Music and Lit Notes: Hearing the Transition from Enlightenment Reason to Romanticism

Romantic Music:

“Classicism [or Enlightenment/Age of Reason] is conservatism in creativity with emphasis on balance, control, proportion, symmetry and restraint. Romanticism is a more radical kind of expression, it seeks out the new, the curious, and the adventurous. It is characterized by restless seeking and impulsive reaction. Romantic art differs from classic art by its greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness. A fundamental trait of Romanticism is boundlessness. Throughout the Romantic period, the human mind was peculiarly attracted by disproportionate and excessive features. The tiny piano piece and the brief lyrical song, forms which had been of no consequence during the Classical period, now assumed the highest significance. On the other hand, the moderate length of the classical symphony and opera was hugely extended (Mahler's symphonies, Wagner's operas). As against the classic ideals of order, equilibrium, control, and perfection within acknowledged limits, Romanticism cherishes freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable (fantasy and imagination); a search for new subject matters. Because its goal can never be attained, romantic art is haunted by a spirit of longing. The creations of the romantic artist were emotional in character rather than guided by structural rules.

The Romantic movement in music coincides with a general Romantic movement in all arts. At this period, the arts of literature and painting began to influence music. In the Romantic era, music acquired poetic or philosophical meaning. Antiquity, folklore, history and exotic cultures were examined as possible sources of inspiration. Romanticism in literature appears to precede the first signs of Romantic music (for example Goethe [1749-1832] and Wordsworth [1770-1850]). The romantic movement was fostered especially by a number of German writers and poets. Their influence on musicians was pervasive and enduring. …

… The Romantic era was the golden age of the virtuoso. The emotional range of music was considerably widened, as was its harmonic vocabulary and the range and number of instruments. The most characteristic orchestral form is the symphonic poem in which the music tells a story or parallels its emotions. The most characteristic new genre is the solo song with piano accompaniment (Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf).

… Free modulation into distant keys without pivot chords became a common practice. The increasing boldness of composers in modulating to ever more distant keys, and in coloring, or altering the notes of their chords more and more together with the less frequent use of perfect cadences, the strength of a single tonal center became diluted and tonality started to disintegrate.”

(http://dorakmt.tripod.com/music/romantic.html)

 

Baroque Era: Enlightenment Ideals Typified:

 

 

 

Early Romantic or "Classical Era":

 

 

Romantic:

 

 

 

See Also: From Rousseau to Bruce-o