MUS 3032 Dr. Alicia Wallace Southeastern Oklahoma State University

1. Chapter 29
Lecture Slides
A History of
Western Music
TENTH EDITION
by
J. PETER BURKHOLDER
DONALD JAY GROUT
CLAUDE V. PALISCA
© 2019 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

2. Dichotomies and Disputes
• Old versus new
• Classical repertory
• by 1850, concerts increasingly focused on musical classics
• proportion of older works grew
• revival of past music
• new field of musicology - most scholars were German
• music unearthed, published, studied
• Brahms vs. Wagner
• some created works in Classical tradition (Brahms)
• others saw legacy of Beethoven pointing in different direction (Wagner)
• shared common goals, linking themselves to Beethoven
• Nationalism and internationalism
• repertoire of German-speaking composers performed across Europe, Americas
• nationalism strong force in instrumental music, song, and choral music
• nationalism, as part of the international repertoire
LATE ROMANTICISM IN GERMAN MUSIC

3. LATE ROMANTICISM IN GERMAN MUSIC
Beethoven
Brahms
(Old-style with Romantic
elements)
Wagner
(“The New German School”)

5. JOHANNES BRAHMS
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) - Leading German
composer of his time
• born in Hamburg, settled in Vienna in 1868
• 1853, met Robert and Clara Schumann, strongest
supporter
• made living as a pianist and conductor, sales of
music to publishers
• active as editor of Baroque, Classic, and Romantic
composers
• major works: 4 symphonies, 2 piano concertos,
Violin Concerto, 2 overtures, 2 serenades, 3 string
quartets, 21 other chamber works, 3 piano sonatas,
numerous piano pieces, A German Requiem, choral
works, vocal ensembles, about 200 Lieder

6. Brahms’ Orchestral works
• standard established by Beethoven, wrote four symphonies after age of
forty
• Symphony No. 1in C Minor, Op. 68 (1876) - C minor to C major, echoes
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5
• Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 (1877) – has the lullaby theme from
his song “Wiegenlied”
• Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (1883) - Brahms trademark in finale’s
second theme: simultaneous triple and duple divisions of the beat – hemiola
• Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 (1885), finale (NAWM 160),
chaconne
• form reflects fascination with Baroque music
• variations on bass ostinato and harmonic pattern
• possible models for chaconne and variations from Bach
JOHANNES BRAHMS

7. Brahms’ Chamber music
• Chamber works include
piano trios, 3 piano
quartets
• string quartets:
comparison to
Beethoven inescapable
• Quintet for Piano and
Strings in F Minor, Op.
34 (1864), first
movement
• developing variation:
continuously building on
germinal ideas
• theme, series of variants
of its opening measure
JOHANNES BRAHMS

8. Brahms’ Piano music
• highly individual piano style
• frequent use of cross-rhythms,
hemiolas
• 1852–53, three large sonatas
• tradition of Beethoven
• incorporates chromatic
harmony of Chopin and Liszt
• songlike style of Schumann’s
character pieces
• in his twenties and thirties,
focus on variations
• Waltzes, Op. 39 (1865),
Hungarian Dances (1872)
• last two decades, six sets of
intermezzos, rhapsodies, and
other short pieces
JOHANNES BRAHMS

9. Brahms’ Songs
• Schubert as model for songwriting
• over 200 Lieder, many strophic or modified strophic form
• some imitate folk song style;
• piano, varied in texture, some accompaniments are very hard to play
• figuration changes every two to four measures, recalling Mozart
• accessible for amateur performers, and interesting to connoisseurs
• Some great songs of Brahms (in my humble opinion)
• “Von ewiger Liebe” – three characters (the boy, the girl, and the narrator), harkens
back to Schubert’s “Erlkönig”, hemiolos, tempo and figuration changes in the
piano for each secrtion and character who’s speaking
• “Wiegenlied” (“Lullaby”) – the famous lullaby song, sweet folk-like style
JOHANNES BRAHMS

10. Brahms’ Choral works
• all composed for amateur performers
• arranged German folk songs for chorus
• many short, unaccompanied partsongs
• many larger pieces, chorus with orchestra
• Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem, 1868)
• soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, and orchestra
• German text, passages from Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament
• universal themes of mortality, loss, comfort, blessing
• developed subtle and complex techniques; enormous importance to later composers
• never lost sight of average listener or musical amateur
JOHANNES BRAHMS

11. CHAPTER 29
Lecture Slides
A History of
Western Music
TENTH EDITION
by
J. PETER BURKHOLDER
DONALD JAY GROUT
CLAUDE V. PALISCA
© 2019 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

12. THE WAGNERIANS
The “New German School”
term by Franz Brendel, music critic
• composers leading new developments: Wagner, Liszt,
Berlioz
• German in spirit; Beethoven as their model
Beethoven
Brahms
(Old-style with
Romantic elements)
Wagner
(“The New German
School”)

13. THE WAGNERIANS
Franz Liszt – Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor
• 1848, retired from career as touring pianist
• court music director at Weimar, focused on composition
• poetic ideal, logical development of material more important
• symphonic poem –one-movement programmatic work that comes from
a variety of sources – poems, operas, etc.
• Liszt first applied the term Symphonische Dichtung based on Carl Loewe’s term
the tone poem (Tondichtung – tone poem in 1828)
• 1848 to 1858, Liszt wrote twelve symphonic poems
• Most famous is Les Preludes (1849-1855) – written for large orchestra, lots
of brass, and lots of percussion
• The Programme - What else is our life but a series of preludes to that
unknown Hymn, the first and solemn note of which is intoned by Death?—
• two programmatic symphonies - Faust Symphony (1854) &
Dante Symphony (1856)
• thematic transformation, like Wagner’s idea of the leitmotif and the
programmatic work like those of Berlioz (Symphonie Fantastique)

14. Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) – Austrian Composer,
Organist
• absorbed Wagner’s style and ethos into traditional
symphony
• reverent, liturgical approach to sacred texts
• internationally renowned organ virtuoso
• taught at Vienna Conservatory, lectured at University of
Vienna
• 9 numbered symphonies, 2 unnumbered ones
• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 as model
• influences of Wagner
• orchestration influenced by his experience as organist
• Symphony No. 4, first movement
• opens in similar manner to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
THE WAGNERIANS

15. Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) – Austrian/Slovenian Composer
• best known for adapting Wagner’s methods to German
Lied
• piano pieces, string quartet, symphonic works,
choruses, and an opera
• incapacitated by mental breakdown
• Lieder - 250 Lieder, periods of intense creativity, 1887
to 1897
• five principal collections of Lieder; single poet or group
• like Wagner, ideal of equality between words and music
• “Zur Ruh, zur Ruh” (1883)
• was composed shortly after Wagner died
• it is speculated that it was intended as an elegy
for Wagner
THE WAGNERIANS

16. Richard Strauss (1864–1949) – German
composer
• dominant figure in German musical life for
most of his career
• celebrated as conductor
• positions in opera houses of Munich,
Weimar, Berlin, Vienna
• conducted most of world’s greatest
orchestras, numerous tours
• as composer, best remembered for tone
poems, operas, Lieder
THE WAGNERIANS

17. Strauss Tone Poems
• studied score of Tristan und Isolde, profoundly
changed his style
• modeled tone poems after Liszt and Berlioz
• programs based on literature
• Also sprach Zarathustra (1896), musical
commentary on a prose-poem by Friedrich
Nietzsche
• Christian ethic should be replaced by superman
above good and evil
• program is philosophical, some moments directly
representational
• programs on personal experience
• Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life, 1897–98), openly
autobiographical
• programs range from representational to
philosophical
THE WAGNERIANS

18. Strauss Lieder
• Usually composed for high voice – his wife famous soprano Pauline de
Ahna
• Most productive song composition period was before 1900
• 6 different collections containing 31 songs, also some orchestral Lieder
• His songs display passionate lyricism and richly-textured
accompaniments
• Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948) - Orchestral song cycle
• Wagnerian in scope, with long, lyric lines, intense harmonies
• Correlation between life and death and nature
• No. 1 – “Frühling” (“Spring”) – Vibrant life and love
• No. 2 – “September” – Summer is ending, cool rain falls, Leaves fall as one
waits for the grave
• No. 3 – “Beim Schlafengehn” (“Time to Sleep”) – Now the day (life) has
wearied me and I must rest
• No. 4 – “Im Abendrot” (“At Dusk”) – We walked hand in hand throughout
our life and now it’s time to sleep. Is this perchance death?
THE WAGNERIANS

19. “Where there is music, it
must carry all before it; it
must not come after the
poetry.”
THE WAGNERIANS