chapter 21: romantic music: program music, ballet, and musical nationalism
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Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism. Program Music. Program Music : Instrumental music that seeks to re-create in sound the events and emotions portrayed in some extramusical source – a story, legend, play, novel, historical event - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Chapter 21:Romantic Music: Program Music,
Ballet,and Musical Nationalism
Program Music• Program Music: Instrumental music that seeks
to re-create in sound the events and emotions portrayed in some extramusical source – a story, legend, play, novel, historical event– Tells a story through music– Specific musical gestures evoke particular
feelings and associations– Connected to the strong literary spirit of the
19th-centuryOn the other end of the spectrum
• Absolute Music: Instrumental music free of a text or any pre-existing program– Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Program Symphony: A symphony with three, four, or five movements, which together depict a succession of specific events or scenes drawn from an extramusical story or event– Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique
• Dramatic Overture: A one-movement work that portrays through music a sequence of dramatic events– Rossini’s overture to the opera William Tell (1829)– Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture
• Tone Poem (Symphonic Poem): A one-movement work for orchestra that gives musical expression to the emotions or events associated with a story, play, political event, or personal experience– Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) and the Program Symphony
• Born near Grenoble, France• Composer and music critic• One of the most original figures in music• Skilled in orchestration– Added new instruments to the orchestra– Compositions required an enormous number
of musicians
• Influenced by literature, especially Shakespeare
• Life epitomized the artist as Romantic hero
Symphonie fantastique (1830)
• The first complete program symphony• Berlioz wrote the program based on his love affair with
Harriet Smithson• Five movements:
I. Reveries, Passion II. A Ball III. Scene in the Country IV. March to the Scaffold V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath
• Unifying theme: idée fixe (fixed idea)–Represents “the beloved”–Appears in each movement–Altered to reflect his changing mood about “the beloved”
IV. March to the Scaffold• Re-creates the sounds of the French military
bands he heard as a child• Rousing march tempo• Exceptionally heavy low brass• Use of the ophicleide (tuba)• Crescendo and snare drum announce the fall
of the guillotine• Graphically orchestrated so we hear the
severed head of the lover fall and thud on the ground
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893):Tone Poem and Ballet Music
• Tone Poem: One-movement work for orchestra that captures the emotions and events of a story through music
• Most prolific writer of late 19th-century program music
• Professor at the Moscow Conservatory• Supported by patroness Madame Nadezdha von
Meck and Tsar Alexander III• Compositions include every genre of Romantic Era
music• Primarily known today for his program music and
ballets
Tone Poem Romeo and Juliet (1869; rev. 1880
• Like Berlioz, found extramusical inspiration from Shakespeare– Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet
• Free, not literal, representation of the principal dramatic events
Tchaikovsky’s Ballets• Ballet: Dramatic dance in which characters
and steps tell a story• Tchaikovsky's talents uniquely suited to ballet– “Short segment” style; could create one
striking melody/mood after another– Swan Lake (1876), Sleeping Beauty (1889),
The Nutcracker (1892)
• “Dance of the Reed Pipes” from The Nutcracker– Ternary form– Evokes the sound of shepherds playing pan-
pipes– Clear meter
Music and Nationalism
• Arose from the political upheaval of the 19th-century– Desire to maintain ethnic identity and support
national pride• National anthems, native dances, protest songs,
victory symphonies• Use of indigenous musical elements
– Folksongs, Scales, Dance rhythms, Local instrumental sounds, Programs based on national subjects
• Evocative titles– Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsodies– Rimsky-Korsakov – Russian Easter Overture– Dvořák – Slavonic Dances– Smetana – Má vlast (My Fatherland)– Sibelius – Finlandia
Russian Nationalism: Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881)
• Russia was one of the first countries to develop its own national style of art music, distinct and separate from the traditions of German orchestral music and Italian opera
• The Russian Five (“The Mighty Handful”): Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Musorgsky
• Musorgsky trained as a military officer, composing in his free time
• “Everything Russian is becoming dear to me.”• Night on Bald Mountain (tone poem, 1867), Pictures at
an Exhibition (set of character pieces, 1874), Boris Godunov (opera, 1874)
Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)• Originally for piano; orchestrated by Maurice
Ravel in 1922• Each movement depicts a different drawing or
painting by Victor Hartmann (1833-1873)• Promenade: Opens the work and serves as
transition between movements– Solo contrasts with full brass then full orchestra– Irregular meter and use of pentatonic scale
• Polish Ox-cart: Creates a sense of time and movement– Two-note ostinato– Crescendo and decrescendo as the cart
approaches and slowly disappears– Begins and ends with the lowest sounds;
orchestrated with tuba and double basses• The Great Gate of Kiev: Impression of a parade
passing through a great arch– Rondo form: ABABCA– Use of different musical styles in each section