Romantic Period Flashcards
Beethoven
o Early o Middle o Late o Symphonies o String Quartets o Piano Sonatas o Fidelio o Missa Solemnis
Schubert (1797-1828)
Austrian composer. The only canonic Viennese composer native to Vienna, he made seminal contributions in the areas of orchestral music, chamber music, piano music and, most especially, the German lied.
o Early musical education: When Schubert was seven he was sent for an audition to Antonio Salieri, the beginning of his musical career. His time in the student orchestra of the Imperial and Royal City College introduced him to the works of Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven. There has also met Josef von Spaun. Eight years Schubert’s senior, Spaun soon befriended the impressionable youth, and the friendship flourished, in spite of interruptions, until the composer’s death. Spaun introduced Schubert to a number of staged operas, an influential force in the musical development of Schubert.
o Although we don’t know, he appears to have begun composing around 13.
o Schubert and the Lied: Schubert’s first surviving song dates from his 15th year, and he probably wrote the last of his more than 600 completed songs only a few weeks before his premature death. In terms of separate works, almost two-thirds of Schubert’s are lieder, and during his lifetime they were the principal vehicle of his fame. His unrelenting search for poetry led him to more than 150 poets over a 17-year career. He set the greatest poets of his own and the preceding generations (Schiller, Goethe, Klopstock, Heine, Rückert) but also gave extraordinary voice to his friends (Mayrhofer, Schober, Bauernfeld, Ottenwalt, Spaun) as well as to a bewildering array of minor poets from Hölty (more than 30 songs, mostly from 1815–16) to Stolberg.
One of his main musical influences may have been Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg. Schubert may have been attracted by Zumsteeg’s attempt to enhance serious poetry (Schiller, Goethe) with music, by his use of through-composed as well as strophic procedures, and by the admixture of recitative and lyrical sections.
Gretchen am Spinnrade, based on Goethe, of October 1814 – his breakthrough lied. Not only do its freely modified strophes trace a mounting dramatic trajectory that unites the whole, but the spinning-wheel accompaniment serves as one of the protagonists.
Although his harmonic language grew out of the chromaticism of Mozart, his harmonic daring in lieder could approach that of mid-century Wagner. In Stimme der Liebe (d412) of 1816, a hymn to love, Schubert passes through no fewer than six remote keys in the course of 30 bars. In the more expansive Ganymed (d544), he moves through three distantly related keys specifically linked to Goethe’s irregular poetic structure. The ecstatic hymn to the almighty, Die Allmacht (d852), moves rapidly through highly chromatic sequences. Trost (d523), a premonitory song about death from January 1817 and headed ‘mit schwärmerischer Sehnsucht’ (with passionate longing), slips on the word ‘tief’ (deep) from B major down to the flattened sixth of G major, a relationship that Schubert would invoke repeatedly over his career.
Schubert’s ongoing interest in song groupings may help explain his receptivity in 1823 to Wilhelm Müller’s narrative cycle of 23 poems with prologue and epilogue entitled Die schöne Müllerin, which Schubert reduced to 20 poems. Four years later Schubert returned to Müller’s 1821 volume and seized on the 24 poems of Winterreise, a more interior, emotionally more nuanced portrait of another lovesick wanderer. Though less immediately tuneful, the songs of Winterreise are structurally more complex and varied.
Schubert’s song forms – strophic, ternary, bar, through-composed, to name the most common – are often spoken of in defining terms, but they are invariably the by-product of his encounter with the chosen poetry rather than a pre-existing predilection. While something like a third of Schubert’s songs make use of strophic form, only a relatively small number utilize strict strophic form, in which the same music is repeated literally for each stanza. Ternary forms (An den Mond, d193), bar forms (Die Forelle, d550) and rondos (Der Einsame, d800) are scattered throughout Schubert’s song output, always motivated by the dramas inherent in their texts. But the most frequent strategy adopted by Schubert over his song career has been described by Formenlehre theorists as ‘through-composed’ (German durchkomponiert), a catch-all for all those songs that do not fit preconceived schemes.
o His three great quartets – Quartet in A minor, in D minor, and G major come near the end of his life.
o The five movements of the ‘Trout’ Quintet (1819) suggest a looser, divertimento-like structure, while the presence of the double bass gave Schubert the opportunity to exploit open, airy textures. The recapitulation of the opening movement, beginning in the subdominant, is a compressed transposition of the exposition, while the second and last movements make considerable use of transposed repetition, all factors suggesting that the work was composed rapidly. The variation fourth movement is based on Die Forelle, the popular song composed two years earlier, with the song’s A phrase repeated to give the quintet theme added weight.
o Musical Style: Schubert’s style can best be understood as a series of four discrete styles. There is first of all the openly popular manner, captured in works like the Octet (d803), songs from Die schöne Müllerin and the ‘Trout’ Quintet. Schubert’s popular tone is even more pervasive than Mozart’s, surfacing in substantial as well as occasional genres. Counterpoised to this is what might be called the ambitious style – works (and passages) that openly declare their complexity. While weighted towards the last half of Schubert’s career, they include works from every genre in which he worked. The late symphonies, masses, string quartets and piano sonatas contain only the most obvious examples. An extension of the ambitious style is the learned style, found primarily in contrapuntal passages ranging from the elaborate palindrone in Die Zauberharfe, the mirror counterpoint in the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy, the extended fugal passages in both late masses, to the quasi-fugal writing in the F minor Fantasy for piano duet (d940). Finally, Schubert penned passages that can only be described (albeit unhistorically) as avant garde. These include music best described as ‘unhinged’, such as that in the slow movements of the G major Quartet and the A major Piano Sonata (d959), or the so-called Lebensstürme for piano duet. But they also include the Wagnerian pre-echoes in Lazarus and the Count’s recitative (no.2) in Der Graf von Gleichen, or the Mahlerian premonitions in the Andante of Symphony no.10.
Schumann (1810-1856)
LOCO (Lied - 1840, Orchestral - 1841, Chamber - 1842, Oratorio – 1843) German composer and music critic. While best remembered for his piano music and songs, and some of his symphonic and chamber works, Schumann made significant contributions to all the musical genres of his day and cultivated a number of new ones as well. His dual interest in music and literature led him to develop a historically informed music criticism and a compositional style deeply indebted to literary models. A leading exponent of musical Romanticism, he had a powerful impact on succeeding generations of European composers.
o Piano: As a highly trained pianist he understood the instrument’s character and potential as well as anyone of his generation, and his personal rapport with it from childhood made it a natural means of expression to the adult composer; this perhaps partly explains the highly distinctive nature of his piano writing, in which expertise combines with a certain idiosyncrasy. Character pieces with fanciful names form a large part of Schumann’s published output, while substantial works in such absolute genres as the sonata are rarer. Even in works ostensibly without any programmatic elements, commentators have discerned the use of ciphers, quotation, and other modes of discourse beyond the purely musical (in the Fantasia op. 17, for example), though the extent and intention of such references remain contentious. Schumann made a major contribution to the piano literature for the young student in his Album für die Jugend (1848), Three Sonatas for Young People (1853), and various duets. Kinderszenen (1838), though dealing with the subject of childhood, is clearly intended for adult performers and listeners.
o Lied: Schumann’s songs are notable above all for the high quality of the texts he set. Their variety is also immense: the Poems of Mary Stuart (1852), or the solo items from the Spanisches Liederspiel (for vocal quartet, 1849), are entirely different in mood from his earlier Romantic settings. His literary conscience also ensured the most equal partnership between words and music in the German lied before Hugo Wolf. He was particularly attracted to the works of Heine. And his close association with the piano led him to create accompaniments of great individuality and expressiveness, especially in the songs’ preludes and postludes, the latter often providing a kind of summary of the verse’s sentiments. In Schumann’s view, the ideal lied must mediate between artlessness and art, simplicity and pretension. Construed as more than a singable melody supported by a decorative accompaniment, the lied unites voice and piano as equal partners in a shared discourse. Although Schumann located the song composer’s central mission in the preservation of the poem’s ‘delicate life’, this aim was to be fulfilled less through an act of translation than through a subtle recreation of the poem’s essence. The composer endeavors ‘to produce a resonant echo of the poem and its smallest features by means of a refined musical content’, he wrote, and hence becomes a poet. Nowhere is Schumann’s tendency to cast himself in the role of poet more apparent than in his fondness for the song cycle, a genre he cultivated more assiduously than any other major composer of the 19th century. Such as Dichterlieder, etc. He either used poetic cycles or formed his own cycles through careful selections – either a chronological narrative or a series of affective states.
o Chamber: Much of Schumann’s chamber output is neglected, beyond the well-known Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet (both 1842) lie fine works for string quartet and piano trio. In addition, and connected to Schumann’s desire to raise the standard of music intended for domestic use, there are notable sets of pieces for clarinet, oboe, cello (all 1850), and viola (1851), all with piano accompaniment.
o Orchestral: He himself confessed that orchestration was a difficult art to master. This statement, together with his failure as a conductor, has fuelled a view that his orchestral works are among his less successful. For decades his orchestration was considered faulty, requiring professional amendment in performance (Gustav Mahler made his own editions of all four symphonies).
o Choral/Vocal: Schumann’s choral music is less well known, though growing familiarity with such works as the Scenes from Goethe’s ‘Faust’ (one of the most ambitious and faithful of all musical versions of the poem) and the colourful Paradise and the Peri, an ‘oratorio for happy people’ (Schumann’s words), has convincingly demonstrated their worth. Another much-derided work is Schumann’s sole opera, Genoveva, which for long passed as the leading representative of the genre of a bad opera by a great composer. Again, recent revivals on disc and stage have demonstrated its merits and original and effective musico-dramatic conception.
o The notion of a ‘system of genres.’ Viewing Schumann’s output as a whole, one cannot help noticing his tendency to focus on individual genres at various points during his life: piano music (1833–9), song (1840), symphonic music (1841), chamber music (1842), oratorio (1843), contrapuntal forms (1845), dramatic music (1847–8) and church music (1852). Although there is no evidence that he made a conscious decision to pursue this course at a specific moment in his career, his orderly exploration of genres probably answered to both artistic and psychological imperatives. The notion of a ‘system’ of genres for Schumann’s output needs to be refined on several other counts. First, Schumann’s contributions to individual genres often embodied diverse tendencies; secondly, he often pursued his interests in different genres either simultaneously or in close alternation; and lastly, his accomplishments in one area frequently affected his approach to others.
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
German pianist and composer. Her childhood tours made her famous throughout Europe and her playing won the admiration of the leading musicians of the day, Liszt and Mendelssohn among them.
o Following Schumann’s decline and death she resumed her performing career, tirelessly undertaking lengthy international tours; she was highly acclaimed, especially in England, and continued playing until illness forced her to stop. She edited her husband’s works, her advocacy helping to gain them a place in the repertory. She also championed the music of Brahms, who from 1854 became her closest confidant. As well as teaching private pupils, she taught at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1844 and from 1878 was head of the piano department at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Together with Liszt, she can be regarded as the leading piano teacher of her day.
o Clara Schumann’s compositions consist mainly of piano pieces and songs, though she also wrote a Piano Concerto (1836) and a Piano Trio (1846), the latter probably her masterpiece. The solo works divide into earlier pieces in a lightweight virtuoso manner and more serious ones from the years of her marriage. Among the most notable are the Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann and the Three Romances (both 1853). She abandoned composition after her husband’s death.
o Her early compositions fall into two broad categories: such virtuosic audience-pleasers as Romance variée op. 3 and Souvenir de Vienne op. 9, and the imaginative, poetically conceived character pieces such as opp.5 and 6 which were inspired by the music of Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn. After her marriage her compositional style changed; she herself was maturing as an artist and the daily involvement with Robert and their joint studies influenced her work. She wrote fewer character-pieces and turned, as Robert Schumann had, to songs; three (Am Strande, Volkslied and Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen) were presented to her husband on their first Christmas together. These were followed by four songs, three of which (op.12) were incorporated in a joint collection (Robert Schumann’s op.37). The piano and chamber works in larger, more classically structured forms (for example the Sonata in G minor, the Piano Trio and the three Preludes and Fugues) were among the works written after her marriage.
Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
German composer. Mendelssohn began as a child prodigy (both as a composer and pianist). He traveled across Europe on concert tours – much like Mozart.
o He was extremely close to his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, who was also a composer and pianist. After her marriage, she continued to composer, publishing several books of songs and short piano works. Like Mendelssohn, she also had an interest in the music of Bach.
o He was popular in England, enjoying the patronage of Victoria and Albert.
o In 1836, he became conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra – in addition to building up the prestige of the organization, making it one of the leading groups in Europe, he also initiated a series of ‘historical concerts’ featuring music by composers of previous generations. In 1843, he helped establish the Leipzig Conservatory.
o Mendelssohn became an object of ridicule following his death. Many ‘progressive’ composers branded Mendelssohn as the icon of conservative music.
o Elijah (1846): very popular oratorio in Mendelssohn’s time, particularly in England, where there were a number of choral societies. He modeled his oratorio on Handel, the music is also influenced by Bach.
Written for England, Elijah was nevertheless composed to a German text, for which William Bartholomew expeditiously prepared the English version for the première in Birmingham.
Based largely on the account in 1 Kings, Elijah relates the chief events in the prophet’s life: the curse of the Lord and the seven-year drought, Elijah’s miraculous revival of the widow’s son, his confrontation with the Baal worshippers and the lifting of the drought, his confrontation with Ahab and Jezebel, his flight to the wilderness and encounter with the Lord, and his journey to Mt Horeb and ascension to heaven in a flaming chariot.
On the simplest level the oratorio is unified through a network of recurring motifs. Two in particular, a rising triadic figure and a series of interlocking tritones, function topically to identify the prophet Elijah and the catastrophic drought. On a second level, Mendelssohn stitches together several numbers to form larger complexes of through-composed music. There is also a large-scale use of tonal axes as a form of musical structure.
o Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826): Mendelssohn’s concert overtures have been among his most popular works. Mendelssohn combines programmatic elements with symphonic writing, having a profound influence on later composers of symphonic poems. Various motifs depicting characters – all drawn from descending tetrachord in the opening wind chords.
o Some of his most notable symphonies:
Reformation Symphony, the first programmatic symphony (opposes two types of music – Palestrina imitative writing and quotations of the ‘Dresden Amen’ against homophonic chorale texture)
Italian Symphony (inspired by the 1830 Italian sojourn, Mendelssohn only allowed a few performances, never seemed satisfied with it)
Scottish Symphony (inspired by 1829 trip to Scotland, the only symphony he allowed to be published, he opts for a through composed structure)
‘Lobgesang’ Symphony (1840) – combines symphony with cantata to make a symphony-cantata hybrid 3-mvt. Sinfonia attached to a 9-mvt. Cantata), described as his response to Beethoven’s 9th.
o Lieder ohne Worte: 48 piano works published in 8 volumes (2 posthumously). These were extremely popular during his lifetime. The origins remain mysterious, some conjecture that it arose from a game played between Mendelssohn and Fanny. Most fall into 3 categories – parallels to solo songs, duets and partsongs. Many of his contemporaries were confused by the genre (Schumann believed that Mendelssohn had suppressed the original text), only a few have titles given by Mendelssohn.
o Bach: In 1829 (the 100th Anniversary of its Premiere), he conducted a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. By the time of the 1829 performance, the work had been largely forgotten; Mendelssohn is credited with its rediscovery and a revived interest in Bach.
19th century Concert Etude
virtuosic music became increasingly prominent during the 19th century. The etude became a public genre, intended for performance in front of an audience. A lot of this music was written for the piano; however, it also appeared for other instruments.
o At the turn of the 19th century the etude had developed beyond its traditional role as a study piece, most notably at the Paris Conservatory.
o The study combines the utility of a technical exercise with musical invention equivalent to other concert genres (many composers struggled with these two conflicting aspects – one of the most successful composers to synthesize the two was Chopin)
o Chopin: 12 Grandes etudes, op. 10 and 12 Etudes, op. 25. These reflect his devotion to strict technique and his abhorrence of the standard finger exercises. Each one addresses a particular technical challenge.
27 total etudes. Blur the boundaries between melody, harmony, and figuration.
o Liszt – the genesis of his Transcendental Studies reflects the development of the genre. They began as 12 didactic studies, recomposed in 1837 under the title Grandes etudes, essentially character pieces. The final version was completed in 1852 (Transcendental Studies). Many of the studies were given titles and the didactic elements were practically lost – too much variety in them to provide a thorough working-out of one problem, unlike in the etudes of Chopin.
o Liszt, Schumann, and Brahms wrote etudes based on themes from Paganini’s 24 Caprices, an example of a concert etude for the violin.
Chopin (1810-1849)
French-Polish composer.
o The son of a French father and a Polish mother. Even though he settled in Paris, he remained connected to his Polish identity. He moved in the Polish expatriate circles in Paris.
o In 1837, he began a decade long liaison with Amandine-Aurore Lucile Dudevant, known as George Sand. She provided him with emotional and financial support.
o He made the majority of his income from teaching and the sale of his music, only occasionally did he give public concerts.
o Died of tuberculosis.
o Chopin had already reached full maturity as a composer before he arrived in Paris in the autumn of 1831. Four of the familiar Chopin genres – the mazurka, nocturne, étude and waltz – were already in place, and in something like their mature formulation, before he left Warsaw. They were consolidated in Vienna and in the early Paris years by the earliest pieces in these genres released for publication by Chopin himself.
o Waltz: stylized pieces based on the dance, they vary in character, tempo, and dimension.
o Mazurka: stylized version of the Polish dance.
o Polonaise: stylized version of the Polish dance.
o Nocturne: characterized by lyrical melody and a relatively clear homophonic texture with no particular fixed form. The genre was relatively new, related to the tradition of the serenade.
o Ballade: The four ballades are among the most celebrated piano works of the 19th century. Each gives the impression of telling a different kind of story. It was long thought that they were associated with the ballads of Adam Mickiewicz. The ballades take on the character of a story by invoking and then modifying conventional schemata, and by focusing the events through a distinctive (generic) characterization of themes, the ‘personae’ of the drama. And in most cases the story culminates in that ‘whirlwind of musical reckoning’ so characteristic of the poetic ballad.
o Scherzos: The four scherzos are large-scale works, similar to the ballades, but lacking the narrative quality. They are in triple meter, roughly in ABA form.
Liszt (1811-1886)
German-Hungarian composer.
o Liszt cultivated his image as a Hungarian composer, but his native language was German and he did not learn Hungarian until the end of his life. He also took holy orders in his mid-50s, starting a new phase of his life.
o His mistress the Countess Marie d’Agoult was the mother of his three children, including Cosima.
o He revolutionized the art of the recital, giving it the name ‘recital.’ Prior to Liszt, it had been associated with oratory. Seeing music as a ‘language,’ he transferred the term to musical performance. Heine coined ‘Lisztomania’ to describe the fascination with Liszt the virtuoso and the image he cultivated.
o He took a prominent role in the absolute vs. program music dispute.
o Symphonies: his 2 symphonies represent a synthesis of symphony and symphonic poem.
Faust-Symphonie: Liszt called it three character pieces (Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles). He utilizes leitmotifs for the characters and ideas – Mephistopheles does not have his own motive, but instead distorts other themes. It ends with a section for tenor and chorus.
Symphonie zu Dantes Divina commedia: in 3 movements, concludes with a brief vocal section.
o Sonata in b minor: most notable for its form – the four movements are combined to create one giant sonata form. People look for a program, which Liszt did not supply. “Gypsy” scale, which begins the sonata, is used to close all the structural junctures of the form.
o Preludes
Berlioz (1803-1869):
French composer.
o Originally went to Paris to study medicine, in 1826, he entered the conservatory. He won the Prix de Rome in 1830 after writing in the style that he knew the judges wanted to hear.
o Saw Harriet Smithson in a production of Hamlet in 1827.
o Supplemented his income with his music journalism.
o 1843, the treatise on orchestration.
o Three major symphonies: Symphonie fantastique (1830), Harold en Italie (1834) – based on a poem by Byron, and Romeo et Juliette (1839).
It was Berlioz’s discovery of Beethoven that led him to compose symphonies, yet his treatment of music as an expressive and dramatic art made his symphonies into something other than the pure instrumental music that many Germans saw in Beethoven. They stretch the meaning of the word to new limits.
The Symphonie fantastique of 1830, is a five-movement symphony with a slow introduction to the first-movement Allegro, a waltz, a slow movement, a march and a finale, the whole unified by a theme that recurs, transformed, in each movement. But it is, more importantly, an ‘Episode in an Artist’s Life’, set out in detail in the programme, and the recurrent theme is an idée fixe representing the artist’s obsession with the woman he adores. Berlioz devoted much time and attention to the programme, revised it frequently and generally issued it as a pamphlet when the symphony was performed.
Harold en Italie, the symphony that followed in 1834, has a prominent concerto element, with a solo viola impersonating the character of Harold, a responsive and passionate observer of scenes of Italian life.
Roméo et Juliette (1839), sub-titled ‘symphonie dramatique’. It moves well away from the purely symphonic realm towards that of opera. Yet Berlioz was specifically not writing an opera, and he kept the idea of symphonic construction closely in mind. He was able, consequently, to express the main portions of the drama in instrumental music, while setting the more expository and narrative sections for voices.
o Three operas survive in their entirety: Benvenuto Cellini (1838), Les Troyens (1859), and Béatrice et Bénédict (1862). They have failed to become standard works in the repertoire, largely because of their virtuosity and immense scale. Benvenuto was far removed from the style of Meyerbeer, popular at the time. Only the second half of Trojans was performed during Berlioz’s lifetime. The complete opera in French was not performed until 1920.
Berlioz completed five operas, all different in style and dramatic stance.
o Idée fixe: A term coined by Berlioz to denote a musical idea used obsessively. When in 1830 he applied it to the principal theme of his Symphonie fantastique, it was a new term in the French language. At about the same time Balzac used it in Gobseck to describe an obsessive idea, and it came into use as a clinical term for unreasonable or even criminal obsession. Berlioz used the theme to describe the artist’s obsession with his beloved. In December 1832 Fétis drew attention to the novelty of the idea (Revue musicale, xii, 365–7). The theme recurs in each of the five movements of the symphony and in the first supplies the main thematic material of the Allegro. Subsequently it is transformed to fit the context of the various movements, for example into waltz time for the ball and into the grotesque, distorted dance for the final ‘Ronde du Sabbat’. Berlioz recalled the theme in the sequel to the symphony, Lélio, and another recurrent theme occurs in his Harold en Italie (1834). Many later composers have taken up the idea of a recurrent, obsessive theme in symphonic works.
o Work as a critic: Berlioz’s views were presented regularly to readers of the Paris press, and his literary output was immense. In addition to the Traité d’instrumentation and the Voyage musical, he published three collections of criticism: Les soirées de l’orchestre(1852), Les grotesques de la musique (1859) and A travers chants(1862). In his feuilletons he wrote of new operas and singers, many of them of staggering unimportance; his opinion on momentous occasions was of crucial interest, for example at the première of Le prophètein 1849. He reviewed most of the concerts of the Société des Concerts; he wrote of new instruments and musical gadgets, of his own impressions of music abroad, and of important musicians visiting France; he wrote biographical notices of Gluck, Beethoven, Spontini, Méhul and himself; he wrote fiction and fantasy, often with a critical purpose; he wrote serialized treatises on orchestration and conducting.
Berlioz was one of the first to enunciate a critical standpoint that is now a commonplace but was then startlingly new: that music should be enshrined in the form in which it was written and not brought up to date.
Program vs. Absolute Discourse – The War of the Romantics
o The struggle between ‘progressive’ and ‘conservative’ forces in 19th-century music, with Wagner, Berlioz and Liszt on one side, and Brahms, Schumann and Mendelssohn on the other. The conservatives were associated with Leipzig (whose conservatory had at one time been directed by Mendelssohn, with Schumann briefly serving on its staff); the group was championed by the powerful Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, and Liszt bore the brunt of many of his criticisms. Liszt, for his part, staged several great Wagner and Berlioz festivals in Weimar and attracted national attention to these composers. As a result Leipzig was closed for many years to Liszt and his music.
o Hanslick’s influential book Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (1854) challenged the notion that music could represent anything beyond itself – a powerful theoretical position that has retained a lot of support. When the first of Liszt’s symphonic poems appeared in 1856, Hanslick disparaged them in a second edition of his book. Meanwhile, Franz Brendel had turned Robert Schumann’s old magazine, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, into a mouthpiece for Liszt and the new music, a move that troubled Schumann’s friends, and the ‘war’ spilled over into the columns of the European press. The crusading impulse in Liszt drove him to form the Neu-Weimar-Verein, an association of about 30 musicians (including Raff, Cornelius, Bülow and Klindworth) which held regular meetings in Weimar, promoted concerts of new music and generally sought to protect the interests of younger composers.
o In 1859 the Verein was absorbed into the New German School, a term that was formally adopted at the national gathering of the Tonkünstler-Versammlung (‘Congress of Musical Artists’), held that year in Leipzig. This move drew a powerful protest from Brahms and Joachim, among others, who circulated a ‘Manifesto’ across Germany, dissociating themselves from this organization, and canvassing for signatories willing to object to its principles as ‘contrary to the innermost spirit of music, strongly to be deplored and condemned’. (The text was in fact written by Brahms, and was leaked to the offices of the Berliner Musik-Zeitung Echo, which published it prematurely, with only four signatories.)
The term ‘absolute music’ denotes not so much an agreed idea as an aesthetic problem. The expression is of German origin, first appearing in the writings of Romantic philosophers and critics such as J.L. Tieck, J.G. Herder, W.H. Wackenroder, Jean Paul Richter and E.T.A. Hoffmann. It features in the controversies of the 19th century – for example, in Hanslick’s spirited defence of absolute Tonkunst against the Gesamtkunstwerk of Wagner – and also in the abstractions of 20th-century musical aesthetics. It names an ideal of musical purity, an ideal from which music has been held to depart in a variety of ways; for example, by being subordinated to words (as in song), to drama (as in opera), to some representational meaning (as in programme music), or even to the vague requirements of emotional expression.
“Absolute Music” refers to music without text. Liszt and Wagner insisted that the absence of words from music did not entail the absence of meaning. Liszt’s Programm-Musik and Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk both arose from the view that all music was essentially meaningful and no music could be considered more absolute than any other.
The term ‘programme music’ was introduced by Liszt, who also invented the expression Symphonic poem to describe what is perhaps the most characteristic instance of it. He defined a programme as a ‘preface added to a piece of instrumental music, by means of which the composer intends to guard the listener against a wrong poetical interpretation, and to direct his attention to the poetical idea of the whole or to a particular part of it’.
Liszt thought of himself as putting forward a new ideal for symphonic music, an ideal that had been foreshadowed in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and in certain works of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Berlioz, but which he nevertheless thought to be absent from the body of classical music. He considered the idea of exalting the narrative associations of music into a principle of composition to be incompatible with the continuance of traditional symphonic forms. The term ‘programme music’ came to be applied not only to music with a story but also to music designed to represent a character (Strauss’s Don Juan and Don Quixote) or to describe a scene or phenomenon (Debussy’s La mer). What is common to all these is the attempt to ‘represent’ objects in music; but a certain confusion has entered the use of the term by its application to any form of musical ‘depiction’, whether instrumental, or vocal, or incidental to an action on the stage. Properly speaking, however, programme music is music with a programme. Further, to follow Liszt’s conception, programme music is music that seeks to be understood in terms of its programme; it derives its movement and its logic from the subject it attempts to describe.
Faust in Music
popular subject for both operas and other musical works. In the 19th century, most were based on the play by Goethe, published in two parts (1808 and 1832). There were a number of other sources, however, including a play by Marlowe (printed in 1604) and Spiess’s 1587 “History” of Dr. Faust. The love story between Gretchen and Faust has been the source of most inspiration for musical setting.
o Spohr: one of the earliest operatic versions of the legend (1816). The libretto is based on different versions of the Faust legend. Faust wavers between his love for the pure Röschen and his lust for the beautiful countess Kunigunde, whom he rescues from the clutches of Sir Gulf. At the wedding feast of Hugo and Kunigunde, he seduces Kunigunde by means of a magic potion obtained from the witches on the Blocksberg. He then kills Hugo in a duel. In the final scene Röschen drowns herself and Faust, deserted by everyone, is dragged off to hell by Mephistofeles’ demons. It differs in many ways from Goethe’s version, including this non-redemptive ending. There were a number of versions of the opera, including a later expansion into a grand opera, complete with recitative, division into three acts, and an added orchestral introduction to the final act.
Notable for its use of motives (which primarily appear for the first time in the overture): The principal motifs, which may be designated the Hell, Love and Faust motifs, form the opening theme of the overture and, together with the Magic Potion motif and various instances of thematic reminiscence, they appear at various key points in the opera. The motifs, nearly always in the accompaniment, make explicit something that would not otherwise be obvious to the audience, or emphasize some connection with an earlier part of the action.
o Gounod: Faust (1859) was originally conceived, for the Théâtre Lyrique, with spoken dialogue; when it was transferred to the Opéra it was fitted with recitatives and a ballet, in which form it became the most popular of all Faust operas. It has been much criticized (notably by Wagner and Debussy) but sections have won praise (notably from Berlioz). The main objection is that the librettists transformed Faust, a seeker for knowledge (or experience, or power), into an operatic lover; but this merely proves that composer and librettists understood the nature of the genre, and of opera as a business operation, better than their educated and literary critics. Like Goethe’s Part I, Gounod’s opera concludes with the salvation of Marguerite, and in fact the final chorus expands that aspect of the literary model in order to arrive at a proper transfiguration.
o Berlioz: La damnation de Faust was described by Berlioz at the time of composition as an ‘opéra de concert’ but was finally issued as a ‘légende dramatique’. He used only the parts of Goethe’s play that met his needs. Berlioz creates a broad conception of Faust as an aspiring, yearning soul, overwhelmed by the immensity of nature, with a heart sensitive to emotion at many levels, yet ultimately damned by his inner weaknesses, which Mephistopheles both represents and exploits. The chorus plays a large part, as penitents, carousers, sylphs, soldiers, students and as the occupants of both Heaven and Hell. The score contains stage directions to explain (to the imagination) the movement of events. He may have turned to this heterogeneous genre as the result of his lack of success with traditional opera.
o Liszt: Faust-Symphonie, Liszt had been introduced to Goethe’s Faust by Berlioz in 1830, and had long nourished a desire to reflect that literary masterwork in music. (Appropriately, Liszt’s score is dedicated to Berlioz.) Liszt does not attempt to tell the story of Goethe’s drama, but rather creates musical portraits of the three main protagonists. The work’s keyless beginning has attracted commentary. It depicts Faust as thinker, contemplating the mysteries of the universe. Some theorists have seen in this passage not merely a descending sequence of augmented chords, but one of the earliest 12-note rows in musical history. There is a series of motifs (passion, love, pride, and so forth), all of which are subjected to character change. The entire finale is a vast metamorphosis of the first movement. The symphony was originally planned as a purely instrumental work, a version in which it is often played. Three years after its completion in 1854, however, Liszt added a new ending, a setting of the Chorus Mysticus, for solo tenor and male chorus.
o Mahler: The second movement of the Eighth Symphony – includes a setting of the closing scene of Goethe’s Faust (Part 2). In a last public affirmation of his intellectual ‘Germanness’, Mahler returned to a metaphysical and transcendental narrative (comparisons with the finale of the Second Symphony are relevant on many levels) animated by a Platonic reading of Goethe’s celebrated closing lines: ‘Das Ewig-Weibliche / Zieht uns hinan!’. In a reinterpretation of Wagner’s ‘redemption through love’, with its dubious image of women as men’s self-sacrificing saviours, Mahler strategically read Goethe’s intention as a celebration of erotic love and the fusion of a now incorporeal male subject (Faust’s ‘immortal part’ is voicelessly present in Goethe’s stage directions) with its desired female object. The penitentially faithful, abandoned Gretchen is linked, through a series of biblical female characters, to the Mater Gloriosa. Mahler used a slightly abridged text, but retained Goethe’s successive scenic levels with their spirit guides and exemplars.
o Schumann – Manfred (based on Byron’s poem, often linked in with the Faust tradition) and Scenen aus Goethes Faust.
Schumann’s realization of the ideals of literary opera took a radical form in Manfred, the text of which retains, almost without alteration, 975 of the 1336 verses in Suckow’s translation. In keeping with his desire to place this text in the sharpest relief, Schumann relied extensively on melodrama, the conjunction of unadorned (though sometimes rhythmed) speech and illustrative instrumental music. Although Schumann has been criticized for granting Manfred redemption to the strains of a jubilant setting of the ‘Et lux perpetua’ from the Requiem Mass, he remained fundamentally true to the tragic tone of his poetic source. Like Goethe’s Faust, Schumann’s Manfred is redeemed not in this life but in the next.
Brendel characterized Schumann’s music for the closing scene of Faust as the harbinger of ‘the church music of the future’. In fact the scene that Schumann called ‘Faust’s Verklärung’ (no.7 of the Scenen aus Goethes Faust) is most remarkable for its fusion of sacred and secular styles on a grander scale than in any music since the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A corollary to the poetic theme of ascent to divine knowledge, the gradual intensification of texture, timbre and tone over the course of the scene’s seven movements is undeniably dramatic.
o Wagner: Faust Overture – concert overture that began as an intended first movement of a larger Faust Symphony that never came to fruition.
Rossini (1792-1868)
Italian composer. No composer in the first half of the 19th century enjoyed the measure of prestige, wealth, popular acclaim or artistic influence that belonged to Rossini. His contemporaries recognized him as the greatest Italian composer of his time. His achievements cast into oblivion the operatic world of Cimarosa and Paisiello, creating new standards against which other composers were to be judged. That both Bellini and Donizetti carved out personal styles is undeniable; but they worked under Rossini’s shadow, and their artistic personalities emerged in confrontation with his operas. Not until the advent of Verdi was Rossini replaced at the centre of Italian operatic life.
o In 1806 he was admitted on the strength of his singing to membership of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, a great honour for one so young.
o His first opera, Demetrio e Polibio, was composed for the Mombelli family, probably in about 1810, but was not performed until 1812. His professional career began with La cambiale di matrimonio (‘The Bill of Marriage’), a one-act farsa commissioned for the Teatro S. Moisè in Venice; it proved so successful that it was followed over the next three years by several others, including La scala di seta (‘The Silken Ladder’) and Il signor Bruschino which are remembered mostly for their overtures.
o Although he attempted some series operas early on, his talent was mainly in the realm of comedy.
o In 1813 he achieved a double triumph in Venice with the heroic Tancredi and the comic L’italiana in Algeri, both of which eventually carried his name far beyond Italy.
o In 1815 he signed a long-term contract with Domenico Barbaia, impresario of the Neapolitan S. Carlo and Fondo theatres, to assume the musical directorship of both venues, with the obligation to produce annually a new opera at each. He was also free to accept commissions elsewhere.
o Otello (Naples, 1816) broke fresh ground dramatically by ending with a murder on stage, followed by a suicide; a happy ending was imposed by papal authorities for the work’s revival in Rome in 1820.
o Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816 – commissioned for Rome) survived a disastrous first night to become a universal favorite, loved by Verdi and Wagner alike, and inspiring in Beethoven the famously backhanded compliment that Rossini should compose only more of the same. After this quintessence of the buffo style, La Cenerentola (Rome, 1817), while not lacking in comic situations, is more sentimentally inclined, and in the remaining years of his Italian career Rossini produced no comedy at all.
o For Milan he composed the semiseria La gazza ladra (‘The Thieving Magpie’, 1817); for Naples he produced a series of important opere serie, drawing on a wide variety of different literary traditions: Tasso for Armida (1817), neo-classical biblical drama for Mosè in Egitto (1818), Racine for Ermione (1819), Walter Scott for La donna del lago (1819), and Italian Romanticism for Maometto II (1820).
o His last opera for Italy was Semiramide (Venice, 1823) which was written following a trip to Vienna, where he met Beethoven.
o After a trip to Paris and London, he accepted a position in Paris. For the Theatre Italien he wrote Il viaggio a Reims, an operatic pièce de circonstance to celebrate the coronation of Charles X (1825). He followed it over the next four years with four works for the Paris Opéra: the first two, Le Siège de Corinthe (1826) and Moïse et Pharaon (1827), were revised French versions of earlier Italian works (Maometto II and Mosè in Egitto respectively), while the comedy Le Comte Ory (1828) drew on material from Il viaggio a Reims. Finally, in 1829 Rossini composed the grand opera Guillaume Tell (1829), his only completely original work in French, and his last work for the stage.
o His last years were spent between Italy and Paris.
o His style and influence: Rossini used to describe himself as ‘the last of the classicists’. In the Romantic age his serious works—with their formalism and vocal virtuosity—soon fell into disfavor, whereas his comic operas have always remained fresh. Yet though he never fully entered the world of Italian Romanticism he was in a sense its architect. The plan of cantabiles, cabalettas, multi-movement duets, and finales that served Bellini, Donizetti, and the young Verdi had been defined by him. Moreover, his masterly fusion of Italian and French styles in his Paris operas, and his transformation of the moribund mythological French tragédie lyrique into a series of compellingly relevant operas on historical themes, played an important part in the French Romanticism of the 1820s, while setting the standard against which all later grand opera needs to be measured.
Wagner
o Gesamtkunstwerk o Leitmotiv o The Ring o Tristan o Parsifal
Verdi (1813 – 1901)
Alongside Wagner, Verdi stands as the giant of 19th century opera. o Some early background: In May 1832 he travelled to Milan and applied for entry to the conservatory. He was refused, but Barezzi agreed to the expense of private study in Milan and Verdi became a pupil of Vincenzo Lavigna, who had for many years been maestro concertatore at La Scala. He studied in Milan for some three years, but then returned to Busseto as maestro di musica. Verdi kept in contact in Milan, and composed an opera (Rocester) that he tried to get staged. Eventually he was successful with a revised version of the opera, now entitled Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, which was performed at La Scala, Milan, in 1839. o Verdi suffered a crisis of confidence following the failure of his next opera, Un giorno di regno, and the death of his wife. The next stage of his life was marked by the success of Nabucco at La Scala in March 1842. o During the next ten years he produced an opera roughly every nine months—not prolific by the standards of his day. These works established his fame in Italy, and he moved constantly from one operatic centre to another, dividing what time remained between Milan and Busseto. o Diatonic harmonies and basic structures AA’BA’’ used throughout his arias. o Verdi's first two operas, however, are uncharacteristic: Oberto is hampered by a curiously sprawling structure, and Un giorno di regno explores a Rossinian opera buffa vein that will never reappear. With Nabucco (1842) an important stylistic strand was introduced: grandiose, oratorio-like, with prominent use of the chorus and a directness of vocal effect and rhythmic vitality. With Ernani (1843), however, written for the more intimate context of La Fenice, Venice, he broke fresh ground: the overall effect is far more subdued, and the drama of individual characters is brought to the fore. Ernani ushered in a period of more restless innovation: in I due Foscari (1844) Verdi used a system of recurring themes to identify the principal characters, suggesting that he was anxious to find new ways of binding together the musical fabric; in Alzira (1845), the articulation swings wildly between economic closed forms and a much freer, ‘declamatory’ style. Macbeth (1847) is often considered a watershed: there is a new level of attention to detail in orchestration and harmony, but also an exploitation in the witches' music of the ‘genere fantastico’ (the fantastic or supernatural genre). Just as important, though, is Luisa Miller (1849), a ‘mixed’ genre that drew on both comic and serious elements. o Rigoletto (1851): use of comic-opera styles within a serious context; a daring appropriation of Victor Hugo's character types, in which the outwardly disfigured baritone father claims more sympathy than the romantic tenor lead; differences between the main characters articulated through the forms they sing – most notably in the famous quartet. o Il trovatore (1852): all the main characters express themselves in the traditional forms of serious Italian opera, the achievement of the work lying precisely in this restriction, the emotional energy of the drama being constantly channelled through the most tightly controlled formal units. o La traviata (1853): obtains a level of ‘realism’ very rare in earlier operas: the contemporary world of waltzes pervades the score, and the heroine's death from disease is graphically depicted in the music—from the first bars of the Prelude to the gasping fragmentation of her last aria. o Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855): In an attempt to compose a Parisian grand opera he used the five-act structure typical of the genre, and weakened his usual concentration on individuals; but there is also a slackening of the rhythmic incisiveness of Verdi's early manner. o Simon Boccanegra (1857): offers an exploration of the gloomy side of the Italian tradition: there are no secondary female roles, but a preponderance of low male voices. Most important, however, is an extreme economy of vocal writing, with the declamatory mode more prominent than ever before. o Un ballo in maschera (1859): a masterpiece of variety, of the blending of stylistic elements, with gestures towards the lighter side of French opera, in particular the opéra comique of Auber and his contemporaries. o La forza del destino (1861, rev. 1869): Verdi's most daring attempt at a drama, and is fuelled by an abstract idea—the ‘fate’ (destino) of the title—as much as by individuals. There is not the unifying colors of the earlier operas. o Don Carlos (1867, rev. 1883): Verdi's second and final attempt to write a French grand opera, has a famously unstable text, the work changing shape significantly during its rehearsal period and then over several years after its first performance. After the experiences of the previous three Italian operas, Verdi was more secure in his handling of the large French canvas, particularly in matching his lyrical gifts to the French language. o Aida (1871) is remarkably conservative: the classic love triangle of Verdi's first manner and—just as important—a return to earlier ideas of musical characterization. On the other hand, Aida remains the most radical and ‘modern’ of Verdi's scores in its use of local color, constantly alluding to its ‘exotic’ ambience in harmony and instrumentation. o Otello (1887): came after a long period of absence on the operatic stage by Verdi. In June 1879, Giulio Ricordi and the librettist Arrigo Boito mentioned to Verdi Shakespeare's Othello, a canny choice given Verdi's lifelong veneration for the English playwright. The Otello project was long in the making. First came two other tasks, extensive revisions to Simon Boccanegra (effected with the help of Boito) and to Don Carlos, both of which can be seen in retrospect as trial runs for the new type of opera Verdi felt he must create in Italy's new artistic climate. After many hesitations and interruptions, Otello was finally performed at La Scala in February 1887. o Falstaff (1893): Some two years later, Boito suggested a further opera, largely based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. As with Otello, composing Falstaff took a considerable time, or rather involved short bursts of activity interspersed with long fallow periods. The opera was first performed, again at La Scala, in February 1893. o Changing style - At some time during the fallow period between Aida and Otello we might guess that Verdi passed an intangible divide, and saw the musical drama of his final two operas as residing in continuous ‘action’ rather than in a juxtaposition of ‘action’ and ‘reflection’. The dynamics of this change are intimately linked to Verdi's relationship with Boito. On many occasions, Verdi—earlier a veritable tyrant in his dealings with librettists—gave way to Boito, trusting the younger man's perception of what modern drama needed. A new use of recurring motivic and harmonic ideas is one aspect of his new style. The so-called bacio (‘kiss’) theme in Otello, which first occurs near the end of Act I and then appears twice in the final scene, has a function difficult to compare with previous recurring themes: the final statement of the bacio theme seems like a musical summing up of the denouement, thus having more in common with famous Puccinian endings, in spite of its restraint. More than this, the bacio theme's harmonic character casts an influence over earlier confrontations between Otello and Desdemona.
Bellini (1801-1835)
Italian composer. He was a leading figure in early 19th-century opera, noted for his expressive melodies and sensitive approach to text-setting.
o Bellini’s passing-out piece was Adelson e Salvini (Naples, 1825), an opera semiseria, which was given in the students’ theatre with such success that its author was invited to compose an opera for the Teatro S. Carlo. The heroic opera Bianca e Fernando (Naples, 1826)—the second name changed to Gernando out of respect for royalty—repeated the triumph of its predecessor. Much impressed, the impresario Domenico Barbaia engaged Bellini to write an opera for La Scala, Milan.
Il pirata (1827): a romantic tragedy, was the first of his many collaborations with the poet Felice Romani, to whose elegant verses and feeling for words Bellini responded immediately. Critics drew attention to the expressiveness of the melodies, the absence of conventional vocal pyrotechnics, and the importance given to the recitatives. This was the first opera to carry Bellini’s name abroad.
In La straniera (Milan, 1829), another romantic tragedy, Bellini carried lyrical plainness to its limit, so giving rise to a controversy in the press for and against this new ‘canto declamato’. From then on he admitted more fioritura into his style.
• Fioritura: A general term denoting embellishment of a melodic line (or a part of one), either notated by the composer or added at the discretion of the performer. It is commonly used to describe extended or complex embellishments rather than standard localized ornaments such as trills, mordents, or appoggiaturas. Fioritura consists of passage-work of varying degrees of intricacy which enhances colour and gives variety to simple melodic figurations. Its use is documented as early as the 13th century, and it featured prolifically in the composition and playing of many 19th-century virtuosos, particularly (though not exclusively) Chopin and Liszt.
Zaira (Parma, 1829), based on Voltaire, failed largely because Bellini had aroused local feeling against himself. However, he was able to reclaim much of the music in I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Venice, 1830), especially as both operas had a hero en travesti.
La sonnambula (Milan, 1831), a sentimental opera semiseria, Bellini consolidated his success; however, the tragic Norma, produced at La Scala in the same year, is generally accounted his masterpiece, though it failed at its premiere. (Both operas had the great Giuditta Pasta in the title role.)
After a visit to London following the failure of one of his operas, he then travelled to Paris where he was engaged, together with Donizetti, to write for the Théâtre Italien. He chose the romantic historical subject of I Puritani (Paris, 1835), with the exiled Count Pepoli as his librettist. The opera was an immediate and lasting success, with the advance in thematic cohesion and in richness of harmony and scoring matched by an innovative design which partly avoids the violent conflicts that usually fuel Italian serious opera.
• I puritani is Bellini’s most sophisticated opera – a direct consequence, no doubt, of its having been written for a Parisian audience. To the same cause we may ascribe its unusual wealth of thematic recall, which was a regular feature of contemporary French opera. Bellini’s concern to establish a spacious time-scale (his chief point of contact with Wagner) is evident in the introduction, with its parade of slow triplets against the beat. The role of Elvira offers a ne plus ultra of romantic madness, conceived less as a morbid condition than one of the transfiguration – part lyrical, part virtuoso – of fragile womanhood, such as would find an echo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Be it noted, too, that in every act Elvira is heard before she is seen, as happens so often in the operas of Puccini. The storm that opens Act 3, intended to ‘describe the sadness whereby nature is afflicted beneath the lightnings of the heavens’, is Bellini’s nearest approach to the Beethovenian ideal of ‘Mehr Ausdruck der Empfindung als Malerei’. The opera contains two classic instances of Italian romantic lyricism in the quartet ‘A te, o cara’ and Elvira’s cantabile ‘Qui la voce sua soave’; on the other hand there is a striking departure from the norm both in Giorgio’s ‘Cinta di fiori e col bel crin disciolto’, a setting of eleven-syllable lines such as were usually reserved for recitative and Venetian serenades, and in the duet-cabaletta ‘Vieni fra queste braccia’ in which two five-bar phrases are balanced by a concluding period of nine. Each is a tantalizing hint as to how Bellini’s melodic style might have developed had he lived longer.
• Style of the later operas (La sonnambula, Norma, and I Puritani) - the last operas move freely between syllabic and florid style. Norma’s dominant idiom is mostly syllabic ‘long melody’, but in moments of fury or religious transport she sings floridly. Both Norma and I puritani offer numerous examples of ‘long’ melodies in the manner of ‘Ah! non credea mirarti’, built of speech-like fragments strung together by harmonic or orchestral threads of continuity with few intermediate cadences or melodic repetition. In this last period the lyric prototype finally becomes the default mode for both slow movements and cabalettas, but at the same time French-accented alternatives become more common, especially ternary and strophic designs.
Bellini made a greater impact outside his country than any of his compatriots, with the possible exception of Rossini. Wagner, Schumann, Berlioz, and Tchaikovsky all paid him tribute; and his influence on Chopin is patent. He was admired not so much for his operas considered in their entirety as for his melodies, to which one might aptly apply Milton’s lines ‘notes of many a winding bout of linked sweetness long drawn out’. Equally personal is Bellini’s use of simple appoggiatura discords on strong beats, which combine with a ‘soft’ orchestration to give a movingly poignant effect. Together with the tenor Rubini he helped to give a new direction to the bel canto tradition, towards greater naturalism of expression.
