literary musicians

Literary Musicians

Berlioz’s Literary Trinity

• Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)– literary influences and program music• Virgil

– Les Troyens (1856–58)• Shakespeare

– Le roi Lear (1831)– Roméo et Juliette (1839)– Béatrice et Bénédict (1862)

• Goethe– La damnation de Faust (1846)

Berlioz’s Fantastic First Symphony

• Symphonie fantastique (1830)[Anthology

2-39]– Episode in the Life of an Artist: Fantastic

Symphony in Five Movements– idée fixe– Harriet Smithson

Berlioz’s Fantastic First Symphony

• Symphonie fantastique (1830)[Anthology

2-39]– 1. Reveries—Passions– 2. A ball– 3. Scene in the country– 4. March to the scaffold– 5. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath• Dies Irae

Berlioz’s Fantastic First Symphony

• Symphonie fantastique (1830)[Anthology

2-39]– Orchestration• expanded wind and brass sections• four harps• five percussionists• special effects with mutes, slides, and bowing

Following the Idée Fixe

• “reminiscence motive”• appears in all five movements

Discriminating Romanticisms

• Schumann’s review of the Symphonie fantastique– Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (1835)

• Program vs. absolute music

The Prodigious Mendelssohn

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)• “The Mozart of the nineteenth

century”

– Octet in E♭Major for Strings, Op. 20 (1825)

– Overtue to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826)• Concert Overture

The Prodigious Mendelssohn

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)– Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826

[Anthology 2-40]• later added incidental music

The Prodigious Mendelssohn

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)– Calm Sea and Prosperous Overture (1828)– Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) (1829)– Fair Melusine Overture– Symphony No. 3 in A Minor “Scottish” – Symphony No. 4 in A Major “Italian”– Lider ohne Worte (Songs without Words)

The Prodigious Mendelssohn

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)– 1833: Appointed Music Director of Düsseldorf– 1835: Appointed chief conductor of the Leipzig

Gewandhaus orchestra concerts– 1843: director of the Leipzig conservatory– 1843: director of the Berlin Cathedral Choir and

conductor of Symphonic subscriptions concerts

Mendelssohn’s Paulus and Civic Nationalism

• Paulus (1832–1836) [Anthology 2-41]– oratorio– allegory of the German nation– Lutheran chorales• “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”

Nationalism Takes a Racial Turn

• “Das Judenthum in der Musik” (Judaism in Music) (1850)– K. Freigedank (Richard Wagner)

Schumann and Literature

• Robert Schumann (1811–1856)– Early piano studies with Friedrich Wieck– Marriage to Clara Wieck (1840)– music critic for Neue Zeitschrift für Musik• Davisbund (League of David)– Florestan– Eusebius–Master Raro

Music of Letters

• Carnival, Op. 9 (1833–34)– (A, A♭,B, C, E♭)– (SCH)umann, Asch

The Piano Fantasie, Op. 17

• [Anthology 2-42]• 3-movement work– (Ruins, Trophies, Palms)– Schlegel’s “Die Gebüsche”• Through all the sounds

In the motley dream of earthly lifeThere sounds a soft, long drawn-out soundFor the one who overhears in secret

Schumann’s “Year of Song”

• First 23 published opuses were piano pieces• 1840 devoted almost entirely to song• 1841 “symphony year”• 1842 primarily chamber music• 1843 oratorio• 1848 dramatic music

Schumann’s “Year of Song”

• 1840• Nearly 150 songs• Heinrich Heine, Buch der Lieder• Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love) [Anthology 2-43]– Im wonderschonen Monat Mai– Die alten, bösen Lieder

Schumann’s Last Years

• Large-scale dramatic compositions – Das Paradies und die Peri (1843)– Scenen aus Goethes Faust (1844–53)– Genoveva (1848)– Manfred

• Attempted suicide in 1854, spent his final 2 years in an asylum

Genius Restrained

• Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847)– 500 compositions• 250 songs• 125 piano works• string quartet, piano trio, orchestral

overture

Genius Restrained

• Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896)– virtuoso pianist– variations sets, piano concerto, songs– Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen

[Anthology 2-44]