Romantic Terms

Romantic (Romanticism)

the Western Art Music time period from roughly 1830(ish)-1910(ish); abandonment of V-I; focuses on nature’s vastness and indfference to man, the heroic, the bizarre, fantastic, supernatural, rejection of the rational, embrace of the emotional and sensual/passionate

Lied

German for song. A song with text in German, usually with piano accompaniment. This genre develops before the Romantic, but interest in ______ explodes during the time frame. Schubert wrote over 600, Schumann over 250, Brahms 200, etc. ____ is a specific type of art song, which, today, we think of as a song composed for its artistic merit v. popular appeal (in terms of audience)

song cycle

a collection of songs that are thematically related, that tell a story, or that otherwise for a single musical and poetic entity, as opposed to indivdual songs. Romantic composers like Schubert, Die schone Mullerin (1823) and Winterreise (1827), and Schumann, Frauen Liebe und Leben and Dichterliebe (both 1840) compose important cycles

program music

music that seeks to portray physical actions, objects, or scenes in a narrative manner without the us of words; music that tells a story through music. I.e., we’re supposed to understand, rather than speculate about, what the music is representing (contrast with absolute music)

absolute music

music that is free of any association with a text or other extramusical idea such as a descriptive or pictorial “program” (contrast with program music)

interlude/intermezzo

a general term for music played or sung between the main parts of either a musical work or, occasionally, a non-musical event; [1] in a church service between parts, often improvised [2] in a theatrical performance an _________ consists of an instrumental item between acts or, on a more elaborate scale, an entertainment such as an __________ which is a small lighter theatrical work in and of itself [3] in instrumental music an _________ is usually a short connecting episode between movements rather than a movement in itself. But it doesn’t have to be any of these things. It can be a standalone piece, just as a prelude doesn’t have to happen before something else.

prelude

literally “to play before;” often the introductory movement to a suite or to a more involved section such as a fugue. In the 19th century the term came increasingly to be applied to the suggestive, mood-setting introductions that took the place of full-blown opera overtures and also to freestanding keyboard works, which were not as a prelude to anything, but often self-contained pieces with their own points of interest.

leitmotif

a musical representation of a specific object, person, or idea in a descriptive piece such as an opera, symphonic poem, or movie score, which is used not only as a thematic tag (indicating the object/person/idea in question) but as a substantive element of the overall musical discourse

chromatic

(from Greek khroma, “color”) in tonal music, a passage or piece characterized by the use of notes not belonging to the diatonic major or minor scale; by introducing notes that are outside of the given key, thereby destabilizing it, ________ism has a tendency to produce a feeling of urgency, poignancy, and unrest; it has been a feature of expression withing tonal music long time (to the foundations of the concept), but is taken to great extremes as we reach the end of the Romantic

piano quartet

chamber music featuring piano and three other instruments

nocturne

a piece suggesting night, usually quiet and meditative in character, but not invariably so; in the 19th century, it is often for piano, with composers like John Field (Irish) followed by Chopin (Polish) and others as the chief developers of the genre

rubato

musical directive referring to phrasing that involves a departure, for expressive purposes, the precise notated rhythm without a disturbance of the pulse; it can give the music’s tempo/pulse a pushing-an-pulling effect

stretto

[1] an overlapping series of musical entrances in close succession [2, the one we want in this context] musical directive to adopt of a faster tempo in the climactic or closing portions of a musical section/piece

espressivo

musical directive to play expressively or with feeling

praxis/performance practice

the customs, conventions, and knowledge that performers use when creating a performance; in the context of notated music, this includes many things that aren’t necessarily spelled out unambiguously in the music itself, but are known, and often passed teacher to student, as relating to “that’s how it should go”

nationalism

in a musical context, ___________ refers to the use of musical ideas that identified with a specific country, region, or ethnicity, often including folk tunes and melodies; as empires break up in the 19th century, music of different regions help support this or are allowed to flourish

recording

a thing (noun); a _________ of, or technology: (verb) to ______, sound such that the exact audible (and now visible) phenomena of a performance can be captured and reproduced for others to listen to asynchronously; _________ technology developed in the second half of the 19th century, and by the mid 20th century, much of the art-music repertoire had been recorded, and today, __________ (audio and/or video) of performances of all types of music are ubiquitous and available easily; no longer is live performance necessary as a way to transit heard/seen music from performer to audience

dolce

musical directive to play in a “sweet” or gentle manner

-issimo

(VERY generally) a suffix (used in musical directives) that intensifies whatever it is attached to

-etto

(VERY generally) a suffix (used in musical directives) that lessens/relaxes the effect/manner of whatever it is attached to

come sopra

musical directive to indicate “as above” or “in a similar manner as before/previously”

orchestration

the art of employing instruments in various combinations, most notably in the orchestra, and including the understanding of properties and capabilities of the various instruments; one who ____________ is interested in timbres and their combinations and assigning which instruments to play which parts; the __________ of the Romantic becomes larger and larger, and the idea of _____________ for intentional colors by this time so that composers would know they could count on having specific colors available in the _________ on a consistent basis

critic

a person who judges the merits of literary, artistic, or musical works, especially one who does so professionally

Neue Zeitschrift Fur Musik

the New Journal of Music is a music magazine started in 1834, co-funded in Keipzig by Robert Schumann, Friedrich Wieck, Julius Knorr, and Ludwig Schuncke; it featured commentary, criticism, and discussion of music; journals such as these proliferate in the 19th century and feature criticism designed for a wider audience

parallel period

a musical structure that consists of two phrases that are identical/almost identical/start the same way; in some instances, the phrases begin with the same structure and ideas, but resolve differently, often with a less strong cadence in the first phrase and a stronger cadence in the second; (in this case, the first phrase is called the antecedent, and the second, the consequence)

embellishing tones

“decorate chord tones in specific ways (e.g., as passing tones, neighbor tones, or suspensions). Though they may be consonant or dissonant, the majority are dissonant (from outside the underlying harmony), adding flavor and interest to the consonant intervals in the chords”

tone poem (symphonic poem)

a freestanding orchestral work, often in a single movement (but can be multiple parts), based on a literary or descriptive program; they are popular in the Romantic

sequence

the more or less exact repetition of a passage at a higher or lower level pitch