essay questions Flashcards
Where did Antonín Dvořák look for “authentic”
sources of indigenous music on which to base his
Czech nationalist works?
Inspired by the styles and forms of Bohemian music generally.
Dvořák never quoted actual folk melodies in these works, but he evoked their style and spirit by using traditional rhythmic patterns and formal structures that were common in traditional folk dances.
While in the United States, where did Dvořák
suggest that Americans should look for sources of
indigenous American music? What kind of
“American” musical sources did he use in his
Symphony No. 9, subtitled From the New
World, which he composed while in the United
States in the 1890s?
He suggested they looked to “plantation melodies” of African Americans and tunes of Native Americans, which were non-literate tradition
He used black-face minstrelsy music to inspire his From the New World symphony. E.g. oboe melody, sounds exotic
In what way is Amy Beach’s Symphony in E
Minor, Op. 32, subtitled Gaelic Symphony, a
response to Dvořák?
She had an essentialist concept of nationalism, in which ethnic identity and direct cultural association determine musical “authenticity”
She thought that true American national music must reflect other diverse elements in the country’s heritage, like melodies from the Irish, Scottish and Inuit musical traditions
This Symphony a response to Dvorak because its melodies were inspired by folk songs of the Irish, an ethnic group important in the history of New England. Doesn’t include any African American music
In what ways were Dvořák and Beach in general
agreement regarding what constituted appropriate
musical source materials for the creation of a
nationalistic music in any country?
Had to draw on some kind of folk traditions, reflect country’s heritage. While Dvorak looked to African American and Indigenous music, Beach looked to more Irish music
Essentialist outlook
- In order to write American music, have to be an American
- Quality of nationalist music not a learned skill, but we are born with it
- People with essentialist view said that Dvorak can’t write American nationalist music. Period.
- Pretty much everyone had this view to criticize Dvorak
- Amy Beach → Had essentialist idea, implicitly racist
an essentialist conception of nationalism, in which only a composer native to a country can truly compose in that country’s national style
Others argued that Afrological musics were not American at al
