed the
music, exploring the lower reaches of Tomás Luis de Victoria, was born near fugue form. As an organist, he was
the bass part for the first time. His Ávila in central Castile. He enjoyed royal famous for his virtuoso improvisations
works are contrapuntal, weaving patronage from an early age, and in his before and after services. His many
together two or more melodic lines. late teens, King Philip II sent de Victoria pupils spread across Protestant northern
to Rome, where he was ordained a priest Germany, themselves influencing the
but also practiced as a musician— young Handel and Bach.
ORLANDO DI LASSO probably studying under the composer
1532–1594 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He
returned to Spain around the age of 40, CARLO GESUALDO
As a boy chorister in Mons (in modern becoming director of music and later 1566–1613
Belgium), Orlando di Lasso was so organist at the wealthy convent of Las
renowned for the beauty of his voice that Descalzas Reales in Madrid. His work A man of passionate and often
he was kidnapped three times by those is dramatic and sometimes vividly melancholy temperament, Neapolitan
keen to have him in their choirs. In pictorial, as in the motet Cum Beatus nobleman Carlo Gesualdo, Prince
1556 he moved to Munich, where he Ignatius, where the music evokes the of Venosa, is believed to have been
remained for the rest of his life, serving wild beasts tearing at the Christian personally responsible for the revenge
as kapellmeister (director of music) to martyr Ignatius of Antioch. His deep murder of his first wife and her lover, the
Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria. As a spirituality is expressed in settings Duke of Andria. Gesualdo also published
composer, he was both versatile and of the psalms and several Masses, three books of motets (religious choral
prolific, writing more than 2,000 works. including the Missa O quam gloriosum works) and six of madrigals. The later
His secular pieces include songs in and the Missa Ave Regina coelorum. books of madrigals, in particular, show






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DIRECTORY 333



an innovative use of harmony, unparalleled Venice under Giovanni Gabrieli. In 1617, servant to the wealthy dramatist and
in Renaissance music, which won him following his return to Germany, he was poet Giulio Strozzi, who adopted Barbara
many admirers in later centuries. appointed kapellmeister at the court of and may well have been her biological
the electors (rulers) of Saxony in Dresden. father. Strozzi studied under the
His settings of biblical and sacred texts composer Francesco Cavalli and was a
ORLANDO GIBBONS transformed Lutheran church music, member of the Accademia degli Unisoni
1583–1625 ranging from early psalm settings, (Academy of the Like-Minded), a group
Psalmen Davids (1619), to the great of intellectuals founded by Giulio Strozzi.
Orlando Gibbons came from a musical Christmas Oratorio (1664), and three She published eight volumes of music,
English family. A celebrated keyboard a cappella Passions (1665), dramatizing mostly arias and cantatas for solo voice.
player, he was appointed organist the trial and death of Jesus. Most are settings of poems dealing with
of London’s Chapel Royal at the love and its pains, including the cantata
age of 21 and later became organist Lagrime mie (“My tears”) and the aria
at Westminster Abbey. His sacred JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN “Che si può fare” (“What can I do”).
compositions included popular anthems, 1586–1630
such as “O clap your hands together”
for Church of England services. Among Alongside Schütz, Johann Hermann MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER
his secular works, he won the greatest Schein was a key figure in bringing 1643–1704
fame for songs such as “The Silver Swan” Italian Baroque influences into German
and “What Is Our Life” written in the music. A native of Saxony, in 1616 he From a family of painters, French
madrigal style of which he was a master. was appointed to the prestigious post composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier
His volume Parthenia with pieces for of cantor at Leipzig’s Thomas Church. switched his allegiance to music after
the virginals (a smaller version of the An early publication, Banchetto being influenced by the composer
harpsichord) was the first collection of musicale (“Musical banquet,” 1617), was Giacomo Carissimi in Rome. On his
keyboard music published in England. one of his few instrumental collections. return to Paris, he held various posts,
His vocal music includes both secular including that of composer to Louis
and sacred works. An outstanding work XIV’s cousin, the Duchesse de Guise.
GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI is Israelsbrünnlein (“Fountains of Israel”) He worked with the dramatist Molière,
1583–1643 (1623), a collection of 26 motets based on writing music for plays, including Le
Old Testament texts written in the style Malade imaginaire (1673), and wrote a
Born in Ferrara in northern Italy, Girolamo of Italian madrigals. successful opera, Médée (1693), based
Frescobaldi moved to Rome while still in on a play by Pierre Corneille. His best-
his teens and was appointed organist at JOHANN JAKOB FROBERGER known sacred works are dramatic
St. Peter’s Basilica in 1608. Apart from a motets (or short oratorios) written for
period as court organist to the Medici 1616–1667 the Jesuit community. His reputation
rulers of Florence, he remained at suffered from comparisons with his
St. Peter’s for the rest of his life. His Born in Stuttgart, Johann Jakob archrival Jean-Baptiste Lully until his work
music, mostly for organ, has a strongly Froberger introduced Italian and French was rediscovered in the 20th century.
contemplative, mystical quality. Even keyboard styles into German music. He
his toccatas (pieces written to allow studied in Rome with Frescobaldi before
performers to show off their skills) are being appointed organist at the court of JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH
remarkable, less for virtuoso display than the Habsburg emperor in Vienna in 1641. 1735–1782
for dramatic intensity. One of his most An organist as well as harpsichordist, he
famous publications was Fiori musicali was the first German composer to write The youngest of J.S. Bach’s surviving
(Musical Flowers, 1635), a collection of important works for the harpsichord. sons, Johann Christian Bach studied in
organ pieces for church services. Most influential were his dance suites, Berlin and Italy, where he was briefly
with pieces drawing on French tradition organist at Milan cathedral and had
in which each movement is inspired by his first opera, Artaserse, performed
HEINRICH SCHÜTZ a different dance form. in Naples. In 1762, he was appointed
1585–1672 composer at the King’s Theatre in
London, remaining in Britain for the rest
Widely credited as the greatest German BARBARA STROZZI of his life. He became a dominant figure
composer before J.S. Bach, Heinrich 1619–1677 in English musical life, partly through
Schütz was a major figure in introducing the series of highly popular concerts
the new styles of the Italian Baroque to The Venetian Barbara Strozzi was he organized each year with his
Germany. An early patron, Maurice of known as a singer as well as composer. countryman Carl Friedrich Abel. Apart
Hesse-Kassel paid for him to study in Her mother was Isabella Garzoni, a from his operas, he was known for his






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piano concertos, which were an The latter was his most important operas in total. His serious works include
important influence on the young legacy. His pupils included Beethoven, Lucrezia Borgia (1833) and Linda di
Mozart, who met Bach in London. Schubert, and Liszt. Chamounix (1842). His comic works
include L’elisir d’amore (The elixir of
CARL DITTERS VON JAN LADISLAV DUSSEK love; 1832) and Don Pasquale (1843).
DITTERSDORF 1760–1812 A major influence on Verdi, Donizetti
is credited with introducing northern
1739–1799 European Romanticism into Italian opera.
As the Classical movement gave
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was a boy way to Romanticism, the pianist and
prodigy as a violinist in Vienna, but as composer Jan Ladislav Dussek was VINCENZO BELLINI
an adult he made his name with light- a major musical figure. Born in Caslav 1801–1835
hearted operas. His most productive (in the modern Czech Republic), he
years followed his appointment as court traveled widely in Europe before The Sicilian-born Vincenzo Bellini wrote
composer to Philipp Gotthard von settling in London in 1789. Bankruptcy 10 operas, of which the masterpieces are
Schaffgotsch, Prince-Bishop of Breslau, after the failure of his music publishing La sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831), and
whose castle was an important cultural business forced him to leave London I Puritani (1835). In 1827, Il pirata— the
and intellectual hub. Dittersdorf’s in 1799, and he ended his days in the first of six collaborations with the
greatest operatic success, Doktor und household of the French statesman librettist Felice Romani—won him
Apotheker (1786), helped to define the Prince of Talleyrand. Dussek is best international acclaim at La Scala in
Singspiel genre (mingling songs and remembered for his piano sonatas, Milan. Encouraged by Rossini, he moved
choruses with spoken dialogue), which inspired Beethoven. to Paris where I Puritani was premiered.
which his friend Mozart would take With a gift for vocal melody, Bellini
to new heights in Die Zauberflöte was the master of the Italian bel canto
(The Magic Flute) in 1791. GIACOMO MEYERBEER (“beautiful singing”) style, expressed,
1791–1864 for example, in the famous song “Casta
diva” (“Chaste goddess”) from Norma.
LUIGI BOCCHERINI Born into a wealthy Jewish banking
1743–1805 family in Berlin, Giacomo Meyerbeer
won acclaim as a pianist while in his MIKHAIL GLINKA
Born in Lucca in central Italy, Luigi early 20s, but his real ambitions lay in 1804–1857
Boccherini had studied and worked in composition. After a period of study
both Rome and Vienna by the age of 20. in Venice, where he came under the sway Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka came from
He became composer to the Spanish of Rossini’s music, he had some success a wealthy Russian landowning family
king’s music-loving brother, Don Luis de with the opera Romilda e Costanza and abandoned a civil service career to
Borbón, in Madrid, then later was court (1817), but his breakthrough work was study music in Italy and Berlin. Back in
composer to King Frederick William II of Robert le diable, based on a libretto by Russia, his first opera, A Life for the Tsar
Prussia. A cellist by training, Boccherini the French playwright Eugène Scribe. (or Ivan Susanin, 1836), based on the
wrote symphonies and concertos (mostly First performed at the Paris Opéra in story of a 17th-century Russian hero,
for cello) but is best remembered for 1831, it was a massive hit. Alongside was well received in St. Petersburg. In
more than 300 chamber works, string Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (1836) and this and later works, Glinka drew upon
quintets in particular. Le Prophète (1849), it helped to define the folk songs to create music that was
emerging genre of grand opera, appealing authentically Russian. In 1845, Hector
to the audience’s love of spectacle. His Berlioz conducted a concert in Paris
ANTONIO SALIERI influence was noticeable in the operas with excerpts from Glinka’s works; this
1750–1825 of Verdi and even Wagner. was the first time Russian music had
been played in the West.
The Venetian-born Antonio Salieri went
to Vienna at the age of 16 and remained GAETANO DONIZETTI
there for the rest of his life, as court 1797–1848 CLARA WIECK SCHUMANN
composer to the Habsburg emperor and 1819–1896
later imperial Kapellmeister. He made Gaetano Donizetti, born in Bergamo, is
his name as a composer of operas—of regarded as the most important Italian A child prodigy, Clara Wieck won
which the best regarded is Tarare (1787), opera composer between Rossini and Europe-wide fame while still in her
written for a Parisian theatre—but in Verdi. Starting with Enrico di Borgogna, teens. Around that time, she fell in love
1804, he abandoned opera and began first performed in Venice in 1818, his with Robert Schumann, one of the pupils
writing sacred music and teaching. output was prolific, with 65 completed of her father, who was a well-known






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piano teacher. She and Robert married in Rome, but back in Paris, his early
in 1840, defying her father’s opposition. ALEKSANDR BORODIN successes did not continue, and his
Despite having eight children, Schumann 1833–1887 opera Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl
maintained an active musical career of Fishers; 1863) was disappointingly
performing and teaching. Her works, all The illegitimate son of a Georgian received. A one-act piece, Djamileh
of which date from before her husband’s nobleman and an army doctor’s wife, (1872), was more successful and led to
early death in 1856, include collections Aleksandr Borodin trained as a scientist. a commission to write an opera based
of Lieder, chamber music, an early In 1864, he became professor of on a novel by Prosper Mérimée. The
piano concerto, and what is generally chemistry at the Imperial Medical and result, Carmen, opened in March 1875,
regarded as her finest work, the Piano Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. drawing unenthusiastic reviews until
Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846). As an enthusiastic amateur musician, Bizet’s sudden death of an undiagnosed
he was also a member of a group of heart condition in June, when the critics
young composers, called “The Five,” abruptly reversed their verdicts. Carmen
CÉSAR FRANCK determined to fashion a truly Russian became a landmark of French opera—
1822–1890 tradition of classical music. He wrote tautly dramatic with a strongly realist
two symphonies, two string quartets, focus on ordinary working people.
In his teens, the Belgian-born César and a tone poem, In Central Asia (1880).
Franck was already studying at the His greatest work, the opera Prince Igor,
Paris Conservatory and performing as a based on a medieval Russian epic, was NIKOLAY RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
concert pianist. In his late 20s, however, unfinished when Borodin died of a heart 1844–1908
following the poor reception of an attack. It was completed by Nikolay
oratorio he had composed, he abandoned Rimsky-Korsakov, another of the Five, A naval officer who turned to music,
his career as a composer and performer with his pupil Aleksandr Glazunov. Rimsky-Korsakov had the most lasting
and started to earn his living as an impact of the Russian composers
organist and teacher. Only in his 50s known as “The Five.” In 1871, he was
did Franck resume a more public profile, MILY BALAKIREV appointed professor of composition
after accepting the post of organ 1836–1910 and orchestration at the St. Petersburg
professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Conservatory. Unlike his fellows in
He became an influential composition Demanding, often tyrannical, Mily “The Five,” he had a high regard for
teacher and started writing again. His Alekseyevich Balakirev was the driving the academic disciplines of composition,
works include a symphony, organ pieces, force behind “The Five”—a group of which he passed on to his pupils.
and a series of chamber works, notably ardently nationalist young Russian After the deaths of Mussorgsky and
the Piano Quintet in F minor (1879), composers who came together in Borodin, he edited and completed their
Violin Sonata in A major (1886), and St. Petersburg in the 1860s. He was works. His own talent for colorful
String Quartet in D major (1889). also a founding member of the Free orchestration is seen in pieces such
School of Music, which was set up as as Capriccio espagñol (1887) and
a less academic alternative to the Scheherazade (1888), as well as his
ANTON BRUCKNER St. Petersburg Conservatory. He suffered operas, notably Sadko (1897) and The
1824–1896 a nervous breakdown in the 1870s and Golden Cockerel (1909).
withdrew from the musical world for five
The Austrian Anton Bruckner was a years, working as a railway clerk. When
bold, if unlikely, musical innovator, best he returned, he had lost much of his RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO
known for his nine symphonies and his former spirit. His works include a piano 1857–1919
religious works. Bruckner worked piece, Islamey (1869), and a symphonic
as a teacher until 1855, when he was poem, Russia (1887), but his major The Neapolitan opera composer Ruggero
made chief organist at Linz Cathedral. achievement was to have brought Leoncavallo is remembered for one great
In Linz, following years of intensive together “The Five,” who collectively work, Pagliacci (“The players”), which
study of composition, he wrote his first transformed Russian classical music. was first staged at La Scala in Milan
major works: three Mass settings and a in 1892. The son of a police official,
symphony. In 1868, he took up a teaching Leoncavallo had written other operas
post at the Conservatory in Vienna, GEORGES BIZET with no success. For Pagliacci, he turned
where he lived for the rest of his life. 1838–1875 to a new Italian school of opera known
An admirer of Wagner, he expanded the as verismo (literally, “truth-ism” or
scope of the late Romantic symphony The French composer Georges Bizet “realism”), characterized by sensational
with complex harmonies, dissonances, wrote a symphony when he was 17, and plots drawn from everyday life. His short,
and the rich weaving together of the his first opera was performed the next two-act work—supposedly inspired by
different instrumental parts. year. He then spent three years studying a case his father was involved in—tells






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the story of love and jealousy among a Inextinguishable, 1916) and Fifth (1922) children. Born in Hungary, he studied at
troupe of actors, culminating in murder. were responses to the brutality of World Budapest’s Academy of Music alongside
Leoncavallo wrote several more operas, War I. The Sixth and last (Sinfonia Béla Bartók, with whom he went on
but none had the success of Pagliacci. semplice, 1925) was the most challenging, expeditions into the countryside to
perhaps reflecting Nielsen’s fatal heart collect folk music. The techniques they
condition. He also wrote operas, but his devised were influential for those who
FREDERICK DELIUS best works, outside the symphonies, are a followed in the study of indigenous music
1862–1934 Wind Quintet (1922) and two concertos, traditions. Later, Kodály also developed
for flute (1926) and clarinet (1928). a method to teach children to sight-read
The son of a German wool merchant, music when singing. As a composer, his
Frederick Delius started studying music major works are Psalmus Hungaricus
in his spare time while managing an FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1923) for tenor, chorus, and orchestra
orange plantation in Florida. Once back 1866–1924 and a comic opera, Háry János (1926).
in Europe, he continued his studies in
Leipzig then settled in France. His Partly Italian, partly German, Ferruccio
works included six operas, only two of Busoni gave his first piano recital aged ARTHUR HONEGGER
which, Koanga, composed in 1895–1897, 10 in Vienna. After studying in Leipzig, 1892–1955
and A Village Romeo and Juliet (1900– he became professor of piano in Helsinki
1901), were staged in his lifetime. His and later took up posts in Moscow, Born to Swiss parents living in France,
most successful pieces—introduced Boston, and Berlin. He was renowned as Honegger belonged to “Les Six,” a group
to British audiences by the conductor one of the great pianists of the time but of young composers who emerged in
Sir Thomas Beecham—were Sea Drift was also a teacher, musical theorist, and Paris in the 1920s, including Francis
(1904), a setting of a Walt Whitman composer. His book, The New Aesthetic Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. He is
poem, and a series of orchestral idylls and of Music (1907), was a key inspiration remembered for his five symphonies,
tone poems, including Brigg Fair (1907), for figures such as the avant-garde collectively regarded as one of the most
In a Summer Garden (1908), and North French composer Edgard Varèse. His impressive symphonic oeuvres of the
Country Sketches (1914). compositions include operas, orchestral 20th century. His other works include
pieces, and solo piano works, notably Pacific 231 (1923) and Rugby (1928), in
Fantasia after J.S. Bach (1909) and which he sought to express in music
PIETRO MASCAGNI Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910–1921). the impressions of a locomotive and a
1863–1945 rugby match, respectively. Honegger’s
dramatic works included film scores,
Pietro Mascagni’s one-act opera GUSTAV HOLST ballets, and an oratorio Jeanne d’Arc
Cavalleria rusticana (“Rustic chivalry”), 1874–1934 au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)
premiered in 1890, was the earliest (1935), with a libretto by the writer
major success of the Italian school of An influential teacher and composer, Paul Claudel.
verismo (“realism”). Based on a short Gustav Holst was one of the fathers of the
story by Giovanni Verga, it tells a tale of English school of the 20th century that
passion and betrayal in a Sicilian village, gave rise to figures such as Benjamin DARIUS MILHAUD
climaxing in a fatal duel between two Britten and Michael Tippett. Holst was 1892–1974
rival lovers. As with Leoncavallo’s interested in both English folk music and
Pagliacci, with which it is often Hindu mysticism, reflected in his Choral With more than 400 works to his credit,
performed as a double bill, it was the Hymns from the Rig-Veda (1912). His Darius Milhaud was one of the most
Tuscan-born Mascagni’s only major hit. most famous work is the orchestral suite, prolific 20th-century composers. From
The Planets (1916). His vocal works include a Jewish family living in Provence,
operas, song cycles, the choral piece The he studied in Paris and, in 1917–1918,
CARL NIELSEN Hymn of Jesus (1917), and Ode to Death traveled to Brazil with the poet,
1865–1931 (1919), based on a Walt Whitman poem. dramatist, and diplomat Paul Claudel.
He was a member of the group of
Danish composer Carl Nielsen was one composers known as “Les Six,” through
of the great symphonic writers of the ZOLTÁN KODÁLY whom he met the surrealist writer and
early 20th century. He completed his 1882–1967 designer Jean Cocteau. His collaboration
First Symphony in 1892, but it was the with Cocteau produced the ballets Le
Third (titled Sinfonia espansiva, 1911) Zoltán Kodály was a pioneer in the field Boeuf sur le toit (1919) and Le Train bleu
that started to establish his reputation of ethnomusicology (the study of music (1924), while his work with Claudel
as a composer with an original use of in its ethnic and cultural context) and in yielded musical dramas, including Les
tonality and harmony. The Fourth (The modern methods for teaching music to Choéphores (1915), Christophe Colomb






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(1928), and David (1954). During the Brecht. These included the two satirical (1959), and Music for Orchestra II (1962).
1940s, he taught composition at Mills operas Die Dreigroschenoper (The She also worked with Hammer Film
College, California. One of his pupils was Threepenny Opera; 1928), adapted Productions, writing scores for horror
the pioneer of minimalism, Steve Reich. from an 18th-century English ballad movies to earn money.
opera, and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt
Mahagonny (“Rise and fall of the
PAUL HINDEMITH city of Mahagonny”; 1930). Drawing ELLIOTT CARTER
1895–1963 inspiration from cabaret and jazz as well 1908–2012
as his classical training, Weill created
Paul Hindemith taught composition at bitingly surreal numbers, such as the In the 1930s, New Yorker Elliott Carter
Berlin’s School of Music until he was famous “Ballad of Mack the Knife” from was one of many Americans who studied
forced to resign in 1937, due to his Die Dreigroschenoper. In 1933, following under Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Back in
opposition to the Nazi regime. He went Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, the the United States, he developed his own
to the United States, teaching at Yale Jewish Weill fled Germany, first for style, with different instrumental parts
from 1940 to 1953 before returning to Paris, then the United States, where following different lines, interacting
Germany. His textbooks, starting with he wrote a series of Broadway musicals with one another like characters in a
The Craft of Musical Composition (1941), before his death in 1950. play. Carter’s important orchestral works
are still widely studied. His compositions included his Cello Sonata (1948), two
include chamber works, symphonies, and String Quartets (1950–1951 and 1959),
operas, most famously Mathis der Maler JOAQUÍN RODRIGO a Double Concerto for Harpsichord and
(“Matthias the painter”), which premiered 1901–1999 Piano (1961), and a Piano Concerto
in Zurich in 1938. Telling the story of (1964–1965), a response to the building
German painter Matthias Grünewald, Blind from the age of three, Joaquín of the Berlin Wall. From the 1970s, he
who joined a peasants’ uprising in 1525, Rodrigo nonetheless studied music in turned to vocal music, with settings of
it concerns an artist living in troubled Paris. He returned to his native Spain in contemporary North American poets,
times and trying to follow his conscience 1939 after the end of the civil war there. such as Elizabeth Bishop in A Mirror
in the face of an oppressive regime. His most famous piece, the Concerto on Which to Dwell (1975).
de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra,
inspired by the gardens of the royal
HENRY COWELL palace of Aranjuez, premiered the next SAMUEL BARBER
1897–1965 year. Other works include 11 concertos; 1910–1981
another guitar piece, Fantasia para
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Californian un gentilhombre (“Fantasia for a Samuel Barber was born in Pennsylvania
composer, pianist, and teacher Henry gentleman”; 1954), and an opera, El in 1910 and became one of the most
Cowell toured North America and hijo fingido (“The false son”; 1964). celebrated American composers of the
Europe, shocking audiences with century. His most popular work was one
works such as The Tides of Manaunaun of his earliest—the Adagio for Strings
(1912), The Aeolian Harp (1923), and The ELISABETH LUTYENS (1938), an orchestration of the Adagio
Banshee (1925). These involved creating 1906–1983 movement from a String Quartet he had
“tone clusters” by placing his fist or written two years earlier. An alumnus of
forearm on the keyboard while the other For much of her life, Elisabeth Lutyens’s Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music,
hand played the notes as normal or uncompromising Modernism drew blank Barber was later known for vocal works,
placing one hand inside the piano and incomprehension from her fellow Britons. such as Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for
strumming the strings like a harp. Lutyens studied in Paris and at the solo soprano (1948), the Hermit Songs
Cowell was eclectic, drawing inspiration Royal College of Music in London. Her cycle (1952–1953), and two operas: Vanessa
from his own Irish roots, hymns, or early works included a Concerto for (1958), and Antony and Cleopatra (1966),
Japanese or Indian music. Through his Nine Instruments (1939), composed in which was written for the inauguration
periodical, New Music, he was an active a style individual to her but somewhat of the Metropolitan Opera’s new theatre
promoter of other people’s works. akin to the serialism developed by at New York’s Lincoln Center in 1966.
Arnold Schoenberg. Vocal works
included literary settings, notably a
KURT WEILL motet using texts from the philosopher MILTON BABBITT
1900–1950 Ludwig Wittgenstein (1952). Among her 1916–2011
stage works were the chamber opera
German composer Kurt Weill is best Infidelio (1954) and Isis and Osiris (1969– The avant-garde American composer,
known for his collaborations with the 1970). Her best-known orchestral pieces teacher, and theorist Milton Babbitt had
left-wing dramatist and poet Bertolt include Six Tempi (1957), Quincunx a background in both mathematics and






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music. Babbitt was a firm proponent of The quietness, he said, meant that Luigi Nono, he coined the term “musique
serialism, as well as a pioneer of electronic audiences could hear the sounds. In concrète instrumentale” (“concrete
music. His most important works include 1977, he composed Neither for soprano instrumental music”). In Pression (1970)
Three Compositions for Piano (1947), and orchestra, a setting of a monologue for solo cello, he uses not only the sounds
Ensembles for Synthesizer (1962–1963), by the playwright Samuel Beckett. His the cellist has been trained to produce
and Philomel (1964) for solo soprano later works, such as the String Quartet II but also other more mechanical sounds,
with electronic accompaniment. (1983), which lasts for five hours without as when the bow is pressed down hard
break, were immersive, almost mystical on the strings. He also incorporates
experiences for listeners. recordings (often distorted) of well-
LUIGI NONO known pieces, such as Mozart’s Clarinet
1924–1990 Concerto, into his compositions, as in
HANS WERNER HENZE his work for clarinet, orchestra, and tape,
The Venetian Luigi Nono was a radical 1926–2012 Accanto (1976). Other pieces include
in music and politics alike, and often NUN (1999) for flute, trombone, male
combined the two. His Il canto sospeso A German living in Italy, Hans Werner chorus, and orchestra, and an opera,
(“The interrupted song”; 1955–1956)— Henze is known for a shimmering Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra— lyrical style that drew inspiration from (“The little match girl”) in 1997.
excerpts letters written during World traditions as varied as Romanticism,
War II by members of the anti-Nazi neoclassicism, and jazz. Highly prolific,
resistance awaiting execution. Nono’s he wrote 10 symphonies as well as solo ARVO PÄRT
Marxist beliefs are also clear in his instrumental, chamber, and orchestral 1935–
first opera, Intolleranza (1960), about an music. He found fame, above all, for his
Italian migrant looking for work. In the operas, including two collaborations The Estonian-born Pärt’s early works
1960s, he began staging pieces, such as with the English poet W.H. Auden: include unmistakably Modernist pieces,
La fabbrica illuminata (“The illuminated Elegy for Young Lovers (1961) and such as Nekrolog (1960) and his first two
factory”; 1964), in factories and other The Bassarids (1966). symphonies (1963 and 1966). From 1968,
places of work. however, he almost completely ceased
composing for eight years, partly in
HARRISON BIRTWISTLE response to the repressive censorship in
PIERRE BOULEZ 1934– his still Soviet-controlled homeland, but
1925–2016 also in the light of his devout Russian
Harrison Birtwistle was part of a group Orthodox faith. His new style emerged
The avant-garde French composer Pierre of students at the Royal Manchester in a short solo piano piece, Für Alina
Boulez was a hugely influential figure in College of Music in northern England, (1976), remarkable for its pared-back
the late 20th century. One of his most who became known as the Manchester minimalism and the bell-like quality of
admired early works was Le Marteau School. Modernists, they also drew the sound. A stream of works followed,
sans maître (The Hammer without a inspiration from medieval and early including Tabula Rasa (1977), Summa
Master; 1954), a setting of poems by the Renaissance music. Birtwistle came into (1977), the Cantus in memoriam
surrealist René Char. A decade later, he his own in the 1960s with works such Benjamin Britten (1977), and a St. John
composed the successful Pli selon pli as Tragoedia (1965) for wind quintet, Passion (1982).
(“Fold upon fold”; 1964) for soprano and harp, and string quartet and his first
orchestra. Among his later works was opera, Punch and Judy (1968). Operas
Répons (1985), for chamber orchestra remain an important part of his output, ARIBERT REIMANN
with six percussive soloists and live including The Mask of Orpheus (1986), 1936–
electronics. Boulez had an international Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008);
career as a conductor, including periods his instrumental works include Exody Aribert Reimann, a Berlin-born
with the New York Philharmonic and the (1997) for orchestra, The Cry of Anubis composer, pianist, and teacher, has
BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. (1994) for tuba and orchestra, and written chamber works, concertos, and
Harrison’s Clocks (1998) for solo piano. orchestral pieces but is mainly known
for his deft use of the human voice—
MORTON FELDMAN Reimann had a long, close association
1926–1987 HELMUT LACHENMANN with the baritone Dietrich Fischer-
1935– Dieskau, for whom he often acted as
Born in Queens, New York, Morton accompanist. Reimann wrote a series
Feldman was notable for the slow, The German Helmut Lachenmann’s goal of successful operas, mostly based on
deliberate quietness of his music and as a composer is to open up new “sound the works of famous dramatists. Lear,
the exceptional length of his later works. worlds.” A Modernist who studied under adapted from the Shakespeare play, is






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widely seen as his most successful work. updated to the urban world of the 21st His vocal works, which constitute a
A Modernist in style, Reimann is also century. Inspired by composers such as large proportion of his output, have
influenced by Indian music. Janá cˇ ek and Stravinsky, Weir draws on included Cantos Sagrados (1990), a
the folk traditions not only of her native setting of poems by the Latin American
Scotland and Europe but also of South writers Ariel Dorfman and Ana Maria
JOHN TAVENER Asia. Weir’s work pays particular Mendosa; the cantata Quickening (1998);
1944–2013 attention to narrative; King Harald’s two operas; and settings of liturgical
Saga (1979), for solo soprano, is a texts and the Catholic Mass.
With influences including Stravinsky medieval historical drama compressed
and Messiaen, John Tavener found fame into less than 15 minutes. Meanwhile,
in 1970 when his cantata, The Whale— her instrumental works include her MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE
based on the biblical tale of Jonah—was 15-minute Piano Concerto (1997), 1960–
released by the Apple record label. The another gem of distillation, and
London-born Tavener’s conversion to The Welcome Arrival of Rain (2001). In British composer Mark-Anthony
Russian Orthodox Christianity in 1977 2014, Weir was appointed Master of the Turnage’s first opera, Greek, is based on
was the fruit of a long-standing spiritual Queen’s Music in succession to Sir Peter a version of Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus
quest that gave rise to richly mystical Maxwell Davies. Rex, set in London’s East End. The opera
pieces, including Ikon of Light (1984), was an instant success when premiered
The Protecting Veil (1989), and Song for at the Munich Biennale in 1988. Drawing
Athene (1993). In 2003, he wrote The MAGNUS LINDBERG on jazz and rock as well as the classical
Veil of the Temple: a huge choral work 1958– tradition, Turnage’s music is streetwise,
intended to last all night in an Orthodox expressionistic, and often humorous. His
vigil service and regarded by Tavener as The orchestra is the Finnish composer stage works have included two further
his “supreme achievement.” Magnus Lindberg’s first love, and he has operas—The Silver Tassie (2000) and
established himself as one of the world’s Anna Nicole (2011)—and the ballets
most popular composers of ambitious UNDANCE (2011), Trespass (2012), and
JOHN ADAMS orchestral pieces. His beginnings were Strapless (2016). Among his instrumental
1947– avant-garde, as seen in works such as works are Three Screaming Popes
Action–Situation–Signification (1982) (1989), inspired by paintings by the
Younger than his fellow minimalists, and Kraft (Power; 1985). Later his music artist Francis Bacon; the trumpet
Steve Reich and Philip Glass, the New became more eclectic, drawing on concerto From the Wreckage (2005),
England–born Adams made his name classical tradition (including the works written for Swedish trumpeter Håkan
with pieces such as Shaker Loops (1978) of his Finnish predecessor, Sibelius) Hardenberger; and a violin concerto,
and Grand Pianola Music (1982). His and with richer melodies and color. His Mambo, Blues, and Tarantella (2008).
music is often humorous, referencing major pieces from the 1990s were Aura
popular culture. Adams is arguably more (1994) and Arena (1995), and his works
concerned than most minimalists with since 2000 have included concertos for GEORGE BENJAMIN
harmony and progression. This can be clarinet (2002) and violin (2006), as well 1960–
seen in his Harmonielehre (1985), a as his first vocal work for a soloist,
three-movement orchestral work, and his Accused; three interrogations for One of the elderly Messiaen’s last and
first opera, Nixon in China (1987), inspired soprano and orchestra (2014). best loved students, Benjamin is unusual
by President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit. among British composers for his affinity
In addition to two more operas, his later with French avant-garde music. His
works have included concertos for violin JAMES MACMILLAN output has been remarkable for its
(1993), clarinet (1996), and piano (1997) 1959– combination of precision with color and
and Scheherazade.2 (2014), a “dramatic sensuousness. His breakthrough came at
symphony” for violin and orchestra. Catholic spirituality, progressive politics, the age of 20, when his orchestral piece,
and Scottish folk tradition have been Ringed by the Flat Horizon, premiered at
inspirations for the Scottish Modernist the BBC Proms in 1980. His works since
JUDITH WEIR James MacMillan. His first big success then have included At First Light (1982)
1954– was with an orchestral work, The for chamber orchestra; Upon Silence
Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which (1990) for soprano and string ensemble,
Born in England to Scottish parents, was first performed at the BBC Proms and Palimpsests (2002) for full orchestra.
Weir is known above all for her operas— in 1990. Two years later, he wrote Veni, He has also written three operas with
from her high-spirited debut work, A Veni, Emmanuel—a concerto for the playwright Martin Crimp: Into the
Night at the Chinese Opera (1987), to percussion and orchestra—for the great Little Hill (2006), Written on Skin (2012),
Miss Fortune (2011), a Sicilian folktale Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie. and Lessons in Love and Violence (2018).






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340

GLOSSARY







A cappella Unaccompanied Cadenza Originally an improvised the staff; a treble clef, for example,
singing by a soloist or group. solo by the soloist in a concerto; marks the bottom line of a staff as
from the 19th century, it became being an E, whereas a bass clef
Alto The highest male and lowest more formalized, less spontaneous. means it should be read as a G.
female voice; also a term describing
an instrument that is lower in pitch Canon A contrapuntal composition Coda Literally “tail” in Italian; a
than a treble instrument. in which the separate voices enter final section of a piece of music,
one by one. In a strict canon, each distinct from the overall structure.
Aria A vocal piece for one or more part repeats the melody exactly.
voices in an opera or oratorio. Concerto A large piece for solo
Cantata A programmatic piece, instrument and orchestra, designed
Atonal Without a recognizable key; generally for voice and orchestra, to showcase the soloist’s skills; the
the opposite of tonality. designed to tell a story; a cantata Baroque concerto grosso, however,
da camera is a secular piece, while has a more equal interplay between
Baritone The male voice between cantata da chiesa is a sacred one. the smaller orchestra (ripieno) and
tenor and bass, or an instrument a group of soloists (concertino).
within this tonal range. Chamber music Pieces for small
groups of two or more instruments, Consonance A chord or interval,
Baroque Music composed between such as duets, trios, and quartets. such as a third or fifth, that sounds
1600 and 1750; describes pieces pleasing; opposite of dissonance.
from the period before the Classical. Chord A simultaneous combination
of notes. The most frequently used Consort An instrumental ensemble
Bass The lowest in tone: describes are called “triads,” which consist of popular during the 16th and 17th
the lowest male voice; the lowest three distinct notes built on the first, centuries in England; the term is
part of a chord or piece of music; or third, and fifth notes of a scale. For also used to describe the music
the lowest instrument in a family. example, in the key of C major, the played by these ensembles as well
notes of the scale are C, D, E, F, G, as the performance itself.
Basso continuo Harmonic A, and B; the C major triad consists
accompaniment, usually by a of the notes C, E, and G. Contralto Term describing the
harpsichord or organ and bass lowest of the female voices (alto)
viol or cello, extensively used in Chromatic Based on the scale of in an opera context.
the Baroque period. all 12 semitones in an octave, as
opposed to diatonic, which is Contrapuntal Using counterpoint:
Bel canto Meaning “beautiful based on a scale of seven notes. the simultaneous playing or singing
song” in Italian; an 18th- and early of two or more melodic lines.
19th-century school of singing Classical The post-Baroque
characterized by a concentration period, approximately 1750–1820; Counterpoint see Contrapuntal.
on beauty of tone, virtuosic agility, also a term used to distinguish
and breath control. Western music written for a formal Diatonic Based on a scale of seven
context, such as a church or concert notes with no sharps or flats, only
Cadence The closing sequence of hall, from informal music styles. the white piano keys.
a musical phrase or composition.
A “perfect cadence” creates a Clef A symbol placed at the Dissonance Notes played together to
sense of completion; an “imperfect beginning of a musical staff to create discord (sounds unpleasing
cadence” sounds unfinished. determine the pitch of the notes on to the ear); opposite of consonance.





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GLOSSARY 341



Dynamics Differences in volume to indicate the presence of its sound-world involving
of a piece or section of music; also associated character, emotion, an almost hypnotic texture of
refers to the notation system of or object. repeated short patterns.
markings on sheet music that
instruct players on volume. Libretto The text of an opera or Minor A term applied to a key
other vocal dramatic work. signature or chord, triad, or scale
Flat A note that has been lowered in a minor key; has a relative major
by a half step (B lowered by a half Lied Traditional German song, key. Different to its relative major in
step is B-flat); also describes an popularized by Schubert. that the third note (and sometimes
instrument or voice that is out sixth and seventh) are flatted,
of tune by being lower than the Madrigal Secular “a cappella” leading to a darker sound.
intended pitch. song that was popular in
Renaissance England and Italy; Mode Seven-note scale inherited
Fugue From the Italian fuga, often set to a love poem. from Ancient Greece via the Middle
“to chase”; a highly structured Ages, in which they were most
contrapuntal piece, in two or more Major A term applied to a key prevalent; they survive today in
parts, popular in the Baroque era. signature or any chord, triad, or folk music and plainsong.
The separate voices or lines enter scale in a major key. The intervals
one by one imitatively. in a major key consist of two whole Modulation A shift from one key
steps followed by a half step, then to another—for example, from C
Harmony The simultaneous three whole steps followed by a half major to A minor.
playing of different (usually step. Major keys are often described
complementary) notes. The basic as sounding happy, while minor Monody Vocal style developed in
unit of harmony is the chord. keys are subdued and sad. the Baroque period with a single,
dominant melodic line; can be
Interval The difference in pitch Mass Main service of the Roman accompanied or unaccompanied.
between two notes, expressed Catholic Church, highly formalized
numerically to show how many half in structure, comprising specific Monophonic Describes music
steps apart they are; can be called sections—known as the “Ordinary”— written in a single line, or melody
“major,” “minor,” or “perfect,” for performed in the following order: without an accompaniment.
example, a “minor third” is an Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus with
interval of three semitones, while Hosanna and Benedictus, and Motet A polyphonic choral
a “major third” is an interval of four. Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem. composition based on a sacred
text, usually unaccompanied.
Key The tonal center of a piece of Measure A segment of musical
music, based on the first note (or time containing a fixed number Movement A self-contained
tonic) of the scale. of beats, depending on the time section of a larger work; so called
signature; measures are visualized because each has a different,
Key signature A written indication by vertical lines on a score. autonomous tempo indication.
of which key to play in, shown by
a group of accidentals— sharps or Melody A series of notes that Musique concrète Electronic
flats—at the beginning of a staff. together create a tune or theme. music comprising instrumental
Rather than writing in a sharp for and natural sounds, often altered or
each F and C in a piece in D major, Mezzo-soprano Literally “half distorted in the recording process.
for example, the two sharps would soprano”; the lowest soprano voice;
be included on the staff. one tone above contralto. Natural A note that is neither
sharp nor flat. A natural symbol
Leitmotif Literally “leading motif” Minimalism A predominantly can be used following a sharp or
in German; a short musical phrase American school of music from the flat introduced earlier in a measure,
that recurs through the piece mid-20th century, which favored a to indicate that the player not flat





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342 GLOSSARY



or sharp the note anymore, or to Ornamentation Embellishment Requiem A piece written as a
override sharps or flats in the work’s of a note or chord with, for example, memorial; also specifically a setting
key signature. a trill or a short fragment such as a of a Catholic Requiem Mass, which
turn—the note above the main note, celebrates the dead.
Obbligato An accompaniment the main note, and the note below,
that is important (and therefore played in quick succession. Rhythm The pattern of relative
“obligatory”); often describes durations of and stresses on notes
a countermelody played by an Ostinato Repeated musical figure, in a piece, commonly organized in
instrument in an ensemble or a usually in the bass part, providing regular groups or measures.
Baroque keyboard accompaniment a foundation for harmonic and
written out in full rather than with melodic variation above. Romantic The cultural epoch
the standard figured bass notation. heralded in music by Beethoven,
Overture French for “opening”; which dominated the 19th century;
Octave The interval between one an instrumental introduction to characterized by the abandonment
pitch and another with double or an opera or ballet; presents some of traditional forms, inspiration by
half its frequency—for example, on of the main thematic material. extra-musical subjects, an increase
a piano, there is an octave between in the scale of composition, and use
high C and the next highest C note. Pianola A self-playing piano in of chromaticism.
which the keys are operated by air
Opera Drama in which all or most that is pumped through perforated Rondo Piece or movement of music
characters sing and in which music paper fed by a roller. based on a recurring theme with
is an important element; usually all interspersed material; follows a
dialogue is sung. Pitch The position of one sound form such as ABACADAE.
in relation to the range of tonal
Opera buffa Type of comic opera sounds—how high or low it is— Sarabande A slow court dance in
popular in the 18th century; which depends on the frequency triple time, popular in Europe from
opposite of opera seria. of sound waves per second (hertz). the 17th century.

Opéra comique An exclusively Plainsong Medieval church music Scale A series of notes that define
French type of opera that, despite also known as plainchant; consists a tune and, usually, the key of the
its name, is not always comic, nor of a unison, unaccompanied vocal piece. Different scales give music
particularly light; also includes line in free rhythm, like speech, a different feeling and “color.”
spoken dialogue. with no regular measure lengths.
Scherzo Lively dance piece (or
Opera seria Literally “serious Polyphony Meaning “many movement) in triple time.
opera,” the direct opposite of opera sounds,” this refers to a style of
buffa; characterized by heroic or composition in which all parts are Semitone Also known as a half
mythological plots and formality independent and of equal value. step or half tone; the smallest
in both music and action. musical interval between notes in
Program music Any music Western tonal music. There are
Operetta Italian for “little opera,” written to describe a nonmusical two semitones in a whole tone and
and sometimes known as “light theme, such as an event, 112 semitones in an octave. On a
opera”; a lighter 19th-century style landscape, or literary work. keyboard, a semitone is found
including spoken dialogue. where two keys are as close
Recitative Style of singing in together as possible—for example,
Oratorio A work for vocal soloists opera and oratorio closely related to E to F is a semitone. See also Tone.
and choir with instrumental the delivery of dramatic speech in
accompaniment; differs from an pitch and rhythm; often used for Serial music System of atonal
opera in that an oratorio is a dialogue and exposition of the plot composition developed in the 1920s
concert piece, not a drama. between arias and choruses. by Arnold Schoenberg and others,





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GLOSSARY 343



in which fixed sequences of music Soprano The highest of the four Tonality System of major and
are used as a foundation to create standard singing voices—above minor scales and keys; forms the
a more complex whole work. alto, tenor, and bass; term for a basis of all Western music from the
female or a young boy singing in 17th century until Schoenberg in
Sharp A note that has been raised this vocal range. the early 20th century. Tonal music
by a half step—for example, F adheres to the principles of tonality.
raised by a half step is F-sharp; also Staff The grid of five horizontal
describes an instrument or voice lines on which music is written; Tone Two half steps; equal to
that is out of tune by being higher also called a “stave.” the interval of a major second,
than the intended pitch. comprising two adjacent positions
Suite Multimovement work— on a staff. See also semitone.
Singspiel Literally “song play” in generally instrumental—made up
German, a type of comic opera of a series of contrasting dance Tone poem Extended single-
with spoken dialogue rather than movements, usually all in one key. movement symphonic work, usually
recitative; typified in Mozart’s programmatic, often describing
The Magic Flute. Symphony Large-scale work landscape or literary works; also
for full orchestra; Classical and called a “symphonic poem.”
Sonata Popular instrumental piece Romantic symphonies both contain
for one or more players; originated four movements—traditionally an Tonic The first note, or degree, of
in the Baroque period, when the allegro, a slower second movement, any diatonic (major or minor) scale;
term referred to a short piece for a a scherzo, and a lively finale. Later most important note of the scale,
solo or small group of instruments symphonies can contain more or providing the focus for the melody
accompanied by a basso continuo. fewer—the first movement is often and harmony of a piece of music;
in sonata form, and the slow also describes the main key of a
Sonata da camera “Chamber movement and finale may follow piece of music.
sonata” in Italian; a type of a similar structure.
chamber piece—usually for two Treble The highest unchanged
violins with basso continuo—from Temperament Tuning an male voice, or the highest
the late 17th and early 18th century. instrument by adjusting intervals instrument or part in a piece of
between notes to enable it to play music; also the name for the symbol
Sonata da chiesa “Church sonata”; in different keys. Most keyboard (clef) used to indicate notes above
a multi-instrumental piece similar instruments are tuned using “equal middle C on the piano.
to the sonata da camera, usually temperament” based on an octave
comprising four movements: a slow of 12 equal half steps. Triad A three-note chord that
introduction, a fugal movement, a consists of a root note plus the
slow movement, and a quick finale. Tempo The pace of a work; intervals of a third and a fifth.
indicated on sheet music with There are four types: major (e.g.
Sonata principle A musical form terms such as allegro (“quickly”) C–E–G), minor (e.g. C–E-flat–G),
made up of the exposition (two or adagio (“slowly”). augmented (e.g. C–E–G-sharp), and
subjects linked by a bridge section, diminished (e.g. C–E-flat–G-flat).
the second of which is in a different Tenor The highest natural adult
key), the development (expounding male voice; also a term describing Vibrato The rapid, regular
upon the exposition), and the an instrument in this range. variation of pitch around a single
recapitulation, an altered restating note for expressive effect.
of the exposition in the tonic key. Timbre The particular quality
(literally “stamp”), or character, 12-tone music Works in which
Song cycle A group of songs that of a sound that enables a listener each degree of the chromatic scale
tells a story or shares a common to distinguish one instrument (or is ascribed the same degree of
theme; designed to be performed voice) from another; synonymous importance, eliminating any
in a sequence as a single entity. with “tone color.” concept of key or tonality.





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INDEX







Page numbers in bold refer to main entries; those blue cathedral (Higdon) 326–327
in italics refer to captions. B The Blue Danube (J. Strauss II) 178
1 + 1 (Glass) 312 Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartók) 270
4´33˝ (Cage) 304 Boccherini, Luigi 334
Babbitt, Milton 337 Borodin, Aleksandr 335
Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky) 207
A Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel 82, 105, 120–121 Boris Godunov (Rimsky-Korsakov) 207
Bach, Johann Christian 86, 97, 120, 333
Boulanger, Lili 234, 235
Bach, Johann Sebastian 25, 48, 78, 80, 82, 83, 94,
95, 98–105, 103, 105, 108–111, 121, 165, 171, Boulanger, Nadia 235, 238, 287, 299
The Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart) 136 264, 280, 285, 308 Boulez, Pierre 229, 264, 283, 301, 306, 308, 320, 338
Abelard, Peter 26 Bachianas brasileiras (Villa-Lobos) 280–281 Brahms, Johannes 155, 158, 164, 166, 173, 179,
Abraham’s Youth (Gnessin) 309 Balakirev, Mily 207, 335 188–189, 188, 213, 214, 236, 266
“absolute music” 273 Ballet mécanique (Antheil) 268 Brandenburg Concertos (J.S. Bach) 80, 94
Actions for free jazz orchestra (Penderecki/Cherry) 258 ballet music The Brandenburgers in Bohemia (Smetana) 212, 213
Adam de la Halle 33–34 comédie-ballet 70 Brewster, Henry 236, 238
Adams, John 329 Romantic 190–191 Brigg Fair (Delius) 253
Adams, John Luther 322 Soviet 309 Britten, Benjamin 68, 155, 198, 237, 239, 266, 273,
Adès, Thomas 328 Ballets Russes 112, 248, 249, 251, 256, 262 282, 284, 285, 288–293, 318
Adriana Mater (Saariho) 325 Balzac, Honoré de 197 Bruckner, Anton 192, 335
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Bamboula Squared (Wuorinen) 324 Brumel, Antoine 44
Wheels of Steel 316 The Banjo (Gottschalk) 259 Bülow, Hans von 188
Aeolian Harp (Cowell) 268 Barber, Samuel 286, 337 Burleigh, Harry 214, 214
African American music 214–215, 254–255, 258, The Barber of Seville (Rossini) 148 Busoni, Ferruccio 266, 336
259, 260, 285 Barbieri, Francisco Asenjo 222 Buxtehude, Dieterich 78–79, 79
Aida (Verdi) 175, 199 Baroque music 58–111 Byrd, William 52–53, 57, 252
Albéniz, Isaac 210, 222 Colossal Baroque 44
Albinoni, Tomaso 91, 94 English 74–77
Albion and Albanius (Grabu) 74 French 70–71, 82–83 C
Alceste (Lully) 71 High Baroque 100–105
Alcina (Handel) 88 Italian 90–91, 94–97
Aldeburgh Festival 293, 318 The Bartered Bride (Smetana) 206, 213 Caccini, Francesca 234
aleatory music 302–305, 313, 323 Bartók, Béla 212, 242, 252, 261, 266, 270–271, 270, 308 Caccini, Giulio 63, 66
Alleluia (Whitacre) 329 basso continuo 66, 81 Cadmus et Hermione (Lully) 107
Alleluia nativitus (Pérotin) 30 Bates, Mason 326 Cage, John 257, 269, 273, 298, 302–305, 315, 316,
Alma redemptoris mater (Power) 42 Battle Cry of Freedom (Gottschalk) 216 317, 323, 328
Alsop, Marin 238, 238 Bay Psalm Book 216 Caldwell, Sarah 238
Ambient 1: Music for Airports (Eno) 320 Bayreuth Festival 182, 183, 186–187, 293 Cannabich, Christian 116, 117
ambient music 313, 320 BBC Radiophonic Workshop 301 canons 50, 74, 110–111
“An die ferne Geliebte” (Beethoven) 152 Beach, Amy 234 cantatas 101, 103, 173
Anonymous IV 28–29, 31 Beckett, Samuel 317, 321 cante jondo 223
Antheil, George 268 Beecham, Thomas 238 Canticum Canticorum 51
anthems 102 Beethoven, Ludwig van 86, 90, 96, 101, 105, 121, 127, cantus firmus 36, 37, 42
antiphons 23, 68 128, 131, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138–141, 148, 152, canzoni 55, 68
The Apocalypse (Taverner) 322 156–161, 161, 166, 169, 177, 182, 188, 208, 265, 304 Caprices (Paganini) 146, 147
Apocalypsis (Schafer) 322 The Beggar’s Opera (Gay) 88, 135 Cardew, Cornelius 302, 305
The Apostles (Elgar) 218, 219 bel canto 183, 197, 211 Carmen (Bizet) 175, 195, 195
Appalachian Spring 286–287, 287 Bellini, Vincenzo 334 Carnaval (Schumann) 164
Apparitions (Ligeti) 324 Belshazzar’s Feast (Walton) 284 Carter, Elliot 286, 337
Arabic poetic conventions 33 Benjamin, George 265, 301, 339 Caserta, Philippus de 37
Arezzo, Guido d’ 24–25, 25 Berg, Alban 261, 264, 265, 290 Cavalleria rusticana (Mascagni) 174, 194, 197
The Armed Man (Jenkins) 42 Berio, Luciano 254, 301, 316–317 Cavalli, Francesco 63, 76, 77
The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (Handel) 106 Berlioz, Hector 131, 146, 149, 155, 162–163, 163, The Cave (Reich) 320
Ars nova 36–37 167, 169, 172–173, 176, 177, 186, 210 Cavos, Catterino 207
The Art of Fugue (J.S. Bach) 109, 111, 308 Biber, Heinrich 44 Cello Concerto (Lutosławski) 310
Art of Noises (Russolo) 268 Billy Budd (Britten) 237, 293 Cello Concerto (Walton) 318
art song 152, 155 see also Lieder Birtwistle, Harrison 209, 290, 301, 318, 319, 325, 338 Celtic Requiem (Tavener) 282
Athalie (Racine) 208 biwa 314, 314 “Central Park in the Dark” (Ives) 316, 317
Atlántida (Falla) 223 Bizet, Georges 175, 195, 198, 237, 335 Cesti, Antonio 63
Atmosphères (Ligeti) 310 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne 209 chamber music 80, 124, 127, 234
atonality 242–245 Blow, John 74, 75 Chaminade, Cécile 234





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INDEX 345



The Charlatan (Haas) 263 Daphnis et Chloé (Ravel) 228 Elizabeth I 45, 52–53, 57
Charpentier, Marc-Antoine 70, 333 Das klagende Lied (Mahler) 199 Ellington, Duke 215
A Child of Our Time (Tippett) 218, 284–285, 284 Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler) 198, 200–201 Éluard, Paul 262
Chin, Unsuk 301, 324 Daughters of the Lonesome Isles (Cage) 273 English Musical Renaissance 173
Chopin, Frédéric 96, 164–165, 164, 166, 178, 179 Davies, Peter Maxwell 318–319 Enigma Variations (Elgar) 219, 290
choral music De institutione musica (Boethius) 24 Eno, Brian 320, 321
19th-century 170–173 Debussy, Claude 149, 155, 164, 199, 209, 211, 222, The Entertainer (Joplin) 259
21st-century 329 228–231, 242, 243, 248, 256, 258, 259, 266, 270, Erben, Karel 206
Baroque 66–69, 100–105 273, 314, 324 “Erikönig” (Schubert) 153, 154
chori spezzati 55, 66, 69 Delibes, Léo 190 Erratum musicale (Duchamp) 302
English 44–45, 218–219, 284–285 Delius, Frederick 253, 336 Essercizi per gravicembalo (D. Scarlatti) 90, 91, 132
polychoral style 44, 45 Der Freischütz (Weber) 134, 137, 149, 182 Estampes (Debussy) 199, 314
Renaissance 44–45 “Der Wanderer” (Schubert) 153 Esther (Handel) 86, 100
chorales 78–79, 103, 105, 172, 271, 285 Derbyshire, Delia 301 études 165
Chôros (Villa-Lobos) 281 Déserts (Varèse) 298 Études (Debussy) 324
Chrétien de Troyes 34 Desprez, Josquin 43 Études (Ligeti) 324
Christmas Oratorio (Bach) 101, 103 The Devil to Pay (Coffey) 135–136 Euridice (Peri) 63
chromatic scale 242, 243, 264, 265 Dia, Beatriz, Comtessa de 26 Everything Is Important (Walshe) 328
Classical era 105, 108–109, 112–141, 160, 168, 170 Diabelli, Anton 160
Clementi, Muzio 132–133 Diaghilev, Sergei 223, 248, 251, 251, 256
The Cobbler and the Fairy (Ricci) 148 Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) 74–77, 290 F
Cocteau, Jean 256, 257, 262, 299, 321 Didone (Cavalli) 76, 77
Codax, Martin 35 Die Feen (Wagner) 149
Codex Psalmorum 43 Die Fledermaus (Strauss) 137 The Fairies (Wagner) 149, 182–183
Coffee Cantata (Bach) 101 Die Jagd (Hiller) 134, 136 The Fairy Queen (Purcell) 75, 77
Coffey, Charles 135–136 Die schöne Müllerin (Schubert) 152, 153–154 Falla, Manuel de 222, 223
Cold Mountain (Higdon) 325, 327 Different Trains (Reich) 320 Falstaff (Verdi) 175
collage 254–255, 316–317 discants 29, 31 Fantasia chromatica (Sweelinck) 108
comédie-ballet 70 Ditters von Dittersdorf, Carl 125, 136, 334 Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli
Concert for Piano and Orchestra (Cage) 323 Diversions (Britten) 266 (Tippett) 96
concerti di camera see chamber music Don Carlos (Verdi) 175 Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (Vaughan
Concerti ecclesiastici (Viadana) 66 Don Giovanni (Mozart) 182, 212, 254 Williams) 45
Concerti grossi (Corelli) 80–81 Don Pascuale (Donizetti) 148 Fantasie (Alkan) 266
Concerto for Double String Orchestra (Tippett) 252 Donizetti, Gaetano 148, 174, 334 Farrenc, Louise 234
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Cowell) 254 Donnerstag (Stockhausen) 306 Fauré, Gabriel 155, 209, 210–211, 210, 228, 267
concertos 67, 68, 70, 80, 94–97 Dowland, John 56–57 Faust (Goethe) 153, 176–177
concerti grossi 80–81, 94, 96, 216 Dowland, Robert 57 Faust (Gounod) 195
piano concertos for the left hand 266–267 Dr Who 301 Faust et Hélène (Boulanger) 234
solo concertos 179 The Dream of Gerontius (Elgar) 170, 218–219 Faust Symphony (Liszt) 162, 163, 167,
Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo) 222 Dryden, John 74, 77 176–177, 177
Concord Sonata (Ives) 286 Duchamp, Marcel 302, 303 Fayrfax, Robert 44–45
contemporary music 298–329 Dufay, Guillaume 42, 42 Feldman, Morton 302, 305
Contrasts (Bartók) 261 Dunstable, John 42, 44 female composers 26–27, 232–239
Copland, Aaron 215, 235, 286–287 Dussek, Jan Ladislav 334 female conductors 238
Coppélia (Delibes) 190 Dvorˇ ák, Antonín 96, 155, 179, 206, 212–215, 235, Festa, Costanzo 48
Cordier, Baude 37 252, 263 Fidelio (Beethoven) 134, 137, 182
Corelli, Arcangelo 80–81, 86, 90, 91, 94 Dzerhinsky, Ivan 276 Field, John 164, 165
Corigliano, John 326 Figure humaine (Poulenc) 262
Corsi, Jacopo 62, 63 Finlandia (Sibelius) 221
Cosi fan tutte (Mozart) 148 E First Construction (in Metal) (Cage) 269
Counter-Reformation 48, 50–51 First New England School 216
counterpoint 86, 100, 101, 108–111 Five Sacred Songs (Webern) 242
Couperin, François 82–83 early music 18–37 A Florentine Tragedy (Zemlinsky) 192
courtly love 34, 35 Ebony Concerto (Stravinsky) 261 Flute Concerto in A major (C.P.E. Bach) 120–121
Cowell, Henry 254, 255, 268, 303, 337 Ecce beatam lucem 44 Fluxus movement 303
The Creation (Haydn) 171 Edgar (Puccini) 195 The Flying Dutchman (Wagner) 183, 237
Crumb, George 327 Egmont (Goethe) 208 folk music 212–215, 248–249, 252–253, 263,
Czech Suite (Dvorˇ ák) 214 Eight Songs for a Mad King (Pierrot Players) 318, 319 270–271, 280
Eimert, Herbert 301 For Children (Bartók) 252
D Ein feste Burg (Luther) 78 The Forest (Smyth) 235
Foster, Stephen 216
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (Buxtehude) 79
Einstein on the Beach 321
Four Last Songs (R. Strauss) 155, 193
electronic music 268, 269, 298–301, 306, 307 Four Penitential Motets (Poulenc) 282
Dadaism 256–257, 303 Elektra (Strauss) 193, 238 Four Saints in Three Acts (Thomson) 286
dance forms 57, 82, 91, 165, 178, 213, 214, 222, 260 Elgar, Edward 89, 96, 163, 170, 173, 208, 209, The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) 94, 96–97, 96
see also ballet music 218–219, 266, 290 fractal music 324
Danish Folksongs Suite (Grainger) 252 Elijah (Mendelssohn) 100, 171, 172, 172, 173, 218 Froberger, Johann Jakob 333



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346 INDEX



Franck, César 163, 335 Grandval, Marie de 234 Howarth, Elgar 318
Frauenliebe und leben (Schumann) 155 The Great Gatsby (Harbison) 286 Howell, Herbert 284
Frescobaldi, Girolamo 333 Great Service (Byrd) 53 Hugh the Drover (Vaughan Williams) 290
fugues 48, 50, 108–111, 264 Greber, Jakob 74 Hungarian Dances (Brahms) 189, 214
Futurist manifestos 268, 269 Gregorian chant 22, 23, 23, 25, 69, 317, 320 hymns 48, 50, 67, 78–79
“Gretchen am Spinnrade” (Schubert) 153 Hymnus paradisi (Howell) 284
G Grieg, Edvard 179, 208–209, 217, 220, 235
Gruppen (Stockhausen) 306–307
Gubaidulina, Sofia 310
Guerrero, Francisco 49 I J
Gabrieli, Andrea 55, 66, 68 Guidonian Hand 24–25, 24
Gabrieli, Giovanni 55, 68 I Ching 305
Gaelic Symphony (Beach) 234 Iberia (Albéniz) 222
Gagliano, Giovanni Battista da 63 H Ibsen, Henrik 208–209
Gagliano, Marco da 63 Idomeneo (Mozart) 118, 135
galant music 107 Il Parnasso confuso (Gluck) 119
gamelan music 248, 273 Haas, Pavel 263 Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Monteverdi) 62, 63
Gandolfi, Michael 327 Hadley, Henry Kimball 293 Il trovatore (Verdi) 174, 175
Gautier, Théophile 155 Hail to Stalin (Prokofiev) 276 Imaginary Landscape (Cage) 298, 304, 316
Gay, John 88, 135 The Hammer without a Master (Boulez) 264 impressionist musical works 228–231, 256, 262, 286
Geminiani, Francesco 81 Hammerklavier Sonata (Beethoven) 132 In C (Riley) 312–313, 320
Gerber, Ernst Ludwig 125 Handel, George Frideric 25, 74, 77, 80, In nomine genre 45
German, Edward 290 84–89, 91, 100, 101, 102, 106, 119, 121, In Seven Days (Adès) 328
German Requiem (Brahms) 173, 189 171, 218, 284, 285 incidental music 208–209
Gershwin, George 215, 258–261 Hans Heiling (Marschner) 149 Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/
Gershwin, Ira 261 Harbison, John 286 Musique (IRCAM) 301
Gesamtkuntswerk (complete art work) 182–187 harmonic ideals 42 international style 86–89
Gesang der Junglinge (Stockhausen) 298, 301 harmony-singing 28–31 Invitation to the Dance (Weber) 178
Gesualdo da Venosa, Carlo 54, 332 Harold en Italie (Berlioz) 146 Ionisation (Varèse) 268–269, 308
Gibbons, Orlando 54, 333 harpsichord 56, 82–83, 90–91, 90 Iphigénie en Aulide (Gluck) 107
Gilbert, W.S. 290 Harris, Roy 286 Itiberê, Brasílio 280
Ginastera, Alberto 280 Harrison, Lou 273 Ivan Susanin (Cavos) 207
Giraud, Albert 244 Hart, Roy 319 Ives, Charles 155, 254–255, 286, 316, 317
Glass, Philip 235, 273, 312, 313, 320, 321 Harvey, Jonathan 301, 319 Jackson, Gabriel 329
Glennie, Evelyn 269 Hauptmann, Moritz 100 Jäger March (Sibelius) 220
Glière, Reinhold 309 Hayasaka, Fumio 315 Jahn, Otto 100
Glinka, Mikhail 207, 334 Haydn, Joseph 86, 96, 116, 120, 121, Janá cˇek, Leoš 206, 212, 263
Globokar, Vinko 301 122–127, 127, 128, 132, 138, 139, Jarre, Jean-Michel 299
Gluck, Christoph Willibald 107, 118–119 152, 158, 171 jazz 258, 260–261
Gnessin, Mikhail 309 Haydn Variations (Brahms) 189 Jehin, Léon 210
Godowsky, Leopold 147 Heinrich, Anthony 216 Jenkins, John 56
Goehr, Alexander 318 The Heirs of the White Mountain (Dvorˇ ák) 214 Jenkins, Karl 42
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 153, 159, Helicopter String Quartet (Stockhausen) 307 Jenufa (Janá cˇek) 206
°
176–177, 208 Héloise, Abbess 26 Johannes de Garlandia 24
Goeyvaerts, Karel 306 Henry of Meissen 34 jongleurs 35
Goldberg Variations (J.S. Bach) 111 Henry, Pierre 299–301, 299 Jonny Plays (Krenek) 261
goliards 35 Henze, Hans Werner 261, 339 Jonson, Ben 74
Golijov, Osvaldo 327 Herder, Johann Gottfried von 159 Joplin, Scott 259
Golliwogg’s Cakewalk (Debussy) 258, 259 Hermann, Woody 261 Jórunn Skáldmaer 26
Gombert, Nicolas 48, 67 heterophony 30 Judd, Donald 312
Goodman, Benny 261, 271 Higdon, Jennifer 325, 326–327 Juliana of Liège 26
Górecki, Henryk 282, 311 Hildegard of Bingen 26–27, 26 Jutta of Sponheim 26, 27
Götterdämmerung (Wagner) 184, 185, 186 Hiller, Johann Adam 134, 136
Gottschalk, Louis Moreau 147, 216, 259 Hindemith, Paul 337
Gould, Glenn 111, 111 Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) 70, 107, 107 K L
Gounod, Charles 177, 195 Hoffmann, E.T.A. 134, 137, 138, 149
Goyescas (Granados) 223 Hofmannsthal, Hugo von 193
Grabu, Louis 74 Hogan, Eric 258, 259 Kapsberger, Giovanni Girolamo 56
Graduale Cisterciense 29 Holidays (Ives) 254 Kennedy, Nigel 96
Gradus (Glass) 312 Hollis, Margaret 238 Khachaturian, Aram 272, 309, 309
Gradus ad Parnassum 108 Holmès, Augusta 234 Kilar, Wojciech 323
Graham, Martha 286, 287 Holst, Gustav 74, 252, 253, 290, 336 King, Martin Luther, Jr. 317
Grainer, Ron 301 Holst, Imogen 239, 292 King Arthur (Purcell) 70, 75, 77
Grainger, Percy 252, 253 homophony 50 Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Barber) 286
Granados, Enrique 223 Honegger, Arthur 262, 268, 336 Knussen, Oliver 290
Grande Messe des morts (Berlioz) 210 Horn Concertos (Mozart) 96 Koch, Heinrich Christoph 138
Grande valse brillante (Chopin) 178 Hovhannisyan, Edgar 309 Kodály, Zoltán 212, 252, 271, 336





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INDEX 347



Korot, Beryl 320 Milhaud, Darius 248, 262, 336
Kraft, Antonín 96 M Mingus, Charles 261
Krenek, Ernst 261 minimalism 251, 312–313, 320–321
Kronos Quartet 313 Minnelieder 35
Kullervo (Sibelius) 220, 221 McCarthy, Nicholas 266 Minnesinger 35
Kurtág, György 270 MacDowell, Edward 216–217 The Minotaur (Birtwistle) 325
La Bohème (Puccini) 195–196 MacDowell Colony 217, 217 minstrels 35
La clemenzia di Tito (Gluck) 118, 135 Machaut, Guillaume de 37 Miss Fortune (Weir) 239
La Creation du monde (Milhaud) 248 MacMillan, James 284, 339 Missa Caput 36
La Dafne (Peri/Corsi) 62, 63 Maconchy, Elizabeth 239 Missa da Requiem (Verdi) 175
La Jeune France 282 McPhee, Colin 273 Missa et ecce terrae motus (Brumel) 44
La Mer (Debussy) 229, 314 Madame Butterfly (Puccini) 194 Missa L’homme armé (Dufay) 42, 50
La Messe de Liverpool (Henry) 299 Maderna, Bruno 301, 317 Missa Pange lingua (Desprez) 43
La Pas Ma La (Hogan) 258, 259 madrigals 48, 54, 102, 234 Missa Papae Marcelli (Palestrina) 50–51
La serva padrona (Pergolesi) 107 The Magic Flute (Mozart) 130, 134–137, 135, 149 Missa prolationum (Ockeghem) 50
La Sylphide (Schneitzhoffer) 190 Magister Albertus Parisiensis 28 Missa Repleatur os meum (Palestrina) 51
La traviata (Verdi) 68, 174–175, 174 Magnificat 102, 120 Missa Salisburgensis (Biber) 44
Lachenmann, Helmut 338 Magnus liber organi (Léonin) 29 modal rhythm 31
Lachner, Franz 130 Mahler, Gustav 149, 155, 176, 188, 189, 192, modernism 193, 224–293
Lachrimae (Dowland) 57 198–201, 238, 277, 317, 322 modes 24, 25
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) 272, 276 Malats, Joaquim 222 Molière 70
Lambert, Constant 284 Mallarmé, Stéphane 228, 231 Monk, Thelonius 324
L’Amour de loin (Saariaho) 234, 325 Manelli, Francesco 62 monophony 50
Lanier, Nicholas 74, 76 Manfred (Byron) 208 Monteverdi, Claudio 48, 54, 62, 63, 64–69, 102,
The Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams) 253 Mannheim school 116–117, 129 107, 322
Lassus, Orlande de 51 Manon Lescaut (Puccini) 195 Morley, Thomas 54
Le bourgeois gentilhomme (Lully) 70–71 Mantra (Stockhausen) 306 Moses und Aaron (Schoenberg) 264
Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion 33–34, 33 Maple Leaf Rag (Joplin) 259 motets 36, 37, 44, 45, 48, 50, 51, 53, 55, 101–102, 264
Le Roman de Fauvel (Gervais du Bus) 36, 37 “The March of the Women” (Smyth) 238 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 86, 88, 90, 94, 96, 102,
Le villi (Puccini) 194–195 The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) 135, 148 108, 116, 117, 118, 121, 125, 127, 128–131, 133,
Lebègue, Nicholas-Antoine 82 Marschner, Heinrich 149 134–137, 148, 149, 152, 158, 182, 208, 212, 254, 302
Lehár, Franz 137 Martinu, Bohuslav 263 Müller, Wilhelm 152, 153
leitmotifs 185, 186, 187, 260 Marx, Joseph 242 multimedia experiences 320, 328
Leoncavallo, Ruggero 194 Mascagni, Pietro 174, 194, 336
Léonin 28–29, 31 Maschera, Fiorentio 55 Mundy, William 52
Murail, Tristan 301
Les Biches (Poulenc) 262
Les nuits d’été (Berlioz) 155 The Mask of Orpheus (Birtwistle) 318 Musgrave, Thea 239
The Mask of Time (Tippett) 284
Music for 18 Musicians (Reich) 320
Les Six 251, 257, 262
Les Yeux clos (Takemitsu) 315 Mass 22, 23, 36, 37, 42, 43, 45, 49, 50, 67, 101 music dramas 184
Lesh, Phil 317 requiem mass 210–211 Music for the Royal Fireworks (Handel) 86, 88
Let’s Make an Opera (Britten) 293 Mass in B Minor (Bach) 101 Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Leutgeb, Joseph 96 Massenet, Jules 195 (Bartók) 308
Levi, Hermann 235 Massine, Léonide 190, 223, 256 music theatre 319
Lévi-Strauss, Claude 317 The Master-Singers of Nuremberg (Wagner) 186 “musical dice games” 302
Lewis, John 261 mathematical principles 308, 324 The Musical Offering (Bach) 111
Licht (Stockhausen) 307 Matisse, Henri 251 musique concrète 298–301, 306
Lieder 152–155, 234 Mazeppa (Grandval) 234 Musique de table (Telemann) 106
Life Is Short (Falla) 223 mazurka 165 Mussorgsky, Modest 155, 207, 207
A Life for the Tsar (Glinka) 207 melismas 23, 31, 76 muwashah music 33
Ligeti, György 270, 310, 311, 324 Mendelssohn, Fanny 234 My Homeland (Smetana) 206, 213, 263
Lim, Liza 323 Mendelssohn, Felix 78, 100, 105, 108, 158, 167, Mystery Plays 32
L’incoronazione de Poppea (Monteverdi) 67, 69 170–173, 173, 179, 208, 218
Lind, Jenny 172 Menhuin, Yehudi 105
Lindberg, Magnus 339 Mephisto-Waltz (Liszt) 176 N O
L’isle joyeuse (Debussy) 229 Meredith, George 253
Liszt, Franz 49, 96, 131, 132, 146–147, 162, 163, 167, Merrie England (German) 290
169, 176–177, 179, 192, 217, 270 The Merry Widow (Lehár) 137 Nabucco (Verdi) 174, 175
The Little Barber of Lavapiés (Barbieri) 222 Mescalin Mix (Riley) 312 Nancarrow, Conlon 324
liturgical dramas 26, 27, 32 Messe de Notre Dame 37 naqqara 35
Locke, Matthew 55, 75 Messiaen, Olivier 228, 248, 262, 273, 282–283, 298, nationalism, musical 202–223
Lohengrin (Wagner) 183 299, 307, 308, 315, 325 American 216–217, 286–287
L’Orfeo (Monteverdi) 62, 63, 66, 67, 107 Messiah (Handel) 88, 89, 170, 218, 285 Czech 206, 212–214, 263
Lully, Jean-Baptiste 70–71, 71, 86, 102, 107 Metastasio, Pietro 118 Finnish 220–221
lute 35, 54, 56–57 Meyerbeer, Giacomo 183, 334 folk music 212–215
Luther, Martin 48, 52, 78, 103 Micrologus (d’Arezzo) 24–25 French 256
Lutosławski, Witold 310, 323 micropolyphony 324 Russian 207
Lutyens, Elisabeth 239, 253, 337 The Midsummer Marriage (Tippett) 290 Spanish 222
Lyric Pieces (Grieg) 217 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mendelssohn) 208 Native American music 215, 217




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348 INDEX



Neo-romanticism 326 Poulenc, Francis 155, 262, 282
neoclassicism 248, 251, 282, 286 P Power, Leonel 42
Nepomuceno, Alberto 280 Pran Nath, Pandit 313
neumes 24, 31 Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy)
Neuwirth, Olga 328 Pacific 231 (Honegger) 268 228–231, 230, 242
Newman, John Henry 218, 219 Pacius, Fredrik 220 Préludes (Chopin) 165
Nielsen, Carl 220, 336 Paganini, Niccolò 96, 146–147, 147, 179 Préludes (Messiaen) 228, 283
Nietzsche, Friedrich 103, 193 Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) 194 “prepared piano” 303
Nights in the Gardens of Spain (Falla) 222 Paisiello, Giovanni 148 Prez, Josquin des 48, 50
Nijinsky, Vaslav 230, 248, 250 Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da 42, 46–51, 264 Priest, Josias 75, 76
Nikolais, Alwin 300 Pankhurst, Emmeline 235 prima pratica 66, 67, 69, 101
nocturnes 164, 165 pantomime 34 primitivism 248–251
Nono, Luigi 338 Parade (Satie) 256–257 The Prince of the Pagodas (Britten) 198
North, Roger 81 Parsifal (Wagner) 183, 187, 198, 218 Prokofiev, Sergei 251, 266, 268, 272, 276, 309
The Nose (Shostakovich) 276, 277 Pärt, Arvo 313, 320, 329, 338 Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (Scriabin) 328
notation Partita (Shaw) 329 Protestant Reformation 48, 50, 78
early 22, 24–25 passacaglia 76 psalm settings 66, 67, 86, 216
revolution 36–37 passaggi 55 public concerts, establishment of 88
Notre Dame School 28, 31 Patria (Schafer) 322 Puccini, Giacomo 194–197
November Steps (Takemitsu) 314–315 pavan 57 Pulcinella (Stravinsky) 190, 223
The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky) 191, 191 The Pearl Fishers (Bizet) 198, 237 Punch and Judy (Birtwistle) 290, 318
Nyman, Michael 313 Pears, Peter 291, 293 Purcell, Henry 70, 72–77, 86, 102, 124, 290
O Care, thou wilt despatch me (Weelkes) 54 Pedrell, Felipe 222, 223 Purgatory (Weisgall) 290
Oberon, King of the Elves (Wranitzky) 134, 136–137 Peer Gynt (Ibsen/Grieg) 208–209, 208
Obrecht, Jacob 43, 100 Pelléas et Melisande (Debussy) 229
Ockeghem, Johannes 50, 332 Penderecki, Krzysztof 100, 258, 261, 308, 310–311 Q R
Octet (Stravinsky) 286 Pénélope (Fauré) 210
October (Whitacre) 329 percussion 251, 268–269, 273
“Ode to Joy” (Schiller) 159, 162 The Perfect Fool (Holst) 290 Qawwali music 29
Odo of Cluny 24 Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista 107 Quartet for the End of Time (Messiaen) 282–283
Offrandes (Varèse) 242 Peri, Jacopo 62–63 Querelle des Bouffons 107
Ogdon, John 318 Pérotin 28, 29, 30, 31, 31, 124 Quiet Flows the Don (Dzerhinsky) 276
Oldfield, Mike 313 Perugia, Matteo da 37 Quotation of Dream (Takemitsu) 314
On Willows and Birches (Williams) 326 Peter Grimes (Britten) 237, 239, 290–293, 291 quotation technique 317
The Opening of the Wells (Martinu) 263 Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev) 272 Rachmaninoff, Sergei 96, 147, 207, 260, 266, 272
opera
20th-century British 290–293 Petrucci, Ottaviano 43 Raff, Joachim 217
Petrushka (Stravinsky) 190
ragtime 258–260
21st-century 325
Baroque 74–77 Piano Concerto in A minor (Grieg) 179 Rain Tree Sketch II (Takemitsu) 315
characteristics 102 Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Ravel) 266–267, A Rainbow in Curved Air (Riley) 313
Czech 206 267 The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky) 68
early 62–63 Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor (Chopin) 179 Rameau, Jean-Philippe 70, 107
female composers 234–239 Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor (Saint-Saëns) 179 Rasputin (Rautavaara) 325
French 107 Piano Sonata in B minor (Liszt) 132, 270 Rastell, John 43
German Romantic 137, 149, 182–185 Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor (Clementi) 132, 133 Rattle, Simon 328
Italian 174–175 Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord” (Ives) 254 Rautavaara, Einojuhani 325
minimalist 321 Piano-Rag-Music (Stravinsky) 260 Ravel, Maurice 178, 198, 207, 211, 228, 253, 256, 258,
Neapolitan School 116, 118 Piazzolla, Astor 280, 281 260, 266–267, 273
opera buffa 86, 107, 135, 148 Picabia, Francis 303 Read, Daniel 216
opera seria 118–119, 135 Picasso, Pablo 223, 251, 256 recitative 63, 66, 67, 74, 118, 197, 260
semi-opera 77 Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) 207 The Red Poppy (Glière) 309
Singspiel 134–137, 149 Pièces de clavecin (Couperin) 82–83 Reich, Steve 312, 313, 317, 320, 320
verismo 194–197 Pierrot lunaire (Schoenberg) 242, 244–245, 244, Reichardt, Louise 234
zarzuela 222, 223 308, 318, 319 Reimann, Aribert 338
Zauberoper (“magic opera”) 134, 137 Pierrot Players (later, The Fires of London) 242, 319 Reincken, Johann Adam 79
oratorios 86, 89, 100, 101–105, 171–172, 218, 284 Pietrobono 56 Relâche (Satie) 256
see also choral music Pink Floyd 321 Renaissance music 38–57
Orbit, William 301 Pithoprakta (Xenakis) 308 Requiem (Berlioz) 172–173
Ordo Virtutum (Hildegard of Bingen) 27 The Place Where You Go To Listen (Adams) 322 Requiem (Fauré) 210–211
Oresme, Nicole 36 plainsong 22–23, 26, 37, 49, 50, 67, 68 Requiem (Verdi) 173, 210
Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck) 118–119 The Planets (Holst) 290 Requiem for Strings (Takemitsu) 315
organa 28–31 Pleyel, Ignace Joseph 127 The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Bates) 326
orientalism 71 Poème électronique (Varèse) 269, 301 Revueltas, Silvestre 280, 281
Orpheus 62, 62, 63 polka 213, 214 Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin) 258, 259, 260
Otello (Verdi) 174, 175 polonaise 165 The Rheingold (Wagner) 184, 187
ouverture 71 polyphony 28–31, 36–37, 48–51, 66, 67 Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges 303
Owen, Wilfred 282, 285 polystylism 276, 278, 316, 319 Ricci, Federico 148
The Ox on the Roof (Milhaud) 262 Porgy and Bess (Gershwin) 260–261, 261 Ricci, Luigi 148





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