Two weeks ago, as a prologue, we talked about the possibility of lingering World Peace, at least between huge powers, through sporting competitions. Especially because our last composer in the WWI series was Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s most important composer up to now, and Brazil is the host to the Soccer World Cup, one of the most important sports competition in the planet. Today is the time of discussing art as a tool for world peace, since this weekend on Saturday 28th June, a memorial WWI symphony concert will take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia, to commemorate the exact 100th anniversary of the event that dislocated all tensions rising in Europe, and started WWI: the assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand by Serbian extremist Gavrilo Princip. The participating orchestra will be no less than Vienna Philharmonic, Austria´s most renowned orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, equally Austrian. It will take place in Bosnia’s University and National Library (formerly Sarajevo’s City Hall), a beautiful building in Neo-Moorish style. This also would serve as a reminder that not so long ago, this region of Europe was torn into a brutal war, because in 1992 Bosnia started an independence process to secede Yugoslavia. Between 1992 and 1995, a terrible conflict happened between these two countries, leading to genocidal crimes (given the ethnic and religious differences) during the conflict and to the involvement of larger political powers, NATO and the US, to bring the conflict to an end. The Bosnian war; which had been the largest military conflict Europe since the end of WWII; led to almost 100 000 casualties, including both military and civilian on Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian sides. How is this related to the building and the concert in question? During the initial 1992 military actions by Serbian Bosnians, the library was bombarded and almost razed to the ground. It took almost 20 years since the ending of the conflict to fully restore its structure, thanks to Austrian, Spanish and EU funded programs to rebuild these countries. The concert will take place in the building not only for recent history reasons, but also because just meters away from it, the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince occurred. In words of conductor Welser-Möst, this concert has a significant historical importance because “We are convinced – and this is also my personal meaning – that this year 2014 is of highest importance [since] I’m absolutely convinced and I agree with all historians who say that WW1 […] was the source of all the evil of the 20th century that came up later.” While the concert is only accessible through invitation, large screens outside will allow general public to watch and hear the concert. It will be available to broadcast through EUROVISION TV and Radio associated channels. (Links are given below to the full concert program and the live stream of the concert.) In what matters to us, two pieces of this concert are of capital importance since they reflect what happened before and after the conflict. Although this blog is designed to promote unknown music by equally unknown or known composers; today we present these two very well-known composers with these two very well-known pieces that do not need relatively a lengthy explanation except for their compositional context. Equally important is their provenance, since one of them comes from Austria-Hungary, the other from France, two of the most important powers from both sides in the war. These composers are Alban Berg and Maurice Ravel.
Rarely known are the German or Austrian accounts on World War I, the best known is Storm of Steel of Ernest Jünger, a chronicle of his days in war fields which, nonetheless, coincide with the idea the rest of the Western powers have about the Germans in the war: Arrogant, always defying, heartless to the end and beyond it… “The vampires of Europe’s wasted will” according to Laurence Binyon, whose poems went into music thanks to Edward Elgar as we have seen some months ago. Probably the most appealing accounts are those given in image by painter Otto Dix, who in his canvases, depicted the horrors of war and its shattering consequences to life in general, and thus contributed to the pictorial avant-garde of the 20’s. As one might have guessed, Storm of Steel was extolled and Otto Dix’s paintings were forbidden when the Nazi Regime, filled with hatred and revenge desires, stormed into power during the 30’s. The same happened with Alban Berg’s music, which was considered degenerate as it didn’t comply with the Nazi canons of majesty. Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935) is considered as one of the main exponents of the Second Viennese School, who favoured expressionism and later, dodecaphonic theory, it is to say music whose phrases and structure should contain twelve unrepeated notes. As a consequence, music is free from all harmony and classical counterpoint canons to embrace new mathematical and logically ordered structures; which became the natural evolution of harmony, but equally won derogatory labels as “unfriendly” or “cerebral”. He studied music evidently, with Arnold Schoenberg, the father of the 12 tone theory starting in 1904, and while he composed some important works during this period, like the Seven Early Songs for mezzosoprano and orchestra; it is his Piano Sonata that bears his Op. 1, a work that has expressionist and free atonal elements, as well as some components that predate jazz music. In 1913, Arnold Schoenberg organized a concert in Vienna that would equate Stravinsky’s own premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps: the works in Schoenberg’s concert included his own expressionist pieces and collaborations by Berg, his other student Anton von Webern, his close friend Alexander von Zemlinsky and their almighty mentor, Gustav Mahler. Unfortunately Mahler’s piece was not played since a riot started while the musicians were playing Berg’s Five Orchestral Songs on Picture-Postcard Texts by Peter Altenberg, Op. 4. As it happened with Stravinsky, this kind of “bad publicity” did nothing but establish Berg’s name as an enfant terrible of music, and thus catapulted him into fame. His next work, the Three Orchestral Pieces, Op. 6, is surprisingly in between the boundary of expressionism and post-romanticism. Composed between 1913 and 1915 and scored for a very large orchestra including quadruple woodwind, six horns, four brass plus contrabass tuba, 2 sets of timpani, percussion, celesta, 2 harps and large strings. It reflects his personal struggles mostly and the social and political anxiety of the times it was written in. The Prelude is shrouded effectively by gloomy orchestral atmospheres and menacing marching rhythms and fanfares highlighted by brass, percussion and woodwind, while the strings take a predominant part only in the middle. Haunting marches sound in the bottom of the musical texture to give a strong sense of instability, of impending doom. The Reigen (Rounds) begins with clearly free atonal descending figures on woodwind that progressively evolve into a dance. The atmosphere still remains quite gloomy on strings and woodwind. Elements of waltzes and polkas of the earlier century ballrooms of the Austrian court and beyond appear here and there in all instrumental families. The effects of loud brass are quite effective since here are limited to orchestral crescendos or tuttis. It ends on a very ghastly flute diatonic apparition, as if the music would prepare itself to face the inevitable. The third movement, the Marsch (March) begins softly and suddenly starts growing into the orchestral palette. Elements coming from the last two movements come into spotlight and fade as fast as they came. A haunting series of marches starts on strings, and then jumps into brass all framed by titanic percussion marches and rolls. The second march is strikingly strong, virile and headed into a doom of new chordal sounds which clash into a magnificent polychord. The third slower march wants to stop the dooming environment unsuccessfully. The fourth march contains equally hard sounds on brass and fanfare announcements, but subsides into gloomy extremes of brass. In the coda, music descends into pianissimo on low woodwind and strings, to be interrupted by chaotic chords in brass; which are closed by a final drum strike. Berg was to enlist in the Austro-Hungarian army and served between 1915 and 1917 continuously. His opera Wozzeck, premiered in 1924, was to be in his mature twelve-tone language, as well as an overt denunciation of war as a social illness.
France, as we have seen, was hardly devastated by the war, and the country’s spirit was hardly demoralized after the savage conflict. Nonetheless, the arts continued to flourish during and after it; mostly moved by selected elites of national and international voices in all sectors of art, ranging from painters like Picasso, Miro or Picabia; writers like Breton, Cocteau or Desnos and musicians like Stravinsky, Satie and Ravel. Many of them actually found a way to express through the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, a dance company that in spite their name, premiered ballets written mostly by French and Western European composers. One of these ballets was the choreographic poem La Valse by Ravel. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is one of the greatest composers in France, coming from a multicultural Basque Spanish-Swiss Catholic family. His music belongs at the same time into impressionism, nationalism and modernism. His Bolero, a symphonic poem without apparent development, should be considered as a pre-minimalist piece. Ravel’s career was not without controversy, both concerning his music and personality. For example, his sexual life remains a mystery, as hints point into all sexual orientations, probably making him a pansexual/panrromantic individual. His musical career was fostered by Fauré and Saint-Saëns in the Conservatoire, ending on a marvelous scandal as he was never able to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, and unveiled a corruption network inside the institution, since conservative teachers and students were enormously favored, thus not allowing progressive students to shine. After this, Ravel was to enjoy a very fructiferous career both as a piano performer and as a composer, joining a group of artists called Les Apaches, many of them friends and suspected lovers; who joined to jam together until the World War. During the conflict, many of his friends and partners fell, as well as his old mother. He would have liked to become an aviator because he was rather short, but his weak health did not allow him to fly. Instead, he only saw indirect service as a truck driver in Verdun. At the end of the war, he was physically and mentally exhausted. He only was to compose a major work during the conflict: Le Tombeau de Couperin, based on 18th century music and dedicated to his fallen friends in the war. In 1920, he was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose music for a ballet. La Valse. The storyline of it is as follows “Breaks in the swirling clouds allow glimpses of couples waltzing. The clouds dissolve, little by little; a great room is seen, full of people dancing. It gradually grows brighter. The light of the chandeliers shines out… An Imperial court around 1855…” Music starts with dissonance deep in strings and woodwind representing the misty clouds; these are, as the storyline suggests, gradually pierced by waltz music in violas and woodwind since dissonance comes and goes from the orchestra. Finally, a resolute waltz motive in the string section, accompanied by percussion, is heard into stage. A delicate second motive is heard quietly in woodwind and strings. Bass drum introduces a more Spanish-like waltz into scene, as strings intonate a more charming melody. Different dancing motives are heard one after the other, as if the orchestra evoked different dances one might have heard at a ball of the recently disappeared Habsburg court, dissolved in 1918 after Charles I, the last Emperor, abolished himself the monarchy exactly the same day the Armistice of November 11 was sealed. Gradually, dancing motives grow in sound and orchestration, inviting more people to join the ball. The chandeliers illuminate as a gigantic crescendo of sound enounces the second motive. The music of the beginning is heard again, this time more dissonant, almost like a mass of impaired dances would collapse one on each other. Nevertheless music slows, re-growing gradually on strings and brass. The opening dancing motive is heard more syncopated, almost like a polka, bringing music to a dazzling and flashing close. The repetitive motives might have disliked Diaghilev, and he called the piece “not a ballet, but the portrait of a ballet”. Ravel was disenchanted with this comment, and he cut all associations with Diaghilev. Instead he premiered the piece in a concert as a choreographic poem that same year to great success as it was a masterpiece. Later in 1926, he let it set off as a ballet in Antwerp, and in 1929, he let it to Ida Rubinstein’s dance company to stage it.
The Great War changed everything. All the strong leftovers of authoritarian monarchical systems in Europe were wiped out, and with them all the forms of art and culture they fostered. Probably that is why art music changed so drastically after its ending, if already had some signs of change; as the piece of Berg has demonstrated. So, the impact of war left us with this enormous musical and artistic testament of the first conflict that shook mankind’s notions to their foundations, only to be deeply affected by a second conflict. In words of Welser-Most, the importance of such a concert with such music lies here: “It is a big responsibility to play a concert in Sarajevo on this very day (28th June). […] It [is] to be aware of the responsibility of this day, because it’s so important 100 years after this tragedy that we are well aware what war means.”
Sebastian Rodriguez Mayen
Especial 1ª Guerra Mundial: Paz a través del arte y la memoria
Hace dos semanas, como prólogo, hablamos de la posibilidad de una Paz mundial duradera, al menos entre potencias mayores, a través de eventos deportivos. Especialmente porque el último compositor tratado en la serie de la 1GM era Heitor Villa-Lobos, el compositor más importante de Brasil hasta la fecha y porque Brazil es huésped de la Copa del Mundo de Futbol, uno de los eventos deportivos más importantes del planeta. Hoy nos toca discutir al arte como forma de lograr la paz mundial ya que este fin de semana, el sábado 28, un concierto memorial de la 1GM tendrá lugar en Sarajevo, Bosnia, para conmemorar exactamente el 100 aniversairo del evento que dislocó todas las tensiones gestándose en Europa y comenzando así la 1GM: hablo del asesinato del heredero al trono austriaco, Francisco Fernando, por el extremista serbio Gavrilo Princip. La orquesta intérprete será nada más y nada menos que la Filarmónica de Viena, la orquesta con más renombre en Austria, dirigida por el igualmente austriaco Franz Welser-Möst. El evento tendrá lugar en la Biblioteca Nacional y Universitaria de Bosnia (antes Alcaldía de Sarajevo), un hermoso edificio en estilo neo-morisco. Esto servirá para recordar que hace no mucho tiempo, esta región de Europa fue devastada por una guerra brutal, ya que en 1992, Bosnia comenzó un proceso independentista para separarse de la antigua Yugoslavia. Entre 1992 y 1995, un terrible conflicto ocurrió entre estas dos naciones, conllevando a atrocidades criminales (dadas las diferencias étnicas y religiosas) durante el conflicto y terminando en la implicación de la OTAN y los EUA, para llevar el conflicto a término. La guerra de Bosnia, considerada el mayor conflicto militar en Europa desde la 2GM, tuvo casi 100 mil víctimas entre civiles y militares de los bandos bosnios, croatas y serbios. ¿Cómo entonces el edificio y el concierto se relacionan a esta catástrofe? Resulta que durante las primeras maniobras militares en 1992, la biblioteca fue bombardeada y casi arrasada hasta los cimientos. Tomo casi 20 años desde el fin de la guerra para restaurar plenamente el edificio, gracias en gran parte a donaciones austriacas, españolas y de la Unión Europea destinadas a la reconstrucción de estos países. El concierto no sólo tendrá lugar aquí por razones de historia actual, sino porque también, a escasos metros del lugar, ocurrió el asesinato del heredero a la corona austriaca. En palabras del director Welser-Möst, el concierto tiene gran importancia histórica ya que “Estamos convencidos – todos [en la orquesta] incluido yo – que este año 2014 es de enorme importancia [ya que] estoy convencido junto con muchos historiadores quienes dicen que la 1GM […] fue el origen de todo el mal que se generó más tarde en el siglo 20.” Mientras que este concierto solamente será accesible por invitación, habrá grandes pantallas fuera del recinto donde el público general podrá disfrutar de él sin costo alguno. También estará disponible a través de los canales de EUROVISIÓN TV y Radio, al igual que asociados. (Hay ligas disponibles que contienen el programa y su transmisión en vivo por internet). En lo que a nosotros nos concierne, dos piezas de música de este concierto son de importancia capital ya que reflejan lo que pasó antes y después del conflicto. Aunque este blog haya sido creado para promover música desconocida por compositores igualmente desconocidos o conocidos, hoy presentamos a estos dos compositores bastante conocidos junto con dos piezas muy conocidas que no requieren de mucha explicación más que del contexto en que fueron compuestas. De igual forma, es importante notar su proveniencia, ya que uno de estos compositores es de Austria-Hungría y el otro de Francia, dos de las potencias más importantes en ambos lados de la guerra. Estos compositores son Alban Berg y Maurice Ravel.
Los relatos y crónicas de la 1GM sobre alemanes y austriacos son realmente poco conocidos. Quizás el más conocido es Tempestades de Acero de Ernest Jünger, una crónica de sus días en los campos de batalla que sin duda coincide con la idea que el resto de las potencias occidentales pensaban sobre los alemanes durante la guerra: Arrogantes, desafiantes y despiadados hasta el fin e incluso más allá… “Los vampiros de la desgastada voluntad y de la sangre de Europa”, según Lawrence Binyon, cuyos poemas encontraron camino hacia la música gracias a Edward Elgar, tal y como lo vimos hace unos meses. Quizás los recuerdos más llamativos sean aquellos de Otto Dix, quien en sus pinturas retrató los horrores de la guerra y sus consecuencias en la vida diaria, así contribuyendo a las vanguardias pictóricas durante los años 20. Como uno podría haber adivinado, Tempestades de Acero fue ensalzado y las pinturas de Otto Dix fueron prohibidas cuando el régimen Nazi, lleno de odio y deseos de venganza, conquistó el poder durante los años 30. Lo mismo ocurrió con la música de Alban Berg, que fue considerada como “degenerada” al no apegarse a los cánones de majestuosidad. Alban Berg (1885-1935) fue un compositor austriaco que es hoy día considerado uno de los máximos exponentes de la Segunda Escuela de Viena, que practicaba el expresionismo y después, el dodecafonismo. Es decir música cuyas frases se componen de doce notas que nunca se repiten. Como consecuencia, la música se libera de todas las reglas de armonía y contrapunto tradicionales para ser sustituidas por una estructura matemática y lógicamente ordenada; lo cual se puede ver como la evolución natural de la práctica común musical, pero que sin embargo, se ha ganado adjetivos despectivos como “poco amigable” o “cerebral”. Berg estudió música evidentemente, con Arnold Schoenberg, el padre de la teoría dodecafónica, comenzando en 1904 y mientras durante su estudio compuso piezas importantes como las Siete Canciones Tempranas para mezzosoprano y orquesta, es su Sonata para Piano que lleva su Op.1, una obra que contiene elementos expresionistas y de atonalidad libre, así como elementos que anteceden a la música de jazz. En 1913, Arnold Schoenberg organizó un concierto en Viena que igualaría al estreno de La Consagración de la Primavera de Stravinsky: las obras de Schoenberg en este concierto incluirían sus propias obras expresionistas y colaboraciones de Berg, su otro pupilo Anton von Webern, su amigo cercano Alexander von Zemlinsky y el todopoderoso mentor de este grupo, Gustav Mahler, muerto dos años antes. Desafortunadamente, la obra de Mahler no pudo escucharse ya que un tumulto estalló en la sala mientras que los músicos interpretaban las Cinco canciones orquestales sobre textos de postal de Peter Altenberg, Op. 4 que Berg había compuesto. Como ocurrió con Stravinsky, esta “mala publicidad” no hizo más que establecer la reputación de Berg como un enfant terrible de la música y así catapultarlo a la fama. Su próxima gran obra, las Tres Piezas Orquestales, Op.6, se encuentra sorprendentemente en la frontera entre el expresionismo y el posromanticismo. Compuesta entre 1913 y 1915 y escrita para una enorme orquesta que incluye alientos cúadruples, seis cuernos, cuatro metales más tuba contrabajo, dos timbalistas, percusiones, celesta, dos arpas y un gran contingente de cuerdas, esta obra refleja las luchas internas del compositor así como la angustia política y social que se vivía en el momento de componerla. El Preludio está rodeado por efectivas sonoridades sombrías en la orquesta y ritmos marciales amenazadores y fanfarrias subrayadas por los metales, las percusiones y los alientos, mientras que las cuerdas toman un rol más predominante hacia la mitad. Marchas espeluznantes suenan en el trasfondo musical para dar sentido de inestabilidad, de ruina inminente. Las Reigen (Rondas) comienzan con figuras descendientes, claramente atonales, en los alientos que evolucionan progresivamente hacia una danza. La atmósfera se mantiene bastante sombría en las cuerdas y alientos. Elementos de ländern, valses y polkas de los antiguos salones de balie en de la corte austriaca y de otras aparecen por aquí y por allá en las diferentes familias orquestales. Los efectos de los metales más sonoros son muy efectivos, ya que se limitan a crescendos o tuttis. La pieza termina con una aparición diatónica de las flautas, que preparan a la música a enfrentar lo inevitable. El tercer movimiento, Marsch (marcha), comienza suavemente y de repente, se crece dentro de la paleta orquestal. Elementos que provienen de movimientos anteriores vienen y van tan rápido como llegaron. Una espeluznante serie de marchas comienza en las cuerdas, que salta hacia los metales enmarcados por ritmos y redobles de percusión titánicos. La segunda marcha es bastante fuerte, viril y pronto se encamina hacia la perdición simbolizada por nuevos politonos que se estrellan en un poliacorde masivo. La tercera marcha es más lenta y pareciera querer detener la atmósfera de perdición sin mucho éxito. La cuarta y última contiene sonidos duros en los metales y anuncios de fanfarrias. Sin embargo, estos se disipan en sombríos extremos metálicos. En la coda, la música desciende a pianissimo en los alientos graves y cuerdas, solo para ser interrumpida por acordes caóticos en los metales, cerrados por un último golpe en el bombo. Después de componer esta obra, Berg se enlistó en el ejército Austro-Húngaro y sirvió de corrido entre 1915 y 1917. Su ópera Wozzeck, estrenada en 1924, refleja su estilo maduro dodecafónico y es también una denuncia abierta que presenta la guerra como un mal social.
La 1GM lo cambió. Los poderosos restos monárquicos autoritarios que aún quedaban en Europa fueron arradados y con ellos todas las formas de arte y cultura que éstos sustentaban. Esto hizo que probablemente, la música académica cambiara de manera tan radical después de concluir el conflicto, si ya bien mostraba signos de cambio como lo demuestra Berg en su obra. Así pues, el impacto de la guerra nos dejó con este enorme testamento artístico y musical que nos cuenta sobre el primer conflicto en toda la historia que sacudió las nociones morales de la humanidad hasta sus cimientos, sólo para ser aún más afectadas por un segundo conflicto. En palabras de Welser-Möst, la importancia del concierto con estas obras recae en lo siguiente: “Representa una gran responsabilidad tocar un concierto en Sarajevo en este mismo día (28 de junio). […] [Más que nada] es para estar conscientes de la responsabilidad de este día, porque es muy importante que 100 años después de esta tragedia humana, sepamos lo que la guerra significa.”
Sebastián Rodríguez Mayén
Links to the program and concert / ligas al programa y al concierto:
Wiener Philharmoniker. Concert in Sarajevo Program (EN, DE): http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/concerts/concert-detail/event-id/231
EBU Sarajevo Concert (EN, FR): http://www3.ebu.ch/contents/programming/tv/tv-projects/music/centenary-concert.html (Requires free subscrpition /requiere suscripción gratis)
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