Transcript GEOG 433: Day 19

GEOG 433: DAY 19
Classical Music (sort of)
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS
Any announcements?
Today we’ll hear from Sam (anyone else?) and
then start covering the chapter on Vienna
Tomson was supposed to present last Thursday;
will he be presenting today?
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Vienna is an epitome of a music hearth, but it also
serves as a magnet: -- much of the music we identify with
was created by outsiders, and – many of the people who
have flocked there, both as performers (Mozart, Haydn,
Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler) and as tourists, do so
because of its reputation for music
Throughout the chapter, the author interweaves a
discussion of folk and ‘high’ or so-called ‘classical’ music
– usually divided into the baroque (Bach), classical
(Mozart), Romantic (Wagner), and modern periods
(Schoenberg).
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Vienna is an epitome of a music hearth, but it also
serves as a magnet: -- much of the music we identify with
was created by outsiders, and – many of the people who
flock there, both as performers and as tourists, do so
because of its reputation for music
Throughout the chapter, the author interweaves a
discussion of folk and ‘high’ or so-called ‘classical’ music
– usually divided into the baroque (Bach), classical
(Mozart), Romantic (Wagner), and modern periods
(Schoenberg).
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
As he describes, Vienna is a bit of a musical mosh
pit. Even in 19th century Vienna, folk often crossed
with more urban – proto-pop – sounds. He mentions
“Das Wiener Fiakerlied,” but unfortunately all I could
find was a parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyiXg9t6Iw4
“European” music covers a multitude of sins, as
Bohlman points out, ranging from Muslim-influenced
Andalusian work-songs to Saami music to Hungarian
folk music originally derived from Asia
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
“European” music has gone global. Some of the most
accomplished instrumentalists in the genre of classical
music hail from China and elsewhere – e.g. Lang Lang
He also talks about the role of essentially stateless
people, such as the Saami, the Jews, the Roma (Sinti and
Manouche), and even the Celts, and their role in relation
to national forms of music.
He cites “Khused”, a wedding dance. I don’t have
access to the version he refers to, but here’s one version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M53gAf2X8CE
STATELESS CULTURES
Plus Galicia
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Linda and Melissa unearthed the following examples
of Eastern European Jewish music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkPGI2yIYfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VdoHnidz70
As with the Roma, Jewish musicians mastered the
repertoires of other cultures and performed as
professional musicians for other groups
Here’s a taste of Romany music from the Balkans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQn6Qb-9mD8
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
There’s also the distinctive music of the Saami
– Scandinavia’s indigenous people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkE3S5JHI
oY&list=PLD8F53633094AA51E
Not all musics are ethnic or national; they can
also be regional, as with the Swiss, German,
Austrian, and Liechtenstein people in the
watershed of Lake Constance
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Another example of this is polka music, which –
according to Wikipedia – is popular in Poland (Clarinet
Polka), Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Netherlands,
Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Austria,
Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Slovakia.
In contrast with trans-national or distinct regional
music is national music, The people of Hungary speak a
language which is not Indo-European and their
traditional music reflects its original Asian roots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T5srmELtU8
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
I don’t know if that rendition is true to Bartók’s original
transcription, but old Hungarian music is supposed to be
largely based on the pentatonic (5-tone) scale
Showing that the polarization between folk and ‘classical’
music was far from absolute, composers like Bartók
borrowed from folk traditions as in this dance inspired by
Hungarian folk music in Transylvania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6V1EJD0fig
Other composers who did similar things include Ralph
Vaughan Williams, Dvořák and, in the U.S. Gershwin and
Copland
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
In many cases, music was used to advance a national(ist)
cause on the assumption that there was a distinctive music
that reflected the ‘soul’ of the nation and that could help
unify the people. In some cases, this proved to be the case,
as with the Estonian song festivals, that were a not-toosubtle way of resisting Soviet domination (See the film,
“The Singing Revolution”)
In peasant society, music was part of the common life
of the people and musicians were not that set apart from
the community. Here’s a taste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpIw0oCYVdM
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Then, during the Middle Ages, semi-professional
musicians – troubadours, minnesingers, and minstrels –
began to travel telling stories and relating history and
accompanying themselves on the lute
In addition, instruments
often are closely tied to
specific national or ethnic
cultures’ music.
OTHER INSTRUMENTS
gusle
saz
hummel
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Then, during the Middle Ages, semi-professional
musicians – troubadours, minnesingers, and minstrels –
began to travel telling stories and relating history and
accompanying themselves on the lute
Also, with the rise of mercantilism and the strengthening
of cities, “European cities… served as gathering points for
people from other places… people singing in different
languages and performing on different instruments.” (p. 243)
Musical trade became as common as mercantile trade.
Urbanization also led to the manufacture of instruments
and of ‘broadsides’ – an early form of sheet music.
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Bohlman also notes the distinction between sacred and
secular music. In the baroque era, much of the music
produced was sacred, as with that of Bach
And yet other cultures – sometimes Islamic – saw the use
of instruments in religious settings as inappropriate. Even
the Puritans in England destroyed organs in churches for the
same reason (Gratuitous joke: why were the Puritans – e.g.
Pilgrims in the New World – against sex? Because it might
lead to dancing). 
In other instances, folk music was largely religious and
religious music was used as instrument of resistance
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
A further development of the separation of the individual
as a professional from society as a whole was the emergence
of concert stars playing music by heroic composers. In such
a context, the role of the audience is largely one of being
passive – of being transfixed by the virtuousity of the
performer and the piece. Friedrich Nietzsche elevated this –
though not just in relation to culture – in his notion of
Übermensch (or superman)
Though Bohlman points out that some remnants of the
old equality still linger on in the string quartet and the
sometimes leaderless chamber orchestra
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
The development of mass-produced instruments had an
enormous impact. The most popular in Europe became the
piano, but it not lend itself that well to non-European scales
and also wasn’t very transportable
In addition, modern mass media has had the impact of
both promoting homogenization, but also allowing other
cultures to get their music out (“glocalization”)
Even today, people try to mine their musical roots for
traditions to support particular ideological or political visions
(including nationalism)
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Such music is often seen as arising out of the mentalité of a
distinctive group of people. Is this the case with
commodified music?
His Twerpness
Her Twerkness
BOHLMAN CHAPTER
Any comments on anything else in the chapter or
that I’ve talked about? Or that I haven’t talked
about?
I haven’t covered the Eurovision Song Contest.
Any comments on that? It sounds like quite a mashup, with the musicians chosen to represent their
countries being completely arbitary, both in
nationality and in style (Celine Dion for
Switzerland?!!)
This was a challenging chapter, but I hope that
you read it!