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Nineteenth‐ and Twentieth‐Century Theories of Metrical Conflict

Harald Krebs

in Fantasy Pieces: Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann

This chapter begins by describing the 19th-century origins of some of the basic ideas that underlie the book's approach: the first metaphorical application of the terms “consonance” and “dissonance” ... More

This chapter begins by describing the 19th-century origins of some of the basic ideas that underlie the book's approach: the first metaphorical application of the terms “consonance” and “dissonance” to rhythmic structures (in the writings of Hector Berlioz); and early examples of the recognition of two basic categories of metrical conflict, based, respectively, on incongruent groupings, and on non-aligned presentation of congruent groupings (in writings of François-Joseph Fétis and Hugo Riemann). The second part of the chapter traces these ideas through the 20th century, referring to writings by Henry Cowell, Charles Seeger, Joseph Schillinger, Wallace Berry, Maury Yeston, and Carl Schachter, among others, and to various earlier discussions of the music of Robert Schumann.Less

Carnaval des analyses

Harald Krebs

in Fantasy Pieces: Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann

This chapter analyzes movements or works by Schumann and other composers, using the terminology and concepts developed in the preceding chapters. The works are: Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique (“Un ... More

This chapter analyzes movements or works by Schumann and other composers, using the terminology and concepts developed in the preceding chapters. The works are: Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique (“Un bal”); Schumann, Intermezzi op. 4; Chopin, various works; R. Schumann, “Scherzo in F minor”; Clara Schumann, Piano Trio op. 17 (2nd mvmt.); R. Schumann, Faschingsschwank aus Wien op. 26 (1st mvmt.); Brahms, Piano Sonata in F minor op. 5 (1st mvmt.); R. Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 no. 2 (2nd mvmt.); Ives, “Two Little Flowers”; R. Schumann, Symphony no. 3 op. 97 (1st mvmt.); Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire op. 21 (“Valse de Chopin”).Less

The Lion Tamed

R. Allen Lott

in From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland

During his second season in America, Leopold de Meyer came under attack for his manipulation of the press, the staging of ovations by claques, and the filling of concert halls with deadheads as well ... More

During his second season in America, Leopold de Meyer came under attack for his manipulation of the press, the staging of ovations by claques, and the filling of concert halls with deadheads as well as being uncooperative with fellow musicians. Highlights of his concerts in New York and Philadelphia were performances of his Marche marocaine and Marche d'Isly as orchestrated by Hector Berlioz, the latter in its world premiere. The arrival of the French pianist Henri Herz sent De Meyer on his inland tour early, during which he forged a successful partnership with the Irish-born violinist Joseph Burke (1817-1902). During his two-season tour of the United States and Canada, De Meyer performed at least eighty-five concerts in twenty-six cities, with his original compositions captivating the musical world surfeited with fashionable operatic fantasias and his flamboyant performance style exciting a public with little experience in hearing exceptional piano playing.Less

Berlioz I: (“Publication de ses lettres intimes”, Harmonie et mélodie, Calmann-Lévy, 1899, 249–255)

Roger Nichols

in Camille Saint-Saëns: On Music and Musicians

With the publication of his Lettres intimes, people have begun to talk once again of Berlioz's venomous nature and bad character. This chapter holds, however that Berlioz was not a cunning person: he ... More

With the publication of his Lettres intimes, people have begun to talk once again of Berlioz's venomous nature and bad character. This chapter holds, however that Berlioz was not a cunning person: he was sincere, and said what was in his heart and his head without thinking about the consequences. It suggests that Berlioz was too fond of Shakespeare, Byron and Goethe, and he unwittingly admitted the fact. It was Lélio that gave Camille Saint–Saëns the opportunity to meet the great man and to win his valuable friendship.Less

Bass Clarinet, Contra Bass, and Contra Alto Music

Albert R. Rice

in From the Clarinet D'Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of the Large Size Clarinets, 1740-1860

Chapter five is dedicated to bass clarinet music grouped in the categories: early reported works; notation practice; a chronological description of works from 1834 to 1860 listed by composer; band ... More

Chapter five is dedicated to bass clarinet music grouped in the categories: early reported works; notation practice; a chronological description of works from 1834 to 1860 listed by composer; band music; and music written for the contra bass and contra alto clarinets.Less

Rulers, Ghosts, and Prophets: Romans in Romantic Opera

Erling Sandmo

in Romans and Romantics

Roman history was peripheral to what is usually termed ‘romantic’ opera, i.e., works written between c.1830 and 1900. This chapter, however, insists on seeing musical romanticism as contemporary with ... More

Roman history was peripheral to what is usually termed ‘romantic’ opera, i.e., works written between c.1830 and 1900. This chapter, however, insists on seeing musical romanticism as contemporary with literary romanticism, thus pushing its beginnings back to the late eighteenth century. In doing so, it analyses how late opere serie such as Mozart's (1791) and Joseph Martin Kraus' Aeneas i Cartago (1791) conformed to romantic aesthetics of the gesamtkunstwerk, and were received by an audience of romantics. Compared with Kraus' innovative, even historicist Aeneas, the greatest Virgilian opera, Berlioz' Les Troyens (1863), was self-consciously neo-classicist, looking back towards ancien régime ideals of sacrifice and civic virtues. In conclusion, the chapter discusses why classical mythology and history in general, and the Roman setting in particular, disappeared from the romantic operatic stage, a result both of the use of Roman history as the imagery of the French Revolution and of the rise of romantic historicism.Less

Touching from Afar

Peter Szendy

in Phantom Limbs: On Musical Bodies

A brief history of orchestra conducting, right up though the electrification that affords long-distance transmission.

Reviving Idiosyncrasies

Bernard D. Sherman

in Inside Early Music: Conversations with Performers

Since the 1960s, John Eliot Gardiner has spent much of his career conducting two groups he founded in his native England, the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Chorus. It has become ... More

Since the 1960s, John Eliot Gardiner has spent much of his career conducting two groups he founded in his native England, the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Chorus. It has become obvious, though, that to categorize him as an English choral conductor and early music specialist would be unfair. Not only was he conducting opera at Sadler’s Wells in 1969; he has performed alongside such composers as Georges Bizet and Emmanuel Chabrier with the opera of Lyon (whose orchestra he founded), and he has more recently turned his attention to even later music. Concerning the use of early instruments in Romantic music, some observers have dismissed experiments in this field as simple empire-building by the historical-performance movement. Yet Hector Berlioz himself wrote that “at no period in the history of music has there been greater mention made of instrumentation” than in his own. This chapter presents an interview with Gardiner on Berlioz and Johannes Brahms, 19th century music, orchestras and period instruments, the use of violins, tone color in music, and the use of vibrato and portamento.Less

A Sapphic Orpheus: Pauline Viardot and the Sexual Politics of Operatic Collaboration

Melina Esse

in Singing Sappho: Improvisation and Authority in Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera

Chapter Five examines Pauline Viardot: a singer, composer, and pedagogue who performed as both Sapho in Gounod’s Sapho, and Orpheus in Berlioz’s Orphée. Both projects illuminated the limits and ... More

Chapter Five examines Pauline Viardot: a singer, composer, and pedagogue who performed as both Sapho in Gounod’s Sapho, and Orpheus in Berlioz’s Orphée. Both projects illuminated the limits and possibilities for women composer-performers in the mid-nineteenth century by highlighting the changing meanings of operatic collaboration, with Viardot’s own biography overlapping with the Sappho myth itself. The author explores Viardot’s own creative impact on the texts she helped create and the biographical drama of Viardot’s collaboration with Gounod, suggesting that close working relationships began to be viewed in a different light in which the muse slid into the role of a courtesan, rather than one of Renaissance unattainability. The author argues that this shift contributed to the widening and increasingly gendered gulf between creators and interpreters.Less

Prophets and Precursors: Paris 1830–1848

David Roberts

in The Total Work of Art in European Modernism

This chapter explores the recreation of the union of art, religion, and politics in Athenian tragedy in music drama, just as the modern synthesis of the arts, in which the orchestra takes the place ... More

This chapter explores the recreation of the union of art, religion, and politics in Athenian tragedy in music drama, just as the modern synthesis of the arts, in which the orchestra takes the place of the Greek chorus, is intended to give life and body to the vision of social synthesis. It analyzes the works of Saint-Simon, Mazzini, Balzac, Berlioz, and Wagner. It argues that the centrality of Wagner to the history and the idea of the total work of art is twofold: his theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk forms the central directing inspiration of his music dramas; his manifestos Art and Revolution (1849) and The Artwork of the Future (1849) fuse in the heat of revolutionary fervor the various anticipations since the French Revolution of the artwork to come into a powerful vision of the regeneration of man, society, and art. Beyond that, however, Wagner’s aesthetic conception of politics complements Rousseau’s political conception of art.Less

Berlioz II: (Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’edition artistique, 1899, 2–14)

Roger Nichols

in Camille Saint-Saëns: On Music and Musicians

This chapter describes Berlioz as a paradox made flesh. If there is one quality that cannot be denied in his works, and which his most determined enemies have never contested, it is the brilliance, ... More

This chapter describes Berlioz as a paradox made flesh. If there is one quality that cannot be denied in his works, and which his most determined enemies have never contested, it is the brilliance, the extraordinary coloring of his instrumentation. The instruments seem to be organized in defiance of common sense. His Orchestration Treatise is itself a deeply paradoxical work. It begins with an introduction of several lines, unconnected with the subject, in which the author rails against composers who abuse the art of modulation and have a taste for dissonances. Then he proceeds to a study of the instruments of the orchestra, offering some absolutely solid truths and wise advice. Meanwhile, Roméo et Juliette seems to be Berlioz's most characteristic work, and the one that deserves to find most favor with the public.Less

Shakespeare and Opera

Adrian Streete

in The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts

This chapter reports that both Hector Berlioz and Giuseppe Verdi were dominant presences in the European obsession with opera in the nineteenth century. An analysis of some complex confluences of ... More

This chapter reports that both Hector Berlioz and Giuseppe Verdi were dominant presences in the European obsession with opera in the nineteenth century. An analysis of some complex confluences of Shakespearean history, politics and performance is presented. The chapter then explores in detail the genesis and first performances of Otello. Some of the major recorded interpretations of the role of Otello during the twentieth century are reviewed. It also shows that the performance history of Otello is as contested and complex as the original play upon which Verdi and his team of collaborators drew. Today, the world's opera houses offer only one of many outlets for operatic performances. There are any number of iconic singers whose interpretations of the canonical Shakespearean operas either on recordings or on film deserve wider exposure and further examination beyond the remit of classical music and opera scholars.Less

Gong

Gundula Kreuzer

in Curtain, Gong, Steam: Wagnerian Technologies of Nineteenth-Century Opera

First imported to Europe in the 1780s, Chinese gongs (or tam-tams) are shown in this chapter to have migrated between commerce, science, theater, orchestra, technology, and stage prop. Their novel ... More

First imported to Europe in the 1780s, Chinese gongs (or tam-tams) are shown in this chapter to have migrated between commerce, science, theater, orchestra, technology, and stage prop. Their novel sound effect was adopted into opera in London and Paris for a range of music-dramatic situations that are discussed here as “gong topoi.” Yet the tam-tam’s unusually loud, non-pitched resonance challenged conceptions of musical tone, while its European dissemination required either costly imports or metallurgical experiments. By midcentury, Berlioz and Wagner were experimenting with more subtle playing techniques that might enhance their orchestration while masking the instrument’s metallic timbre. Less nuanced, the chapter proposes, were the theater practitioners who gratuitously struck the gong to enhance climaxes or cover stage noises, rendering it an all-purpose sound technology. Puccini’s Turandot consummated the tam-tam as audiovisual prop. Its loudness was subsequently reconciled with musical aesthetics in twentieth-century music, both popular and avant-garde.Less

The Diorama, Apparitions, and Dream Image in Robert le diable

Gabriela Cruz

in Grand Illusion: Phantasmagoria in Nineteenth-Century Opera

The far-reaching transformation of grand opera into a modern medium of spectacle was inaugurated by Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. In the Act III ballet, with the theater darkened, the dead ... More

The far-reaching transformation of grand opera into a modern medium of spectacle was inaugurated by Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. In the Act III ballet, with the theater darkened, the dead left their graves, and, phantom-like, haunted the stage. Those “ghosts” of deceased nuns clad in white ushered in a new genre, the ballet blanc, while another phantom—Robert’s mother—bestowed on grand opera the gift of lyric spectrality when Alice, in Act V, relayed the woman’s last words. Parisian mélomanes regarded this moment of song with special reverence after the 1830s and, arguably, its lyrical qualities guided efforts to reform singing in the 1830s and 40s. But, at the same time, Robert ushered in a new understanding in Paris of opera as an art of dream-like states: indeed, it was the visual procedures of phantasmagoria and diorama that inspired the radical change in Meyerbeer’s art of composition.Less

• General Appraisals During Mendelssohn's Lifetime

Clive Brown

in A Portrait of Mendelssohn

During the last decade of his life, Felix Mendelssohn and his works began to be appraised with increasing regularity in biographical encyclopedias and journals. These critical appraisals articulated ... More

During the last decade of his life, Felix Mendelssohn and his works began to be appraised with increasing regularity in biographical encyclopedias and journals. These critical appraisals articulated a number of issues that persisted in later assessments and often drew upon common sources for their material. Two musical accounts of Mendelssohn's career, published in German during the second half of the 1830s, were provided by Rudolf Hirsch in Gallerie lebender Tondichter (1836) and Gustav Schilling in Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften (1837). In France, François-Joseph Fétis's Biographie universelle des musiciens offered a biographical and critical account of Mendelssohn's career up to 1838. In 1845, the Wiener allgemeine Musik-Zeitung journal published an account by Alfred Julius Becher appraising Mendelssohn's position as a composer by comparing him to Hector Berlioz.Less

Gluck in Performance: Paris, c1770 to c1870

Mark Everist

in Genealogies of Music and Memory: Gluck in the 19th-Century Parisian Imagination

Although Gluck’s works for the French theatre were absent from the stage after 1830, Gluck’s music was widely known through various forms of concert: the concert historique, the concert series and ... More

Although Gluck’s works for the French theatre were absent from the stage after 1830, Gluck’s music was widely known through various forms of concert: the concert historique, the concert series and freely-promoted concerts. Of great importance were the initiatives of François Delsarte who not only programmed large amounts of Gluck but who also developed a realistic mode of delivery which was to spill over eventually into the theatre.Less