1	Romanticism Music in Nineteenth Century Europe
2	Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
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4	“Romantic” adopted from the literary movement’s name for itself from roman, a novel or story first Romantic composers began their careers in the mid-1820s their literary contemporaries excited about the “new” Romantic music the music takes a literary approach to expression
5	The Age of Revolutions July Revolution of 1830: workers in Paris challenged the government [after heavy, reactionary rule of Charles X] the July Revolution in France sparked violence in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Belgium. a wave of revolutions swept Europe in 1848, the same year Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto. the Second Republic: 1848-52, followed by Napoleon’s Second Empire (1852-70)
6	Composers and libertarian politics Beethoven’s Buonaparte symphony (renamed the “Eroica”) Liszt’s involvement in a half-communistic, half-religious, movement founded by Father Francois Lamenais Verdi’s name becomes an acronym for an Italian liberation movement Wagner kicked out of Germany for inflammatory speeches from the revolutionary barricades in Dresden
7	The Cult of Individual Feeling Striving for a better, higher, ideal state at the heart of the Romantic movement Everyday life seemed dull and meaningless to Romantics It could be transcended through the free exercise of the will and through passion The rule of feeling, unconstrained by convention, religion or social taboo, becomes the highest good Along with political revolutions, SOCIAL revolution
8	Romantic fascinations nature nostalgia the supernatural death, suicide
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10	Musical Trends grandiose forms (Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique an hour and a half, Wagner’s Ring cycle over four evenings @ 4 hrs each!) miniature forms (short character pieces for piano, lieder) - often organized in cycles thematic UNITY and transformation
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12	ROMANTIC MUSIC Style characteristics to listen for: MELODY Romantic melody the most instantly recognizable feature more emotionally expressive, effusive than Classical HOW? Melodic lines ‘wider’ – bigger range, larger leaps Melodies build to more sustained climaxes Irregular rhythms and phrases: seem more improvisatory than Classical style
13	“Love” theme from Romeo & Juliet Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
14	ROMANTIC MUSIC Style characteristics to listen for: HARMONY Harmony showed the greatest advancement in the Romantic period – used to underpin the emotionality of the melody Harmony savored for its own sake: helped evoke moods Chromaticism pursued: the use of ALL colors and notes available – carried furthest by Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss
15	Prelude to “Tristan and Isolde” Richard Wagner
16	ROMANTIC MUSIC Style characteristics to listen for: RUBATO Both in the written score, and in actual performance, musicians were expected to incorporate tempo rubato: flexible handling of the rhythm Means “robbed time” – time ‘stolen’ from the beat is ‘given back’ a moment later
17	Nocturne in F# Major Op. 15, no. 2 Frederic Chopin
18	The perceived superiority of instrumental music “In instrumental music,…art is independent and free, it writes its own laws only for itself, it fantasizes freely and without purpose and nevertheless fulfills and attains the highest. It follows entirely its own dark drives expresses the deepest, the most miraculous with its triflings. The highest victory, the most beautiful prize of instruments are the symphonies... “…beautifully developed drama such as the poet can never produce. From beginning to end, the thing itself is their object. The goal itself is present at every moment, beginning and ending the artwork…” Ludwig Tieck, 1799
19	Symphonie Fantastique Hector Berlioz a Program Symphony – “program music” – music which tells a story, literally uses an idee fixe: a musical ‘signature’ that is transformed during the course of the symphony according to the emotional state of the character illustrates musically such things as ‘volcanic love,’ a pastoral country scene, a ballroom dance (perceived through the haze of opium), a guillotine execution, and a witches’ orgy (!)
20	Symphonie Fantastique Hector Berlioz First movement: “Reveries, Passions” Second movement: “A Ball” Third movement: “Scene in the Country” Fourth movement: “March to the Scaffold” Fifth movement: “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”
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23	VIRTUOSITY: The Performer as Hero
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