Music Appreciation Class #13 Richard Strauss, Sergi Rachmanioff, Igor Stravinsky, Karl Orff

Richard Strauss ( )

Biography Musical family Actively involved with the Dresden opera ◦ Wagner productions Politically active ◦ 3 rd Reich

Also sprach Zarathustra (1896) Friedrich Nietzsche ( ) ◦ “God is dead.” ◦ Übermensch ◦ Mimics Christian & Jewish morality, traditions 2001: A Space Odyssey ◦ 1968

Salome Mark 6:21-29 & Matthew 14:6-11 Oscar Wilde ◦ Paris, 1891  In French?  Prison!

Characters Herod, King of Judea (“Tetrarch”) Herodias, his wife (former sister-in-law) Salome, her daughter (14) John the Baptist (“Jochanaan”)

Operatic/dramatic problems Orchestra ◦ Wager + Salome ◦ Vocally demanding  Look 14 years old  Sexually attractive ◦ The “Dance of the Seven Veils”

Censored! New York, 1907 ◦ Metropolitan Opera Dress Rehearsal ◦ Sunday afternoon  Patrons = Astors, Vanderbilts  Politicians

Opening Day Reviews “…one of the most horrible, disgusting, revolting and unmentionable exhibitions of degeneracy I have ever heard, read or imagined...” “…A sewer is a necessity of our everyday life, but the fact of its existence does not also create the necessity for us to bend over its reeking filth and inhale its mephitic vapours...”

Final scene Disclaimer! ◦ Part 1 Part 1 ◦ Part 2 ◦ Part 3 Part 3

Ottorino Resphigi ( )

Biography Family of musicians Two degrees ◦ Violin ◦ Composition Interceded with Mussolini on behalf of critics Recorded with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra

“The Fountains of Rome” 1916 Fourth Movement: “The Medici Fountains at Sunset” Symphonic Poem* ◦ Program music* expanded to the entire orchestra; ◦ One single movement Musical references: ◦ Splashing water ◦ Twinkling stars

Igor Stravinsky

Biography Born and raised in Saint Petersburg Inspired by a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Family pressure to abandon music and study law Travelled extensively and absorbed local musical traditions

“The Rite of Spring” “The Rite of Spring” 1913 “The Rite of Spring” Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky Premiere in Paris: ◦ Booing ◦ Loud arguments in the audience ◦ Fistfights ◦ Street brawl ◦ Police called

Pulcinella ◦ Commedia dell’Arte character  Extra-long nose  Servant  Pretends to be too stupid to understand the situation;  Mean, vicious, crafty

CD #2, Track 16 “Pulcinella” Suite – 1913 ◦ Neoclassical style  Inspired by Baroque and Classical forms, harmonies and melodies

US Citizen Settled in Hollywood ◦ Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ◦ 1 st Grammy Award to a classical musician Arrested! ◦ Boston, April 15, 1940  Violation: Federal law prohibited the reharmonization of the National Anthem.

Carl Orff ( )

Biography Began musical studies at 5 Interested mainly in new compositions Wrote his own texts to vocal music Musical educator ◦ Techniques still in use today Almost killed in WWI

3 rd Reich Probably a member Carmina Burana was popular with Nazis Hired to rewrite incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream ◦ Mendelssohn’s music was banned Betrayed his friend, Kurt Huber, a founder of Die Weiße Rose

Carmina Burana (1935) 24 Medieval poems Latin text Inspired by Renaissance compositions Written for huge orchestra with over twenty percussion instruments Two choirs Soloists

Carmina BuranaCarmina Burana ((CD#2, Track 17)) Carmina Burana O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate - monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is in vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy. Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the strong man, everybody weep with me

O Fortuna & Fortune Plango Vulnera Jean-Pierre Ponnelle ◦ 1975