Download Frederic Chopin

Nationalism
• Napoleonic wars and invasions (1789-1815)
created a sense of national identity
• Eastern & Central Europeans started to
break away from Austrian/German
stranglehold
• Fascination with folk culture
– Legends, fairy tales, dances, folk songs
• Music inspired by history, legends, even
landscapes
Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)
• First great Czech composer
• Repressed due to Austrian rule
• Immigrated to Sweden, until
Austrian rule lightened
• Most famous piece: Ma Vlast
– A cycle of 6 Symphonic Poems
• Based on castles, landscapes,
ancient Bohemian legends
• The Moldau – depicts the main river that flows
through Bohemia
The Moldau
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
• Czech composer
• Traveled abroad, eventually came to
America (director of National
Conservatory of Music)
• Spent summers in Spillville, IA
• Interest in Negro Spirituals, Native American music
• "I am convinced that the future music of this country must be
founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the
foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to
be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied
themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of
America and your composers must turn to them."
New World Symphony
• The symphony was commissioned by the
New York Philharmonic, and premiered in
1893
• Based on American folk music
• Use of Negro spirituals
– First Movement- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
– Second Movement- Going Home
Exoticism
• National identity also lead
composers to be fascinated
with foreign lands
– Oftentimes the Middle East or
East Asia
• Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908)
– Scheherazade
• Based on The Book of One Thousand and One
Nights
Scheherazade