Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Chapter 28
Chapter Outline
The Late Nineteenth Century
Industrialization
Europe and the United States became industrial leaders.
Railroads on both continents transported people and goods rapidly.
New technologies, such as the electric lightbulb and telephone, altered daily
life and created new industries.
Life expectancy and population numbers rose dramatically.
The modern corporation emerged.
Mass consumption became a driving force for the economy.
Revolutions of 1848
France toppled King Louis Philippe and established the short-lived Second
Republic (see HWM Figure 28.1).
Revolts also took place in Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
For the most part, these revolutions changed little.
Political reforms
Greater freedoms were granted to people in Europe and America.
Russia abolished serfdom in 1861; the United States abolished slavery in 1865.
Workers gained new rights, and women demanded equal treatment.
Expanded exploration came at the expense of indigenous populations.
Nationalism
Germany united under Bismarck between 1864 and 1871.
Italy unified under Victor Emmanuel II in 1859-61.
While a common heritage helped unify Germany and Italy, the variety of ethnic
groups worked against political unity in Austria-Hungary.
Music played a role in promoting nationalism, and nationalism had a profound
impact on all the arts (see HWM Figure 28.2).
Other themes in the arts
Realism was a strong movement in art and literature (see HWM Figure 28.3).
Exoticism, fantasy, and the distant past provided escapes from modern city
life.
Impressionism depicted outdoor scenes.
Opera
Strong national schools continued in Italy, France, and Germany.
Nationalism linked opera to political and cultural currents.
A core repertory of operas developed.
The number of new operas declined as composers took more time to
write.
Originality became more important than conventions.
Singers had to have more powerful voices as opera houses became larger and
orchestras louder.
Melodies were more syllabic and less ornamented.
Subjects ranged from fantastic to realistic.
Electricity made it possible to dim the house lights.
It gradually became unacceptable to talk during performances.
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) (see HWM biography, page 690, and Figure 28.4)
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Wagner was a crucial figure in nineteenth-century culture and one of the most
influential musicians of all times.
He brought German Romantic opera to a new height.
He created the music drama.
His rich chromatic idiom influenced later composers.
Biography
He was born in Leipzig, Germany, the ninth child of a police actuary.
Wagner began writing operas in the 1830s and held positions with several
regional companies.
He worked as a music journalist in Paris from 1839 to 1842.
He was appointed second Kapellmeister for the king of Saxony in Dresden in
1843.
Wagner supported the 1848-9 insurrection and had to flee.
In Switzerland he wrote his most important essays.
He received support from a new patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, in 1864.
Although married to Minna (1836-66), he had relationships with other women,
including Mathilde Wesendonck.
In 1870, he married Cosima von B&uunl;low, a child of Franz Liszt.
Writings (see HWM Reading, page 692)
In a series of essays, Wagner argued that music should serve dramatic
expression. His essays include:
The Artwork of the Future (1850)
Opera and Drama (1851, revised 1868)
Beethoven
Wagner felt that Beethoven had exhausted instrumental music.
The Ninth Symphony showed the path to the future with its union of
music and words.
He saw himself as the true successor to Beethoven.
Gesamtkunstwerk
Wagner felt that poetry, scenic design, staging, action, and music
should work together to create a Gesmatkunstwerk (total or collective artwork).
The words related the events and situations, while the orchestra
conveyed the inner drama.
Anti-Semitism (see HWM Music in Context, page 694)
Wagner wrote about politics and morals in several essays, including
the anti-Semitic polemic Das Judentum in der Musik (Jewishness in Music).
He attacked both Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn for being Jewish and
lacking national roots, although he admired and was influenced by both.
Operas
Rienzi (1842), a five-act grand opera, was his first major success.
Die fliegende Hollnder (The Flying Dutchman, 1843)
A Romantic opera in the tradition of Weber, the work is based on a
German legend.
Wagner wrote the libretto.
Themes from one of the vocal ballads appear in the overture and recur
throughout the opera, functioning like reminiscence motives.
Tannhuser (1845)
The story is also adopted from Germanic legends.
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He worked as a church organist at age nine and later became music director in
Busseto.
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After the death of his first wife, he went to Milan to pursue a career as an opera
composer.
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In the A section, Alfredo and Violetta sing a simple and direct melody
that resembles a slow waltz.
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In the B section, Alfredo sings grandly of the future, and Violetta sings
a light chromatic melody of suffering and recovering.
Tempo di mezzo (measure 177)
Hope gives way to despair; Violetta will not recover.
Stark contrasts of style capture the changing moods.
Cabaletta (measure 227)
The form is AABA' with coda.
Violetta voices her desperation, and Alfredo tries to calm her.
The coda builds to a climax of despair.
Middle-period operas
Verdi wrote only six new operas in the next two decades.
The action becomes more continuous.
Solos, ensembles, and choruses are freely combined.
Harmonies are more daring.
The orchestra is treated with great originality.
Les vepres siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers, 1855), based on a libretto by
Eugene Scribe, is a grand opera inspired by Meyerbeer that blends French and Italian characteristics.
Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball, 1859) introduces comic roles.
Aida (1871) was commissioned for the Cairo opera.
Verdi chose an Egyptian subject, which allowed him to introduce exotic
color and spectacle.
Verdi officially retired after this opera.
Late operas
Giulio Ricordi persuaded him to compose two more operas, both on librettos by
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918).
Otello (1887)
The flow of the music is unbroken in each of the acts.
The traditional schemes are still present, but they are arranged in
larger scene-complexes.
The orchestra develops themes in a more symphonic manner.
Falstaf (1893) (see HWM Figure 28.8)
This pinnacle of opera buffa is based on Shakespeare's The Merry
Wives of Windsor and Henry IV.
The final act ends in a fugue for the entire cast.
Later Italian Composers
Verismo
This operatic movement parallels realism in literature.
It presents everyday people, generally from the lower classes.
The stories often depict brutal or sordid events.
Two verismo operas have entered the permanent repertory.
Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry, 1890) by Pietro Mascagni
I Pagliacci (The Clowns, 1892) by Ruggero Leoncavallo
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Puccini is the most successful Italian opera composer after Verdi.
Puccini blended Verdi's vocal style with Wagner's approach, including the use
of leitmotives.
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Manon Lescaut (1893), his third opera, brought him international fame.
Other major works
La bohme (1896)
Tosca (1900)
Madama Butterfly (1904)
Turandot (1926)
Puccini's scenes are more fluid than in earlier operas.
The distinction between aria and recitative is blurred.
Madama Butterfly, Act I, excerpt (see NAWM 143 and HWM Figure 28.9)
This scene shows Butterfly's marriage to Pinkerton.
The music moves seamlessly between dialogue and brief aria-like
moments.
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The orchestra carries many of the main melodies, but still supports the
voice.
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Manon (1884)
Werther (1892)
Thas (1894)
Carmen by Bizet (1875)
The opera was originally an opra comique with spoken dialogue.
The dialogue was later set to recitative.
Set in Spain, the opera combines exoticism and realism.
The plot is a dark tale of seduction and murder.
Carmen, a gypsy, works in a cigarette factory and lives for pleasure (see HWM
Figure 28.10).
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Johann Strauss the Younger (1825-1899) from Vienna created the popular Die
Fledermaus (The Bat, 1874).
In England, Gilbert (librettist) and Sullivan (composer, 1842-1900) created a
string of popular successes.
HMS Pinafore (1878)
The Pirates of Penzance (1879)
The Mikado (1885)
When the foeman bares his steel from The Pirates of Penzance (NAWM 146)
illustrates the satirical humor of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
The police, given martial dotted rhythms, pretend their clubs are
trumpets, singing "Tarantara!" like boys playing at soldiers.
The melodies of Mabel and the sergeant and many of the later actions
and singing mock the traditions of tragic opera.
Other types of musical theater
Diverse musical entertainments could be found throughout Europe.
The United States also featured a variety of musical theater.
European opera was heard in several major cities.
Minstrel shows continued, including all-black troupes.
Operettas were imported from Europe, and Americans composed new
operettas, such as El Capitan by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932).
The Black Crook (1866), a pastiche that combined melodrama with a
visiting French ballet troupe, was a tremendous success.
Evangeline (1874) by Edward E. Rice has been described as the first
musical comedy.
Variety shows became more respectable, and vaudeville, created by Tony Pastor,
became a dominant type of theatrical entertainment.
Music for the Stage and Its Audiences
Standard opera repertory
Verdi and Wagner created works that were never surpassed.
Their operas have achieved a permanent place in opera repertory.
Excerpts from Wagner's operas have also become part of the standard
repertory of orchestral concerts.
Puccini is the only Italian after Verdi to maintain an international reputation.
Traditional operas by a number of other composers have entered the
permanent repertory.
Nationalism
Wagner obscured his nationalism with his claim to universality.
Composers from "peripheral" countries used nationalism that was effective in
their own countries, but generally did not win international recognition.
Audiences began to split between elite and popular musical theater.
Verdi's operas appealed both to the elite and to the general public.
Wagner aimed at only the elite.
Popular genres, such as operetta and vaudeville, became increasingly more
important.