Romantic Music

by Arnold Whittall

Romanticism, the dominant mode of nineteenth-century musical expression, is associated most readily with the full-blooded passion and emotion to be found in such masterpieces as Chopin's "Revolutionary" Study and Wagner's epic music drama, the "Ring." Arnold Whittall explains how Romantic composers were faced with the challenge of devising appropriate and adequately coherent structures out of those often felt to be old-fashioned and restrictive. He covers the emergence of Romantic music in Germany, Italy and France as seen in the work of such composers as Weber, Schumann, Donizetti, Berlioz and Chopin, and then goes on to explore the operatic achievements of Wagner and Verdi alongside the predominantly instrumental programmatic works of Liszt and the nationalists of Russia, Bohemia and Scandinavia. The last part of the book traces the flowering of late Romanticism in Vienna, focusing on Brahms, Bruckner and Wolf, and shows how Mahler, Puccini, Rakhmaninov and Sibelius have continued the Romantic tradition in this century. 51 illus.

Genres: Music

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1987

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply satisfying. Why is it that books on romantic music are much more fun to read than books on classical or baroque? Sample excerpt:

...Brahms can be seen as the greatest of all nineteenth-century 'synthesizers' in his brilliant, resourceful fusion of Baroque counterpoint, Classical symphonism and Romantic expressive immediacy - a fusion that could scarcely have been achieved through conscious intent and clearly owes more to an unusual breadth of musical sympathy (and even a curiosity found most commonly in later times in musicologists rather than in composers) than to any belief that contemporary music itself was either too radical or too narrow. This view of Brahms is all the more persuasive since it need not invalidate the critical response - expressed most extremely and entertainingly by Hugo Wolf in the mid-1880s - that the mixture does not always work: the music can seem pedestrian, overloaded, lacking in spontaneity, not just in comparison with the avatars of 'New German' innovation (Wagner, Liszt) but in comparison with Brahms himself at his (normal) best. (p. 164)

[Basilisco Escarlata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha servido mucho para tener las ideas más claras con respecto a la época.
Citas de los propios compositores, ilustraciones de éstos... La encuadernación es sencilla, pero elegante. Quizás hubiese puesto la letra un pelín más grande, pero porque por la noche me costaba horrores concentrarme.
Buen libro para el que quiera tener una orientación breve y general de esta época musical en Europa.

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid, if dated history of romantic music in the Western classical tradition. Gives a good sense of the relationships between the major figures - Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, Wagner, et al - but is written in an arch tone redolent of old-school musicology. Most problematic to my mind is that Whittall avoids defining romanticism - or even really discussing varying definitions of this admittedly quite slippery concept. The emphasis is more on "formal" breakthroughs made by each composer. One consequence is he misses the opportunity to connect the romantic movement in the other arts to musical developments.