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 overture-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.
People started to like the folk music of other countries
The was “exotic”
Composers used music from other countries
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
“No-nonsense world increasingly devoted to industrialization and commerce”
Romantic music was “out of step” or prize because it “offered escape”
Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler are both good composers to look at
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
Gustav Mahler was “ambivalent about the Romantic tradition”
Mahler wrote huge program symphonies
His works encoded “seemingly profound metaphysical or spiritual messages”
Mahler has “deliberate and self-conscious” exaggeration in his music
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
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 overture-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.
People started to like the folk music of other countries
The was “exotic”
Composers used music from other countries
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
“No-nonsense world increasingly devoted to industrialization and commerce”
Romantic music was “out of step” or prize because it “offered escape”
Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler are both good composers to look at
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
Gustav Mahler was “ambivalent about the Romantic tradition”
Mahler wrote huge program symphonies
His works encoded “seemingly profound metaphysical or spiritual messages”
Mahler has “deliberate and self-conscious” exaggeration in his music
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