The Musical Museum and the Return of the Symphony

The Musical Museum and the Return of the Symphony

New Halls and New Orchestras

• The Leipzig Gewandhaus (1781), new hall built in 1884

• Vienna, Musikverein (Music Society) “Golden Hall” (1870)

• Dresden, Gewerbehaussaal (1870)• America, New York’s Music Hall (Carnegie Hall)

(1891)

New Halls and New Orchestras

• Vienna Philharmonic (founded 1842)• Dresden Hofkapelle• Paris, Société des Concerts du Conservatoire

(1828); Société des Jeunes Artistes du Conservatoire (1853)

• Russia, first professional orchestra in St. Petersburg (1859)

• New York Philharmonic (1842)• Boston Symphony Orchestra (1881)

The Triumph of Museum Culture

• “Viennese Classics”• The concert hall as museum• Orchestral repertoire as “complete and

finished”

New Paths:Johannes Brahms

• Brahms (1833–1897)• Brahms, Joseph Joachim, and Schumann• Schumann, “Neue Bahnen” (New Paths)

(1853)

Johannes Brahms

• Symphonic Attempts– Sonata in D Minor for Piano Duet (1854)• adapted into the First Piano Concerto and Requiem

– The Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 (1859)

Johannes Brahms

• Chamber Music and “Developing Variation”– Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (1861)

[Anthology 2-59]• Expansive first movement• Intermezzo• Andante con moto• Rondo alla Zingarese (“the Hungarian style”)

– sophisticated motivic elaborations and transformations (“developing variation”)

Johannes Brahms

• Choral Fame– A German Requiem (1869)– Triumphlied (“Song of Victory,” 1871)

Inventing Tradition

• The German past• Variations for Orchestra on a Theme by Joseph

Haydn– also inspired by Spitta’s biography of Bach

• First Symphony in C minor (1876)– the key of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony– allusions to Schumann’s Manfred, Wagner’s

Tristan un Isolde, Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth Symphonies

Victory Through Critique

• Brahms, First Symphony, movement 4 [Anthology 2-60]

– Goal-oriented toward fourth movement– alphorn theme– chorale theme, resemblance to Beethoven’s “Ode

to Joy” theme

Reconciliation and Backlash

• Hans von Bulow, “the Tenth Symphony” “Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms” (“the three B’s”)

• Wagner, “On Poetry and Composition” – “guise of a highly respectable symphony dressed

up as Number Ten.”

The Symphony as Sacrament

• Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)– trained as organist and church choirmaster– worked in Linz and Vienna– organist for the Imperial Court Chapel in Vienna

The Symphony as Sacrament

• Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)– Masses• D minor, E minor, and F minor masses

– Symphonies• style influenced by his experience as an organist• influence of Wagner• “study” symphony in F minor (1863)• 8 symphonies and an unfinished 9th

• many revisions• cyclicism

Antonín Dvořák(1841–1904)

• Categorized as a Czech composer though he never used authentic Czech melodies

• Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81[Anthology 2-61]

• Piano Concerto (1876)• Violin Concerto (1879)• Cello Concerto (1894–95)• 9 symphonies

Dvořák in the New World

• Lived in the United States (1892–95)• Symphony in E Minor Z nového světa (From

the New World) [Anthology 2-62]– Ninth Symphony– first performance: 16 December 1893 in Carnegie

Hall with New York Philharmonic– African American Spirituals

An American Response

• Edward MacDowell (1860–1908)– born in New York– studied in Germany– Character pieces for piano• Sea Pieces• Fireside Tales• New England Idyls• Woodland Sketches

– “To a Wild Rose”

An American Response

• “Boston School” or “Second New England School”– MacDowell– John Knowles Paine (1839–1906)• Harvard

– George Whitefield Chadwick (1854–1931)• New England Conservatory

– Horatio Parker (1863–1919)• Yale

An American Response

• Amy Marcy Beach (1867–1944)– First Symphony (1894)– “Irish-Gaelic” folk songs– premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in

1896

War Brings Symphonies to France

• Société Nationale de Musique (National Musical Society)– Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)• Symphony No. 3 in C Minor “Organ” (1886)

– César Franck (1822–1890)• Symphony in D Minor (1889)• cyclic form• students

– Vincent d’Indy (1851–1931)– Ernest Chausson (1855–1899)