Romantic MusicRomantic Music 1820 - 19001820 - 1900
2. The EnlightenmentThe Enlightenment • The Age of Enlightenment began in the mid 1600’s • Between 1600-1800 (Baroque and Classical period) a collection of scientific and philosophical discoveries had gradually changed the way we understood the world around us • This challenged many existing theories – scientific discovery directly contradicted many religious beliefs. • Reason and Rationalism, rather than Religion, became the primary sources for decisions and understanding • This laid the foundation for many of the values that defined the Classical era – Order, Hierarchy, Symmetry and Simplicity
3. • As the Classical era progressed there were significant events that challenged these new ideals: – The American Independence of 1775 and The French Revolution of 1789 created the first Republic states and initiated the end for the established Aristocratic and Feudal societies of Europe. These were to be replaced by the modern democracies – The following Napoleonic Wars of 1804 – 1815 saw wars across Europe which killed many people and started the decline for many of the Old Empires – Urbanisation: Because of the Industrial Revolution less people were needed to farm the land and so many people moved to cities to find work in the new factories. Often living in crowded and filthy slums this lead to huge sanitation and health problems and outbreaks of diseases • The new world was not the one of order and reason that many in the upper classes had imagined
4. • The Arts, previously dependant on the rich and powerful, were finding a new audience in the rapidly emerging middle classes • In an attempt to escape the new realities of “modern” life, Romantic artists shunned the Order and Symmetry of the Classical era • Instead they explored new subjects such as: – Nature and the Sublime – The Exotic (the recently discovered Far East) – Intense human emotions such as Love, Grief, Joy, Death and Beauty – Mysticism, Myths and Legends – The ideals of Hero and Heroine • In exploring these new ideas Art, Literature and Music became more contrasting and dramatic than ever before
5. Caspar David Friedrich - The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, 1818
6. Thomas Cole - Voyage of Life, Youth, 1840
7. Characteristics of the Romantic Period • Greater range of tone colour, dynamics, and pitch • Greater harmonic vocabulary, colourful, unstable chords • Close link to the other arts, particularly to literature • Greater tension and less emphasis on balance and resolution
8. Individuality of style • Self expression and individuality of style • Personalities reflected through composers’ music • Flamboyance and intimacy, unpredictability and melancholy, rapture and longing • Love • Nature • Shakespeare
9. Nationalism & Exoticism • Create music with national identity, using the folk sons, dances, legends and history of their homelands • Create music with melodies from oriental style (pentatonic), rhythms and instruments from foreign lands
10. Program Music • Instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea or scene. • The nonmusical element is usually specified by a title or by explanatory comments called a program. • A programmatic instrumental piece can represent the emotions, characters and events of a particular story, or it can evoke sounds and motion of nature.
Explanation:
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