The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

Realism in Music

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108 CHAPTER 30 Industry, Empire, and the Realist Style

follow function,” he insisted. Within decades,the American

skyscraper became an icon of modern urban culture.

Nineteenth-century steel and cast-iron technology also

contributed to the construction of bridges. In 1870, work

began on the first steel-wire suspension bridge in the

United States: the Brooklyn Bridge (Figure 30.29).

Designed by John Augustus Roebling (1806–1926), who

had earlier engineered bridges in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and

Texas, the Brooklyn Bridge (upon its completion in 1883)

would be the largest suspension bridge in the world. Its

main span, which crosses the East River between

Manhattan and Brooklyn, measures some 1600 feet. This

celebrated bridge reflects the marriage of modern steel

technology and Neo-Gothic design, evident in the elegant

granite and limestone arches.

In Italian opera of the late nineteenth century, a move-

ment called verismo(literally, “truth-ism,” but more

generally “Realism”) paralleled the Realist style in liter-

ature and art. Realist composers rejected the heroic

characters of Romantic grand opera and presented the

problems and conflicts of people in familiar and every-

day—if somewhat melodramatic—situations. The fore-

most “verist” was the Italian composer Giacomo

Puccini (1858–1924).

Puccini’s La Bohème, the tragic love story of young

artists (called “bohemians” for their unconventional

lifestyles) in the Latin Quarter of Paris, was based on

a nineteenth-century novel calledScenes of Bohemian

Life. The colorful orchestration and powerfully melodic

arias of La Bohème evoke the joys and sorrows of

Figure 30.28 LOUIS HENRY SULLIVANand DANKMAR ADLER,

Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York, 1894–1895. Steel frame.