Marching to the canon : the life of Schubert's Marche militaire

431 Pages·2014·14.35 MB·English

by  Messing

Marching to the Canon
Marche militaire is Franz
Schubert’s most recognizable and beloved instrumental work.
Originally published for piano four hands in 1826, this tuneful
march – Schubert’s first of three military marches – was
arranged, adapted, and incorporated into new incarnations over
the next two centuries. Its success was due to its chameleonlike
ability to cross the still-porous borders between canonic and
popular repertories, creating a performance life that made deep
inroads into dance, literature, and film, and inspired quotations
or allusions in other music.
Marching to the Canon examines the history of Schubert’s
storied Marche militaire from its modest beginnings as a duet
published for domestic consumption to its now-ubiquitous
presence. After detailing the composition, publication, and
reception of the original march, the book analyzes the impact of
transcriptions and arrangements for solo piano, orchestra, band,
and other settings. In addition, it considers the ways the march
was used symbolically, even manipulated, during the Franco-
Prussian War and the two world wars, as well as the diverse
creative uses of the piece by significant figures as varied as Willa
Cather, Isadora Duncan, Walt Disney, and Igor Stravinsky. This
study of the reception and impact of the Marche militaire offers a
unique narrative illuminating the world that enshrined this
remarkable score as one of the most memorable musical works
of the nineteenth century.
Scott Messing is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Music at Alma
College, and the author of two works available from the
University of Rochester Press: Neoclassicism in Music and the two-
volume Schubert in the European Imagination.
“Messing’s in-depth investigation [of Schubert’s "Marche
militaire"] reveals that its reception and influence in society have
been great. A welcome addition to the literature. Summing Up:
Highly recommended.” CHOICE.
“This extraordinary book of immense learning and imagination
provides a unique perspective on Schubert’s Marche militaire no.1
and its afterlives, therby exploring a phenomenal success story in
the history of music, media, literature, dance, and in European
and American culture more generally. Only someone with
Messing’s gift for unearthing the unknown – and surprising the
reader continually with the twists and turns in the reception
hisotry of this duet – could have realized such an ambition so
successfully” –Lorraine Byrne Bodley, author of Schubert’s Goethe
Settings.
Eastman Studies in Music
Ralph P. Locke, Senior
Editor
Eastman School of Music Additional Titles of Interest Analyzing
Wagner’s Operas:
Alfred Lorenz and German Nationalist Ideology
Stephen McClatchie The Ballet Collaborations of Richard Strauss
Wayne Heisler Jr.
Beethoven’s Century: Essays on Composers and Themes
Hugh Macdonald Beyond “The Art of Finger Dexterity”: Reassessing Carl Czerny
Edited by David Gramit Building the Operatic Museum:
Eighteenth-Century Opera in Fin-de-Siècle Paris
William Gibbons European Music and Musicians in New York City, 1840−1900
Edited by John Graziano Lies and Epiphanies: Composers and Their Inspiration
from Wagner to Berg
Chris Walton Of Poetry and Song:
Approaches to the Nineteenth-Century Lied
Edited by Jürgen Thym Schubert in the European Imagination, Volumes 1 and 2
Scott Messing Schumann’s Piano Cycles and the Novels of Jean Paul
Erika Reiman A complete list of titles in the Eastman Studies in Music
series may be found on our website, www.urpress.com.

To the memory of my mother:
Drive carefully.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 The Original Duet: Composition, Publication, Performance, and
Reception
2 Arranged for Solo Piano: Carl Tausig and His Progeny
3 Transcriptions: Edification and Entertainment
4 The Marche militaire at War and Peace
5 Dance: Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller
6 Literature: From Novel to Ephemera
7 Film: Animated Scores and Biedermeier Dreams
8 Allusion and Quotation: Poulenc and Stravinsky
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Copyright
Related Titles
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Bravura dynamic arcs: (a) Beethoven, “Marcia alla turca,” mm. 17–55;
(b) Schubert, Marche militaire no. 1, mm. 22–121
2.2 A half-century of performances of Schubert’s Marche militaire in Carl
Tausig’s arrangement, 1869–1919
2.3 Testimonial concert on the behalf of Moritz Moszkowski, Carnegie
Hall, New York, 1921
4.1 Rip [Georges-Gabriel Thénon], 1915: Revue de guerre, 1915
4.2 Design by Émile Bayard from Alphonse Daudet, Contes choisis: Édition
spéciale à l’usage de la jeunesse, 1884
5.1 John Sloan, Isadora Duncan in the “Marche Militaire,” 1915
5.2 John Sloan, Isadora in Revolt, ca. 1915
7.1 Walt Disney, Santa’s Workshop, 1932
8.1 Francis Poulenc, letter to André Schaeffner, November 11, 1929
8.2 “Ballet of the Elephants,” Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey
Circus, Madison Square Garden, New York, 1942
Musical Examples
1.1a Schubert, Marche militaire no. 1 (D. 733, op. 51), mm. 25–30
1.1b Beethoven, Variations for Piano, op. 76, mm. 9–14
1.2 Schubert, Marche militaire no. 1, excerpts
1.3 Schubert’s “bell” motives
8.1 (a) Poulenc, Mouvement perpétuel no. 1, mm. 1–4; (b) Schubert, Marche
militaire no. 1 (arr. Tausig), mm. 7–10
8.2 (a) Poulenc, Mouvement perpétuel no. 1, mm. 14–15; (b) Schubert,
Marche militaire no. 1 (arr. Tausig), mm. 53–55
8.3 (a) Schubert, Marche militaire no. 1 (arr. Tausig), mm. 73–76; (b) Jean
Wiéner, Concerto no. 1 “Franco-Américain,” movement 3, mm. 39–42
8.4 (a) Schubert, Marche militaire no. 1 (arr. Tausig), mm. 1–6; (b) Jean
Wiéner, Concerto no. 1 “Franco-Américain,” movement 3, mm. 1–4
8.5 Stravinsky, Circus Polka (orchestral version): (a) pickup to two mm.
before rehearsal no. 6; (b) 1 m. after rehearsal nos. 7 and 24; (c)
pickup to rehearsal no. 26
8.6 (a) Stravinsky, Circus Polka (orchestral version), rehearsal no. 28; (b)
Stravinsky, Three Easy Pieces, Polka, mm. 1–4
Preface
This study was born as a poor orphan to the hefty manuscript that
ultimately became the two volumes of my Schubert in the European
Imagination. During the research for that work, I repeatedly encountered
the composer’s Marche militaire no. 1 (D. 733, op. 51) in contexts that were
both unexpected and alluring. I succumbed to the temptation to add to
the account a final chapter on its performance and reception history, even
as I was loath to acknowledge that its material (my fascination with the
topic aside) did not quite fit snugly into the narrative I was constructing.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed; a reader of the manuscript, in an
otherwise positive response, recognized that it made an incongruous
appendage to the overarching theme, which traced and analyzed the
concept of Schubert’s girlish character (Mädchencharakter) over three
quarters of a century. Given the length of the final text, I did not require
much persuasion to remove this material. I was confident that in the
future, I would find the proper vehicle for the subject and return to it.
I suspect no musicologist relishes setting aside, even temporarily, the
results of untold hours of research. Due for a sabbatical in the 2010–11
academic year, I found the opportunity to return to this “chapter” with the
expectation that I could extract from its contents several articles, each
devoted to one aspect of the composition’s reception, notably as a dance
created by Isadora Duncan and as a quotation in Igor Stravinsky’s Circus
Polka. Prior to considering these two topics, I desired to learn the paths
along which Schubert’s march reached a status so that two of the most
significant figures in twentieth-century culture found it a ready source for
creative exploitation. Exploring these avenues yielded an unforeseen
hoard, so large that by the end of my leave I had produced some two
hundred thousand words. Another book was in the offing, one whose
thesis represented something of a novelty in musicological studies: the life
of a single work—the history of its composition, performance, reception,
interrelations, and influence—even though at first blush the score itself
would not seem to qualify for such a project. Its familiarity made it more
than a beloved work of the standard repertory; the evidence indicates that,