Handouts for Module 4 and 6 in MAPEH

MODULE 4
In the Western Classical music the difference in the previous period and the
Romantic period is the change in creative thinking. Baroque had a complexity in the
texture of their music and the dominance of polyphonic writing while Classical period
wanted a clear melodic line and accompaniment; or homophony.

Romanticism is a cultural movement in the 1800s that stresses on emotion,

imagination, and individuality. In order for the desired emotional expression to be
shown in music, Romantic composers used the different elements of music in order
to create passionate compositions. Composers use elaborate harmonic progressions
and along with a wide range of dynamics, tempo, and pitch became a common style
in compositions.

Now that we have compared music from the Classical and the Romantic eras, you
might notice that music in the Romantic changes widely in tempo and dynamics with
more instrumentation. This is one way of how Romantic composers showed
passionate emotional expression which is a distinct quality of romantic compositions.
Here are the common qualities of music elements in the Romantic Era:
 Instrumentation/Timbre: The size of the orchestra doubled in number and
also exploited tone color of new instruments such as the piccolo and
contrabassoon to add more tone color.
On the other hand, some composers utilized the power of a single instrument
more by creating beautiful compositions which interplay with the different
musical elements as well. One example of this is how Frederic Chopin utilized
the tone color of the piano in most of his compositions earning him the title
“Poet of the Piano”.
 Melody: Longer and more elaborate melodies were explored to create more
expression. It also had expanded range from low sounds to very high
melodies.
 Tempo and Dynamics: The tempo and dynamics were expanded to allow
composers to showcase more emotions. In tempo, rubato is used in order to
give more emotional expression. Rubato is the sudden holding back or
pressing forward from it’s original tempo.
 Form – new music forms were also created in the Romantic era such as
Rhapsodies, Nocturnes, and Lieder, all of which were created to allow
composes to be more expressive.
Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. - Since the expansion of the
orchestra, composers were given the ability to create stories through the different
musical timbre each instrument can produce by interplaying with the different
elements of music.

The “Carnival of the Animals” had its first public premiere on February 26, 1922,
thirty years after its composition. The piece is a Suite of 14 movements for flute,
clarinet, xylophone, two pianos, and strings. Saint-Saens amusingly portrays
different animals through the use of the different instruments and its interplay of
music elements.

The Romantic Era saw the development of symphonies in a more dramatic form of
structure. They also do this in Baroque and Classical era. With the increasing
desires by the composers to create music that evokes a wide and varied spectrum of
emotions, Romantic composers, such as Hector Berlioz, expanded Symphonies
which usually only has three movements to five movements in his work Symphony
Fantastique.
Berlioz went to the Paris Odeon for a performance of Hamlet by a company from
London. One of the younger female roles was being played by Harriet Smithson, a
twenty-seven-year-old actress who had been brought up in Ireland. Berlioz fell
instantly and wildly in love with her. He spoke no English his vivid recollection of the
play from his reading of the Letourneur-Guizot translation became a struggle to take
all that was happening during the play. He wrote to Smithson repeatedly, but they did
not meet. He heard gossip about an affair between her and her manager. Hurt and
bothered this provided enough distance to enable him to plan and begin work on the
symphony whose design he described in detail to his friend the poet Humbert
Ferrand.

PART ONE/ FIRST MOVEMENT: REVERIES, PASSION-

Young musician’s surge of passions as he sees for the first time a woman who
embodies all the charms of an ideal being of whom he has longed and dream about.
It is a display of how hopelessly in love a man could be.
PART TWO/ SECOND MOVEMENT: IN THE BALL
The young artist finds himself trapped in his longing for the woman. Everywhere he
goes, in the grand festivities or merely in the midst of the beauties of nature;
wherever he is the image of his beloved troubles his soul.
PART THREE/ THIRD MOVEMENT: SCENES IN THE FIELD
He finds himself wandering the fields in the evening. He reflects and hears two
shepherds piping a tune. He hopes that he will no longer be alone.
PART FOUR/ FOURTH MOVEMENT: MARCH TO THE SCAFFOLD
Having become certain that his love goes unrecognized, the artist poisons himself
with opium. The dose of the narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him into a sleep
accompanied by the most horrible visions. He dreams that he has killed the woman
he had loved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold, and that he is witnessing
HIS OWN EXECUTION.
PART FIVE/ FOURTH MOVEMENT: DREAM OF A WITCHES SABBATH
He sees himself at the sabbath, in the midst of a frightful assembly of ghosts,
sorcerers, monsters of every kind, all come together for his funeral.

Summary
Romanticism emphasizes on the ability to express one’s emotion, imagination,
and even nationalism, due to the turn of events of the 1800s. Therefore, these
composers felt free to change and twist the Classical musical forms in their
own ways and explore different ways to use sound and change musical
elements. These include adding more instruments to the orchestra or
highlighting on one single instrument. Expanding the use of tempo and
dynamics, providing drastic melodic changes and colorful harmonic
progressions through chromaticism.

MODULE 6
Music of the Romantic Period is described as a cultural movement that stressed
emotion, imagination, individualism, and freedom of expression. These
characteristics are evident in music, visual art, and literature of the era.

An important political movement during this period is nationalism which has also
influenced the arts. The visual arts of the Romantic Era reflected the tension and
nationalism, war and revolution that swept across Europe from the French revolution
(1789) through the mid-century revolutions. Examples of this include the sculpture
“Departure of the Volunteers” on the façade of Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France which
alludes to soldiers both of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and
Spanish painter Francisco Goya’s painting depicting Spanish resistance to
Napoleon. Nationalism in music was expressed when composers included in their
work their homeland’s folk songs, dances, legends, and other materials depicting
their national identity. An example of this is Frederic Chopin’s “Polonaise in Ab Major
opus 53. A polonaise is a slow, stylized Polish dance.

At this core, the composers of the Romantic Era saw music as a means of individual
and emotional expression. Indeed, they considered music the art form most capable
of expressing the full range of human emotion. As a result, romantic composers
broadened the scope of emotional content. Music was expected to communicate to
the audience, often by using a narrative form that told distinct stories. Ludwig van
Beethoven's third symphony later named Heroic Symphony was an example of a
composition based on politics and contemporary events. Like Gericault’s “The Raft of
the Medusa”, the music of this symphony involves intense expressions of emotion,
changing from lighthearted cheerfulness to pained anguish in seconds. Other
Romantic composers were inspired by this musical style that they started to prioritize
the emotional or narrative content of the music above its form. This change in
musical form also paved the way for expanding the orchestra by adding large
amount of percussion instruments, like the triangle, as well as the tuba, concert harp,
and celesta, a piano-like instrument that has a sound that is similar to a music box.
With this rich orchestral palate, composers were able to create intensely emotional
music. Some historians argue over the start and end dates of the Romantic Period.
Some date it as the 19th century while others place it in the late 18th century. This is
true for Romantic literature Works like William Blake’s Songs of Innocence (1789)
and Samuel Coleridge’s Kublai khan (1797) are considered examples of early
Romantic poetry. The Romantic Era hit its stride in the middle 1800s, encompassing
all the arts and popular though of the time various instrumentation.
The Romantic period emphasis on individual self-expression grew out of the political
ideas of individualism born during the Age of Enlightenment. However, the Romantic
rejected that age’s emphasis on logic and rationality. These ideas were as
constraining as the rules regarding Classical music forms.

Musical forms such as the opera, ballets, symphonic poem, and piano music are just
among works of arts that flourish during this time. The Romantic Period (1820-1900)
in music brought the musicians closer to discover their inner self that let then
experienced a personal form of arts. Romantic music was used in different art forms
like Tchaikovsky’s ballets: Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty and his 1812
Overture to commemorate the Battle of Borodino.

The following Art Form can be related to the Music of the Romantic period. Research
about the following art forms that has tied up with a famous work of a composer
during the Romantic period.

Ballet: ballet became a marriage of dynamic technique

and dramatic storytelling. This was the birth of the story
ballet.
The Romantic Era was a time of fantasy, supernaturalism,
and exoticism. The stories of the time dealt with issues of
good vs. evil, man vs. nature and society vs. the
supernatural. Women became the superstars of the ballet
with the introduction of pointe work, a style of dancing on
the tip of the toes which gave the illusion of floating.

WHAT ARE SOME FAMOUS BALLET WORKS DURING

THE ROMANTIC ERA?
Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score. Considering its success today, it is
hard to believe that it was not an immediate hit – but the story of Odette, a princess
turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse, was an initial box office failure.

MUSIC AND LITERATURE

One of the ways Romantic composers did this was by writing pieces inspired by
literature. This method gave a composition with both a narrative and emotional
framework for the composer.
Example:
1. Mendelssohn's scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Mendelsohn became familiar with Shakespeare by reading German translations as a
boy, and in 1827, at age 17, he was inspired to write a piece capturing the
atmosphere of Shakespeare’s comedy
2. Dvorák's The Golden Spinning Wheel is a work based on a Czech poem that tells
the story of doomed love and murderous women.

Summary
This module contains the following concept about how Romantic Music is
related to other art form and its history within the era. Romantic Music is
described as a cultural movement that stressed emotion, imagination,
individualism, and freedom of expression and shows nationalism. These
characteristics are evident in music, art, and literature of the era.
Composers were inspired by this musical freedom that they started to
prioritize the emotional or narrative content of the music above its form. This
change in musical form also paved the way for expanding the orchestra as the
composers explored various instrumentation. The Romantic Period (1820-
1900) in music brought the musicians closer to discover their inner self that let
then experienced a personal form of arts.
Romantic music is closely related to the other arts, particularly to literature. A
good example of this is Franz Schubert’s “The Erlking” which was based on a
poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.