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 write down 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 earth 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 prolonged passages with difficult articulation. This small-arm also contains several altissimo notes that are above the standard range of the saxophone and are troublesome to even the most modern saxophonist. The goal of the saxophonist in this piece is to im itate the sound of the violin as closely as possible because the saxophone was not yet invented in Beethovens time.Joseph Kerman, et al. Beethoven, Ludwig van. In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http//www.oxford harmonyonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40026pg4 (accessed February 6, 2011).Claude Debussy, a well known French composer, is perhaps the greatest composer of the deeply 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 short-change 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 imm ense popularity in comparison to his other works. The piece remains a standard in the classical saxophonists repertoire regardless.Works CitedBreitrose, 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 mental lexicon 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.