The Regency Musical Timeline

Byron as You've Never Heard Him

2007-06-03T07:27:00.001-07:00

Did you know that nearly 30 of Byron's poems were meant not as stand-alone poems, but as song lyrics? According to Paul Douglass of San Jose State University in California, Byron composed around 29 poems as lyrics for music to be composed by Isaac Nathan (1790-1864), reputedly England's first popular Jewish composer. Among the poems, compiled as A Selection of Hebrew Melodies, Ancient and Modern, are She Walks in Beauty Like the Night, The Destruction of Sennacharib, Jephtha's Daughter, The Wild Gazelle, and We Sate Down and Wept.

Some of the Byron-Nathan songs have been recorded, and samples are available on Mr. Douglass's Website, Romantic Era Songs, at www.sjsu.edu/faculty/douglass/music

The same site, by the way, also features selections from Stephen Storace's music for The Haunted Tower (1789).

Dibdin: Georgian-Regency Renaissance Man

2007-05-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

Charles Dibdin (c.1745-1814)

Dibdin flourished in London during the Georgian years and early Regency as something of an artistic Renaissance man. Poet, actor, songwriter, singer, he wrote around 1,400 songs and 30 theater pieces, including operas, and allegedly created the form of the one-man show.

1762
The Shepherd's Artifice
Songs for the plays Love in the City and Love in a Village, by Isaac Bickerstaffe

1768
Music for the play The Padlock

1774
The Waterman

1775
The Quaker
The Comic Mirror

1785
Liberty Hall

Late 1780s-Early 1800s
Popular songs, often of a patriotic nature:
Poor Jack
'Twas on the Good Ship "Rover"
Saturday Night at Sea
Tom Bowling

Music in Jane Austen's Works

2007-05-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

After playing some Italian songs, Miss Bingley varied the charm by a lively Scotch air...
--Chapter 10, Pride & Prejudice (1813)

Storace: The King of Drury Lane

2007-05-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Stephen Storace (1762-1796)

In terms of commercial success, Storace, whose works were produced at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day, meeting popular tastes largely with ballad operas that featured visual spectacle, bold vocal turns and trendy, exotic themes. Most of his works survive only as reductions for voice and piano. Many were never printed in full score, largely from the fear of piracy, there being no copyright laws to protect artists' rights. Dido Queen of Carthage, a serious opera, was the rare Storace work rejected by the public. According to some sources, lack of demand rendered it unworthy of printing.

Despite "Dido," Storace was hugely popular well into the 19th century. "Of plighted faith," an air from his opera The Siege of Belgrade, may be heard on the recording Jane Austen's Songbook.

Selections from The Haunted Tower, which was modified after the original French text by the Marquis de Sade, may be heard at Romantic Era Songs, a Website by Paul Douglass of San Jose State University in California. The URL is www.sjsu.edu/faculty/douglass/music

1789
The Haunted Tower

1790
No Song, No Supper (One-act)

1791
The Siege of Belgrade

1792
The Music of the Pirates

1794
The Cherokee

1795
The Three and the Deuce
Dido, Queen of Carthage

1796
The Iron Chest
Mahmoud, Prince of Persia

Field: Irish Regency Romantic

2007-05-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

John Field (1782-1837)

Dublin-born Field, a concert pianist and composer popularly called "the Irish Romantic," lived in Russia between 1801 and 1830. He reputedly developed the nocturne, a short musical form that usually showcases one particular mood. The first three of the nocturnes were published in 1812. The remaining appeared at various times throughout his career.

Field also wrote six piano concertos.

1811
Piano Concerto No. 2 in A flat
Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat

1814
Piano Concerto No. 4 in E flat (revised in 1819)

1817
Piano Concerto No. 5 in C

1819-1820
Piano Concerto No. 6 in C

Nightingale Sounds

2007-05-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

It may not be music as such, but one of the most famous birdsongs was the subject of a poem written by John Keats in May 1819.

If you've ever read Ode to a Nightingale and wondered what the bird sounds like, click on Nightingale Sounds in the Links column. You'll be taken to a site that will offer a collection of nightingale vocalizations to choose from. Enjoy!

Regency Rossini, 1812-1820

2007-05-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

Rossini, whose career is as fabled as his sense of humor, composed some of his greatest operas by 1820, before he was 30 years old. Here are the most significant hits. I believe all have been recorded.

1812
La Scala di Seta (“The Silken Ladder”)

1813
Il Signor Bruschino
L'Italiana in Algeri (“The Italian Girl in Algiers”)
Tancredi

1814
Il Turco in Italia (‘The Turk in Italy”)

1815
Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra (“Elizabeth, Queen of England”)

1816
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (“The Barber of Seville”)

1817
La Cenerentola (“Cinderella”)
La Gazza Ladra (“The Thieving Magpie”)

1818
Mosè in Egitto (“Moses in Egypt”)

1819
La Donna del Lago (“The Lady of the Lake”)

Mozart: Always In Style

2007-05-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Before the hard facts, a teeny bit of history: If the practice of Mozart’s infancy and early childhood had persisted, the play would have been called “Gottlieb” or “Theophilus,” not “Amadeus.”

Mozart’s father Leopold was the chapel master (Kapellmeister) for the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Salzburg, and, as seen in baptismal records at St. Rupert’s Cathedral in Salzburg, the name he gave baby Wolfie reflected what Austrian society considered the father’s exalted position in what was then part of the Holy Roman Empire: Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus. Papa Leopold subsequently substituted “Gottlieb” for “Theophilus.” In those days in that particular society, it didn’t matter because both names mean the same thing: “Theophilus” has been interpreted as “God's love” and "beloved of God" in Greek; “Gottlieb” is its rough equivalent in German. Mozart preferred the more musical-sounding Latin version: “Amadeus.”

The present list, which will be amended, focuses on major works and is by no means definitive:

1775
Concerto for Violin in A major, K. 219 (“Turkish”)

1776
Serenade in D Major, K. 250 (“Haffner”)
Serenata Notturna in D, K. 239 (recalls Boccherini’s serenade, “Night Music of Madrid”)

1778
Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, K. 299
Les petits riens ("The Little Nothings"), Ballet

1781
Idomeneo, re di creta ("Idomeneo, King of Crete"), Opera K. 366

1782
12 Variations in C Major on "Ah vous dirai-je, maman," K. 265

1783
Mass in C Minor, K. 427

1785
Concerto in E-Flat Major for Piano, K. 482
Fantasia for Piano in c minor, K. 475
Song, Das Veilchen (“The Violet”), K. 476

1786
Concerto in c minor for Piano, K. 491
Der Schauspieldirektor (“The Impressario”), Opera, K. 486
Le Nozze di Figaro (“The Marriage of Figaro”), Opera, K. 492
Symphony in D Major, No. 38 (“Prague), K. 504

1787
Don Giovanni, Opera, K. 527

1789
Arrangement, Handel’s Messiah, K. 572

1790
Cosi fan tutte (sometimes translated as "Women Are Like That"), Opera, K. 588

1791
Ave Verum Corpus, Motet in D Major, K. 618
Die Zauberfloete ("The Magic Flute")
La Clemenza di Tito, Opera, K. 621
Requiem in d Minor, K. 626

Lists in Progress

2007-05-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: Upcoming segments will feature rescue operas of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Mozart, Handel, Haydn, and cross-references on comic operas, dramatic operas, chamber music, vocal music, choral music, and music for the pianoforte, all for the ease of writers who would rather search by type of piece or instrument than by composer.

Schubert: Appropriate, But Out of Bounds

2007-05-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

“Out of Bounds” is a period-authentic phrase that appears in Byron’s “A Vision of Judgement.” It applies to Schubert in that Schubert wrote many of his most familiar works during the Regency period, but few were published or made known to the general public until after the end of the Regency in 1820.

Also, much of his mature work, like the song cycles Die Winterreise (“The Winter’s Journey”) and Die Schoene Muellerin (“The Miller’s Beautiful Daughter”) were not composed or published, or otherwise exposed to the public, until the early and mid-1820s.

1816
Composition of Die Erlkoenig(“The ErlKing”), D. 328

1820
Lazarus, Oratorio, D. 689
Quartettsatz (Quartet piece) in c minor, D. 703
Fantasy for piano, “Wanderer,” D. 760
Die Zauberharfe, (“The Magic Harp”), Opera, D. 644

1821
Erlkoenig sung in concert on Feb. 8

1822
Symphony No. 8 in b minor, D. 759 (“Unfinished”), composition begun

1823
Die schoene Muellerin, song cycle, D. 795
Die Winterreise, D.911, song cycle

1825
Variations on Death and the Maiden

1826
Shakespeare songs: “Hark, Hark, the Lark!” and “Who is Silvia?”

"Safe" Minor Composers ( Died Before 1811)

2007-05-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is a partial list of minor but nonetheless popular composers who died before the start of the Regency in 1811. The works are presumed likely to have been played and heard during the Regency, and are, therefore, safe to include in a Regency setting.

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Major works: Cello concertos and various string and quitar quintets and other chamber works, some with strong flamenco influence. The String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5, includes a popular minuet.

Cristoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787)
Operas: Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), features Orfeo’s aria “Che faro senza Euridice” (“What Will I Do Without Euridice?”) and the Dance of the Blessed Spirits, a ballet with a virtuoso flute solo; Iphegenie en Tauride (1777) and Iphegenie en Aulide (1774).

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)
Paisiello, one of Napoleon's favorite composers, wrote more than 90 operas, including Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1782). Perhaps his most popular work was the arietta “Nel cor più non mi sento" (“My heart no longer feels”) from his opera La Molinara (1790). The small aria has survived as a recital song and as the theme for a set of variations by Beethoven (1795).

Niccolò Piccinni (1728-1800)
Gluck’s rival. Major works include the opera Iphegenie en Tauride (1781), reputedly an attempt to show Gluck how Gluck should have interpreted the subject in his 1777 opera of the same name.

Regency Beethoven, 1811-1820

2007-05-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

The following Beethoven works were published or premiered during the Regency, 1811-1820. This list is by no means all-inclusive. My purpose is let non-musicians know what major classical works were around during the period in question, so they can have a sense of what fashionable, early nineteenth century ears had to contend with. Beethoven also wrote military marches and incidental music for plays (dramatic soundtracks, if you will), and he was very much a popular performer and composer. In one regard, he was to the music of his day what the Beatles were to middle twentieth century rock and roll: revolutionary, but not so revolutionary as to be revolting and out of touch with what attracts, captures, and moves an audience.

1813
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92 (composed 1811-1812)
Wellington's Victory, Opus 92 (A descriptive piece, or what the Romantics would later call a "tone poem," that celebrates Wellington's victory over the French at the Battle of Vitoria in Spain)

1814
Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Opus 90
Symphony No. 8 in F major, Opus 93 (composed 1811-12)

1815
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Opus 112 (for chorus and orchestra)

1816
An die ferne Geliebte, Opus 98 (song cycle)

1819
Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Opus 106 ("Hammerklavier")

The remainder of Beethoven's major works--The Ninth Symphony, Missa Solemnis, and the Diabelli Variations--are not included here because they were published or premiered after 1820 and were, therefore, largely unknown to the general public.

Pre-Regency Beethoven, 1795-1810

2007-05-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

I'm starting with major works that would have been available and familiar to musicians and audiences by the start of the Regency in 1811. The dates in the list are publication or premiere dates:

1795
Song, Adelaide
Variations on "Nel Cor piu non mi sento," from Paisiello's opera La Molinara (1790)

1796
Aria, "Ah perfido!"
Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Opus 2
Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Opus 2
Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Opus 3

1797
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Opus 15 (1796-97)
Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat major, Opus 7

1798
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Opus 10
Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Opus 10
Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Opus 10
Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Opus 10
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Opus 13 ("Pathétique")
Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Opus 50

1799
Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Opus 14
Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Opus 15

1800
Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major, Opus 22
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Opus 22

1801
Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major , Opus 26 ("Funeral March")
Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Opus 27
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 27 ("Moonlight")
Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Opus 28 ("Pastoral")
The Creatures of Prometheus, Opus 43 (overture and ballet music)
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Opus 24 ("Spring")

1802
Fifteen variations and a Fugue on an Original Theme in E-flat major, Opus 35 ("Eroica Variations")
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Opus 31 ("Tempest")
Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major, Opus 31 ("The Hunt")
Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G major, Opus 40

1803
Oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives, Opus 85
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Opus 37
Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Opus 53 ("Waldstein")
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 36
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major ("Kreutzer")

1805
Fidelio (Opera, composed 1803-1805)
Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Opus 57 ("Appassionata")
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Opus 55 ("Eroica")
Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Opus 56

1806
The "Rasumovsky" Quartets: String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Opus 59; String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Opus 59; String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Opus 59

1807
Coriolan Overture, Opus 62
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Opus 60

1808
Choral Fantasy for solo piano, chorus, and orchestra, Opus 80
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Opus 67
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Opus 68 ("Pastoral")

1809
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Opus 73 ("Emperor")
String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Opus 74 ("Harp")

1810
Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Opus 81a ("Les adieux/Lebewohl")
String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Opus 95 ("Serioso")

c. 1810
Bagatelle in A minor, Opus 59 ("Für Elise")