MUS 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Johannes Brahms, Art Music, Aaron Copland
Unit 3: The Cult of Genius and the Musical Museum
- The Development of the Musical Canon
o Canon: “the list of works considered to be permanently established as being of the
highest quality”
o Selective ‘tradition’
- A radical change…
o …in the conception of the concert
o …in the conception of the composer
o …in the conception of the music
- Concert hall as museum
o Shift in programming from new music to old music
▪ Music performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
• 1780s: 85% by living composers
• 1820s: 75% by living composers
• 1870s: 25% by living composers
▪ Music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic
• 60% of music played between 1842 and 1850 was Beethoven
o Shift in concert from audience standpoint
▪ 18th century concerts were primarily social
▪ 19th century concerts did not primarily value social aspects
• Move quiet, dress nicely
• Promote ‘individual’ listening
▪ Not primarily for entertainment (more artistic merit)
• Need to understand it
• Music to be understood, grappled with
- Composer as Genius
o Inspiration: not just good at what they do but inspired
o Individuality
o Autonomous artist: the composer is the hero of their story; they work for themselves
like Beethoven
o Great Masters
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▪ Masterworks
- Museum Pieces
o Aesthetic purposes first and foremost
▪ Art for the art’s sake
o Serious
o Goal: uplifting
o Important works seen as having lasting value
- What causes these shifts?
o Rise of public concerts of instrumental music
o Development of professional orchestras…
o …and the first generation of professional conductors
o Publishing
o Mass market of middle-class audiences
▪ Music literacy
o Reaction against prominence of instrumental virtuosos
o Bildung
▪ German idea of self-education, self-cultivation
- Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D Minor
o 1822-1824
o Emphasis on final movement
▪ Minor to major: darkness to light
▪ Quotes first three movements
• Dismisses them
• Introduces a new (very famous) one
- Connecting the Dots
o Concert hall as a ‘musical museum’
o A work’s lasting aesthetic value of supreme importance
o What we’re seeing is a shift to works as musical monuments written by Great
Composers whose inspired music expresses their artistic individuality. This music,
which is viewed as timeless and aesthetically important, is ideally to be studied and
understood by its audience for their own self-betterment
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
