Romanticism: Music and the Language of Emotion OBJECTIVES: 1. Be able to "define" Romanticism, according to the characteristics found in the various styles of music from 1790-1914. 2. Be able to cite characteristics of Romantic music in the works of Beethoven, Lizst, Chopin, Brahms, and Wagner. 3. Be able to discuss the relationship between music and letters in Romanticism. 4. Be able to explain why music as regarded as the primary art form of Romanticism, and why instrumental music was considered the apogee of Romanticism. Quotations: "In the mirror of tones the human heart learns to know itself; it is how we learn to feel feelings." Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder Music is like a lion's tongue "which tickles and scratches until the blood flows." Jean Paul "No color is as romantic as a tone." Jean Paul Romanticism is "a certain vague and indefinable fantasy." Victor Hugo "All art constantly aspired toward the condition of music." Walter Pater Romanticism is "the addition of strangeness to beauty." Walter Pater OUTLINE I. Definition and characteristics of Romanticism A. Problems with definition B. Dates C. Internationalism D. Extreme Contrasts of the nineteenth century E. Repudiation of Classical balance and uniformity F. Music as Ultimate Art form of Romanticism G. The Romantic Composers: i) youth, productivity, and early deaths ii) literary interests II. Example of Specific Characteristics A. Breaking from the Classical Mold: Shattering of Form i) Boundlessness and Expansionism in music ii) Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (no. 3) iii) elongated melodies of Brahms Symphony no. 2 B. Individualism i) no specific type of symphony, poem, piece of literature ii) oversized personalities iii) many lives of the composers written iv) Lizst a) brief biography b)extreme virtuosity *The Transcendental Etudes *Piano Concerto in E minor C. Intensity of feeling i. Weltschmerz a) Brahms: Capricio opus 76 mo.1 ii. Unrequited love and love-suicides a) Wagner's Tristan and Isolde iii) The macabre a) Lizst's Totentanz iv) despair a) minor keys b) Chopin's Bb minor sonata v) powerful and sharp contrasts a) dynamics: Beethoven I) the Appassionata Sonata, opus 57 b) tempo c) irregular rhythms vi) wide leaps vii) dissonance a) Beethoven's opus 111 Piano Sonata viii) tonality a) Chopin's Preludes and Etudes D. Love of Untouched Nature i) Beethoven's Symphony no. 6: The Pastoral "With more of an expression of feeling than painting" E. Nationalism i) Smetana's Ma Vlast F. Program Pieces a) the tension between Romanticism's love of literature and their philosophy of music b) Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade G. Art as Escapism and as a World Unto Itself i) the Industrial Revolution ii) dehumanization iii) Beethoven's Late Piano Sonatas a) opus 106: The Hammerklavier b) opus 111