Welcome again to Classical Music 101! On this collection, we’re breaking down the world of classical music to make it approachable for the typical joe.
In our final article, we toured the Classical period, a time when composers moved away from the intricate, layered sounds of the Baroque interval to embrace readability, steadiness, and melody.
Right this moment, we’re leaping into the Romantic period — a interval when music went from orderly to emotional, from restrained to downright passionate. If the Classical period was a interval that may be symbolized by symmetrical, pristine Greek pillars and temples, the Romantic period might be visualized as darkish, mysterious German forests and crumbling, moss-covered castles. Artwork critic Walter Pater received to the essence of the period when he wrote that Romanticism is “the addition of strangeness to magnificence.”
Let’s dig in.
The Traits of Romantic Period Music
The Romantic period encompassed practically everything of the nineteenth century. As in earlier musical eras, the music of the Romantic period was closely influenced by the cultural shifts that occurred alongside it. This was the interval that gave beginning to philosophers like Nietzsche and Emerson and poets like Byron and Wordsworth. Romantic philosophers and writers reacted in opposition to the rationalism of the Enlightenment in favor of an emphasis on creativeness, individuality, emotion, and thriller.
As an alternative of focusing their seek for inspiration on historic Greece and Rome, Romantic artists additionally turned to the medieval and the Gothic, the supernatural and the elegant. They wished to attach with forces bigger than themselves and notably discovered these energies in wild landscapes. Romantic thinkers believed that nature was a conduit to overwhelming experiences of awe — moments that combined magnificence and worry and elevated life into the transcendent.
Romantic composers sought to create and convey those self same emotions via music.
The shift from the Classical to the Romantic period wasn’t an in a single day break however a gradual transformation during which music more and more integrated these traits:
Emotional depth. Whereas Classical music aimed for construction and readability, Romantic music dove into the depths of the human expertise, breaking conventional kinds to create music that was emotional and dramatic.
Composers of the Romantic period weren’t afraid to crank up the fervour, sorrow, and pleasure. They wished listeners to really feel the music, whether or not it was delicate and tender or daring and thunderous. With richer harmonies, longer melodies, and higher dynamic vary, Romantic music may seize an entire world of emotion in a single piece.
Round 1844, French composer Hector Berlioz described his response to the visceral, shifting impact of listening to Romantic music in a quintessentially Romantic manner:
I really feel a scrumptious pleasure during which the reasoning school has no share; the behavior of study arises spontaneously later and brings forth admiration . . . emotion, growing proportionately with the power and loftiness of the composer’s inspiration, quickly produces a wierd commotion in my circulation, my arteries throb violently; tears . . . point out an advancing situation that’s removed from having reached its peak. In such instances, there are spasmodic muscular contractions, a trembling of all of the limbs, a complete numbness of toes and arms, a partial paralysis of the optical and auditory nerves: I can not see, I barely hear; vertigo . . . a half swoon.
Individuality and private expression. Romantics extolled the worth of human beings, which they believed to have infinite, godlike potential. Romantic composers noticed themselves as singular people and embraced types that had been intensely their very own. As an alternative of becoming into a specific mould, every composer created music that mirrored his distinctive imaginative and prescient.
Beethoven, who is taken into account the daddy of Romanticism, infused his Classical works with private ardour and self-expression and epitomized the concept of the Romantic genius when he wrote in his diary that he wished to “seize destiny by the throat.”
Larger and bolder orchestras. Elevated effectivity in instrument-making throughout the Romantic period allowed for orchestras to develop in dimension and scope. Whereas a Classical ensemble might need had thirty to forty musicians, a Romantic orchestra had 100+. (Most of the nice orchestras that exist at the moment, in truth, started throughout the Romantic period.)
Composers used this expanded palette to create fuller music with extra dramatic contrasts, vivid texture, and the facility to convey the dimensions of human feelings, from intimate whisper-like moments to explosive, all-encompassing soundscapes.
The rise of program music. Whereas Classical music aimed to be “absolute” — music for music’s sake — Romantic composers started to compose “program music,” which informed a narrative or painted an image. Impressed by literature, nature, and legend, they created items that might characterize a thunderstorm, a love story, or a folktale.
Nationalism and folklore. In the course of the Romantic period, composers started to attract on their cultural heritage so as to add an area taste to their music. Romantic composers like Smetana and Dvořák integrated folks melodies and rhythms from their homelands, celebrating their nationwide identities in sound. The outcome was music that felt deeply rooted in a selected place and folks — a major departure from the cosmopolitan tone of the Classical period.
The supernatural, the macabre, and the mysterious. The Romantic period had a fascination with the eerie and mysterious. Composers like Wagner and Berlioz embraced this darkish facet, creating music that evokes haunted landscapes and supernatural forces. Within the Romantic period, magnificence wasn’t simply one thing to be gently sighed over; it was a power that might elicit a shiver of worry.
Key Romantic Period Composers
The Romantic period produced a ton of nice composers, however listed here are 5 that offers you a superb overview of the interval’s ethos and output:
Franz Schubert (1797-1828). If you wish to expertise the essence of Romantic music, look no additional than Franz Schubert. Schubert was an Austrian composer identified for his lieder — German artwork songs that captured poetry in music. His melodies had been haunting and his harmonies wealthy. Schubert’s music is like studying a Gothic novel; it’s intimate and private, but darkly stunning. Tragically, he died younger, however he left behind gems like Der Erlkönig, an exciting music a couple of supernatural creature pursuing a baby. Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, also called the Unfinished Symphony, showcases his hauntingly stunning expressiveness.
Take a hearken to Symphony No. 8:
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). Hector Berlioz was a French composer and one of many first to embrace “program music” — composing items primarily based on narratives or themes. His Symphonie fantastique is known for its storytelling and drama, chronicling an artist’s wild, psychedelic journey fueled by obsessive love. The finale’s “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” is spine-tingling stuff.
Give Symphonie fantastique a pay attention and put together for a wild journey:
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849). Born in Poland, however spending a lot of his life in Paris, Frederic Chopin was the poet of the piano and composed virtually completely for that instrument. Chopin’s items are tender, lyrical, and technically demanding. Works like his Nocturnes and Etudes reveal an unmatched sensitivity, whereas his Mazurkas and Polonaises echo his Polish heritage.
Try Nocturne in E-flat Main, Op. 9, No. 2 for a glimpse into his dreamy, intricate world:
Richard Wagner (1813-1883). A German composer who took opera to an epic stage, Richard Wagner was one the of the Romantic period’s most controversial composers as a result of his anti-semitic beliefs. He didn’t simply write operas; he created “music dramas” that lasted for hours and had been full of complicated themes, legendary characters, and infinite musical concepts. His Ring Cycle, a collection of 4 operas, is over 15 hours lengthy and tells a story of gods, heroes, and betrayal. Wagner’s use of leitmotifs (musical themes representing characters or concepts) was revolutionary and have become a staple in movie scoring.
Take a hearken to essentially the most well-known of Wagner’s works, “Journey of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). If there’s one Romantic composer whose music you in all probability acknowledge with out even realizing it, it’s Tchaikovsky. This Russian composer had a present for creating sweeping, heart-on-your-sleeve melodies. His Nutcracker Suite and Swan Lake are family names, however his symphonies and concertos are equally highly effective. Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture captures the fervour and tragedy of Shakespeare’s story with unimaginable emotional weight.
You’ve in all probability heard Nutcracker Suite earlier than, so give Romeo and Juliet a go for a style of one thing totally different:
The Romantic period started a shift to music pushed by the subjective, nevertheless it was nonetheless restrained by the types of previous musical eras. Within the twentieth century, Fashionable composers would take away these classical requirements utterly and create music that was summary and bizarre. To their interval is the place we’ll flip in our subsequent and remaining installment within the collection.
Learn the remainder of the collection:
