MUSIC100 Chapter 9

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY I: EARLY ROMANTIC MUSIC

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Romanticism as a musical style encompasses a wide range of works by

composers in all genres
It also covers the period from the early nineteenth century to the beginning
of the twentieth
For this reason, we will break our discussion of Romantic music into two
distinct parts: Early Romantic Music and Mid-to-Late Romantic Music

The Age of Romanticism

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The foundations of modern industry were laid during this period, significant
political and social changes were taking place, and the arts reflected a new
concern with subjectivity and inner feeling
All three of these aspects of the new era industrialization, changes in the
structure of society, and a new artistic spirit had powerful effects on
nineteenth-century music

The Industrial Revolution

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The industrial Revolution began in England, where a long period of peace and
prosperity encouraged expansion and innovation
Increased efficiency in agriculture led to a tripling of the population between
1750 and 1850
These technological advances spread rapidly throughout Western Europe and
the United States
Toward the end of the century, the harnessing of electricity marked a new
phase in the Industrial Revolution

Political, Intellectual, and Social Changes

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Politically, the most important event for the nineteenth century was the
French Revolution, which began in 1789 but whose aftershocks continued to
be felt throughout Europe until 1848
Originally a democratic movement, the Revolution unleashed brutal forces,
first as the revolutionaries seized power and put their foes to death, and then
as the movement itself evolved in the hands on the dictator Napoleon into
a new form of repressive government
In 1814 the French monarchy was re-established, and in 1815 the leaders of
the last campaign against napoleon restored the old European balance of
power and the hierarchical systems of government
However, the struggle between monarchists and democrats continued in
France and the rest of Europe through much of the century
Romanticism was inspired by many developments

Writers, thinkers, and artists reacted against the rationalism and orderliness
of the eighteenth century and yearned for a return to emotionalism,
complexity, and traditional faith
God and nature were seen as more important than reason and science
Nature, with all its unpredictability and random profusion, became a central
feature of the Romantic ideal
The French Revolution and the ensuing Romantic movement had further
consequences in the nineteenth century
One of these was the growth of nationalism
People throughout Europe began to foster their own national identities and to
rebel against outside domination
Nationalism remained a potent force on the political landscape throughout
the nineteenth century
The Industrial Revolution created great wealth and an increased standard of
living for some, while condemning many others to work in appalling
conditions in mines and factories
In spite of the hardships and inequities of the times, the nineteenth century
also saw the rise of some of the benefits of modern civilization, such as
medical advances.

The New Artistic Spirit

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Romanticism was above all an artistic movement

It began in the last two decades of the eighteenth century with the literary
works of the two great German writers Goethe (1749-1832) and Schiller
(1759-1805)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a poet, novelist, and dramatist and the
author of the single most influential literary work of the nineteenth century,
his long dramatic poem Faust
Another element in literary Romanticism was a renewed fascination with the
past
Of all historical periods, it was the Middle Ages that most captured the
imagination of the Romantics
In the second half of the century, the technological advances of the
Industrial Revolution had a powerful impact on both sculpture and
architecture
In painting, Romantic artists attempted to capture their view of the exotic,
the irrational, and the sublime
Of all the arts, however, music was the most quintessentially Romantic
With its embracing of nature, nationalism, the exotic, the minute, and the
monumental, with its focus on individual consciousness, and with its
fascination with extremes of expression, Romanticism was a heady mixture,
and music was considered the perfect vehicle for expression of all these
feelings
KEY THEMES OF ROMANTIC
MUSIC

Nature
The exotic and foreign
National themes
Extremes of emotion and
scale
Individual feeling

Music for All

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During the nineteenth century, music became more and more a public
concern
Concert halls were built in every town, and many cities established their own
symphony orchestras
An evening of parlor songs or informal chamber music became commonplace
in Victorian times

The New Sound

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An orchestral piece from the Romantic era is very different in sound from a
piece of music from the Classic era
As concerts moved from small halls to larger ones and audiences increased in
size, orchestras became bigger, and instruments were adapted so that their
sounds would be louder and carry farther
Instruments in the nineteenth century were built for power and speed
Nineteenth-century woodwinds and brass instruments were equipped with
complex key or valve systems whose primary aim was to facilitate fast
fingerwork as a result of the new technology
The new piano was invented to be larger and louder, allowing for much more
rapid playing and faster repetition of notes, and the range was greatly
extended
In Mozarts day, the piano had a range of five octaves but by 1830, the range
was over seven octaves, which is the standard range today
Orchestras also increased in size
Compositions now require a larger orchestra
Apart from creating huge volume, a large orchestra can be used to produce a
very wide range of different combinations of instruments
Romantic composers often used their orchestras as Romantic painters used
their palettes: to create an almost infinite variety of colors and textures
The technique of manipulating orchestral sounds is known as orchestration,
and many Romantic composers were brilliant and sensitive orchestrators
The sound of a Romantic work depends upon a number of other factors, such
as dynamics, tempo, melody, harmony, and form, which we shall consider
separately

Dynamics
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In Romantic music, the dynamics range is vastly extended

Dynamics up to triple or even quadruple fortissimo are common, and
indications of quietness often go down to triple pianissimo

Changes of dynamics are much more frequent and less predictable in

Romantic music than in music of earlier times

Tempo and Expression

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The range of tempo also increased in Romantic music

Long, languorous, slow movements are common in the nineteenth century,
whereas the favourite slow tempo in the eighteenth century had been a
graceful, moderate, walking tempo (Andante)
Changes of tempo within a movement are also much more frequent in the
Romantic era
This creates a variety of moods within a single movement, not just between
individual movements of a work
And there is far more flexibility of tempo: a Romantic composition seems to
ebb and flow as it goes along
Composers indications of tempo also became much more expressive
Before, simply the words Allegro or Andante had sufficed; now composers felt
it necessary to indicate the emotional content of a piece by expressive
indications
Markings such as Allegro agitato (an agitated Allegro) or Adagio dolente (a
grieving Adagio) are often found, and the indication espressivo
(expressively) is scattered liberally throughout the pages of Romantic music

Melody
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Romantic melodies are usually much longer

They often have a surging or yearning quality about them, which makes
them highly emotional
They may speed up or slow down slightly in the middle, to make them sound
more spontaneous, and the dynamics often change as well
The primary aim was always expression of feeling

Harmony
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In a sense, eighteenth-century harmony had been used mostly for its

functionality; Romantic harmony, on the other hand, is often also an
expressive device
Chords can create color, and atmosphere, so more and more unusual chords
are used, unexpected combinations appear, and modulation (movement
among keys) is much more frequent
Toward the end of the century, composers even began to end their pieces in a
different key from the one in which they had began
Chromatic melodies and harmonies become much more frequent,
undermining the central, static sense of key that had always governed music

Form
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Romantic pieces tend to blur the outlines of form rather than highlight them

IT is often harder to hear the form in a Romantic composition than in a

Classic piece
This is because Romantic works are often much longer, making it more
difficult to follow structural devices
But the blurring of formal outlines was often deliberate
It corresponded to the change in Romantic poetry from strict forms to freer,
more exuberant writing
Romantic composers wanted their music to be as expressive as possible, to
represent the spontaneous flow of feelings rather than to display a carefully
organized structure
In most Romantic pieces, one can still detect arrangements such as sonata
form, scherzo and trio, aria form, or rondo
But these were used with great flexibility, and the exact points of articulation
in them can often be a matter of debate
Even formal organization on the phrase level is less clear-cut in Romantic
music: phrases tend to flow into each other rather than to be separate and
distinct
This fluidity is achieved by avoiding or undermining cadences
As a phrase reaches its conclusion, it may turn away from the expected
cadence in a completely new direction
Or the composer may make the beginning of a new phrase overlap the end of
the old one
CLASSIC VERSUS ROMANTIC MUSIC: MAIN DIFFERENCES

Orchestra
Dynamic range
Tempo

Expression
Melody
Harmony

Program Music
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CLASSIC
25-30 players
Piano (soft) to forte
(loud)
Slow or fast; few
changes within a
movement
Rarely indicated
Short, balanced
Functional: serves to
support the melody and
the form of the
composition

ROMANTIC
60 or more players
Triple piano (ppp; very very soft) to
triple forte (fff; very very loud)
Greater extremes of tempo, also more
changeable within a movement
Often indicated
Longer, more variety
Emotional: also serves to express the
deepest feelings in the music

One of the most important differences between Classic and Romantic music
lies in the distinction between program and absolute music
Program music is music that tells some kind of story
It may be a love story, or a spiritual journey, or scenes from nature, or a
childs reverie
Absolute music is the term for music that has no meaning outside the
meaning of the music itself and the feelings it produces in its listeners
The nineteenth century did not invent the idea of program music

Vivaldis Four Seasons is a famous example of Baroque program music

Sometimes composers even published lengthy narratives to accompany
performances of their works

Massive and Miniature

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Many Romantic works are longer than their Classic counterparts

This love of the massive, or monumental, also determined the size of
orchestras, as we have seen
More and more instruments were added to orchestras, and larger numbers of
the traditional instruments were used
In contrast to the massive works of the Romantic era, there were some
compositions that went to the opposite extreme, using delicate
miniaturization
Most of these were works for solo piano, and lasted less than a minute
The piano miniature was the musical response to the Romantic interest in
intimacy and individualism

Favourite Romantic Genres

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Opera and symphony were the most extensive genres, calling as they did or
large forces
Voice was the central component of two other Romantic genres: song and
the Requiem Mass
There also display the contrast between intimacy and grandeur
Another favoured orchestral genre was the concerto, which symbolized the
highly Romantic notion of the individual against the group
Chamber music also was popular in the nineteenth century
Solo piano works were very popular
Some composers continued to write piano sonatas in the usual three or four
movements, but many composed more programmatic pieces, like the piano
miniatures mentioned previously, or longer works with a series of short
movements that tell a story or depict a series of scenes
The link between program music and literature is particularly evident in a
new genre: the symphonic poem
The symphonic poem is a relatively short orchestral work in one continuous
movement, though it may fall into contrasting sections
Symphonic poems are always programmatic, though the source of the
program need not be literary; it may be a painting or a scene from nature
Romantic composers had a tendency to write music in what we might call
mixed genres
Romantic composers did not like to be constrained by conventions of genre,
any more than they liked to be constrained by conventions of harmony, form,
size, or duration

Favourite Romantic Instrument

The piano lends itself both to great intimacy and to great drama; the violin
has a very wide range and possesses the potential for great lyricism
And yet there were other instruments that captured the Romantic
imagination
Both the cello and the French horn with their rich, expressive tenor range
were heavily favoured by nineteenth-century composers

The Individual and the Crowd

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Romantic writers and thinkers were fascinated by the notion of the individual
a single persons thoughts and feelings
This focus on the individual is reflected in the Romantic concentration on
dramatic musical genres such as the concerto, which contrasts the individual
and the group, and in its love affair with great performing musicians

Women in Nineteenth-Century Music

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Music conservatories began to accept women for musical training, and

although considerable prejudice remained, some women became famous as
performers and composers during the nineteenth-century

Romantic Song
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Romantic songs are intimate miniatures

They are written for a single voice with piano accompaniment and are
designed to be sung in private parlors rather than in large concert halls
The setting of the song is always designed to mirror the meaning of the text,
either with specific word painting or in general atmosphere
The greatest Romantic songs add a level of richness and emotional depth to
the poems that they set
Romantic songs may be either strophic or through-composed
Strophic songs are those that use the same music for each stanza of the
poetry
Through-composed songs are those in which the music is different for
each stanza
Although most Romantic songs stand on their own as self-contained works,
composers sometimes linked together a group of songs to create what is
known as a song cycle
A song cycle may present a series of songs that are woven together to make
a narrative, or it may link several songs by presenting them as different
facets of a single idea

Early Romanticism
Franz Schubert and his Music (1797-1828)
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Schubert was the son of a Viennese schoolmaster and lived most of his life in
Vienna

Everything he touched turned to song, said one of his friends about

Schubert
Schuberts greatest gift was his genius for capturing the essence of a poem
when he set it to music
The melodies he devised for the voice, the harmonies and figuration of the
piano part these turn mediocre poetry into superb songs and turn great
poetry into some of the most expressive music ever written
During his pathetically short life, Schubert composed more than 600 songs
These range from tiny poems on nature, to dramatic dialogues, to folklike
tunes, to songs of the deepest emotional intensity
He composed a great variety of music for solo piano and some wonderful
chamber music
The best known of Schuberts symphonies are his last two, the so-called
Great C-majoy Symphony (1828) and the Unfinished Symphony
Schuberts music, from his tiny, moving, earliest songs to the expansiveness
and grandeur of his late symphonies, is finally emerging from the enormous
shadow cast by Beethoven

Hector Berliozs and his Music (1803-1869)

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Established music as central to the Romantic ideal

The most striking aspects of Berliozs music are its colour and atmosphere
He used the orchestra brilliantly, with great sensitivity to the different
qualities of sound available from all the instruments
Some of his pieces call for very large performing groups: the Requiem Mass is
written for an orchestra of 140 players, a huge chorus, and four groups of
brass and timpani placed at the four corners of the performing space; the Te
Deum calls for a solo singer, a large orchestra, an organ, two choirs of 100
singers each, and a choir of 600 children
But even more fascinating than these gigantic effects are those quiet places
where Berlioz conjures up an unforgettable atmosphere with completely
original orchestration
In the Requiem, for example, he uses violas, cellos, bassoons, and English
horns in simple, long phrases for a passage of penitence and introspection
The Symphonie fantastique, Berliozs best-known work, is one of the earliest
examples of Romantic program music
The piece, Berlioz said, describes various situations in the life of a young
musician who falls desperately in love at first sight
Berlioz felt ambivalent about tying a musical work to a specific verbal
narrative

Felix Mendelssohn and his Music (1809-1847)

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Mendelssohn is one of the two composers in this period who illustrate the
uncomfortable position occupied by Jews in nineteenth-century Europe

In 1811 the Mendelssohn family was forced to flee from Hamburg to Berlin for
political reasons, and when Felix was seven years old, his father converted to
Christianity himself
As a youth, Mendelssohn was introduced to the most famous literary figure in
Germany, Goethe, and a great friendship developed between the old man
and the gifted teenager
In 1835, he was appointed conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,
where he worked hard to improve the quality of performances and the
working conditions of the musicians
His last great work, the String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80, was composed as a
Requiem for Fanny
Mendelssohn was a composer who continued the Classic tradition in his
works, while adopting some of the less extreme ideas of Romanticism
His style is more transparent and lighter than that of many early Romantic
composers, certainly less extroverted and smaller in scale than that of
Berlioz; it ranges from lively and brilliantly animated to lyrical and expressive
Mendelssohns main orchestral works include five symphonies and several
overtures
Many of these are programmatic, though only in a general sense: they evoke
scenes and landscapes rather than tell a detailed story
His Violin Concerto in E Minor is one of the most popular of his works,
because of its beauty and lyricism
He also wrote a great deal of other choral music, and his sacred music
includes works for Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican services
His chamber music includes songs, string quartets, sonatas and piano trios
The most popular of these works is the Piano Trio in D Minor
Mendelssohn wrote a large number of miniatures for solo piano; in the typical
mold of early Romanticism, he called them Songs without Words
They are gentle, delightful, and lyrical expressive without being deeply
profound

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847)

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Fanny was four years older than Felix

Fanny was a talented pianist and also a gifted composer, but her career as a
composer illustrates the distance women still had to travel to achieve equal
opportunity in the nineteenth century
Fanny composed about 400 works, though most of them have never been
published
In the last few years, with increasing focus on the contributions of women to
the history of music, more and more of her works are being published and
recorded

Fryderyk Chopin and his Music (1810-1849)

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Chopin was the first of the great piano virtuosos in the Romantic era

After Beethoven, Chopin was the first important nineteenth-century composer

to achieve fame as a performing pianist, and almost all his compositions are
written for solo piano
Chopin was born in 1810 to a French father and a Polish mother
When Chopin was nineteen, he heard the great violinist Paganini play and
was inspired to become a touring virtuoso himself
Chopin was introduced to Aurore Dudevant by Franz Liszt in his late twenties
They soon started living together
The relationship ended in 1847, after which Chopins health rapidly
deteriorated
Chopin died in 1849 at the age of thirty-nine
At his request, Mozarts Requiem was played at his funeral
The best way to think of Chopins music is as poetry for the piano
Most of his pieces are fairly short, and they fall into several categories
Dances: polonaises, mazurkas, and waltzes
The waltz was fast becoming the favourite ballroom dance of the nineteenth
century
Chopin managed to create enormous variety of mood with the basic format of
this one dance
Mazurkas and polonaises are both Polish dances, and Chopin invested
them with the spirit of Polish nationalism
Mazurkas are in triple meter with a stress on the second or third beat of the
bar
Polonaises are stately and proud
Free forms without dance rhythms: preludes, etudes, nocturnes, and
impromptus
The preludes follow the pattern established by Bach in his Well-Tempered
Clavier: there is one in each of the major and minor keys
Etude literally means study piece, and each of Chopins etudes
concentrates on one facet of musicianship or piano technique
The nocturnes are moody, introspective pieces, and the impromptus
capture the essence of improvisation (impromptu means off the cuff)
The formal structure of these pieces is fundamentally simple, relying upon
the ABA pattern common to aria or song form
However, Chopin usually varied the return of the opening section quite
considerably, creating instead an ABA structure
Chopins melodies and chords are softer, less brilliant than it is today, but it
allowed for rapid repetition of notes and sustained sounds
Chopins left-hand harmony is varied and expressive, and sometimes the
main melody will appear in the left hand with the accompaniment above it in
the right
Chopins written directions often call for a special expressive device called
rubato (robbed in Italian)
Using this technique, the player keeps the tempo going in the
accompaniment while the melody slows down slightly before catching up a
moment later

Rubato can suggest the kind of expressive freedom that must have
characterized the playing of Chopin himself

Robert Schumann and his Music (1810-1856)

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Of all the early Romantics, Robert Schumann was the most imbued with a
literary imagination
He was born in 1810 in a small German town
A turning point in Schumanns career came (as it did for so many Romantic
musicians) upon his first hearing the Italian virtuoso Paganini play a concert
He decided to become a piano virtuoso and gave up his undisciplined life,
enrolled as a full-time student with Wieck, and took a room in Wiecks house
in order to devote himself to constant practice
Unfortunately, Schumann took this to extremes, as he tended to do with
everything
He overdid the practicing and permanently damaged his hand
Schumann turned from performing to composing music, and he met Clara,
Wiecks daughter, who was to become the love of his life
They were finally wed in 1840, when Clara was twenty and Robert was thirty
In 1842, Schumann threew himself into a new passion: chamber music
About 1845, Schumann began to experience the fits of depression and illness
that were to haunt him for the rest of his life
Schumann died in 1856
Much of his music is inspired by literary references, and even when the
inspiration is not literary, there is often some other programmatic reference
to people or ideas
The pieces for solo piano range from short works deliberately designed for
children to character pieces (small programmatic movements) to large
sonatas
Many of the character pieces are grouped together into cycles
Schumann wrote only one piano concerto and it is the complete opposite of
the typical Romantic concerto
Two of Chumanns four symphonies have programmatic titles
The First Symphony is called the Spring Symphony and the Third Symphony is
called the Rhenish Symphony
Schumanns chamber music is more Classical in form
There are fewer apparent programmatic references, but the music flows with
intensity and charm

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)

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At the age of nine she first performed in public; two years later, she gave her
first complete solo recital
By the time she married, at the age of twenty, Clara Schumann had an
international reputation as a concert pianist
During her married life, Clara continued to perform and compose, although
we must remember that in fourteen years she had eight children

She submitted all her compositions to her husband for his criticism, and she
clearly regarded him as the greater talent
Her works include character pieces for piano, songs, some chamber music,
and a piano concerto, which was completed when she was fifteen years old
Her best-known work is her Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17, written in 1846
After Robert Schumanns death, Clara continued to perform and to teach,
though she wrote no more music
Throughout this latter half of her life, Clara was the friend and confidante of
Johannes Brahms, a composer fourteen years her junior
Clara Schumaan died on May 20, 1896, at the age of seventy-seven, while
her grandson played Robert Schumanns music at the piano