Romantic Period

The Romantic Period (1820 - 1910)

Beethoven is considered to be a “crossover” composer, a bridge between the classical and the romantic.

The term ‘romantic’ comes from the revived interest in the Romans, not from romance.

Emotion is now injected into the music in a less subtle way, more expressive and passionate.

Music now, more than ever, draws its inspiration from literature, art, nature, and historical events.

From Wikipedia:

• A freedom in form and design; a more intense personal expression of emotion in which fantasy, imagination and a quest for adventure play an important part.
• Emphasis on lyrical, songlike melodies; adventurous modulation; richer harmonies, often chromatic, with striking use of discords.
• Greater sense of ambiguity: especially in tonality or harmonic function, but also in rhythm or meter.
• Denser, weightier textures with bold dramatic contrasts, exploring a wider range of pitch, dynamics and tone-colours.
• Expansion of the orchestra, sometimes to gigantic proportions; the invention of the valve system leads to development of the brass section whose weight and power often dominate the texture.
• Rich variety of types of piece, ranging from songs and fairly short piano pieces to huge musical canvasses with lengthy time-span structures with spectacular, dramatic, and dynamic climaxes.
• Closer links with other arts lead to a keener interest in programme music (programme symphony, symphonic poem, concert overture).
• Shape and unity brought to lengthy works by use of recurring themes (sometimes transformed/developed): idée fixe (Berlioz), thematic transformations (Liszt), Leitmotif (Wagner), motto theme.
  
  

Franz Liszt is considered to be the rockstar of Romantic Music.  Fans used to mob him after  performances and try to cut off locks of his hair!

During the Romantic period, individual performers were widely revered and instrumental virtuosity was admired, as demonstrated through performers such as Liszt and Paganini

Romantic period music used chromaticism, which means that instead of just using the 7 tones of the diatonic scale, composers would write using some tones in between the diatonic scale as well.

Listen to some diatonic music here and compare it with more chromatic music from the romantic period.

The advances of the Industrial Revolution helped instrument manufacturers develop better manufacturing techniques resulting in higher quality instruments and instruments with valves that allowed more notes to be played.

A valveless trumpet.  One could only blow

faster or slower to produce different tones.

An early valve trumpet.  Each valve opened

a different set of tubing, allowing a greater

variety of tones to be played.

European Romanticism coordinates and shares characteristics with American Transcendentalism:

-Nature-centered

-Spiritual

-Self-centered (i.e. self improvement)

-Observe the world

Famous Romantic Period Composers

Ludwig von Beethoven (crossover from classical)

Franz Liszt

Frederick Chopin

Niccolo Paganini

Johann Strauss

Robert Schumann

Franz Schubert

Guiseppe Verdi

Felix Mendelssohn