1. ROMANTIC ERA 1820-1900 Journal Entry #1
Music history focuses on composers, rather than performers. Has that changed, or will history remember the song writers of today? Why/why not?

2. Literature Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831)
Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist (1844)
Alexander Dumas – The Three Musketeers (1844)
Edgar Allen Poe – The Raven (1845)
Mark Twain – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

3. Art
Claude Monet – Impressionism, Water Lilies

4. Poppies Blooming

5. Paul Cezanne – Still Life with Apples

6. Van Gogh – Starry Night (1889)

7. History Monroe Doctrine (1823)
Marx and Engels: The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Darwin – Origin of Species
American Civil War:
Alexander Graham Bell invents the TELEPHONE: 1876
Spanish-American: 1898

8. Chapter 1. Romanticism in Music

9. ROMANTICISM Cultural mvmt: emotion, imagniation, individuality
A rebellion against the age of reason
The totality of the human experience
International mvmt, influenced all arts
Romantics drawn to fantasy: unconscious, irrational, world of dreams
Nature inspired art
The physical world was seen as a source of consolation, a mirror of the human heart

10. Romantic
Large amount of composers during this time testifies to the richness and variety of romantic music and to its continuing impact on today’s concert and operatic repertoire
Forms from classical period
Greater ranges of tone color, dynamics, and pitch.

11. Romantic More emphasis on colorful, unstable chords
Close link to the other arts- particularly literature
New forms developed that showed greater tension and less emphasis on balance and resolution.
This period cannot be overly generalized—many traditional vs. radical composers.

12. Characteristics of Romantic Music
Individuality of style
Unprecedented emphasis on self-expression and individuality of style
Unique and often reflected their personalities
Expressive aims and subjects
Exploration into feeling--flamboyance and intimacy, unpredictability and melancholy, rapture and longing
Songs, operas glorify romantic love; lovers are often unhappy and face overwhelming obstacles

13. Characteristics of Romantic Music
Nationalism- political movement that influenced 19th c. music.
Musical Nationalism- romantic composers deliberately created music with a specific national identity
Using the folk songs, dances, legends, and history of their homeland
Exoticism- fascination with national identity leading composers to draw on colorful materials from foreign lands

14. Characteristics of Romantic Music
Program Music- instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, or scene.
Expressive Tone Color - Timbre is more important than ever before
Larger orchestras, more varied in tone color (up to 100 musicians)
Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion took on more active roles

15. Characteristics of Romantic Music
New tone colors in woodwinds: contrabassoon, bass clarinet, English horn, piccolo (became regulars in the orchestra)
Piano was improved during the 1820’s and 30’s
A cast-iron frame was introduced to hold strings under greater tension, hammers were covered with felt, range was extended, use of damper pedal

16. Characteristics of Romantic Music
Colorful Harmony
Explored new chords and new ways of using familiar chords
Rich, colorful, complex harmonies
Chromatic harmony: use of chords containing tone not found in the prevailing major or minor scale- use of chromatic scale tones
Unstable, dissonant chords used more
Use of wide variety of keys and modulations

17. Characteristics of Romantic Music
Expanded Range of Dynamics, Pitch, and Tempo
Wider dynamics, extremes- ffff, pppp
Extreme high and low pitches for increased brilliance and depth
Use of accelerandos, ritardandos, and subtle variations of pace
Rubato: slight holding back or pressing forward of tempo

18. Characteristics of Romantic Music
Form: Miniature and Monumental
Very much and age of contradictions
Short songs and piano pieces, gigantic works- long, large number of performers
Typical romantic symphony may last 45 minutes

19. New techniques used to unify long works such as thematic transformation-
a melody returning in a later movement or section
its character may be transformed by changes in dynamics, orchestration, or rhythm

20. Chapter 2. Romantic Composers and Their Public

21. More freelancing than previous eras
Outside aristocratic or church patronage
Inspired by Beethoven
Composed to fill an “inner need” rather than fulfill a commission

22. Partly due to economics
French Revolution, Napoleonic wars left aristocrats unable to afford to maintain private music endeavors
Merging of many tiny states into fewer, larger ones, left many musicians unemployed without courts

23. Industrial Revolution – enlarged middle class
Composers wrote even more for them
Romantic Era a time of many public subscription-based concerts opening
London Philharmonic Society (1813)
New York Philharmonic (1842)
Many conservatories opened in Europe and United States

24. Public captivated more than ever by virtuosity
Best known Romantic virtuosos:
Pianist Franz Liszt
Violinist Niccolò Paganini

25. Private music making more popular than ever – nearly every home had a piano
High demand for solo piano repertoire
Even operas and orchestral works arranged for piano

26. Few Romantic composers were able to support themselves through composition alone
Other income: lessons - especially to the wealthy, who could be overcharged (Chopin taught wealthy young women); music criticism; conducting