ROMANTICISM
1820-1900
Time Line
Monroe Doctrine
1823
Hugo: Hunchback of Notre Dame
1831
Dickens: Oliver Twist
1837
Dumas: The Three Musketeers
1844
Poe: The Raven
1845
Darwin: Origin of Species
1859
American Civil War
1861-1865
Twain: Huckleberry Finn
1884
Bell invents telephone
1876
The Spirit of the Age
A sense of shared vision
Early support of the French
Revolution
Rise of the individual
Affinity with nature
Radical poetics/politics
An obsession with violent change
The Enlightenment
Society is good
Curbing violent
impulses!
Early
19c
Romanticism
Civilization
corrupts
Institutions
have rippling
effects
1. Emotions!
Passion!
Irrationality!
Lady Macbeth - Henry Fuseli, 1794
2. The “Rugged”
Individual
Wandering Above
the Sea of Fog
Caspar David
Friedrich,
1818
The Dreamer
Gaspar David Friedrich, 1835
Solitary Tree
Caspar David Friedrich, 1823
3. The Power
and Fury of
Nature
An Avalanche in the Alps
Philip James de Loutherbourg, 1803
Sunset After a Storm On the Coast of
Sicily – Andreas Achenbach, 1853
The Deluge
Francis Danby, 1840
Shipwreck – Joseph Turner, 1805
The Eruption of Vesuvius - John Martin
Lion with the Rabbit - Eugène Delacroix
4. Science Can
Be Dangerous
Isaac Newton – William Blake, 1795
5. The “New”
Technology Is
Dehumanizing
Rain, Steam, and Speed
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1844
6. Romanticizing
Country Life
Flatford Mill – John Constable, 1817
The Corn Field
John Constable,
1826
A Mill at Gillingham in Dorset
John Constable, 1826
7. The Gothic:
“Romanticizing”
the Middle Ages
Coming From
Evening Church
Samuel Palmer, 1830
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows
John Constable, 1831
Hadleigh Castle - John Constable, 1829
Eldena Ruin
Gaspar David Friedrich, 1825
8. The Exotic,
the Occult, and
the Macabre
Abbey in an Oak Forest
Caspar David Friedrich, 1809-1810
The Great Red
Dragon and the
Woman Clothed
with the Sun
William Blake,
1808-1810
Stonehenge - John Constable, 1836
Nightmare (The Incubus)
Henry Fuseli, 1781
Manfred and the Witch of the Alps
John Martin - 1837
Witches
Sabbath
Francisco Goya,
1798
Saturn Devours
His Son
Francisco Goya,
1819-1823
9. Nationalism
Greece on the
Ruins of
Missolonghi
Eugène
Delacroix, 1827
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix, 1830
Detail of the
Musket Bearer
Delacoix, himself
The Burning of Parliament (1)
Joseph Turner, 1834-1835
His Majesty’s Ship, “Victory”
(Trafalgar) - John Constable, 1806
The Fighting Temeraire
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1838
An Officer of the
Imperial Horse
Guard
Théodore Géricault,
1814
The Shooting of May 3, 1808
Francisco Goya, 1815
Portrait of Frederick Chopin
Eugène Delacroix, 1838
10. Interest in
Exotic Foreign
Lands
Grand Canal, Venice
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1835
Massacre of Chios - Eugène Delacroix, 1824
The Fanatics of Tangiers
Eugène Delacroix, 1837-1838
The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage
Eugène Delacroix, 1845
Women of Algiers in Their Apartment
Eugène Delacroix, 1834
The Bullfight - Francisco Goya
Charge of the Mamelukes, May 2nd, 1808
Francisco Goya, 1814
11. Return to
Christian
Mysteries
God as the Architect - William Blake, 1794
Elohim Creating Abraham
William Blake, 1805
Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve
William Blake, 1825
Faust and Mephistopheles
Eugène Delacroix, 1826-1827
The Seventh Plague of Egypt
John Martin, 1823
The Cathedral
Gaspar David
Friedrich,
1818
Romantic Literature
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott
Les Miserables Victor Hugo
The Three Musketeers Alexander Dumas
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Dracula Bramm Stoker
Grimm’s Fairy Tales Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Romantic Poets
Percy Byssche Shelley
Lord Byron
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth
John Keats
William Blake
Music of the
Romantic Era
Aspects of Romanticism in music & art
The artist apart from society
The artist as social critic/revolutionary
The artist as genius/cultural hero
BEETHOVEN: “Why bow to social status?”
Many important
Romantic Composers
Franz Schubert
Bedrich Smetana
Robert Schumann
Antonin Dvořák
Clara Schumann
Peter Tchaikovsky
Frederic Chopin
Johannes Brahms
Franz Liszt
Giuseppe Verdi
Felix Mendelssohn
Giacomo Puccini
Hector Berlioz
Richard Wagner
Chapter 1
The misunderstood genius
“To be a genius is to be misunderstood” – Emerson
The artist out in front, ahead of the audience, the
advanced guard (a military metaphor) –
the avant garde
“Music could quickly come to such a point, that everyone who is
not precisely familiar with the rules and difficulties of the art
would find absolutely no enjoyment in it.”
A critic reviewing the premiere of Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony
Beethoven
the transition composer
Early style: Classical,
the language of
Mozart and Haydn
Later style: Romantic
intense, passionate, virtuosic
Not a servant, but an
independent creator
Franz Schubert
1797-1828
Austrian
Only 31 years old at
his death
Wrote 16 operas, only
3 performed in his
lifetime; none
performed today
Between 500-600 songs
Died of syphilis
Schubert, Erlkonig 1815 (Goethe)
(Narrator)
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 the night and
wind?
It is a father with his child;
he has the boy close in his arm,
he holds him tight, he keeps him warm.
(Father)
"Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein
Gesicht?"
(Father)
"My son, why do you hide your face in
fear?"
(Son)
"Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlkönig mit Kron' und Schweif?"
(Father)
"Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif."
(Erlking)
"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' gülden
Gewand."
(Son)
"Father, don't you see the Erlking?
The Erlking with his crown and train?"
(Father)
"My son, it is a streak of mist."
(Erlking)
"You dear child, come with me!
I'll play very lovely games with you.
There are lots of colourful flowers by
the shore;
my mother has some golden robes."
(Son)
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, und
hörest du nicht,
Was Erlkönig mir leise
verspricht?"
(Father)
"Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein
Kind;
In dürren Blättern säuselt der
Wind."
(Erlking)
"Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir
geh'n?
Meine Töchter sollen dich
warten schön;
Meine Töchter führen den
nächtlichen Reih'n
Und wiegen und tanzen und
singen dich ein."
(Son)
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, und
siehst du nicht dort,
Erlkönigs Töchter am düsteren
Ort?"
(Son)
"My father, my father, don't you
hear
the Erking whispering promises
to me?"
(Father)
"Be still, stay calm, my child;
it's the wind rustling in the dry
leaves."
(Erlking)
"My find lad, do you want to
come with me?
My daughters will take care of
you;
my daughters lead the nightly
dance,
and they'll rock and dance and
sing you to sleep."
(Son)
"My father, my father, don't you
see
the Erlking's daughters over
there in the shadows?"
(Father)
"Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich
seh' es genau,
Es scheinen die alten Weiden
so grau."
(Erlking)
"Ich liebe dich, mich reizt
deine schöne Gestalt,
Und bist du nicht willig, so
brauch ich Gewalt."
(Son)
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt
fasst er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids
getan!"
(Narrator)
Dem Vater grauset's, er reitet
geschwind,
Er hält in Armen das ächzende
Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Müh und
Noth;
(Father)
"My son, my son, I see it clearly,
it's the gray sheen of the old
willows."
(Erlking)
"I love you, your beautiful form
delights me!
And if you're not willing, then I'll
use force."
(Son)
"My father, my father, now he's
grasping me!
The Erlking has hurt me!"
(Narrator)
The father shudders, he rides
swiftly,
he holds the moaning child in his
arms;
with effort and urgency he reaches
the courtyard:
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.
Emotions?
in his arms the child was dead.
Balance, repose, clarity?
NO! FEAR &
SUPERNATURAL
EVIL
Is death tempting & attractive?
Another development
In the 1830s, composer/conductor Felix
Mendelssohn conducts a performance of Bach’s
Mass in B minor
– so what?
Music of the past begins to take a place
on concert programs – it eventually
dominates concert programming!
By 1870, seventy-five per cent of works in the
Gewandhaus (a famous German orchestra)
repertory were by dead composers.
Hector Berlioz
1803-1869
French
Symphonie
Fantastique
Program music
Themes of love,
madness, drugs,
death, demons
Frédéric Chopin
1810-1849
Polish, lived in France
Famous pianist
Only gave 14 public
performances in his life
Minute Waltz
Polonaises
Nocturnes
Richard Wagner
1813-1883
German
Opera innovator
The Ring – over 18
hours of music
Giuseppe Verdi
1813-1901
Italian
Composer as
national/popular figure
Rigoletto
(“La Donna Mobilé”)
“Folk” Nationalism
Bedrich Smetana
1824-1884
Czech composer
The Moldau 1816
Gioacchino Rossini
1792-1868
Italian
The Barber of Seville 1816
William Tell 1829
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1840-1893
Russian
1812 Overture
Swan Lake 1875
Sleeping Beauty 1888
The Nutcracker 1891