The Realism Movement

2269 Words5 Pages

In the 19th century, the Realism Movement started which was when people started to see life in a realistic way and did not look past all the negative aspects. The realism movement had an effect on music and literature. Famous plays like The Cherry Orchard, Ghosts, and Hedda Gabler, were heavily influenced by Realism. Musicians like Dmitry Bortniansky, Alexander Scriabin, Dmitri Shostakovich, Vasily Alexeievich Pashkevich, and Lera Auerbach from the 21st, 20th ,19th, 18th century were influenced by the Realism Movement. From the 18th century to the 21st century, the Realism Movement has changed the way that musicians and writers compose their works, which caused people to go from thinking that life is perfect and it does not have any negative aspects, to seeing that life is not perfect and acknowledging the negative aspects of life. Before the Realism Movement, another movement that happened was called the romantic period. Romanticism was a style that stretches the imagination, emotions, and the creativity of a musician and a literary writer (“Romanticism”). It was a time when people saw life in a positive way, without acknowledging any negativity. For music and literature, it was a major influence on people. John Synge was majorly influenced by romanticism when he wrote Riders To The Sea. As for musicians like Alexandr Herzen, Ivan Turgenev, and other musicians, they were influenced by Romanticism. Most people in the 18th century believed in romanticism and were religious. They went to a priest or prayed to God asking questions about life and how life came to be. In the 20th century, people started to move away from religion, and started to look towards science to find answers to life (“Romanticism”). Not many people would think ... ... middle of paper ... ...ring her tenure there (Anderson). She wrote twenty-four preludes on the violin and the piano and dedicated them to Angela Yoffe a pianist and Vadim Gluzman a violinist (Anderson). These artists recorded the pieces in 2002, and some of the pieces are less than one minute and some are five and a half minutes (Anderson). Some are dark and gloomy, dramatically dark, and sweet (Anderson). A piece on there is called T'filah, which means prayer in Hebrew. It was dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust, and is a dark but beautiful piece (Anderson). Auerbach was inspired to use realism in her music by writing a piece that was dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. She saw that the Holocaust actually happened and did not ignore it by seeing viewing life in a romantic way. She saw that life is not full of nothing but happiness, but it can have some negative aspects to it.

Open Document