ROMANTICISM

Romanticism in music is an era that covers the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the first decade of the next century. It is a stage in art that values fantasy and feelings over reason, liberalism over the absolutism of the Enlightenment, originality over Greco-Latin tradition, creativity over neoclassical imitation, and defends unfinished, open, imperfect works, thereby rejecting the perfection of the preceding era. Therefore, Romanticism should be associated with an increase in emotional sensitivity in works of art. This era maintains that reality cannot be fully understood through reason, that there are worlds that can only be reached through emotions, feelings, and intuition.
Romantic music is that which provokes various emotions in us and takes us on a journey into the subconscious. Musical works were not intended to entertain people as in the previous era, but to move and touch them. In addition, the importance of nations and regions greatly increased. Art was meant to express society, nation, and humanity. It changed in the spirit of the nation. Hence, there are a large number of national works, such as Chopin's mazurkas or the first Russian national opera "A Life for the Tsar" by Mikhail Glinka.
Romanticism is a completely subjective era in which the soul, emotions, passions, and fears of the creator are involved. That is why the works of this era are a range of conflicting feelings, from the diversity of colors in a symphony to the intimate sound of a piano. Composers of this era tried to combine the harmony of their predecessors with innovations in chromatics to improve fluidity and contrast. The rhythm is free but complex. The influence of Beethoven on the style of this era cannot be overlooked, as his Symphony No. 9 in D minor had a huge impact on some romantic creators.
During this era, works for piano and orchestra, opera, song, ballet, and symphony became popular. Also characteristic of this period are short forms written for the piano such as ballads, fantasies, moments, preludes. Orchestras saw an increase in the number of different instruments, whose techniques improved. Some of the most outstanding composers of this era include: Fryderyk Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn, Modest Mussorgsky, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner.