The Classical Music Book

ROMANTIC 1810–1920 199

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

of unknown regions. The decisive Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde Gustav Mahler
impetus for the cult of exoticism while staying at the Hotel Bellevue in
came in the 19th century, as the Italian town of Cortina. The peaks The second of 14 children of
European powers busily pursued of the Dolomites provided a dramatic Jewish parents, Mahler was
global empire-building rivalries. backdrop for his compositions. born in 1860 and spent his
At home, industrialization created childhood in the Czech-
rapid growth in towns and cities, east. Operas were set in alluringly speaking town of Iglau (now
with populations living and foreign settings, such as Giuseppe Jihlava). He gave his first
working in oppressive conditions Verdi’s Aida (1871), a fictional story piano recital at age 10 and five
that generated an inner need for of ancient Egypt. In orchestral years later entered the Vienna
psychological escape. music, Russia’s Nikolai Rimsky- Conservatory. His cantata Das
Korsakov based his symphonic klagende Lied (1880) showed
Selling the exotic suite Scheherazade (1888) on amazing early self-awareness,
The world of literature latched stories from a collection of Middle exploring a spectral, folk-tale
onto the sales possibilities of exotic Eastern folk tales that became world in a vivid orchestral
subject matter, as in the South Seas known as The Arabian Nights. The style. A stellar conducting
tales of Robert Louis Stevenson French composer Claude Debussy career led to the composer’s
(1850–1894) or the romanticized found the piano especially suitable appointment in 1897 as artistic
Native American world depicted for suggesting images of remote director of the Vienna Court
in The Song of Hiawatha by Henry worlds, using Javanese melodies Opera. Mahler wrote most
Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). in Pagodes (Pagodas), from his of his music—largely song
Exoticism also flourished among Estampes (Engravings) of 1903. settings and symphonies—
painters. French artist Paul Gauguin during summers among the
(1848–1903) moved to the French Life through new eyes Austrian lakes.
Polynesian island of Tahiti in 1891, Before he composed Das Lied von
to explore new avenues of artistic der Erde, Mahler did not seem to be Departure from the Vienna
expression, aware that the European influenced by the growing European Court Opera in 1907 was
vogue for the exotic would ensure love of exoticism. His choice of texts followed by conducting work
sales of his work in Paris. for his songs and symphonies had in New York. Mahler died soon
come mostly from one particular after returning to Europe from
European classical music, too, area of Austro-German culture: the America, in 1911.
was drawn to the imagined sounds folk poetry, usually anonymous, ❯❯
of enticing worlds to the south and Other key works

1888–1894 Symphony No. 2
(“Resurrection”)
1892–1901 Des Knaben
Wunderhorn (The Boy’s
Magic Horn)
1908–1909 Symphony No. 9

200 EXOTIC WORLDS IN MUSIC

Romantic themes and images in Das Lied von der Erde

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

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

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

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

ROMANTIC 1810–1920 201

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

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

NATION

1830–1920

ALISM

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

1863 1874 1887–1890 1893
1869 1875 1890

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

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

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 205

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

1898 1900 1908

1896 1900 1919

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

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

206

MMTHEYAAFNNASTAHNMEYORTRLHEAINNTGDOEMLESE

TBHEEDRBˇ IACRHTSERMEEDTABNRAIDE (1866),

IN CONTEXT T he second and best-loved Marenka are united in the end, and
of Czech composer Bedrˇich Jenik is revealed as the long-lost
FOCUS Smetana’s operas, The son of Vasek’s rich father. The opera
19th-century Czech opera Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevesta), is is a melding of French and Italian
about two young lovers—Marenka influences with inspiration from
BEFORE and Jeniken—in a Bohemian Czech folk settings and traditions,
1826 František Škroup’s village. They want to marry, but particularly dances such as the
Drátenik (The Tinker), widely Marenka’s parents, swayed by the polka and the furiant.
regarded as the first Czech village marriage broker, intend her
opera, has its premiere. to wed Vasek, the simple-minded A new Czech identity
son of a wealthy landlord. Jenik and During the 1860s and 1870s,
1842–1845 Czech poet Smetana almost single-handedly
and historian Karel Erben The Bartered Bride is only created Czech opera by writing
publishes a pioneering a toy and composing it was operas in the Czech language.
collection of Bohemian merely child’s play! … At the Czech culture had long been
folk songs. influenced by the Habsburg
time of writing, it was Empire. By the mid-19th century,
1865 Karel Sebor’s opera my opinion that not however, nationalist aspirations
Templari na Morave even Offenbach could were strong, and these grew in
(The Templars in Moravia) is compete with it! 1860 when the imperial authorities
performed to local acclaim at Bedrˇich Smetana handed greater powers to the
Prague’s Provisional Theatre. Czech parliament in Prague. Funds
were raised to build a theatre for
AFTER Czech drama and opera, and it was
1901 Rusalka, Antonín here that Smetana’s first two operas
Dvorˇák’s most successful were premiered. He completed six
opera, is premiered at Prague’s more operas, along with a cycle of
National Theatre. symphonic poems called Má vlast
(My Fatherland), celebrating Czech
1904 Leoš Janácˇek’s opera landscapes and culture. ■
Jenu°fa is performed for the first
time in the Czech city of Brno. See also: The Magic Flute 134–137 ■ The Barber of Seville 148 ■
Der Freischütz 149 ■ La traviata 174–175 ■ The Ring Cycle 180–187

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 207

MOTYFUPSRISFUIOSERSSGIATSHKEYGENIUS

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (1874),
MODEST PETROVICH MUSSORGSKY

IN CONTEXT T he Russian composer Boris Godunov in January 1874,
Modest Mussorgsky’s which marked the public high point
FOCUS Pictures at an Exhibition of his career. The piano suite was
Nationalism in 19th- is a piano suite in 10 movements. not performed in the composer's
century Russian music Each movement was inspired by lifetime, but its intensity and
the work of fellow Russian Viktor complexity, and distinctly Russian
BEFORE Hartmann, an architect and artist. subject matter, helped to achieve
1815 In St. Petersburg, the ultimate ambition of the “Five”
Venetian-born Catterino Cavos Mussorgsky belonged to a to give Russian music its own
composes Ivan Susanin, the generation of composers who, in unmistakable voice. ■
first opera about Russian the 1860s, gave Russian music
characters, based on Russian its first distinctive voice. He was The early, alcohol-induced death
history, and incorporating part of a group nicknamed the of Mussorgsky, painted here by Ilya
Russian folk music. “Five,” also known as the “Mighty Repi in 1881, the year that he died, left
Handful,” who sought to create Rimsky-Korsakov and other composers
1836 Mikhail Glinka’s A Life music without being confined by to finish or revise his work.
for the Tsar has its premiere western European conventions.
in St. Petersburg. It is the first Besides Mussorgsky, the “Five”
all-sung opera by a native were Mily Balakirev (1837–1910),
Russian composer. the group’s initial guiding spirit;
Aleksandr Borodin (1833–1887), a
AFTER scientist as well as a musician;
1896 Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov César Cui, best known as a critic;
undertakes the first of his and NikolayRimsky-Korsakov,
revisions of Mussorgsky’s who played a key role in mentoring
opera Boris Godunov. For a new generation of composers,
decades, these remain the including Aleksandr Scriabin
most-performed versions. and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

1922 French composer Pictures at an Exhibition
Maurice Ravel produces an was composed shortly after the
orchestrated version of premiere of Mussorgsky’s opera
Pictures at an Exhibition.
See also: Dvorˇák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215 ■ Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■
Romeo and Juliet 272 ■ Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony 274–279

208

IFHIAASMSHASINUTRAITSETMEYOMFUCSOIDC

PEER GYNT (1875), EDVARD GRIEG

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

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 209

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

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

210

IDDWIOFFASENORTMEEENDTTHTOING

REQUIEM (1887–1890), GABRIEL FAURÉ

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

1948 Maurice Duruflé
completes his Requiem,
which, like Fauré’s, includes
the Pie Jesu, Libera me, and
In paradisum sections.

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 211

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

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

Although the work was not
immediately well received, Fauré
opened new avenues for French
music, paving the way for later
French composers, such as Ravel
and Debussy. Fauré’s is now one
of the most popular settings of the
Requiem in the choral repertoire. ■

212 IN CONTEXT

LPTAOEHROVEAPEMRLLEYUESAFISINLCODLOWIKFEETRHE FOCUS
Nationalism and folk music
SWYOMRPLHDO”N(Y18N9O3.),9A, N“FTROONMÍNTDHVEONRˇ EÁWK
BEFORE
1723 Czech composer Dismas
Zelenka writes his Ouverture
à 7 concertanti.

1776 Czech-born Johann
Baptist Vanhal publishes
Six Symphonies, Op. 23, works
that influenced Classical style.

1862 Bedrˇich Smetana
composes the opera The
Brandenburgers in Bohemia,
which is a great success.

AFTER
1904 Leoš Janácˇek premieres
his opera Jenu° fa, which uses
“speech tunes” based on a
Moravian dialect of Czech.

1905–08 Béla Bartók and
Zoltán Kodály visit Hungarian
villages to research and record
traditional songs and dances.

B ohemia, the largest and
westernmost region of
the Czech Republic today,
was formerly part of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire. For centuries,
its capital Prague enjoyed a rich
musical life, strongly influenced by
German and Austrian composers.
In the late 18th century, Mozart
visited five times, wrote a “Prague”
symphony (No. 38), and premiered
his opera Don Giovanni in the city.

By the mid-1800s, however,
fueled by a failed revolution in
1848, a nationalist movement
was underway that would have a
powerful impact on all the arts. In
music, both Bedrˇich Smetana and
Antonín Dvorˇák began to use

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 213

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

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

classical European symphonic and older Smetana was already Antonín Dvorˇák
chamber forms to produce works cultivating a reputation as a
of a strongly patriotic nature that champion of a Czech style of music The son of an innkeeper,
incorporated the spirit of regional after spending most of his early Dvorˇák was born in a village
folk songs and dances. creative years in Sweden. north of Prague in 1841. He
shared his father’s passion
Two composers Smetana’s first language was for the violin, and from 1857
Dvorˇák was an accomplished German, and he had only recently he also studied the organ in
keyboard player and violinist, begun to study Czech when he Prague, playing the instrument
who had played in several Prague responded to a contest to compose in several orchestras.
orchestras when he joined the one a Czech opera. He submitted The
at the city’s Provincial Theatre in Brandenburgers in Bohemia, which By the early 1870s, Dvorˇák
1866, conducted by Smetana. The premiered in 1866, and went on to had taken up composition
produce many celebrated works in full time and was married to
Czech, such as The Bartered Bride, Anna, with whom he would
a set of symphonic poems called have nine children. Dvorˇák's
Má vlast (My homeland), and career was aided by Johannes
Vlatava, which paints the course Brahms, who sat on a panel
of the river running through Prague. that awarded Dvorˇák a grant
to pursue his music. He also
Inspired by Smetana’s Czech recommended Dvorˇák to his
operas, Dvorˇák composed Alfred publisher, who encouraged
in 1870, but it was not performed in him to write a set of Slavonic
his lifetime. His next, The King and dances. Their publication
the Charcoal Burner, was at first changed his fortunes; new
rejected as unplayable, though commissions at home and
eventually accepted after extensive from England soon followed.
rewrites. Dvorˇák gave up his ❯❯ Dvorˇák directed the National
Conservatory of Music in New
Time signature 1st Beat 2nd Beat 1st Beat 2nd Beat York from 1892–1895, before
of 2 quarter note returning to Prague to teach
beats per bar. and write new works based
on Bohemian folk tales. He
Emphasis Emphasis died from a stroke in 1904.
Originally a Bohemian peasant dance, the polka
has two strong beats in each bar, inviting dancers to Other key works
step in lively, bouncing fashion. It became a popular
ballroom dance in the 1830s. 1878 Slavonic Dances, Book 1,
Op. 46
1885 Symphony No. 7, Op. 70
1900 Rusalka, Op. 144

214 NATIONALISM AND FOLK MUSIC

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

In the negro melodies of
America I discover all that
is needed for a great and

noble school of music.
Antonin Dvorˇák

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 215

Structure of the
Ninth Symphony

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

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

216

LMTAHUNESGIICNUTAIASGNEAGOIBFLE

WOODLAND SKETCHES (1896),
EDWARD MACDOWELL

IN CONTEXT T he first music published choral melody is sung in unison
in North America were and then in counterpoint but with
FOCUS tunes in the Bay Psalm scant regard for traditional Western
American nationalism Book, a compilation selected standards of harmony.
from European psalters by the
BEFORE 17th-century emigrants who settled America’s first
1640 The Bay Psalm Book is in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Bohemian-born Anthony
published in Massachusetts. By the late 18th century, however, Heinrich, who lived in the United
American-born composers such as States from 1810, is generally
1834 Anthony Heinrich William Billings and Daniel Read, considered the first “professional”
composes The Treaty of who formed part of the First New American composer. Inspired by
William Penn with the Indians, England School, began to publish different parts of the United States,
a concerto grosso. music that marked a distinct he developed a more dissonant
departure from European models. harmonic language than had been
1848 Stephen Foster publishes These composers, who were heard elsewhere and was the first
the song “Oh! Susanna,” which usually self-taught, were writing American to write for a symphony
becomes an instant hit. new types of sacred music, such orchestra. More famous, however,
as the “fuguing tune,” in which a was the virtuoso pianist, Louis
1863 Louis Moreau Gottschalk Moreau Gottschalk, who studied
publishes Battle Cry of A house of dreams untold, in Paris and was feted by Chopin
Freedom, based on an it looks out over the and Liszt. Returning to America in
American Civil War song. 1853, he toured widely, performing
whispering treetops, and his own works that would often
AFTER faces the setting sun. reference the indigenous music
1897 John Philip Sousa’s Edward MacDowell and instruments of the New World.
march The Stars and Stripes
Forever premieres. As American tastes evolved, a
new group of composers emerged—
now known as the Second New
England School. The strongest
influence for these composers was
the German Romantic tradition,
and a number of them studied in
Europe. The best remembered of
this group is Edward MacDowell.

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 217

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

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

Other key works

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

218

OAATRBHFOTETSVHAEREISATSLEOOLXUFPTLMRHEUESSOSITCIOHNER

THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS (1900), EDWARD ELGAR

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

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 219

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

The Dream of Gerontius

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

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

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

220

ITTAHOMETMHAEESSIRL, AADVNEEDMTSAOUNBMDMSYIT

FINLANDIA (1900), JEAN SIBELIUS

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

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

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

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 221

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

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

222

SWACPIACTNHEINSATHUMNIUVSEIRCSAL

IBERIA (1906–1908)
ISAAC ALBÉNIZ

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

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 223

DOAEFWXRTOHENYRDTIETHRIMEFSIUCLALMAZE

EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS (1919)
MANUEL DE FALLA

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

See also: The Bartered Bride 206 ■ Pictures at an Exhibition 207 ■
Finlandia 220–221 ■ Iberia 222 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287

MODE

1900–1950

RN

226 INTRODUCTION

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

1894 1912 1914 1924
1927
1906 1913 1917

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

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

MODERN 1900–1950 227

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

1928 1933 1941 1944

1930 1937 1941 1945

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

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

228 IN CONTEXT

IHSGHAVOAEDTOBOWESCEYOEOMUTEHE FOCUS
Impressionism
PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE
(1894), CLAUDE DEBUSSY BEFORE
1891 Gabriel Fauré’s “Cinq
mélodies ‘de Venise’” uses
subtle, elusive harmonic
progressions, similar to the
“impressionist” style.

1882–1892 Ernest Chausson’s
Poème de l’amour et de la mer
contains passages and chord
progressions, which more
vividly prefigure the harmonic
language of Debussy’s Prélude.

AFTER
1912 In the ballet Daphnis
et Chloé, Maurice Ravel uses
fast-moving “dots” of sound,
the musical equivalent of a
pointillist painting.

1928–1929 The young Olivier
Messiaen composes his
Préludes, a collection of pieces
heavily influenced by Debussy.

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

Debussy’s musical language
was an ideal counterpart to
Mallarmé’s symbolist poetry. The
composer described the work as
“the general impression of the
poem … it follows the ascending

MODERN 1900–1950 229

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

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

Other key works

1902 Pelléas et Mélisande
1903 Estampes
1903–1905 La Mer

230 IMPRESSIONISM

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

MODERN 1900–1950 231

Orchestra for Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

The original orchestra for Debussy’s Woodwind Harps Strings
symphonic poem consisted of woodwinds,
strings, harp, and horns, together creating Solo flute
a delicate, sensuous sound world.

Percussion

Two other flute parts

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

English horn

Four horns Clarinet Cello Double bass

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

Debussy and impressionism

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

BIG ANDITWHAENITRWOMMIENNDTOSTUTRON

DIFFICULT JOBS

THE WRECKERS (1904), ETHEL SMYTH



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

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

MODERN 1900–1950 235

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

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

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

236 WOMEN COMPOSERS

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

MODERN 1900–1950 237

The sea in opera

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

Ethel Smyth

lovers Thirza and Mark, torn
between passion and moral
responsibility, strike a new, raw
note in British operatic music.

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

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

MODERN 1900–1950 239

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

AN AUDIENCE

CSHOOUMLDPN’LT ALISCTEENNWCITYH

PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21 (1912),
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG



242 PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21

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

1921–1923 The Suite for
Piano, Op. 25, is the first of
Schoenberg’s works to use
his 12-tone serial method
of composition throughout.

1922 French composer Edgard
Varèse’s Offrandes for soprano
and chamber orchestra has its
premiere in New York.

1965 An ensemble, the Pierrot
Players, later known as the
Fires of London, is founded to
perform Pierrot lunaire and
other new works.

See also: The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ MODERN 1900–1950 243
Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21 264–265 ■
Ionisation 268–269 ■ Gruppen 306–307 Arnold Schoenberg

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

244 PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21

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

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

Audience and orchestra fight in a is highly structured. Hartleben’s MODERN 1900–1950 245
1913 cartoon from the newspaper Die translation is in a German rondel
Zeit titled “The upcoming Schoenberg form: each poem has 13 lines split Sprechstimme
concert,” satirizing the anger that the into three stanzas. Line one is
composer’s new music could provoke. repeated at lines seven and 13, and Although the vocal line in
line two is repeated at line eight. Pierrot lunaire is usually
unsettling atmosphere, and the Schoenberg’s settings employ a performed by a soprano,
dissonance of the harmonies suits variety of similarly strict formal Schoenberg did not intend it
the strange and sometimes violent techniques. Schoenberg uses small to be sung but rather recited,
imagery. Like the poems, the music motif “cells” of notes as the basis like the cabaret songs and
for forms such as passacaglias and melodramas that were popular
canons, presenting them in various at the time, in a style he called
guises: transposed up or down, sprechstimme (“speaking
in retrograde (played backward), voice”). He first used the
and inversion (upside down). technique in his cantata
Gurre-Lieder but realized
The piece is written for a its full potential in Pierrot
quintet playing seven instruments: lunaire. Here, the vocal line
piano, violin (also playing viola), is notated conventionally,
cello, clarinet, and flute (also with precise indications of
playing piccolo). The combination both rhythm and pitch, but
of this pared-down ensemble and sprechstimme is indicated by
Schoenberg’s stark scoring and small crosses on the stems of
atonality provided a sharp contrast the notes. Later, Schoenberg
to the Romanticism of the 19th abandoned specific pitch
century and proved that there was indications for sprechstimme,
a viable alternative to tonality. ■ replacing the five-line staff
with a single line and no clef.

Tonality Origin Atonality

Gravitates around Freely composed
a home key

Based on Melody Can use
major or minor scales Harmony all notes of the
Dissonance chromatic scale
of the home key
Based on Not
restricted to major or
major or minor chords
of the home key minor chords
Resolves Does not

into consonant major resolve into consonant
or minor chords chords

IAHABVAENR’TOUNFDMERUSTSOIOCD

FELT ITIN MY LIFE, BUT I HAVE

LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS (1913),
IGOR STRAVINSKY



248 PRIMITIVISM AND MODERNISM

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

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