• Composers have recently improvised musical pieces based on the letters of the word "Coronavirus", according to our partner The Conversation.

  • Other major epidemics are also at the origin of musical works by Mendelssohn, Verdi and many others.

  • The analysis of this phenomenon was carried out by Louis Brouillette, lecturer in musicology at the music school of the University of Sherbrooke (Canada).

Major epidemics and pandemics have inspired - and still inspire - composers for centuries.

From cholera to Covid-19, including syphilis, tuberculosis and AIDS, these infectious diseases have influenced several composers, and sometimes in unusual ways.

"The ministry attacked by Cholera morbus", print by Grandville © Gallica-BnF

As a musicologist currently carrying out research on musical creation at the time of the Covid-19, it seemed to me appropriate to broaden my field of expertise by verifying how the composers of previous centuries reacted to the great epidemics.

"Coded" works

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a few composers or improvisers have used a coded system worthy of the secret services.

They associated each of the letters of words like "corona" or "hospital" with musical notes (A = La, B = Si, C = Do, and so on) and wrote works based on the musical motif that result.

In March 2020, for example, French pianist Camille Taver released a video in which he improvises an energetic piece from the word “corona” (which corresponds to the notes Do, La, Ré, La, Sol, La).

In the Baroque period, Bach already used a similar system in order to hide in his works his musical signature formed by four notes (B = B flat, A = A, C = C, H = B).

Improvisation by Camille Taver on the letters C, O, R, O, N and A.

Other composers developed more complex correspondence systems during the pandemic.

The term "Covid-19", for example, was transformed by Greek-born composer Nicholas Papadimitriou into a nine-note theme.

The first four notes (C, E flat, G flat and B double flat) form a chord which is normally denoted by the code “C0”.

The letters V and I as well as the numbers 1 and 9 are associated, for their part, with degrees of the range of Do (V = Sol, I = Do, 1 = Do, 9 = Re).

As for the letter D, it designates the note D, as in the English and German systems of music notation.

Fugue on the theme of Covid-19 by Nicholas Papadimitriou.

In Canada, the Jeunesses musicales have contributed to the explosion of musical compositions using hidden words.

Following a competition launched in April 2020, musicians under the age of 30 created more than 150 works on the notes Do, Mi, Si, La, Do, Ré which correspond by homophony to the expression "adored domicile. ".

Cellist Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy, winner of the 3rd prize in the Domicile adoré composition competition.

Mendelssohn and cholera

Precise events or behaviors newly adopted at the time of great epidemics are also at the origin of musical works.

To celebrate in a glorious way the end of the cholera epidemic of 1831 in Berlin, Fanny Mendelssohn composed the religious cantata Cholera Musik.

This 35-minute work is one of the most ambitious pieces by this prolific 19th-century composer.

The creation took place during a private concert organized at his home, despite the large number of musicians necessary for the performance (an eight-part choir, an orchestra and four solo singers).

Cantata Cholera Musik by Fanny Mendelssohn, performed by the ensemble Cappella Clausura.

The disinfection of surfaces inspired a picturesque composition by American pianist Jeff DePaoli, in March 2020. In his short piece

Coronavirus Study for Piano and Disinfecting Wipe

, the music is born from the movements of the pianist who disinfects his instrument.

Like Satie's humorous hints, DePaoli incorporated phrases like “Col Purello” and “Cloroxissimo” (referring to the Purell brand and chlorine) into his score.

In the last two bars, he wrote "senza infezione" and "secco" to indicate that at the end of the piece, the piano is well disinfected.

The work therefore not only provokes laughter from the audience, but also from the performer!

Coronavirus study for piano and disinfectant wipe by Jeff DePaoli, performed by the composer.

Other composers have set the feelings and emotions induced by the great epidemics to music.

In his neoclassical music album

Hibernation

released in November 2020, Quebec pianist Marc-André Pépin refers to the reactions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular in the face of the first confinement and deconfinement.

The piece

Fausse joie also

evokes the joy of deconfinement mixed with the frustration of certain constraints that persist.

False joy by Marc-André Pépin interpreted by the composer.

Opera: between reality and fiction

Some operas use the theme of great epidemics as the main subject and others as a backdrop.

The opera

Covid van tutte

, created in August 2020 by the Finnish National Opera, provides a humorous account of the daily life of Finns punctuated by press conferences by the government and experts on the subject of Covid-19.

This successful opera is an exception in the modern repertoire, as its libretto was entirely written in 2020, but its music comes almost exclusively from Mozart's opera-bouffe Cosi fan tutte, created 230 years earlier. .

Extract from the opera Covid van tutte produced by the Finnish National Opera.

Two operas retrospectively approach two other great epidemics with a hint of the supernatural. In

Lanzelot

(1969) by the German Paul Dessau, cholera is eliminated thanks to a dragon whose fire makes it possible to boil water, but who, in exchange, asks each year to sacrifice a young girl. As for the opera

Angels in America

, created in 2004 by the Hungarian Peter Eötvös, it notably features angels and New York homosexuals from the 1980s suffering from AIDS.

The theme of tuberculosis is implicitly evoked throughout two of the most popular operas: 

La traviata

by Verdi and

La bohème

by Puccini. Inscribed in a current of realism tinged with romanticism, these two operas and the literary works on which they are based (

La dame aux camélias

, 1848, and

Scène de la vie de bohème

, 1851) exclude any notion of the supernatural and each include a pretty female character who succumbs to this disease.

Before the discovery of Koch's bacillus in 1882, most people believed that tuberculosis was hereditary rather than contagious.

Thus, neither the booklet of

La traviata

nor that of

La bohème

reports measures of disinfection, distancing or isolation of the patient.

Our "Classical music" file

Inspirational symptoms

Severe symptoms in some musicians infected during an epidemic or pandemic led to the outbreak or termination of a career in composition.

Destined to become a painter like his father, Francesco Landini instead embraced a career in music, especially as a composer, following a blindness caused by smallpox. In contrast, Donizetti's invasive syphilis symptoms prevented him from accepting lucrative contracts in the composition of operas and are the cause of his death.

Some symptoms have influenced certain compositions.

Symptoms of tinnitus caused by syphilis were, for example, set to music by Smetana before he succumbed to this disease eight years later.

Towards the end of his autobiographical

String Quartet n

0

1

, also known

in my life

, the composer asks the first violin playing a shrill Mi for about six seconds.

In a letter to a friend, Smetana reveals that this disturbing note reminds her of a fateful ringing that her ear heard two years ago, announcing her deafness.

String Quartet No. 1 by Bedřich Smetana performed by the Stamic Quartet.

Schumann's last piano composition is said to be inspired by a sound hallucination triggered by his syphilis.

Two weeks before his internment in a psychiatric hospital, angels would have sung to the composer a music that he would have immediately transcribed.

This is the theme of the

Variations in E flat major

.

This work is known today under the title

Variations fantômes

.

Theme and variations in E flat major, WoO 24 by Robert Schumann performed by Igor Levit.

In short, this panorama of music composed in times of epidemic or pandemic shows to what extent the context of creation can influence a musical composition.

Science

100,000 deaths from Covid-19: Why do some figures mark us (much) more than others?

Planet

Coronavirus: Zoonoses are not (necessarily) a consequence of deforestation

This analysis was written by Louis Brouillette, lecturer in musicology at the music school of the University of Sherbrooke (Canada).


The original article was published on The Conversation website.

Declaration of interests

Louis Brouillette does not work, does not advise, does not own shares, does not receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has not declared any affiliation other than his research organization.

  • Cholera

  • Covid 19

  • Plague

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  • Classical music

  • Coronavirus

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