Tuesday, August 28, 2007

West Side Story

Episode Number: 006
Title: West Side Story
Introduction Music: Chaconne for Violin - J.S. Bach
Narrated by Nicolas Caporale and recorded on August 28th, 2007
West Side Story was a musical that premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1957. The story was written by Arthur Laurents, and is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which in turn was based on Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem entitled “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet” in 1562. Leonard Bernstein was called in to write the music and Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. Bernstein also wrote music “On the Town” and “Candide” while Sondheim’s projects also include “Sweeney Todd”, “Into the Woods” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.

The plot revolves around two lovers named Maria and Anton, and like Romeo and Juliet are forced apart by their opposing families. In West Side Story, the two families are actually street gangs known as the Jets and the Sharks. The Jets are made up of native Manhattan boys while the Sharks are made up of newly-arrived Puerto Rican immigrants. Maria has just arrived from Puerto Rico with her brother, Bernado, who is the leader of the Sharks. Anton, or Tony is a Polish-American and co-founder of the Jets. The plot takes place in West Manhattan in the mid 1950’s where there actually was an influx of Puerto Rican immigrants. Originally the plot was to take place in East Manhattan and focus on an Italian-American Catholic boy and an Israeli immigrant girl who had survived the Holocaust. The Sharks were originally a Jewish gang called the “Emeralds”. The main conflict would focus on anti-Semitism. This story was shelved for five years however because Bernstein, Laurents and Jerome Robbins (who would direct and choreograph the Broadway musical) felt the story was a little dated. In 1954 after seeing a wave of Puerto Ricans pour into the city, and reading about gang wars in the paper, the creators changed the characters to their present form.

As the story began to develop, the three creators asked themselves questions like “Should the play follow Shakespeare closely, almost paraphrase the original? Should it keep only key scenes and characters? Or should it simply use the original as a reference point and let the story wind its own way, led by the character of today's youth?” Arthur Laurents is quoted saying, “What we did want was to aim at a lyrically and theatrically sharpened illusion of reality. In the story, I have emphasized character and emotion rather than place-name specifics and sociological statistics. The dialogue is my translation of adolescent street talk into theater: it might sound real, but it isn't. The music has the feeling of juke box, of transplanted Puerto Rico, but the expression is pure Bernstein. The movement resembles jitterbugging in some places, street fighting in others, but it is all Robbins in dance.” In 1955 the creators teamed up with lyricist Stephen Sondheim and a year-and-a-half later rehearsals began. Robbins insisted on eight weeks of rehearsal because West Side Story was to have more dancing than any other Broadway musical to date. He also tried to keep the Jets and the Sharks actors separated during this time. The creators were constantly told that this project was doomed to fail. Bernstein is quoted saying “Everyone told us that [West Side Story] was an impossible project... no one, we were told, was going to be able to sing augmented fourths, as with "Ma-ri-a".... Also, they said the score was too rangy for pop music.... Besides, who wanted to see a show in which the first-act curtain comes down on two dead bodies lying on the stage? ...And then we had the really tough problem of casting it, because the characters had to be able not only to sing but dance and act and be taken for teenagers. Ultimately, some of the cast were teenagers, some were 21, some were 30 but looked 16. Some were wonderful singers but couldn't dance very well, or vice versa... and if they could do both, they couldn't act.” On a side note, the ending was also changed before the project was complete. Originally, Maria killed Chino and then herself at the end but preview audiences felt this was too depressing. An alternate ending was then used.

The show debuted on Broadway on September 26, 1957 and received mostly positive reviews, though there were a lot of negative reviews as well. Regardless of what the critics said, the show ran for 732 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre, which was a lot for that time. In 1960 it ran at the same theatre for another 253 performances and it also ran in London from 1958 to 1961 for a total of 1,039 performances. Robbins directed all of these runs.

In 1961 the musical was adapted for film and won 10 out of 11 Academy Awards nominations including best picture. It also won 10 Oscars. Robbins and Robert wise would direct the film, and Natalie Wood starred as Maria. Some scenes had to be changed in the adaptation to better suit the film medium. In the stage version, “I Feel Pretty” opens the second act after the deadly “Rumble” ends the first. “I Feel Pretty” was moved ahead to the bridal shop so that the story’s momentum could keep going after the fight. The location for “Gee, Officer Krupke” was also swapped with “Cool”. The stage version of America has different lyrics, and only has four girls performing it, while in the movie all of the Sharks and their girls are involved. Anita, Tony and Maria’s songs were all dubbed, though some to different extents. Betty Wand only overdubbed some of Anita’s songs and Marni Nixon only overdubbed the high or sustained notes that Natatalie Wood’s voice could not handle. She also overdubbed Maria’s closing line of “Don’t you touch him! Te adoro, Anton”. Nobody told Natalie that she was being overdubbed until all of her parts were filmed, in case she got angry and walked off the set. However, Marni never signed a contract though she was involved on a day-to-day basis. She felt she deserved some of the movie/album royalties but the studio and producers refused to pay her anything. Leonard Bernstein broke the stalemate by offering up a percentage of his income to go to Nixon.



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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Curse of the Ninth Symphony

Episode Number: 005
Title: The Curse of the Ninth Symphony
Introduction Music: Chaconne for Violin - J.S. Bach
End Music: Symphony Nine, Adagio - Allegro Molto; Antonin Dvorak, recorded by the Columbia University Orchestra*
Narrated by Nicolas Caporale and recorded on August 22nd, 2007

The "Curse of the Ninth Symphony" is a superstition among composers that implies that after their ninth symphony is written, they will die. This of course is only a myth, but some composers did actually take it seriously. The curse dates all the way back to Beethoven, but the composers who lived before him do not apply because they wrote many more than nine symphonies. For example, Giovanni Battista Sammartini wrote 68 symphonies, Mozart wrote around 68 (though it was commonly accepted that he only wrote 41), and Franz Joseph Haydn wrote 104 in his lifetime. Let’s save the debate about how many symphonies Mozart actually wrote for another episode, especially because he clearly evaded the curse. The composers that do fall under the category of victims are, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, Anton Dvorak, Aleksander Glasunov, Gustav Mahler, Louis Spohr and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Let's throw in Dmitri Shostakovich too just for fun, but there is a large exception to be made when we include him. I personally do not believe in this curse, but it is fun to talk about nonetheless. For the sake of discussion, I will portray my point of view as if the curse is real. Maybe I will try and write nine symphonies and I'll see what happens to me. In the words of composer Arnold Schoenberg, "It seems that the ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. It seems as if something might be imparted to us in the Tenth which we ought not yet to know, for which we are not ready. Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter."

Beethoven lived from 1770-1827. As you could assume, or if you listened to the last three episodes you would know that he only wrote nine symphonies. He did in fact begin writing a tenth before he died. It is now believed that he died as a result of lead poisoning. Beethoven's innovations to the symphony set a benchmark for future composers, not only in quality, but for those who believed in the curse, quantity. Brahms luckily avoided the curse because he was always being compared to Beethoven, and because of this it took him over twenty years just to finish his first symphony! Brahms would only write four symphonies in his life.

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer who lived from 1824-1896. He died while writing the ninth symphony, though he was able to complete three movements. It was first performed in 1903. However, though he died writing what he considered to be the ninth symphony, he had in fact written two other symphonies that he didn't bother numbering. They were later discovered and given the names Symphony 0 and Symphony 00. Symphony 0 actually was his third symphony written but he didn't consider it to be important. Maybe composers who wish to write more than nine symphonies should just not number some of them. (Bruckner didn't do that because of the curse though).

Gustav Mahler lived between 1860 and 1911 and was a student of Anton Bruckner. As far as Mahler knew, only Spohr, Beethoven and Bruckner had died after writing or while working on their ninth symphonies. Mahler was obsessed with the curse, and compared all of his symphonies to Beethoven's ninth, claiming that they all had the same impact that Beethoven's ninth did. Mahler was terrified of writing a symphony numbered "nine". He went as far as writing a symphony/song cycle and calling it "A symphony for one tenor and one alto (or baritone) voice and orchestra" rather than giving it a number like the rest of them. However, he couldn't cheat the curse and died after finishing his ninth symphony and after starting the tenth. On an interesting side note, before he died Mahler raised his finger and moved it back and forth as if it were a baton. His last word was "Mozart".

Antonin Dvorak lived from 1841 to 1904 was a Bohemian composer who wrote his ninth symphony in New York, in 1893. This symphony was subtitled the "New World" symphony. He died eleven years later without writing another symphony. Maybe if he began writing a tenth he would have died sooner. At the end of this episode I will play an excerpt from this symphony for you, so stay tuned. Aleksander Glazunov lived from 1865 to 1936, but he lived another 26 years after publishing his ninth. Ralph Vaughan Williams, a British composer who lived between 1872 and 1958, and wrote his ninth between 1956 and 1957, a year or two before he died.

I would like to mention Dmitri Shostakovich, a Russian composer, who was noted for his symphonies. He lived between 1906 and 1975 and actually wrote fourteen symphonies. Why am I including him then? Well, he did write a total of fourteen symphonies but his ninth symphony fell victim to the curse rather than the composer himself. When he began writing his ninth symphony, it was expected to be a triumphant piece celebrating Stalin's victory over Nazi Germany. Stalin and Shostakovich did not get along well, and I don't know why Shostakovich wasn't killed. I think even he probably was surprised because there were some nights that he slept on his porch in case the police came to arrest him in the middle of the night, his family wouldn't have to witness it. For whatever reason, Shostakovich didn't write a triumphant piece but a light and whimsical one, which I personally believe he did just to irritate Stalin. It was premiered on November 3rd, 1945 and within a year it was censored. It usually took the Soviets a little while to catch on, but at this point Shostakovich probably expected it. The work was eventually banned in 1948, essentially "killing it".



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*The Columbia Universtiy Orchestra is not affiliated with the Music History Podcast in any way other than providing good-quality music on their website
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Friday, August 17, 2007

Ludwig Van Beethoven Pt. III

Episode Number: 004
Title: Ludwig Van Beethoven Pt. III
Introduction Music: Chaconne for Violin - J.S. Bach
Narrated by Nicolas Caporale and recorded on August 17th, 2007

In 1815 and the next decade that followed the best and worst would be brought out in Beethoven. A fierce custody battle for his nephew would bring out the worst in Beethoven, and he also continued to develop habits of treating everyone around him poorly as his health slowly declined. It is now believed that Beethoven was suffering from lead poisoning, starting from the time that he began going deaf. In December of 2005 the U.S. Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory conducted tests on some of Beethoven’s bone and hair samples confirming this theory. Consequently, hearing loss, irritability, aggressive and anti-social behavior are all symptoms of lead poisoning. It is not clear whether he was exposed to large amounts of lead or if he suffered from a condition which makes the body store toxins instead of getting rid of them normally. Nevertheless, Beethoven was still able to keep a close circle of supporters through the end of his life. Since he was deaf, he kept conversation books to use as a form of communication with others. Many of these books were destroyed by his friends after he died to protect Beethoven’s image.

When his brother, Karl, died in 1815 he left a son, also named Karl, behind. Ludwig fought for sole custody, even though he never paid the boy much attention before his brother passed away. During this period in Austria there were two judicial courts, one for nobility and one for commoners. During this custody battle over Karl, with his mother (Beethoven’s sister-in-law) Beethoven did everything he could do to blacken her reputation. He eventually won sole custody over Karl, when the boy was 20 years old. However, Ludwig and Karl’s relationship was extremely strained (as Ludwig tried to keep him away from his mother at all costs) and as a result in 1826 Karl attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. Luckily he failed, but this made Ludwig realize that even though he had won in court, he had lost emotionally. After this Karl was able to go live with his mother. Ludwig would die the following year.

Despite this turmoil at the end of his life, Beethoven was able to compose (though not as frequently) some of his most mature pieces of music. During this period we composed his last five piano sonatas between 1816 and 1821, the Missa solemnis in 1822, the Diabelli Variations in 1823, the Ninth Symphony in 1824, and his last quartets (including the Grand Fugue) in 1825 and 1826. Beethoven was only able to hear this music inside his head alone. It is extremely remarkable he was able to compose such masterpieces in such a state. The music of this time in his life became more concentrated and abstract. Classical elements remain but are obscured by his own innovation. The division of phrases of music is often blurred and themes and motives were worked out until exhausting every possibility. Beethoven admired J.S. Bach his entire life and in the later years of Beethoven’s life we see an influx of contrapuntal textures. He gave much importance to fugal texture, as we see in the double fugues in the finale of the Ninth Symphony, the massive Grosse (Grand) Fugue for String Quartet as well in development sections or large movements themselves. A fugue, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is basically a section of music that begins with a theme or melody (called the subject), and is repeated throughout different parts while the original parts play different complimenting melodies after they initially play the original theme. Fugues can be extremely complicated and take careful planning to write out, The Missa solemnis was written for the enthronement of Archduke Rudolf in 1820 but it took him a few years to complete it. This Mass is considered to be Beethoven’s most spiritual works and is also thought to be a reflection of Beethoven’s own relationship with God. Beethoven himself considered this his best work.

Beethoven’s Ninth symphony premiered on May 7th, 1824 to a full house. However, the expense of running the program was so great that Beethoven saw little of the profit. What marks this symphony as a pinnacle in the history of the medium is its use of a chorus and solo voices in the finale. Beethoven chose stanzas from Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” that embraced his own ideals of universal fellowship through joy and love for an external heavenly Father. As a matter of fact, Beethoven had wanted to use this text since 1792 but had not until now. Beethoven insisted on conducting the premier but unbeknownst to him another conductor sat out of sight keeping the time. As I mentioned in an earlier episode when the finale was over, Beethoven had to be turned around because he could not hear the overwhelming applause from the audience.

When Beethoven died on March 26, 1827 he had plans of writing a Tenth Symphony, but was obviously not able to finish it. Beethoven entered music history at the end of one musical era and helped propel the next one into prominence. The time period we now refer to as the Romantic era was just starting to gather steam at the end of Beethoven’s life, and his music ensured that composers over the next several decades would have several milestones and innovations to take the art further away from the ideals of the Enlightenment and towards the emphasis upon human emotion and nationalism.


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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Ludwig Van Beethoven, Pt. II

Episode Number: 003
Title: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Pt. II
Infroduction Music: Chaconne for Violin - J.S. Bach; obtained from the wikipedia commons.
Narrated by Nicolas Caporale and originally recorded on August 15th, 2007

   


In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte was at the height of his power in France. As a general he had solidified the French revolution, ending the monarchy and establishing a republic. However in 1802 the new republic was corrupt, bankrupt and very unpopular with the people. With the support of a few others, Napoleon overthrew the government, outmaneuvered his opponents and claimed the title of first consul. This title gave him power over the other two consuls essentially making him little more than a dictator. However, the consulate was made up of three parliamentary assemblies and popular suffrage was still retained. France enjoyed a period of peace and stability; Napoleon reformed the legal system, consolidated funds for banking, universities and to build the labor force. He had a 99% voter approval rate.

This same year in the summer Beethoven began sketching some of his ideas for his third symphony with the intention of dedicating it to Napoleon. Beethoven’s Third Symphony, also known as the Eroica Symphony was recognized as an important musical work from the time it was first performed in August of 1804. Because Beethoven kept numerous sketches and drafts of much of his music we can now look back to see how much work he actually put into composing this symphony. We can also trace the evolution of particular themes and motives and understand why and how he wrote what he did. There are several drafts of just the first movement alone. However, by the time he was finished writing it his admiration for Napoleon was much less than it was originally. At the time of the French Consul, France had conquered many territories and states throughout Europe and reforming their governments. It seemed as if Napoleon would be the champion for a new age of fraternity, liberty and equality. On December 2nd 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor, which infuriated Beethoven. The original title (found written on Beethoven’s personal score) was “Sinfonia grande/intitolata Bonaparte” or “Grand Symphony entitled Bonaparte”. However, Beethoven scratched out the word Bonaparte so violently that he created a hole in the page. Stephan von Breuning, who shared rooms with Beethoven at the time, writes that Beethoven exclaimed “Is he too, nothing more than human? Now he will crush the rights of man! He will become a tyrant!” When it was finally published in 1806 it bore the name “Sinfonia Eroica… composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grand Uomo”, which means “Heroic Symphony… composed to celebrate the memory of a great Man”.

Soon after finishing the Third Symphony, Beethoven began his opera entitled Fidelio. The story revolves around a woman named Leonore, who disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio rescues her husband from prison. This story was borrowed from a French Revolutionary opera and the ideals of the Revolution probably appealed to Beethoven the same way they did when we was writing his third symphony. Between 1806 and 1808 Beethoven composed his next three symphonies, the most famous being the Fifth. The Fifth Symphony, (especially the first four notes in the first movement) is incredible well known. In case you have never heard it before or can’t remember how it goes, here it is: (EXAMPLE). As popular as it was and how popular it still is, the symphony did not have a great start. The orchestra was only able to rehearse it once before the premier. The auditorium was extremely cold, and the audience was exhausted by the length of the entire concert (his Sixth symphony was premiered here as well, along with his Fourth Piano Concerto). To top it off, one of the performers made a significant mistake causing Beethoven to stop all of the music and start it up again. Despite this rough start, the symphony was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of the day and one of Beethoven’s most revolutionary works to date. The Sixth Symphony, also known as the Pastoral is made up of five movements bearing a programmatic title depicting different scenes from the country. As Beethoven himself would say about the symphony " [It is] a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds". The Seventh and Eighth symphonies were both completed in 1812, the Eighth being much shorter and less heroic than the other symphonies. Beethoven would refer to it as his “little one”. Another famous work to come out of this period was his Fifth Piano Concerto, nicknamed the Emperor. This was his last piano concerto and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, who was a pupil and patron of Beethoven.

From 1804-1808 Beethoven lived in a state of constant emotional turmoil. He had the bad habit of falling in love with unattainable women, either in too high of a social class or already married. Beethoven left us another document which gives insight to his personal life. The first being the Heiligenstadt testament, and the second being a series of unsent letters written to an “Immortal Beloved”. Both of these documents were discovered in his desk after his death. These letters are an emotional outpour from Beethoven’s heart probably written in 1812. Although the intended recipient is unknown, it is now generally believed that they were meant for an Antonie Brentano. As I mentioned in the last episode, the 1994 movie “Immortal Beloved” is based upon these letters and who they might be intended for; however no historian has ever come forward to support the director’s claim that he knew who the Immortal Beloved was. Nonetheless, it still is a good movie to see as much of Beethoven’s personal life is dramatized pretty well.



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BOOK REFERENCES:

A History of Western Music - Grout and Palisca, 6th ed.

Beethoven The Creator - Roman Rolland, 1928

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Ludwig Van Beethoven, Pt. I


Episode Number: 002
Title: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Pt. I
Infroduction Music: Chaconne for Violin - J.S. Bach; obtained from the wikipedia commons.
Narrated by Nicolas Caporale and originally recorded on August 13th, 2007

   


Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the most influential composers in the history of Western Music. He straddled two periods of music that we refer to as the Classical (and that’s with a capital C) and the Romantic periods. Classifying composers or music into particular periods is tricky because the periods themselves are only rough timeframes created to help us understand the musical trends a little easier. Beethoven’s music was built upon the styles and conventions of the Classical period but his innovations forever changed the way future composers would write music. His music would serve as a model for many composers of the Romantic period.

Music scholars have divided Beethoven’s works into three separate periods, based upon style as well as the chronological order. The boundaries of these periods are not set at precise instances in time, but they do provide a practical way of studying Beethoven’s music. Much like how we assign names to different periods, styles and trends in Western music, we can apply the same approach to Beethoven’s music. The first categorical period of his life extends to 1802, where the young composer was soaking up as much of the current musical trends and techniques of the day and finding his own voice amidst it all. His first two (out of a total of nine) symphonies fall into this period, as well as six string quartets, three piano concerti and the piano sonatas through op.28. Haydn and Mozart influenced Beethoven greatly, especially the former since Beethoven would study with him. The keyboard pieces of Clementi and Dussek would also greatly influence Beethoven as heard in his early piano pieces.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born on December 16th, 1770 in Bonn, Germany; though we are not 100% sure that was the day. He was baptized on December 17th and did celebrate his birthday on December 16th so this probably is the correct day. At this point in time Bonn was still part of the Holy Roman Empire and would be for another twenty-four years. 1770 is also the same year the Boston Massacre occurred in America, the English poet William Wordsworth was born, and Captain James Cook claimed Australia for Britain. As a child, Beethoven received music lessons from his father, who was a singer in a chapel at Bonn. His father pushed Ludwig’s progress with the hopes of making him the next Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had been a child prodigy and enjoyed fame from an early time in his life. Ludwig and his father never had the same relationship that Mozart and his father had had; Ludwig’s father was an alcoholic and was rumored to sometimes come home from the bar, drunk, and force young Ludwig out of bed to practice the piano until morning. Beethoven never achieved childhood fame the way Mozart did, but when Beethoven traveled for the first time to Vienna at the age of 17 he was able to play for Mozart, who remarked that Beethoven would astonish the world some day. Beethoven was forced to return home from Vienna in 1787 when his mother passed away; he was also forced to raise his younger brothers because his father was too much of a drunkard to do so himself. As fate would have it, Franz Joseph Haydn, who was one of the most famous composers of the day, visited Bonn on his way back to London. Somehow he was exposed to Beethoven’s music and was able to convince the Archbishop elector (who was Beethoven’s employer) to allow Beethoven to return to Vienna for further musical training. Beethoven was able to study with Haydn until Haydn returned to London in 1794. In Vienna, Beethoven was also able to study vocal composition with Antonia Salieri (whom you may have heard about in the movie Amadeus, though his portrayal in the movie is not accurate) and counterpoint with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger who was a famous teacher of the day.

In Vienna, Beethoven established himself as a virtuoso pianist and with the help of his previous employer made important connections with the Hungarian, Bohemian and Austrian aristocracy. During this time he was able to sell some of his compositions, while performing as a concert pianist and teaching piano lessons. By these means he was able to support himself as a freelance composer, which was not common at this time in Europe.

Somewhere around 1796 Beethoven began to lose his hearing, and we now believe he suffered from tinnitus (which basically replaces normal sounds with high-pitched ringing). Beethoven hoped this malady would go away or be cured but in 1802 he finally gave up this hope when he wrote the now famous Heiligenstadt Testament, which was merely a semi-legal document for his two brothers intended to be read after his death. For the sake of time I will not read this letter but you can read it online on the page for this episode. In this letter Beethoven explained the daily suffering he went through by being almost entirely deaf. He knew people believed he was rude and antisocial but he was either too proud or embarrassed (or probably both) to make his ailment be publicly known. He expressed how depressed this made him feel and how he even contemplated suicide. However, he resolved to continue living so he could continue to create music. It was during this year that he wrote his second symphony. Being deaf did not keep him from composing, however it did limit his concert playing. At the premier of his last symphony, (symphony number nine) he had to be turned around after he finished conducting because he could not hear the overwhelming applause from the audience. When he realized this, he began to weep. On a side note, the 1994 movie Immortal Beloved does a pretty good job of portraying Beethoven’s personal life, though the overall plot is based on speculation. The incident at the 9th symphony was portrayed very well, in my opinion.

Throughout this first period of Beethoven’s life he took Classical style and form and altered it to suit his own creativity. In his first symphony, which debuted on April 2nd, 1800, he follows the Classical four-movement form for a symphony pretty closely. However he gave more prominence to the woodwinds (which was not usually done at this point in time) and his use of dynamic shading comes through as it did in much of his first period works. In the second symphony he decided to alter the four-movement form by replacing the customary minuet movement with a scherzo (which is Italian for a joke). Movements were also stretched by adding additional themes as well as adding and rearranging sections. Already would the standard way of composing set by the previous generations of composers of the Classical period begin to be bent by the will of Beethoven.



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BOOK REFERENCES:

A History of Western Music - Grout and Palisca, 6th ed.

Beethoven The Creator - Roman Rolland, 1928


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Thursday, August 9, 2007

History of the Violin

This episode of the Music History Podcast will only cover the history of the violin. I would like to limit the scope of this discussion to only the history and perhaps another future episode may be about how the instrument is actually played.

Episode Number: 001
Title: The History of the Violin
Infroduction Music: Chaconne for Violin - J.S. Bach; obtained from the wikipedia commons.
Narrated by Nicolas Caporale and originally recorded on August 9th, 2007 and re-recorded November 29, 2012

   

The violin is the highest pitched member of the violin family, which also includes the viola, violoncello and the double bass. The word violin is thought to have come from the Middle Latin word vitula, which may have been named after the Roman goddess Vitula, the goddess of joy. The word vitula evolved along two paths, eventually becoming the words violin and fiddle. Vitula evolved into fides, which then evolved into fithela (Old English), to the Modern English fiddle. Concurrently, vitula evolved into vielle in Old French, and then into the Medieval word vyell. Vyell served as the source for violone, which was a generic term for instruments of the viol family, and also the source for the Old Provencal word, viola, which was the generic term for instruments of the violin family.

There are a few conflicting explanations of where the violin originated and what it evolved from, but we do know that the first violins that resembled the modern violin began to be built in the early 1500’s in Italy. Stringed instruments have been recorded in history as early as 5000 B.C.E. During the classical antiquity the zither (which is basically a box with a sound-hole and various strings stretched over the length of the box) and lyre were stringed instruments that were plucked rather than bowed. At some point in time the bow was invented but it is not clear whether it originated in Northern Europe, the Near East or Central Asia. A possible origin for the bow could have evolved from the Mongolian instrument called the morin khuur. The morin khuur consisted of two strings; one string was made of 130 stallion hairs and the other of 105 mare hairs. The bow was made of horse hair as well. The Mongols were an equestrian people (meaning that the horse was an important part of their culture) and so it could be assumed that the Mongols or another equestrian people invented the haired bow. Today we continue to use bows made from horse hair. Bowed stringed instruments like the rebab and rebec, which came to Europe from Arabia and Persia through Northern Africa and into Spain are considered precursors to the violin, though not through any direct line. In the 11th century C.E. the rote was created as an attempt to duplicate the classical zither but with an additional fingerboard so that the strings could be shortened by pressing them against the fingerboard at various points. The rote was superseded by the vielle about one century later and was used by the troubadours and jongleurs of France up through the 15th century. Gradually the size of the instrument grew, crescent shaped sound holes were added to the body and a bridge or tailpiece replaced the plaque that held the strings in place. The vielle gradually transformed into the viol of the Renaissance period. The viol family contained the viola da gamba (which was a viol held between the legs and bowed underhand), the viola da braccia (which was a viol held against the shoulder) and the latter of the two evolved into the violin. Eventually the viola da braccia’s crescent shaped sound-holes were replaced with holes shaped like the letter “F”, the number of strings was reduced to four, and the tuning was changed from all fourths (with one major third) to all fifths which was easier to play on small stringed instruments. This new instrument known as the violin emerged between 1500 and 1520.

Andrea Amati, who lived roughly between 1500 and 1577 C.E. is said to have built the first true violins upon being asked by King Charles IX of France to develop a new instrument that was comparable to the lute. France was on good political terms with Northern Italy at the time so this is enabled the violin to spread so quickly from Northern Italy to France. The oldest surviving violin (with a date) was made by Andrea Amati in 1564 and is named “Charles IX”. The Amati family continued to make superb violins over the next couple of centuries in Cremona in Northern Italy (now in the region of Lombardy). In the late 17th century another Cremonese luthier (luthier being the name for someone who builds stringed instruments) by the name of Antonio Stradivari began building his own violins based off of the style of the Amati violins. It is possible that Stradivari was a pupil of Nicolo Amati but there is no proof to support this fact. He did however come from what we call the Cremona School. The violins produced by Stradivari between 1698 and 1725 are considered to be the most superbly crafted violins ever made. The fact that on May 16, 2006 a Stradivarius violin called “The Hammer” was sold in an auction for roughly 3.5 million US dollars shows just how valuable these instruments are today. (On a side note Stradivari used his Latinized name of Stradivarius on all of the instruments that he crafted.) The quality of the violins made in the early 18th century by luthiers of the Cremona School such as Stradivari have never been able to be successfully duplicated; this only increases the value of these original instruments exponentially. It is believed that environmental factors, (such as the climate at the time the wood was originally harvested and modern pollution) and chemical factors (such as the precise formula for the violin varnish and the glue used to hold the instrument together) make it impossible to duplicate the original models. By the end of the 18th century the violin was being mass produced (The first violin factory was founded around 1790 at Mirecourt, France, by Dider Nicolas) and thus the quality suffered. This was almost instantly seen as a mistake as the resulting instrument was not generally liked by musicians due to the inferior sound. Some improvements have been made since then and in the 20th century some violins were “electrified” similar to the electric guitar so that they could be amplified through external speakers.


IMAGES:

Mongolian Musician Playing the Morin Khuur The rebec in "Virgin among Virgins" (1509) by Gerard David
The viol family from Michael Praetorius's Syntagma musicum, 1618The Modern Violin



WEB REFERENCES:





BOOK REFERENCES:

A History of Western Music - Grout and Palisca, 6th ed.




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