Chapter 15
Prelude: Music
after Beethoven:
Romanticism
Key Terms
Romanticism
Cult of individual
feeling
Revolt
The supernatural
The macabre
Artistic barriers
Early Romantic Timeline
Romanticism (1)
Romantic literature & literary theory
flourished particularly 1800-1820
Romanticism (2)
Literary figures were talking excitedly
about “Romantic” music by the 1820s
Romanticism (3)
To us, the word romantic refers to love
But glorification of love was just one of
many Romantic themes
Romanticism and Revolt
American & French Revolutions
1848 revolutions & upheavals
• In France, Germany, Austria, & Italy
Romantics viewed as rebels against the
established order
Many composers took up cause of liberty
• Beethoven, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner
Social barriers also broken down
• Greater social mobility
• Liszt’s affairs with noblewomen
Music and the Supernatural
Many supernatural, even macabre subjects
Artistic Barriers (1)
A constant search for higher experience &
more intense expression
Artistic Barriers (2)
Composers broke down barriers of
harmony & form
Music and the Other Arts (1)
Efforts were made to blend the arts
• Poetry became more “musical”
• Paintings & musical works were given “poetic”
titles
• Wagner attempted to merge poetry, drama,
music, & stagecraft in his “total artwork”
Music and the Other Arts (2)
Artists tried to express higher experience
• Works that evoke the sublime or the infinite
Concert Life
Public concert steadily grew in importance
• Concert hall & opera house came to dominate
Even small cities had symphony societies
• Including New York & Boston
• Organized by merchants, government officials,
lawyers, & other members of middle class
Intimate genres increasingly presented on
concert stage
• Piano works, Lieder, & string quartets