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Period: to
A Musical History
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Premiere of Johann S. Bach's Cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J56RFMWharE
Johann Sebastian Bach's 17th- and 18th-century career demonstrates the importance of religion and court patronage both in musical life and in all of society at the time. Bach worked primarily as a church organist, court composer, and director of sacred music in various cities and towns around Germany. His body of work consists of a large portions of both secular and sacred music, including numerous cantatas. -
Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCoa4uUTII4
One of Italy's most famous opera composers, Giuseppe Verdi pushed boundaries both in the musical style and in the dramatic content of his operas. Many of his choruses reveal a sense of Italian nationalism, which was exploited by Count di Cavour during the process of Italian unification. His libretti also demonstrate a distancing from the deep religious influence evident in earlier works, such as those of Bach, as well a liberal emphasis on individuals. -
Premiere of Antonín Dvořák's Slavonic Dances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvAMx7ZQpWE
Antonín Dvořák is arguably the best-known Czech composer and a prominent figure in the Czech nationalist movement which developed in Austria-Hungary in the mid- to late-19th century, for which composer Bedřich Smetana had laid the musical foundations. Much of Dvořák's music is influenced by Czech legends, literature and folk songs, as is the case with his two sets of Slavonic dances. -
Premiere of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1OQkHybEQ&feature=youtu.be
Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" is an early work of modern art, standing in contrast with earlier musical and dance works with its unresolved dissonances, shocking rhythms, and unclassical choreography. This is typical of the modernist movement, whose devotees sought distance from Romanticism. Their works reflect the speed of development and increasing awareness of the unpredictability of the future in the early 20th cen. -
Comedian Harmonists formed in Weimar Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPAZmbKy5s
Formed in the more lighthearted era following the German depression of the early 20s, the Comedian Harmonists were an elegant singing sextet who rose to worldwide fame. Influenced by American jazz and expecially the American a cappella group "The Revellers," they utilized many forms of new media, including recording, radio, and film, making themselves more accessible. Unfortunately, the group was disbanded in 1934 by the new Nazi regime. -
National Socialists celebrate 50th Anniversary of Richard Wagner's Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P73Z6291Pt8
Richard Wagner composed at the same time as Giuseppe Verdi, but in a radically different style. His 4-opera long Ring cycle draws on Norse and German myths and legends, and presents them with drama and bombastic orchestration. One of Adolf Hitler's favourite composers, Wagner's stories and music espouse the ideals and values that the Nazis promoted throughout Germany in the 1930s and 40s, and they heavily used his music as propaganda material.
