The Classical Music Book

MODERN 1900–1950 249

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

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

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

250 PRIMITIVISM AND MODERNISM

Differences between Romanticism and Modernism

Romanticism Modernism

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

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

Dissonances are resolved. Dissonances are freely
Uses one scale at a time. used. May employ different
Rhythm is rational and
ordered, following scales simultaneously.
regular meter. Rhythm is irregular and

unpredictable, with
unexpected emphases.

Orchestra uses Orchestra uses
conventional playing experimental playing

techniques. techniques.

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

The last page of Stravinsky’s minimalism of the 1960s–1980s MODERN 1900–1950 251
handwritten score for Le Sacre shows as much as they permeated film
the chaotic nature of the piece, with scores and influenced popular Diaghilev and the
some huge intervals between notes. styles. Stravinsky’s particular Ballets Russes
style of modernism influenced
Lydia Sokolova, for example, later later composers in the trends of Sergei Diaghilev founded his
reflected: “As soon as it was known primitivism, exoticism, and ballet company in Paris in
that the conductor was there, the experimental composition. 1909. For two decades until
uproar began.” Some accounts his death, the Ballets Russes
suggest that blows were even Perhaps because Stravinsky’s performed regularly in Paris,
exchanged and that as many as musical style soon evolved in throughout Europe, and in the
40 audience members were a neoclassical direction, the Americas. While the company
arrested for violence and disorder. “Stravinskian aesthetic” was not prominently featured highly
only to influence future neoclassical skilled Russian dancers, and
A year later, however, Le Sacre composers but also to reenergize often showcased Russian
was performed in Paris without the performing styles of Baroque composers and works, they
dancers, and it was the greatest and Classical music in a way that never performed in Russia.
success of Stravinsky’s career. This can still be heard today. ■
fact may have contributed to the In stark contrast to the
composer’s later tendency to prefer I heard, and I wrote conservative Russian artistic
Le Sacre as a concert piece. For what I heard. I was the culture from which he hailed,
Diaghilev, however, any publicity vessel through which the progressive Diaghilev was
was good publicity; he later responsible for commissioning
claimed that Le Sacre’s premiere Le Sacre passed. groundbreaking new work
was “exactly what [he] wanted.” Igor Stravinsky from the leading composers of
the day. Chief among them
Stravinskian legacy was Igor Stravinsky, whose
The influence of Le Sacre on commissions are among his
subsequent music is hard to most significant pieces. He
overstate. This is most strikingly also commissioned works from
seen in Stravinsky’s revolutionary Sergei Prokofiev, Erik Satie,
use of rhythm, which surpassed and three members of the
anything seen before. Stravinskian Parisian group of composers
“motor rhythms” would drive the known as Les Six. Well-known
artists often designed sets or
costumes for his productions,
such as Pablo Picasso, Henri
Matisse, and Coco Chanel.

Sergei Diaghilev (right) greets
Igor Stravinsky at Croydon Airport,
London, UK, in 1926. The pair
collaborated on four ballets,
including Le Sacre du printemps.

252

IUASNPHDAINSEDVGEUORPL,WDOEIUNNRGCIVUNAPGLLEY

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

IN CONTEXT T he German domination of and William Byrd, whose artistic
English music in the late purity seemed to suggest a way
FOCUS 19th century persuaded forward. This, in turn, led Vaughan
Folk songs and a national two young English composers— Williams and Holst to develop an
music revival Vaughan Williams and his fellow interest in folk music, which was
student Gustav Holst—that English as much to do with social history
BEFORE music needed a fresh start, free as music. The realization that
1860 American scholar and from the influences of Beethoven, Britain’s Industrial Revolution had
folklorist Francis James Child Wagner, and Brahms. Vaughan
publishes his collection of Williams’s work as a church The song of the skylark, a mere
English and Scottish Ballads. musician led him to explore the speck in the sky in this work by David
unaccompanied choral works of Cox (1783–1859), delighted Vaughan
1878 Dvorˇák’s first set of the 16th- and early 17th-century Williams. The soaring violin mimics
Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, English composers Thomas Tallis the bird’s ascent in the sky.
include motifs and rhythms
from folk songs and dances.

1908 Bartók and Kodály visit
remote villages in Hungary
to collect Magyar folk songs;
Bartók writes For Children,
which includes 80 folk tunes.

AFTER
1926 Percy Grainger arranges
his Danish Folksongs Suite for
piano and orchestra.

1938–1939 Michael Tippett
writes his Concerto for Double
String Orchestra, which
includes some references to
British folk music.

MODERN 1900–1950 253

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

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

254

LSYIOTKAUENRADDMUISPASNAONNDANTACKEE

SYMPHONY NO. 4 (1916), CHARLES EDWARD IVES

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

MODERN 1900–1950 255

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

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

music—Ives began working on his second movement, Ives gathered triumph—before moving into a
gigantic Fourth Symphony, the a variety of sources to make his quieter passage. The first two
apotheosis of his entire output. The famous layers: hymns, and gospel movements premiered in New York
influence of the Transcendentalists tunes, brass bands, and popular in 1927 and were the only parts of
continued here, as Ives based the songs to represent small-town life; his great symphony that Ives heard
second movement (“Comedy”) on as well as atonality, polyrhythms, performed in concert. The simple
Hawthorne’s short story “The and grinding dissonances to third movement (the fugue) and the
Celestial Railroad”—a reworking of convey Hawthorne’s “iron horse” fourth, a rhythmically challenging
John Bunyan’s allegorical work, The locomotive heaving into motion. piece that required an extra
Pilgrim’s Progress. “The Celestial percussion ensemble, did not
Railroad” tells of a railway journey The first movement, scored for a premiere until 1965, 11 years
from the chaos and mundaneness chamber orchestra, begins boldly— after the composer’s death. ■
of everyday life. maestoso, played with majesty and

Layered complexity
Ives’s multilayered composition
style was at its best in his Fourth
Symphony, in which simultaneous,
cacophonous eruptions of sound
place the listener alongside the
pilgrims as fellow travelers inside
that train. Ives also utilized lighter,
“offstage” sounds—ethereal flutes,
a few strings, harp, a quarter-tone
piano, and women’s voices. In the

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

256

IIWHDRIADIVTNET’TENNEMVAEEANRNOTE

PARADE (1917), ERIK SATIE

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

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

MODERN 1900–1950 257

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

Noise-making instruments in Parade

Ticker tape

Pistol Typewriter Erik Satie

Satie used a Born in Honfleur, France, in
variety of “found 1866, Satie was a natural
sounds” in Parade in rebel. He spent two periods
order to add unusual at the Paris Conservatoire,
first as a pianist and then
percussive as a composer, but left to
elements. join the military in 1886.
Soon discharged, he moved
Foghorn Milk bottle to Montmartre in Paris, where
he became a regular patron
Airplane propellor of Le Chat Noir club.

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

1888 Gymnopédies
1914 Sports et divertissements
1917 Sonatine bureaucratique
1924 Relâche

258 IN CONTEXT

ILLYTIIOKF’SUEEBIIJMSEATPAZRTZLEOO…RVTIWSEHEN FOCUS
Ragtime and jazz
RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1924), influences
GEORGE GERSHWIN
BEFORE
1895 Ernest Hogan publishes
“La Pas Ma La,” the first
ragtime sheet music.

1908 Debussy publishes the
ragtime-inspired piano piece
Golliwogg’s Cakewalk.

AFTER
1927 Maurice Ravel completes
his jazz-inspired Violin Sonata
No. 2, which includes a second
movement called “Blues.”

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

T he start of the 20th century
brought new genres and
ideas to American music.
Many of them came from African
Americans, recently freed from
enslavement, whose dances
contained infectious and lively
rhythms that would grow into
ragtime piano and marches.
African American ideas combined
with Caribbean influences to
evolve into various forms of jazz.

As jazz spread to Europe,
classical composers were drawn
to it, but the improvisational nature
of this new type of music was not
a natural match for the carefully
notated and rehearsed world of the
concert hall. In the United States,
George Gershwin managed to
bridge the gap and incorporate
jazz on an orchestral scale with
Rhapsody in Blue. Others followed,
including composers who have

See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ MODERN 1900–1950 259
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311
Ragtime and Joplin
Gershwin’s best-known large-scale
work was used as the title for a film For such a popular music form,
about his life, made eight years after ragtime was a surprisingly
his death in 1937. Adding to the film’s short-lived phenomenon.
sense of realism, some of Gershwin’s Although first adopted by
friends starred in it as themselves. musicians unversed in musical
notation, it started to spread
tried to achieve the seemingly Ragtime piano swept America, widely after 1895, when
impossible by melding composed but it was not until John Philip Ernest Hogan published the
and improvisational music. Sousa, an American of German, sheet music for his dance song
Spanish, and Portuguese descent, “La Pas Ma La.” Within a few
Ragtime reigns brought his syncopated brass-band years, ragtime music had
In 1853, the American composer marches across the Atlantic in 1900 become popular across North
Louis Moreau Gottschalk recreated that ragtime really had an impact America, in part thanks to
African American banjo-playing on European music. Coming at a Scott Joplin, whose Maple
techniques with amazing accuracy time when young composers were Leaf Rag, published in 1899,
in The Banjo, a popular virtuoso looking for ways to break out of the earned him the title “King of
piano piece. However, it was the traditions of Romanticism, the new Ragtime.” Joplin, born around
rise of ragtime, and especially the sound, with its direct and acerbic 1868, wrote a string of popular
work of African American Scott style, quickly took off among the ragtime piano pieces, earning
Joplin, that brought an energetic French avant-garde. him enough from royalties to
new flavor to classical music in buy him the time to write two
the early years of the 20th century. Composers such as Erik Satie operas, including Treemonisha
and Claude Debussy heard Sousa’s (1911). The newly emerging,
The term “ragtime” referred to music at the 1900 Paris Exposition more improvisational jazz
the music’s ragged rhythm, known and responded by experimenting scene overshadowed ragtime,
as “syncopation,” in which a steady with ragtime. While Satie used it which by the time of Joplin’s
beat is accentuated by surprising ironically in works such as the song death, in 1917, was essentially
weaker off beats. This unfamiliar La Diva de l’Empire, Debussy pitted a part of musical history.
style captured the dynamic spirit it against the Liebestod motif from
of the New World and, in discarding Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in Joplin’s 1902 piano piece
the long phrasings and flexible his Golliwogg’s Cakewalk, as if to The Entertainer headed a 1970s
tempos of the 19th century, ushered announce the passing of the old ragtime revival, led by the pianist
in the sense of a more modern, guard. The modernist significance and conductor Joshua Rifkin.
mechanized world. of ragtime, with its implicit ❯❯

I frequently hear
music in the
heart of noise.

George Gershwin

260 RAGTIME AND JAZZ INFLUENCES

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

African American genres that changed
the course of classical music

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

MODERN 1900–1950 261

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

Other key works

1925 Piano Concerto in F
1927 Funny Face
1935 Porgy and Bess
1937 Shall We Dance

262

TAATHMETAHADEBEYEXSDTSGREAOVAFGANZA

LES BICHES (1924), FRANCIS POULENC

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

See also: The Nutcracker 190 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■
Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Parade 256–257 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287

MODERN 1900–1950 263

IMYYCOOYOUUCMTTOHHEUFFWNUUTLLITRSMHYP,UTIWSRHIIIECTTHOF

SINFONIETTA (1926), LEOŠ JANÁCˇ EK

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

264

MGNROUATSVIACITASYLINLINGY,LTTEHHICESERNPEITEIESCREOF

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

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

MODERN 1900–1950 265

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

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

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

266

IWTHHIAETVHOENMELUVYSELIRCOHVEADAFWFAASIR

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

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

MODERN 1900–1950 267

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

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

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

The art of conjuring musical
character through orchestration
required a thorough understanding
of each instrument’s qualities and
playing techniques and knowledge

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

268

ISYNOCFUIUETSNHECFEMUALULSVOIICGNOEWRCITAHN

IONISATION (1929–1931), EDGARD VARÈSE

IN CONTEXT T he machine age of the Tides of Manaunaun included tone
early 20th century was an clusters to be played with the
FOCUS exciting time for avant- forearm, and he went one stage
The emancipation of noise garde artists and thinkers. Their further in Aeolian Harp (1923),
“Futurist” manifestos—most where the performer is required to
BEFORE famously, Italian painter and pluck and sweep the strings inside
1909 Marinetti publishes the composer Luigi Russolo’s Art of the piano rather than use the keys.
Futurist Manifesto, celebrating Noises (1913)—advocated making
a new era of speed, machinery, music out of noises that ranged City noise
and violence. from human shouts and screams Edgard Varèse was the first
to explosions and the sounds of composer to create a complete work
1923 Arthur Honegger’s machines in order to give music scored for a percussion ensemble,
Pacific 231 imitates the sounds a new dynamism. Although early in Ionisation (1931). He had studied
made by steam trains. Futurist events often ended up as at the Paris Conservatoire under
riots and there is little record of the the conservative Charles-Marie
1926 American composer music actually produced, their Widor, but after moving to New
George Antheil’s Ballet ideas influenced composers such York in 1915, he became fascinated
mécanique premieres in as Honegger, Prokofiev, and Antheil
Paris, containing airplane who variously composed music
propellors and a siren. depicting machine-made sounds.

1928 Léon Theremin patents The new piano Our musical alphabet must be
the first electronic musical Although the 20th century was full enriched. … Musicians should
instrument, the Theremin. of experiments aiming to turn noise take up this question in deep
into music, the most successful
AFTER early attempts came as composers earnest with the help of
1952 Étude, a work created such as Prokofiev and Stravinsky machinery specialists.
from a single sound and its started to treat the piano as a
manipulation on audio tape. percussive instrument rather than Edgard Varèse
a melodic one. The American
composer Henry Cowell was
the first to understand the true
possibilities of unleashing the
“noise” of the piano. In 1917, his

MODERN 1900–1950 269

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

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

Other key works

1921 Amériques
1923 Octandre
1936 Density 21.5
1958 Poème électronique

270

TAAHRNERAATCNIOOGMNEPSCORISTEEARTOESNLMYUSIC.

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

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

AFTER
1953–1954 György Ligeti’s
String Quartet No. 1 is strongly
influenced by Bartók’s works.

1959 György Kurtág
completes his String Quartet,
Op. 1, effectively continuing
the Hungarian tradition of
string quartet writing.

MODERN 1900–1950 271

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

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

272

IIDDDEVEEITTCEEESSSTT IHMAICTKATNIEOYNE.D

ROMEO AND JULIET (1936), SERGEI PROKOFIEV

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

MODERN 1900–1950 273

BPARARILMHINYITETISHVEMEMIACNUVDSIITJCAOLRYIEOTTUYASBINOETDH

TABUH-TABUHAN (1936), COLIN MCPHEE

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

IRSEAALLMWUASYISC

REVOLUTIONARY

SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN D MINOR, OP. 47
(1937), DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH



276 MUSIC IN THE SOVIET ERA

IN CONTEXT C omposers in the Soviet A poster dated 1920 urges workers
Union worked under severe to “Join the Communist Party!” and
FOCUS restrictions during the reject the aristocracy, bourgeoisie, and
Music in the Soviet era 1930s. They, like all artists, were Orthodox Church. Russian composers
expected to serve the people, in had little choice but to do the same.
BEFORE terms defined by the communist
1923 The Russian Association state, or face punishment. The anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s
of Proletarian Musicians country’s leader, Joseph Stalin, death. But Shostakovich’s situation
(RAPM) is founded, decrying liked patriotic songs and pieces changed on January 26, 1936,
modernism in music and with simple, appealing tunes and when Stalin went to see his opera
claiming that all music should conventional harmonies. Music that Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the
be understood by workers. did not fit this pattern, especially Bolshoi Theatre. The work had
music that was introspective, premiered two years earlier and
1929 A concert performance of complex, or difficult to grasp at first been an immense success at home
Shostakovich’s opera The Nose hearing, was dubbed “formalist,” and abroad. Stalin, though, took
is attacked by the RAPM. and its composers were forced into exception to it and left before the
menial jobs, imprisoned, or worse. final scene. Two days later, an
1935 Ivan Dzerzhinsky writes article in the state newspaper
the opera Tikhly Don (Quiet Walking a tightrope Pravda, headed “Muddle instead of
Flows the Don), which, with its Dmitri Shostakovich survived these music,” denounced the opera. The
patriotic theme and simple strictures until the mid-1930s. The anonymous article condemned the
melodies, becomes the model authorities were pleased by works musical style of the piece, in which,
of socialist-realist music. such as his Symphony No. 2, it alleged, “singing is replaced by
written to commemorate the tenth shrieking,” and objected especially
AFTER anniversary of the October 1917 to the lewd “quacks” and “hoots”
1937 Sergei Prokofiev revolution, and Symphony No. 3, from the brass during the opera’s
withdraws his Cantata for subtitled “First of May” and sex scene. The work was taken off
the 20th Anniversary of the premiered in 1930 on the sixth stage immediately.
October Revolution after
criticism from the authorities.

1939 Prokofiev composes
Zdravitsa (“Hail to Stalin”) as
part of the celebrations of
Stalin’s 60th birthday.

1948 Soviet Central
Committee secretary Andrei
Zhdanov begins a campaign
against “formalist” music in
which the form of the work is
more important than anything
it has to say.

1974 Alfred Schnittke’s
Symphony No. 1, embodying
his “polystylism” form of
composition, is premiered in
Gorky after being turned away
from Moscow.

MODERN 1900–1950 277

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

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

278 MUSIC IN THE SOVIET ERA

Alfred Schnittke
and polystylism

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

Schnittke’s music was treated
with suspicion in the Soviet Union,
which he left in 1990 to settle in
the German city of Hamburg.

Ambiguous meanings in Symphony No. 5 MODERN 1900–1950 279

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

Second An ironic spoof on the
traditional form, wittily
A waltz, suggesting a presenting the waltz as trite, meaning would become clear, and
pleasant and romantic hackneyed, and sometimes audiences would see the work’s
time for relaxation brash. It is a satire that creates martial references and triumphal
and enjoyment. an unsettling atmosphere. conclusion as ironic gestures.

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

280

NMAAYWTMUATRUEASRLICF, ALILSIKLE

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

IN CONTEXT B razilian classical composer traditions of Brazil with elements
Heitor Villa-Lobos had two of Western classical music. In the
FOCUS lifelong influences. As a late 19th century, Latin American
Classical music in Central child, he became fascinated by the composers had begun to explore
and South America work of J.S. Bach after his aunt similar ideas. Composers such
gave him Bach’s collection of 48 as Alberto Nepomuceno used
BEFORE preludes and fugues, The Well- Brazilian folk melodies in works
1869 Brasílio Itiberê composes Tempered Clavier. He was also with conventional classical forms.
A Sertaneja, a rhapsody for captivated by the traditional music
piano, and one of the first of his own country and traveled Integrated styles
Brazilian classical works. widely, collecting folk music in With Bachianas brasileiras, a
northern and northeastern Brazil collection of nine suites of varying
1890 Alberto Nepomuceno and playing alongside musicians lengths written for different
writes his String Quartet No. 3 in his native Rio de Janeiro. combinations of musicians, Villa-
“Brasileiro,” which includes Increasingly, Villa-Lobos sought Lobos took this idea much further,
Brazilian folk melodies. ways of combining the rich musical integrating folk and classical
elements very closely. He did
AFTER A truly creative musician this by applying the contrapuntal
1932–1933 Argentinian is capable of producing, techniques of J.S. Bach to
composer Astor Piazzolla from his own imagination, Brazilian musical forms, in a bold
writes his first tango. combination of apparently alien
melodies that are traditions that fit together perfectly.
1939 Silvestre Revueltas more authentic than
composes orchestral music Like Bach’s suites, each of the
with Mexican rhythms for the folklore itself. nine pieces that form Bachianas
film La Noche de los Mayas. Heitor Villa-Lobos brasileiras has several dance
movements. Villa-Lobos gave most
1946 Suite de danzas criollas, of the movements two titles, one
Op. 15 by Argentinian drawn from Baroque music (such
composer Alberto Ginastera as Toccata or Fugue) and one a
uses folk melodies in a series corresponding Brazilian name
of dances for piano. (such as Desafio or Conversa).
In addition to drawing on popular
Brazilian forms like the Modinha,
a type of sentimental love song, the

MODERN 1900–1950 281

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

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

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

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

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

282

NCTATOEOTVMWEEPNRIRTTWEHIOHASNESUNACISNHLIDOIRSNATPENTED

QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME (1940),
OLIVIER MESSIAEN

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

MODERN 1900–1950 283

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

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

Other key works

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

284

IOMRDUESRT OCURTEAOTFECHAOS

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

IN CONTEXT I n the 18th century, frequent A Child of Our Time is performed by
performances of Handel’s the English National Opera in January
FOCUS oratorios in Britain established 2005. Timothy Robinson, seated, sings
English choral tradition a nationwide tradition of amateur the tenor solo from the second part:
in the late 20th century choirs and choral societies. These “My dreams are all shattered.”
fueled the production of choral
BEFORE works by British and foreign had continued to be a central
1928 Constant Lambert’s The composers, who often premiered activity. During the 20th century,
Rio Grande premieres in a BBC their works at choral festivals. composers began to use the choral
radio broadcast. tradition to write oratorios or
For many British composers, cantatas for soloists, choir, and
1931 William Walton’s cantata the production of choral music— large orchestra to comment on
Belshazzar’s Feast launches at for the church or the concert hall—
Leeds Festival.

1950 Herbert Howell’s
Hymnus Paradisi is sung at
Gloucester Cathedral as part of
the UK’s Three Choirs Festival.

AFTER
1962 The premiere of Britten’s
War Requiem marks the
consecration of Coventry
Cathedral, in the UK.

1984 Tippett’s oratorio The
Mask of Time premieres in
Boston, Massachusetts.

2008 James MacMillan’s
St. John Passion receives its
first performance at London’s
Barbican Center.

MODERN 1900–1950 285

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

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

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

286

IITTANTHHNSVEADETOMLRWIEUYTANSSTDIWATCSKROIYEOSROSNLSUGYDOIOHNKUATNNOIDTS…

APPALACHIAN SPRING (1944), AARON COPLAND

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

MODERN 1900–1950 287

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

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

Other key works

1930 Piano Variations
1942 Fanfare for the
Common Man
1967 Inscape

DRIVINGCOMPOSING IS LIKE

DOWN A FOGGY ROAD

BPEETNEJRAMGRINIMBERSIT(T19E4N5),



290 20TH-CENTURY BRITISH OPERA

IN CONTEXT A fter Purcell’s death in 1695 The beach at Aldeburgh, the coastal
and on through the 18th village that inspired Peter Grimes. The
FOCUS and 19th centuries, British opera was staged live here in 2013 to
20th-century British opera music was dominated by European mark the centenary of Britten’s birth.
composers, such as Handel, Johann
BEFORE Christian Bach, and Mendelssohn. successors to Purcell. Elgar would
1689 First performance It was not until the publication of never finish The Spanish Lady,
of Henry Purcell’s opera Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, his only attempt at opera, while
Dido and Aeneas. in 1899, that a British composer Vaughan Williams labored for
began almost single-handedly to years on his first opera, Hugh the
1871–1896 Librettist W.S. revitalize the country’s music. Drover, working folk songs and
Gilbert and composer Arthur idioms into the music in the hope
Sullivan together produce 14 At this time, British opera was of creating a truly British work.
comic operas, including HMS in an especially perilous state. When the opera opened in 1924,
Pinafore and The Mikado. The comic operas of Gilbert and it met with little initial success.
Sullivan were popular, as was
1902 Edward German’s opera Edward German’s operetta Merrie The young Benjamin Britten
Merrie England, a tale of England, but there were no serious disliked the English pastoral school
amorous rivalries at the court and wrote of Vaughan Williams,
of Elizabeth I, opens at the Music … has the beauty of “I am afraid I don’t like his music,
Savoy Theatre in London. loneliness of pain: of strength however much I try.” Britten had
and freedom. The beauty of hoped to pursue postgraduate
1922 Following the success studies with the Austrian
of his orchestral suite disappointment and never composer Alban Berg, a student
The Planets, Gustav Holst satisfied love. of Arnold Schoenberg, whose
composes his one-act opera Lyric Suite he admired, but was
The Perfect Fool. Benjamin Britten dissuaded by his parents.

AFTER In 1930, the year Britten began
1955 Michael Tippett’s first his studies at the Royal College of
opera, The Midsummer Music in London, the Vic-Wells
Marriage, is performed at company was formed in a bid to
Covent Garden. champion British theatre, opera,
and ballet. In 1934, the Old Vic
1966 The one-act opera Theatre became the center for
Purgatory, by Hugo Weisgall, spoken drama and Sadler’s Wells
premieres at England’s
Cheltenham Festival.

1968 The Aldeburgh Festival
includes the first performance
of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera
Punch and Judy.

1984 Where The Wild Things
Are, by Oliver Knussen to a
libretto by Maurice Sendak,
receives its first performance
at London’s National Theatre.

MODERN 1900–1950 291

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

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

292 20TH-CENTURY BRITISH OPERA

The main characters in Peter Grimes

Foes Friends

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

Swallow (bass) Peter Grimes Captain Balstrode
Lawyer The antihero, he is violent, (baritone) Retired sea captain
solitary, and an outsider.
Bob Boles (tenor) Ned Keene
A fisherman and a Methodist (baritone) Apothecary

The Townspeople
(chorus)

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

MODERN 1900–1950 293

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

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

CONTEM

PORARY

296 INTRODUCTION

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

1950 1956–1957 1960

1956 1958 1964

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

the Lenin Prize. performers or duration.

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

CONTEMPORARY 297

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

1968 1976 1993 2011
1967 1969 1977 2000

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

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

298 IN CONTEXT

OSVOOFUCNNAABDTUUISLRAETRHYE FOCUS
Electronic music and
SYMPHONIE POUR UN HOMME SEUL musique concrète
(1949−1950), PIERRE SCHAEFFER/
PIERRE HENRY BEFORE
1939 The first example
of electroacoustic music,
John Cage’s Imaginary
Landscape No. 1, uses
variable-speed turntables,
frequency recordings, muted
piano, and cymbal.

1948 Made entirely from
recordings of steam trains,
Pierre Schaeffer’s Étude aux
chemins de fer is broadcast
alongside his other early
studies in sound.

AFTER
1952–1953 Olivier Messiaen
composes his only electronic
work, Timbres-durées,
although he later withdraws it.

1954 Edgard Varèse’s Déserts,
which alternates sections of
musique concrète with others
scored for an orchestra of wind
and percussion, is broadcast
from Paris on December 2.

1956 In Gesang der Jünglinge,
Stockhausen mixes sounds
derived from the voice of
a treble choirboy with
manipulated electronically
generated tones.

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