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Music Essay
"The Classical period was a time of simplicity and perfection in the arts. The Romantic period represented a radical departure from this style where composers sought complexity and angst in their works."
When comparing the Classical period (1750-180) to the Romantic period (180-100) instant differences can be seen through the examination of each concept area of music.
The Classical period was a time when reason and logic were considered the best guide for human conduct. In the middle of the eighteenth century, philosophers and writers believed in the power of reason over the control of the social and religious establishments. The composers in the middle of the eighteenth century began to disregard the enriched late baroque style and focused on the simplicity and clarity of their work. "The classical composers were able to impart unity and logic to music over a wide emotional range."
The Romantic period was a cultural movement that encompassed emotion, imagination and individualism. It was a time of rebellion with the French Revolution taking place in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Romanticism focused on individual revolution, with romantic composers expressing their own opinions through their works. The romantics were obsessed with the realm of fantasy and the unnatural and drew inspiration from nature and their surroundings.
This artistic expression and need for freedom shows how the romantics rebelled against the classical theories and the ‘age of reason' and to branch out and allow emotions and individuality to control their works. They achieved this through experimenting with the conceptual background of music and thus broke away from the boundaries of the classical concepts.
These differences in the concepts of music can be clearly seen through the comparison of Haydn's "The Surprise" Symphony in G major, nd movement and Belioz's Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement, as both pieces are a clear representation of the conceptual backgrounds of their era.
A major comparison can be made between the classical and romantic period, in the two pieces, through the examination of structure.
Although both pieces are symphonies, Haydn uses the form of theme and variations in his nd movement. The basic musical idea is repeated over and over again throughout the movement and changed each variation. The theme may be changed in terms of melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics or tone colour in order to give each variation its own identity in the piece. Theme and variations sticks to a strict structure, all of the variations were strictly unified by the theme. This form was widely used in the classical period as it focused on precision and order.
Berlioz's piece, in contrast in Haydn's, was a program symphony. Program compositions were instrumental works associated with a story, poem, idea or scene. The music was important to create mood, emotion and atmosphere in the text. This style of composition came about in the romantic period, as romantic music was closely related to literature. Each movement of program music sounded like it was a separate piece, with the ide fixe (fixed idea), used to represent his beloved, the only unifying feature in the 5 contrasting movements.
The music of the Classical period differed significantly from the Romantic period in terms of pitch.
Composers in the classical period began to take middle class tastes into account, as due to the wider availability of music, the middle class has gained an appreciation of music and some had even begun to play their own instruments.
Thus the composers of the period wrote pieces that were easy to sing, play and understand.
This can be seen in Haydn's Symphony when the violin melody is first introduced.
The simple folk-like melody, moving in thirds, is playing in the key of C major. The melody is tuneful and easy to remember, as it is balanced and symmetrical because it is made up of phrases of the same length- a common characteristic of the classical period.
The Romantic Composers, in contrast to the simplicity of the melodies in classical music, sort brilliance in the depth of sound and expanded the range of pitch in the orchestra to reach extremely high to low sounds.
This is demonstrated through Berlioz's 4th movement when the melody is first introduced.
The melody and first theme, played by the cellos and basses, moves steadily downward for octaves, testing the range of the lower tessitura instruments.
Another comparison in terms of pitch can be made of the classical and romantic styles in music through the use of harmony.
In the classical period harmony was generally very simplistic- consisting of a use of the primary triads with some secondary chords used to create variety. This can be seen through bars 5-7 in Haydn's nd movement.
In comparison to this, romantic music explored new chords and novel ways of using familiar chords. Complex harmonies, such as chromatic harmony, were more emphasised in order to enhance the unpredictability and diabolical atmosphere they wished to create.
Through the examination of Tone Colour and Performing Media we can see further differences between the classical and romantic period music.
Haydn's orchestra consisted of flutes, oboes, bassoons, French Horns, trumpets, timpani, 1st violin, nd violin, viola, cello and double basses. Each section of the classical orchestra had a special role. The strings were the most important section, with the first violins taking the melody predominately and the lower strings providing accompaniment.
The woodwinds added contrasting tone colours through countermelodies to the string section. The horns and the trumpets brought power to passages and filled out the harmony only, as they were still to develop valves, and the timpani was used for rhythmic emphasis.
The romantic composers used tone colour to obtain variety of mood and atmosphere. The romantic orchestra was larger and more varied in tone colour than the classical orchestra. The brass, woodwind and percussion sections of the orchestra took on a more active role. Improvements in the construction of instruments allowed woodwind players to perform with more flexibly and accuracy, while the addition of values had it made it easier for horns and trumpets to cope with intricate melodies.
This can be seen in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
Bars 6, 6, 64
The music of the classical period differed significantly from the romantic period in terms of duration.
The classical period, although flexibility of rhythms had greatly advanced since the Baroque period, was nowhere near as rhythmically varied as the Romantic music. There were frequent changes in rhythm from long to short notes, but the pulse was always clear and even, as was the time signature.
This can been in Haydn's nd movement, as the tempo (andante) and meter (/4), once introduced remain constant throughout the entirety of the piece.
This consistency allows for a steady pulse, which is punctuated by accents on the first beat of the bar along with a chord. This simplicity in duration was a significant classical characteristic.
The Romantic composers placed great emphasis on self-expression and individuality of style in their music. There was not always a clearly defined beat and the pieces sometimes contained long and unbalanced phrases. The composer's emotional intensity was demonstrated through their rhythmic variation, with complex rhythms and syncopation frequently used.
This can been seen in Berlioz's piece in bar 158-15.
Further comparison of the classical and romantic period in music can be made through the assessment of texture.
Classical music was basically homophonic in texture, however some pieces moved smoothly or suddenly from homophonic texture to a polyphonic texture. The texture of the piece depended on the mood the composer wished to take. Quite simply, when a composer wanted to create a thinner sound, they would use a smaller amount of instruments in that particular section of the music.
In comparison to this Berlioz's 4th movement is extremely dense in texture with layers of top, middle and bass tessituras being exploited to create the desired atmosphere.
Another comparison can be made of the classical and romantic period in music through the examination of dynamics and expressive techniques.
During the classical period composers began to use crescendos and decrescendos in order to express varying shades of emotion through gradual dynamic change.
This is demonstrated in bar 70-7 in Haydn's piece.
These crescendos and decrescendos only ranged from the dynamic markings of ff, f, p, pp, and were generally emphasised not only through the markings but through the instrumentation as well (as discussed in texture.)
The romantic composers called for a wide range of dynamics in order to express their emotional levels and to demonstrate their influences of nature, love longing and the unexplainable through music. Sometimes the composers went to the extremes of the musical scale with some volumes reaching pppp while others reached a tremendous ffff.
This longing for the extremes in sharp contrasts in sound is clearly demonstrated in bars 158, 15, 160
Mood changes in romantic music were sometimes underlined through a subtle variation in the pace of the music. There were many more fluctuations in time than there were in classical music, with romantic composers using accelerandos and ritardandos to great effect.
Romantic composers, unlike classical composers, also looked for contrast between expressive techniques on an instrument to create a build up of tension.
For example bars 10 and 110, and again in 111 and11, the string parts play a sharp pizzicato note by plucking the string, then in the following bar counter this technique with an arco note, a note with the bow. These contrasting techniques help to maintain the feel of unpredictability that Belioz desired from his work.
In conclusion, the classical period indeed a time of simplicity and perfection in the arts as the composer sought to provide their audiences and musicians of the period with simple folklike tunes and logical pieces that reflected the common social views of the time, while the self-expression of the Romantic period where logic was abandoned over emotion. Through the examination of my two selected works, Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony, nd movement, and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement, I have concluded that the historical events and social beliefs of the time resulted in a change of the conceptual bounds of music and they way in which they were shaped and formed in each period.
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