VOCAL MUSIC OF THE

ROMANTIC PERIOD
4th Quarter Lesson
MUSIC Grade 9
 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
Schubert
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”)
Let us listen to some of his
vocal music composition
 Giuseppe Verdi
Born : Parma,
Italy
on October 9, 1813.
.
 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 final opera ends with “All the world‟s a
joke.”
• His much acclaimed works are;
 La Traviata
 Rigoletto
 Falstaff
 Otello and Aida
Let us listen to some of his
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 Bizet
was registered with the
legal name
Alexandre-Cesar-Leopold
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.