chapter 21: romantic music: program music, ballet, and musical nationalism

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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 Presentation

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Page 1: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

Chapter 21:Romantic Music: Program Music,

Ballet,and Musical Nationalism

Page 2: 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)

Page 3: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

• 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

Page 4: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 5: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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”

Page 6: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 7: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 8: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 9: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 10: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 11: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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)

Page 12: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

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

Page 13: Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

• 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