Romantic Era Themes & Industrial Revolution

Themes of the Romantic Era (MEAN NURSE)

• M: Macabre - Focus on the disturbing and gruesome aspects of life and death.
• E: Emotional - Emphasis on strong feelings and personal experiences.
• A: Artistic Synthesis - Integration of different art forms within a single work.
• N: Nature - Appreciation and idealization of the natural world.
• N: Nostalgia - Longing for the past, often with a wistful or sentimental view.
• U: Uniqueness of Individual - Celebration of individual differences and perspectives.
• R: Revolution - Interest in political and social change and upheaval.
• S: Supernatural - Exploration of unexplained phenomena and forces outside scientific understanding.
• E: Exoticism - Fascination with foreign lands, cultures, and origins.
• Escapism: "Anywhere but here, anytime but now" reflects a desire to escape from current realities.

Industrial Revolution

• Occurred in England from 1780-1830 and spread to the Continent from 1830-1900.
• Marked a period of significant industrial change leading into the modern era.
• England possessed key resources like coal, cotton, and iron, but lacked in others, leading to intensive labor.
• Coal and iron required substantial heat sources for production and use.
• London served as a major trade center with the Thames River facilitating transport.
• England maintained internal stability unlike other European nations undergoing revolutions, as it was not impacted by wars.
• England's constitutional monarchy and Parliament were increasingly aligned with the merchant middle class's interests.
• England aimed to protect its industrial advances by restricting the sharing of trade secrets.
• The Spinning Jenny automated wool weaving, achieving the labor output of 40 people with just one person.
• The power loom automated knitting to quickly produce cloth.
• The steam engine allowed factories to be located anywhere due to its portable power source.
• The Great Stink of 1850 was caused by the Thames River's sewage exposure during hot weather, forcing Parliament to relocate.
• Liberalism advocated for limited government intervention, private property rights, and individual freedoms.
• Luddites protested job losses by destroying textile machinery in factories.
• Trade unions were formed by workers to collectively negotiate with employers.
• Chartism in England sought salaried members of Parliament for better worker representation.

"Industrial Revolution" by Friedrich Engels (1844)

• Engels characterized Manchester's working-class conditions as overcrowded, filthy, and unsafe, lacking fresh air and proper sanitation.
• The middle class lived in clean, well-maintained neighborhoods, separate from the harsh conditions faced by workers.
• These conditions resulted from rapid, unplanned factory growth, leading to overcrowding and poorly constructed housing.
• Factory owners prioritized profits over worker well-being, resulting in substandard housing and neglect.
• Lack of regulation in housing, sanitation, and city planning further contributed to poor living conditions.
• Engels's account is based on personal experience and may be exaggerated to emphasize the consequences of industrial capitalism.
• His motivation was to expose the consequences of capitalism and advocate for social reform and equality.

"Self Help" by Samuel Smiles (1859)

• Smiles argued that self-help is essential for personal and national progress, fostering strength and independence.
• He believed that government intervention could be unreliable and that personal improvement, self-discipline, and perseverance lead to success.
• Smiles emphasized the importance of character development over technical skills or material wealth.
• This analysis appealed to the middle class because it resonated with their values of individual effort, self-reliance, and hard work.
• Engels would likely critique Smiles's oversimplification of the challenges faced by workers, ignoring structural inequalities and exploitation.
• Ultimately, that self-help diverts attention from systemic issues.

"The Communist Manifesto" (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

• Communists advocate for abolishing bourgeois property, aiming for a classless society with collective ownership and control.
• Their main objective is to end worker exploitation by the capitalist class.
• They envision international solidarity among workers with shared interests and goals.
• Communists are the vanguard of the working-class struggle.
• Historical movement refers to class struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie that will lead to communism.
• Capitalism replaced feudalism, with the bourgeoisie exploiting the proletariat, but the working class will overthrow capitalism, resulting in a classless society.
• The appeal of communist ideas primarily lies with the proletariat, intellectuals, revolutionaries, and those seeking social justice.

Early 19th Century Revolutions

• Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo led to the Congress of Vienna, where European leaders addressed the aftermath of the Napoleonic era.
• The Congress of Vienna aimed to prevent future revolutions and maintain stability.
• The Concert of Europe used the principle of intervention to suppress radical movements and limit access to knowledge.
• Internal suppression targeted the press, education, and secret societies.
• Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister, embodied conservative principles.
• Conservatism supported monarchy, organized religion, and traditional hierarchies.
• Nationalism promoted pride in one's country and a sense of collective identity.
• Liberalism emphasized freedom from restraint and limited government control.
• Louis XVIII established a new national assembly (Chamber of Deputies) while maintaining post-Revolution ideals.
• Charles X (ultra-royalist, absolute government, censorship, brings France back to pre-French Revolution culture) aimed to restore pre-Revolution France.
• The July Revolution (1830), response to the July Ordinances to dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, suspended freedom of the press, restricted the electorate, and allowed him to rule by decree, resulted in Charles X's exile to Austria.
• Louis-Philippe (1830-1848), new king known as the "king of the bourgeoisie," based his rule on the support of the upper bourgeoisie, fell from power because he could not win the allegiance of the new industrial classes.
• The Revolutions of 1848, triggered by economic downturn, spread across Europe but were ultimately suppressed, restoring monarchies.

"Secret Memorandum to Tsar Alexander I, 1820: Conservative Principles" by Prince Klemens von Metternich

• Metternich perceived threats such as the potential collapse of monarchy and the erosion of traditional authority due to revolutionary movements.
• He was concerned about the erosion of religion, morality, and customs that maintain societal order.
• Metternich noted the growing power of the middle class that wanted to diminish the roles of monarchs along with the influence of the press spreading radical ideas.
• He feared society would fall apart as individuals prioritized personal belief over collective stability.
• "The Presumptuous Man" refers to someone who disregards tradition and historical wisdom in favor of personal judgment.
• Metternich critiqued dangerous forms of individualism and revolutionary thinking.
• This document reflects fears of revolution and the turmoil caused by radical changes during the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods.
• This also reflects political and social tension between monarchs, revolutionary forces, and the rising middle class and a reaction to Napoleon’s reforms → weakened aristocratic power.

Carlsbad Resolutions (1814)

• The purpose of these decrees was to suppress revolutionary and liberal ideas that threatened traditional governments.
• The reflects conservatism by focusing on keeping things the way they were, maintaining order, and resisting change.
• The decrees restricted free speech in schools, newspapers, and public life.
• Strict government control was imposed over education and the press and were upheld as a result.
• Teachers/students were closely monitored, student groups and secret societies were outlawed, and newspapers needed approval before publishing.
• A special investigation team was created to shut down revolutionary groups.
• Any state permitting rebellious writings faced punishment by the German Confederation.
• The decrees are connected to Metternich's memorandum, both stemming from a fear of revolution and the spread of liberal ideas.

Themes of Romantic Era Art

• Shift from reason to emotion and expression.
• Reaction against Enlightenment rationalism and Neoclassicism.
• Freedom of thought, emotion, and imagination over reason.
• Influence of Rousseau's "Man is born free, but everywhere is in chains".
• Movement originated around 1750-1800, flourishing between 1800-1840.
• Focused on the medieval period and the sublime, specifically Spain and France.
• Edmund Burke (1729-1797) explored the sublime as a mix of awe and terror.
• Artists like Francisco Goya, Eugene Delacroix, and Theodore Gericault delved into erotic, exotic, and fantastical themes.

Henry Fuseli - "The Nightmare"

• Oil on canvas, 1781
• Depicts sleeping woman and demonic incubus
• Exhibits interest in horror, dreams, and the subconscious
• Features a ghostly horse with glowing eyes
• Artist one of first to engage with philosophy of human subconscious
• Supernatural influence

William Blake

• Merged Neoclassical and Romantic styles
• Prioritized imagination over rationalist thought
• "Ancient of Days" (1794): Metal relief etching showing God as creator
• Blends classical anatomy and Gothic influence

Francisco Goya (1746-1828)

• Madrid, Spain
• Rejected Neoclassicism, emphasizing emotion and imagination
• Darker themes
• Court painter for Charles IV
• "Disasters of War" (1810-1814): Etching and aquatint series depicting famine, war, and bodily harm
• "Great Courage! Against Corpses! and "This Is What You Were Born For"
  • Uses lack of color and negative space
  • Brutality conveyed through line
  • Realistic depictions of bodies
  • Macabre (unsettling dismemberment) and unsettling
• Published 50 years after creation
• Intended for prints, allowing for wider distribution than paintings

"The Third of May" (1808)

• Depicts Napoleon's conquest of Spain and the execution of Spanish rebels; Spain rebels on 5/2, French soldiers round up these freedom fighters
• Commemorates the rebels
• Features orant pose of a central figure, Religious pose, but the piece isn’t religious; portrays him as a political martyr
• Reflects Revolution theme by portraying the revolt of the Spanish against France, dehumanizing their faces
• Commemoration of these rebels

"Saturn Devouring One of His Sons" (1819-1823)

• Mixed media mural transferred to canvas
• Reflects Goya's declining physical and mental health
• Depicts Saturn eating his child to prevent being overthrown
• Done for his own home as part of "The Black Paintings"
• Supernatural influence through a non-realistic figure

"The Family of Charles IV"

• Prado, Madrid
• Royal family shown directly
• Pushing boundaries, allowed by royal family
• Reminiscent of Velazquez, but during a time of crisis in Spain
• Sense of informality and nostalgia for period of stability

Theodore Gericault (1791-1824)

• Trained in classical art but adopted dramatic, complex compositions filled with realism, human suffering, and social issues, as mental illness ran in his family
• In contrast to early psychiatry’s rigid classifications, Géricault presents his subjects as deeply human and suffering individuals.
• While researching The Raft of the Medusa, he studied survivors' psychological trauma, which may have influenced his interest in psychiatry.

"Portraits of the Insane"

• Life-size portraits with minimal backgrounds, emphasizing subjects' faces
• Subjects avoid direct eye contact
• Lacks asylum elements
• Contains ten portraits of asylum patients, but only five are left.
• Commissioned by Étienne-Jean Georget, chief doctor at Salpêtrière asylum.
• Subjects showed the psychiatric idea of "monomania".
• The subjects are stoic with intense darkness as their paleness makes them look dead; named by illnesses.
• Portrait of a Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy
  • Theodore Gericault, 1819-1820, oil on canvas
  • There exists tenebrism in the background
  • Intensely focused on sitter’s head
  • Theory is that the way you look is directly correlated to your mental health
  • Dedicated to a doctor working in the asylum

"The Raft of Medusa" (1818-1819)

• Oil on canvas 16 ft by 23 ft.
• The piece highlights survivors that used cannibalism and the situation was a huge scandal, where only 15/130 people survived after 13 days before being rescued.
• Illustrates the survivors waving a flag to get noticed by another ship.
• Contains hypermuscular bodies
• Géricault spent months of research studying survivors, interviewing and visiting morgues.
• The painting is meant to show chaos, horror and suffering.
• Composition features an "X"-shape with bodies piled on top of each other while lighting and dark shadows are implemented to add to the ominous effect.
• He features a black man waving a flag for rescue, symbolizing survival and Géricault’s anti-slavery stance.

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)

• Paris, France
• Significant figure in Romanticism, known for color usage
• Believed art should provoke imagination and emotion, trusting your heart over your head
• Painted dramatic historical and literary scenes

"Liberty Leading the People"

• A depiction of July Revolutions, with a woman symbolizing freedom; Notre Dame cathedrals are included tying the scene to Paris.
• Reflects Revolution theme by showing the social group.

“Tasso in the Madhouse”

• 1839, oil on canvas
• About Tasso, a poet with violent mental health problems, eventually confined to “madhouse” / asylum
• Not meant to be in that space, depicted differently from the figures in the background

"Death of Sardanapalus"

• 1827, oil on canvas
• Sardanapalus = Ashurbanipal
• Sardanapalus watches his treasures/women destroyed
• Full of movement, bright colors, violent action
• The piece is full of movement, bright colors, and violent action and is not meant to be invitational with perspective of outsiders looking in and inaccurate portrayal of Ashurbanipal, not how he actually was as a leader

“La Grande Odalisque”

• Objects from different cultures and contexts
• Depicted as a form of a sex worker
• Compares to “Venus of Urbino”

Romantic Landscape Painting

• Expressed personal thoughts and emotions
• Combined naturalistic with emotional and symbolic undertones
• Key themes = emotion, sublime, melancholy, human struggle against nature

John Constable (1776–1837)

• The Hay Wain (1821):
  • An affectionate view of English countryside life with a simple cart, cottage, and river.
  • Natural composition of quintessentially English scene.
  • Soft light and color showing post-rain effect.
  • Inspired by 17th Dutch landscape painters.

Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)

• Romantic philosophy: painting from inner vision, not just visual observation, reflected spiritual/emotional depth
• Abbey in the Oak Forest (1809–10):
  • The piece depicts a funeral profession passing Gothic ruins.
  • The bare oak branches connect with decay of structure as a dark, somber sky adds to the melancholic mood.
  • His themes shown are death, transience as well as the sublime
  • The emotional contrast to the scene gives it impact

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851)

• The Slave Ship (1840):
  • A fiery, chaotic sunset overpowers the scene
  • Depicts ship heading into storm while slaves are thrown overboard to lighten the load.
  • The piece showed political commentary of the brutality of the slave trade with vivid colors/loose brushwork promoting urgency/anxiety
  • It highlighted the struggle between humans/overwhelming nature while representing a shift towards sensational/emotionally charged themes.

Beethoven

• Span: bridge between Classical and Romantic periods
• Impact on Artist image:
  • eccentric, rebellious loners
  • disregard for appearance/social norms
  • Model for Romantic artist; reflected struggles in music writing
• Greatest artist of his age by 1840; funeral in Vienna had over 20k people in attendance where he wrote symphonies, quartets and sonatas.
• Reflected extremes of tenderness/violence and sense of struggle and victory

Musical Development of Beethoven

• Early Period: similar to Haydn/Mozart
• Middle Period: shift to Romanticism, musical expression and powerful rhythm
• Late Period: individual style, marked by complex works

Early Years (1770-1802) in Beethoven's Life

• Born in Bonn; musical family where father tried to exploit talent as a child
• in 1792, he moved to Vienna to study with Haydn.
• Gained recognition for piano technique

Beethoven's Success in Vienna

• Piano playing skills gave him attention from aristocracy
• Had pupils/sold compositions
• Lifetime annuity from noble patrons so he could continue to compose

Connection with Aristocracy

• Rejected role being a servant to aristocracy; focused on composer as a free artist as he felt like he was a genius that speaked to God.

Beethoven's Personal Struggles

• Increased deafness in late 1790’s; affected social life and interactions
• Reliant on inner ear to hear music in his mind

The Heiligenstadt Testament (1802)

• Expressed his despair from hearing loss/suicidal thoughts; a time of personal crisis and vowed to fulfill artistic destiny.
• Beethoven's works reflected the human condition.
• Beethoven's became a symbol of overcoming personal adversity and triumph over struggle

Middle “Heroic” Period for Beethoven (1803-1813)

• Able to compose entire sonatas/symphonies without hearing
• Craved social attention and find romance; worked longer hours
• Symphonies were known for grand gestures, Beethovian swells, forte/double forte amplitude and triumphant moods.
• Symphonies were loud and expanded on classical music; grandiose and heroic style; shifted the direction of future music
• Made simplistic triads to produce complex pieces with increasing volume, as the symphony "Eroica" written for Napoleon
• Later said that Napoleon will trample the rights of all
• Beethoven himself was a revolutionary, not an imperialist
• Symmetry No. 5: used big opening movement with theme and variation, gracefully minuet (trio; string quartet), infussing to be a scherzo (joke); involved subset of orchestra
• Utilization of orchestra to produce full sound (big theme of loud, intense, triumphant pieces
• Extreme dynamic changes with long concert halls and virtuosos

Final Years (1814-1827)

• Entirely lost hearing
• More complex; did not tell the same kind of stories and added chorus to music
• Required interpretation and connection over time; abstract, fragmented and challenging to the listeners

Beethoven Legacy

• Music became more personal, expressive, and emotional
• Pure sound alone can take people on an emotional journey
• Orchestra size was revolutionized and symphony length expanded
• Style and new instruments were also transcended
• pure sound could be an artistic force
• Simplicity was absent (brass, string, piano)

Romantic Era Music (1820-1900)

• Genres are created: Franz Schubert, Clara Wieck Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Herector Beriloz, Peter Tchaikovsky

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

• Beethoven’s successor
• 8 symphonies, quartets, sonatas, chorals and songs
• Aristocracy of the time were gone, replaced my middle-class parlors; Schubert excelled in here (intimate and emotional music; 600 art songs)
• The piece "Elf King" highlights supernatural/macabre (theme of Romantic period; "through-composed" form)

Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)

• Child prodigy
• Did art song and chamber pieces

"If You Love For Beauty"

• (1841) highlights the Romantic theme of being loved through beauty, youth and money

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

• Vienna teenage debut
• Needed performance genres for new generation
• Met Aurore Dupin, who wrote many Romantic-era novels
• Only wrote pieces for and about the piano
• Wrote around 3 piano sonatas, 24 preludes and etudes
• Did Nocturnes

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

• In opposition to program music he composed absolute music

Hector Beriloz (1803-1894)

• France upbringing and studied science, ancient literature
• Music critic due to lack of upbringing
• Experimented with 400 members in one orchestra
• Wrote "Great Treatise on Modern Instrumentation Orchestration" (1843)
• Radical music in Romantic era; read program as performance
• "Symphonie fantastique" with novel effects, new instruments, melodies in differing keys

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

• 1812 overture, piano concerto, Nutcracker, etc
• Storyteller; melodies captivated audiences and dramatically sweeping attention
• His music (ballet and program) was created under patronage of Tsat Alexander II

Genres Created

• Art song: elevated from popular music; solo with piano
• Nocturnes: "Night-piece"; slow with piano; the Italian nocturne (arias without words)
• Program Music: instrumental that recreates emotions of extramusical events (stories); for orchestras/symphonies
  • 3 Types: Dramatic Overture Tone Poem, Program Symphony
• Absolute Music: Music itself; symphonies/sonatas
• Ballet Music: Dance storytelling with melodies

Explore the themes of the Romantic Era, including the macabre, emotional intensity, and appreciation of nature. Also, delve into the Industrial Revolution, its origins in England, and its spread across the continent, marking a period of significant transformation.