Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. It stressed strong emotion—which now might include trepidation, awe and horror as aesthetic experiences—the individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted freedom within or even from classical notions of form in art, and overturning of previous social conventions, particularly the position of the aristocracy. There was a strong element of historical and natural inevitability in its ideas, stressing the importance of "nature" in art and language. Romanticism is also noted for its elevation of the achievements of what it perceived as heroic individuals and artists. It followed the Enlightenment period and was in part inspired by a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms from the previous period, as well as seeing itself as the fulfilment of the promise of that age.

Music

:Main article: Romantic music.

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In general the term Romanticism when applied to music means the period roughly from the 1820's until 1910. This usage was not contemporary, in 1810 E.T.A. Hoffmann called Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven the three "Romantic Composers", and Ludwig Spohr used the term "good Romantic style" to apply to parts of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. However, by the early 20th century, the sense that there had been a decisive break with the musical past lead to the establishment of the 19th century as "The Romantic Era", and as such it is referred to in the standard encyclopedias of music.

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Another aspect of literary Romanticism entering the musical vocabulary early was in the area of German opera. The German-speaking world's main center for opera at the time was Vienna, and opera in Vienna was dominated by Italian opera, and heroic or pastoral texts in the tradition of Baroque drama. A young Goethe began writing opera texts in German, which were called Singspiels. The characters and situations were distinct, as were elements of the ideology, which incorporated the egalitarianism and personal spiritual qualities found in late Enlightenment figures such as Immanuel Kant and Voltaire.

Related Topics:
Vienna - Italian - Pastoral - Baroque drama - Goethe - Singspiels - Egalitarianism - Immanuel Kant - Voltaire

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Romanticism in music

The movement, Romanticism, however, began having an impact on music well before this point in time, beginning with the introduction of elements of dance and song from outside of the court culture then dominant in the patronage of the arts. While often termed folk music, it is not necessarily clear that this term applies. What was happening was the growth of a middle class, which was fusing elements from the agrarian culture, including dances and stories, with their own sensibilities.

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Romanticism, by having a unique reverence for what was old as being separate from the present, had strains which both revelled in form, and which rebelled against strictures not seen as "essential". It would, however, be with the French Revolution and the rise of the use of stark orchestral effects, dramatic changes in dynamic and powerful tutti sections were the beginning of using the unexpected in music to its most forceful effect.

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These influences would come together, particularly in Vienna and London during the Napoleanic Wars, to produce a style which was more rooted in formal layout of the structure of a movement of music rather than in imitative counterpoint, which had been the basics of composition practice up until that point in time. The resulting pressures had swelled the length of pieces, introduced programatic titles, and created the free standing overture as a genre, which would later become central to musical Romanticism.

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Another trait which marks the dividing line between Romanticism in music and its past, is the abandonment of the idea that music is primarily decorative and pleasing - a subsidiary art form.

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In opera a new Romantic atmosphere combining supernatural terror and melodramatic plot in a folkloric context came together first in Weber's Der Freischütz (1817, 1821). Enriched timbre and color marked the early orchestration of Hector Berlioz in France, while the demand for freer forms led to Franz Liszt's tone poems, and rhapsodies, both essentially Romantic forms. The German musical tradition of the 19th Century that is typically labelled 'Romantic' would also include the work of Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner. Liszt and Wagner each embodied the Romantic cult of the free, inspired, charismatic, perhaps ruthlessly unconventional individual "artistic" personality.

Related Topics:
Weber - 1817 - 1821 - Hector Berlioz - Franz Liszt - Tone poem - Rhapsodies - Robert Schumann - Richard Wagner

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The combination of atmosphere, a desire to establish a tension between past and present, new material, extended ambition for works of music, changed audience and political climate are all aspects of how Romanticism would become a decisive influence on the development of concert music in the 19th century.

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Under the influence of Romantic nationalism, composers were among the most vocal proponents of national unity and progress in society. These ideals were exemplified in Beethoven's republicanism, through to the nationalism of Schumann and Verdi, and to the political sensibilities of Berlioz as he expressed them in his music. For these composers the nation was a worthy theme of music, in a way which was not visible in the previous era. Composers sought to produce a "school" of music for their own nations, in parallel with the establishment of national literature. Many composers would take inspiration from the poetic nationalism present in their homeland - beginning with Germany, but continuing forward through into the 20th century with composers such as Jean Sibelius. This was rooted in the Romantic argument that each "nation" had a unique individual quality that would be expressed in laws, customs, language, logic and, from their point of view of course, decorative and fine art.

Related Topics:
Romantic nationalism - Republicanism - Jean Sibelius

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Labels like 'Late Romantic' and 'Post-Romantic' link disparate composers of various nationalities, such as Jean Sibelius, Richard Strauss, Samuel Barber and Ralph Vaughan Williams, all of whom lived into the middle of the 20th century. See Romantic period in music. The conscious 'Modernisms' of the 20th century all found roots in reactions to Romanticism, increasingly seen as not harsh and realistic enough, even not brutal enough, for a new technological age. Yet Bartók began by collecting Hungarian folk music, Stravinsky with lush ballets for Diaghilev and Arnold Schoenberg's later spare style had its roots in rich freely chromatic atonal music evolving from his late Romantic style works, for example the giant polychromatic orchestration of Gurrelieder.

Related Topics:
Jean Sibelius - Richard Strauss - Samuel Barber - Ralph Vaughan Williams - 20th century - Romantic period in music - Modernism - Bartók - Stravinsky - Diaghilev - Arnold Schoenberg

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