I don't
think that you are going to get the essay written from this site. However, there are some basic
points in which you can find a starting point in how to construct an essay on both composers and
be able to find some convergent aspects in the analysis of both.
For the
most part, the full name, birthplace, and educational training can be obtained though basic
research. Along with, date and place of death, these are factual elements that will require
some level of research. The Internet can be a great source of information for this
material.
I think that in examining some of the other items, research will
still be needed, but also simply listening some of the respective composer's music will help
generate sufficient responses. Obtaining that feel for each will be critical in writing about
them. For example, Carpentier was strongly associated with Baroque music. His music featured a
very ornate and decorated style to it. The artistic movement was his primary inspiration. This
can be seen in the tendencies of his music. There is extensive ornamentation in Carpentier's
music. For example, in Te Deum, the presence of a polyphonic melody as a
style characteristic is dominant. At the same time, the use of five soloists confirms the
work's complex nature. This tendency can also be seen in how he composed work that was
difficult to categorize because of its ornate and intricate nature. Such musical style is
reflective of his contribution to the time period: " [Carpentier was responsible for
the] evolution of musical language, where the modality of the ancients and the emerging tonal
harmony coexisted and mutually enriched one another. Carpentier's collection of work is so
detailed and intense that it is difficult to pull out any definitive works. He is more known
for the style within his body of work. Yet, his Sacred music is distinct, as it seeks to
originally and uniquely combine French and Italian traditions. This context becomes critical in
understanding Carpentier's function in the history of Baroque music. At the same time, his
Operas function in the same manner, bridging both modes of expression into an elaborate new
form. An example of this is Carpentier's Les plaisirs de Versailles. It
can be seen as definitive in how it was written for Louis XIV in Carpentier's employment as
composer for Louis, le Grand Dauphin.
Schumann is a bit different in his
focus as a Romantic composer. He appears in the context of musical history after Carpentier and
is different in his approach to music. Whereas Carpentier was rather direct in his ascension
towards musical stature, Schumann reflected a divergence intrinsic to Romanticism and rejecting
external categorization. Schumann was driven by a philosophical need to represent literature
and music through his art: "My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or
call it Music and Law." It was something that drove at him intellectually and
aesthetically, and is a dominant idea in his art. Such philosophical agony is not as present in
the Carpentier's constructions. Schumann's influences were not solely musical. The works of
Goethe, Byron, and the Greek tragedians played vital roles in the development of his work. This
can be seen in Papillions, in which literature played a vital role in his
musical construction: "...read the last scene in Jean
Paul's Flegeljahre as soon as possible, because
the Papillons are intended as a musical representation of that
masquerade." Schumann ensured that we can see this in the music, as piano chords obtain a
level of activity that parallels the flight of the butterflies. Schumann's Romantic traits can
also be seen in Carnaval. Schubert felt that "deciphering my masked
ball will be a real game for you," something reflected in how each movement has its own
story to it where the music seeks to illuminate that which is shrouded in darkness. Reflective
of Schumann's Romantic
tendencies, Carnaval features "chordal
passages" within "its use of rhythmic displacement." The desire to break
previous conventions is a significant part of Schumann's style of music. Schumann himself
acknowledged this in the musical crytopgram that opens each section of the music
in Carnaval. Schumann's style was reflective of a desire to reconfigure
music into something never seen before. Envisioning his role as artist and visionary becomes
one of Schumann's major contributions to music. Brahms was one of his most important students
or proteges, and Schumann established himself as a transformative Romantic figure in how he
established new contours in both music and composing it.
In writing this
essay, it might be good to keep the primary focus on the music that the respective composers
established as their name. The informational items can be easily obtained, but the real focus
of this paper is going to be the work of the composers. Listening to the music of each itself
will help establish in your own mind how their theoretical perspectives to music should come
across in the report about them.
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