Happy
birthday to Wolfgang Mozart! This beloved composer was born today in 1756. In
honor of his special day, I thought I’d pick my top ten Mozart pieces to share
with you. What is your favorite?
This
month on Clef Notes, we’ve been looking at examples of exoticism found in
classical music. Many of the examples come from the late-nineteenth and early-
twentieth centuries. Let’s step back a
little further in time today and look at Mozart’s use of exoticism in his
Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331.
Turkish
music was quite popular in eighteenth-century Vienna. This explains Mozart’s
decision to label the third movement of his Sonata No. 11 “Rondo alla Turca,”
using march-like references to Turkish Janissary bands.
Turkish Janissary Band: Courtesy of wikimedia.org
Can
you hear the percussive sounds of a military marching band in the “Rondo alla Turca”
below?
Did
you know that Mozart’s birthday is Wednesday? Join me for a “Best of Mozart”
playlist!
The
trend of exoticism in music reached a new height during the late nineteenth
century. It was during this time that Camille Saint-Saëns wrote his Samson and Delilah (1877), a famous
opera based on the story of Samson from the Old Testament. Let’s continue our
exoticism theme this month by looking at the “Danse Bacchanale” from Samson and Delilah.
The
famous Biblical story of Samson tells of a Nazarite man who was consecrated
before God. One sign of his Nazarite vow and mighty strength was his long
hair—he maintained his strength as long as he never cut his hair. When seduced
by a Philistine woman named Delilah, Samson lost his strength after allowing
her to cut his hair. The Philistines bound and blinded poor Samson, taking him
to the temple of their god, Dagon. In the opera, the Philistines perform their
pagan rites accompanied by the famous “Danse Bacchanale.”
In
order to give the music a foreign flair, Saint-Saëns uses castanets,
hypnotizing rhythms, augmented seconds, and an improvisatory, Middle
Eastern-sounding oboe. Listen below for these exotic traits:
Next
week is Mozart’s birthday, so it’s only right to talk about exoticism in his “Rondo
all Turca.” Join me then!
When I think about exoticism in music, I
cannot help but hum the lovely violin solo from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (1888). Continuing our
“exotic” theme this month, today let’s look at one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most
famous orchestral works based on a collection of Arabic, Persian, and Indian
stories known as The Arabian Nights.
As a child, Rimsky-Korsakov dreamed of
traveling the world as a naval officer. When his time came however, the young
man realized his passions had shifted. Longing to devote his time to composing
rather than sailing, Rimsky-Korsakov made the decision to travel through his
imagination and convey that through his music. He beautifully does this in Scheherazade, a story about the Sultan
Shahriar who vowed to kill each of his wives after the first night. When Sultana
Scheherazade marries him, she attempts to prevent her own death by telling the
Sultan successive stories each night. Enticed, the Sultan keeps her alive in
order to hear the next part of her story. The story continues for 1,001 nights
after which Scheherazade wins the Sultan over.
Below you can listen to this exotic
masterpiece. Note the solo violin, which represents Scheherazade.
Next time, we’ll look at exoticism in
Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah: Danse
Bacchanale!
Last
time we looked at an example exoticism in chamber music, using Debussy’s Syrinx as an example. Exoticism is the
evocation of a distant land, by use of borrowed melodies, native instruments,
etc. Today, let’s look at how Ravel uses an exotic element in his String
Quartet in F Major (1902–1903).
Have
you heard of Javanese Gamelan music? This is a term used for an Indonesian
orchestra, made up of many instruments, particularly percussion. Many gamelan
instruments are specific to certain regions and may have existed there for
centuries. Below, you can see an example of a gamelan. Note how expansive it is
and how many people it may take to perform:
Often,
Western composers would attempt to depict the sounds of Javanese Gamelan in
their own compositions—an exotic technique. Ravel did this in the second
movement of his String Quartet in F Major. As you listen below, note the
pizzicatos and cross-rhythms Ravel incorporates in order to depict what
scholars believe to be bells or a gamelan.
Join
me next week as we look at exoticism in orchestral music!
This
month on Clef Notes, we’re learning about exoticism and how it’s used in music.
Last week, we looked at two examples of exoticism in opera. This week, let’s
move our attention to examples in chamber music.
Claude
Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute is an
excellent example of an exotic work that doesn’t necessarily focus on a foreign
region, but an ancient and mythological time period. Composed in 1913 for
Gabriel Mourey’s play Psyche, Syrinx tells the story of a nymph who
turns into reeds in order to escape the pursuits of the satyr Pan. When the
wind blows against the reeds, they create beautiful music that attracts Pan’s
attention. Turning them into panpipes, Pan kills his love without knowing it.
Debussy writes in his characteristically chromatic way, creating a sense of
mystery in his depiction of this Greek myth.
Listen to this lovely yet mournful piece below, performed by Emmanuel
Pahud:
This
month on Clef Notes, we are looking at exoticism found in music. Last time, we
looked at Bizet’s famous opera, Carmen.
Today, let’s travel to Japan for an opera many of you may have enjoyed during
the Cincinnati Opera’s 2014 season: Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904).
Puccini
created his own unique style by combining elements of the great opera composers
who came before him: Verdi’s gorgeous vocal melodies and Wagner’s leitmotifs.
Puccini uses arias, choruses, duets, etc. throughout and blurs the distinction
between recitatives and arias used in operas in the prior century.
In
Madama Butterfly, Puccini combines
elements of Western-Romantic music and exoticism by telling the magazine story
by John Luther Long of a young geisha who gives up her family and religion to
marry American Lieutenant Pinkerton who promises to come retrieve her from
Japan. After a three-year wait, he returns with a new wife, leaving young
Butterfly heartbroken. Pentatonic and whole-tone scales can be heard throughout
Puccini’s score, a feature that Western audiences commonly associated with the
East.
Here
is a clip showing a famous aria from this opera—“Un bel di vedromo,” sung by
Maria Callas:
Can
you hear exotic elements in the “Un bel di vedremo”?
Nationalism
in music is a topic we once looked at here on Clef Notes. But what about the
opposite of nationalism, or the evocation of a distant land, by use of borrowed
melodies, native instruments, etc.? This idea is known as exoticism and, though
used throughout history, it gained popularity during the late nineteenth
century.
Exoticism
is an interesting concept because, while composers were successful in creating
sounds different from what their Western audiences were used to hearing, they
were not always accurate in creating authentic music from these distant
regions. Many of the exotic melodies that became popular during this time
period depicted more of the composer’s own idea of what these foreign melodies
should sound like rather than the actual music of different cultures.
This
month, I’d like to look at various examples of exoticism in music, starting off
with a few operatic examples this week. Today, let’s look at Bizet’s Carmen (1874), an opera set in Spain and
based on a novel by Prosper Mérimée.
While to us, Spain sits in close proximity to where the opera was
composed in France, audiences of Bizet’s time looked at Spanish elements as
exotic and exciting.
Carmen takes place in
Seville during the mid-nineteenth century and is a tale about how the soldier
Don José leaves behind his morals and innocent love for the provocative
gypsy-girl Carmen.
Courtesy of wikimedia.org
Bizet
conveys his own ideas about Spain in multiple ways. Above you can see an image
of Carmen in bright, alluring colors. He also casts Spain in a dark sense,
ending his opera with a gruesome murder. Bizet uses musical elements to give
audiences a dose of Spanish flare. Several of Carmen’s arias use titles from
Spanish dances such as “Habanera” and “Seguidilla.” Bizet incorporates
augmented seconds associated with gypsy music and the Phrygian mode, adding to
the Spanish flavor.
Just
for fun, enjoy one more “Carmen” video, courtesy of The Muppets:
