Composers of the romantic period continued to use the musical forms of the preceding classical era. The emotional intensity associated with romanticism was already present in the work of Mozart and particularly in that of Beethoven, who greatly influenced composers after him. The romantic preference for expressive, kinglike melody also grew out of the classical style. Nonetheless, there are many differences between romantic and classical music. Romantic works tend to have greater ranges of tone color, dynamics and pitch.
Also, the romantic harmonic vocabulary is broader, with more emphasis on colorful, instable chords. Romantic music is linked more closely to the other arts, particularly to literature. New forms developed, and in all forms there was greater tension and less emphasis on balance and resolution. But romantic music is so diverse that generalizations are apt to mislead. Some romantic composers, such as Mendelssohn and Brahms, created works that were deeply rooted in classical tradition; other composers, such as Burlier, List and Wagner, were more revolutionary.
Important Style Features Mood and Emotional Expression Art forms, including music, exhibited extreme interest in subjects related to nature, death, the fantastic, the macabre, and the diabolical. Unprecedented emphasis was placed on self-expression and the development of a uniquely personal musical style or voice. Music explored a universe of feeling that included flamboyance and intimacy, unpredictability and melancholy, rapture and longing, the mysterious and the remote. Some composers wrote music evoking a specific national identity (“nationalism”) or exotic location (“exoticism”).
Rhythm is extremely diverse Tempos are flexible and may change frequently Tempo rubout permitted great expressively and freedom in performance. Dynamics Dynamic changes can be sudden or gradual. Extremely wide dynamic ranges, from very soft to very loud, add considerably to emotional excitement and intensity. Tone Color Romantic music exhibits a wide range of expressive tone color and sensuous sound The addition of new instruments and the increased size of the orchestra led to new and varied timbres. Woodwind, brass and percussion instruments played prominent roles in orchestral and operatic works.
Composers experimented with timbre through unusual combinations of instruments or by having instruments play in unusual ways. Melody and Harmony Melodies are often long, complex and highly expressive. Recurring melodies and thematic transformation unify longer works. Prominent use of chromatic harmonies that are rich, colorful and complex. Dissonance is used more freely; resolutions are often delayed to create feelings of yearning, tension and mystery. A wide range of keys and frequent modulations sometimes obscure the sense of an overall tonic or home key.
Texture Texture is generally homophobic, but fluctuations of texture may occur to provide contrasts. A piece may shift gradually or suddenly from one texture to another. Form Forms are rooted in the classical tradition, but now are more expansive and treated freely. New forms and genres were developed, such as the symphonic poem and the art song. Symphonies are typically longer than those of the classical era. Less emphasis is placed on balance, proportion and resolution of tension than in the classical era. Works can be very brief (e. G.
Chopping Minute Waltz) or long an monumental (e. G. Wager’s four-evening opera cycle Deer Ring des Unbelieving). Genre: Art Song One of the most distinctive forms in romantic music is the art song, a composition for solo voice and piano. Here, the accompaniment is an integral part of the composer’s concept and it serves as an interpretive partner to the voice. Although they are now performed in concert halls, romantic songs were written to be sung and enjoyed at home. Flowered with an emergence of a rich body of romantic poetry in the early nineteenth century.
Many of the finest art song composers – Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, for example – were German or Austrian and set poems in their native language. Yearning – inspired by a lost love, nature, a legend, or other times and places – haunted the imagination of romantic poets. Thus art songs are filled with despair of unrequited love; the beauty of flowers, trees and brooks; and the supernatural happenings of folktales. There are also songs of Joy, wit and humor; but by large, romantic song was a reaching out of the soul. Some composers would interpret a poem. Translating its mood, atmosphere and imagery into music.
They created a vocal melody that was musically satisfying and perfectly molded to the text. Important words were emphasized by stressed tones or melodic climaxes. The voice shares the interpretive task with the piano. Emotions and images in the text take on an added dimension from the keyboard commentary. Arpeggios in the piano might suggest the splashing of oars or the motion of a mill wheel. Chords in a owe register might depict darkness or a lover’s torment. The mood is often set by a brief piano introduction and summed up at the end by a piano section called a postlude.
Strophic and Through-composed Form When a poem has several stanzas, the musical setting must accommodate Goatee’s poems were set to music throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth entries by a number of composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Charles Sound, Richard Wagner, Hugo Wolf, and Gustavo Mailer. Erik¶ant (1815) Schubert art song Earl¶nigh is one of the earliest and finest examples of musical romanticism. It is a musical setting of a narrative ballad of the supernatural by Goethe. Goatee’s poem tells of a father riding on horseback though a storm with his sick child in his arms.
The delirious boy has visions of the legendary Reeling, the king of the elves, who symbolizes death. Schubert uses a through-composed setting to capture the mounting excitement of the poem. The piano part, with its rapid octaves and menacing bass motives, conveys the tension of the wild ride. The pianos relentless triplet rhythm unifies the episodes of the song and suggests the horse’s gallop. By imaginatively varying the music, Schubert makes one singer sound like several characters in a miniature drama. 1.
The Narrator lies in the middle range and is in minor mode. 2. The Father lies in the low range and sings both in minor mode and major mode. 3. The Son lies in a high range, also in minor mode, representing the fright of the hill. 4. The Reeling’s vocal line, in a major key, undulates up and down to repatriated accompaniment; a striking contrast as the only break from the triplet figure in the accompaniment until the boy’s death. The Reeling lines are typically sung pianissimo. Original Text English Adaptation Were rewrite so spit durra Nacho undo Wind?
