HISTORY 204 – THE GHOST OF MUSIC PAST

(F-11)

1. Composers in the age of historicism

I defined “historicism” before as: domination of modern musical culture by historical repertory -- Music by dead composers comprises bulk of what we study, perform, listen to (at least for art music)

As music became more dominated by historical repertory, music integrated its past into its present – Today all music, past and present, becomes background to whatever piece we are composing, performing or hearing at the moment

How does a composer integrate musical past into musical present? – Usually through quotation or allusion – i.e. quoting an earlier piece directly, alluding to another piece, or making a reference to another composer’s style

Example of direct quote: Oswald sample of Stravinsky, Satie quote of Chopin sonata

Example of allusion to style: Schoenberg Suite (Bach), Berg Violin Concerto (Johann Strauss)

Although such pieces refer to music of the past, they don't simply perpetuate musical traditions – Instead they refer to traditions as the composer chooses – The composer creates distance between musical present and past and makes connections across that distance

2. George Rochberg (1918-2005) – Ricordanza (1972) - Supplementary

Rochberg was a leading American 12-tone serialist from about 1953 until about 1964 – After that he became a leader in turn away from serialism – He said that his attitude was changed by the death of his son at age 20 and the realization that the serial idiom wasn’t expressive enough to convey his grief (was this an “excuse” for an aesthetic decision that he was already in the process of making?)

Rochberg is sometimes categorized as "new romantic" because his music often sounds like Beethoven or Mahler - This designation sells him short because he borrows from and imitates more than 19th-century composers and because his “imitation” always transforms the historical idiom in interesting and meaningful ways

Ricordanza was composed in 1972 – one of the first of his pieces that referred to a historical style

“Ricordanza” means rememberance – in 2 senses: Rochberg wrote it as a memorial to his nephew who had died recently, also because Rochberg is remembering music of the past

PLAY beginning – HANDOUT – Whose style is he referring to? [Beethoven] – specifically R says he is referring to Beethoven Cello sonata Op. 102, no 1 in C, 1815)

PLAY beginning of Beethoven sonata – This is a different tune – Rochberg doesn’t quote Beethoven - His style is very much like Beethoven, but material is original – As though Rochberg is “channeling” Beethoven

PLAY Rochberg 3:50 – Here is a direct quote – How is the presentation different from Beethoven’s? [piano, harmonized, counterpoint] – How is the continuation different? [late romantic harmonies]

WHAT is the ethics of this music? - WHY not just play Beethoven?

Other pieces, by Rochberg quote and/or refer to the styles of several composers rather than just one – e.g. String quartet #3 refers to Bartok, Beethoven, Mahler– Or they interpolate more "modern-sounding" episodes between "in the style of" passages (e.g. Music for the Magic Theater)

3. György Ligeti, Etude #9 (Vertige - Vertigo) (1990) – NAWM 199

Ligeti bio (1923-2006) – Hungarian but left during abortive revolution in 1956 against Communist regime – attached himself to ultra-serialists like Boulez and Stockhausen – Atmosphères (1960) was decisive step away from serialism: piece based on slowly changing orchestral timbres without much sense of pitch at all – Then works using extended vocal and instrumental techniques, especially microtones – Le Grand Macabre (opera) 1977

Grand Macabre ends with a passacaglia, and Ligeti's subsequent works began to work more and more with styles and pieces from the past, always radically transformed (much more than Rochberg!) – 14 piano etudes composed over a long period, 1985-1994 – most refer to famous piano compositions of the past

What were Ligeti's motives in returning toward historical styles – I don't know that he ever said – Certainly disenchantment with 12-tone music and serialism – Perhaps also rediscovering his love for musical traditions (like Rochberg)

PLAY beginning of Vertige – To what piece of style does this refer? – Pretty certainly to Liszt or Chopin

PLAY Liszt "Feu Follets" (transcendental etude #5) – This is just an example of a possibility – the allusion is much vaguer

Another kind of allusion is to the "Shepard effect" (Shepard tone) – scales that seem to rise (or fall) forever – Acoustical allusion created by Roger Shepard at Bell Labs in the 1960s – Several electronic pieces composed with this effect (e.g. Jean-Claude Risset) – Ligeti creates it on the piano (how?) – PLAY YouTube sample

PLAY Ligeti again – This is more interesting than the electronic Shepard effect, because: 1) Ligeti adds Liszt like melodic and harmonic touches with "3^rd hand" 2) In second half of the piece Ligeti creates counterpoint between rising and falling scales

Review the NAWM analysis – it's good!

Ligeti Etude #13 (The Devil's staircase) is also based on Shepard tones

4. Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) – Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1976) – NAWM 203

NAWM discusses as an example of "polystylism" – i.e. several historical styles juxtaposed against one another (usually one after another, not simultaneous) – The multiple styles aren't heard so obviously in the NAWM selection because there is only one movement, "Toccata"

Schnittke background

Grew up in the Soviet Union – teenager during the beginning of the Cold War and the last years of Stalin's rule – But he spent some of that time in Vienna, where his father worked, so he had a more international perspective than other Soviet composers

Successful as a film music composer and "official" composer (Composers' Union), but then allied himself with a group of "musical dissidents" and wrote modernist and 12-tone works which were not performed except privately (and abroad?)

Successful again when Gorbachev came to power and initiated "glasnost" (political and cultural "openness") in late 1980s

Emigrated to Germany in 1991 but retained close ties to Russian music - Contrast Arvo Pärt, who rejected everything about Russia

Schnittke composed 6 concerti grossi

CG #1 written for Gidon Kremer – Same instrumentation as Corelli CG (though larger orchestra) but isn't laid out formally like a Corelli concerto – Movements: Preludio, Toccata, Recitative, Cadenza, Rondo, Postludio –