Exam 2: Classical, Romantic, and Modern Periods

Enlightenment

• the age of reason

• began in the late 17th c.; gathered momentum during the next 50 years, and continued until the outbreak of the French Revolution

• embraced rationalism-- the view that reason, combined with experience and knowledge, could solve problems

• belief in human rights and brotherhood

• 1789

• empiricism and science became very apparent in this time

• arts became more widespread, especially in the growing middle class

• people are questioning what equality is

Characteristics of Classical period (1720-1815)

• Classical style= diversity within unity; seriousness of purpose, structural order

  • inspired by Enlightenment and Ancient Greek and Roman art (ex- Parthenon)

The First Viennese School

• Vienna was one of the music centers of Europe during the classical period

• Joseph "Papa" Haydn (1732-1809)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

◦ they were all active there at different points in their lives

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) (The Esterhazy Family)

• Haydn worked as a Kapellmeister for the Esterhazy family, the most powerful noble family in Hungary

◦ duties included the supervision of a regular round of performances of his own music and those of this contemporaries

◦ daily chamber music sessions with the Prince

◦ composed for weekly concerts, and operas on special occasions

◦ worked with an older system

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

• child prodigy:

◦ born in Salzburg, Austria, where his father Leopold worked as a deputy music director in the court of Prince-Archbishop

◦ celebrated as a child prodigy; travelled and performed across Europe

• lived in Vienna (1781-91), where he sought independence as a "freelance" composer (and struggled)

◦ most successful musicians of the time had paid positions.

‣ few survived only as a freelance musician

◦ Mozart's life shows the changing patronage system

• didn't have money so was buried in pauper's graveyard

◦ made a decent amount of money, but terrible spending habit

Concerto

A classical musical composition featuring a solo instrument (like a piano or violin) in dialogue and cooperation with a full orchestra

• Mozart • wrote 23 piano concerti

  • piano concerto as a vehicle for Mozart to showcase his own skill as a performer

  ◦ Mozart was an expert improviser

  ◦ virtuosic improvisation at the CADENZA

Cadenza

• solo passage in model of improvisation

• big cadence- orchestra stops and then the soloist improvises

• right before final movement

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (early, middle and late periods)

• Early: 1770-1802

◦ his youth in Bonn and a decade in Vienna

• Middle/Heroic: 1802-1814

◦ dramatic compositions

• Late: 1815-1827

• wrote 32 piano sonatas, which form from the core of piano literature

• increasing demands on the performer

Sonata form (exposition/development/recapitulation)

• Exposition- where ideas are introduced

  • first theme in the home key

  • bridge (modulation to the new key)

  • second theme in new key

  • closing theme in the key of the second theme

• Development- where the ideas that were introduced in the exposition are now developed (sometimes chopped up, reorganized, different key areas; purpose= to heighten intensity and build tension)

  • new treatment of themes

  • modulations to different keys

  • builds tension

• Recapitulation- resolution of conflict and tension

  • first theme in the home key

  • second theme in the home key

Heiligenstadt testament

• addressed Beethoven’s two brothers

• a letter in which he expressed his under despair over his growing deafness (suicide note)

Characteristics of Romanticism (~1800-1910)

1.) Individuality of Style

◦ intensely personal music

◦ often about their own life

2.) Expressivity

◦ the Romantics aimed to express a wide range of emotions and feelings

◦ development of musical vocabulary of highly expressive terms:

‣ Dolce: "sweetly"

‣ Maestoso: "majestic"

3.) Nationalism

◦ a sense of national consciousness emerged in the 19th century

◦ musical nationalism was expressed when Romantic composers wrote music with a specific national identity

4.) Colorful and Extended Harmony

◦ although major and minor totalities predominated, modulation was increasingly favored, particularly to distant and unrelated keys

5.) Expanded Range of Dynamics, Pitch, and Tempo

◦ contrasts of very loud (ffff) to very soft (pppp) lent new drama to the music of the Romantics

‣ more variety of tempo fluctuations

6.) Miniature and Monumental Forms

◦ enormous and imposing compositions by composers such as Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner

‣ VS

◦ miniature compositions meant t be performed in small salons (ex- Chopin Nocturnes)

Industrial Revolution (c. 1760-1830) & its impact on music industry

• radically changed the way goods were manufactured

• mass production= wider availability, less cost

• revolutionized the music industry:

◦ more output= affordable musical instruments

◦ technical improvements to the instruments

‣ piano: cast iron frame and thicker strings

‣ brass: newly invented value technology made brass instruments more maneuverable

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

• 1810: Born in Zwichau

• 1834: Schumann issues journal Neue Zeitschrift fur Music

• 1836: Schumann, Fantasie for piano, Op. 17

• 1840: Schumann, "Year of Song," Dichterliebe

◦ Marries Clara Wieck (1819-1896)

• 1850: Becomes municipal music director of Dusseldorf

• 1854: Enters an asylum in Endenrich

• 1856: Death of Schumann

Im wunderschonen Monat Mai from Dichterliebe (1840)

 Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

• enrolled at a teacher’s training college in Vienna

• SALON CULUTRE-

  • salon= Fr. "a big room"

  • a small gathering in which the guests gathered and discussed a wide range of topics, from literature, politics, art, music, and music

  • In Schubert’s case, this private sphere of music-making even spawned

  • its own name: Schubertiade

• Lied/Lieder

“Der Erlkonig”

Clara Wieck (1819-1896)

• among the foremost pianists of her day

• also a distinguished composer and teacher

• daughter of Friedrich Wieck, a renowned piano teacher with whom Robert Schumann studied

• 23 published works (almost exlcusively)

3 Lieder, Op. 12: 2. Liebst du um Schonheit

Lied/ Lieder

• the setting of Romantic German poems to music, especially during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

◦ a quintessential Romantic genre: a fusion of music and poetry, centering on the expression of individual feelings

• Schubert is credited with establishing the lied as a central genre in Western music (wrote over 600 lieder)

Strophic (song-form)

A song in which all verses of the text are sung to the same music

Through-composed (song form)

Different music for each verse

Characteristics of Modernism

• electricity as a symbol of progress

  • 1903: invention of first airplane

  • Model T as first affordable automobile

• A sharp break from the 19th century that promoted the new realities
  of the modern world, rather than a Romanticized notion of it
  • Innovation vs. Tradition
  • New systems of organizing pitch:
  Atonality: “without tonality”
  Polytonality: the simultaneous use of two or more keys

• Tone color: more awareness of the quality of sound

• harmony: traditional distinction between consonance and dissonance was abandoned

  • polychord: combination of two chords heard at the same time

• Rhythm: modern music is often characterized by rhythmic irregularity and unpredictability

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE
(Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, 1894)

• one of Debussy’s best-known orchestral work
• Inspired by a pastoral poem by Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé
• A coming together of visual Impressionism and textual Symbolism
through sound

Claude Monet/ Impressionism

Monet did many watercolor paintings like Sunrise and Water Lilies.

• Musical Impressionism

  • static harmony creates beautiful and floating sonorous world

  • use of modal and exotic scales (chromatic, whole tone pentatonic)

    • major and minor modes seen as obsolete

  • use of parallel chords

Stephen Mallarme/ Symbolism

• his poem inspired Debussy’s piece

• argued art should not directly describe reality, but evoke hidden emotional and symbolic states through atmosphere, rhythm, silence, and indirect suggestion

Edgard Varése

Poeme électronique (1958)

• A musical montage of electric sounds: bells, trains, sirens, mixed with freely generated electronic gestures

• Emitted through hundreds of speakers meant to engulf the visitors

Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)

🎵“Orangery” from Plan and Elevation: The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks (2015)

• inspired by her own experiences during a residency at Dumbarton Oaks estate
in Washington D.C.

• hints at the musical past in several ways:

• the string quartet genre

• use of compositional procedures from the Baroque (ground bass, arpeggiated bowings)

Who is this?

Ludwig Beethoven

Who is this?

Joseph Haydn

Who is this?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Edgard Varése: Poem Électronique

• a

• Hint: R2-D2, starts with bells tolling

♫ Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun)

• genre: symphonic poem

• 
  

• opening chromatic melody in flute

• Hint: starts with the flute solo, mysterious/emerging, harp

♫ Franz Schubert: Erlkönig (The Erlking)

• Genre: Leid 

• Period: Romantic (early)

• Form: Through composed/strophic - same music for all verses 

• Story: kid on horse with father - erkling; horseback (horse galloping)

  • Horse stops when they arrive at the barn house 

    • Horse is used in a very dramatic way 

• Characters: the piano/horse, kid, father, erkling, narrator, King

  • Kid is always in minor b/c frightening and distressed; father= calm w/ reassurance and lower register; Erkling= major- happy tone but creepy and deceptive 

  • Singer jumps in tone while singing for all of these characters 

• Hint- constant piano followed by opera 

♫ Clara Schumann: Liebst du um Schönheit (If You Love for Beauty)

• a

• Hint: singing, starts with the title of the song, flowy

♫ Robert Schumann: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the Lovely Month of May) from

Dichterliebe

• strophic

• 
  

• Hint: slow piano with male singing (opera)

♫ Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Overture Fantasy

• a

• Hint: dark, mysterious, slow, beginning is giving church vibes

♫ Ferederic Chopin: Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op.9 No.2

• a

• Hint: meme; like a twinkle, all piano

♫ Ludwig Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 130 (Mvnt V only)

• a

• Hint: slow, like it’s rising

♫ Beethoven: Symphony No.5 (mvnt I)

• a

• Hint: fast, dramatic, chaotic, “I need to lock in like now”

♫ Beethoven: Piano Sonata Op.13 “Pathetique” (Mvnt. I)

• a

• Hint: giving sad and dark; piano (duh), slow; starts with powerful note though

♫ Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23, K.488 (Mvnt I: Allegro)

• Genre: concerto

• style/period: classical 

• Intended performer: himself!

•  Cadenza (piano solo)

• Hint: da-da-darasta, more upbeat than typical pieces, faster, spirally