How Did Romantic Music Develop

Romantic music belongs to the movement known as Romanticism, which took place from 1780 to 1880. During this period, the composers changed the classical standards in order to increase expressive effects. Precise forms and clear contours were abandoned in favor of expanded or loosened forms, lyrical melodies, and lively shifts in metric and tempo. Romantic composer elevated the tone color, which means elevating the distinctive quality of musical sound made by a voice, a musical instrument or a combination of them to a status equal to melody, rhythm and harmony. The orchestra also changed, and they become five times larger than the ones used before. With this expansion, the variation of instruments
also grew as well as the powers of some of them like the violin and later, the piano, with iron frames, pedals and thicker strings. During this years, there were many composer that revolutionized music. Ludwig van Beethoven, who wrote Symphony No. 5 in C Minor; Hector Berlioz, who composed the Symphonie fantastique; Franz Schuber, with his Erlkoning; and Franz Liszt with the Faust Symphony are some of the main exponents. Frédéric Chopin was a figure of Romantic individualism. He composed music that only individuals with extraordinary technical skills like him, would be able to perform gracefully and accurately. Richard Wagner represented the music-drama, a particular type of opera, and Giuseppe Verdi also composed several operas, like Aida.