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Music of the Romantic Period

The Romantic period was heavily influenced by the end of

Napoleons reign. There was a decrease of aristocratic privilege and an

increase in democratic governments.as well as an increase in national

identity. This was also the time of industrialization.

The Romantic style is quite different from styles that had come

before. t was influenced by Romance writings that were wor!s of fiction set

in remote times and places that were full of mystery and emotion. The style

was full of fantasy" heightened e#pression" heroism" and a personal voice.

The compositions were full of e#aggeration and asymmetry. n terms of

theory" there was an increased use of dissonance and chromaticism.

$ompositions had movements to remote !eys and e#panded formal

dimensions.

Many important genres were introduced during the Romantic period.

%ieder was a big contribution to vocal wor!s. $haracter pieces began to

replace piano sonatas. Programmatic symphonies and tone poems were also

introduced during this time. & tone poem was a large'scale symphonic wor!

that was based on a program but did not have a symphony structure.

(ranz )chubert was a great early Romantic composer from *ienna.

+e was quite famous for his lieder and symphonies. +e wrote over ,--

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lieder" includingErlkonig. +is eighth symphony was !nown as The

nfinished due to the fact that he only wrote two movements. +ector

/erlioz was a composer from (rance. +e focused mainly on instrumental

music. +is most famous wor! is Symphonie fantastique which was a

programmatic symphony that had 0 movements instead 1. +e also

introduced new orchestral techniques. (rydery! $hopin" (eli# Mendelssohn"

Robert )chumann" and $lara )chumann were all big contributors of early

Romantic compositions.

2pera had many contributors during the Romantic period. Richard

3agner" 4ioachino Rossini" 4iuseppe *erdi" and 4iacomo Puccini were

some of the big composers during the late Romantic period. 3agner focused

more on music drama. +e also introduced leitmotif into the opera world.

Puccini wrote more about everyday people" which was called verismo.

5ohannes /rahms" Richard )trauss" 4ustav Mahler" and )ergei

Rachmaninoff were four composers that made big contributions in the

symphonic and vocal wor! areas. /rahms wrote 1 symphonies and a

massive amount of lieder. )trauss focused on tone poem and lieder. Mahler

focused strictly on symphonic wor!s. 3hile he only wrote 6 symphonies"

they were quite massive. +e also wrote symphonic song cycles.

Rachmaninoff wrote post romantic symphonies and concertos. +e is famous

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for Solemn Vespers.

There was also a rush of Nationalism towards the end of the Romantic

period. Many Russian composers became contributors. (ranz %iszt" Peter

Tchai!ovs!y" 7dvard 4rieg" and &ntonin 8vora! are a few of these

composers. %iszt is considered the greatest piano virtuoso. Tchai!ovs!y is

most famous for his ballets The Nutcracker and SwanLake. 4rieg is famous

for his piano concertos andPeer Gynt Suite. 8vora! is famous for his

symphonies. +e wrote 6 symphonies with his most famous being theNew

World Symphony.