Micah’s Monthly Music, November 2021: Christoph Willibald Gluck

Vienna Opera House

On November 15th, 1787, a great composer died. While many people have likely never heard of Christoph Willibald Gluck, his legacy reverberated through the musical world and heavily influenced composers who followed him, including the young genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Seventy-three years prior to his death, in 1714, Gluck was born in Germany, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire. Much of his early life is only partially known, but eventually Gluck rose to prominence as a music teacher and composer in Vienna, one of the chief cities of the empire. He was knighted for the excellence of his operatic writing and even tutored Marie Antoinette, who in return introduced him to the Parisian music scene. This consistent success lent Gluck’s music great credibility and gave him an avenue to pursue his operatic reforms.

These reforms are the primary reason Gluck became such an important figure in musical history. By the end of the Baroque period (about 1600-1750), opera had devolved into two stagnant genres: the comedic opera buffa with its worn-out tropes, and the high-brow opera seria with its overwrought melodic embellishments. In Gluck’s time, the new aesthetics of the Classical period were emerging, favoring clarity and formal complexity over the extravagance and melodic complexity of the Baroque period. Gluck took these new ideals and implemented them in his operas, “trimming the fat” to facilitate a musical narrative that was easier for the audience to follow. Long virtuosic displays by soloists were cut, lyrics were set to music more intelligibly, accompaniment was added to recitatives to continue the action, and melodies were written in a simpler, flowing style. All these changes served to keep the drama high and the audience engaged.

The first of Gluck’s operas to implement these reforms was Orfeo ed Euridice, which has remained a popular opera standard to this day, two and a half centuries later. Several operas followed, refining these reforms, and Gluck’s place in music history was cemented. He was appointed the Hapsburg court composer in 1774 and frequently traveled between Vienna and Paris, reinforcing his international fame. Gluck’s reforms inspired generations of composers that followed him, and his death on November 15th, 1787, created an opening in the Hapsburg court. This coveted position was filled by none other than W. A. Mozart after his own operatic successes with The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Recommended Union Library resources:

• To read: Gluck and the Opera: a study in musical history (ML 410 .G5 N3 1967) — a biography of the composer and his quest to reform one of the most historically influential genres of music.
• To study: C.W. von Gluck, Orfeo (ML 410 .G5 C2 1981) — a detailed analysis of Gluck’s groundbreaking opera, Orfeo.
• To listen: Alceste (IMC CDs M 1500 .G56 A42) — a recording of another of Gluck’s influential operas, with which he and librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi publicized their ideals for operatic reform.

Students and faculty, head over to our Music Research Guide to discover how to access classical music online through the NAXOS library.

*written by Micah Rhodes

Micah’s Monthly Music, October 2021: Jean Sibelius

Sibelius Monument in Helsinki, Finland

This month’s musical master is Jean Sibelius, a twentieth-century composer from Finland. Over a long life and career, Sibelius wrote spectacular symphonies and tone poems* that won acclaim from audiences across Europe and America, making him the first Finnish composer to garner international fame. One of the most powerful of these compositions was Finlandia, a patriotic tone poem* that poignantly conveyed the dark Scandinavian landscape and the struggles of the Finnish people against the outside rule of tsarist Russia. The serene hymn-like melody that emerges at the end of Finlandia became an important national song for the Finnish people. This same melody was later paired with a text by Katharina von Schlegel to become the Christian hymn “Be Still, My Soul”.

*A tone poem is a musical piece written for a symphonic orchestra, but it does not adhere to the traditional formal construction of a symphony. It usually has a strong, evocative, or emotional program, leaning away from the more intellectual and abstract methods often used in symphonic composition.

With a life and career that spanned 91 years and multiple major musical eras, Sibelius’ music exhibits a unique style that, while occasionally criticized, remains broadly appealing to audiences of classical music. Born in 1865 at the height of the Romantic period, Sibelius employed Romantic elements of style and form in his music, including the use of the tone poems and nationalistic subjects as inspiration. However, since he lived until 1957, Sibelius also witnessed the drastic changes the twentieth century brought to music, especially in the devastating after-effects of two world wars. By combining Romantic expression with twentieth-century experimentation, he arrived at a style some critics dismissed as simplistic but most now love for the gradual, organic growth of melodies and portrayal of human emotion.

For all of Sibelius’ musical prowess and success, the composer seemed to stop writing for the last thirty years of his life. The final major work he produced, Tapiola, was completed in 1926. After that point, there are rumors of Sibelius working on an eighth or even ninth symphony, but those pieces never graced the desk of a publisher or conductor and no trace of them remains. Nevertheless, Sibelius remained musically involved, writing or editing smaller works and advocating for young composers until his death in September of 1957. He is still held as a national hero of Finland, and a popular music notation software was even named after him.

Recommended Union Library resources:

• To read: Sibelius by Andrew Barnett (ML 410 .S54 B37 2007) — a recent biography of the composer and his music. For more books on Sibelius, keep looking in the “ML 410 .S54” section!
• To  study: Finlandia, op. 26, no. 7 (M1002 .S56 op. 26 no. 7) — the score of the famous tone poem.
• To listen: Sibelius tone poems (IMC CDs M1003 .S563 op. 11) — a suite of tone poems, including Finlandia, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Students and faculty, head over to our Music Research Guide to discover how to access classical music online through the NAXOS library.

*written by Micah Rhodes

Micah’s Monthly Music, August 2021: Dmitri Shostakovich

Hey, library blog readers! This new series will focus on composers, conductors, ensembles, and notable pieces from the long and storied history of Western art music. I hope you enjoy it!

Both revered and scorned by his nation, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich lived through one of the most tumultuous times in modern history, and his music exhibits this tension. Born in St. Petersburg in 1906, Shostakovich lived through World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Second World War, and well into the Cold War. His early music was strikingly experimental and initially praised, but a disparaging assessment of one of his operas by the Soviet publication Pravda sparked Stalin’s purges against the artistic and creative communities in Russia. Poets, authors, and musicians lived in fear of a fateful knock on the door, late at night, that could tear them away from their friends and families unless they produced works that adhered to the party line.

For his part, Shostakovich did his best to survive. He began to write in a more approachable neoclassical style, creating symphonies that were well-accepted including his Symphony No. 5, written in response to the Pravda article, and his famous Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad.” Written for his home city during its devastating siege by the Germans in World War II, the music proclaims courage in the face of opposition and concludes with assured victory.

However, though his public middle works conformed to Soviet expectations, Shostakovich’s more private string quartets convey the anxious uncertainty and exhausting despair that the composer endured under Stalin’s regime. These quartets are hauntingly, brutally beautiful, especially No. 8—Shostakovich reputedly described it as his own epitaph. In the end, after Stalin’s death, the restrictive Soviet measures against artists were loosened and Shostakovich released some experimental music again, including the Fourth Symphony that he had pulled from performances after the Pravda article.

Recommended Union Library resources:

❖ Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad”

➢ To read: Leningrad: Siege and Symphony (D 764.3 .L4 M69 2013) — a historical look at the city of Leningrad and the context surrounding Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony.

➢ To study: Symphony No. 7, op. 60 (M 1001 .S554 Op. 60) — the conductor’s score.

*written by Micah Rhodes