GRADE 9 many people moved to cities to find work in the new

factories. Often living in crowded and filthy slums

MUSIC QUARTER WEEK this lead to huge sanitation and health problems
and outbreaks of diseases • The new world was not
1 the one of order and reason that many in the upper
classes had imagined

 • The Arts, previously dependant on the rich and

OBJECTIVES:
powerful, were finding a new audience in the rapidly
 Explain the performance practice during the emerging middle classes • In an attempt to escape
Roma ntic period the new realities of “modern” life, Romantic artists
 Listen perceptively to sele cte d Romantic period shunned the Order and Symmetry of the Classical
mu sic
era
 Describe musical elements of given Romantic
period piece s
• Instead they explored new subjects such as:

 Romantic Period Music – Nature and the Sublime

– The Exotic (the recently discovered Far East)
Romantic MusicRomantic Music 1820 - 19001820 – – Intense human emotions such as Love, Grief,
1900 The EnlightenmentThe Enlightenment Joy, Death and Beauty
– Mysticism, Myths and Legends
• The Age of Enlightenment began in the mid – The ideals of Hero and Heroine
1600’s
• In exploring these new ideas Art, Literature
• Between 1600-1800 (Baroque and Classical
and Music became more contrasting and
period) a collection of scientific and philosophical
dramatic than ever before
discoveries had gradually changed the way we
understood the world around us  Caspar David Friedrich - The Wanderer Above the
Sea of Fog, 1818
• This challenged many existing theories –
scientific discovery directly contradicted many Thomas Cole - Voyage of Life, Youth, 1840
religious beliefs.
Characteristics of the Romantic Period
• Reason and Rationalism, rather than Religion,
became the primary sources for decisions and • Greater range of tone colour, dynamics, and pitch
understanding • Greater harmonic vocabulary, colourful, unstable
chords
• This laid the foundation for many of the values
that defined the Classical era – Order, Hierarchy, • Close link to the other arts, particularly to literature
Symmetry and Simplicity • Greater tension and less emphasis on balance
and resolution
 • As the Classical era progressed there were
significant events that challenged these new ideals: individuality of style

– The American Independence of 1775 and The • Self expression and individuality of style
French Revolution of 1789 created the first
Republic states and initiated the end for the • Personalities reflected through composers’ music
established Aristocratic and Feudal societies of • Flamboyance and intimacy, unpredictability and
Europe. These were to be replaced by the modern melancholy, rapture and longing
democracies • Love
– The following Napoleonic Wars of 1804 – 1815 • Nature
saw wars across Europe which killed many people
and started the decline for many of the Old Empires • Shakespeare
– Urbanisation: Because of the Industrial Revolution
less people were needed to farm the land and so Nationalism & Exoticism
 • Create music with national identity, using the folk Brass
sons, dances, legends and history of their
homelands  2 or 4 Horns(in any key)
 2 Trumpets (in any key)
• Create music with melodies from oriental style Percussion
(pentatonic), rhythms and instruments from foreign  Timpani
land Strings
 8 First Violins
Program Music
 8 Second Violins
• Instrumental music associated with a story,  6 Violas
poem, idea or scene.  4 Cellos
 3 Double Basses
• The nonmusical element is usually specified by a
title or by explanatory comments called a program.
Woodwind
• A programmatic instrumental piece can represent  Contrabassoon
the emotions, characters and events of a particular  Bass
story, or it can evoke sounds and motion of nature.  Clarinet
 Piccolo
• A lot of Romantic music was written to tell stories-
 Cor anglais
this is called programme music.

• Because of this romantic composers paid much

Brass
closer attention to the orchestration (which
instruments play which parts!) to make sure they  Wagner
were getting the right tone colour (sound) for the  Tuba
story they were trying to tell.  Tuba Trombone
Expressive Tone Colour  Cornet

• Orchestra grew to 100 musicians. Unpitched Percussion

• The constant expansion of the orchestra reflected  Cymbals

composers’ changing needs as well as the growing  Side Drum
size of concert halls and opera houses.  Castanets
 Gong
• The brass, woodwind, and percussion sections of
the orchestra took on a more active role.
Pitched Percussion
 Instruments that have joined the romantic  Xylophone
orchestra.  Celesta
 Harp
• Cor Anglais • Piccolo • Bass Clarinet • Trombone
 Chimes
• More percussion • Tuba • Piano • Harp

 The Romantic Orchestra

Orchestra
The Classical Orchestra might include:
These changes meant that it was more possible to
Woodwind change

 2Flutes – The tone

 2Oboes – The timbre
 2Clarinets in B-flat, – Pitch
– Volume
 2Bassons
 • Long orchestral, chamber, concerto, opera and
choral works lasting 45 minutes or more to suit the
The Piano growing concert halls and audience. Mahler-
Symphony of a Thousand
• There were huge developments in piano music
• An orchestra of 130
• The Industrial Revolution led to
• Extra brass seated apart
• 8 solo voices
– The Piano was given a metal frame. This meant
• 2 large mixed choirs
it could have more, tighter strings and be louder,
• Choir of 400 children
more versatile, and be heard over much larger
ensembles
Classical/early romantic composers
– Wound metal strings were developed to give
other string instruments greater colour and strength • The Romantic era can be separated into 3 major
sections, Classical/Early Romantic, Romantic and
The Piano Romantic/20th Century.
 Romantic composers began to explore the
full potential of the keyboard Below are a list of Classical/Early Romantic
 Huge progression made iperformance composers you might need to know, so take
technique note!

 Colourful Harmony • Beethoven • Rossini • Franz Schubert • Berlioz •

Mendelssohn • Johann Strauss • Robert Schumann
• Exploration of new chords and novel ways of
using familiar chords Romantic Composers
• More prominent use of chromatic harmony, which • Wagner • Chopin • Liszt • Johann Strauss 2nd •
uses chords containing tones not found in the Saint-Saens • Bizet • Brahms • Mussorgsky
prevailing major or minor scale.
• Chromatic chords add colour and motion to Late Romantic/20th Century
romantic music. Dissonant, or unstable, chords
were also used more freely than during the classical • Tchaikovsky • Grieg • Elgar • Puccini • Mahler •
era. Sibelius. • Rachmaninov
• Romantic pieces tend to have wider variety of
Late Romanticism (Higher) Describes music of the
keys and rapid modulations, or changes from one
late 19th / early 20th centuries which keeps the
key to another. The feeling of tonal gravity tends to
intensity of earlier 19th century music This style
be less strong.
often required a massive amount of performers and
 
towards the end was considered to be excessive
Expanded range of Dynamics, Mahler- Symphony of a Thousand

o Pitch and Tempo • An orchestra of 130

o Sharp contrast of dynamics, ffff to • Extra brass seated apart
• 8 solo voices
pppp, crescendos, decrescendos & sudden
• 2 large mixed choirs
changes
• Choir of 400 children
o Range of pitch extended eg piano,
piccolo, contrabassoon
o changes of mood by accelerando, Romantic Period Music Elements
ritardandos, subtle variations of pace-
fluctuations in tempo. RUBATO! • RHYTHM • TONALITY • MELODY • TEXTURE •
HARMONY • DYNAMICS • TIMBRE •
Mini > Monster STRUCTURE

• Miniatures and monumental compositions RHYTHM • Use of speed fluctuations and cross
rhythm tend to weaken the barline, resulting in a
• Short piano compositions to suit demands of ‘softer’ pulse
home music making
TONALITY • The major and minor key system • The plural is lieder. Songs began to develop in
continues, with increased use of modulation to the Romantic period for solo voice and piano.
distant keys, and enharmonic relations.
There were two types:
 MELODY • Melodies are often longer and less
symmetrical, although the four- bar, song-like • Strophic - same music for every verse
melody still continues in slow movements of • Through-composed - different music for each
instrumental works and vocal works. verse. The voice and words fit very closely together
TEXTURE • Thicker and more complex textures are (reflect each other.) • The piano is more than just
heard within the homophonic framework, with more an accompaniment in these compositions, it is a
orchestral doubling, and thicker piano writing. partner to the voice. Schubert is perhaps the
greatest composer of German Lieds, he wrote over
HARMONY • While still homophonic, and based on 600 (including: The Earl King, The Trout, To Sylvia).
triads, Romantic composers add notes to the triad Other composers of this style were Schumann,
for a richer harmonic style, and make increasing Brahms, Wolf and Richard Strauss. Sometimes a
use of chromatic chords. composer might set a whole group of poems linked
to the same idea, perhaps even sketching a story,
 DYNAMICS • An increased range of dynamics for example, Schubert's Winter Journey.
(ppp-fff) to highlight the dramatic character of the
style.  Song Cycle • Group of songs linked by a common
theme or within a text written by the same author. •
Timbre Tends to be lieder and therefore in German text •
Tends to be accompanied by piano, but can
• Increased number of players
sometimes be accompanied by ensembles or an
• Added larger and smaller sizes of previous
orchestra
instruments, such as piccolo, cor anglais, bass
clarinet and contra-bassoon.  Romantic Choral Music Requiem & Oratorio •
• Harp, saxophone, trombone, tuba and more Requiem- Mass for the Dead • Started with Mozart’s
varied percussion. Requiem, and composers during the Romantic
• Unusual instrumental soloists (viola, double bass, period wrote Requiems to be performed in concert
timpani) in orchestra. halls. • Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi, Faure
• To match the larger orchestral sound, voices were
trained to produce a bigger sound with greater PIANO GENRES
projection. Vibrato became popular.
The most famous piano composers of the time
were: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann,
Structure Liszt and Brahms. They wrote sonatas, and short
pieces such as the • waltz • mazurka • polonaise •
• Movements are often longer mood and character pieces: – the impromptu – the
• Music in several movements unified by the same romance – the song without words - the prelude –
theme. the nocturne – the ballade – the intermezzo – the
• Movements may be linked so that the piece runs rhapsody • Many pieces shared contrasting moods,
continuously and were in Ternary form. Another piece of the time
• In opera and symphonic works, the idea of linking was the etude (study). It was meant to improve the
sections together to create flow of music and action playing technique of the player. This period saw the
is developed. rise of the virtuoso, a person with extraordinary
  musical skill, such as Paganini (violinist people
thought he had made a pact with the devil, because
STRUCTURE AND FORMS IN THE ROMANTIC
he was so good), and Liszt (pianist he was very
PERIOD
concerned with showmanship.)
VOCAL GENRES
 
Schubert & the Art song (Lieder)
ORCHESTRAL GENRES 50. The Concerto Changes were made to the form
of the Concerto during the Romantic period. Instead
As links were formed between music, painting and of a double-exposition, there was now a single
literature, composers started to compose exposition, usually with the soloist entering
programme music. - music that tells a story. (The immediately, sharing the themes with the orchestra.
opposite is absolute music - music without a story.) The cadenza was now written out by the composer.
Musical devices used to express the story or Other changes included: • Different numbers of
inspiration include: • musical motifs (or motives) - movements were used by different composers
short melodic or rhythmic ideas used to represent (Mendelssohn wrote pieces with three movements,
characters or images • transformation of themes Liszt did pieces with one movement. • Larger
where a basic theme undergoes changes to mirror orchestra • Growth of the virtuoso • More
a situation • orchestral colour - use of instruments excitement and 'drama'. More 'competition' between
to represent characters or images • direct imitation the orchestra and the soloist. • Piano and violin
of sounds eg birdsong or thunder • harmony, became the main Concerto instruments
dynamics, tempo and key
Opera
There are three main types of programme music for
orchestra: • The Programme Symphony - e.g. Wagner Wagner wrote many operas, especially
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, The Symphonic German operas. People said Wagner was the 'most
Fantastique (About a young man who is in love. He powerful force since Beethoven.' His operas are
dreams about her, and she becomes a melody in called music dramas. Some examples of his works
his mind. This melody is an 'idée fixe', it keeps are: Rhinegold, The Master Singers and the
coming round again, a recurring theme. It is by Valkyrie. Wagner was a master of orchestration. He
Berlioz,) • The Concert Overture - It is a one had a huge orchestra. The operas were on a large
movement programme piece for orchestra, intended scale, and sometimes took four or five hours to
for performance at a concert. E.g. Fingal's Cave by perform. Woven into the texture are many short
Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, themes called Leitmotiv. Each one represents a
Romeo and Juliet. • The Symphonic Poem (The character, emotion, object or place.
Tune Poem) - It was invented by Liszt. It is a one
movement programme piece for orchestra. Liszt Leitmotiv  A theme occurring through the work
used a device called thematic transformation ( a which represents a person, event or idea  Linked
basic theme that is continually being changed in to the story with a person, object or idea. 
mood and character, like the 'idée fixe'). Liszt wrote Leitmotiv is still used frequently today in TV
a thematic piece called Hamlet. Other examples programmes, film music, video games, music and
are: Danse Macabre (by Saint-Saëns), Vltava (by advertising For example: Jaws theme, Star Wars
Smetana), A Night on the Bare Mountain (by Imperial March
Mussorgsky), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (by
Dukas), and Till Eulenspiegel (by Richard Strauss). 19th Century Nationalism By the middle of the 19th
Century, music was dominated by Germany.
It is music specially composed to be heard at However, composers from other countries began to
certain points during the performance of a play. (To feel they should break away. They used folk tunes,
set the mood, to cover the scenery changed or as dance rhythms and local legends for this purpose.
background music) Incidental Music In the Hall of Some examples of 19th Century Nationalism are:
the Mountain King- E. Grieg Deep in the caves Russia: • Mussorgsky - A Night on the Bare
beneath the mountains. Evil and ugly trolls stealthily Mountain • Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade •
emerge from the shadows and surround peer. Borodin - Prince Igor Bohemia: • Smetana - Ma
Faster and faster they dance round him, pinching Vlast (Vltava) Norway: • Grieg - Peer Gynt Spain: •
and scratching him until he is terrified. Albeniz • Granados • Falla

Suites These are several pieces of incidental music The Main Characteristics of Romantic Music •
gathered together, intended for a play or dance. Freedom of form and design. It was more personal
e.g. Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and emotional. • Song-like melodies (lyrical), as well
(All three by Tchaikovsky), A Midsummer Nights as many chromatic harmonies and discords. •
Dream (by Mendelssohn), Peer Gynt (by Grieg) Dramatic contrasts of dynamics and pitch. • Big
orchestras, due mainly to brass and the invention of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 • Berlioz Symphony
the valve. • Wide variety of pieces (i.e. songs up to Fantastique
five hour Wagner operas) • Programme music
(music that tells a story) • Shape was brought to 61. Specific features  A huge exploration of
work through the use of recurring themes: idee fixe emotional expression  Composers used feelings,
(Berlioz), thematic transformation (Liszt), leitmotif emotions, books, paintings and poetry to get ideas
(Wagner) • Great technical virtuosity. • Nationalism  Composers, poets, writers and painters were
(a reaction against German influence) concerned with imagination, fantasy and drama

Features of Romantic Music • New Structures – 62. Specific Features • Intensity was created by the
Symphony and Opera – both extended to new, epic use of – Chromaticism – Discords – Modulation
lengths – Programme Music – Piano Concerto –
63. Revision concepts • All voice types • Suite
Prelude • Pieces express a WIDE RANGE of
(Higher) • Concerto (General) • Symphony
FEELINGS and EMOTIONS • MELODIES become
(General) • Programme music (General) •
LONGER, less structured and more developed •
Dissonance/discord (Credit) • Chromatic (General) •
MODULATIONS become more frequent and to
Strophic (Credit) • Through composed (Credit)
more UNUSUAL KEYS • More extravagant,
EXTENDED and DISSONANT CHORDS are used 64. New concepts (Higher) • Lied/lieder • Song
cycle • Leitmotiv • Symphonic/tone poem •
 • The HARMONY is often CHROMATIC and
Nationalist • Late Romantic • Sprechgesang
DISCORDANT, especially when portraying strong
emotions • INSTRUMENTS are used in EXTREME 65. Programme music (General) • This is music that
RANGES and parts become more difficult and paints a picture or tells a story through sound
technical – leads to a return of the VIRTUOSO
performer • ORCHESTRAS become significantly 66. Listening Track 5 You are asked to compare
bigger and more powerful. They especially have two excerpts of music.   In the column on the left
much bigger BRASS sections • DYNAMICS are (concepts) of the answer pages musical concepts
used in extremes and often with sudden changes. are listed.   As you listen, tick the musical concepts
ACCENTS and SFORZANDOS are used to make used by the composer under the headings given in.
the music more dramatic • TEMPO becomes less One mark per tick. The marks are at the bottom of
rigid and often changes within works. RUBATO is the columns.   You will hear each example three
used to give a piece more expression • The times
importance of NATIONAL IDENTITY is expressed
through the use of FOLK TUNES and DANCE 67. CONCEPTS EXCERPT 1 EXCERPT 2
RHYTHMS COMMON TO BOTH EXCERPTS MELODIC and
HARMONICMELODIC and HARMONIC Legato
To sum-up the romantic era... • Freedom of form Melismatic word Glissando Tremelando Syllabic
and design. It was more personal and emotional. • word RHYTHMICRHYTHMIC Diminution Accents
Song-like melodies (lyrical), as well as many Cross rhythm STRUCTURALSTRUCTURAL
chromatic harmonies and discords. • Dramatic Leitmotiv Homophony Programme music Ritornello
contrasts of dynamics and pitch. • Big orchestras, STYLES/FORMSSTYLES/FORMS Sprechgesang
due mainly to brass and the invention of the valve. Basso continuo Romantic Sonata MARKS 3 3 4
Excerpt 1 Excerpt 2
59. Romantic era cont... • Wide variety of pieces
(i.e. songs up to five hour Wagner operas) • 68. Symphonic/ Tone Poem (Higher) • Specific type
Programme music (music that tells a story) • Shape of programme music • One movement for orchestra
was brought to work through the use of recurring • Can be quite long • Some contain leitmotiv
themes. • Great technical virtuosity. • Nationalism (a
reaction against German influence) 69. Nationalist (Higher) • Reaction against German
dominance in music influence • Describes
60. Famous WorksFamous Works • Wagner composers strong feelings about his/her country • A
Gotterdammerung from The Ring • Dvorak New lot of programme music was written in the
World Symphony 4th Movement • Rachmaninov Nationalist style
Piano Concerto No.2 1st Movement • Liszt
70. Nationalist (Higher) • Identifies composer’s
nationality through folk tunes and folk dance
rhythms, etc.

71. Listening Track 7 Identify the following: Tonality

Nationalist Feature played by the trumpets:

72. Listening Track 8 Identify the following: Late

Romantic Orchestration Specific role? Why?

73. Sprechgesang • German for “speech song” •

This is a style of singing that is halfway between
speech and song • Singers hit the note
approximately rather than with precision • Since the
early 1990’s in Germany, sprechgesang has had a
new pop culture meaning of “German-language rap
music”

74. Listening Track 9 Identify the following:

Antiphonal choir Xylophone Major Countermelody
Double stopping Pizzicato Discords Anacrusis
Sprechgesan