The Romantic Spirit summary and notes
The Romantic Spirit summary and notes
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The Romantic Spirit summary and notes
HRS 135 -- The Romantic Spirit: Abbreviated Course Summary
1/27/03 -- The instructor introduced the course to the students. The course was to focus on 1) learning about the arts and humanities of the Romantic Era; and 2) writing literate, interesting thought essays based on subjects in this period.
1/29/03 -- Focused on definition of Romanticism.
Dictionary definition is complicated because of many ambiguities surrounding the term 'romantic.' The term comes out of the Middle Ages -- the medieval 'romance.' Used in modern times mostly to refer to heart-to-heart relationships between the sexes. In our course it refers to the arts and humanities in the Romantic Period and the word is always capitalized.
Wordsworth's "The Tables Turned" focuses on escaping books, society and intellectual strife to escape to a temperate climate in the woods and the fields where the throstles sing. Nature provides solace and wisdom for the individual alienated by learning, scholarship and the city.
In his "Life of Chopin" Franz Liszt indicates that with Chopin (and with any other Romantic artist) freedom matters; rules are made to be broken in the interest of artistic inspiration. In the arts there should be no objective standards of creativity valid in every age.
1/31/03 -- Definition of 'Romanticism' continued.
In Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë expresses a deep-seated, eternal bond between Heathcliff and Cathy that can never be broken. It is deeper and stronger than life itself. There is a dark, perhaps violent, undertone.
Hugo's article on defining 'Romanticism' gives a good list of things to look for. The cult of feeling (especially sadness and love) and of the individual's uniqueness (cf. Rousseau on p. 30). Romantics stimulate the imagination, by artificial means if necessary; they love exotic subject matter. Artists and poets must have absolute freedom to write/paint/compose as they see fit.
Romantics tend to have a soft spot for history, especially harking back to the Middle Ages, but admiration of the classical times and of Nordic/Scandinavian myths also appears in some authors.
2/3/03 -- Hugo, continued.
Romantics generally favor religion. Their impulse seems essentially spiritual. Not too many of them practiced one of the organized religions; those that did were mostly Catholic. Romantics tended to be pantheistic: God was the same thing as nature, or did nature just lead us to God? Love and nature are the viae regiae to God.
Romantics rejected the traditional western military and political hero who stood for the essential values of the civilization (cf. Achilles, Aeneas, Roland, etc.). They tended to focus on the plight of the artist as a sort of anti-hero, a prophet of beauty and truth and yet rejected by their society.
They reject the Enlightenment idea of nature as an objective physical entity that should be the object of scientific (rational) study. Nature is 'natural' nature outside of the city; it is filled with beauty and perhaps spiritual presences that can lead the individual to beauty and salvation.
The Enlightenment:
Definition: focused mainly on France between about 1725 and 1775, although there were also major Enlightenment movements in Britain (especially Scotland) and Germany. There was a major Enlightenment movement in the North American colonies, as manifested in documents like the 'Declaration of Independence' and the U.S. Constitution. Seeks the happiness/well-being of humanity; use of reason looking into nature (method based on the prestige of the scientific method) to discover how things are now and what needs to be done to make them better. The value of liberty is what will benefit humanity; Enlightenment authors prize civil liberties particularly (freedom of speech, press, religion; due process of law, etc.). They believe in moderate, peaceful progress achieved through good propaganda and education. They tend not to be social or political radicals, democrats or revolutionaries.
2/05/03 -- The class continued its discussion of the European Enlightenment.
Immanuel Kant gave a famous definition of the Enlightenment in his "Was heisst Aulfklärung?" He focused primarily on the image of an individual person passing from immaturity/childhood to adulthood. As children, we accept authority and do what we are told (more or less!); as adults we are prone to think for ourselves. Such should be humanity in general. Our period of childhood (domination by authority and faith) is over; our adulthood of independent reason is at hand. To facilitate this end, we must have civil liberties.
Joseph Addison's poem on the Augustan heavens expresses a typical Enlightenment deist view of God. The poem focuses on contemplation of the heavenly bodies and evokes the astronomy and science of the 17th and 18th centuries. Heaven is cold, orderly and regular, and is obviously following laws of motion. The poem gives a "proof" of the existence of God (the argument from order); and expresses the Enlightenment idea of a "watchmaker" God who creates the universe, endows it with certain properties and then sets it in motion, leaving it to its own devices. The Enlightenment is typically deist, but not Christian.
2/07/03 -- Voltaire's article on "Arius" (heresy in the Christian Church in the 3rd and 4th centuries) mocks the dogmatic/theological/metaphysical approach of western religion -- e.g., arguing over the nature of Jesus and his relationship with the father. Such focus is meaningless (it is impossible to understand such things) and it leads to religious conflict. Treat Jesus as a sage who taught us an admirable ethic -- love your neighbor, practice religious tolerance, help the weak, the poor and the ill, etc.
American authors agreed with Voltaire. Thomas Jefferson published a book on Jesus, in which he denied that Jesus was God (Jefferson was not a Christian) but he expressed admiration for Jesus as a moralist. In his letter to Ezra Stiles, Benjamin Franklin indicated that he admired and followed the teachings of Jesus, but he wasn't too sure whether he was truly God (since he was 84, he anticipated that he would find out soon enough). He advocated an easy-going tolerance in religious matters; his tone contrasted sharply with the shrillness of Voltaire's remarks on the Catholic Church in France.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was roughly a contemporary of Voltaire, but they disagreed on many issues and didn't get along personally. Rousseau is famous primarily for his democratic political theory (humanity should be free and independent living in a democratic state), and his cult of feeling and the heart (origins of Romanticism).
His "Fifth Promenade" takes place in western Switzerland, far from the iniquities of French cities (where people mock Rousseau and even stone him). He is in a beautiful temperate setting, in the country with no inhabitants other than peasants, around a lake that has two islands. According to him, true goodness lies inherently in children before they are spoiled by civilization (mine and thine), and to a lesser extent, in simple rural people living far from the corruption of the city. He does have "left-brain," scientific activities -- observing and classifying botany according to Linnaeus.
2/10/03 -- Rousseau's main activity is strolling through the countryside, observing the changing of the seasons, the beautiful details of nature, and particularly observing and listening to the action of the water on the lake. His most exalted experience in lying in the bottom of a boat, drifting through states of semi-consciousness, feeling the gentle, regular motion of the boat in the water, feeling only his own existence; the parallel with being in the womb (water and gentle motion) is unmistakable.
John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist Church; he came out of a rather worldly existence as a priest in the Church of England. After a series of personal crises, he "found" Jesus Christ (Jesus found him?) while meditating and reading St. Paul and Martin Luther; he felt warmed and reassured that Jesus Christ had died for his sins and saved him, John Wesley. This experience gave him the confidence and dedication to become a great missionary for his movement. Wesley's experience and values are quite different from those of the mainstream Enlightenment: his fervent Christianity, his emphasis on evangelical enthusiasm, his dependence on feeling and the heart. Evangelicalism came out of the 18th century and was very popular in the North American colonies. It points forward to Romanticism in ways similar to Rousseau.
2/12/03 -- An excessive amount of class time was spent getting the computer containing the PowerPoint program to communicate with the projector.
Romantic painters emphasized: rejection of classical values and techniques in painting; emphasis on bright color with its expressive possibilities; a free painting style contrasting with the "brushless" meticulous style of classical painters; emphasis on energy, movement, dynamism; an interest in exotic subject matter.
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) is primarily a Neo-Classical painter who sticks a foot into Romanticism when useful to his career. His "Oath of the Horatii" displays classical subject matter (heroic civic duty taken from the Roman Republic) and technique (meticulous naturalistic painting and careful (obsessive?) organization of the campus). His "Death of Marat" appears to be a tribute to the French Revolution's "Tribune of the People;" it has more feeling than David's previous period and is perhaps his greatest painting. His "Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard" has some elements of romantic technique (stormy skies, flowing drapery), but also elements of the classical (molding and posture of the horse, etc.); it prepares the way for good commissions from the future dictator of France. Antoine-Jean Gros' "Napoleon at Arcole" celebrates the military heroism of Napoleon in Italy and projects the image of Napoleon as a man of destiny! Gros was a student of David. His canvas seems more 'Romantic' than David's version.
2/14/03 -- David's enormous canvas on "The Coronation of Napoleon" is a brilliantly painted, sumptuous pageant celebrating the power and the glory of Napoleon; it doesn't seem particularly Romantic nor particularly neo-classical.
Théodore Géricault was one of the first true Romantics among French painters. His "Woman with a Gambling Mania," painted after extensive visits to the mental asylum in Charenton, shows the artist's interest in abnormal psychology; he painted the mentally ill woman with dignity. His "Mounted Hussar of the Imperial Guard" was the true manifesto of Romanticism in French art in 1812. Comparison with David's "Saint-Bernard" defines its Romantic character: swirling action, dynamic (unrealistic?) drafting of the horse's body rearing, sumptuous depiction of textures, bright patches of color expressing the violence and romance of the subject matter. His most famous painting is "Raft of the Medusa," perhaps the most famous painting of the French Romantics. The subject matter is humanity in extremis, garnering energy to rise above the level of the waves to get the attention of the boat on the horizon; colors are dark and earthy; modeling of the human body obviously inspired by Michelangelo; depiction of abnormal psychology in the read of the raft where the father's indifferent expression indicates loss of hope.
Eugène Delacroix was the foremost French Romantic artist. He lived into the succeeding "realist" period, dying in 1863. His famous "Dante and Vergil in Hades" show a frightened Dante riding the boat of Charon across the Styx toward the glowing walls of Inner Hell. The boat is surrounded by the writhing bodies of the angry condemned to eternal suffering in the waters of the river. Monumental Michelangelesque bodies; emotional horror and agitation; glowing colors in the background.
2/17/03 -- "The Women of Algiers" is a common exotic (North African scene, in a harem) subject for Romantic painters. "Lion Hunt" may be unrealistic and unhistorical, but the free brushwork, exoticism, swirling action and violence were dear to Delacroix's heart. "The Death of Sardanapalus" is Delacroix at his most extreme: destruction rather than surrender; opulent oriental exoticism; bright sumptuous, sensuous color; scandalous violence and swirling action; the king's indifference as he is faced with death and loss of all he owns. "Liberty Leading the People" is less "Romantic" than many of his other works. It is politically committed to the revolutionary cause of liberty in 19th century France; Marianne as the symbol of liberty and the French Republic towers over a coalition of social types in attacking tyranny.
Francisco Goya (Spain) was probably the great painting genius of the Romantic period, passing from a brilliant baroque/rococo period through Romanticism and into an ugly expressionism obsessed by violence. His "Osorio Portrait" is an exquisite baroque-style portrait of a privileged little boy dressed in sumptuous clothes; the Goya touch is the cats eyeing hungrily the bird that the boy has hobbled with a piece of string. His "Nude Maja" rates as one of the most charming and brilliantly painted of all western nudes; the "Clothed Maja" is painted more sketchily and is clearly inferior. It would be nice if the story about the affair with the Duchess of Alba were true. His group portrait of the "Family of Charles IV" is also a brilliant exercise in sumptuous textures and color. But the presence of the painter in the canvas adds a subjective element to the work.
2/19/03 -- "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" is a critique of the Enlightenment, an indication of Goya's deteriorating mental state, and an example of his engraving in the last period of his career. "Worse" shows his fascination/obsession with the horrors of war and human bestiality. "The Third of May 1808" shows Goya's abandonment of the 'baroque' style, his fascination with terror and tyranny, and his passage to a more "modern" expressionist style. "Saturn Devouring His Children" was painted by the artists on the wall of his house of exile in France: it indicates his abandonment of the Renaissance tradition in Western art, his mental instability, and his disgust with the horrors visited by humans on one another.
Caspar David Friedrich (Germany) brought an entirely original sensibility to Romantic art. Vaguely Christian, he seeks out the spiritual component of northern landscapes. His "Window" suggests that he is spiritually imprisoned, and seeks fulfillment by escaping out the window to the urban landscape outside. His "Morning in the Riesengebirge" is a symbolic and spiritual landscape; painted in a painstaking "naturalist" style, nevertheless the mountains are mysterious and imposing, the gnarled oak tree is symbolic; a marvelous example of a spiritualized landscape. "Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon" depicts the backs of a couple contemplating the moon in a mysterious natural landscape.
2/21/03 -- "The Cross in the Mountains" is even more explicit. The Christian symbol of the cross surmounts the distant figure of a young woman (hiker?) helping her male companion to the top of the crag where the cross is located. A barren, mountainous, but beautiful blue landscape stretches to the horizon and then merges with the sky. The painting comes across as visionary. "A Sea of Ice" is a hard-hitting version of a "sublime" landscape (cf. the "picturesque" landscapes of Wordsworth, etc.), where man and his machines are puny and weak when confronted with the forces of nature; the latter are the shards and huge tablets of ice, which are shaped to emphasize their destructive power. "The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" depicts perfectly the Romantic individual wandering over the earth, looking over the craggy, fog-filled landscape in search of his destiny. This is perhaps Friedrich's masterpiece.
Joseph William Mallard Turner (England) was a successful, famous, reclusive artist of the day, living in London. His style is far more abstracted than any other Romantic painter; it seems to point to both an expressionist and impressionist future (the early Impressionists like Monet were much influenced by him). His "Grand Canal" comes across as an impressionist-like rendering of the shapes and colors of Venice (one of his favorite cities); Turner is much interested in light, its reflections, etc. His "Fighting Téméraire Towed to its Berth" has an impressionist element (the play of light of the setting sun on the water and clouds), but also a "message" of the passing of the old and the coming of the new world -- the old "ghost" warship and the new steam tugboat with the lurid smoke pouring out of its stack. The comparison with Monet's "Impression Sunrise" (painted about 30 years after Turner's masterworks -- 1872) shows Monet's affinity with Turner.
2/24/03 -- "Rain, Steam and Speed" mixes Turner's fascination with new technology (the training speeding over a bridge), and his interest in portraying impressions of light and color on the canvas (water, steam, clouds, fog, etc.). No one was able to find the rabbit. His "Slave Ship" (1845) is perhaps the most apocalyptic of his paintings. He paints the usual setting sun creating hues of red on clouds and sea, but this time they are more lurid and melodramatic. He obviously is referring to a slave ship tossing "excess" cargo overboard as it tries to weather a violent storm. He has added to the right side of the canvas strange little fish feeding on a carcass of one of the jettisoned bodies. His subject would seem to be the inhumanity and cruelty of human action.
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) was a German 18th century poet associated with the Storm and Stress period: Charlotte and Werther were obviously great admirers of his poetry in the first part of Werther. His poem "Das Rosenband" portrays intense romantic feelings between a man and a young woman -- their lives depend on one another, and they are in "Elysium." His "Die Frühen Gräber" is on the other hand, quite melancholy; it is an elegy (perhaps derived from Roman examples) on the theme of dear friends dead, buried and sorely missed. The final poem in the set is a theological poem powerfully addressing the relationship of God and his providence and nature.
2/26/03 -- Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werthermay annoy some readers, but it was one of the most influential books in German literary history. It was the first German novella; the first German epistolary novel (composed almost exclusively of letters; the epistolary form seems to correspond to Romantic needs of individualistic self-expression); and the first German international best seller that had a big impact on popular culture (cf. the Werther costume). It is also the first psychological novel in German literature. It represents the German "Storm and Stress" ("Sturm und Drang") period (1770's) where authors bathed their works in sentiment.
Werther is generally a sympathetic, sensitive character that becomes more irritating in the course of the novel because of his obsessiveness and indecision.
The social and political scene of the novel are significant. Germany was characterized by Kleinstaaterei (myriad of small states) and a stratified, aristocratic society. The highest status was occupied by the aristocracy, presented only in the middle section of the novel as a snobbish, powerful group that annoys and alienates Werther. The majority of the population were peasants and common townspeople -- generally poor and illiterate. Werther, Charlotte and Albert belonged to the middle classes -- professional people, merchants, small estate owners, etc. -- who valued education and respectability.
2/28/03 -- Werther's social environment in the beginning is semi-rural, small town Germany -- sitting in the town square, reading Homer, sketching what he sees, communing with children and the good common people. The loyalty and simplicity of the swineherd Eumaeus in Homer's Odyssey seems to appeal to Werther when he is calm. He sometimes presents his ideal lifestyle as growing his own cabbages, and then eating steaming cabbage dishes at dinner. The agitation and weirdness of the Ossian excerpt at the end of the novel expresses the alienation of Werther as despair sets in.
Nature is extremely important in the novel. Werther's attachment to and reverence for nature is shown by his horrified reaction at the cutting down of the walnut trees by the vicar's wife. Werther's state of mind seems to be parallel to the change of the seasons -- hope in the spring, decline in the fall, and despair and death in the winter. Several passages toward the beginning of the novel express Werther's rapture in nature, and the religious intensity of the temperate landscape -- immersion in fertile, vibrant nature leads us to an ecstatic union with, or at least closeness to, God. Nature is his religion! Nature also reflects Werther's psychological state: when he falls in love with Charlotte, thunder and lightning rages outside; as he enters the final phase of despair, destructive floods cover the plain.
3/3/03 --
Albert in Werther is depicted as a fairly conventional character -- hard worker, family man, good provider, who does however seem to be gone from home fairly often. Sensitivity and adventure were not his middle names. Charlotte came from a conventional milieu. Some conventional things about her (attention to the elderly, a genuine love for children, etc.) appealed to Werther. She seems sometimes to be playing a double game: she is "devoted" and faithful to her husband, and yet seems to enjoy Werther's assiduous attentions, and usually doesn't try very hard to deter him. At the end of the novel, she allows Werther to kiss her; she throws a look full of love in his direction; she actually hands the suicide pistols to Werther's servant.
Werther is a complex character. Despite his tempestuous feelings and conviction that his heart is what is most important about him, he spends much of the first part of the novel trying to find a satisfying bucolic existence, dreaming he would be married to Charlotte and eat the cabbages that he had raised and harvested and that she had cooked. This attempt was not successful. As soon as he lays eyes on Charlotte, he falls violently in love; his pursues her obsessively, and can do nothing to separate himself from her.
3/5/03 -- Werther began a more or less uninterrupted decline the first moment he saw Charlotte. His obsessiveness makes it impossible to "get over" her, and to recognize that he must leave her since she is unavailable. Some readers may be impatient with Werther, since he refuses to recognize "reality" and to make the decisions necessary for his survival. To them suicide may seem an easy way out. To others Werther may be noble because of his unselfish (?) devotion to his beloved, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice himself for his ideal. At the least, there is a certain drama and catharsis at the end of the novel, all based on a pity we feel for the poor fool who loved too much.
The evolution of orchestral music from the beginning of the classical period (about 1770) to the High Romantic period (about 1840). The form of the classical Romantic symphony was dominated by the sonata-allegro form in the first and last movements. Composers enjoyed a combination of structure and freedom in this approach that is still influential today. The texture of the music evolved from a small classical orchestra dominated by strings with a few woodwinds to (c. 1840) a much larger orchestra with greatly expanded wind, brass and percussion sections and even new instruments (harp, timpani, bass clarinet, etc.). The function of the music evolved from a desire to create something "abstractly" beautiful to a piece that projected dramatic emotion, evoked a picture (poem, painting, landscape, etc.), or even told a story.
The first movement to Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" provides a very clear and simple example of the sonata-allegro form; the small orchestra is composed only of string instruments. The music is not trying to play any dramatic or evocative role.
The fourth movement to Mozart's Symphony #40 in g minor is also in a clear version of the sonata-allegro form. The orchestra includes woodwinds and French horns as well as strings. The tempo is very fast (headlong rush!), and the texture of the music is dense and complex; parts of the first theme recur constantly throughout the music. The texture at times seems Romantic. Mozart appears to have been studying Bach, judging by the complexity and unity of the movement.
3/7/03 -- Franz Josef Haydn's first movement to his Symphony #104 in D also follows the classical style, although his music is quite distinct from Mozart's. Haydn was older and was the inventor of much of the classical style. The movement has a solemn introduction followed by a regular version of the sonata-allegro form. The first thematic group is quite extensive. In the Development section he modulates and fragments the first theme. The mood is happy and good humored; presumably the listener feels the same way listening to such inventive and witty music. The symphony is scored for Mozart's orchestra with trumpets and timpani added.
Beethoven's Symphony #5 in b minor is still in the classical style, but the sonata-allegro form has been adapted for dramatic expressiveness. The movement in overwhelmingly monothematic until the Coda when a new rising theme suggests some progress toward a solution to the composer's dilemma. The sound is usually heavy (loud chords, trumpets, drums etc.) with few, quickly interrupted interludes of quiet. The function of the music appears to be "Fate Knocking at the Door" of a normal individual challenging him/her to actuate his humanity (?); the listener resists and hesitates, all to no avail as the voice of fate keeps insisting. The movement ends with a temporary truce, but no true assurance that fate will disappear.
3/10/03 -- With Mendelssohn we move into a more "typical" Romantic period in orchestral music. His Overture to a 'Midsummer Night's Dream' combines beautiful music with an expert evocation of the atmosphere, characters, and actions of Shakespeare's play. Mendelssohn retains the sonata-allegro form, and inserts references to an enchanted forest filled with fireflies, ecstatic lovers, grandiloquent love declarations, festive marches, pomp and circumstance, elves and sprites flitting about, donkeys braying, etc. The 'wandering lovers' chords are played three times. The piece ends with the curtain going down and the audience filled with regret that its time of enchantment is past.
Gioacchino Rossini's Overture to William Tell (1829) is also a piece of expert evocation -- of Swiss landscapes and patriotic actions in which the Swiss gain their independence from the German Empire. Rossini's orchestration is very rich and varied: he uses new instrument (the English horn); he uses instruments in Romantic ways (the high, lyrical cello register); he writes beautiful, lyrical music in the process. In this piece, in which he abandons the sonata-allegro form, he depicts a Swiss dawn in the high cello; then paints a violent storm in glissando strings and noisy trombones; then the calm after the storm with a beautiful duet between flute and English horn; finally the famous cavalry charge (source of the 'Lone Ranger' theme) in heavily rhythmic trumpets, French horns, low strings and timpani.
3/12/03 -- Summary of orchestral music: Mozart and Haydn fall clearly in the classical school; Beethoven is a transitional figure who maintains classical form transforming it into drama; Mendelssohn and Rossini (in 'William Tell') are clearly evocative-style Romantic composers.
Romantic Poetry consists of some combination of the following: 1) the poet seeks freedom from the tyranny of classical forms; 2) focuses on lyric poetry that emphasizes perception and feeling; 3) pursuit of the Romantic themes of nature, love and God; 4) indulges in a keener use of imagination and fantasy; 5) often interest in popular forms of literature, folklore.
William Blake should be classified as a Pre-Romantic. He sets himself in contrast to the Enlightenment ("Mock on...Voltaire Rousseau"). He takes a dark and often negative tack in his themes -- exploitation of children in "The Chimney Sweeper," sexual disease and moral corruption in "The Sick Rose," the puzzling ways of God in "The Tyger." His imagery is striking, sometimes shocking (the worm in the rose and the image of red and blood, the blazing, burning eyes of the tiger glowing in the night, the little boy black with soot); he uses biblical imagery in a great many of his poems; he uses surprising contrasts like "fearful symmetry," the rose and the worm, etc. He has a keen and fertile imagination. He is almost more like a religious prophet than a lyric poet.
3/14/03 -- William Wordsworth's poetry is perhaps the most "typical" of all Romantic poetry. "We Are Seven" shows Wordsworth's commitment to the use of popular diction, and the sometimes simple naivete of his poetry. Other short poems show his devotion to unspoiled rural nature and his aversion to the hustle and bustle, the "Getting and spending" of life in the city. Englishmen are "out of tune" with nature, and are living a life alienated from their true selves. Children are close to nature and innocence, but the older one grows, the farther one is from one's origins, and the greater the opportunity to be seduced and corrupted by the city. In "Tintern Abbey" Wordsworth recalls through memory his experience in nature, the "woods." As a young man his reaction was energetic and wild, running through the woods. As a mature man, immersion in nature has more of an uplifting feeling that leads him to a deep wisdom and understanding of the meaning of life. Nature leads the poet, and thus potentially the common man, to God, the deeper force within the universe. Nature never seems terrible or destructive; Wordsworth says that he was never betrayed by nature. The poet always focuses on the emotional impact of nature on the man, and emphasizes the theme of memory many years later lying on his "couch" as he recalls his experiences.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge shared with Wordsworth the beginning of the Romantic Movement in poetry in 1798. Coleridge wrote much less poetry than his friend; he concentrated largely on critical writing. The "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" shares with Wordsworth the use of popular idioms, but the impact of Coleridge's poetry is quite different. The "Rime" follows a curve from England to the South Pole, to the torrent doldrums of the Pacific (?) Ocean, then painfully returning to England under the sign of the kirk (church) and lighthouse. It is filled with famous poetic images -- the Albatross hung around the Mariner's neck, "Water, water everywhere...," the sun shining through the grate of the phantom ship, the Moon following the Mariner's ship from above, etc.
3/17/03 -- "Rime" is obviously an allegory; what of is perhaps up to individual interpretation. It has a strong Christian reference (the Albatross, guilt, punishment, contrition, penance, forgiveness, the Hermit and return to the kirk). One might interpret it as an allegory of individual salvation; or more likely, an allegory of the consequences of an offence against Nature and the life principle. Coleridge is more given than Wordsworth to the fantastic and the exotic; many of the scenes in "Rime" are downright phantasmagoric, even "psychedelic!"
"Kubla Khan," one of the most influential Romantic poems, excels in exotic imagery (the please dome, caves of ice, the fountain ejaculating rocks, the Abyssinian maid playing music on her dulcimer, honey-dew and the milk of paradise, etc.), apparent non-sequiturs, and openness to multiple interpretations. Coleridge confesses that he composed (wrote down) the poem after dreaming most of the lines and imagery in an opium-induced sleep. A reasonable interpretation might be the process of artistic creation with a nod to Freudian sexual imagery, the horror of society when confronted with the revealing work of the artist, and the efforts of the artist to defend his integrity.
Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" apostrophizes the West Wind as an obvious stand-in for Nature. In the first stanza the Wind is presented in autumn as a frantic destroyer, although the poet makes reference to the regeneration of spring after the sepulcher of winter.
3/19/03 -- Nature is depicted as powerful like a threatening storm, but also calm, sensuous and soothing like a Mediterranean breeze. Shelley relates his personal situation to the West Wind/Nature in the 4th and 5th stanzas. Shelley is obviously going through a personal crisis associated with age, bad health perhaps, and certainly, he thinks, a flagging of his creative poetic powers. Great art comes from the wind of nature blowing through the artist evoking "a deep, autumnal tone" and "might harmonies." He prays to Nature (God) to inspire him so that his thoughts may be spread like sparks upon all of mankind, and thus he may acquire immortality. "The Spring" he awaits is just around the corner. In this poem Shelley is expressing a "sublime," as opposed to Wordsworth's "picturesque" view of nature.
John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" has, it seems to the instructor, a style somewhat similar to the previous poem. Keats, lying in bed slowly dying from tuberculosis (consumption), begins his incantatory, spellbound meditation on death as he hears the nightingale sing outside his window. The poet dreams of escape from a pessimistic vision of the human condition (Stanza III) into the warm, sunny South (Italy) where he drinks a Hippocrene vintage. Such an escape attracts him less than an immersion into "Poesy." Even Poetry suggests to him death ("for many a time/ I have been half in love with easeful Death"), but even that association recedes as he reflects on the enduring fame of Poetry and Beauty. Finally in the last stanze, Keats comes back to "reality;" the spell is broken, but even now he is not sure what is real and what is a dream. Keats style is emotional, somewhat morbid, focused on a conscious evocation of beauty, very sensuous imagery, etc.
3/21/03 -- Heinrich Heine's Romantic poetry seems completely different from Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth; it is simple, folkloric, humorous, straightforward. He was German, but exiled himself from his native country to spend the last 25 years of his life in Paris. In one short poem, he evoked the German reverence for trees, and spoke of the ambivalent attitude of Germans toward foreign countries and emigration. He wrote much of young Romantic love, where the lover poet finds complete fulfillment in his adoration of a young woman, and then finds great sorrow in the inevitable disappointments of true love. "Lorelei," perhaps the most famous lyric poem in German literature, is a finely chiseled description of a Rhenish boatman's shipwreck due to the alluring musical beauty of a Siren-like creature. It deals with the image of the femme fatale alluring men to their destruction. Perhaps it concerns also the poet's dangerous relationship with his art.
The Romantic Piano developed out of the instrument invented in the early 18th century, and then perfected in several countries at the end of the century. Its chief advantage over its keyboard predecessors is its dynamic flexibility, its ability to move from piano (soft) to forte (loud) from one note to another. Mozart's style takes advantage of this feature, but is essentially very classical -- following the sonata-allegro form literally, downplaying dynamic contrasts and drama, using a linear style with the melody carried by the right hand and harmonic accompaniment in the left. The first movement of Beethoven's "Pathétique" Sonata follows the sonata-allegro form, but differs in several ways: it inserts a slow, grave section three times in the movement; it is more passionate and dramatic; it is aggressive and anxious.
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The Romantic Spirit summary and notes
HRS 135 -- Course Summary II
3/21/03 -- The Romantic Piano developed out of the instrument invented in the early 18th century, and then perfected in several countries at the end of the century. Its chief advantage over its keyboard predecessors is its dynamic flexibility, its ability to move from piano (soft) to forte (loud) from one note to another. The new instrument had enormous expressive potential that was developed by Romantic composer.
Mozart's style takes advantage of this feature, but is essentially very classical -- following the sonata-allegro form literally, downplaying dynamic contrasts and drama, using a linear style with the melody carried by the right hand and harmonic accompaniment in the left (homophony). The first movement of Beethoven's "Pathétique" Sonata follows the sonata-allegro form, but differs in several ways: it inserts a slow, grave section three times in the movement; it is more passionate and dramatic; it is aggressive and anxious (more "appassionata" than "pathéthique"?). As usual, Beethoven sticks with classical forms and structure, investing them with his strength and passion.
3/26/03 -- The "true" Romantic composers for the piano developed many new playing techniques to make their compositions more expressive and evocative and to bring out the sonorites (color) imbedded in the piano (figuration patterns, chordal playing, rhythmic irregularities like "rubato," etc.). They also more or less abandoned the formal piano sonata ("symphony for piano") of Beethoven and Mozart and focused on short "character pieces" that evoked a mood or scene. Franz Schubert, although better known for his Lieder and his symphonies, wrote very evocative character pieces for the piano. His Impromptu in G Flat is cantabile (song-like), simple, pure, tender, quiet for the most part, structured as a development of essentially a single theme; it flows naturally from the first statement of the theme until its end. Schubert's Impromptu in E Flat Major is in the more typical ABA form of the impromptu. The first and last sections are lyrical "airborne triplets" resembling the effortless flight of a bird; the middle section is an impassioned waltz (3/4 time) that evokes darker tones and associations.
3/28/03 -- Frederic Chopin's "Waltz in E Flat" is a string of singable melodies evoking a bunch of couples dancing in a ballroom. His "Etudes" are meant to train pianists in techniques deemed essential by Romantic composers; in Chopin's hands they also become evocative and beautiful character pieces. His Etude, Opus 3, No. 3, "the most beautiful melody I ever wrote," is a cantabile character piece evoking mostly ethereal tender feelings. The "Revolutionary" Etude, supposed to recall his passionate feelings on hearing of the Russian attack against Warsaw, has loud percussive octaves in the right hand with rapid, forte arpeggios in the left. His Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66, has soaring, intense sequences in the right hand; with a tender middle section that has spawned several American popular songs; and a dramatic coda; it has the familiar ABA form of the impromptu.
Robert Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood," composed for his beloved Clara Schumann, are meant to be recollections from his own childhood for adult players. The pieces are simple technically but evocative; full appreciation of them necessitates a certain exercise of the imagination focusing on typical activities and moods of children. "Von fremden Ländern" is yearning and nostalgic; "Bittendes Kind" is a mild request by a child; "Wichtige Begebenheit" is lightly and humorously pompous.
3/31/03 and 4/2/03 -- The class finished listening to Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood." Rocking horse gave a vivid impression of a child rocking gaily back and forth on the rocking horse. The famous "Träumerei" represented a child dreaming or perhaps daydreaming; it is one of Schumann's most beautiful melodies.
E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Tales" are among the most entertaining of all works of Romantic literature. They always have an element of the supernatural or the occult; they give us interesting portraits of abnormal psychology; they have complex narratives; they have interesting plots that keep the reader in suspense.
"Mlle. de Scudery" is essentially a vividly written detective story that takes place in Paris under the reign of Louis XIV. It is one of the earliest detective stories in western fiction. The narrative is quite complex (multiple flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks); the story is studded with surprises and clues to intrigue the reader; the style is vivid and concrete. Mlle. de Scudery is an interesting, "round" adult female character -- something rather rare in Romantic literature: she is independent of family, she possesses solid good judgment as well as "female" intuition, and she is 73 years old and admired by people in Paris. She solves the crime, and succeeds in freeing Olivier, the falsely accused. Cardillac is a fascinating character, perhaps affected by the supernatural, certainly representing a bipolar, dual personality; he would appear to be a model for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Justice prevails in the end, due in part to the efforts of Mlle. de Scudery, in part to the "deus ex machina" of Louis XIV's justice.
4/4/03 -- Hoffmann's "The Sandman" is perhaps not the strongest story of the three read in class (the inconsistencies in the plot and in the tone of the narrative), but it is one of the most famous of the author's stories, and it has many interesting features. With its beginning letters and finishing third person narrator, the narrative structure somewhat resembles the "Sorrows of Young Werther." The reader is constantly challenged to determine whether the story recounts a haunting unto death of a character by some occult force (represented by Coppelius/Coppola), or is the story of severe paranoid psychosis induced by childhood trauma (the stories of the Sandman told to Nathanael by his nurse). The author does not seem to resolve the question. There is an element of science fiction in the construction of an automaton (with the help of occult powers) by a physicist. The difficulty of the exercise seems to be emphasized by the obsession of the "evil" characters (Coppelius, Coppola and Spalanzani) with having real eyes for their robots. (Remember that in western literature eyes are symbols of human life and of love -- characters like Dante fell in love with their beloveds because of a mysterious force emanating from their eyes.) Madelon is a "stock" Romantic woman with some interesting characteristics -- she is a model of sensibleness (cf. her letter to Nathanael insisting that his problem is psychological rather than occult), and despite the narrator's denials, quite beautiful in the usual Romantic way. In the end she is attached to a man and living "happily ever after" in domestic tranquility with another man after the lurid death of Nathanael.
4/7/03 -- Hoffmann's "The Entail" is one of his best stories. The narrative structure is pleasing and ingenious -- the present-tense "Interlude" followed by the "Explanatory Sequel" narrated by the lawyer V.... Descriptions are filled with atmosphere and color -- the castle on the Baltic Coast, the wolves, snow and howling storms surrounding the castle in the winter, etc. Characters are very vivid, particularly the Counselor V..., whose strong religious faith, grounded common sense, sense of humor, teasing quips at the expense of Theodor, and inner strength are the core of the narrative. V...'s character is similar to Mlle. de Scudéry's. Music is taken as a symbol of art, again as in Hoffmann's other stories; in the case of Seraphine, it is associated with nervous weakness, immersion in a dream world of art and tender feelings. Theodor is a fervent Romantic character devoted to the arts (his means of communicating with Seraphine), and subject to the tenderest feelings of love. The story is an imaginative take on the decline of a great family due to original sins that engender crime, bitterness and guilt, and then finally death. The original transgression is illustrated by the elder Roderich's dabbling in magic in his tower, and by his entailing of his property that leads to bitter conflict and hatred between his sons. There is a strong sense of destiny and fate in the story that leads almost inexorably to the destruction of the family, symbolized by the collapse of the great castle tower. Psychological interest is great in the person of Seraphine, subject to an otherworldly emotional weakness, and Daniel, who, overcome by feelings of guilt from his murder of Wolfgang, becomes a somnambulist (sleepwalker -- his subconscious expresses itself through his unconscious actions). The theme of the story seems to be the extreme repercussion of evil actions and decisions: the original offenses -- astrology and institution of the entail -- pits brother against brother, and ultimately destroys the family. The disintegration of the house appears to parallel the decline of the family, rather than be somehow responsible for it.
4/9/03 -- Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" appears to owe a great deal to Hoffmann's story, published some 15-20 years before -- the name of Roderich, the disintegration of the house parallel to the disintegration of the family, the suggestion of inbreeding/incest between main characters, the association of the arts, particularly music, with extreme mental states, etc. "Usher," however, is much more subjective and mental than Hoffmann's story: whereas the latter narrates a more or less objective scene, with an identifiable geographical location and a multitude of diverse characters, "Usher" resembles a nightmare raging in the mind of perhaps the author. "Usher" does not have a well-grounded, sensible character like V... to keep the reader connected to external reality. Can the story be about the decomposition of the sanity of the author? His personality collapse just as the family (Roderich as mind, Madeleine and heart/emotion) and the house (the body) collapses? In "Usher" the house is depicted as a "sentient" being who senses, perhaps understands, and reacts -- quite different from the castle in "Entail," which seems to act only as a metaphor for the decline of the family. The final description of the noisy, raging storm, the arrival of the supposedly dead Madeleine at Roderich's door, their death pressed against one another, and the collapse of the building after the narrator escapes to the outside is a masterpiece of lurid melodrama!
4/11/03 -- The "Fairy Tales" (better named "Folk Tales") of the Grimm Brothers (Germany, early 19th century) perhaps make most sense when examined for conditions of life and culture of German rural folk in the early modern period. The Grimm Brothers collected these oral tales in the early 19th century, edited them somewhat to appeal to middle class readers at the time and to serve their didactic purpose, and published them in the 1820s. "Hansel and Gretel," "The Bremen Town Musicians," and "Little Red Riding Hood" repeat many of the same themes. German peasants led a life often filled with fear and anxiety -- about not having enough to eat, about children being abandoned in the woods, about being abandoned in their old age, about the dangers of the woods and of robbers in the woods, about being exploited and annoyed by their stepmothers. Many of these fears were justified: famine often stalked the land, parents sometimes did abandon their children in times of want; stepmothers were common since mothers often died in childbirth and fathers immediately sought a second wife (herself sometimes widowed and with her own children); the woods were full of danger such as wolves and robbers; young girls became in principle unmarriageable if they lost their virginity or became pregnant out of wedlock. Poor people had to be resourceful and use their wits in times of diversity, as did Hansel and Gretel and all the animal musicians. The folk tales were not usually Christian, but seemed to hark back to a prior pagan culture. They took the existence of supernatural forces such as evil witches, plucky little ducks, and fairy godmothers quite literally, although "Bremen Musicians" seems skeptical about spooks and ghosts. The happy endings were sometimes tacked on by the editors for the sake of their middle class audience. They were usually quite serious in tone, although some like "Bremen Town Musicians" were light and humorous.
4/21/03 -- Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales are perhaps similar, but they are more polished from a literary point of view; they are heavily oriented toward a liberal middle class audience (Andersen wanted to be a successful author); and they often reflect the culture and society of Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. Some of the stories contain magic (inanimate objects coming to life; animals acting and speaking like humans) and some do not. The Emperor's New Clothes, one of the author's most famous stories, tells a moral tale about the importance of honesty and independence; people should not be tyrannized by public opinion, but should follow the lead of children and be open and honest. The Steadfast Tin Soldier has a lot of sentimentality (when the soldier is melted down at the end, his lead takes the form of a heart!). It teaches duty (be strong, brave, persevering and true to your calling) and the nobility of true love (the soldier's love for the ballerina is very romantic). It also tells us to take heart and be true even if you are different or physically deformed (one leg). They story has obvious autobio-graphical elements. This is even more true for The Ugly Duckling, where the odd duck/man out's discovery of his true nature -- swanness -- at the end seems to represent Andersen's own satisfaction at having his artistic talent discovered and appreciated. The story seems also to represent liberal middle-class values of the importance of diversity and the dignity of the individual amidst conformist pressures. How many children, how many stunted poor people like Andersen, were mocked by school bullies or an unimaginative reading public! The artist never seems to fit into society (he can't meow like the cat or act like the chicken), but his beauty will eventually be discovered. His descriptions of (Danish) nature are quite beautiful and picturesque. This story seems closely related to the cultural and social milieu of the 19th century, particularly of a conformist and homogeneous Scandinavia, and it seems less mythic than the Steadfast Tin Soldier!
4/23/03 -- Russia in the early 19th century was just recovering from the shock of the Napoleonic experience; the French invasion of Russia had been disastrously repulsed in 1812. Especially after the accession of Nicholas II to the throne and the defeat of the liberal Decembrist Rebellion of 1825, Russia was under a dictatorial, autocratic regime where public expression was very limited and political decisions were taken autocratically by the tsar. Russia was an overwhelmingly rural economy with the great majority of the population being serfs (a servile status between slavery and free wage labor) who tilled the fields for a rather small gentry class, who make up the majority of the characters in Eugene Onegin. The gentry were much influenced by European society and culture. They tended to speak, or at least write, French better than Russian; the author says as much about Tatyana. They were generally well educated, and the more enterprising spent a lot of time in western and central Europe. Writers such as Pushkin had read and absorbed great Romantic writers, particularly Byron and his cult of the disillusioned Romantic hero. Russian writers were beginning to debate whether Russia's destiny was modernization and the imitation of liberal western civilization, or whether Russia was fundamentally different from the West and should thus set out on a distinct path.
Eugene Oneginis a novel in verse. The "Onegin verse" is complex, reminding one perhaps of the verse of Dante's "Divine Comedy." The text focuses on telling the story of Eugene, Lensky and Tatyana, but the author/narrator has many asides about subjects that interest him -- Russian literature in the early 19th century, Russian society, the difficulty Russians have writing proper Russian, etc. The tone is often playful, light and satirical (the influence of Byron's Don Juan). Descriptions of nature are however ecstatically beautiful. The author focuses especially on winter scenes, which invariably come across as picturesquely cold, horse-drawn sleighs coursing with ringing bells across the countryside, and from warm interiors watching beautiful icicles form on the outside of window panes. The other seasons don't get nearly as much attention.
4/28/03 --Eugene Onegin is a story of twice-lost love. Fate rules the major events in our life; we have only limited influence over our own destinies. Once the opportunity is past, there is nothing you can do to retrieve it; once Eugene has rejected Tatyana, events march forward and there will be no turning back.
Eugene is a good example of the alienated Romantic anti-hero; he doesn't fit into the world; he is not satisfied or happy; he has nothing particular to live for; he doesn't believe that he is capable of love. His turnaround in the last book is rather moving; for mysterious reasons, he does fall in love; he is rejected by Tatyana, but in a sense he is "saved" since he has been able to love. Lensky is more mainstream "romantic:" he is highly idealistic, and is firmly convinced that Olga is the most beautiful and noblest girl in the world, the one woman for who he is destined.
The duel is a curious incident that pits the two close friends against one another in a fight to the death. Lensky's emotional character and Eugene's alienation help explain why the duel even takes place. The author is very critical of the waste of a beautiful life brought on by battling over honor.
Tatyana is a much beloved character in Russian literature. Her instinctive nature, her openness to and love for nature, her immersion in potboiler Romantic books, prepare her for falling hard for Eugene. Instead of pining away, "dying of a broken heart," when she is rejected, she reluctantly makes a respectable marriage and becomes one of the grandes dames of Moscow society. She rejects Eugene's offer at the end because she has decided to be virtuous and to accept her given position in society.
The style of the novel is a mix of the realist and the Romantic; it tends to become more realistic toward the end. Avoiding the temptation to have a "Romantic" ending (either marrying and living happily ever after, or dying tragically of a broken heart) renders the resolution of the novel more moving and poetic.
4/30/03 -- The narrator of the novel is a full character in himself. He is very opinionated -- although he rails against "asides" in novels and poems, he constantly interjects his opinions on subjects such as Russian writers, marriage and love (good for the young; the old get fat, happy, lazy and bored), dueling and affairs of honor, etc. He seems to be similar to Eugene, except that he is older, wiser and more cynical (is that possible?). He also has more of a sense of humor than Eugene. And he seems to have been subject to great romantic passions, something that Eugene has generally avoided.
European History in the 19th Century -- This is a time of rapid change. The main motor is industrialization, proceed rapidly already by the beginning of the century. Industrialization leads to rapid urbanization: by the end of the century, probably three times as many people are living in the cities compared to a hundred years before. The urban working classes grow rapidly, as do the middle classes. The main patrons of the arts in this century are the middle classes, who adopt many of their social and cultural attitudes from the aristocracy, and go to museums and concerts with solemn regularity. Most of the literature of the late 19th century was written with the (professional and upper) middle classes in mind; the middle classes dominate the characters in the novels of Theodor Fontane; they buy canvasses from the Impressionist artists; they dance to the waltzes of Johann Strauss.
Nationalism is also a major trend. Nationalists want their "nation" (people, Volk) to thrive; this always means having a nation state to represent the nation; a nation can only have power through a state. By mid-century some nations already had states (Britain, France, Russia); some were still waiting (Italy, Germany and the constituent peoples of the Austrian Empire). Germany, composed of 38 different semi-sovereign states in 1850, was brought into a single nation state by Otto von Bismarck's manipulation of the power of the Prussian state and the Prussian Army. Germany after unification (Bismarck remained Chancellor of Germany until 1890) was prosperous, rapidly industrializing, very powerful, and increasingly nationalistic. Effi Briest was written by Fontane after the fall of Bismarck; but the action of the novel takes place in the 1880s when the Iron Chancellor was still in power. Fontane will be critical of aristocratic and middle class culture in his novel -- careerism, the habit of marrying young women early, the cult of honor and the duel among Prussian Junkers, etc.
5/2/03 -- The Romantic traditions lasted much longer in music than it did in the other arts. Whereas Romantic painting and literature were already under attack by 1850, the Romantic musical style lasted until the end of the 19th century, and late Romantic composer like Rachmaninoff were still composing until almost the middle of the 20th century.
"Danse macabre" by Camille Saint-Saëns is a program piece (telling a story or painting a picture) written when the composer was relatively young. It picks up on popular gothic or macabre subjects, in this case spooks and goblins that dance and cavort in a large empty hall during the night. Orchestration is bright, brilliant, colorful; all the color potential of the Romantic orchestra seems to be exploited -- xylophones (bones dancing), cymbals (exotic, brilliant effect), triangles, shrill piccolos, etc. There is one rather solemn fugato passage, and a fair amount of humor. A single violin playing in the low register has several solo passages, most notably the introductory passage of the violin playing out of tune to summon the spirits to the party. The piece ends with the oboe announcing the dawn by mimicking the call of the rooster; the spirits then scurry off.
Bedrich Smetana's "The Moldau" is one of the best tone poems (program music) of the 19th century. Smetana was trained in Germany but wanted to write music reflecting the traditions and beauty of his own country, Bohemia (inhabited by Czechs). "The Moldau" depicts the flow of the great Czech river from its origins in the mountains (two streams coming together) until its triumphant entry into Prague under the famous historic fortress of Vysehrad. We are constantly reminded of the river by the recurrence of the lyrical main theme (standing for the Moldau). As we "float" down the river, we are treated to several traditional scenes on either side -- peasants dancing (of course), hunters blowing their hunting horns, the St. John's Rapids, etc. The music is reminiscent of Saint-Saëns -- bright, colorful, the whole weight of the large Romantic orchestra brought to bear; Smetana has perhaps more lyrical moments than Saint-Saëns. He is also different from the French composer in his inclusion of fokloric themes and rhythms.
5/5/03 – The waltzes of the Strauss family, popular in Vienna (Austria) at mid-century, shows popular music at it most elegant. Johann Strauss II (the Waltz King), was the most accomplished and poetic of the family. Middle class and upper class families, imbued with the musical traditions of Austria, flocked to the balls and concerts at which the Strauss waltzes were performed. “Tales from the Vienna Woods” is one of the most beautiful and poetic of Johann Strauss’ waltzes. Its introduction paints a nostalgic picture of a walk (?), picnic (?), in the woods outside Vienna. The zither is the featured instrument. The waltz section is a series of about nine waltz tunes played one after the other with little embellishment or developmental complications. The piece finishes with a short coda again featuring the zither as a solo instrument. The instrumentation is light, colorful, delicate, lilting; the rhythm is the classic ‘oom-pa-pa’ of the waltz; the mood is nostalgic, sensual, yearning – where have gone the days of wine and roses?
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony #4 in F Minor” marks the class’ return to ‘serious’ music. This, the first of the composer’s three great symphonies, is cast in the usual four movements. The first movement announces the “motto” theme, establishing the composer’s idea of a cruel fate causing suffering in the artist. The famous fourth movement has a furious forward momentum established in the energetic sequences of the first theme. The orchestration is brilliant, brassy and noisy, with offbeat timpani rhythms. The main theme evokes the charge of the Cossack cavalry! The movement mixes the main theme with military marches, and two longish sections featuring variations of the second theme. Toward the end the motto theme is briefly sounded in the brass recalling the (painful) life of the artist. The movement ends in a furious build-up to a final blast. Tchaikovsky helped establish the character of Russian orchestral music – folkloric (using folk themes), brilliantly colorful, nationalist, melancholy, suffering.
5/7/03 -- Sergei Rachmaninoff (d. 1943) was the last of the great Russian Romantics; surviving until the mid-20th century, 'politically correct' critics and modernist composers considered him a throwback to an earlier age. The Piano Concerto #2 in D minor is one of his early masterpieces. The piano concerto resembles the symphony, but includes a contrasting relationship between the orchestra and the solo piano. The first movement in written in the sonata allegro form. The development section is quite short. It opens with the famous somber chords in the solo piano and then moves into the equally somber and expressive first theme stated by low strings in the orchestra. Rachmaninoff is a very melody-oriented composer -- statement of melodies in this concerto is usually long and drawn out. A great deal of the expressive weight of the piece depends on the content of the melodies (both the somber first one and the soaring, rather ecstatic second one). Rachmaninoff's music is deeply expressive and emotional; no other composer makes such a direct pitch to the listener's feelings.
5/7/03 and continuing for part of every class until the end of the semester -- The first part of Theodor Fontane's Effi Briestcharacterizes Effi just before her marriage and her family life, particularly her relationship with her mother. The reader is advised to be attentive to the issues lurking and developing just below the seemingly simple, realistic and straightforward surface of the narrative. What, for example, were the motives of Frau Briest and Innstetten in pressuring the 17-year-old Effi to marry the 37-year-old Instetten? The trip to Italy already hints that Effi is not satisfied in her marriage (she reports to her mother she is tired because they spend most of the time walking through art galleries!). The newlywed couple then settles in the Pomeranian city of Kessin (fictional name), where Effi tries to get used to a very provincial and dull life compared to her childhood near the big city. She is lonely and relatively isolated. She is also anxious as she encounters rather bizarre reminiscences of her house's past -- footsteps upstairs, stuffed sharks and crocodiles (?), stories of the mysterious Chinaman, etc. Effi is at heart a child who needs entertainment and activity, and there is very little of that in provincial, snobby Kessin. The local aristocracy holds itself aloof and looks upon her with some suspicion. She enjoys spending time with the druggist Gieshübler, who treats her with gay deference. Her best friends are her dog Rollo and her maid Roswitha, a good-hearted Catholic girl who establishes a close relationship with Effi despite their differences in religion and social class. Innstetten's behavior is aloof and ambiguous. He is friendly enough with Effi, but there is something of the "pedagogue" about him -- he seems to want to dominate and control her: e.g., rather than reassure Effi about her "spooky" experiences, he seems to promote them; always an ironic smile or remark when Effi reports something disturbing; he is not very affectionate, nor does he seem to be very good in bed. Effi has a baby (the reader has to pay very close attention to find out what is going on!), but little Annie is only a temporary relief from her boredom. Effi is subsequently seduced by the shallow Crampas, but her heart never seems much involved; the affair comes from unconscious forces and seems more of an escape than an affair of the heart. Afterwards, she and Innstetten move to Berlin, where they live an uneventful life for about seven years until Innstetten inadvertently discovers Effi's past affair. In a long conversation with a friend, Innstetten shows that he is a decent person, but he is so bound by the code of honor of his (Junker) class that he thinks he must challenge Crampas for an action that happened a long time ago! He kills Crampas in a duel, divorces Effi, and takes Annie for himself. Effi lives alone and lonely until her health begins to fail; even her visits with her daughter are of no comfort. Her parents finally take her back to Hohen-Cremmen. She lives only a short time further, spending most of the time in her garden amid the heliotropes and in the company of her dog -- she is a child of nature. She dies, and the novel ends with light-hearted regret from Herr and Frau Briest ("Ah, Luise, don't go on... That is too big a subject!") The author clearly empathizes with Effi ("Poor Effi!") in the last part of the novel.
Particular themes. 1) Women's issues in the novel; students should focus on institutions of middle-class Prussia affecting women -- Effi marries early, lack of sexual experience, dependence on one's husband, the double standard, one-sidedness of divorces laws, etc. 2) Sources of Effi's infidelity -- Effi's nature as a young girl (childish, but sexual glimmers?), Innstetten's character (not a bad man, but...), Effi's spookiness and loneliness in Kessin (promoted by Innstetten?), Effi's feelings about her mother and father, the closed nature of Kessin society, etc. 3) Critique of Prussian society -- women's issues covered above, the cult of honor among the Junkers, the class structure (where are the decent people?), how impersonal social and cultural values crush individuals with barely a hint of regret. 4) The novel as realist -- the supposedly impassive and objective surface of the novel that reports the actions, words and writings of the characters without commentary, but actually below that surface is a great deal that is mysterious and challenging. What were the "sexual politics" of the first scene where Effi's mother is pressuring Effi to marry Innstetten? What was the meaning of the mysterious symbols in Kessin (Chinaman, stuffed shark, etc.) before Effi's infidelity? Does the author abandon his objective stance in the very last part of the novel?
5/9/03 -- The Neo-Romantic Impulse in European painting from 1860 to 1914. Although the Romantic Period proper is long past, romantic elements remain strong in certain painters in this very dynamic period. Not all painters are affected by the Romantic impulse, but many are.
5/12/03 -- Gustave Courbet called himself a realist painter; he consciously broke with the Romantic school of Delacroix. He sought to be realist in two main ways: 1) paint so that the objects depicted appear to have full weight, shape and texture to the viewer; 2) paint subjects that appear in everyday life, including common people, dogs, different classes of people, etc. His "Burial at Ornans" depicts the population of the village in a basically objective way.
The Impressionist were interested essentially not in the physical object in front of them, but in the impressions made by light, shadow, and color on the painter's eye; it is an art of perception. Claude Monet, the quintessential impressionist, recorded the visual effects of the rising sun shining through fog and reflected on the water, in his "Impression: Sunrise." August Renoir also passed through an impressionist period, but even "Moulin de la Galette" seems as interested in a social scene with attractive young people as in effects of light and shadow. He focuses more on solid objects and the depiction of beautiful young women in later paintings such as "Jeunes filles au piano."
Vincent Van Gogh might be best described as a "visionary expressionist." (An expressionist distorts visually recognizable subject matter in order to communicate his feelings or ideas about the subject to the viewer.) He uses bright colors and his famous wormlike brush strokes to impart the intensity of his vision. His "Starry Night," probably his most famous painting, paints an agitated night sky overlooking a sleeping, unsuspecting French village. The painting conveys an intense, convulsive visionary experience, perhaps painful, perhaps ecstatic.
5/14/03 -- Pessimist expressionists abounded in Germany and Scandinavian countries in this period. They gave voice to those disillusioned with the large cities and impersonal life of the modern world. This was also the beginning of the Age of Freud -- our unconscious is (secretly) filled with fears and anxieties originating mostly from sex. Edvard Munch (Norway) expressed a kind of morbid fascination with death, sex, and a fear of women. His expressionistically distorted landscapes (dark and featureless) and faces (blank, few features, skull-like appearance) convey his pessimistic interpretation of modern life. His famous "The Scream" conveys the anguish of many modern artists in the years before World War I. Ernst Kirchner, a member of 'The Bridge' group of painters, was a pessimist German Expressionist artist painting in the last 15 years before the outbreak of war. Rather than the personal anguish of Munch, he focused often on social and political criticism, as in his "Two Women in the Street," which with its garish colors, unattractive angular faces and wedge-like volumes, paints a damning picture of the rich in this era. Kirchner, who hated the army, was killed in World War I in 1916.
5/16/03 -- Some Expressionist artists, however, were optimistic, even joyful; taking their colors, if not their vision, from Van Gogh. Franz Marc (Germany), one of the principal artists of 'The Blue Rider,' painted brilliantly hued animal pictures until his death in 1916. They expressed his pleasure in viewing the beauty of nature, and in particular of animals; they used a symbolic color scheme, perhaps known only to the artist; they included varying degrees of abstraction; their tenor was optimistic and enjoying the beauty of art and the natural world. Wassily Kandinsky (Russo-German), also a member of the Blue Rider, painted with Marc for a while, but then broke off to produce very influential abstract expressionist pieces before the first world war. He said that he got the idea to paint abstractions the day he viewed one of his paintings upside down and liked what he saw. He reported that he painted from an unconscious part of his psyche, "automatically." His prewar paintings were very colorful and energetic, and usually contained some recognizable visual objects lost in the jumble of activity.
Henri Matisse, the foremost member of the "Fauves" in France before 1910, reported that he was an expressionist -- all the shapes and colors in his paintings (not necessarily the visual object) expressed his vision. He generally, however, restricted himself to pleasant and pleasurable subject matter, consciously striving to exclude the disturbing and depressing from his art. His "Green Stripe" distorted the face of his wife, Mme. Matisse, presumably for an expressive purpose. His monumental "Joy of Life" is based on classical arcadian themes (nymphs dancing in the fields, Pan playing his pipes, etc.);
he has little regard for atmospheric modeling (shadowing), and little for linear perspective (creating am illusion of depth of field); the rhythm of the objects and the soft, complementary colors of the canvas express his pleasure, joy, in confronting the meaning of life! And thus we end the course on an upbeat note!
Source : http://www.csus.edu/indiv/c/craftg/HRS135/Summary%20II.doc
Web site link: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/c/craftg/HRS135/overview.htm
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