Unit 3, Romantic era

Question 1

Schubert

Answer 1

He maintained the outward form of a symphony, but infused it with the new Romantic style: Tuneful melodies, Adventurous harmonies, Colorful instrumentation, Strong contrasts, and Heightened emotions. For the Romantics, the theme was the most important element in form.
He wrote the Unfinished Symphony and the Symphony No. 9 in C Major (The Great, 1825)
Ch. 26 3. A

Question 2

Unfinished Symphony

Answer 2

This was Schubert’s first large-scale symphony.
Schubert completed only two of the planned four movements.
This work was not performed in Schubert’s lifetime.
Ch. 26 3. B

Question 3

The Great Symphony

Answer 3

Schubert blends Romantic lyricism and Beethovenian drama within an expanded Classic form in this piece.
Robert Schumann praised this piece for its “heavenly length”
Like the Unfinished Symphony, this work was not performed in Schubert’s lifetime.
Ch. 26 3. C

Question 4

Berlioz

Answer 4

One of the most literary of composers, he often based his compositions on great works of literature
He became infatuated with Harriet Smithson and made her the subject of Symphonie fantastique.
Ch. 26 4. A

Question 5

Programmatic music

Answer 5

…

Ch. 26 4?

Question 6

Symphonie fantastique

Answer 6

Composed by Hector Berlioz, this five-movement symphony, inspired by Smithson, deals with the passions aroused by a woman.
Berioz used the Idée fixe. Berlioz subtitled the work “Episode in the Life of an Artist” and gave it a program (see NAWM 130).
The program functions as the words of a drama that are read, not spoken.
The text of the program is in a passionate prose that reveals several literary influences.
Ch. 26 4. B

Question 7

Idée fixe

Answer 7

A recurring melody originally employed by Berlioz.
In Symphonie Fantastique, the theme appears in each movement representing the hero’s beloved.
The theme is transformed to suit the mood and situation of the story.
It is first heard as the extended first theme of the first movement
Ch. 26 4. B

Question 8

Felix Mendelssohn

Answer 8

His works have a more Classic sound than those of Berlioz.
He was trained in Classic forms in his youth, composing thirteen string symphonies with Classic forms and procedures.
His mature symphonies blend Classic models with elements of Romanticism.
Ch. 26 5.

Question 9

Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture

Answer 9

Inspired by Shakespeare’s comedy.
Composed when Mendelssohn was seventeen.
It became the standard for all subsequent concert overtures.
The perpetual motion of the opening suggests dancing fairies.
A clear sonata form underlies an imaginative use of musical figuration and orchestral color.
The overture projects various images, ranging from fairy dust to the braying of a donkey.
Mendelssohn would later write additional music for the play, including the famous Wedding March.
Ch. 26 5. C

Question 10

(Mendelssohn’s) Violin Concerto

Answer 10

Was written for Mendelssohn’s friend, violinist Ferdinand David.
Three movements played without pauses.
A transition leads from the first movement to the lyrical andante.
The transition to the finale alludes to the opening theme of the first movement.
Ch. 26 5. D

Question 11

R. Schumann

Answer 11

He viewed the symphony as a prestigious genre and modeled his works after Schubert’s Great Symphony and the works of Mendelssohn
Composed four major symphonies.
His symphonic themes typically dwell on one rhythmic figure
Ch. 26 6. A & 7.

Question 12

Trout Quintet

Answer 12

Written by Schubert.
Piece for piano, violin, viola, cello, and bass.
The work has five movements.
The fourth movement presents variations on his song Die Forelle
Ch. 26 7. B

Question 13

Nationalism

Answer 13

Many composers turned to this, not to break with traditions but to add a distinctive new flavor.
Composers were eager to embrace elements in their music that claimed a national identity.
Ch. 29 1. C

Question 14

Brahms

Answer 14

He combined Classicism with Romantic sensibility.
He matured as a composer just as the Classical repertory became dominant.
He composed in Classical traditions but added new elements in order to appeal to contemporary audiences.
He studied the music from the Renaissance and Baroque, and incorporated elements from these traditions into his works.
He wrote in virtually all of the musical languages of his time.
The true successor of Beethoven in chamber music.
He composed twenty-four chamber works, of which at least six are masterpieces.
As in his orchestral works, Brahms incorporates classical traditions within his own personal style.
Ch. 29 2. A, 3. A, & 4. A&E

Question 15

Liszt

Answer 15

He took ideas from literature from the time for his symphonic poems.
Ch. 29 5. C&E

Question 16

Symphonic poem

Answer 16

Each is a one-movement programmatic work for orchestra.
Liszt composed twelve of these.
The forms are often closely related to traditional Classical structures.
Ch. 29 5. C

Question 17

Bruckner

Answer 17

He composed nine numbered symphonies and two unnumbered ones. Most underwent extensive revisions.
He used Beethoven as his example
Ch. 29 6. C

Question 18

Richard Strauss

Answer 18

His works are modeled after the program music of Berlioz and Liszt.
Ch. 29 8. B

Question 19

Tone poem

Answer 19

Same as Symphonic Poem.

Ch. 29 8. B

Question 20

Also Sprach Zarathustra

Answer 20

Composed by Strauss.
This work is a musical commentary on Nietzsche’s long prose-poem.
Nietzche suggests that the Christian ethic should be replaced by the ideal of a superman, who is above good and evil.
Much of the work is philosophical, but there are some moments of direct representation.
The opening, made famous in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), was inspired by Zarathurstra’s address to the rising sun in the prologue.
Ch. 29 8. B

Question 21

Mahler

Answer 21

He was the leading Austro-German composer of symphonies after Brahms and Bruckner and one of the great masters for voice and orchestra.
He was famous as a dynamic and precise conductor.
He conducted at numerous opera houses, including the Vienna Opera.
He also conducted the Metropolitan opera in New York (1907-10) and the New York Philharmonic (1909-11)
He wrote nine symphonies, and a tenth that was unfinished, and five orchestral song cycles
Ch. 29 9. A-B

Question 22

Tchaikovsky

Answer 22

He successfully combined classical forms and nationalism.
Many of his works have joined the classical repertory, including: Ballets, Piano concertos and a violin concerto (1878), and Symphonies, most notably his last three (Nos. 4-6).
Ch. 30 3. A-B

Question 23

Smetana

Answer 23

…

Ch. 30 4. A

Question 24

Má vlast

Answer 24

This is a cycle of six symphonic poems.
The Moldau, the best-known work of the set, depicts the river that moves through the Czech countryside to Prague.
Tabor?, the most stirring of the set, employs a traditional chorale as a symbol of Czech resistance to oppression.
Ch. 30 4. A

Question 25

Dvořák

Answer 25

He served as artistic director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York
He was hired to help create a national style in the United States.
He looked to the music of American Indians and African Americans for a source of an American style
He applied some of these elements to the Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (From the New World), his best-known work, and to the String Quartet No. 12 in F Major (American)
Ch. 30 4. B

Question 26

Beach

Answer 26

She was a child prodigy.
Excluded from the top universities because she was a woman, she studied privately in Boston and taught herself.
She married a wealthy physician and had time to compose.
Beach was internationally recognized and inspired many women in later generations.
Some of her music has an ethnic flavor, like the Irish tunes in the Gaelic Symphony and the American Indian melodies in the String Quartet (1929).
Most of her works follow German traditions.
Ch. 30 6. D

Question 27

Sousa

Answer 27

He conducted the United States Marine Band.
He also organized his own internationally recognized band in 1892
Ch. 30 6. F

Question 28

The Stars and Stripes Forever

Answer 28

This work begins with a four-measure unison introduction in E-flat.
The march has two repeated sixteen-bar strains of a contrasting nature.
The lyrical trio, also thirty-two bars, is set in A-flat, a fourth higher.
Intended for concert performances rather than parades, the work builds to a climactic finish.
The chromatic break strain creates a dramatic contrast.
Countermelodies are added to the repetition of the trio.
Sousa often performed the work with varied settings.
Ch. 30 6. G?

Question 29

Das Lied von der Erde

Answer 29

One of Mahler’s most radical works
A six-movement symphony with voices
Ch. 31 3. B

Question 30

Debussy

Answer 30

He began studies at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten.
He traveled to Russia and worked for Nadezhda von Meck.
Winning the Prix de Rome, he spent two years in Italy.
He returned to Paris and befriended symbolist poets and painters.
He worked as a music critic.
He preferred the French tradition of restraint, such as in the works of Emmanuel Chabrier.
He found inspiration in Russian composers, medieval music, and music from Asia.
Although his music is generally referred to as impressionistic, it is closer in spirit to the French poetic movement symbolism.
He creates musical images through motives, exotic scales (whole-tone, octatonic, pentatonic), and timbre.
Ch. 31 4.

Question 31

La Mer

Answer 31

Composed by Debussy.
It captures the movement of the sea.
Ch. 31 4?

Question 32

Ravel

Answer 32

His distinctive style is characterized by:
Consummate craftsmanship
Traditional forms
Diatonic melodies
Complex harmonies within an essentially tonal language
He incorporated popular traditions from outside of France.
Ch. 31 5. A

Question 33

Sibelius

Answer 33

A Finnish patriot.
He sought to create a national musical style.
He wrote songs and derived symphonic poems from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.
He established himself as the leading nationalist composer with a series of symphonic poems, including The Swan of Tuonola (1895) and Finlandia (1900).
He gained an international reputation, largely based on his Violin Concerto and seven symphonies.
He employs a “rotational form.”
His reliance on tonality helped build his popularity in Britain and the United States, but it hurt his reputation elsewhere.
Ch. 31 5. F