Styles

Romantic period styles

A term used to describe the music written from about 1830 to 1900. Romantic composers aimed to express more emotion in their music and looked for a greater freedom in form and design. Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Tchaikovsky are all popular Romantic composers. Listen to an example from a piano concerto by another of the composers of the time, Schumann. 

  Notice that there is a much larger orchestra used in the excerpt, that the solo instrument, a piano, starts with the orchestra at the beginning and that the excerpt is in the minor key.

Concerto

Music written for a solo instrument and orchestra which is usually in three movements (fast, slow, fast). Listen to an example from a celloconcerto by Dvorak. How do you know this is from the Romantic period? Listen to the dramatic crescendo, the use of percussion and in particular the triangle in the large orchestra. The excerpt starts with a pedal, ie a repeated bass note. Listen as the excerpt ends with the use of sequence in the solo part and at the end double stopping, ie playing two notes at the same time on a string instrument.

The Scottish Chamber orchestra in performance: Photograph by Jeremy Hardie/

Programme

The idea on which the composition is based. It could be a picture, a story or a poem. In this excerpt the composer tries to portray a scene from a ball.

   The music is in waltz time and uses rubato, a flexibility or elasticity of speed associated with the Romantic period. Now listen to another excerpt from the beginning of the 20th century. While this is a piece of what is regarded as impressionist music, it is also quite clearly programme music as well. Listen carefully to the approaching procession, the muted trumpets indicating distance, two harps providing an accompaniment which can be heard as marching, the question-and-answer phrases between woodwind and horns as a crescendo indicates that the procession is getting closer, and the reinforcing of the sound with a snare drum and cymbals as the procession passes the listener.

Painting is 'Impression. Sunrise' by Claude Monet