AH

Week 4 – Romantic Period, Paganini Listening, and the “Two Schus” 7/14

Administrative Reminders

  • Week 4 has begun – “Classical Concert Video Report” (full-length concert + 2-page form + attached paragraph) is DUE tonight at midnight.
  • All written work must now be submitted through Canvas (easier grading & inline comments).
  • Next exam (Exam #2) is this Thursday:
    • 60 multiple-choice questions.
    • Covers every style period from the Middle Ages through the Romantic Period.
    • Hardest of the three tests – PRINT the study-guide from Modules and annotate it while studying.

Critical Listening Exercise – Niccolò Paganini “La Campanella” (performed by David Garrett)

Paganini – background & persona

  • 1800s Italian violin virtuoso; early Romantic Era, contemporary of late-period Beethoven.
  • Touring “rock star” image:
    • All-black clothing, long black hair, very pale skin.
    • Cultivated a “devil/ satanic” mystique, tying into folklore that the devil plays violin.
    • Travelled town-to-town leaving “broken hearts” & groupies.
  • Stage tricks:
    • Pre-performance he sliced 3 violin strings part-way with a razor.
    • During performance he would bear down, “accidentally” snapping one string after another, finishing the piece on a single string while “wailing.”
  • Technique rumors: could imitate human speech or animal cries by retuning pegs mid-phrase.

Instructor’s listening notes (model for our 5-column worksheet)

  • Instrumentation
    • Solo violin + medium-sized orchestra dominated by strings (violins, violas, cellos, double basses).
    • Small woodwind section; audible French horns; orchestra bells; light timpani.
  • Techniques / Timbre
    • Bow bouncing ⇒ staccato effect.
    • Pizzicato plucking by soloist & orchestral strings.
    • Finger slides on violin neck (glissandi / portamenti).
  • Dynamics / Sound
    • Wide dynamic range; sudden forte chords → subito piano passages.
    • Frequent crescendi/diminuendi (esp. finale).
    • Initial minor tonality; shifts between minor ↔ major.
  • Rhythm / Meter
    • Overall triple feel; often perceived as 6/8 (fast compound triple) – “1-2-3, 1-2-3.”
    • Sections slow into a lilting waltz (simple triple): “1-2-3.”
    • Use of accelerando and ritardando for drama.
  • Melody / Form / Texture / Harmony
    • Multiple contrasting themes: opening A theme (stated twice) → darker B theme → light major waltz → returns to original themes → additional section (quasi "new song"). Overall beyond simple ABA.
    • Texture largely homophonic; occasional monophonic solo passages.
    • Harmonic tension mild-medium; greatest intensity in last minute (minor key + crescendo).

Romantic Period Overview

  • Chronology reviewed: Middle Ages → Renaissance → Baroque → Classical → Romantic (19th cent.).
  • Beethoven stands as bridge; his late works catalyze Romantic aesthetics.

General Cultural Climate

  • Era of color, turbulence, and extreme individuality; composers viewed as free spirits seeking personal voices.
  • Public concert life exploded; middle-class audiences filled new concert halls; touring virtuosi became celebrities (especially pianists & violinists).
  • Birth of the conservatory of music – specialized higher-education institutions devoted solely to musical study.

Key Romantic Musical Characteristics

  • Tone-Color & Instrumentation
    • Larger orchestras, unusual instrument blends for unique timbres.
    • Improved manufacturing = instruments withstand higher tension → wider pitch & dynamic extremes (from “faint whispers” to “unprecedented power”).
  • Harmony & Chromaticism
    • Conscious pursuit of instability; unexpected chords; frequent modulations.
    • Chromatic harmony = use of pitches outside the prevailing diatonic scale.
    • Definition to memorize: \text{Chromaticism} = \text{use of chord tones that do not belong to the basic scale.}
    • Chromatic scale on piano = 12 successive half-steps before octave repeats.
  • Nationalism
    • Music expressing a composer’s national identity through folk songs, dances, legends, history.
    • Political significance in 19th-cent. Europe. Example discussed: Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic poem “The Moldau.”
  • Exoticism
    • Fascination with foreign cultures; adoption of non-Western instruments, scales, or programmatic subject matter.
  • Program Music
    • Instrumental works tied to poems, stories, scenes, or non-musical ideas (opposite of generic “Symphony No. 4 in G minor”).
    • Composers sometimes supplied written synopses for audiences.
  • Piano Virtuosity
    • Piano = era’s most popular instrument; solo recitals by star pianists drew massive crowds.
  • New Genre – Art Song (Lied)
    • Solo voice + piano only.
    • Composer translates a pre-existing poem into music, capturing mood, imagery, atmosphere.
    • Highly programmatic; close interdependence of vocal line & piano part.
    • Earliest master: Franz Schubert (≈ 600 art songs out of ≈ 900 total works).

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

  • Austrian; lived in Vienna concurrently with Beethoven (his idol) but remained personally unconnected.
  • Modest, sociable, “bohemian” lifestyle; perpetually poor, often lodging with friends.
  • Not a virtuoso performer nor conductor – solely a composer/poet with extraordinary melodic gift.
  • Output
    • ≈ 900 works: symphonies, chamber music, piano pieces, ≈ 600 Lieder (TEST ITEM).
    • Famous pieces: “Ave Maria,” Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished," Symphony in C major "Great."
  • Death: age 31, impoverished, from syphilis; many major works premiered posthumously.

Listening Focus: “Erlkönig” (The Earl King)

  • Archetypal Romantic art song; likely listening-ID question on exam.
  • Text by Goethe: father rides horse through night with feverish son → boy hallucinates “Erlking” (personification of death) calling him.
  • Single singer portrays 4 roles (narrator, father, son, Erlking) via vocal color changes.
  • Piano accompaniment = perpetual galloping rhythm symbolizing the horse; integral to storytelling.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) – “The Other Shoe”

  • Easy to confuse with Schubert: both German, Romantic, art-song & piano specialists, non-virtuosos.
  • Comparative notes
    • Schubert → natural genius, idolized Beethoven.
    • Schumann → revered Schubert, overall oeuvre often ranked higher by scholars.

Biography & Contributions

  • Multi-genre composer: symphonies, chamber music, piano cycles, ≈ 250 art songs – most works programmatic.
  • Literary upbringing (father owned publishing house & library);
    • Founded influential journal "New Journal of Music" – launched young talents, penned sharp criticism of established composers. (TEST ITEM)
  • Teen pursuit of piano virtuosity aborted by hand injury (two fingers permanently crippled).
  • Married Clara Wieck Schumann – his piano teacher’s daughter, a child-prodigy pianist who became the foremost interpreter of his works.
  • Mental health
    • Manic-depressive; severe depression & memory loss in 40s.
    • Attempted suicide (jumped into Rhine); rescued & committed to asylum; died two years later.

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)

  • One of the first historically significant female musicians.
  • Faced societal barriers: conservatories barred women from theory/composition courses – expected to study only performance.
  • Celebrated pianist, composer, and promoter of Robert’s and (later) Brahms’s music.
  • Life of the Schumanns has inspired several feature films; intertwined with Johannes Brahms (close family friend).

Looking Ahead

  • Next lecture will begin the era of piano titans (Frederic Chopin and others).
  • Keep working on concert report tonight; prepare diligently for Thursday’s comprehensive exam.