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Programme Music in the Nineteenth Century

After Beethoven

Discuss the debate between programme and absolute music, and why it took place. Who were the major figures, and what was the philosophical context? Discuss pieces by at least three different composers in your answer.

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As always, feel no need to read everything on this list! Just pick and choose what looks the most interesting, and allows you to form your argument.

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  1. General reading (recommended)

    • Hepokoski, James, ‘Beethoven Reception: The Symphonic Tradition’, in The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, ed. by Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 424-59. For access, click here.

    • Scruton, Roger, ‘Programme music’, Grove Music Online (2001). For access, click here.​

  2. Philosophical context

    • Pederson, Sanna, ‘Defining the Term “Absolute Music” Historically’, Music & Letters, 90.2 (2009), 240–62. For access, click here.

    • Nicole Grimes et al (eds.), Rethinking Hanslick: Music, Formalism, and Expression (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2013). For access, click here.

    • Hanslick, Eduard, On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution Towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music, trans. Geoffrey Payzant (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co, 1986). To find, click here.

  3. Possible approaches to study

    • Brodbeck, David, ‘The Symphony after Beethoven after Dahlhaus’, in The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony, ed. by Julian Horton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp.61-95. For access, click here.

    • Chua, Daniel, ‘On history’, in Absolute Music and the Construction of Meaning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp.3-7. For access, click here.

    • Hoeckner, Berthold, Programming the Absolute: Nineteenth-Century German Music and the Hermeneutics of the Moment (Princeton University Press, 2002). To find, click here.

    • McClary, Susan, ‘Narrative Agendas in “Absolute” Music: Identity and Difference in Brahms’s Third Symphony’, in Reading Music: Selected Essays, ed. by Susan Mcclary (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016). To find, click here.

  4. Potential case studies

    • Bent, Ian, Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, Volume 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.58-68 (this chapter is about Beethoven and Wagner). For access, click here.

    • Bonds, Mark Evan, ‘Sinfonia anti-eroica: Berlioz’s Harold en Italie and the Anxiety of Beethoven’s Influence’, Journal of Musicology 10/4 (1992), pp. 417-63. For access, click here.

    • Holoman, D. Kern, The Nineteenth-Century Symphony, (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997). To find, click here.

    • Micznik, Vera, ‘The Absolute Limitations of Programme Music: The case of Liszt’s “Die Ideale”', Music & Letters 80 (1999), pp. 207-40. For access, click here.

    • Newcomb, Anthony, ‘Once more “Between Absolute and Programme Music”: Schumann’s Second Symphony’, 19th Century Music 7 (1983-4), 233-50. For access, click here.

    • Rodgers, Stephen, Form, Programme and Metaphor in the Music of Berlioz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). For access, click here.

Peripheries

Analyse the use of landscape devices in a single Grieg miniature, comparing it to pieces by two other composers. Think particularly about topic and form in discussing each of your chosen pieces.

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The idea here is for you to apply existing scholarship to new repertoire, developing your own original points—this should be a really manageable way of fulfilling the ‘original thought’ criterion in the exam. Researching a Dvorak symphonic poem (The Water Goblin and The Wild Dove are good options) and a piece by Mendelssohn as well could give you a really good mix of national contexts and genres, but I’m always open to other ideas if you’ve found something interesting!

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  1. General reading on music, landscape, and nationalism (recommended)

    • Grimley, Daniel M., Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity, (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), esp. pp.55-69. For access, click here.

    • Grimley, Daniel M., ‘Music, Landscape, Attunement: Listening to Sibelius’s “Tapiola”’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 64.2 (2011), 394-98. For access, click here.

    • Rosen, Charles, The Romantic Generation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), ch.3. For access, click here.

  2. Grieg

    • Kleiberg, Ståle, ‘Grieg’s “Slåtter”, Op. 72: Change of Musical Style or New Concept of Nationality?’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 121.1 (1996), 46-57. For access, click here.

    • Sutcliffe, W. Dean, ‘Grieg’s Fifth: The Linguistic Battleground of “Klokkeklang”’, The Musical Quarterly, 80.1 (1996), 161-81. For access, click here.

    • Volioti, Georgina, ‘Landscaping the Gaze in Norwegian Visual Art and Grieg’s Op.66 Folksong Piano Arrangements’, Music & Letters, 98.4 (2017. For access, click here.

  3. Dvořák

    • Brodbeck, David, ‘Dvořák’s Reception in Liberal Vienna: Language Ordinances, National Property, and the Rhetoric of Deutschtum’, Journal of the American Musicological Society 60.1 (Spring 2007), 71-131. For access, click here.

  4. Mendelssohn

    • Grey, Thomas S., ‘Tableaux Vivants: Landscape, History Painting, and the Visual Imagination in Mendelssohn’s Orchestral Music’, 19th Century Music 21/1 (Summer 1997). For access, click here.

    • Mercer-Taylor, Peter, ‘Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony and the Music of German Memory’, 19th Century Music 19 (1995), 68-82. For access, click here.

    • Taylor, Benedict, Mendelssohn, Time and Memory: The Romantic Conception of Cyclic Form (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp.249-54. For access, click here.

    • Taylor, Benedict, ‘Seascape in the Mist: Lost in Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides”’, 19th-Century Music, 39.3 (2015), 187-222. For access, click here.

Modernism

To what extent can modernism be considered antithetical to the aesthetics of programme music? You may wish to consider matters of intra-/extra-musical meaning in your answer, and perhaps also musical ‘voice’ - your answer should discuss pieces by at least three composers.

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  1. General reading (recommended)

    • Micznik, Vera, ‘Music and Aesthetics: The Programmatic Issue’, in The Cambridge Companion to Mahler, ed. by Jeremy Barham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 35–48. For access, click here.

    • Youmans, Charles Dowell, Richard Strauss’s Orchestral Music and the German Intellectual Tradition: The Philosophical Roots of Musical Modernism (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2005), chapter 1. To find, click here.

  2. Strauss

    • ​Hepokoski, James, ‘Framing Till Eulenspiegel’, 19th-Century Music, 30.1 (2006), 4–43. For access, click here.

  3. Nielsen

    • ​Grimley, Daniel M., ‘'Tonality, Clarity, Strength’: Gesture, Form, and Nordic Identity in Carl Nielsen’s Piano Music’, Music & Letters, 86.2 (2005), 202–33. For access, click here.

  4. Mahler

    1. Johnson, Julian, Mahler’s Voices: Expression and Irony in the Songs and Symphonies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), chapter 1. For access, click here.

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Music Analysis

Conduct an original analysis of one of the following symphonic poems, choosing a different one each. Try to analyse one of two sections of particular interest. What compositional devices does the piece use to express its musical landscape? How do these devices support, or perhaps exist in tension with, the piece’s programme? What might the political associations of these landscape devices be?

  • Dvořák—The Golden Spinning Wheel

  • Dvořák—The Water Goblin

  • Dvořák—The Wild Dove

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Try to find your own original perspective. I’d much rather you submitted an essay that’s original but got some misreadings (which we can discuss and correct) than one that’s entirely correct but unoriginal. Be bold with your analysis, and don’t panic—I can always offer corrections if anything doesn’t quite work. However, this essay should be a fantastic resource when next year comes around!​

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