Download Romantic Program Music

Romantic Program
Music
Instrumental music that has literary or
pictorial associations: indicated by the
title or by an explanatory note supplied
by the composer
Program music
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Concert overture
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A single-movement concert piece for orchestra based on a literary idea,
i.e., Romeo and Juliet
Incidental music
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Consists of an overture and a series of pieces to be performed between
the acts of a play and during important scenes, i.e., A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
Absolute Music
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Music for “music’s sake”
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Just because . . . i.e., Symphonies
Symphony vs. Program symphony
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Classical Period
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Most popular form
was the symphony
No pictorial idea—
merely abstract
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Romantic Period
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Program
Symphony
(However, abstract
type still composed)
Fusion of Program Music/Absolute
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Program Symphony
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A multimovement orchestral work with a literary or
pictorial association
Symphonic Poem (or tone poem)

A one-movement work in which contrasting
sections develop a “pictorial” idea, i.e., The
Moldau, or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Hector Berlioz
(1803-1869)
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French composer
Studied medicine and music
Among his passions were the
creations of Beethoven and
Shakespeare
Harriet Smithson
"...[Let me tell you, you don't know what love is,
whatever you may say about feeling it deeply [for your friend].
For you, it's not that rage, that fury, that delirium which takes
possession of all one's faculties, which renders one capable of
anything. You would not be the man to lose yourself in pleasure
over the person you love. In that you are lucky, and I would never
want you to experience the unbearable suffering to which I have
fallen prey since your departure."
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
His Music
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One of the boldest innovators of the
Romantic Period
“Creator of the modern orchestra”
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Originality in handling the instruments
Music called for larger orchestras than ever before
Symphonie fantastique
(A five-movement program symphony)
by Hector Berlioz
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Written when he was only 27
Story draws from his personal life
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A young musician of morbid sensibility and ardent
imagination, in . . . lovesick despair, has poisoned
himself with opium. The drug, too weak to kill,
plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by
strange visions. . . . The beloved one herself
becomes for him a melody, a recurrent theme that
haunts him everywhere.
Idée fixe
(Fixed idea)
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The recurrent theme of the symphony
Symbolizes the “beloved”
Unifies all five movements
Symphonie
Fantastique
Manuscript
Symphonie fantastique (5 movements)
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I. Reveries, Passions
II. A Ball
III. Scene in the Fields
IV. March to the Scaffold
V. Dream of a Witches’
Sabbath
 Contains the Dies
Irae (heard with
bells)
 Combines the Dies
Irae with the “dance”

“Ghouls” by Jacqui Grantford
Musical Nationalism
“I grew up in a quiet spot and was saturated from earliest childhood with the wonderful beauty of Russian popular song. I am therefore
passionately devoted to every expression of the Russian spirit. In short, I am a Russian through and through!”

Political unrest stimulated Nationalism
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Works written to celebrate national heroes, events, places
Prominent schools arose in:
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Russia, Scandinavia, Spain, England, Bohemia
Wrote music containing folk songs or dance types
of their country
Wrote dramatic works based on folklore or
peasant life
Wrote symphonic poems based on a national
hero, a historic event, or their countryside.
From Bohemia: Bedřich Smetana
(1824-1884)
“My compositions do not belong to the realm of absolute music, where one can get along well enough with
musical signs and a metronome.”
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Political unrest in his
country
Successful uprising
against Austrian Rule
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Wrote 8 operas
Best known for the
symphonic poem, Má
Vlast (My Fatherland),
inspired by the beauty of
Bohemia’s countryside
The Moldau River
The Moldau River
“Vltava” in Czech
Má Vlast
(1874-79)
(My Country) [Fatherland]
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A series of 6 symphonic poems
No. 2 “The Moldau”
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Source of river, two springs, then theme enters
Hunting scene
Peasant wedding
Nymphs in moonlight
St. John Rapids
Ancient castle
The Romantic Symphony
(“Abstract” form)
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Favored genre alongside program music
Increased in size, with new instruments
Multimovement orchestral work, with 3-4
movements in a specific form
The “Form” of the Symphony
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First Movement – Sonata-allegro form
Second Movement – Usually slow, ternary
OR theme and variation
Third Movement – Scherzo/Trio (ABA) –
lively movement (scherzo means “joke), with
a mood anywhere from elfin lightness to
demonic energy.
Fourth Movement – Usually Sonata-allegro
form OR rondo
Sonata-Allegro Form
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Exposition
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Development
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Theme I – Home key
Theme II – Contrasting key
Closing section
Anything goes, but one generally hears part of a theme that
was heard in the exposition
Recapitulation
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Theme I – home key
Theme II – home key
Closing section – home key (So that the piece ends in the
home key)