There are a plethora of compositions extolling the beauty of spring, but significantly fewer celebrate the arrival of summer. There’s magic in the reawakening of earth, but once the trees are in bloom, it’s business as usual? Not so!
While not specifically about summer, the cheerfulness of Beethoven‘s Pastoral Symphony captures this month perfectly. The magical transformation of spring might be past, but the beauty of nature in full bloom awaits! Maybe a little Beethoven will put you in the mood. In the first movement of the symphony, he masterfully paints a scene that transports the listener to the green, serene countryside.
We generally think of music and the arts as a pastime – as something we do to relax or forget about the “real world.” Yet at the same time, people quickly become enraged and offended when a work of art or music challenges their beliefs or pushes us out of our comfort zone. Governments and political leaders are very aware of this – music is carefully selected, created, and packaged to support their ideology. And artists that oppose powerful leaders – quietly or overtly – often find themselves shunned, banned, threatened, or worse.
This sort of thing can happen anywhere, dictatorship or democracy, ancient or modern, north or south, east or west. Thinking about that iconic, chilling picture from Tiananmen Square, let’s look at Chinese-American composer Chen Yi.
Chen was born in China, at a time when it was dangerous to be a musician there. The Cultural Revolution frowned upon the arts, especially any music that sounded “western”. She put a blanket in her piano and muted her violin so she could practice without the authorities hearing her. When she was 15, her family’s possessions were confiscated, and they were forced to labor in the country as part of the government’s anti-bourgeois efforts. Against these odds, Chen still managed to earn a Master’s in music and become a world-famous, Pulitzer-prize winning composer – as an American citizen.
Against all odds – right as the onset of the Cold War, a Soviet composer’s piece became a #1 hit with American Art Music audiences. Aram Khachaturian (who would today be considered Georgian, not Soviet) wrote a ballet called Gayane, whose plot was common for pretty much any Soviet art of the time: Gayane, a good, patriotic, and hard-working Soviet, finds out her lazy drunk of a husband has turned against the state! She tries to correct his behavior, but like anyone who hates the state, he is pure evil. Naturally, her attempt to correct his anti-Soviet thinking forces him to stab her. The husband is jailed, Gayane survives, and ends up falling in love with a good Soviet boy. The two marry and become model, productive citizens, the highest good one can achieve.
Awwwww … so sweet …
At some point in this amazing love story, people come out and dance with sabres. This dance became wildly popular, and ended up being used in many popular songs as well as figure skating routines.
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