Late Romantic Music

Front 1

Social Background

Back 1

•19th century distrusted rationality because:
1) Disillusionment w/Enlightenment
2) Napoleonic Wars are spreading across
Europe
3) Natural disasters: after 1755 Lisbon
Earthquake, people's faith in progress was
shaken

•in response there's an exploration of mythology, superstition, and fascination w/nature: a concentration on the irrational

Front 2

Caspar David Friederich

Back 2

•German painter

•concentrated on scenes from wilder parts of nature and people in them who are often contemplating in medieval pre-Christian dress

Front 3

Musical Changes

Back 3

•undercutting of our basic understanding of tonality/dominant polarity; this eventually leads to undercutting of tonality altogether

•musical experimentation

•use of dominant7 chord (unstable harmony)

Front 4

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Back 4

•this work is what pushes music into the Romantic period

•considered a mountain in terms of its importance to music composition b/c of its progressive writing

Front 5

Ninth Symphony vs. Third Symphony

Back 5

•3rd symphony (Eroica)
•very different receptions
•primary sources mention the audience being dumbfounded and not altogether positive after hearing this piece
-much like what happened w/ Stravinsky's "Rite
of Spring"

Front 6

Ode to Joy

Back 6

•by poet Friederich Schiller
•Beethoven's 9th symphony, 4th mvmt uses this theme
•Strophic Ode to Joy theme is thought by many to have originated as a pub drinking song that Beethoven used to represent the common man
•Beethoven primes the ear by giving hints of the theme in prior mvmts

Front 7

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony:
FIRST MOVEMENT

Back 7

•theme unfolds gradually rather than entering from the start
•like a music box winding up to a bold Allegro in d minor
•Scale degrees 3, 4, & 5 are emphasized through various ways, often in transitional sections

Front 8

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony:
SECOND MOVEMENT

Back 8

•written as Scherzo rather than an andante (compared w/7th Symphony)
•in bridge section, winds play short snippets of Ode to Joy theme
•rhythm is a predominant feature in this mvmt
•Beethoven makes extensive use of hemiolas; wants audience to feel 3 bars as a unit in places, and regroups several musical beats
•use of fugal material is also prominent
•rhythm of this fugal section returns in 4th mvmt (used in strings)

Front 9

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony:
THIRD MOVEMENT

Back 9

•approaches D major from wrong direction through use of several appoggiaturas (from a back door!)
•this type of mvmt goes back to Haydn (slow mvmt in double variation form, used in his later symphonies)
•two sections feature in this mvmt's main theme: one in B-flat and an alternate section is in D major (but there is no proper dominant preparation)
•slower portion was called "divine" praised for simplicity that prevails throughout it
•this mvmt is rather hymn-like separated into choral phrases

Front 10

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony:
FOURTH MOVEMENT

Back 10

•(finale) mvmt is very composite form: sonata, concerto, and variations
•main culmination is Ode to Joy, when major mode is used, the theme climbing up from the depths of the orchestra
•until this mvmt, oints at which you hear the major mode in other mvmts aren't satisfying
•as in piano concierto, this mvmt has a double exposition: an entry for instruments only and instruments & voices repeating same material but moving away tonally
•as w/Eroica, this mvmt contains a series of variations first by the instruments then the voices, who are interrupted by a large fugato in the middle (in place of a development section)
•2 recapitulations to balance the 2 expositions

Front 11

Sturm und Drang

Back 11

•German-storm and stress
•Movement towards a blustery, dramatic musical style that tended towards the minor mode
•originally the title of a play from 1776 by Freiderich Klinger about the American Revolution
•gave violent expression to difficult emotions and praised individuality and subjectivity over rationalism and empiricism of the Enlightenment
•Viennese stage pieces from 1760s were an important part of this general cultural fixation on things that are disturbing or upsetting psychologically
•this can be traced to darker colors used in fashion as well as music
•reaction against the Enlightenment

Front 12

Musical Spectrum

Back 12

•LEFT: Program Music=radical
•RIGHT: Absolute Music=conservative

•a new concept prominent in Romantic period

Front 13

Programmatic Music

Back 13

•music which is associated with a literary or physical program, from an outside source telling a story or setting a music scene
•eg. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique

Front 14

Absolute Music

Back 14

•music which exists outside of literature, purely for its own sake
•eg. Baroque preludes & fuges, Classical piano sonatas

Front 15

Johann Wolfgang von Göthe

Back 15

•1749-1832
•where the word "gothic" comes from
•pieces in Sturm und Drang style especially focused around his poetic and prose works
•his poems focused on morbid, grim subject matter, making him a fundamental writer of the 18th century and Sturm und Drang style
•semi-autobiographical novel "Werther" (1774) wa very popular during this transitional period (1780-1820) between Classical and Romantic periods
-Novel involves young man Werther, who falls in
love w/his best friend's fiancee Lotte, who
rejects him, and it ends tragically with
Werther's suicide
•also wrote "Faust"

Front 16

Christian Frederich Shubart

Back 16

•Sturm und Drang concept was to put an affect or emotion onto stage w/musical keys that composers thought corresponded with it
•Shubart described the character of these musical keys while he was incarcerated in fortress of Hohenesperg in his work "Sümtliche Gedicte (1785-6)
•claimed that these keys were used b/c of certain passions they evoked or sounds they created
•eg. F# minor was an uncomfortable key to listen to b/c of pure thirds & out of tune 5ths (and the current tuning system)

Front 17

Sturm und Drang INFLUENCES

Back 17

•Mozart first heard Haydn's pieces in this style and then copied it in his own early G minor Symphony (at 16)
•influential Baron Gottfried van Swieten commissioned a set of symphonies from CPE Bach in Sturm und Drang style (dark, minor, turbulent)
-b/c of this, we can assume Sturm und Drang
symphonies have become important in the
world of music

Front 18

Baron Gottfried van Swieten

Back 18

•commissioned a set of symphonies from CPE Bach in Sturm und Drang style (dark, minor, turbulent)
-CPE Bach seems to have written these w/an idea of this style (esp. C major symphony #3)
-diplomat in Berlin, also amateur composer and fan of Bach and Handel, whose work he introduced to Mazart & Haydn, holding afternoon chamber concert "read-throughs" at his home
-we can assume SD symphonies have become important in world of music