America’s Musical Landscape�8th edition

Part 2:

The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century

​

Chapter 7: Concert Music

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Chapter 7: Concert Music

Differences between popular and classical music took on more significance in America as the nineteenth century progressed

• The differences were less distinct than the subjective lines drawn today between vernacular music (“for the people”) and art or concert music (for an audience viewed as somewhat select)
• During the decades before and after the Civil War, household music and religious songs remained vital
• Interest in new music for the concert hall grew among composers, performers, and listeners

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Orchestral Music in the Late Nineteenth Century: Background, 1

Music activity increased greatly across America, including

• Outstanding conservatories: professional music schools
• Concert halls
• Opera houses
• 1882: Metropolitan Opera House, New York City
• 1891: Carnegie Hall, New York City

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Orchestral Music in the Late Nineteenth Century: Background, 2

• Americans enjoyed access to more concert music of greater variety and finer quality than ever before
• Choral and chamber societies presented programs
• Serious and light opera became popular
• Great virtuosos continued to attract an appreciative audience

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Orchestral Music

Americans preferred the German Romantic style in orchestral music

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Romantics (Germans and others) approached the elements of music differently from their Classical forbearers

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Characteristics of Romantic Music, 1

Long and lyrical melodies

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Asymmetrical phrases

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Repeated songlike melodies with variation or embellishment

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Characteristics of Romantic Music, 2

Expansion of tonal harmony through addition of new tones to familiar chords

• Newly varied and colorful effects

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Freer treatment of rhythms

• Sometimes avoiding regularly recurring patterns of a certain number of beats per measure; phrases of irregular length

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Romantic Music and the Exploration of Timbres, 1

Timbre = color (of sound)

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Nineteenth-century music includes increasingly rich and imaginative instrumental effects

• Technological changes increased the capabilities of woodwind and brass instruments, allowing for their wider use in the orchestra
• A greatly expanded percussion section added variety in timbre
• Additional strings were added to balance the increased winds and percussion

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Romantic Music and the Exploration of Timbres, 2

The Romantic orchestra was larger than that of the Baroque or Classical period, with a richer variety of timbres

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European Orchestras in America

Performed European works

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The visiting orchestra led by French conductor and showman Louis-Antoine Jullien (1812-1860) was:

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• The first ensemble to give American orchestral music serious attention
• Jullien gave flashy-looking concerts
• 1853: Added American musicians to his orchestra
• Started to program works by American composers

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Orchestras Throughout the Nineteenth Century, 1

Large orchestras held little interest for the young republic

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Few orchestras existed

• Professional and amateur musicians tried to make the orchestras appealing to American tastes

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1820: Moravians founded a Philharmonic Society in Bethlehem, P A

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Orchestras Throughout the Nineteenth Century, 2

Philadelphia: American and immigrant musicians organized a Musical Fund Society

• Performed symphonic music and choral music accompanied by orchestra

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1842: The New York Philharmonic Society, the nation’s oldest orchestra still in existence today was founded

• It was a loosely organized and haphazard association

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Theodore Thomas (1835-1905)

A German-born violinist who joined the New York Philharmonic Society

• Played for theater and opera orchestras

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Intended to become an orchestral conductor

• Wanted to raise the level of Americans’ appreciation for orchestral music
• His dream came true

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Theodore Thomas

Scornful of the casual rehearsal and concert procedures of the New York Philharmonic Society

• Formed his own orchestra
• Hired the best musicians
• Rehearsed rigorously
• 1864: Started performing public orchestra concerts guaranteed to please an audience
• Altered the balance in his concerts between light, familiar pieces and more serious, challenging works
• His listeners became experienced with orchestral fare

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Theodore Thomas and His Contributions to American Music, 1

Invited solo virtuosos to perform for an enthusiastic audience

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Alternated audience favorites with more serious pieces

• Gave some attention to American music

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Traveled widely with his orchestra

• Bringing orchestral music to new audiences
• Extending musicians’ employment season

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Theodore Thomas and His Contributions to American Music, 2

Established and conducted the Theodore Thomas Orchestra

• Later known as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

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Other orchestras formed in America during the next decades

• By the mid-twentieth century, orchestras across the country made America a veritable nation of symphony orchestras

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Romantic Virtuosos

Virtuoso: A performer who possesses dazzling technical brilliance; a quality of musicianship

• Musicianship is the broad combination of talents possessed by the consummate performer, and includes
• Sensitivity to the style of the music, which differs from one period and one culture to another
• Originality of interpretation
• Accuracy

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Romantic Virtuosos and American Audiences, 1

Nineteenth-century Europeans enjoyed expressive extremes

• Europeans responded with equal enthusiasm to a large symphony orchestra and an intimate solo recital

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Romantic Virtuosos and American Audiences, 2

But Americans had more access to recitals

• Americans attended concerts in the same frame of mind as viewing a circus or minstrel show; they enjoyed:

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• Solo virtuosos’ dazzling displays of technique
• Familiar pieces they knew and loved
• The unfamiliar new music of composers was undesirable to the American public

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Romantic Virtuosos: Performers

The conspicuous lack of interest in American music on either continent frustrated American composers

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But the great nineteenth-century virtuosos benefited from the American passion for their brilliant performances

• Europeans were starting to tire of their virtuosos
• Performers flocked gratefully to America
• An adoring American public eagerly applauded their showy performance techniques

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Romantic Virtuosos: Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)

Gottschalk was a virtuoso pianist of diverse heritage

• An English Jewish father educated in Germany
• A Creole mother from a wellborn French�family that had emigrated to the�West Indies
• Creole refers to people of mixed racial�heritage
• The Creole aspect of Gottschalk’s maternal side�of the family caused some to believe erroneously�that Gottschalk had African American ancestors

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Multilingual, Gottschalk spoke French, Spanish, English

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Growing Up, 1

Growing up in New Orleans, Gottschalk absorbed the sounds of various cultures

• French
• Spanish
• African American
• Creoles

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Growing Up, 2

Age 13: Recognizing his talent and lack of opportunities to learn at home, Gottschalk’s parents sent him to France to study music

• Abroad for 13 years, aristocratic Europeans admired Gottschalk’s piano compositions and astonishing virtuosity

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Back home in America, 1

1853: Gottschalk, after much success, returned to America

• Audiences felt his long stay abroad had made him respectable
• They enjoyed his performances of his own piano pieces

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Back home in America, 2

Gottschalk then spent years in the West Indies, whose native musical sounds went into his own piano compositions

• 1862: Returned to the United States to find America at war
• He sided with the North
• Toured extensively
• Performing his own music
• Reaching people who had never heard concert music
• Contributing payments to the Union cause

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Later Days, 1

Criticized by some for playing his own tuneful compositions instead of classics by Beethoven, Chopin and others

• He replied that he played what the audience wanted to hear
• He felt that American musical taste improved during his lifespan

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Later Days, 2

1865: Left the United States following a scandal; traveled to South America

• There, organized huge concerts reminiscent of Patrick Gilmore’s mammoth concerts
• Including a festival in Cuba involving 650 performers

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Age 40: Died of mysterious causes, possibly yellow fever

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Piano Music

By 1800 the piano was the keyboard instrument of choice

• The ideal Romantic instrument for its expressive capabilities
• The damper or “loud” pedal (to the player’s right)
• Held tones, connecting them for a legato (smooth) lyrical melody line
• Allowed sounds to accumulate to thunderous effect
• The una corda (one string) or “soft” pedal (on the left), shifted the keyboard and
• Dampened the volume
• Altered the color of the sound
• The center sostenuto pedal on larger pianos allowed the player to sustain some tones while others sounded cleanly above them

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Pianos and Their Popularity, 1

Piano music was immensely popular in the United States

• Concert programs often included a virtuosic piano performance

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Pianos and Their Popularity, 2

The best pianos in the world were produced in the United States

• 1854: Henry Mason, son of Lowell, cofounded the famous Mason and Hamlin piano company
• Others in America included
• Jonas Chickering
• William Knabe
• Henry Steinway

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Pianos and Their Popularity, 3

Mid-nineteenth century: pianos were common in the home

• Household music was available in simple arrangements

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Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Piano Music

Gottschalk’s musical output includes

• Songs
• Orchestral works
• Piano music especially
• Piano pieces were based upon popular dances or were character pieces
• Character piece: a relatively short piano piece evoking a particular mood or scene

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Gottschalk’s Best Known Piano Compositions Included…

Character pieces that capture the mood or character of their subject in musical terms

• “Berceuse” (“Lullaby”)
• “The Banjo”

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Popular dances for piano, not intended for dancing, but to capture the mood, style, tempo, form, and meter of a popular step

• Gottschalk composed waltzes: ballroom dances in triple meter
• He composed mazurkas: Polish folk dances of varying character, in triple meter

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Listening Example 26

Le bananier

By Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Listening Guide page 111

• Genre: Character piece
• Timbre: piano
• Texture: Homophonic
• Form: Theme and Variations = A melody or theme recurring throughout the piece is varied, perhaps in tempo, timbre, rhythm, meter, accompaniment, ornamentation, etc., thus providing both unity and contrast
• Meter: Duple

The left hand introduces an “obstinately” repeated rhythmic and melodic pattern called an ostinato, which will accompany the first section of the theme (a), played by the right hand. Section a repeats. The second half of the theme (b), higher than a in range, accompanied a new ostinato. Repeat. b is delicately embellished by the right hand, with chords in the left hand. A variation of a played in a major key repeats an octave higher. A section of new material sounds improvisatory. The major version of A is played by the left hand while the right hand plays runs. b recurs. Bits of a and virtuosic figures end the piece.

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Rise of Nationalism in Music, 1

Strong European nationalistic efforts in the second half of the nineteenth century

• Artists in Russia, Bohemia, Norway, and Finland establish strong national styles
• Drawing inspiration from folk takes, legends, religious music

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Interest in peasant traditions

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Rise of Nationalism in Music, 2

American paintings began to reflect Americas splendors

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A few composers set out to

• Capture the American spirit in music
• Get American music performed
• The attempts were unsuccessful
• Ignored by audiences
• Europeans considered Americans to be novices in art; Americans agreed

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Rise of Nationalism in Music, 3

America’s best-known composers continued to make their music sound as German as possible

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A few American composers set out to capture the American spirit in music and to promote performances of American music, but were largely ignored

• 1892: Mrs. Jeanette M. Thurber, an American interested in establishing a nationalistic music style, invited Antonín Dvořák, a prestigious Bohemian nationalist composer to direct the National Conservatory of Music in New York City

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Antonín Dvořák in America, 1

He was fascinated by the music of African Americans and Native Americans

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Perplexed that Americans lacked interest in “native” music

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Antonín Dvořák in America, 2

Illustrating his ideas, plus America’s beauty, he wrote Symphony No. 9 (From the New World), and chamber pieces

• Used scales of black or Indian music
• Harmonized and orchestrated as per Western custom

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The Second New England School, 1

New York City was the center of music performance in the late nineteenth century

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The Boston area nurtured significant developments in music, philosophy, literature

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The Second New England School, 2

New England produced most of the important American composers of the era

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1881: The Boston Symphony Orchestra was founded

• Supported efforts of local composers
• Brought their music to public attention
• Often repeated performances of a well-received work

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The Second New England: Members, 1

The first American composers to write significant works in all the large concert forms

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Their music was comparable in style and quality to music of many of their European contemporaries

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The Second New England: Members, 2

Dubbed the “Boston Classicists,” they shared a dedication to

• The principles of German music theory
• Concern for craftsmanship

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Contributed to every genre of concert music

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The Second New England School: Members

Many were church musicians and organists who included organ transcriptions of opera arias and symphonic music in their recitals

• They brought this music to Americans who would otherwise not have access to opera or orchestra concerts
• Transcription: an arrangement of a piece originally composed for a particular instrument or ensemble so that it can be played by a different instrument or combination of instruments
• These pioneering composers also contributed compositions for organ and choral music to the American music repertoire

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Second New England School:�John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)

The oldest member and leader of the Second New England School

• Paine was an American but received his musical education in Germany
• While in Germany, Paine wrote his Mass in D for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, reminiscent in style to a well-known mass by Beethoven
• This was the first large composition by an American to be performed in Europe
• Mass: a setting to music of the most important Roman Catholic worship service

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John Knowles Paine: The Educator

1861: Back in America during wartime, Paine became the organist at Harvard University

• He offered free non-credit lectures in music (not considered a proper course of study in universities at the time)
• The lectures were well-received
• 1875: Harvard became the first American college to include music in its formal curriculum
• Paine became the first American professor of music

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John Knowles Paine: Music Compositions

Symphony No. 1

• First performed by Theodore Thomas’s orchestra in 1876
• The first American symphony to be published—but in Germany rather than America—after Paine’s death

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He wrote many other kinds of music as well

• Songs
• Hymns
• An opera
• Keyboard compositions for organ or piano

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Listening Example 27

Fuga giocosa, op. 41, no. 3

By John Knowles Paine

Listening Guide page 115

• Form: Fugue
• Key: G major
• The subject (main melody) of this�three-voice fugue is based on an old�baseball song, “Over the Fence is�Out, Boys.” It is tossed—like a baseball,�perhaps—from one voice to another.

After the exposition, Paine explores several major and minor keys throughout the rest of the fugue. He sometimes treats the first four notes of the subject as a motive, repeating the bouncing figure at different levels of pitch, a technique called musical

sequence.

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Occasional large chords provide

effective contrast to the polyphonic texture, and the piece becomes increasingly virtuosic and dramatic. It is never pretentious, and at the end, like the beginning, is light and humorous.

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Fugue

A polyphonic composition with three to five melodic lines or “voices” entering one at a time in imitation of each other, according to specific rules

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Originally conceived as a form of European keyboard music

• Highly structured
• Suitable for any performing medium, including voice

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Fugue: Form of the Exposition, 1

Exposition: the beginning section of the fugue, in which all the voices are introduced (“exposed”)

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Fugue: Form of the Exposition, 2

The principal theme or subject enters alone

• After the subject has been heard in entirety, it is imitated by each of the other voices in turn until each has made its entrance
• The first entrance—the subject—is on the tonic
• The second voice, or answer, begins on the dominant
• The answer is similar but not identical to the subject
• The remaining voices (usually a total of three or four) alternate entrances between tonic and dominant until each voice has been introduced

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Fugue: After the Exposition

Following the exposition, each voice proceeds with independent material, referring to the subject and answer more or less frequently throughout the piece

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There may be a second theme, or countersubject

• Introduced in the same manner as the subject
• Recurring throughout the fugue
• Motive: a short melodic phrase that may be developed

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The Form of a Fugue

Exposition of a four-voice fugue (page 117)

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Amy Marcy Cheney Beach

Recognized early as an outstanding pianist

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The first American woman composer to

• Rank among highly educated and sophisticated musicians such as the Second New England School
• Write a successful mass and a symphony

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In Beach’s day, women were not given the education, the financial and social support, or the patronage required to succeed as professional composers

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Mrs. H. H. A. Beach = Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, 1

Beach’s parents and husband recognized her talent up to a point

• Childhood: studied piano but had little training as a composer
• Trained herself by translating into English important foreign treatises on instrumentation and orchestration

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Mrs. H. H. A. Beach = Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, 2

Performance career

• Before marrying, she performed as pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Theodore Thomas Orchestra
• Once married, her husband preferred that she compose only
• Considered improper for married women to perform
• After her husband’s death, Beach resumed her concert career

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Amy Cheney Beach: �As a Woman Composer, 1

Beach’s compositions were widely performed in America and Europe

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Amy Cheney Beach: �As a Woman Composer, 2

She could not escape references to gender in reviews of her work

• Criticized at times for trying to sound masculine
• Praised at other times for her properly feminine graceful melodies and more gentle symphonic passages
• She handled the symphonic medium very capably, but Beach composed more art songs than any other form
• Her contemporaries readily accepted songs as fitting examples of feminine creativity

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Amy Cheney Beach: �Views Concerning American Music

Pertaining to Dvořák’s recommendation to produce American music based on ethnic and traditional idioms

• Beach disagreed that African American or Native American
• Stated most people’s ancestors were English, Scottish or Irish, and believed that:

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• Music should be based on songs from those areas
• Much of Boston’s population was Irish
• Thus, Beach based her Symphony in E minor (“Gaelic”) upon Irish tunes

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Listening Example 28

Symphony in E minor (“Gaelic”)

second movement

By Amy Marcy Cheney Beach

Listening Guide page 119

A B A coda

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• Form: The coda is the closing section
• Tempo: A is slow, relaxed; B is fast (allegro vivace)
• Meter: A is in compound quadruple meter (12/8), with four slow beats per measure, divided by three; B is in simple duple meter (2/4)
• One section or movement of a symphony describing the struggles, laments, romance, and dreams of the Irish people

A: Oboe introduces the lovely theme, accompanied by other woodwinds (the Irish tune “The Little Field of Barley”)

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B: Beach transforms the now excited theme, which repeats in different keys with great variety

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A The theme returns, along with a romantic climax

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B The coda, with the agitated B theme, brings the movement to a satisfying end

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Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)

MacDowell was not a member of the First New England School

• Too Romantic to be called a Classicist
• Too individualistic to be included in a school of composers
• MacDowell was the first American to write concert music in a style that was distinctively his own

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Edward MacDowell: Background

As a talented teenager, MacDowell went to Paris to study art and music

• Later traveled to Germany to study music theory and composition
• An accomplished pianist, he performed widely while in Europe
• Some of his songs and pieces in the German style were published there before his return to America in 1888

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Edward MacDowell: �Columbia University Years

Following years of performing, composing, and teaching in the Boston, MacDowell:

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• 1896: became head of the newly established music department at Columbia University, New York City
• MacDowell was now able to implement his ideal of teaching music in relation to the other arts
• Created a curriculum similar to a humanities program
• As a composer, poet, and artist, he believed that the arts cannot be understood in isolation from each other

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Edward MacDowell: �Beliefs and Music

Claimed to not believe that quoting African American or Indian themes would establish a characteristically American music

• Instead claimed that American music should seek to capture the youthful, optimistic spirit of the country
• Nevertheless, he was unable to resist references to American Indian music in several of his pieces
• Example: Indian Suite, based on Native American lore or experience, using American Indian or Indian-like melodies
• Suite: An orchestral work consisting of several sections or semi-independent pieces

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MacDowell’s Piano Pieces

Reflected his romantic love of nature

• They paint, in musical terms, idyllic scenes of woodland lakes and hills
• Example: Woodland Sketches, two movements
• “To a Wild Rose”
• “From an Indian Lodge” (notice the American Indian theme)
• These delicate, intimate, modest piano miniatures capture the essence of the sounds and moods of nature

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MacDowell’s Legacy: �The MacDowell Colony

MacDowell’s vision of music as one of the integrated arts has benefited American arts to this day

• After his death, his widow established a summer colony on their estate at Peterborough, New Hampshire
• Artists, musicians, and literary figures are invited to spend uninterrupted summers working within their chosen field at what is now called the MacDowell Colony

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Part 2 Summary

The turn of the nineteenth century:

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• Americans were more romantic than classical in their style of expression
• Americans had a romantic zeal to improve conditions of life
• Initiated religious and social reform movements
• Initiated efforts to reform American music by making it sound more European

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Lowell Mason

Lowell Mason led the movement to reform musical taste in America

• Wrote hymns
• Brought music education to the public schools
• Attempted to raise the level of musical awareness and appreciation

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Country Folk, 1

Country people continued to practice and enjoy their accustomed ways of reading and singing music

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Singing schools were popular in rural areas

• Shape-note songbooks such as The Sacred Harp were used as teaching materials

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Country Folk, 2

During the Great Revival people of all ages and races attended camp meetings

• They enjoyed singing rousing hymns and spirituals

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Secular songs became popular

• Reflecting experiences of everyday life

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City Residents

Theaters offered popular entertainment that was primarily musical

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Popular types of music included

• Religious songs
• Sentimental ballads
• Songs of social protest
• Glees sung in parlors and concert halls
• Performances of well-known singing families such as the Hutchinsons and Minstrel shows

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Minstrel Shows

Minstrelsy:

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• The most popular entertainment of the period leading to the Civil War
• White men darkened their skin and imitated songs, dances, dialect of stereotypical African Americans
• Stephen Foster wrote outstanding minstrel songs
• Genteel society preferred his love songs, Civil War songs, sentimental ballads about home

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Concert Bands

Concert bands became balanced ensembles capable of performing

• Transcriptions of orchestral and operatic literature
• More popular pieces

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Virtuosos

Mid-nineteenth-century Americans enjoyed music performed by virtuoso soloists

• Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist
• Internationally acclaimed
• Introduced American Civil War era audiences to piano music
• Performed his own light but stirring compositions
• Presented orchestral programs that pleased audiences, raising the level of appreciation for orchestral music (primarily European)

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Composers

The Second New England School of Composers

• Produced the first significant American concert music, primarily in German-Romantic style

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Edward MacDowell (not of the Second New England School)

• Developed a characteristic, although not distinctively American, idiom of his own
• The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, invites artists in every discipline to spend summers there

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