1. The Romantic Period

2. Goals
1. To become acquainted with the historical context of the Romantic period and how it affected the development of music.
2. To become aware of the different styles of music in use in the period and of the development of new forms.
3. To become able to describe some of the basic characteristics of Romantic music using appropriate vocabulary terms.

3. Terms Industrial Revolution Exoticism Song Cycle Idee Fixe
Homophonic Texture
Leitmotif
Symphonic/Tone Poem
Dissonance
Program Music
Nationalism

4. What does the term Romantic mean?
Basically, “Romantic” refers to the abandonment of the calm, cool approach that had dominated most of the art forms of the Classical Period. Emotional individualism was allowed to be expressed in all forms of art, including some styles that had been deemed too “dark” before (Edgar Allan Poe, etc.). Such notions of extreme emotionalism were referred to as “Romantic”.

5. What was happening in the world during this period?
Erie Canal opens
Invention of photography
Neptune discovered
Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of the Species
American Civil War

6. 1869 - Transcontinental Railroad completed
Brooklyn Bridge opens
Telephone invented
Phonograph invented
Statue of Liberty presented to U.S.
Henry Ford builds his first car
Wright Brothers first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, NC
E=mc2 - Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

7. Social and Political Influences
Industrial Revolution
First occurred in Britain
Populations moved from an agrarian (rural) areas to urban centers (cities) to work in factories
Some power shifted from aristocratic landowners to middle class city dwellers

8. Inventions

9. Famous People from the Era
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein
Sigmund Freud
Abraham Lincoln
Mark Twain
Alexander Graham Bell
Henry Ford
Booker T. Washington
H.H. Holmes
Karl Marx
Jack the Ripper
Walt Whitman
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Edgar Allen Poe
Emily Dickinson
James Fenimore Cooper
Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh

13. Arts Affect Each Other
Where the Classical period had held reason, order, and rules as the highest virtues, the Romantic Era highlighted emotion and imagination as expressions of individuality in all art forms
In this period, the arts of literature and painting began to influence music.
In the Romantic era, music acquired poetic or philosophical meaning.
Antiquity, folklore, history and exotic cultures were mined as sources of inspiration.

14. Famous Artists Paul Cezanne Edouard Manet Edgar Degas Claude Monet
Vincent van Gogh
Edvard Munch
Georges Seurat

22. “Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte

23. Characteristics of music in the Romantic Period
Music is not as reliant on repetition as in Classical music
The music often directly tells a story
Exploration of tone colors (differences in sound)
Much bigger orchestras
Popularity of chamber music
Music is highly emotional
Poetry and music are intimately fused

24. Musical Innovations
Invention of the song cycle (vocal songs by a composer that focused on one central idea or used one poem or poet as their source material)
Invention of the symphonic or tone poem (instrumental works of one movement that expressed one complete idea)
Great works written for solo piano

25. Composers stretched the listeners ear by creating a great deal of dissonance (tense sounds) using chromatic notes, and extensions of the triad.
Composers began to drift away from the strong sense of tonality heard in Classical music.
Founding of conservatories—training schools for musicians.

26. Composer
Composers gradually left the patronage system and became free agents of their own works.
This meant that the composer, their music and their livelihood depended on the public’s approval.
For the first time, a composer’s work might not be publicly performed during his or her lifetime.

27. Romantics saw themselves as outsiders, isolated from mainstream society, struggling to express their creative ideas.
In general, composers held higher social status than in the Classical period.

28. Performer Rise of virtuosic (expert) performers
the public was captured by virtuosity and showmanship
Niccolo Paganini was an early virtuoso of the period.
His playing of tender passages was so beautiful that his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna one listener became half crazed and declared that for some days that he had seen the Devil helping the violinist.

29. In addition to performing, Paganini wrote music so difficult that no one else of the time could perform it…these pieces remain the most difficult in all of violin literature.

30. Conductor
Resulted from the orchestras growth in numbers and complexity
Became necessary to have one person to lead and control the orchestra

31. General Musical Characteristics
Individuality
Expressive Aims and Subjects
Nationalism (my country)
Exoticism (other, remote countries or fantasy lands)
Rise and Importance of Program Music (music specifically designed to tell a story)

32. More on Program Music… Four main types of program music:
Concert overture
Incidental music Program symphony
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overturehttps://
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique
Symphonic poem / tone poem
Smetana: The Moldau

33. The Moldau Composed by Beidrich Smetana
The piece depicts a journey from the source of the river Moldau (two small springs bubbling over rocks), through hunting scenes, a wedding, rapids, nightfall and starry skies, and finally a triumphant entry in the Czech capital, Prague.
In addition to being a tone poem, the work is also very nationalistic, as Smetana was expressing love of his country through music.
The Moldau

34. Other nationalists Russia Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka “The Mighty Five”
Mily Balakirev
Alexander Borodin
Cesar Cui
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Modest Musorgsky
Finland, Jean Sibelius
Norway, Edvard Grieg
Spain
Isaac Albeniz
Enrique Granados
Manuel de Falla
Czech
Antonin Dvořák
Bedřich Smetana
England
Edward Elgar
Frederick Delius

35. Edvard Grieg
A Norwegian, he was asked to compose music for a stage of production of “Peer Gynt”, a play based on a traditional folk hero.
This example from the suite is commonly referred to as “morning”:
"Morning" from the Peer Gynt Suite

36. Musical Elements Texture
Essentially homophonic (one main melody with an accompaniment)
Tended to be thick, heavy and lush

37. Musical Elements Melody Age of lyricism – unending melody
Melodies appealed to the emotions
Phrases tended to be longer and irregular in length
Themes were more complex and utilized chromaticism
Advent of theme transformation—an idea changes over time but remains rooted to its original form (Berlioz, Wagner)

38. Musical Elements Harmony Basically tonal (major or minor)
By end of the 19th century chromaticism (movement by half steps) stretched tonality to the breaking point
Chromaticism imbued greater dissonance and tension into the sound

39. Musical Elements Rhythm
Rhythmic effects were used for “color” – rubato (“to rob”)
Articulations in the instruments tended to be heavy and intense
A new vocabulary of music terms arose that indicated how to achieve the composer’s desired sound – cantabile, dolce, con amore, allegro agitato. These designations produced a more emotional sound and response.

40. Dynamics Gradual changes
Much wider range – extremes of dynamic variation, both soft and loud
Used extensively throughout the compositions

41. Timbre/Instrumentation
This period saw a full exploration of the instrumental families.
Instruments were used for both their individual and collective color potential.
Instrumental timbre was used to convey mood and atmosphere.

42. The orchestra became much larger – from 70 players to more than 100 (resulting in the necessity of a conductor).
Instruments could play louder and carry farther.
Instruments were capable of major changes in dynamics.

43. Strings
String sections increased in size and were given more difficult accompaniment parts (scales, arpeggios)

44. Woodwinds Development of new instruments
saxophone (baritone and tuba) were invented by Adolf Sax
piccolo, bass clarinet and English horn were added.
Important improvements in wind instruments
“Boehm system” of fingering for flutes and clarinets achieved better facility and intonation for the performer and greater musical range

45. Brass
Addition of valves and improvement to valves on brass instruments allowed the playing of a full chromatic compass for the first time and to more easily play quick runs of notes
Tubas and Trombones were added

46. Percussion
Expanded to include bass drum, snare drum, cymbals and other exotic percussion instruments (gong, castanets)

47. Famous Romantic Composers
Frederic Chopin
Franz Liszt
Hector Berlioz
Johannes Brahms
Modest Mussorgsky
Felix Mendelssohn
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Richard Wagner

48. Ludwig Von Beethoven

49. Ludwig Von Beethoven
Crucial figure in the transition from Classical to Romantic
The Romantic period really began around Works from this period are characterized by their intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly-personal expression.

50. Frederic Chopin

51. Franz Liszt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H99FM6S8rU

52. Hector Berlioz

53. Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique—1830
Written only a few years after the death of Beethoven, this worked stretched the capabilities of both the sounds possible for an orchestra and also the ability of an audience to bear intense emotions.
Berlioz had attended a play during which he was smitten with love for an actress (Harriet Smithson) onstage. He tried to reach her after the play but was turned away as a nobody.
He used his unrequited (unreturned) love as a creative engine to begin work on a piece inspired by Harriet.
He conceived of a composition that would directly tell a story through music, but without words.

54. Symphony Fantastique
1st Movement-Reveries and Passions: this movement introduces the main melody (idee fixee) that Berlioz will use throughout the entire work. This theme initially represents the beauty and innocence of the woman the main character loves.
Symphony Fantastique-1st Movement
2nd Movement-A Ball: this movement follows the main character approaching a building through a fog and being led by the music to finally being able to see through the windows to watch as a dance ball is taking place. The idee fixee is now transformed into a dance.
Symphony Fantastique 2nd Movement

55. Symphony Fantastique
3rd Movement-Scene in the Country: this movement has the main character in the country listening to two shepherds having a dialogue on distant hills…call and response is used to simulate the conversation and the echoes…the movement ends with one shepherd calling out only to be answered by silence…and distant thunder…
Symphony Fantastique 3rd Movement

56. Symphony Fantastique
4th Movement-March to the Scaffold: in this movement, the main character has now been accused of having murdered his beloved and is being led to the scaffold to have his head cut off…see if you can tell when the ax falls..
Symphony Fantastique 4th Movement

57. Symphony Fantastique
5th Movement-Dreams of a Witches Sabbath: The main character, now dead, sees his own funeral attended by witches…and who should join them but his beloved, whose idee fixee is now transformed into a cackling dance to which all the witches swirl as they celebrate their trickery. The movement continues with the introduction of the Gregorian Chant “Dies Irae” and the build up to a climax of amazing power, particularly that this work called for the largest orchestra that had ever been assembled at the time. In addition, Berlioz used techniques of orchestration that produced sounds no one had ever heard before (such as the string players using the wooden part of their bow to play the strings). All this just a few years after the death of Beethoven.
Symphony Fantastique 5th Movement

58. Johannes Brahms

59. Modest Mussorgsky

60. Felix Mendelssohn

61. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Web

62. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Russian composer
Wrote 11 operas, 4 concertos, 6 symphonies, 3 ballets
Most remembered for his ballets: Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake
Music is intense: Melancholy & emotional
It has been speculated that he committed suicide

63. Richard Wagner

64. Richard Wagner Began composing at age 17
3 stages of opera creations: early, middle, and third
His primary legacy was his creation of incredibly long and intricate operas
His ego was a powerful as his music, if not always of the same quality.

65. The Ring Cycle
Series of operas linked by a storyline and by use of leitmotifs (musical phrases linked to a specific character).
Das Rheingold—Rhinegold
Die Valkyries—The Valkyries
Siegfried—Seigfried
Gotterdamerung—Twilight of the Gods
12 hours total of the tale of a gold ring that will either save or destroy the Earth and the gods themselves…fortunately summed up magnificently in…

66. Tristan & Isolde
In the Wagnerian version the plot is briefly as follows: Tristan, having lost his parents in infancy, has been reared at the court of his uncle, Marke, King of Cornwall. He has slain in combat Morold, an Irish knight, who had come to Cornwall, to collect the tribute that country had been paying to Ireland. Morold was affianced to his cousin Isolde, daughter of the Irish king. Tristan, having been dangerously wounded in the combat, places himself, without disclosing his identity, under the care of Morold’s affianced, Isolde who comes of a race skilled in magic arts.
She discerns who he is; but, although she is aware that she is harbouring the slayer of her affianced, she spares him and carefully tends him, for she has conceived a deep passion for him. Tristan also becomes enamoured of her, but both deem their love unrequited. Soon after Tristan’s return to Cornwall, he is dispatched to Ireland by Marke, that he may win Isolde as Queen for the Cornish king…

67. Tristan and Isolde
The Overture-this overture is considered very important as it never settles into any particular key, so it helped shatter the expectations of a song “having” to be in one key, or mode (major or minor)…this led to many innovations in 20th century composing.

68. Period Instruments Tuba Alto, Bass, Contrabass Clarinet Contrabassoon
Euphonium
Alto, Tenor, Baritone Saxophone
Alto Flute

70. Romantic Opera
In addition to the huge, thundering works of Wagner, other countries had composers whose greatest works were operas.

71. Verdi and Italian Opera
28 operas
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
Italian composer
Patriotic, nationalistic works
Composed successfully until age 80
Died at 87
National hero
Requiem: "Dies Irae"
Music 013-L Music Appreciation

72. Rossini and Italian Opera
Opposing genres of opera seria (serious opera) and opera buffa (comic opera) still prevalent in Italy
Gioachino Rossini (1792 – )
–The Barber of Seville
– William Tell Overture (Finale)

73. The Big Takeaway…
Music in the Romantic Period reflected the growth of ideas through expanded forms, expanded sounds, and expanded emotional impact.
As industry impacted the world, music followed suit with changes in instrument invention and design.
Compositions grew larger/longer, but mostly relied on older forms (symphonies, concertos, sonatas, etc.).
Composers’ imaginations followed general trends towards more expressive subjects, including source material from both home (nationalism) and abroad (exoticism).