MUSI 207 Europe Chapter 8

European Music Music and History Music in Peasant and Folk Societies Music in Urban Societies National Styles Concerts and the Virtuoso Individual and Society Instruments The Eurovision Song Contest as a Metaphor for Modern Europe.

Music and History Folk music has been seen as a means of revealing and articulating history in both musical and cultural ways. But the construction of history out of folk song styles has clear ideological and nationalistic implications. The historicalization of national music, too, was a statement of identity serving political ends. Is the same strategy still used today? Folk music is periodically revitalized to highlight contemporary political issues. People’s Music Network

Music in Peasant and Folk Societies “Folk music” was an eighteenth-century concept, part of a larger intellectual movement that romanticized rural life.

Music in Urban Societies Urbanization was on the increase during this period. “The folk” represented an earlier, more innocent era viewed through the fuzzy light of nostalgia by displaced city dwellers. In the city, there was an increasing tendency toward specialization of musicians: hereditary musical castes (Gypsies) and ascribed outsiders (Jewish musicians) were assigned the low status task of providing entertainment music to order.

National Styles More the result of politics than of a consistent and unified history, “national musics” may combine disparate styles and repertoires from different parts of a country, symbolizing a modern kind of unity.

Concerts and the Virtuoso Another legacy of the 19th century was the rise of virtuosity. The virtuoso became a celebrity for whom normal social mores were suspended. In many ways, the “Great Artist” was as much of a marginal person as the professional specialist, for whom normal mores were also relaxed: they were troublemakers, attractive lovers, and had the freedom to move around.

Individual and Society The idealized form of folk music is an aesthetic metaphor for community. In art music, the string quartet and chamber ensemble fill a similar role ––egalitarian–– in contrast to the symphony orchestra with its “urban” hierarchical structure and division of labor.

Instruments Compare the piano (the product of an industrial age which, during the colonial era in particular, became a symbol of the hegemony of European music), with the violin (now considered “indigenous” in many parts of the world, e.g., South India).

The Eurovision Song Contest as a Metaphor for Modern Europe The contest receives continent-wide coverage, although it includes some countries (such as Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, and Israel) that are not European. Many different styles are offered, but the winner is always the blandest, most compromised sound, something felt to be generically “European.”

For next class Chapter Exam 8 is due Friday Comment on the D2L PowerPoint presentations Read Chapter 8 ( ) on Latin American music Read Chapter 8 (pgs ) on Latin American music

References European Union Chamber Orchestra 30th Anniversary Recording [Video file]. Retrieved from Gypsy folk music - Freylekh Trio - Aven Mande [Video file]. Retrieved from LoreenLoreen - Euphoria - Live - Grand Final Eurovision Song Contest [Video file]. Retrieved from moishes bagel live [Video file]. Retrieved from People’s Music Network [Video file]. Retrieved from Romale Mix! Modern Gypsy folklore heeee! [Video file]. Retrieved from

“Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, I hear them all at once. What a delight this is! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream.” -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart