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Aristocratic Social Political Norms Age of Enlightenment

Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in the late 18th century in reaction to Enlightenment norms. It emphasized strong emotion and individualism as sources of aesthetic experience. Romantic composers altered the balance between expression and structure in classical music by applying more freedom and deeper expressions of mood, feeling and emotion. Nationalistic feelings also contributed to the development of Romanticism as composers began incorporating the history, legends and landscapes of their homelands.

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Mohd Haffiszul Bin Mohd Said
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94 views

Aristocratic Social Political Norms Age of Enlightenment

Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in the late 18th century in reaction to Enlightenment norms. It emphasized strong emotion and individualism as sources of aesthetic experience. Romantic composers altered the balance between expression and structure in classical music by applying more freedom and deeper expressions of mood, feeling and emotion. Nationalistic feelings also contributed to the development of Romanticism as composers began incorporating the history, legends and landscapes of their homelands.

Uploaded by

Mohd Haffiszul Bin Mohd Said
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in

the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the
Industrial Revolution.

It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of
Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was
embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.

The movement stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing


new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and awe.

Classical composers had tried to create a balance between expression and formal
structure; Romantic composers altered this balance by applying more freedom to the
form and structure of their music, and using deeper, more intense expressions of
moods, feelings, and emotions.

An increased interest in literature, nature, the supernatural, and love, along with
nationalistic feelings and the idea of the musician as visionary artist and hero (virtuoso)
all added to the development of Romanticism.

The Art Song (Ger: Lied)


 Composition for solo voice & piano, to be sung and enjoyed at home.
 The accompaniment is an integral part of the composer’s concept, serves as an
interpretive partner to the voice.
 The fusion of poetry & music- the mood, atmosphere and imagery of poem are
translated into music.
 Strophic form – same music is repeated for each stanza of the poem, easy to remember
& is used in most folk songs.
 Through-composed form – new music is written for each stanza, reflecting a poem’s
changing moods.
 Modified strophic form – A (stanza 1) → B (stanza 2) → C ( stanza 3)

Listening:
Der Erlkönig (1815) is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts
the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the "Erlkönig" (or
"erlking", roughly translated as "evil spirit"). The poem has been used as the
text for lieder (art songs for voice and piano) by many classical composers, the
most famous undoubtedly being that of Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828).

Program Music
 A form of art music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas,
images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a
scene, image or mood.
 The term is usually reserved for purely instrumental works (pieces without
singers and lyrics), and not used for Opera or Lieder.

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Symphonie Fantastique (1830): 5-movement program symphony, tells of an artist who, unhappy
in love, takes an overdose of opium and dreams of his own passions and
desires, his beloved, her murder, and his own death.

The artist’s beloved is represented throughout the work by a melodic motif


known as the idée fixe, a device which serves to unify the disparate elements
of the symphony.
First movement: "Rêveries - Passions"
The author imagines that a young vibrant musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit
which a famous writer has called the wave of passions, sees for the first time a
woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming
of, and falls desperately in love with her. By a strange anomaly, the beloved image never presents itself to
the artist’s mind without being associated with a musical idea, in which he recognizes a certain quality of
passion, but endowed with the nobility and shyness which he credits to the object of his love.

Second movement: A Ball


The artist finds himself in the most diverse situations in life, in the tumult of a festive party, in the peaceful
contemplation of the beautiful sights of nature, yet everywhere, whether in town or in the countryside, the
beloved image keeps haunting him and throws his spirit into confusion.

Third movement: Scène in the Country


One evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds in the distance dialoguing with their shepherd
melodies; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some causes for hope
that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart a rare feeling of calm and to give to his
thoughts a happier colors. He broods on his loneliness, and hopes that soon he will no longer be on his own.
But what if she betrayed him! Mingled hope and fear, these ideas of happiness, disturbed by dark
premonitions. At the end one of the shepherds resumes his melodies; the other one no longer answers.
Distant sound of thunder… solitude… silence ...

Fourth movement: March to the Scaffold


He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his
own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes somber and wild, and
sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the
loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of
love interrupted by the fatal blow.
Fifth movement: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath"
He sees himself at a witches’ sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters
of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant
shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now
lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she
who is coming to the sabbath… Roar of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral
knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined
with the Dies irae.

Nationalism in 19th Century Music


 During ē 19th cent, Europeans felt strongly that their homelands merited loyalty & self-
sacrifice.
 These nationalistic feelings were awakened by ē French Revolution (1789-1799) & ē
Napoleonic wars (1803-1815).
 In many countries, military resistance to French armies & Napoleon aroused ē citizens‘
sense of national identity.
 Common bonds of language, culture and history were strengthened, patriotic feeling
was intensified. From the beginning of 18th-century, all the great music & great
developments had come from Germany - Classical sonata, concerto & symphony were
of German development.

 In the 19th-century, with the growing study of national legend and folk poetry & the
widespread desire for political freedom, composers deliberately gave their works a
distinctive national identity.
 Composers who had been trained in Germany or had accepted German conventions
began consciously to throw off the German influence, using history, legends &
landscapes of their native lands.

 The nationalists began to think on his own lines, in his own language.
 A Russian school, headed by Glinka, who was the first of the Russian nationalists, led the
way. He was followed by a group known as the Russian Five:
1. Alexender Borodin, (chemist)
2. Cesar Cui, (army engineer)
3. Mily Balakireff, (musician)
4. Modest Mussorgsky (civil servant), most original & the greatest
5. Nicholas Rimsky Korsakov. (naval officer)

Modest Mussorgsky Victor Hartmann Entrance to City of Kiev

Listening: Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), Mussorgsky


 A cycle of piano pieces inspired by pictures by Mussorgsky’s friend recently deceased
Victor Hartmann (Russian architect & artist).
 10 pieces of the set with descriptive titles related to specific drawings & paintings by
Hartmann in the exhibition.
 10 pieces represent the composer’s changing moods as he walks through the exhibition.
 10th song – The Great Gate of Kiev

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