Transcript Romantic Era 1810-1900

Romantic Era
1810-1900
Mrs Crossan
Moffat Academy
Composers
BEETHOVEN
1770-1827
SCHUBERT
1797-1828
BRAHMS
1833-1897
VERDI
1873-1901
MENDELSSOHN
1809-1847
WAGNER
1813-1883
DVORAK
1841-1904
TCHAIKOVSKY
1840-1893
Romanticism ~1810 - 1900
A beginning of
new ideas.
Composers had a
fascination with the
mystic and
supernatural both
religious and spooky.
An artistic, literary and
intellectual movement which
was strengthened by the
Industrial Revolution.
Attention to
National
Identity~
Composers showed a
greater interest in Nature. Nationalism.
“Wanderer above the Sea Fog” by C. D
Freidrich. An exam of Romantic painting.
i.e. Beethoven’s Pastoral
Symphony.
Composers started to
show discontent with
musical conventions.
What composers wrote
about…
• Romantic composers had a wide interest in all forms of
art and befriended artists, writers, poets and other
composers.
• These friendships often provided the inspiration for the
composition of new music as the composers
experimented with sound to create the feelings of:
– emotions
– the story of poems
– the description of the
countryside
– fantasies and dreams
– love
– war
– rivers and lakes
Nationalism
– Music where the composer
writes music to represent a
country.
– They could use folk melodies,
notable rhythms, programme
music which describes their
homeland.
Edward Elgar- ‘Pomp and
Circumstance’
A military style march. The name is taken
from a work of Shakespeare
Jean Sibelius- ‘Finlandia’
Interpreted to represent the rising
nation of Finland, which would
someday gain independence from
Russia
Edvard Grieg- ‘Peer Gynt’
A Norwegian folk story which Grieg put
to music.
Frederic Chopin- ‘Mazurkas’
The first composer to incorporate
nationalistic elements into his
compositions. His Mazurkas use
nationalistic rhythms.
The industrial revolution
Events and changes that happen in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries,
inventions, and historical events always affect music.
The Industrial Revolution was in full effect by the late 18th century and early
19th century. This event had a very profound effect on music:
–
there were major improvements in the mechanical valves, and keys that most woodwinds
and brass instruments depend on. The new and innovative instruments could be played with
more ease and they were more reliable
Another development that had an effect on music was the rise of the middle class.
Composers before this period lived on the patronage of the aristocracy. Many
times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and
individuals who were knowledgeable about music.
The Romantic composers, on the other hand, often wrote for public concerts
and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers, who had not
necessarily had any music lessons. Composers of the Romantic Era, like
Elgar, showed the world that there should be "no segregation of musical
tastes” and that the "purpose was to write music that was to be heard“.
The Romantic Orchestra
POWERFUL
BRASS
SECTION
Increase in
ORCHESTRA
SIZE
Growing
PERCUSSION
SECTION~ including a
range of drums and cymbals.
Increased
STRINGS~ to
balance out the other
larger sections.
Addition of
the TUBA
The Romantic Orchestra
• Composers of the
Romantic period were
very excited and keen to
explore all the new
sound possibilities.
• They wanted to create
new, rich and varied
timbres when writing for
groups from small
ensembles (chamber
music) to giant orchestral
sounds.
Early Romantic Chamber Music
• Bridging the gap between the Classical and Romantic
periods, Beethoven continued the development of
chamber music with a combination of sonatas, string
trios, piano trios, string quartets and similar
compositions.
Listen to the arpeggios
In the minor key.
Listen to this excerpt from a piano sonata,
just bridging the period from
Classical to Romantic, in which the
third movement is still a minuet and trio.
The ternary form is quite clear to
the listener. Notice the use
of octaves, imitation,
the contrast in dynamics,
the use of rubato and the different
style of the playing in the middle section the trio.
Early Romantic Chamber Music
Now listen to an excerpt from a
last movement, a rondo, from a
violin sonata by Beethoven and
notice how the two instruments
share the thematic material
between them.
This quintet is unusual as it is
one of the few chamber works to
use a double bass added to a
piano quartet of piano, violin,
viola and cello. After the main
theme has been introduced the
distinctive rippling sound to
represent the stream is played in
the first variation.
Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 135,
his last, written in 1825 just two years
before his death.
In his later works the standard shape
of the movements starts to change a
little, for instance the quartet before
this had five movements.
In this one the second movement,
instead of being slow, is a fast one, a
scherzo, which by now had replaced
the minuet and trio. Listen for the
ternary form, the quite distinct
syncopation near the beginning, lots
of staccato playing, imitation
between parts, and a repeated figure
in the cello part before the repeat of
the first section.
Late Romantic Chamber Music
• As the 19th century progressed the chamber music
styles established in the Classical period continued and
much of the progress was built around the use of the
new improved piano.
• Robert Schumann (1810–1856) composed all kinds of
music and is famous for his programmatic
symphonies, concertos, song cycles and
instrumental music.
Late Romantic Chamber Music
Ensemble Music
String quartets were
still a popular form with
composers.
Listen to this excerpt from the
last movement of Dvorak’s
String Quartet No. 10.
Notice :
– the bright, happy ‘allegro assai’,
– the imitation between parts,
– and most importantly the changes
of tempo within
the excerpt.
Composers started to experiment
with new combinations of
instruments
• Listen to this excerpt by the
French composer Gounod
from a work for nine wind
instruments: flutes, oboes,
clarinets, bassoons and a
French horn.
This is a scherzo so you will
notice:
– the quick three beats in a bar,
– much use of imitation and
repetition,
– and the different texture of the
middle section introduced by the
French horn with the original
material returning towards the end
of the movement, giving this an
overall ternary form.
Piano Music
• One of the most important
features of the 18th century
was the development of the
piano from a woodenframed instrument with
leather-covered hammers to
an instrument with an iron
frame and felt-covered
hammers much like the
upright and grand pianos of
today.
• The greater strength of the
frame allowed for longer,
thicker strings and as a
result, a much warmer and
richer sound.
Piano Music
Sonatas
– While sonatas were still written after
the time of Beethoven and Schubert,
there was a tendency among many
composers to write shorter works, some
of which could express feeling, emotion
or atmosphere.
Prelude: Chopin- “Snowdrop”
Listen to the use of Rubato.
Nocturne: John Field
Listen to the singing melody played against
the arpeggio accompaniment. Again Listen to
the use of Rubato and the use of suspensions.
Piano Music
• Theme and Variations
– Theme and variations was still a popular
form and one of the few to survive from
the Baroque period.
• Listen to this example of variations on a theme of a
well-known Christmas carol, ‘Adeste Fideles’,
better known to many as ‘O come all ye faithful’.
Things to listen carefully for:
Introduction
using the first
phrase of the
carol- in the
MINOR key.
Followed by the
MAIN
RECOGNISABLE
THEME.
Continued with
VARIATIONS
on parts of the
theme.
Early Symphony
• The period from 1815 to
1910 saw a comprehensive
development of the
symphony
– from a work in four
movements which could be
played by a small orchestra of
30 to 40 players, to,
– by the end of the nineteenth
century, a large work for an
orchestra of as many as 120
players. During that time the
shape of the symphony also
developed and could have
anything from one to six
movements.
Listening Comparison
BEETHOVEN
1804
•
•
1823
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 was
regarded as a turning point in
orchestration and while this and the
next four of his works in this style are
classical, differences start to be heard
in the sound of the orchestra and the
handling of the instruments.
Listen to an excerpt of the third
movement from Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 3. Notice:
–
–
–
the speed of the music,
the dynamic contrasts, crescendo,
the use of strings and woodwind conversing
with one another and a typical Beethoven
technique of following a very loud section with
a very quiet one.
•
•
By the time Beethoven wrote his
Symphony No. 9, he was totally deaf
and despite this his music had reached
new levels in originality.
The ‘Ode to Joy’ of the last
movement of this symphony is worldrenowned and his combination of large
orchestra, SATB (soprano, alto,
tenor, bass) chorus and SATB
soloists was unique in a symphony of
this time.
Late Symphony
•
As the nineteenth century
progressed most of the major
composers wrote symphonies.
The orchestra grew in size to
include:
– more woodwind, at least
double woodwind
instruments and later triple
with the inclusion of piccolo
on the top and contra
bassoon on the bottom (In an
orchestra double woodwind
implies two instruments per
type and triple, three per
instrument.)
– a brass section of up to four
trumpets, four French
horns, three trombones and
tuba
– a larger percussion section
using timpani, bass drum
and crash cymbals.
Late Symphonies
BRAHMS:
Wrote 4 symphonies. These
were written in a classical
shape. However, he used
larger orchestra and the
works were on a lot larger
scale taking almost 1 hour
to perform.
DVORAK:
Wrote a number of symphonies, the
most well known- “From the New
World”. It has 4 movements:
1) Adagio (In sonata form)
2) Largo (The one everyone knows)- a
very dramatic brass section at the
beginning. Main theme played on
Cor Anglais.
3) Scherzo
Dvorak “New World”
4) Allegro
VOCAL MUSIC
~Solo Song~
Lied
• Lied is a work for solo
voice and piano.
– The text is in German;
– the structure of the verses
could be strophic or
through composed.
– An important feature is that
the voice and piano are
equally important with the
piano often setting the
atmosphere for the text of
the song in the
accompaniment.
THROUGH COMPOSED:
A vocal or choral composition in
which there is little or no repetition
of the music.
GERMAN
FOR
SONG
STROPHIC:
A vocal or choral
composition in which
each verse has the
same music.
Song Cycle
a group, or cycle, of
songs designed to be
performed in a
sequence as a single
entity
Song cycles exist in modern
music too:
Pink Floyd ~ The Wall
Arcade Fire ~ The Suburbs
Plan B ~ The Defamation of
Strickland Banks
all of the songs are by
the same composer and
often use words from
the same poet or lyricist
Unification can be
achieved by a narrative
or a persona common to
the songs, or even, as in
Robert Schumann’s
Liederkreis by the
atmospheric setting of the
forest.
Listen to “Der
Lindembaum” (The
Linden Tree) from
‘Winterreise’ a cycle of 20
songs by Franz Schubert.
You can clearly hear
the composer
describing the breeze in
the tree in the piano part.
Choral Music
Choral Music
ORATORIO:
Here is perhaps the
most famous chorus
by Berlioz, ‘Thou
must leave thy
lowly dwelling’.
Listen to the
homophonic texture
of the music, which is
strophic in style, i.e.
three verses of the
same music.
MASS:
Bruckner composed a
large number of
religious works.
He wrote many
Masses.
Listen to this excerpt
from his Mass in E
minor. Notice the use
of unison singing,
chromatic sequences
towards the end, and
organ and orchestral
accompaniment,
although little is heard
of the orchestra in this
excerpt.
REQUIEM:
A requiem is a Mass
for the dead!
Verdi's Requiem has
a dramatic sound
This is a short
movement but it is
even more dramatic
than Mozart's
version. It has a
large chorus and
orchestra and in
particular a large
percussion section
including a bass
drum, clearly heard
on the off beat
at the beginning,
and crash cymbals.
Programme Music
Programme Music
• Programme music is
music which tells a story,
describes a scene or
painting.
BEETHOVEN:
PASTORAL
SYMPHONY
NO.6
SAINT-SAEN:
CARNIVAL OF
THE ANIMALS
MUSSORGSKY:
PICTURES AT AN
EXHIBITION
DUKAS:
SORCERERS
APPRENTICE
Symphonic Poem or Tone Poem
A one movement work which illustrates or evokes the content of a
poem, short story, novel, painting or landscape.
considerable
length
Dramatic
Including ‘Hamlet’ a tone poem
based on the Shakespearean
play. And ‘Orpheus’ based on
the Greek Legend.
Smetana
Vltava
Duka’s
Sorcerer’s
Apprentice
First composed by
Hungarian composer Franz
Liszt and called Tone
Poem’s. He wrote 13.
Saint-Saen
Danse
Macabre
Idee Fixe or Leitmotif
a short, constantly recurring musical phrase associated with a
particular person, place, or idea.
Star Wars
Darth Vader
Theme
Richard Wagner:
The Siegfried leitmotif from Wagner's
opera, the third of his Ring cycle; the
theme is broader and more richly
orchestrated than its earlier
appearances, suggesting the
emergence of Siegfried's heroic
character
Jaws
Prokofiev:
Peter and the
Wolf
Test on concepts below:
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Lied
Lieder
Song Cycle
Programme Music
Symphonic/ Tone Poem
Idee Fixe
Nationalism
Late Romanticism
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Chamber music
Sonata
String quartet
Concerto
Symphony
Strophic
Through composed
Oratorio
Mass
Requiem