The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles: How Music Has Shaped Civilization

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The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles: How Music Has Shaped Civilization Page 37

by Howard Goodall

An early example of ragtime syncopation

  Gustav Mahler: ‘Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n’ from Kindertotenlieder (1901–4)

  Unlike many contemporaries, Mahler abandoned the smokescreen of euphemism and addressed difficult issues – here the deaths of children – head-on

  Claude Debussy: Estampes, I. Pagodes (1903)

  Debussy allowed his chords to reverberate and overlap in order to evoke the sound of the Javanese gamelan

  Richard Strauss: Salome, Scene 4. Dance of the Seven Veils (1905)

  Strauss’s starkly modern opera set a new standard for ear-splitting dissonance

  Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, VI. Der Abschied (1908–9)

  Mahler’s instruction is for the final, long chord to fade away imperceptibly; Benjamin Britten described it as ‘imprinted on the atmosphere’

  Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, VII. Dance of the Earth (1913)

  The zenith of musical modernism in the early twentieth century, this shows Stravinsky having ‘everything at once’ – including African-style cross-rhythms – rather than developing a tune gradually

  7. The Popular Age I

  George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (1924)

  Jazz meets classical music in this revolutionary piece that was sneered at by highbrow critics but loved by audiences

  Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera, II. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (1928)

  A savage critique of capitalist society in accessible musical form

  George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (1935)

  A musical with social conscience, this was notable for its sympathetic but clear-eyed portrayal of underclass life

  Carl Orff: Carmina Burana (1937)

  The cultural calling-card of a composer who cooperated with the Nazi regime

  Abel Meeropol: ‘Strange Fruit’, recorded by Billie Holiday (1939)

  Emotionally charged and socially progressive coming-of-age for the popular song

  Michael Tippett: A Child of Our Time, VIII. Steal Away (1939–41)

  Interspersing quasi-operatic narrative passages with African-American spirituals, this response to the horrors of war was inspired by the real-life assassination of a German diplomat by a Jewish refugee

  Dmitri Shostakovich: Leningrad symphony (1942)

  Dedicated to the people of his besieged home city, this was musical patriotism and morale-raising for a mainstream audience

  Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring (1944)

  American musical patriotism and morale-raising in a ballet score with enduring appeal

  8. The Popular Age II

  Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim: West Side Story (1957)

  Groundbreaking musical fusing Latin-American, jazz, Broadway and classical styles

  Bernard Herrmann: Psycho original soundtrack (1960)

  Herrmann’s reinvention of film scoring techniques, with hard-edged string orchestra accompanying Hitchcock’s black-and-white horror masterpiece

  Bob Dylan: ‘The times they are a-changing’ (1964)

  Musical challenge to the prevailing United States political establishment

  The Beatles: Revolver (1966)

  A radical overhaul of the possibilities of pop, with daring integration of classical, avant-garde, folk and world idioms, studio technology and mainstream rock and roll

  Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (1973)

  Motown soul inventively merged with Cuban rhythmic patterns

  Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (1974–6)

  Minimalism joined the gap between pop and classical and made classical-inspired music more relevant for the modern age

  Stephen Sondheim: Sunday in the Park with George (1984)

  Expanding the expectations of the stage musical: a musical narrative based on Georges Seurat’s 1884 pointillist painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

  Paul Simon and others: Graceland (1986)

  South African iscathamiya (unaccompanied Zulu group-singing genre) brought into colourful collision with folk and country styles of the southern United States

  John Adams: Nixon in China (1987)

  Opera reconnected to contemporary current affairs

  Steve Reich: Different Trains (1988)

  Classical concert work for a string quartet, shaped around sound-sampling of taped conversations

  Danny Elfman: Batman original soundtrack (1989)

  Lisztian neo-Gothic power demonstrated the continued vibrancy in the cultural mainstream of the ‘classical’ heritage of the symphonic sound

  Dario Marianelli: Atonement original soundtrack (2007)

  Genre-defying layering of styles, one on the other: the orchestral past and present co-existing in a modern film score

  Howard Goodall: Enchanted Voices (2009)

  Newly composed twenty-first-century reappraisal of ancient plain-chant

  (Highly Selective) Further Reading

  Oxford History of Western Music, Richard Taruskin (Oxford University Press, 2005)

  The Triumph of Music: Composers, Musicians and their Audiences, Tim Blanning (Allen Lane, 2008)

  A History of Western Music, J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Grout, Claude Palisca (W W. Norton, 2009)

  The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, Donald Clarke (St Martin’s Griffin, 1995)

  Music: A Very Short Introduction, Nicholas Cook (Oxford University Press, 1998)

  Roots of the Classical, Peter Van der Merwe (Oxford University Press, 2004)

  Origins of the Popular Style, Peter Van der Merwe (Oxford University Press, 1989)

  This is your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin (Atlantic Books, 2007)

  The Unanswered Question, Leonard Bernstein (Harvard University Press, 1990)

  Vindications, Deryck Cooke (Cambridge University Press, 1982)

  Unheard Melodies, or Trampolining in the Vatican, Paul Drayton (Athena Press, 2008)

  Johann Sebastian Bach, Christoph Wolff (Oxford University Press, 2001)

  Evening in the Palace of Reason, James Gaines (4th Estate, 2005)

  Wagner and Philosophy, Bryan Magee (Penguin, 2001)

  The Twisted Muse: Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich, Michael H. Kater (Oxford University Press, 1997)

  Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits, Michael H. Kater (Oxford University Press, 2000)

  The Reich’s Orchestra: The Berlin Philharmonic 1933–45, Misha Aster (Souvenir, 2010)

  On Russian Music, Richard Taruskin (University of California Press, 2009)

  Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties, Ian MacDonald (Pimlico, 1995)

  Between Old Worlds and New, Wilfrid Mellers (Cygnus Arts, 1997)

  The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross (4th Estate, 2007)

  Listen to This, Alex Ross (4th Estate, 2010)

  Picture Credits

  PAINTING FROM THE CHAUVET cave, southern France (© culture-images/ Lebrecht)

  Bone flute from Hohle Fels (AFP/Getty Images)

  Lur (after Danish example, about 1000 BC), made by Victor-Charles Mahillon (© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection)/Lebrecht)

  The Schøyen Collection MS 2340: Lexical list of harp strings, Sumer, twenty-sixth century BC (The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London)

  Egyptian wall-painting featuring musicians (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)

  Ancient Greek krater from the fifth century BC (Getty Images)

  An organist and a horn player entertain at a Gladiator match (Museum für Vor und Frühgeschichte, Saarbrucken, Germany/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  The Schøyen Collection MS 1574: St Gallen diastematic staffless neumes, Austria or Southern Germany, twelfth century (The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London)

  ‘Musica enchiriadis’, Msc.Var.1, fol.57r (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg/ photo: Gerald Raab)

  View of the south transept of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims (© Paul Maeyaert/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Portrait of a Musician, possibly Josquin des
Prez, c.1485 by Leonardo da Vinci (Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), Dominican priest and, briefly, ruler of Florence (Lebrecht Authors)

  Al’Ud (lute) (© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection)/Lebrecht)

  The Lute Player, c.1595, by Caravaggio (Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  The Cittern Player by Gabriel Metsu (Gemaeldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany/ © Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Violin made by Nicolo Amati (© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Gift of Arthur E. Spiller, M.D)/ Lebrecht)

  Organ from Notre-Dame de Valere (Bridgeman Art Library)

  Clavemusicum Omnitonum (De Agostini Picture Library/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Ballet costume worn by Louis XIV as Apollo (© Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library)

  Title page of ‘The English Dancing Master’ by John Playford (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)

  The first page of musical manuscript from Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavichord’ (Getty Images)

  ‘The Military Prophet; or a Flight from Providence’, 1750 (© Museum of London)

  Ranelagh Gardens, Interior of the Rotunda by Canaletto (Private Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Scene from Haydn’s opera ‘L’incontro improviso’ (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)

  Paganini playing the violin (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)

  Clara Wieck Schumann (The Art Archive/ Schumann birthplace/ Collection Dagli Orti)

  IR 65 Johannes Kreisler (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg/ photo: Gerald Raab)

  Caricature of Franz Liszt playing the piano (Archives Charmet/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Engraving after Wilhelm von Kaulbach’s Battle of the Huns by Eugene Delacroix (© culture-images/Lebrecht)

  The Standard Bearer by Hubert Lanzinger (Peter Newark Military Pictures/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Third Reich stamps featuring Wagner operas, 1933

  Advert for an appearance of The Fisk University Jubilee Singers (© Look and Learn/ Peter Jackson Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library)

  Four women dancers in Javanese Village, Paris Exposition, 1889 (© Niday Picture Library/ Alamy)

  Narcisse, costume design by Leon Bakst for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1911 (© Leemage/ Lebrecht Music & Arts)

  Vaslav Nijinsky in Claude Debussy’s L’Après Midi d’un Faune, Ballets Russes, seventh season (© De Agostini/ Lebrecht Music & Arts)

  Paul McCartney in a studio to record ‘The Family Way’, November 1966 (Getty Images)

  Steve Reich (Boosey and Hawkes/ ArenaPAL)

  Paul Simon sings with Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Library of Congress Concert, Washington, DC (© Chris Kleponis/ epa/ Corbis)

  Acknowledgements

  GRATEFUL THANKS TO DAVID Jeffcock, Francis Hanly, Jan Younghusband, Paul Sommers, Caroline Page, Martin Cass, Will Bowen, Justine Field, Adam Barker, Tony Bannister, Colin Case, John Pritchard, Iain McCallum, all of whom helped create – with many other skilled colleagues – the BBC TV series, and for the book, Silvia Crompton, Becky Hardie, Cat Ledger, Caroline Chignell, Peter Bennett-Jones, John Evans, and for unerring support and musical encouragement during the period of this mammoth undertaking, Val, Daisy and Millie Fancourt, Kathryn Knight, Tim Brooke, Richard Paine, Richard King, Stephen Darlington, Darren Henley, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Halsey, Claire Jarvis, Pru Bouverie and my parents, Geoffrey and Marion Goodall.

  Index

  A | B | C | D | E

  F | G | H | I | J

  K | L | M | N | O

  P | Q | R | S | T

  U | V | W | X | Y | Z

  Abbasid era 55

  Adams, John 272, 273, 319

  Adele 90, 146, 250

  Aeschylus 148, 190

  African-American music 179–80, 181, 182, 183, 184, 240–2

  Al-Ándalus Caliphate 29–30, 52

  Albarn, Damon 318

  Albéniz, Isaac

  Alfvén, Hugo: Swedish Rhapsody no.1 – Midsommarvaka 178, 246

  al’Ud 29, 52, 53

  Amati, Andrea 57

  ‘Amazing Grace’ 36–7, 39

  Ambrosian chant 18

  Anderson, Leroy: The Typewriter 269

  Anglo-Celtic folk music 243, 307, 308, 316

  Anglo-Saxons 17, 24

  antiphony 71

  anti-Semitism 152, 202–3, 217, 278

  Apollinaire, Guillaume 268

  Arcadelt, Jacques 67–8

  Aristophanes 14

  Armstrong, Louis 255, 256, 276, 278

  Arne, Thomas 114, 128

  Arnold, Samuel 134–5

  Asche, Oscar: Chu-Chin-Chow 167

  Ashwell, Thomas 65

  Auric, Georges 320

  Austria/Austrian Empire 1750–1850 see Beethoven, Ludwig van; Haydn, Josef; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus; Schubert, Franz 1850–1890 169, 174, 175 1890–1918 209, 213–18, 221, 223 see also names of Austrian composers

  Avenpace (Ibn Bājja) 29 Figaro (play) 133

  bebop 296–7, 297–8

  Beethoven, Ludwig van 1, 5, 120, 122, 131, 132, 133, 137, 139–43, 144, 146, 147–8, 148–51, 151–2, 152–3, 155, 158, 159, 169, 172 ,174, 178, 226–7, 246 Coriolan 148 The Creatures of Prometheus 147 Egmont 148 King Stephen 148 ‘Mephisto’s Flea-song’ 147 Piano Sonata no. 8, Pathétique 140 string quartets 151 Symphony no. 3, Eroica 139, 141–2, 148, 172, 214, 271, 286 Symphony no. 5 127–8, 148, 149, 226–7 Symphony no. 6, Pastoral 133, 145, 147, 172 Symphony no. 7 149, 313 Symphony no. 8 313 Symphony no. 9, Choral 128, 149–50, 154, 321 Wellington’s Victory 148

  Bellini, Vincenzo 163, 165

  Beneventan chant 18

  Benny Goodman Sextet 295

  Benois, Alexandre 232, 233

  Berg, Alban 216

  Berlin, Irving 306

  Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 115, 280, 281

  Berlioz, Hector 137, 148, 150–1, 153–4, 160–4, 194

  Bernstein, Elmer 174, 306

  Bernstein, Leonard 183, 216, 272, 276, 306, 314–15, 321

  Berry, Chuck: ‘Roll over Beethoven’ 310

  Bertolotti, Gasparo di (‘Gasparo da Salò’) 57

  Beyoncé: If I Were a Boy’ 304

  Bhangra 320

  Biber, Heinrich 88–9, 90, 95

  Billy Eckstine and his Orchestra 297–8

  Birck, Wenzel 130

  Bizet, Georges 230, 251, 260

  Blake, Eubie 255

  Blakey, Art 298, 299

  Bliss, Arthur 274

  Blitzstein, Marc: The Cradle Will Rock 276

  Blondie: ‘Rapture’ 319

  Blues 242–4, 246

  Blur 318

  Boccherini, Luigi 253–4

  Bologne, Joseph 134

  Bonaparte, Napoleon see Napoleon Bonaparte

  Borodin, Alexandre 171, 232, 233, 235

  Boughton, Rutland 204

  Boulez, Pierre 309–10, 313–14

  Bourke, Lisa 292

  bow 53, 55

  Bowie, David 276, 317

  Boyce, William 128

  Brackett, Joseph: ‘Simple Gifts’ 290

  Bragg, Melvyn: The Hired Man 276

  Brahms, Johannes 157, 175, 178, 205, 206, 227, 246

  brass instruments 10, 128

  Brecht, Bertolt 274–5, 276, 277

  Brenston, Jackie: ‘Rocket 88’ 299, 300

  Britain/England early period 17, 18, 24 1450–1650 48–9, 53, 54, 58–9, 61, 65–6, 67 1650–1750 75, 108–12, 113–15, 116–17 1750–1850 118–19, 123–4, 134–5, 145 1850–1890 179, 189–90, 205–6 1890–1918 209–10, 230, 240–1, 247–8 1918–1945 249–50, 254, 289, 292, 293 1945–2012 307–9 see also names of British composers

  Britten, Benjamin 216, 217, 289, 293, 314

  Broadway 255, 265, 266, 315

  Broadwood, John 140

  Bruch, Max: Serenade in A minor 246

  Bruckner, Anton 206

  Brudavaelte Lurs 10

&nbs
p; ‘Bryng us in good ale’ 50

  Burleigh, Harry Thacker 180, 182

  Busch, Fritz 247

  Butterworth, George 247

  Buxtehude, Dietrich 108

  Byrd, William 59, 61, 66

  Byzantine Empire 17, 55

  cadence 36, 37, 47, 86

  Cage, John 314

  ‘cakewalks’ 244

  Calloway, Cab: ‘Jitter Bug’ 297

  Carey, Mariah 45

  Carissimi, Giacomo 112–13, 114

  Carlos, Wendy 321

  Carnatic classical music 34

  carols 49–51

  Caruso, Enrico 239

  castrati 110

  Catherine de Medici 57, 59–60, 79

  Catholic Church see Roman Catholic Church

  Cavalli, Francesco 79, 110

  Caxton, William 49

  Chaconne 89–90

  Chaliapin, Feodor 233

  Chaplin, Charlie 255, 267, 270, 279, 320

  Cherubini, Luigi 158, 164

  Chicago 244, 245, 249, 256

  China 7, 12, 18, 55, 101

  Chopin, Frederic 94, 155, 157–9, 175, 215, 233, 323

  chorales 63–4, 104, 107

  chords 28, 34, 36–40, 41, 64, 69–70, 85–6, 86–7, 88, 90–2, 125–8, 185–7, 199, 221–2, 229

  Christian, Charlie 195–6, 295–6, 298

  chromaticism 198–9

  Circle of Fifths 90–2

  citole 54

  cittern 54

  clocks, pendulum 76

  Coates, Eric: ‘Calling All Workers’ 289

  Cocteau, Jean 267, 268

  Cohen, Leonard: ‘Hallelujah’ 264

  Coldplay 1, 318

  Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel 183, 241–2

  Colman, George: Inkle and Yarico 134–5

  concerto 60, 81, 82, 94–5

  concerto grosso 84

  consorts 57, 58–9, 82–3

  contredanse 259, 260, 264

  Cooke, Sam: ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ 135

  Copland, Aaron 216, 289–90, 306

  Coprario, Giovanni (John Cooper) 78–9

  Corelli, Arcangelo 81–6, 91, 94, 95, 122

  Corigliano, John 216

  Cornysh, William 48–9, 51

  counterpoint 104–7, 120

  Counter-Reformation 64, 66, 73

  Couperin, François 107–8

  ‘Coventry Carol’ 51

  Cristofori, Bartolomeo 96

  csárdás 176, 178–9

 

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