“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed
Johannes Brahms
shaken in the wind.”
High Romantic Era: 1849-1886
Background of High Romanticism
Music changed quite drastically during the years of High Romanticism. Catchy, often singable, and simple melodies turned harmonically complex and highly nuanced. However, for the most part, musicians held the same values and doctrines as they had. The break was not as dramatic as the rift between the Classical age and the onset of Romanticism. Chromaticism was introduced during the Early Romantic period and gradually came to dominate High Romanticism. The diligent work and innovations of progressives essentially eliminated all the Classical representation that remained during the “proto” and early years (for example, Johann Nepomuk Hummel‘s classical piano concertos, once the most popular of the genre, fell out of favor).
With the arrival of High Romanticism, there also came greater diversity in repertoire and styles. For one, France lost its complete hold on Romanticism, as developing German cities like Leipzig became new havens of a more mature Romantic style. Though musicians would still use French styles and language frequently, German became the standard for both musical form and the titles of major works. Perhaps Franz Liszt, who moved from France to Germany at the very end of the Early Romantic period, exemplifies this pattern best. His compositions (like his Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini and Album d’un voyageur) from the 1830s and 1840s were all titled in French, but he would soon publish them principally in German (Klaviersonate h-moll or Zwei Balladen). Musicians also grew more lenient toward radical compositions, accepting both the exotic styles of “foreign” composers and revolutionary, nationalist compositions.
The sociopolitical situation of Europe easily contextualizes High Romanticism. There had been no significant turmoil or revolutions since Napoleon. However, the strain of growing resentment all broke in that fateful year. This “year of revolutions” is also known as “the springtime of the peoples” because of mass revolutions in over 50 countries within a span of 2 years. Mainly aimed at conservative systems like monarchies, the revolution sought to establish constitutions and governments similar to those of America. A series of economic failures, including widespread famines and censorship-induced ignorance, ushered in unrest, starting in Sicily and soon spreading to France, Austria, the German Confederation (predecessor to the German Empire), and the rest of Italy. Composers thus began introducing traditional folk themes into music to demonstrate nationalism and pride, soon forming independent music schools that were uniquely “attached” to specific nations.
The Heart of High Romanticism
Rapid industrialization led to widespread interconnectedness and communication, which in turn ushered in a new golden age for music. Ideas spread quickly and were often adopted quickly. Colonization by major musical nation-states enabled music to spread overseas, and also facilitated the importation of exotic, new native styles. Louis Moreau Gottschalk blended French Romanticism with American Creole music; the Russian kuchka developed the first identifiable Russian schools of composition; and the Middle East partially assimilated Western European music under the leadership of powerful, enlightened rulers such as the Ottoman Empire’s Sultan Abdülmecid I. Even composers who were native Western Europeans jumped on board with the new trend. Liszt composed his Spanish Rhapsody, Spanish Fantasy, and the “El Contrabandista” Rondeau after his Iberian Peninsula tour. Mily Balakirev composed the “Oriental” fantasy Islamey and arranged the popular Russian song “The Lark” by Mikhail Glinka.
Nationalist music particularly defined German schools. The setting gave rise to the most significant musical rivalry of the traditional “Western classical” period: the War of the Romantics. On one side were the Conservatives, once characterized by Felix Mendelssohn‘s style but now led by Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann in Leipzig. Their rival was the Neudeutsche Schule, “New German School”, commanded by Liszt, the Early Romantic Hector Berlioz, and operatic powerhouse Richard Wagner. These radical progressives championed new genres of music, like Liszt’s Symphonic Poems, in Weimar, a city famous as the abode of Johann Sebastian Bach and the German polymaths Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. The conservative schools believed that these developments were unaesthetic and dangerous, preferring tastes that aligned more closely to Proto-Romantic values. Both sides claimed to be the successors of Ludwig van Beethoven, the musical father of Romanticism.
The most discussed aspect of the “war” is the issue of program and absolute music. The conservatives typically preferred absolute music, or “music for music’s sake.” In contrast, the progressives usually preferred program music, or music with an explicit literary, historical, or emotional meaning, typically stated by the composition’s title or attached quotations/excerpts. However, there are many instances in which this general rule is broken, as with the conservative Robert Schumann, who composed many programmatic pieces in the early days of the High Romanticism. The progressives, especially, with their unrestrained innovation and new techniques such as chromaticism and musical contradictions, would soon usher in a new age in which the musical world would fracture into a plethora of radically contrasting schools and styles.
Exoticism lasted all the way to the end of the High Romantic period with champions Camille Saint-Saëns (Samson et Dalila and the soon-to-come Piano Concerto No. 5 “Egyptian and Africa Fantasy) and the budding Antonín Dvořák. Exoticism also commonly blended with nationalism, as in the case of Bedřich Smetana‘s Czech/Bohemian music and Edvard Grieg‘s Peer Gynt and Norwegian Dances. The Franco-Prussian War also deeply impacted the multicultural Liszt (he lived in both Paris and Weimar for decades, after all), and he still held on to the Hungarian nationalistic ardor characteristic of early Liszt in the latter half of the Hungarian Rhapsodies and in many other less popular compositions. Dvořák would become the driving head of nationalist/exotic music, but he lies quite firmly in the Late Romantic age, except for the remarkable Slavonic Dances. Of course, the kuchka or “Mighty Five” must be mentioned: Modest Mussorgsky (famous for Pictures at an Exhibition), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Mily Balakirev, César Cui, and Alexander Borodin worked together to turn Russia into a classical music powerhouse.
Within the operatic world, notable composers include Jules Massenet, Georges Bizet (whose most successful opera, Carmen, remains a quintessential exotic masterpiece), and Richard Wagner. Wagner’s The Ring Cycle (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung) in particular stands as a masterpiece of German nationalistic origin and programmatic roots. He also composed Tristan und Isolde, a masterful drama of High Romanticism whose leitmotif, called the “Tristan Chord,” would be plenty quoted by future composers, akin to Beethoven’s Fifth. Giuseppe Verdi composed La Traviata and Rigoletto in the early period of High Romanticism, but his greatest masterpiece of this period must be Aïda, a grand opera of exotic fame.
Some of the earliest High Romantic piano compositions include Liszt’s Second Ballade and B-minor Sonata. These pieces are quite daunting in structure, and Clara Schumann describes: “Liszt today sent a Sonata dedicated to Robert…But the things are frightful!” Most Romantic piano concertos performed today come from this period: Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (which at its premiere was a massive flop because of its unparalleled scale and radical style) and Piano Concerto No. 2 (composed decades later, considered a magnum opus second only to A German Requiem), Grieg’s Piano Concerto which incited quite an immense craze at the time, and Liszt’s very own Piano Concerto No. 1 and the less-popular Piano Concerto No. 2. Also famous in popular culture is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s Piano Concerto No. 1. Charles-Valentin Alkan forced solo piano technique to its technical limits in his Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs (which includes his infamous Solo Concerto, Solo Symphony, and the most individually performed Le Festin d’Ésope) and even in his earlier, diabolically underplayed sonata, “The Four Ages.” Most of the Romantic chamber music performed today also originates from the High Romantic period, with a plethora of piano/string trios, quartets, and quintets from the likes of Brahms, Dvořák, and Saint-Saëns.
The list is already quite long, but the amount of essential repertoire during this period is preposterously extensive. Near the end of the High Romantic period, Tchaikovsky began composing his most famous ballets, and Léo Delibes published Coppélia and Sylvia. Various Saint-Saëns compositions that must also be mentioned are The Carnival of the Animals (composed in 1886 but published much later), and Symphony No. 3, a revionist symphony that included a pipe organ in its orchestration. Liszt composed both his Faust Symphony and his Dante Symphony during his time in Weimar, in contrast to Anton Bruckner‘s extensive symphonic repertoire. Stringed instruments also featured works such as Violin Sonata by César Franck, and many violin concertos (by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Max Bruch, and Henryk Wieniawski).
The End of High Romanticism
The end of High Romanticism was marked by the deaths of many leaders of the Romantic movement, including Wagner in 1884, Liszt in 1886, and, eventually, Tchaikovsky in 1893. Even further into the Late Romantic period, Brahms died in 1897, and symphonic master Bruckner died in 1896, gradually being replaced in popularity by the grandiose symphonies of Gustav Mahler. The musicians of traditional Romanticism (especially those whose golden years were the 1840s and 1850s) either retired or passed away in the 1880s, and the newer generation of composers would overturn the established styles of their predecessors. These composers include Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel (proponents of French musical Impressionism), American mastermind Charles Ives, Edward Elgar, opera composer Giacomo Puccini, Russian genius Sergei Rachmaninov, and Liszt champion Ferruccio Busoni.
Piano music was especially diversified during the next few years. Alexander Scriabin, for example, originally composed his sonatas in a style similar to Chopin and the composers of the Early Romantic (like Piano Sonata No. 2 “Sonata Fantasy”), but he slowly turned to mysticism and symbolism (like Piano Sonata No. 5, No. 7 “White Mass,” and No. 9 “Black Mass”). Enrique Granados (composer of Goyescas and Allegro de concierto) represented the rising popularity of High-Late Romantic music in Spain. Verdi composed his last opera, Falstaff, paving the way for the next major Italian operatic composer, Puccini.