ROMANTIC PERIOD

(1830-1900)
BASCOS, BERNADETTE
CALAWA, SHEKINAH
GUANZON, JIRAH
 ROMANTIC PERIOD
 started around 1830 and ended around 1900, as compositions became
increasingly expressive and inventive. Expansive symphonies, virtuosic piano
music, dramatic operas, and passionate songs took inspiration from art and
literature.

The Romantic era is known for its intense energy and passion. The rigid forms of
classical music gave way to greater expression, and music grew closer to art
• Romantic composers excelled in spectacular virtuosity, which was
expressed by brilliant technical performances. Other composers emphasized
the intimacy of miniature forms and delicate textures to express their
personal feelings.

• All Romantic music concerns itself with the problem of creating musical
tension to achieve a corresponding intensification of emotional response.
• Forms are not as precise and clear as in Classicism, but are often
overlapping, vague and often without strong cadences.

• Melodies are characterized by an intensity of personal feelings,

sometimes extremely long with dramatic and dynamic climaxes.
Rhythmically, music became more interesting. There are often
changes in the number of beats in a measure, cross-rhythms,
syncopations, etc,
• Tempo in Romantic music is not always constant, but may
fluctuate in order to achieve emotional effect (rubato). The rich
harmony makes great use of chromaticism, nonharmonic tones,
altered chords and larger chords (such as ninths and thirteenths).

• Timbre, or texture, was heavy and thick.

 CHARACTERISTICS:

• Subjectivity:
Music was not objective (outside of human emotions) as in
the Classical period, but had to be joined with extramusical ideas. In
this respect, some of Beethoven's later music was held to be the
model to be emulated. Because music could not convey pictures or
ideas, some composers resorted to "objective" devices which
imitated natural sounds. Much of the music during the nineteenth
century has a sentimental quality.
• Emotionalism:
All music has some degree of emotionalism. However, the
Romantic composer sought to intensify this aspect of his music. By
the use of chromaticism (progression by half steps) in melodies and
chords, and modulations (changing keys) and by exploiting
tension in the music (by not resolving dissonances immediately),
the composer was to keep the listener in a state of suspense for
long periods of time.
• Programmatic Compositions:
The development and use of descriptive music became an
important part of the Romantic movement. The trend from the
subjectivity of the composer to the emotionalism in the listener was
natural. As mentioned previously, composers resorted to "objective"
devices in their music. The devices included descriptive titles, melodic
formulas, harmonic cliches and instrumental effects.
• Thick Timbre: The availability of improved musical instruments
allowed composers to experiment with novel orchestral effects.
The timbre and texture of the orchestral color became more
evocative as the nineteenth century progressed. The use of
chromaticism and dissonance led to a very complex orchestral
timbre by the end of the century:

1. At the beginning of the century, the woodwind parts

often doubled those of the strings. Brass instruments were
mainly used to "fill in" louder passages.
2. About the middle of the century, the woodwinds were
combined with the strings in all registers. The brass instruments were
generally used to double other parts and to play for louder
passages.

3. In the second half of the century, complete instrumentation was

employed in each section of the orchestra. Each section tended to
be treated on a more equal footing.
• Chromaticism: The harmonic system established by Rameau in 1722
began breaking down during the Classical period. The Romantic
composers exploited the use of altered chords and modulation to such
a degree that the feeling for a central tonality often became obscure.

The increased use of dissonance and half step movements in all

the voices, and the avoidance of a "too-well-defined" tonality, paved the
way for the Impressionistic and Expressionistic movements of the twentieth
century.
• Instrumentation: During the Romantic period, the piano (pianoforte)
became the most popular single instrument. It became a musical
symbol of Romanticism, and was enlarged to give it a wider range
and more tonal power.

The orchestra grew to be the favorite large instrument of the

century. Added were the English horn, the clarinet, more brass and
percussion. Opera was also a major medium of expression.
 COMPOSERS
• Gioacchino Rossini
• Born: Pesaro, February 29, 1792
Died: Paris, November 13, 1868

Producing his first opera at the age of

eighteen, Rossini composed dozens, many
of which are still in the repertoire today,
while others are being once again explored.
Rossini excelled in the opera buffa, or comic
opera of the day
• Gaetano Donizetti
• Born: Bergamo, November 29, 1797
Died: Bergamo, April 8, 1848
• Donizetti's operas are today mostly
admired for their many attractive
melodies and fine ensembles.

• Donizetti's most famous opera is

surely Lucia di Lammermoor, based
on a novel by Sir Walter Scott.
• Carl Maria von Weber
• Born: Eutin, Oldenburg, November
18, 1786
Died: London, June 5, 1826
• Weber figures prominently in history
as the composer who established a
German opera in his native land
and successfully broke the chains of
Italian traditions. He accomplished
this in a variety of ways: the use of
spoken dialogue in place of the
Italian recitative; the use of German
myths and folklore, with an
emphasis on nature, for the subjects
of his operas; and his remarkable
use of the instruments of the
orchestra, rather than just the
voices, to tell the story.
• Robert Schumann
• Born: Zwickau, June 8, 1810
Died: Endenich, near Bonn, July 29,
1856
• A master of the more intimate forms of
musical compositions, Schumann is
unique in music history as being one of
the great composers who
concentrated on one musical genre at
a time, with the bulk of his earliest
compositions being for the piano
• Schumann's piano music (and later his
songs) remain supreme examples of the
Romantic style of the second quarter of
the nineteenth-century. Immensely
influenced by literature and poetry, it is
the dreamy nature of his music which
most affects the listener
• Franz Liszt
• Born: Raiding, near Ödenburg, October
22, 1811
Died: Bayreuth, July 31, 1886
• Hungarian composer Franz Liszt began
his career as the outstanding concert
pianist of the century, who, along with
the prodigious violinist Niccoló Paganini
(1782-1840), created the cult of the
modern instrumental virtuoso. To show
off his phenomenal and
unprecedented technique, Liszt
composed a great deal of music
designed specifically for this purpose,
resulting in a vast amount of piano
literature laden with dazzling scales,
trills, arpeggios, leaps, and other
technical marvels,
• Frederic Chopin
• 1810-1849
• Chopin was a remarkable pianist whose
music and tutorship was highly sought
after. Because of his success, and his
propensity to only perform in intimate
settings for social elites, Chopin was
able to charge large sums for private
instruction. All of his compositions
include the piano, but the majority of
them were written exclusively for solo
piano, which include sonatas,
mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes,
polonaises, etudes, impromptus,
scherzos, and preludes.

• Popular Works: Waltz in D-flat major, Op.

64, No. 1 (Minute Waltz), Marche
Funebre, Etude in C major, Op. 10, and
Etude in C minor Op.10 (Revolutionary)
• Claude Debussy(Achille-Claude
Debussy)
• August 22, 1862, —died March 25,
1918, Paris
• Debussy showed a gift as a
pianist by the age of nine.
• He was encouraged by
Madame Mauté de Fleurville,
who was associated with the
Polish composer Frédéric
Chopin.
• In 1873 he entered the Paris
Conservatory, where he studied
the piano and composition,
eventually winning in 1884 the
Grand Prix de Rome with his
cantata L’Enfant prodigue (The
Prodigal Child).
• Debussy’s inquiring mind similarly
challenged the traditional orchestral
usage of instruments. He rejected the
traditional dictum that string
instruments should be predominantly
lyrical.
• he saw that woodwinds need not be
employed for fireworks displays; they
provide, like the human voice, wide
varieties of colour.
• Debussy also used the brass in original
colour transformations. In fact, in his
music, the conventional orvhestral
construction, with its rigid woodwind,
brass, and string departments, finds
itself undermined or split up in the
manner of the Impressionist painters.