Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
instrumental music in the romantic era
romantic period of music
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: instrumental music in the romantic era
Before the Romantic musical age, composers wrote music for the purpose of arranging sounds into the most beautiful way possible. Because of these goals, they followed some very specific ideas and wouldn’t stray from them. Once the Romantic era hit, composers wanted to express a variety of things in their music. This is when the idea of program music appeared. Program music is usually instrumental music without spoken or sung words to explain the story or event that the composer has chosen to describe with his or her music. However, program music relies on a few non-musical things to make sure that the listener is interpreting the correct story. These things are often the title of the piece, a written forward and many times notes written to the performer/director directly in the score. After all, it is easy for a composer to say “I am sad” in his or her music by just using minor sonorities and dissonances, but it isn’t possible for the composer to say “I am sad because my mother is about to die of prostate cancer” without the aid of explanatory notes. Program music has become a staple of our modern musical listening diet in almost every genre from full orchestra to wind band to small jazz combo.
One of the most prominent examples of program music is Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Quixote. This tone poem tells the story of Miguel de Cevantes Saavedra’s novel The Adventures of Don Quixote. The story of the hero Don Quixote is one of insanity and delusion that Strauss was able to depict very well. Don Quixote was a middle aged man that read too many books about knights and their heroic deeds. This is shown by three different themes given to show Don’s dreams of being a knight. Over time, he read so many books and dreamt of rescuing his ideal woman named Dulcinea from a dragon so many times that his mind was unable to separate his real life from his fantasy world. Strauss chose to depict Dulcinea with a beautiful lyrical melody while the dragon is represented by a loud, low, sustained melody in the tenor and bass tubas. Don’s victory over the dragon is shown by a victory flourish in the flute and oboe. After this melding of his mind occurs, he believes that he is really the knight Don Quixote de la Mancea. From here, he and his side kick Sancho Panza set out into the world to do chivalrous deeds. From here on out, Don is represented by a solo cello voice. When ...
... middle of paper ...
...with the Knight of the Silver Moon. The knight is really one of Don Quixote’s townspeople that is concerned for Don’s well fare. To save Don, this man plays along with Don and defeats him in a joust. This battle is shown by the solo cello playing Don’s themes playing against all the wind instruments playing the Knight’s themes. This is followed by a dirge-like section which includes the shepherds them. This shows that Don is forced to return home and he thinks about being a shepherd. With all of Don’s dreams of being a knight shattered, he returns home and lives the rest of his life. The final scene is of Don lying in his bed dying. Strauss shows Don Quixote’s final peace in death by using the same two chords that showed his initial desire to be a knight, but this time they are sustained at a pianissimo level.
Richard Strauss was known for being able to portray incredible stories with his music incredibly well. Every part of his writing is so descriptive that even Strauss said that he could “describe a soup spoon” in his music. Program music became so popular and still is for just that reason; a master composer like Strauss can tell any story in a musical format that people enjoy.
First came the pride, an overwhelming sense of achievement, an accomplishment due to great ambition, but slowly and enduringly surged a world of guilt and confusion, the conscience which I once thought diminished, began to grow, soon defeating the title and its rewards. Slowly the unforgotten memories from that merciless night overcame me and I succumbed to the incessant and horrific images, the bloody dagger, a lifeless corpse. I wash, I scrub, I tear at the flesh on my hands, trying desperately to cleanse myself of the blood. But the filthy witness remains, stained, never to be removed.
If there is truly tradition to be found among the great theatres both on and off Broadway, then certainly the Sullivan Street Playhouse and its long running production of The Fantasticks rates as one of the most celebrated of New York theatrical traditions. Maintaining its place as the longest running production Off Broadway, The Fantasticks remains an enchanting and insightful tale of both young love and bitter disillusionment. It also reminds one, in this age of spectacle and the mega-musical, how powerful and truly inspiring theatre itself can be. Clearly, one of the great strengths of this production and a large part of its appeal for audiences over the last four decades lies in the fact that both the story and the style of presentation compliment each other so completely. Here we find the non-essentials are stripped away, and we are left to rely simply on the imagination of both the audience and the performers to create a magical evening.
The play that we read for this unit is Too Much Punch For Judy, by Mark Wheeller. It is a form of Verbatim Theatre, meaning that it is based on the spoken words of real people. This play is about the story of a young woman who kills her sister in an alcohol related accident. When I first read the play I couldn’t empathize with the story as I haven’t experienced such a shocking event before. In this essay I will describe, analyse and evaluate both my work and the work of other actors in my group, focusing on the mediums, elements and explorative strategies of Drama.
Ever heard of a story that sings of the “Angel of Music” and the “Phantom of the Opera”? A tale that once you have listened to the sweet melody that you will realized that you've pasted the “Point of No Return”? This love triangle has captivated multitudes ever since the 1910 original Phantom of the Opera was published in France by Monsieur Leroux, although most story lovers recall the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber or the motion picture adaption. Although this story has been entertaining people for over a century, in this new era have prerecorded voices and movements begun to overshadow the talented performers of live theater? Although “The lavish screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (2005) only deepened the damage” of the dislike of musicals made into film “with non-stars in the leads and an unimaginative production,”(Musical),which version, the live performance or the film, makes the story more attractive? To answer these questions, permit this essay to analyze two methods of storytelling: 2011 live performance Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and the 2005 film, and decide if music and story lovers everywhere have too “turned from true beauty”.
...ed, including the Pulitzer Prize. Next, I talked about his composition styles and some other composers that he has been compared to and finally, I talked one of his many famous compositions, “Music for 18 Musicians” and how it greatly reflected his style of writing. After reading countless journals and articles about Steve Reich, it is easy to see that he is greatly admired by many. A large majority of the articles had only positive comments about his and this is well reflected in a quote by him: “Steve Reich has been creating music for almost five decades. How would he like to be remembered by future generations? 'I hope that, number one, my music is played by musicians because they love to play it,' he says. 'And, number two, that it's loved by audiences who love to hear it. If those two things happen, then I'll feel like my life has been worthwhile” (Weiss).
... music to set the mood. When times were depressing, there would be dark and sad music playing. One example is when Tom accidently broke one of Laura’s glass figures. Laura was astonished and disappointed which made Tom feel horrible. Another example was when Laura and Mr. O’Connor were dancing, there was waltz music playing.
I also don't own the idea, it was requested to me by the wonderful Amanda. Thank you so much! I hope I did this idea justice.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are very famous past composers that have created many pieces that have influenced not just people of their time, but people in modern times as well.
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
When you read this play, take special care to remember the difference between the work of a playwright and that of a novelist. Novelists may imagine their audience as an individual with book in band, but a playwright writes with a theater full of people in mind. Playwrights know that the script is just the blueprint from which actors, producers, stagehands, musicians, scenic designers, make-up artists, and costumers begin. You will need to use an extra measure of imagination to evaluate this play before you see the Goodman production.
There are many different ways to create sound on a film, often sound is used to symbolize certan things, and music is used to generate suspense, fear, joy, and many other different emotions. There are three different types of film sound used to create the world of a film; speech, noise, and music. In the scene "Breakfast Montage" Orson Welles uses many different sound techniques to create the world of film. Orson Welles used non digetic music to symbolize the change in Charles Kane and his first wife Emilys relationship. At first the music in the background was sort of romantic and uplifting ; later in their relationship when they were no longer seeing eye to eye on certain things the music was much more fast passed and symbolized a hostile enviroment. Welles also used non diegetic music to create tension between the two. Later in the scene Charles kane and Emily were arguing over something, its not very clear as to what they were disagreeing on but emily says "but people will think" and Charles responds with "what i tell them to...
A mere mention of the term theatre acts as a relief to many people. It is in this place that a m...
“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation,” says Stella Adler. Theater is unique and intriguing because it blends literary and visual arts to tell a story. Before Theater 10, I viewed theater on the surface level: cheesy plot lines with dramatic scenarios for entertainment purposes. Throughout the course, I have learned what it means to appreciate theater, such as understanding Brechtian and Chinese theatre; however, I believe understanding theater’s ability to convey crucial historical and social messages, such as in the production of RENT, is more relevant and important for theater appreciation.
Richard Wagner and Opera One of the key figures in the history of opera, Wagner was largely responsible for altering its orientation in the nineteenth century. His program of artistic reform accelerated the trend towards organically conceived, through-composed structures, as well as influencing the development of the orchestra, of a new breed of singer, and of various aspects of theatrical practice. As the most influential composer during the second half of the nineteenth century, Richard Wagner's conception of music remains very much with us even a century after his death. He was a remarkable innovator both in harmony and the structure of his work, creating his own version of the holistic kunstwerk, dramatic compositions in which the arts were brought together in a single unity. In the later part of his career Wagner enjoyed the support of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was finally able to establish his own theatre and festival at the Bavarian town of Bayreuth.
In this paper, I will be focusing briefly on my knowledge and understanding of the concept of Applied theatre and one of its theatre form, which is Theatre in Education. The term Applied Theatre is a broad range of dramatic activity carried out by a crowd of diverse bodies and groups.