The Romantic Era 18201900

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The Romantic Era(1820-1900)

• Romantic ? romantic (someone involved in romance)
• Movement in not only music but also art,
  literature, poetry, politics, philosophy, etc.
• Evolution of Classical Era, not innovative
• Carries on Beethovens tradition
• Stresses emotion, imagination and INDIVIDUALITY!

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The Romantic Era(1820-1900)

• Emphasis on
• Freedom of expression
• Obsession with self
• Autobiographical works
• Nationalism
• Middle and working class
• Oliver Twist, Huckleberry Finn
• The realm of fantasy and the Gothic
• Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The
  Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Edgar Allen Poe
• Art that tells a story
• Exoticism
• Nature

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Romanticism in Music

• Expansion (not invention)
• Increased technical demands on performers
• Musical forms and structures
• Ex 90 minute Symphonies vs. 20 minute Symphonies
• Harmony
• More chromaticism and dissonance
• Dynamics
• ppiano, pppianissimo fforte, fffortissimo
• pppp, ppppp ffff, fffff in romantic era

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Romanticism in Music

• Composers with recognizable individual style
• Elements include
• Increased use of folk music
• Nationalism
• Program music
• Exoticism
• Heightened contrast and emotions
• Middle-class audiences (no courts)
• Virtuosi based on public persona

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Schubert Schumann

• Early Romantic composers
• Contemporaries of Beethoven
• Symphonies overlooked by Beethoven symphonies
• Masters of Voice Piano pieces

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Franz Schubert(1797-1828)

• Earliest master of Art Song
• - wrote 600
• No official musical posts
• - got by composing and playing piano
• Not recognized until after his death

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The Art Song

• Solo piece for voice and piano
• Lied German text
• Usually set to poetry
• Music matches text (like text painting)
• Song Cycle set of songs

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The Erlking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Do you want to come with me, fine lad?My
daughters should be waiting for youMy daughters
lead the nightly dancesAnd will rock and dance
and sing you to sleep." "My father, my father,
can't you see there,The Erlking's daughters in
the gloomy place?""My son, my son, I see it
wellThe old willows seem so gray." "I love
you, your beautiful form entices meAnd if
you're not willing, I shall use force.""My
father, my father, he's grabbing me now!The
Erlking has wounded me!" The father shudders he
rides swiftly,He holds in his arms the moaning
child.Barely he arrives at the yard in
urgencyIn his arms, the child was dead.

• Who rides, so late, through night and wind?It is
  the father with his child.He holds the boy in
  the crook of his armHe holds him safe, he keeps
  him warm.
• "My son, why do you hide your face so
  anxiously?""Father, do you not see the
  Erlking?The Erlking with crown and cloak?""My
  son, it's a wisp of fog."
• "You lovely child, come, go with me!Many a
  beautiful game I'll play with youSome colorful
  flowers are on the shore,My mother has some
  golden robes."
• "My father, my father, can't you hear,What the
  Erlking quietly promised me?""Be calm, stay
  calm, my childThe wind rustles through dry
  leaves."

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Robert Schumann(1810-1856)

• Composed mostly arts songs piano works
• - short piano works w/ descriptive titles
  (autobiographical)
• Writer Critic
• - wrote articles on modern classical music
• - discovered some of the works by Schubert
• - promoted Chopin Berlioz

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Program Music

• Instrumental music that is associated with a
  story, poem, idea, or scene.
• Elements being described are the Program
• Made known by title of piece, movement or
  additional notes provided by the composer
• Different ranges of degree to which program will
  be represented.
• For Example
• Title Only
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 Pastorale
• Tchaikovsky, Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
• Movements
• Rimsky-Korsakovs Scheherazade
• The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
• The Kalendar Prince
• The Young Prince and The Young Princess
• Festival At Baghdad

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Program Music

• Absolute music- Music for its own sake (no
  program)
• Ex. Bach Toccata Fugue in d Minor
• Programs will come in varying degrees of
  representation and specification
• Programmatic music often makes compositions more
  enjoyable and understandable.

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Program Music

• Programmatic Symphony
• - Symphony with a program
• Concert Overture
• - One movement, short piece, like an Opera
  Overture
• Symphonic Poem (Tone Poem)
• - One movement, long piece, very free in form
  (compared to a Symphony)
• Incidental Music
• - Music before or during a play

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Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

• First French Romantic
• Studied at Paris Conservatory
• 1830- Prix de Rome
• Famed Conductor and journalist
• Unconventional Music, turned
• Opera companies etc. away
• Monstrous works (massive ensembles, over the top
  operas)

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Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

• Fascination with Shakespeare
• Related to and was inspired by
• dramatic truth
• Set Shakespearean plays to music
• Obsession with Harriet Smithson
• Shakespearean actress
• Inspired

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Symphonie Fantastique (1830)

• Program Symphony in 5 movements
• Berlioz writes detailed description of each
  movements representation and intent (aka
  program notes)
• Meant to tell the story of an artist gifted with
  a lively imagination who has poisoned himself
  with opium in the depths of despair because of
  hopeless love."

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Symphonie Fantastique

• Rêveries - Passions (Dreams - Passions)
• Un bal (A ball)
• Scène aux champs (Scene in the country)
• Marche au supplice (March to the scaffold)
• Songe d'une nuit de sabbat (Dream of a witches'
  Sabbath)

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Idee Fixe (Fixed Idea)

• This melodic image and its model keep haunting
  him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe. This
  explains the constant recurrence in all the
  movements of the symphony of the melody which
  launches the first allegro. The transitions from
  this state of dreamy melancholy, interrupted by
  occasional upsurges of aimless joy, to delirious
  passion, with its outbursts of fury and jealousy,
  its returns of tenderness, its tears, its
  religious consolations all this forms the
  subject of the first movement. -Berlioz