Exploration Document
Cultural Artifacts
My first work is a composition called “Jupiter” by the English composer Gustav Holst. This piece is part of The Planets, Op. 32, a seven-movement orchestral suite composed between 1914 and 1916. The first public appearance of this piece was performed in London by the London Symphony Orchestra, while the version I am analyzing is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. My second work is the mural Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way by the German American artist Emanuel Leutze. It was painted in the U.S. Capitol in 1862, right at the start of the American Civil War.
Common Theme
The common theme shared by both of these works is patriotism. Although it isn’t clear whether Holst intended “Jupiter” to hold a patriotic theme, the middle of the arrangement sports an anthem-like melody reminiscent of a folk song. According to John Kronlokken (2014), “Holst set this melody to Cecil Spring Rice’s text ‘I Vow To Thee My Country’ in 1921, and it instantly became a symbol of English identity.” The mural Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way depicts a group of pioneers and frontiersmen heading west and captures the idea of manifest destiny and the expansion of the American nation. The piece also depicts a man standing atop a stone peak with an American flag in his hand.
Personal Experience
The theme of patriotism is all around me, as I live in a southern part of the United States with a strong sense of it. The American flag is flown everywhere, including outside the Chick-Fil-A down the street, the national anthem is sung at every baseball game, and the Fourth of July celebrations in my hometown are a huge event. My father also served in the Navy for 16 years, working and fighting to keep our shores secure and our freedom intact. He instilled in me a sense of pride in my country and what it stands for, so the theme of patriotism is quite meaningful to me personally.
Profession
Patriotism is a broad vision and context that gives rise to respect and goodwill for one’s neighbors and promotes a keen sense of belonging. This in turn motivates selfless courage in professions that demand great sacrifice, such as those of police officers and soldiers working to serve and protect the nation internally and abroad. In the professional world, it is also extremely beneficial to understand the humanities in general, specifically in roles that make contact with the public on a daily basis. Having an intimate knowledge of the human experience and how it connects to specific themes like patriotism will help these workers understand the people they interact with and make decisions that benefit the people they serve. For instance, understanding how a positive group identity can be created through patriotism might lead a director of an affordable housing community to create programs that foster a positive group identity.
Humanities Resources
My first source is an analysis of “Jupiter” by John Kronlokken, a music professor at St. Olaf College. The source is titled, “Holst as an Everyday Englishman: ‘Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity’ from The Planets.” Complementing that source is one titled, “Program Notes by Jim Yancy: ‘The Planets’ by Gustav Holst.” Yancy is from the East Texas Symphony Orchestra. My third source is called “Emanuel Leutze’s notes describing Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (c.1862)” and in this source, Professor David P. Shuyler arranges and presents the artist’s own notes on his painting. My fourth source is from a researcher at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is simply titled, “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (mural study, U.S. Capitol)” and my final source, which bears the same name as Leutze’s mural, is an official entry about the mural at the Architect of the Capitol website. My “Jupiter” sources are similar because they both come from music professionals, but they offer different perspectives: one is a professor of music and the other is a member of a symphony orchestra. My third source is unique in that it presents notes from the artist himself rather than offering a second-hand analysis, such as the one from the museum researcher in my fourth source. The process of selecting these resources involved combing through (and sometimes discarding) program notes for “Jupiter” from various sources. Finding a good source for Westward was difficult at first because my initial Google searches only led me to generic museum pages with basic details about the painting, but after trying a few different keywords, I encountered sources with more depth.
Historical Context
The historical context of “Jupiter” is inseparable from World War I. According to John Kronlokken (2014), “Gustav Holst penned The Planets from 1914-1916, but it was not publicly premiered until 1919, right as Europe found itself rebuilding from the devastation of World War I.” Emanuel Leutze’s mural, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, was painted in the U.S. Capitol in 1862, “during of one of the most tumultuous times in American history; the onset of the Civil War” (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012).
Similarities and Differences
Despite one work being English and the other American, both “Jupiter” and Westward manifest the theme of patriotism in similar ways. Both works are tinged by war, the music composed during WWI and the mural finished at the start of the American Civil War. According to Jim Yancy (2016), Holst’s piece, after being “adapted to fit a poem by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, ‘I vow to thee, my country,’ … became associated with the strong patriotic feelings resulting from the human cost of World War I.” Leutze’s mural was similarly influenced by war; he included a young black male who had not been present in his original study (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012). According to a researcher from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2012), “In the context of the Civil War, the artist’s freedman was an ideologically charged image … For Leutze, the figure of emancipation resonated with a distinctive meaning in the nation’s capital.” These works also have their differences: while Holst’s work “embodied everything that it meant to be an Englishman in post WWI era” (Kronlokken, 2014), Leutze’s mural wears the theme with a more intrepid spirit. Westward’ s depiction of pioneers heading west to settle the land (along with the previously mentioned inclusion of a freed slave) creates a patriotic idea of pressing forward, growing, and conquering obstacles. “Jupiter,” on the other hand, captures the spirit of coming together as Englishmen and doing one’s best to resume normal life after the destruction of WWI, with sections of Holst’s composition likely intended to represent everyday life in the town of Thaxted (Kronlokken, 2014).
Medium
To create meaning in “Jupiter,” Holst makes the unusual choice of adding a folk melody into the mostly traditional composition. He fuses “the intellectual styles of his contemporaries and
nationalistic folk sensibilities together to embody everything that it meant to be a modern Englishman in the post WWI era” (Kronlokken, 2014). Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way comes to us in the form of a mural, and a large one at that. “The work … is of monumental proportions measuring approximately twenty feet in height and thirty feet in length” (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012). According to the Architect of the Capitol website (n.d.), “Leutze painted the mural using a German technique called stereochromy, in which pigments are applied to plaster and sealed with waterglass, a silica solution that preserves and enhances the colors.” Stereochromy as a technique of painting gives the mural extra brilliance and permanence. The mural’s great size, along with its prominent location in the west stairwell of the House of Representatives (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2012), makes the work—and its meaning—impossible to ignore.
Thesis Statement
Despite utilizing completely different mediums and having creators separated by decades of time and leagues of ocean, both “Jupiter” and Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way evoke the theme of patriotism through their war-time influences and the promotion of national identity.
Audience
The ideal audience for my presentation would include anyone who has (or is interested in developing) a sense of belonging to his or her nation. This presentation may also appeal to people interested in the historical events surrounding my works. These history buffs could benefit from learning how war-time events informed the works’ presentation of patriotism, while anyone else could develop a stronger sense of (or at least an appreciation of) national or group identity by studying how patriotism is evident in these works and others throughout the humanities.
Message
To tailor my presentation for my audience and make it more understandable and relatable, I will try to connect the patriotism evident in my works to positive examples of recent patriotic activity, such as the recent coming together of multiple fire departments to battle wildfires sweeping North Carolina and Tennessee. I will be cautious and respectful when discussing delicate topics such as how the manifest destiny concept evident in Leutze’s mural negatively impacted Native Americans in the West. These edits should be made to make my presentation relatable and accessible to anyone in my audience regardless of their views or heritage.
References
Architect of the Capitol. (n.d.). Westward the course of empire takes its way. Retrieved from
https://www.aoc.gov/art/other-paintings-and-murals/westward-course-empire-takes-its-w
ay
Kronlokken, J. (2014). Holst as an everyday Englishman: “Jupiter, the bringer of jollity” from
The planets. Retrieved from http://pages.stolaf.edu/music242-spring2014/portfolio/holst-as-an-everyday-englishman-j upiter-the-bringer-of-jollity-from-the-planets/
Schuyler, D. P. (2016). Emanuel Leutze’s notes describing Westward the course of empire takes its way (c. 1862). Retrieved from http://www.fandm.edu/david-schuyler/ams280/description-of-westward-the-course-of-em pire
Smithsonian American Art Museum. (2012). Westward the course of empire takes its way (mural study, U.S. Capitol). Retrieved from http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/researchNotes/1931.6.1.pdf
Yancy, J. (2016). Program notes by Jim Yancy: “The planets” by Gustav Holst. Retrieved from http://www.etso.org/ProgramNotesbyJimYancyThePlanets.php