The Spirit of Romanticism

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The Spirit of Romanticism

• 1820-1900

Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest
influence over the passions.
2
Romantic vs. Classical(1820-1900) (1750-1825)

• Subjective Objective
• Strangeness Order
• Wonder vs. Poise
• Ecstasy
  Serenity

3
French RevolutionLiberty, Equality, Fraternity

• Transfer of power to the middle class
• Technological advances of the Industrial
  Revolution
• Emphasized the individual

Jean-Jacques RousseauPhilosopher 1712 - 1778
   Never exceed your rights, and  they will soon
become unlimited.    
4
Art

• Intensely emotional expression
• Awareness of themselves as individuals apart from
  all others.

5
Orphan Girl at the CemeteryEugène Delacroix
(1798-1863)
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Sketch for The Death of Sardanapalus Female
Nude, killed from behind
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The Death of Sardanapal1827
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UprisingHonoré Daumier(1808-1879)
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Poetry/Literature

• Fanciful subjects
• Passionate
• Picturesque
• Emotional expressioneternal longing, regret for
  lost happiness of childhood
• Edgar Allen Poe, Hawthorne

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Developments in the Romantic Period

• Improved, affordable musical instruments (Indus.
  Rev.)
• Orchestras grew along w/levels of expression
• Use of folklore, rise of nationalism
• ExoticismInterested in fairy tales of Asia/Far
  East

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The Music

• Long, melodic lines
• Highly emotional, expressive
• Forms changed
• Nineteenth-century music was linked to dreams and
  passions, to profound meditations on life and
  death, human destiny, God and nature, pride in
  ones country, desire for freedom, the political
  struggles of the age, the ultimate triumph of
  good over evil.

12
The Romantic Musician

• Musical life centers on concert hall.
• Performers met their audiences as equals.
• Many became as popular as rock-n-roll stars.
• Printed music now available.
• Affordable concert life.
• Performers also became educators.

13
Art Song

• German Lied (song), plural Lieder
• Worked well with piano
• Favorite themes of songs love, longing, and
  beauty of nature
• Famous composers Schubert, Schumann, Wolf,
  Brahms
• Strophic, modified strophic, or through-composed
• Song cycles
• Favored Poets Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) and
  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

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Franz Schubert1797-1828
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SchubertNo one understands anothers grief, no
one understands anothers joy. . . . My music is
the product of my talent and my misery. And that
which I have written in my greatest distress is
what the world seems to like best.

• Wrote chambers music, piano works
• Wrote more than 600 lieder and several song
  cycles
• Used piano effectively

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The Legend of The Erlking1860, Moritz von Schwind

• Schuberts Erlkönig (Erlking) 1815
• --Through-composed Lied
• --Use of piano for effect
• --Poem by Goethe
• --Solo voice and piano
• --Schnell (Allegro)
• --Performed by one voice
• Narrator middle register, minor mode
• Father low register, minor mode
• Son high register, minor mode
• Erlking medium range, major mode

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Robert Schumann(1810-1856)
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SchumannMusic is to me the perfect expression
of the soul.

• Wrote four symphonies, piano music, chamber
  music, and approximately 300 Lieder
• Established an important literary magazine New
  Journal for Music
• 1840 year of his marriage to Clara, and Year of
  the Song. His songs often reflect a womans
  point of view. He wrote A Womans Love and
  Life.
• Piano pieces some large cycles, often attaches
  literary meaning

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A Poets Love (Dichterliebe)

• Song cycle, in the year 1840
• 16 poems of Heine
• Songs in cycle go from happiness to despair.
• A Poets Love (Dichterliebe), No. 1
• Strophic form (2 strophes)
• Expressive piano part