{"title":"Longing for the Tonic in Robert Schumann's ‘Meine Rose’ Op. 90 No. 2 and Fantasiestück Op. 73 No. 1","authors":"Lauri Suurpää","doi":"10.1017/S1479409821000483","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409821000483","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies two late works by Schumann: the Lied ‘Meine Rose’, Op. 90 No. 2 (1850), and the Fantasiestück, Op. 73 No. 1, for clarinet and piano (1849). It analyses the works in the light of nineteenth-century developments in approaches to the treatment of tonality. Both ‘Meine Rose’ and the Fantasiestück are miniatures and can thus be linked with music-making in private salons. The choice of the two works is based on musical as well as aesthetic factors. Musically, they both avoid confirming their main tonic in a firm manner, a feature that the article links with aesthetics of the time. Most importantly, the music's inability to secure a firm tonal centre can be associated with early nineteenth-century aesthetics of longing: in the same way that unsuccessful attempts to secure the tonic underlie the two Schumann works, so contemporaneous aesthetics saw human existence as being governed by unfulfilled longing. The paper argues that in ‘Meine Rose’ the Romantic ideology can be connected to transcendental qualities associated with nature, while the Fantasiestück can be associated more generally with infinity and longing. In both works, it is precisely Schumann's special treatment of the tonic, drastically departing from Classical conventions, that justifies connecting the works with these aesthetic issues.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"385 - 408"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47966239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Letting the Music ‘Speak For Itself’? Dvořák as Strategist","authors":"E. Branda","doi":"10.1017/S1479409821000501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409821000501","url":null,"abstract":"‘I only write music and let it speak for itself’ – such was Antonín Dvořák's attitude, according to Josef Kovařík, the composer's personal secretary in New York. Indeed, throughout his career, Dvořák seemed reluctant to share his views publicly. He did not contribute articles to Czech periodicals, his acquaintances were well aware of his dread of making public appearances and speeches, and contemporary critics often commented on his humble and unenterprising nature. Yet Dvořák was not as passive as his alleged statement to Kovařík would imply. While visiting England during the 1880s, he became particularly concerned about forging a certain kind of image for himself in the Czech lands. Not only did Dvořák take an interest in English reviews of his music, he also sent several of these critiques to his contacts at home with the request that they be reprinted in Czech translation in the newspapers and journals of Prague. He proved to be equally strategic in some of his other professional choices, including the surprising decision to dedicate his patriotic cantata Hymnus: Heirs of the White Mountain ‘to the English people’, which can be understood as a clever tactical ploy, meant to signal the composer's international credentials to audiences at home. Drawing upon various letters and the many excerpted English reviews that appeared in the Czech press, this article shows that Dvořák played an active part in determining which aspects of his reception in England would be relayed to the Czech public. More broadly, the article examines Dvořák's role as strategist – an aspect of the composer's career that has remained largely unexplored. Ultimately, Dvořák was mindful of what Michael Beckerman calls ‘the public-relations aspect of nationalism’, and the suggestion that he was content simply to let the music ‘speak for itself’ does not tell the whole story.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"599 - 624"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48777500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wagner's Shakespeare: Das Liebesverbot, the Problem Comedy and the Carnivalesque","authors":"Justin Mueller","doi":"10.1017/s1479409822000015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1479409822000015","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores Wagner's early comedic opera, Das Liebesverbot. Though his ‘mature comedy’ Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg has been the focus of much scholarly attention, the composer's first and only other foray into the genre has been much less studied and often outright dismissed. While contemporary scholars have increasingly looked to Wagner's pre-Dutchman operas, they often read them purely in light of his later works; with this examination of his adaptation of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, I offer a consideration of the young composer's work in its own right. After considering issues of textual and cultural adaptation, this paper offers close readings of several passages of the opera, in tandem with parallel scenes from the original play-text, to show how Wagner's transformation of this not-quite-so-comedic comedy into an expression of the carnivalesque reveals an expansive and cosmopolitan artistic and political philosophy during a period during which he was greatly influenced by the authors of the Junges Deutschland movement. Such a reconsideration disrupts the standard conception of a composer who is still often considered, in his own words, the ‘most German being’. Here, we see Wagner at arguably his most cosmopolitan, adapting the work of an English playwright he revered, altering the plot so that it ostensibly aligned with the ideological outlook of his German revolutionary colleagues, and setting it to music of a decidedly French and Italian flavour, all this in a way that still preserves many of the same, seemingly contradictory themes present in the original play.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44493443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modalities of Assimilation: Subcultural Currents in Felix Mendelssohn's Lieder Ohne Worte – ERRATUM","authors":"Dan Deutsch","doi":"10.1017/s1479409822000076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1479409822000076","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"555 ","pages":"1-1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138506994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nicholas Temperley, Edward Loder, and Retrospect Opera's Raymond and Agnes","authors":"J. Vickers","doi":"10.1017/s1479409821000355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1479409821000355","url":null,"abstract":"In memory of Nicholas Temperley","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"127 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43059685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Historiographical Reflections on the Beethoven Year 250","authors":"R. Mauro","doi":"10.1017/S1479409821000525","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409821000525","url":null,"abstract":"For a certain subset of eminent Beethoven scholars, the celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday in 2020 represented a challenge. In taking up the opportunity to communicate with a wider population of educated music lovers, the standard vehicle, a Beethoven biography, was off the table for them – because they had already written one. In the three books reviewed here, each author responds to this dilemma by focusing on themes in reception history. I will attempt to clarify their main points, comment on similarities and differences in their approaches, and evaluate how successful each one might be in in making recent Beethoven scholarship more accessible for the general reader. I will argue that all three of these books successfully target the more musically literate segment of lay readers, and that any weak points arise at the intersection between their academic content and the address to these members of their presumed readership.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"143 - 158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48453392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Boatswain's Mate, music and libretto by Ethel Smyth. Edition by Valerie Langfield Lontano Ensemble, conducted by Odaline de la Martinez Nadine Benjamin, sop; Edward Lee, ten; Jeremy Huw Williams, bar; Simon Wilding, bass; Ted Schmitz, ten; Rebecca Louise Dale, mezzo-sop; Mark Nathan, bar Retrospect Opera RO001, 2016 (2 CDs: 73 minutes, 74 minutes). - Pickwick, music by Edward Solomon and libretto by F.C. Burnand Cups and Saucers, music and libretto by George Grossmith. Simon Butteriss, bar; Gaylor Keeble, mezzo-sop; Toby Stafford-Allen, bar; and Alessandro MacKinnon, treble; directed from the piano by Stephen Higgins Retrospect Opera RO002, 2017 (1 CD: 74 minutes).","authors":"William A. Everett","doi":"10.1017/s147940982100032x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s147940982100032x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"562 ","pages":"119-125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138506985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stylistic Duality in Gabriel Fauré's Music for Pauline Viardot's Salon","authors":"J. Sobaskie","doi":"10.1017/S1479409821000471","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409821000471","url":null,"abstract":"When Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) became a ‘regular’ at the Parisian salon of opera legend Pauline Viardot in 1871, he encountered businessmen and politicians in addition to aristocrats and socialites, plus artists and authors as well as amateur musicians and professional peers. Encouraged by Madame Viardot and inspired by her ‘artistic salon’, Fauré produced sophisticated works with stylistic duality: music that appealed to and satisfied both intuitive and analytic listeners. This essay examines three of Fauré's compositions that feature stylistic duality, each dedicated to a member of the Viardot family. These include two early mélodies, ‘Chanson du pêcheur (Lamento)’ (1872) and ‘Au bord de l'eau’ (1875), plus the Romance pour violon (1877). It demonstrates that these pieces, which sought to engage a diverse audience and involve each member in an individualized and interactive aesthetic experience, reveal considerable sophistication below their immediately attractive surfaces. This article also avers that abandonment of misconceptions and prejudices is essential to full appreciation of Gabriel Fauré's refined and innovative art.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"20 1","pages":"409 - 432"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42979640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Wanted – An Opera’","authors":"Paul Rodmell","doi":"10.1017/S1479409821000331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479409821000331","url":null,"abstract":"The title of John Fuller Maitland's article ‘Wanted – An Opera’, in which he argued for the establishment in Britain of a state-supported national opera house, could almost be read as a statement of desire for an operatic work of British origin itself. The perception that composers produced little opera of value in the period of the so-called ‘British Music Renaissance’ has become a trope, despite research in recent years showing the extent of activity, both in terms of composition and performance, during the 20 years either side of 1900.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"139 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42653912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Retrospect Opera: Reviving Britain's Operatic Past","authors":"Christina Fuhrmann","doi":"10.1017/s1479409821000318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1479409821000318","url":null,"abstract":"The average music lover knows little about British opera between Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten. Composers such as Thomas Arne, Sir Henry Rowley Bishop and Isidore de Lara are hardly household names, performances and recordings are sparse, and a sense of Britain as ‘Das Land ohne Musik’ lingers. In recent years, however, interest in this neglected repertoire has grown. This is in large part due to the tireless efforts of organizations such as Retrospect Opera, founded in 2014 byDavid Chandler and Valerie Langfield to record ‘forgotten’ British operas. To date, they have issued recordings of works by Charles Dibdin, Edward James Loder, Ethel Smyth, Liza Lehman, George Grossmith and Edward Solomon, with projects on George AlexanderMacfarren and Charles Villiers Stanford in progress. This special review section highlights and contextualizes Retrospect Opera’s achievements. Paul Rodmell addresses themany complex reasons why the English Musical Renaissance – the period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries fromwhichmost of Retrospect Opera’s repertoire comes – did not see the same flowering of opera as of other genres. James Brooks Kuykendall interviews Chandler and Langfield about their beginnings, their goals, and the challenges they face. The section concludes with reviews of their recordings of Raymond and Agnes (Loder) by Justin Vickers and of The Boatswain’s Mate (Smyth), Pickwick (Solomon), and Cups and Saucers (Grossmith) by William A. Everett.","PeriodicalId":41351,"journal":{"name":"Nineteenth-Century Music Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"107 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43135969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}