The Romantic Era
(1850 to 1920)

The Romantic era, was a change from the Classical era. Romantic allowed artistic Freedom, experimentation, and creativity. It was a period of expression and melody became the dominant feature, unlike the Classical era, were there were strict laws of balance and restraint. Composers would express their cultural identity. As time change, new musical techniques came to get with the current trends. Composers use the elements of folk music to express there identity. Composers would experiment with compositions, new harmonies, and the tonal relationships. There was an increase with the use of dissonance and the extend use of chromatics. New instruments were being added to orchestras and composers tired to get new or different sounds out of the instrument they already use.

One of the new forms was the symphonic poem, which portrayed a story or had some kind of literary or artistic background to it. Another form was a vocal musical work with emphasis on the text or the symbolical meaning of the words, which is called the art song. That is why opera became increasingly popular. Some themes that composers wrote were about the escape from political oppression and the fate of national or religious groups. Such as this elements of fantasy were used by composers.

During this period, exceptionally gifted performers such as pianist, violinist, and singers became most popular. Liszt, a Hungarian pianist and composers, played with such passion and intensity that the women in the audience would faint. The composers were also virtuoso performers, they wrote extremely challenging to play.

Art song had its own special category of vocal music. It was lyrical, not like folk song, operatic aria, and popular song. Composers made great strides that were closely associated to the words of a piece with the musical counterpart. It was poetic in nature, and the tones were more lyrical then dramatic, such as opera. It was poetry and could be emotional through music.

The piano helped a lot; it added more emotion into the romantic art song. It enhanced the mood and meaning of the words by harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic. The harmonic and melodic supported the voice and served to punctuate the poetic form but interludes between stanzas and lines of the poem.

The poetic structure is responsible for the musical form of the songs. Basic forms are through-composed form and a strophic form. The through-composed form is different for each stanza and the music closely follows the changing ideas and moods in the poem. In the strophic form, each of the stanzas of the poem is set to the same music. The cycle has a central idea or mood to it.

Composers mainly concentrated on the opera and solo song. Some composers wrote oratorios, such as Felix Mendelssohn, famous for his "St. Paul" and "Elijah". Choral religious music reached the heights of its popularity in the past but was not the main form of music in the Romantic era. It was different between an oratorio and other religious music. Liturgical texts and psalms were set to music more often as a festival work for concert performance than as a functional church music. Church music did not have a narrator or make use of a recitative.

Secular music gained it popularity during the Romantic era, because of the new interest in folk songs. Choral was the time ranged from unoccupied songs to cantata works, with solo voices and orchestras. Choral was also used in many numbers of symphonic works by composers.

The instruments used in the Romantic era were virtuosity, individualism, and nationalism. Chamber music became less popular, orchestra and the piano emerged as new popular trends. Keyboard and symphonic instruments became common, short piano miniatures and symphonic works became the main stapleor of the era. The organ and harpsichord began to slowly diminish in importance. The piano music was quickly stepping in, taking place of the organ and harpsichord. The piano provided a wide range, the ability to distinguish between loud and soft. Performers were able to express artistic abilities that could be quiet, delicate exciting harmonic effects and allowed them to fine tune their compositions in any ways.

Other instruments that were added were woodwinds. The woodwind section included bassoons, oboes, flutes, and clarinets. Percussion instruments were added such xylophones and chimes.

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