Chapter 2. Romantic Composers and Their Public

More freelancing than previous erasOutside aristocratic or church patronage

Inspired by Beethoven

Composed to fill an “inner need” rather than fulfill a commission

Partly due to economicsFrench Revolution, Napoleonic wars left aristocrats unable to afford to maintain private music endeavors

Merging of many tiny states into fewer, larger ones, left many musicians unemployed without courts

Industrial Revolution – enlarged middle class

Composers wrote even more for them

Romantic Era a time of many public subscription-based concerts opening

London Philharmonic Society (1813)New York Philharmonic (1842)

Many conservatories opened in Europe and United States

Public captivated more than ever by virtuosity

Best known Romantic virtuosos: Pianist Franz Liszt

Violinist Niccolò Paganini

Private music making more popular than ever – nearly every home had a piano

High demand for solo piano repertoire

Even operas and orchestral works arranged for piano

Few Romantic composers were able to support themselves through composition alone

Other income: lessons - especially to the wealthy, who could be overcharged (Chopin taught wealthy young women); music criticism; conducting

III. The Art Song

The Art Song

Solo voice + piano

Accompaniment is an integral part of the composer’s concept—serves as interpretive partner to the voice

Poetry and music are intimately fused

Often has piano introduction and ending (called postlude)

The Art Song, cont…

One of two forms:Strophic form: repeating same music for each stanzaThrough-composed: new music for each stanza

Song Cycle – romantic art songs grouped in a set

Unified by a story line that runs through the poems or by musical ideas linking the songs

IV. FRANZ SCHUBERT

Franz Schubert

1797-1828Born in Vienna, musically gifted at young ageEarliest master of romantic art songFirst Viennese composer whose income came entirely from compositionTaught at the school where his father was schoolmaster until age 21

Franz Schubert, cont…

Composed rapidly, turned out music at incredible speedsLived “Bohemian” lifestyle – living for one’s art rather than material goodsAge 25: contracted venereal disease

Became moody and despairedCould not get jobs later in lifeDied of syphilis at 31, one year after Beethoven’s funeral

Wrote over 600 songs, symphonies, string quartets, chamber music, sonatas, piano pieces for two and four hands, masses, operatic compositions

Songs vary in mood and types

LISTENING TO SCHUBERT

Der Erlkönig (1815)

LyricsPoem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

4 CharactersNarratorSick sonFatherElf King

The Story

Father rushing his sick son home through the woods at night

The deliriously sick son keeps insisting that the Elf King, the king of the elves, who symbolizes death, is trying to steal him away

Father tries to comfort son and explains things away as being “the fog” or “the trees”

Father gets son home to find that his son is dead

The Accompaniment

Piano plays rapid triplets to simulate horse galloping until the very end when father and son arrive home

Through-composed: different music for

each verse, no repeated stanzas

text painting

The Accompaniment

More text painting

The Vocals

4 Characters sung by one person

Narrator sung in middle range

The Vocals

Father sung in low range

Low register contrasts with the high-pitched outcries of the child, as reassurance

The Vocals

Son sung in high range

Each of the son’s pleas of “My father, my father!” grows louder and higher as he panics

The Vocals

Erlkönig (Elf King) moves up and down

Erlkönig sung pianissimo (very quiet) to seem sneaky and persuasive

The AccompanimentPiano stops before the final line, symbolizing

the horse’s gallop coming to a halt, and to allow a heartbreaking recitative as the narrator tells us, “In his arms the child was dead!”

The Performance

Challenging for pianoRapid hand movement throughout song

Challenging for singerPortraying characters

Books: pg. 287

“The Erlking” by Albert Sterner, 1910

LISTENING TO SCHUBERT

Die Forelle (The Trout; 1817)

Very famous

Nature, folk-like simpicity

A trout swims merrily in a brook before being caught by a clever fisherman

Modified strophic formA (stanza 1)A (stanza 2)BA’ (stanza 3)

Piano intro that reappears as an interlude after the first and second stanzas and postlude after third stanza

First two stanzas, which portray the trout swimming happily, are the same lighthearted melody (A).Piano accompaniment includes short, ascending passages to depict the trout’s leaps and twistsThird stanza is more dramatic, minor, agitated, depicting the trout being caught.

Books: pg. 290

LISTENING TO SCHUBERT

Piano Quintet in A Major (Trout; 1819), Fourth Mvmt

Commissioned by a cellist who admired Die Forelle and asked Schubert to write variations on it

Variations found in 4th and 5th mvmts

Scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass

V. ROBERT SCHUMANN

Born in Zwickau, Germany

Son of bookseller, loved literature

Wrote poetry, composed, decent pianist

Studied law in LeipzigRarely attended lectures and devoted time to literature and music

Age 20 – tried to become piano virtuoso

Developed finger pains/problemsUsed mechanical device to stretch/strengthen fingersDidn’t work – one finger permanently crippled

Still composed many piano worksVery personal, autobiographical

Multiple Personality Disorder“Florestan” and “Eusebius”

Often signed his articles written for the New Journal of Music with these names

Met his piano teacher’s daughter and prize pupil, Clara Wieck, when he was 18 and she was a 9-year-old piano prodigy

Got engaged when she was 17, despite her father’s wishes

Happy marriage, 8 children

Physical and mental health deteriorated

1854: tried to commit suicide, committed himself to an asylum where he died 2 years later

Schumann’s Music

Wrote art songs, piano music, symphonies, chamber music

Much of it organized into cycles or sets

Full of extramusical references – thought of music in emotional, literary, and autobiographical terms

LISTENING TO SCHUMANN

Carnaval (1834-1835)

Cycle of 21 brief pieces with titles evoking a festive masked ball

Varied characters, moods, activities

He called it a “musical picture gallery”Includes

Sketches of fellow musiciansYoung women in his life at the timeStock characters from commedia dell’arteSelf-portraits representing the introverted and outgoing sides of his own personality (Florestan and Eusebius)

Books pg. 294

VI. CLARA WIECK SCHUMANN

Concert Pianist, premiered many of her husband’s works and those of Brahms.

Daughter of well known musicians and teachers

Married day before 21st birthday

Married for 14 years

Considered herself primarily a performer

Wrote art songs, lyrical and virtuoso piano pieces

LISTENING TO CLARA SCHUMANN

Romance in G Minor for Violin and Piano, Op. 22, No. 2 (1853)

Dedicated to a friend of hers who played them for his employer: King George V of Germany, who loved them

The term “romance” was often used for short, lyrical pieces for piano or solo instrument with piano accompaniment.

Displays her gifts as a melodist.

Books pg. 298