LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827):

The Bridge between Classicism and Romanticism

• Born in Bonn (now in Germany) to a family of musicians.
His father was a tenor vocalist in the Chapel of the Electoral
Court in Bonn.
• Trained as a piano virtuoso, at the age of 17 Beethoven
traveled to Vienna and played for W. A. Mozart († 1791).
• Before his 22nd birthday he moved to Vienna to study with
Haydn, and Beethoven remained there for the rest of his life.
• a keyboard virtuoso, renowned for his skill at improvisation
—both entire works and in concerto cadenzas—he often
played his own works in concert before he became deaf.
• very popular in Vienna, where the aristocrats and public
supported him well; unlike Haydn, he had no single
patron. He supported himself through a combination of
annual stipends or single gifts from members of the
aristocracy; income from subscription concerts, private
piano and composition lessons; and proceeds from sales of
his published works for both amateur (domestic) and
professional (public) performers and audiences.
• During his twenties, Beethoven noticed the first signs of deafness, which eventually became total. As
his hearing became more and more impaired, he was forced to give up his performing and conducting
career, but he kept composing until the end of his life.
• Embarrassed by his ailment and often ill, he became much more isolated and contemplated suicide.
• His Heiligenstadt Testament (a letter to his brother) of 1802 demonstrates the despair that Beethoven’s
felt over his plight, while also giving us insight into Beethoven’s romantic concepts of art & ‘genius’.
• Beethoven asserted that the composer should be regarded with as much respect as the nobility, even
more so, for to be a creative artist was the highest human achievement.
• Beethoven believed that instrumental music could carry a message and have moral force, perhaps even
more than the written word. This view was not original to Beethoven; rather he demonstrated the
changing aesthetic view of music and other arts that became typical of the early romantic movement.
• Although Beethoven was the musical heir of Haydn and Mozart, he bridged the gap between the Classic
and Romantic Eras; i.e., he was a transitional composer.

Beethoven’s Classical Traits

• Beethoven composed in the STYLES and GENRES of the Classical Era, following the classical rules
of genre and form, harmonic relationships, etc. For instance, most (not all) of his symphonies and
string quartets have four movements (some have more) , and most of his concertos and sonatas have
three (some have more), as one would expect of classical works in those genres. These genres also
have sonata-form first movements and follow the other ‘genre rules’ of the classical era (usually).
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Musical Traits that Made Beethoven Romantic
• His late works make increasing use of
CHROMATIC HARMONY, occasionally
baffling his contemporary audiences and critics with
strong dissonances.
• Beethoven sought to create musical unity through
MOTIVIC DEVELOPMENT and by using
motives and themes that appear in more than one
movement of a multi-movement work.
• WROTE 9 SYMPHONIES (required to know this)
among which the 3rd (the Eroica Symphony), the
5th, the 7th, and 9th (the Choral Symphony) are the
the most famous and often performed.
• His later symphonies are monumental in scope;
Symphony No. 9 lasts well over an hour and uses a
very large ensemble.
• Took creative liberties with genres and forms:
Symphony No 5 in C Minor
*The third and fourth movements of this symphony
are elided together, so that there is no break between them.
*Music that first occurs in the third movement reappears once again in the fourth movement (before the
recapitulation of the sonata form).
*Although the symphony is called Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, the last movement of the work is in
C major, thus giving the work (which begins ominously in the C-minor first movement with ‘fate
knocking at the door’) an overall uplifting and positive message, triumph over adversity.
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, “the Pastoral Symphony”
*This symphony has five movements, the last three of which are elided together.
*The fourth movement (subtitled “Storm”) provides an excellent example of program music:
https://youtu.be/-ZVdVuskkKU [supplemental YouTube video: live performance]
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, the “Choral Symphony”
*Although comprised of only four movements (following the classical model) this symphony is very
large, lasting more than an hour. The last movement alone is nearly half an hour.
*Like many composers around 1800, Beethoven began to include much more polyphony in his
instrumental works, although homophony certainly remains the predominant texture in all genres.
*The final movement of this symphony includes both vocal soloists and a chorus to the ensemble (as
if it was a cantata, which of course it is not). https://youtu.be/ChygZLpJDNE [see 7:30]
• In brief, Beethoven prioritized INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION over the classical desire to create
balanced and elegant musical phrases and forms. Although he continued to work with the classical
genres that he inherited from Haydn and Mozart, he altered the genres to fit his own expressive aims.

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• Beethoven died in March 1827 after years of deteriorating health. An autopsy showed cirrhosis of the
liver and multiple organ failure, possibly caused by either alcohol or hepatitis. Recent study of the
composer’s hair and fragments of his skull, using a process known as x-ray fluorescence, determined
that his remains contain lead levels more than 100 times greater than average.

Beethoven’s Legacy
• Beethoven’s music came to define ‘classical’ instrumental music—especially the genres of symphony,
string quartet, and the piano sonata—for more than one hundred years after his death. No composer
was more influential on following generations of Romantic composers in the 19th century, for whom
Beethoven’s music set a standard of perfection and profundity.
• Beethoven’s music was one of the first to be solidly placed within the ‘canon’ of classical concert
music.
canonization: the cultural process through which works of art become widely known and
commonly accepted to represent a ‘great’ and ‘historically significant achievement.’ Canonized
works (i.e., works that are part of the canon or historical canon) set stylistic standards by which
other works in the same genre and style are evaluated.
• In the later 19th century, Beethoven was revered throughout Europe and much of the western world as a
Romantic Hero, who had lived solely for his art, who was tormented and socially alienated in
consequence of his genius: he thereby presented not only an artistic but a personal model for later
composers. Nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century characterizations (biographies, movies,
etc.) of other composers often contain such romantic ‘frames’ for the composers’ lives and
works, which confuse the nature and qualities of the music with the personality of the composer.
• Paintings, statuary, numerous busts, etc. usually depict Beethoven as a man of strong will and strength,
overtly masculine, with a ruddy complexion, unruly hair, and a look of either near ferocity or sublime
contemplation on this face—all traits that we recognize in his music and attribute to him as a person.
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 Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, first movement, Allegro
Sonata-form diagram: times match Naxos recording 8.553224
EXPOSITION
Time Section of sonata form Time (during repeat) Key of section
0:00 Brief introduction 1:20 establishes C minor
(primary motive, “fate”)
0:06 Primary theme area 1:26 C minor (tonic key of work)
0:20 transition 1:40
0:41 Secondary theme area 2:01 E-flat major (relative major of tonic)
1:03 closing section 2:23 (stays in the new key until repeat)
[Entire exposition repeats]
DEVELOPMENT
2:41 Fragments of Primary theme material (sequences) modulatory (no stable key)
quickly rising sequences
sequences become ‘heavy, repetitive, static,’
reduced orchestration near end of development
RECAPITULATION
3:57 Introduction returns (as at the beginning) establishes tonic (C minor)
4:03 Primary theme, with new woodwind countermelody C minor (of course)
4:26 odd, ‘out-of-place’ oboe solo (cadenza?) followed by brief stillness
4:26 transition
4:46 Secondary theme C major (parallel major of tonic key)
5:12 closing section material strives
5:27 remodulation back to tonic begins modulating back to C minor
6:30 Coda C minor

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, op. 27 no. 2 (Moonlight)

i. Adagio sostenuto (sonata form in C minor) https://youtu.be/UHd8jwXBzXE
[first and second movements]
ii. Allegretto (scherzo and trio form in D major)
[begins at 5:18 in video above]
iii. Presto agitato (sonata form in C minor) https://youtu.be/zucBfXpCA6s

Completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his aristocratic pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.
This piece is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano, and it was a popular favorite
even in his own day. Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata in his early thirties.
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, op. 27 no. 2, is popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata. The
nickname comes from remarks made by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five
years after Beethoven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight
shining upon Lake Lucerne (in Switzerland). Within ten years, the name “Moonlight Sonata”
(“Mondscheinsonate” in German) was being used in German and English publications. By the late
nineteenth century the sonata was universally known by that name.

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 1
th
19 -Century Romanticism
• In the broadest of terms, the early Romantic composers were part of a cultural movement that
emphasized emotion, imagination, individualism, introspection and encounters with the
sublime in the arts and in nature.
• Although based in part on a reaction against the balance and restraint of much Classical art and
music, the early roots of Romanticism can be found in the “sentimental style” (Empfindsamkeit) of
northern Germany in the mid-18th century and Strum und Drang works from the 1770s.
• One of the basic Romantic qualities in 19th-century visual arts, literature and music is
emotional subjectivity, to convey the sense of an individual’s personal experience of love,
alienation, fear, hope, adventure, etc.
• Romantic literature, painting and music often focus on the irrational, emotional, the world of
dreams and horror. Many of our great literary horror stories are works of the Romantic Era:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Robert Louis
Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), etc.
• Romantic artists in all media often emphasized nature as a subject and source of inspiration.
Important Romantic concepts in 19th-century music and other arts
NATIONALISM—the desire among composers and other artists to recreate, represent,
and/or celebrate their own ethnic or national identity in their art.
EXOTICISM—the desire among composers and other artists to recreate, represent,
and/or celebrate a foreign ethnic or national identity (or scene) within their
artistic creations. Exotic works provide reductive and voyeuristic fictions based more on the
expectations of the audience than on real knowledge of the foreign peoples fictionalized.
Despite well deserved post-colonial criticisms, exoticism has long been and remains very
compelling and popular in all genres of instrumental music and opera (and film).
PROGRAM MUSIC—instrumental music that is associated with a story, poem, idea,
scene, or something that is extra-musical. The non- or extra-musical association is usually
identified more or less specifically by a descriptive title and more rarely by explanatory
notes given to the audience as part of the concert program. Romantic orchestral genres
like the concert overture and the symphonic poem are always programmatic and
always have descriptive titles, like Overture 1812 or Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture.
CHROMATIC HARMONY—the use of chords and pitches that do not function
normally within the diatonic tonal system of major and minor keys. The use of chromatic
harmony creates a heightened emotional or evocative effect while also loosening the
listeners aural sense of key and tonic.

Growing musical venues in the 19th century

PUBLIC VENUES—The increasing wealth and political power among the middle classes
class led to a great increase in public music making, large-scale instrumental concerts, opera
houses, the formation of community and professional orchestras, musical societies, and
SUBSCRIPTION CONCERT SERIES.
SALONS—semi-private gatherings in the homes of the upper-middle and aristocratic
classes: a venue for various artistic activities, including chamber music, poetry readings,
tableau vivant, etc. Also an important venue for philosophical debate and political intrigue.
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LIED (pl. Lieder) or ART SONG
• a genre of monody (song) composed for solo voice with piano accompaniment.
• a musical setting of a high-quality poem, often a poem that is already well known to the intended
audience. These poems were rarely written by the composer of the music, with few exceptions.
• Popularity of the art song was largely due to the ubiquity of the piano in the homes of all
wealthier families; home (domestic) music making was very common, and it was very common if
not generally expected that the daughters of affluent families could play a piano and/or sang.
• The piano in an art song is more than mere accompaniment; it is crucial to the expression and
musical interpretation of the poem. Think of an art song as a composer’s reading of a poem.

FORM IN LIEDER (ART SONGS)

• STROPHIC FORM—each poetic verse (aka strophe or stanza) is set to the same, repeating
music. Examples can be found in Christian hymns, which are nearly always in strophic form.
Example: Robert Schumann’s “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (page 3 of these notes)
• MODIFIED STROPHIC FORM—some of the poem’s verses are set to the same music, but
there are other parts of the music that differ, most often near the end of the song.
Example: Clara Schumann’s “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” (page 4 of these notes)
Clara Schumann’s art song has three stanzas (strophes) corresponding to the three
stanzas of the poem. The composer set the first two stanzas to the same music, but the
last stanza she set to very similar yet slightly different music, perhaps because the final
verse changes to a much more personal and sad perspective.
• THROUGH-COMPOSED—music of the song is composed all the way through the
piece and therefore contains no repeated sections; no two stanzas are set exactly alike.
Franz Schubert’s art song Der Erlkönig is a widely known example of through composed
form, a form that perhaps best reflects the poem’s narrative nature.

♪ Franz Schubert, Der Erlkönig https://youtu.be/C3nxyS8wf8E [English subtitles]

Sung in this video by the great German baritone Fischer Dieskau (1925-2012)
• Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was born and spent his
entire life in Vienna, Austria, where he was very
influenced by Beethoven (†1827), writing his own
his own symphonies and other works in a similar style.
• Schubert composed more than 600 LIEDER—
settings of poems by great German poets, including
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, etc.
He is perhaps the most famous composer of this genre.
• He lived a bohemian existence among other poets
and artists, often supported by these friends because he
had little income of his own.
• He played in and composed music for SALONS in
Vienna. Some of Schubert’s wealthier supporters
sometimes threw Schubertiads, salons dedicated primarily
to the performance and promotion of Schubert’s music.
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Sketch of a so-called
Schubertiad drawn by
a friend of the
composer.
Schubert is shown
seated at and bending
slightly over the piano.
The gentleman seated
in front of Schubert
is singing.
Note the size and attire
of the audience, the
intimacy of the venue.

♪ Robert Schumann, “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (“In the wonderful month of May”)
https://youtu.be/AwZFrb-mt8I [YouTube recording of Dichterliebe songs 1-4]
[This piece is supplemental and for demonstration purposes only.]
Genre: Lied or art song; first song of the larger genre, song cycle
Poem by Heinrich Heine
Number 1 (of 16) in Robert Schumann’s song cycle, Dichterliebe, op. 48 (1844)
Form: strophic
German original English translation
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, In the wonderfully beautiful month of May
Als alle Knospen sprangen, When all the buds are bursting open,
Da ist in meinem Herzen There, from my own heart,
Die Liebe aufgegangen. Bursts forth my own love.
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, In the wonderfully beautiful month of May
Als alle Vögel sangen, When all the birds are singing,
Da hab' ich ihr gestanden So have I confessed to her
Mein Sehnen und Verlangen. My yearning and my longing.

SONG CYCLE
A collection of Lieder (art songs) that are published together as a set AND share other unifying
characteristics. Not every collection of art songs is a cycle.
Shared musical characteristics:
• A related pattern of keys between the songs.
• The reappearance of musical motives (melodies) in more than one song in the cycle.
Shared extra-musical characteristics:
• Poems by the same poet that may have been published together as cycle of poems.
• Poems that are related by subject matter or that tell a unified story.
• Poems that represent a unified perspective, a musical and/or poetic persona that is
perceived to be projected by the artwork itself.
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♪ Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896) “Der Mond kommt still gegangen”
(“The moon so peaceful rises”), no. 4 of Six Lieder, op. 13 (1843)
https://youtu.be/G7yINpOC42w [YouTube recording: just music, no score or texts]
Genre: Lied or art song; fourth of six songs published as op. 13 collection
Poem by Emanuel Geibel
Form: modified strophic
This piece is supplemental and NOT on the listening list for Exam 2.

Der Mond kommt still gegangen The moon so peaceful rises

mit seinem gold'nen Schein, with all its golden shine,
da schläft in holdem Prangen there sleeps in lovely glitter
die müde Erde ein. the weary earth below.
Und auf den Lüften schwanken And on the breezes waft down
aus manchem treuen Sinn from many faithful hearts
viel tausend Liebesgedanken true loving thoughts by the thousand
über die Schläfer hin. upon the sleeping ones.
Und drunten im Tale, da funkeln And down in the valley, there twinkle
die Fenster von Liebchens Haus; the lights from my lover's house;
ich aber blicke im Dunkeln but I in darkness still look out -
still die Welt hinaus. silent - into the world.
*NOTE: Recordings of all Clara Wieck Schumann’s Lieder are available through Naxos (via the
McGill Music Library webpage); this catalog number will get you to one: 8.570747

Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)

• One of the most important and influential
virtuoso concert pianists in the 19th century,
Clara was also a fine composer and a leading
‘interpreter’ of the music of her husband
Robert Schumann, as well as that of Beethoven,
Chopin, and Johannes Brahms, the latter of
whom was a close personal friend and
confidante both before and after Robert’s death.
• She married the composer and influential
music critic Robert Schumann despite her
father’s strong objections to the marriage.
• A very dynamic woman, Clara Wieck
Schumann concertized, composed, and cared for
Robert—who was increasingly terribly ill and
irrational, eventually dying young of syphilis
and their seven children.
• Clara is important historically as a “taste
maker,” because she performed a significant
role in educating and shaping the musical tastes
of the public at large, through frequent, impressive performances. She often performed the
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works of earlier composers, such as J. S. Bach (†1750), Mozart, and Beethoven, re-introducing
the works of these dead composers to new audiences. She was therefore a force in the
canonization of those composers and works.
• Clara Wieck Schumann was instrumental in shaping our present-day conception of the
piano concert. She was the first pianist to memorize her programs, which has become a
standard practice among pianists. Although she performed “showy”, “bravura” works in her
youth, in her later life she chose very serious, weighty works that emphasized “content” over
shallow, virtuosic display.
• Despite her talent, industry and personal fortitude, Clara Wieck Schumann’s letters and diaries
(‘primary sources’) suggest that she largely accepted the societal attitudes that restricted the role
of woman to the domestic sphere, shielding them from public life and severely restricting their
activities as composers, especially with regard to publication. In her later life she wrote:
“I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman
must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect
to be the one?”
• However, Clara Wieck Schumann did have a public life as a performer, a role from which she
was not restricted by her gender, although she was always very publicly escorted by appropriate
male guardians during her travels, a fact that was mentioned in the tabloid press to avoid scandal.
• Wieck Schumann concertized both before and during her marriage to Robert and after his
death, largely out of need to support the family financially. Since Clara was not from an
aristocratic or wealthy family, it was societally acceptable for her to earn money in this way. She
also composed in a variety of genres—solo piano pieces, piano concertos, chamber music of
various genres, choral pieces and art songs—although she gave up composition entirely after her
husband’s death.
• Most of Clara Wieck Schumann’s music was never played by anyone else and was largely
forgotten until a resurgence of interest in the 1970s. Today her works are increasingly performed
and recorded, and she is recognized as an exceptional early-Romantic composer.
• Naxos TUDOR7007 contains a nice collection of Clara Schumann’s music, and there are many
other collections that can be found by simply searching “Clara Schumann” in Naxos.

♪ Clara Wieck Schumann, Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 7 [1st movement on Quiz #4]
https://youtu.be/Cn8nQ-4hKKs first movement only (same recording as Naxos)
https://youtu.be/HWMk6jvi8Bs with score (piano soloist with piano reduction)
https://youtu.be/fcLtg5Ps8Rk live performance of complete work
https://youtu.be/WsPEMVP13AI lovely live excerpt with nice view of pianist’s hands

♪ Clara Wieck Schumann, Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 17 [1st movement on Quiz #4]
https://youtu.be/VAcf2HRiHuQ (times below based on this complete performance)
i. Allegro moderato sonata-form movement in G minor (tonic key)
begins 9:45 ii. Scherzo and trio ternary form (scherzo-trio-scherzo) in E major
begins 14:55 iii. Andante slow, lyrical movement in G (parallel major key)
begins 20:36 iv. Allegretto sonata-form movement in G minor (tonic key)
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Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
• A German composer and influential music
critic, Robert Schumann is widely regarded
as one of the greatest composers of the early
Romantic era.
• Although he trained at a young age to be a
concert pianist (including studying piano with
Clara Wieck’s father), a permanent hand
injury prevented him from fulfilling that
aspiration.
• Also a “taste maker”, Schumann wrote for
Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (The New
Music Journal)—one of the most important
and influential music journals of the
nineteenth century. In it Schumann praised
composers he found worthy and attacked
those he found less so, championing the
works of many dead composers—including
Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert—as well as
his contemporaries, such as Felix
Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz and Chopin.
• Schumann suffered from a mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe
melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of
‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional obsessions. After a suicide attempt in 1854
Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum at his own request. Diagnosed with “psychotic
melancholia”, Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental
illness. It seems certain now that the cause of his illness was final-stage syphilis, an extremely
common, horrible and incurable disease in the nineteenth century.

♪ Robert Schumann, Frauenliebe und –leben (A Woman’s Love and Life), op. 42 (1830)
https://youtu.be/Hm8tIIpFqHk [supplemental complete recording with score]
genre = a cycle of eight Lieder (‘cycle of art songs’)
ensemble = soprano and piano
• A ‘piano-song’ setting of eight poems from Adelbert von Chamisso’s (1781-1838) cycle of
poems by the same name. The poems (and songs) describe the course of a women’s love for her
man, ostensibly from her point of view, from first meeting through engagement, wedding,
marriage, the birth of children, and the husband’s eventual death.
• Only the first and last (eighth) of the songs in Frauenliebe und –leben are assigned for
Listening Quiz #4, however, all eight song texts (in the original German and English translation)
are posted online (with these notes), for your enjoyment. You can find another recording of the
complete work on Naxos, using the following catalog number: GEN10532
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♪ Robert Schumann, Frauenliebe und –leben, no. 1, “Seit ich ihn gesehen”
form = strophic (Both stanzas of the poem are set to the same repeating music.)

Seit ich ihn gesehen, Since I saw him

Glaub ich blind zu sein; I believe myself to be blind,
Wo ich hin nur blicke, where I but cast my gaze,
Seh ich ihn allein; I see him alone.
Wie im wachen Traume as in waking dreams
Schwebt sein Bild mir vor, his image floats before me,
Taucht aus tiefstem Dunkel, dipped from deepest darkness,
Heller nur empor. brighter in ascent.
Sonst ist licht- und farblos All else dark and colorless
Alles um mich her, everywhere around me,
Nach der Schwestern Spiele for the games of my sisters
Nicht begehr ich mehr, I no longer yearn,
Möchte lieber weinen, I would rather weep,
Still im Kämmerlein; silently in my little chamber,
Seit ich ihn gesehen, since I saw him,
Glaub ich blind zu sein. I believe myself to be blind.

♪ Schumann, Frauenliebe und –leben, no. 8, “Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan”
form = through-composed (none of the music repeats)
Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan, Now thou hast given me, for the first time, pain,
Der aber traf. how it struck me.
Du schläfst, du harter, unbarmherz'ger Mann, Thou sleepst, thou hard, merciless man,
Den Todesschlaf. the sleep of death.
Es blicket die Verlaßne vor sich hin, The abandoned one gazes straight ahead,
Die Welt is leer. the world is void.
Geliebet hab ich und gelebt, ich bin I have loved and lived, I am
Nicht lebend mehr. no longer living.
Ich zieh mich in mein Innres still zurück, I withdraw silently into myself,
Der Schleier fällt, the veil falls,
Da hab ich dich und mein verlornes Glück, there I have thee and my lost happiness,
Du meine Welt! O thou my world!

Note the vocal style of this song; it is, in fact, a recitative, or at least in the style of one.
Although the “fictive persona” (the imaginary person having the experiences expressed in the
cycle) has sung in a lyrical style in the previous seven songs, the absence of melody in the final
movement suggest that her “music” has died with her husband, leaving her with a grief that can
only be expressed in the dramatic style of a pseudo-operatic recitative.
 8
The interpretive function of the piano postlude
Note that the dramatic last movement of the cycle concludes with a piano postlude (a substantial
portion of piano music occurring at the end of an art song after the vocalist has presented all of
the text). Where does the music of this postlude come from? Have you heard it before? Why
might Schumann have decided to conclude this heartbreaking song with this particular music?
How does it affect the interpretation or ‘reading’ of the poem? What is the wounded widow left
with after her husband’s death? How is this different than the way the poem itself leaves her?
Who is the fictive persona behind Robert Schumann’s song cycle, Frauenliebe und –leben?
Whose view of a woman’s life is really captured in Robert Schumann’s song cycle? Is it the life
of a woman as envisioned by a woman, or is it the idealized life of a woman as viewed from the
perspective of a deeply patriarchal society? Interestingly, Chamisso’s original cycle of poems
included a final one in which the woman advises her daughter years after the husband’s death.
Why did Robert Schumann choose not to set this poem? Who is it that might like to believe that
a woman’s life is centered on her man, and that her life would
end without him? Given the intimate venue in which young
women performed such works in front of family and potential
suiters, should we think of such works as bourgeois training in a
societally acceptable “performance of femininity”?
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VIRTUOSOS OF THE SALON AND CONCERT HALL
CHARACTER PIECE (a new genre in the nineteenth century)
Character pieces are one-movement miniatures for solo piano, usually brief (2 to 7 minutes),
with more or less descriptive titles suggestive of a mood, scene, type of song or dance, etc.
♪ Frédéric Chopin, Prelude in E Minor, op. 28 no. 2 https://youtu.be/EsujIKWQpSE
The model for many piano character pieces were the bel canto arias in the fabulously popular
Italian operas of Rossini and others. Therefore character pieces are usually quite homophonic, with a
conjunct lyrical melody in one hand and a clear (and often dazzling) accompaniment in the other.
Character pieces have a wide variety of fanciful titles, often suggesting an improvisatory style, such
as prelude, intermezzo, and impromptu.
Other titles suggest stylish urban or nationalistic dance types, such as waltz, mazurka, and polonaise.
Still other titles only vaguely suggest a mood or scene, such as the popular nocturne (‘night piece”),
whereas others are more truly programmatic, such as The Wild Hunt and The Little Bell.
♪ Chopin, Etude in C# Minor, op. 10 no. 4 https://youtu.be/mUVCGsWhwHU
Many of Frédéric Chopin’s character pieces are called études, which of course derives from the French
word for ‘study’. Chopin designed these character pieces both as technical studies for his piano
students and as art works worthy of concert performance. Chopin’s études are always technically
difficult pieces, exciting both to hear and play.
Character pieces—like art songs (Lieder)—were a prominent genre in fashionable salons. These
salons ranged from the modest gathering of family and friends painted below to the fabulous musical
soirées that Fanny Hensel regularly conducted in her father’s and later her own home. Today both
character pieces and art songs are often featured on recitals and other public concerts in all venues.
 2
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Chopin was a Polish composer, born to a Polish
mother and a French father.
A child prodigy, he completed his musical
education and composed his earliest works in
Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of 20
and eventually settling in Paris, France.
Chopin was a piano virtuoso who is most
associated with the musical scene of Paris,
where he concertized in large venues for a brief
period, perhaps on no more than 30 occasions.
Chopin is most associated with the salons of
Parisian high society, where he played his own
works, often improvised before they were written
down in the published versions we have today.
Chopin supported himself by selling his own compositions and teaching piano lessons for exorbitant
rates to the sons and daughters among this same wealthy group.
A specialist, he composed only music for the piano, alone or with other instruments, with very few
exceptions: piano sonatas, piano concertos, character pieces, piano trios, etc.
His Polish NATIONALIST works—piano pieces called mazurka or polonaise (two genres of
stylized Bohemian dance)—appealed to the Parisian audience’s taste for EXOTICISM.
♪ Chopin, “Heroic” Polonaise in A , op. 53 https://youtu.be/fW0Y3M4EJ4M [supplemental]
Harmonically adventuresome, Chopin’s works epitomize the romantic approach to chromatic harmony
as an expressive device.
† Like Schubert, Chopin was short-lived, dying of tuberculosis at 39. Thousands attended his funeral.
♪ Chopin, Mazurka no. 13 in A Minor, op. 17, no. 4 [required for Midterm Exam #2]
https://youtu.be/Zbxmca163Nc [Rubenstein recording identical to assigned recording]
https://youtu.be/6gnqlAKqfGw [live performance by Khatia Buniatichvili]
The timings below match the first YouTube recording above (Rubenstein performing).
form = ternary (A-B-A’), as is typical (but not universal) in Chopin’s character pieces
section: A B A1 Coda
key: A minor A major A minor------------------------||
[2:04] [3:02] [3:36]
• RUBATO (tempo rubato) to vary the ‘time’ (the otherwise steady beat) of the musical by slowing
down or speeding up in an expressive manner. Rubato is often used before strong cadences or before
some other dissonance is resolved, thereby temporarily clinging to the most dissonant points of music,
heightening the listener’s anticipation. Chopin often indicated rubato in his published music, although
it is typical that performers add rubato even when it is not marked. It is an element of correct
performance practice in this music to emphasize cadences, new phrases, etc. with tempo variations.
♪ Fanny Hensel, Notturno (Nocturne) in G minor https://youtu.be/ti1eZ2B63Ro [on Exam #2]
♪ Fanny Hensel, Lieder ohne Worte, op. 8 nos. 1 & 2 https://youtu.be/5chRHBkuwUA
[supplemental] No. 2 begins at 4:45
 3
Fanny Cäcilie Hensel (1805-1847)
was a German composer and pianist known to have
composed over 460 pieces of music, little of which was
published during her lifetime. Nearly everything she
composed was performed exclusively by her in the
regular musical soirées (salons) in her family home or
before invited audiences in similarly private venues.
Her compositions consists primarily of chamber music: a
great many solo piano pieces (character pieces, sonatas,
etc.) and art songs, cantatas, an orchestral overture, and
one highly praised Piano Trio in D Minor (op. 11).
♪ Hensel, Piano Trio, op. 11 [supplemental]
https://youtu.be/Pn-dJP4B_ec [4 minutes of excerpts]
Born into a very wealthy family full of highly educated
and musical women, Hensel received early education in
both general humanities and music. She showed
prodigious and precocious talent in both academics and
music. As a youth she sang, played piano (especially Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which she
memorized), and sketched; she could speak and read French, English, and Italian in addition to
German, and she even read Greek, although she kept that less typically feminine ability a secret.
• Hensel struggled her entire life with the conflicting impulses to authorship versus the social
expectations for her high-class status, finally deciding to publish her music only one year before her
early death at the age of 41; her hesitation was variously the result of her dutiful attitude towards her
father, her intense relationship with her brother Felix, and her awareness of contemporary social
thought on women in the public sphere.
During her lifetime, Hensel’s career, conducted mostly in the private sphere, was overshadowed
by the more public exploits of her brother, Felix. For his part, Felix greatly admired and encouraged
his sister as a performing and composing musician, often seeking and respecting her advice about his
own works, yet he discouraged her from publication and from thus exposing herself to public critiques.
Her father unequivocally suppressed his daughter’s emerging ambitions, as seen in an excerpt from a
letter sent to his 14-year-old daughter in the summer of 1820:
“What you wrote to me about your musical occupations with reference to and in comparison
with Felix was both rightly thought and expressed. Music will perhaps become his
profession, while for you it can and must only be an ornament, never the root of your being
and doing. We may therefore pardon him some ambition and desire to be acknowledged in a
pursuit which appears very important to him, because he feels a vocation for it, whilst it does
you credit that you have always shown yourself good and sensible in these matters; and your
very joy at the praise he earns proves that you might, in his place, have merited equal approval.
Remain true to these sentiments and to this line of conduct; they are feminine, and only
what is truly feminine is an ornament to your sex.”
Thus Hensel’s professional hopes were extinguished quite early. It was clear that she was to
subordinate her ambitions to those of her brother and prepare instead for her role as a wife, mother, and
woman of high class. Music could not be a career for her; rather, she could only pursue it as a talented
amateur and avoid exhibiting any unfeminine ambition.
 4
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)
One of the most gifted and versatile child prodigies,
Mendelssohn stood at the forefront of German music
during the 1830s and 40s, as conductor, pianist,
organist and, above all, composer. His musical style,
fully developed before he was 20, drew upon a variety of
influences, including the complex chromatic counterpoint
of J. S. Bach, the formal clarity and gracefulness of
Mozart and the dramatic power of Beethoven.
• Mendelssohn as conductor and ‘taste-maker’
As conductor of one of the most prestigious orchestras in
Europe—the Gewandhaus Orcnestra in Leipzig (later in
Germany)—and as a writer of music criticism,
Mendelssohn was also one of the important Romantic
“taste makers”.
Under Mendelssohn direction (from 1835 to his premature
death in 1847), the Gewandhaus Orchestra occupied the
leading edge of a gradual trend away from the
miscellaneous concert programming of the past, with
its preference for ‘entertaining’ mixtures of instrumental and vocal pieces, concerted and solo
numbers, not always played in their entirety, toward the new, more ‘serious’ approach that
eventually came to define the modern symphony concert, with an overture and a concerto in the
first half, followed in the second half by a symphony.
Although as an orchestral conductor Mendelssohn’s programs were dominated by the music of the
Viennese classical composers (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.), he also instituted a series of
‘historical concerts’ (each devoted to a grouping of composers from the more distant past) and made
certain to performance several contemporary works each year.
• In 1829 Mendelssohn had arranged and conducted a Berlin performance of J. S. Bach’s St.
Matthew Passion, an oratorio first performed in 1727 (revised in 1746) that had never been heard
outside of Leipzig. Mendelssohn’s revival of this work importantly contributed to bringing Bach’s
music, particularly the large-scale works, to public and scholarly attention. This event is also
indicative of the retrospective and historic focus of concert programs beginning in roughly 1830.
• In 1840 Robert Schumann, writing for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, praised Leipzig’s
Gewandhaus Orchestra, an institution that had performed regularly in that city since 1781:
German music blooms so finely here [Leipzig] that, without ignorance, our city may venture to
compare its productions to those of the richest fruit and flower gardens of other cities. Our
concert music stands at the most brilliant summit of all. It is well known that a worthy home
for German music has been secured in the now fifty-years-old Gewandhaus concert, and that
this institution accomplishes more at present than it even did before. With a famous composer
[Mendelssohn] at its head, the orchestra has brought its virtuosity to still greater perfection
during the last few years. It has probably no German equal in its performance of symphonies.
This quotation demonstrates how art music was importantly associated with German nationalism
well before the creation of the German state in the 1860s.
 5
The Concert Overture (new genre)
• a one-movement work for orchestra with a descriptive title, usually based on a sonata-form
design, making it very much like a symphony first movement (without the other three).
By 1800 the one-movement concert overture had become a stand-alone orchestral genre distinct
from association with opera or the symphony, though Romantic concert overtures often reference
dramatic works, and symphony first movements were still occasionally used to open concerts.
Concert overtures are (nearly) always sonata-form movements, containing an exposition with
themes in both the tonic and secondary keys, followed by a development section, and a recapitulation
that follows the sonata-form principle (i.e.., both main themes return in the tonic key).
As is typical of 19-century sonata forms generally, the two (or more) main key areas of the sonata
form’s exposition might include a wide variety of themes, often many more than two, making a
Romantic-era sonata form much more difficult to “parse” than those of the 18th century. The
exposition of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture features at least five distinct
themes, making the sonata form rather difficult to discern. No need to, however, just enjoy!
Some of Mendelssohn’s very famous concert overtures depict musical landscapes, including The
Hebrides, op. 26 (or Fingal’s Cave, 1832), which was inspired by the composer’s Scottish travels and
his impressions of that untamed land- and seascape: https://youtu.be/MdQyN7MYSN8 [supplemental]

♪ Ein Sommernachtstraum (Midsummer Night’s Dream) Overture, op. 21 [on Midterm Exam #2]
Masur conducting the Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig: https://youtu.be/wIcImOYivDA
This work was inspired by Shakespeare’s comedy of the same name, and the musical themes in the
work are inspired by characters from that play, beginning with the busy, ‘scurrying’ string parts of the
first theme, which are intended to depict the activity of fairies.
One of Mendelssohn’s most beloved and often performed works; he composed it in 1826 at the age of
seventeen, after reading Shakespeare’s play in both German and English. The work was not initially
associated with any performance of the play, although Mendelssohn did later write incidental music to
accompany the play’s performance.
Since the work is inspired by and seeks to portray something that is “extramusical” (from outside the
realm of music, in this case, literature) this work falls into the broad category of program music.
Concert overtures—which are always for orchestra and always have a descriptive title—are
always a form of program music.
 RICHARD WAGNER and ICONIC OPERA
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
• Arguably the most important and influential figure
in the history of German opera: a source of
nationalistic fervor in his homeland, who
strongly influenced several generations of
European and American composers of opera.
• Wagner, along with his friend and associate Franz
Liszt (1811-1886), advocated ‘progressive
innovations’ in art music, taking as their models
what they perceived as the revolutionary
directions indicated by Beethoven. Wagner and
his followers were called the New German
School, and they adopted as their slogan
“the music of the future.”
• These progressive composers wrote articles and
published polemic essays defending the new
programmatic music as the next evolutionary
step in musical development, particularly in orchestral genres, such as the program symphony and
the symphonic poem.
• For the New German School, musical conventions governing form and harmony were subordinate
to the expressive necessity of the composer. Therefore the works of these composers are notable
for (1) a marked increase in chromatic harmony and (2) for novel formal structures (i.e., forms)
that follow no classical model.
• During the 1840s, Wagner’s early experiments combining elements of the German singspiel
tradition, Italian lyricism, and French grand opera resulted in a new form of German Romantic
opera. His most famous early operas are:
The Flying Dutchman (1843) Tannhäuser (1844) Lohengrin (1848)
• Wagner became embroiled in the revolutionary activities that swept through Europe in 1848, and he
was forced had to flee from Germany and live in exile in Switzerland.
• While in Zurich he wrote and later published important books—Art and Revolution (1849),
The Artwork of the Future (1849), and Opera and Drama (1851)—in which he outlined his theories
for a new genre of opera, which he called the music drama.
• Gesamtkunstwerk: “total artwork,” the all-encompassing artwork that completely and ‘perfectly’
integrates all aspects of music, theater, poetry, drama, and visual spectacle.
• After many years Wagner was invited back to Munich, Germany by the newly crowned Ludwig II of
Bavaria, who gave the composer lavish financial support and became his sole patron—an
arrangement that was very rare in the 19th century.
• The Bavarian king funded the construction of the Festival Theater in Bayreuth, Germany, the
innovative plan of which was specifically designed for performances of Wagner’s music dramas.
• Most famous and important achievement is the grand cycle of four music dramas,
The Ring of the Nibelung, often called simply The Ring Cycle. The four individual titles are:
Das Rheingold
Die Walküre (excerpt from Act on Exam #2
Siegfried
Götter-dämmerung
• Wagner himself wrote the massive libretto of these four dramas between 1848 and 1852, but it took
him more than two decades to compose the music for the four, massive works.
• The characters and action in The Ring Cycle are drawn from Norse mythology, but the libretto is
also political; its ideological content concerns the destructive force of the lust for wealth and power.

MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
WAGNER'S MUSIC DRAMA
LIBRETTOS were drawn from medieval German epics and
Norse mythology; the supernatural; glorified the German
land and its people; intended to function as allegories that
resonated deep within the psyche of the German Volk (folk).
‘ENDLESS MELODY’—a continuous musical fabric of
melodic lines; the vocalists carry only few of many important
parts, the rest of which is in the orchestra. These melody lines
can sometimes weave on and on polyphonically before
reaching a satisfying cadence.
CHROMATIC HARMONY—Wagner’s music pushed
chromatic harmony to its uttermost limits, creating a
dissonant and harmonically ambiguous soundscape that is
restless, intensely emotional, sensuous, lushly colorful, and
sometimes bizarre.
ROLE OF ORCHESTRA—very important in dramatic
development; carries the LEITMOTIFS which tell, comment upon, foreshadow, and interpret the
storyline. In a very real sense, the drama of the work actually occurs in the music even more than
the words and actions on the stage.
Leitmotifs are musical themes (or motives) that are associated with and/or symbolize certain
people, ideas, and objects that occur in the story (libretto). These musical motives recur and
interweave throughout the music drama, relating the nuances of the story in music.
YouTube introduction and guide to leitmotifs in Wagner’s music dramas (supplemental)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAqWi_YT0VEkZ41ojy4RAdA
Wagner’s music drama call for a very large orchestral ensemble (a “late-Romantic orchestra)”)
which is used very creatively, and includes many brass instruments (including the ‘Wagnerian
tuba’, which the composer designed).
ROLE OF VOCALISTS—Wagner’s music dramas require singers who combine the vocal dexterity
required by difficult parts with the sheer volume to compete with the large and busy orchestra.
Such singers tend to be larger people, leading to the well-known image of the ‘heavy-set’ operatic
soprano. Some singers specialize in performing Wagner, giving us the ‘Wagnerian soprano’.
Wagner videos:
Die Walküre (The Valkyries), complete performance by the New York Metropolitan Opera
http://metopera.org.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/Season/On-Demand/opera/?upc=811357015483
(Be sure to turn on the subtitles. You can use the track list to skip around in the recording.)
Required excerpts (posted to MyCourses) can be found in the recording above at the following cuts:
Act III, “Du zeugtest ein edles Geschlecht” (sung by Brunhilde) track 40, begins at 3:20
Act III, Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind!” (sung by Wotan) track 41

**All following videos are supplemental (not required)**

Die Walküre, Act III, “Ride of the Valkyries” (Levine conducting at the Met)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PHINKZrwRs [supplemental; not required]
In this scene, the Valkyries (daughters of Wotan, the king of the Gods) are scouring a battlefield,
gathering the souls of heroic fallen warriors. Their opening music is a battle cry; they are not human
but immortal beings with flying horses, and their battle cry is not in a human language.

Die Walküre, Act III, conclusion (Wotan and ‘magic fire music’)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSoMZVpNnBs [supplemental; not required]
In this conclusion to the drama, Wotan has now placed his magically sleeping and now-mortal
daughter (Brünnhilde) within a ring of magical fire, where only a great hero can reach her. This is an
excellent excerpt for demonstrating the raw power required to balance the powerful and busy
orchestral texture, within which the human voice is only one more instrument.
1:40-2:10 When someone uses the phrase “Wagnerian brass”, this is what they mean.

Tannhauser, Overture (Maestro Levine conducting at the Met in 1982)

https://youtu.be/Cl_jp0EnV1Q [supplemental; not required]
0:00 overture begins softly with the ‘Tannhäuser theme’ in the horns & woodwinds
*2:00 brass loudly proclaim the Tannhäuser theme (trombones pictured)
3:37 horns & woodwinds (mostly clarinets) with the Tannhäuser theme one more time
*4:23 the bacchanale theme (much more playful and dancelike)
*5:13 interesting musical material to note (dance episode of the Bugs Bunny cartoon below)

What’s Opera Doc? (1957)

Please watch/download from MyCourses under Unit II Supplemental audio and video (if you wanna)
[supplemental; not required, but all educated people should know this great modern art work]
The score of this classic cartoon is completely based on music from Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Die
Walküre, although the composer of the cartoon’s soundtrack ingeniously manipulated the borrowed
material in combination with his own original music. Select musical highlights are pointed out below:
1:04 Elmer Fudd (as Wotan, with his helmet and spear) sings in recitative
1:28 “Kill da Wabbit” sung to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre
2:45 Original (i.e., not Wagner) cartoon ‘chase music’
2:54 ‘Tannhäuser theme’ from the overture to Tannhäuser (as in French horns in YouTube recording
above), as Bugs Bunny rides in on a very, very fat horse
3:45 Bacchanale theme from the overture to Tannhäuser
Wagner, Die Walküre: Plot Synopsis [the highlighted portion is the assigned excerpt from the finale]
ACT I: As a storm rages, Siegmund the Wälsung, exhausted from pursuit by enemies in the forest,
stumbles into an unfamiliar house for shelter. Sieglinde finds the stranger lying by the hearth, and the
two feel an immediate attraction. But they are soon interrupted by Sieglinde's husband, Hunding, who
asks the stranger who he is. Calling himself "Woeful," Siegmund tells of a disaster-filled life
("Friedmund darf ich nicht heissen"), only to learn that Hunding is a kinsman of his foes. Hunding,
before retiring, tells his guest to defend himself in the morning. Left alone, Siegmund calls on his
father, Wälse, for the sword he once promised him. Sieglinde reappears, having given Hunding a
sleeping potion. She tells of her wedding, at which a one-eyed stranger thrust into a tree a sword that
thereafter resisted every effort to pull it out ("Der Männer Sippe"). Sieglinde confesses her
unhappiness to Siegmund, whereupon he ardently embraces her and vows to free her from her forced
marriage to Hunding. As moonlight floods the room, Siegmund compares their feeling to the marriage
of love and spring ("Winterstürme"). Sieglinde hails him as "Spring" ("Du bist der Lenz") but asks if
his father was really "Wolf," as he said earlier. When Siegmund gives his father's name as Wälse
instead, Sieglinde rapturously recognizes him as Siegmund, her twin brother. The Wälsung now draws
the sword from the tree and claims Sieglinde as his bride, rejoicing in the union of the Wälsungs.
ACT II: High in the mountains, Wotan, leader of the gods, tells his warrior daughter Brünnhilde she
must defend his mortal son Siegmund. Leaving joyfully to do his bidding ("Hojotoho!"), the Valkyrie
pauses to note the approach of Fricka, Wotan's wife and the goddess of marriage. Fricka insists he
must defend Hunding's marriage rights against Siegmund, ignoring Wotan's implied argument that
Siegmund could save the gods by winning back the Rhinegold from the dragon Fafner before the
Nibelung dwarfs regain it. When Wotan realizes he is caught in his own trap - his power will leave him
if he does not enforce the law - he agrees to his wife's demands. After Fricka has left in triumph, the
frustrated god tells the returning Brünnhilde about the theft of the gold and Alberich's curse on it ("Als
junger Liebe"). Brünnhilde is shocked to hear her father, his plans in ruins, order her to fight for
Hunding. Then, alone in the darkness, she withdraws as Siegmund and Sieglinde approach. Siegmund
comforts the distraught girl, who feels herself unworthy of him, and watches over her when she falls
asleep. Brünnhilde appears to him as if in a vision, telling him he will soon go to Valhalla
(Todesverkündigung: "Siegmund! Sieh auf mich!"), but when he says he will not leave Sieglinde and
threatens to kill himself and his bride if his sword has no power against Hunding, she decides to help
him in spite of Wotan's command. She vanishes. Siegmund bids farewell to Sieglinde when he hears
the approaching Hunding's challenge. When Siegmund is about to win, however, Wotan appears and
shatters his sword, leaving him to be killed by Hunding. Brünnhilde escapes with Sieglinde and the
broken sword. Wotan contemptuously fells Hunding with a wave of his hand and leaves to punish
Brünnhilde.

ACT III: (Begins with “The Ride of the Valkyries”

On the Valkyries' Rock, Brünnhilde's eight warrior sisters - who have gathered there briefly, bearing
slain heroes to Valhalla - are surprised to see her enter with Sieglinde. When they hear she is fleeing
Wotan's wrath, they are afraid to hide her. Sieglinde is numb with despair until Brünnhilde tells her she
bears Siegmund's child. Eager to be saved, she receives the pieces of the sword from Brünnhilde and
ecstatically thanks her rescuer as she rushes off into the forest to hide near Fafner's cave, a place safe
from Wotan. When the god appears, he sentences Brünnhilde to become a mortal woman, silencing her
sisters' objections by threatening to do the same to them. Left alone with her father, Brünnhilde pleads
that in disobeying his orders she was really doing what he wished ("War es so schmählich"). Wotan
will not relent: she must lie in sleep, booty for any man who finds her. But as his anger abates she asks
the favor of being surrounded in sleep by a wall of fire that only the bravest hero can pierce. Both
sense this hero must be the child that Sieglinde will bear. Sadly renouncing his daughter ("Leb' wohl"),
Wotan kisses Brünnhilde's eyes with sleep and mortality before summoning Loge, the spirit of fire, to
encircle the rock. As flames spring up, the departing Wotan invokes a spell forbidding the rock to
anyone who fears his spear.

Below left: Two design plans for the Below right: Wotan, Father of the Gods, one
Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the theater Wagner helped design of the main characters in Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
for the purpose of presenting his music dramas.
 Romantic French and Italian Opera
There were many specific varieties (i.e., genres) and national styles of opera composed in the
19th century, but they break down into two basic types, serious and comic. The terms for these
basic genres of Italian and French opera are:
opera seria (Italian) & grand opera (of French origin) = genres of serious opera
opera buffa (Italian) & opéra comique (French) = genres of comic opera
Of the above genres, only the French opéra comique uses spoken dialogue; the other three use
recitatives (as well as arias, duets, trios, etc., of course) and never contain spoken dialogue.

French Grand Opera

• Grand opera appealed to the middle-class Parisian audiences through sheer extravagance.
• Spectacle was at least as important as the music, so the following were often featured:
a. machinery d. ballets and other dances f. exotic animals
b. large choruses e. crowd scenes with many costumes
c. extravagant sets and costumes
• The librettos of grand opera were often based on historic topics, larger than life characters, and
events of large scope (war between nations, political intrigue, etc.), usually in four or five acts.
• Although written by an Italian composer (and in the Italian language), Verdi’s popular opera
Aïda shows the influence of grand opera. Note that the following very famous scene—called
the Triumphal March (taking place after a victorious battle)—from Aïda contains no singing,
but rather provides a setting for the use of animals, exotic costumes, and dancing (note the
exoticism in the “Dance of the Moorish Slaves” beginning at 1:31).
♪ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3w4I-KElxQ

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

• Verdi was the dominant opera composer in Italy
for fifty years after Donizetti and a true Italian
national hero during his lifetime.
• Verdi preferred librettos based on successful plays
or novels, including works by Shakespeare,
Schiller, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas.
Many of his libretti are on historical topics, though
others, like La traviata, are contemporary.
• His operas remain extremely popular, especially
the three masterpieces from his middle period,
Rigoletto (1851)
Il trovatore (1853)
Il traviata (1853).
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
• Italian composer most known for his operas,
several of which have entered into the
standard repertory of opera companies
around the world, including:
La bohème (1896)
Tosca (1900)
Madama Butterfly (1904)
• Largely regarded as the most important,
influential and beloved Italian composer
after Giuseppe Verdi.
• As with Verdi, the librettos of Puccini’s
operas were often based on popular,
contemporary novels and plays.
• Some of Puccini operas, like the immensely
popular La bohème, demonstrate the late
nineteenth-century fascination with
REALISM, and therefore feature fairly
realistic and contemporary characters, of
all social classes, enmeshed in the joys and
tragedies of Puccini’s modern world.
• In general, the dramatic action in late 19th-century opera is not clearly segmented into
recitative-aria [applause], recitative-aria [applause], as was so often the case in the 18th
century. Nineteenth-century opera composers were much more concerned with
continuity of dramatic action and affect. There are very few breaks in the music or action,
and the recitatives and arias usually flow one into the other seamlessly.
♪ The following excerpts from Puccini’s La bohème illustrates many of these style traits:
#1. from Act I (Rodolfo and Mimi first meet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcvAD29Ah6E
In the first three+ minutes of this excerpt (until 3:50), the characters converse in
recitative. Typical of late romantic opera, the recitatives are accompanied by the entire
orchestra (or various ‘subgroups’ within the orchestra), which have continuous,
interesting, and dramatically important musical parts.
#2. from Act IV, Finale (part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCSFYTtZiM
Mimi now lies dying in the company of her friends. Much of the music in this final scene
first appeared in earlier sections of the opera. Compare Excerpt #1, 3:53 to Excerpt #2,
4:03 and you will note that earlier music returns as the lovers reminisce about their first
meeting. Such reminiscence motives serve both dramatic and musical functions—
highlighting the dramatic arch of the libretto while also providing the cyclic unity desired
by romantic composers and audiences.
#3. from Act IV, Finale (part 2—to end) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShwLI_OTsCI
Madama Butterfly
• A tragic opera (called specifically by
the composer a Tragedia giapponese)
in three acts by Giacomo Puccini.
• Libretto was created by Giuseppe Giacosa
and Luigi Illica after David Belasco’s
play Madame Butterfly, itself based on
John Luther Long’s short story, which in
turn was based partly on Pierre Loti’s tale
Madame Chrysanthème.
• Madama Butterfly provides a rare
example of exoticism among Puccini’s
operas.
• The composer actively sought after
authentic Japanese melodies, at least
seven of which appear within the opera.
• The use of pentatonic (five-pitch) scales,
various percussion instruments
(particularly cymbals and other metallic
percussion instruments), and Puccini’s
famously innovative orchestration help
to evoke a “Far Eastern ambience” (at
least to Western ears).
• Largely due to inadequate rehearsals, the first performance of the work (in Milan’s
venerated La Scala Opera House) was a dismal failure. After multiple revisions, later
performances were very well received.
• Today, Madama Butterfly is one of the world’s most often performed and beloved operas,
particularly in the United States. Travel far, pay a lot, do whatever you must to see a
quality production of this work at least once in your lifetime. Take a hanky; you may weep.
♪ Madama Butterfly Complete recent performance by New York Metropolitan Opera
http://metopera.org.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/Season/On-Demand/opera/?upc=811357018392
[complete performance by New York Metropolitan Opera: be sure to turn on the subtitles]

Act II (track 19) — Cia Cia San sings “Un bel di vedremo” [on Exam #2]
Act II (track 21) — Cia Cia San declines a marriage offer from Yamadori
Act III (track 39) — “Tu, tu, tu” through to the tragedy’s conclusion
• prima donna: (Italian) the singer of the principal female role in an opera, or the leading
female singer in an opera company. [The term for the male equivalent—primo uomo—is
much more rarely used, so you do not have to know it.]
Puccini, Madama Butterfly: plot synopsis (copied from Oxford Music Online)

Act 1 A hill near Nagasaki; in the foreground a Japanese house with terrace and garden An
orchestral fugato sets a scene of bustling activity as Goro leads Lieutenant Pinkerton out of the
house, demonstrating its various appurtenances, in particular the sliding panels – so ridiculously
fragile, the lieutenant thinks. The domestic staff are presented to him: a cook, and his future
wife’s maid, Suzuki, who at once begins to bore Pinkerton with her chatter. While Goro is
reeling off the list of wedding guests, Sharpless enters out of breath, having climbed the hill from
Nagasaki. A characteristic motif establishes his benign, good-humoured presence. At Goro’s
bidding servants bring drinks and wicker chairs for Sharpless and his host. Pinkerton explains
that he has bought the house on a 99-year lease which may be terminated at a month’s notice. In
his solo ‘Dovunque al mondo’, framed by the opening strain of The Star-Spangled Banner (later
used as a recurrent motif), Pinkerton outlines his philosophy – that of the roving ‘Yankee’ who
takes his pleasure where he finds it (‘an easy-going gospel’, observes Sharpless). After sending
Goro to fetch the bride, Pinkerton dilates on her charms and his own infatuation. Sharpless
recollects having heard her voice when she paid a visit to the consulate. Its ring of simple
sincerity touched him deeply and he hopes that Pinkerton will never hurt her. Pinkerton scoffs at
his scruples, so typical of unadventurous middle age. Both drink a toast to America (The Star-
Spangled Banner again) and, in Pinkerton’s case, to the day when he will take home an
American wife. Goro announces the arrival of Butterfly and her friends, heralded by the distant
sound of humming female voices. As the procession draws nearer the orchestra unfolds a radiant
theme that begins with a series of rising sequences, each phrase ending on a whole-tone chord,
then evolves into an extended periodic melody to which an essentially pentatonic motif of
Japanese origin (ex.1) forms a hushed coda. Butterfly whose voice has been heard soaring above
those of the female throng, has by now appeared. She bows to the two men. Sharpless questions
her about her family and background. He learns that her people were once wealthy but have
since fallen on hard times, so that she has been forced to earn her living as a geisha. She is 15
years old. Sharpless repeats his warning to Pinkerton. More guests arrive, including Butterfly’s
mother, a Cousin, an Aunt and Uncle Yakuside, who immediately asks for wine. Meanwhile the
women exchange impressions of the bridegroom (not all of them favourable) until at a sign from
Butterfly they all kowtow to Pinkerton and disperse. Butterfly shows Pinkerton her treasures and
mementos, which she keeps concealed in her voluminous sleeves – a clasp a clay pipe, a girdle, a
pot of rouge (which she throws away in response to Pinkerton’s mocking glance) and a narrow
sheath which she hurriedly carries into the house. Goro explains that it holds the dagger with
which Butterfly’s father killed himself by the emperor’s command. Re-emerging, she produces
puppets that represent the spirits of her forebears. But she adds that she has recently visited the
American mission to renounce her ancestral religion and embrace that of her husband. Goro calls
for silence; the Imperial Commissioner proclaims the wedding and all join in a toast to the
couple’s happiness, ‘O Kami! O Kami!’. (At this point in the original version there was a
drunken arietta for Yakuside who broke off to chastise a badly behaved child.) The festivities are
interrupted by the Bonze, who bursts in denouncing Butterfly for having forsworn her faith. As
her relations scatter in horror the orchestra embodies Heir curse in a whole-tone motif (ex.2).
Alone with his bride Pinkerton comforts her, while Suzuki can be heard muttering her evening
prayers to the gods of Japan. There follows an extended duet for the lovers (‘Viene la sera’)
woven from several melodic threads, now rapturous, now tender and delicate. Twice the ‘curse’
motif intrudes, first as Butterfly recalls how her family has cast her off, then when she
remembers how the most beautiful butterflies are often impaled with a pin. The duet concludes
with a grandiose reprise of the theme which accompanied her first appearance.
Act 2 Part i Inside Butterfly’s house Three years have gone by. Butterfly is alone with
Suzuki, who is praying to the Japanese gods that her mistress’s sufferings may soon end.
Butterfly retorts that such gods are lazy; Pinkerton’s God would soon come to her aid if only He
knew where to find her. Their funds are nearly exhausted and Suzuki doubts whether Pinkerton
will ever return. Furious, Butterfly reminds her how he had arranged for the consul to pay the
rent, how he had put locks on the doors, and how he had promised to return ‘when the robins
build their nests’. In a celebrated aria (‘Un bel dì vedremo’) she pictures the scene of
Pinkerton’s return and her own joy. Goro arrives with Sharpless, who brings a letter from the
lieutenant. Butterfly gives him a cordial welcome, and asks him how often the robins build their
nests in America. Sharpless is evasive. Prince Yamadori enters and makes Butterfly an offer of
marriage, which she mockingly rejects: she is a married woman according to the laws of
America, where divorce, she says is a punishable offense. Yamadori leaves and Sharpless begins
to read the letter, breaking the news that Pinkerton intends to go out of Butterfly’s life for ever,
but she misunderstands the letter’s drift and he abandons the task. He asks what she would do if
Pinkerton were never to return, and she replies that she could resume her profession as a geisha,
but that she would rather die by her own hand. Sharpless angers her by advising her to accept
Yamadori’s offer, but then she hurries to fetch her son by Pinkerton; astonished and moved,
Sharpless promises to inform the father and leaves. Suzuki drags in Goro, whom she has caught
spreading slanderous rumours about the child’s parentage. Butterfly threatens to kill him, then
dismisses him with contempt. The harbour cannon signals the arrival of a ship. To an orchestral
reprise of ‘Un bel dì’ Butterfly seizes a telescope and makes out the name Abraham Lincoln –
Pinkerton’s man-of-war. She and Suzuki proceed to deck the house with blossom in a duet
(‘Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio’). After adorning herself ‘as on our wedding day’ she, Suzuki
and the child settle to a night of waiting, while an unseen chorus of wordless voices recalling the
theme to which Sharpless attempted to read Pinkerton’s letter, evokes the slowly fading light.

Act 2 Part ii An interlude, originally joined to the previous humming chorus, depicts
Butterfly’s restless thoughts; then, to the distant cries of the sailors the sun rises to disclose
Butterfly, Suzuki and the child seated as before. Butterfly sings a lullaby and takes the boy to
another room, where she quickly falls asleep. Pinkerton appears with Sharpless. Suzuki catches
sight of a woman in the garden and Sharpless tells her that it is Pinkerton’s wife, Kate. Their
concern, he tells her, is to ensure the child a good American upbringing. He reproaches the
lieutenant for his heartlessness. Pinkerton pours out his grief and remorse in the romanza that
Puccini added for Brescia (‘Addio, fiorito asil’) and leaves, unable to face the bride he has
betrayed. Butterfly enters, to confront Sharpless, Suzuki and Kate. When the situation is
explained to her she bids them retire and return in half an hour. She takes a last farewell of her
child and stabs herself behind a screen with her father’s dagger. Pinkerton is heard desperately
calling her name.
SUPPLEMENTAL (not required for Exams, unless as extra credit)

HEROINES OF ROMANTIC OPERA: TALES OF MADNESS, MURDER & SUICIDE

Romantic opera is notoriously hard on women, and very few female characters who show
personal strength and a sense of agency, or are openly sexual, are allowed to survive. They
are also frequently portrayed as fickle in love and as subject to madness or melancholy

Bizet’s Carmen
Set in Spain this opera is an excellent example of French exoticism. The first scene below
features repetitive instrumental “vamp” based on a Spanish dance-type (the habanera), over
which Carmen expresses shocking sexual agency. A spurned lover kills her in the finale.
Carmen, Habanera scene https://youtu.be/_8y1dj7bvjE
Carmen, Finale (murder scene) https://youtu.be/puQ85aLEc5w

Puccini’s Suor Angelica

A great “prima donna suicide” appears in the finale of Puccini’s Suor Angelica, in which a nun
(Sister Angelica) poisons herself after learning that her son (conceived out of wedlock) has died
(actually murdered by her evil relatives, who covet his inheritance). Before dying she
experiences horror when she realized that she has committed a mortal sin, begs forgiveness. The
final chorus of nuns (angels?) suggests that Sister Angelica’s soul finds salvation.
https://youtu.be/hi-QEKZA-LY

Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

In this final scene, our heroine, Lucia, has killed one of our villains (responsible for the death of
her lover, Edgardo) off-stage. Here the very famous ‘mad aria’ is sung here by the angelic
coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay. Note that in the very beginning of the number (part 1 of the
video) and in the middle (beginning of part 2 of the video) the orchestra includes an eerie-
sounding instrument called a ‘glass harmonica’. Note also how amazingly long and complicated
Lucia’s final aria is, especially the second half when the original music returns (da capo aria). It
contains several recitative passages (lightly accompanied by the orchestra, who is often silent)
and lyrical songs—an amazing feat of virtuosity and memorization!
https://youtu.be/Jd8S9hoYjFM

Puccini’s Tosca
Here is the final scene from Tosca, a realistic (for opera) story of political corruption, power,
love, torture, murder and suicide. In the previous scene (beautiful and painful to behold), Tosca
‘gives’ herself to the story’s villain, who promises to thus spare the life of her beloved in a mock
execution. Having murdered this villain, she hopes to escape with her lover, only to discover
that the execution was real and her beloved is dead. Tosca then throws herself from the citadel’s
tower and commits suicide.
https://youtu.be/O_tsPysOvxo
 program music, absolute music & ballet 1
Romantic program music
• instrumental music associated with a story, poem, concept, scene, or any extra-musical
phenomenon, usually with a descriptive title revealing the source of inspiration. Such music
is intended to stand alone in performance, as does a symphony or concerto, not to accompany
dance, staged plays or other media. Music that accompanies a play is called ‘incidental music’.)
Such music is often more or less descriptive of characters, concepts or ideas from the source of
inspiration. The programmatic piece might ‘tell’ (in music) certain parts of a narrative, or simply
aurally illustrate characters or scenes from a drama, or a landscape, or a painting, a poem, etc.
Programmatic works are often nationalistic and/or exotic, depending on the nationalities of the
composer and intended audience, especially when the work is inspired by specifically national
topics, such as landscapes (Smetana’s Moldau), ethnicity (Mussorgsky’s Capriccio espagnole),
or foreign settings and legends (Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade).
Program music is not a genre, because the concept does not specify style traits (ensemble,
form, number of movements, etc.) as a proper genre designation should. Rather it is a broad
category encompassing nearly all instrumental chamber and orchestral genres. Any
instrumental genre has the potential to be program music, if (1) the composer creates music that
is suggestive of extra-musical phenomena and (2) provides a title to guide the listeners’
imaginations in the desired direction.
Keep in mind that musical works with texts (songs, opera, etc.) are not considered program
music by this definition. The whole point of program music (or programmatic music) is that it
is a piece of instrumental music that has no text but is intended to express something rather
specific as if it does. The various genres of opera, as well as art songs, oratorios, etc.—all genres
with texts—already function on the level of concrete communication because of that text.
Instrumental program music seeks to do that without a text, although, in the end, text is often
included in the form of descriptive titles (nearly always) and/or detailed program notes given to
audiences at concerts (not very common these days) to focus the imagination.

• examples of programmatic works in various genres [all supplemental]

Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique: épisode de la vie d’un artiste (1830)
https://youtu.be/5HgqPpjIH5c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonie_fantastique
—a five-movement program symphony, each with a descriptive subtitle
—an important early example of a ‘program symphony’ (though not the first)
—The earliest performances were accompanied by a detailed written program.
Franz Liszt, A Faust Symphony in Three Character Pictures (1857)
—a three-movement program symphony, each movement subtitled after a character in
Goethe’s play Faust (c.1790): i. Faust — ii. Gretchen — iii. Mephistopheles
iii. Mephistopheles https://youtu.be/bzGu8zRPab8
Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) https://youtu.be/rH_Rsl7fjok
—a suite of ten character pieces (for piano) subtitled after paintings seen in a gallery
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade (1888) https://youtu.be/SQNymNaTr-Y
—a four-movement symphonic suite, subtitled after scenes and characters from
One Thousand and One Nights (also called The Arabian Nights): canonic tales
compiled during the Islamic Golden Age (8th-13th centuries), translated into European
languages in the 18th century, and widely read during the 19th as a popular example of
exoticism (and orientalism).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights
 program music, absolute music & ballet 2

Absolute music as a concept and source of debate

• Absolute music is instrumental music that is not intended to portray a more or less
specific message or imagery, usually with a generic title (i.e., a title that provides the genre)
not suggestive of an extra-musical association: in other words, instrumental music that is not
programmatic—a basic musical category in Romantic thought, defined in the negative.
The concept of such music was not invented in the 19th century, of course—most purely
instrumental music in the 18th century (but not all: remember Vivaldi’s Four Seasons?) and
before would fit this category—but the concept of absolute music became an important aesthetic
concept and source of debate with the rising importance and popularity of program music.
In general, composers who were considered progressive (the so-called “New German School”
of Wagner and Liszt, for example), championed the cause of program music, which they
considered to be the next, natural, evolutionary stage of development in orchestral music, the
point at which the expressive powers of instrumental music were elevated to the level of text
(and perhaps beyond). Composers like Liszt and Wagner even argued that non-programmatic
genres such as the symphony were “dead”, no longer viable or relevant.
On the other hand, the more conservative composers in the mid-to-late 19th century often avoided
programmatic titles and forms of expression. Those inclined to debate such matters considered
program music to be a debasement of music’s essentially ineffable nature, a “lowering” of music
to the mundane level of text. Absolute music, they argued, has the power to communicate in a
direct and transcendent manner not mediated through text-bound thought.

Absolute music is not a genre but a very broad category that potentially encompasses any
purely instrumental genre with a generic (i.e., genre-related) title.
• examples of absolute music in a variety of genres
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 (1786)
Franz Schubert, Octet in F Major, D. 803 (1824)
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 3 in F Major, op. 90 (1883)

New Romantic genres that are always program music

• CONCERT OVERTURE: a single-movement work in sonata form, scored for orchestra,
and with a descriptive title. Such works were intended as concert openers, a function that opera
overtures (sinfonia avanti l’opera) and symphony first movements had performed in the 18th
century. Conveniently, concert overtures often have the term ‘overture’ in the title: for instance,
Berlioz’s 1812 Overture and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture.
• SYMPHONIC POEM: a single-movement in a free form (a form unique to each piece),
scored for orchestra, and with a descriptive title. Such works might appear anywhere on a
concert program (unlike the concert overture, which is an ‘opener’). The free form of such
works allowed composers the freedom to design pieces that closely adhered to the form, content,
character, etc. of the extra-musical inspiration, making this a particularly Romantic genre from
the standpoint of free, individual expression.
Franz Liszt (composer, piano virtuoso, and father-in-law of Richard Wagner) is credited with
being the first to use the term Symphoniche Dichtung (symphonic poem) for his orchestral
works, many of which have descriptive titles drawn from literature.
 program music, absolute music & ballet 3
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
• a progressive (as opposed to conservative)
French composer and advocate for program
music, especially celebrated for his colorful
orchestration, use of innovative orchestral
effects, and the general expansion of the
orchestra to include many more and more
‘colorful’ instruments
• Berlioz was an influential music critic who
published his eclectic essays in journals and
books, thereby serving as another of our “taste
makers” in the 19th century
• wrote the important orchestration manual
Treatise on Orchestration (1844), which was
widely studied by subsequent Romantic
composers, many of whom are now considered
great orchestrators, like Nikolai Rimsky
Korsakov and Richard Strauss
• well -known for his advocacy and general
development of program music; his great
program symphony—Symphonie fantastique: An
Episode in the Life of an Artist—set an important early example for the extent to which literary
reference, personal biography, and the forces of a large orchestra can be combined into an
expressive tour de force.
• Berlioz befriended Franz Liszt (1811-1886), the great piano virtuoso and fellow progressive
composer, who transcribed the entire Symphonie fantastique for piano. (Liszt also made piano
transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies and many other large-scale orchestral works.)

Franz Liszt at the

piano with
Berlioz (behind
and leaning on
the chair, with a
red scarf) and
others, fixated on
Beethoven’s bust
on the piano in
front of the
window, a
larger-than-life
source of light
and inspiration.
 program music, absolute music & ballet 4
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• On the international music scene, he is arguably
the most famous and popular Russian composer
of the 19th century.
• Studied music at the new St. Petersburg
Conservatory and later served as a Professor of
Music at the Moscow Conservatory.
• Among the great Russian composers of the 19th
century, Tchaikovsky was less dedicated to
promoting a nationalistic music; however, his
music does often sound characteristically
‘Russian,’ due to his use of exotic scales (modes,
pentatonic scales, etc.) and subject matter.
• Tchaikovsky composed several very famous
ballets that you may already know, including:
Swan Lake
Sleeping Beauty
The Nutcracker

• An iconic dance from Swan Lake: https://youtu.be/gP132E-xABg

• The Nutcracker, though not successful at its premiere in St. Petersburg in 1892, has become a
holiday favorite often performed near Christmas:
Very famous duet from Nutcracker, Act I : http://youtu.be/5dXvOgvuSCE
“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”: http://youtu.be/QYanCpTyriU
“Waltz of the Snowflakes”: https://youtu.be/UYaIQNjAX_8
[Note that in addition to a large orchestra (unseen down in the orchestra pit) the
ensemble also includes an off-stage women’s choir singing “ah” (after 2:07).]
Act II of Nutcracker contains a procession of dances in various national styles
and costumes for which Tchaikovsky composed various styles of exotic music.
‘Arabian Dance’ https://youtu.be/q_lipLgLPkY
‘Russian Dance’: https://youtu.be/DgyliXHF9j8
‘Spanish Dance’: http://youtu.be/2TNxE-kwGQs
Like opera of various types—which is a collaboration between a composer (music) and a
librettist (text)—the genre of ballet results from the collaboration of a composer and a
choreographer, the latter of whom created the dance.
• Ballet as a genre includes both the dance (choreography) and music.
• The proper term (genre designation) for the music alone is “ballet score.”
• The proper term (genre designation) for the dance alone is “choreography.”

NOTE: All of the ballet excerpts above are supplemental, are not required viewing, and will not
be included on Exam #2, although you do have to know that Tchaikovsky composed the three
famous ballets listed above.