Hopeless Romantics
Any Questions?
Old School: Classical Ideology in Music
Okay kids, gather round.
Most of you will probably be familiar with at least some of the works of Mozart, who is arguably the most famous composer from the classical era. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to study his music you more than likely paid attention to the different musical forms that he used. If you’ve studied leaving cert music you will probably remember that you first composed an opening phrase then had to include sequences, a modulation, a development and a cadence. Your composition was then graded on your inclusion of those features. Similarly, classical ideology encouraged musicians to follow the rules of composition. If you were following a form, there was often a formula that had to be filled. If it wasn't the composer might be considered uneducated in the art of composing.
This, obviously, didn’t allow a lot of space for creativity. The French revolution took place in the late 18th century, as did the industrial revolution. Composers began to question the restrictions of standardized forms, as a revolutionary mentality emerged. In romantic music you will notice that many composers challenge these rules, and yes I say challenge rather than completely abandon. This allowed composers to be a lot more expressive and subsequently their music is a lot more emotive.
-Niamh
Characteristics of Romanticism in 19th Century Music
Accessibility
So accessibility only went and became a big thing around the 19th century. “Classical”/art music went from being an aristocratic taste to something the middle class could afford. Gross, poor people. So instead of all the filthy rich guys feeling all superior that they could afford to go to the opera and no one else could, cities opened less fancy opera houses that middle-class people could afford to attend. *Gasp*. The horror. Middle class families even started buying their own pianos. How dare they? So unnecessary. With these concerts and instruments now being cheaper than ever before, it created a new market for composers and instrument makers to cater to. So composers got this great idea in their heads that their operas would be even more popular with the people if they composed them in the language of the people. Makes sense: you’ll probs sell more seats at the opera house if the audience actually understands the language the cast is singing in, right? Right. Naturally, these public concerts became hugely popular (cha-ching), and operas in the vernacular of the people became more and more common, eg. Mozart. The Magic Flute, anyone?
-Emma
Attitude towards Artist
It was during the Romantic era that the concept of a "musical genius" came into fruition. All the musicians decided ‘I’M AN ARTIST MAN, I DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS!’ The leader in this sort of mentality was a guy you may have heard of, Mr Ludwig van Beethoven. He was unsatisfied with the system of writing for other people and became an independent composer. The development of public concerts meant musicians could make a living conducting their own works, most importantly without answering to anyone else. Before then a musician composed for the single important person who was giving them money. They needed to keep in mind the fashion of the time and the general taste of the public. Following this shift in attitude musicians were free to do their own thang. This allowed composers to think outside the box, to disregard certain constructs of artistry and allowed them to express their own creativity, to push the boundaries of composing.
Beethoven encouraged the idea of recognising composers as special, almost above everyone else in terms of their value as people, so artists were seen as sort of divine creatures with the potential to compose and create masterful things. It was really the beginning of celebrity culture and ordinary people obsessing over those in the public eye who they saw as talented. It even got to this point where artists were isolated from the rest of society to make art and not be disturbed. Honestly, all I could imagine when reading about this topic was the people fawning over classical composers like we would Beyonce. "OH MY GOD YAS KWEEN, YAS. WAGNER YOU PLAY THAT THING’
Want to learn more? Google Beethoven’s paradigm. Aine will be discussing Beethoven’s work also.
-Niamh
Content
So before the Romantic era symphonies etc. were just music, and yes they were considered art but an independent art form. This type of music is called absolute music, when it isn’t based off anything; the composer just followed the rules and created this composition. The Romantics decided, and this is definitely a direct quote: YOU KNOW WHAT THIS LITERATURE IS AWESOME, AND SO IS THIS ART AND SO IS THIS AMAZING SCENERY I’M LOOKING AT AND MUCH INSPIRE WOW. They began to write programme music which was inspired by non-musical things. Music had a story to follow, and this story was made known through programme notes which would have been distributed at concerts or in the scores which were published. This inspired composers to stray from composition rules about structure even more, because the music had to reflect the plot of the story. Things like symphonic poems were all the rage and those who maintained their classical ideology really hated that. To them it was if the composers were cheating- they didn’t even come up with the idea, I mean what the hell? There were a load of snobby critics in a huff saying it wasn’t proper music. But you only have to look at film scoring today to know it wasn’t just a passing phase.
The content also changed in terms of the themes that composers wanted to portray in their music. Composers became interested in all this dark stuff like death and the supernatural. The music also became a lot more emotional sounding which is a really obvious difference when you listen to a classical era work and a romantic era work.
I will discuss this in more detail in my section.
-Niamh
Technology
Okay, so sit your ass down and we’re gonna learn you a thing or two about music technology (and no, iPhones don’t count). So way way back in the day, like “medieval times” back in the day, orchestras weren’t really a thing. How are you supposed to create 20+ instruments that can play in tune together when tuning one piano to match the piano in the next room is a major accomplishment? But then the industrial revolution came along, and shit got real. Big orchestras became possible, and composers started getting freaky. They had all these new instruments to play with, it was like letting a child loose in a sweet shop. Don’t believe me? Just look at the size of Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” orchestra. That mofo is scored for like 90 instruments. Badass.
-Emma