Spring Break
Classical music proves vulnerable to the warp of history's evil
Themes of destruction and war find their way into 20th century compositions
by Hannah Kirsch
Deputy Editor
Music | 12/4/07
Posted online at 1:09 AM EST on 1/15/08
/ Last updated at 7:26 PM EST on 1/15/08
Mozart, Brahms and their ilk wrote genius, timeless works, but they are not the be-all end-all of classical music that did not go out of fashion with the muttonchop sideburn. In the 20th century, along with explosions in technology, came explosions of nuclear weapons and wars of unprecedented destruction that influenced music to an astounding degree. The classical music to which we most often listen only touches on dissonant intervals-think those famous chords in Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony. The 20th century's explorations brought more dramatic dissonance to classical music.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Pastoral Symphony, unlike Beethoven's "Pastoral" sixth symphony, goes beyond aurally describing the misty beauty of the British countryside. Strange intervals and a wordlessly keening female soprano recall Vaughan Williams' experiences in World War I, at once gorgeous, tortured and sad. Krzysztof Penderecki went further, ignoring all musical rules to evoke large-scale demise in his threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.
The 52 strings play ear-warping tone clusters until listening is as painful as contemplating the horror of the assault on Hiroshima. Similarly, Arnold Schönberg's A Survivor from Warsaw uses a male narrator and chorus accompanied by orchestra to literally tell the story of a trainful of Jewish men spontaneously singing the "Sh'ma" prayer as they travel to the death camps. The piece is difficult to listen to because of the discord, and grows in its intensity when the desperate cries of the narrator and the swan song of the doomed chorus come into play.
But the use of dissonance in 20th- century classical music goes beyond pain and suffering. The return to nature as a muse brought out a new and unexplored facet of disharmony that requires the listener to hear beyond the aural pain of a tone cluster. Beyond Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is Tan Dun's Ghost Opera, which blends traditional Chinese instruments and harmonies (themselves often discordant to the Western ear) with atypical scales and "instruments" like bowls of water and rocks. The work is sometimes humorous, often bizarre and always interesting. And Toru Takemitsu, one of Dun's mentors, took back what Impressionists like Ravel and Debussy had stolen and brought Western aleatory, or "chance music," to works like A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden, a daringly complex and vivid depiction of birds in motion.
Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Pastoral Symphony, unlike Beethoven's "Pastoral" sixth symphony, goes beyond aurally describing the misty beauty of the British countryside. Strange intervals and a wordlessly keening female soprano recall Vaughan Williams' experiences in World War I, at once gorgeous, tortured and sad. Krzysztof Penderecki went further, ignoring all musical rules to evoke large-scale demise in his threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.
The 52 strings play ear-warping tone clusters until listening is as painful as contemplating the horror of the assault on Hiroshima. Similarly, Arnold Schönberg's A Survivor from Warsaw uses a male narrator and chorus accompanied by orchestra to literally tell the story of a trainful of Jewish men spontaneously singing the "Sh'ma" prayer as they travel to the death camps. The piece is difficult to listen to because of the discord, and grows in its intensity when the desperate cries of the narrator and the swan song of the doomed chorus come into play.
But the use of dissonance in 20th- century classical music goes beyond pain and suffering. The return to nature as a muse brought out a new and unexplored facet of disharmony that requires the listener to hear beyond the aural pain of a tone cluster. Beyond Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is Tan Dun's Ghost Opera, which blends traditional Chinese instruments and harmonies (themselves often discordant to the Western ear) with atypical scales and "instruments" like bowls of water and rocks. The work is sometimes humorous, often bizarre and always interesting. And Toru Takemitsu, one of Dun's mentors, took back what Impressionists like Ravel and Debussy had stolen and brought Western aleatory, or "chance music," to works like A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden, a daringly complex and vivid depiction of birds in motion.
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