Transcript The Romantic Era - Nampa School District

The Romantic Era
1829-1910
Romance/Romantic
• term derived from medieval French
• imaginative tale written in a romance
language as opposed to Latin. Ordinary
people achieving the extraordinary
• Term Romantic first appears in English
literature during the 17th Century
Individualism
• The individual imagination paired with
defiance to authority reached its peak
during the 19th C
• Artists served themselves rather than
pleasing aristocratic patrons
• When accepting patronage, it was to the
artist’s own terms
A thing for the past
• Sir Walter Scott – almost a dozen popular
novels set in medieval times
• Eugène Delacroix – gallant knights
followed chivalric code in service of
idealized women
• Hector Berlioz – Greek and Roman
mythology in his opera “The Trojans”
http://thespace.org/items/e0000exc
• Richard Wagner – Norse mythology “The
Ring Cycle”
http://ringcycle.metoperafamily.org/
Arabs Skirmish in the Mountains
Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople
Combat between Giaour andThe
Pasha
Collision of Two Moorish Horsemen
Grotesque Themes
• Hunchback of Notre Dame – Hugo 1831
• Ring of Nebulung – ugly dwarfs
• Faust – Goethe
Nature’s Force and Power
• Darwin’s theory of natural selection 1859
“On the Origin of Species”
• Caspar David Friedrich 1774-1840
• William Turner 1775-1851
The Industrial Revolution
• Smokestack industries spewed ash over
cities and countryside
• People abandoned farms for greater
security in the cities – instead they found
congestion, poverty and crime
• Cheap labor – including child labor in
factories
Warfare
• Napoleon assembled hordes of soldiers
motivated by patriotism rather than money
• Development of the Gatling gun
• Little concern for civilian casualties
Colonialism to Imperialism
• World powers Britain, France and
Germany governed the “lesser” races of
the world, traveling to Africa, India and the
Middle East
• Institutuionalized slavery
Politics
• American Civil War
• French Revolution
• Risogimento – the resurgence, unification
of Italy
• A newly united Germany under leadership
of Otto von Bismarck
Education
• Extended to the middle class
• Spread of egalitarianism – race, gender
battles
The work week
• At start of Romantic Era – 70 hours per
week
• At end of Romantic Era – 50 hours per
week
• Provided more leisure time
• Permanent orchestras and symphonies
put in place as well as the nine month
concert season
Hector Berlioz
• 1803-1869 small town
near Grenoble
• Wavy red hair,
penetrating eyes and
unbound energy
• Shared Father’s love
for literature
• Father insisted Hector
study medicine
• Lasted 2yrs
Hector Berlioz
• In Paris, no family
support for music
• Prix de Rome (3rd try)
• 1827 first saw H.S.
• Music seen as incorrect
to the public
• Music critic
• Idèe Fixe (fixed idea)
• Programmatic Music
• Marriage was over within
six years
Symphony Fantastique
1830
• Part I – Reveries,
passions
• Part II – a ball
• Part III – Country side
(15:20)
(21:50)
• Part IV – March to
Scaffold
• Part V – A Witches’
Sabbath
(37:50)
(44:45)
Hector Berlioz
• Symphonie
Fantastique
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Trojans
• Treatise on
Instrumentation and
Modern Orchestration
• Tuba Mirum
• Te Deum
Nicolo Paganini
• Born into a poor
family 1782-1840
• Father made him
practice morning to
night even denying
food
• By 13 leading
violinist would not
take him as a
student
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXoAYWpzT3E
Nicolo Paganini
• By 18 supported
himself by giving
performances
• Warsaw and Paris
1829 1831 Liszt and
Chopin
The Piano
• In 1830 < 10,000 produced annually
• By 1900 > 500,000
• Viennese piano of Beethoven competed
with the French pianos of Pleyel and Erard
Franz Liszt 1811-1886
• Hungarian family that
worked with Esterhazy
estate
• Thought descended from
nobility – no proof
• Father taught cello when
he was 7
• Hungarian nobles
provided scholarship for
him to study music in
Vienna when 10
Liszt 1811-1886
• Studied with Czerny
(pupil of Beethoven)
• As a teenager,
travelled in France,
England and
Switzerland to play
concerts
• Day before premiere
of Symphony
Fantastique, met
Berlioz
Liszt 1811-1886
• Three months later met
Paganini
• From 16-19 dedicated 1012 hours daily to achieve
his own “transcendental
technique”
• Le concert, c’est moi
• 1848 permanent
conductor of Weimar
court orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQULyGMhhWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX0KiSwm3yc
Liszt 1811-1886
• 1860 moved from Weimar to Rome
because of an affair with a Catholic
princess
• Taught master classes for 25 years to his
death
• 1865 took minor Catholic orders, though
he never became a priest
Frederic Chopin
• 1810-1849
• Reserved and
withdrawn
• Born in Warsaw: mom
Polish, dad French
• 1829 heard Paganini
• Lived in Paris for the
latter part of his life
• Gave lessons to
aristocratic children
Frederic Chopin
• Asked students to
leave fees on the
mantlepiece
• 1836 Met George
Sand, aka Aurore
Dudevant
• Suffered from
tuberculosis –
travelling to England
1848 may have
quickened his death
Frederic Chopin
• Wrote nearly 250
works
• Most works are 2-6
minutes
• Mastered the
mazurka, polonaise,
nocturne, and etude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PGpn6Iw50g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LkXsnEEQmE
Felix Mendelssohn
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1809-1847
Songs Without Words
Overture
Sister Fanny
Known for melodies
Father was a banker
Mother
Felix Mendelssohn
• Used classical forms
• Embodied the
feelings of
Romanticism
• Visited Goethe,
stayed two weeks
• Overture a stand
alone work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0gHTNJVFtA
Robert Schumann
• 1810-1856
• Loved literature
• 16 attended
University
– Did not attend class:
read, sketched novels
and improvised piano
• 18 took lessons from
Friedrich Wieck – met
9 year old Clara
Robert Schumann
• 1830 heard Paganini
• Signs of manicdepressive disorder
• Fingers injured
• Turned to
composition and
journalism
• First to praise Berlioz,
Chopin and Brahms
Robert Schumann
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1839 Engagement
Legal battles
1840 Married Clara
150 songs
cycle of great production
followed by periods of
depression and inactivity
• Suicide attempt
• Assylum
Brahms
• 1833-1897
• Born the middle child:
mom43 dad25
• Sent Schumann his
works of youth –
returned unopened
• Conservative
• Absolute music of
classical era
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAuqxEMRapg
Johann Strauss, Jr.
• 1825-1899
• Father discouraged
musical career
• 1842 undertook his own
musical education
• 1860 world famous
• International Peace
Jubilee in America 10,000
instrumentalist 20,000
singers, 100 subconductors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqm9jaM5UPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkzWF1UE1CI
Opera in Italy
• Early 18th C opera moved from theathers
of the aristocracy to public theaters
• Opera houses in Paris, London, Berlin,
and Vienna
• Most popular form of entertainment
• Audience members not formally educated
in music
• Libretto
Gioacchino Rossini
• 1792-1868
• At 18 wrote his first
opera
• 1810-1829 36+
Spain, France and
Italy
• The Barber of Seville
Giuseppe Verdi
• 1813-1901
• Perfect blend of
music and drama
• First music lessons 3
• At 18 Milan
conservatory refused
admission
• 1840 first production
at La Scala - failure
Verdi
• Within 2 months of
first major flop, lost
his wife, son and
daughter
• 1842 Nabucco
• In following years, 20
more operas followed,
including Rigolletto, Il
Tovatore, La Traviata
Verdi
• Verdi’s operas had subtle
political undertones
• For unification of Italy, he
played an important role
• After 1860 completed
only 5 operas
• Melodies that beg to be
whistled or hummed
• Melodies straightforward
and subtle
• Orchestration bold
Verdi
Giacomo Puccini
• 1858-1924
• Originated from family of church musicians
• Sometimes worked in Tuscan folk songs
or snatches from Verdi opera
• Milan conservatory at 22
• “The Almighty touched me with his little
finger and said: “Write for the theater, mind
you, only for the theater!”
Puccini
• Madama Butterfly, Tosca, La boheme
• Verismo – realism: favored lower class
characters caught up in lust, greed hatred,
betrayal, or revenge.
Richard Wagner
• 1813-1883
• Youngest of nine
• Father died when
Wagner was 6 mo.
• Wanted an opera in
Paris
• Journals, piano
arrangements
Tristan and Isolde http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlpLlQbNFow
Wagner
• Affairs, debtors
prison, insensitive,
exiled
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Die Hochzeit
The Flying Dutchman
Tannhauser
Lohengrin
The Ring
(the wedding)
Wagner
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Unending melody
Leitmotif
Zukunftsmusik (music of the future)
Gesamtkunstwerk (complete artwork)
• “Lohengrin sought a woman who would believe in him, who would
believe in him, who would not ask who he was or from where he
came, but would love him just as he was… Doubt and jealousy
prove to him that he is not understood but only adored, and tear
from him the confession of his divinity, whith which he returns,
destroyed, into isolation.”
Camille Saint - Säens
• 1835-1921
• Organist – began playing at 3: by 10 he
was playing Beethoven concertos in public
• Traveled extensively (Australia, Antarctica)
• Wife was half his age. Two sons; death
Saint - Säens
• Blamed his wife for their death – leaves
her and travels the world extensively
• After 1880 France recognized him as
outdated. This contributed to his travels
• Helped found the French National Music
Society
• Algeria
• Samson and Delilah, Danse Macabre,
Carnival of the Animals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG8QCjaw4yk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LOFhsksAYw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMeGxIgVdHU