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For the first thousand years of the Christian
era in the German-speaking parts of Europe, musicians connected
with the church found little outlet for their creative abilities
outside of arranging PLAINSONG formulas. A few surviving fragments
of nonreligious vocal music from this period, however, reveal
that a secular musical impulse existed.
Secular songs of the 11th through the 14th century reflect
in many ways the changes in society brought about by the advent
of feudalism. A new kind of poetry, inspired by knightly chivalry,
was often set to melodies written by the poets themselves.
With these songs German-speaking composers first appeared
on the European musical scene, late in the 12th century. Influenced
by the troubadours of southern France, poet-musicians such
as Walther von der Vogelweide (c.1170-c.1230), Neidhart von
Reuenthal (c.1180-c.1240), and Tannhauser (c.1200-c.1266)
composed and sang songs that praised courtly love or honored
the Virgin Mary. These minnesingers (from the German, minne,
"love") were the leading representatives of MEDIEVAL
MUSIC in Germany and flourished until the early 15th century.
In the late 15th and 16th centuries, during the Renaissance,
secular polyphonic songs with German texts were composed by
Heinrich Finck (c.1445-1527), Heinrich ISAAC (born in Flanders
but long active in Vienna), Ludwig Senfl (c.1490-1543), and
Roland de LASSUS (also of Flemish birth but attached to the
Munich court). A more important German contribution, the CHORALE
(German, Choral), was a musical by-product of the Lutheran
Reformation in the period after 1517. Throughout the 16th
century and later in the Lutheran parts of Germany, the chorale
played an important role in the development of Protestant
church music.
The 17th century was a time of enormous change in musical
style. A new composing device evolved called FIGURED BASS,
consisting of a bass line with a set of symbols and figures
written under the staff indicating the harmony, which was
improvised by the keyboard player. The bass line was reinforced
by a low string or woodwind instrument, the combined keyboard
part and bass line being called the continuo. A new type of
melody also evolved, called BEL CANTO, which followed the
demands of musical expressiveness rather than the rhythmic
requirements of a text. This style was used in a variety of
new musical forms, including opera, oratorio, concerto, and
trio sonata. In addition, new forms of organ music were developed
such as the chorale prelude, toccata, fugue, and fantasia.
The early 17th century witnessed the decline of the old ecclesiastical
system of modes and the gradual emergence of the system of
major and minor scales with their related chords . The inexorable
rise of nationalism resulted in a division of musical styles
into French, Italian, and German. The rapid development of
instrumental music produced distinct and characteristic instrumental
idioms.
Foremost among the composers who brought the continuo style
to Germany was Heinrich SCHUTZ. Schutz, working almost entirely
in sacred vocal and choral forms, was among the few Protestant
composers who did not make use of the chorale. He also composed
(1627) the first German opera (lost), which had few immediate
successors. Schutz's older contemporary Michael PRAETORIUS,
in addition to being a prolific composer of vocal and instrumental
music, was an important musical theorist. Other composers
of this period were Johann Hermann SCHEIN, noted for his instrumental
suites; Johann FROBERGER, for his keyboard music; and Heinrich
von BIBER, for his works for the violin.
Organ music was cultivated by a long line of north German
organists, notably Samuel SCHEIDT, Dietrich BUXTEHUDE, Johann
PACHELBEL, Jan Reinken (1623-1722), and Georg Bohm (1661-1733),
and culminating in Johann Sebastian BACH.
Prominent composers in other instrumental forms included Hans
Leo HASSLER, Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722), George Philipp TELEMANN,
Bach, and George Frideric HANDEL. Bach also wrote outstanding
sacred choral works, and Handel composed many operas and created
a new kind of oratorio that in effect became a choral drama.
About 1750, with the emerging classical period, forms and
styles again underwent major changes. The use of the figured
bass technique diminished rapidly, and all parts of the SCORE
were written out in full. The symphony, the string quartet
and other forms of chamber music and the piano sonata were
developed, and the concerto became largely a vehicle for one
soloist and orchestra.
This new musical style--unlike the baroque--required strong
thematic contrasts within the individual movements of a composition;
a formal balance of all contrasting elements in a work became
the ideal. Prominent composers in the early development of
this style included Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH and Johann Christian
BACH. New refinements of orchestral techniques were developed
at the Mannheim court, notably by Johann STAMITZ, Franz Xaver
Richter (1709-87), and other symphonists. The German SINGSPIEL
(a type of opera) evolved during this time with the works
of Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804).
Franz Joseph HAYDN, Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART, and Ludwig van
BEETHOVEN were the dominant composers of the classical period.
The fully developed symphony and string quartet are largely
Haydn's accomplishments. Mozart revealed his genius in virtually
all forms, including the opera. Beethoven, primarily an instrumental
composer, brought the symphony, string quartet, and sonata
to new levels of expressiveness and power; his method of motivic
development became standard practice for almost a century.
During Beethoven's lifetime, a new style called romanticism
gradually emerged. Characterized by a preoccupation with new
sonorities and subjective expression (as opposed to the objectivity
of the classical period), the romantic period, which extended
into the early 20th century, saw each major composer writing
in an individual style.
Perhaps the greatest impact on 19th-century music was made
by Richard WAGNER. In his operas (several of which he called
"music dramas") Wagner perfected the device of the
"leading motive" (German, Leitmotiv), a theme that
is used recurrently to denote an object, character trait,
or other important element or idea in an opera. A succession
of operas by minor composers using Wagner's devices appeared
from the 1870s to the end of the century. A few composers
of the time objected to the tenets of the "music of the
future" espoused by Wagner and the Hungarian-born Franz
LISZT. Foremost among them was Johannes BRAHMS, whose great
instrumental works proved that the techniques of the classical
composers were still valid in the romantic style. Anton BRUCKNER,
in his individual way, also followed the classical tradition
in his nine numbered symphonies and choral works.
The last years of the century were dominated by Gustav MAHLER
(of Bohemian birth but active primarily in Vienna), who composed
long symphonies and song cycles, and Richard STRAUSS, who
wrote popular SYMPHONIC POEMS and successful operas.
Homer Ulrich
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
In Austria during the late 19th century, Anton BRUCKNER and
Gustav MAHLER continued to push the symphony farther along
the path that Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms had traveled. But,
just as Wagner brought new dimensions to opera, Bruckner and
most notably Mahler expanded the scope of the symphony (and
in Mahler's case, the orchestrally accompanied song cycle,
as well) to epic lengths. Mahler, who lived into the first
years of the 20th century, demanded a broad coloristic palette
and an unprecedented degree of orchestral virtuosity. His
sprawling canvases embody a searing emotional intensity and
a sense of self-revelation. They mark the zenith of the expressive
romantic style.
Mahler's successors in the early 20th century felt that the
language of romanticism had been taken to its limit. Arnold
SCHOENBERG composed his early works, including the massive
Gurrelieder (1901-13) and the dark, mysterious string sextet
Transfigured Night (1899), in a style that seemed the outgrowth
of Brahms's and Mahler's romantic aesthetic. By 1920, however,
he had developed a method of composition in which he arranged
the 12 tones of the scale in a series, and then used the permutations
of the series as the thematic material on which he based his
works. Actually, this form of composition (called the TWELVE-TONE
SYSTEM or SERIAL MUSIC) is less confining than might be supposed,
for a work could use several series, each of which could be
broken into shorter components and subjected to all the traditional
forms of thematic metamorphosis (including inversion, retrogrades,
transposition, augmentation, and diminution). Serialism, as
Schoenberg saw it, was simply a tool whereby composers could
find fresh material, free from the constraints of major and
minor tonalities. Later composers brought serialism to greater
extremes, serializing not only pitches but rhythms, tone colors,
and dynamics.
Schoenberg, along with his two greatest disciples--Alban BERG
and Anton von WEBERN--worked in Vienna, were the central figures
in what was known as the Second Viennese school. Each pursued
a different route, and taken together, their works show the
variety of styles the twelve-tone school allowed: Schoenberg
adapted his method to the traditional chamber and orchestral
forms, while Webern left a body of compact, concise, miniatures
and Berg--in many ways the most enduring of the three--composed
two full-scale operas, Wozzeck (1921) and Lulu (1935), plus
a romantic violin concerto (1935) and an handful of songs
and chamber works.
The advent of the Nazis brought and end to Germany's dominance
of the musical world. The music of Schoenberg and his followers
was declared "decadent"--as was the much more popularly
based theatrical music of Kurt WEILL, and the neo-baroque
and neo-classical music of Paul HINDEMITH, a prolific and
practical composer who rejected the serial approach. Schoenberg,
Weill, and Hindemith fled to the United States, as did hundreds
of other composers, performers, authors, and artists from
Germany, Austria, and other European countries that came under
German domination in the 1930s.
The German composing tradition was slow to recover from this
devastation, and although postwar Germany has been particularly
receptive to new music by foreign composers, few native composers
have achieved global renown. Among those who have are Karlheinz
STOCKHAUSEN, an influential composer of electronic music and
of works combining electronic tape and conventional instruments,
and Hans Werner HENZE, whose operas, symphonic scores, and
chamber works run the stylistic gamut from avant-garde to
almost neo-romantic.
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