19th Century and Romanticism
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), “The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” (1818)
Cult of Individual Feeling
Romanticism and Revolution
1. American Revolution (1776)
2. French Revolution (1789)
Political Composers
1. L. van Beethoven
2. F. Liszt
3. R. Wagner
4. G. Verdi
Social Revolution
Industrial Revolution
Romanticism and the Macabre
Literature
·
Grimms’ fairy tales
·
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
·
Poetry and stories of Edgar Allan Poe
“The Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)
Magic, the Macabre and Music
•
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Der Freischütz (“The Magic Bullet”, 1821)
•
Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813-1901), Macbeth (1847)
•
Richard Wagner (1813-83), The Flying Dutchman (1843)
•
Hector Berlioz (1803-69), Symphonie fantastique (1830)
Concert life in the 19th Century
The Virtuoso Violinist Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840)
Franz Liszt (1811-86)
Style Features of Romantic Music
Rhythm:
Example: Frideric Chopin (1810-49), Mazurka in B-flat minor, Op. 24, no. 4 (1833)
Rubato = ‘robbed’ time, extended beyond the time mathematically available; thus slowed down,
stretched, broadened
Chopin surrounded by admirers. A bust of Beethoven on the piano serves as inspiration.
Romantic Harmony and Melody
Chromaticism
Example: Richard Wagner (1813-83), Tristan und Isolde, Excerpt
Painting of Tristan and Isolde from Neuschwanstein Castle
A TYPICAL LATE-ROMANTIC ORCHESTRA
Strings
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
1st vlns (12-16)
2 Flutes
4 French horns
3 Timpani
2nd vlns (12-16)
1 Piccolo
2 Trumpets
Bass drum
Violas (8-12)
2 Oboes
3 Trombones
Snare drum
Cellos (8-12)
1 Engl. horn
1 Bass tuba
Cymbals
Bass vln (6-10)
2 Clarinets
1 E-flat clarinet
1 Bass clarinet
2 Bassoons
1 Contrabassoon
Problems with Form
A. Miniatures
Triangle
Tubular bells
Lied(er): Term generally used in English for the Romantic art song from Schubert the early 20th century.
Most often for voice and piano accompaniment
Song cycle: A group of individually complete songs, unified by a narrative thread or by some common
descriptive or expressive theme.
Franz Schubert
(1797-1828)
Erlkönig [The Elfking] (Goethe)
Who rides so late through the night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He holds the youngster tight in his arm,
Grasps him securely, keeps him warm.
“Son, what makes you afraid to look?”
“Don’t you see, father, the Elfking there?
The King of the elves with his crown and train?
“Son, it’s only a streak of mist.”
“Darling child, come away with me!
I will play the finest of games with you;
Many bright flowers grow by the shore;
My mother has many golden robes.”
“Father, father, do you not hear
What the Elfking is softly promising me?”
“Calm yourself, be calm, my son:
The dry leaves are rustling in the wind.”
“Well, you fine boy, won’t you come with me?”
My daughters will wait upon you.
My daughters lead the nightly round,
They will rock you, dance for you, sing you to sleep!”
“Father, father, do you not see
The Elfking’s daughters there in the dark?”
“Son, my son, I see only too well:
It is the gray gleam in the old willow trees.”
“I love you, your beauty allures me,
And if you’re not willing, then I shall use force.”
“Father, father, now he is seizing me!
The Elfking is hurting me!”
Fear grips the father, he rides like the wind,
He holds in his arms the moaning child;
With effort and toil he reaches the house;
The child in his arms was dead.
Character pieces
Example: Robert Schumann,“Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” from Dichterliebe (The Poet’s Love), Op. 48
(1840)
Robert Schumann (1810-56) (left, with Clara Schumann)
B. Grandiose Compositions
Richard Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung, (1876) — The Ring Cycle
Das Rheingold (1869)
Die Walküre (1870)
Siegfried (1876)
Götterdämmerung (1876)
Example: R. Wagner (1813-83), Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre (1870).
ROMANTIC OPERA
Early Romantic Opera Composers
1. Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)
2. Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
3. Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
4. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Late Romantic Opera Composers
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
•
Commitment to the human voice and to good literature
•
Never lets the voice be overshadowed by the orchestra, though orchestra more important than
in earlier Italian opera
•
Orchestra plays throughout — whether the singers have recitative-like passages or arias
Richard Wagner (1813-83)
Critical Writings
1. Kunstwerk der Zukunft (The Art Work of the Future), 1849
2. Oper und Drama (Opera and Drama), 1851
Wagner referred to his operatic compositions as “music dramas”
Gesamtkunstwerk = “Total art work”. Term used by Wagner to signify his music dramas in which all the
arts (music, poetry, movement, design) should combine to the same artistic end.
Leitmotiv: A clearly defined theme or musical idea, representing or symbolizing a person, object, idea,
etc., which returns in its original or an altered form at appropriate points in a dramatic work.
Example: R. Wagner, Die Walküre, “Ride of the Valkyries”, Act III [opening] (1870)
Late Nineteenth-Century Developments after Beethoven
Beethoven Symphonies 1, 2, 4, 7, 8
↓
Brahms, Bruckner, Verdi, Mahler
Example: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Symphony No. 3 in F major (1883), Op. 90 3rd movement
Beethoven Symphonies 3, 5, 6, 9
↓
Liszt, Wagner, Debussy, Schoenberg
Example: Franz Liszt, Nuages gris (1881)
-ISMS
Nationalism
Applied to a movement in music, about the middle of the 19th century, in which composers became
eager for their music to embody elements that proclaimed its nationality. Incorporation of folk
melodies, folk dances, folk instruments, and other aspects of a nation’s indigenous or traditional music.
Bedrich Smetana (1824-84), Czech
Modest Mussorgsky (1844-1908), Russia
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), Norway
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Finland
Enrique Granados (1867-1916), Spain
Ralph Vaugh William (1872-1958), England
Béla Bartók (1881-1945), Hungary
Charles Ives (1874-1954), USA
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Russia
Bedřich Smetana (1824-84)
Nationalism: a movement in music, about the middle of the 19th century, in which composers became
eager for their music to embody elements that proclaimed its nationality. Incorporation of folk
melodies, folk dances, folk instruments, and other aspects of a nation’s indigenous or traditional music.
Example: B. Smetana, “The Moldau” from Má vlast [My Country] (1874-79)