Westernization -- European Art Music Term Paper

To wit, there has been a "large-scale migration to the big cities, Pohlit explains, and that has "inclined the balance of power in cultural matters in favor of the poor and uneducated." Hence, the intellectual upper class now operates from a "narrow retreat, now itself a pariah," Pohlit continues. And that intellectual upper class of course has all the Western classical music it can possibly listen to, but it remains unable to uphold its Westernized "Turkishness" with any degree of impact at all (Pohlit).

Art Music Composers

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942) holds the highly respected position as the most popular art music composer in Sweden's history, according to Frederick Key Smith (Smith, 2002). Peterson-Berger thought of himself as more of a "symphonist and composer of Wagnerian operas than as a composer of miniatures," Smith explains. Peterson-Berger was raised in a home with a lot of culture; his father was fluent in Greek and his mother was an established pianist, but Peterson-Berger found that the Stockholm Conservatory's "conventional music climate" a bit too stifling, so he studied in Germany but returned to Sweden and for 30 years he was music critic for Stockholm's Daily News. The music Peterson-Berger produced that is memorable includes "Four Songs in Swedish Folk Tone" (1892); "Marit's Songs" (1896), among others.

Authors Paul Terry and David Bowman count Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) as among the great composers of 20th Century art music. Rachmaninov helped "perpetuate the lush harmonies of the late 19th century" (Terry, et al., 2000). Among Rachmaninov's greatest pieces: "Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2"; "Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers (Mass for Unaccompanied Chorus)"; and "Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos No. 1-4" (Rachmaninov.com).

In conclusion, the history of the Westernization of the Turkish Republic shows that as time passes, new generations of Muslim leaders can see that introducing their citizens to music other than their own music is by way of helping not only to modernize their societies, but also to understand other cultures.

Works Cited

Olsen, Dale A., and Sheehy, Daniel E. (2001). "Art Music." In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The United States and Canada / Ellen Koskoff, Ed., Oxon, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Pohlit, Stefan. (2010). Musical Life and Westernization in the Republic of Turkey.

Schismogenesis and Cultural Revisioning in Contemporary Music. Retrieved August 14,

2011, from http://www.stefanpohlit.com.

Rachmaninov.com. (2009). Real inspiration must come from within. If there is nothing within, nothing from outside can help. Retrieved August 15, 2011, from http://www.rachmaninov.com.

Smith, Frederick Key. (2002). Nordic Art Music: From the Middle Ages to the Third

Millennium. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Terry, Paul, Bowman, David. (2000). A Student's Guide to AS…