Introduction to History of Western Music

FHS List A: Nineteenth-Century SymphonyDan Grimleydaniel.grimley@music.ox.ac.uk1Lecture 2. Inventing the German TraditionsNiels W. Gade: Overture, Efterklange af Ossian, op. 1 (1840)Wilhelm Wackenroder, Symphonien, Phantasien ber die Kunst, 1799Symphonies can represent a bright, varied confused and beautifully developed drama such as a poet can never provide: ... they depend on no laws of probability, they need cling to no story and to no character, they remain in their purely poetic world.Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung 22 (1820)[The symphony expresses] the universality of humanity, in which all the individual things are melted as single elements into a whole.Anon. review of Hesse, Symphony no. 2, AmZ 35 (1833)The art-works of Beethoven have placed this genre of music on a height above which it scarcely seems possible to climb.Robert Schumann, Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik, 9 July 1839:When the German speaks of symphonies, he means Beethoven. The two names for him are one and indivisiblehis joy, his pride.

2Leipzig and the Symphony #1Death of Beethoven and SchubertRepressive political regime (1815-48); cultural conservatismLeipzigs music-historical legacy (J S Bach)Institutional support (Gewandhaus concert series founded 1781)Publishing Houses (Breitkopf und Hrtel; Edition Peters; C F. Kahnt)Creative leadership (Schumann, Mendelssohn, Niels Gade)Political capitalEducational infrastructure (Conservatory founded 1843)

3Leipzig and the Symphony #2Schumann, review of 1839-40 Gewandhaus season NZM:It is well known that a worthy home for German music has been secured in the now fifty-years-old Gewandhaus concerts, and that this institution accomplishes more at present than it ever did before. With a famous composer at its head, the orchestra has brought its virtuosity to still greater perfection during the last few years. It has probably no German equal in its performance of symphonies, while among its members many finished masters of several instruments are to be found.Mendelssohn, programme for first concert at Gewandhaus, 4 October 1835: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage; Beethoven Symphony no. 44Schumanns programme for the Symphony(After Hepokoski, The Symphony after Beethoven)Germanic symphony must retain strong, ethical component; underpinned with moral seriousness and consistency of national character and not lose itself in special effects, amusement or divertissement;In the absence of foregrounded problematisation or transformation in individual works, traditional form decayed into insipid formula;Resulting formal shapes needed justification through strong expressive content, implicit or explicit, which draw movements together into single conception

Mendelssohn, Scottish SymphonyScotland: privileged place in Romantic imagination. Source of gothic sublime; Walter Scott; Ossian Ballads of James Macpherson. Idea from visit to Holyrood Palace, 1829. Letter 30 July (after Friedrich Schiller):In the depths of twilight we visited today the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved; there is a little room there, with a spiral staircase near the door; thats where they come up and found Rizzio in that room and dragged him out, and three rooms further on in a dark corner, much grass and ivy are growing there, and the decrepit altar is where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Its all ruined and crumbling now, and the bright sky shines down into it. I think that there, today, Ive found the beginning of my Scottish symphony.6Scottish Symphony: Formal PlanMendelssohn: The movements of this symphony must follow one another immediately, and must not be separated by the customary long pauses. For the listeners, the content of the movements can be indicated on the concert programme as follows:

MovementTempoKeyTopic/CharacterIntroAndante con motoa minor6V7bardic invocation 1Allegro un poco agitatoa minorchivalric adventure[CodaAndante come Ia minorbardic invocation]

2Vivace non troppoF majorCountry dance 3AdagioA majorPrayer/supplication

4Allegro vivacissimoA minorV7Battle cryCodaAllegro maestoso assaiA major!Triumphal march

7Mendelssohn 3: the finale problemGreg Vitercik: Unfortunately, the symphony does not dissolve into the mists. Instead, it closes on a swelling tide of A-major solemnity, sounding the fatal touch of Victorian profundity that stalks through so much of Mendelssohns later music.Peter Mercer-Taylor: Coda modeled on hymn (Festgesang), Vaterland, in deinen Gauen brach der golden Tag einst an composed for 1840 Gutenberg celebration: Whatever else may be true, Mendelssohn was invoking a style of compositiona particular Klang that was expressed through not only parameters of orchestration, range, and general melodic style but also a recognizable pool of musical gestures. (p. 77)

8The Symphony and Museum Culture (Mercer-Taylor)What remains [at end of the Scottish Symphony] is to dwell on its memory through the conventional strains of public celebration. the establishment of a musical past emerges not only as a possibility but the goal of a new symphonic teleology. The goal of the symphonythat is, both the Scottish symphony and the genre as a wholewas to return to former times, only in a manner that was conscious of its own status as retrospection and pointedly drew attention to this condition. The symphony was being reconstructed in the image of an epigonic generation. The reverent elevation of the past had become an end in itself. (pp. 81-2)9Schumann and the SymphonyReview of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, NZM July-August 1835:Form is the vessel of the spirit. Greater spaces require greater spirit to fill them. The word symphony has hitherto designated instrumental music of the greatest proportions ... It is enough for second-class talents to master the received forms; those of the first rank are granted the right to enlarge them. Only the genius may range freely.Symphony no. 1 (Spring), sketched in 4 days, 23-6 Jan 1841first version of D minor [no. 4] August 1841, premiered in December; revised 1851, published 1853no. 2 in C, 1845-6no. 3 Rhenish November-December 1850, after move to Dsseldorf5-movement design: fourth movement inspired by solemn ceremony at Cologne cathedral.10Schumann 3: first movementBarsFormal SectionKeyTexture/AffektEXPOSITION1-76PEVHeroic style/tutti77-94TRIV6g minorTutti, abating95-164S (+ P!)g minor! BLyrical/woodwindsCODA165-184EEC (C)BDEVELOPMENT185TR, S, CV/c, modulatoryUnstable273PivB major!Stormybrilliant!REPRISE411-56PI6/4!V/viHeroicbut unstable457-504SviELyrical/woodwinds505TRV/IExpectantCODA527-85ESC (P)ITriumphant

11ConclusionsSymphony explicitly national projectInterconnected with models of cultural regenerationInvention of tradition (Hobsbawm); Imagined communities (Anderson)Boundary between absolute/programmatic often permeableSupported by complex infrastructureFormally innovativeculturally conservative?Musical discourse which foresees its own end?