How Did Classical Music Develop Throughout The 19th And 20th Century?

In the early 19th century, political rebellions plus democratic ideals brought a large impact to the Western society. The rise of romantic period instrumental music as well as the daily lives of all citizens at all levels had greatly improved, people were free to express their feelings and free to live the life they choose. Because of these social changes, more people wanted approach to performance, education in music. Musicians are able to make a change to work as a freelance musician and living through composing or performing. Events that happened in society such as new discovery, historical events and ideas affected the music. For the music in the romantic period, composers intend to have a wider range and expressive in tone color with complex harmony or adding personal self-expression into the music. Romantic music composers also called for an expanded range of dynamics and speed to increase the brilliance and depth of sound. Another trend of the 19th century was the nationalism. This paper will talk about Nationalism was an important musical movement and how it strongly influenced on the growth of romantic music.

The development starts very similarly to the exposition with the first violin part once again playing the sunrise theme with the only differences being the distribution of the motifs ‘x’ and ‘y’ (The opening sunrise theme of the exposition was in the order of motif ‘y-x-x’ then ‘x-x-y’ compared to the opening

Romantic 
Dates: 1800-1900
 
1.  What was going on historically during this era?  What was life like? Profound Political and Social changes going on; many moving into cities for work. Renewed interested in expressing emotion through music. 
2.  Does romantic music continue to use the same forms used in the classical era? No
3.  Explain the Individuality of style. Composers wanted their music to be uniquely identifiable to them. They worked hard on self-expression.
4.  What are the expressive aims and subjects of the pieces?  How is this different than in the classical era? Flamboyance, Intimacy, Unpredictability, Melancholy, Rapture, Longing etc..., Classical Era did not experiment with so many aims.
5.  What is musical nationalism?

Johannes Brahms was one of the most important composers of the nineteenth century. Although he is forever enshrined in music history as one of the three B’s (Along with Beethoven, and Bach), Brahms’ contribution to the musical world is far greater than just the letter B. (“Self Confidence” par. 9) From his works in orchestral music (such as his four symphonies, and concertos) to his piano, chamber, and choral music, all of these have had a meaningful impact the world of music, both in the nineteenth century, and today. (Sandberger par. 1)

The Music of the classical and Romantic era is a period of time where it shows the development and different styles of music. This can be shown through the manipulation of musical elements, (dynamics, pitch, tempo, rhythm, texture, meter, tonality, structure, melody, harmony, instrument) while contrasting them, but it can also be shown through the composers of the music, the size of the orchestra, musical directions, emotional content, and non-musical developments through that period of time.

A plethora of sweet melodies flowing together into one cohesive song, sharps and flats bouncing off one another like a child on a trampoline, and notes oozing so much legato you would assume the pianist transformed into a robot. What genre exudes those characteristics? Western classical music. Western classical music is broken down into six categories in order for it to be easily identifiable chronologically. The six categories are the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque Age, the Classical Period, the Romantic Era, and the Twentieth Century. The earliest form of Western music originates from the Medieval time period of c.1150-c.1400, and the most recent time period is the music post from the Great War, which spans from 1920c.- Present. It was during the Baroque Age, the Classical Period, the Romantic Era, and the Twentieth Century that many of the famous composers, whose songs are still recognized today composed pieces. The mark these impeccable composers left on the world of music will forever be recognized, which is one of the reasons I applaud classical music. I am impressed by Western classical music because of its depth, clarity, and variety.

It starts with this lyrical primary theme at the beginning, then moves to a rhythmically driving transitory section that leads into the second theme defined by these dotted eight and sixteenth note patterns. The development begins with the flute playing these military sounding phrases before playing around with some of the primary material. The recapitulation brings back the exposition, leading to a very gentle and delicate ending. Drawing upon some of the livelier sections of the first movement, the second movement, Scherzo, zooms on by. Though it is written in a fast triple meter, the placement of some accents create a cross rhythmic feel between the flute and piano, which only serves to heightened the driving nature of the piece. There is a moment when all the running figures stop to give way to a slow and wafting melodic line, before jumping right back into the heat of action till the end. The third movement, Andante, is very lyrical and serves to contrast the first two movements. The movement begins with a very expressive melodic line played by the flute which transforms into these sensual sixteenth triplet passages that weave in and out of the piano part, and returns to the opening character at the end. The fourth movement, Allegro con Brio, is fast and exciting. The most demanding of the movements, it calls for precision in rhythm while also maintaining a driving character. The beauty of the movement

Romantic music such as Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms sounds more intense and emotional than Classical music like Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, which generally sounds more structured and predictable Romantic music seems to quickly shift back and forth from very intense to very calm. Music in the Classical era tends to consist also of shorter movements, because composers were still learning ways to extend their pieces. The classical era also contributed to instrumental music known as sonata form. Romantic elements also appeared in music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The classical era adpoted a variety of folk and and popular elements of music. Most instrumental works of the classical era were syphonies,sonatas,concertos,strings and other chamber

The second piece of music is from the romantic period because the brass,woodwinds instruments play prominent roles in the orchestra, they are mostly the melody of the orchestra.The second piece of music is also using rubato, and the use of rubato makes the music sound more expressivity and freedom. The dynamic changes suddenly or gradually, from pianissimo to fortissimo. The tempo also changes abruptly, the tempo shift suddenly from

After the Classical era came the Romantic era, 1820 to 1900 A.D., which stressed the importance of emotion, intuition, and imagination; in addition, it was a reaction against the logic and restraint of the previous Classical era. The composers of this time-period sought freedom of expression and individualism. As with the Classical era, the rising middle class were the arbiters of artistic taste and public morals, and caused many artists to turn to the wildness of nature, fantasy, and romantic love. Programmatic music was a staple of the time along with short, yet extremely emotionally dramatic piano pieces; furthermore, opera continued to be important with Verdi and Wagner being leaders in this art form. Verdi had more of an Italian style

What makes you think of the Romantic Period in music? The music period deemed the “Romantic Period” was brought into place by the major social and political stresses following the French Revolution, having the outcome of trends worldwide. The Romantic Period itself, outside of music, was a dramatic movement that was caused by rebelling everything that the Classical Period held as far as standards in music, art, and societal living. This rebellion against the cultural norm caused differing standpoints between logic and emotion, science and faith, freedom and oppression, capitalism and socialism, and also the difference between structured music and expressive music. The composers during this period were interesting in that they were able to construct such a stylistic way of writing, and preforming music, in such a short time. Some artists in this time that were crucial to this development of music were Chopin, and Schumann, who will be later discussed.

There are many ideals that occurred over the 19th and 20th centuries. These ideals covered many genres of music from piano music, orchestral pieces, to operas. The composers of these times tried many different techniques and styles making a lasting impression on the Romantic era of music.

Following the Pre-Classical and Classical periods, a new, very distinctive style of music emerged. The Romantic Era Lasted from the year 1820 up until the year 1900. The Romantic Era consisted of composers taking a more unique and expressive style of music. Hector Berlioz, Fryderyck Chopin, and Robert Schumann are considered to be the most influential composers of the Romantic Era. Nationalism and Exoticism played a very big part of music expression during this period. Both, Art song and German Lieder music styles were invented and told stories in a musical form. These three composers helped shape this era through the use of the piano and the use of a more supernatural realm style of music.

The late Romantic Era (~1790-1910) was a time for experimentation. The individual composers, starting with Beethoven, moved away from the technical form of the baroque and classical periods. Instead this movement focused on emotions and national pride. Often, the Romantic era is placed next to the Classical era as an opposite. (Einstein 1980) History often treats Romanticism as a rebellious response to the technical Classical era that came beforehand. However, there are many overlaps between the two movements. Many romantic pieces followed the general structures and rules that were created in the Classical era, though many delved into chromatic progression. (Einstein 1980) The largest difference between the two is that romantic music has richer tones, and was heavily rooted in history. One of the main factors of romantic music is the tie to nationalism, and country-wide pride. (Einstein 1980) These factors play a role in making Romantic music some of the most fascinating music to be composed.

Did music ever reach a point to where all restraints seemed cast off and composers had the opportunity to express musical freedom? Similar to the emotional and intense paintings done through this time, the music during the Romantic Period also expressed heightened passion and paralleled the trends in art. It lasted from circa 1825- 1900. Looking at the musicians during this time, the purpose of the music, and the things that characterized Romantic music, one will see how things changed from the previous Classical period.