Romantic Piano Music

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Romantic Piano Music

• The Character Piece

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The Character Piece for Piano

• Another important miniature genre, second only to
  the lied.
• A short piano work that conveys a certain mood or
  character (1,000s in the Romantic era)
• Simple, vague, atmospheric titles like, Nocturne
  (night song), Waltz, Scherzo, or Étude (Study).
  Some composers chose more descriptive titles
  (Schumanns Carnaval).
• Pieces convey an intense distinct emotion
• Strong connection to the Romantic Song (lieder).
  (Mendelssohns Songs without words).

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SchubertMoment Musical No. 2 in A-flat

• Moment Musical literally Musical Moment
• Form is Ternary (A B A)
• More precisely A B A (codetta) B A (Coda)
• Characteristics portrayed might include
• A Beautifully lyric, Nostalgic, gentle
  rocking, Rhythmically ambiguous
• B melancholy, cloudy, Rhythmically stable
• Coda long, drawn out, relentless
• Return of B Surprise!

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SchumannCarnaval

• A collection of 20 character pieces
• Whimsical portraits that depict the personalities
  of people (some real, some fictitious) close to
  Schumann.
• Eusebius and Florestan are the names of
  Schumanns two fictitious alter egos (used in his
  reviews for Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

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SchumannCarnaval

• Eusebius
• Thoughtfull dreamer, idealist, often in a world
  of his own. Introspective, ethereal.
  Characterized by unusual rhythms, rubato, soft
  dynamic levels
• Constructed by two phrases, the second one a
  variant of the first (A A/A A/ A A/ A A)

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SchumannCarnaval

• Florestan
• Impetuous and mercurial, prone to sever mood
  shifts. Characterized by abrupt changes of tempo,
  dynamics, register and mood.
• Loosely based on Variation Form A A A A)
• Based on the letters Asch (the town where a
  young lady to whom Schumann was having a romance
  with lived at the time)
• A S (Es E-flat) C H (B-flat)

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Chopin Nocturne in F-sharp, Op15, No. 2

• Nocturnes literally night pieces
• This particular nocturne conveys a relaxed,
  beautiful singing quality
• Form A A B C A coda
• A sections are all varied through use of
  embellishments or ornaments
• Makes use of Chromaticism, liberal rubato

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Conclusions about Character Pieces

• Character pieces, another representative of of
  the miniature genre, do not rely on elaborate
  musical forms
• They use a variety of simple, sections forms to
  accomplish a primary goal to express and sustain
  a single, distinctive mood.
• Thematic unity is achieved through use of
  recurring motives and figures and through
  similarity of mood
• Character pieces account for the majority of
  piano music written in the Romantic period, an
  era in which the piano became enormously popular.