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