DO YOUR OWN THING!
Be an individual!
Live and express yourself freely and loudly!
Write music for the popular culture!
Sounds like the U.S. today right?
Yes, but it is also a good description of artistic life in the great capitals of
Europe from about 1820 to about 1900.
ROMANTIC PERIOD
1820- 1900
ROMANTIC PERIOD
“Romantic” as a style does not mean mushy love scenes on TV or in movies.
The Romantic style was marked by
A lot of individual freedom
New ways of building music (form)
ROMANTIC PERIOD
Strong emotional appeal
A sense of the dramatic
A love for soaring melody
Large orchestras with new instrumental colors as well as the old perfected to
our modern standards
ROMANTIC PERIOD
While the Classical composers loved order and form and wrote music that was
only about music itself……Romantic composers often wrote in forms that
were rather loose, and the music was often about nonmusical subjects,
such as nature, heroic travels or events pertaining to nationalism.
ROMANTIC PERIOD
The subjects of music often dealt with fantastic or dream- like characters.
Program music, in which a specific story, idea, or scene was portrayed through
music, was popular.
“Flight of the Bumble Bee” by Rimsky Korsakov is a prime example of this.
ROMANTIC PERIOD
Sharp clashes of dynamics and tempo, as well as abrupt changes in mood were
common.
Composers were able to compose music more for their own individual
purposes.
But they couldn’t make as much money as the earlier composers who had job
security working for the aristocracy.
ROMANTIC PERIOD
Because of this, Romantic composers often worked as on the side as teachers,
conductors, music critics, or soloists.
Most of the music of the Romantic period was written for the middle class by
middle class composers
ROMANTIC PERIOD
The Romantic stressed emotion, imagination, and individualism.
Many of the composers and writers loved nature, were very devout, patriotic
and had a deep interest in the supernatural.
ROMANTIC PERIOD
It’s no accident that two of the greatest horror novels,
later made into movies were Romantic novels.
Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE
WORLD?
Some major figures and events of the Romantic period were
Abraham Lincoln (1809- 1865)
16th President of the United States (1861-1865)
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE
WORLD?
Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
American inventor
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE
WORLD?
George Elliot
(Mary Ann Evans)
(1819-80)
English Novelist
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE
WORLD?
Karl Marx
(1818-1883)
German political
Philosopher and
Revolutionist who
Wrote Communist
Manifesto and Das
Kapital.
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE
WORLD?
Transcontinental Railroad Construction
WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE
WORLD?
California Gold Rush
(1848-1856)
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born in Germany in 1810
Studied law at Leipzig
University, but actually
wanted to study music and
literature.
At 20 yrs old he decided
to become a pianist, but
ended up injuring his hand
trying to stretch his fingers.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
He became a composer and music critic, founding the New Journal
of Music. In this journal he wrote of his appreciation of Chopin
and Berlioz.
Schumann composed art songs, and many piano pieces. They are
usually in cycles. i.e.- Carnaval (Carnival), Kinderscenen (Scenes from
Childhood)
Nachtstuke (Night Pieces), Dichterliebe ( Poet’s love),
etc.
CARNAVAL
A cycle of 21 short pieces that have descriptive titles.
Schumann called it a musical picture gallery.
It has musical images of the young women in his life.
It was inspired from his brief engagement to Ernestine von
Fricken, a student of Clara Wieck’s father.
Estrella- marked with con affecto (with feeling) is the image of his
fiance Ernestine.
Reconnaissance- (Reunion) A little longer than Estrella. It is a more
lyrical piece.
CLARA SCHUMANN
•Clara Wieck Schumann was a virtuoso pianist, composer, and
leading interpreter of the music of Brahms, Chopin, and Robert
Schumann, her husband
She is known for her songs, piano music, and chamber music.
Her works are technically difficult and also deeply introspective.
CLARA SCHUMANN CONT.
Liebst d um Schonheit (If you love for beauty; 1841)
- Song written by Clara shortly after her wedding
- Sung in German by a man
-part of a joint song cycle written by Robert and
Clara.
-for Piano and voice to be done with affection
PIANO MUSIC
• In the Romantic era, the piano was both a popular instrument
for home use and for virtuosos such as Liszt, Chopin, and the
American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk.
• Technical improvements to the nineteenth century piano led to
the development of the modern concert grand piano.
• The short lyric piano piece, often with a fanciful title, was a
favorite Romantic genre.
CHOPIN
•Frédéric Chopin dedicated his entire compositional output to the
piano; he is said to have originated the modern piano style.
•Chopin lived and worked in Paris among the leading intellectuals
and artists of France.
•His output includes études—highly virtuosic and technical study
pieces—meditative nocturnes, preludes, and dances (including
Polish mazurkas and polonaises), as well as sonatas and concertos
for piano.
CHOPIN CONT.
Etude in C Minor, Op.10, No. 12
(Revolutionary; 1831?)
- An etude is designed to help a performer master specific
technical difficulties.
- The Revolutionary Etude is designed to help pianist develop
speed and endurance for the left hand.
- The tempo is marked apassionato (impassioned)……IT IS VERY
FAST.
PROGRAM MUSIC
•Romantic composers cultivated program music— instrumental
music with a literary or pictorial association supplied by the
composer—over absolute music.
•The four main types of program music include the concert
overture, incidental music to a play, the program symphony (a
multimovement work), and the symphonic poem (a onemovement work).
BERLIOZ
French composer and conductor Hector Berlioz wrote Symphonie
fantastique, a five-movement program symphony, while living in Italy.
The program for the work drew on his personal life and on his
infatuation and courtship with the actress Harriet Smithson.
Berlioz was an innovative writer for orchestra, introducing new colors
and instrumental techniques to the ensemble.
The five movements of Symphonie fantastique are unified by a
recurring theme (idée fixe) representing his beloved.
SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
-
-
IV- March to the Scaffold
This part of the dream, he dreams he killed his beloved and is
walking to the scaffold to be hung.
Intensity builds through out
At the end you hear the idee fixe in the clarinet alone, then a
big boom (him falling and hanging)
Ends on a major chord because justice is served.
ROMANTIC OPERA
•Romantic opera developed distinct national styles in France,
Germany, and Italy.
•In France, lyric opera represented a merger between grand opera
(serious historical dramas with spectacular effects) and opéra
comique (comic opera with spoken dialogue).
•In Germany, the genre of Singspiel (light, comic drama with
spoken dialogue) gave way to more serious works, including
Richard Wagner's music drama, which integrated all elements of
opera.
ROMANTIC OPERA
•Both opera seria (serious opera) and opera buffa (comic opera)
were favored in Italy; they marked the peak of the bel canto
(beautiful singing) style.
•Many Romantic composers turned to exotic plots for their
operas, looking to faraway lands or cultures for inspiration.
ITALIAN OPERA
•The Italian nationalist composer Giuseppe Verdi is best known
for his twenty-eight operas; they embody the spirit of Romantic
drama and passion.
•Many of Verdi's operas draw on well-known literary sources,
including several from Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Otello, and
Falstaff from Merry Wives of Windsor).
•Rigoletto, Verdi's opera based on a play by Victor Hugo, is one of
the most performed works in the repertory today.
GERMAN OPERA
•The German composer Richard Wagner revolutionized opera with his idea of
the Gesamtkunstwerk— a total work of art unifying all elements.
•Wagner's operas—called music dramas—are not sectional (in arias,
ensembles, and the like) but are continuous; they are unifed by leitmotifs, or
recurring themes, that represent a person, place, or idea.
•The emotional quality of Wagner's music is heightened by his extensive use
of chromatic dissonance.
•Wagner's most famous work is his four-opera cycle, The Ring of the
Nibelung.
PUCCINI
•The post-Romantic composer Giacomo Puccini wrote some of
the best-loved operas of all time, including La bohème and
Madame Butterfly.
•In Madame Butterfly, Puccini combines verismo (realism) and
exoticism (Japanese music and culture), both popular at the end
of the nineteenth century.
•The libretto for Madame Butterfly reflects end-of-the century
European-American interest in geisha culture.
TCHAIKOVSKY AND THE BALLET
•Previously part of lavish entertainments, ballet was established as an
independent art form in the eighteenth century, particularly in France and
Russia.
•The Russian choreographer Marius Petipa created the pas de deux (dance for
two), which became central to classical ballet.
•The three ballets of Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky—Swan Lake,
Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker—remain favorites today.