Music of the Romantic Era

A. Gabriele

Western Art Music

• Antiquity - 2000 B.C. to 400 A.D.

• Middle Ages - 400 - 1450

• Renaissance - 1450 - 1600

• Baroque - 1600 - 1750

• Classical - 1750 - 1820

• Romantic - 1820 - 1910

Historical Milestones of the Romantic Period1825 - Erie Canal opens1838 - Invention of photography1846 - Neptune discovered1859 - Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of the Species1861-1865 - American Civil War1869 - Transcontinental Railroad completed1872 - Brooklyn Bridge opens1876 - Telephone invented1877 - Phonograph invented1886 - Statue of Liberty presented to New York1893 - Henry Ford builds first car1903 - Wright Brothers first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, NC1905 - E=mc2 - Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

Social and Political Influences...

Nationalism and the spread of Democracy• These are the most meaningful and definitive forces

in the 19th century.• Throughout Europe people began to promote their

own national identities and resist outside authority. • This push for national identity created new

countries (unification of Italy, formation of German empire, United States).• The principles and practices of democracy were on

the rise.

Industrialism• Occurred first in Britain• Power shifted from aristocratic landowners to middle

class city dwellers. • Populations moved from an agrarian center to an

urban center.

Arts of the Romantic Period

Emphasis on Individualism and EmotionBreaking away from rules and conventionGlorification of NatureNostalgiaThe macabre and the supernaturalExotic influencesRealism

LiteratureNathaniel HawthorneMark TwainRalph Waldo EmersonHenry David ThoreauCharles DickensEdgar Allen PoeEmily DickensonVictor Hugo

Visual ArtPaul Cezanne

Edouard ManetEdgar Degas

Claude MonetVincent van Gogh

Edvard MunchGeorges Seurat

Musical Life of the Romantic Period

• The first conservatories were founded.

• Composers gradually left the patronage system:

• became free agents of their own work

• dependent on public approval

• held higher social status

• This period saw the rise of the virtuoso performer.

• The public was captured by showmanship

• Niccolo Paganini and Franz Lizst

• Conductors became more important in this period because of the growing orchestra and more complex music.

Elements of Music in the Romantic Period

Rhythmmetric, rubato created variation for “color”, new

vocabulary used for more emotional sound: cantabile, dolce, con amore, allegro agitato.

Harmony tonal like before, but increasing chromaticism (half-steps) created more dissonances and tension

Melody appealed to the emotions, longer and more irregular in length, increasing chromatic, themes transformed

Dynamics gradual with crescendos and decresendos, wider range, more contrast, new vocabulary: morendo

Timbrefull exploration of instrument families, timbres used for individual and collective color potential to convey mood and atmosphere, the orchestra grew to 70-100 players

Texture homophonic; thick, heavy, and lush orchestration

Form stretching of the classical forms; longer development

New Woodwind Instruments• piccolo

• alto and bass clarinet

• contrabasson

• English horn

• saxophone

Brass Instruments

• instruments improved, and more valves were added

• trombones and tubas become a permanent fixture of the orchestra

Percussionexpanded to include the snare drum, bass drum, cymbals

and exotic instruments like the gong and castanets

Vocal Formats

• Opera gained new intensity and increased in popularity. There is a bigger orchestra and the dramas were longer in length. The key composers of opera were Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner.

• The Art Song became popular out of the tradition of Franz Shubert. It was a marriage of music and literature. Composers often set poetry to music. The song cycle was invented and was a group of songs of a similar theme.

Instrumental Formats

• Absolute music reflected the Classical heritage of Mozart and Haydn; it expanded on the classical forms but was traditional in style and instrumentation: Sonata, Concerto, Symphony, and String Quartet.

• Program music was a composition guided by a story, poem, idea, or scene; it was more progressive in style and instrumentation.

• Program Symphony

• Tone Poem or Symphonic Poem

Composers in the Romantic era are said to fall into 3 camps.

Traditionalists tended to compose in the style of their teachers from the Classical Period. While they extended the elements of music, they rarely went outside the norm.

Johannes Brahms

German composer of 4 symphonies, a violin concerto, string quartets, 200 lieder (art songs), and a German Requiem

only composed absolute music; no program music

preferred to express new things with the old classical forms and

extend what Beethoven did

Listen: Brahms’ Symphony No. 3

Robert and Clara Shumann• German composers

• He was a music critic also; she was a famous pianist and premiered many of his piano compositions

• Robert composed 4 symphonies, 1 opera, and many piano works.

• She composed a piano concerto, piano trio, solo piano pieces and art songs.

• Listen: Clara Shumann’s Romance in Eb minor for piano

Felix Mendelsohn

German composer, pianist, organist,

Recognized as a musical prodigy at a young age, but his parents were cautious not to

capitalize on his talent

He wrote in all the different formats of the Romantic era.

Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky

Russian composer

composed symphonies, chamber music, concerti, but his most famous works is his

music for ballet

Listen: Four Little Swans fromSwan Lake

Frédéric Chopin• Polish composer and pianist

• Lived in Paris for most of his life

• The only major composer to have completely oriented his creative life around the piano.

• Piano compositions are generally dances or free-form works (preludes, etudes, nocturnes and impromptus).

• Listen: Nocturne in E-Flat Major,

Giacomo Puccini• Italian opera composer

• Unlike Verdi and Wagner – did not involve himself in politics

• Known for his beautiful lyricism (critics often cite a “popular” less-crafted style of composition)

• Listen: Nessun Dorma from Turandot

Progressives tended to extend the boundaries of traditional sound and

scope in their compositions. They used increasingly more chromaticism and

expanded harmony.

Richard Wagner• German composer for the stage –

music dramas

• Rejecting Italian opera, Wagner worked out a theory about combining poetry, music, philosophy and drama into one “complete art work” – music drama.

• He had complete control of every aspect of these music dramas – music, libretto, staging, costumes

• Incorporated German folktales and legends

• Used “leitmotifs” – thematic transformation

• Extreme use of chromaticism

• Listen: Ride of the Valkyries

Franz Lizst• Hungarian composer and virtuosic

pianist

• Innovative composer both harmonically and formally.

• Used complex and unusual chords

• Created the symphonic poem and utilized thematic transformation (influenced Wagner)

• Composed two symphonies, symphonic poems, piano music, orchestral and operatic transcriptions

• Listen: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Hector Berlioz• French composer of

programmatic works.

• Most of his works call for huge instrumental and vocal forces

• Very influential in his techniques and writing about orchestration

• Listen: Symphony Fantastique

Following the many wars and conflicts of the 19th century, country boundaries in

Europe became more defined. Nationalists utilized melodies, dances, and

folklore from their homelands.

Modest Mussorgsky

• One of the Russian Five: Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Karsakov

• Utilized Russian folksongs – often based on church modes, irregular in meter

• Listen: Pictures at an Exhibition, 1874 10 pieces with descriptive titles

Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)

• Bohemian (Czech Republic) composer of opera and symphonic poems, pianist and conductor

• Founder of the Czech national music

• Music steeped in folk songs dances and legends of Bohemia

Giuseppe Verdi• Italian composer of 15

operas, a Requiem, a string quartet

• His music became a symbol of the Italian liberation movement (struggle against Austrian domination)

• Listen: La donna è mobile from Rigoletto