Hector Berlioz. Symphonie fantastique. Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste ... en cinq parties (Fantastic Symphony: An Episode in the Life of an Artist, in Five Parts) Op. 14 is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period, and is popular with concert audiences worldwide. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire in December 1830. Idée fixe (psychology) Thematic transformation.
Development[edit] Controversy[edit]
Harriet Smithson. Henrietta Smithson in 1832 Henrietta Constance (Harriet) Smithson (1800–1854) was an Anglo-Irish actress, the first wife of Hector Berlioz, and the inspiration for his Symphonie Fantastique.
Smithson was born on 18 March 1800 at Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland, the daughter of a theatrical manager. She made her first stage appearance in 1814 at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, as Albina Mandeville in Frederick Reynolds's The Will.[1] Three years later she made her first London appearance at Drury Lane as Letitia Hardy in The Belle's Stratagem. Marriage[edit]
Program music. The term is almost exclusively applied to works in the European classical music tradition, particularly those from the Romantic music period of the 19th century, during which the concept was popular, but pieces which fit the description have long been a part of music.
The term is usually reserved for purely instrumental works (pieces without singers and lyrics), and not used, for example for Opera or Lieder. Single movement orchestral pieces of program music are often called symphonic poems. Niccolò Paganini. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini) Niccolò Paganini Edition Peters first published them in 1819; Ricordi later published another edition in 1821. When Paganini released his caprices, he dedicated them "to the Artists" rather than to a specific person. Unlike many earlier and later sets of 24 pieces, there was no intention to write these caprices in 24 different keys. Stephen Foster. Parlour music. Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of middle-class homes by amateur singers and pianists.
Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a result of a steady increase in the number of households with enough surplus cash to purchase musical instruments and instruction in music, and with the leisure time and cultural motivation to engage in recreational music-making. Its popularity waned in the 20th century as the phonograph record and radio replaced sheet music as the most common method of dissemination of popular music. This is the middlebrow and lowbrow music from which European classical music began to gradually and eventually self-consciously distance itself beginning around 1790. (1989, p.4, 17-18, 321)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works.[1] He spent most of his working career outside of the United States. Life and career[edit] Gottschalk was born in New Orleans to a Jewish businessman from London and a Creole mother. He had six brothers and sisters, five of whom were half-siblings by his father's mulatto mistress.[2] His family lived for a time in a tiny cottage at Royal and Esplanade in the Vieux Carré. Louis later moved in with relatives at 518 Conti Street; his maternal grandmother Bruslé and his nurse Sally had both been born in Saint-Domingue (known later as Haiti). He was therefore exposed to a variety of musical traditions, and played the piano from an early age. Only two years later, at the age of 13, Gottschalk left the United States and sailed to Europe, as he and his father realized a classical training was required to fulfil his musical ambitions.
Souvenir de Porto Rico. Souvenir de Porto Rico, Op. 31, is a musical composition for piano by American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk written from 1857 during a tour in Puerto Rico. Dedicated to the Dutch piano virtuoso and salon music composer Ernest Henry Lubeck, and published in Mainz circa 1860 with the subtitle of Marche de Gibaros,[1] it is based on the Christmas folk song Si me dan pasteles, denmelos calientes, performed by local peasants known as Jíbaros.[2] The piece makes use of Latin-American and Afro-American melodies and rhythms almost fifty years before early ragtime and jazz would popularize its use.
History[edit] Nationalism. Nationalism is a belief, creed or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with, or becoming attached to, one's nation.
Nationalism involves national identity, by contrast with the related construct of patriotism, which involves the social conditioning and personal behaviors that support a state's decisions and actions.[1] From a psychological perspective, nationalism (national attachment) is distinct from other types of attachment, for example, attachment to a religion or a romantic partner. The desire for interpersonal attachment, or the need to belong, is one of the most fundamental human motivations. Frédéric Chopin. Photograph of Chopin by Bisson, c. 1849 Frédéric François Chopin (/ˈʃoʊpæn/; French pronunciation: [fʁe.de.ʁik ʃɔ.pɛ̃]; 22 February or 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849), born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,[n 1] was a Romantic-era Polish composer.
Nocturnes, Op. 27 (Chopin) Manuscript to Nocturne Op. 27, No. 2 The Nocturnes, Op. 27 are two solo piano pieces composed by Frédéric Chopin.
Mazurkas (Chopin) Over the years 1825–1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 69 mazurkas, based on the traditional Polish dance (see mazurka): 58 have been published 45 during Chopin's lifetime, of which 41 have opus numbers13 posthumously, of which 8 have posthumous opus numbers11 further mazurkas are known whose MSS are either in private hands (2) or untraced (at least 9).
The serial numbering of the 58 published mazurkas normally goes only up to 51. The remaining 7 are referred to by their key or catalogue number. Ballades (Chopin) Chopin, 1835 Frédéric Chopin's four ballades are one-movement pieces for solo piano, composed between 1831 and 1842. They are some of the most challenging pieces in the standard piano repertoire.[1][2] The term "ballade" was associated with an old French verse-form used for grand and rhetorical subjects, but may also have connotations of the Medieval heroic ballad, which was sung and danced. Ballad. Origins[edit] Ballad form[edit] E. T. A. Hoffmann. Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822), better known as E.T.A.
Romantic music. Romantic music is a term denoting an era of Western classical music that began in the late 18th or early 19th century.
It was related to Romanticism, the European artistic and literary movement that arose in the second half of the 18th century, and Romantic music in particular dominated the Romantic movement in Germany. Ludwig van Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven ( Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Franz Schubert. Schubertiade. Der Erlkönig. "Erlkönig" (also called "Der Erlkönig") is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) Winterreise. Wilhelm Müller. Lied.
Strophic form. Song cycle. Winterreise. Wilhelm Müller. Dichterliebe. Heinrich Heine. Through-composed. Robert Schumann. Dichterliebe. Heinrich Heine. Carnaval (Schumann) Clara Schumann. Felix Mendelssohn. Songs Without Words. A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) Overture. Johannes Brahms. Franz Liszt. Transcendental Etudes. Étude. Les préludes (Liszt) Symphonic poem.