Romantic Era Music: Characteristics, Composers, and Instruments
Romantic Era Music: Key Features
Romantic music features:
- Emotional expression and fantasy
- Rich modulations, harmonies, chromaticism, and dissonance
- Melody: Important, passionate, and lyrical
- Orchestra growth and complexity (especially wind instruments)
- New systems: leitmotif (obsession) or ring system (repetition and reappearance of an idea)
The Piano in the Romantic Era
The piano underwent significant technical changes, emphasizing fantasy, virtuosity, and loudness (scales, arpeggios, trills).
Piano music became fashionable worldwide, especially among young women in England and France.
Piano music took various forms:
- Nocturnes: Intimate, field-like, and sentimental (Chopin)
- Impromptus: Improvised pieces
- Études: Masterful and technically difficult
- Ballades: Lyrical and melancholy
- Polonaises: Polish, majestic (Chopin)
- Mazurkas: Polish, grassroots-inspired
- Polkas: Originating in Bohemia (Czech Republic) in the 19th century
Key Composers of Piano Music
Frédéric Chopin
Polish composer known for nationalistic glory, rich harmonic language, sentimental melodies, and romantic symbolism.
Robert Schumann
Another key figure, known for works like Carnaval, Kreisleriana, and Album for the Young, characterized by contrasting intimate and excited passages, rhythmic emphasis, and melodic care.
Franz Liszt
Hungarian composer known for Years of Pilgrimage, poetic harmony, and religious themes.
The Romantic Orchestra
The Romantic orchestra expanded significantly, particularly in the wind section:
- Wind instruments: 4 horns, 3 trombones, and tuba (new)
- Woodwinds: Contrabassoon, piccolo flute, English horn, bass clarinet, and saxophone
- Percussion: 4 timpani, gong, bass drum, vibraphone, and carillon
A typical Romantic orchestra might include:
30 violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, 8 double basses, 2 harps, a piccolo, 2 transverse flutes, 2 oboes, 1 bassoon, 1 contrabassoon, 2 clarinets, 1 English horn, 1 saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, and various percussion instruments.
New Instruments in the Romantic Era
- Piccolo: Small flute with high-pitched sounds
- English Horn: Wind and wood instrument with a melancholic tone
- Contrabassoon: Conical tube instrument with deep tones
- Saxophone: Woodwind and brass instrument (invented around 1840) with a single reed and conical bore
- Tuba: Brass instrument with a deep sound
Key Symphony Composers
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Composed 8 symphonies, known for Mozart’s melodic richness.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Composed 5 symphonies, known for romantic restraint and symmetry (e.g., Scottish Symphony and Italian Symphony).
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Composed 4 symphonies and a piano concerto.
César Franck (1822-1890)
Belgian composer in France, known for his Symphony in D minor and cyclic form.
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Composed 9 symphonies, known for his use of a large orchestra.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
A late Romantic composer who wrote 4 symphonies, piano concertos, and violin concertos, restoring Beethovenian perfection.
Program Symphony
A 19th-century symphonic form that follows a theme or program for inspiration (e.g., Hector Berlioz).
Symphonic Poem
A form of orchestral program music inspired by a poetic element.
Virtuosity
Reaching insurmountable heights, especially on violin and piano. Notable figures include:
- Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840): A pioneer of violin virtuosity
- Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908): Violinist known for Spanish dances and Gypsy airs
Qualities of National Music
National music is characterized by unique music, dance, folk songs, and languages.
Russian Composers (The Mighty Five)
- Glinka: Known for A Life for the Tsar
- The Mighty Five: Cui, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov (Scheherazade), Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition), Borodin
- Tchaikovsky: 6 symphonies (including Pathétique, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake)
- Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos