FHS List A : Nineteenth-Century Symphony

1. FHS List A: Nineteenth-Century Symphony Dan Grimley daniel.grimley@music.ox.ac.uk

2. Lecture 2. Inventing the German Traditions • Niels W. Gade: Overture, Efterklangeaf Ossian, op. 1 (1840) • Wilhelm Wackenroder, ‘Symphonien’, Phantasienüber die Kunst, 1799 Symphonies can represent a bright, varied confused and beautifully developed drama such as a poet can never provide: ... they depend on no laws of probability, they need cling to no story and to no character, they remain in their purely poetic world. • AllgemeineMusikalischeZeitung 22 (1820) [The symphony expresses] the universality of humanity, in which all the individual things are melted as single elements into a whole. • Anon. review of A F Hesse, Symphony no. 2, AmZ 35 (1833) The art-works of Beethoven have placed this genre of music on a height above which it scarcely seems possible to climb. • Robert Schumann, NeueZeitschriftfürMusik, 9 July 1839: When the German speaks of symphonies, he means Beethoven. The two names for him are one and indivisible—his joy, his pride.

3. Leipzig and the Symphony #1 • Death of Beethoven and Schubert (1827/8) • Repressive political regime (1815-48); cultural conservatism • Leipzig’s music-historical legacy (J S Bach) • Institutional support (Gewandhaus concert series founded 1781) • Publishing Houses (Breitkopf & Härtel; Edition Peters; C F. Kahnt) • Creative leadership (Schumann, Mendelssohn, NielsGade) • Political capital • Educational infrastructure (Conservatory founded 1843)

4. Leipzig and the Symphony #2 • Schumann, review of 1839-40 Gewandhaus season NZM: • It is well known that a worthy home for German music has been secured in the now fifty-years-old Gewandhaus concerts, and that this institution accomplishes more at present than it ever did before. With a famous composer at its head, the orchestra has brought its virtuosity to still greater perfection during the last few years. It has probably no German equal in its performance of symphonies, while among its members many finished masters of several instruments are to be found. • Mendelssohn, programme for first concert at Gewandhaus, 4 October 1835: Concert Overture, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage; Beethoven Symphony no. 4, op. 60

5. Robert Schumann’s Symphony Manifesto (After Hepokoski, ‘The Symphony after Beethoven’, Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music) • Germanic symphony must retain strong, ethical component; underpinned with moral seriousness and consistency of national character and not lose itself in special effects, amusement or divertissement; • In the absence of foregroundedproblematisation or transformation in individual works, ‘traditional form’ decayed into insipid formula; • Resulting formal shapes needed justification through strong expressive content, implicit or explicit, which draw movements together into single conception

6. Mendelssohn, ‘Scottish’ Symphony • Scotland: privileged place in Romantic imagination. Source of gothic sublime; Walter Scott; ‘Ossian Ballads’ of James Macpherson. • Idea from visit to Holyrood Palace, 1829. Letter 30 July (after Friedrich Schiller): In the depths of twilight we visited today the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved; there is a little room there, with a spiral staircase near the door; that’s where they come up and found Rizzio in that room and dragged him out, and three rooms further on in a dark corner, much grass and ivy are growing there, and the decrepit altar is where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. It’s all ruined and crumbling now, and the bright sky shines down into it. I think that there, today, I’ve found the beginning of my Scottish symphony.

7. Scottish Symphony: Formal Plan Mendelssohn: ‘The movements of this symphony must follow one another immediately, and must not be separated by the customary long pauses. For the listeners, the content of the movements can be indicated on the concert programme as follows:’ Movement Tempo Key Topic/Character Intro Andante con moto a minor6—V7bardicinvocation 1 Allegro un pocoagitato a minor chivalric adventure [Coda Andante come I a minor bardicinvocation]  2 Vivacenon troppo F major Country dance  3 Adagio A major‘Prayer’/supplication 4 Allegro vivacissimo a minor—V7 Battle cry Coda Allegro maestoso assai A major! Triumphal march

8. Mendelssohn 3: the finale problem • Greg Vitercik: ‘Unfortunately, the symphony does not dissolve into the mists. Instead, it closes on a swelling tide of A-major solemnity, sounding the fatal touch of Victorian profundity that stalks through so much of Mendelssohn’s later music.’ • Peter Mercer-Taylor: Coda modeled on hymn (Festgesang), ‘Vaterland, in deinenGauenbrachder golden Tag einst an’ composed for 1840 Gutenberg celebration: • Whatever else may be true, Mendelssohn was invoking a style of composition—a particular Klangthat was expressed through not only parameters of orchestration, range, and general melodic style but also a recognizable pool of musical gestures’ (‘Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and the Music of German Memory’, p. 77).

9. The Symphony and Museum Culture (Mercer-Taylor) ‘What remains [at end of the ‘Scottish’ Symphony] is to dwell on its memory through the conventional strains of public celebration. … the establishment of a ‘musical past’ emerges not only as a possibility but the goal of a new symphonic teleology. … The goal of the symphony—that is, both the ‘Scottish’ symphony and the genre as a whole—was to return to former times, only in a manner that was conscious of its own status as retrospection and pointedly drew attention to this condition. The symphony was being reconstructed in the image of an epigonic generation. The reverent elevation of the past had become an end in itself.’ (‘Mendelssohn’s “Scottish Symphony”’, pp. 81-2)

10. Schumann and the Symphony • Review of Berlioz SymphonieFantastique, NZM July-August 1835: Form is the vessel of the spirit. Greater spaces require greater spirit to fill them. The word ‘symphony’ has hitherto designated instrumental music of the greatest proportions ... It is enough for second-class talents to master the received forms; those of the first rank are granted the right to enlarge them. Only the genius may range freely. • Symphony no. 1 (‘Spring’), sketched in 4 days, 23-6 Jan 1841 • first version of D minor [‘no. 4’] August 1841, premiered in December; revised 1851, published 1853 • no. 2 in C, 1845-6 • no. 3 ‘Rhenish’ November-December 1850, after move to Düsseldorf • 5-movement design: fourth movement inspired by ‘solemn ceremony’ at Cologne cathedral.

11. Schumann 3: first movement Bars Formal Section Key Texture/Affekt EXPOSITION 1-76 P E♭--V Heroic style/tutti 77-94 TR IV6—gminor Tutti, abating 95-164 S (+ P!) gminor!— B♭ Lyrical/woodwinds [CODA] 165-184 EEC (C) B♭ DEVELOPMENT 185 TR, S, C V/c, modulatoryUnstable 273P iv—B major! Stormy—brilliant! REPRISE 411-56 P I6/4!—V/vi Heroic—but unstable 457-504 S vi—E♭ Lyrical/woodwinds 505 TR V/I Expectant [CODA] 527-85 ESC (P) I Triumphant

12. Conclusions • Symphony explicitly national project • Interconnected with models of cultural regeneration • ‘Invention of tradition’ (Hobsbawm); ‘Imagined communities’ (Anderson) • Boundary between absolute/programmatic often permeable • Supported by complex infrastructure • Formally innovative—culturally conservative? • Musical discourse which foresees its own end?