i hate music history- romanticism

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• German poet

• Fanny and Felix Mendosslen, Berlioz

• Franz Schubert ElfKing

  • Was not impressed with the young composer’s dramatic setting, possibly because it did not convey the “folk song” character that the poet wanted to evoke

• Leading figure along with Heine among a group of poets in England who favored short, personal “lyric” poems

Heinrich Heine

• German Poet

• Robert Schumann, A Poet’s Love, In the Lovely Month of May

Victor Hugo

• France’s lead poet and playwright

• Verdi’s Rigoletto based on Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse

• Berlioz

Franz Peter Schubert

• German composer

• A classical romanticist, First in the classic-romantic structure

• Composed more than 600 Lieder

• Some song like Elf King performed in concert setting, most were in intimate settings because he wrote dances and chamber works

• Born in Vienna, sang in Vienna Boys’ Choir

• Schubertiad: dinner parties where Schubert would have others perform his works at his home in Vienna for his circle of musical friends

Robert Schumann

• German composer

• Classic romanticist, he liked the forms of the classical period but was very romantic in his expression

• Poster child for Romantic era

• Music critic

• 1840; Schumann wrote a lot of music inspired by Clara

• Many mental struggles, spent his last 2 years in a mental asylum after he threw himself into a river

• Health prevented him from being a concert pianist -> turned to composing

• Lots of programmatic music (often piano music, with poetry attached)

• Wrote over 200 lieder, song cycles, solo piano, solo vocal, 1 opera, choral music

• Song cycles: Frauenliebe und Leben ("Woman's Love and Life") and Dichterliebe ("Poet's Love")

Frédéric Chopin

• From Poland- wrote inspired by wars occurring in his country (Poland and Russia)

• Nationalist composer

• First performed at age 8

• First work published at 15 in Vienna

• Journalist endorsed him -> rise in popularity

• Wide circle of artistic friends and patrons

• Paris (met Rossini, Bellini, Berlioz, and Hedrich Heine (poet) networking w/ composers)

• Aurore Dudevant (George Sand): author; had 9 yr relationship w/ Chopin, was his muse

• Full liberation of the piano from other things

• Performance style of piano/tradition of solo piano started by Chopin

• Modulations anticipate the the style of the 20th century

• Wrote exclusively for piano

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

• German composer and pianist

• Presided over salon performances at the Mendelssohn house

• Wrote a character piece from piano cycle that had 12 pieces one for each month

• Also a child prodigy, talented piano and composer and teacher

• Wrote Lieder

• Only advised to exhibit her skills in private life

Clara Wieck Schumann

• German

• talented performer and composer of piano, vocal, and chamber music

• Daughter of Friedrich who was Schumann’s teacher

Hector Berlioz

• french composer

• Most of his music is dramatic in nature (tells stories)

• Bold, intense, passionate

• Master of orchestration: knew how to combine instruments to get the colors he wants

• Mother was devout religious, Father was an intellectual

• Became fascinated with literature early on

• Self-taught, no formal education

• Began composing as a teenager

• Attended med school in Paris- witnessed local opera scene -> picked up guitar and flute

• Early music career

  • Finished medical degree -> turned toward music career

  • Won “Prix de Rome” at age of 27- composition competition

• Personal LIfe

  • Turbulent relationship with Harriet Smithson, even got married

• Music career cont’d

  • Conducted his own pieces

  • Music critic

Harriet Smithson

• Irish Actress

• Actor in Berlioz’s troupe, he fell in love with her

• He frantically courted her only to realize it was Shakespeare he was in love with

Felix Mendelssohn

• German/Jewish

• Upper middle class family

• Jewish so you might see Mendelssohn-Batholdy as a protestant name

• Fanny and him both talented musicians taught by mother

• Great artist, watercolors

• Best education possible

• Teacher introduced him to Goethe, the most important German poet at the time

• Quality of his works are consistently good from childhood to death

• Traveled throughout Europe performing

• Helped create Leipzig Conservatory

• Bartholdy- protestant name

Edvard Grieg

• norweigan

• Peer gynt, morning mood and hall of the mountain king

• Nationalist composer, captured his country’s folklore

Henrik Ibsen

• Scandinavian

• Wrote Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler, The Doll’s House

• Scandinavian Shakespear

• Peer Gynt

  • Lazy, cant get his life together

  • Journey from Norway to Africa and back

  • Peer Gynt suite → gathering of all the incidental music written for a play

Johannes Brahms

• swedish

• Classical romanticist, takes structure from classical and expression of the romantic period

• Absolutist; unlike the rest of the era, he does not write programmatic music

• Four symphonies, didn’t start writing symphonies until his 40s

• Played the cello, piano

• Influenced by the French Revolution, inspired by folk music of gypsies

• Success skyrocketed after being endorsed by Schumann

• Founded, conducted and composed for a women's chorus

• German requiem made him famous, written in vernacular and was written for the living not the dead

• He fell in love with Clara after Schumann died but didn’t act on it

• Successor to Beethoven in terms of chamber music

• F - Ab - F “Frei aber Froh”

Jinny Lind

• Swedish

• “Swedish Nightingale"

• Toured around the world sponsored by Barnum

• Wildly popular, merch, streets with her name, etc.

• Concerts & opera performances

Giuseppina Streppon

• Italian

• Verdi’s second wife

• His muse, musical partner

• Singing soprano star

Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini

Italian

• three undisputed masters of the 19th-century Italian bel canto ("beautiful singing") opera tradition

Giuseppe Verdi

• Opera buffa and seria but mostly seria

• Bel canto (beautiful singing) school

  • Melodic, melismatic

  • Easy production

  • Agility 

  • Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini

• His operas have never fallen out

• Natural gifted child composer at the organ

• Self taught until patron sent to Milan Conservatory and failed the entrance exam 

• Nabucco; met his wife, Guiseppina Strepponi, who was in the opera

• Viva VERDI: Viva Emmanuel Rei Di Italia

  • Reunification of italy

  • Political motto

William Shakespeare

English

• Playwright and poet that inspired numerous compositions from Verdi and Berlioz

Richard Wagner

 German

• established the idea that multimedia can convey multiple meanings at once

• The greatest figure in german opera

• Developed endless melody

• Gesamtkunstwerk: total artwork

• Pioneer of the Music drama

Giacomo Puccini

Italian

• leading late-Romantic Italian opera composer who bridged traditional Italian melodic opera with the dramatic realism of the verismo movement

Romantic

it originally referred to writing in a common everyday language (the vernacular) rather than formal Latin, and later described chivalric adventure stories or wild, imaginative landscapes

Modified strophic

in between through composed and strophic

• Strophe 1

• Middle section

• Strophe 2

• Coda

Schubertiads

dinner parties where Schubert would have others perform his works at his home in Vienna for his circle of musical friends

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik-(New Journal of Music)

publication established by Robert Schumann that became the leading journal of music criticism in Europe

Rubato

“robbed time” the performer hesitates here or hurries forward there, imparting flexibility to the written note values

Prix de Rome

Competition that awarded scholarship to the winner and allowing them to study music (or their chosen art) in Rome for 3-5 years , famously won by Debussy and Berlioz

idée fixe

“fixed idea” program music that is meant to refer to a person, place, or thing

col legno

playing with the wooden part of the bow

Conservatory of Leipzig

famous music school in Germany founded by Felix Mendelssohn

Nationalism

pride for one’s region or nation

bel canto style (know characteristics and composers)

Beautiful singing, melodic, melismatic, agile; Big three: Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini along with Giuseppe Verdi who was inspired by them

“Viva VERDI!”

 “Viva Emmanuel Rei Di Italia”, Political motto championing the reunification of Italy

Festival Theatre at Bayreuth

wagner’s customized opera house in Bayreuth, Germany,

• first ever orchestra pit

built specifically to perform the stage works of composer Richard Wagner funded primarily by King Ludwig II of Bavaria

Gesamtkunstwerk- (Complete art work)

Wagner viewed opera as “total artwork” in which the arts of music, poetry, drama, and visuals are fused together

Leitmotif

recurring ideas that represent a person, place or idea, famously used by Wagner

Post-Romanticism

an expansion of late Romantic trends such as verismo (realism) and exoticism (Japanese culture and music)

Verismo

Operatic realism

Exoticism

musical style in which rhythm, melodies, and/or instruments evoke the color and atmosphere of faraway lands (particularly Japan)

Pentatonic

Five note pattern within in an octave

Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love)

Song cycle by Robert Schumann set to the poetry of Heine in 1840 one of many works dedicated to Clara and reflecting psychological journey of love that he experienced

Symphonie fantastique

Program symphony with five movements by Berlioz, a lovesick artist in an opium trance is haunted by a vision of his beloved, which becomes an idée fixe (fixed idea).

1. Reveries – Passions

2. A Ball

3. Scene in the Country

4. March to the Scaffold

5. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

play by Shakespeare where Felix Mendelssohn wrote a concert overture for

Peer Gynt

Play by Henrik Ibsen based on a Norwegian folk tale. Peer is a lazy and boastful youth who kidnaps his fiancee only to abandon her later. He then goes to the forest and seduces a girl that is later revealed to be the daughter of the Mountain King, etc. Greig wrote incidental music based on this play

Rigoletto

Verdi’s opera based on Victor Hugo’s play

The Ring of the Nibelung

Wagner’s most famous work and music drama; four opera cycle includes The Valkyries

Madame Butterfly

Opera by Puccini which combines verismo (realism) and exoticism, inspired by Japanese culture

La bohéme, Tosca, Turando

Three very successful operas by Puccini, with Turandot being his last opera

GENRE: Lied/Lieder

german art song

GENRE: Song cycle

Group of songs that are unified musically or through their texts

GENRE: Character piece- Ballades

a one-movement instrumental piece that translates poetic storytelling into a free-form musical narrative

GENRE: Character piece- Études

a short musical composition created to help a musician practice and perfect a specific technical challenge

GENRE: Character piece- Mazurka

a Polish folk dance and musical genre in triple meter

GENRE: Character piece- Polonaises

 a stately, slow-to-moderate processional instrumental composition in triple meter used for formal events

GENRE: Character piece- scherzos

fast tempos, jovial sound characteristics, and a triple meter usually in the third movement of a multimovement piece

GENRE: Character piece - waltzes

a musical and dance form written in triple meter (3/4 time) featuring a strong, accented first beat followed by two softer beats

GENRE: Character piece - impromptus

a free-form, single-movement solo instrumental piece designed to sound spontaneous and improvised on the spot, even though it is fully pre-composed

GENRE: Character piece - nocturnes

musical composition that is inspired by the night, slow tempos, subdued dynamics, lyrical melodies, uses rubato

GENRE: Piano cycle

Group of piano pieces that are unified musically or through their texts

GENRE: Concert overture

Single movement, stand-alone dramatic work performed at the beginning of a concert

GENRE: Incidental music

Music created for a play/show that doesn’t already have music

GENRE: symphonic poem/tone poem

One movement programmatic work for orchestra, metered/rhythmic invented by Franz Liszt

GENRE: German Romantic Opera

the immediate predecessor of the Singspiel characterized by melodrama, the most significant figure in this genre being Wagner

GENRE: Music drama/music drama cycle

Total artwork in which music, poetry, drama, endless melody, and visuals are fused together with the orchestra and leitmotifs as its focal point, invented by Wagner

Romantic era dates

1820-1900

Three elements of Romantic mood:

1. eternal longing

2. regret for lost happiness of childhood

3. discontent, pessimism

Romantic Style Traits:

• Lyrical melodies with immediate appeal

• Expressive harmonies marked by more chromaticism and dissonance

• Expanded Classical-era instrumental forms

• More programmatic forms and genres

• Music draws closer to other arts-they all influence each other

Be able to differentiate the four categories of character pieces and most important composers:

• Fanciful titles

• Dance-inspired

• Descriptive titles

• Études

Contributions of Chopin

• Pioneered full liberation of the piano from other things

• Wrote exclusively for piano

• Performance style of piano and tradition of solo piano started by Chopin

• His modulations anticipate the the style of the 20th century

expanded symphonic form

Movement 1: may contain as slow intro, most dramatic movement, generally retains sonata allegro form, longer development

Movement 2: loose 3 part form, large range of mood so could be lyrical or whimsical or tragic

Movement 3: strongly rhythmic dance or scherzo, with overtones of humor, surprise, caprice, or folk dance

Movement 4: balances the first movement, often follows sonata form and may close the symphony on a note of triumph or pathos

LISTENING: “Elf-King” (“Erlkönig”)

• composer: Franz Schubert

• genre: lied

• texture: homophonic

 LISTENING: “In the Lovely Month of May” (“Im wunderschönen Monat mai”) from Dichterliebe

• composer: Robert Schumann

• genre: Lied from song cycle

• texture: Homophonic

LISTENING: Étude, Op. 10, No. 12 (Revolutionary)

• composer: Chopin

• genre: character piece- etude

• texture: homophonic

LISTENING: “September: At the River” from The Year (Das Jahr)

• composer: Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

• genre: character piece from piano cycle

• texture: polyphonic

LISTENING: Symphonie fantastique, IV and V

• composer: hector berlioz

• genre: programmatic symphony

• texture: polyphonic

LISTENING: Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• composer: Felix Mendelssohn

• genre: concert overture

• texture: homophonic

LISTENING: Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, excerpts

composer: Edvard Grieg

genre: incidental music

texture: homophonic

LISTENING: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, III

• composer: Johannes Brahms

• genre: symphony

• texture: homophonic

LISTENING: Rigoletto, Act III, excerpts (opera aria, opera quartet in two parts)

• composer: Giuseppe Verdi

• genre: Italian opera aria and opera quartet in two parts

• texture: homophonic

  
  

LISTENING: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Act III Opening and Finale

• composer: Richard Wagner

• genre: music drama

• texture: opening polyphonic, ending homophonic

LISTENING: “Un bel di” (“One beautiful day”) from Madame Butterfly, Act II

• composer: Giacomo Puccini

• genre: verismo opera aria

• texture: homophonic