5 romantic

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The Romantic Period

1820-1900

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Overall Characteristics of the Romantic

Era

Emphasis on individuality of style and self-expression Created music that reflects personality

Can tell composer within first few bars

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Overall Characteristics of the Romantic

Era

Emphasis on emotion over rationality Full range:

Rapture

Melancholy

Flamboyance

Mystery

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Fascination with:

romantic love

the unknown - mysticism

good and evil

beauty and nature

death

freedom, the righteous cause

Overall Characteristics of the

Romantic Era

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Other Features of the Romantic Era

Orchestra becomes larger = 100 musicians More brass, woodwinds, percussion

New instrumental effects

Greater demands on virtuosity

Aided by the industrial revolution

New and improved designs, intonation,materials

The piano becomes the favorite soloinstrument

Greatly improved design

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Other Features of the Romantic Era

Wider dynamic range pppp – ffff

Crescendos and decrescendos

Pitch range expanded

piccolo > contrabassoon

Tempo fluctuations - Accelerandos andritards, rubato

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Form in the Romantic Era

A wide range

Miniature – Chopin prelude

Monumental – Wagnerian opera

Continue to write symphonies, string

quartets, operas

Become longer works than classical

Music is very diverse:

Traditional: Mendelssohn, Brahms

More revolutionary: Berlioz, Wagner

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Composers and Society

Concept of the “free artist”

Music written with no performanceprospects

Composers forced to support themselves: Teacher - Chopin

Performer - Liszt and Paganini

Conductors – Mendelssohn and Mahler Critics – Schumann and Berlioz

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Composers and Society

Middle class grows larger More prosperous

Demand for:

musical performances

music to play

music education

fascination with virtuosity

conservatories founded

piano in every home

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The Art Song

A fusion of poetry and music

Written for the home Many of the best composers of Art Songs were

German or Austrian

Lied – song with German text (lieder)

Subjects Love – lost or found

Nature

Legends

The supernatural

Forms: Strophic - same music for each new stanza

Through composed – new music for each stanza

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Franz Schubert

1797-1828

Wrote symphonies, piano sonatas, string

quartets

Over 600 art songs

The Erlkonig

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The Erlkonig(poem by Goethe)

• Wer reitet so spät durch

Nacht und Wind?

Es ist der Vater mit

seinem Kind; Er hat den Knaben wohl

in dem Arm,

Er faßt ihn sicher, er hält

ihn warm.

Narrator: Who rides, so

late, through night and

wind?

It is the father with hischild.

He has the boy well in

his arm

He holds him safely, hekeeps him warm

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The Erlkonig

• "Mein Sohn, was birgst

du so bang dein

Gesicht?" —

"Siehst, Vater, du denErlkönig nicht?

Den Erlenkönig mit Kron

und Schweif?" —

"Mein Sohn, es ist einNebelstreif.

Father: "My son, why do

you hide your face so

anxiously?”

Son: "Father, do you notsee the Erl king?

The Erl king with crown

and tail?”

Father: "My son, it's a

wisp of fog."

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The Erlkonig

• "Du liebes Kind, komm,

geh mit mir!

Gar schöne Spiele spiel'

ich mit dir; Manch' bunte Blumen

sind an dem Strand,

Meine Mutter hat

manch güldenGewand." —

Erlking: "You lovely child,

come, go with me!

Many a beautiful game

I'll play with you;Many colourful flowers

are on the shore,

My mother has many

golden robes."

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The Erlkonig

• "Mein Vater, mein Vater,

und hörest du nicht,

Was Erlenkönig mir leise

verspricht?" —

"Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig,

mein Kind;

In dürren Blättern

säuselt der Wind." —

Son: "My father, my

father, and don't you

hear

What Erl king is quietlypromising me?”

Father: "Be calm, stay

calm, my child;

The wind is rustling

through withered

leaves."

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Robert Schumann

1810-1856

Embodied romanticism

Works have descriptive titles or programs

Also a music critic

Carnaval 21 pieces with descriptive titles

evoke a masked ball

Chiarina

Estrella

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Frederic Chopin

1810-1849

wrote almost exclusively for the piano

cornerstone of concert piano repertoire

Preludes

Nocturnes

Nocturne in Eb

Mazurkas

Waltzes Etudes - short compositions designed to

provide practice in a particular skill

Revolutionary Etude

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Franz Liszt

1811-1886

“superstar” virtuoso performer

influenced by Paganini (violin virtuoso)

wrote many virtuoso piano compositions

created the symphonic (tone) poem

one-movement work based on literary or pictorial ideas

extroverted style in both personality and

compositions Transcendental Etude

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Felix Mendelssohn

1809-1847

more conventional than other romantics

married with four children

music is elegant, avoids emotional extremes

only a few works are in current concert

repertoire, but very popular

Violin Concerto in Em

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Program Music

Many Romantic composers wrote musicassociated with a story, poem, idea, or scene

Specified by a title and/or comments

The concept of “union of the arts”

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Program Music

Music may express the emotions of characters

Evoke the sounds of nature

Evoke the supernatural

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Orchestral Forms

Program symphony

Concert Overture

Symphonic Poem

Incidental Music

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Orchestral Forms

Program symphony – a composition inseveral movements with a program

Usually each movement has a descriptive title

or comments Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

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Hector Berlioz

1803-1869

Early French Romantic composer

turned to music criticism later in career

Symphonie Fantastique (program

symphony) New orchestration ideas

Vivid depiction of the supernatural

Final movement is a witches’ sabbath

Unified by the use of the idee fixe

Used in every movement

Changes character each time

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Orchestral Forms

Concert Overture – one movement,usually in sonata form

Modeled after the opera overture, but is an

independent work

Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture, Romeo and Juliet

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Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1840-1893

Most famous Russian composer

Symphonies and ballets are widely performed

today Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake

Romeo and Juliet (concert overture)

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Orchestral Forms

Symphonic Poem (Tone Poem) One movement, but may be many different

forms, e.g. rondo, theme and variations

Developed by Liszt, became most importantform after 1860

Important form for nationalistic music

Smetana - The Moldau

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Bedrich Smetana

1824-1884

Founder of Czech national music

Folk music and legends of Bohemia

Became deaf at 50 yrs old

Ma Vlast (My Country) cycle of six

symphonic poems

The Moldau

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Nationalism

Music created with a deliberate nationalidentity

Use of folk songs and indigenous music

National legends, dances, history

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Nationalism

Strongest impact felt in countries where themusical traditions of Italy, France,Germany, and Austria had dominated

Important music and composers:

Poland - Chopin Russia – Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov

Norway – Grieg

Spain – Albeniz USA – Gottschalk

Czechoslovakia (Bohemia) – Smetana, Dvorak

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Modest Mussorgsky

(1839-1881)

• One of the “Russian 5”

– Russian national school of the late-19th century

• Pictures At An Exhibition – The Great Gate of Kiev

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Orchestral Forms

Incidental Music - music to be performed before or during a play (similar to film

scores today)

Interludes, marches, dances Mendelssohn – Midsummer Night’s Dream,

Wedding March

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Johannes Brahms

1833-1897

More of a traditionalist than other romantics

Didn’t use “exotic” orchestration techniques

Breathed new life into classical forms

Rooted in the music of Haydn, Mozart,

Beethoven

Created music in all of the traditional forms

except opera

Ein Deutsches Requiem

O

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Opera

had been around for a couple of hundred years by

the time of the 19th

century equivalent to the movies/TV shows of today

visual/aural entertainment

elaborate staging, props

vocal ranges:

tenor/soprano = hero/heroine, bass/alto = villains

mid to late 19th century = golden age

great public demand for opera Italy = main entertainment form

led by Wagner (Germany) and Verdi (Italy)

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Italian Opera

Dominated the opera world until the middleof the 19th century.

Very melodic - bel canto style

Coherence of storyline is secondary, thescripts often are unrealistic

Soloists are focus, orchestra is

accompaniment

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Italian Opera Early Romantic

Rossini

Bellini

Donizetti

Late Romantic

Verdi

Puccini

late 19th century – rise of verismo (realism)

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Giuseppe Verdi

1813-1901

all-time most popular opera composer

motivated by nationalistic sentiment

works are serious and highly dramatic with

unhappy endings

Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Aida

Rigoletto – La Donna É Mobile

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Exoticism

Music in the style of another land

Carmen (Spain) – Bizet

Madame Butterfly (Japan) – Puccini

Scheherazade (Persia) – Rimsky-Korsakov

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Giacomo Puccini

1858-1924

Some of the best known operas and arias ever

Inspired by Verdi’s Aida to be an opera composer

Verismo

La Boheme, Tosca

Exoticism

Madama Butterfly

Turandot – Nessun Dorma

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German Opera

Tends to be heavier than Italian

Many of the stories are about Norse and

Northern European mythology rather than

Greek gods Philosophical overtones, serious as opposed

to frivolous

no German comic operas! The orchestra is equally important as

vocalists

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Richard Wagner

1813-1883

Conductor, theorist, very influential composer

Many works based on German and Nordic legends

and myths

Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde Most famous = Der Ring des Nibelungen

26 years to complete, 15 hours long

Wrote his own libretto

use of the leitmotif (leading motive)

short musical idea associated with a person, object or a

thought

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Richard Wagner

Die Walküre – Love Scene (Act 1)

Die Walküre – Ride of The Valkyries

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The 20th Century

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