Great Issues in Fine Arts – HSP 172
Maureen Balke
10:10am – 11:30am Monday & Wednesday

"From the Ballroom to Hell." We will be looking at Vienna around 1800-1815, taking into consideration the background of politics, war, and uncertainty of the era, and looking at what young people did to "escape." This would include various diversions such as popular and classical music, theatre, spectacles such as Paganini which became "the rage," and most fun, the development of elaborate rituals surrounding dance and costume.
Below is a copy of the program that was handed out at the performance:
Decemvovenarianize: v. to behave or act as a person of the nineteenth century (a decemnovenarian).
Tonight's performance by this Great Issues class is an attempt to recreate an evening in Vienna, around 1815, complete with costume, dance, and music: we are attempting to decemnovenarianze!
What, exactly, would this mean? Is the class merely (literally) "having a ball?"
Napoleonic war, rapid political/social change, censorship, secret police, uncertainty: this was the milieu in which the young people of Vienna, including the composer Franz Schubert, gre up. Small wonder that, in such an uneasy world, the young sought "escape" or diversion from unpleasant reality. Some avenues of escape included music (from public concerts to the more intimate salon or Schubertiade), dance (including that new and scandalous waltz), the theatre, secret "silly societies" and elaborate games, rituals, etc., in which they could "let off steam" within a socially safe atmosphere.
This Great Issues class has studied the political, social, and musical context in which these particular reactions to the times developed. We have discussed the Congress of Vienna, read the diary of a Napoleonic foot soldier, learned what "Biedermeier" means, and studied censorship and secret police, trying to gain some understanding of what it might have been like for a young person to grow up under these conditions. We have studied some of the many forms of "escape" which became wildly popular at this time, including music and dance. We have also studied poetry, by contemporaries of Schubert, which turned toward looking at Death as another form of escape, or release from the cares of the world.
In short, we have studied both giddy abandon, and sobering reality. It is in this context that we present tonight's program.
For tonight's performance the class has reconstructed authentic dance steps and ballroom games, learned glove and handkerchief flirtations, as well as what was considered proper and improper attire and behavior, all from sources of that era. The ladies in the class have constructed their own costumes and designed their hair based on models from that era as well. The class has created light-hearted skits illustrating proper behavior and dress, as well as short "historical context" skits which will be presented during Intermission. We hope you will enjoy decemnovenarianizing with us!