Download Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29
1. Describe the ways in which each of the following composers fused Modernism and
nationalism, using music, literature, or philosophy from their own countries: A. Sibelius; B.
Vaughan Williams; C. Falla; D. Bartók; E. Janáček; F. Ives.
A. Sibelius’s first major composition, Kullervo, is based on a Finnish literary epic, the Kalevala.
He returned to this literary source for a cycle of tone poems, Legends from the Kalevala, which
includes the well-known The Swan of Tuonela. All of this was set to a sumptuous, Wagnerian
musical language, and later in his career Sibelius wrote symphonies that exhibit an extreme level
of motivic saturation and compression, a hallmark of musical Modernism.
B. Vaughan Williams received his training in Germany and France, giving him Modernist bona
fides. However, his music draws upon three identifiably English elements: the copious use of
folk song, many of which he collected himself from the countryside (e.g., A Sea Symphony); an
archaic, sixteenth-century modal language associated with the English composer Thomas Tallis
(e.g., Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis); and references to urban vernacular melodies (e.g.,
A London Symphony).
C. Falla was closely associated with the French Modernists, but he incorporated a number of
distinctively Spanish elements into his style. His music is closely linked to Spanish and Iberian
folk songs and dance, although he generally stayed away from direct quotation (e.g., the opera
La vide breve). Further, Falla wrote a number of zarzuelas, a genre with deep historical roots in
Spain.
D. Bartók developed a highly sophisticated fusion of Modernism and nationalism. His musical
background was primarily Germanic—the influence of Liszt and Strauss is patent in his early
works (e.g., Kossuth)—but he turned to the Hungarian countryside for further inspiration. An
active ethnomusicologist, Bartók personally recorded and transcribed peasant songs in the
magyar nóta (vocal) and verbunkos (instrumental) styles. He developed three methods for
synthesizing folk elements with Modernism: (1) give a folk tune a harmonically advanced
accompaniment; (2) invent one’s own peasant-style melody; and (3) allow folk styles to
interpenetrate one’s style entirely, so that the composer unconsciously reflects an “atmosphere of
peasant music.”
E. Janáček was the “oldest Modernist.” He was also a Czech nationalist who was active as a
folklorist and song collector from his native province of Moravia. His most well-known
contribution to Modernist/nationalist fusion is his “speech melody” technique, which consists of
setting vocal and instrumental music to the rhythms, accents, and intonation patterns of the
Czech language.
F. Ives’s musical radicalism was inspired by New England Transcendentalism (more in Question
6), a distinctively American school of philosophy. He also drew extensively from the popular
songs of his youth to create an innovative, often highly dissonant variety of Americana-inspired
Modernism.
2. Describe Bartók’s various approaches to incorporating folk materials into his music.
How are these reflected in the Bagatelles No. 2 and No. 4 and in the Dance Suite?
As outlined in Question 1, Bartók incorporated folk materials in three ways: directly with
accompaniment, as folk-inspired imitations, and as a general “atmosphere.” In Bagatelle No. 2,
he opted for the third approach, eschewing any actual folk melodies but pulling from a
Hungarian style nonetheless (especially in the use of symmetrical pitch arrays). Bagatelle No. 4
reflects the first approach, consisting of a folk melody set to a Debussy-flavored harmonic
accompaniment. And in the Dance Suite, Bartók again works in synthetic mode (the “third
way”), melding Hungarian, Arabic, and Romanian features in the finale to suggest a
“brotherhood of nations.”
3. How did Bartók’s attitude toward the public and the role of music contrast with those of
Schoenberg and his followers (Chapter 27)?
Bartók believed that Modern music needed to have a “natural” basis, an intimate connection to
the “Folk.” Progressive techniques should be aligned with a social conscience, and composers
were thus obligated to share a common language with their audiences. Bartók’s attitude toward
the social value of music is evident in the pedagogical music he wrote for children. In contrast,
Schoenberg and his Second Viennese followers were writing for history, not for mass appeal or
pedagogy.
4. In what respects was Janáček a nationalist? How and why did he incorporate speech
rhythms into his works?
Like Bartók, Janáček felt that music should be accessible to the general population. As such, he
appealed to explicitly Czech themes in a number of his operas; he also drew on Moravian folk
song. His “speech melody” technique is a further manifestation of nationalism, reflecting his
belief that a realist, “natural” Czech music should be nourished by the spoken language. Janáček
wrote his librettos in this manner, and he incorporated Czech speech patterns into his
instrumental music as well, reflecting a Bartókian “third way” synthesis.
5. How do Scriabin’s works embody the mystical ideals associated with theosophy?
Scriabin believed that music could function as a medium for mystical revelation. To this end, he
loosened the grip of functional major/minor harmonic polarities, preferring instead the ambiguity
of whole-tone and octatonic collections. His Fifth Symphony opens and closes with his “mystic
chord” (or “chord of the pleroma”), an idiosyncratic complex of pitches intended to reveal a
hidden reality beyond human knowledge. In his ambitious, unfinished work Mysterium, Scriabin
dabbled with “aggregate harmonies,” chords that contain all twelve chromatic pitches. This total
harmony is symbolic of universality and ultimate unity as espoused by theosophists.
6. What is New England Transcendentalism? How did it inspire Ives’s music?
New England Transcendentalism is a mid–nineteenth-century American school of philosophy
founded by Emerson and Thoreau. It emphasizes personal intuition, self-discovery, instincts, and
experimentation in the pursuit of a personalized (as opposed to conventionalized) relationship
with God. Ives was deeply inspired by this homegrown philosophy. He played up his outsider,
maverick credentials after his withdrawal from public musical life, implying that radical
experimentation was simply the result of following his own intuitions. Transcendentalism
inspired his Concord Sonata, which opens with the head motif of Beethoven’s Fifth to musically
capture the revelations of the great Transcendentalists whose names make up the titles to the
movements. Moreover, his unfinished Universe Symphony was meant as a musical revelation of
the Emersonian conception of “THE ONE.”
7. Describe the various ways in which Ives uses pre-existing musical material, both in his
Concord Sonata and in “Putnam’s Camp.” What ideals (about music or society) do these
pieces suggest?
Ives incorporated the motif from Beethoven’s Fifth into his Concord Sonata to serve as a
unifying gesture of the whole piece. In the “Alcotts” movement, he juxtaposes Beethoven with
well-known American hymn tunes. “Putnam’s Camp” is a dense mélange of nostalgic
quotations, including hymns, folk and popular songs, patriotic tunes, and marches common
during the composer’s youth. Ives treated this source material idiosyncratically, using dissonant
juxtaposition and fragmentation to suggest a dreamy past. He incorporated pre-existing music to
conjure a deeply nostalgic American pastoral, implying the moral superiority of an (imagined)
idyllic past over the industrial, urban present.
8. Describe the critical reception of Ives’s work. Why has there been a controversy
surrounding his revisions of his own works?
Ives’s major musical achievements were written many years before their first performances.
When his works were finally revealed to the public, he earned himself a glowing critical
reception as the founding father of American music. Much of this positive reception was based
on the belief that Ives had arrived at his radical innovations years earlier than his much-morefamous European contemporaries, a notion that bolstered his image as a plucky, inventive, and
thoroughly American composer. However, Ives revised his own works frequently; his
chronological position as “first” is therefore problematic to ascertain. (Elliott Carter cast him as a
“Great Anticipator” rather than a “Great Emancipator.”) This is an example of critical reception
and historiography doing ideological work. There has been controversy around Ives’s revisions
because the “race to the patent-office” is conflated both with creativity and with (national) pride
of place.