The Periods of Classical Music Part 3: The Romantic Era

Thanks again for joining me for my four-part series on the periods of classical music. First we covered the Baroque Era, and then we covered the Classical Era. Today we will be covering the Romantic Era of Classical Music which was prevalent during much of the 19th century.

Something you might notice through this four-part series is that Classical music generally became more complex as time went on – then things break down to simplicity and the cycle starts again. This is something that is true for almost all art forms – whether it’s painting, architecture, music, etc. Someone will come along and create something incredibly influential and succeeding generations feel they have to “top” those previous efforts. But how do you top something? Typically adding more or bigger elements – in other words; making it more complex.

In the Romantic Era the size of the piano grew – so did the size of the orchestra. More instruments were introduced, forms were extended – there were four and five-movement works instead of the typical three. The Romantic Period is marked by the growing sense of bigger music – both written and performed.

The Romantic Era is also marked by its growth in personal expression. There is much more freedom to the music than past eras. What do I mean by freedoms? There are dozens of examples but I’m going to use a very specific one here. Rubato is a technique developed during the romantic period that really separated itself from Baroque and Classical music. In the past two eras, structure was incredibly important and you would not want to stray from the time or rhythm written on the score too much. This is not necessarily the case with much Romantic music.

Often times Romantic era music can sound much more improvised and the structure lends itself to much more freedom of expression. I give an example of the Chopin Nocturne in the video provided with this article. I have an entire video dedicated to playing and understanding Rubato. Rubato is basically a give and take in the pulse of music – never gaining or losing time. You can drag or speed up slightly as long as the time remains intact. It’s a complex idea and if you have the time to watch the video posted at the beginning of this paragraph you may enjoy it.

Romantic era music on the piano can also be characterized by a liberal use of the pedal. It can be used to add emotion and color the music much more than past eras. No matter what instrument you play in the Romantic period, there is much more freedom of expression. You should listen to numerous performances of the same piece of Romantic period music and see the vast differences in each of the interpretations – you might not even believe it’s the same piece of music!

Well, thanks again for joining me and I look forward to presenting the final part in the series of the Periods of Classical Music. Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729