The Effects of 1917 Russian Revolution on the 20th Century Music Essay

Introduction

It is amazing how truly wonderful things inherent in human race activities only can change people’s perception of this life. Among those are visual arts, sports, and music. As such, it is important to outline that some composers did put much impact on today’s music and styles. Béla Viktor János Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky were three of many important composers of the nineteenth-twentieth century. It is amazing how broadly their works are still performed today and the way they were actually firstly accepted by public. This paper will elaborate on the styles of each of the three composers, their life and works, and the societal conditions they had to undergo.

Béla Viktor János Bartók

Early Years

Béla Bartók was a prominent Hungarian composer, also regarded as the greatest composer of Hungary of the 20^th century along with such genius as Liszt (Biographiq, 2008). Béla Bartók is considered to be a founder of ethnomusicology, working this new stream though, he was able to analyze and study the folk music. Most of his early compositions were performed through the mixture of nationalist and late Romanticism features. The young composer made his way to the countryside in 1908 in order to earn the would-be title of the folk music examiner. Fortunately, his attempts were truly well met among public because the interest of the composer and the social interest in traditional national music coincided. Thus, the composer found an activity after his heart and was able to earn for living satisfying the demands of public. Besides, his researches within the traditions and heritage of Magyar folk melodies truly surprised the discoverer. Béla Viktor János Bartók and Kodály revealed that Magyar – that was considered a Gypsy music before – actually belonged to Asian folk traditions, even maybe to Siberian ones. These discoveries helped composing thnext masterpiece that would hold the pentatonic scale of Hungarian peasant music. Bartók indulged in creating Allegro Barbaro in 1911 as the most famous among his popular piano performances.

Middle Years. Composer’s Rejection

As any brilliant composer, Béla Bartók had his own highs and lows in his career. As such, there was only one opera throughout his career dedicated to his wife Marta, which he submitted for the Hungarian Fine Arts Commission. Surprisingly, the work was rejected as a non-fit format. (Chalmers, p. 93) This opera Bluebeard’s Castle was further on a matter of government pressure on composer for having a name of the librettist Béla Balázs in opera. Before Bartok emigrated opera was once revived in 1936.

Afterwards Bartók continued creating his masterpiece and the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) was a nice chance for him to claim his efficiency. Therefore, he wrote his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in 1937, premiering it with his second wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók during the ISCM concert in 1938 January 16^th. Deservedly this work received the highest appraisal and since then was considered one of his most popular masterpiece. The score needs four performers: two pianists and two percussionists, who in their turn have to play seven instruments.

Last Years in America

Although Bartók was truly devoted to Hungarian people the political situation with the WWII changed his plans immensely and he was forced to immigrate to the US because of his anti-Nazi views (Hillebrand, 2010). Unfortunately, Bartók never felt at home in America, this resulted in recession in composing activity. He was well-known as ethnomusicologist rather than a composer n the US.

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring

This is one of the most amazing figures of the late nineteenth and midst of twentieth century. Igor Stravinsky managed to get naturalized in France and America, though being born in Russia, he produced his compositions and was recognized as the most influential figure of the century by Time magazine. It is interesting that he was widely acknowledged as a cosmopolitan Russian, though his works did not lack the diversity in style. The first fame came to him after performing the three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and his ballet called Russian Ballets. Those were the Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring. The latter ballet aroused a very controversial adaptation within public, it caused a riot. It was a completely new adaptation of music for ballet. The performances were great because Stravinsky used the never known before rhythms, timbres, and dissonance. This was considered to be a seminal composition. Bernstein speculated on it: “”…it’s also got the best dissonances anyone ever thought up, and the best asymmetries and polytonalities and polyrhythm and whatever else you care to name” (p.256). This is what a composer managed to evoke in people’s soles within the 33 minutes’ time.

Pulcinella

Pulcinella was the second phase of Stravinsky’s creative work, the neoclassical. Stravinsky himself used to speculate about the ballet in the way as if it was a look at himself in some meaning, he also said Pulcinella was his discovery of the past. Stravinsky compared the ballet to the epiphany and paid gratitude to it saying it helped him continue creating the masterpieces. Premiering in Paris in 1920 May 15^th, the ballet was based on 18^th century play called Pulcinella and involved such famous and prominent workmen of art as Pablo Picasso who designed the costumes and sceneries. The music now represents the mixture of interjecting modern rhythms and harmonies. Pulcinella is successfully scored for a modern chamber orchestra; it is possible to hear the soprano, tenor, and baritone if you choose to see the ballet.

The Firebird

The Firebird used to be a real break trough as per Stravinsky’s career as well. The plot is borrowed from Russian tales about the bird that brings both mercy and curse to the owner. The ballet was perfectly met by public and what is more important by critics as well. The work was doomed to be a “crescendo” success, critics were ecstatic, they could not help complimented for the masterpiece seen on the stage. It was remarked that the ballet embodied a perfect blend of choreography, scenery, and music. The Firebird successfully put the beginning to the subsequent ballets Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The Firebird served a wonderful beginning for the career of the popular and famous composer cooperating with Diaghilev.

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev

Being one of the most influential figures of the musical art of the twentieth century, Prokofiev managed to master several musical genres and provide public with many wonderful compositions. He is considered to be one of the major composers (and pianist) of the twentieth century. It is evident that Prokofiev was talented since the very childhood and he was studying with several years older classmates than him. Being a little boy, Sergei was thought of as an arrogant because much of the education was simply boring for the genius.

The Love for Three Oranges

Also known as L’amour des Trois Oranges (French), The Love for Three Oranges was created in 1919. In the US it was premiered in Chicago in 1921, September 30^th. The opera was based on Italian play L’amore delle tre melarance, and the libretto was translated from native Russian to French. The history of the opera was significantly influenced by Prokofiev’s staying in the USA. After his successful concerts in Chicago, a director of Chicago Opera Association came up to Prokofiev and asked to compose an opera. Fortunately, Sergei had already had a draft of an opera based on Commedia dell’Arte tradition. Eventually the opera premiered at the Auditorium Theatre with Prokofiev conducting. Sadly, the acceptance by the public and critics were awful at first. The critics were fierce and merciless saying that the opera reminded nothing but Bolshevik trimmings. Thus, the opera was kept still and not performed until 1949 in the New York City Opera. Although the first representation of the work did not go well for the composer in the light of the historical events, the second performance and its success was greatly influenced by the postwar period. The Life magazine provided the best appraisal of the opera publishing the color photo spread. Being a smash hit in the midst twenty century for three seasons of sophisticated tastes, The Love for Three Oranges is still an amazing opera to see.

War and Peace

War and Peace is an amazing opera in two parts (this consists of an epigraph and is divided in thirteen scenes). Getting his inspiration from the novel by Leo Tolstoy War and Peace the opera has the real life-events characters. Among those are Mikhail Kutuzov and Napoleon Bonaparte. The performance history is complicated due to the historical curves. First it was planned to perform War and Peace in 1943 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, however the project failed. The next staged performance was planned on June 12^th, 1946 at Maly Theatre with additional scene 10 of the Part 2. Afterwards, in 1948 Prokofiev started working on a shortened version so that the entire performance can be shown in one single evening.

The works of Prokofiev were brilliant and one of a kind. Before going to America, he developed very cooperative relations with the Soviet authorities. And one of them, Lunacharsky, said: “You are a revolutionary in music, we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But if you want to go to America I shall not stand in your way” (Shlifstein, p. 50), which is really not common for the regime of the Soviet Union, who proffered not to let the genius mind leave the country.

Conclusion

The twentieth century contributed true diamonds to the history of world music. Of course, the historical curves made famous composers undergo the difficulties of regimes and hence halt their creative works. Nevertheless, Béla Viktor János Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky are well-known today for their folk music discoveries, neoclassical musical elements, and stylistic diversity accordingly. So, the impact on the contemporary classical music and ballet is enormous due to the composers of the twentieth century.

References

Bernstein, L. (1976). The Unanswered Question – Six Talks at Harvard. Harvard University Press.

Biographiq. (2008). Franz Liszt – Hungarian Composer of the New German School (Biography). New York: Biographiq. Print.

Chalmers, K. (1995). Béla Bartók. 20th-Century Composers. London: Phaidon Press.

Hillenbrand, L. (2010). Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. New York: Random House. Print.

Shilfstein, S. (2000). S. Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific.