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Pinao Music



The romantic music period was from 1820 to 1900, and occurred after the French revolution. It was a time of dramatic style of thought and expression and musicians rejected the rules and structures of Classicism; they no longer followed Haydn and Mozart’s styles, for example. Romanticism emphasized individual freedom and the goal for the romantic composer was to express mood, atmosphere, emotions and imagination. The piano became very popular during the romantic era and replaced the harpsichord as well as the organ as the most commonly used instrument. Because the piano had a wide range of sounds—for example, it could be very mellow and soft, as well as intense and extremely loud — composers and performers preferred using it to compose and play their music. The piano also had a larger range of harmonies than the organ and harpsichord, and so the piano became Europe’s most popular instrument. The piano became the symbol of the romantic era and every family who was middle or upper class had a piano in their home. Beethoven was an important figure who represented the transition from the classical musical era to the romantic era. In his music and playing style, he tried to incorporate his strict and rigid classical training, as well as the newer creative and passionate power of the romantic musical style. Many other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi, Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt followed Beethoven’s example, combining and balancing technical structure with an expressive form. In the romantic musical era, it was important for music to tell a story, or create a scene in order for composers to completely display their artistic skill. Composers wanted to tell stories and create images with music without using words. The most common instrumental musical qualities of the romantic era were individualism, virtuosity and nationalism and the orchestra became the most popular musical entertainment as chamber music decreased in popularity. Keyboard and symphony instruments were common while short piano miniatures and symphony music became fashionable. Some examples of music forms composed for piano were the following: Etudes, which displayed performers’ technical skill as etudes had chords, scales, octaves and arpeggios; Character pieces, which had colourful titles such as rhapsody, nocturne or ballade; Variations, which developed a theme through structure, meter and rhythm; Stylized dances, like the polka, mazurka, waltz and the gallop, which were popular dances of the time. Franz Liszt’s La Campanella (“Little Bell”) is the final movement of Paganini’s  Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, and is often referred to as “Little Bell” because the movement has a hand bell chiming. La Campanella is an example of piano music in the romantic era as it should be played at a quick pace with right hand moving between intervals larger than on octave, and on occasion to octaves. It is etude and can be used by performers to increase skill and agility. Because there is not a lot of time for the pianist to move his or her hands quickly enough to reach the large intervals, it is very challenging piece for musicians to play.

media type="youtube" key="fIJLIMIjjFU" height="385" width="480" Works Cited List: “The Romantic Era.” //ThinkQuest Library//. Online, 2010. Web. 1 May. 2010. Kauble, E Martin. “Music History – The Romantic Period (1825 -- 1900).” //Kaublepianostudio//. 2010. Web. 1 May. 2010 Estrella, Espie. “Music of the Romantic Period: Early Romanticism.” //About.com//. 2010. Web. 1 May. 2010.