Scandinavian and Russian Music Overview

Scandinavian Music

• Edvard Grieg created a distinctive Norwegian style of music, notably in his Peer Gynt Suite.
• Jean Sibelius used Finnish folk poems and myths for his tone poems.
• Carl Nielsen, a Danish composer, created six unique symphonies.

Russian Music

• Most 19th-century Russian music came from Europe, but Mikhail Glinka changed this with his opera A Life for the Tsar.
• The "Mighty Handful" (a group of Russian composers) used Russian folklore and themes in their music.
• Composers like Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff used folk harmonies and sentimental melodies.

French Music

• 19th and early 20th-century French composers like Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, Vincent d'Indy, Paul Dukas, Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel, and Francis Poulenc developed a unique French style, using unique harmonies, fantastical themes and instrumentation.
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Paul Dukas, is based on a ballad about an enchanted broom.
• The Swan from Carnival of the Animals, by Saint-Saëns, is a well-known piece.

Spanish Music

• Spanish music, inspired by Spanish themes and people, included national dances like flamenco.
• Composers such as Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, and Joaquín Rodrigo created a Romantic Spanish style of music.
• Goya's paintings inspired plano suites and operas, like Granados's Goyescas.

Eastern European Music

• Czech composers like Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and Leoš Janáček developed a distinct Czech style, often portraying the Czech landscape and incorporating the Czech language.
• Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composers, and George Enescu, a Romanian composer, used their country's folk themes and rhythms.