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Chapter 17 The Early Romantics Key Terms • • • • • • • Lied (plural: lieder) Through-composed Strophic Song cycle Character pieces Études Nocturnes The Early Romantics • Perhaps the most brilliant generation in music history • Profoundly influenced by Beethoven • Deeply influenced by literary Romanticism • • • • Program music Program symphony Idée fixe Dies irae The Lied • • • • German lied = song Piano accompaniment Romantic poetry Intimate mood – Not intended for concert hall – Performers seem to share emotional insights with the listener Strophic Songs Through-Composed Songs • Use the same music for all stanzas • Often used when stanzas are all similar in construction • Difficult to create variety • Use different music for each stanza • Often used for poems with frequent changes of mood or voice • Difficult to create unity Schubert, “Erlkönig” Franz Schubert (1797–1828) • Earliest (and greatest?) master of the Lied • Born and trained in Vienna • Supported by teaching, publications, and friends • Prolific—wrote nearly 700 songs in addition to symphonies, sonatas, etc. • Died in a typhoid epidemic The Story of the Erlking • A furious horseback ride through the night – Father tries to save his deathly ill son • The Erlking comes for the child – Beckons, then cajoles, then threatens • Father does not see the demon • When they reach home, the boy is dead in his arms The Song Cycle • A group of songs with a common theme • Sometimes based on ready-made group – Schubert’s settings of Wilhelm Müller’s Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise • Or composer can assemble a set – Schubert’s Schwanengesang • Unified cycle more impressive than single miniatures • Story song on a ballad poem by Goethe • Eight-stanza poem with many voices • Through-composed setting • Themes of death and the supernatural The Music of the Erlking • • • • • • Fast triplets suggest hoofbeats Father’s music is low, gruff, stable Son’s music is high, frantic, unstable Demon’s music is ominously sweet Tension lets up as they reach home Stark recitative announces boy’s death Robert Schumann (1810–1856) • Studied for career as piano virtuoso • Married his teacher’s daughter after court battle • Wrote piano music, songs, works for orchestra, and chamber music • Founded The New Music Journal • Attempted suicide; died in an asylum “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” R. Schumann, Dichterliebe • • • • His most famous song cycle Based on poems by Heinrich Heine No story, just a common theme Traces psychological progression from optimism to despair “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” In the wonderfully lovely month of May, When all the buds were bursting, Then it was that in my heart Love broke through. In the wonderfully lovely month of May, When all the birds were singing, Then it was that I confessed to her My longing and desire “Die alten, bösen Lieder” • The first song in Dichterliebe • Is it strophic or through-composed? • What is the effect of the piano interludes? • Why did Schumann write it this way? • • • • The last song in Dichterliebe Is it strophic or through-composed? How does the mood change in stanza 6? What is Schumann expressing in the long piano coda? • What kind of ending does this make for the song cycle? Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896) C. Schumann, “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” • Eldest child of Friedrich Wieck, famous piano teacher • Married her father’s student Robert Schumann • Composed songs, piano and chamber works • Toured widely after Robert’s death • Is it strophic or through-composed? • What is the relationship between piano and voice? • How does Schumann create a sense of climax in the final stanza? • What does the piano coda add to the song? C. Schumann, “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” The Character Piece • Short piano pieces (miniatures) • Meant to portray a distinct mood or character • Like a Lied but without a poem – Songs Without Words • Composed at all levels of difficulty • Appeared under many genre and descriptive titles Form of the Character Piece • Simple, sectional forms • Repetition, contrast, return, variation • Thematic unity – Recurring motives – Similarity of mood R. Schumann, Carnaval • Style has warmth and privacy (innigkeit) • Often assembled piano pieces in sets • Carnaval = 20 short character pieces Schubert, Moment Musical No. 2 in A-flat • Open title—any mood possible • Form uses contrast and return – A B A (coda) B A coda – Lyric A theme: a gentle, rocking figure – Emotive B theme: steady moving accompaniment – A with coda feels like the end – Fortissimo B in minor key a surprise R. Schumann, “Eusebius” • Pen name for his tender, dreamy self • Rhythmically very free (quintuplets, triplets, rubato) – Musical portraits at a Mardi Gras ball – Schumann, girlfriends Estrella and Chiarina, composers Paganini and Chopin, etc. • Form based on repetition, contrast, and return (aa ba b a ba) R. Schumann, “Florestan” Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) • Pen name for his more impetuous self • Opening outburst follows Eusebius’s tentative ending • Moves in fits and starts • Born near Warsaw; settled in Paris • Pianist of miraculous ability and delicacy – Earned rave review from Schumann at age 20 – Rarely performed in public • Composed almost exclusively for piano • Moved in high society and artistic circles • Frail health—died of tuberculosis – Abrupt tempo changes; abrupt ending • Form based on repetition, variation –a a a a Program Music Chopin, Nocturne in F-sharp • Nocturnes (“night pieces”)—various moods • Singing quality, melodic decorations • Relaxed rubato, subtle chromaticism • Instrumental music associated with poems, stories, etc. – Intimately tied with nonmusical ideas • Different genres • Formuses repetition, contrast, return (a a b c a coda) Franz Liszt (1811–1886) • Hungarian composer – Learned music at Esterházy estate – Played for Beethoven at age 11 • Virtuoso pianist based in Paris – Dazzled audiences with technique – Dashing looks, personality, and affairs – Wrote fiercely difficult piano music • Second career as conductor in Weimar – Wrote symphonic poems; championed Wagner – Concert overture – Program symphony – Symphonic poem Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) • From upper-class family of bankers • Successful composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and educator – Founded Leipzig Conservatory – Revived Bach’s St. Matthew Passion • Firm foundation in Classical technique • Wrote concert overtures, oratorios, piano works, symphonies, etc. Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847) • Felix’s equally talented sister • A highly prolific composer – Oratorios, piano works, chamber music, etc. – Weekly performances at Mendelssohn home • Married painter Wilhelm Hensel • Women composers were not taken seriously – Little of her music was published – Rarely performed outside the home The Concert Overture • A single-movement orchestral work for concert performance • Resembles opera overture without an opera • An important step from opera overture to symphonic poem • Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Hebrides Overture Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) The Program Symphony • Son of a country doctor in France • The Romantic era’s most “grandiose” orchestral genre • More radical approach than the concert overture • An entire symphony with a program – Left medical school for Paris Conservatory • Made living writing about music • Wrote unprecedented, ambitious program symphonies – Extraordinary, imaginative orchestration – Inspired by literature (Shakespeare, Virgil) • Toured as conductor of his own music Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony • Program symphony in five movements • Lurid autobiographical fantasy – Inspired by his unrequited love for Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson • Unprecedented originality – Imaginative colors drawn from huge orchestra – Use of idée fixe in every movement – Each movement tells part of the story – “Story” often published in the program Idée Fixe • “Fixed idea,” a term popular in medical literature of the day • Theme represents the composer’s beloved (Smithson) – Recurs in all five movements – Symbolizes each appearance of the beloved Movement Format of Fantastic Symphony Fantastic Symphony • Related to Classical symphony format The Program of the Symphony • • • • • I: Fast tempo, sonata form, slow intro II: Moderate tempo, triple meter; waltz III: The slow movement IV: Moderate tempo; a march V: Fast tempo, free form follows story • A young musician of unhealthy sensibility and passionate imagination poisons himself with opium in a fit of lovesick despair. Too weak to kill him, the dose of the drug plunges him into a heavy sleep attended by the strangest visions, during which his sensations, emotions, and memories are transformed in his diseased mind into musical thoughts and images. Even the woman he loves becomes a melody to him, an idée fixe as it were, that he finds and hears everywhere. The Program: I The Program: II – Middle two movements reversed – Movements IV and V unprecedented Movement 1: Reveries, Passions • First he recalls the soul-sickness, the aimless passions, the baseless depressions and elations that he felt before first seeing his loved one; then the volcanic love that she instantly inspired in him; his jealous furies; his return to tenderness; his religious consolations. Movement 2: A Ball • He encounters his beloved at a ball, in the midst of a noisy, brilliant party. The Program: III The Program: IV Movement 3: Scene in the Country • On a summer evening in the country, he hears two shepherds piping in dialogue. The pastoral duet, the location, the light rustling of trees stirred gently by the wind, some newly conceived grounds for hope—all this gives him a feeling of unaccustomed calm. But she appears again. . . . What if she is deceiving him? Movement 4: March to the Scaffold • He dreams he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. A march accompanies the procession, now gloomy and wild, now brilliant and grand. Finally the idée fixe appears for a moment, to be cut off by the fall of the ax. The Program: V Movement 5: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath • He finds himself at a Witches’ Sabbath: unearthly sounds, groans, shrieks of laughter, distant cries echoed by other cries. The beloved’s melody is heard, but it has lost its character of nobility and timidity. It is she who comes to the Sabbath! At her arrival, a roar of joy. She joins in the devilish orgies. A funeral knell; burlesque of the Dies irae. Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony, V • Composer’s funeral at same time – Solemn Dies irae chant ridiculed by witches Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony, V • The most audacious movement yet – Orchestral sound effects reign • Idée fixe now treated as vulgar parody – On piccolo clarinet with carnival ornaments – His beloved is the witches’ guest of honor Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony, V • Raucous Witches’ Round Dance is a fugue • Round Dance and Dies irae combine at climax – Witches parodying the church melody Romantic Features of Fantastic Symphony • “Grandiose” in scope and scale • Program symphony for large orchestra • Blurs the lines between music, literature, theater, and autobiography • Cyclic work, unified by idée fixe • Fascination with supernatural, macabre • New orchestral colors, expressive effects, unusual forms • Only 39 years after Haydn’s Symphony No. 95!