1. VOCAL MUSIC OF
THE ROMANTIC
PERIOD
Ms. Joana Marie M. Bernasol
Bro. Andrew Gonzalez Technical High School
2. Composers interpret poems, mood, atmosphere and
imagery into music.
Romantic artists found inspiration in landscapes.
Their subjects were traditional myths, legends and
folklore usually dealing with the supernatural,
grotesque, and less ordinary.
Vocal music in this period require singers to perform a
greater range of tone color, dynamics and pitch.
Opera became an important source of musical
expressions.
The birth of the opera houses came.
4. Franz Peter
Schubert
Schubert was born on the 31st of January
1797 in Himmelpfortgrund, Austria
The proper name for Franz Schubert songs
is lieder, which is the German word for
song.
He is considered the last of the classical
composers and one of the first romantic
ones.
His famous vocal music works/ Lieder
were: “Gretchen am Spinnrade”, “Erlkonig”,
“Ellens Gesang III” (“Ave Maria”) and
“Schwanenge sang” (“Swan Song”).
He also wrote piano pieces, string quartets,
operetta and the Symphony No.8 in B
minor (“Unfinished Symphony”)
He died in 1828 in Vienna, Austria at 31.
5. Giuseppe Verdi
Verdi was born in Parma, Italy on October
9, 1813.
He studied in Busseto and later went to
Milan where his first opera “Oberto” was
performed in La Scala, the most
important opera house at the time.
His final opera ends with “All the world’s
a joke.”
His famous works are La Traviata,
Rigoletto, Falstaff, Otello and Aida were
he wrote for the opening of the Suez
Canal.
Expressive vocal melody is the soul of a
Verdi opera.
He died in Milan, Italy on January
27,1901.
6. Giacomo
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini was born in a
poor family on December 22, 1858
in Lucca, Italy.
He studied at the Milan
Conservatory.
He belonged to a group of
composers who stressed realism,
therefore, he drew material from
everyday life, rejecting heroic
themes from mythology and
history.
Puccini’s famous operas were: “La
Boheme”, “Tosca”, “Madame
Butterfly”, and “Turandot”.
7. Wilhelm Richard
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born
in Leipzig, Germany on May 22, 1813.
He was very much inspired by
Ludwig van Beethoven.
Wagner introduced new ideas in
harmony and in form, including
extremes of chromaticism.
He was an advocate of a new form of
opera which he called “music
drama” where musical and dramatic
elements were fused together.
The expressiveness is aided by the
use of “leitmotifs” or musical
sequences standing for a particular
character/plot element.
8. Wilhelm Richard
Wagner
His famous works are; Tristan
and Isolde, Die Walkure, Die
Meistersinger, Tannhauser and
Parsifal.
His work would later influence
modern film scores, including
those of the Harry Potter and
Lord of the Rings film series.
Wagner died of a heart attack on
February 13,1883 at age of 69.
9. Georges Bizet
registered with the legal
name Alexandre-Cesar-
Leopold Bizet, but was
baptized Georges Bizet
He was born October 25, 1838
in Paris, France.
Bizet became famous for his
operas.
His most famous opera is
“Carmen”.
Bizet died (June 3, 1875). He
was only 36.
11. OPERA
■ became increasingly popular during the Romantic
period.
■ It is a story (libretto) told by the composers through
music while using the words of the librettist. They work
closely together to tell the story.
■ The book that the composer and librettist put together is
called a score.
■ The score has all the musical notes, words and ideas to
help the performers tell the story.
13. Components:
the texts of an
opera.
Librettist and the
composer work
closely together to
tell the story.
Libretto
14. Components:
the book that the
composer and librettist
put together.
has all the musical
notes, words and ideas
to help the performers
tell the story.
Often, there are operas
with overtures,
preludes, prologues,
several acts, finales and
postludes.
Score
15. Components:
Declamatory singing, used
in the prose parts and
dialogue of opera.
Different roles in operas
are created taking into
account different types of
voices.
Each role requires a
different type of singer,
not only able to sing a
given vocal range but also
with certain voice
characteristics, color and
power.
Recitative
16. Components:
Declamatory singing, used
in the prose parts and
dialogue of opera.
Different roles in operas
are created taking into
account different types of
voices.
Each role requires a
different type of singer,
not only able to sing a
given vocal range but also
with certain voice
characteristics, color and
power.
Aria
17. Components:
an air or solo singing
part that the public will
remember best when
leaving the opera
house.
Properly and well sung,
a beautiful aria can
bring an audience to its
feet and decide the fate
of an entire opera.
Aria
22. For MALE
highest male voice
Middle male voice, lies
between Bass and
Tenor voices. It is the
common male voice.
lowest male voice
Tenor
Baritone
Bass
23. For FEMALE
highest female voice
most common female voice;
strong middle voice, tone is
darker or deeper than the
soprano
lowest female voice and
most unique among female
Soprano
Mezzo
Soprano
Contralto