Music, Orientalism and Exoticism

HUM 102

Cultural Encounters II

Rana Gediz İrenBoğaziçi University

İstanbul Philharmonic Society

1838

The Beauties of the Bosphorous by Miss Pardoe, Illustrated by W. H Bartlett

Orientalism noun

1. Style, artefacts, or traits considered characteristic of the peoples and cultures of Asia.

1.1 The representation of Asia in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a

colonialist attitude.

- Oxford Dictionaries

Orientalism noun

Western ideas about the Middle East and about East and Southeast Asia, especially ideas that

are too simple or not accurate about these societies being mysterious, never changing, or

not able to develop in a modern way without Western help.

- Cambridge Dictionary

Edward Said, Orientalism, 1978

«The Orient has helped to define Europe as itscontrasting image, idea, personality, experience»

Said, 1979, p. 1

“…the orientalist, poet or scholar, makes the Orient speak, describes the Orient, renders its mysteries plain for and to the West. He is never concerned with the Orient except as the first cause of what he says. What he says and writes, by virtue of the fact that it is said or written, is meant to indicate that the Orientalist is outside the Orient, both as an existential and as a moral fact”

Said, 1979, p. 21

“The European, whose sensibility tours the Orient, is a watcher, never involved, always detached, always ready for…bizarre jouissance”

Said, 1979, p. 103

1838

The Beauties of the Bosphorous by Miss Pardoe, Illustrated by W. H Bartlett

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Little Bather - Inside the Harem, 1828,

Louvre Museum, Paris

1828

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814,

Louvre Museum, Paris

1814

Alla turca/Janissary style

• Use of percussion instruments – cymbals, triangle, bass drum and thepiccolo flute

• Loud playing in full orchestration

• Duple meter – usually 2/4

• Rapid tempo

• Basic harmony

• Sudden shifting from one tonal area to another

• Quick melodic decorations

Exoticism in music is a quality that

links a work to some especiallyfascinating, attractive or fearsome

place.

Beethoven’s 9th (Choral) Symphony (1824)

Why is there an alla turca section in there?

• Had musical codes of joy in Europe come to rely on the devices learned from Janissary bands?

• Celebration of the decline of the Ottoman Empire?

• Or an all encompassing humanity embracing even the Ottomans as a result of the European Enlightenment period?

Beethoven’s 9th (Choral) Symphony (1824)

Why is there an alla turca section in there?

• Had musical codes of joy in Europe come to rely on the devices learned from Janissary bands?

• Celebration of the decline of the Ottoman Empire?

• Or an all encompassing humanity embracing even the Ottomans as a result of the European Enlightenment period?

1782

1777

Marie Antoinette’s Turkish Boudoir in Fontainebleau,

France

1766

Antoine de Favray, Portrait of Charles Gravier Count of Vergennes and French Ambassador

in Turkish Attire, 1766, Pera Museum, Istanbul

Jean Etienne Liotart, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Turkish Dress, 1756

1756

Carle van Loo, Madame de Pompadour as Sultana Taking Coffee, 1752-1755

1755

Etienne Liotard, Marie-Adelaide of France dressed in Turkish costume, 1753, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

1753

1753Johann Adolph Hasse 1753 DresdenDomenico Fischietti 1755 VeniceGiovanni Battista Pescetti 1756 Reggio EmiliaGiovanni Battista Pescetti 1757 VeronaMichelangelo Valentini 1756 TorinoMichelangelo Valentini 1756 NaplesDavide Perez 1757 LisbonAntonio Ferradini 1757 FlorencePasquale Enrichelli 1757 RomeTommaso Traetta 1758 ParmaPasticcio 1758 LondonBaldassare Galuppi 1760 PaduaPasticcio 1765 LondonGregorio Sciroli 1766 VeniceDavid Perez 1768 LisbonJohann Gottlieb Naumann 1773 VeniceGiuseppe Maria Curci 1782 TorinoFranz Xaver Sussmayr 1799 Vienna

The «Solimano Craze»

Il Solimano, Tragedia 1619, Florence Il Mustafa, Tragedia 1636, Florence

1600’s

Gabriel Bounin’s La Soltane, Tragedie, Paris, 1561

1561

Jean-Etienne Liotard, Maria Theresa in Turkish costume holding a mask, c. 1750

1750

1750s

1745

Jean-Etienne Liotard, 1738 William Ponsonby, 1st Viscount of Duncannon

1738

The kiosque of the château of Lunéville in France by Emmanule Héré, 1737

1737

Turquerie is the name of the fashion for

all things Turkish in Western Europe in the16th-19th Centuries.

1735, Les Indes Galantes

• Opera-ballet

• Music by Jean-Philippe Rameau

• Libretto by Louis Fuzelier

• 4 acts:• The Generous Turk

• The Incas of Peru

• The Flowers, the Persian Fete

• The Savages – Indigenous Americans

Il Gran Tamerlano Ziani 1689 Venice

Bajazeth und Tamerlan Förtsch 1690 Hamburg

Il Gran Tamerlano Scarlatti 1706 Florence

Il Bajazet Gasparini 1711 Venice

Tamerlano Gasparini 1714 Genoa

Il Bajazet Gasparini 1719 Reggio Emilia

Bajazete, imperador de' Turchi Leo 1722 Naples

Il Bajazet Gasparini 1723 Venice

Tamerlano Handel 1724 London

Tamerlano Giai 1727 Milan

Il Gran Tamerlano Porta 1730 Florence

Tamerlano Porpora 1730 Turin

Tamerlano Bonomi 1732 Ljubljana

Bajazet Vivaldi 1735 Verona

Il Bajazet Colombi 1740 Alessandria

Il Gran Tamerlano Dal Barba 1746 Venice

Tamerlan Anonymous 1748 Hamburg

Bajazette Jommelli 1754 Torino

Tamerlano Anonymous 1755 Lubeck

Il Gran Tamerlano Sarti 1764 Copenhagen

Il Tamerlano Giuglielmi 1765 Venice

ll Gran Tamerlano Mysliveček 1772 Milan

Bajazette Marinelli 1799 Venice

Tamerlano Mayr 1813 Milan

The «Bajazet-Tamburlaine Craze»

Tamerlan, or the Death of Bajazet, Tragedie, Pradon 1676

1676

The Grand Tamburlaine and Bajazet, Tragedy by Jean Magnon, 1648

1648

Christopher Marlowe, 1587 Nicholas Rowe, 1701

Bajazet

I would die strong and

happy,

If I could hide from my

own thoughts my great

love for my daughter.

If it were not for her

grief,

You would see me

prouder,

I would die with more courage.

1724 Handel’s Tamerlano

• Comedy-ballet

• Written by French poet and playwright Molière

• Music by Jean-Baptiste Lully

• Written at the command of Louis XIV and was one of his favourites

1670

Rembrandt van Rijn, Man in Oriental Costume 1632

1632

Ritratto di Ferdinando II de' Medici vestito alla turca by Justus Suttermans, c. 1630-40.

1630s

Il Solimano, Tragedia 1619, Florence Il Mustafa, Tragedia 1636, Florence

1600’s

Wedding celebrations of Ferdinando de’Medici to Christina of Lorrain in 1588 Buontalenti, 1589, Florence

1588

Ferdinando Bertelli, La Battaglia di Lepanto, Venice 1572 (Vatican Museums)

1572

Giorgio Vasari, La Battaglia di Lepanto, 1572-73, Sala Regia Vatican, Rome

Gioviana Series at the Uffizi, Florence – 1550s onwards

İznik Plate with coat of arms, c. 1570, possibly belonging to the Spingarolli de Dessa family from Dalmatia

1570

Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, c.1555

1555

Hans Holbein, The French ambassador Jean de Dinteville, 1533

1533

The Protonotary Giovanni Giuliano, c.1530-40

1530

Sandro Botticelli, Federico Montefeltro with humanist writer Cristoforo Landino, c.1460

1460

Over the centuries the image of the Ottoman shifted and changed in music according to the prevailing political and cultural situation:

• Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the ‘Oriental’ was invested with qualities such as goodness, tolerance and strength of faith.

• In previous centuries, when the Turks had represented a real danger to certain European countries, their reception swung from fear, hatred to admiration.

• The characterization as quasi barbarian became increasingly redundant during the course of the 19th Century, as the Turks became an ally of European powers and as the Ottoman sought to modernise and Westernize itself.

Ottoman Army Modernization and Music

• Vaka-i Hayriye: Mahmut II disbanded the Janissary troops and the Mehterhane in 1826 to modernise the army and reform the empire. Ottoman soldiers became outfitted as Western soldiers.

• Western music was imported for the Ottoman army. Mızıka-iHumayun Mektebi was formed to provide the army with drummers and trumpeters and its Western style education was directed by Giuseppe Donizetti.

• In 1829 Donizetti composed the Mahmudiye march in honur of Mahmut II, which became the Ottoman Imperial anthem and then the Mecidiye march in honour of Sultan Abdulmecit.

Bizet, 1863 Verdi,1871 Bizet,1875

Delibes,1883 1904, Puccini 1926, Puccini

Meyerbeer,1864

Massenet,1876