ROMANTIC MUSIC PERIOD: MOVING OUR IMAGINATION AND FEELINGS. 1.

THE THREE TENORS: PLACIDO DOMINGO, JOSE CARRERAS, AND LUCIANO PAVARROTI. 2. MARIA CALLAS KNOWN AS OPERA STAR IN THIS PERIOD

WHAT DOES ROMANTICISM REFER TO? Romanticism refers to several groups of artists, poets, writers, and musicians as well as political, philosophical and social thinkers, and trends of the 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe.
Some aspects of Romanticism in literature and art that have affected romantic music are as follows: Emphasis was on emotion, imagination, and individualism. It stresses freedom of expression. The basic quality of Romanticism is emotional subjectivity. Emphasis in a intuition, imagination and feeling. The music of the Romantic Period is more on fantasy, the unconscious, irrational, fiction, super natural, and the world of dreams.

Conditions During the Romantic Period (1820-1900) The many important composers of the Romantic period testify to the richness, variety and importance of romantic music. Some of conditions during that time were the following:

Many Romantic musicians were inspired by the image of Beethoven as a free artist. Beethoven often composed not to meet demands of aristocratic or church patron but to fulfil an inner need to express his feelings and thoughts.
Characteristics of Romantic Music Subjective, emotionalism, longing, exuberance, imbalance, asymmetry, picturesqueness and fantasy Rise of program in music, nationalism, impressionism, realism, and mysticism A period of experimentation in music Symphonic poem or tone poem

 Favorite subjects are supernatural (magic, fairies, ghosts)

Two Songs Forms Strophic Form- uses the same music for each stanza. Using the same music makes the song easy to remember; this is use in folk songs. Through-composed Form- use different music for each stanza. This form allows music to reflect a poems changing moods.
The Song Cycle A group of Romantic Art songs Unified by a story line that runs through the poems Unified by musical ideas linking the songs Examples: Schuberts The winter journey (1827) and Schumanns Poets of love (1840) Through art songs, romantic composers achieved a perfect union of music and poetry.

Other characteristics of vocal forms The basso continuo accompaniment was not employed in a Romantic Period. The recitative and aria are found in Wagners music dramas. The lieder (song) of the German Romantic composers is the most characteristics expressions of the Romantic Period.

Opera Opera became a very popular vocal form during the Romantic Period. The characteristics in the opera were no longer mystical; instead portrayed real-life heroes. The plots are events and situations, that happen in our daily life.
Two of the well-known composers of this form are GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1883) Verdi popularized Italian operas in which leads singers become popular for the rules they portrayed. His masterpieces include aida, Othello, la traviata, and flastaff. Wagner, express character, emotion, or event. The Ring des Nilebunged consist of four musicdramas

Wagners life is a long struggle in making his vision of music drama and reality.

Improvements Took Place in the Romantic Orchestra The romantic orchestra reached its full development during the romantic period. The orchestra grew in the number of players and with improved instruments. Composers expression is shown in a wide range in emotions and atmospheres. The addition of value in the brass instruments made them easy to play and free to perform their roles as support. These instruments were popular because of the unique tones they produced. The value improved the range and tone of brass instruments. The piano was given an iron frame instead of wood; the change resulted to wide and fuller sound. The woodwind section consisted of instruments of different sizes. New instruments were added to play solo. New members of the orchestra were added to play solo piccolo, English horn, and bass clarinet.

Program music Is an instrument music associated with a story, poem, ideas, or scene. It intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a scene, image, or mood. There is a non musical element that is specified by a title or
explanatory comments called a PROGRAM. Absolute Music stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world. Examples of program music Ludwig Van Beethovens 1808 Symphony No.6 (pastoral) is an example of program musis as it clearly contains depiction of bird call, a bibbling cook, a sorm, and so on. Beethovens Piano Sonata Op.81a,Les adieux, depicts the departure and return of his close friend the Archdure Rudolph. Other example of program music

 Tchaikovskys Romeo and Juliet orchestral work was inspired by Shakespeares play: the agitated music depicts feud between rival families, the tender melody conveys young love while the funeral-march rhythm suggests the lovers tragic death. Smetanas the muldau uses musical effect that call to mind a flowing stream, a hunting scene, peasant wedding, and a crash of waves. Richard Stausss An Alpine Symphonic is a musical description of ascending and descending mountain, with 22 section such as night, sunrise by the waterfall, storm and descent. Program music also lives in movies soundtrack with often feature ultra-modern sounding atonal programming music. Prominent Romantic Composers Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) The earliest master of romantic art song. He was an Australian composer, born on January 31, 1797 in Himmelpfortgrund, near Vienna. He learned violin from his school teacher father and piano from his brother. He joined the precursor of the Vienna Boys Choir (1808), making such quick progress that Antonio Salieri undertook to guide his training (1810-16). At his familys insistence, he was trained as a schoolteacher. In 1815, he wrote 2 symphonies, more than 100 songs, and 4 stage works. In 1818, seeking independence, he quit teaching at his fathers school to tutor Johann Esterhazys daughters. In 1819-20, he wrote the celebrated Trout Quintet in a mass. Felix Mendelsson (1809-1847) is considered the greatest 19th century composer of oratorio. The greatness of his oratorios rests primarily in his outstanding choral technique with melody of high quality, skilled instrumentation, and great sense of form. Frederic Fancois Chopin was born to middle-class French parents in Poland on March 1, 1810. He published his first composition at age seven and began performing in aristocratic salons at eight. He moved on Paris in 1831 and his first Paris concert the next year thrust him into the realm of celebrity. Renowned as a piano teacher, he spent his time in the highest society. He contracted tuberculosis apparently in the 1830s. In 1837, he began a 10 year liaison with the writer George Sand; she left him in 1847 and a rapid decline led to his death two years later. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was born in the village of Doborjan, near Sopron, Hungary, on October 22, 1811. He was a Hugarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He studied and played at Vienna and Paris and most of his adulthood toured throughout Europe. His great generosity with both time and money benefited the lives of many people: victims of disasters, orphans, and the many students he taught for free. He also contributed to the Beethoven memorial fund. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) achieved a fusion of the arts in his musical dramas which showed a distinct departure in general concept, style and form from all other operatic productions. Characteristics of Musical Dramas

 Fusion of the Arts - He conceived music drama as a work in which music, poetry and stagecraft are fused to form a new dramatic whole. He believed that no art must dominate the drama. Thus, this resulted in dramatic unity and dramatic truth that far surpassed anything in the operatic field that time. Libretto He wrote his own text for his dramas which were perfectly conceived literary works. Continuity This is one of the most notable features of Wagnerian music drama that is achieved by abandoning the distinction between recitative and the aria-the sung part. Leitmotif He uses musical themes called leitmotifs that connect thematic ideas with a particular person, situation or mood. Wagnerian Orchestra very important in his music dramas because of its dramatic effect in a continuous flow of music.