You are very welcome to ask for clarifications - I have certainly left some loose ends dangling.
I have not written that Italian has become the default language because of some metaphysical ideas about the supremacy of Italian music, but simply because almost all composers have used either Italian
OR their native language in their scores. And this is very close to the definition of 'default': something which you use if you don't have an overriding reason to use something else.
As for the order of movements most people probably think in terms dictated by the symphonies and chamber music written by people like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and the following generations of romantic composers. And here the norm says a moderately fast (and long) movement first and a fast one at the end, and in between a slow one and a dance in triple time (menuet, later scherzo). And it is definitely worth asking why it became like that. First it would be relevant to point out that the first movement often has a slow introduction, so it is not just a question of starting off with something invigorating. One principle is that slow and fast movements should alternate, but the intrusion of a menuet spoils this pattern (except that most menuets were in the form ABA, with B being a slower and more gentle trio). In concertos it is very rare to have a trio or scherzo - they are generally in three movements. So my answer would be that it is a pure coincidence with no logical justification that the norm for symphonies became four movements and three for concertos. Actually you could see the shift from a relative slow and stiff-legged menuet to a fast scherzo AND the fact that Beethoven moved it from the 3. to the 2. second position as some kind of rebellion against the classical pattern - but then the new default order became the one he introduced, and only a few symphonies differed from this pattern (like the Pathétique by Tschaikovsky).
As for the need of a conductor: a few ensembles have dispensed with this, and some musicians have tried both to conduct and play at the same time. Actually Bach lead his musicians from the harpsichord, so this practive has long roots. But if you go back to the renaissance then small groups of singers and instrumentalists managed to play/sing the complicated polyphonic works of their time from separate note sheets without even the help of a decent score, and this is also how chamber ensembles normally function - so as long a group is small enough to permit each musician to keep contact to his/her co-players it doesn't seem to be necessary to have some overlord hopping and dancing in front of them. However with larger ensembles it seems to be necessary to have someone with the power to cut through and dictate how the music should sound. Which is one reason that I never really felt at ease as an orchestral musician.
And now for something completely different:
DANSK MUSIK !!And of course I have to start the rant by mentioning the bronce lurs which have been found in several bogs. They were apparently always played in pairs, which together with the 'burial' in bogs clearly indicates that these instruments only were used for ritual purposes. What music they were used is anyone's guess, but they had the usual overtones of a valveless brass instrument.
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It is also totally unkown how Danish music sounded during the iron age and the subsequent viking age. We know that wandering bards visited the halls of noblemen and kings, and the sagas and other sources that refer to this age also quote song texts, which may or may not have been transferred through the ages to the writers from around 1200 who noted them down. The oldest known melody in Ancient Danish was found in the margin of Codex Runicas, a law book written in runes on animal hides around 1300 BC. The text is "Drømdæ mik æn drøm i nat um silki ok ærlik pæl". The meaning of "ærlik pæl" isn't quite clear, but most scholars think that "pæl" is some kind of cloth, and then the whole thing means something like "(I) dreamt me a dream this night about silk and honest 'pæl'". There are several versions on youtube, but
this one has the advantage that it also shows an instrument that could have been used by the wandering bards (although the specimen showed is a copy of an Anglosaxon lyre of kinds).
Drømde_mik.jpg
After the christianization the monks and priesters would have tried have sung the same things as in the rest of Europe - whether they succeeded from the onset in copying their foreign collegues is a question.
The music pops up again at the court of Christian IV (who reigned 1588-1648): he paid the travel expenses to Venice for several Danish composers and had also hired John Dowland for a time - I have mentioned both things earlier in this series. However Denmark also had solid relations to Germany, not least because Schleswig-Holstein until 1864 still was part of the Danish kingdom. The most important baroque Danish composer was Dietrich Buxtehude, whose name points to a small town Southwest of Hamburg (i.e. NOT a Danish town). His parents lived for a time in Bad Oldesloe in Holstein (Danish at the time), but he was in all likelihood born in Helsingborg, where his father was an organist while the town still was Danish. Later, after the Swedish consquest, the family emigrated to Denmark and his father got a job in Helsingør (just across the water), and Dietrich also worked there. But alas, in 1667 Franz Tunder died, and Dietrich succeded him at the organ in St. Maria in Lübeck, which definitely wasn't Danish. So in all fairness we should say that Dietrich Buxtehude was Danish by birth, but became German too - and by any relevant yardstick he became one of the most important members of the Northern German organ school before Bach, whichever nationality you ascribe to him.
Later on we find some composers of popular vocal works, "syngespil" (singing plays"), with the most important being C.A. Thielo (1707 -1763), and we got visits from foreign composers like Sarti and Dupuy. The Italian Sarti got a license to establish something called "Den kongelige danske Skueplads", which later developed into "Det kongelige Teater" (The Royal Theater) - but because of this experiment he incurred an immense debt, and the dodgy tricks he used to earn money in the followed years led to his forced exile in 1775. As for Dupuy he was kicked out of Sweden in 1799 for singing songs that praised Napoleon, and in Copenhagen he married a Danish lady, but apparently also had an affair the crown princess - so goodbye Denmark. First he fled to Paris, but then returned to Sweden which now was ruled by the former French marshal Bernadotte, and here he was now rather more welcome. For a taste of his music try the elegant ouverture to "Ungdom og
Galskab" (Youth and folly).
After the Napoleonic wars Russian took Finland from Sweden, and Sweden retaliated by taking Norway from the Danish-Norwegian kingdom. Which paradoxically led to a nationalistic cultural revival in the remaining miniput state Denmark, our socalled golden age ('Guldalder') - and therefore I'll now proudly switch to writing in Danish (but those of you who unfortunately still haven't learnt Danish are welcome to stuff the whole thing into Google Translate and see what comes out of the rear end of the behemoth).
DA: Og hvem var så de toneangivende komponister på denne tid? Jo, det var gode solide danske navne som Friedrich Ludwig Æmilius Kunzen (1761-1817), Claus Nielsen Schall (1757-1835), Franz Joseph Glæser (1798-1861), Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse 1774-1842, Daniel Friedrich Rudolph Kuhlau (1786-1832) og Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900). Tyskkyndige vil muligvis bemærke en germansk indflydelse i disse navne (omend nogle, såsom Glæser og Hartmann snarere havde familierelationer til Böhmen). Men de skrev musik til danske tekster, og de talte vistnok allesammen dansk, og de regnes helt klart for crème de la crème blandt danske komponister. Ikke mindst de to sidstnævnte.
Kuhlau var en tysk komponist, bosat i Hamburg, men flygtede til Danmark i 1810, da byen blev besat af franske tropper. Her skrev han liflig fløjtemusik og et utal af sonatiner som alverdens klaverelever siden har haft mere eller mindre glæde af. Men hans vigtigste værk er musikken til skuespillet Elverhøj (dvs. alfernes høj) med tekst af J.L.Heiberg. Kongesangen "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast" (med text af Ewald) indgår heri og indgår også i den fortræffelige ouverture. Den mest berømte udnyttelse af denne ouverture skete i en film ved navn "Olsenbanden
ser rødt", hvor mesterbanditten Egon instruerer sine medhjælpere i at bore gennem murene under Det Kongelige Teater i takt til musikken - boret blev sat i muren i alle de mest støjende passager, og dirigenten oppe i salen var henrykt - aldrig havde højdepunkterne i musikken haft sådan en bragende effekt.
Kong Christian stod ved højen mast.jpg
J.P.E. Hartmann blev især kendt for musikken til Oehlenschläger's digt "Guldhornene", der handler om to gyldne horn fra jernalderen, der blev fundet i Sønderjylland, men siden stjålet og omsmeltet. Det ene horn bar en af de ældste Protonordiske indskrifter overhovedet: "Ek HlewagastR HoltingaR horna tawiðo" ('Jeg Lægæst fra Holte/Holte's søn gjorde dette horn'). Heldigvis havde man gamle afbildninger, men det københavnske borgerskab var dybt chokeret over tabet af disse historiske horn, og digteren Oehlenschläger reagerede ved at skrive et digt der starter således:
De higer og søger / I gamle Bøger, / I oplukte Høie / Med speidende Øie,
Paa Sværd og Skiolde / I muldne Volde, / Paa Runestene / Blandt smuldnede Bene.
Oldtids Bedrifter / Anede trylle; / Men i Mulm de sig hylle, / De gamle Skrifter.
Blikket stirrer, / Sig Tanken forvirrer. / I Taage de famle. (osv. osv.) Personer der har forsøgt at læse oldnordisk kan måske genkende sig selv i disse linjer
(EN: They yearn and search ....the gaze stares - the thought confuses itself - they fumble around in fog). Den vigtigste komponist i generationen efter J.P.E. Hartmann var Niels W.Gade, der fik sit gennembrud som 24-årig ved at indsende sin Ossian-ouverture til en konkurrence. Dette var en koncertouverture inspireret af den blinde barde Ossian's skotske kvad. Problemet er bare at
Ossian aldrig har eksisteret - han var et fantasiprodukt skabt af en luskefis ved navn MacPherson. Men da ouverturen kom Mendelssohn i hænde, blev han begejstret, og da Gade snart efter sendte sin første symfoni ned til ham i Leipzig, blev han inviteret derned og fik stillingen som den verdensberømte komponist og dirigents personlige assistent. Men så skete der to ting: først døde Mendelssohn i 1847, og Gade overtog hans stilling som chefdirigent for Gewandhausorkestret. Så kom så kom det egentlige Danmark i krig med hertugdømmerne Slesvig og Holsten i 1848, og Gade tog hjem. Så der røg chancen for at blive en verdenskendt tysk musiker, men Danmark fik til gengæld en 100% dansk superkomponist og dirigent og meget mere, der imidlertid sad tungt på landets musikliv som en overvægtig høne-mor til sin død. Gade's dominerende stilling betød at andre komponister fik vanskeligt ved at gøre sig gældende. Jeg vil dog nævne to der stadig huskes. Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller for musikken til eventyrkomedien "Der Var
Engang" og Christian Frederik Emil Horneman for ouverturen til "
Aladdin" og musikken til "
Gurre".
Den tyske forbindelse blev endnu mere udtalt i den følgende generation med senromantikere som operakomponisten August Enna og symfonikeren Paul Klenau. Men så dukkede en vis Carl Nielsen op med en stil der var frisk og mere moderne, men stadigværk rimeligt publikumsvenlig - især i begyndelsen. Hvis jeg skulle fremhæve ét værk måtte det blive
Aladdin-suiten, hvor den mest overraskende sats er 'Markedspladsen i Isfahan', hvor orkestret splittes i små grupper der spiller i hver sin rytme. Den slags lyder sjældent godt, men her lykkes eksperimentet fordi man virkelig ser et kaotisk orientalsk marked for sit indre blik. I sine symfonier starter han som en lidt frisk romantiker i nummer et, men bliver efterhånden mere modernistisk frem til nr. 6, Semplice - der aldeles ikke er simpel på nogen mulig måde.
Carl Nielsen's succes medførte at komponister som Klenau, Enna, Ludolf Nielsen, Fini Henriques, Simonsen og andre blev skubbet i baggrunden, og det er først i de senere år at nogle af dem igen er blevet taget til nåde. Den af de 'fortrængte' komponister der er blevet mest eftertrykkeligt genopdaget er nok Rued Langgaard, der måtte tage til takke med stillingen som organist ved domkirken i Ribe - næsten så langt væk fra København som man kan komme indenfor rigets grænser. Det indestængte raseri, kombineret med hans sværmeriske religiøsitet, resulterede i værker som operaen "Antikrist", "Vanvidsfantasi" for klaver og violinsonaten "Ecrasez l'infame". Men herudover skrev han også 16 symfonier, som nu alle er blevet indspillet efter at have samlet støv siden mellemkrigstiden.
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En anden mellemkrigskomponist, Poul Schierbeck, var lidt speciel ved at knytte sig til fransk musik, og hans kollega Knud-Åge Riisager (der også blev formand for Komponistforeningen) havde tendenser i samme retning. Sidstnævnte skrev bl.a. en ballet 'Etude' baseret på sene klaverstykker af Rossini, men herudover også det meget mærkelige orkesterværk
Qarrtsiluni, der skal illustrere et grønlandsk sagn. Og i denne forbindelse kunne man også nævne et betydeligt senere værk af samme type, nemlig "
Regnbueslangen" af Norby. Jeg kommer også til at tænke på nogle geologisk inspirerede værker (Hekla, Geysir) af den islandske komponist Jon Leifs - men det er jo en helt anden historie.
Jeg vil fatte mig i korthed om resten af musikken efter 2. verdenskrig. Den væsentligste symfoniker her er uden tvivl Vagn Holmboe (med 8 styks), men man bør vel også nævne Herman Koppel, der desuden var en fremragende pianist - og stamfader til et helt dynasti af musikere.
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