Next stop - Vienna

This week we’ve waltzed over to Vienna. (See what I did there?) We’ve now reached the late eighteenth century and the musical centre of Europe has shifted to the capital of Austria, in what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ruled over by the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire. Here we encounter some very familiar names from the elite First Viennese School, namely Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.

The area had been ruled by Josef II, alongside his mother, Maria Theresa, since 1765. Josef believed in Enlightened Absolutism - , he believed that he had been divinely appointed but was enlightened enough to believe that his subjects needed a benevolent and powerful leader to look after them. He was an accomplished musician in his own right and had his own chamber group. He sought to reform many things and rather than embrace Italian opera he wanted to promote the German language through Singspiele. This was sung drama in the local language along similar lines to Lully’s ideas for French opera.

A young Mozart was quick to jump on this bandwagon, eager to show his ability in this new, officially accepted genre. His letters home to his father show his enthusiasm for Singspiele. He wrote Die Entfȕhrung aud dem Serail (The abduction from the seraglio), better known as Il Seraglio, which was premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater in 1782. Have a look at this YouTube clip of the Wer ein liebchen hat gefunden taken from that opera.

By 1783 Josef II had stopped trying to make Vienna and Singspiele the centre of European music. He gave in to the tastes of the general populous and assembled a troupe to perform Italian Opera Buffa (comic opera) as Italian musical influence encompasses the whole of Europe. Opera buffa was born out of short Intermezzo performed in the intervals of Opera Seria productions. These short interludes grew and eventually became full length operas in their own right. Josef, like Louis XIV in France, had his chosen composers and these were Salieri and Mozart. Josef spoke Tuscan Italian, the performers own language, fluently and often attended rehearsals in order to maintain his control over them and his composers. Opera Buffa was also the only genre of opera to be encouraged at this time.

Having learned about the politics and patronage involved in the musical world over the years, in fact, probably back to the days of chant or even before that, I am fascinated by how one ‘wrong note’ or an ‘off-key’ moment could make or break a composer’s career. That old adage of being in the right place, at the right time also seems to be true as there are many talented composers that are rarely heard of purely by way of the fact that their talents were eclipsed by their contemporaries. Take, for example, Giovanni Paisiello, a very successful composer, whose writing sounds similar to Mozart. He was patronized by Catherine the Great of Russia but have you ever heard of him? I hadn’t until now. He wrote a version of The Barber of Seville but now we are more likely to think of Rossini when we hear that title.

This is the last formal blog post for my university degree course and I have thoroughly enjoyed this tour of Western Musical Heritage. I don’t really want it to end and, like any good book, it is encouraging me to read ‘just one more chapter’ so maybe I will. I’m not saying it will become a regular feature but maybe, now and again, I will dip in and out of my copy of A history of Western Music by Burkholder, Grout and Palisca, and take another trip into our musical history. I can now hear the last call for passengers on my trip home so I leave you, for now, with a cheery wave and a tear in my eye. Auf wiedersehen from Vienna.

A hop across the channel

Your turn, Herr Handel. This week I have decided that one can have too much French Baroque music so I have turned to my go-to guy, George Frederick Handel. Now, anyone who knows me well will know that I love singing anything by Handel as his music seems to suit my voice. Currently I am working on As when the dove laments her love from Acis and Galatea for my mid-year exam and it is a really fun aria where the singer can literally go overboard with embellishments if that’s what they want. Personally, I have just added a few subtle ones to enhance the da capo section. Galatea sings that when Acis returns she no longer mourns but “loves the live-long day”. In the second section she sings lustfully about their reunion with lots of panting, wooing and melting murmurs filling the grove. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink and all that. Have a listen to this recording and see what you think. I challenge you not to be instantly hooked and want to listen to the whole work. There is even a DVD version of a 2009 performance, recorded at the Royal Opera House in London, starring Danielle de Niese, conducted by Christopher Hogwood is you fancy tracking it down.

Acis was Handel’s first dramatic work in English. The libretto was by John Gay, a well-known writer from this era. It originally premiered in 1718 as a one act masque but Handel re-wrote it as a two act, staged work in 1739. It was written as entertainment for the royal court and has a rather bucolic setting with lots of nymphs and shepherds prancing about. It contains humour and tragedy in fairly equal measure. To sum it up – Galatea, a semi-divine nymph, has been separated from her lover Acis, a shepherd. They are reunited but, sadly, their happiness is short-lived as the giant, Polyphemus, wants Galatea for himself. Galatea declares her love and constancy to Acis causing Polyphemus to kill him in a jealous rage. Galatea’s friends comfort her and remind her that she can save Acis with her divine powers. She then transforms the lifeless Acis into a beautiful fountain. I’m not sure this was the best use of her powers but why let that stand in the way of a good story.

Handel wrote mainly oratorios as these were performed without staging and therefore could be performed on church feast days and during Lent, when people had to abstain from going to the theatre. His most famous of these being Messiah which was first performed in Dublin, Ireland in 1742. The overture to Messiah is certainly influenced by our old mate Lully as it is written in the French overture style. It starts with a slow section that uses dotted rhythms and is followed by a livelier, fugal section before returning to the first section. Handel’s oratorios contain some gorgeous arias and choruses and I don’t think I could ever get bored of performing Messiah. The music is so enduring and I think that you could walk into pretty much any Western town around Christmas or Easter to find it being performed by at least one choir. I know there were at least two concerts in Christchurch last Christmas, for one I was in the choir and for the other I was in the audience. The Hallelujah Chorus must be the most sung chorus in the whole world. My personal favourite to sing is Rejoice Greatly and here is a clip of Dame Kiri te Kanawa singing it.

Please use this link if the video doesn't play as Blogger doesn't seem to like two videos in one post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJtupQQ9ZvY

I hope that I have managed to instil in you a bit of my passion for Handel’s work as I cannot imagine life without this glorious Baroque music.

Lully and Louis’s monopoly. Good or bad?

This week in class we mixed things up a bit and staged a debate. One team argued that the musical monopoly held by Lully and King Louis XIV was a good thing for the future of music whereas the other team argued against this. I was in the opposing team and, not being used to taking part in proper debates or being one for any form of confrontation, felt a little wary of the whole idea. My personal views on the subject are somewhat mixed as while the music of Lully’s time has endured and certainly earned its place in history, I wonder what might have been if other composers had been allowed to flourish in Paris during this time.

During this duo’s reign it was certainly a case of your face having to fit. If you weren’t one of the ‘chosen’ few then you might as well give up or move to Italy. Lully was very demanding of everyone he worked with and if you made a mistake or tried to embellish what he had written then you would quite possibly fall out of favour. Lully was not above breaking a musician’s instrument to demonstrate his displeasure.

Something that Lully did bring to his operas, with the help of his librettist, Philippe Quinault, was a proper storyline. This differed from the Italian style where a story was loosely woven to join the many airs and choruses together into an entertainment. Even though Quinault wrote the libretto, he had to keep revising it until Lully was completely happy. As Robert Isherwood writes “Thus, despite the importance of the text in the tragédie lyrique, the composer’s will prevailed over the poet’s.”

Louis eventually lost interest in opera and, influenced by his mistress, Madame de Maintenon, he turned his attention to religion and religious music. Lully, also getting older, also turned his attention in this direction, leaving French opera to its own devices and allowing other composers to finally get a chance to show their capabilities. One of these was Marc-Antoine Charpentier whose opera, Medée was performed in 1693. Charpentier had studied with Giacomo Carissimi in Italy and while his music was still French in style it contained much richer harmonies unlike the rather transparent textures of Lully’s work. Italian versions of Medea were comedies but this French version has a much darker, more serious storyline.

Here is a link to a rather interesting version of the fully staged opera.

It seems to me that while Lully and King Louis played a very important part in the development of French opera during the Baroque period, it really only flourished once they had moved on to new interests. As well as Charpentier, it made way for composers such as André Camprei, who wrote Fêtes Venitiennes in 1710. This work was simpler and more jolly than Lully’s Armide although it was structurally similar with orchestral interludes within the airs. François Couperin as another influential composer and, unlike Lully, was a big fan of the ornament. He even wrote a detailed table of when and how to perform them. As you can see below, the score of La Ténébreuse is liberally scattered with them.

Whatever we think about the monopoly held by Lully and Louis, it is a fact of history and has shaped the music we have today. As for our debate, the team arguing for the monopoly won by one point and I’m ok with that. I may just have to hone my debating skills in case we do it again though.

References

Isherwood, Robert. The operas of Lully. Music in the service of the King: France in the seventeenth century (1973)