Transcript
Chapter 18
Orchestral Music,
1850–1900
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-1 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Music for Dancing and Marching
Concert hall, dance hall, music hall, and parade ground were important venues for orchestral music
Dance halls and music halls served food, drink, and music in varying proportions to clients from all classes of society
Most popular dances were quadrille (a type of square dance), the polka (a lively dance in duple meter), and above all the waltz (a dance in triple meter)
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-2 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Music for Dancing and Marching
Music halls offered a mixture of instrumental and vocal works together with comedy, vaudeville routines, and animal acts
The march was written to coordinate physical movement of soldiers
With the American composer John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), the march became a genre for bandstand and parade ground
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-3 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Ballet
Began to provide the main attraction for entire evenings of public entertainment in Paris in 1870s
Technical innovations included more athletic movement and dancing en pointe (on the tips of the toes)
Costumes became shorter and eventually skintight, showcasing human form
Choreography avoided realism, combining massive formations of dancers with focus on principal female soloist: prima ballerina
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-4 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Ballet
France continued to lead the way as ballet became an increasingly public genre, moving outside patronage of courts
In the last third of century, Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) emerged as preeminent ballet composer
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-5 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Tchaikovsky. When the composer toured the United States in 1891, he helped inaugurate the newly built Carnegie Hall in New York City.
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-6 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Symphonic Poem
Symphonic poem – new name for what had been called a concert overture
Usually programmatic and only one movement long
Written for concert hall, not as an opening for a play or opera
Composers: Liszt, Strauss
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-7 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Symphony
Enjoyed renewed vigor in second half of the 19th century
To take genre of symphony in new directions, several prominent composers created works that drew on elements from other genres: concerto, cantata, opera, symphonic poem
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-8 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Symphony
The Challenge of the Past: Brahms
Embraced his musical heritage by openly aligning himself with traditions of composers like Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann
Four symphonies; no common formula: each takes a different conceptual approach to the genre
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-9 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Symphony
The Challenge of the Past: Brahms
Relatively diminutive inner movements of First Symphony serve almost as interludes to outer movements
Last movement of Second Symphony breaks with tradition of finale as grandiose symphonic culmination
Imposing set of variations in finale of Fourth Symphony stands within tradition set down in last movement of Beethoven’s Eroica – but here Brahms reaches past Beethoven to earlier tradition of J. S. Bach
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-10 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Symphony
The Collision of High and Low: Mahler
Symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) straddle the 19th and 20th centuries
First Symphony (1888) uses 19th-century conventions while later symphonies the Ninth (1910) and unfinished Tenth anticipate 20th-century idioms and approaches
Belief that a symphony can and should encompass the banal and mundane as well as the beautiful – symphonies are large-scale works
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-11 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The world turned upside down. Gustav Mahler once revealed that this well-known woodcut had inspired the slow movement of his First Symphony. The image is one of a world turned upside down: animals bury the hunter.
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 18-12 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
