Conversation: National Identity and Music

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来自 Curtis Institute of Music 的课程

弦乐四重奏的世界

294 个评分

Curtis Institute of Music

弦乐四重奏的世界

294 个评分

Arnold Steinhardt, first violin of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet, invites music listeners to the world of the string quartet repertoire and ensemble. Journey with him and interpretive analysis instructor Mia Chung through the history and features of quartet music, colored by stories of legendary quartets and insights from the stage. This season's Curtis courses are sponsored by Linda Richardson in loving memory of her husband, Dr. Paul Richardson.

从本节课中

The Internationalists, Part 1: Smetana, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, and Bartok

Beyond German-speaking countries, composers adapted the string quartet to their own cultures—some more so than others. National traits, as well as personal stories, emerge in the heartfelt works of Smetana ("From My Life"), Dvořák (Op. 105), Tchaikovsky (Op. 22), Borodin (No. 2), and Bartók (No. 5). How does this very individual music convey its national identity?

Conversation: National Identity and Music7:09

A Tone Picture of Smetana's Life10:51

Absolutely Dvorak12:03

Tchaikovsky's Melancholy Tale7:56

In The Gardens of St. Petersburg with Borodin7:20

与讲师见面

Arnold Steinhardt
Performance Faculty
Dr. Mia Chung
Instructor of Interpretive Analysis
Musical Studies

Welcome to the "Story" portion

of Program Four, "The Internationalists."

in this segment, Arnold and I

will be traversing the works of composers

from Eastern Europe. As interest in the string quartet medium among

Austro-Germanic composers waned at the end of the

19th century, new hope for its continued viability

arose in the East. Today,

we will be looking at the works of Czech and Russian composers

who successfully infused the string quartet medium

with their own ethnic voice. A central issue

in this discussion is the daunting task these European

composers faced of taking on such

an established medium. How would they go about doing this?

Well, there are several ways that a non-German

or Austrian composer could approach the challenge: to

imitate the Austro-Germanic tradition

without referencing their native culture, that's the first option;

two, to reject the western tradition

and invent something completely new,

or three, to adopt the traditional structure

of the string quartet while incorporating indigenous

folk references. Now, Arnold,

we can probably come up with examples

of composers who wrote and fell into one

of these three categories. What are your thoughts?

I sympathize with the composer who was born in that place in time,

becuse there must have been this

exquisite pull in two opposite directions.

One would be to follow in the footsteps of this great Central European tradition,

and the other would be to be drawn

into the powerful national culture

which one of these composers was born into.

So, I mean, composers like

Jean Sibelius and Edvard Grieg come to mind because

they could have gone either way.

Edvard Grieg studied in Leipzig, for example.

And so the whole Central European culture was available to him.

The music. And yet, he came back

to his home country of Norway, and

he created a music that was not only typical of

that nationality but that became kind of the logo

for all other composers who followed. So that was a composer

who went the route of personal nationalism. And I think

Jean Sebelius had a similar story,

because he studied in Vienna. He could have become

a “Wagner-ite” for example, I think he was under the influence of Wagner

early on. And yet he came back to

Finland and became the Finnish composer.

You listen to this music and it evokes

the Finnish landscape. It's ironic, because his first language wasn’t even

Finnish, it was Swedish.

Well, then you think another group of composers like the Mighty Five.

Five Russian composers who did not go through

Western training, and what they did as amateurs was quite amazing.

They wanted to preserve the spirit of Russian folk music

in their compositions, and not imitate

Western formalism. So, this is an

an extraordinary example of defiance,

if you will, in the face of

that powerful western tradition. So what do you think about them? They’re quite remarkable, aren’t they?

Yes, it's almost as if they were afraid of the Central European draw,

that could suck them in and that they would never come out the other end, and

nobody would know that they were born

and raised in Russia. So, they set out,

the Mighty Five, or the Mighty Handful, to write music

in a, a Russian style, whatever that meant.

And one hears that they were successful. You hear

the music of Glinka, of Borodin, of

Tchaikovsky, and you say, "Ah, Russia." On the other hand, Taneyev,

Sergei Taneyev, was a Russian composer

and that's not evident in his music. So, he was

one of these composers who went

exactly the opposite way, and

it was in a much more studied Central European style.

That's fascinating. Now, can you think of composers who fall

in this last category, of simply

not wanting to draw upon their national resources,

and merely imitate or at least pursue

the western classical tradition as they were taught to do?

Well, I immediately think Hungary as a country and the three

great musical figures that stand out are Kodaly,

Bartok and Dohnanyi. And Kodaly and

Bartok went into the countryside as young people and

studied the folk music. They were influenced by it

ultimately, but early on they valued it so much that they were worried it

was going to disappear forever, and nobody would know about it. So,

they spent a good deal time recording it and then absorbed it into their own music.

Dohnanyi went the other way. He

was a marvelous composer, he composed three different string quartets,

all wonderful pieces of music. You wouldn't sense I think that they're

Hungarian in any way. They're wonderful

abstract music. So, he's one who went the other way.

I wouldn't say that this was--

I don't know if this is a philosophical choice. I think it's just

question of personality; what draws you

in your life, what draws you in your art?

It's true. Well, I think context is everything and

if you look at the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the fact that

Vienna was the cultural capital of that empire. But yet,

this is an enormous area, right?

That has margins that include other people groups like

the Czechs and the Hungarians. And these folks wanted

their own national identity to emerge alongside

independence. They really want to be independent of the Hapsburg empire.

So, this is a very personal battle,

if you will. Great tensions arose between their own identity and

that which was imposed upon them.

It's a fascinating controversy.

Thank you for engaging it, Arnold. You're welcome.

And now we'll take a look at our first work

for this segment. Bedrich Smetana's

"From My Life" Quartet.

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