Music of the

Romantic
Period (820-
1900)
GRADE 9
 The Times
• General Characteristics
• Age of Extremes, Age of
Unending Lyricism
• “Roman” – a French
Medieval novel
• Timeframe: ends clearly
with Modernism;
beginning is more fluid
Ludwig Von Beethoven
1770-1827
• Crucial figure in the transition from
Classical to Romantic
• Romantic period began around 1815. Works
from this period are characterized by their
intellectual depth, their formal innovations,
and their intense, highly personal expression.
For example, the String Quartet, Opus 131
has seven linked movements, and the Ninth
Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra
in the last movement
String Quartet in Bb Major, Opus 130, 4th Movement
• French Revolution Ideals: Liberté, Egalité,
Fraternité
• Romantic times stressed: Individuality, Emotion,
Imagination
Caspar David Friedrich
1774-1840
• Importance of nature. Romantics idealized
nature in both visual art and music for its
power, beauty and unpredictability
 Social and Political Influences
• Industrialism
• Occurred first in Britain
• Power shifted from
aristocratic landowners to
middle class city dwellers.
• Populations moved from an
agrarian center to an urban
center.
 Nationalism and the Spread of
Democracy
• One of the most meaningful and definitive
forces in the 19th century
• Throughout Europe people began to promote
their own national identities and resist outside
authority. This push for national identity
created new countries (unification of Italy,
formation of German empire, United States).
• The principles and practices of democracy were
on the rise.
 Napoleon Bonaparte

•“After the defeat of Napoleon in

1815, the monarchy was restored
in France and the old aristocratic
order returned.
•Revolutionary fervor and
optimism gave way to disbelief
and dissatisfaction and
romanticism to a more realistic
view of the world.
•People yearned for reform and a
new society.
Franz Schubert (1787-1828)

• Austrian composer
• Prolific and gifted composer who
wrote 600 lieder, piano sonatas,
character pieces, 15 string quartets, 9
symphonies

• Erlkönig (1815)
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Through-composed form
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
• Polish composer and pianist
• Lived in Paris for most of his life
• Associated with George Sand (Aurore
Dudevant)
• The only major composer to have
completely oriented his creative life
around the piano.
• Piano compositions are generally dances
or free-form works (preludes, etudes,
nocturnes and impromptus).
• Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2,
1830-1831
• Night piece
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
• Hungarian composer and virtuosic pianist
• Showman
• Daughter married Wagner
• Innovative composer both harmonically and
formally.
• Used complex and unusual chords
• Created the symphonic poem and utilized
thematic transformation (influenced Wagner)
• Composed two symphonies, symphonic
poems, piano music, orchestral and operatic
transcriptions
• Transcendental Etude No. 10 in F Minor,
1851
 Quiz Time!

1. Name at least two (2) composers and their famous

artworks.
Thank You!
Sixteen C. Liquido
Subject Teacher
 Art of the
Romantic
Period
(820-1900)
The Arts in the Romantic Period
• Stressed Individualism and Emotion
• Breaking away from rules and convention
• Glorification of Nature
• Nostalgia
• The Macabre and the supernatural
• Exotic Influences
• Realism
 • The Romantic period did not produce its
own distinguishing architectural style.
Architecture Instead architects chose from the building
styles of the previous eras resulting in an
eclectic style

Supreme Court Building, Washington DC, Greek Revival

House of Parliament, London, Gothic Revival

Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England, Eastern culture

• A few buildings erected during the period
showed how the Industrial Revolution
had affected architecture.

Crystal Palace, London, made for World’s Fair 1851

Tour Eiffel, Paris

 Sculpture
• Francois Rude (1784-1855)

Arc de Triomphe “Departure of the Volunteers”

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875)

“The Dance”, Opera Garnier

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

The Burghers of Calais

The Thinker
 Painting
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)
• Leader of the Romantic movement,
represented social concerns

Liberty Leading the People, 1831

Camille Corot (1796-1875)

View Near Volerra, 1838

• Francisco Goya (1746-1828)

The Third of May, 1808

• Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)

Burial at Ornans, 1850

 Impressionists
• Provided transition to the 20th century

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Impression Sunrise, 1872

Rouen Cathedral, 1894

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

Dejeuner sur l’herbe, 1863

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

The Rehearsal, 1874

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Le Moulin de la Galette, 1897

 Post-Impressionists

Georges Seurat (1859-1891)

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Starry Night, 1889

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Day of the Gods, 1894

 Quiz Time!

1. Name at least three (3) romantic artist with their

famous artworks.
Thank You!
Sixteen C. Liquido
Subject Teacher
 Musical Elements
• Melody
• Age of lyricism – unending melody
• Melodies appealed to the emotions
• Phrases tended to be longer and irregular in length
• Themes were more complex and utilized
chromaticism
• Advent of theme transformation (Berlioz, Wagner)
 Harmony
• Basically tonal
• By end of the 19th century chromaticism
(movement by half steps) stretched tonality
to the breaking point
• Chromaticism imbued greater dissonance
and tension into the sound
 Rhythm
• Metric
• Rhythmic effects were used for “color” – rubato
• Articulations in the instruments tended to be
heavy and intense
• A new vocabulary of music terms arose that
indicated how to achieve the composer’s
desired sound – cantabile, dolce, con amore,
allegro agitato. These designations produced a
more emotional sound and response.
 Texture
• Essentially homophonic
• The sonority tended to be thick, heavy and
lush
 Timbre/Instrumentation
• This period saw a full exploration of the instrumental
families.
• Instruments were used for both their individual and
collective color potential.
• Instrumental timbre was used to convey mood and
atmosphere.
• The orchestra became much larger – from 70 players to
more than 100 (resulting in the necessity of a conductor).
• Instruments could play louder and carry farther.
• Instruments were capable of major changes in dynamics.
 Dynamics

• Gradual
• Much wider range – extremes of dynamic variation
• Used extensively throughout the compositions
 Form
• Stretching of the classical forms:
 sonata-allegro
 rondo
 theme and variation
 minuet and trio
 Vocal Genres

• Opera
• Music Drama
• Mass and Requiem
• Art Song
 Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
• Italian composer of 15 operas, a
Requiem, a string quartet
• His music became a symbol of
the Italian liberation movement
(struggle against Austrian
domination)

• Rigoletto, 1851
• Act III – La donna è mobile
• ItalianGiacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
opera composer
• Unlike Verdi and Wagner – did not
involve himself in politics
• Known for his beautiful lyricism
(critics often cite a “popular” less-
crafted style of composition)

• La Bohème 1896
• Act I: Rodolfo and Mimi arias
 Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
• German composer for the stage – music dramas
• Rejecting Italian opera, Wagner worked out a theory about
combining poetry, music, philosophy and drama into one
“complete art work” – music drama.
• He had complete control of every aspect of these music
dramas – music, libretto, staging, costumes
• Incorporated German folktales and legends
• Used “leitmotifs” – thematic transformation
• Extreme use of chromaticism

• Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), 1856

• The second of the four music dramas in Der Ring des
Nibelungen
• Wagner uses Nordic mythology to warn that society destroys
itself through lust for money and power.
• Act I, Love Scene
 Instrumental Music
• Absolute music tended to reflect the Classical heritage of Mozart and Haydn; it tended
to be more traditional in compositional style and instrumentation

Symphony, concerto, sonata, string quartet

• Program music was compositionally guided by a story, poem, idea or scene; it tended to
be more progressive in compositional style and instrumentation

Program symphony, Tone poem, Symphonic poem

• Character Pieces

In contrast to the large instrumental genres, these were smaller pieces typically for piano
called character pieces
 Composers

• Traditionalists
• Tended to compose in the style of their teachers
(classical era). While extending the elements of music,
they rarely went outside of the norms.
• Composer Examples: Brahms, Tchaikovsky Schumann,
Mendelssohn, Franck, Schubert, Chopin, Mussorgsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel,
Clara Schumann
Johannes• Brahms (1833-1897)
German composer – 4 symphonies, violin
concerto, string quartets, 200 lieder, German
Requiem
• Befriended by the Schumann family
• Classicist in the Romantic period – often
criticized for being “out of step” with the music of
his time.
• Avoided newly invented forms (program
symphony, tone poem)
• Preferred to say new things within traditional
forms

• Symphony No. 4 in E minor, 1885

• 4th movement
• Progressives

• Tended to extend the boundaries of traditional sound and scope in their

compositions. They utilized new instrumental techniques and color.
They used increasingly more chromaticism.
• Composer Examples: Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz and Verdi
 Hector
• French composer Berlioz
of programmatic (1803-1869)
works.
• Most of his works call for huge instrumental
and vocal forces
• Very influential in his techniques and writing
about orchestration

• Symphonie fantastique, 1830

• Program symphony in five movements
• Uses idée fixe – thematic transformation

• Fourth Movement: March to the Scaffold

• Nationalists
• Following the many wars and conflicts of the 19th century country
boundaries in Europe became more defined. Nationalistic music
(music that highlighted folksongs, dances, folklore) abounded. Most
nationalistic music followed a more traditional pattern of composition
and sound. Many composers utilized nationalistic melodies, dances
and stories.
• Composer Examples: Smetana, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov,
Wagner, Chopin, Verdi, Puccini, Liszt