Unit XVIII Romantic Program Music

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Unit XVIIIRomantic Program Music

• Chapter 51
• Musical Nationalism

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Two Types of National Identifications

• National Artists
• England - Dickens, Shakespeare
• Russia - Dostoevsky
• France - Proust

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Two Types of National Identifications

• Nationalists - Affirm a national heritage in a
  conscious way.
• Music based on songs and dances
• Chopin - Mazurkas
• Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsodies
• Dvorak - Slavonic Dances
• Grieg - Norwegian Dances

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Nationalists

• Music based on Folklore or peasant life.
• German Folk opera - Der Freischütz - Karl Maria
  von Weber
• Czech National Opera - The Bartered Bride,
  Bedrich Smetana
• Russian Fairy Tale Operas and Ballets -
  Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov

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Nationalists

• Music celebrating a national hero a historic
  event, or scenic beauty
• Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
• Smetana - The Moldau

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Nationalists

• Music based on works a national poet or
  dramatists
• Goethe - Schubert
• Ibsen - Grieg - Peer Gynt
• Tchaikovsky - Operas based on dramas of Alexander
  Pushkin (Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky)

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Nationalists

• Music with political overtones
• Verdi - Austrian censor
• Sibelius - Finlandia Trumpet calls forbidden by
  Tsarist police.
• Smetana, The Moldau - Nazis forbade its playing
  in Prague.
• Chopin - Polonaises

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A Czech NationalistBedrich Smetana (1824-84)

• Founded Czech national school against background
  of political unrest. Bohemia was embroiled in
  uprisings (1848) against Austria which were
  crushed.

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Bedrich Smetana

• 1856 - accepted conductor's post in Sweden.
  During this time he came under the influence of
  Liszt in regard to program music.
• 1861 - returned to Bohemia as a national artist.
  Worked toward the establishment of a Czech
  language theatre in Prague.

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Works

• The Bartered Bride (opera)
• Ma Vlast (My Country)
• Cycle of six symphonic poems (1874-79)
• Best Known - Vltava (The Moldau)
• Image of the river becomes a symbol of patriotic
  associations.
• Main theme adapted from Czech folk song.
• See Listening Guide 31, pp. 273-274 (CD 3/18-25)
  for analysis and themes.

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The Moldau (Vltava) Program

• "Two springs pour forth in the shade of the
  Bohemian forest, one warm and gushing, the other
  cold and peaceful." These join in a brook that
  becomes the river Moldau. "Coursing through
  Bohemia's valleys, it grows into a mighty stream.
  Through thick woods it flows as the gay sounds
  of the hunt and the notes of the hunter's horn
  are heard ever closer.

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The Moldau (Vltava) Program contd.

• It flows through grass-grown pastures and
  lowlands where a wedding feast is being
  celebrated with song and dance. At night, wood
  and water nymphs revel in its sparkling waves.
  Reflected on its surface are fortresses and
  castles--witnesses of bygone days of knightly
  splendor and the vanished glory of martial
  times."

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The Moldau (Vltava) Program contd.

• The stream races ahead through the Rapids of St.
  John, "finally flowing on in majestic peace
  toward Prague and welcomed by historic
  Vysehrad"--the legendary site of the castle of
  the ancient Bohemian kings. "Then it vanishes
  far beyond the poet's gaze."

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Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

• "The Voice of Norway"
• Nationalist voice in political struggle for
  freedom from Sweden.
• Works include piano concerto, Peer Gynt
  (Ibsen), 3 sonatas for violin and piano.

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Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

• Like Grieg in Norway, Sibelius's career unfolded
  against a background of struggle for national
  independence for Finland from Russia.
• During the 1890's, Sibelius produced a series of
  symphonic poems based on Finnish legends and
  myths. The best known of these is Finlandia.

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Russian Nationalists

• Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 - 1857)
• Laid the foundation for the Russian Nationalist
  School.

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"The Mighty Five"

• Mily Balakirev (1837 - 1910) - self-taught
  composer and leader of the group.
• Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887)
• César Cui (1835-1918)
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908)
• Modest Musorgsky (1839 - 1881)
• Freed themselves from most European influences to
  produce truly Russian music.

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Russian Nationalists

• Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) - retained
  some European influences.

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English Nationalists

• Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)
• Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934)

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Spanish Nationalists

• Isaac Albéniz (1860 - 1909)
• Enrique Granados (1867 - 1916)
• Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946)