Music Appreciation

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Music Appreciation

• Class 11
• The Romantic Period, Part 1
• Schubert, Mendelssohn(s),
• Schumann(s) and Chopin

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Romantic

• Upper case definition
• Reaction against reason
• Aesthetics
• Heightened emotion
• Nature
• Children
• Struggle with nature
• Death

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Aesthetic Goals and Ideals

• fantasy
• grotesque
• whimsy
• imaginative
• playful
• reaching for eternity
• longing for the unrequited
• artist and art

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The Artist

• Image
• Poverty
• Health
• Suffering
• Eccentric
• Exotic

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Liebestod

• Romantic ideal
• Love/death
• Sturm und Drang
• Storm and stress/urge/longing

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Culture

• Purpose
• Beauty for Beautys Sake
• Robert Lewis Stevenson
• Must beauty be beautiful?
• Emotion
• Emotionalism?

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Audience

• No more patronage
• Middle-class
• Educated
• Musical

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New terms

• Artist
• Genius
• Inspiration
• Dilettante
• Professional
• Amateur

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Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)
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Influences

• Beethoven
• Salieri
• Mozart

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Catalogue

• Nine symphonies
• Chamber music
• 600 Lieder

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Lieder

• Piano
• Story-teller
• Subconscious
• Song cycle
• Text
• Prose
• Poetry
• Heine, Schiller, Goethe

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Der Erlkönig
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Accompaniment?

• Piano
• Carriage
• Horse
• Dissonance
• Melody

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Wiener Kaffeehaus and jail

• Meeting place
• Artists
• Writers
• Poets
• Musicians
• Political radicals

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Schubertiade

• Schubert Abend
• Informal
• Fun
• Fame
• Food

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Jessye Norman
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Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy)(1809-1847)
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Style

• Elegant
• Sensitive
• Miniatures
• Songs Without Words Spring
• Incidental Music
• A Midsummer Nights Dream
• Wedding march

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Image of The Artist?

• Wealthy
• Musical prodigy
• Handsome
• Intelligent
• Languages
• Artist
• Jewish

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Mendelssohn and Bach

• CPE Bachs widow
• St. Matthews Passion
• 1750-1829
• Devotee
• Contrapuntal influence

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Fanny Mendelssohn (Hensel)1805-1847)
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Composer?!

• Same education
• More talent and creativity?
• Pseudonym
• Handwriting
• Correspondence
• Style

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Charles Gounod said...

• Madame Hensel was an unforgettable musician, an
  excellent pianist, an
• intellectually superior woman.
• She was small, almost slight, but the fire that
  burned in her eyes
• revealed extraordinary energy.
• As a composer, she was exceptionally gifted ...

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Robert Schumann (1810-56)
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Romantic ideal

• Dichter
• Poet, writer
• Denker
• Philosopher
• Law student
• Friedrich Wieck

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Romantic paradox

• Whimsical and refined
• Dreamy and gritty
• Vehement and visionary

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Scenes From Childhood

• Träumerei
• Katharine Hepburn Song of Love
• The Wild Horseman

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Health

• Hand
• Physical health
• Mercury?
• Syphilis?
• Mental health
• Visions
• Institutionalized

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Musical pyramid

• Only composer to master compositions on one
  instrument (the piano) before proceeding to
  larger compositions
• Solo piano for over 8 years
• 1st orchestral composition not until 1842
• Difficult large structures.

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Cultural Accomplishments

• Davidsbündler
• Philistines!
• Florestan und Eusebius
• Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
• 1st musical journal/criticism
• New composers/styles
• Chopin and Brahms

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Clara Wieck Schumann(1819-1896)
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Limitations...

• "I once believed that I possessed creative
  talent, but I have given up this idea
• a woman must not desire to compose there has
  never yet been one able to do it.
• Should I expect to be the one?"

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The High Priestess of Music

• Father Teacher
• 60-year amateur career
• Highly accomplished performer
• Inspiration
• Roberts most passionate music
• 150 songs in 1840 alone!
• Influenced
• Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin

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Musician, Wife, Mother

• Finances
• Concerts
• Teaching
• Premieres
• Eight children
• Revolution of Dresden rescue

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Rumors...
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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
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Web sites

• http//www.chopin.pl/spis_tresci/index_en.html
• http//www.chopin.org/ip.asp?opHome

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Nationalism

• Folk tunes
• Harmonies
• Influence Wagner, Liszt
• Forms
• Dedications
• Revolutionary Etude (November Uprising 1830)
• Sviatoslav Richter
• Heart

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Style

• New language
• Originality
• Exclusivity
• 170 piano
• No news!
• Edits
• Melody

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Paris

• Composer
• Performer
• Teacher

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Parisian Friends

• Franz Liszt
• Hector Berlioz
• Vincenzo Bellini
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Ferdinand Hiller
• Heinrich Heine

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Salon society

• Schubert abend concerts
• Social, musical, political, intellectual

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Personality

• The lonely artist is surrounded by frivolous
  society.
• Romantic appeal?

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Romance

• Women as inspiration
• Piano Concerto 1 dedication
• I have not yet exchanged a syllable with her of
  whom I dream every night. While my thoughts were
  with her I composed the Adagio of my concerto.

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Aurore Duvedant...
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or George Sand?
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Feminist!

•  "I know that I am the slave and you the lord.
  The law of the land has made you my master....you
  have the right of the stronger party, and society
  confirms you in it but over my will, sir, you
  are powerless."

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Odd couple

• Prude vs. radical
• Frail vs. healthy
• Demure vs. aggressive
• Confidence, intellect, sexuality

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Inspiration

• 21 Nocturnes
• Artur Rubinstein
• John Field (1782-1837)

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21st Century