Classical music notes Romantic Era(1850 - 1920 approx

The Romantic period moved into more Artistic expression and freedom where they felt Classical had restricted them.

Rather than the harmony(s) being the most prominent feature the melody became more dominant also there was more elements of folk music being used to help place a sense of identity. There was more musical and compositional techniques emerging at this time such as chromaticism, elongating the length of a piece and altering forms. New harmonies emerged and tonal palletes were made. The effect of the chromaticism allowed preivous rules to be disregarded to an extent and new colour was born in both harmony and melody

At this point in time composers and conductors werent only just experimenting with bigger or new instrumentation in the orchestra but also getting new sounds from the existing ensemble with both new arranging techniques and physical tech on the instrument. As new forms were emerging such as the symphonic poem was was a pure instrumental piece but with had emphasis on artistry and told a story. One other was the art song which was a VOCAL musical work with the emphasis on being a SONG they were accompanied by few instrumentalists. These lieds placed importance and stress on getting the point of the text and the symbolic meanings.

Similar to opera its popularity grew and the focus was on storys and dramas of the day. Also as new exoctic lands were discovered new themes were created and fantasy was introduced (in small doses) The Romantic period also introduced great emphasis on the technically proficient and virtuosi instrumentalists and singers