The Romantics: Nationalism and Exoticism
The Romantics: Nationalism and Exoticism
Nationalism in Music became the music of revolutions and the emergence of Republics especially in the 19th Century. Governments employed composers to write music that would inspire people to believe in the nation, and be proud of their nation.
...can be found in any genre of music - all a composer needs to do is borrow a melody or poetic idea from folk traditions.
Here is a copy of True Happiness, a song composed with Nationalist theme's by Grade 10 at CB campus in 2019. Feel free to sing along.
Nationalism includes lyrics that align with the ideas that a country considers important to its identity, including loyalty, devotion, love and pride. These ideas manifest as part of an official state ideology, or popular movement of the people through romantic, civic, ethnic, cultural, language, religious or ideological lines. National pride prevents countries from breaking into civil war, but misinformation can lead to revolution. What would you write in a song to inspire your school, city or nation?
Jean Sibelius had strong patriotic feelings for Finland. Composed Finlandia.
Nationalism in Music uses folk melodies, often orchestrated to instil feelings of pride, power, and may be intended to be rousing or uplifting.
Nationalism in Music. A musical movement which began during the 19th century and was marked by emphasis on native elements in music such as folk-songs, folk dances, folk rhythms or on subjects for operas and symphonic poems which reflected native life or history. It burgeoned alongside political movements for independence. In Vietnam, the use of approved folk songs depict independence, freedom and happiness.
"In much of the extensive literature on the subject, exoticism is considered a form of representation in which peoples, places, and cultural practices are depicted as foreign from the perspective of the composer and/or intended audience. In earlier usage of the term, “exoticism” and “exotic” referred to an inherent quality or status of the non-Western other." Oxford Bibliographies
Carmen - a French Opera written by a French composer - set in the south of Spain includes folk melodies of Spain and even a song about the March of Toreadors!! A toreador is a Spanish Bull Fighter! And the music in Carmen appeals to the French audiences exotic interest in Spanish people.
From a nineteenth century Western perspective, 'Orientalism' emerged as a way of depicting Asian cultures in an essentialist manner which by todays standards would probably fall within a discussion on racism, although it was crafted from a lack of understanding though a genuine interest in different cultures. In the 20th century, Orientalism is still used to represent glamour exoticism or wealth by contemporary western pop artists.
Below: A French example of orientialism 'Hello Vietnam"
Write a song which is either:
A) an example of Nationalism (Proud of your country/city/school or using Folk melodies)
or
B) an example of Exoticim (Facinated with ideas, style or trend from distant regions).
Your song should have:
2 verses
a chorus
Intro and an Outro.
You may also include a Bridge or a Pre-Chorus.
You may choose the structure of your song. An example structure of your song might be:
You should compose using either:
Sound Trap (and then sing on top of your backing track).
or
Live musicians. If you choose this please limit your harmony to a 4 chord song (eg. C. G. Am. F.) and ask your friends to form a band to play your song. You can sing or choose someone else to sing.
The best song will be performed by Grade 7s at an upcoming event.
This year the song 'True Happiness' was performed at the Winter Concert.
It was written by the whole class by Thuy, Mai, and Chuc An contributed greatly to it's development.