vogue amongst Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Czech,and Scandinavian musicians.” [Wikipedia].
One of the first applications of the term Romantic to music goes back to 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry. However, it was E.T.A. Hoffmann who established the principles of musical Romanticism, in a review of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony published in 1810, and in an 1813 article on Beethoven's instrumental music. In the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to the later works of Haydn and Mozart. Hoffmann associated the term “Romantic" in opposition to the restraint and formality of Classical models, elevating to the art most suited to express emotions. Therefore, Hoffmann and other German authors were the first to bring up Romanticism in music.
And everybody agreed with this model until the mid-19th century, when Richard Wagner denigrated the music of Meyerbeer and Berlioz as “neoromantic.”
It was only toward the end of the 19th century
that, with the emerging discipline of Musikwissenschaft (musicology), an attempt was made to classify and differentiate Romanticism. Romanticism finally achieved full maturity in the post-Beethoven generation of Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Berlioz, and Franz Liszt.
As we have seen, Romanticism was most strongly embodied in literature, the visual arts, and music, but it had also a major impact on sociological issues of the time, as well as education, and the natural sciences. The ideology of the movement had great expectations that would raise the quality of society, and therefore had a tremendous influence on politics. Its association with liberalism and radicalism caused a growth of nationalism that, perhaps, developed more significantly in some countries than others.
Francisco Goya (1746–1828), The Third of May (1814). Oil on canvas. Prado Museum. PD.
13 | Ceres Magazine | Spring 2016