Adulthood DisabilityPeople with disabilities often are unders.docx

Adulthood: Disability
People with disabilities often are underserved in health
prevention and health promotion campaigns. These individuals
are as at risk for other health problems as any other person, but
health prevention and promotion outreach to them requires
addressing their individual needs. As an example, consider some
of the issues that would need to be addressed in a health
promotion program for sexually transmitted infection (STI)
prevention in a deaf community. Many deaf individuals have
difficulty with reading, so it might be more effective to have a
lecture with an American Sign Language interpreter. Even with
this solution, however, there are considerations that need to be
addressed. There is some controversy about sexually related
signs, and many deaf people do not know the anatomically
correct words/signs to discuss these issues. One alternative is to
use the more vulgar ones that people know, but this may be
offensive. As you can see, there are no easy answers, and
decisions are not always clear cut. The important point to
remember is that different disability populations have different
needs, and having awareness of these needs helps you to be a
more competent health psychology professional by designing
more effective, empirically supported, programs.
For this Discussion, imagine that you are working with an
oncologist specializing in breast cancer. The oncologist wants
to initiate a publicity campaign promoting breast cancer
screenings targeted toward women with disabilities. To prepare,
select one specific disability to focus on and think about
considerations you would need to address when communicating
with women who have this disability through a breast cancer
screening publicity campaign. (Select an issue other than
deafness to use for this Discussion.)

With these thoughts in mind:Post by Day 4 the type of disability
you selected. Describe at least three issues related to this
disability that should be considered in a publicity campaign for
this program and explain why they are important. Finally,
explain what types of publicity strategies you might use and
how you might communicate them to the target population.
Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific
references to the Learning Resources.
Read a selection of your colleagues' postings.
Respond by Day 6 to at least two of your colleagues' postings in
one or more of the following ways:
· Ask a probing question.
· Share an insight from having read your colleague's posting.
· Offer and support an opinion.
· Validate an idea with your own experience.
· Make a suggestion.
· Expand on your colleague's posting.
Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to
your initial posting. Note what you have learned and/or any
insights you have gained as a result of the comments your
colleagues made.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for
entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post
your message.
Reply to Student 1
Research provides evidence for the existence of health-
related disparities among women with intellectual disabilities.
Intellectual disabilities refers to a disability characterized by
severe cognitive limitations and in adaptive behavior that is
diagnosed before the age of 18 (Parekh, 2017). Women with

intellectual disabilities (ID) are at an increased risk for health
disparities due to vicarious participation in shared decision
making (Wilikinson & Cerreto, 2008). It is unclear among the
research on how the implications of limited decision-making
skills impact the physician's responsibility in educating the
patient. Additional research in this area would increase the the
education component provided by practitioners.
When designing a program to increase public health awareness
of the importance of breast cancer screenings, it is necessary to
include strategies on decreasing communication and knowledge
barriers for women who struggle with intellectual disabilities.
Only second to heart disease, cancer is attributable to millions
of deaths per year and affects roughly more than a third of all
women (Travis & Meltzer, 2008). According to the CDC (2018),
about 27 million women in the U.S. are living with a disability.
Despite their disabilities, women have a right to health care and
preventative measures along with education should be afforded
to them accordingly. Currently, the CDC (2018) has devised
health promotion materials to increase awareness among women
with disabilities that encourage them to get screened. There are
several issues that should be considered when developing a
promotional program for breast cancer screening when targeting
women with intellectual disabilities. The first issue for
consideration is transportation for screening. Women with ID
usually depend on transportation assistance from family,
friends, or paraprofessionals in order to make their
appointments. This suggests the importance of being flexible in
scheduling and more open to making a few appointments if one
is missed. Another issue is information access. Promotional
information in the form of brochures, posters, or leaflets should
be easy to understand and written in accordance with CDC
health promotion material standards. A third concern is
inclusion in health promotion education programs offered
through the facility. Most people in general who struggle with
ID are not afforded the same opportunities of program
participation as their counterparts (Roll, 2017).

When working to improve communication with women who
struggle with ID, being mindful of the location of health
promotion materials is important. Materials that are design to
address barriers with this population should be included in
places that are frequented by the population. Inclusion in
hospital or clinic waiting rooms are not enough-including the
materials with paraprofessionals or living environments should
be considered. Including paraprofessionals who already have
established rapport with potential patients is another way in
which practitioners are able to promote the importance breast
cancer screenings.
Reply to student 2
It is appropriate for this discussion that October is National
Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the U.S. called Pink
October. When breast cancer is detected early at Stage 1 or
Stage 2, the chances of survival is close to 100%, and
mammograms can provide early detection (Metro News | The
Star Online, 2017).
Dr. Hoffman set up Discovering Hands, with the training of
blind women to become Medical Tactile Examiners in Germany.
His trained blind examiners found up to a third more lump than
doctors. (Smith, 2015). Breast cancer screening as publicity
campaign issues for blind women and vision disability need to
consider high poverty rates and barriers to nutrition, medical
care, and other mobility resources. For example, women with
disabilities receive less screening for breast and cervical cancer
than women without disabilities (WHO, .2018).
Communication strategies with blind women as a breast cancer
screening campaign might consider large print, computer disc or
CD-ROM, Braille, or a cassette tape. If the patient uses a Guide
or Service Animal, breast screening rooms should allow the
animal to be with the patient until x-ray screening takes place.
However, panels protecting the mammogram technician people
from x-rays will need to protect the guide dog. Mammogram

technicians need disability sensitivity training to communicate
with the blind woman. To verbally explain the action to remove
the dog, touch the dog guide and slowly take the guide dog and
secure in a safe area. Other verbal instructions will be required
for a blind woman when positioning the woman for the
mammogram test and describing to her what to expect and what
to do during the screening.
Environmental barriers are when women with blind disabilities
cannot access transportation or maneuver public transportation.
Although, a blind law student traveled by bus and subway to a
college, and also delivered the valedictory at their graduation
ceremony. They now own and operate a law practice traveling
to courts of law assisted by their service dog. They rely on their
law knowledge and keen memory in preparation for court cases.
The attitudes of blind women as barriers receiving
mammograms, the woman may delay mammograms because of
prior negative experiences. Communication barriers exist when
breast health education is lacking for any women, but especially
to blind women provided in an understandable format.
Screening programs need to ensure timely access to
mammography for all patients. Client satisfaction with
mammography associates with seven themes: Appointment
scheduling 2) facility 3) general exam 4) embarrassment 5)
exam discomfort/pain 6) treatment by the technologist and 7)
reporting results (Engelman, Cizik & Ellerbeck, 2005).
Promotional campaigns are used to increase attendance at the
screening which interventions to increase breast cancer
screening are client reminders by phone calls and keeping the
screening register up-to-date about age, breast density, family
history, and results of their last screening mammogram. One-on-
one education, reducing barriers, providing assessment and
feedback are essential for all women regardless of disability.
The internet is an abundant resource for promotion regarding
breast cancer screening. Other outreach methods for the blind
are radio, TV, and internet video. Some programs use
interpersonal strategies with community volunteers contacting

underserved populations, and then one-to-one teaching by
public health nurses or lay educators (Engelman et al., 2005).
Most of the blind women I have worked beside use the
technology of an adaptable computer program specifically for
the blind. They also used transportation services by the
Canadian Red Cross Society, and to travel with their guide dog.
Their employment allowed funding to use these services. The
guide dog was present in their office station often laying down
under their desk, and provided mobility in their office
environment.
An internet site with a beneficial informational sound leaflet for
blind persons, who may not know how to use brail, provides
mammogram benefits and risks of breast screening by the Public
Health England. (2017, May 3), Breast screening: helping you
decide. Retrieved fromhttps://audioboom.com/posts/5880818-
breast-screening-helping-you-decide.
105
The Viennese period was really the period of Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, and to some extent,
Gluck. (Though Beethoven shares some qualities of the
Romantic period.) Sometimes called the
Viennese Classical period, it was another era that glorified the
classical art and architecture of
the past—both ancient Greece and Rome—and this showed up in
music as clean lines and form,
with shorter melodic phrases. Homophony replaced polyphony
and the basso continuo as the
predominant texture. The symphony became a major force, and

the sonata-allegro form was
used one way or another in nearly all of the instrumental forms
in the Viennese period, from solo
and chamber works to concertos and symphonies.
Orchestral writing expanded with the development of the four-
movement symphony and
the three-movement solo concerto. The four-movement string
quartet and the three movement
sonata developed similarly in chamber music. Musical forms
such as the sonata-allegro, rondo,
minuet and trio, scherzo, and theme and variations expressed a
new intellectual posture
toward instrumental composition. Melodies built from motives
(motifs) led to greater musical
development in the larger formal structures. The complex and
ornate melodies of the Baroque
era were replaced by graceful, symmetrical melodies supported
by a less active harmonic
texture. The terraced dynamics of the Baroque period gave way
to the gradual dynamic changes
of crescendo and decrescendo. The orchestra grew in size, with
a sharper contrast between
orchestral and chamber music. By the end of this period the
patronage system was less
common, public concerts became more popular, and sacred
music was no longer the central
force.
Musical Expansion and Line
By the middle of the 1700s, many composers began to find the
organization and regularity of
baroque composition too intense and domineering. Musical
texture had reached a new height of
polyphony and counterpoint. The brief period of Rococo or
“galant style” (approximately 1715–

1740) was framed around composers’ reaction to the complex
polyphony of the late Baroque.
There was a move to thin the texture. Symbolized by light and
frivolous compositions and
paintings, the Rococo period served as a transition to the
dramatic changes that would mark the
music of the mature Viennese period.
Vienna became the musical center for the developments
commonly referred to in the art
world as the Classical Period. The visual and literary arts were
obsessed with quoting cultural
examples of ancient Greece and Rome. For this reason, Greek
temples appeared in the natural
setting of a garden, in paintings, and even on coins. The
elegance of ancient Greece and Rome
were injected into all the arts resulting in a classical attitude
toward cultural expressions.
Ancient music had no historically intelligible notation, and
therefore nothing specific to
quote or borrow. The classical composers in Vienna did,
however, assume a classical posture.
the vienneSe period:
1750 to 1830 8
reading for lesson
106 the vienneSe period: reAdinG For leSSon 8
From this came the music known as Viennese (or Viennese
Classical). Smooth melodic lines,
often constructed of smaller organic motives (motifs), soared

elegantly above an accompaniment
that had a single purpose—to enhance the melody. Motives
offered many new possibilities
for musical development: short melodic ideas could be used to
structure similar but
different melodies. Motives became the building blocks for
themes and theme groups. Motivic
development became the principal technique for expanding the
symphony, offering the basis for
expansion of musical thought. This symphonic development
technique matured with Haydn and
Mozart, and reached a pinnacle late in the period with
Beethoven, who successfully bridged the
gap between classicism and romanticism.
The Symphony
The development of the symphony sprang out of the
instrumental suites and sonatas of the
Baroque period. The expansion of instrumental music into
larger structures was limited
by the dance forms themselves. Binary and ternary forms
provided little room for musical
development. They depended on the repetition and contrast of
themes. With the introduction
of motivic development, new themes were built of smaller
melodic ideas, and composers found
the freedom to invent new structures that could support
extensive development. As a result, the
Viennese period gave birth to multi-movement works that were
rich with new structural ideas.
Four-Movement Works
For the orchestral symphony and its chamber-music equivalent,
the string quartet, the most
important large structures had four movements. Of the four
movements, only the third retained

any connection with dance music. The minuet and trio retained
the repetition and contrast
associated with dance movements. The remaining three
movements were often based on the
structures that also developed in this period, sonata-allegro,
rondo, and theme and variations.
(Refer to Lesson 3 for diagrams and further explanations of
these formal structures.)
The symphony had a status unequaled to any other form in the
Viennese period. It continued
to expand in length and complexity, offering an endless arena
for musical development. Over
the last two centuries, motivic development continues to be a
vital procedure in building large
movements.
The Sonata-Allegro Form
Large forms were needed to harness and structure the power
inherent in the expanding
developmental process. No single form could have answered the
call better than the sonata-
allegro form. The three sections of this form served different
dramatic purposes. The first
section, the exposition, presents two themes or theme groups
and provides the material for later
development in the second section, appropriately called the
development. The last section, the
recapitulation, is the resolution of the unstable development.
The dramatic aspects of repetition
and contrast offered in this form allowed inventive composers
to add structure and unity to long
single movements, and, eventually, to combine several
movements into an even larger multi-
movement structure.

Joseph Haydn became the first composer to unleash the
significance of the sonata-allegro
form. He worked with the budding form in his shorter, dance-
like divertimenti, a predecessor to
the vienneSe period: reAdinG For leSSon 8 107
his early string quartets. The most interesting part of this
growth process can be seen in how the
middle section, or development, took on more and more
significance. The first appearances of
the development section in the early string quartets were short
motivic moments that provided
contrast to the stability of the exposition and recapitulation.
Over the years Haydn expanded the
development section until it became an equal in the three-part
structure.
Along with the drama of motivic development came a new
musical force—tonal stability. The
sonata-allegro form identifies each section by key area and
theme. The term theme group refers
to a section of melodic ideas grouped by key. The exposition
has two key areas: first, the tonic,
followed by the dominant (or if the tonic key is minor, the
relative major). The development
section increases tension by departing even further from the
tonic key area. The recapitulation is
the celebration of key area stability, repeating all the themes in
the tonic. Key area alone became
an organizational parameter, and resolution of the key area is
the musical goal of many large
musical works.

The symphony developed quickly. Haydn was responsible for
much of its early development.
Mozart seized the symphonic form and took it to new heights.
Finally, the classical symphony
expanded further with the writings of Beethoven. (His
Symphony No. 5 is discussed in Topic 2
of Lesson 11.) Beethoven’s skill pushed the symphonic form
beyond the scope of the Classical
period. He was truly a transitional figure. In just twenty-five
years, the symphony moved from an
exciting new form developed by Haydn to the dominant
instrumental form of the early romantic
composers.
A list of Beethoven’s works is impressive in length and scope.
He was an excellent pianoforte
performer and, like many composers before him, had great
improvisational skills. Beethoven’s
well-developed compositional mind allowed him to improvise
on a small theme or motive in such
a manner that listeners thought he had worked out the
development of the ideas in advance.
The difference between his improvisations and his written
works can only be speculated
on. His mature compositions, however, are significant because
they expanded earlier forms.
The time it takes to perform one movement of his Third
Symphony alone dwarfed the time to
play an entire Haydn symphony. The greater length was due
primarily to the expansion of the
process of development within the symphony. Musical ideas
begged for expansion and growth
in developmental sections, and even in codas and transitional
sections.

From an early age, Beethoven not only performed on the piano
and organ but also worked
with a chapel choir and learned the possibilities of vocal and
instrumental combinations. This
broad background led to many works for solo piano, piano and
orchestra, chorus, voice and
pianoforte, and even one work for piano, vocal quartet, chorus,
and orchestra.
Beethoven became a full-time “freelance” composer, perhaps
the first. He performed for
years and conducted his works into the 1800s. However, due to
increasing deafness, he had to
give up performance. He continued to make a successful living
selling his works to publishers
and patrons. He was so popular in Vienna that he received an
annual salary from three noblemen
to guarantee his presence in the city. The musical community by
this time had become
large enough in Vienna that his concerts and publications
provided a comfortable income.
Beethoven’s musical contribution was vast, and helped change
the general perception people
had of composers from creators of entertainment to people
whose work could both elevate and
transform.
Franz Joseph Haydn
(1732–1809)

1732 Haydn was born in the Austrian village of Rohrau. His
home life was simple but loving, and
his parents recognized his early musical talent and beautiful
voice.
1740 After two years of strict musical training under Johann
Franck, a distant relative, Haydn
was sent to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna to sing in the
choir and continue his education.
1745 Haydn’s voice began to change, and he was dismissed
from the choir at St. Stephen’s and
forced to eke out a living on the streets of Vienna. He continued
to practice and perform on
clavier and violin while studying composition, particularly the
works of C. P. E. Bach.
1751–1759 By this time, Haydn had developed a good
reputation as both a performer and
teacher, and was making a simple living as music director to
Count Ferdinand Morzin.
1760 Haydn married Maria Anna Keller after her younger sister
(his first choice) became a nun. It
was an unhappy, childless marriage.
1761–1790 These thirty years were spent in the employment of
the Esterházys, a rich Hungarian
noble family. Haydn lived on a magnificent country estate and
composed volumes of music,
conducted the orchestra, trained singers, and oversaw all
aspects of the daily performances
demanded by the royal family.
1772 Haydn composed and conducted the famous Farewell

symphony. (During the performance,
the musicians left the room one by one until only Haydn and
one violinist remained. This
musical hint convinced the prince to let the musicians return to
Vienna for a much deserved
reunion with their families.)
1781–1782 Haydn met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for whom
he held the highest musical respect.
By this time, Haydn’s music was widely acclaimed all over
Europe.
1790–1795 After the death of Prince Nicholas Esterházy,
Haydn left his post and traveled to
London, where he composed twelve symphonies (later named
the London Symphonies
or Salomon Symphonies). Haydn was very well received in
London and his concerts were
extremely successful.
1795–1801 He returned to Vienna rich and famous, and
continued writing Masses for the
Esterházy family, as well as cantatas, sonatas, and concertos.
Inspired by Handel’s music, he
composed two oratorios, The Creation (1798) and The Seasons
(1801).
1802–1809 Haydn’s last years were spent in ill health.
However, many friends and dignitaries
came to pay tribute, and he was continually honored by
performances of his works. When
he died in 1809, funeral services and concerts were held all over
Europe in his honor. Even
the French soldiers and officers who occupied Austria at the
time paid tribute to the musical
genius of Franz Joseph Haydn.

Soloistic Three-Movement Works
The three-movement works that arose from this period usually
involved soloists. The elimination
of the minuet and trio from the large four-movement works is
the most common structural
difference. The sonata-allegro form was still the structure of the
first movement. The second
movement provided a slow, strongly melodic, contrast to the
faster movements that surrounded
it.
The solo concerto featured an instrumental soloist with full
orchestral accompaniment. With
the appearance of the new, more forceful sounding pianoforte,
the number of solo concertos
written for piano with orchestra outpaced those being written
for any other instrument. The
solo concerto became a showcase for technically superior
musicians. These concertos included
short sections in which the entire orchestra stops while the
soloist improvises on the musical
material of the composer. The improvised sections are called
cadenzas. Composers often
performed their own works and were able to weave in
spontaneous musical ideas with those
they had already created. Later in this period and into the
nineteenth century, composers took
control of the cadenzas by providing pre-written cadenzas,
reducing some of the excitement of
improvisation, but guaranteeing a more consistent result.

If the soloist is accompanied by a piano and not an orchestra the
work is called a sonata.
The term sonata became more specific in this period; sonatas
were now considered to have one
soloist accompanied by a piano rather than the more generic
“played” or instrumental music.
Pianists provide their own accompaniment in a sonata and
therefore do not require a second
musician. A violin sonata, on the other hand, requires a piano
for accompaniment. The piano
becomes an equal with the soloist in the later sonatas of the
period.
Vocal Music
Sacred vocal music continued actively in this period with
traditional large works like Masses
and oratorios. Haydn continued the tradition of oratorio writing
established by Handel, with two
very successful works, The Creation and The Seasons. These
works remain staples in concert
literature today. The famous Requiem of Mozart, a Mass written
for funeral services, shows the
serious and weighty writing possible in the classical style. This
piece was popularized in current
times by the movie Amadeus. Sacred compositions large and
small appeared throughout the
period. However, the greatest change to take place in vocal
music in the eighteenth century
developed with opera.
Opera
In the Baroque period, serious opera had lost a good deal of its
audience to oratorios and
ballad opera. In the Viennese period, serious opera got a breath
of fresh air with the reform
operas of Christoph Gluck. In France, in 1762, he produced

Orfeo ed Euridice, an opera that
would signal a reformation movement to establish a more equal
balance of music and drama.
With this opera and those that followed there was an attempt to
better blend music, drama,
and dance into a theatrical whole. Gluck was partly successful
because he softened the
contrast between recitative and aria sections. Both sections
could now support dramatic
moments and freer expression. His accomplishments were
substantial in that he tackled opera
reform using a language thought by many to be unsingable—
French. He not only successfully
Section Six the vienneSe period: reAdinG For leSSon eiGht
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110 Section Six the vienneSe period: reAdinG For leSSon
eiGht
String Quartet in E Flat, No. 2, “Joke”
Op. 33, Movement IV, Finale: Presto (1781)
by Joseph Haydn
Haydn’s early quartets are distinguished by their wit and
freshness. There are six quartets in
Opus 33. This selection is the last movement of the second
quartet, nicknamed “The Joke.”
This movement is a rondo, with a spirited theme. Haydn
purposely wrote a confusing ending
to this movement so that “the ladies would not begin talking
before the music finished.” The
joke appears at the very end of the movement. Haydn prevents a

normal ending from taking
place. In the coda, the tempo suddenly moves to a serious
adagio, in striking contrast to the
frivolous rondo theme. After only a few measures, the rondo
theme returns, but it is broken
up by two measures of silence. With all momentum shattered,
there are four measures of rest
followed by two final measures of the theme. The result is
confusion. Is the movement over?
Notice the balanced texture of the four instruments. Although
the first violin still plays
a dominant role, the independence of the four solo voices is
nearly complete. The cello is
confined to bass line activity while the second violin plays
duets with the first violin, or joins
the viola and cello in accompaniment.
00:00 Rondo theme (A), short and light. The first violin is very
active and the others provide
accompaniment.
00:06 Repeat.
00:12 New material (B).
00:28 First theme (A).
00:35 New material (C); activity level increases. This section
ends with the second violin
playing a duet with the first violin.
00:51 (A).
00:57 New material. The cello stays on the same note, repeating
it while the first violin

assumes all melodic activity. The accompaniment joins the first
violin in regularly
spaced accents. This section is more developmental.
01:25 (A) followed by material from (B) above.
01:47 (A) followed by material from (C) above.
02:13 Tempo slows to a cadence.
02:23 The first theme is started but soon comes to a stop.
Several more attempts at starting
the theme are broken with short silences.
02:57 Two measures of silence.
03:01 Last attempt at the theme.
03:03 End.
produced French librettos, he placed new importance on the
opening instrumental section,
establishing the overture as an integral part of an opera. He
used the orchestra thematically,
giving further definition to the importance of instrumental
music in this period. Gluck’s greatest
accomplishment came with the move to simplicity of melody
and texture.
Although constructive and long-lasting, reform operas found
strong competition from the
very popular comic operas written in England, France, Italy,
and Germany. Each country had a
different name for these light and often farcical works. The

French called them opéra comique
and the Germans called theirs Singspiele. In each case, the
melodies relied heavily on folk songs
and popular music of the day to present romance and comedy.
All forms of these comic operas,
except the Italian, had spoken parts to further elaborate the
plots and provide sharp comic
moments. The use of the vernacular language drew strong
support for these simply produced
operas.
Italian composers of serious opera also found the use of comedy
increasingly successful,
and eventually developed opera buffa, which placed individuals
in socially humorous situations.
These works often concluded with an ensemble finale, in which
each singer on stage would sing
independent words and music, creating a clever and complex
polyphony that intrigued listeners.
The compositional skills exhibited by Mozart in his brilliant
opera buffa, Le Nozze di Figaro, not
only enraptured the audience, it has fascinated musicians for
years. He enhanced the drama by
cleverly controlling key areas and manipulating thematic
material. His symphonic writing skills
propelled him ahead of his peers. His operas tease the intellect
as much as they do the ear. He
built large structures in his operas on a par with the forms being
developed in instrumental
music at the time.
Patronage and the Working Musician
The Viennese Classical Period was dominated by the genius of
three great composers: Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven. They are remembered today with a
certain sense of reverence due to

the quality and quantity of their compositions. The social
environment of that period, however,
did not always see these men in such an elevated light. For
nearly thirty years Haydn enjoyed
the patronage of the Esterházy family, an aristocratic family
typical of the wealthy class. The
aristocracy was capable of hiring composers and orchestras
alike. Operating in the relative
isolation and creative freedom of the court for many years, his
published works began to give
him a reputation outside the court. In the last thirty years of his
long life, Haydn slowly became
independent of sole patronage as his publishing income,
lucrative commissions, and public
concerts, increasingly popular with the emerging upper middle
class in many parts of Europe,
made him quite wealthy and famous. Publishing music became a
substantial business, and
Haydn was one of the first to make it work for him.
With increasing independence, composers moved from being
“hired help” for the aristocracy
to freelance artists with an improved level of public
recognition. It was, and still is, difficult to
compose music without combining patronage with activities of
performance and publishing. One
sees the humor of Haydn in his Surprise and Farewell
symphonies. In writing music required of
his patrons, he wittingly poked fun at those who hired him,
while satisfying both his expressive
needs and the taste of his patrons.
Section Six the vienneSe period: reAdinG For leSSon eiGht
111

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)
1756 Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, into a musical
family. By the age of six, he was
already considered a child prodigy, writing and performing his
own compositions on
harpsichord.
1762–1769 Under his father Leopold’s strict supervision,
Mozart traveled all over Europe,
performing in most major cities, including London and Paris.
They were well-received in all of
the royal courts, as Mozart’s youthful charm and obvious
musical genius overwhelmed and
delighted his audiences. During this time, he met and was
influenced by J. S. Bach’s youngest
son, J. C. Bach (including exposure to the Italian composing
methods he enjoyed).
1769–1771 Mozart and his father toured Italy, where he
established his genius by writing down
an entire Mass performed by the Sistine Chapel choir after only
one hearing. His successful
tour of Italy brought several commissions by wealthy patrons,
and he continued working on
operas, symphonies, and oratorios, as well as performing his
own keyboard compositions.
1771–1777 Mozart returned to Salzburg, and spent these years
feverishly composing. His

popularity as a child performer, however, began to wane, and
Mozart became more and more
dissatisfied with his life in Salzburg. His total dependence on
his father had resulted in a
selfish, pampered, and intolerant personality.
1777 With his mother as chaperone, Mozart left Salzburg to
seek employment in Munich, and
later Paris, where his mother died in 1778. He returned to
Vienna, which remained his home.
1782 Soon after the success of his first opera, Die Entführung
ausdem Serail (The Abduction
from the Seraglio), Mozart married Constanze Weber. Although
he continued to write, teach,
and perform, Mozart had little regular income, and the marriage
was plagued by money
pressures.
1786–1787 The operas Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni
were successful, but Mozart’s
popularity in Vienna began to decline.
1790 Mozart was commissioned to write a requiem for an
unknown patron. As his health grew
worse, he struggled to finish the requiem, believing that it was
his own.
1791 At the age of thirty-five, Mozart died; he was given a
standard simple burial in Vienna (not in
a pauper’s grave as folklore once held).

Don Giovanni
Act I: Introduction, opening scene (1787)
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This scene involves Don Giovanni, who hides his identity and
enters Donna Anna’s room
for an amorous adventure, leaving Leporello, his nervous
sidekick, outside pacing back and
forth. We hear short statements from Don Giovanni and Donna
Anna, with brief nervous
statements from Leporello. Don Giovanni refuses to identify
himself to Donna Anna, who
eventually leaves when the Commandant enters to defend her.
Don Giovanni kills the
Commandant, who will appear in the opera later as a ghost.
Leporello is the comic character,
while Don Giovanni is the arrogant character. Listen to how
they are characterized by the
music.
00:00 Orchestral introduction.
00:15 Leporello enters, singing of his frustration about why he
must stay outside and wait
for the Don, who is inside with the lady.
01:45 The Don and the lady enter, arguing about him staying
and revealing who he is.
Leporello hides.
01:57 Leporello joins the singing, creating an ensemble. He is
not interacting, just
commenting on his fear of discovery.

02:31 Notice the increased activity of the singing and the fluid
fast melodic lines
(declamatory), which are naturally complemented by the Italian
language.
02:55 Leporello sings fast nervous lines, while the Don’s and
the lady’s staccato lines act as
accompaniment.
03:05 The Commandant appears; tremolo in the strings. He
argues with Don Giovanni.
03:52 Orchestral interlude.
04:09 The Commandant is wounded. The music slows; after his
last gasps, he dies.
05:05 Short orchestral interlude.
05:19 Leporello and the Don use a recitative to talk about the
event that has just taken
place.
05:39 End of scene.
Mozart was tragically caught between the image of menial
skilled labor, which he despised,
and that of a new emerging, self-sufficient artist. He performed
and composed desperately to
make a living, receiving several commissions. But his eventual
move to Vienna barely paid, and

he died in poverty. While he earned additional money through
piano lessons and concerts in his
and wealthy people’s homes, he was mostly a failure at
soliciting patrons to subsidize his other
activities.
On the other hand, Beethoven broke away from the old image
completely. He received his
greatest support from the growing demand for music and
concerts for the middle class. He
did, however, continue to nurture links with the aristocracy,
who continually lent support to
his talent. Though not an especially shrewd businessman (his
brothers were better at this and
helped him with publishing negotiations), he demonstrated well-
developed skills in balancing
patronage, publication, and performance.
History has placed these three individuals outside of their
common beginnings. For many
years, Haydn wrote music that served the fancy of those who
paid him. Mozart was less
willing to compromise and struggled his short adult life.
Beethoven was amazingly successful
considering he rarely compromised his goals. The conditions
around each affected many of their
actions. Regardless, each responded to their conditions by
producing great music. As music
developed after Beethoven, the music industry itself broadened
and gave increasing support to
the struggling composers.

String Quartet in C Minor, No. 4
Op. 18, Fourth Movement (c. 1798–1800)
by Ludwig van Beethoven
This is the fourth movement of this string quartet, and is a
combination of a sonata
and a rondo. The rondo form is A-B-A-C-A-D-A, and the
sonata-allegro form is exposition,
development, and recapitulation (A-B-A). The form of this
sonata-rondo is A-B-A-C-A-B-A. The
A and B themes act like the two themes of the sonata-allegro
form and the C takes the place
of the development. This combination of forms was a common
structure used as a climax of
the four-movement structure of a string quartet.
Beethoven does not simply state the themes. Notice how they
always have a sense of
development as they return each time.
00:00 Main theme (A) is stated first in the violins. Fig. 1
00:30 Contrasting second theme (B) is lyrical and legato. The
key moves from minor to
major. Fig. 2
01:13 The lively main theme (A) returns in the minor. Notice
that the theme is more
agitated. Beethoven could not avoid some level of development.
01:41 The next new theme (C) is an active melody again in a
major key. It is passed around
the orchestra.

02:05 Return of the original minor theme.
02:41 Rather than a new theme, the second theme (B) returns,
lyrical and legato (played
smoothly). It is developed somewhat before the return of the
original theme. Notice
the fast accompaniment ideas to the slower melody. This
material comes from the
first theme.
03:26 The last statement of the (A) theme is very lively. The
tempo increases and the
dynamic level becomes forte (loud). Fast scale passages signal
the end of the
movement.
03:56 End.
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)
1770 Beethoven was born December 16, in Bonn, Germany.
1782 He was formally appointed as assistant court organist in
Bonn, assuming duties to replace
his teacher, Christian Neefe.
1787 While in Vienna for study, he met and played for Mozart.

1788 Beethoven, still court organist, was hired as a viola
player in the revived theatre and opera
orchestra in Bonn.
1792 Beethoven studied briefly with Haydn in Vienna.
1798 Deafness began to overtake Beethoven.
1803 As his deafness increased, the “Eroica” Symphony (No. 3)
began a series of triumphant
compositions heralding his second period.
1804–1808 He became a commanding figure in the music
world, giving regular series of concerts
and publishing works with limited exclusive rights in Austria
and Britain. During this time he
produced his only opera, Fidelio.
1809 Beethoven was paid an annuity by three noblemen to
remain in Vienna and not leave for a
position in Westphalia.
1810 The Napoleonic Wars brought economically hard times
for Beethoven. However, he
continued to write, completing his Fifth Piano Concerto,
numerous string quartets, and the
Symphony No. 7.
1815–1820 Beethoven’s compositions became fewer during a
difficult time when he attempted to
gain guardianship of his nephew, Karl. A suicide attempt by
Karl devastated Beethoven, and
marked the beginning of Beethoven’s third period.
1818–1827 Beethoven, now totally deaf, produced his last string
quartets, the late piano sonatas,

the Symphony No. 9, and the Missa solemnis.
117
“I feel, therefore I am.” These famous words by Rousseau
became the echoing call of the
Romantic period. Feeling was taking precedence over thinking.
Love and nature pushed against
authority. This theme motivated the genius of Beethoven and
eventually later Romantic
composers. Music expanded to the grandiose. Musical
performances required more musicians,
with an extraordinary range of dynamics. The extremes from
very soft to very loud widened.
Along with the powerful large works were miniature, intimate
works for solo voice and/or
piano that also expressed powerful, personal feelings. The art
song flourished, focusing on the
Romantic desire to be dramatically expressive.
Program music blossomed as a single-movement instrumental
form that offered a continuous
flow of descriptive musical composition. The symphony
increased in length and scope,
with dynamics, pitch ranges, and tempi varying dramatically
within movements. Orchestras
increased in size and the role of the conductor became more
important in coordinating the
changes in tempo and dynamics. The composer’s goal shifted
from displaying musical craft
to expressing personal emotions and ideas. New techniques of
orchestration, along with new

colorful and dissonant harmonies, became expressive tools for
composers. Opera expanded
with increased instrumental sections and flamboyant plots. The
Romantic period valued
individuality, poetry, ideas, chromaticism, the distant past, and
faraway places, as well as
nationalism and local folk melodies.
The Art Song
The solo compositions of the Romantic period are perhaps most
representative of the
expressive goals of the artists of this time. Literature provided
the emotional content necessary
for elaboration by the composer. As seen in the early madrigals
of Monteverdi, the sacred music
of Palestrina, the recitatives and arias of Handel, and the operas
of Mozart, the balance between
words and music remained an ever-present concern. The balance
shifted with each period. In
the Romantic period, words were given added emotional
significance instrumentally. At times,
in art songs, the pianist becomes a soloist of equal importance,
balancing the dialogue with the
vocalist.
Each country had a form of art song or Lied (German) for
singing at home or in other intimate
settings. The songs covered all imaginable topics. The most
common, however, was romance.
The pain and joy of romantic love dominated the thoughts of
musicians. These songs were
miniatures of the phenomenon that was taking place in the
entire artistic community. In setting
poems to music, composers relied on a long tradition of word
painting. Special emotionally
laden words would receive dissonance or resolution to help

express the feeling of yearning,
frustration, or sadness.
the roMAntic period:
1830–1900 8
reading for lesson
118 the roMAntic period: reAdinG For leSSon 8
Composers grouped songs with related themes into cycles filled
with a variety of emotions.
When viewed as a whole, these song cycles were really larger
works. Structural elements could
group two or three songs at a time into a larger section. This
section would in turn balance
similar groups of songs. The overall structure could be a large
binary or ternary form. This
technique was especially effective in the Schumann song cycle
Frauen Lieben und Leben
(A Woman’s Love and Life) or Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter
Journey.)
The technique for structuring single songs falls into one of two
categories. The most familiar
is the setting of several verses or stanzas of a poem, each with
the same or slightly varied
music. This strophic technique provided the repetition necessary
for audience comprehension.
Strophic songs were easily remembered and became favorites.
The second category relied on
contrast and development to interpret the story. In a through-
composed form (from the German
durchkomponiert), the dramatic development is apt to increase

as the story unfolds. The music
does not rely on strict repetition. As the story unfolds and
characters change mood, the music
changes, representing and amplifying the changes in the story
line.
The dramatic use of both these techniques can be found in the
songs of Franz Schubert.
He combined the two techniques at times to reap the benefit of
both. Whatever method or
combination he used, his melodies tended to honor the natural
rhythms and emphasis of the
phrase he was setting. At the age of 17, he composed his
musically descriptive song Gretchen
am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel) and at 18, he
wrote the dramatic Erlkönig (The
Erlking) in one sitting. These two songs fully represent the
finest products of a musical romantic.
Although art songs were not new to the Romantic period,
Schubert brought the form to a new
level of intensity representative of the romantic temperament.
Solo Piano
Short works or miniatures exploded in popularity with the
development of the pianoforte. In the
late 1700s, the piano quickly replaced the harpsichord because
of its ability to produce such a
range of dynamics, from soft to loud (piano to forte). For
keyboard soloists, the piano offered a
greater scope of expression than any instrument outside of the
pipe organ. The expressive needs
of romantic composers found the singing nature of this
percussion instrument exciting. As a
result, it became the favored instrument for solo composition.
As in art songs, mood development dominated the thinking of

composers for the piano.
There were many single-movement forms from which romantic
composers could choose, and
Chopin explored most of them. But, except for a few orchestral
accompaniments, he directed
his attention solely to composing for the piano. Chopin’s
mastery of the piano as a performer,
improviser, and composer gives him a unique place in history.
Compositions for piano, like
Robert Schumann’s character pieces and the intermezzi of
Brahms, explored additional
sonorities for the piano. Their works are unique and musically
powerful. However, no composer
dedicated himself so completely to exploring the rich new
harmonies, sonorities, and expressive
nature of the piano as Chopin.
the roMAntic period: reAdinG For leSSon 8 119
Franz Schubert
(1797–1828)
1797 Born in Vienna, the son of a pious schoolmaster, Schubert
was surrounded by music, and
began piano and violin lessons at an early age.
1808 He was admitted to the court chapel choir, and later won
a scholarship to the Imperial
Seminary, a prestigious Viennese boarding school, where he
furthered his musical studies
and began composing songs and piano works.

1813 Schubert left school, studied elementary education at a
teacher training school, and began
working at his father’s school in 1814, a position he loathed, as
it hindered his desire to
constantly compose.
1814 Schubert continued composing volumes of music, taking
the poetry of the great writers of
his day, like Goethe and Schiller, and converting them to
romantic art songs, as in his first
great song, Gretchen am Spinnrade.
1815 Schubert wrote 144 songs, including Erlkönig, a fine
example of musical romanticism. He
centered most of his songs on themes of nature and unhappy
love.
1816–1818 He composed 179 works, including piano sonatas,
art songs, symphonies, and operas.
Nearly one-thousand works would be completed before his early
death.
1818 Schubert quit his teaching job and eked out a living
writing and selling his music and giving
music lessons. He surrounded himself with a small circle of
poverty-stricken friends, mostly
artists, poets, and musicians, and spent his days composing,
frequenting small cafes, and
performing at parties for middle-class patrons.
1822 At age 25, he contracted venereal disease. Although in ill
health and depressed, he continued
to write. The Unfinished Symphony, written this year, was not
performed until forty years after
his death.

1823 Schubert composed his first song cycle, Die schöne
Müllerin, a collection of art songs that
tell a story. His second cycle, Die Winterreise, was completed
in 1827.
1828 As his health rapidly declined, Schubert contracted
typhoid and died in Vienna. His last
request was that he be buried near Beethoven.
Erlkönig (1815)
by Franz Schubert
The drama of this through-composed song unfolds above the
tension-filled bass melody
in the piano. Although there is only one singer performing the
song, there are, besides the
Narrator, three characters in this story by Goethe.
The Narrator tells of a father riding late at night in bad weather,
with his sick child in
his arms. The father sings in a low register trying to comfort his
son. The Erlking sings in a
higher register, with enticing and luring melodies beckoning the
child to him. The son sings
fearful outcries of “Mein Vater” (My father, my father), and
tries to describe the pleas of the
Erlking to his father.
The Erlking is the king of the elves, and represents death. He

promises games and
happiness to the child, in a contrasting vocal range from the
father’s desperate assurances.
The part of the Narrator appears twice, both starting and ending
the song. Notice the
differences of melody and range that separate the identities of
the father, Erlking, and son.
The song ends with the narrator. The father arrived home and
“in his arms the child was
dead.”
00:00 Piano begins with a galloping theme in the bass.
00:23 The narrator tells of the father and son in a hurried
journey home.
00:56 The father asks what his son sees.
01:04 The son replies that he sees the Erlking.
01:20 The father says it is only an image in the mist.
01:31 The Erlking invites the son to join him. The melody is
light and soothing, the vocal
range is higher and floats above the accompaniment.
01:55 The boy yells out in fright; the vocal range is more
strained.
02:08 The father tries to comfort the child; a lower vocal range.
02:18 The Erlking again tells the boy that they will sing and
dance in a wonderful world.
02:37 The son yells again in fright.

02:49 The father again tries to comfort him.
03:00 Brief piano interlude.
03:07 The Erlking continues to call the boy.
03:18 Desperate screams from the boy.
03:32 The narrator enters telling of the panic of the father.
03:57 “In his arms, the child was dead.”
04:11 End.
Frédéric Chopin
(1810–1849)
1810 Chopin was born in Warsaw, the son of a French father
who taught his native language to
children of the Polish nobility.
1817 Chopin gave his first public concert at the age of 7,
having studied piano at the Warsaw
School of Music. By 15, he was already a published composer,
and by 19, was widely known
for both composition and performance.
1831 He gave concerts in Paris, where he was immediately
accepted by the aristocracy and

invited into a circle of well-known artists, writers and
musicians, including Victor Hugo,
Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, Berlioz, Robert Schumann, and
the painter Delacroix, who
became his closest friend. Chopin decided to make Paris his
home.
1837 Chopin met novelist George Sand (Mme. Aurore
Dudevant) and began a ten-year relationship.
These proved to be his most productive composing years.
Writing almost exclusively for the
piano, Chopin’s works included etudes, preludes, polonaises,
nocturnes, waltzes, and ballades.
1847 After his relationship with George Sand ended, Chopin’s
general health began to fail, and
he contracted tuberculosis. His desire to compose dwindled
dramatically.
1849 After spending the last year of his life in Scotland,
Chopin returned to Paris, where he died
and was buried.
Character Pieces
Chopin used several forms of character pieces, or single-
movement works that develop a specific mood.
Following were several of Chopin’s favorite forms.
nocturnes, pieces for night, are slow compositions with rich and
lyric melodies. They were generally in a
three-part form (A-B-A). The B section was very different in
texture and mood.
études are literally studies designed to develop a student’s

technique. The specific technique to be
developed became the primary thrust of the work. In the hands
of great composers, these studies took
on musical qualities, making them suitable as concert pieces.
polonaise and the mazurka are both traditional Polish dances
characterized by their triple meter. The
polonaise retained its stately nature; it was traditionally a
processional for the nobility.
impromptus demand a great deal of technique, and sound free
and reflective, similar to what might be
expected during an improvisation. They did not, however, allow
for improvisation.
ballades are musical narratives without words. The music
unfolds much like a developing story.
preludes are a series of short pieces that develop rich moods,
exploring all of the major and minor keys.
Étude in C Minor (“Revolutionary Étude”)
Op. 10, No. 12 (1831)
by Frédéric Chopin
This étude was called the “Revolutionary Étude,” because of its
heroic and aggressive
qualities. This particular study was designed to develop speed
and endurance in the pianist’s
left hand. Notice the active and relentless motion in the bass.
The heroic nature comes

from the strong chordal melody in the treble. Following the
opening chords, the right hand
continues with a powerful melody played in octaves. The ending
arises from the single
moment where the motion calms. There is a strong, ornate,
descending pattern on the
keyboard, concluding with the final loud chords.
Notice the interaction between the left and right hands. Typical
of Chopin’s performance
style, the right hand pulls against the rhythm of the left hand.
This feeling of freedom, rubato,
is a critical element in Chopin’s music. The melody is set apart
from the accompaniment
through rubato, adding strength and tension to the melodic line.
This étude surpasses any
image of a mere exercise for students. It, like most of his
others, has become a staple of
virtuoso pianists.
00:00 Introduction. Full chord in the right hand, followed by a
long descending line in the
left hand. Fast notes swirl down into the bass range, preparing
for the entrance of the
theme.
00:16 The theme—a forceful dotted rhythm (long-short)—is
stated in the right hand. The
left hand continues with fast difficult passages.
00:23 The melody is played forcefully in the right hand.
00:32 Repeat of the theme; starts softer this time but crescendos
quickly.
00:46 The middle section has new chords and a new melody.

01:07 The descending, swirling passage returns again, leading
into the theme.
01:22 Repeat of the opening theme and texture.
01:47 The texture thins a little, with a decrescendo.
02:04 Soft, ascending passage begins in the bass and continues
up through the range of the
piano.
02:10 Cadence. Softer but still active.
02:21 Ending.
02:26 Final chords.
Program Music
The emotional outpouring typical of art songs existed in
instrumental music as well. The most
popular format was program music. While there is no vocal text,
the music depends on poems,
stories, ideas, or a single word to guide and define the
developing moods of the composition.
Regardless of how short or long the literary idea, it provided a
new dimension to both single-
movement and multi-movement works. In contrast, instrumental
music that had no program was
called absolute music; the music had little or no outside
reference.
1. Concert overtures are single-movement works, usually in

sonata form. Traditionally, overtures
preceded such dramatic works as operas and plays, and set the
mood for the upcoming
drama. The concert overture, however, had no such function. It
used the title to define the
mood of the unfolding instrumental drama. Concert overtures
were written for performances
where no stage drama was expected to follow. Examples include
Romeo and Juliet Overture
by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Hebrides Overture by Felix
Mendelssohn.
2. Tone poems or symphonic poems are long single-movement
compositions. Sonata-allegro
form or rondo were commonly used to structure the musical
development. Irregular forms
were also designed to respond to a uniquely developing story.
These freer structures
provided the same flexibility songwriters had with through-
composed forms. In both cases,
the literary structure holds the work together. Exotic tales were
favorite subjects for these
flexible symphonic compositions. Examples include Don Juan
by Richard Strauss, The
Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, and Les Préludes by
Franz Liszt.
3. Program symphonies are similar to single-movement tone
poems but offer an expanded
format for organization and development. The program
symphony, as the title implies, had a
program to unify a multi-movement form. Commonly, each
movement had a title or phrase as
a program.
In the case of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, each movement

described a single event, with
the movements building a larger program for the overall
symphony.
The novelty of the Symphonie Fantastique’s returning theme
and its surprising
autobiographical program made a strong impression on the
Parisians who first heard it.
In addition to these innovations, Berlioz enlarged the orchestra
with additional trumpets,
trombones, tubas, and percussion. The larger brass and
percussion expanded the dynamic
range. Berlioz was the first to write dynamic levels louder than
ff and softer than pp.
Berlioz was known as a revolutionary because of his new
instrumental combinations. His
orchestrations grouped instruments nontraditionally, producing
some of the most exciting tone
colors of the period. He was not a pianist; he played flute and
guitar. His writing for orchestra
was unique in that he used the orchestra as his instrument rather
than merely orchestrating
what he played on the piano. For this reason, his inability to
play piano was possibly a blessing
in disguise.
Hector Berlioz
(1803–1869)

1803 Berlioz was born in a small town near Grenoble, France.
His father, a physician, insisted on
early medical training, although his son’s great musical interest
was obvious.
1821 Berlioz went to Paris to study medicine, but spent many
more hours in the opera house
and music library. To the horror of his family, he abandoned
medical school and began
composing while studying at the Paris Conservatory.
1830 He won the coveted Prix de Rome, a composition award
that gave him money to study in
Rome for two years. This same year he composed and conducted
the Symphonie Fantastique,
dedicated to Harriet Smithson, the Shakespearean actress he had
seen perform two years
earlier and with whom he had fallen madly in love.
1832 Berlioz married Smithson and had a son. He spent the
majority of his time writing and
producing his own concerts to publicize his Berlioz’s grandiose
orchestrations were a costly
endeavor, requiring the hiring of hundreds of musicians and
vocalists.
1835 In order to provide enough income for his family, Berlioz
took a job as a music critic,
writing for local Parisian journals.
1837 His Requiem was produced, involving a huge orchestra,
hundreds of voices, and four brass
choirs. Although his unconventional music was generally
accepted by the public, Berlioz
had no support from the organized music societies or the Paris

opera house directors.
Subsequent concerts pushed him further into debt.
1838 The debut of his opera Benvenuto Cellini resulted in open
audience disapproval. His dramatic
symphony Romeo and Juliet was performed successfully in
1839, but again without profit.
1840–1846 Made bitter by his lack of acceptance in Paris,
Berlioz traveled all over Europe,
composing and conducting major works, including the
Damnation of Faust, based on Goethe’s
poem.
1869 Berlioz died in Paris, having spent the last years of his
life in mental and physical agony,
fighting several chronic illnesses that left him almost
bedridden.
March to the Scaffold
from Symphonie Fantastique (1830)
by Hector Berlioz
This symphony is in five instead of the usual four movements,
and each has a specific
program. The overall program for the symphony is long and
descriptive. It is also semi-
autobiographical. Berlioz was in love with a Shakespearean
actress, extremely popular in

Paris. Although she refused to see him at first, she did attend a
concert two years later of
his Fantastic Symphony and was swept off her feet when she
realized it was about her. Their
marriage could not live up to the fantasy and ended after a few
years. The program for this
symphony depicts his yearning for her love and his depression
from her lack of response. In
despair, he attempts suicide with opium. Rather than dying, he
falls into a heavy sleep and
dreams.
His love appears in the dreams as a recurring musical motif
called an idée fixe or “fixed
idea.” The fixed idea unifies the five movements by its
reappearance. The theme is altered
each time it appears, taking on dramatically different
personalities. In the second movement,
it is an elaborate waltz theme. In the fourth movement, it is
played by a solo clarinet, which
is shockingly interrupted. The technique of developing and
changing the same theme
throughout several movements, called thematic transformation,
was more prevalent after its
use in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
The titles of the five movements are 1. “Reverie, Passions,” 2.
“A Ball,” 3. “Scene in the
Country,” 4. “March to the Scaffold,” 5. “Dream of a Witches’
Sabbath.”
The fourth movement, “March to the Scaffold,” is a story of the
dreamer as he walks
to his execution for murdering his beloved. The fixed idea at the
end of the movement is
abruptly cut off before it is completed by a loud, orchestral

chord representing the fall of the
guillotine’s blade. This movement unleashes some of the most
striking orchestrations in the
symphony. Notice the enlarged brass and percussion sections.
00:00 Timpani opens the movement. French horns make short
statements above.
00:27 Descending melody follows full orchestral chord.
00:41 Repeat of the melody with the addition of a bassoon solo
melody.
00:53 Violin takes the melody, with activity in the lower
strings.
01:06 Sudden brass and percussion shouts. Violin and lower
string activity continues.
01:20 New texture. Pizzicato strings; very active bassoon line
accompanies.
01:39 Brass and woodwinds play a powerful march theme.
Notice the timpani.
02:04 Trumpet call, low pedal note in the trombone. Phrase
completed by a very dissonant
chord.
02:11 Return to pizzicato strings.
02:22 March returns.

02:52 Soft strings and woodwinds. Crescendo.
03:15 Climax of the theme. Cymbal crashes. Lower brass.
03:25 Transition.
03:42 Sudden orchestral accent; galloping string activity.
04:14 Solo clarinet playing the fixed idea, just before the axe
falls.
04:23 Loud accented chord interrupts the clarinet solo.
04:25 Drum roll, cymbal crashes. Brass chords end the
movement.
04:45 End.
As a composer, Franz Liszt explored several forms and genres.
He was a great promoter
of new music, and considered his program music, symphonic
poems (a term he apparently
invented), and style of thematic development to be the future of
music, calling the forms “new
bottles for new wine.”
Inspired by the virtuosic intensity of violinist Paganini, Liszt
also became the top virtuoso
pianist of his day, achieving what we might think of as pop-star
status, and inspiring what
people then called “Lisztomania.” His work was variously bold
and intimate, passionate and
mystical. While he continued to incorporate such traditional
forms as the sonata, he inspired
other composers with his expanded musical pallet and

chromaticism, foreshadowing twentieth-
century harmonic and structural developments with his later
forays into dissonance, unstable
tonality, and whole-tone harmonies.
Not everyone in this period was thrilled with program music.
Though his music was often
lyrical and expressive, Johannes Brahms was a proponent of
absolute music, feeling the
development of music was threatened by associating it so
exclusively with outside references
and ideas. A great admirer of Mozart and Beethoven, Brahms
composed four symphonies whose
depth and power alone would have earned him an honored place
in music history. Utterly
skillful at handling the elements of music, he described his
composing process as starting in an
expanded state of awareness. “In this exalted state,” said
Brahms, “I see clearly what is obscure
in my ordinary moods. These vibrations assume the forms of
distinct mental images, after I have
formulated my desire and resolve in regard to what I want,
namely, to be inspired so that I can
compose something that will uplift and benefit humanity;
something of permanent value.”
Les Préludes (1854)
by Franz Liszt
This famous tone poem is based on a poem by Alphonse de
Lamartine, a French romantic
poet. The focus of this program is elusive and vague but is

typical of program music from
the nineteenth century. A mere suggestion or title was enough to
launch a composer into
musical development, especially one with the improvisational
skills of Liszt. It is common for
listeners to complete the program in their imagination. The
program pulled from Lamartine’s
work is full of dramatic and contrasting moods. Following is an
excerpt from the program.
What else is life but a series of preludes to that unknown song
whose first solemn note is intoned by
death. Love is the enchanted dawn of all existence. But what
destiny is there whose first delights of love
are not interrupted by some storm? . . . Who, after such a
storm, does not try to soothe its memories
in the gentle calm of country life? . . . to find in combat the full
awareness of himself and the complete
possession of his powers.
This single-movement work was written during a period when
Liszt was not concertizing.
The structure is made up of four large sections, preceded by a
slow introduction. A simple
three-note motive (long-short-long) is the basis for thematic
transformation. It first appears
in the strings and moves to the brass. From there it is
transformed into two different love
themes. The storm follows the love themes with military-like
transformations of both love
themes. The themes eventually combine at the end, suggesting
commonality between what
seems to be opposites.
The use of thematic transformation not only is a means to
consciously unify long

works but also is a natural developmental process in
improvisation. Liszt’s command of
this technique as a composer and performer suggested exciting
new horizons for dramatic
orchestral writing. Wagner was among the benefactors of the
expanding harmonic and
melodic style heralded in this work.
00:00 Two pizzicato notes. Theme starts with the three-note
motive in the strings.
00:46 Repeat of pizzicato notes and theme. Strings and
woodwinds echo each other.
01:35 Theme is repeated several times up one step each time:
crescendo.
02:35 The texture builds to a majestic theme (Love/Death);
lower brass, strings play
arpeggios.
03:28 First love theme, strings. Basses respond. Horn takes over
the melody.
04:50 Second love theme, French horns. The harp and violas
play a warm accompaniment
figure.
05:32 Woodwinds play second theme with responses by the
violins.
05:53 Crescendo. Suddenly, the woodwinds play softly but are
interrupted by aggressive
statements from the strings.
06:00 Fade

Opera: Grandeur and Dissonance
Emotion and passion dominated most of the dramatic plots in
the nineteenth century. In
romantic opera, the love between two individuals was
commonly depicted as being so great that
if one died the other also died because their love had ended. In
the opera Tristan and Isolde, by
Wagner, Tristan is mortally wounded in the first act, and when
he finally dies in the last scene
of the opera, Isolde dies singing her love for him. Emotions
were further expanded by using
mythology, which offered magic and supernatural suspense for
heroes and villains who were
bigger than life.
To best understand nineteenth-century opera we will look at the
two powerful composers of
the period. Their contrasting compositional styles exhibit a wide
scope of operatic possibilities.
Giuseppe Verdi in Italy and Richard Wagner in Germany wrote
with conviction for what they
believed was the function of opera.
Verdi believed opera must be, above all else, passionate. As
well, it should be interesting
and provide entertainment for the mass public. He wrote in a
conventional manner, with
the emphasis on melody. Throughout his life his orchestrations
became increasingly more
descriptive in support of the melody. However, the melodic line
and its ability to enhance

the text was always supreme. As he matured, the emotionally
charged arias and the more
descriptive recitatives became more and more similar,
especially in his last three operas, Aida,
Otello, and Falstaff.
Falstaff
Excerpt from Act III, Scene 2 (1893)
by Giuseppe Verdi
Falstaff was the last opera composed by Verdi, and represents
his mature ensemble and
orchestral writing style. The final scene of the last Act finds
Falstaff, an overweight comic
figure, trying to court two ladies who are well aware of his
intentions and quite uninterested.
As is typical of opera buffa, the plot is filled with individuals
who all have schemes at work.
The schemes of Falstaff and those of the ladies collide with the
schemes of yet another
individual: Ford. In this scene, all of the schemes intersect and
are exposed. The plot is
complicated by the use of masks, confusing everyone except the
audience. As usual, true
love—in this case, that of young Fenton and Anne—wins over
all the other schemes. While
in disguise (disguises that had been switched), they are married
in front of everyone, while
Falstaff, Ford, and Dr. Caius, all of whom had other plans,
watch unknowingly. The successful
schemes of the two ladies and the young couple put everyone
else in their rightful place. The
scene ends with everyone reconciled to the marriage.
The music is a brilliant interplay of several solo voices,

expressing diametrically opposed
emotions, ranging from joy to surprise and anger. There are
short orchestral statements
throughout that help articulate the various moods of the
soloists. There is also a chorus of
voices that appears at the very end and takes on the role of a
quasi-narrator, expounding on
the situation. This chorus is cleverly structured as a fugue. See
if you can hear the staggered
entrances. Finally, be aware of the quick movement from
texture to texture. At times
there are several voices interacting at once. At other times there
are short, melodic ideas.
Interspersed between all of these textures are moments that
sound like recitative settings.
This contrast of textural colors is evidence of Verdi’s
compositional control.
00.00 This selection begins with Ford making a recitative
statement announcing the end of
the ridiculous masquerade and upcoming wedding. No
accompaniment.
00:19 Strings enter in accompaniment. The music takes on an
air of reverence for the very
brief ceremony.
01:00 Fenton and Anne, in disguise, are brought forward to
make it a double wedding.
01:28 Both couples are joined in marriage and they unmask.

01:39 It is discovered by all that the young lovers, Fenton and
Anne, were married, to the
surprise of Ford, Dr. Caius, and Falstaff.
01:47 Dr. Caius is shocked to discover he mistakenly married
Bardolph (Ha, ha, ha).
02:11 The melodic lines become romantic
02:33 Rapid delivery of single words, in disagreement as to who
is more of a fool.
03:03 Ford reluctantly accepts the outcome. Everyone, except
Dr. Caius, is happy.
03:12 Brief recitative moments.
03:35 The orchestral and choral fugue begins. Notice the very
fast delivery of words. This is
a common trait of comic Italian opera.
Hurrah!
The whole world is but a joke,
And man is born a clown.
Within his addled head
His brains are in a churn.
We all are fools! And every man
Laughs at the others’ folly.
But he laughs best who sees to it
That the last laugh falls to him.
04:06 First of a series of forte interjections by the chorus and
orchestra. The soloists
continue in counterpoint.
04:57 Another powerful interjection.

05:42 Sudden stop. Slower and softer part. “We all are fools.”
06:03 Final orchestral cadence.
06:24 End.
Verdi’s popularity was tremendous, and his ability to build
strong musical characterizations
set him apart from his contemporaries. His operas became the
model for Italian opera. A favorite
part of many of his operas was the ensemble, which ended large
sections. In these sections
several individuals sing separate melodies with different texts
and act as if they do not hear
each other. Verdi identifies each melody and text with
individual emotions for each singer in the
ensemble.
While Verdi was active in Italy, another style of opera was
developing in Germany. Wagner
believed that he wrote operas that were larger in scope than
traditional opera. His characters
were super beings with super problems. He called his works
music dramas because he felt
that they blended all aspects of music and drama. He not only
wrote the music, he wrote the
librettos, which were often derived from legends and myths. He
had control over the set designs
Giuseppe Verdi

(1813–1901)
1813 Giuseppe Verdi was born in the small Italian village of Le
Roncole, the son of a tavern
keeper.
1823–1835 He studied music in the nearby town of Busseto,
where he became the municipal
music director and married Margherita Barezzi, the daughter of
a patron. As a teenager, he
walked miles barefoot to his job as church organist to save his
only pair of boots.
1839 Verdi wrote the first of his twenty-six operas, Oberto,
which was performed in Milan and led
to a contract for three more operas.
1838–1840 His wife and two small children died. Verdi quit
composing for months, and fell into a
life of quiet despair.
1841 Inspired by the libretto of Nebucco, a Bible story that
told of the plight of the Jewish
people, he wrote the opera. His own sense of nationalism and
patriotism was further fired by
the fight for a united Italy, free from Austrian domination.
1851–1853 Verdi composed three of his most famous operas
during this period: Rigoletto, La
Traviata, and Il Trovatore.
1859 He married his second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, with
whom he had spent the previous
ten years.

1861 Verdi was elected to the first Italian parliament after Italy
became an independent nation.
1871 The opera Aida was performed at the Cairo opera house in
celebration of the opening of
the Suez Canal in 1869.
1887–1893 Verdi composed his most famous tragedy, Otello,
and at age 79, he completed his
most famous comedy, Falstaff.
1901 Verdi died in Milan, several days after suffering a stroke.
and all aspects of the visual arts that made up the total
experience. He even designed and had
built an opera house in Bayreuth, Bavaria, worthy of his
elaborate music dramas.
The musical flow never stops in his operas and the demarcation
between aria and recitative
dissolved. Wagner considered his “unending melody” the thread
unifying each act. He removed
all traditional places for applause so that there would be no
interruption of the musical flow.
The audience is engulfed in sound, with large instrumental
sections composed symphonically,
injecting the drama with development similar to the large
symphonies of the day.
Der Ring des Nibelungen

Wagner wrote an enormous cycle of operas called Der Ring des
Nibelungen (The Ring of the
Nibelung), which is made up of four operas. The plot is based
on Nordic mythology about gods,
giants, dwarfs, incest, renounced love, and a gold ring. This
monumental work is Wagner’s
personal statement that the lust for money and power will be the
downfall of society.
The plot was formalized by Wagner in 1848, which was the
same year that Marx’s Communist
Manifesto was published. The first opera begins in the Rhine,
with a dwarf who steals gold from
the Rhine maidens and fashions a ring that brings enormous
power to whomever possesses
it and renounces love. The ring is taken by Wotan, the head of
the gods. His daughters, called
Valkyries, protect him from the dwarf. Wotan also fathers
twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, who
were separated, and in the second opera fall in love and give
birth to Siegfried. Siegfried is the
hero of the cycle and Wotan’s hope for retrieving the ring. At
the end, everything comes crashing
down in fire and flood.
In this cycle of operas, it is common to hear long, descriptive
discourses sung in unending
melody. To some critics, these long dialogues seemed long-
winded. However, they represent
a composer’s ability to use his craft to express personal ideas
and thoughts. It was no longer
enough to show off one’s craft; composition was now a tool for
expression and communication.
The most significant innovation in The Ring is the special use
of motives—melodic and

harmonic ideas assigned to each character, object, place, or
thought. As the operas progress,
leitmotifs (the musical motives associated with the powerful
emotions and objects of love and
power; the gold, the sword, etc.), fill the musical texture with
complexity. The Ring is perhaps
the most highly developed work based on motivic development.
These leitmotifs were handled
symphonically. That is, they were developed or transformed as
the drama unfolded. Leitmotifs
combine and change to the point that they can hardly be
recognized. Throughout the four
operas, these motives have a profound impact on the listener,
and, with their transformations,
express the changing conditions of the plot and characters.
Most of this motivic development is carried by the enlarged
orchestra. Wagner’s harmonies
are rich and chromatic, full of dissonance and tension. The
orchestra provides descriptive colors
and uses an extremely wide range of dynamics. In fact, the
orchestra was so large that only the
strongest voices could sing over it.
Die Walküre (1856)
by Richard Wagner
This opera is the second in the monumental cycle Der Ring des
Nibelungen. Wagner worked
on this cycle for more than twenty years (1853–1874). Die
Walküre is an opera filled with
story lines that began in the first opera and continue in the last

two operas.
Notice the “unending melody” mentioned earlier. The textural
changes seen in the opera
by Verdi are not a part of Wagner’s style. He wrote long
melodic ideas that developed free
of the familiar structures seen in traditional arias. The melody
in this scene is neither aria
nor recitative. The music flows without stopping. There is no
break until the last note of
the scene. The orchestra provides strength and support for
Sieglinde and Siegmund as
they sing of their love and their discovery that they are really
brother and sister. In the
orchestral writing, there are leitmotifs for the sword (which is
successfully pulled from a
tree by Siegmund), the gods, love, and spring. Their impact can
only be fully experienced
by following their development throughout the cycle of the four
operas. The last orchestral
statement sums up an extraordinary journey through powerful
emotions and events.
00:00 Sieglinde looks closely at Siegmund and sees the strong
resemblance to herself.
00:20 Valhalla (home of the gods) leitmotif in the French horns.
She sings around the
motive. He also sees the resemblance.
00:46 Siegmund enters.
01:29 Love leitmotif is sung by Siegmund.
01:48 The texture thins.

02:27 Volsung twins and sword leitmotifs in the orchestra.
03:03 More recitative-like.
03:25 The vocal lines move in and out of moments of recitative
and aria.
03:43 Texture intensifies.
04:17 Melodic climax.
04:24 Rhythmic activity increases (seems faster).
04:57 Rhythmic underpinning slows down and the vocal line
becomes more lyric.
05:22 Notung (name of the sword), octave skips downward.
05:49 Sword leitmotif in the trumpets as Siegmund pulls the
sword from the tree and shows
Sieglinde. This shows that he will be the hero to avenge her
shame.
06:11 Volsung leitmotif in the trumpets.
06:21 Spring leitmotif is sung.
07:11 Sieglinde enters.
07:40 Sword leitmotif, this time in the brasses. They realize that
they are brother and sister
and also lovers.

08:07 End.
Richard Wagner
(1813–1883)
1813 Born in Leipzig, Germany, Wagner was raised in a family
engrossed in musical theater. He
grew up surrounded by actors and singers, and showed an early
interest in opera.
1828 Influenced by Beethoven’s music, Wagner began studies
in harmony and musical
composition. He entered Leipzig University in 1831, but spent
more time drinking and
gambling than studying.
1833–1835 In his early twenties, Wagner began writing operas
and worked briefly as producer
and conductor in several theaters and opera houses. Believing in
his own greatness, Wagner
grew to be a selfish, arrogant, and ruthless artist.
1836 Wagner married Minna Planer, an actress. The next few
years were spent writing and
producing unprofitable operas, living off loans from friends and
relatives, and constantly
moving to escape from creditors.
1842–1848 After spending time in London and Paris, Wagner
returned to Germany to become
the director of the Dresden Opera. Here he wrote Der Fliegende
Hollander (1843), Tannhäuser
(1845), and Lohengrin (1848).

1848–1850 To avoid being imprisoned for his revolutionary
political position, Wagner fled to
Switzerland, where he began work on Der Ring des Nibelungen,
a cycle of four operas based
on Nordic mythology that would take him more than a quarter
of a century to complete.
1864 Wagner was helped out of debt by King Ludwig II of
Bavaria, who financed and supported
Wagner’s opera productions in the Munich opera house.
1870 For several years, while still married, Wagner was
involved in an affair with Cosima von
Bülow, the daughter of Franz Liszt. They produced two
daughters, and, after Wagner’s wife
died in 1866, Cosima left her husband and obtained a divorce
after giving birth to Wagner’s
son, Siegfried.
1876 This year marked the opening of Wagner’s theater in
Bayreuth, built specifically for
performances of Wagner’s works. The Ring was performed in
its entirety for the first time.
1883 On vacation in Venice, Wagner suffered a heart attack
and died. He was buried in Bayreuth.
Nationalism and the Russian Five
In the nineteenth century, an emphasis on nationalism followed

in the wake of the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. There was a deliberate
attempt to reinforce national identity
in the arts. Musicians used direct quotes of folk songs or their
sound in larger instrumental
compositions. When literary topics were available, as in opera
or tone poems, it was easy to adopt
patriotic or nationalistic subjects. Even titles to overtures and
symphonies expressed national
feeling or culture. Antonín Dvor̆ ák’s Slavonic Dances or
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter
Overture are prime examples.
Composers became increasingly interested in showing the
strength of their traditional
heritages through their own music. While Italy, Germany, and
France had dominated European
music for centuries, nationalism emerged in Norway with
Edvard Grieg, in Finland with Jean
Sibelius, in Bohemia with Antonín Dvor̆ ák and Bedr̆ ich
Smetana, and in Russia with the Russian
Five. These five musicians met to create a truly Russian music.
This activity is similar to what
took place in the Baroque era with the Camerata. The direction
of music was deliberately being
designed. Out of the collaboration of Mily Balakirev, César Cui,
Alexander Borodin, Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov, and Modest Mussorgsky emerged a brilliant
sense of orchestration and
national thought.
Modest Mussorgsky
(1839–1881)

1839 Mussorgsky was born in Pskof, Russia, the son of a
wealthy aristocratic landowner. His
early music education consisted of a few piano lessons from his
mother and, later, from
teachers in St. Petersburg. He had no formal training in music
theory.
1856 After completing a military education, Mussorgsky
became an army officer, a position he
soon quit to devote his time to composing. He had already
begun suffering from a nervous
disorder, possibly epilepsy.
1861 After his family lost most of its wealth as a result of the
emancipation of the Russian serfs,
Mussorgsky got a job as a government clerk in St. Petersburg, a
job he held until his early
death.
1867–1874 Mussorgsky’s major works written during this
period include the symphonic poem,
Night on Bald Mountain, the piano piece, Pictures at an
Exhibition, and the grand opera, Boris
Godunov. Extremely nationalistic, Mussorgsky based his music
on the modal sounds of
Russian folk songs.
1881 After years of suffering from depression, alcoholism, and
epilepsy, Mussorgsky died in a
military hospital at the age of 42.

Except for Balakirev, the five musicians were not traditionally
schooled composers. As
a result, they sought a new direction for Russian music, free
from traditional concepts of
composition. Much of their music has an exciting sound of
roughness and rebellion.
Perhaps the most significant work to rise out of this group was
Mussorgsky’s opera, Boris
Godunov. The writing is original, with angular rhythms and
harmonies. The writing was first
considered unschooled. To a small degree Rimsky-Korsakov had
a hand in its orchestration
when the work was republished after Mussorgsky’s death. The
Russian flavor to the music
comes from the folk-like melodies and rhythms typical of
speech patterns inherent in the Russian
language.
The Moldau
from Má Vlast (1874)
by Bedr̆ ich Smetana
Smetana was the founder of Czech national music. His music is
rich with folk themes based
on the myths and legends of Bohemia. His nationalism emerged
when he moved to Prague
in 1862. Like Beethoven, some of his finest works were
composed after he was completely
deaf. This selection is part of Má Vlast (My Country), a cycle
of six symphonic poems. The
Moldau is a symphonic poem about a river flowing from its
earliest beginnings through the
countryside, with celebrations of water nymphs and feasts. The

river builds and becomes
very powerful as it flows toward Prague.
00:00 The melting snow is pictured by flutes, with smooth, fast
melodic passages
accompanied by the dropping sounds of the harp.
01:03 The strings join the melodic movement as the river theme
is first in the minor.
02:08 Theme is restated with more emphasis.
02:59 The tone poem now describes a forest hunt. The hunting
calls by the French horns
are accompanied by crescendos in the strings. Brasses become
more dominant.
03:52 The river passes a simple wedding ceremony and a polka
theme is introduced into the
texture.
05:16 Introduced next into the symphonic poem is a dance of
the water nymphs in the
moonlight. The orchestra is very soft and the sounds are dark.
05:34 There are many subtle but colorful sounds in the
orchestra: muted strings, flutes,
harp. The music is calm and the melody is a distant variation of
the river theme.
06:00 Fade.

Mahler’s Symphonies of a Thousand and a Few
The Romantic era’s extremes of grandeur and intimacy find a
home together in Gustav Mahler’s
Sixth Symphony, in which grand themes that soar in the first
and last movements are contrasted
with small ensemble sounds more commonly associated with
chamber music.
Like Berlioz, Mahler added new sounds and textures to the
orchestra, introducing such
interesting instruments as the mandolin, guitar, celesta, and
even the cowbell. He also offered
clever instrumental combinations and an expanded percussion
section.
The expanded orchestras of the Romantic period coincided with
the rise of the virtuoso
conductor, and Mahler excelled in this area (although the New
York Philharmonic apparently did
not appreciate his approach; however, his decade as director of
the Vienna Court Opera raised
the bar in opera production standards for years to come).
Spilling into the early twentieth century, Mahler’s ten
monumental symphonies marked the
last wave of the Romantic era. We will look more into Mahler’s
(and Beethoven’s) use of the large
orchestra as a special topic in Lesson 11.
Symphony No. 6 (“Tragic”)
Excerpt, Fourth Movement (1904)
I. Allegro energico, ma non troppo
II. Scherzo, Wuchtig
III. Andante
IV. Finale: Allegro moderato

by Gustav Mahler
To understand the significance of Mahler’s writing, one must
witness his ability to develop
musical material in large works. The enlarged orchestra offered
new textures and colors. This
work expands the wind sections with four oboes, piccolo
, four
bassoons, bass trombone, bass tuba, and an enlarged percussion
section, including cowbells,
deep bells, gong, birch rod, hammer, xylophone, two harps, and
a celesta. The cowbells are
used in each movement except the scherzo as an offstage sound
leading into more delicate
themes; a unique sound in symphonic literature. The military-
like themes in the first and last
movements, and the use of colorful low brass and percussion,
are typical of his writing. They
add drama and contrast to the often subtle and intimate sound of
the woodwinds and strings.
Although this work has no formal program or story line, there
are traditional interpretations
placed on three of the movements. The first movement was an
attempt to express his wife,
Alma, in a theme. The theme ends the first movement and
contrasts with the opening military
march theme. The second movement is a scherzo, moved from
its traditional position as the
third movement. This movement depicts two children, his own,
playing arhythmic games;
running and laughing in the sand. The movement turns
increasingly more tragic and ends in
a whimper. The last movement is perhaps the most powerful and
intensely scored of them
all. In this movement, Mahler depicts the “three great blows of

fate.” The tragedy in his life
undoubtedly had an impact on this work. What the three blows
of fate represent is arguable.
However, there is little argument as to their relationship to the
loss of a five-year-old daughter
and his own deteriorating health. For these reasons and more,
the symphony has unofficially
taken on the name “Tragic.” There is no better way to defend
this title than by the ending of
the fourth movement in its extraordinary intensity.
00:00 Cadence after a large climax (approximately 17 minutes
into the movement). Horns
play fate motive against a descending bass line. Woodwinds
play short arpeggios.
00:45 Chimes and trombone begin a short section of solo
instruments. The tempo slowly
increases.
01:50 The rhythm settles with an oboe solo, which is soon taken
over by a violin.
02:16 String section plays the theme.
02:26 Crescendo.
02:44 Full orchestra with horn lead.
02:54 Brass section begins a long crescendo.

03:20 The motive is continually transformed.
03:53 Ripping horns play motive. The other brass instruments
enter.
04:07 Bells and woodwinds.
04:17 March-like treatment of the theme.
04:51 Climax of tragic theme. Development continues.
05:36 More horn rips, followed by a very high-range melodic
line.
05:50 Crescendo in activity.
06:15 Horns play a more stable theme, which is passed around
the orchestra.
06:29 The theme is passed around the sections again.
07:14 Momentary restful chord and texture but builds
immediately.
07:42 Loud blow of fate followed by a string line. Momentum
stops.
08:22 Strong cadence. Beginning of coda. Tragic minor theme.
Trombones and tuba play a
short, dissonant fugato (a fugal-style portion of a nonfugal
work).
09:24 The theme is slowly passed around as the orchestra fades.
10:06 Final slow statement in the low instruments.

10:23 Last transformed statement of the theme is a fortissimo
chord.
10:37 End.

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