MUS 5960 Dr. Alicia Wallace Southeastern Oklahoma State University

1. Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)
Chapter
18

2. Storming of the Bastille – July 14,
1789
The French Revolution 1789-1799

3.  inspired in part by
Enlightenment ideas (The
Age of Reason – aka The
Classical Period)
• 1789–92: first phase,
reformist
• 1792–94: second phase,
French republic declared,
Napoleon’s Reign of Terror
• 1794–99: third phase,
moderate constitution,
economic hardships
The French Revolution 1789-1799

4. The French Revolution 1789-1799

5. The French Revolution 1789-1799
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
• army general and war hero
• 1799, First Consul of the Republic
• 1804, crowned himself emperor
• 1815, final defeat, battle at Waterloo in
Belgium
Effects of the Revolution
• Revolutionary motto: “liberté, egalité,
fraternité” (liberty, equality, brotherhood –
still France’s motto today)
• possibility of freedom, democratic reform,
abolition of rank and privilege
• new concept of the nation, not subjects to a
monarch

6.  Much of the French revolutionary music had dotted rhythms
 Much like the French music of Lully (court composer of Louis XIV)
 popular songs had messages of the Revolution
 marches and symphonies were used during public ceremonies
 large choral works, Revolutionary hymns were performed at
government-sponsored festivals
 Government-supported Opera companies, i.e. The Opéra and
the Opéra-Comique
 librettos were subject to censorship
 plots were on themes of the Revolution
 Paris Conservatoire founded by the government, 1795
 education was based on merit (not how much you would pay)
 musicians trained through standard curriculum
 model for conservatories throughout Europe & the U.S.
Music & The Revolution

7. Music & The Revolution
Conservatoire de Paris
(Paris Conservatory)
Paris Opera

8. • new technologies allowed the economy to be based
on manufacturing by machine (especially textiles)
• began in Britain, late eighteenth century
• spread across Europe and North America
• included rise of instrument-making
• mass production lowered costs, drove out competitors
• brought unprecedented prosperity
• Disruptive in that it threatened traditional ways of life

9. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

10. Composer, Transitional Figure from Classical to
Romantic Periods of Music
• born in Bonn, Germany
• studied piano, violin with his father, Johann (the
drunk)
• 1792, moved to Vienna
 studied with Haydn
• gradual hearing loss, crisis in 1802
• funeral procession, over 10,000 people
Beethoven’s Centrality
• Beethoven became a cultural hero
• helped define Romantic view of the creative artist
• late works absorbed into mainstream decades after
his death
• theorists developed new approaches of analysis
• self-expression in tune with growing Romantic
movement
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

11. Major Works
 9 symphonies
 11 overtures
 5 piano concertos
 violin concerto
 16 string quartets
 9 piano trios
 10 violin sonatas,
 5 cello sonatas
 32 piano sonatas
 opera Fidelio
 Missa solemnis
 Mass in C Major
 song cycle An die ferne
Geliebte (the 1st song cycle!)
 and numerous other works
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

12.  Career and music reflect tumultuous changes
in society
• steeped in Enlightenment ideas (Equality for all!)
• affected by the French Revolution (who wasn’t?!)
• Idolized, then hated Napoleon
 Works divided into Three Periods:
• Early Period - 1770–1802
 youth in Bonn, early Vienna years
• Middle Period - 1802–1814
 new level of drama and expression
• Late Period - 1815–1827
 introspective late works
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

13. Beethoven’s Early Period 1770 - 1802
 known as virtuoso pianist, improviser
• gained patrons among local nobility
• 1792, moved to Vienna
 teachers, patrons, and publishers
• lessons with Haydn
• established as pianist
• 1791 started selling works to publishers
• success as freelance musician
 Composed works for piano
• sonatas, variations, shorter works
• aimed at the amateur market; increasing technical demands
• strong contrasts of style delineate form, broaden expressive range
• new compositional approaches: frequent octaves, thick textures, abrupt
changes in dynamics
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

14. EARLY PERIOD PIECES
Pathétique Piano Sonata, Op. 13 (Sonata with Pathos, 1797–98,
pub. 1799)
• evocative title, useful marketing tool for publishers
• C minor: stormy, passionate character
• first movement - dramatic, symphonic grandeur, evokes depths of
suffering, struggle to overcome it
Op. 18 string quartets, (1800, pub. 1801)
• first six quartets, indebted to Haydn and Mozart
• individuality: unexpected turns of phrase, unconventional modulations
• stark juxtapositions of opposing emotions and styles
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, premiered in 1800
• careful dynamic shadings
• unusual prominence of woodwinds
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

15. Beethoven’s Middle Period
1802–1814
 reputation and patrons
• foremost pianist and composer for piano
• established reputation as a symphonic and string quartet
composer
• Beethoven was free to follow his own inspiration
 publishers competed for Beethoven’s music
 notebooks of sketches - themes and plans for
compositions, deliberate way of composing
 deafness: psychological crisis, 1802 – Heiligenstadt
Testament
• considered suicide, resolved to continue composing
• played in public less and less
• composed, occasionally conducted
 compositions seem to reflect struggle of his life
• works become like narratives or dramas with conflict,
climax, catharsis
• replaces the notion of music as entertainment
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

16. MIDDLE PERIOD PIECES
Eroica Symphony, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (1803–4)
• music expresses ideal of heroic greatness
• first movement - story of challenge, struggle, final victory
• references to the French Revolution
 roll of muffled drums, Revolutionary processions, Revolutionary
hymns (dotted rhythms)
• originally titled “Bonaparte”
• public premiere in 1805 was difficult for audience members to grasp
Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera
• Libretto was based on a French Revolutionary opera plot
• glorifies Leonore’s heroism (main character) for her humanitarian ideals of the Revolution (much like
the Enlightenment ideals of the French Revolution!)
Chamber music
• 5 string quartets, 3 piano trios, 2 violin sonatas, cello sonata
• tested limits of amateur players
Concertos on a grander scale
• Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73; Violin Concerto in D Major
• expanded expressive range and dimensions
• soloist often coequal with the orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

17. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

18. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
MIDDLE PERIOD PIECES continued
Fifth Symphony (1807–8)
• symbolizes struggle for victory, C minor to C major
• first movement: dominated by four-note motive (You should know the
motive!)
Pastoral Symphony, No. 6 in F Major (1808)
• five movements, scenes from life in the country; character piece
•by 1814 Beethoven his the peak of his popularity (during his
lifetime)
• He had steady demand from publishers
• His music was played regularly throughout Austria and Germany
• His heroic style was now widely appreciated

19. Beethoven’s Late Period 1815–1827
 greater isolation, slowed pace of
composition
 profound deafness by 1818
 final defeat of Napoleon 1815,
postwar depression
 Characteristics of the late style
• compositions for connoisseurs that
were meant to be studied, had a
concentrated musical language and
introspective character
• high degree of contrasts &
exaggerations of style, figuration,
character, meter, tempo
• emphasis on continuity
within/between movements
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

20. LATE PERIOD PIECES
An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved), Op. 98 (1816), first song cycle
• Musical connections between movements, not poetic connections
Ninth Symphony (1822-24)
• over an hour in length
• solo voices and chorus in the finale; choral ode (first time for singers in a symphony!)
 Based on Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy/An die Freude
 selected stanzas that emphasize universal fellowship, love of an eternal heavenly Father
• innovation of supreme compositional craft and profound emotional expression
Missa solemnis (1819-1825)
• Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei: shaped as unified five-movement symphony
• choruses and solo ensembles alternate freely
• intended as a concert piece
Op. 131 String Quartet in C# minor (1825-1826)
• An introspective, extremely chromatic string quartet – not for the feint of heart!
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

21. Prelude V
The Nineteenth
Century: The Age
of Romanticism

22. The Romantic
Generation
Middle-class music-making
 music was an important outlet for middle and upper classes
• They had money and leisure to purchase and play
instruments, which expressed aspirations for equality,
national freedom
 music as means of social control
• state-sponsored opera, political messages
• factories organized wind bands; diverted working classes
• music kept women occupied at home

23. The market for music and the new idiom
 amateurs created a boom in publishing
• 1770s, largest publishers in London, Paris, Leipzig
• 1820s, tens of thousands of pieces listed
• music stores grew rapidly in early 1800s
• consumers demanded constant flood of new music
 unprecedented influence over music that was produced
• composers wrote songs, piano works, piano duets
 early Romantic style, the new musical idiom
• accessible and appealing to amateur performers
• competition for sales, innovations in harmony
• beautiful melody, striking harmonies within small forms
• evocative titles, national or exotic associations
The Romantic
Generation

24. Romanticism
 “Romantic” as a term is derived from
medieval romance, which meant
something distant, legendary, or
fantastic
• term first applied to literature, then
art and music (Goethe’s Werther -
novel)
 focus on the individual, expression of
the self
 search for original, interesting,
evocative, individual, expressive, or
extreme
 “Romantic” as a period was divided
around the 1820s for music
• political and economic events of
1815 influenced composers (French
Revolution, Napoleon, Industrial
Revolution)
THE ROMANTIC GENERATION

25. Romantic Ideals
 refuge in past, myth, dreams, supernatural,
irrational
 “common folk” as true embodiment of the
nation
 nature for refuge, inspiration, revelation
 solitude and individual esteemed
 higher ideal of enlightening the world
beyond the everyday
THE ROMANTIC GENERATION

26. Individual paths for expressing intense emotions
• explored new realms of sound
• instrumental music ideal art, free from limitations of words
• new distinctions among instrumental works
 programmatic work: recounts narrative or sequence of events
 character piece: depicts or suggests mood, personality, scene
 absolute music: refers to nothing but itself
 art for art’s sake, music for music’s sake
• organicism: reflected new concept of organic musical form
 relationship of themes, sections, movements, other parts to the
whole
 motivic links contribute to unity more than harmonic plan or
conventional form
THE ROMANTIC GENERATION

27. Music and the literary
 literature was central to work of most composers
 integration of music and text in several leading genres
• setting words: draw out inner meanings and suggested
feelings
• instrumental works: descriptive title or program
 led to innovations in harmony, melody, instrumental
color
• novelty appealed to middle-class consumers
• program enhanced appeal, titles added later
THE ROMANTIC GENERATION

28. The Early Romantics
Chapter
19

29. Prelude
 New ways to engage established musical genres
• orchestra central to public concert life
 instrumental music communicates pure emotion
 orchestra, medium par excellence
 middle-class audience
 public concerts became more popular
• song
 favorite for intense personal feelings
 suitable medium for literary, lyrical tendencies of Romanticism
• the piano
 enlarged and strengthened
 repertory from either end of spectrum: grandiose proportions, fleeting
impressions
• chamber music
 not as attractive to some Romantic composers
 lacked improvisational spontaneity, virtuosic glamour

30. Franz Schubert (1797–1828) – from Austria
•first great master of Romantic Lied, prolific in
all genres
• as a child studied piano, singing, violin, organ,
counterpoint; composition with Antonio Salieri
• freelance composer, income from publications
• songs performed at Schubertiads, home
gatherings
• last years clouded by illness – Syphilis – died
at age 31
• major works include: over 600 Lieder, song
cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, 9
symphonies, 35 chamber works, 22 piano
sonatas, 17 operas and Singspiels, 6 masses,
200 other choral works
• songs set standard for later composers
(Schumann, Brahms)
ROMANTIC SONG

31. Art Song - for voice and piano
 wide expressive range, minimal forces
 texts typically strophic poems
The German Lied (Song), most influential and prestigious of all art
song
 fusion of poetry and music, expression of individual feelings
 descriptive musical imagery, aspects of folk style
 nature was a common theme
• An individual confronting forces of nature or society
• nature as metaphor for the human experience
 the lyric was the chief poetic genre
• short, strophic poem, one subject expressing a personal feeling or viewpoint
 song collections and cycles - songs grouped with unifying characteristic
• Beethoven’s format as model: story through succession of songs An die
ferne Geliebte (1816)
ROMANTIC SONG

32. Schubert’s Lieder (songs)
 song texts by many writers, including Goethe and
Wilhelm Müller
 form suited shape and meaning of text
• strophic: single image or mood, same music each stanza
 Schubert had a gift for beautiful melodies
 variety of accompaniments to fit the poem’s mood,
personality of protagonist, or often reflect an image
in poem
 harmony reinforces the poetry
 captured character, mood, situation
ROMANTIC SONG

33. Schubert’s Lieder Examples
• Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel, 1814)
 based on an excerpt from Goethe’s Faust
 piano introduces song’s mood, central image, suggesting a spinning wheel
 motion of treadle: repeated notes in LH
• Heidenröslein (Little Heath-Rose, 1815)
• Songs Cycles
 Die schöne Müllerin (The Pretty Miller-Maid, 1823)
 Winterreise (Winter’s Journey, 1827)
• Erlkönig (The Erl-King, 1815)
 A mini-drama, with the voice representing four different characters from the
poem
 Narrator, Father, Son, and the Erl King)
 The piano represents the galloping of the horse
ROMANTIC SONG

34. Schubert‘s Piano Pieces
 works for amateur market
• dozens of marches, waltzes, dances
• short lyrical pieces: Moments musicaux
(Musical Moments, 1823–28), 8 Impromptus
(1827)
 Impromptu in G-flat Major, Op. 90, No. 3,
appeal to amateurs
• 11 piano sonatas
 themes, expansive melodies; do not lend
themselves to motivic development
 last three sonatas, strong awareness of
Beethoven
ROMANTIC PIANO MUSIC

35. Romantic Choral Music
Part songs – a song for more than one voice, often
the choral parallel to Lied or parlor song
 staple of smaller, mixed men’s and women’s choirs
 For domestic music-making or public performance
 patriotic, sentimental themes; nature was often a
favorite subject (Romantic ideals!)
 Franz Schubert wrote 100 part songs
• Schubert’s Die Nacht for male voices in four parts
 strophic, lyric poem
 important words emphasized with melodic peaks,
dynamics
 relatively simple, easy to sing, intriguing
challenges

36. Schubert‘s early works for home performance (Hausmusik)
• Trout Quintet (1819), fourth movement variations on his
song “Die Forelle” (for piano & string quartet)
• late string quartets were dramatic concert music
• String Quartet in A Minor (1824)
• String Quartet in D Minor (1824, modeled on another of his
songs - Death and the Maiden)
• String Quartet in G Major (1826)
• Quintet in C Major (1828)
• Schubert’s lyricism with the drama of Beethoven
• composed two months before his death
• string quartet with second cello
• instruments as equals
• one instrument often pitted against two pairs
• strong contrast of mood and style, within and between
movements
Romantic Chamber Music

37. The new Romantic style of Schubert
• focus on songlike melodies and adventurous
harmonies, very innovative
• Textures used colorful instrumentation
• strong contrasts with heightened emotions
• Unfinished Symphony (1822), Schubert’s first
large-scale symphony
• completed only two movements
• first movement: soulful, singable melody
• Influence of Beethoven
Romantic Chamber Music

38. Robert &
Clara
Schumann -
one of the most significant
marriages in the history of
music – Musical Power
Couple!
Romantic song

39. Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
• studied piano with Friedrich Wieck (Clara’s father)
• turned to composition and criticism; founded the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New
Journal for Music)
• among first and strongest advocates of Chopin, Brahms, instrumental works of
Schubert
• output focused on one medium at a time
• increasing mental instability (delusions, bipolar manic and depressive episodes),
confined to an asylum, 1854 after attempting suicide by drowning (died of
pneumonia in 1856)
Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896)
• early studies with her father, Friedrich Wieck
• child prodigy, first public appearance age nine
• by age of twenty, leading pianist in Europe, many published works
• renowned for playing from memory
• continued to perform, compose, and teach while raising children, resumed touring
after Robert’s death
Romantic song

40. Robert Schumann‘s Piano Music
• His publications up to 1840 (aka the Lieder Jahr/Year), were all solo piano
works
 mostly short character pieces grouped in named sets
 Papillons, Carnaval, Fantasiestücke, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana
 evocative titles to stimulate player’s and listener’s imaginations
• Carnaval (1834–35) - twenty short pieces in dance rhythms
 conjures masquerade ball in carnival season, and the characters who are
there
 Eusebius - visionary dreamer, named after fourth-century pope
 dreamy fantasy, slow chromatic bass, melody in septuplets
 Florestan - named after hero of Beethoven’s Fidelio
 impassioned waltz, angular melodies, pulsating dissonances, offbeat
sforzandos
 ciphers and motives used throughout to give unity and diversity
 names represented through notes
 Carnaval: motives spell Asch (Clara’s hometown)
ROMANTIC PIANO MUSIC

41.  major works (Robert):
• over 300 piano works,
• about 300 songs,
• 75 partsongs
• 4 symphonies
• piano concerto
• chamber works and various works for
orchestra
 major works (Clara):
• Piano Trio, Op. 17
• piano concerto
• many piano pieces
• several collections of Lieder
Romantic song

42. Robert’s “Lieder Jahr”/Songs Year – he composed over 120 songs
in 1840
 focused on love songs, due to his impending marriage to Clara
 expression of passions and the frustrations of love
 money from lucrative genre
 synthesized music and poetry (even more than Schubert)
 music and poetry
• music should capture poem’s essence
• voice and piano should be equal partners
• composer co-creator with poet
• piano: long preludes, interludes, postludes
ROMANTIC SONG

43. Robert‘s Lieder
Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love, 1840) –
song cycle of 16 songs
• No. 1 Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the marvelous month of
May)
 The poet remembers the blossoming of new love, with
tentative feelings, represented by harmonic ambiguity
 “longing and desire” represented by suspensions and
appoggiaturas
 unrequited love: the music refuses to settle into a key, ends
on a dominant 7th
Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman’s Love
and Life, 1840) – song cycle
ROMANTIC SONG

44. Clara’s Lieder
 several collections of Lieder
 approach to song parallels Robert
• long piano preludes and postludes
• similar figuration throughout each song
• voice and piano as equals convey images and feelings of poem
 Geheimes Flüstern (Secret Whispers, 1853)
• 16th-note arpeggiation, rustling leaves and branches
• expresses forest as refuge, communicator of life’s secrets
ROMANTIC SONG

45. Robert Schumann, “chamber music year” 1842–43
 Op. 41 string quartets, piano quintet, piano quartet
 strongly reflect influence of Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven (see how important Beethoven was!)
 1847: Piano Trios No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 63, and No.
2 in F Major, Op. 80
• study of Bach, more polyphonic approach
• influential works on Brahms, other German composers
Clara Schumann
 Piano Trio in G Minor (1846), inspired Robert’s trios
• traits from Baroque, Classic, Romantic models
Romantic Chamber Music

46. Clara Schumann - fame as pianist
at young age
• played what was written, focus on
composer; pathbreaking idea
• performances also showcased
improvisation; staple of nineteenth-
century concerts
• showcased her own and Robert’s
music
• Piano compositions include:
polonaises, waltzes, variations,
preludes and fugues, character pieces,
and a sonata
ROMANTIC PIANO MUSIC

47. The Early Romantics
Chapter
19

48. Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
leading German Romantic composer
◦ precocious musical talent equal to Mozart
◦ renowned pianist, organist, conductor
◦ music combines Romantic expression with Classical
and Baroque forms and techniques
◦ grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, leading Jewish
philosopher of the Enlightenment
◦ Felix and sister Fanny trained by excellent teachers
from an early age
◦ age 11 began composing; composed at astonishing
rate
◦ 1843, founded Leipzig Conservatory
major works: 2 oratorios, 5 symphonies, violin concerto,
2 piano concertos, 4 overtures, incidental music,
numerous chamber works, numerous pieces for piano
and for organ, choral works, over 100 songs

49. Classical Romanticism of Mendelssohn
• Mendelssohn’s works had a more Classic sound because he was
trained in classical genres
• mature symphonies follow classical models, however departures
show impact of Romanticism
• Symphonies
• Symphony No. 5 in D Minor (Reformation, 1830, rev. 1832), last
movement based on Luther’s chorale “Ein feste Burg”
• Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major, Lobgesang (Song of Praise, 1840),
solo voices, chorus, organ
• Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Scottish (1829–42); Symphony No. 4 in A
Major, Italian (1833)
• Violin Concerto in E Minor (1844)
• three movements played without pause
• linked by thematic content, connecting passages
• violin and orchestra equal partners
• contrasts delineate form, create variety, convey deep feelings
• virtuosity with lyric expression, solo with orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn

50. Oratorios and other large works
 Handel and Haydn oratorios were the core of the repertory for
large choruses
 1829, Mendelssohn conducted J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion,
which began revival of Bach’s vocal music
Mendelssohn’s oratorio
 St. Paul (1836)
 Elijah (1846)
 rooted in Baroque tradition but manifested something new,
up-to-date
 excerpt from St. Paul
• recitatives, choral fugue (spirit of Bach)
• interweaving of homophonic and fugal textures: evoke Handel
choruses
• melodies, orchestration, dramatic effects: Romantic style
Felix Mendelssohn

51. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847)
 studied piano, theory, and composition
 musical career inappropriate for woman of her
wealth and class
 led a salon; played piano, conducted choral
and orchestral works, presented her
compositions
 Major Works: more than 400 works, mostly
small genres, including 250 songs, 125 piano
pieces
• Das Jahr (The Year, 1841) - character pieces,
twelve months plus a postlude for piano
 cyclic links between movements
 chorales relevant to the seasons; Christmas chorale
in December
 each month on different color paper with hand-drawn
illustration by her husband
FANNY MENDELSSOHN HENSEL

52. Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
 French and Polish Romantic composer most closely
identified with the piano
 pieces have strong Polish character, national flavor,
brilliant virtuosity
 Friends with the Parisian upper class social circles of
musicians/composers (Liszt, Berlioz, Rossini)
 virtuosity for public performance, elegant lyricism for
the parlor
 works appealed to amateurs and connoisseurs
 composed almost exclusively for piano
 Mazurka in B-flat Major, Op. 7, No. 1 (1831) – Polish
folk dance
• exoticism of Polish folk music: trills, grace notes, large
leaps, slurs imitate folk bowing
 Nocturne (French for night piece): short mood piece,
embellished melodies, style draws from bel canto
vocal style
• Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2 (1835)
FRYDERYK CHOPIN

53. Program Music & Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
• Program music – instrumental music that tells a story or follows a
narrative or other sequence of events, often spelled out in an
accompanying text (program)
• Berlioz was a French composer, leader of Romantic radical wing
• studied composition at Paris Conservatoire
• 1830, won the Prix de Rome – a composition competition
• Influenced by Beethoven symphonies, Shakespeare’s plays
• Had an obsession with Harriet Smithson, Irish actress
• music criticism was his chief profession (like Schumann)
• brilliant writer; literary composer
• codified his practice, Treatise on Instrumentation and Orchestration (1843)
• 1835, began to conduct; one of first to make career of orchestral
conducting
• major works: 3 operas, 4 symphonies, 4 concert overtures, over 30
choral works, orchestral song cycle
Romantic Orchestral Music

54. Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (1830)
• He reconceived the symphony as a
programmatic work; musical drama, words read
silently by the audience in the program
• autobiographical program about his infatuation
with Harriet Smithson
• This symphony established Berlioz as leader of
radical wing composers in France
• idée fixe (fixed idea): melody representing
hero’s beloved in the symphony
• transformed in each movement, suits mood and
situation
• outlines of traditional symphony
• unified by recurring theme, established a
precedent
• array of instrumental colors
Romantic Orchestral Music

55. © 2014 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Ex19-07
Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

56. Berlioz’s Program to Symphonie Fantastique
• Mvmt. 1 “Dreams and Passions” -
first time we hear the idée fixe: long,
arching line of an operatic aria
• Mvmt. 2 “A Ball” - waltz, enacting
scene at a ball, harps
• Mvmt. 3 “In the Country” - pastorale,
piping shepherds, offstage oboe, bird
calls reminiscent of Beethoven’s
Pastoral Symphony
• Mvmt. 4 “March to the Scaffold” -
dreams of his own execution before
he is guillotined
• Mvmt. 5 “Dream of a Witches’
Sabbath” - transformations of the
idée fixe, two other themes, church
bells, grotesque caricature of idée
fixe, and the chant Dies irae, symbol
of death, the macabre, the diabolical

57. “The luck of having talent is not
enough, one must also have a talent for
luck.”
“Love cannot express the idea of music,
while music may give an idea of love.”
“Time is a wonderful teacher, but it
kills all its students.”
Hector Berlioz

58. Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869)
 first American composer with international
reputation
• born in New Orleans, studied piano and organ
• 1841, Paris for more training
• 1845–52 toured France, Switzerland, and Spain
• pieces based on melodies and rhythms of mother’s
Caribbean heritage
• through Gottschalk, composers imitated dance
rhythms and syncopations of the New World
• 1853, New York debut; enthusiastic reviews
 Souvenir de Porto Rico (1857–58, NAWM
137)
• theme derived from Puerto Rican song; Afro-
Caribbean habanera,
• designed to appeal to middle-class audience
ROMANTIC PIANO MUSIC