Romantic Period
Principles of the Romantic Era
• Restriction no longer important
• Emphasis on emotion rather than
reason
• Nationalism
• Stories depicted
• Nature in a mystical way
• Exotic
Characteristics of Music
• Departure from Classical era
– Message in the music (One word
description? Ex: Beethoven’s 5th)
• Use of dynamics
• Orchestra grew in size
Characteristics of Music
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Emotional directions
Folk songs
Longer symphonies
Virtuosos
Underlying themes carried throughout the
symphony
Beethoven
• Bridged Classical and
Romantic periods
• Manifested Romantic ideal
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Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)
Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)
Symphony No. 9 ("Ode to Joy")
Piano Sonata No. 8 (Pathetique)
Hector Berlioz
• French composer
• Story printed in program
• Symphonie Fantastique
Franz Schubert
• Vienna Austria
• Child prodigy
• Wrote lieder—songs with
emotional theme
– Erlkönig
• Song cycle
• Wrote for fewer instruments
– Unfinished Symphony
– Symphony in C major
• Many works were lost
Felix Mendelssohn
• Early life
• Tried to preserve Classical
style
– Brought Bach out of obscurity
• Symphonies were classical
form and romantic tone
• Midsummer Night’s Dream
Nicolo Paganini
• Italian
• Violin virtuosos
• Ghoulish appearance
• “The Cannon”
Frederic Chopin
• Child prodigy
• Sickly his whole life
• Made money by giving
piano concerts
• Composed mazurkas,
preludes and polonaises
– Etude Opus 10
– Polonaise in A flat major
– Minute Waltz
Franz Liszt
• Hungarian child prodigy
• Greatest showman
• Kind to other musicians
• Several love affairs
• Les Preludes
• Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
• Wilde Jagd
Richard Wagner
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German nationalism
Not a prodigy
Immoral life
Opera
– Leitmotif
• Depicted myths and heroes
– Die Walküre (Ride of the Valkyries)
– Tannhäuser (end of the overture)
– Tristan and Isolde (Unresolved – Liebestod)
Giuseppe Verdi
• Greatest Italian style opera
– Aida
– La Traviata
– Rigoletto
• La Donna e Mobile
• Innovation
– Focus on human emotion
– De-emphasis on bel-canto style
• Rossini: Barber of Seville
– Excellent librettos
– Orchestra an important component
Bedrich Smetana
• Czech
• Bartered Bride
• Die Moldau
– River running through Prague
Johann Strauss
• Father was excellent
composer
• Played in father’s orchestra
• More popular than his father
• Waltzes
– Embodiment of Viennese life
– Blue Danube Waltz
– Tales of the Vienna Woods
Johann Brahms
• German
• Imitated Beethoven
• Mentored by Robert and Clara
Schumann
• Hungarian Dance #5
Russian Composers
• Moussorgsky,Balakirev, Borodin, Cui,
Rimsky-Korsakov
– Russian Easter Overture
• Used Russian themes
• Helped each other
• Flight of the Bumble Bee
• Night on Bald Mountain
Almaty, Kazakhstan
Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky
• Russian
• Used French style
• Ballets are most famous
– Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty
– Romeo and Juliet
• Deep emotion for his sad life
– Symphony No. 6 – Pathètique
Edvard Grieg
• Norwegian
• Peer Gynt
– Hall of the Mountain King
Antonin Dvorak
• Czech
• Inspired by Smetana
• Head of Conservatory in
Prague
• Director of a NY music
conservatory
– 3 years
– Composed New World
Symphony
Gustav Mahler
• Jewish
• The Hunters’ Funeral
Procession
Principles of Art
• Abandoned strict rules of neoclassical
• Conveyed personal feeling of artist
• Used nationalism
• Depicted the exotic
• Landscapes became important
"If you want to do art
you must first study the
rules, second study the
great masters, third
forget the rules,
because genius begins
where trite rules end
but you can't get there
until you've obeyed the
rules first."
– Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1723-1792)
Francisco Goya Classical Period
Franciso Goya – Romantic Period
3rd of May 1808
Goya
Saturn Devouring
One of His Sons
Eugene Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People
Delacroix
The Death of Sardanapalus
Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Fighting "Temeraire"
Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Slave Ship
"From the early 16C to the end of the 18C
common opinion held that religious and
history painting were the highest genres.
The one edified, the other reminded; both
decorated. Portraits came next, landscapes
lagged behind. For nature was not yet
loved for itself alone. In the early
Renaissance it served as a background
only, and even then it was 'humanized' by
the presence of temples, columns, or other
architectural fragments, along with actual
figures."
– Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence,
Perennial, 2000, p71.
John Constable
Hay Wain
Literature
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Raised the level of
German literature
• The Sufferings of Young
Werther
• Dr. Faustus
Sir Walter Scott
• Scotland
• Historical novels
• Influenced by Goethe
• Popular in his own life
• Ivanhoe
• Lady of the Lake
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• English
• Lyrical ballads
– Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Themes: relationship between
humans and nature
Lord Byron
• Art was an inner expression
• Participation in revolutions
• Strong personality
• Italy and Switzerland
• Childe Harold
• The Flying Dutchman
• The Wandering Jew
Percy Bysshe Shelley
• English
• Strongly liberal
• Friends with Lord Byron
• Married Mary Wollstonecraft
– Frankenstein
Leo Tolstoy
• Russian
• War and Peace
• Anna Karenina
• Born to nobility but lived
on simple farm
• Freed the serfs
Victor Hugo
• Son of Napoleonic general
• Involved in French politics
• Les Miserables
• Hunchback of Notre Dame
Alexandre Dumas
• Imitated style of Scott
• Novels supported
extravagant life
– Employed several people
• Count of Monte Cristo
• The Three Musketeers
• The Man in the Iron Mask
Thank You