60 CHAPTER 29 The Romantic Style in Art and Music60 Book5
TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)In terms of musical composition, the symphony and the
concerto were the most important of the large orchestral
forms. Equally significant, however, were song forms,
especially songs that dealt with themes of love and death
or nature and nature’s moods. Composers found inspiration
in heroic subjects, in contemporary events, and in the
legends and histories of their native lands. Like the
Romantic painters and writers, they embraced exotic
themes. In both small musical forms and in large operatic
compositions, they made every effort to achieve an ideal
union of poetry and music. The close association between
the arts is seen in the many operas and symphonic pieces
based on nineteenth-century plays, novels, and poems.
The Faust legend and Goethe’s Faustin particular inspired
numerous musical settings. Bizet’s Carmen, discussed in
chapter 28, was based on a novella that was influenced in
turn by Pushkin’s narrative poem, The Gypsies(1824); and
Pushkin’s verse poem Eugene Onegin(1832) inspired Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s opera of the same name. But it was Sir
Walter Scott’s historical novels that were the favorite
source for at least a dozen operas by French, British, and
Italian composers.
As in the eighteenth century, nineteenth-century com-
posers were often also performers. They drew attention to
their own technical abilities by writingvirtuosopieces
(usually for piano or violin) that only highly accomplished
musicians like themselves could perform with facility. No
longer completely at the mercy of the patronage system,
they indulged, often publicly, in bouts of euphoria, melan-
choly, and petty jealousy. The talented Genoese composer
and violinist, Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840), for instance,
refused to publish his own pieces, which he performed with
such astounding technical agility that rumor had it he had
come by his virtuosity through a pact with the Devil.The Limits of Authority
The leading composer of the early nineteenth century and
one of the greatest musicians of all time was the German-
born Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Beethoven’s
lifelong residency in Vienna brought him in contact with
the music of Mozart and Haydn; he studied briefly with the
latter. It also provided the composer with the fundamentals
of the classical style. His indebtedness to classical composi-
tion, especially evident in his early works, makes him
something of a bridge between the classical and Romantic
eras.
Beethoven was a gifted pianist, organist, and violinist.
While he composed works in almost every musical form,
his thirty-two piano sonatas reflect a lifelong love for the
expressive potential of that instrument. His nine sym-
phonies, which critics claim as his greatest achievement,
generally adhere to the classical format, but they move
beyond the bounds of classical structure. The Third
Symphony, which he subtitled theEroica(“Heroic”) is a
case in point. It is longer and more complex than any
previous orchestral work. While it follows the standard
number and order of movements found in the classical
symphony, it is almost twice as long as its typical twenty-to twenty-five-minute predecessors. The first movement,
which one French critic called “the Grand Army of the
soul,” engages six (rather than the traditional two) themes
dictated by the sonata form (see chapter 26). The move-
ment begins with two commanding hammer strikes of the
French horn—symbolic of the hero throughout the sym-
phony. The second movement is a somber and solemn
funeral march. For the third movement, instead of the tra-
ditional minuet, Beethoven introduces a vigorous scherzo
(“joke”), which replaces the elegant courtly dance form
with a melody that is fast and varied in tempo—a joke in
that it is essentially undanceable! The last movement, a
victory finale, brings the themes and variations of the first
movement together with a long coda that again features
the majestic horn section. It is worth noting that for the
triumphant last movement of this stirring symphony,
Beethoven included musical passages originally written for
a ballet on the subject of Prometheus.
Beethoven had originally intended to dedicate the
Third Symphony to Napoleon, whom he admired as a pop-
ular hero and a champion of liberty. But when Napoleon
crowned himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven angrily
scratched out the name “Buonaparte” and replaced it with
a generalized dedication: “Heroic symphony, dedicated to
the memory of a great man.” “So, he is no more than a
common mortal!” Beethoven is said to have exclaimed.
“Now he will trample on all the rights of man
and...become a tyrant.” Ultimately, the symphony was
dedicated and presented to a minor nobleman, Prince
Franz Joseph Maximillian Lobkowitz.
Beethoven’s genius lay in his use of compositional ele-
ments that gave his music unprecedented expressive power.
He introduced into his compositions a new rhythmic vital-
ity, strong and sudden contrasts of sound, and an expanded
range of instrumental textures. By adding piccolo, bass
clarinet, trombone, bass drum, and cymbals to the scoring
and doubling the number of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and
bassoons, he vastly broadened the expressive range and
dramatic power of orchestral sound.
In his use of musicaldynamics(gradations of loudness
and softness), Beethoven was more explicit and varied than
his classical predecessors. Prior to 1812 Beethoven made
use of only five terms to indicate the softness or loudness of
piano performance; increasingly, however, he expanded the
classical vocabulary with such words asdolente(“sorrow-
ful”) andteneramente(“tenderly”) to indicate nuances. Like
other Romantic artists—Delacroix, in particular, comes to
mind—Beethoven blurredthe divisions between the struc-
tural units of a composition, exploiting textural contrasts
for expressive effect. He often broke with classical form,
adding, for example, a fifth movement to his Sixth (or
“Pastoral”) Symphony and embellishing the finale of his
Ninth Symphony with a chorus and solo voices.
Beethoven’s daring use of dissonances, his sudden pauses
and silences, and his brilliance of thematic and rhythmic See Music Listening Selections at end of chapter.BK5_001-141.indd 60BK5_001-141.indd 60 04/12/2009 8:54 AM04/12/2009 8:54 AM