The romance of the Romantics

by Gwen Herat

Many artistic works went into the scores of the Romantics who were sandwiched between the Classical and Modern eras of music. They produced the world's best known musical scores that remain eternal. They remain to mesmerise generation after generation. They changed the face of the music scene of their time and their new compositions simply amazed the public.

Their skills were so prolific and contained spectacular talent. Everybody experienced the development of music that nothing was left for imagination. Some philosophers found their ethics as never before and the imagery that floated before their eyes were central to the human heart.

The Romantics turned around nations as their notes and rhythms floated in the air.

Sounds

They heard those sounds in the rippling waters, torrential rains, thunder and lightning, when birds sang atop trees and in one particular instant, in the ripples of a lake that the great Tchaikovsky turned into a magnificent suite for the Swan Lake.

The better part of the Romantics emerged from 1800 when Italy had dominated the musical world of the 17 and 18 centuries with many great operas and violinists.

The centre of music moved over to Vienna with the court in focus and influenced Germany and Bohemia. Romanticism was taking wings across Europe like a sweeping wind, gathering momentum.

With the French Revolution as a backdrop, people were feeling the aura of opera and symphonies. The aspirations of man which were the theme, the Romantic composers sharply dwelt into their hearts.

The first such person they came face to face was Italian Vincenzo Bellini (1801-35) who headed the list of Early Romantics that led the High Romantics list with the Czech, Leos Janacek (1854-1928).

And to the whole universe the bewildering array of composers looked as though God Himself dropped them from the star-spangled heaven. They appeared to be a virtuostic gift from the Creator.

The amazing feature of the Romantic era was the discovery of the new iron-string piano that took over the rest of the instruments of the era.

It helped to produce the iconic pianist/composer combination and among them were Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn.

Of course, the best of the four, Mendelssohn seized on the elegance and traditional structures of Classicism only to be followed by the oncoming generation of Romantics. As the iron-strung piano gathered momentum, Chopin became the undisputed master on its keyboard style.

Even half a century after his death and as early as 1849, composers continued to write scores heavily influenced by his Nocturne and Barcarole.

Romanticism

The birth of Romanticism superceded all other eras as it produced the most talented spectacular composers the world, was to witness. While every era put together enhanced the cultural history of each and every country, some eras overlapped the others but musicologists have been able to assemble them to span over a thousand years.

Early music (1000-1200), Medieval (1200-1450), Renaissance (1450-1600), Baroque (1600-1750), Classical (1750), Early Romantic (1800-1850), High Romantic (1850-1910) and Modern (1900- to present).Of the elements, we witnessed the invention of compositions, the birth of harmony and of modern musical notation.

To feel the full impact of Romantic era music, we have to take a closer look at three outstanding composers who dominated the musical world in the third quarter of the 19th century and took it over to the next century. They were Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz.

They were responsible in the creation of symphonic poem and solo piano recital.

Musical genius

It made Liszt the most influential musical genius of the century. Liszt's Faust Symphony relied on literary inspiration for its structure.

The egocentric Wagner, intelligent, industrious and arrogant was the third giant composer of all time. Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen which was a cycle of four operas was such a mighty achievement that turned form the realm of classicism to quasl-religious experience. When the score was completed, Wagner called it his vision of ‘music-drama'.A strong believer that music should grow from the libretto and should contain no arias but should have a narrative-flow and never cease. He was a great reformer and the composers of his time who found it difficult to keep pace with him on this theory, later seized on his harmonic-language in the use of chromaticism.

But not all composers fell under Wagner's spell, especially the German Romantics. Giuseppe Verdi adopted some of the Wagner style only in his old age. One thing that tied Wagner to Verdi in common was their fierce patriotism and remained to date as the great miracles of music.

Of all the phases in music history, Romanticism remains the best giving the world the world best Romantics, ever.