Lecture  Notes  -­‐  Music  110  -­‐  Owen  J.  Lee  -­‐  day  14-­‐2    Wagner  took  radical  romanticism  to  its  high  point  

Post  Romantics  then  went  farther:    Giacomo  Puccini  1858-­‐1924)  Italian  Operas  -­‐  verissmo  (realism,  about  regular  people)  Madama  Butterfly:  Un  bel  di  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ2YVHGgxso    Gustav  Mahler  1860  -­‐1911  born  in  a  German  speaking  region  of  Bohemia,  A  Jew  amongst  Catholics,  had  an  abusive  father.    

   Studied  composition  and  conducting.  Became  one  of  the  greatest  conductors  of  all  time:    Director  of  the  Vienna  Opera,  Metropolitan  Opera,  New  York  Philharmonic.  composed  during  the  summer    Orchestral  Songs  –  stylistic  elements  include  Austrian  folksong,  Jewish  Klezmer,  Wagnerian  drama  "Revelge"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0_hm7KoPgk&feature=related  (first  half  of  video)  

Symphonies  -­‐  very  lengthly  -­‐  preoccupied  with  death,  and  finding  God.  create  a  complete  picture  of  his  world  –  kaleidascopic  detail,  irony   folk/cosmopolitan  naive/sophisticated  songlike  melodies  with  complex  polyphony  and  chromatic  harmony  schizophrenic,  manic  mood  changes  Symphony  No.2:  V  (excerpts)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZzFruQCofM&feature=related  1:05:40,  then  1:28:03  

Richard  Strauss  1864  -­‐1948  Like  Mahler,  one  of  the  greatest  conductors  of  all  time   Composed  tone  poems,  Also  Sprach  Zarathustra  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RdZ7rO_cr0  operas  Elektra  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfvT3MhUnZ4&feature=relmfu  beginning  to  2:01,  then  13:02  

Impressionists   French  Painters  -­‐  Monet,  Renoir  -­‐  effects  of  light,  color,  atmosphere:  change,  fluidity  

and  French  Symbolist  Poets  -­‐  Mallarme,  Verlaine  -­‐  suggestion,  sonorous  affect  of  words,  …infuenced  composers:  

Claude  Debussy  1862-­‐1918  -­‐  the  'Beethoven'  of  the  20th  Century  -­‐  broke  free  from  major/minor  scales  and  its  gravitational  system  (vs.  2nd  German  Post-­‐Romantic  "destruction"  of  the  system)   Influence  on  many  composers  and  styles  -­‐  set  the  tone  for  20th  century.  -­‐  educated  at  the  Paris  Conservatory  -­‐  talented  rebel  Asian  music  -­‐  Paris  International  Exhibition  1889,  Wagner  taught  piano  until  40,  his  opera  Pelleas  et  Mellisande  brought  fame  and  ability  to  make  a  living  as  a  composer.    Music  -­‐  New  tonal  resources,  new  harmonic  resources  –  new  sounds  exotic  scales:  whole  tone,  pentatonic,  post-­‐romantic  chromaticism  harmony  as  color  (thick  chords),  orchestral  color  dream-­‐like  understatement,  blurred  picture  Composed  tone  poems,  piano  pieces,  songs,  opera,  string  quartet  Prélude  à  l'après-­‐midi  d'un  faune  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbIzYgq0anU  

Maurice  Ravel  –  another  French  Impressionist  composer  Charles  Tomlinson  Griffes  –  American  Impressionist  composer