Music in E minor

Music in the key of E minor is often said to have a plaintive, sad, and mystical character.  Charpentier describes this tone as "languid and sad." Mattheson states that it "produces a very thoughtful and sad state." More than that, it suitable for funeral music - although the story that Haydn asked for the slow movement of this symphony No. 44 in E minor to be played at his funeral, is apocryphal. But indeed, the slow movement from the E minor piano trio by Shostakovitch was played at his public funeral service held in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory!

E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F♯, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major.

The key of E minor is one of the easiest minor keys to play on the violin as the E string is the highest open string. Since it is also the lowest open string on the guitar, it is one of the preferred keys in guitar music, as well - therefore, it is a frequently used key in popular music.

In classical music, E minor is not exactly a popular key, especially in the 18th century (when minor keys were anyway rare), but the small number of works written in this key includes a surprising number of famous works. The number increases in the 19th / early 20th centuries. with concertos by Mendelssohn, Chopin and Elgar, and symphonies by Brahms, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky.

Characteristic works in E minor

Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 44 in E minor "Trauer" (1772)

This symphony has the nickname "Trauer" ("Mourning") because Haydn is said to have asked for its serene slow movement in E major to be played at his funeral - that doesn't seem to be a true story, but the movement was actually played at a memorial concert in Berlin in 1809. The work is typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress") period, with a powerfully brooding minor-mode insistence. Highly typical and yet fiercely original are the jagged unison opening, the subdued tension of the violin theme, and the outburst of imitative writing between first and second violins. The symphony has significant traits in common with Mozart's E minor violin sonata (see below). The construction of the work is tight and forceful. Though there is contrasting material in the opening movement, it does not sound like a second subject, so that the movement seems to be monothematic. The second movement is an ascetic minuet written as a canon at the octave; this is offset by a trio in E major in which tranquil violin thirds are eerily joined by a horn at the top of its register. The slow movement, with muted violins, flowing accompaniment and restless triplets, is an example of stasis conveyed by ceaseless activity. The intensity of the symphony boils over in the Finale, and here, too, a unison theme provides the material for the whole of the movement. It is quite contrapuntal, and ends in E minor rather than finishing in a major key as was usual in most other minor key works of the time. (Partly based on the liner notes by Nicholas Kenyon in the Archiv CD of this symphony).

This famous symphony explains why Haydn's minor works of the 'Sturm und Drang' period are of such high importance. The whole work is concise and concentrated - not one note is too many - and it maintains its mood of serious suffering with remarkable continuity. The symphony is also unusual in that the minuet precedes the slow movement. This basic pattern is found only in five other Haydn symphonies, all but one of which were composed early.

John Eliot Gardiner  
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violin Sonata No. 21 in E minor K. 304/300c (1778)

Composed in 1778 while Mozart was in Paris, during the same period that Mozart's mother, Anna Maria Mozart, died, and his love relationship with Aloysia Weber ended badly, something which is reflected in the sonata's mood. Both the austere character of its opening movement and the haunting nostalgia of its minuet-style finale make it quite different from other works by Mozart. The opening is a powerful unison of piano and violin playing in bare octaves. The harmonization of the theme occurs at the start of the recapitulation and is intensely chromatic. The sotto voce minuet theme of the second movement, with its descending bass line, carries an infinite feeling of melancholy. Even so, the theme is surpassed in expressive intensity by the movement’s major-mode middle section. Also the halting phrases of the coda seem stricken with grief.

Rebecca Raimondi violin, Alessandro Viale piano
Ardorè Duo

Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (1808)

This work is the second of three of Beethoven's "Rasumovsky" cycle of string quartets, a product of his "middle" period. Written in 1806, six years after the composer’s initial Op. 18 set, the Op. 59 String Quartets contain groundbreaking music. Formal boundaries are stretched and the four voices of the string quartet engage in a drama which reaches symphonic heights. Earlier chamber works were written for the entertainment of aristocratic amateur musicians. With this music, the string quartet moved decisively into the concert hall. Commissioned by Count Andreas Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, the Op. 59 trilogy was written for one of the first professional string quartets, led by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. The string quartet is set in a restless, tumultuous E minor. According to Carl Czerny, the second movement of the quartet occurred to Beethoven as he contemplated the starry sky and thought of the music of the spheres; it has a hymnlike quality. The scherzo movement of the quartet, the third movement (allegretto), uses a Russian folk song in a humorous and even sarcastic way. The final rondo is characterized by a dance-like theme that is almost entirely unaffected by sonata form. It has a "floating tonality," vacillating between the introductory C major chord and the E minor tonic, settling on the home key of E minor only after 50 measures.

The Dover Quartet includes:
Joel Link, violin
Bryan Lee, violin
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Camden Shaw, cello

Felix Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844)

The most popular of all violin concertos. Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to the violinist Ferdinand David, a close friend and then concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Although conceived in 1838, the work took another six years to complete and was not premiered until 1845. During this time, Mendelssohn maintained a regular correspondence with David, who gave him many suggestions.

Its unusual structural features - the absence of an initial orchestral tutti, and the linking of the movements (the first and second by a single bassoon note, the second and third by a quasi recitative) were copied by Schumann, Bruch and others. Mendelssohn also composed and wrote out the cadenza section, which until then had often been left to the player's discretion. Its appeal lies in its violinistic brilliance, its charm, the melodic sweetness of the tender andante, and the seemingly spontaneous ebullience of the finale.

Julia Fischer, violin; Vasily Petrenko, conductor; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

 

Frédéric Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (1830)

The piano concerto in E minor is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner, a celebrated pianist and composer in Chopin's day. The concerto had its premiere on October 11, 1830 in Warsaw, where Chopin himself played the soloist role as a 20-year-old composer and pianist. It was one of the last concerts Chopin gave in Poland before leaving for France.

Apart from the usual orchestral introduction, the concerto has a thinly instrumented orchestration, with the piano solo almost always in the foreground and the orchestra providing supportive accompaniment. In the concerto, one hardly sees the "titanic rivalry" or dialogue, as in the concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven, but rather the listener hears a poetically narrative and virtuoso pianist carried by a meticulously accompanying, serving orchestra. Chopin modeled his concertos after the works of Jan Ladislav Dussek and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, whose style he knew well.

Olga Scheps with the Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, conductor Agnieszka Duczmal.

Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op. 98 (1884)

A mournful, tragic color is heard in the opening movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony. From the start, the first movement feels the tow of strong passacaglia forms. The music is powerfully organic and continuously unfolding. Its sadness is enticing, its ending triumphant. The Andante moderato carries that feeling forward with some of the most heart-warming music Brahms ever wrote, while the dance movement turns to jubilation. One might indeed be forgiven to think this third movement to be a finale. And its finality reveals a special purpose: it allows much of the work of the symphony to be resolved before the last extraordinary movement begins. As a result, Brahms can relax, and glory in his Passacaglia with its conscious devotion to the Bach Chaconne (30 eight bar variations), its archaic power, its defiant optimism. And even this intellectual music is dramatic - if we must live with tragedy, it seems to say, we can at least defy it, overcome it with sheer mastery and an affirmative use of the musical tradition. This is the only one of Brahms' four symphonies to end in a minor key. It has been praised as "one of the greatest orchestral works since Beethoven.”

hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Antonín Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" in E minor Op 95 (1893)

When Antonín Dvořák set foot on American soil in 1892 to accept the appointment as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, he was already a world-renowned composer. With the 9th Symphony, written during his three-year stay in America, Dvořák created probably his most popular symphonic work. Although Dvořák had taken on the task as conductor and teacher of raising a young generation of musicians who would develop a national American musical style, his 9th Symphony is by no means American music, although some influences are  evident in the harmonic and rhythmic idiosyncrasies of the symphony. For example, the English horn melody of the 2nd movement is based on the semitone-less five-note scale of the pentatonic, which was common in Native American music. (More important, however, is the major role Longfellow's poetry about Hiawatha - that is, the chief who founded the Iroquois Confederacy of Indians - plays in the symphony, see below). Rhythmically, the syncopations typical of spirituals also stand out (1st and 3rd main themes of the 1st movement). In addition, however, the Bohemian musician is unmistakably evident with his tonal language rooted in native folk music, as in the cozy Ländler of the Scherzo Trio.

The themes of the corner movements are short and concise and cyclically subordinate to the above-mentioned basic conception: The 1st main theme of the 1st movement appears in all the following movements. In the finale, the main themes of the 2nd and 3rd movements are also worked in a suggestive manner.

1st movement: Adagio - Allegro molto
The first movement begins with a wistful, slow introduction. The Allegro, which gradually develops through a unison of strings and hard timpani beats, is filled with rousing momentum. The main theme rises in the horns and is immediately taken up by the entire orchestra. A second theme first appears in the woodwinds before it is heightened and rhythmically altered. Of the same character, a secondary theme appears in the flute, which seeks to unite the two themes. Both themes are developed in detail. The coda bursts in with elemental force and ends the movement in thunderous E minor.

2nd movement: Largo
The second movement was described by the composer as a dirge inspired by a scene from Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha". In painful melancholy, the English horn sings the main melody with which this movement begins and ends in sublime calm. A new thought emerges and is effectively accompanied by string tremolos. This somewhat faster theme, also chant-like, is finally cleverly joined with the dirge melody. A little later, a serene flute melody reminiscent of birdsong triggers a change in mood that is immediately interrupted by the main theme of the first movement bursting forth. The cor anglais again carries the main theme of the largo, with which the dirge fades away.

3rd movement: Scherzo, molto vivace
The Scherzo begins with a rhythmically striking theme that prepares the Indians' festive dance for Hiawatha's wedding. Again, a scene from Longfellow's epic is musically recreated. Yet the music is in reality is Bohemian and folk-like. The scherzo has a lyrical middle section and is thus more intricately constructed than Dvořák's other scherzos, resembling a formal model also used by Anton Bruckner. Between the scherzo and the trio, the main theme of the first movement echoes quietly and ominously in the low strings. The trio section consists of a graceful waltz melody that is typically Czech in its erratic rhythm. Shortly before the end, the main theme of the first movement reasserts itself with all its might.

4th movement: Allegro con fuoco
The last movement is filled with a dynamic that Dvořák had probably only achieved before in his 7th Symphony. The full orchestra delivers the march-like, energetic main theme, which announces pathetically the "New World." The second theme in the clarinets, on the other hand, expresses Dvořák's longing for his fatherland. No sooner does it fade away than the action comes to a head, and the first theme continues to assert itself. It is subsequently reworked in a variety of ways; in this process, motives from the first three movements appear again and again. An orchestral tutti then blasts out the main theme almost violently, a process that almost brings the musical action to a halt and is continued by the second theme. Once again, the main theme breaks its stride, leading the movement to an all-consuming climax, which, after a final pause, is followed by the triumphant coda. The movement ends with a few chords, the last of which is sustained by the winds, resulting in a slow fade instead of an abrupt ending.

Edward Elgar, Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919)

Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, when his music had already gone out of fashion with the concert-going public. In contrast with Elgar's earlier Violin Concerto, which is lyrical and passionate, the Cello Concerto is for the most part contemplative and elegiac - as suits the key of E minor.

The October 1919 premiere was a debacle because Elgar and the performers had been deprived of adequate rehearsal time. The work did not achieve wide popularity until the 1960s, when a recording by Jacqueline du Pré caught the public imagination and became a classical best-seller.

1st movement Adagio - Moderato 4/4 time → 9/8 time in E minor. Free sonata form.
The concerto opens with a tragic cadenza by the solo cello in E minor with many heavy notes, an unusual beginning for a cello concerto. This cadenza is an important element that dominates the entire movement and serves as a kind of circular theme. The main theme is derived and developed from this cadenza.

Second movement Lento - Allegro molto 4/4 time G major
The second movement opens with a fast crescendo with pizzicato chords in the cello. Then, the solo cello plays what will be the main motive of the Allegro molto section. Since the first and second movements are connected by an attacca, the conclusion of this movement also marks the end of the first movement.

Third movement Adagio in 3/8 time in B flat major
This adagio has a traditional song form, which is unusual for this piece where a pessimistic atmosphere dominates. However, it does not shake off the pathetic atmosphere of the previous movement.

Fourth movement Allegro - Moderato - Allegro, ma non troppo 2/4 time in E minor
This finale integrates the elements of the previous movements, and is a very contrasting movement in two-part form. The first half is structured like a rondo form, with a light theme dominating. In the second half, the speed is slowed down, and the theme of the third movement is repeated in the last part of the movement. The very short coda begins with a reproduction of the opening of the first movement and ends violently with the main theme of the rondo and a final chord in E minor.

Listen to Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Truls Mørk:




       

Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 (1942-43)

Shostakovich began writing the trio during the December of 1943. Several days before completing the piece's first movement, Shostakovich's good friend Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, died at age 41. Sollertinsky's death affected Shostakovich deeply, and he decided to dedicate the trio to his friend's memory. In the following months Shostakovich suffered from periods of depression and struggled to compose, at one point writing "it seems to me that I will never be able to compose another note again". He only finished writing the work later that year, completing the second movement by 4 August 1944 and the fourth by 13 August. The work received its premiere in Leningrad on 14 November 1944, with the composer at the piano alongside Dmitri Tsyganov and Sergei Shirinsky, members of the Beethoven Quartet.

1. Andante — Moderato
The first movement, in E minor, begins with a haunting passage in the cello, which plays exclusively harmonics. It is joined by the violin and then the piano, all three instruments playing in canon. This slow first section of the movement undergoes development before the music moves into the faster Moderato section, which is in sonata form. The melodic and rhythmic features of this section's first and second themes are in essence based upon motifs introduced in the opening, and are played alongside an rhythmic "eighth-note pulsation", an accompaniment which returns in the piece's fourth movement. The movement comes to a head in the climactic recapitulation, before it recedes in the final bars, closing quietly. Throughout the movement, G major, the relative major key, serves, in a conventional manner, as the key of the second theme of the Moderato; however, the keys of B-flat major and B-flat minor, a tritone from the tonic, also play a particularly notable role in the movement's modulations.

2. Allegro con brio
The second movement, in F-sharp major, is a frenzied, sardonic scherzo which moves relentlessly through dissonant figurations, never resting. The movement's trio section, in G major, is a "giddy waltz". Sollertinsky's sister considered the movement to be "an amazingly exact portrait" of her brother, whom she said Shostakovich "understood like no one else".

3. Largo
The third movement, in B-flat minor, is a lugubrious passacaglia, based around a repeating eight-bar theme of sustained semibreve chords in the piano, tonally unstable in character. Against this background, the violin and cello, playing in canon, trade off dark, slow, and somber melodic lines. The movement ends with an attacca marking, continuing into the next movement without a pause. In 1975, after Shostakovich's death, this movement was played at his public funeral service held in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, as thousands passed his coffin.

4. Allegretto — Adagio
The piece's fourth and final movement begins in E major and transitions to E minor. Staccato repeated notes begin this "Dance of Death" movement, which introduces a Jewish-style melody, and revisits the thematic content of the previous three movements. It ends in a tortured E major chord, almost inaudibly. Ian MacDonald says in his book The New Shostakovich that the movement was inspired by the composer's horror at reports that SS guards in Nazi death camps had forced Jews to dance by their own graves.

Martha Argerich, Edgar Moreau, Renaud Capuçon
  




[Incorporates technical sections of the relevant public domain articles from either the Japanese, Dutch, German or English Wikipedia]

Carl Nielsen Best Music

Nielsen: "Antithesis of Romanticism"

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is the most influential figure in Danish music. His fame - both nationally and internationally - is based on the complex and modern music he wrote for the concert hall; in addition, his songs based on Danish folk traditions are particularly appreciated in the country of his birth, although they are virtually unknown abroad.

Raised on the island of Funen (near Odessa), the young Carl Nielsen spent a few years as an army trumpeter before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he studied violin and composition with Niels Gade and Hartmann, among others. After graduating from the Academy, Nielsen played violin in the Royal Danish Orchestra from 1886 to 1905. He then served as Kapellmeister at the Royal Theater (1908-14) and conductor of the Copenhagen Musical Society (1915-27), and from 1915 he taught at the Royal Conservatory, where he became director in 1931, shortly before his death.

In 1891, Nielsen married the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Brodersen in a relationship that was a "meeting of minds." Anne Marie was a gifted artist and a "strong-willed and modern woman, determined to make her own career. After her husband's death, she sculpted the Nielsen Monument in Copenhagen. Their daughter Anne Marie married the Hungarian conductor and violinist Emil Telmányi, who was instrumental in promoting Nielsen's music both as a violinist and as a conductor.

Nielsen's early music is still rooted in the 19th century, but his later style is a powerful fusion of chromatic and often dissonant harmony, solid contrapuntal structure, concentrated motivic treatment, and bold extensions of tonality with frequent polytonal passages. His personal style is the antithesis of Romanticism, perhaps a little dry, but also infused with humor. But there is also a certain hardness and stiffness in his music that makes it difficult for some listeners (not the writer - I am a great fan of Nielsen's music!) to feel close to it - unlike the mysterious and melodious music of that other great Northern European composer, Sibelius.

[Carl Nielsen in 1917]

Symphonies

Outside of Denmark, Nielsen is most closely associated with his six symphonies, powerful works that feature decisively articulated tonal progressions, written between 1892 and 1925. The works have much in common: they are all just over 30 minutes long, brass instruments are a key component of the orchestration, and they all feature unusual changes in tonality that heighten the dramatic tension. Symphony No. 1 (1890-92), while reflecting the influence of Grieg and Brahms, shows Nielsen's individuality from its opening bars. In Symphony No. 2 (1901-02), Nielsen embarks on a description of human personality, inspired by a painting of the four temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine). Symphony No. 3, "Sinfonia Espansiva" (1910-11), exploits Nielsen's technique of juxtaposing two keys, and includes a peaceful section with a wordless chorus. Symphony No. 4, "The Inextinguishable" (1914-16), written during World War I, is one of the most frequently performed of the symphonies. In the final movement, two sets of timpani are placed on opposite sides of the stage and engage in a kind of musical duel. Nielsen described the symphony as "the life force, the unquenchable will to live. Also frequently performed is Symphony No. 5 (1921-22), which presents another battle between the forces of order and chaos. A snare drummer is given the task of interrupting the orchestra, playing "ad libitum" and out of time, as if to destroy the music. In Symphony No. 6 (1924-25), "Sinfonia Semplice," the tonal language seems similar to that of Nielsen's other symphonies, but the symphony develops into a series of cameos, some sad, some grotesque, some humorous.

I have already discussed the Fifth Symphony in my article "Best Symphonies from the Twentieth Century, Part One," so here I'll take a closer look at the Sixth Symphony.

Symphony No 6 "Sinfonia Semplice"

The sixth and final symphony, Sinfonia semplice, was written in 1924-25 and is a strangely oblique and fascinating work. It is emotionally ambiguous and complex - although the music itself is not at all difficult. The textures are very spare. The first movement is as anti-heroic as they come, oscillating between outrageous humor and at times almost menacing drama. The "modern music" of the second movement mocks and derides the avant-garde, turning it into a circus act that amuses and disturbs. The Bartokian nature of the intense string fugue gives the third movement (called "Serious Proposition") a powerful but enigmatic atmosphere. The "Theme and Variations" of the final movement all too easily dissolves into chamber music or passages of extreme elegiac expressiveness, the elements of which refuse to coalesce into any kind of wholeness. As Nielsen said, the bizarre variation with tuba and percussion represents "death knocking at the door," but the following fanfares seem a death-defying gesture. The symphony ends with two bassoons playing powerfully at their lowest pitch, as if giving the finger to death.

 

Listen to the hr-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Paavo Järvi:

Concertos

Nielsen wrote three concertos: the Violin Concerto, Op. 33, is a mid-period work from 1911, in the tradition of European classicism, while the Flute Concerto of 1926 and the Clarinet Concerto that followed in 1928 are late works influenced by the modernism of the 1920s. In contrast to Nielsen's later works, the Violin Concerto has a distinctly melody-oriented neoclassical structure. The two-movement Flute Concerto was written for flutist Holger Gilbert-Jespersen, a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, which premiered Nielsen's Wind Quintet. In contrast to the more traditional style of the Violin Concerto, it reflects the modernist trends of the time. The first movement, for example, alternates between D minor, E-flat minor, and F major before the flute enters with a cantabile theme in E major. The Clarinet Concerto was also written for a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, Aage Oxenvad. Nielsen stretches the capabilities of the instrument and the player to the limit; the concerto has only one continuous movement and contains a struggle between the soloist and the orchestra and between the two main competing keys.

Clarinet Concerto

Carl Nielsen's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra op. 57 was composed between April and August 1928 and expresses the essence and expressive potential of the clarinet with a small orchestra and snare drum playing with and against each other.
and against each other. In addition to the instrument itself, Carl Nielsen was inspired by the person for whom the work was intended: the unique and spirited clarinetist Aage Oxenvad, a member of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet and a participant in the very first performance of Nielsen's Wind Quintet (see below).

Eschewing the large classical concerto form, Nielsen has cast the Clarinet Concerto in one continuous movement. It begins with a firm Allegretto un poco, relieved by a somewhat more songful second theme. There are many stormy exchanges between the soloist and the orchestra, and between the two main competing keys, F major and E major. Each time hostilities seem to be at an end, a snare drum incites the combatants to renewed conflict. A poco adagio follows, interrupted several times by faster, more disturbed sections. The final section is an energetic Allegro vivace, but a return to the Adagio brings the work to a conclusion of calm austerity, with the key of F major ultimately triumphant.

Listen to Sebastian Manz with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart directed by Herbert Blomstedt:

Orchestral Music

Nielsen's first work composed specifically for orchestra was the immediately successful Suite for Strings (1888), which evoked Scandinavian Romanticism as expressed by Grieg and Svendsen. The work marked an important milestone in Nielsen's career, as not only was it his first real success, but it was also the first of his works that he conducted himself when it was performed in Odense a month later.

The Helios Overture (1903) dates from Nielsen's stay in Athens, which inspired him to compose a work depicting the rising and setting of the sun over the Aegean Sea. The score is a showpiece for orchestra and is one of Nielsen's most popular works. Saga-Drøm (Saga Dream, 1907-08) is a tone poem for orchestra based on the Icelandic saga Njal's Saga. At the Beer of a Young Artist (Ved en ung Kunstners Baare) for string orchestra was written for the funeral of the Danish painter Oluf Hartmann in January 1910 and was also played at Nielsen's own funeral. Pan and Syrinx (Pan og Syrinx), a powerful nine-minute symphonic poem inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, was premiered in 1911. The rhapsodic overture, "An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands" (En Fantasirejse til Færøerne), draws on Faroese folk tunes but also includes freely composed sections.

Nielsen's orchestral works for the stage include Aladdin (1919) and Moderen (The Mother, 1920). Aladdin was written to accompany a production of Adam Oehlenschläger's fairy tale at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Moderen, written to celebrate the reunification of South Jutland with Denmark, was first performed in 1921; it is a setting of patriotic verses written for the occasion.

Aladdin, Suite for Orchestra, Op 34

Aladdin is a "dramatic fairy tale" in verse, in a prologue and five acts, based on The Arabian Nights, written in 1805 by Adam Oehlenschläger (along with Ludvig Holberg, the foremost Danish dramatist - their statues still flank the entrance to the Royal Theatre). It is the most extensive of Nielsen's scores for the theater, and with some 80-85 minutes of music, it is his largest work overall, apart from his two operas. It is also one of his most inventive scores, and the musical language he developed for the exotic dances and depictions of good and evil greatly enriched his style and exerted a strong influence, for example, on his Fifth Symphony of 1921-1922. Nielsen frequently conducted orchestral excerpts from Aladdin, both in Denmark and abroad, always to great popular acclaim. His supporters believed that his music for Aladdin could eventually do for his reputation what Peer Gynt had done for Grieg. The three solo songs from Aladdin were published in 1919, followed in 1926 by a suite of four orchestral pieces arranged for small orchestra. In 1940, to coincide with a new production of the drama using Nielsen's music, a definitive suite of seven pieces was published, which has since been widely performed and recorded.

Listen to the  hr-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Constantinos Carydis:

 

Chamber Music 

String Quartets

Nielsen wrote four string quartets. The First String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 (1889, revised 1900) contains a "Résumé" section in the finale, bringing together themes from the first, third and fourth movements. The Second String Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 5 appeared in 1890 and the Third String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 14 in 1898.  The Fourth String Quartet in F major (1904) initially received a mixed reception, with critics unsure of its restrained style. Nielsen revised it several times, the final version in 1919 being listed as his Op. 44.

String Quartet in F major Op 44 (1919)

Carl Nielsen's String Quartet No. 4 in F major was composed between February and July 1906, after one of Nielsen's major dramatic works, the comic opera Maskarade. The last of Nielsen's four string quartets, its first public performance took place in Copenhagen on November 30, 1907. The quartet was originally titled "Piacevolezza" after the first movement, which was marked Allegro piacevolo ed indolente (Pleasant and Lazy). In the revised 1919 edition, the movement was renamed Allegro non tanto e comodo and the title was dropped.

The opening movement, Allegro non tanto e comodo, is a perfect example of the studied nonchalance of a composer who was an expert at creating music of a certain character whenever he chose. Note the polyphonic dexterity with which the composer expresses himself, and the cheerful bird chirping that gives the piece its own tone. The second movement, Adagio con sentimentio religioso, shows Nielsen's interest in music for Denmark's national songs. It is evocative cathedral music. The third movement, Allegretto moderato ed innocento, is a graceful scherzo full of surprises. Beginning quietly, the theme is interrupted by a forte glissando that leads into a charming rondo. The Trio begins with a pleasant melody in the cello, followed by a brief dramatic crescendo, before ending with the main theme. The finale, introduced by a brief Molto adagio, moves into an Allegro non tanto, ma molto scherzoso, which forms the main section. The lyrical, lighthearted second theme is perhaps the most telling part of the work, ending in full harmony.

It is a pity, however, that Nielsen wrote only string quartets (and a string quintet) in the early years of his career - I would have liked to see how his style would have developed in his later mature phase.

For another discussion of this string quartet, see my blog article Best String Quartets Part 3.

Listen to the Akela String Quartet:

My blog article Best String Quintets contains a discussion of Nielsen's 1888 string quintet, a very harmonious work.

Violin Sonatas

The violin was Nielsen's own instrument, and he composed two major chamber works for it. The departures from standard procedures in the First Sonata, Op. 9 (1895), including its often sudden modulations and terse thematic material, unsettled Danish critics at its first performance. The Second Sonata, Op. 35 of 1912 was written for the violinist Peder Møller, who had premiered the composer's Violin Concerto earlier that year. The work is an example of the composer's progressive tonality, for although it is in G minor, the first and last movements end in different keys.

Violin Sonata No 2 Op 35 in G minor

Nielsen's Second Violin Sonata was composed in 1912. It is a darker affair than the First Violin Sonata and contains more dissonance than its predecessor. There are echoes of the Third Symphony, but there is none of the composer's self-confidence in that symphony, and it does not reveal its secrets as easily.

It is in three movements. The opening movement, Allegro con tiepidezza, begins gently, with a pastoral calm. However, it is quickly followed by a powerful risoluto section. This is followed by a quieter and more lyrical section, and this remains the pattern throughout this substantial movement. There is a note of tragedy in the second movement of the sonata before it becomes more lyrical, even wistful. There are also loud chords in the piano, with the violin "screaming" above them, indicating that all is not well, before the movement ends quietly and peacefully in major. The movement has a powerful, schizophrenic character. The flowing main theme of the finale, another Allegro piacevole, breaks the mood and provides the necessary contrast before becoming agitated with fast, repeated notes in the piano with the singing violin above. The G minor Sonata is probably Nielsen's most frequently performed violin work abroad, thanks in part to Telmányi's dedication to the piece, which he called "a work without equal in the sonata literature. Both he and Nielsen themselves considered the second movement to be particularly unique.

Listen to Christine Pryn and Manuel Esperilla play Carl Nielsen's 2nd sonata:

Music for Winds

The Wind Quintet, one of Nielsen's most popular pieces, was composed in 1922 for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. It was deliberately composed for the five members of that Quintet, each part cleverly made to suit the individuality of each player.

Wind Quintet Op 43

The Wind Quintet is one of the composer's last works in which he attempted to express the characters of the various instruments. At one moment they are all speaking at once, at another they are all alone. The work consists of three movements: a) Allegro, b) Minuet, and c) Prelude - Theme with Variations. The theme for these variations is the melody of one of Carl Nielsen's hymns, which is used here as the basis for a series of variations, at times merry and whimsical, at times elegiac and serious, ending with the theme in all its simplicity and very quietly expressed. Overall, the piece combines aspects of neoclassicism and modernism.

Listen to Denmark's best known woodwind quintet CARION:

Music for Piano

Over a period of 40 years, Nielsen composed only occasionally for the piano (he does not seem to have been a great pianist himself - he was more of a violinist and started out as a trumpeter). The 8 major piano works he wrote can be divided into shorter character works (the Five Piano Pieces Op. 3, the Bagatelles Op. 11, and the delightful teaching pieces that make up Piano Music for Young and Old Op. 53), and the more important (anti-Romantic) works in which Nielsen's individual style comes through (the Symphonic Suite Op. 8, the Chaconne Op. 12, and the large-scale Theme and Variations Op. 40 (arguably Nielsen's greatest piano work, the Suite Op. 45, and finally the Three Pieces Op. 59).

Theme and Variations

In Theme and Variations, Op. 40, critics have recognized the influences of Brahms and also of Max Reger, of whom Nielsen had previously written to a friend: "I think that the public will not be able to grasp Reger's work at all, and yet I am much more sympathetic to his efforts than to those of Richard Strauss.

Here is Theme and Variations played by the Ukrainian pianist Mariya Orlenko:

 

Music for Organ

Commotio

Nielsen's organ works were late compositions. Nielsen's last major work – Commotio, Op. 58, a 22-minute piece for organ – was composed between June 1930 and February 1931, only a few months before his death.

Here it is played by Nils Henrik Asheim (with dance by Lene Aareskjold) on the Stavanger Konserthus Orgel:

 

 

Operas

Nielsen's two operas are very different in style. The four-act Saul and David, written in 1902 to a libretto by Einar Christiansen, tells the biblical story of Saul's jealousy of the young David, while Maskarade is a comic opera in three acts, written in 1906 to a Danish libretto by Vilhelm Andersen, based on the comedy by Ludvig Holberg. Saul and David received a negative press when it premiered in November 1902, and did no better when it was revived in 1904. In contrast, Masquerade was a resounding success in November 1906, with an extraordinary run of 25 performances in its first four months. Generally regarded as Denmark's national opera, it has enjoyed enduring success and popularity in its home country, thanks to its many strophic songs, its dances and its underlying "old Copenhagen" atmosphere.

Maskarade Overture played by Danish National Symphony Orchestra with Fabio Luisi:

*****

The Carl Nielsen Society maintains a list of performances of Nielsen's works by region (Denmark, Scandinavia, Europe outside Scandinavia, and outside Europe), which shows that his music is regularly performed throughout the world. The concertos and symphonies appear frequently in these lists.

The Carl Nielsen International Competition began in the 1970s under the auspices of the Odense Symphony Orchestra. A violin competition has been held there every four years since 1980.

In his native country, the Carl Nielsen Museum, in Odense, is dedicated to Nielsen and his wife, Anne Marie.

[Contains edited text from the relevant articles about Nielsen in the English and Dutch Wikipedia]

 

Mariana by Millais (1851)

The painting depicts a woman in a long dark blue dress, rising from the embroidery on a worktable in front of her to stretch her back. Tired, she supports her lower back with her hands and leans back as she stretches, resulting in an unconsciously sensual posture. Her face is pale and her eyes are closed. Her red upholstered stool and desk are placed in front of a Gothic stained-glass window looking out onto a garden, the leaves of which are changing from green to autumnal brown. Some leaves have drifted into the room and fallen on the embroidery, and more on the bare wooden floorboards (where we also see a small mouse). In the background, a small triptych, a silver casket, and candles have been placed as a devotional altar on a white cloth-covered piece of furniture next to the curtain of a bed. The interior is richly decorated.

[Mariana by John Everett Millais]

What are we seeing?

Mariana, by the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, is a small oil-on-panel painting (59.7 x 49.5 cm). In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure Mariana was a woman about to be married, but rejected by her fiancé, Angelo, when her dowry was lost in a shipwreck. She retreated to a solitary existence in a moated house. Five years later, Angelo was tricked into consummating their betrothal. Tennyson retold the story in his 1830 poem "Mariana" and returned to it in his 1832 poem "Mariana in the South". He described how Mariana, tormented by longing for her former lover, sought solace in devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Like many other Pre-Raphaelites, Millais was inspired by English Romantic literature, especially Shakespeare, Keats, and Tennyson. When he first exhibited his Mariana at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1851, he included the last stanza of Tennyson's poem:

The sparrow's chirrup on the roof,
The slow clock ticking, and the sound,
Which to the whooping wind aloft
The poplar made, did all the confounding
Her sense; but most she loathed the hour
When the thick-moved sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping toward his western bower.
Then she said, "I am very afraid,
He will not come", she said;
She whimpers, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh God, that I was dead!"

Like Tennyson in his poem, Millais attempts to capture Mariana's inner turmoil - the tension between her physical desires and her intense sadness is expressed in her posture. She wearily supports her lower back with her hands. Her unconsciously sensual posture suggests her unsatisfied sexual desire. At the same time she radiates a certain lethargy that underscores her despair and frustration.

Characteristic of Millais's Pre-Raphaelite style is his use of bold, contrasting colors and his hyper-realistic attention to detail, full of medieval symbolism. The snowdrop in the heraldic window reflects Mariana's virginity. The autumn leaves indicate the passage of time and the transience of beauty. The stained glass windows are based on those in Merton College Chapel in Oxford and represent the Annunciation. Mariana's devotion, but also her boredom, is strongly symbolized by the embroidery she is working on, which is almost finished. The needle has just been inserted, suggesting that the work has been interrupted with a certain abruptness.

Millais's painting differs from Tennyson's narrative in the following: Millais's Mariana is placed in a scene filled with vibrant colors; she is not the forlorn woman described by Tennyson, unwilling to live an independent life, confined to a dilapidated retreat.

The painting has been in the Tate Britain in London since 1999. It was previously in the private collection of the British diplomat and Baron Roger Makins.

John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais (1829 - 1896) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and one of the most successful painters of Victorian Britain. He was descended from an old Jersey family. In 1840, at the age of eleven, Millais was admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts Schools, becoming the youngest student ever to attend that school. There he met Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. With them he founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848.

Important works from this period include Christ in the House of His Parents from 1850, which was criticized for depicting the Holy Family as hard-working people in poor conditions. Millais took the criticism to heart and would henceforth choose less controversial subjects. He received more praise for his Ophelia of 1852, inspired by the character of the same name in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Elizabeth Siddal as the model.

[Ophelia (1852) - The painting depicts Ophelia floating in a river just before she drowns. Ophelia's pose - her open arms and upwards gaze - resembles traditional portrayals of saints or martyrs, but has also been interpreted as erotic.  The "vulnerable woman" was a popular subject among Pre-Raphaelite artists. Millais had his model, Elizabeth Siddall, lie fully clothed in a bathtub in his studio. As it was winter, and the water gradually become colder, she caught a severe cold. The lush vegetation was painted by Millais on an outside location, along the banks of the Hogsmill River in Surrey.]

The Pre-Raphaelites had an important supporter in the art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900). Millais thus came into contact with Ruskin's wife, Effie Gray, who was unhappy with her husband. This led to an affair between Millais and Effie in 1853. The next year, Effie left her husband and the marriage was annulled. In 1855, Millais and Effie married. They had eight children.

Millais' career was very successful socially. In 1853, he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Arts. Millais exhibited at the Great Exhibitions in London and Paris, received the Légion d'honneur (1878), an honorary doctorate from Oxford (1880), and in 1885 became the first British artist to be created a baronet. In 1896, Millais succeeded Frederic Leighton as president of the Royal Academy, but he died a few months later. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

[Incorporates some translated and edited texts from the English and Dutch Wikipedia articles on this subject]

Paintings and their stories:

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli 

The Nightmare by Fuseli

Suzanna and the Elders by Gentileschi

Jupiter and Io by Coreggio

The Pretty Horsebreaker by Landseer

Girl in a white kimono by Breitner

Lady Godiva by Collier

The Roses of Heliogabalus by Alma-Tadema

Saint George and the Dragon by Uccello

Proserpine by Rosetti 

The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse

Judith and Holofernes by Klimt

Nana by Manet

Symphony in White, No. 2, by Whistler

Venus with a Mirror by Titian 

 

Portrait of Madame X by Sargent

 

The Procuress by Gerard van Honthorst 

 

Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo 

The Appearance of an Upper Class Wife of the Meiji Era: Out for a Walk, by Yoshitoshi 

The Swing by Fragonard

Mariana by Millais

The Swing by Fragonard (1767)

The Swing by Fragonard depicts an elegantly dressed young woman on a swing. The young woman is illuminated by the soft light coming from above, and the trees form an oval frame around her. She is wearing a shepherdess's hat, and as she flies through the air on the swing, she seems to give in to frivolous abandon, her slipper flying off her left foot in the heat of the moment and hanging in the air. The slipper provides a visual focus in the splash of sunlight that falls on it, emphasizing the erotic qualities of this painting. A smiling young man, hidden in the lush bushes below and to the left, extends one arm (hat in hand) toward her billowing dress, his other arm keeping him balanced. Apparently, he is peering up her skirt - what modern viewers may not know is that 18th-century women did not wear underpants, a custom that did not emerge until the 19th century (the same situation existed in Japan, where women - including geisha - never used underwear until later in the 20th century). A smiling older man, almost hidden in the shadows on the right, is driving the swing with a pair of ropes. We also see two statues: one of Cupid watching the young man on the left from above with his finger in front of his lips (as if guarding an amorous secret), the other of two cherubs (putti) on the left beside the older man.

 

[The Swing by Fragonard (1767)]

What are we seeing?

This naughty painting dates from the heady Rococo decades just before the French Revolution, when aristocrats (who would soon lose their heads) engaged in the frivolous games so aptly described in a novel such as Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos.

According to the memoirs of the playwright Charles Collé, the notorious French libertine Baron de St. Julien asked Gabriel François Doyen to paint him and his mistress. He wanted to be painted peeping at his mistress's legs as she sat on a swing and was being pushed by a bishop. Doyen, not comfortable with this frivolous arrangement, refused and passed the commission on to Fragonard. Fragonard dropped the perverse desire for a bishop and instead painted an older man, apparently the (cuckolded?) husband of the lady on the swing. The husband plays a subordinate role, almost hidden in shadow, while the peeping baron is illuminated under the lady's dress. Fragonard used a delicate pastel palette of frothy creams, juicy pinks, and minty greens. The result is the most iconic work of the French Rococo period.

The painting is in the Wallace Collection in London. It is considered Fragonard's most famous work.

Speaking of falling heads, one of the first owners of The Swing actually died on the guillotine in 1794. The work was then confiscated by the revolutionary government. It may have belonged to the Marquis des Razins de Saint-Marc and certainly to the Duc de Morny. After the latter's death in 1865, it was purchased at an auction in Paris by Lord Hertford, the principal founder of the Wallace Collection.

There are two notable copies, neither by Fragonard: one, once owned by Edmond James de Rothschild, depicts the woman in a blue dress; the other, a smaller version (56 × 46 cm), belonged to Duke Jules de Polignac. This painting passed into the possession of the Grimaldi family in 1930 and was donated to the City of Versailles in 1966, where it is currently exhibited in the Musée Lambinet. It has been attributed to Fragonard's workshop.

Rococo

The style period Rococo reached its peak between 1730 and 1760. The name is derived from the French word rocaille, an asymmetrical shell motif that was widely used in the 18th-century Baroque, especially in applied art.

The style emerged in France and Italy as a reaction to the strict classicist Baroque of around 1700. The subsequent rococo style, ushered in by the Regency, embodied a refined sense of the arts in a society that valued elegance, artifice and light-hearted wit.

Highlights of this style period include the airy painted scenes of Watteau, Fragonard, Boucher and Tiepolo, the exuberant South German rococo churches, some very richly decorated palaces in France, Germany and Austria (some with rococo gardens) and the elegant French furniture, clocks, tableware and silverware from this period.

[The Lock, by Fragonard]

Fragonard

The French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) came to Paris with his parents in 1738, where he was apprenticed in the late 1740s, first to Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin and then (from 1749) to François Boucher. He stayed in Rome from 1756 to 1761 and in Naples in 1761. He also visited the northern Netherlands twice. In 1773, he traveled to Italy with his patron Bergeret de Grandcourt, a journey Fragonard recorded in several drawings. Fragonard married the miniaturist Marie-Anne Gérard in 1769. Their son also became a painter.

[The Secret Meeting by Fragonard (1771), Frick Collection, New York]

Fragonard's use of eroticism in his work has much in common with that of Boucher, but his style and use of color are strongly influenced by Peter Paul Rubens. Fragonard's paintings are overflowing with shades of cream and pink, but are clearly more than light entertainment. Obsessed with light and color, Fragonard sought to capture the flicker and movement of light on the surface of fabrics and objects. He developed a style that anticipated the Impressionism of the 19th century.

Portrait of a Lady

In 1920, influenced by Fragonard's The Swing, William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) wrote the poem "Portrait of a Lady".

Your thighs are appletrees
whose blossoms touch the sky.
Which sky? The sky
where Watteau hung a lady's
slipper. Your knees
are a southern breeze -- or
a gust of snow. Agh! what
sort of man was Fragonard?
-- As if that answered
anything. -- Ah, yes. Below
the knees, since the tune
drops that way, it is
one of those white summer days,
the tall grass of your ankles
flickers upon the shore --
Which shore? --
the sand clings to my lips --
Which shore?
Agh, petals maybe. How
should I know?
Which shore? Which shore?
-- the petals from some hidden
appletree -- Which shore?
I said petals from an appletree.

Like the painting, this is a very erotic poem. Although it is called a "portrait," only the lower parts of the lady's body are shown. The speaker begins at the subject's thighs and works his way down the body, describing the knees and ankles as he observes them. He completely ignores the subject's face, although this is supposed to be a "portrait." . When the speaker asks, "What / sort of man was Fragonard," he implies an interest in the Frenchman's sexual preferences, perhaps wondering if Fragonard was a voyeur. This poem also has possible sexual overtones in that it speaks of blossoming apple trees and sand "clinging to [the speaker's] lips" in the context of the body parts described. Growth and blossoming often symbolize fertility in the context of spring, and all of these play a role in the description of the woman's legs. Therefore, the description of only the legs feels very intentional, as feet and thighs are often sexualized.

[William Carlos Williams by Man Ray (1924)]

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was one of the great representatives of American modernism, participating in the movements of Imagism, of which he was a founding member, as a friend of Ezra Pound. Williams also worked as a pediatrician and general practitioner, practicing medicine by day and writing by night.

Despite his primary occupation as a family doctor, Williams had a successful literary career as a poet. His work has a great affinity with painting, as in the poem quoted here, "Portrait of a Lady," with its reference to a painting by the 18th-century French artist Fragonard.


[Incorporates some translated and edited texts from the English, Dutch, and French Wikipedia articles on this subject]

Paintings and their stories:

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli 

The Nightmare by Fuseli

Suzanna and the Elders by Gentileschi

Jupiter and Io by Coreggio

The Pretty Horsebreaker by Landseer

Girl in a white kimono by Breitner

Lady Godiva by Collier

The Roses of Heliogabalus by Alma-Tadema

Saint George and the Dragon by Uccello

Proserpine by Rosetti 

The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse

Judith and Holofernes by Klimt

Nana by Manet

Symphony in White, No. 2, by Whistler

Venus with a Mirror by Titian 

 

Portrait of Madame X by Sargent

 

The Procuress by Gerard van Honthorst 

 

Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo 

The Appearance of an Upper Class Wife of the Meiji Era: Out for a Walk, by Yoshitoshi 

The Swing by Fragonard

The Appearance of an Upper Class Wife of the Meiji Era: Out for a Walk, by Yoshitoshi (1888)

This print by Yoshitoshi shows a Japanese woman strolling among irises, probably in an iris garden. The dress suggests that this is a wealthy, upper-class woman living in the Meiji period (1868-1912), when Japan was modernizing (and Westernizing). In other words, we see a wealthy young beauty dressed in the latest Western fashions. The vibrantly colored irises in purple and white beside and behind her are rather unnaturally high (but see Hiroshige's print below!). She wears a different kind of white flower on her straw hat. Her collar and the ends of her sleeves have a pink and purple design that echoes the color of the irises. She carries a Western-style umbrella in both hands (the period that irises are in bloom falls partly in the rainy season in Japan) .

[Strolling — the appearance of an upper-class wife
of the Meiji era by Yoshitoshi (1888)]

What are we seeing?

This is a print from the series Fuzoku sanjuniso or "Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners" from the late 1880s. This remarkable series features depictions of women from various social classes from the Kansei era (1789-1801) to the Meiji era (1868-1912). The Kansei era was marked by reactionary reforms introduced to correct perceived excesses, restricting trade with other nations by enforcing a stricter closed-door policy. In contrast, the Meiji era saw Japan open up to the West, even adopting some of its culture and politics. Yoshitoshi interestingly depicts this dramatically eventful history through women of different backgrounds and sensibilities.

The individual title of our print is Sanpogashitaso Meiji nenkan saikun no fuzoku or "The Appearance of an Upper Class Wife of the Meiji Era: Out for a Walk". The lady is shown in a colorful, striking Western dress walking among irises, possibly in the Horikiri Shobuen (Iris Garden at Horikiri) in the northern suburbs of Tokyo. Women strolling among the irises in this garden were often depicted in prints of the Edo period. One could see Yoshitoshi's "Upper Class Wife" as a variation on the traditional ukiyo-e prints of women dressed in the latest fashions - although the print stands out from the rest of the series where women are usually depicted nostalgically in traditional dress (it was the final one in the series). But there is no doubt that these garish garments were all the rage in 1886-9. As one contemporary observer noted: "Everyone has adopted the barbaric way of dressing: only sumo wrestlers and prostitutes still wear the old clothes." The print was very popular and was reprinted many times.

The print is in oban format and the carvers/printers used such techniques as
- Karazuri, a printing technique that creates an embossed effect by exerting strong pressure without applying ink to the woodblock. This technique creates a three-dimensional effect and brings out the unique texture of Japanese paper.
- Tsuyazumi, "gloss black", use of a glossy black ink made by mixing thick carbon ink (sumi) with rice paste.
- Itame mokuhan, "imitation woodgrain", the use of a densely grained woodblock soaked in water to emphasize the pattern of the grain.

The publisher was Tsunashima Kamekichi.

Horikiri Iris Garden

From the 17th century on, the village of Horikiri was famous for producing flowers for the Edo market. While the gardeners of Horikiri grew a variety of flowers throughout the year, the fame of the place was due to the flower represented here, a type of iris known as hanashobu, which was ideally suited to the swampy soil of the area. During the Edo period, an iris garden was established in Horikiri as a tourist attraction, and since then several iris gardens have flourished in the area. The current Horikiri Shobuen is part of Horikirien, which was the only garden to be revived after the war and is now a public park. There are 6,000 irises of about 200 species. The iris garden is at its best from early to mid-June, when the garden holds its annual iris festival.

["Horikiri Iris Garden" by Hiroshige,
from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1857)]

Famous is the above print of the Horikiri Iris Garden by Hiroshige. In the immediate foreground are three carefully detailed irises - their large size may have inspired Yoshitoshi. Seen from a low perspective, the three flowers stand out against a wide sky and river. In the distance, visitors from Edo can be seen admiring the flowers, but these figures are so small that it is difficult to make out any details.

[Horikiri Iris Park, Tokyo, as I saw it some years ago]

The Horikiri Iris Garden is indeed beautiful, although it is not blessed with the best location: one has to look down to avoid gazing at the surrounding high-rise buildings and a highway on a viaduct (which stands between the garden and the river, in what was an open landscape in Hiroshige's print). But with this small concession, one can enjoy the pleasures of the garden. It is all the more interesting when seen in a light drizzle, so that the raindrops stick to the leaves and flowers, and fall into the pools where the irises stand, creating an atmosphere of watery softness.

Irises have been cultivated in this area since at least the 17th century, and local breeders have striven to improve the flowers. Horikiri has a valuable name in irises -  in the late 19th century they were even exported to Europe and America. They are still cultivated one by one by people who make it their vocation. That is why all the flowers have names, written on small plaques placed next to them - most of them poetic, borrowed from literature or history. All the irises are works of love.

There is even a haiku stone in the garden, with a poem by Matsuno Jitoku (1890-1975), a pupil of Takahama Kiyoshi, who seems to have been something of an "iris poet".

    in the sunshine
    the whiteness of the iris
    dazzles me

    tenjitsu ni | shobu no hana no | shiro mabushi

(The above is taken from my article "Irises in the Rain" on this blog)

Address: 2-19-1 Horikiri, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo. Tel. 03-3697-5237
Access: A 10-min. walk from Horikiri Shobuen Station on the Keisei Line.
Hours: 9:00-16:30 (in June: 8:00-18:00). Cl. Monday, Tuesday, 4th Sunday of the month, Year-end and New Year period. NOTE: Open every day during June (iris season).

 

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) was an ukiyo-e artist who worked from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji era. He is considered one of the last great masters of the ukiyo-e tradition. He was born in Edo and began his artistic training at an early age. Yoshitoshi initially studied under the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), who had a great influence on his early style.

Yoshitoshi's works are known for their dramatic and often macabre themes - works called "muzan-e", "atrocity prints", such as the collection "Twenty-Eight Famous Murders with Verse" from the 1860s, which depict several gruesome acts of murder or torture based on historical events or scenes from kabuki plays (foreshadowing the ero-guro movement in Japanese culture of the 1920s). His prints often featured intense and dynamic compositions with a strong emphasis on expressive figures and intricate details. Yoshitoshi was particularly adept at depicting historical and supernatural subjects, including warriors, ghosts, monsters and scenes from Japanese legend and folklore - showcasing his imaginative storytelling skills. But he also made more peaceful bijinga, prints with beautiful women, like the one under discussion here.

Yoshitoshi produced many series of prints and a large number of triptychs, many of which are of high quality. Two of his most famous series, "One Hundred Views of the Moon" and "Thirty-six Ghosts," contain numerous masterpieces. The third, "Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners", was for many years even considered as the most valuable. Other lesser known series also contain many fine prints.

While his prints remained in demand for a few years after his death, the general interest in them eventually waned. Academic opinion of the time claimed that Hiroshige's generation was actually the last generation of great printmakers, and more traditional collectors even collected only earlier works, ending with the generation of Utamaro and Toyokuni.

In the 1970s there was a revival of interest in Yoshitoshi's work and a new appreciation of his originality and genius and the extent to which he had succeeded in preserving the best of the woodblock print tradition while at the same time expanding the range of representation by incorporating new ideas from the West as well as his own innovations.

Since then Yoshitoshi's reputation in Japan and the West has grown again and he is now widely regarded as the greatest Japanese artist of his time.

Writers such as Akutagawa, Tanizaki, Mishima and Edogawa Ranpo preferred Yoshitoshi's prints. A modern painter inspired by Yoshitoshi is Yokoo Tadanori.

Paintings and their stories:

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli 

The Nightmare by Fuseli

Suzanna and the Elders by Gentileschi

Jupiter and Io by Coreggio

The Pretty Horsebreaker by Landseer

Girl in a white kimono by Breitner

Lady Godiva by Collier

The Roses of Heliogabalus by Alma-Tadema

Saint George and the Dragon by Uccello

Proserpine by Rosetti 

The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse

Judith and Holofernes by Klimt

Nana by Manet

Symphony in White, No. 2, by Whistler

Venus with a Mirror by Titian 

 

Portrait of Madame X by Sargent

 

The Procuress by Gerard van Honthorst 

 

Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo 

The Appearance of an Upper Class Wife of the Meiji Era: Out for a Walk, by Yoshitoshi

 

 

 

Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo (1920)

In this print by Hashiguchi Goyo, a young woman in a dianthus-patterned yukata, looking refreshed after a bath, carefully combs her hair with a boxwood comb. Her long black hair flows beautifully, as if there were a life in each strand. Her slanting neck, nape, and shoulders exude a sense of elegance. The contrast between the shiny black hair and the white skin peeking out of the yukata is beautiful. A vermilion obi protruding slightly from the yukata adds a splash of color.

[Woman Combing Her Hair by Hashiguchi Goyo]

What are we seeing?

The Japanese color woodblock print had reached artistic heights during the Edo period (1603-1868) in the hands of artists like Hiroshige, Harunobu and Hokusai, but after the middle of the 19th century the quality of this art form generally declined. In the early decades of the 20th century, however, a new generation of Japanese artists revived the color woodblock print. This was called the Shin Hanga ("new print") movement.

A woman dressing or grooming herself after a bath was a popular subject for these modern artists. The theme provided a link to the erotic overtones of Edo courtesan prints. Borrowing from Western artistic practices, Hashiguchi Goyo and other Shin Hanga artists as Kaburaki Kiyokata produced "pictures of beautiful women" (bijinga) by sketching models from life. For the above print, Goyo used the features of his model, Kodaira Tomi, but in a simplified, idealized form.

[Woman after bathing by Hashiguchi Goyo (1915)]

Note how the woman's hair in this ukiyo-e by Hashiguchi Goyo shines beautifully against the background of the mica print. The silver background, which looks pale gray at first glance, actually contains what looks like glitter. This is done with a technique traditionally used in Japanese woodblock prints called kirizuri, where mica powder is rubbed in. The areas where mica is used have a beautiful shine that adds to the appeal of the print. Also, by not drawing anything around the woman and using a monochrome background, the beauty of her black hair stands out. With elegant lines and clean colors reminiscent of Art Nouveau, Goyo expresses the sensuality and physical beauty of women in a very elegant way.

Goyo is said to have liked the lines from the neck to the shoulders as portrayed by Rossetti in "Lady Lilith". Likewise, Rosetti's painting is focused on the long hair of his model. However, the woman in Goyo's print is not a "femme fatale" as in Rossetti's painting, but rather an innocent, gentle woman who knows no hardship. This is Goyo's representative work in the bijinga genre - Goyo was not for nothing called "Utamaro of the Taisho era." Today works by Goyo are among the most highly prized of all Shin Hanga prints.

[Lady Lilith by Rosetti (1873)]

Shin Hanga

Shin Hanga is an updated continuation of traditional ukiyo-e. As Japan opened up to the world in the second half of the 19th century, it gained access to new Western technologies such as photography and lithography. The traditional Japanese master-apprentice system came under pressure from Western ideas about art education. The traditional ukiyo-e woodblock prints lost much of their market share by the end of the 19th century. The Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century caused a final revival, but after that the market for traditional ukiyo-e was mainly limited to tourists.

Two movements emerged: the above mentioned Shin Hanga ("new prints") and Sosaku Hanga ("creative prints"). The Shin Hanga movement continued to work in the traditional way, where a print was created through a collaboration between a publisher, an artist, a woodblock printmaker and a printer. The sosaku hanga movement used the same technique, but the artist did everything himself from beginning to end. However, the line was not always 100% clear. For example, some shin hanga artists tried to limit the influence of their publisher and sosaku hanga artists had parts of the process done by students. The more conservative shin hanga movement adhered to traditional Japanese themes, in contrast to the sosaku hanga movement, which was more western-oriented.

During World War II the production of prints declined and after a brief revival after the war shin hanga lost its inspiration and importance.

Since the makers of ukiyo-e were mainly printmakers, black lines played an important role in their work. In shin hanga, color and texture were especially important. Its makers were almost all painters who tried to imitate paintings with their prints. This became easier with the new heavier papers of the 20th century that could absorb more ink.

[Woman Applying Makeup (white cream) by Goyo]

Unlike ukiyo-e prints, the new prints were no longer a mass product but a luxury item. Some artists continued to publish postcards and calendars in addition to the artistic prints, but all the other printed matter previously offered by ukiyo-e publishers was now produced using modern technology. The new prints were usually larger than the usual oban format of 38 x 26 cm. Very few polyptychs were made.

Erotic (shunga), heroic and historical subjects used in ukiyo-e disappeared, but unlike sosaku hanga, other traditional subjects remained common in shin hanga, such as landscape prints (fukeiga), prints of beautiful women (bijinga), pictures of kabuki actors (yakusha-e) and pictures of flowers and birds (kachoga).

[Woman Applying Color to Her Lips by Goyo]

Hashiguchi Goyo

Painter and printmaker Hashiguchi Goyo (1880-1921), who was part of the Shin Hanga movement, was born in Kagoshima City. He came from a family of doctors. His father was a samurai and amateur painter. Goyo learned to paint early, probably in both the Shijo and Kano styles. In 1899, Goyo traveled to Tokyo and apprenticed with nihonga ('Japanese style painter') painter Hashimoto Gaho. In 1901, he began learning the yoga ('Western style') style at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He graduated there in 1905. His artist name 'Goyo' is derived from the name of his beloved tree, a three-hundred-year-old goyomatsu pine tree that stood in his father's garden.

Goyo began making lithographs and woodcuts sometime in the mid-1910s. He illustrated, among others, the novels of Natsume Soseki. In the latter half of his life he turned to woodblock prints, leaving behind excellent works. Goyo made use of carefully selected skilled engravers and printers and the output is always of high quality.

[Hashiguchi Goyo]

[Incorporates translated and edited text from relevant articles in the Dutch Wikipedia]

 

 

Paintings and their stories:

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli 

The Nightmare by Fuseli

Suzanna and the Elders by Gentileschi

Jupiter and Io by Coreggio

The Pretty Horsebreaker by Landseer

Girl in a white kimono by Breitner

Lady Godiva by Collier

The Roses of Heliogabalus by Alma-Tadema

Saint George and the Dragon by Uccello

Proserpine by Rosetti 

The Lady of Shalott by Waterhouse

Judith and Holofernes by Klimt

Nana by Manet

Symphony in White, No. 2, by Whistler

Venus with a Mirror by Titian 

 

Portrait of Madame X by Sargent

 

The Procuress by Gerard van Honthorst 

 

Woman Combing Her Hair by Goyo