Works of Tri-Romantic Era Composers

On March 15, 2011, The University of Toronto Scarborough Campus hosted two
brilliantly talented musicians, in the Arts and Administration building. This concert took place
on the third floor of AA in Studio 1 room A303, which was quite suitable for this kind of
chamber music event. One specific feature, which made this venue a suitable site for such a
concert, was the use of sound resistant boards around the entire room. Although the room wasnt
large in its area, however in my opinion it was an excellent choice for such a small musical
event, where a vast number of attendees werent expected. The audience was mainly comprised
of UofT students, after all this was a Performance/Lecture event, however there were some older
persons present during the event also. Specifically, this musical event featured two Canadian
musicians, Brett Kingsbury on piano, and David Gillham on the violin. This duet presented the
music of three Romantic composers, with an emotional, lively, and gentle style. In order to better
understand the type of music that was performed during this event, one must appreciate the
definition of Romanticism in its contextual setting in music. Romanticism in cultural history
has a precise definition. In music, it is most commonly applied to a period from the early
19
th
century until the early 20
th
. Features of romanticism in music include an attention to
feeling rather than to formal symmetry, expressed in a freer use of traditional form, an
expansion of the instrumental resources of music and an extension of harmonic language.
In other words, composers during the Romantic Era started to experiment with musical styles
and forms, rather than closely follow to the specific guidelines. This was highly contradictory to
previous practices, where composers in the Classical Era such as Beethoven, composed pieces in
a more strict and precious manner, paying attention to topics such as modulation and musical
forms. The works of three highly acclaimed romantic composers, Schubert, Brahms, and Ravel,
were performed during this chamber music event, where each composers work depicted
different unique approaches to the same overall musical genre, Romanticism. Ultimately, the
purpose of this concert was to introduce the students at UTSC of the Romantic Era composition,
and what aspects differentiate them from those of other genres. Overall, the concert was a
success, since the performers met the expectations of the Romantic era through the depiction of
certain aspects of the genre, specifically in dynamics, tone, and colour.
I strongly argue that the performers during this musical event did meet the set
expectations of the Romantic genre, since they portrayed those sudden changes in dynamics
quite swiftly and softly. After all, playing a romantic era piece of music requires extensive usage
of great technique, in order to portray those long continuous melodic lines, which are often at a
very fast tempo, since the pieces are very expressive. In that respect, the performers did indeed
depict all of the 3 pieces quite well. For example in the first Rondo piece by Schubert, upon
viewing the musical score, I recalled that the performers specifically showed the different mood
changes within the piece effectively, meaning that they adjusted the emotions that they put in the
music accordingly. In other words, the transition between the same conversational sequences was
connected smoothly. The rondo movement opened with a heroic theme suggesting classical
elements, which contrasts the opening part in the Brahms piece, which was strictly Romantic.
Likewise, the performers depicted this change in emotion between pieces effectively, suggesting
a clear transition between neo-classical to absolute romantic styles. Ravels sonata on the other
hand is composed in a totally different style than these two pieces. Several occurrences of
dissonance sounds within the movement suggested strong tonal colours, that the first two pieces
did not include, and certainly the performers depicted the feel of the overall impressionism style
effectively as well. More specifically, the detailed aspects within each composition could be seen
in the following paragraphs.
The performers opened up the evening, by playing a piece composed by Franz Schubert.
Schubert is often referred to as a neo-classical composer, since he is on the border line between
the two musical eras. Thus, when we analyze several of his compositions, we can see a mixture
of strict musical rules being implied, and also at the same time the sense of freedom and use of
emotional colour, which was so pre-dominant to the Romantic composers. Many acclaimed
critiques have said that the most noticeable characteristics of Schuberts Music are that it is
tuneful and repetitive. In fact, his music is much more tuneful and repetitive than any other
classical composer. In other words, the meaning of tunefulness is that Schuberts music is
embedded in the world that we experience with our senses. This means that upon hearing
Schuberts music, the audience can emotionally relate almost instantly. Secondly, through
repetitions Schuberts music slows down allowing listeners to appreciate it fully. It has often
been said that, listeners can relate and comply to a certain music, when a passage or a theme is
constantly repeated, thus giving the audience that sensation of resolution and coming back to
where the music took off in the first place. Upon having said all of this, the night took off with
the performance of Schuberts Rondo in b minor, also known as Rondo Brilliant. This piece
was composed during the final years of his career, in 1826. The piece started off in 3/3 meter,
however eventually changed into a common 4/4 time. There were also lots of key changes
(modulations) involved within the same movement. As for the tempo, this particular piece had
constant mood changes, thus suggesting an unstable tempo. Schubert also accomplished to show
the different mood swings in his piece, by experimenting with different key tonalities, often
changing between minor and major. The opening measure of the rondo sounded very victorious
and heroic, which set the tone for the overall piece. An example of highly repetitiveness can be
seen in measure 6, where the same sequence of notes played by the piano accompaniment is
repeated in the violin solo part. This sort of question and answer sequence could be heard
throughout the composition, giving it that overall smooth sensation, just like a conversation
between two people. As for the dynamics, Schubert constantly changes tension of the music
between the different small sections within the piece, often sounding fortissimo, and at times
pianissimo. The overall picture of this extraordinary piece of composition was that it had all sorts
of different aspects of music in general, whether it being smooth and swift melodious lines
accompanied by arpeggiated patterns, or strict and heroic passages helped by the use of staccatos
and shorter note values.
Johannes Brahms is often considered as one of the fathers of the late-romantic era.
During the beginning stages of his career, Brahms musical style was rather old-fashioned, in the
sense that he wasnt much of an innovator, and thus most of his earlier compositions lack that
tone colour that the other romantic giants had. He maintained a classical sense of form and order
in his works, and many critiques saw him as the champion of traditional form of music, as
opposed to the newer areas that some of the romantic composers were exploring. The second
piece, Brahms Sonata No. 2 in A Major, was played by the two performers. The A Major is
probably the most lyrical of Brahms three sonatas for violin and piano. One noticeable
characteristics of the second violin sonata is that it reflects Brahms personality his
shyness and introspection, his originality and his intensity, sometimes all at once. At the
same time, this large piece certainly has many outbursts of emotion. The sonata ultimately has
three parts: Allegro amabile, Andante tranquillo, and Allegretto grazioso. The music begins with
a 5 bar sequence, in which the first four bars are played by the piano, and the final 5
th
bar is
answered by the violin. This theme returns again towards the end of the piece. Overall, the
impression of the first movement is that the melody is sweet in its simplicity and powerful
at the same time. The second movement doesnt have that conversational interchange
between the two instruments, thus it can be divided into two alternating sections. An
important violin technique is used in this movement, and that is the pizzicato style of playing.
Finally, the movement comes to an end in a short, blaze of excitement, in vivace tempo. As
for the finale, it begins with a sad line expressed in sustained legato. In the middle of the
movement, there is a rather sudden passionate outburst of emotion. However, the calm
theme of the opening returns to end the work.
Towards the end of the romantic era, especially in France there was a shift to the
impressionistic musical style. The musical style of impressionism was based on suggestion and
atmospheric pictures, rather than strong emotional character. Maurice Ravel was one of the most
famous ambassadors of this cultural and musical shift. He was influenced by several well known
composers, such as Debussy, Faure, and also the jazz movement in America impacted his style
of music. However, Ravel was much more than an impressionist, his style included
Romanticism, Neo-Classicism, Spanish music and Jazz. He had an introverted character,
which influenced his work. He ultimately cared more about the quality of the composition rather
than the quantity. Finally, the last piece that was performed during the event was the Sonata by
Ravel. Right of the start of the piece, we could hear that there was a distinction between the
piano and the violin, given the fact that Ravel always believed that these two instruments did not
complement each other. Theme 1 of this movement felt like water and breeze flowing through,
and increasing and decreasing wavelike melodic lines could be heard. The overall feel of this
piece was abstract and airy. Constant use of the pizzicato technique could be heard right from the
start of the movement. The overall feel of this section was jazzy, given the fact that Ravel was
influenced by jazz in America. Logically, the movement gets its blues nickname as a result of
this style. Lastly, the final movement was designed to test the violinists skills and abilities to
portray to musical piece. Upon hearing this movement, I felt that it sounded like a frantic flight
of bumble bees, since the Violinist was playing nonstop extremely fast passages.
My overall experience of this event was highly satisfactory, given the fact that going into
the concert I had certain expectations, and with no doubt the performers met all of my
expectations and at certain points even exceeded it. The performer as the center of musical
interest is another manifestation of the Romantic era. Upon saying this, during the Romantic
era, there was a shift from the vocal singers having the dominant role, to the instrumentalists
taking over. The small sub-genres within this greater contextual period known as the Romantic
Era was depicted well, and the emotion that was incorporated by the performers helped me
differentiate some of the obvious features found in each of these works.





















Bibliography

Rosenberg, Robert K. Musical Romanticism. In Music Journal 7, no. 5 (September 1949): 25-
53.