(ART)Romanticism Music (1820s - 1900)

"Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in the way of feeling." - Charles Baudelaire

1.The inaugural moment of modernity
2.The beginning of a tradition of resistance to the Enlightenment
(a counter-enlightenment)


*In 1810 E.T.A. Hoffmann called Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven the three "Romantic Composers." However, technically, Mozart and Haydn are considered Classical composers, and by most standards, Beethoven represents the start of the musical Romantic period.


(I honestly don't like this)

*The traditional modern discussion of the music of Romanticism includes elements, such as the growing use of folk music, which are also directly related to the broader current of Romantic nationalism in the arts.
(Romantic nationalism)



In the contemporary music culture, the romantic musician followed a public career, depending on sensitive middle-class audiences rather than on a courtly patron, as had been the case with earlier musicians and composers. Public persona characterized a new generation of virtuosi who made their way as soloists, epitomized in the concert tours of Paganini and Liszt.




Early nineteenth century developments in instrumental technology—iron frames for pianos, wound metal strings for string instruments—enabled louder dynamics, more varied tone colours, and the potential for sensational virtuosity. Such developments swelled the length of pieces, introduced programmatic titles, and created new genres such as the free-standing concert overture or tone poem, the piano fantasia, nocturne and rhapsody, and the virtuosic concerto, which became central to musical romanticism.

It is the period of 1815 to 1848 which must be regarded as the true age of Romanticism in music - the age of the last compositions of
1.Beethoven (d. 1827)
2.Schubert (d. 1828)
3.Schumann (d. 1856)
4.Chopin (d.1849)
5.Berlioz
6.Richard Wagner
7.Paganini (d. 1840)
8.young Liszt
9.Thalberg.
10.Mendelssohn (d. 1847)