The Romantic Era for MusicSource

The Romantic Era

The Romantic Era, begun sometime between 1810-1820 , was named after the gradual philosophy that was taken by the more adventurous composers near the end of the Classic era. In a virtual revolt of all the musical conventions that had become rather cheapened and overused by the lesser Classic composers, musicians of this new era sought new goals for themselves. Whereas structural cleverness and impeccable technique were the ideals of the previous movement, Romantic composers reached for the less tangible qualities...things like impulsiveness, excitement, and novelty. Aesthetics and beauty were given precedence over good form...for example, a composer might add an odd series of chords to the middle of a piece to achieve the musical effect he desired, even if it went against all the existing rules of harmony, or he might add a solo for an instrument he really liked, even if it really didn't fit anywhere in the piece.

In the spirit of creating beauty through music, program music (music composed with an object or image in mind) was more widely adopted during this era. In Germany, this type of music became a genre of its own, known as the lied. Lieder were musical and lyrical interpretations of famous poetry created during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The musical form that may have benefited the most from the new musical age was that of opera. By the mid-19th century, opera had become the musical media of choice, embodying all of the Romantic virtues embraced during that time. Many composers, such as the French Gasparo Spontini saw it as their opportunity to showcase great spectacles, dubbed the "grand opera". Others took the genre to a whole new level creating whole new spinoffs...Jacques Offenbach, for instance, created a comic-opera style, the opera bouffe. And lastly, some composers (Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, to name a couple) used opera as a medium for expression in the realms of philosophy and legend.

Whatever the medium, the greatest value was placed on the level of personal expression, regardless of technical conventions or rules. This point is crucial in understanding the nature of the last period in Classical music...the Modern Era.

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