Program and Absolute Music

Symphonic music gained an air of prestige in the 19th century. This coincided with the

rise of philharmonic orchestras; professional societies of musicians dedicated to the performance

of orchestral music. The music of Ludwig Van Beethoven greatly influenced the standard

repertoire of these orchestras. What made it into the musical canon of these symphonic

institutions was a question of how a particular piece of music measured up against that standard.

Many composers began to compose in such a way as to be seen as continuing Beethovens

legacy. Program and absolute music were among these stylistic traditions. Each can be seen as

both dealing and aligning themselves with the legacy of Beethoven.

The programmatic tradition of symphonic music saw Beethoven as an innovator.

Beethoven had set a new standard for music, exhausting the extent of musical creativity in one

direction of the symphony. Programmatic composers, such as Hector Berlioz, felt that continuing

the legacy of Beethoven was to embrace innovation. It was a question of taking it (the

symphony) up at that point not further but as far in another direction (Berlioz 1830). Under

the further influence of Romantic ideals, such composers sought to meld music with other artistic

genres. Many began to make use of extra-musical features, such as descriptive titles and poetic

or narrative texts made available to the listening audience. These were intended to work in

tandem with the music synergistically, filling in the communicative gaps in each others art.

Hector Berlioz Symphony Fantastique took the programmatic style to new heights. The

symphony makes innovative use of an incredibly descriptive text. It depicts a young artist

dealing with an intense and ultimately destructive infatuation with his ideal woman. The final

movement, Dream of a Witches Sabbath, carefully details how the artist poisons himself with

opium, transporting his consciousness to a hellish drug induced realm. The program was no
mere additional feature but indispensable for a complete understanding of the dramatic

outline of the work (Frisch 2012, 94).

The elaborate story also serves to clarify otherwise ambiguous musical noise in the

symphony. For example, ghosts and monsters, accompanied by sinister noises and laughter,

attend the artists funeral in the final movement. Building on this feature of the plot, the rumbling

of drums paint a picture of ominous sounds. The string section employs a col-legno technique,

striking the strings with the wood of their bows very rapidly, giving the music a disconcerting

spider-like quality. The program describes how the Dies irae and the sound of funeral bells

preside over the devilish orgy. The Dies irae were dark medieval funeral hymns quite well

known at the time. Beyond their association with the dead, the hymns words gave an

apocalyptic vision of the final judgment. As the horn section plays the Dies irae, it is interspersed

with the ringing of actual funeral bells brought onto the stage. It serves as an eerie representation

of death by literally bringing part of the scene to the listener.

The symphonic narrative is tied together by the idee fixe. The idee fixe, roughly

translated as obsessive idea, musically represents the artists beloved and the emotional tumult

the he undergoes whenever he thinks of or sees her. It unifies the symphonies narrative and

supports its dramatic development by being presented in different thematic forms. Berlioz

accomplishes this by making slight variations in the instrumentation and timings used in his

presentation of the melody. For example, when the artist sees his beloved at a ball, the melody is

in the form of a waltz. In the final movement, amongst ghosts and monsters, his beloved partakes

in the hellish scene. At this point, the beloved melody reappears now it is only a vile dance

tune, trivial and grotesque(Berlioz 1830). The melody is played by various woodwinds which

purposefully bend and distort the notes, giving it the feeling of a disgusting parody.
 The absolute music movement saw Beethoven as the founder of a timeless tradition.

Continuing in his tradition was to continue within the serious and complex art mastered by him.

Music was seen as autonomous from the other arts. Programmatic supplementations were

crutches used by composers who could not master what were self-standing musical techniques

and structures (Frisch 2012, 100). The symphony was meant to engage the listener in a cerebral

exercise. In virtue of its purely musical qualities, absolute music was seen as capable of affecting

all people, at all times. The repeated reflection and depth of inquiry required to recognize the

beauty of such work made the listener a better person. According to 19th century music critic and

absolute music proponent Eduard Hanslick, this gave absolute music symphonies, ... an ethical

element (Weiss/Taruskin 1984, 405) distinct from simple entertainment.

Johannes Brahms Symphony No 1 Movement 4 is a paradigm example of absolute music.

The work is meant to stand alone and be appreciated for its extraordinary complexity and purely

aesthetic elements. Chief among these is the use of counterpoint. This is a very difficult

compositional technique which layers various melodies into a complex set that are played

simultaneously. It requires a certain level of tenacity to uncover the various nuances developed

throughout the entirety of the symphony. Parts of the counterpoint in one phase of the movement

may recall or foreshadow other parts of the symphony, reflecting each other as part of an

interconnected and organic process. Hanslick asserts that this complexity in Brahms is so

utterly unconcerned with common effects that it hardly lends itself to quick understanding

Subsequent repetitions will make it good (Hanslick 403-404). This gives the work the ethical

character building element indicative of the absolute music ideal.

Brahms clearly wrote his Symphony No 1 as an homage to Beethoven, bringing his

personal voice to Beethovens compositional style. For example, the fourth movement of the
symphony, mirroring Beethovens Symphony No 5, begins in C minor and progresses to C major.

This makes for a triumphant ending, reminiscent of Beethovens heroic style. Brahms contrasts

the musical complexity of the counterpoint with a folk- like tune. Unlike the counterpoint, the

tune is simple and could be hummed by the average person. It is very similar to a folk-like tune

used by Beethoven in the final movement of his Symphony No 9 Ode to Joy. Such musical

devices put Brahms so squarely in line with Beethoven that the symphony was dubbed

Beethovens 10th Symphony. The moniker served to show how Brahms was continuing the

complex and serious lineage of absolute music established by Beethoven.

The program and absolute musical traditions both fueled and reflected a trend of musical

seriousness in the 19th century. In his life, Beethoven composed only nine symphonies, in large

part because of their immense complexity and depth. Beethovens symphonies extended beyond

mere entertainment to being works of inspiration and heroic labor. Program music adherents saw

such work as giving profound expression to subjective individual experience. Symphonies were

seen as a form of communication by composers who had a depth of insight into the human soul.

The absolute music tradition saw the symphony as providing a public service of ethical

enrichment. By grappling with the complexity of symphonies like Brahms, one became a better

person. In order to receive the ethical nutrition audiences were expected to be quiet and

listen attentively (and) a new seriousness in concert behavior (arose) (Burkholder 1960, 627).

Both traditions went toward making music into a quasi-religious experience, and sought to

embody the tradition of Beethoven in their own way.