Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Music

Romanticism

1. Main Characteristics

• Chronology: 1805 (Beethoven's 3rd Symphony premiere) to 1905 (Debussy's La Mer premiere).
• Rise of Nationalism: From the latter half of the 19th century, nations sought independence from major political powers. Composers reflected this by incorporating folk elements into their work.

2. Instrumental Music

• Importance: Instrumental music was considered the most important art form due to its ability to express deep emotions without words.
• Orchestral Growth: The orchestra expanded, leading to the concept of the symphony orchestra and the construction of large concert halls to meet bourgeois demand.
• Rise of the Piano: A need for intimate music suitable for bourgeois homes led to the piano becoming the most important instrument

The 19th Century: Romanticism and Realism

In the first half-century, liberal revolutions occurred against the former regime. In the second half, the bourgeoisie took hold as the dominant class in society. Romanticism corresponds to the period in which society was immersed in the liberal revolutionary process. Realism coincides with the stage where revolutions had succeeded. Romanticism contrasts the ideal and the real, i.e., it seeks to transform a reality with which it feels dissatisfied. Realism, conversely, tries to describe society as it is. The romantic writer uses subjectivity, while the realist writer describes with objectivity.

1. Society of the Romantic Era

The Romantic Era began with the defeat of Napoleon and the restoration of absolute... Continue reading "19th Century Cultural Shifts: Romanticism and Realism" »

Romanticism

Romanticism was a cultural movement that opposed the characteristic principles of the Enlightenment. It emerged as a result of the profound social and ideological crisis of the early decades of the 19th century. The origins of Romanticism can be found in the 18th century, especially in German philosophy and culture.

Key Characteristics of Romanticism

• Irrationalism: Romanticism refused to fully explain reality through reason.
• Subjectivism: If reason has its limits, other forms of knowledge are necessary. For the Romantics, these included intuition, imagination, and instinct.
• Idealism: Romantics had a predilection for the ideal, for the absolute.
• Individualism: Romantics had an acute and painful awareness of their own personality, distinct

Understanding the Baroque Concept

To Eugenio d'Ors, the Baroque is a historical constant that occurs regularly in very different times. It is synonymous with the ornate and the artificial. A Baroque phase can be understood as one that includes many characters and elements, often seen as an opposite trend to classicism.

As an artistic period, the Baroque primarily spans the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. The term 'Baroque' was coined in the 19th century, initially carrying a negative connotation. This style was often interpreted as ornate, decadent, and overly verbose by subsequent generations.

Its birthplace was Italy, particularly the city of Rome, from where it spread throughout Europe and eventually reached the Americas.... Continue reading "The Baroque Era: Art, History, and Cultural Impact" »

Romanticism

Romanticism began in the late 18th century and covered the entire first half of the 19th century.

Definition

We can define it as a school, movement, and flow. As a school, it had a manifesto in the preface of the book "Cromwell." It was important as a school in France. It was a literary and artistic movement, but there might be a flow because it razed everything and was in all the arts, philosophy, economics, politics, and even life itself.

Origins

The origins are Nordic; it began at once in Germany and England and immediately was in France, spreading from there to the rest of Europe.

Characteristics

1. Lyricism: This comes from "lyrical," the lyre (a musical instrument that accompanied poetry in antiquity). Lyricism is a very subjective

Romanticism

The Romantic Spirit

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Europe witnessed a cultural movement of liberal and revolutionary character, which opposed the Enlightenment rationalism of Neoclassicism. This new thinking, manifested in all the arts, emphasized the role of human beings and their emotions, in contrast to the rule of reason. This was Romanticism.

Characteristics of Romanticism

Romanticism brought a new vision of the world. The Enlightenment model of the eighteenth century became a prison for Romantics, preventing them from expressing their passions, fantasies, and dreams. Therefore, artists rebelled against the established order and sought new forms of expression. Key characteristics include:

• Subjectivity: Art

Impressionism

The Impressionists sought to create evocative atmospheres and impressions through the use of harmonies and new combinations of timbres. Claude Debussy composed pieces like The Sea and Clouds. Maurice Ravel, combining the magical sounds obtained from instruments, wrote Bolero for orchestra.

Atonal Music

Atonal is a form of composition based on the free choice of notes and chords. Arnold Schoenberg composed music getting away from the rules of tonality.

Twelve-tone Music

Twelve-tone composition uses a twelve-tone chromatic scale freely, but without repeating any note until all others have been heard.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky began composing music for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He composed The Rite of Spring, which premiered in... Continue reading "Impressionism to Electronic Music: Evolution of 20th Century Music" »

Lyric Poetry: Expressing Emotions and Feelings

Lyric is a literary genre in which the author conveys feelings, emotions, or sentiments about a person or object of inspiration.

Hyperbole: Definition and Usage

Hyperbole, from the Greek word ὑπερβολή (excess), is a figure of speech consisting of an exaggerated and intentional alteration of the reality being represented (a situation, characteristic, or attitude), either by excess (aúxesis) or by default (tapínosis). Hyperbole aims to achieve greater expressiveness.

Poetry: Definition and Historical Context

Poetry (from the Greek word ποίησις 'creation' < ποιέω = "create") is a kind of literary genre. It is also framed as a mode of textual expression (this is as a type of text)

The Walker "Lied No. 1 Cycle" La Bella Molinera.

Rhythm

Rhythm is a binary rhythm, regular and constant in quadruple time, whose unit is a quarter note. Speed display does not figure in German and in Italian, reflecting the assertion that German Romanticism was doing one's own culture. The equivalent would be a mässig Geschwind Allegro moderato, is moderately fast. In his left hand, continuous eighth-note rhythm breaks whose function is to emphasize the rhythm, which, together with the incessant bustle of sixteenths on the right, suggests the purposeful stride of a person walking briskly. Although the pace is easy, worth noting the slight rhythmic counterpoint introducing the right hand section A, since the introduction, the two notes forming... Continue reading "Schubert's "The Miller's Beautiful Daughter": Analysis" »

French Classical Drama

The theater became one of the major genres in European literature in the 16th century. During the Middle Ages, the first theatrical performances sprang from religious and secular matters.

The fifteenth century was an important step in the history of the theater. Dances of death became fashionable, and humanistic comedy also emerged with important Spanish works such as La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas. At the end of the sixteenth century, the fusion of popular and cultured theatrical trends led to the birth of national theaters in England, Spain, and France.

The theater in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became a mass spectacle, and plays reflected the life, feelings, and needs of the people.

Some theorists believed... Continue reading "French Classical Drama and Cervantes's Novel: Key Aspects" »