Romantic

Firstly, a general playlist, with several examples of ROMANTIC music. During this period, the standard line up for an orchestra became larger and incorporated more percussion and brass instruments than before as well as often featuring harp(s). 

Romantic music tends to be very expressive and dramatic, and is often PROGRAMMATIC. For more information, see following playlists.




While there are some examples of PROGRAMME MUSIC earlier in musical history, it was in the ROMANTIC period that it became very common.

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is a good example, telling the story of an artist's doomed love for an unattainable woman, ending in her murder and the artist's going to Hell, in the form of a SYMPHONY (albeit in 5 movements rather than the CLASSICAL 4). It is also typically ROMANTIC in its themes of extreme emotion, Nature (the third movement represents a scene in the countryside, including a thunderstorm) and the Supernatural (in Hell, the artist witnesses a witches' sabbath.)

One more typically ROMANTIC concept: Berlioz uses a LEITMOTIV to represent the artist's beloved: in this excerpt, it is heard on the clarinet at 2.15. The excerpt comes from the second movement, which represents a ball, hence the waltz rhythms.




Many composers continued to write SYMPHONIES during the ROMANTIC era, which tended to be on a larger scale (both in terms of length, and the size of orchestra needed to play them) than CLASSICAL SYMPHONIES.

In addition, a new large-scale orchestral form developed, known as the TONE POEM or SYMPHONIC POEM. This is an orchestral piece in a single movement (as opposed to the multiple movements of the SYMPHONY), which tells a story or paints a picture in music. Such pieces can therefore be described as PROGRAMME MUSIC, which is a common feature of much ROMANTIC music.

The TONE POEMS in this playlist also illustrate another feature of ROMANTIC music, particularly later in the era: NATIONALISM. Many composers, particularly if their country was ruled by another country (eg. Czechs ruled by Germans), would use music to assert their national pride and patriotism. They might, for example, base an OPERA on a national folk story (eg. Dvorak's 'Rusalka'), or include folk tunes in a Tone Poem. 

All of the TONE POEMS in this playlist are either inspired by folk stories, or use folk tunes from the composers' respective countries.

The LIED is a song for solo voice and piano, with German words, which developed during the ROMANTIC era. Key composers were Schubert and Schumann, and later in the era Brahms and Wolf.

A common feature is that the piano has equal importance with the voice - it's not just an accompaniment, but adds to the drama and/or the meaning of the words. For example listen to the first song on this playlist, "Erlkonig", in which a father carries his sick child on horseback through a stormy night while the child is menaced by a an evil spirit, and note the way the piano portrays the galloping horse and the gusty wind. When the father arrives home, the child is dead, and the music portrays this too in its sudden lack of rhythmic movement.

Many LIED were published in collections, linked by a common theme or by the fact that all the words were written by the same poet. These larger scale works consisting of several LIED, are known as SONG CYCLEs. The last eight tracks on this playlist are an example, Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben.