Power Point 25. The Romantic Era: Diverging Traditions in the Late 19th Century

1. Diverging Traditions in the Late 19th
Century

2. Nationalism
• use of folk song in art music
• use of national elements in art music
• use of national elements as subjects for
composition
• musical features—modal scales, harmonies,
motives, melodies, rhythms, forms

3. Internationalism
• influenced by German Romantic music

4. Bohemia

5. Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884)
• nationalist
• orchestral music, choral,
songs, chamber
• opera—The Bartered Bride
– influenced by Bohemian folk
song
• symphonic poem—Má
vlast (My fatherland)
– cycle of 6 symphonic poems
depicting Czech legend,
history, scenery
– # 2—The Moldau River
• String Quartet # 1—“From
my Life”

6. Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904)
• internationalist
• conductor, violist
• influenced/encouraged by
Brahms
• made Bohemian music
known internationally
– Slavonic Dances
• came to America
– Symphony no. 9—“From
the New World”
– “American” string quartet
– “American” string quintet

7. Leos Janácek (1854-1928)
• Moravian—collected,
arranged Moravian folk
songs
• opera—Jenufa
– monologues
– few ensembles
– folk melodies
– “speech–melody”
• choral works
• instrumental works

8. Scandinavia

9. Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
• Norwegian—Inspired/encouraged by Ole
Bull (famous folk violinist) to go to Leipzig
Conservatory
• nationalist works:
– Humoresques (piano)
– Lyric Pieces (piano)
– Peer Gynt—incidental music for Ibsen play
• Morning
• In the Hall of the Mountain King
• national characteristics in Grieg:
– Hardanger fiddle
– drone basses
– modality
– dance rhythms—slatter—3/4 and 6/8
combined
• internationalist works:
– Piano Sonata
– Violin Sonata #1
– Piano Concerto in a minor
– String Quartet

10. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
• Finland
• did not collect folk music
or use it in his works
• wrote nothing after 1929
• symphonic tone
poems—Finlandia
• 7 symphonies
• violin concerto
• chamber, songs, choral

11. Russian Romantic Composers

12. Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
• 1st important Russian
composer
• before Glinka, music in
Russia was imported
from the West
• operas in Russian
– A Life for the Tsar
• elements of Italian opera
and French opera-ballet
– Ruslan I Ludmilla
• based on Pushkin fairy tale

13. The Mighty Five
• Vladimir Stasov
– critic who named Balakirev,
Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-
Korsakov, and Borodin the
“Mighty Handful” or
“Powerful Fist”
• Principles of the Mighty 5
– nationalism—the “common
man”
– ignore Western techniques
– realism
– Romanticism, not Classicism

14. Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)
• leader of the Mighty Five
• 2 short periods of
composing separated by
25 years
• Russia (orchestral piece)
• Islamey
– was once considered the
most difficult piano piece
ever written

15. Cesar Cui (1835-1918)
• officer in Engineering
Corps—fortifications
expert
• music critic
• operas, including
children’s operas
• songs
• chamber music
• piano pieces

16. Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
• innovative, avant-garde
• Boris Godunov
– historical Grand opera
– based on Pushkin play
• St. John’s Night on Bald
Mountain (orchestra)
• Songs and Dances of
Death
– songs fit the
declamation of the text
• Pictures at an Exhibition
(piano, later orchestrated
by Ravel)

17. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
• revised, completed works by
colleagues, altered harmonies,
rhythms making the works
more “acceptable”
• Professor of Composition at St.
Petersburg conservatory—just
ahead of his students
• operas
– The Golden Cockerel
• story by Pushkin
• orchestra works
– brilliant orchestrations
• Scheherezade
• The Flight of the
Bumblebee

18. Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
• Prince Igor
– unfinished opera
completed by Glazunov
– Polovtsian Dances
• orchestral piece
extracted from Act II

19. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• internationalist
• studied composition with
Anton Rubinstein; studied
at St. Petersburg
Conservatory
• Professor of Theory at
Moscow Conservatory
• supported by Nadezhda
von Meck, but they never
met

20. Tchaikovsky’s works
• operas:
– Eugene Onegin—nationalistic
• ballets
– Swan Lake
– The Sleeping Beauty
– The Nutcracker
• orchestra
– Symphonies no. 4, 5, and 6
• broad, lyrical, beautiful melodies
• no real thematic development
– Piano Concerto # 1
– Violin Concerto
– 1812 Overture
• chamber music
• songs
• piano pieces

21. Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
• concert pianist, early works influenced
by Chopin
• many works in C major
• impressionistic
• later: no key signatures
– Vers la flamme
• miniaturist
• longer works—single movement in
quasi-sonata form or connected multi-
movement works
– Symphony no. 3 The Divine Poem)
– La Poème de l’extase (1905-1908)
– Prometheus, The Poem of Fire
(1908-1910)
• piano, orchestra, textless
voices, clavier á luce—light-
keyboard which hadn’t been
invented!
• mystic chord C F# B-flat E A D

22. France in the Late Romantic Era

23. Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
• opera Carmen
– exoticism
– Habanera
– Seguidilla and Duet
(start at 1:45)

24. César Franck (1822-90)
• studied/taught organ (and
composition in his organ classes
against the wishes of the
composition department) @ Paris
Conservatoire
• keyboard:
– Prélude, chorale et fugue (piano)
– Prélude, aria et final (piano)
– Trois chorals (organ)
• chamber:
– piano quintet
– violin sonata
– string quartet
• orchestra:
– Symphonie (d minor)
– Variations Symphoniques (piano,
orchestra)

25. Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
• child prodigy
• went to Paris conservatoire
• organist @ La Madeleine
• French tradition in classic
forms
• Organ Symphony
(Symphony #3)
• Carnival of the Animals
(chamber orchestra)
– The Swan
• Danse Macabre (orchestra)

26. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
• church organist
• professor at Paris
Conservatoire
• Requiem
• songs (mélodie—French
art song)

27. England in the Late Romantic Era

28. Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
• Enigma Variations
(1898-99)
– Theme and 14
variations, but another
larger theme was never
revealed
– portrays people in his life
• 5 Pomp and
Circumstance marches
– March #1—graduation