Course Summary II

Course Summary II 3/21/03 -- The Romantic Piano developed out of the instrument invented in the early 18th century, and then perfected in several countries at the end of the century. Its chief advantage over its keyboard predecessors is its dynamic flexibility, its ability to move from piano (soft) to forte (loud) from one note to another. The new instrument had enormous expressive potential that was developed by Romantic composer. Mozart's style takes advantage of this feature, but is essentially very classical -- following the sonataallegro form literally, downplaying dynamic contrasts and drama, using a linear style with the melody carried by the right hand and harmonic accompaniment in the left (homophony). The first movement of Beethoven's "Pathétique" Sonata follows the sonata-allegro form, but differs in several ways: it inserts a slow, grave section three times in the movement; it is more passionate and dramatic; it is aggressive and anxious (more "appassionata" than "pathéthique"?). As usual, Beethoven sticks with classical forms and structure, investing them with his strength and passion. 3/26/03 -- The "true" Romantic composers for the piano developed many new playing techniques to make their compositions more expressive and evocative and to bring out the sonorites (color) imbedded in the piano (figuration patterns, chordal playing, rhythmic irregularities like "rubato," etc.). They also more or less abandoned the formal piano sonata ("symphony for piano") of Beethoven and Mozart and focused on short "character pieces" that evoked a mood or scene. Franz Schubert, although better known for his Lieder and his symphonies, wrote very evocative character pieces for the piano. His Impromptu in G Flat is cantabile (song-like), simple, pure, tender, quiet for the most part, structured as a development of essentially a single theme; it flows naturally from the first statement of the theme until its end. Schubert's Impromptu in E Flat Major is in the more typical ABA form of the impromptu. The first and last sections are lyrical "airborne triplets" resembling the effortless flight of a bird; the middle section is an impassioned waltz (3/4 time) that evokes darker tones and associations. 3/28/03 -- Frederic Chopin's "Waltz in E Flat" is a string of singable melodies evoking a bunch of couples dancing in a ballroom. His "Etudes" are meant to train pianists in techniques deemed essential by Romantic composers; in Chopin's hands they also become evocative and beautiful character pieces. His Etude, Opus 3, No. 3, "the most beautiful melody I ever wrote," is a cantabile character piece evoking mostly ethereal tender feelings. The "Revolutionary" Etude, supposed to recall his passionate feelings on hearing of the Russian attack against Warsaw, has loud percussive octaves in the right hand with rapid, forte arpeggios in the left. His Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66, has soaring, intense sequences in the right hand; with a tender middle section that has spawned several American popular songs; and a dramatic coda; it has the familiar ABA form of the impromptu. Robert Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood," composed for his beloved Clara Schumann, are meant to be recollections from his own childhood for adult players. The pieces are simple technically but evocative; full appreciation of them necessitates a certain exercise of the imagination focusing on typical activities and moods of children. "Von fremden Ländern" is yearning and nostalgic; "Bittendes Kind" is a mild request by a child; "Wichtige Begebenheit" is lightly and humorously pompous. 3/31/03 and 4/2/03 -- The class finished listening to Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood." Rocking horse gave a vivid impression of a child rocking gaily back and forth on the rocking horse. The famous "Träumerei" represented a child dreaming or perhaps daydreaming; it is one of Schumann's most beautiful melodies. E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Tales" are among the most entertaining of all works of Romantic literature. They always have an element of the supernatural or the occult; they give us interesting portraits of abnormal psychology; they have complex narratives; they have interesting plots that keep the reader in suspense. 1 "Mlle. de Scudery" is essentially a vividly written detective story that takes place in Paris under the reign of Louis XIV. It is one of the earliest detective stories in western fiction. The narrative is quite complex (multiple flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks); the story is studded with surprises and clues to intrigue the reader; the style is vivid and concrete. Mlle. de Scudery is an interesting, "round" adult female character -- something rather rare in Romantic literature: she is independent of family, she possesses solid good judgment as well as "female" intuition, and she is 73 years old and admired by people in Paris. She solves the crime, and succeeds in freeing Olivier, the falsely accused. Cardillac is a fascinating character, perhaps affected by the supernatural, certainly representing a bipolar, dual personality; he would appear to be a model for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Justice prevails in the end, due in part to the efforts of Mlle. de Scudery, in part to the "deus ex machina" of Louis XIV's justice. 4/4/03 -- Hoffmann's "The Sandman" is perhaps not the strongest story of the three read in class (the inconsistencies in the plot and in the tone of the narrative), but it is one of the most famous of the author's stories, and it has many interesting features. With its beginning letters and finishing third person narrator, the narrative structure somewhat resembles the "Sorrows of Young Werther." The reader is constantly challenged to determine whether the story recounts a haunting unto death of a character by some occult force (represented by Coppelius/Coppola), or is the story of severe paranoid psychosis induced by childhood trauma (the stories of the Sandman told to Nathanael by his nurse). The author does not seem to resolve the question. There is an element of science fiction in the construction of an automaton (with the help of occult powers) by a physicist. The difficulty of the exercise seems to be emphasized by the obsession of the "evil" characters (Coppelius, Coppola and Spalanzani) with having real eyes for their robots. (Remember that in western literature eyes are symbols of human life and of love -- characters like Dante fell in love with their beloveds because of a mysterious force emanating from their eyes.) Madelon is a "stock" Romantic woman with some interesting characteristics -- she is a model of sensibleness (cf. her letter to Nathanael insisting that his problem is psychological rather than occult), and despite the narrator's denials, quite beautiful in the usual Romantic way. In the end she is attached to a man and living "happily ever after" in domestic tranquility with another man after the lurid death of Nathanael. 4/7/03 -- Hoffmann's "The Entail" is one of his best stories. The narrative structure is pleasing and ingenious -- the present-tense "Interlude" followed by the "Explanatory Sequel" narrated by the lawyer V.... Descriptions are filled with atmosphere and color -- the castle on the Baltic Coast, the wolves, snow and howling storms surrounding the castle in the winter, etc. Characters are very vivid, particularly the Counselor V..., whose strong religious faith, grounded common sense, sense of humor, teasing quips at the expense of Theodor, and inner strength are the core of the narrative. V...'s character is similar to Mlle. de Scudéry's. Music is taken as a symbol of art, again as in Hoffmann's other stories; in the case of Seraphine, it is associated with nervous weakness, immersion in a dream world of art and tender feelings. Theodor is a fervent Romantic character devoted to the arts (his means of communicating with Seraphine), and subject to the tenderest feelings of love. The story is an imaginative take on the decline of a great family due to original sins that engender crime, bitterness and guilt, and then finally death. The original transgression is illustrated by the elder Roderich's dabbling in magic in his tower, and by his entailing of his property that leads to bitter conflict and hatred between his sons. There is a strong sense of destiny and fate in the story that leads almost inexorably to the destruction of the family, symbolized by the collapse of the great castle tower. Psychological interest is great in the person of Seraphine, subject to an otherworldly emotional weakness, and Daniel, who, overcome by feelings of guilt from his murder of Wolfgang, becomes a somnambulist (sleepwalker -- his subconscious expresses itself through his unconscious actions). The theme of the story seems to be the extreme repercussion of evil actions and decisions: the original offenses -- astrology and institution of the entail -- pits brother against brother, and ultimately destroys the family. The disintegration of the house appears to parallel the decline of the family, rather than be somehow responsible for it. 2 4/9/03 -- Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" appears to owe a great deal to Hoffmann's story, published some 15-20 years before -- the name of Roderich, the disintegration of the house parallel to the disintegration of the family, the suggestion of inbreeding/incest between main characters, the association of the arts, particularly music, with extreme mental states, etc. "Usher," however, is much more subjective and mental than Hoffmann's story: whereas the latter narrates a more or less objective scene, with an identifiable geographical location and a multitude of diverse characters, "Usher" resembles a nightmare raging in the mind of perhaps the author. "Usher" does not have a well-grounded, sensible character like V... to keep the reader connected to external reality. Can the story be about the decomposition of the sanity of the author? His personality collapse just as the family (Roderich as mind, Madeleine and heart/emotion) and the house (the body) collapses? In "Usher" the house is depicted as a "sentient" being who senses, perhaps understands, and reacts -- quite different from the castle in "Entail," which seems to act only as a metaphor for the decline of the family. The final description of the noisy, raging storm, the arrival of the supposedly dead Madeleine at Roderich's door, their death pressed against one another, and the collapse of the building after the narrator escapes to the outside is a masterpiece of lurid melodrama! 4/11/03 -- The "Fairy Tales" (better named "Folk Tales") of the Grimm Brothers (Germany, early 19th century) perhaps make most sense when examined for conditions of life and culture of German rural folk in the early modern period. The Grimm Brothers collected these oral tales in the early 19th century, edited them somewhat to appeal to middle class readers at the time and to serve their didactic purpose, and published them in the 1820s. "Hansel and Gretel," "The Bremen Town Musicians," and "Little Red Riding Hood" repeat many of the same themes. German peasants led a life often filled with fear and anxiety -- about not having enough to eat, about children being abandoned in the woods, about being abandoned in their old age, about the dangers of the woods and of robbers in the woods, about being exploited and annoyed by their stepmothers. Many of these fears were justified: famine often stalked the land, parents sometimes did abandon their children in times of want; stepmothers were common since mothers often died in childbirth and fathers immediately sought a second wife (herself sometimes widowed and with her own children); the woods were full of danger such as wolves and robbers; young girls became in principle unmarriageable if they lost their virginity or became pregnant out of wedlock. Poor people had to be resourceful and use their wits in times of diversity, as did Hansel and Gretel and all the animal musicians. The folk tales were not usually Christian, but seemed to hark back to a prior pagan culture. They took the existence of supernatural forces such as evil witches, plucky little ducks, and fairy godmothers quite literally, although "Bremen Musicians" seems skeptical about spooks and ghosts. The happy endings were sometimes tacked on by the editors for the sake of their middle class audience. They were usually quite serious in tone, although some like "Bremen Town Musicians" were light and humorous. 4/21/03 -- Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales are perhaps similar, but they are more polished from a literary point of view; they are heavily oriented toward a liberal middle class audience (Andersen wanted to be a successful author); and they often reflect the culture and society of Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. Some of the stories contain magic (inanimate objects coming to life; animals acting and speaking like humans) and some do not. The Emperor's New Clothes, one of the author's most famous stories, tells a moral tale about the importance of honesty and independence; people should not be tyrannized by public opinion, but should follow the lead of children and be open and honest. The Steadfast Tin Soldier has a lot of sentimentality (when the soldier is melted down at the end, his lead takes the form of a heart!). It teaches duty (be strong, brave, persevering and true to your calling) and the nobility of true love (the soldier's love for the ballerina is very romantic). It also tells us to take heart and be true even if you are different or physically deformed (one leg). They story has obvious autobiographical elements. This is even more true for The Ugly Duckling, where the odd duck/man out's discovery of his true nature -- swanness -- at the end seems to represent Andersen's own satisfaction at having his artistic talent discovered and appreciated. The story seems also to represent liberal middle- 3 class values of the importance of diversity and the dignity of the individual amidst conformist pressures. How many children, how many stunted poor people like Andersen, were mocked by school bullies or an unimaginative reading public! The artist never seems to fit into society (he can't meow like the cat or act like the chicken), but his beauty will eventually be discovered. His descriptions of (Danish) nature are quite beautiful and picturesque. This story seems closely related to the cultural and social milieu of the 19th century, particularly of a conformist and homogeneous Scandinavia, and it seems less mythic than the Steadfast Tin Soldier! 4/23/03 -- Russia in the early 19th century was just recovering from the shock of the Napoleonic experience; the French invasion of Russia had been disastrously repulsed in 1812. Especially after the accession of Nicholas II to the throne and the defeat of the liberal Decembrist Rebellion of 1825, Russia was under a dictatorial, autocratic regime where public expression was very limited and political decisions were taken autocratically by the tsar. Russia was an overwhelmingly rural economy with the great majority of the population being serfs (a servile status between slavery and free wage labor) who tilled the fields for a rather small gentry class, who make up the majority of the characters in Eugene Onegin. The gentry were much influenced by European society and culture. They tended to speak, or at least write, French better than Russian; the author says as much about Tatyana. They were generally well educated, and the more enterprising spent a lot of time in western and central Europe. Writers such as Pushkin had read and absorbed great Romantic writers, particularly Byron and his cult of the disillusioned Romantic hero. Russian writers were beginning to debate whether Russia's destiny was modernization and the imitation of liberal western civilization, or whether Russia was fundamentally different from the West and should thus set out on a distinct path. Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse. The "Onegin verse" is complex, reminding one perhaps of the verse of Dante's "Divine Comedy." The text focuses on telling the story of Eugene, Lensky and Tatyana, but the author/narrator has many asides about subjects that interest him -- Russian literature in the early 19th century, Russian society, the difficulty Russians have writing proper Russian, etc. The tone is often playful, light and satirical (the influence of Byron's Don Juan). Descriptions of nature are however ecstatically beautiful. The author focuses especially on winter scenes, which invariably come across as picturesquely cold, horse-drawn sleighs coursing with ringing bells across the countryside, and from warm interiors watching beautiful icicles form on the outside of window panes. The other seasons don't get nearly as much attention. 4/28/03 --Eugene Onegin is a story of twice-lost love. Fate rules the major events in our life; we have only limited influence over our own destinies. Once the opportunity is past, there is nothing you can do to retrieve it; once Eugene has rejected Tatyana, events march forward and there will be no turning back. Eugene is a good example of the alienated Romantic anti-hero; he doesn't fit into the world; he is not satisfied or happy; he has nothing particular to live for; he doesn't believe that he is capable of love. His turnaround in the last book is rather moving; for mysterious reasons, he does fall in love; he is rejected by Tatyana, but in a sense he is "saved" since he has been able to love. Lensky is more mainstream "romantic:" he is highly idealistic, and is firmly convinced that Olga is the most beautiful and noblest girl in the world, the one woman for who he is destined. The duel is a curious incident that pits the two close friends against one another in a fight to the death. Lensky's emotional character and Eugene's alienation help explain why the duel even takes place. The author is very critical of the waste of a beautiful life brought on by battling over honor. Tatyana is a much beloved character in Russian literature. Her instinctive nature, her openness to and love for nature, her immersion in potboiler Romantic books, prepare her for falling hard for Eugene. Instead of pining away, "dying of a broken heart," when she is rejected, she reluctantly makes a respectable marriage and becomes one of the grandes dames of Moscow society. She rejects Eugene's offer at the end because she has decided to be virtuous and to accept her given position in society. The style of the novel is a mix of the realist and the Romantic; it tends to become more realistic toward the end. Avoiding the temptation to have a "Romantic" ending (either marrying and living 4 happily ever after, or dying tragically of a broken heart) renders the resolution of the novel more moving and poetic. 4/30/03 -- The narrator of the novel is a full character in himself. He is very opinionated -- although he rails against "asides" in novels and poems, he constantly interjects his opinions on subjects such as Russian writers, marriage and love (good for the young; the old get fat, happy, lazy and bored), dueling and affairs of honor, etc. He seems to be similar to Eugene, except that he is older, wiser and more cynical (is that possible?). He also has more of a sense of humor than Eugene. And he seems to have been subject to great romantic passions, something that Eugene has generally avoided. European History in the 19th Century -- This is a time of rapid change. The main motor is industrialization, proceed rapidly already by the beginning of the century. Industrialization leads to rapid urbanization: by the end of the century, probably three times as many people are living in the cities compared to a hundred years before. The urban working classes grow rapidly, as do the middle classes. The main patrons of the arts in this century are the middle classes, who adopt many of their social and cultural attitudes from the aristocracy, and go to museums and concerts with solemn regularity. Most of the literature of the late 19th century was written with the (professional and upper) middle classes in mind; the middle classes dominate the characters in the novels of Theodor Fontane; they buy canvasses from the Impressionist artists; they dance to the waltzes of Johann Strauss. Nationalism is also a major trend. Nationalists want their "nation" (people, Volk) to thrive; this always means having a nation state to represent the nation; a nation can only have power through a state. By mid-century some nations already had states (Britain, France, Russia); some were still waiting (Italy, Germany and the constituent peoples of the Austrian Empire). Germany, composed of 38 different semisovereign states in 1850, was brought into a single nation state by Otto von Bismarck's manipulation of the power of the Prussian state and the Prussian Army. Germany after unification (Bismarck remained Chancellor of Germany until 1890) was prosperous, rapidly industrializing, very powerful, and increasingly nationalistic. Effi Briest was written by Fontane after the fall of Bismarck; but the action of the novel takes place in the 1880s when the Iron Chancellor was still in power. Fontane will be critical of aristocratic and middle class culture in his novel -- careerism, the habit of marrying young women early, the cult of honor and the duel among Prussian Junkers, etc. 5/2/03 -- The Romantic traditions lasted much longer in music than it did in the other arts. Whereas Romantic painting and literature were already under attack by 1850, the Romantic musical style lasted until the end of the 19th century, and late Romantic composer like Rachmaninoff were still composing until almost the middle of the 20th century. "Danse macabre" by Camille Saint-Saëns is a program piece (telling a story or painting a picture) written when the composer was relatively young. It picks up on popular gothic or macabre subjects, in this case spooks and goblins that dance and cavort in a large empty hall during the night. Orchestration is bright, brilliant, colorful; all the color potential of the Romantic orchestra seems to be exploited -- xylophones (bones dancing), cymbals (exotic, brilliant effect), triangles, shrill piccolos, etc. There is one rather solemn fugato passage, and a fair amount of humor. A single violin playing in the low register has several solo passages, most notably the introductory passage of the violin playing out of tune to summon the spirits to the party. The piece ends with the oboe announcing the dawn by mimicking the call of the rooster; the spirits then scurry off. Bedrich Smetana's "The Moldau" is one of the best tone poems (program music) of the 19th century. Smetana was trained in Germany but wanted to write music reflecting the traditions and beauty of his own country, Bohemia (inhabited by Czechs). "The Moldau" depicts the flow of the great Czech river from its origins in the mountains (two streams coming together) until its triumphant entry into Prague under the famous historic fortress of Vysehrad. We are constantly reminded of the river by the recurrence of the lyrical main theme (standing for the Moldau). As we "float" down the river, we are treated to several traditional scenes on either side -- peasants dancing (of course), hunters blowing their 5 hunting horns, the St. John's Rapids, etc. The music is reminiscent of Saint-Saëns -- bright, colorful, the whole weight of the large Romantic orchestra brought to bear; Smetana has perhaps more lyrical moments than Saint-Saëns. He is also different from the French composer in his inclusion of fokloric themes and rhythms. 5/5/03 – The waltzes of the Strauss family, popular in Vienna (Austria) at mid-century, shows popular music at it most elegant. Johann Strauss II (the Waltz King), was the most accomplished and poetic of the family. Middle class and upper class families, imbued with the musical traditions of Austria, flocked to the balls and concerts at which the Strauss waltzes were performed. “Tales from the Vienna Woods” is one of the most beautiful and poetic of Johann Strauss’ waltzes. Its introduction paints a nostalgic picture of a walk (?), picnic (?), in the woods outside Vienna. The zither is the featured instrument. The waltz section is a series of about nine waltz tunes played one after the other with little embellishment or developmental complications. The piece finishes with a short coda again featuring the zither as a solo instrument. The instrumentation is light, colorful, delicate, lilting; the rhythm is the classic ‘oom-pa-pa’ of the waltz; the mood is nostalgic, sensual, yearning – where have gone the days of wine and roses? Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony #4 in F Minor” marks the class’ return to ‘serious’ music. This, the first of the composer’s three great symphonies, is cast in the usual four movements. The first movement announces the “motto” theme, establishing the composer’s idea of a cruel fate causing suffering in the artist. The famous fourth movement has a furious forward momentum established in the energetic sequences of the first theme. The orchestration is brilliant, brassy and noisy, with offbeat timpani rhythms. The main theme evokes the charge of the Cossack cavalry! The movement mixes the main theme with military marches, and two longish sections featuring variations of the second theme. Toward the end the motto theme is briefly sounded in the brass recalling the (painful) life of the artist. The movement ends in a furious build-up to a final blast. Tchaikovsky helped establish the character of Russian orchestral music – folkloric (using folk themes), brilliantly colorful, nationalist, melancholy, suffering. 5/7/03 -- Sergei Rachmaninoff (d. 1943) was the last of the great Russian Romantics; surviving until the mid-20th century, 'politically correct' critics and modernist composers considered him a throwback to an earlier age. The Piano Concerto #2 in D minor is one of his early masterpieces. The piano concerto resembles the symphony, but includes a contrasting relationship between the orchestra and the solo piano. The first movement in written in the sonata allegro form. The development section is quite short. It opens with the famous somber chords in the solo piano and then moves into the equally somber and expressive first theme stated by low strings in the orchestra. Rachmaninoff is a very melody-oriented composer -- statement of melodies in this concerto is usually long and drawn out. A great deal of the expressive weight of the piece depends on the content of the melodies (both the somber first one and the soaring, rather ecstatic second one). Rachmaninoff's music is deeply expressive and emotional; no other composer makes such a direct pitch to the listener's feelings. 5/7/03 and continuing for part of every class until the end of the semester -- The first part of Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest characterizes Effi just before her marriage and her family life, particularly her relationship with her mother. The reader is advised to be attentive to the issues lurking and developing just below the seemingly simple, realistic and straightforward surface of the narrative. What, for example, were the motives of Frau Briest and Innstetten in pressuring the 17-year-old Effi to marry the 37-year-old Instetten? The trip to Italy already hints that Effi is not satisfied in her marriage (she reports to her mother she is tired because they spend most of the time walking through art galleries!). The newlywed couple then settles in the Pomeranian city of Kessin (fictional name), where Effi tries to get used to a very provincial and dull life compared to her childhood near the big city. She is lonely and relatively isolated. She is also anxious as she encounters rather bizarre reminiscences of her house's past - footsteps upstairs, stuffed sharks and crocodiles (?), stories of the mysterious Chinaman, etc. Effi is at heart a child who needs entertainment and activity, and there is very little of that in provincial, snobby 6 Kessin. The local aristocracy holds itself aloof and looks upon her with some suspicion. She enjoys spending time with the druggist Gieshübler, who treats her with gay deference. Her best friends are her dog Rollo and her maid Roswitha, a good-hearted Catholic girl who establishes a close relationship with Effi despite their differences in religion and social class. Innstetten's behavior is aloof and ambiguous. He is friendly enough with Effi, but there is something of the "pedagogue" about him -- he seems to want to dominate and control her: e.g., rather than reassure Effi about her "spooky" experiences, he seems to promote them; always an ironic smile or remark when Effi reports something disturbing; he is not very affectionate, nor does he seem to be very good in bed. Effi has a baby (the reader has to pay very close attention to find out what is going on!), but little Annie is only a temporary relief from her boredom. Effi is subsequently seduced by the shallow Crampas, but her heart never seems much involved; the affair comes from unconscious forces and seems more of an escape than an affair of the heart. Afterwards, she and Innstetten move to Berlin, where they live an uneventful life for about seven years until Innstetten inadvertently discovers Effi's past affair. In a long conversation with a friend, Innstetten shows that he is a decent person, but he is so bound by the code of honor of his (Junker) class that he thinks he must challenge Crampas for an action that happened a long time ago! He kills Crampas in a duel, divorces Effi, and takes Annie for himself. Effi lives alone and lonely until her health begins to fail; even her visits with her daughter are of no comfort. Her parents finally take her back to Hohen-Cremmen. She lives only a short time further, spending most of the time in her garden amid the heliotropes and in the company of her dog -- she is a child of nature. She dies, and the novel ends with light-hearted regret from Herr and Frau Briest ("Ah, Luise, don't go on... That is too big a subject!") The author clearly empathizes with Effi ("Poor Effi!") in the last part of the novel. Particular themes. 1) Women's issues in the novel; students should focus on institutions of middle-class Prussia affecting women -- Effi marries early, lack of sexual experience, dependence on one's husband, the double standard, one-sidedness of divorces laws, etc. 2) Sources of Effi's infidelity -Effi's nature as a young girl (childish, but sexual glimmers?), Innstetten's character (not a bad man, but...), Effi's spookiness and loneliness in Kessin (promoted by Innstetten?), Effi's feelings about her mother and father, the closed nature of Kessin society, etc. 3) Critique of Prussian society -- women's issues covered above, the cult of honor among the Junkers, the class structure (where are the decent people?), how impersonal social and cultural values crush individuals with barely a hint of regret. 4) The novel as realist -- the supposedly impassive and objective surface of the novel that reports the actions, words and writings of the characters without commentary, but actually below that surface is a great deal that is mysterious and challenging. What were the "sexual politics" of the first scene where Effi's mother is pressuring Effi to marry Innstetten? What was the meaning of the mysterious symbols in Kessin (Chinaman, stuffed shark, etc.) before Effi's infidelity? Does the author abandon his objective stance in the very last part of the novel? 5/9/03 -- The Neo-Romantic Impulse in European painting from 1860 to 1914. Although the Romantic Period proper is long past, romantic elements remain strong in certain painters in this very dynamic period. Not all painters are affected by the Romantic impulse, but many are. 5/12/03 -- Gustave Courbet called himself a realist painter; he consciously broke with the Romantic school of Delacroix. He sought to be realist in two main ways: 1) paint so that the objects depicted appear to have full weight, shape and texture to the viewer; 2) paint subjects that appear in everyday life, including common people, dogs, different classes of people, etc. His "Burial at Ornans" depicts the population of the village in a basically objective way. The Impressionist were interested essentially not in the physical object in front of them, but in the impressions made by light, shadow, and color on the painter's eye; it is an art of perception. Claude Monet, the quintessential impressionist, recorded the visual effects of the rising sun shining through fog and reflected on the water, in his "Impression: Sunrise." August Renoir also passed through an impressionist period, but even "Moulin de la Galette" seems as interested in a social scene with 7 attractive young people as in effects of light and shadow. He focuses more on solid objects and the depiction of beautiful young women in later paintings such as "Jeunes filles au piano." Vincent Van Gogh might be best described as a "visionary expressionist." (An expressionist distorts visually recognizable subject matter in order to communicate his feelings or ideas about the subject to the viewer.) He uses bright colors and his famous wormlike brush strokes to impart the intensity of his vision. His "Starry Night," probably his most famous painting, paints an agitated night sky overlooking a sleeping, unsuspecting French village. The painting conveys an intense, convulsive visionary experience, perhaps painful, perhaps ecstatic. 5/14/03 -- Pessimist expressionists abounded in Germany and Scandinavian countries in this period. They gave voice to those disillusioned with the large cities and impersonal life of the modern world. This was also the beginning of the Age of Freud -- our unconscious is (secretly) filled with fears and anxieties originating mostly from sex. Edvard Munch (Norway) expressed a kind of morbid fascination with death, sex, and a fear of women. His expressionistically distorted landscapes (dark and featureless) and faces (blank, few features, skull-like appearance) convey his pessimistic interpretation of modern life. His famous "The Scream" conveys the anguish of many modern artists in the years before World War I. Ernst Kirchner, a member of 'The Bridge' group of painters, was a pessimist German Expressionist artist painting in the last 15 years before the outbreak of war. Rather than the personal anguish of Munch, he focused often on social and political criticism, as in his "Two Women in the Street," which with its garish colors, unattractive angular faces and wedge-like volumes, paints a damning picture of the rich in this era. Kirchner, who hated the army, was killed in World War I in 1916. 5/16/03 -- Some Expressionist artists, however, were optimistic, even joyful; taking their colors, if not their vision, from Van Gogh. Franz Marc (Germany), one of the principal artists of 'The Blue Rider,' painted brilliantly hued animal pictures until his death in 1916. They expressed his pleasure in viewing the beauty of nature, and in particular of animals; they used a symbolic color scheme, perhaps known only to the artist; they included varying degrees of abstraction; their tenor was optimistic and enjoying the beauty of art and the natural world. Wassily Kandinsky (Russo-German), also a member of the Blue Rider, painted with Marc for a while, but then broke off to produce very influential abstract expressionist pieces before the first world war. He said that he got the idea to paint abstractions the day he viewed one of his paintings upside down and liked what he saw. He reported that he painted from an unconscious part of his psyche, "automatically." His prewar paintings were very colorful and energetic, and usually contained some recognizable visual objects lost in the jumble of activity. Henri Matisse, the foremost member of the "Fauves" in France before 1910, reported that he was an expressionist -- all the shapes and colors in his paintings (not necessarily the visual object) expressed his vision. He generally, however, restricted himself to pleasant and pleasurable subject matter, consciously striving to exclude the disturbing and depressing from his art. His "Green Stripe" distorted the face of his wife, Mme. Matisse, presumably for an expressive purpose. His monumental "Joy of Life" is based on classical arcadian themes (nymphs dancing in the fields, Pan playing his pipes, etc.); he has little regard for atmospheric modeling (shadowing), and little for linear perspective (creating am illusion of depth of field); the rhythm of the objects and the soft, complementary colors of the canvas express his pleasure, joy, in confronting the meaning of life! And thus we end the course on an upbeat note! 8