German Classical MusicVS. Modest Mussorgsky

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German DemographicsLanguages: Primarily German,but they also speak Turkish, Italian, Serbian, Russian and English

Religion:Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Lutheran - Protestantism, Calvinism, Judaism, Islam

Population: 82.79 Million (As of 2017)

Ethnicities:German, Turkish,Italian, Greek, Serbian,

Russian

GeographyLand Mass: 137,983 mi²

Germany is located at the center of Europe

Its Capital is Berlin

It is the seventh largest European country

Topography varies greatly throughout the entire country❖ Forests ❖ Islands ❖ Mountains❖ Rivers❖ Wetlands

CultureWorld famous Oktoberfest is held annually (starts around mid september and ends in early october)

❖ Located in Munich, Bavaria,Germany❖ World’s largest volksfest (beer festival and

travelling funfair)❖ Has been held each year since 1810

◉ Germany is rated fourth in the world for beer consumption

◉ Germany was the first country to adopt daylight savings time

◉ They have a great amount of contribution to the arts, specifically classical music

◉ Germany is mostly influenced by its surrounding European countries (Usually by what is intellectual and popular)

◉ Historically known as the country of poets and thinkers

◉ Common Types of Music: classical, folk, jazz, and pop

German Classical MusicGermany is home to some of the most famous classical composers◉ Johann Sebastian Bach◉ Wolfgang Amadeus

Mozart◉ Ludwig van Beethoven◉ Richard Wagner◉ Richard Strauss

It is some of the most performed music in the world

It has played a lead role in the development of classical music

Many schools in germany support german classical music and teach children about it

Beethoven-Fur Elise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_UOuSklNL4

Mozart Symphony #40 in G Minor, K 550 - 1. Molto Allegro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJf4ZffkoI

Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C Minor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOk8Tm815lE

Instruments

Instruments used prominently in german classical music included the piano, fiddle,violin, viola, cello, trumpet, trombone, tuba, french horn, flute, piccolo, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet, and multiple percussion instruments

Ride Of The Valkyries A well known piece of german

classical music

Composed by Richard Wagner in 1851 and then fully orchestrated in 1856

Features a full complement of strings, trumpets, trombones, tuba, flutes , piccolo, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, bass clarinet, and multiple percussion instruments

The piece was written for act three of Die Walküre

This act portrays the female warriors (valkyries) gathered on a mountaintop, ready to perform their noble duty of transporting the fallen heroes to Valhalla

It is written in 9/8 (compound triple meter)

The brass and woodwind sections in this piece produce most of the melody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGU1P6lBW6Q

Strings provide a strong backbone for the work as a whole, keeping the tempo consistent and providing basic rhythms to follow.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Modest Mussorgsky➢ Born March 21, 1839 in Toropets, Russia

➢ As a child he lived in the countryside and became inspired by russian folk songs

➢ Great pianist as an adolescent

➢ Sent to Cadet Academy at age 13 (Family Tradition)

➢ 18 years of age he joined the military but left two years later due to a nervous breakdown

➢ When he returned, soon after his family suffered many losses; one loss being all of their farming serfs (this forced him to work for the government in menial office job in order to support himself)

Modest Mussorgsky Continued:➢ Had a growing talent for composing music and joined a group of Russian

composers named “The Five”, however,he never managed to make a living from the music he created

➢ His mother died in 1865 and he turned to alcohol in order to help him cope

➢ This addiction along with his depression over time hindered him from accomplishing many successes

➢ He died at the age of forty two, broken and unfocused, at a hospital institution in Saint Petersburg after suffering attacks from alcohol epilepsy (March 28, 1881)

➢ He wanted his music to emulate the “Russian Soul”, and be written in a Russian style

➢ His music was raw and crude sounding

Night on Bald MountainWritten on June 23 1867

Features stringed instruments such as the violin, viola and cello, as well as brass( trumpets, french horn, tuba, trombone) and woodwinds ( piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon)

It also features a few percussion instruments (timpani, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam)

It is written in 4/4 or “common time”

The Strings is this piece help provide the tempo, rhythm and anticipation for the impacts (accompaniment), and the woodwind and brass sections provide the melody. As the piece progresses, both the bass and melodic lines become increasingly complex.

This piece grew from several opera projects that Mussorgsky started and stopped

He finished it ridiculously quickly in a blaze of creativity (took him a total of 12 days to finish the final draft)

The basic concept for the piece depicts a dark witches' ritual, conjuring up the devil on a bleak mountaintop

Fun Fact: Disney used this composition in their 1940 film Fantasia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR2P-5J-2MA

Comparison of the two❖ Secondary Link: The use of similar instruments in each piece. (Violins, violas, cellos,

trumpets, trombones, french horn, tuba, piccolos, flutes, oboes, clarinets).

❖ Primary Link: The Writing style of both pieces. Both compositions feature stringed instruments providing a strong tempo to follow as well as anticipation for the woodwinds and brass sections to create intriguing melodies and powerful impacts with the help of percussion. As both pieces progress the melodies and basslines become increasingly complex.

Comparisons Continued:

Differences between the two:

◉ Richards Wagner’s Piece is uplifting, heroic, and triumphant whereas Mussorgsky’s piece has a darker, demonic-like timbre.

◉ Richard’s piece is written in 9/8; on the contrary, Mussorgsky’s piece is written in 4/4 or “common time”

◉ Mussorgsky’s composition developed from the starting and stopping of multiple opera projects. Richard’s composition was written for a single music drama

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