0:00:02 > 0:00:04In this series I've been on a musical journey
0:00:04 > 0:00:06back to the 19th century,
0:00:06 > 0:00:09exploring the era when the modern world was being forged.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11CLASSICAL MUSIC
0:00:16 > 0:00:19This was Europe's great revolutionary age
0:00:19 > 0:00:22when the political shock waves of the French Revolution
0:00:22 > 0:00:24were reverberating across the continent,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27when there was a revolution in thinking and imagination
0:00:27 > 0:00:31that became known as Romanticism,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35and when the Industrial Revolution created new technologies
0:00:35 > 0:00:38that were radically changing people's everyday lives.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42In this volatile world
0:00:42 > 0:00:46music reflected and even shaped events.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48This was the age of Verdi and Wagner,
0:00:48 > 0:00:53Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Rossini, Chopin, Mahler, Debussy.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57No other century produced more great composers.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05The dawn of the 19th century saw composers
0:01:05 > 0:01:09and musicians bursting out...
0:01:09 > 0:01:11beyond the boundaries of the concert hall
0:01:11 > 0:01:13and onto a bigger public stage.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22They became influential in politics and revolution,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26earnt vast sums of money and were famous across the globe.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37I've been looking at how music mirrored the seismic changes
0:01:37 > 0:01:39that were happening in the 19th century,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43as musicians became powerful, influential stars...
0:01:46 > 0:01:50Yeah, it's very Keith Richards, that kind of showing off to the audience.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54..finding out why composers became national heroes,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56revered to this day...
0:01:56 > 0:01:59- Viva Verdi. - Viva Verdi!
0:01:59 > 0:02:02..and discovering that music could spark revolution.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:02:05 > 0:02:07..woof, woof - like a dog!
0:02:09 > 0:02:12..and in this final episode, I'll look at how music
0:02:12 > 0:02:14was at the forefront of another revolution,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17with the sweeping transformation of technology...
0:02:17 > 0:02:21MUSIC: Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss
0:02:28 > 0:02:31..creating new industrially manufactured instruments
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and futuristic ways of listening.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38I'll explore how music was seen as the essence
0:02:38 > 0:02:40of progress and modernity,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45but how it also aroused suspicion, anxiety and moral outrage.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52As the 19th century drew to a close people began to ask, "What next?"
0:02:52 > 0:02:55And music came to the front line in that battle between fear
0:02:55 > 0:03:00and optimism. On the one hand, there was worry about decay
0:03:00 > 0:03:06and decline. On the other, it was time to party like it was 1899.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09CAN-CAN MUSIC
0:03:17 > 0:03:20CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:03:30 > 0:03:32100 years after the French Revolution,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35the streets of Paris were once again raging.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38But this time no gunshots or cannon fire were heard -
0:03:38 > 0:03:41this was a mass celebration.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46In 1889, the city was hosting a world fair -
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Exposition Universelle -
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and it aimed to be the most ambitious,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55global and most musical event the world had ever seen.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58It was a celebration of the past,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01with the main attractions located on the Champ de Mars -
0:04:01 > 0:04:05the site of the first Bastille Day commemorations.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08But this was also a celebration of the present,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10glorifying the industrial progress
0:04:10 > 0:04:15and creative success that France had enjoyed throughout the 19th century.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21This is all that remains of the vast complex of buildings
0:04:21 > 0:04:23that were specially created for the exhibition.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26The spectacle lasted for six months
0:04:26 > 0:04:31and attracted 35 million visitors from across the world.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36The Eiffel Tower, constructed from rolled iron -
0:04:36 > 0:04:40a brand-new engineering material - was a beacon to the world.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Like the exhibition itself, it spoke of confidence and optimism.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Music was central to that message.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51String quartets could be heard drifting down from the first floor
0:04:51 > 0:04:56of the Tower. The recently rebuilt Opera National hosted events
0:04:56 > 0:04:59and everything from marching bands to folk music could be heard
0:04:59 > 0:05:02in boulevards, concert halls and cafes.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09As the newspaper described it, Paris was swept up in an orgy of music.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16So this is a view of the exhibition site.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19The Eiffel tower right in the middle, new for the exhibition.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Across the Seine, Le palais du Trocadero,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25which was the concert hall that had a 4,000 seat -
0:05:25 > 0:05:27a concert hall with a Cavaille-Coll organ in it.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30Down the Champ de Mars, the Beaux-Arts,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33the liberal arts, the industrial area
0:05:33 > 0:05:36and the machine gallery right at the southern end.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40So the Exposition physically changed the way Paris looked.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44- How important was music to all of it?- Oh, hugely important.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Music and music education had been central to republican values
0:05:46 > 0:05:48for a very long time.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51With this exhibition, they set up a commission early on,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54headed up by the conservatoire director Ambroise Thomas,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57with all the great composers of the time that we know about -
0:05:57 > 0:06:01Gounod, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Delibes - as well as others.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Two programmed series of events that showcased French music but that also
0:06:06 > 0:06:11invited foreign countries to bring in concerts of their own music
0:06:11 > 0:06:13as well and their own performers.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16So what was the range of the kinds of music you could hear?
0:06:16 > 0:06:18In the concerts in the Trocadero you could hear French music
0:06:18 > 0:06:20from, really, the last century.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23You could hear Russian music, American music,
0:06:23 > 0:06:26choirs from Finland and Norway.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29It went even further than that, though, this was a global project.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Yes, of course. There were lots of exotic musics available
0:06:32 > 0:06:37in both the colonial exhibition and elsewhere on the exhibition site.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39So the colonial exhibitions, most famously,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44we know about the Javanese village with the dancers and the gamelan.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46And we know about the Theatre Annamite
0:06:46 > 0:06:49which was the Vietnamese theatre with music performed,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54and then elsewhere you could go down the road and go and have a mint tea
0:06:54 > 0:06:58or a coffee in a kasbah somewhere with dancing and singing.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00It must have stunned people to hear this stuff.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05Stunned them, shocked them. They didn't know the real exotic music
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and when they came to the exhibition for the first time,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11they got a taste of something that was a little bit more authentic
0:07:11 > 0:07:13than they were used to,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and quite often it didn't fit with what they were expecting.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20The Paris exhibition capitalised on a long-standing European
0:07:20 > 0:07:24fascination with far-flung corners of the globe.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27For centuries France, along with other European powers,
0:07:27 > 0:07:32had engaged in an imperial land grab that spread across the globe,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34gathering pace through the 19th century in a race
0:07:34 > 0:07:37to dominate the world's stage.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40With political conquests abroad,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Oriental influences flooded back into Europe,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48and by the 1870s anything culturally exotic became de rigueur.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Orientalism had become the height of fashion.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Trend-setters would go and buy a little Oriental painting
0:07:58 > 0:08:00or a piece of furniture.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03They'd wear an exotic headdress or visit a trendy cafe.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07And what they would encounter there would be a complete mishmash
0:08:07 > 0:08:09of Turkish and Greek and Middle Eastern
0:08:09 > 0:08:11and Indian and Chinese influences.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15It was like the cultural equivalent of going out and eating a kebab,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19a curry and sweet and sour chicken all in one sitting.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Not remotely an authentic experience
0:08:21 > 0:08:24but nonetheless a rather enjoyable one.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Mm, don't mind if I do.
0:08:27 > 0:08:28Mm!
0:08:31 > 0:08:36What people saw at the Paris exhibition in 1889 was different.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40It had a degree of authenticity few had ever experienced.
0:08:40 > 0:08:41For the first time,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45a European audience could encounter shockingly different cultures
0:08:45 > 0:08:49with languages and sounds that were completely alien to Western ears.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54The Javanese gamelan, for example, caused -
0:08:54 > 0:08:55as contemporary accounts put it -
0:08:55 > 0:09:00"the froth on one's beer to dissolve away and ice creams to melt."
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Spectators were transfixed.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05- OK, this is called a what? - This is called a saron,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09it's one of the loudest metallophone instruments in the gamelan.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11I can see numbers here,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14which I like cos that suggests that it's not too difficult.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17One, two, three, five, six...one.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20- Why are there two ones? - So we have a low one at the bottom
0:09:20 > 0:09:23- and then you have an octave higher. - Can I hit it?- Yeah.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27RESONATING TONES
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Oh, gorgeous sound.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31- And what am I playing?- So we're going to play a piece today called
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Mugi Rahayu and it's a lovely piece
0:09:34 > 0:09:36that goes around and round and round.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38- I do have some notations if you'd like some?- Yeah!
0:09:38 > 0:09:40Well, I don't know it, so I'm going to need...
0:09:40 > 0:09:44It's very basic notation, it's a notation that uses numbers.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Each number correlates to one of the keys on this.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49This doesn't really make any sense to me yet.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51We have a very different tuning system
0:09:51 > 0:09:53so we don't correlate to A, B, C, D.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57I don't do 3, 6, 1, 3, 6, 1, 2.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59- I know A, B, C. - Yeah.- OK.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01Er...
0:10:01 > 0:10:03Shall I have a quick practice?
0:10:03 > 0:10:07RESONATING TONES
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Perfect.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Goes on quite a long time, doesn't it?
0:10:11 > 0:10:14You can hear that the notes are all kind of resonating -
0:10:14 > 0:10:15melding together.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17So, to make your life even harder,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19we're going to introduce a damping technique.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22So if you play your first note, the 3, and let it ring on...
0:10:22 > 0:10:24- NOTE RINGS ON - ..when you play the 6,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28with your other hand you're going to pinch the 3 at the same time.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Then when you play the 1, you pinch the 6.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Exactly.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40But that means I have to read these numbers,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44play the notes and my other hand is one note behind.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47- That's right. It's a bit multitasking.- That's really...
0:10:49 > 0:10:516, 1...
0:10:54 > 0:10:58- OK.- If you pinch with your thumb on top and really grip the keys,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00that's a much better way of doing it.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02I will be gripping them for dear life. OK, let's do that.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05I'm really looking forward to playing this, I want to hear it. OK.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07GENTLE MUSIC
0:11:31 > 0:11:36Javanese gamelan created a sensation at the exhibition in 1889.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44It was one of the most popular attractions
0:11:44 > 0:11:48with over 500,000 people coming to listen to it,
0:11:48 > 0:11:50enthralled by a powerful,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54beautiful and unique music that was completely new to them.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01One composer in particular, Claude Debussy,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05was so entranced by the gamelan that it profoundly changed the way
0:12:05 > 0:12:07he thought about and wrote music.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Debussy was captivated by the possibilities for new tones
0:12:22 > 0:12:24and rhythms that gamelan offered,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27and by the fact that the Javanese musicians he heard
0:12:27 > 0:12:29played without any formal training.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32For them, music was an instinct.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45As he put it,
0:12:45 > 0:12:50"These musicians learned to play as easily as one learns to breathe."
0:12:59 > 0:13:04It's such beautiful music. It's so full of Oriental flavour.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09What do you think that Debussy heard in the gamelan that so inspired him?
0:13:09 > 0:13:12A completely different focus on expression, for a start,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15a different set of gestures, different pitches, of course,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19from Western ones. Just another world, and complete refreshment.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23So he calls the piece Pagodes and...
0:13:23 > 0:13:26how is one going to convey the outline of a pagoda?
0:13:26 > 0:13:28What does a pagoda roof do?
0:13:31 > 0:13:34- So it goes... - Going up already.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38- Yeah, it's beautiful, going up like that.- Typical for him,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42the top of the texture whispers with little arabesques,
0:13:42 > 0:13:43melodies in the middle
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and different layers in his music going at different speeds.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49He would have heard this in gamelan and loved it.
0:13:49 > 0:13:50So he falls in love with this sound,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52how does he turn that into Western music?
0:13:52 > 0:13:55How does he create a piano piece from that?
0:13:55 > 0:13:57With Debussy, I think, it's gestures here.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59There's that gesture of the pagoda roofs,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03there's various gamelan-like gestures there -
0:14:03 > 0:14:06the interlocking of the various gongs.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08He approximates it at the beginning of the piece.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18And that syncopated one off the beat
0:14:18 > 0:14:20he marks with a little accent each time.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24And he always insisted on people playing him precisely in time
0:14:24 > 0:14:27so that you'd catch these little rhythmic nuances.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31So he's really, from the inside out, reworking the whole notion
0:14:31 > 0:14:34of what a Western musical ear would be used to.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39How much of a shock do you think this must have been for Debussy,
0:14:39 > 0:14:41the people in Paris at the Exposition, listening to this?
0:14:41 > 0:14:44It must have seemed like a totally different musical world.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Oh, yes, the West was looking towards Asia
0:14:47 > 0:14:53and the rest of the world for new colours and new ideas and...
0:14:53 > 0:14:56wondering how we could refresh the air, really.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Gamelan gave Debussy a new path, a way of breaking free
0:15:01 > 0:15:04from the maximal, overwhelming style of Richard Wagner
0:15:04 > 0:15:06that was dominating European music.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13By taking elements of the Indonesian percussion orchestra and fusing them
0:15:13 > 0:15:15with traditional Western music,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Debussy realised he could create something understated
0:15:19 > 0:15:22yet truly magical and modern-sounding.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25GENTLE MUSIC
0:15:38 > 0:15:43This is Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune,
0:15:43 > 0:15:48an orchestral portrait of a young deer wandering in a sun-lit forest.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54It doesn't sound remotely Indonesian
0:15:54 > 0:15:57but, like the gamelan, there are no obvious melodies here,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01no clear rhythms to tap along to, it's not in any apparent key,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04and the different sections of the orchestra move at their own
0:16:04 > 0:16:08distinct pace. It's got the same rippling resonance
0:16:08 > 0:16:11that Debussy heard in the Javanese band.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45The piece has been described as
0:16:45 > 0:16:49"the awakening of music to the modern world."
0:16:49 > 0:16:51And it had only come about
0:16:51 > 0:16:54because of the technology of the Industrial Age,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57with steam ships to transport Javanese musicians
0:16:57 > 0:17:00across vast oceans to perform in Paris,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04trains whisking visitors to glittering urban centres.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09With ever-increasing mobility came bigger audiences for music
0:17:09 > 0:17:13than ever before. In the first half of the 19th century,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16the number of concert-goers in Paris alone tripled,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21and the explosion in popularity was mirrored across Europe.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25To cater for demand, cities vied to outdo each other,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28building bigger and better music venues.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30The biggest and most ambitious of them all -
0:17:30 > 0:17:34our very own Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38a homage to cutting-edge construction techniques.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47The vast domed roof spanned 20,000 square feet,
0:17:47 > 0:17:53constructed using 338 tonnes of industrially-produced iron girders
0:17:53 > 0:17:56and 279 tonnes of plate glass.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04So no comfortable promenade for me - just a rather steep climb.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Oh, my goodness. Ah!
0:18:20 > 0:18:22OK! Er...
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Ahh...!
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Oh, don't bounce!
0:18:27 > 0:18:31- Am I standing on steel mesh? - You are, yes.- I don't like it!
0:18:31 > 0:18:33How high up are we?
0:18:33 > 0:18:36About 43.5 metres high.
0:18:36 > 0:18:3943.5 metres between me and plunging to my death.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41OK, I'm not going to look down.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Welcome to the corona, which is the crown of the Hall.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47What purpose does the corona serve?
0:18:47 > 0:18:50This was the ventilation system and, literally, all the hot air
0:18:50 > 0:18:53that was created by the public was dragged up through this shaft
0:18:53 > 0:18:55and out of the oculus above us.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59So this is where the hot air was dispersed into the atmosphere.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02So we're standing, essentially, at the top of this newfangled
0:19:02 > 0:19:05ventilation system that the Royal Albert Hall had.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09I've lived to experience the steel mesh 43 metres up, can we go now?
0:19:09 > 0:19:11- CHUCKLING:- Fine.
0:19:12 > 0:19:13Well done.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21When this building first opened,
0:19:21 > 0:19:26people were blown away by its beauty and its audacious modernity.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Even Queen Victoria, who was due to speak here on the opening night,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34couldn't say a word because she was so overcome with emotion.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39This temple to arts and sciences was a feast for all the senses,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42not least because of its cutting-edge ventilation system,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46which not only piped in fresh air but also, on the opening night,
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Rimmel perfume - the sweet smell of industrial success.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56SHE INHALES Ah!
0:20:02 > 0:20:06With so much invested in this monumental project,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08the Royal Albert Hall's opening night
0:20:08 > 0:20:11had to be a musical show stopper.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17One of the most popular composers of the day, Arthur Sullivan -
0:20:17 > 0:20:18Gilbert's partner in crime -
0:20:18 > 0:20:21premiered this specially commissioned piece
0:20:21 > 0:20:23called On Shore And Sea.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28And it certainly drew in the crowds.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Along with Queen Vic, the hall was filled to capacity -
0:20:31 > 0:20:355,000 bums on seats and another 5,000 standing,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38packed in like sardines.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Not bad considering the venue was only half finished.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44They were actually painting right until the last minute.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46The organ didn't fully work and, actually,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49there weren't even toilets in the building.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53So what happened if all these thousands of people needed a wee?
0:20:53 > 0:20:54What did they do?
0:20:54 > 0:20:58They had to actually nip outside the building to a huge conservatory
0:20:58 > 0:21:01that was attached to the south entrance at that time,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04which actually belonged to the Royal Horticultural Society.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07It needed so much infrastructure, it wasn't just about the building,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11it was about getting people there, things like the loos,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13the refreshments - all those things needed to work. They had to have
0:21:13 > 0:21:16- a whole master plan for it. - Absolutely. And they didn't.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19One of the biggest problems the Hall had was transport,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23it was getting the 5,000-10,000 people -
0:21:23 > 0:21:26as shown in this picture - actually getting them there.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29People would turn up on the train or bus then they'd have to walk
0:21:29 > 0:21:31for a fair old way.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Walking up from the tube station, a lot of people didn't enjoy that.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36As they still don't today.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39How did they imagine they were going to fill this hall night after night?
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Obviously after the glamorous,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43glitzy opening, you've then got to fill the place up.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Well, that was the problem. They hadn't really got a master plan
0:21:47 > 0:21:50for what they were going to do with it. So what they did find were
0:21:50 > 0:21:54things like big works like Handel's Messiah were really popular
0:21:54 > 0:21:57and then they gave their hand at these people's concerts.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59We've got a programme here for one of them.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04So this is threepence to get in and we have the instrumentalists,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07at the pianoforte - Mr William Carter and his pupils
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Miss Rowe and Mr Smith Puddicombe.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14I've no idea if these people were great stars in their day.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16When I think of the Royal Albert Hall,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18I do think of music.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23I think of the Proms but also events like boxing and circus
0:22:23 > 0:22:24and tennis happens here.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27What kind of range of entertainment was there on offer then?
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Actually we have a constitution which set out exactly what we could
0:22:31 > 0:22:33- and couldn't do. - The Royal Albert Hall
0:22:33 > 0:22:35has its own written constitution?
0:22:35 > 0:22:38How wonderfully Victorian! That's great.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41It's been amended somewhat so we can have things like sport,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44but the original one really limited it, that was problem with it,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48so it actually restricted it to things like musical concerts,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50scientific lectures and meetings.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55So, for instance, the things we could have were scientific events.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00So this was actually a display of limelight that was held here,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03which is a rather magical picture, happened in the 1870s.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06So this is people coming to see a display of the latest
0:23:06 > 0:23:09- lighting technology. - Absolutely.
0:23:09 > 0:23:10So they had these four limelights,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13powered by batteries held in the gallery.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16- And it was a wonder to see.- Look at the number of people crammed in.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19There's news reports saying there was about 10,000 people
0:23:19 > 0:23:23and today we have 5,500. So they were really crammed in.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26- They didn't do health and safety. - They really didn't!
0:23:27 > 0:23:31OK, so the nearest underground station was a fair old walk away
0:23:31 > 0:23:34and if you needed to pee urgently you were in trouble.
0:23:34 > 0:23:35But it was worth it
0:23:35 > 0:23:38because simply to visit this magnificent building,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40which screamed modernity,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43must have been a thrill for the very first audiences
0:23:43 > 0:23:46who came to the Royal Albert Hall.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51As the technology of the concert hall was being transformed
0:23:51 > 0:23:54so too was what happened inside.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57Entrepreneurial concert managers had to really pack in the punters
0:23:57 > 0:24:00to make these massive new venues pay.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03And composers also had to impress,
0:24:03 > 0:24:07filling those vast spaces with glorious sound.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11In 1800, your average symphony was scored for around 50 instruments.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15By 1900, that figure had more than doubled,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and technological advance didn't just give composers the opportunity
0:24:18 > 0:24:20to experiment with scale,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23it gave them the chance to push the complexity of their music to
0:24:23 > 0:24:28new limits as the tools they worked with underwent their own revolution.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31The factories of the Industrial Revolution weren't just
0:24:31 > 0:24:35turning out rivets and bolts and parts of bridges or sewer systems,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38those grand Victorian building projects,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41mechanisation was also having a profound impact
0:24:41 > 0:24:42on the musical world.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Take this, for example, number 621 in this cabinet.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49It's an early 19th century clarinet.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52It was made in Paris and it's quite a simple-looking instrument.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56You just blow into it and you place your fingers over holes that have
0:24:56 > 0:24:59been bored directly into the wood and that's what changes the pitch,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01the note that you're playing.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03Then, take a look at this.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Also a clarinet. This one was made in London in the 1870s
0:25:06 > 0:25:12and it is a beautiful bling of a thing. I love this instrument.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15All of that gorgeous metal work allows you to make sure
0:25:15 > 0:25:18you're always going to put your fingers on the keys in exactly
0:25:18 > 0:25:20the right place, so you always play in tune,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23and it gives you the added possibility of just being able to
0:25:23 > 0:25:26play fast. You can whiz your way up and down those keys, you know
0:25:26 > 0:25:29you're always going to be spot on as a player.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33So what this enables you to do as a musician is to go on flights
0:25:33 > 0:25:36of fancy, the kind of athleticism in playing
0:25:36 > 0:25:40that simply wasn't available just decades earlier.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Industrial manufacturing techniques
0:25:45 > 0:25:49improved the musical scope of the entire orchestra.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52If wind instruments had been invigorated as a result of new,
0:25:52 > 0:25:54precision machining,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58the entire brass section was even more profoundly transformed.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01With the advent of valves they could now change key
0:26:01 > 0:26:04without needing to add or take away extra bits of tubing -
0:26:04 > 0:26:07a fiddling exercise during a performance.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The relentless march of technology didn't stop with perfecting
0:26:12 > 0:26:14instruments that already existed.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17This was the age when inventors pushed boundaries
0:26:17 > 0:26:19further than ever before.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21If towers had Eiffel,
0:26:21 > 0:26:23bridges Brunel
0:26:23 > 0:26:25and glass palaces had Paxton,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27then music had Adolphe Sax.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30One of the unacknowledged geniuses of the 19th century,
0:26:30 > 0:26:35he was a Belgian inventor who moved to Paris in 1841.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40When Sax arrived in Paris he had only 30 francs in his pocket
0:26:40 > 0:26:43and was so poor he had to live in a shed.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45But this was one determined man.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47After all, he'd survived a childhood
0:26:47 > 0:26:50where he'd fallen from a three-storey window,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54swallowed a pin, been burned by gun powder, drunk sulphuric acid,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57been hit on the head by a cobblestone
0:26:57 > 0:26:59and nearly drowned in a river.
0:26:59 > 0:27:00"If I can get through all that,"
0:27:00 > 0:27:04thought Sax, "I can conquer the world."
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Adolphe Sax was born into a family of traditional instrument makers,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12but once in Paris he abandoned conventional design,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15instead pioneering a radical new instrument
0:27:15 > 0:27:18that still bears his name today.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21I'm visiting the Selmer sax factory
0:27:21 > 0:27:23on the outskirts of the French capital,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26which took over Sax's company in 1885,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30to find out how the saxophone made its mark.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35So what happens in this part of the factory?
0:27:35 > 0:27:38So here this is the traditional assembly shop,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42where we make the instruments like they were made 100 years ago
0:27:42 > 0:27:45or 150 years ago. The people who are working here,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48they do exactly the same as it was done
0:27:48 > 0:27:52in the Adolphe Sax workshops in the 1850s.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55So what was it that Sax really did that was new?
0:27:55 > 0:27:59He has invented this instrument combining, I would say,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02the advantages of the brass instruments
0:28:02 > 0:28:05and of the wood instruments,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08and to be able to be very flexible like the strings.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10So he made this saxophone which is really
0:28:10 > 0:28:16a combination between the clarinet, flute, trumpet and trombone.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21So...he's got the brass, the winds, the flexibility of the strings -
0:28:21 > 0:28:24it's almost like a whole orchestra in one instrument.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29Absolutely. This is probably the most flexible instrument ever made.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Sax was a brilliant mind, a genius inventor,
0:28:32 > 0:28:34but he was also lucky enough to be born at the right time.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37This is the machine age, the Industrial Revolution.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41Yeah. Because it's so complicated to make, there are so many pieces,
0:28:41 > 0:28:45you have to count about 800 pieces for a saxophone, which is crazy,
0:28:45 > 0:28:50and you also need to get a very high level of precision
0:28:50 > 0:28:55and so this period was perfect because this was the time
0:28:55 > 0:28:59when the machine could make these pieces so precise.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03So if Sax had turned up even 20, 30 years earlier
0:29:03 > 0:29:06he couldn't have created the instrument that took off.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Probably it was not...
0:29:09 > 0:29:12because the machines necessary to make all these pieces
0:29:12 > 0:29:15wouldn't have been possible before.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18The saxophone, when you see it, when you look at this instrument,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22it still looks like a futuristic instrument,
0:29:22 > 0:29:27and so probably in the 1840s it was more true than it is now.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29He wanted to revolutionise everything.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34Sax was at the forefront of innovation in instrument design,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37and he numbered among his fans composers like Berlioz
0:29:37 > 0:29:39and the opera maestro Meyerbeer.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42He even got imperial patronage.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46But not everyone was in favour of his new invention.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51Sax's genius had the instrument makers of Paris running scared.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55They feared his saxtubas, saxtrombones and saxophones
0:29:55 > 0:29:58would put them out of business, and so they formed an alliance
0:29:58 > 0:30:02against him, stealing his workers, burning down his factories.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05They even tried to have him assassinated - twice.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08But Sax survived and, in the 1840s,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11he got the opportunity he desperately relished -
0:30:11 > 0:30:15to validate publicly once and for all that he was a genius.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18It was a battle of the bands.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20SHE PLAYS ADEQUATELY
0:30:23 > 0:30:25MARCHING BAND MUSIC
0:30:32 > 0:30:37Standing up to his detractors, Sax agreed to a musical standoff.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40Two brass bands were set up to compete against each other -
0:30:40 > 0:30:44one from Paris' Musicians Guild playing traditional brass
0:30:44 > 0:30:46and wind instruments,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50the other, led by Sax, starring his new saxophones.
0:30:56 > 0:31:02On the 22nd of April, 1845, the band-off commenced.
0:31:02 > 0:31:0820,000 people came to see what was described as a "Napoleonic battle."
0:31:14 > 0:31:16The pressure was on.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20The rival traditional band had a strong, almost radical,
0:31:20 > 0:31:22set of supporters,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25drawn mostly from the ranks of Parisian instrument makers.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36Sax's group, the self-styled Saxons, were more flamboyant...
0:31:38 > 0:31:40..but had fierce enemies,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43evident from the fact that seven of the saxophonists failed to
0:31:43 > 0:31:48turn up on the day, reportedly having been scared away.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05Sax came out triumphant
0:32:05 > 0:32:11and his brilliant newfangled instruments sold in their thousands.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23Sax's success was a 19th century industrial phenomenon,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26made possible by an ever-increasing musical appetite
0:32:26 > 0:32:31and the newly mechanised mass production of instruments.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34Across Europe, from Britain to France and Germany,
0:32:34 > 0:32:36music was getting louder,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39instruments were being pimped up and supercharged,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42concert halls were now stadiums to be filled with sound.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Acoustic music was about to reach its limits.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51TENSE MUSIC
0:32:56 > 0:32:59In 1896, the composer Richard Strauss
0:32:59 > 0:33:03wrote a piece of music that heralded the dawn of a new era.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08He subtitled it Symphonic Optimism,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11dedicated to the 20th century.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14THEY PLAY ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA
0:33:24 > 0:33:29Also Sprach Zarathustra was as much a philosophical as it was
0:33:29 > 0:33:32a musical epic, exploring man's quest for enlightenment
0:33:32 > 0:33:35at the beginning of a new age.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37To pull off such an ambitious project,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41Strauss needed to produce a monumental wall of sound...
0:33:45 > 0:33:47..only possible because he had an arsenal
0:33:47 > 0:33:51of industrially engineered instruments at his disposal.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53So in Also Sprach
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Strauss uses the full sonic potential of the orchestra.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02He's got eight trombones, four horns, four trumpets, eight oboes,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05a mass of other wind instruments, there's a bass drum,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08a timpani, more than 60 strings.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12This is Strauss pushing the orchestra to its limits.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37By the end of the 19th century,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41technology had entirely changed the musical landscape.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44But there was one invention above any other
0:34:44 > 0:34:47that would change music forever.
0:34:49 > 0:34:55In 1889 audiences at the Paris exhibition not only heard live music
0:34:55 > 0:34:59that was bigger, bolder and more international than ever before,
0:34:59 > 0:35:03they were also introduced to a truly futuristic experience.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06With the phonograph they were given the opportunity to listen
0:35:06 > 0:35:10to a recording for the first time ever.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13The man behind this incredible achievement -
0:35:13 > 0:35:15the inventor Thomas Edison.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Hailed as Le Roi or "the king" by the French press in reviews
0:35:19 > 0:35:24of the event, people were stunned by his new invention.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29Edison had first experimented with recorded sound in 1877
0:35:29 > 0:35:32when his aim wasn't to record music at all
0:35:32 > 0:35:34but to capture the human voice.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Here we have the first machine.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39It's called Tinfoil
0:35:39 > 0:35:41because it uses tinfoil,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45the same tinfoil we can find today and use today to cook chicken.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47SHE LAUGHS
0:35:47 > 0:35:49So when does this machine date from?
0:35:49 > 0:35:511878.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53And this is the very first time...
0:35:53 > 0:35:58- The first time when you can record and listen back.- How does it work?
0:35:58 > 0:36:01You must first put the tinfoil on it. You have the fly wheel.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05The most important thing is to turn it, to have the right speed.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07And then you must really...
0:36:07 > 0:36:10- LOUD AND CLEAR: - ..talk and shout clearly,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14strongly, otherwise you have nothing
0:36:14 > 0:36:16because you need your vibration.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20- So you really need to shout to make this work?- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23If you talk, like we are speaking now, it will record nothing.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25So how does the recording happen?
0:36:25 > 0:36:28Your voice goes through that hole there, what happens next?
0:36:28 > 0:36:32- The vibration will push the needle. - There's the needle.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36And so you talk through this hole, your voice makes vibrations,
0:36:36 > 0:36:39the needle wobbles, what happens next?
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Then you play back with the same needle.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46You can do it once or twice. That's it.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50You can never remove the tinfoil and put it back to listen again.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52That's why it was really experimental.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55So what did people make of this really new technology?
0:36:55 > 0:37:01Even at the time, people were really not able to realise
0:37:01 > 0:37:05it's really true. Because they think it was a ventriloquist in the room.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08People thought there was a ventriloquist there,
0:37:08 > 0:37:10- that it wasn't real, it was a fake? - Of course.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13It was too complicated to understand.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16The mechanics of this radical new technology
0:37:16 > 0:37:20WERE difficult to understand, even for Edison himself.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24It took another 11 years before he would perfect his machine.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27But by the time he visited the Paris exhibition,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31the phonograph had begun to show off its musical potential.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36That's the evolution of the Edison machine 11 years later.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38How does this one work?
0:37:38 > 0:37:43From the cylinder it's recorded here on the wax cylinder.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45You can record and listen back.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48You can shave it to record again.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Its playback was here, the listening tube.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54So what did the machine sound like?
0:37:54 > 0:37:57The sound, it's really simple. You listen to what I'm saying.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01It's really high fidelity. I'm talking like that.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04It's amazing quality.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07It's incredibly clear for such early technology.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11- How many people could listen to this at one time?- From 12 to 18.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13It was really used as an attraction.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17They wait until 18 people were around, have paid one cent,
0:38:17 > 0:38:19then they make it play.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22What would they have been able to listen to, what music?
0:38:22 > 0:38:25They record anything familiar.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28They never record something new.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31If you listen to something you know already and you like already
0:38:31 > 0:38:34- you follow easily. - Like pop records today.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38So what kind of music could you listen to on a machine like this?
0:38:38 > 0:38:43In the beginning, it was the national song, popular songs mostly.
0:38:43 > 0:38:48All people from the opera, major singers, they refused to record.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Why did the opera singers not want to be part of this technology?
0:38:51 > 0:38:57For them it was not good quality, it's not good for the future.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01So they were worried about their ticket prices, worried that people
0:39:01 > 0:39:04- wouldn't pay for the tickets to come to the opera house.- Exactly.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07What kind of reaction did the machine get?
0:39:07 > 0:39:10They still think it's someone in behind,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13someone under the machine covering,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16because normally it's represented with big cloths around.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20- A cloth?- Yeah. And you think it's someone here under the machine.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22It must have been like magic.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25It was really exciting for the people
0:39:25 > 0:39:28because the advertising around it was,
0:39:28 > 0:39:33"Come to listen to the invisible singer and invisible musician."
0:39:33 > 0:39:35And that was something really new.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38At that time for them, it was magical.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43Edison chose sure-fire hits to get those early audiences hooked.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46There was the French national anthem...
0:39:46 > 0:39:47MUSIC PLAYS
0:39:47 > 0:39:52..a number from Bizet's Carmen... MUSIC PLAYS
0:39:52 > 0:39:56..a little bit of Wagner. SONG: Ride Of The Valkyries
0:39:56 > 0:40:00..all guaranteed to get the punters going home whistling a tune
0:40:00 > 0:40:04and wondering at the marvel of recorded sound.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11But getting music recorded at all was easier said than done.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14So what do I need to do to make my very first recording?
0:40:14 > 0:40:20We set the phonograph up here to record and the horn you see here
0:40:20 > 0:40:23is going to conduct your efforts from the piano
0:40:23 > 0:40:25down to the recorder here.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29The recorder has a sharp stylus and a very thin diaphragm,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32very thin disc, and you've gotta vibrate that
0:40:32 > 0:40:35to cut the groove in order to record your efforts.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38One of the things is, it's purely mechanical, it's all
0:40:38 > 0:40:42of your efforts, so we need you to play a lot louder than you'd expect.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46So the machine is not going to help me here, I just need to belt this?
0:40:46 > 0:40:49- Yes. Exactly.- OK.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53So I'll give you a signal when the cutter has been lowered
0:40:53 > 0:40:56and then if I don't think you're playing loud enough
0:40:56 > 0:40:59I'll wave my arms around to get you to be louder.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02- OK.- We're trying to get the maximum amount of energy into the thing.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04I'll need to be facing the machine
0:41:04 > 0:41:09and I'll be blowing the swarf - the thin strands of wax -
0:41:09 > 0:41:11off the blank
0:41:11 > 0:41:15so that we can keep the stylus clear, stop it clogging up
0:41:15 > 0:41:18- while you're recording. So I'll have my back to you.- Shall we have a go?
0:41:18 > 0:41:20- It's as easy as that. - OK!
0:41:20 > 0:41:22So just play loudly all the time?
0:41:22 > 0:41:25- Yes.- OK, let's have a go.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Let's have a go at a 19th century medley. You tell me when.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31So this'll be my signal here...
0:41:31 > 0:41:34when I've lowered the cutter.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38SHE PLAYS BEETHOVEN'S 5TH SYMPHONY
0:41:38 > 0:41:40SHE PLAYS LOUDER
0:41:40 > 0:41:43SHE PLAYS VARIOUS PIECES
0:41:48 > 0:41:50SHE PLAYS LOUDER
0:41:57 > 0:41:59SHE PLAYS LOUDER
0:42:47 > 0:42:49How did I do?
0:42:49 > 0:42:52- Ah, very good. - I'm exhausted!- Very good.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55I can see it. Yes, excellent.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58Cos the advantage of these machines is you can play it back
0:42:58 > 0:43:00pretty much immediately.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Just need to change this from recording to playback.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07Take out the sharp point.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Put in the round point on the reproducer.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14Put on a playback horn.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19- Come round here. - Let's have a listen.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Off we go, see what we've got.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27PLAYBACK BEGINS
0:43:57 > 0:44:00I made my first recording!
0:44:00 > 0:44:03I'm now officially a recording artist.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05I love that.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09- You don't look happy. - Oh, no, you've got to remember...
0:44:09 > 0:44:12- You're so exacting.- Hm? - You're so exacting.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17Oh, well, yes, I would do all sorts of things to make that work better.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21The sound quality wasn't exactly Dolby Surround
0:44:21 > 0:44:25but the advent of recording still caused panic among musicians
0:44:25 > 0:44:30worried that live performance would disappear and with it their careers.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33Meanwhile instrument makers believed that they'd be put out of business
0:44:33 > 0:44:36by entrepreneurs like Adolphe Sax.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44And those worries mirrored wider fears about the unstoppable march
0:44:44 > 0:44:48of progress. Was society sliding into moral decline?
0:44:51 > 0:44:55After all, the sleazier side of metropolitan life
0:44:55 > 0:44:57wasn't hard to find.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00In the same year that Eiffel Tower was unveiled as a monument
0:45:00 > 0:45:02to civilisation and progress,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07a very different Parisian landmark also opened its doors.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10The organisers of the Paris exposition had prided themselves
0:45:10 > 0:45:14in turning the whole city into an orgy of music,
0:45:14 > 0:45:19but the Moulin Rouge took that description somewhat too literally.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26Today we've got a rather misty eyed nostalgia about the glitz
0:45:26 > 0:45:28and seedy glamour of the Moulin Rouge,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32but back in the 1890s this was a world pitched
0:45:32 > 0:45:35halfway between the brothel and the lunatic asylum.
0:45:35 > 0:45:40It was said the wild abandon of the can-can could inspire insanity,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44moral degeneracy in those who watched it.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50It's rather tame by today's standards,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53but in its day this place was shocking,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56famed for that riotously naughty dance, the can-can,
0:45:56 > 0:46:01where girls with bad reputations would show off their wares.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06It wasn't just for the seamier elements of Parisian society,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09this was a place of mainstream entertainment
0:46:09 > 0:46:12where respectable Parisians came in their droves.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19Almost as soon as it opened, this dance hall sat alongside the Louvre
0:46:19 > 0:46:24and the Eiffel Tower on Parisian maps - an essential place to visit.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40More worryingly, music with added sexual frisson
0:46:40 > 0:46:43wasn't confined to seedy cabaret clubs.
0:46:43 > 0:46:49Even the waltz, today seen as the epitome of dance floor refinement,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53had been raising eyebrows with its fast, furious and flirtatious moves.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02When the waltz first became popular in the early 19th century
0:47:02 > 0:47:05it caused a moral panic.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08This new dance craze relied on couples
0:47:08 > 0:47:10getting up close and personal.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12There were no rules about how to dance it
0:47:12 > 0:47:16and often amorous pursuits got in the way of the waltz itself.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24Thank you, help me.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26- Hm?- Thank you.- Oh, sorry, yeah.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28- Thank you so much. - Um...
0:47:32 > 0:47:34INDISTINCT CHAT
0:47:34 > 0:47:36I'm going to grip it...
0:47:38 > 0:47:43Igniting passions that could cause a dangerous loss of self-control,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47music and dancing began to be seen as corrupting influences.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51But while you may think it takes two to tango, or indeed to waltz,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55in the 19th century it wasn't the men everyone was worried about.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57No, it was us delicate ladies
0:47:57 > 0:48:01who needed protection from the ravages of music.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08So it seems like people were getting increasingly worried about music
0:48:08 > 0:48:11as the 19th century went on. What was going on?
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Music, I think, has always been on the edge
0:48:14 > 0:48:19of how people view creativity and sanity
0:48:19 > 0:48:22and morality, which are all tied up together.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25What did people think would happen to women
0:48:25 > 0:48:28if they did have contact with this dangerous stuff, with music?
0:48:28 > 0:48:32Well, women are known to be very emotional and irrational creatures
0:48:32 > 0:48:38so we need to look after them and make sure they're not exposed to
0:48:38 > 0:48:43things that are going to completely wreck their fragile mental health.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47So we have, for example, George Beard in the mid century,
0:48:47 > 0:48:52who is an American physician. He coined the term neurasthenia.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57It's an illness that the majority of people afflicted were women.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02And they were fainting and very pale and having headaches and weak.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07So George Beard thinks that music is one of the main causes
0:49:07 > 0:49:13of neurasthenia because if women are indulging in music
0:49:13 > 0:49:16they're not doing all the things they're supposed to do
0:49:16 > 0:49:19- to keep their place.- Simply, you listen to too much music
0:49:19 > 0:49:22- you're in danger of having a nervous breakdown?- Correct.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25So the idea that women's nerves are too fragile to deal with music
0:49:25 > 0:49:28has been growing throughout the century.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31For example, Fanny Hensel, Mendelssohn's sister,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34spent a year in Italy with her husband and son.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39Had a wonderful musical experience, writes very lyrically about this in
0:49:39 > 0:49:43her letters home but at the end we get the little sentence that says,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47"Don't worry, this has not had any affect on my nerves."
0:49:47 > 0:49:50And they were worried, weren't they, even about things like
0:49:50 > 0:49:54women's sexual reproductive capacity
0:49:54 > 0:49:58if they had too much music in their lives. What was the concern?
0:49:58 > 0:50:00Well, they couldn't win on that one
0:50:00 > 0:50:03because there were two schools of thought.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07So either too much indulgence and listening to music
0:50:07 > 0:50:11and performing music was going to cause premature menstruation,
0:50:11 > 0:50:16which meant that she would dry up early and be infertile
0:50:16 > 0:50:20and it would be early sexualisation because her emotional nature
0:50:20 > 0:50:26meant that the emotional content of music was too much to cope with.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30Or, alternatively, it would delay menstruation
0:50:30 > 0:50:32and she'd be infertile that way
0:50:32 > 0:50:35because music is too intellectual and her emotional nature
0:50:35 > 0:50:40couldn't cope with the intellectual and dry aspects of music.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42GENTLE MUSIC
0:50:49 > 0:50:53As the century progressed, there was a growing idea that music wasn't
0:50:53 > 0:50:55just faintly dangerous or decadent
0:50:55 > 0:51:00but that it was a pathogen capable of infesting and destroying
0:51:00 > 0:51:02the very fabric of society.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Unchecked, it might lead to chaos and anarchy.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39Now, all this talk of medicalisation and music and madness might seem
0:51:39 > 0:51:41faintly ridiculous to us today,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44but people's lives were devastated by this phenomenon.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48One Parisian pianist...
0:51:48 > 0:51:51spent 15 years in an asylum.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54There she was forced to endure freezing cold water
0:51:54 > 0:51:58tipped on her head, she was isolated, bullied,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01sometimes tortured, and all because her doctors declared
0:52:01 > 0:52:05she was insane through an excess of music.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07Probably best to stop practising for the day.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15You might think that the possibility of being locked in an institution
0:52:15 > 0:52:18would put people off playing the piano, but surprisingly not.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Because on the one hand, while the piano was
0:52:21 > 0:52:24seen as a kind of Trojan horse, an infiltrator into the home,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28taking women away from their familial duties,
0:52:28 > 0:52:30on the other it was fast becoming
0:52:30 > 0:52:34the ultimate aspirational piece of furniture.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36Pianos looked beautiful.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39They brought an immediate sense of cultural elevation
0:52:39 > 0:52:41and education into one's home.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Mass production meant the prices were dropping
0:52:44 > 0:52:47and soon everyone wanted their very own Joanna.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Whether you were a doctor or a lawyer, a coal miner
0:52:53 > 0:52:57or a factory worker, you could now get your hands on your own piano.
0:52:57 > 0:53:03Between 1840 and 1875, British demand for them quadrupled.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08Up to 17,000 elephants every year were slaughtered for their ivory
0:53:08 > 0:53:10to make piano keys.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12But nobody seemed to worry about that.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16The rage for music was simply unstoppable.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21Technology had revolutionised every area of the musical landscape,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24creating vast stadiums of sound,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27transforming how you could get access to music,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31democratising who could play it and how it could be heard.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34The conventional wisdom about what music was
0:53:34 > 0:53:37was changing and one composer
0:53:37 > 0:53:40injected that sense of uncertainty into his music.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46In 1878, the conductor and composer Gustav Mahler moved to Vienna,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50taking up the position of conductor at the city opera.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12Vienna already had a reputation as a centre of modernity.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14At the beginning of the 19th century its residents,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18Beethoven and Schubert, had transformed the musical landscape.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24Now Mahler wanted to created music that equally
0:54:24 > 0:54:30reflected the world around him, music of the now, not the then.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41Mahler's Vienna was a very different city from the one
0:54:41 > 0:54:45earlier composers like Beethoven and Schubert had lived in.
0:54:45 > 0:54:47Now it was a centre of progressive modernity
0:54:47 > 0:54:51with radical new architecture, electric trams,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54high-speed trains that could whisk you across the globe.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57This was the era of Freud unpicking our dreams,
0:54:57 > 0:55:02when you could see moving images - films - for the very first time.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Mahler reflected all that modernity in his music.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27In Mahler's hands the symphony becomes a very different beast.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29Just think of his predecessor, Beethoven.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33For him, symphonies were a kind of progression, a journey,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36often from darkness into blazing light.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43For Mahler, the symphony is much more like a collage where he takes
0:55:43 > 0:55:45bits of pieces of musical material
0:55:45 > 0:55:48and layers them on top of one another.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56It's a swirling, surreal, emotionally disturbing piece,
0:55:56 > 0:56:01capturing the uncertainty of a new world at the turn of a new century.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03Nothing like the big, blustering,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07confident orchestral sound of Strauss' Zarathustra.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14We're in this strange dream-like world...
0:56:19 > 0:56:21..the ethereal harp, the celeste,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25all adding to that other worldly atmosphere.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36In Mahler's hands the symphony is something of the modern world.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44And what the modern world demanded was the new.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47The march of progress was unstoppable.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52Orchestral music had reached its zenith
0:56:52 > 0:56:55and orchestral composers would never surpass the success
0:56:55 > 0:56:59and status they had enjoyed in the 19th century.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03In 1906, the same year Mahler conducted
0:57:03 > 0:57:06the premier of his 6th Symphony,
0:57:06 > 0:57:11a very different kind of concert was held at the Royal Albert Hall.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16The new god of music was not a man...but a machine.
0:57:16 > 0:57:22A sell-out audience of almost 10,000 people crammed into the venue
0:57:22 > 0:57:26to listen not to a performer they could see, but to a phonograph.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29A defining moment in the history of music,
0:57:29 > 0:57:32as the 19th century was laid irrefutably to rest
0:57:32 > 0:57:35with the advent of the recording era.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42It was the close of 100 years of seismic change,
0:57:42 > 0:57:46a century where music had come into its own, assuming a power
0:57:46 > 0:57:49and potency that still endures.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55The 19th century had created the stadium gig, the recording industry,
0:57:55 > 0:57:57the star performer.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00It had made musicians richer and more powerful
0:58:00 > 0:58:02than they could have dreamt possible.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05And it had transformed music itself.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07More than just entertainment
0:58:07 > 0:58:10it was now a way of life for its legions of fans.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14And that's a legacy we're all still enjoying today.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17MUSICAL RECORDING
0:58:32 > 0:58:36MUSIC: Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss