A History of Western Music

CHAPTER 25

The Romantic Generation: Song and Piano music

➢ most surviving Middle Age- 18th cent music was composed for THE CHURCH/COURTS
➢ Music began all-around more popular, in-home playing as well as concert-going
➢ “for music that focused on individuality, originality, fantasy, expression of pure emotion,
and transcending conventional limits in pursuit of deeper truths”
➢ New styles (from above) are called ROMANTIC
○ Romantic- identify music of the entire 19th cent(but a lot of styles and ideas are
grouped in with it)
I. The New Order, 1815-1848 (pg 580)
➢ French Revolution turned peasants and workers into citizens
➢ Napoleon’s wars disbanded old political ways and taught Revolutionary ideas like
liberty, equality, brotherhood, and national identity throughout Europe
➢ 1814-15 Congress of Vienna made a new map
➢ Italy/German-speaking lands still partitioned but felt a sense of belonging
➢ “The eighteenth-century cosmopolitan ideal was replaced by the expectation that
composers write music true to tier national identity”
➢ The Americas had revolution too- Haiti establishment in 1804, Latin America
independence in 1810-24, Us expanded west/south in 1803-46, Canada united in
1841
A. The Decline of Aristocratic Patronage
➢ War and inflation ruined aristocracy, plus over 100 small states were
absorbed, along with MANY small courts/supporters of the arts
➢ Typical musicians made a living as a “free agent” with public
performances, teaching, composing on commission, or composing for
publication
➢ Musicians didn’t need to know how to play many different instruments like
courtly performers did(like Bach or Haydn)
➢ Most prominent musicians in this time were ​virtuosos(​ performers who
specialised in one instrument and dazzled audiences with displays of
technical mastery)
B. Middle-Class Music-Making
➢ Upper and middle classes had money for instruments and lessons;
became escape/creative outlet/personal freedom
➢ Music as a means of social control: state-sponsored opera with political
messages
➢ Amateur church choirs and factories organized wind bands to distract
from organizing unions or drinking
➢ Music kept the women at home; women expected to play for hours at
piano to attract a suitor
C. The Piano
 ➢ Center of home music, made cheap and widely available through new
manufacturing innovations; played especially by women
➢ Innovations in piano effects and extended range
D. The Market for Music and The New Idiom
➢ Boom in music publishing because of increase in amateur musicians;
1770’s largest publishers had 100s of pieces… 1824 they had tens of
thousands; HIGH demand
➢ Increasing number of music stores 30 in London in 1794 to 150 in 1824
➢ Lithography (invented in 1796) allowed for cheap printing and fancy
illustrations
➢ Arrangements made for orchestral/chamber music for solo piano/duets to
allow amateurs access to these pieces
➢ New musical idiom: early Romantic style (created to please amateurs)
a) Tuneful melodies, attractive accompaniment, little counterpoint,
relatively uniform rhythm and level of difficulty measure to
measure, predictable phrasing, and simple song-like forms.
b) Idiomatic writing for the modern piano (exploits textures,
sonorities, and dynamic contrast now possible) accomplished by
using familiar chords and progressions then adding a little spicy
harmony and strong musical and extramusical imagery.
c) Innovations in harmony due to competition in sales: more
nonharmonic tones, unexpected progressions, chromatic chords
and voice leading, direct modulation, and tonal ambiguity.

II. Romanticism (pg 587)

➢ New idiom that focuses on melody, emotion, novelty, and individuality is
similar to Romanticism in literature and art= ​Romantic
➢ Romantic in sense of medieval romance- poem/tale of heroic
events/person-- something distant, legendary, fantastical in comparison to
real life situations
➢ Philosopher Friedrich Schlegel identifies “classical” poetry (beautiful,
limited scope and theme, universally valid) and “romantic” poetry (mixed
genres and form, transgressed rules and limits, expressed insatiable
longing and rich nature)
➢ Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and Robert and Clara Schumann
became the well known “romantics”
➢ By mid 19th cent. Schlegel’s dichotomy talked about the elegant, natural,
simple, clear, formally closed, and universally appealing music of Haydn
and Mozart from 2nd quarter of the 19th cent. And called it Romantic due
to its original, interesting, evocative, individual, expressive, or extreme
nature
➢ The divide between the Classical and Romantic period started to become
clearer, sometime in the 1820’s
 ➢ 1815 has significant political events that historians use as a good starting
point of the Romantic Era
➢ “Romantics saw artists as pursuing not money but a higher ideal of
enlightening the world through access to a realm beyond every day.” PG
588
➢ Romanticism encourages expressing intense emotion; composers respect
to form and harmony but allow their imagination to lead them
➢ E. T. A. Hoffmann, and other writers, thought of instrumental based music
to be ideal for the Romantic era because it didn’t use conventional words
to invoke emotion
➢ Ludwig Tieck made a distinction between instrumental musical works;
absolute, characteristic(or descriptive), and program music.
➢ Program Music​- grammatic work recounts narrative or sequence of
events, often spelled out in an accompanying text called a ​program ​( was
a thing back in the 17th cent)
➢ Character music- ​depicts or suggests a mood, personality, or scene,
usually indicated in its title
➢ Absolute Music​- offers an idealized play of sound and form
➢ Organic​- describes a musical work in which all the parts relate to each
other and to the whole like the parts of a single organism, derived from a
common source
➢ Gothe argues that artists should shape their works so all parts are
unified/from a common source(like a plant)
➢ “In the metaphor of organicism, motivic links can contribute more to a
work’s unity than it harmonic plan or use of a conventional form.” PG 589
➢ Literature was the center of most compositional works
➢ Berlioz and Schumann were professional music critics
➢ Liszt and Wagner wrote influential essays on music
➢ Wagner wrote his own opera librettos
III. Song (pg 590)
➢ Voice and piano was preferred medium(wide range with minimal forces)
➢ Texts were strophic poems, words were meant to be understood
➢ Song variation from simple setting(same melody) to through-composed
➢ The most influential repertoire is the German Lied
A. The Lied
➢ Popularity grew after1800
➢ Common themes were someone confronting a greater force of
nature/society and nature as a metaphor for human experience
➢ The main poetic genre was the ​lyric
➢ Lyric- a ​strophic poem on one subject expressing a personal feeling or
viewpoint
➢ Johann Gottfried von Herder’s ​Volkslieder
➢ Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim’s ​Des Knaben Wunderhorn( The
Boy’s Magic Horn)
 ➢ In the late 18th cent. new German form called ​Ballad
➢ Ballad- (​ 1)long narrative poem, or the musical setting of such a poem (2)
Late 18th cent German poetic form that initiated the folk ballad of England
an Scotland and was set to music by German Composers. The ballad
expanded the Lied in both form and emotional content
➢

B. Franz Schubert
1. First great master of Romantic Lied
2. Prolific composer
3. Raised with music at home and school
a) Studied piano, singing, violin, organ, counterpoint, figured bass
b) Counterpoint lessons from Antonio Salieri
c) Won free first-class education at prestigious Vienna boarding
school bc of musical talent
4. Trained to be a schoolmaster like his dad, became one but composed too
a) 1815 he produced 140 songs and published in 1818
b) Became full-time composer after
5. 1821 his music widely performed in Vienna
a) Lots of money from publication; freelance! patronage not needed
6. Died at 31
7. Over 600 songs
8. Schubert’s Lieder
a) 59 poems of Goethe
b) Music equal in importance to words, not just a frame
c) Embodied the character/description/theme/subject of the Lied with
melody, accompaniment, harmony, and form
d) Form: simple subject = simple form (strophic) contrasted with
complex subject and through-composed (ballad, declamatory or
arioso styles) or modified strophic, some ternary or AAB
e) Variations in melodies: folk for rural, sweet and melancholy,
dramatic
f) Accompaniment sets mood and reflects image (e.g. spinning
wheel)
g) Harmony as expressive device: reinforces poetry with simple
chords for simple subject or major and minor mix for sweet, drama
= complex modulation (chromatic mediant)
9. Schubert’s legacy
a) Ability to capture mood and character with music, emotive and
descriptive and beautiful, set a standard
C. Robert and Clara Schumann
1. Robert first successful successor of Schubert
a) Known for piano, symphony and chamber
 b) 120+ songs in 1840 mostly about love inspired for love of Clara
(Wieck)
c) Believed music should capture a poem’s essence in its own terms
d) Voice and piano equal, piano given long inter/pre/postludes
e) Dichterliebe: poems by Heinrich Heine
(1) Suggests the recall of an ended relationship
(2) Im Wundershonen Monat Mai: remembers the beginning of
love, harmonic ambiguity and tentativeness, longing and
desire through suspension and appoggiatura; sign of
unrequited love by not settling on a key and ending on
dominant 7th (Romantics saw completion and resolution as
unrealistic)
(3) Aus meinen​ Tränen sprießen: resolves some ambiguity
with tonic and stays tentative, voice doesn’t cadence on
tonic
(4) Continues with songs of mutual love and contentment
(5) Song 7 Ich grolle nicht (I am not resentful): things go bad,
heartbreak, vocalist says he is not resentful but is not
convincing
(6) Next songs express pain
(7) Song 12: Am leuchtenden sommermorgen: flowers tell him
not to be angry, and he begins to accept; extended piano
postlude
(8) Final song: puts his memory into a casket and return of
piano postlude, ends with chord that ended first song
without the 7th.
2. Robert (1810-1856) influential music critic and composer
a) Especially popular composition for piano, song, symphony, and
chamber
3. Clara (1819-1896) one of the foremost pianists of her time, composer,
and teacher
4. Robert’s education and career:
a) Studied piano from 7y/o and composed
b) Father a writer, literature influence
c) Studied law but then trained to be a concert pianist until injured
and turned to composing and music critic
d) Founder and editor of Leipzig’s New Journal of Music
e) As a critic: advocated for Schubert, Brahms, and Chopin and
study of old composers
f) Wrote for piano until 1840, songs 1840, symphonies 1841,
chamber 1842-43, oratorios 1843, dramatic 1847-48, church 1852
g) 1850-53 municipal music director
h) Fired from conducting job
i) Mental instability (depression and syphilis)
 (1) Episodes of strange behavior and aural hallucinations
(2) Suicide attempt in 1854, sent to an asylum, died 1856
5. Clara’s education and career
a) Trained by her dad Friedrich Wieck
b) Child prodigy by first public piano playing at 9 y/o
c) Toured Europe
d) Renowned for using memory to perform and not embellishing
(new practice)
e) Friedrich tried to stop her from marrying Robert in 1840
f) Clara toured Europe playing piano and Robert conducted
g) Had 8 kids but continued to compose, perform, and teach
(1) Almost all works published
h) Toured again after Robert died and taught in conservatory;
stopped composing to edit and promote Robert’s music and
advise Brahms
6. Clara’s Lieds had parallel style to Robert’s with ludes, figuration, voice
equality of imagery
7. (Other Lied composers: Mendelssohn, Hensel, Liszt, Brahms, Hugo Wolf,
Mahler, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg)
a) Schubert known in France in 1830s and helped romance to
spread, Lied French version “melodie” (Massenet, Faure, and
Debussy composed these) other countries influenced too
D. British and North American Song
1. British ballads/drawing room ballads
2. North American parlor song
3. Sung at home, in musical theater, and concerts
4. Strophic or verse-refrain form with piano
5. pre/postludes
6. Expression only in voice, piano supports
7. Performers had freedom to adorn and reshape
8. Most famous ballad: Henry R. Bishop’s Home! Sweet Home!
a) From opera Clari
b) Simple, diatonic, triadic
c) Tuneful, expressive, charming
9. Most notable in Canada: James P. Charles (1807-77) Lays of the Maple
Leaf
10. American: Stephen Foster (1826-64)
a) First in America to just be a composer
b) Minstrel shows
c) Wrote his own texts
d) No formal composition training
e) Wrote a combo of British ballad, American minstrel songs,
German Lieder, Italian opera, and Irish folk
f) Easy to perform and remember
 g) Wholly diatonic, stepwise or pentatonic
h) 4 measure phrases
i) Simple harmony and accompaniment
IV. Music for Piano (pg 600)
1. Second most popular genre
2. Three purposes for piano compositions (combined sometimes):
a) Teaching (etudes, method books)
b) Amateur enjoyment (dances, lyrical pieces modeled on song,
character pieces, sonatas)
c) Public performance (bravura pieces for virtuosos)
B. Schubert
1. Amateur works: marches, waltz, and other dances
a) Appealed to amateur by combining attractive sonorities,
interesting harmony, emotional expressivity, and performance
challenges
b) Most famous: 11 sonatas and Wanderer Fantasy
(1) Sonatas (innovations influencing later composers): lyrical;
melody not developed but put in different environments for
new meaning, 3 keys in the expo, slow movements like
impromptus
C. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
1. Influences: Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and contemporaries
a) Combined contrapuntal skill and romanticism and classical
forms/techniques
2. Virtuoso on piano and organ
a) Fluent technique more important to him than display of “old style”
virtuosity of Mozart, unlike contemporary virtuoso
3. 3 sonatas, variations, fantasies, songs without words (music says more
than words)
4. Parents gave him and his sister (Fanny Hensel) good education in music
from young age (serious composing at 11y/o)
5. Composed, traveled, concert tours as pianist and conductor
6. Music director in Dusselforf, music director and conductor of Gewandhaus
Orchestra in Leipzig (and Berlin?)
7. 1843 founded Leipzig Conservatory (Schumanns taught here)
8. Died of strokes at 38 y/o
D. Robert Schumann
1. Up to 1840 only composed solo piano works
2. Mostly short character pieces (important titles, sometimes after the music)
3. Emotional and imaginative, fragmented with no conclusive ending,
musical ciphers give motive unity throughout the piece
E. Clara Schumannn and Fanny Hensel
1. Highly-skilled pianist-composers
 a) Schumann was public and published, famous for no embellishing
but improv
b) Hensel was private
(1) Studied piano/composing and equal to Felix but
discouraged from going public, Felix published some of her
works under his name
(2) Married Hensel and led a salon in her house and played
piano, conducted choral and orchestral works, presented
her works
(3) Composed 400+ works mostly for home
(4) Husband convinced her to publish but died shortly after of
stroke in 1846
(5) Das Jahr (her masterpiece) large scale and ambitious
F. Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
1. Solo piano works really popular
2. Born in Warsaw (Russian-owned Poland)
3. Prodigy pianist, improviser, composer
a) Published by 7/o
b) Studied at Warsaw Conservatory
c) Toured and performed throughout Europe
4. Polish style, virtuosic
5. Moved to Paris in 1831
a) “Most fashionable” piano teacher for the wealthy
b) Only performed rarely; costly lessons
6. Died in 1849
7. Idiomatic writing, appealing to all
8. Composed piano music for teaching, amateurs, and performance
a) Created the concert etude
b) 24 preludes, the new well-tempered clavier
9. Waltzes, mazurkas, and polonaises
a) Stylized dances
b) Often composed for students and dedicated to them
c) Extremely idiomatic; waltzes and mazurkas moderately difficult but
sounds good (Chopin was good at that)
d) Polonaise - courtly, aristocratic, ¾ dance, figure of eighth sixteenth
sixteenth rhythm on the first beat
e) Mazurkas - Polish folk dance that became an urban ballroom
dance in Paris + Poland
(1) ¾ accents on weak beats
(2) Dotted figure on first beat
(3) Simple accompaniment
(4) 4 measure phrases, periods: ||:A:||:BA:||:CA:||
(5) Instrumental style melody
(6) Trills, grace notes, large leaps, slurs, uneven tempo
 (7) Rubato - slight anticipation or delay of melody; happens
more than where written
10. Nocturne - French “night-piece” mood piece evoking night, embellished
melody and sonorous accompaniment
a) Romantic fascination with night and dreams
b) Chopin’s nocturnes draw on Bel Canto vocal style
(1) Influenced by Irish John Field, inventor of the nocturne and
Maria Szymanouska (Polish)
11. Songs without words
a) Virtuoso elements
12. Chopin one of first to compose instrumental ballade
a) More demanding than others
b) Scherzos serious, not a joke; tricky rhythm and theme
13. Sonatas
a) 4 movement sonata, minuet/scherzo, slow finale
14. Characteristics:
a) Polish nationalism
b) focus on piano
c) virtuosity for public performance w/ elegant lyricism
d) originality in melody, harmony, and piano because of public
demands
e) Created piano texture separated from choral/ensemble texture
(new repertory of idiomatic piano)
G. Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
1. Foremost piano virtuoso of his time
2. Devised new playing techniques and textures for piano music
3. Innovations in form and harmony
4. Inventor of symphonic poem and the masterclass
5. Education and career:
a) Born in German speaking part of Hungary that is now Austria
b) Father was an official for Esterhazy and an amateur musician,
taught Liszt piano at 6 y/o
c) They moved to Vienna for Liszt to study with Carl Czerny and
theory/counterpoint with Salieri
d) By 11y/o he was a virtuoso, they moved to Paris
e) His father died in 1827, Liszt began private teaching piano then
started career as concert virtuoso
f) 1848 stopped and dedicated to composing, conducting, and
teaching
g) 1848-1861 became court music director at Weimar
h) Encouraged new music (like Wagner), had love affairs with
wealthy women
i) 1861-70 lived in Rome, took minor orders in Catholic Church,
spent rest of life in Rome, Weimar, and Budapest
6. At 12 y/o in Paris given a 7 octave piano with double escapement action,
allowing quick repetition and new virtuosic possibilities
7. Frequented salons, core intellect and art in PAris
8. Countess Marie d’Agoult his lover, lived with her in Switzerland and Italy
1835-39
9. 1839-1849 gave over 1000 solo concerts
a) Touring Europe to Turkey, Romania, and Russia
b) 1st pianist to solo in large halls, pioneered term recital and turned
piano so audience saw the side profile
c) First to play a range of music from Bach to contemporaries, played
entirely from memory
d) Insisted on a quiet audience
10. Compositions inspired by Hungarian or Romani (gypsy) melodies (19
Hungarian Rhapsodies) and operatic paraphrases transcribing them to
piano
11. Playing style of Vienna and Paris virtuosos and new personal style
12. 1831, Chopin moved to Paris and Liszt adopted his melodic lyricism,
rubato, rhythmic license, and harmonic innovations
13. Influenced by Paganini (1782-1840)
a) Hypnotic artist who raised virtuoso standard, pushed instrument to
its limit
14. Playing and composing echniques:
a) Un sospiro (virtuosic)
b) Large hands spanning a tenth
c) Chromatic harmony, chromatic movement from one chord to the
next (e.g. diminished7 to aug.6)
d) Melodic decoration of dissonance with no resolution to
consonance
e) Interest in thirds, modulating circle of M3 (Schubert’s invention)
f) Lots of aug. and diminished 7, whole tone and octatonic (ahead of
his time, pentatonic melody)
15. Sonata in B Minor
a) 4 main themes in one extended sonata form subdivided into 3
sections of exposition, development, and recap called
double-function form
16. Piano arrangements
a) Operatic paraphrases (reminisces) - free fantasies on popular
opera excerpts
b) Transcriptions of Schubert, Beethoven, Berlioz, Bach, and Wagner
17. Reputation:
a) Established traditions of modern recital
b) Developed new playing techniques
c) Provided model to emulate
d) Opened new possibilities in harmony and form
 H. Louis Moreau Gottschalk
1. American pianist and composer, international reputation, born in New
Orleans
2. Studied piano and organ from 5y/o
3. 1841 went to Paris for more training
4. Toured Europe 1845-52
a) 1845 Chopin predicted he’d be the “king of pianists”
5. Pieces with melodies and rhythm of Caribbean made him popular
6. Incorporation of American sounds and rhythm
7. Influenced European composers with American style
8. 1853 end of his life he toured US, Caribbean, and South America
V. The Romantic Legacy (pg 616)
➢ Home-music making caused boom in piano and song
○ Declined in late 19th century and early 20th, replaced by bikes, radio, and
phonograph (less leisure time
○ Schubert and Schumann songs defined Lieder genre
○ Foster defined parlor/pop song in America
➢ New composers redefined piano music
➢ Melody as centric
➢ Composer as artist
➢ Originality as requirement --causing faster style development
CHAPTER 26

Romanticism in Classical Forms: Choral, Chamber, and Orchestral Music

I. Choral Music
A. Dominated by the past + amateurs
1. Strong market for choral works; low price but a greater quantity of parts to
print
2. Types of choral music in 19th century:
a) Short choral works w/ secular text, usually homophonic w/ melody
in upper voice, with or without accompaniment on piano or organ
b) Oratorios and similar large works for large chorus + orchestra and
one or more solo vocalist; dramatic, narrative, or sacred texts; for
concerts
c) Liturgical works, anthems, hymns, and sacred pieces for church
choirs, congregations, and home performance
B. Amateur Choirs
1. Choral societies
a) self-governing with elected boards and democratic process
b) Members pay dues to purchase music, pay conductor, meet
expenses
c) Berlin Singakadamie the first society; started as a singing class for
wealthy woman
(1) In 1800 there were 150 members
(2) By 1832 there were 350 singers and an orchestra
d) More societies all over:
(1) all-men choruses in Germany and Germans in US
(2) Parisian chorus in 1833 spawned choral societies called
orpheons (became central for middle-class music)
e) Choral singing was thought to occupy leisure time, promote unity,
elevate musical tastes, and encourage spiritual and ethical values
f) Democratic nature of these societies caused them to be banned in
Austria until later
2. Music Festivals
a) Large amateur chorus was central, singers gathering from across
Europe and North America to perform
b) Festival choruses larger than societies
(1) World Peace Jubilee in 1872 Boston had orchestra of
2,000 and chorus of 20,000
C. Partsongs
a) For smaller choirs of both mixed and men/women choirs
b) Choral version of lied or parlor song, 2-voice parts unaccompanied
or voices doubled on piano or organ
 c) Mostly syllabic and poetic (like leider); strophic lyric poem used
that would work just as well with Lieder
d) Chorus could be any size, good for concert or home
e) Almost all composers wrote these, but they never became classics
2. Schubert’s Die Nacht
a) A partsong about awe at beauty of night starts over the flowering
fields of spring
(1) Tranquil scene of wonder w/ slow, quiet chords
(2) Mostly major, resonant chords, w/ occasional chromatic
chords for color
(3) Text emphasized at important words w/ dynamics and
melodic peaks
(4) Perfect for amateurs, simple, easy to sing but w/ small
challenges, melodically interesting
D. Oratorios and other large works
1. Core repertory for large choirs: oratorios by Haydn and Handel;
Mendelssohn added Bach + revived his works
2. Mendelssohn’s oratorios
a) His most successful new work
b) Variety of style and texture like Handel and Bach chorale
c) Linked movements for cohesion, Baroque style with innovation
d) Many influences from Bach, Handel, and Haydn but melodies,
orchestration, dramatic effects are Romantic/Mendelssohn style
3. Mendelssohn’s St. Paul oratorio - his most popular piece
4. Berlioz’s Requiem and Te Deum
a) NOT liturgical--composed based on patriotic tradition inspired by
French Revolution festivals with HUGE performing forces
b) Requiem requires 140 players
(1) Lots of brass and percussion to represent Day of
Judgment; bass drums and cymbals play pp for Sanctus
c) Berlioz’s characteristics (according to Berlioz): passionate
expression, intense ardour, rhythmical animation, unexpected
turns
(1) Passionate expression is expression determined on
enforcing inner meaning of a subject
E. Music for Religious Services
1. Vehicle for worship at church and now music for amateurs at home and
public performance
2. Catholic Music
a) Church employed clerics and choirboys (not amateurs or women)
to sing
b) Composers composed concerted liturgical music (e.g. Schubert’s
masses in Ab and Eb)
c) Rossini’s Stabat Mater introduced opera style into religious music
 d) Revival of 16th century choral style of Palestrina
e) A cappella - term used since 17th century denoting old
contrapuntal style (stile antico) but 19th century it changed
meanings to unaccompanied
f) Catholic Church promoting Palestrina-style unaccompanied works
3. Protestant churches
a) New developments of old music; revival of Lutheran music and
flood of new Lutheran music modeling Bach
(1) Psalm settings by Mendelssohn
4. Anglican churches
a) Anthems of Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
b) Women joined church choirs or became professional church
organists
(1) Elizabeth Stirling
(2) Oxford Movement of 1841 wanted to kick out women and
restore 16th century polyphony
5. Jewish Synagogues
a) Transformed by reform movement of 19th century; Enlightenment
influence; adoption of Protestant practices
b) Congregational hymns (w/ borrowed Lutheran melodies), organ
and choir added
c) Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890) - cantor of Reform synagogue in
Vienna; updated traditional chants and wrote music in modern
style for soloist and choir
(1) He commissioned Schubert’s choral work of Psalm 92 in
Hebrew
6. Church music in the U.S.
a) Divided by sect and race
b) African-American church style - later a big influence
(1) 1970’s Reverend Richard Allen started 1st Congregation of
African Methodist Episcopal Church and published
hymnbook
(2) Congregational singing central
7. Shape-note singing
a) American rural South singing tradition of Yankee tunesmith
b) Named after the notation indicating syllables for easy
sight-singing
(1) Reconception of the solmization syllables of Guido of
Arezzo
c) Melody usually in the tenor
d) Open 5ths and dissonant 4ths above the bass; parallel 5ths and
octaves
e) Considered crude and primitive by musicians preferring European
style music
 8. Lowell Mason
a) Trained in music by a German in America
b) President of Handel and Haydn Society 1827
c) Founded Boston Academy of Music (music school for kids)
d) Introduced music into public school education, started US tradition
of music education
e) Composed European style hymns (about 1,200 and arranged
many; Protestant) and hated shape-note singing
F. The Tradition of Choral Music
1. Music for choir often led stylistic developments in music, but in 19th
century it looked back to previous eras/emulated current genres
2. Not stylistically important for music development in Romantic era but
socially important
a) large participation and heard in churches, influencing musical
taste
II. Chamber Music
A. Diversification of chamber music
1. In the Classical era, chamber music typically were string quartets, piano
trios, and violin sonatas. Composers in the romantic era were heavily
influenced by the classical era chamber music. These new compositions
followed techniques of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven’s chamber music.
Because these romantic composers greatly respected the classical
chamber music, there was very little innovation in technique and style.
Besides an increased focused on Romanticism, the most significant
change was in the instrumentation of chamber music. Mendelssohn
composed a string octet and piano quartets, Schumann composed a
piano quintet and quartet. Schubert has a popular example which is
Schubert’s quintet for piano and strings in A Major known as the Trout
Quintet composed in 1819. It’s called the trout quintet because the fourth
movement’s theme and accompaniment come from Schubert’s song
called the Trout. Sylvester Paumgartner, who was an amateur cellist,
asked Schubert to compose with the unusual instrumentation of piano,
violin, viola, cello, and bass. This was possibly because Sylvester did not
like playing the bass line on cello, and preferred to have a more melodic
line. Although chamber music continued to be composed with classical
style in mind, the Romantic era brought differing ensembles with
unconventional instrumentation.
B.
III. Orchestral Music
A. 19th Century orchestra central to public concert life
1. Concert societies from Russia to Pennsylvania, some amateur some
professional
a) Orchestral playing starting to be a profession (not yet full-time)
b) Most major cities through Europe and US have pro orchestras
 c) Orchestras for opera houses, theaters, cafes, and dance halls
(Strauss)
2. Instruments redesigned and improved - expanding color palette
a) Flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon redesigned
b) Extension of wind section range with adding piccolo, english horn,
bass clarinet, and contrabassoon
c) Tuba invented
d) Horns and trumpets with valves allow chromaticism BUT natural
horns and trumpets still used until late 19th century
3. Orchestra size increase: 40 players in 1800 to 50 in mid 1800s to 90 in
1900 (mostly due to more strings)
B. Conductors
1. 18th century orchestra led by harpsichord or lead violinist
2. Concept of conductor developed at the Paris opera (started with audible
beat keeping)
3. Louis Spohr (German composer/conductor) said to have introduced
conducting with baton in 1820 rehearsing the London Symphony
a) Adopted by Carl Maria von Weber, Mendelssohn, and more
4. They became interpreters of music in 1840s
C. Audience and Concerts
1. Audience of middle-class music-makers
2. Concert programs: diversity of works and ensembles
a) Typical concert of London Philharmonic: symphony, aria or choral,
concerto, solo or chamber work, another vocal piece, symphony or
overture (more formal + higher reputation orchestra) before 1850
b) Less formal orchestra program: quadrilles and other dances, choir
music, and a symphony
c) One genre concerts later in the century (Liszt’s piano recitals)
d) Addition of 1-movement works - inspired by opera/play overtures
(1) Concert overture - a sonata-form movement with
descriptive title, popularized by Mendelssohn’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
(2) Concertino - (concert piece) a one movement concerto
fusing sonata form with the 3 contrasting movements of a
concerto, pioneered by Weber
D. The Rise of the Classical Repertoire
1. “One of the most remarkable developments in the entire history of music
is the emergence in the 19th century of a repertoire of musical classics by
composers of the past”
a) Already happening with oratorios, string quartets, and other
chamber works and programs of major European orchestra
b) 1780s: 85% of a program was living composers
c) By 1870: ¾ of the repertoire were composers of past generations
(mainly Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and early Romantics)
 (1) This music was cheaper to publish so more readily
available and easier to perform than new music
(2) Influential musicians and critics promoted this music as
“counterweight” to new music
(3) Considered musical classics and masterpieces by serious
musicians
2. Classical repertoire effect
a) Serious repertoire brought serious concert behavior; audience was
quiet and listened instead of socializing
b) Conductors and younger virtuosos aided establishment of
classical repertoire, saw themselves as interpreters of the
classics; began to prove themselves through performing classics
c) Magnified Beethoven’s influence: “The history of orchestral music
in the 19th century can be seen as a series of varied responses to
Beethoven’s example, as each composer explored ways to say
something new and individual within the forms Beethoven had
cultivated”
E. The New Romantic Style: Schubert
1. Schubert pioneered in 1820s infusing content from new Romantic style
from Lieder and piano into symphonic form
a) Songlike melodies, adventurous harmonic excursions, innovative
textures, enchanting instrumental colors, strong contrastes, and
heightened emotions
b) Themes most important element in form (not phrase/harmonic
structure)
2. Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony
a) 1st attempt at large-scale symphony in 1822: two movements
(planned to be 4) in B minor
b) Followed custom for symphonic development while devoting the
main thematic areas to present lyrical melodies
3. Schubert’s Great Symphony in C Major
a) Blended Romantic lyricism with Beethovenian drama, expanded
Classical form
b) Schumann praised it for “heavenly length” appreciating expansion
of form in all 4 movements
F. Programmatic Romanticism: Berlioz
1. Biography
2. Symphonie Fantastique
a) Idee fixe
b) Cyclic form
3. Harold en Italie
4. Later Symphonies
5. Concert Overtures
6. Berlioz’s Achievement:
 a) leader of the radical wing of Romantic movement
b) led programmatic music development
c) changed orchestral music with new resources of harmony, color,
expression, and form
d) Idee fixe and cyclic form led to the cyclical symphony of later 19th
century
e) Orchestration initiated new era of instrumental color as expressive
tool equal to harmony and melody
G. Classical Romanticism: Mendelssohn
1. More classical sound compared to Berlioz, trained in classical genre/form
since youth, mastered form, counterpoint, and fugue
2. Italian Symphony
3. Concert overtures
a) Piano concertos
b) Violin concerto
H. Romantic Reconceptions: Robert Schumann
1. Clara believed composers were judged by their symphonies and operas,
and wished for Robert to composer for orchestra
2. Primary orchestral models: Schubert’s Great C-Major Symphony and
Mendelssohn’s symphonies and concertos with songlike themes and
developmental forms
3. First Symphony
4. Fourth Symphony
I. Romantic Legacy
1. Early Romantic composers found ways to distinguish themselves from
Beethoven, and played alongside Beethoven’s work but not replacing
2. Second half of the century continue to struggle with Beethoven
a) New genres like symphonie poem (Liszt)
b) Brahms and Bruckner engaged with symphony tradition
c) Drew on models of Romantic composers:
(1) descriptive and programmatic music
(2) links and continuities between movements
(3) transformation of themes,
(4) integrate the Romantic emphasis on melody
(5) surprising harmonies
(6) novel orchestral effects into symphonic tradition
IV. Romanticism and the Classical Tradition
A.
CHAPTER 27
Romantic Opera and Musical Theatre to Midcentury
Opera still central part to life especially in Italy and France, elite entertainment and source of
popular music for all people composers followed national trends; NATIONALISM (political and
musica) part of opera; BEL CANTO dominating; minstrel show in US and exported to Europe
I. The Roles of Opera
A. Opera in elite and popular culture
B. Singers, orchestra, and composer
C. Nationalism (pg. 648)
1. At home
2. Abroad
II. Italy (pg. 649)
A. Gioachino Rossini
1. Biography pg. 650
2.
3. Bel Canto singing
4. General style
5. Scene structure
6. The Barber of Seville
7. Serious operas
8. Guillaume Tell
9. A new kind of tenor
10. Overtures
B. Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) pg. 657
1. Style
C. Gaetano Donizetti pg. 658
1. Lucia di Lammermoor
2. Reminiscence motive
D. Classics of Italian opera
III. France pg. 659
A. French opera under Napoleon
B. Restoration and the July Revolution
C. Grand Opera
- Grand Opera- appeal to the newly well-to-do middle class audiences to
find entertainment
- Spectacle as music, consistent with the fashion that was in France since
Lully
- Librettos focus on romantic love in context historical conflicts;
exploited/used ballets, stage machinery, choruses, and crowd scenes
- Rossini’s ​Guillaume Tell​(1829) had an ON STAGE LAKE
- Leaders of Grand opera were librettist Eugéne Scribe(1791-1861) and
composer ​Giacomo Meyerbeer(1791-1864)
- Meyerbeer’s ​Les Huguenots​ NAWM 151
 - Typical 5 acts, giant cast, a ballet, and dramatic scenery/lighting
effects
- Plot is about the leading events to St. Bartholomew’s Day
Massacre(catholics killed hundreds of Protestants [Huguenot] in
Paris)
- Was famous at the time because religious freedom was becoming
a concern/the control of the catholic church/government
- Act II Finale
- New view of history-- revolutions of 1789 and 1830,
competition between groups as driving events past the
people involved
- ↑↑ Inspiration came from Rossini’s influence on grand
opera And meyerbeer’s time in Italy-- set like Italian opera
finale: orchestral introduction, opening section, slow
movement like cantabile, dialogue in accompaniment
recitatives, fast stretta at the end
- Queen Marguerite de Valois tries to make piece by
marrying catholic Valentine to protestant Raoul. She sings
in an ingratiating Italianate style(Rossinian embellishment;
shorter than aria but long enough to show her personality)
Raoul refuses to marry Valentine, even though they love
each other (Marguerite makes it seem like Valentine was
someone’s mistress) and the music gets dramatic
D. Opera Comique
E. Ballet
IV. Germany
A. Carl Maria Von Weber
1. Der Freischutz
2. Wolf’s Glen Scene
3. Influence
4. Other Operas
V. Russia
A. Russian nationalism
B. Mikhail Glinka
VI. The United States
A. Theater companies
B. European opera
C. Opera as popular entertainment
D. American opera
E. Minstrel shows pg. 668
1. Minstrelsy
2. Daddy Rice and George Washington Dixon
3. Virginia minstrels
4. Social roles
 5. Legacy
VII. Opera as High Culture

Notes from Class

Jan. 6:

Dichterliebe
● Piano’s role important
● Poetry and imagery
● Unification in repeat of postlude
Romantic era reactionary to Beethoven
● Individuality and emotion
● choir in orchestra
● Chromatic mediant
● Chromatic harmony
● Emotional power through harmonic devices
● Melodic innovation in lyricism OPPOSITE of Beethoven
3 Musical spheres in 1815
● Instrumental concert music and virtuoso performance
● Amateur performance
● Opera: some the basis for popular culture and some for nationalistic purposes
Aftermath of French Revolution
No unified nation in Europe democracy

Jan. 8:
Schubert
● starts trend of lots of amateur music
● 300 lieder
● Unconventional sonata form (3 keys in expo)
● Unfinished symphony
● One of the first freelance composers, no patronage (mostly)
● Played violin, organ, piano, and voice
● Successful in all genres (choral, piano, orchestral, chamber, and vocal)
● Characteristics: lyricism, long and irregular phrases, consistent texture in piano with
changes for emotion, flowy arpeggiation and sustain pedal for dreamy sound, modified
strophic to intensify emotions
● Piano equal to voice in Lieder
● Redefined Classical into Romantic and influenced later composers
● Used form for expression, going beyond strophic
● Song cycles tell a story, first composer to write many
● Born in Vienna, taught by Salieri, composed at the same time as Beethoven
○ Distinguished himself from Beethoven by writing songs
 ● Song forms: strophic, modified strophic (his own invention, slight variations in music for
each stanza to reflect the text), through-composed (no recurring music)
● Set precedent for Schumann
Schumann
● Not known as accomplished musician
● Literary background, deep understanding of text
● Advocate for contemporary composers and study of old
● Seasons of composing, genres change in years
○ through 1830s - piano
○ 1840 - song
○ 1841 - symphony
● Character pieces
● Fired for being bad conductor, only position as musician,

Jan. 13:

Character pieces greater than piano sonata in Romantic era

Schumann’s Carnaval
● Dell’arte tradition
● Pierrot (sad clown), Columbine (French maid), Harlequin (jester)
● Images and story through music and titles
● Musical ciphers (Schumann’s individual characteristic)
○ Spelling Asch (A Eb C B and Ab C B)
● Dance rhythms (dotted)
● Updated dance suite with personal story
● Clara added scores and showed the ciphers “Little scenes based on four notes”
● Metric displacement, hemiola, Schumann is a rhythmic composer
○ Rhythmic style and lyrical style
○ Schumann: music should have a poetic basis
● League of David vs. Philistines: Schumann’s music cult vs. empty virtuosity
● The two egos used to critique and compose music
○ Florestan: Beethoven’s Fidelio, rhythmic style, erratic and fiery, revolutionary,
Beethoven style
■ The piece: switching moods quickly, major and minor, passionate
■ Quick tempo
■ Dominant, avoiding tonic
■ Tight voice then distant voice
■ Referencing melody from his work “Papillon”
○ Coquette: distracting Eusebius, flirtatious
■ Dotted rhythms, fast waltz, sudden ff
○ Eusebius: 14th century pope, lyrical style, contemplative, dreamer
■ The piece: repetition with variation in intervallic and embellishment,
“meandering”
■ Lyrical with rhythmic challenges
 ■ Harmonic “aimlessness” lingering on dominant
■ Chromatic bassline
■ Poetic effect through lyricism, lacking virtuosity, passionate
■ Mellow dynamics
Chopin
● Almost exclusively piano compositions
● Most of his time spent in Paris teaching wealthy students
● Polish, moved to Paris for education and stayed bc Poland’s political revolution
● Performed in private salons when he became popular enough
● Shy, not exuberant, frail from TB
● Bel Canto opera singing was his greatest influence
○ Long lyrical lines, improvised sound, Nocturnes especially
● Compositions:
○ First to compose concert etudes
○ Nocturnes, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, waltzes, scherzos, ballades, 3 piano
sonatas (compared to Beethoven’s 32), etudes, and piano concerto
● The piece:
○ Long appoggiaturas
○ duet with parallel 3rds and 6ths in right hand
○ Wide spacing in bass and close in middle for piano resonance
○ Very operatic but too difficult for most voices
○ Modified strophic form, 3 “stanzas” with coda
○ A theme variations without internal repetition
○ B theme more regular but contrasting theme
○ Transitions
○ Intensely chromatic
○ Pedal bass, same arpeggiation pattern
○ consistent texture for focus on lyricism
Franz Liszt, Gottschalk, and Chopin all in Paris at the same time

Jan. 15:

Influence of Paganini
● Mostly as performer rather than composer
● Innovated technique and timbre
○ Parallel octaves, spiccato, harmonics
● Performed in Paris 1832 and famous composers attended
● Died early in 1848 from syphilis and TB
● Played guitar and mandolin, started compositions on guitar
● Compared to the devil, looked unhealthy and strange; he encouraged rumors that he
was the devil/possessed (19th century goth)
● Caprice 24 reused by other composers
Chopin’s Concert Etude
● Artistic and very demanding
 ● Exploiting full range
● Accompanying itself with 3 lines
● Using layering and texture to explore melody instead of development
● Interlocking scales (different scale in each hand)
● Parallel thirds and octaves (difficult technique)
● Constant articulation and accent changes
Gottschalk
● Virtuoso pianist from New Orleans, mother from the Caribbean and father from France
● Moved to Paris, was the first American with an international reputation
● Moved to South America
Souvenir de Porto Rico
● Afro-Caribbean rhythms in classical music--credited with transferring it for the first time
○ Polyrhythmic, right and left hand have different syncopation
● Theme and variations
○ Simple melody
● Habanera
● Marching band in the distance and grows then fades again (sonic arch: pp-->fff-->ppp) -
superimposing ABA over theme and variation (hybrid form like Schubert’s Wanderer
Fantasy which was sonata over 4-movement, sonata-rondo)
● Seeds of ragtime harmonically and rhythmically and hints of blue notes
● Chordal texture dense opposed to arpeggiation in Liszt and Chopin
HYBRID FORM in instrumental music is most important form innovation of Romantic era
Choral music
● Change of church music function
○ Used more outside of church--Mendelssohn’s especially for choral festivals
● Function
○ Promoted as community activity: municipal choir, corporations having choruses
to promote health and education and good habits
● Steeped in traditions, not a lot of innovation
● HUGE choirs bc of community participation
Die Nacht
● Partsong (Schubert wrote A LOT)
● Typical partsong for amateurs
● 2 tenor 2 bass w/ octave range, each part interesting for entertainment of singers
● Depiction of night
● Emphasis of “sh” alliteration for calming