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Romantic Composers
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
• Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote
some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including
the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical
music, operas, some incidental music, and a
large body of chamber and solo piano
music. Appreciation of his music during his
lifetime was limited, but interest in Schubert's
work increased dramatically in the decades
following his death at the age of 31
Schubert
• At the age of five, Schubert began receiving
regular instruction from his father
• At 7, Schubert began receiving lessons from
Michael Holzer, the local church organist and
choirmaster. Holzer's lessons seem to have
mainly consisted of conversations and
expressions of admiration
• He also played the viola in the family string
quartet, with brothers Ferdinand and Ignaz on
violin and his father on the cello. Schubert
wrote many of his early string quartets for this
ensemble.[7]
Schubert
• Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio
Salieri, then Vienna's leading musical
authority, in 1804, when his vocal talent was
recognized.[7] In October 1808, he became
a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial seminary)
through a choir scholarship.
• Schubert was introduced to the overtures and
symphonies of Mozart.[8] One important
musical influence came from the songs of
Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, who was an
important Lied composer of the time, which,
his friend Joseph von Spaun reported, he
Schubert
• At the end of 1813, he left the Stadtkonvikt,
and returned home for studies at the
Normalhauptschule to train as a teacher. In
1814, he entered his father's school as
teacher of the youngest students. For over
two years, the young man endured the
drudgery of the work, which he performed
with very indifferent success.[14] There were,
however, other interests to compensate. He
continued to receive private lessons in
composition from Salieri. Salieri and Schubert
would part ways in 1817
Schubert
• Schubert's most prolific year was
probably 1815. He composed over
20,000 bars of music, more than half of
which was for orchestra, including nine
church works, a symphony, and about
140 Lieder
Schubert
• The compositions of 1819 and 1820 show a
marked advance in development and maturity
of style[31]. The unfinished oratorio "Lazarus"
(D. 689) was begun in February; later
followed, amid a number of smaller works, by
the 23rd Psalm (D. 706), the Gesang der
Geister (D. 705/714), the Quartettsatz in C
minor (D. 703), and the "Wanderer Fantasy"
for piano (D. 760). Of most notable interest is
the staging in 1820 of two of Schubert's
operas: Die Zwillingsbrüder (D. 647)
appeared at the Theater am Kärntnertor on
Schubert
• The works of his last two years reveal a
composer increasingly meditating on
the darker side of the human psyche
and human relationships, and with a
deeper sense of spiritual awareness
and conception of the 'beyond'. He
reaches extraordinary depths in several
chillingly dark songs of this period,
especially in the larger cycles
Schubert
• In the midst of this creative activity, his health
deteriorated. The cause of his death was
officially diagnosed as typhoid fever, though
other theories have been proposed, including
the tertiary stage of syphilis. By the late
1820s Schubert's health was failing and he
confided to some friends that he feared that
he was near death. In the late summer of
1828, the composer saw court physician
Ernst Rinna, who may have confirmed
Schubert's suspicions that he was ill beyond
cure and likely to die soon. Schubert died in
Johannes Brahms (18331897)
• Johannes Brahms was born in 1833 of
German heritage. He began his musical
career by playing the piano. He met the
important musicians Clara Schumann
and her husband Robert Schumann
when he was on a tour of Europe.
Brahms
• Robert Schumann and Beethoven were
strong influences on Johannes Brahms.
His first published work, a piano sonata
in C major, combined Schumann's
tender lyricism with Beethoven's
overwhelming energy. So inspired was
he by Beethoven's symphonies that it
took Brahms more than 10 years to
write his first. It was instantly hailed as
"Beethoven's Tenth."
Brahams
• Stylistically, as more time passed,
Brahms music became more refined
and distinctly stylized from other
composers. He often achieved a
balance between the Romantic
exaggeration and experimentation of
the era with the structural clarity of the
Classical era. He was a composer of
numerous waltzes : No.1, No.2, No.3,
No.4, No.5.
Brahms
• Another famous Brahms composition is
Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 1 in Eb Major,
and No. 2 in Bb Major. The most
dramatic of Brahms' works was the
Cantata Rinaldo. After this, he never
attempted to compose another opera.
His later works are characterized by
their warmth and color.
Chopin, Frederic (1810-1849)
• Fredric Chopin was born in Poland in
the year 1810. He began playing the
piano at age four, and by age eight, was
considered to be a child prodigy. He
then toured Warsaw and was greeted
by noble gentlemen and women, much
like the childhood Mozart had
experienced
Chopin
• . He started composing music at age
twelve. One of his first well-known
compositions was the Rondo in C
Minor, which was written when he was
fifteen. He composed numerous etudes.
One of these etudes, called the Black
Key Etude, was written in the key of Gb
and used only sharps and flats.
Chopin
• .
After he toured more of Europe, young
Chopin fell in love with Vienna. After he
moved to Vienna, his musical career seemed
bleak, as his first public concert did not go
well. He became depressed due to the fact
that Warsaw had been attacked and occupied
by Russia. However, this inspired the
composer to write one of his most famous
works, the Revolutionary Etude, Opus 10, No.
12.
Chopin
• Since Vienna did not suit him, he moved
to Paris, France. When in Paris, his
music grew more appreciated and was
praised by the other well-known
composers of the era. After his
childhood sweetheart, Maria
Wodzinska, refused his hand in
marriage, he became depressed. Again,
Chopin rose above his tribulation and
wrote the famous waltz, Les Adieux,
Chopin
• His last concert was held in the Salle
Pleyel in Paris in February of 1848.
Although he was sick, he finished the
concert. Chopin died a year and a half
later. Chopin was the master of the
piano of his generation. In his lifetime,
he composed over 200 piano pieces.
He turned the piano into a more
emotional tool then was ever thought
possible.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
• was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He studied and
played at Vienna and Paris and for most of his early adulthood
toured throughout Europe giving concerts. His virtuosity earned
him approbations by composers and performers alike
throughout Europe. His great generosity with both time and
money benefited the lives of many people: victims of disasters,
orphans and the many students he taught for free.
• His piano compositions include works such as his Piano Sonata
in B minor, and two piano concertos, which have entered the
standard repertoire. He also made many exuberant piano
transcriptions of operas, famous symphonies, Paganini
Caprices, and Schubert Lieder. As would be expected from a
pianist-composer of Liszt's virtuosity, many of his piano
compositions are amongst the most technically challenging in
the repertoire.
Franz Liszt
Musical style and influence
The majority of Liszt's piano compositions reflect his advanced virtuosity; however he was
a prolific composer, and wrote works at several levels of difficulty, some being accessible
to intermediate- (and even beginner-) level pianists. Abschied (Farewell) and Nuages Gris
are examples of this less virtuosic style, as are at least some of the six Consolations.
In his most popular and advanced works, he is the archetypal Romantic composer. Liszt
pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was
related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the leitmotif by
Richard Wagner. He also largely invented the symphonic poem, or tone poem, in a series of
single-movement orchestral works composed in the 1840s and 1850s. His poems all came
from classical literature, including "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne," based on a Victor Hugo
poem of the same title, and "Les preludes" from Lamartine. Liszt's "First Mephisto Waltz"
was based on Lenau's Faust, and he composed a second waltz from the poem in 1881.
Other pieces are based on works by Lord Byron, Goethe and Dante. Liszt's symphonic
poems, although successes, were criticised because they were not Absolute music. His
transcriptions met with less criticism. As a transcriber of even the most unlikely and
complicated orchestral works, he created piano arrangements which stood on their own
merits; many other pianist-composers followed his example.
Felix Mendelssohn (18091847)
• Felix Mendelssohn is regarded by classical music aficionados
and critics alike, as one of the most prolific and gifted
composers the world has ever known. Even those who could
not name any of his works have heard it, as his "Wedding
March" from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which has
accompanied many a bride down the aisle. Whether he was
born with his incredible talent or was the product of an
artistically and intellectually-inclined family will remain a
mystery, but like all prodigies, Mendelssohn showed signs of
true genius from childhood.
• Regarded by some critics as the 19th century equivalent of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and others as a great composer
who's contribution would have been greater, had his life been
marred with more hardships
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
•
Sent to Paris by his father to study medicine, Berlioz instead studied music,
supporting himself by writing about music and giving lessons. Berlioz may well
have been the first great composer to not be able to play a musical instrument,
nor to have shown any musical talent at an early age. But he perservered, and
became interested in the vast possibilities of orchestration and the different
combinations of instrumental sounds. In 1844, he wrote a book on orchestration
(Traite de l'Instrumentation - Treatise on Orchestration), which is still widely
regarded as one of the best in the field. Berlioz' advances in this area
contributed greatly to the growth and development of the modern symphony
orchestra.
Berlioz (1803-1869)
•
In 1830, only three years after the death of Beethoven, Berlioz
composed his most famous work, the programmatic Symphonie
fantastique. Having an autobiographical basis, the piece is a highly
romantic program symphony in five movements, the story of which
tells of an artist who, unhappy in love, takes an overdose of opium and
dreams of his own passions and desires, his beloved, her murder, and
his own death. Berlioz had seen the Irish actress Harriet Smithson
perform in Shakespeare's Hamlet and had fallen passionately, even
hysterically in love with her. He intended to immortalize his love in
music with his symphonie. The artist's beloved is represented
throughout the work by a melodic motif known as the idée fixe, a device
which serves to unify the disparate elements of the symphony. The
fourth movement is entitled "March to the Scaffold," and depicts the
protagonist's dream of his own execution for having killed his faithless
beloved. The symphony was wildly successful at its premiere, and
made a name for its young composer, if not a fortune.
Berlioz (1803-1869)
• Berlioz' remarkable gift for orchestration resulted in sounds
never before heard from a symphony orchestra. Greatly
criticized during his lifetime for his orchestral extravagance, the
brilliance and overwhelming effect of such instrumental excerpts
as the Rakoczy March from the dramatic cantata The
Damnation of Faust and the Royal Hunt and Storm from
Berlioz' immense grand opera Les Troyens (The Trojans),
have earned Berlioz lasting fame as a composer who was
definitely ahead of his time. His theories and creative use of the
symphony orchestra influenced such composers as Franz Liszt
and Richard Wagner, but his greatness was not clearly
recognized in his own country until the advent of the French
composers of the late nineteenth century.