Early Romantic

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The first half of the nineteenth century was essentially a period of insurgence in Europe, from the French Revolution in 1789 to the series of uprisings that rocked the continent around 1848. Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution was also underway, beginning in Britain, then spreading south through the rest of Europe. With these two strands of revolution came transformations in society, including the growing awareness of national identity, social development, the ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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The early nineteenth century was a period of insurgence in Europe, beginning with the French Revolution in 1789 to the uprisings in 1848. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain before spreading south to the rest of Europe, was also making its mark. These two strands of revolution caused transformations in society: growing awareness of national identity, social development, growth of cities and important technological advances – all of which ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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The son of the Brussels wind-instrument maker Charles-Joseph Sax, Adolphe Sax (1814–94) studied the clarinet at the Conservatoire in Brussels. Accordingly, his first experiments with instruments were designs for improving the clarinet and then plans for a bass clarinet. Sax patented the saxhorn in 1845. He took the existing valved brass instruments and came up with the idea of a group of such instruments, with a shared playing technique and a ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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An important aspect of Romanticism was its focus on individual feeling and expression, in contrast to the universal strictures of classical form and style. This led inevitably to a concept of the artist as a misunderstood genius, battling against the world. The second generation of English Romantic poets, including Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, contributed significantly to this idea. Their extravagant lifestyles, their travels abroad and their early deaths ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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The Paris Conservatoire revolutionized music education in France. For most of the eighteenth century such education in Paris was rooted in church choir schools, but as these gradually closed as the century progressed the Ecole Royal de Chant was founded (1783), largely thanks to Gossec. This institution became the Institut National de Musique in 1793. By 1794 there were 80 pupils. On 3 August 1795 the Paris Conservatoire was founded ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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During the mid-nineteenth century, and in particular Liszt’s time in Weimar in the 1850s, there were many personal and idealistic tensions in the musical world. The cohesive spirit of early Romanticism during the years following Beethoven’s death (1827) had become fragmented. Liszt had surrounded himself in Weimar with pupils who shared his musical ideals; they became known as the New German School, and Wagner and, at a distance, Berlioz were ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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Sir Walter Scott was perhaps the most popular literary figure in Europe in the 1820s. His adventurous tales set in chivalrous times captured an atmosphere of romance and mysticism, and exploited the vogue for Scottish subjects which was enveloping Europe. Rossini’s La donna del lago (‘The Lady of the Lake’, 1819), was the first successful opera derived from Scott’s works. The score included Scottish dance rhythms, hunting horns and a Chorus ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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At the start of the Romantic era, French and Italian opera were fighting it out for possession of the opera stage in Paris. However, in attempting to turn back the tide of Italian taste and vocal technique, which had ‘invaded’ the opera in France, the French were at a severe disadvantage. As one contemporary English guidebook to the Paris opera commented: ‘Nothing can be worse than the style of singing ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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The Opéra-Comique company was established in 1714 to offer French opera as an alternative to the Italian opera that dominated the continent at the time. After several misadventures, which included a bankruptcy, the Opéra-Comique settled at the Salle Feydeau in 1805. Here, its essentially radical approach to opera soon became clear. At this time, composers such as Méhul, François-Adrien Boieldieu (1775–1834) and Nicolo Isouard (1775–1818) were pioneering a new genre, the ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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The years 1826–28 saw the deaths of the three greatest composers of their respective generations, Weber, Beethoven and Schubert. Only in the years that followed could early Romanticism really forge its own identity. The 1830s saw the flowering of a new generation of great composers, including Chopin, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt and Mendelssohn, and for each of these musicians the influence of their forebears, especially Beethoven, was enormous. When Beethoven died ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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At a time when expression was more important than maintaining classical forms, freer structures that enabled the communication of a single mood or idea became particularly popular with pianists as an alternative to sonatas. Schubert, for example, is best revealed in his short lyric pieces in which his melodic expansiveness is not constrained. His Moments Musicaux (‘Musical Moments’, 1828), a series of six intimate pieces, illustrate beautifully his ability to evoke ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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At the beginning of the nineteenth century flutes were made of a wide range of materials. Boxwood instruments were still being made, as they had been in the Baroque era. Increased contact with Africa meant that ebony was also used. Ivory continued to be favoured, but also cocus wood. Brass, silver and pewter were all used for keywork. The Renaissance flute had been played using fingerholes only. French innovations meant that ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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During the first years of the nineteenth century piano technology progressed at an astonishing rate. The range of notes was extended by two and a half octaves, the sustaining pedal and soundboard were developed, and in England the idea of using metal bracing to bear the tension of the strings was explored, enabling thicker strings and a fuller tone. The repertory naturally reflected these developments in technology. The piano’s new responsiveness ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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Unlike the ‘New German School’ of Liszt and Wagner, Schumann did not pursue a path of radical experimentation in form and harmony; his style more aptly encapsulates German literary Romanticism in music, interpreting the rhythms and melodic shapes of German poetry and folk music through his own ardent and whimsical nature, and incorporating themes and ideas from Goethe, Tisch, Schlagel and Heine amongst others. Among earlier composers who were significant ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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A bowed string instrument, the arpeggione was invented in Vienna by J. G. Stauffer in 1823–24. A kind of bass viol, with soundholes like a viol, it is waisted, but shaped more like a large guitar than a viol or double bass. Six-stringed and with metal frets, it was tuned E, A, d, g, b, e’. The arpeggione was played by Vincenz Schuster, who wrote a tutor for the instrument, ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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