Romantic Period Music

The Sound of Emotion

Franz Schubert

Austrian composerLived a troubled lifeComposed almost one

thousand worksSymphonies, sonatas, operas,

masses, choral compositions, and over 600 Lieder.

LiederThe “art song”A composition for solo voice with piano

accompaniment and poetic textFranz Schubert’s Der Erlkönig

(The Elf King) - listen to - read poem in book

Through-composed setting—new music for each stanza to capture the poem’s mounting excitement

Listen to Gretchen am Spinnrade

Frederic ChopinFrench composerWrote almost exclusively

for the pianoWrote “etudes” (studies)

Each explored a single technical problem, usually set around a single motif.

These etudes became short tone poems Listen to Etude #3 in E Major,Op 10,

Ballade No.1 in G Minor OP.23

Franz LisztHungarian composerKnow mostly for

piano worksExtremely big hands

and long fingersPieces technically difficult

Program MusicStarted with Beethoven, but

developed by Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss, and Peter Tchaikovsky

Longer works built around a nonmusical story, a picture, or some other idea

DescriptiveListen to Berlioz’s Symphonie

fantastique: IV

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Russian composerBest known for his 1812 Overture,

The Nutcracker (ballet), and Swan Lake (ballet)

All three pieces are Program Music

Romantic Opera Giuseppe Verdi

Rigoletto, "La donna è mobile“ (read in book & listen) About a hunch-backed court jester who loves his

daughter Gilda very much. The daughter is deceptively seduced by the evil duke when the duke disguises himself as a student. Rigoletto plots his revenge to kill the duke. Unfortunately, Gilda never learns the truth and actually gives her life for the duke. Virtue does not triumph here.

Verdi-La Traviata Verdi-Requiem Verdi-Il trovatore

BeethovenCross over between

Classical & RomanticBegan the Romantic

melodramatic qualities5th Symphony9th Symphony6th Symphony: Pastoral

Symphony

Sergei ProkofievRussian composerKnow for program

musicMost famous:

Peter and the WolfWatch cartoon