The Romantic Era in Music (1800 to 1850 or 1900 or today?)

(in some ways we have never left this era)

[1] Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, 1^st movement.

-- unified 4-movement work. (different performance on textbook CD)

-- 1808

[2] Beethoven Symphony No. 6, "The Pastoral," first movement,
"Awakening of Cheerful Feelings upon Arrival in the Country"

-- reflects the Romantic view of nature

-- "program" music is instrumental music that tells a story (compare “absolute” music)

-- 1808

[CD: George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra]

[3] Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in F minor, Opus 55, No. 1 (1843)

-- introspective mood; psychologically probing?

-- as if "spontaneous" or improvised (in fact neatly structured)

-- a distant view of folk music (note the veiled suggestion of dance music), which relates to the Romantic interest in ethnicity and Nationalism

-- expanding use of chromatic harmony

-- use of dissonance for color (different piece on textbook CD)

[CD: The Complete Chopin Piano Works, Vol. 6, Nocturnes, Garrick Ohlsson, pianist]

[4] Richard Wagner (1813-1883), prelude to the opera Tristan und Isolde (1865)

-- expanding use of chromatic harmony over long spans of time

-- opera expands in size: larger orchestra, longer operas (The Ring takes four evenings to perform)

-- sophisticated orchestration

-- opera is now continuous: the aria/recitative concept is replaced by "continuous melody"

-- Wagner develops the idea of "leitmotif," in which a brief musical idea is associated with a character, idea, or object in an opera

-- Romantic nostalgia in the use of an ancient tale

-- ancient tale well-edited to project proto-psychological issues relating love, death, and desire; a notion of the sub-conscious before Freud??

[CD: Karl Bohm, conductor, Bayreuther Festspiele, 1966]

[5] Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection,” beginning of 3rd movement
(Scherzo). (c. 1893) NOT COVERED; NOT ON EXAM

- “cinematic” quality to the flow of the music

- symphonies very long (1.5+ hrs), orchestras huge

[CD: Bernstein, conductor; Vienna Philharmonic]

[6] Schubert (1797-1828) Erlkoning, text by Geothe. 1815. [CD: An Die Musik, Bryn Terfel, baritone.] (different performance on textbook CD)

ALSO LISTEN TO THE BERLIOZ SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE excerpt on textbook CD

Identify as program music; associate with Romantic themes such as love & madness

Romantic Art Themes, Images, Artists, & Titles to know

Nature, sublime – Caspar David Friedrich, The Wanderer Above the Mists, p 337

Nature, picturesque – John Constable, The Hay Wain, p 338

Artist as social critic – Goya, Executions of the Third of May, 1808, p 336

Supernatural or dream world - Goya, The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters, p 345

Exotic – Nash, Royal Pavilion, p 343

Medieval revival – Houses of Parliament, p 342

Other Trends in Music

Several things begin to happen in the early 1800s that affect musical culture today. The practice of performing music by composers of the past (i.e. dead composers) begins with composer/conductor Felix Mendelssohn's performances of the Bach B minor Mass. Previously, the music of Bach was not regularly performed. His music was known mostly to composers and pianists as an educational resource. History now begins to accumulate on the music scene and by the 20th-century, music by composers of the past dominates concert programs. Today's symphony audience goes to concerts for familiar pieces, not new ideas. The smaller audiences interested in experimentation support concerts by new music ensembles. That is one split in the audience/music community that develops; another is the emergence of a commercial market for music-as-commodity, or popular music.

"Popular" Music – The Long View

Some cultures distinguish between "art" music, music of the elite and perhaps sophisticated classes, and "folk" music. Sometimes the distinction is made between folk music and popular music in that folk music is rural and "popular" is folk music that happens in an urban setting. I would add a further distinction and say that popular music is commercially-mediated music for a mass market ("market" displacing the notion of "audience"). What would be the earliest roots for this? Madrigals in the Renaissance would be a good candidate. They were printed and sold for a profit and the music is definitely intended for the purpose of entertainment. Their audience was mostly sophisticated people who would participate in both performing and listening to the music, far from a mass market. In the Baroque Era, the audience for opera was large enough to support for-profit theaters and opera companies in several cities, but it was a precarious existence. In the Classical Era, music publishers sold string quartets and piano music to a growing audience, but that audience was still quite limited to the educated classes that would be making music as much as listening to it. The music itself was the same as was circulating at court. A change in the music is seen at the time of Beethoven. Beethoven and other composers were commissioned to write simplified pieces, often variations on well-known melodies, for a growing commercial market for sheet music.

The piano, now being mass produced, was entering into the homes of the middle classes of Europe, particularly England. While much of the music mentioned up to this point had its commercial uses and interests, it is in the 1800s that we get "commercially-mediated music for a mass market." The piano was the home entertainment center of the day, and one needed a supply of "software" for it. The music was, in general, designed to be easy to play and easy to understand or appreciate. European composers kept their eyes on both this new market and their traditional audience. For example, one composer would print the phrase "for connoisseurs and amateurs" on editions of his piano music. The sheet music business was big business in turn-of-the-century America, with hits selling in the millions of copies. American composers such as Steven Foster and Scott Joplin produced fine work for this commercial business. Italian opera of the late 1800s (Verdi) was perhaps the last time that art music was the popular music of the time. The shift from music-as-activity to music-as-commodity, something to buy and to own, not something to do, was completed by the advent of recordings. With the invention of the teenager in the 1950s, "youth culture" serves as the basis for the gradual optimization of the commercial commodification of music. As individuals and age cohorts come of age, they explain themselves to themselves and to others through the use of particular kinds of music and other commercial paraphernalia such as logos. Corporations sell these words of this language that people use to express who they are. Whether or not the music is good, bad, “fake,” authentic, sincere, or “sold-out” is irrelevant to the system, thus the system's apparent durability. Perhaps new technology will make music a hands-on activity once again, as people re-purpose turntables, use computer-based looping, and rapping and remixing become ubiquitous . . .

May 2007

David Meckler