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 - 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 Week 7 German Romantic Opera Week 8 Fauré and the Requiem ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - WAGNER AND GERMAN ROMANTIC OPERA “Joy is not in things; it is in us.” - Richard Wagner Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) The Beginnings - Born in Leipzig, Germany - Found an early passion for Beethoven and Mozart - An 1829 performance by soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient solidified his passion for combining drama/music - Studied briefly at University of Leipzig, and began conducting and composing - Married actress Minna Planer at 23 years old, began writing his first operas - After struggling financially and eventually fleeing his creditors in Riga, Wagner ends up in Dresden - His early opera Rienzi, finds great success in Dresden Richard Wagner Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient Minna Planer Rienzi ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - WAGNER AND GERMAN ROMANTIC OPERA Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) The Dresden Years - Lives in Dresden for six years, appointed Royal Saxon Court Conductor - Composes The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Lohengrin Exile and Resurgence - Fled Germany after a failed revolution in Dresden in 1849, exiled to Switzerland - Solidified his theory of Gesamtkunstwerk or ‘total artwork’ - Began composing a cycle of music dramas called The Rings of the Nibelung - Famously began incorporating concise themes, or leitmotifs, into his works - Additionally began composing Tristan and Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Wagner’s exile is lifted in 1862, and he returns to Germany - Wagner is supported by Ludwig II of Bavaria who built a theater for Wagner’s works - Festival Theater of Bayreuth - Married daughter of Franz Liszt after separation from Minna Planer - The Ring cycle was completed in 1874, presented at the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876 Tannhäuser Tristan and Isolde Cosima Wagner The Rings of Nibelung ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - WAGNER AND GERMAN ROMANTIC OPERA The Ring of the Nibelung - Based on Norse mythology and a medieval German epic poem Nibelungenlied - Centers on a treasure of gold hidden beneath the Rhine River protected by Rhine Maidens, and a rebuffed Dwarf whose curse seeks to bring misfortune and death to all who hold that treasure (which he had fashioned into a ring) - Die Walküre, the second work in the cycle focuses on the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde, the offspring of Wotan by a mortal - Heavy use of leitmotif throughout - Act III famously opens with the Ride of the Valkyries - nine warrior maidens on their way from the battlefield back to Valhalla upon winged horses ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM - WEEK 7 ASSIGNMENT ROMANTICISM TO MODERNISM AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF THE GREAT ROMANTIC COMPOSERS Assignment for 10/29 LISTEN: Fauré: Requiem .