Студопедия — Impressionism in Music
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Impressionism in Music






__ The elements of impressionistic approach to music can already be traced to the music of List, Mussorgsky, Beset and others.

__ It would be wrong to suppose that impressionism in music appeared exclusively to Debussy.

__ This mosaic-like structure makes the style full of intimacy, that is say, very French.

__ At the end of the 19th century new concepts of melody, harmony, rhythm, color, tonality and form were in the air, and musicians everywhere were seeking ways to apply them.

__ “I love music passionately”, he wrote, “and because I love it I try to free it from the traditions that had lost their freshness a long time ago.

__ But it was Debussy who united these new concepts in a personal style, and created a well-reasoned aesthetic doctrine.

__ Music is a free art, an open-air art, an art boundless as the wind, the sky, the sea”.

__ A corresponding modification occurred in rhythm.

__ As far as form was concerned, impressionism rejected the grand architecture of classical tradition in music, seeking forms that would capture the fluidity and charm of improvisation of dreamlike sounds.

__ The continuous flow from one measure to the next is most characteristic of impressionistic music

 

MUSIC OF LATER YEARS

 

Everything positive as well as decadent which began to appear in musical culture from the beginning of the 20th century was a consequence of the great change in style caused by the end of romanticism and endeavours to find a new musical expression and style.

In the period between two wars Soviet composers also engaged in musical compositions. Basing their work on the heritage of their national classics, they began to endeavour to create an ideologically new operatic art, avoid ing all modernistic and formalistic extreme s.

After the revolution of 1917 centers of music life arose in the first place around the Moscow State Grand Academic Theatre, known as the Bolshoi Theatre.

The greatest and most original among Soviet composers is Sergey Prokofiev. His operas “The Gambler”, “The Love for Three Oranges”, the powerful drama “War and Peace”, and the “The Story of a Real Man” show his intense artistic growth and the crystallization of his original musical style which utilizes in a creative manner the new discoveries of modern music. Pregnant rhythm, specific lyricism and technical mastery are the principal features of his work.

Dmitry Shostakovich is a master of musical narrativ es. His opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” enraged Stalin. The article in “Pravda” in 1936 “Chaos, Not Music”, which came straight from Stalin, accused Shostakovich of “formalism and naturalism”: “Lady Macbeth” was nothing more than a “farrago of chaotic, nonsensical sounds”. Shostakovich’s life was now poised on knife-edged. Publicly disgraced, he was set to become another of the millions of victims of the Great Terror. It was virtually a career-ending sentence which Shostakovich only averted by a painful adjustment of his style.

Then along came the Fifth Symphony, publicly and politically entitled “An Artist’s Practical Creative Reply to Just Criticism”. At the famous premiere in 1937, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, the audience started to rise to its feet in the finale, and the end a “thunderous ovation shook the columns of the white Philharmonic Hall”.

Fortunately for Shostakovich, Stalin could not decode the hidden agenda behind the symphony’s apparently purged musical character. The work is simple in its utterances, and for the time it was written, mildly dissonant, but the triumph of the finale could be a sham which follows on from rasping laughter at Stalin’s name in the Scherzo and a lament for his victims in the slow movement. Shostakovich actually wanted the ending to be taken fast, which makes music sound perfunctory and ironic. The mood changes dramatically for the Largo. Composed in just three days it is Shostakovich’s most radiantly beautiful and also his most grief-laden music to date. It is seen by some as a lament for the victims of Stalin’s cruelty. Its haunting lyricism could not be more contrasted with the noisy hysteria and brief glimpse of a “brighter day” soon to come in the finale.

Dmitry Shostakovich composed a considerable number of string quartets. They show his tremendously varied stylistic output.

Sergey Rachmaninov, another star in the galaxy of outstanding composers, wrote a considerable number of songs after leaving Russia in 1916. One of the songs is called “Letter to K.S.Stanislavsky”, another, “Christ is Risen”, is magnificent ode of bitterness; if He is, why is the world so ghastly? This question prompts some of Rachmaninov’s finest music. Always luscious, he can be gaunt at same time, as in the biggest song “Fate”. Many of the rest deal with such familiar topics as the moon, love requited but preferably not, etc.

But the 20th century is the first time in music history in which the public is more interested in dead composers than in the contemporary composers who are still living and writing music. One major reason for this circumstance is that this century has seen advances in scholarly research of old music and inaccessibility and availability of all kinds of music in their published form as well as on recordings.

Another reason for the popularity of music of the past is that the 20th century is an age of experimentation in the sciences and the arts. For the most part, the audience is less important to modern composers. Likewise, the modern composer’s music is less important to the contemporary audience.

Yet another reason takes into consideration the kind of society that the 20th century has generated. Two world wars, the atomic age, a continual threat of more devastation, and rapidly advancing technology affects every faced of our lives. In music as well as the other arts, the production of works reflect s this unsettled world. Society is not all pleasant, a state reflected in its arts.

 

Tasks

I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false.

I

1. In the period between two was Soviet composers began to create an ideologically new operatic art. 2. S.Prokofiev is famous for his original musical style. 3. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the development of romanticism. 4. The ballets “The Gambler” and “The Love for Three Oranges” show Prokofiev’s artistic growth. 5. D. Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” enraged Stalin. 6.The Fifth Symphony was a complete failure. 7. Shostakovich’s music depicted grief for the victims of Stalin’s cruelty and hope for the new bright day. 8. Composed in just three months it is Shostakovich’s most radiantly beautiful and gay music. 9. The Fifth Symphony was entitled “An Artist’s Practical Creative Challenge to Just Criticism”. 10. Many string quartets were also composed by Shostakovich.

II

1. S.Rachmaninov lived, worked and died in Russia. 2. He composed many fine songs. 3. Always luscious, he can be gaunt at the same time. 4. “Christ is Risen” is magnificent ode of joy. 5. Music of dead composers is more popular than of living ones. 6. Music of the past is more available. 7. Modern composers’ music is extremely important to their contemporaries. 8. All the events of the 20th century influence every facet of our lives. 9. All unpleasant and awful events are reflected in the arts. 10. The 20th century is an age of stagnation in the sciences and arts.

 

II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?

1.What caused the appearance of positive and negative features in musical culture at the beginning of the 20th century? 2. What art did the Soviet composers try to create? 3. What are the main features of S. Prokofiev’s music? 4. What opera almost ruined Shostakovich’s life and career? 5. What symphony made Stalin forgive Shostakovich and why? 6.What feelings were expressed in the Fifth Symphony? 7. What can you say about Rachmaninov’s songs? 8. What music and composers is the public of the 20th century more interested in? 9. What are the reasons of the popularity of the old famous composers’ music?

 

III. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases:

The end of romanticism, the endeavours, to avoid all modernistic and formalistic extremes, intense artistic growth, to find a new musical expression and style, the millions of victims, grief-laden music, the audience, perfunctory and ironic music sound, a magnificent ode of bitterness, contemporary composers, availability, to affect every facet of our life, quartet, the Moscow State Grand Academic Theatre, to contrast with the noisy hysteria.

 

IV. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:

Большие изменения в стиле, создать идеологически новое оперное искусство, центры музыкальной жизни, новые открытия в современной музыке, особый лиризм, смесь хаотичных бессмысленных звуков, публично опозоренный, настроение меняется, знаменитая премьера, сладкие звуки, мрачный, обстоятельство, отражать этот неустойчивый мир, интересоваться композиторами прошлого, быть основанным на наследии национальных классиков.

 

V. Discuss:

One can hardly deny that with the rapid expansion of musical education and culture among masses, the number of composers (both professional and amateur) is constantly increasing, each of them trying to produce a new tune.

On the other hand, it is known to everybody that the quantity of musical tones is limited. So it may be supposed that in the nearest future composers will be faced with the problem of impossibility to invent a new combination of sounds, different from the melodies worked out already by other musicians.

Is this supposition true?

 

VI. Summarize the text.

 







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