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Home , 1500s (decade), Ancient music, Chanson, Chant, Classical music, Motet

A MINIHISTORY OF 4th Edition

By the faculty of the Department of The Juilliard School

Edited by L. Michael Griffel, Department Chairperson Fred Fehleisen, Assistant Editor

© Copyright The Juilliard School 2015 THE (500-1400) Text by John J. H. Muller; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen

The Middle Ages (or Medieval period) spans many centuries, from the fall of the Roman Empire in A.D. 476 to the beginning of the , around 1400. The Roman filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of , and provided stability in a politically fragmented . Although often viewed as the Dark Ages, the Medieval period gave rise to the great Gothic cathedrals and also the earliest universities. As a style period in music history, the Middle Ages is longer than all the others combined, and a number of momentous developments took place that greatly affected later music. At the start, there was no form of notation, but over time, a method was developed that could precisely indicate pitch and . Music of the was anonymous. Gradually, however, actual emerged, some of whom had great renown in their day. As a matter of fact, the whole concept of composition as a deliberate, artistic act was evolving during this period. Basic to the study of the music of the Middle Ages are three related components: liturgy, , and modes. Liturgy refers to the organization of the Roman Catholic services. One of these services is the , a form of public worship. The sections of the Mass whose texts remain the same throughout the year are the , Gloria, , Sanctus, and Agnus Dei; together these five sections constitute the of the Mass. Also very important is a series of monastic services known as the Offices (or Hours). Chant is the music used in the celebration of these services, and it represents the first large repertoire of Western music. Many later developments in music were based on chant. Often referred to as Gregorian (although the term is a misnomer), the most striking feature of chant is its monophonic (single-line) texture (: Veni Sancti Spiritus). There is great variety to the thousands of . Some follow a simple recitation formula, with one note per syllable of text (syllabic), while others are highly florid, with many notes per syllable (melismatic). Medieval theorists grouped the melodies into different modes, such as Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian. These are similar to our scales, but with different of whole and half steps. There was also a body of monophonic secular love during the Middle Ages. These songs were cultivated by poet-composers known as and trouvères, working in what is now modern-day . In the 9th century, we find the earliest clear references to , a development that had vast implications for the future of Western music. The early forms of sacred polyphony are called . At first, a chant was essentially mirrored by a new part at a consonant interval, creating parallel movement. Over the next three centuries, the handling of the added part became much freer, leading to the climax of organum in the Notre Dame School, during the late 12th and 13th centuries. Leonin and Perotin, two composers of organum active at the cathedral in , are among the first identifiable composers of Western music (Perotin, Sederunt principes). In their organa, several styles of writing were employed, including the creation of an elaborate new part against the chant melody. Organum also served as a springboard for an important new , the (from the French “mot,” meaning “word”). The motet went through a series of developments during this time (13th-century motet: Amours mi font souffrir).

1 Initially, texts were added to certain sections of the organum; later, these sections were detached from their original context and became separate compositions. The 14th century was marked by a number of calamitous events: the Death, the 100 Years’ War between and France, and a serious crisis within the church. It was an age of greater secularization, and the music reflects this outlook. In France, the period is known as the , a term referring to new rhythmic practices. The greatest of the time was . Although he made a famous setting of the Mass (, Agnus Dei), the bulk of his output consists of polyphonic love songs, collectively known as the (: Ma fin est mon commencement). Composers such as created a similar body of love songs in Italian. The motet continued to attract composers. The earliest stages of notation were the , signs placed over the text, indicating the general direction of a chant. Thus, the neumes were a memory aid for someone who already knew the melody. In the 11th century, neumes were placed on the newly developed staff, and by the late 13th century, rhythm could be notated as well. The ability to preserve music in this way was a significant development. Although this notation cannot be read today without specialized study, our modern-day note shapes and concept of meter signs are derived from those used in the Middle Ages.

2 THE RENAISSANCE (1400-1600) Text by Martin Verdrager; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen

Within the period of the Renaissance (a French term meaning “rebirth”), Europe experienced a shift in understanding its cultural inheritance with the reintroduction of the writings of scholars. With the Fall of Constantinople in the , Byzantine scholars brought these writings into . After reading the ancient texts and appreciating their content from a non-Christian perspective, European scholars encouraged greater learning and propelled an intellectual class to think of themselves as Humanists. Their new understanding of the Ancient Greeks’ , observation of the world, and dependence on history and literature guided them to become a group of polymath writers and philosophers that we now term “Renaissance men.” During the European Renaissance, advances were made in several fields of art. Artists began to use oils as a medium for their paint, and painters developed techniques of perspective that gave imagery a much more realistic look. The invention of the press and movable type around 1450 spread humanist and religious teachings to a previously unimagined number of readers of and vernacular languages. The Protestant prompted theological, ideological, and political positions that challenged the central authority of the Catholic Church. The suggestions of principle that started with in 1517 spread rapidly, and encouraged other objectors to move against the rule of Rome. A split arose between Protestant groups (Lutheran, Calvinist, and English) of the north, and Catholics of the south. Eventually a reaction by the Catholic hierarchy known as the Counter-Reformation in the late provoked major wars of religion in the next century. Aligned with this background, composers and worked in churches and courts. They enhanced sacred liturgy with lofty Masses, and they exalted saints, celebrated feast days of the church year, noted noble births and marriages, and memorialized the dead with . They entertained with secular songs about love, war, the beauty of the earth, and the deeds of their employers in and throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. The most influential composers of the 15th century were born and trained in Franco-Flemish lands. Three generations of distinguished composers can be identified: those of (1) Dufay and Binchois, (2) Busnois and Ockeghem, and (3) Josquin and Obrecht. Many of the and techniques of the were brought into the early 15th century: complete settings of the Ordinary of the Mass (Dufay, Missa: L’Homme armé, “Kyrie”), motets for State ceremonies (Dufay, ), polyphonic chansons in the formes fixes and with texts on , derived from the Medieval trouvères. Because of their prowess as composers and singers, Franco-Flemish composers were employed at the major cathedrals, courts, and homes of church and secular royalty, working in Italian, German, Flemish, and French-speaking areas through the middle of the 16th century. Among the most important genres of were the Mass Ordinary, motet (a devotional sacred work) (Victoria, O Magnum mysterium), Italian , French , English madrigal, and English . The motet retained importance throughout the 16th century and beyond as a mainstay of the Catholic liturgical repertoire.

3 By the opening of the 16th century, the Franco-Flemish style of imitative became tantamount to an international European style, and the invention of a method for printing music around the turn of the 16th century enabled composers such as Josquin (Missa Pange lingua, Kyrie) to gain a wide reputation. Wherever the Franco– Flemish composers served in , they found indigenous music of interest. Many, such as (Madrigal: Or si rallegri il cielo / Let Heaven Rejoice), used their skills to help develop local genres into important new repertoires. The secular Italian madrigal and simplified homophonic French chanson were venerated internationally. The Italian madrigal had great popularity in England, where large repertoires of English-versed madrigals and lute songs prevailed later in the of Queen Elizabeth I. In the mid-16th century, Italian composers began to supplant the Franco-Flemish. such as Festa, Palestrina (, Kyrie), Gesualdo, , Monteverdi, and Marenzio became the last generation of great composers of the European Renaissance style. The Italians kept many of the structural elements of the French composers while incorporating some new techniques and harmonic practices of the madrigal into Masses and motets. In the North, the Protestant Reformation brought lasting change to separate liturgies and musical styles. By replacing Latin with German for some of the service, Lutherans instituted the use of simple melodies, allowing the congregation to participate in some musical parts of the service while still retaining the polyphonic Mass for the . In Geneva, Calvinists, rejecting polyphony, made French metrical translations of to be sung by congregants. In England, some Latin polyphonic works remained for political reasons, while new works with English texts, called , were written for special occasions by composers such as Byrd and Tallis. In the Renaissance, a substantial notated repertoire of purely works was created and published, including arrangements of secular vocal works for solo lute or keyboard, as well as dance and variation pieces. By the end of the Renaissance, small instrumental ensembles, utilizing various types of instruments, were used as support for parts in madrigals or as an to lute songs. In , as the Renaissance waned, instrumental and large groupings of vocal choirs were combined in grand polychoral motets with billows of antiphonal sound used in a new genre called sacred . Around the same time, Florentine and Roman humanists, studying the intersection of and music in Ancient Greek , crystallized their opinions about performing drama and music together in new genres that helped to bring some radical changes to the musical art in the 17th and 18th centuries.

4 THE ERA (1600-1750) Text by Fred Fehleisen; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen

The beginning of the Baroque period was marked by new ideas about the function and meaning of music that led to new vocal and instrumental practices and styles. It began with the birth of in the 1590s and ended with the late works of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, and Rameau. The word baroque was first used by French writers, criticizing Rameau’s in the 1730s, and later on by J. J. Rousseau in his critique of Italian music. By the 1760s, baroque came to be associated with music that was old, foreign, and unnaturally complex. Indeed, during the lifetimes of the composers mentioned above there was a general trend towards naturalness and simplicity, spurred on by ideas of the Enlightenment, especially that music should serve the gallant purpose of pleasing one’s patrons. In the late 1500s, musicians in northern began to question their own musical styles after reading about the powers of in the philosophical works of and . Their studies and musical experiments ultimately led to the creation of the first two operas, La (1598) and Le (1600). The stories of both works were drawn from classical myths about Apollo, the god of the sun and music, and Orpheus, his son. In 1607, composed his own version of the tale of Orpheus, L’Orfeo, favola in musica (a musical fable). L’Orfeo is considered the first great dramatic work in the new style that the Italians called the stile rappresentativo (the representational style). Its purpose was to convey emotion through persuasive musical means. Monteverdi referred to this new style as the (the second practice), a new way to compose music that allowed for very dissonant when the words required emotional expression. Right from the beginning, it was recognized that this new style stood in contrast with the prima pratica, a term that was synonymous with the style of traditional Renaissance polyphony. Moreover, it was commonly understood that both older and newer styles could be used to convey emotion and meaning, albeit in different ways. The birth of opera and the “second practice” resulted in the creation of a large repertory of Italian operas, secular , and sacred vocal . Each of these genres employed both voices and instruments, and their development happened to coincide with a golden age in the realm of instrument-making. It is, perhaps, with the coming of the seconda pratica and its focus on spectacular dramatic works for the stage that one most clearly sees the emergence of women—both as performers and composers—as an important presence in European musical culture. Within the realm of women continued to remain all but silent. But in the theatrical world their presence was just as vital as that of men. Vocal virtuosity and powerful expression were the order of the day, and the need to fill dramatic roles for both female and male characters resulted in an ever-expanding market for great women singers. Francesca Caccini, the daughter of (one of the leading figures in the creation of Florentine opera), was actually the first female composer of opera (La liberazione di Ruggiero). She also performed as a singer in Giulio’s operatic performances in Paris, for the wedding of Henry IV and Maria de Medici in 1600. Another renowned female was Barbara Strozzi, who composed, performed, and published a number of collections of secular vocal works.

5 During the early years of the Baroque, the came into its own: players discovered that by holding the instrument under the chin (rather than against the chest) they could play much faster and shift up and down on the fingerboard. At the same time, makers in northern Italy (e.g., Amati, Guarneri, Stradivari) created the greatest string instruments ever made. By the mid-, these makers began to improve the designs of larger bass instruments, in particular the violoncello and its big brother, the . Before long, Italian string instruments were being played throughout Europe and the British Isles. Instrumentalists across Europe flocked to Italian cities (, , Rome, and Venice) where the first true conservatories had been established. From them, waves of instrumental virtuosi emerged, many of them leaving home to take up important musical posts in foreign cities and courts. One of the foremost of these violin virtuosi was . Corelli’s and concertos, such as his Christmas , op. 6 no. 8, were among the most widely published and performed instrumental works in the first half of the 18th century, and they served as models for several generations of composers. Indeed, Corelli’s instrumental works were considered of such lasting value that they helped establish what we now call the classical repertory. Studying his music gave young musicians the tools needed to compose and improvise quickly so as to meet the constant demands of their patrons for new music. Among Corelli’s followers was a Venetian violinist named , who assimilated Corelli’s musical style and took it to the next level. In the first two decades of the 18th century, he composed and published numerous sets of sonatas and three- movement concertos (fast-slow-fast) that employed ritornello forms made up of chains of solo episodes and tutti . No discussion of Vivaldi would be complete without mention of his tenure as a music director and teacher at the Venetian orphanage-convent known as the Ospedale della Pietà. The young women who lived there were trained in vocal and instrumental music, and their ensemble was considered one of the finest in Europe. In France, Jean-Baptiste Lully was the most powerful musician during his lifetime. Born in , Italy (real name: Giovanni Battista Lulli), he went to France as a young man and networked himself into the musical establishment at the Court of Louis XIV. The King, bent on becoming the most powerful and respected ruler in all of Europe and adorning his court with the finest arts, chose Lully to become his royal music master and oversee his Académie Royale de Musique. During his tenure, Lully literally invented , and he refined French musical style to the point where it became synonymous with his name and his musical works. A particularly important example is his opera Atys. French musical style differed greatly from that of the Italians. While Italian vocal music tended to be melismatic, French music tended to be far simpler and fundamentally syllabic. For the French, proper poetic declamation of individual words was primary. And it was understood by them that both vocal and instrumental music were intimately connected to the movements and gestures of courtly dance. Through Lully’s skill, music became one of the most lustrous jewels in Louis XIV’s crown. And as a result, the desire to acquire French taste throughout Europe persisted well into the next century. Performers will regularly encounter French in the works of French, German, and English composers of the period. The repertory is, in fact, littered with , gavottes, bourrées, sarabandes, gigues, and “French” . These kinds of pieces become emblematic of courtly taste and style, as evidenced by Handel’s celebrated Music.

6 The story of German music during the late Baroque (1680s to 1740s) centers on the cultivation of a “mixed” style that blended French and Italian styles with native German ones. This is most clearly seen in the musical works of Handel, Telemann, and J. S. Bach. German, Austrian, and English courts routinely imported French and Italian musicians to fill key posts, and with them came the latest repertory, styles, and techniques. While, on the , music basically remained a courtly enterprise; in England the huge economic upswing that began with the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 gave rise to a large, affluent musical public—an audience that was free to discuss its likes and dislikes openly in newspapers, taverns, and coffee houses. It was here that the notion of public opinion was born. For more than forty years, was the leading figure in this musical marketplace, and he skillfully adapted his art to the “taste of the town” whenever audiences gave up their subscriptions to his performances in favor of those given by others. At first, Handel was the driving force behind Italian opera in London, composing more than three dozen operas himself. Handel’s London casts included many of the most renowned singers of the day, including Faustina Bordoni, Franvesca Cuzzoni, the Senesino (Francesco Bernardi), and the Susannah Cibber, who regularly appeared as an actress with Garrick in London and Dublin. Later on, it would be through Handel’s ongoing seasons of oratorios (public theatrical ) based on Biblical texts that his audiences would begin to recognize that his works had edifying qualities that served the betterment of the British nation. And once he began to perform them for charitable causes, the public embraced his music as their own. This can be seen most clearly in his , a work that has been performed every year since its premiere in 1742. Although a broader view of music history might dub the first half of the 18th century “The Age of Handel,” a much less famous man of that time period by the name of continues to loom large. Born the son of the town music director of Eisenach and orphaned at the age of ten, Bach received the equivalent of a high school education, learned how to play the violin and organ, composing such works as the famous and in D Minor, and went on to hold a series of posts. After serving at the courts of Weimar and Cöthen for many years, Bach spent the last twenty-seven years of his life as the director of music of the city of Leipzig. Each week, Bach performed his music privately and in churches. But he rarely ever performed for a paying public audience. Even so, he spent his life preoccupied with creating a body of more than 1,000 works that embraced virtually every contemporary genre and style, while at the same time remaining deeply rooted in the music of the past. The only exception to this was that Bach never composed an opera. He did, on the other hand, compose a small number of secular cantatas that amount to operatic scenes which employ styles and techniques found in operas of the time. Curiously, given the progressive of his music, Bach published only a handful of works, mostly in sets, and all of them intended as vehicles for teaching styles, genres, and compositional techniques. These include the Six Partitas for Cembalo, the Italian Concerto and French , the St. Anne , and the Goldberg Variations. Just as important are the various sets of instrumental pieces he did not publish. These include the Well-Tempered Clavier, the unaccompanied works for violin, violoncello, and transverse , the sonatas for violin and cembalo, the , and the Art of Fugue. Insofar as vocal works are concerned, Bach composed

7 the Mass in B Minor, the St. Matthew Passion, and other oratorios celebrating the birth, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and approximately 200 sacred cantatas.

8 THE CLASSICAL ERA (1720-1820) Text by L. Michael Griffel and Aaron Wunsch; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen

As the late Baroque proceeded, with its complex counterpoint and large-scale designs, there arose a contrasting style stressing simplicity, ornamentation, refinement, charm, and a homophonic texture (in which voices move together chord by chord), rather than counterpoint. This pre-Classical style first appeared in music in France, as practiced by François Couperin and Rameau, but it soon spread to the rest of Europe. Its two most influential styles were the style galant (gallant style) and the empfindsamer Stil (sensitive style). The galant was a style of grace, lightness, and decorativeness, as evident in Couperin’s music, the works of such Italian composers as Giovanni Pergolesi and Giovanni Sammartini, and in the music of German composer (the youngest son of J. S. Bach). The empfindsamer Stil stressed emotionality and sentimentality and was practiced by C. P. E. Bach, the second oldest and most widely respected son of J. S. Bach. Also during the pre-Classical period, took flight. In Italy, the comical eventually grew into , still employing and aria; in France there was opéra comique, using French spoken dialogue rather than recitative; the comic genre in was the Singspiel, and in England it was the ballad opera, both of which also used spoken dialogue. The orchestral sinfonia or overture eventually separated from operas, oratorios, and orchestral suites and became a main interest of composers everywhere, expanding into three-movement and, later, four-movement symphonies. Great centers of symphonic music included , Mannheim, Vienna, Paris, and London. Four- part harmony and clear structures, such as binary, ternary, theme and variations, rondo, and—especially— form, became the standard emphases of Classical composers, not only in symphonies but also in keyboard sonatas, string quartets, other instrumental genres, and even vocal compositions. The , which had started in the mid-17th century as a cultural movement among philosophers, scientists, and historians, pervaded the art of music in the second half of the 18th century. It was an age in which people looked to the power of reason to increase their knowledge and, in music, sought balance, , clarity, and comprehensibility, as well as emphasized sounds that would be pleasing to the ear. In opera, Christoph Willibald Gluck reformed the genre by making the words clearer and the dramatic flow more convincing and by disallowing singers to take unwarranted liberties with the music. An admirer of Gluck, brought opera to new heights, balanced perfectly between music and drama, with works such as Le nozze di Figaro, , and Die Zauberflöte. Part of Mozart’s genius was to imbue even his comic operas with a great deal of seriousness and pathos. Franz and Mozart were the leading composers of the late 18th century, both of them active in Vienna but famous in much of Europe. Haydn composed more than 100 symphonies ( No. 79), more than 65 string quartets (, op. 77 no. 2/1), and more than 50 keyboard sonatas, demonstrating mastery of the structures and harmonic language of the era, as well as an ability to communicate humor, religiosity, drama, folksiness, and every imaginable mood through music. Mozart also

9 wrote in the various instrumental genres of the time (Gran Partita, Menuet) but did much of his finest work in the fields of opera and the concerto ( in D Minor, K. 466/3). Mozart died at the age of 35 in 1791, and carried on the traditions of the Classical period during the next decades while also pushing music into a more extreme, sometimes even shocking, style. A master at handling and developing musical motives, Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, and 9 symphonies became touchstones for many composers who followed. Beethoven was also influential in asserting the importance of music and the composer to humankind at large, and his musical and personal ambitions inspired a new generation of professional composer-performers. Although the leading composers of the era were men, the leading performers and dedicatees of their works were more diverse, including the Maria Theresia Paradis (probably the dedicatee of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat Major, K. 456) and the multiracial violinist George Bridgetower (who, in 1803, gave the first performance of Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 in A Major, op. 47 ["Kreutzer"] with the composer).

10 THE ROMANTIC ERA (1800-1910) Text by Anthony Netz; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the inception of the , musical emerged in a Europe where freedom, innovation, individuality, and expressive intensity were highly valued. Beethoven’s music composed after 1800—charged with harmonic, , structural, and rhythmic surprises that challenged Classical norms—reflected the spirit of its time. Although contemporary listeners were perplexed by some of his work (especially the string quartets composed at the end of his life), Beethoven’s musical legacy provided a cornerstone for musical Romanticism in great pieces such as his Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") and the monumental Symphony No. 9. To a greater extent than in earlier periods, the middle class—increasingly numerous and prosperous thanks to the Industrial Revolution—became an important patron of the musical arts during the Romantic era. A great quantity of intimate music (art songs, enormous amounts of piano music) was composed for performance by middle-class amateurs. On the other hand, an immense repertory of monumental music (grand operas, choral works, and symphonies for vast ) was composed to delight middle-class audiences in the splendid public halls that were erected in most European cities throughout the . During the Romantic era, there was a strong interest in achieving a fusion of music with other arts. This interest contributed to the popularity of the —the for voice and piano—in which a fusion of music (melody and accompaniment) and was achieved. Schubert is especially remembered for his many Lieder (some quite simple; some quite complex) (Erlkönig). Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms continued the tradition and, at the end of the century, Mahler enriched the genre by composing many songs for voice and . Seeking to achieve an even more comprehensive fusion of the arts, Wagner developed a new kind of opera in which vocal music, the symphony, text, and philosophy were merged to form a comprehensive art. is characterized by an intensity of expression. Italian composers such as Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi (La Traviata) focused on the expressive potential of the human voice in operas that placed characters in extreme, emotion-charged situations. Composers also used unusual chords, dissonances, delayed resolution, and to communicate vividly extreme emotion. In Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, all these techniques are pushed to the maximum in connection with the expression of the insatiable longing the title characters feel for each other. was not new in the 19th century, but it became more prevalent and sophisticated then. Middle-class audiences, lacking a thorough training in abstract musical forms and procedures, welcomed titles and prose descriptions that related a musical work to a story or something familiar. Much Romantic piano music bears atmospheric and descriptive titles (e.g., , , spinning songs) that make the meaning of the work more specific and more comprehensible. A sophisticated example of program music is Berlioz’s . Here, the composer tells a complex story over the course of the symphony, providing titles and a paragraph of description for each of its five movements. Later in the century, Liszt and favored the

11 (or tone poem), a new type of single-movement programmatic symphony that used the orchestra in imaginative ways to suggest ideas, images, and events in the program. In their pursuit of innovation and expressive intensity, many Romantic composers became obsessed with timbre—the actual sound of the music. The great piano virtuoso Liszt had a fanatic following in part because he transformed the piano into a reduced orchestra, obtaining from the instrument a dazzling spectrum of new sounds. Berlioz, Wagner, Mahler, and others required vast orchestras that included all the newest instruments, as well as conventional instruments with all the latest improvements. Sometimes, even this was not enough: Wagner himself designed new instruments to produce precisely the tone color he required! As the 19th century progressed, a tide of nationalism resulted in the unification of both Germany and Italy and provoked a series of revolutions in smaller countries that were occupied by larger ones. Given the Romantic confidence in the extreme expressive power of music, one is not surprised that many composers expressed their fervent patriotism in their music: Chopin, living in Paris, expressed devotion to his native Poland in piano and based on Polish dance types; Dvořák and Smetana wrote operas in Czech and included folklike melodies in their music (Dvořák, Slavonic Dance No. 1); and the Russian composer Musorgsky deliberately cultivated a somewhat rough style that avoided the musical structures, procedures, and polish of mainstream Western music. Over the course of the Romantic century, there were many composers, such as Berlioz, Liszt (Au bord d’une source), Wagner, and Richard Strauss, who were famous for being progressive. Other, more conservative composers (e.g., Mendelssohn, Chopin ( in A-flat), Schumann, and Tchaikovsky) avoided the excessive extremes of Romanticism. Especially perceived as a reactionary by Romantic progressives, Brahms made important contributions to most of the major genres of the 19th century, but he avoided descriptive programs, as well as conspicuous virtuosity in his piano works, and required only a somewhat amplified classical orchestra (Symphony No. 2). Nevertheless, his economical, fiercely concentrated music is absolutely Romantic in its emotional intensity, advanced harmony, and rich exploration of color. The Romantic style survived through the first decade of the 20th century. After 1900, however, composers like Mahler and Richard Strauss pushed the elements of Romanticism to ever greater extremes: Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 is a titanic fusion of oratorio and symphony that was first presented by more than 1,000 performers; Strauss’s operas Salome and Elektra pushed the limits of even further than Wagner had. But some musicians began to feel that the style had been exhausted or needed to evolve; consequently, several younger composers began to explore new options.

12 THE 20th AND 21st CENTURIES Text by Joel Sachs; YouTube links selected by Fred Fehleisen

By the arrival of the twentieth century, “” had won over an overwhelmingly conservative public, and many living composers, such as , enjoyed successful careers, writing music in a style that did not challenge accepted standards. As in all the arts, however, a smaller group felt that the traditional language no longer yielded fresh ideas. Among the earliest of them were (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune) and Erik Satie, who preferred following their instincts to obeying the old rules of composition. The second generation was led by and , whose striking originality emerged around 1910. In scores such as Le Sacre du printemps, Stravinsky showed how traditional idioms of could invigorate the musical world; using his so-called “emancipated dissonance,” Schoenberg revitalized concepts of harmony and melody that had seemed frozen in time, applying his new language in works such as Pierrot lunaire. The huge difference between his music and Stravinsky’s vividly illustrates how the younger generations in all the arts were forging highly individual styles that required listeners, viewers, and readers to open their minds to unprecedented adventures. These new rebels, whose styles ranged from art with powerful intellectual underpinnings to raw experiments, provoked both admiration and intense hostility based on a fear that art, like society, was going through possibly fatal changes. The terrifying destructiveness of I (1914-1918) drove the postwar public to seek security in the familiar—to be entertained, not challenged. Most arts in Europe turned much more conservative; “neo-” or a deliberate frivolousness displaced innovation. New music in general faced a difficult battle with resistant performers and audiences. , especially American, continued to captivate the public, thanks especially to new media—radio and recording, then sound movies. became the rage. Nevertheless, forward thinking was far from dead. Assimilating his knowledge of peasant music with his deep love for the , Béla Bartók produced works such as the String Quartet No. 4, completely fresh music that eventually found a home in the central repertory. Schoenberg, eager to enhance the unity and comprehensibility of his music, devised a generally applicable means of solidifying compositional coherence, which he called the Method of Composing with Twelve Tones Related Only One to Another. His two most gifted pupils, (Concerto for Nine Instruments, op. 24) and (), continued to stretch the minds of listeners. In the , radical innovators such as Charles Ives (The Concord Sonata), (The Banshee), Ruth Crawford Seeger, and French-born Edgard Varèse (Ionisation) were showing that Americans also had some great maps to the future path of music. They, however, had to fight the European prejudice that the only authentically “American” music was jazz, and that only composers like and were worth any attention. The onset of the worldwide economic depression and the rise of ruthless dictatorships put European to an end. As almost the entire continent and the Soviet Union fell under the dictators’ control, expressions of original thoughts became mortally dangerous. By the time the Second World War ended in 1945, tens of millions of

13 people had been killed as combatants, civilian casualties, and victims of political or racial persecution and mass extermination. Europe’s cultural life was a wreck. The lucky ones emigrated, bringing leadership in the arts to the Western Hemisphere, and particularly to the United States. In peacetime the fragmentation of musical idioms resumed. The extremes were represented by descendants of the Schoenberg-Webern lineage, such as Milton Babbitt (Philomel), Elliott Carter, (Dérive 1), and the proponents of music embracing all sounds and employing chance procedures, led by John Cage (Concerto for Prepared Piano). “Extended techniques” of performance brought new worlds of sound from traditional instruments. “Minimalists” Steve Reich (Music for 18 Musicians), Philip Glass, and Terry Riley developed personal styles from the fusion of Western and non-Western resources. A “new lyricism” was made famous by George Crumb (Vox Balaenae / Voice of the Whale); other composers found inspiration in the conservative tradition. In the late 1960s, signs emerged of a broader “postmodernism,” a catch-all term describing a wide spectrum of composers, architects, visual artists, and choreographers who refused to cling to any single ideology and drew upon all imaginable sources, from “high art” to “low art.” Meanwhile, as musical life in Europe gradually was restored, more and more countries began producing wonderful composers, to the point that the old domination of Germany, France, and Austria has been challenged especially by Britain, the , Scandinavia, and modernist Italy. After the death of Stalin, the Soviet Union’s talent was also unleashed, not only in Russia (Schnittke, Symphony No. 4), but in many other republics, especially in Central Asia. Perhaps one of the most remarkable general changes has been the enormous increase in women from all over the world who are making careers as composers. Prominent examples are Sofia Gubaidulina (from Russia, now living in Germany), Tania León (Cuba/United States), and Betty Olivero (Israel). This doctrine of open-ended freedom is a striking feature of today’s music, which increasingly draws upon the disparate of the world. Cultural fusion has been reinforced by the emergence of strong composers in Canada, , Asia (Akira Nishimura, String Quartet No. 2), and very gradually in ; and by innovations in popular music and electronics. Improved communications, transportation, and technology all have contributed to today’s music world. When one can email to anywhere a new composition, impeccably notated with a modern music-writing program, even composers from some of the world’s poorest countries have gained access to top performers. Being able to create a convincing version of a full orchestra on a sampler has strong positive and negative implications. Whether or not today’s globalized musical world is good, bad, or indifferent remains to be seen. As to the much-debated question of whether “classical music” is dying, one can only observe that new music draws heavily upon a young audience. The challenge for the future will be to reassemble the notions on classical music and its presentation so that a healthy, living art form can flourish.

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