Revolving Embrace: The Waltz as Sex, Steps, and SoundAt the beginning of the 19th century the waltz brought men and women face-to-face, dancing tightly embraced and staring into each other's eyes, a position that provoked a great deal of anxiety in many circles: bishops of Austria signed decrees against waltzing, France banned it at court, and even Leo XII sought to suppress the waltz by papal decree. Nevertheless, composers wrote waltzes for the ballrooms, and the new bourgeoisie of Europe enjoyed the freedom and informality of the dance.The reception of the waltz as music was informed by 19th-century views on women. As a result, the waltz - both dance and music - acquired a distinctly gendered meaning. In Verdi's La Traviata, Puccini's La Bohème, and Berg's Wozzeck, the composers relied on the waltz's contradictory meanings of individual pleasure and social disapprobation to portray the women characters and their roles in the development of the plot.The popularity of the waltz persisted beyond the original era of the Viennese waltz. Twentieth-century composers wrote waltzes either to pay homage to the Viennese waltz and its creators or to evoke the spirit of that earlier period. In compositions such as La Valse and Wozzeck, Ravel and Berg make deliberate references to the Viennese waltz without yielding their own musical language to its convention. |
Contents
Putting Music Under | 17 |
Opera Ballet and Playing | 43 |
The Womans Sound in the Waltz | 119 |
Closing | 143 |
Common terms and phrases
19th-century accent accompaniment Alfredo's anacrusis appears associated audience ballet ballroom beat Beauty beginning Berg Brahms Cambridge century Chapter character characteristics Chopin circle circular classical close complete composers composition concert considered continues couple course creating critical dance dancers developing distinction distortion dominant duet effect entire essential established Example expression fact Figure final function genre gives hand harmony hear idea important introduced Johann Strauss listener London major marked Marx meaning measure melody meter motive movement nature notes once opening opera original particular pattern performed phrase piano piece play plot popular powerful present Press Public Ravel reference reflects repeated repetition respect rhythmic scene segments significant singing Sleeping social song stage starts steps Strauss strong style sure takes Tchaikovsky theme third throughout tion trans turn University Valse Viennese waltz Violetta woman women Wozzeck writing York