Negotiating Boundaries: Modernist Composers and "Other" Music
Intro
- Briefly introduce the modernist era in classical music (early 20th century).
- State the main question: How did modernist composers navigate the boundaries between
classical music and other musical traditions?
- Provide an overview of the composers to be discussed.
- answer briefly
Béla Bartok was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He was born in 1881
in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary, and died in New York in 1945. Bartok was known for his
compositions for piano (such as “Mikrokosmos”, 1926-27), for violin (“Music for Strings,
Percussion, and Celesta”, 1936), and for orchestra (“Concerto for Orchestra”, 1943). Whilst
completing his studies in Budapest, he discovered the work of Richard Strauss, and became
inspired as a composer1. It was during this period as well in 1902 that the nationalism was
taking Hungary by storm. This would lead to be Bartok’s first look into composing in a
Hungarian folk style, as he composed a symphonic poem titled, “Kossuth,” which was
reminiscent with some of Strauss’s previous works. After his studies at the Royal Hungarian
Academy of Music and some collaboration with fellow Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály,
he discovers that what he previously believed to be Hungarian folk music – in which he had
explored during his studies – was actually a form music of city-dweller people, Roma. This
sparked many researched led trips to discover more authentic Hungarian “peasant” music. It
took both Bartok and Kodály to some of the remotest parts of Hungary in search of ways in
which they could revitalise Hungarian Folk2. Both composers spent time transcribing folk
songs for piano and other media, and ultimately led to the infusion of peasant folk into their
rhythmic, melodic, and textural styles of original composition.
This proves as a first glance into how classical composers are able to blur the lines of
classical music and other styles, such as folk in this example. Composers are able to utilise
core functions without compromising the modernist styling and sound of their original work.
This type of peasant music was names by Bartok himself as “The ideal starting point for a
musical renaissance,”3 proving how music may be influential without taking away from core
periodical elements of composition.
A key demonstrating of work like this would be Concerto for Orchestra, Bartok’s last
completed work. With this piece, he turned away from his complex and edgy works that he’d
written throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s and truly embraced the natural contours of the folk
music he had studies in his youth. Pursuant to this fact, the piece exists without an obvious
folk sound. Using modes instead of classic major/minor signatures, he manages to exert these
folkish styles whilst keeping prominent melodies, more simplistic rhythm, and acerbic
orchestration.4 This is a fantastic showcase of how classical composers were able to
incorporate folkish themes without breaking boundaries per se.
Ravel, M. Extract 5,8.
- Investigate Ravel's incorporation of jazz and popular music influences.
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Brittanica
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Brittanica
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Extract 9
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npr
- Analyze specific works such as "Bolero" and "Piano Concerto in G Major" to demonstrate
jazz and popular music elements.
- Consider Ravel's experimentation with form and orchestration while maintaining a
classical aesthetic.
Ravel once said in an interview with the British Journal, “The French composers of today
work on small canvases but each stroke of the brush is of vital importance.”5 I find this to be
a fantastic summary of Ravel’s career and compositional styles. Ravel was a French
composer, who lived from 1875-1937. Ravel was one of the most complex of all composers,
an anti-Wagnerian modernist, Impressionist and a Neoclassicist.6 His Basque roots gave him
a special affinity with Spanish colours and rhythms.
**1. Igor Stravinsky:** (????????)
- Discuss Stravinsky's incorporation of folk music elements in his compositions.
- Analyze specific works such as "The Rite of Spring" and "Petrushka" to highlight folk
influences.
- Consider how Stravinsky's compositions maintained classical formal structures despite
non-classical influences.
**4. Comparison and Contrast:**
- Compare and contrast the approaches of Stravinsky, Bartok, and Ravel in negotiating
boundaries between classical and other musics.
- Discuss similarities and differences in their use of non-classical elements, their attitudes
toward tradition, and their impact on the classical music landscape.
**5. Issues Raised by Incorporating "Other" Musics:**
- Explore the issues raised by modernist composers drawing on non-classical musics.
- Discuss topics such as authenticity, cultural appropriation, and the relationship between
classical and popular culture.
- Consider both the positive and negative implications of incorporating "other" musics into
classical compositions.
**Conclusion:**
- Summarize the ways in which modernist composers negotiated boundaries between
classical and other musics.
- Reflect on the significance of their contributions to classical music and the broader cultural
landscape.
- Suggest avenues for further research or discussion on the topic.
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Book page 107
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Classic fm
