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Music of the
Romantic Era
Verdi & Puccini; Debussy
“Folk”  NATIONALISM
Verdi and V.E.R.D.I (political unrest in 1840s &
50s)
Composer as national/popular figure
LISTENING EXAMPLE FROM Rigoletto (1851)
“La Donna Mobilé” – easy to sing!
NOT IN TEXTBOOK
Puccini
La Bohème (1896) – most performed opera in the 20th
Century, rivaled only by Madama Butterfly (1904)
Sentimental look at artsy types in the “past,” fifty years
previous
VERISMO – “Realism” in opera – (what is realistic about
any opera?) humble characters in poverty
Effective story-telling – fewer subplots; ‘the best libretto
could be understood by a deaf man’
Debussy
Listening example
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
(Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune) (1894)
-- inspired by a poem inspired by a painting of a
Classical mythical story
-- exoticism, mythical pastoral
-- ambiguous (vague?) harmony
-- very little, if any, recognizable conventional or
traditional form
-- very well received at its premiere by the public; it
baffled the musical establishment
-- emphasis on sonority (timbre & colorful harmony)
-- called Impressionist, although Debussy hated the term