Common themes of Romanticism

Love-unrequited, hopeless, fatal

Hire a custom writer who has experience.
It's time for you to submit amazing papers!


order now

Death- Mystery

Religion-Supernatural, mysticism

Politics-National ID

Nature- Relationship with humanity

Lied

Song

 

lieder=plural

Song forms

Strophic

Throughcomposed

Modified Strophic

Strophic
Same melody repeated with each stanza, or strophe, of poem
Through-Composed

durchkomponiert

 

no repetitions of whole sections, music follows the storyline- ballad (new music throughout)

Modified Strophic
Combines feature of two other forms

Franz Peter Schubert

 

 

1797-1828

 

Der Erlkonig

(Character Piece)

solo piano

Frederic Chopin

1810-49

Polish by birth lived in France most of life

Franz Liszt

1811-86

 

Virtuoso- look at me!

program symphony

an orchestral work with descriptive title or program.

 

Beethoven’s 6th symphony

Idee Fixe

Berlioz’s term for recurring idea linking the movements of symphonie fantastique

 

(cyclic)

Requiem

The Mass for the dead

 

(Or something written in honor of dead)

Dies Irae

A rhymed sequence written by Thomas of Celano which became part of the Requiem Mass.

 

Often set polyphonically by composers

col legno
strike the strings with the bow
Ophicleide

An alto or bass brass instrument.

tall narrow 12 holes and keys

serpent

wind instrument

serpent shape

related to cornett

symphonic poem
orchestral pirce occompanied by program poem or poetic piece

Opera

 

Verdi

Verdi dominated the opera scene from 1840 on.  Themes of his included the unification and independence of italy.

Opera

 

Wagner

avoided small musical units

obscured and used unusual cadences

started using leitmotifs

leitmotif

a musical fragment related to drama that recurs.

 

suggests something unseen to viewers

(recollection, intuition, prediction)

Romantic Program Music

Novelistic-

tells a story

Program Symphony
multi-movement work with explicit indications of emotional content
berlioz

loved harriet smithson (shakesperian actress)

-wrote symphonie fantastique to impress her

idee fixe
cycled theme- incorporated Requiem mass from chants
Bedrich Smetana

Ma Vlast (My homeland) from Vlatava

 

Bohemian (Czech)

 

progressive

Johannes Brahms
conservative composer
Romantic Opera

big deal at time

 

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi’s works

Rigoletto

Il tovatore

La traviata

Richard Wagner

Composer ideal for the nazi party

 

egomaniac

 

Der ring des Nibelungen

(4 4hr pars)

-das rheingold

-die walkure

sigfried

-die gotterdammerung

Gesamtkunstwerk

 

a “complete artwork” that represents and synthesizes into one gestural verbal and musical types of expression.

unendliche melodie

leitmotivs or, grundthemen (as Wagner called it) are all woven together

 

 

romantic
early 19th century to ealry 20th. Emphasis on indefinable and infinite

HARVARD DEF

strophic
repetition of same music for every strophe
throughcomposed
without repeats.
tessitura
the range of a part most often used
character piece
program piano piece. evokes particular mood or scene.
rubato
altering the tempo (stolen time)
virtuoso
performer of great technical ability

liszt

polonaise
a festive processional, polish, moderato