Carlos Nolasco - 21541190

Romantic Period in Music

In this essay I will be talking a little bit about some periods in music, but, the
main period we will be talking about is the Romantic period.
I will be explain how music evolved until get to this point. I will also talk
about some of the most populars composer of this periods and how they
were differents from each other.
Just to introduce I will provide a small fragment about what romantic music
is:
Romantic music: is a term denoting an era of Western classical music that
began in the late 18th or early 19th century. It was related to Romanticism,
the European artistic and literary movement that arose in the second half of
the 18th century, and Romantic music in particular dominated the Romantic
Movement in Germany.
One of the characteristics of the romantic music is the innovation.
What I mean with innovation?
In previous periods, music used to be simple, not easy to play but with
repetitive structures and more easy to understand. The Period before the
romantic was the classic were 2 of the most known composers appeared, I
am talking about Ludwing Van Beethoven and Amadeus Mozart with
works like the fifth symphony and nocturne serenade, in that period like I
said music was simple, some of them composed with an anger character,
other composed with a happy mood, composers were able to create some
amazing music works following some patterns.
In romantic period this changed. Music was more impressive, for musicians
represented new challenges, develop new techniques, try to understand new
music and figure it very well to transmit it to who will listen to it. During the
Romantic period, the virtuoso became extremely popular. A virtuoso could
be any musical performer, ranging from singers to violinists. Most composers
were also virtuoso performers, mostly pianists, so it was inevitable that the
music they wrote was extremely difficult to play.
Some of that music was actually considered as evil music, talking about
Paganinni case. He was maybe the most imponent composer for violin
music in that period. His music was so different, so innovative for the time
that people said that he made a deal with the devil so he help him to play
that way.

Prominent Composers: Beethoven (late period), Paganini, von Weber,

Rossini, Schubert, Donizetti, Bellini, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann,
Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Gounod, Franck, Smetana, Bruckner, Borodin, Brahms,
Bizet, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Faure,
Puccini, Wolf, Mahler, Strauss, Sibelius, Czerny, Field, Elgar, Offenbach,
Saint-Saens, Massenet, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov, Scrabin (early), Albeniz,
Gottschalk, MacDowell.
Why so much composers?
I think a reason for it is that in this period they had more freedom to
compose what they want. Yes, there were rules that a composer needs to
follow but they were free to express themselves. It was an extremely
dramatic change in music, while the Classical period was about strict rules,
balance and restriction. The Romantic period contradicted the Classical
period by introducing freedom, artistic creativity, and experimentation. In
this period expressing an emotion or an idea was most important, therefore
the melody was the dominant feature.
When you read Romantic you would expect to hear only music that will
make you think in love and actually it does, it inspire you to feel that kind
of sensation but it also let you experience other kind of feeling like anger,
mistery, heroism, sadness, ansiety, joy and like I said before, Love. this is the
characteristic of this period and it is what makes it different from other
periods, is not a robotic thing, you can express all that playing if you are a
musician or ljust listening to it.
PERFORMING MEDIUM: Chamber music ensembles, large symphony
orchestras, opera companies, and piano were the predominant performing
mediums during this era.
MELODY: During this period, melodies became emotional and often were
virtuosic. Greater technical skills by performers led to an expansion in the
range of melodies, and changes in dynamics and wide leaps between notes
were frequently used to heighten the expressive qualities of the melodies.
Many composers also used folk songs or programmatic ideas as the basis for
their melodies.
Composers were greatly influenced by the intense nationalistic feelings that
developed after the Napoleonic wars. Some composers were political
outcasts (Chopin and Wagner), while others promoted a love for their
country (Russian Five). The main areas of nationalistic music during the
nineteenth century were Germany, Italy, France, Central Europe and Russia.

In this period there were some music forms that were used, they are divided
in 2 parts: New Large Forms and New Small Forms.
New Large Forms: Symphonic Poem, Sonata, Symphony, Concerto, Ballet,
Ballade, Impromptu.
New Small Forms: Waltz, Nocturne, Etude, Fantasy, Mazurka, Variations,
Rhapsody.

Some of the instruments that appeared in the romantic period were:

contrabassoon, saxophone, English horn, and tuba and although the piano
already existed on the classic period it is the romantics´ big instrument.
It is also good to know that not only music had this characteristics in this
period. Other arts like painting, theater, literature had this characteristics of
being impressive and innovator.
Some music actually has some connections with theater works, they were
written based on some scripts. Music gives live to everything, you can have
an amazing theater work and it could be good without music but if you
complete it with a musical part it would be better due you will be not just
seeing, you will be also feeling the moment..