100 years ago in music: The Java Suite by Godowsky (1925)
Every week I’ll publish a post about a piece published or first performed 100 years ago. As much as possible, I’ll try to avoid the major works - or at least the major works as seen by the mainstream.
100 years ago it was 1925. Quite a different time in many ways but similar in others.
When I look over the pieces written or published 100 years ago some feels like they are much more recent. Others feel like they aren’t ready to be heard yet - that most of society is still catching up. Perhaps this is because of the time it takes for ideas to percolate through society.
Key works by Schoenberg and Varese are pieces which still feel modern. I get such exciting joy finding works like this or refinding old works like bumping into a friend I didn’t think I’d ever see again.
One of the biggest joys is finding pieces which, to the main stream haven’t stood the test of time. These pieces are buried among pieces which are played again and again and again. But there is often little difference in merit.
These buried pieces which haven’t “stood the test of time” - which is such a horrible and entirely ignorant phrase - are wonderful because either they open up new areas of music I wasn’t aware of or they highlight composers or pieces which are hard to find. I dislike tests and exams, and I think this “test” that we think time puts ideas through is entirely nonsense.
Music is not, after all, canonical.
This week I’ve been listening to…
Leopold Godowsky – Java Suite
You can also watch the score here:
About 100 years of music and about Dan Frost
100 years of music is a project by me - composer, Dan Frost. Every week I publish a post based on composition or performance from 100 years ago. This is part of my on-going at eternal learning about music.
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The Java Suite by Leopold Godowsky
I remember being taught about how Debussy had adopted some of the ideas of the Gamalan after hearing them at, I think, a worlds fair or something similar. The specifics don’t matter to my example.
In just a few hours he had understood enough of what was going on musically to know how to use the methods in his own composition. This helped develop his style which has led to pieces so famous, many people don’t know who they are by!
(There is an irony of fame: become famous enough and you are just “that thing from that film/advert/etc…” :/)
The Java Suite is a set of twelve pieces by “the pianist’s pianist” Godowsky. It comprises 4 parts, each with 3 pieces. Each piece is typically 3-4 minutes long with a few being longer - 5 or 7 minutes.
Of course, this Java Suite which was written in 1925 is not well known. I say “of course” as with music and with fame, information seems to have to travel attached to a few big names. If it doesn’t, it’s not well known.
Compositionally, these feel like etude (or “study”) length pieces. Long enough to present and develop a musical idea, but not an entire story in itself.
However, because of the influence these pieces feel like they are telling stories from different perspectives. The pieces are tonal, but using “bell like” intervals and repeating rhythms which give it a gamelan feel.
You can easily find the score for this as PDF online and alongside that you find the composer’s original notes which I have included extracts of below:
The composer’s original notes
These are the composer’s original notes. (I ask the ready to translate from the language of 1925 which might not line up with how we talk now.)
Part 1
I. Gamelan
“The sonority of the Gamelan is so weird, spectral, fantastic and bewitching, the native music so elusive, vague, shimmering and singular, that on listening to this new world of sound I lost my sense of reality, imagining myself in a realm of enchantment. … In this, the first of the descriptive scenes, I have endeavored to recreate a Gamelan sonority~ a typically Javanese atmosphere.”
II Wayang-Purwa, Puppet Shadow Plays
This ancient, characteristically Javanese quasi-histrionic entertainment, produced on festive occasions, is very popular in Java. It symbolises to the Javanese their past historical greatness; their hopes, aspirations and national solidarity. To the subdued accompaniment of the Gamelan, the Dalung, - manager, actor, musician, singer, reciter and improvisator, all in one,-recites classic Hindu epics, or modernized and localized versions of them, or other mythical or historical tales and East Indian legends, while grotesque, flatleather puppets throw shadows on a white screen to interpret and illustrate the reciter's stories. These puppets the Dalang manipulates by means of bamboo rods. Wayang-Purwa is somewhat of a combination of Punch and Judy and Chinese shadows.
III. Hari Besaar, The Great Day
From plantations and hamlets natives flock to the town that is the center of the bright, joyous celebrations, naive, harmless amusements. They throw themselves. eagerly into the whirl ‘of festivities, enjoying the excitement and animation.
Actors, musicians, dancers and fakirs contribute to the pleasures of the people and to the picturesqueness of the scene.
Part 2
IV. Chattering Monkeys
The Sacred Lake of Wendit is several miles distant from the attractive little city of Malang. In the woods, near the Take, we find ourselves in one of the numerous Simian colonies of Jäva, among the aborigines of the forest, enjoying an intimate view of their tribal life. On every side are jabbering monkeys, hundreds of them, jumping from tree to tree, running up and down the trunks and branches, while others; nearer the ground, are springing on and off the roofs of the small hotel and the bath houses, snatching bananas from the visitors. The scene is full of humor, fun and animation..
V. Boro Budur in Moonlight
On a sacred hill, in the heart of Java, some thirty miles from Djokja, stand the colossal ruins.of the most imposing and gigantic Buddhist monument in existence, the world-famous temple of Boro Budur, "The Shrine of the Many Buddhas." No matter how blase the weary traveler may be, he cannot fail to be stirred and bewildered by the stupendous masonry and by the hundreds of sculptured Buddhas, images and bas-reliefs. The amazing dimensions and incredible craftsmanship enrapture the senses; the loftiness of conception, the luxuriance of imagination thrill the beholder.
In moonlight, Boro Budur is most fantastic. 'An uncanny eerie, melancholy mood permeates the whole atmosphere. Deep silence and a sense of strangeness and out-of-the-worldness contribute to the impression of utter desolation and to the feeling of inevitable decay and dissolution of all things earthly, the hopeless struggle of human endeavor against eternity.
VI. The Bromo Volcano and the Sand Sea at Daybreak
Reaching the Sand Sea from Tosari, the most famous mountain resort in Java, we crossed the sea of sand, perhaps the vastest amphitheatre in the world, arriving at the Bromo crater dawn.
A marvelous sunrise enhanced the terrifying hugeness and transcendental grandeur of this awe-inspiring panorama. The boiling, roaring, rumbling subterranean forces, seething and spouting up from abysmal depths, the sulphurous vapors and dense clouds, spreading steadily and menacingly over the horizon, suggested scenes from Dante's Inferno, and brought to realization the fact that cataclysmic activities, everlasting fires in the bowels of the earth, threaten all that is alive.
The appalling thought of the frailty of all human institutions was overwhelming. Cui Bono?.....
But the bright sun, shedding its glorious light and dispelling all fear and gloom, changed the feeling of a crushing futility into an ecstatic triumphal ode. The mere consciousness that such elemental powers exist alleviates the pain of living. An overpowering feeling of humility, of compassion and tenderness toward all things alive, a passionate adoration for the unknown source of all consciousness, filled the soul.
And then we returned…
Part 3
VIII. Three Dances
It is doubtful if there is a people in any part of the world whose innermost feelings are so wholly revealed in their dances as are the Javanese.
And whether religious or secular, warlike or peaceful, spiritual or sensuous, these dances are always beautiful.
The first of the “Three Dances” expresses the languor and melancholy of the Far East; the second, the grace and charm of the Oriental dancers; the third, their poetry and tenderness, translated into an Occidental idiom.
VIII. The Gardens of Buitenzorg
Buitenzorg, meaning “Sans Souci” [French for "no worries" or "carefree"] and pronounced Boy-ten-sorg, forty miles from Batavia, is the country capital of Java, where the Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies has his residence. His spacious palace is situated in a large park which forms part of the most famous Botanical Gardens in the world.
The finest collection of tropical trees, plants and flowers is to be found in the gardens ofthis distant corner of our Earth. The profusion, richness, magnificence and beauty of this strange horticultural world are unparalleled.
The fragrant frangipanis, the white tuberoses(the Malay call them “The Charmers of the Night”) and a bewildering number of other most delicately scented flowers intoxicate the senses.
The heavily perfumed air awakens an inexpressibly deep and painful yearning for unknown worlds, for inaccessible ideals, for past happenings irrevocably gone—these memories which the ocean of time gradually submerges and finally buries in oblivion......
Why do certain scents produce unutterable regrets, insatiable longings, indefinable desires?
IX. In the Streets of Old Batavia
‘To stroll in the old streets of lower Batavia is an exhilarating experience. As we wander near the seashore, through the crowded bazaars and busy, narrow streets, many of which are intersected by bricked canals lined with weather-beaten buildings in the Dutch style, we meet exotic crowds, consisting mainly of Chinese, Arabs, natives and other Asiatics, interspersed with Europeans, of whom the Dutch form a large majority.
A ramble through the hectic Chinese quarter leads us to a quiet and contemplative corner of the Arab settlement. Another turn brings us to the native quarter. And when the bazaars are reached, a kaleidoscopic, multifarious conglomeration of humans bewilders even the most seasoned globe-trotter.[1]
Part 3
X. In the Kraton
Surakarta, popularly called Solo, and Djokjakarta, commonly shortened to Djokja, are the most important and interesting native cities in Java. .
The greatest ruler— The Susuhunan — resides in Solo, while the next in importance, the Sultan of Djokja, lives in the last named capital. In the heart of each capital is a vast enclosure called the Kraton, in which the potentate has his palaces and wherein dwell besides the Sultan, Sultana and princes and princesses, his numerous concubines, slaves and servants, court officials, nobles, musi-cians, actors, dancers, workmen, tradespeople and many individuals with indefinable occupations. Each Kraton has a population of between ten and fifteen thousand, the ensemble constituting a court of huge dimensions.
It is evening. Quaint scenes charm our vision. Faint sounds of the entrancing Gamelan fill the fragrant air. The seemingly unreal reality casts a hypnotic spell over our consciousness.
There is poetry in every ebbing moment.
It is evening in the Orient.......
XI. The Ruined Water Castle at Djokja
Near the Kraton of Djokja, deserted, fallen into decay, stand the mouldy and crumbling remains of the once resplendent Water Palace, with its murmuring fountains and splashing cascades, with its aquatic pranks and air-filling scents of exotic flowers. Where once was merriment, there is now the mystery and romance of vanished days, the sadness of evanescent pleasures, The fountains and cascades murmur memories of yesteryears - yearning for past joys, mourning for departed love....[1]
XII. A Court Pageant in Solo
The pomp, bombast and gorgeousness of a royal procession on a festive occasion or court function in either of the two native capitals make a dazzling and grotesque spectacle. The exuberance and abandon of the natives, the force and charm of the native rhythms, challenge description.
The clanging and clashing march opens the event. Strongly emphasized in the middle section (F sharp minor) of this closing composition, is that strain of sadness ever present in the music of the Orient. The hilarious mood is resumed with the Fugato, which leads back to an intensified version of the barbaric march.
Performed 75 years later
According to my (very basic) sources, the first complete recording wasn’t until 2000. There’s no particular reason why it should or shouldn’t have happened by then or before then, but I find it interesting and maybe telling the way that some pieces get 1000s of recordings and others get none. A billion recordings of Moonlight Sonata and … NONE of these.
Let that teach us that music history passes arbitrary judgement.
As someone commented on YouTube:
“As an Indonesian, I couldn't hold my tears listening to this. I'm so proud that a Polish-American composer noticed native Indonesian music. I can't believe so few Indonesians have noticed this masterpiece yet. I hope more Indonesians will notice this as Godowsky noticed Javanese music.”
Reflections
Last year I travel around several countries in Asia and collected, as many of us creative and inquisitive people do, many photos, sketches and ideas. As ever, I have more ideas than I can distil and compress into a good piece of music but listening to these has given me an idea.
Listening to these pieces gave me ideas for how to shape the fragments and sketches I collected. This is 90% of the pain of creating. Every idea is a new incomplete project. It’s easier to sit down for 10 minutes and make yourself LESS productive by creating new ideas than to finish the ideas you’ve already had or started to flesh out.
These pieces are not aping the sound of Java or of “other” music. These are not extreme examples of orientalism or stealing other peoples’ ideas. It’s clearly a western interpretation. Borrowing / stealing ideas and injecting them into the form of western music, but not stealing the entire feel.
The piece’s timbre is used naturally without the preparation of John Cage. He is not playing with tuning or such.
His pieces are not just about the music of Java. They are about the scenes, landscape and activity. “Chattering Monkeys at the Sacret Lake of Wendit”….
You can hear the chattering of the monkeys. These pieces are very “tone poem” and might find it hard to fit into a film or modern art form but by themselves they still convey the image they meant to.
The shortness of the pieces is also appealing, compositionally. When I travel I collect so many ideas that the prospect of sitting down to turn them into a complete and masterful work is daunting. Short form scenes are a beautiful way to capture such ideas.
HI!! If these posts interest you, do let me know in the comments or reply to this email. This is a long term project for me to break the algorithm and find “new” music in an old way.
100 years of music
Every week I’ll publish a post about a piece published or first performed 100 years ago. As much as possible, I’ll try to avoid the major works - or at least the major works as seen by the mainstream music media we have now. I’ll be avoiding the canon.
Each time, I’ll explore:
The piece or the pieces, what instruments they’re for.
Why they were written. What the project or motivation or inspiration behind the piece was.
What I feel it teaches me about writing music.
Starting in 1925
I’m going to start 100 years from today: 1st Jan 1925.
This was a very different world in many ways and weirdly similar in others.
What is already striking about the list of pieces I’m exploring is how some reach back years or centuries to the past while others reach into a future we aren’t yet in.
This only serves to emphasise the idea that the canonical works of music are not the whole story. To understand where things might go in the future, we need to explore the trickles of new ideas which might turn into a torrent in many years.
Subscribe to join me on this weird, historical journey.