Music of the Romantic Period

(1820-1900)

Romantic Historical Highlights Industrial Revolution occurs

– Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848) Increase in size and income of middle class Most Romantic composers write primarily for middle-

class audience More revolutions and revolts

– Revolutions in France, Belgium, & Poland (1830)– Revolutions in Europe (1848)– American Civil War (1861-65); Spanish-American War (1898)

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• Emphasis on INDIVIDUALITY of style• Emphasis on self-expression

Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818)

JOHANNES BRAHMS

“How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” (Mvt. 4) from Ein Deutches Requiem (A German Requiem)– Rejects traditional Latin text– Uses texts he personally selects from

Luther’s German translation of the Bible– Requiem becomes his own personal

expression of heaven (God’s “Dwelling Place)

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• Artists strive to transcend ordinary existence through free expression

• Everyday life seems dull and meaningless, artists seek escape through imagination

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• Expressive aims and subjects include...– Flamboyance and intimacy– Unpredictability and melancholy– Rapture and longing– Songs and operas glorify romantic love

Fuseli’s The Nightmare (c. 1781)

HECTOR BERLIOZ “The March to the Scaffold” (Mvt. 4)

from Fantastic Symphony (Episodes in the Life of an Artist)– Takes ordinary life experience (rejection of

romantic interest in famous actress) and creates sensationally autobiographical program for a symphony using imagination

– Depiction of weird and diabolical; grotesque and macabre

– Program “transcends” ordinary life experience

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• Emphasis on the fantastic, the macabre, the grotesque, and the supernatural• Emphasis on “night” and things “of the

night”

Fuseli’s The Night-Hag Visiting the Lapland Witches (c. 1796)

Delacroix’s Dante and Virgil in Hell (1822)

Friedrich’s Cloister Cemetery in the Snow (1817-19)

FRANZ SCHUBERT Erlköing (The Elfking)

– Depiction of weird and diabolical; grotesque and macabre

– Man struggling against nature (individual against the world)

• Father struggling to get sick child home and explain child’s hallucinations away

• Child struggling against mortal seduction of the Elfking

– “Night” scene and emphasis on supernatural

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• Reaction against balance and symmetry of Classical period

• Themes of revolt and rebellion

Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People (1830)

FREDERIC CHOPIN Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 2 (“The

Revolutionary”)– Written as self-exile in Paris– Protest against Russian invasions and

mistreatments of homeland Poland– Musical Elements

• Form: A A’ coda• Uses dotted rhythms (military reference)• Depiction of struggle and/or anger

– Dissonant harmonies– Accented Chords – Passionate main melody

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• Emphasis on EXAGGERATION leads to very small (minature) and very large (monumental) musical compositions

Monumental vs. Minature RICHARD WAGNER

– Prelude to Act 3 from Lohengrin (orchestra only)

– Act 1, end of Love Scene from Die Walkure (The Valkyrie)

FREDERIC CHOPIN– Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 2 (“The

Revolutionary”)– Nocturne in Eb Major, Op. 9, No. 2

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• New emphasis on nostalgia and history leads to NATIONALISM

Examples of NATIONLISM

ANTONIN DVORAK (Czech)– Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Mvt. 1

(Adagio; Allegro molto) • Nickname = “From the New World”

BEDRICH SMETANA (Czech)– The Moldau

ANTONIN DVORAK - Mvt. 1, Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (From the New World)

Mvt. gets a slow intro tacked on to the beginning

Exposition features:– an expanded 2nd theme group (3 themes

in all)– Constant variation/development

Exposition - Allegro

1st theme in home key of e minor (HORNS & WOODWINDS)

– Heroic, bold, motivic

BRIDGE (BRASSES, arpeggio motive)

2nd theme in different key of g minor (FLUTE & OBOE)

– Softer, dance-like tune, more phrase-based

3rd theme (actually part of 2nd theme group) (FLUTE) In different key of G major

– Soft, phrase-based, “Swing Low” spiritual melody

Development

Thematic material is ‘developed’ or ‘varied’– Fragmentation– Recombination– Reorchestration– Melodic extenision– Unstable harmonies (moves through

many keys) - frequent modulations– Chromaticism– Counterpoint (often imitative polyphony)

Recapitulation 1st theme in home key of e minor (HORNS &

WOODWINDS)

– Heroic, bold, motivic

BRIDGE (BRASSES, arpeggio motive)

2nd theme in home key (FLUTE & OBOE)

– Softer, dance-like tune, more phrase-based

3rd theme (actually part of 2nd theme group) (FLUTE) in home key, but MAJOR

– Soft, phrase-based, “Swing Low” spiritual melody

Coda follows

Romantic Musical & Artistic Highlights

• PROGRAM MUSIC

Examples of PROGRAM MUSIC

BEDRICH SMETANA (Czech)– The Moldau

HECTOR BERLIOZ– “The March to the Scaffold” (Mvt. 4) from

Fantastic Symphony (Episodes in the Life of an Artist)

Romantic Music Genres

Vocal Music Genres– Lieder (German Art

Song)– Opera– Choral Music

Instrumental Music Genres– Chamber Music

• Piano Minatures – Orchestral Music

• Symphony• Program Symphony• Tone Poem/Symphonic Poem• Ballet (for a dance)• Incidental Music (for a play)

Romantic Music Style Characteristics

Mood Emphasis on great variety and contrast of mood

Rhythm Expanded range of tempos (faster allegros, slower adagios), use ofRUBATO

Melody Longer, with wider range, building to more sustained climaxes, irregularphrasing, and sequential structures

Themes Use of thematic transformation -(idee fixe in Berlioz, leitmotives in opera,cyclic themes in symphonies that recur in other movements like "short-short-short-long" theme in Beethoven 5th symphony)

Dynamics Expanded range - pppp to ffff

Harmony Colorful, more chromaticism, blurring of major and minor modes

ToneColor

Expanded "palette" of instruments and expressive tone colors; instrumentsused in new ways to get new tone colors

Mood Emphasis on great variety and contrast of mood

Rhythm Expanded range of tempos (faster allegros, slower adagios), use of RUBATO

Melody Longer, with wider range, building to more sustained climaxes, irregular phrasing, and sequential structures

Themes Use of thematic transformation -(idee fixe in Berlioz, leitmotives in opera, cyclic themes in symphonies that recur in other movements like "short-short-short-long" theme in Beethoven 5th symphony)

Dynamics Expanded range - pppp to ffff

Harmony Colorful, more chromaticism, blurring of major and minor modes

Tone Color

Expanded "palette" of instruments and expressive tone colors; instruments used in new ways to get new tone colors