Emotionality of Romanticism

As we close out our discussion of the nineteenth century, I want you to think about what Romanticism means in the way we write our histories of the classical tradition. As you likely got the sense, the generation immediately after the Romantics were anxious to do something different, sometimes with disdain toward the emotionality of Romanticism, or sometimes looking to further it. And yet, for audiences so much of what we think of as the classical tradition, and what still shows up programmed in our concert halls are from the nineteenth century. Choose a nineteenth century composer (either one we’ve studied or haven’t) and make the case for why their music continues to be programmed by major institutions, and why their music matters to musicians and composers today? Perhaps compare our modern understanding of the composer to how they were received in their time. Of course, you’ll need to do a bit of research to do that. Your response should be no more than 500 words, and should include citations to any outside research you do.