“The Hebrides”: an excellent example of music from the Romantic Period
Music during the Romantic Period was inspired by romantic love, the supernatural and even the dark themes such as death (Estrella). The music focused on emotion. Many people wondered why the music during this time was called romantic because it was often dark and mysterious. The composers during this time felt like they had to be different than all of the other composers. Dynamics, pitch and tempo had wider ranges and the use of rubato, “stolen time” became popular (Estrella). The piano was still the favored instrument, but had many changes. During this time, the wealthier people were no longer able to financially support composers so they had to find other ways
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The concert overture, The Hebrides, was composed by felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn took a trip to an island outside of Scotland where he visited Fingal’s Cave, that trip is what inspired him to write this piece. The concert overture was not intended to tell a certain story, but instead it is to set a mood. Mendelssohn wrote this piece so that he could share his experience in the cave with his listeners. “The intense and rolling melodies within the music perfectly capture this sense of both drama and awe; calmer passages, meanwhile convey stiller waters and more tranquil surroundings. But it is never long before the return of that stormy scene.” (“Classic Fm”) In this piece, Mendelssohn sets the mood as calm in the beginning, then goes to a more rough scene then brings back the …show more content…
In the beginning when he starts off with a slow melody, I am reminded of a scene in the movie “Uptown Girls”. During that scene the two ladies are riding a merry-go-round and they are moving fast but the camera has them going in slow motion and I just imagine this music as they are going around and around laughing, smiling and having a great time. At about four minutes in the song the mood is changed and seems almost triumphant, and when listening to that I imagine a king entering a room or building and the trumpets sounding and everyone is turned to watch the king. At five minutes and twenty seconds in the song it is almost a soft and playful tune then gets intense and I think of the movie “Bambi” when all the deer are running through the field and Bambi’s mother is killed by a hunter. Later in the peace the mood is brightened and I imagine in the same movie where Bambi finds all of the other animals and makes friends with them. I really enjoyed this piece because I was able to come up with many different scenes and images in my head and was able to connect my experience with the composition with a movie. I would definitely recommend this piece to another listener especially if they enjoy using their imagination to come up with scenarios based on their own personal
The piano is what sets the mood of the whole piece, the beginning starts off slow and gloomy sounding, then the vocalist begins to sing and confirms that this song is going to be unhappy. Although the song is gloomy sounding, I still like it, the piano has a pleasant melody and it is calming. It sounds like a song that should be played in a movie when a loved one dies and everyone’s moored at a funeral.
The beat and resonance of the music is very slow and soothing. It immediately sets up a sad mood. The music also manages to create a lonely and sympathetic atmosphere, which carries on throughout the play. The music only plays at significant times in the monologue as the tone of music needs to fit the mood and subject of which Doris is talking about at that moment, i.e. when Doris reminisces on the good times the music becomes lighter; but when she talks about the death of John the pace of the music slows and becomes duller. The use of music alone can form an overwhelming sympathy if appropriately used.
middle of paper ... ... show the skill of the Hebrides- texture and instrumentation. The instruments the Hebrides is scored for is typical of the classical period and relatively small, as detailed above. however, Mendelsohn does not use this to hinder the drama of the piece with bright, tranquil motifs (the inital theme in the cello in bar 1) contrasting heavily with the dramatic full-orchestral sound heard at bar 87 and other instances. To conclude, we have shown that there are numerous examples of the way Mendelsohn has shaped the Hebrides- including contrasting texture, the use of sonata form and the contrasts within that form- to make it memorable and weave his varying ideas together.
For almost half a century, the musical world was defined by order and esteemed the form of music more highly than the emotion that lay behind it. However, at the turn of the 19th century, romantic music began to rise in popularity. Lasting nearly a century, romantic music rejected the ideas of the classical era and instead encouraged composers to embrace the idea of emotionally driven music. Music was centered around extreme emotions and fantastical stories that rejected the idea of reason. This was the world that Clara Wieck (who would later marry the famous composer, Robert Schumann) was born into. Most well known for being a famous concert pianist, and secondly for being a romantic composer, Clara intimately knew the workings of romantic music which would not only influence Clara but would later become influenced by her progressive compositions and performances, as asserted by Bertita Harding, author of Concerto: The Glowing Story of Clara Schumann (Harding, 14). Clara’s musical career is an excellent example of how romantic music changed from virtuosic pieces composed to inspire awe at a performer’s talent, to more serious and nuanced pieces of music that valued the emotion of the listener above all else.
The song has an intriguing melody that makes me think of London in Europe, maybe it is just because I watched a movie that takes the setting of London or maybe it was the beat of the percussion and the brass, maybe more other instruments, but it created a nice light and deep feeling within the sound. The opening of the song was greatly influential releasing a great amount of energy to the audience. In the middle of the song, it was going down, but then the energy returned and renewed, propelling the overture to the finish. At the same time, it creates an opening for some kind of curtains onstage to drop down dramatically. Having the string and woodwind to act as the cushion of the song being dark and downhill while the brass and the percussion act as a representation of the beating heart of all living things. In the beginning of the song, it was in allegro but throughout the song, it goes downward with the beat being downbeat but once it hit adagio the song become more upbeat and the tempo become vivace. With the brass, woodwind playing vivace and the percussion breaking up the parts each second. Until near the ending, all instruments hit their big parts that would come as a dramatic timing. This song was a classic and I believe it was in many comedy animations back in the good old
It is full of romance, chaos, and excitement, all at the same time. This piece also takes lots of skill to play because it is so unique. The piece also has broad appeal. It is different from most classical compositions, which makes it something that stands out to the audience, and makes it something that they will listen to. Another thing that this work is filled with is emotion, variety, and imagination.
It has a very nice combination of the woodwind and violin. The music goes slow for first three minutes and suddenly it goes fast with the sound of violin and slows down again with the melodious sound of the flute and violin and repeats again giving the feeling of nature and after eleven minutes it is in very high notes. And again, from the 14 minutes, begins the second movement with the melodious sound of violin followed by other instruments. This part is very sad and attractive part of the orchestra too. It feels tragedy and sad music. The music is slow and in low notes. The flute in the fourteen minute is so attaching and alluring. I felt like listening to it again and again. The third movement then begins from twenty-three minute which also feels sad music. It reminds me of the good old childhood days. After the thirty minutes comes the most powerful and weighty part that is the fourth movement. It ends comfortably in F major. Among the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms, I liked the Symphony no.3. And I would like to thank Mr. Madere for giving us with such assignments which help us relax and get free from our
Throughout this piece there was stop time breaks which tended to last for about four beats, while the bass player continued to play along to the beat. Every musician had a solo throughout this piece of art. The pianist played on the beat to where his left hand was giving the ‘oom-pah’ and his right hand doing the comping. There was not much of and expression in the pianist compared to the Josh Holland playing trumpet, Andrew Venet playing bass, and Ryan McDaniel playing drums. There were no blue notes being played, this song was just playing behind the beat. Lastly, this piece tends to have a long vibrato throughout this piece of work.
It is also the piece that had enough of an effect to make the evil man go away, in the film, Fantasia. My strongest reaction to this piece, is the warm and chilled feeling I get hearing it. The idea of developing “chilled” bones from music is amazing. I arrived at this certain place, by truly diving into the song. I really listened to it, and could hear the seriousness in the singer’s voice. I could hear and understand the passion that the musicians felt when they pressed the piano’s keyboards. The singing, along with the instruments complimenting, is astonishing. I caught myself listening to this piece during the interview, and I could imagine even an evil monster falling in love with this tune enough to turn good. I felt the drama and power in the singing, and the seriousness in the playing of the
The term romantic first appeared at sometime during the latter half of the 18th Century, meaning in quite literal English, "romance-like", usually referring to the character of mythical medieval romances. The first significant jump was in literature, where writing became far more reliant on imagination and the freedom of thought and expression, in around 1750. Subsequent movements then began to follow in Music and Art, where the same kind of imagination and expression began to appear. In this essay I shall be discussing the effect that this movement had on music, the way it developed, and the impact that it had on the future development of western music.
The Romantic period is chronologically defined by the 19th century. It was an era of great turmoil. With the French Revolution, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Crimean War, the Spanish-American War and various revolutions across Europe, a great sense of upheaval was felt by the bourgeoisie and upper class struggling to maintain their affluent lifestyle during this time period. The revolutionaries who were fighting for their rights and independence felt a great sense of freedom, pride and other intense emotions. These intense emotions helped identify the Romantic period. Characteristics of the Romantic period help define it as a whole, and allow for the overall appreciation for the music ...
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).
Romanticism spawned in the late 18th century and flourished in the early and mid-19th century. Romanticism emphasized the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, the transcendental, and the individual. Romanticism is often viewed as a rejection of the ideologies of Classicism and Neoclassicisms, namely calm, order, harmony, idealization, rationality and balance. Some characteristics of Romanticism include: emotion over reason, senses over intellect, love for nature, use of the hero and the exceptional figure in general, emphasis of imagination being the gateway to spiritual truth, and an interest in folk culture. Romanticism was preceded by related developments in the med-18th century referred to as “Pre-Romanticism”. One Pre-Romantic style was medieval romance, which is where Romanticism gets its name from. The medieval romance was a tale that emphasized the exotic, the mysterious, and individual heroism. This style contrasted the then prevalent classical forms of literature such as the French Neoclassical Tragedy. But this new emotional literary expression would be a key part of literature during the Romantic Era (Britannica). Literature during the Romantic Era was influenced by politics and major historical events and social reforms, religion, science, economics, and art and music.
Romantic music was a different form of music that didn’t focus on religion, political or social tendencies. According to Lawrence Kramer the author of the book Why Classical Music Still Matters, “historically, the ideal of romantic love, tended to substitute for broader schemes of political, social, vocational, or religious meaning, as part of an increasing general tendency to rely on private rather that public schemes of fulfillment.” Meaning that romanticism had an impact on music in which religion, political and social meanings were substituted by a new form that rely on private situations instead of general public situations. This music form influenced the most in modern music because most of them are not based on
All of these quiet and soothing instruments produce a very calm mood. I personally listen to this song on days when I need to calm myself down, and just lure myself to sleep. Hope. Generally speaking, hope is another one of the most prominent moods portrayed by the song “A Thousand Years”. Throughout the entire video candles can be seen in massive amounts. As a matter of fact, there are a few points in the video where the entire background is full of a million candles glowing amidst the moonlight. Another representation of hope can be observed in the 0:06 where the singer is holding a candle in her hands which are bound by handcuffs. This small image represents hope. The singer may be bound by some restriction, yet she holds a candle of hope against the dark sky. Then at 0:18 the Christina Perri who is the singer of the song is standing near the window staring outside at the calming blue sky and river. Personally I always connect nature to peacefulness and hope, so this image portrays hope in my eyes. In a fraction of a second, at 0:43 ,the eyes of the singer reflect deep pools of hope in them, due to light from the candle in her