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Chapter 15 Prelude : Music after Beethoven: Romanticism

Chapter 15 Prelude : Music after Beethoven: Romanticism. Romanticism Cult of individual feeling Revolt The supernatural The macabre Artistic barriers. Key Terms. Early Romantic Timeline. Romanticism (1). Romantic literature & literary theory flourished particularly 1800-1820

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Chapter 15 Prelude : Music after Beethoven: Romanticism

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  1. Chapter 15Prelude: Music after Beethoven: Romanticism

  2. Romanticism Cult of individual feeling Revolt The supernatural The macabre Artistic barriers Key Terms

  3. Early Romantic Timeline

  4. Romanticism (1) • Romantic literature & literary theory flourished particularly 1800-1820 • A great age of poetry in England • Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron • Outpouring of German Romantic literature • Tieck, Novalis, Kleist, Hölderlin, Hoffmann • As it applies to music, the term Romantic was adopted from literature

  5. Romanticism (2) • Literary figures were talking excitedly about “Romantic” music by the 1820s • Music was now regarded as a major art • Treated with a new respect & seriousness • Largely thanks to Beethoven • Many parallels were drawn between music & literature • Literature’s prestige & power were now extended freely to music

  6. Romanticism (3) • To us, the word romantic refers to love • But glorification of love was just one of many Romantic themes • Individual feeling • Revolt • The supernatural • Freedom from artistic barriers • Music’s boundlessness, blending with other arts

  7. The Cult of Individual Feeling • Everyday life harsh, dull, & meaningless • It could be transcended through free exercise of individual will & passion • Highest good was feeling, unconstrained by convention, religion, or society • Emotional expression the highest artistic goal • Artistic “Bohemians” appeared • Proclaimed romantic love, led irregular lives, wore odd clothes

  8. Romanticism and Revolt • American & French Revolutions • 1848 revolutions & upheavals • In France, Germany, Austria, & Italy • Romantics viewed as rebels against the established order • Many composers took up cause of liberty • Beethoven, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner • Social barriers also broken down • Greater social mobility • Liszt’s affairs with noblewomen

  9. Music and the Supernatural • Many supernatural, even macabre subjects • Dreams, nightmares, & demons • Faust selling his soul to the Devil • A demon who claims a terrified child’s life • Titles included Frankenstein, Robert the Devil, The Vampire, The Magic Bullet • Composers created spooky music with strange harmonies & sinister sounds

  10. Artistic Barriers (1) • A constant search for higher experience & more intense expression • Inspiration & spontaneity could no longer be hemmed in by traditional forms and genres • “Rules” were not to be trusted • Shakespeare taken as a model, with his loose yet rich mix of tragedy & farce, rich poetry & bawdy prose, noble characters & clowns • Shakespeare inspired composed such as Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Chaikovsky, & Verdi

  11. Artistic Barriers (2) • Composers broke down barriers of harmony & form • Intense experimentation with chords & chord progressions previously forbidden • Many imaginative new harmonies • Sonata form, if used, was treated freely • Many new genres emphasized freedom – fantasy, symphonic poem, character piece, etc.

  12. Music and the Other Arts (1) • Efforts were made to blend the arts • Poetry became more “musical” • Paintings & musical works were given “poetic” titles • Wagner attempted to merge poetry, drama, music, & stagecraft in his “total artwork” • Blurred effects cultivated in many arts • Half-obscure verbal meanings • Ambiguous shapes & color blends • Imprecise yet rich & evocative sounds

  13. Music and the Other Arts (2) • Artists tried to express higher experience • Works that evoke the sublime or the infinite • A quality of boundlessness gave music its special prestige & status • Music more “abstract” than other arts • Not tied down to word meanings (as in poetry) or physical representation (as in painting) • Thus, music could express inner experience more deeply

  14. Music and the Other Arts (3) • Music’s special place in Romanticism was expounded by many philosophers • Schopenhauer, most notably • “All art aspires to the condition of music” • Victorian critic Walter Pater • Other arts tried to capture what they admired most in music • Music’s depth, freedom of emotional expression, and continuous, “infinite” quality

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