Which musicians belong to the French school of romanticism. Romanticism in music

The 19th century is the century of the heyday of the musical culture of Western Europe. New modes of musical expression are emerging, revealing the deep individual potential of composers. The essence of romanticism is best expressed in music. The works of romantic composers, conveying the richness of the world of human emotional experiences and the shades of his personal feelings, form the basis of the modern concert repertoire.

Romanticism is not just lyrics, it is the dominance of feelings, passions, spiritual elements, which are known only in the corners of one’s own soul. A true artist identifies them with the help of brilliant intuition. In the 19th century, music is revealed not in statics, but in dynamics, not in abstract concepts and rational constructions, but in the emotional experience of human life. These emotions are not typified, not generalized, but are subjectified at every moment of musical playback.

For romantics, “thinking in sounds” is higher than “thinking in concepts,” and “music begins when words end” (G. Heine) [cit. according to 7].

The musicians emphasize their connection with their homeland and draw inspiration from folk layers of musical culture. This is how national music schools are formed, revealing the nationality of each romantic composer and the originality of his style: the instrumental and vocal works of Franz Schubert are filled with Austrian melodies and everyday dances; all the works of Fryderyk Chopin are permeated with the intonations of his homeland - Poland; Richard Wagner's work is based on German mythology and philosophy; Edvard Grieg drew inspiration from Norwegian imagery, dance and song; Johannes Brahms drew on the traditions of German polyphonists and created the "German Requiem"; Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak - in Slavic melos, Isaac Albeniz - in Spanish. .

With all the richness and uniqueness of individual and national styles and trends, romantic musical art contained within itself a fairly clear aesthetic, stylistic and figurative system:

increased emotional expressiveness (the primacy of feeling over reason is an axiom of the theory of romanticism)

interest in the depth and variety of emotional experiences in the form of a “lyrical confession”, revealing the hero’s inner world

the use of fantastic fiction, as if elevating the artist above the ugly reality

attraction to detail, specificity, emphasizing the characteristic details of the image

there was a tendency towards monothematism, towards continuity of development, variational transformation of themes

enrichment of mode-harmonic brilliance: altered harmonies, tonal comparisons, chords of secondary steps

updating intonations by turning to national folklore

strengthening the role of the principle of programming due to the novelty and complexity of romantic images

romantic melody, freely deployed, more vague, with intonations of incompleteness

Romantic composers felt discord with reality and sought to “hide” from a world hostile to them in fiction or a beautiful dream. The music begins to record subtle emotional vibrations, passionate pores, and variability of moods - a reflection of the real worries and life destinies of musicians, sometimes tragically.

The instrumental miniature became close to composers, and new piano genres were created: impromptu, etude, nocturne, prelude, cycles of program pieces, album sheets, musical moments, ballads, and many dance genres that had not previously appeared in professional music. New musical genres are being formed, based on the close connection between music and literature. Literary methods of presentation and plotting penetrate into the sphere of musical creativity.

The result of the synthesis of music and poetry was such a specific feature of musical romanticism as programmaticity. It is reflected in the literary programs of musical works - subtitles, as well as in the creation of literary scripts for the works by the composers themselves. Thus, the musical creations of the romantics often had a dual essence - actually musical and verbal, two planes of functioning of the work. Such literary programs were often necessary to explain such unusual romantic musical images.

The intonation basis of the music of the romantics becomes deeply lyrical song intonations, which determine the specificity of vocal lyrics and penetrate both symphonic and piano music. In this regard, the so-called Schubert song symphonism is formed; a new piano genre in the work of F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy - a song without words. .

The songfulness and vocal quality of romantic music was also associated with the deep interest of the romantics in historical, legendary and fairy-tale themes and in folklore, but in an idealized patriarchal refraction. This can also be regarded as an attempt to find a life ideal in the past without finding it in the present. Folklore in romantic music often acquired a poetic appearance. .

Romantic musical art is a large-scale, complex and contradictory phenomenon. It united both reactionary and progressive trends, moving closer to realism, and many different national schools and individual styles in their aesthetic, stylistic, genre and intonation settings.

The romantic worldview is characterized by a sharp conflict between reality and dreams. Reality is low and unspiritual, it is permeated with the spirit of philistinism, philistinism and is worthy only of denial. A dream is something beautiful, perfect, but unattainable and incomprehensible to reason.

Romanticism contrasted the prose of life with the beautiful kingdom of the spirit, the “life of the heart.” The Romantics believed that feelings constitute a deeper layer of the soul than reason. According to Wagner, “the artist appeals to feeling, not to reason.” And Schumann said: “the mind goes astray, the feelings never.” It is no coincidence that the ideal form of art was declared to be music, which, due to its specificity, most fully expresses the movements of the soul. It was music in the era of romanticism that took a leading place in the art system.
If in literature and painting the romantic movement basically completes its development by the middle of the 19th century, then the life of musical romanticism in Europe is much longer. Musical romanticism as a movement emerged at the beginning of the 19th century and developed in close connection with various movements in literature, painting and theater. The initial stage of musical romanticism is represented by the works of F. Schubert, E. T. A. Hoffmann, K. M. Weber, G. Rossini; the subsequent stage (1830-50s) - the work of F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn, G. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Wagner, G. Verdi.

The late stage of romanticism extends to the end of the 19th century.

The main problem of romantic music is the problem of personality, and in a new light - in its conflict with the outside world. The romantic hero is always lonely. The theme of loneliness is perhaps the most popular in all romantic art. Very often the thought of a creative personality is associated with it: a person is lonely when he is an extraordinary, gifted person. The artist, poet, musician are favorite heroes in the works of the romantics (“The Love of a Poet” by Schumann, “Symphony Fantastique” by Berlioz with its subtitle “An Episode from the Life of an Artist”, Liszt’s symphonic poem “Tasso”).
The deep interest in the human personality inherent in romantic music was expressed in the predominance of a personal tone in it. The revelation of personal drama often acquired a touch of autobiography among the romantics, which brought special sincerity to the music. For example, many of Schumann's piano works are connected with the story of his love for Clara Wieck. Wagner emphasized the autobiographical nature of his operas in every possible way.

Attention to feelings leads to a change in genres - lyrics, in which images of love predominate, acquire a dominant position.

The theme of nature is very often intertwined with the theme of “lyrical confession”. Resonating with a person’s state of mind, it is usually colored by a feeling of disharmony. The development of genre and lyric-epic symphonism is closely connected with images of nature (one of the first works is Schubert’s “big” symphony in C major).
The theme of fantasy became a real discovery of romantic composers. For the first time, music learned to embody fabulous and fantastic images through purely musical means. In the operas of the 17th and 18th centuries, “unearthly” characters (such as the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”) spoke in a “generally accepted” musical language, standing out little from the background of real people. Romantic composers learned to convey the fantasy world as something completely specific (with the help of unusual orchestral and harmonic colors).
Interest in folk art is highly characteristic of musical romanticism. Like the romantic poets, who enriched and updated the literary language through folklore, musicians widely turned to national folklore - folk songs, ballads, epics. Under the influence of folklore, the content of European music was dramatically transformed.
The most important aspect of the aesthetics of musical romanticism was the idea of a synthesis of arts, which found its most vivid expression in the operatic work of Wagner and in the program music of Berlioz, Schumann, and Liszt.

Hector Berlioz. "Fantastic Symphony" - 1. Dreams, passions...

The content of the symphony is connected with Berlioz's lover, the English actress Harriet Smithson. In 1847, during a tour in Russia, the author dedicated the Symphony Fantastique to Emperor Nicholas I.

Robert Schumann - “In the radiance...,” “I meet the gaze..”

From the vocal cycle "The Poet's Love"
Robert Schumann Heinrich Heine "In the glow of warm May days"
Robert Schumann - Heinrich "I meet the gaze of your eyes"

Robert Schumann. "Fantastic plays".

Schumann Fantasiestucke, op. 12 part 1: no. 1 Des Abend and no. 2 Aufschwung

Sheet. Symphonic poem "Orpheus"

Frederic Chopin - Prelude No. 4 in E minor

Frederic Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 in C - sharp minor

Schubert opened the way for many new musical genres - impromptu, musical moments, song cycles, lyric-dramatic symphony. But no matter what genre Schubert wrote - traditional or created by him - everywhere he appears as a composer of a new era, the era of romanticism.

Presentation "Musical art of the era of romanticism" continues the topic This blog post introduced the main features of the style. The presentation dedicated to the music of romanticism is not only rich in illustrative material, but also contains audio and video examples. Unfortunately, you can only listen to the music by following the links in PowerPoint.

Musical art of the Romantic era

No era before the 19th century gave the world so many talented composers and performers and so many outstanding musical masterpieces as the era of romanticism. Unlike classicism, whose worldview is based on the cult of reason, the main thing in the art of romanticism is feeling.

“In its closest and most essential meaning, romanticism is nothing more than the inner world of a person’s soul, the innermost life of his heart. Its sphere, as we said, is the entire inner soulful life of a person, that mysterious life of the soul and heart, from where all vague aspirations for the best and sublime rise, trying to find satisfaction in the ideals created by fantasy. V.G. Belinsky

In music, like in no other form of art, it is possible to express a wide variety of feelings and emotions. Therefore, it was music that became the main art in the era of romanticism. By the way, the term "romanticism" first used in relation to music by an outstanding writer, artist, composer Ernest Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann, whose life and fate can serve as the clearest example of the fate of a romantic hero.

Musical instruments of the Romantic era

Thanks to the richness of the sound palette and the variety of timbre colors, the piano became one of the favorite musical instruments of the romantics. During the era of romanticism, the piano was enriched with new possibilities. Among the romantic musicians there are many such as Liszt and Chopin, who amaze music lovers with the virtuoso performance of their (and not only their) piano works.

The orchestra of the Romantic era was enriched with new instruments. The composition of the orchestra has increased several times compared to the orchestra of the classical era. In order to create a fantastic, magical atmosphere, composers used the capabilities of instruments such as the harp, glass harmonica, celesta, and glockenspiel.

The screenshot of the slide from my presentation shows that for each image of a musical instrument I added an example of its sound. By downloading the presentation to your computer and opening it in PowerPoint, my curious reader, you can enjoy the sound of these amazing instruments.

“The updated instruments have incredibly expanded the scope of orchestral expressiveness, making it possible to enrich the color palette of the orchestra and ensemble with previously unknown timbres, technical brilliance and powerful luxury of sonority. And in solo plays, concerts, and fantasies, they could amaze listeners with unprecedented, sometimes acrobatic virtuosity and exaggerated sensuality, giving the concert performers demonic and domineering features.” V.V. Berezin

Genres in Romantic music

Along with the popular genres that existed in the previous era, new ones appear in romantic music, such as nocturne, prelude(which has become a completely independent work (remember the delightful preludes Frederic Chopin), ballad, impromptu, musical miniature, song (Franz Schubert composed about six hundred of them), symphonic poem. In these works, the romantic composer could express the subtlest shades of emotional experiences. It was the romantics, striving for the concreteness of musical ideas, who came to the creation of programmatic compositions. These creations were often inspired by works of literature, painting, and sculpture. The clearest example of such creations are the essays Franz Liszt, inspired by images of Dante, Michelangelo, Petrarch, Goethe.

Romantic composers

The scope of the “genre” does not allow us to include in this entry a story about the work of romantic composers. My task was to give a general idea of the music of Romanticism and, with luck, to arouse interest in the topic and a desire to continue independent study of the musical art of the Romantic era.

Among the Arzamas Academy materials, I discovered something that might be of interest to my inquisitive reader about music of romanticism. I strongly recommend reading, listening, thinking!

As always, I suggest bibliography. I would like to clarify that I am compiling the list using my own library. If you find it incomplete, complete it yourself.

Encyclopedia for children. T.7. Art. Part three. Music, theater, cinema. – M.: Avanta+, 2001.
Encyclopedic dictionary of a young musician. ‒ M.: “Pedagogy”, 1985.
Musical encyclopedic dictionary. ‒ M.: “Soviet Encyclopedia”, 1990.
Velikovich E.I. Musical journeys in stories and pictures. ‒ St. Petersburg: Information and Publishing Agency “LIK”, 2009.
Emokhonova L.G. World artistic culture: Textbook. A manual for students. avg. ped. textbook establishments. – M.: Publishing Center “Academy”, 1998.
Zalesskaya M.K. Richard Wagner. Banned composer. ‒ M.: Veche, 2014.
Collins St. Classical music through and through. ‒ M.: FAIR_PRESS, 2000.
Lvova E.P., Sarabyanov D.V., Borisova E.A., Fomina N.N., Berezin V.V., Kabkova E.P., Nekrasova L.M. World Art. XIX century. Fine arts, music, theater. ‒ St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.
Rolland R. Lives of great people. ‒ M.: Izvestia, 1992.
One Hundred Great Composers / Compiled by D.K. Samin. ‒ M.: Veche, 1999.
Tibaldi-Chiesa M. Paganini. ‒ M.: Mol. Guard, 1981

Good luck!

The late stage of romanticism extends to the end of the 19th century.

Attention to feelings leads to a change in genres - lyrics, in which images of love predominate, acquire a dominant position.
The theme of nature is very often intertwined with the theme of “lyrical confession”. Resonating with a person’s state of mind, it is usually colored by a feeling of disharmony. The development of genre and lyric-epic symphonism is closely connected with images of nature (one of the first works is Schubert’s “big” symphony in C major).
The theme of fantasy became a real discovery of romantic composers. For the first time, music learned to embody fabulous and fantastic images through purely musical means. In the operas of the 17th and 18th centuries, “unearthly” characters (such as the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”) spoke in a “generally accepted” musical language, standing out little from the background of real people. Romantic composers learned to convey the fantasy world as something completely specific (with the help of unusual orchestral and harmonic colors).
Interest in folk art is highly characteristic of musical romanticism. Like the romantic poets, who enriched and updated the literary language through folklore, musicians widely turned to national folklore - folk songs, ballads, epics. Under the influence of folklore, the content of European music was dramatically transformed.
The most important aspect of the aesthetics of musical romanticism was the idea of a synthesis of arts, which found its most vivid expression in the operatic work of Wagner and in the program music of Berlioz, Schumann, and Liszt.

Hector Berlioz. "Fantastic Symphony" - 1. Dreams, passions...

Robert Schumann - “In the radiance...,” “I meet the gaze..”

From the vocal cycle "The Poet's Love"
Robert Schumann Heinrich Heine "In the glow of warm May days"
Robert Schumann - Heinrich "I meet the gaze of your eyes"

Robert Schumann. "Fantastic plays".

Schumann Fantasiestucke, op. 12 part 1: no. 1 Des Abend and no. 2 Aufschwung

Sheet. Symphonic poem "Orpheus"

Frederic Chopin - Prelude No. 4 in E minor

Frederic Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 in C - sharp minor

Many features of the new romantic style were then developed in the works of Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, and Russian composers of the second half of the 19th century.

Franz Schubert. Symphony C major

Franz Liszt. "Dreams of Love"

Weber. Choir of hunters from the opera "Free Shooter"

Franz Schubert. Impromptu No. 3

The text is compiled from various sites. Compiled by:Ninel Nick

ROMANTICISM
The artistic movement of romanticism arose in European and American culture at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries as a reaction to the aesthetics of classicism. New criteria in art have become freedom of expression, naturalness, sincerity and relaxedness, and increased attention to a person’s individual traits. The Romantics rejected classical severity and restraint. They were replaced by very strong emotions, intuition, spirituality, and creative imagination.

The appearance of the style was preceded by important historical events: the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. These were dark years, and it seemed that all hopes, everything that the advanced enlighteners of the 18th century had dreamed of, had collapsed. However, the 19th century was marked by the rise of the liberation movement in Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Spain. Hence the great interest of romantics in the national past of each country: legends, rituals, fairy tales, customs, songs. The beauty of folk art was the first of the “eternal values” discovered by the romantics. Before them, no one had turned to folklore so consistently. The second value is the peace of the human soul, the uniqueness of each individual person, the diversity of the subtlest shades of feelings that cannot always be expressed in words. Who is he - the hero of the romantics? This is a person with strong feelings, with an acute reaction to the world. He rejects the laws by which others live, therefore he is always placed above those around him.

Increased interest in man and his spiritual world contributed to the flourishing of lyrical and lyric-epic genres in literature. The romanticism style produced great national poets: Hein in Germany, Byron in England, Hugo in France. The historical novels of V. Scott and A. Dumas colorfully conveyed the flavor. This period was marked by the flourishing of literary translation. In Russia, a brilliant master of poetic translation was V.A. Zhukovsky, who made many pearls of world poetic creativity into the property of Russian literature.

In the fine arts, romanticism was most clearly manifested in painting and graphics. The artists asserted in their works the individuality of their creative style, the strength and richness of color, pictorial dynamics, and contrasts of light and color. They were characterized by historical themes, landscapes, and a keen interest in personality (W. Turner, T. Gericault, E. Delacroix, O. Kiprensky, K. Bryullov).

Musical creativity and performing arts are flourishing. The striking features of romantic music are: frequent changes of mood (major, minor), free form of construction of musical compositions, programming, interest in national culture, appeal to genres related to literature.

In the work of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, song is given importance. He has about 600 of them. Schubert combined his songs into cycles, creating a varied musical story, full of contrasting images and moods. His most famous compositions “Serenade”, “Ave Maria”, “The Forest King”, “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”, the vocal cycles “The Beautiful Miller’s Wife” and “Winter Reise” belong to the great creations of musical art.

Following Schubert, Robert Schumann becomes the master of German lyric song. Among his best song cycles are “The Poet’s Love,” “Myrtles,” and “The Love and Life of a Woman.” These works were a real discovery in the field of musical psychological lyrics. Schumann went down in the history of music both as a master of a musical “portrait”, a musical “story” (“Carnival piano cycle”), and as a publisher, editor and author of articles for his “New Musical Journal”. The composer wrote a lot of program music. He believed that the titles of works should give impetus to the imagination of listeners. The famous play “Rush” can serve as an epigraph to his entire work, imbued with the desire for space and light.

Schumann expressed words of admiration for the Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin. His phrase: “Hats off, gentlemen, before you is a genius!” - became famous. Chopin's works are thoroughly permeated with Slavic intonations, a sensitive sense of the beauty of Polish folk songs, and Polish dance rhythms. National dances occupy a prominent place in the composer’s work: lively peasant dances, brilliant ballroom dances, poetic gentle mazurkas and excited polonaises, elevated like a poem. Chopin is called the "singer of the piano" because all of his works were written for this instrument. The favorite type of romantic piano lyricism is the nocturne (“night piece”), and the preludes and waltzes are uniquely original.

Chopin is the first creator of the instrumental ballad, and together with the Hungarian composer Liszt, the founder of a new type of piano music - the concert etude. Full of vitality and beauty, the composer’s creations sound like the personification of love for the Motherland and freedom. Not a single pianist in the world can ignore his works, which remain a measure of musical and artistic taste.
A prominent representative of romanticism in music is the largest composer, brilliant pianist, conductor, musical and public figure, the pride of the Hungarian people, Franz Liszt. The main place in his work is given to piano and symphonic music. Liszt's works are characterized by a picturesque, figurative beginning. He sought to convey visible images - what aroused creative imagination when communicating with nature, getting acquainted with works of painting, sculpture, and literature. This was reflected in his program plays. The cycle “Years of Wanderings” gained the greatest popularity. The lyrical “Betrothal” based on Raphael’s painting contrasts with the stern “The Thinker” based on the sculpture by Michelangelo.

“Three Sonnets of Petrarch” full of deep passionate feeling. “Hungarian Rhapsodies” are written on bright contrasts of song and dance tunes. A remarkable monument of program music consists of 12 symphonic poems. Liszt is an innovative pianist. He significantly expanded the expressive capabilities and technique of piano playing, proving that the instrument could be as full-voiced as an orchestra.
The Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote music in a variety of genres, but he was most attracted to opera. The plots were taken from the Bible, history, and romantic dramas by Hugo and Schiller. The composer’s focus is on the personality of a person, his inner world. Verdi's best operas: “Regoletto”, “La Traviata”, “Aida”, “Otello”, “Don Carlos” are performed on opera stages all over the world, attracting many spectators. The exceptional popularity of the composer's work is explained by his deep nationality, connection with national culture, high humanism and extraordinary melodic richness.
A prominent figure in the music world is the German composer Richard Wagner. This is a whole era in musical art. His work is associated with the national traditions of German artistic culture, German folk - poetic and folk music. Wagner was not only a great composer, but also a poet, playwright, conductor, music critic and publicist, and a reformer of the art of opera. He owns thirteen operas. All of them are written using their own poetic texts. The source of his plots was the German epic: legends about the “Flying Dutchman” doomed to eternal wanderings, about the rebel singer Tanzheuser, about the legendary knight Lohengrin. These bright characters became the heroes of Wagner's operas. The composer reflected the problems of humanity: birth and death, love and struggle, youth and old age, fear and courage in a grandiose cycle consisting of four operas (“Das Rheingold”, “Walkyrie”, “Siegfried”, “Twilight of the Gods”) under the general title "The Ring of the Nibelung". Richard Wagner is the last major romantic of the 19th century.

Foreign composers of the Romantic era created a lot of interesting and artistically valuable things. Their music is a great treasure of world culture. She excites millions of listeners, captivates with her courageous strength, sincerity and warmth of melodic expression, and the depth of the feelings expressed in her.

Larisa Putintseva.