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Music History Page
for Students
(activities at the bottom of the page)
The Romantic Era
Why would you want to learn about music history and the Romantic Era of Music History? Ever wonder who influenced current singers and bands? Ever wonder who started the original fashion trends that musicians wear?
Where did Trent Reznor, Jessie from MTV,
and Marilyn Manson get their fashion tips?!?
Did you know....Paganini, a violin player from the 1800s, wore black, had long hair that he let run wild, and intentionally tightened his strings so that they would break when performing, just for an effect?
Who influenced Kurt Cobain, or even the Beatles??
Did you know....Hector Berlioz (BEAR-lee-ohzzz) wrote a piece about his tragic love life, in which if he didn't have the woman of his dreams, he'd take opium to kill himself? Each part of the piece was a drug trip for him on opium. It's called Symphony Fantastique. This helps illustrate that Kurt Cobain's methods were not new; they have been around for centuries.
Who taught us to dislike musicians that sold out to the Establishment?
Has Alanis sold out?
A Russian named Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov was mad at a fellow Russian composer Piotr(Peter) Tchaikovsky (Chi-KOFF-ski) for changing the sound of his music to what the Russian government wanted. Rimsky-Korsakov claims he never sold out, but he sure thought Tchaikovsky had.
All of these people are a part of the Romantic Era in Music History (about 1800-1900). Much of what you know about music is due to these composers from the past. By studying music history, you can learn where these musicians get some of their ideas, and how mags like Spin and Rolling Stone get their story ideas.
Become more educated about what you listen to everyday. When you are with your friends, you like to talk like you know what's going on in the musical world. Why not study it and really LEARN what goes on in the music world?
The Romantic Era- some basic ideas to get you going
Musicians and composers of the Romantic Era were in a huge struggle against how music was supposed to sound in the Classical Era. It was the struggle that rock and roll had back in the 50s to get popular.
In the early 1800s, this struggle was against music that
had a very confined form. The forms in music were cookie cutter patterns,
and composers were only able to change the type of cookie cutter they used.
This was partly because composers worked for kings and queens and these
monarchs had a say in what the musicians could play and write.
Along came Ludwig von Beethoven, a German composer, in about 1770, who was tired of this old sound and did not want to work for a king. He began composing on his own and sending it to an editor to be printed, much like musicians do today. He was one of the first to do this though.
As his music began breaking the forms and molds of the Classical era, other musicans followed suite. Men and women like Franz Schubert and Clara Schumann, alongside Berlioz and others began to push the envelope of music into a different sound. The Beatles did this back in the 60s in much the same way as Berlioz and Chopin did it back in the 1800s.
All of these ideas of freedom, nationalism, and attaching a theme to a character came out in the music.
The lessons that I have put together for you to participate in are meant to make the Romantic Era in Music History interesting, and help teach you things you did not know. They are also meant to make a connection between what you know about music currently and how it relates to the past.
Enjoy! Here are the topics:
What is Romantic Music?
Who were the Great Composers of the Romantic Era?
What does Romantic Music sound like to me?
How has Romantic Music influenced bands I listen to?
Activities/Links:
Want to learn more about music?
The Brain Opera
(kinda wacky)-allows you to compose
Thanks for reading this page! You are welcome to explore other pages on this site that interest you. -JL