Franz Liszt – a world citizen or a Hungarian patriot? Hungarian Rhapsodies as an example of implementing the concept of national music

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Waszak
Keyword(s):  
Home Country ◽  
Franz Liszt ◽  
Bela Bartok ◽  
European Culture ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Culture Model ◽  
Roma People ◽  
Hungarian Rhapsodies ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Gypsy Music

The article is an attempt to determine the attitude of Franz Liszt to Hungary – the country where the composer was born, which in the 19th century was part of the Austrian Empire. The artist was shaped in accordance with the Western European culture model. That in combination with contacts with the intellectuals and the world of art deeply transformed Liszt’s worldview and shaped his artistic profile. This cosmopolitan attitude changed at a certain stage of his life when he returned to his home country. In Hungary, a process began, which allowed Liszt to notice the meaning of his country’s culture. This tendency was expressed in the composer’s interest in Gypsy music and national folklore. The article characterises the music of Hungarian Roma people as well as folk dances (verbunkos, czardas). The influence of the aforementioned elements is noticeable in Liszt’s compositions from that period, especially in the nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies. The cycle includes clear references to Gypsy music, the sound of a Roma band in particular. A reference to folklore is the form of the pieces and the stylistic means taken from verbunkos, among others. The Rhapsodies are a masterly combination of virtuoso technique with the capacities of the piano (imitation of the cimbalom or glockenspiel). The composer incorporated new harmonic qualities, such as a Gypsy scale or imitation of folk bass. At the same time, the cycle remains in accordance with the rules of classical harmony. Liszt’s searching for new composition possibilities and sound qualities gave an impulse for the development of ethnomusicology, exploring and formulating new concepts in the art of piano playing (e.g. by Béla Bartók).

scholarly journals Franz Liszt under the Light of Progress

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Bettoni
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Franz Liszt ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Aesthetic Thinking ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Ideal

The idea of progress became increasingly relevant during the 19th century, eventually instigating a paradigm shift. This transformation facilitated not only the emergence of numerous philosophical and literary trends, but also engendered new perspectives in music theory. The composer Franz Liszt was also influenced by the spirit of the epoch. This study’s analysis of his piano compositions from the Sonata in B Minor to the Bagatelle sans tonalité shows how he shaped and adapted his musical language and aesthetic thinking on the basis of what he called the ‘ideal of the time’.

Scandal at the Opera: Politics, the Press, and the Public at the Inauguration of the Budapest Opera House in 1884

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 88-107
Author(s):  
Markian Prokopovych
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Franz Liszt ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Bela Bartok ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Press ◽  
Opera House ◽  
The Government

On 2 January 2012, a mass demonstration took place in Budapest in front of the Opera House. The rally was the culminating event in a series of street protests that had shaken Hungary during the previous months when many inhabitants of the Hungarian capital, along with their co-nationals elsewhere, felt increasingly uneasy with the symbolic politics initiated by the government of Viktor Orbán and his center-right FIDESZ Party. In particular, the crowd that collected in front of what is still Hungary's most representative institution of culture, on the main boulevard Andrássy út, protested against the inauguration of the new constitution that had come into force the previous day. Despite opposition inside and outside of Hungary, the ruling political elite comprising the prime minister and his political entourage celebrated the new constitution—and themselves—at a gala event in the opera house. A number of other celebratory events in connection with Hungary's new constitution were also staged, among them a controversial exhibition of paintings in the National Gallery, located to date in the Buda Palace, meant to highlight the most important events in recent Hungarian history. Inside the opera house, Orbán and his political supporters listened to a collection of works by, among others, Franz Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, and Béla Bartók, but the composition of the program was a matter of minor importance on that day. Instead, as he and his government representatives congratulated each other that night on their party's achievements in power, the crowd outside the opera house jeered in reference to Hungary's fall in international economic rankings and the methods of rule that they saw as authoritarian, if not dictatorial, and appealed to a wider international community, for example, with slogans such as, “Hey Europe, sorry about my Prime Minister.”

‘Gypsy music’ as music of the Other in European culture

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 395-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna G. Piotrowska
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Gypsy Music

scholarly journals Filozoficzno-historyczne zaplecze etyki biznesu

2018 ◽  
pp. 151-179
Author(s):  
Paweł Więckowski
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
European Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Culture ◽  
The 19Th Century

The text describes different philosophical concepts and historically important cultural phenomena that should be considered while rethinking ethical side of business. Broad range of both philosophical (such as the search for the foundations of morality, social contract) and social subjects (such as history of centralized state, individualism) is presented to help the reflections. The background for analysis is the history of culture, especially of primary collective society; contrasted with it is individualism of classical Athens with corresponding reaction of philosophers; development of state and Christianity in Roman Empire; organismic medieval state; Renaissance, reformation and the birth of capitalism; the Enlightenment breakthrough and English capitalism; liberalism and Darwinism of the 19th century; the catastrophe of European culture and success of America of the 20th century.

scholarly journals Impressionism as an Expression of Social Consciousness

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-90
Author(s):  
Natalia Stepanovna Kharitonova
Keyword(s):  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Artistic Values ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
19Th Century Art

The article is an attempt to comprehend the emergence and establishing of the Impressionism, to understand the reasons of the reappraisal of artistic values gradually taking place in public consciousness and answer the question how the social demand for a new artistic value was formed. The birth of the Impressionism as a cultural phenomenon resulted from an artists interpretation of objective reality, his relations with the society, nature, science, philosophy, religion. The Impressionism was one of the brightest events in the European culture of the mid-1800s which made a great impact on the subsequent development of art becoming the key moment in the transition of the 19th century art to the main artistic trends of the 20th century.

Homer in Modern Europe

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
PIM DEN BOER
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Reading Material ◽  
Nation States ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
The 19Th Century

Homer is considered the father of poetry in European culture, but the written Greek text of the Iliad and the Odyssey was for ages not available in modern Europe, and knowledge of Greek was almost completely lost. Homer entered European classrooms during the 19th century. The popularity of the Iliad and the Odyssey coincided with the creation of modern educational systems in European empires and nation-states. At the end of the 19th century Homer was considered perfect reading material for the formation of the future elite of the British Empire. In the course of the 20th century teachers and pedagogues became increasingly accustomed to perceive Homer and his society as totally different from our times. All reading of Homer is contemporary reading.

scholarly journals Traditional Fairy Tales and Shrek

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2 (18)) ◽  
pp. 116-125
Author(s):  
Vicky Tchaparian
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Special Structure ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The 19Th Century

Although Brothers Grimm collection of fairy tales have somehow the same cliché of plot, setting, and characters, in the fairy tale of Shrek the protagonist doesn’t follow this cliché. Shrek the protagonist is not a classical fairy tale of the handsome prince in quest of a beautiful princess; instead, he is an ogre. Grimm brothers wrote on text that they collected from the words of mouth giving the traditional tales a special structure and characters. However, compared to Grimm Brothers’ tales, Shrek the film, has a completely different structure and characters. In this paper I try to disclose the fact that Grimm folk tales which reveal the mentality of the 19th century as well as that of the earlier ages that belong to specific cultures (especially to the European culture and their mentality) are completely different than that of Shrek the film.

scholarly journals Wo manchmal die Gebeine bleichen

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-77
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Żuchowski
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
World War ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Nazi Occupation ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

The status of cemeteries in European culture is unique. Tombs with inscriptionsinforming about the names of the buried are peculiar examples of historical documentswhich persuasively illustrate the history of a given region by revealing thetruth about the nationality, religious beliefs, and social status of the buried. Thus,cemeteries become unique reservoirs of memory, sometimes turning into objects ofideologically biased interest and even destruction. That was the case of the Protestantcemeteries in Poland which suffered as a result of historical ideologization affectingthe regions formerly populated by Germans. A metaphorical account of thatprocess can be found in The Call of the Toad, a novel by Günter Grass.However, the problem is much more complicated. Since the 19th century changesin urban planning of European cities resulted in transforming cemeteries into parks.Various developments of this kind can be observed in Poznań, where till 1939 cemeterieswere connected to particular confessions, and, with an exception of the garrisoncemetery, there were no burying grounds open to all. The cemeteries which belongedto parishes and communities were taken over by the city and gradually transformedinto parks, except the historic ones (the Roman Catholic cemetery on Wzgórze Św.Wojciecha, the Protestant Holy Cross cemetery on Ogrodowa St., and the Jewishcemetery on Głogowska St.). Such changes required a proper waiting period from themoment of the burying ground’s closing to its final disappearance. Fifty years afterthe last burial a cemetery could be officially taken over by the city. Transformationswhich began at the beginning of the 20th century were continued in the 1930s, to becompleted in the 1950s.Under the Nazi occupation, the decrees of the administrator of the Warthegaumade it possible for the city to take over the confessional cemeteries (Roman Catholic,Jewish, and Protestant). Those regulations remained valid after World War II. TheCity Council took over Protestant and Jewish cemeteries, and removed some RomanCatholic ones. Some of them have been transformed into parks. Consequently, all theProtestant and Jewish cemeteries, and some Roman Catholic ones, disappeared fromthe city map in 1945–1973. Most of them have been changed into parks and squares.The Protestant cemeteries were considered German and the parks located on suchareas received significant names, e.g., Victory Park, Partisans’ Park, etc. Cemeterieswere often being closed in a hurry and until today on some construction sites contractorscan find human bones.

scholarly journals Social construction of “other” as “primitive”

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210
Author(s):  
Nikola Bozilovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Objective State ◽  
The 19Th Century

The author of this paper deals with the problem of cultural difference through the analysis of the relationship ?us? - ?others?. He searches for the answer to the question why the culture of other peoples or individuals are often considered inferior in many societies. This type of treatment leads to the extreme where the position of the ?other? is reduced to the level of ?primitive? (less valuable, lowly, and brutal). In such a context, the author analyzes theoretical concepts of the Enlightenment rationalism of the 18th century and the anthropological evolutionism of the 19th century, believing that the roots of the negative assessment of the ?other? can be found in them. Namely, the majority of these theories conduct a hierarchization of culture according to the time and value principles, from which peoples and cultures can be classified as ?primitive? and ?civilized?. European modernism provided the vision of history as one of linear growth, which led to modern cultures being a priori declared more valuable and culturally more sublime. However, modern cultures are also classified among themselves according to value principles. The differentiation of cultures is performed using various stereotypes, and the idea of progress as rational improvement in the sphere of material culture, science, and technology legitimizes the transformation of the different (other) into primitive. From this prejudice, according to the author, emerges the Eurocentric thought on the exclusiveness of the European culture, which latently justifies colonialism and other negative phenomena coming from the European civilization. Primitivism is being presented as an objective state, while it is, in fact, the case of a social construction which has the aim of proclaiming the ?other? as ?primitive?.

scholarly journals On the external standardization of the language of Serbs

2008 ◽  
pp. 365-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prvoslav Radic
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Language Characteristics ◽  
The One ◽  
Linguistic Engineering ◽  
The 19Th Century

The weakening of the SFRY (Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) which was followed by its dissolution, had an impact on a wide range of issues, one of them being the degradation of the so called Serbo-Croatian language. Not only did the external political influences contribute to the dissolution of the SFRY, but they also play a part in the linguistic profiling of new standard varieties today. However, as the dissolution of Yugoslavia couldn't have been imagined without consequences for Serbs primarily, the transformation of the 'Serbo-Croatian' language into a series of new language norms-successors of the old ones, cannot take place without challenging the rights of the great number of Serbs who live outside of Serbia. These are the rights that primarily refer to the linguistic and social identity - therefore the national identity. The best illustration of this are the external influences in the domain of linguistic engineering today, and these influences can basically be divided into extensive (e. g. commercials, radio and TV programmes) and intensive (textbooks, handbooks etc). The aim of this study is the analysis of those different kinds of pressures put on the standard variety of the language of Serbs. From the domain of the extensive influences (commercials) there is an example of the instruction given on a tube of toothpaste (Vademecum laboratories, Perfection 5 - Schwarzkopf & Henkel, Dusseldorf - Germany), and as an example of the intensive influences of this type, there is an American textbook (R. Alexander, E. Elias-Bursa} Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Textbook, With Exercises and Basic Grammar, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006). Both of these language materials proved to be highly compatible when it comes to the characteristics that should become an integral part of the standard language variety of Serbs, and apparently only the Serbs who live in Serbia. Among the language characteristics which are 'typically Serbian' the most prominent are: ekavian dialect ('lepa deca', not: 'lijepa djeca'), the 'da + prezent' construction ('moram da citam', not: 'moram citati'), the prepositional form 'sa' ('sa limunom', not: 's limunom'), as well as many other characteristics like interrogative sentences beginning with da li ('Da li si student?', not 'Jesi li student?') etc. As it follows the newly formed political borders in the area of the former SFRY, the contemporary linguistic engineering has engaged itself in creation of the new standard language varieties, including the one (or should we say, primarily the one) that belongs to the Serbs. However, the Serbs don't have the need for the re-standardization of their language (which became widely familiar to the European community since the 17th century, and it underwent the process of standardization at the beginning of the 19th century owing to the work of Vuk Karadzic) after the dissolution of SFRY, especially if it would be carried out from the outside and not take into account all the entities of this nation, e. g. the Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro etc. Because it is those Serbs who have always contributed significantly to the culture, science, and the overall identity of the Serbs generally, doing an immense favor to the European and even the world culture, and science in general. That is why the European culture - if it seeks to remain multiethnic and democratic - and other cultures similar to her, must allow the Serbs to preserve their cultural and national identity, wherever they may live - and the best proof of this will be its attitude towards the standard language variety which was established by Serbs almost two centuries ago.

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