On the Question of "Exoticism" in 19th Century Music

Abstract

According one recent estimate, well over four hundred operas written before 1800 were based on subject matter that may be loosely classified as exotic (WHAPLES, 1951). In France, where opera was considered the very special domain of le merveilleux, the fantastic, librettists and composers took a truly extraordinary interest in far away places and their colourful people, banking no doubt on the demand created by the sensational exploits of French travellers and empire builders on three continents. But just because opera was designed in the words of Addison, mainly to gratify the senses and keep up an indolent attention of the audience, authenticity, musical or otherwise, presented no real issue. On the whole, non-Europeans were depicted as either cruel or ridiculous, and their musical characterization was confined a limited number of stereotypes, such as rhythmic ostinati and persistent repetitions of brief melodic phrases, occasionally an unusual interval like the augmented fourth. The emergence of the noble savage as a symbol of rebellion against the growing sophistication of the ruling court circles brought little or no change in operatic practice. But the wave of anthropological and sociological activity generated by the Enlightenment did produce several publications which contained also welcome samples of non-European music. As early as 1736 du Halde printed five supposedly authentic melodies in his description of China (FISCHER, 1910-11). One of these, the famous tune employed eventually by both Weber and Hindemith, was later picked up by Rousseau and then again by John Barrow in whose Travels in China it appeared just a year before Weber composed the first version of his Chinese Overture. Meanwhile, other travelogues, for example de Bougainville's A Voyage Around the World, included musical examples, not speak of the fundamental musicological essays published by Amiot and Laborde in 1780.