Music of the Romantics

In the Romanticism period, it began to commemorate the establishment of composers as individual artists, rather than servants of rich patrons. Mozart had begun this after his rejection by the Archbishop of Salzburg. He composed his 40th symphony of dark and passionate romanticism. His opera, Don Giovanni was the masterpiece that brought about a revelation in the Romantic imagination, showing how it was possible to create art purely for oneself rather than for formal entertainment of others.

 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) produced an explosive symphony with a marvelous overwhelming volume of orchestral effects, asserting a definite change in Austrian music. This idea was even more clearly established in 1803 by the production of Eroica symphony, originally intended to be a homage to Napoleon, but Beethoven changed his mind as the French general declared himself emperor. But the significance of this symphony was great since it declared Classicism as a thing of the past and a new movement had officially begun. It was also a symbol of Beethoven's struggle to keep up his career as a public performer with his deafness, as well as the intensity of his inspiration as a composer.
Beethoven is known as the "poet of heroism" bearing tribute to his famous works "Fidelio" and "Eroica." He played an important role in the progress of symphonic form and the art of the string quartet and piano sonata. Beethoven explored profound emotional and spiritual tensions that inspired many composers. Italian Verdi slept to Beethoven's quartets and others such as Frenchman Hector Berlioz (1803-69) and Richard Wagner (1813-83) state Beethoven as a tremendous influence and source.
The age of Romanticism also appeared to increase the influence of literature on music. Composers wrote their music inspired by or based on the literary achievements of the age. They were generally attracted to high-quality texts but Berlioz used Theophile Gautiers poetry and Schumann chose Heinrich Heine. Composers were not always dependent on "The Greats" for inspiration. Schubert and Wagner, for instance, used their music to give depth and beauty, flow and cohesion to "Tristan," "Isolde," and "The Ring," or raise minor verse to the level of Goethe.

 Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" was very deliberate, each movement illustrating tragic love affairs. But it was Franz Liszt (1811-86) who took the art of programme music into a heavy industry. He toured all over Europe as a very popular piano player. He described his work as "symphonic poetry" and wrote many pieces inspired by poems, stories, paintings, and places. He developed the idea of musical metamorphosis, where the transformations of a single theme, through changes of tempo, rhythm, contour and harmony could form the argument of an entire piece. His later piano pieces were great in their harmonic innovation and possessed an austerity of utterance far different from the flamboyance of his early and middle years.
The nationalism that was occurring in Europe at the time before World War I inspired Romantic artists and it was becoming a major force. Folk art also was a large source for composers such as Smetana (1824-84) Dvorak (1841-1904) Grieg (1843-1907) Balakirev (1837-1910) Musorgsky (1839-81) and Tchaikovsky (1840-93). They used nationalist subjects for their operas and their symphonies gained an intensity and identity of their own by combining recognizably nationalistic colouring with the established structural procedures of the German mainstream.
While Germany itself was changing, Wagner began to abandon the constraints of scale and conventional music structure in his vast music dramas. With mixed themes, he began to speculate on Lizst's ideas of metamorphosis and created tonal chromaticism-the continuous introduction of notes foreign to the key of music. Berlioz and Johannes Brahms (1833-97) were experimenting with the tensions that result of restricted Romantic emotions and feelings in a rigid Classic structure. Brahms and Wagner represented two very different musical viewpoints of Romanticism, forcing listeners to take sides.
Eventually, it seemed apparent that Wager had proved the major influence. Anton Bruckner (1824-96) wrote nine symphonies that had Wagner-type harmonies but had roots in Schubert's major symphony. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) also used Wagner and Schubert as foundations for his work. He tended to dramatize ecstatic and anguish elements and these were hitherto not as fully experimented with. He also wrote some music about the uncertainty of the next century and the chaos it was sure to bring. German Richard Strauss (1864-1949) used some of the elements in Lizst and Wagner, as well as a nostalgia for Mozart's works. Right before he died he wrote a most touching, poignant farewell entitled "Four Last Songs."