Conference Agenda

Scholars and music critics have debated how much of the so-called “Gypsy band” style from Hungary can be attributed to Roma musicians and how much is a product of a Magyar musical idiom since as far back as Liszt and Bartók’s own writings. In this paper, I unite elements of Bellman’s style hongrois, Loya’s verbunkos idiom, and Lynn Hooker’s work on Hungarian musical idioms to define a Hungarian-Roma musical idiom to acknowledge both the geographic origins in Hungary as well as the active role that Roma musicians played in shaping this style. I argue that the Hungarian-Roma musical idiom in Johannes Brahms’s chamber music serves a dual function of providing an exoticist foil to Brahms’s ideal German music while simultaneously signifying the topic of deep, nearly unrestrained, emotional passion associated with stereotypes of Romani musicians. Brahms’s chamber works, particularly Op. 34, Op. 114, and Op. 115, exemplifies the integration of exoticist trends into Brahms’s lexicon of musical topics. In addition, this idiom adds an element of contrast to material which draws more strongly on the compositional techniques of his German predecessors Bach, Handel, and Beethoven, revealing the composer’s conflicted feelings about the formation of a German state.

To illuminate the cultural power dynamics inherent in this conflict, I examine how the elements of the Hungarian-Roma musical idiom are altered to conform with expectations of Brahms’s audiences within each of the selected chamber works. These changes, when taken alongside the intellectualism that characterized Brahms’s musical style and the cultural milieu in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, reflect the composer’s complicated relationship with nationalism and what it means to participate in the German musical tradition. In highlighting these elements of Brahms’s compositions, I open avenues for future research regarding how composers of the late nineteenth century navigated power dynamics in the midst of the political upheaval of the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars.

One of the persistent questions regarding art song quotation is that of the communicability of musical meaning to a competent listener. In this paper, I build on Robert Hatten’s concept of the competent listener, who is assumed to be one who has a reasonable familiarity with, but not necessarily intimate knowledge of, the classical style. As such, that listener is not expected to be aware of the presence or the precise sources of art song quotation in instrumental music. This paper examines the ways in which a performer can communicate the musical meaning of such quotations to a “merely” competent listener by using the lens of Piercean semiotics: in particular, the iconic and indexical sign/object relations. I argue that in art song quotation, the underlying poetic meanings of the texts are transferred into their new context, and as such can be communicated to the audience via deliberate interpretative decisions. I draw on previous work by Robert Hatten [1982, 2010], Nicholas Cook [2001, 2021], and Thomas Turino [1999] to create a model of competencies necessary for this communication. By influencing the competent listener through interpretative choices, the informed performer may simulate the semiotic comprehensions of art song poetic texts that an extremely informed listener may otherwise receive from an average performance. Finally, this model allows for historically informed narrative readings in performance.

I use the finale of Brahms’s Op. 78 Violin Sonata (1886) and its quotations of the Op. 59 Regenlieder (Nos. 3 and 4; 1870–73) as a case study. My analytical reading of the sonata’s finale showcases a gradual evolution from a prospective rain-attitude to a retrospective one as the implied quotation accumulates new layers of meaning throughout the movement. I demonstrate how this understanding can be achieved in performance only through direct engagement with the sources of the quotations (the Regenlieder) and their texts, and how the informed performer can produce such an effect for the competent listener.

The spread of Brahms’s music by members of his inner circle in post-Risorgimento Italy remains undiscussed in English-language sources. With the formation of local Società del Quartetto in the sixties across Florence, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bologna, and other Italian cities, the reawakening of interest in instrumental music gradually brought the nation’s musical culture on par with their northern neighbors towards the close of the century. Subscription concerts hosted by these quartet societies, dedicated exclusively to the performance of chamber and orchestral repertoires, opened pathways for Brahms’s newly-composed works to be heard in Italy.

Despite being performed by leading musicians closely connected to the composer, Brahms’s music faced a certain apathy in Italy compared to other European musical centers. Challenging the initial promotion was a public for whom the middle to late works of Beethoven were only recently discovered. The lack of familiarity with four-movement symphonies coupled with the near absence of abstract music within the public listening culture (satiated instead with symphonic poems, operatic overtures, and popular dances) significantly tempered Brahms’s Italian reception. Touring musicians including Joachim, Hugo Heermann, Fanny Davies, as well as the Florentine, Bohemian, and Rosé Quartets were less inclined to actively premiere new works by Brahms on the peninsula, opting instead to program the composer’s more accessible works. This presentation charts the slow but gradual reception of Brahms’s music by non-Italian musicians who played a significant role in promoting instrumental music in Italy, but keenly selected programs to suit public taste. The discussion thus contextualizes the spread of Brahms’s works within the wider narrative of an Italian performance culture increasingly favorable to non-operatic genres in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.