Time for Moving On
Teacher Ed. about Romantic Music in History
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The Romantic era began with Beethoven at the beginning of the 19 century, and strangely enough, ended at around the turn of the 20th century. The composers below are called "transitional composers" who took music out of what it was in the Romantic era into the beginnings of the type of music we recognize today.
A main genre of this time was Impressionism, similar to the movement in art where the artist made an attempt to portray images through the use of color, shape, and feelings. Form was deemphasized. Then, a listener could draw from his own experience.
The other main genre was Nationalism. As different countries became free from rule by larger countries such as Germany, France and England, they began developing their own styles of music that sounded ethnic in origin and included folk melodies and musical devices unique to that country.
Richard Wagner (VAHHG- ner) (1813-1883)
Wagner helped take music from the Romantic era into the contemporary era. His genius and controversial personality brought the world many good works of music. He wrote operas, but they were not just operas, they were musical drama. He was one of the first to write a work completely on his own, without collaborating., He wrote the librettos, staged them, wrote the music, and planned the set design for most of his works. His four cycle opera, "The Ring of the Nibleungen," was well planned and famous for this.
Some of his other inventions that began pushing the Romantic Era into the Contemporary were a Leit Motif- where ideas were attached to a melody. His music was also highly chromatic and very dissonant, much of which are 20th century standards for Jazz type music.
Nationalistic Composers
Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov- a Russion nationalist composer and mentor of Igor Stravinsky, a famous 20th Century composer. He felt Tchaikovsky had "sold out" to the establishment and was not really creating Russian music.
Dvorak (Dee-VOR-jock) (soft j, almost a g) An accomplished Czechoslovakian violist who was convinced by Bedrich Smetana to play in a more nationalistic style. He eventually came to America and taught at the National Conservatory in New York. His works include "New World Symphony" and "American String Quartet."
Impressionistic Composers
Claude Debussy (DEB-you-SEE) (1862-1918)
Debussy was most famous for his work, "Prelude to Afternoon of a Faune" which was slightly progrommatic and "La Mer" (the Sea) which was a dialogue between the wind and the sea.
Maurice Ravel (Rah-VELL) (1875-1937)
Ravel was also an impressionistic composer who used brilliant, colorful, orchestration, with very clean textures. His greatest work, "Bolero" was very percussive (rythym oriented)and clean. Towards the end of his life, he became very influenced by American Jazz.