Romantic Style in Music

Romantic Era Music• More 19th century music is

performed today than any other period

• Larger orchestras & better instruments– Brass with valves– Woodwinds with new fingering and

better tuning– Violins capable of more powerful sound– Pianos with iron frames, thicker wires

and pedals

Romantic Era Themes• Love• Nature• Heroes• The

Supernatural

Definitions• Art Song – songs that combine

poetry and music• Program Music – instrumental music

endowed with specific literary or pictorial content

• Etudes – an instrumental study designed to improve technique

• Arpeggio – playing the notes of a chord in rapid succession

BeethovenSymphony No. 9 “Choral,”

Presto• Considered one the greatest

accomplishments of Western culture

• Beethoven’s original score sold for $3.3 million

• European Union’s theme

SchubertErlkonig (The Erlking)

• Art Song• Introduction

establishes tension and distress– Storm– Horse ride

• Each voice is in a different vocal register

BerliozAn Episode in the Life of an

Artist Opus 14 “Symphonie fantastique”

• Program Music• Written at 27• His “passion” for

Harriet Smithson• Opium induced

dream where the lover takes the form of a melody in the artist’s head

BerliozSymphonie fantastique

“March to the Scaffold” is a movement intended by the composer to create a sense of frenzy and fear as the convicted killer is led through the streets to the scaffold holding the guillotine where he will be executed. The movement uses dramatic and brilliantly colorful orchestration to create a dizzying array of effects, from the approach of distant drums, to wild and chaotic crowds pressing to view the spectacle, and even the sound of the convict’s severed head dropping into the basket.

ChopinEtude in G-flat Major, Op. 10, No.

5• Etudes• Rapid play on

the black keys• Still used to

demonstrate technical precision

Ballet• Tchaikovsky

– Swan Lake– The Nutcracker– Sleeping Beauty

Ballet• Maria Taglioni

– Tutu– Arabesques– Sur les points– Floating leaps

Ballet• Arabesque

– position in which the dancer stands on one leg with the other extended behind and one or both arms held to create the longest line possible of the body.

Opera• Wagner• Der Ring des Nibelungen

– (The Ring of the Nibelung)• 4 operas and 15 hours long• Quest for a powerful, but cursed, ring that

can control the universe• Opera is filled with giants, dragons,

dwarves and heroes

WagnerDie Walkure (The Valkyrie)

• Orchestra sets mood of excitement• Famous “Ride” theme• Continuous fabric of music and

singing