Transcript The Romantic Period - Fleming County Schools

The Romantic Period
1825 - 1910
Goals
1. To become acquainted with the historical context
of the Romantic period and how it affected the
development of music.
2. To become aware of the different styles of music in
use in the period and of the development of new
forms.
3. To become able to describe some of the basic
characteristics of Romantic music using appropriate
vocabulary terms.
Terms
Industrial Revolution
Song Cycle
Homophonic Texture
Symphonic/Tone
Poem
Dissonance
Program Music
Nationalism
Exoticism
Idee Fixe
Leitmotif
What does the term
Romantic mean?
Basically, “Romantic” refers to the
abandonment of the calm, cool
approach that had dominated most of
the art forms of the Classical Period.
Emotional individualism was allowed to
be expressed in all forms of art,
including some styles that had been
deemed too “dark” before (Edgar Allan
Poe, etc.). Such notions of extreme
emotionalism were referred to as
“Romantic”.
What was happening in the world
during this period?
1825 - Erie Canal opens
1838 - Invention of photography
1846 - Neptune discovered
1859 - Charles Darwin publishes The Origin
of the Species
1861-1865 - American Civil War
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad
completed
1872 - Brooklyn Bridge opens
1876 - Telephone invented
1877 - Phonograph invented
1886 - Statue of Liberty presented to
U.S.
1893 - Henry Ford builds his first car
1903 - Wright Brothers first airplane
flight at
Kitty Hawk, NC
1905 - E=mc2 - Einstein’s Theory of
Relativity
Social and Political Influences
Industrial Revolution
First occurred in Britain
Populations moved from
an agrarian (rural) areas to
urban centers (cities) to
work in factories
Some power shifted from
aristocratic landowners to
middle class city dwellers
Inventions
Famous People from the Era
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein
Sigmund Freud
Abraham Lincoln
Mark Twain
Alexander Graham Bell
Henry Ford
Booker T. Washington
H.H. Holmes
Karl Marx
Jack the Ripper
Walt Whitman
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Edgar Allen Poe
Emily Dickinson
James Fenimore Cooper
Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh
Arts Affect Each Other
Where the Classical period had held reason, order, and
rules as the highest virtues, the Romantic Era highlighted
emotion and imagination as expressions of individuality
in all art forms
In this period, the arts of literature and painting began to
influence music.
In the Romantic era, music acquired poetic or
philosophical meaning.
Antiquity, folklore, history and exotic cultures were mined
as sources of inspiration.
Famous Artists
Paul Cezanne
Edouard Manet
Edgar Degas
Claude Monet
Vincent van Gogh
Edvard Munch
Georges Seurat
“Music, of all the liberal arts, has the
greatest influence over the passions.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte
Characteristics of music in the
Romantic Period
Music is not as reliant on repetition as in
Classical music
The music often directly tells a story
Exploration of tone colors (differences in
sound)
Much bigger orchestras
Popularity of chamber music
Music is highly emotional
Poetry and music are intimately fused
Musical Innovations
Invention of the song cycle (vocal
songs by a composer that focused on
one central idea or used one poem or
poet as their source material)
Invention of the symphonic or tone
poem (instrumental works of one
movement that expressed one complete
idea)
Great works written for solo piano
Composers stretched the listeners ear
by creating a great deal of dissonance
(tense sounds) using chromatic notes,
and extensions of the triad.
Composers began to drift away from the
strong sense of tonality heard in
Classical music.
Founding of conservatories—training
schools for musicians.
Composer
Composers gradually left the patronage
system and became free agents of their
own works.
This meant that the composer, their
music and their livelihood depended on
the public’s approval.
For the first time, a composer’s work
might not be publicly performed during
his or her lifetime.
Romantics saw themselves as
outsiders, isolated from mainstream
society, struggling to express their
creative ideas.
In general, composers held higher
social status than in the Classical
period.
Performer
Rise of virtuosic (expert) performers
the public was captured by virtuosity and
showmanship
Niccolo Paganini was an early virtuoso of the period.
His playing of tender passages was so beautiful that
his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could
perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna
one listener became half crazed and declared that for
some days that he had seen the Devil helping the
violinist.
In addition to performing, Paganini wrote
music so difficult that no one else of the time
could perform it…these pieces remain the
most difficult in all of violin literature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUK
PPRNY00&list=PLdkjwZMK_CIqA7ZUWb7KO
LEKrwahwRtVI
Conductor
Resulted from the
orchestras growth in
numbers and
complexity
Became necessary
to have one person
to lead and control
the orchestra
General Musical Characteristics
Individuality
Expressive Aims and Subjects
Nationalism (my country)
Exoticism (other, remote countries or
fantasy lands)
Rise and Importance of Program Music
(music specifically designed to tell a
story)
More on Program Music…
•
Four main types of program music:
Concert overture Tchaikovsky: 1812
Overturehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8
Incidental music
Program symphony
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique
Symphonic poem / tone poem
Smetana: The Moldau
The Moldau
Composed by Beidrich Smetana
The piece depicts a journey from the source of the river Moldau
(two small springs bubbling over rocks), through hunting scenes,
a wedding, rapids, nightfall and starry skies, and finally a
triumphant entry in the Czech capital, Prague.
In addition to being a tone poem, the work is also very
nationalistic, as Smetana was expressing love of his country
through music.
The Moldau
Other nationalists
Russia
• Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
• “The Mighty Five”
– Mily Balakirev
– Alexander Borodin
– Cesar Cui
– Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
– Modest Musorgsky
Finland, Jean Sibelius
Norway, Edvard Grieg
Spain
• Isaac Albeniz
• Enrique Granados
• Manuel de Falla
England
• Edward Elgar
• Frederick Delius
Czech
• Antonin Dvořák
• Bedřich Smetana
Edvard Grieg
A Norwegian, he was asked to compose
music for a stage of production of “Peer
Gynt”, a play based on a traditional folk
hero.
This example from the suite is
commonly referred to as “morning”:
"Morning" from the Peer Gynt Suite
Musical Elements
Texture
Essentially homophonic (one main
melody with an accompaniment)
Tended to be thick, heavy and lush
Musical Elements
Melody
Age of lyricism – unending melody
Melodies appealed to the emotions
Phrases tended to be longer and irregular
in length
Themes were more complex and utilized
chromaticism
Advent of theme transformation—an idea
changes over time but remains rooted to its
original form (Berlioz, Wagner)
Musical Elements
Harmony
Basically tonal (major or minor)
By end of the 19th century chromaticism
(movement by half steps) stretched
tonality to the breaking point
Chromaticism imbued greater
dissonance and tension into the sound
Musical Elements
Rhythm
Rhythmic effects were used for “color” –
rubato (“to rob”)
Articulations in the instruments tended to be
heavy and intense
A new vocabulary of music terms arose that
indicated how to achieve the composer’s
desired sound – cantabile, dolce, con amore,
allegro agitato. These designations produced
a more emotional sound and response.
Dynamics
Gradual changes
Much wider range – extremes of
dynamic variation, both soft and loud
Used extensively throughout the
compositions
Timbre/Instrumentation
This period saw a full exploration of
the instrumental families.
Instruments were used for both
their individual and collective color
potential.
Instrumental timbre was used to
convey mood and atmosphere.
The orchestra became much larger –
from 70 players to more than 100
(resulting in the necessity of a
conductor).
Instruments could play louder and carry
farther.
Instruments were capable of major
changes in dynamics.
Strings
String sections
increased in size
and were given
more difficult
accompaniment
parts (scales,
arpeggios)
Woodwinds
Development of new instruments
saxophone (baritone and tuba) were invented by
Adolf Sax
piccolo, bass clarinet and English horn were
added.
Important improvements in wind instruments
“Boehm system” of fingering for flutes and
clarinets achieved better facility and intonation for
the performer and greater musical range
Brass
Addition of valves and improvement to
valves on brass instruments allowed the
playing of a full chromatic compass for the
first time and to more easily play quick runs
of notes
Tubas and Trombones were added
Percussion
Expanded to include bass drum, snare
drum, cymbals and other exotic
percussion instruments (gong,
castanets)
Famous Romantic Composers
Frederic Chopin
Franz Liszt
Hector Berlioz
Johannes Brahms
Modest Mussorgsky
Felix Mendelssohn
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Richard Wagner
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Crucial figure in the transition from
Classical to Romantic
The Romantic period really began
around 1815. Works from this period
are characterized by their intellectual
depth, their formal innovations, and their
intense, highly-personal expression.
Frederic Chopin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E6b
3swbnWg
Franz Liszt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H99FM6S8rU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1laz-7C2KM
Hector Berlioz
Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique—1830
Written only a few years after the death of Beethoven, this
worked stretched the capabilities of both the sounds possible for
an orchestra and also the ability of an audience to bear intense
emotions.
Berlioz had attended a play during which he was smitten with
love for an actress (Harriet Smithson) onstage. He tried to
reach her after the play but was turned away as a nobody.
He used his unrequited (unreturned) love as a creative engine to
begin work on a piece inspired by Harriet.
He conceived of a composition that would directly tell a story
through music, but without words.
Symphony Fantastique
1st Movement-Reveries and Passions: this movement introduces
the main melody (idee fixee) that Berlioz will use throughout the
entire work. This theme initially represents the beauty and
innocence of the woman the main character loves.
Symphony Fantastique-1st Movement
2nd Movement-A Ball: this movement follows the main character
approaching a building through a fog and being led by the music
to finally being able to see through the windows to watch as a
dance ball is taking place. The idee fixee is now transformed
into a dance.
Symphony Fantastique 2nd Movement
Symphony Fantastique
3rd Movement-Scene in the Country: this movement has the
main character in the country listening to two shepherds having
a dialogue on distant hills…call and response is used to
simulate the conversation and the echoes…the movement ends
with one shepherd calling out only to be answered by
silence…and distant thunder…
Symphony Fantastique 3rd Movement
Symphony Fantastique
4th Movement-March to the Scaffold: in this
movement, the main character has now been
accused of having murdered his beloved and
is being led to the scaffold to have his head
cut off…see if you can tell when the ax falls..
Symphony Fantastique 4th Movement
Symphony Fantastique
5th Movement-Dreams of a Witches Sabbath: The main character, now
dead, sees his own funeral attended by witches…and who should join
them but his beloved, whose idee fixee is now transformed into a
cackling dance to which all the witches swirl as they celebrate their
trickery. The movement continues with the introduction of the
Gregorian Chant “Dies Irae” and the build up to a climax of amazing
power, particularly that this work called for the largest orchestra that
had ever been assembled at the time. In addition, Berlioz used
techniques of orchestration that produced sounds no one had ever
heard before (such as the string players using the wooden part of their
bow to play the strings). All this just a few years after the death of
Beethoven.
Symphony Fantastique 5th Movement
Johannes Brahms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9LvC9WkkQ
Modest Mussorgsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLCuL-K39eQ
Felix Mendelssohn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tDYMayp6Dk
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2W1Wi2U9sQ
Web
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Russian composer
Wrote 11 operas, 4 concertos, 6
symphonies, 3 ballets
Most remembered for his ballets: Sleeping
Beauty and Swan Lake
Music is intense: Melancholy & emotional
It has been speculated that he committed
suicide
Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Began composing at age 17
3 stages of opera creations:
early, middle, and third
His primary legacy was his
creation of incredibly long
and intricate operas
His ego was a powerful as
his music, if not always of
the same quality.
The Ring Cycle
Series of operas linked by a storyline and by use of leitmotifs
(musical phrases linked to a specific character).
Das Rheingold—Rhinegold
Die Valkyries—The Valkyries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRU1AJsXN1g
Siegfried—Seigfried
Gotterdamerung—Twilight of the Gods
12 hours total of the tale of a gold ring that will either save or
destroy the Earth and the gods themselves…fortunately
summed up magnificently in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4mJe6sojQw
Tristan & Isolde
In the Wagnerian version the
plot is briefly as follows: Tristan,
having lost his parents in
infancy, has been reared at the
court of his uncle, Marke, King
of Cornwall. He has slain in
combat Morold, an Irish knight,
who had come to Cornwall, to
collect the tribute that country
had been paying to Ireland.
Morold was affianced to his
cousin Isolde, daughter of the
Irish king. Tristan, having been
dangerously wounded in the
combat, places himself, without
disclosing his identity, under
the care of Morold’s affianced,
Isolde who comes of a race
skilled in magic arts.
She discerns who he is; but,
although she is aware that
she is harbouring the slayer
of her affianced, she spares
him and carefully tends him,
for she has conceived a
deep passion for him. Tristan
also becomes enamoured of
her, but both deem their love
unrequited. Soon after
Tristan’s return to Cornwall,
he is dispatched to Ireland
by Marke, that he may win
Isolde as Queen for the
Cornish king…
Tristan and Isolde
The Overture-this overture is considered very
important as it never settles into any particular
key, so it helped shatter the expectations of a
song “having” to be in one key, or mode
(major or minor)…this led to many innovations
in 20th century composing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAULLxcW
SpM
Period Instruments
Tuba
Alto, Bass, Contrabass Clarinet
Contrabassoon
Euphonium
Alto, Tenor, Baritone Saxophone
Alto Flute
Romantic Opera
In addition to the huge, thundering
works of Wagner, other countries had
composers whose greatest works were
operas.
Verdi and Italian Opera
•
28 operas
•
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
•
Italian composer
•
Patriotic, nationalistic works
•
Composed successfully until age 80
•
Died at 87
•
National hero
•
Requiem: "Dies Irae"
Music 013-L Music Appreciation
Rossini and Italian Opera
•
Opposing genres of opera
seria (serious opera) and
opera buffa (comic opera)
still prevalent in Italy
•
Gioachino Rossini (1792 –
1868)
–The Barber of Seville
– William Tell Overture
(Finale)
The Big Takeaway…
Music in the Romantic Period reflected the growth of ideas
through expanded forms, expanded sounds, and expanded
emotional impact.
As industry impacted the world, music followed suit with
changes in instrument invention and design.
Compositions grew larger/longer, but mostly relied on older
forms (symphonies, concertos, sonatas, etc.).
Composers’ imaginations followed general trends towards more
expressive subjects, including source material from both home
(nationalism) and abroad (exoticism).