Classical Music - Country Style
Of course, using native melodies was not an especially new thing - after all, Carl Maria von Weber is credited with having begun the nationalistic opera movement with his Der Freischütz in 1821. Based on a German legend, it also utilizes German folktunes, and still remains in the repertoire, although most of his other works have fallen out.
Felix Mendelssohn absorbed both melodies and rhythms of Italy and Scotland for two of his symphonies, obligingly named for the countries represented. Scottish is No. 3 in a minor, Op. 56 from 1842, while the Italian is No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 from 1846.
Tchaikovsky also used Italian folk tunes in his Capriccio Italien, Op. 45, written in 1880. There is a tender song for strings and a jaunty one for oboe before the final whirling tarantella. An earlier inspiration was the Little Russian melody, The Crane used in his Symphony No. 1 in g minor, Op. 13 - Winter Dreams, written in 1866, and revised in 1874. (Go back to last month's column for another example of patriotic tunes used by this composer - the 1812 Overture.)
Bela Bartók was a Hungarian, born in 1881, who made an early debut as composer at age nine, and piano soloist a year later. He was fairly well established in his chosen field, when in 1905 he began making trips to remote regions of Hungary. Here he collected folksongs and dances which were mostly unknown to the outer world. After editing, they were published, but then he decided to incorporate these native songs into his music. The result was a major change in his style - from romantic to avant-garde albeit of a somewhat rustic nature, in some of his work. He was not afraid of dissonance or harshness if required. One notable example of his use of folk music is his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste from 1936. The last movement is an energetic and vigorous peasant dance.
Zoltán Kodály, born in 1882, attended the Budapest Academy with his fellow Hungarian, Bela Bartók. In fact, Kodály accompanied his friend on some of the musical research trips and even earned his doctorate on this subject. Two of Kodály's best-known works are based on these folk tunes and dances. Dances of Galánta dates from 1934 and incorporates five gypsy dances, played without interruption, becoming ever faster until the final veritable tonal orgy. Háry János, a suite written in 1926, is his most famous work - the one that begins with a musical "sneeze" - a hint that the listener should perhaps not believe everything he is about to hear.
In 1923, the 50th anniversary of the merging of the cities of Buda and Pest was celebrated. A special feature of the celebration was a concert featuring works written especially for the festival, by the two most prominent Hungarian composers of the time - Bartók and Kodály. From the former came the Dance Suite in six movements played without interruption, rich with Magyar dance rhythms and folk melodies. Kodály's contribution was the Psalmus Hungaricus for tenor soloist, chorus and orchestra.
Jean Sibelius, Finland's most noted composer, composed their national anthem - Finlandia, which was considered to be so stirring, it was banned by the Nazis. A futile effort at best, and entirely unsuccessful. Many of Sibelius' works are based on folk songs or legends, including the final movement of his violin concerto in d minor, Op. 47, from 1903. From earlier that same year is Valse Triste, Op. 44, the royalties for which he willed to his nephew, making that gentleman very wealthy in the process. Valse Triste began life as one of several numbers written as incidental music for the play Kuolema.
Leos Janácek was born in Moldavia, a small Baltic country which has recently become itself again. Until the early 1990s, perhaps his best-known composition was the Glagolitic Mass or Slavonic Mass. This intriguing work not only uses folk-type music, but the text is a translation of the normal Latin liturgical text into the ancient Slavonic language which is still preserved as the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church. This language relates to the modern Czech language as does that of Chaucer to modern English. The Mass is in nine sections, of which the organ solo in part 7 is the most famous. (It is frequently excerpted in old horror movies.) Recently, his opera Jenufa was revived by the Metropolitan Opera, to great acclaim.
Although Karol Szymanowski was born in Ukraine, it is the music of Poland - the folksongs and dances - which most captured his heart. Just after the end of WWI, he traveled through the Tatra range of the Carpathian Mountains in Poland. From that time on, most of his music uses Polish melodies and rhythms, both folk- and religious-based.
A reverse example might be Antonin Dvorák, the Bohemian-born composer who came to America in 1892 as director of the Music Conservatory of New York. He was a devout traveler, and happily accumulated melodies from wherever his travels took him. His most famous work is the Symphony No. 9 in e minor, Op. 95 From the New World. Originally, the title lost its first word, becoming known as "The New World", indicating that it was his tribute to the New World. Rather, it is that of a composer from the Old World writing of the New World, but in the style of the Old. It may have been inspired by America, and used melodies he heard here, but it was definitely written by a Bohemian.
Can you identify which French-born composer has a mountain in Utah named for him? On August 5, 1978, the town of Parowan, Utah, so pleased with the symphonic work Des Canyons aux Étoiles, written after a 1973 stay in the area, named a local mountain Mt. Messaien. Obviously, the answer is Olivier Messaien, who used a different sort of "folk" for his usual inspiration - birds. The winged variety, of all shapes and sizes and national origins, find their songs replicated in many of his works. Les Oiseaux, for example.
Even Gustav Mahler used folk music. His first symphony, features an Austrian ländler in the second movement, performed in a vulgar manner - on purpose!. By the time Mahler borrowed it, however, the ländler had undergone a severe reformation, becoming the lovely, lilting waltz.
Ralph Vaughan Williams was an Englishman, through and through, and his music reflects this. Just three years after receiving his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1901, he first became acquainted with folk songs of the Tudor era (1485-1602), which prompted him to join the Folk Song Society, dedicated to the study of and research in such music. Two years later came the first of his three Norfolk Rhapsodies.
There have been two nationalistic groups of composers - The Mighty Five - Russians Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Borodin; and the French Les Sixe: Tailleferre, Auric, Honegger, Poulenc, Milhaud and Durey. We may explore this aspect of nationalistic music in a future column.
Critic's Choice: Our critic Albert Petrak says, "Since over a dozen compositions by many composers are dealt with in the course of this article, I've chosen two representative recordings, plus one "two-fer" - that is, two discs for the price of one . . . usually always reissues, but contemporary and needing no apology for sound or performance":
LONDON. 417 678: DVORAK: Symphony No. 9, Op. 95, "From the New World" coupled with SMETANA: Ma Vlast (My Country . . . six autobiographical tone poems including the popular "Moldau");
and TELARC 80099: VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: "Folksong Suite" (includes a group of popular marches and GRAINGER's "Lincolnshire Posy") Cleveland Symphonic Winds/Fennell.
Both of these discs are single CDs. For the adventurous beginner, however, there is a "two-fer" by LONDON. 443 006 - KODALY: All the orchestral works (minus a couple of short pieces) including the Háry János Suite; both Galanta and Marosszek Dances; Concerto for Orchestra; the Symphony in C and other short characteristic pieces. The idiom is so accessible, however, that one soon "grows into it."
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