Showing papers in "Nineteenth-century music review in 2019"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the tension between the whole-hearted expression of nationalism and the restrain demanded by gentlemanly manners in folk-song rhapsodies and nature portraits during the years from 1904 to 1914.
Abstract: In Edwardian England many of the most widely acknowledged qualities of the national character coalesced around the figure of the English gentleman. One of his defining features was his emotional restraint, his ‘stiff upper-lip’. But these were also years during which patriotic and even nationalist sentiment rose to a high tide, and there was considerable tension between the whole-hearted expression of nationalism and the restrain demanded by gentlemanly manners. This article explores this tension as it was staged and negotiated in the folk-song rhapsodies and nature portraits by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Delius and others during the years from 1904 to 1914. As a methodological basis the article adopts the notion of musical subjectivity – that is, the idea that music can offer a virtual persona with which the listener is invited to identify, and as whom he or she may participate in the musical activity. In this context it is possible to identify aspects of musical rhetoric, namely, the manners which regulate the interaction between the virtual subjectivity and the listener. Ultimately the article suggests that it is the embodiment of gentlemanly manners, every bit as much as the use of folk-song or the representation of English landscape, that accounts for the particularly English quality commonly identified in this music.
4 citations
[...]
TL;DR: Explorations in Schenkerian Analysis is a Gedenkschrift for Edward Laufer, who died in 2014 as discussed by the authors, whose 15 chapters reach from Bach (the C major Prelude noch einmal) to Debussy.
Abstract: It is testament to the current security of music theory and analysis within the academy that recent years have witnessed a trio of substantial publications which, while augmenting the music-analytical literature on the ‘Bach to Brahms (and beyond)’ repertoire, more particularly celebrate – and, in two cases, capture – the pedagogical legacy of three scholars (my title honours a fourth), two now deceased, another two centrally concerned with Schenkerian theory. Explorations in Schenkerian Analysis is a Gedenkschrift for Edward Laufer, who died in 2014. Its 15 chapters reach from Bach (the C major Prelude noch einmal) to Debussy; Laufer, whose reluctance to publish restricted his principal influence to those he directly taught, is present only in the form of an interview from 2003. That same year saw the death of David Lewin, described by Richard Cohn as ‘the most original and far-ranging theorist of his generation’. And Cohn provides the introduction to David Lewin’s Morgengruß, the first publication of the text of a 1974 Yale graduate lecture that had been circulating informally ever since. Although Lewin’s approach is by no means exclusively Schenkerian, he straightforwardly acknowledges the role of Schenkerian theory in aspects of that approach; meanwhile, the Preface to Explorations records that ‘a projected volume on the teaching of Schenkerian analysis’ was a large-scale casualty of Laufer’s death. * Laufer was a pupil of Ernst Oster, himself a pupil of Schenker’s pupil Oswald Jonas; and Oster was ‘a very dear friend andwonderful mentor’ to Carl Schachter, whose The Art of Tonal Analysis: Twelve Lessons in Schenkerian Theory is the third of the three volumes mentioned above, and my central concern here. As Joseph Straus notes in his Preface (p. vii), despite the distinction of Schachter’s published
2 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that Grainger's attraction to folk-song was textual and musical, tied to notions of purity, freedom and an unorthodox spirituality inspired by nature and shaped by the writings of Whitman.
Abstract: Between 1905 and 1908 Percy Grainger made a major contribution to the corpus of British folk-song, collecting melodies and words of ballads, shanties and work songs, and devoting himself not just to the faithful capture of pitch and rhythm, but also the nuances of performance, with his pioneering use of the phonograph. These folk-songs became for Grainger a wellspring of compositional inspiration to which he returned time and time again. Yet while he was still a student in Frankfurt, Grainger had been making settings of British traditional tunes sourced from published collections. This article contends that these early arrangements hold the key to a deeper understanding of his later persistence in folk-song arranging and collecting, and that they prefigure the recurrent textual themes in the songs he later chose to arrange. It is argued that Grainger’s attraction to folk-song was textual and musical, tied to notions of purity, freedom and an unorthodox spirituality inspired by nature and shaped by the writings of Whitman, whereby Grainger perceived folk-song as a universal utterance. For Grainger, British folk-song was not simply a source of profound melody for appropriation; the window into a nation’s soul became a door into the souls of all humanity.
1 citations
1 citations
TL;DR: The title of Tom Beghin's extraordinary CD, Inside the Hearing Machine, lets us know we are not in it only for the Beethoven sonatas as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The title of Tom Beghin’s extraordinary CD, ‘Inside the Hearing Machine’, lets us know we are not in it only for the Beethoven sonatas. The cover photo shows a piano with a shiny ‘hood’ making a high arch, as though the piano were being partly swallowed by the old RCA horn. The pianist, hands on the keys, is leaning into the mouth of the ‘machine’: this is where we add the subtitle, ‘Beethoven on His Broadwood’. Only after we see machine and man do we notice the third line of the title: ‘Piano Sonatas Opus 109, 110 and 111’. Going well beyond recording Beethoven’s last sonatas on a period instrument, then, Beghin here conjures the world of sound and touch experienced by the deaf composer through a technological intervention no one since the 1820s had ever thought to repeat. In March 1820, the piano-maker Matthäus Andreas (‘André’) Stein offered to make a ‘hearing machine’ (Gehörmaschine) for Beethoven’s Broadwood. The relevant passages in the Conversation Books, translated in the CD booklet and available at the website with the other essays, show that Beethoven took some convincing, especially because Stein would need the instrument for three months to make tests. In the event, the piano with the attachment was picked up in May, when Beethoven went to Mödling for the summer, and returned to him there in September 1820, just before he started work on the variation finale of op. 109. Thus, op. 110 and op. 111 were conceived with the new technology. A few years
1 citations
TL;DR: Staging historical events are fundamentally a social performance of identities, since individuals and the cultures they occupy are mutually constitutive as discussed by the authors, and according to Tracy Davis, "as we negotiate life as social beings [...], we are also historical".
Abstract: ‘All the world’s a stage, and all men and women merely players’. This famous phrase from Shakespeare’s As you Like it aptly encapsulates what this collection of nine eloquently-written and lavishly illustrated essays seeks to convey – that we are all players and participants in the performance of our history. Staging historical events, as this book explores, is fundamentally a social performance of identities, since individuals and the cultures they occupy are mutually constitutive. Seen from a performative angle, and according to Tracy Davis, ‘as we negotiate life as social beings [. . .], we perform. As we perform, we are also historical’. The material of the book is drawn largely from the Bodleian Library’s recent exhibition with the same title, Staging History, which took place between 14 October 2016 and 8 January 2017, and this accompanying publication is intended as a complement to the exhibition.
Many studies, including this one, concur that the theatre was an important social space for the promotion and consumption of historical drama in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
TL;DR: Grainger's original text settings and folksong arrangements alike do not merely celebrate the global reach of the British world or try to preserve the dying folk music traditions of rural England and Scandinavia, but instead are an attempt to express what he considered to be particular fissures in the modern psyche as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Throughout his life, Grainger claimed that he sought to put his music at the service of ‘the complicated facts & problems of modern life’, a task he thought required engaging his audience in a ‘pilgrimage to sorrow’. On the whole, however, audiences and critics alike have tended instead to associate Grainger with the works of his that sound anything but downbeat. Nevertheless, Grainger’s self assessment was genuine. He had a painfully ambivalent relationship to many of the emerging features of modernity, a state of mind for which he found a fellow-traveller in Rudyard Kipling. Both men found a means to express elements of this ambivalence via an unusually strong interest in both local and foreign vernacular cultures. Grainger’s original text settings and folksong arrangements alike do not merely celebrate the global reach of the British world or try to preserve the dying folk music traditions of rural England and Scandinavia, but instead are an attempt to express what he considered to be particular fissures in the modern psyche, not least his own. He believed that any lasting accommodation with the emerging features of modern life required us to confront what we had lost along the way.
TL;DR: Brahms's reading habits suggest his inclination toward a politics of historical knowledge closely associated with the Prussian School as mentioned in this paper, and his well-known historical consciousness took a particularly formative turn in the mid-1850s when he embarked upon a self-imposed hiatus from composing to deepen his knowledge of the music-historical past.
Abstract: Johannes Brahms’s well-known historical consciousness took a particularly formative turn in the mid-1850s when he embarked upon a self-imposed hiatus from composing to deepen his knowledge of the music-historical past. This conscious embrace of historical study was characteristic of his time. Following the 1848 Märzrevolution, a growing contingent of German intellectuals, sceptical of the more speculative teachings of philosophy and theology, became increasingly receptive to the concrete lessons of history. Brahms’s reading habits suggest his inclination toward a politics of historical knowledge closely associated with the ‘Prussian School’. The writings of these historians, including Johann Gustav Droysen, Henrich von Sybel and Heinrich von Treitschke, exhibit a blend of idealist philosophy and dogmatic empiricism oriented above all toward the goal of legitimating German national unification under Prussia. Particularly influential was Sybel’s seven-volume Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches durch Wilhelm I (The Founding of the German Reich through Wilhelm I), completed in the 1890s. Brahms, a Hamburg-born sympathizer of Prussian Kleindeutsch nationalism, who was a permanent resident of the Austrian capital of Vienna for the last 26 years of his life, was uniquely situated in relationship to the ‘German Question’. His well-marked copy of Sybel’s magisterial text adds illuminating granularity to our understanding of his personal and political values and ruminations on history spanning four decades. Brahms’s reading of Sybel makes legible a longer trajectory stretching from his ‘years of study’ in the 1850s, conveying how the studious historicism of his youth is best understood as an aesthetic stance densely interwoven with, and at the end of his life ratified by, the cultural and political agendas of Prussian School ideology and the meanings of the past forged in the crucible of the German historical imagination.
TL;DR: Mitchell as discussed by the authors explored how composers and their music were reinterpreted in the debates concerning Russia's path to modernity, drawing upon various fields of intellectual thought to explore the conflicting visions about music's ability to transform the individual and wider society back to spiritual, emotional and sensory health.
Abstract: avenues for scholarly study emanating from Mitchell’s research. Without a doubt, Nietzsche’s Orphans is a phenomenal accomplishment, extremely well researched, and a shining ‘orphic’ model for historical scholarship moving beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. Most importantly, it is engaging throughout and expertly grounded within the wide-ranging secondary literature of the late-Imperial and early-Soviet periods. Mitchell’s research is timely and important; this is cultural history at its best, drawing upon various fields of intellectual thought to explore how composers and their music were (re)interpreted in the debates concerning Russia’s path tomodernity. Through this unique contribution to the field, Mitchell revives the important contribution musicology can make to the core scholarship of Slavic studies, and she has exposed musicology to new and exciting scholarly paths. Special commendation should be given to the lyrical way in which the various historical sources are woven together to create an all-sided and balanced narrative, which is also cohesively mixed with detailed historical contextualization and selected musical analysis. AlthoughMitchell’s ‘metaphysical’ lens could be further extended by the view that the medical sciences (or, at least, a medicalized intellectual framework) could help to explain how music was seen to transform the very fabric of society, this admittedly would have been beyond the scope of the book’s intentions. Still,Nietzsche’s Orphans represents a milestone in examining cultural life in the spectre of the Bolshevik Revolution, bringing to life the conflicting visions about music’s ability to transform the individual and wider society back to spiritual, emotional and sensory health. As the early twentieth century unfolded, the lived reality for the many was instead mired by the complete opposite – widespread hatred, ethnic violence and social discord. Tragically, such extreme violence was discursively and historically grounded in the aesthetic, social and moral judgements of those who sought to overcome it.
TL;DR: The authors argue that cosmopolitanism was not merely a return to eighteenth-century idealism, but also a practical solution to mediating the anxieties of their epoch, and propose a methodology for appraising the common foundations of their affiliations, advance new analytical tools for evaluating the practice of cosmopolitanizing local sources, and problematize the purported universality of their resultant discourse.
Abstract: While their names are not frequently juxtaposed in existing scholarship, Percy Grainger and Edward MacDowell both maintained that cosmopolitanism was not merely a return to eighteenth-century idealism, but also a practical solution to mediating the anxieties of their epoch. I argue that, as members of a transatlantic network of artists, their overlapping system of referents and mutual fascination with Nordic cultures was integral to the development of mutable definitions of cosmopolitanism. At the same time, the deliberate consciousness of difference that permitted for the simultaneous expansion and contraction of identities also contributed to the rise of conflicting imperatives. In the case of Grainger, certain tensions remain unresolved, including the propensity to circulate racial hierarchies under the moniker of ‘cosmopolitanism’. Therefore, in this article, I offer a methodology for appraising the common foundations of their affiliations, advance new analytical tools for evaluating the practice of ‘cosmopolitanizing’ local sources, and problematize the purported universality of their resultant discourse. By focusing upon the particular aspect of harmonic contextuality, I find that a distinct mode of hybridity emerged as they sought to distance themselves from European artistic models while in living America – one that ironically brought properties of time and space into closer proximity. This study thereby illustrates that the consequences of their cultural dialogue led to the end of anachronisms in the service of a ‘continual and restless spirit of change’.
TL;DR: This paper investigated the reasons behind Grainger's adoption of American citizenship during the final months of the First World War, and the subsequent national traits within his manner of living as well as his social attitudes, musical approach and style.
Abstract: The national affiliation of composer-pianist Percy Grainger (1882–1961) is a complex matter. While often claimed today to have been Australian or American, he was a ‘naturally born British subject’ for the first 36 years of his life. Thereafter, he was a naturalized American. Drawing on Grainger’s letters, essays, scores and memorabilia, this article investigates the reasons behind Grainger’s adoption of American citizenship during the final months of the First World War, and the subsequent national traits within his manner of living as well as his social attitudes, musical approach and style. His contributions to instrumentation, scoring and texture, as well as to music education, are seen from this analysis to have strong American traits, and subsequent influence, while his compositional style remained essentially English, although built upon a technical base established while a teenage student in Germany.In later life, Grainger was ambivalent about remaining an American citizen and resident, not just because of an implied disloyalty to his ‘native land’, Australia, but also because of his lack of empathy with evolving American values. To a Yale University audience in 1921, he confessed to being ‘a cosmopolitan from first to last’. This article analyses Grainger’s thinking about cosmopolitanism, nationalism and universalism in the following decades, against the backdrop of his growing commitment to the racialist, later racist, cause of Nordicism. It focuses particularly upon Grainger’s series of articles about ‘Grieg: Nationalist and Cosmopolitan’ from 1943, before investigating the relationship between racial and national thinking in Grainger’s final years. This culminates in his last statement of musical ‘creed’, published in a Norwegian magazine in 1955: musically to support the ‘unity’ of the Nordic race, and to bring ‘honor and fame’ to his native land, Australia. Yet, Grainger died, in 1961, in America, and still an American citizen.
TL;DR: Herbeck's edition of 51 selected works of Schubert for men's, women's, and mixed chorus was published by CA Spina and successors in 1877 as mentioned in this paper, which revealed inconsistencies in editorial technique, ranging from a lack of intervention to a much freer approach, including liberal sprinkling of unauthentic markings and other deviations from the originals.
Abstract: Johann Herbeck (1831–1877) served in his native Vienna as conductor of the leading choral and instrumental organizations He showed his devotion to the legacy of Franz Schubert in his performances and also in his edition, published by CA Spina and successors, of 51 selected works of the master for men’s, women’s and mixed chorus Originally conceived as part-songs for ensembles of soloists, this repertoire had become choral music by Herbeck’s time Included also are arrangements by Herbeck and others of pieces originally written for different performing media Surviving copies of numbers in the edition, as well as two additional publications, reveal startling inconsistencies in editorial technique, ranging from a lack of intervention to a much freer approach, including liberal sprinkling of unauthentic markings and other deviations from the originals In the latter category, the editor’s additions may be said to document the performance practice of these works during his time His choice of sources was also inconsistent, in some cases resulting in faulty versions of the works presented This study also documents the production and reception history of Herbeck’s edition
TL;DR: Frick as mentioned in this paper tried to mitigate the latter by judiciously choosing when to execute a purposeful distancing in translations and when to render Chopin's descriptive prose in the clearest form, as can be observed in the above examples.
Abstract: Chopin, of that most quintessential Romantic disease: consumption. The monument so vividly depicted by the composer was never built due to inadequate funds; after five yearsOke-wi-mi’s remains weremoved fromMontmartre cemetery and placed in a common grave. No doubt the subtext of this monument tale and the others Chopin included in his wonderfully meandering epistle was a fear of dying in a distant land, forgotten to the people and place he held most dear. As much as the work of translation can offer insights on a range of historical topics, it also inherently sets up obstacles to cross-cultural understanding. Frick tries to mitigate the latter by judiciously choosing when to execute a purposeful distancing in his translations andwhen to render Chopin’s descriptive prose in the clearest form, as can be observed in the above examples. It is thus curious (and disappointing) that Frick decides as a rule to avoid literal translations of Polish proverbs and idioms. There is certainly a reader-centred logic to this choice, but at least a footnote where these native expressions occur would have given the reader a chance to witness Chopin’s creative use of Polish. Another concern is that only the first 80 entries of Frick’s volume are based on the new critical edition. (The remaining entries overwhelmingly rely on Bronisław Sydow’s 1955 collection.) With work on the next two volumes of the new edition proceeding as planned, it is puzzling why The Fryderyk Chopin Institute would have initiated this commission before full completion of that work. One hopes that a revised English translation will be forthcoming once the Polish team’s efforts are complete. Dare we dream of a complementary volume of Polish letters written to Chopin also expertly rendered into English by Frick? Despite these quibbles, Chopin’s Polish Letters is a translation for our time, as Voynich and Hedley’s were for theirs. Though a reader fluent in Polish may be inclined to offer here and there an alternative word choice or turn of phrase, we can confidently trust that Frick’s translation conveys Chopin’s meaning with accuracy and appropriate tone. It will undoubtedly stimulate a younger generation of Anglophone scholars to ask new questions of Chopin’s life and music, and perhaps even venture beyond reductive nationalist narratives that have too long dominated scholarly attention. Meantime, Chopin enthusiasts can relish the opportunity to step foot in Chopin’s time and imagine for a moment the contours of his remarkable world.
TL;DR: In this article, the development of national opera on political-historical themes in Germany between 1815 and 1848 and attempts to explain why this genre ultimately did not succeed, focusing on the warrior hero Arminius/Hermann.
Abstract: This article traces the development of national opera on political-historical themes in Germany between 1815 and 1848 and attempts to explain why this genre ultimately did not succeed. The focus will lie on the warrior hero Arminius/Hermann, one of the most potent national symbols of the nineteenth century, who was indeed brought to the German opera stage, but could never conquer it. The period between 1815 and 1848 not only forms a crucial phase in the coming of age of German opera against the background of a burgeoning national conscience, but also presents a lacuna in the current literature on Arminius as an opera character. Two early nineteenth-century Arminius opera projects will be discussed: musical realizations of August von Kotzebue’s 1813 libretto Hermann und Thusnelde and French composer Hippolyte Chelard’s 1835 opera Die Hermannschlacht, based on a libretto by Carl Weichselbaumer. Questions of authorship, patronage, musical style and reception will be addressed. This article presents a history of an operatic ‘misfit’ that fills a hiatus in the study of German nineteenth-century opera and will add to our understanding of the peculiar relation between opera and German national thought during the first half of the century.