The nineteenth century was the century of big changes in literature and music. As to music, it attended by gradual emergence of musical classics, whose works are still remembered. There were such musicians as Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Lanner, Straus and so on. There appeared a lot of new genres, which became very popular later, and one of the most famous in the late nineteenth century was orchestral music. In this genre was felt the presence of masterpiece of old music, especially Ludwig van Beethoven.
It was hard for later composers made something new and different than Beethoven did, whose orchestral works were made as artistic statements by him, not diverting entertainments. He preferred that his orchestral works were construed as artistic statements by the composer, not just diverting entertainments or something else, like music had been in earlier eras. Beethoven’s Sixth symphony(“Pastoral”) was an example of such kind of music like a program.
A lot of later composers tried to find different approaches to the post-Beethoven symphonic tradition. They aimed their music at all listeners, creating something that suits for all tastes. Composers are drawn to program music and the character piece for piano. They used their own peculiar charm, the exaltation and the profundity of Beethoven.
One of the famous representatives of program music was Louis-Hector Berlioz. He was inspired of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” and created the most famous piece of program music of the nineteenth century, the “Symphonie fantastique” (Fantastic Symphony) in 1830. It is expressed by two dancing ones, a waltz, and a march. This symphony has five movements as “Pastoral” has. But composer preferred to call it parts instead movements. In this way, he tried to create the line between him and Beethoven symphonic tradition. Berlioz preceded the narrative with the following note, “The outline of the instrumental drama, which lacks the help of words, needs to be explained in advance the distribution of this program to the audience is indispensable for a complete understanding of the dramatic outline of the work”. He thought that feelings and passion have to be in a program. Also, he used an imitation in his work, for example, a distant sound of thunder. Each part of the symphony has its own title and an explanatory paragraph.
Part one: Reveries-Passions – in this part the young musician sees a women and fall in with her.
Part two: A Ball – the man goes to the party but he sees an everywhere image of his beloved.
Part three: Scene in the Country – he finding himself in the country and deliberates about his loneliness and wish that it will soon be over.
Part four: March to the Scaffold – he understood that his love is unappreciated, the artist poison himself with opium. After that, he dreams that he has killed his beloved.
Part five: Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath – he sees himself at the Sabbath. There are ghosts, monsters, sorcerers and they come for his funeral. Then he sees his beloved, who takes part in the devilish orgy.
Program about a young musician and his beloved was inspired by his own experience. In 1827, Berlioz met his love, Harriet Smithson, an Irish actress performing as Shakespeare’s Juliet in Paris. They married in 1833 but had to separate in 1840. So this symphony from its performing was associated with the composer’s personal life. But the “Symphonie fantastique” is more that autobiography. It was an experiment in symphonic music after Beethoven’s death. Berlioz tried to unify the symphony with the help of a theme he called the idee fixe.
Another famous composer is Johannes Brahms. Sacred vocal works were an important part of the compositional output. His Symphony No.1 is a representative of absolute music, which characterize instrumental music in the expression like vocal music that had no real expressive. He was inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the finale of his First.
The theme of Symphony No.1 is wanting in melodic and rhythmic charm, the whole animation. He came so closer to the style of late Beethoven that it was a paradox. Brahms’s works are nonliturgical so they are not a part of any religious service.
So we see that nineteenth century was rich by good composers. A lot of genres started to develop. Orchestral, chamber, and choral music got more attention in this century. Society started to be more educated in this sphere and a lot of schools were opened for those, who wanted to study all these musical nuances and become a composer, conductor and so on. Many composers made a big contribution to the classic music. And the best of them are still famous. There were people who tried to copy such popular composers, someone did it well and someone didn’t. The changes and appearances of something new in the nineteenth century had a big deposit even in modern music.
Work cited
Burkholder, Peter & Grout, Donald, “A History of Western Music”, 2014. pp. 624-628.
Frisch, Walter, “Music in the Nineteenth Century”, New York, London: W. W. Norton and Company. 2014.
Weiss, Piero & Taruskin, Richard, “Music in the Western World”, 1984. pp. 402-405.
