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ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF THE GREAT ROMANTIC COMPOSERS HST 423 ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - INTRODUCTIONS Brian J. Isaac Conductor | Music Educator - Artistic Director, Alexandria Choral Society, Williamsburg Choral Guild, and Church Circle Singers - Managing Director, Arts Laureate - MM, Peabody Conservatory ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - INTRODUCTIONS Passions (aside from music, of course!) Cycling Hiking and camping My big, fat, orange cat - Gatsby! ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - COURSE EXPECTATIONS ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF THE GREAT ROMANTIC COMPOSERS Week 1/2 A Brief Review of Music History / Music as Passion and Individualism, Schubert, Schumann, and the Early Romantic Lied, and Early “Popular” Song Week 3 Romantic and Programmatic Piano Music Week 4 Romantic Program Music Week 5/6 Absolute Music in the Romantic Era, Italian Romantic Opera, and German Romantic Opera Week 7/8 Fauré and the Requiem and Program Music at the End of the Nineteenth Century ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - MUSIC AS PASSION AND INDIVIDUALISM “Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions” - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821) An Age of Revolutions - Romanticism has a clear beginning, a departure from the ideals of the Enlightenment - Ludwig van Beethoven - the first great creative Romantic - PREDICT, LISTEN, THINK, and SHARE (in the chat) - Common tenets of Romanticism are: the struggling artist, art that unsettles, and self expression - Romanticism grows out of social and political upheavals that follow the French Revolution, transfer of power from the aristocracy to the middle class. Ludwig van Beethoven Liberty Leading the People, by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - MUSIC AS PASSION AND INDIVIDUALISM “I am different from all the men I have seen… If I am not better, at least I am different” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau Romantic Writers and Artists - Romantic poets and artists rebelled against their Classical predecessors - Fascination with the fanciful, the picturesque, and the passionate - Intense emotional expression and individuality - Many writers and artists become disillusioned, a new Romantic mood emerges with common themes of conflict between the individual and society, glamorization of the past, fixation on the “strange” and the “grotesque” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - MUSIC AS PASSION AND INDIVIDUALISM “Out of my great sorrows I make my little songs.” - Heinrich Heine Romanticism in Music - Industrial Revolution creates more affordable and responsive musical instruments - Orchestras grew larger, with new instruments bringing varied timbre (color), dynamics, and range - Strong interest in folklore, and a rising tide of nationalism - Movement towards lyricism in composition, and expanded use of chromaticism and dissonance - Romantic composers expanded the instrumental forms - fewer, but much longer works - Music is now linked to dreams and passions, and musicians connect with a new middle class Piccolo English Horn Contrabassoon ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - SCHUBERT, SCHUMANN, AND THE EARLY ROMANTIC LIED “With a good poem you immediately get a good idea; melodies pour in so that it is a real joy. With a bad poem you can’t get anywhere; you torment yourself over it, and nothing comes of it but boring rubbish.” - Franz Schubert The Lied - Lied, a German-texted solo song, generally with piano accompaniment - Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, as well as Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann - Strophic form, melody is repeated in every stanza of the poem - Through-composed form, no repetition of whole sections - Modified strophic form, repeats with new material introduced as needed (not lied, but Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, 1st movement, is a good example) Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) - Austrian composer and youthful prodigy, composed more than 600 Lieder, nine symphonies, seven masses, choral music, and more - Focus on melodic writing, the accompanist is just as important as the vocalist - Erlkönig, by Franz Schubert (written in 1815) Franz Schubert ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - SCHUBERT, SCHUMANN, AND THE EARLY ROMANTIC LIED “Music to me is the perfect expression of the soul.” - Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) - German composer with a focus on lyricism like Schubert, many of his songs presented in song cycles - Composed more than 200 Lieder, as well as orchestral, chamber, choral music, opera, and more. - Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) composed in 1840 - 16 songs describing the progression of love (new and hopeful, to disappointment, and through total despair - very Romantic!) with text by Heinrich Heine Robert Schumann ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - FOSTER AND EARLY “POPULAR” SONG “Music to me is the perfect expression of the soul.” - Robert Schumann Early “Popular” Song - “High art” (operas, chamber music, symphonies) versus “low art” (music designed for dancing, singing at home, and public events such as parades) Stephen Foster (1826 - 1864) - Exemplifies the intersection between the vernacular American spirit and the European art tradition - American composer, Pittsburgh - Composed many enduring tunes like Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, Old Folks at Home, and Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair - Early works written primarily for the blackface minstrel shows that were popular during the era Stephen Foster ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENT ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF THE GREAT ROMANTIC COMPOSERS Assignment for 9/24 LISTEN: Chopin - Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1 (Military) LISTEN: Hensel - September: At the River, from The Year (Das Jahr) .