A History of Western Music, 9th Edition (Part 2 of 3) by Yarm School

358

C ti A P T E li 16 • France. England. Spaln. and 1he New World in 1he Seventeenth Century

France

to the performance. Lully's overtures were appropriately grand anel followed a formar that he had already used in his ballets. now known as a Frc11c h ovcrturc. There are two sections. each playecl twice. The ftrst is homophonic anel majes cic, markeel by elot ceel rhythms anel figur es

tinue the French trad ition. dating back [O musiqu.e memree. of using irregular metric groupings to reflect the rhythms of the text. Some scholars distinguish between two styles of recitative, one metrically fluid and one more measureel, but in reality Lully's recita tive spans a llexible continuum between metric lluidity and regularity. varying as appropriate to the poetry anel t11e emotions of

rushing roward thc downbcats. Thc sccond section is

his charactcrs. The terms récitatif sirnple (sim pie rccitative) and réci.tatif m.esuré

faster anel begins with a semblance of fugal imitation. 1hen usually returns at the end to the tem po and f1gur a1ion of thc fn·sLsect ion. The overLure to lu lly's oper a Arrnide ( 1686: NAWM 85a jc...,,..~ur~) exernplilies lhe genre. A d iver1.isse me nt us ua lly appea red at the ce nte r o r cnd of cvery act , and it was lhe job o i' thc libre tt is t to 1inkit to lhe s urround i ng plot. These ex tended ep isodes, which co ntinued t he Fre nch ball et t rad ition, offe r ed opportunities for songs and choruses in dance rhythms and for instrumental dances, each with colorful cos tumes and c laborate chorcograp hy. The songs in divertissements, and other lyrical momenrs in Lully's operas, were casl as c1irs, songs with a rhyming text and regular FIGURE 16.7: Design. for Lully's opera Armide meter and pl1rasing, often in the meter of a dance. Far (/686). inanink-wash by]eanBérain. fr less elaborare and effusive than ltalian arias, airs were sltows llte burningofAnnide'spalace. which typically syllabic or nearly so, with a tuneful me lody and sl1e ordered in e•Jury over lwrJailure to win no virtuosic clisplay. Rena11d ·s /ove and ove,· his escape J,·om l1er An example of a divenissemem is i n che seconel act of power. ln rl,eJoreground. Re,iaud. in annor. Armide (excerp t in NAWM 85b ~ ). The sorccress bidsfairewe/l toArmide. <ornuoTntout •,moArmide has commanded her demons to bring the warrio r NAU, l'AtUS) Renaud LO her so she can pu l h im to death. Renaud arrives and, bewitched by rheir music, he falis asleep 0 1, t hegrass. ln lhe clivertissement. demons elis~'Uisecl as nymphs. shephercls. and shephe rdesses sing so lo a irs and choru.ses pra is ing lhe pleasures of love, inter spcrscrl w ith instrumental dances during whi ch thcy casta spell on Rcnaud and cntwine him wilb ga rlands of flowc rs. Tbc prescncc of supcrnatUJ·al beings p rovided opportuni lies for spectacu lar stage effects, and lhe s inging and clancing were aimed mo re at plcasing the aueli ence than at furtbering the plot. The divert issements were especially appeal ing to the public. Dances from Lully's ba ll ets and operas bccamc so popu lar t hat they wcre arra ngcd in independent i nstrumental suites, an el many new suites wcr e composcd imilating bis divertissements. Adapt,ing recitctlive To project drama. Lully adapted ltalian recitative to French language and toFrench poetry. This was no simple task. since the style of recitarive typical iu ltalian opera of the time was not suited to the rhythms and accenrs of French. Lully is said to have solved the pr oblem by listening to celebrated French actors and closely imitatiug their declamarion. Certainly the timiug. pauses. and inflections often resemble stage speech, but LuJly did uot asp ire to cr eate the illu siou of speech as in a r ecitative by Peri. and the bass is often more rbythmic anel lhe melody more songful than i.n Italian r ecitative. ln his recitatives, Lu lly foll owed the general contours of spoken French while shifting the metric notation between duple and tripie to allow the most natural and expressive declamation of the words. Thus Lully's recil.alives con -

(measured r ecitative). often used for this distinction. were coineel only in the lauer eighteenth centwy and used incons isten11y by Prench cr itics. making iL problcmatic to apply them to Lully. Arm i<l e"s monologue in Acl li, scene 5, o f Arrnide (NAWM 85c) illus tra res Lully's mixlu r e of styles to crea Le d rama. The scene begias with a tensc orchcstra l pre ludc suífuscd wit h dottcd rhyt hm s and dotted scalc figures called tirades Lhat wer e often assoc iated with powe rful or supernatu raJ cha r acters such as Ar mide . The sor ce ress, dagge r in hand, sta nds ove r he r capti ve, thc sleeping warrior Ren aud. ln recitative, she spea ks of her clete r mination to kill him as revenge for freeing her captives but is prevented from acling beca use s he has fa lle n in lovc w ith him. Measu rcs of four, t hree. anel rwo beats ar e intermixeel, pe rm itting t he two acccntcel syllablcs in eac h poetic line to fa ll on clownbeats. Rests follow each line and are a lso used dramatically. as when Armicle vacillatcs between hesitation and resolve in the excerptshown in Example 16. la. When she iinally decides to use sorcery to make him !ove her. her new determination is rellected in more r egularly measured r ecita tive. This leacls to an air, shown in Example 16. l b. with the merer, rhythm, and character of a m i nuet (see below), a dance associatecl with the surrender to love. lt is accompanied only by continuo but is intr oduced by an orchestral interlud e that presents the music of the entire air. Armide's monologue illustrates the p ower of Lully's operas. The mixmre of recita rive, air, anel orchestral inrerludes all owed Lully to convey Arm ide's intense. rapiclly ehanging feelings of tens ion. vengeance. doubt. and !ove through simple but effect ive means. Limiting vocal display to l.unefuJ melodies wilh a few ornamenrs recla imed mus ical thea Le r from t he dominaiion of singcrs then CUJ'l'Cnt in Italian o per a and focuscd attcntion 011 thc dramatic declama tion o f' wo rds, wh il e mak ing roam for t.he s heer enle rta inm e nl o f diverti ssemen ts, costumes, and stage e ffects . The contras! between the raw emotions sta rkly clepicted i n this scenc and the sty li zed d iver l issement that di r ectly p recedes it e mbod ies an aesthetic dichotomy ryp ica l of Frcnch Baroque art and mus ic, betwccn r cfmecl elcgance anel lhe desi re lo convey human passions in a way that was true lo nature. Although thc po lítica! structure and court cu lturc of France favo reci r cftne m ent and emotional resnaint (as d iscussecl above), Fr ench writers praisecl the enrnlation of nature in a true ex'Pression of feelings (see Source Readings, p. 36-1). Lully's ba lance between the values of elegance an d natura lism made hfa operas successful both politically and dramaticaJly. Some rypically French elements cannot be seen in the notation but were added in performance. Passages notated in even. short durations, like tbe eigbth notes in the bass line of Example 16.1 b. were often renelered by alternatiug longer notes ou the beat with shorter offbeats. producing lilting rhy,hms like triplets or dotted figures: this practice is called notes iuégales (unequal notes) anel was co nsider ed a matte r of exp ressio n a nd elegance.

1 Concise ê\\ 1 [iull

Fociis on drama

Elegance and ,rnturalism,

Pe,jimnance practice

359

360

C H A PT E K 16

EXAMPLE 16.1:

• France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

France

fücerpts Jrom. Annide·s monologuei,~ Lt,lLy's Arm ide

le ft t-0 th e players' cliscretion. A re lated practi ce is overdotting . in which a dotte d note is h eld longer than its n otated value-accord ing to the performer's taste-while the following sho1i note is shortened . These changes emphas ize the b eats and s harpen the rbythmic prohle. Althougb the elaborate embell ishments of ltalian si nge rs we re cons idered in bad taste. per l'orme rs were

a. Recitative 33

Armide

.., - "

)

qui me fait u

..,

. ~ • rer?

hé

Qu'esr-ce qu·en sa fa

veur

pi .

tié

expected to use brief ornaments (called agré111e11ts in French). whether

me vem

-~-

.16 .Ô H

..,

di - re'!

f';;p·pons ...

c[ui pem :-ar-ré - rcr?

ciel!

A · chc -

.r,

t./

VO ll.8 . .

fré mis 1

ven geons - nou.s . . .

sou

re!

notated or not . to adorn cadences and other imporlanl notes. Lully's m us ic is to11u l . i.n Lhe new sysiem of majo r and minor keys. rather than moda l, thc system s i.ili commo n earlie r in the century. The exce rpts i n Exa mple 16. l feature harmonic progressions that are typical of tonal mus ic . movnng forwarcl in a pred icLab le manne r to close o n a d ominant - Loni c caden ce. Lully some tim es evad es t he cacle nce by us i ng a first- invcrs ion tonic triad (as in measure 39) Lo prolo ng th e harmonic tens io n and make the ultima te reso lutio n even more sati sfy ing. This techn iqu e de pe nds on t he lis tcne ir's expccta tions for tona l mus ic. Lully's followe rs con tinued to write ope ras that im itated h is style wbi le introclucing an occas ional aria in lta lian stylc. cxpanding thc elivc rtissc mcn ts , intensifyi ng tb e banno ny, anel increas ing tbe co rnpl exiry of th e texture. Lully's own operas we re performed well i nto the eighteenth century, in Francc anel other countrics . anel his style influcnced opera anel instrumental music in England , Germany, an d elsewhere. The French overture, which he did not in vent but helped to popular ize. w:1s used across Europe through the mideighteen th century to introduce ballets , op eras, oratorios, and instrumental work:s such as suites an d sonatas . lf eve1y princeli.:ng, king, and emperor wan1ed

Tonal organization

Lully's injluence

What makes me hesi1a1.e? lf/1ia1 in hisfavor does pi1ywa11110 1ell me? let us strike . . . Heiwens! llí'/10 can stop me? lei us gel on w,1/1il . . . J lremble! l ei us avenge .. . J sigh!

b. Air F RENCH WRITERS ON NATURE AN D EXPRESSION ~

=-l, :t-

.., "

Ve-nez.

nez.

cem

d er

mcs

dé

dê -

sirs.

Among them were François Fénelon. a rhe1oriclan and theologian. and Jean-Laure111 Lecerf de la Viéville. a magistrate and writer of severa! works on music, includlng a life of Lully.

-*-

1. "

tJ "

French writers oi 1he seventeenth and eighteenth centuries praised 1he "natural" in art and music. including the naturalist1c representat1on oí human e rnotions.

?f !.:.

mons. u

.J.

1rans- for - mez

vous

d 'oi

bico

zé

phírs,

,..

••

361

·-

Come. come. support my desires. dem o,1$, rror1$fom, yourselves i nto friendly zepltJ'l'S.

~ - nez.

To successfully paint the passions, you must srudy the movements that they inspire. For example, o bserve what the eyes do, what 1he hands do, what the entire body does. and what its posture is: what the voice does when it is overcome by sorrow. or struck by the sight of a shocking thing. T here nature reveals herself to you; you have only to follow her.

François Fénelon. Dialogue sur f'êloquence ec Oposcules académ,que (1679).

- ~ Nature and expression are the two primary qualities of music; ornamentation, Lhe harmonic contentment of the ears . .. will be the third . ... 1 have told you that the melody must travei to the auditor's heart. Bu1 how does it get there7 By way of the ear. The ear is, in music, lhe door to the heart. To open this door wide. to Aatter the ear. is thus the musician's third task: but it is only the third. The requirements of being natural and being expressive come first. Jean-laurent Lecerf de la Viéville. Compara/son de la musique icalienne ec de la musique {rança/se (1701-6). Translations by J onathan Gibson

362

C H A PT E K 16

• France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

his own VersaiUes. lie also wanted his own LuJJy. and echoes of LuJJy's style and of his special relationship with his patron are evident through the late eighteenth century.

TI ME LI NE France. England. Sp ain. and the New Wo rtd MUSICAL

H ISTORICAL

• 1621 - 65 Reign of Philip IV of

Spain • 1625- 49 Reign of Charles I in

England • 1634 The Tuumphof Peace,

masque at English court • 1642-49 English Civil War • 1643- 1715 Reign of Louis XIV

in France • 1649-65 Plague breaks out

across Europe • 1652 First London coffee-

SONG ANO CANTATA The air was the leading genre oi' vocal chamber music in F'rance. as it had been since the late sixteen th century. Composers wrote airs in. a variety of stylcs and lypes, from cou rtly vocal music to soogs of a popular cast. The air tle cour gradu ally went out of fashi on. replaced by other types li ke the air sérieu.x (sc rious ai,·) and airó boire (d ri nking song), the l'orme r o n love. pastoral. or polilical t.op ics. and t.he latter o n light or frivolous topics. Both types were typica lly sylla bic and strophic and were scored for one to three voices with lute o r continuo accompanirnent. Hundreds of collections o f s uch songs wcrc published in Paris. One of the popularcomposersof solo airs was Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704). He used F'rench-style embellish ments and borrowccl from the lta lian lyric aria style to create highly melodie pieces. Beginn ing in the 1680s, Charpentier and other composers also adapted the ltalian chamber cantata to frencb styles anel tastes.

house • 1653

Ballet de la nuit at French

court

CHURCH MUSIC

Uotil abouc 1650. F'rench church music was dominated by the old style of Renaissance coumerpo int. ln the second half of the century. in sacred as io secular vocal music. Frencb composers borrowed genres invented in Italy. notably the sacred concerto and oratorio, but wrote in dist inctively F'rench styles. Their • 1657 Juan Hidalgo composes vocal and organ music was ílavo rcd by many of thc stylistic clcfirst zarzuela menls found in F'rench opera. inclu dingagré ments, notes iné• 1660 Restoration of monarchy galcs. anel ovcrdorting. in England Composc rs in th.e royal chapei prod ucecl nume rous motels on Latin texts. These were of two main types: the 11clit motct (small motet) , a sacred concerto for few voices with continuo, and the granel m otel Oarge motet) for soloists, double chorus , and orchestra. correspond ingto the large-scale concertos of Gabrieli and Schüti. Gra.nds motets feamred severa! sections in different meters and tempos, encompassing preludes. voca.l solos. ensembles. and ch oruses. Lully a11d Charpentier wrote outstaodinggran.ds motets. Among t!he grandest is LuJJy's Te Deum (1677. co n clusioo io NAWM 86). scored for soloists. large and small choruses. full string orch estra , trumpets, a11d timpani and performed by as many as 150 musi cians. ln the la ter years of his reign. Louis X!V's favo ri te sacred composer was Michel- Richard de Lalande (1657- 1726). whose more lhan seveoty moce1s reveal a ma sterly command of the resources of the gn:ind ,notet: syllabic solos, bomophonic and fugal choruses. and operatic airs and duets. witJ1 frequent conlrasls of l.exlure and mood.

Cupid and Oeath, masque by Matthew Locke and others

• 1653

France

Charpentier introeluced tbe Latin oratorio into F'rance. drawing on the model of Carissimi but combining ltalian and F'rench styles of recitative and air. He assigned a prominent role to the cborus. often a double chorus. and his thirty-four oralorios ai·e full of dramaric contrasts and vivid texc-seuiog.

A distinctive French school of organ music emerged in the seventeenth cenlury. consistiog mostly of music for church services. such as organ masses. aloogs ide pieces resembling lhe ove,·tures and exp.-essive rec italives of F'rench ope ra. National lraits include lhe use of agréments and an inle re~l in Lhe coloristic possib ili t ies of the organ, of1en s pecif1ed in thc tille 01· in Lhe sco re itself by indicating lhe com bina1ions of organ stops lo be used in orde r lo p roduce dislioct tonal co lor s. Thi s mus ic in co rpo rated the co lorfu l sounds of the outdoor wind ensem bles, with stops imitating oboes, crumhorns, trumpets, anel cornetls, along with so unds unique to the orga n. Tim bre as a composi ti ona l rcsourcc is a constant thread in F'rcncb music- from thesc organ works and tbc operas of Lully to lhe program music of Berlioz (chapter 26) and the impressionism of Debussy (chapter 32).

LUTE ANO KEYBOARO MUSIC

363

• 1661 Louis XIV assumes power.

begins building Versailles • 1667 John Mil ton. Paradise

Lost • 1672 Jean-Baptiste Lully begins

producing operas • 1672 First public concert series

begins. in London • 1682 Versailles becomes royal

residence of Louis XIV • ca. 1683 John Blow. Venus and Adonis • 1686 Lully, Armide • 1687 Isaac Newton. Principia

Mathematíca • 1687 Elisabeth-Claude

Jacquet de la Guerre, Pieces declavecin Lute music llourisbed in France dul'ing tbe early seventeenuh century and left a pen nanent mark on F'rench style . • 1688- 89 Glorious Revolution The leading lute composer was Denis Gaultier (1603- 1672). in England whose cwo publisbed collections iost ructed amateu rs on • 1689 Henry Purcell. Dido and how 10 play rhe lute. During the seventee nth century, the Aeneas clnvecin (Frencb for " harpsichord") . showo io Figu re 16.8. • 1694 Jacquet de la Guerre's displaced Lhe lute as lhe main solo inslrument. while ha rp Céphale el Procris, first opera sicho rd music abso rbed many cha racterist ics o i' lu te style . by a French woman lmpo rtant harpsicho rd composcrs, o r cfoveci11ists, i ncludcd Jacques Cbampion de Cbambonni e res ( 160 1/2-1672), Jean • 1701 Tomás de Torrejón y He n ry D'Angle bcrt ( 1629- 169 1). El isabeth - Claudc Jacquct Velasco. La púrpura de la rosa, de la Guerre (1665- 1729; see bi ography and Figure 16. l O, p. first opera in the New World 365), anel François Couperin (1668- 1733; see chapte r 18). Ali of them scrved Louis XIV in various capacities but are best known today for their prinled collections of harpsichord music , marketed to a growing publi c of wc ll - to - clo amatcur performers. Lutenists and harpsicbordists systematically developed the use of agré - Agrements mencs. ornaments designed to emphasize important notes and give the melody shape anel character. Agréments became a fundamental element of ali F'reoch music. anel the proper use of ornaments was a sign of reftned caste. Agrêments were often Jeft to the cliscretion of the player, but composers also worked out ways of ootating tbem. Figure 16.9 s hows the table of agréments in D'Angleben's Piêces de cl<weci.11- (Harpsichord Pieces. 1689), lhe most comprehensive of many such tabl es publis hed in collections of harpsichord music. Lute style also s trongly iníluenced the texture of barpsichord music. Since Style lttthé lule nists oflen struck on ly one note al a time. they sketched in the melody.

364

bass. and harrnony by sounding the appropriate tones- now in one register, now in another-and relying on the listener's imagination to supply the continui ty of the various lines. Tliis lechnique. the .~tyle luth é (lu te style), sometimes called by

the modern term style brisé (broken style). was

Women continued to play an active role in the music of the seventeenth century, from singers a nd composers to patrons o f art. as well as hostesses at the salons where music was actively cultivated. One such extraordinary woman was the French composer Elisabeth -Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, bom into a family o f musicians and instrument makers. Trained by her father, she was the orig inal child prodigy in music, of which Mozart is the most famous example. From the age of Ííve, she sang and played the harpsichord at Louis XIV's courr, supported by the king's mistress. ln 1677, the Paris journal Mercure galant gushed:

Dances formed the co re of the lute and keyb()a rd repertory, rcflccting thcir importance in Prcnch li fe. Composers arranged ba llet music for lute or FIGURE 16.8, Double-ma11ual lrurpsichord b11i/1 by harpsichord and composed origina l music in dance Micltel Richard, Poris. 1688. CYALI uNrv••srrr cotucnoN metcrs anel forms. Most dance music for lute or OP MUS ICAL ISSTRtJ;\ltNTS) keyboard was intencled not for dancing but for rhe entertainment of the player ora small audience, Composers usecl the rhythms anel forms of dances. but abstracted or played with the characteristic features of each dance to make the music more chal lenging to musicians anel more intriguing for listeners. Paired two- anel four measure phrases are frequent. matching the patterns of many dance steps. Earlier dances had assumed a variery of forros, such as the three repeared Bi riaryf onn sectio ns of the pavane or the repeating bass of the passamezzo. Most sevenleenth-century dances were in biwwry fon11: two roughly equal secUons. each repeated. 1:he Íll'St lead ing ha rmonical.ly from Lhe ton ic to close on the dominant (somet imes the relative major), the second returning to the tonic. Table of oma · men,sfrom Piêces de clavecin (/689) by Jean Henry' D"Angleberi, sltowingfor each omament its 1101atioll, name, and man 11 er ofperfonn ance. "Au,lre .. indicatcs another way 10 nolàte orperform the preced.ing FIGURE 16.9 ,

ELISABETH·CLAUDE JACQUET DE LA GUERRE (1665-1729)

imicated by harpsichord composers anel became an intrins ic part of Prench ha rps icho rd style. as seen in Examplcs 16.2 and 16.3 bclow.

DANCE M USIC

omame.rH.

Franc,

C ti A PT E li 16 • France. England. Spaln. and 1he New World in 1he Seventeenth Century

There is a prodigy who has appeared here for the last four years. She sings at sight the most dilficult music. She accompanies herself. and others who wish to sing. on the harpsichord. which she plays in an inimitable manner. She composes pieces and plays them in any key one suggests. Some years la1er the sarne writer called her "1he marvel of our century." ln 1684, she married the organistMartin de la Guerre and moved permanently to Paris. There she taught harpsichord and gave concerts that won her wide renown. She enjoyed the patronage of Louis XIV and dedicated most of her works to him. including the first ballet (1691 , now lost) and Íirst opera (Céphale et Procris. 1694) written by a French woman. Jacquet de la Guerre is best known for her two published collections o f harpsichord pieces (1687 and 1707) and three books of cantatas, two

FIGURE 16.10: Portrail of1/iecomposerby François de Troy(/645-1730). (l•RIVA'ít COLL.ECT!ON, LONDON) on b iblical subjects (1708 and 1711) and one secular (1715). Her violin and trio sonatas show an int erest in the ltalian instrumental style. Her output was small but encompassed a wide variety of genres. and she was recognized by her contemporaries as one of the great talents of her time. MAJOR WORKS:

Céphal• • t P,ocns (op• ra), 3 books of

cantatas. 2 books of Pieces de clavecm, 8 violin sonatas. 4

trio sonatas

This form was widely used for dance music and other instrumental genres over Lhe nex t two cenluries. Many of Denis Gaultier's dances for lute are contained in a sumptuous manuscripl of bis lute music litled La rhétorique des dieu:i; (The Rhetoric of the Gods. ca. 1650). Typical of his style is La. coqueue virttLOse (The Virwous Coquette: I\AWM 87), whose title may have been given by the compil ers of t.he manuscripl rather than by Lhe composer liimself. Tliis is acourante. a dance in binar-y form in a modera te tripie or compound meter (see discussion below).

Denis Gaultier lute dances 1

Full ~

365

366

C H A PT E K 16

EXAMPLE 16.2,

• France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

Gau!tier. La eoquette virtuose

France

EXAMPLE 16.3:

Movemen1sfrom]acq11et de la Gtierre, Piêees de claveein. Sui!e No. 3 inA Minor

a. Prelude

[(rrm~ li

Suites

1 Conclse ~

1 1 Full~ 1

Example 16.2 shows the hrst section, which moves from tonie to dominant as expeeted. Caultier did not write out any agrémcnts, leavi ng them to the performer. Characteristic of the style luthé are the many broken chords; whether simply arpeggiated (as in measures 3 and 7) or embellished by neighbor to nes (as in the sucecssion of ebords in measures 5 and 6). caeh ehord is presented in a different way, creating an irregular. unpredictable, and ever- cbanging surface garb for a straightforward underlyingprogression. Also characteristic are the syncopations in the melody in measures 4-6. as me locly notes often lag jusl behind Lhe changes of ha1·mo11y, anel the changes in texlltre between Lwo , three. or more contrapuntal voices. F'rench eomposers often grouped a series of dances into a suite, as did their Ge rman coumerpa rts (see ehapter 15). The tempo and rhyt.hm con tributed lo the cha l'acter o f each dance. A look at excerpts from Jacqu et de la Guerre's Suite No. 3 inA Minor from her Pieces declavecin (1687. NAWM 88), s hown in Examp le 16.3, illust rales bot h the st rucl.ure of a typical s uite and lhe most co mmon typcs of dance. Ali but two movcmcnts, th c prclude anda cha conne. are in binary form. Although none of the move ments would have been used fo rdan cing, 1he s l.eps and associatio ns of the dances were known l.o the listeners and influcnced the rhythm and style ofthe music. Many suites begin with a prel ud e i n the style of a toccata or other absl ract work. He rc it is an 1wmcas1tl'c d fJl'Clmlc. a d istinctively F'rench gcnre whose nonmetric nota tion all ows great r hythmic frcedom, as if improvising. ln Example 16.3a, the whole notes indicate arpeggiated chords, the black notes s how melodie passagcs, anel the slurs show groupings or sustained notes. The ll.llemwule (F'rench for .. German"), no louger danced in Lhe seventeenth centmy and thus highly stylized. was \IS\taUy in a moderately fast ; begiuning with an upbeat. As shown in Example 16.3b. ali voices participate in almosL continuous movemeut. anel agréments appea1· ofren. Signs of the s1yle luthé include [he opening arpeggiation of the ton ic chord in the bass and s taggered rhythms between the voices. The courcmte (F'reueh for "running" or "flowing") also begins with an upbeat but is iu a moderaLe u·iple or compound meter q oi- !) or shifts between the two. The steps were dign ined. with a be nd of the knees ou lhe upbeal and a rise ou the beat. often followed by a glide or step. The Sflmlmmle was o rigi nally a quick, lascivious type of danee -so ng

b. Allemande

e. Courante

d. Sarabande

Minuet

367

368

C H A P T E K 16

• France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

from Central America. accompanied by guitar and percussion. lt came across the Atlantic to Spain in the late sixteenth century and was the most popular dance there for decades. theu spread to ltaly and France. ln France, it lost its associations witb the New World and was h·ansformed into a slow. dignined dance in tripie meter with an emphasis on che second beat, as in Example

German versus French suites

l6.3d. The melodie rhythm in the fust measure is cspecially common. The

but gradually returned to his fathcr·s policy of enlarging royal power. The religious and political policies of James II {r. 1685- 88). a Catholic. provoked 1he Glorious Revolut ion, which installed as sovereigns James's Protestam daughter Mary 11 (r 1689- 94) and her Dutch hushand William of Orange (r. 1689--1702). A Bill of Righls passeei tl1al year gua ranleed civil liberlies and subjected Lb e mona.rch 10 1he ruie of law. Prom th en on, Parliame nt cont roll ed thc c-0 ll cction anel allocalion ofpublic funds. As a rcsult, thc royal house had considerahly less money tban the French k ings to spend on music.

rap id footwork. ln Prance it beca me stylized as a movement in fas1 compound meter such as t or •; , with wide melodie leaps and continuous lively triplcts. Sections often begio with fuga) or quasi- fugal imilation. as io Exam ple l 6.3e. Numerous other dances could appea r in suites. Jacquet de la Gu erre·s suite conl inucs wi1h a chaconne in 1he fo,·m of a ro11deo11., in which a ,·eíra in alternales with a se ries of contras! ing periods called couplets, then returns to closc thc movement. A gavotte follows. a duple - time dance with a ha lfmeasure upbeac anda characteristic rhythm of short-shon- tongwith the long nole on lhe downbeal. The suite ends wilh a 111i111tct., an elegant couple dance in modernte trip.le meter. s hown ili Example l6.3f. The dance used various patterns of four steps within each t,vo - measure unit. ln Gennany, the suite assumed a standard arder like that seen here: allemande. courante (orcorrente, an ltalfon dance in l time). sarabande. and gigue. often preceded by a prelude and augmented with optional dances. Each of the four standard dances had a differem meter, tempo. characteristic rhythm. and national origin. providing strong contrasts between movements. French eomposers alJowed more variery in the dances chosen and in their order, and often gave movements faneifui titles referring to people or moods.

France was the leading power in Europe after the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648. Louis XJV was lhe mosl powerful monarch and the model for ar1is1ic patronage. French 1astes, manne rs, and arts were widc ly regardcrl as lhe most refincd and highly dcvclopcd. Both admiring and cnvious. lhe Englísh, Ge rmans, Austrians, Poles, Russians . and olhers imitaled French architecturc, dccorative arts, and mus ic, cspce ially keyboard siyles, dances, su ites , and ove rlures. From the 1660s 011, French mus ic was alrnost as influential as lta lian music, anel th e integration of the two beca me one of thc themes ofthe eighteenth eentury.

England English music drew inspiralion from bo1h Icaly and France. in combinaLion with native traditions. Royal patronage exercised a major in fluence , as in France. but music for the public grew increasingly important. Unlike France. England was a lim.i1ed monarchy. whose king shared rule wil h Pa rliament. After Elizabe1h I d ied in 1603, her cousin James Vl of Sco1land succeeded heras James I of England. unil ing lhe two kingdoms. His so n Charles l (r. 1625- 49) sought to increase roya l powe r. p rovoking Civil

369

War (1642- 49). He was executed and tbe monarchy was abolished in 1649. succeeded by a Commonwealth and Protectorate under Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). Prefening limited monarchy to military rule, Parliament restored the monarcby in 1660 but reserveel to itselJ tbe right to pass laws and levy taxes. Charles II (r. 1660-85) agreed rn respec1 Parliament

gigue (French for ..jig'') originated in lhe British Isles as a fast solo dance wilh

EMULAT ION OF FRENCH STYLE

Limited monarchy

England

M USIC AL THEATER Despitc attcmpts to introducc opera, thc Englis h monarchs, aristocracy. anel public preferred native genres of dramatic music. A favorite court enterta inmeut since Henry VIII was the masq11c . Masques Masques shared many aspects of opera. i.ncluding inscrumenta1 music. dancing, s011gs. choruses, costumes, scenery, and stage machinel')', but were long collaborative spectacles akin to French court ballets ratber than unined dramas witb music by one composea·. A highly elabora te masque. Tite Triwnph of Peace (1634), included music by Wi ll iam Lawes (1602-164-5) and others. Shorter masques were produced by aristocrats and in theaters or pl"ivate schools. Cromwell's Puritan govemmen l prohibit ed stage plays, but nol concerts or private mus ical entertainments. This policy allowed lhe product ion of Lhe ft rs l Englis h "ope ras," nol operas in lhe l1al ian sense, bul mixlu res of elements from. spoken drama and thc masque. including dances, songs. recita tives, a nd choruses. From this period comes the only seventecnth-eencury masque whosc music survivcs comp lete, Cu,pid and Death (1653), with music by Malth ew Locke (ca. 162 1- 1677) anel Christop her Cibbons ( 16 15- 1677). After the Restoration in 1660, audiences eage rly retumed to the theate rs , where plays often iucluded masques or similar musica l cpisodcs, as illustrated in Figure 16.1 1, Charles li had spent his exile in Franee, anel Freneh music and eoun ballet became increasingly intluential in England after his return. FIGURE 16.11: Scenefrom "1hc Afo.sque But an attempt to introduce French opera in the 1670s failed. o}' Orphe11s. "wit/1 music by Mauhew and lhere was little imerest in dramas set 10 continuous music. locke. Thismasque, tellingthestoryof Only rwo dramas sung throughout met any success, both com- Orpheus un.d Euridice, comprise.s part posed for private audiences rather than for the public: John o}'Act IV of fü·analiSeu/e ·s playThe Blow's \iénus a.ndAdo,iis {ca. 1683) and Henry Pu.rcell's Dido Emprcss of Morocco. produced in 1673 and Aeneas (1689). at the Dorset Ga.rden Theo.tre i11 London. John Blow (1649- 1708) was organisl of Westminster EngravingbyWilliam Dai/e. <coumm·11 1 Abbey and organist and composer in the Chapei Royal. He 11001.mN uou1w.ox,oonus1vERs1TY)

370

C ti A P T E li 16 • France. England. Spaln. and 1he New World in 1he Seventeenth Century

wrote Vemis andAdonis to entertain Charles 11. and it featured Cbarles's former mish·ess Mary Davis as Venus and their daugbter Mary Tudor as Cupid. Called a masque. it resembles an unpretentious pastoral opera whose channing and moving music combines elements of Ttalian. French. and Englisb styles. Tbe overture and prologue are modeled on those of French operas; many of the

371

England

EXAMPLE 16.4,

Recir.ativefrorn Purcel!. Dido andAeneas

Dido Whrncr could so much vir - tue spring?

Wha1 s1orms, _ _ _ _ __

Whai ba1-ilts d id hc

airs and recitatives adopt lhe emotioually expressive style of the ltalian lyric aria: other songs bave English rhythms aud melodie lrails: and lhe dances and choruses stem from Lhe mascrue t radition. The únaJ cho rus. Mournfor 1hy servanL, is typica lly English in its simp le, direct int.erpreta tion of the Lext, clear declamation, lucid pa rt wr iting, and frequent ha r monic audaci ties.

sing?

lour mix'J with _ Ve- nus· c.h:1rms,

HENRY PURCELL'S DRAMATIC MUSIC

Dido andAcncas

He n ry Purcell (1659- 1695) was En gla ncl's leacl ing compose r (see biograp hy a nd Figure 16. 12) , best remcmbere.d for his dramatic music. Purcell composed Dido and Aeneas in 1689, the year of William and Mary's coronation. The li rst known performance took p lace at an exclusive girl's boarding school, but the work may have been intended for court. lt is a mas terpiece of opera in minfoture: there ar e onJy four principal roles. and the

.:;r,ít _ _

in peare. aml y~t how fierçe. - - - - - - - - -

CqJ

HENRY PURCELL (1659-1695)

Purcell's entire career was supported by royal patronage. His father. a member of the Chapei Royal, died just before his son's fifth birthday. Purcell joined the C hapei Royal as a choirboy and proved to be a gifted prodigy as a composer, publishing his first song at the age of eight. When his voice broke, he was apprenticed to the keeper of the king's keyboard and wind instruments. ln 1677. he succeeded Matthew Locke as composer-inordinary for the violins. one of the more progressive positions in Britain's musical hierarchy. Purcell held a number of prestigious and simultaneous positions throughout his life, including organist of Westminster Abbey (1679). organist of the Chapei Royal (1682). and, the following year. organ maker and keeperof the king's instruments as well as composer to the court. He died at the young age of thirty-six. and his funeral was held in the hallowed Westminster Abbey, where he was also buried. He was celebrated after his death as ·the British O rpheus: Throughout his brief life, Purcell wrote enor-

FIGURE 16.12:

lfen ry Ptircel I itl ) 695, Íll O portrni1 byJohn

Closrenn(ln. (BY COOJrt'UYOFTIIE

N"ATIOSAI PORTJ\AIT GAI.LfKY• 1.0:-"DôN)

mous amounts of music in almost ali genres. His primary focus was vocal music: he composed songs for home performance. chorai music for Anglican services and royal ceremonies, and muslc for the theater. Purcell's greatest gift lay in setting English words movingly yet with natural dedamation. Dido ,nd AeMas (opera). 5 , emi· operas. inc,dental music for 43 plays. 65 anrhems. 6 Ser·

MAJO R WORKS :

vices. numerous odes. songs. and catches. and chamber and keybôard music

How sof1~ -

how

;u111.:;!

three acts take only about an hour to perfor m. As Blow did in Venus andAdonis, which must have served as bis pr incipa l model, Purcell combines elements of the English masque and of French and ltaJian opera. Tiie overture and homophonic choruses in dance rhyc:hms resemble those of LuJly, and the typicaJ scen e structure also follows Lully's example, with solo si ll!,'lllg anda chorus leading to a dance . The most notable Italian element is lhe presence of severa! a rias, rare in Prench opera or English masque. Three a rias are built entire lyovergt·ound basses, an impo rtant type in lta lian opera . The lasL of lhcsc, and onc of lhe mosl moving a.rias in aJJ oper a. is Dido's lament. When f ffm ll1id in earth (NA\V}.( 89h). ll follows Lhe lt.a lian l.radition of selti ag laments ovcr a dcsccnd ing tctracho rd (sec chapccr 15). Purccll creates grcat tcns ion by rea,-1iculating suspended notes on str ong beats, intensiíying the dissonance. Amid t hese ío reign infl uences. the English traits are st il l st rong. The use of da:nce fordramatic purposes owes less to Lullythan to the masque trad ition . Many solos and choruses use the style of t he English air: tuneful, diatonic, in t h c majo r mode. with si mple. catchy r hythms. Thc clos ing chorus. 111/i,th droopingwings ( NAW/\1 89c), was modeled on the final chorus of Venris and Adonis. Equally perfect in workmanship. ic is larger aud conveys a more pro found depth of sorrow. Descending minor-scale figur es portray the "droopi ng wings" of cupids. and arrescing pauses mark the words "never part." ln t.he recitatives, Purcell draws on precedeuts from Locke and Blow to fashion melodies flexibly molded to the accents. pace. and emotions of the English text. Example 16.4 shows a recita1ive fromAct I in whicb Dido praises Aeneas to Belinda, her confidante. \Vhere Lully might use natur aJistic declamation to convey emotions. Purcell composed ílorid passages to illustrate lhe text: upward rush es on "storms" and "f1erce.'' and mar tiaJ do tted r hythms on

French anel ltalian elements

I Conciso ~

1 1 Full

Englishelements

Full ~

English recitatives

372

C H A PT E K 16

··valour ... Descending lines tilled with semi tones suggest the sigbs of love at "mix'd with Venus· charms. How soft in peace:· Purcell catches the rhythms of English exactly with reverse-dotted rhyt hms ou "so much'' and "did he." reflecting the tenclency of Englisb speakers to shorten accentecl syllables. 1 Concise :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1 Dido's final recitative. 11iyhand, Belinda (NAWM 89a). portrays the dying Dido

Semi -operas

rrrnsic

O R,

l'J,;,,.1od,a!icRulof0tth< Dancú,gol Ccuouy D.tom, wúh ,1,c·runc10<1dtI>antt.

music that would otherwise have gone undocumented: at lhe lime. it marked the s pread ofan oral tradirion into w·ban setlings whe re ama te ur performance from prinled music had been fashionable since the sixtee nth cenl ury. lt was o ne oi' the besi -selli ng musical publicalions of lhe Baroque era. wilh new ed itions appe.a ring frequently th rough l 728. Pe rhap s mo re importam in th e long ruo thao the music composed in seve ntec nth - century Englanel was an FIGURE 16.13: Title pa.ge of the first edition of The Engl ish institution pioneered there: the pub- Dancing Mnstcr. pubfühed by John PlaJford. lic concert. Until the l 670s, concerts were private affairs, given for an invited audi ence by amatcurs. by performers employed by a patron, or by learned academies. Then il1 London several trends carne together: a middle class interested in listening to music. a large nmnber of exceUent musicians in the service of the royal comi anel the London theaters. an el lhe inalJility of lhe king to pay his musicians well, wlúch encoutaged them to fmd means of supplementing their income. lmpresarios rentecl rooms in or attached to tavems. chargeel an entrance fee. and paid the performers out of the ptoceeds (see Source Readings. p. 374). Soou the f1rs t com mercial concert halls were buih, and modem concert life began. Public concerts gradually spread to lhe Conliuent. reaching Paris in 1725 anel major Gerrnan cities by the 1740s. anel lo the British colooies in Norlh Arne rica. wilh public coocerts in cities up and down the east coast from 1he l 730s on.

MUSIC IN ENGLISH SOCIETY Music historians· fascination with o pera in lhe seventeenth century has tcnclecl to obscure Englanel . whi ch diel not el cvelop a robust nativc h·aditi on of opera until the nineteenth century. But Englancl had a lively musical culmre, worth noting in its broad outlines. Th e royal family often co mmissioned large works for choros. soloists. anel orches tra for ceremonial or state oc,casions, such as royal birthdays, tbe king's retum to London. or holidays. Purcelrs magnincent Ode fo r St. Cecilia.s Day (l 692) was iníluencecl by the French genre of the gra,id motet and in tum became a direcr ancestor of Handel's English oratorios (see chapter 19). ln addition to hlllldreds of theater songs, Purcell wrote a large number of vocal solos. duets. and trios. ali published for home performance. A specialty of Purcell anel other English composers in this perioel was the catch , a round or canon with a humorous, often rihald text. Catches were sung unaccompa nied by a convivia! group of gentlemen. in an elevated. musically intellectual parallel to lhe bawdy so ngs and coa rse jokes of othe r all - male galhe rings. An1hems anel Services re mained the principa l genres oi' Anglican church music after th c Rcstoralion. Sincc Charles [) favorcd solo singing anel orchestral accompaniments, Blow. Purcell. anel thei r contcmporari es produccd many verse anthcms fo r soloists with chorus. Coronation ce remoni es inspired especially elalJo ra te works . Purcell also sei nonlilurgical sacred texts for one or mo re voices with co ntinuo, evielcnt.ly for priva te el evotional use. The Englisb continu ed to e njoy playing viol conso rt music, particularly ln Nomines and fantasias. This was music for well -to-do amateurs to play for thcir ow n entcrtainm cnt. Th c J.cad ing composcr for viol co nsort at miel ceumry was John Jeukius (1592- 1678). The principal later co mposers for viols were Locke a11d Purcell, whose viol fanrasias anel ln Nomines, written about 1680. are the last important examples of both genres. Purcell also wrote numerous dances and otber pieces for harpsichorel. as well as chamber sonatas that show some ltalian in11uences. Social elancing was an important part of English li fe. with strong dance tradilions at co urt. in cilies. and in rural areas. Tb e London publisher John Playfo rd (J 623-1687) collected the tl.llles most commonly used for traditional English counrry dances and published them. along with instructions for the dances. in 77ie English Dancing Master (1651). Playford's title page for

373

The English Dancing Maíl:er:

For puhlic theaters. Purcell wrote incidental mus ic for almost fifty plays, most in the las t f1ve years of his life. During Lhis pe ri od. he also wrote the music for f,ve works in lhe mixed ge m e called dn1111(1.tic opem or semiopem, a s poken playwilhan overtu1·e anel four o r more masq ues o r substantial musical e pisodes, inclu d ing The foir:r Qaeen (1692). baseei <Jn Shakespeare's

Instrumental

bfa fi rst edi tion is shown in Figure 16.13. This was one of the ôrst printed collections: to include a large m1mher of genuine folk melodies and popular airs. For us, it represents a valualJJe source for

th rough a slow. stepwise. meandering descent tinged with chromaticism.

A Midsurnmer Night Dream.

Vocalm.usic

Spaln and th• New World

• France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

Spain and the New World The third great mona rchy in western Europe was Spain. By 1600, [he flood of silver from its New World colonies had made Spain the richest country in Europe. lt was the most powerful nation on ca rt h. with an e mpire that included Pormgal (annexed in 1580). half of ltaly and the Netherlands, lhe Philippine Islands, enclaves in India anel Africa. almost ali of Central and South America. and much of No rth America. The early seventeenth century was lhe clímax of Spain's Golden Age in Üteratw·e. theater. and lhe arts. marked especiaJ\y by the appearance of Miguel de Cervantes's world-famous nove] Don Quixote (1605 and 1615}. the poems and plays ofthe pro liJic Lope de Vega. anel the paintings of Diego Velázquez. cow·t painter to Philip IV (r. 1621 - 65), pictured in Figure 16.14. Yet mu ch of Spain's great wea lth was wasted 011 mililary adventu res in Europe, leading Lo economic and poli tical decline midcentury. ln the l 640s, Spain s urfe red defeat by France during lhe

374

C H A PT E K 16

•

France. England. Spain, fnd 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

Spalnand th• New World

375

World togecher. whjle recognizing rhe different circumsrances of the home country and the colonies.

OPERA. ZARZUELA, AND SONG

THE FIRST PUBLIC CONCERTS Concerts that anyone can attend for the pnce of a ticket are so much a part of modem musical life that it is hard to ,ma91ne they are only three centuries old. The public concert Is an English tnvention, lnspired by the presence ln London of excellenl musicians with madequate salaries and of mlddle-class audíences eager to hear music but without means to employ their own musicians. The first concert series was advertosed ,n the London Gazette ln December 1672, These are to give notice. That at Mr John Ban· isters House (now called the Music-School) over against the George Tavern in White Fryers, thís present Monday. will be Music perform ed by excellent Masters, beginning precisely at 4 of the clock in the afternoon. and every afternoon for the future. precisely at the sarne hour.

Roger North, a writer and critic, recalled the concerts: But how and by what steps Music shot up ínto such request. as to crowd out from the stage even comedy itself. and to sít down ín her place and become of such mighty value and príce as we now know it to be, is worth inquiring after. The fi rst attempt was low: a project of old Banister,

Spanish colo,iies

Spain developed its own national types of opera and musical who was a good violin. and a theatrical composer. He opened an obscure room in a public house in Whitefriars. filled it with tables and seats. and made a side box with curtains for the music. 1s [one shilli ng] apíece. call for what [food and drink] you please. pay the reckoníng (the bill], and We/come genrlemen. Elsewhere, North noted that Banister was "one of the [King's] band of violins" whose •course of llfe was such as kept him poor and who started the concert series ·by way of projecl to get a litde money." The performers, ·1he best hands in town: were the mercenary teachers, chiefly foreigners, who attended for a sportula [a gift or share of the proceeds] at the time. Sometimes consort. sometímes solos, of the violin, ílageolet (one of Banister's perfections), bass víol. lute. and song a//'/ta/iana. and such varíetíes diverted the com· pany. who paid at coming in. Roger Norrh on Music. ed John Wilson (London Novello. 1959). 302- 3 and 352. Spelhng and punctuation modernized.

Thirty Ycars' War and revo lutions in Cata lonia (castcrn Spa in), Portugal, and south ern ltaly. AJthough Spain reestablished contrai in Catal onia and soutb em ltaly, Portugal regained its inde pendence, taking Brazil wilh il. Spain still ruJed vast colonies in the Americas. stretching from presentday Chile and Argentina through Florida, Texas , and California. More 1han a century of colonization had produced an ethnically diverse society. encompassing a wide range ofnative peoples. Spanish immigrants and their descendents. African slaves imported 10 work rhe mfaes and plantations. and people of mixed race. Each group had its own music but also horrowed eleme nts from other groups. a habit that bas characterized music in the Americas ever since. Musicians in lhe Spanisb colonies clrew direclly 011 Spanish and wider European traditions; in turn. dances, songs. rhyth ms, and musical trai ts popular in tbe colonies found eager listeners in Spain. ltaly. F'ra.nce. and elsewhere in Europe. as we saw with the s pread of l11e chacona and sarabande. For these reaso ns, il rnakes sense 1.0 consider the music of Spain and 1he Spanish New

lheater. An opera in Spanish modeled on lhe early Florentine operas was presented at lhe royal co url i.n 1627. bul 1.he style did not catch on. ln 1659- 60, for celebrations of peace with France and 1.he wedd ing of Span ish princess Maria Teresa to Louis XIV, drama1.is1. Ped ro Calderón de la Barca and co rnpose r Juan Hida]go ( 1614-1685) collabo1·a1ed on lwo operas 1ha1 inauE,'ll· ra ted a clislinctively Spanish lrad ition. The rnusic survives only fo r th e sccond opera, Gelos aun dela.ire ma1.an; it co nsists mostly of syilabic, strophic airs in Spanish styles anel dance rhyt hms, with recitative monologues reserved for the rnost dramatic mom cnts. Hidalgo also wrote music For many plays. Togethcr wich Calderôn. he devised the disrincdy Spanish zar:mela , lhe predominant genre of musical theater in Spain for several ce nturies. which was a light. mythological play in a pastoraJ setting t.hat alternates between sung and spoken dialogue and various types of ensemble and solo song. Hidalgo was for Spain what FIGURE 16.14: Portm,t of Kmg Phtlip Lully was for F'rance. the founder of enduring traditions for rv ofSpt1in inca. 1631-32 by Diego lhe nation·s musical lheater anda com poser who k.new how to Velázquez. (TH<N•TtoN.uc.u,"v. J.O:<l)oN. WIKlMCDIA CO.\IMONS) appeal botl1 to bis royal patrons and to a broader public. The characteristics of Spanish Baroque opera are seen in La púrpura dela rosa (The Blood of lhe Rose. exce rpl. in NA\VM 90) . 1he lirsl opera La púrpura produced in the New Wo rld. lt was staged in 1701 at 1he court of thc viceroy de la rosa of Peru in Lima to celeb rate lhe accession to the Spanish lhrone of Philip ~ Full ~ V, gr.a ndson of Loui s XTV and the lirst Bourbon king of Spain. 1'he librello was adaptcd frorn Lhat of Caldc rón anel Hida lgo·s li1·st opera. Thc mu sic was by Tomás de Torrejón y Vclasco (1644- 1728), who may bavc studied with Hidalgo in Spain, went to Peru ín 1667, and beca rn e maesiro di capilla of th e Lima, cathed ral and th c most fomous co rnposc r in thc Amcricas. As was tra ditional in Spanish lyric theater of the time, most of the roles were played by wom en. Thc story ccnters on !ove bctwee n Vcnus anel Adon is, threatened by the jealousy of Mars. Ex.1mple 16.5 ill ustrates tb c distinctly Spanish practice of setting the dialogue. not in recitative, but rather to a strophic so ng. Venus and Adonis converse in lhe lirst stropbe, sbown here; then Venus si ngs three strophes to the sarne music, and rhe ftfth srrophe is again in dialogue. The syncopations are typical of Spanish song. The scene closes with a live· part chorus of nymphs welcoming Adonis to Venus's garden with dance and so ng. marked by even greater syncoparions. The sound of lhe accompaniment was also distinctive, since the continuo in Spanisb works was usually played by harps. guitars. and viols ratherthan by lute or keyboard as in ltaly and France. Many songs from theatrical produclions also circuJa ted in manuscript Songs tlnoughout Spain and Spain's possessions in haly and the Americas. So did independent songs in gerues such as lhe romance. sco red for two to four voices or for solo voice wilh guitar o r harp accompan iment. and the tonad<i. a solo song. The many va riants be1ween manusc ripts give evidence 10 a sLrong

376

C H A PT E K 16

• France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

EXAM PLE 16.5,

Dialogue in strophic songfrom Torrejón's La púrpura de la rosa

EXAMPLE 16.6,

Adonis

Ve1111s

Araujo. Los cotlacles de la estleya. beginningojfirst copia •

_,_

Trcble,

dos li - son -jas!

Per - do - n:i.qu!:.!le-

i.r

si -

Tn:blt 2

-7,J,;; -..

r r e - ya

't)

Vemas -o·

guien - do tu - -

her - mo - su - ra.

;,A qué. si.5n mi

Venus: Wha1 old-fashionedjlattery! Ado nis: Pa rcum me. hui l have togo forth Jo!lowi ngrour beautr. Venus: To wha1 end? lfin niyga.rden. Spanish trad ition of treacing musicas eommon property suitable for reworking and improvisation. Relatively few Spanish pieces were publishecl hecause Spain lacked music printers. discouraging the growth of a strong amateur performing tradition as in England or France.

CHURCH MUSIC ln Spain and the Spanish colonies. rnany lirnrgieal works. especially masses. con tinued to be composed in imitative polyphony we ll int.o th e eighteenth centu1y. But t.he most vibrant genre of sacred music was the villanc ico. sung espec ially al Ch rist.mas, Easter, and other importan l. feasls. Scored fo r one or more choirs, so lo ists with ehoir, or so lo voice with continuo, anel in the vcrnacular ratJ1cr than Latin, thcse works brought into church thc conce rtato medium and the rustic style of thc secular villancico (see chapter 11). Thc form resemb lcd that ofvillanei.eos of the previous ccntury. with a refrain (eslribi.l.lo) lh at precedes and follows ooe or more slanzas (copias), but the pro portions were often greatly enlargcd. A colorful cxample is the Ch ristmas villancico los coflades de La estlqo, (NA\VM 91) by Juan deAraujo (1646-1712), whowasamaestrodicapillain Peru and Bolívia. Tbetwo tTeble soloists a11d ehoir alternate in rapid dfalogue over :m active accompaniment. As shown in Example 16.6, both vocal and instrumental pans are full of syncopations, typica l of Spanish dances and songs. The text speaks of poor black boys going to BethJehem to see the infant Jesus. and the music hits just the right balance of boyish exuberance with reverem awe.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC Few instrumental ensemble pieees survive from seventeenth-eentury Spain, but there were vibrant traditions of solo music for organ. harp. and f,'Uitar. Spanish organ music is characlerizecl by strong cont rasls of calor and

{,.

•

r r

e • ya

Cboir

"-"

jar • din,

~·

Organ musir

377

National Styles and Traditions

•

- ya

)::_

Continuo ~ - ,

. ,.

let 11s Jo/1-aw the star (Come on!J. we b/ack cou.rtiers

(Let's go 1)

texture. particularly in the tiento. an improvisalory- style piece that often feanned imit.alion, akin to lhe sixteenth-century fantasia. Astriking example is the Tiento de batalla (Battle Tiento) of Juan Bautista José Cabanill es (16441712). which imitates lrumpet-caJls resounding from opposite s ides of a battlef1eld. Cabanilles was the lead ing Spanish composer for organ . anel he left us over a thousand works, inc.ludi 1,g tientos, hymn -set.tings, and toccatas. The main chamber instruments were harp and f,'Ui tar. and their reperlory centerecl around dances and variat..ions on famil iar dance tunes, songs. bass ostinatos, or harm on ic patterns. Compositions inclucled thc sarabande, chacona. passacallc. and othcr dance typcs that bccamc lhe most widcly dissemi naled contributions oi' Spain and its Amcri ca n colo nies to European musi.c as a wholc. But apan from thcse instrumental dances, Spanish music re mained relatively lilt le known in the rest of Europe.

National Styles and Traditions Although France, England. and Spain were ali monarchies. Franee and its king were the most powerful and influential. Freneh musie was imitated throughout Etu·ope. and Lully's operas were performed for more than a cenmry after his death, a remarkab le legaey for th e time. The elegant manner cultiva ted by French composers remained strong in the eighteenth century and contributed LO the dis tinctive flavor of !ater French works. The s uite remained a.n important ge nre for almost a ce ntu ry and was revived in the late nineteenth and twentielh centuries. Severa] of the dances. especially the minuet. had long ca reers in other instrumenta l music.

1-larpand guitar nuisic

378

C H A PT E K 16 • France. England. Spain, and 1he N•w World ln 1he Sev•nteenth Century

Purcell representeei a bigh water mark for Englisb music. but in the century that followeel , foreigners donünateel English musical life. Because there are no modern institutions devoted to the performance of masques or semioperas. English clramatic music of the seventeenth century has languisheel in obscurity. ln part because historians have focused so intently on opera in

telling the story of seventeenth-century music. Dido and Aeneas is renowned and widely performecl. while olhe r English music of ~he lime is relatively unknown. Meanwh ile. the public concerl. a.n English innovalion. became one of lhe cornerstones of musical life. ln Spain and lhe New World. disl.inclive naliona l lradilions sucb as Spanish opera. za rwela , dance -songs. and villanc icos conl inueel in10 the ncxl cen tury. But i,, íluences l'rom lta ly anel France becamc increasingly imporlant. and Spauish music came to reílecl a blending of native. New World, and more broad ly Eu ropean tre nds. The mixtu re of European, native American, and Afr ican characteristics in Spanish colonial music prcsaged !ater developments in lhe n ineteenlh and twentielh cenluries, culrninating in thc worldwielc enjoymcnt of American, Cuban, anel Brazilian popular music that blends clements from d l four contincnts. ln tbe late nineteenth anel twentieth centuries, French, Euglish, anel Span ish musicians lookeel back at their respcctive Baroque traclitions as nat ive sources independent of tbe German traelition, which by then had become dominam. The works of Lully. Purcell, Hidalgo. and others were edited and published. valuecl for their intrinsic musical worth anel as proof of a vibrant national musical heritage that predated Bach. Only recendy have works írom the New World been rediscovered, publisheel, anel appreciateel for showingthe early transplantation of European cu lture in the Americas. By the late twen lieth cenlury. Lully's operas were again being staged. anel a widening range oi' French, English , Spanish, and New World music was performed anel recorded. While politics played a role in the revival of tllis music. as in its creation. its ab ility to move and entertain us is what sustains its continuing preseuce. With 1hese revivals carne new questions abou1 how to perform this music. Shoulel Baroquc operas bc stagcd wilh historically accuralc sccncry. stagc machinery, costumes. gestu res, aad dancing, in orde r to represenl th e work as sevenleenth - century aud iences woulel have experienced it, as in a recent p roduct ion of Lully's Ca.dmus et Hermio,ie by Ma rlin Fraud reau with Poerne Ha rmo n iquc, o r shou ld d irecto rs a:nd designe rs be as creat ive with th is rep crtory as with more rcccnt operas, likc thc staging of Armide wit h Les Arts Florissanls? Similar questions arise for Latin American music, now typically perfon ncd with percussion instruments that add cxoticism and are familiar markers for moclern Latin American popular music but would oot have been useel in the seventeemh century. As we have see n, such questions of how to perform music of the past arise for ahnost every repertory. but they beco me especially pressing for music tbat is less widely known or newly revived.

(@)

Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

ITALY AND GERMANY IN THELATESEVENTEENTH CENTURY Unl ike the centralized monarch ies of F'rance, E11gland, and Spain. ltaly and Germany were each div ideel into numerous sovere ign states. Mus ical life was not concentratcd in onc royal courl or capi tal c ity, as in Par is and Lonelon. but was supported by many rulers anel cities, eacb competing for the bes t mus icians. Like bccs pu rsui ng pollen, pcrformcrs and composers oftcn travcled from one cenler or patron to another seeking better employment, and both regions provided rich environments for exchanging icleas. ln ltaly, the influences were mostly native. Composers developed genres pioneered in the early seventeenth century. such as opera. cantata. and sonata. and clevised lhe instrumental concerio. Here the story is one of stylistic evolution wilhin an establisheel trad itio11 and of cod iJying new conventions. including lhe ela cop o arict and tonal ity. ln German-speaking lands, by comrast. composers drew deep ly on both French anel I1alian stylcs, blenel ing clemcnts Íl'om each with homegro,vn lraditions. From this melting pol would come the grea1 Ge rman anel Aust rian compose rs or lhe cighteenth cenlury. from Bach anel Handel to Haydn anel Mozart.

ltaly ln ILaly. opera continued to be the Jeaeling musical genre, and the c.anlata was the most. prominenl form oí voca l chamber music. Yet the ltal ian musica l works from 1his time that we remember best and

380

C ti A P T E li 17 • haly and Germany ln ,he Lalt Seven,eenth Cen,ury

haly

perform most often are instnnnental. particularly the sonatas and concertos of Arcangelo Corelli and his con tempo raries. Figure 17. 1 shows the main musica l centers of ltaly around 1650. Poli ti cally. the península was dividecl among Spanish clominions in the so uth and in the region around Milan; tenito ries governed by the pope. stretching

A.rias often reflected che mean ing of th e text through musical mo tives in the melody or accompa1úment. For example. a comp oser might im itate trumpet figures or a march to portray martial or vehemenl moods. or use a gigue, sarabande, or other dance rhythm to suggest feel-

from Rome up to Bologna and Ferrara: and numerous small states in the

ings or actions conventionally associated with that dance.

no rth. Paradox ically. the política! splinte ring of northern llaly breei econom ic and musical s Lrength. Outs icle of Rome. seat of Lhe pope. and Naples, cap ital of the sou th ern Span is h possessio ns, ali th e major devclopments in llalian music throughouL the sevenleenth anel e ighleenth centuries took place in the no rth.

OPERA As ope ra sp read across ltaly and outward to othc r cou ntries, the principal [ta.l ian center rema ined Ve nice, whose public opera houses were famous all ovcr Europe. By lhe late seve ntecnth century. opera wa s also wcll esta blis hcd in Naples and F'lorc ncc, and its importance was growing in Milan anel othc r majorcities. Leadiogcomposers included Giovanni Legrenzi (1626- 1690) ai FIGURE 17.1: M11p of Ferrara and Veni ce and Alessanclro Scarlatti (1660- 1725). shown in Figure /1<1/yc1,rot1ncl 1650. 17.2, who held sway in Rome and Naples. sliowing thecities 1/1111 \Vhat attracted the public and :assured the success of an opera proclucwere the rna.in ceriters ti.on was not the drama but the star singers and the arias. Audiences lovecl for rn11sic. lhe beaULy of Lhe solo voice singing an elegant melody anel supported by ingratiating ha.rmonies. Librettis ts responded to lhe demancl tOM HAlll)l' for arias by writing more of their verses in poetic meters and íonns suitable for arias. Composers ouldid the m by inclulging in aria -like lyrical expans ions whenever a few lincs of dialogue ora s iluation providcd an oppo rluni ty. Th e typica l numbe r of aria s in an opera increased , fro m two doze n at mid ce·n1ury lo sixty by the 1670s. The favo rit c for mai that time was the strophic so ng, in which two o r more stanzas wcrc su ng to thc sarne music. Also common were ground t bass arias. s hort two - part arias in AB form, SARD INIA three - part ABB' and ABA or ABA' forms , and rondo arias in ABACA or ABAB' A forms. Many arias had refrains, a few lines of text tbat recurred with the sarne music. By the end of the century, the dominant form was the da capo aria. essentially a Iarge ABA (see below). ln ali of these forros. any rep etition gave the siuger a chance to orna ment "t:, Sp:mis-h dominions the melody witb new emhellisbments and impressive vocal display.

381

VOCAL CHAMBER MUSIC The c anta la had hecorne the leading fonn oí vo cal cbambe r music in lialy, anel t:h e cen te r of cantata com posi tion was Romc. Th c,·c, wca lt:hy ari stocrats an d diplomats sponso red regular priva te parties for th e elite, where lhe e nle rtainm ent ofte n i nclud ed a ca ntata written cxp ress ly fo r the occasion. Because cantatas were meant for performance before a small discriminating audience in a roam wilhoul a stagc. scencry, or costu mes, they invitcd elcgan cc, refmement, and wit that would be lost in a spacious opera FIGURE 17.2, Alessa,1dro Scàr'latti. in a,i uil h ouse. Moreove r, lhe demand fora newcantataal frequent puintingb)-an unknownart,sl. (ucE0>1us,intervals offered poets anel composers regular work and c•1.n. oou1cs• . ..,,oro,••c11"'º ,coNMRAFlco, s.M chan,ces to ex'Periment. co,e,s> Cantatas around 1650 featured many short. contrasting sections. as we fouucl in Barbara Strozzi's Lagrime mie (NAWM 77). By tbe 1690s, poets and composers settled on a pauern of alternaling reci talives and a rias, normally two or three of each, totaling eight to nfteen minutes. Most cantatas were written for solo voice with continuo. though sorne featured lwo or more voices. The cex t:. usually pas1o ral love-poeuy, took lhe form of a dramalic narra tive or soli loquy. The more than six hundred cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti mark a high Scarlatti cantatas po int in this repe rtory. His Clori vezzosa. e bel.La is typi cal of the s olo can tata a round 1690- 17 1O, wilh two recitat ive - aria pairs in wh ich a shephe rd expresses his passionalc lovc for a ny mph. The sccond recita tive (NAWM 92a) 1 Full !\\ 1 exemplifies Sca rlatt i's matu re style in us ing a wide harmonic range, chromalicism, and diminished chords. Thc passage in Examplc 17 .1 moves f1rst to thc ílat s ide, reaching an F- minor triad ai ..aJfan ni mi ei" ( my lroubl es), then to the sharp side. passing through A- major and E- maj or triads ove r a ch romatic ascent in the bass, befo re cade ncing on A minor. Sca rlatti often used dimin ishcd s eventh chords , rare for the time, to convey strongemotions o r add bitc to a caclencc. Hc rc a diminis hcd scvcnlh chorei at the cadencc on .. il martirc·· (that tom u-e) serves both purposes. The most common form of a ria in Scarlatti"s operas and cantatas is the d<t Da capo arfo capo orici. The form takes its name from tbewords "Da capo .. (from the head) placed at the close ofthe seco nd section. inscructing rne pe rformers to rerurn to the beginning of the aria and repeat the ftrst section, producing au ABA form. Typically the A sectio n includes two different settings of the sarne text framed by instrumental ritornellos (see Forros ac a Glance. p. 383) . l t1 Scarla tti's hand s, the da capo a ria was the perfect vehicle for sustaining a lyrical momenl through a musical design that expressed a single sentimenL, often joined with an oppos ing o r rela tecl one in lhe co ntrasling middle

382

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

EXAMPLE 17.1,

ltaly

.....

Rcci1a1iveJrom Scarl.a1ti's can1a1a Cior i vezzosa. e bella

·-

--per-ché.

·v

·•

-~ di .

~i cag-ion <li t:in -li.

.. ,. 2

•

ven- la mio gio ir e.

1 1\3- -

ê3

-~--

jl_

-.. ~

mar

LÍ

re.

_,,,

Because if11hink 1ha1 yo11 alone are lhe l'll1tse ofso manr ofmy 1roubles, il becomes myjoy. 1ha1 sriffering and 1ha1 torture.

Serena.ta

sectiou. Iu Si. si ben mio (NA\V/li 92b). the secoud aria from Clori vezzosa. e bella, the spriLely gigue rhythm of the riloruello and vocal liue in Lhe A secLion contrasts ironically with the lover's request for "more torments for my heart." The B seclion offers coutrast iu lurniug lo a major key aud more hopeful sentimeucs sung to a new but. relaLed melody. Thc da capo a ria beca me lh e standard a ria fon n in the e ight ee nth cen tury for ope ra and ca nta ta alike because il offe red grea t ílexibilily iu ex press iou. ln voler ciõ che tu brami, from Sca r la li i's last opera , La Grise/da ( 1720-2 1: \JAW\,I 93 ), cxemplili cs thc ri ch cont ra sts thc co mposc r ac hicvcd in h is !ate r arias both bctwccn and withio scctio ns. The Asection shows l.wo sidcs of C rise lda's chara cte r as an obed ie nt wifo, co mbin ing d ign ity anel s tre ngt h with tc nel crness and !ove fo r her husba nd despite his publ ic rejection of her, while in lhe B section, shc adamantly insists that she will never s top loving hi m. Part of the appeal of the ela capo fo rm for co mposcrs, singers, and audiences alike was its combinatio n of conc rast with coherence: lhe music of the B section co uld he as similar or d ifferent as the poetry requ ireel. while the fo rm guarn nteed a co ntras! of kcy, a sensc of cl epa rture anel return, and harmonic anel thematic closure. Singers rypically introduced new embellishments on the repetition of the A section, providing the perfect opportunity to display their artistry. Midway between canta ta anel opera stood 1he se.-e11aUi, a semidra malic piece for several singers and a small orchestra, usually written for a special occasion. Except for their secular subject matter. serenatas resembled Italian ora Lorios and were cuilivate d by Lhe sarne patrons, high- level clergy anel nobility in Rome and other Catholic cities. Alessa nd ro Stradella (16391682) . an innovalive composer of operas aud cantatas. was one ofú1e nrsl to write se renai.as.

-·

ORMS AT A GLANCE : Da Capo Aria

T he text for a da capo aria is in two poetic stanzas that express complementary or confficting thoughrs. The overall form is a simple ABA, but this is only part of the story. The A section features two vocal statemenrs, each a setting of the first stanza of poetry, and each is typically preceded and followed by a brief instrumental ritornello. The first vocal statement (A1) modulates from the tonic to another key, and the second vocal statement (A2) modulates back to the tonic. ln each case, the following ritornello confirms the new key. The B section sets the second stanza once or twice but typically lacks the orchestral ritornellos that punctuate the A section. To emphasize the contrasting ideas between the two stanzas, the B sec tion is in one or more contrasting keys and introduces new or varied musical material. Then the A section is repeated. The precise structure can vary, as ill ustrated

by two Scarlatti arias. diagrammed in Figure 17.3. Si, si ben mio (NAWM 926). from his cantara

Clori vezzosa, e bel/a. lacks rhe ritornello at the end of the A section, while ali three ritornellos are presem in ln voler ciô che cu brami (NAWM 93), from his opera La Grise/da. Other da capo arias may lack the ritornello between the two vocal statements. or omit the opening ritornello when the first section repeats. These two arias differ in other ways as well. ln Sl, sl ben mio, the voice picks up on the musi· cal ideas introduced by the ritornello. which are varied throughout both parts oi the aria. ln valer features different material in the A and 8 sections, and the vocal melody is entirely distincl from the ritornello. The choice of contrasting keys for the A and B sections is also different. as shown in Figure 17.3. The da capo lorm was conventional. but it would not have been used so widely and for so many decades if it were not Aexible and variable.

Scction:

Si. s!benmio

lütorncllo

lütornello

Key:

Om"'Cm

Gm-'>Dm

PM-'>Am

í?iv

iv ~i

111->v

lrt1,,-oler

Riio rnello

Kiton1ello

A'2

Key:

B~ >Cm

Cm >BI

Ritornello Ili,

Cm->Dm

B!,

1-'> ii

ii~ I

vi~i ii

FIGURE 17.3,

Arepeats

Do. Capo 0-rio.form

CHURCH MUSIC ANO ORATO RIO ltalian church compose rs in the second hatr oi' 1he seve111eenth cenwry continued to cultivate the old contrapuntal style modeled on Palestrina alongside the newer concerted styles featuring basso continuo and solo singers. sometimes mixing Lhe Lwo in the same wo rk. \Ve can see ih.is stylis Lic diver.sity in the nearly lifty co llections of sacred vocal music pub lis hed by Maur izio Cazzali (1616-1678) . music director at Bologna's Church of San Pet.ronio from 1657 to 1671 . Ai. one end of the s pect rum , his Messa a cappella

383

384

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

ltaly

(Unaccompanied Mass) of 1670 is in a slightly moclernized sti!e antico. His Magn.ificat a 4 of rhe same year, however, alternares tloricl duers in rhe mod -

Jnstrumental church miisic

Ora.torios

ern style with choruses in the older style. ln other works h e plays soloists against a full choir. as in the !ater instrumental concerto (see below). San Pelronio was also an imp orlant center for instrumental ensemble

music. which was often played during church services. Cazzati published

THE STRADIVAR IUS VIOLIN WORKSHOP

numero us colleclions of sonatas suited for use in church. including the f1rst sonatas to include crnmpet. Ris i nstrumental works, Uke Lhose of other Bolognese composers, s howed restraint and seriousness, appropriatc to the selting anel acoustics ofSan Petro oio. and avoided technical display and spe cia.l e ffects. lta lian o rga nists. ILke t he ir colleagues in Spain and in Catholic rcgions of Gcrmany, con tinucd to co m pose in ex isting gemes. s uch as ricerca res. toccatas . variation caozonas. and cbant se ttings. Although orato rios were sti ll pcrformed in oratories, lhey were also pre sen teei in lhe pa laccs oi' princes and ca rdinais. in acadcm ies, and in othcr instilulions. They were a handy suhslitute for opera cluring Le1tl ora i other seasons whcn thc t heaters werc closccl. Most oratori os wcr c now in lta lian rathcrthao Latio , had librcttos io ve r se, and had two sections, leav.i ngroom fo r a sermon or , in private ente rtainments, an intermission with refreshme nts.

During the seventeen th century, ltalian com· posers created new instrumental genres-solo sonata, trio sonata, and concerto-which called on the violin to imitate the expressivity and virtuosity of the singing voice. Not surprisingly. it was also the ltalians-specifically, a few families of instrument builders in the northern ltalian town of Cremona-who developed the art oí violinmaking to a peak that has never been surpassed. During their heyday. the violin became the new agent of that artistic power which had previously resided only in the voice. Antonio Stradivari (ca. 1644- 1737) was the mos! prominent member of his universally renowned family of instrument-makers. He was possibly a pupil of Nicalõ Amati, founder of another dynasty of violin-makers. During his long life, Stradivari made or supervised the production of more than 1,100 instruments-induding harps. guitars, violas, and cellos-about half of which sur· vive and are still being used today by some of the world's leading string players. Most of his violins have been rebuil t into modem violins, with a lon· ger finger-board, higher bridge, and neck angling further from the body. Figu re 17.4 shows one of the few Stradivari violins that has been restored to its original seventeenth-century form. Thousands of violins were made in tribute to Stradivari and modeled on his superior construc tlon design; with no intention to deceive. these instruments bear the label "Stradivarius." although they were produced neither by the master nor his workshop. Wha t was involved in making a "Strad" and why are these instruments so highly prized 7 To begin with, Stradivari selected woods of the highest possible quality-pine for the front and sides, and maple for the back of the instrument. Then he proceeded to carve the pieces, taking care to get just the right degree of arching beca use the body of the instrumem is not Aat but slightly rounded. a nd arrive at just the right amount of thickness

INSTRUMENTAL CHAMBER MUSIC

Development of the sonata

ln instrum ental chambermusic, as in opera an d cantata , lta lians remained the undisputed masters and teachers . T he late seventeench and early eighceemh centlll'ies were th e age ofthe gr eatviolin makers of Cr emo n a in northern ltaly: Nico lõ Amati (1596- 1684). Antonio Stradivari (Stradivarius. 1644- 1737). aod Giuseppe Bartolomeo Guarneri (1698-1711). all famed for instrumems of unrivaled excell ence, such as th e Stradivarius s boW11 i n Figure 17.4 (see Music in Context). It was also the age of great string mus ic in ltaly. of wbicb tbe two leadinggenres were lhe sonala and the instrumental concerto. Súnatas in the f, rsl half oi' the seventeenth ce ntury co nsis ted of severa! scclions d ilfercntialcd by musical material . tcxturc . mood. charactcr. and so melimes me ter or te mp o. a s in lh e Biag ia Marini so nata exa min ed in chapte r 15 (NA\VM 81) As co mposers deve loped the genre. these sec tions beca me longer a ncl mo re selí- co,1tained. Fi nally, compose rs sepa rated l he sect io ns into dist inct movem e n ts, s o t hat l he sonata became a mu lti movcmcnt wo rk with co ntra sts bctwce n movcmcnts. Th csc co ntrasts wc rc in sympal hy with lhe theory of lhe afl'ections (see chapter 13), which held t hat mus ic sti mu latcd thc bodi ly humor s and could keep the m in ba lance by offering a divcrsity of moods. Some composers maiutained t hematic sim i lariries betwee n move m ents , as in the olde r variation canzona (see cbap te r 15), but thematic independen ce of movements hecame more comm on. By about 1660. two main types of sonata hacl emergecl. The sonata da cm11e1·a , or clu1111be1· so,wt<t, had a series of stylized dances, often beginning wilh a prelude. The sonata cfo cl,.iesa. or clmrch so,wta. had mostly abs tract movemeots, ofteo including one or more that used da nce rhythms or binary form but were not usually ti tled as dances . Church so natas could be used i n chur ch services. subsliluting for ce rlain items of lhe Mass Prop er

because even the tiniest variation in the thickness of the wood will affect the instrument's resonance. Next he cut the elegantly shaped f-holes into the front piece to optimize the vibrations and maximize the sound. Finally. he applied the varnish to protect the instrument from dirt and to stop it from absorbing moisture. ln addition to its prac· tical function. the vamish added to the beauty of the instrument by giving it a radiant, orange· brown sheen and highlighting the grain patterns on the wood's surface. ln an effort to explain the extraordinarily rich and powerful tone of a Stradivarius violin, a popular theory held that its varnish had some sort of ·magic" ingredient. However, historical research has shown tha t the varnish is no different from that used by furniture makers when Stradivari was alive. Other theories suggest that the wood was first soaked in water and then specially seasoned before being carved, or that the grain of the wood used is tighter than modem woods . But so far. scientists have been unable to ascertain any measurable qualities that set these instruments apart. Even if such properties are discovered. the intrinsic superiority of a Stradivarius remains a mat-

ter not only of science but also of a long -lost art.-BRH FIGURE 17.4 : Violin. 1693. byA111onioStradivari. restored to ils or4Jin oiJonn. crnc "ETR01"01.1T,x MUSf.lJM ()FART. OIM"OF (H!:Olll<a: COOLI). 19$:i r::r..n&i, PIIOTO • 01\A.l'II CJ'l31l Tll tt UltTI\Ol'(U lTAN l t USt:.U ~l Of Aln')

385

386

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

Trio sonata

or for antiphons for the Magnilicat .at Vespers. and both types were played for e11tertainment in private co11certs. The most common instrumentaiion after 16'?0 for both church and chamber sonatas was two treble instruments. usually violins. with basso continuo. Such a work is now called a trio so,w w because of ils three-part Lexture,

but a performance can feature four or more players if more than one is used

Soloand

ensemble sono tas

for the basso continuo, such as a ce llo performing the bass line anda harps icho rd. organ. o r lute doubling tbe bass and filling in the chords . lndeed , Arca ngelo Corelli's church sonatas (see helow) were publis hed with two hass paris. one for organ and a second fo r cello or archlute: the !alter. although most.ly id e nti cal to the orga n parl, occasionally has mo re 1'1gu ration. The texture of the trio sonata, wit h two high melody lines over basso continuo, served mai1y othe r ty pes of solo mus ic. both vocal and instrumental. So lo so natas, for violin or othe r instrume nt with continuo, were at li rst lcss num c rous than trio so natas but gained in popu lari ty aftcr 1700. Com posers also wrote sonatas for largcr groups , up lo eigh t instrumen tal parts wit h co ntinu o. as well as a few for una cco mpan ied st ringor wind instruments.

ARCANGELO CORELLl 'S SONATAS The trio and solo sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli (1653- 1713) represent the crown ing achíevemem in ltalian chamber music of the late seventeen th cen tury. Trained in Bologna. active in Rome. and renowned as violin ist. teacher, and composer (see bíography and Figu.re 17.5), Corelli had an unparalleled intluence on performers and composers alike. He published his sona tas as seis oftwelve. giving each set an opus number. T,io sonatas ln bis trio sonatas. Corelli emphasized lyric ism over virtuosity. He rarely used extremely high or low n otes, fast runs, or diflicu lt doubl e stops. The two violins. treated exactly alike, frequently cross and exchange music. interlocking in sus pens ions lhat give bis works a decisive forward momenluro. Exa mple 17.2 (see p. 388) shows a passage fro m the nrst movement oi' his Trio 1 Concise :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1 Sonata in D Major. Op. 3. No . 2 (NAWM 94). that fcaturcsscvcral typical traits oi' Co relli's style: a walking lmss, wilh a steadi ly moving paliem of eighth norcs, undcr frce imitatio n bctwecn the vio lins; a chai n of s uspe ns ions in thc vi olins above a clescending ~eciuencc i n the bass; and a dialogue between lhe violins as they leapfrog over each othcr to progress ively highcr peaks. Church sonatas Mos t of Core ll i's church trio sonatas consist of fou r movements, often in two pairs, in the order slow- fast- sliow- fast. Although there are many exceptions to this pattero, it graclually became a norm for Core i li and !ater com posers. The ti.rst slow movement rypically has a comrapuntal Lexture and a majestíc, solemn ch aracter. The Allegro that follows normally features fuga! imitation. with the bass line a full participant. This movement is the musical center of graviry for che church sonata. and il re tains elemen ts of che can zona in its use of imitation, of a suhject with a markecl rhythmic character, and ofvariation at ]ater entrances ofthe subject. Tbe subsequent slow movementmost often resembles a lyric. operalic duet i11 tripie meter. The fost final movement usually features dancelike rhythm s and often is iu bina1y form. Ali of these traits are tn.te of Op. 3. No . 2 (NAWM 94}. We have seen in Examp le l '?.2 úie co ntrapuntal web of suspensions and imitations in the Jirst move-

387

ltaly

ARCANGELO CORELLI (1653-1713)

Corelli left no vocal music. and fewer than ninety pieces of his survive, almost all in three gemes: trio sonata. solo violin sonata. and concerto grosso. Yet he helped to establish standards of form, style, and playing technique that influenced several generations. Born into a well-to-do family in Fusignano, a small town in northern ltaly, he studied violin and composition in Bologna beginning in 1666, completely assimilating the craft of the Bolognese masters. By 1675, Corelli was living in Rome, where he quickly became a leading violinist and composer, enjoying the support of Oueen Christina of Sweden and other rich patrons. As a violinist. teacher, and ensemble director, he helped to raise performance standards to a new levei. He organlzed anel led among the first orchestras in ltaly. which became a model for others. His teaching was the foundation of most eighteenth-century schools of violin playing. Others may have surpassed him in bravura. but he had the good taste to avoid empty displays of virtuosity. and no one understood the singing qualities of the violin better than he did. Beginning in 1681. Corelli published a series

FIGURE 17.S; A portroit of Arcangelo Corelli (ca. 1700) by FTugh Hou:ord. (wlTII l'>:f\\U5SI0N

OFTllt PACVJ,,'rYOF

\fUSIC. UNrvnnsm Ot' OXTORD)

of collections of trio sonatas, violin sonatas, and concerti grossi that were disseminated across Europe, bringing him international fame. MAJOR WORKS : 6 published colleclion, known

opus (work) number: Op. 1(1681), 12 trio sonatas (sonate da chiesa}: Op. 2 (1685}. 12 ulo sonate da camera (one is a chaconne): Op. 3 (1689). 12 irio sonate da chiesa: Op. 4 (1695). 12 trio sona« da camera: Op. S (1700), 12 solo violín sonatas: Op. 6 (1714}, 12 concerti g rossi: 6 other trio sonatas and 3 quartets for three instru ments and basso continuo

mem. The opening of the second movement features exact imitation betwcen firs l violin and bass and inversion in the secon cl violin; the third movemenl, in th e rclative minor, is so nglike with so me imitation; and the f111a lc is ,111 imi tative gigue in b inary form whose subject of'ten appears in inversion, as in the second movement. Corelli's chamb er sonatas usua lly begin wit b a prelude, after which two or three dances may follow as inche French s uice. Often the lirst rwo movements resemble those of a church sonata, a slow movement anda fugalAllegro. Some of the ti.rst movements feature dotted rbythms. recalling the French overture. The dance movemenls are almost always in binary form. wilh each section repeated , rhe first sectio n closing on the dominant or rela tive major and the second making its way back co ú1e lonic. Rather than sharing an almost equal role a s in the clnu·ch sonatas. lhe bass line in lhe chamher sonatas is almost pure accompaniment. Corelli's solo violin sonatas are also dívided between church and chamber sonatas . follow ing s imilar pallerns o f movements bu t all owi ng

Chambersonatas

Solo sonatas

388

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

EXAMPLE 17.2, /\

Pa.ssage from Corelli 's Trio Sonata, Op. 3, No. 2. ji,rst movemeni il

...

•J

V1oli11 li

...

Organaod Cello (or Archluic)

-·}-

...

_,.,

.....

,..

--....i

a fourth or second and up by a fifth or 1J1ird

. .

1 ~

CJ!,~ ·

' . --

Thematic orgcrnization

Tonal organization

i,..L..L.J

..... -.

·-

,..

"-J

.,.

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...

. ,.........

-• e

6 S7

suggest modal thinking. as in Example 14.4 from Montevercli 's Orfeo. Th e increasinguse. over the cou rse of thc seventeenth ccntu ry, of cli rected progressions like CoreIli 's Jed , gradually from moda l practice t(t 1he new fonclional harrnony wc call tonality. Corelli ofte n rel ied on chains of s uspensio11s and on sequences to achieve ~~ ,,, _._ the sense of forwa rd harm o ni c mot ion on 7rfr Ysj'• ~~~ which tonality depends. Measures 10- 12 in Examp lc 17.2 di sp lay both suspen ( ; ; ~ ~ _ , ! . _ : , tSÉ. • f rÍ J, Ti r~.\& sions in the vio lins anda scquencc in the bass, resuJting in a progression down the circlc of fifths. Co rc lli's music is almost com pletely d iatonic; beyon d s econdary dominants (as in m easures 8 and 12 in Exam pl e 17.2). we find on ly a rare dimin ;,• ished sevemh chorei or Nea poli tan sixtb at a cadence. His modu lations within a FIGURE 17.6 · A pagefrom 1hefirs1 movement oj'Core/li's movem e nt- most often to the dominant Sonata in D Major, Op. S, No. 1, in an edition printed l,y Est,and the relative minar or major- are logi - cnne Rogerin Amstcrdam. ln thc s/-0w ma•cments and pascal a11d straight forward. He either kept a li sages. lhe vwlin pa rt 1s gwen both as origtn ally P"b/r.shed and move ments of a sonata in the same key or. in an embellished version ela imed to represen t lhe war Corelli in rn.ajor- key sonatas. casl lhe second s low ll imself performed it. ('rHE BRITISH LlBRAR\', LONOON) move rn ent in the relative m inor. Corclli"s sonatas sc rvcd as modcls that co mpose rs followed fo r the next half cenlury. The motivic tech niques and princ ip ies of to nal arch itecture hc helped to develop we re exte11ded by Vivaldi, Ha ndel, Bach, and othc r compose rsofthe next ge ne ration. Hc has bee n call cd the nrst major co mposer wh ose rcputali on rests exc lusive ly 011 instrum enta l mus ic, and along with F'rescoba ldi hc was onc of rhc lirst to crca re instrumental works lhat became classics, continuing to be played and reprinted long after hi s dcath.

.....

s;•;;:~•-Pn~~ ( ,,:. =

-;--

389

the circle of áf'ths as easily as down. ln tonal p rogressions, the chord root also may rise by step or fali by a third before again rising hy a fom·th (see measures 14- 15). Chord series whose roots primarily move down by

[C1-avc)

V,ohn 1 ) li

ltaly

i,..L..L.J 6 6

-· ·

considerably more virtuosity. ln the Allegro movements, the solo violin sometimes emp loys double and tripie stops 10 simulate the rich three - part sonority of the trio sonata and the interplay of voices in a fugue. There are fasL rnns , arpeggios, ex tended per·petual -motion passages, and cadenzaselaborate solo embellishme nts ata cadence, either notated or improvised. The s low movemenls we re nota te d s imply but were meant lo be ornamented freely and profusely. ln 17 1O. the Amst.erda m publisher Estienne Roger reissued Co rell i's solo sonatas, s howing for the s low movements both the original solo pa,·ts and embell ished ve rs ions that. Reger claimed. repre sented lhe way lhe composer played lhe sonatas. as in Figure 17.6. The embellis hme nls sure ly re tl ect the practice of Co relli 's time, and probably of thc com pose r himself. ln Co relli 's so natas, each move me nt tends to be based 011 a single s ub jcct statcd at th e outsct. Thc music unfolds in a continuous cxpansion ofthe ope11ing subject, with va 1-iatio11s, seque11ces, brief modulat ions to nearby keys. and íasci nati ng s ubtleties of phrasing. Thi s steady spin11ing out of a s ingle theme, in whicb the origi n.i l idea seems to generate a sponta11eous 11ow of musical thoughls, is high ly characteristic of the !ater Baroque from about the 1680s on. Oftcn there are su btlc con nccti ons bctwee n movcmcn ts; for insta.nce, in Op. 3, No. 2 (NAWM 94), each movement begins wilh a vari a11t of the same openi11g molive. Core lli's music is tonal. marked with the sense of direction or progression tha1. more than any other qual ity. distinguishes tonal rnusic from modal music. Indeed, Jean -Philippe Rameau , the nrst theorist to descrihe the to nal system (see chapter 18). used Corelli's musical language as the basis for his rules of funt io11al tonality. Exarnple 17.2. for instance. fearnres several series of chords whose roots move dowu the circle of nftlls. falling by a nfth or rising by a fourth (see measures 8- 10 and 10- 14). This is the normal direction for chord progressions in tonal music. whereas modal music may move up

.. .. .............. . ,,C

THE CONCERTO Towarcl the end oi' the seventeenth century. musicians began to clistinguish betv,een music for chamher ensemble, with only one instrument for each melodie tine, and music for orchestra. in which eacb string pari was performed by two or more players. \V/e have seen rhat Louis XIII of France (r. 1610-43) established a string ensemble, esseutially the nrst orchestra, with four to six players per part. By the 1670s. similar ensentbles were formed in Rome and Bologna. followed by others in Venice. Mil an. and elsewhere.

Afosicfororchestra

390

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

TIMELINE Italy and Gemia,ny in ihe La.te 17th Century

ltaly

For s pecial occasions in Rome. Corelli often led a "pick- up" orchestra of forty or more, gathered from players employed by patrons throughout the city. While some pieces, Like the overtures. dances. and interludes of Lully's operas. were cleai·ly intended for orchescra, and others, like Corelli's solo violin

style icliomatic to th e natural trumpet. marked by triads. scales, anel repeated notes, was imitatecl by the strings anel became characteristic of concertos. Since Roman orchestras were typically clivided between concertino and ripieno, Roman composers favoreci the co n-

sonatas. could be played only as cbamher music. a good deal

certo grosso. Corelli's Concerti grossL. Op. 6. written in the

of seve nteenth- and early-eighleenth · centwy music could be performed eithe r way. For instance, on a fes1ive occasion or in MUSICAL H ISTOR ICAL a large hall, each lin e of a trio sonata might be played by severa! performers. • 1647 Johann Crüger, Praxis ln the 1680s anel l690s, co mpose rs e rea1ed a new kinel pietaris melica of o,·chcsll·a l wo l'k that beca me the most p rcs tigious type • 1648 End ofThirty Years'War of Baroque instrumental music and helped to estahlish lhe • 1655 First regular newspaper orchestra as the lcading ins trumental ense mble. ln the long in Berlin tradition of adaptingo ld terms to new uses, the new genre was called c o 11 cert o . Like the vocal concerto , it united contrast• 1656 Antonio Cesti, Orontea ing forces into a harmonious whole, in a11 instrumental ver· • 16S7-71 Maurizio Cazzati at sion of the concerta.to medium . lt combined this texture with San Petronio in Bologna other trai ts favored at the time: florid melody over a ftrm bass; • 1658-1705 Leopold I reigns as musica l organization based on tonality; anel multip le movc Holy Roman Emperor ments with contrasting tempos, moods, and nguration. Concertos were closely related to sonatas and served many of the • 1668 0ieterich Buxtehude sarne roles: they were playecl at public ceremotli es. entertain · appointed organist at Lübeck rnents, and private musical gatherings, anel they could s ubsti• 1673 Buxtehude begins tute forpol'tions of the Mass. Abendmusiken By 1700. composers were writing thr ee kinds of concer· • ca. 1675 Heinrich Biber, tos . The <lrchestral concerto was a work in severa! moveMystery Sonatas ments that e mphasi7.ed the first viol in pa ri. a nel the bass, distinguishing the concerto l'rom the mo re co n trapunlal • 1678 Hamburg opera house t.exlure cha ra cle ristic of tbe sonata. The o th e r two ty pes opens sys te mat ically playcd on the co ntra s! in so nority between many inst rnments anel one o r only a few. Thc c o11 cer/,o gmsso sei a s mal l e nse mb le (concertino) of solo instrumenls aga inst a large ensembl e (concerto grosso). The conce rtino no rma lly comprised two violins accompaniecl by cello anel continuo, lhe sarne forces needecl to pl ay a trio so na ta, a lthou gh other so lo string or wind instrumcnts might bc addeel or su bstitured. ln essence, a concerto grosso rescmbles an ensc m· ble so nata in which some passages are reinforced with multi pi e players 011 cach part. Th e t hircl anel most com mon type. s imply ca ll ed conccrl,o , contras1s one or more solo instruments wi1h che Jarge ensemble. The large group was almost always a string orchestra, usually divided into first and second violins. violas. and cellos. wit h basso continuo and bass viol either doubling the cellos or playing their own pari. ln both the concerto grnsso anel tbe concerto for one or more solo ists, the full orc bes tra was designated tutti (ali) or ripie no (full). Predecessors of The practice of conu·as1ing solo ins1ruments against a full orches u·a goes concerto style back to Lu lly opera s, where so me of the dances inclucled episodes for so lo wind trio: to o ratorio anel opera arias by Stradella: and to sonatas for so lo lrumpe ts with sl ri ngo rchest ra . popular in Bologna and Venice. The melodi e

391

Alessandro Scarlatti's first opera in Rome

• 1679

• 1681 Arcangelo Corelli. Op. 1 1680s and published in revised form in 17 11. are essentially Trio Sonatas trio sonatas, eliv idecl between soli and tulti. The la rger group • 1682 Biber, Missa salisburgensis cchoes the smaller, fortiftes cadential passagcs, or otherwise puncluates the structure lhrough doul1l ings. Corell i's • 1683 First coffeehouse opens app roa ch was wielely im itated by !ater co mposers in lta ly. in Vienna England, and Ccrma ny. lnel cccl, onc of thc bcst descriplions • 1688 Louis XIV invades Holy ofthe Co rellian co nce rto grosso is by a German. the cornposer Roman Empire Ceo1·g Muffat (1653- 1704) . introducing a co ll ectio n of his • 1692 Giuseppe Torelli own p ieces that can be played cither as trio sonatas oras conpublishes first concertos cerli gross i (see Source Reaeling, p. 392). While Roman practicc !reateei thc orches rra as an expan • 1695 Georg Mu ffa t. sion of the concertino, in northern ltaly the soloists were Florilegium, vol. 1 adjuncts to the orchestra. Composers there focused f1rst on • 1696 Johann Kuhnau. Frische thc orchestra l concerto , then ou the concerto for one or more Clavier Früchte soloists and the concerto g ro sso. Giuseppe Torelli (1658• 1700 Corelli. Op. 5 Vio lin 1709). a leading figure in the Bologna schoo l. composed ali Sonatas three types. iucluding the lirst concertos ever pub lished (bis Op. 5, 1692). ln bis concertos we can see a new notion of the • 170S J. S. Bach hears concerto develop. He wrote trumpet concertos for services Buxtehude's Abendmusiken in San Petronio. anel his Op. 6 (1698) includes two solo vio· • 1720-21 Alessandro Scarlatti, li n concertos, perhaps the f1rs1 by any C(lmposer. Six more La Grise/da violi n concertos and six co ncerti grossi appeared as his Op. 8 (1709). Most of these works follow a tlu·ee· movement plan in lhe a rder fast-slow-fasl. laken over frorn lhe ltalian opera overture. T hi s schema, introd uced to the co ncerto by Vc ne tian co mp oser Tomaso Albinoni (1671 - 1750) in bis Op. 2 (1700), beca me thc sta ndard pat· te rn for concertos. ln thc fa st move mc nts of hi s viol in co ncertos, Toreili oft.en used a form Framirig ritomellos 1hat ,·csc mbles and may have bec n modcled on the structurc ofth e Ascct ion of a da capo a ri a (see above). The re are two exte nded passages for lhe so loist. fram ed by a rito rn ello that appca rs a r thc beginning and cnd of the movement anel that recurs , in abbreviated form andina clifferent key, hetween the two so lo passagcs. Thc so los prcsent c ntirely ncw materia l, oftcn cxploiting the virtuosity of the soloist, and modulate to closely related keys, providing contrast and variety. The return of the ri tornello then offers stability anel resolution. Torelli's approach was developed by Antonio Vivaldi into ritornello form,, the standard partem for eighteenth- century concertos , as we will see in the next chapter.

THE ITALIAN STYLE ln the last third of the seventeenth cenltuy. Italian music in ali genres shared common features. Composers sought to make lheir music pleasing to the

392

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

Germany and Austtia

393

Germany and Austria At the end of the Thirty Years' \Var in 1648. llluch of Germany was ruined and impoverished. The Holy Roman Emperor was weak, and the empire encom-

GEORG MUFFAT ON CONVERTING SONATAS INTO CONCERTOS

passed almost three hundred essentially independent political units. from

Georg Muffat played a maJor role ,n introducing both l1alian ar1d French styles and genres lnto Germany. ln the early 1680s he vls1ted Rome, where he heard Corelli's concertos. On his retum 10 Salzburg ,n 1682. he published a set of Íive pieces playable as sonatas b,H lntended for full realliatlon as concertl grossl. When he republished them in 1701 in a sei of twelve concert, gross,. h,s foreword explained his method, making clear the roots of the concerto in the sonata.

self- governing free cities such as Hamburg and Nuremberg to Lerritories ruled by princes, dukes. co unts. landgrnves. ma rgraves. electo rs. bishops. anel archbishops. The map in Figure 17.7 can o nly suggest the complexiry. Because states were relatively smalJ and power decentralized. cities were smaller than 1.hose in France or Britai n. The great majorit.y or the people were l'armcrs. Cermany had neithcr lhe state-conlro lled indus11·ies or Prance, nor Lhe robusl capitalism ofEngland and tl1e Netherla.nds. and was further lilllited by the strong systcm of professio nal gu ilds left ove r from the Midd le Ages, which discou ragcd innovation. Bul the situatio n was nol necessari ly bleak for music. Rulers jealously guardcd their sovercign1)'. and many imitated Louis XíV's use of thc a1is as a way to asscrt power and status. Numcrous courts were eagcr to hirc singe rs, instrumentalists, and composers, tbough the number at any one court could not rival lhe French court. Cities and cburches also supported music. Most cities employed town musi.cians. called Stadtvfcifcr ("town pipers'º). who had the exclusive right to provicle music in the city. They performed at public ceremonies. parades. weddings, and other feslivities and sup ervised th e Lraining of apprenti ces_ Figure 17.8 shows a small troupe in Nuremberg sounding in the New Year. Stadtpfeifer were jacks-of-all - Lrades. proficient at numerous wind anel string instru ments. and typically won d1eir posts through aud itions or fami ly connections. Thc system encou raged whole famil ies to make music lheir lrade. alllong tbem the Bach family. already prnminenl in the seventeenth cenlury and about to reach new height s in the eighteenth. ln some places. cho rales or so natas called Turmsonaten (tower sonatas) were played daily 0 11 wind instrumenls from t.hc towcr of the lown hall o r chu rcb. ln Lutheran areas, church musicians were often directly employed by lhe town. Some Lut heran churches spo nsorcd conccrt s and recitais, as wcll as having music during services. Among ali these professional mus icians. those at courts had the highest social standing, fo ll owed by those employed by major citics. Some spent their careers in a single place, but others moved from one position to another seeking tli e most advantagcous cireumsta nccs. Amateur music- mak:ing was a prominent part of social life. Many Ger man cowns had a collcgium 11111sic11111.. an association of amateurs from the educated middle class who gathered to play and sing together for their own pleaslU'e or to hea1· prol'essionals in privale perforlllances. Such groups were also organized in schools, and some drew thei r memb ers primarily from university students. ln the eighteenth century. some co llegia gave public concerts (see chap ter 19) . German musicians and composers played and w,·ote musi c in almost ali genres of the Lime, whe ther imporLed or homegrown. Like lhe English,

Friendly reader: lt is very true that the beautiful concertos of a new kind that I enjoyed ln Rome gave me great courage and reawakened in me some ideas that perhaps will not displease you. lf nothing else, at least I uied to serve your convenience. since you may concert these sonatas in various manners with the following conditions: 1. They may be played with only three instruments, namely two violins and a cello or bass viol as a foundation . ...

2. They may be played by fou r or five instruments.... 3. lf. further, you wish to hear them as full concertos with some novelty or variety of sonority, you may form two choirs in this way. Make a small ensemble [concertino] of three or two violins anda cello or viola da gamba, which rhree solo parts, not doubled, will play throughout. From these parts you will draw the two [solo] violins as well as the violins to be doubled for the large ensemble [concerco grosso] when you fi nd the letter T. which signifies · tutti." You will have these rest at the letter S [soli), when the small ensemble will play solo. The middle violas will be doubled in proportion to the other parts of the large ensemble with which they will play, except when you find rhe letter S. when it will be enough that this pari be played solo and not doubled. 1went to ali this trouble to achieve this opportune variety. From the ltalian in Ausserlesene lnscrumencal-Music (Passau, 1701), Denkm§/er der Tonkunst in Ôesrerreich Xl/2, vol. 23 (Vienna. 1904), 118.

ear, emoti ona lly expressive, gralilying to perform, and abl e to show orf rhe performcrs to bcst advantagc. Both voices and instrumcnts drcw on a variery of melodie styles, from lyricalsongto trnmpet-call arpeggiations to virtuoso passagc work. The emphasis on soloists, characteristic since ea rly in the ccntury. continucd in both vocal and instrumental music. Sacrcd chorai mus ica nd trio sonatas featured eq11al voices in collaboration, but arias and solo so natas highlighted the virtuosiJy aud expressivity of :1.0 individual, and conce1ios incorporated the contrast betweeu individual and collective voices. What we uow call to nality becallle a strong organizing force, and many pieces followed a silllilar pattern of establishingthe tonic. depatiing from it. exploring nearby keys. and returning to d1e tonic at the end. ln arias. concertos, and other forms . lhe final tonic was often elllphasized by a repr ise oftbe openingmateriaJ, whicb beca.me a basic principie of form for the next two centuries. F'rom ali the influences across genres and among a variety of lllusical cenlers. 1J1ere emerged a vibrant, e:ntberant, identinably ltalian style that was widely imitated and became the founda1ion for developments in lhe eighteen th century.

Court, city. and clrnrch nw,sicici.ns

Amateur musicians

Cosmopolitan styles

394

C ti A P T E li 17 • haly and Germany ln ,he Lalt Seven,eenth Cen,ury

Gtrmany and Ausuia

395

FIGURE 17.8: Stadt-

píeif'er in Nu remberg heroldingtl, e New l'e(lr. Det(lil o[(1 drowing by an unknown.sixtcen1hcenturyortist. ( 1n:RL1N.

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BOUEMIA

ries. As in ltaly. the music in Ge rmany from this period that is best known today is primarily instrumental. especi aJly thc great tradition of North Gcrman organ music.

'%,,,,, AUS'IRIA

OPERA

D D D D

Ausm:rn H:absburgl:mds Spimii;h llabsburg lnnd" Weui11 (Alber1111a) We11 in {ernest1n:i)

' OTIOMAN EMl'IRE

1loherl7.olletn -

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Br:mdeuburg liue

\Vittclsbitch

D D D D

Bavari.10 li 11e l'alallnntc linc

lndcpende01 P·rinci1>alirie.s

D D

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1-,nh:.11

Map of the Holy Rom(lll Ernpire in 1648. split i,uo SI free c,ties undalmost 250 tenilorics. A11s1n'crnnd Brandenburg- Prussia. were relatioely large beca,ise they e.~panded,

Boden

ea.sLtuard in preiiious ce.nturies: lhe. central

lmpcrfal c11ics

D D

Sv.edisb írom 164-8

Oldcnburg lnnds Ecdc:siastical la.ud.tli

Meckleoburg FIGURE 17.7,

region liad becorne increasingly fragmen1ed . Ot.her 1erritorit:s witbiu Lb~ Holy f\omrm Empare

Botwd:tl'.) or 1loly l\omao Ernpi 1·c

composers in Germany drew on Ital ian. Frencb. and na tive styles and blended them in new ways. The circulation of musicians from post 10 post. Lhe presence of many foreign- born musicia ns, and the influence of Germans who 11·aveled or studied abroad aU comhined to produce a cosmopo litan musical life 1.hat would characte rize Ge rman-speaking areas for the next lwo ceolu-

As we saw in chapte r 14, ltalian composers were welcomed at Austrian and German courts. where opera in ltalian became central to musical life. ln addi Lion 1.0 ltalian co mposers wh11 made ope ra careers in Germany-such as Cario Pallav icino (1630- 1688). who worked chi eíly in Dresde n, and Agostino Steffani (1654-1728), aclive in Munich and Hanover-Ge rman composers also look up lhe genre. ln the e igh1ee ntJ1 ce nlury, seve ra] of lhe mosl successful co mposers of ltalian opera we re German, from Hand el anel Hasse to Gluck and Mozart (sec cbapters 19. 21. aod 23). After scatte red ex perim enls. opera in German found a hom e in liam burg with the ope ning in 1678 of rhe Ftrst publ ic opera house in Gcrm any. ln lhi s p rospe rous co mme rcial center, lhe opera h ousc was a bu~ iness ve nture d esigncd to turn a prolit through yea r- round productions of works that wou ld. appea l to the micldl e class. ln deference to Lutheran authorities, who op posed s uch entertainme nt , many operas in lhe early years conce rned bibli<:aJ subjccts. Local pocts trans lated or adapted librettos from Vcnetian operas a11d wrote new ones that were similar in subject matter and general plan. Gomposers adopred tbe recita tive style of ltalian opera but were eclectic in their a rias. ln addition to ltalianate arias. usually inda capo or modilied da capo form. anel free ariosos. tbey occasionally wro1e airs in the French style and i.n the rbythms of Freoch dances. Also common in early Germau opera, es pecially for lower- class or comic characters. are sbort strophic songs in Lhe popul ar s1yle of nonbern Germany, dis playing brisk. fortbrigbt melo dies anel rhythms. The foremost and most prolific of the early German opera comp osers was Reiubard Keiser (1674- 1739), who wrote almost sixty works for the Hamburg stage.

Opera in Gerrnan

396

C ti A P T E li 17 • haly and Germany ln ,he Lalt Seven,eenth Cen,vry

Germany and Austtia

Keise r and bis German contemporaries wrote individual songs aud arias as well as cantatas iu ltaliau and in German. The most notab le song and cantata composer was Adam K.rieger (1634-1666) of Dresden. His arias were mostly

However. two conflicting tendencies had arisen within the church. and thcy inevitably affected music. Orthodox Lutherans, holding to estah lish ed doetrine and public fonn s of worship. favored using all available resources of choral and instrumental music in their services. ln contrast. Pietists empha sized priva1e devoiions and Bible readings, distrusted formality and high art

stropbic melodies in a channingly simple popular style witb short. five-part

in worship. aud preferred simple music and poetry that expressed the emo-

orch estral ritornellos common in German solo sougs.

tions of the i ndividual believer. Lulhe rans possessed a common h eritage in the cho rale (see chapte r l O). New poe ms a nd melodies con l.inucd to he composcd , many of them inc e nded not for coagregatioaal Sillf,ri ng hui for use in home devotions . The most inllu e ntia I Luthe ran so ngbooko l' the 1.ime was Johann Crüger'sPraxis pietatis melica, ( Pract ice of Pi cty i n Song). issued i n 1647 and reprin ccd in o ver ro rty cd it ions dw·ing the aext half century. Crüger set the melodies ove r f1gured bass and add ed acc idenla ls to the old modal chorale me lodies to make the m li t e mcrging co1wentions of triadie harmony. Orthodox Lutheran ccnters provided a favorablc environmcnt for devel op ing t bc sacrcd co ncerto . Thc backbone was the conccrtcd vocal cnscmbl e on a bib.lical tcxt , as estah.l isbed by Scbcin, Schütz, and othc rs in thc ea rly and mid-seventeenth century. Of more recenl vintage was the solo aria, norinally in ltalian stylc, on a stroph ic, nonbibl ical tex t. Thc choralc was the most traditional and characteristically German ingredient, set either in the concertato medi um or in sim pie hannonies. Composers often drew on these elements in various combinations to create multimovement works . Today such wo1·ks are usualJy referred 10 as cantatas, btll their composers called them concertos, sacred concertos. or simply "the music" for a service. An example of the concertato chora le is the setting of llí'achet auf by Dieterich Buxtehu de (ca . 1637-1707). one of the bes1 - known Lutheran co mposers of the late seven teen th ce ntury (see bi og1·aphy and Figure 17 . l O. p. 398). ln th is work. the accompanying instruments. strings. bassoon. and con linu o be1,ri11 with a sho rt feslive s infoaia on motives from Lhe chora.le. Then each stanza of the cho ral e cexl is ser to a new paraphrase of the melody, distinct from the othcrs i n vocal range. f1gu ration. rhy thm . tcxlurc . and re lat io n to the origin al l.une. The resulL is a se ries o f cho ral e va ria lions. a freque nt procedure at the time.

SONG ANO CANTATA

CATHOLIC CHURCH MUSIC ln sacred mus ic, co mpose rs in Ca1.holic and Lu theran aseas fo ll owed largely separate paths, responding to the ve ry differen t liturgies and craditions of Lhe two ch urch es. The southc rn Germ an - s peakinga rea, whi ch inclucled Munich , Salzburg, anel Vi c nna , thc sc:11 of thc impe ria l chap ei, was large ly Catho li c. Thc four e mperors who reigne<l the re írom 1637 lo 1740 not on ly s upported mus ic linancia lly bu t furthcr en cou ragcd it by thcir intercst and actual participatio n as composers. Like tbeir !talfan counterpa rts, Catbolic composers of vocal rnusic cultivated both the olde r cootrapuntal s ty le and the newer con ce rted stylcs. ln th cir masses and other liturgica l works , composers at the richest courts and cathedrals incermingled orchestral pre ludes and r itornellos. ma gni licen t c ho ruses , and festive solo ensemhle sections, ali supported by full orchestral accompaniment. Polychoral music was especiaJJy eucouraged at Salzburg. where the new caihedral had four choil' lofts. For the 1, I 00th anniversary of the archbishopric of Salzburg in 1682. illustrated in Figu re 17.9, Heiarich Bihe r (1644-1704) co mposed 1he monumenta l Missa salisburgensis. with sixtccn singcrs and thi rLy - scven iaslrument.alists. each performing on a separa te I in e of mu s ic, arranged in seven groups around lhe cat h ed ral.

397

Chorales

Concerted vocal music

Dieterich BuxtPhude

LUTHERAN ORGAN MUSIC LUTHERAN VOCAL MUSIC Afte r the ravages of thc T hirty Yea rs· War. churches iu thc Lutheran tcrritorics of Germany quickly restored thei r musical forces.

FIGURE 17.9. lntenorviewoflheSalzl1urgCathedral in 1682. duringthe cere111onycelebrating tl1e 1. J00tlt an n.iversary of the archbLShopric ofSalzburg. founded ,n 582b1 St. Rupert. EngravingbyMelchiorKüsel. (Mustu" CA.ROL.JXO AUGu:n·tU).1. SAUSURG)

Orga11 music cnjoyed a golden age in the Luthcran arcas of Ge rmany between about 1650 and 1750. ln th c north, Buxtc hu dc at Lübcck and Ccorg Bõhm (1661 - 1733) at L1lneburg continued the tradition established by Sweelinck and Scheidt. A central group in Saxony aud Thuringia included Johann Christoph Bach (1642- l 703) of Eisenach. nrst cousin of J. S. Bach's father. One of lhe most notah le German organ composers was Johann Pachclbel (16531706) of Nuremherg, composer of clie now-famous canon for thrce violins aud continuo. Ge rman organ builders of the late seventeenth and early cighteenrh centuries drew 011 elements of French and Dutch organs. much as German comp osers bl ended ltalian. French . and nor thern styles. The best-known

The Baroque organ

398

C ti A P T E li 17 • haly and Germany ln ,he Lalt Seven,eenth Cen,ury

Gtrmany and Ausuia

DIETERICH BUXTEHUDE (CA. 1637-1707) FIGVRE 17.10: F,gure ,denttjied as Dielerich 81,xteh.ude. from a painting (ca. 1674) bJ•Joh.annes lloorl1out. (MUSl!UM

Buxtehude was rnnowned as an organist as well as a composer of organ music and sacred vocal works. H is pieces for organ. marked by strong ly etched themes and virtuosic playing for both hands and the pedais. had a powerful inAuence on J. S. Bach and other composers. The son of a German organist working in Oenmark, Buxtehude was likely trained by his father and at the Latin School in Elsinore. He played organ in a German church there from 1660 to 1668. when he succeeded Franz Tunder as organist at St. Mary's C hurch in Lübeck. one of the most important and lucrative musical posts in northern Germany. He la ter married Tunder's younger daughter Anna Margarethe. apparently as a condition of his employment. Buxtehude remained at St. Mary's for the rest of his life. He played for the principal services. induding morning and afternoon on Sundays and feast days. and composed music to suil: organ solos as preludes to chorales and other parts of the service. and organ. ensemble. and vocal pieces for performance during Comrnunion. Buxtehude was famed for his Abendmusiken. public concerts of sacred vocal music at S t. Mary's on five Sunday afternoons each year

fÜI\ IIA.MBUILCISCHE

GESClt ICIITF., 11AM RUflC. º'"MAr-.'Y')

399

FIGURE 17.11: Orgcm buill in 1710-11 brArpSchniigerin the Martinikerk in Sneek. a ci1y in the northern Netherlands. The upper c/1estofpipes i.sthe Haupt:wcrk. or Creat orga,i. The ta!lpipes in lhe cen.lerand around th.eside.s produce 1he lowes1 noies. played by the pedais. Below the Hauptwerk is 1he Bn1stwerk. andbelowthat.. unseen in this photogrop/1. a,·e the manual

i-eJ1JOards. tlte pedal keybotu-d. Md the orga11is1 ·s benc/1. "1 1/ie foregrou,id is lhe Rnckposüiv, mounted UI\ the milingbehi,1d the organis1. (ormrr JAN 1,on·J t WJJD).

before Christmas. Admission was free. subsidized by local merchants. The Abendmusiken attracted musicians from all over Germany. The twentyyear-old J. S. Bach attended in 1705, and is sald to have walked more than two hundred miles just to hear them. Buxtehude's works are catalogued in Georg Karstãdt's Buxtehude-Werke-Verze,chnis ( Buxte· hude Works Catalogue). abbreviated BuxWV. MAJOR WORKS: About 120 sacred vocal works. about

40 chorale setllngs for organ. 22 organ preludes and toccatas, 19 harpsichord suites, numerous other keyboard

pieces. 20 ensemble sonatas

builders wereArp Schrutger(l648- l 718), who buill theorgan in Figure l 7.1 1, and Gottfr icd Silb crmann (l 683- 1753), who cmulated thc colorful stops used in France to play solos and contrapuntal lines. They and their co Ueagues adopted the Dutch practice of dividing tbe pipes into a main group and subsid ia1y groups, each with its own keyboard and pipes having a particular character and function. The main group, the Ha11ptwerk, or Great organ, sits lúgh above the player. Other groups may include a Rilckpositiv. mounted on the outside of lhe choir balcony rail beltind the o rgauist's back; a Brustwerk. directly above Lhe mus ic rack in fronLof Lhe player: au Oberwerk. high above Lhe Grea t: and Lhe pedal orgau, wbose pipes are usually arranged symmetrically on the s ides of the Great. Only lhe largest German orgaus had all of these components. Even ou a modest two-manual insu·umem. an organ.ist could create a great variety of sounds combining variously voiced principal, flute, and reed pipes, as well as mixlures. in which pipes sounding upper harmonics add brilliance to Lhe fundamenta] l.one.

Most of Lhe organ music written for Protestant ch urches se rved as a prelud e l.o so mething else: a chorai e, a scriptura l read ing, ora larger work. Such pi eccs wcrc oftcn cho rai e sct-ici ngs, or thcy wcre toccatas or prcludcs th;i t conta in ed rugu es or<:ulminated in them. Buxtehude's loccatas typify those o f seventeenth-century Gem1an co mposeirs io presenting a seri es of s bort sections in free style that a ltero ate with longer ones in irnitative coun terpoint. Filled with motion and climaxes, the toccatas disp lay a grcat varicty of ligu ration a nd takc fui! advantagc of thc organ·s idiomatic qualities. Their capricious, e:1.·u.berant character made them ideal vehicles for virtuosic display at the keyboard and on the pedais. The toccata as a genre and its focus on imitative counterpoint were fostered by Johann Jacob Froberger (see chapter l S), who studied with Frescobaldi and whose keyboard works had a deep impacr on la ter German composers. The free sections sirnulate irnprovisation by contrastiug irregular rhythm witb anuuceasiugclrive of sixteenth notes. byusiugph:rases tliataredeliberately irregular or have inconclusive end ings, and by featu.ring ahrupt chauges of texture. harmony. or melodie direction. Example 17.3 shows a passage ú1at is Lypical of rnccara style. from Buxtebude's Praeludiwn in E Major. Bu.xWV 111 (NAWM 95). The virtuoso part for the peda is (the lowest staff in the score) includes Jong trills: when the pedal sustains a tone. the two hands e rupt iu rapid passage work wilh unpredictable changes of s peed. direclion, and

Functions of organ 11UtSÍC

Tocca.tas and preliules

1 Condse ã\\ 1 1 Full ã\\ 1

400

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

Germany and Austtia

Buxtehude. Prae!udium in EMajor. BuxWV 141. ioccaia section

EXAMPLE 17.3,

s• " " "

fantasias of Sweelinck and Scheidt. which app ly variation to their fuga! suhjects. Here the relationships are rarher subtle: whüe the melodie contours are similar. as shown by the vertical alignment of notes. and similar figures recur (marked a and b in tbe example). a theme may be reversed (see notes marked x), leaps f11led in (as in the chird subject). and other <levices used to provide

both unity and variet)'.

trillolongo

EXAMPLE 17.4 :

Fugue mbjects from Btixtehude's Praeluditmi in E Major a

Pir,;, subject

l k

.•

b X

~ 1E ~ -?' J

Tlúnl subjcc1

Four1h subjcc1

Allcgro

[CrêtnflL

•'

Sccond subjec1 b'

~ J>r cslo

~ ~::?fi

J F Ir

X X

J3 Jfi]J

b ----~

~ '!±t.t-tilP

tiguration. At the opposite extreme is a later. slow- paced free section marked by suspensions and passing changes of key. ln the Praeludittm in E, there are five free sections, of which the first two are the longest. the next two relatively brief trausitions. and the last a climactic coda. These sections in toccata s tyle frame four fuga] sections. eacb on a different subject and in a different meter or tempo. The treatmeut is different in eacb case. from full-scale fugues in four voices with pedais for Lhe fu·st and last fuga] seclions. 10 less rigorous fuga] inlitatiou in three voices without pedais in the inner two. Ali four blend into the fo llowing free section. The foursubjectsare shown in Exam ple 17.4 . They all share famüy resemblances. recall ing the variation ca nzonas of Frescobaldi and the keyboard

ln the seventeenth ce ntury. such keyboard pieces ,vere called "toccata.'' "prelude.'' "prae ludium.'' o r some similar name, even t11ough tbey included fugal sccli ons. ln the eighteent h ccnlury. the two types of section. fuga l and nonfugal. grew in length and became se parale movements. so that the ty pical sLru cture co nsisted or a lo ng toccata o r prel ud e in free s tyle followed by a l'ugue (see NAWM 100). Composers wrote fugues both as independent pieces andas sections wiihin preludes and toccatas. By the end of the seve ntee nth ce ntury, "fugue" was i ncreasingly thc dcsigna tion for picces in imitativc coun tc rpoint (othcr than strict ca nons), replacing "rice rcare," ·'fantasia," "capriccio,'' and other tcrms. Fugue subjects tcnd to have a more sharply chiseled melodie chara ctcr anda live lic r rhythm thau ri cercare thcmes. As in thc ricerca re, indcpendent voices e nte r with lhe lheme in turn. ln a fugue a set of these ent ries is called an expositio11 . 11· the first entrance of the subject begins ou the ton.ic note, the second entrance, referred to as the ,11,swer, normaUy begins 011 che dominant, and vice versa. Often the intervals of the answer are modi tied to ftt the key. The other voices then alternate subject and answer. After a cad ence, tbere are severa] more points of imilation, each diJ'ferentiated from tl1e others by the arder of entries, pitch levei, or some other aspect. Seventeenth-century fugues may have sbort episodes-pe riods of free counterpoi nt between statements of the subject. \t'h ile toccatas, preludes, and fugues rema ined independe nl of vocal music. organ compositions based on chorales used Lhe melodies in differen t ways. ln organ chorales. lh e Lunes we re enhan ced by harmony and counlerpoint. A tunc could serve as a thcmc for a sct of' ch.orale voriotions, also call cd choHde partita. oras the subject for a chorulefant(l.sia. Another gc nre based on a cho rale tune was the c/,ornlc 11reltule . This tcrm . oftcn appl icd to any chora lc- bascd organ work, will bc uscd hc re to de note a sho rt piece in which the enl ire melody is presen ted jusl once in readily rccognizab lc fo rm . This typc of chora lc sctti ng did not appcar until the mid - scventee nth cenrury. The nam e suggests an ea rlier liturgica l practice in which the organist played through the hme , with improvised accompaniment and ornaments, as a prelude to the co ngregat ion's or choir's singing of the chorai e. Later, when they were written down , such pieces were callecl "chorale preludes" even if they did not serve the original purpose. ln effect. a chorale prelude is a single variation on a chorale. which may be constructed in any of the following ways: • Each phrase of the melody serves in turn as the subject of a po int of imitation. • Phrases appear in turn. usually in Lhe top voice. in long notes with relat.ively liltle ornamen t.alion. Each phrase is preceded by a brief

Fugue

Ch.orale settings

Chorale prelude

401

402

C H A P T E K 17 • ltaly and Germany in 1he La,e Sevemeenih Cen,ury

EXAMPLE 17.S,

Germany and Austtia

Buxtehude. chomle prelude on Nun komm. der Heiden Heilancl

progi-essively more elaborate in its embellishment. The last pbrase. which in th e originaJ choraJe is lhe same as the lirst phrase, is here presenteei with flori d ltalianate ornamentation that i11cludes dramatic octave leaps and striking runs. shown in Example 17.S b. ln combining a German cborale with s tyles of melody anel elaboration from France and ltaly, this brief piece nicely

land.

illustrates the tendency for German composers to blend elemems from ali

a. Opening phrase. compared with original chorale

i%ed Nun

,.,

)

komm.

der

,........,,....

., ;

' l>i

.. -

Hei

.J.

den

Hei

- ·-

.........

)

li.

b. Púia/,phrase X = note írom chor;1fe mclody

,.,

i.hree regions.

;

J J

;

rr. J._,

....

,_,

•·-·

·- ··

r~~

403

.. ,.

imitative development in the other voices of the phrase·s beginning, in diminution. • The melody appea rs in the top voice, ornamented in an imagin alive manner, and I he accom pa oy ing voices proceed freely with great variety from ph rase to pbrase. • The melody is accompanied in one or more of the other voices by a motive or rhythmic figure not related motivically to the melody itself. An exam ple tlf lhe rh ird type is BuxLehud e's cho rale prelude on Nun komm. der Heiden Heiland (compare Exa mple 10.1 b). The opening phrase. s hown in

Example 17.Sa. is decorated with passing and neighbor tones and wilh sho rt trills 1.hat rese mble French agrêments in so und a nel functio n. Each phrase is

OTHER INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC By th.e late seven tee nrh centu,y, German organists had assim ilated whar lhey could lcai-n l'ro m ltal ian and Prench modc ls, dcve lopcd a dis1inctive stylc of 1.heir own. anel establisbed Lhemselves as leade rs in organ compos ition. ln ot he r realms of inst rume ntal mus ic, lhe process of assimilation was st ill und e r way, thc ge nres practiced still large ly those of ltaly or Prancc. Th e French harpsichord style was carried to Gerrnany by Froberger, who helpe d to establis h thc aliem ande. couran tc. sarabandc, and giguc as standard co mponcnts of dance suites. Manuscript copies of Frobcrgcr·s suites c nd wi.tb the sarabande, a slow dance. ln a late r, posthumous pub lica tion of 1693, the ardei· was revised so that each suite ends wi.th a lively giguc. which had by then beco me the standard close for German suites. Ma ny German composers, includiug Buxtebude. J. S. Bach , anel Handel. wrote suites . lmpressecl by th e h igh standard s of performance in Lu lly's orchestra anel by the French musicaJ style he cultivatecl, many German mus icians sougln to introduce these traits into their own country. One result of this effort was a fashion in Germany between about 1690 and 1740 for a new type of orchestrnl suite. The dances of these su it.es, pauerned afrer chllse of Lully's hallets anel operas, did not appear in any s tandard numher or a rder. Among t.he early collections of orchestnl suites were two publications tilled Florilegium (1695 anel ! 698) by Geo rg Muffat, who pionee red in inlroducing Lully's style into Cermany as he had Co relli 's a decade ea rlie r. Muffat included an essay wirh musical cxam ples ahout thc Frencb systern of bowing. lhe playing of thc agré men tts, and si milar matte rs. AJthough Muffat, Buxtc hudc, anel othcr Ge rman co mposcrs took up thc tri o sonata , the solo so nata alt ractecl mo re inle rest. The solo violin sonata had always bccn the prim e vehicle for cx perimen ts in s pecial bowi ngs. mui· tipl e stops, anel ali kinds of difftcult passage work. Twelvc sonatas by Johann Jakob Walther (ca. 1650- 1717), published in 1676 under the title Scherzi. built on thc tradition of Biagia Marini but surpasscd ali othcrs in technical brilliance. The most famous German sonatas of tbe seventeenth century are Heinricb Bibe r·s Mystery (or Rosary) Sonatas for Violin (ca. 1675). which represent meditations on episodes in th e life of Christ. These works make consi derable use of scordau,ra. unusual mnings of rhe violin strings to facilútate the playi11g of pa rticular notes or ch ords. Biber was es teemed as a violi11 virtuoso as we!J as composer at the court of the archbishop of Salzburg. anel he probably composed aud playecl the sonatas as music for services at the Salzburg GatbedraJ, which centered each October on the Mysteries of the Rosary. Both Walther and Biber often interspersed rhapsodic move ments or toccata - like sections in their sona tas. and both wrote many of

Harpsichordsuite

Orchestra.lsrúte

Sonata

404

C ti A P T E li 17 • haly and Germany ln ,he Lalt Seven,eenth Cen,ury

FI GURE 17.12. Engraved ritle

pc,p;e of]ohan n. Kuhnau ·s F'rische Clavier F'rüchte, oder Sieben Suonaten. von guten lnvenlion und Manier aurrdem Claviel't: iu spielen (Prcslt Clavicr Frnits. or SevenSonatas. oJGoodlrwention and Manncr. lo bcplaycd un tl, e Clavier. leipiig. 1696). ln the middle wc sce a clavichord. thc preferred ins1t'1111ier1 tJor home perfonnance. Around il is an elaborate garland of gra,n. grapes. apples. peppers. and otherfruits of1hefield. i>ine. and garden.. Wustranngthe title.

their longer movements in the forro of a passacaglia or theme and variations, as in Biber·s Passacaglia forunaccompanied solo violin. Sevemeenth- century sonatas were strictly ensemble rnusic until Johanll Kuhnau (1660- 1722) transferred the genre to the keyboa rd in 1692. His Frische Clavier Früchte (Fresh Keyboard Fruits. 1696), a title apparently calculated to herald a new genre. consists of seven rnultitnovernent sonatas. The elahorate title page. shown irl Figure 17.12, was cle3J'ly des igned to catch lhe attention of the amateur keyboard player. His six ·'Biblical" sonatas (1700), bearing litles sucb as Saut's Madness G1ired by Music and The Combat Between. David an.d Go!iath. represem sto ries from the Old Teslament cleverly and sometimes humorously told in mus ic.

T HE GERMAN SYNTHESIS Germans had imporled musical fashions from France sincc troubadour so ngs and l'rom ltaly since the sixteenth- cenl1.1ry madrigals, eac h lime remaking the foreign style to suit loca l tastes. ln the seventeentb century, this trend continued with lhe adopted gea res of opera, polychoral and conccrtcd chu rch mus ic, toccata. suite, and sonata. As they mastered the styles and genres of other nations and added elements from their own traditions , composers in German -speaking lands laid i:he foundations for the extraorclinar_i• developments of the eighteenth century. when German and Austrian cornposers would play key roles in developing lhe sonarn and concerto as vehicles for advanced musical rhought and in forging a new internarional musical language.

Seeds for th• Futuro

couns ali over ltaly anel Germany sponsored lrnlian opera. which continued to be the most prestigious musical genre throughout the eighteenth century. The da capo a ria became a convention for operas anel other vocal works anel lasteel for almost a century. The trio sonata. solo violin sonata. and concerto. ali originated by ltalians. became the Jeading genres of ensemble music in both

nations through the mid-eighteenth century. German composers also emulated Frencb s Lyles in vocal music and in suites for keyboard or orchestra. By lhe clos ing clecades of the centw·y. Lulheran organist-composers had s urpassed their Ttalian and Prench colleagues, perhaps the ftrst time that Cermany lecl other nalions in any l'ield of music. It would not be the lasl: German musicians in 1he eighteenth centurywou ld make a vir1ue of Lhe ir eclecticism and grad ually outshinc thc ir ltalian counlcrpa,·ts in lhe increasingly irnpo rtant gc nrcs of instrwnenlal music. This half-ce ntu ry also saw other clevclopments of e nduring s ignifica nce. TonaJity as exempliiicd in Corelli'ssonatas proved of gr·cat importance formusic ever since. Amongother things, the clearelirection and predíctable expectalions charactcristic of tonal mus ic mad e possib le more complcx barmonic structures and tbus longer forms. Thc sonata anel thc concerto wcre the ftrst multimovement instrnmental genres not based on stringing together smaller pieces, as in a sui te of dances. By engaging the listener's intercsr for a re lativc ly long time without the support of a text, these forms paved the way for the concert works of !ater centuries, designed to be listened to with complete attention. Many pieces frorn this time were written for speciftc occasions. for local use ais enterlainrnent, or for chtU'Ch services, and usually received at rnost a few performances. These circumstances were especially true for vocal music, whic!h was fueled by a constant demand for new operas. cantatas. and clrnrch music in preference to the old. Instrumental music had a somewhat longer life. The sonatas and concertos of Corelli continued to be played throughou t the eighteenth centu1y and influenced many cornposers. including Handel. German organists cont inued to play rnusic of Buxtehude and hjs contemporaries for some time. and younger composers like J. S. Bach emu lated thei r prcdeccssors. Bul by lhe cnd of thc cightcenth ccntu,y. evcn Corelli was rare ly heard. ln the second haH of lhe nine l.eenlh ce ntury. lhe respecl Bach and Handel showed their la1e -seventeenth-century fo rebea rs aroused rhe inle rcsl o f musicians and scholars, lead ing to pe rformances and edilions of the music of Core lli , Buxtehude. and othe rs from their era. Since the ea rly twcntict h ccntu1y, Corclli's sonatas and co ncertos havc found a permancnt place in the repertoire, and rnusic of the North Germao organists is frequently playcd. Othcr latc -scven tccnth - ccntury mu sic rcmains lcss familiar than th e musi.c of tbe eighteenth or even the six:teenth century but is graclually fi.ndiug a wider audience as it becomes available in good editions and recordings. ~ Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

Seeds for the Future ln the second half of lhe seventeenlh centu ry. Italian music reached new heights. and German ic composers began to come inlo t.heir own. Cities and

405

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ith few exceptions. the standard concert repertoire begins in the early eighteenth century with Vivaldi, Bach. and Handel. Yet there was no major change around 1700 to mark a new style, as there had been at 1300. 1400, and 1600. Rather, the new generation that reached maturity then was marked by consolidation, integrating and deveioping ideas and trends introduced over the previous century. ln stylistic terms. it is customary to divide the eighteenth century at 1750, regarding the first half as the late Baroque period and the second half as the Classic period, culminating in the music of Haydn and Mozart. But looked at in another way, the eighteenth century can be regarded as a period in its own right. marked not by consistency in style but by winds of change. Reading the music journals and composers' writings, one comes to see the 1700s as a century-long argument about what is most valuable in music-a contest between musical tastes. Elements of what would become the Classical style were already presentar the start of the century, and echoes of Baroque styles were still heard at the end. However we view it. this century was one of the most remarkable times in the history of music. Musicians cultivated many new genres, induding keyboard concerto, opera buffa. ballad opera, symphony, and string quartet. and developed new forms such as sonata form and rondo. From Vivaldi's concertos. Bach's íugues. and Handel's oratorios through Haydn's string quarteis and symphonies and Mozart's piano sonat<1s and operas. composers of the era created exemplary works that defined their genres and today lie at the heart of the classical repertoire,

91!1

T P;:ir

Ot l1ne

18 THE EARLY EIGHT EENTH CEN TURY IN ITALY AND FRANCE 408

19 GERMAN COMPOSERS OFTHE LATE BAROQUE 432

20 MUSICAL TASTE AND STYLE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT 462 21 OPERA AND VOCAL MUSIC IN THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD 477

22 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC SONATA, SYMPHONY, AND CONCERTO 499 23 CLASSIC MUSIC IN THE LAT E EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 519

Europe in a Century of Change

409

Europe in a Century of Change ln política! and social terms. as in music, the eighteenth centmy moveel from continuiry with 1he past, through new curren1s. to radical change, cuJmi-

Realignment and revolution

nating in revolutions at the end. Wben tbe century began. a balance of power C H APT E R

THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURYIN ITALY AND FRANCE Composcrs around 1700 wc rc no t invcnting ncw lechniques, styles, and genres at the pace of the ir prcdeccsso rs a ccntury earli cr. Rather, they continued and extended well -established traditions, a nd took for granted the approaches and mater iais developed during the seventeenth century: the doctrine of the affections, basso continuo. the concertato medium. tonality. anel the genres of opera, cantata, concerto, sonata, and suite. Influential and original composers of the early eighteenth centwy such as Vivaldi. Couperi o. Rameau. Telemaon. J. S. Bach. a.ncl Handel cstablished ind ividual styles by combin ing elements from seve11teenlh-cenlury trad it.ions in new ways. ll is f1lling thal we focus on Lhem and on the pa trons, institutions, tastes, and values that shaped thcir music, treating each composc r's stOt)' as a case study of musica l life at the time. Th is chapter will discuss Viva ldi. Coupe rin , and Rameau, representatives of lta ly and France, still the leading musical nations at the elawn of the eighteenth century. ln the following chapter, we wi ll tum to Telcmann, Bach, and Handel, typica l of Cerman- speaki.ng musicians in their synthesis of elements from severa! national t raditions. As we will see in chapters 20-22. even while these composers were at the peak of their careers, currems were beginning that would lead in new directions, making this the last generation of Ba:roque composers.

was emerging in Eu rope among severa) strong centralized states. each supported hy a professional rnilita t)' and goverrunent bu1·eaucracy. France had lhe biggest army, but Louis XIV's lavish spencling on wars ab road anel spectacles at home was elepleting the treasury, and his expans ioo ist amhit ions were checked by OLher na1ions. Britain, formed by the union of Englanel and Scotland in 1707, had the most powerfu l 11ary anel used i1 to wrcst lnd ia, Canada. a.nd severa! Caribbean islands from Fraoce during lhe Seveo Years' War (known in Ame rica as the French and lndian War, 1756- 63). Having won back Hun gary from the Turks in the late seventeenth ccntut)', Austria- now the AustroHungarian Ernpire- was increasing its influence, reflected by lhe emergence in thc late e ightcenth century of its capital Vicn na as thc lcad ing musical city io Europc. A oew power cmcrgeel when Prussia bccamc a kingdom .io 170 1 anel developeel one of the Continent's largest and bes1 - traineel armies. Late in th e centuJ)', Polaud- where the nobles hael rcsisted consolidation of powcr under the kiog- fell victim to the centralizeel states around it; Prussia, Russia, and Austria divided Poland's territories an1O11g themselves and eraseel it from the map forovera century. Bythen, theArnerican Revo lution (1775-83) and the Frencb Revolution () 789) were bringing winds of change that woulel remake lhe political culture of Europe anel the.Americas. The populationof Europe expaneleel rapielly. especially after 1750. The uew mounhs were fed by a growing food supply maele possible through improved agricu ltura! methods, such as crop rotation and intensive rnanuring, and new crops like the potato. introduced from the New World. Roads were gradu ally improved. making travei faster and more comfortable: a hund red-mile trip that took ftfty hou rs in 1700 (four days with stops fo r refreshmen t anel slcep) took ooly sixtccn hours io 1800. As a rcsuJt. intcrcity postal service became more efftcienl. and less expensive. Traele increased, both wilh in Eu rope and with As ia and the NewWorld. As rnanufactu ri ngand trade beca me more lucra tive, 1.he urban rniddle class grc,v in sizc a11d ccooorn ic elo ui, wh ilc the la nded ar istocracy bccarne less imporlant, though they still occupied the top of thc social laddcr. As thc continent bccarnc more urbanizcd , natu rc was increasingly idealized. The aristocracy's nostalgia for ru ral life was perfcctly capturcd in pa in tings by Jean -Antoine Wattcau (1684- 1721), such as Emba,rkation for Cythera i n Figure 18.1. Pastoral themes wcre also prominent in musical works , from Scarlatti's cantatas (see NA\Vll! 92) anel Viva ldi's concertos The Four Seasons near the beginniug of the century to Gluck's opera O,feo ed Eurídice (NAW~! l l O) anel Haycln·s oratorio TheSeasor1s oear its encl. Many new schools were foundeel, both for the governmental elite- teaching tbe traditional Greek anel Latin- anel for the mieldle classes. providing more pracrical education. Frederick the Great of Prussia (r. 1740- 86) and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (r. 1740-80) sougbt to requ ire prima1r school for every child. although they were ooly partially successful. By 1800. half Lhe male

Economic expansion

Education andleaming

410

C ti A P T E li 18

• The Early Eíght..nth Century ín ltaly and France

Music in ltaly

composers were expected to furuish new pieces for almost every occasion. Such unceasiug pressure accounts for the vast output of many eighteenth· century composers and the phenomenal speed at which they worked. The demand for new music also helps lo explain the changing fashions in musical style. The eighteenth century is often divided becween Baroque and

Changing styles

Classic styles. but the two overlapped in time. as we will see in the next sev· era) chapters. Indeed. the hislory of this century's music can be seen as a long argumem about tas te and s1.yle, often liLerally ar1,'tled in newspapers, jow·nals. salorns, and coffeehouses. Changcs in aud iences an d venues foi· mus ic across the centu ry contributed lo the development of new slyles. whicb in turn inspired debates becween pa r1 isans of ··new" a nd ·'old" sty les. Discussions abou t tasle we rc oft.c n proxies for 01 hcr issucs, such as class; foi- cxamplc, sup porters of aristocralic values promoled music that was sim pie. witty. and expressive a nd criticized music p refe rred by the middl e class fo r what they regarded as bad taste, excessive complexity, or empty show.

FIGURE 18.1: Jean-An toine 1Vat1eo11's Emba,·kaiivn forCythe ra (J717),vuso11cofthe most Jomo11s paintings of1he eigh t,eenth centurr, The selling Í$ in an irnagi nedArcacüa n paradise ofnattire populated by- winged ir,j'aflts (per'lwps cupids orangels) Md ,nuscular boatmen. on tlie 141. On the right. nearerthe viewer. ore several amorous couplcs infas/1· ionab/.e. modem. courllrd.ress. Natttre Í$ depic1ed by IVaueau as a 1hea1erfor lei,mre and pleast1re. far from the constrai.n.ts of urban. societr. bu, equa.Urfar from 1he realitr of rural lifefor th~ poorpeasant.s who made up most of the population of France. (Mush uo 1A)uv• r.. l'A.RlS, l'HOTO: i!Klt;H Ll?SSIN(;/ AJl:r KtSôUII.CC. NY)

Dema,ndj'or new music

population of England and France was literate. and women. usually taught at home, were calching up. Daily newspape rs bega n publ ishing in Londo n in l 702 and quickly sp read to other cit ies. From chcap paperbacks to lcather· bound tomes, mo re and more boo ks we re pub lished, purchased. read, and passed around. Novels beca mel he most popu lar form oi' literalure, including Daniel Dcf'oe's RobiMon Crusoe (17 19) and Henry Fielding·s Tom}ones (1749). At public coffeehouses, meetings oflearned societies. and salons, gatherings in private homcs hosted bywell· to -do women. pcop lc avidly discusscd current events, ideas, literature, and music. Amid this broadenü1g incerest in learn· ing, thinkers such as Voltaire (1694-1778) sought to analyze social and politi· cal issues th rough reason and science. spreading the intell ectual movemc nt known as the Enlightenment (discussed in chapter 20). ln London, Paris, aud other large cities. support from the middle class becarne increasingly important for musicians and composers. The growth of lhe midd.le class and tbe broadening oí education meam that more and more people were interested in heal'ing and playing music. buying music to perform. and attending concerts. which resulted in expanding markets for printed music and instrumems and growing opponunities for musicians as teachers and perfo rmers. The public constantly demanded new music. Pew works of any kind were performed for more than two or three seasons. and

Music in ltaly ln ltaly, opera remained the most prestigious- and most expe11sive- type of music. but instrumental music. especially the concerto, was ga ining grou11d. Principal centers for music included Naples. Rorne. and Venice. which were lhe capilals of che mosc powerful states 011 the península and thercfore were the most fashionable cities, had the wealthiest patrons and most developed musical life. and attracted the most renowned and original composers.

NAPLES Soulhern llaly, a Spanish possession since the early sixteenlh cenlury, carne under Aust rian cont rol in 1707, then in 1734 became an indcpendenl kingdom ruled by lhe so11 of thc Spanish king. [ts ca pital Na pies bad foul' co11s,irva.to ries, homes fo r orp haned anel poo r boys, lhat specialized in teaching musi.c. Over thc years, musical instruction gradua lly became as important as lhe o riginal charitable purpose, anel lhe conservalories took on pay ing stu· dc nts as wc ll. Thcir pupils madc musical carccrs JII ovcr Eu ropc. he lping to sprcad ltal.ian opera and ltalia n instn,mental music across the Conti nent. Most conservatory students were singers, many of them cash·ati. By the late seven teenth century. the leading male roles in operas were almost always written for castrati, whose increased Jung capaciry made them ideal soloists and whose powerful. agile voices were much prized. Although most castrati remained church musicians. hundreds sang ou opera stages across Europe. A íew became interna lional superstars aud commanded h uge fees. includ.ing Cario Broschi (1705-1782), known as Fal'inelli, who was raised and trained in Naples (see Music in Context: The Voice of Farinelli and Figure 18.2-. p. 412). Ope ra was at the cente r oí Neapolitan musical liíe. thanks to Lhe suppo n of its rulers and other patrons. Alessandro Scarlatti, who wrote one or more operas almost every year. was its leading composer. \Vhile new types of comie

Consetvatories

Castrati

Opera

411

412

C ti A P T E li 1 8

• The Early Eíght..nth Century ín ltaly and France

Antonio Vivaldi

ROME Opera was less central in Rome becaiise of support for other genres and occasional papal strictures against the secular genre of opera. Rich patrons regularly sponsored academies, where thei r musicians per formed canta tas, THE VOICE OF FARINELLI The castrato voice resulted from the sarne impulse that motivates today's athletes to take hormones and steroids, the desire to control and manipulate nature in order to enhance a performer's abilities. The ever increasing demand by opera audiences for virtuosic superstars and the rise of certain castrato soloists to fame and fortune in turn stimulated the production of castrati throughout ltaly. especially among poor íamilies who saw it as a possible way of improving their miserable circumstances. However. although thousands aspired to stardom, only a few ever achieved the fame oí a Farinelli, whose career took him from triumph to triumph in all the operatic capitais of Europe. He was legendary for his vocal range, spanning more than three octaves. and for his breath con· trol. which enabled him to sustain a note for a full minute before having to inhale. Such capacities allowed him to execute the most rapid and diffi. cult passagework and most engaging embellish ments, winning him acclamation from audiences. The painting in Figure 18.2 depicts Farinelli as he appeared in 1734 . the year of his debut in London with the Opera of the Nobility-the company that rivalled Handel's own (see pp. 45355)-led by Nicola Porpora. who had been Farinelli's teacher in Naples. The portrait gives us a good idea of the physical characteristics thatwere typical of castrati: somewhat effeminate facial features. including a smallish head and a smooth pale skin with no beard, a large chest, well rounded hips. and narrow shoulders. Contemporary writers also commented on castrati's fairly tall srature, which was unusual in the eighteenth cen -

serenatas. sonatas. and concertos. The suppon of wealthy pacrons attractcd tury. and their tendency for obesity. ln addition to illustrating these general characteristics. the portrai t presents Farinelli, the singular virtuoso, as a commanding presence, exquisitely outfitted in brocade. fur-trimmed velvet. and lace. his right hand resting on a harpsichord as if acknowledging what must have been the principal tool of his training. We may assume from his authoritative. even arrogant, pose that he had already reached the height of his powers. ln fact. he retired from the stage only three years later. at age thirty-two. having been invited to Madrid. where he spent the next two decades in the service of Spanish kings.-BRH

insLrumentalists from ali over Italy and Germany. making Rome a Lraining grou n d for performers. Among chem wer e violin virtuosos Prancesco Gemi niani (1687- 1762) and Pic11·0 Locatclli (1695- 1764). who carne to R.o mc in their leens, absorbed lhe Corelli tradition of performance and composition, and then made thei r careers in London and Amsterdam respect ive ly, deepen ing t.lhc a lrcady st rong i mpacl of Co i·clli's stylc on norl hcrn Europc.

VENICE At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Venice was declini_ng in polilica I and economic powcr but rema in ed t he most glamorous city in Europe. Trnvelers attracted to its colorful, e1n1bera11t life returned home full of stories about the city and its music and often carried some of that music with them. thus spreading its influence across Europe from England to Russia. ln Venice. musicians sang on tbe streets and canaJs; gondoliers had their owu repertory of songs; amateurs played anel sang in private academies; and opera impre· sario s competed for the best singers anel composers. Public festival s, more numerous in Venice than elsewhere, remained occasio ns of musical sp lendor. The city had long taken pride in its chur ch music. chamber music. and opera. ln lhe eighteenth centu_ry. Venice never had íewer than six opera compan ies. which wgether played thirty-four weeks of dJe year. Berween 1700 and 1750, t he Ve netian public heard an aver age of ten new operas annually. and the count was even higher in the second half of the centu ry .

Antonio Vivaldi

forinelli. themostfamou$and tuidely admired of1/i~ castraio singers. in. a porirait bJ· Bariolomeo Nazari.from 1734. (noY•1.co1.tr.c, o, FIGURE18.2:

>.11)$IC/ KFUl)CtMA~ A 211' l.I$1\AKY)

opera. sung in lhe Neapolitan dialect. gained popularity and inspired imi· tators across Ew'ope (see chapter 2 1). a new kind of serious ILalian opera also emerged in t he 1720s, codined by the librettist Pietro Metastasio (16981782). Bolh comic and serious opera of lhe time conti nued standal'd pra elices of Baroque opera. aJternating recita tives and da capo a rias .

Thc best - known ltali an composer of the early eighteenth ccnturywasAnton io Vivaldi ( 1678- 174 1) , wbo was born and spcn t most of his career in Venice (see biography and Figure 18.3, p. 414). A virtuoso violinist, master teacher, and rcnowued composer of opera. cal1tatas. anel sacred music, heis k:nown today primarily for bis concertos, which number around nve hundred. Vivaldi's main position from 1703 to 1740 was as teacher, composer. con· ductor. aud superiutendent of musical instruments at the Pio 0spedale della Pietà.. The Pietâ was one of four "hospitals'' ln Venice. homes for orphaned. ülegitimate , or poor boys and girls, which were run like restrictive boarding schools and provided excelleut instruction in music to those girls who showed talem. These instirulions paralleled lhe Na pies conservatories. excep t that careers as instnnnenta lists or church musicians wer e not open to women, and before lhe girls were allowed to leave they bad to agree never to perform in puhlic. Educating lhe girls in music served other purposes: to occupy their

The Pietà

413

414

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• The Early Eíght..nth Century ín ltaly and France

Antonio Vivaldi

415

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741)

Vivaldi was one of the most original and prolific cornposers of his time, and his influence on later cornposers was profound. Born in Venice, the eldest of nine children of a violinist at St. Mark's, Vivaldi traíned for both rnusic and the priesthood, a cornbination that was not unusual at the time. Due to hís red hair, he was known as il prete rosso (the red priest). ln 1703, the year he was ordained. he becarne rnaster of violin at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, a horne for poor or orphaned children. He was later appointed rnaster of the concerts. a position of greater responsibility, and he rernained at the Pietà until 1740, with sorne breaks in service. Like rnost of his conternporaries, Vivaldicornposed every work for a definite occasion and for particular perforrners. For the Pietà. he cornposed oratorios. sacred rnusic. and especially concertos. He also fulfilled forty-nine opera cornrnissions, rnost for Venice and a few for Florence, Ferrara, Verona, Rorne, Vienna, and elsewhere. Between 1713 and 1719. the theaters of Venice staged more worh of his than of any other cornposer. He usually supervised the production of his operas in person, and was often absent frorn the Pietà for long periods. During a two-year sojourn in Rorne (1723-24), he was asked by the Pietà's governors to cornpose two new concertos a rnonth for a fee, which he díd for the next six years: this arrangement is one of the most direct signs of Vivaldi's value to thern as a cornposer. distínct frorn his roles as teacher and perforrner. He also wrote sonatas and concertos on cornmission and for publication.

FIGURE 18.3,

Antonio Vivaldi. in an engravingby François Morellon La Cave from around 1725. (ftllTl'MANN,co••rs>

18.4: Fema/e singers and slringplayers (upper/.eft). thot,ght to befrom lhe Pio Ospedale delta Pietà. give a concert in Venicehonorirtg Arcliduke Pau! and Ma,y Fedorov of Ru.ssia. Painting oy Francesco Guard, (1712- 1793). (ALH 1•1•A•oru2,uorn.uooe,a•rnoe>tAS FIGURE

AR1' LlfU\Alt'()

ln the 1720s, Vivaldi rook rhe contralto Anna Giro as his singing pupil (and, some gossiped. his rnistress, although he denied it). ln 1737, he was censured for conduct unbecorning a priest. By then his popularity with the Venetian public had sunk. and he increasingly sought cornrnissions elsewhere, traveling to Arnsterdarn in 1738 and Vienna in 1740. He earned enormous surns of money frorn his rnusic. but spent alrnost ali of it, and when he died in Vienna in 1741, he was given a pauper's funeral. MAJOR WORKS: About SOO concertos {includíng

The Four Seo•on,), 16 sinfonias, 64 solo sonatas. 27 trio sonatas. 21 survlvlng operas, 38 cantatas. and about 60 sacred vocal works

Lime: to make them mol'e desú:ahle as prospects for marriage or prepare them for couvent life; and to earn donatio11s for the hospitals through regular performances. sucb as lhe concert pictured in Figure 18.4. Services witb music attbe Pielà and other places of worship i.n Ven.ice allracted large audiences. and travelers wrote of these occasions wi th enthusiasm (see Source Reading, p. 416). Vivaldi's position required him to maintain lhe string instruments. teacb his slude nls to play, and constantly compose new rnusic for lhem lo perforrn.

He wrote oratorios and music for Mass and Vespers. including lhe well -kuown Gloria in D major. but most of his works for the Pietà were instrumental. primarily conce rtos for church festivais. Concertos wete un iquely well suited for players of varying ahilities beca use the best perfonners could show off their skill in lhe solo parts, while 1.hose oflesse rab ilityco uld play in lhe o rchestra.

VIVALDl'S CONCERTOS Vivaldi's concertos have a freshness of melody, rhytbmic verve, skill ful 1Teat ment of solo and orcbestral color, and clarily of form that have madc them pcrennial fovoritcs. Working at the Pictà. having skillcd pcrformers at his disposal, and being required to produce music at a prodigious rate provided Vivaldi with a workshop for ex-perimenting wi1b lhe concerto. The secret of Vivaldi's success. and of the profound influence he exercised on mher composers, was a simple bm Jlexible recipe that allowed him to achieve ex-traordinary variety through ever changing combinations of a few basic elements. Vivaldi achieved a remarkable range of colors and sonorilies tbrough different groupings of solo and orchestral instruments. His orchestra at the Pietã. probably consisted of lwenty to twenty-nve string instruments. with harpsichord or organ for lhe conlinuo. The strings were div ided in what was becomingt.he standard arrangement of violins I and 11, violas, cellos, and bass vio ls (usually doubling Lhe cellos). Tbis was always the core group. Lhougb in many concertos Vivaldi also called for tlules. oboes, bassoons. or horns. any

Instrumentation

416

C H A P T E K 18

• The Early Eight<enth Cen1u1y ln l1aly and France

417

An,onio Vivaldi

concertos like the A sectiou of a da capo aria. with a ritoruello at the begin ning, middle , and encl framing two long episodes for the soloist. Vivaldi's concertos expand on this pattern, producingwhat is now lmown as ,·it,omcllo form,. This is less a formal mold than it is an approach. or set of guidelines. 1.hat a llows a great deal of variety:

CONCERTS AT THE PIO OSPEDALE DELLA PIETÀ The Frenchman Charles de Brosses toured ltaly in 1739-40 and wrote his impressíMs in leuers to friends. later collected for publicat,on. Hls account of concerts at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà , where Vivald, had long overseen Instrumental music, gives us a sense of

the lnstltutlon and of the concerts performed by lts residents. De Brosses was rnistaken when he called them girls; most were young women. but some residents remained and performed al the Píetà most of theirlives.

A transcending music here is that of the hospitais

[orphanages). There are four. all made up of illegitimate or orphaned girls or girls whose parents are not in a condition to raise them. They are reared at public expense and trained solely to excel in music. So they sing like angels and play the violin. the flute. the organ. the violoncello. the bassoon. ln short no instrument is large enough to frighten them. They are cloistered in the manner of nuns.

Three -movement

structure

Ritomello fonn

They alone perform. and each concert is given by abour Forry girls. 1swear to you that rhere is nothing so charming as to see a young and pretty nun in her white robe. wirh a bouquet of pomegranate Aowers over her ear. leading the orchestra and beating time with all the grace and precision imaginable. Their voices are adorable for their quality and lightness. because here they don't know about roundn ess ora sound drawn out like a thread in the French manner. The hospital I go to most often is that of the Piet~. where one is best entertained. lt is also first for the perfection of the instrumental pieces. What a precise performance! lt is only there that you hear the first stroke of the bow (the first chord of a piece attacked as one by the strings] of which the Opéra in Paris falsely boasts. Charles de Brosses. L'ltalie li y a cent ans ou Lettres lcT1tes d '/ralie ~ quelques am,s en 1739 et 1740. ed. M. R. Colomb, vol. 1 (Paris Alphonse Levovosseur, 1836), 213-14.

of which might be used as solo instrnmenls or in the ensemh le. He also used specia l co lorist iceffects, like pizzicato and muled strings. Ahout 350 of Vivaldi's concertos are for orchestra with one solo instru ment- ove r two- thirds of them for· violin, but many also for bassoon, cello, oboc, ílute, vio la d'amorc, recorder. orman dol in. The concertos fortwo violins give thesoloists equal prominence, producingthe texture of a duet fortwo high voices. The conceitos that call for severa! so lo instruments are no! conce1t i grossi like Core lli's, in wh ich the orcbestra serves to doub le and reinforce the concertino of rwo violins and cello; rather, 1hey fearnre the same opposilion between virtuoso soloists and orchestra as in Vivaldi's solo concertos. There are also about sixty orchestral concertos (without solo instruments). \Vith occasional exceptions. Vivaldi followed lhe lhree - movemenl plan introduced by Albinotti: an opening fast movement; a slow movement in the sarne or closely related key (relative minor or major. dominant. or subdominant): anel a Jinal fast movement in Lhe tonic. often shoner and sprighLlier lhan the lirst. By using this format so co11sistently and creatively, Vivaldi he lped to establish it as lhe standard for concertos o ver the next three centuries. \Ve saw in chapler 17 that Torelli structu red IJ1e fast movements of his

• Ritornellos for the full orchestra alternate with episodes for lhe solo is t or soloists. • The opening ritoruello is composed of severa! small units. typica lly two to four measures in length. some ofwhich may be repearnd or varied. These segments can be separated from each other or combined in new ways without losing their identity as the ritornello. • La ter stacements of the ritornello are usua.lly partia!, comprising only one or some of lhe units, sometimes varied. • The ri1ornellos are gu ideposts to the tona l structu re of the mus ic, con f, rm i ng the keys to which lh e music modufates. The f1 rsl anel last statern ents are in the tonic: al least one ( usually the lirst to be in a new key) is in the dominant; and othe rs may be in closc ly rc latcd kcys. • The so lo episodes are cha.racterized by virtuosic. idiomatic playing. sometimes repeatingor vaiying elements from lhe ritornello, but often presenting scales, arpegbriations, or othcr ftgu ra tion . Many episodes modula te to a ncw kcy. which is thcn conf1rmcd by thc following ritornello. Sometimes lhe so loist inlerrupts or plays so me part o f lhe clos ing ritornello. AJI these poi nts are illustrated by the two fasLmovements in Vivaldi 's Concerto for Violi n anel 0 rches tra in A Mi11or, 0p. 3, No . 6 (NAW1i 96), whose forms are dia&'l·ammed i n Figure 18.5 (see p. 419). Example 18.l shows lhe open ing ritorne llo o f lhe tirsl movemen t. Each of the segme nls, dc noted by letter. has a s trongly etched, indiv idual character 1ha1 makes it easy to remembcr. Each is a sepa ra te harmonic unit. cnahlingVivaldi lo sepa ra te and recombine the segments la te r on. ln both movements, la ter stale ments of the rito rnc ll o are onlypartial, and some vary motives from the origin al ri1orncllo, as do some of the solo episod es. 0ne ritomello in the ímale even changes kcys. which in most movcments o nly happcns during ep isod es. Ncw ftgura tions are introclucccl in the ep isodes, as shown in Example 18.2, provid ing even more variery within a clearly und erstood strncture. These solo passages often cxploit thc open strings of thc violin (tuncd g-d' - a' - e") to facilitate rapici passagework, as in Examples 18.2a and d , or impressive leaps, as in Example 18.2c, where the bottom note in each downward leap is played on an open string. Typical ofVivaldi. the alternation between tutti and solo does no1s10p when the music rernrns 10 the wnicneartheend of che movemem: in the fust movement, further episodes appear between successive units of the ritomello. and in the fmale. the orchestra and soloist alternate in presenting segmems of the final ritornello. The result in each case is a movement unique in for m , yet the overall strategy is cleal'ly the same. Par from following a textbook plan. Vivald i's ri tornello structures show almosl inírnil.e variety in form and content.

Conciso "'-

[Fu11 ~

418

C H A P T E K 18

• The Early Eight<enth Cen1u1y ln l1aly and France

EXAMPLE 18.1,

Opening riwmello ofVtva/.di's Concerto inA Mir1or. Op. 3. No. 6.first movement

Solo Violin

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Violins

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li ~

( j')

......

Ccllos. Basses

and Continuo

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.,.

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./1.

li-

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.... -

Slow movements

Economy and variety

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.. 6

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H-

modroC

C•

DEF'

F'. n ew

mod

,.e

Rot

Epi

R11 (woth solos)

AAC'F'MC

new

AI\C•DEF"

new

çnd of P''

109

115

138

143

e.e,.

FIGURE 18.5, Riromellofarms in VivaldiºsCancertoinA Minar. Op. 3. No. 6.

was that ritornello form allowed bim 10 spin out relatively long movements froni a small amount of material that he repeared. transposed. varied. and recombined. ln both fast and slow movements. he frequentlyusecl sequences. genera ting several measures from a short motive while dramaüzing a strong chord progression, as in the second segment (B) of Example 18.1 , built on a progression around the circle of nfths. Despite his reliance on formulas. what is rnost s triking about Vivaldi's concertos is their variety and range of expressio n. His works were known for

---==

AIIABCDEF AB'. n ew

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THIRD MOVEMENT

b...

. ;

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•J

L---'

1-J-J--'

.. ..

Ç'

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. .,.

Violas

.,.

FIRST MOVEMENT

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ro.i

419

An,onio Vivaldi

*- r

Solo

EXAMPLE 18.2,

./1.

.,. ./1.

•·

e ,-

i-,

Vivaldi was the ürst concerto composer to make the slow movement as important as the fast ones. His slow movement is typically a long· breathed, expressive. cantabiJe melody, like an adagio operatic aria or arioso, to whose already rich f1guralion Lhe performer was expected LO add embellishments. Some slow movements are througb-composed , and others use a simplilied ritornello or two - part form. The slow movement in Op. 3. No. 6 (NA\VM 96b) is unus ual i11 that the bass instrumen ts and contínuo are sileo1. and the solois1 is accompa nied on ly by the upper s1ri ngs playing sustained tones. Vivaldi once claimed he could compose a concerto faster than a copyisl could wrüe oul the score and paris. One reason he co uld compose rapidly

.first mo11eme11t

Exo.mples offiguro.tion insolo episodes of Viva.ld(s Concerto inA Minor. Op. 3, No. 6,

420

C ti A P T E 11 1 8

• The Early Eíght..nth Century ín ltaly and France

Antonio Vivaldi

421

their spon taneity of musical ideas; clear formal structures; assureel barmo nies; varied textures; anel forcefu1 rhytbms. He established a dramatic tension between solo anel tutti, not only giving the soloist contr asting figuration, as Torelli had already done. but also letting lhe so loist stand out as a musical per sonaliry.

PERFORMING VIVALDI Although they can be (and often are) played on modem instruments, Vivaldi's concertos were ideally suited to the instruments, bows, and playing style of the time. String instruments were strung with gut strings. which give a more mel low and less penetrating sound than modem wire strings. As shown in Figure 18.6, the Baroque bow was somewhat shorter than those of today and curved slightly away from the bowhairs instead of toward them , producing less tension on the hairs that touch the strings. As a result the Baroque bow was quick to respond, producing a less forcefui sound but allowing greater agility. Using such a bow, the solo and orchestral string players of Vivaldi's time could cleanly articulate each note with a separate bowstroke without taking the hair off the string. because the lesser tension on the bowhairs let the string sound soften and stop momentarily each time the bow changed directions. This nonlegato style of playing allows a light and clear sound and a variety of instrumental color that can be emulated by today's performers. whether using modem instruments and bows or reconstructions of historical ones. ln addition , performers of the time emphasized the downbeat and other strong beats of each measure, keeping the meter clear and the momentum driving forward. The pas-

1·-

Vivaldi composed many of his concertos for the Pietà. where they served sages in Examples 18.1 and 18.2c sparkle with bril liance when played with such clear articulation; a modem legato style of playing with more equal emphasis on each note is heavy and unvaried by contrast. The slurs in Example 18.2a, b, and d indicate that the notes under each slur are to be played in a single stroke of the bow. Using that more legato playing style groups the notes into a single gesture, and the Baroque bow automatically gives them a rounding decrescendo. The result can be energetic in fast passages like these. as each group bounces off the higher notes played on the main beats, yet supremely lyrical in slow movements. Another difference in performance style is that vibrato was used only as an ornament in the eighteenth century, and most tones were played without vibrato. Modern string performers tend to play with constant vibrato. which took hold in the 1930s at least in part because it sounded bet· ter on recordings of that era. While Vivaldi's concertos can be convincingly performed on modern instruments. it is no surprise that they sound especially Íresh, dynamic, and compelling when played on the instruments he knew. with rhe bows he used and rhe playing style he taught.

-1

FIGURE 18.6, Comparison of a lote-seventeenth Boroque violin bow (top) crnd a. modern bow (bottom), basedon o design by François To,.rte from ca. 1785. The ccirve of rhe Boroque bow resi,lts in less tension on the bow hairs. anel, the shorterlength makes it lightercrnd more agile. The modem bow shown here. modeled afrer Dominique Peccaue from the 111 id-ninereenrh cenr ury. allows 1/i eperformer a.combino tion offluibility and strength. suitable for a wide range ofslyli$1ic responses. <coo•usr o,.,..,,. tN MA1w1~-• rsroRtCAc oows>

as the ideal combi nation of two roles: as exciti ng concert music to engage l is1eners and as teaching pieces fo r his s tud ents. wi th ílashy so lois1 ic wor k to cha llenge Lhe bcsl players, rapid orchestral passages Lo develop conl rol, and l ess difócull inner parts . a1J perfeclly crafted to cultivate the playing style of Lhe 1ime (see ln Performance: Per form ingVivald i) . But he also wrote on comrn ission anel ca rn eel m oney from pu blicalions. Through elisti·ibu tion in prLnted collectíons and i n manuscripL copies. Vivaldi's concer tos became lre me ndously popular across Eu rope. hea rd at private and pub lic concerts anel p layed by amateurs for their own plcasu rc . Nine co l lectio ns of' his concertos (Opp. 3- 4 and Opp. 6- 12) wer e published in Amsterdam, the last seven appa r cn t ly pri ntcd at t hc publish cr 's cxpcnsc instcacl of bein g subsiel izcd by thc composc r o r a patron as was common; this shows Vivaldi's vaJuc to his pub lisher and r eflects the immense popularity of his concertos, especialJy in northern Eu ropc. Scvera l of thcse coll cct io ns were given fonciful t itles. in pari to attract buyers: Op. 3, L'es1ro armoni,co (Harmonic lnspiration, 1711); Op. 4, La stravaganza (Extravagance. 1716); Op. 8, ll cimento delt'armonia e del!'inventi.one (Th e Test of Harmony anel lnvention, 1725): and Op. 9, La ceira (The Kitharn, 1727), evoking ancient Greece. Some individual concertos were also given titles and even p r ograms. Most famous are the nrst fou r concer tos in Op. 8. lmown as The FourSeasons. Each ofthese is accompanied by a sonnec. perhaps wriuen by Vivald i himself. thac describes the season. and the concertos cleverly depict rhe images in the poetry, taking advantage of the variety possihle in ritornello forrns.

Publications. ritles. and programs

VIVALDI'$ POSITION ANO INFLUENCE Vivaldi's music reílects lhe stylislic changes of 1J1e Ftrsl. half of the eightee nt h cenrury. At the co nservative extr eme a re his lrio and so lo sonatas, which cmulale che style of Corelli , anel h is cantatas and se renatas, which resemble those of Scarlatti. Most of his concertos werc part of t he styl istic ma instrea m , rcsponding to and o~en crea1 ing contcmpora ry trc nel s. Hi s operas rcfl cct.cel the conventions anel tr ends of his time, hui their rhythmic vitalil.y, thematic invention, anel in d ivid ual stylc gavc them wide appeal. carning him com missioos from Rome to Prague. His sacred music was inlluenced by curr ent operatic styles and by his concertos; his Beatus vir for chorus and orchestra is in ritornello form with vocal soloists in the episodes, and his Gloria in D featu r es severa! movements whose instnnnental ritorneUos sound like t hose of a concerto, interspersed with standard axias and chora! fugues. A1 the pro gressive extreme are the solo concerto fma les, the orchestraJ con certos. and mos1 of Lhe sixteen sinfo nias- works that escablish Vivaldi as a founder of the Classic symphony (see chapter 22). Vivaldi's influence ou instrumental music equaled that of Cor elli a gen eration ea rlier. His codif1ca tion of ritornello for m provided a model for

Range of styles

illfluen.ce

422

C H A P T E K 18

Music in France

• The Ea rly E;ght<enth Cen1u1y ln l1aly and France

later conceno composers. His successors aclmired anel emulatecl his concise themes, clarity of form , rhythmic drive, a.nd logical l1ow of musical ideas. A.mong those who learned from Vivaldi was J. S. Bach, who .made keyboard arrangements of at least nine Vivaldi concertos. including l'ive from Op. 3. Later in Lhe eighteemh century. con certo composers adopted anel developed

tbe g rowi ng cliffusion of patronage in F'rance: he was organist to the king and at the church of St. Gervais in Paris. but earned much of his money teaching har psicborcl to members of úie aristocracy anel publishing his own .music. His output rellected the venues for which he

Vivaldi's dramatic conception of the soloist's role as an individual personality

composed: organ music for St. Gervais. convents. and

in dialüf,'Ue with the orchestra.

ot her churches: elaborate motets for lhe royaJ chapei: chamber mus ic fo r the gatheri ngs i n Paris s alons that h ecame fashionabl e du ri ng 1he reign o r Loui s XV; and h ar psichord music fo r his s t.udents and for publ ication. His book L'art de t.oucher Le clavecin (The A.ri or Playing lhe Harpsichord , 17 16), a E,'Uide he wrote foi· his s11.1 dcn ts, is one of lhe most imporlanl sou rces for pe rformance prac tice of the F'rench Baroque . Couperi n synt hesized F're nch with ltalian stylcs. Thro ugh the titles, prefaces, anel choice of contents for his pub lis hed colleetions of chambcr mu sic, he proelaim ed that the pcrfect music woulel be a union of th c two national styles. He admired the music of both Lu lly and Co relli, anel celebrated th em in suites for two violins anel harp -

M usic in France White ltaly had many cultural ce nle rs, France had only one: Pa ris. the capital and by far thc largest c ity. Mus ic ians in the provinces d rea meei of ca reers i11 Paris, where patrons, publishers, anel an eager public waited to hear anel see the latest music. Only there coutei a composer achieve true success anel a national rcputation. Thc Acad émi c Roya le licensed theaters in severa) pro vincial cities to perform operas that had already been staged in the capital, but only in Paris coutei new operas be premie red. ln addition to the main opera theater. the royally supported OpéJ·a. Paris also had the Comédie - F'r ançaise and Comédie - ltalienne, both subsidized by the king, anel the private Opéra-Co mique. which presenteei plays with spoken dialogue interspersed with songs baseei on popular tunes. Nthough other cities had con ce1iseries i11 which amateuJ's could perfor m, Paris was home to Lhe most presligious concert organhations like the Concert Spirituel, a public concert series founded in 1725. The royal eou rt of Louis XV (r. 1715- 74) continued to support musi cians hul no longer dom inated musica l life as had Lhe COUl'I. or h is greatgrandfa ther Louis XIV. ln its place a wider range of patrons and instituti on s supported musicians and composers.

RECONCILING FRENCH AND ITALIAN STYLE Since the seve nlee nth century, ltalian music in France had been viewed as a forcign infl ucncc, we lcomed by so me anel rcsistcd by others. The latcst !tal ian music could be h eard in Pa1·is, parti cularly Lhe so natas anel concer1os of Corelli , Viva ldi, and others, and the relative me ri ts of F'r ench anel ltal ian styles were discussed consta nt ly in salo ns anel in print. Many F'rench co mpos ers sought to blend the two musical styles, especially in genres p ioneereel in lta ly. Lou is Nicolas Cléramba ult ( 1676- 1749). who pub lis heel five boo ks of cantatas berween 171 Oanel 1726, aJternated recitaLives in the manner of Lully with ltaJianace arias. Jean - Marie Leclair (1697- 1764), th e principal French composer of violin sonatas. combin ed what h e eonsidered the classic purity of CorelJi with Fre nch grace and sweet ness of melody. perfect clarily of texture anel form, and tasteful decoration.

FRANÇO IS COUPERIN Among the mos t active proponents of blending French and ltalian tas tes was François Couperin (1668- 1733). shown in Figure 18.7. His ca reer rel1ects

sichord: Pamassus, or The Apotheosis of Corelli ( 1724) and

The Apotheosis of L1illy (1725). ln the second work. Lully

423

FIG URE lB.7, Fr(l.nçois Couperi.n cmmnd 1695. byan unknown French painter. <cnATJ:Au

:,:;:;,:~~~:.~;,:,·.::::~::~:::,'..e:;;·'"'"cr.

is represeuted as joining Corell i on Mt. Parnassus to perfonn a French overrure and Lhen a trio sona ta . Couperin was the lirst anel most important French composer of trio sonatas. beginniug in 1692. His collection Les nations (The Nations, 1726) contains four ordres, each consisting of a sonata da chiesa in severa! movements followed by a suite or dances. thus combining the most characteristic genres of ltaly anel France in a single se t. Within each ordre. he eombined Freuch and Ital ian style traits . for example us ing French agréments lo ornamem passages based on lhe sequences, walking hasses, and circle-oJ'- tifth harmonic progress ions Lyp ical of Corelli sonatas . Hc also wrolc twelvc suites hc callcd conceris for harpsichord aud va rious co mb inations of in st rume nts, each co ns is1 ing of a p relude anel severa) dance move mcnts. He titled the lirst fourConcerts ro)'at1x (Royal Co ncens, pub l is heel 1722), becausc 1hey wc re played b cfore Louis XIV. Coupc ri n published lh e last e ight in a co llect ion titleel Lesgoúts-reüni.s (1'he Reu ni ted Tastes, 1724), sign ifying that th ey joincd F'rcnch ,md lra lian stylcs. Couperin co llected his harpsichord pieces ia twenty- seve n suites. or ordre.s, publishcd in four books between ·1713 and '1730. Each o rdre was a loose grouping of pieces intendecl as recreation for ama teur performers. Most works were in dance meters and binary forro, but as in earlier suites Couperin extended anel elaborated the basic characteristics of each dance to ereate music that ehaUenged players and e ngagecl listeners. By now there was a long tradition. stretching back to the Renaissance. of music for solo keyboard incorporating th e familiar rhythms of dance rnusic. bringing its associatious wilh physical gestw·es and social imeraction into the solitary activity of playing mus ic for one's own pleasure. What is new in Couperin's harpsichord pieces is that many of them are pieces de caractere. or clwrm:te,- piece.~. wor ks with evoca1ive ti lles that are de picled in the mus ic.

Harpsichordpieces

424

C H A P T E K 18

• The Ea rly Eight<enth Cen1u1y ln l1aly and France

Jean-Philippe Rameau

often suggesting a mood. personality. or sceue. like a character in a play. The fashio11 for character pieces, which. Couperit1 helped to estahlish in rhe early eighteenth century. bui lt on the tradition of fanei fui titles attached to works in the previous generation. such as Denis Gaultier's La coquette virtuose (NA\VM 87). but in a characterpiece the music explicilly illustrates the cille.

Jean - Philippe Ram eau (1683- 1764) had an tmusual career. spending two decades as an organist in the provinces, then moving to Paris, winning rec-

Couperin's Vingt-cinquie1ne ordre (Tweuty-Fifth Order. 1730). for example.

ognition as a music theorist around the age of forty. and achieving fame as a

opens with La visionaire (The Visionary. or The Seer, NA\V1! 97a) . a piece in cl1e form and style of a French overture in wh ich the doued rhythms inche slow tirst sectio11 and the enrl of the second section are combined with tiro.eles (fast scale f1gures), as in Exarnple 18.3a. ln French operas such as Lully's Armide, Lhe combinat.ion o r French ovenu re scyle with Lirades was assoc iated with powcd'ul 01· supernatural cha raclers (sce I\AWM B5c), anel this a long wil h other aspects of the music provides a wh imsical image of a mystic visionary or see r. Re flectingCouperin's interest in blend ingthe Frcnch a nd ltalian siyles, this movement combines e lements from LuHy with thc sequences, sevcnth chords, anel driving harmonic progressions typical of Corelli. The fourlh 1 Conciso '-' 1 1 Full '-' 1 piccc in thc suite, La rnuse victorieuse (Thc Victorious Musc, NAWM 97b), uses tripie meter, a quick tempo , Ieaping Jigures , and changes of registcr to depict the victory dance of a muse- perhaps the amateu r player herself, con quering the music's technical challenges. The final picce. Les ornbres erra,ntes (The Errant Shades, or The Lost Souls, NAWM 97c), captures the title image through a sluggish tempo. d escending lines. sighing figures. plangent disso nances. and chromaticism. As shown in Examp le 18.3b. Couperin tweaks the sty/.e brisé of an earlier generaüon imo a more linear counterpoim, sustaining rhe first note of his eighth-note figures to create tbree voices (with tbe outer voices in imitation in measures 6- 7). and then sustaining the offbeat eighth notes co create a syncopated inner voice in a four- voice texture suffusecl with suspensions typical of Corelli. Heu·e again Couperin combines French and ltal ian elements. exemplifying his rnixed style as we ll as the new genre of the characler piece.

composer only in bis fifties (see biography and Fii;,rure 18.8. p.126). Attacked then as a rad ical, he was assailetl twe ncy years !ater as a reactionary. His wrilings founded the 1heory of to nal music. and his operas es tablished him as Lully 's mosL impo rl.ant successor.

1 Concite '-' 1 1 Full '-' 1

EXAMPLE 18.3:

Excerptsfroni Couperili's Vingt-cinquieme ordre

a. La visionaire

b. Les ornbres erron,es

425

Jean-Philippe Rameau

THEORY OF HARMONY Mus ic theo ry engaged Ra meau throughoul h is lil'e. lnspired by works of Descartes and Newton , Rameau app roachcd musicas a source oi' empírica) data that could be explaineel on rational principies. He desc ribed his methodology in Traité de l'ha.nnonie (Treatisc on Hannony, 1722). onc of thc most influcn tial theoretical works ever written. R.ameau·s debt lo Descartes can be seen in his search to gro und the practice of harmonyi n the laws of acoustics. He considered the triad anel seventh chord the primal e lements of music, and derived both from the natural consonances of the perfect fifth, major third. and minar third. ln Rameau's approach. each ch ord basa fundamental tone, equivalent in most cases to whac is today called its root (lhe lowesl note when the chord is arranged as a series of tl1irds). ln a series of chords, the succession of these fundamental tones is the fw1cla111e111,,l bass. ln modero terms. Rameau was assercing chac a chord keeps ils ident ity through all its inversions and that the harmony of a passage is detined by the roor progression rather than by the actual lowest noce sounding. These concepts. now staples of music theo1y. were revolulionary al lhe lime. Example 18.1-shows the fundamental hass for a passagc l'rom Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie of 1733 (NAWM 98). For Rameau. music was d riven forwa rd by dissonancc and carne to resl in consonance. Seven th chords p rovided disso nance, triads consonance. He co incd the tcrms to11ic (the main note and chord in a key) , clo111i11a11t (thc note and chord a perfect nfth above the ton ic), and rnbdomi11a111. (the note and chord a tifth below thc to ni c); establis hed those th rec chords as the pillars of tonality; and related other choreis to them , formulating the hierarchies of functional tonality. The strongest progression between two chords in his syste m is from a scventh chord on thc dominant to a triad on the ton ic. with the dissonant no tes resolving by step anel lhe fundamemal bass falling a ftfth (or rising a fourtll). Other falliug-fifth progressions are almost as strong. anel indeed motion by falling fifth is more common than any other. Through such progressions. Lhe fundamemal bass gives music coherence and direction and helps to define the key. Note in Example 18.1 tl1at ali but two of tl1e motions in th e fundamental bass are by falling nfth (marked by brackets). helping to establish lhe local tonics ofC minor and BI, major, and tha t sevemh chordskeep the music movi ng fo1-ward unt il the cadence is reached . Rameau recogn ized that a piece could change key. a process called 111odulatio11. but considered thal each piece had one principal tonic l.o which other keys were secondary.

Acotislics and chords The fundamental bass

Tonal direction

426

C ti A PT E li 18 • The Early Eíght..nth Century ín ltaly and France

EXAMPLE 18.4 ,

JEAN-PH I LIPPE RAMEAU (1683-1764)

Practically unknown be fore the age of forty, Rameau emerged late in life as the most signifi cant music theorist of his era and the leading composer in France. ln his fifties and sixties, he wrote the operas and ballets that made him famous. Rameau was born in Dijon. in Burgundy (east central France), the seventh of eleven children. From his father, an organist, Rameau received his first and. as far as we know, only formal musical instruc tion. He attended a Jesuit school, then visited ltaly brieíly as a teenager. After two decades holding positions as organist at Clermont. Paris, Üijon. and Lyons, he moved permanently to Paris in 1722. seeking better opportunities. His pathbreaking Traicé de l'harmonie (Treatise on Harmony), published that year. quickly won him renown as a theorist. He made a living teaching harmony and playing continuo but could not find another position as organist until 1732. ln 1726, aged forty-two, he married a nineteen -year-old singer and harpsichordist. Marie-Louise Mangot. and over the next two decades they had four children. Success as a composer carne gradually and late. He published some cantatas and two books of harpsichord pieces in the 1720s. He found patrons who helped to support him, including the Pri nce of Carignan. His first opera. Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), began to build his reputation as a composer, followed by four other operas and opera-ballets in the next six years. ln the mid1730s, he won the patronage of the rich tax collec tor Alexandre-Jean-Joseph Le Riche de la Poupliniere, whose ga therings at trac ted aristocrats, artists, literary figures (Voltaire and JeanJacques Rousseau), adventurers (Casanova), and musicians. Rameau served his patron as organist and in various capacities untll 1753, and members of La Poupliniere's ci rcle became enthusias tic backers o f Rameau. ln 1745, the king of France granted him an annual pension. The next few years were his mos t produc tive and successful,

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with eleven dramatic works by 1749. Given his late start at the age of fifty, it is remarkable that over twenty-five of his ballets and operas were staged, more than by any other French composer of the eighteenth century. Polemical wri tings and theoretical essays occupied Rameau's dosing years. He died in Paris in 1764 , at the age of eighty·one. Feisty to the end, he found strength even on his deathbed to reproach the priest administering the last rites for bad chanting. MAJ OR WORKS:

5 tragédies en musique (Hippolyu,

et Artcie, Cosror et Pollux, Dardanus. Zoroasrre. and Les Boréildes), 6 othcr operas. Les lndes galantes and 6 other opera-ballet,. 7 ballet,, harpsichord pieces. trio sonatas, cantatas. and motets

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Rameau's theories have become commonplaces learned by every music studeni. so il takes an exercise of h isto rical imaginaiion to grasp how impo rta nt theywere at tbe time. Most of the elements ha d been described by earliertheoris ts . but Rameau was the á rst to bring them together into a uniJied system. Living ata lime when Lhe no tion of universal laws of nature was fa sh io na b le, Rameau found in tb e mu sic of so me of his contemporariesCo relli faremos! among lhem- harmo nic practices lhat coul<l be descri bed

Rarnea,.i:s impact

428

C H A P T E K 18

• The Ea rly Eight<enth Cen1u1y ln l1aly and France

aeeording to un iversal laws. Other writers popu larizecl his ideas, and by the late eigh ceenth century bis approach was the primary paradigm for teaching musieians.

TIMELINE ltaly. Fra,ice. and Ea rly-,8th- Cen.tury Eu rope MUSICAL

H ISTORICAL

• 1701 Prussia becomes kingdom

under Frederíck 1 • 1702 First daily newspaper in

England • 1703 Antonio Vivaldi

appointed to the Pietà • 1711 Vivaldi. L'Estro armomco,

Op.3 • 1711 Charles VI crowned Holy

Roman Emperor • 1715-74 Reign of Louis XV • 1717 Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Embarkation for Cythera Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe, Íirst novel in English

• 1719

INSTRUMENTAL WORKS As a composer. Ramea u lirst maele his mark wilh three pub -

lished colleclions of harpsichorel pi eces (published 1706. 1724, and ca. 1729- 30). The f,rst co ntains a si ngle s ui te or dances, anel each of the others has lwo s uites. one mostly co n 1a iningdance movemen ts and the ot he r alm os t emi re ly char actcr p icces. Among lhe la1tc1· are evocai ions of mood, nanll'e, and the lheater. s uc h as Les soupirs (The Sighs). La pou!e (The Hen), and Les sa1wo.ges (The Savages), the last inspired by da nces of Louisiana lndi:lns that Rameau had seen in Paris. As he noted in the preface of his second collection, Rameau·s harps ichord p ieccs fcaturc virtuos ic scal es and liguralion rarcly if cver found in earlier Frcnch keyboard p icccs. Thcsc brilliant textures, along with the harmonic adventures of s uch pieccs as L'enhannonique (En harmonie Progressions), clistinguished his keyboard music from his predecessors'. Also distinctive is his last collection, Piéces de ctavecin en concerts (Concerted Harpsichord Pieces, 1741), a set of nve suites for harpsichord accompanied by violin (or flute) and bass viol (or second violin). Unlike a trio sonata, he re the harpicho rd has the leading part. with the other instruments at times in dialogue wich it and at times accompany ing.

• 1722 Jean-Philippe Rameau,

Treatise on Harmony STAGE WORKS

Comparison with LullJ'

Although hi s keyboard mus ic was wide ly c irculated and inílucntial. and hc also composcd some sacrcd anel secular vocal music. Rameau atlained his grea les l fam e as a co mpose r of s tage wo rks. Prom a young age h e aspired to co m pose opera, but th e mo nopoly of the Acadé mic Royale de Musique ,nade il al mosl impossible to proeluce new ope ra s exccp t in Paris. When he moved there in 1722. he wrote ai rs anel da nces fo r a fcw musi ca l comcel ics, p icccs with spo ken d ia logue pc rformcd at thc Opéra - Comique. Finally, in 1733, lhis opera Hippolyte etAricie was produced in Paris, esta blis hing hi s rcputatio11 as a co mpo scr. A string of successcs followeel, inclueling tbe opera- ballet Les Indes gafontes (The Gallant lnclies, 1735) and the opera Ca.stor et Pollux (1737), of1e11 considered his master piece. After a relatively fallow perioel in the early 1740s came his most procluctive years. from the comecly Plate'e (1745) to the tragie operas Zoroastre (1719) , the most important or Rameau's !ater works, anel les Boréades (The Boreades, 1763), rebearsed when Rameau was eighty b\tt not p erfo rmed in bis l ifetime. Rameau's theater works resemble Lully's in severa! ways: botl1 composers exhibit realistic declamation and precise rhythmic notation in the recitatives: both mix recita tive with more tun eful. formally organizeel airs. choruses. and

Jean-Philippe Rameau

instrumemal interlucles: anel botb include long divertisse ments. But within this general framework, Rameau introduced many changes. The melodie tines offer one notable contrast. Rameau the composer consta ntly practiced che doctrine of Rameau the

theorist that all melody is rooted in harmony. Many of his

429

François Couperin. Apolheosis of Core/li

• 1724

• 1725 Vivaldi. The Four Seasons melodie phrases are plainly triadie anel make clear the har• 1725 Concert Spirituel conmonic progressions thatmus t supporl them. Orderly relalioncert series begins in Paris s hips within 1.he tonal syste m or dom inan ts, subdominants, and modulations gove rn Lhe ha rmony. Ram ea u drew from • 1726 Jonathan Swift, G ulliver's a ri ch paleLCe of cho reis and p rogress ions. including ch roTraveis mat ic 011cs, divers ifying his stylc much mo,·e than Lully's anel • 1727 Johann Sebastian Bach, acbi eving d ramatic force through expressive. highly cha rged Sr. Matrhew Passion dissonances t.hat p rope l the hannony fo rward. • 1730 Couperin's fourth book Ram eau maelc hi s most original cont ribu tion in the of harpsichord suites published instrumental sections of his operas- overtures, dances, anel descri ptivesympho nies thM accompany thc s tage action. The • 1733 Rameau, Hippolyte et Frcnch valued music for its powcrs of dcpiction, and R.amcau Aricie was their champion tone - painter. His musical pictures • 1734 Voltaire. Philosophical range from graceful miniatures to broacl representations of Letters thunder (Hippolyt,e eiAricie, Act l) or earthquake (Les Jndes • 1740 Frederick the Great galantes, Act II) . The depictio11 is ofte11 enhanced by novel crowned king in Prussia orchestration. esp ecially inclependent woodwind pa1is. Like Lully and other Freneh composers, Rameau mini• 1741 George Frideric Handel. mized the co ntrast between recitative anel air in comparison Messiah to ltalian eomposers. He often smoothlymoved between styles • 1749 Henry Fielding. Tom to suit the dramatic situacion. OJ'cen the mos1 powerful effects Jones are achievecl by the joint use of solo anel chorus. Choruses • 1756-63 Seven Years' War remained prominenl in French opera long after they were (French and lndian War) no longer useel in ltaly. and they were nwnerous lhroughout Rameau's works. Thc closing minutes of Act IV of Hippo!yte eiAricie (NAW},! 98) illust rate the high drama Rameau could ach ieve by co mb ining ali these Combiriation e lem ents. ln th is scene co mp lex, the action and mus ic are nonstop: one type of elements of musical sct1 ing leads to a110ther, echo ing the line of thc plot anel c real· i11g a se nse of realis m or naluralness as in li fe, notas in the co nve nt io11s of 1 Concise ~ 1 1 FuU~ 1 lta lian ope ra. A divcrtisscmc nt of hunte rs anel hun trcsscs is suelde n ly l'o llowed by tragedy, so fasl thal lhe audience has little time to adjust. Throb bing strings depict a rough sea, wh ilc rus hing scalcs in the flute and vi oli ns evoke high winds. A mo11ster appears, and the chorus begs for aid from the goeldess Diana, s inging over the orchesrra. Hippolyte s teps up to light che monster. as h is beloved Aricie trembles in fear: they too sing over the orchestra. in a texture of accompanied reci tative borro wecl írom conternporary lcalian opera. The monster brea thes flame a11d smoke, then disappears, and the orchestra stops abruptly. When the smoke clears. Aricie mournfully sees that Hippolyte is gone. a11d the chorus co1m11ents on che cragedy in s cirring. richly elissonant homophony. The rapid juxtaposition of styles continues as Phêdre. Hippolyte's stepmother. enters. hears the news from the chorus. and laments his deatl1. for which she feels responsible. Although no full - breathed

430

C H A P T E K 18

LuUistes versus Ramisies

A Vola1ile Public

• The Early E;ght<enth Cen1u1y ln l1aly and France

air appears- indeed. one wouJd be inappropriate- short segments of airlike melody are in termixed with measnred and unmeasured recitative, with and without the orchestra , over varying styles of accompaniment. each element perfectly placed for maximum dramatic etfect. From lhe fusr, Rameau's operas stirred upa storm of critica! controversy.

His co ncertos seem almost inescapable. frorn concerts to recordings to lilrn and advertising scores to the training of young string players. His operas and other music are beginning to be revived, although tl1ey are still seldom heard. Couperin's barpsichord music was weU known iu his liJetime. in England anel Germany as well as in France. then slowly feU ouc oi' fashion. Rameau dieel

The Paris intelligentsia divided into two noisy camps. one supporting Rameau

famous. with severa! of his operas still in the reperto1y. but tastes changed in

and the other a1tacking him as a subverter of the good old French opera tradition or Lully. The Lullisres found Ramea u's music difftcul c, l'orced, grotesque, thick , mechan ical, and unnatural- in a word, baroque- because of ils co mplex a nd dissonanl harmony, dense orchestcatio n, and demancling writing for inslru ments, a.li of which rhey fel1. violated r.he irp refe rence fo r lhe s i mpl e and natu ral. Rameau pror est.cd, i11 a forewo,·el to his ope ra- ballet le$ lndesgolcmtes, rhar he had ·'sougbt lo imi late Lully, notas a se rvile co pyisl but in taking, like him, nature herself- so beautiful anel so sim pie-as a model." As the quarrel of th e Lu ll istes anel Ramistes raged , Ram eau·s increasing popufarity sparked many parodies of his operas- lighthanded imitations or adaplations of the originais. Eventually hi s newer style bccame wide ly acccptcd, and crit ics anel the public aclrnowl cdged tbat it took tim e to get to know his music and app reciatc it; tbis was ao interesting lesson for an aud ience lo lcarn in the early eighteen lh century, when immcdiate appcal was so highJy valued. By the l 750s, during the battle between critics on the relative merits of Frencb and ltalfan music known as the War of the Buffoons (see chapter 21). Ra meau had become lhe most eminem living French cornposer. exaJtecl as the champion of French nmsic by the very faction 1hat twemy yea.rs earlier had castigared him for 1101 writing like Lully.

lhe l 770s and his operas gradually passed from lhe stage. His harps ichord music remained in circulalion and was widely perforrned ove r Lhe nexc seve ral generations. ln the late nineteenth and early twen ti eth ce nturi es. Coupe rin and Rameau's works, especiaJJy for keyboard, were edil.ed and reviveel as exemplars of Fre nch rnusic 1:hat could rival 1.hal of the Germans Bach and Handel. A co mple te cel ition of Ramcau·s music was issued betwccn 1895 anel [ 924. followecl by Coupe ruú comple Le wo rks in 1932- 33. Tbei r music is less omnipresent tha n Vivald i's but has fou nd a secure and e ntbus iast ic band of devotées , especially in Francc. Mcanwhile, Rameau·s reputatio n as a t heorist never waneel, and his approach became thc founclation for most writings on and tcaching of mus ic thcory from his day to th c prcscnt.

A Volatile Public With the sp read of public opera houses anel public co nce rls, auelie nces in the cightec nth ccntury wc rc opinionated as ncvcr bcforc, cxprcss ing thcir vicws of operas anel concc rl works througb Hcket sales. elia,y entri es, lett:c rs, anel th e ncw medium of newspape rs a nel journals as well as th rough applause or othcr immcdiatc reactions. Changcs in musical foshion, tastc, and style ílowed frorn lhe opinions and reactions of cril ics anel the puhli c, from lhe vogue for Vivaldi 's concertos to the ncw approachcs to opera anel instrum ental music throughout the century. By the time Vivaldi died in 174 1, lastes had begun to change, lhe public turned elsewh cre. and his music passeei from t he scene. fn the later eigh 1eenth century, he was virrually forgotten. But bis influence on Bach was noted by ninetee nth-cenrury scholars, a nel bis importance in 1he evoh1tio11 of the concerto was demonstrated in the early twentieth century. lnterest in Vivaldi's mttsic. especially his concertos. was intensined by the discovery in the 1920s of what must have been Vivaldi's owu collectio n of scores. The prominent ltalian puhlishing house Ricordi began publishing h is comple te insmunenral music in 1947. motivated in part by a desire to reclaim the glorious ltalian Baroque tradition that had been obscured by later German composers. Vivaldi is now considered a master composer alongside Bach and Handel. anda central figure in our image of music from the Baroque period.

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431

433

Contexu for Music

large states of Austria. Saxony. and Brandenburg-Prussia to tiuyprincipalities and i ndependent cities. Each of tbese supported music. Some rulers followed Louis XN's example of displaying their power and wealth through patronage of tbe arts. as did the Ho ly Roman Emperors in Vienna. tbe electors ofSaxony in Dresden, and King Frederick II (the Greal) of Prussia (b. 1712, r. 1740-86)

in Berlin. City goveruments were also significam employers of musicians. C H APT E R

GERMAN COMPOSERS OF THE LATE BAROQUE ln the eighteenth century, for tbe fint time in history, the leading composers in Europe carne from German - speaking lands. Telemann. Handel. memhers of the Bach family, Haydn, and Mozart ali rose to prominence not by inventing new genres. as che ltalians had done in the two previous centuries. but by synthesizing elements from Italian, French, German. and otber national lraditions in new. rich ways. The German secret was a balance of rast.es between na tive 1.re nds and fo rcign influcnces. The Italians and the Frcnch genc rally resisted fore ign id eas, and no composer in either country matched the international reputation of Viva ldi or Rameau until the nineteenth century. England became a virtual colony fo r fo rcign musicians, and it remained so until the twentieth century. But German and Austrian composers consistently sougbt wide appeal by combin.ing the best traits of severa! nations. This chapter will focus on J. S. Bach and Hande l, the best-k:nown German-speaking composers of the early eighteenth century. Using them as case studies to explore condilions for music in Germany and Eugland. we will examine how each fouud patronage from a variety of sources. made choices among competing tastes. values. and styles in music. and mel with bo t.h success and failure.

especially in Lutheran ar eas. where the town council was often responsihle for h:iring music directors for tbe churches. One interesting phenomenon in eighteenth-cen tury Germany is the numher of a ristoc ra ts wbo purs ued music av idly as perfo rmers anel as composers. Johann Ernst, prince of Weimar (1696- 1715). was a violin ist who composcd inslnnncntal wo,·ks , of wh ich s ix co nccrlos wcrc published. Frederick the Great, shown in Figu re 19. l. regula rly performed ílute so nata s and concertos at private conce rts in bis chambers and co mposed ílutc concertos, a ri as , and ot her music. His sister AnnaAmalia, pr incess of Prussia ( 1723- 1787), playecl harpsichorcl and organ, com posed vocal and instrumental mu sic. and co ll ectcd a largc lib rary of scorcs. Her niccc Anna Arnalia, ducbess ofSaxc-Weimar ( 1739- 1807), was a keyboard player, composer, and important patroa of music and literature. Her major works a1·e two S ingspiels (spoken plays with music) with librettos by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832), the leadingGerman poet, novelist, and dramatist of his age. Many other aristocrata were enthusiastic amateur performers. and they often made particularly generous patrons. Britain was a unilied kingdom, but since the revolmions in the seventeenth cemury the power and wealth of rhe monarch were quite limited. Ar times even the relatively low saJaries of the court musicians went unpaid. ln order to keep musicians in se1vice. the king had lo allow them to earn extra money outside off1cial duties. Th e presence of highly skilled, underpaid, and underutilized performers in London led to the growtb of the public concert. Tbe nobility also supporled music. Many noblemen had visiled ltaly as young men to learn it.s

Aristocr(ltic musici(lnS

English patro1is

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Contexts for M usic Tn the eightee nth cenlury, Germa n-speaki ng central Europe continucd to bc d ivid cd among hunclrcds of political cntitics, from thc

434

C ti A PT E li 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

TIMELINE Gcrma,n Composers in the Lace Ba.roque MUSICAL

H ISTOR ICAL

• 1700 Johann Sebastian Bach

studies in Lüneburg • 1703 George Frideric Handel

moves to Hamburg • 1703 Antonio Vivaldi

appointed to the Pietà • 1707 England and Scotland

officially uni te as Great Britain • 1708 Bach becomes court

organist for duke of Weimar • 1711 Handel's Rin<1fdo

premiered in London

language, arts. a11d culture. 011 their return to E11glancl. they emulated !talian aristocracs in employing household musicians and helpingto fund ltalian opera. Musicians supplemented their salaried appointments through public concerts , an increasingly importam part of

musical life in Germany as well as Englaud. and through the sale of their compositions to publishers. Earnings from pub lishing were slill qwite limited: lhe sys1.em of paying royallies on sales had not ye t dcveloped, soa co mposer wo ulel s im ply rece ive a sel fee from a publis her for ali rights l.o a sco re . Mo reove r. copyrigh t la ws we re weak, anel publ is hers o ften cop ied anel issuecl picccs without paying the co mposc,·. Under these circLLmslances. no one could ea rn a living by composing alone. lndeed, therc was as yet no notio n of "co mp oser·· as a separate carecr; ali those who co mposeel music professionally d id so as musicians who also performeel. copieel, s upervised. anel d irectcd thci r owt1 music and that of others. 11 is only bccausc tbeir compositions suJ-viveel, whiJe their performances were ep hemeral, that we remember lhem primarily as composers.

MIXED TASTE: GEORG PH ILIPP TELEMANN

For cenruries, Germaus had been interesteel in music from other nations: Flemish polyphony; Dutch anel English keyboarel music: llalian madrigals. operas. and concertos: and • 1717 Bach appointed French op eras. orch estral suites, and harpsichorel and lute Kapell meister in Cõthen mus ic. Cerman mus icianswere often trained in more than one • 1722 Jean-Philippe Rameau, style. Composers studied music from other countries when Treatise on Harmony they could and imported fo reign gen_res. styles. and techn irrues. This diverse backgrounrl alloweel Cerman compose rs grcal Oexibility lo draw clcmcnls from various tradi lions anel aelapl or b lenel 1J1em to sui t any purpose or audience. Mo re lha n any other tra it, this synt.hesis of tra dit ions gave the music oi' e ighteenth ce,,tu ry Cennan compose rs its b road appeal. A paragon of 1.his styli stic eclecticism was Gcorg Philipp Te lemann ( 1681 - 1767). shown in Figu re 19.2, rcga rd cd by his contcmpo rarics as one of lhe best composers of h is era. He was also the mos 1. prolif1c, with over thrcc th ousand works to his crcdi t. \Vriting in cvery genre. he procluccd thirty operas, forty- six Passions, over a thousand church cantatas, and hundreds of overtures, concertos, anel chamber works. ln 1729. he described his style as a mixture of many: • 1714 Elector of Hanover

crowned George I of England

Ceorg Ph,lipp Telemann, inanengrovingby Ceorg Uchrensteger. te111uc,MAN FIGURE 19.2:

AIIT LI IUIAUY)

\Vhal ( have acco mplish ed wilh res pect to musical style is well known. F'i rsl ca mc the Polish style, foll owed by th e F'rench, church, chambc r and opcratic stylcs, and flinallyl thc ltalian style, which cu rrenlly occupies me more than the othe rs do. AJmost every currenl style can be found in Telemann's mLtsic. He helped lo establish th e characteristic German style of bis time. a

Johann S,ba11ian Bach

synthesis of German counterpoint with traits from the other nations he mentions. Among Telemann's most popular and original works are the twelve quartets for 11ute. violin. viola da gamba (or cello). • 1722 Bach. The We/1and continuo, his so- called Paris Quartets, published in two Tempe,ed Clavie,. Book 1 sets of six pieces each (1730 and l 738). These quartets dilfer • 1723 Bach becomes civic from trio -so nata scoring in that ú1e viola da ga mba parl is music director in Leipzig largely iodepe nelen L from Lhe continuo and plays a role as • 1724 Handel. Giulio Cesare soloist alongs ide the ílute anel viol in. Throughout., ali three inst rnmenls share eq ually in lhe lhemalic material. oíten • 1725 Fux, Gradus ad inte rchanging ideas. The 1'1 rst. set exempli f1es Telemann's Pamassum mixcd tas tc by in cl uding two lla lian -style con cc.-tos. two • 1727- 60 Reign of George li sonatas in lhe German style. and two suües in lhe French of England s tylc, and by mixing styles and gcn res with in each work. Thc • 1727 Bach. St. Matthew opcning piccc, titlcd Concerto pri,mo ( Pirs t Co nce rto, cxcc rpts Passion in NA\VM 99 ~ ). includes a Presto in ritornello form anel a s hort s low move men t in concerto stylc, but thc work closcs • 1728 John Gay, The Begga!s with an Allegro in gigue rhythm and French rondea.u form. The Opera Presto ritornello features three s imultaneous melodies • 1730 G. P. Telemann, treated in invertible counterpoint. like the subjects of a triplc first six Paris Ouartets fugue. The mixture of French anel Italian forros, German • 1733 Jean-Philippe Rameau. coun terpoint. aud th emes and nguration reminiscent of ali Hippolyte et Aricie three tradit ions is typical of the stylistic bleneling i11 music by Telemann anel by mos 1. of bis German comemporaries. • 1740 Frederick the Gre.at Telemann aimecl to please varied tastes anel write for the crowned king in Prussia abilities of good amateur or middle- level professional play • 1741 Handel, Messiah e rs, g iving h is music wide appea l. He was his own pu.bl ishe r • 1747 Bach. /vfusic<1/ Of{ering in Hamburg, help ing to establis h the prin cipie tha t a piece of music was the intellectual prop erty of its composer. and he issued lhe n rsl music period ical in Ge rmany. Der getreue Music-Meister (The True Mus ic- Maste r), wh ich mael e his music and tha 1. oi' othec· German corn poscrs availahle to amatcurs anel st.udcnts. His works were publ ish ecl in Paris as well as in Cermany, anel bought by musicians from ítaly to England and from Spain to Sca nd inavia. TcJcmann·s prcfe rcncc for rela tive simpl icily helped make h im much mo re popular in h is tim e th an J. S. Bach, but he was lhe n ignoreel anel beli ttleel in the nineteenth ce ntury. His music was grad ually revived in the twcnti eth century, anel heis slowly rcga ining his s tat ure as one oi' t he greal composers of his age.

Johann Sebastian Bach Posterity b as raised Johann Sebastian Bach (1685- 1750) to tJie pinnacle of composers of ali time in the Western tradition. His current position conLras Ls with his reputation in his own day. when he was renowned in Protestant Germany as an organ virtuoso, keyboarel composer, anel writer of lea rneel conlrapuntal works. but com paratively little of his vocal. chamber, or orchestral music was published or ci rculal ed in manu script. in pa ri because

435

436

C ti A PT E li 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

Johann S,ba11ian Bach

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Now considered one of the greatest composers in the Western music tradition. Bach regarded himself more modestly. as a conscientious craftsman doing his job to the best of his ability. He was a virtuoso organist and keyboard player, a skilled violinist. and a prolific composer in almost every genre then current except opera. Bach carne from a large family of musicians in the region of Thuringia in central Germany. Over six generations, from the late sixteenth to the nineteenth century, the Bach family produced an extraordinary number of good musicians and severa! outstanding ones. Johann Sebastian was born in Eisenach and attended the Latin school there, receiving a solid grounding in theology and humanistic studies. He must have learned violin from his father. a court and town musiclan who died just before Bach"s tenth birthday. He then lived and studied music with his older brother Johann Christoph Bach, organist in Ohrdruf. Bach spent 1700-1702 in school ai Lüneburg. where he encountered the organist Georg Bõhm and experienced the French repertoire and style of the local orchestra. Bach's first positions were as a church organist at Arnstadt in 1703, when he was eighteen , and then at Mühlhausen in 1707. That year he married Maria Barba ra Bach, his second cousin. with whom he had seven children before her death in 1720. His second wife, Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a court singer from a family of musicians. whom he married a year later. bore him thirteen children (seven died in infancy). From his time at Mühlhausen to the end of his life. Bach tutored private students in performance and composition, including severa! of his own sons. and served as an organ consultant. ln 1708. Bach became a court musician for the duke of Weimar. fi rst as organist and later as concertmaster. He was appointed Kapell meister (music director) at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cõthen in 1717. After a stay of six years. Bach moved to Leipzig to become cantor of the

b e focusecl on composing for professional performers. ín tbe course of bis career, Bach embraced ali the major styles, forms, and genres of bis time (except opera), blended them in new ways. anel developed them further. The result is music of an unprecedented richness. Although some eigbteenth century listeners found bis music clutter ed or forced. and it was regarded as old-fashioncd by thc time hc dicd. it was always estecmcd by connoisscurs. The r eviva! and publicalion of bis works in the nineteenth century brought him legions of admir ers, performers. and listeners, from the leading musicians of 1.he elay to 1.he general puhl ic.

BACH ATWOR K

FIGURE 19.3· Johann Sebasiian Bach ina po,ircnl bJ Elias Coulob Hauss,nanri (a J748 copyofa 1746 original). Shown tn Bach's hand is the man11scrip1 ofhis lrip!e canon for six VOÍCI!$, BIW 1076. (COURTESY9l!LLl,úl H. SClfEIOE)

St. Thomas School and civic music director, one of the most prestigious positions in Germany. After a lifetime of hard work, Bach's last two years were marked by disease (probably diabetes), vision problems. and severe eye pain. Ar his death after a stroke. he left a small estare. split between his nine surviving children and his wife. who died in poverty ten years later. Bach's works are identified by their number in Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of his works. abbreviated BWV for Bach-WerkeVerzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue). MAJ OR: WORKS:

Sr. Mauhew P;,ssion, St. John P;,s-

sion. Mass in B Minor. dbout 200 church cainlatas and 20 secular cantatas. about 200 organ chorales and 70

other works for organ, Brandenburg Concer1os. The We/1Temper~ Cla\/ler. Clavier-Übung. Mus,cal O{{er,ng. The

Art o{ Fugue. ond numcrous othcr kcyboard. cnscmble. orc:hestr ai. and sacred compositions

Bach was a working mus ician who co mposed primarily lo fulf11l the needs of the positions he held (see b iography and Pigu re 19.3). When he was a church organist at Ar11stadt ( 1703- 7) and Mühlhausen (J 707- 8) and court organist at Weimar (J 708- l 4) , he composed mostly for organ. When he beca me con ccrtma stcr at We imar ( 1714- 17), hc also wrotc ca ntatas for thc court chapei. As court music director at Cõthen (1717- 23), where he had no formal church music duties, he turned out mostly solo or ensemble music for clomestic or court entc1iainment, along with some peclagogical works. At Leipzig ( 172350), i11 charge of music at four churches, he produced cantatas and otber church music. His appoilitment in 1729 as director of t he Leipzig collegium musicum led him to wr ite concertos and cbamber works. Numerous pieces for or gan or harpsichord al so dale from the Leipzigperiod, including teaching pieces for his many priva te students. Oft - told anecdotes of Bach·s life r emind us that musicians were not free agents but were subject to the wishes of their em ployers. When Bachaccepted the position at Cõthen , the duke ofWeimar would not let him leave at frrst, and imprisoned him for a monlh before allowing him togo. As cantor of St. Thomas's School and d ireclor of music in Leipzig. Bach was an emp loyee of the town counc il , anel in hi s contract he hael to pleelge h imse lf to lead an cxcmplary hfc and not lo !cave town without pcrmission from thc mayor. He was the counc il's thi rd cho ice, a fte r Tele mann- who used the of-fe r to leve r age a raise from his bosses in Hamburg- anel Chris toph C raupner, whose cmplloye r in Da r mslacll refusecl to accept his rcs ignation but incrcased his pay. O n many occasions, Bach clashcd wi th t he cou ncil about what he saw as thc prcrogatives of hi s office, sometim cs clcfying thei r autho rity in a bid to preserve his independence. Bac lú worldng concl itions in Leipzig illustratc thc mult ip lc clcmancls on musicians in an era w hen no on e worked solely as a composer. Leipzig was a llourishing commercial cicy of about 30,000, a center fo r publish ing, and h ome to Germany's leaclinguniversity. founded in 1409. St. Thomas's School. sbown in Figure 19.4. took in both day and boarcling pupils. lt p rovi ded between fifty and sixty scholarsbips for boys and youths chosen for t h eir musical and scbolastic abilities. ln return. they sang or played in the services of the four main Leipzig churches and fulfilleel other m usical dulies. Bach"s position as cantor obligeel him to teach La tin and music four hours each day and to compose. copy. and rehearse music for the church services. He directed the to p choir and sup ervisecl the other three. conducted by older

The position of musicians

Conditions in Leipzig

437

438

C ti A PT E li 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

FIGURE 19.4:

St. Thoma$ Churcli tn Leipzig. where Bach regular/.y directed ihe mcLSi-e for services. Ar thefarend ofihe square. pasi ,he foun · to-in. is S1. Thomas ·s Sclwol (ajier i1 was enlarged in 1732). wl1ere Bach taughr. (ARCIIIV

rvn XU~ST u~o

OF.:SC:HrCllT'f., ftfnt.rn)

Johann S,ba11ian Bach

students who were his assistants. He trained some of the best s tudents on insiruments and directed them in the church instrumental ensemhle. which also included performers from the town anel university. ln his early years, he composed

assured virtuosity, and extensive use of the pedais. He was renowned as an improviser and was often called npon to tes t new ar rebuiJt organs. Buxtehude had written freestanding fugues as well as preludes that alter· nated sections of free fantasia with fugues (see NAWM 95). By 1700. some composers were prefacing fugues witb separace preludes (or loccalas or fan -

at least one major work for church each week.

tasias). a practice that became standard for Bach.

lhen gradually lessened his pace. He had fonher cluties providing mus ic for lOwn cere moru es anel at the university, anel he rcceived arlditional fees to compose and lead music fo r weddings. funer · ai s, and other special occas ions. Por ali t bis he wa s paid a comfortablc middle -class income anel provide d with an aparlmenl for bis family in one wing of the sc ho ol, includ ing a pe rsonal study for composing and for hous ing his professional library. Bach lea rncd composition primarily by copy· ing or arrangin g tbc music of other composc rs , a habit maintained thro ughout his career. Among bis pieces are adaptations of music by Torclli. Vivaldi, Telemann. anel numerous others. ln this way he became familiar with the methods of the foremost composers in ltaly, Ger many, Austria, anel France. Accordingto bis son Carl Philipp Emanuel. Bach typically composeel away [rom the keyboarel, lhen testeel the result by playing Lhrough it. Tbe most important step was inventing the principal th eme or subj ect, on which Bach then elaborated using established conventions of genre. forro. anel harmonic scructure. \Vhen working with a lext. as in a recicative or aria. he wrote the vocal melody first, fitting it to the accentuation and meani ng of the words. Bach's manuscripts show that he continually sought to improve his music. making srnall revisions as he copied out a score or perforrn ing parts. and revising afresh when he pe rformed a piece again. He also frequen tly reworkeel his own cxis ting picces for ncw forces. ncw uses, or ncw words: many of bis ca t1tata moveme nls a re adapted fro m ea rli er cantatas, ins trume ntal wo rks, o r oth cr music (see Pigu re 19.6, p. 445).

439

Preludes andfugu.es

\Vhile at Weimar. Bach became fascina Led by the music of Vivaldi. He Vivaldi's influencc arra nged severaJ Vivaldi concertos for organ or ha.rpsichord solo, writing ouL the ornaments and occasionally re inforcing the coun terpoinc or add ing inner voi ces. As a conseq uence, Bach's own style began lo change. Frorn Vivald i he le arned to write conc ise the mes, co clarify the ha rmo ni c sche me, anel to devcl op subjects into g,·andly propon ioncd formal st ruct urcs based 011 thc ritomello idea. Vivaldi 's influence is evide nt in Bach's pre ludes and fogues composed at Weima r, such as the Prelude and Pugue in A Minor, BWV 543 (NAWM 100). ln the prelude, violin.istic flguration resembling that of concerto solos, as in Examp lc 19. la, altc rnates with tocca ta sections. Contrasti ng tcxtu rcs. scqucnccs, circl c -of- fiftb progrcssions, clear tonal structure, and rcturns of th e openi ng material in new keys ali recall Vivalcli's typical procedures. Thc fugue subject. shown in Examp lc 19. l b. is again violinistic. featur ing the rap id oscillation between a repeated note anda moving line that on avio lit1 is accomplished by alternating strings. Typical of Bach fugues, the form closely resernbles a conce1io fast movement. The fugue subject functions like a ritornello, rernrning in relaLed keys as well as the conic. Becween these statements are episodes tbat have tbe character of solo sections in a concerto , often marked by lighter texture. sequences. ora change of key. Bach wrote over two hund red chorale set.cings for organ . e nco mpassing Chorale settings all known types in a constam sea rch for va r ie ty. At Weimar, he compileel a manusc ript collection. tbe OrgelbüchLein (Little Organ Book). containing forly-f1ve shorl chorale p reludes. These served in church as inlroduclions befo1·e the co ngregation sa ng rhe cho rale. But Bach also had a peelagogical airn, as is lrue for seve ra! ofh is othe r collcctions. Thc Litle pagc reads "Lillle Orga n Book. in which a begi nning o rga nis t. is give n guiclance in ali so n s of EXAMPLE 19.1:

Operiing and fug1rn s1ibject from Bach. Prel1ide and fogue inA

ORGAN MUSIC

Mino,·, BWV 543

As a church organist, Bach focused on the genres used in Lutheran services: choral e scttings, playcd bcforc cacl, chorale anel somctimcs used to accom pany the congregalion as th ey sang; anel toccatas, fantasias, pre lud es, anel fugues, featured as preludes or inter ludes during the service anel suitable aJso for recita is. (See Source Reading, p. 444, for the place of "preluding·· in a Lutheran service.) From a young age. Bach was acquainted with a wide variety of organ music. by North Germans like Buxtehude and Bõhm, central anel southern Germans sucb as Pachelbel anel Froberger. ltalians like FrescobaJdi. anel Frencb organists. While working inArnstadl, he traveled on foot anel by postal coach to hear Buxte hude in Lübeck, a journey of ahout 225 miles. By blending and then transcending his models. he developed a personal and distinctive style. marked by proliftc imagination. maslery of counlerpoint.

u. Openin.g ofprefode

b. Fugue subjec1

, g r Ef r r BPttrufCffiitfc Fr: Êr rEtc@

mm=c+m11-+AE±m;rfE1i=

440

C H A P T E K 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

EXAMPLE 19.2,

Bach. chora.Le prelude on Durch Adams Fal i

Johann S,basiian Bach

Prelude in EI, Minor anel Fugue in D! Minor (NAWM 102). shows the capacity of the new tuning system to accommodate key signatures with more than four sharps or llats (here six llats and six s harps respectively). in which most triads would be out of tuue in the mean - tone temperameuts traditionaJ for keyboard instruments. Bach adapted these and severa) other pieces in both books from

441

1 Concose :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1

existing works. sometimes transposing them in order to cover unusual keys:

ways oi' developing a chorai e, as wcll as improvi ag his pedal technique, since ia these ch ora les lhe peda l is tre.ated as complelely obbligato [essential. not optio na l)." ln eac h prc lude, the choralc tune is heard o nce through, but otherwise [he settings vary greatly. The me lody may be treated in canon, elaborately ornamented, or accompanied in any number of styles. Some prelucles sym bo lize the visual im ages or underlying id eas of the chorai e text through musical figures, in a tradition extending back through Schütz to the ltalian madrigalists. l n DurchAdams Fali (Through Adam's Fali). BWV 637 (NAWM l Ol ). shown in Example 19.2. while 1he top line carries the choraJe nme, jagged descending leaps in tbe bass depict Adam's fali from grace, the twisting chromatic line iu the alto portrays the sinuous writhiug of the serpeut. and the dowuward- slicling tenor combines witb botb to suggest the pull of 1emptation and the souow of sin. Bach conceived his !ater organ choraJes in grand er proportions. The settings are less intimate and subjective. rep lacing the vivid expressive details of the ea rlier works witb more generalized emotion anel extensive musical development of ideas.

HARPSICHORD MUSIC

Scút.es

TheWell Tempered Clavier

Bach·s music for harpsichord i ncludcs masler pieccs in cvCJ}' current gcn re, includingsuites; preludes, fantasias, anel toccatas; fugues; anel variation sets. Bach·s harps ichorel sui tes show thc i nllucncc of French, ltalian, and Ccrmao models. He wrote three sets of s ix: the English Suües, lhe French Sitites. anel thc Partit,1s. Thc elesignations " F'rcn ch" anel " English" for the suites are not Bach"s own, anel bo,h collections b.lencl F'rcnch and lta lian qua lities in a highJy personal style. ln line with German tradition, each suite contains the standard four dance movements- a llemancle, courante. sarabande. anel gigue- with additional short rnovements following the sarabande. Each of the Eng!i.sh S11ites opens with a p relude, in which Bach transferred ltalian ensemble idioms to the keyboard. The prelude of the third Eng/.ish Suite. for exam ple. simulates a concerto fast movemem with alternaling nttti and solo. Bach's best-known keyboard works are the two books titled The WellTempcred Clavier (1722 and ca. I 740). Each book consists oi' twenty- four prelude and fugue pairs. one in each of the major and minar keys. arranged in rising chromatic order from C to B. Bot.h sets were designed to demonstrate the possibililies of playing in ali keys on an instrument tuned in near- equal temperament. then still novel for keyboa rds. The eighth pa ir in Book I. the

for example. lhe fugue in minor was based on an earlier version in D minar. Bach had pedagogicaJ aims as wel l. The typical prelude gives lhe player one 0 1· more specif1c tcchnical tasks. so that the piece fonctions as an étude. ln addition. ú1e preludes illuslrate various keyboard performance conven· 1ioos and compos itional p ractices. For example, Nos. 2 anel 21 of Book I evoke thc s·tyle of toccatas, No. 8 (NAWM 102a) a co ncerto s low movcmcnt. No. 17 a conceno fast movement, and No . 24 a trio sonata. The fu1,rues consti Lute a compendium of fuga l writ ing, from two to f1ve voices anel from an a rchaic riccr,carc in Book l, No. 4 in Cj minor to an up- to -date stylc in No . 24 in B!, minor, featuring a subject with ali twelve chromatic notes anel long episodes with seque nces and circle- of- nfth progressions rem in iscent ofVivaldi. Fugue No. 8 in Di Miuor from Book I (NA\VM l 02b) illustrates several of Bach·s fuga) techniques, including inversion, augmentation, and strct.to (overlapping entrances of the subject). As in the organ fugues. each subject has a clearly defined musical personality that unfolds throughout the entire fugue. ½riety also marks the Goldberg Vari.ations (17 41). which raised the genre of keyboard variations to a new levei of artfulness. All tJ1irty variations preserve lhe bass anel harmonic structure of Lhe theme, a sarabande. Every Lhüd variation is a canon. the ftrst at Lhe interval of a unison, tl1e second ata second, and so on through the ninth. The noncanonic variations take many forms. includ ing fu1,rue. French overture. slow a ria. and bravura pieces for two manuals. The resuJt is a uni<(Ue piece that draws 011 many existingtypes, like a summatio n of the music of his time . It is aJso the most technically demanding keyboard work composed before lhe nineteenth cenlury. and its comb iaation of compositionail anel perfo rmingvirtuos ity excmpliftes an cssential aspect of Bach. The systcmatic, comprehensivc approach shown in the Goldberg Variations is evidenl in many of Bach"s works. He often wrote severa! pieces of the sarne typc in a short time, likc thc choraie prcludcs of the Orgelbüchlein. or sought to work out all the possil>ilities of a genre, lechnique, or idea, as in the preludes and rugues of The WeU-Tempered Clavier. This systcmatic tendency is clear in two u.nusua l works from his last years. The Musica! Ojfering contains a threeand a six- parl ricercare for keyboard anel ten canons, ali based on a lheme proposcd by Frcdcrick th e Crcat of Pruss ia and s hown in Examp lc l 9.3. Bach improvised on the theme while visiting the king at Potsclam in 1747 and then wrote these fugues and canons to demonstrate its potential. He added a trio sonata for flute (F'rederick's instrument). violin, and continuo. in which the theme aJso appears . had the set priuted. and dedicated iL to the king. TheAri

EXAMPLE 19.3:

Bach, themejimn the Musical Offering

1 Concose :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1

1 ConcoSé :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1

Goldbcrg Variations

Musica l Offering and The Arl of Fugue

442

C H A P T E K 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

EXAMPLE 19.4,

Johann S,basiian Bach

FIGURE 19.5: ÜlLtdoor

Ba.ch. themefrom The Art of Fugue

concert by tlte colfogiu,n musicunt of tlte University ofJen c,, in tlte 1740s. BC1clt led a similar1voup in Leipzig in rlte /730s.

of Fugue. composed in Lhe final decade of Bach's life. syslcmatically dcmonstrates ali types of fuga! writing. Wrillen in score though intended for keyboa rd pe rforman ce. it co nsists of eigh1een canons and fugues in 1he strictes1 s1ylc, ali bascd on lhe subjcct in Examplc 19.4 o.- onc of its transformations, and arranged in a general onie r of increasing com plexity. The last fubrue. left incomp lete at. Bach's death, has fou r s ubjects, including one spelling Bach's name: 81,-A- C-Bq, or B-A- C-H in Ce rman nomcnc.lalu re, B and H being the German te rms fo r Ili, and B!i, respect ively.

(M\IHUM FÜfl l(\JNSTUND ÇEWF..RRf., IL\MRURG/AKC •

l \ tAOtS)

CHAMBER MUSIC

Sono.tas

Worksfor imaccompanied instmments

Bach's chi ef compositions for channbcr cnse mblc are li ftccn so natas for solo instrumen ts and harpsichord: six ench for violin and flute, and three for viola da gamba . Most have four movemen ts in slow-fast-slow-fost order. like the sonata da chiesa. lneleed , most are virtual tri o sonatas, sin ce th e right - hand harpsichord partis often written out as a melodie line in co unterpoint with the other instrument. These are now believed to be products of Bach's Leipzig years. when he elirecteel th e collegium musicum. Bach's six sonatas and par1itas for violin alone, six s uiles for cello alone, and partita for solo flute are unusual, althougb not unprecedented , in featuring melody instruments witbout accompaniment. ln these works. Bach created the illusion of a harmonic and com rapuntal cexture by req uiring the pe1·former to play on severa] strings at once or jump between registers.

Leipzig's collegium had clone so since its founding by Telemann in 1704 . Bach apparently wrote his rwo violin concer1os and Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins for such concerts. He was one of the lirst to write-or arrangeconcertos for one or more harps ichords a nd orchestra, which he no douh L leel in performance from the keyboard. The concerto for four harpsichords and o rchestra is an arrangemenl of a Vivaldi concerto for four violins. and mosc or ali of the othe rs are arrangements of co ncercos hy Bach or perhaps by ot.her composers. Bach also w1·ote four orchest1'al suites, once aga in balancing ltal ian influences with French ones.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC Brandenburg Concertos

Collegium rnusicmn

Bach's bcst- known o rchcs l.ra.l wo rks are lhe six BrandenburgConcertos. eleeli · cated in 1721 to lhe Margrave of Brande nburg-who hael requesled so me pieces- but composcd during rhc p rcvious ten o r so yca rs. Por ali but thc f1 rst, Bach adoptecl lh e lh ree- moveme nt, fast- slow- fast orcler of the Italia n co nce rto. as well as its triadi e tbemes. steady driving rhythms. ritornello forms. and overall sryle. The Third anel Sixth feature multiple st ring parts with continuo, and lhe others pit solo ins lrnmenls in various combinations aga inst thc body of strin gs and co nt inuo; ali s ix ca n bc played eithcr with one player per part (as Bach may have performed them at Cõthen) or with string orchestra. ln typical Bach fashion, he also expanded on h is model. introducing more ritornello matei:ial into the episodes. featuring dialogue berween soloists and orchesrra within episodes. and enJarging the form with <levices such as the astonishing long caelenza for ihe haYpsichord (normally a continuo instrument!) in the Fifth Concerto. Mos t of Bach's orher orchestral music was written in 1he 1730s when he directed the Le ipzig collegium musicum, mad e up mos tly of university studen ts. By the early eighteenlh cen tury. such organizations often presented public concerts. like the o utdoo r concert shown in Figure 19.5:

443

CANTATAS ln 1700. Lu the ran theologia n and poet Erdrnann Neum eister (167 1- 1756) introduccd a ncw kind of sac rcel tcxt for mus ica l setting, which hc ca ll cel by thc ltalian lerm cantata. Throughoul the seve nteenlh century, Lutheraa co mposers had set biblical. liturgica l. and chorale texts. Neu me is ter added poeti.c texts, in tendeel to be setas rec itativcs, arias, and ariosos, tbat brought home the meaning of lhe day's Cospe! read ing. The new cburch cantata founel wid esp read acccptance among Luthcrans. lts poetry brought togethcr their faith's Orthoelox anel Pieristic tendencies , blending objective and subjective as well as formal and emotional elements. lts musical scheme incorporateel ali lhe great traditions of the past-the chorale. the solo song. the concertato medium- and adcleel to these the elramatically powerful elemenls of operalic recita tive andaria. Although Bach set only ftve of Neumeister's texts, many of bis ca ntatas follow a similar format. The church camata figtU·eel prominemly in lhe Lu theran liturgy of Leipzig. At the two main churches, St. Nicholas's and St. Thomas's, the principal Sunday service included a motel. a Kyrie. chorales. and a cantata 011 alternate Sundays (see Source Reading. p. 444). Bach directeel the f1rst choir. with

Role ín church

services

444

C H A P T E K 19

• German Composers of the La1e Baroqu•

Johann S, basiian Bach

445

about sixty cantatas each. Cantatas writtcn cluring the 1730s and early 1740s may he part of a lifth cycle. but if so, mauy of r.hese and of the fourth cycle have not survived. Approximately two hundred of bis church cantatas have been preserved. most uewly wrillen for Leipzig. others for earlier positions at Muhlhausen or Weimar. ln addilion. we have aboUl twenry secular cantai as

MUSIC IN LUTHERAN CHURCH SERVICES

written at Weimar. Cõthen. aud Leipzig to celebrate birthdays of his patrons

ln his first year as cantor and music director in Leipzig. Bach wrote out the arder of events, particularly the musical ones. for the main morning service on the fim Sunday in Advem. The main musical Item was the cantata. which Bach refers to here as "the principal compos,t,on." The subJect for the cantata was usually linked to 1he Gospel reading 1ha1 lmmedlately preceded it. and the sermon would often be on a sim,lar theme The choir also sang a motel and the Kyrie, the congregation sang chorales. and each musical Item was preceded by a prelude. often improvised, on the

or other festive even ts. Since these Lypically co uld b e pe rformed only on a single occasion. Bach often reused Lhe music for chw·ch cantatas, as shown in Figure 19.6. AJthough no s ingle example can suggesl l he breadth and va riely of Bach's Chorale cantatas cantatas, Nun komm. der Heiden Heiland. BWV 62 (NA\~' M 103) , co mposed i n 1 1 r::-::-:::7 Conciso ~ ~ 1724 for thc l1rs t Sunday inAdvcnt, illusl rates som e of hi s typica l p roccdures. Th is work was parl ofhis second cycle for Leipzig. which consis ted of ca nlalas whose words and music were ba sed on cho ral es. The unkn own p oct who wrote t he texts of these cantatas used lhe Ftrst anel last stanzas of a chorale for lhe opcn ing and clos ing choruses and pa raphrascd lhe middlc stanzas in p octrysuitab le for recitatives andarias. Bach then based the opening chorus on the cho rale melody, cndecl thc work with a simp le fourpart harmonization of the chorale for its closing stanza, and set the micld le movements as recitatives andarias in operatic style for the soloists. with few if any references to the chorale melody. For lhis ca.ntata, Bach and lhe librertist used Luther's Advent chorale Nun koinm. der Heiden Heil1md (see NAWM 46b and Example 10.lb). As we often fmd in Bach's choral works. th e opening choru s displays an ingenious mixture of ge nres-her e, concerto and chorale motet. The orchestra begius with a sprightly r itornello tlial would be al home in a Vivaldi co ncerl0, ye1 features the chor ale as a cantus f1rmus in lhe bass. Rcpcated r ising figures cvokc lhe sensc of we lcom e and anticipalion in lhe cho rale's lexl. which hc ralds the co ming of th e Savior. As in a co nce rto , this :rito rnello se rves as a framc for lhe movemcnt, recu n ing l hrec t im es in s horte ned or transposcd f'orm bcf'o rc its fu ll rep r ise in thc tonic at thc cnd. But FIGURE 19.6: Bach 's autograph ma11«script of instcad of episodes, Bach presents the four phrases of 1he serenata (orsecularcantata) Durchlauchl· t he chora lc in thc chorus, set in cantus - fmnus style: ster Leopold (Mosi Serene Highness leopold). th c sopranos, doubled by tbe horns, sing each phrase BWV 173a. wnttcnforthe bu·r.hdayofhis pu.tron . in longnotes above imitative cotmterpoint in the other theprince ofAnhalt.-Cõtlum. probablyin 1722. three parts. while the or chestra continues to develop Bach soon reu.sed the mt,sic for his ch11rch can tala motives from the ritornello. The first anel fourth Erhõhtcs Fleisch und Blut (Exalted f1esh and phrases are preceded by the lower voices in a point of Blood). BIW 173. addinglhe new te.~L be,ieat/1 lhe imitation based on tbe ch orale. Example 19.5 shows original words. lri the rltird rhrough ftfth measures. the fore- imitation and subsequem so prano em rance he afao revised zhe ,,ocal melody to beuer suiL ihe for the nrst choral e phrase, with phrases from the revamped text and lhe n.ew sin.ger. (STAA1's1nisL 10THr.ac ritor-uello iu the orchestra. The mixture of secular ZU UER.LJN, MUS, 1,IS, BACH l' ·U, FOL.. IR. PHOTO: IJ.l'.K,/AR'f and sacr ed models. anel of old- style counterpoint and ft[SOU8C t . NY)

organ.

1) Preluding 2) Motet

. -

3) Preluding on the Kyrie, which is performed throughout in concerted manner 4) lntoning before the altar 5) Reading of the Epistle

Cantata cycles

6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

11) 12) 13) 14)

Singing of the Litany Preluding on [and singing of) the Chorale Reading of the Gospel Preluding on [and performance of] the prin· cipal composition [cantata) Singing of the Creed [Luther's Credo hymn] The Sermon After the Sermon, as usual, singing of severa! verses of a hymn Words of lnstitution [of the Sacrament] Preluding on [and performance of) the co mposition (probably the second part of the cantata), After the sarne. alternate preluding and singing of chorales until the end of the Communion, et sic porrõ (and so on].

From The New Bach Reader: A Li{• o{ Johann Sebast,an Bach in Letters and Documents. ed. Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, rev. and enl. by Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton, 1998), 113.

lhe best s inge rs. at lhe church whose lurn it was Lo hear t he ca ntala. while a deputy conductcd lhe seco nd choir ai the other important church. The th ird and fourth choi rs . madc up of lhe lcss cxperie nccd s ingcr s. took care of thc m odesl mus ical r equire ments in lhe two re main ingc hurches. A 1730 me mo · randum f'rom Ba ch to the town council sct thc ideal minimum rcquircmcnts as twelve singers for eacb of the fusl three choi rs, which sang polypho n ic music, and e ight for thc fourth choi r, which sang only mo nop honic chan ts . Por th e ca ntatas, be sp eci ii ed a soloist and two o r three ripienists ( f'rom the l talian ripieno, "fu)J'') for each voice part (so prano , alto, tenor, and bass); the so loists sa ng thc so lo movcmcnts and wcrc joined by thc ripienists on thc chorai movements. Surviving performing parts suggest that Bach ol'ten performed cantatas with only four or eight singers total. The small orchestra that accompanied the cantata in cluded s trings with con tinuo . two or three oboes. and one or two bassoons. sometimes augmented with llules or. on l'eslive occasions, trumpets and timpani. Altogether. t he Leipzig clrnrches required nfty- eight cantatas each year. in addilion to Passion music for Good Friday. Magnif1cats at Vespers for three festivai s, an annual ca ntata for the installation of the city council, and occasional music such as funeral motets and wedding cantatas. Be1wee11 1723 a nd 1729 Bach composed at least three and possibly four complete annual cycles of

446

C H A P T E K 19

• German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

cantus nrmus witb modern ltalianate style. is characteristic of Bach. creating a depth of meani11gs through refere nces to many familiar iypes of music. The four solo movements set sacred texts in operatic idioms. A da capo aria for tenor muses on the mystery of tbe Incarnalion: as if to show Jesus' embodiment as a human being, Bach wrote tbe aria in minuet sryle with

EXAMPLE 19.5,

OTHER CHURCH MUSIC

Passions

Bach's church music was not confmed to cantatas but included motets, Passions, and Latin service music. Most important are his Passions and his Mass in B Minor. Bach wrote two surviving Passions, telling the story of Jesus' crucinxion, for performance ar Vespers on Good Friday in Leipzig. Both theSt. John Passion (1724. !ater revised). based on tbe account of John 18- 19. and tbe St. Matthew Passion (1727, revised 1736), 011 Manbew 26-27, employ recitatives, arias , ensembles, choruses. chorales sung by tbe chorus, aod orchestral accompaniment. Tbis type of setting. drawing on elements from opera. cantata. and oratorios. had replaced the older rype composed by Schütz and otbers. whicb combined plainsong natTation widi polyphony (see chapter 15). ln both Passions. a tenor narrates lhe biblical story in the style of recitative. soloists play tJ1e paris of Jesus and other f1gures, and lhe chorus sings lhe words of lhe disciples, the crowd , anel other &rroups. At other times the chorus co mme nts on evcnts. like thc cborus in a Crcck drama. Thc intcrpolalcd rccilativcs. ariosos, anda ri as se rve a simila r purpose, reílecl ing on t:he slory and relat:i ng its meaning to the individual worsh iper. The exce rpt from the St.. Ma.tthew Passion in NAWM 104 relates lwo dramatic episodes in lhe Passion sto ry: the judgment of Jesus' gu ilt, a nd his dis ciplc Pct.c r·s dcnials that hc knows Jesus. Both evo kc high cmotions. Thc li rst ends with the anger and violeoce of the priesls, scribes, and elders against Jesus, which Bach captured in short. agitatcd choruses marked by rap id imita tive entrances aud aJternation between voices. Tbere follows a contemplative chorale expressing the reactions of the congregation listening to Bacb's Passion. who sympathize with Jesus. The story of Peter's three-fold denials has a similar are. beginningwith simple narration but moving to highly eiqJrcssive recitative for Peter's bitter tears wheo he realizes tbat he bas betrayed bis friend. justas Jesus propbesied he would do. Peter's remorse is then refiected in one of Bach's most moving arias. wbose drooping úgw·es. sighing gestures. long-spun phrases, and continuous form capture d1e overwhelming grief of oue who feels remorse and cries for God's mercy. After this outburst. acho rale expresses conúdence that God's grace is greater than lhe believer's sin.

Entrance of thefirst phrase of the chorale in Nun komm. der Heiden Heiland. BWV 62

a . Fore-imitation ín alto. tenor, a,1d bass '7 - "

Soprnno t)

predominantly four-measure phrasing. evoking the physicaJ body through dance. Nexl are a recitalive and aria for bass. praising the Savior as a hero who conquers evil. The recirnlive includes word-paiming. sucb as a run oo "laufen" (run) . The aria follows th e operatic convcntions for heroic or mar lia l arias. wii.h lhe orchestra playing in octaves Lbrougbout. and lhe f1gura Lion e mphas izing rapid motions. large leaps. and jumpi ng arpeggios. The soprano and alio joi n in an accompanied reci ta tive, moving i n sweet para ll el lhü·ds and sixths as they exp ress awe at Lhe nativity scene. The closiog cbo ra le verse is a doxology, praising F'alher, Son, and Holy Spirit.

447

Johann S,basiian Bach

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448

C H A P T E K 19 · German Composers of the La1e Baroqu•

George Frideric Handel

449

By dramaüiing the events in the story. theu e:-qiressing the reactions of a con temporary believer, Bach's Passion setting pulled his listeuers emotionally into the Gospel account and helped them experience it directly. Although now performed as works for large choil' and orchestra. receut research ou the performance partssuggests that Bach's Passions were iutended

Moss in B Minor

for just four solo aud four ripieno singers. who divided the roles among them

A CRITIQUE OF BACH'S STYLE

and joined together for the choral movements. Thus lhe sarne singers portrayed the roles LO the Gospel SLO ry and commented on it in solo movemems and chorales, embodying in themse lves Lhe iclentincalion of modern believers with lhe ancient events that lhe Passion was meanl to pro mote. Bach assemb led the Mass in B Minar, hison lycompleteseuingof1he Ca1holic Mass Ordinary, bclwecn 1747 anel 1749. Hc (frcw mosl of il from music he had composed much eulier. He had already presented the Kyrie and Gloria in 1733 to the Catholic clector of Saxony, in hopes of getting an hono ra,y appointment to the electoral chapei. which he diel receive three yea rs la ter. The Sanctus was fll'st perforrneel on Chcislrnas Day 1724. He adapted sorne of the other sections from ca ntata movcmcnts composcd betwecn 17 14 and 1735, rcplacingthe Gcrman text witb thc Latin words ofthc Mass and rcworkingthc music. Of the newly composed sections, the opening of the Credo and the Confiteor (a later passage of the Credo) are in stile ontico. the Et i11comotu,s (also in the Credo) and Benedictus (l'rom the Sanctus) in modern styles. Throughout the work, he juxtaposed contrasting styles, making the Mass in B Minar a compendium of approaches to church music. Siuce the mass was never performed as a whole dul'iug Bach's lifelime, and is too long to fuuction well as service music, he may have intended it as an anthology of movements, each a maciel of its type. that could be performed separately. As a collection of exempla1y works. Lhe Mass in B M[nor stands with The Well-Tempered C/,avier. The Art of Fugue. and the Musical Offering as witness to Bach's desire to create comprehensive cycles that explore the furthesl potential of a medi um or geure.

The composer and critic Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708-1776) considered Bach unsurpassable as an organist and keyboard composer. However. he found much of the rest of Bach's music overly elaborate and confused, preferring the more tuneful and straightforward styles of younger composers such as Johann Adolph Hasse (see chapter 21). Scheibe's critique is only one volley in the long argument between advocates of Baroque styles and part1sans of the new galant style.

BACH '$ SYNTHESIS Bach absorbeel into his wo rks ali nhe geares. styles. anel forms of his time and developed hitherto unsuspeeted potentialit ies in them. ln hi s music, tbe often conflicl ing demands ofh.armony anel co un le rpoint, o[ melody and polypho ny, reac ha tense but satisfying equilibrium. Many qua li ties give hi s works dccp and last ing appeal: conccntratcd and distinctive themcs, copious musical invention, balance between harmonic and contrapuntal forces, sh·ong rhythmic drive. elarity of form, grand proportions. imaginative use of pictorial and symbolic figures , imensity of expression always controU ed by a ru ling architectural idea, anel careful attention to every de1ail. This recipe was too rich for some of his contemporaries. who preferred less complex. more ruueful music (see Source Reading). Throughoul the 1720s anel 1730s, the very decades dming which Bach composed some of bis most important works. the new style emanatiug from the opera houses of ltaly invaded Germauy and 1he t·es1 of Europe (see chaplers 20 and 21). making Bach's music seem old-fashioned. Never entirely forgotten, he was red iscovered and achieved euormous popularity iu the nineteenth century. when music that could please both amaleurs and connoisseurs and could keep its

- ~

This great man would be the admiration of whole nations if he had more amenity, if he did not take away the natural element in his pieces by giving them a turgid and confused style. and if he did not darken their beauty by an excess of art. Since he judges according to his own fingers, his pieces are extremely difficult to play: for he demands that singers and instrumentalists should be able to do with their throats and instruments what·

ever he can play on the clavier. But this is impossible. Every ornament. every little grace, and everything that one thinks of as belonging to 1he method of playing, he expresses completely ln notes: and this not only takes away írom his pieces the beauty of harmony but completely covers lhe melody lhroughout. Ali the voices must work with each other and be of equal difficulty. and none of them can be recognized as the principal voice. ln short, heis in music what Mr. von Lohenstein was in poetry. Turgidity has led them both from the natural to the artificial, and from the lofty to the somber: and in both one admires rhe on erous labor and uncommon effort-which, however, are vainly employed, since they conílict with Nature. From an anonymous letter by "an ablc iraveling musician" published in Schcibe's periodical rcview, Der critische Musikus. May 14. 1737, translated in The New Bach Reader. ed. Hans T. David and Ar1hur Mendel. rev. and enl. by Christoph Wolff(New York: Norton, 1998), 338.

appe.al lhrough many performances was highly prizeel. Perhaps only a composeir who spent mosl of his life teaehing, wrote excellent music for studcn ts at cvery levei from beginning to advanccd. worked in positions thaL constantly demanded new music for im meeliate performance, embraccd a wide variety of genrcs and app roachcs, anel aspired to explo re ali thc possibilitics of cvcry kind of music he encountered, could achieve the cent ral position Bach now occupics in thc Wcstcrn musical h·adition.

George Frideric Handel Unlike Vivaldi. Rameau. and Bach. who rarely trave led outside their countries. George Frideric Handel (1685- 1759) moved comfortably among Gennan-. ltalian-, and English-speaking cities (see biography and Figure 19.7 .. p. 450). His Gennan music teacher gave him a thorough education iu organ. harpsichord. coumerpoint. aud currem German and Iialian idioms. When he was a young man, three years at the Hamburg opera house and four years iu Italy helped to lay the l'oundations ofhis style. He matureel as a composer in England . the counlry then most hospitable to foreign composers.

450

C ti A P T E li 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL [GEORG FRI EDERICH HANDEL] (1685-1759) Handel, recognized since his own time as one of che greatesc composers of his era. was a mascer of ali types of vocal and instrumental music. He is best known for his English oratorios. a genre he invented. and for his ltalian operas. Handelwas born in Halle. Germany, the son of a barber·surgeon at the localcourt. His father wanted him to study law. but he practiced music secretly. His organ playing at che age of nine impressed the duke, who persuaded Handel's father to let him study with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, composer, organist. and church music director in Halle. Under Zachow, Handelbecame an accomplished organist and harpsichordist, studied violin and oboe, mas· tered counterpoint, and leamed the music of Ger· man and ltalian composers by copying their scores. He entered the University of Halle in 1702 and was appointed cathedral organist. The following year, he abandoned the cantor's career for which Zachow had prepared him and instead moved to Hamburg. the center for German opera. There he played violin in che opera house orchestra and wrote his own first opera. A/mira. performed with great success in 1705, when Handel was just nineteen.

FIG URE 19.7 George Fndenc Handel ai /tis eornposing desk. in a portrail by Philippe Mercier. (ARCHIVO JCONOGRA.FtCO, S..A./C:ORBJS)

Moreover, England provided the cho rai ti-adition th at made Mandel's ora to rios possiblc Vivaldi's influcncc o n th c musical wo rld was immcdi atc, ahh ough he died almosl lotaJly forgotten; R.amea u·s was fell more l!lowly. and then mainly in the ft clds of opera ,:md music thcory: and Bach's work Jay in comparative obscuri ty un til the nin eteenth century. But Handel wo n internationaJ renown du ringhis lifetime, and bis music has been performed eversince, ma lcing him thc lirst composer whose music has never ceased to be pcrfonncd. Handel's music was enormously popular. When bis Miisic fo r the Royal Fireworks was given a public rehearsal in 1749. it attracted an audience of over 12.000 people and stopped traffic in London for three hours. How could a com poser gain such popula rity. aod why should it be Handel? The answer to the nrst question is tha t fo r virtually th e ôrst time, a composer was working for the public-not just for a church. a court. or a town council- and it is Lhe public that bes1ows popular iry. And why Handel? He had a keen business sense and was supremely adaptable, able to measure and serve tbe taste of the public. He could do this because of his cosmopolitan and eclectic style. d rawing on Germa n. ltal ian. French. and English music.

George Frideric Handel

The following year, Handel traveled to ltaly a t the invitation oí Prince Fernando de' Mediei. Winning recognition as a promising young composer. he associated with the leading patrons and musicians of Florence, Rome, Naples. and Venice. While in Italy. Handel wrote a large number of Italian cantatas. two oratorios. several Latin motets. a nd the operas Rodrigo (1707) for Florence and Agrippina (1709) for Venice. After a brief period at the court in Hanover. Germany, Handel spent the rest oí his life in London, where he ;,dopted the English version of his n;,me. served aristocratic patrons. and enjoyed the liíelong support of the British royal íamily. ln the 1730s, ;,fter three decades oí writing ltalian operas for che London theaters, Handel turned to oratorios in English. mostly on sacred subjects. He also published a considerable amount of instrumental music, from solo and trio sonatas to concertos and orchestral suites, including Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Handel never mar1ied. ln ltaly and London, he lived with various patrons until 1723. when he leased a house in an upper•dass neighborhood where he stayed the rest of his liíe. There were rumors of brief aífairs with sopranos. but none has been subs tantia ted. Recently. scholars have

noted that several of his patrons moved in social circles where same·sex desire was common. and that the texts of the cantatas Handel wrote for these patrons oíten allude to love between men in coded terms. Whether Handel himself had intimate relationships with anyone of either sex remains open to question. Handel's imperious, independent nature made him a formidable presence, but the rougher sidesoí his personality were balance d bya sense oí humor and redeemed by a generous and honor;,ble ;,ppro;,ch to life. Experiencing both successes and failures. criticism as well as praise, Handel suífered physical ailments as he aged, notably a paralytic stroke in 1737 (from which he recovered) and cataracts in his final years. By che end of his life he ranked as one of the most revered figures in London. and some three thousand people attended his funeral at Westminster Abbey. MAJOR WORKS: Messioh. Sou/. Somson. Israel ,n fgypl. and about 20 other oratorios: Glul10 Cesare and about 40 other ltallan operas: numerou, odes. anthems. and other sacred vocal music: aboul 100 ltolion contatas: aboul 45 concertos. 20 trio sonatas. 20 solo sonatas. numerous keyboard pieces. and the well-known Water Music and Music for th, Royal Fir,worh

HANDEL AND HIS PATRONS Altho ugh Ha ndel achieved his greatest fame writing music for public performance, hc was no freclancer. F'rom his earlyyears in ltaly to the cnd of hi s lifc. he enjoyed the gencrous suppon of patrons. Their wisbes often dete rmi ned what he composed, yet tbeir suppo1i also allowed him frecdom to writc operas and oratorios for the puhlic. ln lcaly, Handel's chief patron was Marquis Francesco Rus poli, who employed the young musician as keyboard playe r and composer in Rome and at his country esta te. There Handel wrote Latiu motets for church performances and o umerous chamher cantatas for Ruspoli's weekly priva te music- making. Hi red in 171Oas comi music director for the elector of Hanover in north central Ge rma ny. Handel used the position to establish himself in London. Th is is less odt! than it may seem: Lhe elector was heir 10 Lhe British Lhrone. and the incumbem , Queen Anne, was in precari ous health, so it was only a mall.er of time before Handel's patron wot1ld be in England lú mself. Handel s pent lhe 171 0- 11 season in London. drawing his Hanove r salary while he

451

452

C H A P T E K 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

wrote Rinaldo for the Queen's Theatre. the uew puhlic opera house. \Vhen he carne to London a second time ili 1712, he found a supportive patron in the earl of Burlington, in whose house he lived and for whom he wrote ltalian cantatas and other works. Later. in 1717- 19, he served a similar role for James Brydges, earl of Carnarvon, later duke of Chandos, composing during

Londonoperas

453

bringing Handel additional reveuue . He wrote four more operas in the 171 Os, and wi th revivais of Rinaldo. a Handel opera was staged almost every season. ln 1718-19, ahouc sixty wealchy genclemen,

that period Lhe large-scale Ghandos Anthems for church services.

with the suppo11 of the king. established a joim

Handel's most important patrons were the British monarchs. ln 1713. Queen Anne co mmissioned severa] ce remo nial chorai works, including a Te Deum and OdeforQueen.A,ine's Birt/1.(/a)", for which Handel took Pu,-cell's compositions as bis model. The Queen granted Handel a pensio n of l200 a year ( rough ly twi ce what Bach made in Leipz ig). After she died in 1714 and the elcctor of Hanover was c,·owned King George 1, hc doublcd Hand e l"s pcnsion lo t:400 . George·s daughter-in- law. the future Queen Caroline, increased il. to l600 around 1724, when Handel undcrtook the musica l cducation of her daughtc rs. Porthc rcst of his lifc, H:indel could dcpcnd on this sizab lc income <lespite minimal responsibilities, a situation that contrasted with Bach's. ln 1723, he won honorary appoint mc nt as composer to the Chape i Royal. Hc continued co supply music for important state occasions; for the coronation of King George li in 1727 he wrote four splendid anthems, including Zadok the Priest., perform ed at every British corouation sincc. But while he was closely idemified with rhe royaJ house, most of his activities were iu the public sphere, writing and producing operas and !ater oratorios and composing for puhlication.

stock company for producing Italian operas. They calied il Lhe Royal Acaderny of Music. The operas were stagcd at the King's Theatre in th e Haymarket. shown in Figure 19.8. Handel was engaged as Lhe mus ic di rec1.o r. He travelecl Lo Gc rmany lo recruil singc rs, mostly ltalians performing in Dresden and oth er courts. Perhaps hi s biggest catch was the arrogant but widely cc lcb ratcd castrato Scnesino. Giovanni Bononcini (1670- l 747) was brought from Rome to compose operas anel to play in th e orcbcstra.. Latcr, the emincnt sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni (1696- 1778) and Faustina Bordoni ( 1697- 178 1) joined the group. For this FIGURE19.8, EntrywartotheKin.g'sTTteatrein lôndon . company, whicb llourished f'rom l 720 to 1728, when: ,nost of Hand-e/'s operaswere pe,formecl. From ,he Hande l composed some of his best operas. entrance. stairs /ecl upward w ilw lobbxof a sumptuo11-S inc l.udiug Radamisto ( 1720), Otto,ie ( 1723), auditoriuni. manylimes largerthaii orie migh1 expec1 Jrom Git,/.io Cesare (Julius Caesar, 1721), Rodclinda. this street 11iew. Engravingfrom ca. 1780. (AkCHl\'O 1c-oso(l 725), and Admeto (1727). The subjects of c1W'1co.,.A.1coau1sJ Hande l's operas were the usual ones of the time: episodes from the Jives of Roman heroes freely adapled to include the maxi mum number of intense dramatic situations, or ta.les of magi c and marvelous adventure revolving around the Crusades. The action developed lhrough dialogue rendered in the two clistinct types Recitative s tyles of rec itative that eme rged in ILal ian opera in the ea rly eigh teenth century. One type. accompanicd only by basso continuo, sct stretchcs of dialogue or monologue in as speechlike a fashion as possihle (as in the Scarlat1i reci talive in Example 17.1 ). lt wou ld la ter be called recitativo sem.piice. o r sim plc rcciwtivc. and eventually recitativo secco (d,y recitative), The other lype, ca llecl recitati.vo obbligato anel la.ter recitativo accompag1imo. or <1cco1111JC111ied ,·ccit<tlivc, usecl stirring and im pressive orchestra.J ou tbursts to dramatize tense situa.tions (sce Example 19.7 on p. 456). These interjections reinforced the rapicl changes of emotion in a character's monologue and punctuated the singcr's phrases. Solo da capo arias allowed the characters to respond lyrically to their situ- A rias ations, Each aria represemed a single specinc mood or affection, or sometimes two contrasting but related affections in the A anel B sections. At the singers' insistence. tbe arias had to b e allocated accorcling to Lhe importance of each memher of the cast and had to display the scope of each singer's vocal and dramatic powers. The prim<t domw ("árst lady") . the soprano singing the leading female role. normally demanded the most and the best arias (hence t.he mocl ern mean ing of that phrase). Handel wro te for speci lic singers. seeking lo show off their ahilities to lhe best advantage. Handel's scores are rema1·kahle forthe wide variety of a ria types. They range

OPERAS

lnternationol style

George Frideric Hand•I

Handel devoted thirty -six yea rs to compos ing and directing operas. which contain much of his best music. ln an age when opera was the main concern of amhitious musicians. Handel excelled among bis contemporaries. Handel's blending of national styles is evide nl from his lirsl opera. A/mira (1705), pre mie red in Hamburg when he was nineteen. He ke pt to the local fashion of setling the a ria8 in Italian and thc rcc itat.ivcs in German. so thc audience cou ld follow lhe plot. lmitating Re inhard Keise r, lhe dominanl ope ra composcr in Hamburg, Hande l patte rned thc overturc and dance music afte r French models, composed most of the a rias in tbe ltalian manner, and i ncorporaled German e leme nls in the cou nterpoint anel orchestrat ion. ln ltaly, he learned from Scarlatti's cantatas and operas how to create supp le, longbreathed, rhythmically varied mefodies thal seem nalurally suitecl for the voice, amply dcmonstratcd in Handcl'sAgrippin-a (Ven icc. 1709). Evcr aftcr, bis operatic style was uniquely internatioual, comhining French overtures anel dances, lta lianate arias and recitatives, and Germ.an traits, notahly the rendency to double the vocal line with one or more instruments. Handel's Rinald.o 0711) was the li.rsL opera in ltalian composed for London. lnteresr there in ltalian opera had been stimulated by the success of Thomas Clayton'sArsinoe 0705). an opera in ltalian style based on an English transla1ion of an ltalian lihretto. so Handel arrived at the perfect lime. fresh from his experiences in ltaly. His brilliant music, combined with elaborate stage effects. made Rinaldo a sensation and helped establish Handel's public reputation in England. The arias were published by John Walsh.

454

C H A P T E K 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

from brilliant clisplays of florid ornamentation. known as colo,·atnm. to sustained, sublimely expressive pathetic songs, such as Se pietà in Giuli.o Cesare. Arias of regai grandeur with rich contrapuntal and concertato accompaniments contras! with arias whose simple. folklike melodies suggest the French or Ger man air. The pastoral scenes are notewortl1y examples of eighteenth-century

nature painting. Some arias feature the tone-color of a particular instrumem

Instrumental sections

Scene complexes

1 Conciso :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1

Handel as impresario

to set tl1e mood. as the horn does in Caesar's aria Va tacito e nascosto from Giulio Ces(1re. i n which bolh voice and inSLL·wnent imita te a hwiLing horn. ln severa! operas, Handel used instrumental s in fonias Lo mark key moments in the plot such as battles. ceremonies. or incantations. anda few of his operas includ e balle ts. The oi·ches tra is usually fuller than fo r Scarla1ti operas, with more use oi' ,vincls. as in French operas. Voca l cnsemblcs largcr thao duets are rare. as are cho ruses. One o r both types of recitative are somei imes free ly combinecl with a rias, ariosos, anel orchcstral passagcs to makc large r sccnc complcxcs thal reca i1 lhe freedom of Moateverdi's operas and foreshaclow lhe methocls of )ater composcrs s uch as Cluck (scc chapter 21). lnstcad of prcscn ting thc ploi in recitative, tben thc aria with orchcstral ritoroello as a static momcnt, Handel inlerleaves these elements so thal the plol continues to move forward. ln Ciulio Ceso,re. Act 11, sccnes 1- 2 ('IIAWM 105) . after dialogue in s implc rcc itative, Cleopatra's da capo aria V'adoro, p1tpille is interwoveo witb other elements. Caesar has beeo brought ro a grave where he overhears Cleopaira s inging. An orchestral sinfonia. essentially the opening ritornello. intro cluces lhe aria's principal mo1ive. From his hidiog place, Caesar unexpecteclly breaks in, expressiog awe io a brief recitative. Cleopatra sings the nrst and middle sections of the aria. then stops: transftxed. Caesar again commeots io recü ative. wonderiog ar lhe beauty of 1he song. Ooly then does Cleopatra take up the repetition of the A section, now not justa conventional formal <levice but somethiog more profound. because we know of Caesar's eolra ocemenl. ThroughouL 1he opera. Handel's characLerisLic co mbination of nalional clcmcnts is apparcol. ClcopaLra·s a ria. shown in Examplc 19.6. is io Freoch sa rabande rhythm. arousing lhe assoc iations that dance carried witJ, dignity, love, anel seduct ion. Yet the da capo form of the a ri a is lta lian. the voice is doubled by inslrurnc11ts in thc Cerman mano cr, and th e o rchcstra is div ided as in an ltalian concerto, wit h so loists accompanying lhe voice and the Fui) orchcstra offering punctuation. Stresscd by rising sala ries for the singers, lhe Royal Academy dissolved in 1729. Allhough the co ll apse has sorn etim es been linked to a dispute betwee n the two sopranos Cuzioni anel Bordoni or to thc popuJar success in 1728 of The Beggar's Opera. John Cay·s English ballad opera (see chapter 21), which satirized opera and the Academy, the main causes were fmancial. Handel and a partoer took over the theater. formed a new company. aud had severa! great successes with Senesino inche major roles. But Senesino fotmcl Handel ctictatorial; he left in 1733 and soon joined a competing company, the Opera of me Nobility. which feattu·ed Lhe Neapolitan composer Nicola Porpora (16861768) aod the highest-priced singers in Europe. The two compaoies spenr so much on singers aud staging aod so completely divided the London public that by 1737 both were oearly bankrupt. aod the Opera of the Nobility closed

4 55

George Frideric Handel

EXAMPLE 19.6;

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Begi.nningof"V'adoro pupille. a,riaji-om Handel's Ciulio Cesare

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that summer. Although Handel continued to write and produce operas until 1741. none matched his earlier successes.

ORATORIOS ln tlle l 730s. Handel devised a new genre tbaL would reward hinl as richly as opera hacl anel bring him his greatesl popularity: the English oratorio. The Ital ian oratorio was essentially ao opera on a sacred subject. presenteei in concert., usually in a re ligious building. rathe r than on stage. Hande l had

d'A

456

C H A P T E K 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

Use ofchorus

Sau l

George Frideric Hand•I

wTinen such a work. La resurrezione (The Resurrection. 1708). during bis stay in Rome. ln his English oratorios, he continued aspects of the ltalian tradition by setting dialogue in recitative and lyrical verses asarias. The latter resemble his opera arias in form. style. the nature of musical ideas. and techniques for expressing the affections. Bu1 Handel and his lihrettists hrought into their

were usua lly performed in lheaters. Esther. which premiered at the King's Thea h·e in 1732, was the ftrst in a series of o rato rios Handel put on in almost eve1y subsequent Lenten season as a way to extend his earnings from opera, which could not be staged during Lent. But the decisive move to oratorio hegan when suhscriptions to the 1738-39 opera season were insuff1ciem,

oratorios elements that were foreign to ltalian opera. taken from French clas-

so instcad of a new opera. Handel composed the ora to rio Saiil to a libretto by

sical drama. ancient Greek tragedy. the German Passion. and especially the English masque and full anthe m. Handel's most important innovation in the oratorios was his use of the chorus. ltalian oralorios had al mosl a few ensembles. Ha.ndel's experience with chorai musi c led h im to give the chorus much more prom inence. Hi s early training had mad e him familiar wi1·h Lutheran chorai music and with the south Cerman combina tio o of chorus with orchestra and soloisls. He was especially influenced by th e English chorai tradition, which he had abso rbed and cxtended in his Chandos Anthcms and works for the Chapei Royal. Thus, in bis oratorios, the chorus makes a crucial contribution. lt plays a variety of rol es, participating in the act ion, narrMing the story, or comme11ting 011 cvents li ke the chorus in Grcck drama ar in Bach's Passions. Tbc grand character of bis chorai style, drawn from lhe English tradition, ftts the oratorio's emphasis 011 communal ratherthan individual expression. ln bis choruses, Handel was a dramatist , a master of effecis. He wrote for chorus in a style simpler and less consistently contrapuntal than Baclú. He alternated passages in open fuga) texture with solid blocks of harmony and often set a melodie line in sustained notes against one in quicker rhytlun. Everything lies well for the voices, and the orchestra usuaUy reinforces the vocal parts . making bis chorai music a pleasure to sing- one factor in its enduring popularity. Handel's ftrst oratorio in English was Esther. revised from a masqu e of about 1718. Like !tis operas but untlike oratorios in Italy. Handel's oratorios

Charles Jennens for a three - month season of choral works in early 1739. The closing scene of Act II ( NAWM 106 ) illustrates the blend ing of genres in Hand el's oratorios. Saul, king of Israe l, sees the you ng military hero David as a rival. ln an accompanied rec itative in marlia l style ( NAWM l 06a ). s howa ia E:xample 19.7, Saul reso lves to have David kill ed. Dialogue bctwccn Saul and his son Jonathan , David's bcloved fri end, is rend c,·cd in simple rec iLalive (NAWM 106b). After these two numbers in styles borrowed from ope ra, Handel presents not an a ri a, bu t a chorus that re flects o n thc morality oi' the s ituation: Ofata,t Consequence of Rage ( 'IAWM 10(,r). lt comprises a series of three fugues, each ending with a majestic homo rhythm ic passage. ln typica l Handelian style, thc chorus is f'illed wit h rhc toricaJ figures that convey thc meaning of the text. ln tbe opcning section, a fall ing tritone to express sorrow in the fugue subject and the use of rapid repeatcd notes to exprcss rage both recall tcchniques first introduced by Monteverdi (see chapter 14). Saul was well received. but Handel continued to compose and produce operas. He comrnitted himself fuUy to the new geme only after remarkable success during the wimer of 1741-42 with a series of oratorios and other co nc-erts in Dublin. lreland . The trip culminated in performances of a new oralorio. Messiah (1741). which would hecome Handel's mosl famous work. lt.s librelto. also by Jennens. is unusual: instead of celling a srory. il unfo lds as a series of contemplations on the Christian idea of redemption using texts drawn frorn the Bihle. heginning with Old Testament prophecies and going th rough the li fe of Christ to h is resurrection. AI,_•..,,....-1-i:::t Howeve r, lhe music oí Messiah is typical oí Hande l, full of his characteristic cha rm, immediate appca l, and m ixturc of tra dit ions. from the F'rcnch overture lo the ltalianate recitatives and da capo a ri as, che Germa11ic chorai fugues, and the English chorai anthem style. Handel anda co ll aborator leascd a theater in London to present oratorios every year during Leut. As an added attraction at these performances. tbe composer played an organ concerto ar improvised at the organ during interntissions. Figure 19.9 shows a comemporary sketch of an oratorio performance, perhaps led by Handel. with a cho rus and orchestra each num.bering ahoul twenty. Oratorios needed no staging or

EXAM PLE 19.7:

Accompanied recitative from Handel's Saul,Act II, scene 10

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Drowing ofM oratorio peiforma11ce i,1 London arou,,id the m iddle of rlte eighreenth cenu,,y. sltowing C1bo1&1 twe,1ty singers a.ncl som e twent)' iitStrumcntalisrs. Hundel mwy be tlte fi.g11re on tltc right orlhe playerat lhe harpsichord. FIGURE 19.9:

458

C H A P T E K 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

Librettos

Borrowing

EXAMPLE 19.8:

George Frideric Handel

cosrumes and could use English singers, who were a good deaJ less expensive than ltalian ones, so it was much easier to turn a proftt. Oratorios aJso appealed to a potentially large middJe-class public that had never fe lt at home with the aristocratic entertainment of opera in Italian. The English public's enthusiaslic response to these concerts laid the foundation for rhe immense

music of otbers. while four cboruses were arrangemeuts from earlier works by Handel himself. When sucb i.nstances of borrowing were discovered in the nineteenth century, Handel was charged with plagiarism, because audiences and critics of that time valued originality and demanded original themes. fn Handel's time, simply presenting another composer's work as one's own

popularity that made Handel's music the prevailing influence in British musi-

was condemned. but borrowing. transcribing. adapting. rearrangiug. and

cal life for more than a century. Ora to rios were no1 church mus ic: Lhey we re inte nded for I he co ncert hall and wc rc much closcr to t.hcatrical performances than to church scrv iccsin<leed, Messiah was advertise<l as a "sacred enlerlainmenl." But slories írom the Bible and Apocryphal books were well lcnown to middle -class Protestam lisrcne,·s, mu ch mo re so t han lhe h isto,·ical o,· mythological plots oi' llalian ope ra. so most oí HaJ1del's o ratorios were baseei on the Old Testamenl. Moreovcr, such subjects as So,ul. Israel in Egypt (1739), Judas Maccabaeus ( 1747), and]oshua, (1748) had an appea l based on something beyond fam il iarity with the ancient sacred narratives: in an era of prosperity and expanding empire, English audicnccs fclt a ldnship with th c ancicnl ls raclitcs whosc hcrocs triumphed with the speciaJ blessing of God. \Ve have seen that Bach often borrowed and reworked music by himself or by other composers. This pracHce was common at the time. but Hande l borrowed more tban most. Three duecs and eleven of tbe twenty-eight cboruses of Israel in Egypt, for example, were taken in whole or in part from tbe

parodying were universaJ and accepted praclices. When Handel borrowed. be more oíten Lhan no L repaid with interest. fin<ling new potential in lhe borrowed material. lndeed. Ha.ndel borrowed írom olhers or reused bis own rnusic only when 1.he material was well suit ed for its new role. As illustrared in Example 19 .8. one of the best- known cho,·uscs in Messioh was aclaptcd írom an ltalian cluc r Lhal Handel had recen tly corn posed. but Lhe rnusic is períect for its new text. 1'hc c horus s ings, '"Ali we like s heep" as a group , the n "have gone astray'' as single, diverging melodie lin es; "we have turncd" is set to a rapid ly twisting, turn ing Figure that never gets away from ils starting point; and "every one to his own way" is rend ercd with stubborn insistcncc on a si ngle rcpcated note. The lirst motive is suhstantiaJly rccast, but ·thc others are essentiaUy unchanged. [tis hard to imagine thal these musical icleas were conceived for any other tcxt. but they werc, and the composer's clcverncss is rcvealed in how ,vell be makes them work in tbe new context. The only wholly new material appears in the last few measures, where the point of the chorus is revealed suddenJy. with dramatic force. in a slow. solernn. minor- mode setting of the words "'And the Lord hatb laid on Him lhe iniq11iry of us all."

HandeL"s reworkin.gs in AJI we like sheep have gone ascray, from Messiah

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AJthough Handel made his reputation with voca l works, he wrote a great deal of instrumental music. Much of it was published by John WaJsh in London. earning Hand el exl ra in come anel kee ping his name before the public in lheir home music - mak ing. There were also unauthorized prints by other publis hers , for which Handel rcccived nothing. His kcyboard works includc two collcctions of harpsicho rd suites lha! conta in not only t.he usua l dance moveme nls bul also cxamples of most kcyboard gcnres currcnt at the time. Handel composed some twell'ly solo sonatas, anel almost as many trio sonatas for various instrurnenls. Co rcllli's influence can bc heard in these wo rks. but the sophisticated harmonies and vivacious fast movcments reflcct a later ltalian style. Handel"s most popular instrumental works are his two suites for orchestra or wi n ds, both composcd for thc king and intendcd for outdoor performance. Wa1er Music (1717) contains three suites for wi11ds and strings, played from a boat duri11g a royaJ procession on the !tiver Thames for tbe king. Mu.sic for the Roya.l Fireworks (17 49). for winds (a lthough Handel !ater added strings). was composed t.o accompany fireworks set off in a London pa:rk 10 celebrate lhe Peace ofAix-la -Chapelle. Hand el's concertos mix tradition and innovation but tend toward a retrospeciive style. His six Concerti Grossi. Op. 3 (publish ecl 1734). reature woodwind and string soloists in novel combinations. He invented tbe concerto for organ and orchestra. wbich he performed during lhe intermissions of his oratorios and published in three sels (1 738. 1740. and 1761) . His most

Ensernble suites

Concertos

459

460

C ti A P T E li 19 • German Composers of the Late Baroqu•

signincant concertos are the Twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6, composed during one momh in 1739 anel published the next year. lnstead of following Vivaldi's moclel. Handel adopted Corelli's conception of a sonata da chiesa for full orchestra, although he

An Enduring Legacy

known to a core of musiciaos and connoisseurs. Some of the preludes from The Wetl-Tempered Clavier were printed, and the who le collection circulated in m.anuscript copies. Haydn owned a copy of the Mass in B Minor. Mozart knew The Art of fügue anel studied the motets on a visit to Leipzig in 1789. Cilarions from Bach's works appeared frequently in the musical literature of

ofteu added a movemeut or two to lhe conveutional

the time. and the important periodical. the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.

slow- fas1- slow- fast pattern. The serious. dignined bearing and Lhe prevailing full contrapuntal texlLu·e of lhese concertos hark back 10 lhe early part of lhe century, when Handel was forming bis style in ltaly.

opened its f1rsl issue (1798) wilh a Bach portrait. A fuller discovery of Bach began ia Lhe nineteenlh century wilh Lhe pub lication of a biography by Johann Nikolaus F'orkel in 1802. ln pari for reasons of nationalism, Bach was promoted by German musicians. The rev iva) of the St. Matthew Pa.ssion by the c<Jmpose r al'.ld conducto r Carl F'riedri ch Zel1.er and i1·s performance at Bcl'I in unde r Pe l ix Mendclssohn's d irccl ion in 1829 d id much to inspire interesL i11 Bach's music. The Bach- Gese11schaft (Bach Society). fou nd ed by Robert Schumann and othe rs in 1850 to mark t.he centena ry of Bach's cleat h, pub lishcd a collected cd ition of Bach's works, comp letcd by 1900. By lhe late nil'.leteenlh cenlury, Bach hacl reached god like status. and h is reputation has on ly in creascd sincc then. His music is now cverywhcre. studicd by cvery studcnt of Wcstcrn music. \'(Tbcn twcnty- scvcn pi eccs of recordeei music representi.ng the world's peoples were placed on Voyager l anel 2. the iirst manmade objects to travei beyond tbe so lar system. eigbt were of European classical music, and (despite tbe reporteei objection that "that would be bragging'') three of those were by Bach: movemems from a Brandenburg Concerto. The WeU·Tempered Clavier. anel a violin partita. Composers sucb as Mozart, Mendelssobn, Schumann, and Bralnns have emulated Bach, and he has exercised an endw-ing influence on modern composers as diverse as Schoenberg and Tves. Bartók and Stravinsk1'. Vil la - Lobos and Webern. \Vhere Bach was resurrected. Handel never left. Some of his orawrios have been performed co nlinually since th ey were written. His music was so identined with the British royalty that twenty -ftve years after the composer's death, King George III sponsored a large Handel festival in 1784. using Lhe publi c's affect ion for Handel to rebuild Lhe king's repulation a fter lhe recen l unpleasanlncss in thc Amcrican colonies. lo thc late cightecnth aod ninc 1.ee nt h ce ntu ri es, amateu r cho rai socie li es sp rang up througho ut Engl ishand Cerman- speaking Europe. and Handel"s oratorios became the co re of 1hcir-repe rloire. Through this development, Han del becarne thc Firsl classical co mposer. the ftrst to attain a permanent place in the perfo nning repe rto i re. His othc r music passeei f'rom the sccne for awh il c, thcn was rcvivcd , with his orchestral s uites anel concertos gaining a broacl popularily anel works in olher gem es receiving frcc{uen t perfo rmances. F'inally, Han dcl's operas are now gettiug tbe attcntion tbey mcrit. wüh successful anel critically acclaimed pro ductions of Giulio Cesare leading the way. For many listeners today, Bach and Handel are the Baroque.

HANDEL'.S REPUTATION The Engl ish carne to rega rd Hande l as a natio nal institution, anel with good reason. He spent ali his mature life in London, becoming a natura lizcd British citizen in 1727. anel wrote ali his major works for British audicnces. He was the most imposing figure in English music during bis lifetime. anel the English public nourished his genius and remained loya l to bis memory. When he died in 1759. he was buried with public honors in Westminster Abbey. and three years later his monu menl , shown in Figure 19.10, was unveiled there. HandeL's music aged well because he adopted the FIGURE 19.10: Handel memori.(1/ in Wes1mi11 <levices that became important in the new style of the ster Abbey. london.. sculpted by louis -Prançois mid-eighteenth century. His emphasis on melody. Roubiliac. Themusicshowstliesopranoaria 1 harmony, and contrasting 1.extures, as compared 10 kliow l h:l l rny Redeemer livelhfrom. Messi3h. the more slTictly contrapuntal procedures of Bach. (O ~U(:I IAP.I JFNNFIVALM.t:Y) allied him wilh lhe fashions of bis lime. As a chora! composer in Lhe granel style he had no peer. He was a consummate master of contras!. nol only in chora! music bul in ali typcs of composi lions. ln 1.he oralo ri os h.e de liberal.e ly appealed to a middle - class audience, recogniiing social changes t hat wou ld nave fa r- reach ingef-fecls Ol'.l music. The b roa d , lasl ing appea 1of his ora lo rios made some of lhem the earliest p ieces by any composer to cnjoy an unb roken trad ition of performance through to the prcscnt.

An Enduring Legacy The careers of Bach and Handel were almosl as interesling in death as in life. Burial and resurrection describe r.he hi story of Bach's music. Only a few p ieces were published in bis lifetime. almost all for keyboard : the rest remained in handwritlen copies. Musical taste cbanged radically in lhe mid-e igh teenlh centu ry, and Bach's work was quickly left beh ind. Bac h"s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach were inJlueoced by him but went theirown ways. anel fo r a time lhe ir fam e eclipsed h is. Yet his music was always

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Europe ln the Enlightenm,nt

4 63

was outclasseel in rhe Seveu Years· War (1756- 63) by Britain's more powerful navy and more vihranr economy. ln central and eastern Europe, absolutist monarchies in Prussia. Austria-Hunga1y, and Russia competed for influence and expanded tbeir territories. Tbe smaller states in ltaly and Germany maincained cheir independence as besl they could. By lhe end of che century,

revofotions in America and France brought changes that would eventually C H APT E R

t20

MUSICAL TASTE ANO STYLE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT Beginning in the 1720s, composers created a new musical language based on songful , pcriodic melodies witb light accompaniment. First developed in I talian vocal music, especially comi e opera, this new idiom reflected a growing taste for music that was "'natural." e:i...-pressive. and immediately appealing to a wide variety oflisteners. This new language. called the gafou.t style. emerged during an era when many types and s tyles of mus ic coexisted and 1he me ri1.s of each were f1ercely dcbatcd. Thc new idiom wo111 lhe day because il reachcd a widc audie nce. mel lhe tas te of the growing public for music that was pleasura ble and casily unelcrstood, anel suiteel thc intellcctual tenor of 1he times, ma rkeel by the broad move ment known as the Enlighten menl. Th is chaptcr will skctch lhe social anel intc ll cctual background for the new musical langu.age anel describe its cent ral traits. The nexttbree chaptcrswi ll trace its dcve lopme nt in ope ra a nd vocal music; examine how composers a pplied the new idiom to instrumental music. including severa! uew genres and forms; and show bow Haydn and Mozart enriched ir with elements of other styles to create enduring mus ical works in wha t bas beco me known as tbe cl<tssical style.

Europe in the Enlightenment Eighteent b- cen tury Eu rope was elom inated politica lly by the great powe rs. cenlralized slates wi lh large military establisbments. In lhe west, Pra nce bad s ucceeded Spain as lhe do mina m fo rce by 1650 but

transform political and social life throughou l Europe and theAmericas. lm provemen Ls in agricultu1·e boosted food prod uccion and made possihle a rap id inç rease in population across Europe and North America. Capitais and olhei· la1·ge cities expanded especially rapidly. and growtb in manufacturing a.nd t raele stim ulateel the eco nomy in new d irections. Tbe urban middle class ,·osc in numbers. wca lth, anel social p rom incnce, whilc thc la nclcel a ristocracy saw thei r impo rlance dimioished. The poor often suffe red d islocatioo fro m the lanel a nel overcrowd i ng in the cities, victims of the ve1y progress that helped thc well - bo rn and thc lucky. The eighteenth cenhuy was a cosmo politan age. Pa rtly because of marriages between powerfu l families, fo re ign - born rulers abounded: Cc rm an kings in England, Swcdcn, anel Polanel; a Spanisb kfog in Nap lcs; a French duke in Tuscany; a German princess (Catheri ne the Great) as empress of Russia. lnte llcctuals an el artists travclcd widely. Thc Fre nchma n Volta ire sojourned at tbe French-speakingcourt of Frederick li (lhe Great) of Prussia, the halian poet Metasrasio worked at the German imperial court in Vienna, and the German writer F. M. von Grimm gained promin ence in Parisian litera1y and musical circles. Shared humanicy and cuhure mat1ered more lhan national anel linguistic differences. Musical life reflected this international culture. German orchestral composers were active in Paris and London. and ltalian opera com posers and siJ,gers worked in Aus tria, Germany, Spain, England. Russia, a nd F'rance. Johann Joachim Quantz proposed in 1752 that the ideal musical style blended the best features of music from all nalions. aod by 1785 th is mixed style was so unive rsa lly adopted that, in the words of a French criLie, there was only "one music for all of Europe.. (sec Source Rcailings. p. 464). Yct nati-Onalism. a majo r theme in the ni neteent h ce ntury. was al ready beginn ing to emerge by the end of th e eighteenth ccntury, espeeially in a growi ng p reference for opera in lhe vernacufa r rathcr lhan exclusively i11 ltal ian.

THE EN LIGHTENMENT The most vibrant in te ll cctual movcme nt of thc e ightecn th centu1y was th e EnJighterunent. whose central themes were reason, nature , an el progrcss. Th e scientinc advances of the previous ceotury led many inte llecnials to believe tbat people could solve ali kinds of problems, including social and practical ones. by reasonfag from experience and from careful observation. This approach was now applied to the study of tbe emotions, social relations, and politics. Belief in uatural law led to the notion that individua is had rights and tbat the role of tbe scate was to improve the buman condilion. Those who subsc ribed to the Enlightenment valued ind ividual faitb and practical morality over the church. preferred uanll'alness to artincialily. and promoted uni versal education anda growing social equality.

Economic change

A cosmopolitan society

lntemation al musical swle

464

C H A P T E K 2 O • Musical Tam and Styl• ln the Enlightenment

Europe ln the Enlightenm•nt

and the privileged classes. they dcveloped doctrines ahout i11diviclual buma11 rights. Some of these doctrines were incorporated into 1heAmerican Declaration of lndependence. Constitution, anel Bill of Rights; indeed, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine. Benjamin Franklin. and other founders of lhe United States were as representative oi' Lhe Enlightenm enl as were their French predecessors.

@!' ·

ln general. the Enlighteument was a humanitarian movement. whose 11umanitarianism

THE MERGING OF NATIONAL STYLES Throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, ltaly and France were the leading musical nations. and their distmctive styles were admired and imitated in other countries. But by the mid·eighteenth

Three decades later, French composer and crlt,c Michel-Paul-Guy de Chabanon (ca. 1729-1792) observed that a smgle musical ,diom. grounded in the ltalian style, prevailed throughout Europe. His descrip·

century, musicians, audiences, and critics increasíngly

tion oí music as a ·universal language" resonated

preferred music that mixed national charactensrlcs. German ílutist and composerJohann Joachim Ouantz (1697-1773). writing in his EsSày on P/aying che Tr.ms· verse Fluce (1752), argued that the ideal music blended the best elements oi many nations and appealed to the widest audience. Not surprisingly, he noted that this mixed taste was typical of German composers. ln a style that consists, like the present German one, of a mix of the styles of different peoples. every nation finds something familiar and unfailingly pleasing. Considering all that has been discussed about the differences among styles, we must vote for the pure ltalian style over the pure French. The first is no longer as solidly grounded as it used to be, having become brash and bizarre, and the second has remained too simple. Everyone will therefore agree that a style blending the good elements of both will certainly be more universal and more pleasing. For a music that is accepted and favored by many peoples, and not just by a single land, a single province. or a particular nation, must be the very bes t, provided it is founded on sound judgment and a healthy attitude. Johann Joachim Ouant~. Versuch einer Anweisung. die Flote traversiere zu spielen (Berlin: J. F. Voss, 1752), Chap· ter 18, § 89.

The philosophes

465

through the next two centuries and contributed to the growing prestige oÍ purely instrumental music.

- i,i ln the [present) state of civilization and mutual communicaLion between all the peoples of Europe, there exists a commerce of the fine arts. of taste, inteliigence. and enlightenment which makes the sarne d iscoveries. principies. and methods ebb and ílow from one end of the continent to the other. ln this free circulation. the arts lose something of their indigenous character: they alter it by blending it with other foreign characteristics. ln this regard Europe might be considered as a mother-land of which ali the arts are citizens: they all speak the sarne language; they ali obey the sarne customs. ln applying what I have just said especially to music, an even more incontestable degree of truth will be found in it. There is no more than one music for all of Europe since France has overthrown the barriers of ig norance and bad tas te. This universal language of our continent at the most undergoes some differences in pronunciation fro m one people to another, which is to say, in the manner of performing music. From Harry Robert Lyall, ·A French Music Aesthetic of the Eighteenth Century: A Translation and Commentary on Mkhel Paul Gui de Chabanon's Musique coosidérée en elle-mém• et dons ,es ,appor1$ •~e k, pDrole. le, kingue,. k, poê>ie, eJ la thé(icre • (Ph.D. disscrtation, North Texas Statc Univernty. 1975), 155-56.

The leaders of the Enlightenme nt were French thinkers such as Voltaire. Momesq·uieu. and Rousseau. Known as phiwsophes. Lhey were among Lhe prin cipal co ntribu tors to Denfa Dideroú monum ental Encyclopédie, a key text of lhe Enlightenment. The philosophes were social reformers more lhan philosophers. ln respoose lo the terrible inequal ities between lhe common people

adher ents we re inte rested in pro moting Lhe welfare ofhumankind. Rulers no t only patronized arts and leu ers, Lhey also promoted social reform. The centur-y's enl ightc ned despots, such as Frederick the Crea t of Prussia, Car her ine the Greal of Russia. an d Holy Romao Empero r Joseph JI. exercised ahsolu te power in 1.h eir real ms as had Loui s XIV (see cha p1.e r 16) bu1. so ught to use i1 l'onhe bcu.erm ent ol' their·suhjccts, includ ingp,·og,·ams to cxpand cd ucatio n and ca re for the poor. lo add ilion, human i!Jlrian ideals anda looging fo r w1iversal brotherhood were fundamental to a popular movement kn own as Preemaso nry, thc teac hings of thc sccrct fraternal arder of M,1s011s. Found ed in Londo n early in lhe eighteenth centu ry, it spread rapidly throughout Europe and No rth Amcrica and nu mb ercd among its adh crcnts kings (Fredcrick thc Great and Joseph li), statesmen (Washington), poets (Goethe), and composers (Haydn and Mozart). Thc pursuit of lca rning and the !ove of art and mus ic becam e more widc - Popul arization spread, particularly amongtbe expandi og middle class. This growing interest oflearning made new demands on writers and artists that affected both the subject matter and its mann er of presentation . Philosophy, science, literature. and the fin e arts all increasingly addressed a general puhlic as well as palrons, expens, or connoisseurs. Popular treatises were written with an eye to bringing culture within the reach of ali. while novelists and playwrights increasingly dep icted common people in everyday situat ions. SOCIAL ROLES FOR MUSIC Wh ile courts, cily governmen ts, and churches co ntinued tú s ponso r musicmaking as lhcy had for ccnturics. musicians iocrcasingly dc pcnclcd upon suppo rt írom t.he public. There we re now public conce rts in many cities (see lnnovations: Thc Pu blic Co ncert., pp. 466- 67). offering oppo rt.uni1ies fo r perío rmcrs and compose rs to supplemeol thei r incomes and lo reach a wider audi ence. Many musicians also ea rned money as teachers to amateur perform ers. With an cxpand ing cco nomy, a stead ily growing midd lc class, and more leisure time, the number of amateurs making music continucd to increase. \Vom cn wc rc wclco me to participatc at amateur perform ances, cspccially at the keyboard , as in Figure 20.3 (see p. 468), but they werc exclucled from almost ali professional roles other than as singers; to perform in front of meu for money was to put oneself in the courtesan class, which would have been a catastrophic loss of status for any mi dd le- or upp er- class woman. Men in the middle and upper classes also often participated in amateUJ· music - making, and young people. especially girls. usually received music lessons. Amarem· musicians naturally bough t music rhal they could understand an d play, and music publishers cate red especially to them. Most of the published music for keyboard. chambe r ensemble. or vo ice and keyboard was designed for amate urs to perform al home for their own pleasure.

Mttsical amatwrs

and connoisseurs

NNOVATIONS The Public Concert During the eighteenth century, public concerts and concert series arose in many cities alongside the prfvate concerts and academies that had long been presented by wealthy individual patrons and clubs. Private concerts were by invitation only, and the aristocratic patrons who sponsored them normally assumed all the costs. Public concerts. by contrast, were usually money-making ventures for which tickets were sold. Tickets were offered by subscription to a series or for an individual event, and anyone who could pay the price could attend. But ticket prices were not readily affordable for most people. so the audience for public concerts carne mostly from the upper-middle and wealthy leisure classes. Concert halls and concert societies flourished in London starting in 1672 and especially after 1720. At pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall . shown in Figure 20.1. the public paid an entrance fee to enjoy music and other entertainment outdoors. A remarkable institution for the day was the Academy oí Ancient Music. devoted to the performance of six:teenth- and seventeenth-century sacred music and madrigals and other music of earlier times; its founding in 1726 inaugurated concerts of music Írom the past. which became increasingly popular over the next two centuries. By the second half of the eighteenth century. musical life in London centered around public concerts, including an annual subscription series puton from 1765 to 1781 by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel. Similar societies were formed in other British and North American cities. including the Edinburgh Musical Society in Scotland (1728) and the St. Cecília Society in Charleston, South Carolina (1766). ln Paris, the composer and oboist Anne Danican Philidor founded the ConFIGURE 20.1, Ourdoor

concerr or Vaw:hall pleaSllregardens in london. Mrs. Weischel smgs fro,n 1he balcon:r of rhe ''Moorish-Goihià te,nple ... accompa,ued by lhe orcheslra behind her. while the wriler Samueljohnson and his

compani-on,s eat in lhe supper box below. Waiercolor (ca. 1784) by Thomas Rowland-son. cv,cro•" & A1.8.t:ll1' MUSCUM , LONDON/ ART

ltl!SOURC:f. NY)

466

cert Spirituel series in 1725. which lasted until 1790. The repertoire encompassed new Dim,11tlu. 2.S lt14n ,,a,, music from France and other nations. with C O NCE RT I SPJ R I TUE L , _ .Au Blnlju d, M. R.AYMOND, M,ú,r, dt Mufqa, dM Sptlhd,. performers from across the continent. The ,·. u.~,_,.ONldNt. • M.•.u - • ,-.v........_ ••. u..,.;;.,.,-M. rAM4 .,, . ~ ,.v1c....4ta...cs.. ... .......,• ...,.,. presentation of sonatas and concertos by ,•. u.M-J.,-6.t..<OIIL ,-.U.»-.,-x..l'AMilO.O... ...... °"".,..._•...,_1,.M.tM"UIIU. 11•. u.. ..u.... Vivaldi and other ltalians fostered a grow· ,•.u.C-. • "-"'1.,,-w.eu.... ,.••. u. ..... ,., .. ,NiWQl,UIIU. ~. ...A,..-. . . . _. . . . .~ . . . . . . . . . , •• u...,........-•..._,.,-.,,,. ing taste for ltalian music in France. and from M,$n.,,l'ou,. MW..L.u;.uk~ f", La,,.,,.,... ..,,._;...,,.~ -~-.. ... J.Nlllf,p~ midcentury on. performances of symphonies ~.....,, Dff. .V.0.T, LE FR.ANCOIS A U COM'B AT, by German and Austrian composers spurred ,tirimcMilililitt,lp.l~.dtM• AYMOfrrl'O, d-"",- M.0.aoirnOT, u e,,_,. fi ,.,,,,,JJ , French composers to cultivate the symphony. ·L A R E u R E e T r o N. Later in the century, the movement 0rMM • ,,_. ~ . ait aw., ,,- M, aATMOND. AUX D MES. toward public concerts spread to GermanSa.• , ............ ~._...,..._, ~ v..a1111r . . . .... l speaking lands as well. ln 1763, J. A. Hiller ,.--u.w ......... ., began a concert series in Leipzig. which cono,.,. •.,... ... .. :-'.!'!'"" . . . tinued after 1781 in the new concert hall at s; ...... ,..t. ....~k .... the Gewandhaus (Clothiers' Exchange): the Oa,.....T_w,,_,- º Q a - , t i l - . . t:-l • ,.Ul<4C-,i,.lül.t,,~ Gewandhaus Orchestra still exists and has become one of the most famous orchestras in the world. Similar concert organizations were FIGURE 20.2, HondbilLfora benefit concert heLd in Mar,:h 1781, probablyin Paris. ( a1nu0Tni!:QUE NATION'At.r. rAms> founded in Vienna (1771) and in Berlin (1790). Public concerts were advertised by word of mouth and through handbills. posters. notices in Concerto. (performed] by an Amateur of 'this City.newspapers. and other printed media . Figure 20.2 The unnamed amateur who played the keyboard shows a handbill for a 1781 benefit concert that offers may have been a woman. since women were not yet a wealth of information about the concerts of the accepted as professional instrumentalists. time. The concert was presented -for the benefit of An eighteenth-century concert was a social occa M(onsieur] Raymond. Master of Music for the persion as well as an opportunity to hear music. Audience formance," meaning that he directed the concert and members could stroll around and converse, paying received whatever profits were left over after paying attention only to the music that interested them, withthe musicians. the hall rental. and other expenses. The out being considered rude: the silent, motionless audiprice. given at the bottom of the poster, was thirty ence was an invention of the nineteenth century. The sois per person, steep enough that only the well-to- presence of women of the right social class was essendo were likely to attend. The concert was to begin tial for making the event a social success, so Raymond "precisely at six o'clock." To judge from the announced made sure they felt welcome by including a poem at program. it lasted about three hours. which was typical the bottom of the poster: at the time. We are accustomed today to concerts made up TO T HE LAD IES. entirely of a single type of music, such as orchestral works. piano music, or songs. But concerts in the eighCharming sex. whom I seek to please. teenth and early nineteenth centuries. public or private. Come embellish the abode of our talents; By your presence warm up my accents: typically presented a variety of vocal and instrumental genres for various ensembles. as "pops" concerts do Just one of your looks brings me to life and today. The program listed here includes a symphony. lights me up. two concertos. a symphonie concertante, numerous Eh! what does it matter to me, this much arias. and an oratorio. The composer is given only for vaunted Laurel With which genius is crowned. pieces by Raymond. while in other cases. the name by each piece was that of the featured performer, showThis seal of immortality, ing that the performer was in most cases more imporlf it is not Beauty who gives it. - BRH &JPB tant than the composer. listed ninrh is "A Harpsichord

,..Mms......

.... .....

467

468

C ti A P T E li 2 O • Musical Taste and Style loi the Enlightenment

FIGURE 20.3,

Ap,·i·

music. lnstead of che contrapuntaJ complexity and spun - out inst rumental melody of Baroque music. audiences preferred and critics praised music that featured a voca lly conceived melo dy in s hort phrases over spare accompaniment. \Vriters h eld that the language of m usic shoulcl he universal. ra1her than limired by national boundaries, and shoulcl appeal lo all tastes

vale performance by a ehamber en.semble

consistrng ofci singer. 1wo violins. viola. cello. and harpsichord. The presence ofa woman ai the keyboard and the simüarity ofdress and wigs wom by the musicians and listeners indicate ihat the

at once. from the connoisseur to the untutored. The best music should be

perform ers were most likely skilled amc,teurs rather tha1t profession· ais. who wottldhave been dressed inserVClltts ' tivery. Engraving from 1769 by Daniel Nik·olai,s Chodowiecki. (E RICH U:S-SINC/ART

ft tSOU'RCt. ~\")

Musical jotimals and histories

ln addition, from midcennuy 011, many amateur groups formed to sing choraJ music for their en tertairunent and for public performance. and th ese gr oups provided publishers with a rich new market. The gr owing enthusiasm for m usicas a leisure aclivity also fostered lhe development of informed listeners who cultivated a taste for the b est in mus ic; th e term co1111oisseur was coined in lhe early eighteenth century to describe such listeners. Concerl life and amaleur mus ic-making reinfo1·ced each other: connoisseurs were often amateur performers 1hemselves, and ama teurs we,·e ofte n avid co ncertgoe rs . As lh e musical public brnadened. more p eople b ecame interested in read ing about mus icand d iscussi ngi t. By midcentury, magaz ines devoled to musi ca l n cws, rcvicws , anel criticis m began to appcar, cate ring to both amatc urs and connoisseurs. Thc public's curios ity ahoul music exlcndcd to its origins and pasLstyles. addressed in the n rst unive rsa l histo ries of music: Charles Burncy"sA General Histo,y of Musi,c (l 776- 89), John Hawkins·s A General His· io,y of the Science ond Practice of Music (1776), and Johann Nikolaus Fo rkel's Allgemeine Geschichre der i\fasik (Gen eral Histo,y of Music, 1788- 180 1).

Musica l Taste and Style

Values for music

Musical Taste and Style

Many musical styles coexisted in the eighteenth centu1y. eacb supported by strong adberents and critic ized by de1 ractors. Eve1y country had distinctive traditions and developed a national forru of opera. Works in new styles, such as lhe op eras of Pergolesi and Hasse (see chapter 21). were written at the same time as works in late Baroque scyles. such as Rameau's op eras. Han del's orato rios. and Bach'sArt of Fugu.e . Despite lhe variety of styles. leading wri ters in the middle and late eigh teenth centu ry arliculated lhe pre vailing view of whal was mo sl valued in

noble as well as ente rtaining: expressive within lhe limits of decorum: and "na1ural ''-free of technical com plications and ca pable of immedia1ely pleasing any sensi tive Iistener. These vaJues for mus ic. es pec ially lhe pre fe rence for the "natural." related directly to the ce nt ral ideas of the Enligh tenme nl. ln Lhe real m of lmowledge. Enlig htenmcnt thinke rs rcjccted lhe supernatural cla ims oi' 11·adi1 ional re ligion in favor of direct observations of natu1·e. lhe evid ence lhey could see and hea r with t hei r own senses and understa nd through huma n reason. ln art, they rcjccted art ift ce and comp lcx ity, which thcy r cga rd ed as unnatural , anel preferred direct communication. ln bis iníluential book Les beaux· cirts (The Fine Arts, 1746), ph il osop hcr Charles Battcux dc ftned thc task of t he arts as im itating and cvcn perfecting nature (scc Source Reading, p. 470). He asserted that if mus ic is trne to nature it will be eas ily understood , while lea rn cd counterpoin t t hat co nveys no mea n ing is empty s how. Evcn rnsteby which Batteux and bis contemporaries meant not individual opinion but prevailing social norms- was governed by rationaJ processes and subject to the laws of ..artistic choice and imitation of nature." Especia l ly striking is his claim that "'i1 is man who created che arts; he has do ne so 10 sa tisf), hls own needs.'' Just two generations earlier, in the preface to Der Edlen Music-Kwist (The Noble Art of Music, 1691), Andreas Werckmeister had called music ..a gif1 of God. to be used only in His honor.'" The conlrast between 1hese two s tatem e t11s illustrates th e change i n 1l1ough1 between Lhe Baroque period and the Enlighterunent, affecting music along with every other as pect of life.

TERMS FOR STY LES: GALANT, EMPFINDSAM, ANO CLASSICAL These new va lues for music led to lhe deve lopment oi' a new musica l idiom known today as the clw1sic<ll stylc. Severa! te rms have been used to descrihe this style and its closc re iatives, and writers, both today and thcn, sometimcs use these words with somewhat differenl meanings. Duringthe eighteenth centu,y. the most common term forthe newstyle was g<lla.nt, a French term for the courtly manner in literatur e t hat hacl bccome a catcbword for everything modem, chie, smooth , easy, and sophisticated. Writers distinguished between the leamed or strict style of co ntrapuntal writing- what we would call Baroque- and the freer. more songlike, homophonic. galant scyle (see Source Reading. p. 4 71). The latter emphasized melody made up of short- brealhed. often repeated gestures organized in pbrases of two, three. or four measures. Tbese phrases combined into larger units. lightly acco mpanied with simple harmony and punctuated by frequent cadences. Despi te its French name, tbe galant style or iginated in ltalian operas and con certos. and it became the foundation for lhe musical idiom of lhe mid · to - late e ightee nth centt11y.

Galant style

469

470

C H A PT E K 2 O • Musical Tam and Styl• ln the Enlightenment

Musical Taste and Style

471

centuries anda multitude of styles. By the mid - twentieth ceutury. the music of Bach and Handel was called "Baroque" rather than "classical ," leaving the latter as the term forthe late-eighteenth-centmy style. Thus. from an o r iginal single meaning. "classical'· evo lvecl th.rough use to mean two very different things in relation to m usic.

Some writers apply the term "classical style''-or its variant. "classic"-only What is the

NATURE ANO THE ARTS Charles Batteux (1713-1780) was a professor of philosophy in Paris. Hls wídely read book Les beau,,-a,cs réduite à utl même prmc1pe (The Fine Arts D,stilled to a Common Principie, 1746) distinguished the fine arts from the practical arts (which serve functional pur· poses) and argued that the fine arts must imltate and idealize nature, which music does by expressing the pass1ons.

- ~ lt is man who created the arts; he has done so to satisfy his own needs. Finding the pleasures of simple nature too monotonous. and finding himself moreover in a situation in which he could enhance his pleasure. he created out of his own native genius a new order of ideas and feelings. one that would revive his spirits and enliven his taste. For what could the man of genius do? ... He had necessarily to d irect his entire effort to a selection from nature of her finest elements. in order to make from them an exquisite, yet entirely natural whole. one that would be more perfect than nature herself. . From this I conclude, first, that genius-the father of the arts-must imitate nature. Secondly. that genius may not imitate nature just as she is. Thirdly, that taste, for which the arts are made and

by which they are judged, finds satisfaction when the artistic choice and imitation of nature has been well managed. Music speaks to me in tones: this language is nat· ural to me. lf I do not understand it. art has cor· rupted nature rather than perfected her.... Thus, alrhough the learned musician may congra tulate himself if he so wishes on having rec· onciled. by means of mathematics. sounds that seemed to be irreconcilable. unless those sounds mean something they may be compared to the gestures of an orator wh ich do no more than show that the speaker is alive; they may similarly be compared to verses that are nothing but mea· sured sounds. or to the mannerisms of a writer that are nothing but frivolous ornament. The worst kind of music is that which has no character. There is not a musical sound that does not have its model in nature, and which may not at least be the beginnings of expression, justas is a letter or syllable in speech.

to lhe mature music of Haydn and Mozar t. while others use it more br oadly for Lhe entire per iod from Lhe 1720s or 1730s to around 1800 or 1815. The term as appli ed to music carne by way of analogy to Greek anel Roman art. At its best. classical music possessed Lhe qualities of noble simplicity. balance. fo rmal perfect ion. d ive rs ity with iu un it.y. seriousness or wit as app rop ri ate, anel frccdom f'i-om exccsscs o r omame nta tion anel r,·i ll s. 1t. is almost impossible lo use tlie le n n wilhoul making value judgments. Is il to a p ply only to Haydn, Mozart. and Beethove n , in whom these qua lities abou nd and whose wor ks havc bccn judgcel classics? Or also to t hcir co ntcmpo raries, no mattcr how l ittle known? Should it also apply to their miclcentury predecessor s who uscel a sim il ar musical language? Thc latt er are somctimes ca llcd preclcu;sic, an u._nfortunatc ter m that suggcsts their only value was to pavc the way fo r Haydu and company. T hc so lution adoptcd in this book is to regard the era from about 1730 to 1815 as the Classic period, to use "Classical music" (rather than "classical style") as the all-embracing term for music of the period. and to use terms such as galant. empfrndsam. and "the Haydn idiorn" to identify different styles or trends current at tbe time. The boundaries of the Classic period overlap with the Ba r oque anel Romantic periods, just as boundaries blur betweeu Medieval and Renaissance and between Renaissance and Baroque,

classicalstyle?

Tiie Classic period

Charle$ Balteux, Les beavx•arts réduits à un même prin· cipe (Paris 1746), ,n MuSJc end Aesthet,c, ,n the Eighteenth

and Earfy-Nineteenti> Centuries. ed. Peter le Huray and James Day (Camb,idge: Cambridge Unive,sity Press. 1981), 44-45,nd 48-49.

A V IEW OF THE GALANT STYLE Keyboard teacher and composer Daniel Gotdob Tork

Emp./indsam style

C/a.ssical nrnsic and classical style

A close r elative of the galant style was the empfindsam.er Stil (German for "emotionaJ style") or cmpfincl.sam stylc. Character ized by S\trprising turns of harmony, ch romaticism . ncrvous rl1ythms, and r hapsod ically frec, speech like melody, the emplindsam style is mosl closely associated with fantasias and slow movements by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see chapter 22). T he term "classical" is used at times for art music of ali periods and at olher times mor e na r rowly for Lhe style or Lhe late eighteenth cencury. There is a his torical reason for 1his amhiguity. ln the 11i11etee11th century, works of J. S. Bach. Hande l. Haydn . Mozart. and Beethoven were regarded as classics of m usic. a.kin to classics ofli teratw·e or ar t. and Lhey íormed Lhe core of what became known as the classical repertoire (see chapter 26). During the nineteen Lh and twentieth centuries. lhe classicaJ repe rtoir e expanded beyond ils o riginal core . so that now cla.~sic 11 l music is a tradiHo n t hal: covers many

(1750-1813) aimed h1s Klavíerschule (School of Clav,er Playing. 1789) at the amateur who needed lnstruction in

taste and style as well as method. He described the differences between ·strict- and -r,ee· styles-that is, be• tween the older learned style and the new galant styie.

A strict (contrapuntal) style is rhe one in which the composer follows all the rules of harmony and modulation in the strictest manner, mixing in art· fui imitations and many tied notes. working out the theme carefully. and the like, in short, allow· ing more art to be heard than euphony. ln the free

(galanr) manner of composition. the composer is not so slavishly bound to the rules of harmony. modulation, and the like. He often permits bold changes. which could even be contrary to the gen· erally accepted rules of modulation. assuming rhat the composer in doing this proceeds with p roper insight and judgment, and with it is able to attain a certain goal. ln general, the free styfe ofwriting has more expression and euphony rarher than artas irs chief purpose. Daniel Gotrlob Türk, School of Clav,er Playmg, trans. Ray· mond H. Haggh (Lincoln: Univers,ry of Nebraska P,ess, 1982), 399. ln SR m (5:11), p. 891.

472

C H A P T E K 2 O • Musical Tam and Styl• ln the Enlightenment

since the language. gemes. and customs of music change only gradually and at different iimes in different places.

TI M ELI N E Musical Tas te and Style in Lhe Enlighten.ment

MELODY, HARMON Y, TEXTURE . ANO FORM

The focus on melody in the new styles led to a musical syntax

qui te differenl from lhe continuous motivic variation of earlier styles. J. S. Bach. for example. would Lyp ically anno unce MUSICAL H ISTOR ICAL ai the outset of a movement Lhe musical idea. a melodic rhythm ic subject ernbody ing the bas ic afíeclion. This idea was • 1725 Concert Spirituel begins 1.hen spun out. using sequemial repetit ion as a principal conin Paris structivc dcv ice. wil hin a gcncr·a lly irregu lar phrasc si ructure • 1725 Antonio Vivaldi. The marked by relatively in frequenl cadences. Four Seasons ln co ntrast, the n cwer styles we re marked by p eriocficity , • 1733 Giovanni Battista in which frequcnt resting points break the me lodie flow into Pergolesi. La serva padrona segments thal relalc to each other as pa1is oí a larger whole. Musical idcas, rathcr than bcing pcrs istcntly spun out, werc • 1734 Voltaire. The articulated th rough d isti uct ph rases, typicaJly two o r four mcaPhilosophical Letters sures in length (but sometimes three, five, or six measures). • 1740- 86 Reign of Frederick Two or more phrases were needed to form a pe,·iod, a com the G reat of Prussia plete musical thought coucluded by a cadence, anda composi • 1740 Maria Theresa crowned tion was made up of two or more periods in succession. This Holy Roman Empress technique creates a structure delineated by frequent cadeuces and imegrated through small mo livic correspondeuces. • 1741 George Frideric Handel. The termiuology of phrases aud pe riods was borrowed Messiah from rhetoric . the art of oration. Eighteeuth- century theo• 1745 Francis Stephen of rists frequently compared a melody to a sentence ora musical Lorraine elected Holy Roman composition to a spcech . Tbe mos t thorough gu ide to melodie Emperor composition based 011 rhetorical principies appears in volume • 1749 Jean-Philippe Rameau. 2 of the Versuch ein.er Anleiwng zur Cornposition (lnlroduclo ry Zoroame Essay on Compos ition, published in three vo lu mes in 1782. 1787. and 1793) by Hcinrich Chl'istoph Koch (1749- 1816) . • 1751-72 Denis Diderot and one of severa l Lrealises writte n fo r amateu rs who wished to collaborators publish the lcarn how to composc. Hcrc thc studcnt lcarns how to con Encyclopédie struct a mclody by join ing shorl melodi e scgmcn ls lo form • 1752 Johann Joachim ph rases, and ph rases to fo rm periods. Koch likens the co mpoOuantz. Essay on Playing the ncnts of a musica l phrasc to a subjcct anel prcd icate. Hc statcs Transverse F/ute tha l this k.ind oí organizalion is necessa1y to make a melody e 1760-1820 Reign ofGeorge intclligib lc and capable of moving our fcc lings. justas thc Ili of England sentenccs anel clauses that break up a spcech ,uake it cas ier to foilow the train of thought. ln Example 20. 1 (see p. 474). Koch's terminology is used to show the structure of the opening of a keyboarel sonata movement by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), dating from 1742. The nrst melodie segment closes weakly and is followed by a rest; the second segment completes the phrase with a more secure endi11g on a note of the tonic triad. As in a sen tence, the suhject is completecl by the predicate. The t:wo segmeuts are linked by the bass motion that rises a fourth. by the melodie motion that descends a fourth from its peak to the lasl note. and by the closing motive labeled "x.'·

Musical Taste and Style

The hesitation after the ftrst segment cxtends what could have been a four- measure phrase to ôve measures. lt is a witty nod to our expectations as listeners: assuming that the melodie segments will be balanceei two - measure units. wc are stu·prised ürst by the long rest and chen by lhe rapid motion 1ha1

begins the second segment. as if the music has to rush fonvard

473

• 1762 Rousseau. The Social

Conuac1 • 1765 Joseph li becomes Holy

to regain its momentum. Toe second phrase varies and elab Roman Emperor and co-ruler ora Les Lhe l'u·st. reaching a greater imensity Lhrough highe r with Maria Theresa pitch in measu res 8- 9. • 1765-81 Bach-Abel Co,ncerts T he composer then construcls a new melod ie segment in London from mo Live ·'x" wh ile bo rrowing the bass rhythm from measurc 4. Th is Lime the nrst segmcn l is answe,·cd with • 1770 Thomas Gainsborough. out h esitation to make a four- measure ph1·ase clos ing on the The81ue8oy dom i na nt triad (rea lly a tempo ra1y to nic. s ince this passage is • 1774-92 Reign of Louis XVI in F major). Th is phrasc too is varicd anel incensilicd on repof France etition, and doses on the dom inan( lo complete the period. • 1775- 83 American Revolution Like a skill ed orator. Bach holds to his su bjcct. rcinforcing it with ·rcpetition and ncw argumen ts, aud carefuUy arraugcs his • 1776 Adam Smith, The thoughts to make them intelligible, persuasive. and moving. Wealth of Nations T he division of the mc lody into phrases and periods is • 1776 John Hawkins. A supported by the harmony. Tbere is a hierarchy of cadences, General H,story o{ the Science with the weakest marking off interna] phrases. strouger oues and Practice o{ Music closil1g periocls. anel tbe strongest reserved for the ends of • 1776-89 Charles Burney, A sections and movements. Tbcre is also a h ierarchy of har General History of Music monic motions, with the small-scale I-V-1 of a single phrase (seen here in each of the lirst two phrases) subsumed within a • 1779 C. P. E. Bach. Clavier large - scale modulation írom tonic to dominant and back over Sonatas for Connoisseurs and the course of the movement. Amateurs Because theharmony is articulatingthe phrases rather than • 1781 Wolfgang Amadeus conli n uously d riving lhe mus ic fo rward , it lends lo change Mozart arrives in Vienna less frequen1ly lhan in older Ba roque styles. To compensate • 1781 lmmanuel Kant. Critique for thc slowcr harmonic rhylhm . as wcll as thc limitcd sus o{ Pure Reason ta in ing powe r oí ha rpsicho rds and pianos. compose rs often ani m ated the mus ica l tex1·ure through pulsi ng choreis (as in • 1782-93 Heinrich Christoph measures 11- 17 of Examplc 20. l) o r olher rhythmic means. Koch, lntroductory Essay on 0ne of the most widely used devices in keyboard mus ic was Composition thc Alberti bass, shown in Examp le 20.2 (see p. 475). Named • 1789-94 French Revolution for the Italian composer Domenico Alberii (ca. 1710- 1746), who used it frecrucntly. the dcvice brcaks each of the underlying chords into a simple repeating pa ttern of short notes that produces a discreet chordal background. set1ing off thc melody to advantage. Finally. lhe coherence of late- eighteenlh- centu1y music was made pos- Forrn siblc by the differemiation of musical ma terial according to its funcLion. Each segment of music was immediately recognizable as a beginn ing, mid dle. or ending gestur e. The fast two measures of Example 20. l serve well as Lhe beginning of a phrase. period . or movement, but could not be an ending. By contrast, measures 8- 10 offer an emphat ic ending, but would soun d oul of place ai lhe beginning of a phrase or period. Measure 12 serves well in lhe middle oí a phrase, repeating 1.he motive and rhythms of the p revious

474

C H A P T E K 2 O • Musical Tam and Styl• ln the Enlightenment

EXAMPLE 20.1,

The Endu,lng Enlightenm,nt

C. P. E. Bach. AUegro (third movenient)from Sonata i,n Bi. H. 32

EXAMPLE 20.2,

475

Alberii. opening ofSono ta lllfro11t Vi l I sonate pe r cembalo. Op. 1

5-m cà&un:: phrase

subjt:tl varicd

prediciu c f'lahorin erl

EMOTIONAL CONTRASTS t,uhjrct frngmrnttd

UC""-'

pred,e.ale

4 - mcasure 11hril$C

~----------'p_ ,·e_v._·o,-l$-iphrra_ ,sc_v_ar_ii::_d_ _ _ _ _~

•s'

)

..,

piano

__!_ _;--, L.....1.....1

----,...

x'....----..._

- iTI Ji

eloslng J)hra.s(' l'nrl ing J'>t'riod

measure; it could not be followed by a rest, as were the parallel moments iu measures 2 and 7, without sounding as if the music ha<l bee n interrupted midstream. With in t hese categories. there are leveis of relative strength. The segment in measures l 1- 12 can hegin a phrase hut nota movemem, sin ce it srnrts in midair over an invened chord aud thus h as the quality of being in the middJe of a thought. Measures 13- 14 are strong enough to end a plu·ase hui uoL a pe riod. as tbe melocly rises ar. tbe encl. as if asking a tfuesLion. The parallel caclence in measures 17-18 is stronger, markiug the end of t.he period. hui is on lhe domin ant. and thus cannot close the entire movement. Such clistinctions aJlowed composern to make clear at every turn where we are in the musical form , justa s an orat.or varies the use of emphasis, inflections, and pauses to mark lhe beginnings and ends of sentences, paragraphs. sections. and the enlire speech.

One of the most striking characteristics of Classic music resulted from a new view of human psychology. Descartes and others in the seventeenth century helieved that once an emotion. such as anger or fear. was aroused. a person remained in that affection until movecl by some s timulus to a different emotional state. Accordingly. composers in the Baroque era sought to couvey a single mood in eacb movement. oral most to contras! conflicting moods in self- conrninecl seclions, such as tbe two paris of a da capo aria or Lhe ritorn ello and episodes of a co ncerto movement. But deeper knowleclge of blood circu.lation. the nervous system. and otber aspects of human physiology led to a new u nderstand ing that feelings were constantly in llux. jostled by associations that might take unpredictable turns. The new notion that emotions were not steady states. hui were consla ntly chan,ging and somelim es contradictory respo nses to one's exp erie nces and thoughts, und crmined thc Baroqu c approac h of co nvcyi ng a s inglc fccling in a movemenl or section. lnstead, composc rs began lo introduce co ntrasting moods in the va rious parts of a move ment or even within the themes the msc lvcs. \Ve wi ll scc in th c ncxt chapter (pp. 480 -8 1) how Pc rgo lcsi portTaycd lhe s hifting moods o f a characte r in La sen1c1 padrona, th rough an aria whosc musi ca l material changes from ncrvous ly jumpy to lyri cal to s low and delibcrate, a nd in chapte r 23 how Mozart infused bot h hi s vocal and his instrumental music with strong contras ts of style, texture, and mood. The possibilities for conh·asts werc heightcn ed by the naturc of thc new music, with its many short phrases and its depenclence on differences in the material to articula te the form .

The Enduring Enlightenment We 3J'e in many ways chi ldren of the Enlightenment, often taking for grantecl its cen tral tbemes: lha! humans can know the natural world through ou r se nses, und ers tand il through our reaso n , and make progress in science and

Newviewof psychology

Fomi and content

476

C H A P T E K 2 O • Musical Tam and Styl• ln the Enlightenment

culrure. These ideas are srUI strong roday. Yer tbe intervening centuries have also seeu waves of reacliou to the Eulighteumeut chat have chall euged its ideals. such as the nineteenth- century Romantic interest in fantasy and the supernatural. the twentieth -century loss of faith in reason and pro1,'l·ess- in response to rwo world wars and nuclear wea pons- and recent poscmodernisr

challenges to the very concepts of reasou. nature. and progress. ln music too . many of our most enduring and oflen unquestioned assump tions can be traced back 10 Lhe Enlightenment, inclucling Lhe ideas tha t music serves human needs. that its primary purpose is pleasure ra ther than reli gious or social ends, tbat music is a univernal language, thal ideaUy rnusic sh<iu lu appeaJ to a wideaud ience. tha t we s hould beable to understa.nd a piece oi' music on frrst hea,·ing, and 1.ha1. 1 hc fee lings mus ic suggests may changc as quickly as ou r own emolions do. Many of ou r musical inslilulions and forums ste m from th e sarne period, such :is public concert organi1,atio ns. amateu r choirs, music journalism, and books on music history like this one. Alongsicle ideas and institutions, many aspects of musical style from the era o f the En lighte nmcnt havc co n tinucd through thc past 250 years. Much of thc music composed sincc 1800 sharcs esscntiaJ charactc ristics with that of the mid- to -Jate eighteenth century, from a texture of melody wilh accom panimcn t to a periodic structurc of phrases a nd pcriods. Music that meets these expectations is for most of us the music we encounter most often and fmd most normal. Music that does not, whether a Baroque fugue. Renaissauce madrigaJ. or electronic or minimalist work of the late twentieth century. is clislincrive by comparison and may become all the more incriguing for that reason. The relatively simple galant style hailecl by eighteeuth-centm)' writers suited lhe tastes of its time. but tbe arguments about which types and styles of mus ic are best have only grown more intense since then.

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Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

OPERA ANO VOCAL MUSIC IN THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD The new musical icliom hailed by Enlightenmem writers had its roots in vocal music, wbere direct and natural expression of feeling was especially ap prop riate. Many traits that became typ icaJ o f Classic-era music originated in ltalian opera. beginning in lhe J720s anel l 730s. A key development was the emergence a round 1700 of sepa rate trad itions of comfo ancl serious o pera. Because tradit ion we ighed less heavily on comic ope ra, it was more hospitable to innovations than was se rious opera; emotions that were e:1.-pressed through convcn tion s in scrious opera cou ld bc portrayed in more unexpected and naturalistic ways in comic opera. But composers, singers, and audiences for both kinds of opera nu1tured elements that would become crucial in the new style. through the value they placed on tbe beauty of melody andou the ability of music to portr ay complex characters and rapidJy changing emotions.

N'alionaJ styles of comic opera emerged as well in France. England. a.nd Cerman-speaking lancls, each appealing to a wide public tb rough simple and direct musical expression. After midcentury. composers ancl I ib reuists i n trocluced refo rms into serio us opera to reílect Enlightenmeut ideaJs. Alongsidc lhe arena of opera. whicb included pe rformances orarias in public concerls. new trends also ernergecl i.n vocal music Fo r chamber and chu rch. A growing interest in amateu r music-making al bome fostered new nalional traditio ns of song wilh keyboa rd accompan imenl. Music for chu rch blencled olde r sty les, haJlowed wit h use, with cu rre nt styles borrowecl from secula r music.

t21

478

C H A P T E K 2 1 • Opera and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Pefiod

ltalian Comic Opera

halian Comic Opera

EXAMP LE 21.1, Vinci. T'aggio mmidea,/rom Li zite 'ngalera. Aci I. scene 11

Italian opera, cultivated throughoul Italy and at some twenty German anel Polish couns by the 1690s. spread even more wielely in the eighteenth cen-

tury. fmding homes from Madrid and London in the west to St. Petersburg in the east anel Denmark anel Swed en in lhe north. Renewed interest in the views of drama found in Aristotle anel other classica] writers led librettists 10 elim inate comic e lements from serious ope ra. fn response. beginn ing in Na ples aod Venice du ring lh e f1rsl decade of lhe eigh tee nlh ce nlury. poets, com pose rs, and en tre pre neurs developed new independem genres of co mi c opera I hat offcrcd soc ial cri , icism and appealcd 10 a widc r audiencc.

Bclluccia

,,_

.. -

---··

·t as-lo mmi . de•a Bel-luu · giel -lo!

OPERA BUFFA

Arias

Te rms us ed in eighteen th -ce ntury ltaly for com ic opera included opera buffo (comi e opera). drammagiocoso (jesring drama). dram.rna com.ico (comic drnma), anel comrnediaperniu~ica (comedy in music). Todayoperabu.ffa is often used to e ncompass ali these types. An opera buffa was a full- length work with six or more singingc haracters anel was sung throughout. un like comic operas in other countries. Plo1s centered on ordinary people in the present day, in contrast 10 the stories from myth or history in serious opera. Opera buffa was at first staged in public th eaters and aimed ata primarily m idd]e - class aud ience, anel only gradually gained aristocratic patrons. lt entertainecl and served a moral purpose by caricaturing the foib les of aristocrats and co mmoners, vain !adies. miserly old men. awk-ward and clever servants. deceitful hus bands and wives. pedantic lawyers. bungling physicians. and pompons military co mmanders. These often resemble t.he s tock chara cters of the commedia, delforte. the improvised comedy popular in ltaly since the sixteenth century. The comic casl was often compleme nted by seri ous characters around whom lhe main plot revolved anel who inte racred wi1 h che com ie characters, particularly in amorous intrigues. The d ialogue was scl in rapidly dclivcrcd recita tive accompanied by co ntinuo, often keyboard al one. The arias in co mic operas are typica lly in galant style, mad e up of short luneful phrascs. of1en rep eated or vari ed, o rga niicd into pe riods, anel accom pa ni ed by s imple harm onies and liguration. One of the p ioneers of thi s style was Leonardo Vinci (ca. 1696- 1?30). His Uzir.e ·nga,lera, (Th c Lovcrs on the GaUey) , with a librelto in Neapolitan dia lect, premiered in Na ples io l 722. Many of thc a rias are substantia l, inda capo form, anel accompani cd by fourpart string enscrnb le, whiJ e others .are brief anel supported only by continuo. One of the latter 1ype, shown in Example 2 1.1 , is the aria T"aggio mmidea, which open s a scen e between Bell.uccia. a woman disguised as a man. anel Ciommatella. a young woman wbo has fallen in !ove wilh ''him." lt b egins with two one- measure phrases in an antecedent-consequent pair, repeated when the voice enters, which establishes periodic phrasing as the no rm . But !ater phrases are extendecl (measures 6- 7 anel 10) or truncated (measure 9). creating a dynamic melody that cleverly evades expecrations. The surprises continue: after the usual modulation to the dominant. a deceptive cadence

[

Curl · o e.

io ves · tv

P< • ne ·

ª----

~~=::r;tm;J . Belluccio

Pc chi .sta · u

pc · nc · a?

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do me chc buõ?

fc l'ag • gio

Bcllucia: / em,-you, beautiful bird! Yo" disporl yourself among lhe br(l.nches. j'OU sing. you wa.ni 10 hide. And / dress up infeuihers. Ciom.matella: Whyinfeathers? Bcllucia: Ciomma. what's lhe use? l told you whr

479

480

C ti A P T E li 2 1 • Optra and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Period

(measure 12) leads to a dialogue itJ recita1ive. The result is a witty musical setting that perfectly ftts tl1e tex t and moves the drama forward.

halian Comic Opera

EXAMPLE 21.2,

481

Pergolesi. Sot1 imbrogliato io giil,from La serva padrona

a. Opening

INTERMEZZO

Another important cype of ltalian comic opera. the i11terme;;;;;;o. was per-

Pergolesi"s La serva padrona

formed in two or 1b.ree segments between lhe acts of a serious opera or play. The genre originated in Naples and Venice around 1700 when comic scenes were purged from serious operas, and 1hc com ic characters were given the ir own se parate sto ry in the intermezzo. These in lermezzi contrasted sha rply with the grand and he ro ie maane rs of the p rincipal drama. somet:imes even parodying its exccsscs. Thc plots usually prcsentcd two or thi·cc pcop lc io C<) mic si tuati ons. and the action proceeded in alternating recita tives anda rias, as in se rious opera. Because of theinole as adjunct to se rious opera. intermezz i were accepted by aristocratic patrons and wcrc perfo rm ed at court as we ll as in publi c opera houses. Figure 21. l shows an intermezzo performed in Venice. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi ( 1710- 1736) was one of the most original composers of his day but died young of ruberculosis. Heis bestknowtJ for his intermezzo La se,va padrona (The Maid as Mi stress, 1733), a classic example of opera in miniature. with only three chara.cters: Uberto (bass). a rich bachclor: his maid, Serpina (soprano); and his mute valer, Vespone. 'fypical of comic opera,

FIGURE 21.1: Performance of an. in.termez:zo. ashorl comicworkgiven. between the acls of an opera seria. This Venetian painting shows not onlyhow sachworl.·s 1vere staged. but a!so how audiences belia,•ed. Some areseated. others stan.d1ng. cindonlysome arepaying atlention to t./1e performers on stage, wliile several are engaged in con.versations. The silen.L atlentiveness now expected of audiencesforoperas and classical concerls was a creation of ,he nin etee,11'1 cen tury. (}.CUSl:O TP.ATJlALf. ALU. SCAI.A. M IU~·)

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the social hierarchy is questioned as Serpina ma11ipulates hermaster into proposing marriage by inventing a rival suitor (in fact. Vespone in dis1,ruise). Tbe scene afcer Serpina Lells Uberto chat she will marry anocher (NA\VM l 07) displays tbe ex traordina1y aptness and nimble ness of Pergolesi"s music. As is typical ofbotb comic and serious opera. the dialogue is rendered in simpie recitative. accompanied only by the harpsichord and usually a suscainiog bass instrument, with Lhe words set to lively, speechlike rhythms over freely modulating harmonies. AfterSerpina leaves. Uberto descends into confusion when the thoughtof marry ioghe r bat lles wilh co nce rn over thei r diffe re nce in social class. His mutterings a re rende red in accompanied recitative, in wh ich voice and o rchestra al tcrnatc frcely. ln sc rious opera. this s tylc was rcscrvcd for lhe mosl dramatic situations; knowing this convenlion, Pe rgolesi's audi e nce undcrst.ood thc cffcct herc as com ic, c lcva1ing Ubcrto·s bewil dc rmcnt to high drama. As was custo ma,y, his feel ings culminate in a da capo aria (see c hapter 17, pp. 381- 83). Neither the ma in nor lhe midd le section of th e Jria develops a single mus ical motive, as in J Scarlatti or Hande l a ria. Rath er, there are as many melodie ideas as there are shifting thoughts and moods in th e tcxt. ln thc ~rst line, s hown in Examp lc 21.2a, Ubcrto exclaims that he is confused. The melody reflects his state with a nervous, jumpy motive, and irs rhreefold repet ition suggests his mental paralysis. Uberto then realizes that something mysterious is stirring in his heart (measure 15) and waxes lyrical as he asks himself whelher it is love 1hat he feels. But a saber voice with in checks his ardor: he should think of himself, guarding his independence anel his own interests. Here the melody. shown in Example 2 l .2b. is slow and deliberate. exploiling lhe bass's low F 10 suggesc a deep pensiveness. Pergolesi's clepiction of character and emotion througb simple, higWy contras! ing melodie ideas over light accom pat1i ment made his music particularly s uccessful and iníluential.

I Conci,e i\\ 1 1 Full i\\ 1

482

C H A P T E K 2 1 • Opera and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Pefiod

LATER COM IC OPERA Ttalian comic opera changed considerably during the eighteen th century. Begiuu ing about midcentUI)'. the Ita)jau dramatist Cario Goldoni Cl 7071793) introduced refm ements in the comic-opera libretto. Serious, senti-

Ensemble ftnales

Pietro Metostosio

like. The resolution of the d rama. whicb rarely bas a tragic ending. often turns on a deed of heroism or sub lime renuuciation by one of the principal characters. An opera seria's three acts consisl almost wühout exception of alternating recilatives andarias. Recitatives

mental. or woeful plots began to appear alongside the traditional comic ones.

develop the action through dialogues and monologues.

An example is La buona jigliuola (The Good Giri). adapted by Goldonj from Samuel Richardson's po pular novel Pamela. or Virttie Rewarded and ser to music in 1760 by Niccolõ Piccinni (1728-1800) . Anolher development was the ensemble frnale . wbich app eared in lhe co mi c ope ras or Nicola Logroscino (1698-ca. 1765) and Balclassa re Ga luppi (1706- 1785). At th e end of an act, ali the characters were gradua lly brought on stage while lh e action conti nued. becoming more and mo re animaLed unlil it reached a climax with ali singers taking part. Th ese e nsemble f111alcs were un likc anyth ing in scri ous opera, and in writing thc m co mp oscrs had to fo ll ow lhe rapidly changing aclion of lhe scene without losing coherence in the mus ica l form . The p criodic phrasing, tuncful me lodies. s implc barmonies, sparc accompaniment, direct expression, emotional íluidity, stro ng stylistic contrasts. anel amusing mixturcs or clcmen ts that characterized ltalian co mi c opera became central elements of tbe in ternationaJ idiom of the !ater eigbieenth centuq.

se t eit.h er as simple recitative or. at the most dramatic momenrs. as accompan ied recitative with orchestra. Each aria is a virtual dramaric soliloquy in which a principal cba ra cte r ex presses feelings or reacts lo the preced i n g scene. There are occas io nal duets. a few larger c nsernbles, and rarc. si mp le cho ruscs. Excep1 in the ove rtu1·e. the o rches tra serves mainly to accompany lhe si nge rs. although as the ce nlury progressecl the role or thc orchestra became incrcasingly important.

Opera Seria The tra nspa rent and ch arming a ria style of Vinci anel Pergolesi soon invaded opera. seri,i. or serious opera. which treated serious subjects. without comic scenes or chara cle rs. Opera seria reccivcd its s tandard form írom thc lta lian poct Pi ctro Mctastasio (1698- 1782). shown in Figure 21 .2. Hisd ramas wcrc set to music hun d reds of times by ma ny eightecnth -century composers, in cluding Cluck and Mozart. His success in Nap les, Rome. and Venice led to an appointment in 1729 as court poet in Vieona, whe re he remained the resl of his l ife. Despile his a ristocrntic connccti ons, Mctastasio was from a poo r background . ln his yo uth , he was a Roman strcet urchi n whose ta lent at improviscd verse, yell ed out in praise of passing nobles, gol him adopted and off the streets. ln today"s terms. he bcgan life as a rapper. Metastasio's heroic operas presem conl1icts of human passions, ol'ten pitting !ove against duty, in stories based on ancient Greek or Latin tales. His operas were intended to promote morality through entertainment and to presem models of merciful and enlightenecl rulers. in tune with Enlightenment tbought. Favorite cbaracters are magnanimous tyrants, such as the Roman emperor Titus in La cleme,iza di Tito (Th e Clemency ofTitus). underSlOod as a model for Metas1asio's patron. Holy Roman Emperor Chades VI. Metastasio's librettos e mploy a co nventional cast of two pairs of lovers sur rounded by otber characters. The action provides opponunities for introducing va ried scenes-pastoral or martial episodes. solemn ceremonies. and the

483

O pera Seria

THE ARIA The musical interest of ltalian opera is cente red in the arias. which were created by eightecn th - century com posers in astounding profusion and variety. Tl1e favored form in the ftrsi half of tbe centu1J remained the da capo aria (see d1apter 17). a basic ABA scheme that permfüecl enormous variation in cletail. Metastasio's rwo -stanza aria texts ser the standard for lhe ela capo aria of the l 720s through l 740s. For some arias. composers shorte ned lhe repetition of the órst sect ion by omiuing tbe opening ritornello. allering the direction .. da ca po" (from the heginning) to "dai segno·· (from th e sign , indicati ng that only pa rt of the ôrst section is repeated) . or writing out an abridged return. Some arias lacked lhe con trasting second sect ion ( B) and insleatl followed a formal like a da capo aria's lirsr section, with two vocal state men ts (A I and A2) íramecl by ritorncllos. A.rias written in the F,rst decades of the ce ntury by co mposers like Alessandro Scarlatti (see Chapter 17, pp. 38 1- 83) had usually projected a single affecl ion, o r mood , through the dcvclopme nt of a s ingle motive, or presented co ntrast ing affections in thc A anel B scctio ns. Beginn ing in lhe 1720s and 1730s, co mposcrs s tarted to cxprcss a succession of moods, usi ng a va ri cty of musical material that ranged l"rom lighthearted to tragic. Oft-en two keys a re con trasteei in the lirst vocal statc mcnt (AI). thcn the materi al in the second key is recapitulated in tbe tonic at tb e close of tbe second vocal statement (A2). This repetition or material in 1he tonic became a central principie of form !ater in the century. in both vocal and instrumental music. The vocal melody clominates the music and carries it forward. anel the orchestra pro vides h armonic support to tbe singer ratber than adding independent contrapuntal lines. The melodies are usually in short units. mos! often in two- or four- measure antecedent and consequenl phrases . with occasionaJ expansious to create tensiou or offer variety. Johann Adolf Hasse (1699- 1783). shown in Figure 21.3. was one of the most popular anel successful opera compose rs in Emop e from lhe 1720s to

FIGURE 21.2:

Piwo

Metc,stc1$io. in o. por1ro.it. by Pompeo Ba10,1 i. <coLL

>-cuRMY,

MQNTl?BOONI, l'I'AlY, PIIOTO:

SCAlA/A.AT lltSOl fRCr.. NY)

Abbreviated da capo

Ne wf eatures

JohannAdolf Hasse

484

C ti A P T E li 2 1 • Optra and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Period

FIGURE 21.3,JohMn

Adolf Hasse. lll o paslet porlrail by Felicitas Hoff,nann. (nn,sn&N GALU:ft't', Dlll'.-SUt;N)

the l 770s. He was ack:nowleclged by most of bis contemporaries as the great master of the opera seria. Ineleeel he serveel as a symbol of lhe genre's international character. Born near Hamburg. he clirected music anel opera at the C0Llli of the elector of Saxony in Dresden for most of bis life. but he spent many years in Icaly. married lhe ceEebrated Italian soprano Faustina Bordoni (see ln Performance: Faustina Bordoni and the Art of Vocal Em.bellishment. pp. 486- 87). anel became so thoroughly ltalian in bis musical style lhat the [cal ians nicknameel him "il caro Sassone" (lhe elearSaxon). The great majority ofhis eighty ope ras use Metastasio I ibrellos, some of wh ich he set. two or three limes, an<l his music is lhe perfect complement to Metaslasio's poelry. The l'amous aria Digli ch"io sonfedele (Te l1 him thal [ am l'aithfuJ) from Hassc·s Cleofide (1731 ), his nrst ope ra fo,· Dresden (NAWM 108), illusti·ates the elegant anel judicious qualities of his music. ln the &rst vocal statement, shown in Exa mple 2 1.3 (see p. 487), Hasse set the ope ning lines with a gracefu l motive that f'o llows the natural rhythms and inflcctions ofthe rext, highlights the parallelism belween thc ÍlíSt two lines, anel rerlccts the earncst optimism of Clcondc, quccn of lnclia. Thcse anel severa] later phrases enel witb accentcd suspcnsions on tbc last stessed syUablc, creating a naru ral accentuation of the words. After the opening rhytlunic motive appears three times. Hasse introduees syneopations anel scaJes in measures 13- 14 and reverse- dotted rhythms (called Lombardic rhythms or Scotch snaps) it1 measure 15. These gently destabiliz.ing elements give the melody imerest and expressivity without saerificing elegance. Tbe slowly pulsing bass line stays in the back:ground, its steadiness throwing lhe irregu]arities of t.l1e melody into relief.

Opera in Other Languages \Vhile opera seria maintaincd its charactcr across nationa l bouncla ri cs from lla ly lo England, comic opera too k different forms in dif-fe rent countries. lt usually represe nteei people fro m th,e midclle or lowerclasses in familiar situations anel requi recl relatively modcst perf'orming resources. Comic- opera librettos were always written in lhe nalional tangue, anel lhe music teneled to acecntuate nat ional musical ielioms. F'rom humbl e bcgin nings. eo mie opera grew steaelily in importance after 1750, anel before the enel of the century many of its characteristic feah1res had been absorbed into the mainstream of operatic composition. The historical significancc of comic opera was twofo ld: il rellecteel the widespread demand for simple, clear, anel ··namral" siuging in the second half of the eighteeu1h cenrury. anel it encouraged the growth of separate national traditions of opera. which became prominent in the Romam ic perioel. FRANCE

Querelle des bouffons

ln Paris, long-simmering cri ticai opposition to the olel- fashionecl. statesubsidizeel French opera erupteel in 1752- 54 in a pamphlet war known as lhe Q1ierelledes bouffons (Qua rrel ofthe comicactors). The dispute was prompted

Opera ln Other Languages

485

by the presence in Paris of an ltalian cornic opera troupe that for cwo seasons enjoyeel sensational success with its performances of opere buffe anel intermezz.i, including La, seiva padrona. Many French intellechtals took part in the quara-el. pariisans of ltalian opera on one siele and frieods ofFrench opera on the ocher.

One of the most vehem.ent voices arguing for the merits of ltalian opera Jean-Jacques Rousseau

was Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712- 1778). who praised Italian composers' emphasis on meloely anel their ability ro exp ress aoy emotion through melody (scc Sou,·ce Rcaeling) . Rousseau wrolc a cha rming little ope ra , Le devin du village (The Village Soothsayer, 1752), with airs and recita tives

THE MERITS OF ITALIAN OPERA

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a leader oi rhe Enlightenment in France and a major ínAuence on Romanti·

cism. ln the debate between advocaces of French and of lralian opera, he supporred rhe latter, findlng it truer to nature and more moving because oi its emphas,s on expresslve melody. H,s preference for lighrly accompa· nied melody and disdain for coun1erpo1n1 were widely shared ,n rhe latter e,ghteenth century, On first acquaintance with ltalian melody. one Íinds in it only graces and believes it suited only to express agreeable sentiments. but with the least study of its pathetic and tragic character, one is soon surprised by the force imparted to it by the a rt oí the composer in their great pieces of music. lt is by the aid oí these scientific modulations. oí this simple and pure harmony, of these lively and brilliant accompaniments that their divine performances harrow or enrapture the soul. carry away the spectator. and force from him. in his transports, the cries with which our placid operas were never honored. How does the musician succeed in produc· ing these grand effects? Is it by contrasting the rnovements, by multiplying the harmonies, the notes. the parts? Is it by heaping design upon design. instrument upon instrument7 Any such jumble, which is only a bad substitute where genius is lacking, would stiíle the music instead

of enlivening it and would destroy the in terest by divid ing the attention. Whatever harmony severa! parts. each perfectly melodious. may be capable of producing together, the effect of these beautiful melodies disappears as soon as they are heard simultaneously. and there is heard only a chord succession, which one may say is always lifeless when not animated by melody: so that the more one heaps up inappropriate melodies. the less the music is pleasing and melodious, because it is impossible for the ear to follow severa! melodies at once. andas one effaces the impression of another, the sum total is only noise and coníusion. For a piece of music to become interesting. for it to convey to the soul the sentiments which it is intended to arouse, ali the parts must concur in reinforcing the impression of the subject: the harmony must serve only to make it more energetic: the accompaniment must embell ish it without covering it up or disfiguring it: the bass. by a uniform and simple progression, must somehow guide the singer and the lisrener without either's perceiving it: in a word, the entire ensemble must at one time convey only one melody to the ear and only one idea to themind. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Lette, on French Music (1753). trans. William Strunk. Jr.. and Oliver Strunk. m SR 133 (5.12). pp. 900-901 .

486

C ti A P T E li 2 1 · Optra and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Period

Opera ln Other Languages

EXAMPLE 21.3, HMse, Digli clúo son fedele,/rom Cleonde. with embcllished. vocal line as sung by Porporino

FAUSTINA BORDONI AND THE ART OF VOC AL EM BELLISHMENT T he title role of Hasse's Cleofide was created by the composers ltalian wife, the soprano Faustina Bordoni (1700-1781), shown in Figure 21 .4. One of the great singer-actresses of her age, she established her reputation ln Venice while still in her teens, enjoyed success at Munich and Vienna in the 1720s. and sang in Handel's London opera company later that decade (see chapter 19). She married Hasse in 1730 and starred in at least fifteen of his many opere serie before retiring Írom the stage in 1751. Bordoni was a diva of commanding stature and temperament. Her rivalry with fellow soprano Francesca C uzzoni is legendary. although the oft-told story that they carne to blows d uring a performance of an opera in which they were both appearing is untrue. Bordoni was known for her Ruent articulation, trills. expressive power, and improvised embellíshments such as those shown in the top staff of Example 21 .3, an elaborated version of C leofide's aria Digli ch'io son fede/e. This version. as sung by Porporino (Antonio Uberti), a famous castrato of the day, survives in the hand of King Frederick the Grea t of Prussia, an avid musical amateur. T he music is abla ze with trills. mordents, rapid turns , appogg iaturas. scales. triplets. and arpeggios. at times departing considerably from the original contour while preserving íts phrasing. Such embellishments were added especially in the da capo repetítion o f the aria's A section, where. after

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FaustinaBordoni ínapaste!porlrait 1,rJernate artist Rosalba Giovanni Carriera (/675-/757). (O ART RtSOURCe, NY)

concentrating on the words and their dramatic message the Íírst time through. the performer was expected to embroíder the melody so as to enhance the aria's expression and display an impressive vocal technique. Such vocal acrobatics remind us that the center oí attention in an opera seria was not the composer, drama, plot, or scenery, but star singers like Bordoni. - J PB & BRH

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Te/1 hi,n thot f omfaitliful. Tel1 hirn thol he's rny 1reast1re:

1Tel1 hini l 10 !ove rne. tlwt f adore hirn. Thot lie should riotyel despair.

in spir ed by the new l ta li an m elodie style. T he a ir ]"a,iperdu tout mon bonheur. shown in Exa mpl e 21.4 (see p. 488) . exhib its the balanced two - measure ph rases. s im ple h as mon ies. primacy of melody. and s uh ord in aie accompa nime nt t.hat Rousseau lauded in ltalia n o pe ra, a ll of which becam e rypica l featu1·es of m usic in tb e second haJf of th e eigb teenth centu ry. Tbe a ir is i nter rupted by passages 1.hat imi ta te ltalian rec ita iive .

T he na tive Fr e nch version of o p er a w ith spo ke n d ialogue , known as

opéro comique. h ad begun around 1710 as a popula r entertainment at s ubudian fairs. Unlil m idcen LLu-y , Lhe m us ic consis ted al most entir ely o f p opul ar 1unes , kn own as VQ,udevilles. or si mp le m e lodi es im i1atin g suc h Lunes. Tbe prese nce of ltal ia n comic opera i n the 1750s st im ulated the pro duct io n oí opé ras co miq ues in which o r igi na l ai rs (called (l,riettes) i n a m ixed

Opéra coniique

487

488

C H A P T E K 2 1 • Opera and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Pefiod

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Thomas Walker. tlw acror playing the central characlcr. rh.e notorio11s 1hiefand 11turdererMache-0th. ln 1/wengrnving by renowned saririst William Hogar,h (/ 697- 1761). Pollyand L11cy. both in lave wilh Machea1/1, plead for his release from. prison. ( UBIU:CHT MUSJC & A.8,1'S l"HOTo

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ofThe Begga r'sOperaatthe1'1e(llre Royal ar Cove111 Corderi in l.ondon. The evening"s receipts were 10 be paid ro

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ltalian - French style were introduced along with the older vaudevilles. The vaudeviUes were graduaJly replaced by the arietles un!il. by lhe end of the l 760s. ali the music in an opéra comique was freshly composed. Like ali lhe nal io nal variants of comic ope1·a excepl the Ttalian , opéra comi que use d spoken dialogue instead of recitalive. By lhe late r eighteenlh cen lu ry. lib rellists and compose rs o f opéra comiquc were using serious plots, some bascd on thc social issucs that agi Lated Francc before and during lhe ycars of thc Rcvolulinn. Many such works were produced ai the Théàtre de l'Opéra- Comique in Paris. wh ich beca me onc of thc principal compctito rs of the roya lly suppo rted Opéra. Thc lcading f'rench opera composer of lhe time was the Belgian - born André Ernest Modestc Crétry (1741 - 18 13). His Richard Coeur-de-Lion (Richard thc LionHearted, 1784) inaugurated a vogue fo r "rescue·· operas around thc turn of the century- Beethoven·s Fide!io was one (see chapter 24)- in whicb lhe bero, in immin cnt dangcr of death for two a nda half acts. is linally savcd through a friend's devoted heroism. The opéra comique remailled extremely popular ill France throughout the Revo lution and the Napoleonic era and into the 11ineteenth centmy.

a rias from other works for the stage. The fashion for baUad operas peaked ín the l 730s, but they continued to be composed and staged over the next

severa! decades in Britain. in its North American colonies, and la ter in the United StaLes. Over time, ballad opera composers bo rrowed less and wrote more original music, in a development paralle l to that of opéra comique. Tbe genre was spawned by ú1e tremendous success of The Beggar's Opera (1728. excerpted in NAWM 109) . with libretto by John Gay (1685-1732) and nrnsic arranged probably by Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667- 1752). Gay's play satirized London society by replacing lhe ancienl heroes and ele va teci sentiments of traditional opera with modem tu·ban thieves and prostitules and their crimes. as shown on the ticke t in Figure 21 .5. The poetry and rnus ic sornctimcs spoofcd ope ra o r used operalic convcnlions lo crcate humo r lh rough incongruous juxlapositions. When the ma in characler Machcath likencd h is roam ing hcart to a bcc in My heart was so free. con· tempo rary listenc rs were rem i nded bo lh o f lhe noble s ímile a rias of se rious Baroque operas (w h ich compa re a characler's siluation to a vivid image. portrayed in the music) and of the naive popular courting song whosc tune he sings. As hc at1d his wi Fe Polly pledgcd their constancy in Were l laid on Cree11land's coast. whi ch would be set with grc,it ea rncstncss in lta lian opera, thc audience could not hclp but notice the tune , whosc originaJ text teUs of a lad "run mad·· by his lass, and be amused at the comrast of mood.

The Begga:r·s Opera 1

Fui! :\\

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA ENG LAND Ballad opera

489

FIGURE 21.5, A licketforaperf,emnance

Rousseati. f ai perdu tout moll bonheur.Jrom, Le devin du village

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)

Opera ln Oth•r Languages

ln England. Lhe popular form of opera in Lhe local language was ballml opera . Like the early opéra comicrue, a ba llad opera consisted of spoken diaJogue interspersed with songs that set new words 10 borrowed tunes. including folk songs and dances. pop ula r songs. and well-known airs and

Serious operas in German had been composed and produced since the seven· teenth century. anda few composers conti.nued to wriLe such works through out tl1e eighteenth centuiy, generally adopting the style and format of ltalian opera mixed with French and native elements. But much more popular was the new genre called Si11gspiel (German for "singing play"). an opera with

SingspieL

490

C H A P T E K 2 1 • Opera and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Pefiod

TIMELINE Opera and Vocal Music i,i the Ea.rly C!assic Period MUSICA L

H ISTORICAL

• 1711-40 Reign of Charles VI as

Holy Roman Emperor • 1721 Alessandro Scarlatti. La

Grisei&, • 1722 Leonardo Vinci. Li zite

'ngalera • 1728 John Gay, The Beggais

Opera • 1731 Johann Adolf Hasse,

CfeoPde • 1733 Jean-Philippe Rameau,

Hippolyte et A,ic,e • 1733 Giovanni Battista

Pergolesi. La serva padrona • 1740-86 Reign of Frederick

the G reat of Prussia • 1740 Maria Theresa crowned

Holy Roman Empress • 1741 George Frideric Handel.

Messiah • 1751-72 Denis Diderot and

collaborators publish the

Encyclopédie

spoken dia logue. musical numbers. anel usuaUy a cornic p lot. The earliest examples appeared in the 171 Os at the Klirtnertortheater in Vienna. The success of ballad operas in England inspired poets in northern Germany to translate or adaptsome into German, and from the l 750s on composers were provid -

ing new music for tJ1em in a familiar and appealing melodie vein. The principal composer of Singspiel in the 1760s anel l 770s was Johann Adam Hille r (1728-1804) of Leipzig. Many Singspiel tunes wer e published in Cerman so ng co llections and some achieved s uch lasling popularity lhal lhey vi rlually becarne fol ksongs. 1rans mitt.ed o rally as well as in p ri nt. ln no,·thc.-n Cnmany, lhe Singspiel evcn t.ually mergcd witb ea rly- ni11eteentl1-centw-y native o pe ra . ln lhe south . part icularly in Vienna. íareica l su bj ects and treatment beca me fashionable, with lively music in a popular vein influenced by llalian comic opera. The Singspiel was an imporlant pre cursor of the Ccrman- language mus ica l thcatcr of compose rs such as Mozart and Weber (sce chaptcrs 23 anel 27).

OPERA AND THE PUBLIC Each of tbese natio11al traditions of comic opera was at first primarily supportecl by the public rather than depending 011 weU - 10- do patrons, and onlywhen ah-eady d1riving didgenres like opera buffa anel opéra comique attract generous aristo crat ic patronage. As a result. each tradition develop ed unique rea tures baseei on what pleased audiences in that region. en couraging the growth of distinct national s1)'les, which la ter became one of the strongest trends of the nineteentb century. lndeed, the increasing importance of lhe middl e-class public for mus ic is the ma in cco nomic force behind changes in musi cal style anel lhe growlh of ncw genrcs in thc late cightccnth century and throughoul th e ni netee11t.h as well. This pub lic supp ort a lso reinfo rced the preference of many Enlighten mcnt intell ecluals for mus ic lhal was s imple, clea r, anel clirecl anel had wide appcal.

Opera Reform Allhough serious ltalian opera remained dependent on royal and aristocratic paironage. it also underwent changes tha t rellected Enlightenmem thought. From midcentury on several composers. lihrettis ts, and patrons worked to bring opera into harm ony with new ideais of music anel drama. They sough t to make lhe enti re design more ·•natu ral"-that is, more llexible in s1.ructure, more expressive, less ornamented wi th coloratura, and more va ried in musical resources. They d id not abandon lhe da ca po aria bul modili.ed it and introduced other forms as well. ln arde r to move lhe action forward

Opera Reform

rapidly anel more realistically. they alternatecl recitatives anel arias more flexibly. To increase varie(_)• anel he ighten dra matic impact. they made greater use of accompanied recitative anel ensembles. Th ey made the orchestra more important as a vehicle for depicting scenes, evoking moods, anel adding

color and depth to accompaniments. They reinstated cho-

• 1752-54

491

Querei/e des bouf{ons

• 1752 Jean-Jac9ues Rousseau.

Le devin du vil/age ruses. long abseut in Italian opera. ln a11 of these ways. they sougbt to assert lhe pri macy of the drama and the rnusic and • 1755 Carl Heinrich Graun, subo rd inate lhe so lo s ingers to this larger purpose, rcversDer Tod Jesu ing l.lhe long-standing focus on star s inge rs. The argument for • 1755 Francesco Algarotti. s uch changes was articulated ia An Essar on the Opera (1 755) An Essay on the Opera by Franccsco AJga,·01ti, who was inílu cnccd by thc more intc• 1760-1820 Reign of George grated apprna ch of French serious opera and by lhe traclilion 111 of England of class ica I Creek tragedy. Two of the most importan t iigures in th is refo rm were • 1762 Christoph Willibald Niccolô Jommell i (1 7 14- 1774) and Tommaso Traetla (] 727Gluck. Orfeo ed Eurídice 1779). That thcsc lta lian co mposcrs workcel at courts whcrc • 1765 Joseph li becomes Holy Frcnch taste prcdominateel- Jommelli at Stuttgart (1753- 69) Roman Emperor and co-ruler and Trae t1·a in Parma ( l 758- 65)- naturally influenced th em with Maria Theresa towaTd a cosmopoJitan type of opera. Jo mm elli composeel some one bundred stage works anel achieved wide popu • 1774 Gluck. Orphée et larity. He blended Italian melody and French declamatory Eurídice in Paris recitative in powerfully dramati c scenes such as tbe orches• 1774-92 Reign of Louis XVI trally accompanied recitative at rhe end of Atil!io Regolo of France (1753), in which the protagonist bieis a moving farewell to • 1775- 83 American Revolution Rome. His !ater operas p rovided models within opera seria for a more continuous dramatic t1ow anel gave the orchestra • 1778 La Scala opera house a mo re important role, includ ing more colorful use of wood opens in Milan winds and horns. Traetta similarly aimed to combine the best • 1789-94 French Revolution of French l.ragédie en mus ique and [talian opera seria in h is lppo!iio etAricia (1759). o n a li bre u o transla ted and adapted • 1794 William Billings. The from Ramcau·s Hippolyte et Aricie (scc chap tcr 18). Bcsides Cominemal Harmony b orrowi ng so me of Ramea u's dan ce music and d escriptive o rchestral int e rlud es, Tra etta included a numbe r ofchoruses, co,n mon in lhe Fre nch lradit ion hui ra re in J1aJ ian opera. Fo r lhe solo roles, he used lhe ltalian gcnrcs of recitative anelaria. but de ployed severa l forms beyo:nd the co nvcnti onal ela capo a ri a. Thus in his own way Tra cUa rcco ncilcd the two ma in types of music drama, French anel ltalian.

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK Christoph Wi ll ibald Gluck 0714-1787). s hown in Figure 2 1.6. achieved a winning synthesis of French. ltal ian . anel German operatic styles. Born of Bohemian parents in what is now Bavaria , Cluck studied under Giovanni Battista Sammartini in ltaly (see chapter 22). visited London. toureei in Germany as conductor of an opera troupe. became court composer to Emperor Charles VI at Vienna, anel triumphed in Paris under the patronage of Marie Amoinette. After writing operas in the conventional Iialian style. he was s trongly affected by the reform movement in the l 750s anel collaborated with

li" GLUCK: O,f•oed ~ur,dice. Act li, Scenc 1

492

C ti A PT E li 2 1 • Optra and Vocal Music ln 1he Early Classic Period

Song and Church Music

t be poet Ranieri Calza bigi ( 17 14-1795) to pro clu ce at Vienna Orfeo ed Eurtdice (1762) and Alceste (l 767). ln a p reface to Alceste. published two years after th e premiere. G luck (or possihly Calzabigi) expr essed a resolve lo r emove the abuses that had clef'ormed Ital-

ian opera and to confme music to what reformers

FIGURE 21 .6.

A 1775

portraít of Cluistoph

Willibald Cl1<ck byJoseph.-Sif]red Duplessis. <•us,-ru,srotuscJtu J.IU.SEUM. VI ENNA. 1•11o·ro: l!:IUCII tf..SSINC/ AJlT Ili $OURt;1:, NY)

Naturalistic staging and acting

French operas

Gluck ·s influence

con sider ed its prope r function- to serve lhe poe try anel adva nce the plot (see Sow ·ce Readi ng). Th is he wan ted to ac,com plish wilhoul regarei e ilher to l he o utwom convention s of the da ca po aria or l he desire of s ingers to s h ow off thei r skiU in o rnamen tal va ria tio n. He furt her aõm eel lo ma kc thc ovctture an in tegral pa rt of the o pera . to ada pt the orchestr a to the d rarnatic requi re me nts, and to lessen t he contrast betwee n aria and reeitative. Gluckaspired to writc music of ..a beautêf,11simplic ity." which hc achievcd especially in O,feo ed Euridi-ce. ln botb this ope ra anel the mo re monumentaJ A!ceste, tbe music is molded to tbe drama, wi tb reci tatives, arias, and choruses int erm iugled in large uniftcel scen es. Compareci to the frnal ehoruses JommelJj emp loyed it1 bis operas for Vienua iu the early l 750s, Gluck's Choros of Fur ies in Act II of O,feo ed Eurídice (NAWM l l O F..111;1I) is more integral to lhe action. ln this scene. Ol'feo has descended into the un elerworld, where Lhe Furies ch allenge him in strielen t tones re in for ced by string tr em olos, horns, anel trombones. He replies with pleas for mercy. accompanied by h arp and plucked strings Lo si mula te lhe playingofhis lyr e. The opposil ion of per for mi ng forces. timb res. keys, dynamic leveis, and styles helps lhe m usic to d eepen 1h e d ramatic co níl icl. Gluck su pervised the p roduclio11 of bis o peras. enh an cing lhe drama wilh mo re nalural islic light ing. st aging .. anel act ing. He wa nted h is si ngers, even thc chorus , to t hin k of thc msclvcs a s aeto rs anel to move reali stica lly in orde r to b ri ng the d ra ma to l ife. Thc fii-st Or feo . Caetano Guadagni . took as b is mode l I he great Shakespca rea n actor David Ca rrick, who pio neer ed a new, mor e natu ra l style of aet ing. C uad agn i so inhabiteel t he ro le of Orfeo t hat hc d id not br eak character to acknowledge applause as oth er singers d id . ln O,feo ed Eurídice and Alceste. C luck amalgam at cd ltalian m elod ie gracc a nel t he stat ely magn i fieen ce of thc Freneh tragéd ie e n m usi que. T he clí max of bis ca reer was ushered in with l he Paris pr oduction of Iphigénie en Aulide (lphigenia in Aulis. 1774). with a libretto ad apt ed from t be t ragedy by sevenreenrh- eenrury Fr ench p laywright Jean Raci ne. Both Íl anel its seqt1el, lphigenie en Tauride (Iphigenia it1 Tauris. 17"79), are works th at display an excellen t balance of dramatic anel musical int erest. Gluck t1sed ali the resour ces of opera- solo and c horal singi ng. or ches tTa. and ballet- to p roduce a total effect of classieal tragie grandeu r. Gluck's operas became moelels for many subsequent works. especially in Paris. His inlluence ou Lhe for m and spirit of o pera was transm ined to tJ1e nin etee ntb centu.1y t hr ough co mpose rs such as Niccolô Piccinni, Lu igi Cherubini (1760-1842), Gaspa ro Spontini (1774-1851), and Hector Berlioz (1803-1869).

PRINCIPLES OF REFORM OPERA Christoph Willibald Gluck played a leading role in liberatlng opera from the conventlons of opera seria and creating a new operatic style based on t11.1ly dramatic expression. ln the preface to the printed score of the opera A/ceste (1769). either Gluck or his librettist. Ran1en Calzabig,. explained the a1ms behind the movement for operatic reform.

-*-

When I undertook to write the music for Alceste, 1 resolved to divest it entirely of all those abuses. introduced into it either by the mistaken vanity of singers or by the too great complaisance oF composers, which have so long disfigured ltalian opera and made of the most splendid and most beautiFul oF spectacles the most ridiculous and wearisome. 1 have striven to restrict music to its true office oF serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations oF the story. without interrupting the action or stiíl ing it with a useless superfluity of ornaments; and I believed that it should do this in the sarne way as telling colors afFect a correct and well-ordered drawing, by a well-assorted contrast oF light and shade. which serves to animate the figures without alteríng their contours. Thus I did not wish to arrest an actor in the greatest heat of dialogue in order to wait for a tiresome ritornello. nor to hold him up in the middle of a word or a vowel favorable to his voice, nor to make dísplay of the agility oí his fine voice ín some long-drawn passage, nor to wait while the o rchestra gives him time to recover his breath for a cadenza.1 did not think it my duty

to pass quickly over the second section oF an aria oí which the words are perhaps the most impassioned and important. in order to repeat reg ularly four times over those oF the First par!, and to Finish the aria where its sense may perhaps not end For the convenience of the singer who wishes to show that he can capriciously vary a passage ín a number of guises; in sho rt. 1 have sought to aboi ish ali the abuses against which good sense and reason have long cried out in vain. 1have Felt that the overture ought to apprise the spectators of the nature of the action that is to be represented and to form. so to speak, its argument; that the concerted instruments should be introduced in proportion to the interest and the intensity oF the words. and not leave that sharp contras! between the aria and the recitative in the dialogue. so as not to break a period unreasonably nor wantonly disturb the force and heat of the action. Furthermore. 1 believed tha t my greates t labor should be devoted to seeking a beautiful simplicity. and I have avoided making displays oF difficulty at the expense of clearness; nor did 1judge it desirable to discover novelties if it was not naturally suggested by the situatíon an d the expression; and there is no rule which I have not thought it right to set aside willingly for the sake oF an intended e fFect. Dedication for Alcesce (1769). trans. Eric Bloom From Alíred Einstein. G/uck(London: J. M. Dent & Sons. 1936). 98-100. ln SR 136 (s:1s). pp. 933-34.

Song and Church Music While op era held sway in the larger puhlic arena. solo songs. cantatas. and othe r· types of seculai· vocal chamber music entertai ned mo r e i nt imate gathe rings throughout Europe. By this ti me, church music was a follower of secular styles r ather lhan a focus of innovation . but it was still an impor tan t par t of musical life.

493

494

C H A P T E K 2 1 • Opera and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Pefiod

TheLied

The virtl!es of song

Song and Church Music

SONG

CH URCH M USIC

Songs for home performance were composed and published in many nations. reflecting tbe growing interest in amateur music- making. lncreasingly tbe accompaniment was writren for a keyboard instrumenc, although guita!' was

Once the driving force in the deve lopment of uew styles, church music by the midcUe of the eighteentb century was valued more for its trad itionaJism than for innovacions, or else s imply adopted the current prevailing styles of secular

495

also used. Most songs were relatively simple. usually syllabic. diatonic. and

music. As a result. churcb music of this era has attracted much less attention

st rophic. with accompaniments easy enough to be played by the singer. Many of the songs sung at home were rei igious. set in a plain hymnlike s tyle. ln add ition, distinctive ge nres of secu lar songemerged in different regions. ln France. lhe romance was a slro phic song on a sentimental text with a s irnple, expressive melody. almost entirelywithout orname niatfon. over a plafo accompaniment. ln Britain, bo.llads were printed on single large sheets ca ll ed broad sides or gathe red in prinLed collections. Usually only lhe text was printed. typica lly a new poem about recent events or on a sentimental the me, mea nt to be sung to a fami liar tunc. Such songs wcre produccd in Britain from thc sixteenth through lhe early nineteenth. cenluries, and parallel genres were wide spread on lhe Europea n conti nenl and in No1ih America. English composers also wrote ncw songs in popular scylc and in tbc more clcgant manner cultivatcd in concerts at lhe pleasttre gardens i n London. ln the late eighteenth centmy. a fashion devclopccl for Scottish and lirish folksongs, and publis hers issued hun dreds of them in new settings, as weU as new songs wrirten in a similar style. The German song, or Lied, achi,eved a special prominence. Song was centraJ to musica l life and aesthetics in Germany. Pub lish ers brought out more than 750 collections of Lieder with keyboard accompaniment dm·ing the second half of the century. German writers 011 music believed all music and musical instruments should emulate Lhe singing voice. and iusisted that song should be simple and expressive. Ly ric poems were s trophic. and compose rs setting them to music strove to create a single melody that would su it every stanza well. generally with one note pe r syllable. Songs were considered best when the melody was easy to sing. even hy those untrained in music. and the accompaniment featured little orno f11:,rura Lion and was com pletely s ubordi natc to Lhe vocal line. This modest style. oftcn (though not cnlircly accuratcly) compared to folk song. was meanl to please lhose who perfonned and hea rd it. not to impressor astound as did t he voca l display of ope ra. North Ge rma n com posers we rc parti cula rly irnporlant forsongcomposi tion, including Teleman n i11 Hamb u rg and C. P. E. Bach and Carl Hei nrich Graun (ca. 1704- 1759) in Bc rlin. Th c plain stylc of thc ir Licdcr contrasts sharply with thei r more elaborate music in other genres, and probably rcllects the taste of most Cennan consum ers of music. Towa rd Lhe e nd of th e ce ntury. Johann Friedrich Reichard t (1752- 1814) and otbcr composers expa nded tbc styl istic possibilities of the Lied, primarily by making t he structure more f1exible and giving the accompaniment greater independence. Ali these genres are marked by a lack of affectation . spare accompani ment, liule if any word- paint ing, d irect expression of feelings, and melodies that are simple. clear, and well suited to the accents, phrasing, and mood of the text. Althougb songs of the late eiglueenth centu ry are little known today. they entbody values the Enlightenment held most dear. Song beca me a critically important genre in the nineteenth centu1y. and the spirit of song per vades music from the late eighteenth century on.

from. performers and scholars than opera or instrumental music. Church com posers in Catbolic areas conformed LO the prevailing secular Catholic music style, especially that of the theater. A few composers carried on the stile antico lraditio n of Palestrina or Lhe h'rand polych oral style of Gabrieli. Bul for the most part. church mu s icians took over the musica l idioms and ge m es of ope ra , using orchest.ral accompaniment, da capo arias, accompanied recita tives. and choruses to express the sentiments in ll1e texl and insp ire appropriale feel ings in li ste11ers atte nding servi ces. A list of lhe leading e ightee nth-centmy ltalian church compose rs wou ld bc almost id e ntica l with thc li st of lcading opera composers of the period. Even more than masses and motets, Italian o ratorios became almost ind istinguishabl e from ope ras. At the s arne time some composcrs, particularly in nortbern ltaly, Austria, and southern Gcrmany. affected a com promise be tween conserval ive and modem elements, influcnced also by thc instrumenta l symphonic forms of the Class ic period . Pe rgolesi's Stabat mater (The Mother Was Standing, 1736), a setting of Pergolesi's Stabat a medieval Marian poem about Jesus· cruciftxi.on, drew on the sarne vein of mater exuberant melody and dramati.c scene-paintiugthat the composer had min ecl three years earlier in bis comic intermezzo La serva padrona. Consisting of twelve solos and duets for soprano anel alto voices with string accompani ment. the score ranges from the grave so lemnily of the opening duet. created by chains of suspensions over a walking bass. to the ardem "Fac. ut ardeaL cor meum," where the voices plead iu rapid imitative coun terpoint for a heart that b urns in !ove for Christ. The alto solo Quae maereba1 el dolebat (NA\VM 111 a) depicts Ma1-y"s gri ef and trernbl ing at her child's to rment through a repea ted sy11copated figure a11d repeat.ed trills. in a style 11<)[ far from opera. Thc following duct. Qiús est homo (NAWM l 11 b). combines thrcc verses of lhe poem. asking, in a plaiotive melody full of s ighing li1:,ru res ove r a slowly pulsing accompan imen t. who would not weep a11d fee l co mpa ssion to see Ma1y i11 s uch agony, the n turni11g lo rapid parallel lhirds to re minei the listene r 1ha1 her so11 s ul'fered fo r the s ins of humank ind . Alth ough so me co mme ntalors objectcd to Pc rgo lcs i·s mixturc of sacrcd and secular s tylcs as bc ing inapp ropriate for church music. theStabat ma ter became one of the rnost popular and frequently print ed wo rks of the centu1y. J. S. Bach paid tribut e to the ltalia11 coiuposer by arranging parts of it as a cantata. [11 Lutheran arcas, the En lightenmenfs focus 011 reason, anel Pietism·s Luthcran rnusic emphasis on individual worship and the n ew taste for elegant simplicity. led to dr.astic changes in churcb music. The cantata anel elaborate chorale - basecl compositions were no,_, considered old- fasbioned, and nmsic for the service consisted primarily of congregationa l hymns composed in or adapted to the n ew galant style. Tb e nonli rurgical geme of the orawrio became rhe principal medimm for North German composers. The best known was the Passion oratorio Der Tod fesu (The Death of Jesus. 1755) by Carl Heinrich Graun. which remained popular in Germany until the encl of the nineteenlh century.

496

C H A P T E K 2 1 • Opera and Vocal Music ln the Early Classic Pefiod

English ch1irch nwsic

Opera and the New Language

ln England. the enorm ous in fluence or Ha ndel and the Engl is h iu terest in older music kept lhe Baroque styles of church music alive. Composers focused on the traditionaJ genres of Anglican music. the service and the anthem. and on hymns for church or privale devotions. William Boyce (1710- 1779). more famous for h is thealer music. served as lhe offlcial

composer for the Chapei Royal. Ncw World

New éngland. hyninody

William Billings

Church musicians in European settlements in lhe New World drew ou iJ1e ir respective nalional styles. Vill a ncicos and olhe r chorai music colllin ued 10 be sung 1hroughou1 the Spanis h colon ies, and French Ca nadi an chu rches emulated tbe Catholic rnusic of France. ln British North America, dive rse irnmigralll groups hrought with them (o r later impo rted) e le ments of the ir rcligious mus ic. for cxa mplc, Angl ica n church cs in largc cit ics prcscnrcd music that d iffered little from that ar thúr English cousins. featuring organs as well as choi rs of men and boys. 1\vo groups were especially notable fo r the ir music: the Puri tans of New England and the Moravians of Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The Puritans who settlcd New England wcrc Calvinists, anel thcir use oí music in wo rsh_ip centercd on mctr ical psalm s inging. Thc original Bay Psalm Book (l 640; see chapter I O), the fm,t book published in North America, containcd no musi c. but the ninth ed ition of 1698 furnished thirteen melodi es for singing tbe psalms. Congregations were taught and encouraged to read notes and not to depend solely ou rote learning. ln the eighreenth cenn1ry, singing schools. often taught by traveling singing masters. trained a core of amalems co sing psalm settings and anthems in parts. The availallility of such singers beca me an invitation for composers to write new music. William BiUings (1746- 1800), the most prominent of these composers. lefl a signiflcant body of music and writings. His New-England Psalrn -Singer (1770), shown in Figu re 21.7, containecl 108 psalm and hymn settings and fifteen anthems and canons for chorus. His book marked two milestones- as lhe f1 rsl puhlished collect ion o[ music enli rely composed in No rlh America and the frrs t music-book puhlishe d in North America dev<> Led to a s ingle composcr. Billings issued seve ra! more collcctions. including The Conti ne11tal Harmony in 1794. Mosl. of B.illings's settings were "plain tunes,'· tha l is, hom ophonic four- pa ri harm on izat ions o f hi s newly invented melodies, s uch as Chester. a palriotic so ng from lhe Re volutionary War pc riod for which hc also wrote lhe text. Bu t his !ate r collectio ns s howed a prefc rcnce fo r fugi11g t11.11es , likc Creation (NAWM 112) from The Continento,l Ha,rmony. These Lunes usually open with a syllabic and homophonic section, then fea nirc a passagc in frec im itat ion bcforc closing wil h vo ices joi ncd again in homophouy. Billings declared his independence from 1he normal ru les of counterpoint, writing that he had devised a set of rules better suited to h is aims and method. and indeed bis setlings exhibit numerous parallel octaves and frfths as well as open chords without thirds. The rugged character of the music marches che colorful and eccentric personality of his writings. Yet even Billings's highly individual music reilects cun-eOls of ihe Enligh[enmem. em phasizing direct emot.ional expression over artífice as well as respect for experience over deference to authority. and it shares the clear phrasing and contrasting textures typical oí music of ils time.

FIGURE 21.7: Thefron,1ispiece to lVilliam Billings"s New-England Psa lmSinge r (1770). S11rro1111 ding lhe singers a t the table is a canon for six voices with a ground bassio be sung "by rltree orf 01,r deep ,,o,ces. ·· Engraving by Paul Revere. lo tera he.ro oflheAmerica.n Revolution. Cc•~Iu.c,.~I $cH1:s N/\'rll\NAL.>-tus1:u>.1. ~ o ,u~Btnc. GERMAN-Y/INV, #ti.llJl 1097)

The Moravians, on the other hand, were thoroughly conversant with Eu1·opea11 trends. Th ey were Germ an-speaking Protesta nts from Moravia. Bohemia. and southern Germany who settled in Nazareth and Bethlehem in Pennsylvan.ia, Salem in NorUl Carolina, and s urrounding a reas. They emhel lished their church services with concerted arias and motets in current styles. whether impo11ed from Europe or composecl in America. and usecl organs, strings. and other instruments in church. Moravians also collected substantial lihraries of music, both sacred and secular, and regularly played chamber music and even symphonies by the lea<ling European composers of the time. Johann Friedrich Peter (1746- 1813). John Antes (1740- 1811. the órst native-bo rn Anlerican composer of chamhe r music), and other Moravians wrote sacred vocal an d secular instrumen tal works tbat show familiarity witb anda mastery of Eu ropea n styles from Hand el to Haydn .

Opera and the New Language The new musir.a l irl ioms of the micl - 1.0 - lai te eight een th r.en tury harl their principal sources in vocal music, es peciaJJy in comic opera and ve rna cular song. ln those genres, the urge to e n tertain and to reach a diverse audience led to a simpliúcalion of means and a slriving for more efíccli,•e and

Morav1ans

497

498

C H A 1> T E R 2 1 • Opera and Vocal M">ic rn the Eorly Clo..rc Period

"naturalistic" expression. From ltalian theaters the new styles spread through the cosmopoütan network of mus icians, composers, and clirectors to other regions, stimulating new gcnres of opera anel song thal reached a wider pub lic than ever before. Seeking to se1'Ve the g1·owing laste for a clear and 1,miversally appea li ng music, composers developed a spare, logically organized ilow of musical ideas that co uld be grasped on ftrst hearing. The new styles we re insp ired by vocal music, yet 1hey had a treme ndous impact on instrumental music, creating a new approach to melody and form, as described in cbapters 20 and 22. But the sarne vaca] music that led the way to a new syntax and rhetoric reJJ victim to changing fashion. AJthough lasen•a, padrona, was revived for severa! decades, anel The Beggar·s Opera lasted irllo lhe nineteenth century, other works did not fare so well. \Vhile Gluck's operas were never entirely forgollen. anel O~(eo ed Eurídice is now a permanenl Jixcu1·e, most other vocal music oi' the time quickly passe d írom the stage anel is now li ttle known . Because of lhe way the history of music has been told. emphasizing Bach and Handel as paragons of Baroque music and Haydn and Mozarl as mas ters ofthe classical style, the music of the middle eip;hteenth centu1y is often seen merely as transitional. But much of this music is beautiful anel deserves attcntion on its own merits. lt was also of great importance to its performers and listeners, as made evidenl by lhe llood oi' writings. anel discussions abom m1,1sic by eve1yone from professional musicians to merchants to monarchs. From lheir own perspective. musicians of the time we re engaged in a vigorous argument about musical tasle anel style, andina consta nt search to please their growing audiences. As we encounter th eir music today, we would be wise to measttre it against their own goals a nd values ratherthan those of an earlier or la ter generation.

Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: SONATA , SYMPHONY, ANO CONCERTO The new musical icliom ofthe mid-eighteenth century, developed primarily in opera, became pervasive in instrumental music. Periodic phrasing, songlike melodies, diverse material. contrasts of texture and style, and touches of drama, all typical of the new idiom. made it easier to follow instrumental music and to be engaged by it. As an abstract play of gestures and moods, a drama without words, the music itself absorbed the listener's attention . Paradoxically, by bon-owing from vocal music, instrumental music gained new independence, rising in the next two generations to unprecedented prominence. lnstmmental music was a form of entertainment for players and Jisteners alike. Pleasing the performers anel! appealing to a wi de audience became paramount for composers, who flooded the market with instrumental music for domestic consumplion. The 1>i<i110 replaced the harpsichord and clavichord as the favorite keyboard instrument, and new chamber ensembles, notably the string qrwrtet, were deve loped for social music - making. The sonata (including similar works called by other names) became lhe leading genre fo r solo and chamber music. anel the concerto anel symphon.y dominated orchestral music, Ali these geures had deep roots in Baroque music, but the new melody -centered idiom brought new forros to the individual move ments, including somtta f onn and other adaptations of binary form.

500

C H A 1> T E R 2 2

• Instrumental Music: Sonato. $ymphony. and Concerto

lnstruments and Ensembles

FIGURE 22.2:

lnstruments and Ensembles lnslrumental music served a variety of social roles in the mid-to-laLe eig:hteenth century. Much music, including keyboard , harp , or guitar musi c lo [Play alone and ensernble music to pe rform as a social activity. was writ ten , purchased, and perfo rm ed l'or the eojoymen Lor Lhe playe rs themse lves. Especially among the midelle anel upper classes, amateurs oJ'ten played for family and Friends. ln the houses of uislocrats anel the well-to-clo, mus icians we1·e employecl to play during dinner or at parties. Amateur orchestras, sometimes fllled ou l wilh profess ionals, perfonned in priva1e or puh lic concerts. anel professional groups increasingly eliel soas well. ALI leveis of society en,joyed music for dancing. from wrilten-oul orchestral dances for lhe upper echelons to folk LUnes passed down by oral traeliLion fo r the peasanLry. The piano Whi le harpsichords anel clavichords were played and manufa ctured until the early nineteenth century, both gradually cedeel popularity to the pia 11oforte (ltalian for "soft- loud") . or 11ic1110. lnvented by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1732) in Florence in 1700, lhe piano uses a mechanism in which the strings are stnick by hammers that the n drop away, allowing each string to reverberate as longas the corres ponding key is held down ; this dilfers from the harpsichorel, in whi ch st rings are plucked, a nd from the clavichorcl , whe re they are struck by tangents that stay in contact wilh lhe strings until the key is released. The piano allowed tbe player to change dynamic levei and expression through touch alone. creating cr escendos. diminuen dos, s udden contrasts, and other effects. At ürst the new instrument me t ve11• slow acceptance, but from the 1760s on. makers in Austria. Ger many, France, and England produced pianos in increasing quantity. There were two main types. The granel piano was shaped like a harpsi chord. as shown in Figure 22. l ; relatively expensive. it was useel in puhlic performances anel in aristo cratic homes. Most domestic instrumenls were square pianos. in the shape of a clavichord, like Lhe one being played in Figure 22.2. Eighteenth century pianos are now often ca ll eel forlcpiauos to distinguish them from the larger. louder forros of the piano elevelopeel in the nü:i eteenth ce ntu1y. Ensernble music was wrillen for numer ous combinations. Ve1y common were works for FIGURE 22.1 : Pi(u1(1 mude in J792 by]<>hunn Andreos Stein ofAugsburg. whose ins1,rumen1s were IJpical of o ne or more melody instru ments, such as vio the age. The case resembles 1/ta,t ofa ltarpsicltord. and lin. viola. cello. or flute. together with keyboarel. the ,ç tring.'- n re attachr.fl to a wnndr.n framr.. prndur.ine ha,·p. or gui1ar. Whe.n the. la u~r play hasso r.on a. lightersound than the iron.Jrornes of nineteenthtinuo, th eyserve as accompanimen t to the melody centur:r and rnodern pianos. T/1e range is five octaves. instruments. But whenever the keyhoard has a from F1 to/"'. (0 1N'n:.Rroro1ALAMY) fullywrilten -out part in the chamhe1· music of the

501

George. 3rd ll.trl Cowper. wilh lhe: Faro ily or Charles Co re, po inting ~y

]ohan.n 7.-0ffa,iy (1775). showi.nga. squ.are piano anda cello. Such pionos -wcre tl1e main domestic

musical instroment from. the l 760s througlt. tlte mid -nir1eteentlt cent-u,ry. {YALL Ct:NT ER FOR BfllTISH ART, PAOl. M l'.1 1,0h' cou t,CTIONl'l'II E

BlUOCtMAli ART LI IHVU\y)

1770s and 1780s. il tends lo take the leael. accompanied by the other parts. The reason for this dominance lies in che role this music playcd in domcstic music-making among mjddJe- and upper-class families. The daughters were often skilled pe rformers at the keyboard. since music was one of 1he accomplishmenLs they were expected to cultivate, while the sons-typic.a lly vio li nists and cellists- devoted less time to practice. Therefore an evening's entertainment reqLtired works 1ha1 woulel highlight the woman's greater expertise. while allowing others to participate. Charnber music for two to hve strings alone was also co=on, especially lhe st.riug q1wrlet for iwo violins. vio la. anel cello. ln these works. the ftrst vio lin often carries most of the melodie suhstance. while the cello provides lhe bass, and the inner voices fali out the texture. However. knowing that players enjoyed bearing themselves in extended solos of several measures. composers also wrote concertante quartets in which the paris are of equal importance. as well as quarteis in which players exchanged s horter motives as if in musical conversation. Although now played in concerts, as they were on occasion ai lhe time, string qua.rlets and othe1· cham ber work~ were pt'imarily inten<led for the e njoyme nt of the performers anel their companions. Figure 22.3 shows a table elesigneel for playing quartets. with a music rack for each player. The very layout.

FIGURE 22.3: Ta.bleforplaying stringq ..ari-er.s. from abour 1790. Wil/11/ie tablerop (in the background) re,noved ar1d the music rncks raised as shown Itere. the four plarers fa.ce on e anot/1 er.

i-dcally positi-oncd to Ustcn /o ca-ch- othcrc.11d engage in 1he "conversation .. 1h01 s11ing qnanet

pl-ayi11gwu.s 1/, ought to embody. <• u•sTH1STOK· JSCHl'.S MUSEUtJ. \tltNNA)

502

C H A 1> T E R 2 2

• Instrumental Music: Sonato. $ymphony. and Concerto

FIGURE 22.4: A wind bGnd con$i.stingoftwooboes. two clarine1s. 1wo homs. and two bassoons. 71,is ima,ge shows a regimental band froni lhe Nerhed,uulsanny. 1751 .

Genres and Forms

The typical orchestration in the mid-eighteenth centtuy gave ali essential musical material to the strings and used U1e winds anel homs only for doubling, reinforcing. anel filling in thc harmonies. Sometimes in performance woodwinds and brasses might be added to the orchestra even though the composer had written no parts specinca lly for them . Later in the century, the wind instrumenls were enlrusteel with more importanl anel more iade pendent material.

Genres and Forms

Wind instruments

an<l ensembles

Orchestra

facing each other across a smalJ table, makes clear tftat quartet playing was as social an activity in the late eighteenth century as ca rd playjng was in the twentieth. The clarinet, a single- reed wind instrnment, was invented around 1710, and by the l 780s took its place alongside the oboe. bassoon, and flute as the standard woodwind instruments in wind ensembles. At this time. alJ four wer e typically made of wood and had one or more keys to aid in fmgering and allow pitches that were otherwise unatta inab le. Groups of wind p layers had been a regular feature of courts and military establishments since the lime of Louis XIV (see chapter 16). The French ensembles ofteo comprised only oboes, tenor obocs, anel bassoons, but by the mid - cighteenth century the combination of two oboes and/ or two clarinets with two horns anel cwo bassoons was becoming common. as in Figure 22.4. There were as yet no am.ateur wind ensembles, and amateurs tended not to play wind instnunents other than the flute; other wind instruments were considered too difficu lt for amateurs anel inappropriate for women because they required use of the mouth and lips. The eighteenth-centmy conce11 orchestra was mucb smaller than toclay's. Hayd1i's orchestra from 1760 to 1785 rarely had more than twenty-fwe players, comprising llute, two oboes, two bassoons, two boms, about twelve to si.xteen strings (violins I anel 11. violas. anel cellos doublcel by a bass vioO. anda harpsichord, with trumpets and timpani occasionally added . Viennese orchestras of the 1790s usua lly numbered fewe1· than thirty- nve p layers, now often includiog two clarinets. ln the last qua11er of lhe eighteenth century. the hasso continuo was grarlually ahan<loned in orr.hestral anrl other ensemb le music because alJ tl1e essential voices were presem in the melody instruments. TI1e responsihility for directing the grn1!lp, formerly the job of tbe harpsichord player, feU to tbe leader of lhe violins.

Many of the characteristic gemes of Baroque instrumental music fell out of fashion in the Classic period, including p reludes, toccatas. fugues. chorale setti ngs, a nel dance su ites. Composers continuecl to write val'iation sets, fan tasias , aod individual dances for keyboard. hui the major keyboard genre became the sonata, commonly in two to J'our movements of contrastiog mood and tempo. Multimovement works similar to lhe keyboarel sonata were also composed for a variety of chamber ensembles. These works were called sonata whco written for solo instrument plus keyboarcl anel otherwise oameel by the number of players: duet, trio, quanet, quintet, and so on. The main orchestra l gen res were the concerto, an extension of the Baroque so lo concerto, and lhe sy111ph o 11y. derh•ed from the ltaJian opera sinfonia, or overtu re. and the orchestral concerto. ln works of tlu·ee movements. typically the nrst and last were fast anel the middlc slow, ordinarily in a closely relatcd key. Later symp honies and quartets often had four movements, usua lly adding a minuet movement afte1· the slow movement (or before it. as in many of Haydo's string 4uartets). But the number and order of movements varied considerably: some symphonies had onJy one or two movements, others more than fou r; some three - movement works hael a minuet in the middle. instead of a slow move melll, or at the end, as a nnale; some string qua1tets had ôve movemeots, with two minuets. lt was not until late in the eighteenth century that standard formats for most genres-three movements fo1· sonatas, four for stdng quartets and symphonies- became the norm. The conlinuity of genre with earlier generalions is remarkable: rhe con · certo. the sinfo nia, anel the sonata for keyboard. soloist and keyboard, or chamber ensemble had all been prominent since the late seventeenth century. What is oew, anel quite distinct from iheir Barnque couoterparts, is the content of each geme. including the forms used in each movement. Ali ahsorbed the new gaJant style tbat emphasized expressive meloely in shon phrases, arranged in periods, over light accompaniment. Another difference from thc Baroque era is thc overwhelming prefer· ence fo r pieces in the major mode. More than a quarter of Vivaldi's concertos are in t he minor mode, as are half of J. S. Bach's, but fewer than a tenth of those hy Johann Christian Bach. Hayeln. Mozart, or other composers aclive in the ~econd half of the centmy are in minor. The major mocle wa~ considereel more pleasing and natural. anel was associated with more pleasam emotions. ln additioo, the focus on major fo r p rimary keys alJowed composers to use closely related minar ones for contrast. The motion from

Contimtityand change

Preference for

majormode

503

504

C H A 1> TE R 2 2

• Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond Concerto

•·-=

-·

G enres and Forms

505

EIG H TEE N T H· CENTURY V I EW , EX PA NDED BI N A RY FO RM

ORMS AT A GLANC E: Binary Form and lts Relatives

Binary form is one of the most fruitful and widely adapted forms in the history of music. ln the eighteenth century, there were three main types of binary form, shown in Figure 22.S.

Fírst Sectio n

Secoad Section

0oc Main Period . V Key: li' 1

l'irs1 Main Pcriod - onV

li' V

'li

Second Maio Pcriod 1 1 'li

NINETEENTH • CENTUR Y VIEW, THREE •PART FORM ( A BA ')

11:A

Simple binory form

:li: B

1- V

:li

Exposition

V- 1

Key: li: 1

Balanccd biuary form

11:A B :11: A B :li or 11:A B :11:X B :li

Hounded binary form

11:A B :11:X

1 -V

1- \1 FIGURE 22.5,

V-1

1-V

V-1

A 8 :li

De,.elopment

:11

Recapitulation onV

(

COMPA RI SON

Nine1cen1h- Ccn rury Vicw

Koch·s Modcl

mocl 1 - 1

Three rrpes ofbinoryfonn.

AII three types could be used as the form of an entire movement, such as a minuet·: could be paired with

another binary form, as in a minuet and trio; or could serve as the form for the theme of a rondo or set of variations (see pp. 507-8). ln addition, binary form was developed into what was then called {irst-movement {orm, renamed sonata form in the nineteenth century. As shown in Figure 22.6, eighteenth-century writers recognized that sonata form was an expansion of binary form, but nineteenth-century musicians came to regard it as a three-part form.

happy stahility-represented by a major-mode theme in a stable key and pred ictable ph rasing-through dangers and triais- representeei by minor keys. frequent modulation. anel unstahle phrasing-and then back to the home key and theme beca me a paracügrn of Classic-era forro.

First See1ion ri rst a nd second ph rases Th ird phrose Fourtb Jlhrase Appendix Secoud Seetion First Main Period Frce

V V

Exposition Firsi 1heme Tr:1nsition Second therne Closi ng , hem e

1 modtoV V V

mod. oftcn to \'i. ii. iii

De,.elopment Dcvclops idcas

mod

1 mod roV

f'rom exposi1 ion Prep3r:uion for return Secoud Main Period Pirst lnd second phr~ses Third phrase Fourth phrase Appendix

onV

1 mod

1 1

Rei r3nsition

on V

Recapitualatiori Firs11heme 1'ra nsition Second theme Ctosi ng theme

1 mod 1 1

FIGURE 22.6: Views offirs1-mooe111entfonn.

BINARY FORMS

Simple bina.ryf01m

Most forros of the Classic era are essentially harroonic, roodulaling froro the torni c to the clominant (or, in a minor key. the relative major) and then back home, either directly or after further hannonic adventures through a point of greatest dista.nce from the tonic. lmportant points in this harmonic plan are typically marked by new, repeated. or varieel musical material and by cbanges in phrasing, texture, anel other parameters. Many Classic forms are based on binary form, wil,ich features two sections. each repeated, the ftrst usually rooving from tonic to doroinant or rela tive major and the seconcl returning to the tonic. Binary form originated as a form for dances, reaching prominence in the dances and dance su ites of the Baroque period (see chapters 16 and 18). The dances for lute by Denis Gaultier (I\A\X'M 87) anel in the keyhoarcl suites of Elisa heth -Claude Jar.quet ele la Guene (I\ AWM 88) use simple bi,wry form, in which the two sections are roughly equal in length a.nd feature musical material that is different or only loosely relatcd.

ln the eighteenrh cen1u1y, coroposers soughl to erophasize the anival on Balanced bina.ry the dominant in the ftrst section and the return to the tonic in the second .forrn section. producing the new types of binary forro shown in Figure 22.5 (see Forros ata Glance, above). One common strategy was to present new material in the dominant at the encl of the nrst section anel to repeat that material in th e tonic at the encl of the second section, like a musical rhyme that serves to confmn the return to the home key. Such an approach he ightens the contrast between touic and dominant by associating different musical idcas witb cach anel then resolves the harmonic tension by repeating in the ton ic material that nrst appearecl in another key. This pattem, caLled lwl<mced binory form , appea.rs in François Co uperin's La. muse victorieiise (NAWM 9:'b) and is typical oi' Domr.nico Sr.arlatti's sonatas. discusse.cl he. low. Another approach, knO\v-o as 1·ow1deli bi11ary form. highlights the Rounded bina.,y return to the tonic in the second section by repeating the material that opened fo,m the .nrst scction. The eloublc return of the o pening key anel opening material

506

C H A 1> T E R 2 2

len ds a strong sense of' closure. Minuets often feature this form, as do lhe minuet in Jacquet de la Guerre's Suite in A Minor (NAWM 88h) and the Min uet of Haydn's Symphony No. 88 (NAWM 119c, discussed in chapter 23).

SONATA FORM

Koch on ftrstmovementf orm

Genres and Forms

• Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond C oncerto

These two strategies for emphasizing the return to lhe 1.o nic-repds ing the openi ng ielea and restating in the tonic materi al that li rst appea red in the dominant-are joined in the forro now known as so,wtn fm'III . Also called first-rnovemeniform, this was the mos t common form for the fu-st movemenl of .a sonata, chamber work, or symphony in the Classic period. Since lhe nin eteenth century, this form has been viewed primarily in tenns of themes an-anged in a three - part struclure. hut eigh1een1h- cenlury writers under slood it as a two-parc for m organized hy phrase slruct1ll'e and har mony. The two views are compa reci in Pigure 22.6 (see Po,·ms ata Glance, pp. 504-5). The hest conlemporary accounl of lhe form is in the third and final volume of Heinrich Christoph Koch's lntrodiwtorx Essay on Composition O78293). BuLlding on his el iscussion of phrases anel periods (see chapter 20) , be describes ftrst-movement for mas an expanded versi.on of binary form . There are two hirge sections. each of which may be repeated. the Iirst moving l'rom tonic t0 dominant (or i·elative major in a minor key), the second returning to the tonic. The li rst section has one main period, the second two . • ln the fo·st section. the principal ideas are presented, organized in a series oi' fourphrases: the 'iirst two ln tbe tonic; the third moelulating to the dominant or relative major (often closingwi th a balf-cadence in the new key); anel the fourth in the new key, confu-mcdby an optional "appendix" phrase. • The ft rst period of the second section may consist of any number of phrases. It often begins with the opening theme on the dominant. occasionally with another idea or in anocher key; moves 1hrnugh one or more keys more distant from the tonic; anel then moeluJates back to the tonic key by means of another melodie idea, end.ing on the dominant cho rei as preparation for the return of the tonic. • Tbe second. period of tbe second section begins anel ends on the tonic. It typically parallels the first section and for the most part restates the same material, except that the third ph rase ends on a half- cadence i n the lonic. and tbe fourth phrase anel. append.ix are now in the tonic. Thus in most sonata-form movements. t.he retum to t.he tonic in the second section is signaled by the return of the opening theme and emphasized by the restatement i n the home key of the material ü rst presented in the dom inant, combiningaspects ofroundecl and balanced bina1-y forro. The phrases mentioned here may be as h rief as two to four measures hul are often greatly expanded by repeating or varying material. inserting new material, or extendingthe phrnse through delayed or evaded cadences. Koch notes that in symphonies, the various melodie units tend to be extended a nd f'lowi ng, wi th few perceptib le pauses anel cadences. ln sonatas and

cham ber works, on the other hand, melodie unüs are more often separateel hy clear phrase enelings and rests . Whal Koch dcscribes is an overall plan or set of principies for organizing a movement, nol a rigid mold. His description confor ms well to lhe greal majority of lirst movements of the Classic period, as well as ma ny midd le movements and flnales . \Ve will see several examples in lhis and the next chap ler. By 1he 1830s. theorists and ana lysts looking al works l'rom the la1e 1700s and early l 800s, especially the music of Beethoven (see chapter 24) , began lo describe the form in somewhat differenl lerms. \'Qbere Koch saw a hinary form. they el ivided the movement into three sections, correspond ing lo Koch's th.ree periods:

507

Later view of sonatafo,m

• An cxpositio11 . usually repeated. with a nrst theme or group of themes in the conic; a tm11sitio11 to che domi.n.ant or relative major; a second theme or group in the new key. often more ly1·ical; anel a closi ngtheme or cadential reinforcement in the sarne key. • A clevelopme11t section. in which motives or themes from the exposi lion are presented in new aspects or combinations. anel which modu lates through a variety ofkeys and then works its way back toward the conic to close on the domi nan tch o rd. The passage leadi ngto and emphasizing the dominanl is called thc re l.rcms il.ion. • A rec"piwlatio11 , in which the material of lhe expos itio n is restated in t.he original order but with ali themes in the ton ic.

ln addition, there may be a slow introduction beforc the exposition, ora co<l<t after the recapihalation that revisits one or more themes and confirms the tonic key. Both models serve well to describe the mature works oi' Haydn and Mozar t. But Koch's approach , emp hasizing phrase structure anel a specinc harmonic plan . works better for music before ahout 1780. while the la ter view. focusing more on thema Lic contenl anel conD·ast of keys, is a hetter ÍlL for music after about 1800. The change carne about partly b ecause movements grew longer. making themes the most obvious guideposts for listeners. and partly due to a growing tendency to omit the repetition of the second section, making the binary strucwre less apparent. By che early nineteenth century, a ter nary plan (ABA') seemed to better elescri be the presentation, development, and recapitulation of themes. Of course, whal is most interesting ahout any individual movement is how the composeruses the principles articulated by Koch or la ter theorists to create a unicrue piece of music. \Vhile following these principies, composers of sonata - for m movements achieved a rema r kahle variety in form and content.

O THER FORMS Several of the other forms used in sonatas, ,chamber wor ks, anel symp honies in the Class;c era also expaud upun b;,ia.-y fo,·m. in various ways. • Many slow movements use a variam of sonata form that omits the &rst period of the second scctio11 anel. has no repeats. hui otherwise follows

Changes in first rnovemen Lf orm

508

C H A 1> T E R 2 2 • Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond Concerto

Koch ·s model; 1his has been called slow-mo vem ent sonau,. fo rm or sonata fonn without development. • Vari<ttions fo nn. used in some slow mo,•ements and occasional fust or last movements, presenrs a small bina1y fonn (or somelimes a single period) as a theme, fo ll owed by severa! embellished variants.

• Mimwt and trio fo m1 , often present in quartets and symphonies. joins two binary -form minue1s, repealing the farsl after playing the second (the trio ) to produce an ABA pattern.

• Rondo form . common in last movements. presents a small binary form or single period as a theme, then alternates it with other periods called episodes. which a re usuaJJy ü1 olher keys. io a pattern such as ABACA or ABA CADA. All forros of lhe Classic era exh.ibit similar compositional approaches. Ali depend upon grouping phrases into periods and periods inlo forros. Ali use both repetition and variation. Ali depend upon motion from the tonic to the dominant a.od back, and mosl confrrm lhe tonic by 1·estatiog material ürst presented in another key. Although expert composers sca rcely had to thin k about these matters. it will help us to keep Koch's advice to novice composers in mind as we look at how this music is put toge1her.

Keyboa rd Music

Domenico Scarlatti

Stimulated by the growing demand by amateurs for music that could be plaiyed al home and in private gatherings, composers of the middle and la1e eighteenth centi.,ry produced great numbers of keyboard works, includ ing sonatas. rondos . variations. and minuets. Sonatas were widely regarded as the most challe nging and rewa rding for bo th performer and listener, so the genre attracted composers interested in exploring new possibilities in expression, style, and form. lll tl1eir music. we can fmd many elements of the new musicaJ idiom. Although he was virtually unknown throughoUL Europe duriog bis lifetime. Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), shown in Figure 22.7. was one of the most original and creative keyboard composers of the eighteenth centmy. The soo of Alessandro Scarlalli, and a friend and exacl contempo ra1y of Handel, he 1eft ltaly in 17 19 to enter the service of the king of Portugal. When his pupiJ. the king's daughter, married Prince Ferdinand ofSpain in 1729. Scarlatti followed her to Madrid, where he remained fo r the rest ofhis life in the service of the Spanish court, somewhat isolated from the rest of Euro pe. Scarlatti pub lished a collection ofthirty harpsichord sonatas in 1738 under the title Essercizi (Exercises), but most of his 555 sonatas survive in scl'ibal copies from his lime. Each sonata is identil'ied by its mumber in the standard index hy Ralph Kirkpatrick. MoM of his sonatM a1·1! pai re,1 in the sources with one or two others in the sarne key that contras! in tempo. meter. or mood and were designed to be performed together. Scarlatti typicaJly used balanced binary form in his sonatas. repeating the

Keyboard Music

509

materfaJ from the latter part of the first section anhe end of the second section, transposed into the tonic. His sonatas in major keys usually follow a dis1 inctive schemc:

li A

I - >V

B C:11: D V

- >I

B C:11 I

ln the :l',rst section, the arrival ofthe new key of the domiruml is highlightedhy presentingnew material in the minor mode first. then proceeding to the paraJlel major domi nanL. Tbe second section spends litt le or no time on Lhe ideas presented at t.he outset of the movement, but reprises alJ lhe material that Ürst appeared in lhe dorninant, trans posed into rhe tonic to achieve bo1h formal and harmonic closure. ln both sectious, t he passage in the minor mode emphasizes and dramatizes the change of key. ln Scarlatti's sonalas, tbe harmonic scheme is paramount, anel the musical material is designed mainly to activate the texture. What sets his sonatas apart from the keyboard pieces of earlier composers is the sheer diver sity of úguration. Exarnple 22. 1 shows som.e of the varieLy

FIGURE 22.7: Domen,ic11Scarlatti. ina portraitfrornabout l740byD0111ingoA11umiode Vela-.sco. co1:Aco~'T1N1 P1c..,-uR1: uBRAJtr, enw,cE.MM-'

in the ftrst section of Scarlatti's So nata in D Major, K. 119

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(NAWM 113) . probably composed in the 1740s. Afler the broken-chord opening establishes 1he tonic (Example 22. la), it is conUrmed by a scalar idea (Examp le 22. l b) anda cade nce, each im mediately repea1ed. A new phrase (Example 22. lc) imita tes the rhythm and effect of castanets. After a moduJation. a theme appears in the d ominant minor (Example 22.1 d): this is Lhe lirst idea in the sonata to resemble the gaJaot texlure of melody with accompaniment. and it receives the m ost development. Scarlatti then leads us to a striking passage that builds to .a climax through trills and growing dissonance, with chords of fwe or even six notes (Exa.mple 22. l e). The effect recaJls Spanish guitar music, with the almost constant a' sounding like an open string stru=ed against those being fmgered. These evocations of Spanish music are featured in a number of Scarlatti's sonatas. Scarlatti was exceptionalbotb in his geographic isolation and in bis ahnost exclusive focus on the keyboard sonata in his !ater years. but he was one of many Italians to produce sonatas. His contempora1y Ludovico Ciustini (16851743) pu.blished lhe first sonatas w1-itlen explicitly for piano instead ofharpsichord, 12Sonatedacembalodipianoeforte (12 Sonatas for Keyboard with Soft a11d Loud, 1732). Although conservative in forro. resemhling Baroque church sonatas, they use contrasts of piano and fo,u to dramalic effect. Dome nico Alberti, renowned for the accompan imenta l Eiguration 1hat bears his aame (see chapter 20 and Example 20.2). composed about forty keyboard sonatas, alJ in gaJaot style and in the formal favored by !talian composers, with two binary-form movements of contrasting character. Vene tian composer Baldassare Galuppi {1706-1785). hest known fo r the enormously popu lar comic operas he wrote in collaboration with the playwright Cario Coldoni. was also a virtuoso harpsichordist who composed mo1·e than 130 keyboard sonatas in one. two. and three movements. He emb1·aced the ga lant style,

Conciso ~ 1 [Full ~ 1

Other Italian

composers

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C H A 1> T E R 2 2

• Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond Concerto

EXAMPLE 22.1,

Do,nenico Scarlatti.figures from Sonata in D Major, K. 119

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spinning gracefu l, aria-like melodies in short phrases over largely homophonic accompanjments. Ali his sonatas exhihit the "vaghezza. chiarezza, e buona modulazione" (charro, clarity, and good melody) that he considered hallma.rks of good music. Outside lta ly, tbe sonata was cultivated part icu larly by German composers, Carl Ph ilipp including Carl Phllipp Emanuel Bach. Shown in Figure 22.8. Bach was one Emanuel Bach of lhe mosl influential composers of 11-is generation. Trnfoed in music by his father, J. S. Bach, he servecl at the court or Fi-ederick the Great in Berlin from 1740 to 1768 and then beca me mus ic directo r of the five principal chw-ches in Hamb urg. He composed oralorios. songs. sym phorues. concertos. and charn ber music, bu t most numerous anel impo11am are hls works for keyboard. His Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard lnstruments (1753-62) is an imporlanl source of informalion on lhe musical thoughl and 1>raclice of the period. Bach's favo rite keyboarcl instrume nt was the clavichord, wbich he prized for its delicate dynam ic shadings. although bis late keyboard works seem to have been written with the piano in mind. He published eip;hl sets of six keyboard sonatas (l 742-79) and five se ts of sonatas mixed witb rondos and fantasias (1780- 87). His first two sets. called the Prussian (1742) and Wür\lemberg sonatas (1744). featured a new manner of keyboa rd writing and exerted a strong infl uence on la ter composers. These sets helped to establish the three movement pattem for the sona1a- wi1h the firstand last move ments marked fast and lhe slow midcUe movemem written in a related key-and demonstrated the possibility of expressive keyboard music outside thc Baroque tradition of thc suite. \Ve have already examined a movement from lhe second col - FIGURE 22 .8: Carl Philipp Emanuel lection (see chapter 20 and Example 20. l ), which exhibited Bach. in apcl.$1elpo11rni1 byhis distanr the typical traits of thc galant style: an emphasis on melody. cousin Gortlieb Friedrich Bach. court with clear phrasing, frequenl cadences, and light accompa- 01-gan istandpainierin Meiningen. niment. Many of his works, especially his slow movements, (S1'AATSkl•1.10T,,. •• "'-"'·rnrnnmc<11•• ••r exemplify the empfindsam style, whicb adds elements that ,.uniAttv> brive the music greater individuality and emotio nal inteusity. The maio chancteristics of the cmpnndsam style are apparenl in the seco nd movement (l\AWM IH) of the fourth of his Sechs Clavier-Sona.ten fiü- 1 Concise :-\ 1 1 Full :-\ 1 Kem1er und Liebha.ber (Six Clavier Sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs) . composed in 1765 and published in 1779. As in the galam style, the basic texture featu res expressive melody in short phrases, arranged in periods, over light accompaniment. The form is slow- movement sonata form. lacking a develo pment but olherwise conformingto Koch's description. But as shown in Example 22.2, the mulliplicity of rhythmic patterns, nervously and constantly changing-turns. Scotch snaps (reve rse dotted rhythms such as LJ\ short dotted figures, triplets, asymmetrical flou rishes of nve and thirteen notes- gives the musica restless. effervescent quality. ln lhe operuug phrase (meas1m~s 1-3). clescencling li nes suggest sighs. anel appoggiaturas and chromatic lowe r neighbor notes reinforce the melancholy mood. La ter. Bach exploits the element of surprise, when unus uaJ turns of melody, rests on the beat, sudden chauges of dynamic levei, unexpected harmonic shifls, anel a

512

C H A 1> T E R 2 2

EXAMPLE 22 .2,

• Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond Concerto

C. P. E. Bach. secondmovemen1from.Sona1a inA Major, H. 186. 111/q. 55/4

rising sequence create suspense and excitement. Bach. also introduced in bis instrumental works sections of musical dialor:ue and passar:es of recilative, applyingthe expressive tools of opera to create emotionally vibrant music.

Orchestra l Music Music for orchestra grcw in importance during 1he eighteenth cennuy, as pu blic and private concerts beca me more popular and more likely to include orchestral music.

symphonies were played in Catholic Churcb services, each movement at a di.fferent point in the Mass. Fi.nally. the orchestral suite is one source for the binary forms that are common in the symphony. These similarities across genres suggest that multiple influences led to the symphony. The li rstsymp honies were written by composers worlàngin Milan and the surrounding region of Lomb:u·dy in northecn Ilaly. The most prominenl was Giovann i Batt is La Sammartini (ca. 1700-1775), shCJwn in Figu re 22.9. whose Symphony in F' Major, No. 32 (ca. 1740), is representative of early symphonies. ll is scored for strings in four parts: violin I anel II, viola, anel bass, played by cellos, bass viol. and probably harpsichord anel bassoon (bis !ater symphoojes add winds as well). As in most early symphonies, tbere are tbree movements i n the fast-slow-fast formal, each r elatively sbort; the whole piece takes less than ten minutes to play. The open.ing Presto (NAWM 115 ~ ) follows the firsL-movement form described by Koch anel is a concise thirtyeight measu res. Each ph rase of the form .is given one or two distinctive ideas, anel their d iversity makes it easy to follow the form. Example 22.3 shows the first eight measures, which contain nve sharply cont rasling ideas: ham merecl octaves, a rising scale, a repeateel melodie idea, rushing scala1· figures , anda ri sing arpeggiation over thro bbing bass. From Italy the symphony spread nortb to Germany. Austria. France. anel England. Especially prominent was Ma.nnbeim, where the elector Palaline·s comt was one of the most active musical centers in Europe. Under the leadership of Bohemian violinist and composer Johann Stamitz 0717- 1757). Lhe Mannheim orchestra became internationally famous for ils impeccable dis cipline a.nd technique, leading Charles Bumey to call it "an army of generals." EXAMPLE 22 .3:

SYMPHONY

Violino l

ltalianorigins

The major orches tral genre of the mid -to-la te eighteenth century was lhe syruphouy. a work usually in three or four movcments, in a primarily homo phonic style, without the division between orchestra and soloists that distinguishes the concerto. It originated in Italy around 1730 and spread across Eu:rope. Througho ut 1he cen tury, a symphony was often the lirst ilem on a co ncert, followed by works in other gem es. By the late 1700s, the symphony was considered the summit of instrumental music. Like many musical geares, the symphony hael more tha.n CJne parent. The mos! obvious ancestor is the ltalian sinfonia, or opera overture. from which the symphony takes its na.me. By 1700, many opera overtures used a structure of three sections or movements in the o reler fast-slow- fast: an Allegrn, a short lyrical Andante, and a li.nale in a dance rhythm , such as a minuel or gigue. These overtures, as a ru le, have no musical co nnection with the opera they introduce and could be played as independent pieces in concerts. Yet other sources for the symphony are eq ually important. The orchestral concertos of Torelli and other composers (see chap tei· 17) a lso typica lly fo llowed the fasc-slow-fast formal and were played in 1he sarne venues as concert symphonies. Church sonatas in nmthern Italy often hael the fas1 -slow-fast structure a.nd homophooic style as well, a.nd iodeed lhroughout lhe eightcentb ccntury

513

Orchestral Music

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Sammartini. Symphon:y inF Major. No. 32.fi,rst movement. openin.g

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514

C H A 1>T E R 2 2 • Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond Concerto

Ir was renowned for its unprecedentecl dynarnic range, from the softest pianíssimo to the loudest fortíssimo. and for the thrilling sound of its crescendo. both cl'fects that Stamitz exploited in his music. TIMELINE Stamitz was the n rst symph ony co mposer to use consis· lnstru.menta.L Mu.s ic tently what would !ater become lhe standard pla.n: fo ur move· men1s. wi1h a mi n uet and trio as 1he th ird moveme n1, a nda MUSICAL HIS TORICAL very fast l'ma le, often marked Presto (quickly). He was also among lhe nrst to introduce a strongly contrasting and fulJ. • 1700 Bartolomeo Cristofori blown theme afterthe modu lation to the dominant iu the lirsl invents the pianoforte seclion of an allegro movemem, a practice that likewise !ater • ca. 1710 Clarinet invented beca me standard . The ft rst movemen t of bis Sinfonia in EI, • ca. 1730 First symphonies Major (NAWM ll6~) . writlen in the mid - 1750s. follows composed the customary plan ouclined by Koch, but wilhout the seclional repetitious or binary fonn and on a rouch larger scale tha.n iu • 1732 Ludovico Gius tini. 12 Sammartini's Symphony in F Major, No. 32. To the four string Sonatas for Keyboard with Soft parts. Stamilz adds two oboes and two horns, as was becoming andLoud customa,y. The opening ph.rases use several energetic ideas lo • 1738 Oomenico Scorlotti. emphasize the tonic. The tra ns ition to the domina n t exp loits Esser<:izi tbe famous Mannheim crescendo. b uilding excitement by • 1740- 86 Reign of Frederick means of string cremolos that progress from piano to forti.sthe Great of Prussia simo. After rhe arriva l in the new key, a series of lyrica l, graceful. and playful ideas provides a change of mood. The relurn of • ca. 1740 Giovanni Battista lhe tonic key after the development is marked not with the Sammartini. Symphony in F opening phrases but with the series of ideas that were introMajor, No. 32 duced on tbe dominant, as in the balanceei binary form of Scarlatti (NAWM 113). The opening motives reappear at the end, in reverse order, to emphasize the conic once again. Vienna and Paris Ot her cen ters of sy mphonic activity included Vienna and Paris. ln Vienna. Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715- 1777) wrote three· movement symphonies tha t feature pleasanl lyricism and good humo r, as well as the con tras ting ftrst·movement theme groups that [ater became impor tant characteristics of Mozart's music. Otber symphony composers active in Vienna include Bobemian· bom Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739- 1813). who combined accessible, songlike tbemes wilh sonaca· form structure, a nd Carl Ditters vo n Dittersdorf (1739-1799) and Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760- 1812), who injected Greek myths and other extramusical elements inco some of their symphonies and chamber works, anlicipa ü ng lhe pro· gram music of the nin eteen th cen tury. ln Paris. an importa u t center of cornposition and publication in the mid-eighteenth century. symphonies llowed from the city's presses, and foreign composers flocked to the city. The Belgian François -Joseph Cossec (1734- 1829) carne to Paris in 1751 and eventually established himself as one of France's leading composers of symphonies, string q1Ja11ets, and comic operas. He became one of the most pop ular composers of the Revolutionary period and one of lhe .õ.rsl di.reclors of the Paris Conservatoi re (see chapter 24-). As concert life expanded around 1770. a new genre emerged in respouse to Sy7nphonie concertante the Parisian puhlic's taste for pleasing melodies and virtuoso solos alongs ide big orchestt·al sonorities. Th is was the sy111pho11ic cor,ccrumtc. a concerto·

Orchestral Music

Jike workwith 1wo or more so lo instnnnents in addition to the regular orchestra, in wb ich tbe maio material is entmsted to the soloists. The formal was ideal forthe new concert environ· ment because il gave com poser· perfo rme,·s an opportunicy to s how off their abilities to the pub lic, attract studen ts, and encourage sales of their music. füU1dreds of symphonies con • ce rlan tes were wri1ten, performed, and published in Pa ris in the 1770s and 1780s, and composers in Mann heim aud else· wbere soon followed suit. Among lhose writing symphonies coucertantes in Paris was violinisl, conducl or. and composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint·Georges (1745-1799), the ftrst co mposer of Africa n descent to achieve recognit ion in Etu-ope and among lhe frrsl from the New World. bom in Guadaloupe to a french planler and his slave mis tress. The popularity of symph onies concertan tes waned by 1830, dis· placed by a new focus on individual virtuosity insolo recitais and conce rtos.

CONCERTO Even while symphonic fo r m gained increasing auen· tion th roughout the eighteenth cen tury, the solo concerto remained pop ular as a vehicle for virtuosos. who often wro le concertos to play themselves. Giuseppe Tart ini (1692-1770), the most renow11ed vio lin virtuoso in the ge neration after Vivalcü, founded a violin school in Padua. Italy, that altracted students from ali over Eui·ope. He composed about 135 lechn.ically innovative violin concertos and an equal number of sonatas that expanded tbe capahi.lities of his instmment. Among the .Õ.rst to compose piano concertos was Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), sbown in Figu1·e 22. 10. The youngest son of J. S. Bach, Johann Christian was trained by his fatber and older brother. studied and worked in Italy. and in 1762 moved to London, where he prospered as a performer, teacher, impresario, anel composer of conce rtos, sympho· nies. chamber music, keyboard music. and operas. His works. mostly galant in style. were perfonned all over Europe. He was a major .inl] ucnce oo ibc young Mozart, who visiled London in 1764 at age eight. met Bach, and arra nged three of Bach's sonatas into concertos. As in the early eighteen th cent Lu-y, concertos were typ i· cally in three movements wit h two fast movements arouncl a slow middle .movement. The slow movement anel finale often used forros like those of otber ge a res, but first move· ments followed a form uniq ue to concertos. Tbe first movement of a typical concerto r etained elements of tbe ritornello form of Barnque concertos. which alternates orches1 ral ritornellos with episodes that foa w re che soloist (see chapter 18). in combination with the con trasts of key

515

• mid-1750s Johann Stamitz. Sinfonia in H Major • 17S3- 62 C. P. E. Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard lnstruments • ca. 1770 Vogue for symphonie concertante begins in Paris • 1770 Johann Christian Bach,

Piano Concertos, Op. 7 • 1776 American colonies

declare independence from Britain

P. E. Bach. C/avier Sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs

• 1779 C.

• 1782- 93 Heinrich Christoph

Koch, /ntroductory Essay on Composition • 1789-94 French Revolution

FIGURE 22.10: Jol1<,11n C/11istitin B11ch. in a portrai: by tlic rcnowncd Eng/i.ali

painter Thomas Ca insborou.gh (ca. 1776). (CI\ I C() M US~'O KIKI IOCltAl' I CO M USr• CALE. BOLOCNA)

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• Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond C oncerto

Form of J. C. Bach Movemcnt

Ritorncllo Form Section Ri1ornello

Episode

Key f

1nod

Secrion

The Singing lnstrument

Sonat, Form

Key

Section

Key

Ri1orncllo ("Orchcs1r3l Exposi1ion") First theme 1 Ttansition moei Second ,heme 1 Closingtheme 1 Solo ("Solo F;xposi1ion") First theme

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ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC Development

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(Rüorncllo) Brief orchest ral caclence ou V Solo ("Recapitulation") Firsttheme 'lhnsirion. ahered Second tbeme Closingtheme varied

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First Lbeme

Transüion

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FIGURE 22.11 ,

Rilornello Closing 1heme

tuation, have the shape of an exposilion, development. and recapitul ation of a sonata . The only long ritornello is the ftrst, wh ich introduces most of the movement's material i n the tonic: in some modem views of concer to f1rsl · movement form, this is called the "orches 1ral exposilion," followed by the "so lo exposition" in the li rst episode. T he !ater ri torne ll os can use any ele menl from lhe fir st one, and here Bach mostly uses the closi ng theme. As is often the case, bo th lhe transit ion anel the developmenl int roduce new ideas. Bach's concerto d iverges from Koch's descriptioo in one signiftcant aspeci: the next-to - lasl ritornello is replaced by a hrief orchestral articulalion. By Bach's time. il hacl become a tradilion for the soloisl to play a cadenza . usually itnpr ovised, jus1before lhe final orchestral ritornello . The cadenza had deve loped from the tri ll s an el runs that singers inserted , particu larly before the return of the opening section in lhe da capo aria. By convention. concerto cadenzas ar e typically introduced by a weighty ~ chorei, anel the soloist signals the orchest ra to reenter by playing a longt:ri_LI over a dom inant chord.

f'inally, a great dea l of music for orcbestra anel other ensembles was n ot con cert music at ali. Some pieces were written for background music, to be played during a meal. a pany, or other social occasion i n ao aristocratic or well-to-do home, or for performance in informaJ settings both incloor s or out - of- doors. Genres in th is category include th e divertimento. cassation. anel serenade. ali multimovement pieces for orchestra or other combinations of winds anel strings that might include a mix of dances wilh the types of movement comm on in symphonies.

The Singing lnstrument 1

Concenofirs1-m.oveme111fom1 in}. C. Bach. Op. 7. No. S.

and thematic material characteristi.c of sonata form . As Koch descri bes t he form, there ai-e three solo sections, structured in a way 1hat is equival ent to the three main periods or sonata form . These seclions are enclosed hetween four orchestral ri tornellos; the lirst presents ali or most ofthe main ideas while the others are relatively short. Tn essence, the concerto ftrst movement is a sonata form framed by a ritorne ll o form . To demonstrate these parallels. Figure 22. 11 aligns lhe elemenls of ritornello form and of sonata for m wit h the ft rst movement of J. C. Bach's Concerto for Harpsichor d o r Piano and Strings in EI, Major, Op. 7, No. 5 ( t\AWM 117), from ca. 1770. (The figure uses lhe more familiar nineteenth - century terminology for sonMa fo rm . although Koch's tP.rms wou ld h~ P.<Jttally ap1': com pare Figure 22.6.) The Baroque plan of alternating r itornellos and episodes is clea r ly reflected in Bach's concerto, yet the three so lo "episodes," in which the pianist takes lhe leacl anel lhe orchcstra providcs accompaniment and pune -

\'íle saw in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries how composers and per· formers of music for instr uments imiiated and adapted elements of vocal music. and in the process created instrumental music of greater expressivity. meaningfulness, interest, and independence lhan ever before (see chapters 12 and 15-17). M usician s in the eighteenth century embraced t he sa rne idea, hringing instnnnental music to new beights. Composers absorbed the new styles pioneered in opera anel vocal music anel blended them with existing traditions within each instrumenta l repertoire. New genres. including the piano sonata, string quartet. and symphony. as well as new forms like sonata form an el first - movem ent concerto form , were consoli dated a nel becam e lhe basis for much !ater instrumental m usic. Still. in ali of !hem. melody was paramount. The instrumental music of this era w~s designed to appea l to a wide variety of people, to be underslood on fir sl hear ing, and ahove ali lo please its per formers anrl listener s. ThP. t r emendous num hers of new p ieces s how that they fouud ready audiences amoug middle - and upper- class amateurs and concertgoers. These numbers also con:Jirm that co nsumers were eager for new music. Mos1 of the vast quantilies of instrumental music composed and

Cadenw

517

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C H A 1> TER 2 2 • Instrumento! Music: Sonata. $ymphony. ond Concerto

puhlished during this tim.e passed from the stage l'airly quick.ly, disp laced by new works and styles, like popular music oflater centuries. After overshadowing their father for ageneration ortwo. C. P. E. Bach and ]. C. Bach were in turn oversbadowed by Haydn and Mozart, and tbeir music was little played duringthe nineteenth centu1y. Some of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas circulated in the nineteenth century. and a complete edilion was published early in the twenti eth cen tury. But only since 1.he mid - twentie1h ce ntu ry have Scarlatti, the Bach sons, Sammartini, Stamitz, Dittersdorf, anda few of their conlemporaries received enough altention from scholars, performers. and listeners for us to begin to hear anel understanel them on their own ter:ms, ralher than as "transitional'" composers between 1he better-known figures of Bach and Handel near the beginning ofthe eighteenth century and Hayeln anel Mozart near lhe end. Even today. most of their contemporaries-Alberti, Galuppi, Wagenseil, Wanhal, Dussek, Gossec, Saim-Georges, Tartini, anel many who bave gone unmentioned here- have been almost totally eclipsed by their more famous colleagues. Composers of the mid -to-late eighteentb centuty designed their music to charm and ente rtain both players and Listeners, anel if we seek it out and listen witb o pen ears, it continues to invite us in, to be charmed once again.

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Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

CLASSIC MUSIC IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Musicians in the late eighteenth centu1y worked mainly for courts, cities, and churches, but they also made money by teaching, performing, and composing 011 commission or for publication. As popularity with the public became more important, the most successful composers wrote music that pleased everyone from connoisseurs to those with little lea rning. No one was better at reaching a diverse audience than Haydn anel Mozart, whose music has come to exemplify the Classic period. Their careers. though exceptional in many respects. illustrate the circumstances in which professional musicians worked. Through a synthesis of styles and traelitions, they created music with immediate yet deep and enduring appeal. Working for a patron in relative isolation, Haydn forged an idiom that brought him great popularity. ln !ater years, writing for public concerts, he honeel the balance of form and expression in his music, producing a series of masterpieces. Mozart achieved fame as a child prodigy, touring Europe and mastering every kinel of music he encounlered. ln his maturity, working as a freelance pianist and composer, he bleneleel aspects of many styles in music of unique richness. lfwe view these two composers in their eighteenth-centucy environments, we can see more clearly the problems that confronted them and the solutions they found. Haydn secured a job with a patron and lived a Jife of relative stabil ity while Mozart had to finel inco:me where he could, yet both produced music that has attracted performers and listeners for over two centuries.

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C H A 1> T E R 2 3

• Clon,c Musoc in 1he La1e E,gh1een1h Century

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732-1809)

Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was the mosl celebrated composer of his day (see biography and Pigure 23.1) . Prolific in every medium, heis best remembered for his symphonies a.nd string quarteis. which sei standards of qua.lity. style. co n1en1. fo rm, and expressivily 1hat 01hercomposers emulated.

HAYDN'S PATRONS: THE ESTERHÁZY PRINCE$

Eszterháza

Haydn spem most of bis career serving the Esterházy íam ily, the most powerfu l noble family in Hungary. Hired in 1761 by Prince Pau l Anton Ester házy. a generous patron devuted to music. Haydn had to compose whatever music the prince commanded, conduct performances. train and supervise aJJ the musical personnel, anel keep the instnunents in repa ir (see Source Reading, p. 522) When Pau l Anton d ied in 1762, his brother Nikolaus succeeded to the title; even more avid aboul music, he connrmed Haydn's appointment and raised bis salary. At tl1e Esterházy court. Haydn passed nearly th irtyyears in circumstances almost ideal for bis developmentas acomposer. Begi.nning in 1766, Nikolaus. whose seat was in Eisenstadt just suuth ofVienna, Uved for most of the year at his remate country estate of Esiterháia, s hown in Pigure 23.2. The pa lace an d grounds were designed to rival lhe splendor ofVersailles. Eszterháza boasted two theaters. one for opera and one for marionette plays. and two large and

HAYDN! Great Sovereign of the tuneful artJ Thy works alone supply an ample chart O fali the mountains, seas, and fertile plains Within the compass of its wide domains.ls there an artist of the present day Untaught by thee to think. as well as play? So wrote music his torian Charles Burney in 1791 on Haydn's arrival in England. lndeed. Haydn was hailed in his time as the greatest composer alive. ln public life. he exemplified the Enlightenment ideais of good character, piety. and kindness. He was also an ambitious entrepreneur and skillful businessman, capable of both seriousness and humor. Bu t above ali. he had enormous talent. with which he satisfied his patrons and pleased his audiences. Bom in Rohrau, a village about thirty miles southeast ofVienna, Haydn was the son of a master wheelwright. At the age of seven he became a choirboy at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he learned singing. harpsichord. and violin. Dismissed at seventeen when his voice changed, Haydn barely supported himself as a freelance performer. composer. and teacher. He mastered counterpoint using Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum. studied the music of other composers, and took lessons from the famous ltalian composer N icola Porpora. Haydn became music direc tor for Count Morzin in about 17S7 and probably wrote his first symphonies for the count's orchestra. Three years later. he married a wigmaker's daughter. Maria Anna Keller. although he was really in love with her sister Josepha. Josepha. however. became a nun, and his long marriage was unhappy. childless, and marked by extramarital affairs on both sides. ln 1761, Haydn found a position that determined the course of his career: he entered the service of a noble Hungarian family, the Esterházys, and continued in their employ for the rest of his life. For years Haydn was responsible for composing on demand, presenting concerts or

FIGURE 23.1: Joseph HaJ'fin. in t,n oil pôrlrait by Thomas Ha.rdr, pairHed in 1791-92 during Haydn ·s first sojoum. irt London. <•oYAL cou.t:cE o, MUSlC/ElUCH LESSINC/ART flt.SOURCI:. NY)

Anthony van Hoboken, fills three hefty volumesit allowed him to hear his music in excellent perfor· mances and to experimentwith new ideas. During visits to Vienna. Haydn took part in the city's intellectual and musical life. lt was there around 1784 that he met Mozart, twenty-four years his junior, and their mutual admiration blossomed. The publication of Haydn's music brought him fame throughout Europe and generated commissions from many other patrons. He spent most of the time between 1790 and 1795 composing. giving concerts, and teaching in London. where he had long been famous. His triumphs there raised his reputation at home. and he was invited to return to Vienna as court music director for Prince Nikolaus li Esterházy in 179S, with minimal duties. He began to complain of weakness around 1799, and by 1802 had all but ceased to com pose. He died a rich man at seventy-seven in 1809, still universally admired. MAJOR WORKS: 104 symphonies. 20 concertos. 68 string

FIGURE 23.2: E,zterhiízn P"/r,r.e. lmilt 1762-/,(, n.< a.<1m,merre.,irlenr.,nn Lnk, Nen,i,rLL hyth, Hunenrinn prinr.,

operas weekly. and assisting with chamber music.

quartets. 29 keyboard trios. 126 baryton trios. 47 keyboard

Nikolaus Esrerházy. whom Haydn, servedforalrnost thirryyears. The palace opera house opened in 1768 with a performance of Haydn 's Lo speziale. Mezzorinr fro,n 179l b)'}(.nos Be,*e11y <1Jter Szabó a,1 d Karl Scl1a12, showing lwrse,nen. in fomiation anda Roma (Gypsy) ba,1d at lowerrighr. (IIUNGARIA., NA"rlONAL MU&l,UM. BUDAPCST)

While the position forced him to compose at a prodigious rate-just the catalog of his works. by

sonatas. 15 ope,as, 12 masses, The Crealion. The Seasons. numerous other ensemble. keyboard. and vocal works

522

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

• Cla ,s,c Music m the Lote E,ghteenth Century

Joseph Hoydn

523

tbrough sojourns in Vienna for one or two months each winter. He had the inesrimable advantages of wor.ki ng with a devoted, highly skilled grou p of singers and playcrs and an i nlelligent patron, whose requü·ements may have been burdensome bu l wbose understanding and enthusiasm were inspiring. As Haydn on ce wrote, HAYDN 'S CON TRACT When he entered the service of Prince Paul Anton Esterhãzy. Haydn was named Vice-Kapellmeister. allowing the elderly Kapellmeister to retaln his title but giving Haydn sole direction of orchestral. chamber. and dramatic music. His contract, excerpted below. spells out h,s duties and his social standing as a house officer, higher than servants yet stil I required to wear the court uniform. On the death of the Kapellmeister in 1766. Haydn succeeded to the title.

- ~ 2. The said Joseph Heyden (sic) shall be

considered and treated as a member of the household. Therefore h is Serene Highness is graciously pleased to place confidence in his conducting himself as becomes an honorable official of a princely house. He must be temperate, not showing himself overbearing toward his musicians, but mild and lenient, straightforward and composed. lt is especially to be observed that when the orchestra shall be summoned to per· form before company, the Vice-Kapellmeister and ali the musicians shall appear in uniform, and the said Joseph Heyden shall take care that he and ali the members of his orchestra follow the instructions given, and appear in white stockings, white linen. powdered. a nd with either a pigtail or atiewig . .. . 4. The said Vice-Kapellmeister shall be under

obligation to compose such music as his Serene Highness may command. and neither to com· municate such compositions to any other person. nor to allow them to be copied, but he shall retain them for the absolute use of his Highness. and not compose for any other person without the knowledge and permission of his Highness. 5. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear daily in the antechamber before and after midday. and inquire whether his Highness is pleased to order a performance of the orchestra. On receipt of his orders he shall communicate them to the other musicians. and take care to be punctual at the appointed time, and to ensure punctuality in his subordinates.. . 7. The said Vice-Kapellmeister shall take careful charge of all music and musical instruments, and be responsible for any injury that may occur to them from carelessness or neglect. 8. The said Joseph Heyden shall be obliged to instrue! the Female vocalists. in order that they may not forget in the country what they have been taught with much trouble and expense in Vienna, and. as the said Vice-Kapellmeister is proficien t on various instruments. he shall take care himself to practice on ali that heis acquainted with. Translated

My prince was pleased with ali my works. 1 was commended. :md as conductor of an orchesn·a I could make experiments. observe what Slrengthened and whal weakened an effect, and thereupon improve, substitute, omit, an d try new things. 1 was cut off from the wor ld. there was no one around to mis lead or harass m e, and so I was for ced to beco me original. Haydn's origü1al conlract forbade him to sell or give away his compositions, but unauthorized publications of his music in London, Paris, and elsewhere spread his repuwtion across E:urope. A new conlract in 1779 allowed Haydn to sell his music to others while continuing to direct opera and musical activities at courl. He sub· sequently wrote most of his instrumental n:rnsic with the expectation of sales to the public. in manuscript or printed copies. Since copyright at the time dicl not extend across national boundaries. Haydn tried to maximize bis prot'its and lO p1·event pirated edüions by selling t he sarne piece simultaneous ly to publish e1·s in several different countries. As Haydn increasingly composed for publication or for other patrons, he ga in ed a measure of independence from his employer. H is freedom grew unexpecteclly in 1790 when Nikolaus died and his son Anton disbanded the or chestra. Hay<ln was given a pension and wem to live in Vienna, bul the im presario and violinist Johann Peter Salomon persuaded lum to come to London for two extended stays between 1791 and 1795. There Haydn conducted conce11s. taught well-10-do students, and composed many new works. His last tweJve symphonies, written for London, were received there with great acclaim.

FIGURE 23.3: This ba,yton. shown lea11ingagai11st irs ca.se, was owned by Prince Nik-0/aus &tcrltózy. A favonte instru.ment of the pnnce ·s. the bo,ry1011 resembleda ba,SS i•iola e/o.gamba btll lia d an e:t1ra set. of resonatillg meia! strings tliat could be plt,cked like a liarp. lfaydn w rote sorne 16S e/ia 1nber works wirh ba,y· 10n for tlie prince ro peifonn. 111 ostl;r trios witli viola and cello. cu uNcA.11· 1AN NATH)NAL MOStlJM. flUDAPfST)

Karl Geirínger. Haydn: A C,eadve Life m

Mvsic (New York: Norton. 1946). 52-53.

sumptuously appointed music rooms. By the l 780s, Haydn bad built up the orchestra from around fourteen to about twenty·five p layer s. giving concerts every week and operas on special occasions. ln al most da ily chamber music sessio ns in the prince's private apartmen ts, Nikolaus played cello, vio la da gamba. and especially barylon. a large string instrumenl wilh sympathelic strings. s hown in Pigure 23.3 . Through t he early 1760s. Haydn composed mostly instl'llmenta l music for tbe prince- from orchestral works for con certs lo barylon trios. Afler the move to Eszterháza. h e also composed sacred vnca l music anrl operas for its severa ! theaters. while con tinuing to produ ce instrumental works . Although Eszterháza was isolated, Haydn kept abreast of cu rr ent devel opments in music through a cons lanl str eam of distinguished visitors and

HAYDN'S STYLE Haydn's style. which drew on many sources, was recognized in his time as hlghly individual. It was forged by his experiences crying lO please his palron, hisp layers. an d th e pubHc. Hesoughtbroad and imm ediateappeal bydevising themes that seemed familiar on ó.rst hearing and by following conventions for phrasing, form, and harmony. Yec he made his music more interesting than most by introducing the unexpected. in numerous ways (see Source Read ing, p . 524). In a delightful aJchemy, each aspect ofhis style reinforced the others: th e familiar was enriched by contrasts, the reLance on convenlions created listener expectalions that made surprises possible. lhe content clarined the fo rro . and the intrinsic variety allowed lúm. to evoke ihe sublime or create musical humorwith equal skill. The main so urce for Haydn's idiom was the galant s tyle, the predomi • n ant language of music by mid century, marked by songfi.i l me lody in shor i

Sources

524

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

• Cla,s,c Music m the Lote E,ghteenth Century

Joseph Hoydn

EXAMPLE2H

Themefrom rhefinaleofHaydn'sStringQuanetin Et Major. Op. 33. No. 2

HAYDN'S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS ln a brief book called Hints to Young Composers o{ Instrumental Music (1805). English gentleman com· pose, John Marsh (1752-1828) offered tips on the use of various instruments and on other aspects of com· position. Noting the revival of Handel"s music in the 1780s, he credits Haydn w1th breathing new life into the •modem style" of galan t composers.

- ~By this reviva!, or rathe, exaltation of the ancient, it seems not improbable that the modem s tyle would have also failed ,n its turn (as it was about this time degenerating into a light, trivial and uniform character) had not the great Haydn, by his wonderful contrivance. by the variety and ec· centricity of his modulation. by his judicious dis· persion of light and shade. and happy manner of blending simple and intelligible air with abstruse and complicated harmony. greatly improved the latter species of composition, insomuch that, in· stead of being able, as was before the case, to an· ticipate in great measure the second part of any movement, from its uniform relation to the fore·

going , it is on the contrary, in his works, impossible to conceive what will follow. anda perpetuai in· terest is kept up. in much longer pieces than any of the sarne kind ever composed .... To conclude; in the composition of every piece of music, containing two or more movements. as well as in the selection and a rrangement of pieces for a concert, let cont,astbe always attended to, as the best means of keeping the a ttention alive and active. For through the common neglect to relieve loud passages with soft ones, fui! pieces and cho-

[

•

Vl,

\I-

ruses. with quartettos, songs and g lees. instru

mental music with vocal. and ancient music with modem, many compositions, in other respects excellent. produce but little effect; and people become fatigued, and complain of the length of concerts, which perhaps would never tire them, were they not cloyed with too much of one thing. or too great a uniformity of style.

e_ . e,_ .

,.!

~.u ~ JcrJ r::__:j .

,;-----.._ \1:

John Marsh. Hints to Young Compose,s of lnscrumemal Music (London. 1805): reprinted and ed. Charles Cud· worth, The Galpill Society Journal 18 (1965): 57-72. quot· lng pp. 60 and 71.

phrases, arranged in balanced periods, over light accompa nim ent. Tnto this framework Haydn brought elements of other styles. From C. P. E. Bach, whose keyboard sonatas he studied diligemly, Haydn aidopted the heightened expressivity of the emplindsam style and an emphasis on making the most of each musical idea through variation and development. Also important was the learned style oJ' counterpoinl, absorbed from Baroque composers and Fux's Gradu,s ad Pa,massum,. Other elements carne from styles associated with particular genres. nations, or social classes. from opera buffa to hymns and from militaryfanfares to folksongs . A characteristic cxample of Haydn's mature style is tbe thcmc for Simpleyet sophisticated the rondo·form iinale of hi s String Quartet in EI, Major, Op. 33, No. 2 (The Joke, 1781, l\AWM 118), shown in Example 23 .1. The tunefol theme1 Concise ~ 1 1 Full ~ 1 a small rounded binary form- seems simple on hrsl hearing. but on closer e.xamin ation. we lincl remarka ble. snphistication. Economyand The theme derives entirely from a single idea presen ted in the nrst two novelt_y measures (bracketed in tbe example). The idea contains three motives dislinguished by rhythm and articttlalion (marked a. b. anel e). which recur in

Vnll Vl•

525

526

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

Rhythm.. phrasing, andharrnony

Expansion, delay. anddrama

111/it

Differentiation

offunction

• Cla,s,c Music m the Lbte E,ghteenth Century

various permutations in what f'ollows. Even wben the rhythm repea ts exactly (at measures 3, 9, and 11), Haydn 1,tives it a new melodfo contour, so that each phi·ase is both familiar and fresh. Combining cconomy of material with con • stant novelty is typical of Haydn. The opening idea does not close on the down beat but spills over in to lhe second half of the measure. lending it a playful. un.Jinished character. Whe n it repeats at measu re 5, the rhythm ic momentum ca rries fo rward to the down beat of measu re 7, alJ owing the last motive to close on the down· beal of measure 8. Through this expansion. Haydn creates a four-measure pluase to balance tbe two prececling two -measure units. Because the harmony avoids root·posilion cadences at measures 4 anel 6, lhe listener does not sense a relaxation untiJ the cadence in measure 8 closes the tirst period. Thus rhythm and hannony work 1ogether lo sustain conlinuily throughoul the entire period, despile its shorl, choppy melodie units. After the lirst period repeats, the second section begins on the dominant wilh a cornplemenlary eight- measure period that continues to vary lhe opening idea. After this period cadences in measure 16, a simple reprise of the ftrst periocl would brinp; the theme to a satisfactory conclusion. But. before tinaJly grantingthe reprise (at measure 29), Haydndelays its arrival by inserting a long elaboration on the dominant. Louder dynamic levels. diminished chords, diminuendos and crescenclos, anda pedal point all create a sense of drama. Even within th is insertion there is expansion; measures 20-21 or measures 23- 28 could be omitted, since the former prolongs what "should" have been a four-measure phrase and the latter connrms and extends the cadence. Such expansion of a p hrase, periocl, or section is a basic technique in Haydn's mus ic, used for botb eiq>ressive and formal pttrposes. Because lhis dramatization of the dominant seems exaggerated in the conlext ora litlle rondo theme, the erfect is witty. Toe humor is produced through incongruity of a sort that onJy experienced Listeners and perfonners can notice. because in arder to catch the jokc we must understand the form. the genre, and the conventions that underlie them. Haydn's wit makes bis music especially endearing to players and co nnoisseurs because he compliments our perceptiveness with every joke or subtle effect he puts in bis music. This q uartel earned lhe nickname The Joke because of this movement's closi1Jg passage, shown in .Example 23.2. Here Haydn inserts long rests between phrases ofhis theme. Through these surprising pauses. we are made aware of our cxpectations for how the music will continue. When measures 5- 8 of the thcmc (see Example 23.1) are broken into two -mcasure phrases (m easu res 160-62 and 164-66), we suddenly realize that such two-measure units are what we expected at the beginning. and tbat Haydn's original version was a witty variant. After tbe longest rest of aJl leads us 10 tbink that the piece is over. the opening ligure returns once more, suggesting yet another goaround of the theme. But when the players relax. indicating that the piece is fmished, we are meant to be amused at the way Haydn played on our expecta tions. \Ve may also 1Jotice that the opening figure cadences on the tonic. making it a suitahle ending after aJJ. The joke is obvious. but its fullest meaning is open only to an eiqierienced listener. The anomaJy of Haydn's converiing an opening phr.ase into a final cadence points out a basic truth about the ga lant style: there is a strong differentiation

Joseph Haydn

EXAMPLE 23.2,

527

Closingpassa.ge of Haydn:s Op. 33. No. 2

,...,.,

.. .

I; :. 1:1·:~f::r:,:, ~

•

of function between elements. Familiariry with the convenüons of thc srylc makes it easy for listeners to distinguish between musical gestures that signal the beginning. middle. or end of a phrase, period. or la1·ger section. Even sur· rounded by silence, measures 164-66 clearly constitute an ending gesture, and measu res 160-62 coulcl not satisfactori ly begin or end a pel'i od but must fall in the middle. Similarly. listeners can tel1 a theme from a transition ora cadential extension. Tbe opening eight- measure period of Example 23.1 is immediately perceptible as thematic. marked by regular pbrasing. frequent cadences, a 1Jd a logicaJ harmonic progressi on tbat stays in a single key. On the other hand, measures 17- 28 could not stand alone as a theme: the relative harmonic stasis, repetitions , and continuous rhythms would sound odd in a theme but are just right for conlirming a cadential arrival. Hayd n exp loits these differences to make his music easy to follow but aJso turns gesttu·es Oll their heads when he wants lo amuse and surprise us. WhelJ we examine Haydn's music closely, we recognize how sophisticated it is. Yet it remains simple in the best sense: clear. engaging. easy to understand. lt appeals at once to the least experienced listener yet rewards the connoisscur. cven after repeated hearings. This double ap peal is a rccipe for greatness as well as popu lar success. an ach ievement that many have tried to emuJate but few have equaled. COMPOSIT IONAL PROCESS

As simple and naturaJ as Haydn's music may sound, it was not produced wil'hout effort. According to his own report. he began a compositioll by

Double appea./,

528

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

• Clon,c Musoc in 1he La1e E,gh1een1h Century

FIGURE23.4: ApageofHaydn·s ske1ches for his ora torio The Seasons. Tl1e composer notated passages in a kind of n,u,sic11l shorthan<l on one or lwo s1aves withoul clefsori·eysigna1ures. Tl,is was inlended to jot down his thoughts. not to be read byothers. and it can be clijJicu.lt t.ofollow wilhout. con,paring it to tlte final score. <••"-'••· IHlU.IOTH P.K Z.U lJP.RLI N. Of..lU,tAK'I'. l'IIO'rO: 1\,1'. K,IAIIT KtSOUltCt, i"IY)

improvising at the keyboaTd until he settled on an appropriate theme or idea. He then wo rked out 1he piece at the keyboard and on paper, usually writing dowo only lhe maiu melody and ha rmony ou one or two staves. Figuxe 23.4, a page of sketches for bis oratorio The Seasons (1 799- 1801). shows this type of musical shorthand. Often. he drnfted sections in an order that was dit'ferent from their appearance in 1he piece. Finaily, he wrote om the completed score. This procedure combined improvisation and calcu]ation. while Haydn nrst searched for something to say and then devised the most eff'ective way to say it. The interplay of hean and mind this process emJiodies is reflected in his music·s union of ex1wessivity and craft.

SYMPHONIC FORM

Four-movement structure

Haydn has been cailed "r.he father of the symphony," tJ0t beca use he i1wetJted the genre but because his symphonies set the pattern for later composers through their high quality, wide dissemination, and lasting appeal. \Tuen 1he classical repe1toire was esta blished in the nineteenth century, his were the oldest symphonies to receive regula!' performances. Thus he seemed to stand ai Lhe head of a grea t Lradition. Haydn's symphonies are tradit ionally identilied by numher. although tlle numbering (applied by a nineteenth -century publisher) does not precisely rellect the order in wh.ich they were written nor their total number oi' approximately 106. Many of hissymphonies thalhaveacquired oamcs- few oi' wh ich were bestowed by the composer himself-a re among the best known . B is symph on ies are remarkably diverse, for he seems delib erately to have made each one an individual. Yet lhey have enough in common lha! we can dis,till his usua l practiees. Most Hayd n symphonies have four movements: (1) a fast sonata-form move ment, often with a slow introduction; (2) a slow movement; (3) a minuet anel trio; and (4) a rast !inale. usuaUy in sonata or rondo form. Al i are in the

Jo,eph Hoydn

same key except the slow movement, which is ill a closely related key such as the subdominant or dom inant. Hayrln's consistent use of this format helped to make it the standard for later composers. Haydn·s Symphony No. 88 in G Major (.'JA\V\1 119) illustrates many elements that characterize his symphonic tech niques. Written in 1787 for publication and performance in Paris.ilhas beeome one of Haydn's mos! popular and frequenlly pe rformed works. After a close look a1 1his symp hony as an exa mple, we wi ll surveythe changes in Haydn's approach to symphonic composition over lhe course of his career. As in mally of Haydn's symphollies, the i'trst movement begins with a slow introduction, whose solemn mood makes 1he ellsuing Allegro sound ener getic by compariso n. Similarly s trong contrasts de l.ineate the co mponents of lhe movement's sonata form . Thematic areas are tonally stahle. with halanced phrases ar1icula1ed by cadences. The themes alterna te with unstable passages th at serve as transitions, often scored for fu i) orc hestra and characterized Ly loud dynamics. seq uences. modulation. dramalic rushing figures. overlapping phrases, and avoidance of cadences. The conlrasts between stability and instabiJity in phrasing and key help us foUow the form. Hai•dn often heightens these contrasts through differences in style, texture, instrumentatioll. or mood. so that whichever musical elements we pay attention to. we are not likely to get lost. Each thematic area typically conta ins a variety of ideas. ln the exposition of Symphony No. 88. Haydn derives each new idea from rhylhmic anel melodie elements already presented. Example 23.3a shows lhe opening theme , in which each phrase varies the lint (motive a) . When rhe theme repeats, it is accompanied by the figure in Example 23.3b (motive b), whose neighhor-note molion in sixteenth notes echoes lhe theme's cadential ft1,"l.1re (a'). The lransition is suJfused with variations and recomJiinations of parts from both motives, shown in Example 23.3c. The second theme in Example 23.3d hcarkcns back rhythmically to the nrst. A transitionlikc passagc. with further variams of bo1h motives, leads to tlte closing theme, which is typically more repetitive and cadentia l than the nrst or second themes; here it comJiines the ftrst theme's rhythm with a chromatic countermelody from the second theme, as shown in Example 23.3e, followed by more f1guration derived l'rom motives a and b. Although n ot every Haydn expositloll isso focused on such limited material, this remarkable display of variety through reworking a small numlier of motives is charncteristic of Haydn. ln Haydn's dcvelo pmcm scctioos, motives J'rom the exposition are varicd, extended. combin ed. or superimposed; treated in sequence. imitation, fuga to, or stTetto; or made into ftgurations for ntshingpassages. ln the hrst movement of Symphony No. 88, the development continues 1he focus on mo tives derived from the li rst theme, moving q1.1ickJy to th ,e distant key of AI, and gradually returning to the home key wh i le treati ng the materia l in sequence, fragmentation, inve1tible counterpoint, and a brief canon. Enriching deve lopments and transitions wilh counterpoint is one way Haydn brought the older learned style into works in the modem galant style. Abrupt change~ of subject. rligressions. aud silences a1·e particlllarly characteristic of Haydn developments. We are usuaily well prepared for the recapitulation, but Haydn sometimes disguises or plays down i.ts act1.1al appearance so that we may 001 recognize

529

Syrnphony No. 88 1 Conci,e :s'I 1 1 Fvll :s\ 1

First-movement fomi

E:xposition

Developrnent

Hecapitulation

530

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

EXAMPLE 23.3,

• Cla,s,c Music m the Lbte E,ghteenth Century

Motivic relaiionships in lhe fi.rst move,nenl of Haydri's Symphony No. 88

a. First theme

b. Accompanimental figure Vc.. B~iss, Bs11 .

motive l,

e. Motives in transition Vn . , ~ -f"r-o=-'n"''-" ª-~

Vn .. Via. rrom a and from b

(l. Beginning ofsecond thenie

e. Beginning ofclosing the,ne Winds

írom a an<l Írom sccond du:me

St ringsand Winds froon b

Joseph Haydn

tbat it has begun until after the fact. Often the opening su.bject is rescored or extended in new ways. ln the fi rst movement of Symphony No. 88. the ftrst theme ap pcars as expected but with a countei-melody adclecl in the flute. introducing coumerpoint where there was none in the exposition. The second anel closing themes now appear in the tonic, bot instead of curtai ling the transition because he does not need to modulate. Haydn often prefers to i.ntensify and anima1e il with a simula1ed modu la1 ion. He does so in this movemen t, where part of the closi ng theme unexpected ly shows up in the transition . A brief coda, baseei ou the ftrst theme, closes the movement. Toe second movement oi' a Hayeln symphony usually offers an oasis of calm anel gentle m.elody afier 1he coni rasts, drama, anel complexiry of the f1rsl movement. Many of the slow moveme nts are in sonata form without repeats, and in !ater works Haydn often used theme anel va.rialions. ln Symphony No. 88, the slow movemenl combines elements ofvarialions, rondo, anel rounded bina1y form. The songlike t.heme is played by solo cello and oboe over a constantly varied accompanimenl. alterna ti.ng with other ma terial. Mosl contrasti ng is a d ramalic idea with trnmpets and timpani, inslruments with military associations whose appearance he1·e is a complete surprise, bavinp; not been used in the &rst movement. The third movement comprises a pair of stylizecl minuets. witb thc ftrst repeated after the seconcl (tbe trio) to ereate an ABA forro for tbe movement as a whole. Both minuet anel trio are cast in the traditional binary dance form wilh repeals. The trio is usually sel in lhe same key as lhe minuet (possibly with a change of mode), sometimes in a closely related key. b111 has a lighter orchestration anel character; it ta kes its name from the reduced textu r·e of th.ree parts used for such midcUe dances in the seventeenth century. Often , the minuet has ao urban character and lhe !rio a counlrifted affec l, a coupling tbat dates back to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dance music. The minuet movement provides relaxat ion. since it is shorter than the previous movements. is written in a more popular style. and has a form that is easy to follow. But its very directness allowed Haydn to i.n1roduce interes Land humor. ln the minuet anel trio in Symphony No. 88. for exa mple. irregular pbrasing. grace notes on offbeats. unexpected hannonies. and changes of dynamic levei keep the lisrener off-balance, and open- l'ifth drones in the trio create a rustic sound. After the easy-going m inuet, the final movement closes the symphony with a further buildup of tension. clímax. and release. The fmale is typi cally faster and shor1er than Lhe ftrst movemcnt, overf!owing wüb bigh spirits anel impish surprises. The fr nale of Symphony No. 88 is a rondo, in which the main theme. a small rounded bina1y form . alternates with episodes in the pattern ABACA plus coda. Here the episodes modula te to 01her keys anel include variations on the main theme. evoking the character of a sonata- fonn expositio11 and development section. Many Haydn fmales are in sonata form, and some ase so11aw-ro11c/.os in the pattern ABACABA , in which lhe A and B sections resemhle the l'irst and seconcl themes in a sonalaform exposition. Cisa mocl ula tory rlevelopment passage. and B returns nea r the end in the tonic. \Vhatever form he chose. Haydn typically gave bis ô nales the character of a contredanse, a light, quick dance in duple meter.

Slow movement

Minttet and trio

Fincile

531

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THE SYMPHON IES Haydn showed a mastery oJ' the symphony from his fu·st works in the genre. buLhls approach changed over time. Early symphonies, His earliest symphonies, written for Count Morzin berween l 757 and 1757- 67 1761. were lypically scored fo r two oboes, two horns, and strings. Most are in 1hree movements in fast-slow- fast sequence, like earlier llalian and Aust rian symphonies. For his sonata-form movements, he chose themes made or elements that were easily broken up and recombined. During his fu·st years with thc Esterbáiys. Haydn composcd about thirty symphonies (1761-67), ali quite diverse, as Haydn soughc novelly and variety in his offerings at court. The ensemble is often augmented with /lute, bassoon. or otber ins lruments. Tbe best- known s.ymphonies from this time are Nos. 6 to 8, titled Le mat.in (Morning), Le midi (Noon), and Le soir (Evening), which Hayd n composed soon alter enteri ng Prince Esterházy's service in 1761. Haydn included solo passages for eacb instrument designed to showcase the skills of bis players. Beginning aboul 1768, Haydn presented bis symphonies at Eszterháza in the elegant concert roam shown in Figure 23.5. The twelve symphonies of the next four years show Haydn as a composer of mature technique and fertile imagination. These symphonies are longer, more rbytbmically complex, more conlrapuntal, and more challenging to play. They are marked by greater extremes in cllynamic levei, mo re sudden contrasts between loud and soft. and more use of crescendos and sforzatos, ali used to startling effect. The harmonic palette is richer than in early symphonies. and modulations range more widely. Severa! symphonies l'rom this period, particularly the six in minor keys, have an emotional. agitated character tllat some scholars have associated wilh ·the li terary movement known as Stunn und Drang (storm and stress. after a 1776 play). even though Sammartini and other composers were writing works oi' simi lar cbaracte r in the 1740s and 1750s. FIGURE 23.5: This hall in the Eszierllà.za Palacewas usedfrom Bef,rinn ing around 1773, Haydn around 1768Jorconcerts, at which Haydn presented ltis symphoturned from miinor keys and experinies. Although. in othercen,ers symphon ies were often accompu11,ied, ments in forro and exp ression to by ba••• contü,uo a.n d, lhe lcc)'ÓOard pla)'crdi,-ectcd tlic cn scmblc. embrace a more popular style. Audi at Eszredtàza there wa.s no coniinuo, and llaydn led the ensemble ences expected sym phonies to be whilepfo,Jingfirst violin. o ·swrt-:HHÁ1,A. 1Al,ACE. f f!K'l'ôl!I), U U~CAIIY. l•HOTO: ERIC H U:S.SJ.NG/ A.RT llESOU RCf. N"Y) immediately int elligib le and appeal1

Jo,eph Hoydn

ing, bm also serious, stirring, and impressive, and Haydn produced wol'ks that have aU tbese traits. Symphony No. 56 in C Major (1774) is festive and brilliant. like its predecessors in the same key. but encompasses a broader emolional range, rellecting Hayctn·s recent experience with heightened expression . The openi ng theme alternates arpeggia cio ns for the whole orches tra. suggestive of fanfares, with songlike phrases for the strings. The agitation. cou nterpoint, ch romaticism, and d ramalic surprises oi' Sturm und Drang scyle now serve as contrast, making t he transition stand out in com pa rison to the themes. ln the l 780s, Haydn increasingly com posed for the public, selling his Symphonies for symphonies LO patroas or publishers abroad. By now be consistently wrote public concerts for an orchestra of flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns. and strings, sometimes augmented by trumpets and timpani. The Pari-s Symphonies oJ' 1785-86 (Nos. 82-87), commissioned for performance in the French capita l, were his grand est so fa r. Queen Marie Antoinette is said to have been especially fond of No. 85. calledLa reine (The Queen). After the six symphon ies were performed again in 1787. a reviewer noted bow "this gre:it genius could draw such rich and va ried developments from a single subject, so different from the sterile composers who pass continually from one idea to anotber." Symphonies Nos. 88- 92 were also composed on comrnission. Like theParis symphonies, tbey offer a combination o r popular anel learned styles, and of deep expression with masterful technic-(lle, that gave them immediate anel lasting appeal. The invitation from Johann Peter Salomon in 1'790 to com pose and con- London duct sym phonies for the cosmopolitan and exacting audiences of London 8_rmphonies spurred Haydn to supreme elforts. Hailed by lhe British as "the greatest composer in tbe world," he was determined to live up to whal was expected of bim. The twelve London Symphonies are bis crowning achievements, witb more da ri ng harmo nic conceptions. in lensi ned rhythmic drive, and especially memorable thematic inventions. Thc orchestra is expanded. with trumpets and timpani now standard and claünets in ali but one of the last six. \Voodwinds and string bass are used more independently than before, solo strings appear at times, and the whole sonnd achieves a new spaciousness and brilliance. Haydn's shrewd appraisal of London's musical tastes is evident. Tbere is a sudden fortissinw crash on a weak beat in lhe slow movement of Symphony No. 94 that has given this work its nickname Surplise. !t was put there because. as Haydn la ter acknowleclged, he wanted something novel and sca11ling to take people's minds off the rival concert series of his former pupil lgnaz Pleyel (1757- 1831). The greater ti.mefulness may also have been prompted by this competition , since Pleyel's strong suit was melocly. Haycl n turned to Slovenian, Croatian, and other peasant tunes he remembered from his youth. Sympbony No. 103 disp lays characteristic instances of folklike melodies. and tbe :fmaJe of No. 104, with its imitation of lhe bagpipe, is particularly suggestive of a peasant dance. as shown in Example 23.4. Similar allusions are the "Turkish" band effect (triangle. cymhaJs. bass d rum) and the trumpet fa11fare in the Allegretto of lhe Military Symphony (No. l 00). and the ticking accompani ment in the Andante of No. 101 (The Clock). Such ap pealing fea1ures reflect Haydn's aim to please both rhe music lover and the expert.

533

534

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Openi.ng iheme from. the fmale of Haydn's Symphony No. 104

1::."''""'' ' '"~ ,.

EXAMPLE 23.4,

535

Joseph Hoydn

EXAMPLE 23.5 ,

Scherzo froni Haydn's String Quartet in GMajor. Op. 33. No. 5

~- ::t:cf 1~iP HJ e=- - - 1.!-----------------I~ IP*l! I 1Jº. ___.,u....___...u_- _ _ _ _,u_ _ _ _ __,u _ _ _ _ __

"O'

'U'

"O'

Vla V,

STRING QUARTETS

Earl;y quartets

Opp. 9. 17. and 20

Opus 33

Hayd n has been called "the father of the string qua11ef' with more justincation than we have for the epithet "father of the symphony." Although not the nrsl to compose quarteis, he was among the earliest and was the fu·st great master of the genre. Un Uke symphonies, wb ich were lypica lJy performecl by professionals for an audience. quarteis were primarily music for amateurs to play for their own pleasure. Haydn's q ua11ets are very much addressed to the players. They are sometimes described as a conversation among lhe instruments: the ii rst violi n has the leading role. but the cello and inner paris often carry the melody or engage in dialogue. The evolution of his quarteis pai-alieis that of the symphonies in many respects, l'rom early mastery, th r ough in creasing length anel emotional depth, to very individual late works. Haydn's órst len quarteis resembled divertimentos and were so titled wben they we re puhlished in h.is Opp. 1 (1764) and 2 (1766). From then on, Haydn tended lo write quartets in groups of six, the most common number of woTks in a published collection. The next eighteen quartets. Opp. 9 (ca. 1770). 17 ( 1771), and 20 (1772). established for the quartel the sarne four -movemenl pauern as in the sympho ny. but with the mi nuet often before instead of after the slow movement . Several of these quarteis are in minar keys, like the contemporary Stunn und Drang symphonies, anel lhree from Op. 20 end wilh fugues. The quartets of tbi s period ma de Haydn famous fa r beyoncl Austria. and their expanded proportions and expressive range set lhe pattern for !ater quarteis. Haydn composed the six quartets of Op. 33 in 1781 and proclaimed to two admirers that they were written in a "quite new .anel special way." They are lighthearted . witty. and tuneful. The minuets, here titled scherzo (ltalia n for "joke" or "tri ck") or scherzcmdo ("joking" or "playful"), play tricks with the courcly dance by breaking normal metrical patterns. as illustrated by the hemiolas anel su,lclen silence in Example 2:1.5. Ma ny of Haycl1i's minuets. whatever tbeir tille, feature such playful rhythmic devices. Another kind of joke, used in the minuet movement of Op. 33, No. 2 (NAWM 118b), is the

sudden juxtaposition of sta rkly contrasting styles. gestu res. or dynamics. Scher;:;o later became the term for an especially fast movement in minuet

and trio form. Even apart l'rom tbe scherzos, Op. 33 contains some oi' Haycln's best st rokes ofbumor. as we have seen with the rondo fmale ofNo. 2 (see ahove. Examples 23.1- 23.2. and NA\VM 118d), His playfulness in the themes themselves and in the dialogue between players added meniment to ama leur quartet eveni ngs in cities such as London, Paris, and Vienna, in the count1y estates of the nobility and upper classes. and even in monasteries. Since quarteis were normally played at sight and were not published in score, many of the jokes beca me apparent only in performa nce; there is more than one sto1r of a player cracking up with laugb ter at an u.nexpected turn of evenls. The f1rst and thi rd movements of Op. 33, No. 2 (NAWM 118a ande) are more serious. The l'trst movement exemplifies some characteristic strategies Haydn adopts in the sonata-form movements ofhis quarteis that differ from his works in other genres. After the úrst theme, dominated by the úrst violin. he usually chooses a looser texture in wh.ich the primary motives pass from one instrument to another. ln place of the orchestral hittis that high light the transitions in the symphonies. Haydn introduces changes of texrure. here featuring dialogue helween instruments, pedal points, and loud rhythmic unisons. 171e slow thil'd movement presents hvo mai n ideas in alternation. the fu·st of them in a new scoring each time. so that each instru.men t has a chance to shine. lt is such excha nges of ideas among the players that give Haydn's quartets l11e character of a conversaüon with friends. ln hi s remaining years. Haydn composed thiliy-four quartets. Especially noteworthy are the six quartets of Op . 76 (ca. 1796- 97), which exemplify a new approach to the quartel as a genre for performance in concerts. alongsicle its traditiona l ro le in private music- making. ln his last quarteis. Haydn e:,.-panded tbe harmonic frontiers. foreshadowing Romantic hal'mony with cluomatic progressions, ch.roma tic choreis, enha1·monic cbanges, and

1 Conciso ~

1 [Full

Later quartets

536

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TIMELINE Classic ,\fosic in íhe Late 18th Centu,ry MUS ICAL

HISTORICAL

• 1760-1820 ReignofGeorge 111 of England

Joseph Haydn hire.d by Prince Esterházy

• 1761

• 1762-H Wolfgang Amadeus

Mozart tours as child prodigy • 1765-80 Joseph 11

fanciful t0na l shifts. Each quartet nas individual feamres, as if Haydn were trying to avoid repeating himself; indeed. this had bccome a requirement, since hc was writing primarily for publicalion, and amateurs and audiences were most at11·acted to the new. Like his late symp honi es, lhis late quanets juxtapose the serious and jocular. the artful and íolklike. the sublime and 1.he jesti ng.

Maria Theresa and rule Austria jointly

• 1772 Haydn. O p. 20 quartets

• 1772 Mozart named concert-

mas ter at Salzburg • 1774-92 Reign of Louis XVI

of France

KEYBOARD SONATAS AND TRIOS ln Haydn's day, keyboard sonatas and trios were wril ten for amateurs to play in private for their own enjoyment. Both gemes usually fea tured three movements in fast-slow-fasl formar, and both focused on the expression of intimate or sen timental feelings, belitting their p ri vate cha racter and their intended audience among the middle classes, who val ued emolional expressivity. lndeed, the keyboard trio was essentially a keyboa rd sonata accompanied by strings, the cello doublingtbe bass line and the viol in adding back1,'Tound and some contrasting themes. Although Haydn was a skillful player on both harpsichord and piano, and his early keyboa rd so11atas were designated for either ins lrnment. the dynamic and expressive features of his la ter works suggest that he had long been ,vriting with the piano in mind.

VOCAL WORKS

Operas

M t1.SM'.~

ln a modest autobiographical sketch of 1776 written for an Austrian encyclopedia. Haydn named his most successful works: three operas. an Itali;in o rato · rio , and his setting ofLhe Stabat mater (176 7). He made no mention of the sixty symp honies he had written by then and referred to his chambe1· music on ly to complain that the Berlin critics dealt with it too harshly. ln line with the aes thetic theories of the era, Haydu believed that vocal music was more important than lnstrumental, more effective at moving lhe listener, and closer to song, which he considered the natural source of ali music. Opera occupied much of Haydn's tin1e and energy at Eszterháza. Besides six little German operas for marionettes, he wrote at least lifteen halian operas. Most were comic. with music abounding in humor and high spirits. Of the three serious operas. the most famous was Annida (1784). remarkable for dramatic accompanied recitatives and ai-ias on a grand scale. Successful in their day and full of excellent music, Haydn·s operas have never attained the same levei of popuJarity as those of Gluck or Mozart. But severa\ have been rediscovered and staged in recent decades, notab ly the comic operas Lo speziale (Thc Apothccary. 1768) and lltnondo deUa luna (The World on lhe Moon. 1777). Haydn's earliest surviving and last completed works were masses dating from 1749 and 1802 respectively. His last six masses (1796- 1802). including Missa in tempore betli (Mass in Time ofWa.r, 1796), theúirdNe!son Mass (1798),

Joseph Hoydn

537

the Tlieresienm.esse (1799), and ih.e Ha,rrnoniemesse (Winel band Mass, 1802), are la rge-scale, festive works using four solo vocalists. chorus, anel full orchestra with trumpets and timpani. Llke the masses of Moiart and other south Germans, • 1776 American Declaration of these works have a flamboyance that matches the architecture 1ndependence of the Austrian Baroque churches in which they were per• 1780 Death of Maria Theresa; fo rmed . Haydn·s masses blend tracUtional elements, includ ing Joseph li sole Hapsburg ruler contrapuntal writing for so lo voices and the customa ry chorai • 1781 Haydn, Op. 33 quartets fugues at the conclusion of the Gloria and the Credo. with a new prominence for the orchestra and elements drawn from • 1781 Kant. Critique o{ Pure symphonic style and symphonic forms . The occasional critiReason cism that h.is sacred music was too cheerful met with the com• 1781 Mozart freelances in poser's assurance lhal at the thought of God. his heart "leaped Vienna for joy" and his con.údence that God would not reproach him • 1785 Mozart. Haydn Quartets for praising the Lord "with a cheerful heart." During his stay in London. Haydn became beller • 1787 Haydn. Symphony No. acquainted with Handel"s oratorios, some of which he had 88 inGMajor aJready encountered in Vienna. At Westminster Ab bey in • 1787 Mozarr, Don Giovanni 179] , Haydn was so deep ly moved by the Halleluj ab Chorus • 1789-94 French Revolution in a massivc performance of Messiah that he burst into tears and exclaimed, .. Heis the masteroJ'us au:· Haydn's apprecia• 1790 Joseph li dies. Leopold li tion for Handel bore fruit i n the choral parts of hi s late masses newemperor and inspired him to compose his oratorios The Creation (com• 1791 Death of Mozart pleted 1798). on texts adapted from Genesis and Milto1i's • 1791 Haydn. first London Paradise Lost, anel Tiie Seasons (co mpleted 1801) . Both were Symphonies issued simuJtaneously in German and English. in a nod both to Handel and to the English public, and bo1h quickly became • 1798 Haydn, The Creation s tandards oJ' the repertoire for chorai societies in Germanand English-speaking areas. The Gennan texts were written by Baron Gottfried van Swieten. the imperial court librarian in Vienna anda busy musical and lite1·ary amateur. Haydn's instrumenta l introductions and interludes in both works are among the ftnest examples of scene-painting in music of the time. His Depiction oj"Chaos at the beginning of The Crealion features confusing and distmb ingly dissonant harmonies. The fo Uowing recitative and chorus (I\AWM 120) set the opening words of the Bible in an uoforgettable fashion. Darkness is depicted through the minor key. muted strings. and soft singing. Then suddenly, at Lhe wo rds ..and there was Light," light streams forth with an awsome chora] outbu rst on a radiant C- major chord backed by the full orchestra, including trumpets. trombones. and timpani. This moment made a profound impression on au<liences a nd was extolled by contemporary writers as the supreme example of t.he sublime in music. Philosophers of the tim e distin guished between the sublime. which evoked awe and astonishment. and the beautiful, which afforded pleasure (see Source Reading, see p. 539). This distinction helps to explain many passages in lhe music of Haydn, Mozart, anel Beethoven . like this one in The Creati-0n. that go beyond mere beauty to create an effcct of overwhelming the senses. Tbe notion of tbe sublime became one of lhe sources of Romanticism (see chapter 25).

538

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Wolígong Amadeus Mozort

539

T HE SUBLIME AND THE BEAUTIFUL Severa! writers in the eighteenth century differentiated the sublime and the beautiful. Among the most influ· ential was Edmund Burke (1729-1797). who drew the distinction in stark terms.

FI GURE 23.6 : Haydn (seaied in Joreground cenier) auends a per· fonnance ofhis oratorio The Creation irt rhe Creat Hcrll of the Uni· 11ersityofVie111w on March27, 1808, pu,to11 to mark his seventf· sixth binliday ea rlier 1ha1111onilt. This was llaydn ·s la,51 pu.blic appearance befiire his death tlte Jollowing r ear. Wacercolor by 8al1hasa r Wigan d.

ACHIEVEMENT ANO REPUTATION Haydn made his last public appearance for a performance of The Creation to celebrate bis seventy·sixthbirthday in 1808, as depicted in Figw·e 23.6. \'<lhen he died the n.ext yea r. he left an enormous body oi' music, t he fruit of over half a centm-y ofhard work. His reputaüon r ested on a small fraction ofhis output. primarily the symphonies and quartets of Lhe 1770s to l 790s and the last two oratorios. These works, which were popularwith performers and audiences , greatly influenced other composers and quicl<ly became part of the penna· nent repenoire. ln its union of opposites. its ability to hold stark contrasts together i.t1 a coherent whole, and its balance of form atld expression, Hayd.n's best music still elicits admiration and awe. The combination he achieved of wide appeal to the public with long- lasting rewards for the connoisseur has seldom been matched.

(H ISTORISCJ-1 tS M'USEUM

Otft S1'AOT. \'tt:NNA. AUS1.1t lA . PUO'CO: ÉRICII LESSING/A.RT Rt:SOURCE . NY)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wo lfgangAmadeus Mozart (1 756-179 1) counted Haydn as a friend, and each admired and was influenced by the other. But thei.t· lives and careers differed limrlamP.ntally. Althongh Mozart was twP.nty· íou·,· yP.ars yo11ngP.r than Haydn . be achieved wide renown earlier. as a touring child prodigy in the l 760s. For most of h is career , Hayd n worked contenteclly for the Esterházy princes, while Mozart spent his mature ycars as a free agent in Vienna (see biography and

On closing this general view of beauty. it natu· rally occurs that we should compare it with the sublime, and in this comparison there appe.ars a remarkable contrast. For sublime objects are· vasr in their dimensions. beautiful ones comparatively smoll: bcouty should bc smooth ond polishcd: thc great, rugged and negligent. .. : beauty should not be obscure: the great ought to be dark and gloomy: beauty should be light and delicate: the great ought to be solid and even massive. T hey are indeed ideas of a very different nature. one being founded on pain, the other on pleasure: and however they may vary afterwards from the direct nature of their causes yet these causes keep up an eternal distinction between them. a distinction

never to be forgotten by any whose business it is to affect the passions.... The passion caused by the great and sub· lime in nature, when those causes operate mos.t powerfully, is astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul in which ali its motions are suspended with some degree of horror. ln this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object that it cannot entertain any other, nor by conse· quence reason on that object which employs it. Hence arises the great power of the sublime, that fa r from being produced by them. it anticipates our reasonings and hurries us on by an irresistable force. Astonishment. as I have said. is the effec.t of the sublime in its highest degree: the inferior effects are admiration. reverence. and respect. Edmund Burke. A Philosophica/ Enquiry inro che Origin of Our ldeas o{the Sublime and che Beauciful (London, 1757). in /v1usic andAesthetlcs ln the Eighceenrh and Early-Nmeteenr h Centuries, ed. Peter le Huray and James Day (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1981). 70-71.

Figure 23.7, pp. 540- 41). Yet when h e died at thirty· five, Mozart was seen by many (including Haydn) as Haydn's equal. anel the two have come to define the music of their era.

CHILD PRODIGY Moza11 was profoundly affected by b.is experiences as a child prodigy. His early and thorough training gave him seemingly effortless command oi' lhe craft oi' composition. and his exposure ata young age to a wide range of music is reflected in his use of diverse styles to portray characters. convey moods, or heighten contrasts within a movement. Mozart's father. Lcopold Mozart (17 19- 1787), was a violinist for the arch · bishop of Sa lzburg and beca me deput:y Kapelhneister in 1763. He was a wellr egard ed composer and the aut.hor of a celebrated treatise on violin playing published in 1756. lhe year of his son's birth. From earlies t childhood the hoy showecl such extraortl inary talP.nt for music that his fa ther sacrincP.cl his own advancement and devoted himself to educating Wolfgang and bis gi.fted elder sister Maria Anna, known as Nannerl (1751-1829), in music and other suhjects. Both chiJdren became keyboard virtuosos. and Wo!Igangwas.ilso an

Leopold Mozart

540

C H A 1> TE R 2 3 • Cla ,s,c Music m the Late E,ghteenth Century

Wolígang Amadeus Mozart

tions with his father had been strained for many years. and the bitterness between father and son-as some scholars argue-contributed to a growing estrangement between Mozart and his sister Nannerl. with whom he had been so dose as a child. Mozart's sudden death prompted a variety of false rumors, including that he was poisoned, but it seems to have resulted from a fever. Mozart's more than six hundred compositions are listed and numbered chronologically in a thematic catalogue compiled by Ludwig von Kõchel in 1862. whose ·K: numbers are universally use d to identify Mozart's compositions. The original nurnbers are the most familiar and are used here, but revised numbers assigned to some pieces reílect newer information about the chronology of Mozart's music.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

Mozart composed prolifically from the age of six to his premature death at thirty-five. A master of every medium, he is widely considered one of the greatest musicians of the Western classical tradition. H is piano sonatas and concertos and his mature operas, symphonies, chamber. and chorai works are mainstays of t he repertoire and epito· mize the classical style. Mozart was born in Salzburg, a quasiindependent state ruled by an archbishop. His father Leopold was a violinist and composer in the archbishop's service. When Wolfgang and his older sister Nannerl showed remarkable talent at an early age, Leopold trained them in music and took them on tours across Europe. exhibiting their skills as child prodigies. And prodigy he was: by the age of three he was recognized to have perfect pitch: at five he was an accomplished harpsichord player; at six he was composing; at seven he could read at sight, harmonize melodies on first hearing. and improvise on a tune supplied to him. Though arduous. these trips exposed Mozart to an enormous range of musical styles. He also cornposed ata stupendous rate. turning

out thirty-four symphonies. sixteen quarteis. five operas. and over one hundred other works before his eighreenth birthday. Mozart spent the years 1772 to 1780 in Salzburg as third concertmaster at Archbishop Colloredo's court. ln 1781, he moved to Vienna, convinced that he could make a living through teaching. concertizing. and composing. He quickly established himself as the best pianist in Vienna and enjoyed a triumph with his Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1782. the sarne year he married Constanze Weber. Their marriage was happy and affectionate. Four children died in infancy, but two sons lived into adulthood, the younger becoming a composer. Composing at a prodigious pace. teaching private students, performing in public and private concerts, and selling his works to publishers brought Mozart a good income and impressed his demanding father. At a quartel party in Mozart's home, Haydn told Leopold. "Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste and. what is more. the most

accomplished violinisr. Fatl1er and children are pictured performing togetl1er in figure 23.8 (see p. 542). Touring From 1762 to 1773, Leopold took his children on a series of tours through Austria-1-lungary, Germany, France. England. Ho ll and . and ltaly. beginning with performances for the elector of Bavaria at Muni<:h and Empress Maria TI1eresa in Vienna. Dw'ing performances in aris tocratic hornes and in public, WoHgang played prepared pieces. read concertos at sigbt. anel improvisecl variatio11s. fugues, fantasias, and arias. He was repeatedly tested by experts, who published reports on bis performances and improvisatioos as il' he were a wonder of nature. Meanwhile be was composing. producing !tis fu-st minuets at age nve, his nrst symphony just before h is ninth birt hday, his nrst oratori o at eleven, and his li rst opera attwelve. N'annerl also composed , bu t none oJ' her music survives. Thanks to his father's excell ent teaching anel to h is many traveis. young Ahsorhing injluences Mozart became familiar with every kind of music being written or heard in western Europe. At each stop, he acquired music that was unavailable in Salzburg a nd met musicians who introcluced him to new id eas anel techniques. He

Oie Ent{Ohrung aus dem Serail, The Marriage o( Figaro. Don Giovanni, Cosi (an wue. The Magic Fluce, 15 other operas and Singspiele. 17 masses, Requiem, SS symphonies. 23 piano concertos. 15 other

MAJOR WORKS:

FIGURE 23.7: Wolfgang Amadeus Moza.11 in an. unfmi-shcd portraitfrom abotlt 1789 by his brotnerin-law Joseph Longe. (LEBJt•cnr /4USJC. AltrS PIIO'L'O llBJlAR'Y)

profound knowledge of composition." But by the late l780s there were money troubles, apparently due more to rising family expenses and other factors than to declining income. ln addition, rela-

concertos. 26 string quartets, 19 piano sonatas, numer·

ous songs, arias. serenades. divertimentos, dances: many other vocal and instrumental works (the traditional numbering oí some Mozart works. such as symphonies 1-41 and piano concertos 1-27, ass,gned by publishers, excludes some compos,tions and lncludes some spuri· ous pieces)

ahsorbed it all with uncam1y aptitude. The ideas that intluenced him not only echoed in his youthful compositions but also continued to grow in his mind. sometimes beal'ing J'ruit years ]ater. His work became a synthesis of many styles, a mirrorthat reflected the music of a who le age. ln June 1763. the whole family (including Mozart's mother Anua Maria) ernbarked on a th.ree -and -a· hali'-year tOLU' tlnat included lenglhy stops in Paris and Lonclon. ln Pnis. Mozart became in terestecl in the music of Johann Schobert (ca. 1735- 176 7). ln his harpsichord wr:iting, Schobert simulated orchestral effects through rapicl ftgw·atioo aod thick chordal textures, a technique Mozart later imitatecl. Examplc 23.6 compai·es passages in a Schoberl sonata for harpsichorcl with violin accompaniment anda Mozart piano sonata rhat use rnpid alternating notes in the right hand to simulate orchestral string tremo los. Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart me! in Lonclon. had an impo1iant anel lasting influence on tJ,e hny. Bach enriched his kl!yhoarrl anrl symphnnic wnrks with features from ltalian opera; songful themes, tasteful ernbellishments. appoggiaturas, and harmonic ambiguities. These traits, togetber witb Bach's consistent use of contrasting themes in conce rto and sonata-form movements.

Paris

London

541

542

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

• Clon,c Musoc in 1he La1e E,gh1een1h Century

FIGURE 23.8: Three Mozcu1-s

rnakingmusic in abo1111763: Leopold. violin: lf/oljga ng, age seven. keyboard: o-nd Nannerl. age eleven. singingfrom a sco,·e . Waiercolor by Louis Cam,gis de Cannonetelle. (Mus tt coNDL. c11AN -

Wolígong Amadeus Mozort

EXAMPLE 23.6,

Simulatüm oforchest,ul t.rem.olos in sonMas bySchobert anel Mowri

a. Schobert. Sonata Op. 2 . No. 1. Allegro assai 99 I\

V10Hn

TILLY. FR.AXCE. PHOTO: EkTCH U:SSlr-JC/

AHT 11t:SOUJtCF., NY)

b. Mozart. PianoSoncuain.A Minor. K.310 (300d). Allegromaes10s0

ftaly and Vienna

appealed to Mozarl and became permanem marks oiÍ his writing. ln 1772. Mozart arranged three of Bach's sonatas as piano conceetos (K. l 07). As we will see. Mozart's approach to concerto form has signmcant parallels to Bach's. Wben Nannerl came of ma.rriageable age in 1769, she bumped up againsL the prevai ling attitude that women belonged in the home. Acco rdingly. her father insisted she stop perfonning in public. and she was left behind in Salzbu1·g while íather and soncontinued to travei. Mozart was íamilia r with Italian style through his father and J. C. Bach. but three trips to ltaly between 1'769 and 1773 left him more thoroughly ltalianized than ever. He snulied counterpoint with Padre Martini in Bologna and composed liis f.trst two opere serie (staged in Milan) and h.rst string q uar teis. The influence of Sa=artini and other ltalian symp honists emerges in Mozart's symphonies written between 1770 and 1773. A visit to Vienna in 1773 acquainted him with current styles Lhe re, especially in the serenade, string quartel, and symphony. Although h e may have encountered Haydn's qua11ets at this time. tine six quartets he wrote in Vienna, K. 168-173 . reOect local Viennese tastes more directly tban they do Haydn's influence.

FREEL AN CING

lf his extraordinary childhood explains the diversity of styles and genres Moza rt ha<I at his com manrl. his arlult career illustrates the growing tension between two ways musicians were now making money: steady employment with a patron or institution, and freelancing. For a musician today, the parallel choices would be to secu re a salaried posi1 ion-such as playi ng

with an orcheslra or leaching al a conservatory, co.llege, or uoiversity-or to make a living by playing concerts. making recordings. teaching private students. or composing on commission or for publication. ln Mozart's time. most s ucccssful musicians had paid positions and augmcnted their income through other activiti es. Few survived solely as free agen ts. At age sixteen, Mozart was appointed unpaid third concertmaster atArchbishop Colloredo's coun in Sahburg, where his duties included composing chu rch music. Much more in terested in opera and instrumenta l music. Mozart vainly sought a position elsewhere. traveling with his father to ltaly and Vienna and with his motber tlirough Germany to Paris. The latter trip had fai-- rcaching emotional consequcnces: at Mannhcim he fell in love with the s inger Aloysia Weber. the sister of his future wife Constanze. and in Paris h is mother took ill and died. The search outsicle Salzbtll'g proved fruitless . and Mozart re turned home disconsola te. After spend ing eightyearsat the Salzburgcomi. Mozart received a welcome commission in 1780 to write an opera seria for Munich. During his severa] months there to compose and supervise the production of Idomeneo (1 781) , Moza11 had ataste of independence. When Archbishop Colloredo summoned him back to Salzhurg, Mozart dutifully went. but chafed at being lreated like a servant and soon left the archbishop's service, against bis father's advice. For the nex1. ten ycars. Mozart earned his living as a l'rcelancc musician in Vie nna , with severa) sources of income. His Singspiel Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Harern , 1782) was a great success and was performed repeatedly in Vienna and other German cities. and his !ater operas also rlicl we ll. He hacl ali the pupi ls he was willingto take. from wea lthy amateur pianists to talented composition students, and ma de tbem pay by the month so he would not lose money if they skipped lessons. He performed in puhlic and priva te concerts, quickly winning a reputation as the frnest pianist

Salzburg

Goining

independence

Vienna

543

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C H A 1>T E R 2 3

• Clon,c Musoc in 1he La1e E,gh1een1h Century

Ç(GURE 2~ 9- 81 Mirhr,,J'.,,'011.r,,r, in Vi.mnr,. Th, IH.iMingi.n thP r.nt,r i.< th, R1118'/i,oi.r.

where Mozart pe,fomted.severat ofhis piano concertos in the mi.d.-1780s and where the premieres ofThe Marriage of F'ignro and Cosi fan tutte took place. <msTonoscn,s >tuseu.i OER STADT, VlENNA, AUSTRIAlBlllDC&MA"'' ART LIDRAIW)

Financial difficulties

in Vienna. He sometimes served as his own impresario. pulting 011 concerts at venues sucb as tbe Burgtheater, shown ia Figure 23. 9. aad pocketing the pro ceeds alter expenses. He composed copiously, for his own concerts, on com mission. and also for publication, as Viennese publisbers issued rus piano woTks. chamher music. piano concertos. dances. sympbonies. and songs. ln December 1787, Mozart was appointed chamher music composer to Emperor Joseph 11, giving him a steaely if modest sa lary with light duties anda boost to bis reputation. Tbe emperor later said tbe job was meant to keep Moz.art in Vienna, sbowing that it was in parta rewarcl for his other activilies. However. these early success were followed by difó.cult times. coinciding with a period of consid erable economic and polfücal insrability in Vienna. A war with the Turks in 1788- 90 led to a decline in musical patronage, reducing Mozart's public appearances as a pianisL. And almost as soon as b e achieved a sa lari ed position. the emperor went off to wage war against t he Ottoman Empire and ali chamher concerts at court ceased. At the sarne time. Mozart's expenses increased as a result of a growing family, his passion for gamhling, the loss of an expensive lawsuit brought against him by a prominent aristocrat. and his desfre to pursue a lifestyle suitable for an imperial court composer. ln response , he moved his family to cheaper quarters in l 788 and wrote begging Jetters to a merchant friead anel brother Preemason, Michael Puchberg, wbo always responded generously to Mozart's appeals.

MATURE STYLE Although many notable compositions date from the Salzbu1·gyears. the works that immortalized Mozart's name were composecl in Vienna, wben be was aged twenty- live to thirty - five anel t he promise of his youth came to fuln ll -

Wolígong Amadeus Mozort

ment. ln every kfoel oi' composition he achieveel an extraordinary symhesis of form and content, of the galan t and leamecl styles, of polish and cha rro with emotional deptb. Moza1·t's music was enriched by new influences from tluee of the century's greatest composers: Hayd n , J. S. Bach, and Hande l. Hayd n spent every winter in Vienna. and whatever acquaintance Mozart may previously have had with h is wo rks was now deep eneel t hrough intense swely a nel p ersonal friendship. Mozart was in troduced to Bach's music by Baron Gottfrieel va n Swieten, la ter the libreltist for Haycln's las t two oratorios. As Austrian amhassador to Berlin in 1771 - 78, van Swieten had become an enthusiast for the music of nortb German composers. ln week.ly 1·eacling sessions aL van Sw.ieten's home during 1782, Mozart became acqua in ted with Bach's The Art of Fugue, The Well -Tenipered Clavier. and other works. He arranged several of Bach's fugues for string trio or quartel and composed bis own Fugue in C Minar for two pianos, K. 426. Bach's deep and lasting influence is hearel in the increased contrapunlal texture ofMozart's la ter works. Through vanSwieten Mozart also beca me interested in Handel. whose Messiah. Ale:rnnder's Feast. Acis and Calatea, and Ode for St. Cecilia's Dar Mozart reorcheslrated in 1788-90 for private performances s ponsored by van Swieten anel other aristocratic pat.rons.

lnfluence of f-faydn., Bach. and Handel

PIANO MUSIC Mozart was a virtuoso pianist. anel bis slyle is well representeei in his m usic for piano. His sonatas, fantasias, variations, rondos. and piano cluets (for 1wo p layers atone piano) were wr itten for hi s pup ils, for elomestic music-making, anel for publication. The nineteen piano sonatas are among his most popular works. anel almost every piano student for the last two centur ies has studied them. He demonstratecl bis command of the genre with a sei of six sonatas (K. 279-284) written in 1775 while in Munich to supervise an opera, an d he wrote three more while in Mannheim and Paris ia 1777- 78 (K. 309- 311). These alreacly show a wide variety of keys , content, and fonn, as if Mozart sought to exp lore ali the possibi lities of the sonata and pose cliverse challenges for the player. Mozart's style at the beginniag of bis Vie ana period is exemplified by the sonata- l'orm nrst movement of thc Sonata in F' Major, K. 332 (NAWM 121 ) , one of tbree composed in 1781-83 and publishecl as a set in 1784 (K. 330332). Especially characteristic of Mozart are his themes and his comhination of heterogeneous styles. Example 23.7 shows the ürsl theme and the begin ning of the transition. While Hayda built themes byvaryiagsmall motives (see Example 23.1) or for ming a series of contrasting ges tu1·es, Mozart's themes tend to be songlike, perhaps reílecting lta lian influence. The opening idea of K. 332 ( measures 1- 12) is typical of bis themes in seeming to unfold naturally and spontaneously, while giving evidence of careful shaping. Phrases are usually bal anced between antecedent and consequent. but often Lhe seconel phrase is extended-in this case througb imitation between the hands. The whole melody grows out of the opening series of thirds. which are subtly paralleled ia tbe Alberti bass accompaniment. As he often do es, Mozart introcluces a con trasti ng idea even ,,ithin rhe n rst theme ar,ea (measures 12-22), but he ties

Sonatain FMajor. K. 332 1 Full ?.\ 1

Themes

545

546

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

EXAMPLE 23.7,

• C la,s,c Music m the Lote E,ghteenth Century

Wolígang Amadeus Mozort

Openiligof Mowrt's Piano Sonata in FMajor, K. 332

that can be playeel on the natura l horn, using solely 1he pitches of the hannonic seri es (see the left hand in measures 12-20). • The lransition (beginning measure 23) is in Sttmn und Dmng style, a louel and impassioned passage in minor moele with faster rhythms, full texture, ch romaticism, and stro ng dissonances such as diminished seventh chords.

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_,_--.....,.

Contmsting styles

........

it back to the opening melody by using the sarne cadence (measures 19-20). Every gesture reflects grace. taste, and elegance. AJ1 composers of the time used contrasl to delineate form, convey feel ings, and provide variety. But Mozart's sk:ill in using divei·se styles for these purposes was unparalleled . ln Exa mple 23.7, t he fo llowing sryles fo llow in quick succession: • The Etrst phrase is in singing aUegro style, with a songlike melody in qtúck tempo over broken chord figures. • I ts consequent (measures 5-12) introduces imitation and counterpoint, hallmarks of the learned style. • The second idea suggests hunting style. with a melody and bass line

Such frequent changes of style continue throughout the movement, outlining the form anel broadening the range of expression. Modem lis teners can easily miss noticing this diversity. [t all sounels l ike Moza rt's style to us, beca use we are not familiar with the wide range of styles that his contemporaries wou ld have recognized . Por them, the el ifference between galant and learned style. or hunting style and Sturm und Drang. would have been as immediately apparent as the dilferences between swing, rock, country, hip- hop, anel mi li tary band music are today. The di ffering styles in Classic-era music have been referred to as topics, because they serve as subjects for musical discourse. Becoming aware of the many styles Mozart and orher Classic composers invoke helps us understand their music and discover an intrigu ing and meaningful network of references we would otherwise miss.

CHAMBER M USIC After composing sixteen qua11ets in the ea.rly l 770s. Mozart did uot return to the genre until his fu·st years in Vienna. Between 1782 and 1785, he wrote six qua rteis (K. 387. 421,428,458,464. an d 465). published in 1785 as his Op. 10. He dedicated them to Haycln in gratitude for all that he had learned from the older composer, writing in the most affectionate terms:

Mozart's Haydn Quartets

A l'ather. having resolveel to senel bis sons oul into lhe great world. consíders it desirable to entrust them to the pro teclion and guidance of a very celebrated man . who happily has alsn been his bestfoend. Mozart called these quarters '·che fru it of a long and laborious effort," and the many revisíons in the manuscript bear witness to his exertions. Haycln's Op. 33 quarte is (l 781) had f'ully estahlished the technique of pervasive thematic development with su bstantial equa lity between the four instruments. Mozart's síx Haydn Quarteis show his matuJ·e capacíty to absorb tbe essence of Haydn's achievement wilhout becoming a mere imitator. Although the themes remain Mozarteau, tbey are subjecteel to much more thorougb development in an increasingly contrapun tal texture. Many of Mozart's other chambcrworks aa·e also classícs, though composed for less stanelardized ensembles. His string quinteis. for two violins, lwo violas, and cello. have been praised in even stronger terms than his quartets, especially t.he quintets in C major and G minor (K. 515- 516, 1787). Shortly after composing the Quintel for Piano and Winds. K. 452. Mozart wrote to his father. "I myse lf thin k it's the hest work l've written in my entire lifo." His síx works for solo wind and strings. including t.hree flute quartets. oboe quartel, horn quintet, and clarinet quintei, are staples in the repertoire for those instruments.

Quinteis

547

548

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• C la,s,c Music m the Late E,ghteenth Century

Wolígang Amadeus Mozart

SERENADES AND DIVERTIMENTOS

Ein e kl e ine Nachtmusik

Mozart composed serenades- ever popular in Salzburg- and whal are now cla.ssed as divertimentos in the l 770s and eady 1780s for garden parties or outdoor perfom1ances, for weddings and bfrthclays, or for concerts at th e homes of friends and palrons. Although s omelimes inle nded as background music, they received serious treatment l'rom Moza rl. Some are like chambe r music for strings with two or mo re wind instruments. Others, wrilten For six or eight wind instmmenis in pairs, are meant for the oul-of-doors, and slill others approach the style of lhe symphony or concerto. Most share an unaffected simplicily of mate rial and treatmen.t, appropr.i ate to their purpose. The most famil iar of Mozart's serenades is Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Li ttle Night -Music, K. 525: 1787). in four movements for string quinlel but now usually played by a small string ensemble. The mos t dramatic and s ubstantial is the Se renade in C Minor for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns , and two bas· soons, K. 388 (1 782/ 83). Essentially a full-scale four - movement symphony fo r winds, il is notable for ils canonic rninuet and tl'io and le ngthy frnale in varialion forro.

j; .,1~ ,_,,

I ·{f. ~

Although Mozart wrote piano concertos in Salzburg in the 1770s, notably rhe impassioned Piano Concerto in EI, Major, K. 27] (1777), the seventeen pia no concertos written in Vienna occupy a central place in bis output. He composed them primarily as vehicles for his own concerts and intencled them to please the entfre range of listeners. As he wrote to his father on December 28, 1782. the fu-st three Vienna concertos, K. 413- 415, .are a happy medium between whafs too difli cu lt anel too easy. They are Brilliant- pleasing to the ear- Natural without becontingvacuous. There .:ue passages here anel there tl,at only connoisseurs can fully appreci .ate, yet lhe common listener will fmd them satisi'ying as well. although without lrnowingwhy.

First movement

J Conciso ~

I J

Full~

Each of the Vienna concertos is an individual masterpiece, and together Lhey s how Moza,1 at hisbest. Figure 23. l Os hows a manuscript page from one of the Vienna concertos. K. 467. It reveals the composer·s clarity anel logic as well as a revision around the middle oi' lhe page, where he wanted to improve the textura] distri.bution. Moza rt's concertos follow the traditional three-movement pattern il1 the seque nce fast-slow- fast. The lirst movement blends eleme nts of ritornello and sonata formas do lhe concertos of J. C. Bach, Mozart's primary model l'or his piano concertos . Comparing the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488 (NA\XIM 122) , composed in 1786, to the J. C. Bach concerto diagrammecl in Figure 22. 11. we see lhe sarne general oullines: • The solo sections resemble the exposition. developmem, anel recapitulation of a sonata form, with the soloist accompanied by and someti.mes in dialogue with the orchestra.

:1 ·· _I • •

j:ll!i.J ~' 1,1,1,.,.,,...,: ~ ... -

PIANO CONCERTOS

Vienn a co11 certos

: r /li

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j .

Jr · ~ l_:- , __ ,,~ -

I·

..L

..• ~ "

'..:,... ,r-'-,./;L

,,, _,.

A pagefrom Mozar(s Piano Coriceno in CMajor. K. 467. dated Februa,y 1785. Mozart 's mpid rate of composit ion is well known. ln a /etier 10 1/1 eir moiher, Momri ·s síster Nann er-L jokes that her brorlterwas wrir.i11g down a s011 ata while ai t/i.e same titne composing a riot he,· in his head. li i.s be!ieved 1har t/1 is particular concer1 o took Mozan arou.nd a nwn1h lo f, 11 ish-ju.sl to copy a conceno ofthis length (83 pages) wou fd have tc,ken manycornposers n fiill montl, to compleie. K. 467 Í$ su rprisinglyfree ofcorrectÍ-On$ and revisions. bt1t around tlie middle of the page we can see where Mozart decided to revise FIGURE 23.10:

some unbalancedscoring. (·rue Pl t ll.PONT .>.IORCAJ,.' UUllA.RY. PUO'fO: TU.e Ptl!UPOl-"T MOllCA.N UBRA.llY/ Altl' 8 [ !.0lfRCE, NY)

• Theopen ingorchestral rito rnello introduces the movement's lirst theme, transition, second theme, and closing theme, but remains in lhe lonic. • Th e ritornello renirns, greatly abbrevi.ated. to mark the e nd ofthe first solo and th e end ofthe movement. Li.ke Bach. Mozart includes a cadenza for the soloist. but his cadenza usu ally interrupts the final ritornello , as it does here. lt is also Mozart's typical practice to pun ctua te the long solo sectio ns with passages for fuJJ orchestra lhat serve as l'urthei: ritornellos. Here these include the transition in lhe solo exposition and recapirnlation and the nrst two phrases of the recapitulation. Th e other differences are in the details that make each nrst movementunique. While Bach's concerto used lhe closing theme for later ritornellos. in K. 488 Moza,1 mainly uses the transition . an energetir.. pulsati ng tutti th at r.ontrasts markecily with the quiet. Jyrical themes. Moza.11 introduces a new idea at the beginning of the development, which becomes the focus of that section and relurns at the encl of lhe recapitulation aml in tbe final r itornello. The resulting

549

550

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

Slow rnovernent andfino.Le

Balance ofelernents

• Cla,s,c Music m the Lote E,ghteenth Century

forro follows convention in most respecrs yet may s urprise the listener with severa] inrlividual features. T'he movement is suffused with Mozart's characteristic weahh of melodie invention. diversity of nguration. and elegance. The second movement of a Mozart concerto resembles a lyrical aria. lL is set in the subdominant ofthe principal key or, less o~en, in the dominant or rei.ative minor. Its form may vary- most often sonata without development. sornelimes va riations or rondo. The linale is typ icall ly a rondo or sonawrondo on themes with a popular character; chese are treated in scinli.lJating virtuoso style with opportun.ities for one or more cadenzas. AJthough the concertos wcre show pieces intended to dazzle an audience. Mozart never allowe<l display LOget the upper hand. He always maintained a balance of musica l interest between the orchestral and solo portions, and his infallible ear is evidenl in the myriad combinations of colors anel textures he draws from the interplay between the piano and o rchestral instruments. especially the wi.nds. Moreover, the goal of composing for an immediate public response did not keep him from expressing profound musical ideas.

SYMPHONIES

Vienna symphonies

Moza1t wrote only six symphonies in the last ten years of his life. having earlier produced alrnost nfty, noLwilhstanding the traditional numbering of forty-one symphonies (introduced by a nin eteent h-century pub lish er). The symphonies written before 1782 served most often as curtain raisers for concens or theatrical performances: those he composed after he settled in Vienna were intended for concert programs that also included concertos and arias. Many of the early symphonies followed the older ltalian threemovement format. while most of the la ter ones have the standard four. Ll.ke Haydn, Mozartapproached his maturesymphonies wilhgreal seriousness, and he devoted much time and thoughtto their composition. The Haffner Symphony. K. 385. written in 1782 for the elevation to nobility of Moza1i's childhood friend Sigmttnd Haffner, and theLinz Symphony, K. 425, written in 1783 for a performance in that city, typify the late syrnphoni es in their ambi tious climensions, greater demands on performers (particularly wind players). hannonic and contrapuntal co1uplexity. and final movements that are climacLic rather than light. These sympbonies are in every way as artl'ul as the London syrnphonies of Haydn. and some may indeed have servecl as models for the older composer. The others of this group- usually recogniied as his greatestare thePrague Symphony in D Major (K. 504), composed in 1786 for a conce,1 in that city. anel the Symphonies in E!, Major (K. 543). G Minor (K. 550). and C Major (K. 551 . nicknamedJupiter). all written in the summer of 1788. Each ofthe six symphonies is a masterpiece with its own special character. Their opening gestures leave an inclelible im pression. The Ha!fner and}u.piter Symphonies both begin with loud. forceful statements in octaves followed by deli cate ensembl e responses. Three others (K. 425, 504, and 543) have slow introduclions animated by the spirit of the French overture. with its majestic dotted rhythms. intense harmony. and anar.msis figures. Rather than intimating subtly what is to come. as Haydn sometimes did, Mozart's slow inn-oduc tions create suspense, tan talizingly wandering away from the key and making its retw-n a major cvent. Mos 1. striking is the beginning of the Symphony in G Minor, with its piano undulaLing melody suffused wit.h sighing gesrnres.

Wolígang Amadeus Mozort

EXAMPLE 23.8,

First theme of the finale of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony

As in Haydn's late sympbonies, Moza rt's Jinales do more than send an audience away in a cheerful frame of minei. T'hey balance the serious open · ing movement with a high.ly crafted counterweight fashionecl with whimsy and humor. Most remarkable is the li.nale of the]upiter Symphony (NA\X'M 123), a brilliant combinationof sonata fonn and symphonic s Lyle with learned cou nterpoint and fugue . The openi ng theme, shown in Example 23.8, presents two contrasling icleas. as is Mozart's typical practice: an eleganl singing motive in whole notes (a) anda more aclive response (b) marked by repeated staccato notes and sweeping gestures. Th ey have different des1inies. Motive a. drawn from a fugue example in Fux's counterpoint treatise Gradus ad Parna-ssum. gets the full contrapuntal tTeatment f'rom Mozart. including all four species of strict coumerpoint described by Fux plus stretto and fugue, wh.ile bis treated solely as a melody in a homophonic texture. Other thematic elements occupy a middle ground. presented both as accompanied melody in Classic-era style and in dose imüalive counterpoint. The coda then weaves ali of the thema ric motives but b into a fwe-voice fugue, revea li ngthat they all work in counterpoinl with each other. Example 23.9 shows pari of this coda. with motives from the nrst theme (a ande), tra nsilion (d), and second therne (e and O. ln this contrapuncal climax, Mozut achieves a stunning integration

EXAMPLE 23.9 ,

Excerpt Jrom coda, showing themes in. count-erpoint

a~ firsr theme. opening id ea

e• f1rst theme. c<>ncluding idea (ais<> appears in seco-nd theme and closing theme) d = figure írom 1:ransirion (also appears in second 1he me) e• second ,hemc. opening phrasc f• couniersubject 10 sccond theme f\

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Finales

551

552

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

• Clon ,c Musoc in 1he La1e E,gh1een1h Century

Wolígong Amadeus Mozort

of tbe galam slyle and rheloric of his own age wilh the fugal style of lhe early eighteenth ce ntury, making us hear his themes in an entirely new context. TI1e effect is sublime. inspiring awe and astonishment- not at Creation. as in Haydn's oratorio, but at human crealivity and ingenuity.

OPERAS

Dit: Entfühmng

Opera was stilJ the mos1 prest igious musical ge nre, and Mozart eagerly sought opportuuities to compose for the stage. On a visit to Vienna in 1768, the twelve·year-old composer wrote his llrsL opera buffa, wfinta semplice (The Prelend Simpleton, performed lhe followingyear al Salzburg), and ftrst Singspiel, Ba~tien und Bastienne. During his trips to 1.t aly in th e early l 770s, he composed two opere serie that were prnducecl in Milan. hoping they would lead LO a permaneni posilion. He composed Lwo operas on cornmission for Munich, la, finta giardiniera (The Pretend Gardener, 1775), an opera buffa, and Jdomeneo (l 781). the best of his opere serie. ln its clramatic and pictorial music, accompanied recita tives. conspicuous use of cborus. and inclusion of spec1acular sceues, Idomeneo shows the reformisl lendeocies oJ Traeua aud Gluck (see pp. 491-93) and the iniluence of French opera. Mozart's fame in Viet1na and beyond was established by the Singspiel Die Enifühmng cws dem SeraiL (The Abduction from Lhe Harem, 1782). The opera tells a romantic-comic story of adventure and rescue set in a Turkish harem. Such "oriental" seltings and plots were popular. in pari because they pro· ,,ided ,1 taste of the exotic while maki og the Turks. long-staoding eoemies of Austria· Hungary, seem less threateniug. Bul one reasou Die Entfiihnmg is compeUing is the hmnane and fulJy rounded nature of its Turkish characters. Mozart set the scene in the overture by using "Turkish style." meant to sug· gest Turkish militaq band music, known as Jauissary m usic, through the use of shrill winds. drums, and cymbals; exaggerated first beats; and deliberately simple harmonies. melodies. and textures . .Mozart's music perfectly captures Lhe charncters and lheir feelings, as he had aimed (see Source Reading).

MOZART'S D EPICTION OF CHARACTER AND MOOD ln his operas, Mozart portrays the personalities of the characters and conveys their feelings so perfectly through his music that listeners can immediately understand them-sometimes better than the ch aracters understand their own predicament. 1n a letter to his father written while compostng Dic Ent{ührurrg aus dem Serail. Mozart described how he made the music of two arias fit the characters. the situation. and the singers who would premlere the roles.

Osmin's rage will be rendered comical by the use oí Turkish music. ln composing the aria, 1made [the singer] Fischers beautiíul deep tones really glisten . ... The passage Therefore. by the beard of che P,ophec, e tc .• is, to be sure, in the sarne tem p o. b ut with quick notes- a nd as his anger increases more and more, the Allegro assai [a faster tempo] - which comes just when one thinks the aria is over- will produce an excellent E ffect because it is in a different tempo and ina different key. A p erson who gets into such a violent ,age transgresses every o rder. moderation, and limit: he no longer knows hi mselí. ln the sarne way the Music must no longe, know itself. But

because passions, violent or not, must never be expressed to the point oí d isgust. and Music must never offend the ear. even in most horrendous situations, but must always be pleasing, in other words always remain Music, 1 have not chosen a key foreign to F. the key of the aria, but one that is friendly to it, not however its neare st relative in D minor. but the more remote A minor. Now about Be lmonce·s aria in A major. "Oh how anxious. oh how passionate!" Do you know how I expressed it?-even expressing the loving , throbbing heart? With two violins playing in octaves. This is the favori te aria of everyone who has heard it- it's m ine too. And it was written entirely for Adamberger's voice. One can see the trembling falte ring- one can see his heaving b reas t-which is expressed by a crescendo-one can hear the whispe ring and the sighing-which is expressed by the first violins with mutes and one Aute playing in unison. Letter of September 26. 1781 , from Mozart's Letters. Mozart's Life. selected letters edlted and newly translated by Robert Spaethling (New York: Norton. 2000), 286. Punctuotion oml spellin9 hove been modernized.

Mozart's next operas were th ree ltalia:n comic operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786). Don Giovanrii (Don Juan. 1787), aud Costfan tutte (Thus Do All

FIGURE 23.11: Loren.zo Da Pon.ie. in a po11mir b;ran unknownAmcrican a,tist. Best know1i forthe librettos to Mozarr's Marriagc of Figm·o. Don Giovanni, anel Cosi fon lutl.c, DCL Ponrewent to Lon-don in the 1790s and to Ame,ica in 1805. wherehe was agrocer. privai~ teacher. bool, dcalcr. tni-Mla.tor. a nd ce<:ntuall)' P'ºfc:isorof Jtalian at Columbia College. /-/e becctme a11 American citizen and sou.ghi to bri.ng Italian culture '" /tis newna1ion. cca,.u.,•u U N l \'f!R) I TY, Nt \V l Oll K)

Women, 1790). All were sel to librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838), sbown in Figure 23.11, who was tbe poet for tbe imperial court theater. Da Ponte's librettos followed the conveutions of opera buffa but lifted it to a higher levei, giving greater depth to the characters, inte nsifying the social tensions betweeu classes. and introduciug moral issues. All t.hree libreltos include not only com ic characters bu t also serious ones, as we ll as cha ra cters who occupy a middle ground between serious and comic, called m ezzo carnttere (middle character). Moiart's psychological penelralion and bis genius for musica l characterizatinn si milarly raiserl t he g,m re's serinusness. Delineation of character occurs not only in .solo a.rias but especially iu duets. trios, and larger ensembles. The ensemble fmales allow these characters to clash. combiniug realism with ongoiog dra matic actiou and superbly unif1ed

Da Ponte opera,.s

553

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C H A 1> T E R 2 3

•

C la,s,c Music m the Lote E,ghteenth Century

musical forrn. Moza1ú orchestl'alion, pal'ticularly his use of winds, plays an important role in defming the characters and situations. The Marriage of The plot of The Marriage of Figaro. which revolves a round a series of amo Figaro rous intrigues between commoners and nobles, was decidedly risqué by the mora l standards ofthe time; indeed , Emperor Joseph li had banned pe,formances of the play by Beaumarchais on which Da Ponte's libretlo is based. Nevertheless. the oper,1 was so successfu.l in Vienna 1ha1 the emperor issued an edict forbidding encores of any p ieces other than solo arias. Don Giovanni Figaro was even more enthusiastical.ly receiveel in Prague. leading to the commission for Don Giovanni. prnmierecl lhere lhe following year. The medi eval legen<l of Don Juan, on which the plot is basecl, had been treated often in literatu re anel music since the early seven teenth cenru11'- But Da Pon te and Mozart. for the f1ss1 lime in opera. took lhe character of Don Juan seriouslyno1 as an incongruous mixture of farcical f1~1 re, seducer, and horrible blasph emer, but as a scorner of common morality and a supreme individualist, bolei anel unrepenlanl to lhe last. Afüing styles Don Gi-Ovanni incorporates opera seria characters, situations. and styles into the comi e opera, as illustrated in the o peninp; scene (NAW' M 121a). 1 Conciso =-\ 1 I Full =-\ 1 LeporeUo, Don Giovan n i's servant, laments li.is sufferings in an opera-buffa style aria. witb a touch of aristocratic horn calls when he declares bis wish to ... MOZART: Don live like a gemleman rather than a servant. He is interrupted by a clamor as Giovim ni, AcL1, Scen~ 1 Don Giovanni and Donna Anna emerge from her ho use, where he has tried to have his way wilh her. In fur ious purs uit. she sings i n dramalic opera seria style and Don Giovanni replies in kind, whHe Leporello comments in buffo styJe from his hicting place. Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, rushes in to protect her and chaUenges Don Giovanni to light. They do. and theCommendatorc is mortally wounded- a shocking turn of e\•ents for a comedy. In a powerl'ul Lrio, be pants om his last worcls as Don Giovanni and Leporello commen t, each in h is own characteristic style. lnstantly. master anel servant revert 1 ConclSê ;\\ 1 1 Full ;\\ 1 to the comic banter of opera buffa in the following recitative (NA\'l:'M 124b). Throughout the opera, there are three leveis of character: Donna Anna and other no bles who emote in the elevated, dramatic ton e of opera seria; LeporeUo and other characters, mostly lower-class, marked bythe buffoonery of -Opera buffa (though they show both cleverness and wisdom); and Don Giovanni, who, in his character as duplicitous seducer, passes easily from one world to the other. His seductive powers are on full display in h is duet ... MOZART, 0011 La ci darem la mano with the peasant Zerlina. whose wedding to Masetto he Giovannt Act 1. Scene 9 has just interrnpted. Al'.Ler sending everyone cise off to his cas tle, he gently persuades Zerlina to man y him instead; Mozart·s music perfectly captu res her initial unce1tainty. gradual change of mind. and final .agreement as they sing separately at nrst , then alternate in shorter phrases, and fmaUy join together in p ara.lJel thirds. Tbe lhree levels of character i o lhe opera are highJigbted in the ôna.le of Act 1. where Mozart masterfully coordinates three on-stage dance bands playingsimultaneously: a mfouet for the nob les, a contreda nse for Don Giovanni and Zerlina. anda rnstic waltz for Leporello and Masetto. Another characrer with a foot in hoth worlds is Oonna Elvi ra . a comic character posing as a serious one. When she ôrst enters. singing in the aria ... MOZART: 0 0 11 Ah! chi mi dice mai of a lover who has betrayed her anel vowing to kill him Giovanni, Act 1. Scene S if he will not renirn to her, we take her seriously at first. Bur in the back-

Wolígang Amadeus Mozort

EXAMPLE 23.10,

Donnc, Elvira's aria Ah fuggi il traditor,from Mozart ·s Don

Giovanni Douna Elvira

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grnund Don Giovanni overhears, senses an op portunity, ancl is already planni ngto "console" her in his usua l mannex. interweaving his com ic mi1sic with her dramatic singing. When he steps forward and she turns to see him, they recognize each other, for it is he who has loved and left her. The potentially romantic momenl instantly turns comic as he attempts to dellect her anger, to Leporell o's great amusement. and then tlees, leaving LeporeUo to explain in the famous "Catalogue A.ria" that she is only one of hundreds of women Don Giovanni has seduced and abandoned. Here Mozart uses a variety of musica.! styles to match the many typesofwomen on the list, and the pairingof Oon na Elvira with LeporeUo's comic a1·ia rnarks heras a comic character . Don.na Elvira's later attempts lo elepict h erself as a tragic heroine abandoned by Don Giovanni are hilarious ly undercut by Mozart's music. Her rage ar ia Ahfuggi il traditor. shown in Example 23 .1O, is in an out-of-clate style, that of Scarlatti or Handel from more than lifty years before, as if s he were rcading ber lines oul of an olcl novel (as Leporello comments elsewhere). so she sounds fake rather tha n sincere. Although s he attempts to be digJ1i n ed, shown by her choice of sarabande rhythm, th e te mpo sh e ta kes is much too fasl. making her sound hys terical. Such references to olher styles and rlepa rtures from thei r r.onventions are r.rur.ial aspects of Moza rt's dep iction of characters and of their fee lings. Modern audiences often miss these meanings if they do not recognize the styles and conventions Mozart is evoking.

555

556

C H A 1> T E R 2 3

The Magic Flute

[n his last year of life, Mozart wrote two final operas: an opera seria, La c!emenza di Tito (The Mercy of Titus), for the coronation in Pra1:,'Ue of Leopold II as king of Bohcmia. and The Magic Flute (Die Zauberl1õte) for a thealer in Vienna. 1'he Magic .flute is a Singspiel. wilh spoken dialogue instead of recitative and with some cha racte rs and scenes appropria te to popular comedy. Yel ils aclion is filled with symbolic meaning. and ils music isso rich and profound tha1 it ranks as the lirst great German opera. The largely solemn mood of the score reflecrs the re lat ionsh ip between the opera and lhe teacbings and ceremonies of Freemasonry. We know lhat Mozart valued his Masonic aluliation. not only from .allusions in his letters bu1 especially from lhe serious quality of 1he mus i.c he wrote for Masonic ceremonies in 1785 and for a Masonic cantata in 1791 (K. 623). ln The Magic Flute. Mozart inlerwove lhreads oi' many eighteenth· cenlury musical styles and traditions: the vocal opulence of ltalian opera seria; the folk humor of the German Singspiel; lhe solo aria; the buffo ensemble; a new kind of accom · panied recitative applicable to German words: solemn chorai scenes: and even a reviva! of the Baroque cho rale· prelude technique. with contrapuntal accompanjmenc. The reconciJiation of older and newer styles is summed up in the delightful overture, wruch combines sonata form with fu1:,tt1e.

CHURCH MUSIC

Requiem

Classic Music

• Cla,s,c Music m the Lbte E,ghteenth Century

Given that Mozart's falher worked as a musician for the archbishop of Salzburg and thal Mozart himself served 1here as concenmaster and organjst, il was natural for him to compose chu rch music from a n early age. However, with notable exceptions-his Mass in C Minar.Ave venun corpus. and Req·uiemsel lings of sacred texls are not counted among his major works. The masses. like Haycln's, are for lhe most part in the current symphonic·operalic idiom, interm ingled with fugues at certain customary places. anel scored for chonis and soloists in free alternation. with orchestral accompaniment. The Requiem , K. 626, was commissioned by a wealthy nobleman. Counl Walsegg. in Ju ly 179 1, but Mozart was busy with La clemenza di Tito anel The Magic Flute anel ma de little progress until the fali. Left unónished at Mozart's death, il was completed by his pupil and co llaborator Fra nz Xaver Süssmayr (1766- 1803), who aclcleel some instrumental parts to Mozart's draft anel set the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. in pa11 repeating music that Mozart had composed for an earlier section.

ACH IEVEMENT ANO REPUTATION The unfmished Requiem has become a metaphor for Mozart's sudden, unexpected death, cutting off his ca reer at the height of his ab ilities anel just after he hacl been appointed to succeeel the ailing Kapellmeister of St. Stephcn's Cathedral, where Haydn had served his apprenticeship :ftfty yea.rs eadier. Mozart never took up lhe secure posilion he had so long sought. bul bis music evenrually found a secure place among performers and listeners. Ris encounters with and absorption of almost every current style enabled him to ex1end Hayeln's stylislic synthesis to an even wider range, making possible the masterful depiction of mood and character in his operas anel the

rich vaJ"iety of his instn1mental music. He equaleel Haydn in balancing form and expression, imm ediate and long-lastingappeaJ. Together, the two com· poscrs ranged over ali the genres practicecl in lhe late eighteenth cenlury. and their music represents lhe besl 1hal the period produceel.

Classic Music Sincc lhe 1790s. Hayeln anel Mozart have been paired as lhe two oulstancling composers of their lime. Both mel wilh great success during their lifetimes, anel their music continued to be known and performeel after their deaths. Hayeln's and Mozart's works provideel models for Beethoven anel many other composers of their own generation and following ones. By the early nine teenth centory, certa in works of Haydn and Mozart (especially the late sym· phonies and some quarteis of each. Haydn's late oralorios, Mozart's piano conce rtos and sonatas, and the fwe main Mozart operas) had become elas· sics, part of the core group of works cultured people were expected 10 know. Theirmusic even tualÍycame to beknownas "classical," which in turn beca me the name most often useel for works of the late eighteenth century. Yet among the composers of their time , only Haydn and Mozart achieved widespread and enduring fame and composed such complex and heterogeneoos music. It is nol easy to achieve the balance between wiele and deep appeal thal they accomplished. and it was the unique merits of this music lhat led to ils con· tinuecl performance in the early uineteemh cenrnry anel its adop tion into lhe permanent repe11oi re. ~ Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

557

THE NINETEENTH ' CENTURY

p r O

l'n

24 REVOLUTION ANO CHANGE 560

n the nineteenth century. the Industrial Revolution transformed the economy, brinqinq :../ people from the countryside to the cities and creating a society based on rnass production and '-.._~ distribution. The result was a large and influential middle class . who saw transformations in musical life as well. Affordable pianos and printed music broadened the market

25 THE ROMANTIC GENERATION: SONG

ANO PIANO MUSIC 586

26 ROMANTICISM IN CLASSIC FORMS: ORCHESTRAL.

for home music. encouraging a torrent of songs and piano pieces. The audience for music expanded. and opera companies, professional orchestras. and concert halls grew in number and size. Nineteenth-century musicians typically worked for the publicplaying in orchestras. giving concerts. composing for publication. or teaching amateurs. One path to success was to specialize. becoming a virtuoso on one instrument ora composer for one medium. Another path was to create music that was novel. individual, evocative, spectacular, nationalist, exotic, or in some other way distinctive yet attractive. Ali of these traits are characteristic of Romanticism, a leading move-

CHAMBER, AND CHORAL MUSIC 624 27 ROMANTIC OPERA AND MUSICAL THEATER TO MIOCENTURY 653

28 OPERA ANO MUSICAL THEATER IN THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY

ment in rhe a rts ar rhe beginning of the 1800s anda term now associated wirh the entire century's music. Composers developed new styles to appeal to middle-class listeners, creating new kinds of instrumental music-from virtuoso showpieces to symphonic poems-and new operatic traditions in lta ly, France, Germany. Russia, and elsewhere. Two other developments had p rofound and lasting effects: the rise of a permanent repertoire of musical classics, and a growing rift between classical and popular music. These chan ges have shaped our modem musical culture, in which nineteenth -century music is still an enduring p resence.

678 29 LATE ROMANTICISM IN GERMANY ANO AUSTRIA 719 30 OIVERG ING TRAD ITIONS IN THE LATER NINETEENTH

•

CENTURY 740

Revolutoon. War. and Mu,ic, 1789- 1815

21J

REVOLUTION AND CHANGE

561

FIGURE 24.1: Contemporary·oil poin.tingofThe Fall of rhe Basi ille. jLLly 14. 1789. Cirizensof Paris stomied the olá fortress. a symbcl of royul m,thorily. ro obtain. t,he guns ,md 1u1wu,ni1ion siored 1here and 10 protect the new rnunicipa,l govem ment from attack by royal Jorces. The oction cosi almosr one hundred lives b11t demonstrated lhe popular will for revolutionarychange. The anniversary.Jrdy 14, is,iowcelebroredas the Frenclt na ti anal holiday. <cn•Tr...ux O& \ 'ERSAJLLb tT 01:TllLANON, \ 'f. KM I U.l!S. Pll Ol'Ol RÉUNlON Dt:S M USÉES NATIONAUX/ AAT R F.SOURC t . NY)

The generation bom around 1770 carne of age in a whirlwind of change. From the French Revolution in 1789 through the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the old political order in Europe gave way to a new one. At the sarne time, a new economic order bega n to emerge, in wh ich th.e Industrial Revolution and middle-class entrepreneurship would eventual ly su rpass the old wea lth of the landed aristocracy. Along with these changes carne a new sense of time associated with the idea of progress, the notion that technology, society, the arts, and other aspects oflife were improving at an accelerating pace. making each new period of human histo ry fundamentally different from past eras. One member of that generation. Ludwig van Beethoven.leda revo lution of like importance in the history of music. His creation of works unprecedented in their individuality, dramatic power. wide appeal. and depth of interest to connoisseurs changed society's concept of music and of composers.

Revolution, War, and Music, 1789-1815 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The Frenr.h Revolntion was ins pirr.d in part hy Enlightenmr.nt idr.as of equality, human rights, and social reforro , but also had other causes. The lirst phase ofthe Revolution (1789-92) was reformist. Stimulated by King Louis XVI's ruinous fiscal policies and supported by popular

uprisings like 1he assault on the Bastille shown in Figure 24.1, a National Assemb ly of we ll-to-do citizens forced the kjng to accepl a new coustitution for Fra nce. TheAssembly abolished old privileges. adopted the Declaration of tbe Rights of Man and Citizen. and sel up elected local governmems. But after Ausn-ia and Prussia attacked France in 1792, seeking to restore the old regime , a more rad ical group carne to power, declared France a republic. and executed the king. ln this second phase (1792-94) . as French armies fought off attacks. the governmem mailllained contJ'Ol by executing tens of 1housands of política I opponents in a Reign of Terror. 1n the t.hird phase ( 1794-99), the govern ment adopted a more moderate constitution and sought to restore order. but opposition anel economic hardships continued. ln 1799. Napoleon Bonaparte, an army general and war hero, beca me First Consul of the Republic. lgnoring the legislature. Bonaparte consolid ated power and in 1804 crowned himselI empero1·. Through a series of milita1yvictories, he overran nearby countries, expandcd French 1erritories, ended the 840-year -old Holy Roman Empire, and created client states in Spain , Swit zerland. and most of Germany and Italy. installing bis own sihlings as rulers. ln these .u:eas as well as France, he introduced refonns that made goverrunenl more efftcient. the lega l system more uniform, and taxation less burdensome. carrying out some of the goals of the Revolution. Bu t a disastrous campaign to take Moscow led to his defeat a nd abdica tio n in 1814. As a congrcss of the major European powers mel in Vienna to finalize lhe peace treaty. Na poleon escaped from exile in 1815, marched to Paris. and resumed power. only to suffer anal defeatthat surnmer in a battle at Waterloo in Belgium. Though lhe Revoluliou and Napoleon's wars of conquest ult imalely J'ailed. they changed European society utterly. The Revolu tionary motto .. liherté. egalité. fraternité.. (liberty. equality. brotherhood) attracted adherents from every s tra tum of French Society, and French armies s pread it across Europe. People everywhere saw Lhe possib ilily oí freedom. democ ratic reform. anel

Napoleon Bonaparte

Ef]ects ofthe RP.vnlntinn

562

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

TI M ELI N E Revolution and Cha.nge MUS ICAL

HISTORICAL

• 1789 French Revolution

the abolition oi' rank and privilege, nid they sustained that vision even when its realization was delayed. Moreover, the Rcvolution and subsequcnt wars introduccd a new conccpt of the ,rntion, conceived as cilizens with a common herilage and equa l lega l rights, notas subjects to a mo narch . As the French forged an identity as a nation. so increasingly did people in Ge rmany, l1aly, Spain, and Austria, giving rise 10 cu ltural and po litic~ I trends that gained force throughout the nineteenth and early twenlieth centuries.

begins • 1791 Joseph Haydn, first

MUSIC AND THE REVOLUTION

London Symphonies

The Revolution rernade every aspect of French life, includ ing music. Popular songs canied the messages anel stories of arrives in Vienna the Revolutio n , often setting new words to familia r rnelod ies. Composers wr ote marches and symphonies for wind band for 1792 French Republic public ceremonies, and la1·ge chorai works known as Revo declared. King Louis XVI lutionary hrmns for govermnent-sponsored festivais held to executed celebrate the Revolution. The government also supported the 1792 Franz li becomes Holy Opéra and Opéra- Comique. the two main opera theaters in Roman Emperor Paris, although opera librettos were subject to censorship for 1793 Eli Whitney invents po litical reasons. Many of lhe p lots touched 0 11 themes of the cotton gin Revol ution or concerns of the lime. One thrilling scenario (menlioned in chapter 21) celllered around the rescue of a 1793-94 Reign of Terror hero from unjust imprisonrnent. Ao enduring product of lhe Revolutionary era was the Paris Conservatoire, a music school founded by the govern ment in 1795 as part or the new nationaJ system of educalion designed to make train.ing in any fte ld available to ali citizens based on merit rather than on class. wealth. or family tradition. The Conservatoire trained singers and instrumentalists through a standard cun-icul urn and sysrem of examinations and offered courses in composition . theory, and music histo1y. As the first modem conservatory, it became the model for conservatories throughout Europe. It has been a dominant force in French musical life ever since.

• 1792 Ludwig van Beethoven •

• • •

THE INDUSTRIA L REVOLUTION Meanwhi.le, new tecbnologies began lO transform lhe cconomy from chielly rural and agricultu ra!, with rnost goods rnade by hand. to an urban economy based on manufacturing by machine. This gradual -change. known as the Industrial Revolution, started in Britain during the late eighteenth century and spread across Europe anel North Arnerica over the next hundred years. Jt began in the textile industry with inventions such as the fly sbuttle (l 733) . spinning jenny (1764) , and cotton gin (1793) , leading to mass production of th.rcad and clo th in large factories powercd by water mills or by the new steam engine (invented 1769). Other industries followed suit. including the rise of instrument- making fmns (see chapter 25). Mass production lowered costs and thus prices, which drove out competitors who worked by hand. Men. women . and even children came to wor k in the factories an d tJ1e coai

Ludwig van Beethoven

anel iron mines that kept them running, despite long hours and often bad workingconditions. The Industrial Revolut ion brought unprecedented prosperity. but in many ways was as disrnptive as the French Revolution and Napoleonic \Vars, th reatening traditional ways of li fe and e nriching the urban middle and merchanl classes at the expense of the landowning arisroc racy and lhe poo r.

• 1797-98 Beethoven. Sonate

pathétique • 1798 Haydn, The Creation • 1802 Beethoven writes

Heiligenstadt Testament

Ludwig van Beethoven

• 1803- 4 Beethoven. Eroica

Symphony • 1804 Bonaparte crowns

The musician whose career and music besl u-eJ1ecl the tumulhimself Emperor Napoleon 1 tuous changes in the decades around 1800 was Ludwig van • 1806 Holy Raman Empire Beethoven ( 1770- 1827; see biograp hy and Figure 24.2). He dissolved. Franz continues as was steeped in Enlightenment ideals: absorbed the music of emperor of Austria Haydn and Mozart: was affected by the French Revolution: ideal-ized and then was disillusioned by Napoleon; endured • 1809 Beethoven given lifeoccupation and economic privation during the Napoleonic time annuity wars: and lived his last dozenycars uneler political repression. • 1814 Napoleon defeated, ln his youth a promising piano virtuoso and composer, he was exiled to Elba forced to cease perfor ming because of deafness and in h is • 1814- 15 Congress of Vienna la ter years became lhe first musician lo make a living almost exclusively as a composer. His pieces placedl new demands 011 • 1824-26 Beethoven, late listeners and performers, anel in the process they reelefmed string quarteis what listeners expected frorn and valued in music. Shortly aher Beethoven's death. a scholar divided his cai-eer and works into three periods, beginning a tradition that survives to this day. Du ring the ftrst period. which takes us l'rom his birth in 1770 to about 1802. Beethoven mastered the musical language and genres of his time and gradually found a personal voice. ln the second period , through about 1814, he developed a style that achieved a new levei of drama and ex'Pression and brought him enormous popularity. ln the third period, from about 1815 to his deal'h in l 827, bis music became more introspective and more difficult for performers to play and for listeners to cornprehend. Such a neat framework is . of course, an interpretation, a convenient way to organize a discussion of Beethoven's career and music. Bm it both rellects changes in his style and rnarks crucial turning points in his life: a crisis in 1802 over his gradual loss of hea ring and a growing isolation around 1815 caused by deafness. family troubles, and political and economic conditions.

BONN AND THE FIRST DECADE IN V IENNA Beethove n's "ftrst period" was really two periods: ltis youth in Bonn and his nrst elecadc in Yienna. ln Bonn, after traini.ng by his father and other local rnusiciaM. he entered rhe service of Maxirnilian Franz. elector of Co logne. anel attracted notice as a virtuoso pianist and improviser (see Source Reading, p. 566). ln his late leens, Beethoven hegan to make his mark as a composer and gained patrons arnong the loca l nobility. On a visit to Bonn, Haydn

563

564

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

Ludwig van Beethoven

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

For two centuries. Beethoven has dominated the world of classical music like no other composer. His sym phonies, concertos, string quartets, and piano sonatas are central to the repertory. and his influence has been virtually inescapable. His perseverence in the face of deafness . combined with the sense of struggle and triumph depicted in much of his music. made him a heroic figure. His individualism and selfexpression appealed to the growing middle-class audience for music andl made him a model for generations of composers. Beethoven was bom in Bonn in northwest· ern Germany, where his grandfather and father were musicians at the court of the elector of Cologne. He grew up -surrounded by ideas of the Enlightenment. enthusiastically promoted by intellectuals. the social elite, and fellow musicians in Bonn. From early childhood. Beethoven studied piano and violin with his father, Johann, who hoped to make him into a famous child prodigy like Mozart. He took the boy out of school at age eleven so that Ludwig could concentrate solely on music. which induded lessons in piano. organ. theory. counterpoint. compositlon. and improvisation. One of his significant teachers , court organist and composer Christian Gottlob

praised Beethoven·s music and urged the elector to send the young man to Vienna for further study. So in November 1792. just under twenty- two years age, Beethoven traveled from Bonn to Vienna, a ftve - hundred-mile journey that took a week by stagecoacb and required hirn to pass througb Jin,e s of French troops at war witb Austria and Prussia. Beethoven took lessons with Haydn , but they were inte rrupted when Haydn lefl for London in January 1794. He then sludied counterpoint for a year with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, author of a famous composition t r eatise, and later studied how to set lta lian po etry with Anton io Salie ri. Meanwhile. Beethoven quickly established himself .as a pianist and composer. wi th the ~upport of generou~ patron~. F'or a while. Beethoven ha rl rooms in a house owned by Prince Karl von Lichnowsky. At pr ivate concerts sponsored by Lichnowsky and others. Beethoven's outstand ing abilities as a pianisl. and cspecially bis improvisations. won great admintion. He also

Teachers. patrons. and publishers

Neefe. arranged for the earliest publication of a composition by Beethoven and first called attention to the young musician in print. Beethoven traveled to Vienna in 1787 and may have met Mozart. then moved to Vienna for good in 1792. His first teacher there was Haydn, with whom he studied counterpoint. at the sarne time cultivating patrons among the aristocracy. His compositions ranged widely, from music for ama teurs to virtuoso works for himself and from private works For connoisseurs to public symphonies. Confident in his own worth as an artis t. Beethoven treated his aristocratic sponsors with independence and even occasional rudeness. His presumptions of social equality led him repeatedly to fall in love with women of noble rank. whom he as a commoner could not marry (and some of whom were already married). Especially poignant is a letter he addressed in 1812 to his "lmmortal Belovedº but apparently never sent. Beethoven never established a permanent home. moving more than two dozen times during his thirty-five years in Vienna. A gradual loss of hearing provoked a crisis around 1802. from which he emerged with new resolve to compose work:s of unprecedented scope and depth. The music of the next dozen

FIGURE 24.2: Lt,dwigvan Beethoven, in o.por· trait from. around 1804 by his friend Willibrord Joseph M<Jhler. an amateur pai11ter. Tlie composer k·ept 1/ii.s paintingall hi,s life. (II ISTOllJSCllts MUSBUM DER STADTWlP.KIDUIDGEMAN ART LIDRARY)

years established him as the most popular and critically acclalmed composer alive. Through :sales to publishers and support from patrons. notably a permanent stipend set up for him in 1809, he was able to devote himself entirely to composition and write at his own pace.

565

On his brother Caspar's death in 1815, Beethoven became guardian for his eight-yearold nephew Karl, giving Beethoven the family he had long desired but also bringing years of conflict with Karl's mother Johanna. Growing deafness, bouts of illness. political repression, and the death or departure of many friends and patrons led to an increasing withdrawal from society. His musrc became more intense. concentrated, and difficult. His troubled relationship with Karl reached a shattering climax when 1he nineteen-yearold attempted suicide in 1826. But for all of Beethoven's social isolation and difficult personality, he never lost the support of a devoted circle of friends. We can eavesdrop on their discussions even now; because Beethoven was too deaf to hear them, they wrote their side of the conversations in bound notebooks for him to read and respond. These notebooks are now known as the "Conversation Books." Beethoven died at fifty-six after years of ill health. His funeral procession was witnessed by over ten thousand people. and his popularity as a composer and as a cultural icon continues to this day. MAJOR WORKS; 9 symphonies, 11 overrures. 5 piano concertos. 1 violin concerto. 16 string quartets. 9 piano

trios. 10 violin sonatas. 5 cello sonatas, 32 piano sonatas. 20 piano variation sets, the opera Fidelio, /vlissa so/emnis. Mass in C Maior. the song cycle An die {erne Ge/iebre. over 80 songs. and numerous other works

p layed in public concerts and taught well · to - do pian o students. Aside from juvenilia published when he was twelve to fourteen years old. he sta r ted to sell works to music publishers i.a 1791. although his ftrst work lo bear an opus number dicl not appear unti l l 795. lt was a sei of three piano trios dedicated to Lichnowsky, and bis Op. 2 of the follow i11g year. a set of three piano sonatas, wasdedicated to Haydn. Through perfo n n ing, teaching, pub lishing. and the generosity of patroas. Beethoven was able lo make a living without tak:ing a positi on with a specinc employer . Although he had hoped for the secu rity of a court appointme nt, which did not come his way, his success as a freelance musician. backed up by a st ipend from Lichnowsky. granterl him an inrl epenrlenr.e Haydn and Mozai'l rlid nnl ach ieve until late in their careers. Since he was a pianist, piano works wer-e a natural outlet for Beethoven's composilional impulses; indeed sonatas. variations, and shorter works for

Piano sonatas

566

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

BEETHOVEN'S PLAYING AND IMPROVIS ING AT THE PIANO

also heard one of the greatest of pianiststhe dear. good Bethofen. .. . 1heard him extem·

never failed to wonder at his astonishing ability. But Bethofen, in addition to skill, has greater clarity and profundity of ideas. and more expression-in short, he speaks to the heart. Heis equally great at an adagio as at an al/egro. Even the members of this remarkable orchestra are. without exception. his admirers, and are ali ears when he plays. Yet he is exceedingly modest and free from all pretension. He. however. acknowledged to me that. upon the journeys which the Elector had enabled him to make, he had seldom found in the playing of the

pnrÍ 7P in priV~tP; ye<:, 1 Wa:'5, PVPn ÍnVÍtPrf tO

prnrosP

most distinguished virtuosi that excellence which

a theme for him to vary. The greatness of this amiable, light-hearted man as a virtuoso may, in my opinion, be safely judged from his almost inexhaustible wealth of ideas, the highly charac· teristic expressiveness of his playing, and the skill he displays in performance, 1do not know that he lacks anything for the making of a great artist. 1 have often heard Vogler play by the hour on the pianoforte-of his organ playing I cannot speak, not having heard him on that instrument-and

he supposed he had a right to expect. His manner of treating his instrument is so different from the usual that he gives the impression of having attained his present supremacy through a path that he discovered himself.

When Beethoven's Bonn em ployer, the elector of Cologne, presided over a, meeting aí the Teutonic Order for severa! weeks in 1791 a t /vlergentheim in southern G ermany, he too k his m usicians along. C arl Ludwig Junker, a composer and writer on music and art, carne to hear them. and published a glowing account of Beethoven's playing.

-~1 have

Pathétique Sonata

567

Ludwig van Beethoven

From Bossler's Musikalische Correspondenz (Speyer. Novembe r 23, 1791), adapted from the translat ion by Henry Edward Krehbiel in Alexander Wheelock Thayer. Thayer's Ufe o( Beethoven. rev and ed. Elliot Farbes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 10 5.

pia no comprise the largcst group of works he wrole during his fust decaele in Vienna. Beethoven followeel the trarlition of aiming solo keyboard musi c at the amateur market, although his early sonatas already make increas ing elemanels on lhe performe r. Relalively elifftcult passages or movements appear next to easier ones. perhaps to cha ll enge the player. Like Mozart, Beethoven often used strong contrasts of style or ropic to elelineate the form and broaden the expressive range. He also aelopted new approaches to piano composit ion, including the use of frequent octaves, thick tex:tures, anel abrupt changes of elynamics. techniques h e may have learne d from the sonatas of Muzio Cleme nti (1 752- 1832), an ltalian composer active in London, and the Bobemian- born Jan Laelislav Dussek (1 760- 1812). The title of Beethoven's Sona.te pathétique (Sonata with Pathos 01· lmpas· sioued Sonata, p1·obab ly 1799), 0p. 13, announced that th e wo1·kwould depict suffering anel a tragic moele of expression. li was also likely to attract buyers. as .r.omposers anel publishers founcl such evocative titles a useful marketing too!. anel ineleeel this was one of Beethoven's mos1 popular pieces. The sonata, in C minor, has outer movements of a stormy, passionate character-which Beethoven, like his predecessors, associaleel with that key- arounel a cal m,

profounel slow movemenl in Al, major. The li.rsl movernent (NA\VM 125) begins with a dramatic, fantasia - like slow introduction , a stunning dep iction oJ' grief. that is recalleel before lhe elevelopmenl and again jusl before the enel of lhe movemem . A s low introeluclion ís unusual for a piano sonata but com· mon for symp honies, so its presence lends the Pathétique Sonata symphonic graneleur, while its unexpecleel reoccurrences deepen the palhos, The main themes of the movernent are ene rgetic and eleterm ined. anel in the developmem the maio motive ofthe iutroduction is transf'ormed anel assimila teci into the cbaracter of lhe Allegro. Thus over the cou rse of the movement. Beethoven nrst evokes lhe dcpths of suffering anel then suggests a struggle to overcome it. The sona ta- rondo f10ale is equally serious and intense, unlike lhe typically light.hea11ed rondos of Haydn anel Moza11. lts theme reca iIs part of the second theme of lhe fusl movement. anel its cen tral episode is inAb major. lhe key of the second movement, crealing the sort of intermovement connections that Beethoven frequently usecl in !ater works. Beethoven waitecl until he was well established in Vienna anel conftelent in bis craft b efore composing his nrst string quarteis anel symphonies. He knew these were genres in which Haycln, t.hen regarded as lhe grea1es1 composer alive, was preeminent, so that to write in th em wou ld invite a direct com· parison with his former teacher. For that very reason they offereel Beethoven a chance to prove his merits. Beethoven'sftrstsix q,ta rtets, published i n 1800 as his0p. 18, are in debted to both Haydn anel Mozart but are no mere imitations. Beethoven's personality shows through in the inelivieluality of every movement, the character of his themcs, J'requent unexpecteel rurns of phrasc, unconventional modulations, and subtleties of form. The slow movement of No. l , which Beethoven indi· catcd on the sketches and in conversation was inspired by thc burial vault scene oJ' Rorneo and Juliet, is esp ecially Slriking anel perhaps lhe most <lra matic-even operatic-movement yet writtel!l for string quartet. The hilarious scherzo of No . 6. shown in Example 24. l. emphasizes offbeats so convincingly that it is almost impossible lo keep lhe beal. The fmale is a rondo wilh a long, intense. slow introductio n la be led "La Maliuconia'· (Melancholy), which is recalleel ]ater in the movement. The simulta.neous invocation anel suhversion of tradition in these quarteis anel the stark juxtapositions of opposing emo· tions anel sryles became characteristic oi' Beethoven's music.

EXAMPLE 24.1: - "

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Op. 18 String Quartets

Scherzo of Beethove,i's String Quartet in Bi Major, Op. 18, No. 6

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568

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

First Symphony

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

FIGURE 24.3:

Beethoven·s Symphony No. 1 in C Major, premiered in 1800, shows his aJlegiance to the model of Haydn's and Mozart's late symphon ies. Yet Beethoven sought to distinguish himself in distinctive ways: a slow intro duclion that avoids any del'ulilive tonic cadence; careful dynamic shadings; tmusual prominence for the woodwinds; a scheno-like third movement; anel long codas for the other movements.

Publishers

Sketches

A.round 1803, Beethoven began to compose in a new. more ambitious sLylc thal marks a pivotal poinl in his career. He was free to lake this step because of h is reputation, the suppo.r t of patrons and pub lishers, and, paradoxically, the predicame nt created by his growing loss of hearing. By this time. Beethoven was acknowledged in German -speaking lands as the forernost pianist and composer for piano and had begun to escabJish a reputation as a composer of symphonies and s.tring quarteis. He was befriended by the loftiest noble families of Vienna. and he had generous patrons. When Jérôme Bonaparte, k.inp; of Westphalia anel youngest brother of Napoleon. offerecl Beethoven a position in Kassel in 1808. Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz. Prince Kinsky. and Archduk,e Rudolph. brother of Emperor Frani, joined 10 provide the composer a lifetime annuity just lO stay in Vienna, an unparallelecl arrangement that causecl astonishmenr at the time. The strong fmancial backing Beethoven received from bis patrons meant lhat he could do largely whal he wished as a composer. His sponsors we1·e connoisseurs devoted to bis music; indeecl, Arcbduke Rudolph was his student in piano and composition. The combination offmancial, social, and creative supporl freed Beethoven to follow bis own inspiration. a vimtally unprecedented situation for a composer. Publishers competed for Beethoven's music. He drove hard barga ins, got them bidding against each other. and followed Haydn's lead in publishing works in several countries at once to preserve his rights and maximize his returns. Although he wrote on commission. he often faiJed to meet deadlines. He could afford , as he said, to "think and think." to revise and poUsh a work until it suited him. Beethoven composed with greal deliberation, one reaso o that he wrote so much less than his predecessors-for instance. on ly nine symphonies compared to Haydn's 106 and Moza11's 55. He kept notebooks of sketches in which he jotted down themes and plans for compositions, worked out the continuity of each piece. and gradually filled in details. Figure 24.3 shows a page from the sketchbook for Beethoven's Third Symphony. Thanks to these sketchbooks, we can follow the progress of h.is ideas through various stages until tbey reachecl Jinal form (see commentary for NAWM 126). By composing in this cleliberate way, Beethoven created music in which the relation of each part to the whole was remarkably sophisticated, satisfying one of the central tenets of nineteenth-centu1y aesthetics. \Vhile bis status. financial position. and compositional methods made it possible for Beethoven to strike out in new directions. it was apparently a psychological crisis that helped to make it necessary. ln 1802, he realizecl that the hearing loss he had noticed for some time was pern1anent and would only

A page

froni the skerch boo~, Beethoven. u.sed while composinghis S;r,n-

phony No. 3 in ~ Major (Eroica). For a partia! iran.script,ion. see NtlWM 126. <•••uo·r~KA

CIRCUMSTANCES IN THE MIDDLE PERIOD

Reputation and pa.trons

569

Ludwig van Beethoven

JAGIELLONSKA. KMKÓW)

get worse. Adeaf musician was as inconceivable as a blind painte1·. ln despa ir, Beethoven considered suicide, but resolvecl to continue for the sake of bis art (see Somce Reading. p. 570). He played in public less and less but kept on composing and, occasionally, conducting. Beethoven's courageous reso lve to continue composing in the face of calamity was translated into his music. as he sougbt with each piece to say something new. His compositions seem to reflect the struggle ofhis own life, becoming Ji ke narratives or dramas. The music gives the impression of conveying the composer·s own eiq>erience and feelings rather than representing tbe emotions of a text or operatic character or invoking generalized affec tions, as was typical in earlier music. OJ'tco. the thematic material assumes the character of a protagonist who struggles against great odds and emerges triumphant. Haydn and Mozart had ofteo introduced dramatic gestures into their music to highlighl important junctures in the form or to heighten expression, givingtheir late musica remarkable profundity. but they did not treat thei.r musical material like characters in a drama. as Beethoven carne to do. This new conception oJ' instrumentaol music as cli·ama, extending the acbievements of Haycln and Mozart while replacing earlier notions of music as entertainment or diversion. is part of what musicia11s and listeners have valued in Beethoven's music since his owo time. This interpretat.ion anel some othcrs to follow represent only one way to view Beethoven's output after 1802. Some commentators prefer to discuss Beethoven's music in mo1·e abstract terms. But the expansiveness, dyna nlism. and unusual features of many of Beethoven's works create the sense of experienr.ing a dramatir. r.onilict. r.limax. and catharsis more than anypre vious music. The music of this period continues to build on tbe models of Haydn anel Mozart iu most respects. The genres. forros. melodie types, phrasing.

Musicas dmnta

Style characteristics

570

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

Ludwig van Beethoven

THE HEILIGENSTADT TESTAM EN T Beethoven began to lose his hearing in 1798, and by 1818 he could hardly hear at ali. ln October 1802, just before leaving his summer lod9in9s ln the village of Heiligenstadt. he wrote ab-0ut his affliction in a letter. now known as the Heilige11stadt Testament. intended to be read by his brothers a fter hos death.

For 6 years now I have been hopelessly afflic ted. made worse by senseless physicians . from year to year deceived with hopes of improvement, finally compellPrl to fare rhP prospPct of a lasring ma/ady (whose cure will take years or. perhaps be impossible). Though bom with a fiery. active temperament. even susceptible to the diversions of society, 1 was soon compelled to withdraw myself. to live life alone. lf at times I tried to forget ali this, oh how harshlly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing. Yet it was impossible for me to say to people. "Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf." Ah. how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than in others. a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed.-Oh I cannot do it, therefore forgive me when you see me draw back when I would have gladly mingled with you. My

misfortune is doubly painful to me because I am bound to be misunderstood; for there can be no relaxation with my fellow-men, no refined conversations. no mutual exchange of ideas. 1must live almost alone like one who has been banished, 1can mix with society only as much as true necessity demands. lf I approach near to people a hot terror seizes upon me and I Fear being exposed to the danger that my condition might be noticed. Thus it has been during the last six months which 1 have spent in the country. By ordering me to sp.'.lrc my hc.'.lring tis much .:is possiblc, my intdligent doc tor almost fell in with my own present frame of mínd. though sometimes I ran counter to it by yielding to my desire for companionship. But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flu te in the distance and Iheard nothlng, or someone heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almos t to despair, a little more of that and I would have ended my life-it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me. Trans. Henry Edward Krehbiel. in Alexander Wheelock Thayer. Thayers Li(e o/ Beetl,oven. rev. and ed. Elllot Forbes (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1967),

Symphony hacl done. The title suggests that t he symphony expresses in rnusic the icleaJ of heroic greatness. It has been said that the heroism il dep icis is Beethoven's own: that it represents in music his experience of being almost overpowered by affliction, fighting against despai.r, and winning back his will to create. But it also reflects Beethoven's understanding of heroism as por · trayed in tbe ancient Greek anel Roman literature he most aclmired. Homer's /!i(1-ct and Ü(tyssey and Plutarch's Pan:il!el lives. marked by nobility of characte r, acceptance of one's circumstances, anel determination to overcome obstacles. According to one possihle interpretation. tbe úrst movement (NA\v,\,1 126) encapsulates lhis slory of challenge, struggle. and fmal victory. Within an enlarged sonata forro, lhe macn motive of the llrst theme, sbown in Example 24.2, serves as protagonist. ln its original form (Examp le 24.2a), it is more pastoral than heroic. Toe movement is in lhe fast tripie meter of the deutsche. the German peasant dance that evolved into the waltz, and the f1rst three measures oi' the triadie motive are identica I to a traditional deutsche me lody Beethoven may have known, published in a collection of dance tunes around 1790. Moreover, the motive is n rst presented in a low register, in the cello. al a solt clynamic, followed by a chromatic descent to a surprising q. None of EXAMPLE 24.2,

571

First movement I Co nd" SI 1 1 Full SI 1

Main motive and its transformations in the ftrst movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3

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e. Disguised as a "new 1/ieme .. in the de1•elop111e11r (• = note s hared with origino! form)

304-5.

and textures all d.raw on tradition. But the forms are often expanded to unprecedented lengtbs or reworked in novel ways. Typically. Beethoven is eco· nornical in his material, adopting Haydn·s focus on a few ideas subjectecl to fotense developm ent rather than Mozart's abundance of melody, yet he achieves great variety through ingenious transfonnations of h.is lhemes.

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EROICA SYMPHONY The. ti rs1 wnr k that ti1lly F.XF.mpli liF.s BF.e.thnvF. n's ne.w approar.h is h is Sym · pbony No. 3 in F.l, Major, composecl in 1803-4 . which he eventually named

Sinfonia Eroim (Heroic Symphony). Longer than any previous sympbony, lhe Eroica goes bcyoncl evoking conventional moods anel topics. as his Fint

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572

C H A 1>T E R 2 ,i

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

lhese characlel'isücs suggesls heroism, and the associations wilh a peasant dance im ply that the protagonist is of common ratherthan noble origin. The heroic content of this movement lies not in its opening motive. but in what happens to il. Over Lhe course of the movement, the motive undergoes a nunnber of transform ation.s: treated Ln sequence, with the chromatic ta LI now rising (Example 24.2b): disguised as a "new theme.. in minor. with stepwise molion lilling ia its skips and leaps (Examp le 24.2c); and s triv i_ng upward. on ly to rumble back down (Example 24.2d). By the end of the movement, it has achieved a new form . no longer falling at the end hut sustaining its high no te in a sign of fmal triumph (Example 24.2e). ALthis point. especialiy given its scoring for horn, the triadie mo tive sounds no longer like a dance but like a fanfare, as if its potential for heroism has been reali7.ed. Victory requ.ires an oppone nl. Here the principal antagonist is anolher element from the nrst theme group: a leaping figure, sbown in Example 24.3a. whose strong accents on weak beats create a forceful dup le meter againsr tl1e serene triple meter of the main motive. Offbeat accents appear in the transition, second theme, and closing Lheme, and near the end of the exposition lhey brielly threaten the equilibrium witb a powerful asserlion of duple lime before a va ried fragment of the main motive restore.s the proper meter, as sbown in Examplc 24.3b. ln Lhe development, Lhe leaping figure and offbeat accems build to a terr ifyi ng, dissonant clímax. Almost overco me, the main motive gradua lly struggles to reasseri itself. First it assumes the disguised form of Example 24 .2c. in the remate key of E minar. Next it returns as in Example 24.2d, a statemenl in three paraliel octaves without accompaniment that reaches for the heights but falis back down, deflected by anotber offbeat accent. Fin ally, as shown in Example 24.4, it achieves its new form with the sustained high note. lt is now accompanied by Lhe leaping flgme, whicb has been stripped of its oJ'llieat accents so tha t it nts into tripie meter and altered so tbat its contour echoes that of the main motive. arpeggiating the notes of a major triad in a similar arder (see the hottom s taff of Example 24.4 for compa.rison). The transformation of both motives resolves the principal conflict of the movement i11 favor of the mafo motive. Its victo1y is connrmed in the recapitu.lation, wbere its return in original form (as in Example 24.2a) is immediately followed by two statemems in its new forro, wh.i.J.e the leaping ftgure is omitled enti.rely. The second and closing themes unfold as before, transposed into the tonic. The long coda revisits episodes from the development. retracingthe path hack to victory. and 1·eaffums Lhe new form o f the Lheme. Li.Ice Beethoven in bis pe.rsonal crisis, ihe motive emerges from its struggle triu mphant but changed by the experience. This account of the movement is only one possible interpretation. and there have been many; from its fust performance th.is symphony has heen regarded as an especially challenging work. What most ana lyses share is an emphasis on the economy of material, the great variety of gestures drawn from a fe w central ideas, the expansion of the form to unprncedented length, and the sense of s trnggle, achievement. and progressive ch.ange over the course of the 1011g movement. lt is particularly tbis spirit of struggle and progress that reflects so well the temper of tbe times. suggesting a new conception of musi • cal time parallel to the helief of Beethoven's contemporaries that their era differed ftmdamentally from the past.

Ludwig van Beethoven

EXAMPLE 24.3.

lec,pingfigure and associated rhy1hmic disuirbances

a. First appearance "'8 Vn 1

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71 Via + Vt,

EXAMPLE 24.4 :

Main motive and leapingji.gure transformed and reconciled

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573

574

C H A 1> T E R 2 4

• Revolut,on ond Chonge

Ludwig van Beethoven

.: ;;;:

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FIGURE 24.4 : Coverpagefornscore of11,e Er()icaSymphonycon1ai11ing Beethoven 's corrections. whic/i, read "Sinfonia.gra11de i11titolata Bonaparte·· (CrandSJ?11pho11y entitled Bonapane) before r/ie last uvowords 1vere scra,ched 01t1. J71e date "1804 imAi,gus(· was subseqi,en!lyadded in dij}erent ink. Below Beerhooen's sign(lture, in 1he m.iddle of rhe page. he !ater added irt penei! "Ceschrieben auf Bonaparte" (co,nposed abo1Lt Bonaparte), not oi-sible in this photograph. (O<>•LLSCHA>T DCR MUSIKfRtUNOE, VltNNA)

Other movements

References to French Republic

The other movements are also large and dramatic. The slow movement is a FuneraJ March in C minor. full of tragic grandeur and pathos. A contrasLing scction in C major. brimming with fanfares and celebratory lyricism. is folllowed by further development of the march a.nd a varied reprise, broken up with sighs at the end in a stunning musical depiction of grief. The third movemenLis a qujck scherzo, with grandiose horn caJJs in Lhe Trio. The .!inale is a complex mixture of variation s with fuga!, deve lopmental, and march like episodes. ali based on a theme from Beethoven·s ballet music for The Cre:atures of Promethws. Thus each movement reflects a different aspecL of her oism: struggle and triumph io the lirst movement. mourning a fallen h e1·0 in the Funeral March of the second movement. calls to battle in the Trio of the thi rd movement, and in the li nale an invocation of Prometheus, the he.-o who brought wisdom. science. and the arts to h umanity al greal cosi to liimself. ln addition , the second movement has strong links to F'ran ce du ring lhe Republic. with which Beethoven was in sympathy. Thirty -second- nole up hea ts in the sn-ings imit.ate the rol! nf muffled drums used in the Revo lu tionary processions that accompanied heroes to their final resting place. Tbe C-major section has the character of a Revolutionary hymn, punctuated by fanfares and d rum rolls and ending in unisons.

Beethoven origina lly named the symphony ·· Bonapane·· in honor of Napoleo n, whomhe admi red as a hero of the French Republic. But accorcüngto h is student Ferdinand Ries. when Beethoven heard that Napoleon had crownecl himself emperor, he angrily tore up lhe tille page, d.isillusioned when his ido! proved to be an ambitious ruler on th e wayto becoming a tyrant. The title page of a score containing Beelhoven·s con-ectio11s, shown in Figure 24.4. reveals 1hat Bonapa rte's name was viole ntly scra tched out. conn rming the gis1 il' not the detai ls ofthe sto1y. But Beethoven seems to have wavered in hjs opinion of Napoleon: lhal August he wrole to his publisher that the symphony's titJe was •· Bonapa11e.'' in 1809 he conductecl the syrnp hony in Vienna during the French occu pation of the ciLy ata concen tha LBonapa,1e was to have attended, and in 181O he considered dedicating bis Mass in C. Op. 86, to the emperor. ln any case. Beethoven's plan lo honor Napoleon may explain Lhe strong links to music of lhe French Republic. At its pub lic premiere in 1805, the Eroica Symphony was recognized as an importanl work, hui its unprecedented length and complexity made il difficult for some audience members to grasp. Beethoven had tilted Haydn and Mozart's balance between learned and less Learned listeners toward the connoisseurs and had sacrificed some immediate widespread appeal in order to gain tbe freedom to write as hc chose. This decision put Beethoven. the geme oi' the symphony, and incleed much music oi' the next two cenruries on a new cou rse, challenbring liste ners to engage music deep]y and thoughtfully ra ther lhan merely seeking lo be entertained.

Reception

OTHER WORKS OF TH E MIDDLE PERIOD Other major works over the nexL decade followed in the footsteps of the Third Symphony. ln each, Beethoven probed new p ossibilities in tradilional gemes and fo rros, and severa! works of th.is period took their place among the most popular ever written in their genres. Beethoven turned nexL to opera, s Lill Lhe most prestigious forro of music. For a libretto, he borrowed from a French Revolutionary opera. Léonore. 01, L"amour conjuga.! (Leonore. or Conjugal Love). in which Leonore. disguised as a man , rescues her husband Florestan frorn prison. Operas on rescue themes were emhraced at t he time both in France and in Vienna. Beethoven's opera, Fidelio. makes Leonore into an idealized ligure of sublime courage and self- denial. and the last scene of the opera glorines Leonore's heroism and the humanilarian ideais of lhe Revolution. The s ubject pcrfectly su ited Beethoven·s n ew heroic style. but it took him severa! tries to achieve the right balance between musical depth . broad appeal. and dramatic concision. The original three-act production of 1805, called Leonore, was a financial fa i.lure in part because the F'rench army occupied Vienna a week before the premiere. and Beethoven·s primary supporters in the nobility and wealthy middJe class had left Lhe city. ln addi tion , the opera's length and music overwhelmed the d.i·ama. Beethoven made cuts. but lhe shortened revision staged th e following year was again a fa ilure. and ,onJy in 1814 was a third version successful under the new title Fidelio. ln contrast to Mozart. for whom writing operas seemecl almost effortless, Beethoven found it a struggle and never wrote another opera. Hi s other dramatic 1nusic consists o f overtures and

Fidelio

575

576

C H A 1>T E R 2 ,i

Chambermusic

Concertos

Fifth Symphony

Pa~toral

Symphony

• Revolut,on onô C honge

incidental musie for plays, notably Egmonl by Joharm Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), whose prom in ence among Ger ma n writers was even greater than Beethoven's as a musieian, and whom Beethoven regarded as the best living writer. He also wrote doiens of Lieder, often, making the music as interesting as the poetry, as in later Romantic Lieder (see n ex t chapter) , rather than subordinate as in the eighteenlh - century Lied. The cha mbe r music of the middle pe riod abounds in l'resh exp lora ti ons of eaeh genre, in eluding tive string crua rtets, three p iano trios, two violin sonatas, anda cello sona ta. Like piano sonatas. chamher music had lra ditionally been intendeel for enjoyment in the home. b\lt, as he did in lüs piano sonatas. Beethoven increasi ngly tested the li:mjts of amateur players, most notably in hh string quarteis. Beetlloven dedicated the three quartets of Op. 59 to Count Andrey Rawmovsky. the Russian ambassador lo Vienna. who played secood violin in a crual'let that was said to be the fmest in Emope. As a compliment to thecount, Beethoven introdueed Russian me loeli esasthemes in No. 1anel No. 2. TI1e style of these quar tets was so new lhat musicians were slow to accepl them. Toe lirst movement of No. 1, for example, is particularly cha rged wilh idiosynerasies, including frequent cbanges oi' texture, exploitation of the instruments' extreme ranges , and fuga! passages. Duriog hls ftrst decade in Vienna , Beethoven composed threc piano concertos to play al his own concerts, J'ollowing che pa\tern of Mozart a clecade ea rlier. But the concertos of his middJe period are, like the symphonies, composed on a grander scale. ln the Piano Concer to No . 5 i.n El, Major. Op. 73 (the Em.peror). and the Violin Conce110 in D Major. Beethoven greatly expanded the music's expressive range and dimensions. The soloist is often coequal with the orchestra, as if playingthe pa11 of a hero in a drama. ln th e fi rst movemen t of the Emperor Concerto, for example, the soloist enters with a written - out cadenza even before the orchestra's exposi tion begins. Such dramatic inter action between soloist and orchestra was to become a f'reqi.1ent feature of nineteenth - century concertos. Beethoven's Fiftll Symphony (1807-8) can he considered the musical pro jection of his resolution "l will grapple with fale; it shall not overeome me." He symbolizes his struggle for victory by passing from C mi_nor to C major, in a b'Tand expansion of the move from chaos to light that he found in Haydn's Creation (see NAWM 120). Like thal moment, though on a much larger scale, Beethoven's symphony emboclies an experience of the su blime. The ftrst movement is clominatecl by one of the best- known motives in all ofWestem music: Lhe fotu-- note figure thal is emphatically announced at lhe outset. The same rhythmie idea reeurs in various guises in the other three movements. The tran sition from minor to major takes place in ao inspfred passage that begins with the timpani softly recalling the rhytllm oi' the four- note motive and leading without a break l'rom the scherzo into the lriumphant finale. Here lhe en trance of the fui] orchestra with trombones on the C-major chord has an electrifying effect. The finale adds piccolo and contrabassoon as well as trombones to the nor mal complement of strings. woodwinds. horns, trumpets. anel limpani. The Pa~torn,l Symp hony. No_h in F Major. was comp ose<I imme.diate ly afte.r the Fiíth, and the two were premiered on the sarne p rogram io Deeembe r 1808. Each of the Pastoral Symphony's five movements hears a title suggesting a scene írom liie in lhe eo u nt ry. following the normal seq uence of move menls

Ludwig van Beethoven

EXAMPLE 24.5,

FI. ,

Beethoven. Symphony No. 6, Scene by the brook Nighling:alc

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577

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wilh an extra movemenl (Stonn) thal serves lo inlroduce lhe finale (Thankjitt

j'eelings ajier the storm). ln the coda of the Andante movement (Scene by the brook), flute, oboe, anel clarinet join harmoniously in imHating bird calls-th.e nightingale. the quail. and the cuckoo-as s hown in Example 24.5. The symphony is more a character piece than a work of program music (see chapter 25 for the dislinctioo), markecl by what Beethoven called "expression of l'eelings rather tJ1an tone-pai nting." By 1814. Beethoven had reached the height of lüs popularity. He was celebrated as the greatest living composer of ins trumental music, he received a steaely demand from pu blishers fornewworks, anel his music was played regularly throughout Austria and Germany and increasingly across Europe from England to Russia. The heroic style evident in some of his works, a source of comroversy a decade earlier when the Eroica Symphony and Razumovsky Quarteis first appeared , was now widely appreciated. He had changed audience expectations for what instrumental mttsic can do.

CIRCUMSTANCES IN THE LATE PERIOD fronically, at Lhe height of his renown, severa! factors forced Beethoven into greater isolation, slowed the pace of composition, and prompted a chaoge in focus anel style . His deafness became increasingly profound, ttotil by 1818 he could hardly hear at ali. Because it caused hlm to lose contact with others. he retrcatcd i_oto hlmsclf, becoming moody and morbidly suspieious even toward his íriends. A currency devaluation in 18 11 and the death of Prince Kinsky in 1812 had redueed thevalue ofBeethoven's annuity. making hlm feel financially vulnerable. Family problems, ili healih , and unfoundedapprehen sions of poverty also plagued him, and it was on ly by a supre me effort oi' will that h e cominued composing amid all these trouhles. Compounding these personal prnblems was the political and economjc sil11ation. The fma l cleíeal of Napoleon in 1815 was followed by a disastrous postwar depression . making it difficult to produce large-scale public works . That sarne yea r saw th e beginning of trem endous repression instituted by Count Metternich. head of the Auslrian governmenl under the emperor. Beethoven's sympathy with the idea is of repuhl ican govemmen t as it had developed in France was now seen as a threat to the state. and he was investi gated and spied on by government security forces. During these years , he did not write politically linkeel works like Fideli.o, o r even tbe Eroica. Symphony:

Peak ofpopularity

578

C H A 1> T E R 2 4

• Revolut,on ond Chonge

the beroic sryle itself became psychologically inappropriate. ln his last dozell years oflife, Beethoven produced oDly two la rge puhlic works, the ,\ifissa solemnis (1819- 23) and the Ninth Symphony (1822- 24) , both completed only aiter the economy began to improve in the early 1820s. Otherwise, his major focus was on the last n ve piano sonatas (1816-21), Diabelli Variations for piaino (18 19- 22). ,i.nd last ftve string quarteis (1824-26). all in gen.res traditio.nally intended fo r pr-ivate mus ic-making.

CHARACTERISTICS OF T HE LATE STYLE By now, Beelhoven was addressing most of hís compositions io connoisseurs. The publication of lus late qua rtets in score, as in Figure 24.5, in addilion Lo lhe lraditional formal of a set of four pa.rts for performance. shows they were meant to be studied, not just played through for the pleasure of the performers. The urgent sense of communication lo a large public was replaced by a more introspeclive charncter. and lhe musi ,,. cal language became more concentrated. Classical forms .., remained, like the reatures o/' a landscape after a geologi !I ,,---... caJ upheava l-reCOh'Tlizable under new contours. lying at ~'i!l ijY.A,t' fi' strange angles beneath the new sm·face. ~ ~~ !f/f!)~ A.n essenlial element oi' Beethoven·s late sryle is the ' - " D l'ilTITIGII '-..:.. high degree of contrast. Êxtre mes meet in these pieces: ~ the sublime and lhe grotesque in lhe Missa solemnis and ~tut ~-·-· A",(t.,, ...-..... ti lli~tllr Ninth Symphony, the profound and 1he apparently naive ~~~-~ in the late quartets and sona tas, high seriousness and high ~ Son E,1rd1un:- )lon.Jk'~ comedy oftell side by side. Contrasts of lo pie become exag------ ~rr:=::::------ ~ gerated. involving not only style, n1:,ruration. a:nd character ~ .llnr'1n .itnlttrlJti ""*-- ...... •r.., ....... 1-i,~ • but also me Ler and tempo. The two ideas presented a1 the beginning of tbe Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109 (l 820), shown in Example 24.6. sound like they belong in entirely ~9~l&l'li!~~ differen1 movements, a ligh1 bagatelle or fast &nale in -..:::::::.., dup le meter anda pensive tripie-meter slow movement. o, 1;;1 ~,., t\.... ... Yet they function as the !irst and second themes in a "'"*".. M AY & WC lt ...,_..,.. - •••JU.Uta sonata-form ftrst movement wilh a relatively brief exposid1.e.1 1" filt ti., 1 Scllo,U tion and recapituJation and much more extensive develop ......... .,_ .... ....., • ...,.. ... t , .....\....-, , ..... melll and coda. Evel)'thing the music refers to is familiar, .li,,. , ~ ~ ,1_n..• but the jm..'tapositions are strange. and even sympathetic listeners ai the lime found such picces hard to understand. FIGURE 24.S: Title puge of Beethoven ·s $1,ing Beethoven balanced the contrasts in his late style Quartet in Cj Minor. Op. 131. pubtished by Schou in 1827 anel printeá i,1 score ( ..en pani- with an emphasis on continuity. Within move ments. he achieves continuity by intentionally blurring d ivisioL1s 1ion) to make tlte work ea.sierto stu,dy. Trabetween phrases or placing cadences on weak beats. He ditiona!Ly. qua,1ets lia.d been printed 011lr in aJso emphasized continuity ben-,een movements. someseparate paris. orie.(oreach player. b11t not ir1 times illdicating that successive movements should score, since only p(J.11S were needed 10 perfomt be pla_yed withoul a pause in between. His An die feme qu,a,rtets. Prin ti,ng this work in score mo.de it Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) . Op. 98 (1816) . inaupoasi,blc for musical,con.noi-ascurs to cxa-minc gurated the geme of the song cycle, a group of songs 1he piece at leisure. play throug/1 pomons at 1he keyboard. and e,:plore 1he complex i11ten-e- performed in successio n that tel1 or suggest a story; earlier publishecl song collections hacl lillle orno continuily latio11ships among the elemen ts. tmsrnn,scuts MUS&UM ot n STAOT 'l'ICN) l'rom one song Lo the nexL.

Ludwig van Beethoven

EXAMPLE 24.6,

579

Opening o/Beethoven. Piano Sonata in EMa}or. Op. 109.firsi movemeni First ihc::rnc::

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The way Beethoven used va ri atio n tec hnique epitomizes his la te style. Usually in a theme - and -variations movement composers preserved the essential structure of the entire theme in each varia1 ion while introduc ing new embeliishments, ngurations. rhythms. and even meters and tempos. But Beethoven·s laie variations often go beyond this to reexamine the very suhstance of the theme. ln the slow movement of his String Quartel in q Minor . Op. 131 (l 825- 26), for example, only a few basic elements of the theme- a harmonic plan. a rhythmic C[t1frk of deemphasizing tbe downbeat. a neighlior- note motion in the melody- are preserved thrnugh a ve1y diverse se1ies of variations. Beethoven's seasch for new expressive meaL1s in his late works gave rise to new sonorities. such as lbe simultaneous use in all four instrnments of pizzicatos or of sul ponticello effects (playing 011 the bridge to produce a thin sou nd) in the sche rzo of tbe C; -Min or Quartet. Êarly critics deemed some passagcs unsuccessful. holding thal Beethoven went too fa.r in subordinating euphony and performability to the demands of hi s musical conceptions, perhaps because of his dea fness. But we have no reaso n to beli eve that even with perfect hearing Beethoven would have altered a single note. either to spa rc tend er cars or to makc lifo casier for pcrformers. Such insiMcnr.c on the composer·s vision at tbe expense of performer freedom a11d audience comfort was to beco me an important strain in n.ineteentb- anel. especially, in twentiel'h -cenlury music. wilb Beethoven as the moclel for later composers (see Source Reading, p. 580).

Va,iation tech1úque

New sono,ities

580

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i • Revolut,on onô Chonge

581

Ludwig van Beethoven

EXAMPLE 24.7:

Opening ofBeethoven. String Quartet in Cj J\,[inor. Op. 131. first movement

• = promiuent notes 1ha.l appea ra.s tonic of :1 kuer ruovement "

for the performer. who was at liberty to alter it in per· formance. for instance by adding embellishment. But the writer and critic E. T. A. Hoffmann suggested in 1813 that Beethoven's music was different. requiring the performer's total subordination to the vis,on oi the composer. as if the notated music were a sacred text to be rendered with devotion and restraint. Scrupulous adherence to the composer's score gradually became a hallmark of performance in the classical tradition.

The correct and fitting performance of a work of Beethoven's asks nothing more than that one should understand him, that one should enter deeply into his being. that-conscious of one's own consecra tion-one should boldly dare to step into the circle of the magicai phenomena that his powerful spell has evoked. He who is not conscious of this consecration. who regards sacred Musicas a mere game. asa mere entertain· ment for an idle hour, as a momentary stimulus

for dull ears, or as a means of self-ostentatíonlet him leave Beethoven's music alone. Only to such a man. moreover. does the objection "most ungrateful" apply, The true artist lives only in the work that he has understood as the composer meant it and that he then performs. Heis above putting his own personality forward in any way, and ali his endeavors are directed toward a single end-that all the wonderful enchanting pictures and apparitions that the composer has sealed ínto his work with magic power may be called into active life. shining in a thousand colors, and that they may surround mankind in luminous sparkling circles and, enkindling its imagination, its inner· most soul. may bear it in rapid flight into the fa,. away spirit realm of sound. From E. T. A. Hoffmann. ·Bc<?thovcns lnmumcntalMusik: Samtliche Werke. ed. C. G. von Maassen. vol. 1 (Munich and Leipzig, 1908), 63-64, adapted from a review lirst published in March 1813. Trans. Oliver Srrunk. in SR 160 (6:13), pp. 1197-98.

. .

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THE PERFORMER AS SUBORDINATE TO THE COMPOSER Written music was tcaditionally viewed as a vehicle

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Grosse Fuge (Great fugue) for String Quartel. Op. 133, lirst conceived as th e

Use oftraditional styles

lniitation andfugue

In his late works. Beethoven frequcntly used familiar styles and gemes, eithe r for expressive purposes or to reflect on tradition. For example, the slow movement of the Sn·ing Quartel inAMinor. Op. 132 (1825). titled "Holy Thanksgiving Song oi' a Convalescem to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode" and written after Beethoven recovered from a serious illness. opens in the style of a sixteentb-century cborale setting. each pbrase simply haTmonized and preceded by a brief point of imitation, then alternates this style wiLha sprightly dance in tripie meter. The next movement presents a boisterous march that is suddenly interrupted by a11 operatic accompanied recita tive for the nrst violin. leading into a !inale whose main theme resemhles an impassioned opera a ria. Other works include equally surprising references to both popular and culti • vated styles. Cha racteristic of Beethoven's late works is his use of imitative coumerpoint. especially fugue. There are n umerous canonic imita tions and contra1mntal clr.vices in all the late works. particularly in the fugatos that play a central role in developmem sections. Many movements or sections al'e predominantly fugal, such as the fmales of the Piano Sonatas Opp. 106 and 11 O. Lhe two douhle fugues in Lhe Jinale of lhe Ninth Symphony. and the gigantic

ónale forthe Qua rtet in B~ Major, Op. 130. The fugaJ nnale has a longtradition exte ndingback thrnugh Haydn's Op. 20 quarteis to Corelü's trio sonatas. More unusual is Beethoven's use of a long. slow fugue as the nrst movement of the 1 Concise :.\ 1 1 Full :.\ 1 C#-MinorQuanet, Op. 131 (NAWM 12:'a), shown in Examp le 24.7. Beethoven's rellections on tradition include reconceiving the number and Reconceiving arrangement of movements. Each of the last üve piano sona tas has a unique mllltimovement succession of movement types and tempos. often linked without pause. The .forrn first and last ofthe late quarteis (Opp. 127 and 135) have four movements, but Op. 132 has üve, Op. 130 has six, and Op. 131 has seven played withoutbreaks 1 Concis• :.\ 1 1 Full :.\ 1 between them (tbe lirst two are in I\AWM l ~:-). The aTrangement offorms. keys. tempos. and meters in Op. 131, shown String Qua11et in in Figure 24.6, illustrates bow Beethoven simultaneously invokes and departs C; Minor. Op. 131 from tradition in bis late works. Novel as this a:rrangemeot seems. it still cootains the elements of the traditional four-1novement quartet, much transfonn ed: the opening sonata -form Allegro with slow introductio n has heen shifted to the end (nos. 6-7): the slow rnovement (no. 4) has a brief inlrn clur.tion (no. ~): thr. schr.rzo (no. S) is in its usual place after thr. slow movement (hut in duple ratber tban tripie meter): and the ligbt finaJe in rondo or so nata - rondo form has shifted to the beginning, preceded by a slow fuga] inlrocluction (nos. 1- 2).

582

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

MVT.

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

FORM

KEY

Ludwig van Beethoven

TEMPO

METER

f'ugue

C; mínor

Adagío ma oon troppo e moho espressivo

Sona.ta- rondo

O major

Allegretto molto vívaee

Brief recit~tive :rnd tr-ansitíon

B1rd n -,V

Allegro moderato-Adagio

Variatious

A •Mjor

Scherzo

E m•jor

Presto

Shori rounded bin,iry with repeats written ou1

G~ minor

Achgio cr•asi 11n poco andante

Sonata l'o rm

Ci minor

Allegro

q: ()

of A major

FIGURE 24.6,

Andante

lowest notes. These same keys play prominenl roles within moveme.nts as well; for instance, the second theme in the fmale is frrst presented in E, recapitulated in D. then repeated again in q. Like ali of Beethoven's late sonatas and quartets, Op. 131 is a piece for connoisseurs. lt is dramatic, emotionally ricb, even funny in the scherzo, so that it appeals to audiences onmany leveis. Bul only those "in the know" aboul music are likely to notice and appreciate the complex rela1ionshlps between the whole and the individual parts, or the crafty combination of tradition and innovation. as the old and the new are inextricably intertwi.ned.

Appeal to con.noisseurs

LAST PUBLIC WORKS $

Overall plcrn of Beethoven ·s SrringQuarrer in Cj Minor. Op. 131.

EX AMPLE 24.8,

Themes Jrom finale compared to ji,gi,e su/Jject Jromfirst movement

a. Open ing offirst, therne firs1rnove,nent Vu. t

Like his late sonatas and quartets. the lwo lai·ge puhlic works of Bee thoven's final period reexamine the traditions of thefr respective genres. Beethoven began his Miss<• solemnis as a mass to be perform.ecl ai th e eleva- Missa so le mni s tion of Archduke Rudolph to archbishop of Olmütz in 1820. but it grew too long and elaborate for liturgical use. lt is full of musical and liturgical symbols. reinterprecing lradüional e lemems cn new ways. The chorai writing owes something to HIIMiftMlftllrth(llli'AIIIWl»lh Handel. whose music Beethoven revered. But \lrt~tae ~ t n a Handel oratorio was a string of independent Jt. .!t. 1,>o~tallr n&ctit brm t•mt~nttt~m. numbers, whereas Beethoven shaped his set~Cfabcmíc ting of the Kyrie. Gloria. Credo. Sanctus. and Agnus Dei as a ltnif:ted ôve- movement sym,ptrrn ~- t>an mcttijoucn, phony. As in the late masses of Haydn, choruses and solo ensembles freely alternatewithin each movement. Beethoven's setting was an ideal- il~· %it hffo fflhmaiaitta ~si&tibirt, ~ tiif 11n1,~n1 '-""' ~ ,Otmt t1t~til ized musical treatment of a well-loved text, not j <trllu•. 0rtf: I:lffltmt. NI ~ •t~'IML R•ioru&. :trtO f,JOl'jl J.J011Cm . 111\1 0lf•• n} Qlu- e,immn1. a liturgica l work; like tJ1e late qua rtets. it was a l'.>rlnn,, CIJR'tr e.,a;i~,. *' ~ 8UUfc tlamtns?c11 e.oro. ao ~M• ea..., of ~trn• t'lf>, fll hc B'ma.k. conce11 piece in a genre that traditionally had a rlt eo10,t?tim$1N'a: IOfft'nl fü ~"- 0nt•A no u,,ur., •d tit ,Om-111 different function. J)aÍllU,H H°t e,lo,h • trtr,1~(1, -Ofn e~UFUlld ~tNf l::i.mriN ~ ... ~r4it1fff, .O,.rr .a,rcUauf1lrr U•IH f tít tnhl~ M t,llljftl_, 1d llft 1'11fit The Ninth Sym.pbo ny was first per- ~ t;ltrtla Nt tln1ltrhl_.. M a,ut 111~.()r.(lcrt ,.. 0tf~fdl ikraC"tm1ta. formed in May 1824 on a program with one of ': J,mr 2uba,lg Dan !8rrt6obrn ftlbn, n,lrban btt Mtung t1t (!ja111rn ~ntbtll nt~mrn. Beetboven's overtu res and tbree movements of ~ · <lllr fh1rt11,,rcllc ,, ....1c ,,.o,r1•1 tbe Missa solemnis, as advenised u1 lhe ha.nd trro)l:ínf !IAO ~"" .,,_ldoa _,_._ _ __ _ _ bill in Figure 24 .7. The large and disrinb'ttished -----tl-er Vfnhno foum 7 U6r. audience applauded vociferously after the scherzo ( Lhe modern iradilion of maintaining FIG URE24.7, Handbi,Ufortheconce,tofMay7. 1824. si lence between movements had not yet been at the Kamlllertor 111eater. advertising a ..Creat Musico! introduced): Beethoven. who was conducting, Aca demy of Hen· L. 11an Beethoven, Horiorn rr Mernber of did not bear the applause , so one of the solo the Royal Acatle,nrofAris ondSciences ofSrockholm and singers pu llecl his sleeve and pointed lo the Amsterdam ,md larer Honorary Ci1iun of Vien11a ... Tiu, pro audience, anel he turned anel bowed. gru111 promi$CS ·:first: a grattd ove,·fu.re: secon.d: thrce grand The lirstthree movements ofthe symphony l1y111ns with solo and eh.oral voices: third: a grand syniare on a grand scale. and the whole takes more plionr wi,th solo a.nd clu,ral voices entering in. the fina/e on than an hour-even longer than the Eroica Scltillcr's Ode to Joy:· Thc ''hJ•nn-a .. wcrc thc K)'rie. Credo. Symphony. But the most striking innovation is artdA,,"llus Dei oftlte Missa solcmnis, artdrlre symphonr tbe use of solo voices and cborus in the fmale. wa,s 1l1 e Ninth. ( 1111.uAttc 1-t I v, õSTt:111kfI c u 1scH e NATIONAI. s I auo· Justas Beethoven's mass was symphonic, a nd THCK. WU!N)

®togc mufifaiifcf)e

Fm:ale

Vn.

...

/1. Lyrical itlea in fim rlie,11" group

'dJ

First movemem 1

pitches reordered

Unity

583

~++

varied ínvet'$ion

·w nile Beethoven varied the tradicional sequence of movements, he sought waysto integratethe movements more closely. ln Op. 131, he does thjs through motivic and key relationships. As shown in Example 24.8. two motives in lhe linale's 1irst theme group reca i! the fugue subject from the li rst movement; both emphasiie th e subject's open ing four notes (Gjl, Bf, q, anel A) in a new order. and the second echoes the fugue subject's rhythm and contour. More s11h tly. the keynotes of the <p1~ rtet'~ p r inr.ipa l movements- GF, . D. A. E. a nrl

Gj!-arn all prominent notes in the fugue subject or answer. marked with an asterisk in Example 24.7: A and D are emphasized hy sforzandos, G~ and O. as the flrst and last notes of the subject anel answer. and E anel A as their

584

C H A 1> T E R 2 ,i

• Revolut,on onô Chonge

!tis quariets refened to vocal genres from reciiatives andarias to the chorale motet, his last symphony looked to another genre, the chora] ode. Beethoven had thought as early as 1792 of setting Schi\ler's Ode to Joy. but more than thüty years went by before he decided to incorporate a chorai f1nale on th.is tex:t in his Ninth Symphony. Consistem with his ethi cal ideais and religious J'aith. he selecled stanzas lhal emphasize universal fellowship through joy. and its basis in Lh e love of an eternal heave nly f'a1her. Th e apparent i ncongn1ity of introducing voices at the clímax of a long instrumental symphony posed an aesthetic difficulty. Beethoven's solution eletermLnecl the fmale's unusual form: • tumultuous introduction, inspired by the operatic ge nre of accompanied recilative: • review and rejectioo (by instrumental recitalives) of the themes of lhe three preceding movements, then proposal anrl joyful acceptance of lhe "joy" theme; • orchestral exposition of the theme in four s1anzas; • 1·eturn ofthe tumu ltuous opening; • bass recita tive: "O Freunde. nicht diese Tone!" (O friends. not these tones! Rather let us sing more pleasant a.nd joyfu.l ones); • choral-orchestral exposition of the joy theme ... Freud e. schõner Gõtterfunken .. (Joy, beautiful, clivine spark), in four stanzas, varied (including a "Turkish March"), anda long orchestral interlude (douhle fugue) followcd by a repetilion or the nrst sta1na: • new theme, fororchestra and chorus: '"Seid umschluogen, Miliionen! .. (Be em braceei, O millions!); • double Jugue on the two themes: • a brilliam Pres1issimo chorai coda, bringing back 1he Ttu-kish percussion. in which the joytheme is ha il ecl in strains of match less sub li mity. Eve rythlng bere builcls on tradition , but the whole is unprecedented. This combination of innovalion witb reverence for the past. of disparate styles. and of supreme compositional craft with profound emotional cxpression is characteristic of Beethoven·s last period and has been seen as a measure of his greatness.

Beethoven's Centrality Having often celebrated heroism in his music, Beethoven himself became a cultura l hero, a reputation that grew throughout the nineceent.h ce ntu ry. His life story helped to defme the Roman(ic view of the creative artisl as a social ou tsici er who suffers r.ou rageously to hring humanity a glimpse of the ciivine through art. The stories told ahout him and the images ofhim in a1t and Literature reflect the mythology that grew up around him. ln the twentieth cen tury. biographers anel h.istorians began 10 peel back the myth anel reclaim 1he

Beethoven, Centrol,ty

mere buman being wbo was Beethoven. But he has remainecl a central figure in music, both because of what he accomplished and because of how he has been regarded by critics anel thc public. Many of Beethoveo·s composilions, particularly from the late 1790s through the 181 Os, were immediately popular and have remained so ever since. His late works were considered id.iosyncralic during bis lifelime aod were no1 absorbed into mainstream music.a l culture un iil decades after his death. But graclually theytoo carne to be rega rdecl as great, reflecting his inner life and consummate crafi even more deeply than l:ús more accessible music. Works of Beethoven fonn the core of tbe symphonic repertoire and are central to the repertoires for piano, for Sl ring quartel, anel for ocher chamber ensembles. All later composers for tl1ose media, from Schubert to Schoenberg and on to our own time. have had lo confront h.im as model anel competitor. His inlluence has been felt 001 only in style and technique but also in concep tions of music and the role of the composer. Bee thoven·s works inviteel attenlive listening anel probing criticai interpretation. Seeking lo explain bis music, tbeorists developed new approaches in harmonic, motivic, formal, anel tonal analysis, some ofwhich have become standard and are applied to a wide range of music. The coherence and m:úty Beethoven achieved through developmenl, key relationships. motivic links. and other means were highlighted in such stuclies anel became a measure of greatness in musical art:. Many composers in the classical tradition from oineteenth-ceotury Romantics through lwe ntieth- cen tury modernists aspired to greatness in similar terms. But since the 1950s, the no1ions of whac is most valuable in music that are embodied in Beethoven's works have been challenged by new values anel by attempts to rediscover the values of earlier generations. Musicians, crilics. and schola rs have often used ideas derived from their understanding of Beethoven's work and aesthelic as a measuring rod, but doing so can be inappropria te or m islead ing when evaluating music of other traditions. periods, styles, or purposes. Beethoven could afford Lhe time to compose as he pleased, wilhout answering to an employer. Perhaps as a result, sometimes he put his own experiences and feelings at the heart of a work. going beyond the longstanding lradilions of representing the emotions of a poetic text, dramatizing tbose of an operatic chasacte r, or suggesting a generalizecl mooel tllrougb conven tional devices. Such self-expression was in tune with lhe growing Romantic movemem described in the next chapter, and it carne to be cxpected of composers afier Beethoven. Modero musicians and listeners who assume that composers before Beethoven a lso wrote when tlley felt inspired and sought to capture their own emotions in musicai-e astonished to discover tha t earlier composers typically created music to meet an immediate need, to please their employe1·, or to gratify their audience. Beethoven, anel especially the criticai reaction to Beethoven. changed everyoue·s idea of what a composer is and does. The image he fostered of a composer as an a11is1 pursuing self-expression who com poses only when inspired continues to hold sway. ~ Resources fo r study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

585

587

lhe New Order. 181 5- 1848

The New Order, 1815-1848

THE ROMANTIC GENERATION: SONG AND PIANO MUSIC

The upheavals of 1789-1815 changed the European polilical landscape. The f'rench Revolution made peasants and workers into citizens instead of subjects. Napoleon's wars swepl away old political boundaries and spread the Revo lulionary ideas or li be rty, equali1y, brotherhood, and naLional identity across Europe. ln 1814-15, the Congress oi' Vienna d rew a new map, shown in Figu re 25. l. macle up of far fewer states. Although ltaly and German speaking lands were still partitioned, the inhabitants of each felt ao increasing sense of belonging to a nat ion uniced by language and culture. So d id the peop]e in lands that had recently lost independence, such as Poland, or had long endured foreign dominalion, such as Hungaiy and Bohemia: to them. the independent nation-state seemed an ideal. Repression held aspirations for f'reeclom in check, until the stin-ing but largely unsuccessfu l revolutions of 1848-49. But inlerest in nalional culture grew, and composers incorporated national traits in song, instrumental music, and opera. The eighteentb -

FIG URE25.1:

Mapof

Europe. 18/S-48.

Most music that suwives from the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century was composed for the church or for courts. ln !ater centuries, genres suitable for home music-making, such as madrigals and string quartets, or for public performance, exemplifJed in Venelian ope ra, Handel's o ratorios, and Haydn's late symphonies. became progressively more prominent. ln tbe nineteenth centu1y, music for home or public performance took center stage. The market for music to play at home and the popularity of concertgoing stimulated new styles tailored to broad musical tastes. At the sarne time. writers and musicians promoted new artistic ideals for music that focused on individuality, originality, fantasy. expression of pure emotion. and transcending conventional limits in pursuit of deeper tJuths. The new ideas and styles were called Romcmtic, an evocative term whose vagueness is part of its power. The word is now used to identify music of the entire nineteenth centuiy, but such an overarching concept should not bJind us to the great variety of styles and ideas manifest in the music of the time. The next three chapters address music from the end of the Napoleonic wars to the middle of the century. After outlining the economic and social settings for music and the ideas oJ' Romanticism, this chapter will focus on songs and pia no music, the mainstays of home musicmaking and of virtuoso piano recitais, and the Romantic styles they fostered. The following two chapters will examine music for public venues. in the concerl hall and in the theater.

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588

C H A 1> T E R 2 5

• Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ono Musot

TIMELINE Song and Piano Music MUSICAL

HISTORICAL

• 1810-24 Revolutions bring

independence to nations in Latin America • 1814 Franz Schubert.

Gretchen am Spinnrade • 1814- 15 Congress of Vienna • 1815 Napoleon defeated at

Waterloo • 1817-2(; Muzio Clementi,

Gradus ad Parnassum

century cosmopolitan ideal was replaced by the expectation that composers write music h11e to their national identity. The Americas saw equally radical change. ln the wake of 1he American and French Revolutions, a revolution in Haiti began in 1791 and led to Haiti's estab ljshment in 1804 as the lirst indepeodent state io Latin America and the úrst nation l'ounded by libe rateel slaves. After Spain anel Portugal were weakened by Napoleon's invasion, revo lutions in 18 10-24 brougbt independence to most of Latín America. and by 1838 most modern nations of the region mad emerged. Between 1803 and 1848, the United States expanded west anel south tJuough purchase, treaties, and wars. The indigenous Native Arnerican peoples i.a many a1·eas fougb.t lo retain control. hui settlers moved west in increasi ng numbers. The United States began to create its own cultural iden ti ty in the ta les of Wash ington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the novels of James Fenimore Coo per. and the songs of Stephen foster. ln Canada. French anel British provinces were oiliciaUy united in 1841, altbough the two sides continued in conllict until tbe Canadian fedcration was estahlished in 1867.

• ca. 1818 Caspar David

Friedrich. Wande,er above che

Sea o{Fog

THE DECLINE OF ARISTOCRATIC PATRONAGE

The economic a rder in Europe changecl along with the politica l, dramatically affecting musicia n s. Wa r anel inflation Van Winkle impoverished the aristocracy, and lhe elim.ination of over one • 1821 Sébastien Erard introhundred small states draslically reduced the number of courts duces faster action for piano supporting the ans. The typical musician no looger served • 1822 Franz Liszt begins career a prince or church but made a living as a free agent through as virtuoso pianist public performance. teaching. composing on cornmission. or crea ting music for publication. \'i'hile pa trons had expected • 1825 First railway to carr y their employees to p lay severa! instrum.ents and, like Bach and passengers Haydn. compose in most genres, musicians were now compet• 1827 Schubert, Winterreise ing in ao o pen mar ket and often found aniche through special• 1830 Felix Mendelssohn, ization. Among the most prominent musicians oi' lhe age were Songs without Words. Book 1 virtuosos-performers, such as violinist Nico lõ Pagan ini and pianisr Franz Liszt (see below). who specialized in one instru • 1830 Revolutions in France and Belgium meot and dazzled audiences with displays oi' technical maste1y. Many composers also specialized in one medium. as Pryeleryk Chopin did in piano music and Giuseppe Verdi in opera. Opponunities for ca reers i n music broadened as well. Legal reforms begundu1·ingthe Freoch Revolution andspread across. Europe by the Napole on ic wars elim i nated the privileges enjoyed by the old guilds-which set standa..ds a nd controlled various C!'afts, including musi c-a nd open ed cal'eers to anyone with talent. Conservatories opened in cities across Europe and the Ame!'icas. provicling training for stuclents anel steacly income foi' musi cians who taught them. Risiug interest in music suppo rted a growing nwnber of music jourualists anel cri tics, including severa} now knowo primarily as composers. • 1820 Washington Irving, Rip

Tho New O rder, 1815- 1848

As the aristocracy declined, the urban mieldle class grew in size and influence. The Industrial Revolution was mechanizing manufacturing. thereby reducing prices, drawing people from the country ro work in factories, crealing more leisure time, an d all owing merchants and e ntrepreneurs to become lhe economic leaders.

589

• 1831 Fryderyk Chopin settles

in Paris • 1834- 35 Robert Schumann,

Carnaval

MID D LE· CLASS M USIC· MAKING Music - mak.ing was an importan t outlet for tbe midclle and upper classes, who had the money and le isure to purchase instmments and learn to play tbem. ln many homes. eveni ngs were a lime for making music with family and friends. singing or playing piano, violin, flute, guilar, harp , or other instrnments. Music releaseel socia l pressu1·es. lt p rovided a way to express aspirations for equali!y and national freedom witho ut risking censorship o r imprisonment. lt also ol'fered an escape from wars, depresseel economies, and polit ica l repression. Music also was a means of social contra i. State-sponsored opera often ca rried political messages. Chu rches estahlished amateur choirs, and factories organized wind banels for their workers, seekingto provide enterta inment, elevate taste, and divert the working classes from drinking and carousing. And in an era of starkly differentiated gender roles, music kept women occupied at home. Although many working - class wome n and children labored long hours in factories. women and girls of the middle and upper classes were expected lo stay ai home, their leisure a sii,rn of status. The genders were ass igned sepai·ate spheres: boys went to school and men to work while women and girls maintained the home, regarded as a sacred refuge i.a a harsh world. When possib le, servants were employeel to do housework. releasing the wome n of the fa.mily to pursue feminine accomplishments from needlework to music.

• 1836- 39 Chopin, Preludes • 1837 Queen Victoria

succeeds to British throne • 1838-61 Liszt, Années de

pelerinage. Books 1-2 • 1840s Railroads spread across

Europe. United States • 1840 Schumann. Oichterliel:>e • 1841

Fanny Hensel, Das Jahr

• 1843 Felix Mendelssohn

founds Leipzig Conservatory • 1846- 48 War between United

States and Mexico • 1848 Liszt appointed court

music director at Weimar • 1848- 49 Revolutions

throughout Europe • 1850 London firm of Broadwood making 2,000

pianos a year • 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne,

The Sca,let Letter • 1853 Stephen Foster, Jeanie

THE PIANO

with the Light Brown Hair • 1857-58 Louis Moreau Gott-

Al the center of home music was the piano. lnnovations in schalk. Souvenir de Porto Rico manufactu ring greatly in creased the availability of pianos and lowered their cost (see lnnovations: Music.al Instruments in the Industrial Revolution , pp. 590-91). Square pianos like lhat in Figu re 25.5, sma ll enough forparlors. found t.heir way into many homes on both sides of the Atlantic. from Montreal to Moscow. The years 1820- 50 saw many design im provements that allowed for new pianistic effects and a greatly expanded range. Ou such an instrument. a pian.ist could expressa complete musical thought almost as well as an entfre orchestra. yet more personally. These characteristics made the piano the quintessential nineteenth- centtuy instrument, ideal both for home music and for pu blic concerta.

NNOVATIONS Musical lnstruments in the Industrial Revolution

FIGURE 25.2, Tmrnpet

withpiston valves (ca. 186S) by Antoine Counc0i.s o/ Paris.(1'HP. u r.r1to1•011'rAP: MUSEUM Ot'AllT, 11URCUA:St. DtQUEST OP ROBERT ALONZO

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he Industrial Revolution was not a single event, but a series of inventions and applications that together radically changed the way goods were manufactured. ltems that had been crafted by hand for centuries, from cloth to clocks, could now be mass-produced by machine, making them much more widely available and less costly. ln addition. existing products were improved and new ones developed in a continuing stream of innovation. Musical instrument-making was one of many industries to be revolutionized. One profound change was in the sheer quantity of instruments that could be produced. ln the 1770s. the output of even the largest piano manufacturers in Europe was only about twenty pianos a year, because every piece had to be made by hand, By 1800, John B,oadwood & Sons of London was manufacturing about four hundred pianos a year by employing a large and specialized work force, and by 1850 the firm was using steam power and mass-production techniques to make over two thousand pianos a year, one hundred times as fast as eighty years before. Many were grand pianos, but most were square pianos like the one in Figure 25.5. Because they were produced in such quantity, pianos became inexpensive enough for middle-class families to afford. The design of the piano was also improved through a number of innovations, The sustaining pedal. by holding all dampers off the strings, let tones continue after the keys were released, allowing greater resonance, doser imitation of orchestral sound. and new pianistic effects. The metal frame. introduced in England during the 1820s, allowed higher tension on the strings and thus greater volume, wider dynamic range, longer sustain, and better legato. Felt-covered hammers allowed more powerful fortíssimos and quieter pianíssimos. The standard range was extended to six octaves by 1820 and seven by 1850. The double-escapement action, introduced in 1821 by Parisian manufacturer Sébastien Erard, allowed quick repetition of notes and thus enabled a new levei of virtuosity. AII of these new capab,l ities were exploited by pianists and composers, and the piano became the indispensable instrument for home music-making and for public concerts. But it was clearly a modern-day machine, with thousands of separate parts and hundreds of mechanical connections. The sarne spirit of innovation was applied to other instruments. Erard's firm also played an Importam role in creating the modem harp. Traditionally. harps were tuned to a single diatonic scale, so that they could not play chromatic passages, and evento change keys required retuning some of the strings. Severa! eighteenth-century 590

harp makers had tried to solve rhis problem, but harps strung with all the chromatic notes were cumbersome to play, and finding a way quickly to change tuning proved difficult. Erard's solution was a new fork mechanism, operated by a set of seven pedais, that allowed the strings to be shortened, raising the pitch by one half-step. Eventually; Erard patented a harp that could be played ín any key because each string could be adjusted almost instantaneously to produce any of three semitones by a double-action fork mechanism. By 1820, the firm had sold 3,500 of these instruments. whose principies are still in use by modern pedalharp makers. Starting in the 1810s, brass instrument makers applied the valve technology of the

improved manufacturing methods. Theobald Boehm established a successful flute factory in Munich in 1828. He experimented with mechanisms that would achieve uniform tone production, superior volume, and better control of tuning, By 1849. he had created the modem "Boehm-system• flute, an ali-metal instrument with large holes that were d osed no t with the bare fingers but with padded keys, linked to each other through a series of rod-axles, levers, and clutches, as shown in Figure 25.4. Louis-Auguste Buffet, working in Paris, applied some of Boehm's ideas to the clarinet. producing a design that has remained standard to the present. Adolphe Sax. used a similar system to create the saxophone. a new wind instruFIGURE 25.3, Hom with rota,yvalves (1835) ment now familiar in marching by W. GlierofWarsaw (BATL COLLl!c:r1011. ouoao. bands and jazz. steam engine-in which vatves ENcu~'n) Similar mechanical innocontrolled the Aow of steam, vations brought about by the water. or air-to the design of trumpets and horns. finally Industrial Revolution-such as interlocking rods, gears, enabling these instruments to produce all the notes of and screws-improved the construction and tuning the chromatíc scale. Using either piston valves, as in the methods of the timpani in the early nineteenth century. trumpet in Figure 25.2, or rotary valves. as on the horn String instruments were also altered to create a bigger. in Figure 25.3, the player can open one or more le.ngths more dramatic tone, with greater string tension, a higher of pipe to extend the sounding length of the air column bridge, and a tilted fingerboard. Fingerboards were and thus lower the pitch one or more semitones. Only lengthened to allow for higher notes. The modem bow, three or four valves are needed, rather than the many devised by François Tourte around 1785, had a wider, keys on a flute or clarinet. because brass instruments uniform band of bowhair kept taut with concave curproduce notes from the harmonic series, and only a few vature of the wood and a screw tighteníng mechanism, semltones separate each note in the series from the which gave more contrai and a larger sound, next one up or down. Many new brass instruments. were By the late nineteenth century, the piano, the harp, invented as well, including the tuba, whích became the and the ínstruments of the orchestra had almost all bass of the orchestral brass section. reached their modem form. thanks to the inventors and Wind instruments also profited from a combina- industrialists who applied the century's new tech nolotion of new technologies. enterprising innovators, and gies to music.-JPB & BRH

FIGURE 25.4 ,

Boehn,-sysre,nflute (1856) bt'f'heobnld Boehrn. 591

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592

C H A 1> T E R 2 5 • The Romantic Generat,on: Song and P,ano Musoc

FIGURE 25.5: Fam -

ily Concert in Baste (1849) by Sebastian Curzwiller. Thi$ po,int· ing shows a l)Pical domestic scene o( mu-sic-making: a woman perfonns on asquarepiano while otherfam i!y menibers play tlie vio!in urid flute. 011,ers listen eilher wii/1 complete ottention orwhile engaged in theirown activíties.

(ÕF'f'f.NTTICRC

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LI CU C KU N STSA.M).C LUNC BJ\SEJj

Women and the piano

Women, panicularly, played piano, continuing a tradition oi' keyboardplaying for their own anel olhers' pleasure that stretchecl hack to the sixteen th century. Pianist-composers such as Fryderyk Chopin and Franz Liszt supported themselves in part by giving lessons to well- to· do womcn. Teachers expectecl daily practice, often for severa) hours, thereby keeping energetic young women occupied at home but also helping many of them achieve aston ishlng fluency. There were quite a few professional women pianists in the nrst ha lf of the nineteenth centu ry-such as Cla ra \Vieck, a form idable virti.1oso who was to marry Robert Schumann- and many excellent amateurs who played ata professional levei. Yet for most women, music was an accomplishment. designed to attract a spouse and entertain family and friends. rather than a career. Men also played, often accompanying their wives, sisters, or daughters as they sang. A favorite format was music for two players at one piano, which offered siblings a join t recreation ora m.arried or dating couple a stmctured physical and emotional intimacy.

THE MARKET FOR MUSIC ANO THE NEW IDIOM Ali these amateurs needed music to play. creating a boom in music p11blishing. ln the 1770s, the largest publishcrs in Lo ndon, Paris, and Leipzig listed hund1·eds of ilems in their catalogues. alrcady a greal number in comparison to ea rlier decades; by the l 820s they listed tens of thousands of pieces. The number of music stores in Europe and the New World grew rapidly in the early 1800s. increasing in London from lhirty in 1794 to 150 in 1824. Technology again provecl crucial: lithograp hy. inventeci arouncl 1796. let puhlishers print music cheaply witb elaborate illustrations that he lped il sell. Consumers demanded a constant flood of new mus ic, and com posers supplied il. As a result. the amount of music from the nineteenth century still ava iJab le to us is overwhelming, far greate r lhan for any previous era.

Romantic,sm

The market in sheet rnusic gave tbe public at large unprecedented inOuence over what music was produced, because publishers bad to supply what thcir customers wanted. Composers wrote songs, piano works, and piano duets in great q ua ntities. Arrangers transcribed orcbestral and chamber works for piano solo or duet, making concert works accessible to a large public. At a time before reco rdings. such arrangements were the only opportuni.ty many people had to hea r most works. Composers wr iti ng for the public sought to make their music acces· sihle and appealing to amaleu r performers by writing tunefol melodies with attractive accom paniments, little counterpoint, relatively unifonn rhythm and leve] of diffaculty from measure 10 measure, strong musical and extramusical imagery, evocative titles, nationa l or exotic associations, familiar cho rds and progressions interspersed with dramatic or colorful harmonic contrasts, predictable four-bar phrasing, simple songlike J'o1·ms, and id iomatic writing that exploited the textures, sonorities, and dynamic contrasts available on the modem pi.ano. Tl1e most successful music offered something novel and individual that made it stand out from the crowd. Competit.ion for sal.es fostered innova lions in harmony such as p;reater use of nonharmonic tones, unexpected progressions, chroma tic chords and voice leading, distant modulations. and tonal amhit:,'Uity. These characteristics defmed a new idiom, known today as tbe early Romantic style. The best composers ofthe time deepened their music's appeal to discerning players and listeners, bul their styles were rooted in this idiom. The high value placed on a beauliful melody and striking harmonies within small forms such as songs and sho,1 piano pieces carried over in to larger forms as well. Originality was now ma rked , not by how one treated conventional material, as in the Classic era. but by lhe material itself.

The new musical idiom

Romanticism The new idiom, which focused on melody, emo tion , novelty. and iudividuality, paralleled Romanticism in !iteratu re and art and carne to be called Ro111a111ic. The term has many meanings, and tracing its history will clariJy its use and implications. The word ror11antic derived from the medieval romance. a poem or tale "Romantic" ahout heroic events or persons, such as KingArthur or Charlernagne. lt con- as a terrn noted something distant. legeudary. and fantastic. an imaginary or ideal world far from everyday reality. ln lhe late eighteenth and early nineteenth ce nti.iries, especially in German-speaking l.ands, writers applied the term to literature and thcn to ar! and music. Philosopher and crilic F'riedrichScblegel (1 772-1829) differentiated "classic" poetry-which he deemed objectively heautifül. limited in scope anel theme, and universally valid- from "roma n· tic" poetry. which transgressed mies and limits, expressing insatiable longing anrl th e rir.hness of nature. Like political liberalism anel irlealist phi losophy. Romantic art focused on the individual and on expression of tbe self. As tbe word gained currency, composers and artists who carne of age in the 1820s, such as Berlioz. Chopin. Schumann, anel Llszt. couccived of tbemselves as "romamics." By Lhe mid-ninetee nth cenrury. SchJegers dichot0myseemed to

593

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C H A 1> T E R 2 5 • The Romantic Generat,on: Song and P,ano Musoc

"Romantic" as a period

Romanticism as a reaction

FIGURE 25.6:

Ca$·

par Da,,id Friedlich. Wanderer above the

Sea or Fog. ( HAMI\UJU) ,' 11 t.."tlNSTHALLf. H.AJ.I BURC. GRKMAN"Y. PUO'M: IS, I'. k. /

AJrr nt:~OUflCI!, NY)

distinguish the elegant, natural, simple, clear, formally closed, and universally appealing (and tberefore class ic) music of Haydn and Mozart from the music of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, marked as Roman tic because of its sea rch for the original, interesting, evoca tive, individual, expressive, or extreme. The music of Beethoven was regarcled as straddling the two camps. This distinct ion crysta llized into the notion of 1wo s ty le pe riods. Classic and Romantic, divided a,·ound the 1820s. Some later music historians considered the whole century ''Romantic." whiJe others saw the entire span from the mid -eighteenth through the early twentieth century as a single Classic- Romamic perioel in which composers shared conventions of harmony, rhythm, anel form but differed in how they treated those conventions. For our purposes. the political and economic events of 1815 serve as a convenient starcing poim for the Romantic period because their impact on co rnposers helps to exp lain the disti.nctive music ofth e era. Romanticism was a direct reaction to severa! of lhe themes explored in che first part of this chapter. Society was changing rapidly, driven in part by science and technolop;y, and Romanticism soup;ht refup;e in the past, mytb, dreams, the supernatu ral. and the irrational. As the new political concept of "nation" emerged, Romantics regarded "common folk" as the true emhodi ment oi' the nat ion. As people crowded into cilies, Romantics valueel rural life and looked to Narure for refoge, inspiration, anel revelation. As industrialization brought about a mass society. Romantics es leemed solitude and the individual. As people in íactories. shops, and homes were bound to routine, Roma ntics pursued novelry, bound lessness, and the exotic. Andas a new capitalist economy replaced old forms of support for artists , Romantics saw artists as pursuing nol money 1ml a higher ideal of enlightening lhe world through access to a realm beyoncl the everyday. Some of these im pLtlses are captured in the art of Gaspar David Friedrich, the leading German Romantic painter. as in his Wande-rer above the Sea of Fog (ca. 1818), shown in Figure 25.6, which depicts solitude and t he bou nd lessness of Nat\ll'e, transcending everyday experience. The sarne impulses sulfüse the music of many Romantic composers. Romanticism encouraged composers to seek individu al paths for expressing intense emotions. such as melancholy. longing. or joy. Composers respected convenlions of l'orm or harmony to a point, but t heir imaginatio n drove them to trespass limits and explore new realms of sound. E. T. A. Hoffmann and other writers considered instn1menta l music the ideal Romantic art because it was free from the concreteness of words and visual images and thus cou ld evoke impressions, thougbts. and feelings that are beyond the power of words to express (see Source Reading). Such writers saw instrumental music as an autonomous an, free from earlier notions thai music must serve t.he words of a madrigal or opera. convey an appropriate affect. or fulfill a particu-

Romantic,sm

lar social role, whether as entertainment oras accompaniment to a religious ritual or elinner parly. This autonomy paralleled the composers· own freedom as independent entrepreneiu·s outside the o ld patronage system. Th ey we re no THE MOST ROMANTIC ART longer part of the servanl class as Haydo and ea rlier compose rs had heen . The au tonomy of ln an inRuential essay. poet. novelist. critic, and music as an art sym bo lized the individu:a lism composer E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) lauded and economic independence so valued l>y the Instrumental music as the most Romantic art. nineteenth - century middle class. The idealization of inst rumental music as the premier mode of artistic exp ression led When we speak of music as an independent Hoffmaru1. Ludwig Tieck. anel other writers to art, should we not always restrict our meanformulate new distinctions among instrumental ing to instrumental music. which. scorning works between absolute , clwrncte ristic (or every aid. every admixture of another art clescriptive). and prog ram music. A program(the art of poetry), gives pure expression to matic work recounts a narrative or sequence of music's specific nature. recognizable ln this events, often s pelled out in an accompanying lexl form alone? lt is the most romantic of ali call ed a prog rnm; a character piece depi cts or the arts-one might almost say, the only suggests a mood, personality. or scene, usually genuinely romantic one-for its sole subject indicated in its title; and absolute music offers is the infinite. The lyre of Orpheus opened instead an idea lized play of sound and forro. the portais of Orcus [Roman god of the Program music was not a nineleenlh-century underworld]-music discloses to man an invention. Composers in the seventeenth and unknown realm. a world that has nothing eighteenth cenwries expected their instrumen1al in common with the externai sensual world music to conveyparticularemotions, associations that surrounds him, a world in which he with everyday life (from dance rhythms to buntleaves behind him ali definite feelings to suring horns) , and in some cases even s peciftc charrender himself to an inexpressible longing. acters. sce nes, or programs, as in Bibe,.-s MJ'Stery From E. T. A. Hoffmann, "Beethovens lnstruSonatas . Couperin's character pieces. or Vivaldi's mental-Musik." Sãmr/iche Werke. ed. C. G. von Four Seasons. What is truly new in the nineteenth Maassen. vol. 1 (Muních and Leipzig. 1908). century is the notion of absolute music, which adapted ,n 18 13 from a rev,ew first published ,n refers to nothing but itself-a powerful idea that July 1810. Trans. Oliver Strunk in SR 160 (6:13), lay behind numerous developments in both pp. 1193-94. nineteenth· and twentieth· ceniury music. The esteem for ins trum e nta l music was reflected in a new concept of orga11ic musical form. Eighteenth-centtU)' w:riters conceived of musical works as rbetorical. shaped like a speech and intended to have a certain effect on tbe l is tener (see chapter 20). This metaphor for music can be traced back at least to the Renaissance and continued to echo throughout the nin etee nth cen tury and into the lwentieth. But Goethe argued in a study oi' plant metamor phosis that, justas ali the pa11s of a p lant are adaptations of the sarne basic s hape , so too artists should shape their works so that ali the parts are unilied by being derived from a common source. Applying this view 10 music. lhe organ ic rel ationship of the themes. sections. movements. a nel ot her parts to the whole (and to each other) becomes more importa1ll than rhetorica] structure or persuasive force. ln the metaphor of organicism, motivic links can contribute more to a work's unity than its harmonic plan or use of a convemio nal form.

595

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C H A 1> T E R 2 5

Afasicand

• Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ono Musot

Despite the prestige of instrumental music, literarnre was central to

the li terary, the work of most composers. Many had writers as fr-iends. and some were writers themsclves: Berlioz aod Schumann were professional music critics, Lisz1 and Wagner wrote influential essays on music, aod Wagner wrote his own opera librettos. Prom songs to chorai works and opera, severa! leading genres required an integratioo of music aod texl. ln setliog words. composers sought LO d raw ou1 the inner meanings and íee li ngs sugges1ed in the poet ry or libretto. Even many instrumental works bore inseparab le links to words thrnugh a descriptive title or probtram. The effort to ftncl a musical elfect capable of' expressing an idea or program often leel to innovations in hannony, meloely, anel instrumental color. Such novelry appealeel Lo mielelleclass consume rs, and the program enhanced that appea l while justifying the unusual effects. For this reasou, composers and publishers ofteu added programs or descriptive titles after a work was composed.

Song The trends described above are apparent in songs of the time. Voice and piamo (played by the singer or an accompanist) was the preferred meelium, offering a wide expressive range with minima l forces. Texts were typically strophic poems, and the words were meant to be heard. set for the most part with one note per syllable and reserving longer gestures for special emphasis. Songs varied from simple settings with e horda! accompanimeut and the sarne melody for every verse to artful, th.rougb-composed miniah1re dramas in which thc accompanimcnt rivalcd the voice in importance. Only !ater in the century did a fum line develop between popular songs for sale to the widest possible musical public and art songs for connoisseurs. The most influential aud prestigious repertoire of nineteenth-ceun1ry soog was the German Lied. The Lied was in many ways the quintessential Romautic geme: a fusion of music and poetty, centering on the expressiou of individual feeliugs. with elescriptive musical imagery aud aspects of folk style. Another signincant tradition was the British aud Americau parlor song. Among the thousauds of song composcrs activc before midcenrury, tbe fol lowing focuses on only a few of the most exemplary.

THE LIED The Romantic Lied built on a stroug eighteeuth-ceutu1y tradition (see chapter 21). The popularity of Lieder grew after 1800. Tbe number of German song collectious publisheel increased l'rom about one a month iu tbe late 1700s to over one hundred a month in 1826. when the Allgenieine musikalische Zeitung (Genera l Music Journa l) asked "has t.here ever been an age more proliüc in song thau ours?" Chauges in poetry anticipaíed chauges in the Lied. Poets drew elements from hoth classical and folk traditions. A frequent theme was an individual confrouting the greater forces of uaru1·e or Society, vulnerable yet ennobled by the encounter ; another was nature as a metapbor for human experience.

Song

The chief poetic geme continued to be the lyric. a short, strophic poem on one subject expressing a personal feeling or viewpoint. The ultimate models were the lyric poets of ancient Greece and Rome, such as Sappho aud Horace. Two collections of folk song verses, Johann Gottfried vou Herder·s Volkslieder (F'olk Songs, 1778-79) and Clemens Bremano and Achim von Arnim's Des Knaben Wrmderliom (The Boy's Magic Horn. 1805). iuiluenced poets to adopt similar language and image r-y. Both ancient lyrics anel l'olk verses were meant to be sung, and the poetry written in imitation of them was ideal for sertingto music. with short slrophes and regular meter and rbyme. ln the late eighteenth centmy, Cerman poets cultivated a new form. the bollod, i n imita l io n of the folk ballads of England anel Scollan d. Ballads migh t alternate narrative and dialogue and usually dea lt with romantic adventures or supernatural incielents. Their greater length and wider palette of moods and events inspired composers to use more varied themes and textures. The ballael thus e~1>andeel the Lied bot.h in fonn anel in emotional coutent. ln many such Lieder. the piano rase from accornpanimenLto equal partner with the voice in illustrating and intensilying the meaning of the poelly. Lieder composers ol'teu grouped their songs iuto co lJections with a uuifying characteristic. such as texts by a single poet ora focus on a common theme. Becthoven's An die feme Geliebte (see chapter 24) introduced the eon cept of the soug cycle, in which ali the songs were to be perfonneel in order, as movem ents of a multimovement vocal wo,rk. Usingthis format. composers coulel tel1 a story through a succession of songs. combiniug the narrative emphasis ofballads with the focused expressivity of Lhe lyric poem.

Thelpic

The ballad

Song collection s and song cydes

FRANZ SCHUBERT The characLeristics of the Romantic Lied are exemplined in lhe songs of Franz Schubert (1797-1828; see biograp hy and F'igure 25.7). Schubert wrote over six hundred Lieder. many of which were fi.rst performed for friends in home gatherings known as Schubertiads. ln Lhe pict u1·e of ooe such eveuing in Figure 25.8, many of the listeners seem transported, gazing into space with attentive expressions on their faces. The drawing conveys the intensely emotional engagement with music that was characteristic of tbe age. Schube1.t set poetry by many writers, including fifty-ni ne poems of Song te:t.1s Goethe. Some of Schubert's fmest Lieder are found in his two song cycles ou poems by Wilhelm Müller. Die schone Müfürin (The Pretty Miller-Maid. 1823) and Winierreise (Winter's Journey, 1827). \Vhen Schubert wroLe a song he strove to make the music the equal of the words, not merely their frame. Through melody. accompaniment. harmouy. and forro . he sought to embody the person speaking or characters described, the scene, Lhe situalion, anel the emotions expressed. Schubert always chose forms that suited the shape and meaning of the Form text. \Vh en a poem sustains a single image or mood, Schubert typically uses strophic form. with lhe sarne music for each stanza. as in Heidenroslein (Little Heath-Rose. 1815) and Das lflandem (Wandering). the nrst song in Dieschóne Müllerin. Most Lieder of his time were strophic aud unadorned. and wheu Schubert deviates from tbat norm (as he often does), it is for expressive purposes. Contrast or change is often depicted with modificd strophic form . in

597

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C H A 1> T E R 2 5 • The Romantic Generat,on: Song and P,ano Musoc

599

Song

FIGURE 25.8: Sepia

drawingbySchuberi ·s friend Morir.z von Schwind (1868). sli.owing Schubert (li tlte piano accompanying the singer]ohcmn. Michael Vogl. sitting ro /Ji.s riglit. The occa· sio11 is aScliubertiad. aga1herin.g ina priva1e hom.e di,ringwhich Sclu•bert would piar ptano and eirlier sing his own songs or accompany a singer.

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

Schubertwas the first great master of the Roman· tic Lied and a prolific composer in ali genres. The son of a Vienna schoolmaster, Schubert grew up surrounded by music·making at home and at school. As a child he studied piano. sing· ing, violin, organ. coLinterpoint. and figured bass, and took composition lessons from the cour t music director. Antonio Salieri. Schubert's musi· cal talent won him a free, first-class education at a prestigious Vienna bo.arding school. Although trained to follow his father's profession. his heart lay in composing. For severa! years he taught at his father's school, ali the while composing with astonishing speed and Fluency; in 1815 alone he produced more than 140 songs. January 1818 saw the first publication of his music. and from then on he devoted himself entirely to composition. By 1821, Schubert's music was widely per· formed in Vienna. and he was earning substantial sums from publishers. As he never secured a per· manent salaried position. he gained most of his income from publication. especially of songs and piano music. Thus he was a freelance composer, largely independent of the patronage system that supported earlier composers and on which even Beethoven had depended. ln the 1820s, he began to focus increasingly on larger works. including chamber music. symphonies, and operas, bu t most were not performed until after his death. The last years of Schubert's life were clouded by illness. He died at thirty· one. possibly from syphilis he had contrac ted by 1823 or from its treatment wi th mercury. His tombstone was ,nscribed "Music has here buried a rich treasure but still fairer hopes.' Given the brevity of his

( H l5'rOklS(:H f.!S >,I USt;U U

OU STADTW(EN . PHOTO: ,mrcn LF.SSINGtAnT

FIGURE 25.7: FranzSchuberl. 1r1,awatercolor portl'ait from 1825 by WilhelmAugust Rieder. (GEStU..SCHAPT nnn Ja,fU$ 1K"Fl\F.UN Df!. Vlf.NNA. AUSTlUA. l'UOTI); tfllCII LUS$11'QIAU1. fl(SQUl\Çt;, NY)

career. his output of almost one thousand works is astounding. MAJOR WORKS: Over 600 songs. including the song

cycles Die schone fvfüllerin and Winterreise; 9 symphonies. notably No. 8 in B Minor (Un{inished) and No. 9 in C Major (G,eat): about 35 chamber worlcs. including Piano Quintet in A Major (the: Trout). String Q uartet in D Minor (Deach and rhe Maiden). and String Ouintet in C MaJor: 22 piano sonatas: many short piano pieces: l7 operas and Singspicls: 6 masses: 200 othcr chorai works

whi ch music repeats for some strop hes but others vary it or use new music; an example is Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree) from Winterreise. described bdow. Somr. Mngs usP. tP.rnary form (ABA or ABA'). as in De.r At.lO.$ (Atlas). or bar form (MB). as in Stiindchen (Serenade), both from tbe posthumously pub lished coUection Schwanengesang (Swan Song, 1828). Lo nger narrative songs may be through -composed. witb new music for eacb stanza. li.ke tbe bal -

lad Erll..-énig (The Erl- King, 1815), or combine declamatory and ari oso styles as in an operatic sce ne. like Der Wanderer (The. Wanderer. 1816): in either case. recurring themes anda ca1·efully planned tonal scheme lend unity. Schubert had a gift for creating beautifol melodies that perfect ly capture a poem's character. mood. and situation. Many songs use lhe sim pie, seemingly artless quality of folk song to suggest a rural setting or uncompllcated feel · ings, as in HeidenrósLein and Das Wandem. shown in Example 25 .1a- b. Others are suffused with sweetness and melancholy. as is Stiindchen. Example 25. l e. or are declamatory and dramatic. like DerAtlas. Example 25. ld. 'fhe excerpts in Example 25. l only begin to illustrate the variety of Schubert's accompanime nts. The ligu rati.on always tits the poern's rnood and the personality of its protagonist. from a simpie alternation oi' bass note and cho rd in Heidennfslein to dramatic tremolos and octaves in Der Atla.s. The accompaniment of'ten reflects an image in ih.e poem. especially an image of movement, like the walking motion of Das Wandern ora serenader plucking a guilar inStãndchen. ln Gretchen arn Spinnrade (Gretchen at the SpinnfogWheel, 1814; 'lAW\.1 121!), on an excerpt frnm Goethe's famolls p lay Faust. the piano suggests the spinning wheel by having a constant rising and falling sixteenth- note figure in the right hand, and the motion of the treadle by using repeated notes in the Jeft hand, as s hown in Examp le 25.2. These figures also con vey G1·etchen·s agitation as she thinks of her beloved. Often. as here. the piano introduces the song's mood and central i.mage in a sho1·t prelude hefore the voice enters. \Vhen Grelchen recalls her beloved's kiss. thc accompaniment suddenly stops. then haltingly restarts. Although the words do not indica te her actions, we know from th e music that she s tops the wheel when she is overcome by emotion, then gradually relurns to spinning as she regains her composure. The ha rmony also reinforces the poetry. The simple Das lflandern uses only óve different chords. The sweet melancholy of Stii.ndchen is evoked by al ternating minor anel major forros of a key or triad, an effect that is almost a lrademark of Schuberl's style. ln other songs, he unclerlines lhe poem's

ne.sounce. n>

Melody

Accompaniment

Cretchenam Spinnrade 1 Conàse

//r1,rmnny

1 1 rull

600

C H A 1> T E R 2 5 • Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ano Musot

EXAMPLE 25.1,

Schubert songs

EXAMPLE 25.2,

Heidemoslein

$ah ein ~a.b ;;n

)

Schubert, Gretcben am Spinnrade

N icht zu g-eschwind

J, • 72

-.. den,

Mei

l\õs• lein auf der

Rõs - leio stehn.

Liebl ich J - 69

-1'l- ~-. ;(; V

-.J -

)

Mei - ne

sempre ligo,o

-------.~..'ri

-------

'1,_

~--~ ----~ 'ri

't--

ist

l\uh

--..~ 1\

b. Das Wandern

Das Wan-d;rn is1 des

....

Mol-lers Lus1. das

::-=:: r Wi,n - dern! ~

,ef

1·

Wande,in.g is the millers pleasure! e. S1~ndchen s ,-3-, Lei · se ílc ·

~3--,

ben mei · ne Lie - der

durch

die Nacht zu dir,

Ge11tly my s011gs tlt rot,gh tl,e night implore yot, d. Der Atlas

Ai - las.

ich

un - gluck-sel - ger

At - las!

===-

/. the unlu.cky Atlas!

- -

1,-1\

My peo ce is gane.

A bor saw a r-osebu.d sta11di11g. a r-osebu.d o,i 1/,e heai/1

hin .

----------

sempre sraccoto

601

Song

dramatic qualities powerfolly through complex modulations. ln Der Atlas. he uses a diminished seventh chord to move abruptly from G minor to the distant key of B major. then gradually works his way back through E minor to G mi11or. This extraordinary key schem.e illustrates Scbubert's fondness for modulation bythird rather than by lifth, a trait also fou nd in bis instrumental music. as we will see. His predilection for unusual harmonic relationships reilects his use of harmony as an expressive <levice. since lhe unconventional generally carries more expressive potential than the conventional, anel both aspecls of his harmonic practice greatly inlluenced !ater composers. Schubert's maslery of ali lhese elements is evident in Der Linclenbaum (NAWM 129) . from IVinterreise. In Muller's cycle of twenty- four poems, a rejected lover is driven by despa ir to journey into his own soul, revisiting in winter the haunts of bis failed summer romance. ln this poem. he recalls lying under a !iJlden lree dreaming of his !ove. Now as he passes the lree, a chillywind rustles the branches, which seem to call him backto lind rest-or death. Fluttering triplets in the piano introcl!uction suggest the rustling leaves of summer, a pleasanl memory; la Ler 1hese 1riplets change 10 depicl Lhe wintry wind. adding chromatic slides lo suggest its uncanny effect. A folklike melody with simple, horn-call harmony evokes the outdoor scene and the lover's past happiness, ironically contrasting with llis current despair. The modined strophic form marks lhe progress of lhe story: the f1rs1 strophe, remem bering summer love, is in major; the second changes the mode to minor to suggest the chill of winter: the third heralds the cold wind with a new, declamatory melody; and the fourth returns to the major mode and the original melody, now sounding more eerie than comfo11ing. The subtle ways in which the music interprets the poem and the changing images ili the poem re interpret musical elements heard previously demonstrate how we ll Schubert conveys meanings througb music that deepen our experience of the text. Schubert's ability lo capture the mood and character of a poem and to make the music its equal in emolive and descriptive power. along wilh Lhe sheer beauty of his music and the pleasure it gives to those who perform it. have endeared Schuhe11·s songs hoth to llis contemporaries and to generations of singers, pianists, and lisleners. His songs set the standard that later song composers strove to rnatch.

Der Lindenbaum 1 Conme i-'I 1 1 Full i-'I 1

Schubert's achievement

60 2

C H A 1>T E R 2 5

• Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ano Musot

RO BERT AND CLARA SCHUMANN

M1isic and poetl}'

Schubert's first important successor as a Lieder composer was Robert Schumann (1810-1856), also renowned for his piano music, symphonies, and chamber m usic (discussed be low and in chapter 26). Schumann wrote over 120 songs in 1840, which he called his "Liecler yea r." He focusecl on !ove songs. inclucling the soag cycles Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love) ;mel Fr<iuenliebe und-leben (Woman 's Love anel Life). He wasinspireel in part by his impending marriage to Clara Wieck, a renowned p ianisl anel composer (see their joint biography anel Figure 25.9). Schumann turnecl to song to express the passions and frustrations of !ove, to make money from a lucra tive geore, and to synthesize music anel poetry, his two great int.erests. Schumann thought that music should capture a poem's essence in its own rerms and that voice and piano should be equal partners. He often gave the p iano relative ly long pre ludes , interludes , or postlu des, s howi ng that the instrument is no mere accompaniment. Schumann typically used a single l'lguration throughout to convey the cent ral emotion or idea of the poem. His cycle Dichter!iebe exempliJies these precepts. He chose sixteen poems l'rom He inrich Heine's úyrical lntennezzo and arrangeel them to suggest tbe course

oi' a refotionsbjp as recaJJed after it bas eucled, from longing to initial fulJiJJment, aba.ndorunent, d reams of reconciliation. anel r esignation. ln the first song, Jrn wun<.krschónen Monat Mai 0n the marvclous month of May, NAWM 130) , the poet 1·emembers Lhe blossoming of newborn !ove in springtime. His tentative feel ings are expressed in the harmon ic ambiguity of lhe opening, shown in Example 25.3. and bis "longing anel desire" th.rough suspensio ns and appoggiatu ras . The music s ignals 1.hat bis love may rema in unrequ ited by r efusing to settle into a key and by ending on a dominam seventh. The hinl of unfulfillmenl is not e xplicit in Heine's poetry, but is Schumann's creation, revea ling llis success in making the piano as important as the voice, 1he music the equal partner of the words in conveying meaning anel emot ions, a11el the composer the cocreator with the poet. Clara Schumann also wro te severa} collections of Lieder. including one coauthored with Robert. Her approach to song parallels her husband's, with long preludes anel postlucl es , similar liguration throughout each song, and voice and piano as equals in conveying the images anel feelings of the poem. For example. in Ceheimes Fltistern (Secret Whispers. 1853), from her last song cycle, the poem is dominated by an imap;e of tbe forest whisperinp; to lhe poec. A continuous sixteentb-note arpeggiation estab lisbes a backdrop of rustling

the study of oleler music, and was among the first and strongest advocates of Chopin, Brahms, and the instrumental music of Schubert. ln his career as a composer, Schumann often focused on one medium ata time: piano music until 1840. then songs that year. symphonies in 1841, chamber music in 1842- 43, oratorio in 1843, dra matic music in 1847-48. and church music in 1852. Meanwhile, Friedrich Wieck was training his elaughter Clara to become a concert pianist. Recognized as a child prodigy from her first public appearance at age nine, she toured Europe and earned the praise of Goethe, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Paganiní. By the age of twenty, she was one of the leading pianis ts in Europe and had many published works to her credit. She and Robert became engaged, but Wieck opposed the relationship, anel it took a lawsuit to permit their wedding in 1840. T he Schumanns concertized throughout Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Netherlands, with Robert conducting and Clara at the piano. ln 1850. Robert became municipal

I Conciso ~ 1 1 Full ~ 1

ClaraSchumari1i

music director ln Düsseldorf. his only salaried position as a musician , but increasing signs of mental instability forced him to resign in 1853. Syphilis, contracted by Schumann early in his life, and depression, which ran in his family. doubttless contributed to episoeles of strange behavior and aura! hallucinations that climaxed in a suicid e attempt in February 1854. He was confined to an asylum near Bonn, where he died in July 1856. Although Clara Schumann curbed her concert touring after marrying Robert and while rais· ing eight children. she continued to perform and compose. After his death, she performed and taught but ceased composing. turning instead to promoting and editing her husband's music. She continued to concertize until 1891 and to teach until her death in 1896.

ROBERT SCHUMANN ( 1810 - 1856) CLARA SCHUMANN (1819 - 1896) One of the most significant marriages in the history of music was that of Robert and Clara Schumann. He was an influential music critic and outstanding composer, especially of piano music, songs. chamber music, and symphonies, and she was among the foremost pianists of her day and a elistinguished composer and teacher. Their careers intertwined, so that one is difficult to describe without the other. Robert Schumann studied piano from age seven and soon began to compose. Son of a writer and book dealer, he had an intense interest in literature, especially Romantic writers such as Friedrich Schlegel, Jean Paul, and E. T. A Hoffmann. After university studies in law, Schumann devoted himself to becoming a concert pianist. studying in Leipzig w1th Frieelrich Wieck. his future father-in-law. When an injury to Schumann's right hand cut short his performing career, he turned to composition and criticism. founeling anel editing the Leipzig Neue Zeitschri{t fa, Musik ( New Journal of Music) from 1;834 to 1844. ln his essays and reviews. he opposed empty virtuosity. urged

603

Song

MAJO R WORKS ( ROBERT SCHUMANN):

0ver 300

piano works. induding Papi/Jons, Carnaval, Fantasiestück.e, K,eisleriana. and Album {o, the Young, about 300 song s: 75 partsongs for mísed, mens' or womens' voices: 4 sym-

FIGURE 25.9: Roben and Clara Schumanr1 in

phonies; piano concerto: 3 piano trios: about 15 other

1850. Daguemotype (earlr phot-ograph) byJohann

chamber works: various works for orchestra. solo with

Ant-on Võllner.

{a.1udr: o·onM:r. r11.1u:1. l'M.«cr:, ruoTo;

orchestra. or voices with orchestra

U~flVÊ U .WANl)O'l'$Kl l flÍ:U1'1' 10h' l)ts MUSf.ES NA110NAIIX/A111'

MAJO R WORKS ( C LARA SCHUMANN) : Piano Trio,

tlCSOUHCt:, NY)

Op. 17; piano concerto: many p,ano pieces; and collections of Lieder

severa!

604

C H A 1> T E R 2 5 • Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ano Musot

EXAMPLE 25.3,

Othercomposers

Schu.,nann. lm wunclerschõnen Monat Mai

leaves and branches, helping to express the poet's reliance on the forest as a l'efuge anel a communicator of life's secl'ets. The Ge rman Lied had numerous othe r exponenls, including Felix Men delssohn, Fanny Hensel. and Franz Liszt, whose piano music is discussed !ater in uhis chapte r; Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf. Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Arnold Schoenberg, whom we will encounter in subsequent chapters; and spccialists in song, such as Louise Reichardt 0779- 1826). Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Josephine Lang (1815- 1880), Robert Ft-an:t (18 15-1892), and Peter Cornelius (l 824-l 874): The songs ofSchubert became known in France in the 1830s and helped to stimulate the development of the romance into a Fre::nch counterpart of the Lied, the mélodie. Hectoi- Berlioz (discussed in the next two chaptel's) wl'ote several, but the high point of the genre carne in the !ater nineleenth century with composers suc:h as Jules Massenet. Gabriel Fauré. and Claude Debussy. The Cennan Lied also intluenced song traditions in IBohemia, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia, and elsewhere.

BRITISH ANO NORTH AMERICAN SONG

Parlorsongs

Canada

A sepa,·ate tradition grew in Creat Bl'ita in, where songs for home perfol'mance were called ballads or drawin.g-rooni ballads. and in the United States and Canada, where they were called parlor sougs. As the names indicate, such songs held an irnpo11ant place in home music-making. but they were also sung in musical theater productions aud public concerts. Songs of tllis type are usually strophic or in verse -refrain forrn. with piano preludes and postludes baseei 011 phrases from the Lune. Their expressivity lies almost ent irely in the voca l me lody. The piano t:ypically suppol'ts the singer with conventional nguration, rather than dramatizing or interpreting the text as il does in many German Lieder. Like much Baroque music (see chap ter 13), this type of song tended not to be treated as unalterable; rather, it served as a vehicle for the perfonners, who were free to adoro the melody and reshape the accompaniment. The mosl famous drawing- room ballad. and probably lhe besl- k.nown song of the nineteenth century, was /-fome! Sweet Home! (1823) by the English composer He nry R. Bishop (l 786- 1855). Bishop was a renowned composel' of thealrical music who is remembered today for this one song. from his opera Cla,ri. lt has a sentimental text in verse-l'efrain fol'm _ regu lar four-measure pluases, and lhe characteristic melodie style of the genre: simple. mostly dia ton.ic , stepwise, and triadie, but also tuneful. charming, and expressive, wilb opportunities for embellishment. Hundreds of composers ali over the English-speaking world wrote parlor

Song

songs. The most notah le song composer in Canada was Scottish-born church musician James P. Clarke (l 807/8-1877), the nl'st to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from a North American nniversity, whose song cycle La.ys of the Ma.pie J...eaf (l 853) was the most substantial work yet published by a Canadian. The leadingAmerican songcomposer of rhe nineteenth century was Stephen Fosler (1826- 1864). Growing up in PittsbLu-gh, he heard German. ltalia.n. and lrish mus ic. He taugh1 himself 10 play sever.al ins1 rurnent.s bu1 had no formal training in composition. AJ'ter his 1848 song Oh! Susanna achieved great success. he signed a contracl with a New York publisher and became the firsl American to earn a living solely as a composer. Like Bishop. he wrote for the stage as well as lhe parlor; his songs for tnLnstrel shows are treated in chapter 27. He typicalJy wl'ote his own texts, which a.re mostly sentimental, sometimes comic. Foster combined elements of British ballads, American mins lrel songs. Cerman Lieder. llalian opera, and lrish folk songs. Seeklng-and l'indingwide popularity, he made his music easy to perfonn anel rememhe1·. His melodies are almost wholly diatonic. mostly stepwise or pentatonic (a feature of both lrish and minstrel tunes). and progress in four -measure phrases. The hannony and accompaniment. are deliherate ly simple, althoup;h the lip,lll'atlon often changes with each pbrase to demarcate tbe form. Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (1853; NAWM 131). one of his best- k.nown songs. illustrates aD these features. ln the last phrase of 1he ftrst verse, shown in Example 25.4, lhe harmonic and melodie simplicity makes the dissonances on "Jeanie," "floating," and "summer" more piquant and lhe faster progression al the end of phrase more expressive. There is even a touch of opera in the brief cadenza. Today, 11ineteenth-centu1y pal'lor songs are thought of as popular music, but they were written for lhe sarne middle-class market as German Lieder and share many of the sarne characteristics. The Lieder of Schubert and the Schumanns have an appeal lo connoisseurs that was recognized al the time EXAMPLE 25.4,

Foster. Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

a,J/ib _/J

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605

Stephen Poster

Full i.'I

Continunm of taste

60 6

C H A 1>T E R 2 5

• Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ano Musot

aud led to their canonization as art songs by later generations. Yet in the ea rly nineteenth century, the chasm between popular and serious music so typical of !ater eras had not yet opened, and ali thcse songs coexisted on a coniinuum in which popular appeal and interest to the learned did nol necessa r ily exclud e one another.

Music for Piano If song was lhe most popular medi um of the oioeteemh cen tu ry, piano mus ic ran a dose second. Piano works sen•ed three overlapping purposes: teaching. amateur enjoyment, and public performance. The úrst category includes graded studies such as Muzio Clementi's Cra.diis ad Parnassiim (Steps to Parnassas, 1817-26), consisting of one hun dred exercises of increasing diffi culty. and the numerous études (studies) and method books by Beethoven's student Carl Czerny (1791- 1857). many of which are still in use today. Toe second category includes dances, lyrical pieces modeled on soog, character pieces. and sonatas. The third category features bravu ra pieces for virtuosos. It is typical of the age tha t many pieces have more than one function: for example, amateur pieces were useel in teaching, Cho pin and Llsit pio neered the étude wo,thy of concert perfol'mance, and many concert artists in cluded sonatas and small lyrical works on their programs alongside virtuoso vehicles. Our look at piano music will include Franz Sch11bert and Robert and Clara Schumann, composers whose songs are discussed above. and Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Hensel. all represe nting the German tra dit ion. But we will also look farther aneld. because it was in piano music tha t the firs t in terna tionally famous composers l'rom Poland, Hungary, and the United States made their mark: F'ryderyk Chopin, Franz Liszt. anel Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

SCHUBERT Among works suitable for the amateur market. Schubert wrote dozens of marches, waltzes, anel othcr dances. His six Moments nwsicaiix (M usical Mome nts. 1823-28) and eight /rnpromptus (1827) ue models oí the short lyrical piece that creates a distinctive mood. Of his numerous works for piano eluet, several challenge the most advanceel amateurs, including the sublimely beautifo l anel moving Fantasy in F Mino r ( 1828). Schuhert's most important larger works for the pia no are his eleven com pleted piano sonatas and the Wanderer Fantasy (1822), whose virtuosity and unusual form fascinaleel later compose rs. The fantasy's four movements are played without breaks between them. anel they combine the general shape of a fou r- movement so nata- fast movement in a truncated sonata form withoul recapitulation, slow theme and variations. scherzo anel trio, and brillianl tina le-with consta nt variation of a rhyth mi c figure take n from a phrase in his song Der Wanderer. which is quoted exp licitly at the beginning of the second movement. Drawing the movements logether thrnugh musical continuity and common material lenl the work an organic unity. The overall key scheme reflects Schuhert's interest in harmonic relationsllips of a third: the move -

Music for Piano

men ts are in C, E. A!,, and C major respectively (though the second movement begins in the relative minor, q). Schuhertwas the fi rst to use sucha complete circlc of major tllirds around the octave. an idca ]ater adopted by Liszt (see below) an<l many other composers. ln his sonatas, Schub ert wrestled with contradictions bet:ween his song· inspired style anel lhe demands of the sona ta. with ils multiple movements and extended forms. His themes typ ically are exp,1tJSive me lodies t.hat do not Jend themselves to molivic development; insteacl, they recur in clifferent en · vironments that suggest new meanings. His sonata-forro movements ofien use three keys in the exposition rather tha11 two (for example, touic for the first theme, mediant for lhe second, and dominam for the closing theme). So me slow movements are particularly songful anel resemble imprompt1.1s. His last three sonatas. in C minor, A major, and B~ major. show a stro ng awareness of Beethoven, as in the stormy f1rst movemenl of the C-minor sonata. But Sehuliert's lyrica l style is ever present. T he sonata in BI, opens wilh a long sinbring melody, wh ich returns throughout the movement in various guises. major anel minor. complete and fragmented. as if set to ncw worels io co rtlliet with those oi' before. Sehubert's approach to sonata forro (discussed fortJ1er in chapter 26) had a nota.ble influence 0 11 later composers.

Sonatas

FELIX MENDELSSOHN One of the leading German Romantic compose rs was Felix Mendelssohn (1809- 1847: see biography and Figure 25.10). He blended influences from Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and his own contemporaries in music that combined contrapuntal sldU and formal clarity with Romantic expression, beautiful melodies. and interesting. often unpredictable rhythms. A virtuoso perfonner on both piano and organ, Mendelssohn emphasized fluenl techniqu e over bravu ra display. preferring th e olcler style of virtuosity typical of Mozart and Clementi to the new virtuosity of his own day. which he viewed as a kind of acrobatics without subsrance. His lai-ger piano works include three sonatas, variations. anel fantasias. His Seven Character Pieces. published in 1827, helped to pop ttlarize that term and denne the genre. Mendelssohn's best· known piano works are his Lieder ohne Worte (Songs wühout Words), forty-eight short pieces grouped in eight books. (Mcndelssohn also displayed his melodie gift in more than one hundred songs with words.) ln the fi.rst "song" (1830). shown in Example 25.5. the similarity to the Lieel is immediately apparent. It coulel be written ou three staves, the bass for the pianisfs left hand. th e arpeggiations for th e right. anel the melody for a singer. Having to cover ali three lines witb two hands produces interesting pianistic prob le ms: how to bring ou! the melody anel bass in a smooth legato while using mainJy the weaker fourtb anel ftfth lingers. and how to share the sixteenth-note nguration eve nly hetween the two hands. The piece exploits tl1e piano's abiHty to respond to the player's varying touch, louder for the mel · ody and bass. softer for lhe accompaniment. even when they are played by l'tngers of the sarne hand. Beyond these technical matters. the piece presents an engaging melody anel interesting accompaniment that convey a distinct mood, like a weU -crafted song. The Songs without Words exemplify Menelelssohn's belief that music can express feelings words cannot (see Source Readi og, p. 609). reflecting the idealist plliJosophy that unelerpins Romantic thought.

Songs without Words

607

608

C H A 1> TE R 2 5 • The Romantic Generat,on: Song and P,ano Musoc

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809- 1847)

Mendelssohnºs precocious musical talent equaled or even surpassed that of Mozart. A renowned pianist, organist, and conductor, and one of the most prominent composers of his generation, Mendelssohn wrote music that combines Romantic expressivity with Classical forms and techniques. Mendelssohn was the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn. the leading Jewish philosopher of the Enlightenment in Germany. Although Jews were slowly gaining legal rights as a spillover from the French Revolution. Felix"s banker father. Abraham, had his children baptized as Lutherans when they were still young and then converted to Christianity himself, adding Bartholdy to the family"s surname. Abraham and his wife. an amateur pianist, encouraged their children·s musical interests, and both Felix and his sister Fanny were trained from an early age by excellent teachers. Thus Felix and Fanny were born into a family that was at the center of Berlin's intellectual life and received every advantage that their parents' money and position could provide. Mendelssohn begari composing seriously at age eleven. At sixteen he composed his Octet for Strings. Op. 20. and at seventeen the magicai Overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Oream. He continued to com pose at an astonishing rate throughout his life, marked by frequent travei. concert tours as pianist and conductor. and positions as music d irec tor in Düsseldorf, music director and conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. and in various capacities

Music for Piano

609

MENDELSSOHN ON T HE M EAN ING O F MU SIC Mendelssohn regarded his Songs without Words as complete in themselves. needing neither lyrics nor titles to convey their meaning. When an admire, wrote to ask what some oi the individual pieces meant. Mendelssohn responded with this lamous statement that argues for music's ability to express thoughts that cannot be expressed in words.

FIGURE 25.10: Felix Mendelsso/111 at twentr. Warercolorportrail by Warren. Childe (/829). (STM'f51UBLlOTl:ll:K ZU BCRLJN, .UERLIN, GE.R.MANY.

PllOT(): b.l',X,IA.I\T RESOUnCE, NY)

in Berlin. He married Cécile Jeanrenaud in 1837. and they had five children. ln 1843. he founded the Leipzig Conservatory, whose faculty included both Robert and Clara Schumann. He died at the age of thirty-eight. after a series of strokes.

People usually complain rhat music is so ambiguous. and what they are supposed to think when they hear it is so unclear, while words are under· stood by everyone. But fo r me it is exactly the opposite-and not jus t with entire discourses. but also with individual words: these, too, seem to be so ambiguous, so indefinite, in comparison with good music. which fills one's soul with a thousand better things than words. What the music I love

expresses to me are thoughts not too inde{inite for words, but rather too definite. T hus. 1 find in all attempts to put these thoughts into words something correct. but also always something insufficient, something not uni· versai. . . . lf you ask me what I was thinking of. 1 will say: just the song as it stands there. And if 1 happen to have had a specific word o r specifk: words in mind for one or another of these songs. 1 can never divulge them to anyone. because the sarne word means one thing to one person and something else to another, because only the song can say the same thing. can arouse the sarne feelings in one person as in another-a feeling which is not. however, expressed by the sarne words. Letter to Mare-André Souchay, Oetober 15. 1842, trans. John Michael Cooper. in SR 161 (6:14). p. 1201.

EXAMPLE 25.5: Mendelssohn . Songwithout Words No. 1. Op. 19, No. 1

Oratorlos St. Paul and Elijah; 5 symphonies. induding symphony-cantala "Lobgesang·: vtolin

M AJOR W ORK S:

concerto; 2 piano concertos: 4 overturés; incidental music to 7 plays. including A Midsummer N/ght's Dream: numer-

ous chamber works. induding 6 string quartets. 2 piano trios. 2 cello sonatas: numerous pieces for plano and for organ: chorai works: and over 100 songs

ROBERT SCHUMANN Schumann's publications up to 1840 were ali for so lo piano, and they include his principal music fo1· that instrument. Aside from a few longer works , the bulk of his piano composilions are short character pieces. often grouped in

Schumann·s titles at·e evoca tive, meant to sthnu late the player's and the lis tener's imaginations and to s uggest possible meanings for lhe unusual effects

co lorfully namecl sets such as Papillon.~ (Butterfli es). Carnaval. Fanta,~ie.~tu:cke

an<l slTik ing co n trasts in his mus ic. ln Camavr,,L (18:\4-:l!'í). for instance.

(Famasy Pieces), Kinderscenen (Scenes from Childhood), and Kreisleriana. AI tractive littJ e pieces for children are gathered in the Album für die Jugen.d (AJJ>um for lhe Young).

Schumann conjures up a masquerade bali in camival season l11rough twenty short pieces in dance rhytbms, each named for a dance, a costumed figure or acquaintancc ai lhe bali (inclucling Clara). or an interaclion behveen revelers.

Titles and

nieanings

C H A 1> T E R 2 5 • Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ono Musot

610

Music for Piano

such as llirtatio.n or recognilion. Among lhe guests are characters he had usecl in his own literary writings to embody different facets of his personality: the impulsive revolutionary Florestan (nametl after lhe hero of Beethoven's Fidelio) and the visionary dreamer Eusebius (after a fourth-century pope). The movement titles evo ke strongly contrasti ng visual anel emotional im ages rhat 1 Contiso M 1 1 Full M 1 are parallelecl in the music. Eusebitis (NAWM 132a). shown in Example 25.6a. is a dreamy fantasy with a slow, undancelike. chromatic bass under a curving 1 Contise M 1 1 Full M 1 me lody in sepfuplets. By contrast, Floresum (NAW \if 132h), in Example 25.6b, is a fasl, impassionecl waltz full of angular melodies, pulsating dissonances, and ofJbeat sfo,wndos. The wallz rapidly shifts ideas but always returns to the opening figure , never fmding a satisfactory cadence. Each of these movements remains a fragment , like many of Schumann's so ngs anel pia no pieces: lacking a clear harmonic conclusion. each piece remains o pe n lo exlensio n. as if it captured a momenta1y thought or experience while implying that there may be more to tbe story. Tbe next movement, Coqu.ette (NAW\11 13:lc), is almost as s trong a contras t, still a waltz but now all lil t and charm. One could view the music of Carnaval as fulli.Ui ng a program s uggested by tbe titles. But it is truer to Schumann's intent to see tbe tirJes as a way to encourage dose attention to the specia l features of each piece and make each onc more intrib'lting anel memorable. Indeed. Schumann claimed that he did no t always know the title of' a piece unlil the music was wriuen, making clear that t he title is itself part of the composition, one that can be decided at a ny s ta,ge from initial conception to final polish. The main function of titles for character pieces was not to specify meanings but to indicate possible avenues for exploration, ioviting the player anel listener to enter the composer's musical world and become in one sense cocreators of that world by clevising their own narratives to explain how the music justines the ütle and vice versa. Is it any wonder that such music anel such titles were so popular?

EXAMPLE 25.6 ,

Excerpts fromSchumanri's Carnaval

a. Eusebius

b. PJ orestan P~1ssionato A E• C li

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Another window into meaning is Schumanri's interest in musical ciphers, representingnames thr ough notes. ln Carnaval. many ofthe movements feature melo dicshased on motives that spel!Asch, the home town ofSchumann's then-f1ancée Ernestine von Fricken: A-E!.-C-:S; (in German note names, AEs-C-H) and A!,-C-8!; (As-C-H). The n rst of these is prominem in Florestan and Coq1iette and is more subúy present in Eu:sebiiis. as shown in Example 25.6. Whjle ioviting ex tramu sical in1.e rp re1a tion , 1hese motives also give unity to the entire work, an organic connection between movements that underlies their surface cliversity.

611

Ciphersand motives. unityand diversi,t y

CLARA SCHUMANN AND FANNY HENSEL The contras ting c,u·eers of Clara Schumann and Fanny Menclelssohll Hensel (1805-1847), who was Felix Menclelssohll"s sister, illusirate the prospects for a nd limitations on women composers in the early nineteenth centu ry (see Music in Context: \Vomen anel the Music Profession. pp. 61 2-13). Both women were highly skilled pianist-composers, yet Schumann played pU-blic conce rts anel puh lished mucb of her music, wbile Hense l, shown in Figure 25. 11 , confmed her music-mal-ing almost entirely to the elomesti c sphere. Clara Schumann won fame as a pianist ata young age anel was at fust bet- Clara Schumann ter known than her h usband, Robe1·t. ln an era when 1he score was often only a starting point for a performer's embellishment, she played wbat was writlen. thus focusing at tention on the composer ralher lhan the performer. ln her day, this idea was pathhreaking. Her performances also provideel opporttJ nities for improvisatio n, a st;iple of ni neteenth-cen tt11y concerts, and for showcasing her own music anel that ofher h ushand. Her piano compositions include polo naises. waltzes, variations, preludes and fugues. character pieces, anda Sonata in G Minor (1841-42). Panny Menelelsso hn had equally thorough training, but for the most part performed and composed in private and semiprivate settings. She studied piano from a young age, anel theo.1 y and composition in hei: teens. She was abnost as talented anel precocious musically as her brother F'elix. yet a musical career was consielered inappro priate for a woman ofher wealth anel class. After marryingpainter Wilhelm Hensel, she lecl a salon, a regular gathering of friends and invited guests. where she played piano and presented her compositions. The salon met in their home in a la rge music room that coulel accommodate up to two hundred people. ranging from bankers, me rchan ts, anel politicians to w riters , art ists, anel musicians such as Liszt and Clara Schumann. She wrote more than four hundred works. mostly in th e small gemes appropriate for home music-making, including at least 250 songs and 125 piano pieces. Her hu sband encouraged her to puhlisb ber music. but she clied unexpectedly of a stroke less than a year after FIGURE 25.11 : Fanny Hensel in an 1842 pormm the publication in 1846 of her Op. 1, six songs. Only br Moritz Daniel Oppenheim. ,., .., 1,..,,s• .. us,,u... in the past forty years or so has she become more than Ntwvoa1UART ••sou•c,. ,Yl

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WOMEN AND THE MUS IC PROFESSION ln the nineteenth century, opportunities expanded forwomen as professional musicians. within limits. Many women were professional singers. and several ma de careers as pia nists. Some were recognized as performers on other instruments, and a few composed works in large ·public .. genres such as symphony and opera, previously considered the exclusive preserve of male composers. Yet women were excluded from most orchestras. and men continued to dominate the Field of composition. For every Clara Schumann who enjoyed the support of her father and husband in her professional career. there were scores of women who faced daunting and often insuperable obstacles. Even Fanny Hensel. despite having virtually the sarne education as her brother Felix Mendelssohn, was constrained by the social mores of the time to confine her musical activities with,n the home. as host of an important salon. Her first published pieces were songs that appeared under Felix's name, and she waited until she was forty (the year before her death) to accept an offer from a Berlin publisher to publish her music in her own right. This minimized her impact outside her circle

and limited her compositions mostly to genres appropriate for home music-making. along with a few chamber works and cantatas. Yet these circumstances, combined with the high quality of her music. have made her a Focus of recent efforts to rediscover the music women composed in the face of the constraints they encountered. Hensel's rigorous childhood training was exceptional. Because women were expected to be amateur musicians rather than professionals, most found it diFFicult or impossible to obtain a musical education comparable to that available to men. The Leipzig Conservatory. which Mendelssohn founded in 1843 (and where both Clara and Robert Schumann were on the facul ty), restricted women to a two-year course in music theory .. especially organized for their requirements." The Paris Conservatoire barred its doors to women composers altogether until the 1870s; singer-composer Pauline Viardot (1821-1910) studied privately with its renowned professor of counterpoint and fugue, Antoine Reicha. ln most music schools, male stu· dents outnumbered women by lopsided margins. The Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where Clara

"Mendelssohn's sister," as scholars have discovered a trove of her works and realized the importance of her salons. Hensers masterpiece for piano is Das Jahr (The Year. 1841). a cycle of character pieces on the twelve months J'rom January through Decemher plus a postlude. The piece embodies the contradictions of HenseJ's career. Jt is a grand conception. taking over ftfty minutes to perform. featuring cyclic links between movements, and incorporat ing chorales re levant to the seasons: an Easter choralc in March. a Christmas chorale in December (NAWM 133). and a N'ew Year's chora le in the postlude. The large scale and ambitious scope of the cycle e levate the genre of the characte1· pi ece, associated with domestic music- making. to a more universal and public levei. The first version of lhe piece inch.,ci eci virtuosir. passages tJ,at on ly players of Hensel's ahi liiy r.oulci master, but she scaled back the difnculty, rewriting lhe end of December and ali of June to make the cycle playahle for a wider range of amateurs. These changes suggest that she intendecl to puhlish it. But the fmaJ fai r copy looks

Music for Piano

Schumann taught in the last years of her life. was unusual in enrolling more than twice as many women as men. Marriage or child-rearing often interrupted even the most promising careers. The Schumanns' marriage was more equal than most, though Clara deferred to Robert by refraining from practicing while he was composing. When work and family carne into conflict, it was almost always the woman who stayed home. Rare was the husband who subordinated his own career to his wife·s. as Pauline Viardot's did; one of Europe's reigning opera divas. she probably earned considerably more than Louis Viardot did as director of the Théâtre ltalien. Few women, no matter how talented or ambitious, were willing to forgo the status and security of marriage for the sake of a public career. The pianist-composer Marie Pleyel (18111875) may have acted capriciously in jilting the up-and-coming Hector Berlioz at age twenty to marry the wealthy piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel (see chapter 26), but it took both pluck and self-confidence to leave Pleyel four years later and strike out on her own. The Polish pianist-composer Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) likewise launched a highly successful international career after separating from her husband. For women wno did compose, their horizons were often limited to genres associated with

domestic music-making. such as songs and piano pieces. Only a few attempted symphonies, operas. and other large-scale works meant to be performed in public concert halls and theaters. which required the cooperation of many professionals to perform. The three symphonies that Louise Farrenc (18041875) wrote in the 1840s were played in public. but only her piano and chamber music made it into print. Farrenc had a privileged position as professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire- the only woman to nold such an exalted post in the nineteenth century-and was tne wife of music publisher Aristide Farrenc. Many of her contemporaries lacked the professional and political connections needed to secure performances and publication of their works. Others lowered their sights, unable or unwilling to compete in a man·s world. Louise Bertin (1805-1877) virtually retired from composing after the failure of her fourth opera, Esmere/da, at the Paris Opéra in 1836. Despite these difficulties. more women were active as professional musicians and more music by women was performed and published in the nineteenth century than in any previous era. The last forty years have seen increasing attempts by scholars and performers to discover, edit, perform, and record their works and to gain a better sense of the roles women played as composers. performers. and patrons of music.

like a one-of· a -kind manuscript: each month is on a differenl color of paper and begins with a hand-draw-n illustration hy her husbanrl Wi lhelm Hensel. Was it intended as a private treasure for the two of them. or as ao exemplar from which a publication could be engraved or liLhographed. complete with ilJustrations'? We may never know, but the reviva] of the piece since the l 980s has deepened our experience of Hensel as a composer and our awareness of the potentially rich legacy of ninetee nth - century music we have yet to discover. FRYD ERYK CHOPIN Frycieryk Chnpin (1 íl l 0- 1849) composed almMt exdusive ly for piano (see biography and Figi.u·e 25.12). His entire output comprises ahout two hu.ndred solo piano pieces, six works for piano and orchestra composed for his concen appearances as ayoungvirtuoso. some twenly songs. and fourchamher works.

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Études

Preludes

EXAMPLE 25.7,

• Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ono Musot

He is revered for idiomatic writing tha1 opened new possibililies for the piano and appealed to amateurs and connoisseurs alike. The geares h e cultivated range from the étudc and preh1de, associatcd with teaching. and types suit· able for amateurs, such as dances and nocturnes, to longer, more challenging woTks, inch1ding ballades, scherzos, and sonatas, for his own pe1formances and for other advanced players. Chopin w rote twenty-seven études in all-twelve each in Opp. 10 (182932) and 25 ( J 832-37) and three without opus ni,mber Because étu des are intended to develop technique, each one as a rule addresses a speci&c skill and develops a single ngure. Among tbe problems addressecl in Op. 25 are parallel d ialOnic and chrornatic 1hirds (No. 6) and parallel sixths (No. 8) in the right hand. chromatic octaves in both hands (No. l O). and sixteenth -note f1ligree in the right handabove a vigorous march in lhe left (No. 11) . Chopin's études were among the lirst with signif1cant a1·tistic content andas such were often p layecl in concert, Jnaugurating the geme of the c o11cert étu.de. Chopin"s twenty-four preludes of Op. 28 (1836-39). like the preludes in Bach"s WeU -Tempered Clavier. cover aJI the major and minor keys. They are br ief mood pictures, less cballeogiop; than liis éludes but like them in

Chopin, Pi-eludes, Op. 28

a. No. lin C Major

l, No.~ i,iA Minor

d. No. 4, i.n EMinor

No. 3 in GMajor

Music for Piano

FRYDERYK CHOPIN (1810 - 1849)

Chopin was the Romantic compuser most closely identiíied with the piano. His solo piano music won him enormous popularity and has been central to the repertoire ever since. He was born near Warsaw to a French father and a Polish mother in a section oí Poland that was then under Russian domination. His tale nt as pianist. improvise,. and compuser showed early. and at age seven he published his first piece and played his Íirst public concert, as a concerto soloist. After studies at the Warsaw Conservatory. he performed in Vienna and toured Germany and ltaly. His pieces with a strong Polish character were especially successful. encouraging him to write more. The national flavor of hís music and its brillíant vírtuosíty won him a strong following in Poland. Seeking an international reputation, he returned to Vienna and to Germany in 1830. When he heard of the failed Polish revolt ag ainst Russia that November, he continued on to Paris, wherehe settled in 1831. neverto see Poland again. Chopin soon met the leading musícians in Paris, including Rossini, Meyerbeer, Berlioz. and Liszt. and entered the highest social circles. He became the most fashionable plano teacher for wealthy students. Their fees meant he could give up publ ic performance and play only at pnvate concerts and at salons hosted by the leading women of the cíty. ln turn. the rarity ofhis appearances íncreased his cachet and allowed hím to charge very hígh fees for lessons. He also earned considerable sums from publications. He never married, but had a tempestuous nine-year affair

FIGURE 25.12: Portrait of Fryderyh, Chopin by

E11gime Delacroix (1838).

<m• LouVKt, PAJUS. rilANC&.

PJIOTO: ERICH I. ESSIXO/ART RCSOURCt, NY)

with the novelíst Aurore Dudevant, known by her pseudonym George Sand. The 1848 revolutions in Paris disrupted his teaching and forced a grueling tour of England and Scotland. By then, he was ravaged by tuberculosis. and he died in Paris in 1849. MAJOR WORKS: 2 plano concertos. 3 piano sonatas. -4

ballades. 4 scherzos, 20 nocturnes. 27 études. 27 preludes. 57 mazurkas. 17 waltzes. 15 polonaises, 4 chamber worl:::s with piano. 20 songs

posing speci&c p erformance problems. They also illustrate the aslound ing inventiveness of his figuration. As shown in Examp le 25.7, No . 1 wraps arpeggiated chords arou nd a tenor- range 1nelody echoed an octave above; No. 2 altemates wide two - no te intervals in the left hand: No. 3 has a sweep ing sixte.e.nlh - note. patt·e.rn: anrl No. 4 foa lnre.s pulsating chorei s that sink chromatically through nonfunctional sono1·ities on lhei1· way to more stahle chords. Such rich ch rom atic harmonies influenced many ]ater composers, as did lhe varied texlures of Chopin's piano writing.

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•

Chopin's umlt.:::es, 11w:::11rkc1s , and polonaises were all stylizecl dances , often composed for his stuelents anel deelicated to them when published. Ali are extremely ieliomatic for piano in their J1guralion and frngerings. The waltzes anel maiurkas, allhough only moderately difflcult, show off an amateur's abiJiry through brilliant passage work anel expression of a mood. Paii of Chopiti's genius was linding ways to wrile music thal even players of limited s ki li could perío rm with sat isfaction and l'eelings or accomplishrnen L. His waltzes evo ke the ballroo ms of Vienna, but his mazurkas and po lonaises are suffused witb tbe spirit of Poland. Tbe polo naise is a cou1·tly. aristocratic dance in ~ meter ol'ten markecl by a rhythmic figure of an eighth and two sixteenths on the fu-st beat. Chopin·s go beyond 1.he stylized po lonaise of Bach's time to assert a vigorous, at times militaristic, national identity. The mazurka was a Polish folk dance that by Chopin's time had become au urban baJlroom dance popuJar among high society in Paris as well as in 1 Concise M 1 1 Full M 1 Poland. The Mazurka in Ili, Major. Op. 7, No. l (1831, l\A\VM 13-1), shown in Example 25.8, illustrates the geme: ~ meter with frequent accents on the sec· ond or third beat and ofteo a dolted óp;ure on the firsl beat; simple accompanirnent; and four-measure phrases combined in periods that altern ate, here in ll=All:BA:ll=CA II form. The melocly. which is instrumental rather tltan vocal in style. displays elements meant to suggest the exotidsm of Polish folk music, includ iugtrills, grace notes, large leaps, anel slurs beginoing on t:he last sixteenth of a beat to imitate folk bowing. When played properly. the tempo is uneven. passing quickly th:rough the opening ascent and then allowing extra time for thc sforza,ido, trills, and E,'1.·ace notes in order to suggest the longer time required for cla ncers to execute a tum ora lift than to take quick steps. 1n the third section. shown in Example 25.8b. Chopin creates an exotic sound with clrone ü:fths, unusual harmonies, anel augmented seconds while keeping thesustain ing pedal on to add an unusual blur. Th e mai·k:ing mbftto indicates a slight anticipation or delay of the right-hand melody while the accompani menl continu es in strict time, ora departure from the reguhr puJse in both hands at once. Like the sustaining pedal. ru bato can be usecl in places where it is not marked, and nineteenth-century performers used both techniques freely as expressive devices. The 11oct11mes are short mood pieces with beautifol, embellished melNoctumes odies above sonorous accompaniments. Chopin's initial conceptio n of the nocturne owed much to the nocturnes by lrish pianist-composer John Field (1782- 1837), who inventecl the genre, and Polish pia nist- composer Maria Szymauowska (1789- 1831). both of whom toureei widely anel were active in St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia. AlJ tb.ree composers aJso drew inspiration from the voca.l nocturne fortwo ormore voices with piano or hnrp accom · paniment. so that the nocturne for piano was esseutiaJJy a songwilhoul words, The style of Chopin"s noctumes draws 011 the bel canto voca l style of Bellini's opera arias (see chapter 27 and NAWM 146). The Nocturne in m Majol', Op. 1 Concise M 1 1 Full M 1 27. No. 2 (1835, NAWM 135). has a notahly expansive accompaniment andan angular mdody. 11 also inr.lurle.s vi rtuoso e.lP.mP.nts. sue.h as para li d thirrl s and sixths (a textw·e chaTacte ristic of the vocaJ noctw·ne) IÍ1l the right hand: wide leaps; and triplets, quintuplets, septuplets, a nd cadenza-like passage work in Lhe righl haud against sLeacly sixteenths in the left.

Dances

Music for Piano

Tho Romontic G onorotion: Song ond P,ono Musoc

EXAMPLE 25.8 :

Chopin. Mazur/w,inB~ Major. Op. 7. No. 1

~~ "':l :él~ ;•' a. Opening

b. TI, i,rd section

Chopin's ba llades and scherzos are longer and more demanding than his other one- movement piano works. Chopin was one of the frrst (along with Clarn Schumann) to use the name ballade for anins trumental piece. His baJlades captu re the charm and tire of Polish 11a1Tative ballads. combin ing these qualities with constautly fresh turns in harmony and form. His scherzos are nol joking or playful, as lhe name of the genre impües, bu t serious and passionate. Yet they are tricky and quirky. which the term also implies, particu· larly in the ir rhythm and thematic material. Chopin's three piano sonatas ali have fom· movements: sonata forro. min· uet or scherw, slow movement, and finaJe. Sonata No. 2 in Ili, Minor, Op. 35, includes as its third movement the funeral march that has become Chopin's most famous piece; orchestrated, the march was played at Chopin's funeral and has been beard by thousancls since. The clistinctive characteristics of Chopin's music stem from his life and career: Polish nationaJism. the conceutratiou on piano music, vü-tuosity for puhlic performance blendeel with elegant lyri cism for the parlor, a nd ori1,ri nality in melody. harmony, and pianism encow·aged equally by the vaJues of the salon and by competition in the marketp lace. His works were s haped hy the demand for amateu r compositions yet spoke to connoisseu rs as well, giving bis music broad and enduring appeaJ. His pieces are as gratifying to play as they are to hea r. His greatest ach ievemP.n t was to liherate thP. piano from imitations of choraJ or ensemble textures and make it souncl the way ouJy a piano couJd sound, producing a whole new repertory of idiomatic sounds and figu rations.

Bal!ades and scherzos

Sonatas

Chopin's achievement

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Music for Piano

FR ANZ LISZT Franz Liszl (1811- 1886) was the mosl eleclrilying pi.ano virtuoso ofhis era and one of its most impor tant cumposers (see biography and Figure 25.13). Already a child proeligy in Hungary anel Vienna, Liszt carne with his fami ly to Paris in 1823 al age twelve. There piano manufacturer Sébastien Erard gave him a seveo - octave granel pliino with the oew double - escapement action that allowed quick repetition, openi ng possibilities l'or vfrtuosity that Liszt was among tbe fust to exploil. As a youngman, Liszt frequented lhe salons that formed lhe core oJ Par isian imeUectual and artistic life. There he met mamy of the mosl notable writers, painters, and musicians oi' the day. He and Countess Marie d 'Agou lt became lovers and lived togelher in Swilzerland and Italy from 1835 to 1839. He recordeei impressions ofboth countries in piano pieces collected inAlbum d'un voyageur (Album of a Trave ler, 183?-38) and Annees de J>ilerinage (Years of' Pilgrimage, Books l and 2 composetl 1838-61. Book 3. 1877-82). ln many of these pieces Liszt responeled to a poem (three on sonnets of Petrarch, one on Da_nte) or work of art (a Raphael paj_nting, a Michelang:elo sculpture). Solo recitais Between 1839 and 1847 Liszt gave over one thousand solo concerts, touring Europe from Portugal and Ireland in the west to Turkey. Romania. and Russia in the east. He was the fu-st pianist to give solo concerts in large halls , forwhich he pioneered the tenn recital, sti l I used today. He was also the ftrst to play a range of music from Bach to his contemporaries and to play enti rely from memory. two innovations that ar e now long- standing n·aditions. His reception at times rivaled the hysteria afforded rock superstars of the rwen tietb century, but he insisted on quiet whi le he played. ln 1848. Liszt ceased to u ring and coocentrated on composition, essentially beginning a secood ca,-eer. His music after 1848 is describecl in chapter 29. lnflueru:es Liszt's music reflects many diverse influences. AJthough he did not speak Hungarian. he grew up in Hungary and wrote numerous works based on or inspired by Hungarianor Romaci (Cypsy) melodies, including nineteenHtmgarian Rhapsodies for piano. His piano style drew on Viennese and Parisian virtuosos and added his own stunning effects. After Chopin moved to Paris in 1831. Liszt adopted Chopin's melodie lyricism. rubato. rhythmic liceose. and harmonic innovations. Paga.nini and Perhaps Liszt's most impo1tant influence was nota pian ist but the great lta lvirtuosity ian violinist Nicolà Pagani.ni (1 782-1840), one oftbe most bypnoticartisls ofthe era, who raised both the technique and the mystique of the virtuoso to llllprecedented heights. Sti:rnulated by Paganini's stunning technical prowess. Liszt resolved to accomplish similar miracles with the piano. He pushed the ilistrument's techn ique to its limits both in his ow:n playing and in his compositions. 1 Conciso :\\ 1 1 Fui! 3\\ 1 Un sospiro (A Sigh. NAWM 136). lhe third of his Three Concert Étndes (1 845-49). illustntes Liszfs virtuosic technique . lt addresses the t.echnica l problem of how to project a slower- moving melody outside 0 1· within rapid broken-chor d figurations. Al lhe beginning. shown in Example 25.9a. lhe pr.rlal snstains harm,,n ies wh ilr. thr. I~''º hanns hr avr. trear.herous lr.aps over each other to pick out a pentalonic tune . The notation makes it look as tbough the pianist requires three hands, but the bottom stave is taken by the left hand. lhe middJe by lhe right. and the top by whichever hand is frce at the time, ind icating left hand by a downward stem anel right by an upward stem.

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

Liszt had an enormous impac t on music , in a variety of roles. As the foremost piano virtuoso of his time, Liszt devised new playing tech niques and textures for piano music. As a composer. he introduced innovations in form and harmony and invented the symphonic poem. As a conductor. he championed Bach, Beethoven, and other composers From the past, alongside Berlioz, Wagner, and other contemporaries. As a teacher, he invented the masterclass, ln which students play for each other as well as for the teacher, and other approaches that remain FIGURE 25.13: Li.s.zt piano reciwl in Berlin. tis depicted in an standard practice today. l 84Z book on tlie ciry. The adulation of til e audience is supported Liszt was bom in a German- bprLanycontemporaryaccounts. bu.llwoaspectsoft,hepiclure speaking region of western Hungary. ore misleading: Liszt no1Tnollyplayed frorn memory rather than now in Ausiria. His father, an official from thescore. andhe insisiedtlteaudience be quie, wltile l1e For Prince Nikolaus Esterházy and an peiformed. (MARK.1:,c n es MUStuM. ln! RUN. PHOTO: Ll'.llKECHT Mus1c &A•tTS amateur musician, taught him piano rttoTo usRAJtY) from the age of six, then moved the family to Vienna so the boy could study piano works , among them the premiere of Wagner"s further with Carl Czerny and theory and counLohengrin in 1850. Severa! well-publicized love terpoint with Antonio Salieri. At the age of eleven affairs with women oF elevated social status-and Liszt played severa! public concerts, inaugurating honors showered upon him ali over Europea dazzling career as a virtuoso. The next yea r the added glamour to his fame as pianist. conductor. and composer. From 1861 until about 1870, Liszt family moved to Paris, where Liszt studied theory and composition with private teachers. resided chiefly in Rome, where, his love affairs After his father's death in 1827. Liszt earned a notwithstanding. he took minor orders in the regular income teaching piano to children o f the Catholic Church. The remainder of his liíe was divided among Rome. Weimar, and Budapest. well- to-do. For the next two decades he pursued a brilliant career as a concert virtuoso. He left the concert stage in 1848 and devoted the rest oF his MAJO R WO RKS: A/bum d'un voyageur. Années de career to composing, conducting, and teaching. pi!lerinage. 19 Hungorian Rhapsodies. Funerailles, Sonata From 1848 to 1861, he was court music director in BMinor. and hundreds of other piano pieces: Mazeppa. at Weimar, where he encouraged new music by Les préludes. and 10 other symphonlc poems: Faus1 Symphony: chamber music. chorai music. and songs conducting performances of many lmportant

Later on. lhe melody appea.rs in tbe rigbt hand in tbe middle of tbe texture . while the left upeggiates below and ahove it. At the climax, in Example 25.9b, difücult leaps and stretchcs show lhe size of Liszt's hands (he could easily span a Lemh) and lead to a chromatic cadenza in pa rallel sixths.

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EXAMPLE 25.9 ,

• Tho Romontit Gonorotion: Song ond P,ano Musot

Music for Piano

Li.szt. Un sospiro

a. Melodyat opening c a n 1 ~ d-.

.1 t,

m.d.

.,.

•m.s.~olce oon grrmo

t--

m,.s.

" v

,.rrTr.C

~ría2

.,;

rr1 trr .,;

.,; -:?.·

rr1tu

.,;

'.rfü

•stemsdownward. lcft hand (m.s. • mano sinistra), stcms upward. right hand (m.d. • mano destra).

b. C!imM: and cadenza

Harmony

The lasl example also illustrates Liszt's use of chromatic harmony. Here a diminished sevemh chord on the fourth beat of measure 36 moves to an augmented triad created by a suspension (D-~- Ai), then the following major triad moves chromatically to an augmented sixth chord (A-q-E-F,). Chromatir. movement from one r.hord to the next is a r.ha racteristir. we already noticed in Chopin (see Example 25.7d), and it became a common element in the music of Liszt and !ater composers. The enstting chromatic cadenza repeatedly dccoratcs q. E. anel G (F, ) with their neighbor notes B~. D,. f;.

and A, anel at the end of the cadenza those neigh.bor notes sound wgether as a eliminisheel seventh that resolves to the augmenteel sixth, showing that the entü-e cadenza served to prolong the latter chord. Such elabora te harmonic and melodie deco1·ation of a dissonant son ority became a typical feature in late Romantic harmony and ultimately led Liszt to experim ents that virtu· ally abandon traditional tonality by prolonging elissonant sonorities without reso lving 1.0 consonance. Liszt's harmony is also marked by hfa interest in third relationships, equal divisions of lhe octave. anel noneliatonic scales. Un sospiro does not move from the tonic to the dominant and back. as most tonal pieces do. but instead moelulates arounel a circle of major thirds, m-F-A-m, dividing the ociave into three equal parts, a harmonic technique pioneered by Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasy and other works (see above). Lisit often useel augmented triads and diminished seventh choreis, whlch div ide the octave equally, and scales based on them, such as the whole-tone aod octatonic scales (discussed in chapter 28). Liszt's technical innovations served both to display his skill and to allow him a vast range of expression anel pictorial effects. The breachh of his poetic imagination is displayed in numerous character pieces and Lieeler, often inspired by the sarne poetic texts. His Sonata in B Minor 0853). modeled on Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, is a masterpiece of formal innovatio n. using four main themes in one extended sonata-form movement subdivieled into th ree large sections analogous to the movements of a Classic-era sonata. Such a combination of single-movement and multimovement structures is known as do11ble-fimctio11. form . Toe themes are transformed and combined in a free rhapsodic order, but one that is perfectly suiteel to the thematic material. Much of Liszt's piano music consists of arrangements. of two types. His operatic para.phmses (some of which he called reminiscences) are free fantasies on exce11>ts from popular operas by Mozart, BeJlini, Donizetti, and Verd i, often retelling the story by varying and conibining the borrowed themes. His lmnscriptions of Schubert songs, Berlioz and Beethoven symphoníes, Bach organ fugues, anel excerpts from Wagner operas are re-creations that brought importantworks to audiences who were either unacquainted with the originais or pleased to hear a familiar work transformed into a brilliant viituoso vehicle. Llszt had a profound influence on performers and composers. As a piano virhioso. he established most of the traditions of the modem recital, eleveloped new playingtechniques. and provided a model for others to emulate. But his cont rihutions as a composer were equally important, opening new possibilities in harmony and form while offering deeply felt music on subjects as varied as looking at an artwork or rememhering an opera. Llszt may have em.boelieel more of the characteristics- anel contradictions- of the Romantic era than any olher musician.

LOUIS MOREAU GOTTSCHALK Another pianist and composer r.ele brated for his audacity anel showmanship was the globe- trotting American Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829- 1869). the nrst American composer with an international reputation. Bom in New Orleans, he sbowed lalent ata young age anel stuelieel piano anel organ from

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Paraphrases and transcriptions

Lisit's reputation

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• Tho Romontic Gonorotion: Song ond P,ano Musoc

tbe age of tive. He went to Paris in 184 1 for more training, and toured France, Switzerland, and Spain in 1845-52. Chopin heard him in 1845 and predicted he would bccome ··the king of pianists." The publication of pieces baseei on melodies and rhythms from his mother·s Caribbean heritage made Gottschalk's reputation . Ais incorporation of American s01mds and rhythms into pi.tno works for lhe European market paral.lels Chopinºs mazw·kas and Liszl°s Hunga rian rhapsodies. bringing elements from the periphe ries of wes1ern European culture into the mainstream of piano music for virtuosos, sa l.ons, and bome music-ma.k.ing. Tbrougb Gottschalk's music, composers from Bizet, Ofl'enbach. and Borodin to Debussy anel Ravel carne to know and at times to imita te the dance rhythms and syncopations of the New World. Gottschalk gave bjg New York debut in 1853 to wildly enthusiastic reviews, playing mostly his own compositions. and spent the rest ofhis lifo touring the United States, the Caribbean islands, and SouthAmerica. During a Caribbean tour in 1857-58, Gottscha lk w rote Souvenir de Porto Rico (NA\VM 137), which uses a theme derived from a Puerto Rican song and features Afro - Ca rib bean rhylhms such as the habanera, tresitlo, and cinquillo. The piece starts sofi and simple, builds to a clímax l'ull of extraordinary syncopations. and fades away. depicting a band of musicians gradualJy approacbing, passing by. and marching off into the distance. [t is a ped'ect example of nineteent h-century piano music designed to appeaJ to the middl e-class audience, co mbining an extramusical program , an e xotic subject. novel melodie and rhythmic material. virtuosic showmanship. and rewards for the amateur perfonner.

The Romantic Legacy Home music -making. the engine that drove composers to produce a constant stream of songs and piano pieces, declined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. victim of new recreati.ons for women like bicycling anel of new technologies like radio and the phonograph. Young people today still study piano. but family gatherings to make music have now ali but died out. so thal Licdcr, parlor songs, and piano pieces rarely serve their original func tion. Some pieces disappeared with that change, others were established as art music, anda few beca me old favorites of popular music. The Lieder of Schubert and Robert Schumann formed th e core of the art song repe1ioire. paralleling th e Bach l'ugues. Handel oratorios. Haydn string quartets, anel Beethoven symphonies as works that defme a genre and serve as models for later composers. Foster's songs played a similar role for American parlor and popular song. Songs of all three composers have been sung in an unbroken tradition from their time to ours. preserving the genres they represented and openingthe door for mod em pe,fonners and listeners to explore music by thei.r less wel.1-known contemporaries. By the 1820s. some works were already regarded as classics of piano music. including Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (now played on piano rather than harpsichord) and the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven. But Mendelssohn·s Songs without Worcls. Schumann's character pieces, Chopinºs études,

Tho Romontic Logocy

preludes, dances, and ballades, and Liszt"s étucles and character pieces redefmed piano music and became central to the repertoire of permanent classics for thc piano. The sonata anel fugue beca me prestige genres in which composers could demonsu·ate their mastery of a historically importa.nl form, and lhe sonatas of Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt have daimed a pro minem place in the repertoi.re. Al the s:une time. mos t of the piano music written for th e home ma rket o r for virtuoso display fell oul of fashion, as perfo rmers, critics, and historians focused on composers and works they considered to be the h'reatest and dismissed pieces they judged merely enlertaining. Musi.c by women was treated differently in a century that expected musical genius onJy from men and regarded rnusic as no more than a pleasing adornment for women. As these attitudes were cha ll enged in tbe last decades of the twentieth century. schola.rs sought lo unearth music by women. especially music that met the highest standards. Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel have emerged as keyngures because of their fami ly ties to composers central to tbe tradition; their compositions and descripLions of their playing make clear they wottld have been greal musicians even if Robert Schumann and felix Mendelssohn bad never been born, and their stories functio n almost. as parables about how social altitudes nurture and hinder talent. They are far from tbe only women composers of incerest from the period: Louise Reichardt. Josephine Lang, Pauline Viardot, Marie Pleyel, Maria Siymanowska, Louise F'arrenc, and Louise Bertin have been mentioned, and others include Em ilie Zumsteeg 0796- 1857). Johanna Kinkel (18 10- 1858), andAugusta Browne (1820-1882). Current research is bringing to light music by many other lalented women composers of the nineteenth cent1J1-y. The melody-cenlered style of song and piano music affected every olher geore of lhe nineteenth century. Never before or since were symphonies. chamber works, and choral music so ful.l of songlike melodies. Opera composers usecl them too, as witnessed by. for example, Senta"s ballad in Wagne1.-s Derfliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman). The Romanlic view of music has been even more influential. We no lon ger view co mposers as a11isans wri ting music to suit their patrons, as most earlier composers saw themselves. but as a1iists expressing their own ideas and feelings. Originality, fostered by com petition in the marketplace and inscribecl by Romantic views of individual genius. becamc a requiremen1 for ali la ter composers. encouraging an ever more rapid pace of change in musical scyle for the next two centuries. in popular and art music alike. Romantic concepts of absolute music and of musical works as autonomous and organic remained inlluential throughout the twentieth century. underlying many works and innovations that were far from Romantic in style. Indeed. most of our attiludes about music, especially those we barely question , are those of the Romantic era. ~ Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

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Orchestral Music

ROMANTICISM IN CLASSICAL FORMS: ORCHESTRAL , CHAMBER, AND CHORAL MUSIC Alongside the fash ion for home music-making explored in the previous chapter, the nineteenth century saw phenomena l growth in public concerts. Amateur orchestras and chorai societies carried amateur performance into the public sphere, and new professional orchestras, touringvirtuosos, concert societies. and entrepreneurs helped to create a vibrant concert life based on ticket sales to ali classes of society. Chamber music, once primarily intended for the enjoyment of the players themselves. was now often performed as concert music. These changes were accompanied by the gradual emergence of musical classics, pieces that continued to be performed regularly long after the composer's death. From the 1780s through the 1870s, classical repertoires formed nrst in eh oral music, starting with the oratorios of Handel anel Haydn, and then in orchestral anel chamber music, beginning with symphonies and string qua1iets of Beethoven. Haydn. and Moza1i. lnsteacl of falling out of fashion after a generation, as music had always clone, some pieces attained a permanent place in musica l life, akin to the classics of literature or a1i. Living composers in these genres could aspire to similar per manence for their own music. ln part because oleler music for orchestra. chamber ensemble, and chorus was still being performed. nineteenth-century composers mixeel retrospective genres and forms with new musical styles. They

held ou to 1heir Romarnic icleals-expressing feelings sincerely and projec1ing a distinctive personality. But composing in gemes with long traditions stretcbing back generations, such as oratorio, symphony, anel string cruartet, and in trad itional fonns such as sonata form anel fugue. prompted a rnore acut.e sense of historical awareness than is evident in 1he newer gemes of song anel piano mus ic eliscussed i n the previous chapter. Composers sought 10 balance traditioo and individuality. some leaning toward innovation. oihers towanl emulating the past. The result is a rich tension in much of this music between Romantic content and Classical genres and forms.

Orchestral Music THE NINETEENTH · CENTURY ORCHESTRA Central to public concert life was the orchestra . The number of orchestras multiplied many times over. and concert societies playeel an increasingly signincant role. from the St. Petersburg Philhannonic Society in Russia (foundecl 1802) to the Musical Fund Society in PhUaelel.phia (f'ounded 1820). Some orchestras. such as the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna. were made ttp primarily of amateurs. while others were organized and staffed by professional musicians, includingthe Lonelon Philharmonic (founded 1813), New York Philharmonic (l 842). and Vienna Philharmonic (also 1842). Playing in an orchestra became a profession. as it remains today. By the end of the century, mosl major cilies in Europe anel the Americas hael professional orchestras that provided regular concert se1·ies. though not necessarily full time work for the musicians. ln addition to concert orchestras (the main suhject of this section), there were orchestras in opera houses. theaters, cafés, and dance halls. like the famous Viennese dance orchestras led by Joseph Lanner (1801-1843) and Johann Strauss the elder (1804- 1849). Orchestras grew from about forty players al the beginning of the century to as many as ninety at its close. Flutes. oboes, clarinets, and bassoons acquired elaborate systems of keys by mielcentury (see pp. 590- 91). making the instruments easier to fanger quickly and play in tune in most keys. \Vinel instruments with extendeel ranges. notably piccolo. English horn. bass clari net, and contrabassoon, were occasionally used in orchestras. Valves were added to horns anel trumpets, allowing players to reach all chromatic notes thrnughoul the instruments' ranges, and the tuba joined the brass section in the 1830s. The greater variety of instruments provided a much wider range of colors and color combinations. Composers could now treat the winds and brass more as equals to the strings. often contras1ing one section with another. ln some works, bass elrum, triangle, and other percussion instruments joined the timpani. The new, fully chromatic pedal harp was sometimes addeel, often playeel by a woman because of the harp's loog association with domestic

Size and

composition

62 5

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626

TIMELINE Romanticism in Classical Forms MUS ICAL

HISTORICAL

St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society founded

• 1802

London Philharmonic Society founded

• 1813

Handel and Haydn Society founded in Boston

• 1815

End of Napoleonic Wars

• 1818 first steamship c,osses

the Atlantic Franz Schubert. U11fi11islied Symphony

• 1822

Schubert, String Quintet inC Major

• 1828

Felix Mendelssohn conducts Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Berlin

• 1829

Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique

• 1830

Revolutions in France and Belgium

• 1830

music - making. Otherwise, orchesm1 I players were usuaUy ali men, and witb rare exceptions-including a haadful of aJlwomen orchestras- that situation did not begin to change until lhe mid-lwenlieth century, after women had won some equal rights and become more integrated generally in the work forces of Europe and the Americas. CONDUCTORS Eigbteenth-century orchestras were led from theharpsichord or by the leader oJ the vi.olins, who might some times beat ti me with a violin bow or roll of music paper. ln the nineteenth century. lhis role was gradually laken over by a co11duc1.or who used a baton to beat time and cue entrances. The practice of conducting deve loped .l irst ai the Paris Opéra, where since the seventeenlh century performances had been led by beating lime with a s lick, some limes audibly; by thela1e eighteenth century, this had evolved into silent p;estures with a baton by the chef dorchestre Oeader of the orchestra), who not only indfoated the tempo and coordinated the performers on stage and in the pil but also shaped the music's phrasing and character. German composer, violinist, and conductor Lou is Spohr (1784- 1859) is said to have introduced conducting with a baton into orcheslral music whi.le rehearsing the London Philharmonic in 1820, and the baton was soon adopted by Carl Maria von \..(Teber (see chapter 2 7). Felix Mendelssohn, and others. Although at ôrst thc conductor simply kept the orchestra together, by lhe 1840s conductors were drawing atten tion to themselves as interpreters of the music, exp loiting the Romantic cult of the individual. Conductors like Louis Jullien (1812-l 860), shown in Figtu-e 26.1, formed 1heir own orchestras and became stars on the sarne order as the instrumental virtuosos.

AUDIENCES ANO CONCERTS Court orchestras in the eighteenth centmy had played to mixed audiences of nohility and city people. The new orchestras drew a primarily middle -class aud ience. often the very sarne peop le whose enthusiasm for home musicmaking sustained the market for songs and piano music. Many orchestral pieces were available in pÍilno transcriptions for home performance, which is often how people got to know tbem; the eiqierience of hearing an orchestra was still a relatively rare event. Yet orchestral music carried a special prestige. in part because of the lasting impression of Beethoven's symphonies. The prominence given to 01·chestral music in lhis book and in mos! histories of music is out of proportion to the place it occupied in the activities of most musicians and ali but the elite public during the nineteenth centuiy. but the emphasis is justi&edby the importance accorded to il by audiences, patrons, crilics, and lhe cornposers themselves.

Orchestral Music

Nineteenú1-centu1y concert programs offered a diversity of works. For example, the London Pbilharmonic before 1850 typically fealured a symphony. an aria or chorai composilion. a conceno or chamber work, another vocal piece, anda closing symphony or overtu re. Jullien's Promenade Concerts in London, less formal and aimed ala larger audience. included quad rilles and other dances (often performed jointly with military bands), chorai music, and a symphony. The variety of perfo rrning forces and the alte rnation of instrumental and vocal music continued a tradition that went back to tbe nrst public concerts (see chapters l 6 anel 20). The concer1 of music for a si ngle medium, inaugurated by Liszt's solo piano recitais in 1839. did not become lhe rule until q Lúte late in the century.

627

Felix Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 4 (ita/ian)

• 1833

1834 Victor Hugo, The Hunchback o/ Notre Dame

• 1837

Berlioz, Requiem

Queen Victoria succeeds to British throne

• 1837

• 1838

Photography developed

Founding of New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic

• 1842

T H E RISE OF TH E CLASSICAL REPERTO IRE

One of the most remarkable developments in the entire his • 1844 Mendelssohn. Violin tory of music is the emerp;ence in the nineteentb centlU'Y of a Concerto repertoire of musical classics by composers of the past. This • 1844 First intercity telegraph, process happened at cliffcrent times for different gemes. but between Baltimore and it is evident in the programs of lhe major European orchesWashington tras. ln concerts of the Leipzig Gewandha11s Orchestra, for • 1844 First edition of T/1e example. aboul 85 percenl of the pieces performed in lhe SacredHarp l 780s were by living composers; by 1820. the percentage had dropped to about 75 percent. Over the next liftyyears, the sit• 1846 Clara Schumann. Piano uation reversed complelely. so that by 1870. three-quarters of Trios ln G Minor the repertoire was by composers of past generations. cbieíly • 1848- 49 Revolutions Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and the early Romantics. throughout Europe Severa ! factors lay behind this change. Hayd n and • 1851 Robert Schumann Beethoven achieved such popularity during their lifetimes completes Symphony No. 4 lhat their music continued to be performed after their deaths, as did some works by other composers. Music by these earlier • 1856 Lowell Mason. Bethany composers was often cheaper (and thus more profttable) to publish, more readily available, and easier fo r amaleurs to pe rform than the newennusic. Perhaps mostimportat1l, in fluentia l musicians and critics actively promoted the music of the pastas a countenveight to thal of the present. Virtuoso performer-composers of the 1820s to 1840s. such as Paganini and GottschaJk, gaincd mass appeal through spectacular showmao · ship and heightened expressivity. often at the expense of tJ1e musica l va lues esteemed by connoisseurs. By contrast. Ha.ydn. Mozart. and Beethoven had aimed their music at all listeners, seeking LO provide something of vaJue for eve,y taste. Seri ous musicians now championed their works as musica l clas sics. masterpieces that combined compositional craft with emotional depth. and immediale appeal with lasting interest. The new seriousness of the repcrtoire was matched by a new seriousoess The ejj'ect on in concert behavior. [ncreasingly. audiences were expected to be quiet and n 11,rli1mce.~ listen attentively to the music rather than be free to converse and socialize as was typical of eighteenih-century concens. The silent auilience became one of the delining tra its of c lassicaJ music conce11s and rema ins so today.

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• Romant1c,.m in Classocal Form>; Orchestral. Chamber, and Chorai Music

Orchestral Music

629

THE NEW ROMANTIC STYLE: SCHUBERT

FIGU RE 26.1: Concert ot Covent Gorden Theatre in London. showing Louisjullien (i.n the center of rhe picture) coriducting his orchestra (in.jront) an d fo1ir m.ilitary' bands (on risers i,i 1,ack). ln, the ruiddleof tlte 11111sici<u1s. who are sum>"nded on three sides by the audience. Jullien co,iducls without a score. tuming as ,ieeded to give wes-as much the virtuoso (and centerof anentiori) as anyopera star. <souT11AMYroN uN1v<nsITv we11A11v)

The effect on pe,fo,mers

The effect on composers: Beethover."s legacy

The movemenl to establish a classical repertoire was aided by conductors like Jullien, who saw that they could star as in terpreter.s of t he classics. and by younger virtuosos such as violinist Joseph Joachim (1831 - 1907) and pianist Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), who helped to popular ize the concertos of Beethoven. Mozart. and other older composers. Although most of thcse con ductors and virtuosos also composed. the prima1-y way to prove themselves as pe1formers gradually shifted from performingtheir own music to playing the cla.ssics. This was a profound change that permanemly altered lhe nature or perlormers' work and t raining. The rise of the permanent classical repertoire was just beginning in the l 820s, and its fullest effects were felt hy composers in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as we will see in !ater cl1apters. Yet even before 1850, composers of orchestral music strongly felt the presence of the old masterpieces. Most important was Beethoven, whose orchestral works were construed as artistic statements by lhe comp oser, not rnerely dive r ting entertain ments, as much music had been in earli er eras. Ali !ater compose rs for orchestra labor ed in his sh adow, knowing t h at th ei r works wou ld inevitably be compared to bis and thus must meel a similar standar d while offering something clistinctive. lncleecl. t he histmy of o r chestral music in the nineteenth century can be seen as a series ofvaried responses to Beethoven's example, as each composer explored ways to say something new and individual within lhe fonns Beethoven had cu.llivated.

One response, pioneered by Schubert in the 1820s. was to maintain the out ward for m of the symphony while infusing il with contem derived from the n ew Romantic style developed in Lieder and piano pieces. This style included a grea ter focus on songl ike melodies, adventuro us h annonic excu.rsions. innova tive textu res, enchant ing instrumenw l colors, stroag contrasts, and heightened emotions. for the mature Schubert and his fellow Romamics, themes we re the mos( impotiant element in any forro, rather than the phrase structure and the harmonic structure emphasizcd in eighteenth- century descriptions of form (see chapter 22). White Classic-era symphonists de monstrated their origi na lity through the ways they treated conven tiona l material. Schubert and bis successors so ught lo make both their thematic material and theil' treatment of it as individual and memorable as possihle. Scbubert wr ote severa! symp honies in his tee ns and ea rly twenries , but his ftrst attempl a t a large-scale symphony carne in 1822 with the two movements now called lhe Unfinished Symphony, originally planned as a four movemell[ work in B minor. After a brief, mysterious introductory subject played by the strings without accompani.men t, the úrs t movement presents a soulful. undttlating. singable melody, shown in Example 26.1 a, that is quite different from the typical fust themes of his predecessors and less easily fragmented i nto motives for symphonic develop ment. lts soaring extensio n , fui] of anguish and longing, was also a departure . The second theme, shown in Example 26. l b , is a relaxed, graceful melody in the s tyle of the Landler, an Austrian counny dance . These two themes share three rhytlunic ideas, ma.rked in the example, wbich dominate the exte nsions that follow each theme and thus unify the entirc exposition into an organic whole. lnstead of centering the develop ment section and coda on these two themes, as Haydn or Beethove n might have done, Schubert focuses on the introductory subject. revealing the almost demonic potenti.al latent in its initial mysterious appearance. ln this way, Schuherl was following the custam for symphonic deve lopment whil e devoting the main thematic areas to the presentation of memorable, lyrical melodies like those ofhis songs and piano works. ln bis Symphony No . 9 in C Major (1825), known as the Creat, Schube11 blendcd his Romantic lyricism and Bccthovenian drama within an expanded

EX AM PLE 26.1,

Schubert, Un

Un n nished

Symphony

The Great Symphony inCMajor

nn is hed Symphony, first movement

a. First them e Oh. , .,-ct. ,

• 1

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b, Second them e b.

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~ .--=-..

il.

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™ -~pFEttlttígtfçlET~i=~éiffft!étfy;rtf-rltEçd:th PP

630

C H A 1> T E R 2 ~ • Romontic1>m in Clossocol Forms: Orchestrol. Chomber, ond C horo! Music

EXAMPLE 26.2,

Orchestral Music

Sclwbert, Great Symphony i.n CMajor, opening offirst. mooement

SCHUMAN N ON SCHUBERT'S SYM PHONY IN C MAJOR Classical l'orm. Tbe first movemen t opens with an llnaccompanied melody played softly i n the horns, shown in Example 26.2. This m elody repeats severa! times wi.th varied accompaniments as in a set of variations, alternating wilh melodically rclated ideas that depart from tonic harmonies. 0nly in r et rospect do we discover that this lyrical section is a long, s low introduction to a sonata-form AJlegro, whose r hythmically charged , easi ly fragm ented ftrst the me shows the in11ue nce of Haydn and Beethoven . Typical of Schubert's app roach to s onata form is the three-key expositio n , i n which the second th e m e begi ns in E minor before settling i.nto the dorninant, G major. This tonal plan combines Schubert's long-standing interest in key relationships of a third with the traditional polarity of tonic and dominant. Elements of the openinp; horn melody return durinp; Lhe second and closinp; themes, elevelopmen t, anel coda. bind ing together t he lyrica l introdu ct ion anel the more motivic. constantly developingAllegro. Robert Schumann praised the C-Major Symphony's "heavenly length" (see Source Reading), appreciati ng t he expansion of t he form of ali four movements lo accommodate Schubert's beautiful m elodies and orch eslral effecls. Schube11 had found an orchestral voice thal co uld stand any comparison. Uniorcunately, neither the Unfinished Symphony n or the Creni C -Major Symphony was publicly perfo rmed =til many yea rs after the composer's dea th. Yet this gave them a special cachet: the story of their p osthumous discovery. fust performances, anel ultimate s uccess was touchingly Romantic in itsell', litting Schuberfs image as a composer wh o died too young and spurring the notion that his life was itself an "unfmished symphony"- which later became Lhe title of a book anda movie about his life.

PROGRAMMATIC ROMANTICISM : BERLIOZ An approach eliJJ'erent from Schuber t's was reconceiving the symphony as a programmatic work and allowing it to assume uncon ventional form to s uit the program. Following Beethoven's lead in bis Fifth and Sixth Symphonies . Hector Berlioz (1803- 1869; see biogr aphy and figure 26.2) shaped his sym p honi es around a series of emotions that tel1 a story. Symphonic ln the Symphonie Jantastique. which Berlioz wrote in 1830 while still a confanlastique servatory s tude nt (fmale in NAWM 138), the composer dwells on tbe passions arouseel by his thoughts anel fantasies about a woman whose love he hopes to 1 Conciso :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1 win . He based the s tory on his own infatuation with the lrish actress Harriet Sm ithson. Beethove n bad subjecteel the ma in the me in both his Third anel Fifih Symphonies to a series of exciling adventLLres (see chapter 24). Berlioz folnowed this precede nt in h is elevice of the irl.,fo jixt? (iixed iclea 01· oh~e~sion), a melody that he used in eacb movement to re presen t lhe obsessive im.age of the hero's beloved, transforming it to su it tbe mood and situation at eac:h point in the story.

When he visited Schubert's brother Ferdinand in 1839. Robert Schumann d,scovered the manuscript of Schubert's G,eat Symphony in C Major, which had never been performed in public. Through Schuma nn's intercession it was performed that sarne year at the Gewandhaus Concerts ,n Leipzig under the direction of Mendelssohn. ln a review of the piece the following year. Schumann praised it as revealing both an unknown aspect of Schubert and a new approa eh to the symphony.

1 must say ar once that anyone who is not yet acquainted with this symphony knows very little about Schubert. When we consider ali that he has given to art, this praise may strike many as exaggerated, partly. no doubt, because composers have so often been advised. to their chagrin. that it is better for them-after Beethoven-"to abstain from the symphonic form." . . On hearing Schubert·s symphony an d its bright. flowery, romantic life. the city [Vienna] crystallizes before me. and I realize how such works could be born in these very surroundings... Everyone must acknowledge that the outer world-sparkling today, gloomy tomorrow-often deeply stirs the feeling of the poet or the musician;

and ali must recognize, while listening to this sym phony. that it reveals to us something more than mere beautiful song, mere joy and sorrow. such as music has ever expressed in a hundred ways. leading us into regions that, to our best recoliection. we had never before explored. To understand this, one must hear this symphony. Here we find, besides the most masterly technicalities of musical composition. life in every vein. coloring down to the finest gradation. meaning everywhere, sharp expression in detail. and in the whole. a suffusing romanticism that other works by Franz Schubert have already made known to us. And then the heavenly length of the symphony, like that of a thick novel in four volume s (perhaps by Jean Paul. wl,o was also never able to reach a conclusion), and for the best reasonto permit readers to think it out for themselves. How this refreshes, this feeling of abundance, so contrary to our experience with others when we always dread to be disiliusioned at the end and are often saddened through disappointment. From Neve leitschrift (ür Musik 12 (1840): 82-83. after the translation by Paul Rosenfeld ln Robert Schumann. On "1usic and Musicians. ed. Konrad Wolff {New York: Norton. 1946). 108-11.

To ensure that lús listen ers would understanel the feelings and experien ces tha t inspired the symphony, Berlioz s ubtitled it "Episode in the Life of an A11ist" anel provided it with an autobiograph ical program (see NAWM 138 for the program anel complete idée fixe). The work is thus a musical drama whose words are not spoken or sung, but r ead silent!y; Berlioz wanted liste ners lo rcgard the program "in the sarne way as the spoken worels of an opera, serving to inrr oduce the mu sica l numbers by descr ibing the situation that evokes t.he pa rticular mood and expressive character of each ." The situations are elepicted in the passionate prose of a young and sensilive artisL Lilerary in fluence~ in the program inr.lurle Goethe'i. Fau.~t anrl Thomas De Quinr.ey·s Confessions of an Eriglish Opium Eater. Musical innue nces, besieles Beethoven. aJ'e From the opera thea ter: Gluck, Spontini, Rossini, Weber, and Meyerbeer (see chapler 27).

631

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Orchestrol Music

633

Hector Berlioz. in aportrai1 by Emile Signo! pam1ed in 1832 during Berlioz 's sojouni in Rom.e. (v11.v. Mto1c1. 110Mt:. 1TALY, FIGURE 26.2:

H ECTOR BERLIOZ (1803- 1869)

PITOTO: SCAlA/All'I' 81:SOURCE, NY)

Hector Berlioz. who created more than a dozen works that have gained t,he status of musical classics and who wrote the nineteenth-century ·bible • on orchestration, played flute and guitar bu t never learned how to play piano. Born in southeastern France, he developed a fascination for music , taught himself harmony from textbooks , and began composing in his teens. His father sent him to medical school in Paris, but Berlioz frequented the opera, srudied composition at the Paris Conservatoire. and eventually abandoned medicine for a career as a composer. After several attempts, Berlioz won the Prix de Rome in 1830. a composition prize that paid a stipend for him to live and work in Rome. By then he had become enchanted with Beethoven's symphonies, Shakespeare's plays, and the lrish actress Harriet Smithson. whom he saw play Ophelia in Hamlet. His obsession for her inspired his Symphonie fancastique , an attempt to express his feel· ings in the context of a Beethovenian symphony. lts premiere in 1830 established Berlioz as a leader of the radical wing of composers in France.

Smithson spurned Berlioz for good reason: they had never met, and practically all she knew of him were mad love letters he sent her. Berlioz then became engaged to a nineteen-year-old piano teacher. Camille Marie Moke, but he had hardly begun his required residence in Rome when she turned around and married piano maker Camille Pleyel. ln his autobiography. Berlioz recalls his response: "1 must at once proceed to Paris and kill [Camille and her mother]. After that. of course, 1would have to commit suicide." He made it as far as Nice, then wisely relented and returned to ltaly. Back in Paris in 1832 , he courted Smithson again and they married the following year. The ideal Ophelia, however. turned into an alcoholic, and their marriage fell apart after a few years and the birth of a son. Although Berlioz won a few fervent advocates for his compositions, his music was too radical to win steady support from the musical institutions in Paris. He turned to music criticism as his chief profession, as Robert Schumann did around the sarne time. He got his music played

The Jirs! movement. "'Dreams and Passions." featul'cs a slow introduction folllowed by an Allegro that has the outward cha racteristics of sonata form. including contrasting themes anda repeated expositio n . Toe idée ó.xe. a melody with the long, arching line of an operatic aria, serves as the hrst theme , accom pan ied by an irr egu larlythrobbingligure t hat i mitates t he hero's racing heartbeat at :â.rst sight ofthe woman. Example 26.3a shows the ó rst phrase of the theme in its originaJ l'orm. The develop ment presents a series of dramatic ep isodes. includ iug a foll statement of the main theme in the dom inant, and cuLninates in a triumphant tuttifortissimo statement of the theme in the touic that is more a resplendent apotl1eosis than a recapitulation. For the second movement. "A Ball." Berlioz replaced the classical minue! with a waltz. enacl ing a scene ata ba ll where the he1·0 catches a glimpse of his beloved. embodied bythe waltzli ke versi on oi' hertheme s hown h1 Exa mple 26.3 b. The s lowthird movement. "ln the Country." is a pasto rale in F major with piping shepherds. hiwl calls reminisce nt nf' Beethnven 's Pn,stom,! Symph nny (see chap ter 24). and distant thunder. As tl1e l1er o walks in the countm-y. he suddenly thinks of his beloved, interweaving phrases of her theme as in Exarnple 26.3c-its rhythms s ub tly at odds with the pastoral : meter-with ominous instrumental

by putting on concerts himself. working as his own impresario, and produced a flood of impor tam compositions. ln addition to being a brilliant prose writer. Berlioz was one of the most literary of composers. Many of his com positions were inspired by his reading of Virgil (his opera Les T,oyens. The Trojans), Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, King Lear Overcure. Beatríce and Benedict, and other

works), Goethe (La damnation de Faust), and other writers. ln 1835 he began to conduct, and soon he became one of the first to make a career of orchestral conducting. touring across Europe presenting his own works and music by other composers. After Smithson died in 1854, he married the singer Marie Recio, with whom he had long had an affair. ln his final years, Berlioz grew ill and felt bitter at the lack of recognition for his music in France. He died at sixty-five. having outlived two wives, his son, and most of his family and friends. MAJO R WO RKS: 3 operas: Benvenuto Cellini. Les

Troyens, and Béatrice et Bénédict; 4 symphonies. including Symphon,e fant11stiqoe. Harold e11 lcalie (with viola solo). anel Romêo er Ju/,erre (with soloists and chorus); 4 conce,r

La damnation de Faust. Te Deum, and L'enfance du Christ; orchestral son9 cycle Les nuirs d'éré and other son9s with overtures: over 30 chorai works, induding Requiem,

orchestra ar piano

recitatives that suggest bis worries about her feclings for him. ln the fourth movement, "March to the Scaffo ld," the hero dreams of h.is own execution in a macabre orchesnal tour de force. 0nly the opening of her motive appears, just befor e heis guillotined aLlhe end. The lifth and final movement (NA\VM 138) depicts a " Dream of a Witches' Sab bath ,'' p resentingtran sformations of th e idée óxe and two other themes, :Ô.J'St singly. then in combination. The new for m of the idée lixe , in Example 26.3d, is a b'ro tesque caricature, i mplying that the beloved's depravity has been revealed. 0ne of the other themes is the chant sequence Dies irae. part of the Mass for the Dead: this movement inaugurated a longtradition of using the Dies irae, especially its open ingph rase, as a symbol of dealh. the macabre. or the diabolical. 111e outli nes of a trad itional sym p hony aa re stil l here, in movemen ts that resemble (or perhaps alJude to) a sonata with slow introduction, a dance in minuel - and- !rio form. a slow quasi- r ondo form. anda fast fmal e. But the materia'I is constan t ly developing. sel,lom repeated exactly. and the sequence of even ts is so unusual that it would suggest a na.rrative even if none we re p rovided. Throughout, the transformations of the main theme help to tel1 the sto1y, as it ass umes a wide range of contras!ing char actcrs.

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Orchestral Music

EXAMPLE 26.3, Berlioz. Symphonie fantastique, coniparingfirst pltrase o/ t.he idêefixe in its 11arious transfonnations

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Th e Syniphonie fantastique is origi nal n ot on ly in bending the symp hony to serve narrative and autob iographical purposes but also in Berlioz's astounding ability to express the emational content of his drama in music of great communicative power. Berlioz unifteel the symphony by introclucing a recurring theme and by developing the dra matic idea through the nve movements. extending procedures Beethoven had used in his Fifth. Sixtb , and Ninth Symphonies. Equally importam is the variety he createcl bytransforming his themes and using an astonis hing array of instrumental colors. which lend a distinctive character to each passage. These include mLtted s trings lo sugges t dreaming, harps for the bali, Englisb horn and au offstage oboe imitating shephercls' pipes. snare drum and cymbals for the march to the scaffold. church bells, and violins pl ayed witb the wood of the bow (co! legno) in thc witches' da nce. creating a brittle sound evocative of skelctons rattling. Berlioz's vivicl aura! iruagiuation and his inventive orchestral sonorities shine through in nearly every measure. Por his second symp hony, Harold en ltalie (Haro ld in ltaly, 1834), Berlioz <lrew its tille from Lord Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and its sub Manr.e from rer.oll ections of th e compose1.-s sojourn in lta ly. Th e piece features a solo viola. though less prominently than in a concerto-which is why Paganini, who commissioned the work as a showpiece for viola, refused to play it. Arecurriug theme in tbe viofa appears in each movement anel is com-

binecl coutrapuuta.lly with tbe other themes. The fmale stnns up the themes of the preceding movements, as in Beethoven's Ni n th Symphony, but does not encl with a triumpbant choralc. lnclecd, the viola. like Byron·s antibero protagonist Harold, remains a largely passive observer-at least until he flings himself into the final '·Orgy of the Brigands"-so that the work inverts the heroism of Beethoven's sympbonies. ln his later sympho nies. Berlioz departed even fu rther from the lraditional model. ln Romêo et}uliette (Romeo and Juliet, 1839, revised ca 1847), which he called a ·'dramatic symphony." he combined orchestra. soloists, anel chorus in an unstaged concert drama, bu ilding in its conce ption on th e precedent set by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Gtande symphonie fu.nebre et triomphale (Grand Funeral and TYimnphant Symphony, 184-0) for military band witb oplio nal strings and chorus is one of tbe early master pieces oi' band music. Berl ioz's Sy,nphonie fantastiqu.e and other symp honic works made him the leader of tbe Romanlic movement's radical wing. Ali subsequent composers of program music would be indebted to h im. He enriched orchestral music witb new resources of harmony, colo1·, expression, and form. The idée fixe and his device of bringing hack a tbeme in different movements gave impetus to thc cyclical symphony of the la ter nineteenth century (see chapter 30). His orchestration ini tiated a new era iri which instrumemal color rivaled hann ony anel me'i ocly as an expressive tool for composers. He cod ilied his practice in tbe first book on the subject. his Treatise on Instmmentation and Orchestration (1843).

635

Latersymphonies

Berlioz:·s achievement

CLASSICAL ROMANTICISM : MENDELSSOHN Menclelssohn's works, compareci wiLh those oi' Berlioz written cluring the sarne period, have a much more Classic sound. for one thing. Mendelssohn was rigorously trained in classical genres anel forros in his youtb. writing thirteen s tring symphonies that gave bima maste1y of form, counterpoin1, and fugue anel helped to determine his personal style. For anot her, his mature sympbonies (which are numbered by date of publication rather tban composition) l'ollow classical models , although witb departures tbat show the strong impact of Romanticism. ln line wüb Romantic interest in the past, he wrote bis Symphony No. 5 (Reformation. 1830) to celebrate the Protestant Reformation and concluded it with a movement based on Luther 's chorale Ein fesie fü4rg. ln his Symphony No. 2, ütled Lobgesang (Song ol' Praisc, 1840). he adds so lo voices, cborus. and organ. following Beethoven·s Ninth Symphony in incorporating voices wbile blending the genres of symphony and cantata. Mendelssobn's two most frequently perforrned symphonies both carry geographtca l subtitles: the ltalian (No. 4, I 833) and the Scottish (No. 3, I 842) . They preserve impressions he gained of sounds and landscapes on trips to Italy and the British Isles, which be aJso recorded in dra,vings and paintings like the one in Figure 26.3. The ltalian Syn1phony celebrates the sunny and vibrant south . with a slow movemem suggesting a procession of chanting pilgrims and a nnale suggesting people dancing a s pirited saltarell-0. Mendelssobn opens the ú rst movement with a melody. s hown in Exa mp le 26.4, whose s ighing lurches.

ltalia n Symphony

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FIGURE 26.3, WatercolorpaintingbyFelixMendelssohn. titled Amalfl in May 1831. A tc&!erlted amateu,rartisl. Mendelssolin sketched. drew, and painted throughout l1is journeys in /1al1and Brirain. Tias is a viewoftlie Gulf ofSalernofromArnalfi. near Naples. in sou them Italy. C1100L&1.AN unMR)'. ox1,on0 u N1vtRs1n)

sequences. and repeated postponement of closure are inspired by lta lian opera. although its wide range and many leaps lend it .an instrumental rather than vocal character. The second theme is similarly constructed, giving both thematic areas more the qual ity of well-shaped tunes tha11 of materia l for future development. Perhaps as a consequence. lhe development section dwells on a newmelodic idea, a motive that gradually builds to a newtheme in combination with the opening figure of the nrst theme. All thrce themes are EXAMPLE 26.4 :

Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 4 Otalian). openingtheme

Orchestral Music

recalled io the recapitulation, binding the movement togetber. ln this way, Mendelssohn neatly accommodates his tuneful t.hemes within the developmental structure of sonata fonn. Mendelssohn's genius for m usical landscapes is evident in his overtures The Hebrides (also called Fingat's Cave, 1832), on another Scortish topic, and Meeresstille nnd glrickliche Fahrt (BecaLrned at Sea and Prosperous Voy age, 1828-32). on two poems by Goethe. His masterpiece in 1he genre is the Midsummer Nighi's Dream Overture, inspirecl by Sbakespeare·s play. Written in 1826 when he was seventeen. it set t.he standard for all suhseq·uent concert overtures. lL opens with a series of magicai choreis. as ií to say "once upon a time," then elepicts the fairies iluttering anel elancing in a brilliant example of perpetuai motion for a full orchestra trained to tiptoe like a chamber ensemhle. The light. bustling string texture of this passage became a trade mark of Mendelssohn's scherzos. The classical overture structure of sonata fonn without repeats is perfectly clea r, but tb e listener's attention is drawn to Mendelssohn's imaginative use of musical ftguration and orches tral colar to evoke everything from fairy elust to lhe braying of the character Bottom aJter his head is map;icaUy transformed iJlto that of ajackass. Seventeenyears ]ater, Mendelssohn wrote additional incidental music. including t.he famous Wedding March. for a procluction of the play. A virtuoso pianist. Menelelssohn wrote J'our concenos for his own performances, the last two of which were published in hi s lifetime: No. l in C Minor (1831) and No. 2 in D Minor (1837). Although the showpieces composed by most viituosos of the time revel in startling effects and technical displaymore for theiT own sakes than for their musical inspiration- Mendelssohn emphasized the musical co ntent. seeking to acbi eve tbe sarne balance of audiencc appeal and lasting value that connoisseurs praised in the concertos of Mozart and Bee thoven. For Mendelssohn as for Beethoven, the vinuosic display of the soloist was a vehic le for the co mposer·s expression. nota pu rpose in itself. The same co uld be said for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minar ( 1844 . lirst movement in NAW\1 139). The three movements, played witbout pause, are linked by tbematic content anel connecting passages: a transition leads from the opening Allegro molto appassionato to the lyrical Andante, anel an introduction to thc lasl movement alludes to Lhe nrsl movement's opening theme. ln the lirst movement. Mendelssohn has the soloist state the main theme at the outset. skipping the usual orchestral exposition, and places the caelenza just be fore rather than after lhe recapitulation. Essentially. he reworked concerto form in to a variant of sonata form with a featured soloist. a reformulation that is typical of Mendelssohn anel of bis age in fmding new ways to reinterpret ye t continue tradition. The middle movement. in ABA' form, is a L'oma nce for viol in and orchestra elriven by a slowly unfolding melody. The nnale, in sonata or sonata-rondo form, has th e lightn ess of a scherzo. Throu.ghout the concerto, the music for lhe soloisl is at limes lyrical and expressive. at limes highly virtuosic. exhibiting the fui) range of what a violin can do. T he violin and orchestra are partners, and the leaeling melodies move seamlessly from soloist to orchestra and back. Although there are plenty of opportunities for the soloist to dazzle, as was expected in a Romantic showpiece, lhe concerto always seems motivated

Overt1ires

Piano concertos

Violin Concerto

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by a g:realer poetic purpose, as Menclelssohn uses the contrasts oi' virtuosity with lyric expression and of solo with orchestra to delineate the form , create variety. anel convey cleep feelings. The resulting concerto has become one of the most popular in the repertofre.

Chomber Music

EXAMPLE 26.5,

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Fourth Symphony

ln the eyes of many composers anel listeners. the prestigious status that Beethoven had conferred oa the symphony made it a rite of passage to l'ull rec ognition. for example. Clara Schumann believecl that composers were judged by their symphonies anel operas, anel she wrote in her cliary, "My greatest wish is that [Robert) should com pose for orchestra." When he eliel so. Robert Schumann applieel the sarne lofty idealism as in his piano music and music criticism. His primal'y orchestral models were SchubeL·t's Great C-MajorSymphony anel t he symp hon ies anel concertos of Mende lssobn, which showeel how songlike themes could be integrated into developmental forms. Schumann completed bis First Symphony in BI, Major in the spring of 1841 and drafted another that sarne year-his "symphony year,'' following the ·• Lieder year" of 1840. The music of the F'irst, known as the Spring Symphony. is appropriately fresh and spontaneous, and is driven by inexhaustible rhythmic energy. The other symphony, in D minor, had a mixed reception at its premiere in December 1841, and Schumann laid it aside. After completingtwo more symphonies in 1846 and 1850, Schumann returned to the D minor in 1851. revisingit asSymphony No. 4 (Ílrsl movemenl in NAWM 140). The Fourth Symphony rcpresents Schumann's most radical re thinking of the symphony. He conceived it as a work in one continuous flow-as if in a single movement- that contains within it the four standard movements of a symphony. There was precedent for linking movements in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, in which a bridge connects the th irel -movement scherzo to the fmale. and String Quartet in C= Minor. whose seven movements are played without pause (see l\'AWM 127). But Schumann's most important model was Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy for piano; in both works. four movements are played without breaks anel are ali based 011 similar material. Each movement of the Fourth Symphony includes themes related to the ma.in melody oi' the slow introduction. and tbemcs from the ürst movemenl return in modined form in the second and fomih movements, making the entire work an integrated, organically unined cycle that builds on the tradil.ion of Berlioz's Syrnphonie Jantastiqite and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony finale. E.xamp le 26.5 shows the parallels between the slow introeluction anel the nJ'St theme ofthe hrst movement: the latter takes motives from the introduction and treats them sequenlially to produce a theme that is closely related yel has quite a difffererll charactcr. The resu lt is a symphonic fantasia that combines traditiona l forms with a continuousprocess ofvariation. lt ca n be regareleel eith er as a four-movement symphony or as a single extended sonata form that encampasses four move me:nts within it. ln the latterview. the ftrst movement provirles the slowintroduction, exposition. and beginning of the development: the slow movement and scherzo continue the development; anel the nnale provides tbe recapitu lat ion and coda. This elouble-func1ion form recalls the succession of llnked

Melodie paralle!s between int1·oduction and first theme in Schwnnnn's Syniphoriy No. 4.

first movernent 1nl roducrion ~ Vn, a- S, n.

ROMANTIC RECONCEPTIONS: ROBERT SCHUMANN

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movements in Schumann's Carnaval (see chapter 25). yet with much strnnger connections to the forms, genres. and procedures of lhe Classic perio<l. Like the melodies in Dichtel'!iebe anel Carnaval, Scbumann's symphonic themes typically dwell on one rhythmic flgure. as do the themes in Example 26.5. rather than emhracing contrasting patterns as in most Classicera lhemes. ln place of the balance or opposing elements wilhin a theme, Schumann creates variety through constantly changing presentations of the theme. providing a dynamic experience for the listener. Such an approach to the symphony exemplifies the strong interest of the Romantic generation in offering something new anel elistinctive in each individual work while drawing strong connections to inherited tradition.

THE ROMANTIC LEGACY Schubert, Berlioz. Mendelssohn, and Schumann each found a distinctive solution to the problem of how to write symphonic music after Beethoven. But while they won a place beside Beethoven in the repertory. they did not displace him. and orchestral composers in the second half ofthe century continued to struggle against his potentially overwhelming iníluence (see chapters 29 anel 30). New genres like the symphonic poem, pioneereel by Liszt. offered one path, while composers like Brahms and Bruckner engaged the symphony tradition d.irectly. Ali these !ater composers drew on models in the Romantic generation, .Ei.ncling in lhem a rich treasure of new possibilities: Berlioz's symphonies and Mendelssohn's nvertures for programmatic anel descriptive music. Mendelssohn and Schumann for links and continuities between movements, Berlioz and Schumann for transformation of themes, and ali of them for ways to integra te the Rornantic emphasis on melody. surprising harmonies. and novel orcbestral effects into the symphonic trad.ition.

Chamber Music ln cham he.1· as in orr.hestral m11s ir.. the masterpie.r.e..~ or the. paM prove.d in e.i\capable for nineteeml1-ce mw·y composers. Chamher music continued LO serve as a form of home music- making for the enjoyment of the players. But string quartcls and other chamher works were increasingly played in

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Chamber Music

EXAMPLE 26.6,

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concens by professional ensembles such as the Joachim Quartel. shown in Figure 26.4. Compose1·s often 1reated chamber musicas seriously as sym· phonies, especially in genres that were identined wiith Haydn. Mozart. and Beethoven. like the string quartet. violin sonata. and piano trio. These came to be seen as classical gemes that required an engagement with the past, and composers increasingly aspired to match the ind ividua lity of Beethoven's middle cruartets. taking his works as a defming model as much in chamber musicas in tbe symphony and conce110.

SCHUBERT ln h.is teens, Schubert wro1e numerous string quartets for h.is friends and íarni ly to play. modeling them on works by Moza11 and Haycln. He achieved ao individual and appealing style in the nve - movement Quintet for piano. violin, viola, cello, and bass (1819), known as the Troui Quintet because the fotirth movement presents variations on his song Die Forelle (The Trout). But bis most important chamher works carne in his last ove years of life: the String Quai1ets in A Minor (l 824), D Minor (1824, nicknnmecl Death and the Maiden). anel G Major (1826), and the String Quintet in C Major (1828). All atrain the "heavenly length" Schumann admired in the C-Major Symphony (see p. 631). ln mood , difficulty, style, and conception, Schubert's late cham ber works are intended more as dramatic pieces of concert music than as entertaining diversions for amateur players. The String Quintet in C Major (órst movement in NAWM 141). which String Quintet Schubert composed just two months before bis death, is often considered 1 Full s\ 1 h.is chamber music masterpiece. To the standard four instrumenls of the

quartet. he added a second ce llo, whose 1rich sound appea led to Roman· tic sensibilities. Schubert ohtains exquisite effects and constantly varying textures from this combination. He treats all five instruments as equals and groups them in ever·changing ways, often with one instrument pit · ted against lwo pairs. For example. the beautiful E~·major melocly of lhe second theme in the f:trst movement, sho\'' º io Example 26.6. appears firsl in 1he ccllos in parallel th.irds , wi th 1he viola providing a pizzicato bass line and viol ins an offbeat accompaniment. Laterthe pa11s exchange ideas. with the melody in the violins. anel in the recapitulation, the melody appears in 1he lirst cello and viola. There are strong contrasts oi' mood anel of style within and between movements. from the profound slow movement to the playfu1 f:tnale. and from learned counterpoint to rustic ver nacu1ar styles. ln the firsl movement (f\AWM 14 1). the opening themesets. up oppositions between C major and minor. anel between a slow, dramaticnrst idea anda liltingcontinuation. that take the entire movement to resolve. The early emphasis ou C minor is composed out in 1he three main keys of lhe exposition, C, E~ , and G major, the notes of the C-minortriad. The second theme moves bet:ween a. C. and B major. keys whose tonics divide the octave into equal major thirds: such a key scbeme is a typical device of Schubert's, which was la ter emulated by Schumann. Liszt, anel other composers. Unusual key relationships and sty· listic juxtapositions also figure in the other moveme nts. The slow ternary seconcl movement contrasts an ethereal E- major melody with an impassioned F· minor middle section in a style Schubert associated with Hun garian Roma (Gypsies). ln the third moveme nt, an antic C-major scherzo passes through numerous distant keys and surrounds a slow m-major trio that is like a calm. sweet song. The sonata- rondo fmale contrasts a rustic danr.P. wi1 h a morP. rdi nP.d 11 l'han onP. and with pianissirnn r.asr.adP.s that sug· gest a transcendent vision. Throughout. Schubert integrates the drama of Beethoven's style witb the lyricism of his own, provinghimself a worthy successor to Beethoven .

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C H A 1>T E R 2 ~ • Romontic1>m in Clossocol Forms: Orchestrol. Chomber, ond C horo! Music

M ENOELSS0 HN Mendelssohn wrote a Jarge amounl of chamber m usic. and in it we can trace his evolution from a talented boy, to a maturing composer tesüng his ski ll agai.nst Beethoven , to mastery on hi s own tel'ms. He Wl'0te numerous chamber works in his youth. using Haycln, Mozart. and Bach as his principal models. His li rst published compositions, written in 1822- 25. were three piano quartets anda violin sonata. His earliest recognizeel masterpiece, wrii· ten at the age of sixteen. was b.is Octet for strillbrs. Op. 20 (1825). remarkable for its symphonic conception, inelependent treatment oi' aU eight instruments, anel de manding striJ1g techn iq ues; i ts character as a piece co nce ived for con cert performance contrasts greatly with earlier ch.amber works intended pri.marily for lhe enjoyment oi' the players, such as Haydn's baryton trios (described in chapter 23). The Octet's scherto, inspired by a passage from Goethe's foust, anticipated the fairy-like style of his Mídsumnier Night's Drearn ÜPerture, written the following year. After the appearance of Beethoven's late quartets. Mendelssohn absorbed their influence in h:is String Quartets in A Minor, Op. 13 (1827), anda Major, Op. 12 (1829). Followinl( Beelhoven's lead, Mend elssohn integrated the movements t.brough thematic connections, while giving each movement a distinctive. highly contrasting character. Mendelssohn's mos l characteris1ic chamber works are the Piano Trios in D Minor, Op. 49. and in C Mino,·, Op. 66. Both are ftr ll of tuneful , attractive thernes and idiomatic writing, and both feattll"e slow movements in the manner of hjs Songs witho11t Words and scherzos in his typical pixieish style. ln pieces like these, the classical genre anel forms serve as vessels for the Ro mantic material, emphasizing expressive melody over the motivic economy and taut development typical of Beethoven.

ROBERT ANO CLARA SCHUMANN Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann followed his "Lieder yea r" and ·'symphony year" wiLh a "chamber music year" in 1842- 43. After stuelying the quartets of Hayeln and Mozart, he composed three string quartets. published together as Op. 41. followed by a piano qu intei anda piano quartel. ln his criticai writings. he hael argued that striJ1g c1uartets shoulel resemble a fo ur· way conversatio11. and his own quartets meet th is ideal. with flu:icl interchange among the parts. He also insisted that quartel composers should build on the tradi Lion of HaydJ1, Mozan, and Beethoven without simply i.m.itating them, and indeed Sclnrrnann's quartets reflect the influence of these three composers more strongly than his works in other genres yet still project his own dis ti n e tive s tyle. lnfluencecl by his stucly of Bach. Schumann introeluced a new, more polyphonic approach to chamber music in 1847 with his Piano Trios No. l in D Minor, Op. 63, and No. 2 in P Major, Op. 80. The two contras! markedly in mood. lhe ftrst somber. lhe second warm and cheei-ful. but both balance intell ectual r igor in forrn and counterpoint with expressive depth and originality iu the themes and their development. This combination of elements made them b.is most influen tial chamber works, especially on Brahms and otJ1er German composers.

643

Choro! Music

Cla ra Schumann composeel what she regareled as her best work, the Piano Trio in G Minor, in 1846, anel it may have inspi red her husband 's trios oJ' the following year. The first anel Last movcments. in sonata J'orm. combine traits from Baroque, Classic, and Romantic models: memorable songlike themes, ric h polyphon ic treaim e nt, deve lopment th rough motivic fragmen tation anel imitation. J'ugue (in the ftnale's development) , and rousing codas. Schumann speci li ed m inuet tempo fo r th e seco nd move · rnent but la beled it Scherzo to highlight its subtle rhythmi c tricks, such as Scotch snaps and syncopations. The slow third movemenl (~AWM t ,12) is outwardly simple in forro, a modified ABA with a noel t1rne- lLke, somewhat melancholy farst seclion anel a more animated B section . But the effect is enriched by co nsta ntly cha nging textures. The opening melody appea rs three times. each time in a diJ'ferent instnument and with ever more com· plex accompallying f1gura tion: alone in the piano over alternaciJ1g bass notes anel chords; in the violin, surround ed by flowingpiano arpeggios above a bass line shared by piano and pizzic.ato cello: an d fmally in the cello. with a new arpeggio figure in the piano and pizzicato chords in the violi n.

CHAMBER M USIC A N O THE CLASSICAL TRAOITI0N By midcentury. chamber music was regarded as a conservative medium st1·ongly linked to classical models, cultivated by those who saw themselves as continuing the classical traelitioJ1 but shunned by more radical composers such as Berlioz and Liszt. Yet in creating n ew twists on classical fonns and expressi ng Romantic passions in genres long associated with private music· rnak:ing and intimate listening. cbamber music composers in lhe fll'st balf of the nineteenth cenlury offered something new and distinctive.

Chorai M usic \Vhile the nineteenth-century orchestra was becoming a professional institution. the choir was headi ng in the opposite direction. Church choirs were increasingly made up oJ' amateurs, aJ1d mos Lchoruses outside of church were organ ized prima1·ily for the enjoyment of t he singers themse lves. ln part because of their amateur status. chornses were less prestigious than orchestras and opera houses, and much oi' the music written for them has been neglecteel. The chora] repertory was one of fhe Eu-st to be dominateel by music of lhe past. andas a result nineteenth-centmy choral music is often retrospective in genre and formal, though not neccssa rily in style. There were three main types of chorai m usic i.n lhe nineteenlh century: • oratorios and similar works for large chorns and orchestra. often with one or more solo vocalists, on clramatic, narrative, or sacred texts but in tended for co ncert rather than stage performance: • short choral works on secular te>.'ts, usually bomophonic with the melody in the upper voice, with or withoul accompani.ment by a piano ororgan:

Clara Schumann

I Condse

1 1 Full

644

C H A 1> T E R 2 ~ • Romontic1>m in Clossocol Forms: Orchestrol. Chomber, ond Choro! Music

Choro! Musoc

• liturgical works, amhems, hymns , and other sac,·ed pieces writteo for cburch ch oirs, congregations, or home performance. Chorai music was a pa1'licularly lucralive field for publishers, since each choir member needed a sepa rate copy ofthe music forevery piece, and most works were also stútable for home music-making with one or two singers on each vocal part. Puhlishers recogn ized lhe poteolial oflhe marketand issued greal quantities of music for amateur and church choirs at low prices.

AMATEUR CHOIRS Choralsocieties

Amateu r chonises were typica lly organized as chorai societie s, with mem bers paying dues to pu rchase music, pay lhe conduclor. and meel other expenses. Ooe of the ô rst cho ral societies. the Be rlin Singakademie, began as a singing class fo r wealthy women. ln 1791 meo were accepted as we ll, anel the grnup gave its lirst co ncerl. By 1800, uneler lhe direct ion of Carl Friedrich Zelter (Felix anel Fanny Menelelssohn's teacher). the chorus had quinFIGU RE 26.5: Handel Festival ar the C,ysial PaJace inL011don in 1857. ,vilh an orcltestra ofoverthree lwndred «,nd achorus ofalmost two thousand, as shown in The illustrated L.ondon News. (8JLDARC:IHV. SfAATSBIRLIOTHEK. 8ERLIN)

THE VA LUE OF AMATEUR CHOIRS The chorai society movement was encouraged not only by a love of music but by the belief thar the right kind of music promoted ethical values, a view thar goes back to Plato. Richard Wagner commented that for the English ·an evening spenr listening to an oratorio may be regarded as a sort of service and is almost as good as going ro church." George Hogarth, Secretary of the London Philharmonic Society, praised chorai singing as an instrument of moral reform,

-~The cultivation of a taste for music furnishes to the rich a refined and intellectual pursuit, which excludes the indulgence of frivolous and vicious amusements. and to the poor, a laborem dulce lenimen (sweet solace of labor], a relaxation from toil, more attractive than the haunts of intemperance . . . . ln the densely popula ted districts o f Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire, music is cultivated among the working classes to an extent unparalleled in any other part of the kingdom. Every town has its chorai society. supported by the amateurs of the place and its neighbour·

hood. where the works of Handel, and the more modem masters, are performed with precision and effec t. by a vocal and instrumental orchestra consisting of mechanics and workpeople . . Thei r employers promote and encourage so salutary a recreation by countenancing. and contributing to defray the expenses, of their musical associations: and some provide regular musical ins truction for such of their workpeople as show a disposi tion for it. ... Wherever the working classes a re raught to prefer the pleasures of the intellect. and even of taste, to the g ratification of sense, a great and favorable change takes place in their character and manners.... Sentiments are awakened in them which makes them !ove their families and homes; their wages a re not squandered in in temperance, and they become happier as well as better. George Hogarth, Musical Hiscory. 8io9raphy and Criti· r:i,m (London, 1ois). ~30 31, as quoted by Henry Raynol',

Music and Society Since 1815 (New York: Schocken Books, 1976). 98.

tupled in size to al most 150 members. Zelter added ao orchestra to allow the group to sing oratorios. and by his death in 1832 tbe chorus had over 350 singers. Similar organizations sprang up in Leipzig. Dreselen. Zurich, Liverpoo l, Manchester. Boston. anel other cities all ove ir Germany. Switzerland. England. and the Uniled S1ates. All-male choruses, often composed of wor king-class men. were especia lly popular in France, Germany. and America n cities with large Ger man populations. Chorai singingwas seen as a way to occupy leisure time, develop a seose of unity, eleva te musical tastes, aod encourage spiritual anel ethical values (see Source Reading). ln addition, chorai societies were often self -governing with elected managiug boards, providing practice in democratic processes- one reason they were forbidden in autocratic Austria unlil !ater in the century. La rge amateur chomses also p layed a central role at music festivais. wbere singers from across a region gathered to perform. The fu·st such fes· tivals centered oo Handel's works, beginning in England in 1759, ihe year of his death. Festivais were held in Prance cl uring the Revolutionary era, and in the nineteenth century the tradition spread across Germany, Austria. and No rth America. Amo og the most promine nt and long- runniogfestivals were the Birmingham (Euglaod) MusicaJ Festiva l (l'ounded 1'784) and lhe Lower Rhenish Music Festival (founded 1818) in Dosseldorf. Fest ival choruses ma de up of hunclreds of singers were eve n larger than loca l chorai societies. figure 26.5 shows the Handel Festival in London's Crystal Palace in 1857. with an imme.nse. choir an <I orchestra in a huge performing spar.e. Not to he outdone. bandleader Patrick S. Gilmore organized the World Peace Jubilee (1872) io Boston with an orchestra oumbering two thousanel and a chorus of twenty lhousand.

Festivais

64 5

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C H A 1>T E R 2 ~ · Romontic1>m in Clossocol Forms: Orchestrol. Chomber, ond Choro! Music

ORATORIOS ANO OTHER LARGE WORKS

Mendelssohn's orato1ios

Berlioz s Requiem andTe Deum

The Handel and Hayd n oratorios fon ned the core of the repertory for the large choruses, a pairing immor ialized in lhe name of lhe Handel and Haydn Soc iety, fou nd ed in Boston in 1815 an d on e of t he old est music orga n izatio ns in lhe United States that is still active. Anolher composer was added lo the repe rtoire in 1829. when lhe twenty-year·o ld Mendelssohn conducted lhe Bedin Singakademie in the llrst performance of J. S. Bach's St. Ma.uhew PM· sion since the eigh tee nth century. Bach's St. John Passicm and Mass in B Minor followed in 1833 and 1834. These performances bcgan the reviva! of Bach's vocal music, ahhough they converted pieces Bach wrote for performance in church by eight to twel.ve singers a nd an orchestra of a boutftfteen into con cert woJ·ks for large chorus and orchestra. While perfor mi ng music of lhe past. the chora] societies and fes1ivals also encou raged the composition of n ew works in the sarne mold. The most successful n ew or atorios were Mendelssohn's St. Paul (1836). premiered ai the Lower Rhenish Festival. and Elijah (1846). premiered at the Birmi ng· ha,n Festival, wh_ich themselves became standards of the chora! repertory. Both treated b iblical subjects and received great acclai m in Europe an d North America. ln Elijah. Mendelssohn employed a wide va:riety of styles and tex lures for chorai movemems. as Handel had clone in his oratorios; evoked the style of chorales, which Bach had used in h is Passio ns; and used un ifying motives and links between movements lo integra le the work i nto a cohesive whole, following the practice of bis own time. ln these ways. Mendelssohn rooted his oratorios in Baroque tradition while creating some1hing new anel up- to- date. The fmal chorus of Elijah (l\AWM 143) is Handelia:n in spirit. with a pow· eríul homorhythmic opening, vigorous J'ugue , culmlnating s LatemenL of che fugue theme in chor da l ha rmony. and cont rapunta l Arnen , wh ile contrasts of minor and major and touches of chromaticism draw on more recent styles. The fugue lencls an appropriate solemnity to lhe close of Lhe ora to rio tlu ough the use of an old. fam iliar form. The availahility of large forces encouraged a grandiosity that reached a pinnacle in lwo cho ral works by Berlioz. the Requiem (Grande Messe des morts. 1837) and the Te Deum 0855). They belong not to an ecclesiastical bul to a patriotic tTadition inspired by the massive music festivais of the French Revolution. Both works are of huge dimensions. not only in length and numher of p erfonners b ut also in grandeur of conception. The Requiem requ.ües an or c hestra of 140 p layers. four brass choirs distributed around t he perform3tllce space. four tam- tams . ten pairs of cymbals. and sixteen kettledrums. all used to achieve b r illiant musical elfects from representing the thunder ous clamor oi' the Day of Judgment to the pianíssimo str okes of bass d rum and cymbals that punctuate the Sanctus (see Source Reading).

PARTSONGS The sraple of smaller mixed. men·s, and women's choirs was the p <trtsong, the chorai parallel to the Lied or parlor song. Partsongs were scored for lwo ar more voice parts and sung unaccompanied. or wilh the voices simply doubled

Choro! Music

647

BERLIOZ ON H IS REQ UIEM

ln his musical biography, Berlioz bares his Romantic sou) while settling many an old score. Here he descnbes the qualities that made his chorai music by turns -0verpowerin9 and confounding to his contemporaries.

The prevailing charac teristics of my music are passionate expression, intense ardour, rhythmical animation, and unexpected turns. When 1 say passionate expression, 1mean an expression determined on enforcing the inner meaning of its subject, even when that subject is the contra ry of passion, and when the feeling to be expressed is gentle and tender. or even profoundly calm. This is the sort of expression that has been discovered in L'En{ance du Chrisc, the Ciel scene in the Damnation de Faust, and the Sanctus of the Requiem The musical problems I have tried to solve in these works , , . are exceptional, and require excep· tional methods. ln the Requiem, for example, 1 employ four distinct brass orchestras, answering each other at certain dis tances round the main

orchestra and chorus. ln the Te Deum, the organ at the end of the church answers the orchestra and two choirs. whilst a third large choir represents the mass of the people, taking part from time to time in a vast sacred concert. But it is more especially the form of the pieces. the breadth of style. and the deliberateness of certain progressions, the goal of which is not at once perceived, that give those works their strange gigantic physiognomy and colossal aspect. The result of this immensity of form is , that either one entirely misses the driFt of the whole, or is crushed by a tremendous emo tion. At many performances of the Requiem 1 have seen one man listening in terror, shaken to the very depths of his soul, while his next neighbor could not catch an idea, though trying with ali his might to do so. From Memoirs o{ Hecror Berlioz. translated by Rachel (Scott Russell) Holmes and Eleanor Holmes; annotated and the translation revised, by Emest Newman (New York: Knopf, 1932), 488-89.

on piano or organ. They could bc sung by any numher of voices from one on a pa11 to a large choir, making them su ita.ble for domestic music-making as well as puhlic performance. Like Lieder and parlor songs. partsongs were mostly syllabic and were closely at w ned to the poe1ry. Schubert, Menclelssohn, Hensel, Sc human n. Liszt, and nearly every olher composer in cen n·a l and no11hern Europe produced partsongs anel choruses on patriotic. sentimental. convivial. and otbe r kinds of verse. Nalure was a favorite subject. Sclmbert's Die Nacht (NAWM 14~) for male voices in four parts (two tenor and two bass) is t:ypical in using as a text a strophic, lyric poem that would se rve equally we ll for a Liecl. The p oe m expresses awe at the beauty of the night stars shining over the llowering fields of sp l'ing. Schubert's music captures t he tranquil scene and a sense of wo nder with quiet, s lowly moving chor ds, mostly resona nt major triads with occasion al d imin is hed, augmented, and seventh chor ds that crea te color and intensity. He carefully sets lhe texL emp hasizing important words with melodie pea ks and r.hanges of dynamir.s. The music is perfectly suited for amateurs performing for thei r own pleasure. lt is relatively simpie and easy to sing while offering intriguing challenges, tl1e melodies ar e altraclive, and lhe lower parts also have melod.ic inleresl.

Schubert's Die Nacht 1

Full ~

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C H A 1>T E R 2 ~ • Romontic1>m in Clossocol Forms: Orchestrol. Chomber, ond C horo! Music

Schubert wrote about one bundred partsongs and other pieces for ma le voices, so me accompanied by pia no or guitar, making tb is the most commoo medium in his output aJter solo songs and piano works. Yet two cenlu ries laier his pansongs and other small choral works are liule known, and th e sarne is tru e for other co mposers . Although the most popular partsongs we1·e sung and reprinted for decades, the amateur choruses andhoroe m usicmaking 1ba LsupporLed the ge nre decli ned afte r the nine1een1h century, and no permanent repertoi re of classics developed for the partsong as there elid for oratorios and Lieder. This music served its immediate purpose and has been largely forgotten.

MUSIC FOR RELIGIOUS SERVICES

Catholic music

Protestant chiirches

Reform Judaism

Ch·urch rousic remained a vehicle for worship, but in some areas it also served as music for amateu r singers at home anel in public gatherings. fnstead of using amaleur choirs for services. Catholic churches tended to employ clerics and choirboys; women were normaily excluded from performinf!: in church, as had been trne for centuries. Catholic composers cominued to produ ce concerted litu rgical music. Schube1i·s Masses in AI, and El, are exemplary settings ofthe Ordinary. Elaborate works like Gioachlno Rossini 's Staba1 mater (1832, revised 1841) brought up - 10-daite operalic styles into church. But in the second qua1-ter of the cemury, renewed interest in music of the past brought ahout a reviva! of the sixteenth-century choral style of Palestrina's masses and motets. The phrase n cnppcllct had been used since thc: seventeenLh cemury to denote the old contrapun1al style known as siile antico. but in the nineteenth centu ry it carne to mean "unaccompanied ... beca use of the mistaken belief that it referred to the Jack of any instrumental accompanimenl in the papal chapel where Palestrina worked. By the midnineteenth century. the Catholic Church was actively promoting the com position of unaccompanieel chorai music in a Palestrina-inspired style. ln Cennan-speaking ar eas especially, the Cecilian movement, named after St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, encourageel a cap pella performances of older music and of new works in simj]ar styles. Protestant churches also saw new developments building on music of the past. The performances of Bach's passions ai the Berlin Singakademie took place d uring a genera l reviva) of Lutheran mus ic. Lutheran compose1·s pro duced a flood of new music for services or home de\'otions that often used Bach as a model, as in numerous psalm settings by Mendelssohn. ln England, Anglican musicians recovered classics from thei r tradition. Among new works, the anthems of Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) were especia lly acclaimed. Women, encouragcd by their panicipation in chora] socielies. began lo sing in church choirs. and some served as professional church organists. such as Eli zaheth Stirling (l 819-1895), a renowned organist and co mposer in Lo ndon. Yer in some comers of the church the Oxford Movement. begun in 1841. sought to restore ali- male choirs of boys and men and to nwive sixteenth- centu ry 1.maccompanied polyphony. Music in Jewish synagogues was transformed by tl1e Reform movemeut in Juclaism that emerged in the ea.rly nineteenth century, when Jewish leaders iul1uenced by the Enlightenmenl revised traditional beliefs. customs. and

Choro! Music

religious services. Many synagogues in Germany anel elsewhere adopted practices from Protestantism, singingcongregational hymns (often borrowingthe melodies froro Lutheran chornles) and int.-oducing organs and choirs. The f1rst influential coroposer of the movement was Salomon Sulzer (1804--1890), cantor at the Reformed synagogue in Vienna, who updated trad itional chants and wrole service music in modem styles for soloist and for choir. He also commissioned music from 01hercomposers. includingScbuberl'schoral se1ting oi' Psalm 92 (l 828), which used the Hebrew texl. ln Russia. Dmitri Bortnyansky (175 1-1825) , chapei master anel lhen director of lhe imperial chapel choir at St. Pe tersburg. was lhe fust in a long Un e of coroposers who develo ped a oew style of Russian church music. lnspired hy the modal chants ofthe Orthodox litu rgy, they useel free rhythm and unaccompanied voices in single or douhle chornses wilh octave do ublings in a rich and solemn texture grounded in lhe imperial choir's magnif1ce nt low bass sound. ln the United States, church music divided no t only by sect but by race. African American churches deve loped their own styles of music thal would laLer have enormous iotluence. ln Lhe 1790s, Reverend Richai·d Allen orga nized the ftrst congregation of the African Methodist Episcopal Chu rch and publisbeel a hymn book designed speciftcally for bis all-black congreg,1tion. ln lhe predominantly whlte churches, choirs sang music like their Euro pean bretbren. Congregational singing continued to be cenn·a l., fostering a market for hymns in a variety of styles. Two divergenl trends in A.merica.n hymnody were especially ootable: the shape-note tradilion in the rural South, and the Europeau -influenceel style oi' Lowell Mason. Singing masters spread the music ofthe Yankee tunesmiths th roughout the South. coroposed ncw tunes and hai·monizations in a similar style. and puhlished both old and new songs in collections such as Ken11wky Harmony (1 816) . '/1ie Southem Harmony (1835), and The Sacred Harp (1844). The last, the most popular of its kind. included some spiritual songs and others used in Southem reviva! mee1ings. The tradition of performing this music is k:nown as slwpe-11ote sirigi11g after the notalion used in these colleclions. in wh i.ch the shape of the noteheads indicares solmization syllables, allowing for easy sight-reading in pa11s. This notational system is an invemive American reconceplion of the syllahles in1roduced by Guida of Arezzo (see chapter 2). Figure 26.6 shows a song from TT1e Sacred Harp. which uses four syllables and shapes. The major scale is sung to the syllablesfa-sol-la -Ja -soL-la -mi-fa, usingfa (shown with a triangle) for the notes j ust ahove a hal.f-step and sol (round). fr• (square). anel mi (diamond) for tbe fo llowingwbole steps. Ordinary folks sa11g from these collections in chul'ch and in local and regio11al gathcrings, with roughly equal numbers of singers reaeling each pal't, using lhe solmization syllahles lhe first lime through each song and lhen singing ali the verses. ln shapenote ham1onizations, tbe tune i s usually in the teno r (the seco nd line from the bo ttom). as in Figure 26.6. Nineteenth-century hymn tunes coul,I he used with any hymn text that featured the sarne pattern of lines. syl lahles, and accents. and so the tunes themselves were given names to idemHy them, often drawn from place names. Here the tune is New Britain, a melody of unknown origin most often sung sincc the early ninctecnth cent1t1y to John

649

RussianOrthodox music

The United States

Shape-notesinging

C H A 1> T E R 2 ~

650

• Romant1c,.m in Classocal Form>; Orchestral. Chamber, and Chorai Music

-· ~

,.,.

1 A-aw•1ira«lt'\o•1wectdiuoaat)Tbau104 ~

'fftt.ch~lltl

1 o~•u lo.t,b111 uw

Romanticism and the Cla.ssical Trad1ho11

rou.d,Wublla~ktaowl

1.m

•,n

EXAMPLE 26.7,

LoweL! Ma.son, Bethany

·~ .

t 'TWUlft-C'etllttuptmJ!hnrtlbfear,Aadpum7ftanmiutd t How pfffi6U diddl.1.tpctap pur, ThelwMlt l lntbeHne4! 0

IYd1J rIffi#ftffiRFlt r w. r itqr riEsd JJIj $ffl-WJJ

•

e r. my 2. Tho11gh ltke a 3. Then ler my if on 4. Or Ncar

God. to thcc. \Van - der- er, w:iy :1p -pear joy - l'ul wing

Ncar - cr to The sun gone

S1eps

un -

thee.

down. heaven:

Clcav - ing Lhe

sky,

E~n though it be th3( Lhou Ali Sna. moon , aud

Dark - ness

1 Tlm:rq:h 111u1 dance-n:,aolts.udma.re:s, f. 1'lle Lordbu promlk,! 1oodtocney 6 Yu, whc111.blah1hud huntba.U 6Tbtte-anll ,u!t ,ooa datolnUbaaow1 1 han a.Jtt:idf come; Bil word m,r lilope HCnru; Aod anorw Ufe ahal.l eus.t, [l'àll,, The .ao forbttr ro abhl• ; Tis 1raa hu l>rouclu m, aa(e dtu tar, R, wíll mJ alaitld ud poníoa bt. 1 •ball poua,. wlthio.._ ui&. D111 Ood, who ea.JJ'cl •• ben 'btlow, Aed pc.t wUI Lta.d roe. home. As loo.s u U!• e.do.Na. A lift or foJ ud ptt.U. WUI be for • .,., alot.

FIGURE 26.6: TTte hJinn tu.rte Ncw Bril3ill (in rh,1 ,niddle voice). sei ro rl,e te:i:L ''Anrn,ing Grace .. byJohn Newton. a.s it appears in rhe The Sacred Harp. 3ro edition (/859).

rais • ti h o

Lowell Mason

Newton·s poem "Amazing Grace." The harmonization is typical of the shapenote songbooks. with many open hlths (as in measures 1. 5. and 8), dissonant l'ourths above the bass (measures 4. 7, and 10-11), and parallel f'ifths and octaves (measures 4-5. 6-7. 7-8, 9-11, and 13-14) that give this music its characteristic sound. The style of the Yankee tunesmiths and shapenote singers was considered crude and primitive by musicians who knew European music. Especially signiftcant was Lowell Mason (1792-1872). bom in Massachusetts and rrained in harmony and composition by a Cerman emigrant musician in Savannah, Gcorgia. Mason 1·eturned lO Boston in 1827, became president of tbe Hande l and Haydn Society. and helped found the Boston Academy of Music to provi.de musical instruction for children. As superintendent of m usic for the Boston puhlic schools, he introduced music into the regular curriculum. prompting other cities to fo llow su it anel thereby estab lish ing the American tradition of music education in schools . He deplored what he regarded as the crude music o f the Yankee tunesmiths and championed a correct. modest European style, in which he composed some 1,200 original hymn tunes and arranged manyothers. Even today, many Protestant hymnals contain severa! of bis melodies and arrangements. Among his most famous Lunes is Bethany ( 1856), sei to Sarah Flower Adams's 184 l poem .. Nearer, My God, to Thee ... shown in Examp le 26.7 . The melody is largely pentatonic and in modihed MBA forro. like New Britairi. but the harmony follows the rules oi' prope r Europea n music oi' the time.

THE TRADITION OF CHORAL MUSIC From Gregorian chant lhrough lhe oratorios oi' Handel. music for choirs often led stylistic deve lopment in music. But chorai music in the nineteenth century eith er looked back to previous eras or emulated other gemes of the Lime. such as solo song. ln histories of music thal focus on the evolution of musica l style. nineteenth -century chora i music neerl harrlly he mentioneil . But enormous numbers of people participated in or heard chorai music in concert or church, and it has exercised a sign.incant and enduring influence on musical tastes.

ver me.

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Romanticism and the Classical Tradition The Íll'St hali of the nineteenth centtlly was a paradoxical age in music. The period saw extraordina1y growth in concert life, music publishing, instrument manufacture, amateur music- making. touring virtuosos. and professional orchestras and chamber ensembles. ali of which reinforced each other and spurred com.posers to produce a Lorrent of new music. These same factors also helped to estab lis h a repe11oire of classical masterpieces from Handel and Bach through Haycln. Mozart. and Beethoven. Composers of music for symphony o rches tra, chamher ensemhle, or large chorus could see this process at work and aspired to similar greatness. Tbey competed for performances, recognition. and sales with the masters of the past-and with their co11temporaries- by introduc ing something new and individua l into gemes aud forms thaL were hallowed by lradition. ln varying dcgrecs. they blended elcmcnls of R.omanticism into classica l frameworks from the eighteenth century. Many of the works they produced- incl.uding Schubeli's Unftnished and Great C- Major Symphonies and late chamber works: Bedioz's Symphonie fan tnstiq1.e anel Rerru iem: Menele lsso hn's fta,Lüm anel Scnttish Symp honi es. Vio lin Concerto. and E!ijah; and Schumann's sym.phonies and piano trios- won wide popularity and hecame classics in their own right. Pieces hy tl1ese and other composers of their tlme have become staples of the repertoire. For many of

651

652

C H A 1>T E R 2 ~ • Romontic1>m in Clossocol Forms: Orchestrol. Chomber, ond C horo! Music

these works in eighteenth-centmy gemes and forms, their re lationship to past music is an important aspect of their meaning. part of what makes the music interesting. elistinctive. and worth hearing many times over. ln other compositions, the tension between new and oh.l is no less strong, but what is innovative seems more significant than the references to tradition. As we wil l see in !ater cha pters. composers eleJining themselves in relation to the classic.al 1.radition is a theme 1ha1 grew stronger for at least lhe next centu ry anel produced a remarkab le var\ety ofresponses. Of cow·se, few pieces attained a permanent place in the repertoire during their composer's lifetime. Most works were printed. performeel, and eventually eclipseel by newer works, the typical Cate of music .in earlier cemuries. But with music of the past playing an increasing role, some composers were lucky enough to únel performers or critics to champion their works after their deaths, as Mendelssohn had done for Bach, Schumann for Schubert, and Clara Schumann for her husbanel. Bel'lioz, for examp le, had to wait until the second half of the twentieth century for full acceptance. aided by recordings ofilis monumental works. Meanwhile, some of the ulilitarian music of the day won a surprising permanence. The orchestral waltzes and other dances of Joseph Lanner and Jobann Strauss the cldcr. the Orthodox choral music of Bortnyansky. numerous hymns by Lowell Mason and his comemporaries, and the music of The Sacred Harp have ali been performed continuously si nce they nrst appeared, sustaineel by living tradilions in which their music is useful and even revered. As we will see in !ater chapters, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries spaW11ed many such repertoires of classic works from the past, even whi le new styles and types of music emerged ata dizzying pace. ~ Resources for study and revíew available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

ROMANTIC OPERA ANO MUSICAL THEATER TO MIDCENTURY \'Vhile purely inst.rnmental music gaineel prestige, opera continued to be a central part of musical life, especially in ltaly and France. Opera served as elite entertainment and also as the source of music that was popular with audiences of ali classes anel professions. Composers followed national trends, even while they developeel new forms and approaches and borrowed ideas across national boundaries. N<t.tiona lism . both political and musical, brought new themes into opera. Italian luil cnnto opera dominated the neld, but new types of opera were cultivated in France and Germany that exercised a lasting influence, and Russian opera gained independence after a century of absorbing foreign styles. In addition, a lively operatic life emerged in the Americas, centered on the performance of European operas. At the same time, a new form of musical theater-the minstrel show-sprang up in the Uni teci States and became the nrst musical export from North America to Europe.

The Roles of Opera The ó.rst half of the nineteenth centu1y was in many ways a golden age for opera. New opera theaters were erected ali over western Europe. The r.raze eve.n jumpe.cl the. Atlanl.ir. ~ncl took mot in the New Worlcl . Most opera theaters were run for pront by an impresario, usually backed by government subsidies or private support. Members of the upper anel mielelle classes atteneleel fully staged opera. and for some

654

C H A 1> T E R 2 7 • Romontic Opero ond Musicol Theoter to Midcentury

FIGURE 27.1, Posterfortlie premiereofLes Huguenots /;y Giacomo Meycrbecr. (LEnn1:c11t

The Roles oí Opero

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Opera in elite and popular culture

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people, being seen at 1he opera asserted their social s1atus even more than their love of music. Opera was anel remains big business, as the poster for the Paris premiere of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots in Figure 27. l makes clear in announcing that free passes, or entrées de faveur. would not be honored. Publishers such as Ricoreli in ltaly anel Escuelier in France even staneel their ow,1 newspapers (t.he Gazetta musicale di Milano and La France musicale) that mixed advertising with substantive articles about new works and reviews of iIDfJOrtanl performances. Outsid e the opera house. excerpts from opera cr opped up everywhere, comprising an important pan of popular as well as elite culmre. Individual nu.mbers and complete scores we re puhlished in versions for voices and piano anel were perfonned in salons anel by amateurs at home; selections fro m operas were transcribed for piano; overtures and a rias appeared on concert prof,•Tams in original fonn or arrangements; operas were abridged and parodied i.n burlesques, puppel shows, and othcr fo rms of popular theatcr; and melod ies from opera arias became staples of café orc hestras and even barrei organs. Ali types of opera from the period embody this dual appeal to Lhe elite and lo lhe public at large. Early in the centu ry. tbe balance of interest in ltalian opera remained focused 011 beautiful singing. ln French and Gerll1Jln opera. the orchestra played an increasingly signincant role in depicting scenes, conveying emolions. portraying tbe dramatic situation. and carrying the musical continuity, and beginning in the l 840s ltalian composers followed suit. Star singers we1·e still pai d more than composers, no doubt because their reputations sold Lickets. as suggested by lhe advertisement in Figure 27.1 for Les Htiguenots. whkh lists the prinr.ipal singers anrl <fance,·s with 11 a1y a mention of the composer. Often the composer's score was only lhe starting point for a performance, subject to cuts and substitutions at lhe insislence of the singers, lhe impresario. or lhe state censors. But ove r the course of lhe century. the com-

poser gradually became 1he most prominent figure in the co ll aborative effort of creating an opera, instead of ranking behind the lihrettist and singers as was typical in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. New operas by the leading composers became major events, and successful ones were perform ed numerous ti mes and restaged in many cities. By 1850, a permanent repertory of operas began to emerge. pasalleling the classical repertoire in lhe concer1 hall. At I he cen1e r of 1his reperto1y were ope ras by Rossini , Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, and Weber, alongsid e tbe late Moza11 operas and the early operas ofVerdi (discussed in chapter 28). Like composers in earlier eras. opera composers in the first half of the nineteenth centu ry aimed lo cap1ure in their music 1he drama, emolions, and personalities on stage. NaturaUy, they (and the impresarios they worked for) preferred librettos with strong plots. interesting characters. and wide auelience appeal. Subjects and settings for operas vatied widely, from granel nistorical epics to f'o lk tales, anel from plots with strongpolitica.1 overtones to stories that centered 011 privale emotions and personal relationships. Distant lands and long-ago times had a special att1·aclion. Like movies today. many operas were adapted from recent literaryworks, such as the novels or Sir Walter Scott and the plays of Friedrich von Schiller andVictor Hugo, orfrom ven erable litera1y masterpieces such as Shakespeare's plays. Lihrettists sought to reflect 1he concerns of 1he broader audience that was now attendfog operas, not so much by puttingmiddle-class characters 011 stage-a lthough tl1atwou ld beco me more common over the course of the century- as by addressing issues that spoke to them: how to balance love with loyalty to family (as in Meyer beer's Les Huguenots) or nation (Belli ni 's Norma), wome n's gro,\ring desire for independence (Rossini's BarberofSevitle and Oonizetli's Lucia di Lammermoor). the struggle for freedom (Rossini's William Telt and Auber's La mtiette de Portici), anel the J'ear of evil (Weber'sDer F'reisch1itz) .

655

Subjects and settings

NATIONALISM Among the new themes were issues of national id entity. The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars had helped to spread the concept of a nation as a brroup of cit iiens with a common herilage rather thanas subjec1s of a ruler. The inlluence of this idea grew throughout thc nineteenth ce nl1Jry. Natio11alis111 in the political realm was the attempt to unii)• a group of peop le by creati ng a national identity through characteristics such as a common language. shared culture, historical traditions, and national institutions and rituals. Not all of tbese elements had to be present: tbe Swiss achieved a sense of nationhood thxough shared histo1y and institutions despite speaking four different languages, while elsewhere people sought to create a se nse of commonality based on language and culture that crossed existiog political boundaries. Although !ater generations would take it as a given, nationa l identitywas in almost eve,y case intentionally created and channeled to achieve social and political goals. Nationalism could be used to support th.e status quo orlo challenge it. ln France and RuMia. which harl long been uni-fted states. expressions of nationalism could rally suppo11 for the goverrunent. But Germany anel ltaly had been divided si.nce the Midclle Ages, and in bolh regions nationalist sentiment supported unincation. Thal was no l to come until the th.inl quarterof thc century.

Nation and state

656

C H A 1> T E R 2 7 • Romon tic Opero ond Musical Theater to Midcentury

despite struggles in ítaly as early as the J820s during tbe Risor!,'imento (resurgence), which sought to uoiíy Jtaly and reclaLm the leading role it played in Roman antiquity and the Renais· sance. The foundation for unification could be laid by creating a T IM ELINE shared national cultu re through a common language, literature, Opera and Musical Theater music. and lhe other arts. Such cultural nationalism became to Midcentury a s trong element in many. though not ali, nineteenth-cen tury operas, as weJI as in mucb other music. As we will see, operaMUS ICAL HISTORICAL an expeosive art form 1.hat usually reliecl oo government support- was l'requently stagecl within a politicaJ context and • 1814- 24 Reign of Louis XVIII could carry political meanings on many leveis, whether put as king of France there by the librettist anel composer, prompted by the govern• 1816 Gioachino Rossini. The ment itself. or imputed to the workby those who heard it. Ba,ber o{ Se vil/e The presence of national elements in opera and other • 1819 Théâtre d'Orléans opens forms of music cou ld serve different purposes, depe nding in New Orleans on tbe audience. Representing the lústory. culture. or musi cal styles of a people could reinforce t heir group identity as • 1821 New Paris Opéra opens a oation. For ltalians, their ideuti-ócation witb lta lian opera • 1821 Caol Ma,ia von Webe,. as a national art form was so strong that malcing the plot or Der Freischütz music dcliberately Italian was bcside the point, and librcttists • 1824-30 Reign of Charles X and com posers instead relied on analogies lO suggest nalion· as king of France alist i.deas, as in Belli.ni's Nonna. But for Gerrnans, Weber's Der Freischiitz- an opera based on German folklore. focused on • 1825 First ltalian opera season German peasants as characters, and f1lled with referen ces to inNew York the styles of Cerma n dances and folk songs-became a symbo l • 1827 Alessandro Mazon í's of the nation that was yet to be. and tbus ao inspiration for novel I promessi sposi (The nation· building as well as for many )ater operas. Betrothed) sparks movement People are curious aboul eacb othe1·, not only abom tbem· for Italian unification selves, anel thus the use of nationaJ elements attracteel aueli• 1829 Rossini. Gui/Jaume Te// ences from other nations. This was evident in the popularity in western Eurnpe of Chopin's Polish dances and Gottschalk's • 1830 "July Revolution" in pieceson American anel Ca ribbeanthemes, tunes, and rhythms France puts Louis Philippe on (see chapter 25). Anel it was evident again in the reception of throne Der Freischatz outside Gennany and of Glinka's operas outside Russia. Sucb interest in f'asaway places and peoples was pari oi' Romanticism, and it was also reflected in the many plots set in distant !aneis and times and the occasional use of exoticism. the evocation of a foreign land or culture. Nationalism and exoticism became more promioent in tbe second hal f of the centu1y. as we will see in the next chapter.

ltaly Opera had been invented and popularized in Italy. whicb was still home to more opera houses than any olher region. Forty or more new op eras werr. produced every year inche ea rly nineteenth centmy, and dozens of composers werewritiogoperas. Withinconstraints imposeel by politics, state or religious censorsb.ip. the business of opera production and music publisbing.

657

ltaly

and poetic and operatic traditions, librettists and com posers sought to create operas with engaging p lots and attractivc music that appeaJcd to listcners. movcd tbeir cmo· tions, and conveyed the drama. AJ'.nid thls íerment, Rossini, Donizetti, and Belli ni created a new lta lian tradition in opera, !ater extended by Verdi and others. and composed works that have been perfo rmed across Europe a nd i n the New World almost every year since their ftrst performances.

• 1831 Vincenzo Bellini, Norma

GIOACH INO ROSSINI

• 1836 Mikhail Glinka, A Life for

• 1835 Gaetano Donizetti.

Lucia di Lammermoor • 1836 Giacomo Meyerbeer,

Les Huguenots

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che Tsar • 1841 Aelolphe Adam.

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composer. most people in Europe arnund 1825 would have • 1842 Giuseppe Verdi. Nabucco answered not Beethoven but rather Gioachino Rossini ( 17921868; see biography and Figure 27.2). Heis best known today • 1843 Virgínia Minstrels debut for his comic operas sucb as L'italiana in A/geri (fhe Italian • 1845 William Henry Fry. Woman in Algiers; Venice. 18 13) and lt barbi-ere di SiYiglia (The Leonora Barber of Seville; Rome, l 816). Yet Rossitú's reputation dur· • 1848 Second Republic ing his lifetime rested as much on his serious operas such as declareel in France; Frankfurt Otello (Naples. l 8 l 6). Mosê in Egitto (Moses in Egpyt; Naples. Assembly votes for parliamen1818), anel Guill<mme TeU (William Tell; Paris, 1829). He was tary democracy in Germany the most popular and influential opera composer of his generation. in part because he blended aspects of opera buffa • 1848- 49 Gold Rush in and opera seria inLo botb his comic and hi s serious operas, California making th em ali more varied , more appealing, anel more lrue • 1850- 52 Jenny Lind tours to human character. The oew conventions be establisbed for United States Italian opera would endure for over half a century and inílu• 1854 Acaelemy of Music ence operas in France, Germany, and other nations. opens in New York ln Rossini's operas, the most important element is the voice. even more than the story. orchestra. costumes. and • 1856-58 Hector Berlioz scenery. He called for ao eleganl style of siinging cbaractercomposes Les Troyens ized by seemingly effortless technique. an equalJy beai,tiful tone tbrougbout a singer's entire range, agility. f1exibility. and control of every type of melody from long lyrical lines through J1orid ernbel1i.shrnent, much oi' it improvised. This style is today known as bel coutoliterally, "beautiful si nging"-a term that Rossini and others used on ly in retrospect in order to contrast the Italian singing style of the eighteenth anel early oineteentb centuries witb the beavier dramatic style tbat dominatecl by midcentmy (see ln Performance: The Bel Canto Diva. pp. 660- 61). Rossini's operas are known fortheir irrepress ible tunefuJness combining General style catchy melodies with s nappy rhythms anel clear phrases. His melodies are laceei with colora Lura that combines vocal clisplay with expressivity and per· cep tive depiction of each characte r. He often repeats ideas, usua lly with a n ew tw:ist, and shows an impeccabJe sense oftheatrical timing. His spare orchestralion supports rather than competes witb the singers. while featuring inrl ividua l instruments. esper. ially winds. for r.o lor. His harmonir. sr.hemes a1·e not comp lex but are often original, aind he shares with otber ea rlynin eteenth -centurycomposers a fondness for juxtaposingthi rel-related keys. One of his charactcristic devices, both simple anel efícctive. became known

658

C H A 1> TE R 2 7 • Romon tic Opero ond Musicol Theoter to Midcentury

659

holy

A ARIA (SOLO OR WITH CHORUS)

GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868)

Orchestral

Scena

Can1abile usuallyslow

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Rossini had a brilliant career as a composer of opera, producing some of the most popular ever written. Born in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast of ltaly, Rossini was the son of a horn and trumpet player and an operatic singer. He studied musicas a child and performed professionally as a violist, singer, and pianist. ln 1806. he enrolled in the Bologna Conservatory, where his stud ies of the music of Haydn and Mozart had a permanent impact on his style. Rossini was commissioned to write his first opera in 1810, at age

ing to Naples. After Semiramide (1823), Rossini's last opera for ltaly, they traveled to London, then settled in Paris, where he became director of the T héâtre ltalien. He reworked some of his ltalian operas to French librettos translated or adapted from the ltalian and wrote one entire ly new opera ln French, Guillaume Te//. in 1829. Then, a rich man and not yet forty years old. he retired from writing operas. FIGURE 27.2: Uioachino l!ossini His remaining forty years of e1round, 1816, the yearhecom.life were marred by illness. but posed The Ba rber orSeville. he was financially comfortable, Pa.inting by Vincenzo Garnuccini. entertaining every Saturday eighteen, and the great success ( aninoeMAN AllT unRAIIY) night in his villa ou tside Paris, eating to excess, and inventing recipes that he three years later of Tancredi and L'italiana in A/geri exchanged with some of the most famous chefs established his international reputation. ln 1815, he was appointed musical director of the Teatro San in Europe. He began an affair with Olympe Cario in Naples. anda year later his most successPél issier in the 1830s and married her in 1846 after his first wife's death. He composed music ful opera, The Barber o{ Seville, was produced in for church and salons but published little. ln his Rome. For the next eight years. Rossini composed last decade. he produced witty piano pieces numerous operas for Naples and other cities. and songs-often parodies of other music-that Because copyright protection did not exist in ltaly, he could earn money from operas only when he influenced Saint-Saêns, Satie, and others and participated ln the performances. As a result, he anticipate French neodassicism of the twentieth century. He died in 1868, known best for music constantly had to produce new works, composing very rapidly (sometimes writing an opera in a written four to six decades earlier. month or less), often borrowing or reworking overMAJ OR WOR kS: 39 operas, lncluding Tancredi, L'lraliana tures and a rias from his own previous works. H e inAlgeri, /1 barbiere di Siviglia, 01ello. La Cenerenrola, Mosê always wrote for particular singers, creating music in Egitto, Semi,amide. and Guillaume Te//: Sral>ar mate,, to suit their talents. Perite messe solennelle. and other sacred vocal works: and ln 1822. Rossini married the soprano lsabella smaller vocal and instrumental p leces collected in Soirées Colbran, with whom he had worked since commusica/os and Piiclu!s de vieil/esse (Sins of Old Age)

Scene structure

as t he "Rossini c1·esceudo"- bu il ding up excitement by repeating a phrase, louder each time and often ai a lúgher pitch. sometimes giving lhe effect of a wnrld ahnut ln ~pin out of r.on trnl. The action in earlier operas was mostly confmed to d1y recita tive dialogue, wh ile a rias were dramatically static, expressingonly one or t:wo moods. Rossini continued to use si.rn]ile recilalive in his comedies. but in his serious operas and some pa n s o r com ic operas Rossini and his li b rellists deve loped a scene

Tempo di merzo

Cabalem,

(middlc section)

introduc1ion

cha nges cempo.

nsually fase

rnodu lntes;

may be transition.

ensem ble. or chorus

introduction

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FIGURE 27.3: Scenesrnictures in Rossi11iopems.

strncture that distrihuted the story more evenly and integrated new plot devel opments or changes of mood within an aria, or ensernble. A continuous succession of orchestrally accompanied recitatives. solo arias. duets. ensembles. and choruses ali contributed to ad,•ancing the plot . with both orchestra and chorus playing more signincant roles than they had in previous Italian operas. As shown in Pigure 27.3, a typical scen e begins with an instrumental introduction anda r ecitative section (called a scena. l talian for "scene") that is accompanied by the orchestra. The ensuing aria has two main sections, a slow, lyricaJ coutabile and a lively and brilliant cabalet.ui. The cantabile expresses relabvely calm moods such ais pensiveness, sadness, or hope. and the cabaletta more active feelings such as anger or joy. Part or ali of the caLaleua is repeated, perhaps with improvised emhellishments. Some arias , like Una voce poco fa from 77ie Barber of Seville (NAW\1 HS) . have these t:wo sections only. but in most arias, we aJso nnd a middle section between the cantahile and the cabaletta calied the tempo di mczzo (midclle movement) , which is usually some kind of transition or interruption by other charac ters and in which something happe ns to alter th e situation or the character·s mood. A duet or ensemhle has a similar form (as in the duet from Verdi's La traviata in NAWM 150), but the camabile is usually preceded by an open ing section (called tempo d'attacco) in which the characte1·s trade melodie phrases. The fmaJe of an act is normaliy an action piece that brings together most or all of the characters and is organized in many sections, employing shifts in tempo, meter. anel key to accommoclate the rapid changes of situa tion and emotion taking place on stage. The actiot\ often culminates in a fast stnitto correspondingto the cabal etta in an a ria or ensemble. Rossinfs basic fo rmal could be ílexibly applied to suit al.rnost any dra matic situation. and his structure created a d1·amatic progression from one mood or idea to another whi le allowing more t.han t:wo contrasting moods to be presenled within a coherent for m. ln line with the continued role of ltalian opera a~ a vehicle for virtuoso ~inging. this strur.ture a lso provirle,1 singers with an opportunity to show a wide range of emotions and vocal effects. from lyric beauty to sparkling pyrotechnics. Considered today Rossi11i's most populasopera. 'íl1.e BarberofSevWe com bines featUJ·es of opera buffa wilh bel canto t radit ion. The main cha racter ,

1 Conme ~ 1 1 rutl~ 1

The Barber of Seville

660

C H A 1> TE R 2 7 • Romon tic Opero ond Musicol Theoter to Midcentury

lt was to guard aga inst such excesses that Rossini and other composers began, in the second decade of the century. to notate ornaments even more painstakingly in their scores. Although these written-out embellishments were meant as suggestions rather than prescriptions. there is evi· dence that many singers followed them faithfully. if not slavlshly. One such manuscript, preserved in the library of the Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi" in Milan. contains a tastefully ornamented version of Rosina's Una voee poco fa in Ros sini's

THE BEL CANTO DIVA The art of bel canto fos tered the rise of a new breed of opera singers in the first half of the nineteenth century. like today's pop superstars, female virtuosos like Giud itta Pasta , Angelica Catalan i, G iulia Grisi, Henriette Sontag , and Jenny lind were more than mere singers: they were larger-than-life cultural icons. The term used to describe them, diva (ltalian for "god· dess·). reflects the semi-divine status ascribed to them by their legions of admirers. The Spanish mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran (1808 1836), shown in Figure 27.4, epitomizes the dazzling aura of the bel canto diva. Bom into a celebrated musical famil y, she made her london debut in 1825 as Rosina in The Barber ofSeville, the first of many Rossini roles with which she would be closely identified. She repeated her success a few months later in New York City. appearing with a touring company organized by her father, the tenor Manuel Garcia, and went on to take France and ltaly by storm in works by Rossini, Bellini, Mozart, Meyerbeer. Donizetti. and other composers. Malibran's exceptional vocal range of nearly three octaves was matched by her dramatic powers. She was at the height of her fame when she d ied at the age of twenty-eight as a result of a riding accident in Birmingham. England, shortly after her marriage to the Belgian violinist Charles de Bériot. Malibran was also remarkable for her versa· tility, being equally at home in Rossini's frothy comedies and in tragic roles like Bellini's Norma . Both kinds of music allowed her to show off her

661

holy

EXAMPLE 27.1, Two pa.ssages from The Barber ol'Seville

hand, excerpted in Example 27.1 (compare with the unadorned melody shown in Example 27.2d , which comes between the passage shown here). Although penned many years after the 1816 premiere of The Barbe, a{ Seville, and ta ilored for another singer's voice, the soaring cadenza. liquid runs. and pert grace notes in the final cabaletta section of the aria convey a sense of pyrotech nics that seventeen-year-old Maria Malibran dis played in New York's Park Theater on November 29, 1825.

Rossini's ornamente d version of Una voe e poco fa, from

FIGURE 27.4: A portrmt of Maria

Malibr,:111, b7 lialian a,rtís1 Laígi Pedrazzi

(/802-184S).

(THtARTABCHtvE/J.tOSf.OTCATIIALE

ALLASCAL\ MILAN/COLLECTl01'' OAGU Ofl'rt)

prowess in adorning melodies with improvised embellishments, a practice that was as intrinsic to bel canto idiom as it was in elghteenth-century opera (see chapter 21). Malíbran and other divas often wrote down their ornamented versions of popular arias. both for teaching purposes and for sale as sheet music. Not all of their elaborations bore the composer's stamp of approval, however. Once. after suffering through an overwrought performance of Rosina's aria Una voce poco {a by the soprano Adelina Patti, Rossini remarked cat· tily: "Very nice. my dear. and who wrote the piece you have just performed?"

the lown's barber and residenl schemer. helps a counl (disguised as Lindoro. a poor sold ier) to win the hand of the beautiful and wea lthy Rosina, who has bee n locked away by he r guard ian , Dr. Ba11olo- a man intent on marrying her for her inheritance. Secret messages. drunken brawls. and mis taken identi ties are ali pM·l nf' the chan1 ic plot. 1 Conclse ~ 1 1 Full ~ 1 Rosina's justly famous aria U11a voce poco fa (NAWM H5) couveys her character through changes of style, as shown in Example 2 7.2. The orches~ ROS SI N 1: llb•rbieredi lral introduction presents ideas thal will r eappeax later. There is no openi.ng Siwgha. Acr 1. Um, voce poco {a rec itaLive, but the ftrsLpart of her cantabile-as she na rrates being serenaded

ceu - 10

lt-

pri - ma

c;e

•

le pri - mo

e cen - 10

frap

de • re

~:: ~.

car, _ _ Ía

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...

gi ~•

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by and falling in !ove witl1 Lindorn- is broken into small phrases punctuated by orc hestral chords, a style appropriate to narration (Example 2 7.2a). Wl1en she swears to oun,.it her guardian , the style briefly changes to a comic parter song (Example 27 .2b). which is p receded a.nd followed by elaborate embellishments anrl runs as she vows ln mariy Linrlnro. Rossini proceerls rlir er.tly to U1e cabaletta, where tbe music reveals Rosina's true nature. She clajms to be both docil e and obed ient-singinga winning, lyrica l melody (Example 27.2c)as well as a viper and trickste1~ showing off her sudden vocal leaps and rapid passage wor k in buf'fo style (Examp le 27.2d). The aria is a cunning portrayal of

rõ

gio

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EXAMPLE 27.2,

ltaly

Changes of siyle in Una voce poco fa,from Rossini"s The Barber of Seville

d. Cont rosiin.g comi.e siylc "l

a. Quasi-recitat"ive And:mte

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A voice a short while (lgo Itere in '"J' he(lrt resou nded. b. Patter song Jo

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The guardian will refuse, 1sha.ll sharpen. Jllc)' wits.

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sa.

the different íacets of Rosina's character and a masterful comhination of bel canto melody. wit, and comic description. Toe las tingappeal of Rossini's comic operas has overshadowed hls serious ones, but they were equally significant in hLs day. Many of the serious operas have enjoyed successful revivais in recent decades. showing that his style and approach have a íar wider range in delinea,ling characters, capturing situa· tions, and conveying emotions than are represented in the comic operas alone. Toe best k:nown ofhis serious operas was his last. Guillaume Tel1. which was wrillen for the Paris Opéra in 1829 and had Jive hundrecl performances there during the composer's lifetime. The Jibretto. based on Friedrich von Schlller's Wi!helm TeU (1804), celebrates a folk hero who leda rebellion ofthree Swiss cantons against an Austrian governor. The theme was timely- revolution and s1rnggles for national unity were in lhe air-but it also subjected lhe work to censorship in Milan, London, Berlin, anel St. Petersburg. While continuing the conventions he had helped to establish in Italian opera. Rossini's setting includes many choruses, ensemhles, dances, processions, and atmospheric instnnnental interludes, ali of whi ch drew 011 F'rench operatic traditions. This comhination of elements. along with its laTge scale anel dramatic power. made Cuillaiwie Telt one of the founding examples of French grand opera (see below). Rossini"s ro le in crealing a new geme of F'rench opera invites com · parison to Lu lly. another ítalian. who originated the French operatic tradition in th e seventeenth century (see chapter 16). Rossini's opera overtures have found a second career in lhe concert hall. as gems of the orchestral repertoire. Most are in two parts: a long. slow introduction with a lyrical melody for wind instruments followed by a fast bLnary fonn without repeats, shaped like the exposition and recapitulation of a sonata form. The fosl section focuses almost exclusively on the lhemes, witb

Serious operas

Cuillaume Tell

Overtures

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ltoly

minimal transitions and a rousing Rossini crescendo at tbe end of each haJf. This formula, combining attractive melodies with a 1·ising sense oí excitecl anticipation. makes Rossini's overtures the perfecl curtain- raisers at the opera and 1asty appetiiers on concert programs. The most famous is the overture to Guil!aume Te!!. \Vritten for Paris, il has a different shape frnm the Italian overlures. witb four sections tbat presenL a series or genre scenes taken rrom 1he opera: a slow pastoral in trocluction; a musica l depiction of a storm; another slow section featuring a rarizdes vaches-a Swiss cowherd's call-played by an English bom (and )ater repeatecl throughout the opera): anel a galloping allegro (usecl in lhe twenti eth century as tbe therne for tbe radio and television show The Lone Ranger). Comb ining simplicity in me lody. hannony, and form with vivacious rhythms, exciting dynamics, anel unusuaJ orchestral effects has made Rossini's overtures perennia] favorites.

V INCENZO BELLINI Vincenzo Bellini (180 1- 1835) was a younp;er contempora1y oi' Rossini's who carne to prominence after Rossini bad retired fromopera composition. BeUini preferrecl dramas of passion, with fast, b'l'ipping action. His favorite librettist. Fetice Romani, did nol limi1 ac1ion to recita1ive passages lrnt buih it into tbe ari.as and provided opportunfües for lyrical moments withi n the recitatives. Of Bellini's ten operas- aJl serious- the roost important are La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker, 1831), Norma (1831), and / pu-ritani (The Purilans, 1835). Bellini is known for long, sweeping, highJy embellishecl, imense ly emoStyle tionaJ melodies. A.mong the most famous is tbe cantahile section ofNorma's cavatina, or entrance aria, Casta, diva (Chaste goddess) from Norma (l\AWM EXAMPLE 27.3,

Casta diva,JromBellini's Norma

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Chaste godrless. who plut.es wilh silver [t.hese sacred ancient,planls]

_,_.._

146) , shown in Example 27.3. Tbe choice of subject for the opera, set in ancient Gaul after its conquest by the Rom:rns, reflected both the Romantic fascinalion with distant times and places anel ltaJian yearnings for freeclom from foreign domination, especially acute after Lhe Austrians suppressed revo lts in northern ltaly in 1830-31. \Vhen Norma, high priestess of the Druids, prays to the moon for peace with the Romans, her vocal l.ine seeros to be in constant moL ion, creating a deeply expressive anel unp red icrable melody. The secret of such melodies is that an unclerlying simpJe structure, often stepwise motion (A-G-F in the ftrsl pbrase. A-Bb in the second), is embellished witb ever-changing ftguralion lhat draws our attenlion anel plays with our expectations. The sceoe follows Rossini's typical pattern, beginning with orchestrnlly accompanied recitative, fo.llowed by the cantabile section, a declamatory tempo di mezzo. anda hrilliant cabaJetta. ln each seclion, the chorns plays an important role, responcling to Norma's pleas for peace. The constant interaction of the principal protagonists 1vitb subord inate characters anel the chorus creates a sense of conlinuous action. which Bellini re inforces tbrough freguent changes of style. texture, and ti.guration.

GAETANO OONIZETTI One o!' tbe most prolil1c ltalian composers during Lhe second quaner oJ' lhe century was Gaetano Oonizetti ( 1797-1848), who composed oratorios, cantatas. chamher anel church music, aboul one hunelred songs. and severa! symphonies in acldition to some seventy operas. His most enduring works were the serious operasAnna. Bolena (Milan, 1830) anel Lucia di Lammerinoor (Naples, 1835); the opéra cornique la filLe du regiment (The Daughter of lhe Rcgiment; Paris. 1840): and the buffo operas L'elisir d'amore (Thc Elixir of Love; Milan, l 832) and Don Posquale (Paris, 1843). Donfaetti, like Rossini, had an instinct for the theater and for melody that effectively captures a character, situation, or feeling. His comic operas often mix sentimenrality with comedy. ln his serious operas, Donizetti constantly moves the d rama forward. occasionally ave rting caclences that wou ld entice applause and thus sustaining drarnatic tension until a major scene is finished. The beginll.ings and endings of the formal components of a scene, such as the orchest ral introduction, cantahile, and cabalei-ta, are sometimes disguised by chorai or recitative episodes so that the music seems to possess an almost seamJess continuity. One of Donfaet ti's mos Lfamous operas,LticiadiLammermoor, offers a prime example of this 1-d nd of transparent con tinuity. Baseei on a novel by Sir Wa lter Scott (1771- 1832). the most popular novelist of his generation, the opera is set among the lonely cliffs and ancient feuds of the Scottish highlands, a elistant place wbose land, people, and cu lture fascinated tbe public and captured the imagination of Romantic writers and composers. Lucia is tricked by her brother into thinking tbat tbe man she !oves, Edgardo, has been unfaith.fuJ. She reluctantly agrees to many someone cise, but on hcr wedding night. she murders him on their nuptial bed. Lucia then begins to hallucinate. imagining she hears Edgardo's voice calling to her. Her "mad scene" in the last act creates an unhroken Jlow of events th.rough munerous entrances and tempo changes. The scene begins with a short choros that comm.ents on Lucia's cleathly

Lucia di Lammermoor

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Fr\lnce

FIGURE 27.S: The new

and disheveled appearance as she enters after murdering her husbancl. We then hear foreboel ing music that first appeared in tl1e opera's preluele, played by .a quartel ofhorns. Against this anda syncopateel Jlute motive. Lucia begins an impassioned recilative, calling out co Edgai·do. The Jlutes anel clarinecs recollect the theme of her !ove duet with him from Act I; such hearke ning back lo an earlier theme or motive bec.ame known as a r e111i11is ce11ce mot ive. Luci.i's rec itative continues th.rough severa! tempo changes anel overlaps the introeluction to her cantabile, che blurri ng of boundaries serving as a sign of hei' madness. Lucia's tutor, a captain of the 1,ruarels, a n el her brother. having learned of the mureler, break in to pray for the Lord's mercy. At the tempo di mezzo, she .is joined by her brotber and tutor and ]ater the chorus. After a pause and orchestral introeluctfon, Lucia begins the cabaletta. But before she cao sing lhe anticipated repelition. lhe chorus anel other characters break in. joi:oing her again as she brings the repetitioo to a close anel faints. Such llexible aclaptation of Rossini's standard scene structure to suit the course of the drama is typical of Donizetti and served as a model for Giuseppe Verdi in the nexl generation (see chapter 28).

CLASSICS OF ITALIAN OPERA The most successfu.l operas of Rossini. Bellini, and Donizecti were performeel in opera houses ali over lta ly and at theaters in other nations chat specialized in Ita.lian opera or presenteei Italian operas in translation. Their most famous rui.as became popular tunes heard by large segments of the public. as operatic excerp ts were performed widely outside the opera house anel disseminateel th.rough all manner of arrangements for voice and piano, piano alone, hanel. and other ensembles. By mielcentury. these operas were becoming part of a core repertory, staged repeatedly wherever opera was perl'ormeel. Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Bellinfs Nomia. and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammemioor were among the nrst operas ever to reach the status of permanent classics. akin to Hanelel's Messiah or Beethoven's symphonies. ln parl elue to the phenomenal success of these operas, ltalian musical life was dominated by opera for severa] more generations. eluring which the most noteel composers specialized in opera. while iostrnmenta.l gem·es, cboral music. anel even solo song were overshadoweel.

France

F'rench opera under Napoleon

Tluoughout the nineteenth century, opera remained the most prestigious musical genre in Prance, whose musical culture was secon el only to ltaly's in ils focus on the geru-e. Fi·om its founding by Lully in the late seventeemh centu ry, Prench opera was centered in Paris an el shaped by politics. The Prenc'11 Revolution hael ended aristocratic palronage. bringing new laws that allowed anyone to open a puhlic theater. But Napo leon again reMrkte,1 theaters. all owing only three to presen t operas. Tbe Opéra. which focused on tragedy. was the most prestigious. staging new works, revivals hy Gluck and others, anel French vers ions of foreign operas by composcrs such as Mozart. Thc Opéra-Comique gave operas with

667

Paris Opéra building on Rue Le Pel etier. wlt iclt openedAu.gust, 16, 1821. The i.llus1rc,1.ion sho ,os its i nierior du ring a perfonnance i n l.he l 840s of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable. Tlu,sragescenery is ofa new kind. with a cu rved ba ckdrop shell designed io look more realisiic tltan previousflat ca,wasses could. Lit/10 graph. by JulesAmo1H. < •••uo-ru EQUE XATJONALC, PAAlS)

spoken d ialogue instead of recitative: despi te the name. many of these opéras comiques had serious plots. The Théãtre Italien presenteei operas in ltalian, including works composed for Paris anel older operas by Mozart and others. Other Paris theaters featured a variely of stage works that included music. from plays and comeelies with incidental music to vauelevilles (comedies with songs interspersed), pantom.imes (scenes acted ouc silently with musical accompaniment). anel balJets. AJthough Paris was the center for proelucing new works, theaters and opera houses in other French cities were also active. Followingthe defeat ofNa poleon, the French monru·chy was restored uneler Louis XVI11 (r. 18 14-24). brother of Lou is XVI. Covernment spo nsors hip for the Opéra continueel as before. anda new theater, shown in Figure 27.5. was buih for it in 1821. Cas lighting was introduceel the nexl yea r, allowing much more speclacular and subtle stage el'fects. The Théãtre ltalien mounted operas by Rossini. wbo beca me the director rhere in 1824. But Charles X (r. 1824-30) failed to gain the support of the growing anel powerful mieldle class. anel tbe "July Revolution" of 1830, which reduced che power of the French monarch, put his distant cousin Louis Philippe on th e throne as a constitutional monarch. The government continued to subsidize opera and concerts. but nowthe roya.l family contributed informally to opera and beneÍll concerts rather than sponsoring them directly. The Opéra theater was leasecl to a businessman, Louis Véron. who found wealthy sponsors. Anyone co uld purchase tickets, but the boxes were rented at high prices.

GRAND OPERA With the decline of royal patronage. a ne,v kinel of opera carne into being. designe.d to appea l to th e newly well-to-<lo middle- r.lass aud iences who thronged the opera theaters look:ing for excitement anel ente11ainment. Gra11d opern., as this type came to be called, was as much spectacle as music, consisten t wilh the fashion that had prevaileel in France ever since Lully. Writers created

Restoration and thejuly Revolution

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C H A 1> T E R 2 7 • Romontic Opero ond Musical Theater to Midcentury

Eugene Scrilie and

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Les Hugu enots

librettos that focused on ro1nanlic love in the context of lJjstoricaJ conflicts and exploited every possihle occasion for ballets, stage machinery. choruses, and crowd scenes. Two eady examples of grand opera. both on themes of rebellion against foreign domination, were Rossini's Guitlai,me TeU (1829), feawring an ons tage lake across which Tel1 rows to safety, and La muette de Portici (The Mu te Woman of Portici, 1828) by Daniel- François -Espl'il Auber (1 782- 1871). wh ich ends with a battle duriogan eruption of lhe volca no Vesuvius-and iro n ica lly has a title role that is danced, n ot sung, s ince s he is a mute. Along with Véron , the director of the Paris Opéra. the leaders of grand opera were Lhe lihrettist Eugêne Scribe (1791 - 1861) and the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 - 1864). Scribe, who coauchored lhe librelto to La muette de Portici. created the mix of fo rmality, spectacle, and historical, political. o r religious themes that de!ined the n ew geme. Meyerbee r's Robert !e diab!e (Robert che Devil, 1831. shown in Figure 27.5) and Les Hiiguenots (1836). both 0 11 Scribe librettos, set lhe pattern for the musica l treatment, usi.ng every available technique to dramatize the action and please the puh lic. Meyerbeer had a command of varied musical styles forged from h is earlier experiences: born to a German-Jewish family in Berlin, he was a child prodih'Y as a pianist, then spent nine successful years as an ope ra composer i.a ltaly, where he ltalianized his Eirst name (originally Jakob). Les Hugi,Mots is typical of French grand o pera in having fi.ve acts, an e normous cast, a ball et, and dramatic scenery anel lighti ng effects. The plot centers on events leading to lhe St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572. in wh.ich Ca lholics slaughtered hundreds of Prolestants (Huguenols) in Paris. The subject was of curren t interest du eto concerns about re li gious freedom and the influence of the Catholic Church on the government. Unlike earlier historical dramas that showed rulers in control. Les H1igiienots represents a new view or history, in11uenced by the revolutions of 1789 and 1830, chat regarded competition between grotips as the principa l engi ne driving even ts, beyond the control of individuais. This perspective is p oi!,'Ilantly cxemplined in 1he closingscene of Act II (NA\VM 14 7), whlch illustrnces Meyerbeer's ability to integrate the expression of deep personal feelings with crowd scenes, public ceremonies. and confrontations. using a variei)' of styles and gestures 10 co nvey che emociona l and psych ological impon of events on Slage. Reílect ing Rossi11i's influence on grand opera a.nd Meyer beer's earlier experiences in ltaly. the scene is structured like an ltalian opera f10ale. with an orchestral introduction. opening section. slow movement (akin to a cantabile) . dialogue in accompanied recita tive, and fast stretta at the end. Queen Marguerite de Valois tri es to recon ci le the two faction s th rough a p eace- making marriage of a Catholic noblewoman. Valentine. to the Protescant nobleman Raoul. Before incroducing lhe cou ple to each other, she asks the Protestant and Catho lic gentleme n of her cou rt to swea r eterna l friendship. She sings her request in an ingratiating ltalianate style marked hy Rossinian emhellishment, far briefer than an ltalian aria but long enough to convey her charming persouality and happy roood. ln the following slow movement. tbe main protagon ists ou each side sin g an oath of peace in unison. softly. solemnly. and without accompanimcnt, lending it a sacred. chantlike aura . The male chorus, represenling the rival groups, lo udly afh rms their vow, accompanied by the orchest ra. Then the leaders hail the

fritnce

ben eftts of barmony among all people, in a soft unaccompanied ensemble of four voices whose texture recalls the a cappella singi ng of a church ch oir or of a parlsong for men's chorus, both associated with good feelings and social harmony. On1y lhe militam Protestant Marcel defies rhe others, lJuietly vowingto make war on Catholics. But lhen Marguerit e's plan goes awry. When Raoul sees Valenti.ne. he angrily refuses to ma rry he r in a d ramatic accompa nied recita tive. Th is is heartbreaking on a personal levei, because we know t'rom Act I that they !ove each other and thal his reaction is the result of a misunderstandingironicaHy. one that resuJt-ed from Marguerite's own actions in executing her plan, s i nce she senl Va lenline on an errand thal led Raoul co conclude rois takenly that Valentine was a nother man's mistress. Raoul's refusa l ignites a fi restorm, capttu·ecl in lhe final stretta. The Calholics are inflamed lo vengeance, Marguerite is furious at Raoul's disobedienee, Valentine asks plaincively what she has clon e to meric suc h a n insult, and Marcel, pleased with the turn of events. sings the Lutheran chorale Einjeste Burg. an emhlem of the Protes tant slruggle. Excep t for the chorale, Meyerbeer has e,,eryone sing lhe sarne musi cal id eas, expressing d isbelief, fury, anguish, vengeance, and des1>air in rum , thereby showing that the characters on stage are experiencing similar feelings. each from their unique perspect ive, a ll powerless to resist the coming conJlict. Meyerbeer keeps the tumu lt l'resh by continually introducing new ideas and comb inations, building repeated ly to powerful climaxes. Th is scen e exemplifies lhe conception of granel op era as a comhinalion of entertaining spectacle and glorious singing with a serious artis tic statement. Meyerbeer's approach to gra nel opera was adm ired and emulated by later composers. Other grandope ras, like la]uive (The Jewess, 1835) by Fromental Halévy (1 799- 1862) with a lihretto by Scribe, follow a similar formula. Donizelti's Lafavorite (1840) was a grand opera wrillen for Paris, as were Verdi's les vépres siciliennes (l 855) and Don Carlos (1867). The ge nre spread, with productions in Germany. London. and elsewhere. Particularly signincant is Meyerbeer's profound in11uence on Richard Wagner (see chap ter 28), whose Rienzi (1842) is grand opera pure an d sim p le, anel whose !ater operas were heavily inlluenced by Les Huguenots. Hector Berlioz's great l'ive-act ope ra Les Troyens (1856-58. parcial prerniere in 1863) drew on granel opera but also on the o ider Prench opera 1radi tion of Lully, Rameau. and Gluck. The text, by Berlioz himself. is baseei on the second and fourth books ofVirgil's Aeneid. Berlioz condensed the narra tive in a series of powerful scenes and used appropria te occasions to in troduce ballets. p rocessions, and ot her musica l numbers. Like Meyerbeer·s Huguenots, l es Troyens can be classified as an "epic opera"- a work in which the story of a nation competes with the passions a nd emotions of individual characrers.

OPÉRA COM IQU E Side by side with grand opera. opéra comiq l,e continued to be fashionablc. As in the eighteenth century. the technical di fference between the two was that opéra comique used spoken dialogue instead of recitative. Apart from this, the differences were primarily questions oJ' s ize and subjecl matter. Opéra comique was less preten tious than grand opera and required fewer si ngers and

Impacto/ grandopera

Berlioz. LesTroyens

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players. lts plots, as a rule, presented straightforward comedy or semiserious drama instead of the historical pageantq typical of grand opera. Two kinds of opéra comique existecl in the eai-ly pari of the nineteenth centu,y, the romantic and the comie, although many works shared characteristics of both types.

BALLET Another form of musical theater popular in France was the baJlet. Prench operas since the sevenLeemh ce ntmy had often included ballets. but in the late eighteenth century dance tn·oupes began to present independent ballets that had a series of dance scenes linked togerher by a narrative. A new style, now known as Romanlic ballet. was introduced by Marie Taglioni (1804-1884). shown in Figure 27.6. ln this style, still common in modern performances, ballerinas became preen:Linent, moving with a new lightness. gracc. and freedom exemplif:ted by sheer. translucent skirts and by shoes that allowed Lhem to FIGURE 27.6: Marie Taglioni. clad in rhe new cosstand on point. Having triumphed in Paris and Lon ltune of r,he Ro11urnr.icballerina. wil/1 a elose -jiuing don, she performed for many years in St. Petersburg bodice and sheer. almosr.transtucent skin. Her posiwilh the Imperial Ballet, wheJ·e she helped to estabtio,1 , rising "on point"º(on 1he toes. in special shoes lish a lasting ballet tradition i.n Russia. that allo ,o rhis). rypífies rhe lighr.. airxeJJect ballet Compose rs lypically wrote music for ballets aJter dancer·s sought to acltieve. Lilhographji-orn the 1830s the dance had already been choreographed. so they byJames Henry Lynch after Alfnd Edwal'd Cha!on. had to f1t their music lo the liming, rhythms, move{V1CTOR1A A-AUlf.RT MUSF.U t.f /ART RF:SõUftCf.. ~Y) ments. and mood of the dance. One of the highlights of Romantic ballet was Giselle. premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1841, withmusicbyAdolpheAdam (1803-1856) that used recurring motives and recollection of eadier material to highlight the progress of the drama , as in an opera.

Germany The interaction between music and literature, so typical or nineteentb centmy Romanticism. was developed most fully by composers in the CennaJ1- speaking lands, in opera as well as song and instrumental music. At the root of Gennan opera was the Singspiel. whose composers in lhe eal"ly nineteenth centu,y soaked up Romantic elements from Prench opera while intensifyingthe genre's speci nc national features.

CARL MARIA VON WEBER Der Prcischütz

The work that established German Romantic opera was Der Freischütz (The Free Shootcr, Iirst pcrformed in Bcrlin in 1821). by Carl Maüa von Weber (1 ?86-1826). depicted in Figure 27.7. Wha Lmade Der Freischüiz so daring for

Germany

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its time was not only Weber·s unusual orchestration and harmonfos , hui also his idea of putting ordinary people center stage. talking and singing about their concerns, their !oves, and their fears. The libretto of Der Preischiitz exemplines the characteristics of German Romanlic opera. Plots a re drawn from med ieval histo ry, lege nd, or fa iry tale. The story invo lves si1pernan.1ral beings and happenings sel against a background of wilderness and myste1y, but scenes of hum ble vilfage or count1y life a re frequenlly introduced. Supernatural incidents and the natura l setting are intertwined with the fate of the human protagonisls. Mortal characters act not merely as individuais but as agents or representatives of superhuman forces. whether good or evil. The triumph of good is a form of salvation or redemption. a vaguely relip;ious concep1 of de iiverance from sin and error through suffering, conversion, or revela tion. ln giving such importance to the physical and spiritual background, German opera dliffers sharply from contemporary Prench and lta lian opera. But its musical styles and forros draw FIGURE 27.7, CarlMuria von Weber. inaportruitby directly from those of other countries, while the Caroline Bard1,a. <u•1vta,ALmsroarAac""'"'º•-n·r '""º"> use of sirnple fo lklike melodies introduces adis tincúy Cerman national element. German opera also clisplays increasingly chromatic harmony, the use of orchestral color for d ramatic expression, and a more equaJ role for the orchestra, in contrast to the ltalian stress on beautiful singing. Ali these facetsare illustrated inDer Freischütz. Rusticchoruses, marches. dances, and airs mingle in the score with multisectional ai-ias iu a formal adapted from Rossini that exhibit many of the flori d voca l characteristics of the Italian style. The somber forest background is depicted idyllically by the horns at the beginning of the ove rture and diabolically in the eerie midnight scene in the Wolf's Glen, shown in Pigure 27.8. ln a st01y line clerived from folklore, Max, a young ranger, !oves Agathe, but in order to win her hand in marriage, he must passa test of marksmanship. He has had bad luck for a few days, failing target practice. Gaspar, a fellow ranger, persuades Max that he can obtain some magic bullets, which will guarantee that Max will win the trial. ln the dead ofnight. the two men meet in the \VoU's Glen, where Gaspar casts the magic bullets. But unbeknownst to Max, Gaspar has sold his soul to the devi l, Samiel, who controls the fma l bullet cast and has destined it to kiU Agathe. By the time of the fateful shooting trial. six of the bullets have been usecl and Max bas only one left-that gtúded by Samiel. Agathe unexpectedly appeai-s in the line of ft.re as Max shoots, but she is protected by an old hermit's magical wreatb. and the bullet kills Caspar instead . The Wolf's Glen Scene (ftnale of Act II. NA\VM 148) . during which the Wolf's Glen Scene seven bulle1s a1·e cast, iucorporates elements of tbe mclodrcuna., a genre of musical theater that combined spoken d.ialogue with backgrouncl music. Me lodramas had been po pula r in France and in German-speaking a reas

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FIGURE 27.8, Setting liyCar/ Wilhel,n Ho!dennann for the Wolfs Glen Scene in Weber's De r Fre iscbütz as performed ai Weimar in 1822. ln the m.ogic circle. Gaspar· casts t/1 e magic bu.llets. whileMox looks aro1111 d with growing alarni ai the frighteningapparitions arotised by each bullet

a nationa.1 school of opera wüh Der Freischatz. and .his other elramatic works are q uite varied in subject, includ ing Euryan.the (1823), about a trouhadour Ln medieval Francc. anel Oberon (1826). which comliines 1he supernatural worlel of elves and fail'ies, medie,,al knights, and lhe lslamic courts of Baghdad and Tunis, portrayed with authentic Tu r kish anel Egyptian me lod ies. These are exoticisl ralher than nationalist. lho ugh equally Romanlic in lheir appeal to d ista n1 places and Li mes a nel to the supernatura l. But 1he na Liona l se ntimen t i n Der Freischatz made it \Veber·s most popula r work.

Russia

C(l,SI. (STAATU(:Ht KUN'ST• SAMMLUl\'GE~ . SCIILOSS· MUSEU!.!, WEIMAR. PIIOTO:

U:Bt11; c1rr M USIC$ AflTS

l'll0TO 1.1 BRARY)

lnfluence

Other operas

since the l ?'ZOs, and scenes in meloclrama had appeared in operas by Mozart, Beethoven, and others. Speaking bis lines over conlinuous o rchestra] music, Caspar :árst invokes Samiel. Then. as he casts each bt1llet. with Max cowering beside him, Caspa.r coun1s on.e. two, three, and so on, while the mountains echo each count. For each casting, Weber pai n ts a clifferent p ichll'e of the terrifying dark forest. Throughout. he ingeniously exploits the resources of the orchestra: timpani, trombones, cbsinets, and hor ns in the foreground, often aga inst string tremolos. Diminishecl anel augmen teel i ntervals anel elar ing chromaticism depict evil. and an offstage chorus reinforces the shadowy and supernatural elemen ts of lhe plot. The entire scene centers on lhe notes of a diminished sevenlh chord . .E'l,F~-A-C. Scored in the dark lower ranges of the oboes, clarinets, and upper strings over a repeated A in the bass, this chord is a reminiscence motive linl<ed lo Samiel, fu-sc heard in lhe overttu·e. The sarne chord recurs oJcen in other for ms throughout the scen e. an el its notes are the principal keynotes: F# minor at beginning and end; C minor through most of lhe rest of the scene. especially identined with Caspar; EI, major at Max's entrance; andA minor for severa! supernatural visions. Weber's assoc iation of motives and keys with pa rticular characters or events exerc ised an e normous influe nce on later composers of opera. These ideas were especially imporlanl lo Wagner (see chapler 28). who also found in this scen e a model for a continuous, through-composeel musical dra ma baseei ou Gerrn an legen el. More gene ra lly, Weber's use of' tritone - relateel and thi.rd- related harmonies, diminished seventh chords, and string tremolos to evo ke mystery. danger. and the supernatural contributed to the estab lish ment of these associations as conventions followed by cou.nlless Romantic composers and still used by composers for lilm anel televis ion. Weber apparently diel noL intend to scncl a nalion.alist mcssage or found

Having spread across western Europe in 1he seventeenth century and to the New \Vorlel i n the ea:rly eighteenlh, opera fm:ally arriveel in Russia in 1731 with a performance in Moscow by a visiting Italian troupe. Five years !ater a pe rmanem opera company was formed at thc Imperial Court in St. Petersburg. and in 1755 it gave the Eirst opera in Russian, based on ltalian moelels. By the 1770s, French and Germa n troupes brought opéra comique and Singspiel to Russia as well, inspi ri ng a new comic genre of opera in Russian with a similar mix of ploLs from daily life, spoken dialogue. and borrowed popular melodies as well as newly co mposeel songs. When nationalism began lo alfecl Russian artisls. opera proved valuable as a genre in which a dislinctive Russian identity could be proclaimed through subject matter, setdesign, cosrnmes, and music. lronically, while nationalism was a force for unilicatfon in Germany and ltaly and for liberation strnggles in Austria - Hungary. in Russia it was prima rily a too! of propaganda for the absolutist goverrunent uneler 1he tsar. The n rst Russian composer recognizecl both by Russia ns an d inter nationally as an equal of his western European contemporaries was Mikbail Clinka (1804-1857). He es tablished his reputation i n 1836 with the palriotic, pro-goveroment hi storical dra ma A Life for the Tsar. the ftrst Russian opera sung throughout, with a p lot centering on a peasant who sacrinces his own Lfe to save the tsar from Polish invaders. Clinka drew on lhe major Western operalic traclitions, blcnding halianate melody, Frcnch drama anel spectacle, and German counterpoint and idealization of peasan t life and cul ture . Some of the melodie writing has a disti nctive Russian character. attributable to modal scales, quo tation or parapb.rasing of folk songs, anda folklike idiom. Th e Poles are depicted through Polish da n ce r hyt hms, creating a strong con trast in style that reinforces the nationalist opposi tions of the plot. Glinka based his second o pera, Ru.slan and Lyudmila (1842), on a poem by Russia's leael ing poel. Aleksa.nder Pushkin (1799- 1837). lt has a magicai plol. justi fying Glinka's many imaginative uses of chromaticism. dissonance, anel the whole - tone scale to por tray his supernatura l characters, wh.i ch established a Russian traelilion that lasled through Rimsky · Korsakov anel Stravinsky (see chapters 28 and 3:l). Glinka is valued in the \Vest for the Russian flavor of these operas. which satisúed Western tastes for hoth the nalional and the exotic. But he was more i mpor tan t to his coun trymen as the lirst to cla im a p lace for Russia in the

Russian nationatism

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international musical world. The Russian operas thatpreceded him were suitable for consumption at home, and manyfeahired Russian folk styles, but they could not represent Russia on the world stage bccausc they did not as pire to the sarne levei, musically or dramatically, as Western operas. Glinka's operas could and did, because they in corporated the best of the \Vest together with a special Russian flavor. lreating Lhe peasants as Jully rounded, heroic characters and 1heir musicas the equa l of any. This paradox pervades the recep tion of Russian music: foreign aueliences anel critics often prize what is recognizahly nalional in it ahove ali other characteristics. which is often not wha t the com posers themselves or their compatriots most esteemeel.

Tho Umtod Stotes

other excerpts were arranged and publisbed as sheet music, perforllleel in parlors, and incl uded in concerts. When Swedish soprano Jenny Lind toureei the Unitcd Stales in 1850- 52, singing before tens of tho usands of people. her programs inclueled opera overtures and llalian arias (espec ially Bellini's Casta diva) alongsiele familiar so ngs such as Honie! Sweet Home! The music and piors of operas were so well known that operatic parodies had a ready audience: fo r example, New Yo rk's Olympic Theater offered ope ra burlesques like Mrs. Normer (on Norma.) and Fried Shots (on Der Freischiitz). Thus, al though re la lively few Americans saw opera s in their original form. operatic music was widespread as popular entertainment.

AMERICAN OPERA

The United States If the bistory of opera composition in the ftrst half of tbe nineteenlh century

Theater companies

European opera

Opera as popular entertai nmen t

focuses on ltaly, Paris. Germany. anel St. Petersburg. thc history of opera pe,-formance mus1 include London, Spain, eastem Euro pe and the A.i.nericas. where opera became an important part of mus ical life. ln Lonelon, for example. operas by Continental composers were staged both in the original language and in English adapta1ions. Yet lhe British public's Jong-standing preference for spo ken plays with interpolated music (see chapter 16) made it difficult to establish a native tradition of opera in English. despite attempts by critics, imp resarios. and composers to create one, and the only Brilish opera to win an international reputation in the nineteenth century was The Boliemian Girl (1843) by lrish composer Michael Balfe (l 808-1870). In North America. theater companies in major cities and touring tro upes tha t traveled across 1he con tinen1 perfonned not only spoken plays but also bal lad operas such as John Gay's 'lhe Begga.r ·s Opera. (see chapter21) and English versions of foreign- language operas. which typically replaced recitative with spoken dialogue anel simplif1ed the ensembles and arias. These companies presenteei operas as entertainment accessible to all, in a time before the gulf had opened up between high and low (popular) culture. Opera in foreign languages took ho ld more slowly. ln New Orleans, formerly a French colonial city, French operas helped 10 p reserve a distinc tive cultural ielentity. Active between 1819 anel 1866, the Théãtre d'Orléans performed primarily French and Italian operas in the original languages. giving many American premieres and touring lhe East Coast several times. ln New Yo rk, a European troupe presenteei a season oi' lta lian operas in 1825-26. including Rossini's Ba.rber of Seville (see ln Performance: The Bel Canto Diva. pp. 660- 61) and Mozart's Don Giovanni. Severa! attempts were made to estahlisli a permanent ltalian opera house; one in 1833 invo lved Mozart's hbrettist Lor enzo da Ponte, then professor of ltalian at Columbia University. The nrst opera compa ny to last more than a fewyears was the Aeade my of Music, which opened in 1854 with Norrna anel presenteei regular opera seasons until 1886. By the 1850s. opera in ltali an and English was a lso establisheel in San francisco. newly wealthy with Gold Rush money. \X'hile foreign- language operas altracteel a relatively small, elite audie nce. a much wicler pub lic heard the music of opera. Overtures. a1·ias, anel

American audiences 1ha1 sup pon ed opera in ltalian, Prench, or German were attracted in part by its prestige as a Eu ropean ar1 form. Th ere was virtua lly no demand for American composers to produce opera on a similar scale because no local product carried lhe same cachet. Two ambitious attempts illustrate the difli cult ies of creating a native opera. William Henry Fry, son oi' a wealthy Philadelphia fam.ily. believed that the English and American tradition of mix ingspoken dialogue with arias and ensemblcs was a corrup tion of the operatic ideal. His Leo,1ora. (PhUadelphia, 1845) was sung throughout, lhe lhst such opera by an America n-born composer to be staged . Fry based h is style on tha t of European composers, especially Bellini. There were severa! s uccess· ful performances, but h is opera soon vanished; why listen to an imitator of Bellini when one cou ld hear the real thing" George Prederick Bristow took up an Ame rican subject in his opera Rip Van Winkle (New York. l 855), but the style again was European. primarily iofluenced by Mendelssohn, and again the opera hacl only a few performances. No1 until the twemieth century diel American operas finei a mo re secure auclience.

M INSTR EL SHOWS The most popular fonn of musical theater in the United States from the l 830s through tbe 1870s was mi11strclsy, in which white performers blackened their faces wilh h Lu-nt cork and illlpersonated African Americans in jokes, skils, songs. and dances. Figure 27.9 illustrates scenes from a typical minstrel show by one of the most successful troupes. Christy's Minstrels. Audiences today would ftnd these shows offensive for lrading on racial s tereotypes. Yet in its day, minstrelsy was a response to the ambiva lent feelings most white AJnericans held toward blacks. a blenel of fascination anel fear. Like d rag shows today (in which men el ress as women) or eighteenth-centu1y co1nic operas in which servants got the belter of their masters. minstrel shows explorcd issues of social anel political power and of proper and improper behavior through inversions of no rmal social ro les. \Vhite performers playing black characters had license to behave outside accepted norms and to commenl candidly on social. po litica l. and ~conomic conditions. Minstrelsy grew from the solo comic performances of Daddy Rice as Jim Crow, a naive plantation slave, and of George Washington Dixon as Zip Coou, a boastful black urban elancly. Their theme songs were among the best sellers

Origins

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C H A 1> T E R 2 7 • Romon tic Opero ond Musicol Theoter to Midcentury

of 1heir day; Rice's]u.mp]im, Crow 0829) was the EtrstAmerican piece of music to be a hit overseas, and Zip Coon (to the same tunc as Turkey in Lhe Straw) was almos1 as popular. fuce developed a genre he called ·'Ethiopian opera," intersp ersing sketch comedy with songs. performed between or af<e r the acr·s of a play. Th e ft rs1 full independent minstrel s hows, consisting of d ialogue, songs, banjo and fiddle playing, and dances loosely strung together, were given in 1843 by the Vfrginia Minstrels in New York, who then continued their s hows throughout the East Coast and the Br itish Isles . Tbis g-ro up gave Lheir name to the genre and made mi nstrelsy tbe lirst musical expo11 from the Un ited St:ates to Europe, where it remai ned popular for over a century; "The Blaek and White Minstrel Show," featuring white singers in blackface, ran on British television from 1958 to 1978. Although minstrel shows long ago passed out of fashion. some of the songs written for them have proven remarkably du rable. The Vi rgínia Minstrels' violinist, Dan Emmett (1815- 1902), FIGURE 27.9, Cove,·ofacollectioriofm~icsu.ngin was the composer of Dixi-e (1860). whose th eme shows l}y Cluistfs Mi n strels. 771 e troupe 's founder a11d of longing for t he South i s com mon in mi nstre l leader. Ed win P Cluist)' (1815- 1862). is CL!top. followed songs. Many of Stephen Foster's best- known l}y sce11es in which whire aclors. singers. and rnusicians songs were written for Chris ty's Minstrels. made up i11 blackface CLnddressed as stylish w·bari blacks including Oh! Susanna (1848) , Carnptowrt Roces orasplantation si aves imi.iate rhe dances. songs, and (1850). OLdFoLks at Home (1851), and My O/d Kendialogue ofAfricanAmericans. <••o.i srtrlfEN rosrsn soNG tucky Home (1853). The nrst two are fast comic b(X)X, St..U:C1'2D 1ft' JUCIIAIW JACKSON. t>OVE tt PúlJLICA.TlO.NS, l~C . . n umbers, the lauer two are slow, sentimental NE.WYOR.K) plantation ballads, and most s hare t he blackdialect. pentatonic melodies. and occasional synco pation that were typical of mi nstrel songs. Minstrel songs wcre not di rect im i.tations o i' Al'1·ican American music bu t did borrow elements characteristic of African and African American traditions, from the banjo (a folk instrument based onAfrican predecessors) Lo call- and - rcsponse, in which a lead singcr a.l ternates with a chorns or wilh instru ments. Thus minstre lsywas t he nrst of many fonn s of ente11ain ment in wltich white musicians have borrowed from the music of African Americans. one of the s trongest and mos1 dis tinctive strands of American music.

Opera as High Culture Most musical theater in the ea1·ly 1800s was aimed at mixed tastes. Compose rs and producers of aJI kin ds of opera in every coun tiy could assume tbat their aucliencc included wealthy elites, educated connoisseurs, musical amateurs.

Opero os High Culture

and the public at large. The li bret1ists anel composers of The Barberof Seville, Norma. Lttcia di Lammermoor. Les Huguenots, and Der Freischütz sough t to include elements that wo uld appeal to ali possible listeners. By the middle of the nineteenth cent ury, these and other wor ks had become part of a repertory of operas t hat were performed repeated ly. ln t he later nineteenth and ea rly twentieth centuries, oew operas were staged less freque ntly, and the s1anda rd re pe rtory carne to predomina1e wo rld wide. Over time, t he works that survived, an el opera itse lt' as a medium, have become increasingly associated with high culture: per haps only in Italy, where some audience members stilJ sing along with their fovorite arias anel chornses. has opera kept one foot in the world of popular m usic. Meaowhile, the vaudevilles, pa n tom i mes, musical comed ies, m i nst rel shows, and other ligh ter fo rms of musical theater from the period have been almost completely forgotten. ye t 1heir descendenls-variety shows , cabarets, musicais, and the like-have for med a vital part ofmusica l li fe for the lastr two centuries. O pera today is a very exp ensive arl form that depends on gover nment sup port and wealthy private donors. Yet it conti.nues to atlract devoted fans from ali classes of society. Nineteenth-centmy operas bave continued lo ílourish in part because oftbeir resonance a nd engagement with elements oftwentieth and twenty- nrst· century popular cuJture. Thc recording industry, television. and nlm have brought opera to new listeners, using technologies from wax cylinder recordings to the latest digital med ia, anel have h elped to make stars of singers whose celebrity status has transcended the confines of the opera house, from Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) to Maria Callas (1923-1977) toAnna Netre bko (b. 197 1) . Attending live opera still serves as an e lite starus symbo] for some, but millions of people experience opera through radio and television broadcasts, HD simulcasts in movie theaters, performances a l universi ties and schools of music, anel programs for opera in primary and seconclary schools. lnstítutions Uke the Metr opolita n Opera in New York use such broadcasts and outreach programs. along with a dose of glamour and celebrity. to draw in new audiences, while using ever mo,·e sopbisticated procluction techni ques, includ ing stage projections an d digi tal im age1y deve lopecl for nl m . to enhance the spectacle intrinsic to Romantic opera . Wherever opera is heard and seen, mos t of the operas <hat are performed come from the nlneteenth century, eclipsing alJ ea rlier periods, and the composers discussed in this chapte r are well represen teei.

~ Resourees fo r study and review available at wwnorton.eom/studyspaee.

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Technology. Politics. • nd the Arts

FIGURE 28.1 : The

Uprising(/848) by Frenei, a,1ist Ho,ioré

Dai,mier. Renownedfor hi-s satirical drawings t/l(Jt, lompooned 11,ose i.npower. Dawnierltere paints an. an-esting portrait of the passion rllat united workers (in shirtsleeves) and mid dle class (in top liat). men. wornen. and cliildreri in the 1848 Paris

OPERA AND MUSICAL THEATER IN THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY

,-evoluiion. {Tllt

PlllLUPS

cour,crros, WAsHrirr:c;Tns, O.C/..ACQUIIO;(O 197$11.tnfllCl::MAN ART UBMRY)

The second half of the nineteenth century saw a continuation of strong national traditions in German, Italian, and French opera, the rise of a vibrant Russian school in opera a nd ballet. and growing traditions of musical theater in other lands. Nationalism was an increasingly important force, lin king opera to broader pofüical and cultural currents. Exoticism and recdistn were also significant trends. Sources for plots ra nged from mythology to modem love affairs, and from European history to exotic tales in foreign lands. As the market for theatrical music grew larger and more diverse, elite and popular audiences diverged and new forms of comic opera and musical theater emerged to satisfy popular tastes. Wagner and Verd i dominated German and Italian opera respectively, while composers in France, Russia, Bohemia, and elsewhere developed new national styles. The rise in status of the composer and the operatic "work" corresponded with a decline in the centra lity of singers and in the arts of improvisation and embellishment.

Technology, Politics, and the Arts Europe and the United States became industr·ial powerhouses during the later nineteenth centu ry. Railroads spread across both continents, transporting people and goods more 1·apidly. New products and

technologies such as chemical soaps and dyes, steel manufacture. the electric lighthulb, and the telephone spawned new industries and altered daily life. Workers streamed to the cilies to work in factories, and labor unions formed to represent their interests. With Lmproved ªb'Ticulture, sanitation, and medicine. life expectancy and population rose dramatically. Literacy also increased, and newspa pers and magaz:ines prolifera ted, made chea per by advettising. With new laws th at limited i nvestors' risk to the amount th ey owned instock. the modern corporation emerged. employing legions of offtce workers and middle managers. Mass conswnption beca roe a dsiving force for the economy, evident in the new inslitutions of the brancl naroe, the department store. and the mail-order catalogue. A growing rooveroent for political refor ro in the l 840s culminated in a series of popular uprisings tha t swept Europe in 1848- 49. The lirst revolu tion, pictured in Fig1Jre 28. l , was in France, toppling King Louis Philippe and establishing the Second French Republic. lts gains were short-lived. since the desire for arder overcame the push for reforro. Napoleon's nephew was elected president and in 1852 macle himself Emperor Napoleon 111 (1 85270). Similar revolts in German. Jtalian, and Austro -Htmgarian cities failed to produce permanenl changes, due in part to disw1ity among revo!1Jtionary leaders and lack oi" support l'rom peasants. Over the next ha lf century. however, most European governments granted more political rights to their people, includ ing constitutional linüts on the monarch, direct election of parliamenta1y assemblies. grealer freedom of the press. and votingrights for most men. Russia aholished serfdom in 186 1. and in the United States the Civil Wai· of 1861- 65 brought the abolition of slave1y. France established its 1'hird Republic in 1875. 1n the 1880s, Ge rmany gran ted workers nationaJ healt h care, limils on the lengt h of the working day. and

184'8 revolutions

Political r~forms

680

C H A 1>T E R 2 8

National unijica.tion

• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the late, Nmeteenth Century

old -age pensious that formed a mode l for other countries. Beginning in 1848 with the Seneca Falis Convention in upstate New York, women began pushing for equal treatment under the law. including the rights to make contracts. get a ilivorce, and cast a vole. Although women in most ai·eas would not win lhe vote unti l the twe ntieth cent1J11r, they made su bstan tia l gai ns by the end of the nineteenth. But improved rights for the many wenl hand in hand with exploita1ion of 01hers, as expropriation of Na1ive Ame ri ca n lands continued in lhe Americas, the Ru ssian Empire expanded south an d east, anel the European powers divided upAfrica and much of Asia into colonies. The strnggles for national uniftcation in Germany anel in ltaly frnal ly carne Lo í n tition. The 1848 revolutionades in Germany tried to unify thTough negotiation , but failed. The n between 1864 and 1871 , Prnss ia under prime mfo ister Otto Bismarck forged the German Empire through a combination of war and tliJl lomacy. ln ltaly, building on earlier efforts of the Risorgimemo, lhe 1848 revol ts against foreign rule and for democratic reforms were iuitially successful. but by summer 1849 all the changes had been decisively reversed. Unif1ca tio:n carne in 1859- 61: after the armies of Sardinia expelled Austrian rulers from no rthern haly and conquered most of tbe papal states iu central ltaly, revolutionaries under Giuseppe Garibaldi overtbrnw the Bombon monarchy inSicily and soutbern Italy and then acknowledged theking ofSardinia, Victor Em manue l II, as king of united Italy.

NATIONALISM, EXOTICISM , REALISM , ANO FANTASY

Cultural nationaLism

Nationalisrn in music and art

Authenticity

Literarure, music, and the other arts played important ro les in promoting na tionalism, and in tum nationalism had a profottnd ini1uence on lhe arls. ln both Germany and Italy, cultural nationalism- teaching a national language in the schools ralher than local dialects, creating national newspapers anel journals , a nd cultivating a aationa l identity through the asts-was cmcial in forging a new sense of nationhood. By contras!. in Austria - Hungary. cultural nanionalism worked against política! unity, for the empire encompassetl e lhnic Gennans. Czechs. Slovaks, Poles. Hungarians, R.orna nians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenians. and Italians. and those promoting indepenelence for their people cou ld buttress their case by speaking their own language, emphasizing their distinctive tradilions, and creating nationaUst art and music. ln part because of these political forces. nationalism in music became more prominent duringthe second half of the nineteenth century. Many composers cuJ livatecl melodie and harmonic styles or chose subjects that carried asso ciation s with their own ethn ic group. Sometimes thi s involved using n ative folk songs and dances or imitating tbeir traits. but composers also invented "national" styles by imro ducing novel so unds or by deliberately shunning the conven tions of the common international music.al language. The poin t was dramatic etfect. not authenticity. In a similar way. artists and architects looked to native handicrafts, ornamen lation, and building styles to develop a dislinctive national stylc, as in the onion domes and intricate decoralion on the Russian church in Figure 28.2. Built in the late nineteenth century. the church was designed to look centuries old and specincally Russian, although both the building and its " traditional" style were newly manufactured. Although musica l nationalism began in Germany, the sea rch for an inde-

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pendent native voice was especially keen in Russia and eastern Europe, wherethedominanceofAustro-German instrnmental music and Italian opera was felt as a threat to homegrown musical creativity. For many, composing in a recognizab lynational style was a sign of a11thenticity, part of an artist's core personality. Norwegian composer Edva rd Gri eg gave voice to thjs view whe n he insisted that " the spirit of my native lan d, whic h has long found a voice in the traditional songs of its people. is a Living presence in alJ I give forth." lronicaJJy, composers from lands otHsid e the tradil'ional musical powe rs of lrnly, France, and Gennany were boxed in by this viewpoint: their music had to be nationalisl or risk being considered inau1hentic. yet no merely national music could rival t he cla im to universality that had been pa1t of the Austro-German tradition since the eighteen th centtuy. Exotic ism, the evocation of fo reign lands anel cul tures, also ~rew more common in che later n.ineteenth centmy . Many composers wrote music associated with a nation or re!,ri.On not theü- own, as when French and FIGURE 28.2, Church ofrhe Resurr-ec1ion in. St.. Russiao com posers wi-ote music on Spanisb or Middle Petersb111g. built 1883- /907. ( uAvrn MLvco,uus> Eastern topics. As was true for nationalist music, some works borrowed aclual melodies. instruments. or stylislic features, in pursuit of a realistic portrayal of another cuhure , but attthen ticity was n ot required, More impo1tant was creati ng a sense of clifference that combined strangeness and allure. Musical exoticism has a long history. Rameau's opera- ballet Les lndes galanl,es (1735: see p. 428) featured scenes in Persia, among the Incas in Pem, and in a forest with American lndians, and in 1he late l 700s Turkish-style sounds and instruments were all the rage (see chapter 23). Exoticism reached new heights in nineteenth-centu1y opera. The opening of Japan to Westerners in 1868 anel a series of world's fairs beginning in lhe 1880s inspired a Slream of stage works set in Japan and Ch in a, includi ng Gilbe1i and Sulliva n's The Mikado anel Puccini's Madama Butte,fi;r and T11randot (see below). The political and economic conditio ns in the nineteentb century stimu- Realismand laled anotber dicho1omy in the arts, between realism and fantasy. Realism f antasy developed ft rst in literature a nel art, critiq1ning modern society by showing the reality of eve1yday life. the real suffering of the poor, and the hypocrisies of the elite and well - to - do, as in the novels ofCharles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Custave Flaubert, and Peodor Dostoevsky, th e plays of Henri!< lbsen, and the paintings and illustrations ofHonoré Dauutier (see Figure 28. l) and Gustave Courbet. Cour bet's lifesize paintingA B11rial at Omans, in Pigure 28.3, treats a commonplace subject on a scale usually reserved for state ceremooies. his torical figures. or heroes, showing that he cons idered this village funeral as importan tas t.h e burial of a monarch. Realism influe nced musicas well, especially opera. as in Verdi's La traviata and Italian verismo operas (see below). But artists also offored escape from gritty i·ea lity anrl from morlern r.ity life th.rough fantasy and the distant past in works by Pre- Raphaelites such as English poet and painter Dante Gab riel Rossetti , or enjoyment of the outdoors ia paintings by Claude Monet, John SiugerS.argent. and other imp,·essionists.

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FIGURE 28.3: Cusrave Courbet. A Burial at 0rn:tns (1849-50). This oil painlingis 1en feet tall and iwenty·two feel widq. with room for overfifty lif.asiw figu res. Tl1 o clerg:,, pclU,earen;. ( J nd n 1"" ond wo,nen of t1,e village (1 re p'1inl<:d

Richard W•gner

As the audience for opera grew, so did the performing spaces. OrchesIras becarne larger and louder, and singers now needed more powerful and intensc voices to be hcard. ratbcr than the ílexibility prized in earlier generations (see ln Performance: An Original Verdi Barilone: Victor Maurel, pp. 698-99) . Composers adapted to the new type of si nger, writing melodies that were more syllabic and less ornamentted. Perhaps seeking to contrib · ule something new 10 the reperto ry, composers set ever more variecl plots. Greater realism in many operas, focusing on the private emotional lives of common people, was balanced by stories based on exoticism, legend, faüy ta les, or the supernatural. New gemes of light opera emerged, including opéra bo11ffe in France and operett.<t in Austr.ia, Englanel, and the UniLed States. Late in the centmy, electric lighting rep laced gas, allowing new lighting effects. When electricity made il possible to dim lhe bo use lighls a1mosl completely, the traditional convivia! atmosphere of opera, in which conver · sation was acceplable between and even during arfas, was graduaJly replaced by reverenl silence. Tbese changes. especially the creation of the permanent repertory, made the world of opera in the lat e nineteenth centmy ve1y similar to what it is LOday.

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Otherchanges

realislically. irea ted. as h11nu111 beings a.s inipona 11 tas any king. (Must• o·o•SAr. PARIS. sCALVAR'r REsou•c•. NY)

Operas likewise explorecl mytb, fantasy, anel nature, as in Wagoer's Ring cycle anel Rimsky-Korsakov's fairy·tale operas (see below).

Opera

Rise ofthe operatic repertory

Throughout t he later ninet.eenth centu1y, opera became increasingly assoei· ated with nationalism as an ideology. whether intentionally or by circum • sta nce. But justas many composers blended traditions. Especially significant was a growing tenclency to stage operas that had already heen successfuJ ra th er than gambling on new works. Tmproved communications and increasing intercity commerce meant that theater managers and üsteners quickly learn ed aboul operas premiered elsewhere, anel operas that did well in one city were often produced across Europe and the Americas. The public began to demand that popul al' operas be repeated, and audiences were eager to hear their favorite singers in particular roles. As in the orchestral, cbamber, and choral repertoires (explorecl in cbapter 26). a core reperto1y of operas gradually emerged. vaiying in each country. and the number of new operas produced each year decli ned . Rather than workingonly for impresa.rios, as Rossini had done, composers increasingly worked for themselves. in colla boration with publishers, hoping to earn royalties from productions arou nd the globe. No longer contracted to pro· d uce a fueel munber of works in a season, com posers could la.ke more lime to write e.1ch opera. With greater financ ial inrlepenrlence carne new artistic freedom and new challenges: instead of followingtried and true formulas . it became more important to create something individ ttal tbat would stand out againsl the competition.

Richard Wagner The outstanding composer of German opera, and one of the crucial ligures in nineteenth· cemury culture, was Richard Wagner ( 1813- 1883; see biog· raphy and Fi1,'llre 28.4). Severa( of his ideas had an enormous impact on all of the arts. notably his belief in the interrelationships between the arts and bis view of a.rt as a kintl of religion. Ali ofhis important compositions are for th e stage and set to his own lib retti. After b,ringing Germ an Romantic opera to a new height. he reconceived the ve1y nature of opera as a drama based in music but incorpora ting ali the other arts. ln his !ater works, he devel oped a rich chromatic icliom anel a system of conveying meanings through motivic associations, later termed leitmotives. which influenced composers for generations. WRI TINGS ANO IOEAS

Wagner held strong and in some ways revolutionary views about how operalic music could serve the drama. 1-le presenteei his ideas in a series of essays. includi11g TTieArtwork of the Future (1850) anel Opera and Drama (1851. revised 1868). He believed that Beethoven had done eve tything that coulcl be dane in instrumental music anel bad shown in bis Ninth Sympbony lhe palb lo the future by joining musi c to words (see Source Reading, p. 686). Wagner saw himself- not the composers of symphoni es and stri.ng quarteis- as Beethoven's true successor. Wagner heli,werl in the ahso lute oneness of drama and music-that the two are organically connected expressions of a single drama ti e idea . PoetJy. scenic design, staging, action, and music work together to form what he called a Gcsamtkunslwcrl.· (total or collcctive artwork). His vision of a new union

G~sn.mtkunstw~rk

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Ritharcf Wagner

RICHARD WAGNER (1813 - 1883)

Wagner was one of the most inAuential musicians of ali time. His emphasis on music as the servant of drama, his use of leitmocives as an organiiing principie, and his creative manipulation of chromatic harmony had a profound and far-reaching impact on many !ater composers. Wagner was bom in Leipzig, Germany, the ninth child of a police ac tuary. Soon after Richard 's birth his father died, and his mother married Ludwig Geyer, an actor and playwright whom Wagner suspected was his real father. Geyer evidently encouraged Richard's intellectual interests. His early passions were theater and music, and he was particularly inspired by Weber's operas and Beethoven's symphonies. He studied music in Dresden and Leipzig, having begun formal study in his teens, later than most composers. His student works include piano pieces. overtures. and a symphony that show a firm grasp of compositional technique anda devotion to Beethoven. ln the early 1830s, Wagner began writing operas and held positions with reg ional opera companies in southern Germany and Latvia.

Other wrítings

By then, he had met the soprano Minna Planer, whom he married in 1836. They spent 1839-42 in Paris, where Wagner worked as a music journalist while trying to se cure performances for his operas, with no success despite support from Meyerbeer. ln 1842, Wagner moved back to Dresden, where his Rienzi was a great success, followed by Der fliegende Hoflãnder (The Flying Dutchman) in early 1843. That year he was appointed second Kapellmeister for the king of Saxony in Dresden. d irecting the opera. conducting the orchestra, and composing for occasions at court. Wagner supported the 1848-49 insurrection and had to ffee Germany after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He settled in Switzerland, where he wrote his most important essays and began his massive cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen. He was supported by a stipend from two wealthy female patrons. After several years of travei, in 1864 he found a new patron and devoted fan in the you ng King Ludwig 11 of Bavaria, who paid his debts (Wagner was a habitual gambler), granted him an annual pension, and

of music and dramatic text has bcen callcd miisic drania. although he rejected that tenn: instead he caUed his works opera, drama, or Bahnenfestspie! (festival stage play). and in one essay suggested the phrase "acts of music madevisihle." The last of these cerms is revealing, because for Wagner the core of the drama is rea lly in the music, and the other arts 1nake it apparent. The orcbestra conveys the inner aspect oftbe drama. while the sungwords artic ulate the outer aspect- the events and situatioos that further the action and give names to the f'eelings and experiences suggested by the music. ln a similar way. the traditionaJ hierarchy of voice and orchestra is reversed. The orchest ral web is the chief factor in the music, a nd the vocal lines are par l of the musicaJ texture. ln a lradilionaJ opera, the voices lead and lhe orchestra supports, punctuates, and comments; in a \'(fagner drama, the dramati c thread is in the music itself, led by the orchestra, and the voices give il denoition and precisioo through words. As he wrote in Opera and Drama. the dramatir. singe.r's verse-melody is like a boat horne upon the sounding surges of che orchestra. Wagoer's published writings address not only mttsic but aJso literature, drama. and e,•en polilical anel moral lopics. He believeel thal lhe Gesam.t-

FIGURE 28.4: Richard Wagner, in o portroi1 b_r Franz von Lenba.ch. (LEBRECHT M us1c & A.Rts PHOTO 111\IIAflY)

sponsored the production of his operas Tristan und /solde and Oie Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the first two operas in the Ring cycle. Although Wagner would stay married to Minna until her death in 1866, he maintained rela -

685

tionships with numerous other women. He channeled the energy from his affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. the wife of one of his patrons- he set five of her poems for his Wesendonck-Liederinto his sensuous opera about Tristan and !solde, whose forbidden leve could not be fully consummated in life. He late, formed a new union with Cosima von Bülow, daughter of Liszt and wife of the conductor Hans von Bülow, another of Wagner's ardent admirers and promoters (see chapter 29). Wagner had three children with Cosi ma. but she did not marry him until 1870, after her marriage to von Bülow was annulled. Wagner dreamed of a permanent festival of his operas. and in 1872 he began to build the festival theater at Bayreuth. The first festival was held in 1876, with the premiere of the complete Ring cycle, and the second in 1882. with performances of his last opera. Parsifal. He died the next year of a heart attack and was buried at his beloved Bayreuth, where his operas are still performed every summer. Der µ;egende Ho/lander, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, the four-opera cyde Der Ring des Nibelungen (Das Rheingold, Oie WalkDre, Sieg~ied, Gatterdãmmerung), Tristan und /solde. Díe Melste,singe, von Nürnberg. and Parsifal

M AJOR WORKS: 13 operas, notably

kunstwerk could help rcform society anel tl1at arl should not be undertaken for prolit. He argueel for vegetarianism and agaínst animal experimentatíon. Most controversial were ]tis views on nationalism. including anti -Semitism (see Music in Context: Wagner, Nationalism, andA.nti· Semitism, p. 687).

EARLY OPERAS Before formulating bis conception oi' tbe Gesam.tkunstwerk, Wagner composed severa! operas that elrew dfrectly on his predecessors. His lirst triumph came with Rienzi., a granel opera in the Meye rbeer mo ld, performeel at Oreselen io 1842. The following year Oresden saw a production of Der fliegende Holliinder (The Flying Dutchman), a Romantic opera in the trad ition of Weber. Characteristicsthat beca me typica l ofWagner's late,·musicwere established in 7lte Flying Dutchman. The libretlo-written. like lhose of ali his operas. by lhe r.omposP.r him~dí- is hase,I on a Germanir. legP.nrl . :in,I thP. hero is rP.rleemP.rl through the unself1sh !ove of a heroine (in this case, Senta), a common theme in Romantic literature as well as for Wagner. Themes from Senta's ballad, the central numher of thc opera. appear in Lhe overturc anel rccur throughoul

Th e Fl_ying Dutchman

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WAG N ER, NAT ION ALI SM . ANO A NTl· SE MIT ISM

THE ARTWORK OF THE FUT URE ln The Artwork o{ the Future (18S0), Richard Wagner argued that Beethoven strove to discover the full poten· tial of rnusit and found it in his Nlnth Syrnphony by rooting his rnusic in the word. Thus for Wagner purely instrumental music after Beethoven was sterile ("the last symphony had already been written "), and only the art· woric that tombined all the arts was worthwhile.

This last symphony of Be ethoven's is the redemption of music out of its own element as a universal art. 1t is the human gospel of the art of the future. Beyond it there can be no progress, for there can follow on it immediately only the completed art· work of the future, the universal drama. to which Beethoven has forged for us the artistic key.

Thus from within itself music accomplished what no one of the other ares was capable of in isolation. Each of these arts. in its barren inde pendence. helped itself only by taking and egoistic borrowing: not one was capable of being itself and of weaving from within itself the all-uniting bond. Tlhe art of tone, by being wholly itself and by moving from within its own primeval element. attained strength for the most tremendous and most generous of all self-sacrifices-that of self-control, indeed of self-denial-thus to offer to its sister arts a redeeming hand, ... Man as artist can be fully satis fied only in the

Tan nhauser and Lohengr in

Ritharcf Wagner

union of all the art varieties in the collective art· work [Gesamtkunstwerk]; in every individualization of his artistic capacities he is unfree, not wholly that which he can be: in the collective artwork he is {ree, wholly that which he can be. The true aim of art is accordingly a/1embracing; everyone animat-ed by the true artistic impulse seeks to attain, through the full development of his particular capacity. not the glorification of this particular capaclty. but the glorification

in a,t of manlând in general. The highest collective artwork is the drama; it is present in its ultimate comp/eteness only when each art variety, in its ultimate completeness, is present in it. True drama can be conceived only as resulting from the co//ective impulse o{ ai/ the arts to communicate in the most irnmediate way with a collective public: each individual art variety can reveal itself as fully underscandable to this collective public only through collective communication, together with the other art varieties, in the drama, for the aim of each individual art variety is fully attained only in the rnutually understanding and understandable cooperation of all the art varieties. From Das Kunstwerk der Zukun{t: Sámtliche Schr,ften und Oichtungen. 6th ed. (Leipzig. 1912-14). Translation by O liver Strunk. in SR 153 (6:6). pp. 1108-9 and 1112.

the opera. fonctioning like reminiscence motives in Meyerheer. Weber, Doni zetti, and Verdi. AJso like Weber is Wagn er's use of musical mimicry to portray nature, here es pecially in depicling a powerful slonn at sea. ln Ta,nnh/i.user (Dresden, 1845). Wagner again adapted a Germanic legend about sin a nd redemption . f'or Tannhãuser's na1Tative in Act Il i , Wagner introduced a new kind of ílexihle. serni-declamalory vocal line that br.~ame his normal me.1hnd nf sr.t1ing Ir.xi. Lllhengrin. lirst perfnrme.d uncle.r liszt's direction at Weimar in 1850. embodies severa) other elements that foresbadow the dramas that followed. ln this work, Wagner's treatment of medieval lcgend anel Ge,·man foll<lore is both moralizing anel symbolic.

Wagner was a musical and philosophical nationalist, claiming that German art was pure. true. spiritual, and profound, as opposed to the superficial appeal of ltalian and French music. He expressed his most radical nationalism in his abhorrent anti-Semitic tract Das Judentum in der Musik (Judaisrn in Music), which appeared under a pseudonym in 1850 and under Wagner's name in 1869. What drove him to write this essay, he explained to Liszt, was his antipathy toward Meyerbeer. whose music he once admired and who had used his inffuence to help Wagner. But Wagner turned against the elder composer when critics wrote how much Meyerbeer inffuenced his own music. Seeking to establish his independence, Wagner attacked Meyerbeer's music, arguing that it was weak because he was Jewish and therefore lacked national roots, withoutwhich a composer could not have an authentic style. Wagner implied that the sarne problem affected Mendelssohn, whom he had revered in his younger days. despite Mendelssohn's conversion to Christianity. Wagner's essay drew on and strengthened an anti-Semitic strain in Ger-

man culture. while attempting to obscure hi s deep debt to both Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn. without whose music his own would have been impossible. ln this essay, Wagner applied to music a new view of nationalism that was beginning to emerge at tl,e time: the idea that only people who shared the sarne ethnicity could truly be part of a nationfor example, that Jews could never be German. no matter how many generations their families had lived in Germany. spoken German, and participated in German culture. Whether or how Wagner's anti-Semitic views should affect our reception of his music has been debated since his own time, particularly after the National Socialists (Nazis) who ruled Germany in 1933-4S appropriated Wagner's music as a symbol of the best of German culture. Severa! critics have found anti-Semitic undercurrents in the operas themselves. and for decades his music was not welcome in Israel. Yet among his greatest advocates have been Jewish musicians. including conductors Hermann Levi (who conducted th-e premiere of Parsifal at Bayreuth), Gustav Mahler, and Daniel Barenboim.

suffused wilh nalionalism while aspiring to universality. Wagner 's new style of declamatory melody appears more often., and the technique of recurring themes is further developed .

THE R/NGCYCLE f'rom 1848 to 1852, around the time he was formul ating and pubHshing his ideas on music anel drama. Wagner wrote lhe verse libretlos f'or his most colossal achievement: a cycle of four dramas with the co llective title Der Ring des Nibelungen (The füng of the Nibelung). The music of the n rst two- Da.s Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) and Di.e Walktfre (The Valkyrie)- and parl of the th ird . SiR,efried. was nnished hy 1857. and the e.ntire r.ycle was r.nmp leterl with Gótterdiimmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) in 1874. The úrst complete per formance, over four evenings, took place two years )ater in a theater built in Bayreu1 h according to Wagner's specifications, shown in Figure 28.5. The

Der Ringdes Nibelungen

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Stabreim

• Oper• •nd Musical Theoter on the later Mmeteenth Century

Richard Wognor

FIGURE 28.5,

11,e Bayreu1h Festival 11,eare,·, designed byOm, B11,ckwald, incorpo>·ared Wagner's highly innooative ideais for rhe prodt1ction. of />is opera,s, flere he was able to protlu,cethe Ringcycleinitsentirettforthejirst tunein.A"gus11876. P;i rsifal (1882) wa-s writr.en forthis 1/ieater·. which continues to be the stagefor·the Ba.yreuth Festival today.

11,e singers po11ra,,i-ng 1he 1hree Rhine maidene in the 1876 B~o-.urh premiere ofthe füngcycle were eachheld up and moved abot1t bya rnachine. operated by severa/ stagehands. th111 gave the i/1.usion th,it tlu:y were swirnming be,ie,ith 1/,e Ri, ine. 17, e warery sei and stage eJfect matched the wave-like m usic Wagnerwr-ote for them. (UBRECHT

(UBTl').(ANN/COU81S)

MUSIC & AIITS PHOTO I.IRI\AflY)

large orchcstra pit was hidden from view and extended beneath the stage, so that the sound seemed to be comfog from under and arnund the singers, and the hall lights were dimmed to focus the audience's attention on the action. The stage effec ts were state-ol'-the-arl, as in Figure 28.6. After Wagner's death, his widow Cosi ma established a permanent summer fostival at the Bayreuth theater. devoted to productions ofWagner·s operas. The four dramas, a kind of Cerman national e pie, are woven oul of stories from medieval German epic poems and Nordic legends anel linked by commoo characters and musical motives. The cycle is largely about the value of !ove and people's willingness to abandon it for worldly ends. The "ring" of the tit!e refers to a ring that the gnome Alberich fashions oul oi' the gold he stole from the river R.hine. where it wasguarded by three Rhine maidens. The ring gives its wearer limitless power. Wotan, ruler of the gods. tricks Alberich out of the ring and a hoard of gold, using both to pay two giants for building his new castle, Valha lia. Purious, Alberich puts a curse on the ring that will bring its wearer misery and death. 111 the course of lhe four dramas-about rrinetee11 botll'S of music-the curse is fulnlled: Wotan's doomed empi..re comes to a fte,y end, and tbe Rhine maidens reclaim the ring. Despite ils fantastical setiiug, the themes of the Ring cycle-love, greed, power. innocence. passion. and betrayal, to name a few- are universal andas relevant now as then. For the librettos. Wagner devised a k:ind of poetry based on lhe style of the medi1wal Nibelungenlied. hi~ Murce for the Mory of the hero Siegfrieil. lnstead of regular meter and rhyme. his poeuy featurns vigorous. changing s peech rhythms marked by Stabreim (alliteration), the re petition of speech souncls. For example. Albe rich's curse on the ring in Scene 4 of Das Rheingold

FIGURE 28.6,

moves rapidly through a series of repeatecl consonants,g, rn, n, z (pronounced ts), t. and d:

Gab sein Gold mir Macht ohne Mass. nun zeug· sein Zauber Tod dem, der ihn tragt!

lts gold gave me power without measure, now its magic will beget death for him who wears it!

Such poetry is already rich with sound, and well suired for setting to music. Each of \Vagner's !ater dramas- and indeed the entire Ring cycle as a group- is organized around numerous themes and motives that are each associated with a particular character. thing, event, or emotion . Wagner referred to these ideas as the work's principal themes. the sarne term one would use in describing a sym phony. But analysts since Wagner's time have called such a theme or motive a Leitmotiv (leading motive), often ren dered as leitmotif or l.eitrnotive in English. The association is estahlished by souad ing th e leitmotive (usually in the orchestra) at the first appearance or mention of the subjecl. and by its repetition during subsequent ap pearances or citations. Often the signi ficance of a leitmotive can be ncogni zed from the words to which it is first su ng. Thus the leitmotive is a m usical label. hu l it becomes much more than tha t through ils symphonic treatment in the music d rama: it accumulates significance a~ it recurs in new contexts: it may recall an object in situations where the object itself is not present; it may be va ried, developed , or transformed as the plot de velops; similar motives may suggcst a connection between Lhe things lo

The Leitmotiv

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Leitmotives in the Ringcycle

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wl1icb tbey refer, espeeially if' one leitmotive morphs into anot her; motives may be co ntrapu n ta lly comb ined; an d, through their repetition , motives unify a scene or opera as recurrent themcs unify a symphony. Leitmotives are often characterized by particular instruments, regislers, harmonies, or keys, whic h may a lso suggest meanings or associations. ln princip ie, the re is a complete correspondence between the symphonic web oi' leitmotives and lhe d ramatic web of lhe ac1ion. Th e creatio n of leitmotives, their dramatic ro le, and the development of one into another can be illuslrated through examples from lhe Ring cycle. Ne..1r the beginning of Das Rheingold. tb.e Rhine m..1iden Wellgunde teUs Alberich tbat be who fashfons tbe Rhine gold into a ring can gain limitless power. At this, the ftrst mention of th e ring around whicb the whole four opera cycle revolves. she and the reed inslrumenls lhal aecompany her trace a melodie outline, shown in Example 28. l a, that descends by thü-ds through a ha lf-d irnioisbed seventb chord (E-C-A-F;) and ri ses again. This idea seems to grow seamlessly from what comes before. but through repe tition it emerges as a dislinctive motive whose identifieation with the ring is reinforced several limes in the text. By tbe time it is reealled in 1he orchestral interlude beiween the ftrst and seco nd scenes, in the n ew rbythm ic form shown in Example 28. l b, the motive calls to mind its association with the ring, as it will continue to do th.roughout the entire cycle. As the morning fog clears at the beginn ing of the second scen e, we see Valhalla. the new castle of lhe gods. accornpanied by a long. majestic theme tha t begins as in Example 28.Jc. We recognize that this melody idenlified with Valballa begins with a diatonie variam of the ring leitmotive. This links the ring and Valballa in our minds even before we leru·o that their fates are intertwined: the ring will pay for the castle. which will ultimately be doomed hy Alherieh's curse on the riog. Tbe melodie relationshi p simultaoeously suggests a parallel between AJberich and Wotan. both of whom aim for abso lute power. and the differenee between them. withAlberich's aspiration- a power marked as evil by the clissonant, unstable hannony outlinecl by Lhe Ring leilmotive anel its emphasis 0 11 the tritone C-F#-contrastingwit h Wotan's nobler concept of divine power. conveyed by the diatonic melody and major triads played by brass instruments. Thus the futu1·e cou rse of the drama is suggested by the music , exemplifying Wagner's eoncept that the drama is in lhe music and that the words, scenery, and stage action make it visible. In the foiu-th scene of the opera. after Wotan tricks him into surrendering tbe riug, Albe rich curses il usiug the notes of the ring leitmotive but in reverse order (FrA-C-E). as if negating the ring. His curse leitmotive, shown in Example 28. l d, ends with E, C, and G. ali notes that are dissonan t over the P; pedal- tone that rolls in the timpani. Tbis high leve] of dis sonance intensil'ies lhe sense of threat aud forebodi.ng associated with lhe curse motive. The melodie re lations hips between the motives make th e dramatie point that the ri ng, the eastle, anel tbe cu rse a ,·e hound up with eaeb other. At the same time, they are parl of a web of dozens of such motives that bincl tbe operas into a uninecl who le . As WagnF-r w,·ote to a friend in 1854 after completing Das Rheingold. "lt has worked up to a perfeet uuity: there is scarcely a bar in the orchestral part wb.ich is not developed out of precediug motives."

691

Ritharcf Wagner

EXAMPLE 28.1 ,

Leilmotivesfrom, IVa,gner's Das Rheiogold

a. The Ring leitmotive 'sfirst. appear-ance. as Wellgwide refers to t/1e rirtg \Vinds

1 p

---- -

... .

~-·

Wellgundc

- -;-.._

- '-==

Wch

- -. ,,·

Der

-"'--J

-•

be ge • wãn- ne z.u ei • gcn, wer am: dcm Rhein .. gold

schü-fe dcn Ring.

lnherita.nce of the world would be won as his own byhewho Jrom the Rhinegoldcould fa,shíon the Ring {tl,at woi,l<l enclow /wn wíth, limilless power.J

b. The Ringleitmotive in definiti,vefomi

e. Beginningofthe Valhalla leit,motive T'nbas

d. Tl,efirsr appearonce of the Curse leitmotive

Albcrich

Wic durch Fluch

-- ~rimpani V ~

rnir gc

rie1,

<{r

ver

nuch, <{r

sei

d~er

Ring! <{r

As through a curse 11 carne to me. cursed be this ring!

The mutability of Wagner's leitmot ives distingu ishes them from the reminiscenee moti1res appearing in operas hy Weber. Meyerb eer. and Donizetti and in his own earlier operas. MoreO\•er, bis leitmo tives are lhe basic thematic material of the scorc. He uses them not onee in a whj]e but constantly. in in timate alliance with every step ofthe action. Most are short anel open- ended, making it possible to combine them in success ion or s imu lrn neously. in whatever ways besl suil the drama. They also serve as elements for forming melodies. replacing the fou r -square plHases set off by rests and eadenees of earlier composers. The leitmotives, their deve lopment, their restatemenls and variants. and tbe connective tissue linking lhese. forro the s1J1lf of "m usi r.al p rose" Wagner used to re piar.e th e "poetir." rhythms of symmetrical phrases. The impressiou of "endless melody" observerl by many commentators results from the continu ity of line, unbroken by the stops and resta rts of Classic musical syntax.

M1.1 si cal prose and.

endless melody

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• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the l ater Nmeteenth Century

Codes of meaning

Contrasts like those we have seen here, between consonance and dissonance, major and minor or diminishecl harmonies. diatonic anel chromatic music, tonally stahle anel unstahle passages, and timbres of different instru ments, were basic elements of Wagne1.-s expressive paleue. Such oppositions have long histories, depending on codes of meaning that stretch back to Renaissance madrigals and Baroque operas. and they make \Vagner's music dr.imatica lly apr and immediately comprehensible on f1 rst hearing. His ío rmu lation of these oppositions was particularly powerful, even elemental. ln an i.nstant, we unclerstand from the ponderous descending tritone identifted with Alherich's son Hagen that be is evil and to be feared. from Siegfried's triadie and diatonic horn caJJ that heis a hero, and f.ro m the undulaling pentatonic leitmotive of the Rlline maidens that they are benign water creatures, embodimenls of lhe beauty of na ture. Equally elemental and compelling are Wagner·s depiclions of nature in ils va1·ious guises tb.roughout lhe Ring cycle, from che slow, powerfol we Uing up of the river Rhine that opens Do.s Rheingold. representeei by a gradual rise in range. rhythmic activity. dynamic levei. l'lguration. density of layers. and t1.trbuJence over a steady drone in the lowest reaches of the orchestra, throup;h the violent storm at the scar1 of Die Wo.lka,re and the "forest murmurs" in Siegfried. to the llames rising toward the heavens at thc end of Giilterdammerung. captured in swirliJ.ng waves of chromatic motion. The same can be said or his representarions of the supemamral, such as the storm swirls and galloping rhythms in the famous "Ride of the li>- WAGNER: Die Valkyries" that begins Acl lll of Die Walkiire. and the shimmering strings and Walkoie. A<t 111 colorfully unpredictable harmonies in lhe "Magic Fire Music" that ends rhe opera. Such stark and effective use of music to depict cha racter, mood, anel scene has had an enduring influence on la ter opera and on nlm and television scores. as has the concept of the leitmolive itself.

LATER OPERAS Tristan, Meistersinger. and Parsifal

Schopenhauer ·s influence

During two Jong breaks from composing Siegfried, \'ífagner wrote Tri.sian und /solde (1857-59), discussed below, and Die Meistersinger von Narnberg (The Meistersingers of Nuremberg. 1862- 67). ln contrast to the high seriousness of the Ring cycle and Tristan. both based on medieval Gennan legends. Die Meistersinger is a suony human comedy centered on thc historical figure of Hans Sachs. most famous of the Meistersingers (see p. 259). Its predominantly diatonic music contrasts markedly witb the chromaticism tbat sufíuses Wagncr's olher late operas, evcn as its evocalions of an old German tra dition of song serve similar nationalist ends. His fmal work was Parsifal (1882). which is based on the legend of the Holy Grail anel uses the opposition between diatonlc anel chromatic music to sugges t the polarity of redemption and corruption. Beginning in the !ater 1850s with Tristan und !solde. Wagner's dramas were inl1uenced by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788- 1860), whose pessimistic views gained iniluence after lhe failed revolutions of 1848. ln The World as Will and Representation. Schopenhauer argued that music was the one art that embodied the deepest reality of ali human experience-our emotions and drives- and could, therefore, give lmmediate expression to these universal fee li ngs and impulses i.n concrete. detinite form without the in terventio11

Ritharcf Wagner

of words. Words and ideas were 1he product of reason, which governed only "Appearance," whereas emotions resided in the ''Wi.ll," which Schopenhauer deemed thc dominant and ultima te realily. Wagner emb raced these views, but rejected Schopenhauer's insis- Embodiment tence upon seeking release from the Will tbrough contemplation. ln Trista.ri in Tr is1an und 1md !solde. adapted from a thirleenth-cenlury romance by Gottfried von !solde Srrassburg, Wagner depicts the raw. vital force of the Will in rhe passion of two lovers whose ardor can be consummatecl only in death, a tragedy that serves as tbe gateway to tbe highest ecslalic fullillmenl. Desire is evoked in Tristan und /solde from the very beginning of the Pre- Prelude lude (NAWM 119a), showo i.n Example 28.2, as Wagner uses chromatic harmony and delayed reso lutions to convey an almost inexpressihle yearning. l Full :\\ 1 Tonal music is based on our desire for dissonance to resolve to consouance, and for lhe dominant to resolve to lhe tonic. That desu-e is intensif1ed when reso lu tion is delayed, cadences are evaclecl, or the moment of resolution introduces a new dissonance. ali of which Wagner does here. The opening motive, a rising sixth followed by a chromatic descent, sup;p;ests lo np;inp;. The fll'st chorei, f'- B- D#-G;, is a striking sonority whose resolu tion is at first uncertain, given the lack of harmoni c context; used throughout the opera and instantly recog11izahle whenever it appears. this chord has become known as "the Trisran chord.'' \Vhen the top note rises to A, we understancl the chorei in retrospect as an augmented sixth chord in A minor with a very long chromatic appoggiatura on Gjl. The resolution to the dominant seventh of A minor in measure 3 is inflected by a piquaat chromatic passing tone (A#) in rhe melody, so that we hear four dissonant sonorities in a row. each of which .. resolves·· the previons one without itself resolving to consonance. It is hard to imagine a three -measure phrase more effective in creating a sense of yearnlng in the llstener. Nor does the dom inant seventh resolve to A minor. After a rest. the open ing phrase repeats a minor third higher anel then repeats again. varied. Desire is not attenualed hy granting resolution to a tonlc; instead, the keys oi' A, EXAMPLE 28.2:

Openingof Prelude to Wagners Tristan und !solde

Win~ 1 •• r,.u Í-1

,.. li

,.,,_. ~

Vcl. !2

cresc.

,___ 1,- 1if

___,. r

: ~

r.:·

r.'\

H1..:_'

693

694

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• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the later Nmeteenth Century

C, .and E ( Lh e three no Les of the A minor triad) are su ggested through 1heir respective dominan t choreis. each left hanging in the air. We expect to hear more of ali three keys. and eventually we cio: A anel E in the Prelude itself. and C rninor and major as the keys that begin and endAc11. Yet the ha1·mony is constantly churning, shifting keys, a ltering choreis chromatically, anel blurring progressio ns by means of n on chord tones. Desire anel yearning are communicated unmistakably by repeatedly evok.ing yet evading tradit iona l hai-monic expectations. Act l Throughou t Act l. motives anel extended passages from tbe Prelude retum anel acquirc signiftcance as leitmotives through association with 1he words. The act takes place aboard a ship on which the knight Tristan is transportin g the relu ctan t !solde from lre lan d to Corn wa 11 , where she will become King Marke's bride. We Jearn thal sbe is bolh secretly in !ove with Tristan and angry at him for having s lain ber former f1ancé. ln tbe 1 Concise ;\\ 1 1 Full ;\\ 1 fina l scen e o.f the act (conclusion in NAW\.1 149h), she asks him to share a drink of atonement. intending to give them both poison. But ber companion Brangane has substituted a magicai !ove potion. After they drink. we hear the openiog section oJ the Prelude ap;ain , as they stare at each other, tre mbling, then call out to each other with longing. Here the yearning so cunningly expressed in the Prelude fineis its parallel oo stage. as tbey surrender t0 passiona te !ove. But meanwhile 1he ship has arrived in Cornwall, anel the sai lors ha il Kjng Marke. Their ce le bratory music competes for attention with lhe raplure of the love rs until th e curlain falis at the end of the act. Tbroughout. Wagner strings together his open- ended leitmotives in whatever sequence best conveys the actions anel erootions of the drama , whUe constantly varying them to suggest the developing d ramatic situation and thc J1uid feelings of the characters. This scene exemp lif1es the illlertwining of action, scenery, and music lntertwining of the a rts typical of \Vagne,.-s Cesamtkunstwerk. Th e deck, railings. sa i Is. rop es, anel backdrop onstage join with wave -gestures in the music anel the songs ofthe sailors 10 convey the ship's journey into p ort. The realistic shouts of the chorus interru pt the sometimes speech like, sometimes lyrica l and passionate declamatioo ofTristan anel !solde. The large orchestra maintains cootiouity. elaborating motives that illustrate the content ofthe words o r tbe underlying cm otions and associatioos. Thus action, dialogue, musical scene- painting, and lyrical expression are not parceled out to d ifferent moments. as in traditional opera. but all constantly mingle anel reinforce one another. Tristan und !solde is ao extraordinary opera, focused almost e lllirely on Musicas secular religion the two main characters and tbeir psychological journey. The outward activity of the plot sen•es largely as a backdrop to the musical manifestation of the characters' inner emotions. ln this se nse, this o pera mos1 completely embodies Wagner's concept of a drama in which music is the leading element: tbe words anel action on stage are mucb more a representation of the mu sic tban the other way around , which had been typical of opera s ince its ol'igins. Tristan 1111-d !solde has become a monumenl of music as secular rcli gion. a notion Wagner endorsed and one that pervades much musical activity in the !ater nineteenth century. from the pilgrimages Wagnerites made to hear bis music ai Bayreuth LO the worshipful atlention give n to the music of the masters at concerts.

G,u,eppe Verdi

695

WAGNER'S INFLUENCE Wagner's music and ideas were enormously inJluential. His operas from The Ftying Di,tchnian to Parsifat 4 uickly became central to the woddwide operatic ,·epertoire, anel excerpts from the Ring cycle , Tcmnhauser, anel Lohengrin were played so often by orchestras anel bands anel in keyboard transcriplions thal they became among I he mos t. ramfüar anel popula r pieces on t he planel. More has been written about Wagner t:ha n abom any other musician. His writings , and lhe success of his ope ras , regained for d ramatic and representational music the prestige that some had argucd belonged lo absolute music alone. His ideal oi' opera as a drama with music, words, stagíog, anel action ali intimately li nked affected virtua lly aU later opera. Almost as importan t was his method of minimizing divisions wilbin an acl anel charging the orcheslra with maintaining continuity by develop ing pregnant musical motives wbile the voices sang in free, arioso lin es rather than in the ba lanced phrases of the tradilional aria. Bis use ofleitmotives was imitated by many otber composers oJ' opera anel !ater became a standard practice for ftlm and television music. \Vap;ner ,_,as a mas Ler of o.rchestral color, and here also his example bore frui!. Many musicians became Wagnerian s, wbile others kept their distance or opposed his ideas. but few escaped his influence. Wagner also had a large impac1 on tbe other arts and on culture ai large. So great was his influence that ·'Wagnerism" beca me a term for interest in h is ideas in a n umber of fields, from politics to aeslhetics. Many found in Wagner support for tbeir own idealistic beliefs, and bis unique mix of mythology and pbilosophy, anel of the erotic with tbe s piritual, appealed to a wide range of followers. Paul Verlaine. Stépbane Mallarmé. and other poets associated witb the symbolist movement drew on Wagner's use of leit molives anel symbols. an i.nl1uence thaL carried over to many writers of the early twentieth century. Visual artists including Gustav Klimt anel Aubrey Bea rdsley transferred to their realm Wagner's interest in legends and symbols. anel his re- creations of national legends inspired imitators everywhere.

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Verdi (J 813- 1901 ; see biography anel Figure 28.7) was the dominam figure in ltalian music for the ftfty years aJ'Ler Donizetti, as central to Italian opera as Wagner was to German opera. The úrst of his twenty-six operas was produced in 1839 when he was twenty-six. lhe Jast in 1893 when h e was eighty. Verdi suppo rted a nel became ide n tified with the ltalian Risorgimento early io h is carecr. Like other op era composers. he devised ways to side-step the ever-prese nt threat of governm en t cen sors hip by ca mouflaging patriotic messages in histo rica l dramas. Ital ians und er foreign rui e fo und immediate relevance in the o ppressed characters anel tyrants who popu lated Verdi's operas of the 1840s. inc.lud ing Na/,ucr.D (Nehucha dnezzar. 1842). Ciovanna dilrco (Joan of Ase, 1845), and Attila (l 846). By 1859. his na me had beco me a n ationalist rallying cry: "Viva Verd i!" to Ita lian patriots stood for "Vi,•a Vit lo rio Emanuele Re d ' l talia!"- Long live Victor

Nationalism and politics

696

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• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the later Nmeteenth Century

G,u,eppe Verdi

Emmanue l, king of ltaly. Even after unilication, Ve1·di n ever r eally aba ndoned his interest in politics as a th em e . Rather. he approached it more de e ply inSimon Boccanegra (1857, revised 1881), Don Carlos (1867, revisecl 1884), and OteUo (1887), which explore complex rulers and the personal consequences ofego and power.

APPROACH TO OPERA

Librettos

Working rnethods

Verd i's operas are &rs l and foremos l works of theater, whose impacl depends on vivid characterization. sharp contrasts , and a fluid and concise dramatic and musica l structure. O.o e ofhis mos! effeclive tools, aod a prime reason for hfa enduring popu larity. was h is ability to captur e character , feeling, a nd situation in memorable melodies thal so und bolh fresh and familiar. Many use a sim pie form s uch as AABA, making them easy lo J'ollow, and combine regular ph n·asiuga nd p laiu harmonywith an in t riguing rhythmic and m elodie motive tha l catches lhe listener 's allention. So aware was Ver di of lhe a ppeal of his melodies that be s trove to keep a new opera's besl tunes from being leaked to the public before the premiere. But his craft did no t. stop at melody. He bad com pr ehensive training in harmony and counterpoint, a wide knowledge of the music of bis predecessors. and a keen ear for orchestration that adds calo r, atmospher e, and drama witho ut overpowering lhe singers. Verd i usua lly chose the opera's subject himself. He preferred stories that had succeedecl as spoken dramas, clrawing on plays hy authorslike Shakespea.re. Fr iedrich Schiller, and Victor Hugo. Min-oring contemporary developments in spoken theater, he expected fast action, striking contrasts, unusual chara cters, and slrongemotional situations from his librettos. Ve rdi focused on tragic plots and shied away from comedy: after the failure of his first comic opera. Un giomo di regno ( 1840), which followed the cleaths of his young chilclren anel wife Margherita , it was more than flfty years before he wrote anothe r comedy, Fa/.staff 0893. discussed below). Verdi always wrote with the original singers in mind, suiting his music to theirvoices in order to create the best possible effect, yet unlike composers of the bel canto era he clemandecl that síngers remaín subordinate to the composer and the work (see ln Performance: An Original Verdi Baritone: Victor Maurel, pp. 698- 99). Collaborating closely with his liJirettist, Verdi planued the sequ ence of musical forms to make sure each singer had opporhmities for arias, dramatic duets. and larger ensembles. Once the Libretto was complete, Verdi wrote out a clraft wil.h the vocal melodies and ess-ential accompani.ment, then a skeleton score with more of the elements lilled in. The fmal step was the orchestration. usually completed after rehearsals had begun anel he hea1·d how the singer s sounded in the theater. Verdi could alford to take more time to compose tban bis predecessors because he was better paid for eacb new opera and. thanks to improved copyright laws. could count on royalty income from la ter productions and from sales of the puhlished scores. He used that lime to calculate lhe most effective selling to enhance Lhe open's dramatic impact on the audience . increasing irs chances for a successful first 1un anda pennanent place in the reperto1y. His strategy worked: altbough be wrote fewer operas than Rossini or Donizetti, Verdi's have been far more l'requently perfonnecl than t heirs ever since.

697

G IUSEPPE VERDI (1813- 1901)

Verdi's music has been called the epitome oi Romantic drama and passion. He worked within the traditions of his predecessors but during his long life continually refined his techniques. The son of an innkeeper in a village near 8usseto in northern ltaly, Verdi studied music as a child, and by age nine was a church organist. After studying privately in Milan. he returned home and took a position as music director in Busseto, where he married Margherita Barezzi in 1836. He soon retu rned to Milan. aiming For a career composing operas. The success of his first, Oberto, won him a contract for three more operas. When his twochildren died in infancy, followed by Margherita's early death in 1840 and the failure of his second opera, he nearly gave up composition in despair. But his next opera, Nabucco (1842) , was a triumph and launched Verdi as a star composer. The next eleven years were the busiest of his career, and he wrote one or two new operas each year for houses in Milan. Venice. Rome. Naples, Florence, London, Paris. and Trieste. This period culminated in Rigoletto (1851), 1/ trovatore (1853), and La traviata (1853). which quickly became part of the permanent opera repertory. During these years he met soprano Giuseppina Strepponi. who became his life partner. After spending most of 1847-49 in Paris, he acquired land near Busseto and moved back there with Strepponi, where he and his lover put up with much gossip about their unsanctioned union. ln 1851, they settled on a nearby farm, where they lived for the rest of their lives, with freq uent sojourns to Paris, Milan, and other citles. They married in secret in 1859. After La traviata, Verdi slowed his production of new operas. writing only six in the sixteen years

Ciuseppe Verdiatseventy· two. in (1 p(lstel portrair by Giovanni Bolcloni.

FIGURE 28.7,

(GAI.LEJU.A NAZlONA.U D'AllTt MODERNA, ROM E, PHOTO: LEBIU:CHT MUSIC & ARTS PHOTO UBRARY)

from Les vêpres sici/iennes (1855) to Aida (1871). Then he retired from the stage. focusing on his farm and living off royalties From his music, unt il he was persuaded to write two last operas. Ote//o (1887) and Falsta{f (1893). Strepponi died in 1897. and Verdi followed in early 1901. A month later, escorted by a procession of thousands of adm,rers, his remains-along with Strepponi's-were interred in Milan at the home for retired musicians he had helped to found. According to his wishes, the funeral was a very quiet affair. "without music or singing: MAJOR WORKS: 26 operas. including

Nabucco, Macbetl,, Luísa Miller. Rigoletro, li trovatore. La traviata, Les vépres siciliennes. Simon Boccanegra. Un bal/o in maschera. La {om dei destino. Don Carlos. Aida. Orei/o. and Falsta{f: Requiem and other Latin sacred chorai works

STYLE Ve rd i's early oper as bui lt on lhe conven tions oí Rossinj, BeWni, a nel especially Donizetti. His ft.rst gr eat success was Nabucco (Milan, 1842), on t he bib lical s lory of Nebuchadneziar; lhe Hebrew slaves· Lutison chorus Va pensiero

698

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• Oper• •nd Musical Theoter on the l ater Mmeteenth Century

AN ORIGINAL VERDI BARITONE: V ICTOR MAU REL ln the second half of rhe nineteenrh century, the relationship between composers and singers shifted as composers like Verdi and Wagner asserted contrai over every aspect of opera performance and production. re· jected the bel canto tradition of improvisation and embellishment, and insisted that the music be performed as written. At the sarne time. the growing ease of travei and communication gave leading singers unprec edented opportunities to build international careers. lncreasingly, this enabled them to act as free agents. independent of both composers and opera-house managements. A good example of this trend is the French baritone Victor Maurel (1848-1923). shown in Figure 28.8 in costume for Verdi's Falstaff. Early in the course of a career that spanned some four decades, he joined a selecr group of singers who were in demand throughout Europe and the United States. His repertoire centered on operas by Verdi, Wagner, and other contemporary com-

Rigolctto

.., VERDI:

R,qo/mo. Act 111

FIGURE 28.8: French baritone Victor Maurel a.s Falstajf. (Arrc,c r,TTY 1MAcr.s)

became an emblem of Italian opposition to foreign oppression. After the fail • ure of the revolu tions and reforms o!' 1848- 49, Verdi turned J'rom historical subjects to dramas cente1·ed on interpersonal confüct anel fmer psychologica l portrayal ofcbaracter. beginning with Luisa Miller (Naples, 1849). Musical cbaracler ization, dramalic unity, and melodie invention unite in Rigoletto (Venice, 1851), in which the central characters are delineated by their contrasting styles of singing and relation to musical convention. Rigo· letto, a hunchback court jester at odds with the courtiers around him, sings in a declamato1y arioso style and lacks a realaria. while the supernciality of his emp loyer the Duke of Mantua is shown in tunefu l arias t hat stick to predict· abl.e forma l conventions, and Gi lda- Rigoletto's daughter, who is in !ove with the Duke- moves between tbe two extremes. ln tbe Ji.nal act. Verdi captures the DukP.'s ~h~rming hut s hameless narnre i n the a ria La donna é. m.obile. wherP. bis claim that women an óckle rings truer about himself, yet bis captiva ting melody in a carefree waltz rhythm makes hlm seem iHesistahle. A high point of the opera is the quartel from Acl Ill, wberc four characlcrs sing. each in a

G,useppe Verdi

posers. but he was also a notable interpreter of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Verdi chose him to premiere the roles of the villain lago in Otello (1887) and of the comic title character in Falsta{f (1893). showing his appreciation for Maurel's superior abilities and range as an actor, and he shaped the music to su it the singer's voice. Maurel also created the roles of the lnd ian chief Cacico in Gomes's li Guarany (1870) and of the clown Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1892), discussed below. After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire in 1867, Maurel made his obligatory debut at the Opéra. singing leading roles in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Verdi's // trovatore (in French). But he quickly grew frustrated by the old guard's dominance at France's premier opera house and struck out for ltaly, where he became a favorite of audiences in Florence. Rome. Naples. and Venice. He returned to Paris as an internatíonal star and later also sang at London's Royal Opera House and Covent Garden and at New York's Metropolitan Opera. His commanding portrayal of the Ethiopian king Amonasro in Aida. under Verdi's baton. prompted the composer to cast him ln the title role of the revised version of Simon Boccanegra at Milan's La Scala in 1881. Maurel shared Verdi and Wagner's convie· tion that the old-style bel canto singer was obso-

699

lete. He argued that modem singers needed to be accomplished actors and versed, as he was, in contemporary theater and dramatic techniques. ln the old days. Maurel wro te in an essay on vocal instruction. "the singer was not expected to portray characters' emotions realistically; he was only required to produce beautiful bel canto sounds. Today. the public wants true theater and lifelike emotions; these demands have given rise to vocal difficulties that are insurmountable for students and that masters can only teach them to overcome when they themselves have learned to doso." • Verdi declared that "there is no better singer and actor than Maurel." and particularly admired the Frenchman's clear and expressive diction. But Maurel's ego often put him into conAict with Verdi, who. by his own account, was something of a "bear in his dealings with singers. Tension carne to a head when Maurel demanded the exclusive right to perform the title role in Falstaff. The composer politely but firmly demurred. Undeterred , Maurel went on to publish a staging manual for Otello and an essay on Falstaff in which he too k exception wirh Verdi's express instructions. ' Victor Maurel, Oi, ans de ca,ri~re (Paris. 1897). 111. Translation by Harry Haskell.

different style to convey their individual per.sonalities and moods. ln a seductive, lyrical song the Duke r omances a new lover, Maddalena, who coquell· is hly laughs at his insincerity; meanwhile, 1istening outside the tavern wa ll s, Gilda sings in d.l'amatic style of ber pain at bis betrayal. while Rigoletto, bem 011 revenge, asks in uiosc>if she bas heud enougb. ln fügo!et1o anel bis next two operas. fl trovatore (Tbe Troubadour; Rome. 1853) and La tra.viata (The Fallen Woman; Venice, 1853). Verdi reached new heights of dramatic co mpression, and ali three have r emained amo ng t he mos( popular operas ever composed. Verdi oflen uses reminiscence motives, as Donizetti had don e in Lucia di Lammennoor, reca lling at crucial points in the drama distinctive th emes from ear lier scenes in ord er to reinforce con nections and deepen the drama tic impact. ln several operas. incluiling n tro tJ{),tore anrl u,, t,rtJ.Vil),ta. Vewli re.p lar.P.rl thP. ove.rrn re with a hri e fP.r p rP. lurlP. that sets tbe scene and introduces important themes to come. Many features ofVerdi's mature works are embodied in La traviata. This was onc of lhe ftrst tragic operas lo be sei i.n lhe present ralhcr than in lhe historical

La traviata

700

C H A 1> T E R 2 8

• Opera anel Musitol Theater on the later Nmeteenth Century

G ,u,e ppe Verdi

past. Both its setting and its subject-a woman irappecl between her livelihoocl as a courtesan. her desire to escape that üfe and be loved as an equal, the social mores that keep her in her place. and the tuberculosis that threatens her lifelink the opera to lhe contempora1y t1·end of realism in literature and art. The resources Verd i commanded are evident in the scene of the tinal act in wbich Violeua. the "fallen woman" of lhe lille. and ber lover Alfredo reconcite 1 Con<ise :\\ 1 1 Full :\\ 1 aftershe hacl lefl him 1osave his family's repu1at ion (NA\VM 150). Thescene f'ollows the structure Rossini had standa rdized for duets-scena (accompanied l>- VEROI: recitative). tempo d 'aliacco (openingsection), slow cantahile. tempo di mezzo La rr.lvi~t->. Act Ili (contrasting dramatic section), anel fast cabaletta- yet each element is in a new style characteristic ofVerdi. lnstead oi' recitative punctuaied by the orchestra, the sce na presents a complete musical texture in the orchestra, a skipping melody in four- measu1·e phrases. over which Violetta and her maid engage in recitative-üke dialogue. When Alfredo enters, their conversation is set notas recita tive but as a tunefu l song (the tempo d 'attacco) in which tbey alternate phrases. The following cantabile. in which Alfredo and Violel ta look forward to life together as sbe recovers her health, is almost as simple anel direct as a popu.lar song, both in its form (M'BB witb coda) and in the tunefulness of its A section, shown in Example 28.3. The tempo di mezzo olfers a se ries oí startling contrnsts in mood and style as Violetta coll apses. insists nothing is wrong, co!Ja pses again, and fmally despairs 1hat her illness wül overtake her justas happiness isso near. These emotions intensify in the cabaletta, where Violetta bewails her ironic misfortune anel Alfredo begs her to calm h erself. This final section follows a common forrn for Verdi, AAJ3A' wilh coda, which allows him to in troduce contra st anel e nd on an e1n otiona l clímax. As in earlier ltalian opera, the focus is on tbe singing, but here the drama is rnost important and the cornposer is in control. The singers are not free to embellish anel improvise as they would he in a Rossini opera ora genera tio11 earlier, and Verdi wrote out even the cadenzas. Th e orchestra remains subordinate to the singers. yet Verdi often uses contrasting colors of winds or brass to heigh1en the effect, doubling a vocal melody, providing punctuation, high lighti ng a drama tic moment onstage, or building momentum to a climax. Throughout the scene. Verdi takes every opportunity for stark contrasts. strong emotions, and catcby melodies while keeping tl1e aclion moving in an al most perf'ect marriage of drama anel music.

EXAMPLE 28.3:

Excerpt from Verdi's La traviata, Act Ill

Pa ... i;..gi..:....o

...

ra.

nol_ (a ..scc • re .. mo.

la_ ,•i· t~ · ni

. .

Paris. my dcar. wc shall forsake: our life. united.. wc shall pass togethcr.

. .

trn • scor-rc

_,.

mo .

LATER OPERAS Now famous and well ol'f. Verd i co uld afford to work even more carefully. writing only s ix new operas in the next two decades. ln these operas, the action is more co ntinuous; so los, en se mb les, anel choruses are more freely combined: harmonies become more da ring: and tbe o rchestra is treate d witb g re,tl origin.1Jity. Verdi still used trad i.tional forms hui often reshaped them to suit the dramatic situation. An imponant inlluence was French granel opera, especially Meyerbeer. Verdi wrote Les vêpres siciliennes (Tbe Sicilia11 Vespers. 1855) as a graud opera. for Paris. lo a libre tto by Meyerbeer·s coilaborator Eugene Scribe, blending French and ltalian elements. This a lso s igna led a retu rn to histol'ica l s ubjects with pol itical ramincations. coincid ing with renewed inter es l in Ital ian unification. He intro duced comic roles in Un ballo in mascher0, (A Masked Bali; Rome , 1859) and in La for.a det destino (Tbe Force of Oestiny, 1862, revise d 1869), composed for lhe imperial Russian opera in St. Petersburg. Ali the traits of his mature style appear inAida (187 1) , which unites the heroic quality oi' grand opera wiib vivid characler delineation , p.athos, and a wealth of melodie, h armonic , and orchestral color. Com m iss ioned for the Cai ro opera, Aida was on an Egyptian subject, giving Verdi opportunity to introduce exotic color and spectacle. Verdi wrote only two more operas after Aida., h ighly individual masterpieces based 011 plays by his favorite dramatist. Shakespeare. Both feature lihrellos by poet and composer Arrigo Boito (1842-1918). ln 1879, Verdi's puhlisher Ciulio Ricordi, eager for another opera, proposed adapting Shakespeare's Othello. Verdi began Otelto in 1884, and it was fmally produced in Milan in 1887. Likc Donize tti bcfore him. Verdi often sought conlinuüy in music anel action, and here he reaJized it mos! comp letely, through remin iscence motives in the orchestra anel in the unbroken flow of music within each act. The traditional scheme of declamatory and lyrical solos, duets, ensernbles, and choruses is still present, but the units are arranged in larger scene-complexes, a nel the orchestra deve lops themes in a more symphonic manner, often independent of the voices. Two years after the premiere of Otelto. Boi to suggested an opera on scenes from Shakespeare's The Merrr 111/ives ofWincúor anel Henrr IV invo lving the cha r acter Falstaff. s hown in Figure 28.8 (see P- 698) . lf Ote!Lo was the con summation of Italian tragic opera, Falsta.Jf (Milan. l 893) holds a parallel place in comic opera. While Verdi reshaped dramatic lyrical melody for Otello, for folsta.Jf he transformed that characteristic element of opera buffa, th e e nsemble. Carried along over a nimhle. endlessly varied orchestral background. the comedy s peeds to ils cümaxes in the !inales of the second and third acts, cu.lminating in afogue for the entire cast on the words "AJJ tbe world's a joke. We are all born fools."

VERDl'S RECEPTION Verdi experienced phenomenal success in bis own lifetime. By the 1850s. bis operas were performed more often than those oi' any other Italian composer. ln the twentieth ce nt1.1ry. even his ope ras tha t had not been performed

Otelloand

F'alstaff

701

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C H A 1> T E R 2 8

• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the l a te, Nme teenth Century

in decades were revived, and in recent decades there bave been more operas in the pe rman ent reperto1y by Verdi than by any ot.her composer.

Later ltalian Composers

Verismo

Ve1·di was such a central Figure that later ltalian oper a composers struggled to escape his shadow. As opera houses increasingly performed works already in the repertory rather than new ones. íew operas by composers aiter Verdi found a permanent place there. Two works that did e nter the repertory are the 0J1e-act operas Ca.va.lleria. mstica.na. (Rust ic Chivalry. 1890) by Pietro Mascagni (1863 - 1945) and Pagliacci (C lowns, 1892) by Ruggero Leoncavallo 0858-1919). often paired with each otber in performance. Both are examples of verismo (from ltalian vero. "true"), ao operatic parallel to realism in literature. Instead of treating historical figures or faraway places, these operas presen t everyday peopJe, especially the lower classes, in familiar situalions, often depicting events that ase brutal or sordid. The music responds directly to the text, driven hy vocal melody rather than by earlier operatic conventions, Although now the term "verismo" is ofren rest ricted to operas like these, in the late nineteenth and early twe ntieth centuries it was used more broadly for artworks, incl ud ing operas. thal reacted against Romantic idealism anel ILtrned away from a reli ance on conventions. ln this broader sense. the term embraces a wide range of operas from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that introduce novel elements, whether more realistic plots and scene structures, multidimensional cbaracters. irreb'Ular versincation. use of everyday language, coloristic harmony, nomraclitional accompan.im.ent, or declamatory melodie styles. By tbi s defmition. verismo includes Verd i's late operas, Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868. revised 1875- 76). Alfredo Catalani's La Wally (l 892), and the operas of Puccini (below), among many others.

GIACOMO PUCCINI The most successful ltalian opera composer after Verdi was Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) . The so n of a church organist and composer. he was slated to follow in bis father's footsteps but chose instead to focus on opera. After s tLtdying at the conservatory in Milan, PLtccini attracted attention witb his ftrst opera, Le villi, in 1884. His thfrd opera, Manon Lesca1.1t (1893). catapulted him to international fame. Over the next thi-ee decades he produced nine more operas, a11 of whlch have found enthusias tic audiences around the world. Puccini's letters show a continua1 search l'or dramatic conceptions that evoke '·the spirit behind the words ," He was interested in realism. emhodied by diverse characters, authentic local color, lifel ike stage act ion , and engaging visual cffccts. To provide these elements. he chose plots sei in a plaice and time that inspired him. whether that be F'lorence in 1299 (Gianni Schicchi. 1918). Rome in 1800 (Tosca. 1900), California during the Gold Rush (La Janciulla. dei West, The Girl of the Golden West, 191 O), Nagasaki at the tum of the twentiet h century (Madama Butterfly, 1904). or ancient China (Turandot. 1926). For him. the exoticism of America. Japan. or China was

Fr\lnce

703

just another l'orm of realism, wJtb the adcled ap peal of the unfamiliar a nd far away. Puccini creatcd a highly individual personal style by blendingVerdi"s focus on vocal melody with ele ments of Wagner's app roa ch, notably tlhe use of recuuing melodies or leitmotives. freedom from conven LionaJ operaiic fo rm s. anel a greater· role for the orchestra in creating musical continuity. ln Puccini's operas, arias, choruses. anel ensemhles are usually part of a continuous flow rather than set ofl' as independent numbers. The standard scen e structure pioneered by Rossini a nd observed in most of Verdi's operas is re placed by a fluid s uccession of sections in different tempos and characters. Musical icleas grow out of tbe dramaric action, bh1rring the distinction between recitative anelaria. Puccini often juxtaposes different styles and harmonic ielioms in order to suggest his contrastinJ!: cba racters , such as impoverished artists and other reside nts of the Par isiao Latin Quartcr in La boheme (1896); the idealistic singer Tosca anel lhe e vil Sca rpia in 'fosca.; a Japanese woma n and heJ· AmeriFIGURE 28 .9: Coverbx Leopoldo Met,licovitz for can lover in Madama Bu1te1fly : or vario us leveis of ihe 1906 vocol scoreofCiocomo Pu.ccini's opero. ancient Chinese society in Turandot. Madama Butterlly. sl,owing Butierjly tvaitingfor A1J ofthese cbaracteristics are evident in t he scene her Americ(ln, h 11SÚ(ln d Pinkerton to retum. (e111,•• .,.., of Butterfly's masriage to Pinkerton in Ma.dama. B1.1t- coLLECTso"'""'ºº"'A" M T LIBIWIY) tajl.y (NAWM 151 ~ ). The music moves seamlessly hetween dialogue and hrief aria-like moments. The main continu.i ty anel manyof the most important melod ies are in the orchestra. .., PUCC INI: which nonetheless always suppo11s the singeTS. ln a priva te dialogue before the L• bohême. Act 11 ceremony, Pinkerton speaks in the Romantic tones of Puccin.i's usual style, but .., PUCCINI, Butterfly moves among severa! different styles to present different personas to Madama8vue,{ly. Ac11. Pinkerton: conforming to Western expectations of exotic charm with a West - f,om W•cfdh,g Scene ernized Japanese style, joining in bis Western style as an equal, alluding to .., PUCCINI , hymn style to emphasize that shehas conve1ted to h.is rcligion, anel at one point M•d•m•Bvuer{ly. Ac i 11. inadvertently letting him see a darker side of Japanese culture and of her own Unbelc/i personal histOI)'. her father's ritual suicide. Puccini's music balances exoticism with a ve1y human portrait of Burterlly, cap,tured in her Acl II aria Un bel d,, expressing her foith tbat Pink.et1on will reh1rn to her, and aJso 011 the cover of a vocal score. shown in Figure 28.9. Through ve1y simple means. Puccini responds directly to the text anel the situation. His melody-centered, colorful , and emotionally direct style has won bis operas a permanent place in the reperto1y and has exercised a strong influence o,n scoring for fil m and television.

France ln France, no one figure was as dominanl as Wagoer and Verdi were in their respective la nds. bu LPari s remained the main cente r fo r the pro<luction of

704

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•

Opera anel Musitol Theater on the l a te, Nme teenth Century

new works. State subsidies for the mail'l opera houses brought with them occasional attempts to dictate policy, incl ud ing an insistence on performing new works by French composers. Altho ugh these elforts to support French m usic have nationalist ol'igins, few operas had overtly nalionalist plots. Particu larly no tab le is the variety of offerings in the Parisian musi · cal theaters. ranging from old gemes to new ones and from serious to ligbt en1e rlainme n1.

GRANO OPERA, BALLET, ANO LYRIC OPERA

Grandopera and ballet

Lyricopera

Gounod·s Paus t

Granel opera conlinued ils p rominence througb Meyerbeer'sL:Africaine (l 865) and Verd i's Don Carlos (186 7)-wri tten for the Paris Opéra-then began to fade in imporlance and lo blend wilh other types of serious opera. But ballet.longa pari of granel opera, grew in populariry as an independenl ari. The leading ballet composer was Leo Delibes (1836- 1891), whose Coppélia. (1870) a nd Sylvia (1876) were premiered a t the Opéra and became standards of the ballet rep ertoire. Both are in three acts anel constitute an evening's entertainment. like an opera, with mimed actions and solo, duet, and gl'Ouped dances linked by a roma otic plot. The romantic type of opéra eomiqu.e developed into a gerue that might best be termed lyric opera, after the Théâtre Lyrique founded in 1851. Lyric opera lies somewhere between light opéra comique anel granel opera. Like opéra comique. its main appeal is through melody. The subject matter is usually romantic drama or fantasy. and the scale is larger than that of the opéra comique, although no t so huge as that of thc typical granel opera. The most famous lyric opera isfo1L$t by CharlesGou nod (1818-1893). the most frequ.ently performed opera in the last third of the nineteenth century. Fi.rst staged at tbe Théâtre Lyrique in 1859 as an opéra comique (that is, with spoken eliaJogue). it was later arranged by th e co mposer in its now familiar form with recitatives. Gounod restricted himself to Part I of Goetbe·s drama. which focuses on the tragic love affair of Fa ttst aod Cretchen. The result is a well - proportioneel work in an elegant lyric style. with melodies that balance clarity with expressivity. Other popular lyric operas include Counod'sRoméo et]uliette (1867), Mign.on (1866) by Ambroise Thomas (1811- 1896), and the many s uccessful operas of Ju les Massen et (1842-1912). Massenefs Ma.non (1884). IVerther (1892). and Thais (1894) made him the most famous French composer of the time. Bo1h Massenet and Gounod sha ped thei.r melodies aro tmd the natural speech rhythms of the French language, often resulting in asymmetrical phrases anel novel concours. The suave. sensuous impression they e reate bas come to seem characteristi.c of Freoch musical style.

FRENCH EXOTICISM Severa! French operas exploiteel an interesl in exolicism. includ ing Les pêc-heur.~ de perles (The Pearl Fi~hers. 1863) hy Georges Bizet (1838-187:i). set in ancient Ceylon; tbe biblical opera Sa.mson et Dalila ( 1877) by Camille Sai.nt-Saens (1835-1921); and Delibes's Lakme'(l883), on the doomed relationship between an lnclian priestess of Brahma anel a:n offi.cer in Lhe English army occupying lndia.

Fr\lnce

705

Exoücism and realism combi n e in Bizet's Carmen, premiered at the Opéra· Comique io 1875. lt was set not in Asia but in Spain. considered as exolic by P.ari.sians elcspite its proximity. Originally classifled as an opéra comiq ue (a lthough Bizet never called it that) because it con tained s poken dialogue (]ater se t in recitalive by Ernest Cuirauel), it was a s1ark. realislic d rama ending with a murder. That such an opera could be ca l led "comicp.te" shows that the dis · tinction between opera and opéra comique had become a mere technicality. The Spanish flavor was emboclied espec ially i n the cha.racter of Ca rmen, s hown io Figure 28. l Oas po11rayed by the singer who created lhe role. Carmen is a Romani (Gypsy) wh o works in a ciga ret te factory and li.ves only fo r pleasures of the moment. Her suggesti ve costume and behavior, her pl'Ovocative sexuality and language, and Bizet's music ali cbaraclerize her as outside of nor mal society. ma.king her both clangerous and enticing. Bizet borrowed lhree authen· tic Spanish melodies. ioclu ding Cannen·s famous habanera L"amour est 1m oiseau rebelle (Love is a rebcllious bird). set to the rhyt hm of a Cuban dance. Bu t most of the Spanishsou od ing mt1sic is Bizet's owt1 inventi on, blencling el ements associated wilh Romani or Spanish music wilh lhe modem Fren ch style. As shown in Example 28.4, a mo tive li.nked to Carmen's fate em phasi.zes augmented seconds, FIGURE 28 _10 , ThefirstCamien. Célestine considered a trademark of Romani music. and a variant of Calli -Mnri.é. Hcr cosru,meand gcstures the sarne motive accompanies Carmen's lirst entrance. She combined with Bizet ·s music to eooke her secluces Don José, an upright army corpor al, by singing a c..roric ollureas aSpanishRom<ini (Cypsy). segu idill a (NAWM 152 F~n~l) . a type of Spanis h song in fas1. <•••uo-ru i:Qutu< •w••"'· Pnoro, ""'ºº"""" ... ,. tripie time. The accompaniment pattern imitates the ,.,•.,..,, strumming oí a guitar, the vocal melody foatures melismas anel grace notes. anel the harmony inclucles Phrygian cadences, all features ..,. BIZET, Cam,en. Ac, 1. conventionally linkecl to Spanish music. 11ie plot provoked outrage among Làmour escun oiseau some at the premiere-one critic wrote that Bizet "had sunk to the sewers of rtbello (habonera) ar1d socie ty" to create bis heroine- bul tbe opera won success and has become P,~, des romparrs de 5lv,l/e (seguidilla) one of the most popu lar of ali time.

LIGHTER FARE \Vhile the serious theaters were controlled by the government . the opé1·(1 bouffc could satirize F're nch society more freely. Th is new genre eme rged in the 1850s dw-ing the Second Empü·e anel emphasized lhe smarl. witty. and satiri cal elements of comic opera. lts foun der was Jaccrues Offenbach ( l 8191880), who even managed to introduce a can-can dance for the gocls in h is Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in lhe Underworld. 1858). Ris work ini1uenced developments in co mir. opera in Engla nd_ Vienna. the United States. anel elsewhere (see below). The perennial chann oíüffenbach's music owes much to ils appealing melody and rhyth.m, simple textures and harmonies, and con ventiooaJ formaJ patterns. But lhe d.cceplively naNe qual ity of opéra bouffe oíte n clothes a rapier wil. sa ririzing operalic as weU as social conventions.

Opéra bouffe

706

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• Oper• •nd Musical Theoter on the later Mme teenth Century

EXAMPLE 28.4,

Atigmenied second motives fro,n Bizei's Carmen

a.. Moiiveassociated with Gannen'sfate

b. Cam1.e11 's en trance moli,ve

might be made hetween composers who ptlt'sued prof'essionaJ training in th e western European mode and those who opposed academic study as a threat to their ori.gi.nality. Among the former, a key figure was Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), vir tuoso pianist and proliftc co mposer, who fou n<led the St. Petersburg Conser vatoiy in 1862 with a program of training on lhe Western model. His pianist brother Niko lay Rubinstein (1835-1881) fou nded the Moscow Conse rvatOl)' in 1866 on simila r lines. Their work raised the standards oi' musicianship all over Russia and led to a slrong tradilion of Russian pianists, violinists, composers, and other musiciaus that contim1es today.

Riibensteins and conservatories

PIOTR IL'YICH TCHAIKOVSK Y

Cabarets and

revues

Paris was also famous for its popular musical theaters. Caba reis like Chat Noi r (Black Cat, opened 1881) were night clubs that offered serious or comic sketches, dances. songs. and poetry. often with the intent to foster innovation and draw wgether artists and the public. A café-co11cert. as pictun:d in Figure 28.1 1, joinecl th e food and beverage service of a café with musical entertainment. usually songs o n sentimental, comic, or political topics. The Folies-Bergere, Moulit1 Rouge , and other large m usic halls ofJ'ered vari ous kinds of enterta inment including r ev11es, shows that strung together dances. songs. comedy. and other acts , often united hy a comrnon theme. From grand opera to mus ic ha lls, the range of offerings in Paris was vast. and listeners with hroad tastes might sample the Opéra, a cabaret, and the Moulin Rouge, ali in the sarne weekend.

Russia

FIGURE 28. 11: Edgar Dégcu. ·s Café-Concel't aux Ambassadeursconveys t/1evibran1 a1111ospl1ere of a café-concert frorn rhe perspective of011 audience mer11ber looking t.oworrl rhe singers on,st,oge. Some

mcmbcr.i of thc amall orchcstr'(J, a,-c vi-aiblc i·r\. front

ofthes1age, bui the ligluingkeeps rl1e.focus on ihe

si.ngers. ( LY(t~. ).tU~h l)l!S IH;J.UX•,Ul'l'S Jf.MIC H ART R.ESOUflCE. KY )

1 [S:;: JT\Ç /

When Russ ian Tsas Alexander l[ emancipated the serfs in 1861. he did soas part of a broader effort to modernize Russia and catch up to western Eu rope. There were two maio approaches to modern ization: the nationalists. or "Slavophiles," idealizecl Russia's dis tinctiveness. while the internatio nalists, or .. westernizers,.. sought to aclapt western European techn ology and education. This dichotomy has often been a pplied to schools of Russian r.omposP.rs . but it is mislea<ling, hecause all wbo composed operas. hal]elS, sym phonies. or sona tas were adopting Western genres and approaches. wbatever thei..r style. Rather. a dislinclion

The leading Russian com poser of the nineteenrh centuq was Piotr ffyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893; see hiography and Figure 28 12). Tch aikovsky sought to reconcile lhe nationalist and internationalis t tende ncies in Rus sian music, drawing models from Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and other western European composers as well as from Russian folk anel popular music. Hewrote a great deal of music forthe stage, i.nclud ing incidental music, baUets. and operas. His other works are discussed in chapter 30, Tchaikovsky's two most importam operas were hoth based on novels hy Aleksa nder Pushkin. Etigene Onegin (1879) is notable for penetrating the passions of ils characters and for the way numerous themes are generated from a germ motive lirst announced in the orchestral prelude. The opera includes folklike music for the peasant chorus , but also features another kind oi' nationa l music: its maio characters are landed genlty, and they sing in a style modeled on the domestic music- making of that class of Russian society. ln The Queen ofSpades (1890), Tchaikovsky matched the ghoulish atmosphere oi' Pushkin's story and recreated the spiril of the eighteenth-century Russia of Catherine the Great hy horrowing musical ideas from that period. These operas show that the styles and materials composers used in arder to provide national !lavor were n ot limited to fol k music, although listeners outside Russia may not recognize the allusions to oth er kinds of Russian music. Tchaikovsky won spectacular success with his ballets Swan Lake (1876). The Sleepirig Beauiy ( 1889), a nd The Nutcracker (1892), tbe most famous and frequently perfor med ballets in the permanenl repertory. Each is a full- lenb'th ballet in two or more acts, and together they estahlished Tchaikovsky as the most Lmportant composcr io the bistory of halleL. For hls ballets, Tchaikovsky found a style that combined hummable melodies with colo1fuJ orchestration perfectly suited to the fairy- tale atmosphere ofthe stories and to the gestures of classical ballet. His collaborations with ch oreographers Mar ius Petipa and Lev lvanov seta high standard for the in tegration oi' mus ic and movement within a dramatic framework.

TH E MIGHT Y FIV E Standing against the professionalism of the conservatories were f.tve composers duhhed moguchaxa kiichka (mighty liltle bunch), usually trans · lated as the Mighty F'ive: Mi ly Ba laki rev (1837-1910). Aleksa nd er Borod in

Operas

Ballets

708

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• 0per• •nd Musical Theoter on the later Mmeteenth Century

(1833-1887), César Cui (1835-19 18), Modest Musorgsky (1839- 1881), and Nikolay füms\...-y-Korsakov (1844-1908) 0nly Balaki rev bad conventional training in music. but it would be wrong lo call lhe others amateurs. They admired recem m usic from western Europe but st udied it on their own (see Sou rce R.eading), outside the academ ic musica l establ is hm ent whose exercises and prizes they scorned. It was because or their eothusiasm fo r Schumann, Chopi n , Liszt, Ber lioz, and oth e r p rogress ive compose rs in western Eu rope that they sought a fresh appToach in t heir own music . As pa rt of that new approach they incorporated aspects of Russian folk song, modal and exo tic scales, aod folk po!Jlihony. but they also extended traits J'rom the wes tern European composers they most ad mired. Thei r theatr ícal music is covered here; their so ngs a nd in stmmental works are treated in chapter 30. Bal akirev was lhe leader of lheir circle aod an informal teacher for the other s, but wrote little for the stage. He l)ublished two collections of folk songs in his own arrangements (1866 and 1899) t hat were sources for many !ater composers. Cui completed fourteen operas. íncluding four for children. but none entered the permanent reper tory. Borodin, though devoted to music frorn a young age , was a cbemist by professi on and had difftcully fmding time to compose. He left many works unfrnished. including Prince Igor (1869- 87). a four- act opera in the French graod opera traditíon. lt was compleled after his death by Rimsky-Kor sakov and Aleksa nder Glazun ov a nd p r emiered in 1890. ln it Borodi n con t rast ed two m usical styles to evoke the two ethnic groups . depicting bis fütssiao

PIOTR IL'YICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)

Tchaikovsky was the most prominent Russian composer of the nineteenth century, ln his own country and throughout Europe and the Americas. He combined his Russian heritage wi th influences from ltal,an opera. French ballet. and German symphony and song. Tchaikovsky was born in a distant province of Russia but moved with his family to St. Petersburg. where he graduated from law school at age nineteen, destined for a career in government. After four years as a civil servant, he enrolled at the new St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with its founder Anton Rubinstein and was one of the first students to graduate. He quickly found a position teaching at the new Moscow Conservatory, where he remained for twelve years. Although Tchaikovsky's professional career was successful. his personal life was in disarray. ln addition to bouts of depression and constant worries about money due to overspending, he was troubled by the growing realization of his homosexuality. ln 1877. he tried to escape into a hasty marriage to Antonina Milyukova. an attractive and financially independent woman. but it proved disastrous. On the verge of a nervous breakdown and fearing a loss of creativity, he Aed back to St. Petersburg after two months. though they never divorced. Around the sarne time. Tchaikovsky formed another life-changing rela tionship. Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow who was enthralled by his music, became his financial supporter and intellectual confidante, although the two took care never to meet. Her patronage for over thirteen years enabled him to resign his teachi ng position in 1878 and devote himself entirely to composition. Reading their voluminous correspondence allows extraordinary insights into Tchaikovsky's thinking and personality. Tchaikovsky traveled throughout Europe as a conductor. ln the spring of 1891. he made a brief tour of the United States, taking part in the ceremonies inaugurating New York's Carnegie

1893, tlie las1 year of his life. in an oi! pon-,.ait bJ· Nikolay

Mily Balakirev

and César Cui

Aleksander Borodin

FIGURE 28.12, Piolr ll'yich Tchaikovskyin

Kuznet,.rov.

(LY.1.iMt.t11T

Musrc & A.ll'fS vuoro L I IJttARrJ

Hall. He was at the peak of his fame when he conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony in October 1893. Yet nine days later he died after a brief and unexplained illness, prompting some to see the symphony and other works of his last year as offering a premonition of his death.

MAJOR WORKS: 8 operas. includin9 Eugene Onegin and The Oueen of Spades: 3 ballets. Swan Lake. The Sleeplng Beaucy. and The Nutc1acker: 6 symphonies:

THE MIGHTY FIVE ln a 1909 memoir, crit,c and composer César Cui recalled the gatherings almost fifty years earlier when the circle around Mily Balakirev met to pore over scores and argue about music. They opposed academ1c correctness, prized the most progres.sive com-

posers of western Europe. and saw themselves as pari of rhat international current.

- ~ We formed a close-knit circle of young com posers. And since there was nowhere to study (the conservatory didn't exist) our self-education began. lt consisted of playing through everythi ng that had been written by all the greatest

2 piono co,,ccrtos, o violin concerto, symphonic poenu

com p osers. and all works were st1bjected to

and overtures, includin9

criticism and analysis in all their technica l and creative aspec ts. We were young and our judg-

Romeo

and Ju/ior and

Overtu,e: chamber mustc and songs

1812

ments were harsh. We were very disrespec tful in our attitude toward Mozart and Mendelssohn: to the latter we opposed Schumanrt. who was then ig nored by everyone. We were very enthusiastic about Liszt and Berl ioz. We worshiped Chopin and G linka . We carried on heated debates (in the course of which we would down as many as four o r five glasses of tea with jam). we discussed musical form, program music. vocal music. and especially o peratic form . Fron, César Cui, "Perviye kompozitorskiye shagi Ts. A. Kyui." in lzbrannfye stat'i (leningrad: Muzgiz. 1952). 544. Trans. Richard Taruskin in De{ining Russia Muslcally, Hls10,ical and He,meneuc,cal Essays (Princeton: Princeto n University Press. 1997). xv.

710

C H A 1> T E R 2 8

711

• Oper• •nd Musical Theoter on the later Mmeteenth Century

cha racters with melodies mode led on Russian fo lk song and providing the Polovtsians, a central As ian people, with an exotic style la ced with vocal mclismas. melodie chromaticism and augmenlcd seconds. double· rced instrnments, and 01her signiners Europeans associated with Asian m usic. The Polovtsi.a.n Dnnces in Act 11are often performed sep.arately. AIready viewed as exolic in weslero Europe. Russiao composers often found as much s uccess at home and ab road with exor icist works as wiLh nat ionalist ones.

MODEST MUSORGSKY Widely considered the most original of the Mighty Five, Musorgsky earned a living as a clerk in the civil service and received most of his musical tra in ing from Balakirev. His principal stage works were the operas Boris Godr,nov (1868-69, revised 1871-74), based oo a Pushkin pl.ay, and Khovanshchina (The Khova nsky Affa ir, 1872-80, comp.leted after Musorgsky's deatl1 by Rimsky-Korsakov). The realism so prominent in nineleenlh -century Russian literature echoes especially io Boris Godunov, in lhe w.ay Musorgsky imitated Russian speech, ·in his li relike musical depiction of p;estures, and in lhe sound and stir of the crowds in the chorai scenes. Both realism and nationalism are li> MUSORGSKY, Bons reflected in the composer's famous po11rait, shown in Fih'l.u·e 28.13. Godunov, Act 1. Scene 2 Musorgsky 's individuality shines th rough every aspect of bis mus ic, as ilh1strated by the famous Coronation Scene from Boris Godwiov (NA\VM 153 ~ ). shmvn in Figure 28.14 as il was staged for the opera's 1874 premiere in St. Petersburg. Example 28.Sa shows Boris's úrst sta temem in the scene, after he is hailed as the new tsar. The vocal melody exem · plifies Musorgs1.-y's approach. He set words naturalisti • cally, folJowing lhe rhylhm and pacing of speech as closely as possible: almost always syllabic, with accented syllables on strong beats. often higher and louder than the surrounding notes. As a result, his vocal music tends to Jack lyrical me lodie lines and symmetri,cal phrasing, but at the sarne time he avoided lhe conventions of recitative. He sought a melod ie proâle closer lo Russiau follc so ngs. which typically move in a relatively nanow range, rise at the beginning of phrases anel sink to cadences, anel often repeat one ortwo melodie or rhythmic motives. Ali ofthese chancterislics are apparent here. Musorgsky's harmony is essentially tonal. projecting FIGURE 28.13, Portrait ofModest Musorgsky a clear sense of the key. but in many respects il is highly by 1/ya /lepin. painred in early March 1881. o riginal, even revo lutionary. Some passages seem more only two weeks before the composer's dea t.h modal than tonal. and clissonanccs may bc Ien hanging or Jroin complicati ons ofalcoholisin. Artist and resolve in unconventional ways. He often juxtaposes discomposer s/1 ared a devorion to ,ialionCLlism. tantly related or coloristic harmonies, usually joined by a reflecied in the peasanishirt Musorgsk)' wears. and lo re<,li$m. evident üt the u,nblink - common tone. One example is the sequence of C minar, M m inor. and G maj01· in Example. 2fl.~a. whir.h indu d~~ ,ngdcpictior, ofh-is u-n-kcmpt-1,air. watcry two pairings lhat became staples of eeri e or gloomy movie eyes, and red nose. (1'RE'l'YAKOV G.ALLERY, MOSCOW. music in the twe ntieth century: two minor triads whose ROSS lA/ltR!OCf!MAN ART LIDRARY)

EXAMPLE 28.5,

ExcerptsJrom the Coronation Scene Jrom Musorgsk/s Boris Goclunov

a. Bom'sspeech

Boris p

: du • shn.

Skor - bi1 "

., 71rf

1....--

ef ::::===e 1-

~ vol'

,, "

·~ -

•

vye

zlo

- 1..---

·,

...____,

-V ·

shchim prycd

chuv

:::::;=- ~J : _r,

l'J

,:,

vai

sko

mnyc scnJ

•

6:---=------•

Tuba

:-.)\

f-----t 7

ifp

===--

==-

r-------t r-----t ifp

==--

7 1

ifp

===--

i9..__, ifp

e. 7hirJ-relcited triads h/lnnonizing a repeMed note

"" t)

Prince Shuisky

Tpt.s. + Hll',. A

~ • ·t:

fj' Da

zdrav •stvu~yct

Tsar Bo-ris Fc - o - do -ro-vich!

.! . -~-

f' I

..,~~

long live Tsar 801is Feod.orovich!

lo'

. J----;::-J,

Tpt$. ,. Ht\s.

l.J.:

-·

,J'. ...___.,.,.

b. Opening chords (t.he "8011.s .. chords)

Hns. ~ Tbns.

lSc. ~

~ IH

Mysoul sr,Jferi;. Sorne kinJ ofinvoluntoryfenr ha.s stifled m;rliea,t with ominous premonitions.

}', -1----:=::::::'

-V ·

- V'

SIVi •yem

b"'

_, p

if====

nye ·

- -

-. - - -

lõJ :

· niy~

J~ 7

.___,__,'t -9~~

Cl"f!Sf..' b,.. ' b.-.

::::::=-

Ka-koy - to strakh

.. 1:

Cmmor

~~-

712

C H A 1>T E R 2 8

713

• Oper• •nd Musical Theoter on the later Mmeteenth Century

NIKO LAY RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

Sei design byMikhail ll'yich Bocharovforihe CoronotionSce11efrorn Musorgshy's Boris Codunov in its fir·st pmduction at the Mariinsky 111eater in St. Petersbu.rg i n early 1874. ($TA'l't MIJS l~UM OP 1'U I.V.,Tf.tc ,um Musrc, S'I'. PJ!;Tl!Plt,01,1'11(). IIUSSIA. 1>11 ()TO: t.t RNtCll'r

FIGURE 28.14:

M USIC 6 AAT S PHOTO LlBRA.RY)

Block constmction

roots are a major thinl aparl (C and AI, minar, which share El,) , and a minar and a major triad witb a cornrnon tbird degree (AI, minor and G major share OlB). Other examples. shown in Example 28.Sb ande. are the Coronation Scene's opening chorels, 1wo dom.inant seventh chords thal have roots a tritone apart (AI, and D) and two notes in common (C and GIIP;), anel three major triads related by thirds (E. C. and A major) that have a common tone and are used in succession to harmonize it. These lypes of chorel progression are nol the result of na1ve C;\-perimentation, as some have imputed to Musorgsk-y, but show hfa intellectual approacb io composition and bis familia rity witb Liszt. Cli nka. anel other composers who had useel such progressions. Another trait that is characterislic of Musorgsky anel of much Russian mitsic is composition in large blocks of material. This is true of the opera as a whole: rather than continuously developed action, Bori-s Codunov is a series of episodes helcl together by lhe central figure of the tsar. Because the story was well known. Musorgsky could condense Pushkin's play iuto a series of relatively uncot\Ilecteel tableaux and thereby focus more intensely on the title cbaracter. Juxtaposition of blocks is aJso evielent in the Corona tion Scene. The opening section elaborates lhe two chords shown in Exam ple 28.Sb. twice building to a peak of activity and intensity. Then Examp le 28.Sc begins a section of rapid juxtapositions in wh ich every few measures Musorgsky changes f1guration and apparent key. unlil lhe chorns sings a J'olk song in C majot· accompanierl hy the ftrst traditio nal harmony in the scene. Musorgsky rarnly uses actual folk melodies; this tune adds an element of realism, as do the bells that ring constantly up to this point, like the church bells of Moscow.

Rimsky -Korsakov sluelied music wilh privale leachers and wit h Balakirev while pursuing a career in Lhe Russian Navy. ln 1871, he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Co nservatory, aba ndoning the anti -academic stance of the Balakirev circle. Quicl<ly realizing how m uch he still hael lo learn hefore he could teach music theory. he burneel the midnight oil to keep ahead of his classes; ]ater he joked that he was one of the Conservato1y's best students. He also became ao active orchestral coneluctor anel a rnaster of orchestration. lronically. Rimsky-Korsakov's professionalism guaranteed the continualion of a d istinctively Russian school. He ed ited, completed, anel orchestrated works by Glinka, Muso1·gsky, Borodin, anel others, helpingto ensure their survival. As a conduclor ai home anel in western Europe. he champio ned Russian music. He wrote the harmony lext most frequently used in Russia anda manual on orchestration, anel he taught some of the most import.ant composers of the next generation, includingAleksander Glazunov anel lgorStravinsky. R.imsk-y -Korsakov proved his abiding inte rest in national music by arranging and ediling two collections of folk songs (1875- 82) anel by incorporating folk tunes anel their melodie characteristics into his own compositions. Although best known outside Russia for his orchestral works. be was primarily an opera composer. Severa! of his fifteen operas elraw on Russian histo1y, plays, epics, or folk tales. ln many of them , including the epic Sadko (1895- 97) anel the faity- tale operas TsarSaltan (1899- 1900) anel 17ie Golden Cock,erel (1906- 7), he alternated a diatonic, often modal style useel for lhe everyday world with a lightly chromatic, "fantastic" style that suggested tbe worlel of s upernatural beings and magicai occurrences. Akey element of the f:mtastic style was the use of scales or pitch collections in which the sarne sequence of intervals occurs several times, so lhat 1here is more th an one possible tone center. The shnp lest such scale is the wltoleto11e scale (or whole-tone collection). consisting of only whole steps: another is the oct<1Umic scctfo (or octatonic collection), which alternates whole anel half steps. Both are shown in Example 28.6. While each of the twelve major scales contains a unique coll ection of seven notes. tbere are only two wbol etone collections and three octatonic collections. shown in the example: any other lransposition of these scales will simply 1·eproduce the same notes as one of the scales s hown here (assuming enharmonic equ iva lence) . Because they Jack tbe strong gravitation toward a tonic thac is characteristic of dia tonic scales, the whole- tone anel oclatonic scales create a sense of J1oa1ing or otherwo rld liness. Thei r secret is to divi de the octave in equal units; as the exan1ple shows. the whole- tone scale comprises two augmented triaels (wbich divide the octave into three major thi rels), a nel the octntonic scale contains two diminished seventh chords (whicb divide lhe octave into four minor thirds). These scales are found already in the music of Lisit and other wester n European composers, deriving frorn their use of harmonic relationships around the cü·cle of major or minor t.hücls. Such scales and harmonic relationships hP.camP. trarlemarks of Russia n music in thP. late. nine.teenth anrl early twentieth centuries. Example 28. 7 shows an example from the second scene of Sadko, depicting a fontast ic reahn uneler lhe sea. Th e rising octatonic scale in the bass is

Professionalism

Operas

lflhole-tone and octatonic collecti ons

714

C H A 1> TE R 2 8 • Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the l ate, Nmeteenth Century

EXAMPLE 28.6,

Scales based on eqcial divisions of the ocr.ave

a. Whole-tonescales r-r-, •

;ougmen1ed lri:td

&ü ~

b. Octatonic scates or

EXAMPLE 28.7,

From Rimsky-Korsakovs Sadko. scene 2

harmonized by the major triads and domin:mt seventh chords available in the scale, whose roots are rclated by minor thirds (,A , C, El, , and F#), The Jloating hannonies here contras! strongly with the diatonic. folklike song Sadko has just sung. marking him as a human amid the magicai surroundings.

RUSSIAN IN FLUENCE Tchaikovsky and the Mighty Five developed musical styles tbat were strongly individual. markedly national. yet suffused with elements from the West. [n turn. they influenced western European composers of the very late ninetee nth and early twentieth centuries. who were especially drawn to the Rus sians' block construction, orchestral colors, use of modaliry, and anif1cial scales. ln less than half a centmy. Russian music went from beingperiphera l to being a major current in Western music.

Other Nations Opera continued to spread to other nati.ons, often-though not always-a ll ied with nationalist movements.

BOHEM IA ln Bohemia (now the Czech Repuhlic). opera was a speciftcally nationalist projccl. Bohemia had for cenllu-ics been an Austrian crown land and. unlikc

Other Notions

Russia, hacl always been in the rnainstream oi' European music. Education was tn German, the ofhcial state language and the prima,y language of the middle and upper classes and city-dwellers. Opera had long been heard in the capital. Prague, but in ltaüan (Mozarfs Don Gioveu1ni, was premiered there) or in German. ln the 1860s. in an attempt to foster a nationa l tradition of stage works in Czecb. lhe provincial govcrnmenl estahlished a Czech national 1heater. anda nobleman sponsored a contest fo r the best his1orica l and comic ope ras in Czech. The contest was won bythe national theater·s conductor, Bed.-ich Smetana (1824- 1884). whose eight operas form the core of lhe Czech operatic repertory anel whose comic opera The Ba.rtered Bride (1866) securecl bis internalional reputation. Smetana chose Czech subjects, and lhe sets a.nd costumes drew on national traditions. Within a personal idiom heavily influenced b_y Liszt. Smetana c.-eated a Czech nal.ional style by using folklike tunes and popular dance rhythms like the polka and by avoiding many of the stylistic convemions of' ltalian and German opera. Smetana was succeeded by Antonio Dvoi·ák (1841- 1904). whose twelve operas include plots based on Czech village life. Czech faily tales. and $!avie history. Most importaut are Dmitrii (1882, revised 1894), a historica l opera influenced by Meyerbeer and Wagner, and Rusalka (1900). a lyric fairy-tale opera in whlch he adopted Rimsky-Korsa.kov's dichotomy between the dia tonic world oi' humanity and the l'autastic style for the nature spü·its. 801h Smetana and Dvoi-ák are better known in western Êmope and the Americas for their instrumental music. wruch is cliscLtsscd in chapter 30.

OPERA IN OTHER LANDS The shape that opera took in each nalion depended on ils individual circumstances. ln Poland, wruch was ruled by Russ.ia, opera was pan of a nalional culturaJ reviva i. Stanisfaw Moniuszko (18 19-1872) inaugurated a tradition of Polish national opera with Halka (1848. revised 1858). Spain, on the other hand , had been independent for centw·ies hut had become peripheral to currents in France. ltaly, and Germany. Felipe Pedrell (1841 - 1922) sparkecl a nationalist reviva! with his editions of sixteenth-century Spanish composers and his operas. chief of which was Los Pirineos (The Pyrenees. 1891). Britain was dominated by forcign opera, despi te repeated attempts to create a nationa l opera tradition in the vernacular. Amongthe most important British operas were the six of Ethel Smyth (] 858- 1944) . best known for The Wreck ers (1904). ln New York, the Metropolitan Opera Company openecl in 1883, performingthe entü·e range of European opera. but almost no na tive composers attempted opera. The fi 1·st internationally recognized composer of opera from the New World was Antônio Carlos Comes (1836- 1896) of Brazil, who had carly success witb two operas in Portugucsc. although neither cntered the permanent repe1toire. His )ater operas were written in ltaly and in ltalian. His masterpiece is li Giiarany (1870), ot1 a Brazilian subject centering 0 11 reconciliation between the native lndians and the Portuguese colonists. but the siyle is essentially ltalian. Gennany achieved independence from tbe Itaüan and French operatic tra ditions n rst, followed by Russia and Bohemia, but the impression elsewhere is inescapal>ly one of outsiclers looking in. like small planets orbit ing a sun.

715

Bedi'ich Smetana

Antonin Dvoi·ák

716

C H A 1> T E R 2 8

• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the late, Nmeteenth Century

OPERETTA ln lighter forms of musical thealer, however. that is nol the case, and these forms flourished in nearly every co untry. TIMELINE Opere tl<,t-a new kinrl of light opera with spoken dia logue, Opera and Musical originating in the opéra bouffe of Offenbach- was mani Theater in the La ter fes tly an enterta inment. in wh ich n~Hiona lism was beside NineteenLh CenttLry the point. lt cou ld be both funny and 1·omantic, spooling the conventions of opera yet using them sincerely when approMUS ICAL HIS TORICAl priale. The great masters of operetta in lhe generation after Offenbacb we.re the Viennese Johann Strauss the younger • 1843 Richard Wagner, Der (1825-1899), known for Die Fledermaus (The Bat. 1874). {liegende Holliinder and, in Englanel, the team of W. S. Gilbert (librettist) anel • 1848 Revolutions in European Arlhur Sullivan (composer, 1842-1900). Sullivan wanteel to cities be known as a serious composer, but his opera on Sir \Va lter • 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Scott's lvanhoe (1891) was nowhere near as successful as his Engels. Communist Manifesto collaborations with Cilbert. especiaily HMS Pinafore (1878), The Pirates o{ Penzance ( 1879), and 77ie Mikado (1885). • 1848 SPnPr'1 Fali< C:onvPnThe chorus and ensemble When tlie foeman bares his steel tion, beginning of women's from The Pirates of Penzance (NAWM 154 § ) illustrates the suffrage movement humor of Cilben anel Sullivan. Eve1ything follows convention • 1852-70 Second French yetgoes oddlywrong. As the policemen prepare to march on a Empire under Napoleon Ili band of p irates, they sing a rousing chorus sei in a marlial • 1853 Giuseppe Verdi. li dotted rhy,hm. The men, however, freely admit they are terri trovatore and La traviata úed at the prospect of battle anel are simply covering up tbeir fears. Mabel-a beautiful young woman-and a women's cho• 1857-59 Wagner composes rus. sin1:,'Í.ng a stirring melody. urge the policemen to suffer Tristan und /solde death fo.r glory's sake. The police are not happy with tbis mes• 1858 Jacques O ffenbach. sage, but decid e it wou ld be too impolite to protest. At the Orpheus in the Underworld clímax. the two choruses sing thei.r melodies in counterpoint. • 1859 Charles Gounod, Faust a hilarious juxtaposilion of opposing styles and a send- up of the conventions of opera ensemb les in which everyone on e 1859 Charles Darwin, The stage sings together. Indeecl. the structure ofthe scene closely Origin of Species imitates the opening of Act III of Les Hu.guenots. turning Mey • 1861 Victor Emmanuel erbeer's dramatic opposüion oi' militanl Huguenot sold iers crowned king of ltaly and pious Catholic women into farce. When the police continue to sing about marching off to the fray. the Major General notes cbat tbey have no t left yet ("Yes, but you don't go! ," he observes with some irritation) . The stand ard roles of men and women in opera. appeals to glory. the tendency to sing at length about taking action before doing it. and othe r familiar traits are ali mocked mercilessly. Throughou t , SulJivan matches style and gesture to the text in a satire thal shows his command of a wide range of styles.

THE VARIETY OF MUS ICA L THEATER ln .addition to opera and related forms. other kinds of musical theater flourished throughout Europe and the Americas. Ballet in France and Russia has already been mentioned, alongwith the cabarets, cafés, and night clubs of Paris.

Musi< for the Stage anel lts Auelien«s

The pHticular f'orms of entertainment variecl l'rom place to place. but the va riety of musical theater may be illustrated with a snapshot of the United Statcs in the second halJ of the 11.incteenth century. European opera was heard in severa] major cities, both in the origina l languages and in English tran s lalion. Minstrel shows continued (see chapter 27). now includ ing all - black t roupes as well as wh ite entertainers in bfockfoce. Operettas were impo1ted from Europe-incleed , The Pirates of Penzance was premiered in New York-and homegrown com posers wrote tbeir own. including El capitan by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932). A pastiche called The Blach: Crook (1866) combined a me lodrama with a visiting French ballet troupe to score a tremendous fanancial success. and iit toured f'or years. constantly interpolating 11.ew material to keep up with fashion. Another great success was Evangelin.e ( 1874), with music by Edward E. Rice. the fus t "musical comedy'' and an ances tor to the modern musical (see chapter 31 ). Singing comics Ned Harrigan (1844- 191 1) and Ton)' Hart (1855-189 1) co llaborated with composer David Braham on comic sketches and musical plays. often focused on lrish. Italian, or other ethnic characters. By bringing variety shows out of the saloons and into music halls that respectable women cou ld attend, New York thea ter impresario Tony Paslor (1837- 1908) invented what became known as v<111dcville, the major fonn of theatrical entertainment in the Uniled States until 1alking movies took over in the late l 920s. ln ali these endeavors. the focus was on pleasing the audience and making as much money as possible. In that respect, if in few others, these forms of musical theater could trace their beritage back to the public opera theaters of seventeenthcentury Venice (see chapter 14).

• 1861

Russia abolishes serfdom

• 1861-65

Civil War in United

States Bedrich Smetana, The Bartered Bride

• 1866

John Stuart Mill. 011 the Svbjection of Women

• 1869

• 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War

German Empire unites German states outside Austria

• 1871

Premiere of Modest Musorgsky's Boris Godunov

• 1874

• 1875

Georges Bizet, Carmen

Wagner, premiere of complete Ring cycle

• 1876

Piotr ll'yich Tchaikovsky. Eugene Onegin

• 1879

Thomas Edison perfects rhe electric lightbulb

• 1879

Gilbert and Sullivan. T/ie Pirares o{ Penzance

• 1879

• 1887

Verdi's Orei/o premieres

• 1896

Giacomo Puccini, La

boheme e

Music for the Stage and lts Audiences

717

1898

Spanish-American War

Puccini. Madama Bvtterfly

• 1904

Wagner and Verdi brought the opera of their nations to a peak never surpassed. Even in their lifetimes, they achieved a pennanence and centrality in tbe opera repertory akin to Handel's for o rato rio and Beethoven's forthe symphony. Since the Second World War. the works ofboth Wagner anel Verdi have inspired exceptiona lly innovative and avant-garcle stagings, from \Vieland Wagner's austerely minimalist productions of his grnn dfather's operas at Bayreuth in the years 1951- 66. which had a profound i11J1uence on opera ~taging in genera l. to Michael Mayer·~ 2013 Metropolitan Opera proclur.tion ofVerdi's Ri.goletto. set in a Las Vegas casino in the 1960s with characterizations based on entertainers from that era. Outside the opera house, excerpts from Wagner operas also became staples of orchestral and band concerts.

718

C H A 1>T E R 2 8

• Opera anel Musitol Theoter on the late, Nmeteenth Century

beginningduring his lifetime wben fo ll productions were still rare, and severa\ exce rpts are still best known in that form. Puccini alone of the Italians after Verdi holds a major place in the international opera r epertory. Opera composers in ocher lands found room in their national traditions, and some of their works also entered the permanent international repertory. most notably Gounod's Fa1isL. Massenet's Manon. Bizet°s Carmen, Tcha ikovs~-y·s Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. Musorgsky's Boris God1.mov, and Smetana's 1he Bariered Bride. Nationalism was a major cancero in nineteenth-century opera , and it continues to affect tbe reception of much of this music in both positive anel negative ways. The most nationalist of nineteenth-centllly composers, Wagner , obscureci his nationa lism by a claim to universality. and the enthusiastic response of German, English. and even French critics has made it seem that nationalism can be heard only when composers deliberately depart from the GeJ'man "mainstream." Composers from ''peripberal ~ counlries, from Rus sia to La1in A.merica. are expecLed to wrile nalional m~tsic. and those who do are rewarded with an international audience: yet in some respects this keeps thefr products exolic and means lhey can never be considered as central as composers from Gennany, Austria, France, or ltaly. Meanwhile, the split between elite and popular musical theater became irreparable in this period anel has conlinued to widen. Verdi was stiU capable of attracting connoisseurs while pleasing the public at large, but the high seriousness of Wagner and much other opera did not aim for popular entertainment. The popular genres created in reaction, from operetta to vaude ville, became increasingly important anel underlie much of the music of the twentieth century. Yet opera is a constanl reference as well, since it was for opera that most of the expressive <levices in the musical language were nrst created, and those <levices still cany meaning 1oday in music for lüm, television, and other media. The classic Hollywood ft.lm score relies on Wagnerian techniques such as nature imagery and leitmotives, an approach brought over in Lhe late 1920s and ea1·ly 1930s hy emigrés from Austria such as Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngo ld and renewed in nlm scores since the l 970s. The modem movie. especially in the epic genre of Star Wars or Lord of the Rin.gs. is in many ways a collaborarive Cesamtk1rnstwerk in which music plays a crucial role. The ,novie tb eater itself is conceptually a descendan1 of t he Bayreut h Festival Theater. with its darkened auditorium and invisible orchestra focusing ali our attention on the drama. ln these and other ways, the influence of Wagner, Verdi, and olher nincteenth-cent111y opera composers has permeated ourculture.

Resources for study and review available at wwnorton.com/studyspace.

LATE ROMANTICISM IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA During the second half of the nineteenth centu1y, the Western musical world diversified as the audience for music broadened anel became more segmented. rncreasinginterest in musicof the pastwas balanced by the emergence of new styles of concert music, anel a growing seriousness in the concert hall and new forms of entertainment music wid ened the gu lf between classical anel popula r music. This chapter focuses on the classical tradition in German-speaking lands, examining how a debate between partisans of Johannes Brahms and of Richard Wagner crystallizcd divisions within German music. The following chapter treats national traditions in France and eastern and northern Europe and explores the division into classical and popular streams primarily through musical life in the United States.

Dichotomies and Disputes Music since 1850 may appear more varied than that of earlier eras simply because the historical evidence is more complete anda wider range of music survives. But that greater diversity is not just an iUusion. Severa! factors combined to make the later nineteenth century the most varied period yet, surpassed only by the even more diverse twentieth and twenty-f1rst centuries. Be.fore. the. ninr.te.e.nth r.e.ntury. most musir. thM w~s pe.rfnrme.cl had been composed in living memo1y, except for the chants, chorales, and hymns of the church. By 1850, orchestral, chamber, chorai, and

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other concerts increasingly focused on a repertoire of musica l classics, representing a majority of the pieces on most concerls. and wilh each decadc thc pro portion ofolder works g1·ew (see chapler 26, pp. 627-28). The es ta.blishment of a permaTI M ELI N E nent classical repertoire may be the most importam fact about LaLe Romanticism in music in lhe late nineteenlh century. for il had many effecls Germany and Austria beyond conce r1 programming. ln tandem with the rise of the classi.cal repertoire, interest MUS ICAL HISTORICAL in music of the pasl inlensilied. The new field of musicology was created in order to study and make avail.able the music • 1848 Revolu tíons in European of p.revious generaüons. Scholars uneanhed and published citíes music by the b'l'eat compose rs of past eras, issuing editions • 1848-1 916 Franz Joseph reigns of lhe complete works of Bach. Handel. Palest rina. Mozart. as emperor of Austria Schütz, and Lassus, as well as the eady-nine1een1h-cencury • 1851 Complete edítíon of J. S. masters Beethoven, Mende lssohn, Chopin, Schumann, and Bach's works begun Schubert. These editions and numerous less comprehensive perform ing edilions helped to form .a canon of composers • 1854 Franz Liszt, Les préludes whose music comprised the center o:I' the repertoire and the • 1854 [dua,d l lanslick. Or> tl,e mainstream of music history. Most of these composers were fvlusically Beauti{ul German. and their editions were issued by Ge rman scholars • 1857- 59 RíchardWagner, and publishers, linking the revival of past music to nationTristan und /solde alism. The German editions of Palestrina and Chopin were notable for granting those composers canonic status despite • 1861 Wilhelm I becomes kíng their nationality. Less widely known music of the Renaissance of Prussia and Baroque was collected in series such as Denkmaler der o 1862 Otto von Bismarck Tonkunst (Monuments of Musical Art, begun 1869). Denkappointed premier of Prussia maler deu tscher Tonkuns1 (Monuments of German Music. begun 1892) , and Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Ôsterreich (Monuments of Music in Austria, begun 1894). Belatedly. scholars and publishers outside Cermany began to produce editions of music by their own hislOrical masters, including Purcell in England and Grétry and R.ameau in France. Thus in the la ter nineteenth century. performers and audiences had avail Old versus new able to them not only new music and works in the standard repertoire but an increasing supp ly of older music that, paradoxically, was new to them and sat isfted some of lhe desire to hear new pieces as well as familiar ones. W'ben a choir's repertoire could include music culled from four centmies. and a pianisL mjght perform works ranging .l'rom Bach to the present in a single concert, it is safe to saythat nothing approachingthis v.ariety of styles had ever before been present simultaneously in the performing tradition. Brahms versus The preponderance of older music on concert programs posed problems Wagner for living composers. How do you craft newworks toappeal to an audience that is prirnarily accustomed to hearing music already familiar to them. most of it composed a generalion or more ago? Composers responded in varyingways. Sorne, like Johannes Brahms (discussed below). competed with tb e masters of the past on their own ground . writing symphonies and chamber works worthy of a place nexl to Beethoven and songs and pia no pieces that rival the achievements of Schuber1, Schumann, and Chopin. Others, like Wagner and Liszt. saw the legacy of Beethoven as pointing in a different direction. toward

Oichotomie$ and Disputes

721

genres that combined music with words or with a program. ln German-speaking !aneis, the dispute polarized a round füahms anel Wagner and around the dichotomies between absolute and prog1·am music, between tradition and inno• 1864 Johannes Brahms. Piano ation, and between classical genres and forms and new ones. Ouintet. Op. 34 To be sure. lhe lwo camps were nol so far aparl as lo fore • 1867 Austrian Empire recJose the poss ibili t.y of mutua l respec1. and i:nfl uence. Brahms organized as Austroand Wagner adm ired each other, Anton Bruckner was a \VagHungarian monarchy nerian in spirit who focusecl 011 lhe tradilional genres of lhe • 1870- 71 Franco-Prussian War syrnphony anel church music, Brahms sometimes borrowed from Liszt in the realms ofharmony and cyclic unhy, and boih • 1871 German Empire Liszt and Bra hms used methods of melod ie transfo rmat ion proclaimed. Wilhelm 1 that derive new musical ideas from exisling ones. Anumberof becomes emperor musicians maintained friendly l'elations wilh bo1h sides in the • 1874-80 Anton Bruckner. dispute , including the conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow Fourth Symphony (Romantic) (see ln Performance: Crossing lhe Divide: Hans von Bülow, • 1885 Brahms, Fourth p. 772). Moreover, it is clear in relrospecl lhat par1isans on Symphony both sicles shared tbe common goals of linking themselves lO Beethoven, appealing to audfonces familiar with lhe classical o 1888 Wilhelm 11. last German mastcrworks. and securing a place for their own music in the emperor. crowned increasingly crowded pennanent repertoire. • 1889 Hugo Wolf. fvlorike Although the classica·1 repertoire centered a round Gel'Lieder man-speaking composers. it was performed to varying degrees • 1897 Richard Strauss. Don in concen halls across Europe and the Americas. As a resull. Quixote composers in other lands also found them se lves competing with the classics and addressing issues of na tional identity. Nationalism was as strong a force in instrumental music, song, and chora] musicas in opera (see cliapters 27 and 28). Nalional Jla vor was pri.zed as evidence of a composer·s authenticity and distinctiveness. Ethnicity mattered more than political boundaries; in the multinational Austrian Empire, composers increasingly identified with their ethnici1y rather than with the imperial state, and German-speak-ing composers such as Brahms tended to identify with an all -e ncompassing German tradition wherever they resided. The search for a musical past was in pan nationa list. French and Cerman-speaking composers found it in their written tradition as well as in folklore. For example, Brahms drew inspiration from Schlltz, Bach. Beethoven. and other Cennan predecessors. but also arranged Cerman folie songs anel modeled some melodies on them. Eastern and nortbero Euro peans found a usab le past primarily by incorporating aspects of the unwritten tradition of folk music in their own lands (see chapter 30). Nationalism was no l an allempt to h reak J'ree of the Western tradition, hut a way LO join iL by presenting a distinctive flavo,· that could be we lcomed as part of the international repertoire. Composers everywhere had the choice of whether and how to emphasize their nationality. ln the nations farthest from the center, sucb as Russia and the Unitecl States, composers fell at differenl points on a continuum between nationalist anel internationalist orientations. depending on how much they emphasized distinctly national elements in their music. We saw in chap ter 28 how alongside the venerahle tradition of opera, Classical versus which was growing more expensive and more focused on a standa rd repertory popular music

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Oichotomie$ õnd Disputes

FIGURE 29.2, Scene ouiside rlte coffeeh.ouse or the Volk-sgortcn. a large ou1door pleasure garden in, Vlen11<1. in 1898. ln the back grour11l. }ohan,11 Stra1iss the yom1ger 1eads his orch estra. heord ond enjorcd b1,t no! attendelLto wirh rlte concentration a classical concert orcl,esrra would htJ.ve commanded at rhe

CROSSING THE DIVIDE, HANS VON BÜ LOW running from J. S. Bach through Despite heated rhetoric on both sides of the Wagner-Brahms Haydn, Mozart. Beethoven. and Schubert to his own time. He debate. even the mos t ardent partisans conceded that both coined the phrase "the three Bs: composers had a s take ln the referring to the trinity of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. "music of the future," and most Bülow conducted the premusicians respected both. No mieres of Wagner's operas one better represents this mid dle ground, or did more to proTristan und /solde (1865) and mote both composers' music. Oie /vleistersinger (1868). These than conductor and pianist Hans were extraordlnarily difficul t von Bülow (1830-1894). shown works. but Bolow was known for his formidalble intellect, rigorous in Figure 29.1. FIGURE 29.1: Hans von Bal-Ow. Bülow studied piano from rehearsal procedures. and phenomenal memory. He studied age nine with Friedrich Wieck, in a portmit by Wilhelm Streckfuss, 1855. (ALtRtDO OAOI I ()R1'I /TIIE the scores for months, super· Robert Schumann's teacher and J'\ft_T ARC:III\'tAT AllT 8.E.SOVllOt, N'Y) vised the singers· preparation. Clara Schumann's father. Bülow fell under Wagner's spell in 1842, when he attended and conducted both operas from memory. Even after his wife Cosíma deserted him for the premiere of Rienzi in Oresden. Convinced that the intense. precociously gifted youth harbored Wagner in 1869. having already given birth to two seeds of greatness. Wagner and Liszt took Bülow ofWagner's children. Bülow remained loyal to the famously egocentric composer. He contributed under their wings. ln 1851, he rnoved to Weimar to generously to the Bayreuth Festival and regularly study piano with Liszt, and six years later cemented played his own paraphrases and transcriptions of their bond by marrying Liszt's daughter Cosima. His achievernents as a pianist were remarkable, Wagner's operas on piano recitais. includ ing playing the premieres of Liszt's Piano Bülow's friendship with Brahms deepened Sonata in B lv1inor in 1857 and Tchaikovsky's Piano after he became conductor of the Meiningen Concerto No. 1 in 1875 and the first complete court orchestra in 1880 and turned it into one of performance of ali thirty-two piano sonatas of the most celebrated in Europe. Brahms's works Beethoven, all played from memory. featured prominentlyon the orchestra's programs, Meanwhile, Bülow had met the twenty-oneincluding his two piano concertos (sometimes year-old Johannes Brahms in 1854 and detected with Brahms as solois t or with Bülow conduct· ·something really of God's grace. in the best ing from the keyboard) and the premiere of the sense. in his talent." That sarne year he became Fourth Symphony in 1885. But when Brahms the first pianist other than Brahms himself to insisted on conducting his new symphony on play the composers music in public, and for the tour. Bülow felt upstaged and resigned in a pique. next four decades he steadfastly championed "I have endured ali this once before with Wagner." Brahms's works, at both the keyboard and the he told Brahms. "1 simply cannot go through it ali podiurn. Although his devotion to Wagner's music over again, with you: Saddened to lose Bülow. his neve, wovered, Bülow come to view Brohms os employer, Duke Geor9, wrote to Brohms thot "I Beethoven's true successor and the composer shali remain eternaliy grateful to him for the fame best able to continue the great German tradition and glory he brought to my orchestra:

723

time. Ü,IUSCCN DER $1'AOT <'\.

L\~~

~,-;.;-.,:.

of ope ras írom 1he pas1, lighter forms of th eatrical enlertainment sp rang up, from operetta to cabaret and vaudeville. ln instrumental music, song, and eh oral music. there was Jikewise a growing gul:f between classical music and music intended for popular conswnption, bo1h in concen anel in publications for music-making at home. The dichotomy ha s been expressed in va rious terms. with different shades of meaning: class ical music versus popular music, serious versus light, cultivated versus vernacular, high versus low. Although at the sta,1 of lh e nineteenth century Beethoven could write both kinds of music- symphonies and string qu artets on one side. light rondos and folk- song arrangements on the other- this wide range was rare for composers !ater in thc centuiy. who lended tto specialize in one kind oi' music. Wbile Bruckner was writing his symphonies in Vie1tna, Johann Strauss th e younger. known as "Toe \Valtz King," was in the sarne city composing hundreds of waltzes, galops, anel other dances to be performed a l balis and in con • certs, like the open-air concert in Figure 29.2. Popular music was intended purnly for entertainment. but classica1 music was increasingly regarded as a sacred refuge from everyday life. Concerts of classical music became mo re like going to church; audiences were expected to be quiet and pay reverent attention to the music. and tlle lights in the hall were often dimmed to focus th eir gaze 0 11 the perfonners-cond itions that have prevailed at class icaJ con cerls ever sioce. ln conlrast lo the sacraliza,tion of lhe classical concert hall. audiences for popular music were still allowed to converse, clap dudng the music or between movements, anel pay more or less attentio n as theywishedin other words. to behave like the audiences who had fus t heard Haydn's and Mozarú symphon ies a cent1.11y earlier. Clas.sical anel popular styles gradually diverged, until 1he re was much less in common between the musical idioms of a symphony anda popular song in the early twentieth century than there had been in Moza11's or even Brahms's day.

WJF.N', WI F.?\')

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Negotiating the _(ault lines

• Lote Romonticosm ,n Germony ond Austrio

All of these djchotomies-belween old and new musicaJ works and styles, absolute and program music. nati onalist and in ternationalist elements, and classical anel popular music-werc fault lines in the musical lanelsca pe. Listeners and ama Leurs often enjoyed ali the possibililies, piling German Lieder and popular songs or sonatas anel marches side by side on their pi.tno racks. bul composers had to make choices. The composers !reateei in Lhis chap ter anel in 1he rollowi ng one incl uele lhe mosr successful of their elay anel representa wide i-ange of strategies for meeting the challenges of their lime.

Johannes Brahms ]ohannes Brahms (1833- 1897; see biography anel Figure 29.3) matureel as a composer j ust as the permanent repertoire of musical classics carne to domi nate concert life. By lhe lime he was twenty, three -üfths of the music played in orchestral conce11s was by dead com posers, and b_y lhe lime he was for1y, lhat proportion hael ri sen beyond three-quarters. Brahms- fully understood what it meant to compose for audiences whose tastes were formed by the classical masterpieces of lhe last lwo centuries: one ha<l to creale pieces that were like those already enshrineel in the repertoire in function and aesthetic yet were differenl enough to offer something new anel altractive. He worked slowly and was severely se!J-crilical. knowing that his reputation hinged on the high q-uality of every piece. He was well versed in music of the past, from Beethoven and the early Romantics back to Renaissance and Baroque composers, both Gennan and non- German. and he synthesized elements from their music with currenL classical and folk idioms to creale a unique personal slyle. Like Schubert before him, Brahms used viliually all musical languages of his time. from church styles to Hunga1ian Romani (Gypsy) music. and integrated them into his music to achieve a very varied and expressive idiom of his own. A Llhe sarne time, his erudition was com bined with a gift for melody and for simple, direct expression of emotion. so that his music appealed at once to listeners who appreciated its lyrical beauty and sincere expressivity and to connoisseu rs who admired its integrity anel elegant craft.

ORCHESTRAL WORKS

Sympho,iies

Brahms knew that his symphonies woulel have to match the standards establisbed by Beethoven. "J shall never compose a symphony!" he exclaimed in 1870. "You have no idea how someone like me feels when he hears such a giant ma rching behincl him ali the time." ln fact, by bis fortieth year. he had completed only four orchestral pieces: two serenades. the Piano Concerto No . l in D Minar (]861) , and Variations on a Theme of Haydn, Op. 56a 0873). Wben be diel nnally producc a symphony, hc deliberately invoked Beethoven·s model yet carved out a fresh path. Brahms wrote four symphonies. The nrst. Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. Op. 68, was fmally completed in 1876, after Brahms worked on it for over twentyyea rs. The syn1phony"s success promptecl Bra hms immediately to write

Johannes Br<1hms

JO HANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Brahms was the leading German composer of his time in every field except opera and an impo rtant iníluence on twentieth-century music. He was born in Hamburg to a family of modest means. His father played horn and double bass in dance halls and local ensembles. Brahms studied piano, cello, and horn as a child, and through lessons in piano and music theory developed a love for music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. ln his teens, he earned money playing popular music at restaurants and private parties. He developed a lifelong taste for folk and popular music. He was especially fond of the Hungarian Romani (Gypsy) style and used it in many compositions. ln 1853. Brahms met the v1olinist Joseph Joachim and Robert and Clara Schumann, who became his strongest supporters. Schumann praised Brahms in print. launching his career, and helped him secure a publisher. After Schumann's suicide attempt and confinement for mental illness, Brahms helped take care of the family while Clara returned to her life as a performer. He fell in love with her. but whether they had more than a platonic rela tionship. even after Schumann's death in 1856, is not known. He had a series of attachments with other women but chose to remain a bachelor, surrounding himself with a dose circle of friends. Brahms made his living by concertizing as a pianist and conductor and from sales of his music to publishers. He conducted the Singakademie in Vienna in 1862-63 and settled there permanently in 1868. From 1872 to 1875. he directed the chorus and orchestra of the Gesellschaft der Musik-

FIGURE 29.3: Joltannes Br-ahm.s in aboul 1862. Portrait byCarl]agemann. (Mu,uN º"" ffADT w1cN. 'X-1"EN)

freunde. programming mostly German music from the sixteenth century through his own day. He was also activeas an editor for music by C. P. E. Bach. François Couperin. Schumann. Schubert, and Chopin. ln his last rwo decades he traveled widely as a conductor, performing mostly his own works. and was awarded numerous honors. He died of liver cancer less than one year after Clara's death and was buried in Vienna's Central Cemetery near Beethoven and Schubert. MAJOR WORKS: 4 symphonies. 2 piano concertos. Vio-

lin Concerto. 2 overtures, 2 se,enades. 3 string quarteis. 21 other chamber works. 3 piano sonatas, numerous piano

pieces, A German Requiem, chorai works. vocal ensem·

blcs. and about 200 Liedcr

anotl1er, No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73, in 1877. Two more fo llowed: Symphony No. 3 in F Major. Op. 90. in 1883: and Symphony No. 4 in E Minor. Op. 98. in lllRS. Brahms's First Symphony canied the weight and history of tbe genre. yet for every simiJarity to Beethoven there is a depa rture. lt has the con ventional seq ucnce of movements- fast . slow. a light movemenl, and

FírstSymphony

725

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EXAMPLE 29,1,

Johannes Br<1hms

FIGURE 29.4, Auto· graph score of ihe ope11 ing ofthe fmale of Brahms ·s Symphony

Opening 1.heme ofBrahms·s Symphony No. 3, firsi movemeni

No. 4. <ze~TJlAL1J,1n10THtK, ZURICU)

Cb.. Thn.. C. B•n.

Third Symphony

Fourth Symphony 1 Conciso ~ 1 1 Full ~ 1

727

fast. Yet the third movement is not a scherzo but a lyrica l intermezzo or characler piece. a substitution Brahms repeated in his other symphonies. Brahms echoes Beethove n's Fifth Symphony by moving from C minor to C major and from struggle to lri umph, but the overall key scheme of the four movements-C minor. E major, AI, major with a B-major midd le section , and C minor and major-is characleristic of Schubert. Liszt. and !ater composers in defaning a circle of major thirds. The presence io both ftrst and last movements ~f slow introductions tbat gradually unfold the principal thematic material before the Allegro begins is unlike any Beethoven model but recalls Schumann's Founh Symphony. The fmale's maio theme is a hymoHke melody, which immediately suggests a parallel to the ána le of Beethoveo's Nioth Symphony. Yet there are no voices. as if lo say that for Brahms. Beethoven's recourse to words was not necessa1y. The symphony fully absorbs Beethoven's in11uence- the conductor Hans von Btllow dubbed it ··Beethoveiú Tenth"'-but also blends in other models and includes much that is new. as it must in order to stand comparison witb Beethoven's constant ionovations. The open ingmeasures of Symp hony No. 3. showt1 in Example 29. 1. illustrate three frequent characteristics in Brahms's music: wide melodie spans: cross- relations betweeo major and minor forms of the looic triad; and metric ambiguity between tripie and duple divisions of the bar. Here, the rests on the fourth beat invite hearing the theme in ~- but the next phrase makes the ~ meter clear. The conflict between major ari'd minor recuxs in the :ânale. which begins in F minor and sei tles in F major only in the coda. The nnale's second tbeme, shown in Example 29.2. features another metric effect that is virtually a Brahms trademark: tbe clash of simultaneous tripie and duple divisions of the beat. The fmaJe of Brahms's Fourth Symphony (NAWM 15.5). shown in Figure 29.4, is a chaconne. a form that reflects Brahms·s fascination with Baroque

EXAMPLE 29.2:

Second theme of Brahms's Symphony No. 3. finale

Hn.&Vc.

music. It is al once a set of varialions on a bass ostinalo aod on a harmooic pattern. Brahms drew the rising bass figure from the final chorus of Bach's cantata Nach dir. Herr, verlangei mich, B\VV 150, bu1 he may have had other models in mind as welJ, such as Buxtehude's Ciacona Ln E Minor. The use of a variation movement to end a symphony recalls Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. one of the few to feature such a ünale; like Beethoven, Brahms f1rst presents his bass line as a melody in the upper register and only works it into tbe bass after severa! variations. Another possihle model is the chaconne :ânale to Bach's Parti ta for Unaccompaoied Violio in D Minor, which Brahms had transcribed in l 877 as a left- hand exercise for piano: when the ostinato ünally reaches the bass. the melocLic figuration is a sarabande rhythm exactly like Bach's, and subsequent variations often par.aliei Bach's, from dotted rhythms to bariolage (rapidly alternating stopped and open strings). Ali three variation fmales are laid out in a broad three-part fonn with a contrasting middle section. another link between them. Toe rich web of allusioo is typical of Brahms. To fully understancl what he is drawingfrom the past, we wou ld have to know tbe music of three centuries as deeply as he did. And yet the Fomth Symphony finale is perfectly clear and coherent without recogoizing a single reference to other music. What is most important is that by blending eleme nts l'rom the recent and the more dis tant past within a contemporary idiom. Bral1ms was able to create music that sounds who lly original, new, and individual. Brahms brought the sarne dis tinctiveness to his concertos. The Violin Concertos Concerto in D Major. Op. 77 (1878). ranks with Beethoven',; in scope and popularity. Perhaps his greatest concerto is his Piano Concerto No. 2 in m Major, Op. 83 (1881 ), whose four movements and dose iotegratioo betweeo piano and orcbestra make il lhe mosl symphonic of concertos.

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Piano Quintet

Johannes Br<1hms

CHAMBER MUSIC

PIANO MUSIC

ln chamber music as in orchestral music. Brahms was the true successor of Beethoven. As in his symphonies, there are echoes of earlier composers integ,·ated into music that cou ld onJy have been writte n by Brah ms. Of Brahms's twenty- four chamher works. seven feature piano with strings. inc:luding tbree piano trios and three piano qua rtets. Most popular is his Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor, Op. 34 (] 864). His 1reatment of the opening idea oi' the fu-st movement (NA'J(,'M 156) illust rates his use of a method . prevalenLthroughoul his works. of conlinuously building on germinal ideas. wbicb Amold Schoenbe rg call ed developiug va.riatio11.. The theme itsell', shown in Example 29.3a, is a series of varia nts of its opening measure; each measure varies the previous one, and new figures d e rive from earlier ones (x and y from w, and z from y). ln diminution , the theme becomes a piano figu re against string choreis, telescoping the tirst an d last figures rogether (motives w and z in Example 29.3b). A transformation of the 1heme's second measure (motive y) blossoms into a new lyrical melody (Example 29.3c). Then a slower variant oi' tbe second measure (drawing only on mot ive x) is iotroduced by the piano and imitated in the strings (Example 29.3d). The three icleas in Examples 29.3b. e. anel d havc little in common. yet ali derive froma com.mon anceswr.

Brahms developed a highly individual piano style charnclerized by full sonorüy; broken-chord f1gunnion; frequent doubli ng of tbe melodie lin e in octaves, thirds, or si.xths; multiple chordlike appoggiaturas: and freque n l use of crossrhythms. He was e~'traordinarily imaginative in developing sim.pie ideas imo innovaii ve textures, using arpeggiations, repeated notes. conb·asting rhythms in difl'erenl lines. and other means to increase lhe rhythmic density wnile main taining transparenl clarity. As a young man in 1852-53. Brahms wrote three large sonatas in the tradition of Beethoven tha l also incorporate the chroma tic harmony of Chopin anel Liszt a nd t he songlike style of Schumann's character pieces. ln his twenties and thirties, Brahms bega n to focus on variations. culmina ling in the Variations and fugue on a Theme of Handel. Op. 24 (1861) and lhe diffi.cult, étude-like Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35 (1863). Brahms did not simp ly orna-

Developing variation in Brahms's Piano Quintet in F Mirior. first move,nent. showingelements of the opening theme that are varied in !ater themes EXAMPLE 29.3,

Allegro non troppo Vn. 1

1'1/t?tt.

f":\.

-~ ~ 1if!9]} 1{ ! _-===~ 11if

Vn,I

~-rn:rr 1-= tê.ii0¼mTT1 =- W p ex,~. ==-

p--...___,_;

rwtff[wrr 1

:=:=-

FIGURE 29 ,S, Johann &rauss. Jr. Clefl). wit/1 Brahms in 1894. (r11e1onTAncmvE1Mustu,., DER srAoTw,enrcor.u:crioN °"ºu onro

baseei on th e formal and harmonic p lan of the theme. The twenty-five variations on HandeJ's theme. for instance. include evocations of Chopin and Mozan, canons. études, character pieces. hunting- hom style. a miniature Hungarian rhapsody, a siciliana, a chromatic fantasia, a musette, a scherzo, anda march, alterna ting styles of lhe present wilh references lo eighteenth-centu1-y styles. ali culminaling with a Beethovenian fugue. Brahms's \Valtzes , Op. 39 (1865) and Hungarian Dances (1872) were intendecl for home or concert performance. like Chopin 's dances, rather than as music for dancing, but they have a strong popular flavor; Brahms admired Johann Strauss's wahzes, and lhe two were good friends, shown together in Figure 29 .5. ln h is last two decades, Brahms issued si.x sets of intermezzos, rhapsodies. anel other short pieces that are perhaps his nnest contribution to keyboard literatm·e. Most are in ABA' forro and resemhle songs without words or cbaracter pieces. The varied textures , surp rising h armonies , and defl counterpoiJ1l show Brahms's familiarity with keyboarel music from Bach to his own time, while the pianistic idiom remains within reach of the amateur performer, and the a ltractive melodies delight Lhe listener.

,.Y . ______,

ment the melody or change the accompanimental óguration bul sel out his varia1ions as a string of short character pieces

. ã.1

729

SONGS Brahms use d Scb ube11 as hjs mod el for songwriti ng. ma k:ing the voice the pri mary partner and the piano rich with suppo rting figuration. Ofhis more thao 200 Li ed er, many follow a strophic or mod ifted stroph ic form, and some, like the familiar Wiegenlied (Lullaby, 1868). imitale lhe style offol.ksongs. Brahms often chose teJrts that suggest emotional rMtraint or an introspective. elegiac mood. Yet he still e>,,1>resses passion. which becomes ali the more effective because it is controlled. The piano accompaniment is usually va ried in texture , changing ngu ration about eve1y two to fou r measures; this trail distinguishes

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Bra hms·s Lieder írom those ofSchuma1m or Schubert while reca!Jing Mozart's frequent changes of Figure and topic (see chapter 23). ln his songs, as in his piano music. Brahms was onc of the rare composers of t11e late nineteenth cen • uuy who wrote music that is both accessible for ama1eu1· performers and inter· esting for the connoisseur, in a paraile i to the alchemy of Hayrln anel Moza11: a cenhuy earlier (see chapter 23).

The Wagnerians

ABSOLUTE ANO PROGRAM MUSIC The most articulate proponent of absolute music was

CHORAL WORKS

AGerman Reguiem

The sarne alchemy pervades Brabms's chorai music, which was aJJ composed for amateurperformers. He arranged German folksongs for cborus and wrote many short, unaccompanied partsongs for women's. men's, or mixed voices, as well as l.u·ger pieces for chorus with orchestra. His greatest choral work is Ein deutsches Re<1iüe,n (A German Requiem, 1868), for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Perfor· mances of this piece across Europe won enthusiastic responses from audi· ences and critics and established Brahms as a major composer. The texl is not the limrgical words oftbe Latin Requiem (Mass for the Oead), but rather passages in Germ an, chosen by the composer from the Old Testament, Apoc1ypha. and New Testament. that speak to unjve rsal themes of mortality. loss, comfon, and blessing. Brahms·s music draws on SchUtz anel Bach in its use of counterpoint and expressive text·setting. ln the German Requiem, solemn thoughts are clothed with opulenl colo rs of nineteenth· century hannony, regulated by spacious formal archltecrure and guided by Brahms's unerring judgment for chorai anel orchestra I effect.

BRAHMS'$ PLACE Brahms has often been caJled conservative, but he was actuaJly a pathbreaker. He was among the nrst to view the entire range of music of the present and pastas material to draw upon in composing his own new and highly indi· vidual music-a stance we see repeatedly in composers of the twentieth and twenty·nrst centuries. By introducing new elements into traditional forms and trying to meet the master composers on their own ground. he was argu · ably pursuing a more diflicult course than those who simply made the ir mark through innovation. He also developed s ubtle and complex techniques that we1·e of enormous importance to later composers, from Strauss and Mahler lhrough Schoenberg and beyond. Yel he never lost sight of the avcrage listener or musica l amateur and succeeded in creatingpieces tbat please on first hear· ing and continue to engage us after many more.

music critic Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904). ln his book. On rhe Musical/y Beauti{ul (1854), he daimed that music should be understood and appreciated on its own terms rather than for its ties to anything outside music, and that musical content is inseparable from form_

-*-

What kind of beauty is the beauty of a musical composition? lt is a specifically musical kind of beauty. By this we understand a beaury that is self-contained and in no need of content lrom ou tside itself. that consists simply and solely of tones and their artis· tic combination.. .. Nothing could be more misguided and prev· alent than the view which distinguishes between beautiful music which possesses ideal content and beautiful music which does not. This view has a much too narrow conception of the beautiful in music, representing both the elaborately con· structed form and the id eal content with which the form is filled as self-sufficient. Consequently this v,ew divides all compositions into two cat· egories, the full and the empty, like champagne bottles. Musical champagne, however. has the peculiarity that it grows along with the bottle. Eduard Hanslick. On the Musically Be•uti{ul. trans. •nd ed. Geoffrey Pay2ant (lndianapolis: Hackett, 1986), 32. ln SR 162 (6:15). p. 1203.

liszt. on the other hand. argued in defending Berlioz's Harold in lta/y that a program could clarify the com-

poser's intentions.

The Wagnerians TheNew German School

cal moment which prompts the composer to create his work and of the thought to which he gives outward form. lf it is on the one hand childish, idle. sometimes even mistaken, to outline prog,ams after the event. and thus to dispel the magic. to profane the feeling, and to tear to pieces with words the soul's most delicate web, in an attempt to e><plain the feeling of an instrumental poem which took this shape precisely because its content could not be expressed in words. images. and ideas: so on the other hand the master is also master of his work and can create it under the influence of definite impressions which he wishes to bring to a full and complete realization in the listener. The specifically musical symphonist carries his listeners with him into ideal regions. whose shaping and ornamenting he relinquishes to their individual imaginations: in such cases it is extremely dangerous to wish to impose on one's neighbor the sarne scenes or successions of ideas intowhich ou, imag,nation feels ltself transported. The painter-symphonist. however, setting hlmself the task of reproducing with equal clarity a picture clearly present in his mind. of developing a series of emotional states which are unequivocally and definitely latent in his consciousness-why may he not, through a program, strive to make himself fully intelligible? ... Through song there have always been combinations of music with llterary or quasi-literary works: the present time seeks a union of the two which promises to become a more intimate one than any that have offered themselves thus far.

The program asks only acknowledgment fo r the possibility of precise definition of the psycho logi·

Franz liszt (with Carolyne von Soyn-Wittgensteln), "Berlioz und se,ne Haroldsymphonie." Neue Zeitschrift {iir Musik 43 (1855): 49·50 and 77. Trans. Oliver Strunk. in SR 158 (6:11). pp. 1168-69 ond 1171.

ln 1 R~9 . music crit ic Fmnz Brr.ndr.l proposr.d thr. lr.rm "Nr.w Cr.rm~n School"

for the composers he felt were leading the new developmenls, primarily Wagner, Liszt, and Berlioz and their disciples in the next generation. He acknowledged that neither Liszt nor Berlioz was German. but claimed thcy weJ"e German in spirit because they too k Bee1hoven as 1heir moe.lei. The 1:erm

crystaJlized the polarization among German composers between Liszt. Wag· ner, and their l'ollowers on one side, who believed that music could be linked to the other arts, and on lhe other side lhe advocates of aliso lute music such as Brahmsand music crilic Edua rd Hanslick (see Source Readings) .

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C H A 1> T E R 2 'I

• Lote Romonticosm ,n Germony ond Austrio

Composers identilied witb the Wagnerian side oi' the debate include Liszt himself: Anton Bruckner. Brahms's contemporary; and hvo in the ned gener ation. Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. Wagner's view th.at music should engage in a collective artwork with dra ma, poetry, and other arts posed problems for those who composed orchesrral music, songs, and chorai works. Each ofthese fow· composers found individual sol ut ions to this dilemma- and to the more general p rob lem of how to com pose for an aud ience now s teeped i n I he classic.al trad ition.

The Wagnerians

EXAMPLE 29.4,

Tliematic iransformaiion in Lisz(s Les préludes

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FRANZ LISZT

Symphoncc poems

Thematic transformation

ln 1848, Liszt retired from his career as a touring pianist (see chapter 25), became court music director a t Weimar, anel focused increasingly on composilion. From this point on, his music was no longer a vehicle for showing off hi s vi11uosity, anel the poetic id ea anel logical development of the materia l became more important. Although he still aimed for the stunning immediate effoct, he clearly understood the shift toward the classicaJ repertoire (a sh.ift he bad aided by including earlier composers in hJs recitais) and presented bjmself as a composer worthy of compa rison to his peers and predecessors. Behveen 1848 and 1858. Liszt composed twelve orchestral works hc called ~ymJJhOnic JJOCm~. adding a thirteenth in 1881-82. Each is a one-movement programmaticwork wüh sections of contrasting character and tempo , preseming a few themes that are developed. repeated. varied. or h'ansfonned. These pieces are symphonic in sound, weight. and developmental procedures and are "poems" by analogy 10 powy, especially narrative poems. Olten the form has vestiges of traditionaJ patterns such as sonata form or the contrasts in mood and tempo found in a four-movement symphony. and some combine the hVo in a double-function formas in Liszt's Piano Sonata in B Minor (see chapler 25). The co ntent and form of symphoni c poems were usually suggested by a picture. statue. play. poem. scene. personality. or something else. identiJied by the title and usually by a program. Thus Liszt's Promethew; (] 850-55) rei.ates to a myth anel to a poem by Herder. Mazeppa (1852-54) to a poem by Vic tor Hugo, anel Orpheus (1853-54) to Gluck·s opera Orfeo ed Euridice and to an Etruscan vase in the LouvTe Museum depicting Orpheus singing to the lyre. The two works that Lisit called symphonies- rhe Faust Symphony (1854) and Dante SJmphon?' (1 856)-are also programmatic but in more than one movement, essentially consisting of a linked series of symphonic poems. Liszt's symphonic poems thus parallel for orcheslral music Wagner's concept of the collective arhvo1·k, formulated around the same time. Liszt devised a method of providing unity. variety, and narrative-like logic to a composition by transforming the thematic ma terial to reflect the diversc moods needed lo portray a programmatic subject, following thc lead of Berli oz's Symphoniefa,nta,stique (see chapter 26 and Examp le 26.3). ln his symphonic poem Les préludes (The Preludes, 1854), he appli eel this method, known as thematic tra11sfo1·11wtio11. wilh notable artistic success. We can see how this works in Examp l~ 29.4. A three-note motive (29.4a) that is in itially ten tative. like a prelude, is modilied and expaaded to take on d ifferent charncte rs: flowing yet somewhat amorphous (29.4b), resolute (29.4c), lyrical (29.4d). slormy (29.4e and J). cxciled (29.4g. an inverted form of the motive), and martial (29.4h). A more distam me tamorphosis (29.4i) serves

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as a contrasting theme anel is ilself s ubj ectecl to transformations. Liszt linked Les préludes to a poem of tha t title by Alfonse-Marie de Lamartine, fo ll owing the same sequence of moods: introductory. with pizzicato chords and arpeggios in tl1e strings and harp to suggest a po e Lsummoning his Muse with lyre and song; amorous (measure 47. Example 29.4d); troublecl and pessiJnistic ahout human destiny (measure 131. Example 29.4f): peacefu] and pastoral (measure 200); be]]jcose (measure 344, Examp le 29.4h); anda return to tl1e initial mood (measure 405). Liszt also used thematic transformation in works without an ove tt program. The four movements of his Piano Concerto No. l in El, Major (comp leted 1855), for example, are playecl without pauses and linked by themes tha t are transformed within and between movements. Liszl·~ r.ho ral works offe1· an ar.r.ommorbtion hetween pas1 an<I presenl. Most importam ase the two oratorios, S,,, Elisabeth (] 857-62), on St. Elisabeth of Hungary, and Christus (l 866-72), on the life of Christ. Both derive mucb of their th.cmalic material from melodies of plainchants related to their subjects, pa raph rased and treated in Lh e s1yle of modern times.

(;hnmL nt1L.~ir

733

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C H A 1>T E R 2 •1 • L•I• Rom•nhc,sm on Germany and Auslri•

Liszt was perhaps even more intluemial as a composer than he was as a virtuoso. The symphonic poem was taken up by many composers. including Smetana, f ranck, Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Sibelius, anel lves. Liszfs chromatic ba.rmonies belped to form Wagne,_.s style after 1854. and bis interest in even divisions of tbe octave, such as the auginemed lriad, had a strong impacl on Russian and Frencb composers. Tbe process of tbematic transformation in Liszt's music has much. in common with Berlioz's use of the idée lixe (see chapter 26) and Wagner's treatment of leitmotives (see chapter 28), and had many !ater echoes in the late nioeleentb and tweotielh centuries. There are also parallels with Brahms's techoique of developing variarion, although Liszt's approach is less suhtle. placing greater emphasis on metamorphosis than on an ongoing. incremental process of organic develop mem [rorn which new d1emes gradually emerge Anton, Brncknerin 1891. (lround lhe time lie was aw(lrd'ld an honorary Doc/or of Philosophy by tlie Universir)'o[Vienn<!. Bronzed pias ter oj'Paris scu,lptt1re bJ•Vik:tor Tilgner. FIGURE 29.6;

(MUSEEN DEfl STADT'«'lEN. 'WttN)

Symphon ies

Influences

ANTON BRUCKNER

lf Liszt showecl how to compose purely orchestral music in a Wagnerian spirit. Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). shown in Figure 29.6, tried the more daunting tasks of absorbing Wagner's style anel elhos inlo the tradilional symphony and of writ ing church music that united tl1e technical resources of nineteenth-century music wilh a rcvercnt. liturgical approach to the sacred texts. A devout Ca tholic, Brnckner was thoroughly schooled in counterpoint and served as organist of the cathedral at Linz, and as comi organist in Vienna from 1867 to his death. He was internationally renowned as an organ virtuoso. taught at Lhe Vienna Conservatory, and !ater lectw·ed at Lhe University ofVienoa. Bruckuer wrote nine numhered symphonies and two early unuumbered ones. He frequently revised them. often in response to criticism from friends and colleagues: as a result mosl exist in two or three versions, and there is ongoing debate among perl'ormers anel scholars about ,vhich version is best. Ali of Bmckner's symphonies are in the conventional four movements, and none is explicitly progi·ammatic. though he did atone time furnish descrip Live tags for tbe Fourth (Romantic) Symph.ony in El, Major (1874-80). Bruckner looked lo Beethoven·s NintJ1 Symphony as a model for procedure, purpose, grandiose proportions, and religious spirit. Beethoven·s nrst movement, in which the theme emerges from inchoate intervals and rhytbms, suggested an opening gambil. wbile Beelhoven's fourth· movemenl hymn served as a mode l for the chora le-like themes in most of Bruclrner·s nnales. although he never used voices. As in Beethoven's Ninth, Bruckner's nna les often recycle subjects from earlier movements. Bruckner's deb t to Wagner is evident in large-scale structures. the great length ofthe symphonies. lush harmonies. and sequential repetition or eutire passages. Bruckner·s experience as ao organist infonned l,js orchestration, in which instruments or groups are brought .in. opposed. anel combined. jusl like 1he conll'asting keyboards of an

The Wagnerians

EXAMPLE 29.5,

Mor.ivesfrom Bnickner, Symphony No. 4 (Romantic),.first m.ovement

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organ are, and th.e massive blocks of sound, piled one on top of tbe other, suggest an organist's improvisation. Bruckner's symphonies typically begin. like Beethoven's Ninth, with a vague agitation in the strings out of which a lheme gradually condenses and then builds up in a crescendo, conveying a sense of comjug imo being. For example. the Fomih Symphony opens with a quiet tooic -triad tremolo in the strings against horn calls with falling and rising :âfths (occasionally altered to si.xths and octaves) anda triple -dotted rhythm, shown in Examplc 29.Sa. After some strilcing modulations, the intervaJs are ftlled in with scalar passages. and the theme in Example 29.Sb emerges fortíssimo. forcefully proclaiming the tonic with a favorite rhythmic ügure that alternates cluple and trip ie divisions. Development of this idea leads to the key of where a bird callas Bruckner identiôed it- is heard against a lyrical melody in the viola. sbown in Example 29.Sc. The exposition ends in tbe dominant m, creating a tbree -key exposition like those of Schube1·t (see chaplers 25 and 26). Both themes are reworked until the development section combines them in a dreamlike sequence resembling \Vagner's orchestral interludes. A return to the mainkey ushers in a recapitulation that reviews materialfrom the exposition in the expected order. with the birdcall section in B major, followed by a long cada. Although we can view this movement in terms of sonata form. the cooliouous development of musical ideas, characteristic of Beethoven and Wagner, gives the work a monumental dimension. Bruckner·s religious choraJ music blends modem elements with influences from the Cecilian movement. which promoted a reviva! of thc sixtecnth-century a cappclla sryle. His motets for unaccornpanied chorus reflect these Cecilian ideais. yet their harmonic palette ranges from the strictly modal Os justi (1879) to the quickly modulating harmoni es of Virga /esse (1885. NAWM 157). The !alter alternates homophonic passages with ocr.asional points of imitation or dia logue hetwe.en parts. as in the Credo of Palestrina's M'issa Papa e Marce11i (NAWM 51 a). while the harmony moves from ao opening E minor througb G major, G minor, m major (touching GI, and O!, major). C major, E major. anel C minar before reLurning to a luminous E major

Foitrth Symphony

Choral music

Fui! ~

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C H A 1> T E R 2 'I

• Lote Romonticosm ,n Germony ond Austrio

Thc Wagnerians

for the conclud ingAlleluia. Such a wrtuous harmonic path wou.ld have been impossible for Palestri na , reflecting instead the preference ofSchuhert, Liszt, Wa&'tler, and other nineteenlh- century composers for modulations by third and juxtapositions of distant keys. ln ano ther departu re from Palestrina, the dynamics explore the fuU range from ppp to fff. with many s trikingcrescendos reminiscenl of nine teenlh- century organ style , ln addition lo a ca ppella cho rai works, Bruckner also wrote severa! with accompanirnenl, sucb as his Mass No . 2 in E Minor (1866) , a unique neo -medieva l work for eight-part chorus and fifieen wind instrumenls (paired oboes, clarinets, bassoo ns. and trwnpeLs. four horns. and three trombones). Bruckner designed h.is sacred music to fonction equally well as part of the liturgy oras co ncen musicand lo project a sense of timelessn ess while incorporating up-to-date harmony. balancing these compeling requiremenls perhaps bel te r lhanany of bis con tempornries.

HUGO WOLF Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) is best known for adapting Wagner's methods 10 the Gei-man Lied. He also wrote piano pieces, a strinp; ql tartet, symphonic works, choruses, and an opera, but none shared the success ofhis songs. \VoU produced most of bis 250 Lleder in short periods of intense creative activ ity from 1887 until 1897, when he was incapacila1ed by a mental break-

Líeder

EXAMPLE 29.6:

Wolf. Lebe wohl! Sehr lang1;am, uu, ig ttnd 1iedensehaiUich p

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down. probably caused by syphilis. He pttblished fwe p rinci pal colleclions of Lieder, each devoted to a single poet or group: Eduard Morike ( 1889), Joseph freiherr von Eichendorlf (1889). Goethe (1890). and German translalions of Span.ish poems (189 1) and llalian poems (l 892 and 1896). By concentraling on one poet or group ata time anel placi ng the poet's name above his own in the titles of bis collections, WoU indicated a new ideal of equality between words and music. c.lerived l'rom Wagner's a_pproach 10 opera. Wotr had little use for the folk-song type of melody and sttophic strucrures characteristic of Brahms. lnstead, he judiciously applied to the Lied Wagner's notion of a colleclive artwork. achieving a fusion of poelly and music, and oJ' voice and piano, without s ubordinaling eilher Lo the o ther. A good illustration of Wo lf 's approach is Lebe wohl! from the Morike songbook. shown in Exan1ple 29.6 . The voca.l line adap ts Wagner's arioso style. 1>resen ting a speechlike rhythm and pitch conto ur. As in Wa.gner's operas, continuity is sustained by the instrumental part rather than the voice, which oflen para.llels melodies in the piano. The chromatic voice-leading. ap poggial uras, anticipa.tions, and wandering tonality are clearly inspired by lhe idiom of Tri.stan 1tnd lsolde (compare NA\VM 149), Dissonances resolve to othe r dissonances, pure triads are rase, and phrases end more often on dissonant than on consonant chords. A measure of the intense chromaticism is that ali twelve cru·omatic notes appear in 1he first phrase (measures 1-4) and again in measures 5-6, a n effect later termed chroma.tic sawratiou (see chapter 33). The music precisely rellects the lexl in declamation and in e mo tion, aptly conveying the despairing feelings of a rejected lover.

RICHARD STRAUSS

;;,

737

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..Farewell! .. You,are notaware ofwhat it means. this word ofpain: witli a confidentface [and light li eartyo1t sai d it.J

Richard Strauss ( 1864-1949), shown in Figure 29.7, was a dominant figu re i n German musica l life for most of his career. He was celebrated as a conductor. holding positions in t.he opera houscs of Munich, Weimar, Berlin, anel Vienna. anel conducting most of lhe world's grcal orchestras during numerous tours. As a composer. he is remembered especia.lly for bis tone 11oc111s (his pre fened 1e1·m for sympbonic poems), mos t wsilten before 1900: his operas, a li but on e of whic h carne later (see chapter 32): and his Lieder. Stra uss's ea rly composilions emu lated Mozart, Beethoven. and Schubert. relJecting tbe conservative tastes of his father, a renowned h orn player. But in his teens, Strauss heard Wagner's operas and stud ied the score of Tristan m1d }solde. as a result. of which his style soon changed p rofoundly. Strauss's chief models for program music were Li s1,t and Berlioz, drawing on th eir colorful orchestration, transformalion of themes. and lypes oi' progi-am. Like theirs . some oi' St.r~usú programs al'e based on literature. including Dorifuan (1888-89), after a poem by Nikolaus Lenau; Mac/1eth (1888, revised 1891). ou Shakespea.re: Also sprach ZMathuslra (Thus

FIGUílE 2?.7. Richard Strouaa in thc /8903 ,

a11/iepeakofltiscareerasacomposerofsymphonicpoerns. <--•c•ivi:scH••.,m••rnc,.,, 111 •• .,. uaJW\Y)

738

C H A 1> T E R 2 'I

Don Juan

Ti ll Eu lensp iegel

Also sprach Zarathustra

Don Quixote

• Lote Romonticosm ,n Germony ond Austrio

Spoke Zoroaster, 1896), after a prose - poem by philosopher- poet Friedrich Nietzsche; a nd Don Quhote (1897), on the pícaresque novel by Miguel Cervantes. 01hcr works drew on his pcrsonal experience. as Berlioz had clone in his Symphonie Jan1asti.qt,e. The Symphonia domestic<i, (l 902-3) painted an idea lized portrait of his domestic life, and Ein Heldcnleben (A Hero's Life, 1897- 98) is openly autobiographical. caricahu-ing his critics in cacophonous passages whi leglo rifyinghis ow n triumphs wi Lh citations from h is earlywo rks . Program music covers a broad spectrum, f'rom representing specific events, as in Berlioz 's Symphonie fantastique, to a morn general evocation oi' ieleas anel emotional states, as in severa! of' Lisit's symphonic poems. Strauss's tone poems fall at varying places on this specm1m fro!lll the re presentaLional to the philosophical a nd typically comb ine aspects of both. Don Juan is Strauss's fll'sl complete matu1·e work. and ils success es lab lished his rep utation while still in his twenlies. Events in Don Juan's career as .a roving love r al'e pictured , including wooing a n ew roman tic iuterest, a rather graphic sexual climax followed by a search for his next con quest. and his death at tbe end. Yel most of lhe piece evo kes general moods of activity, bolclness, and romance, rather than following a specibc plot. If Don Juan falls in the middle oí the spectrum, Ti!t Eulenspiegels lu$tige Streiche (Till Eulenspicgel's Merry Pranks. 1894-95) tends towarel the rcprc sen talional, tell ing the com ic tale of a trickster's exploits. The realisli.c elerails ofTilJ 's adventures are specin ed by margin al notes the composer added to rhe pri.nteel score. Two themes for Till are used and cleveloped like leilmolives. changing lo suggest his aclivities anel situa tion. Yet Lhe speciflc events are so thoroughly bleneled into the musical llow tha t th e work cou ld be hea rd s im ply as a character sketch of a particularly appealing rascal. or just as a piece oí mu sical humor. This illustrates an important point abou l program music in the nineteenth anel early twentieth centuries: as in op era, the suggestion oi' events and ideas outside music allows anel explains the use of novel musica l sounds. gestu res. anel forras. but in most cases the music still makes sense on its own terms, presenting, eleveloping, and recalling themes anel motives in ways that both para lie l an d diverge from the processes and forms of ea rl ier mu sic. Strauss inelicated that the piece is "in roneleau form." It is nota rondo in th e Classic se nse, but rondo - like because the two Till lhemes keep recurring in a va riety of guises, enlivened by shrewd toucbes of instrumentation. Rondo is appropriate forTiU. who remains the same fool alter each prank. Also sprachZarathustra is a musical commenta1y on Nietzsche's long prose poem, which proclaimed that Lhe Christian e thic should be replaced by the idea of a superman who is above good and evi l. Altho11gh the gen eral comse of the program is philosophical. moments are directly representatíonal. Zarathustra's address to the rising s un in the prologue ins pired the splendid opening, witb a eleep C in the organ pedal and contra bassoon, a rising brass fa11fa re. opposing C minor anel C major triaels. thumpin g timpani. anel trium phant orchestral culmination for full orchestra. The passage became one of Strauss·s most famous when it was used in the souneltrack oi' Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey to accompany both tbe sumise and a scene meant to suggest the birth of reasoning. As the rondo SLlÍlS Till EulenspiegeL, so variario n form ftts the aelventures oi' the knight Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza, whose personalities are

Reoching the Audience

shapeel by theit' frustrating ex1ieriences. We are no longer in a worlcl ot' merry pranks but in one of split personalities anel douhle meanfogs. The w1y humor and cleverness in Don Quixote (sce excerpt in NAWM 158) lic not so much in the ap l dep iction of real things as in 1he play wi1h musical ideas. Much of this work has a chamber-music sou nrl, because it is co nceived in comrapu ntal lines. and its themes at tach to particular solo instrumen ls. notably lhe cello for Don Quixote anel bass cla rinet, teno r tuba. anel vio la fo r Sancho Pa nza. "Variations" here does not mean preserving a me lody or harmonic progress ion and its form through a number of stalements. Rather. the themes of the two main cha racters are transformed so that the beginniugs of the themes sprout new melodie characters, buildiog oo Lisii's technique of themalic tra nsfonnation.

Reaching the Audience Each of the com posers examined in this chapter pursued a differenl path, but ali succeeded in reaching an aud ien ce an d securing a pennan en t place in the classical repertoire. Brahms wrote mu sic in a wide range of traditional íorms and gemes, and of all late-nine1eenth-centu1y composers came closest to achieving the b road appeal to performers, amatetll'S, liste ners, and connoisseurs alike that was characleristic of h is greal p redecesso rs Bach. Handel. Hayeln, Mozart, and Beethoven. Brahms was seen nrst as a conserva tive opposed to Wagner and Liszt, then as a ,cerebral composer of demanding music, but by his eleath in 1897 he was cons ldered the central figure of classical music in bis time, outside the neld of opera. The composers of the Wagnerian wing oi' the German tradition, like Wagn er hjmself, tended to focus more narrowly on a few gem es. The symphonic poems of Liszt and especially of Strauss fouud a reaely audience among lovers of classical music because these works offereel somethlng essentially new tha l was both deeply connected to the symphonic tradition. through procedures of thematic presentation. developmem , anel return. anel appealing to n rsttime listeners. through the programs anel novel effects. The chorai music of Liszt and Bruckner, Bruckner's symphonies, and Wolf's songs hael a barder time competing against the well -established classics in these ge nres, but they too found a devoted audience of connoisseurs- particularly in Germany and Aus lria- and now have an enduring place in lhe repertoire. Prom our perspective more than a cen til!}' later, the dispute between the partisans of Brahms anel those of the New German School seems like an argu ment among close rela tives, fo r all traced their heritage back to Beethoven and tb e early Romautics anel sought 10 aelel somethiog of their own to an already rich common traelition. ~

Resources fo r study a n d revíew available at wwnorton.com/stu dyspace.

739

I Concise :-\ 1 1 Full :-\ 1

Fronce

741

ment music , popular song, utiliiarian music, and folk music. Through a look at trends i n tbe Un ited States, we can gain a sense of the variety of musical

THtlTRE DE L'0Dt0N

s. - ~

r CONCERT NATIONAL

traditions at the time.

France

DIVERGING TRADITIONS IN THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY

DIM41CH

....

between old and new music, absolute and program music, and national and international elements were evident in every corner of the Western classical tradition during the second half of the nine teenth centu ry. We have seen how German and Auslrian composers 1·esponded in different ways to their common heritage and to the gradual development of a permanent repertoire of musical classics. and in the process each created a distinctive personal style. Given the centrality of Bach, Haydn. Mo.-;art. Beethoven, and other German composers in the classical repertoire, composers in other lands who sought a place in that repertoire had to engage with the German tradition as well as with the music and cultural traditions of their own nations. Often-but not always-they sought to asserta speciócally national style, as well as an ind ividual one. French composers debated whether to assimilate Bach. Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Wagner or to pursue a more national id iom . [n Russia, Bohemia , Scandi n avia, and England , n ation alist schools emerged in instrumental music as well as in opera. Yet from Europe to the Americas, many composers avoid ed overt nationa lism , choosing instead to speak in what they regarded as the universal common language of music. All these competing currents contrihuted lo lhe growing diversity of classical music in the !ater nineteenth century. But classical music was only one of severa! slreams in musical life. alongside entertain-

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Germ ans had looked to music and other arts to forge = :..•;J"'°'tlf'M_..sn ..•.• ILGttlAl11, t . c -•.i - J"'t .. 11 . . . a sense of nalionhood before lhe unif1cation of Ger..~ . , . ~ - ~u. .,..,. ~,.......,._ ... many in 1871. Bul Fra:oce had been a unihed sta(e ., for centuries anel one of the leadiog musical nations OQ ,uai : ....:..-.t~7::~~~..:.=--from the Middle Ages on. ln the second half of the u, ~"'\i~~~-::t=.-::"'···· nineteenth century. the challenge fo r French musi -~':..~.r...-=:-:~:=.1:..-::t~~,A.~ cians was not to use music to create a nation bul lo ~t;,.;~:..-.,:t.~-..,~ - - ..-~ -----~ position Pren ch music in a cha nged musical land-~-~.t:::-=:.-.=.-:.::-..:~---· .. t scape in which classics from the past and the Ger.... ~ man lradition were bo th increasing in importance. 1n concert musicas i11 opera, Paris was the center FIGURE 30.1: Handbi/1 for lhe firsl Concen of Prench musical life. Concert-giving institutions Nohoncd. condu,;ted by Edo1LcmJ. Colonne on. March balanced interest in German music with concern for 2, 1873. 171,eprogrcunissplitbetween German music France·s musical heritage and encouragement of its Jrom earliergenera1io11s-Mendelssohn ·s ltalian native co mposers. Beginning in l 852. an orchestra Symphony. a short Schtrnicmn piece. and Schubert ·s of the best Paris Conservatoire students gave con - song Erlkõnig-ancl new music by living French. certs focused on sym pbonic music of Haydn. Moiarl, compose,·s Sainr -Sai!ns. Buer. and Emesr Guira ud. Bee1hoven, Mendelssohn , anel Schumann. anel on allthenin their lhimes. Many oftl1eseats wereso n ew French works in the sante vein. such as Gou - inexpensive (ar on efran e or less) tha.t a.lm 0s1 an.yone nod's symphonies. Otber organizations presented coiildajfo,Yl 10 auend, a.nd audiencu were oflen. ve,r a similar repertoire to aucliences numbering in the large. thousands. Figure 30. l shows the program of the nrst Conce11 National (founded 1873). split equally between German classics and new French wo rks. Conductor Edouard Colonne focused his 1885- 86 con cert series o n surveying the history of music and introduced explanatory program notes. whicb became standard in Paris hy lhe end oflhe century anel are now part of classical concer ts everywhere. Prench music was linkecl to po litics. a tradi tion that stretc hed ba ckto royal Politics control of music i11 lhe seventeenth century (see chapter 16). The national government provided s ignif1cant funding for many musical instilutions, from lhe Opéra to lhe Conservaloire. and accordingly lhese institulions had to respond to po litica l pressure from those in power. Conce11 series, composers, anel even musica l styles were often associated with politica l movements. One nolable polilical effect was an increasi.ng activily in musical life afler the Pranco - Prussia n Warof l 8?0-71 . when lhegovernment anrl t.h e Parisian elite sought to assert the vihrancy of French culture in the face of an embarrassing defeat. For example, lhe Société Nationale de Musique (National Society of Music). founded in 1871, gavc conce1·1s of works by Frencl, composers and

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The fault lines described in the previous chapter

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742

C H A 1> T E R 3 O • Oiverging T,ad,tions in the Later Nineteenth Century

Schools

Renewal

sough1 10 revive the great French music of the past through editions and performa nces of Rameau, Gluck. aud sixteenth-centu ry composers. Music schools reílccted competing visions. Thc Conservatoire strcssed technical training with an emphasis on opera. lt was still the most prestigious school, and a ftrst prize there coulel gua rantee a successful career. The École Niedermeyer. founded in 1853. gave general instrnction hul focused on chu rch music: by 1eaching studen1s to sing Grego rfan chan t anel to accompa ny it with modal chords, the school influenced many Frencl1 composers to use modal melody aud harmouy. The Schola Canto mm , foundeel in 1894 by Vi.ncent d'lnely (1851 - 1931) anel others, emphasizecl broad historical stuelies in music, including a focus on counterpoint anel composilion in classical forros. The growth in co ncert activity, proliferation of music schools, reviva! of past traditions, anel encouragement of new music createcl a stimula ling climate that helped Paris regain a leaeling position in music. Outside the fielel of opera anel musical theater, two main strancl s in f're nch music composition can be idenliheel before the emergence of impressionism (discussed in chapter 32): a cosmopolitan tradition, transmitted through César franck (1822- 1890) anel his pupils, anda mo re specifi.cally F'rencb traelition, embodied in tbe music of Gabriel Fauré (l 845-1924) anel passed on to countless twentieth - century composcrs thro ugh bis students. especially the famous pedagogue Naelia Boulanger (1887-1979) .

CÉSAR FRANCK

Keyboard music

Charnber and symphonic rnusic

Franck was born in Belgium, came to Paris to stucly at the Conservatoire, anel became a professor of organ there in l 871. Working mainly in instrumental gemes and oratorio, he achieved a distinctive style by blending traditional counterpointand classical forms with Liszl's thema(ic lra.nsformation, Wagner's harmony. a nel the Romantic idea of cyclic uni:ftc-.ation through thematic returu. Typical of Franck's approach is the Prelude. Chorale. and Fugue (1884) for piano, which emulates a Baroque toccata in the prelude; introcluces a choralelike melody in clistant keys; presents a fogue on a chromatic su bject that has been foreshadowed in both previous sections: and doses hy comhining the opening toccala iexti.u-e with the chorale melody and Iugue subject in counterpoint. l.t is a piece that coulcl ollly have been written by someone who had absorbed the thematic and harmonic methods of Liszt and Wagner aud also the organ music of Bach and the French Baroque. Franck's organ music took a similar approach, often comhining original melodies in chorale stylc with rich ly clevelopecl fantasias and full chorda l !inales. as in his Three Chorales (1890). His improvisatory style inaugurated a new type of organ music in Frauce, oue dominateel by lyrical themes , contra puntal development, and orc hestral color. The design of the organ in Prance changed completely eluring this period in order to accommodare this new '·symphonic" approach. Franck has been called lhe founcler of modero French chamber music. His ch.ief chamher works are a Piano Quintel in F Minor (1879). a String Quartel in D Major (1889). anel the Violin Sonata in A Major (1886) . AlJ are cyclic. featuring themes that recur or are transformed in two or more movements. HisSymphony inD Mi11or(J888), a maciel of cyclic forro, is probably the most popular French symphony after Berlioz.

Fr\lnce

743

GABRIEL FAURÉ AND THE FRENCH TRADITION The other tendency in French music drew prima1·ily 011 earlier french com posers from Couperin to Gounod and approached music more as sonorous l'onn than as expressio n. Orcler anel reslrainl arn fundame ntal. lnstead of emotional displays aud musica l depiction, we hear subtle patterns 01· tones. rhythms, anel colors. The music sounds more lyric or dancelike than epic o r dramatic. lt is economical, simple. aud reserved ratber than profuse. complex, or graneliloquenl. The refined music of Gabriel Fau ré, who is shown in Figure 30.2, embodies t.he qualities of the French tradition. He s tudied under Saint-Saens al lhe École Niedermeyer. held various posts as an organist, anel was a co-founde r of the Société Nationale. Althottgh bewas co nsideirecl. a radica l who composed in ao advancecl modero style, he became professor FIGURE 30.2: Gabriel Faiu-é in aporrrait oi' composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896 and was byJohn SingerSargerit (1889). (nmuo its d.irector from 1905 to 1920. Fauré wrote some music in mêQut ou tosstnVA<o111t oe ,..u, ,Qut. ''"" '· larger forms, incluel ing his best- knowu wo rk, the Requiem fRANceieatocu<ANARTUBBARY) (1887). and two operas. But he was primarily a composer of mélodies (songs); oi' piano music, chieíly p1·eludes, impromptus. nocturnes, and barcarolles; anel of chamber music. Fatu-é is recognized today as one of lhe greal masters of French song. He w-rote dozens of mélodies over a period of six decades, from the early 1860s to tbe early 1920s. He began by composing mélodies in the manner of Gounod, and lyrical melody, with no display of virtuosity. remained tbe basis of his style. But in his matu1·ity. from about 1885. he developed a new language in which melodie lines are fragmented anel harmony becomes much less cl.irectional. The songcycle La bonnechanson (The Good Song). Op. 61 (l 892-94) i ll us- La bon ne cha nson trates these characteristics. The poems are by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896). whose focus on sugges1ing moocls through u:nagery and the sound of language rather than through el irect statement beca me known as syrnbolisrn. F'auré's approach is similarly indirect. ln the sixtb song. Ava.nt quem ne t"en ailles (NA\VM 159) . each poetic image is set to a melodie phnse Ln its own tonal I Full ~ 1 worlel, a declamatory fragmeni joineel to the other ph rases by subtle motivic echoes. Although they are not modal, the melodies have qualities that reflect Fauré's traiuing in Gregorian chant. moving mostly by step or skip in a gentle are while avoiding ihe leading tone anel cleai- harmonic implicaiions. ln th e passage shown in Example 30. l , the chords consist main ly of elominant sevenths anel ninths, but the tensio:n melts as one cbord fades into another, linked through common tones. ln eacb of tlle nrst three measures, for example, the dom i_nant seventh on Gf is s ucceedeel by an Eji -major lriacl, which neutra lizes the leadingtone Bjl in th evocal line as th e nfth of the new chord and treats the seventh F# as an appoggiatura. Such harmonic successions dilute the need for resolution aud uudermine the pull oi' the (onic. creating a sense of repMe or even Masis ihal is the opposite oi' lhe emMioM I ,rnrest in \½gner·s

music. Here the chromaticism that is the lifeblood of so much expressive music i.n the nineteentb century becomes insteacl a means to achieve equilibrium and restrain l. allr.ibutes lhal have long been esteemecl in French music.

744

C H A 1> T E R 3 O •

EXAMPLE 30.1,

Oive rging T,ad,tions in the Later Nineteenth C ent ury

EtJstern and Northem Europe

Excerpt from, Fauré's Avant que tu ne t'en ailles p

cresc.

joi

par

...,,._

On a larger sca le, La.bonne chanson exemplili es F'au ré's i nnova l ive approach to traditional genres. He arranged Verlaine's poems to s uggest a narrative, as in earlier song cycles (see chapter 25), but also used recurring themes to create musical unity across the enlire cycle and to recall earlier events oremotions. Similar techniques had long been used in opera and symphonic music, in the forro of reminiscence motives. leitmotives. or cyclic recollection of themes, but they were new to 1he art-song repertoi.re. The novel harmony and form , alongwith the heightened ro le for lhe piano in comparison to mos! mélodies. provoked resistance from France·s conservative musical establishment, who rega.rded Pau.ré as an outlier. But by the time he died in 1924, his musical language had beco me the common currency of modern French musi cia ns, setting French music on a very different course from German music.

Eastern and Northern Europe The instrumental repertoiI·e centereel on works by Cerman anel Austrian com posers from Bach to Brahms. but some composers from eastern and northern Ernrope active in the !ater ninetee nth centu ry we re ableto secure a place in the classical canon. lnevitably. their works were perceived as offering a diffcrcnt voice. co loreei as much bytheir nationa li ty as by th ei r individual character.

TCHAIKOVSKY Tchaikovsky was by far the most successful of these composers. a dominanl force in Russian music and a cosmopolitan musician renowned ali over Eul·ope anel NorthAmerica. Emhlemalic ofhis wide appeal was his First Piano Co:ncen o (1 875), premiered in BosLOn und er an American-born conducLOr

with German pianist Hans von Bü]ow (see chapter 29) as soloist, anel now one of the best-known and most frequently played piano concertos. His theatrica l works (discussed in chapter 28) incluele the three most popular ballets in the wodd and lwo of the most regularly Slaged Russian operas, and hls instrumental works are no less important; hi s piano concertos, Viol in Concerto (l 878). and symphonies have won a place near the heart of the repertoire. His best-known symphonies, performed almost as of1en as Beethoven's, a re his last three: No. 4 in F Minor (1877-78); No 5 in E Minar (I 888); anel No. 6 in B Minor, lhe Pathétique (1893). Tchaikovsky wrote bis patron Nadezhda von Meck that tbe Foutth Symphony had a private program in which the horn-call from the imroduction symbolizes inexorable fate. The horn motive is recalled after the exposition and before the coela of the fanai movement. unifying the symphony lhrough cyclic re lurn while conveying the program. The oucer movements are dramatic, suffused with high emotio n; the seco nd movement is wistfol, and the thi.rd an airy scherw of a type tha t became a Russian specialty. Especially novel is the key scheme of the f1rst movement. org.anized by a circle of minor thlrds: the lirst theme ~roup is in F' minor anel the second in A!, major, as expected, but the closing theme appears in B major, a tritone from the ton ic; then th e recapitulation hegins in O minor for the ftrst and second themes. modulates to F major for 1he closing theme, and returns to F minar for the coda. As we sawin chapter28, such circles of minoror m ajorthjrds were common in Rus sian music and ultimately derive from the m usic of Liszt and Schubert. The three - key exposition and the recapituJatioo that begins away from the tonic also suggest tbe influence of Schubert. The Sixth Symphony (Pathétique) also h.ad a private program that Tchaikovsky never speci.ned but whose general outlines can be intuited from its extraordinary seq uence ol' movements. Beginning with a somber slow introduction, t he darklypassionate li rst movement in B minorfeatu resa lirst theme that seems to strive ever upward only to fall back short of the goal. anda consoling, mostly pen1atonic second theme. A hrief quota tion from the Russian Orthodox Requiem in the development intensifies the dark mood. Tbe seconel movement, in O major, is in minuet and trio form. but instead of a minuet uses a dance in ~ meter. one of the many Eurnpean dances from Switzerland Lo Russia that combine wahz patterns with pivo ts or other duple - meter steps (here in th e order pivot-waltz, two beats then t.hree beats, in every measure) . The dance is graceful and fun. but its B- minor trio has descending gestures that suggest sorrow. The third movement (NAWM 160) in G major begins with a light scherzanelo character an el gradually evolves in to a tritnnphant iuarch, as motivic fragments introduced near the beginning coalesce into a main theme that reaches its dennitive form only upon its repetition nem· the end. So far, thc symphony has traced an emotional path from strugglc to tritLIDph. famil iar from symphon ies going back to Beethoven. But Tcha ikovsky's Pathétique tells another sto,y: it ends extraordinarily \\lith a despairing s low movement, f11led with la:menting figures. tha t fades away at the end over a low pulse in Lhe strings. like the heating of a dying heart. Although Tchaikovsl-.-y's unexpected death nine days after the symphony's premiere has led some listeners to interpre t the piece in terms of his biography, linking it to his homosexuality, a premonit ion of death. or th e recent eleaths of severa! friends and colleagues his ow n age. it is more like ly Lhat he conceived it as a kind of drama, caprn ring

745

Foiath Symphon:r

SixthS,yrnphony

l_Fuu hl

746

C H A 1> T E R 3 O • Diverging Trad,tions on the L•ter Nineteenth Century

Reception

in instrumental rousic the tragic are of many late-nineteenth-centu ry operas in wh ich seeming triumph ends in tragedy. Tchaikovsky's symphonies and concertos did not always win immediate or unanimous acclaim from audiences and critics. Lis1eners only gradually wa r med to the F'ourth Symp hony after its in itial coo l reception , and tJ1e Sixth Symphony was greeled with mi:xed reactions ai its prem.iere, then praised as a maste rpiece when played aga in soon afte r the compose r's death . Yet both uJtima.tely triumphed beca use Tchaikovsky met the chalJenge of his time , blending novel ideas wi th tracl.itionaJ elemenls from both the classical tradition and national traditions to creale highly individual pieces of music witb wicle anel last ingappeal.

THE M IGHT Y FIVE Tchaikovsky was the most prominent Russian compose1· of his lime, but others also found a place in the reperloire. The composers known as lhe Migbty Five (see chapler 28)- BaJakirev and Cui. as well as Borodin, Musorgsky. and Rimsky- Korsakov (discussecl below)-were active in instrume ntal musicas welJ as in opera, and indeed their instrumental works are more widely known. Borodin Boroclin's principal instrumental works are his two string quartets (1874-79 and 1881), Symphony No. 2 in B Minor (1869-76), anda sym pbo ni c sketch, ln CentralAsia, (1880). Alone among the Mighty F'ive, he was a devotee of chamber music anel an atlmirer of Mendelssohn. Altho ugh he seldom quoted folk tunes-as Balakirev and Cui did-his melodies rellect their spirit. His chamber anel orchesnal works are cha racterized by songlike themes. lransparent instrume ntal textures, mod.ally tingecl barmonies, and his original method of spinning out an enlire movemenl from a single pregnam themalic iclea, as in the fu·st movement of the Second Symphony. Musorgsky Musorgsk-y's principal nonoperatic works are a symphonic fantasy, Night on Bald Mountain (1867); a set of piano pieces. Pictures at an Exhibition (1874; !ater orcbestrated by Ravel); anel the song cycles '11ie Nursery (1872), Sunless (1874). and Songs and Dances of Death (1875). Picturesa.t a.n fahibiti-011, is a suite of ten pieces iuspirecl by an exrubition Musorgsky saw of over four hu ndred sketches. paintings, and designs by bis late friend Viktor Hartmann, who sha1·ecl with the composer an .interesl in findü1g a new artistic language that was uniquely Russian. Severa] of lhe paintings are rendered in charac1er p ieces, sewn together by interludes tbat vary a theme meant to represent the viewer waJking through tbe gallery. Figure 30.3 shows Hartmann's design for a commemorative gate to be built at Kiev tbat comhined classical columns. capitais. and arches with clecoration modeled on Russian folk art. ln the openingtheme of the climaclic final movement, shown in Example 30.2, FIGURE 30.3: Design for Kiev City Gate. Maio Façacle. Muso rgsky translates th is image into a gra nd bJ' Vrktor Har1man1i. <sovoST11•111 oc, ... N••r u•,..•Yl processional hymn that similarly combines

EtJstern and Northem Europe

EXAMPLE 30.2,

747

The Great Gate of Kiev.from Musorgsky's Pictln·es at an Exhi bi tion

Alleg,-o alJ a breve

)

western Europeao and Russian elemen ts, blending classical procedlu-es wirh a melody that resembles a Russian folk song and harmonies that suggest the moclality and parallel motion of folk polyph.ony. Later. be twice states a Rus sian Orthodox bymn, wbich adds a prayerfol tone and authentic national element to lhis majestic conclucli og movernent. Rimsky-Korsakov is besl known for bis programmatic orcheslral works, although he also wrote symphonies. chamber music, choruses. and songs as well as operas. The Capriccio espagnol (l 887)., lhe symphonic suileSheherazade (1888), anel the Russian Easter Overture (1888) display bis gen ius for orchestration and musical characterization. The iirst two typify exoticism. based on Spanish tbemes and on tales from theAr,abian Nights 1·espectively, and tbe third is nationalist, incorporating Russian Orthodox li turgica l melod ies. The four movements of Sheherazade. each on a different story. are woven together by the themes of the Sultan and bis wife Sheherazade. tbe storyteller, portrayecl by a solo violin. These recurring themes lend the work a thematic unity akin to the cyclic symphonies ofFranck and Tchaikovsky. Through a blcnd of Russian elemcnts witb \Vestem conventions. Borodin. Musorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov eacb succeeded in creating instrumental works wit h a distinctive perso nality, and uJtimate ly it was their most in dividual works that bave secured a place in the permanent repe11oire.

Rimsky-Korsal.:ov

BOHEMIA: SM ETANA AND DVORÁ K Like the Russians. Czecb composers Bedtich Smetana and Antonin Dvofák a1·e belter known outside thcir na tive !anel for their instrumental music thao for their operas (discussecl in chapter 28) . no doubt because instru me ntal music can leap over the language barrier. Their operas and tone poems were inlluenced by the innovations of the New Ge rman School (see cbapter 29), and in hi s symp honies and chamber music. Dvofák was deeply indebted to Brahms. who actively promoted Dvoí·ák's music. Smetana sough t to create a national music in bis String Quartel No. 1, Frorn My Life (1876). anel in his cycle of six symphonic poems collectively titled Má vlast (My Country. ca. 1872-79). O f the latter. the best known is The Moldau, a picture of the river that winds through the Czech countryside in a n ever- broaclening slream, through forests (representeei by hunting music). pasta village wedding (represented hy a po lka). and over rapids on its way to Prague. But the most stining is Tábor. named after the city where followers of radicalreligious reformer Jan Hus (ca. 1369- 1415) buill a foru·ess tbat became a symJ)ol of Czech resistance to outsicle oppression. Tábor falls into two sections. like the slow introduction and Allegro of a symphonic tirst movemen1.

Smetana.

748

C H A 1> T E R 3 O • Diverging Trad,tions on the L•ter Nineteenth Century

EXAMPLE 30.3,

Presto

HemioJas;.-----,

EtJstern and Northem Europe

Dvoi'ák. Slavonic Dances. Op. 46. No. 1. openingmelody

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ln each ha!f, fragments of a Hussite chorale are presented and developed until the entire chorale theme appears in full for the li rst time at the end. Smetana uses this process to embody the legend that the Hussile warriors will ga ther strength and emerge from their stronghold in the Czech people's time of need. Dvofák Dvoi·ák wrote n ine symphonies; four conce1tos, of which the most popu lar is lhe Cello Concerto in B Minor (1894-95); oumero us dances and other works fo r orchestra. including symphonic poems in the Llsztian tradition; and many chamber works, piano pieces, so ngs, and choral wo rks. Many of his pieces are in an international style. For example, hisSymphony No. 6 i11 D Major (1880), premiered in Vienna, is full of allusions to Beethoven and Brahms sympho nies, as Dvoi'á.k claimed a place in lhe Vien.nese symphonic tradition. Yet in pieces like the Slavonic Dances for pian o fou r hands or orchestra (1878 an d 1886- 87). the dramatic overture Husit$kà. (1883). and the Dumky Piano Trio (1890-91). Ovofák used elements from Czech 1radi1io11al music to achieve a national idiom. Hu.sitskci borrows the sarne Hussite ch orale Smetana used in Tcibor to invoke nationalistic sentiments, but most often Ovoi·ák avoided quotation of Czech tunes, prefe rringto invoke national styles by usi ng dance r hythms and his own folklike melodies. The l'trst of the Slavonic Dances (NAWM 161 Ífu'l ~l) is in the rhythm anel style of theferiant. a dance in triple meter that begins with hemiolas. as show11 ln Example 30.3. By choosi11g a ful'iant for th e nsst dance in the sei, Dvoi'ã k was highlighti ng his etlrn icity: it was one of the most wi.dely know11 of Czech dances. popularized by Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride, and the dance s t.arts with its most idio sy11cratic and recognizable featm·e. the hemiolas that play against the tripie meter before we are are even suTe what the meter is. [n other works, such as the Symphonies No. 7 in D Minor (1884-85) and No . 8 in G Major (1889), Dvofák blended folk and nalional elements with a more broadly internationa l language that drew 011 older contemporaries from Wagner to Brahms. Dvorák's besl- known symphony is No. 9 in E Minor (From the New World). which be wrote in 1893 d uring an extended sojourn in lhe Unüed States as ai-tistic director of the National Conservatory of Mus ic i11 New Yor k. That sarne year, he conducted at the \Vorld's Pair in Chicago. as shown in Figure 30.4. He bad bcen hired to direct the Co nservatory with the expectation that as a nationa list composer he would show Ame ri cans how to create a new natio11al style of ar( music for the United States. Believing that a tru ly n ationa l music coulrl derive on ly fro m folk trarlitions. FIGURE 30.4. Allloní» Deoiák co1> ductil1g at the 1893 Wod.d ·s Coiw11bian Dvoi·ák looked to the music of Native Americans and African /:::iposirionin Chicago. inapaintingby Americans (see Source Readings, pp. 750-51). After studying Nalive American melodies and hearing ao. African American V. E. Nádhemf. (LEBIUlcotT >1u s1c • ARTS J>IIO'l'ô LI 6Mt1Y) s Luden t at 1he Conser va 1.ory, Ha rry T. Burleigh. s ing planta-

tion songs and spirituals. Dvoi'ãk took the elements of those musicaJ idioms, including pen tato n ic melod ies, syncopated rhythms, dro nes, and plagal cadenccs. and applied them to his symphony. Its two middle movements are loosely based on events in Henry \Vadsworth Longfellow ·s epic poern The Song of Hio.watha. Similar soun ds a lso suffuse Dvoi'á k's String Qua,tet No . 12 in f Major (American). which he wrote in the summer of 1893 while ata Czech seulemen l. in Spillville, Iowa. As we will see below, Americans differed on whether Ovohík's approach was the right on.e.

NORWAY: EDVARD GRIEG At the sarne t ime that the Mighty Five were forging a distinct Russian idiom, Edvard Grieg (1843- 1907) was writingsongs. short piano pieces. and orchestral suites that emulated the modal melodies and har monies as well as the dance r hythms of his native Norway. An ethnic characteremerges most cleai·ly i11 his songs 011 Nor wegia11 lexts. his Peer Gynt Suite (1875), and especially the SLátler. Norwegian peasant dances thal Grieg arranged for the piano from transcriptions of country ftddle playinp;. His piano style, with its delicate p;race n otes and mordents. owes something to Chopin, but th e all-pervading inlluence in his music is that of Norwegian folk songs and dances, reflected in his modal turns of melody and harmony (Lydian raised fom1h, AeoUan lowered seventh, alternative major-m in orthird); frequent drones in the bass or middle register (suggested by the drone strings on Norwegian stringed instru ments); aod the fascinaüng combinalio11 of and rhythru in the Slátter. His te11 sets of Lyric Pieces for piano (1867- 190]) illustrate the range of his style, from the chromaticism of Butterfty in Example 30.4a to the raw folklike HaLling in Example 30.4b. The latter is particularly evocative of Norwegian dance music, wi th ils imi tation of circling melodies wiLh subtle variations, grace n otes. open strings. and dron e iifths.

EXAMPLE 30.4:

Grieg, excerptsfroniLyric Pieces

a.. Bulleríly. Op. +3· No. ,

b. ll al liog (Norwegiao Daoce). Op. ,n, No. 4

•

AU,gro

·=

749

C H A 1> T E R 3 O • 0 iverging Trad,tions in the Later Nineteenth Century

750

DVORÁK AND PAINE ON AN AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSIC Recognized as a nationalist composer, Dvoíálc was

often asked during his sojourn in America about how to create an American national music. This passage ís from a magazine article written in 1895, a few months before he returned to Europe, and includes revealing comments about his own sttuat1on as well as Amencan

music.

A while ago [in an 1893 interview) 1 suggested that inspiration for truly national music might be derived from the Negro melodies or lndian chants. l was led to take this view partly by the fact that the so-called plantation songs are indeed the most striking and appealing melodies that have yet been found on this side o f the water. but largely by the observation that this seems to be recognized, though often unconsciously. by most Americans. AII races have their distinc tively national songs, which they at once recognize as their own, even if they have never heard them before....

Undoubtedly the germs for the best in music lie hidden among all the races that are commingled in this great country. T he music of the people is like a rare and lovely Aower growing amidst encroaching weeds. Thousands pass it, while others trample it under foot. and thus the chances are that it will perish before it is seen by the one discriminating spirit who will prize it above ali else. The fact that no one has as yet arisen to make the most of it does not prove th:at nothing is there. Not so many years ago Slavic music was not known to the men of other races. /\ few men like Chopin, Glinka, Moniuszko. Smetana, Rubinstein, and Tchaikovsky, with a few others, were able to create a Slavic school of music. Chopin alone caused the music of Poland to be known and prized by all lovers of music. Smetana did the sarne for Bohemians. Such national music, 1repeat, is not created out of nothing. lt is discovered and clothed in new beauty, just as the myths and the legends of a people are brought

Not ali of Grieg's music was nationalist. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory anel thorougbJy absorbed the lradition of Menelelssohn anel Schumann representeei there. Among his best-ln1own pieces is the Piano Concerto in A Minor (1868, revised 1907), a bravura work modeled on Robert Schuma='s pia no concerto in the same key.

BRITAIN : THE " ENGLISH MUSICAL RENAISSANCE" AND ELGAR The question of a national musical tradition was especially acute in Great Britajn_ England had long been a centralized state, and now it was the heart of a United Kingdom encornpassing aU of the British lsles. including \Vales, Scotland , and lre land. An economic powerhouse thanks to its leaelership in the In dustrial R.evolut.ion, Brita in was the world 's lead ing naval power and had the most far-ílung empire the worlel had ever seen: the slogan that "t.he sun never sets on the British Empire" expresserl the tru th tha t with Canada. New Zealand . Australia, a stretch of Asia from Malaya thrnugh h1dia to Afghani s ta.n , large swaths of Africa, and smaller possessions a.round the globe, it was always daylighL somewhere in Qltcen Victoria's cmpire. BuL despite Brita.in's

EtJstern and Northem Europe

to light and crystallized in undying verse by the master poets. AII that is needed is a delicate ear, a retentive memory, and the power to weld the fragments of former ages together in one harmonious whole.... The music of the people. sooner or later, will command attention and creep into the books of composers. Antonín Dvorák, "Music in America." Harper's 90 (Feb· ruary 1895}. as excerpted in Compose,s on Mvsic: Eight CMwries o{ Wricings, ed, Josiah Fisk(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997), 163. Several American musicians objected to Ovorák 's views, includ,ng John Knowles Paine (1839- 1906), a leading American composer, the lirst music professor at an American college, and founder of the country's fir:;t .)C~dcmic mu::;ic dep~rtm ent, .)t H~rv.)rd.

Even if it be granted that musical style is formed to some extent on popular melodies. the time is past when composers are to be classed according to geographical llmits. lt is nota question of nationality, but individuality, and individuality of style is not the result of limitation-whether of folk-songs, negro melo-

751

dies, the tunes of the heathen Chine[s)e or Digger lndians, but of personal character and inborn originality. During the present century musical art has overstepped all national limits: it is no longe, a mere question of ltalian. German. French, English, Slavonic or American music. but ofworld mus,c. Except in opera and church music, the prominent composers of the present day belong to this universal or cosmopolitan school of music, although most of them may express here and there certain characteristics of style. due in pa rt to the iníluence of airs and dances of their respective countries. The music of Chopin. Grieg and Dvorák. for instance. is distinguished for strong local coloring; on the othe, hand, the works of Mozart, Mendelssohn. Berlioz, Liszt. [Anton) Rubinstein and others are far less national than individual and universal in character and style. ... As our civilization is a fusion of various Euro pean nationalities. so American music more than any other should be all-embracing and universal. From ·American Music: Dr. Anto nio D vofák Expresse-s

Some Radical Opinions." Boston Hera/d, May 28. 1893: reprinted in Adrienne Fried Block. "Boston Talks Back to 0vofák." lnstitvte for Srvdies in A merican Music News• /erre, 17. no, 2 (May 1989): 40.

economic and military might, British intellectuals felt a sense of inferiority in the realm of music. Since the eighteenth centmy, foreign - born musicians and foreign styles had dominated opera and concen music in Britain. and home -grown composers had failed to match the achievements of Continental composers. A movement to create a sign incant independent British musical tradition emerged in the 1880s, dubbed the ''English Musical Renaissance" by London critics Joseph Bennetl (The Daily Telegraph) a nd J. A. Fullcr Maiuand (The Ti,nes). They especially praised the music of composers Hubert Pany (1848-1918) and Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) for offering adis tinctive national style. Both Parry anel Stanford taught composition at thc Royal Coll ege oi' Music, cstablisbed in 1883 with the goal of training young British musicians at the sa me p rofessional levei as conservatories in Paris, Leipzig, and other European centers, and in 1898 both were co -founders of lhe Folk-Song Society, devoted to lhe collection and publication of folk songs in the British ls les. Parry. hest known for his chorai music and live symphonies. developed an individual style that ch·ew on Brahms. Wagner. and Liszt, especially in techniques of development, thematic transformation, and cyc lic forro, but with a diatonic sound cu ll ed from Anglican church music,

PanyandStan.ford

752

C H A 1>TE R 3 O • Diverging Trad,tions on the L•ter Nineteenth Century

British l'olk song, anel English composers of tbe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries such as Ta.lJis anel Purcell. The lrish-bom Stanford. known for chorai music. symphonies, and concertos, similarly blended p1·ocedures modeled on Brahms and Mendelssohn with a prevailing diatonic style infused with the flavor of lrish folk tunes. as in his lrish Symphony (No. 3 in F Mino r, 1887) and six lrish Rha,psodies for orchestra (1902-22). But declarations of a Renaissance were premature: neither Pa.rry nor Stanford found a place in the international classical repertoire. although botb taught many significant composers of tbe next generation, including Ralph Vaughan \VilHams aml Gustav Holst, whose reputalions eclipsed lheir own (see chapler 32). Considered outsiders lo the "Renaissance" wereArthur Sullivan, tainted by his success as a composer of operettas (see chapter 28). anel Edward Elgar (1857- 1934). who had no academic training and whose Catholic religion and humble provincial orip;ins barred "bim from sorne social circles. lron.ically, these are the two British composers best remembered from that era. Elgar. shown in Figure 30.5. FIGURE 30.5, EdwardElgarinabout /901. was the l'irsl English composer in more tban two hundred <••o- ,.,,oi:smtwscoM) years to enjoy wide Lnternational recognition. Un like Pany and Stanford. he was not interested in folk music or in English music from the Renaissauce and Baroque eras aud instead forged a pel'Sonal style made more individual because he was self-taught. Elgar derived his ha.rmon.ic approach from Brahms anel Wagner and drnw from Wagner Lhesystem ofleitmotives in his o rato rios. The oratorio TheDream ofGerontius (1900), on a Catholic poem by John Henry Newman, inlluenced by \Vagner's Parsifal, gives the orchestra an expressive ro le as importanl as the choros. His symphonic output includes the Enigma, Variations (1899). which made his reputation, anel two symphonies. Among hls most popular works are his Vio lin Concerto (l 91O). his Cello Conceito (l 918-19), now a mai n stay of the repertoire. and the hve Pomp a.nd Circunistance Marches (1901- 30). of which the f1rst is familiar to British audiences from its annual performance at the London Promenade Concerls and to every American who ever allended a graduation. Given its primarily Continental influences, if Elgar's mt1sic sounds English, it is because it has come to represent British music of.his gcneration.

FIND ING ANICHE Th,is sampling of a few composers c;in give only ataste of the variety ofnatioual anel individual styles in Europe in tbe second half of the nineteenth century. Composers often órst found a n.iche fortheir music wilhin a local, regional, or nacional performing tradilion. A lucky few won a broader audience. often by capitaHzingon thefr natioual identity. especiallywhen thai nation was notyet represented in the international repertoire. or by devising a highly individual musical idiom. This remained true forcomposers in the early iwenlielh century, as we wiJI see in chapters 32, 33, and 35.

The Umted States

753

The United States ln the United States, national identity was both complicated and enl'iched by the country's ethnic diversity. lmmigrams from many different regions in Europe. Latin America. anel Asia. as well as former African A.merican slaves anel thei r descendants. brought the ir own musica l 1.raelit ions. l'rom fo lk to classical. American musical life beca me no1 exactly a mehing pot but perhaps a stewpol, where each group mainlained its own music while lending a ílavor to lhe whole. Supedmposed on these ethnic d i.visions were the rapidly ernergingdistinctions between classical, popular, and fo lk music. ln the01y, these th.ree categories rcpresented difforent altitudes loward nola tion. composition. and performance. The classical tradilion centered on the composer anel the work anel reqi,ired scrupulous adherence to the notated score. Popular music was written down anel soldas a commodity but centered on the perfonner and the performance. allowing considerable leeway jn rearranging the notaled music. Folk music was independent of notation, passeei on lh.rougb oral tradition. But in practice, the categories overlapped. Folk tunes were written down anel sold as popular music. arranged for concert performance. or incorporated into classical pieces; classical works were 'transcril>ed and altered for performance in popular venues; and some popular songs (such as Turkey in the Straw) became so well known they were passed down orally. like folk songs. Of ali these trends, we will look at four: music in the classical tradition; band music, affected strongly by the growing split beiween classical and popular music: popular songs: and music of Afcican A.mericans. drawing on oral traditions but becoming a strand ofboth popular and classical music.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION Beginning in the 1840s, crop failu1·es anel the 1848 Revolution spurred many Gennans to emig:rate to the United States, following others who had done so over the previous century. Many of the immigrants were musicians and music teachers with a strong commitment to classical music. 311d they contributed to an extraordinary growtb in performing institutions, music schools, anel university departments of music in lhe second ha lf of the nineteenth century. German musicians perfonned widely. hlled positions in orchestras. taught music at all levels, and- along wilh A.mericans who had studied in Germanydominated the teaching of composition and music theo1y in conservatories, colleges. and universities. The new immigrants and the institutions they helped to found fostered an increasingly sha.rp divide between classical music anel popular music. Not surprisingly. Gerrnan tastes anel styles dominated A.merican music in the classical tradition until \Vorld War 1. One of the most famous immigrant m.usicians was Theodore Thomas (1835- 1905). who carne over wilh his family in 1845. played violin wilh lhe New York Philharmonic and the Academy o,f Music. conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic. anel in 1865 founded his own professional orchestra. Through constant performing and touring, the Theodore Thomas Orchestra became the best anel the most linancially successful in the United States. Thomas

Immigration and institutions

Theodore Thomas

754

C H A 1>T E R 3 O • Diverging Trad,tions on the L•ter Nineteenth Century

TI M ELINE Diverging Traditions in the Later Nineteenth Century MUSICAL

HIST0RICAL

• 1848- 49 California Gold

Rush • 1852- 70 Second French

Empire under Napoleon Ili • 1855-81 Reign of Czar

Alexander li of Russla • 1860s First African American

,pirituob publi,hed • 1861- 65 Civil War in United

States • 1862 Victor Hugo, Les

misérables • 1865 Theodore Thomas

Orchestra founded • 1866 Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Crime and Punishment • 1870 Third French Republic

proclaimed • 1870- 71 Franco -Prussian War

FIGURE 30.6:

1903. (co••••>

A,n;,- Bcach in about

was devo teci to t he classica l mas1erworks but recognizecl that there was nnt a large enough demand for them to pay his musicians' salarics. So his orchestra gave both concert hall programs centered on works in the classical traditíon anel outdoor con certs that interspersecl dances anel lighter music between overlttres and symphonic movements. pleasing lh e public while int roduc ing them 10 th e classics in sma ll doses. ln l 890, he beca me the li rst co:ncluctor ofthe Chicago Symphony Orcheslra. one of a new breed of hui-time pro· fessional orchestras backed by wealt by donors anel focused almost entirely on classical music. As classical music became well esta bli shed, nalive-born composers were able to pursue careers thal combined compo silion with perfonning and teaching, especially in the region from Boston to New York. Among them we re John Knowles Paine (1839- 1906). lrained by a Ger·man immigrant. who became Harvard's (and North America's) Jirst professor of music; Georp;e Whiteiielel Chadwick (l 854-1931), who stud ied at the New England Conservatory in Boston and became its diJ'ector: Chadwick's student Horati.o Parkcr (1863- 1919). who taught at Yaleand was lhe firstdean ofils School of Music; an el Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), a New Yorker who was lhe nrst professor of m usic at Columbia University in New York. All studied in Cermany as well as the Uniled States, and alJ pu rsueel styles cl eeply rooteel in the Cerman tradition (pri · marily the Brahms wing for the Boston composers, Wagner and Liszt for MacDowell). However, these composers had varying all iLudes ahout nationalism. PaLne argued that the best composers of the day used a universal language that transcended nationality. and as a melting-pot of elifferent nations the United States should embrace that transnation al approach (see Source Readings. pp. 750-51). Parker believed American composers shou]d simply wrile the best music they could; his Latin oralorio Hora novíssima ( l 893), the piece that made his reputation, is in a universal s tyle mocleled on German and English oratorios. Chadwick. on the other hand. developed an id iom laced with American traits such as pen ta lonic melodies and characteristic rhythms from Protestant psa lmody and African·Caribbean dances. used in hisSymphony No. 2in Bl.,Major (1883-85) and Symplionic Sketclies (1895- 1904). MacDowell opposed jb.1go istic nationalism, bul like most Europcans he saw a national id en tity as an important aspect of any composer's claim to international attention. Among his overtly nationalist works is his Second (/ndian.) Suite for orcheslra (1891- 95). baseei on NativeAmerir.an me lodies. Another Boston composer. Amy Beach (1867-1944), shown in Figure 30.6, could not study or teach at the top uni versities because tbey exclucled womell. A chüd prodigy. she

The Umted States

755

stuelieel piano, barmony, anel counterpoint privately, th en taught herself to compose by studying anel playing works of composcrs she admired. ln 1885 she married a wealthy physician who considered a career as a professional pianist inap• ca. 1872- 79 Bedrich propriate for a woman of her social sta nd ing, so s he restricted Smetana, Mávlast her public perfo rmances to one solo recital each year and • 1874 Modest Musorgsky, occasio nal orchestra l anel chambe r concerts, wilh the pro· Pictures at an Exhibition ceecls donated to charity. Freed of financia l concerns a nd of the demands of performance. anel with the strong encouragement • 1877 Thomas Edison makes of her husband, she devoted herself to composition. publishfirst cylinder recording ing her works under ber married name , Mrs. H. H. A. Beacb. • 1878 Antonín Dvorãk, At the time, women were co nsidered in capable of co m· 5/avonic Dances, Op. 46 posing in longer forms. As if lo prove them wro ng, Beach • 1880s Tin Pan Alley becomes wrote large-scale works s uch as her Mass in EI, (1890), Caelic center for popular song Sympbony (l 894-96), anel Piano Concerto ( 1899), ali of them publishers well received. She also wrote ahout 120 songs and dozens of piano anel chora! pieces. many of them vcry popular. After her • 1884 César Franck, husband's deatb in 191 O, she resumed her career as a pro Symphony in D Minor fessional performer, while continui.ng to compose. During a • 1887 Emile Berliner invents successful three- year residency in Germany in 1911 - 14. she disc-playing phonograph used Lhe name Amy Beach, but on her return LO Lhe United • 1889 Eiffel Tower erected States s he decideel to reve,i to her married name, bywh ich s he was alreacly well known. • 1893 Antonfn Dvofák, New Some of Beach's music had ao ethnic !lavor, like the Caelic World Symphony Symphony on lrish tunes and the String Quartet (1929) on • 1893 Piotr ll'yich Tchaikovsky. American lndian melodies. But most ofher works engaged the Sixth Symphony (Pathétique) traditions of the Cerman classics. She based the themes of her • 1897 John Philip Sousa. Tlie Piano Quintet (1907) on a theme f'rom Brahms's Piano QuinStars and Scripes Forever tet, Op. 34. which she hael performed in 1900. Her individual voice emerges forcefully in the third and last movement • 1898 Spanish-American War (NA\V111G2 ~ ), moving beyoncl the Brahmsian mus ic of • 1907 Amy Beach, Piano the first movement to embrace late· nineteenth -century Ouintet chromatic h armony. with unusual invers ions, augmented triads, and colorful nonchord tones. Recognized in her own day as one of America's lcading composers and ils most famous woma.n composer. Beac h inspired many women musicians in later gen erations. BAND MUS IC While orchestras gradually moved toward greater concentration on tbe class ics, wind anel brass bands maintained the m.ix of serious and popular music thai had once been common to ali concerts. The ea rliest American bands were attached to military units, but in th e nineteenth cen tu ry local bands became co mmon everywhere. One im portant factor was lhe invention of brass instruments with valves, pistons. or keys. allowi ng these in~t.ruments to p lay melodies throughout their l'ange (in~tead of just notes from the barmonic series) and making tbem easier for amateurs to play (see chapter 25). Soon the brass were the backbone of the band, either joining or re placing lhe winds. Amatcur ba11ds we1·e formed in commttnities

Spread ofbands

756

C H A 1> T E R 3 O • Diverging Trad,tions on the L•ter Nineteenth Century

ac ross the country; some o( the earliest are still active. includLng the Allentown Bancl (founded 1828) and Repasz Band (1831) in Pennsylvania. Bands played indoors or outcloors, seatecl or on parade, in concerts but also a l dances, holiday celebrations, foirs. picnfos, parlies. b:LIJ g:1mes, politi cal ra ll ies, slore openings, sales events, weddings, l'unerals. and olher puhlic and priva te gatherings. The Civil Warwas called the most musical war in history because almostevery regiment on bothsides had its own band. which entertained the troops. led marches. perforrned in parades. and played during battles to hearten the sol diers. After the war, community bands contimted to proli ferate, becoming such a FIGURE 30.7· John Pl, ilipSou.<a wirl, rheSousaBand atafashEtxwre oJ AmericaJl Lü'e that by lhe 1880s íonable oi,tdoor concerl. (lrnowN ••oTu r.ns. ST t lluNo. Pt1<1<sv,,v, .~ ,.> there were some ten thousa nd bands that performcd at every oppo11unity. Professional bands The period between Lhe CivU War and World War l was the heyday oi' professiona l bands. The lrish- born conductor Patrick S. Gi !more (1829-1892) founded his own band in 1858, enJisted together wilh tbem in lhe UnionAnny. a11d led them in concerts after the war. lnspired by patriotism. nuances. and fame, he organized two mammoth music festivais: a óve-day Nacional Peace Jubilee in Boston in 1869. featuring a thousand-piece band anda chorus of ten thousand. and a World Peace Jubilee in 1872 to celebra te the end of the Franco-Prussian War, with more than twenty thousand performers, including Johann Strauss. Gilmore's Band tou red th e nation in 1876, travelingfrom New York to San Francisco. and two years later they made an international tour. Ris success led to a Oood of professional touring bands. The most successful bandmaster was John Philip Sousa ( 1854-1932). whose years conducting the United States Marine Band (1880-92) raised it to national prominence th1-ough tours and savvy promotion. ln 1892, he organized his own band. shown Ln Figure 30.7, which macle annuaJ tours oi' the United States, severa] European tours, anda world tour. Repertory The repertory of nineteenth -centu1y bands consisted of marches; quicksteps (íast marches); dances including two -steps, waJtzes, polkas, galops, anel schottisches; anangements of opera arias and songs. including medleys; virtuosic display pieces often featuring famous soloists: and transcriptions of pieces by classical composers l'rom Rossini 10 Wagner. Wagner, Liszt, Bm ckner. Brahms. Ricbarcl St.auss. anel countless other composers encouraged sucb transcriptions for band, recognizil1g the value of making their music availablc to a wider audience thTough such a popular med ium, and some (includ ing Wagner and Strauss) composed original pieces for band. Except for the instrumenration. the hand repe1101y was essentially the sarne fare played by orchestras in the mid-nineteenth century. sucb as those conducted by Louis Jullien (see chapter 25) and Theodore Thomas. Bands, whose nrst purpose was entertainmenr. retai ned this formu la far longer. Sousa·s programmingwas

The Umted States

lntro li: A :li: 8 :li FIGURE 30.8:

li: D

e ,11

Marchforms.

especially astule. Afte r every selection listed on the program, lhe band played an encare, usually a light. q uick piece guaranteed to please. Yet he also per formecl the European classics from Bacb to Richard Stnuss, introduciogWagner·s music to more Americans than anyone else. The same variety is evident in the musicSousa composed for band. which varies from programmatic fantasias to more than a hundrecl marches, inclucling bis most famous march, The Stars andStripes Forever (1897; NAWM 16::l) . Not IÍmited to a singlegenreor medium, Sousa also wrote more than a dozen operettas and some seventy songs. The s taple oi' che band reperto ry was and still is the 11wrch. Figure 30.8a s hows thestandard march fo rm atmidcentu1y : a brief'i ntroduction , usua llyof four measures; two strains or períods. each repeated: a trio in a contrasting key, most often in the subdominant. wilh an optionaJ introduction and two repeated strains; anel then a ela capo repetüion oi' the march up to the trio. The strains are typically sixteen measu res long. and often the second half of a strain varies its úrst half. The nrst strain of the trio tends to be soft and lyrical. in com rast 10 the dynamism of the other strains. This form was well suited to parades. when the band may be blocks away by the time the nrst strain returns. but Sousa sensed that concert performance requised a more dramalic ef-fect, building LO a clin1ax raLher than returning to the beginning. So in most of bis marches, inclucling 77ie Stars and Stripes Forever, he dropped the da capo repetition and instead alrernated the lyrical trio with a more aggressive break strain. producing the form in Figure 30.8b. ln performances, if not always in the score, Sousa added countermeloclies or increased the instrumentation or dynamic levei with each repetition of the trio. As classical composers had been doing for almost a cenru1y. Sousa shifted the weight to the end to create a sense of forward progress. This dramatic llair, combined witJ1 catchy melodies, live ly rhythms. and strong contrasts of it1struments and textures, heEped to make Sousa marches the most widely known ever thrnughout Emope .and theAmericas and to earn him tbe nickname "The March King" (af'ter Johann Strauss, "The \Valtz King").

POPULAR SONG \Vhil e ban<ls emhrar.ed a wide repe11oi re from marches to classir.s. the world of song was splintering. Schubert's Lieder and Stephen Foster's parlor songs had served similar pmposes, intended prim.a rily for home music- making and occasionally performed in concerts. But in tbe late r nineteenth ceotury. there

Marches

Sousa marches

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