Something Old, Something New: The Rustic Wedding Symphony of Karl Goldmark

Abstract

While Karl Goldmark was an internationally-known composer and respected teacher in the late nineteenth century, his music is not widely known among performers and audiences today. This document attempts to address this lack by introducing the reader to the unique and interesting features of Goldmark's style through an investigation of his first large-scale symphonic work, Symphonie Ländliche Hochzeit (Rustic Wedding Symphony), Op. 26. In support of the view that Goldmark's style represents a synthesis of the antithetical approaches of Brahms and Wagner, it examines the elements of Rustic Wedding that stem from the symphonic tradition ("something old") as well as those unique to him ("something new").