MUSIC OFF THE RECORD:
GYPSY NIGHTS
Northwest Sinfonietta
Dr. Ken Owen
EXOTICISM
• What is Exotic to you?
• What are Gypsies?
• Where do they come from?
• What do they do?
COSTUMES? AMUSEMENT PARKS?
CREEPY FORTUNE TELLERS?
HISTORY?
GYPSIES IN EUROPE
• From Northern India to Eastern Europe
• 11th-12th centuries
• Not accepted
• remained nomadic & separate
• Spread through Europe
• Larger populations in Eastern Europe
MISCONCEPTIONS, PERCEPTIONS
AND NAMES
• Europeans thought they came from Egypt
• = Egyptsies
• German
gypsies
• “Zigeuner” = untouchable
• Separate, mysterious, unapproachable
EXOTICISM = PERCEPTION, NOT
REALITY
• Many Gypsies in Hungary
• Hungarian = Gypsy?
• Music & other art about gypsies makes no attempt
at accurate representation
• Excitement of unknown and different
CSÁRDÁS
• Hungarian folk dance
• Danced by country girls in Inns of rural Hungary
• Aristocratic party promoters made it up!
• Verbunkos with inserted pop tunes
CSÁRDÁS
• Verbunkos orginiated in 1700s
• Recruiting tool for army
• Gypsy bands forced to play for Gypsy girls to dance
• The style developed, stuck, and traveled through Eruope
• Michael McLean – a high school string teacher orchestrated a traditional
csárdás
• http://youtu.be/yLZ3xkxqr-Q
JAN VÁCLAV VOŘÍŠEK
• Born: May 11, 1791, Vamberk, Bohemia
JAN VÁCLAV VOŘÍŠEK
• Dad was
• Schoolmaster
• Church organist
• Choir master
• Jan studied piano, organ, violin and composition w/father
• Prodigy – toured bohemia as a boy
• Played Mozart piano concertos & his own works
• Studied law at UP
JAN VÁCLAV VOŘÍŠEK
• Gave up law for music
• Bohemia liked Mozart – Jan too Beethovenesque
• Vienna – success!
• Met Beethoven
• To Viennese Hungarian/Bohemian = gypsy
• Didn’t want to be “the gypsy composer”
• Studied Vienese composers to learn to not sound
Hungarian
• Didn’t work – Viennese always thought of him as gypsy
• Died: November 19, 1825, Vienna, Austria
SINFONIA IN D
• Jan’s only work for orchestra w/out piano
• Listen for instrument groups
• Back & forth
• Combine for climaxes
• Opening 3 note motive – Beethoven?
• Stormy scherzo in d minor
• http://youtu.be/yLZ3xkxqr-Q
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
• Born: September 8, 1841 Nelahozeves, Czech
• Part of Bohemia = lower class culture
• Studied music as a boy with the village schoolmaster
• 12 yrs – had to quit to learn family trade – butchery
• 13 yrs – on his own to big city
• Learn German
• Better musical opportunities
• 16 yrs – Prague Organ school & viola in small orchestras
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
• Worked his way up to Prague Opera
orchestra
• 30s – composition competition to
benefit “young, poor, and talented
artists”
• Brahms = judge
• Dvorak won several times
• Friends w/Brahms – promoted his
music.
ROMANCE FOR VIOLIN AND
ORCHESTRA
• Started as a string quartet
• Dvorak didn’t like it – wouldn’t publish it
• Publisher liked 2nd movement – sounded gypsy
• Would sell well
• Dvorak reworked into the Romance
ROMANCE FOR VIOLIN AND
ORCHESTRA
• Melancholy tone
• Composed in same year that he lost 3
children
• http://youtu.be/W_KLj000nuA?t=30s
• Intentionally wrote Czech music
• Visited and taught in USA
• Died: May 1, 1904 Prague
BÉLA BARTÓK
• Born: March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós
Hungary/Romania
• Father = amateur musician – cello & piano
• Mother = teacher & played piano
• Noticed young Bela’s talent when Mom
taught him (5 yrs old)
BÉLA BARTÓK
• 7 yrs old father dies
• Mom supports family w/piano lessons
• 10yrs – has composed and offered a
place at Academy of Music in Budapest
• Mom wants him to stay home
• After regular schooling goes to Budapest
• Recognized as prominent pianist in
Hungary
BÉLA BARTÓK
• Proud Hungarian
• Recognized that composers using “Hungarian”
folk music = pop music
• Studied Hungarian folk song – traveled,
recorded, dictated
• Piano professor at BAM
• Composed music imitating folk song
OLD HUNGARIAN DANCES
• Several large scale projects flopped
• Opera & others
• Publishers didn’t want any more
• Moved to Suburbs and wrote only a few piano pieces that year
• “Hungarian Peasant Songs”
• Subset of 9 movements titled “Old Dance Tunes”
• http://youtu.be/yT1gLnu4oyQ
• 2007 – Clark McAlister orchestrated as Old Hungarian
dances
BÉLA BARTÓK
• Disturbed by fascist governments in Italy and
Germany
• Forbade his music to be broadcast in those countries
• Fled to USA
• Always wanted to go home
• Died: September 26, 1945, New York
PABLO MARTÍN MELITÓN DE SARASATE Y
NAVASCUÉS
• Born: March 10, 1844, Pamplona
• Last of the Paganini tradition
SARASATE
• Father = Bandmaster
• 8yrs old – performing in public as a child
prodigy
• Frequently asked to play for Queen Isabella II
at the Royal Palace
SARASATE
• Foremost Spanish violinist, toured
• Throughout Europe
• Russia
• Middle East
• North America
• South America
• Owned 2 Stradivarius violins
• Left to museums
ZIGEUNERWEISEN (GYPSY AIRS)
• Like most Europeans, thought
• Hungarian = gypsy
• Traveled to Hungary to meet Liszt – Hungarian music
please!
• List had a student who played a popular song that
his father had written
• Sarasate used it to write Zigeunerweisen
ZIGEUNERWEISEN (GYPSY AIRS)
•PLAGERISM!
•SCANDAL!
•LAWSUIT!
ZIGEUNERWEISEN (GYPSY AIRS)
• Claimed it as Hungarian music and that he
thought it was folk music
• Received a letter from the songwriter asking
for credit
• Thereafter acknowledged the songwriter in
credits
ZIGEUNERWEISEN (GYPSY AIRS)
• Csárdás form
• Slow introduction – “lassu” – elaborate flourishes
• Inserted popular song – much simpler solo line
• Fast fiery fiddling – “friss” = gypsy fiddling
• http://youtu.be/xir-5oAWxXE
THANK YOU AND ENJOY THE
CONCERT!
• Dr. Owen
• Pierce College Puyallup
• Choralconductor.org
• “Lectures and presentations” tab