Chapter 21: Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet, and Musical Nationalism

1. Chapter 21:Romantic Music: Program Music, Ballet,and Musical Nationalism

2. Program Music • Program Music: Instrumental music that seeks to re-create in sound the events and emotions portrayed in some extramusical source – a story, legend, play, novel, historical event • Tells a story through music • Specific musical gestures evoke particular feelings and associations • Connected to the strong literary spirit of the 19th-century On the other end of the spectrum • Absolute Music: Instrumental music free of a text or any pre-existing program • Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

3. Program Symphony: A symphony with three, four, or five movements, which together depict a succession of specific events or scenes drawn from an extramusical story or event • Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique • Dramatic Overture: A one-movement work that portrays through music a sequence of dramatic events • Rossini’s overture to the opera William Tell (1829) • Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture • Tone Poem (Symphonic Poem): A one-movement work for orchestra that gives musical expression to the emotions or events associated with a story, play, political event, or personal experience • Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet

4. Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) and the Program Symphony • Born near Grenoble, France • Composer and music critic • One of the most original figures in music • Skilled in orchestration • Added new instruments to the orchestra • Compositions required an enormous number of musicians • Influenced by literature, especially Shakespeare • Life epitomized the artist as Romantic hero

5. Symphonie fantastique (1830) • The first complete program symphony • Berlioz wrote the program based on his love affair with Harriet Smithson • Five movements: I. Reveries, Passion II. A Ball III. Scene in the Country IV. March to the Scaffold V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath • Unifying theme: idée fixe (fixed idea) • Represents “the beloved” • Appears in each movement • Altered to reflect his changing mood about “the beloved”

6. IV. March to the Scaffold • Re-creates the sounds of the French military bands he heard as a child • Rousing march tempo • Exceptionally heavy low brass • Use of the ophicleide (tuba) • Crescendo and snare drum announce the fall of the guillotine • Graphically orchestrated so we hear the severed head of the lover fall and thud on the ground

7. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893):Tone Poem and Ballet Music • Tone Poem: One-movement work for orchestra that captures the emotions and events of a story through music • Most prolific writer of late 19th-century program music • Professor at the Moscow Conservatory • Supported by patroness Madame Nadezdha von Meck and Tsar Alexander III • Compositions include every genre of Romantic Era music • Primarily known today for his program music and ballets

8. Tone Poem Romeo and Juliet (1869; rev. 1880 • Like Berlioz, found extramusical inspiration from Shakespeare • Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet • Free, not literal, representation of the principal dramatic events

9. Tchaikovsky’s Ballets • Ballet: Dramatic dance in which characters and steps tell a story • Tchaikovsky's talents uniquely suited to ballet • “Short segment” style; could create one striking melody/mood after another • Swan Lake (1876), Sleeping Beauty (1889), The Nutcracker (1892) • “Dance of the Reed Pipes” from The Nutcracker • Ternary form • Evokes the sound of shepherds playing pan-pipes • Clear meter

10. Music and Nationalism • Arose from the political upheaval of the 19th-century • Desire to maintain ethnic identity and support national pride • National anthems, native dances, protest songs, victory symphonies • Use of indigenous musical elements • Folksongs, Scales, Dance rhythms, Local instrumental sounds, Programs based on national subjects • Evocative titles • Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsodies • Rimsky-Korsakov – Russian Easter Overture • Dvořák – Slavonic Dances • Smetana – Má vlast (My Fatherland) • Sibelius – Finlandia

11. Russian Nationalism: Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881) • Russia was one of the first countries to develop its own national style of art music, distinct and separate from the traditions of German orchestral music and Italian opera • The Russian Five (“The Mighty Handful”): Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Musorgsky • Musorgsky trained as a military officer, composing in his free time • “Everything Russian is becoming dear to me.” • Night on Bald Mountain (tone poem, 1867), Pictures at an Exhibition (set of character pieces, 1874), Boris Godunov (opera, 1874)

12. Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) • Originally for piano; orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922 • Each movement depicts a different drawing or painting by Victor Hartmann (1833-1873) • Promenade: Opens the work and serves as transition between movements • Solo contrasts with full brass then full orchestra • Irregular meter and use of pentatonic scale

13. Polish Ox-cart: Creates a sense of time and movement • Two-note ostinato • Crescendo and decrescendo as the cart approaches and slowly disappears • Begins and ends with the lowest sounds; orchestrated with tuba and double basses • The Great Gate of Kiev: Impression of a parade passing through a great arch • Rondo form: ABABCA • Use of different musical styles in each section