Sensing student resistance when it comes to the Western canon?
That’s fair.
Standard rep, especially for new learners, can sometimes feel a little…Stuffy White Dudes 101.
And yet, while pushback from students can be entirely valid (remember the cringe-y Juilliard scene from Tár?), that doesn’t mean the classics aren’t worth exploring. Nor does it mean young musicians won’t need to get acquainted with famous Western composers, particularly if they hope to pursue a musical career.
With this conundrum in mind, here are some actionable tips for composer intros, designed to help redefine and revitalize musical men who can occasionally seem boring, distant, or inaccessible at first glance.
We’ll start with an obvious name…
Mozart: Triple Threat
Anyone with a passing knowledge of music history has heard Classicism’s illustrious prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Freemason. The Masonic symbolism in The Magic Flute is the stuff of legend, and rumor has it the opera’s vicious Queen of the Night was based on the allegedly anti-Masonic Austrian Empress Maria Theresa herself.
How to capitalize on this in your studio and make Mozart less “guy in a wig” and more “cheeky rebel with a cause”?
It’s all about the threes, baby.
Freemasons are, of course, heavily associated with the number three, for reasons history can’t quite seem to pin down. (The number could represent the Holy Trinity; a secret knock; the triumvirate of “Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty,” which make up the “Three Great Pillars” of Freemasonry––you name it). But, for teaching purposes, the official meaning doesn’t matter as much as the number itself, which can inspire a host of treasure hunts and rhythmic games with a nod to the composer’s subversive streak.
Tip:
Introduce students to Mozart’s love of threes via the Magic Flute overture (key of three flats! three chords that open and close the piece!).* Next, encourage them to uncover groups of three––such as melodic triplets or dances in triple meter––in other Mozartian works. Be sure to stomp or clap through any 3/4s or 6/8s that come your way. Hint: There’s more than one Mozart divertimento written in triple time and in E-flat, if you want to get fancy.
* Note: For littles, it’s worth leveraging some visual aids. May we recommend Pet of the Met by Corduroy author Don Freeman? If you want to make a kid-friendly link between Mozart and the number three, you can’t do much better than the mouse-y main character Maestro Patrini’s three tiny children: Do, Re, and Mi.
Beethoven: Hopeless Romantic
Beethoven looms so large, it’s sometimes difficult for even the most accomplished musicians to find their way “in” to the composer. So, if newbies find him daunting or inapproachable, that’s probably just par for the course.
Our advice for dealing with the Beethoven averse? Ditch the specifics and focus on vibes.
The brooding bandmaster from Bonn famously defied labels, but one thing he can be called is a pioneer of the Romantic Era. As such, it might be useful to expose students to the whole Romantic-with-a-capital-R ethos rather than diving straight into Ludwig without any context. This will allow you to draw on other artforms highlighting Romantic themes such as nature, solitude, and tempestuous emotion.
Tip:
The next time your novice sits down with Moonlight Sonata or something similar, ask them to pick out musical moments that evoke literal images. Remind them that this kind of music “painting” was rare before Beethoven came along and such compositional choices were part of a widespread movement throughout the Western world. If they’re game, show your student the works of painters and poets who typify the Romantics (this overview of Caspar David Friedrich from NYC’s Met Museum is a great place to begin) and/or see if they can identify Romantic elements in modern music, literature, digital art, etc.
Bach: Fugue State
This one’s mostly for the keyboardists, but other instrumentalists (and maybe even vocalists, if they can forgive Bach for never allowing them to breathe) might find it enlightening as well.
Most piano students encounter a Bach fugue at one point or another. And while left-brained counterpoint appeals naturally to some, we’d be lying if we said fugues were instant crowd-pleasers across the board. Plus Bach’s melodies are notoriously complex, which of course makes their fugal development even more dizzying at times.
One solution for teaching fugues without turning your student into a confused dog meme: Play them a fugue on a song they already know.
Friends don’t let friends turn into confused dog memes.
Happily, the internet is full of folks who’ve done this work for you. A quick YouTube search can yield a number of Bach-style fugues—sometimes with features like “subject,” “answer,” and “episodes” helpfully identified in real time––built on everything from Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” to John Williams’s theme from the Harry Potter films.
Tip:
Have students choose an artist and see if social media has produced any fugal versions of their songs. For younger students, this can be purely a listening exercise. Ask them interactive questions like:
- Can you hear a clear, hummable subject…and answer?
- Can you recognize bits of the original subject as they re-emerge?
- Can you raise your hand when there’s a modulation or shift in key?
If the internet doesn’t provide, take a snippet of a preferred popular melody and walk the student through the fundamentals of how Bach might have transformed the sequence into a contrapuntal fugue.
Rossini: Hungry Heart
Inspired by pianist Nahre Sol’s investigation into Chopin’s favorite meal, we thought food might be a tasty connection students can cultivate with composers of the past.
And when the topic is “culinary composer,” how can your mind not go to Gioachino Rossini?
A renowned gourmet and amateur chef, the bel canto master was a foodie of the first degree who once compared the inner workings of the stomach to the delicate artistry of an opera. Around 100 recipes bear his name, many crafted by his longtime friend and culinary icon Marie-Antoine Carême.
What better introduction to the composer and his world than a trip to the kitchen?
Tip:
If student singers struggle with a slippery Rossini cadenza or coloratura passage, take a break from the art songs and assign some taste-testing homework instead. If your singer shows Top Chef levels of ambition, task them with trying out Carême’s own Tournedos à la Rossini (an impossibly rich steak dish). Or, if they’re after something simpler, the Carême macaroni soup, crafted in Rossini’s name, can serve as an alternative. Quick aside: Rossini enjoyed meat and poultry quite a bit, so vegans and vegetarians might have to swap out certain ingredients.
Brahms and Tchaikovsky: Team of Rivals
“Giftless bastard!”[1]
“Self-inflated mediocrity!”
No, it’s not Real Housewives of Leipzig.
It’s excerpts from a deliciously soapy feud between Johannes Brahms and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
But let’s be honest: The insults really only came from Tchaikovsky. (It’s possible Brahms valued sarcasm over out and out slander.) And Tchaikovsky kept most of his verbal abuse under wraps, confining much of his less-than-flattering commentary to his diaries and private letters. (We’ve also fudged with the grammar for emphasis.)
Okay, let’s be even more honest: The infamous feud was pretty nuanced, and both men––who first met in Leipzig circa 1888–– eventually came to view one another with a sort of muted collegial respect.
Still, it’s true the composers harbored an initial distaste for each other’s music. Broadly speaking, Tchaikovsky felt Brahms’s work was “cold” and had little soul, while Brahms appeared to find Tchaikovsky’s music excessive and rather boring. And their creative differences, though not exactly fodder for reality TV, make a handy jumping-off point for comparing and contrasting 19th-century styles.
Hence, we’re offering a tip on these two composers for the price of one.
Tip:
Ask students to think of their favorite warring duo from a book, TV show, or film. See if they can find insults between the two that match Tchaikovsky’s vitriol. Consider questions like:
- Why do these characters dislike each other so much?
- Why might two composers share a similar dislike for one another’s music?
- What musical and emotional characteristics are more keenly felt in Brahms’s compositions? In Tchaikovsky’s?
- Why might their unique musical approaches spark anger or frustration between them?
- Can you play a Brahms or a Tchaikovsky piece while keeping the composers’ respective styles in mind
Got ideas for composers or activities we’ve missed? Let us know! Share your tricks for helping old, stuffy-seeming Western composers jump off the page.
Oh, and watch this space: We may be adding to our list as time goes by!
[1] Slonimsky, Nicolas. Lexicon of Musical Invective. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1953.
