Free Download Romantic Music
Anthonasty Veloz
I've been recently listening to some late Romantic Russian music (Lyapunov, Kalinnikov, Tchaikovsky, etc.) and was wondering how best to mimic this style. So far, I've observed a handful of shared tendencies, such as a propensity for stepwise melodies which change direction several times throughout their duration to produce an almost "winding" feel (Kalinnikov does this a lot in particular). Non-diatonic scales are prominent within Russian melodies of this period (such as the oboe solo at the start of Kalinnikov Symphony 1, Movement 2; I still have yet to identify the specific scale here). Obviously, whole-tone and octatonic scales are prominent.
The Russians of this period also seem to place a large focus on melody, which makes sense given the push to develop a unique style of music with folk songs as the principal inspiration. Unlike a lot of Romantic music, I rarely notice periods in Russian Romantic pieces that lack an identifiable melody. Over the course of a given piece, these melodies will remain largely stagnant, with minimal development, though certain composers (Tchaikovsky especially, though you could argue about the extent to which he could even be classified with the other Russians of the period) definitely depart from this tendency. The emphasis on counterpoint seems less strong than in the remainder of Europe, but one could, again, dispute the extent to which this was universal.
Another component that particularly stuck out to me was the emphasis on low voices. One could speculate about why this became a fixture of Russian music. My first instinct was to attribute it to the relatively recent addition of extremely low voices to the orchestra; while the rest of Europe had ingrained tendencies to give melodies to upper voices and had more experience doing so, Russians, getting seriously into orchestral composition for the first time, weren't burdened with this orthodoxy to nearly the same extent. Conversely, one could attribute the proclivity to write for low voices to traditional features of Russian singing, which placed greater emphasis on low voices (e.g. basso profundo) than the rest of Europe. I remember reading a linguistic paper which posited that features of the Russian language made speakers more inclined to speak in low registers and thereby develop that register, though the data it cited to corroborate the claim that Russians spoke in deeper voices to begin with is heavily disputed. Regardless, it's interesting as a potential explanation.
In terms of harmony, I'm not entirely sure what to make of Russian music. The basis in folk songs would make me inclined to think that Russian harmonies would remain relatively simple (largely tonics and dominants), but, from the limited number of pieces I've analyzed, harmonies seem far more complex than I'd initially anticipated. There is definitely a tendency for modulation, though.
Anyway, this is based exclusively on an beginner's analysis of only a handful of Russian pieces. I'd definitely like to hear what some more experienced theoreticians have to say. In terms of melody, counterpoint, harmony, development, structure, orchestration, etc., what features make late Russian Romantic music unique? How can I write a characteristically Russian-sounding melody?
One thing you might consider too is that some of these things you are discussing, the expanding register of the orchestra, the use of folk music, the application of Germanic modulation techniques to generate form, these are all aspects of Romantic music in general and not necessarily strictly a Russian phenomenon.
Heather Hall is a weddings, fashion, and lifestyle writer and editor. Her career in weddings began at The Knot, where she worked as a bridal fashion editor. She then worked as a PR Manager at Amsale, a bridal design house, before starting her own events and digital marketing business. She has been featured on Today.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, Racked.com, Huffington Post, Verily Magazine, and Style Me Pretty. Heather loves music, travel, and practicing yoga. In her spare time she's typically researching the next fun workout class to try, or finding a new concert to attend. Her latest goal: become a DJ.
In earlier periods we generally have a couple of composers who are most famous, but in the Romantic period many composers from all over the world found fame for their composition and their fame continues to this day. So I had to split this period of music into two separate playlists; my earlier post covered composers writing between around 1830 and 1900 and this one covering music written around 1900 to 1930. My aim here is to give you some examples of music to listen to from the most famous composers of this period with your children. I have sought out music that I think would be most appealing to children, but with such a busy period inevitably there will be loads of music and composers I have left out. This is just a playlist to wet your whistle really, and if you would be interested in me doing some playlists for particular composers to give you more information about them and their lives and music, let me know and I can plan that into future blog posts. I will be writing about other periods in music history in future weeks and months.
For now, here are some lovely pieces of music from some of the leading late Romantic/Impressionist composers. You can listen to these pieces of music by following the YouTube links in the post below, or by listening to them all together, perhaps over dinner, while doing something else like painting with your children, or as background music while they play. For the majority of the works below, a different artist or group will be performing the piece than the one listed here, and I have tried to include the whole work. Do not feel obliged to listen to the whole work either, it is just there for you if you would like to listen!
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer who was a member of a group of composers known as The Five. The Five worked together to create a nationalistic, Russian style of music in the mid to late 1800s. He often used fairy-tales and folk legends as the inspiration for his music. One of my favourite pieces from this composer is a piece that perfectly captures the way a bumblebee flits and flies about trying to find pollen.
Elgar is a British composer, a lot of whose music has become part of the established repertoire of concert halls across the country, with his Pomp and Circumstance Marches being a part of the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall every year. Whilst he is considered as a very English composer, his musical influences were actually very European. Elgar was one of the first composers to take the invention of the Gramophone seriously, conducting a series of recordings of his works.
Frederick Delius, born Fritz Delius, was born in Bradford, England into a family of merchants. His family encouraged him to enter the family business and as part of this encouragement he was sent to manage an orange plantation in Florida in the USA. This did not last long. However, it was long enough for Delius to have been influenced by the musical style of African-American music. This influence, along with the influence of his contemporary composers, can be heard in his music especially his early compositions.
Bedrich Smetana was a Czech composer, who has been referred to as the Father of Czech music. He had a number of difficulties in his life, however, and by the end of his life he was completely deaf, and had mental health difficulties for which he was placed into an asylum. Although the Father of Czech music, Smetana is probably not the best known Czech composer (that title probably belongs to Dvorak whose music will feature in a later playlist).
Ralph Vaughan-Williams was an English composer born into a wealthy family. He strongly felt that music could and should be available to anyone. He wrote many pieces of music for amateur and student performers.
Edit: I'm not sure how to define a Romantic piece of music, but I guess I've always assumed it was just expressing something directly, either that by itself or by departing established form.
By the way you're framing the question, it looks like you're assuming "expression of a topic" is the leading impetus of the Romantic movement. It was certainly part of it, but the Romantic was so much more than that: it dealt with individuality/autobiography, a oneness with Nature, expression of the mystic/religious/supernatural, bucking conventional musical trends, nationalism, etc.
Just because the four seasons can be summarized as program music, i.e. containing some extra-musical narrative (found in many eras), is simply not enough, to qualify. There are some composers, which are somewhat on the boundary between two eras, but Vivaldi is none of them.
And on the basis of the music, rather than the text annotations, you could make an argument that Byrd's "Battel" (and another Byrd piece, "The Bells") invented minimalism 350 years before Glass and Reich rediscovered it!
'The Seasons' uses just one device that is often associated with Romantic music - a program. Hardly the most prominent feature of Romantic music - we could argue all day over what IS, of course - or one that is exclusive to Romantic music. And an 'era' begins when the general style swings in a certain direction, not when one work does.Wagner wrote counterpoint. Does that make him a Baroque composer? Just about everyone up to 1900 (and a whole lot of people since) used functional harmony and featured key relationships. Does that make them all Classical?
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