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Romantic Era1820-1900

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Historical Background• The Industrial Revolution (just one of the

19thC revolutionary movements) entirely changed the face of society

• Country people left their rural environment to work in the growing cities.

• The middle class standard of living rose as technology and machines replaced handwork—and production greatly increased; but the lower classes suffered from the exploitation in the factories, mills, and sweatshops created by the Industrial Revolution.

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Historical Background• It was a cultural movement that stressed emotion,

imagination and individuality. • It was partly a rebellion against the neoclassicism of

the 18th Century and the age of reason—and their dissatisfaction with the real world.

• The movement was very diverse and complex because its aim was to broaden horizons and encompass the totality of human experience.

• It was international and influenced all of the arts. • Romantic writers broke away from convention…and

emphasized freedom of expression. The term was actually adopted from literature—and the literary romantics themselves

• Beethoven is credited for elevating the awareness level of the people with regard to music as a major art form—because now music was treated with a new respect in certain cultivated circles and was taken more seriously than it had been in the past.

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Nationalism• Nationalism became an important movement in the

latter part of the 19thC, as European countries sought to establish their political and stylistic identities.

• Nationalistic writers, painters, and musicians turned to the colorful folk tales, legends, and sounds of their own countries.

• The term romantic comes from romance, actually the word for a medieval story or poem of a heroic nature in one of the Latin-derived, or romance, languages.

• Term implies appreciation of the distant, the mythical, the ideal, the heroic, and the supernatural.

• The future as well as the past, intrigued the romantic imagination, and science fiction became an important genre during this period.

• Distant places were also considered fascinating and exoticism was one characteristic of Romantic art.

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Music Overview• Composers of this period continued to

use the forms of the preceding classical period.

• There are many differences between the two—namely that the composers, or genuine artists were expected to have a personal style, yet they were united by common interests with regard to the characteristics.

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Composer Overview• Composers worked to break down the

barriers of harmony and form• They experimented with chords, chord

progressions (that had previously been forbidden by the textbooks).

• Music had special prestige and status because people felt that music could express inner experience more deeply than the other arts because the musician’s imagination is not tied down to the meaning of the words (as in the poet’s) or to the representation of things (like the painter’s)

• It had depth, freedom of emotional expression and that “continuous” infinite quality.

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General CharacteristicsRomantic works:

• Have greater range of tone color, dynamics and pitch.• Broader harmonic vocabulary • Emphasis on colorful, unstable chords• Music is linked more closely to the other arts, esp. literature• New forms developed; • Greater tension, less emphasis on balance and resolution

CHARACTERISTICS:• Individuality of style; • Emphasis on self-expression• Their sound reflects their personalities• Wrote for the middle class.

• Expressive aims and subjects; • Composers explored a universe of feeling (flamboyance,

intimacy, unpredictability, melancholy, rapture & longing).• Countless works glorify romantic love

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Nationalism & Exoticism• Important political movement that

influences 19th century music.• Composers deliberately created music

with a specific national identity (using folk songs, dances, legends and history of their homelands.)

• Drew on colorful materials from foreign lands. [Frenchman, Bizet—”Carmen” set in Spain; Italian Puccini—evoked Japan in “Madam Butterfly”; Russian Rimsky-Korsakov—Arabian atmosphere in “Scheherazade”.]

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Orchestra• Larger (both symphony and opera were more

varied in tone color than classical orchestra) up to 100 musicians (20-60 in classical)

• Brass, woodwind and percussion sections took on a more active role.

• New sounds for all of the instruments, new instruments (English horn, contrabassoon and bass clarinet became regulars)

• The piano was the favorite instrument of the romantic age and it became improved during 1820-1830’s.

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CharacteristicsTone Color: • Rich and sensuous sound.• Used tone color to obtain variety of mood and

atmosphere.• Never before had it been so important.• For the first time, the sheer sensuous quality

of sound assumed major artistic importance on a level with rhythm, melody, and musical form.

• New combinations of instruments. (Composers are mixing instrumental colors with freedom.)

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CharacteristicsMelody: • Is more emotional, effusive and

demonstrative.• Melodic lines cover a wider range than the

restrained melodies of the Classical era.• Build to more sustained climaxes• More irregular in rhythm and phraseology—

rendered them sounding more spontaneous.• Shades of feelings: dreamy, passionate,

ecstatic, passionate, etc. • Melodies inseparable from harmonies.

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CharacteristicsHarmony:• Made the greatest technical advances• Explored with new chords• Use of chromatic harmony (uses chords

containing tones not found in the prevailing major and minor scales.) Chromaticism—is a term for a style that employs all twelve tones of the chromatic scale.

• Wide variety of keys• Rapid modulations• Feeling of tonal gravity less strong

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CharacteristicsDynamics:

• Expanded range of dynamics

• Sharp contrast from whispers to sonorities of unprecedented power

• Dynamic extremes fff-ppp

• Used frequent crescendos and decrescendos and sudden dynamic shifts.

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CharacteristicsPitch:• Expanded range.• Composers reached for extremely high and

low sounds• Increased brilliance and depth of sound• Exploited instruments like the piccolo and

contrabassoonMood:• Underlined by accelerando and ritardandos.• Fluctuations in tempo.• Use of rubato (a slight holding back or

pressing forward of the tempo)

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FORMS-Miniature & MonumentalMiniatures:

• Piano pieces by Chopin and art songs by Schubert, last a few minutes

• Short forms were meant to be heard in intimate settings (salon or home)

• Growing number of people owned pianos

• Composers created a tense mood through a melody, a few chords or unusual tone

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FORMSMonumental:• Gigantic works by Berlioz and Wagner.• Call for a huge number of performers.• Compositions more extended and lasted for

several hours.• Designed for large opera houses or concert

halls.• Symphonies, sonatas, string quartets,

concertos, operas and choral works—individual movements were longer (19th century symphony were 45 minutes; 18th century were 25 minutes)

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New Techniques• New techniques used to unify long works (same

theme or themes might occur in several different movements of symphony).

• WHEN A MELODY RETURNS IN A LATER MOVEMENT OR SECTION OF A ROMANTIC WORK, ITS CHARACTER MAY BE TRANSFORMED BY CHANGES IN DYNAMICS, ORCHESTRATION, OR RHYTHM—A TECHNIQUE KNOWN as THEMATIC TRANSFORMATION.

• Short themes are freely varied at relatively wide and unpredictable intervals of time.

• Use of thematic transformation occurs in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (*1830) where a lyrical melody from the opening movement becomes a grotesque dance tune in the finale

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Role of ComposersRole in society changed radically:

• They became freelance or free artists.

• They often composed to fulfill an inner need rather than a commission.

• They were interested in pleasing their contemporaries and being judged favorably by posterity.

• They wrote primarily for Middle class audiences.

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Composers and New FormsFranz Schubert: (1797-1828) Vienna: • Earliest master of the lied or art song• Never held an official music position, or a regular job.• Not a conductor, nor virtuoso.• His income came from his compositions, teaching

and publications—and also contributions from a circle of friends (who called themselves the Schubertians)—they saw him as a genius and promoted his songs and helped pay his bills

• Composed an extraordinary amount of masterpieces while in his teens

• Composed close to 700 songs; symphonies, string quartets, chamber music, sonatas and short pieces for piano; operas.

• He died in a typhoid fever epidemic at age 31, and never heard a performance of his late symphonies. We learned about most of his music after his death.

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Schubert• Art Song: A composition for solo voice and

piano. • The Lied is a particular type of German song

that evolved in the late 18th century and flourished in the 19th, and one of the most important miniature genres of Romanticism.

• The melodies of lieder share three characteristics:

• (1) Accompaniment: The lied is always accompanied by a piano and the accompaniment is an integral part of the composer’s conception. The pianist serves as a partner, rather than an accompanist.

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Schubert• (2) Poetry: The text of a lied is usually a

Romantic poem of some merit (The art of the lied depends upon the sensitivity of the composer’s response to the poetic imagery and feeling.)

• (3) Mood: The intimacy of expression that is captured by these pieces. The singer & pianist appear to be sharing an emotional insight with you—not with the entire audience.

• Composers intended lieder to be sung and enjoyed in a salon or at home—not in the concert hall.

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Schubert• The Erlking: the poem is by Johann Wilhelm

Goethe, the greatest literary figure of the day. Though the poem consists of 8 parallel stanzas, they are not set to the same music. So it is called through-composed---different music for different stanzas. Strophic is a song that uses the same music for each stanza of the poem.

• Song cycle: A group of songs with a common poetic theme or actual story connecting all the poems.

#1: ERLKÖNIG Art Song-(P. 225)

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Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Germany• Embodied musical romanticism.• His works are intensely biographical, have descriptive

titles, texts or programs• Original piano pieces and songs• Writer and critic: At age 23 he founded a music

magazine (he inherited from his father a great flair for literature) to campaign for a higher level of music Die Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (The New Music Journal)—and it is still being published!

• Worked as a teacher and conductor• Married Clara a famous pianist at 15 when they met

(daughter of his piano teacher) had to wait until she was 23. He wrote around 150 love songs for Clara the year in which they were married 1840—prior to that his early compositions had been almost entirely for the piano.

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Schumann• He suffered mood swings and

breakdowns • In 1845 he was tormented by voices

and hallucinations and loss of memory and tried to drown himself in the River Rhine—was committed to an asylum. He died two years later.

#2: Carnaval Estrella, N0. 13; Reconnaissance, No. 14 (Page 229) Carnaval is a cycle of 21 brief pieces with descriptive titles evoking a festive

masked ball.

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Clara Wieck Schumann, Germany (1819-1896)• Acclaimed child prodigy—Virtuoso and leading

19th C pianist who composed her own works to play at her own concerts

• Premiered many of her husband’s works, she was a better pianist

• Renowned as a teacher, edited his collected works• Stopped composing at age 35. • She relied on performing and teaching because she

had to support 8 children after her husband died when she was 37.

• Works: songs, piano pieces, piano concerto, trio for piano violin and cello; and Three Romances for Violin and Piano

#3-Schumann, C - Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty) joint song cycle. (P. 232)

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Frederic Chopin: (1810-1849) Polish/French • He had a personal and original style. • Made his living as a highly fashionable piano teacher and by

selling his music to publishers. • Mostly wrote exquisite miniatures, among them are over 50

Mazurkas and Polonaises which are stylized Polish dances • They evoke a variety of moods• Always elegant, graceful and melodic• Made the piano sound beautiful (as no one else did)• He was a frail and fastidious personality, and the major event of

his personal life was a 10-year romance with Madame Aurore Dudevant (an early feminists and a famous novelist under the pen name George Sand). They were introduced by Franz Liszt. They had a rocky relationship and when the affair ended in 1847, his health declined with his spirits

• In 1848 he toured England and Scotland and died the next year at age 39 of tuberculosis, a major killer of the 19th century.

#4: CHOPIN: Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2 (P. 234)#5: CHOPIN: Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 (P. 236)

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Franz Liszt: Hungary (1811-1886) • Virtuoso, superhuman feats at the piano, and irresistible to

women.• Abandoned his career as a traveling virtuoso (age 36) to

become a court conductor and to compose.• Conducted works by his contemporaries Berlioz, Schumann,

Wagner—(a strong advocate of the music of Wagner and the two men learned from each other)

• Taught hundreds of gifted pianists free of charge.• He went to Rome for religious studies, took minor holy orders

(1861) and became an Abbé—and stunned his contemporaries because he was known as a notorious Don Juan and diabolical virtuoso—and now he is a churchman composing oratorios and masses.

• He found new ways to exploit the piano (his melodies are sometimes surrounded by arpeggios that create the impression of three hands playing.)

• Liszt wrote transcriptions so that people could play operas and symphonies at their pianos.

• He created the Symphonic Poem, or tone poem. (A one movement orchestral composition based on to some extent on literary or pictorial ideas.) Listening

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Felix Mendelssohn: Germany (1809-1847) • He may be the only great composer who has ever come from an

upper class family of converted Jews who made their fortune in banking.

• Was a romantic whose music was rooted in the classical.• Brilliant pianist by the age of 9.• At age 15 he was conducting the family orchestra (home

performances in their mansion) in his own music. • He was a successful composer, pianist, organist,

conductor, educator, musicologist—and he found the Leipzig Conservatory of Music

• His older sister Fanny was also a great composer (all kinds of music including oratorios). Unfortunately, her compositions never left the mansion because the cultivated upper –middle-class family that encouraged Felix, adhered to the middle class social values which would not allow the “women-folk” to lower herself by becoming a professional musician

• Her sudden death at age 42 devastated her brother so much so that it hastened his own death, less than six months later. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E Minor (P. 242)

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PROGRAM MUSIC• Instrumental music associated with a

story, poem, idea or scene.• Depict emotions, characters and events of the

sounds of nature—these nonmusical ideas are usually specified by the title or by the composer’s explanatory comments (the program)

• The story is the program.• It wasn’t new, but gained new importance

and prestige during this time. • The aim is expression more than description

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New Forms• A Program symphony is a composition in

several movements. (a symphony with a program). Entire symphonies with programs spelled out movement by movement. Each movement has a descriptive title (See Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony)

• A Symphonic Poem, or Tone Poem is in one movement. Takes many traditional forms: sonata form, rondo theme and variation—as well as irregular forms

• Absolute Music: Non program music.

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Hector Berlioz: France (1803-1869) • The first great composer to play no standard instrument at all.

He did play the guitar. • He was also one of the first great conductors and toured

extensively as a conductor of his own music, where he was welcomed with open arms in Germany.

• Daring creator of new orchestral sounds. He thought the “unthinkable”. His ‘grandiose’ program symphonies had no precedent and were not matched in ambition until Mahler. He had an incredible imagination when it came to tone color.

• He was inspired by literary models, especially Shakespeare. • His unconventional music irritated the opera and concert

establishment. • He had to arrange concerts at his own expense—just to get

people to listen to them• Had a faithful following, but not enough to support him, so he

turned to music journalism—becoming a brilliant music critic.• He received constant ridicule from the musical establishment

and he ultimately managed to get most of his enormous compositions performed and to attain favorable recognition in Paris, which was musically conservative.

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Berlioz• Music is unique in its abrupt contrast,

fluctuating dynamics and many changes in tempo.

• Imaginative orchestrator (assembled more players than the average size to achieve new power).

• Created the idée fixe (fixed idea) use of a single melody to represent the beloved.

#6: Symphonie Fantastique: Fourth Movement - March to the Scaffold

(P. 248)

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Bedrich Smetana: Czech (1824-1884) • Founder of Czech Nationalism. Bohemia was trying

to gain their independence from Austria.• He returned from Sweden where he was working and

dived into a self-appointed task of establishing a Czech brand of Opera. That meant the libretto had to be in Czech (the language issue was central in Bohemian politics)—and Smetana had to teach himself Czech because he had grown up speaking German.

• Works are steeped in folk music and legends of Bohemia

• Active composer, pianist, conductor and teacher.• Bartered Bride, his most famous opera. Tells the

story of peasant life in Bohemia.

#7: The Moldau (P. 254)

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Antonin Dvořák: Czech (1841-1904)• Followed Smetana as the leading composer of Czech national

music.• He infused his symphonies with the spirit of Bohemian folk song

and dance.• Was a little known composer until Brahms recommended

Dvorak to his own publisher—and then his fame spread.• Came to New York in 1892, encouraged American composers

to write nationalistic music.• He was head of the New York National Conservatory of Music

(ancestor of Juilliard).• The music of African Americans got a powerful boost from this

first major European composer to spend time in America. He announced his special admiration for spirituals, and advised his American colleagues to make use of them in concert music—as he did himself.

• He incorporated the essence of spirituals so skillfully in his ever-popular New World Symphony—that one of his tunes was actually adapted to made-up “folk song” words, --“Goin’ Home.”

#8: Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (P. 257)

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Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Russian (1840-1893)• Most famous Russian Composer. He attended the new St.

Petersburg Conservatory. Once he got started he composed prolifically. (6 symphonies, 11 operas, symphonic poems, chamber music, songs and some of the most famous ballet scores: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

• He fused national and international elements to produce intensely subjective and passionate music, and his pieces may sound Russian, but he was not considered a devoted nationalist

• His famous Piano Concerto No. 1 was premiered in Boston in 1875, and then he toured America in 1891.

• He was a depressive personality who attempted suicide several times.

• He was subsidized by a remarkable woman (Madame von Meck), a wealthy widow. They never met but exchanged letters for 13 years She eventually terminated the relationship with no explanation.

• He died after drinking unboiled water during a cholera epidemic.• His music was widely admired and his Romeo & Juliet (concert

overture) is one of the best loved orchestral works.

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Johannes Brahms: Germany (1833-1897)• A Romantic who breathed new life into classical forms.

Considered to be the most Romantic of composers. • He devoted a great effort to traditional genres such as string

quartets, and other chamber works, symphonies and concertos. The typical romantic genre he cultivated was the miniature—the lied and the characteristic piano piece.

• Created masterpieces in all of the traditional forms except opera.

• He declared his ‘ideal’ music to be folk songs, and he composed sensitive arrangements of folk songs.

• He wrote rhythmically exciting, contrasting patterns and syncopations (2 against 3, one of his trademarks-one instrument plays two even notes to a beat, while another instrument plays 3)

• The German Requiem established Brahms (at age 34), as a leading composer of his day.

#9: Brahms: Symphony #3 in F Major,Third Movement (P. 264)

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Giuseppe Verdi: (1813-1901) Italy• Considered the greatest of Italian opera composers

and most popular of all opera composers.• He was the dominant figure in the 19th century opera

houses. • He had a staunch commitment to the human voice

and the bel canto principals (a style of singing that brings out the sensuous beauty of the voice). He never allowed the voice to be overshadowed by the orchestra—even though the orchestra plays a much richer role than in those of his predecessors.

• His name actually became a patriotic acronym for the popular choice for King—Vittorio Emmanuele, re d’Italia [long live Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy)—and after independence was achieved the was made an honorary deputy in the 1st Italian parliament.

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Verdi• Composed for a mass public whose main

entertainment was opera.• Expressive vocal melody is the soul of a Verdi opera.• His last three opera are his greatest: Aida, Otello,

and Falstaff. (Falstaff considered the greatest and a comic masterpiece). The last two on Shakespearian subjects were written when he was in his 70’s

• He died a national institution at age 88, and mourned throughout Italy.

• His operas remain the most popular of all in the international repertory.

• He wrote 24 operas including Aida, La Traviata and Rigoletto; a requiem mass, choral works and a string quartet.

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Giacomo Puccini: Italy (1858-1924)• Worked under the shadow of Verdi. He was the only

composer of his time whose melodies could stand comparison to Verdi’s.

• Created some of the best-loved operas.• His Marvelous sense of theater and gift of the

theatrical has given his operas lasting appeal—they impressed the international audiences in his day and still today.

• He is especially moving in his depiction of afflicted woman: (the abandoned woman, Cio-Cio san in Madame Butterfly; the woman dying of consumption (Mimi) in La Boheme; and the woman (Floria Tosca) who fights off a lecherous police chief in Tosca. It appears that their stories are know everywhere and have resurfaced on Broadway (as Miss Saigon and Rent.)

• Melodies have short, memorable phrases and are intensely emotional.

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Puccini• He used the orchestra to reinforce the vocal

melody and to suggest mood• Some of this operas, (Tosca), reflect a

verismo―realism, or the quality of being “true to life.”

• Or they reflected exoticism: Madame Butterfly (set in Japan), and Turandot (China). He made a careful study of non-Western music for use in these operas.

#10: Puccini: La Boheme, Act 1

(P. 271)

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Richard Wagner: Germany (1813-1883) • Made a powerful impact on his time. After

Beethoven he was the most influential of all the 19th century composers.

• He worked as an opera conductor as a young man in Paris.

• He married his second wife Cosima (who was the daughter of Franz Liszt).

• His early operas—The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and Lohengrin although in the tradition of early Romantic opera, began to hint at his revolutionary ideal he had for opera

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Wagner• He started this new music drama after being exiled

(for 13 years) from Germany because of the role he played in the Revolution of 1848-49.

• He was supported by the ‘mad’ King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was able to produce his music dramas—and then promoted the building of a special opera house in Bayreuth, Germany for these music dramas—and to this day, the opera house performs only Wagner.

• Called his works music dramas, rather than operas. It was a new kind of opera in the 1850’s, Music shares the honor with poetry, drama and philosophy—all furnished by Wagner—as well as the stage design and acting.

• He coined the word, Gesamtkunstwerk (meaning total work of art) for his powerful concept, and made that distinction between his works—which were music dramas—and ordinary operas.

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Wagner• His operas and artistic philosophy influenced

musicians, poets, painters and playwrights. • Wrote his own librettos (based on medieval Germanic

legends & myths)• His strictly musical innovations, in harmony and

orchestration, revolutionized instrumental music as well as opera. Tension of his music is heightened by chromatic and dissonant harmonies.

• Uses brief recurrent musical themes called leitmotifs (guiding or leading motives.)

• A leitmotif is a short musical idea associated with a person, an object, or a thought in the drama.

• He created a storm of controversy in his lifetime, which has not died down today. (He wrote endless articles expounding all of his ideas and unfortunately his anti-Semitic remarks (50 years after his death) were taken up by the Nazis.

.

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Wagner• It is said that he was half con man, half

visionary, a bad poet and a very good musician.

• He was a major figure in the intellectual life of his time whose ideas were highly influential not just in music but also in other arts—and in this sense he was the most important of the Romantic composers.#11: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Act I (P.

280) Is the second and most widely performed of the four music dramas in Wagner’s gigantic cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of Nibelung)—

Wagner’s view of 20th century society.

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EncapsulationIn a nutshell:

Romantics had enthusiasm for fantasy, nature and the Middle Ages—and Romantic music puts unprecedented emphasis on self-expression and individuality of style…which reflects their personalities.