The Romantic Period: 1820-1900
The Romantic Period lasted from approximately 1820 to 1900. And what a time it was! More composers were writing music, and some devoted their entire lives to creating pieces for the piano alone.Romantic music is full of chromaticism, dissonance and greater exploration of key changes. Composers expanded on the forms of the Classical period while at the same time taking a more rhapsodic, expressive and narrative approach to composing. They began to be influenced by ideas in art and literature, which led to the rise of program music.
The Romantic Period was also a time when composers performed much of their music themselves. In some cases this elevated them to celebrity status, making them the first pop stars of the music industry.
Franz Liszt
This was certainly true of men like Franz Liszt, who took every opportunity to show off and display his incredible talent. But he wasn't just a gifted performer: Liszt was also a skilled composer.A native of Hungary, Liszt is still considered to be one of the greatest pianists to have ever lived. He wrote dozens of pieces for the piano, all tagged with what we might think of as "Romantic" titles such as his Hungarian Rhapsodies, Fantasias, and so on.
For a truly amazing example of Romantic piano music, listen to Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" as performed by Alberto Cobo. The chromaticism and expressiveness show the richness and variety that composers were able to achieve with the piano, which advances in technology had given more power and an even greater range.
Frederic Chopin
So enamored of the piano and its possibilities was Frederic Chopin that he wrote music exclusively for it. All of his music involves the piano in some way, and he wrote lots of it, even inventing new musical forms like the ballade.Chopin was Polish, and he was one of the first composers to include elements of Nationalism in his work. It's true that he wrote many preludes, waltzes, sonatas, nocturnes, and the like, but he also included mazurkas and polonaises in his output. This use of folk elements in classical music would influence many composers to come, including Bartok and Vaughn Williams.
Follow this link to see what a Romantic piano might have looked like.
Piano music got bigger, bolder and more complex in the Romantic period. It was natural that the next step would be to find new ways of using the instrument to create sounds. And that's just what happened with the Impressionists.
