Influences on Composition - Part 2
October 16th 2006 13:46
Last week I looked at Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky as examples of how life implicitly makes it’s way into a composer’s music. This week I’ll look at a few more.
It is impossible to talk about how surroundings and life influenced some composers without giving mention to the writing related to the surge of nationalism during the nineteenth century. As nation states were established and there was increasing separation from the Ottoman empire in Europe, it became a predictable event that music would be used as a tool for the glorification of these seceding countries. Some composers looked towards the folk music already in their smaller communities for inspiration. Examples are numerous, including Bartok in Hungary, Vaughn Williams in England, Tchaikovsky in Russia, and Khachaturian in Armenia. In some cases, such as Dvorak’s, music became an expression of the value of culture and richness of a native population. His 9th Symphony - From The New World - seems to demonstrate a degree of homesickness for Bohemia while he lived in America. Bedrich Smetana, another Bohemian, used his music as a tool to cultivate nationalism in a populace long crushed under Austrian influence. As such, his operas include Czech dances and tell of Czech heroes and history. The nineteenth century air of nationalism was inescapable for many composers, and their music came to embody nationalistic values and ideals.
It is possible for environment to take an even more literal effect on the works of composers. Many Australian composers have come directly under the influence of natural Australian locations. Peter Sculthorpe’s widely renowned symphonic work Kakadu depicts the environment of the Kakadu national park, and he has repeatedly made use of bird calls and effects in his pieces to try and illustrate Australian wildlife. Another famous Australian, Ross Edwards, has achieved similar descriptive pieces. His work for clarinet and percussion, Binyang, uses Aboriginal percussive motives as well as bird song influences. Many of his works are entirely pentatonic and feature extreme rhythmic variety and unpredictability, some, such as the Tower of Remoteness use such rhythmic unpredictability to establish the ambience of natural Australian natural habitats. Some modern minimalist composers have taken influence from modern technology and an urban setting in the creation of some of their pieces. Ligeti’s Poeme Symphonique uses a room full of 100 metronomes set at different speeds which tick down until they are all finished. John Cage, who I wrote about in an earlier article, has employed the use of radios in performance, which would create a differing performance depending on the available stations. From my own writing as a composer, I have seen subtle areas of influence in my life become large factors in programmatic music - my work in a factory is reflected in a passion for the transformation of ostinatos and rhythmic drive, and I have occasionally been pushed to write something based on a scene I have witnessed in nature.
These are just a few of the ways in which music can be a focusing area for some of the collective influences that composers receive. Join me next week when I’ll look at exactly why conductor Arturo Toscanini deserves his reputation as the most terrifying conductor ever.
Folk dancers in Prague
It is possible for environment to take an even more literal effect on the works of composers. Many Australian composers have come directly under the influence of natural Australian locations. Peter Sculthorpe’s widely renowned symphonic work Kakadu depicts the environment of the Kakadu national park, and he has repeatedly made use of bird calls and effects in his pieces to try and illustrate Australian wildlife. Another famous Australian, Ross Edwards, has achieved similar descriptive pieces. His work for clarinet and percussion, Binyang, uses Aboriginal percussive motives as well as bird song influences. Many of his works are entirely pentatonic and feature extreme rhythmic variety and unpredictability, some, such as the Tower of Remoteness use such rhythmic unpredictability to establish the ambience of natural Australian natural habitats. Some modern minimalist composers have taken influence from modern technology and an urban setting in the creation of some of their pieces. Ligeti’s Poeme Symphonique uses a room full of 100 metronomes set at different speeds which tick down until they are all finished. John Cage, who I wrote about in an earlier article, has employed the use of radios in performance, which would create a differing performance depending on the available stations. From my own writing as a composer, I have seen subtle areas of influence in my life become large factors in programmatic music - my work in a factory is reflected in a passion for the transformation of ostinatos and rhythmic drive, and I have occasionally been pushed to write something based on a scene I have witnessed in nature.
These are just a few of the ways in which music can be a focusing area for some of the collective influences that composers receive. Join me next week when I’ll look at exactly why conductor Arturo Toscanini deserves his reputation as the most terrifying conductor ever.
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