Transcript Frederic Chopin - Kirkwood Community College

Johannes Brahms
May 7, 1833 – April 3 1897
Johannes Brahms- Life
• Musical family
- great musical education
• In his youth, led a double life
- During the day studied piano &
composition
- At night played dance music in cafes
• Became great friend of the Schumanns
Johannes Brahms- Music
• Romantic expression in classical forms!
• Nicknamed the Autumn composer
• Had an understanding of the “great
German lineage”
- lived in Beethoven’s shadow
- feared living up to people’s expectations
Johannes Brahms- Music
• 2 Serenades
• 4 Symphonies
- The first is an obvious homage to Beethoven
- The final three break away from classical roots
• Over 200 songs
• Concerti, Choral, & Chamber works, but
no Operas (big on absolute music)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky- Life
• Russian
• Complex relationship with his
family, esp. women
• Age 10- Boarding school
• Age 14- Death of mother
• Establishment of sexuality
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky- Life
• Employment at Moscow Conservatory
– Romantic relationships with students
• Marriage to a woman
– Brief and traumatic
– Attempt at concealing his sexuality
– Attempted suicide 2 weeks after wedding
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky- Life
• 1877-1890- Received patronage from
Nadezdha von Meck
– Money allowed him to concentrate on music &
leave the Moscow Conservatory
– Emotional relationship through letters
– 1890: communication cut off abruptly
• 1893: Death, possibly suicide
- nine days after conducting the premiere of
Symphony #6
Instrumental Works
• Over-the-top romantic ideals and ideas
• Wrote mostly for orchestra (ballets,
symphonies, concerti, overtures, etc.)
• Piano Concerto No. 1
• Symphony No. 4, 5, & 6
• Deeply personal
• Vehicles of expression
• Possibly programmatic
Symphony No. 4
• Dedicated to Meck
• “Fate motive” throughout:
“The fatal power which prevents one from
attaining the goal of happiness. There is
nothing to be done but to submit to it and
lament in vain”
Symphony No. 5
• Motive throughout from Glinka’s Life of the
Czar Opera- “Turn not to sorrow”
• Funeral treatment of motive in first
movement
• Transformation to optimism in final
movement
Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”
• Admitted to program
• “Pathetique” translates in Russian to
“passionate” or “emotional”
• Predicts death
Symphony No. 6
“Just as I was starting on my trip, the idea for a new symphony
came to me, this time a program symphony, but with a program
that shall remain unknown to all. Let them try to figure it out—the
work will be called simply "A Program Symphony (No. 6)." The
program for it is subjective through and through, and during my
trip, as I composed it in my mind, I often actually wept. When I
returned and set to work on my sketches my work went so
rapidly that the entire first movement was finished in less than
four days and the shape of the remaining movements was quite
clear in my mind. There will be much that is novel in the form.
The finale, for example, will not be a great allegro, but an
extensive adagio.” -Feb. 22, 1893
“…I am confident in considering it the best and, above all, the
"most genuinely sincere" of all my works. I love it as I have never
loved any of my other musical offspring. “ –August 18, 1893
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
(1839-1881)
• Thought of as the most superior
composer, but was revised by fellow
composers to the point of changing his
music
• Best compositions are songs and the
opera “Boris Godunov” but biggest
hits are:
-Pictures at an Exhibition
-Night on Bald Mountain
Pictures at an Exhibition
• Originally written for piano, later orchestrated by
Ravel
• Based on the memorial exhibition of friend Viktor
Hartmann,
• The Promenade serves as introduction (walking
into the museum) and then as walking music in
between paintings
• Underlining theme that the paintings tell the story
of Hatmann’s life
• Last two movements: Baba Yaga & Great Gate of
Kiev