Transcript
Chapter 14
The Age of the Tone Poet
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-1 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Romanticism and the New Prestige
of Instrumental Music
Term romantic derives from name of literary genre – the romance – that emerged in medieval era
A romance tells a long story in verse or prose
Romance is largely free of structural or narrative convention
Because of association with freer narrative expression, the genre gave its name to the artistic movement
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-2 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Romanticism and the New Prestige
of Instrumental Music
Romanticism values imagination and personal expression
Romanticism emphasizes thought that lies beyond reason / words and thus grants more room to the spiritual and even mystical
Instrumental music – because it is intrinsically abstract, it is art form that most approximates disembodied realm of abstraction
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-3 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Composer as High Priest
Social status of composers rose
Composers dealt with most abstract of all arts
Listening public sought insight into their working methods
Composer biographies appeared
Composers wrote about themselves and their art
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-4 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Composer as High Priest
Composers did not always “speak” in comprehensible manner – hence need for explanatory texts
Composers incorporated autobiographical elements into music
More weight on accuracy and authority of published scores
Composers became cultural heroes
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-5 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Originality and Historical
Self-Consciousness
Belief that every work of art must be new and different
Composers sought own distinctive voice
Composers were compared to their contemporaries and masters of earlier generations
Composers embraced forms and styles of earlier generations while presenting them in original ways
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-6 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The virtuoso as idol. Throughout the 19th century, the great musical virtuosos and composers were perceived as endowed with divine, superhuman powers. This is a satirical drawing of the great Polish composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941) from ca. 1895.
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-7 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The New Dichotomy between
Absolute and Program Music
Composers and critics maintained music could achieve its highest potential only through a synthesis with other arts, including the arts of the word
View of 18th-century critics toward instrumental music: has ability to move passions but too abstract to carry true meaning
The term absolute was embraced as a label for purely instrumental music
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-8 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The Growing Division between
Art and Popular Music
During 19th century, musicians and public began drawing a distinction between art music and popular music
Economic factors reinforced this division
Programs became homogeneous and appealed to an increasingly narrower audience
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-9 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Music in the 19th Century:
A Stylistic Overview
Growing drive toward originality opened a variety of options in texture, melody, harmony, rhythm, and form
Texture and melodic structures range from simple to complex
Harmonies became chromatic
Rhythm became complex
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-10 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Cyclical coherence became important for multi-movement instrumental works
Orchestral writing required a conductor
Orchestral rehearsals became the rule
A History of Music in Western Culture, 4e 14-11 © 2014 Education, Inc.
By Mark Evan Bonds Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Music in the 19th Century:
A Stylistic Overview
