Transcript Music Appreciation, Class #9

Music Appreciation, Class #9
ROSSINI, SCHUBERT,
BERLIOZ, MENDELSSOHN
&
REVIEW FOR TEST #2
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Signor Crescendo*
 Enormous orchestral scoring
 Bel Canto vocal lines
 Florid, ornamental
 Success!
 Fame!
 Money!
 Early retirement!
Career
 39 operas
 The Barber of Seville
 Cinderella


Ceclia Bartoli “Non piu mesta”
William Tell

Overture
 Sacred Music
 Salon music
CD #1, Track 17
 Stabat Mater (1827)
 “The Sorrowful Mother Stood”
 Quis est homo qui non fleret
 “Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in miseries so
deep, Christ's dear Mother to behold?”
 Listen for…
 Close harmonies, crescendo
Romantic
 Upper case definition
 Reaction against “reason”
 Aesthetics
Heightened emotion
 Nature
 Children
 Struggle with nature
 Death

Aesthetic Goals and Ideals
 fantasy
 grotesque
 whimsy
 imaginative
 playful
 reaching for eternity
 longing for the unrequited
 artist and art
“The Artist”
 Image
 Poverty
 Health
 Suffering
 Eccentric
 Exotic
Liebestod
 Romantic ideal
 Love/death
 Sturm und Drang
 Storm and stress/urge/longing
Culture
 Purpose
 “Beauty for Beauty’s Sake”

Robert Lewis Stevenson

Must beauty be “beautiful?”

Emotion

Emotionalism?
Audience
 No more patronage
 Middle-class
 Educated
 Musical
New terms
 Artist*
 Genius
 Inspiration
 Dilettante
 Professional
 Amateur
Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)
Influences
 Beethoven
 Salieri
 Mozart
Catalogue
 Over 1,000 completed pieces
 Nine symphonies
 Chamber music
 600 Lieder
Lieder*
 Piano
Story-teller
 Subconscious

 Song “cycle”*
 Text
Prose
 Poetry
 Heine, Schiller, Goethe

Der Erlkönig*
Accompaniment?
 Piano
 Horse
Dissonance
 Melody

Singer
 Narrator
 Son
 Father
 Erl King
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe* (1749-1832!)
Jessye Norman
Comic Relief?
 Marco Rima
 VERY politically incorrect!
Wiener Kaffeehaus and jail
 Meeting place
 Artists
 Writers
 Poets
 Musicians

Political radicals
Schubertiade*
 Schubert Abend*
 Informal
Fun
 Fame
 Food

CD #2, Track 1
Marian Anderson
 “Ave Maria”

Listen for…
Long, extended melodic line
 Simple, harmonically-complex accompaniment
 Latin text?

Original source: “The Lady Of The Lake”
Hector Berlioz 1803-69)
“Symphonie fantastique*” 1830
 “An Episode in the Life of an Artist “
…a young vibrant musician, afflicted by a wave of
passions, sees for the first time a woman who unites
all the charms of the ideal person his imagination
was dreaming of, and falls desperately in love with
her. By a strange anomaly, the beloved image never
presents itself to the artist’s mind without being
associated with idée fixe.
CD #2, Track 2 “The Ball”
The artist finds himself in the most diverse situations
in life, in the tumult of a festive party, in the
peaceful contemplation of the beautiful sights of
nature, yet everywhere, whether in town or in the
countryside, the beloved image keeps haunting him
and throws his spirit into confusion.
Idée fixe
Listen for…
 Mysterious opening with harps and strings
 Festive waltz music
 Two interruptions by the idée fixe*
 2:10
 5:25
Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy)* 1809-47
Style
 Elegant
 Sensitive
 “Miniature”s
 Songs Without Words: “Spring”
 Incidental Music*
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Wedding march
Image of “The Artist?”*
 Wealthy
 Musical prodigy*
 Handsome
 Intelligent
 Languages
 Artist

Jewish
Mendelssohn and Bach
 CPE Bach’s widow
 St. Matthew’s Passion
 1750-1829
 Devotee
 Contrapuntal influence
Fanny Mendelssohn (Hensel)* 1805-1847)
Composer?!
 Same education
 More talent and creativity?
 Pseudonym
 Handwriting
 Correspondence
 Style
Charles Gounod said...
“Madame Hensel was an unforgettable musician,
an excellent pianist, an
intellectually superior woman.
She was small, almost slight, but the fire that
burned in her eyes
revealed extraordinary energy.
As a composer, she was exceptionally gifted ...”
Test #2 Review
WEEK 10: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2008
CD Tracks
 Cumulative
 New tracks


All of CD#1
CD #2, Tracks 1-3
Test 2: Sample Questions
 What were the most important changes made to the piano
during the Classical era?
 What enormous political/social event was celebrated with a
performance of the Beethoven 9th in December 25, 1989?
 At the end of his career, Haydn wrote his first and only oratorio.
It is a highly descriptive telling of Holy Scripture from Genesis
and the Psalms. What is the name of this piece?
 Compare Haydn’s years with the Esterházy family vs. Mozart
and his employers.
 What was the tradition known as DROIT DE SEIGNEUR?
Test 2: Sample Questions
 What are the “Sketch Books”?

What are “Conversation Books”?
 What city was the musical and cultural center
of the Classic period?
 The exposition of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony
contains how many notes?
 How does the overture to Mozart's Don
Giovanni end?
 Beethoven violently changed the dedication of the “Emperor” concerto
to the “Eroica” concerto in December 1804. Why?
 Thousands of Viennese attended Beethoven’s funeral. Among his
pallbearers was what future great composer and Beethoven devotee?
 Why is the Classical Period also known as the “Age of Reason” or the
“Age of Enlightenment”?
 Mozart was unusually proud of the end of Act I in The Marriage Of
Figaro. Why?
 What is Don Giovanni’s fate? Is he dragged to Hell, or does he alone
make the decisions which determine that fate? In what way is that
revolutionary?
 Who was Lorenzo Da Ponte? Why was he hired to work in Vienna?

Da Ponte promised Emperor Franz Joseph a major change in Beaumarchasis’
radical play The Marriage Of Figaro in order to obtain permission to work with
Mozart on the project. What was Da Ponte’s promise, and did he keep it?
 What is THE HEILIGENSTADT LETTER?
 How did the father of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn prepare his children
for their adult life?
 Who was Antonio Salieri? Facts vs. fiction, please!


How and when did the myths about him and his relationship to Mozart begin?
What Tony and Academy Award winning play and movie tells that story?
 What is “Chamber Music”? What composer is credited with the greatest
accomplishments in Chamber Music? How many musicians are required
for Chamber Music?
 Did Beethoven write and re-write his music or did he compose
seemingly without effort? Compare to Schubert and Mozart.
 The writers, poets and playwrights of the Classic period worked with
what cultural and aesthetic goals in mind?
 Did Mozart’s talent require training? What proof was recorded of his
talents?
 “Music, of all the arts, has the greatest influence over the
passions....The Marriage of Figaro contains all of the elements of the
French Revolution…” What political figure made this statement?
 When did Beethoven’s hearing begin to fail? Why? Why have the
facts recently changed?
Test 2: Sample Questions
 How did the public react to Rossini’s operas?
 Define “Crescendo” and explain its relevance to




Rossini.
What are the aesthetic goals of the Romantic period?
What were the new ways in which Schubert used the
piano for lieder?
How many characters are presented in “The Erlking”?
What is Marian Anderson’s place in American history?
 The excavation of what two major cities marks the birth of the Classical Period?
 Why is Haydn considered to be the “Father Of The Symphony”?
 “Papa Haydn”?
 How many movements are standard in a Classical concerto?
 Which tempo scheme is standard for a Classical concerto?
 Between 1812 and 1817 Beethoven composed almost no music. Three crisis
interrupted his musical concentration. What were those three events?
 Mozart once wrote to his father that he was really only interested in writing one
genre and that all his other compositions were just to generate income. What is
that one genre?
 What is the “surprise” in the “Surprise Symphony” by Haydn? Why did he feel the
need to surprise his audiences? How did he accomplish the surprise?
Test 2: Sample Questions
 Explain how Susanna (The Marriage Of Figaro) and Leporello (Don
Giovanni) are radical characters and thereby symbolic of the entire Classical
period. Your answer must include a discussion of the musical and
social/political implications each character presents.
 What did Ferdinand Hiller do on May 27, 1827? What was the fate of the
locket? How has the history of Beethoven’s final years changed as a result?
Where is the largest collection of Beethoven artifacts housed today?
 How did Berlioz use the
idée fix in his Symphonie Fantastique?
 Describe Beethoven’s week of May 1-7, 1824 in detail, including the premiere
of the 9th.
 Identify and label each section of the Sonata form in detail.