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Currents
November 2017
> continued from page 15
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his music had touched everyone’s heart.
The nineteenth century is also the era of great
piano music. This new instrument had been
invented in Italy in the early eighteenth century.
Because the piano played both soft (“piano) and loud
(“forte”) notes, it could “sing” the music. As a result,
this instrument was a favorite among the Romantic
composers.
The piano quickly became a European passion.
Composers of every nationality wrote and played
piano music. There is the German Robert Schu-
mann, who is famous for his “musical” poems. There
is the Hungarian Franz Liszt, whose lyrical works are
beautiful to hear but difficult to play.
There is the eternal Frederic Chopin, the Polish-
born French composer whose music touches your
heart and caresses your soul. Although Chopin lived
in France, he never forgot his native Poland. His
music often includes the rhythms of Polish dances
like the mazurka or the polonaise.
Chopin is not the only composer inspired by the
music of his homeland. Edvard Grieg included the
sounds of Norway in his music. Antonin Dvorzak
used the melody of Czech music. The ballet music
of Peter Tchaikovsky captures the passions of his
native Russia.
Johann Strauss is the great waltz king. Although
conservatives of his day condemned the waltz as a
scandalous dance, it quickly became the rage of
Europe. Today people all over the world still dance
to the beautiful Strauss waltzes. In Vienna, you will
certainly want to see the beautiful “blue” Danube
river which inspired Strauss’s famous waltz.
In the nineteenth century, Europe produced many
musical geniuses. It was a period of passion, indi-
viduality and non-conformity. Although contemporary
European music has rejected many nineteenth-cen-
tury techniques and styles, it has kept the noncon-
formist spirit. Without the Romantic tradition, there
would have been no Igor Stravinsky or Arnold
Schoenberg.
Part Three of a Four-part Series on Music