Although
there is no true division between Classic and Romantic styles
in music, Romantic composers sought to highlight the individuality
within their music and to differ in the elements of musical
style-melody and periodicity, rhythm and expression, harmony
and chords, tonality and color, counterpoint and structure.
While Classic melodies
were balanced, clipped, and changes resolved in "stepwise
motion," Romantic melodies were longer and more emotional
and dramatic; the theme of Mozart's String Quartet in C major
is 9 measures long; Schumann's, 32. For expressive purposes,
Romantic composers included wide leaps of sixths, sevenths,
and other diminished and augmented intervals, as well as a wider
melodic range involving a greater number of octaves. In expression,
late Romantic composers used ranges as extreme as ppppp to ffff.
In the Romantic period,
composers freely broke away from traditional Classic rhythm
and three types of cross-rhythms were used. The first, and most
common was duplets against triplets, or two beats in one part
against three beats in another part. The second type was composed
of irregularly-grouped notes in the right hand set to steadily-grouped
notes in the left. The third and most complex type of cross-rhythm
was an intersection of two or more rhythmic planes. Another
type of rhythmic device involved including an occasional measure
of a rhythm different than the dominant rhythm of the song,
syncopations, and musical accents in the most unexpected places.
Meter also became more complex and rhythm was shaped to accompany
different dances, particularly waltzes and ballets and national
and exotic dances in piano.
In harmony, innovation
came with the use of chords. Chromatically altered triads, often
with the raised fifth (or the augmented triad) and chromatic
or enharmonic alteration of a chord containing a minor seventh
were used by Romantic composers as coloristic devices. Delaying
the resolution of non-harmonic tones increased the effect of
"yearning and longing (Longyear 295)." Higher discords,
which were the result of building chords upwards by thirds,
was another innovation. Dissonance in harmony was also common.
Chord progressions were used increasingly in part-writing; their
resolutions were often delayed, or non-existent. Harmonic rhythm
was not controlled and was lacking as a structural device.
In Tonality, the tonal
frame of reference expanded by way of extending introductions
in a key differing from the dominant one, implying the definition
of a key and contrasting movements through unrelated keys, and
using tonal parentheses and non-functional harmonies. Keys were
used with less limits. The F# minor key was the most common,
particularly in piano music. The minor mode was also extremely
popular among Romantic composers. A prevalent technique in early
Romantic composition included the shifting of harmonies between
minor and major and major and minor.
Counterpoint, where a
melody is accompanied to other melodies to form a whole, became
an important part of Romantic music. Specifically, linear counterpoint
developed through the dissonance resulting from the consolidation
of chromatic contrapuntal lines. In addition, the Romantic sound
evolved in its use of tone color and structure. Romantic color
was broadened through the clarinet, English and French horns,
bass clarinet, the harp, the improved piano, and the expanded
orchestra. The extensive use of the pedal on the piano to sustain
notes began in the 1820s, and became a prime characteristic
of Romantic piano music.
Significant changes in
form defined Romantic music. In Symphonies, slow introductions
in the first movements were common; slow movements were achieved
with hymns, arias, romanzas; final movements ended in triumph.
The symphonic poem was created as a sort of narrative orchestral
work. The Romantic sonata varied in theme and mode, yet it was
nevertheless extended. Miniature works for the piano, such as
the nocturne and the etude came into form. In concertos, cadenzas
were written out, finales inspired by national dances or folk
songs; concertos expanded to four movements, were paired with
a scherzo-like movement or written as a single movement. Vocal
music evolved in the opera and the solo song. Innovations in
form were the German Lied, the French Mélodie,
and the French Romance. The Lied was an art-song in which
piano and singer were one. In the Romance, the piano only supported
the voice's melody. Later, the piano's role became more reinforced
in the Mélodie.
Differing from Classicism
in balance and intensity, Romanticism was an unpredictable medium.
It is evident that the greatest composers thrived in the Romantic
Age and produced the most artistic and unique work through their
novel use of color, tonality, counterpoint, structure, melody,
rhythm, and harmony. It is with an extraordinary amount of innovation
that the evolution of music has come as far-reaching as it has
to the present day, thus "[A Romantic work is] that kind
of composition in which the artist freely gives himself up to
the dominion of the imagination, considering all means as good,
provided they produce effect. The grand requisite, therefore,
in the romantic, is virtually to declare that the writer is
not deficient in this quality, and that he has produced something
piquant and new. It is to be doubted that many composers would
venture to employ so dangerous a term, if they knew its true
value." -The Harmonicon, 1830 {Longyear vi)
Source:
Longyear, Ray M. Nineteenth-Century
Romanticism in Music. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1988.
Sony Classical. Sony Music
Entertainment. 2001. <http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/eras/romhist.html>
