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Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the intellectual, artistic, and literary movement that became prominent in Western culture from about 1798 until 1837.
Romantic composers sought to create music that was individualistic, emotional, dramatic, and often Program music; reflecting broader trends within the movements of Romantic literature, Romantic poetry, art, and philosophy. Romantic music was often ostensibly inspired by (or else sought to evoke) non-musical stimuli, such as nature, (2025). 9780744056334, DK. ISBN 9780744056334 literature, poetry, super-natural elements, or the fine arts. It included features such as increased chromaticism and moved away from traditional forms.
One of the first significant applications of the term to music was in 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry, but it was E. T. A. Hoffmann who established the principles of musical romanticism, in a lengthy review of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony published in 1810, and an 1813 article on Beethoven's instrumental music. In the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to the later works of Joseph Haydn and Mozart. It was Hoffmann's fusion of ideas already associated with the term "Romantic", used in opposition to the restraint and formality of Classical models, that elevated music, and especially instrumental music, to a position of pre-eminence in Romanticism as the art most suited to the expression of emotions. It was also through the writings of Hoffmann and other German authors that German music was brought to the center of musical Romanticism.
Characteristics often attributed to Romanticism:
In music, there is a relatively clear dividing line in musical structure and form following the death of Beethoven. Whether one counts Beethoven as a "romantic" composer or not, the breadth and power of his work gave rise to a feeling that the classical sonata form and, indeed, the structure of the symphony, sonata and string quartet had been exhausted.
Another development that affected music was the rise of the middle class. Composers before this period lived under the patronage of the aristocracy. Many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music. The Romantic composers, on the other hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers, who had not necessarily had any music lessons. Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar, showed the world that there should be "no segregation of musical tastes" and that the "purpose was to write music that was to be heard".
"The music composed by Romantic composers" reflected "the importance of the individual" by being composed in ways that were often less restrictive and more often focused on the composer's skills as a person than prior means of writing music.
Frédéric Chopin was one of the first composers to incorporate nationalistic elements into his compositions. Joseph Machlis states, "Poland's struggle for freedom from tsarist rule aroused the national poet in Poland. ... Examples of musical nationalism abound in the output of the Romantic era. The folk idiom is prominent in the Mazurkas of Chopin". His mazurkas and polonaises are particularly notable for their use of nationalistic rhythms. Moreover, "During World War II the Nazis forbade the playing of ... Chopin's Polonaises in Warsaw because of the powerful symbolism residing in these works".
Other composers, such as Bedřich Smetana, wrote pieces that musically described their homelands. In particular, Smetana's Vltava is a symphonic poem about the Moldau River in the modern-day Czech Republic, the second in a cycle of six nationalistic symphonic poems collectively titled Má vlast (My Homeland). Smetana also composed eight nationalist operas, all of which remain in the repertory. They established him as the first Czech nationalist composer as well as the most important Czech opera composer of the generation who came to prominence in the 1860s.
Italy experienced the heyday of the Belcanto opera in early Romanticism, associated with the names of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini. While Rossini's comic operas are primarily known today, often only through their rousing overtures, Donizetti and Bellini predominate tragic content. The most important Italian instrumental composer of this time was the legendary "devil's violinist" Niccolò Paganini. In France, on the one hand, the light Opéra comique developed, its representatives are François-Adrien Boieldieu, Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, and Adolphe Adam, the latter also known for his ballets. One can also quote the famous eccentric composer and harpist Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (seven operas). In addition, the Grand opéra came up with pompous stage sets, ballets and large choirs. Her first representative was Gaspare Spontini, her most important Giacomo Meyerbeer.
Music development has now also taken an upswing in other European countries. The Irishman John Field composed the first Nocturnes for piano, Friedrich Kuhlau worked in Denmark and the Swede Franz Berwald wrote four very idiosyncratic symphonies.
Franz Liszt, who came from the German minority in Hungary, was on the one hand a swarmed piano virtuoso, but on the other hand also laid the foundation for the progressive "New German School" with his harmoniously bold symphonic poems. Also committed to program music was the technique of the Idée fixe (leitmotif) of the Frenchman Hector Berlioz, who also significantly expanded the orchestra. Felix Mendelssohn was again more oriented towards the classicist formal language and became a role model especially for composers such as the Dane Niels Wilhelm Gade. In opera, the operas of Otto Nicolai and Friedrich von Flotow still dominated in Germany when Richard Wagner wrote his first romantic operas. The early works of Giuseppe Verdi were also still based on the Belcanto ideal of the older generation. In France, the Opéra lyrique was developed by Ambroise Thomas and Charles Gounod. Russian music found its own language in the operas of Mikhail Glinka and Alexander Dargomyzhsky.
The second phase of high romanticism runs in parallel with the style of realism in literature and the visual arts. In the second half of his creation, Wagner now developed his Leitmotif, with which he holds together the four-part ring of the Nibelungen, composed without arias; the orchestra is treated symphonically, the chromaticism reaches its extreme in Tristan and Isolde. A whole crowd of disciples is under the influence of Wagner's progressive ideas, among them, for example, Peter Cornelius. On the other hand, an opposition arose from numerous more conservative composers, to whom Johannes Brahms, who sought a logical continuation of classical music in symphony, chamber music and song, became a model of scale due to the depth of the sensation and a masterful composition technique. Among others, Robert Volkmann, Friedrich Kiel, Carl Reinecke, Max Bruch, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, and Hermann Goetz are included in this party.
In addition, some important loners came on the scene, among whom Anton Bruckner particularly stands out. Although a Wagner supporter, his clear-form style differs significantly from that of that composer. For example, the block-based instrumentation of Bruckner's symphonies is derived from the registers of the organ. In the ideological struggle against Wagner's adversaries, he was portrayed by his followers as a counterpart of Brahms. Felix Draeseke, who originally wrote "future music in classical form" starting from Liszt, also stands between the parties in composition.
Verdi also reached the way to a well-composed Italian opera, albeit in a different way than Wagner. His immense charisma made all other composers fade in Italy, including Amilcare Ponchielli and Arrigo Boito, who was also the librettist of his late operas Otello and Falstaff. In France, on the other hand, the light muse triumphed first in the form of the socio-critical operettas of Jacques Offenbach. Lyrical opera found its climax in the works of Jules Massenet, while in the Carmen by Georges Bizet, realism came for the first time. Louis Théodore Gouvy built a stylistic bridge to German music. The operas, symphonies and chamber music works of the extremely versatile Camille Saint-Saëns were, as were the ballets of Léo Delibes, more tradition-oriented. New orchestra colors were found in the compositions of Édouard Lalo and Emmanuel Chabrier. The Belgian-born César Franck was accompanied by a revival of organ music, which was continued by Charles-Marie Widor, later Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire.
A specific national romanticism had by now emerged in almost all European countries. The national Russian current started by Glinka was continued in Russia by the "Group of Five": Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and César Cui. More western oriented were Anton Rubinstein and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose ballets and symphonies gained great popularity. Bedřich Smetana founded Czech Republic national music with his operas and the Symphony poems oriented towards Liszt. The symphonies, concerts and chamber music works of Antonín Dvořák, on the other hand, have Brahms as a model. In Poland, Stanisław Moniuszko was the leading opera composer, in Hungary Ferenc Erkel. Norway produced its best-known composers with Edvard Grieg, creator of lyrical piano works, songs and orchestral works such as the Peer-Gynt Suite; England's voice resonated with the Brahms-oriented Hubert Parry and symphonist, as well as the comic operas of Arthur Sullivan.
In Italy, opera still dominated during this time. This is where verism developed, an exaggerated realism that could easily turn into the striking and melodramatic on the opera stage. Despite their extensive work, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni, Francesco Cilea, and Umberto Giordano have only become known through one opera at a time. Only Giacomo Puccini's work has been completely preserved in the repertoire of the opera houses, although he was also often accused of sentimentality. Despite some veristic works, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was mainly considered a revival of the Opera buffa. Ferruccio Busoni, a temporarily defender of modern classicity living in Germany, left behind a rather conventional, little played work. Thus, instrumental music actually only found its place in Italian music again with Ottorino Respighi, who was influenced by Impressionism.
The term Impressionism comes from painting, and like there, it also developed in music in France. In the works of Claude Debussy, the structures dissolved into the finest nuances of rhythm, dynamics and timbre. This development was prepared in the work of Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson and above all in the songs and chamber music of Gabriel Fauré. All subsequent French composers were more or less influenced by Impressionism. The most important among them was Maurice Ravel, a brilliant orchestral virtuoso. Albert Roussel first processed exotic topics before he anticipated Neoclassical tendencies like Ravel. Gabriel Pierné, Paul Dukas, Charles Koechlin, and Florent Schmitt also dealt with symbolic and exotic-oriental substances. The loner Erik Satie was the creator of spun piano pieces and idol of the next generation. Nevertheless, Impressionism is often attributed to the epoch of modernity, if not seen as its own epoch. Hubert Parry and the Irishman Charles Villiers Stanford initiated late Romanticism in England, which had its first important representative in Edward Elgar. While he revived the oratorio and wrote symphonies and concerts, Frederick Delius devoted himself to particularly small orchestral images with his own variant of Impressionism. Ethel Smyth wrote mainly operas and chamber music in a style that reminded Brahms. Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose works were inspired by English folk songs and Renaissance music, became the most important symphonist of his country. Gustav Holst incorporated Greek mythology and Indian philosophy into his work. Very idiosyncratic composer personalities in the transition to modernity were also Havergal Brian and Frank Bridge.
In Russia, Alexander Glazunov decorated his traditional composition technique with a colorful orchestral palette. The mystic Alexander Scriabin dreamed of a synthesis of colors, sound and scents. Sergei Rachmaninov wrote melancholic-pathetic piano pieces and concertos full of intoxicating virtuosity, while the piano works of Nikolai Medtner are more lyrical.
In the Czech Republic, Leoš Janáček, deeply rooted in the music of his homeland, found new areas of expression with the development of the language melody in his operas. The local sounds are also unmistakable in the music of Zdeněk Fibich, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Vítězslav Novák, and Josef Suk. On the other hand, there is a slightly morbid exoticism and later classicist measure in the work of the Polish Karol Szymanowski. The most important Danish composer is Carl Nielsen, known for symphonies and concerts. Even more dominant in his country is the position of the Finn Jean Sibelius, also a symphonist of melancholy expressiveness and clear line design. In Sweden, the works of Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Wilhelm Stenhammar, and Hugo Alfvén show a typical Nordic conservatism, and the Norwegian Christian Sinding also composed traditionally.
The music of Spain also increased in popularity again after a long time, first in the piano works of Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados, then in the operas, ballets and orchestral works of Manuel de Falla, influenced by Impressionism.
Finally, the first important representatives of the United States also appeared with Edward MacDowell and Amy Beach. But even the work of Charles Ives belonged only partly to late Romanticism - much of it was already radically modern and pointed far into the 20th century.
This group also pushed for the development and innovation of the symphonic poem, thematic transformation in musical form, and radical changes in tonality and harmony.
Other important members of this movement includes the critic Richard Pohl and composers Felix Draeseke, Julius Reubke, Karl Klindworth, William Mason, and Peter Cornelius.
They believed in continuing along the footsteps of Ludwig van Beethoven of composing the Symphony in the classical mold, though they would implement their own musical language.Bonds, New Grove (2001), 24:835, 837.
The most prominent members of this circle were Johannes Brahms, Joseph Joachim, Clara Schumann, and the Leipzig Conservatoire, which had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn.
Led by Mily Balakirev the group's main members also consisted of César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.
This group was founded by Russian music publisher philanthropist Mitrofan Belyayev. The two most important composers of this group were Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. Members also included Vladimir Stasov, Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Ossovsky, Witold Maliszewski, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Nikolay Sokolov, and Alexander Winkler.
Some notable movements to form in response to Romanticism's collapse include Expressionism with Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School being its main promoters and Primitivism with Igor Stravinsky being its most influential composer.
Finally, some will also tell a story throughout their symphonies; like Franz Liszt, they will create the symphonic poem, a new musical genre, usually composed of a single movement and inspired by a theme, character or literary text. Since the symphonic poem is articulated around a leitmotiv (musical motif to identify a character, the hero for example), it is to be compared to music with a symphonic program.
Finally, the concerto will allow instrumentalist composers to reveal their virtuosity, such as Niccolò Paganini on the violin, and Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt on the piano.
Frédéric Chopin has set the most famous form of the nocturnes. He wrote 21, from 1827 to 1846. First published in series of three (opus 9 and 15), they are then grouped in pairs (opus 27, 32, 37, 48, 55, 62).
During the second part of the 19th century, Georges Bizet will revolutionize opera with Carmen: "local color based on the use of Spanish songs and dances" according to Nietzsche, it is "a ray of Mediterranean light dissipating the fog of the Wagnerian ideal". Interest in "local color" works is confirmed with Lakmé by Léo Delibes, and Samson and Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns. The most productive French composer of operas of the last part of the century was Jules Massenet composing works such as Manon, Werther, and Thaïs.
Jacques Offenbach, who composed Les Contes d'Hoffmann, established himself as the master of French opera-comique of the 19th century, inventing a new genre, the French opéra bouffe, which later was confused with the operetta.
At the beginning of the 20th century, romanticism in France was gradually abandoned in favor of other currents such as Impressionism or symbolism, carried in particular by Claude Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande (1902).
Richard Wagner, from the Der fliegende Holländer, introduces the leitmotiv and the "cyclical melody" process. He revolutionizes opera by duration and instrumental power. His major work, Tetralogy is one of the summits of German opera. He creates the "musical drama" in which the orchestra now becomes the protagonist in the same way as the characters. In 1876, the Bayreuth Festival was created dedicated to the exclusive representation of Wagner's works.
Wagner's influence continues in virtually all operas, even in Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck. The dominant figure is then Richard Strauss, who uses orchestration and vocal techniques similar to those of Wagner in Salome and Elektra while developing his own path. Der Rosenkavalier is the work of Strauss that had the most flamboyant success at the time.
However, the face of Italian opera is Giuseppe Verdi whose Nabucco's slave choir is a very important hymn to all of Italy. The trilogy formed by Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata are among his major works but he reaches the peak of his art with Otello and Falstaff at the end of his career. He has infuled his works with unparalleled dramatic vigour and rhythmic vitality.
In the second part of the 19th century, Giacomo Puccini, Verdi's undisputed successor, transcends realism into verism. La Bohème, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, and Turandot are melodic operas loaded with emotion.
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