Late Romantic Composers Lecture Notes

The Late Romantic Composers

1. Johannes Brahms
1. 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897
2. German Traditionalist and Romantic
1. Worked for Robert Schumann at the New Journal for Music
2. Was deeply in love with Clara, Robert’s wife but remained unmarried until his death
3. Compositional Ideals
1. Take what was best of the Classical composers and imbue them with a Romantic idiom
2. Composed using Baroque and Classical forms with a very tonal language
3. Labeled old-fashioned by the New German School
4. Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1
2. New German School
1. Three Composers who almost single-handedly brought about the Late Romantic era and set the path of music for the future
1. Characterized by disdain for the old-fashioned nonsense of the Classicists and 
2. Hector Berlioz
1. 11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869
2. French Romantic
1. Was such an emotional person that he would burst into tears while reading the Odyssey
2. Was never trained as a composer, he taught himself almost everything he knew
3. Was highly respected by Wagner and Liszt but scorned by most of French society as being too new
3. Composer
1. Was greatly influenced by Beethoven’s mad genius
2. Based most of his compositions on stories by Goethe, Homer, or Shakespeare
3. Symphonie Fantastique “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”
1. A work about a dream he had in which he killed his lover
3. Franz Liszt 
1. October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886
2. Hungarian born, but the leader of the New German School
3. Virtuoso Pianist
1. Considered by many the most brilliant pianist of all time
2. Had a professional rivalry with Paganini, a virtuoso violinist and they would often try to outdo each other
3. Turned the piano on its side so that everyone could admire his handsome profile as he played
4. Played the most difficult passages with ease and grace
1. Liebestraum No. 3 Nocturne
4. Romantic
1. Had many torrid affairs with rich married women
2. Deeply fascinated with mysticism and the religious life
3. became a Franciscan tertiary and lived as a monk in his later years
5. Composer
1. Invented the Symphonic Poem
2. Thematic transformation
3. Started experimenting with harmony
4. Transcribed orchestral and opera scores for solo piano
4. Richard Wagner
1. 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883
2. Personal Life
1. While he disagreed with Brahms, they were very good friends, but he disdained Mendelssohn, who had the same ideas as Brahms, probably because Mendelssohn was Jewish by descent
2. Married Liszt’s daughter after having an affair with her while she was married to someone else
3. Composer
1. Primarily known for his operas, or what he called “Musical Dramas”
2. stories were based off of German and Norse Mythology like Die Niebelungenlied and The Flying Dutchman
3. hugely demanding vocal roles requiring a “heroic” or extraordinary singer
4. Loved the BIG SOUND and its power to induce rage, love, and all sorts of emotions
5. The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walkure
4. Innovations
1. sought to create a total cohesion between all the parts of his musical dramas
2. He had “leitmotifs” for each of his characters or ideas
3. Extremely chromatic, atonal music with thick, complex textures
4. Tristan und Isolde considered by some to be the start of “modern music”
1. Prelude Tristan und Isolde