the past and the future

The Past and the Future Concepts of time and nation in symphonic music of the Fin de siècle Stefan Schmidl (Vienna) Conference paper held at the Workshop “Historiography on Display: The Musical (Inter)Nationalisms of the Fin-de-siècle”, under the auspices of the Balzan Research Programme in Musicology “Towards a global history of music”, Vienna, Austria, March 14th, 2015.

There should be no doubt about the appellative abilities of music: that music can act as an „imaginary object“1 (as Cook has described it), providing and acoustically displaying associative pretensions that carry an appeal. Insofar, according to Althusser, subjects are made of invocations by ideology,2 it is tempting to consider music in a literal sense as such a kind of appellation, as one form of subjectivity’s ideological recognition.3 In this regard, the remarkable quality of music is the performative mediacy through which with this medium the ideological interpellation takes place. And it is because of music’s capability to stimulate emotions that the ideological interpellation here happens through feeling and for this reason is notably effective. The politics of musical signifiers

In my paper particular attention is given to a special aspect of ideological interpellation in music: that is to say how temporal dimensions, the past (or so to say “history”) and the future, were displayed in music of the Fin de siècle regarding to the imaginary of the national. The years around 1900 until the end of the First World War suggest themselves for such analysis as they represent the climax of 19th centuryʼs “bourgeois experience”4 with nationalism as one of its major categories. Given the importance of the display of time as a constituting factor for ideologies in general,5 especially nationalism employed imaginations both of “history” and utopian future. In this regard the “primordialism”6 of nationalism seems crucial, the, what Curtis described as “the idea that there is same kind of eternal, innate national spirit of a people”, in short what Herder had called “Nationalcharakter”,7 which was conceptualized as being ever present, and, if covered, vanished or forgotten, to be “discovered” 8 again or to be “re-awakened”.9 The concept depended on signifiers. As it is commonly known Herder presented folks tunes as such. Now it is indicative that subsequently these folk tunes were not used by the majority of composers in their “original” form (id est how they had been written down by collectors), but were considered as material to be elevated10 and arranged carefully. This moment of design and „performative staging“ should be paid special regard for it is the positioning and 1

Nicholas Cook, Music. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press 22000, 51–73. Louis Althusser, Ideologie und ideologische Staatsapparate. 1. Halbband: Michel Verrets Artikel über den »studentischen Mai«, Ideologie und ideologische Staatsapparate, Notiz über die ISAs (= Louis Althusser, Gesammelte Schriften, hg. von Frieder Otto Wolf), Hamburg 2010, 88. 3 Althusser, Ideologie und ideologische Staatsapparate, 87. 4 cf. Peter Gayʼs 5-volume The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Freud, published between 1984 and 1998. 5 See: Michael Freeden, Ideology. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press 2003, 72. 6 Benjamin Curtis, Music Makes the Nation. Nationalist Composers and Nation Building in Ninetennth-Century Europe. New York 2008, 27–28. 7 Johann Gottfried Herder, Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit (Johann Gottfried Herder Werke 4. Schriften zu Philosophie, Literatur, Kunst und Altertum 1774-1787, hg. von Jürgen Brummack und Martin Bollacher), Frankfurt am Main 1994, 8. Rede, 129. 8 Curtis, Music Makes the Nation, 97. 9 Anthony D. Smith, National Identity. Reno, Las Vegas, London 1991, 126. 10 Curtis, Music Makes the Nation, 106. 2

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE Concepts of time and nation in symphonic music of the Fin de siècle

dynamics of signifiers which emphatically gives them their function and meaning.11 With regard to the nexus of nationalism and the conceptualization of time among its possible following semantics there can be named:    

a “historically grown” national territory can be defied (like in Casellaʼs Italia [1909]) the “others” within the nation can be incorporated (for example in Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Bergerʼs Third Symphony Same Ätnam (1917) on the subject of Sami songs12) the “fraternity” among nations can be represented (for this see Rimskij-Korsakovʼs and Čajkovskijʼs musical construction of “Serbia”13) finally: a historical master narrative of a particular nation can be traced; a kind of musical equivalent to monuments that freeze important historical moments and events14 (for instance Glazunovʼs Stenka Rasin [1885] or Bartóks Kossuth [1903], the latter using a signifier to make clear the “enemy” of the nation).

To further exemplify how signifiers were used to suggest national time in the Fin de siècle, I chose three different symphonic works of regionalist nationalism, two representing Catalonia and one imaging Brittany. The nation in agony and envisioned as being re-born

Let us begin with Catalunya, written around 1913 by Joan Lamote de Grignon (1872–1949), then head of Barcelonaʼs conservatory. Catalunya was intended as the second part of a cycle of symphonic poems called Hispàniques, which the composer started to work on in 1911.15 Together with another movement representing Catalonia the piece should have formed the center of the cycle, framed by Andalusia and Aragon. But de Grignon managed only to finish Andalusia and one of the movements of Catalonia, subtitled „Glosa dramàtica dʼuna cançó popular“. This “popular song” was El testament dʼAmelia, which had been famously recorded and harmonized by the guitar virtuoso Miguel Llobet (1878–1938) in his edition of Catalan songs published in 1900 (ex.1). However, in his symphonic paraphrasis de Grignon presented this song not in the form of Llobet, but through the prism of Wagner and in this fusion of folklore and the Bayreuth masterʼs style he followed a characteristic convention of Catalan Fin de siècle.16 What is remarkable here is the “program” implied by the songʼs narration, as that speaks of a princess who lies in agony, because she was left by her lover for her own mother: The allusion of this very text and the suggestion of suffering provided through the Tristan-esque chromatics result in the implication of nation itself lying in agony to be “awakened” (leaving it delicately open whether this refers to Catalonia or to Spain; ex.2).

11

Nina Ort, Das Symbolische und das Signifikante. Eine Einführung in Lacans Zeichentheorie. Wien 2014, 152. cf. Annika Lindskog, „Natures and Cultures. The Landscape in Peterson-Berger’s Symfonia lapponica“, in: STM-Online 14 (2011), http://musikforskning.se/stmonline/vol_14/lindskog/index.php?menu=3. 13 cf. Stefan Schmidl, „Politische Exotik. Zur Repräsentation Südosteuropas in russischer Musik des 19. Jahrhunderts“, in: MusikTheorie. Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft. Heft 2/2014: Panslawismus – Utopie und Wirklichkeit, hg. von Ivana Rentsch, Laaber 2014, 143–155. 14 cf. Werner Telesko, Das 19. Jahrhundert. Eine Epoche und ihre Medien. Wien, Köln, Weimar 2010, 150-154 15 Carles Gumí, Preface to: Joan Lamote de Grignon, Hispàniques per a orquestra. Barcelona 2012, 5-6. 16 Francesc Cortès i Mir, „El nacionalisme en el context català entre 1875 i 1936“, in: Recerca Musicològica XIV-XV, 2004-2005, 27–45. 12


Ex. 1 El testament dʼAmelia as arranged by Miguel Llobet (1900)

Ex. 2 El testament dʼAmelia in Joan Lamote de Grignonʼs Catalunya (around 1913)

What is lacking in de Grignonʼs Catalunya is the perspective of a “secularized paradise”17 to be achieved through an accomplished national formation (a kind of suggestion pointed out by German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler as being typical for doctrines of national salvation). As a matter of course there was music written in the Fin de siècle which presented Catalonia precisely in this way, such as Juan Manénʼs (1883–1971) Nova Catalonia (1903, reworked 1917). This is a four-part symphony, sectioned in the movements „Terra i Rassa“ (Country and Race), „Poble i Joia” (The People being joyous), „Nostre Cançó” (Our Song) and finally „Nova Catalonia” (New Catalonia).18 In terms of the motific outline of the symphony it can be said that it is generic for it emanates from one central theme: Els segadors (ex.3), the song of the Reapers, originating from 17th centuryʼs Catalan Revolt against King Philip IV of Spain. It was this song which became a major signifier of national mobilization in Catalonia, the “renaixença”, the alleged “renaissance” of Catalan language and art in late 19th Century19 and even should be proclaimed as the national anthem of the autonomous region in 1931. In Nova Catalonia by Manén Els segadors is omnipresent: Already in the opening bars its head17

Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Nationalismus. Geschichte, Formen, Folgen. München 42011, 33. Juan Manén, Nova Catalonia. Wien, Leipzig 1927. 19 Walther L. Bernecker, Torsten Eßer, Peter A. Kraus, Eine kleine Geschichte Kataloniens. Frankfurt am Main 2007, 101. 18


motif appears three times in a row (ex.4). As an accompaniment figure in the violas it is also recognizable even in the third movement which is intrinsically an arrangement of the popular song La Filla del Marxant (ex.5), indicating the ubiquitous latency of the urge to become a nation state. Unsurprisingly, the final movement of Nova Catalonia brings the song to an apotheosis. It starts with frenetic runs of the strings, varying the dotted third of the head-motif, only to lead into a call of the trumpet which presents the song in its original form (ex.6). The final bars can be read a respondence to this unambiguous appellation: It is sort of a vision of the “perfect nation” Catalonia, musically imaged through a contrapuntal interlacing of two variants of Els segadors and – most importantly – a modulation into major (ex.7), which of course refers to the well-acquainted concept of per aspera ad astra.

Ex.3 Els Segadors

Ex.4 Juan Manén, Nova Catalonia (1903/1917): Opening bars

Ex.5 Juan Manén, Nova Catalonia (1903/1917): La Filla del Marxant with interpolations of Els segadors (movement III)


Ex.6 Juan Manén, Nova Catalonia (1903/1917): Opening bars of the forth movement

Ex.7 Juan Manén, Nova Catalonia (1903/1917): Final apotheosis of Els Segadors (movement IV)


“History” becoming retroactive

My third demonstrative example is La chasse du Prince Arthur (1912) by Joseph Guy Ropartz (1864–1955), principal of Nancyʼs conservatory and outspoken proponent of Breton nationalism, carried into effect through artistic means. His symphonic study Prince Arthur is therefore based on an influential epic on Brittany, Les Bretons (1845) by Auguste Brizeux (1803–1858), more precisely on a passage where the legend of Arthur I is drawn on. Arthur, educated at the royal court of France, was the son of Geoffroy II Plantagenêt, Duc de Bretagne and should have ascended the throne of England after the death of King Richard the Lionheart which made him a rival to his uncle John Lackland who also claimed the throne and was ultimately able not only to seize power, but to get Arthur captured and incarcerated. Legend has it that Lackland gave order to nobleman Hubert de Burgh to kill his nephew to get rid of his opponent and not least to incorporate Brittany. But de Burgh would have been so moved by Arthurʼs innonence that he didn’t fulfill the execution. His hesitation forced Lackland to kill Arthur with his own hands in 1203. Nevertheless, through this deed he couldn’t take possession of the dukedom of Brittany which subsequently fell under the influence of the kingdom of France, but managed to keep its nominal autonomy until 1532. It was William Shakespeare who dramatized this legend in his early play The Life and Death of King John (1595)20 and therein shaped the image of Arthur as an innocently persecuted child-prince. Its fairy tale-quality destined this particular myth to become popular in England: For this see for instance William Frederick Yeamesʼ painting Prince Arthur and Hubert de Burgh (1882) or the textual-visual display of the story in the childrenʼs book Royal Children of English History (1897) by Edith Nesbit (ill. 1 and 2).

Ill.1 Frederick Yeames: Prince Arthur and Hubert de Burgh (1882) Ill.2 Frances Brundage, Illustration aus: Edith Nesbit, Royal Children of English History (1897)

Admittedly, in Brizeuxs Les Bretons the myth of Arthur is determined as a Celtic one: „Arthur, prince gallois, est-ce ta meute noire/Qui chasse cette nuit au son du cor d'ivoire?/Prince Arthur, est-ce toi?” 21 (Arthur, Prince von Wales, is this your black pack, that rushes through the night to the sound of the horn made out of ivory? Prince Arthur, is this you? 20 21

Stephen Greenblatt, Will in der Welt. Berlin 2004, 123. Œuvres de Auguste Brizeux. Les Bretons. Paris 1879, 111.


and „Arthur, nous tʼattendons, nous tʼattendons encore!”22 (Arthur, we are awaiting you, we are expecting you back!),

these are the verses by Brizeux which are put in front of Ropartzʼ score. The original epic even more emphasizes the Celtic character of Arthur and Breton landscape, respectively. It furthermore reads: „De lʼîle dʼAvalon a-t-il pu sʼéchapper, lʼindomptable lion?/Avec Gauvain, Tristan, et le roi de Cornouailles,/Estce lui qui chevauche à travers les broussailles?/Revient-il au Huel-Goat, le grand sonneur de cor?”23 (Did he rise from the island of Avalon, the indomitable lion? Is it him who rides together with Gawain, Tristan and the King of Cornwall through the underwood? Does he return to Huelgoat, the great blower of the horn?)

Ropartz must have composed his symphonic work on the assumption that his audience knew the epic by heart as there are a reference in his realization to the just cited passage: that is to say that the term „sonneur“ Brizeux used otherwise referred to „national instruments“ of the region, either the bombarde (a form of an oboe) or the binioù (a bagpipe), but here the instrument the “sonneur” blows is envisioned as being a horn. Ostensibly, this could be justified with the described situation of the Wild Hunt of the Prince, but ulteriorly with the vision of Arthur as a Breton Duke, “re-awakening” the nation with his call. It suggested itself for Ropartz to make this passage the heart of the symphonic poem. Moreover, to guarantee the identification of Arthur as a luminary figure, bringing national salvation out of the past into the future, he used a locally well-known tune. This was the number 23 of the Kantikou brezonek eskopti Zan-Briek ha Landreger (the Breton hymnbook of the bishoprics Saint Brieuc and Tréguier), a song of Christ: Enor (h)a gloar (d)a virviken, da Jeszus Krist doue ha den (Honor and Glory for ever, Jesus Christ, God and man/King and father to his childs; ex.8). Through the intersection of the appellation of Christ and the evocation of the historical myth of Prince Arthur, the latter became a sacrificed national hero whose parousia Franceʼs “most catholic region”,24 Brittany, is longing for. It seems that Ropartz suceeded since Gaston Carraud would remark about the work in 1920: “Cʼest bien le prince Arthur, le héros de la Bretagne légendaire qui passe vraimont devant nous, là-bas, au milieu de sa meute noire.”25 (This is Prince Arthur, hero of legendary Brittany, who really rides by, there, with his black pack).

Ex.8 Enor ha gloar da virviken in Kantikou brezonek eskopti Zan-Briek ha Landreger (transcribed in modern notation) 22

the place indicated. the place indicated. 24 Timothy Baycroft, “National Diversity, Regionalism and Decentralism in France”, in: Joost Augustejin, Eric Storm (Hg.), Region and State in Nineteenths-Century Europe. Nation-Building, Regional Identities and Separatism. Basingstoke 2012, 61. 25 Gaston Carraud, J.-Guy Ropartz (1920), cit. after: Jean Maillard, “J. Guy Ropartz et la Bretagne“, in: Annales de Bretagne. Tome 71, numéro 4, 1964, 636. 23


Ex.9 Enor ha gloar da virviken as motif of Prince Arthur in Joseph Guy Ropartzʼ La chasse du Prince Arthur (1912)

*** National time, as musically displayed in the symphonic works just explicated, was entrusted to act as an interpellation. Its effect was believed – to paraphrase Althusser – to transform individual listeners into subjective ones who look at themselves as members of imagined communities. The construction and consummation of music in the Fin de siècle therefore has to be considered as a case of internalization of ideology, extraordinary worthwhile of investigation.