02-11-12 chamber choir 20th-century composers

7/30/2019 02-11-12 Chamber Choir 20th-Century Composers

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Three well-known 20th

-century classical composers were Charles Griffes, Gustav Holst,

and Paul Hindemith. All three were born in the late 19th

-century but composed most of their

famous works in the 1900s. Many historical events that occurred in their lifetimes affected the

music they wrote.

Charles Griffes was born in Elmira, New York in 1884. As a child, he had an early interest

in painting and drama. His sister, Katharine, often played European classics on the piano, which

inspired him to master the instrument as well. In 1903, at the age of 24, Griffes took a voyage

to Berlin, Germany that was financed by his piano mentor, Mary Selena Broughton. He studied

in Berlin for four years, and like many other composers, Germany began to have a musical

effect on him. He became fluent in German and encountered several prominent artists, such as

Richard Strauss, Ferruccio Busoni, Isadora Duncan, and Enrico Caruso. The German experience

plunged Griffes into the musical styling of Romanticism.

In order to economically support himself, he returned to New York in 1907. He took a

post as music instructor at Hackley School in Tarrytown, to make a living. He was frequently

unhappy. His genius compositional abilities far exceeded his duties and small salary. He was

also a homosexual, and could not publicly express this at Hackley. He felt increasingly isolated

emotionally and artistically, so during this time, his compositions were scarce. Because of

World War I, there were many anti-German feelings in America. Griffes felt cut off from his

European friends in Germany. The sense of isolation and lack of appreciation for his talents

spurred him to find recognition from his works in the professional world. At this time, his

compositions became much less conventional. His music was influenced by an eclectic mix of


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French Impressionism, Oriental arts, and experimenting. Many of his works had a lot of

dissonance, reflecting the chaotic time period in his life.

After 1914, his life took an upswing. The on-going liaison with John Meyer, a married

New York policeman, provided a sort of stability to his personal life. During this time, Griffes

produced his most important compositions, such as the tone poem The Pleasure Dome of Kubla

Khan and his Poem for Flute and Orchestra. Unfortunately, he died prematurely in 1920 at the

age of 35, from influenza.

Gustav Holst was an eclectic composer from England. His early music was influenced by

Greig, Wagner, and Strauss. However, as he travelled the globe, he was introduced to other

more obscure topics like Hindu spiritualism, folk tunes, and astronomy, which helped him

create his own style. In the early stages of his life, his composing success was minimal, but his

creation ofThe Planetsorchestral suite was his breakthrough piece. Unlike Charles Griffes,

Holst enjoyed teaching music. He was music master at a variety of colleges and schools in

London. Like Charles Griffes, World War I also affected Holst, but in a surprisingly positive

manner. There had been an embargo on contemporary German music, so throughout the war,

very few recent German compositions wee performed in England, including those by Strauss.

Holsts musical career was propelled by this. He retired from all teaching in 1923, and devoted

the remaining eleven years of his life to composition.


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A third 20th

-century composer is Paul Hindemith, a German nationalist, composer, string

player, teacher, and conductor. Throughout his life, his music style transformed from

Romanticism to Expressionism to a type of Neoclassicism. Hindemith employed a unique

musical system that was tonal but non-diatonic, meaning it centered on a tonic and modulated

tonic centers, but used all twelve notes freely. A key feature of his style was a melody that did

not clearly outline major or minor triads. Unlike Griffes and Holst, it was World War II that more

affected Hindemiths music. He had a very complicated relationship with the Nazis. Some Nazis

condemned his music as degenerate because of his early, sexually-charged operas. Even the

German Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Geobbels, publicly denounced Hindemith as an atonal

noisemaker. However, other Nazi officials thought he provided an example of a modern

German composer, to symbolize the progress of Germany. Throughout the 1930s, controversy

around his works continued, and he fell in and out of favor with the Nazi regime multiple times.

In the end, he emigrated to Switzerland in 1938, partly because his wife was Jewish.

Charles Griffes, Gustav Holst, and Paul Hindemith shared many commonalities. They

individually developed each of their own musical styles, and all had unique influences on their

compositions. All three of these 20th

-century composers were affected by historical events

occurring in their lifetimes.


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Works Cited

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemith
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hindemithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst#Artistic_Philosophyhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/composer/griffes.html

02-11-12 chamber choir 20th-century composers

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