Schubert and Beethoven Flashcards

1
Q

Dances general

A
  • Schubert writes many dances but they are not talked about: fall between social history of dance and Schubert scholarship
  • Gramit highlights how Schubert’s musical gatherings almost always included dancing and drinking etc but history has ignored this, instead focusing on songs played
  • Edward Hanslick writing about dance as problematic/sensual/dangerous. Danger of the popularity of Schubert’s dances
  • Ländler, Waltzes
  • Schubert’s dance music has confused and contaminated his romantic status
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2
Q

Schubert’s dances in Vienna

A
  • 8 published collections of dances between 1821-1828, additional ones in anthologies.
  • Around 500 dances in total written in 1820s, many more improvised.
  • Conviviality of Schubert’s world – friendly music-making by amateurs: part-songs, dances for solo piano etc.
  • Musical life revolving around private and semi-public events in Vienna
  • Schubert grew up with dance music in Vienna – so composed a lot of social music, but from 1824 onwards he composed more instrumental stuff to try and live up to Beethoven (Gingerich)
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3
Q

Margaret Notley on Schubert’s social music

A
  • Alfred Einstein differentiated between the serious Schubert and socaible Schubert
  • Notley says that some dances show signs of serious Schubert, but it is more interesting to see how the dance forms permeate the serious works
  • Composed functional rather than stylized dances - technical constraints of phrase length and structure
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4
Q

Schubert dances in late/serious works

A
  • Late 18th century dance topics as key to musical meaning. By 19th century very strong will to keep these meanings and boundaries secure but beginning to break down
  • B minor movement of Piano sonata in G (‘sinister minuet;)
  • Bb sonata 2nd movement: Andante sostenuto in C♯ minor is followed by a deliciously ebullient Scherzo (3rd movement), which itself is interrupted by a Trio of dark, maybe menacing exoticism
  • Sonata in A 2nd movement: could be described as ländler – triple metre and moderate tempo is same as descriptions of the dance. And incessant staccatos in accompanying left-hand figure is like pizzicato of bass
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5
Q

Vienna in 1820s

A
  • Austrian Chancellor, Metternich – made Vienna a place of repression, social control, censorship of the press, spying
  • Metternich trying to reinstate the power of Austria on world stage
  • Therefore within1820s Vienna (politically controlled space) – dance became a way of showing political freedom
  • Great separation of public and private spheres – larger scale works specifically for fee-paying public
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6
Q

Bb sonata general

A
  • 1828 but not premiered until 1839
  • Written months before his death
  • Posthumous reception of the piece changes a lot
  • Emotionally complex and overwhelming – often linked to his mental state in final year.
  • 1820s as looking for meaning/understanding – sphere of musical composition changed
  • Platinga: final years as ‘downwards spiral’ – especially with mixture of dance forms and lament in the piece.
  • More complex compositions for Schubert – in scale and style
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7
Q

Bb sonata music

A
  • Very low trill which interrupts first phrase – seems out of place
  • People (performers and academics) have obsessed over its meaning
  • Signifies darkness, tremor
  • BRENDEL links it to memory and nostalgia as it recurs and is modified in different harmonic contexts
  • Also relating to his illness (syphilis)
  • 2nd movement closer to death – unusual key of C# minor which is extremely remote
  • Return to Bb at the end like a ‘lullaby before death’ – WEN
  • Third movement mixes scherzo with themes of death
  • Questionable if believing that he felt his death imminently as he composed
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8
Q

Schubert and time

A
  • Tapping into the idea of time and nostalgia as result of rupture and instability of war
  • ‘Frühlingstraum’ from Winterreise – protagonist dreams of being in spring but wakes up to harsh reality of being in cold winter environment. Music in style of late 18th century, evoking memory of another time; also in high register to emphasise this.
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9
Q

Schubert late style - general

A
  • Schubert and Beethoven’s late music seen as exploration of limits of musical expression; self-consciously writing ‘music about music’.
  • Wasn’t taken seriously by his contemporaries
  • Ian Bostridge claims that everything written after 1823 and syphilis diagnosis is late work – but die schone mullerin is 1823 so..
  • Cone says that all music post 1822 is infused with sense of desolation and dread
  • Concept of late style a very Beethovenian-driven idea
  • 1824 turning point – after failing operatic attempts, he turns to Beethoven’s success with mass, symphony, overture concert.
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10
Q

Missa Solemnis general

A
  • Premiered in 1824 with Symphony 9
  • Met with praise but also confusion
  • Reminiscent of Napoleonic era style – part of the confusion
  • Chaotic structure, military themes and lots of busy counterpoint
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11
Q

Missa Solemnis readings

A
  • Adorno: sees it as outlier, aims to alienate
  • Mathew: recent work situates in in aesthetic/political world of 1820s
  • Kirkendale: places it in historical lineage of church music (ie not really 1820s)
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12
Q

Adorno and missa solemnis

A
  • Doesn’t sit right in Beethoven’s style
  • Only performed twice in his lifetime suggests not important
  • Lack of unity or development throughout - constrained by self-imposed rules of archaic forms
  • E.g. end of Gloria is a fugue which is copying antique model – makes it confusing to him
  • Contrast between warlike and peaceful music e.g. agnus (trumpet calls, tremolo strings) and dona nobis pacem (6/8 peaceful) juxtaposed
  • Meaning: confused that he wrote a mass at all – doesn’t fit in his understanding of late style
  • Uses archaic music
  • Critique: Adorno has nowhere to go except be confused – ignoring the fact that it is part of Beethoven’s style – can’t just eliminate it.
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13
Q

Mathew and missa solemnis

A
  • Return to Napoleonic public genres (brass and percussion in earlier symphonies)
  • Use of brass in credo especially Beethovenian
  • Military moments have link to Haydn missa in tempore belli (compositional model)
  • Alienating idea as central theme of Romantic aesthetics – philosophers like Friedrich Schlegel
  • Situates it in post-war confusion when searching for meaning was encouraged
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14
Q

kirkendale and missa solemnis

A
  • Historical genesis in church music tradition – does not deal with 1820s context
  • Compositional models from church music are root of most musical decisions
  • Frames it with idea that music had to be understood to be enjoyed was not a thing anymore in 1820s (but this is sidestepping the issue)
  • Importance of battle songs in masses from 16th century onwards
  • Similar ritornellos and motifs link gloria and credo (goes against Adorno)
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15
Q

Der Doppelgänger general

A
  • Part of Schwanengesang
  • Someone going back to a place where his beloved used to live; finds himself staring at someone he realises is himself and the terror at that.
  • Analysis of it tends to place composer within the role of song narrator
  • Also seen as symptom of Schubert’s late style
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16
Q

David Bretherton and Doppelgänger

A
  • Reflects alienation Schubert felt from his political environment (censorship, surveillance etc of Metternich)
  • Artists became ‘obsessed with inner emotions’ (Bretherton) because they were deprived of artistic freedom
  • The inner turmoil of the narrator is personified in the haunting confrontation with his mirror-figure – becomes focus of song
  • Continuous four bar ostinato figure shows obsessive disposition as a result of unrequited love – response to socio-political aspect of Schubert’s life.
  • Inner conflict, alienation and unrequited love as mental responses to Schubert’s environment.
  • But this argument makes significant assumptions about Schubert’s personal response
17
Q

Benjamin Binder and Doppelgänger

A
  • Represents Schubert in his illness
  • Suggests that Schubert saw himself as the protagonist – a ‘self-portrait’
  • Other mode of personal projection: frequent semi-tonal shifts and echoed melodies (and bass ostinato) as ‘obsessive look’ at his own lieder style
  • Sense of ‘self-critique’ is characteristic of Schubert’s late style
18
Q

Robert Samuels and Doppelgänger

A
  • German Romanticism and sublime
  • Text and music carry double meanings
  • Poem represents the divide in human psyche between cognitive and carnal knowledge
  • Duality of B minor and D# major shows sense of opposition
  • Doppelgänger literally in right hand echo fragment of melody
  • Larger context of doppelgänger motif in 19th century - specific to German 19th century philosophy and gothic literature
  • sublime and romantic because doppelgänger is looking back and forward
  • This approach treats it as a product of 1820s German Romanticism – larger themes can be seen. More 1820s view.
19
Q

Hinrichsen on Schubert late style

A

1) Definite break after 1824
- shift of focus away from vocal to instrumental
- influenced by Beethoven concert
- marked by harmonic and structural changes e.g. sudden shifts and key relations; modulations through enharmonic keys - Bb mvt 1

2) BUT his early death and influence of Beethoven scholarship means that this has been seen as ‘late style’
- Hinrichsen says that the stylistic traits in later works (evident from 1824) is more a ‘mature middle style’ or ‘new style’

3) opposite of Beethoven - not reflective/consolidating but rather a ‘euphoric departure on a journey which was broken off mid-flight’