4.17 The Early Romantics

• The early Romantics has some of the ==greatest composers== of all time
  • Franz Schubert born in Vienna in 1797
  • Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, and Giuseppe Verdi were all born between 1803 and 1813
• Beethoven’s music was very influential here, especially in German composers
• ==Literary Romanticism== was also highly influential
  • A lot of composers made at least something associated with Shakespeare

The Lied

• ==Lied== is “song” in German, but it is also a “miniature” genre of the romantic area
• Almost always accompanied by only ==piano==
• Text is generally some ==Romantic poem==
• ==Intimate expression==, not for a concert hall, but for a living room

Schubert, “Erlkönig” (“The Erlking”) (1815)

• ==Franz Schubert== is known to be the earliest and greatest ==master of the lie==d
  • Wrote almost 700 and didn’t live that long
  • Wrote many ballads when young
• Schubert’s best known lied, Opus 1
• Poem is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • Old storytelling ballad form
  • Dealt w/ death and the ==supernatural==
  • 8 parallel stanzas
• ==Through-compose==d, with each stanza having different or modified music (opposite of strophic)
• Dramatic story of a boy being killed by a demon (the Erkling) as his father tries to rush him home, as he believes his son has a high fever
• ==Different “voices” and music for each character and the narrator==
  • Father is low and stiff
  • Boy is high and frantic
  • Erkling is ppp and ominously sweet
• ==Triplet rhythm==
• Some musical repetitions

The Song Cycle

• A ==song cycle== is a group of songs associated by a common poetic theme or an actual story
• Schubert wrote 2 late in his career
• Extended the lied into a ==larger and more impressive== unit

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Biography

• His father was a Viennese schoolmaster
• Trained in music from a young age, ==always talented==
• Lead an ==unspectacular life==, surviving on odd fees
• Had friends that called themselves Schubertians
• Never married, many think he was gay now
• ==Wrote nearly 700 lieder and many choral songs==
• Died at 31 from the typhoid fever epidemic

Schumann, Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) (1840)

• Schumann was a German composer that loved Schubert’s piano music
  • Only wrote ==piano music== for the first decade of his career
  • After he got married, he wrote a lot of ==lieder==
• Doesn’t truly have a story
• Poems were by the German ==Heinrich Heine==
• Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the Wonderfully Lovely Month of May)
  • Piano intro
  • Ends without cadence (yearning; dissonance)
  • Strophic
• Die alten, bösen Lieder (The Hateful Songs of Times Past)
  • Through-composed
  • Black humor
  • About the burial of a coffin
  • Lovely meditative piano solo
  • Group the three things above this together- think about that for a minute

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

• Schumann’s father was not a musician, but encouraged Schumann in music
• Attended the University of Leipzig for law for a time
• Was a ==piano virtuoso until a finger injury==
• Wrote musical criticism
• Piano pieces are mostly “==character pieces==”
• Wrote many love songs for Clara Wieck, who he later married (the daughter of his piano teacher; famous pianist at 15)
• Later made many larger works
• Worked as a ==teacher/conductor==
• Withdrawn personality, had mood swings and breakdowns, later had hallucinations and loss of memory and heard voices and tried to drown himself (1854), after which he spent 2 years in an asylum before death

Clara Schumann, “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” (“The Moon Has Risen Softly”) (1843)

• Pensive mood, unusual chords
• Cliche “lovey-dovey” (my words, not theirs) poem
• Modified strophic form (AAA’)

Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896) Biography

• Eldest child of ambitious piano teacher Friedrich Wieck
• Known as a ==prodigy pianist== by 15
  • Composed her own music to perform
• Married to Robert Schumann, which made her life hard in some respects due to his depression and instability
  • After he died (she outlived him by 40 years), fell in love with Johannes Brahms, but neither married
• ==Gave up composing==
• Was one of Europe’s leading pianists and ==toured widely==

The Character Piece for Piano

• ==Character pieces== are short works which portray some definite mood of character
  • Chopin’s Nocturne, Waltz, Scherzo, Étude (study) are examples of simple titles, others had descriptive ones
• Analogous to the lied, but ==w/o poem==

Robert Schumann, Carnaval (1833-1835)

• Exudes ==warmth and privacy==
  • Scores often marked “innig”
• 20 short characters, each a masked guest at a Mardi Gras ball
  • Pierrot, Harlequin, Columbine, Schumann, Estrella, Chiarina, Chopin, Paganini

Chopin, Nocturne in F-sharp Major, Op. 15, No. 2 (1831)

• Chopin wrote ==21 nocturnes== (night pieces), each very different
• Elegant, with a decorated melody
• ==Chromaticism==
• Main tune A (aa’b)
• Form is aa’bca’’ coda
• Rubato

Liszt, Transcendental Etude No. 8 in C Minor, Wilde Jagd (Wild Hunt, 1851)

• Liszt was “the greatest of nineteenth-century ==piano virtuoso==s” in his younger days
  • Wrote 12 “Etudes of Transcendental Execution”
• “Three-hand effect”
• Refers to a folklore story of northern Europe
• ==Thematic transformation==
  • Expressive markings
• Second theme is the “heart of the work”

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Biography

• Learned from his father
• Like a rock star, handsome (apparently), incredibly talented, having “liaisons” with married noblewomen…
• Gave ==concerts== throughout Europe, then took to conduct/directing the theatre at Weimar in Germany and writing more radical/influential music
• ==Wrote== (also had ghostwriters) and ==performed==
• Friends with Richard Wagner, endorsed his music
• “…had ==three careers==,” piano virtuoso, orchestral music focus, and then sacred music/experimental piano later in life

Early Romantic Program Music

==Program music== refers to instrumental compositions associated w/ poems, stories, etc.

The Concert Overture: Felix Mendelssohn

• ==Concert overture== was for the ==theater==
• ==Felix Mendelssohn’==s concert overtures are the “==best-known== and best-loved”
  • Wrote concert overture for Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at 17, w/o intending its usage in the play, but now it has been (there is also a derived suite)
  • Sonata form
  • Also from the Hebrides Overture
  • Depicts “lonely Scottish islands”
  • Single movement in sonata form

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Biography

• Came from upper-class converted-Jew bankers
• Felix was a ==successful composer==, along with being a pianist, organist, organist, conductor, educator, and musicologist
  • Also founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music
• Stuck with a foundation of ==Classical technique==
• Wrote largely ==concert overtures==

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)

• Felix’s older sister
• “Highly prolific” ==composer==
• Wrote many beautiful pieces in many genres, and ped weekly concerts at the Mendelssohn home in Berlin
• ==Not largely popular,== due to the patriarchal society and her upper class position
• Died suddenly at 41, and her brother died only 6 months later

The Program Symphony: Hector Berlioz

• Berlioz’s most famous work is “Fantastic”
  • ==Radical== approach to program music
  • About a young (and unhealthily imaginative/lovesick) musician’s odd dream after an opium suicide attempt
  • His first symphony
• Berlioz wrote ==program symphonies==, which were “entire symphonies with programs spelled out movement by movement”
  • Set basis for grandiose compositions

Fantastic Symphonie (Symphonie fantastique): “Episodes in the Life of an Artist” (1830)

• “Lurid” program with “autobiographical fantasy”
  • “Encouraged listeners to think it has been written under the influence of opium”
• Has an ==idée fixe== (obsession), where a single theme is reoccuring in all the movements
• Lots of dynamic (and other) ==specifications== written in the piece
• Four movements, detailed in textbook

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Biography

• Grew up in France without a large music education
• Attended the ==Paris Conservatory of Music== after a brief stint following in his father’s footsteps in medical school
• Imagination for ==orchestral tone color==
• Supported himself with musical journalism

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