Tony Powell

A Nations Pride Shown in Music

Greatness! My chest slightly rises, my ears become more attune, and I feel a sense of pride well up from my chest, the emotions I experienced after listening to the first twenty seconds of a classical piece by Modest Mussorgsky, The Great Gate of Kiev. I personally interpret the piece as a story being told, a very passionate story, with dramatic tales of triumph and accomplishment. The main melody exuded a steadfast confidence facilitated by multiple instruments in melodic crescendos at a slow tempo. This is symbolic of introducing a hero or heroes to the story. The main melody demands attention. The large, low pitched, tympani drums convey a certainty and declare, Listen to what I have to say, its important. Clearly, Mussorgsky is attempting to show the awesome power of Russia through a great musical presentation of an architectural cachet. At the beginning of the second movement, in contrast to the introduction, a small group of soft, slow tempo clarinets and bassoons play in melody in an effort to convey important, factual information to justify the grandiose introduction. Now that the introduction has been justified, the third movement boasts the full weight of the brass section coming in at low pitch consonance with the tympani drums to re-emphasize the great importance of the story. High note, allegro violins accompany the slow tempo of the brass and drums to signify a tale of sophisticated greatness in which few people have the skills to rival. This might have been Mussorgsky attempting to portray the level of intricacy in the design of The Gate of Kiev. At the

end of the third movement, the powerful refrain is brought back exhibiting Rondo form in the piece. Clarinets and bassoons return once more in the fourth movement to tell again their back story and disposition in which the piece is about. A dreadful style of tone changes in the fifth movement is painted through an attention grabbing church bell and low, steady beat tubas that convey an ominous presence and an underlying antagonist in the piece. Mussorgsky might have been trying to convey impending danger to the Gate of Kiev. Before the low, foreboding beat can begin to gain cadence, woodwinds, violins, trumpets, and eventually bells arrive and overpower the lower note instruments through forte crescendo. To me, this represents evil being subjugated, and good (Russia) prevailing over adversity. In the last movement, the refrain is played slow and forte to once again show the great power and immutability of the hero or heroes in this grand demonstration. Having listened to this great piece, I find it sad that Modest Mussorgsky, who came from humble beginnings, died at a young age, not leaving many musical works for the world to enjoy. In the late 1800s, a friend of Mussorgskys, Viktor Hartmann, died of an aneurism. Hartmann had many great works of art, which Mussorgsky displayed in an Exhibition which later inspired him to create ten musical pieces to comprise Pictures at an Exhibition. Thankfully, in the mid twentieth century, the musical world fell in love with the 10th piece, The Great Gate of Kiev, and recognized all the hard work Mussorgsky had done to honor Russia and the late, great artist, Viktor Hartmann.

Another nationalistic piece which evokes a sense of pride, although with a dash of bewilderment, would most certainly be Putnams Camp, by Charles Ives. This piece is the second piece in a set of three pieces written by Ives in an effort to delineate American society. Putnams Camp, in ABA form, is supposed to represent a boy walking through a 4th of July picnic in Connecticut, listening to multiple bands, falling asleep and dreaming, then waking up. At the introduction, the dissonant, forte melodies of two marching bands clash against each other and reminded me of a powerful, disorganized U.S. government. Throughout the first section, some portions of the two bands seem to come into harmony, only to be immediately disrupted by dissonant piano, trombones, flutes and more. The two marching bands are paired against each other through unique, powerful melodies that contrast each other so sharply, it appears they are responding to each other with a series of playful, patriotic, musical retorts. Towards the end of the first section, the boy falls asleep as the orchestra slowly decrescendos while individual instruments begin to die off, bringing a close the dissonant clash of bands. While the boy dreams, the beginning of the second section starts off slowly with an underlying, dissonant beat of violins that invokes a growing tension in me that foreshadows eventful beginnings. This entire section reminds me of waking up outside in tents during my enlistment in the Marines, lying in a sleeping bag listening to the growing bustle of people starting off the morning. A trumpet lightly interjects to represent reveille: syncopated violins mimic showers turning on and off, an oboe melody representing nature, and finally as camp is finishing up the morning activities, everything begins to go quiet. Triumphantly, as usual, officers arrive in the form of a brass melody barking orders and detailing the activities of the day before the General arrives. The violins, cymbals, flutes and the rest of the orchestra respond to these orders with a variety

of dissonant melodies. General Putnam arrives on scene via forte brass instruments and ensuing calamity follows through the entire orchestra. At the start of the final section, the two symbolic marching bands coalesce into harmony for a brief moment, only to fall into a fast beat mix of forte crescendo and decrescendo melodies. This last section resembles the first section, concluding the ABA form. The tension builds at the end as rhythm increases then decreases while tonal color clashes. No instrument is in consonance. In a last ditch effort to show the mighty power of the United States, a full blast of the entire orchestra is bellowed out in one fortissimo chord. This piece clearly demonstrated and painted a picture of the U.S. government puffing its chest and boasting nationalistic pride with traditional U.S. marching bands.