Romantic Period

Romantic Period
Suppressed revolution
French emotional reaction Middle class dominance Underclass causes adopted Frustrations caused by Napoleon Revolution of 1848

Principles of the Romantic Era

Restriction no longer important Emphasis on emotion rather than reason Nationalism Stories depicted Nature in a mystical way Exotic

"The use of romantic in English goes back to the 17C when it was used to denote imagination and inventiveness in storytelling and, soon after, to characterize scenery and paintings. It served as a synonym to harmonious, picturesque. At the core of the epithet, obviously, is a proper name: Rome, Roman. From the start, the image is many-sided. Centuries after the fall of the empire, the vernacular spoken along the Mediterranean was no longer vulgar Latin but a variable dialect called roman. From it came French, Spanish, Italian, and other romance languages.. After a time, roman was applied to tales written in that dialect as spoken inn southern France. These tales were often about love and adventure, as contrasted with epic narratives or satires. In French today the word for novel is still roman, while in English a romance is one kind of novel and by further extension one kind of love affair... In the last years of the 18C, Romantic generated the -ist form to designate those dissatisfied with the neo-classic style and enthusiastic about new forms in art and thought... The one link between the temper of the period and the original meaning of the word is that Romanticism validated passion and risk. The two are inevitably connected; but as we shall see, they neither exclude reason, nor overlook the real. On the contrary, the spirit of adventure in Romanticism aims at enlarging experience by exploring the real." Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence, Perennial, 2000, p467-8.

Characteristics of Music
Departure from Classical era
Message in the music (One word description?)
Haydn vs. Beethoven

Beethovens 5th in minor/major key

Loss of power in the major

Beethovens 5th in style of Haydn

Loss of power

Use of dynamics Orchestra grew in size

Characteristics of Music
Emotional directions Folk songs Longer symphonies Virtuosos Underlying themes carried throughout the symphony
Beethovens 5th
1st Theme (dark) 2nd Theme (light) 3rd Movement (theme revisited) Triumph of light

Beethoven
Bridged Classical and Romantic periods
Form used contextually Motifs Works as attempts for perfection

Manifested Romantic ideal

Pastoral, Symphony No. 6 Symphony 9, Ode to Joy Eroica Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Pathetique

Hector Berlioz
French composer Story printed in program Symphonie Fantastique Requiem

Franz Schubert
Vienna Austria Child prodigy Wrote liedersongs with emotional theme
Erlknig

Song cycle Wrote for fewer instruments

Unfinished Symphony Symphony in C major

Many works were lost

Felix Mendelssohn
Early life Tried to preserve Classical style
Brought Bach out of obscurity

Symphonies were classical form and romantic tone Midsummer Nights Dream

Nicolo Paganini
Italian Violin virtuosos Ghoulish appearance The Cannon

Frederic Chopin
Child prodigy Sickly his whole life Made money by giving piano concerts Composed mazurkas, preludes and polonaises
Etude Opus 10 Polonaise in A flat major Minute Waltz

Franz Liszt
Hungarian child prodigy Greatest showman Kind to other musicians Several love affairs Les Preludes Hungarian Rhapsody 2 Wilde Jagd

Richard Wagner
German nationalism Not a prodigy Immoral life Ludwig II Opera
Leitmotif

Depicted myths and heroes

Die Walkre (Ride of the Valkyries) Tannhuser (end of the overture) Tristan and Isolde (Unresolved Liebestod)

Giuseppe Verdi
Greatest Italian style opera
Aida La Traviata Rigoletto
La Donna e Mobile

Innovation
Focus on human emotion De-emphasis on bel-canto style
Rossini: Barber of Seville

Excellent librettos Orchestra an important component

Bedrich Smetana
Czech Bartered Bride Die Moldau
River running through Prague

Johann Strauss
Father was excellent composer Played in fathers orchestra More popular than his father Waltzes
Embodiment of Viennese life Blue Danube Waltz Tales of the Vienna Woods

Johann Brahms
German Imitated Beethoven Mentored by Robert and Clara Schumann Hungarian Dance #5

Russian Composers
Moussorgsky,Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov
Russian Easter Overture

Used Russian themes Helped each other Flight of the Bumble Bee Night on Bald Mountain
Almaty, Kazakhstan

Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky

Russian Used French style Ballets are most famous
Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty Romeo and Juliet

Deep emotion for his sad life

Symphony No. 6 Pathtique

Edvard Grieg
Norwegian Peer Gynt
Hall of the Mountain King

Antonin Dvorak
Czech Inspired by Smetana Head of Conservatory in Prague Director of a NY music conservatory
3 years Composed New World Symphony

Gustav Mahler
Jewish The Hunters Funeral Procession

Principles of Art
Abandoned strict rules of neoclassical Conveyed personal feeling of artist Used nationalism Depicted the exotic Landscapes became important

"If you want to do art you must first study the rules, second study the great masters, third forget the rules, because genius begins where trite rules end but you can't get there until you've obeyed the rules first." Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)

Francisco Goya Classical Period

Franciso Goya Romantic Period

3rd of May 1808

Goya
Saturn Devouring One of His Sons

Eugene Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People

Delacroix
The Death of Sardanapalus

Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Fighting "Temeraire"

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Slave Ship

"From the early 16C to the end of the 18C common opinion held that religious and history painting were the highest genres. The one edified, the other reminded; both decorated. Portraits came next, landscapes lagged behind. For nature was not yet loved for itself alone. In the early Renaissance it served as a background only, and even then it was 'humanized' by the presence of temples, columns, or other architectural fragments, along with actual figures."

Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence, Perennial, 2000, p71.

John Constable
Hay Wain

Literature

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Raised the level of German literature The Sufferings of Young Werther Dr. Faustus

Sir Walter Scott

Scotland Historical novels Influenced by Goethe Popular in his own life Ivanhoe Lady of the Lake

William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge

English Lyrical ballads
Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Themes: relationship between humans and nature

Lord Byron
Art was an inner expression Participation in revolutions Strong personality Italy and Switzerland Childe Harold The Flying Dutchman The Wandering Jew

Percy Bysshe Shelley

English Strongly liberal Friends with Lord Byron Married Mary Wollstonecraft
Frankenstein

Leo Tolstoy
Russian War and Peace Anna Karenina Born to nobility but lived on simple farm Freed the serfs

Victor Hugo
Son of Napoleonic general Involved in French politics Les Miserables Hunchback of Notre Dame

Alexandre Dumas
Imitated style of Scott Novels supported extravagant life
Employed several people

Count of Monte Cristo The Three Musketeers The Man in the Iron Mask

Thank You