National composer

National composer is an ideological term denoting a composer who largely employs national symbols and elements in his musical works; furthermore he is highly popular among the public of the national culture he belongs to, and is internationally recognised as an important composer.

It is comparable to a national poet, but has no titular history (i.e. poet laureate). The term has been formed during the national and patriot movements of the 19th century, primarily amongst European countries under foreign rule. Although there are many composers having employed national elements in their music, only few of them are regarded as national composers due to their lacking international recognition and popularity abroad.

National composers are mostly found in Scandinavia:

• Denmark: Niels Gade
• Finland: Jean Sibelius
• Norway: Edvard Grieg
• Sweden: Hugo Alfvén

and in Eastern Europe:

• Armenia: Aram Khachaturian
• Czech Republic: Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák
• Hungary: Béla Bartók
• Lithuania: Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
• Poland: Frédéric Chopin, Stanisław Moniuszko
• Romania: George Enescu
• Ukraine: Mykola Lysenko

There are also a few national composers in Western Europe, mostly from small countries where they are regarded as national idols without having employed national elements in their work:

• Ireland: Turlough Carolan
• Liechtenstein: Josef Rheinberger
• Luxembourg: Jean Antoine Zinnen

There is no similar recognition of national composers in nations with vast musical traditions like Germany, Italy and France. However the Nazis used to stylize composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner as German national composers.^[1] Giuseppe Verdi may be regarded as an Italian national composer, especially in light of the political and national themes of such operas as Nabucco and Don Carlos.

References

1. ^ Nazi Approved Music, A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, 2005. Viewed on January 2, 2010.

Literature

• Sidney Walter Finkelstein: Composer and nation. The folk heritage in music, a study of national expression in music and the use of folk and popular music by the great composers from the 17th century to the present day, New York 1989.
• Thomas Leibnitz: Anton Bruckner and "German music". Josef Schalk and the establishment of Bruckner as a national composer, Aldershot 2001.
• Zdzisław Mach: National Anthems. The Case of Chopin as a National Composer, Oxford 1994.
• Percy Marshall Young: Dvořák, London/New York 1970, p. 39-46.
• Ilmari Hannikainen: Sibelius and the development of Finnish music, London 1948.
• Agnes M. Wergeland: Grieg as a national composer, New York 1907.