The Leid in the Romantic Era

Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.

Sonatas composed from 1773 to 1784 were intended as “public” works from the very beginning, with a clear conception of the taste, preferences, and instruments available to the musical public of Vienna. The Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI: 23; L38 written in 1773 for solo harpsichord is the best known and most virtuosic of

To the radicals, what mattered in the music were deep feelings, much emotion and expression. Earlier the composers now fighting had been united, they all wanted to leave the past behind and their motto said “Let the dead bury the dead” (Weimar Years 338).

Romantic music inspired two smaller movements: nationalistic music and music about legends. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) is a German composer who wrote many pieces on the basis of a story or myth. He revolutionized opera through creativity, discontent with musical formulas and his focus on drama.

Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Wolfgang Mozart for short, was born on January 27, 1756. He was an Austrian composer that today is known as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. Mozart wrote in multiple musical genres, excelling in each one. Because of his range of expression, it made him seem the most universal of all composers.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the archetypal classical composers, along with Franz Haydn. He composed over 600 works, including choral, symphonic,

The composer that I chose is Charles Ives, an American modernist and musical composer from the 20th century born on October 20, 1874 in a small town of Danbury, CT and died on May 19, 1954 in New York City, NY. Charles Ives was one of the first American composers international renown and had a unique voice in American music. Which today he’s known for his amazing original orchestral music and as an American composer and Musician.

There are many great composers throughout the centuries. Each composer has a story to tell that is very interesting, when you dig deep for the information. Every composer has their own way of making, composing and producing music. Irving Berlin is no exception. Berlin is an extraordinary composer, and when examining his story amazing facts are found. Berlin is not just a musician and composer, he is a man of many hats. Berlin’s life is extremely compelling.

Franz Schubert composed the German Lieder, Gretchen Am Spinnrade, in 1814. This composition is one of Schubert’s pinnacle compositions, which introduced the world to the idea of the Romantic Lied, veering away from the already existing Classical Lied. Observing the form, rhythmic structure, key modulations and dynamics with relation to the text, Schubert paints a beautiful emotional drama for the listener allowing them to dive into the thoughts and emotions the woman, Gretchen, is experiencing while longing for her lover, Faust.

In Alban Berg’s Traumgekrönt and Liebesode, one may observe these Wagnerian innovations at work: both the atonal approach developed further by Debussy and the Impressionists in the wake of Wagner and grand-scale composition by Mahler and Bruckner. Berg’s songs—like Mahler’s—simultaneously contain characteristics of music’s Romantic past and its post-Wagnerian future.

Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.

     Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s style unlike anyone else. Mozart was a master of counterpoint, fugue, and the other traditional compositional points of his day. He is also considered the best melody writer the world has ever known. Wolfgang perfected the grand forms of symphony, opera string quartet, and concerto made the classical period. “Mozart’s music is characterized by lucid ease and distinction of style....”2 Wolfgang wrote over 600 works which consisted of 21 stage and opera works, 15 masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos,27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets, and many more. His operas range from comic baubles to tragic pieces. In his Requiem it illustrates the supreme vocal sounds in any of his work.

Many prominent musicians produced major works during the romantic period. Among these are Beethoven, Strause, and Bach. But the musician that I think had the most impact, was Franz Schubert. Franz Peter, born on 31 January 1797 was one of fourteen children born of Franz Theodore Schubert and Elisabeth Vietz, four of which survived. He grew up in an apartment that daily converted to a classroom in which his father taught several elementary school classes. He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his

During the Romantic era the piano was improved and it made it easier to play notes quicker, a great help in Gretchen am Spinnrade where sixteenth notes are played constantly throughout the piece. It is possible to hear which composer wrote the piece, due to the melody being very lyrical, one of the characteristics of Schubert’s music, which makes Gretchen am Spinnrade individualistic and self-expressed (“OnMusic”). The piece modulates to many different keys, helping to build tension and express emotion, even though many Romantic composers build tension with chromatics and unstable chords.

For my era, I chose the Romantic period and the artist I chose associated with this time is none other than Johannes Brahms. The Romantic movement originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, however, it reached its peak in most areas approximately between 1800 and 1850. Nevertheless, since the spread and popularity of the movement depended on the region, it’s said to have reached Vienna around 1825 and ended roughly around 1900. The Romantic period was not only an intellectual, literary, and artistic movement, it was a change in musical style as well. Like most periods, it was divided up into three phases: early, high, and late, which is often referred to as post-romantic. Romanticism followed Classicism, which was centered in Vienna, and was ultimately the result of political and social upheavals in relationship to the French Revolution. In the spirit of Romanticism, this era is considered to have fostered the rise of the middle-class. Overall, the work of artists, writers, and poets was defined as passionate and imaginative. The subjects and settings were usually exotic and they all typically explored the depths of eternal human conflict. Overall, emotion, imagination, and mystery inspired Romantics.