Gypsy Music in European Culture: From the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries

8 | Gypsy Themes in Vocal Works

chapter eight ••••• Gypsy Themes in Vocal Works As a genre representative for the Romantic era, song naturally absorbed popular motifs. And because Gypsy motifs were seen as being tied to romantic ideals, these motifs entered artistic songs predominantly through the literary texts of poets. This tendency prevailed for composers through the nineteenth century andintothetwentieth.Romantic GermanpoetswhodealtwithGypsy subject matter, and whose texts were favored by composers, included Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), followed by Joseph von Eichendorff (1788– 1857), Emanuel von Geibel (1815–1884), Theodor Storm (1817–1888), and Max Geissler (1868–1945). These Romantics enjoyed esteem particularly within German and Austrian compositional circles. Yet along with poetic works, composers located source material on the Gypsies ’musicalidiomfromthecollectionsofanonymousfolksongsthatappeared during the nineteenth century. In France, for instance, these collections were published for amateur musicians of average to advanced skill. And song titles inthese collectionsoftenincludedSpanishor Italianreferencescombinedwith Gypsyreferences,perhapsreflectingtheassociationsbetweenGypsies’physical appearanceandthatofsouthernEuropeans.Meanwhile,Spanishmusic,thought tobenearlyinterchangeablewithGypsymusic,reachedawideraudiencethanks tothepopularityinEuropeofSpanishcomposersandperformers.ThisSpanish influence was almost certainly the second most important source of Gypsy-related content for artistic songs, next to the German poems. Throughout the nineteenth century, composers created songs endearingly titled zingarella, or artistic songs with Gypsy-related words. Of course, no “prototype ” of a Gypsy song by a specific Gypsy group existed, so zingarella arose, paradoxically, as a stylization—that is, a song contemplated within a Gypsy template. The earlier-mentioned Spanish-Italian connotations, evident in the verytermzingarella,zingaresca,orzingarawerethoughttoconstituteasignificant element in creating the notion of the “Gypsy song” within European culture. Themes in Vocal Works 175 With time, certain characteristic features designed to preserve the pretense of folksongsimplicitywouldtakeshape.Thesesimplerformsprevailedintheearly part of the nineteenth century, with greater stylization and musical refinement taking placelateron.Thechangeswereexpressedinadeparturefromtheinitial aim of imitating allegedly genuine Gypsy songs in favor of an artistic reworking oftheconceptofGypsynessinmusic.Thistrajectory,however,remainedclosely connected with the development of the Romantic song genre in general. By the 1880s,composers’interestintheGypsysonghadclearlyintensifiedas afunctionofseveralfactorsboostingtheprofileofmusicbybothHungarianand Spanish Gypsies. One such factor was the success of Bizet’s Carmen while another was the 1881 reissue of Liszt’s influential though controversial publication on Gypsy music. (Both works have been explored in detail in earlier chapters.) Other sources of the surge in interest in the artistic song were Johann Strauss’s The Gypsy Baron and a general increase in the use of Gypsy subject matter in instrumental works. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Gypsy motifs would dominate operetta output, in general resulting in a trivialization of Gypsy subject matter. This trend naturally was reflected in songs with Gypsy themes. Other lighter formsintheAmericanTinPanAlleyidiomincorporatedsuperficial,textual-level Gypsythemes,buoyedbytheincreasingpopularityofentertainmentmusic,jazz, and—particularly in Paris—cabaret. German composers themselves adopted some oftheseleaveningtendencies,sometimestreatingGypsymaterial—hitherto handled with utmost seriousness—in a more lighthearted, pictorial, and even comic way. Evenwiththeseshifts,theearlierpracticeofdrawingonthetextsofRomantic poets would persist, although in limited form, with the Gypsy themes having allowed the original poets to impart their more sweeping views on freedom and links with nature. Whatever the source, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,GypsymotifswouldbeareservoirofRomanticidealsandwouldthus be intimately entwined with European songs, both in their artistic and more popular, entertaining manifestations. Songs of Gypsy Inspiration in the Early Nineteenth Century The Poetic Trope Goethe introduced Gypsy subject matter to German Romanticism with his 1784 publication of Zigeunerlied (Gypsy Songs), which he had written thirteen years earlier and which served, for example, as the basis for Louis Spohr’s 176 19th- & Early 20th-Century Composers (1784–1859) song of 1809 of the same name. In the song, the lyrics essentially draw associations with devilish powers, although the term Zigeuner does not even appear. The stereotypical connection of Gypsies with witches and pagan customs, embellished with a description of raw nature (“Im Nebelgeriesel, im tiefen Schnee, Im wilden Wald, in der Winternacht, Ich hörte der Wölfe Hungergeheul , Ich hörte der Eulen Geschrei”) and black magic tropes (“schwarze Katz”), spoke to the imagination of its Romantic recipients. The romanticized life of the Gypsies, a theme attractive on its own, drew the attentionofnineteenth-centurysongcomposers.Exceptionallypopularamong poeticsourceswereGeibel’sZigeunerlebenandDerZigeunerbubeimNorden,written in 1834–1835 and referencing Gypsies’ mystery and ties with nature. Among those to draw from these texts was Johanna Kinkel, née Mockel (1810–1858), for her 1838 collection Sechs Lieder (op. 7), in which number 6 is the song “Die Zigeuner.” Tapping the poet yet again, Kinkel placed “Der Zigeunerknabe” first in Der Hidalgo (op. 8). Geibel’s work was employed as well by Karl Gottlieb Reissiger (1798–1859) for the number 2 in his opus 206...