Romantic Period Listening Examples

1. Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste ... en cinq parties (Fantastic Symphony: An Episode in the Life of an Artist, in Five Parts) Op. 14 (Opus refers to a musical work or set of works usually numbered according to the time they were written. Opus 13 would simply indicate it was written earlier than Opus 14). 

This symphony was written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It represents the development of programmatic music to its pinnacle during the Romantic period. A programmatic work, which as you recall, means that the music depicts an image or goes along with a story line. Back then, programmatic music was a novel idea, which engaged the imagination of the listener as the music helped tell the story, much as it does today in cinematic film (which of course did not exist back then).

The symphony tells the story of "an artist gifted with a lively imagination" who has "poisoned himself with opium" in the "depths of despair" because of "hopeless love."

The score calls for a total of over 90 instrumentalists (note that a composer had to be at the top of his game in order to have a symphony of that magnitude be performed) the most of any symphony written to that time. specifically:

• 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets (one doubling E♭ clarinet), 4 bassoons
• 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones (alto, tenor, and bass), 2 tubas/ophicleides
• 2 pairs of timpani, cymbals, suspended cymbal, tenor drum, bass drum, bells (sounding C and G)
• 2 harps
• strings (Berlioz specified at least 15 1st violins, 15 2nd violins, 10 violas, 11 celli and 9 basses on the score)

Follow the Spotify link to the performance of the Fourth Movement of Berlioz' symphony called "Marche au Supplice: Allegretto non troppo (March of the Supplicant: Fast, but not too fast).. Read the Program notes and Wikipedia notes below and Listen to the entire fourth movement.

https://play.spotify.com/track/3bIV4mv1cI12AzL0dLNM4y Links to an external site.    (Note that you will probably need to use your password to get into Spotify for this link to work)

The following is from Berlioz's program notes:

Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. As he cries for forgiveness the effects of the narcotic set in. He wants to hide but he cannot so he watches as an onlooker as he dies. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow when his head bounced down the steps.

For a more detailed rendering of specific musical events with the storyline, consider the following notes from Wikipedia:

Berlioz claimed to have written the fourth movement in a single night, reconstructing music from an unfinished project – the opera Les francs-juges.^[4] The movement begins with timpani sextuplets in thirds, for which he directs: "The first quaver of each half-bar is to be played with two drumsticks, and the other five with the right hand drumsticks".^[9] The movement proceeds as a march filled with blaring horns and rushing passages, and scurrying figures that later show up in the last movement. Before the musical depiction of his execution, there is a brief, nostalgic recollection of the idée fixe in a solo clarinet, as though representing the last conscious thought of the soon-to-be-executed man.^[10] Immediately following this is a single, short fortissimo G minor chord – the fatal blow of the guillotine blade, followed by a series of pizzicato notes representing the rolling of the severed head into the basket.^{[citation needed]} After his death, the final nine bars of the movement contain a victorious series of G major brass chords, along with rolls of the snare drums within the entire orchestra, seemingly intended to convey the cheering of the onlooking throng.^[3]

2. Frédéric Chopin (Polish-French, 1810-1849).

Chopin was born in Poland to a French family. He stayed true to his Polish roots, writing music that was influenced by the national and folk music of Poland. Such influences include polonaises and mazurkas (both traditional polish dances).

Here is an example of a mazurka.Vladimir Horowitz plays Chopin Mazurka in b minor Opus. 33 No. 4 in Vienna (1987). Watch the left hand as well as the right. In some places, you can hear in the left time the waltz time, which is a meter of 3, similar to the waltz. Also note how the pianist speeds up and slows down throughout the performance. Chopin intended his compositions to be performed that way. As you recall, the idea of using an isometric rhythm in classical music is often avoided because it locks down the melody from flowing and developing its own character.

Chopin: Waltz in D flat, Op. 64 No. 1 ('Minute')

Chopin wrote this waltz in 1847. Chopin was probably better known for his waltzes than mazurkas. Waltzes are German in origin, and were one of the dance styles that swept throughout Europe at the time. The waltz at first was considered scandalous, since the dancers were locked in a somewhat tight embraces and the tempos could be very fast.

The piece is given the tempo marking Molto vivace. Molto vivace means lively and fast (about 132–140 beats per minute). Although it has long been known as the "Minute" (accent on second syllable) Waltz, a nickname meaning a "small" waltz, given by its publisher, Chopin did not intend for this waltz to be played in one minute: a typical performance of the work will last between one and a half and two and a half minutes.The waltz is 138 measures long with one fifteen-measure repeat included, and thus it would have to be played at almost 420 quarter notes per minute in order to play it completely within a single minute. Playing the piece as fast as possible is still a feat some pianists attempt. Camille Bourniquel, one of Chopin's biographers, reminds the reader that Chopin got the inspiration for this waltz as he was watching a small dog chase its tail, which prompted the composer to name the piece Valse du petit chien, meaning "The Little Dog Waltz".

Note that Chopin's waltzes were not meant to dance to, since the tempo fluctuates throughout the piece.

Chopin Waltz Op.64 No.1 Minute Waltz in D flat Major played by Daniel Barenboim.

 Link Links to an external site.

3. Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Schumann in an 1850 daguerreotype

Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Kinderszenen, Album für die Jugend, Blumenstück, Sonatas and Albumblätter are among his most famous.

Schumann suffered from a lifelong mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with "psychotic melancholia", Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness.

Listening Example: Kinderszenen: Träumerei

This composition is "dreamy" in the sense that the pianist lingers over many of the notes. The tempo is not rigid or symmetrical as in the classical period and in the music of composers such as Mozart.

First, listen to the first couple of minutes of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat. Listen for the rigid and isometric approach to the rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hgaxI3JRgg Links to an external site.

Compare that with Kinderszenen: Träumerei done more in the Romantic style, whereby as noted above, the rhythm floats (not very isometric or rigid). Note also how exposed the melody is in the sense that the left hand of the piano does not play a very complex or dense harmonic accompaniment, thus giving exposure to the melody played by the right hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z82w0l6kwE Links to an external site.