This document examines compositions by Johann Strauss Jr., related by title or compositional circumstance to Hungarians or Gypsies, for the presence of the style hongrois, or Hungarian style--an exotic style used by Western composers throughout the nineteenth century. This study defines the style hongrois through specific musical terms by amalgamating recent scholarship into a lexicon of musical elements and gestures. The compositions under consideration were composed between 1846 and 1896. The study provides background into the development of the style hongrois--including the migration of the Rom, the influence of the dominant Magyar culture within Hungary, the evolution of the verbunkos, and the style hongrois's early overlap with the Turkish style--and the social and political circumstances within Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. The origins of the Viennese dance tradition are traced, and it is revealed that both Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss Sr. toured to Pest, the capital of Hungary, and composed in the style hongrois. Major works by Johann Strauss Jr. examined in this study include the Pesther Csárdás, op. 23; Éljen a Magyár!, Polka schnell, op. 332; Rosalinde's Csárdás from Die Fledermaus; selections from Der Zigeunerbaron; the Csárdás from Ritter Pásmán; and a new czardas composed for Die Fledermaus in 1896. The study reveals that Strauss used the style hongrois not as a foreign musical language, but as a set of gestures and forms which could be incorporated into his normal style. Nevertheless, Strauss's melodic ingenuity allowed for a fluent use of the style hongrois from the outset. He applied the style in various ways--superficially to existing dance forms, and in full imitations of the verbunk genre. These works were consistently greeted--both in Vienna and Hungary--with praise and acknowledgment of Strauss's success in imitating Gypsy-band music, to which he enjoyed ample exposure. This study--a close inspection of a small subset of Strauss's output--reveals a subtle yet sophisticated evolution in his compositional technique. It also traces the progression of his career--from upstart performer to the cultural symbol of an empire.

No description available.

La réception et la représentation de la musique hongroise en France au XIXe siècle est un sujet méconnu et non traité dans la littérature musicologique. La thèse ici présentée a l’ambition de combler ce manque. Elle s’organise autour de deux axes principaux. Le premier est l’étude critique des textes qui présentent la musique hongroise et l’art des orchestres tziganes ayant propagé ce corpus sous divers aspects. Le deuxième est l’analyse musicale et stylistique proprement dite, où l’on se questionne sur le fonctionnement de la représentation d’une « magyarité », voire d’une « tziganité », en musique, majoritairement dans les oeuvres dramatiques. La réception littéraire reflète de quelle manière la perception du phénomène exotique hongrois s’inscrit dans un contexte romantique français plus large. Les réflexions sur « l’âme du peuple », sur l’orientalisme, sur différentes constructions culturelles exotiques, sur le caractère national que l’on croyait « populaire », mais aussi sur le culte romantique du génie ou sur l’esthétique des sentiments, influencent le discours sur l’identité musicale hongroise. Une identité que l’on cerne à travers les notions telles que l’héroïsme, le caractère martial, l’expression poétique, la tristesse profonde, la gaîté et la passion sauvages. La représentation musicale stylisée, qui propose différents niveaux de « réalités » grâce à des procédés de réinterprétation d’éléments hongrois pour évoquer la « magyarité » en musique (aussi en relation avec d’autres phénomènes exotiques), ne rend que partiellement la poésie de « l’âme du peuple ». Tournée plus vers l’esthétique du « pittoresque », elle manque son ultime réalité pour des apparences. / The reception and the representation of the Hungarian music in France in the 19th century is a little-known subject. There are no musicological writings dealing with this topic. The doctoral dissertation presented here aims to fill this gap. It is organized around two principal axes. The first one is the critical study of the texts which present the Hungarian music and the music making of Gypsy orchestras having spread this repertoire from different angles. The second one is the musical and stylistic analysis itself, in which we investigate how the representation of “Hungarianness” and “Gipsyness” in music, especially in dramatic genres, functions. The literary reception mirrors that the perception of the Hungarian exotic phenomenon is inseparable from a larger French and romantic context. The reflections on the “spirit of the folk”, on the orientalism, on different cultural exotic constructions, on the national character which was perceived at the same time as “popular”, but also on the romantic cult of the genius or on the aesthetics of the emotions influenced the discourse on the Hungarian musical identity. An identity defined by notions as heroism, martial character, poetic expression, profound sadness or savage gaiety and passion. The stylized musical representation, which proposes different levels of “reality” by the use of reinterpreted Hungarian elements to evoke “Hungarianness” in music (also linked to other exotic phenomena), reproduces only partially the poetic charm of the “spirit of the folk”. Serving more the aesthetics of “picturesqueness”, it misses an ultimate reality for the appearances.

This study examines Liszt's use of the style hongrois in his Swiss book of Années de pèlerinage to reference certain sentiments he had experienced. The event that brought Liszt to Switzerland is discussed in Chapter 1 in order to establish an understanding of the personal difficulties facing Liszt during the period when the Swiss book took shape. Based on Jonathan Bellman's research of the style hongrois, Chapter 2 examines the Swiss pieces that exhibit musical gestures characteristic of this style. Bellman also introduced a second, metaphoric meaning of the style hongrois, which is discussed in Chapter 3 along with Liszt's accounts from his book Des Bohémien as well as the literary quotations that are included in the Swiss book. Together, the biographical facts, the accounts from Des Bohémien, and the literary quotations show that Liszt was using the style hongrois to substantiate the autobiographical significance of the Swiss book.