Music that changed Music

Mahlerman selects four composers who revolutionised western music…

It seems quite reasonable to suggest that in the world of fine art there are pictures, and artists, that changed the way we think about art; Leonardo’s Last Supper perhaps; or Titian’s Venus of Urbino, staring straight at us wearing not a stitch of clothing, and almost daring us to look away; or the young Picasso in his blue period, his rose period and later, seemingly without any effort, inventing Cubism (‘I don’t seek, I find’).

Writing as much as composing is also, surely, a fine art, and what did Yeats and Joyce, Kafka and Kierkegaard – even Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, do when they arrived at a fork in the road? Why they forged words and language into a different shape.

There is no doubt in my mind that the quartet below created something demonstratively new in music as a result of their questing nature. And yes, it is a very subjective group, that will have many of you asking ‘But what about Don Giovanni and The Rite of Spring; what about bogeyman Schoenberg and the American Charles Ives?’

The beautiful city of Cremona in northern Italy produced, in the late 18th Century, the two luthiers whose names still dominate the world of precious violins – Stradivari and Guarneri. A century earlier in 1567,the musical prodigy Claudio Monteverdi was born in the same town, and by the time of his 40th birthday he had written and produced what could reasonably be claimed to be the first modern opera, and unquestionably the first operatic masterwork, L’Orfeo. This marvellous piece brought accompanied harmonic writing into vocal expression, where before had existed unaccompanied polyphony, in the manner of Byrd, Palestrina and others. Here Jordi Savall employs not just authentic instruments, but spectacular costumes of the period.

It is the summer of 1804. We are in Eisenberg Castle in Bohemia. The patron of Ludwig van Beethoven Prince Lobkowitz and his court are waiting to hear the first performance of the master\’s new symphony in E flat major, the Eroica (Heroic). Even allowing for a little artistic licence, it is unlikely that the competence shown by the musicians in this film enactment was matched at the actual event, as nothing like this music had ever been heard before. Beethoven famously ripped up the title page when he learned that Bonaparte, the dedicatee, had declared himself Emperor, but he didn’t rip up the symphony, which was as revolutionary as anything by Napoleon. Here, classical form and rarified beauty have been set aside, as this epic work lays out the full range of human feelings, from joy and love to hopelessness and pathos. As Beethoven’s teacher Joseph Haydn noted, ‘from today, everything is different’.

Let us move forward 85 years to the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris. The main attraction was the Negro Village or ‘Human Zoo’, with 400 unfortunate inmates caged up for the delectation of visitors. Further along, Buffalo Bill had signed up the American sharpshooter Annie Oakley for his Wild West Show. Wandering amongst the crowds was the 27 year old Claude Debussy, who stumbled upon a performance of Javanese Gamelan Music and, in effect, kicked off the fashion for ambient and later so-called ‘World Music’. If the solid, nourishing qualities of the German and Italian repertoire are what you yearn for, the elusive soundworld, and fastidious taste of this French genius may hold little appeal. But this gift for sensuous, diaphanous beauty (L’Apres-Midi D’Un Faune) marks him out as a major composer, with an intellect to match his amazing ear for sound. Here, the late Italian aristocrat of the piano Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli reminds us of his wonderful touch and tone in Reflets dans l’eau from Book 1 of Images.

The Hungarian serialist composer Gyorgy Ligeti virtually invented a extraordinarily dense polyphony which he called ‘micropolyphony’. Music is made up of four basic elements: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm and Timbre. Ligeti scrapped the first three, and concerned himself, in his new ambient world, with texture – often dense and impenetrable. There is no ‘development’ in Atmospheres (1961), rather there are blocks of ‘sound masses’ and a ‘magma of evolving sound’ that appealed back in 1968 to the American director Stanley Kubrick, who used sections of Atmospheres in his epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, bringing this revolutionary ‘music’ to millions of ears.

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About Author Profile: Mahlerman

Mahlerman's life was shaped by his single mother, who never let complete ignorance of a subject get in the way of having strong opinions about it. Facing retirement after a life in what used to be called 'trade', and having a character that consists mainly of defects, he spends his moments of idleness trying to correct them, one by one.

11 thoughts on “Music that changed Music

  1. Brit
    October 9, 2011 at 10:35

    Stunning stuff. Mahlerman – what’s your view on the Beethoven ‘odd number’ theory of symphonic greatness (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, with the 6th the exception)? In fact, how about a future post on Beethoven’s Evens?

    • john.hh43@googlemail.com'
      John Halliwell
      October 9, 2011 at 15:58

      Great stuff, Mahlerman. The Debussy took me completely by surprise; my musical knowledge not being up to prior appreciation of the breakthrough it represented. But it does make sense. I also like Brit’s suggestion about Beethoven’s even numbers. Being stuck between 3 and 5 and 7 and 9 must be something like being Ricky Hatton wedged between the Klitschko brothers. Having said that, I think 4, if not ground-breaking like Eroica, is as glorious as any of the nine.

  2. Wormstir@gmail.com'
    Worm
    October 9, 2011 at 20:42

    Thanks MM, loved the Debussy and the Ligeti

  3. info@shopcurious.com'
    October 9, 2011 at 22:00

    Always a pleasure to travel with you into uncharted territory, Mahlerman – as usual, a revelation of musical delights. Montiverdi with costumes, what more could a lover of all things baroque (and Byrd and Biba) ask for?

    One thing I query though – was Beethoven’s Eroica really as “revolutionary as anything by Napoleon”? If I’m not missing something here, you may wish to listen to Mozart’s 39th symphony and hear something curiously similar to the Eroica.

    Love the Gamelan/Debussy/world music link – what an extraordinary post!

  4. finalcurtain@gmail.com'
    mahlerman
    October 10, 2011 at 07:59

    Yes Brit, the questing need of some musical folk to compartmentalize everything has meant that the symphonies in particular are thought of in this way, though the first symphony could have been from the 18th Century. The ‘evens’ right up to eight, appear lyrical and contemplative, the ‘odds’ far more dynamic and powerful.
    Perhaps Susan I am guilty of adopting a broadly held view, and getting swept along by the romance of the Eroica (in the same key as Mozart’s 39th), but when you consider the size of the piece (twice as long as the normal ‘classical’ symphony), and the moods covered within it’s first movement alone (never mind the funeral music, itself revolutionary), it seems to be ‘pushing the bounds’ in a way that I cannot hear in 39, where joy seems the only emotion on show (amazing, considering M’s state of mind at this time, just 20 odd years before the Eroica appeared). Add to this, the fact that the Heiligenstadt Testament had already been written by Beethoven revealing, among other things, the onset of his progressive deafness, and his realization of what that might mean to him in the light of his belief that he was bursting with musical ideas, and simply had to ‘get them out’. The only parallel I can think of, apart from the key, is the fact that Mozart sensed the approaching reaper and somehow, in a matter of a few months, produced 39/40/41, probably the most extraordinary burst of artistic creativity in history.

    • Worm
      October 10, 2011 at 08:40

      fascinating MM! Your sunday posts are an education

  5. info@shopcurious.com'
    October 10, 2011 at 22:58

    Thanks Mahlerman, I am in no doubt of the epic scale and musical magnitude of Beethoven’s work, but was simply referring to a popularly held view that he used the opening, and main theme, of Mozart’s 39th for the Eroica symphony, (and probably the last movement of Mozart’s 40th for the 3rd movement of his 5th symphony).

  6. finalcurtain@gmail.com'
    mahlerman
    October 11, 2011 at 08:40

    A lot of ink has been used over the years on the subject of certain ‘similarities’ Susan. The evidence I prefer is the evidence of what is known, and what I can hear. We know that B studied the work of other composers, including M, and that this alone must have (and did) influenced his compositions. There is very little evidence that M took a similar interest in the work of others.
    Knowing this, and listening to almost anything by M, I’m struck by a broad similarity in the way he sets out his compositions – not just the ‘classical’ form, but the texture, and the ‘abstract’ feel of almost everything – which supports the notion loved by many that M was not really human, but simply a conduit down which music arrived that was sent by God.
    The last quartet’s of B have that other-world quality also, but the vast body of his music seems to follow an idea, residing inside his head. The Eroica is an obvious example, with the Corsican as a role model, but I’m sure I am not the only one who can hear this idea+development in most of his mature music. If B wanted a piece to ‘develop’, he adjusted things to develop the original idea. M simply arrived with another (often brilliant) idea, and dropped it into the mix. This is why M’s music can sound episodic. B’s, I would suggest, never does!

  7. mike@mycal.co.uk'
    Mike Burns
    October 18, 2011 at 22:20

    I am one the the vast number of of unturored music lovers who find this Beethoven/Mozart comparison endlessly fascinating. I think it is clear that very many of B’s ideas are demonstatably gleaned from M’s themes, but always developed in a completely didderent way. This is very apparant in the late Mozart symphonies.

    But for me, the thing that stands out as the greatest difference in the very essence of their music, is something I can never explain, (perhaps because of my total lack of formal musical training , but perhaps can nerver BE explained) and that is the subliminal feeling that Beethoven is always in the room with you; his music being immediate,direct and utterly unambiguous-always! In this the two composers are poles apart, as Mozart is a string of endless simultaneous confilcting emotions and ideas; at once both happy and sad, seemingly accessable but on another level quite intangable. I think the musicologist Eric Bloom once said of Mozart, “He is the composer above all others that keeps the secret of his genius most closely guarded” I think that is probably true!

  8. mike@mycal.co.uk'
    Mike Burns
    October 18, 2011 at 22:24

    I am one the vast number of untutored music lovers who find this Beethoven/Mozart comparison endlessly fascinating. I think it is clear that very many of B’s ideas are demonstrably gleaned from M’s themes, but always developed in a completely different way. This is very apparent in the late Mozart symphonies.

    But for me, the thing that stands out as the greatest difference in the very essence of their music, is something I can never explain, (perhaps because of my total lack of formal musical training, but perhaps can nervier BE explained) and that is the subliminal feeling that Beethoven is always in the room with you; his music being immediate, direct and utterly unambiguous-always! In this the two composers are poles apart, as Mozart is a string of endless simultaneous conflicting emotions and ideas; at once both happy and sad, seemingly accessible but on another level quite intangible. I think the musicologist Eric Bloom once said of Mozart, “He is the composer above all others that keeps the secret of his genius most closely guarded” I think that is probably true!

  9. finalcurtain@gmail.com'
    mahlerman
    October 19, 2011 at 12:02

    I think for the tutored or untutored Mike, it will remain (I hope) a mystery. Not sure I agree with the Eric Blom view that Mozart ‘guarded the secret’ of his genius. From most of my reading on the subject, he certainly knew his worth, but seemed to have little idea from whence the flow of ideas came – and cared less.
    He was a special case, in a class of one.

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