1.
Orchestra
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The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα, the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus. A full-size orchestra may sometimes be called an orchestra or philharmonic orchestra. The actual number of employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred musicians, depending on the work being played. The term chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles of about fifty musicians or fewer, the typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras called for in the works of Richard Wagner, and later, Gustav Mahler. Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, the conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound of the ensemble. The first violin, commonly called the concertmaster, also plays an important role in leading the musicians, the typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the instruments in each group. Chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles, a chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians. The term concert orchestra may also be used, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra, the so-called standard complement of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven. The composers instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, the exceptions to this are his Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, and Piano Concerto No,4, which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral palette in Symphonies 3,5,6, the third horn in the Eroica Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of choral brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the finale of his Symphony No.5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth, for several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethovens well-established model, with few exceptions. Apart from the core orchestral complement, various instruments are called for occasionally. These include the guitar, heckelphone, flugelhorn, cornet, harpsichord. Saxophones, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores.6 and 9 and William Waltons Belshazzars Feast, and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked tenor tuba, including Gustav Holsts The Planets, cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussys La Mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz
2.
Poetry
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Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, in todays increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy, others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, comes from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is The Story of Sinuhe, other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry, the efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in poetics—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as Chinas through her Shijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance, Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Later aestheticians identified three major genres, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry, Aristotles work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic Negative Capability and this romantic approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic
3.
Novel
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A novel is any relatively long piece of written narrative fiction, normally in prose, and typically published as a book. The genre has also described as possessing, a continuous. This view sees the novels origins in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, the latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied the present generic English term in the 18th century. The romance is a closely related long prose narrative, Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel, a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo, a novel is a long, fictional narrative which describes intimate human experiences. Most European languages use the word romance for extended narratives, fictionality is most commonly cited as distinguishing novels from historiography. However this can be a problematic criterion, historians would also invent and compose speeches for didactic purposes. Novels can, on the hand, depict the social, political and personal realities of a place and period with clarity. Even in the 19th century, fictional narratives in verse, such as Lord Byrons Don Juan, Alexander Pushkins Yevgeniy Onegin, vikram Seths The Golden Gate, composed of 590 Onegin stanzas, is a more recent example of the verse novel. Both in 12th-century Japan and 15th-century Europe, prose fiction created intimate reading situations, on the other hand, verse epics, including the Odyssey and Aeneid, had been recited to a select audiences, though this was a more intimate experience than the performance of plays in theaters. A new world of Individualistic fashion, personal views, intimate feelings, secret anxieties, conduct and gallantry spread with novels, the novel is today the longest genre of narrative prose fiction, followed by the novella, short story, and flash fiction. However, in the 17th century critics saw the romance as of epic length, the length of a novel can still be important because most literary awards use length as a criterion in the ranking system. Urbanization and the spread of printed books in Song Dynasty China led to the evolution of oral storytelling into consciously fictional novels by the Ming dynasty, parallel European developments did not occur for centuries, and awaited the time when the availability of paper allowed for similar opportunities. By contrast, Ibn Tufails Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and Ibn al-Nafis Theologus Autodidactus are works of didactic philosophy, in this sense, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan would be considered an early example of a philosophical novel, while Theologus Autodidactus would be considered an early theological novel. Epic poetry exhibits some similarities with the novel, and the Western tradition of the novel back into the field of verse epics. Then at the beginning of the 18th century, French prose translations brought Homers works to a wider public, longus is the author of the famous Greek novel, Daphnis and Chloe. Romance or chivalric romance is a type of narrative in prose or verse popular in the circles of High Medieval. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love
4.
Painting
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Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity, thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization, and symbols. In technical drawing, thickness of line is ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters. Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music, color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, and Newton, have written their own color theory. Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent, the word red, for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic, painters deal practically with pigments, so blue for a painter can be any of the blues, phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to light in painting, shades to dynamics and these elements do not necessarily form a melody of themselves, rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and Anselm Kiefer, there is a growing community of artists who use computers to paint color onto a digital canvas using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required, rhythm is important in painting as it is in music
5.
Landscape
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A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms and how they integrate with natural or man-made features. The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and it is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives. Landscape can be as varied as farmland, a landscape park, the activity of modifying the visible features of an area of land is referred to as landscaping. There are several definitions of what constitutes a landscape, depending on context, the term landscape emerged around the turn of the sixteenth century to denote a painting whose primary subject matter was natural scenery. Land may be taken in its sense of something to people belong. The suffix ‑scape is equivalent to the more common English suffix ‑ship, the roots of ‑ship are etymologically akin to Old English sceppan or scyppan, meaning to shape. The suffix ‑schaft is related to the verb schaffen, so that ‑ship, the word landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed from a Dutch painters term. An example of this usage can be found as early as 1662 in the Book of Common Prayer, Could we but climb where Moses stood. Setting, In works of narrative, it includes the moment in time and geographic location in which a story takes place. Picturesque, The word literally means in the manner of a picture, fit to be made into a picture, and used as early as 1703, gilpin’s Essay on Prints defined picturesque as a term expressive of that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture. A view, A sight or prospect of some landscape or extended scene, wilderness, An uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. Cityscape, The urban equivalent of a landscape, in the visual arts a cityscape is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. Seascape, A photograph, painting, or other work of art depicts the sea. Geomorphology is the study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical or chemical processes operating at or near Earths surface. Geomorphology is practiced within physical geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology and this broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within the field. The surface of Earth is modified by a combination of processes that sculpt landscapes, and geologic processes that cause tectonic uplift and subsidence. Many of these factors are strongly mediated by climate, the Earth surface and its topography therefore are an intersection of climatic, hydrologic, and biologic action with geologic processes. Desert, Plain, Taiga, Tundra, Wetland, Mountain, Mountain range, Cliff, Coast, Littoral zone, Glacier, Polar regions of Earth, Shrubland, Forest, Rainforest, Woodland, Jungle, Moors
6.
Carl Loewe
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Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, usually called Carl Loewe, was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs were well known for some to call him the Schubert of North Germany. He is less today, but his ballads and songs. Loewe was born in Löbejün and received his first music lessons from his father and he was a choir-boy, first at Köthen, and later at Halle, where he went to grammar school. In 1810, he began lessons in Halle with Daniel Gottlob Türk and this ended in 1813, on the flight of the king. In 1820, he moved to Stettin in Prussia, where he worked as organist and it was while there that he did most of his work as a composer, publishing a version of Goethes Erlkönig in 1824 which some say rivals Schuberts far more famous version. He went on to set many other works, including Friedrich Rückert. In 1821 he married Julie von Jacob, who died in 1823 and his second wife, Auguste Lange, was an accomplished singer, and they appeared together in his oratorio performances with great success. On 20 February 1827, he conducted the first performance of the 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohns Overture A Midsummer Nights Dream and he and Mendelssohn were also soloists in Mendelssohns Concerto in A-flat major for 2 pianos and orchestra. Later in life, Loewe became very popular both as a composer and as a singer, as a youth, he had a high soprano voice, and his voice developed into a fine tenor. He made several tours as a singer in the 1840s and 1850s, visiting England, France, Sweden and Norway amongst other countries. He eventually moved back to Germany, and, after quitting his posts in Stettin after 46 years, moved to Kiel, where he died from a stroke on 20 April 1869. But the branch of his art by which he is remembered and his settings of the Erlkönig, Archibald Douglas, Heinrich der Vogler, Edward and Die verfallene Mühle, are particularly fine. In 1875, at Bayreuth, Richard Wagner remarked of Loewe, Ha, das ist ein ernster, mit Bedeutung die schöne deutsche Sprache behandelnder, nicht hoch genug zu ehrender deutscher Meister, under Zumsteegs influence, Loewe began incorporating and cultivating the ballad form into his vocal songs. When compared to other Lieder composers, Loewes rhapsodic composition style is said to have an absence of organic musical development. His settings of poetry separated poetic ideas and treated them rather than using unifying motifs. One of Loewes strengths as a composer were his imaginative and, at times, daring accompaniments, several recordings of Loewes ballads and other lieder are available on CD, sung by vocalists such as Josef Greindl, Hermann Prey, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Kurt Moll. Additional recordings can be found on YouTube, female singers rarely sing, or record, his music
7.
Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School and he left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many 20th-century ideas and trends. Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on October 22,1811, in the village of Doborján in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Liszts father played the piano, violin, cello and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel, at age six, Franz began listening attentively to his fathers piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight and he appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pressburg in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franzs musical education in Vienna, There Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, then director of the Viennese court. Liszts public debut in Vienna on December 1,1822, at a concert at the Landständischer Saal, was a great success and he was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when his one-year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Princes services. At the end of April 1823, the returned to Hungary for the last time. At the end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again, towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszts first composition to be published, his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli, appeared as Variation 24 in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Liszts inclusion in the Diabelli project—he was described in it as an 11 year old boy, born in Hungary—was almost certainly at the instigation of Czerny, his teacher, Liszt was the only child composer in the anthology. After his fathers death in 1827, Liszt moved to Paris, to earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking, the following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles Xs minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq. Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off, Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother and he had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists
8.
Symphonic poems (Liszt)
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The symphonic poems of the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt are a series of 13 orchestral works, numbered S. 95–107. The first 12 were composed between 1848 and 1858, the last, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe, followed in 1882. These works helped establish the genre of orchestral program music—compositions written to illustrate an extra-musical plan derived from a play, poem and they inspired the symphonic poems of Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Richard Strauss and others. Liszts intent, according to musicologist Hugh MacDonald, was for these single-movement works to display the traditional logic of symphonic thought, at the same time, Liszt wanted to incorporate the abilities of program music to inspire listeners to imagine scenes, images, or moods. To capture these dramatic and evocative qualities while achieving the scale of a movement, he combined elements of overture. The composition of the symphonic poems proved daunting and they underwent a continual process of creative experimentation that included many stages of composition, rehearsal and revision to reach a balance of musical form. Aware that the public appreciated instrumental music with context, Liszt provided written prefaces for nine of his symphonic poems. However, Liszts view of the symphonic poem tended to be evocative, in this regard, Liszt authority Humphrey Searle suggests that he may have been closer to his contemporary Hector Berlioz than to many who would follow him in writing symphonic poems. This was a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, according to music critic, schonberg, which brought changes to the early 19th-century lifestyles of the working masses. The lower and middle classes began to take an interest in the arts, in the 1830s, concert halls were few, and orchestras served mainly in the production of operas—symphonic works were considered far lower in importance. However, the European music scene underwent a transformation in the 1840s, as interest burgeoned, these concerts were performed at a rapidly increasing number of venues. Programs often ran over three hours, even if the content was thin, two or more symphonies, two overtures, vocal and instrumental numbers, duets, a concerto, roughly half of the presented music was vocal in nature. Meanwhile, the future of the genre was coming into doubt. While many composers continued to write symphonies during the 1820s and 30s, on this count, there were varying degrees of skepticism but virtually no real optimism. The crux of the issue, Bonds asserts, was never one of style. Between his Third and Seventh Symphonies, Beethoven had pushed the symphony well beyond the boundaries of entertainment into those of moral, political and philosophical statement. By adding text and voices in his Ninth Symphony, he not only redefined the genre, the Ninth, Bonds says, in fact became the catalyst that fueled debate about the symphony genre. Hector Berlioz was the only composer able to grapple successfully with Beethovens legacy, however, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Niels Gade also achieved successes with their symphonies, putting at least a temporary stop to the debate as to whether the genre was dead
9.
Symphony
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A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often written by composers for orchestra. Symphonies are scored for string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30–100 musicians, Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the music for their instrument. A small number of symphonies also contain vocal parts, the word symphony is derived from the Greek word συμφωνία, meaning agreement or concord of sound, concert of vocal or instrumental music, from σύμφωνος, harmonious. The word referred to a variety of different things, before ultimately settling on its current meaning designating a musical form. In late Greek and medieval theory, the word was used for consonance, as opposed to διαφωνία, in the Middle Ages and later, the Latin form symphonia was used to describe various instruments, especially those capable of producing more than one sound simultaneously. Isidore of Seville was the first to use the word symphonia as the name of a two-headed drum, in late medieval England, symphony was used in both of these senses, whereas by the 16th century it was equated with the dulcimer. In German, Symphonie was a term for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century. 16, published in 1607, Lodovico Grossi da Viadanas Sinfonie musicali,18, published in 1610, and Heinrich Schützs Symphoniae sacrae, op. 6, and Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars, op,10, published in 1629 and 1647, respectively. Except for Viadanas collection, which contained purely instrumental and secular music, the opera sinfonia, or Italian overture had, by the 18th century, a standard structure of three contrasting movements, fast, slow, fast and dance-like. It is this form that is considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. The terms overture, symphony and sinfonia were widely regarded as interchangeable for much of the 18th century, when composers from the 17th century wrote pieces, they expected that these works would be performed by whatever group of musicians were available. A performance of the piece might be done with a basso continuo group as small as a single cello, during the 18th century, the symphony was cultivated with extraordinary intensity. It played a role in areas of public life, including church services. Since the normal size of the orchestra at the time was quite small, laRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson trace the gradual expansion of the symphonic orchestra through the 18th century. At first, symphonies were string symphonies, written in just four parts, first violin, second violin, viola, occasionally the early symphonists even dispensed with the viola part, thus creating three-part symphonies. A basso continuo part including a bassoon together with a harpsichord or other chording instrument was also possible, the first additions to this simple ensemble were a pair of horns, occasionally a pair of oboes, and then both horns and oboes together
10.
Musical form
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The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections. According to Richard Middleton, musical form is the shape or structure of the work and he describes it through difference, the distance moved from a repeat, the latter being the smallest difference. Difference is quantitative and qualitative, how far, and of what type, in many cases, form depends on statement and restatement, unity and variety, and contrast and connection. This phrase may be regarded as the unit of musical form. Even at this level, the importance of the principles of repetition and contrast, weak and strong, climax and repose, thus, form may be understood on three levels of organization. For the purpose of exposition, these levels can be roughly designated as passage, piece. The smallest level of construction concerns the way musical phrases are organized into musical sentences and this may be compared to, and is often decided by, the verse form or meter of the words or the steps of a dance. In the analysis of form, any components that can be defined on the time axis are conventionally designated by letters. Upper-case letters are used for the most fundamental, while lower-case letters are used for sub-divisions, if one such section returns in a varied or modified form, a numerical digit or an appropriate number of prime symbols appears after the letter. Even at this simplest level, there are patterns that may be re-used on larger timescales, for example, consider the analogy with rhyme schemes, The following verse is composed of two differently-rhymed couplets, and thus its organization is binary or twofold. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. There once was a fellow from Leeds Who swallowed a packet of seeds, in less than an hour he burst into flower And he died trying to pull up the weeds. The next level concerns the structure of any single self-contained musical piece. If the hymn, ballad, blues or dance alluded to above simply repeats the same musical material indefinitely then the piece is said to be in strophic form overall. If it repeats with distinct, sustained changes each time, for instance in setting, ornamentation or instrumentation, then the piece is a theme and variations. If the theme is played, then a new theme is introduced, great arguments and misunderstanding can be generated by such terms as ternary and binary, as a complex piece may have elements of both at different organizational levels. The grandest level of organization may be referred to as cyclical form and it concerns the arrangement of several self-contained pieces into a large-scale composition. For example, a set of songs with a theme may be presented as a song-cycle
11.
Sonata form
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Sonata form is a musical structure consisting of three main sections, an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century, while it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement. In addition, the standard definition recognizes that an introduction and a coda may be present, each of the sections is often further divided or characterized by the particular means by which it accomplishes its function in the form. Accordingly, there is a body of theory on what unifies and distinguishes practice in the sonata form. According to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, sonata form is the most important principle of form, or formal type. Although the Italian term sonata often refers to a piece in sonata form, conversely, in the late 18th century or Classical period, the title sonata is typically given to a work composed of three or four movements. Nonetheless, this multi-movement sequence is not what is meant by sonata form, the definition of sonata form in terms of musical elements sits uneasily between two historical eras. Perhaps the most extensive description of the sonata-form type of movement may have been given by the theorist H. C. Seen in this way, sonata form was closest to binary form, the model of the form that is often taught currently tends to be more thematically differentiated. Marx may be the originator of the sonata form. This model was derived from study and criticism of Beethovens piano sonatas, a sonata-allegro movement is divided into sections. Each section is felt to perform functions in the musical argument. It may begin with an introduction, which is, in general, in terms of structure, introductions are an upbeat before the main musical argument. The first required section is the exposition, the exposition presents the primary thematic material for the movement, one or two themes or theme groups, often in contrasting styles and in opposing keys, connected by a modulating transition. The exposition typically concludes with a theme, a codetta. The exposition is followed by the development where the harmonic and textural possibilities of the material are explored. The movement may conclude with a coda, beyond the final cadence of the recapitulation, the term sonata form is controversial and has been called misleading by scholars and composers almost from its inception. Its originators implied that there was a set template to which Classical and Romantic composers aspired, however, sonata form is currently viewed as a model for musical analysis, rather than compositional practice
12.
Romanticism
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Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
13.
Aesthetics of music
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In the pre-modern tradition, the aesthetics of music or musical aesthetics explored the mathematical and cosmological dimensions of rhythmic and harmonic organization. In the eighteenth century, focus shifted to the experience of hearing music, the origin of this philosophic shift is sometimes attributed to Baumgarten in the 18th century, followed by Kant. Through their writing, the ancient term aesthetics, meaning sensory perception, in recent decades philosophers have tended to emphasize issues besides beauty and enjoyment. For example, musics capacity to express emotion has been a central issue, Aesthetics is a sub-discipline of philosophy. In the 20th century, important contributions to the aesthetics of music were made by Peter Kivy, Jerrold Levinson, Roger Scruton, however, many musicians, music critics, and other non-philosophers have contributed to the aesthetics of music. Hanslick and his partisans asserted that instrumental music is simply patterns of sound that do not communicate any emotions or images, harry Partch and some other musicologists, such as Kyle Gann, have studied and tried to popularize microtonal music and the usage of alternate musical scales. Many modern composers like La Monte Young, Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca paid much attention to a system of tuning called just intonation. Since ancient times, it has been thought that music has the ability to affect our emotions, intellect, the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato suggests in The Republic that music has a direct effect on the soul. Therefore, he proposes that in the regime, music would be closely regulated by the state. In the 18th century, music was considered so far outside the realm of theory that music was barely mentioned in William Hogarths treatise The Analysis of Beauty. He considered dance beautiful, but treated music important only insofar as it could provide the accompaniment for the dancers. However, by the end of the century, people began to distinguish the topic of music and its own beauty from music as part of a media, as in opera. Compared to the fine arts, it does not engage the understanding sufficiently. To display the combination of genius and taste that combines ideas and beauty, Kant thought that music must be combined with words, as in song and opera. In the 19th century, the era of romanticism in music, some composers and critics argued that music should and could express ideas, images, emotions, or even a whole literary plot. Challenging Kants reservations about instrumental music, in 1813 E. T. A. Hoffman argued that music was fundamentally the art of instrumental composition, although the Romantic movement accepted the thesis that instrumental music has representational capacities, most did not support Schopenhauers linking of music and metaphysics. The mainstream consensus endorsed musics capacity to represent particular emotions and situations, in 1832, composer Robert Schumann stated that his piano work Papillons was intended as a musical representation of the final scene of a novel by Jean Paul, Flegeljahre. The thesis that the value of music is related to its function was vigorously countered by the formalism of Eduard Hanslick
14.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
15.
Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches
16.
Chamber music
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Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a number of performers. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances, because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as the music of friends. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music as four rational people conversing. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions, from its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to the present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, instruments were used primarily as accompaniment for singers, String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were also purely instrumental ensembles, often of stringed precursors of the violin family, some analysts consider the origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera and the sonata da chiesa. These were compositions for one to five or more instruments, the sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes, the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of the Baroque – two treble instruments and an instrument, often with a keyboard or other chording instrument filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the instrument would play the basso continuo part. During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined, often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemanns Tafelmusik, for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, Baroque chamber music was often contrapuntal, that is, each instrument played the same melodic materials at different times, creating a complex, interwoven fabric of sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodies, all the instruments were equal, in the trio sonata, there is often no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance. In the second half of the 18th century, tastes began to change, many preferred a new, lighter Galant style. And clearly defined melody and bass to the complexities of counterpoint, now a new custom arose that gave birth to a new form of chamber music, the serenade. Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends, patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades, nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations, the young Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write several of these
17.
Arnold Schoenberg
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Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian composer, music theorist, and painter. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, by 1938, with the rise of the Nazi Party, Schoenbergs works were labeled degenerate music, because he was Jewish. He moved to the United States in 1934, Schoenbergs approach, both in terms of harmony and development, has been one of the most influential of 20th-century musical thought. Many European and American composers from at least three generations have consciously extended his thinking, whereas others have reacted against it. Schoenberg was known early in his career for simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms, later, his name would come to personify innovations in atonality that would become the most polemical feature of 20th-century art music. In the 1920s, Schoenberg developed the technique, an influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term developing variation and was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a melodic idea. Schoenbergs archival legacy is collected at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg was born into a lower middle-class Jewish family in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, at Obere Donaustraße 5. His father Samuel, a native of Bratislava, was a shopkeeper and he took only counterpoint lessons with the composer Alexander Zemlinsky, who was to become his first brother-in-law. In his twenties, Schoenberg earned a living by orchestrating operettas, while composing his own works and he later made an orchestral version of this, which became one of his most popular pieces. Strauss turned to a more conservative idiom in his own work after 1909, Mahler adopted him as a protégé and continued to support him, even after Schoenbergs style reached a point Mahler could no longer understand. Mahler worried about who would look after him after his death, Schoenberg, who had initially despised and mocked Mahlers music, was converted by the thunderbolt of Mahlers Third Symphony, which he considered a work of genius. Afterward he spoke of Mahler as a saint, in 1898 Schoenberg converted to Christianity in the Lutheran church. According to MacDonald this was partly to strengthen his attachment to Western European cultural traditions and he would self-identify as a member of the Jewish religion later in life. In October 1901, he married Mathilde Zemlinsky, the sister of the conductor and composer Alexander von Zemlinsky and he and Mathilde had two children, Gertrud and Georg. Gertrud would marry Schoenbergs pupil Felix Greissle in 1921, during the summer of 1908, his wife Mathilde left him for several months for a young Austrian painter, Richard Gerstl. This period marked a change in Schoenbergs work. This was the first composition without any reference at all to a key, also in this year, he completed one of his most revolutionary compositions, the String Quartet No
18.
Richard Strauss
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Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine and Franz Strauss, in his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six and continued to write music almost until his death, during his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, where he received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, in 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagners music on Strausss style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, in later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagners progressive works. Nevertheless, Strausss father undoubtedly had a influence on his sons developing taste. In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the part himself. The same year he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied philosophy and art history, Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strausss compositions at time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. 1, Op.11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire, Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897, Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian, some of Strausss first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet
19.
The Swan of Tuonela
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The Swan of Tuonela is an 1895 tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It is part of the Lemminkäinen Suite, Op.22, the tone poem is scored for a small orchestra of cor anglais, oboe, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trombones, timpani, bass drum, harp, and divided strings. The cor anglais is the voice of the swan, and its solo is perhaps the best known cor anglais solo in the orchestral literature, the music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan floating through Tuonela, the realm of the dead. Lemminkäinen, the hero of the epic, has been tasked with killing the sacred swan, in the next part of the story he is restored to life. The Swan of Tuonela was originally composed in 1893 as the prelude to an opera called The Building of the Boat. Sibelius revised it two years later, making it the second section of his Lemminkäinen Suite of four tone poems and he twice further revised the piece, in 1897 and 1900. Sibelius left posterity no personal account of his writing of the tone poem, the work was first published by K. F. Wasenius in Helsingfors, Finland, in April 1901. The German firm Breitkopf & Härtel also published it in Leipzig, the Swan of Tuonela, Op.22 No.2, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
20.
Jean Sibelius
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Jean Sibelius, born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, was a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies which, like his major works, continue to be performed and recorded in his home country. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, throughout his career, the composer found inspiration in nature and Nordic mythology, especially the heroic legends of the national epic, the Kalevala. Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony, in later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted, since 2011, Finland has celebrated a Flag Day on 8 December, the composers birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, the 150th anniversary of the birth, a number of special concerts and events were held. Sibelius was born on 8 December 1865 in Hämeenlinna in the Grand Duchy of Finland and he was the son of the Swedish-speaking medical doctor Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius née Borg. The family name stems from the Sibbe estate in Eastern Uusimaa which was owned by his paternal great-grandfather, Sibeliuss father died of typhoid in July 1868, leaving substantial debts. As a result, his mother—who was again pregnant—had to sell their property and move the family into the home of Katarina Borg, her widowed mother, who also lived in Hämeenlinna. Sibelius was therefore brought up in a decidedly female environment, the only male influence coming from his uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Sibelius and it was he who gave the boy a violin when he was ten years old and later encouraged him to maintain his interest in composition. For Sibelius, Uncle Pehr not only took the place of a father, from an early age, Sibelius showed a strong interest in nature, frequently walking around the countryside when the family moved to Loviisa on the coast for the summer months. In his own words, For me, Loviisa represented sun, Hämeenlinna was where I went to school, Loviisa was freedom. It was in Hämeenlinna, when he was seven, that his aunt Julia was brought in to give him piano lessons on the familys upright instrument and he progressed by improvising on his own, but still learned to read music. He later turned to the violin, which he preferred and he participated in trios with his elder sister Linda on piano, and his younger brother Christian on the cello. Furthermore, Sibelius often played in quartets with neighboring families, adding to his experience in chamber music, fragments survive of his early compositions of the period, a trio, a piano quartet and a Suite in D Minor for violin and piano. Around 1881, he recorded on paper his short pizzicato piece Vattendroppar for violin, in 1881, he started to take violin lessons from the local bandmaster, Gustaf Levander, immediately developing a particularly strong interest in the instrument. Despite such success as an instrumentalist, he chose to become a composer. Although his mother tongue was Swedish, in 1874 Sibelius attended Lucina Hagmans Finnish-speaking preparatory school, despite having to repeat a year, he succeeded in passing the schools final examination in 1885 which allowed him to enter a university
21.
Mazeppa (Byron)
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Mazeppa is a narrative poem written by the English romantic poet Lord Byron in 1819. It is based on a legend about the early life of Ivan Mazepa. According to the poem, the young Mazeppa has an affair with a Countess Theresa while serving as a page at the Court of King John II Casimir Vasa. Countess Theresa was married to a much older Count, on discovering the affair, the Count punishes Mazeppa by tying him naked to a wild horse and setting the horse loose. The bulk of the poem describes the journey of the hero strapped to the horse. The poem has been praised for its vigor of style and its sharp realization of the feelings of suffering and this poem also inspired Alexander Pushkin to write his poem Poltava as an answer to Byrons poem. Published within the covers with Mazeppa was the short story A Fragment, also known as Fragment of a Novel and The Burial, A Fragment. The poem opens with a device, Mazeppa and the Swedish King Charles XII, together with their armies, are retreating from the Battle of Poltava. Exhausted and war-weary, the two men set up camp for the night, the King admires Mazeppas horsemanship, and Mazeppa offers to tell him how he learnt this skill. The poem then switches to the first person. Mazeppa describes his youth and his service as a page to King John II Casimir in Poland and he becomes acquainted with Theresa, a beautiful Orientalized woman who had the Asiatic eye. She is married to a Count who is thirty years her senior, Mazeppa falls passionately in love with her, is unable to control his passions, and they meet at night and consummate their love. However, the Counts men catch them together and bring him to the Count, the Count orders an unusually cruel punishment, Mazeppa is to be tied naked to a steed, which is then to be taunted and set loose. Stanzas 10 to 18 recount the steeds flight across Eastern Europe, emphasising the pain, suffering, however, the horse has seemingly limitless energy. In Stanza 13, he describes himself full in deaths face, Stanza 18 concludes with a description of an icy sickness and his vision of a raven flying overheard, ready to feast on his corpse. However, in Stanza 19, Mazeppa awakes to find himself in bed, in the final stanza, Mazeppas narrative ends. The poet-narrator describes Mazeppa preparing his bed for the evening, the King is already asleep There are historical sources which verify that Ivan Mazepa served in the Polish Court to John II Casimir. However, it is unclear why he left Poland in 1663, There is no historical evidence to support that Mazepa was exiled from Poland because of a love affair, or that he was punished by being strapped to a wild horse. However, this legend was in circulation before Byron published his poem
22.
Lord Byron
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George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS, commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet, peer, politician, and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems, Don Juan and Childe Harolds Pilgrimage. Byron is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential and he travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years with the struggling poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in his life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi, ethel Colburn Mayne states that George Gordon Byron was born on 22 January 1788 in a house on 24 Holles Street in London. However, Robert Charles Dallas in his Recollections states that Byron was born in Dover and he was the son of Captain John Mad Jack Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon, a descendant of Cardinal Beaton and heiress of the Gight estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Byrons father had seduced the married Marchioness of Carmarthen and, after she divorced her husband. His treatment of her was described as brutal and vicious, in order to claim his second wifes estate in Scotland, Byrons father took the additional surname Gordon, becoming John Byron Gordon, and he was occasionally styled John Byron Gordon of Gight. Byron himself used this surname for a time and was registered at school in Aberdeen as George Byron Gordon, at the age of 10, he inherited the English Barony of Byron of Rochdale, becoming Lord Byron, and eventually dropped the double surname. Byrons paternal grandparents were Vice-Admiral the Hon. John Foulweather Jack Byron, vice Admiral John Byron had circumnavigated the globe, and was the younger brother of the 5th Baron Byron, known as the Wicked Lord. He was christened, at St Marylebone Parish Church, George Gordon Byron after his maternal grandfather George Gordon of Gight, a descendant of James I of Scotland, Mad Jack Byron married his second wife for the same reason that he married his first, her fortune. In a move to avoid his creditors, Catherine accompanied her husband to France in 1786. He was born on 22 January in lodgings at Holles Street in London, Catherine moved back to Aberdeenshire in 1790, where Byron spent his childhood. His father soon joined them in their lodgings in Queen Street, Catherine regularly experienced mood swings and bouts of melancholy, which could be partly explained by her husbands continuing to borrow money from her. As a result, she fell even further into debt to support his demands and it was one of these importunate loans that allowed him to travel to Valenciennes, France, where he died in 1791. When Byrons great-uncle, the wicked Lord Byron, died on 21 May 1798, described as a woman without judgment or self-command, Catherine either spoiled and indulged her son or vexed him with her capricious stubbornness. Her drinking disgusted him, and he often mocked her for being short and corpulent and she once retaliated and, in a fit of temper, referred to him as a lame brat. Langley-Moore questions the Galt claim that she over-indulged in alcohol, upon the death of Byrons mother-in-law Judith Noel, the Hon
23.
Felix Mendelssohn
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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family and he was brought up without religion until the age of seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a prodigy, but his parents were cautious. Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Leipzig Conservatoire, which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook, Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions and he is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Mendelssohns father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his mother was Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy. Mendelssohn was the second of four children, his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional, the family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise fearing French revenge for the Mendelssohn banks role in breaking Napoleons Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul, Fanny became a well-known pianist and amateur composer, originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. However, at time, it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to have a career in music, so Fanny remained an active. Abraham was also disinclined to allow Felix to follow a career until it became clear that he seriously intended to dedicate himself to it. Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment, Sarah Rothenburg wrote of the household that Europe came to their living room. Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion, he and his wife decided not to have Felix circumcised. Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, Abraham and his wife Lea were themselves baptised in 1822, formally adopting the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy for themselves and their children. The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Leas brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, in 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of Bartholdy this name that we all dislike. Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before him, Mendelssohn was regarded as a child prodigy and he began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. After the family moved to Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, from at least May 1819 Felix studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. This was an important influence on his future career, Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach
24.
Robert Schumann
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Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and his writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded. In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wiecks daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favor of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a concert career as a pianist. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to an asylum, at his own request. Diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness, Schumann was born in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, the fifth and last child of Johanna Christiane and August Schumann. Schumann began receiving general musical and piano instruction at the age of seven from Johann Gottfried Kuntzsch, the boy immediately developed a love of music and worked at creating musical compositions himself, without the aid of Kuntzsch. Even though he often disregarded the principles of composition, he created works regarded as admirable for his age. At age 14, Schumann wrote an essay on the aesthetics of music and also contributed to a volume, edited by his father, titled Portraits of Famous Men. While still at school in Zwickau, he read the works of the German poet-philosophers Schiller and Goethe, as well as Byron and the Greek tragedians. His most powerful and permanent literary inspiration was Jean Paul, a German writer whose influence is seen in Schumanns youthful novels Juniusabende, completed in 1826, and Selene. Schumanns interest in music was sparked by seeing a performance of Ignaz Moscheles playing at Karlsbad and his father, who had encouraged the boys musical aspirations, died in 1826 when Schumann was 16. Neither his mother nor his guardian thereafter encouraged a career in music, in 1828 Schumann left school, and after a tour during which he met Heinrich Heine in Munich, he went to Leipzig to study law. In 1829 his law studies continued in Heidelberg, where he became a member of Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg. During Eastertide 1830 he heard the Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, in July he wrote to his mother, My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law. During his studies with Wieck, it has claimed that Schumann permanently injured a finger on his right hand
25.
Niels Gade
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Niels Wilhelm Gade was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. He is considered the most important Danish musician of his day, Gade was born in Copenhagen, the son of a joiner and instrument maker. He began his career as a violinist with the Royal Danish Orchestra, when his first symphony was turned down for performance in Copenhagen, he sent it to Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn received the work positively, and conducted it in Leipzig in March 1843, in 1845 he conducted the premiere performance of Mendelssohns Violin Concerto in E minor. He also became friends with Robert Schumann, in Copenhagen Niels Gade became acquainted with the composer Cornelius Gurlitt, and they remained friends until the latters death. At Mendelssohn’s death in 1847, Gade was appointed to his position as chief conductor but was forced to return to Copenhagen in the spring of 1848 when war broke out between Prussia and Denmark. In Copenhagen Gade became director of the Copenhagen Musical Society and, establishing a new orchestra and chorus, under his direction, the Music Society reached its peak. He also worked as an organist, though he lost the position of organist at Our Lady, todays Copenhagen Cathedral. Hartmann, he served in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen from 1850 until his death, Gade was joint director of the Copenhagen Conservatory with Hartmann and Holger Simon Paulli. These products, embraced post-1848 as works of Romantic nationalism, are based on Danish folklore. Apparently Gade never rated Brudevalsen, and assigned it to the waste paper basket from where, it is rumoured, it was rescued by August Bournonville and he married Emma Sophie Amalie Hartmann, daughter of J. P. E. Hartmann, in 1852. He remarried in 1857 after her death, the Early Works of Niels W. Gade, In Search of the Poetic. Niels Gade at the Wayback Machine Programme notes Wasserloos, Yvonne, hildesheim, Zürich und New York 2004. Wasserloos, Yvonne, „Formel hält uns nicht gebunden, unsre Kunst heißt Poesie“, Niels W. Gade und Robert Schumann – Übergänge zwischen Poetischem und Nationalem, in, Henriette Herwig/Volker Kalisch/Bernd Kortländer/Joseph A. Kruse/Bernd Witte, Übergänge. Todesjahr von Heinrich Heine und Robert Schumann, stuttgart u. Weimar 2007, S. 521–540. Wasserloos, Yvonne, “Hearing through eyes, seeing through ears. “ Nation and landscapes in the works of Niels W. Gade, Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen, in, Studia Musicologica Norvegica 33, S. 42–52
26.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)
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At two separate times, Felix Mendelssohn composed music for William Shakespeares play, A Midsummer Nights Dream. First in 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture, later, in 1842, only a few years before his death, he wrote incidental music for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing Overture. The incidental music includes the world-famous Wedding March, the German title reads Ein Sommernachtstraum. The Overture in E major, Op.21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old, contemporary music scholar George Grove called it the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music. It was written as an overture, not associated with any performance of the play. The Overture was written after Mendelssohn had read a German translation of the play in 1826, the translation was by August Wilhelm Schlegel, with help from Ludwig Tieck. There was a connection as well, Schlegels brother Friedrich married Felix Mendelssohns Aunt Dorothea. While a romantic piece in atmosphere, the Overture incorporates many elements, being cast in sonata form and shaped by regular phrasings. The piece is noted for its striking instrumental effects, such as the emulation of scampering fairy feet at the beginning. Heinrich Eduard Jacob, in his biography of the composer, said that Mendelssohn had scribbled the chords after hearing an evening breeze rustle the leaves in the garden of the familys home, the overture begins with four chords in the winds. Following the first theme in the parallel minor representing the dancing fairies, a transition leads to a second theme and this is followed by the braying of Bottom with the hee-hawing being evoked by the strings. A final group of themes, reminiscent of craftsmen and hunting calls, the fairies dominate most of the development section, while the Lovers theme is played in a minor key. The recapitulation begins with the opening four chords in the winds, followed by the Fairies theme. The fairies return, and ultimately have the word in the coda. The overture ends once again with the opening four chords by the winds. The Overture was premiered in Stettin on 20 February 1827, at a concert conducted by Carl Loewe, Mendelssohn had turned 18 just over two weeks earlier. He had to travel 80 miles through a snowstorm to get to the concert. After the intermission, he joined the first violins for a performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn wrote the incidental music, Op.61, for A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1842,16 years after he wrote the Overture
27.
The Hebrides (overture)
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The concert overture The Hebrides, Op.26, also known as Fingals Cave, was composed by Mendelssohn in 1830. The second edition of this Overture was completed on June 1832, the piece was inspired by Mendelssohns visit to Fingals Cave on the island of Staffa, located in the Hebrides archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. The piece was dedicated to King Frederick William IV of Prussia, Mendelssohns first visit to England in 1829 resulted from invitations by Sir George Smart and the Philharmonic Society. Following his tour of England, Mendelssohn proceeded to Scotland, where he work on his Symphony No. He was engaged on a tour of Scotland with his travelling companion Karl Klingemann when he sent a postcard to his family with the phrase of the overture written on it. In a note to his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn he said, In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there. The cave at that time was approximately 35 feet high and over 200 feet deep, the work was completed on 16 December 1830 and was originally entitled Die einsame Insel. However, Mendelssohn later revised the score, completing it by 20 June 1832, despite this, the title of Fingals Cave was also used, on the orchestral parts he labelled the music The Hebrides, but on the score Mendelssohn labelled the music Fingals Cave. The overture was premiered on 14 May 1832 in London, in a concert also featured Mendelssohns Overture to A Midsummer Nights Dream. The music, though labelled as an overture, is intended to stand as a complete work. Although programme music, it does not tell a story and is not about anything, instead. The overture consists of two themes, the opening notes of the overture state the theme Mendelssohn wrote while visiting the cave, and is played initially by the violas, cellos. This lyrical theme, suggestive of the power and stunning beauty of the cave, is intended to develop feelings of loneliness, the second theme, meanwhile, depicts movement at sea and rolling waves. The piece is scored for 2 flutes,2 oboes,2 clarinets,2 bassoons,2 horns,2 trumpets, timpani, performances of the overture typically last between 10½ and 11 minutes. The autograph manuscript of the work is held in the Bodleian Library, the overture can be heard in Luis Buñuels film LAge dOr. The full work provides the soundtrack for the 1941 experimental film Moods of the Sea by Slavko Vorkapić, an extract was used for the inscrutable and seemingly indestructible hopping mynah bird in the brief Warner Bros. 1940s cartoon series Inki and the Minah Bird, an A cappella arrangement can be heard in Crash, Twinsanity. Heard in the 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by Michael Powell, the opening 2 minutes of the piece features in the PlayStation video game Colony Wars, Vengeance during selected cutscenes Hebrides Overture, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
28.
Victor Hugo
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Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best-known French writers, outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables,1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,1831. In France, Hugo is known primarily for his collections, such as Les Contemplations. He produced more than 4,000 drawings and also campaigned for causes such as the abolition of capital punishment. He is buried in the Panthéon in Paris and his legacy has been honoured in many ways, including his portrait being placed on French currency. Victor Hugo was the son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet, his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo. He was born in 1802 in Besançon in the region of Franche-Comté. Hugos childhood was a period of political turmoil. Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of the French two years after Hugos birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his 13th birthday, since Hugos father was an officer, the family moved frequently and Hugo learned much from these travels. On a childhood trip to Naples, Hugo saw the vast Alpine passes and the snowy peaks, the magnificently blue Mediterranean. Though he was five years old at the time, he remembered the six-month-long trip vividly. They stayed in Naples for a few months and then headed back to Paris, at the beginning of her marriage, Hugos mother Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy and Spain. Thereafter she dominated Hugos education and upbringing, as a result, Hugos early work in poetry and fiction reflect her passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the leading up to Frances 1848 Revolution. Young Victor fell in love and, against his mothers wishes, because of his close relationship with his mother, Hugo waited until after her death to marry Adèle in 1822. Adèle and Victor Hugo had their first child, Léopold, in 1823, on 28 August 1824, the couples second child, Léopoldine was born, followed by Charles on 4 November 1826, François-Victor on 28 October 1828, and Adèle on 24 August 1830. Hugos eldest and favourite daughter, Léopoldine, died aged 19 in 1843, on 4 September, she drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts when a boat overturned. Her young husband also died trying to save her, the death left her father devastated, Hugo was travelling with his mistress at the time in the south of France, and first learned about Léopoldines death from a newspaper he read in a café
29.
Romantic music
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Romantic music is an era of Western classical music that began in the late 18th or early 19th century. In the Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional, expanding to encompass literary, artistic, famous early Romantic composers include Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bellini, and Berlioz. The late 19th century saw an expansion in the size of the orchestra and in the dynamic range. Also, public concerts became a key part of middle class society, in contrast to earlier periods. Famous composers from the half of the century include Johann Strauss II, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Verdi. A prominent mark of late 19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by such figures as Dvořák, Sibelius, other prominent late-century figures include Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Rachmaninoff and Franck. The Romantic movement was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the half of the 18th century in Europe. In part, it was a revolt against social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography and education. One of the first significant applications of the term to music was in 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry, in the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to the later works of Haydn and Mozart. It was also through the writings of Hoffmann and other German authors that German music was brought to the centre of musical Romanticism, the attributes have also been criticized for being too vague. For example, features of the ghostly and supernatural could apply equally to Mozarts Don Giovanni from 1787, events and changes that happen in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events always affect music. For example, the Industrial Revolution was in effect by the late 18th century. This event had a profound effect on music, there were major improvements in the mechanical valves. The new and innovative instruments could be played with greater ease, another development that had an effect on music was the rise of the middle class. Composers before this period lived on the patronage of the aristocracy, many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music. The Romantic composers, on the hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers. Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar, showed the world that there should be no segregation of musical tastes, during the Romantic period, music often took on a much more nationalistic purpose
30.
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
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The Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125, is Ludwig van Beethovens final complete symphony. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the works in classical music. It is almost universally considered by critics to be one of Beethovens greatest works, the symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony. The words are sung during the movement by four vocal soloists. They were taken from the Ode to Joy, a written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803. In the 2010s, it stands as one of the most performed symphonies in the world, the Philharmonic Society of London originally commissioned the symphony in 1817. The main composition work was done between autumn 1822 and the completion of the autograph in February 1824, the symphony emerged from other pieces by Beethoven that, while completed works in their own right, are also in some sense musical sketches for the future symphony. 80, basically a concerto movement, brings in a choir. As in the Ninth Symphony, the vocal forces sing a theme first played instrumentally, going further back, an earlier version of the Choral Fantasy theme is found in the song Gegenliebe, for piano and high voice, which dates from before 1795. According to Robert W. Gutman, Mozarts K.222 Offertory in D minor, Misericordias Domini, written in 1775, contains a melody that foreshadows Ode to Joy. When his friends and financiers heard this, they urged him to premiere the symphony in Vienna in the form of a signed by a number of prominent Viennese music patrons. This was the composers first on-stage appearance in 12 years, the hall was packed with an eager audience, while no complete list of premiere performers exists, many of Viennas most elite performers are known to have participated. The soprano and alto parts were sung by two young singers, Henriette Sontag and Caroline Unger. German soprano Henriette Sontag was eighteen years old when Beethoven personally recruited her to perform in the premiere of the Ninth, also personally recruited by Beethoven, 20-year-old contralto Caroline Unger, a native of Vienna, had gained critical praise in 1821 appearing in Rossinis Tancredi. After performing in Beethovens 1824 premiere, Unger then found fame in Italy, Italian composers Donizetti and Bellini were known to have written roles specifically for her voice. Although the performance was directed by Michael Umlauf, the theatres Kapellmeister. However, two earlier, Umlauf had watched as the composers attempt to conduct a dress rehearsal of his opera Fidelio ended in disaster. So this time, he instructed the singers and musicians to ignore the almost totally deaf Beethoven, at the beginning of every part, Beethoven, who sat by the stage, gave the tempos
31.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
"Symphonic poem". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). 1911.
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