Romantic Period

1. Romantic Period Music, Theatre, Dance, Art 1825-1900

2. Music Characteristics • Form • character pieces, concertos, dances, etudes and variations • Harmony • chromatic harmony, accidentals, diminished, and dominant sevenths and modulation to distant keys • Thick textures with full chords were popular • Piano was main instrument of this period • Rhythm • Complex rhythms with two notes against three were used • Sycopation • Style • Expressive personal feeling, singing (cantabile) lines, varied accompaniment figures, varied phrase lengths and varied dynamics and tempos were popular.

3. Romantic Forms of Instrumental Music • Symphony • Tone Poem • Concert Overture • Opera • Lieder

4. The Romantic Symphony & Tone Poem • Expansion of the Classical Symphony • Many movements (more than 4), many instruments • Program Music- Told a story, uses musical themes to represent characters • Hector Berlioz- SymphonieFantastique • Told story of a young man’s love for a woman • Listen to the Symphony & see if you can recognize reoccurring themes & music arranged to depict emotion and action. • Tone Poem- similar to symphony because it tells a story, but is one long movement. • Ricard Strauss- Don Juan

5. Overture, Opera, & Lieder • Overture- • Introduction to an Opera, also program music • Mendelsshon’sFingal Cave Overture • Opera • Famous composers of Romantic Opera: • Verdi, Wagner • Lieder • German for “song” • Melody (usually sung) accompanied by piano • Poetry set to music • Shubert’s Erlkonig- listen to the story it tells!

6. Nationalism • Before, most music was borrowed from Germany, France, or Italy regardless of composer’s nationality • Composers used native folk songs for melodies in their music • Russian Composers- • Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky- Korsakov • Rimsky- Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee • Czechoslovakian Composer • Dvorak

7. Romantic Theatre • Age of Independence • Rise of the middle class, increase in population in cities & towns • Classical period ideas gave rise to more individual thought and want of rights

8. Major Characteristics of Romanticism • Abiding Trust in nature’s goodness • Emotions & instinct more important than reason • Equality of People • Era of revolution (civil war in the United States) • Premium on detail • Details are important on the pathway to truth • Ultimate Truth • Artist became misunderstood geniuses, common people could not understand • Lead to melancholy in the arts • Art served an exhalted purpose • The purpose of art was to lead people and resolve conflict. • Subjective • Democratic criticism- one’s interpretation was as good as another’s

9. Plays & how they were produced • Goethe- Faust • Schiller- William Tell • Backdrops similar to today • Gaslight lighting • More special effects with traps doors, running water, and moving backdrops

10. Romantic Era Ballet • Brought the ballerina to new heights of glamour and popularity • Male dancer's role decreased • 1830-1840 - The Golden Age of Ballet • Ballet became supremely popular during the Romantic Era. • The most important composer and ballet choreographer is Tchaikovsky

11. The Nutcracker Suite • The Romanticism movement saw the Golden Age of ballet develop, as we see in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. The ballet is a narrative fantasy, for it shows the toys of a child coming to life and having an adventure. Part of the Nutcracker Suite is the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," a fantasy of magic, whim, and emotion typical of the Romantic period. The Nutcracker shows two key elements of the Romantic Period: • a tendency to portray life as it is not; it may distort the real world in order to escape from it, and • reason came in second to feeling and intuition. Writers abandon the old rules and started using stylized methods.

12. The Nutcracker Plot Synopsis • Exposition • A mysterious magician and toymaker once invented a trap that killed off half the mouse population. • In revenge, the wicked Mouse Queen cast a spell on Drosselmeyer's nephew, Hans-Peter. • Transformed him into an ugly nutcracker doll. • The only way to break the spell is for the Nutcracker to slay the Mouse King and for a young girl to love and care for him in spite of his awful appearance.

13. Rising Action • Drosselmeyer gives his nephew to Clara as a Christmas gift, hoping to end the curse. • At the end of the Christmas party, Clara goes downstairs and finds Drosselmeyer waiting to put her into a magical land • The magician summons the Mouse King and he and The Nutcracker fight.

14. Climax & Falling Action • The Nutcracker slays the Mouse King, but only through the intervention of Clara, who, out of compassion, saves the Nutcracker's life. • Hans-Peter is restored to his real self. • Clara and The Nutcracker (now Hans-Peter) travel to the Land of Snow, then the Sugar Garden in the Kingdom of Sweets, where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy • Drosselmeyer honors them for their bravery.

15. Ending • Returning to reality, Clara runs out to Drosselmeyer, but sees the human form of The Nutcracker instead • Drosselmeyer prays that his efforts will be rewarded. • His nephew returns; the spell has indeed been broken. • Watch a portion of The Nutcracker-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9nn6BcoRYo&feature=related

16. Romantic Art • Romanticism was a reaction to Neoclassicism • deeply-felt style which is individualistic, exotic, beautiful and emotionally wrought • North American Romantic artist • Hudson River School • Painter’s inspired by Thomas Cole’s paintings of the American Wilderness Thomas Cole’s River in the Catskills