The Romantic Era

Music from 1810 to 1910

• The Romantic Era is, by definition, music with intense energy and passion. The rigid forms of classical music gave way to greater expression. Music got closer to art, literature and theatre.

• Ludwig van Beethoven pioneered romanticism with his early works in the tradition of Mozart, Haydn and the Classical era but soon becoming more daring and expressive.

• Beethoven rejected previously strict formulas for symphonies and sonatas, and introduced a whole new approach to music, giving his works references to other aspects of life - for example, his Pastoral Symphony describes countryside scenes.

• Symphonic composers responded to Beethoven in two ways- to keep the format of the classical symphony as a framework for their own idea (Schubert, Brahms, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky) or to write symphonies which followed a storyline or ‘programme'(Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Liszt’s Faust Symphony).

• As well as symphonies, the tone poem and descriptive overture were popular as pieces of stand-alone orchestral music that evoked anything from a painting or poem to a feeling of nationalistic fervour. (Liszt’s Les préludes, Sibelius’s Finlandia, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bare Mountain.)

• The Romantic era gave birth to virtuoso solos, performers of these became the pop stars of their day. Liszt was one of the greatest virtuosos of his time who wrote demanding piano music to show off his own brilliance. Other outstanding composer-performer's from this time are the violinist Paganini, and pianist Chopin.

• In Germany, Lieder became an extremely significant part of the repertoire, an ideal format for romanticism as it united music and poetry. Schubert, Winterreise and Brahms wrote many Lieder. Songs were mainly for voice and piano.

• Verdi, who is recognized as one of the greatest composers of all time, appeared in the middle of the Romantic Era and turned Italian opera on its head. He introduced new subject material, often with social, political or nationalistic themes, and combined these with a direct, clear approach to writing music that made very powerful listening.

• Germany's Richard Wagner completely redesigned opera. Before Wagner, the action and music in opera was split into short pieces or ‘numbers’ much like a modern-day musical show. The audience could clap between each ‘number’ and the singers might even take a bow.

• Wagner's operas are written as long, continuous sweeps of music. The characters and ideas are given short signature melodies called lietmotifs. Importantly for music, Wagner rethought how harmony should fit together. It was like redesigning sentences according to how they sounded instead of how the words fitted together.

• Wagner’s ideas dominated most music, from the large-scale symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler to the heroic tone poems and operas of Richard Strauss, even reaching Italy, where Verdi and Puccini started to produce operas according to many of Wagner’s rules.

• The musical language of Elgar was very similar to Wagner. Ideas and compositions became more and more outlandish and inventive until the musical rules had to be rewritten, and the scene was set for the biggest change in music for centuries - the beginning of Modernism.

• Romanticism meant that it became not only acceptable to play around with the rules of music - it became normal. This meant that, more than ever before, composers experimented and discovered what was possible and what wasn’t.

Great works from the Romantic Era:

Beethoven: Symphony no.9 'Choral'
Dvorák: Symphony no.9 Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Symphony no.6
Schubert: Winterreise, 'Unfinished' Symphony Liszt: A Faust Symphony
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Wagner: Tristan and Isolde, The Ring Cycle
Elgar: Enigma Variations
Verdi: Rigoletto, Falstaff