Download Music and Society Notes Trimester 3 3/18/11 REVIEW Music

Music and Society Notes
Trimester 3
3/18/11
REVIEW
 Music: organized sound
 Music started with the ancient Greeks and Romans
o Theaters
 ^ Ancient notation: there is only about 50 fragments left; deciphered recently
 Europe descended into the dark ages around 500-900
 Only preserved Gregorian Chants
o Named after Pope Gregory the Great
o Rumored to have composed many chants
 Had no harmony, no accompaniment, no rhythm
o No rhythm because it was associated with dance music, which was a sin
 Harmony was invented around 800 CE (oldest mention of harmony)
 1200’s: One of the oldest known composers (Leonie, Perotin)
o Polyphony
 Renaissance
 Great advancements in art and sculpture; translated ancient Greek/Roman texts
 Music:
o Palestrina (not his name, the town he came from)
 Baroque
 Invention of the piano (Christofori’s piano)
 Bach (best composer :D)
o Counterpoint (Baroque polyphony)
 Viennese classical period
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Romanticism in Music (1820-1900)
 Not only just a movement in music, but a cultural revolution as well
o Last big cultural revolution in America: 1960’s
 Romanticism: a cultural movement that stressed emotion, imagination, individualism, emotional
subjectivity
o Based on opinion, not fact
 Very different from classical music
o Balanced, refined, controlled, symmetrical
 Very big difference between symmetrical music of Mozart’s 40th symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo
and Juliet
o ^ Can’t tap toe to that one
 Stressed imagination
o Ex: Berlioz: Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath
 Eerie, very unsymmetrical sound
o Very individual
 Mozart/Haydn sound very similar, but composers of the romantic period (Chopin,
Brahms, Liszt) each had an individual sound
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 Walt Whitman: “I sing myself”
o Celebrated individualism
 Clara Schumann’s Romance for violin and piano
o Extremely subjective, moody
o Individual style
 Historical background
o Early railroads
o Telegraph invented (1844)
 Invented by Samuel Morse
 First words: “What hath God wrought?”
o Pony express still in use, until the telegraph became popular
o Civil war (1861-65)
 About state rights (mostly) later slavery
o 1876: Telephone invented
 Alexander Grahm Bell
 First words: “Watson, come here, I want you!” because acid was eating through his pants
o.o
o Romanticists were drawn to fantasy
 Allen Poe
 Frankenstein
 Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
o Also drawn to Middle Ages
 Romantic period: Gothic revival
 Fashionable: Gothic novels
 Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe
 Victor Hugo: Hunchback of Notre Dame
 Also architectural revival (ex. House of Parliament; 1839)
o Source of inspiration
 Nature
 Beautiful views, scenery
 Instead of classical inspiration: Parthenon
 Can be seen in art, poetry, music
o Paintings were of social commentary
o Some paintings were really offensive
 Painting of a child and an old man hard at work in a quarry; it was the truth and insulted
the rich people
Romantic Composers and their Public
 Beethoven was the first composer to work freelance
o Which was different from being commissioned
 Romanticists wrote music because they felt that they had to, not because of commission
 Transition from commission to freelance because Napoleonic wars and French Revolution drained
treasuries, and many aristocrats had to disband their orchestras and opera companies
 Composers were no longer had patrons
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 19th century: founding of many conservatories
Emergence of virtuosos: (someone with complete mastery over his/her instrument)
 Liszt, Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim
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 People begin to idolize these stars
 Music was no longer a father-son occupation
 Schumann’s father was a bookmaker
 Berlioz: doctor
 Mendelssohn: banker
 ^ these parents did not want their children to be musicians
Romantic Composition: more is better, less is more.
 From miniature to monumental
 Prelude in C minor of Chopin
 Symphony no 8 of Gustav Mahler: about 1.5 hours
o Scored for two full choirs and a children’s choir and a oversized orchestra (over 100 players)
o Mozart’s symphonies (4 mvt) tend to be around 20-30 minutes
 Romantic composers were also fascinated by miniatures (Chopin’s prelude is about 2 min)
 Romantic composers used more expressive tone color, more colorful harmony, expanded range of
dynamics, pitch and tempo
o Pianississississimo
 Mozart wrote within like a four octave range, but composers even wrote out of instruments’ ranges
 Berlioz: Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath
o Extremely high notes, high octave glissandos
 R. Strauss: Don Juan Overture, completed 1888
 Concert halls were new at the end of Mozart’s life, but during the Romantic period, concert hall music
reached the height of its popularity with audiences buying concert tickets the way we buy movie tickets
today
Conducting became an art form unto itself
 Orchestras grew from 35 players in Mozart’s day to 100 players by the end of the 19th century
 Conductors were virtuosos as well
 We are embarking on a journey into the realm of extremes, of the subconscious, and of the subjective
 During the romantic period, the pronoun “I” was discovered
 The composer seen as a brooding misfit misunderstood by society
 Artists were portrayed as mad people sometimes destroyed by their art
3/29/11
Hector Berlioz
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Early years
Father was a doctor so Berlioz was going to be a doctor
Extremely egocentric, very arrogant
Began as a doctor; went to medical school, but quit after an incident in the dissecting room
Began musical studies at age 20, with consent of parents
Entered Paris conservatory studied constantly, attended concerts several nights a week, and memorized
many opera/orchestral scores
Age 23: turning point
Heard Shakespeare for the first time
The moment he had an epiphany is when the romantic period in music was born
Decided/realized that music should seek to combine with literature to create a new art form
Music should have some connotation to literature
Music should speak without words
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 1826: Harriet Smithson
 Shakespearian actress
 Turned down by London because of her Irish accent, but made it big in France because the French can’t
hear an Irish brogue
 Berlioz fell madly in love with her
 To portray his passion, he composed the Symphony Fantastique (Fantistic Symphony) completed in
1830
 Parisians had no idea what to made of it
 1830: awarded the Prix de Rome
 Returned to Paris and the premiere of Symph Fantastique
 She heard his symphony and fell madly in love with him as well
 Character defect: she was an alcoholic and had a terrible temper
 He mixed up her name; called her “Henriette”
 Parisians reception of Berlioz’s work
 Had 1200 supporters
 Outside France: Liszt’s “Berlioz week” where he performed only Berlioz for a week
 Kind of made it popular but it didn’t last
 Wagner wrote in 1860: Three greatest living composers of the world “Liszt, me, Berlioz”
 Later six years of his life: didn’t really compose as much
 Kept saying that one day they would erect a statue of him in Paris
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Berlioz’s work all had literary references (Romeo and Juliet, etc)
All of his symphonies were “outrageous”
1826: Earliest photo ever taken (by Berlioz)
Deguerre’s photo : “Boulevard du Temple” 1839
Earliest known photograph of a human being
Symphonie Fantastique premiered in 1830
Same year Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York
Same year July Revolution begins
Students revolted against a king put on the French throne by European monarchs after Napoleon fell
Five movement program symphony
Romantic manifesto
Manifesto: statement of one’s beliefs
First symphony written that is a true romantic symphony
Did not write absolute music
Has unique orchestration
15.15.10.11.9 (strings; 9 double basses O.O) 2harps. Woodwinds: 2.2.2.4 (four bassoons)
Has long melodies and an idée fixe (invented the term, only piece that has it)
Didn’t think his symphony develops; believed his idée fixe transforms itself
His idée fixe represents Harriet (his beloved)
Autobiographical
Fourth movement: March to the Scaffold
Fifth: Night of the Witch’s Sabbath
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)
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 Early Life:
o Born in Hamburg, raised in Berlin
o Grandfather: famous philosopher Moses Mendelssohn
o Father was a banker; extremely rich
 Early sign of genius:
o Age 9: pulled a Mozart XD; heard choral music, went home and wrote it down
o Age 13: Wrote sonatas, symphonies, concertos
 Extremely fast rate of composition
o Age 17: Incidental music to a Midsummer Night’s Dream
 Music to be used in connection with a play
 Can stand alone; can be used in conjunction with play
 Famous “Wedding March” is from this symphony
o Father hired an orchestra to perform the work at their home
o Said by many to be his masterpiece
 Some say his other works that followed never surpassed that one
 People say Mendelssohn’s music is “elfin”
 1829: Conducted JSB’s St. Matthew Passion
o Johann Sebastian Bach
o Rarely ever performed; only studied by musicians
o First performance since Bach’s death in 1750
o So unknown that many thought it was Mendelssohn’s work
o Huge work; oratorio with choirs and multiple narrators
o Sparked a Bach revival
 Continues to today; without Mendelssohn’s performance, Bach would most likely still be
obscure
 One of the very first true conductors (one of the first to use modern techniques) composer, virtuoso
pianist, conversationalist in four languages, writer (apparently a great writer), intellect, husband, father,
and painter
 Seemed to be a very pleasant person; happily married, four kids, great dad
 26: appointed conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra
 36: founded the Leipzig Conservatory
o Leipzig is where Bach had his last job and died there
 Felt completely at home among the aristocracy
 Visited England in 1832-33; accompanied young Queen Victoria on the piano
o Crowned in 1837-1901 (64 years; longest on the throne)
o Political genius
 Home life: his wife
o Cecile Jeanrenaud
o Really pretty
 Also had a sister: Fanny Mendelssohn
o Very close
o Good pianist
o Composer
 1833: Songs Without Words: 51 pieces for solo piano
o Miniatures
 1833: Wrote something inspired by his 1831 visit to Italy
o Symphony No. 4: “The Italian”
 Wrote four symphonies throughout his life
 1834: Inspired by his 1832 visit to Scotland
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o Hebrides Overture/Fingal’s Cave
o Not really sure which is the actual title…
 1847: sister passed away and never got over it
o Led to the gradual decline of his health, probably accelerated by his intense workload
 Died the same year as his sister; a few months after
 Epitaph: the Violin Concerto (1844), E minor
o Unusual traits
o Orchestra almost sounds like accompaniment
o One of the most performed concertos for violin
o Not program music
o Not built like the traditional concerto, where there are two themes played by both the soloist and
the orchestra
o Cadenzas usually at the end of concertos/not written out; here it is in the middle and written out
Frederic Francois Chopin (March 1, 1810 – October 7, 1849)
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Hadyn’s been dead one year, Beethoven is 40 years old
The most performed piano music composer
A LOT of Chopin is played all the time
Only composer to write almost exclusively for the piano
o Got in trouble for it while at conservatory
His style does not evolve
o Emerges on the scene fully developed as a composer
Hated being called a romanticist, but personifies the romantic movement in three ways
o Wrote miniatures (some one minute long)
o Nationalism (very proud of his native Poland)
o Highly individualized style
 Unlike Mozart/Hadyn, who you can barely tell apart; each romanticist aimed for an
individual style
The only pianist in history to achieve legendary status from only 30 or so concerts (very few)
Born in Warsaw to French father (Francois, Chopin) and Polish mother (Frederic)
Educated at home and at the Lyceum (1823-26)
Wrote poetry at age 6 and studied with violinist Adalbert Zywny (only for a short amount of time,
considered superfluous)
o So largely self-taught as a pianist
1817: Composed first march; performed by Grand Duke’s military band
o Made him famous among aristocracy
1829: Graduated from Warsaw conservatory
o People thought he couldn’t orchestrate because he only wrote for piano
1829: Fell in love with Constantia Gladkowska
o Went to her father to ask permission, but he turned him down because he had consumption (TB)
o Composed Nocturne no.1 in E flat Major (in 1830) and piano concerto (No.1 in F Minor)
The Nocturne: date of composition 1830 (the one that starts B flat)
o Night music; dreamy
o Model for the form: Irish pianist composer John Field
o Did not invent the nocturne; John Field did
o Short, one movement piece for the piano
Nocturnes characteristically have a turbulent passage toward the middle-ish
o This one is different because it’s toward the end
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 Chopin invented some flourishes, such as the really fast B A C B flat run
 Piano Concerto No. 1 in F minor (second one published)
o Wrote it to become famous
o Depicted the soloist as the hero pitted aga
o inst the orchestra
o The orchestration sucks
 He was terrible at orchestration
 Chopin left Poland for Paris sometime as a teenager (arrived in 1831)
 Made money as soon as he got there, but really liked luxury so spent all of his money
 Homesick
 Paris replaced Vienna as the music capital
 While he was in Paris, there was a rebellion in Poland against the Russian czar
o Brutally repressed
 Friends with Bellini, Berlioz, Liszt
 1832: wrote the “Revolutionary” Etude (Op 10 No. 2)
o Etude: Study piece
o Wrote a set of etudes (Op. 10 and Op. 25)
o Possibly inspired by Russian takeover of Poland
 Not know for sure because he never discussed his music
 1834: Visited Dusseldorf and met Robert and Clara Schumann and Mendelssohn
o Couldn’t bear the thought of meeting the famous Mendelssohn, so he left the party
 Quickly became a socialite of Paris
o Lived a really rich life, despite being short of cash
 Didn’t discuss much about himself, not really prone to talking a lot
o A snob
 Didn’t mingle with “lower” people; only liked knowing really smart, famous, or rich people
 Made his money mostly by teaching (expensive) and publishing
o Only very rarely gave concerts
o Apparently a very good but brutal teacher
o Some of his students became famous people
 1836: 24 preludes
o A short, single movement work expressing a single mood, each prelude in a different key
o In ALL of the major and minor keys
 Chopin and Georges Sand (woman dressed as a man at a party; very startled at first, later became
entangled in an affair with her)
o Aurore Dudevant (real name)
o Smoked
4/15/11
 Publicly lovers
 She had two kids
o Kind of domineering
o Because of Chopin’s TB, he didn’t really mind
o Saw herself as his protector
 While with her, his most prolific period
 During this period, his mazurkas and polonaises reflect Chopin’s nationalism (love of Poland)
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o Mazurkas based on Polish folk dance (mazur)
o Polonaise = Polish dance
Kind of bumpy relationship
o Chopin had a bad temper
Two kids: Maurice and Solange
o Solange had a crush on Chopin; favored him over her mother
o In a relationship with a sculptor
1846: Sand and Chopin break up
Composing slowed down and he became depressed as his illness worsened
Eventually became bedridden
Chopin’s piano (Pleyel)
Sand never married; died in 1876
Listening: Polonaise in A flat
4/15/11
Robert Schumann (and Clara Schumann)
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Robert:
Born June 8, 1810 in Zwickau, Saxony
5th, last, and favorite child of August and Johanna Christig Schumann
1825: Sister Emilie died (29)
o Apparently suffered from schizophrenia and drowned herself
Father: author/book dealer
o Apparently caring and loving
o Translated books into German
At a young age, he could improvise extremely well
o “Painted musical portraits” of people
Listening: Schumann’s musical portrait of Clara as a teenager
Not a good student
o Daydreamed often
Wrote 13 pieces of music as a kid
o Was not really a composing prodigy at a young age
Ten months after Emilie’s suicide, his father passed away
1828: Mother sent to University of Leipzig to study law
o Leipzig was a cultural center (Germany)
o Bach worked and died there
Instead of studying, kind of lazed around and partied
Never set foot in lecture halls, though he wrote to his mother saying he did
Began keeping diaries
o Very detailed about personal feelings and private life
About his personal life:
o Died of syphilis (STD)
o Huge sexual appetite
o Believed that piano was best practiced when drunk and smoking a cigar
1828: lessons with Frederick Wieck
o Instead of attending classes
Wieck’s daughter: Clara
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o Already performing at age 9
o Had a crush on Schumann since a young age
Eventually created pennames; alter egos
o Florestan (bold and outspoken alter ego)
 Hero of an opera
o Eusebius (quiet and withdrawn)
 Fourth century priest
Schumann began reviewing works, including Chopin’s Variations on La ci darem la mano, Op 2
o Original theme by Mozart
o Everyone was stunned
o Schumann signed a review as Florestan
o “Hats off, gentlemen! He’s a genius”
o Made Chopin famous in Germany
1832: began noticing a numb finger
o During his time with Wieck
o Chiroplast: a machine that damaged his finger permanently
o Could only compose now
1834: self-image as a composer firmly in place
Two parts to his compositional career:
o 1830’s: piano music
o 1840’s-50’s chamber and orchestral
Papillons, Op 2 pub Nov 1831
o Jean Paul’s novel: Flegeljahre (a man dreams he goes to a ball and flits about as a butterfly,
seeing colorful costumes)
o 12 brief continuous movements (miniatures)
o Was performed by Clara, but when she finished there was no applause; simply stared in
bewildered amazement
1833: malaria, death of brother Julius, sister-in-law Rosalie, and fell into a neurotic state of anxiety and
depression
o Lost consciousness, horrible paranoia of being alone
Founding of the Davidsbund (David’s group): leading attack against “musical Philistinism”
o Attack against mediocre music
4/26/11
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
 Frederic Wieck (1785-1873)
 Clara’s lessons begin age 5
 Frederick’s temperament: extremely hard to get along with, demanding
o His wife (Clara’s mother) left after 8 years of marriage, taking her children with her
o Law did not give custody of children to mother, so Frederick simply took them back
 Nov 1830: Clara’s piano debut
o Immediately recognized as a prodigy
 Father took her on tours
o Made a lot of money
o None of it was hers (both a minor and a woman)
 1834: Robert and Ernestine von Fricken
 Clara said she had a crush on him from a very young age; since she was 13
o Robert was still getting over Ernestine von Fricken
 Carnaval, Op. 9
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o Musical portraits
o Used ASCH as central theme (letters had notes in German)
o Sphinxes
o Prelude
o Eusebius
o Chiarina
o Chopin
Reception of Carnaval
o Nobody liked it
o Chopin/Mendelssohn did not understand it
Robert kissed her when she was 16
o November 1835: first kiss
Fell madly in love with her
Father immediately took her on a tour in an attempt to separate them
1838: Robert composes Kreisleriana
o No. 2: very tender piece that expressed his feelings for Clara
October 1838: Vienna
o Had a grand plan to publish his music in Vienna, but Wieck was able to get there ahead of him
and no one would publish his music
Visit to Ferdinand Schubert
o Discovered a closetful of music including Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 (“The Great”)
o Immediately told Mendelssohn, who immediately had parts made and published
o Saved it from obscurity
At the time, people under the age of 21 could not get married without parent’s permission
So in Sept 1839: lawsuit against her father for his permission
Dec 1839: Day in court
o Extremely rude in court, so judge sided with Clara and Robert
August 11, 1840: final verdict
o They could marry
Sept 12, 1840: married
o Date is one day before her 21st birthday
In 2 days, Schumann wrote 8 lieder
o Fauenliebe und Leben
o Op. 42, No. 1 “Since First I Saw Him”
 From Clara’s point of view
Kept up a relationship with Frederick
Schumann’s idea: the marriage diaries
Had some problems
o Robert did not allow Clara to practice when he was composing
o When they went on tour, it was misery for Robert
The Symphonic Year (1841)
o 1st child Marie born Sept 1
Clara had been after him to write a symphony for a long time
Symphony No. 1
o Sketched in 4 days
o Jan 23-26, 1841
o The “Spring” Symphony
 No vocals, but inspired by a German poem about spring
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 Rhythm follows rhythm of poem
 Premiered March 31, 1841
o Clara was four months pregnant with her first child, but performed anyway
o Concert was a huge success
5/3/11
Illness takes hold
 1843: return to vocal music
 Wrote the oratorio: Paradise and the Peri
o Peri are mythical elves who feed on the scent of blossom
 Supposed to be indescribably beautiful
o Each part of the oratorio is a gift offered by a Peri who is half mortal/half immortal and denied
access to Paradise
o She offers gifts as a way to get into Paradise
o Had to have a beautiful melody to match the character of a Peri
 Huge success
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May of 1844: stopped writing and criticizing
Tried to begin teaching at Leipzeig Conservatory again, but couldn’t get out of bed
Had incessant trembling, nightmares, dizziness
Family tried moving to Dusseldorf
Despite these problems, still continued composing
November 4, 1852: received word that Mendelssohn had passed away
o Completely grief-stricken
The Rhenish Symphony no. 3 in Eb Major, Op. 97
o Based on his journey down the beautiful Rhine
What went wrong at Dusseldorf
o Schumann was a lousy conductor
 Baton kept slipping out of his hand
 Couldn’t talk in front of other people; could only talk to his wife; used her as a means of
communication
 Becoming increasingly eccentric
o November 1852: he reports hearing a perpetual “A”
o Also reports hearing full orchestral pieces
 Drove him crazy
September 1853: visit from the small blond-haired boy from Hamburg
o Boy was Johannes Brahms
o Played his first sonata for the Schumanns, and they immediately took him into the household
Feb 1854: mind gives way
o Asked to be committed to a mental hospital
Feb 17: Geistervariationen (Spirit Variations)
o He believes a spirit sang it to him in the middle of the night
o Dedicated it to Clara
o Last piece he wrote
Feb 27: took a walk during which he attempted to drown himself
o Committed to Endenich mental hospital
o Clara not allowed to see him
o Stayed for two years
Brahms took over as head of the household
Savior of the household
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They almost definitely fell in love
Still unsure if she was unfaithful to her husband
June 11: Birth of Felix Schumann
Around July 15, 1856: Robert contracted pneumonia
July 23: Doctor contacted Clara to ask her if she wanted to see him one last time
July 27: Walked into his room
o At this point he was completely insane
o Convinced hospital was trying to poison him
 July 29: While Clara/Brahms/Joachim were at train station, Robert Schumann passed away
Clara’s life after Robert
 Had to perform constantly now to make money
o Had arthritis, painful to play
 Children missed her, especially the younger ones
 Children: Emil (died at 16 months), Ludwig (diagnosed with a spinal disease, manifested symptoms of a
mental illness. Put in a mental hospital despite his protests. Clara visited him once and never again),
Ferdinand (morphine addict, died at 45, predeceased his mom by 5 years), Felix (died of TB at 24,
predeceased his mother), Marie (music teacher), Eugenie (music teacher), Elise, Julie (died of TB at 27,
predeceased by 17 years)
 Died on May 20, 1826
 “Remembrance of Schumann is sacred to me” --Brahms
5/3/11
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
 Three greatest composers: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms
 Music is somewhat hard to understand because he was secretive about his private life; no one really
knew what was going on in his head
 Could write heavy German music as well as delicate, intimate music
 Burned 20 string quartets before finally allowing one to be published
 Destroyed many of his works
o No early works left
 Kept no journal
 Inferiority complex
o Never thought himself to match up to Bach and Beethoven (his idols)
 Could be extremely cruel, but also very witty and had a sense of humor
 Loved kids and was somewhat of a kid himself, but never married
 Voice didn’t change until he was 24
 Couldn’t grow a beard until he was in his mid-thirties (…but look at him now… o.o)
5/6/11
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Smoked cigars/cigarette
Liked canned sardines
Different temperament from Beethoven
Both charitable and cruel
For some reason, when only one person showed up to a concert for him/Joachim, he insisted on giving
the concert anyway
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Life
 Father: Johann Jakob Brahms, b. 1806
 June 9 1830, married Johanna Henrike Christiane Nissen (17 years older than him)
o Very capable housewife; good seamstress
 1833: moved to the slums of Hamburg
 Brahms = “broom maker”
 Born May 6, 1833: “Hannes”
o Born in a very dilapidated house
o Poor family
 Older brother, Fritz, also a performer; made money for the family
 Wanted Brahms to be a performer also, but he wanted to compose so learned under Eduard Marxsen
 Eventually they didn’t have enough money to pay for him, but Marxsen didn’t care; he accepted him
anyway because he was so talented
 When he was older, he played at the brothels of Hamburg
 Became a pianist in a waterfront brothel
o Brothels were extremely violent
o Everyone was drunk
o Bullied him as well
o Traumatized him for life
 Eventually became sick and lost weight
 Parents finally noticed and took him out of the brothel
 First recitals: 1848, 1849 (age 15 and 16)
o Critical response: meh, he’s okay
 Adored his mother, very quiet, reserved
 Feb 22, 1848: Paris revolution
o People fled Paris as the rebellions were mercilessly put down
 Especially Gypsies; fled to Germany
o Brought their music with them
o Influenced Brahms
 Piano Quartet in G minor, Op 25
 Concerto for violin and orchestra in D, op 77
 Hungarian dance no 5 in G minor (1868)
 Friends with Eduard Rimenyi (violinist)
o Went on a tour with him
o When he first started his tour, nobody knew him
o Seven months later he would be famous
 While on tour, met Joseph Joachim
 Played his Scherzo in E flat Minor Op 4 for him
o “I have never been so overwhelmed”
o Introduced him to Schumann
 Meeting with the Schumanns Sept 30, 1853
o Played his piano sonata no 1 for Robert and Clara
 Invited him to lunch, but he thought they were kidding so he was prepared to return to Hamburg
o Clara searched all over the city for him and took him back to the house for lunch
o After lunch, it was decided that he would stay with the Schumanns
o Became part of the family
 Schumann suddenly snapped out of his mental illness
o Wrote an article as Florestan
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o Called Brahms a “musical genius”
Robert convinced a publishing company to publish his music
o Day after it was released, Brahms was famous
Returned home famous
o Gone for 8 months and a day
The Vagabond Years
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor (1859)
o Autobiographical
o Begun in 1853 (Robert’s jump into the Rhine)
 Stormy music symbolizes Robert plunging into the river
 Music of tragedy and suicide
o Johannes, the non-orchestrator
o May 1857, concerto completed
o Two years of revisions
 Everyone expected him to be a next great Beethoven; expected much of him, so he
continually revised over and over
o Clara requested “a tender portrait of me” somewhere in the concerto, so he included one
 The 2nd movement
o First movement (the jump into the Rhine): very similar to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
1857-1862: traveled, stayed with friends, various jobs, composed (for his women’s chorus)
o One woman commented that it was possible to be kissed on the cheek by Brahms without
blushing
 LOL OUCH
When his first concerto premiered, the critics trashed it
Scared to write a symphony
Brahms studies in orchestration: The Serenade in D, Op 11, I (1858)
o Orchestration in which he does not try to live up to his expectations
o Played around with the orchestra
o Again, critics called it garbage
Returned to Hamburg with Clara to meet his mother
o Brahms’ were shocked
o Clara chatted with his mother, and his mother adored her
 Brahms rejected Berlioz’s idea that every piece of music should be program music
 Believed that Beethoven/Mozart had the right idea
o Absolute music
o Symphonies, concertos
 Believed Bach was correct as well
o Counterpoint is the way to go
 Regarded as a “romantic classicist”
 1860 on: Masterworks
5/10/2011, 12:47 PM
 Nov 1862: Moved to Vienna
 Loved it
o An old lady who heard Mozart at a concert hall told him that not since then had she heard
someone with so much talent
o As the city of musicians, he got a lot of special treatment
 June 1864: Father and mother divorced
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 Feb 4, 1865: Christiane passes away
o Coincidentally, he was composing his requiem (1865)
o Unlike most requiems which are in Latin, his is in German
 Largest/longest work (7 movements)
 Immediate success
 Mastery
 Finally beginning to live up to his name as Beethoven's successor
 1856-66 his "working vacations"
o Went to taverns and drank and went on long hikes and composed
 The sound of Brahms composing was him pacing back and forth and occasionally playing a few notes
on the piano
 Horn Trio in Eflat Major, Op 40, IV.
o Piano, violin, French horn
 October 1865: Father re-married
o Was fully prepared to hate his new mother, but actually ended up liking her
o First Fritz, second Fritz
 His original older brother was named Fritz; his half brother was named Fritz as well
 Finally began to grow a beard at around 33
 1868-74: years of Lieder
o Most famous lieder: Wiegenlied (Cradle Song), Op. 49
o Wrote it as a present to a newborn child of a friend
o Most music boxes oversimplify it; actually has a complex syncopated rhythm from Austrian folk
dances
 1871: Conductor of the orchestra of the Society of the Friends of Music
o Wanted to improve his orchestration skills
 1873: Back to orchestral composition:
o Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn (but not really)
o Famous because first free-standing variations
 Theme source: "Chorale St. Antoni"
 String quartets
o String Quartet in C Minor Op. 51 No. 1, I (1873)
o Critics said Brahms' string quartets were "polite"
 Very academic, but not very interesting
 Symphony No 1 in C Minor, Op 68 (1877)
 Reluctant to compose symphonies because of the failure of his first piano concerto as well as the genius
of Beethoven
 Finally, around age 40, he composed a symphony
o Daringly modeled it after Beethoven's ninth
o "Answer" to the ninth
 Premiere: huge success
 Wrote 4 symphonies
 1878: Violin Concerto
o Assisted by Joseph Joachim
 1881: Piano concerto No. 2 in B flat Major Op 83, I
o Much more successful than his first one
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o Said to have the most beautiful opening ever written for a piano concerto
 Personality:
o Many people said he looked like a hedgehog when he went for strolls
o Dined often at the Red Hedgehog
o Often invited people to sit in his rocking chair, which would cause people to flip backwards
when leaning back
o Had a crude sense of humor; sometimes cruel
o Brahms and Clara:
 Kind of on/off relationship
 Threw tantrums with each other
 Similar to Joseph Joachim
 Socially immature
o Very sketchy relationship with Clara; not sure if they were lovers or not
o Had an affair with Julie (Clara's daughter)
o Could be rude to his friends
o Rich, but didn't care
o Could be charitable; very loose with his money and was constantly giving money to
friends/family
o Brahms and Liszt:
 Hated each other's music
 Brahms: traditionalist; Liszt: modernist
 Wagner hated Brahms' music as well
o Brahms was so famous that he had power over who could become famous and whose careers
would be finished
 Poverty-stricken Dvorak
 Asked for his letter back from Clara; destroyed those he received
 Clara died on May 20, 1896
 Diagnosed with cancer July 1896
 Turned yellow as a result of liver cancer
 Died on April 3, 1897
 Visit of 1895
o Brahms' voice was recorded on Edison's invention
o Played one of his rhapsodies
 Nationalism and the Russian Five
 Tuesday, May 17, 2011
 12:44 PM
 Nationalism: extreme pride in one's own homeland, meriting sacrifice to the point of death
o Belief that one's homeland merits loyalty and self-sacrifice
 Origin: the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars (1798-1814) which rouse a sense of national
identity
 Led to a unification of lands (ie Germany and Italy)
 Spurred revolts in countries under foreign rule (Poland and Bohemia/Czechoslovakia)
 Led to cultural revivals: especially in language --national languages replace Latin and the language of
dominant countries in textbooks, newspaper, etc.
 In music: Composers gave their works distinctive national identities (ie Chopin's mazurkas/polonaises
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 Opera and program works; based on folk tales, folk music and dances
 Sibelius: "The Tempest" from Finlandia (1899)
o Only famous Finnish composer
 Russian Easter Overture: N.R. Korsakov (Russian Catholic Orthodox)
 Grieg, Liszt (Hungarian Rhapsody), Dvorak
 Groups ("Schools" of composers established national styles
o Most famous "school" of composer to emerge in the 19th century: The Russian Five ("The
Mighty Handful") <-- self-entitled
 Background:
o Moscow and St. Petersburg
 Cosmopolitan Russian cities
 Culturally active
 Center for musicians
 Brought folk music to these cities
 Folk music varied greatly from east Russia and western Russia
o No notable Russian composers before 1800
o By the 1860's: true Russian school
o Only one was a professional composer; rest had jobs
 Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (1837-1910)
 Loved/feared as the leader of the Russian Five
 "Father of Russian music"
 Wrote "In Bohemia" as a propaganda piece; make Bohemians fall in love with Russian music
 "I want to compose genuine Russian music"
o This is because they wanted to take the symphony monopoly from Germany
 Russians said they will not develop the theme; unlike most other symphonies, where what makes the
symphony is the development of the themes
 Kind of just passed the melody around to different instruments
 Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) chemist
 Student of Balakirev
 One opera; Prince Igor, 1869 (Polovtsian Dances)
 Cesar Cui (1835-1918) army engineer
 Suite Concertante Op 25, IV
 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) naval officer
 Russian Easter Overture: masterpiece of Russian Nationalist music
 Most famous
 Dedicated in the memory of Borodin and Mussorgsky
 Premiered in 1888
o "To understand this work, one must have attended mass on Easter Sunday"
 Imitates the bells of Russian churches on Easter Sunday
 Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) civil servant: probably the most talented of the bunch
 Drinking buddies with Korsakov
o Both died of alcoholism
 Son of wealthy landowner, largely self-taught
 THE Russian Opera: Boris Godunov
o Tragedy
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Friday, May 27, 2011
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Contemporary of the Russian Five and NOT a member:
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
The most famous Russian composer
Westerners said music was too Russian
Russians said music was too German
Early life:
o Born May 7, in Votkinsk, Russia
o Depressed and obsessive child
 Especially dependent on his mother and his nanny
 Could almost not be separated from his mother
 Plagued with self-doubt and self-loathing
 Weird delusional phobias
 Conducted while holding onto his head; scared it would fall off while he
conducted
o Private life shaped his music in a way that exceeded most other composers
 5/24/2011, 12:53 PM
 His father: a member of the lesser nobility and a mining inspector
 His mother: French, played piano and sang
o Adored by her son
 1848: His nanny (Fanny Durbach) had to be fired because his father lost his job
o Devastated
o Two most important women in his life: his mom and his nanny
 When he was sent to a boarding school after his father lost his job and he had to be separated from his
mother, he had to be dragged away, kicking and screaming
o At the boarding school (the school of jurisprudence); he discovered he was gay
 Mother later died of cholera
 Graduated in 1859
 Became a government clerk and pursued his pleasures
o …not very socially acceptable pleasures
 In Schumann's society, homosexuality was frowned upon. In Orthodox Catholic Russia, it was a
criminal offense
 Mozart's Don Giovanni was what inspired him to become a composer
 1862 he enrolled at the new St. Petersburg conservatory
 1866, he graduated and was immediately asked to become a member of the faculty
o He turned them down and went to Moscow
 1866: premiered his first work in Moscow
o Overture in F
 Still sounds a bit like a student composer; rarely performed
 Produced his first masterwork
o 1869 Balakirev suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a work based on Shakespeare's Romeo and
Juliet
 Dedicated the piece to a 15 year-old-boy he was in love with named Eduard Zak
 Regarded as one of the 10 most famous melodies ever composed
o Overnight sensation
 Some people regarded him as the sixth member of the Russian Five
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o Balakirev loved hearing it, but Tchaikovsky did not
 Because the Russian Five were amateurs; he was school-trained
Tatyana Antonina, Nadezhda
1877: Completed his fourth symphony, and began work on an opera inspired by Pushkin's Eugene
Onegin
o Tragic opera of unrequited love
o He falls in love with the opera, especially the letter scene (where she writes a love letter to
someone she fell in love with at first sight)
o Composes music to go with it (which fluctuates between major and minor; hope and despair)
The plot: a young woman (Tatyana) sees a handsome young man at a party and falls instantly in love
with him; composes a long love letter to him, but he rejects her
Tchaikovsky wrote to a friend that he was in love with Tatyana
As he is composing the music to the letter scene, a former conservatory student (Antonina Milyukova)
writes him a long love letter, to which he replies "learn to control your emotions"
o She wrote back a long letter that was very similar to the one that Tatyana wrote in the opera, so
he thought they were fated to be and agreed to marry her
o Friends begged him not to do it
o The wedding ceremony took place; ran out as she tried to kiss him
o She went insane during their honeymoon, because all he could do was sit on the edge of the bed
and cry
o Didn't even know he was a famous composer; his music meant nothing to her
o Disastrous marriage
Nadezhda von Meck
Wealthy young noblewoman
Loved his composing; if he continued to compose, she would pay him 6,000 rubles a year (a lot of
money)
o One condition: "we can never meet"
o He was completely fine with that
Wrote her long letters that explained his intentions behind his compositions
Only met once by accident, but pretended not to recognize the other
 Moscow, Feb 22, 1878:
 Symphony no 4
 Violin concerto in D Major, Op 35, 1878 (really beautiful melody)
o Sent it to famous violinist Leopold Auer
 Declared it unplayable
o Then sent it to Adolf Brodsky, who premiered it on Dec 4, 1881
 Wasn't present for the premiere; off traveling
 Stolen by Bill Conti in the soundtrack for the movie "The Right Stuff"
 Critic's reaction:
o It was horrible
o "Vulgar"; "This music stinks to the ear"
 But within a few years, it became the most often played violin concerto in the repertoire
 Leopold Auer later asked for a copy and performed it in public
o Humbling thing to do; also taught it to his students for the rest of his life
 5/27/2011, 1:16 PM
 1878: Separated from his wife; started traveling widely, bought a house
o Piano Concerto, Capriccio Italien, Serenade for strings in C M (Op 48), the 1812 Overture
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 Serenade: regarded by his friend Anton Rubinstein as his best work to date
 No complexity, no depth, no development; pure simple entertainment
Four brothers
1891: tour of the US
o Not very fun trip; discovered he was seasick, had his wallet stolen, and someone committed
suicide by jumping off the boat
Broadway - Carnegie Hall
o Stunned by the size of the buildings (9 stories high)
o A celebrity; recognized everywhere
Philadelphia, Niagra Falls
Sometime around here, his patroness stopped sending him money and writing to him
o Letters were more important to him than the money
1892 (age 52): fell in love with Vladimir Davidov (Bob)
o His nephew
o Very dear, close friends
o Dedicated his sixth symphony to him
Returned to Russia when he was 50
6th symphony, the "Pathetique" Aug 31 1893
o Filled with pathos
o Told Bob that he loved this work more than he loved any other
o Last movement; filled with deep emotion and anguish
o Premiere: lukewarm reception
High point of his life
o Rich, famous, fulfilled potential
Nine days later; Monday Nov 6, 1893
o "Cause of death:" Kidney failure due to drinking unboiled water
o Extremely fishy; kidney failure does not happen overnight and Tchaikovsky would never drink
unboiled water
o No one knew what happened until 1990ish, when the Soviet Union fell
 Secret libraries opened and documents revealed
What really happened:
o 1893: Love affair with Alexander Vladimirovich Stenbok-Fermor: 18 year old nephew of Count
Alexy Alezandrovich Stenbok-Fermer <-- Close friend of the tsar
o Wrote the tsar a letter telling him everything, handed it to a courier
o Courier (Nicolai Jacobi) was actually a classmate from the school of jurisprudence
o Didn't deliver the letter; rounded up a few other classmates from the school of jurisprudence
o Decide to hold a "court of honor"
o Needed to deliver the letter, so gave Tchaikovsky a choice; if you take the cyanide and kill
yourself, we will tear up the letter
o Tchaikovsky committed suicide
Left his money and fortune to his nephew, Bob
1906: Bob committed suicide
Mrs. Tchaikovsky: committed to an insane asylum, died there
Nadezhda von Meck: outlived Tchaikovsky by 2 months
 Great melodist, purely a Russian nationalist
 Fiery, passionate music
 Especially: 1812 Overture (commemorates Russia's defeat of Napoleon)
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 Verdi, Wagner, Puccini
 Tuesday, May 31, 2011
 12:42 PM
 The Three Great Masters of 19th Century Opera
 Joe Green
 Wrote 26 operas from 1839 (Oberto) (26 years) - 1893 (Falstaff) (80 years)
o Falstaff said to be his masterpiece (but very boring…)
 Verdi was extremely famous
 Italy produced three great opera composers: Verdi, Verdi, Verdi
 Very accessible; "one of the guys"
 Not an innovator
 Famous as a dramatist
o Master of emotion
 Said to be the greatest opera composer who ever lived
 Biography
 Born of middle class parents; Oct 1813 in Larancola, in Parma
 18: Attended conservatory in Milan
o Shy, a bit strange looking
 Wanted to continue in the conservatory, but his music theory skills were not good enough
 Barezzi paid for his way through the conservatory
 When Verdi returned to his hometown, married Barezzi's daughter, Margarita
 Wrote Oberto for a famous opera house (La Scala), and it was immediately popular
 Three more commissions immediately after
 Agu 1838, 16 month old daughter Virginia died
 14 months later, 1839, his son Vercillio died as well
 8 months later, June 1840, Margarita passed away
 Verdi's comic opera Sept 5, 1840
o Not surprisingly, was a flop
 From this, he developed a mindset: I will never care about what critics or audiences say about my music
 Someone handed him a promising libretto (script for an opera) and he began composing again
 Nabucco
 The rehearsal went horribly
 Until the chorus sings "Va Pensiero"
o Song about Hebrew slaves and the bitterness of enslavement
o "Oh my country, so beautiful and so lost"
o Italians connect with the song because Italy had currently been under Austro-Hungarian rule
 V.E.R.D.I:
o Vittorio
o Emmanuel
o Re
o D'
o Italia
o Victory to Emmanuel, King of Italy
 In 1848: Macbeth
 1851-53: Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatori
 1851: La Donna e Mobile, the secrecy (Woman is Fickle)
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o Kept the Rigoletto aria secret until the very last minute
Everyone knew his music
Verdi met Giuseppina Strepponi
o Pregnant multiple times; always left her children at orphanages, drank constantly, famous and
filthy rich, but eventually straightened out her life
o Met Verdi after she straightened out
o Fell in love and began living together
o Verdi refused to marry because he was atheist
o Catholic Italy disapproved greatly
o Still did not care about the public
Continually wanted to retire, but he would read a new libretto and be drawn back into composing
Happily lived with Giuseppina
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Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Verdi's successor as the most important opera composer of his time
Born from a long line of church organists
Studied- and starved- at Milan conservatory, 1880-1884
Until 1893: Manon Lescaut3 big hits:
La Bohéme (1896)
Tosca (1900)
Madame Butterfly (1904) (an example of exoticism!)
Very good dramatist as well
Wrote emotion extremely well
Puccini's style: Opera Verismo: making operas as true to life as posisble
o More believable plots and characters and rather than operas of kings and gods, commoners are
the principal characters
 Mozart's type: comic operas
o People after Mozart's time: opera with beautiful music but horrible, superficial plots
 La Bohéme: The Bohemians
o Basis for Broadway musical Rent
o KDRAMA PLOTLINE LOL
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Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
One of the most influential composers of the 19th century
Born in Leipzig
Innovator; extremely influential
Taught himself by studying scores, never mastered an instrument, had 3 years of music theory
15 years old; heard Beethoven
Enrolled at Leipzig Conservatory (founded by Mendelssohn)
Married Minna Planer
o Beautiful, well-known actress
o Not faithful to her
Wanted to move to Paris in 1839, but passport request was turned down because of his debts
o Always borrowed with no intention of paying back
Snuck out of Germany with his wife
Decided to help the revolutionaries in an attempt to erase his debts
Eventually had to seek shelter with Liszt
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 While there, wrote:
o Art and Revolution (1849)
o The Art Work of the Future (1850)
o Opera and Drama (1851)
 Then later wrote librettos to Der Ring Des Nibelugen: Four operas based on Nordic Mythology, known
now as the Ring cycle:
o Das Rheingold (1853-54)
o Die Walküre (1854-56)
o Siegfried (1869-70)
o Gøtterdämerung (1869-74)
 Cosima von Bülow (Cosima Liszt)
o Divorced his wife, she divorced her husband, and they got married
o He was not faithful for her
 King Ludwig of Bohemia
o In love with Wagner's operas; told him to spare no expense, just compose an opera
o Wagner had finally found a place to put on his Ring Cycle
 Wagner's music
o The opera house is a temple; where the spectator is to be overwhelmed with music and drama
 His singers were louder than most other singers
 Wagnerian singers: huge, hefty people
o Didn't call his operas as operas; called them "music dramas"
o Gesamptkunstwerk: (a combining of all arts: "universal artwork") - a total fusion of all of the arts
 Just means larger orchestras, louder singers
 Continuous music: not broken into aria and recitative <-- cannot tell the difference
between them
o Leitmotives: a short musical idea associated with a person, object or thought (invented by him)
 Die Walküre: most famous and widely performed of the Ring operas
 Died rich and famous
 20th Century; the new age of diversity
 Friday, June 03, 2011
 1:09 PM
 Wagner: the Tristan Chord
 The end of an era; functional tonality structure stretched to its absolute limits
 New developments in science and art: Sigmund Freud
o Father of psychiatry
 Albert Einstein
o Theory of relativity
 Pablo Picasso
o Contorts human figures
 Wassily Kandinsky
o Paintings are compositions: concepts in a painting
 1903: Wright brothers took historic flight
 1904: First commercial recordings
 Al Jolson: pop star
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o Sang without a microphone; painted blackface
o Great entertainer
1906: Beginning of the suggestion of vitamins
1908: Model tee
o First unreliable car
1914: Panama Canal
1914-1918: World War I
6/7/2011, 12:43 PM
1928: first portable radio
o Trivia (minstrel show)
Folk Music and popular music (ragtime and jazz) were incorporated into concert music
o Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
o Ragtime = syncopation
o King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin
o Unconventional sounds: non-western music
Tone color
o Put instruments that usually don’t go together for unique color (piccolo and tuba)
Instruments played to the outermost regions of their ranges; new bowing techniques
o Hitting the string with the back of the bow
Non-standard instrumentation
Stravinsky's "Soldier's Tale" is for the vln, db, cl, bsn, cornet, tmb, perc.
New rhythmic complexities
Stravinsky Rite of Spring
o 926-3453 (Rhythm)
Emancipation of Dissonance
Dissonance "no longer treated as an unstable element but has become an entity in itself" (Stravinsky
Polychord: two chords stacked on top of each other (A major/E major on top of each other)
Quartal harmony, or the fourth chord
Tone cluster
o Using piano as a percussion instrument
Melody: No longer tied to traditional major and minor keys, often contains wider leaps and is difficult to
sing, phrases are irregular
The whole system of being in a key disappears in the 20th century
Music and Society in the 20th century:
o The living room became the new "concert hall"
1951: Opera: "Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian-Carlo Menotti; written specifically for television
Leonard Bernstein/NY Philharmonic
Gap between audience/composer widens
US became one of the new music capitals of the world because of Hitler's persecution
o Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith
Universities after WWII all had music departments
Jazz, and Rock and Roll:
 Impressionism and Symbolism
 Tuesday, June 07, 2011
 1:01 PM
 Antonio Canova: Pauline Borghese as Venus Victrix (1808)
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o Napoleon's sister
Considered perfectly appropriate art
Manet: "Dejeuner sur l'herbe" (The Picnic) 1863
Considered highly inappropriate
o Clothes in a pile in front of her
o Looking at the viewer
o Two fully clothed men; familiar
Claude Monet (1840-1926): with August Renoir, brought impressionism into existence
o Impressionism is how light plays off of the canvas
Impression: Sunrise
o Not really a sunrise, but rather suggested a sunrise
On the Seine at Bennecourt
o Unusual because it is brilliantly lit
o Foreground and background merged
o Wrecked perspective
Monet: Water Lilies
o Painted the same thing several times at different times of the day
Seurat
o Pointillism
o Created paintings with small dots
THE French Impressionist composer:
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
"The link between Romanticism and the 20th century"
Born in St. Germaine-en-Laye (small town near Paris)
Did not like the term "impressionist"
Paris conservatory age 10, till age 22
Professors response to his improvisations: did not like him because he used extremely strange chords
and bizarre harmonies
1884: Won the Prix de Rome
Went to Beyreuth; Ring Cycle premiered there
o "I am both attracted and repelled by it"
Debussy's early life:
o Worked for Nadezha von Meck (Tchaikovsky's correspondent)
Wrote the opera Paleas et Melisande
o Made him famous
Very successful in his life, but unhappy
Had expensive tastes that he could not afford
Two of his mistresses shot themselves after he left them (Rosalie Texier and Emma Bardac)
Hated conducting
Died March 25, at age 50
o Funeral parade as Germans were bombing Paris
His music:
"I am more and more convinced that music is not, in essence, a thing which can be cast into a traditional
and fixed form. It is made up of colors and rhythms."
Tone color in Debussy's music: very important to him
Wrote some of his finest music for piano
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 Revolutionary treatment of harmony: open parallel fifths, chords that do not resolve, with a larger
harmonic vocabulary- 9ths, 11ths, 13ths
 Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894)
 Voiles (Sails) from Preludes for Piano, Book I (1910)
 Frequently used whole tone scales
o Gave music the impressionistic and groundless feel
 Primitivism and Igor Stravinsky
 Friday, June 10, 2011
 12:44 PM
 Very unique, but short-lived
 Picasso and Stravinsky knew each other
 Sporre: Picasso
o Picasso's paintings showed multiple angles at the same time on the same canvas
 Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
 Most famous for three ballets that he was commissioned to write
 Born near St. Petersburg, son of an opera singer father
 1903: Began studies with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
 1909: Sergei Diaghilev (impressario/agent) commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet (an orchestration
of Chopin music): a success
 1910: second commission: The Firebird- a huge success
o Choreographers: Fokine and Balanchine
o Dancer: Nijinsky (insane homosexual)
 Nijinsky's ballet was not traditional for this piece
 Set design: Picasso
 1911: Petruschka
 1913: Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)
o Music that no one had ever heard
o At the premiere, many people had immediate, violent opinions of both support and disapproval;
riot broke out
 Carefully orchestrated by Diaghilev
o Not symphonic music
o At least 13 themes in the first part
 Had themes layered and playing at the same time
o Plotline: a pagan ritual of a human sacrificial ceremony; a virgin is brought to the ritual and
dancers herself to death
 Expressionism
 Friday, June 10, 2011
 12:59 PM
 Dadaism
o "Art should carry its own seed of destruction"
 Shock from WWI
 Conclusions of artists from WWI: Life is chaotic and unfair
 Artwork such as a urinal titled "Fountain" was placed on display
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Arnold Schönberg
Inventor of atonal music
Born in Vienna, started composing age 18
Models: Brahms and Wagner
21 years old: Full-time conductor of the metalworker's choir
1904: Taught theory and composition in Vienna
1908: Abandoned tonality
1908-1915: wrote several new works, a book on harmony, painting exhibit (also a painter)
1912: developed the 12-tone (dodecaphonic) system of composition
F Aflat E Fsharp A D C Eflat Csharp G Bflat Bnatural
Entire piece composed on permutations of the row ^
Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (1909)
Vorgefühle (Premonitions)
One of his students believe he could create a melody of tone color: Klangfarbenmelodie: an orchestra
would play colors
Alban Berg:
Pupil of Schoenbergen: (1905-1991)
Berg's opera: Wozzeck (1917-1922)
o Strange opera O.o
Anton Webern (1883 - 1945)
Born in Vienna
o 18 years entered the University of Vienna, earned his Ph.D in music
 Studied privately with Schoenberg
Christian mystic, devoted husband and father
1938: Anschuluss, his music was banned
1943: death
o Accidently shot to death (>_>)
o Composed very little, despite spending a lot of time on every one
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