Analysis Of Bizet And Symphony No. 2 By Tchaikovsky

I. Introduction

How do Bizet and Tchaikovsky adhere to the traditional elements of folksong in their nationalistic music for orchestra? During the 19th century, music had changed in style, that they broke the form and freely composed the music that we call it romantic era. The music in Romantic era has large difference from the strict classical era, it became more expressive and use wide range of emotions. It expanded the orchestra, providing the depth on timbre. Especially in the middle of the century, with the domination of the German influences, their own-country-styled-music was started to discover by composers of the other country from Germany. The investigation evaluates how this nationalistic movements was influenced musical elements of this period. I have chosen to investigate two Romantic pieces, L’Arlesienne by Bizet and Symphony No.2 by Tchaikovsky. The both music I chose is the music that I have played in orchestra by violin before. Symphony No.2 is the one that I played as concertmistress that I have emotional attachment to the song itself too. I found an interest on romantic nationalistic music on the use of variety of the instruments by emotional and expressive way. Both music contains the folk song elements and especially L’Arlesienne has the drama too. It have been a decade since I learned these music, but its catchy melodies still sticks in my head. L’Arlesienne uses the French folksong and Symphony No.2 uses Russian folksong, and it expresses national