Transcript Part 2 The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century Chapter 8: American

America’s Musical Landscape
5th edition
PowerPoint by Myra Lewinter Malamut
Georgian Court University
Part 2
The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of Age:
The Late Nineteenth Century
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century

Americans preferred the German Romantic
style in orchestral music

Romantics (Germans and others)
approached the elements of music
differently from their classical forbears
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Characteristics of Romantic Music
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Long and lyrical melodies
Asymmetrical phrases
Repeated songlike melodies with variation or embellishment
Chordal harmony became fuller and steadily more dissonant
Expansion of tonal harmony through addition of new tones to
familiar chords


Freer treatment of rhythms


Newly varied and colorful effects
Sometimes avoiding regularly recurring patterns of a certain
number of beats per measure; phrases of irregular length
Rich, imaginative instrumental effects affected timbre (color)
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Romantic Music and the Exploration
of Timbres

Timbre=Color

Nineteenth-century music includes increasingly rich and
imaginative instrumental effects




Technological changes increasing capabilities of woodwind and
brass instruments encouraged their wider use in the orchestra
A greatly expanded percussion section added variety in timbre
Additional strings added to balance the increased winds and
percussion
The Romantic orchestra was larger than that of the Baroque
or Classical period, with a richer variety of timbres
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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The Late Nineteenth Century and
Nationalism in America

America’s best-known composers continued to
make their music sound as German as possible

But a strong nationalistic urge developed among a few
dedicated American musicians and listeners

1892: Mrs. Jeanette M. Thurber, an American interested in
establishing a nationalistic music style, invited a prestigious
Bohemian nationalist composer to direct the National
Conservatory of Music in New York City
 Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Antonín Dvořák in America:

He was fascinated by the music of
African Americans and Native American
Indians

Perplexed that Americans lacked
interest in “native” music

Illustrating his ideas, plus America’s
beauty, he wrote Symphony No. 9 (From
the New World), and chamber pieces

Used scales of black or Indian music

Harmonized and orchestrated as per
Western custom
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
The Scout, Friend or Enemy?
Painted by
Frederic Remington (1861-1909)
6
The Second New England School

New York City was the center of music performance in the late
nineteenth century

The Boston area nurtured significant developments in music,
philosophy, literature

New England produced most of the important American composers
of the era

1881: The Boston Symphony Orchestra was founded

Supported efforts of local composers

Brought their music to public attention
 Often with repeated performances of a well-received work
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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The Second New England School of
Composers: Members

The first American composers to write significant works in all the
large concert forms

Their music was comparable in style and quality to music of many
of their European contemporaries

Dubbed the “Boston Classicists,” they shared a dedication to


The principles of German music theory

Concern for craftsmanship
Contributed to every genre of concert music
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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The Second New England School of
Composers: Members

Many were church musicians and organists who included organ
transcriptions of opera arias and symphonic music in their recitals

They brought this music to Americans who would otherwise not
have access to opera or orchestra concerts


Transcription= An arrangement of a piece originally
composed for a particular instrument or ensemble so that it
can be played by a different instrument or combination of
instruments
These intrepid pioneer composers also contributed
compositions for organ and choral music to the American music
repertoire
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Second New England School:
John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)
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The oldest member and leader of the Second New England School

Paine: An American who was educated in music in Germany

While in Germany, Paine wrote his Mass in D for chorus,
soloists, and orchestra, reminiscent in style to a well-known
mass by Beethoven
 This was the first large composition by an American to
be performed in Europe
 Mass = A setting to music of the most important Roman
Catholic worship service
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Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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John Knowles Paine: The Educator
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1861: Back home in America during wartime,
Paine became the organist at Harvard University

He offered free noncredit lectures in music (not
considered a proper course of study in universities)

The lectures were well received

1875: Harvard became the first American college to include
music in its formal curriculum
 Paine became the first American professor of music
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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John Knowles Paine:
Music Compositions

Paine’s orchestral music is far more significant
than that of Heinrich and Fry

His Symphony No. 1 was

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First performed by Theodore Thomas’s orchestra in 1876
The first American symphony to be published—but in
Germany rather than America—only after Paine’s death
He wrote many other kinds of music as well
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Songs
Hymns
An opera
Several fine keyboard compositions for organ or piano
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Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
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Fugue:

A polyphonic composition with three to five
melodic lines or “voices” entering one at a time in
imitation of each other, according to specific rules

Originally conceived as a form of European
keyboard music


Highly structured
Suitable for every performing medium, including voice
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
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Fugue: Form of the Exposition

Exposition = The beginning section of the fugue, in which all
the voices are introduced (“exposed”)

The principal theme or subject enters alone

After the subject has been heard in entirety, it is imitated by
each of the other voices in turn until each has made its entrance
 The first entrance—the subject—is on the tonic
 The second voice, or answer, begins on the dominant
 The answer is similar but not identical to the subject
 The remaining voices (usually a total of three or four)
alternate entrances between tonic and dominant until each
voice has been introduced
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Fugue: After the Exposition

Following the exposition, each voice proceeds
with independent material, referring to the subject
and answer more or less frequently throughout
the piece

There may be a second theme, or countersubject

Introduced in the same manner as the subject

Recurring throughout the fugue
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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The Form of a Fugue

Exposition of a four-voice fugue (page 132)
Subject (tonic)
(Other thematic material)
Answer (dominant)
(Other thematic material)
Subject (tonic)
Answer (dominant)
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Listening Example 27
Fuga Giocosa, Op. 41, No. 3
By John Knowles Paine
Listening Guide page 132
After the exposition, Paine
explores several major and minor
keys throughout the rest of the
fugue. He sometimes treats the
first four notes of the subject as a
motive, repeating the bouncing
figure at different levels of pitch,
a technique called musical
sequence.
Occasional large chords provide
effective contrast to the polyphonic
texture, and the piece becomes
increasingly virtuosic and dramatic.
It is never pretentious, and at the
end, like the beginning, is light and
humorous.
Form: Fugue
Key: G major
The subject, based on an old baseball song, “Over the Fence is Out,
Boys,” includes a distinctive upward leap of an octave. It enters on
the tonic note (G) and is soon answered at the level of the dominant
(D). The third voice enters (tonic), and then the subject is tossed—
like a baseball, perhaps—from one voice to another.
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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The Second New England School of
Composers: Other Members

Most members were
 Trained in Europe
 Found it necessary to hold academic positions to make a living
 American audiences offered little support to American
composers
 Today’s reviewers have admired the musical quality and
expressed regret that the music has been long ignored

Names most likely to appear today on a concert program
 George Chadwick (1854-1931)
 Horatio Parker (1863-1919)
 Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)
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Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Amy Marcy Cheney Beach

Also known as Mrs. H. H. A. Beach; after her marriage at the age of
eighteen she used her married name professionally

Recognized early as an outstanding pianist

The first American woman composer to
 Rank with such highly educated and sophisticated musicians as
those of the Second New England School
 Write a successful mass and a symphony

Women of Beach’s day were not given the education, the financial
and social support, or the patronage required to succeed as
professional composers
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Mrs. H. H. A. Beach = Amy Marcy
Cheney Beach

Beach’s parents and husband recognized her talent up
to a point


Childhood: Studied piano but had little training as a composer
 She trained herself by translating into English important
foreign treatises on instrumentation and orchestration
Performance career


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Before marriage performed as pianist with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and also the Theodore Thomas Orchestra
Married, her husband preferred that she compose only
 It was improper back then for married women to perform
After her husband’s death, Beach resumed her concert career
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Amy Cheney Beach:
As a Woman Composer

Beach’s compositions were widely performed in America and
Europe

She could not escape references to her sex in reviews of her work

Criticism at times for trying to sound masculine

Praise at other times for her properly feminine graceful melodies
and more gentle symphonic passages

She handled the symphonic medium very capably, but Beach
composed more art songs than any other form
 Her contemporaries readily accepted songs as fitting
examples of feminine creativity
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Amy Cheney Beach:
Views Concerning American Music

Pertaining to Dvořák’s recommendation to produce American music
based on ethnic and traditional idioms

Beach disagreed that African American or Native American
music represented the influences prevalent in her society

Stated most people’s ancestors were English, Scottish or
Irish, and…
 Music should be based on songs from those areas
 Much of Boston’s population was Irish
 Thus, Beach based her Symphony in E minor
(“Gaelic”) upon Irish tunes
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Listening Example 28
Symphony in E minor (“Gaelic”)
third movement
By Amy Marcy Cheney Beach
Listening Guide page 135
A: Oboe introduces the lovely
theme, accompanied by other
woodwinds (the Irish tune
“The Little Field of Barley”)
B: Beach transforms the now
excited theme, which repeats
in different keys with great
variety
A
The theme returns, along with
a romantic climax
B
The coda, with the agitated B
theme, brings the movement
to a satisfying end
A B A coda
Form:
The coda is the closing section
Tempo: A is slow, relaxed; B is fast (allegro vivace)
Meter: A is in compound quadruple meter (12/8), with four slow beats per
measure, divided by three; B is in simple duple meter (2/4)
This Irish based symphony had a program:
The struggles, laments, romance, and dreams of the Irish people
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)

MacDowell was not a member of the First New
England School

Too romantic to be called a classicist

Too individual to be included in a school of composers

MacDowell was the first American to write concert music in a
style distinctively his own
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Edward MacDowell: Background

As a talented teenager MacDowell went to Paris
to study art and music

Then selecting music, traveled to Germany to study music
theory and composition

An accomplished pianist, he performed widely while in
Europe
 Some of his songs and pieces in the German style were
published in Germany before his 1888 return to America
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Edward MacDowell:
Columbia University Years

Following years of performing, composing, and teaching in the
Boston area…

1896: Accepted the position as head of the newly established
music department at Columbia University, New York City

MacDowell was now able to implement his ideal of teaching
music as related to the other arts
 Created a curriculum similar to a humanities program
 As composer, poet, and artist, MacDowell believed…
 The arts cannot be understood in isolation from
each other
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Edward MacDowell:
Beliefs and Music

Did not espouse the claim that quoting African American or Indian
themes would establish a characteristically American music

Believed that American music should seek to capture the
youthful, optimistic spirit of the country

Nevertheless, he was unable to resist references to American
Indian music in several of his pieces

Example: Indian Suite, based on Native American lore or
experience, using American Indian or Indian-like melodies
 Suite = An orchestral work consisting of several sections
or semi-independent pieces
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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MacDowell’s Piano Pieces

Reflect his romantic love of nature
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Painting in musical terms idyllic scenes of woodland lakes
and hills

Example: Woodland Sketches, two movements of which
are…
 “To a Wild Rose”
 “From an Indian Lodge” (notice the American Indian
theme)

These delicate, intimate, modest piano miniatures capture
the essence of the sounds and moods of nature
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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MacDowell’s Legacy:
The MacDowell Colony

MacDowell’s vision of music as one of the
integrated arts has benefited American arts to this
day

After his death, his widow established a summer colony
on their estate at Peterboro, New Hampshire

Artists, musicians, and literary figures are invited to spend
uninterrupted summers working within their chosen field at
what is now called the MacDowell Colony
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Arthur Farwell (1872-1952)

Like other American composers, studied music in Germany

Believed that American music should express the American
Indian influence, and…



Native American music was more than art or entertainment
Arranged Native American tunes
Composed original pieces based upon Indian melodies
 His American Indian Melodies (1900) reflects the myths
or legends upon which its songs were based
 Used European based harmonies and instrumentation
unrelated to the Native American Indian experience
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Arthur Farwell and the Wa-Wan Press

Music publishers were not receptive to American composed music


And Farwell’s music was rejected by publishers and audiences
1901: Farwell established the famous Wa-Wan Press

The name is from a ceremony of the Omaha tribe

Wa-Wan Press was dedicated to producing American music

In business for a decade, published several hundred pieces
 Boosted the reputations and careers of several struggling
American composers
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
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Chapter 8 Conclusion

The market for music remained minimal

Few composers or listeners of the late nineteenth century showed
much interest in music that sounded American

The latter part of the nineteenth century: Americans composed
impressive works in all large instrumental and vocal forms
 Symphonies, concertos, sonatas, operas, choral works

These composers finally were being given a respectful, if limited,
hearing; most of them
 Studied in Germany
 Wrote most of their music in the German Romantic style
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Part 2 Summary

The turn of the nineteenth century:

Americans were more romantic than classical in
expression

Americans had romantic zeal to improve conditions of life
 Initiated religious and social reform movements
 Initiated efforts to reform American music by making it
sound more European
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Lowell Mason


Lowell Mason led the movement to reform
musical taste in America
Mason

Wrote hymns

Brought music education to the public schools

Attempted to raise the level of musical awareness and
appreciation
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Country Folk

Continued to practice and enjoy their accustomed ways of
reading and singing music

Singing schools were popular in rural areas


During the Great Revival people of all ages and races
attended camp meetings


Shape-note songbooks such as The Sacred Harp were used as
teaching materials
They enjoyed singing rousing hymns and spirituals
Secular songs became popular

Reflecting experiences of everyday life
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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City Residents

Theaters offered popular entertainment that was
primarily musical

Popular types of music included

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
Religious songs
Sentimental ballads
Songs of social protest
Glees sung in parlors and concert halls
Performances of well-known singing families such as the
Hutchinsons
Minstrel shows
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Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Minstrel Shows

Minstrelsy:

The most popular entertainment of the period leading to
the Civil War

White men darkened their skin and imitated songs, dances,
dialect of stereotypical African Americans

Stephen Foster wrote outstanding minstrel songs
 Genteel society preferred his love songs, Civil War
songs, sentimental ballads about home
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Concert Bands

Concert band directors:


Patrick Gilmore
John Philip Sousa, the march king


Sousa’s bands achieved the highest levels of
professionalism
Concert bands became balanced ensembles
capable of performing


Transcriptions of orchestral and operatic literature
More popular pieces
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Virtuosos

Mid-nineteenth-century Americans enjoyed music
performed by virtuoso soloists

Jenny Lind, European singer

Ole Bull, European composer and violinist

Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist


Gottschalk was internationally acclaimed
Introduced American Civil War era audiences to piano music
 Performed his own light but stirring compositions
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Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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The Establishment of Music

After the Civil War

Conservatories, concert halls, opera houses were built in
several American cities

Concert music grew in significance

Theodore Thomas presented orchestra programs


His programs pleased audiences
He gradually raised audiences’ level of music appreciation
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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American Nationalism

Seeds of American nationalism, sown during
the nineteenth century, bore fruit slowly

Yet there were nationalists in America who
sought to awaken American appreciation for
American-sounding music



Anthony Philip Heinrich
Benjamin Reber’s Farm
painted by
Charles Hofmann, 1820-1882
William Henry Fry
Dvořák encouraged Americans to develop a
characteristic sound of their own
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Composers

The Second New England School of Composers

Produced the first significant American concert music


Primarily in German-Romantic style
Edward MacDowell (not of the Second New England School)

Developed a characteristic, although not distinctively American
idiom of his own

The MacDowell Colony in Peterboro, New Hampshire, invites
artists in every discipline to spend summers there
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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Image credits

Slide 6: The Scout, Friend or Enemy?
painted by Frederic Remington (18611909) © COREL

Slide 41: Benjamin Reber’s Farm, painted
by Charles Hofmann (1820-1882)
© COREL
© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 2: The Tumultuous Nineteenth Century
Chapter 8: American Concert Music Comes of
Age: The Late Nineteenth Century
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