The Beloved Vision: Music in the Romantic Age

by Professor Stephen Walsh

The music of the Romantic era, by such beloved composers as Beethoven, Schubert and Tchaikovsky, has become central to the modern concert repertoire. Highlighting the significance of these composers†new freedom of style and their ‘increasing consciousness of selfâ€, Walshâ€s narrative history traces developments from the 18th-century Sturm und Drang movement, which influenced Haydn and CPE Bach, to the idioms that ushered in a new age after the First World War.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Romanticism

432 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[David Dunlap · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written overview of classical music written (for the most part) in the 19th century (there is a little about Haydn and Mozart to begin -- and some composers who lived and worked into the 20th century appear in the last chapter). What I most appreciated about this volume is the way the author organized his material: chronologically. This means that there is a bit of 'jumping around' with respect to certain composers, but the decided advantage (to this reader's way of thinking, at least) is that one obtains a clearer idea of which composers were working at the same time. Music is the subject, not the composers themselves (although, to be sure, they figure largely in the narrative!). I am most impressed with the author's expertise and presentation -- I learned a lot and I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of Romantic era with many insights. Seemed like a third of the book was about Wagner and heavy focus on opera. Not enough focus on instrumentalists.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

If reading about music seems like "eating soup with a fork" (as a former friend used to say about arguing with analogies), then this book begins at a bit of a disadvantage - if you don't know the music he's talking about, you may not get the whole picture. When you do, though, it's at the very least entertaining. Walsh gives you a good idea of what a lot of these composers were up to. His chapter on the songs of Schubert was particularly perceptive. He gives Wagner more respect than I would bother with. And he seems to feel that most of the 20th century was nothing but an empty quest to avoid writing music like they wrote in the 19th century - he seems to have an oddly dismissive attitude to Stravinsky, and never mentions Barber who you'd think he might point to as the exception that proves his rule.

When I did know the music he discusses in detail, I mostly agreed with what he said. The odd exception is Schumann 's "Frauenliebe und leben" - aside from kind of ignoring the childish quality of the speaker's starry-eyed adoration of her husband, I feel like he oddly misunderstands the final song. I sang it 45 years ago but I don't remember there being any indication that the husband "died young", I felt it was the song of an elderly widow after a happy life, and when the piano reprises the introduction to the first song at the very end, my teacher and I discussed how it was the memory of her first love come back to her, and should cause the singer to listen with a little smile in spite of the sorrow; this does not seem esoteric to me.

If you know some 19th century music this will be an entertaining book.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a challenging read and worth every minute of it if you have a fascination with the music of the Romantic Era. The Beloved Vision deserves to be on a college course list. It is an eclectic view of the development of Romantic music, its history and its impact on the arts of the eras that follow.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of music to get through in the long nineteenth century, but Walsh does it ably by flitting around in roughly chronological order. My major beef is that spends more time describing the plots of operas than he does describing the actual music. And it's not even close. Is a plot even "music" anyway? Even if it is, is it as important as Walsh makes it out to be?

Despite that drawback, he did well to connect the flow of Romantic music rather than simply offering a long litany of composers and their oeuvre. And I do mean "Romantic," not "nineteenth century." How else to explain how many many more pages Wagner received than Beethoven?

So I'd change the subtitle and cut several opera synopses, but I'd keep the book.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I gave up on this book after reading about 60 pages and skimming much of the rest, but I know I'm not the intended audience. I'm a more or less casual fan of classical music, and this is written for someone already well-versed in the music, culture and history of the era. It's dense but well-written with strong argument lines laid out early on. Readers who know this music well and are willing to think fairly deeply about the music and the era should enjoy this.

[Justin Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled through Walsh's 'Debussy,' but thought that might have been a one-off incompatibility. Nope. What is going on here? What is with all the five star reviews? This is mostly a long list of compositions, occasionally leavened by opera plot summaries. If you already know the music, you don't need the lists and summaries. If you don't, the lists and summaries won't give you anything. I'm afraid I just want something from my music histories that Walsh isn't interested in giving me.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, dense and very fluid writing and if you don't pay close attention you miss a lot, so I did lots of backing up and "what'd he say about who?"