VOCAL MUSIC

OF THE
ROMANTIC
PERIOD
4 Quarter Lesson
th

MUSIC Grade 9
• How do you
express
your
feelings?
•What do you
feel when these
emotions are
not expressed?
Vocal music is one of
the best tools for
expressing one‟s
feelings.
This form of expression
became more evident
during the Romantic
period.
The parallelisms of music and
literature were clearly evident
in almost all forms of vocal
music during the Romantic
period.
Composers interpret poems,
mood, atmosphere and
imagery into music.
Musical compositions such
as:
the art song was written
for solo voice and piano.
• art song has its
inspiration from poetry
in this period.
Vocal music in this period
require singers to perform a
greater range of tone color,
dynamics and pitch.
Because of this, Opera became
an important source of
musical expressions.
The birth of the opera
houses came. It was the
place where all the arts
converged: not only music,
but poetry, painting,
architecture and the dance
as well.
COMPOSERS OF VOCAL
MUSIC DURING THE
ROMANTIC PERIOD
Franz Peter Schuber
Born: January 31,
1797
Himmelpfortgrund,
Austria
Died :1828 in
Vienna, Austria at
31.
lieder, (German word for song )the proper name of his songs
 He developed lieder so that they
had a
powerful dramatic impact on the
listeners.
 He tapped the poetry of writers
like Johann Goethe.
 He is considered the last of the
classical composers and one of
the first romantic ones.
His famous vocal music works/ Lieder
were:
 “Gretchen am Spinnrade”,
 “Erlkonig”
 “Ellens Gesang III” (“Ave Maria”)
 “Schwanenge sang” (“Swan Song”).

He also wrote piano pieces, string

quartets, operetta and the Symphony
No.8 in B minor (“Unfinished
Symphony”)
et us listen to some of h
vocal music composition
Giuseppe Verdi
Parma,
Italy on
October
9,
Died : Milan, Italy
1813
on .
Born :

January
27,1901.
 A name associated with Romantic
opera
 His characters are neither stock
roles nor symbols like those found
in German operas.
 He insisted on a good libretto.
 He wrote operas with political
overtones and for middle-class
audience.
• He studied in Busseto and later
went to Milan where his first
opera “Oberto” was performed in
La Scala, the most important
opera house at the time.
• Almost all of his works are
serious love story with unhappy
ending.
• Expressive vocal melody is the
soul of a Verdi opera.
• He completed 25 operas throughout his career.
• His fnal opera ends with “All the world‟s a
joke.”
• His much acclaimed works are;

 La Traviata
 Rigoletto
 Falstaf
 Otello and Aida
et us listen to some of h
composition
Giacomo Puccini

Born in a poor family on

December 22, 1858
in Lucca, Italy.

He studied at the Milan

Conservatory. He
belonged to a group of
composers who
stressed realism
he drew material from everyday
life, rejecting heroic themes
from mythology and history.
Famous operas were:
“La Boheme”
“Tosca”
“Madame Butterfly”
“Turandot”.
Let us take a look to
some of his
composition
Richard Wagner
Born in Leipzig,
Germany
May 22, 1813.

Died of a heart
attack on February
13,1883
He was very much inspired by
Ludwig van Beethoven.
 Introduced new ideas in harmony
 He also explored the limits of the
traditional tonal system that gave
keys and chords their identity
pointing the way to the rise of a
tonality in the 20th century.
• exerted a strong influence on the operatic
medium.
• He was an advocate of a new form of opera
which he called “music drama” where
musical and dramatic elements were fused
together.
• He developed a compositional style in which
the orchestra has of equal importance in
dramatic roles as the singers themselves.
• The expressiveness is aided by the use of
“leitmotifs” or musical sequences
standing for a particular character/plot
element.
His famous works are;
 Tristan and Isolde
 Die Walkure
 Die Meistersinger,
 Tannhauser and Parsifal.
His work would later influence
modern film scores, including those of the
Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings film series.
Let us take a look to
some of his
composition
Georges
was
registered
with
Bizet
the legal name
Alexandre-CesarLeopold
Bizet, but was
baptized Georges
Bizet
born October 25,
1838
in Paris, France.
o He entered the Paris Conservatory
of music at a very young age.
o Bizet became famous for his
operas.
His most famous opera is “Carmen”.
However, when “Carmen” first
opened in Paris, the reviews were
terrible. The shows were criticized in
horrible ways that resulted in poor
audience attendance.
During the first round of “Carmen”
performances, Bizet died (June 3, 1875).
He was only 36.
Four months later, “Carmen” opened in
Vienna, Austria, and was a smash hit.
CARMEN- is now one of the most popular
operas ever written.
Activity No. 1
Activity notebook
Listen to the two songs that
I will play and answer the
questions given: you may
express your answer in
Filipino or English
WHICH is WHICH?
REFLECTION:
1. What did you feel? What
emotions were evoked/expressed in
the music?
2. Which style do you prefer? Why?
Prepare for a 10
points
Knowledge Quiz
Prepare ¼ sheet of
paper