Romantic Period, 1820-1900

What was music like during the Romantic period?

The Romantic period started around 1820 and ended around 1900, as compositions became increasingly expressive and inventive. Expansive symphonies, virtuoso piano music, dramatic operas, and passionate songs took inspiration from art and literature. The period is also known for its intense energy and passion.

How did music change during the Romantic period?

During the Romantic period, composers used music to express themselves; orchestral music became more emotional and subjective than in previous eras. Composers were inspired by romantic love, the supernatural and even dark themes such as death.

What are the musical elements of romantic period?

Freedom of form and design.
Song-like melodies (lyrical), as well as many chromatic harmonies and discords.
Dramatic contrasts of dynamics and pitch.
Big orchestras, due mainly to brass and the invention of the valve.

What are the three types of romantic composers?
Romantic composers can be divided into three groups: full, conservative, and regional. The full Romantics pursued Romantic freedom unconditionally, while the conservative Romantics retained a significant degree of classicism.

Romanticism

As the influence of the church began to wane during the 19th century, composers adapted pre-existing forms for more secular ends. The medium-length choral cantata form, which had originally been used to portray religious subjects, was exploited by the likes of Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schubert to reflect non-religious narratives. Sacred choral music itself was changing, too. With composers scrabbling to exploit all the sonic material they had to hand, churches became increasingly unable to accommodate their ambitious works. Thus, compositions such as Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, with their large choral and orchestral settings, had to be performed in concert halls rather than places of worship. Other Romantic composers seem to have found the solemn mass to be a useful form; Schubert and Beethoven both wrote major works in the convention, with the latter’s being considered to be one of his most accomplished works. Beethoven also used choral texture to add extra weight to his secular compositions, perhaps most famously in his Ninth Symphony.

Meanwhile, the oratorio as a form had far from been abandoned. Felix Mendelssohn, for example, evoked Baroque inspirations such as Bach and Handel with compositions such as St Paul and Elijah. In Russia, choral music continued to flourish into the late Romantic period – perhaps due to the influence of the Orthodox Church. In 1885 Tchaikovsky completed a set of works based on Russian liturgy named simply Nine Sacred Pieces, while Rachmaninov set the prayer “O Theotokos” to a stark choral arrangement.

During the Romantic period, the resources of tonality were completely exhausted, and chromaticism too was fully exploited. The highly chromatic works of Wagner and other late-nineteenth-century composers represented the final stage of this process, which led to a variety of alternative harmonic organizational structures that signaled the end of the Romantic era, around the beginning of the twentieth century.

Romantic composers were anxious to exploit to the fullest the potential of the orchestra in terms of tone color, as well as pitch and dynamic range, making unprecedented demands on players. The orchestra increased in size during the nineteenth century to the point where it sometimes numbered in the hundreds. By the late nineteenth century, dynamic markings such as pppp or ffff were common, and extensive use of crescendo and decrescendo added to the expressive resources available to composers.

Much of the writing for chorus from this period also seeks to fully exploit the possibilities of the human voice. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis makes great demands on the singers, and the performance of choral-orchestral masterworks composed later in the century also requires singers with solid vocal technique for a successful performance. This fascination with tone color and the use of augmented instrumental forces helps explain the dominance of instrumental music in this era. Without exception, the musical giants of the era were primarily composers of instrumental music. Most of the great choral masterworks of the period were choral/ orchestral works

The sheer volume of composers that came from this particular period is too massive to list. An extensive list of choral music can be heard below by clicking on the YouTube links.

Beethoven, Ode to Joy excerpt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uooe16ILaPo

Tchaikovsky, The Nightingale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLg2yGugQ3o

Robert Schumann, Zigeurnerleben, Op.29:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLY12rKVNZI

Mendelssohn, An then shall your light break forth from Elijah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmxrq_FY-o

Schubert, Die Nacht:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnoKoUq8wTU&list=PLH2tnBZzETg6w0vLu6zht9t9tqD8BObnF&index=4

Mahler, Symphony No. 8, FInale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPGUL0x3068