1. Identify the distinctive stylistic features of Romantic music. The romantic era (1800-1850) in music is made by large pieces of work that start to make bigger orchestras with bigger sounds. This music places a strong point on “stirring emotions” within the listener, and doesn’t have to do with the emotion of “love”. Romantic composer made this by writing more complicated music. They use key changes, dissonance, and chromatics a lot. This was done by improving instruments that was played in music theory and teaching how to write music.
Beethoven played a major part in bringing music into this new style, and his 3rd symphony is a prime example. Few Romantic composers were Schumann, Chopin, Rossini, and Tchaikovsky. Few characteristics of Romantic music are intense expression of emotions, more freedom in the structure (form) of the music, more complex use of tone and rhythm, larger orchestras/developments in wind instruments, greater technical virtuosity, sense of “nationalism” in musical styles, and links music with other art forms.
2. Discuss the romantic orchestra, program music, nationalism, and exoticism. Romantic orchestra has a wider range of instruments and pitches. It has many more players than a classical orchestra. Romantic orchestra was used in different ways. For example, composers start to use more adventurous techniques like flutter-tonguing on the woodwind instruments and col legno on string instruments. Romantic orchestras have larger brass and percussion section. Program music is a musical composition that is to depict or suggest nonmusical incidents, ideas, or images, such as those drawn from literature. An example would be Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, or from works of art. Nationalism is the use of musical ideas or motifs that symbolizes with a country, region, or ethnicity, such as folk tunes and melodies, rhythms, and harmonies that is inspired by them. Musical nationalism can also be the use of folklore as a basis for programmatic works including opera. Exoticism is a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient times.
3. Describe how Romantic composers used expanded range of dynamics, extended tonal space, increased tempo, and a variety of forms ranging from miniature to monumental.
4.Discuss the role of the piano in classical music and genres of romantic piano music such as nocturne, etude, polonaise
The piano evolved from the harpsichord in the early 1700s. In the mid 1800s, the instrument change in tone, range, pedals to become similar to the piano today. The role of piano in classical music evolved over time as the instrument itself did. Solo pieces was longer, complex, and technically demanding. The piano been used with combining imaginable instruments. They were featured in concertos during the Romantic period. The piano is featured as a solo instruments with a full orchestra. Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Grieg wrote notable romantic piano concertos. Nocturne was a romantic character piece for piano written in a melancholy, somber style. It is made of expressive melody played over a broken, moving chord pattern. Chopin took the idea from John Field (Irishman) who was credited with writing the first nocturnes. Etude means “study” in French. Etude was to address a specific area of technique in an instrument, and use as exercise for practicing. Few composer have written impressive Etudes for many instruments that often made it to concert programs. Polonaise was a Polish dance that was thought to have originally use in court ceremonies and processions. Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert all experimented with the Polonaise. Chopin was the one that brought the style into a state of heroic nationalism.
5. Discuss the art song and it’s forms.
Art song is the human voice in a natural instrument with amazing capabilities. Speech and music been together since the earliest times. It is a piece of music performed by voice with or without instrument accompaniment or a poem set to music. Music enhances words with emotional energy that speech alone can’t make. There are vocal compositions with no articulated text at all called vocalists or vocalize in Italian. Some 20th century composer have written concert vocalizes too. Singing styles are different in cultures. It reflect influences as social structures, and levels of literacy, language, and sexual mores.
6. Who was Franz Schubert and what is he most know for?
Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer that was the last master of the Viennese Classical school. He was one of the earliest proponents of musical Romanticism. The only notable composer of Viennese School to be born in Vienna. He had left few letters or diaries that could have provided insights into the motivations and inspirations to his work and creative process. Schubert had expressed his belief that music had spiritual underpinnings and should embody divine characteristics. He wrote some six hundred songs, nine symphonies, various sonatas, strings quartets, and other works. His works were not performed a lot. He enjoyed small patronage, and he relied on the support of family and friends. The interest in his works went up after his death.
7. Who was Robert Schumann and describe his music.
Robert Schumann was a German composer and pianist that was one of the most important Romantic composer of the first half of the nineteenth century. His music reflect the deeply personal nature of romanticism. A lot of his music is now regarded as daringly original in harmony, rhythm, and form. He stands in front rank of the German composers in the 19th century. He was the first truly Romantic composers of the central European music tradition. As many composers of the Romantic period, the literature of the era played heavily into the inspiration of his creative output. He given the emotional extremes and his marriage to the gifted pianist and composer Clare Wieck becoming aspect in his life. His attitude reflect a central tenet of the Romanticism spirit. His music reflected his personal views in almost autobiographical ways.
8. Who was Chopin and describe his music.
Fryderk Chopin was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher of French-Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music. He has been called “the poet of the piano”. He supported himself as a composer and a piano teacher. He gave few public performances as well. Most of his works are solo piano. The notable exceptions are his two piano concertos. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and did major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu, scherzo, and prelude.
9. What is program music?
Program music is a type of art music that tries to musically render and extra musical narrative. The narrative is offered to the audience in the form of program notes, imaginative correlations with music. Program music is an instrumental music telling a story with episodes. It reveals facets of a character, place, occasion, or it imitate the sounds of the world. It may take the form of a verbal explanation of the “story” or “program” of the piece. It was invented by Franz Liszt. He understood program music to be involved into a program of external to the music that set the parameters and the form in which the musical piece unfolds. 10. Who is Hector Berlioz and describe his music.
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer. He was best known for the compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande des morts. He made important donations to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He had a huge orchestral force in his works. As a conductor he performed several concerts with more that 1,000 musicians. He composed around 50 songs. He influenced the further development of Romanticism .
11. Who is Antonin Dvorak and describe his music.
Antoni Dvorak was a Czech composer of the late Romantic music. He employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvorak’s own style is called “romantic-classicist synthesis”. His works are symphonic, choral and chamber music, concertis, operas and many other orchestral and vocal-instrumental pieces. His known works are New World Symphony, Slavonic Dances, “American” String Quartet, the opera Rusalka, Cello Concerto in B minor, and choral works Stabat Mater, Requiem, Op. 89 and Te Deum.
12. Who is Johannes Brahms and describe his music. What was his relationship with the Schumanns? Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. He was one of the leading musicians in the Romantic period. He composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. He was a virtuoso pianist that worked with some of the leading performers of his time. One performers in his time would be Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works are staples of the modern concert repertoire. He destroyed many of his works and left some of them unpublished.
13. Discuss Italian and German opera of the mid to late romantic era including popular, verismo, exotic, and epic operatic works.
