Counterpoint in the Romantic Era (Essay, 7 Pages)
New Forms, New Colors, New Logic: Writing Music in the Romantic Era
Music has always been an essential part of the arts, with classical music in particular holding a special place. And like most of the arts, classical music exemplifies and affects the general worldview of a given period in history. Because of this, Western classical music is typically divided into four periods- Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary- with each period differing from the others greatly in sound, mood, and emotion.
Yet one period especially stands out from its predecessors when it comes to the art and science of writing music, and that is the Romantic Period, an era which dates roughly from 1830 until 1910 (Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis p. A71). During the Romantic Period, great changes were made to the way Western music was written. Composers defied the conventions of the previous era by refusing to regard old forms and rules with respect, instead changing them and in some cases departing from them entirely. Three great composers of this era- Chopin, Schumann, and Berlioz- provide perfect examples of this in their work.
Frederick Chopin is known as one of the greatest composers for the piano in music history, at least in part due to the fact that he was the only major composer to ever limit himself so consistently to one instrument. (Vintage Guide to Classical Music 249) His style is quintessentially Romantic: sophisticated, beautiful, often passionate, and full of the gorgeous melodies and complex rhythms that characterize this period. Chopin himself was physically delicate and often sick, dying of tuberculosis at the age of 39, but his attitude towards writing music was anything but weak. He boldly reinvented forms and used dissonance with great freedom; indeed, even the sensitive listener Mendelssohn complained that “one does not even know at times whether the notes he plays are right or wrong” (The Romantic Generation 246). But one of Chopin’s most
Music has always been an essential part of the arts, with classical music in particular holding a special place. And like most of the arts, classical music exemplifies and affects the general worldview of a given period in history. Because of this, Western classical music is typically divided into four periods- Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary- with each period differing from the others greatly in sound, mood, and emotion.
Yet one period especially stands out from its predecessors when it comes to the art and science of writing music, and that is the Romantic Period, an era which dates roughly from 1830 until 1910 (Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis p. A71). During the Romantic Period, great changes were made to the way Western music was written. Composers defied the conventions of the previous era by refusing to regard old forms and rules with respect, instead changing them and in some cases departing from them entirely. Three great composers of this era- Chopin, Schumann, and Berlioz- provide perfect examples of this in their work.
Frederick Chopin is known as one of the greatest composers for the piano in music history, at least in part due to the fact that he was the only major composer to ever limit himself so consistently to one instrument. (Vintage Guide to Classical Music 249) His style is quintessentially Romantic: sophisticated, beautiful, often passionate, and full of the gorgeous melodies and complex rhythms that characterize this period. Chopin himself was physically delicate and often sick, dying of tuberculosis at the age of 39, but his attitude towards writing music was anything but weak. He boldly reinvented forms and used dissonance with great freedom; indeed, even the sensitive listener Mendelssohn complained that “one does not even know at times whether the notes he plays are right or wrong” (The Romantic Generation 246). But one of Chopin’s most
Bibliography: 1. “Counterpoint.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 20120. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/140313/counterpoint>. 2. Chopin, Frederick. Preface. Ballades. 1841. By Norbert Mullemann. Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 2007. ix-xii. Print. 3. Clendinning, Jane Piper, and Elizabeth West Martin. The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2005. 4. Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. 5. Swafford, Jan. The Vintage Guide to Classical Music. New York: Vintage Press, 1992.