Romantic Music History

Music of the
Romantic Era
Aspects of Romanticism in music & art
Nature (idyllic or awesome, sublime)

organic unity (music)
Supernatural, demonic
exoticism
ancient (Medieval (not Greek))
- rejection of Classicism & Renaissance
folklore and Das Volk (Nationalism)
THE ARTIST APART FROM SOCIETY

THE ARTIST AS
SOCIAL CRITIC/REVOLUTIONARY
Beethovens 9th Symphony
THE ARTIST AS GENIUS/CULTURAL HERO
BEETHOVEN: Why bow to social status?

The misunderstood genius
To be a genius is to be misunderstood Emerson
The artist out in front, ahead of the audience, the

advanced guard (a military metaphor)
the avant garde
Music could quickly come to such a point, that everyone who is not
precisely familiar with the rules and difficulties of the art would find
absolutely no enjoyment in it.
A critic reviewing the premiere of Beethovens 3rd Symphony
Early Beethoven
He speaks Classical
the language of
Mozart & Haydn
Beethoven
Model Romantic genius-type

Not a servant an
independent creator!
Concerts very long a new
audience; amateurs left
behind
Musics Trinity: Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven
Beethoven
9 symphonies
16 string quartets
32 piano sonatas
5 piano concertos
1 violin concerto
1 opera
Beethoven
LISTENING EXAMPLE
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, 1st mvt.
Dramatic, even violent, but still in a
perfectly structured sonata form
All 4 movements unified by famous
short-short-short-long motif
1808
Textbook CD example
Beethoven
LISTENING EXAMPLE
Symphony No. 6 The Pastoral
5 movements, each with a descriptive title
Pastoral with a sublime storm
1808
Goya, Executions of the Third of May, 1808
BEETHOVEN Symphonies 5 & 6
text
p. 340
Schubert
Only 31 years old at his death

wrote 16 operas, only 3
performed in his lifetime;
none performed today
between 500-600 songs
a rather unstructured life
Odd Textbook CD
example
Schubert, Erlkonig 1815 (Goethe)
(Narrator) (Narrator)
Wer reitet so spt durch Nacht und Wind? Who rides so late through the night and
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind; wind?
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm, It is a father with his child;
Er fasst ihn sicher, er hlt ihn warm. he has the boy close in his arm,
he holds him tight, he keeps him warm.
(Father)
"Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein (Father)
Gesicht?" "My son, why do you hide your face in
fear?"
(Son) (Son)
"Siehst, Vater, du den Erlknig nicht? "Father, don't you see the Erlking?
Den Erlknig mit Kron' und Schweif?" The Erlking with his crown and train?"
(Father)
"Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif." (Father)
"My son, it is a streak of mist."
(Erlking) (Erlking)
"Du liebes Kind, komm geh mit mir! "You dear child, come with me!
Gar schne Spiele spiel' ich mit dir; I'll play very lovely games with you.
Manch' bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand; There are lots of colourful flowers by the
Meine Mutter hat manch' glden Gewand." shore;
my mother has some golden robes."
(Son)
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, und (Son)
hrest du nicht, "My father, my father, don't you
Was Erlknig mir leise verspricht?" hear
the Erking whispering promises to
(Father) me?"
"Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind;
In drren Blttern suselt der
(Father)
Wind." "Be still, stay calm, my child;
(Erlking) it's the wind rustling in the dry
"Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir leaves."
geh'n?
Meine Tchter sollen dich warten (Erlking)
schn; "My find lad, do you want to come
Meine Tchter fhren den with me?
nchtlichen Reih'n My daughters will take care of you;
Und wiegen und tanzen und my daughters lead the nightly
singen dich ein." dance,
and they'll rock and dance and sing
(Son) you to sleep."
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, und
siehst du nicht dort,
(Son)
Erlknigs Tchter am dsteren "My father, my father, don't you see
Ort?" the Erlking's daughters over there
in the shadows?"
(Father) (Father)
"Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich "My son, my son, I see it clearly,
seh' es genau, it's the gray sheen of the old willows."
Es scheinen die alten Weiden
so grau." (Erlking)
(Erlking) "I love you, your beautiful form
"Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine delights me!
And if you're not willing, then I'll use
schne Gestalt,
force."
Und bist du nicht willig, so
brauch ich Gewalt."
(Son)
(Son)
"My father, my father, now he's
"Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fasst
grasping me!
er mich an!
The Erlking has hurt me!"
Erlknig hat mir ein Leids getan!"
(Narrator)
Dem Vater grauset's, er reitet (Narrator)
geschwind, The father shudders, he rides swiftly,
Er hlt in Armen das chzende he holds the moaning child in his
Kind, arms;
Erreicht den Hof mit Mh und Noth; with effort and urgency he reaches
the courtyard:
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot. in his arms the child was dead.
Emotions? Balance, repose, clarity?
NO! FEAR &

SUPERNATURAL
EVIL
Is death tempting & attractive?
Another development
In the 1830s, composer/conductor Felix
Mendelssohn conducts a performance of Bachs
Mass in B minor so what?
MUSIC OF THE PAST BEGINS TO TAKE A

PLACE ON CONCERT PROGRAMS IT
EVENTUALLY DOMINATES CONCERT
PROGRAMMING
By 1870, seventy-five per cent of works in the

Gewandhaus (a famous German orchestra) repertory
were by dead composers.
Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique
- program music
- themes of love, madness,
drugs, death, demons
Textbook CD example
Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique
- idee fixe
- themes not worked-out in the
German way; emphasis on
effects and color
- 1831
I. Reveries Passions
A young musician, afflicted with "undirected emotionalism,"
sees the woman of his dreams and falls hopelessly in love . . .
II. A Ball
III. Scene in the Country
IV. March to the Scaffold.

Convinced that his love is unrequited, the artist takes an
overdose of opium. It plunges him into a sleep accompanied
by horrifying visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved,
has been condemned and led to the scaffold, and is witnessing
his own execution. The procession advances to a march that is
now somber and savage, now brilliant and solemn. At its
conclusion the idee fixe returns, like a final thought of the
beloved, cut off by the fatal blow.
Textbook CD example
(Dies irae traditional text and chant melody,
part of the requiem mass for the dead)
V. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath

He sees himself in the midst of a frightful throng of
ghosts, witches, monsters of every kind, who have
assembled for his funeral. Strange noises, groans,
bursts of laughter, distant cries. The beloved melody
again reappears, but it has lost its modesty and
nobility; it is no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial
and grotesque; it is she, coming to the Sabbath. A
joyous roar greets her arrival.... She joins in the
devilish orgy.... A funeral knell, a parody of the Dies
irae. A Sabbath round-dance. The Dies irae and the
round-dance are combined.
Goya, Witches Sabbath, c. 1819-23
Chopin
Famous pianist, but

gave only 14 public
performances in his
39-year life!
Frdric Chopin
Nocturne in F minor, Opus 55, No. 1
-- introspective mood;
psychologically probing?
-- as if "spontaneous" or improvised
(in fact neatly structured)
-- a distant view of folk music (note
the veiled suggestion of dance
music), which relates to the Romantic
interest in ethnicity and Nationalism
-- expanding use of chromatic
harmony
-- use of dissonance for color
Goya,
The Sleep of Reason
Brings Forth
Monsters
1796-8
etching
Richard Wagner
OPERA INNOVATOR
The Ring over 18 hours of
music
Tristan und Isolde
1865
A little break from The Ring
Previously tries to integrate
all arts into single theatrical
experience; changes his
mind Music reigns
supreme
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner
- wrote the words
- wrote the music
- designed the sets
- designed the costumes
- directed the stage action
Gesamkunstler
total artist
Designed and built theater at
Bayreuth
1957 production of Parsifal
see p. 361
Tristan und Isolde (1865)
-- expanding use of chromatic harmony over long

spans of time
-- opera expands in size: larger orchestra, longer
operas (The Ring takes four evenings to perform)
-- sophisticated orchestration
-- opera is now continuous: the aria/recitative concept
is replaced by "continuous melody"
-- Wagner develops the idea of "leitmotif," in which a
brief musical idea is associated with a character, idea, or
object in an opera
Tristan und Isolde how Romantic?
Medieval tale of chivalry
exotic (Ireland & Cornwall)

magic potion & sorceress
emotionally fluid, passionate
psychologically probing
unified through leitmotifs
Love, Death transcendence - ECHT!

Folk NATIONALISM
Verdi and V.E.R.D.I

Composer as national/popular figure
LISTENING EXAMPLE FROM Rigoletto
La Donna Mobil
THE ARTIST APART FROM SOCIETY

THE ARTIST AS
SOCIAL CRITIC/REVOLUTIONARY
Beethovens 9th Symphony
THE ARTIST AS GENIUS/CULTURAL HERO
BEETHOVEN: Why bow to social status?

Nature (idyllic or awesome, sublime)
organic unity (music)
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY No. 5
Supernatural Berlioz, WAGNER TRISTAN
dream world, interior world CHOPIN NOCTURNE
exoticism Beethoven Symphony No. 9
ancient (Medieval) WAGNER TRISTAN
old Bach
folklore and Das Volk (Nationalism)
WAGNER The Ring

Romantic Music History

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Romantic Music History

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Music of the

Nature (idyllic or awesome, sublime)

THE ARTIST APART FROM SOCIETY

BEETHOVEN: Why bow to social status?

The artist out in front, ahead of the audience, the

Model Romantic genius-type

BEETHOVEN Symphonies 5 & 6

Only 31 years old at his death

Emotions? Balance, repose, clarity?

NO! FEAR &

MUSIC OF THE PAST BEGINS TO TAKE A

By 1870, seventy-five per cent of works in the

IV. March to the Scaffold.

V. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath

Famous pianist, but

1957 production of Parsifal

-- expanding use of chromatic harmony over long

exotic (Ireland & Cornwall)

Love, Death transcendence - ECHT!

Verdi and V.E.R.D.I

THE ARTIST APART FROM SOCIETY

BEETHOVEN: Why bow to social status?

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