Music as a Mirror of History

Grasp how Thomas Morley's madrigals engaged with English national self-perception and myth, and how Leon Janáček and Frédéric Chopin responded to political events in key works. Examine how the magnified emotions stirred by human conflicts feed artistic creation, and how artists have managed to convert the most terrible human experiences into transcendent art.

Discover how music and history intersect in the remarkable career of George Frederick Handel. Trace the extraordinary circumstances in which the German prince George Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneberg became King George I of England. Learn about his patronage of Handel, whose phenomenal success as a composer in England led to the creation of numerous musical masterpieces written for the English royals.

Learn how events in Europe shaped Mozart's music and personal circumstances. Investigate the threat posed to Europe by the Ottoman Empire, and observe the paradoxical Turkish vogue in European art and fashion. Study the Turkish elements in Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Harem, and see how the economic fallout from Austria's war with the Ottomans contributed to Mozart's decline and death.

Take stock of how events that began in revolutionary Paris inspired the expressive content of Haydn's Mass in the Time of War. Delve into the drama of the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, and the threat his war machine posed to Vienna. Hear the dramatic, martial character of Haydn's mass within this context - a triumphant musical exhortation to victory against Napoleon's invading army.

In this first look at Beethoven, learn how the composer identified with the figure of Napoleon. Study the clashes after the French Revolution, and witness the military conflicts between Napoleon and the Habsburg empire. Grasp the highly personal meanings in Beethoven's Farewell Sonata, which depicts the departure and absence of the composer's patron in the face of Napoleon's march on Vienna.

Trace Beethoven's increasing animosity toward the French, and observe the unfolding debacle of Napoleon's Peninsular War against Portugal and Spain. Learn how Beethoven came to compose Wellington's Victory, celebrating the British commander's triumph over the French at Vitoria, which was both a phenomenal success for Beethoven and a major aberration in his musical output.

Trace the evolution of Paris from the 17th century to the 19th, and grasp how the city became a magnet for artists and intellectuals, and the spawning ground for European revolutions. Witness the political events from the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy to the revolutionary movement of 1830, which inspired Berlioz's marching song that ultimately became the French national anthem.

A failed political insurrection in Warsaw left a permanent mark on the music and spirit of Frédéric Chopin. Explore the history of invasions, "partitions," and occupations of Poland by other European powers, which effectively destroyed the Polish Commonwealth. Learn about Chopin's early life and the doomed "November Uprising" that fueled the writing of his revolutionary étude for piano.

Glinka's A Life for the Tsar was a landmark in Russian language opera. Learn about the origins of the opera's storyline in Russia's "Time of Troubles," and consider Glinka's role in a community dedicated to bringing Russian art and literature to prominence. Through compelling excerpts from the opera, observe how A Life for the Tsar embodied the pride and patriotism of the Russian people.

Uncover the story behind Vienna's beloved Radetzky March. As background, track the historical triumphs and tribulations of the Habsburg dynasty, leading to the 1848 rebellion in which the musical Johann Strausses, Senior and Junior, took opposing sides. Experience Strauss Senior's rousing celebration of the Field Marshal Count Radetzky, whose exploits made him a hero to the imperial old guard.

As the prelude to a fateful episode in the life of Johannes Brahms, explore the 19th-century Hungarian nationalist movement. Witness how Brahms's meeting with the Hungarian refugee and violinist Eduard Reményi ignited the composer's longtime love affair with Hungarian gypsy music, epitomized in the electrifying finale to his G Minor Piano Quartet.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was the first truly American composer. Delve into his early life in New Orleans, and observe the diverse cultures that shaped his music. Follow his remarkable career as a touring composer-piano virtuoso, his tireless work for the Northern cause during the Civil War, and the events which sparked the creation of his celebrated piano piece, The Union.

In the creation of his opera Nabucco, Giuseppe Verdi played a key role in the movement for Italian unification. Study the 19th-century rebellions that led to the two Italian wars of independence. Observe how the music and poetry of Nabucco came to be identified with Italy's quest for nationhood, ultimately leading the composer to participate in the process of forging an independent Italy.

Wagner's operatic cycle The Ring functions as a caustic critique of 19th-century European society. Learn about Wagner's embrace of anti-capitalist rhetoric as revolutions broke out across Europe,. Grasp how the Ring's characters represent the ills of industrial societies, and how Wagner envisioned a new "age of man" which would follow the demise of the European monarchies.

Explore the industrial and economic rise of the United States in the 19th century, a phenomenon celebrated in the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. Witness the historic participation of Antonin Dvořák, and uncover the impact of Dvořák's residency in the U.S., which produced his symphony From the New World, and pointed toward the creation of a unique American musical tradition.

Follow the movement to create a distinctively Russian national art. With his Symphony No. 1, learn how Mily Balakirev personified the quest fora true Russian musical aesthetic. Observe how this quest reflected a conflict between pro-Western and "Slavophile" schools of thought in Russia, and see how Balakirev influenced a group of young composers who would change the face of Western concert music.

The life and music of composer Leoš Janáček were profoundly shaped by conflict between the Germans and the Czechs. Study the history of German/Czech relations dating from the 17th century, and witness the Czech national revival of the 19th century. Learn how the events of a political demonstration in 1905 inspired Janáček's Piano Sonata 1, a highly personal expression of wonder, rage, and grief.

Reveal Rimsky-Korsakov's classic opera, The Golden Cockerel, as daring political commentary. Study the opera's fairy-tale plot, in parallel with Russia's devastating encounter with the Japanese in 1905, and anti-Tsarist rebellion within Russia. Hear key excerpts from the opera, and observe how its narrative works as an indictment of Tsarist Russia.

Gustav Holst's luminous Ode to Death responded to the suffering of World War I. Learn about the underlying causes of the conflict, and grasp how the horrific cost of the war reflected a tragic clash between archaism and modernity. Experience the melding of Holst's music with Walt Whitman's elegiac text, and see how Holst evokes a haunting impression of unfathomable loss and waste.

In assessing Berg's operatic masterwork, investigate the aftermath of World War I in Germany and its imprint on the opera - a psychological climate of rage, disillusion, and alienation in the wake of the war's barbarity and hypocrisy. Observe how Berg's own wartime experience linked him with the life of Franz Wozzeck, the opera's protagonist.

Take the measure of the terrors of the Stalinist regime in Soviet Russia, and uncover how many people, including Dimitri Shostakovich, were forced to lead double lives. Learn about the composition of the Symphony during the post-Stalin "Thaw," a less repressive period, and consider the composer's use of texts by courageous poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

Trace the Depression-era movement of populism in American art and learn how Copland's Symphony No. 3 captured the euphoric mood of the country following victories over the Depression, fascism, and Japanese imperialism. Note also how the artistic politics of the postwar decades relegated the Symphony to temporary obscurity in an era that sought to purge music of self-expression and nationalism.

Investigate the atrocities committed against Poland during World War II by Hitler's and Stalin's regimes as they sought to destroy Polish nationhood. Learn about Henryk Górecki's life in wartime and in the repressed era that followed, and hear the sublime "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" that expresses the Polish experience through prayers and folk songs about mothers and the loss of their children.

End with George Crumb's passionate anti-war string quartet. Trace its writing in the political climate and policy that led the U.S. into the Vietnam War. Observe how the attempted policy of "containment" crumbled in the face of the implacable will of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. In the extraordinary Black Angels, hear how Crumb captures the heartbreak of this dark episode in American life.