Transcript Romantic period - De Anza College

Part V
The Romantic Period
1820-1900
Romantic period: Romantic: comes from
romance: Literary meaning: a tale or poem
treating historical events or personages, written
in one of the Romance languages –descended
from Roman, or Latin
King Arthur: “Arthurian romances”
• Associated with folktales about King
Arthur—British king of 5th and 6th
century
• “Romantic” term First came into use
around the 17th century: fictitious,
fantastic, boundless
• •Only later was it applied to music
of the 19th century
• Romanticism enveloped all the arts:
literature, including poetry, painting,
music, drama; Drive toward “union
of the arts”
• Society: Industrial revolution in full swing.
Feudal system is thing of the past, capitalist
class systems emerge.
• Rebellion against classicism
• Political struggles portrayed
Musical Romanticism
• Continuity of style between Classical,
Romantic periods—evolutionary rather than
revolutionary change
Why distinguish?
•
Expressive content
Beethoven paved the way—how?
• Tried to evoke “extra-musical” events
– Tie to evolution of instrumental music
Musical comparison
• Mozart: Symphony 40 (G minor), 2nd
movement
– Qualities?
• Beethoven: 6th symphony
– What does it sound like?
Program Music
• Association with a story/poem/idea/scene
• Understanding the music enhanced through reading
program or viewing associated work
Evolutionary inevitability toward
Romantic from Baroque
• Individual human emotions validated
– Emotional subjectivity basis of arts
• Instrumental music’s increase ability to convey
emotion
• Beethoven pushed toward next step
Liszt at the Piano (Joseph Danhauser 1840)
Niccolò Paganini
Hector Berlioz
Beethoven
Gioachino Rossini
Franz Liszt
Alexandre Dumas
George Sand
Marie d'Agoult
Characteristics of Romantic Music,
Literature and Art
1. Heightened and personalized expression
• Composers want uniquely identifiable music
Characteristics of Romantic Music
2. Fascination with macabre and supernatural
• Dark topics draw writers, artists and composers
Eugen Delacroix:
Dante and Virgil in Hell
Characteristics of Romantic Music
3. Nationalism and Exoticism
• Nationalism: music
with a national identity
• Exoticism: intentionally
imply foreign culture
• Frequently in operas with
foreign settings
Battle of Rancagua by Pedro Subercaseaux
(Spanish reconquest of Chile)
Characteristics of Romantic Music
4. Nature
Musical Characteristics of Romantic Music
Expressive Tone Color
• Composers tried to create unique sounds
• Blending of existing instruments
• Addition of new instruments
• Tone color important to emotional content
To accomplish: Larger orchestra
new instruments
new techniques
Colorful Harmony - Chromaticism
• Chords built w/ notes not in traditional keys
• Harmonic instability consciously used device
Expanded Range of Dynamics, Pitch & Tempo
• Dynamics ff, pp expanded to ffff & pppp
• Extremely high and low pitches were added
• Changes in mood frequently underlined by
(sometimes subtle) shifts in tempo
Forms: Miniature and Monumental
• Some compositions went
on for hours
• Some required hundreds of performers
Ch. 1- Romanticism in Music--forms
Composers continued to write symphonies, sonatas, string
quartets, concertos, operas, many other Classically traditional
works
• BUT form becomes subservient to expression
• —formal challenge presented
New genres seek to address
• Program music
•
• Great diversity
• If no program, there is a problem
To Solve: Thematic unity, thematic
transformation
Form, cont.
• Extremes in the other direction
– the Miniature
• Pieces music lasting only a few
minutes – or less
• Some written for a single instrument
Forms, cont.
• Examples of miniatures
• Miniature instrumental composition
• Art song (lied)
• Art song link to new piano design, mass production
• Designed for performance in intimate settings
Ch. 3 - The Art Song, or German lied
• Composition for solo voice and piano
• Accompaniment integral part of the song
• Linked to vast amount of poetry in this period
• Composers interpreted poems, translating mood,
atmosphere and imagery into music - compare to
madrigal
• Goethe, Schiller, Heine
• Mood often summed up at end with piano postlude
Art Song form
Strophic and Through-Composed Form
• Strophic form repeats music for each verse
• Through-composed—new music each verse
• Sometimes modified strophic form used
The Song Cycle
• Group of songs unified in some manner
• Storyline or musical idea may link the songs
Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert, cont.
• Born in Vienna (1797-1828)
• Son of schoolmaster, but got early training
• Choirboy at Seminary, included music
lessons
• Very gifted: “This one’s learned from God!”
• Lived in Shadow of Beethoven
• Shy, modest, did not have notoriety of
Beethoven.
• Difficulty to get work
•
•
•
•
Did not mix with aristocracy—preferred middle class,
artistic circle of friends
Gave up school teaching at 21
Lived “bohemian” existence
Held “Schubertiads” instead -- only his music played
Listening: Erlkönig (The Erlking), 1815
A Lied by Franz Schubert for piano and voice
Vocal Music Guide: p. 221
Based upon narrative ballad with
supernatural topic by Goethe
Erlkonig
Listening Log:
Create a timeline of 4 minutes along the long edge of paper
Along several points in the timeline:
• Describe how piano accompaniment augments the song;
what, exactly, is going on?
• How does the vocal part enhance the poem?
Discussion: Which of the four favorite topics of Romantic
composers is being used?
Die Erlkonig
Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Er faßt ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.
Who rides so late through the night and wind?
It's the father with his child;
He has the boy safe in his arm,
He holds him secure, he holds him warm.
«Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?» –
Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif? –
«Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif.» –
“My son, what makes you hide your face in fear?” –
Father, don't you see the Erlking?
The Erlking with crown and flowing robe? –
“My son, it's a wisp of fog.” –
«Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel' ich mit dir;
Manch bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.»
“You dear child, come along with me!
Such lovely games I'll play with you;
Many colorful flowers are at the shore,
My mother has many a golden garment.”
Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,
Was Erlenkönig mir leise verspricht? –
«Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind;
In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind.» –
My father, my father, and do you not hear
What the Erlking promises me so softly? –
“Be quiet, stay quiet, my child;
In the dry leaves the wind is rustling.” –
Die Erlkonig, cont.
«Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn?
Meine Töchter sollen dich warten schön;
Meine Töchter führen den nächtlichen Reihn,
Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein.»
sleep.”
“Won't you come along with me, my fine boy?
My daughters shall attend to you so nicely.
My daughters do their nightly dance,
And they'll rock you and dance you and sing you to
Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort
Erlkönigs Töchter am düstern Ort? –
«Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh es genau:
Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau.»
My father, my father, and do you not see over there
Erlking's daughters in that dark place? –
“My son, my son, I see it most definitely:
It's the willow trees looking so grey.”
«Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt;
Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt.»
Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt faßt er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leids getan! –
“I love you; I'm charmed by your beautiful form;
And if you're not willing, then I'll use force.”
My father, my father, now he's grabbing hold of me!
Erlking has done me harm! –
Dem Vater grausets, er reitet geschwind,
Er hält in Armen das ächzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Mühe und Not;
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.
The father shudders, he rides swiftly,
He holds in (his) arms the moaning child.
He reaches the farmhouse with effort and urgency.
In his arms the child was dead.
Ch. 4. Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
• Very prolific composer!
• 13 operas, hundreds of sacred and choral works
• 9 symphonies, 100s of chamber and piano works
• Wrote over 300 works by the time he was 21, including 2
symphonies, an opera, a mass
• When 18 years old wrote 143 songs
• At 19 years wrote 179 works
• Great variety in writing
• greatest output are his songs–600 in all!
• Erlkonig written at age 18!
Ch. 2 - Romantic Composers and Their Public
Schubert epitomizes the situation for composers in the Romantic
period
• Demise of the patronage system
• Composers regarded themselves as “free spirits”
• Decline in aristocratic fortune—Napoleonic wars
• New urban classes/new musical topics
• Public was entranced by virtuosity
• Piano became a fixture in most homes
• Composers/audience: same
social class