Party Like It's 1899 Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century


Party Like It's 1899

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In this series I've been on a musical journey

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back to the 19th century,

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exploring the era when the modern world was being forged.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC

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This was Europe's great revolutionary age

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when the political shock waves of the French Revolution

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were reverberating across the continent,

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when there was a revolution in thinking and imagination

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that became known as Romanticism,

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and when the Industrial Revolution created new technologies

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that were radically changing people's everyday lives.

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In this volatile world

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music reflected and even shaped events.

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This was the age of Verdi and Wagner,

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Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Rossini, Chopin, Mahler, Debussy.

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No other century produced more great composers.

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The dawn of the 19th century saw composers

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and musicians bursting out...

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beyond the boundaries of the concert hall

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and onto a bigger public stage.

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They became influential in politics and revolution,

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earnt vast sums of money and were famous across the globe.

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I've been looking at how music mirrored the seismic changes

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that were happening in the 19th century,

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as musicians became powerful, influential stars...

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Yeah, it's very Keith Richards, that kind of showing off to the audience.

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..finding out why composers became national heroes,

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revered to this day...

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-Viva Verdi.

-Viva Verdi!

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..and discovering that music could spark revolution.

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HE SPEAKS FRENCH

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..woof, woof - like a dog!

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..and in this final episode, I'll look at how music

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was at the forefront of another revolution,

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with the sweeping transformation of technology...

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MUSIC: Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss

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..creating new industrially manufactured instruments

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and futuristic ways of listening.

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I'll explore how music was seen as the essence

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of progress and modernity,

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but how it also aroused suspicion, anxiety and moral outrage.

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As the 19th century drew to a close people began to ask, "What next?"

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And music came to the front line in that battle between fear

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and optimism. On the one hand, there was worry about decay

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and decline. On the other, it was time to party like it was 1899.

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CAN-CAN MUSIC

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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100 years after the French Revolution,

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the streets of Paris were once again raging.

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But this time no gunshots or cannon fire were heard -

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this was a mass celebration.

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In 1889, the city was hosting a world fair -

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Exposition Universelle -

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and it aimed to be the most ambitious,

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global and most musical event the world had ever seen.

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It was a celebration of the past,

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with the main attractions located on the Champ de Mars -

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the site of the first Bastille Day commemorations.

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But this was also a celebration of the present,

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glorifying the industrial progress

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and creative success that France had enjoyed throughout the 19th century.

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This is all that remains of the vast complex of buildings

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that were specially created for the exhibition.

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The spectacle lasted for six months

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and attracted 35 million visitors from across the world.

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The Eiffel Tower, constructed from rolled iron -

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a brand-new engineering material - was a beacon to the world.

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Like the exhibition itself, it spoke of confidence and optimism.

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Music was central to that message.

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String quartets could be heard drifting down from the first floor

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of the Tower. The recently rebuilt Opera National hosted events

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and everything from marching bands to folk music could be heard

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in boulevards, concert halls and cafes.

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As the newspaper described it, Paris was swept up in an orgy of music.

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So this is a view of the exhibition site.

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The Eiffel tower right in the middle, new for the exhibition.

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Across the Seine, Le palais du Trocadero,

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which was the concert hall that had a 4,000 seat -

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a concert hall with a Cavaille-Coll organ in it.

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Down the Champ de Mars, the Beaux-Arts,

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the liberal arts, the industrial area

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and the machine gallery right at the southern end.

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So the Exposition physically changed the way Paris looked.

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-How important was music to all of it?

-Oh, hugely important.

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Music and music education had been central to republican values

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for a very long time.

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With this exhibition, they set up a commission early on,

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headed up by the conservatoire director Ambroise Thomas,

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with all the great composers of the time that we know about -

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Gounod, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Delibes - as well as others.

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Two programmed series of events that showcased French music but that also

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invited foreign countries to bring in concerts of their own music

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as well and their own performers.

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So what was the range of the kinds of music you could hear?

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In the concerts in the Trocadero you could hear French music

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from, really, the last century.

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You could hear Russian music, American music,

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choirs from Finland and Norway.

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It went even further than that, though, this was a global project.

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Yes, of course. There were lots of exotic musics available

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in both the colonial exhibition and elsewhere on the exhibition site.

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So the colonial exhibitions, most famously,

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we know about the Javanese village with the dancers and the gamelan.

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And we know about the Theatre Annamite

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which was the Vietnamese theatre with music performed,

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and then elsewhere you could go down the road and go and have a mint tea

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or a coffee in a kasbah somewhere with dancing and singing.

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It must have stunned people to hear this stuff.

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Stunned them, shocked them. They didn't know the real exotic music

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and when they came to the exhibition for the first time,

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they got a taste of something that was a little bit more authentic

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than they were used to,

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and quite often it didn't fit with what they were expecting.

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The Paris exhibition capitalised on a long-standing European

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fascination with far-flung corners of the globe.

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For centuries France, along with other European powers,

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had engaged in an imperial land grab that spread across the globe,

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gathering pace through the 19th century in a race

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to dominate the world's stage.

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With political conquests abroad,

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Oriental influences flooded back into Europe,

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and by the 1870s anything culturally exotic became de rigueur.

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Orientalism had become the height of fashion.

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Trend-setters would go and buy a little Oriental painting

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or a piece of furniture.

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They'd wear an exotic headdress or visit a trendy cafe.

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And what they would encounter there would be a complete mishmash

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of Turkish and Greek and Middle Eastern

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and Indian and Chinese influences.

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It was like the cultural equivalent of going out and eating a kebab,

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a curry and sweet and sour chicken all in one sitting.

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Not remotely an authentic experience

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but nonetheless a rather enjoyable one.

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Mm, don't mind if I do.

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Mm!

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What people saw at the Paris exhibition in 1889 was different.

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It had a degree of authenticity few had ever experienced.

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For the first time,

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a European audience could encounter shockingly different cultures

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with languages and sounds that were completely alien to Western ears.

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The Javanese gamelan, for example, caused -

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as contemporary accounts put it -

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"the froth on one's beer to dissolve away and ice creams to melt."

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Spectators were transfixed.

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-OK, this is called a what?

-This is called a saron,

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it's one of the loudest metallophone instruments in the gamelan.

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I can see numbers here,

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which I like cos that suggests that it's not too difficult.

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One, two, three, five, six...one.

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-Why are there two ones?

-So we have a low one at the bottom

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-and then you have an octave higher.

-Can I hit it?

-Yeah.

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RESONATING TONES

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Oh, gorgeous sound.

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-And what am I playing?

-So we're going to play a piece today called

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Mugi Rahayu and it's a lovely piece

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that goes around and round and round.

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-I do have some notations if you'd like some?

-Yeah!

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Well, I don't know it, so I'm going to need...

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It's very basic notation, it's a notation that uses numbers.

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Each number correlates to one of the keys on this.

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This doesn't really make any sense to me yet.

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We have a very different tuning system

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so we don't correlate to A, B, C, D.

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I don't do 3, 6, 1, 3, 6, 1, 2.

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-I know A, B, C.

-Yeah.

-OK.

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Er...

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Shall I have a quick practice?

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RESONATING TONES

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Perfect.

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Goes on quite a long time, doesn't it?

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You can hear that the notes are all kind of resonating -

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melding together.

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So, to make your life even harder,

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we're going to introduce a damping technique.

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So if you play your first note, the 3, and let it ring on...

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-NOTE RINGS ON

-..when you play the 6,

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with your other hand you're going to pinch the 3 at the same time.

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Then when you play the 1, you pinch the 6.

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Exactly.

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But that means I have to read these numbers,

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play the notes and my other hand is one note behind.

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-That's right. It's a bit multitasking.

-That's really...

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6, 1...

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-OK.

-If you pinch with your thumb on top and really grip the keys,

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that's a much better way of doing it.

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I will be gripping them for dear life. OK, let's do that.

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I'm really looking forward to playing this, I want to hear it. OK.

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GENTLE MUSIC

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Javanese gamelan created a sensation at the exhibition in 1889.

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It was one of the most popular attractions

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with over 500,000 people coming to listen to it,

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enthralled by a powerful,

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beautiful and unique music that was completely new to them.

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One composer in particular, Claude Debussy,

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was so entranced by the gamelan that it profoundly changed the way

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he thought about and wrote music.

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Debussy was captivated by the possibilities for new tones

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and rhythms that gamelan offered,

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and by the fact that the Javanese musicians he heard

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played without any formal training.

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For them, music was an instinct.

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As he put it,

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"These musicians learned to play as easily as one learns to breathe."

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It's such beautiful music. It's so full of Oriental flavour.

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What do you think that Debussy heard in the gamelan that so inspired him?

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A completely different focus on expression, for a start,

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a different set of gestures, different pitches, of course,

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from Western ones. Just another world, and complete refreshment.

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So he calls the piece Pagodes and...

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how is one going to convey the outline of a pagoda?

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What does a pagoda roof do?

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-So it goes...

-Going up already.

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-Yeah, it's beautiful, going up like that.

-Typical for him,

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the top of the texture whispers with little arabesques,

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melodies in the middle

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and different layers in his music going at different speeds.

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He would have heard this in gamelan and loved it.

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So he falls in love with this sound,

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how does he turn that into Western music?

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How does he create a piano piece from that?

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With Debussy, I think, it's gestures here.

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There's that gesture of the pagoda roofs,

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there's various gamelan-like gestures there -

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the interlocking of the various gongs.

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He approximates it at the beginning of the piece.

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And that syncopated one off the beat

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he marks with a little accent each time.

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And he always insisted on people playing him precisely in time

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so that you'd catch these little rhythmic nuances.

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So he's really, from the inside out, reworking the whole notion

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of what a Western musical ear would be used to.

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How much of a shock do you think this must have been for Debussy,

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the people in Paris at the Exposition, listening to this?

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It must have seemed like a totally different musical world.

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Oh, yes, the West was looking towards Asia

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and the rest of the world for new colours and new ideas and...

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wondering how we could refresh the air, really.

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Gamelan gave Debussy a new path, a way of breaking free

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from the maximal, overwhelming style of Richard Wagner

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that was dominating European music.

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By taking elements of the Indonesian percussion orchestra and fusing them

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with traditional Western music,

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Debussy realised he could create something understated

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yet truly magical and modern-sounding.

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GENTLE MUSIC

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This is Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune,

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an orchestral portrait of a young deer wandering in a sun-lit forest.

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It doesn't sound remotely Indonesian

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but, like the gamelan, there are no obvious melodies here,

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no clear rhythms to tap along to, it's not in any apparent key,

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and the different sections of the orchestra move at their own

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distinct pace. It's got the same rippling resonance

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that Debussy heard in the Javanese band.

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The piece has been described as

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"the awakening of music to the modern world."

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And it had only come about

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because of the technology of the Industrial Age,

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with steam ships to transport Javanese musicians

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across vast oceans to perform in Paris,

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trains whisking visitors to glittering urban centres.

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With ever-increasing mobility came bigger audiences for music

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than ever before. In the first half of the 19th century,

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the number of concert-goers in Paris alone tripled,

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and the explosion in popularity was mirrored across Europe.

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To cater for demand, cities vied to outdo each other,

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building bigger and better music venues.

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The biggest and most ambitious of them all -

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our very own Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences,

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a homage to cutting-edge construction techniques.

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The vast domed roof spanned 20,000 square feet,

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constructed using 338 tonnes of industrially-produced iron girders

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and 279 tonnes of plate glass.

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So no comfortable promenade for me - just a rather steep climb.

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Oh, my goodness. Ah!

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OK! Er...

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Ahh...!

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Oh, don't bounce!

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-Am I standing on steel mesh?

-You are, yes.

-I don't like it!

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How high up are we?

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About 43.5 metres high.

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43.5 metres between me and plunging to my death.

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OK, I'm not going to look down.

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Welcome to the corona, which is the crown of the Hall.

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What purpose does the corona serve?

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This was the ventilation system and, literally, all the hot air

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that was created by the public was dragged up through this shaft

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and out of the oculus above us.

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So this is where the hot air was dispersed into the atmosphere.

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So we're standing, essentially, at the top of this newfangled

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ventilation system that the Royal Albert Hall had.

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I've lived to experience the steel mesh 43 metres up, can we go now?

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-CHUCKLING:

-Fine.

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Well done.

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When this building first opened,

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people were blown away by its beauty and its audacious modernity.

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Even Queen Victoria, who was due to speak here on the opening night,

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couldn't say a word because she was so overcome with emotion.

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This temple to arts and sciences was a feast for all the senses,

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not least because of its cutting-edge ventilation system,

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which not only piped in fresh air but also, on the opening night,

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Rimmel perfume - the sweet smell of industrial success.

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SHE INHALES Ah!

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With so much invested in this monumental project,

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the Royal Albert Hall's opening night

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had to be a musical show stopper.

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One of the most popular composers of the day, Arthur Sullivan -

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Gilbert's partner in crime -

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premiered this specially commissioned piece

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called On Shore And Sea.

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And it certainly drew in the crowds.

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Along with Queen Vic, the hall was filled to capacity -

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5,000 bums on seats and another 5,000 standing,

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packed in like sardines.

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Not bad considering the venue was only half finished.

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They were actually painting right until the last minute.

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The organ didn't fully work and, actually,

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there weren't even toilets in the building.

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So what happened if all these thousands of people needed a wee?

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What did they do?

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They had to actually nip outside the building to a huge conservatory

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that was attached to the south entrance at that time,

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which actually belonged to the Royal Horticultural Society.

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It needed so much infrastructure, it wasn't just about the building,

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it was about getting people there, things like the loos,

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the refreshments - all those things needed to work. They had to have

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-a whole master plan for it.

-Absolutely. And they didn't.

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One of the biggest problems the Hall had was transport,

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it was getting the 5,000-10,000 people -

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as shown in this picture - actually getting them there.

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People would turn up on the train or bus then they'd have to walk

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for a fair old way.

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Walking up from the tube station, a lot of people didn't enjoy that.

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As they still don't today.

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How did they imagine they were going to fill this hall night after night?

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Obviously after the glamorous,

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glitzy opening, you've then got to fill the place up.

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Well, that was the problem. They hadn't really got a master plan

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for what they were going to do with it. So what they did find were

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things like big works like Handel's Messiah were really popular

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and then they gave their hand at these people's concerts.

0:21:540:21:57

We've got a programme here for one of them.

0:21:570:21:59

So this is threepence to get in and we have the instrumentalists,

0:21:590:22:04

at the pianoforte - Mr William Carter and his pupils

0:22:040:22:07

Miss Rowe and Mr Smith Puddicombe.

0:22:070:22:10

I've no idea if these people were great stars in their day.

0:22:100:22:14

When I think of the Royal Albert Hall,

0:22:140:22:16

I do think of music.

0:22:160:22:18

I think of the Proms but also events like boxing and circus

0:22:180:22:23

and tennis happens here.

0:22:230:22:24

What kind of range of entertainment was there on offer then?

0:22:240:22:27

Actually we have a constitution which set out exactly what we could

0:22:270:22:31

-and couldn't do.

-The Royal Albert Hall

0:22:310:22:33

has its own written constitution?

0:22:330:22:35

How wonderfully Victorian! That's great.

0:22:350:22:38

It's been amended somewhat so we can have things like sport,

0:22:380:22:41

but the original one really limited it, that was problem with it,

0:22:410:22:44

so it actually restricted it to things like musical concerts,

0:22:440:22:48

scientific lectures and meetings.

0:22:480:22:50

So, for instance, the things we could have were scientific events.

0:22:500:22:55

So this was actually a display of limelight that was held here,

0:22:550:23:00

which is a rather magical picture, happened in the 1870s.

0:23:000:23:03

So this is people coming to see a display of the latest

0:23:030:23:06

-lighting technology.

-Absolutely.

0:23:060:23:09

So they had these four limelights,

0:23:090:23:10

powered by batteries held in the gallery.

0:23:100:23:13

-And it was a wonder to see.

-Look at the number of people crammed in.

0:23:130:23:16

There's news reports saying there was about 10,000 people

0:23:160:23:19

and today we have 5,500. So they were really crammed in.

0:23:190:23:23

-They didn't do health and safety.

-They really didn't!

0:23:230:23:26

OK, so the nearest underground station was a fair old walk away

0:23:270:23:31

and if you needed to pee urgently you were in trouble.

0:23:310:23:34

But it was worth it

0:23:340:23:35

because simply to visit this magnificent building,

0:23:350:23:38

which screamed modernity,

0:23:380:23:40

must have been a thrill for the very first audiences

0:23:400:23:43

who came to the Royal Albert Hall.

0:23:430:23:46

As the technology of the concert hall was being transformed

0:23:470:23:51

so too was what happened inside.

0:23:510:23:54

Entrepreneurial concert managers had to really pack in the punters

0:23:540:23:57

to make these massive new venues pay.

0:23:570:24:00

And composers also had to impress,

0:24:000:24:03

filling those vast spaces with glorious sound.

0:24:030:24:07

In 1800, your average symphony was scored for around 50 instruments.

0:24:070:24:11

By 1900, that figure had more than doubled,

0:24:110:24:15

and technological advance didn't just give composers the opportunity

0:24:150:24:18

to experiment with scale,

0:24:180:24:20

it gave them the chance to push the complexity of their music to

0:24:200:24:23

new limits as the tools they worked with underwent their own revolution.

0:24:230:24:28

The factories of the Industrial Revolution weren't just

0:24:280:24:31

turning out rivets and bolts and parts of bridges or sewer systems,

0:24:310:24:35

those grand Victorian building projects,

0:24:350:24:38

mechanisation was also having a profound impact

0:24:380:24:41

on the musical world.

0:24:410:24:42

Take this, for example, number 621 in this cabinet.

0:24:420:24:46

It's an early 19th century clarinet.

0:24:460:24:49

It was made in Paris and it's quite a simple-looking instrument.

0:24:490:24:52

You just blow into it and you place your fingers over holes that have

0:24:520:24:56

been bored directly into the wood and that's what changes the pitch,

0:24:560:24:59

the note that you're playing.

0:24:590:25:01

Then, take a look at this.

0:25:010:25:03

Also a clarinet. This one was made in London in the 1870s

0:25:030:25:06

and it is a beautiful bling of a thing. I love this instrument.

0:25:060:25:12

All of that gorgeous metal work allows you to make sure

0:25:120:25:15

you're always going to put your fingers on the keys in exactly

0:25:150:25:18

the right place, so you always play in tune,

0:25:180:25:20

and it gives you the added possibility of just being able to

0:25:200:25:23

play fast. You can whiz your way up and down those keys, you know

0:25:230:25:26

you're always going to be spot on as a player.

0:25:260:25:29

So what this enables you to do as a musician is to go on flights

0:25:290:25:33

of fancy, the kind of athleticism in playing

0:25:330:25:36

that simply wasn't available just decades earlier.

0:25:360:25:40

Industrial manufacturing techniques

0:25:420:25:45

improved the musical scope of the entire orchestra.

0:25:450:25:49

If wind instruments had been invigorated as a result of new,

0:25:490:25:52

precision machining,

0:25:520:25:54

the entire brass section was even more profoundly transformed.

0:25:540:25:58

With the advent of valves they could now change key

0:25:580:26:01

without needing to add or take away extra bits of tubing -

0:26:010:26:04

a fiddling exercise during a performance.

0:26:040:26:07

The relentless march of technology didn't stop with perfecting

0:26:090:26:12

instruments that already existed.

0:26:120:26:14

This was the age when inventors pushed boundaries

0:26:140:26:17

further than ever before.

0:26:170:26:19

If towers had Eiffel,

0:26:190:26:21

bridges Brunel

0:26:210:26:23

and glass palaces had Paxton,

0:26:230:26:25

then music had Adolphe Sax.

0:26:250:26:27

One of the unacknowledged geniuses of the 19th century,

0:26:270:26:30

he was a Belgian inventor who moved to Paris in 1841.

0:26:300:26:35

When Sax arrived in Paris he had only 30 francs in his pocket

0:26:360:26:40

and was so poor he had to live in a shed.

0:26:400:26:43

But this was one determined man.

0:26:430:26:45

After all, he'd survived a childhood

0:26:450:26:47

where he'd fallen from a three-storey window,

0:26:470:26:50

swallowed a pin, been burned by gun powder, drunk sulphuric acid,

0:26:500:26:54

been hit on the head by a cobblestone

0:26:540:26:57

and nearly drowned in a river.

0:26:570:26:59

"If I can get through all that,"

0:26:590:27:00

thought Sax, "I can conquer the world."

0:27:000:27:04

Adolphe Sax was born into a family of traditional instrument makers,

0:27:040:27:08

but once in Paris he abandoned conventional design,

0:27:080:27:12

instead pioneering a radical new instrument

0:27:120:27:15

that still bears his name today.

0:27:150:27:18

I'm visiting the Selmer sax factory

0:27:180:27:21

on the outskirts of the French capital,

0:27:210:27:23

which took over Sax's company in 1885,

0:27:230:27:26

to find out how the saxophone made its mark.

0:27:260:27:30

So what happens in this part of the factory?

0:27:310:27:35

So here this is the traditional assembly shop,

0:27:350:27:38

where we make the instruments like they were made 100 years ago

0:27:380:27:42

or 150 years ago. The people who are working here,

0:27:420:27:45

they do exactly the same as it was done

0:27:450:27:48

in the Adolphe Sax workshops in the 1850s.

0:27:480:27:52

So what was it that Sax really did that was new?

0:27:520:27:55

He has invented this instrument combining, I would say,

0:27:550:27:59

the advantages of the brass instruments

0:27:590:28:02

and of the wood instruments,

0:28:020:28:05

and to be able to be very flexible like the strings.

0:28:050:28:08

So he made this saxophone which is really

0:28:080:28:10

a combination between the clarinet, flute, trumpet and trombone.

0:28:100:28:16

So...he's got the brass, the winds, the flexibility of the strings -

0:28:160:28:21

it's almost like a whole orchestra in one instrument.

0:28:210:28:24

Absolutely. This is probably the most flexible instrument ever made.

0:28:240:28:29

Sax was a brilliant mind, a genius inventor,

0:28:290:28:32

but he was also lucky enough to be born at the right time.

0:28:320:28:34

This is the machine age, the Industrial Revolution.

0:28:340:28:37

Yeah. Because it's so complicated to make, there are so many pieces,

0:28:370:28:41

you have to count about 800 pieces for a saxophone, which is crazy,

0:28:410:28:45

and you also need to get a very high level of precision

0:28:450:28:50

and so this period was perfect because this was the time

0:28:500:28:55

when the machine could make these pieces so precise.

0:28:550:28:59

So if Sax had turned up even 20, 30 years earlier

0:28:590:29:03

he couldn't have created the instrument that took off.

0:29:030:29:06

Probably it was not...

0:29:060:29:09

because the machines necessary to make all these pieces

0:29:090:29:12

wouldn't have been possible before.

0:29:120:29:15

The saxophone, when you see it, when you look at this instrument,

0:29:150:29:18

it still looks like a futuristic instrument,

0:29:180:29:22

and so probably in the 1840s it was more true than it is now.

0:29:220:29:27

He wanted to revolutionise everything.

0:29:270:29:29

Sax was at the forefront of innovation in instrument design,

0:29:290:29:34

and he numbered among his fans composers like Berlioz

0:29:340:29:37

and the opera maestro Meyerbeer.

0:29:370:29:39

He even got imperial patronage.

0:29:390:29:42

But not everyone was in favour of his new invention.

0:29:420:29:46

Sax's genius had the instrument makers of Paris running scared.

0:29:460:29:51

They feared his saxtubas, saxtrombones and saxophones

0:29:510:29:55

would put them out of business, and so they formed an alliance

0:29:550:29:58

against him, stealing his workers, burning down his factories.

0:29:580:30:02

They even tried to have him assassinated - twice.

0:30:020:30:05

But Sax survived and, in the 1840s,

0:30:050:30:08

he got the opportunity he desperately relished -

0:30:080:30:11

to validate publicly once and for all that he was a genius.

0:30:110:30:15

It was a battle of the bands.

0:30:150:30:18

SHE PLAYS ADEQUATELY

0:30:180:30:20

MARCHING BAND MUSIC

0:30:230:30:25

Standing up to his detractors, Sax agreed to a musical standoff.

0:30:320:30:37

Two brass bands were set up to compete against each other -

0:30:370:30:40

one from Paris' Musicians Guild playing traditional brass

0:30:400:30:44

and wind instruments,

0:30:440:30:46

the other, led by Sax, starring his new saxophones.

0:30:460:30:50

On the 22nd of April, 1845, the band-off commenced.

0:30:560:31:02

20,000 people came to see what was described as a "Napoleonic battle."

0:31:020:31:08

The pressure was on.

0:31:140:31:16

The rival traditional band had a strong, almost radical,

0:31:160:31:20

set of supporters,

0:31:200:31:22

drawn mostly from the ranks of Parisian instrument makers.

0:31:220:31:25

Sax's group, the self-styled Saxons, were more flamboyant...

0:31:310:31:36

..but had fierce enemies,

0:31:380:31:40

evident from the fact that seven of the saxophonists failed to

0:31:400:31:43

turn up on the day, reportedly having been scared away.

0:31:430:31:48

Sax came out triumphant

0:32:030:32:05

and his brilliant newfangled instruments sold in their thousands.

0:32:050:32:11

Sax's success was a 19th century industrial phenomenon,

0:32:190:32:23

made possible by an ever-increasing musical appetite

0:32:230:32:26

and the newly mechanised mass production of instruments.

0:32:260:32:31

Across Europe, from Britain to France and Germany,

0:32:310:32:34

music was getting louder,

0:32:340:32:36

instruments were being pimped up and supercharged,

0:32:360:32:39

concert halls were now stadiums to be filled with sound.

0:32:390:32:42

Acoustic music was about to reach its limits.

0:32:420:32:46

TENSE MUSIC

0:32:490:32:51

In 1896, the composer Richard Strauss

0:32:560:32:59

wrote a piece of music that heralded the dawn of a new era.

0:32:590:33:03

He subtitled it Symphonic Optimism,

0:33:050:33:08

dedicated to the 20th century.

0:33:080:33:11

THEY PLAY ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA

0:33:110:33:14

Also Sprach Zarathustra was as much a philosophical as it was

0:33:240:33:29

a musical epic, exploring man's quest for enlightenment

0:33:290:33:32

at the beginning of a new age.

0:33:320:33:35

To pull off such an ambitious project,

0:33:350:33:37

Strauss needed to produce a monumental wall of sound...

0:33:370:33:41

..only possible because he had an arsenal

0:33:450:33:47

of industrially engineered instruments at his disposal.

0:33:470:33:51

So in Also Sprach

0:33:510:33:53

Strauss uses the full sonic potential of the orchestra.

0:33:530:33:57

He's got eight trombones, four horns, four trumpets, eight oboes,

0:33:570:34:02

a mass of other wind instruments, there's a bass drum,

0:34:020:34:05

a timpani, more than 60 strings.

0:34:050:34:08

This is Strauss pushing the orchestra to its limits.

0:34:080:34:12

By the end of the 19th century,

0:34:350:34:37

technology had entirely changed the musical landscape.

0:34:370:34:41

But there was one invention above any other

0:34:410:34:44

that would change music forever.

0:34:440:34:47

In 1889 audiences at the Paris exhibition not only heard live music

0:34:490:34:55

that was bigger, bolder and more international than ever before,

0:34:550:34:59

they were also introduced to a truly futuristic experience.

0:34:590:35:03

With the phonograph they were given the opportunity to listen

0:35:030:35:06

to a recording for the first time ever.

0:35:060:35:10

The man behind this incredible achievement -

0:35:100:35:13

the inventor Thomas Edison.

0:35:130:35:15

Hailed as Le Roi or "the king" by the French press in reviews

0:35:150:35:19

of the event, people were stunned by his new invention.

0:35:190:35:24

Edison had first experimented with recorded sound in 1877

0:35:240:35:29

when his aim wasn't to record music at all

0:35:290:35:32

but to capture the human voice.

0:35:320:35:34

Here we have the first machine.

0:35:340:35:37

It's called Tinfoil

0:35:370:35:39

because it uses tinfoil,

0:35:390:35:41

the same tinfoil we can find today and use today to cook chicken.

0:35:410:35:45

SHE LAUGHS

0:35:450:35:47

So when does this machine date from?

0:35:470:35:49

1878.

0:35:490:35:51

And this is the very first time...

0:35:510:35:53

-The first time when you can record and listen back.

-How does it work?

0:35:530:35:58

You must first put the tinfoil on it. You have the fly wheel.

0:35:580:36:01

The most important thing is to turn it, to have the right speed.

0:36:010:36:05

And then you must really...

0:36:050:36:07

-LOUD AND CLEAR:

-..talk and shout clearly,

0:36:070:36:10

strongly, otherwise you have nothing

0:36:100:36:14

because you need your vibration.

0:36:140:36:16

-So you really need to shout to make this work?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:36:160:36:20

If you talk, like we are speaking now, it will record nothing.

0:36:200:36:23

So how does the recording happen?

0:36:230:36:25

Your voice goes through that hole there, what happens next?

0:36:250:36:28

-The vibration will push the needle.

-There's the needle.

0:36:280:36:32

And so you talk through this hole, your voice makes vibrations,

0:36:320:36:36

the needle wobbles, what happens next?

0:36:360:36:39

Then you play back with the same needle.

0:36:390:36:42

You can do it once or twice. That's it.

0:36:420:36:46

You can never remove the tinfoil and put it back to listen again.

0:36:460:36:50

That's why it was really experimental.

0:36:500:36:52

So what did people make of this really new technology?

0:36:520:36:55

Even at the time, people were really not able to realise

0:36:550:37:01

it's really true. Because they think it was a ventriloquist in the room.

0:37:010:37:05

People thought there was a ventriloquist there,

0:37:050:37:08

-that it wasn't real, it was a fake?

-Of course.

0:37:080:37:10

It was too complicated to understand.

0:37:100:37:13

The mechanics of this radical new technology

0:37:130:37:16

WERE difficult to understand, even for Edison himself.

0:37:160:37:20

It took another 11 years before he would perfect his machine.

0:37:200:37:24

But by the time he visited the Paris exhibition,

0:37:240:37:27

the phonograph had begun to show off its musical potential.

0:37:270:37:31

That's the evolution of the Edison machine 11 years later.

0:37:330:37:36

How does this one work?

0:37:360:37:38

From the cylinder it's recorded here on the wax cylinder.

0:37:380:37:43

You can record and listen back.

0:37:430:37:45

You can shave it to record again.

0:37:450:37:48

Its playback was here, the listening tube.

0:37:480:37:52

So what did the machine sound like?

0:37:520:37:54

The sound, it's really simple. You listen to what I'm saying.

0:37:540:37:57

It's really high fidelity. I'm talking like that.

0:37:570:38:01

It's amazing quality.

0:38:010:38:04

It's incredibly clear for such early technology.

0:38:040:38:07

-How many people could listen to this at one time?

-From 12 to 18.

0:38:070:38:11

It was really used as an attraction.

0:38:110:38:13

They wait until 18 people were around, have paid one cent,

0:38:130:38:17

then they make it play.

0:38:170:38:19

What would they have been able to listen to, what music?

0:38:190:38:22

They record anything familiar.

0:38:220:38:25

They never record something new.

0:38:250:38:28

If you listen to something you know already and you like already

0:38:280:38:31

-you follow easily.

-Like pop records today.

0:38:310:38:34

So what kind of music could you listen to on a machine like this?

0:38:340:38:38

In the beginning, it was the national song, popular songs mostly.

0:38:380:38:43

All people from the opera, major singers, they refused to record.

0:38:430:38:48

Why did the opera singers not want to be part of this technology?

0:38:480:38:51

For them it was not good quality, it's not good for the future.

0:38:510:38:57

So they were worried about their ticket prices, worried that people

0:38:570:39:01

-wouldn't pay for the tickets to come to the opera house.

-Exactly.

0:39:010:39:04

What kind of reaction did the machine get?

0:39:040:39:07

They still think it's someone in behind,

0:39:070:39:10

someone under the machine covering,

0:39:100:39:13

because normally it's represented with big cloths around.

0:39:130:39:16

-A cloth?

-Yeah. And you think it's someone here under the machine.

0:39:160:39:20

It must have been like magic.

0:39:200:39:22

It was really exciting for the people

0:39:220:39:25

because the advertising around it was,

0:39:250:39:28

"Come to listen to the invisible singer and invisible musician."

0:39:280:39:33

And that was something really new.

0:39:330:39:35

At that time for them, it was magical.

0:39:350:39:38

Edison chose sure-fire hits to get those early audiences hooked.

0:39:380:39:43

There was the French national anthem...

0:39:430:39:46

MUSIC PLAYS

0:39:460:39:47

..a number from Bizet's Carmen... MUSIC PLAYS

0:39:470:39:52

..a little bit of Wagner. SONG: Ride Of The Valkyries

0:39:520:39:56

..all guaranteed to get the punters going home whistling a tune

0:39:560:40:00

and wondering at the marvel of recorded sound.

0:40:000:40:04

But getting music recorded at all was easier said than done.

0:40:060:40:11

So what do I need to do to make my very first recording?

0:40:110:40:14

We set the phonograph up here to record and the horn you see here

0:40:140:40:20

is going to conduct your efforts from the piano

0:40:200:40:23

down to the recorder here.

0:40:230:40:25

The recorder has a sharp stylus and a very thin diaphragm,

0:40:250:40:29

very thin disc, and you've gotta vibrate that

0:40:290:40:32

to cut the groove in order to record your efforts.

0:40:320:40:35

One of the things is, it's purely mechanical, it's all

0:40:350:40:38

of your efforts, so we need you to play a lot louder than you'd expect.

0:40:380:40:42

So the machine is not going to help me here, I just need to belt this?

0:40:420:40:46

-Yes. Exactly.

-OK.

0:40:460:40:49

So I'll give you a signal when the cutter has been lowered

0:40:490:40:53

and then if I don't think you're playing loud enough

0:40:530:40:56

I'll wave my arms around to get you to be louder.

0:40:560:40:59

-OK.

-We're trying to get the maximum amount of energy into the thing.

0:40:590:41:02

I'll need to be facing the machine

0:41:020:41:04

and I'll be blowing the swarf - the thin strands of wax -

0:41:040:41:09

off the blank

0:41:090:41:11

so that we can keep the stylus clear, stop it clogging up

0:41:110:41:15

-while you're recording. So I'll have my back to you.

-Shall we have a go?

0:41:150:41:18

-It's as easy as that.

-OK!

0:41:180:41:20

So just play loudly all the time?

0:41:200:41:22

-Yes.

-OK, let's have a go.

0:41:220:41:25

Let's have a go at a 19th century medley. You tell me when.

0:41:250:41:29

So this'll be my signal here...

0:41:290:41:31

when I've lowered the cutter.

0:41:310:41:34

SHE PLAYS BEETHOVEN'S 5TH SYMPHONY

0:41:350:41:38

SHE PLAYS LOUDER

0:41:380:41:40

SHE PLAYS VARIOUS PIECES

0:41:400:41:43

SHE PLAYS LOUDER

0:41:480:41:50

SHE PLAYS LOUDER

0:41:570:41:59

How did I do?

0:42:470:42:49

-Ah, very good.

-I'm exhausted!

-Very good.

0:42:490:42:52

I can see it. Yes, excellent.

0:42:520:42:55

Cos the advantage of these machines is you can play it back

0:42:550:42:58

pretty much immediately.

0:42:580:43:00

Just need to change this from recording to playback.

0:43:010:43:05

Take out the sharp point.

0:43:050:43:07

Put in the round point on the reproducer.

0:43:080:43:12

Put on a playback horn.

0:43:120:43:14

-Come round here.

-Let's have a listen.

0:43:160:43:19

Off we go, see what we've got.

0:43:190:43:21

PLAYBACK BEGINS

0:43:240:43:27

I made my first recording!

0:43:570:44:00

I'm now officially a recording artist.

0:44:000:44:03

I love that.

0:44:030:44:05

-You don't look happy.

-Oh, no, you've got to remember...

0:44:050:44:09

-You're so exacting.

-Hm?

-You're so exacting.

0:44:090:44:12

Oh, well, yes, I would do all sorts of things to make that work better.

0:44:120:44:17

The sound quality wasn't exactly Dolby Surround

0:44:170:44:21

but the advent of recording still caused panic among musicians

0:44:210:44:25

worried that live performance would disappear and with it their careers.

0:44:250:44:30

Meanwhile instrument makers believed that they'd be put out of business

0:44:300:44:33

by entrepreneurs like Adolphe Sax.

0:44:330:44:36

And those worries mirrored wider fears about the unstoppable march

0:44:390:44:44

of progress. Was society sliding into moral decline?

0:44:440:44:48

After all, the sleazier side of metropolitan life

0:44:510:44:55

wasn't hard to find.

0:44:550:44:57

In the same year that Eiffel Tower was unveiled as a monument

0:44:570:45:00

to civilisation and progress,

0:45:000:45:02

a very different Parisian landmark also opened its doors.

0:45:020:45:07

The organisers of the Paris exposition had prided themselves

0:45:070:45:10

in turning the whole city into an orgy of music,

0:45:100:45:14

but the Moulin Rouge took that description somewhat too literally.

0:45:140:45:19

Today we've got a rather misty eyed nostalgia about the glitz

0:45:210:45:26

and seedy glamour of the Moulin Rouge,

0:45:260:45:28

but back in the 1890s this was a world pitched

0:45:280:45:32

halfway between the brothel and the lunatic asylum.

0:45:320:45:35

It was said the wild abandon of the can-can could inspire insanity,

0:45:350:45:40

moral degeneracy in those who watched it.

0:45:400:45:44

It's rather tame by today's standards,

0:45:470:45:50

but in its day this place was shocking,

0:45:500:45:53

famed for that riotously naughty dance, the can-can,

0:45:530:45:56

where girls with bad reputations would show off their wares.

0:45:560:46:01

It wasn't just for the seamier elements of Parisian society,

0:46:030:46:06

this was a place of mainstream entertainment

0:46:060:46:09

where respectable Parisians came in their droves.

0:46:090:46:12

Almost as soon as it opened, this dance hall sat alongside the Louvre

0:46:150:46:19

and the Eiffel Tower on Parisian maps - an essential place to visit.

0:46:190:46:24

More worryingly, music with added sexual frisson

0:46:360:46:40

wasn't confined to seedy cabaret clubs.

0:46:400:46:43

Even the waltz, today seen as the epitome of dance floor refinement,

0:46:430:46:49

had been raising eyebrows with its fast, furious and flirtatious moves.

0:46:490:46:53

When the waltz first became popular in the early 19th century

0:46:590:47:02

it caused a moral panic.

0:47:020:47:05

This new dance craze relied on couples

0:47:050:47:08

getting up close and personal.

0:47:080:47:10

There were no rules about how to dance it

0:47:100:47:12

and often amorous pursuits got in the way of the waltz itself.

0:47:120:47:16

Thank you, help me.

0:47:220:47:24

-Hm?

-Thank you.

-Oh, sorry, yeah.

0:47:240:47:26

-Thank you so much.

-Um...

0:47:260:47:28

INDISTINCT CHAT

0:47:320:47:34

I'm going to grip it...

0:47:340:47:36

Igniting passions that could cause a dangerous loss of self-control,

0:47:380:47:43

music and dancing began to be seen as corrupting influences.

0:47:430:47:47

But while you may think it takes two to tango, or indeed to waltz,

0:47:470:47:51

in the 19th century it wasn't the men everyone was worried about.

0:47:510:47:55

No, it was us delicate ladies

0:47:550:47:57

who needed protection from the ravages of music.

0:47:570:48:01

So it seems like people were getting increasingly worried about music

0:48:040:48:08

as the 19th century went on. What was going on?

0:48:080:48:11

Music, I think, has always been on the edge

0:48:110:48:14

of how people view creativity and sanity

0:48:140:48:19

and morality, which are all tied up together.

0:48:190:48:22

What did people think would happen to women

0:48:220:48:25

if they did have contact with this dangerous stuff, with music?

0:48:250:48:28

Well, women are known to be very emotional and irrational creatures

0:48:280:48:32

so we need to look after them and make sure they're not exposed to

0:48:320:48:38

things that are going to completely wreck their fragile mental health.

0:48:380:48:43

So we have, for example, George Beard in the mid century,

0:48:430:48:47

who is an American physician. He coined the term neurasthenia.

0:48:470:48:52

It's an illness that the majority of people afflicted were women.

0:48:520:48:57

And they were fainting and very pale and having headaches and weak.

0:48:570:49:02

So George Beard thinks that music is one of the main causes

0:49:020:49:07

of neurasthenia because if women are indulging in music

0:49:070:49:13

they're not doing all the things they're supposed to do

0:49:130:49:16

-to keep their place.

-Simply, you listen to too much music

0:49:160:49:19

-you're in danger of having a nervous breakdown?

-Correct.

0:49:190:49:22

So the idea that women's nerves are too fragile to deal with music

0:49:220:49:25

has been growing throughout the century.

0:49:250:49:28

For example, Fanny Hensel, Mendelssohn's sister,

0:49:280:49:31

spent a year in Italy with her husband and son.

0:49:310:49:34

Had a wonderful musical experience, writes very lyrically about this in

0:49:340:49:39

her letters home but at the end we get the little sentence that says,

0:49:390:49:43

"Don't worry, this has not had any affect on my nerves."

0:49:430:49:47

And they were worried, weren't they, even about things like

0:49:470:49:50

women's sexual reproductive capacity

0:49:500:49:54

if they had too much music in their lives. What was the concern?

0:49:540:49:58

Well, they couldn't win on that one

0:49:580:50:00

because there were two schools of thought.

0:50:000:50:03

So either too much indulgence and listening to music

0:50:030:50:07

and performing music was going to cause premature menstruation,

0:50:070:50:11

which meant that she would dry up early and be infertile

0:50:110:50:16

and it would be early sexualisation because her emotional nature

0:50:160:50:20

meant that the emotional content of music was too much to cope with.

0:50:200:50:26

Or, alternatively, it would delay menstruation

0:50:260:50:30

and she'd be infertile that way

0:50:300:50:32

because music is too intellectual and her emotional nature

0:50:320:50:35

couldn't cope with the intellectual and dry aspects of music.

0:50:350:50:40

GENTLE MUSIC

0:50:400:50:42

As the century progressed, there was a growing idea that music wasn't

0:50:490:50:53

just faintly dangerous or decadent

0:50:530:50:55

but that it was a pathogen capable of infesting and destroying

0:50:550:51:00

the very fabric of society.

0:51:000:51:02

Unchecked, it might lead to chaos and anarchy.

0:51:020:51:06

Now, all this talk of medicalisation and music and madness might seem

0:51:350:51:39

faintly ridiculous to us today,

0:51:390:51:41

but people's lives were devastated by this phenomenon.

0:51:410:51:44

One Parisian pianist...

0:51:440:51:48

spent 15 years in an asylum.

0:51:480:51:51

There she was forced to endure freezing cold water

0:51:510:51:54

tipped on her head, she was isolated, bullied,

0:51:540:51:58

sometimes tortured, and all because her doctors declared

0:51:580:52:01

she was insane through an excess of music.

0:52:010:52:05

Probably best to stop practising for the day.

0:52:050:52:07

You might think that the possibility of being locked in an institution

0:52:110:52:15

would put people off playing the piano, but surprisingly not.

0:52:150:52:18

Because on the one hand, while the piano was

0:52:180:52:21

seen as a kind of Trojan horse, an infiltrator into the home,

0:52:210:52:24

taking women away from their familial duties,

0:52:240:52:28

on the other it was fast becoming

0:52:280:52:30

the ultimate aspirational piece of furniture.

0:52:300:52:34

Pianos looked beautiful.

0:52:340:52:36

They brought an immediate sense of cultural elevation

0:52:360:52:39

and education into one's home.

0:52:390:52:41

Mass production meant the prices were dropping

0:52:410:52:44

and soon everyone wanted their very own Joanna.

0:52:440:52:47

Whether you were a doctor or a lawyer, a coal miner

0:52:500:52:53

or a factory worker, you could now get your hands on your own piano.

0:52:530:52:57

Between 1840 and 1875, British demand for them quadrupled.

0:52:570:53:03

Up to 17,000 elephants every year were slaughtered for their ivory

0:53:030:53:08

to make piano keys.

0:53:080:53:10

But nobody seemed to worry about that.

0:53:100:53:12

The rage for music was simply unstoppable.

0:53:120:53:16

Technology had revolutionised every area of the musical landscape,

0:53:160:53:21

creating vast stadiums of sound,

0:53:210:53:24

transforming how you could get access to music,

0:53:240:53:27

democratising who could play it and how it could be heard.

0:53:270:53:31

The conventional wisdom about what music was

0:53:310:53:34

was changing and one composer

0:53:340:53:37

injected that sense of uncertainty into his music.

0:53:370:53:40

In 1878, the conductor and composer Gustav Mahler moved to Vienna,

0:53:400:53:46

taking up the position of conductor at the city opera.

0:53:460:53:50

Vienna already had a reputation as a centre of modernity.

0:54:080:54:12

At the beginning of the 19th century its residents,

0:54:120:54:14

Beethoven and Schubert, had transformed the musical landscape.

0:54:140:54:18

Now Mahler wanted to created music that equally

0:54:200:54:24

reflected the world around him, music of the now, not the then.

0:54:240:54:30

Mahler's Vienna was a very different city from the one

0:54:380:54:41

earlier composers like Beethoven and Schubert had lived in.

0:54:410:54:45

Now it was a centre of progressive modernity

0:54:450:54:47

with radical new architecture, electric trams,

0:54:470:54:51

high-speed trains that could whisk you across the globe.

0:54:510:54:54

This was the era of Freud unpicking our dreams,

0:54:540:54:57

when you could see moving images - films - for the very first time.

0:54:570:55:02

Mahler reflected all that modernity in his music.

0:55:020:55:06

In Mahler's hands the symphony becomes a very different beast.

0:55:230:55:27

Just think of his predecessor, Beethoven.

0:55:270:55:29

For him, symphonies were a kind of progression, a journey,

0:55:290:55:33

often from darkness into blazing light.

0:55:330:55:36

For Mahler, the symphony is much more like a collage where he takes

0:55:400:55:43

bits of pieces of musical material

0:55:430:55:45

and layers them on top of one another.

0:55:450:55:48

It's a swirling, surreal, emotionally disturbing piece,

0:55:520:55:56

capturing the uncertainty of a new world at the turn of a new century.

0:55:560:56:01

Nothing like the big, blustering,

0:56:010:56:03

confident orchestral sound of Strauss' Zarathustra.

0:56:030:56:07

We're in this strange dream-like world...

0:56:120:56:14

..the ethereal harp, the celeste,

0:56:190:56:21

all adding to that other worldly atmosphere.

0:56:210:56:25

In Mahler's hands the symphony is something of the modern world.

0:56:320:56:36

And what the modern world demanded was the new.

0:56:410:56:44

The march of progress was unstoppable.

0:56:440:56:47

Orchestral music had reached its zenith

0:56:490:56:52

and orchestral composers would never surpass the success

0:56:520:56:55

and status they had enjoyed in the 19th century.

0:56:550:56:59

In 1906, the same year Mahler conducted

0:57:000:57:03

the premier of his 6th Symphony,

0:57:030:57:06

a very different kind of concert was held at the Royal Albert Hall.

0:57:060:57:11

The new god of music was not a man...but a machine.

0:57:110:57:16

A sell-out audience of almost 10,000 people crammed into the venue

0:57:160:57:22

to listen not to a performer they could see, but to a phonograph.

0:57:220:57:26

A defining moment in the history of music,

0:57:260:57:29

as the 19th century was laid irrefutably to rest

0:57:290:57:32

with the advent of the recording era.

0:57:320:57:35

It was the close of 100 years of seismic change,

0:57:380:57:42

a century where music had come into its own, assuming a power

0:57:420:57:46

and potency that still endures.

0:57:460:57:49

The 19th century had created the stadium gig, the recording industry,

0:57:510:57:55

the star performer.

0:57:550:57:57

It had made musicians richer and more powerful

0:57:570:58:00

than they could have dreamt possible.

0:58:000:58:02

And it had transformed music itself.

0:58:020:58:05

More than just entertainment

0:58:050:58:07

it was now a way of life for its legions of fans.

0:58:070:58:10

And that's a legacy we're all still enjoying today.

0:58:100:58:14

MUSICAL RECORDING

0:58:140:58:17

MUSIC: Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss

0:58:320:58:36

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