Exam 3 - Essay Outlines
Robert Schumann
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Robert Schumann was born in 1810 and died in 1856.
Schuman was active in Zwickau, Leipzig, studying to become a concert pianist, but after his hand injury, turned to composition and criticism. In 1850, Robert became municipal music director in Düsseldorf.
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Schumann composed solo piano works, lieder, violin concertos, piano concertos, symphonies, and various orchestral and chamber works.
His representative works are Papillons, Carnaval, Fantasiestucke, Liederkreis, Album for the Young, and Manfred Overture.
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Schumann is significant in music history because he was a leading composer in the generations after Schubert. In addition, after his hand injury, he continued to compose music along with becoming an influential music critic. Schumann was also heavily influenced by literature due to his parents being a book writer and a book dealer.
A fun fact about Schumann is that he used his degree in law to sue Friedrich Wieck, his future father-in-law, to marry Clara.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
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Gottschalk was born in 1829 and died in 1869.
He was active in New Orleans and moved to Paris in 1841 for more training and toured France, Switzerland, and Spain in 1845-52.
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Gottschalk composed mainly piano works, but also worked for orchestra and opera.
His representative works are Bamboula, Symphony No. 1: A Night in the Tropics, The Banjo, Morte!, and Souvenir de Porte Rico.
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Gottschalk is significant to music history because he was the first American composer with an international reputation. His incorporation of American sounds is an example of America’s “melting pot” musically.
A fun fact about Gottschalk is that when Chopin heard him play in 1845, Chopin predicted that he would become “The king of pianists.”
Vincenzo Bellini
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Vincenzo Bellini was born in 1801 and died in 1835.
Bellini was active in Italy.
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Bellini exclusively composed Opera Seria.
His representative works are Il pirata, I Capuletti e i Montecchi, The Sleepwalker, Norma, and The Puritans.
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Bellini is significant to music history because he was the next leading Italian opera composer after Rossini retired. His style is known for long, beautiful melodies that portray psychological states of characters. He also continued the division of opera structure, which is heading towards realism.
A fun fact about Bellini is that he produced operas more slowly than his contemporaries, with only 10 operas.
Who were George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach?
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Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 and died in 1750. He was a working musician who composed to fulfill the needs of his position. He was a church organist at Arnstadt and Muhlhausen, a court organist at Weimar, a court director at Cothen, and at Leipzig, he produced cantatas and other church music. Bach is significant to music history because he came from a musical family, passing it to his sons. He was a virtuosic organist, recognized as the epitome of the Baroque style. Furthermore, he absorbed influences of Italian, French, and German in his composing, and expanded on each.
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George Frideric Handel was born in 1685 and died in 1759. Handel traveled between German, Italian, and English-speaking cities. When he was a young man, he worked 3 years at Hamburg’s opera house and 4 years in Italy helping lay the foundations of his style, and then he stayed in London, which was more hospitable to foreign composers. Handel created works for public performance but still had aristocratic patrons throughout his career. Handel was significant to music history because he created new genres such as the English oratorio and organ concerto.
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Bach and Handel were both born in Germany, however, Handel is seen as a renowned English composer, while Bach is seen as a renowned German composer - but he was not always seen as such. Due to Handel composing for the general public, he never fell out of obscurity, but Bach’s patrons kept them for themselves, making him less known during his life. This was changed when Felix Mendelssohn reworked his St. Matthew’s Passion in the 1830s, bringing Bach’s music into the public’s eye, after being gatekept by the aristocrats he worked under.
Who were Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
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Franz Joseph Haydn was born in 1732 and died in 1809. He worked primarily as the court composer and Kappellmeister for the Esterhazy family. However, after the head of the Esterhazy estate changed, Haydn moved to Vienna and gained international fame, and visited London twice. Haydn was significant to music history because he helped establish classical forms such as the symphony and string quartet, developed sonata-allegro form and motivic development techniques, and laid foundational principles of Classical Style: balance, clarity, and structural integrity.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791. He was a child prodigy who toured Europe as a kid with his father and sister, later settled in Vienna, working independently without a court position. Mozart was significant to music history because he elevated opera to new dramatic and emotional heights, mastered virtually every musical genre of his time, and is remembered for his melodic beauty, emotional depth, and perfect balance of form and expression.
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While Haydn’s career was more stable due to his employment under the Esterhazy family, Mozart’s was more unstable due to being a freelance artist who spent his money right away, putting him into financial issues. Haydn had a larger output in instrumental music, becoming known as the “Father of the Symphony,” while Mozart’s output was broader in genre, with a greater operatic output. Haydn built the foundations of Classical forms, and his long career allowed him to develop new genres and mentor others. Mozart brought these forms to their expressive and technical peak. Their combined legacies profoundly influenced Beethoven and set the stage for the Romantic era.
Discuss the significance of song in the 19th century
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The 19th century was a golden age for song, especially with the rise of Romanticism in literature and the arts. Song became a central form of musical expression, bridging the gap between popular and art music and becoming a powerful medium for emotional, poetic, and nationalistic expression
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In Germany, the Lied was the leading genre of song, for solo voice and piano, often through-composed or strophic. The leading composers of lied are Franz Schubert (Gretchen am Spinnrade) and Robert Schumann (Dichterliebe). In France, the Mélodie was the leading genre of song, with more emphasis on vocal lyricism and refinement. The leading composers of Mélodie are Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod. In Britain, the Ballad was the leading genre of song, with simple strophic or verse-chorus forms that were accessible for home performance. The leading composers of the Ballad are Thomas Moore and Henry Bishop (Home, Sweet Home). In North America, the Parlor song was the leading genre of song, designed for amateur performance in the home. Stephen Foster was the leading composer of Parlor songs (Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair).
Discuss the typical scene structure used by Gioachino Rossini in his operas
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Gioachino Rossini, one of the leading opera composers of the 19th century, developed and popularized a standardized scene structure that became foundational for 19th-century Italian opera. His “scene complex” provided a flexible, repeatable framework for constructing extended operatic scenes.
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Rossini’s structure is modular and dramatic, designed to move fluidly from one emotional or narrative state to another. A typical scene has multiple sections. The first section is the Scena, which introduces the situation, characters, and dramatic context. It can be a recitative, spoken dialogue, or instrumental music. The Scena sets the stage emotionally and narratively for what follows. The second section is the Cavatina, which allows the character to express a lyrical, reflective, or emotional state, and is often slow and melodic. It is also sometimes called a cantabile if it’s the first part of a larger aria. The third section is the Tempo di mezzo, which is a turning point or interruption, and creates dramatic contrast, moving the story forward. The fourth and final section is the Cabaletta, which conveys a new, often more agitated or resolved emotional state. The Cabaletta has energetic, virtuosic singing.