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Similarities between classical and Romantic music
Comparing classical music to modern
Comparing classical music to modern
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I choose the music of Claude Debussy and how the sound of his music differs from other the music of the romantic era.
One of the main reasons that Claude Debussy music differed from the music of romantic era is because it was coming from the start of a different era. The romantic era music was a rebellion. The music and more of a rebellion statement and in government, religious and social ideas. Their music was very creative and glorified imagination emotions individualism in nature in their work. So the sound of romantic era music reflected what they were going through.
For example, with Franz Schubert’s Erlkonig it shows the emotions that were glorified during the romantic era. From the beginning starts off with a strong and furious opening
Debussy is one of the 20th century composer who continued to work in forms and musical language that derived from the 19th century. Debussy also experimented with forms, tonality, and orchestration.
Romantic music was the favored genre of the nineteenth century. There were a variety of elements that influenced romantic compositions during this time - some factors were nationalism, pride, money and social constraints. There was also an introduction of newer, move varied orchestration. also, one characteristic that implied a work of music was romantic was that there was a tension in the climax rather than a release. One composer that stood out during this period was Johannes Brahms, a traditionalist who wanted to honor German musical customs while creating innovative romantic symphonies. Brahms continued the eighteenth century classical traditions of Beethoven in the four symphonies he composed in the nineteenth century by making them classical in structure but romantic in tone. Composed in 1883, Brahms' Third symphony in F major, stands out as one of his significant pieces, composed at a time when he was growing into musical maturity. The first movement of this piece had a special place within 19th century symphonic tradition. it opens with an uplifting theme, which recurs all the way up to the coda with careful restraint that is characteristic of Brahms' classical approach within romantic contexts.
For almost half a century, the musical world was defined by order and esteemed the form of music more highly than the emotion that lay behind it. However, at the turn of the 19th century, romantic music began to rise in popularity. Lasting nearly a century, romantic music rejected the ideas of the classical era and instead encouraged composers to embrace the idea of emotionally driven music. Music was centered around extreme emotions and fantastical stories that rejected the idea of reason. This was the world that Clara Wieck (who would later marry the famous composer, Robert Schumann) was born into. Most well known for being a famous concert pianist, and secondly for being a romantic composer, Clara intimately knew the workings of romantic music which would not only influence Clara but would later become influenced by her progressive compositions and performances, as asserted by Bertita Harding, author of Concerto: The Glowing Story of Clara Schumann (Harding, 14). Clara’s musical career is an excellent example of how romantic music changed from virtuosic pieces composed to inspire awe at a performer’s talent, to more serious and nuanced pieces of music that valued the emotion of the listener above all else.
2. The aspect of Claude Debussy's music were different from the music that preceded it were melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, and timbral that organized around qualities of patterns and relationships. Claude Debussy was the first composer to use alternative musical concept that were based on symmetrical patterns and structure and highly weakened directional motion of the music, and he had a ambiguous sense of organizing tonality.
(3) In the Romantic era the compositions were very expressive and inventive. The Romantic composers experimented with already existing forms, and dramatic expressiveness. This grew out of the improvement of instruments and the newly invented genres (Britannica). The limits in music composing were pushed with great contrast in the music. There were tempo changes in the music, difference in dynamics that ranged from pppp to ffff, either gradual or sudden, for a great emotional effect. Chromatic harmony was a popular, new way of making dissonance and unstable chords, prolonging the resolution of dissonance, using tones from the chromatic scale to create tension and unpredictability in the music (“OnMusic”). Other traits of the Romantic style of music were individualism and self-expression. Therefore it is possible to hear who the composer of the piece is (An Appreciation 257, 259). Compositions could be either absolute, which meant that the music was not based on a story or a text, or it could be program, which meant that the music was based on a story or a text. During the Romantic era, the composers mostly preferred program music. Nationalism and exoticism in the music was also common. The composers used dances and rhythms that were common...
There were two great composers in the romantic music period. One was Frédéric Chopin and the other was Franz Liszt. They had great talent and composed excellent pieces that were really hard to play. These composers also had an interesting childhood.
Impressionism is another important one that was actually not just in music. It was a trait that could be found in pieces of art as well. Impressionist artists could be considered realists. They would see and understand the art in a world of reality. The works of these artists and composers takes imagination to grasp. They are works that are said to have no boundaries. The work of impressionism started with the French in the late 19th century. An example of an impressionist composer would be Debussy. His works are very hard to follow and have quite sounds.
10 By “Icon” and “Iconize” I mean the process of associating a musical object with an external object, or a cultural image. Debussy creates musical textures which correspond to certain concrete things, such as the sea, the snow, etc. - a highly luxurious and sophisticated version of word-painting. That is the reason why his music can be conceived as programmatic, just like the expressionists, except he deals with nature rather than personal drama.
Vivaldi's music is particularly innovative as he gave brightness to the formal and the rhythmic structure of concertos. He repeatedly looked for harmonic contrasts, creating innovative melodies and themes. Vivaldi’ main goal was to create a musical piece meant to be appreciated by the wide public, and not only by an intellectual minority. The joyful appearance of his music reveals a transmittable joy of composing. These are among the causes of the vast popularity of his music. This popularity soon made him famous also in countries like France, at the time very closed into its national schemes. He is considered one of the authors that brought Baroque music to evolve into an impressionist style.
The music of Claude Debussy and the painting of J.M.W. Turner are, in most people's minds, two entirely different things. However, each man was considered the founder of impressionism in his own artform. Impressionism was a movement in late 19th century European art, which was a reflection of the realizations in physics about the properties of light. Turner's atmospheric paintings and Debussy's tone poems, although different forms of expression, are interesting to historians in their similarities of color, subject, and atmosphere.
Once Claude Debussy stated that, “I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.” As a leader of the Modern Classical Music movement, he believed wholeheartedly in departing from tradition. Many also titled him as the father of the musical Impressionistic movement. His complex life, free-spirited music, and atheistic religion made up the personal life of Claude Debussy.
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).
Baudelaire had a strong influence on Romanticism. Romanticism is a literary and art movement that occurred during the late 18th century that emphasized imagination, emotion, and love of nature. Baudelaire really liked Romanticism although he found himself “incapable of being moved by vegetation.” During the time he wrote “salon de 1846”, Baudelaire alleged that the ideal was represented by Romanticism. In “Salon de 1846” he wrote, "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling" (Galitz). Baudelaire felt that the beauty in Romanticism was that artists and writers were looking inward to represent things in their own personal way while using nature as an inspiration for that self-exploration. In his book, Baudelaire: Selected Writing on Art and Artist, Baudelaire wrote, "Romanticism lies neither in the subjects an artist chooses nor in his exact copying of truth, but in the way he feels" (Baudelaire 52). Through this states how he views Romanticism and what attracts him to the movement. Throughout his life and for many years to come, Baudelaire had a significant inf...
Romantic music was a different form of music that didn’t focus on religion, political or social tendencies. According to Lawrence Kramer the author of the book Why Classical Music Still Matters, “historically, the ideal of romantic love, tended to substitute for broader schemes of political, social, vocational, or religious meaning, as part of an increasing general tendency to rely on private rather that public schemes of fulfillment.” Meaning that romanticism had an impact on music in which religion, political and social meanings were substituted by a new form that rely on private situations instead of general public situations. This music form influenced the most in modern music because most of them are not based on
“Lecture 21 - Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel and Monet.” Performance by Professor Wright, MUSI 112: Listening to Music, Yale University