Instrumental Music Of The Romantic Era: The Piano And The Symphony Orchestra

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Chopin & Berlioz
COMPARISONS

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•both connected w/important Romantic trends
1) development of instruments themselves
2) how composers are choosing to use them
•both develop their careers in Paris, where instrument making is developing more quickly and industriously
•both exhibit the CULT OF PERSONALITY (more common in 1900s)
•both portrayed in cartoons and journals of the time because of that

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Cult of Personality

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•means that they were "celebrity musicians" well known for their private lives as well as music
•showmanship, virtuosity, and personality is part of the performance

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Instrumental Music: Background

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•a composer's nationality or specific collection of talents can affect the nature of the written melodies themselves as opposed to working them out in harmony and melody
-more about their individual abilities vs.
traditional form
•composers during this time were struggling to come up with different melodies as they now had many examples of good melody in past music, and have to compete with music of dead composers
-this explains a lot of music quirkiness used in this time to make music interesting (i.e. mixing of minor mode intervals in a major mode tonality)

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Instrumental Music

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•cult of personality affects keyboard and orchestral instruments
•to accomodate the new and larger hall sizes, pianos are growing:
-wider in range and heavier in construction
•other instruments are already responding as well; if string instruments were built before 1800, they are changed as follows:
-violin necks were shortened and angled further back
-cellos acquired end pins which made for secure playing
-wind instruments were improved by wider bores, keys, and increased ability to play chromatically; innovations to instruments such as adding keys and different mechanisms spread outward from Paris
•these innovations are usually tried in the opera orchestra first, since this is where you see the maximum number of dramatic or special effects

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The Keyboard

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•shift in types of piano pieces composers focus upon
•piano sonatas are still written, but there tends to be more concentration on shorter piano pieces grouped in sets
-Preludes, Rhapsody, Impromptu, Ballade,
Concert Etude
•keyboard music also includes dances such as the waltz in the late Napoleonic period
-Ecossaise, Polonaise, Mazurka, Nocturne

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Preldues

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•unattached to fugues
•something suggestive and open-ended rather than finished

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Rhapsody

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•dreamy and expansive expression of emotion solo piano piece with many mood changes

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Impromptu

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•freeform musical composition of improvised quality

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Ballade

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•written in narrative style to express a story as program music does

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Concert Etude

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•a showy piece for concert performance, displaying the skills of its virtuoso

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Ecossaise

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•(Scottish dance) duple meter piece with great contrasts between piano and forte

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Polonaise

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•slow triple meter Polish folk dance, often with the repeated rhythm of eight-2 sixteenth followed by two sets of eighth notes

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Mazurka

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•lively triple meter Polish folk dance, with accents on second or third beat

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Nocturne

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•(evocative of night, or serenade) usually with a cantabile melody and arpeggiated accompaniment
•nocturne makes use of a new technique on the piano, the damper pedal
•composers quickly took advantage of this to create a wash of sound in accompanimental left hand patterns
•first person to make a name with this genre was John Field (1782-1837)

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John Field (1782-1837)

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•Irish pianist, composer, and teacher
•he was the first popularizer of the nocturne, though many believe it was Chopin who brought it to its fullest expression

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Frederyk Chopin (1809-1849)

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•national figure; born just outside of Warsaw, Poland
•second child and only son of a Polish mother and French father who taught French as a profession to the aristocracy
•Chopin was reticent to play in public; he preferred chamber settings.
•He also did not play exclusively on a grand piano; sometimes he played upright pianos since he felt had a gentler sound.
•His piano works are almost exclusively solo; he also wrote as well a few chamber pieces & piano concertos which are not as brilliantly orchestrated as Beethoven’s.
•famous for his overlap of vocal and instrumental music; he was very much under the spell of Italian opera singers .
•fond of saying that the middle finger is a great singer and of having melodies which sound like the great singers of the day.
•created a vocal/instrumental style which was international harmonically and contrapuntally .

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Chopin's relationship to Poland

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•From before Chopin’s birth, Poland as a political entity did not exist; pieces of it were gobbled up by the Hapsburgs, Prussia and Russia.
•As with Germany under Napoleonic occupation, Poland was very nationalistic/identified by Polish culture; however, many artists found it too constraining under Russian/Austrian rule.
•After three years of study at Warsaw University, Chopin began playing pubicly to much acclaim.
Paris was the most popular destination for Polish exiles or aristocrats, which is why Chopin eventually moved there after the November 1830 Polish Uprising.
•Chopin has been portrayed a Polish nationalist; indeed when the Poish Uprising was put down by the Russians, Chopin wrote e fevered entry in his diary, wondering if God was Russian.
•While emotionally he might have been…this is not especially true; he was on good terms with the Austrian occupational powers as he had played as a child in the homes of the Tsars and Princes. He also kept his French name and French passport in order to travel back and forth in Europe.
•It was in Paris that Chopin that in 1831 found many of his affluent piano students, and became friendly with Berlioz, Liszt and Mendelssohn.
Robert Schumann: “Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!”

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Chopin's Style

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•Chromatic detail towards the beginning will turn out to be important in later sections.
•Motives which start out fairly polarized develop to have a contrapuntal life of their own.
•hardly ever repeats music without varying it (decorated with small notes).
•Whatever you see on the page is not necessarily what he always played...he was famous for varying things every time he played them.

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Frederyk Chopin's
Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2

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•Accompanimental figuration: spaced out over 2 octaves
•Melody: Also ranges widely, beyond what most singers are capable of (m. 8, 32,45, 60)
•M. 51-52 shows the virtuoso pianist tradition (cadenza)
•Form: Modified song structure:
A B trans. A’ B’ trans. A’’ B” trans. Coda
•The A theme always returns in the tonic but
unfolds through a series of variations.
-A Theme: First phrase extended by five
measures by appoggiaturas (m. 4-5) & others
later (m. 9)
-A: Second phrase is intensified through
rhythmic changes, denser textures,
ornamentation & chromaticism.
•B Theme: Contrasting keys but more regular structure than A
-B: always a 2 measure phrase in parallel
3rds/6ths.
-B: Always followed by a transition to get to the
dominant of the A theme, though sometimes
highly chromatic (m. 21-25, 41-45).
-B: Anchored in the Db major harmony by use
of a constant Db pedal point in the bass
•Performance Practice: harmonic placidity through use of damper pedal until first chord change (m. 5) .
•M. 13: Chromaticism of this time unheard of:
A natural & A flat at the same time. No standard notation for this.

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Orchestral Music

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•During this time, north of Italy, the popular compositional medium is to write for opera orchestras.
•Composers write especially for the opera orchestra of the Paris Conservatory, which was a very revered academic institution at the time.
•One of the most prestigious compositional competitions of this time is the Prix de Rome, which took place at the Paris Conservatory.

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Prix de Rome

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•took place at the Paris Conservatory
•winner studied in Rome; topics included composition, instrument building, as well as music publishing
•connection is that there are quite a few Italians who are dominating presence in Paris
•they are then incorporated in the training institute of the Paris Conservatory and have connections in Rome which the conservatory uses

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Hector Berlioz (1803-1869):
General Notes

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•Berlioz has a different background and training than many other composers at this time
•He was from the provinces of the Alps rather than a big city center like Paris.
•His music training was not on piano but the flute and guitar.
•His orchestral reductions are truly conceived with the orchestra in mind, and not the keyboard.
•His orchestration is so recognizable that it was easily parodied; even when he used large numbers of instruments, they would often be in quiet or innovative combinations.
•He advocated proper performances of Gluck’s operas and sometimes played in transposition to achieve the original pitch.
•In his music journalism , he criticized conductors who took liberties with Beethoven’s symphonies.
•Berlioz was truly a product of the French revolution.
•He was named after King Louis XIV and Hector of the Trojan war; this led to a lifetime preoccupation with pieces having to do with the Trojan war.
•Promoted Glucks' operas based around this event (Iphegenie) and then his own opera Les Troyens.
•He was unlucky as an opera composer because his preferred type of opera was an opera of the imagination; Berlioz was better at conjuring scenes for imagination than actual things that can be executed on stage.
•There are often genre confusions on works such as his Romeo and Juliet (called an unstaged opera, though Berlioz calls it a symphony with choruses).

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Hector Berlioz (1803-1869):
Biography

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•Berlioz was born born La Côte-St-André, Isère, 11 December 1803; died Paris, 8 March 1869).
•As a boy he learnt the flute, guitar and, from treatises alone, harmony (he never studied the piano).
•His first compositions were romances and small chamber pieces.
•After two unhappy years as a medical student in Paris (1821-3) he abandoned the career chosen for him by his father.
•He turned decisively to music, attending Le Sueur's composition class at the Conservatoire.
•Berlioz competed for the Prix de Rome four times (1827-30) and finally won.
•Among the most powerful influences on him were Shakespeare, whose plays were to inspire three major works, and the actress Harriet Smithson, whom he idolized. pursued and, after a bizarre courtship, eventually married (1833).
•Beethoven’s symphonies too made a strong impact, along with Goethe's Faust and the works of Moore, Scott and Byron.

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Hector Berlioz (1803-1869):
Early Years

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•Berlioz's 15 months in Italy (1831-2) were significant more for his absorption of warmth, vivacity and local color of the Italian culture than for the official works he wrote there.
•He visited cities other than Rome as often as possible and worked on a sequel to the Symphonie fantastique (Le retour à la vie, renamed Lélio in 1855) and overtures to King Lear and Rob Roy.
•He returned to Paris early to promote his music.
The 1830s and early 1840s saw a flow of major compositions - Harold en Italie, Benvenuto Cellini, Grande messe des morts, Roméo et Juliette, Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale, Les nuits d'été .
•Unfortunately he failed to win much recognition in Paris because his works were considered eccentric or 'incorrect' and he had reluctantly to rely on journalism for a living.
•In his music journalism criticized conductors who took liberties with Beethoven’s symphonies.
•He also advocated proper performances of Gluck’s operas and would sometimes transpose a piece in order to return to original pitch.
•From 1834, to support his faily, he wrote chiefly for the Gazette musicale and the ]ournal des débats..
•As a critic he admired above all Gluck and Beethoven, expressed doubt about Wagner and fought endlessly against the second-rate.