PART 5: Video Intro

 

No doubt you know the mournful melody, "Taps"-- the one that is always played by a single bugle-- the tune that we associate with death and the rite of burial. You can hardly hear that melody without having a strong feeling in the pit of your stomach.  "Taps" is the very expression of grief.  It is a melody that has associations for you, associations that are shared by many others.  The way we think and feel when we hear "Taps" is exactly how people in the early 19th century thought and felt when they heard the medieval tune "Dies Irae," (Day of Wrath).  This sober tune was always performed with just the melody and without any accompaniment or harmonization-- just like Taps.  It was the piece of music that was performed at Requiem services and other rites of burial.

 

Now imagine how you might feel if someone made a version of "Taps" that was all pumped up-- like a rap version, or maybe a1950s spoof, or let's say, a "boogie-woogie" version.  They harmonized it and made a parody of it.  If you had memories of "Taps" being played at the funeral of someone you knew, you might very well look on the parodies as obnoxious or offensive.

That is basically what happened in a French concert hall in 1830.  The audience arrived, most probably the glitteringly bejewelled high society set, expecting to enjoy themselves at a symphony orchestra concert, with the premiere of a work by a composer named Hector Berlioz. To their astonishment, however, as they walked into the hall they were handed a pamphlet. It read like an autobiographical confession of that composer Berlioz, who basically admitted that the symphony that they were about to hear was written under the influence of opium and that it was a fantastical story of love.

"A young musician of morbidly sensitive temperament and passionate imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of lovesick despair,"  the tract begins.  "The dose of the narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest visions, during which his sensations, his emotions, and his memories are transformed in his diseased mind into musical thoughts and images.  Even the woman he loves becomes a melody to him, an idée fix [fixed idea], as it were, that he encounters and hears everywhere..."

The pamphlet with it's embarrassing contents was shocking enough for the audience.  But while listening to the piece they were treated to another affront.  Toward the end of the work, Berlioz took the "Dies Irae" tune and twisted it grotesquely into a blasphemous burlesque. The program note for this part includes "devilish orgies" and other macabre and sinister things.

The reaction was predictable.  And Berlioz' career was never the same again, of course-- he became a star.  The Symphonie Fantastique is one of the most famous works in the history of music for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the "Madison Avenue" type hype with which it was premiered.  But what is extraordinary about the piece from the purely musical standpoint is its use of an "extra-musical" idea to generate an entire symphony.  The idea of such a symphony was not entirely new-- Beethoven had written a Pastoral Symphony, complete with thunder claps and storm scenes, babbling brooks and chirping birds.  But Beethoven's symphony was rather an anomaly in symphonic writing-- until Berlioz.

The general term for pieces which present a literary idea or any "extra-musical" idea (either evoking it generally, or spelling it out clearly) is Program Music.  The general term for music which does not refer to an extra-musical or literary idea is Absolute Music.

The idea that music could work so hand-in-glove with a text was an idea that appealed to the new generation of 19th century composers who had witnessed the exciting literary explosion of Romanticism. Translating literary ideas into music was a potent idea which, toward the end of the century, became a kind of dividing line between Romantic composers.

When they say that Berlioz "wrote the book" on orchestration they really mean it!  His Treatise on Orchestration of 1840 is a classic that is still used in conservatory classes today. Orchestration is the art of combining instruments (i.e., knowing when to double them, learning what kind of sound a certain combination of instruments will yield, being able to choose the best instrumentation to achieve the orchestration you want).

Hector Berlioz

Not every composer is gifted at orchestration, and even when it is taught in conservatories, the natural talent and ear of one composer can elevate their orchestration above that of another composer.  In the history of composing, some famous composers such as George Gershwin and Robert Schumann were known to be weak in the art of orchestration.  Gershwin even gave his work (the wonderful Rhapsody in Blue is a case in point) to someone else to orchestrate after he had composed it!

Symphonie Fantastique is important in the history of music for its imaginative orchestration. The wildly original assortment of colors that Berlioz achieves constitute a veritable primer on the art of orchestration.  It is an enormously entertaining piece to listen to for this reason.

Symphonie Fantastique is also famous for the idée fix ["fixed idea"]. This was a theme used as a metaphor to represent the heroine-turned-witch character of the story.  Berlioz threads this idea throughout the piece, using it to weave a kind of continuity into the overall shaping of the piece.

Do get hold of  Symphonie Fantastique! Your Kamien CD set has only the 4th movement of the piece, while the outrageous parody of "Dies Irae" is in the 5th movement.  It's best to hear the whole piece, though- it's well worth getting to know.

Symphonie Fantastique was important to 19th century composers because it represented an answer to a problem that had vexed them ever since Beethoven started breaking down formal barriers: how to organize their music in a satisfying way.  As I mentioned in an earlier lecture, the response to Beethoven's legacy was a complicated and contradictory one, especially vis-a-vis the issue of programmatic content.  As composers attempted to find new options in form, new ways to organize their works, the concept of programmatic music became more and more attractive. Program music (or Programme music) offered a way to loosely organize music without putting too many constraints on a composer.

Not everyone felt that programmatic music was a positive trend, however, and the issue became deeply divisive.  A lot of ink was spilled over the matter in literary journals of the day, as for instance in these vehement attacks from the composer Franz Liszt, who was greatly in favor of the new ideals of program music:

This is quite insulting language!

As the "inventor" of the "symphonic poem" Liszt was strongly in the programmatic camp. The "symphonic poem" was an orchestral piece organized very loosely, with programmatic associations. "Symphonic poems" were more evocative than literal-- in other words, they conjured up extra-musical associations in a more vague way, suggesting generally rather than depicting literally.

Richard Wagner's response to Beethoven (whom he called "The Master"), was to appropriate Beethoven to his own side of the argument and to use Beethoven as a defense for his own inclinations. In his treatise, Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft (The Artwork of the Future, 1850), Wagner forged a direct line of descent from Beethoven to himself, proclaiming pompously: "Beethoven's last symphony is the salvation of music out of its own element to become unified art. It is the human gospel of the art of the future. Beyond it no progress is possible, for only the completed artwork of the future can follow immediately upon it, the unified drama, the artistic key which Beethoven has forged for us."

Wagner regarded music as a means to carry out drama.  In fact, he rejected the term "opera" for his works, preferring the term, "music drama." It's been observed that the terms "symphonic poem" and "music drama" are similar in intent, because they both evoke literature (symphonic poem, music drama). Wagner's operas have been compared to symphonic poems in that he worked out the drama in the orchestra, and the words and action on the stage functioned like the program in a symphonic poem- they clarified the symphonic score. Wagner's music dramas also resembled the symphonic poem in that they also rejected formal, defining shapes; there were no four-square phrases and no clear cadences, and the orchestra was very prominent.

PIANO MUSIC OF THE 19TH CENTURY

 

"Try to play easy pieces well.  It's better than playing difficult ones badly."  --Robert Schumann  To me there is something romantic about the very outlines of a piano-- it is such a glorious instrument with such an illustrious heritage. The piano was the instrument of the romantic era and many of the "chesnuts" of the piano repertoire were created during this time.

In the 19th century, important improvements were made in piano construction.  These include the "Double-escapement action" which made the keys work faster and more reliably; more tension on the strings (65 lbs. on each!) to achieve more sound; cast iron frames, which kept it from going out of tune so fast and which supported the tension; improved soundboard and overstringing; leather covered hammers, which were eventually replaced by felt as early as 1826, and became common around1850; and a wider compass.  Finally, the pedals were lowered and put in the place we now find them (operated by foot, instead of the old way, operated by knee levers right under the keyboard).  By 1865 the basic piano we use today was in place.

Below is a discussion of some of the contributions of three major Romantic piano composers.

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

Liszt led a fascinating life that went back and forth between the sublime and the ridiculous- from lapping up the adolatry at his concerts like a rock star, to retreating to seclusion to write some of the most quiet, introspective music imaginable.

He fathered children out of wedlock but later became an abbe (a secular priest!)  Liszt is sometimes painted as a rather two-dimensional figure in history, a composer of glitzy piano music of a sentimental nature-- but it is not an accurate portrayal.  He was a very active writer of articles and books (including a biography of Chopin- though it is somewhat unreadable!)  Liszt was a pioneer in form, technique and harmony, anticipating some 20th century ideas and procedures.  As mentioned above, he also invented the term "symphonic poem".  He was a generous human being who gave his own money to finish the building of a memorial to Beethoven in Vienna, dispensed advice to young composers and furthered their careers by transcribing their works and performing them in piano recitals.

Liszt was born in 1811 in Hungary. At the age of 6 he showed an interest in the piano and in gypsy music and sacred music (he also showed great interest in religion and spirituality, something which stayed with him, on and off, his whole life).  At 8 he began to compose. His father taught him at an early age, but by 1820 a group of wealthy local Hungarians put up the money for his formal musical education. In 1821 the family moved to Vienna where Liszt studied piano with Czerny (a disciple of Beethoven) and composition with Mozart's famous rival, Salieri (then music director of the Viennese court). He was immediately received in aristocratic Austrian and Hungarian circles and met Beethoven and Schubert. (Beethoven, according to Liszt, kissed him on the forehead- he regarded that as his "musical christening!")

In 1830 Liszt met Berlioz on the day before the first performance of Symphonie Fantastique-- a work which deeply impressed him. In 1831 he heard Paganini for the first time.  Paganini was perhaps the greatest violinist who ever lived, a virtuoso so fine that people attributed his skill to the devil!  Liszt determined to do for the piano what Paganini had done for the violin-- and indeed his works are so difficult that they still remain unplayable by all but the finest pianists today.

photo of the young Liszt

At about this time Liszt was introduced to the Countess Marie d'Agoult, whom he fell in love with. In 1835 the countess left her husband and family to join Liszt in Geneva.  They lived together for four years and had three children together, but the union did not last.  Years later, Liszt moved to Weimar where he met the Countess Sayne-Wittgenstein, who became his companion for the remainder of his life.  She was a religious woman who encouraged his own religious tendencies. However, she too was married. When her request for a divorce was turned down by the Tsar of Russia, she moved in with Liszt in Weimar.

After their situation in Weimar deteriorated personally and professionally (people did not approve of their liaison) the princess left for Rome. Liszt left Weimar in 1861 and for the next 8 years lived mainly in Rome. It was here that he took four minor orders of the Catholic church (though he never became a priest).

Liszt was an experimenter, particularly in the last 15 or so years of his life. Some of his innovations in the area of harmony included:

* Delaying resolutions.

* Using more dissonance and more unusual chords such as diminshed and augmented, and tritones.

* His music was sometimes so chromatic (mixing so many of the "black notes" of the keyboard with the "white notes") that it was approaching "atonality," meaning that it did not seem to be written in a key at all.

* He pioneered the use of whole tone scales after c. 1860

* He used a technique called, "thematic transformation" in which a theme stated at the beginning of a work is transformed in character as the work goes on.

* He sometimes used unusual forms.  His b minor Sonata for Piano is extraordinary for fusing its four movements into one, and infusing all of them with the same few themes.

Liszt was a complex mixture of sometimes opposing attributes. As one historian has said, "He needed the anchor of the Catholic Church, but at the same time was passionately attracted to gypsy music ."  The swings back and forth between the sacred and secular were a strong part of Liszt's personality and life, and he could write big, bold, brash, brilliant symphonic poems on one hand, and small, introspective piano works on the other. He could vacillate between pioneering advanced harmonies and forms in one piece, and writing gypsy music in another.

 

Liszt, Les Jeux d'eau de la villa d'Este, which almost sounds like an impressionist piece (anticipating the impressionist composers of the later 19th century and early 20th century.) Also, the Sonata for Piano-- one of the all-time great pieces!

 

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1849)

Recently, much attention has been focused on the mental illness of Robert Schumann, and many present-day advocacy groups have even used him as an example of how humans cope with this terrible sickness .  From the start Schumann had emotional problems which were probably complicated by the tragedies of his youth- his sister Emilie's suicide in 1826 and the death of his father in the same year. Despite bouts of depression and schizophrenia he still carried on until the last few years of his life when he became too ill to function.  He was committed to an asylum, where he died.

Among other accomplishments, Schumann founded the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, a musical journal which began publication in 1834 and which is still in existence today.  He also collaborated with Mendelssohn on the publication of the works of Bach. He was a prolific writer who often wrote articles and reviews under two pseudonyms: Eusebius and Florestan. Perhaps this was a manifestation of his schizophrenia-- it was certainly a theme which plied his works as well.

Several of Schumann's greatest piano works share the same form: they consist of a string of small pieces combined into a larger work. You can't go wrong with any of these: Carnaval, Kreisleriana, Symphonic Etudes, and Humoreske.

Schumann eventually met Liszt and they became friends. Liszt's Piano Sonata in b minor was dedicated to Schumann.  But their musical styles were quite different, with Liszt being more of a musical extrovert and Schumann a musical introvert.  There is an intimacy of character in Schumann's piano writing that Liszt does not often cultivate until his late works.  By contrast, Schumann rarely achieves the same level of sonic brilliance and technical difficulty as Liszt.

Schumann married the pianist Clara Wieck, who was also a composer in her own right  (her works are available on commercial recordings today), though she mostly gave up composing after marrying Schumann and having children.  The married life of Clara and Robert was not without extreme difficulties. She was the original "super Mom" as Robert described her in 1841: "Clara is studying Beethoven (not to mention Schumann) with enthusiasm. She has helped me greatly to arrange my symphony. In between she is reading Goethe's life, but still chops beans when needed."  Clara was deeply loyal to him until the end and made it her personal mission to perform her husbands works at every opportunity.

As Schumann's mental health deteriorated, listening to music often became painful: "It cuts into my nerves as with knives." In 1844 he had a nervous breakdown. He had begun to experience problems walking, could not sleep, was hallucinating, and was obsessed with a fear of death and of tall buildings.  Plagued by imaginary sounds he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine. At that point he was taken to a private asylum where he lived out the final two years of his life.

Schumann was not in the programmatic camp, nor was he an admirer of those composers. (He knew Richard Wagner but did not like his music. As might be expected, Wagner did not care for Schumann's either.)  He was known for his piano music above all, though he wrote a number of absolutely exquisite chamber works and several symphonies as well.

FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810-1849)

Chopin is "the pianist's composer."   He wrote nothing but piano music (with only a few exceptions) and is a favorite composer among pianists not only for the beauty of his work but for his idiomatic writing. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who was famed for his interpretation of Chopin, once said that when Chopin is played, "perfume comes out of the piano."  This is a very clever, evocative way to describe the delicacy of effect and the elegance of Chopin's music. Chopin devoted himself to extending the piano repertoire.  Among his many advances:

* He enlarged the range of the hand through the use of the pedal.

* He wrote very lyrical melodies which he wove in and out of the accompaniment; the accompaniment  figuration is also often very active, even going up into the register of the melody.

* Sophisticated harmonic usage (enharmonicism and chromaticism).

* Chopin is particularly associated with tempo rubato,  a style of playing which enhances the expression of the music by rendering the tempo with flexibility.  Essentially, it is a pushing-pulling  feeling, or a slowing-down-and-speeding-up of the tempo.  But Chopin emphasized that at the core, tempo rubato was still a rather disciplined approach to tempo, since the lower hand kept a steady pulse while the upper hand indulged in the flexibility: "The left hand is the conductor. It must not waver or lose ground. Do with the right hand what you can & will."

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