1. Romanticism in music

Romanticism originally refers to stories written in Roman, and then specifically refers to novels or knight stories, and later includes legendary novels. The rise of romanticism in art was first seen in literary works in the 18th century, which showed all personal feelings, interests and talents to the fullest. In music, romantic composers strongly show their hobbies, which are incompatible with classicism dominated by form. Classical music is as bright as lines; Romantic music, on the other hand, focuses on color and emotion, and contains many subjective and utopian factors. However, this is only a difference in principle. It is never so easy to draw a clear line between different creative styles, such as classicism and romanticism, according to the wishes of those methodical music historians.

Simple definitions are not feasible. These definitions are always too simplistic because many very important factors are ignored. For example, if it is asserted that classical music is objective and romantic music is subjective, doesn't it mean that Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, like computers, never create works that reflect their personal feelings? This is obviously ridiculous. Similarly, if romantic composers "get rid of" the principle of traditional forms, then this actually denies that they continue to use these forms, even using classical forms in situations that are not necessarily possible. For example, Verdi ended his comic opera Falstaff with a fugue. In addition, it should be made clear that classicism and romanticism existed for a period of time. Weber, an important romantic opera composer and German idealist, died one year before Beethoven, and Schubert died only one year later.

However, in fact, there are differences between the two music schools that we can easily grasp, and most of these differences are due to non-musical reasons. By The Romantic Period, the status of composers in society has changed fundamentally. They are no longer employees of a city, court or church. Beethoven only won real independence to some extent, because no matter how generously the nobles let him go his own way, most of his livelihood still depended on the protection of the nobles. Now, in theory, the composer is completely his own master, in fact, he is also the servant of the public. In order to meet the needs of the public, various concert societies and music festival networks have developed rapidly. If a composer, such as Mendelssohn, can provide music that they like to listen to for this large number of dominant middle classes, he is successful; On the other hand, if he ignores the aesthetics of the times and only creates for himself or his ideal descendants, then he is bound to be a "eccentric" isolated artist in the public mind. This kind of composers often think that they are outstanding figures and prophets of future art. The use of the word "artist" is not meaningless, because composers throughout the nineteenth century saw themselves this way. They have a good reason to call themselves this way, because once they get rid of private protection and join the society, they begin to have contact with creative colleagues such as literary writers. In fact, Weber, Schumann and Berlioz wrote some books about music besides composing music, while Wagner not only wrote his own plays, but also wrote many books and papers about music, drama and philosophy. It is hard to imagine why he still had time to create so many pieces of music. This new generation of composers has a strong interest in all kinds of new ideas that pervade the society, whether they are scientific, national or artistic. Most importantly, they are crazy about literature. Their predecessors were only satisfied with expressing pure musical ideas with instrumental music, while romantic musicians devoted themselves to making music keep pace with language in the breadth of expression. Of course, composing music for lyrics has always been one of the composers' practices, but it was popular at that time to express or describe a specific scene or even tell a story with instrumental music. It started with Beethoven's contemporary Weber, and was later developed into descriptive symphonic poems by Liszt and Richard strauss.

in the first half of the 19th century, natural and rural romantic literature was transformed into fantasy romantic literature which was broader than life, represented by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) and emily bronte's Wuthering Heights (1847). There is a world of difference between the two English novels, and this difference can be summarized in walter W·Pater's definition of romanticism, which he thinks is "adding a grotesque color to beauty". Therefore, it is not surprising that romantic music also shows a strange supernatural thing to a great extent, as Berlioz did in his symphonie fantastique in 183. The composers soon took a new interest in the surrounding nature, which is not the simple nature in Beethoven's Pastoral, but the capitalized "nature", a force that has a special connection with them because they are detached from all sentient beings. Whether it is literature or music, another feature of romanticism is that it places great emphasis on a single person, rather than the kind of person who, as a member of society, is carefully classified into a certain class and cannot get rid of it at all. Therefore, the emphasis on independent personality makes composers consciously pursue personal characteristics, sometimes becoming egoism. In this way, they are farther and farther away from those classical composers who have suppressed some of their creative talents because they follow the rules.

If you want to summarize the characteristics of romantic music in a few words, it is very easy for readers to mistakenly think that romantic composers are all degenerate. Although some of them do cheat, on the whole, they have enough self-control ability to keep their freedom from crossing the line. Most of them still continue to use traditional symphonies, sonatas, quartets and other forms, although there are new things in these forms that are different from Mozart and will infringe on his aesthetics (it should be remembered that aesthetic likes and dislikes are always changing, so the behavior that this generation thinks "excessive" is the norm in the eyes of the next generation, and yesterday's "naughty children" have gradually grown into today's respected "old uncles". [Note: Gauthie, a French poet, was called a "naughty boy" when he participated in the romantic movement in his early years. "Old Uncle" is a British title for Grace, a politician who once served as prime minister. ]）。 There have always been two different schools within the Romantic Movement, one is radical represented by Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner, and the other is conservative represented by Mendelssohn, Brahms and brukner. Studying the early romanticism can explain how the split came into being, and can also distinguish those composers whose importance lies in orchestral music (Mendelssohn, Berlioz) from those composers whose importance lies in other aspects (such as Schubert in songs, Schumann in songs and piano music, Weber in opera).

2. The formation of romantic music

Like other sister arts, the early romantic music originated from the ideas of the "Enlightenment" in Europe and the liberal and democratic ideas of the French Revolution, which was several decades later than the romanticism in literature. Beethoven's late works have become the pioneers of early romanticism, and all the composers after that can be classified as romanticists. In terms of time, the mid-19th century was the heyday of romantic music. Third, the representative figures of romantic music As mentioned above, in the late works of classical composers Beethoven, Rossini and Weber, the style of romantic music has been clearly revealed, and it is they who pioneered the Romanticism. Composers born around 18 formed the center of early romanticism. Schubert and Berlioz are the representatives of early romantic music, and they formed their own unique genre from the traditions of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Later, romantic music was further improved by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin and Verdi, and reached its peak in the era of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Wagner. These composers and pianists formed the center of the mid-term romanticism. As for the works of modern famous artists such as Mahler, Richard strauss and Rachmaninov, they belong to late romantic music.

3. The historical position of romantic music

The position of romantic music school in the history of music is self-evident. This period is not only rich in great musicians, but also has an unprecedented range of music genres, with novel and unique forms such as wordless songs, serenades, art songs, narrative songs and symphonic poems, which is a "treasure house" in the history of human art. Romantic music is also a bridge: Weber accepted the traditions of Gluck and Mozart and spread them to Wagner in modern times; Schubert is Beethoven's successor in instrumental music, and his romantic art songs have been passed down to this day through Schumann and Orff. Berlioz's title music originated from Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony, and was later associated with impressionism in modern France.