Lecture Slides MUS 3032 Dr. Alicia Wallace

1. Chapter 28
Lecture Slides
A History of
Western Music
TENTH EDITION
by
J. PETER BURKHOLDER
DONALD JAY GROUT
CLAUDE V. PALISCA

2. NATIONALISM, EXOTICISM, &
AUTHENTICITY
• Cultural Nationalism - Germany and Italy, sense of nationhood
 national identity through the arts
• Nationalism in music - composers cultivated melodic, harmonic
styles associated with their own ethnic group (i.e. the use of native
folk songs and dances)
• Authenticity - search for independent native voice important in
Russia
• European traditions felt as a threat to homegrown musical
creativity
• national style, sign of authenticity, core personality
• Exoticism - Cultures and sounds of foreign lands were attractive to
some parts of Europe (France)
• borrowed actual melodies, stylistic features
• common in later nineteenth century

3. RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883)
• One of the most influential musicians of ALL time
• born in Leipzig, Germany
• early 1830s, began writing operas; positions
with regional opera companies
• 1848–49 fled Germany and settled in
Switzerland, wrote his most important essays
• 1864, support from King Ludwig II of Bavaria
(Mad Ludwig)
• 1870, married Cosima von Bülow, daughter of
Franz Liszt
• major works: thirteen operas, notably Der
fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin,
the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen,
Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg, and Parsifal

5. WAGNER’S WRITINGS
• Writings and ideas
• The Artwork of the Future (1850), Opera and Drama (1851, revised 1868) - saw himself as
Beethoven’s true successor
• Gesamtkunstwerk (total or collective artwork)
• absolute oneness of drama and music
• vision of new union, music and dramatic text called music drama
• called his works opera, drama, or Bühnenfestspiel (Stage Festival)
• core of drama is in the music
• orchestra conveys inner aspects of the characters and the scenes
• sung words articulate outer aspect
• traditional hierarchy reversed
• orchestral web is chief factor, vocal lines part of musical texture
• other writings address literature, drama, political moral topics
• Gesamtkunstwerk could help reform society
• art not undertaken for profit
• controversial views on nationalism, anti-Semitism

6. WAGNER’S EARLY OPERAS
Wagner’s Early operas
• Der fliegende Holländer
(The Flying Dutchman,
1843), tradition of Weber
• libretto by Wagner
• based on Germanic legend
• hero redeemed through
unselfish love of heroine
• themes from overture recur
throughout

7. • Lohengrin (1850)
• medieval legend, German folklore
• suffused with nationalism, aspiring to
universality
• recurring themes further developed
• Overture to Act I is popular and
played alone on orchestral concerts
still
WAGNER’S EARLY OPERAS

8. WAGNER’S RING CYCLE
• The Ring Cycle - cycle of four operas, librettos by Wagner
• Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)
• Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold, 1857)
• Die Walkürie (The Valkyrie, 1857)
• Siegfried (1874)
• Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods, 1874)
• stories from medieval German epic poems, Nordic legends
• love, people’s willingness to abandon it for worldly ends
• gold “ring” from the river Rhine brings limitless power to wearer
• curse placed on the ring, brings wearer misery and death
• curse is fulfilled in course of the four dramas
• Rhine maidens reclaim the ring

9. Rhine maidens in the 1876 Bayreuth premiere of the Ring cycle were
each held up and moved about by a machine that gave the illusion that
they were swimming beneath the Rhine. The watery set and stage
effect matched the wave-like music Wagner wrote for them.
WAGNER’S RING CYCLE

10. WAGNER’S BAYREUTH FESTSPIELHAUS

11. ■ Wagner’s Opera House
• first complete performance of the Ring
Cycle was here
• theater built to Wagner’s
specifications
• orchestra was larger, louder
 singers needed more powerful,
intense voices
WAGNER’S BAYREUTH FESTSPIELHAUS

12. WAGNER’S RING CYCLE
• the Leitmotif (leading motive)
• later dramas organized around numerous themes,
motives
• each associated with particular character, thing, event,
or emotion
• first appearance of the leitmotif and repetition establish association
• may recall an object, object itself not present
• varied, developed, transformed as plot develops
• unify scene or opera through repetition
• characterized by particular instruments, registers, harmonies, keys
• complete correspondence between leitmotives and
dramatic action

14. WAGNER’S TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
• Tristan und Isolde (1857–59)
• Beginning of the move away from common tonality and the
beginning of the Modern Era in Western Classical Music
• Prelude Act I
• desire, inexpressible yearning: chromatic harmony, delayed
resolutions
• first chord (F–B–D#–G#), “the Tristan chord”
• four successive dissonant sonorities “resolve” into dissonance
• Night and Day metaphor for Death and Life
• Tristan and Isolde can only be together during the night/death
• music as secular religion
• plot as backdrop to musical manifestation of character’s inner
emotions
• Tristan und Isolde, monument of music as secular religion

15. RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883)
• Wagner’s influence
• more written about Wagner than any other musician
• operas as drama affected virtually all later opera
• use of leitmotives imitated by many composers
• standard practice for film and television music
• many musicians became Wagnerians
• “Wagnerism” term used from politics to aesthetics

16. CHAPTER 28
Lecture Slides
A History of
Western Music
TENTH EDITION
by
J. PETER BURKHOLDER
DONALD JAY GROUT
CLAUDE V. PALISCA

17. Verdi’s Operatic Tradition
The Late Italian style

18. GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901)
 1813 – Born in Northern Italy
 Studied in Milan privately after being rejected from the conservatory
 1838 – Commissioned to write operas in Milan
 1842 Nabucco launched him as star composer, next eleven years busiest of
his career
 1845 – Fame and Success in Italy
 His operas were mainstream, not “extreme” like Wagner
 Opera as business, unlike Wagner’s view
 memorable melodies moved the general public
 Nationalism and Politics
 Verdi supported, identified with Italian Risorgimento
 camouflaged patriotic messages in historical dramas
 oppressed characters and tyrants, operas of 1840s
 by 1859, “Viva Verdi” nationalist rallying cry

19. VERDI’S MAJOR WORKS
 dominant figure in Italian music for
fifty years after Donizetti
 major works: 26 operas, including
Nabucco, Macbeth, Luisa Miller,
Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Les
vépres siciliennes, Simon Boccanegra,
Un ballo in maschera, La forza del
destino, Don Carlos, Aida, Otello, and
Falstaff; Requiem and other Latin
sacred choral works, and two volumes
of songs

20. VERDI’S APPROACH TO OPERA
• operas are works of theater
• vivid characterization, sharp contrasts, fluid and concise dramatic and
musical structure
• captures characters, feeling, situations in memorable melodies
• easy to follow, regular phrasing, plain harmony
• Librettos of Shakespeare and others
• fast action, striking contrasts, unusual characters, strong emotional
situations
• focused on tragic plots
• wrote with singers in mind
• singers subordinate to composer and the work
• took more time to compose
• better paid for each new opera
• improved copyright laws, royalty income
• sales from published scores
• Used conventions of Rossini, Bellini, and especially Donizetti

21. VERDI’S OPERATIC STYLE
 Memorable operatic melodies
 Bel Canto ideals of “beautiful singing”
 Double aria form
 Cavatina – slow first movement
 Cabaletta – faster second
movement
 Recitative
 Verdi focused less on the recitative
as dialogue (unlike Mozart and
other opera composers)
 Ensembles
 Ensembles become the vehicle for
dialogue in Verdi’s operas
 Duets

22.  Premiered in Venice at Teatro alla Fenice -
1851
 Libretto in Italian based on Victor Hugo’s play
Le roi s’amuse (The King amuses himself)
 Set in 16th century Northern Italy
 Cast of Main Characters
 Duke of Mantua (tenor), seducer of women
 Rigoletto (baritone), the Duke’s court Jester
 Gilda (soprano), Rigoletto’s secret daughter
 Sparafucile (bass), the assassin
 Maddalena (contralto), the assassin’s sister
VERDI’S RIGOLETTO 1851

23. VERDI’S RIGOLETTO 1851
 Musical characterization, dramatic unity, melodic invention
 central characters delineated by contrasting styles
 Rigoletto, declamatory arioso style
• Duke of Mantua, tuneful arias
• Gilda, moves between two extremes
• “La donna è mobile,” Duke’s charming aria
• waltz rhythm, makes him seem irresistible
• Quartet from Act III, four characters sing different styles
• Duke: seductive, lyrical song
• Maddalena: coquettish laughs
• Gilda: dramatic style
• Rigoletto: arioso style

24. VERDI’S LA TRAVIATA (1853)
La traviata
• one of first tragic operas set in the present
• setting and subject, link opera to realism
• focus on singing, drama most important, composer in control
• cadenzas written out
• stark contrasts, strong emotions, catchy melodies
• Plot –
• Violetta – a famous courtesan
• Alfredo – a bourgeois from a rich family
• Alfredo fallas for Violetta, they have a relationship, but then
separate
• She falls ill with tuberculosis
• He rushes back to her, but it’s too late, she dies in his arms
• Violetta, Alfredo, and Chorus (Duet with Chorus) Brindisi
« Libiamo »
• Violetta’s death aria « Addio del passato »

25. VERDI’S LATER OPERAS
• Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball;
Rome, 1859)
• La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny,
1862, revised 1869)
• Aida (1871)
• Otello (1884; produced in Milan, 1887)
• Falstaff (Milan, 1893)
• scenes from Shakespeare’s The Merry
Wives of Windsor and Henry IV
• opera buffa, ensemble transformed
• comedy speeds to climaxes in finales
• culminates in a fugue for entire cast

26. VIVA VERDI!
Verdi’s reception
• phenomenal success in his lifetime
• by 1850s, operas performed more often
than any other Italian composer and
revived in twentieth century
• more operas in permanent repertory than
any other composer
• 1859 Verdi’s name becomes associated
with the Italian Nationalist Movement
• He becomes a national hero for the rest of
his life
• 1896 Verdi starts building a home for
retired musicians
• 1901 Verdi dies, Italy mourns

27. VIVA VERDI!

28. CHAPTER 28
Lecture Slides
A History of
Western Music
TENTH EDITION
by
J. PETER BURKHOLDER
DONALD JAY GROUT
CLAUDE V. PALISCA

29. • Exoticism – evoking feelings and settings from distant
lands or foreign cultures
• Realism – depicting reality of everyday life, including
common people and their concerns
• several operas exploited interest in exoticism in France
• French composers used exoticism during the 19th century
• Bizet’s Carmen (premiered at Opéra-Comique, 1875)
• originally classified as opéra-comique
• exoticism and realism combined
• set in Spain, Spanish flavor embodied in Carmen
• Carmen: character outside normal society, dangerous and
enticing
• « L’amour est un oiseau rebelle » (Love is a rebellious bird)
• three authentic Spanish melodies
• rhythm of Cuban dance
Bizet’s Carmen and Exoticism

30. ITALIAN VERISMO OPERA
• Verismo – Italian opera of the late
19th century that depicted
everyday people in familiar
situations and often depicted brutal
or sordid events.
• operatic parallel to realism
• These operas turned away from the
convention and romantic ideals of the
bel canto operas
• two works entered the permanent
repertory
• Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry,
1890), by Pietro Mascagni (1863–
1945)
• I Pagliacci (Clowns, 1892), by
Ruggero Leoncavallo (1858–1919)

31. GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) - most successful
Italian opera composer after Verdi
• Used exoticism and realism in his operas
• Madama Butterfly (1904): Nagasaki, turn of twentieth
century
• Focused on vocal melody
• elements of Wagner’s approach
• recurring melodies, leitmotives
• freedom from conventional operatic forms
• greater role for orchestra, creates musical continuity
• arias, choruses, ensembles part of continuous flow
• fluid succession of sections
• blurred distinction between recitative and aria

32. CHAPTER 28
Lecture Slides
A History of
Western Music
TENTH EDITION
by
J. PETER BURKHOLDER
DONALD JAY GROUT
CLAUDE V. PALISCA

33. RUSSIAN COMPOSERS – THE MIGHTY FIVE
The Mighty Five
• five composers dubbed moguchaya kuchka (mighty little bunch)
• Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)
• César Cui (1835-1918) Aleksander Borodin (1833-1887)
• Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881)
• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
• stood against professionalim of conservatories
• only Balakirev had conventional music training
• sought fresh approach in their music
• incorporated Russian folk song, modal and exotic scales, folk polyphony

34. RUSSIAN COMPOSERS OF OPERA
Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881)
• widely considered most original of the
Mighty Five
• earned living as clerk in civil service
• received musical training from Balakirev
• Boris Godunov (1868-69, revised 1871-74)
• realism and nationalism reflected
• « Coronation Scene » from Boris Godunov
• words set naturalistically, follow rhythm
and pacing of Russian speech
• melodic profile closer to Russian folk
songs

35. Piotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
• most prominent Russian composer of the
nineteenth century
• graduated from law school, began career
in government
• enrolled in St. Petersburg Conservatory
• taught at Moscow Conservatory for
twelve years
• successful professional career, personal
life in disarray
• major works: eight operas, three ballets,
six symphonies, two piano concertos, a
violin concerto, symphonic poems and
overtures, chamber music and songs
• sought to reconcile national and
internationalist tendencies
• models from Beethoven, Schubert,
Schumann
• Russian folk and popular music
RUSSIAN COMPOSERS OF OPERA

36. LATE 19TH CENTURY OPERETTA
Operetta – a new kind of light opera with spoken
dialogue
• originated in the 1850s in the opéra bouffe of
Offenbach (French opera composer)
• could be both funny and romantic
• Viennese composer Johann Strauss Jr. (1825–
1899)
• Die Fledermaus (The Bat, 1874)
• England, W. S. Gilbert (librettist) and Arthur
Sullivan (composer, 1842–1900)
• HMS Pinafore (1878)
• The Pirates of Penzance (1879)
• The Mikado (1885)