Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the intellectual, artistic and literary movement that became prominent in Western culture from approximately 1798 until 1837.[1]
Romantic composers sought to create music that was individualistic, emotional, dramatic and often programmatic; reflecting broader trends within the movements of Romantic literature, poetry, art, and philosophy. Romantic music was often ostensibly inspired by (or else sought to evoke) non-musical stimuli, such as nature, literature, poetry, super-natural elements or the fine arts. It included features such as increased chromaticism and moved away from traditional forms.[2]
The Romantic movement was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe and strengthened in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.[3] In part, it was a revolt against social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature (Casey 2008). It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, literature,[4] and education,[5] and was in turn influenced by developments in natural history.[6]
One of the first significant applications of the term to music was in 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry, but it was E. T. A. Hoffmann who established the principles of musical romanticism, in a lengthy review of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony published in 1810, and an 1813 article on Beethoven's instrumental music. In the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to the later works of Haydn and Mozart. It was Hoffmann's fusion of ideas already associated with the term "Romantic", used in opposition to the restraint and formality of Classical models, that elevated music, and especially instrumental music, to a position of pre-eminence in Romanticism as the art most suited to the expression of emotions. It was also through the writings of Hoffmann and other German authors that German music was brought to the center of musical Romanticism.[7]
Traits
The classical period often used short, even fragmentary, thematic material while the Romantic period tended to make greater use of longer, more fully defined and more emotionally evocative themes.[8]
Characteristics often attributed to Romanticism:
a new preoccupation with and surrender to nature;[9]
a turn towards the mystic and supernatural, both religious and unearthly;[10]
a focus on the nocturnal, the ghostly, the frightful, and terrifying;[11]
a harmonic structure based on movement from tonic to subdominant or alternative keys rather than the traditional dominant, and use of more elaborate harmonic progressions (Wagner and Liszt are known for their experimental progressions);[9]
large, grand orchestras were common during this period;[9]
increase in virtuosic players featured in orchestrations;[9]
the use of a wider range of dynamics, for example from ppp to fff (from pianississimo, or very, very quiet to fortississimo, very, very loud), supported by large orchestration;[9]
a greater tonal range (for example, using the lowest and highest notes of the piano);[9]
In music, there is a relatively clear dividing line in musical structure and form following the death of Beethoven. Whether one counts Beethoven as a "romantic" composer or not, the breadth and power of his work gave rise to a feeling that the classical sonata form and, indeed, the structure of the symphony, sonata and string quartet had been exhausted.[13]
Trends of the 19th century
Non-musical influences
Events and changes in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events often affect music. For example, the Industrial Revolution was in full effect by the late 18th century and early 19th century. This event profoundly affected music: there were major improvements in the mechanical valves and keys that most woodwinds and brass instruments depend on. The new and innovative instruments could be played with greater ease and they were more reliable.[14]
Another development that affected music was the rise of the middle class. Composers before this period lived under the patronage of the aristocracy. Many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music.[14] The Romantic composers, on the other hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers, who had not necessarily had any music lessons.[14] Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar, showed the world that there should be "no segregation of musical tastes"[15] and that the "purpose was to write music that was to be heard".[16]
During the Romantic period, music often took on a much more nationalistic purpose. Composers composed with a distinct sound that represented their home country and traditions. For example, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia has been interpreted to represent the rising nation of Finland, which would someday gain independence from Russian control.[17]
Frédéric Chopin was one of the first composers to incorporate nationalistic elements into his compositions. Joseph Machlis states, "Poland's struggle for freedom from tsarist rule aroused the national poet in Poland. ... Examples of musical nationalism abound in the output of the romantic era. The folk idiom is prominent in the Mazurkas of Chopin".[18] His mazurkas and polonaises are particularly notable for their use of nationalistic rhythms. Moreover, "During World War II the Nazis forbade the playing of ... Chopin's Polonaises in Warsaw because of the powerful symbolism residing in these works".[18]
Other composers, such as Bedřich Smetana, wrote pieces that musically described their homelands. In particular, Smetana's Vltava is a symphonic poem about the Moldau River in the modern-day Czech Republic, the second in a cycle of six nationalistic symphonic poems collectively titled Má vlast (My Homeland).[19] Smetana also composed eight nationalist operas, all of which remain in the repertory. They established him as the first Czech nationalist composer as well as the most important Czech opera composer of the generation who came to prominence in the 1860s.[20]
^Gutek, Gerald Lee (1995). A history of the Western educational experience (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL. ISBN0-88133-818-4. OCLC32464830.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Nichols, Ashton. ""Roaring Alligators and Burning Tygers: Poetry and Science from William Bartram to Charles Darwin"". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 149 (3): 304–315.
^Rothstein, William; Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (2001). "Articles on Schenker and Schenkerian Theory in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition". Journal of Music Theory. 45 (1): 204. doi:10.2307/3090656. ISSN0022-2909. JSTOR3090656.
Beard, David, and Kenneth Gloag. 2005. Musicology: The Key Concepts. Cornwall: Routledge.
Casey, Christopher. 2008. "'Grecian Grandeurs and the Rude Wasting of Old Time': Britain, the Elgin Marbles, and Post-Revolutionary Hellenism". Foundations 3, no. 1:31–64 (Accessed 24 September 2012).
Child, Fred. 2006. "Salonen on Sibelius". Performance Today. National Public Radio.
Encyclopædia Britannica (n.d.). "Romanticism". Britannica.com. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
Feld, Marlon. n.d. "Summary of Western Classical Music History". Linked from John Ito, Music Humanities, section 16. New York: Columbia University (accessed 11 April 2016).
Grétry, André-Ernest-Modeste. 1789. Mémoires, ou Essai sur la musique. 3 vols. Paris: Chez l'auteur, de L'Imprimerie de la république, 1789. Second, enlarged edition, Paris: Imprimerie de la république, pluviôse, 1797. Republished, 3 vols., Paris: Verdiere, 1812; Brussels: Whalen, 1829. Facsimile of the 1797 edition, Da Capo Press Music Reprint Series. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971. Facsimile reprint in 1 volume of the 1829 Brussels edition, Bibliotheca musica Bononiensis, Sezione III no. 43. Bologna: Forni Editore, 1978.
Gutek, Gerald Lee. 1995. A History of the Western Educational Experience, second edition. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press. ISBN0881338184.
Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Amadeus. 1810. "Recension: Sinfonie pour 2 Violons, 2 Violes, Violoncelle e Contre-Violon, 2 Flûtes, petite Flûte, 2 Hautbois, 2 Clarinettes, 2 Bassons, Contrabasson, 2 Cors, 2 Trompettes, Timbales et 3 Trompes, composée et dediée etc. par Louis van Beethoven. à Leipsic, chez Breitkopf et Härtel, Oeuvre 67. No. 5. des Sinfonies. (Pr. 4 Rthlr. 12 Gr.)". Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 12, no. 40 (4 July), cols. 630–42 [Der Beschluss folgt.]; 12, no. 41 (11 July), cols. 652–59.
Kravitt, Edward F. 1992. "Romanticism Today". The Musical Quarterly 76, no. 1 (Spring): 93–109. (subscription required)
Levin, David. 1959. History as Romantic Art: Bancroft, Prescott, and Parkman. Stanford Studies in Language and Literature 20, Stanford: Stanford University Press. Reprinted as a Harbinger Book, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World Inc., 1963. Reprinted, New York: AMS Press, 1967.
Nichols, Ashton. 2005. "Roaring Alligators and Burning Tygers: Poetry and Science from William Bartram to Charles Darwin". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 149, no. 3:304–15.
Ottlová, Marta, John Tyrrell, and Milan Pospíšil. 2001. "Smetana, Bedřich [Friedrich]". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Samson, Jim. 2001. "Romanticism". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Schmidt-Jones, Catherine, and Russell Jones. 2004. Introduction to Music Theory. [Houston, TX]: Connexions Project. ISBN1-4116-5030-1.
Young, Percy Marshall. 1967. A History of British Music. London: Benn.
Further reading
Adler, Guido. 1911. Der Stil in der Musik. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
Adler, Guido. 1919. Methode der Musikgeschichte. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
Adler, Guido. 1930. Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, second, thoroughly revised and greatly expanded edition. 2 vols. Berlin-Wilmersdorf: H. Keller. Reprinted, Tutzing: Schneider, 1961.
Blume, Friedrich. 1970. Classic and Romantic Music, translated by M. D. Herter Norton from two essays first published in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. New York: W. W. Norton.
Boyer, Jean-Paul. 1961. "Romantisme". Encyclopédie de la musique, edited by François Michel, with François Lesure and Vladimir Fédorov, 3:585–87. Paris: Fasquelle.
Cavalletti, Carlo. 2000. Chopin and Romantic Music, translated by Anna Maria Salmeri Pherson. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series. (Hardcover) ISBN0-7641-5136-3; ISBN978-0-7641-5136-1.
Dahlhaus, Carl. 1980. Between Romanticism and Modernism: Four Studies in the Music of the Later Nineteenth Century, translated by Mary Whittall in collaboration with Arnold Whittall; also with Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Music and Words", translated by Walter Arnold Kaufmann. California Studies in 19th Century Music 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN0-520-03679-4 (cloth); 0520067487 (pbk). Original German edition, as Zwischen Romantik und Moderne: vier Studien zur Musikgeschichte des späteren 19. Jahrhunderts. Munich: Musikverlag Katzbichler, 1974.
Dahlhaus, Carl. 1985. Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music, translated by Mary Whittall. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-26115-5 (cloth); ISBN0-521-27841-4 (pbk). Original German edition, as Musikalischer Realismus: zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Munich: R. Piper, 1982. ISBN3-492-00539-X.
Dahlhaus, Carl. 1987. Untitled review of Leon Plantinga, Romantic Music: A History of Musical Styles in Nineteenth-Century Europe and Anthology of Romantic Music, translated by Ernest Sanders. 19th Century Music 11, no. 2:194–96.
Einstein, Alfred. 1947. Music in the Romantic Era. New York: W. W. Norton.
Geck, Martin. 1998. "Realismus". Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik begründe von Friedrich Blume, second, revised edition, edited by Ludwig Finscher. Sachteil 8: Quer–Swi, cols. 91–99. Kassel, Basel, London, New York, Prague: Bärenreiter; Suttgart and Weimar: Metzler. ISBN3-7618-1109-8 (Bärenreiter); ISBN3-476-41008-0 (Metzler).
Grout, Donald Jay. 1960. A History of Western Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Lang, Paul Henry. 1941. Music in Western Civilization. New York: W. W. Norton.
Mason, Daniel Gregory. 1936. The Romantic Composers. New York: Macmillan.
Wagner, Richard. 1995. Opera and Drama, translated by William Ashton Ellis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Originally published as volume 2 of Richard Wagner's Prose Works (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1900), a translation from Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen (Leipzig, 1871–73, 1883).
Warrack, John. 2002. "Romanticism". The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-866212-2.
Wehnert, Martin. 1998. "Romantik und romantisch". Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, begründet von Friedrich Blume, second revised edition. Sachteil 8: Quer–Swi, cols. 464–507. Basel, Kassel, London, Munich, and Prague: Bärenreiter; Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler.
