The term Romantic is “Term applied to music of the 19th century. Romantic music had looser and more extended forms, greater experimentation with harmony and texture, richly expressive and memorable melodies, improved musical instruments, an interest in musical nationalism, and a view of music as a moral force, in which there was a link between the artist’ inner lives and the world around them” (Burkholder, p. A16). With Romanticism, composers looked for ways to express intense emotions through their music. At this time, many people were proud of their countries and wanted to reflect their country in their music and art. During this time, there was war and the inflation caused the aristocracy to decrease and the middle class to increase. Because of this, there was less patronage and musicians were now making money from performances or teaching music. Composers began to specialize in one medium. Most of the music during this time was for home or public performance and more people started to play piano. The music publishing grew since there was a higher demand for amateur music. A new musical idiom came about when composers wanted to make music appealing to amateur performers. The new compositions used new elements such as tuneful melodies with appealing accompaniment, little counterpoint, strong musical imagery, national or exotic associations, familiar chords and progressions interspersed with dramatic or colorful harmonic contrast, predictable four-bar phrasings, simple songlike forms, rhythms that were relatively uniform and evocative titles among other things (Burkholder, p. 602). The early Romantic style had innovations in harmony including a greater use of non-harmonic tones, unexpected progressions, chromatic chord... ... middle of paper ... ...n shaping the music and a lot of the music expressed emotions in many different and new ways. Their music had experiments with harmonies and textures, more forms, and new treatments of melodies. There were many new compositions that were aimed towards amateurs. There were also a lot of new genres that came about during this time. Because a lot of the composers during this time were so great, they influenced composers in the twentieth century and so on. Works Cited Arnold, Denis, ed. The New Oxford Companion to Music. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983. Print. Arnold, Denis. ed. The New Oxford Companion to Music. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983. Print. Burkholder, J. P., Donald J. Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. Eight ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print. Tovey, Donald F. The Forms of Music. New York: Meridian, 1959. Print.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)9: 708-709
Subotnik, Rose Rosengard. Developing Variations: Style and Ideology in Western Music. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)16: 752-774
Everett, W. A. and Laird, P. A. (2008) The Cambridge Companion to the musical. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Page 332.
Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. A history of western music. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Megill, Donald D., David W. Megill, and Jeffrey Ainis. "Lesson Eleven Musical Themes and Developments Topics 1-5." Music Appreciation Online. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 2007. 101. Print.
Reich, Steve. Writings about Music. Halifax: Nova Scotia Coll.of Art & Design P., 1974. Print.
Pogue, David and Scott Speck. “Classical Music for Dummies.” Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1997. Print.
...f. Th.Reinach, La musique grecque, Payot, Paris, 1926; C.Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, W.W.Norton & Comp. Inc. New York, 1969.
Bonds, Mark. "Composer Profile." A History of Music in Western Culture. Third. London: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
The term romantic first appeared at sometime during the latter half of the 18th Century, meaning in quite literal English, "romance-like", usually referring to the character of mythical medieval romances. The first significant jump was in literature, where writing became far more reliant on imagination and the freedom of thought and expression, in around 1750. Subsequent movements then began to follow in Music and Art, where the same kind of imagination and expression began to appear. In this essay I shall be discussing the effect that this movement had on music, the way it developed, and the impact that it had on the future development of western music.
Musicians of this time took their cues from the world of literature that was leaning toward the fanciful and exotic. Poetry and literature of the early nineteen century was filled with strong emotion and this was hard to produce in a musical form. Improvement to musical instruments allowed composers to express these feelings with new techniques.
Pogue, David and Scott Speak. Classical Music for Dummies. Foster City, California: IDG Worldwide, 1997. Print
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).
...is expressed through emotion, imagination, and individuality. The period of Romanticism opened up a new Era to the world and continued that throughout other time periods. The art of self expression had become a new staple in western countries. The distinct qualities of romantic music made it simple to identify any artist and their work. The characteristics described through romantic music inspired composers to create a new form of the art important to them. Romanticism is one of the first ways artists stressed to reach their audiences through deep emotional appeals. Events in history were not always seen as a tragedies but as inspirations for pieces of music. Elements of music, acclaimed musicians lifestyles, famous composers, and the events in history that inspired these composers all are the contributing factors to the influential period of the Romantic Era.