Musical Nationalsim
Music & Nationalism
“In the nineteenth century, people were looking inward, often for a force that would liberate them from political oppression… Music played an important part in this ethnic awakening, sounding out cultural differences and providing a rallying point in a process called musical nationalism”
-Craig Wright
Nationalism: Identification with one’s own nation and support for its own interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. Musical nationalism: feeling pride in one’s nation by listening to/composing/singing/playing music that sounds distinctly of one’s country. National music has a distinct sound, and has the goal of sounding different from other country’s music. During the 19th century, many ethnic groups in Europe underwent cultural, national, or political revolutions. Music served as a basis and source of pride for these new national, cultural, and political identities. From this idea of musical nationalism, we get songs recognizable today as national anthems, folk songs, and more. The Star Spangled Banner is closely related to American Nationalism. Alas, it is the national anthem. Similarly, God Save the Queen is closely associated with the UK, and is the national anthem. If you didn’t already know that these songs were national anthems, you would likely be able to determine which nations they represented based on the lyrics. The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa is a song that sounds distinctly American, but no lyrics are sung during the song. Why does this song sound American?
The Stars and Stripes Forever with 94 piccolos! [4K]
American Nationalism
The Stars and Stripes Forever is one of the best examples of how the USA adopted the style of its marches. It is the national march. In 1987, Congress made this the national march. The United States has a lot of different musical cultures (marches, jazz, country, hip hop, rock, etc.) and they all make us feel different things. The national anthem, for example, is a folk song. A folk song by definition is a genre that originated from the people of a country, passed from an oral tradition from a singer or generation to the next. The National Anthem can be defined as a folk song because in the lyrics it talks about events and people that this country sets its pride onto. (The bombs bursting in mid air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. The land of the free, and the home of the brave.) American nationalism differs from other nations because we use part of our music nationalism in other forms of entertainment, for example, film music, more than any nation, and we have a wide variety of those different cultures. Another example of Sousa’s patriotism (he is known as the country’s “March King” because he is the man that is credited for making a lot of today’s marches famous) is when he wrote “Semper Fidelis.” Since Sousa was the 17th director of the Marine Band, he wrote this march as a tribute to the Marine Corps, other countries don’t have marches that are played in a similar military setting quite like we do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ2dcVYdpm0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SS9EnD_-_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlU-Pa78rOI
These videos are just a few examples of the many different cultures that the USA has to offer.
Russian Nationalism
Applying nationalism to music can create a sense of identity and pride in one’s culture. For example, themes of political oppression and liberation of native languages and dances contribute to nationalistic music. Furthermore, these common experiences shared by a culture make a sense of belonging and national identity when a protest song or victorious symphony is made. One of the first countries to develop its own style of music separate from surrounding countries. The Russian opera A Life for the Tzar by Glinka resulted in excitement over native Russian music and patriotism. This “national spirit” was passed onto the Russian Five, who are Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Modest Musorgsky. They incorporated Western classical music with Russian folk and religious music. Folk tales were used as subjects for operas and symphonies. Whole tones and augmented triads became a Russian signature, as well as unique rhythmic patterns. They used 5 bar phrases in quintuple time and repetition instead of motivic development. To avoid sounding repetitive, the rhythm, dynamics, volume and orchestral tone are constantly changing. These unique features resulted in a distinct national style of music and created a sense of Russian identity.
Italian Nationalism
“By coincidence, the name “Verdi” (“Green” in Italian) had the same letters as Vittorio Emanuele Re d’Italia, the people’s choice to lead a new, free, unified Italy” (Wright, pp.200).
During the 19th century, the concept of Nationalism was coming up strong in the music world. For example, Italy was under control by Austria at the time, and they wanted to split and unify their own country without being dominated by another. One person that helped to represent this movement was Giuseppe Verdi, who along with his fame in the opera world became a huge political figure in Italy. He lent his last name “Verdi” as an acronym to use in the revolution (as mentioned in the quote above). The people would shout “Viva Verdi!” along with his music that he composed for the Nationalist Party. One such piece of music is the opera “Nabucco” which honors the lives of people suffering underneath foreign dictatorship. When people hear the name “Verdi”, they most often think of the man who wrote famous operas such as “Rigoletto”, “La Traviata”, “Il Trovatore”, and “Aida”. However, he also was the face and the name of Italian freedom, which isn’t usually what his name is associated with today, despite its significant importance.
German Pride
“...poet, philosopher, propagandist, self-publicist, and visionary who believed that operas-his operas-would revolutionize society,” (204, Wright).
Richard Wagner, a man of great talent and acclaim, began an era of national traditions tied to opera. When Wagner started off he did not make much money. Yet as time went on he began to break through the wall and composed Der Ring des Nibelungen, which was 4 operas that would spawn the Lord of the Rings. A sense of national pride and, new found wealth, brought him back to Germany where he built an opera house to fit his opera’s, instead of the other way around. Wagner wanted his own style of operas for he didn’t care much for the arias of Italy and such. Music dramas spawned from Wagner, a completely new opera performance that cut group singing and focused on solo’s and declamation. “Romantic artists fed a sense of national pride and identity,” (Romanticism). These artists that championed their own ways like Wagner only strived to make pieces of art worth displaying. The art gave normal people a sense of pride in their own country as well allowing an even bigger swell of art. In conclusion Wagner, among many others, used the Romanticism time period to launch their own nationalist art pieces to rally the people of Germany together.
Classical - Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries - YouTube
Division of Labor
Intro/creation of blog/works cited page - Aidan Hille
American Nationalism - Carl Reese
Russian Nationalism - Jake Kesling
Italian Nationalism - Hannah McVay
German Pride - Ryan Lelli
Works Cited
artincontext. “Romanticism Art – the Art, Literature, and Music of the Romantic Period.” Artincontext.org, 28 Apr. 2021, artincontext.org/romanticism-art/.
Dorak, M. Tevfik. “Russian Nationalism in Music.” Www.dorak.info, 23 May 2002, www.dorak.info/music/national.html.
Taylor, Joshua. Musically Russian: Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century. 20 Apr. 2016.
Wright, Craig M. The Essential Listening to Music. Australia, Wadsworth, 2016.
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