Romantic Period

Genres used in the Romantic Period
Instrumental forms Chamber Music Symphony Poem Symphony Solo Concerto Overture Ballet Piano Character Pieces	Vocal  forms Opera (Italian, German) Oratorio (German) Mass (Latin) Art Song (Lieder)
Romanticism sprung from the need for expression of their own personal feelings. The French revolution marked the transfer of power from the aristocracy to the middle class. The Industrial revolution led to cheaper and better musical instruments. As a result, orchestras grew in size, which also had a direct impact on a greater contrast of dynamics. The interest in folklore, led by the rise of nationalistic feelings, increased the public's awareness of national idioms. (Exoticism) Subjects of romantic works focused on romantic love, fascination with nature and Shakespearean plays. Romantic melodies are marked by lyricism, as well as, long extended phrases. Rhythm is exploited through the use of cross rhythms, syncopation, hemiola.  Romantic music focuses on rich and sensuous sounds. As the orchestra expands, the brass, woodwind and percussion sections play a more active role. The woodwind section saw the addition of new tone colours, like the contrabassoon, bass clarinet, English horn and piccolo. Instruments like cymbals, triangle, and harp added new and brilliant tonal colours to Romantic music.  Romantic composers explored new ways of using familiar chord and emphasising on rich sonorous, colorful and complex harmonies. Chromatic harmony was more widely used. Dissonant chords resolution were delayed deliberately to increase feelings of yearning, tension and mystery. Frequent modulations to distant keys, less emphasis on the tonic key, which thus increase the instability of the music. Due to wider range of instruments in the orchestra, as well as development of the piano, wider ranges of dynamics from ffff to pppp are used, as well as, sudden crescendo and decrescendo and sudden dynamic changes. Tempo, key-signature and time-signature changes occur frequently.
Main Composers in the Romantic Period
Franz Schubert Hector Berlioz Felix Mendelssohn Frederic Chopin Robert Schumann Giuseppe Verdi Giacomo Puccini	Peter Tchaikovsky Franz Liszt Johannes Brahms Gustav Mahler Richard Strauss Anton Bruckner Richard Wagner

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