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Essay on music and national identity
An introduction for patriotism
An introduction for patriotism
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Romantic composers incorporated nationalism into their compositions through special instrumentation and use of local folk song themes. In many nations, they have a sense of individuality through the crafting of their own instruments. For instance the Spaniards had their own styles of stringed instruments and percussion (maracas, etc) and if a composer wanted to write music for a Spanish style, what would be more complete than to portray that style by using their folk instruments to give the song it's individual nationalistic flavor. Composers also used folk songs as recurring themes in their compositions to tie into the heritage of a nation. Most would not simply copy, but use variation in composing new forms of music to give to their countries.
Smetana's piece, The Moldau, has a clear basis for it's melody (a rushing river), while in addition create Bohemian flavor to the song by adding a peasant wedding polka song, a hunting call, and mythological water nymphs. In the story of this song we are swept by the river watching all these events pass us by.
I believe The Pursuit by Jean-Honore Fragonard on Page 421 of the Living with Art textbook depicts a certain nationalistic flavor, even though the painting was created before the romantic period. The French architecture of the garden and old style European apparel illustrate the beauty and magnificence of the French land and it's people. Abundant flowers and wispy trees add to this beauty and romantic event. A young woman is startled by a love-sick young man, where it seems she is intending to flee from him (out of flirting) as he softly offers her a flower. This chase, even though Baroque in style, is very romantic.
The United States would be one of the best places to share nationalism through artwork. One, because many people that live here are liberal, open armed citizens that enjoy the sharing of heritage. And secondly, the United States is a free country, so people would be able to express a nationalistic emotion without ridicule. A non free country on the other hand, for instance terrorists in Iraq, would give you a fistful if you portrayed any U.
The Moldau is a beautiful piece of instrumental music with a flair for nationalism from the Romantic period. It is program music that describes the river Moldau. It is a symphonic poem in structure and form. It is an orchestral arrangement that is broken into sections rich in musical concepts. Smetana’s The Moldau is very representative of late 19th century music.
Out of all of Beethoven’s one hundred and ten works, he wrote thirty-two piano sonatas. Of those thirty-two piano sonatas, the thirty-first piano sonata was one of the most important and was composed in the year 1821towards the end of Beethoven’s life. It is one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s final sonatas for the piano, given the full name: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, op. 110. I am writing about a video performance – found on YouTube – by Richard Goode in 1993. The performance piece is a sonata which is defined by Kerman as “a chamber-music piece in several movements” (Kerman, 427)
Classical music can be best summed by Mr. Dan Romano who said, “Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn't hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It's communication. Its hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments...but if done well and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That's art, speaking with your heart to the hearts of others.” Starting at a young age Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have done just that with their musical compositions. Both musical composers changed the world of music and captivated the hearts of many. Their love of composing shared many similar traits, though their musical styles were much different.
There were two great composers in the romantic music period. One was Frédéric Chopin and the other was Franz Liszt. They had great talent and composed excellent pieces that were really hard to play. These composers also had an interesting childhood.
During the 1800’s, a ruling power, often imperialist, imposed their culture, language, and history onto their empire. An example of this is Austria’s rule over Bohemia, with the official language in Prague being German, not Czech . In order to regain identity and preserve their culture, countries under imperial rule promoted speaking in the native language and teaching history of the country in schools . Nationalism had a profound affect on the music of the Romantic period due to the revolutions, wars, and historical events that sparked national pride which lead to unity amongst those under imperial rule.
If we are going to call this painting Romantic Art one must first know what it actually is or have some sort of idea what is counted as Romanticism or as something that Romantics would do. Romanticism celebrates the spontaneity and the use of the imagination. Abandoning tradition constraints of the art world to explore new and creative ways of expression. Possibly seen as intuitive individualism and primacy of feeling. Romantics didn't reject reason but though emotions were important to the human experience and were needed for creativity. They sometimes looked to nature, experiences in their time, the exotic, catastrophic, and the fantastic for inspiration.
The term romantic first appeared at sometime during the latter half of the 18th Century, meaning in quite literal English, "romance-like", usually referring to the character of mythical medieval romances. The first significant jump was in literature, where writing became far more reliant on imagination and the freedom of thought and expression, in around 1750. Subsequent movements then began to follow in Music and Art, where the same kind of imagination and expression began to appear. In this essay I shall be discussing the effect that this movement had on music, the way it developed, and the impact that it had on the future development of western music.
During the Romantic Movement in the 1700’s various writers were inspired to write poems or novels that include romantic qualities. What is Romanticism? Well it can be defined as a movement emphasizing self-expression and reason over logic. During this period, emphasis shifted from tradition of the church who gave people their experience to the importance of the individual's experience. The aspect most stressed in France is echoed in Victor Hugo's expression "liberalism in literature," meaning the freeing the writer of restrains and rules marked by the inspiration of radical political ideas. The novel “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo indeed demonstrates romantic qualities such as spiritual growth, emotion/sympathy and Nature.
Johann Sebastien Bach and George Frideric Handel are two composers from the Baroque Era; an era of bizarreness and extravagance, characteristics that are evident with their music. These two composers are immortalized by the music they have done, those of which that have made an impact in the way that we perceive music today as a society. Bach and Handel have served as a blueprint for the composers after them just as their predecessors did during their time, they are composers that will surely be remembered by future generations to come. Their body of work will remain engraved in history until the end of time.
The European Romantic Movement was the muse behind the eventual American Romantic Movement. But each era had its own defining properties. Both Europe and America were struggling to break free from society’s rituals and create their own identity, Europe fighting against the Bourgeois and America against Protestantism. Both movements found a love of nature and wanted to bring their roots back to mother nature herself. Both Romantics shared a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature, a general view of emotion over reason and an obsession for the exotic, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the diseased and even the
Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous German born composer and pianist, composed the Romance in F major in 1798. It was likely first performed in that year, but was not published until 1805 in Vienna. It was originally written for violin and orchestra but the edition being performed today was transcribed and edited for saxophone and piano by Peter Saiano. During this period of his life, Beethoven was still known as perhaps the greatest pianist in existence and he was busy touring Europe as a performer. He had not yet achieved the status he now holds as a composer, and during this period he was also working on his first set of string quartets.
Heritage of Music: Volume II The Romantic Era (Heritage of Music). New York: Oxford UP, USA, 1992. Print.
Joseph Haydn is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the classical period. He is often called the father of both the symphony and the string quartet, and he founded what is known as the Viennese classical school, which consisted of himself, his friend, Wolfgang Mozart, and his pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven. During his lifetime, he produced a mind-boggling amount of music. He lived from the end of the baroque period to the beginning of the romantic period, and presided over the transition between them.
Other societal practice during romanticism is the Romantic Opera. In comparison to the classical and baroque opera, romantic opera has a continuous flow of music in each scene and soon, people pay less attention to tenors and pays equal attention to choruses. To name a few of many composers for romantic operas, Wagner and Bizet are known for their works for romantic opera during the romantic era. Romantic music is also influenced by folk music, tunes, rhythms and themes as many romantic composers wrote nationalist music, which is inspired from folk dances and songs, during the romantic period (http://absoluteastronomy.com). Another factor that contributed to romantic music in defining its traits is the instrumentation.
Despite this, the people of Czechoslovakia and Russsia were increasingly familiar with the music being composed. This comes back to the definition of music nationalism. It is about creating music which the people of that country are familiar with and can relate too. This music is therefore unique to the land of Bohemia and will mean more to the people of Czechoslovakia than other listeners, perhaps those from the western world.