Romantic Music
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There is no single Romantic musical style, but there are trends.
Melody
- As in Classical music, Romantic melodies are composed in phrases. However, while Classical themes may be long or short, but they are well balanced and closed rather than open, with relationships between sections which can be easily spotted.
- Classical tunes often move by step, and leaps are followed by steps in the opposite direction.
- Romantic melodies can be long, and instrumental ones are the longest of all. While they are also composed in phrases, the phrases can be long, or the 'joins' imperceptible
- Wide leaps might be used for expressive purpose.
- There will be a large melodic range especially in later music.
- Some melodies might well be finely balanced like Classical ones.
- Some might be vocally conceived.
- Melodies can undergo a wide variety of transformation particularly in cyclic works.
- Melodies might be borrowed from folk tunes
Rhythm
- The chief features are freedom and flexibility
- Beethoven used syncopation to great effect and Romantic composers followed his lead.
- Cross rhythms are common in Romantic music:
- Duplets against triplets and so on
- In Romantic music irregular groups of notes can occur in one part against subdivision of the beat in a another. This is true of piano music. In the same way, Chopin often included numerous notes for the RH against a steady accompaniment for the LH, sometimes requiring 'rubato' to make the execution possible.
- Irregular and complex meters are present in some branches of Romantic music, but rhythmic complications are a feature of late Romantic music.
- Stylised dance rhythms are common. (Chopin is a prime example)
Expression
- Tempo and expressions marks increase in complexity in the period. ppppp or fffff are found in the later years of the era.
Harmony
- Classical composers used discords relatively infrequently. They were used functionally to enhance a progression.
- In the Romantic period the range of chords was wider than in earlier times and the frequency with which 'enhanced' chords (rather than plain triads) were used is much greater.
- Romantic composers used many of the chords Classical composers knew, but they used them just for as colour. Consequently, they needed more powerful discords to make a noticeable effect. If 7ths are treated as 'consonant', then 9ths, and so on, are needed to counteract the effect of a 'devalued currency'. Harmony became more and more chromatic.
- The diminished 7th became a common chord with which to suggest tension and was, in the opinion os some, overused.
- Romantic composers were not slow to realise that the dim. 7th has 4 possible resolutions.
- The 'half-diminished' chord (e.g. D-F-Aflat-C) had been used in the Classical period as a cadential progression but Romantic composers enjoyed and exploited the qualities of the chord in it's 4 different inversions.
- Minor 7ths (e.g. C-Eflat-Gflat-Bflat) were exploited more in the later part of the era.
- Any chord in a key could be chromatically altered; the 5th was often raised. In earlier times this has been done as part of a functional progression, but in the 19th century it became a colouristic device. I, IV and V might have their 5ths raised in a major key.
- The Augmented 6th is a frequently encountered augmented chord which has been used since Baroque times. In the Romantic period it is found sometimes without any, or possibly with an irregular, preparation or resolution. The Augmented 6th is based, most frequently, on the minor 6th of a scale (e.g. Aflat, in Cmajor), or sometimes on the flat 2nd. In C major then, the notes are Aflat-C-Fsharp. This is the Italian 6th (Remember the 'I' for Italian which could stand for 'initial', as in 'first' version)
- If an augmented 4th above the bass is added (a D), the chord is known as the French 6th. (Remember the F for 'fourth')
- The "German Sixth" is an enharmonic Dominant 7th chord Aflat-C-Eflat-Fsharp. A perfect 5th above the bass is added to the basic chord. (I remember this in a peculiar way! Think of a poor ventriloquist trying to say "Bottle of Beer" so he says "Gottle of Geer". Now imagine him trying to say "Dominant seventh". This would sound like "Gominant seventh". The 'G' of 'Gominant' should remind you of the 'G' for 'German').
Harmonic Rhythm
- Whilst Baroque music uses a fast harmonic rhythm and Classical music uses a slow harmonic rhythm (generally), there is no one trend which prevails in the Romantic period. Harmonic rhythm is used at the pace which conveys the desired mood or atmosphere. It can even be syncopated.
Tonality
- Keys were treated freely in the Romantic period. Any could and was used. I do not mean that it was possible on a technical level to use any key (Bach had proved that long ago). Rather, whereas Classical composers used keys with 4 or 5 sharps or flats, Romantic composers explored every key. Obviously, technical developments in instruments (e.g. brass) made certain keys more accessible, but if D major had been a favourite Baroque key. Keys like F-sharp minor became common in the Romantic period.
- New trends in modulation might take a piece from B-flat major to G-flat major. Keys whose tonics were a 3rd apart were often used in Romantic music and they may have been enharmonically spelt. In his Horn Trio, Brahms uses F-flat major instead of E-major at one point.