Chapter 10: The Romantic Period 18001900

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Chapter 10 The Romantic Period (1800-1900)
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Objectives

• Learn how the revolutions in Europe and America
  influenced the Romantic period.
• Learn about the conflicts and contradictions
  expressed in the individualism and emotionalism
  of Romantic artists.
• Study the added tensions in harmony, melody, and
  rhythm characteristic of most Romantic music.

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Visual Arts

• Francisco José de Goya (1746-1828)
• Marie-Guillemine Benoist (1768-1826)
• J. M. Turner (1775-1851)
• Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)
• Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875)
• Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

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Music

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
• Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840)
• Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847)
• Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
• Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)
• Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
• Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

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Music (cont.)

• Robert Schumann (1810-1883)
• Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
• Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
• Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
• Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)
• Bedrich Smentna (1824-1884)
• Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
• Piotr Ilytch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

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Music (cont.)again

• Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904)
• Saxophone invented by Adolphe Sax (c.1841-1842)
• Nikoli Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
• Giacomo Puccini (1858-1908)
• Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
• Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
• Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

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Historical Figures Events

• Napoleon becomes Emperor (1804)
• Lewis Clark reach the Pacific (1806)
• Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
• Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
• War of 1812 between England the U.S. (1812)
• Beginning of antislavery movement (1831)
• Morse invents the telegraph (1837)
• Queen Victorias reign in England (1837-1901)
• Japan opened to the West (1853)
• Darwins Origin of the Species published (1859)
• Slavery outlawed in the U.S. by 13th Amendment
  (1865)
• Edison invents the phonograph (1877)
• Roentgen discovers the X-ray (1895)

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Romanticism

• Romanticism was a revolt against convention
  authority in personal, religious, civil,
  artistic matters
• Romantic artists strove to express emotion rather
  than rationality and individualism rather than
  conformity. They sought individual freedom rather
  than the Classic periods desire for perfection
  of form and design
• Art patronage changed - the general public became
  the primary consumer of the arts, rather than the
  courts of the nobility and wealthy merchant class
• Realism Nationalism were two ways that
  individualism was expressed by artists

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Painting

• A renewed interest in nature as the subject for
  art
• Subjects often also had a moral message or were
  based on political or social issues
• Violent scenes of carnage captured the
  imagination or artist public
• Painters drew on Dutch artists Rembrandt Rubens
  for inspiration in the use of color, light shade

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Painting

• Théodore Géricault
• The Raft of the Medusa, colorplate 48
• One of the first French Romantic painters
• Painting was inspired by the sinking of the ship
  Medusa - using an appropriate Romantic subject
  humans against the sea
• Eugène Delacroix
• Liberty Leading the People, colorplate 49
• Became the leader of the Romantic movement in
  painting
• Use of literary works for inspiration - see Dante
  and Virgil in Hell, colorplate 50

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Painting

• Francisco Goya
• One of the great Spanish individualistic painters
• The Third of May, colorplate 52
• Color mass (rather than detailed line) are used
  to intensify the drama of death for liberty
• Joseph Mallord William Turner
• English painter of landscapes seascapes
• Rouen Catheedral, West Facade, colorplate 63
• highly abstract in style (predating French
  Impressionists by several decades)
• Rain, Steam, and Speed The Great Western
  Railway, colorplate 53

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Painting

• Jean Baptiste Camille Corot
• A View Near Volterra, colorplate 54
• A prominent prolific painter of Romantic
  pastoral scenes, this shows a Romantic feeling
  for light, space color. Less realism in
  detail, more of a sentimental quality about his
  landscapes

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Architecture

• Architecture created during this period could be
  called revivalist
• Gothic revival is very apparent in the Neo-Gothic
  style of the Houses of Parliament in London (fig.
  10.1, p.251)
• Neo-Baroque style is shown in the Paris Opera
  (fig. 10.2, p.252)
• Some structures reflect the technological
  developments of the Industrial Revolution
• The Eiffel Tower in Paris (built in 1889)

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Music

• Romantic music was based on the premise that a
  feeling of musical tension is necessary to
  achieve an intense emotional response
• Music is rich in texture with chromaticism and
  dissonance to create tension
• Melodies are either fragmented or very long
• Tone color (timbre) is used to support character
  and mood
• Form
• Still sometimes used sonata-allegro form
• Other short forms emerged in solo instrumental
  vocal music
• The symphonic poem was invented as a one movement
  program piece

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Music 2

• Orchestra, piano and human voice were the most
  popular medium for composers
• Most wrote for all three
• It is difficult to generalize about musical
  Romanticism, there were idealists and realists
• Idealists insisted that music could exist for its
  own sake
• Realists insisted that music must tell a story
  that could be verbalized or visualized
• Some Romanticists excelled in virtuosity
• Others specialized in intimate chamber music and
  solo songs

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Music 3

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Often described as the transitional artist
  between the Classic and Romantic periods
• Life can be divided into three periods
• Early period ends around 1802
• Known mostly as a magnificent concert pianist,
  his compositions were, for the most part in the
  Classic style of Haydn and Mozart
• Middle period (1802-1815)
• Beginning with 3rd Symphony, his works were
  Romantic in nature, stretching the constraints of
  Classic form technique to create greater
  expression
• Late period (1815-1827)
• Increasing deafness forced him to abandon
  performance and use composition as a means to
  accomplish personal expression

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Music 4

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
• From his middle period, a Romantic style
  composition
• Take notes from listening guide
• Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique)
• One of the best examples of Classic style solo
  literature for the piano
• Franz Schubert
• Art-song settings (Leider) were among his
  important contributions to Romantic musical
  expression
• Erlkönig (The Erlking) (p.258-261)
• Take notes from listening guide
• Also a composer of orchestral works (8th 9th
  Symphonies), as well as piano and chamber music

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Music 5

• Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847)
• Virtuoso pianist (Felixs sister) also composed
  as many as 500 pieces
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Independently wealthy, founded one of the first
  public orchestral societies served as director
• Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
• Virtuoso pianist, most of income from
  concertizing (featuring own works, exclusively
  for piano)
• Robert Schumann (1810-1883)
• Also became a conservatory director and music
  journalist
• Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)
• Most of income from concertizing (featuring own
  works)

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Music 6a

• These Romantic composers are still among the most
  widely performed in concert halls and opera
  houses in the 20th C.
• Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Preferred Classic forms, although he uses the
  expanded harmonic expressive musical language
  of their time
• Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
• Known mostly for his large symphonic
  compositions, he expands the size and length of
  the individual movements, combines choral solo
  voices with the symphonic forms, and adds to the
  timbral palette of the orchestra
• Many of his works deal with death (in the text of
  songs musical material)
• Symphony no.4 in G Major funeral march
• Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of
  Children)
• Song cycle for voice and orchestra
• The two are more equal partners

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Music 6b

• These Romantic composers are still among the most
  widely performed in concert halls and opera
  houses in the 20th C.
• Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
• Brings Italian Opera to its zenith
• The orchestra is no longer primarily an
  accompaniment
• The recitative of the 18th century opera
  disappears
• Also associated with Nationalism (Italy
  formalized as a country)
• Shared center stage with Wagner (whose Music
  Dramas are discussed in Ch.11)
• Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
• verismo (realism) style in reference to his
  choice of realistic story lines for his operas
• The foremost Italian Opera composer at the end of
  the 19th century

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• Next Time
• Ch. 11