MHL 603 – ART-POP-FOLK-2
(F-11)
1. Review folk music – nationalism – modernism
Construction of “folk” music in 19th
century – research, publishing, composition activities – Borrowing folk
melodies for new compositions - Folk music as emblem of nation
Nationalist tradition continued into
20th century by Vaughan Williams, Copland, Bartok, Prokofiev, many
others
Bartok: “there is no other solution
but a complete break with the 19th century” – Folk music as basis of
modernism: modes instead of Major/minor harmonies; simple, direct expression;
new timbres; new rhythms, etc
Stravinsky Rite as example of folk
music as modernism: melodies from village are sliced, diced, recombined,
juxtaposed, harmonized with much dissonance
Modernism in Bartok Improvisations is
mostly derived from the folk tunes – In Copland, Billy the Kid the dissonance
and odd rhythms seem less closely related to folk tunes – in Crumb “Wayfaring
Stranger” the relation between the folk tunes and their setting seems almost
arbitrary
2. Popular music and modernism
Review concept of "available
vernacular" – "folk" and "popular" musical styles that
composer and his audience share – e.g. for Copland (cowboy songs, fiddle tunes,
immigrant music, jazz, etc) – composer typically chooses some vernaculars,
rejects others
Previous examples all borrowed from
“traditional,” village, “folk” music – Bartok and others looked down on urban
“pop” music – Seen as homogeneous, inauthentic (Constant Lambert)
Fad in 1920s and 30s for jazz in
modern music – Copland, Gershwin, Stravinsky, Milhaud, Debussy, Ravel, Weill, Schulhoff, et al. – In US it sounded “national”; in
Pop music more threatening than folk –
Perhaps because to upper-class music-lovers the urban proletariat seems more
dangerous than farmers in a village – Pop music signifies ethnicity and social
class rather than the nation [But some popular styles signify the nation, e.g.
Tin Pan Alley, Sousa marches]
3.
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Putnam’s camp is example of use of
“popular” rather than “folk” music as basis of art-music composition
Ives was whiz on piano as young man,
then studied music at Yale – Ives later emphasized father over Yale, but he was
very well trained – Composed from college days through 1927 or so
Ives used American vernaculars as way
to overcome German training, as a way of expressing his patriotism, and as path
toward modern music
Most of Ives’s music was composed
before 1918 (Quarter tone pieces were exception) – But his music was scarcely
noticed until the 1930s and not much played until the 1950s when he was
acknowledged as the pioneer of American modernism
What were Ives’s “available
vernaculars” c. 1900?
ragtime
hymn tunes – traditional, gospel
patriotic music – marches, Civil War
songs
American “folk” songs
American traditional dance tunes
19th-century pop music
(e.g. Stephen Foster)
20th-century pop music
(e.g. George M. Cohan)
Unlike previous composers, Ives
rejected very little
Characteristic technique was
"collage" - i.e. combining pre-existing material (mainly vernacular)
without diluting or making accommodations on any side, i.e. each element, each
fragment retains all its character - (Ives didn't call it collage; term is
borrowed from art)
Collage technique is connected to
Ives's ideas about music as "substance": Each bit of the mosaic has individuality and
meaning, their combination creates the world "as it really is", not a
prettied-up, artificial, "artistic" world – Borrowed elements bring meanings to music
Putnam’s Camp – Composed c. 1912 –
based on “Country Band March” (c. 1905)
– Not performed until 1930s (Slonimsky)
PLAY Putnam’s Camp – HANDOUT # 1 –
listen for borrowed tunes, collage -
READ scenario for Putnam’s Camp – What
are meanings? patriotism, childhood, memory - “Country Band March” had
different scenario
Time and memory
Ives is composing in 1910s
Remembering his boyhood in 1870s
The boy in the story is remembering
the 1770s
We are listening in the 21st
century
Is this "nationalistic"? –
Yes, but it's more – It's an evocation or recreation of childhood and shared
history
4.
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) – Choros
#7 (1924)
Example of transformation of urban pop
music into art music – Same contexts of modernism and nationalism
Brief bio - Brazilian – From Rio- As
teenager supported himself playing cello and guitar in pop music ensembles
around Rio – Also theater orchestras – Influenced by ideology of cultural
nationalism of Mario d’Andrade, also writings of
Bartok – Trips to hear music in Brazilian countryside (but no systematic
collecting) – Local reputation as modernist – sponsored by Milhaud and
Rubinstein – to Paris in 1922 – In Europe his Brazilian modernist music was
heard as “exotic” (Compare Stravinsky) – very successful – Return to Brazil in
1930 and worked for the nationalist government – International success after
1945
Choro music – Rio pop style from c.1900
through 1940 – Name for ensemble of flute, guitar, cavaquinho
(ukelele), percussion and other insts
– played serenades and dances – Songs they played called “chorinhos”
– Mainly 4/4 time, based on European forms, lively rhythms, syncopations,
virtuoso passagework, active bass, modular organization – Villa-Lobos based
many pieces on this style and called them “choros”
PLAY “Dinorah”
PLAY – Choros
#7 beginning and 4:15 – HANDOUT – Listen for analogies – Beat, dance rhythms,
melody-accompaniment – But also some "jungle" sounds
Do you hear this as “nationalist”?
“modernist”? “exotic”?
Does it make any difference that this
is based on “pop” rather than a “folk” music?
5.
William Bolcom – Songs of Innocence and
Experience (1984)
Assimilates several pop music styles –
also several “classical” styles and (arguably) “folk” styles as well – It has
been labeled “polystylistic” and “postmodern”
Bolcom’s experience with pop music
piano study with Eubie
Blake – Bolcom composed several excellent rags of his
own
Performance of 19th-century
American song repertory with Joan Morris
Cabaret songs (lyrics by Arnold
Weinstein)
Songs of Innocence and Experience is a
large-scale cantata on poems by William Blake (1757-1827) – Blake as visionary,
romantic, revolutionary poet and artist - Songs of Innocence, 1789; Songs of
Experience, 1794 - illuminated
engravings
Songs of Innocence are optimistic
nostalgia for traditional English life; Songs of Experience are pessimistic
critique of industrial revolution
READ The Shepherd
PLAY
– To me this reeks of irony and inauthenticity
Compare Copland Billy the Kid (!) –
Irony in Bolcom’s setting – Is this a comment on the
nostalgia of the text?
How viable is this in a concert
setting? – Remember that it’s surrounded by songs in many other styles
Play Introduction (“Piping down the
Valleys Wild”)
Juxtaposition of 12-tone idiom with
English folk idiom – What is message of juxtaposition? [distance from
innocence?]
Is this likewise ironic? – If so the
irony is directed as much at 12-tone music as at “folk” music
READ – PLAY – “The Little Black Boy”
Difficult poem to set because of
political baggage and because of change in attitudes since Blake’s time – Does
this make you uncomfortable?
Bolcom is more familiar and comfortable with
jazz-gospel style than with C & W