4.19 The Late Romantics

@@1848@@ was a very important European year * Many @@failed revolutions@@ * Including Germany’s revolution, which caused the expulsion of Wagner

After the 1850s, literature and art had @@more realism@@ than romanticism * Dickens, Trollope, and George Eliot in England * Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola in France * Thomas Eakins (painter) and William Dean Howells (novelist) in America
The @@camera@@ was invented
Music was an @@escape@@

A @@symphonic poem@@ is “a one-movement orchestral composition with a program, in a free musical form” * Made by Franz Liszt in the 1850s * Hamlet, Orpheus, Prometheus, Les Preludes * Descended from Mendelssohn’s concert overture * Aka @@tone poems@@ * Very popular in the later 19th century * Including those by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss

Instead of the term symphonic poem, Tchaikovsky preferred @@symphonic fantasia@@ or ov@@erture-fantasy@@ * Substantial one-movement pieces w/ free forms (borrowing features from sonata, rondo, etc.)
Follows the general outline of the original Shakespeare play
Structure: * Slow Introduction (Andante) * Dramatic * Sober Hymn theme * Low clarinets and bassoons * Allegro * Vendetta (Fate) theme * Short, vigorous rhythmic motives * Love Theme * Hymn theme returns! * Coda (Slow) * Romeo gives his final speeches before his suicide

@@Russian@@, born in the countryside but then moved to St. Petersburg
It was hard to have a serious musical education and career in Russia, but Tchaikovsky was lucky in that after a few years he entered the @@St. Petersburg Conservatory@@
@@Professor@@ at the Moscow Conservatory
Composed 6 symphonies, 11 operas, symphonic poems, chamber music, songs, and many famous ballet scores
@@Not a devoted nationalist@@ * Toured America, had success in worldwide concert halls
@@Depressed and gay@@, he attempted suicide several times * Married a woman who loved him and ran away only weeks after, leaving her to die in an asylum
Died from drinking unboiled water during a cholera epidemic

@@Nationalism@@ was the musical feature of “the incorporation of national @@folk music@@ into concert pieces, songs, and operas”
Sometimes nationalist composers deliberately broke traditional rules of harmony, form, etc.

The “@@Kuchka@@” were the “Mighty Five,” a group of 5 @@Russian nationalist@@ composers * Mily Balakirev (1837-1910), the only trained musician * Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), a distinguished chemist * César Cui (1835-1918), an engineer * Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), a navy man * Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881), an officer in the Russian Imperial Guard
Nationalism brought them together

Refers to a @@memorial exhibit@@ of Musorgsky’s recently dead friend, Viktor Hartmann, ‘s pictures
Promenade 1 * Depicts the composer walking around the exhibit * Rare meter, 5/4 alternating with 6/4
Gnomus * “Drawing of a Russian folk-art nutcracker”
Promenade 2 * Spectator musing
The Great Gate at Kiev * Last, longest, climatic number (grandiose)

Son of a landowner, supposed to become an @@officer in the Russian Imperial Guard@@
His family struggled for a time and lost their family estate * Joined the kuchka during this time
@@Not confident@@ in his abilities
Alcoholic, died of alcoholism and epilepsy

German Johannes Brahms moved to Vienna
He liked @@traditional Classical@@ genres, forms, or even style * String quartets, chamber music, symphonies, and concertos * Sonata, theme and variations, rondo * Oddly also miniatures

Bohemia: * modern Czech Republic * Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): nationalist symphonic poems and folk operas * Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904): Slavonic Dances and other large-scale works such as symphonies; I recommend his 12th string quartet!
Scandinavia: * Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): Norwegian, wrote sets of piano miniatures (like Norwegian Mountain Tunes), and also a well-known suite of music for Peer Gynt (based on a great drama by a Norwegian playwright) * Jean Sibelius (1865-1857): powedul symphonist, produced symphonic poems based on his native Finnish folklore
Spain: * Enrique Granados (1867-1916): Nationalist * Joaquín Turina (1882-1949): Nationalist * Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): Nationalist known for his Nights in the Gardens of Spain * Exotic compositions with “Spanish flavor” included Bizet’s Carmen, along w/ orchestral pieces from Emmanuel Chabrier, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel
Great Britain: * Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Major English nationalist * Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924): Irish composer who wrote Irish Rhapsodies and the opera Shamus O’Brien

Son of an orchestral musician in Hamburg, had good early music education
@@Met and lived with Robert and Clara Schumann@@ * After the former’s death, he sent Clara his compositions always and they were very close
Wrote @@4 great symphonies@@
Conducted a chorus and wrote a lot of choral music

Brahms wrote this to @@show off a virtuoso@@ (common at the time), in particular Joseph Joachim
First movement in @@double-exposition sonata form@@ * Seemed stuffy
Last movement is a relatively @@simple rondo@@
Third Movement (Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace) * Rondo form * A had double stops, is in aaba’ form * B again has double stops * C is in 3/4 time * The coda is in 6/8

Mahler’s @@first symphony@@
Went from 1 movement to @@5 to 4@@
Has fragments of some of his other songs
Special kind of counterpoint (“kaleidoscopic effect”)
Third Movement, Funeral March (Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen—“With a solemn, measured gait; do not drag”) * Section 1: Makes a funeral march from “Frère Jacques,” slow * Section 2: “Study in frustration” * Section 3: Contrasting “trio” with major mode and triplet harp accompaniment * Section 4: Combines elements from 1 and 2

Really @@bad childhood@@ * Born in Bohemia (not necessarily bad, just part of his story) * Abusive father * Lost 5 siblings to diphtheria and others to suicide/mental illness
Jewish, w/ Viennese @@anti-Semitism@@ around him
Had other tragedies, such as the young death of his youngest daughter and other “psychological turmoil”
Studied at the @@Vienna Conservatory@@