Introduction to

Music
Unit III, Chapter 38, pt. 1
Later Romantic Culture and Music
by Georges Bizet
(1838-1875)
 Terms & Concepts
• ostinato
– from Italian, “obstinate” (implacable)
– a musical or rhythmic motif or phrase that (relentlessly, implacably)
repeats throughout
– ex’s: Habanera from Carmen and ????
• verismo
– Italian for “realism”
– began in Italy as a response to Napoleon’s defeat
– movement in literature and arts that depicts “true-to-life” plots and
characters to which general audiences could relate
• included characters from all walks of life and social strata
• plots and scenarios were “slices of life” onstage, including violence
– “objective presentation of life, usually of the lower classes, using direct,
unadorned language, explicit descriptive detail, and realistic dialogue.”
•
Late
Rise of nationalism
Romantic Culture
– France had been the center of arts
academies
• set the rules for “good” art, music, etc.
• discouraged use of folk music, dance,
tunes, etc.
– Napoleon I fell from power in 1814
• had he succeeded, all of Europe would
have been under French control
• replaced each country’s rulers with
French
• threatened each country’s culture,
language, art, etc.
– after Napoleon fell, countries emphatically
• Realism
– influenced by the rise of modern, mechanized
world
– reaction against earlier Romantic emphasis on
subjectivity
– turned to objective, scientific approaches
– began with Charles Dickens in Hard Times (1854)
– adopted across arts
– in music
• some composers continued with Romantic
approaches: Brahms and Mahler
• other composers broke with the Romantics:
Dvořák and Mussorgsky
– embraced nationalism and refused to remain
in European musical mainstream
– preferred music and culture of their own or
• 1838-1875
Georges Bizet
• like Berlioz, studied at the Paris Conservatory;
unlike Berlioz, he was a star student
• won the Prix de Rome in 1857 (17 years old)
• French public, however, was not receptive to
“new” French composers
– Bizet’s first two operas (1860s) were
unsuccessful
– his first “hit” was incidental music for
L'Arlésienne (1872)
– of his 15 operas, Carmen would become the
best-received
Étienne Carjata.
• its premiere was not successful Photograph of Bizet,
• Bizet died a few months after, thinking that 1875.
Carmen had been a failure
• 4 acts Carmen
– combining music and spoken text in French
– premiered 3 March 1875 (Bizet died on 25
October)
• based on a novella of the same title by Prosper
Mérimée (1845)
– story inspired during author’s visit to Spain (1830)
– Mérimée: “It was about that ruffian
from Málaga [Don José] who had killed his
mistress [Carmen], who consecrated herself
exclusively to the public. [...] As I have been
studying the Gypsies for some time, I have made
my heroine a Gypsy” (source: Wikipedia)
– combines
• earlier Romantic tendency (exoticism)
• later Romantic realism (realistic, sobering
treatment of Gypsy life) Synopsis of Opera
• Spanish melody and dances (nationalism) prepared by the
Metropolitan Opera
– Bizet breaks with voice typing
• lead roles tend to be soprano and tenor
• Carmen is a mezzo: the role is popular that
sopranos will “train” down
– scandalized the public as it was the first opera to
include onstage violence
• knife fight between women working in the cigar
Anna Caterina Antonacci and
factory in Seville Jonas Kaufmann in Carmen, The
• Don José stabs and kills Carmen at the end of the Royal Opera, 2006 © Mike
Hoban
opera
• it’s ironically classified as opéra comique because
of the combination of spoken and sung texts
– Bizet never visited Spain
• spoke with Spaniards about Spanish customs and
stories
• one aria (Coupe-moi, brûle-moi / Cut Me, Burn
Me) based on Spanish folk song Anna Caterina Antonacci and
Jonas Kaufmann in Carmen, The
• other arias, dances based on characteristic Royal Opera, 2006 © Mike
rhythms of Spanish flamenco (e.g., Seguidilla) Hoban
• invented the word “Toréador”
– “torero” is Spanish for “bull fighter”
– Bizet added syllables
• to make it singable
• similar to matador, picador
– it’s become a part of English language
• Opera is set in what was the Royal Tobacco Factory in Seville
– today, it’s the University of Seville
 University of
Seville
Gonzalo Bilbao Martínez, Las cigarreras (Cigar Makers Gonzalo Bilbao Martínez, Las cigarreras en la fábrica
Leaving the Tobacco Factory in Seville [1915]) (Cigarette Makers in the Factory [1910])

The tobacco factory is

the University of
Seville today.
• Habanera Sebastián
– form of Spanish word “from Havana” Yradier, “El
Arreglito”
• a contradanza
– popular dance in Cuba
– derived from English country dance of 18th Bizet,
century Habaner
a
– coincided with African rhythm pattern
– first Cuban dance to achieve international
By Elina
popularity Garanca
– based on an idiomatic song “El Arreglito / This Little
Arrangement” by Sebastián Yradier
• Bizet had thought it was a folk song By Julia
Migenes-
• when he learned that Yradier had composed it, he Johnson
added the note to his score
• NB: text is unaware of this
– form: A-B-A-B
• characteristic rhythm
– introduction
– becomes ostinato throughout ostinato in D mi ostinato in D ma

• parallel minor and major

– A section in D mi
– B section in D ma
• word painting
– descending chromatic line in the minor section in first verse “paints”
the futility
– diatonic major section celebrates freedom (“Love never knows a
law”) Franco Zeffirelli,
Bizet,
dir. Carmen
Habaner
(1978).
a
Habanera
French English
L’amour est un oiseau rebelle Love is a rebellious bird
que nul ne peut apprivoiser, that nobody can tame,
et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle, and you call him quite in vain
s’il lui convient de refuser. if it suits him not to come.

Rien n’y fait, menace ou prière. Nothing helps, neither threat nor
l’un parle bien, l’autre se tait: prayer. One man talks well, the
Et c’est l’autre que je préfère, other’s mum;
Il n’a rien dit mais il me plaît. it’s the other one that I prefer.
He’s silent but I like his looks.
L’amour! L’amour! L’amour! L’amour!
L’amour est enfant de Bohème, Love! Love! Love! Love!
il n’a jamais, jamais connu de loi; Love is a gypsy’s child,
si tu ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime: it has never, ever, known a law;
si je t’aime, prends garde à toi! (x2) love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you’d best beware! etc.
L’oiseau que tu croyais surprendre The bird you thought you had caught
battit de l’aile et s’envola … beat its wings and flew away…
l’amour est loin, tu peux l’attendre; love stays away, you wait and wait;
tu ne l’attends plus, il est là! when least expected, there it is!

Tout autour de toi, vite, vite, All around you, swift, so swift,
il vient, s’en va, puis il revient … it comes, it goes, and then returns …
tu crois le tenir, il t’évite, you think you hold it fast, it flees
tu crois l’éviter, il te tient. you think you’re free, it holds you
fast.
L’amour! L’amour! L’amour! L’amour!
L’amour est enfant de Bohème, Love! Love! Love! Love!
il n’a jamais, jamais connu de loi; Love is a gypsy’s child,
si tu ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime: it has never, ever, known a law;
si je t’aime, prends garde à toi! (x2) love me not, then I love you; if I love
you, you’d best beware!
Georges Bizet,
“Habanera” from
Carmen. Julia
Mingenes, soprano;
Francesco Rosi, dir.
Gaumont Film Co.,
1984.