Music of the Fin de Siècle Course: 1884 - 1893

Music. Learn, enjoy, appreciate.

In Part II of this series of courses on Music in Europe in the late Nineteenth Century, we continue to explore and weave together the various nationalist strands of orchestral and operatic music composed in this period, by now universally being referred to as the Fin de Siècle. 

We not only see how Brahms dominates the German musical scene after the death of Wagner, but how his protégé Dvorak has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, both in England – composing a series of major orchestral and choral works for the annual English music festivals – and also further afield, accepting a specially-created and highly-lucrative position as head of a new musical conservatory in New York. 

We see Saint-Saëns’s neglected opera Samson et Dalila finally take its rightful place at the Paris Opéra, where it rapidly becomes part of the repertoire, and note the huge success of Massenet’s Manon at the Opéra-Comique. We also pay homage to Fauré’s gentler vocal muse through his delightful collections of mélodies and chansons. 

Through this decade, the Russian school is dominated by Tchaikovsky, particularly his late sequence of masterpieces comprising the Pushkin opera The Queen of Spades, the ballets Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker, and the final symphony, the so-called Pathétique. Rimsky-Korsakov also dazzles with his breathtakingly voluptuous orchestration in his ‘symphonic suite’ Sheherazade. 

Verdi rounds off a remarkable 50-year career with two magnificent operas based on his beloved Shakespeare – the tragic Otello, and the comic Falstaff – both featuring brilliant librettos by Arrigo Boito. Meanwhile, in the early 1890s, the young Italian school revel in the violence of the new verismo style, launched by Mascagni with Cavalleria rusticana and confirmed soon afterwards by Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. 

In the final lecture we encounter the music of newcomers Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss for the first time. 

Aims

The aims of this course are to:

• assemble a comprehensive survey of the five major strands of European classical music – German, French, Russian, Italian and Czech – as the Fin de Siècle advances towards 1900
• confirm Brahms’s pre-eminent position in the world of German Romantic music in the wake of Wagner’s death, and to comprehend Cosima’s unique contribution to the continuation of the ‘Bayreuth Tradition’
• assess Bruckner’s successes and failures in the field of symphonic composition, and to acknowledge his position, along with César Franck, as one of the greatest organists of the period
• assess observe Dvorak’s burgeoning fame as he becomes an increasingly valued contributor to the great English music festivals, prior to his accepting a lucrative newly-created position in New York
• follow the flourishing career of Jules Massenet, noting particularly his hugely successful Manon for the Opéra-Comique and his subsequent setting of Werther – based on Goethe’s famous novella – for the Vienna Court Opera
• track Tchaikovsky’s troubled final years, noting how they coincide with a seemingly endless stream of masterpieces including The Queen of Spades, The Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker ballets, and the Sixth Symphony, the premiere of which he conducts only days before his untimely death
• explicate the exciting new verismo style employed by Mascagni and Leoncavallo in their short, violent dramas, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, and to place in this context Puccini’s first big success with Manon Lescaut
• explore the veteran Verdi’s two astonishing late masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff; and to sample several early orchestral works by two very talented newcomers, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss
• attempt to evaluate the contribution made by the increasingly powerful conductors who begin to make their mark during this period – Hans Richter and Arthur Nikisch especially, followed, in the early 1890s, by the young Arturo Toscanini.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• assess the impact of Wagner’s death on the German school of composition, and evaluate the role his wife Cosima played in the continuation of the ‘Bayreuth Tradition’ 
• better comprehend the remarkable success Dvorak enjoyed on the world stage – especially in England and the United States – during this decade particularly 
• enumerate some of the very considerable differences between Massenet’s and Puccini’s settings of the Abbé Prevost’s Manon Lescaut 
• follow the complex interplay of Tchaikovsky’s life and music during the last four years of his life, thereby developing possible insights into the conflicting explanations for his unexpected and mysterious death, the causes of which remain contentious to this day 
• better understand the very different musical forces a genius like Verdi can bring to bear on a tragic subject versus a comic subject, and how these relate to the initial impetus provided by an equally brilliant librettist 
• begin to experience a fuller appreciation of the increasingly important role of the conductor, and the impact he exerts on the potential success of a new musical work.

Content

• Brahms’s Third and Fourth Symphonies, the Double Concerto and works for clarinet 
• Bruckner’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies and his Te Deum 
• Cosima Wagner takes control in Bayreuth, and the death of her father Franz Liszt 
• Dvorak’s last three symphonies and his visits to England and the United States 
• Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony, and César Franck’s Symphony in D minor 
• Massenet’s operas Manon and Werther, and songs by Fauré 
• Johann Strauss’s operetta The Gypsy Baron takes Vienna by storm 
• Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘symphonic suite’ Sheherazade in Saint Petersburg 
• Tchaikovsky’s last works including The Queen of Spades, ballets The Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker and the Sixth Symphony 
• Mascagni’s and Leoncavallo’s verismo operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, and Puccini’s first triumph with Manon Lescaut in Turin 
• Verdi’s two final masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, both at La Scala 
• Early ‘symphonic poems’ and ‘tone-poems’ by Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss 
• Successful miniatures: the songs of Hugo Wolf, and the Trois Gymnopédies for piano by Eric Satie

Intended audience

This new course should appeal to a wide range of lovers of music of the late Romantic period.

Prerequisites

None

Delivery style

Lecture style, face-to-face, with musical excerpts played on CD.

Materials

A weekly worksheet with a comprehensive synopsis of material being presented is provided.