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@@

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.

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@@