Nationalism in Music

"Nationalism in music has most often been associated with the orchestral works of nineteenth-century composers, such Antonin Dvorak and Bedřich Smetana, and, to a lesser extent, with ideological writings of such figures as Johann Gottfried von Herder and Richard Wagner. Much of the critical literature in the latter nineteenth century focused on Russian music, acknowledging the influence of Glinka on the younger generation of composers. In the early years of the twentieth century, critics and composers began to debate the merits of nationalism in music, as Europe advanced towards WWI. Composers such as England’s Ralph Vaughan Williams and Hungary’s Béla Bartók became activists, collecting folksong which they integrated into their own works. With the rise of fascism in the 1930s, and in the aftermath of WWII, many viewed nationalism as an anachronism. Historical writings in the second half of the twentieth century tended to relegate the works of nationalist composers to a category of second-rate music, opposed to the prevailing (German) style.
In this paper, I explore the historiography of nationalism in music, focusing on writing since WWII. Much of literature from musicologists has continued to focus on the musical work, and on familiar composers. A more promising trend of the past decade has been the study of performance as an expression of nationalism. This area of research has been developed in part by historical musicologists but also from ethnomusicologists such as Philip Bohlman, whose recent publications have combined archival work and ethnographic studies. He and others working in this area have revealed how all styles of music are able to convey nationalism. I hope to suggest further ways forward and possibilities for interdisciplinary and international collaboration."

El trabajo hace una comparación sobre la danza puertorriqueña, sacándola del aspecto de ser música bailable y viéndola desde una perspectiva clásica como música nacional que tiene influencias de la escuela europea, específicamente del "lieder" alemán y el poema sinfónico

During the 19th century, exoticism and folklorism, two aesthetic tendencies which originate in the common matrix of nationalism, enjoy pan-european appeal. Especially in the field of music, folklorism was connected to the romantic discovery of elements of “national spirit” in the folk tunes of the country, while exoticism prepared the ground for the constitution of national schools of music in Europe.
The first national school of music in Greece was developed outside the borders of the Modern Greek State, by the western-bred musicians of the Ionian Islands. Pavlos Carrer of Zakynthos, one of the mainstays of the Ionian school of music of the 19th c., is in essence the first Greek music composer to put forward a complete collection of vocal works with national subjects, Greek-language libretti and lyrics and melodies inspired by the folk, as well as the urban popular tradition of Greece.
This article examines the double function of the national element in two Greek-inspired operas by Carrer, Marco Bozzari and Kyra-Frossini. In these two works, the composer, through his manipulation of language and music, exploits folklorism and exoticism in order to inaugurate his musical “system”, to advertise his nationalistic expressive pursuits and to create a national imagery of sound and scenery.

Abordamos el estudio de una de las manifestaciones musicales más importantes del Desarrollismo Franquista: el Festival de Música de América y España, celebrado en 1964,1967 y 1970 respectivamente. Estos encuentros dieron pie a un intenso intercambio entre compositores, intérpretes y críticos musicales de diversos países latinoamericanos, Estados Unidos, Canadá y España. La importancia del Festival no pasó inadvertida para el Régimen en su promoción de determinados valores representativos de la tradición española. Al mismo tiempo, su orientación ecléctica permitió que jóvenes compositores españoles y extranjeros pudieran alzar su voz en un período difícil para la creación de organismos e instituciones musicales. Apoyándonos en la recepción crítica del Festival, plasmada en publicaciones periódicas y en las entrevistas recogidas en los programas de mano, pretendemos arrojar luz sobre las influencias musicales mutuas habidas entre ambos lados del Atlántico.

We propose an analysis of the pasodoble as a musical and theatrical topic in stage repertoires (i.e., zarzuela and opera) during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the most common case of popular genres, such music appears linked to contexts of merry celebrations, often as a token of national or regional praise. However, this rhythm is also ironically used as a metaphor of irrational violence and passion, in some heavier works. That critical sense can sometimes be credited to the «anti-flamenco» stream raised among the intelligentsia in the environs of the «generation of 1898». In that regard, we find highly explanatory the case of Manuel Penella’s opera 'El Gato Montés' (Valencia, 1917), together with the circumstances and reception that surrounded its own premiere. Finally, the ambivalent semantics of the theatrical pasodoble is displayed at full blast in the work of Pablo Sorozábal (1897-1988), an author that somehow represents the last word of that Spanish stage tradition. Moreover, we observe some remarkable gender and political connotations in many of those titles, due to the historical bounds of the pasodoble with military and bullfighting milieus.
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Análisis de la presencia del pasodoble como tópico músico-teatral de los repertorios líricos (zarzuela y ópera) de los siglos XIX y XX, en relación con su contexto escénico y social. En el caso mayoritario de los géneros más populares, se comprueba que tales músicas aparecen ligadas a situaciones de celebración festiva, a menudo con un claro componente de exaltación nacional o regional. Sin embargo, otras obras de talante más trágico también hacen usos irónicos de este ritmo como metáfora de violencia y pasión irracionales. Este sentido crítico puede relacionarse con el discurso «antiflamenquista» común a intelectuales del entorno de la llamada «generación del 98». A este respecto, resulta muy ilustrativo el caso de la ópera El Gato Montés (Valencia, 1917), de Manuel Penella, incluidas las circunstancias y la recepción que acompañaron a su estreno. Por fin, la ambivalencia semántica del pasodoble escénico alcanza su punto culminante en la obra del último gran representante de la tradición lírica española, Pablo Sorozábal (1897-1988). De especial interés son las connotaciones políticas y de “género” que muchas de estas expresiones adquieren en virtud de la histórica asociación del pasodoble a entornos militares y taurinos.

Geleneksel bir malzemeden yararlanarak yeni müzik yazma gayesinde olan her bestecinin, söz konusu materyali otantik şekliyle kullanmayacağı, onun, birtakım yöntemlerle meydana getirdiği çeşitli yansımalarına, izlerine, bir başka deyişle soyutlamalarına yer vereceği açıktır.

Bu durum, Ahmed Adnan Saygun’un müziği için de geçerlidir: Çokseslilikte makamları birer renk olarak gördüğü ve tampere sistem içinde serbestçe kullandığı yönündeki ifadeleri, doğal olarak Saygun müziğindeki makam soyutlamalarının art alanını teşkil etmektedir.

Bu çerçevede, bestecinin Op. 34, 1 numaralı Piyano Konçertosu’nun birinci bölümünün ilk 37 ve son 17 ölçüsünü, ses organizasyonu bağlamında irdeleyen bu çalışma; oldukça kısa iki Saygun kesitinde “hangi makamların, nasıl soyutlandığı” ve “makam dışı ses malzemelerine yer verilip verilmediği” sorularına yanıt aramayı amaçlayan özgün bir analiz niteliği taşımaktadır.

Gerçekleştirilen analiz doğrultusunda, Saygun’un makam soyutlama yaklaşımına ışık tutacağına inandığımız şu iki kritik sonuca ulaşılmıştır:

• Seslendirme süreleri, sırasıyla 2 dakika ve 30 saniyeyi dahi bulmayan söz konusu iki kısa kesit; bünyesinde barındırdığı 7 farklı makam ve 1 tavır soyutlaması ile, son derecede zengin ve girift bir teorik art alana işaret etmektedir.

• Kesitlerde, Batı müziği kökenli 4 diziye de yer verilmiş oluşu, kanımızca, bestecinin “Doğu-Batı arası müzik köprüsü” kimliğinin açık bir kanıtıdır.

ABSTRACT
It is clear that every composer, who aims to write new music through using a traditional component, will not authentically use the material and will involve various reflections, impressions, in other words, abstractions created by some methods.

This occasion also applies to the music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun: His statements that he regards the makam as color in polyphony and uses them freely in the equal-tempered system constitute the background of the makam abstractions in Saygun’s music naturally.

Which makams are used and abstracted in rather short extracts of Saygun? Are there any materials out of the makam domain included? This study, which analyzes the pitch organization of the first 37 and the last 17 measures of Saygun’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (Op. 34), I, seeks answers to these questions.

In line with the analysis, the following two critical results have been reached, which we believe will shed light on Saygun’s approach in makam abstraction:

• These two short extracts - whose performing durations do not even reach 1 minute and 30 seconds respectively - point to an extremely variegated theoretical background with the abstraction of seven separate makams and a style.

• In our opinion, the fact that all four scales originating from Western music are included in the extracts is a clear proof of the composer’s identity as the “musical bridge between East and West.”

Crowned by many as one of the immortal composers, George Frederick Handel (1685 – 1759) was the central figure in forging England's cultural identity amongst its European neighbors during the late 18 th and early 19 th century. The identity Handel forged in the crucible of the early English nationalism movement was not that of a German composer, but one of a robust, refined, altruistic, righteous, straight, Protestant Englishman. Despite numerous character flaws by 18 th century standards, this was the identity he ardently upheld in the public eye. How did Handel – a German-born, bad tempered, gluttonous, and possibly homosexual man –transform himself from a Hanoverian writing Italian opera to a true " British-worthy " through the power of his musical entrepreneurship?

Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921) has been often described in dictionaries as the most significant 19th-century Polish opera composer after Moniuszko. In fact, he is one of the most neglected figures of Polish musical culture at the fin de siècle. It is odd that Żeleński’s operas are nearly unavailable today in full orchestral scores. The long absences of these works at leading Polish musical stages during the last decades were undoubtedly undeserved. Since their recordings are only to be found in the Polish Radio archives and have been never published on records or CDs, up to now Żeleński’s operatic output could not reach wider audiences. Goplana, the romantic opera in three acts (text by Ludomił German after Julius Słowacki’s tragedy "Balladyna"), has been considered by critics and musicologists as Żeleński’s better work. The composer started working on it in the middle of the 1880s, shortly after the premiere of his first opera "Konrad Wallenrod" (1885). Nevertheless, his work has not come into the final stage until 1892. Excluded from Polish presentations during the Internationale Musik und Theater Ausstellung in Vienna that took place that year, Żeleński has entered into contact with eminent Polish musicians then active in the Austrian capital, including the violinist Michael Drucker (1861–after 1903), and the world-famous soprano Lola Beeth (1864–1940). They helped him organize the concert in Vienna (on 26 February 1893), with "Goplana" ballet music on the program. From then on Żeleński started making numerous efforts to stage "Goplana" at Wiener Hofoper, and from 1896 at Národní Divadlo in Prague. Although the composer had never staged the opera abroad and could not realize his dream of international career, he managed to publish the full orchestral score at the Viennese music publishing house of Josef Eberle (1897), and the libretto was translated into German and Czech. The musical language of Goplana is more evocative than in other Żeleński’s operatic works. In fact, the composer, educated with Berthold Damcke (1812–1875) in Second Empire Paris, was a great admirer of Charles Gounod. In 1894 he even wrote an extensive article about the French master, calling Gounod "the first range talent and embodiment of national genius" and describing Gounodian style as an original ballad-like tune. The Gounodian model is demonstrated on several music examples in order to confirm the thesis that Żeleński made a wide use of this model and tried to merge the French opéra lyrique style with Polish operatic tradition.

An early attempt to replace foreign dances in Zagreb ballrooms was made by Jurica Oršić when, in the late 1820s, he ordered that the waltz be performed with Croatian tunes in triple meter at balls organized by the Građansko Streljačko Društvo. In 1841 and 1842, Marko Bogunović designed steps for the <salonsko kolo> and the <hrvatsko kolo>, with the intention of creating dances suitable for performance in the ballroom that were based on the Croatian traditional <kolo>. The six figures of the <hrvatsko kolo> were primarily structured to represent the emblems of the Croatian National Movement of the 1830s (star and crescent), but because of their strong political coloring they did not survive the duration of the Movement. Conversely, the <salonsko kolo> remained popular until the early 1900s, and is still performed by Croatian immigrants who brought it to Chile. The <salonsko kolo> emerged from the same social circumstances as the polonaise and the waltz, but the Croatian artistic environment lacked a personality that was strong enough to develop its musical form in a manner similar to its Polish or Viennese counterparts.

Los tópicos del tango en la obra de Juan José Castro
El compositor argentino Juan José Castro (1895-1968) construyó su estética apelando a tres lenguajes musicales: el tango, la música española de sus ancestros y el lenguaje internacional de su época que le resultó afín, especialmente el neoclasicismo. En este trabajo abordaré las obras en las que Castro emplea el tango como fuente de construcción de su universo musical. Aplicaré para su análisis la teoría tópica. En primer lugar detectando cuáles son los tópicos utilizados. Luego reconstruyendo el sentido cultural de dichos tópicos para determinar de qué forma adquieren significado tanto para el compositor como para el oyente. Si bien Castro rechazaba el nacionalismo musical superficial y exotista, manifestó en varias ocasiones su voluntad de desarrollar un lenguaje musical argentino. Son cinco las obras en las que Castro construye tópicos que remiten al universo del tango. En la Sinfonía Argentina (1934), los Corales Criollos N° 1 (1947) y los Corales N° 3 (1953), emplea esos tópicos como parte de la geografía musical argentina; en Tangos para piano (1941) como una invocación más directa y complejamente descriptiva del género; y en la ópera Proserpina y el Extranjero (1951), como la exteriorización más clara de su voluntad de construir un lenguaje musical argentino. Estos tópicos representan una manera particular de considerar el tango, propia de la vivencia personal de Castro y de las características del género y sus múltiples vínculos sociales y culturales. Abordaré la visión contemporánea del tango por parte de notorios  artistas plásticos (Emilio Petorutti, Antonio Berni), escritores (Jorge Luis Borges, Raúl González Tuñón) y ensayistas. El análisis de estos rasgos del discurso musical de Castro me permitirá arribar a una comprensión más cercana de la presencia de tópicos del tango en su obra, como herramienta de construcción de su identidad musical, y de la importancia de este corpus en la música académica argentina.
Tango topics in the work of Juan José Castro
The Argentine composer Juan José Castro (1895-1968) built his aesthetic by using three musical languages: Tango, Spanish Music and the international musical language of his time that he felt closer to him, especially neoclassicism. In this paper I will discuss the works in which Castro uses the tango as a source for building his musical universe. I will apply the topical theory in order to analyze this corpus. First, by detecting which are the topics that Castro applies to his discourse. Afterwards, by rebuilding the cultural resonance of those topics to determine how they acquire meaning for both composer and listener. While Castro rejected the superficial examples of musical nationalism (exoticism and mere citations of vernacular music), he repeatedly expressed its willingness to develop an Argentine musical language. There are five works in which Castro constructed musical topics that refer to the world of tango. In Sinfonía Argentina (1934 ), Corales criollos No. 1 ( 1947) and Corales Criollos No. 3 (1953 ), Castro employs tango topics as part of Argentina's musical geography ; in Tangos for piano (1941 ) as a more direct and descriptive invocation of the gender, even in a complex intertwined of topics; finally, in the opera Proserpina y el Extranjero ( 1951), as the more clear expression of the will to build an Argentine musical language. These topics represent a particular way of seeing the tango, that comes from the own personal experience of Castro, and also from specific characteristics of the genre and its many social and cultural ties. I will address also to the contemporary vision of tango by notorious artists (painters Emilio Petorutti , Antonio Berni ) , writers (Jorge Luis Borges , Raúl González Tuñón ) and essayists . The analysis of these traits through the theory of topics will allow me to reach a closer understanding of the presence of the tango in the work of Juan Jose Castro, and the importance of this corpus in argentine academic music.

Hermoupolis, the Capital of Syros, the small island of the Aegean, was created after the War of Greek Independence (1821) literally from the beginning, based on the model of the Neoclassical Europe. The citizens of this New World, who were called to identify themselves in really special conditions, were seeking for their cultural identity towards the West. The seeking of their musical identity, was proved to be quite significant, because Music, as well as Language and Religion, would stand as a symbol of their Greekness.

Stanisław Moniuszko completed only two serious operatic works: 'Halka' (1848/1858) and 'Paria' (1869). The libretto for 'Paria', by Jan Chęciński, is based on the French tragedy 'Le Paria' (1821) by Casimir Delavigne, but is significantly altered by Moniuszko who was inspired by Étienne de Jouy's libretto for 'La Vestale' (1807) by Gaspare Spontini.

It is often forgotten that Moniuszko was not only the composer of the 'Indian' opera but also the author of incidental music for Wacław Szymanowski's Polish adaptation of Delavigne's tragedy. A comparison of the only preserved MS of the latter (PL-Wtm MS R638) with the opera demonstrates that the Polish composer, as an admirer of the ode-symphony 'Le désert' by Félicien David, shaped the exotic flavor of his works in agreement with David's inventions and techniques, though these were outdated by the second half of the 19th c.

- Resumo -
No período que medeia entre o início do século XVIII e a eclosão da Primeira Guerra Mundial, a cultura ocidental foi especialmente marcada pela ideia de «progresso»: a crença na possibilidade de um melhoramento gradual da sociedade humana, quer através de um esforço consciente dos indivíduos, quer devido a leis espontâneas da História. As teorias do progresso que se desenvolveram nesta época admitiam que a Humanidade tinha vivido e continuaria a viver num avanço contínuo desde uma condição primitiva até um estado futuro. Ao longo da sua história, no contexto de diversos climas intelectuais, a ideia de progresso foi apropriada por inúmeros pensadores e sujeita a variados usos filosóficos, ideológicos e políticos, revestindo-se assim de uma importância especial para a compreensão da civilização ocidental.
Nas décadas que se seguiram à Revolução Francesa, e numa época em que os intelectuais procuravam pôr fim à desordem que reinava na Europa, a ideia de progresso desenvolveu-se em França no contexto do positivismo, doutrina que veio reivindicar a descoberta das leis da História. No programa comtiano para o progresso da Humanidade avultava a importância da transformação da sociedade por intermédio de uma regeneração mental e moral dos indivíduos, à qual se seguiria uma regeneração social e política. São precisamente estas dimensões que esta dissertação pretende explorar no discurso sobre música produzido por Ernesto Vieira (1848-1915) e Júlio Neuparth (1863-1919), duas personalidades que reflectiram e procuraram intervir em vários domínios do meio musical da sua época, uma inquietação à qual parece estar subjacente a ideia de progresso.
No primeiro capítulo é examinado o seu discurso sobre a música sinfónica, com o intuito de entender a intenção que está por detrás da promoção da música sinfónica e dos «mestres clássicos». As suas reflexões sobre a música sinfónica são reveladoras da importância que concediam a este tipo de música num processo de aperfeiçoamento da Humanidade. O segundo capítulo aborda o discurso sobre o ensino da música e as suas preocupações ao nível da pedagogia musical especializada. De facto, também à educação musical era atribuído um papel indispensável na construção da sociedade, pelo contributo que tinha a dar para a consciencialização cívica e para a elevação moral dos cidadãos. No terceiro capítulo analisa-se o seu discurso sobre a «classe musical» e sobre a condição social do músico. A protecção dos interesses da «classe musical» estava associada à convicção de que a sua emancipação era essencial para que também pudesse contribuir para o progresso. Finalmente, o quarto capítulo incide sobre a questão da procura de uma identidade especificamente nacional para a música portuguesa, nomeadamente por intermédio do recurso à tradição. A constituição de uma «música nacional» era encarada como algo central para se promover uma «consciência nacional», cuja existência era indispensável para que Portugal pudesse desempenhar o seu papel no progresso da Humanidade. Esta dissertação pretende fornecer uma contribuição não só para a biografia intelectual dos autores considerados, mas também para uma história intelectual da música em Portugal.

- Abstract -
In the period between the beginning of the 18th century and the outbreak of World War I, Western culture was especially marked by the idea of «progress»: the faith in the possibility of a gradual betterment of human society, either by means of the individuals’ conscious efforts, either due to spontaneous laws of history. The theories of progress that developed at this time admitted that humanity had lived and would continue to live in a continuous advance from a primitive condition to a future state. During its history, in the context of diverse intellectual climates, the idea of progress was appropriated by countless thinkers and subjected to various philosophical, ideological and political usages, acquiring a special importance to the comprehension of Western civilization.
In the decades that followed the French Revolution, at a time in which the intellectuals sought to put an end to the disorder that dominated in Europe, the idea of progress developed in France in the context of positivism, the doctrine that claimed to have discovered the laws of history. In the Comtian program to the progress of humanity stood out the importance of the transformation of society by means of the individuals’ mental and moral regeneration, which would be followed by a social and political regeneration. It is precisely these dimensions that this dissertation intends to explore in the discourse about music produced by Ernesto Vieira (1848-1915) and Júlio Neuparth (1863-1919), two personalities that pondered and sought to act in several areas of the musical life of their time, a preoccupation that seems to be based in the idea of progress.
The first chapter examines their discourse about symphonic music, with the purpose of understanding the intention of the promotion of symphonic music and of the «classical masters». Their reflections about symphonic music reveal the importance that they ascribed to this kind of music in the process of the amelioration of humanity. The second chapter broaches the discourse about music teaching and their concerns about specialised music pedagogy. In fact, music education was also assigned an indispensable role in the construction of society, by the contribution that it could give to the civic awareness and the moral elevation of the citizens. The third chapter analyses their discourse about the «class of the musicians» and about the musicians’ social conditions. The protection of the interests of the «class of the musicians» was linked to the conviction that its emancipation was essential so that it could also contribute to progress. Finally, the fourth chapter focuses on the question of the search for a specifically national identity to Portuguese music, namely by means of the resort to tradition. The constitution of a «national music» was viewed as something central to the promotion of a «national consciousness», whose existence was indispensable so that Portugal could play its role in the progress of humanity. This dissertation intends to provide a contribution not only to the intellectual biography of the authors in question, but also to an intellectual history of music in Portugal.

The source critical edition of Józef Elsner’s famous opera „Król Łokietek, czyli Wiśliczanki” [King Ladislaus the Elbow-High or The Peasant Girls of Wiślica]. The work was first staged at Warsaw National Theatre on 3 April 1818, and was shown later, among others, in Lviv, Cracow, Vilnius, Poznan, Lublin, Kiev and Chernivtsi. Over ten years after its premiere Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), the eminent Italian violin virtuoso, composed variations on the mazurka from Elsner’s opera (i.e. „Tema con 7 variazioni”, as a 3rd movement of „Sonata ‘Varsavia’ per violino e orchestra in A major”). Throughout its long stage history the work acquired a rich and multi-layered set of literary, historical, and political contexts.

The edition is based on the unique autograph of the orchestral score (PL-Wn Mus. 91/1, olim akc. 6313) and the first printed edition of the libretto. The volume is preceded with comprehensive scholarly introduction and contains extensive critical commentary.

"Nationalism in music has most often been associated with the orchestral works of nineteenth-century composers, such Antonin Dvorak and Bedřich Smetana, and, to a lesser extent, with ideological writings of such figures as Johann Gottfried von Herder and Richard Wagner. Much of the critical literature in the latter nineteenth century focused on Russian music, acknowledging the influence of Glinka on the younger generation of composers. In the early years of the twentieth century, critics and composers began to debate the merits of nationalism in music, as Europe advanced towards WWI. Composers such as England’s Ralph Vaughan Williams and Hungary’s Béla Bartók became activists, collecting folksong which they integrated into their own works. With the rise of fascism in the 1930s, and in the aftermath of WWII, many viewed nationalism as an anachronism. Historical writings in the second half of the twentieth century tended to relegate the works of nationalist composers to a category of second-rate music, opposed to the prevailing (German) style.

In this paper, I explore the historiography of nationalism in music, focusing on writing since WWII. Much of literature from musicologists has continued to focus on the musical work, and on familiar composers. A more promising trend of the past decade has been the study of performance as an expression of nationalism. This area of research has been developed in part by historical musicologists but also from ethnomusicologists such as Philip Bohlman, whose recent publications have combined archival work and ethnographic studies. He and others working in this area have revealed how all styles of music are able to convey nationalism. I hope to suggest further ways forward and possibilities for interdisciplinary and international collaboration. "

In the spring of 1928, Miron – the first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church – established The Academy of Religious Music in Bucharest, the only academic music institution in Romania, at the time, whose purpose was – from the perspective of its founder, the Patriarch – the rehabilitation of the status of Byzantine music in the Orthodox Church and the establishment of a coherent relationship with Western vocal religious music. The present article investigates the historical, social and cultural context of the establishment of this singular institution of religious music education in Romania, as well as its necessity, objectives and utility. It also explores the benefits it brought to Romanian Orthodox religious music and to the Church, until 1948, when it was disbanded by the Communist regime.

Since seizing power in 1949, China’s Communist Party has exerted firm control over all aspects of cultural expression. This policy took its most radical turn in the mid 1960s when Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), aiming to rid the country of bourgeois elements. The composer Zhao Jiping was a student at the Xi’an Conservatory during this period. He graduated in 1970, but was able to continued his studies only when the Central Conservatory reopened in 1978. On completing his studies, he established himself as a composer of folk-inspired music for film and the concert stage.
This paper focuses on Zhao’s score for director Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum (Hong gao liang, 1987), a film based on the 1986 novel by 2013 Nobel laureate Mo Yan. While the novel stretches over a period of forty-three years, from 1923 to 1976, the film focuses on the period up to and including the Japanese invasion. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and brought both the director and actress Gong Li international acclaim. While the composer enjoyed only limited recognition beyond China, he went on to score other successful films, among them Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and Farewell, My Concubine (1993), and achieve success as a composer of concert music. The paper connects Zhao’s musical language to the impact of the Cultural Revolution by examining how in Red Sorghum his music was employed to evoke a virile image of rural China.

In a career that began in the 1980s, the English composer Rachel Portman has written the music for dozens feature films, among them Cider House Rules (1999), Chocolat (2000), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), and The Duchess (2008). She has favored period films based on literary sources while working with such leading directors as Jonathan Demme, Douglas McGrath, Roman Polanski and Robert Redford. Her music has been widely recognized within the film world. She was the first woman to win an Oscar for best original score (in 1996) and the first woman to receive BMI’s Richard Kirk career achievement award (in 2010). Also in 2010, she became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her ‘services to music.’ Despite her achievements, academics have largely overlooked her work.

As the first element in a comprehensive study of Portman’s work, this paper focuses on the ways in which her music establishes the idea of ‘Englishness’ in two very different films: Emma (1996), a light comedy based on Jane Austen’s early 19th-century tale of a well-meaning but inept match-maker, and Never Let Me Go (2010), a dystopian story of cloning in an alternate version of the present, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Both films are set largely in rural England. In both, Portman relies on similar tonal (often modal) thematic material, conveyed through light orchestral forces. These musical elements are central to establishing the tone of each film. Whereas Portman has frequently stated that she writes for character, this paper argues that through its frequent placement in exterior scenes, her non-diegetic music comes to form a link with the landscape, and thus become a signifier of England itself. Thus, in addition to exploring an important aspect of Portman’s work, this paper also opens discussion of the indirect ways in which film music may evoke ideas of the nation.

Nineteen-seventeen was a momentous year by any measure. Revolutions transformed Russia, Sun Yat-sen seized power in China, and World War I raged on. That year, the war inspired such diverse musical responses Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, George M. Cohen’s “Over There,” and Charles Ives’s “They Are There!”. In Canada, 1917 brought the fiftieth anniversary of Confederation and the fourth year of war. In May, the Conservative prime minister, Robert Borden, announced that his government would use conscription to raise Canada’s contribution to the war effort. He called an election for 17 December on that issue and defeated the Liberal opposition handily. The population, however, was divided largely along linguistic lines and Borden lost almost every seat in the province of Quebec. For some Canadians, the War had helped to define the nation, while for others it demonstrated their subjugation.

With a backdrop of war and divisive national politics, this paper explores the world of music in Canada in 1917. It focuses on events in Montreal, then the country’s largest and most cosmopolitan city, and the location of many of fiercest battles over conscription. The paper examines in detail the contents of two periodicals published in Montreal: Le Passe-temps, a popular bi-weekly containing entertainment news and sheet music, and Le Canada Musical, a more upmarket monthly. Viewed together, and supplemented with references from newspapers and other periodicals, these journals reveal the public's contradictory fascination with national song and the musical life of the international community.

This article provides a chronology and other information on the photographs and engravings of the 19th-century French-Canadian musician Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891) and his family, placing them within the context of his life.


ラヴァレの肖像: 国民的音楽家のイメージ
本稿では、19世紀のフランス系カナダ人音楽家、カリサ・ラヴァレ(1842-1891)と家族に関する年代別の出来事やその他に写真や銅版画などの情報を提供し、それらを生涯の文脈の中に位置づけてみる。


Lavallée的照片: 國家音樂家的形象
本文提供法國-加拿大音樂家 Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891)及其家庭的照片和雕刻的年表及其他資料並將這些照片和雕刻連繫他的生活背景。

This book offers a comparative analysis of the relationships between western art music, nations and nationalism, bringing together insights from nationalism studies, cultural history and musicology. It explores the influence of emergent nations and nationalism on the development of classical music in Europe and North America, along with the distinctive themes, sounds and resonances to be found in the repertory of each of the nations. Its scope is broad, extending well beyond the period 1848–1914, when national music flourished most conspicuously. The interplay of music and nation encompasses the oratorios of Handel, the open-air music of the French Revolution, and the orchestral works of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and it stretches on in art music to the mid twentieth century in Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Copland. The book addresses the representation of the national community, the incorporation of ethnic vernacular idioms into art music, the national homeland in music, musical adaptations of national myths and legends, the music of national commemoration, and the canonization of national music.

Co-authored with Anthony D. Smith, Professor Emeritus of Nationalism and Ethnicity, London School of Economics

The issue of national character looms large in the historiography of Russian music. Ever since Western commentators have found it worthwhile to write about Russian music at all, they have inevitably dwelled on the matter of ‘Russianness’ of Russian music. Although the actual role of nationalism and national style in Russian music has long been overestimated and distorted as a result of Soviet dogma and Western prejudice, it cannot be denied that Russia was among the first and most successful countries to advance a ‘national’ style that could be distinguished from and compete with the dominant Italian, French, and German traditions of art music. In this paper, I will present a survey of the most important actors in the composition and propagation of nineteenth-century Russian national music. Within this context, I will pay specific attention to the career and output of Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, who made a major contribution to the spread and consolidation of the notion of a Russian national school, but who in his own writings and pronouncements also tended towards its demystification.

"I propose to introduce my work on Welsh traditional music as explored through digital methods. The project is an experimental partnership between the Open University and the National Library of Wales; it is fully embedded at the library and is funded by an AHRC Capacity Building Scholarship. Combining databases, geolocation, and the multimedia capacity of the internet, the project intersects with concepts of social networks, cultural geography, archive and the trace, applying them to the soundscape of Wales in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The working research question relates to the changes that digital methods make to the study of music; however, the process of engaging with this question involves detailed case studies on topics such as the relationships between printed and oral traditions, the establishment of canons, and the development of national musical identity.

In taking Nineteenth Century manuscripts and prints from the collections of the National Library of Wales and their contexts as a point of departure, I hope to demonstrate the usefulness of the computer-aided analysis of their contents in informing an understanding of the gradual creation and solidification of a Welsh musical canon and identity that is still dominant in the popular imagination."

Dear Sir,

I was somewhat dismayed to find Oliver Rudland describing the music of eighteen leading composers active around 1900 as inspired by ‘nationalism’ (‘Our loss of faith made music mute’, Critique, March 2015). The claim that Christianity constituted ‘another deeper set of convictions’ which these composers ‘held in common’ is also misleading.

Take one example from the list - Béla Bartók....