ROMANTIC (1820-1900)

“Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.” – Maurice Ravel

THE SOCIETY

  • The primacy of the individual was of ultimate importance.

  • Self-indulgence lead to hyper-nationalism in music and society.

 THE ROLE OF MUSIC

  • Music was the ultimate art: unbounded.

  • The movers and shakers of Romanticism believed that the future of music was with merging with literary arts and that music served a deeper purpose than just music for music’s sake.

  • Music should express the inner world of the composer.

MUSICAL STYLE

  • Romantic music was all about the glorification of emotions—especially love.  This leads to a hyper-personal, self-indulgent style.

  • Other characteristics included nostalgia for a mysterious past, an extraordinary enthusiasm for nature, fantasy, and the primacy of spontaneous emotion and emotional expression.

 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENTS

  • The structure-centered symphony of the Classical era gave way to symphonic music that “painted” a picture: program music.

  • The orchestra grew to enormous proportions.

  • Composers’ expectations for the audience’s patience were extreme.  The symphony of the Classical era lasted 15-20 minutes; the Romantic symphony typically lasted 30-40 minutes, but some could push 90 minutes.

  • The harmonic simplicity of Classicism stretched further and further towards the breaking point over the course of the Romantic era.

  • The solo concerto continued to gain in importance.  The soloist represented the heroic individual often battling against the world (represented by the orchestra).

  • Virtuosity reached new heights. 

COMPOSERS   

FUN FACTS

  • The year Franz Schubert was 17, he wrote 146 songs—yes, that’s nearly one new song every two days.  He was also only 5’1,” which earned him the nickname “the Little Mushroom.”

  • Hector Berlioz started college as a medical student, but the first time he viewed cadavers, he was so terrified that he leapt out of the window, ran home, and didn’t get out of bed for days.  (For even better stories, check out his memoir.)

  • As part of Robert Schumann’s piano training, he decided to strengthen his ring fingers by creating a series of weights and pulleys which he attached to the ceiling.  Unfortunately, this contraption seriously injured his finger.  His doctor prescribed an “animal bath” treatment in which he was to put his hand in the entrails of a dead animal.  It didn’t work, and his career as a pianist was over.  (Medicine had issues back then.)

  • Gustav Mahler began composing at age 6.  His first composition was titled, Polka with Introductory Funeral March.  Would you be worried if your child did that?

  • Brahms was a late bloomer physically.  His voice didn’t change until he was 24, and his beard didn’t grow until his mid-30s.

  • Remember how, after Bach died, most of his music fell into obscurity?  It was Felix Mendelssohn who, at age 20, conducted a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and unknowingly began the “Bach Revival.”