Music of the Romantic Period Essay -- Music Analysis

Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous German born composer and pianist, composed the Romance in F major in 1798. It was likely first performed in that year, but was not published until 1805 in Vienna. It was originally written for violin and orchestra but the edition being performed today was transcribed and edited for saxophone and piano by Peter Saiano. During this period of his life, Beethoven was still known as perhaps the greatest pianist in existence and he was busy touring Europe as a performer. He had not yet achieved the status he now holds as a composer, and during this period he was also working on his first set of string quartets. Romance in F major contains several technical passages for the saxophonist that include lengthy passages with difficult articulation. This piece also contains several altissimo notes that are above the standard range of the saxophone and are troublesome to even the most advanced saxophonist. The goal of the saxophonist in this piece is to imitate the sound of the violin as closely as possible because the saxophone was not yet invented in Beethoven's time. Joseph Kerman, et al. Beethoven, Ludwig van. In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40026pg4 (accessed February 6, 2011). Claude Debussy, a well known French composer, is perhaps the greatest composer of the late Romantic style of music emerging around the beginning of the twentieth century. Debussy is well known for bringing the impressionist style of painting into the realm of music and he was at first flattered with the comparison. He later became frustrated with the general public referring to the whole of his music as impressionistic. The circumstan... ...ntal music he had written for the play The Flying Doctor. The title of the piece comes from the name of the theater in which the play was originally performed. Milhaud showed some resentment toward Scaramouche because of its immense popularity in comparison to his other works. The piece remains a standard in the classical saxophonist's repertoire regardless. Works Cited Breitrose, Henry and Darius Milhaud. 1970. Conversation with Milhaud. Music Educators Journal 56, no. 7 (March). http://www.jstor.org/stable/3392748 (accessed February 6, 2011). Scaramouche. The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev., edited by Michael Kennedy. In Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e9002 (accessed February 5, 2011). Wright, Craig, and Bryan Simms. 2006. Music in Western Civilization. Belmont: Thomson Schirmer.