How did each deal with the past in music?
Taruskin states, “Modernism is not just a condition but a commitment (Taruskin, 1).” This commitment to modernism is what each composer is bringing with them as we are “observing a symbiotic process of highly self-conscious technical innovation and expanded technical resources over the whole course of the nineteenth century (Taruskin, 2).” Richard Strauss, an innovative German Romantic composer and conductor, to many historians can receive such a label as the heir of Richard Wagner. Born into a musical family, father being a principal horn player with the Munich Court Orchestra, his compositional influences find root in Wagner’s opera’s and Liszt’s symphonic poems. Similar to Strauss, the French
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Stravinsky’s “Right of Spring” is such an example. The harmony in The Rite of Spring is a direct continuation of “Petrouchka.” “Petrouchka” appearing on the musical scene in 1911, and its prevailing musical language ran from an "impressionist haziness to the boisterousness of the post-Wagnerian symphony a la Strauss.” Against this background, "unleashing of the crude, spiky, and the incisive sonorities we find in Petrushka was bound to appear startlingly revolutionary" (Vlad,1978, p.18). One of the most immediately striking features of Petrouchka is the use of the piano; not as a featured soloist but as an integral part of the orchestral sound; which imparts a distinctive flavour to the ensemble (Austin, 1966, p.251). The Russian Dance which features a toccata-like character is dominated by the percussion instruments and the "percussive intonations of the piano" …show more content…
Taruskin elaborates, “Strauss’s music raised eyebrows even higher than the play (Salome), both for the obvious ways in which it intensified the play’s challenge to conventional morality, and for the novelty of its technical procedures (Taruskin, 37).” Embracing nontraditional scales and tonal structures, Claude Debussy comments, in Taruskin, “There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law (Taruksin, 356).” Was it the nontraditional scales and tonal structures that brought that Debussy was referring? Is there no theory to his nontraditional scales? Or, was Debussy merely focusing on pleasure rather than the theory behind his compositions? Perhaps it was, in his later works, incorporating the elements of the gamelan into his existing style to produce a wholly new kind of sound that he was referring. Maurice Rave, according to Taruskin, “Ravel was not a major essayist… (Taruskin, 86).” But Ravel’s “main thesis is that all great works are shaped by two types of influence – the national and the individual (Taruskin,
Classical music can be best summed by Mr. Dan Romano who said, “Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn't hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It's communication. Its hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments...but if done well and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That's art, speaking with your heart to the hearts of others.” Starting at a young age Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have done just that with their musical compositions. Both musical composers changed the world of music and captivated the hearts of many. Their love of composing shared many similar traits, though their musical styles were much different.
The concert I attended was the Liszt, Prokofiev, and Dvořák concert at the Chicago Symphony Center. Emmanuel Krivine is a French conductor who conducted the orchestra to play Liszt’s compositions Les Préludes, Symphonic Poem No. 3. Next was Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 in the Andantino, Scherzo: Vivace, Moderato, Allegro tempestoso, the piano soloist was Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin who was accompanied by The Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Lastly was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 was performed by The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the four movements played was, Allegro con Brio, Adagio, Allegretto grazioso, and Allegro MA non troppo.
Schwartz, Boris. Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia, 1917-1981. 2nd edition. Indiana University Press, 1983.
Beethoven is viewed as a transitional figure between the classical and romantic eras and from 1800 to 1809 he wrote some of the most revolutionary compositions in the history of western music. This essay therefore will aim to discuss the numerous ways in which Ludwig Van Beethoven expanded the formal and expressive content of the classical style he inherited. From the early 1770s to the end of the eighteenth century the concept of the symphonic style and sonata style dominated most of the music composed. These forms, employed countless times by Mozart and Haydn, stayed relatively constant up until the end of the eighteenth century, when Beethoven began to extend this Viennese classical tradition. Many musicologists have put forward the idea of Beethoven music falling into four periods.
Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.
All had great influence on later composers, Mozart on Beethoven, Bartók on Copeland and Bach on everyone including his twenty or so children
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are very famous past composers that have created many pieces that have influenced not just people of their time, but people in modern times as well.
... Joseph Joachim (Brahms’ good friend and virtuoso violinist) and Clara Schumann represented the conservatives, while the progressives were lead by Franz Liszt (in which Brahms been acquainted with earlier) and Richard Wagner (Burnett 111). While the main disagreement between the two parties were that the radical progressives favoured new styles in writing and form, Brahms was “passionately convinced that he was upholding the great and noblest traditions of German art and German music” (Burnett 112). However, deemed a conservative, Brahms’ work offers a conflicting view. Despite Brahms being grounded in tradition, there is a rationale of why he is not a sole classicist; his love of expression and this manifestation through his works as purpose to advance German works into the romantic light, is enough to deem him as a progressive, rather than a grounded conservative.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind’s conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War.
In the early 20th century, modernist writers broke free of the consistent pattern on the themes of religion, marriage, and family values, branching out with their actual opinions and observations on society, making more readers aware of the corruption of the traditional morality in America. It became evident that the American people were placing lust, wealth, and material prosperity over their marital vows and traditional values. This idea of amorality is noticeably identified in the literary works, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Major characters in both novels show signs of demoralization, in regards to Tom Buchanan, for example, whom openly cheated on his wife, broke the nose of his mistress, and sold Gatsby’s fate down the river, and Abigail, whom slept with a married man and killed an entire village in spite of the deteriorated affair. In this new, cutting-edge society the concept of materialism is prevalent. Materialistic power became a goal for many Americans in modern America, which is identifiable in The Great Gatsby. People of East and West Egg indulged themselves with parties, pricey automobiles and the latest fashions, meanwhile, the people in the Valley of Ashes merely scraped by. Jay Gatsby out of his desire to 'own' Daisy went to great lengths to appear as a man of great fortune.
Richard Wagner was one of the most influential and controversial classical composers of all time. Most of his works were operas and they addressed many aspects of his personal feelings: society, politics, religions, etc. Though many hated (and still hate) him and his work, most revere him to be a multitalented genius that brought 19th Century music to higher levels.
Contemporary Music Seminar Assignment 2 Consider Stravinky’s use of Neo-Classicism in his compositions. Kieran Parker Class: AMUS3A DKIT ID: D00150236 Tutor: Dr. Aisling Kenny To consider the use of Neo-Classicism in Igor Stravinsky’s (1882 – 1971) works, one must take a look at how this particular genre encapsulated Stravinsky’s taste for the classical styling’s of J.S. Bach and others. One will discuss the important functioning of the builds in his writing such as the implementation of the traditional musical forms such as the fugue and the symphony among others. Reference will be made to specifically to his Octet For Winds (1923) and give a brief insight into his other Neo Classical compositions.
"There are all kinds of love in this world, but never the same love twice." (F. Scott Fitzgerald).
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).
piece a modernist one. The play’s dialogue, technology, and the fragmentation of the piece, are