shoutout to everyone who spends too long in the shower with their eyes closed, dreaming about rushing out into a rainstorm to feel something of the world on their skin
the best revenge isn’t moving on and pretending not to care. if you really want to disconcert people, stick your fingernails in and bring out your insides. leave them there on the table. no one wants to see you cry. that’s why you should do it.
starting a club for people whose identity is artistry but are only capable of creative thought between the hours of one and three am i’ll bring the coffee
you’re an endless muse. the face that’s gone lives on to inspire every deadbeat side of the road wordfilled brain. i think i’ll always love you. i think you’ll always make me laugh.
The restricting gates of classical music were thrown wide open during this period, as logic and structure fell behind, and musical appeal and and emotion mattered more.The romantic composers were a diverse group, each with their own signature style. Some made their pieces sound angry, others sad, and some soulful. There were composers which have recordings or even videos of themselves playing their own or someone else’s pieces.Europeans were extremely posh during this era, wearing tall hats and smoking gold cigars in all their photos.
As more and more scientific discoveries were being made, composers used their wild imaginations to create what they thought was the future in their operas.
They conveyed the sense of atmosphere by using techniques to create the sound of a storm or a forest, etc.
The type of emotion they conveyed depended on either their personal life, or the life of a fictional or real character or person that they heard or read about.
They did not allow cadences to end to create unending melodies.
Use of sul ponticello and sul tasto.
Accelerando, rubato, and ritardando became more common.
As mentioned, pieces are more emotional than pre-romantic music.
Sul G (Higher notes played on the G string) became extremely popular with violinist-composers)
Piano became more popular than ever, and this period saw piano repertoire overtake violin, cello, and clarinet repertoire, which had the biggest amount till the classical period.
Virtuosos for violin and piano emerged (Ysäye, Paganini, Chopin, Liszt)
Romantic music was sometimes very triumphant and through this, the brass section’s role increased.
Each of these composers were very mysterious, leaving behind puzzles (Tchaikovsky’s death, Sibelius’ 8th Symphony, Elgar’s enigma variations)
No composer wrote more than 9 symphonies (This is said to be because of a curse laid by Beethoven)
Most romantic composers were part of the nationalism period too.
The piano grew from 5-10 octaves, and the frame was now made from metal rather than wood. The string quality improved, which led to the further popularization of the piano. Orchestras in the classical period typically had about 30 musicians, but orchestras now grew in size upto a 100 musicians. The etude was a new musical form was created for the intention of both showing off virtuoso skill and as a training excercise for students. Preludes, which were earlier used as an introduction to a larger work like an opera, now became a standalone pieces.
The romantic period was the prime time for artistic expression and rule breaking. Romanticism evolved into impressionism by the end of the 19th century.
Romantic composers were extremely fascinated by the past, future, unexplained concepts, characters that science did not describe, etc. Some of those concepts were:
A new preoccupation with the concept of surrender to Nature and God’s will. The composers who were fascinated with the past would compose operas or symphonies on this medieval concept.
As mentioned above, these composers had a great fascination with the past, particularly the Middle Ages and legends of medieval chivalry. They also had a fascination with ancient Greek and Roman myths.
A turn towards the mystic and supernatural, both religious or merely spooky. The composers, though they did not believe in religion and superiority of one religion, were fascinated by its concepts and composed works by applying their wild imaginations to them. A focus was given to the nocturnal, the ghostly, the frightful, and terrifying
A longing for the infinite. They drew their own conclusion on their opinion on what the infinite was and infused it into their works
This period’s composers wrote for the general public instead of for the high class or musically knowledgeable ones, like was done in the periods before this one.
