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🎵 Romantic Period (1820–1900) — CHEAT SHEET
🌍 Big Idea
* Music = emotion > reason
* Reaction against industrialization + strict classical rules
* Artists = expressive, rebellious, individualistic
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🎻 Socio-cultural
* Industrial Revolution (steam engines, factories)
* Artists reject “cold” logic → embrace feeling + imagination
* Bohemian lifestyle, anti-wealth/anti-industrial elite
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🎼 Music Features
* Long, emotional melodies
* Chromatic harmony (more “colorful” chords)
* Rubato (flexible tempo)
* Big contrasts: loud vs soft, calm vs dramatic
* Constant modulation (key changes)
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🏛 Forms
* Classical forms expanded (sonata, rondo, etc.)
* New forms:
* 🎼 Tone poem (story music)
* 🎭 Gesamtkunstwerk (Wagner total art work)
* 🎹 Piano miniatures (nocturnes, waltzes, etudes)
* 🎤 Lieder (art songs)
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🌎 Nationalism
* Music reflects national identity
* Folk tunes + cultural style used
* Countries:
* Russia 🇷🇺, Czech 🇨🇿, Hungary 🇭🇺, Spain 🇪🇸, Scandinavia 🇳🇴🇸🇪
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🎨 Impressionism (late Romantic extension)
* Mood > structure
* Inspired by art (Monet) + poetry
* Sound = “color and atmosphere”
🎵 Composers:
* Debussy (Clair de Lune)
* Ravel (Bolero)
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⭐ Key Composers
* Chopin – piano poetry
* Tchaikovsky – ballet + emotion (Swan Lake)
* Liszt – virtuoso piano
* Wagner – opera + total art
* Schubert, Schumann, Dvořák, Grieg, Mahler
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⚡ Early 20th Century (1900–1950) — CHEAT SHEET
🌍 Big Idea
* Reaction to WWI + chaos of modern life
* Music becomes experimental + intellectual
* Many “-isms” (cubism, expressionism, etc.)
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🎻 Socio-cultural
* WWI changes worldview
* Artists = “antennae of society”
* Break from tradition, search for new meaning
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🎼 Music Features
* Atonality (no clear key)
* Dissonance (clashing sounds)
* Mixed meters (changing rhythms)
* Polytonality (multiple keys at once)
* Sprechstimme (spoken singing)
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🏛 Forms
* Traditional forms broken or stretched
* No stable new form replaces old ones
* Music often fragmented or experimental
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🎧 Performance Style
* Huge or tiny ensembles
* Very difficult music to perform
* Highly experimental sound
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⭐ Key Composers
* Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring (rhythm revolution)
* Schoenberg – 12-tone system
* Ives – chaotic American sound collages
* William Grant Still – African-American classical voice
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🧠 QUICK FLASHCARDS
Romantic Period
Q: What is the main idea of Romantic music?
A: Emotion, imagination, and individuality.
Q: What is nationalism in music?
A: Using folk music and style to show national identity.
Q: Name 2 Romantic composers.
A: Chopin, Tchaikovsky.
Q: What is a tone poem?
A: Orchestral music that tells a story.
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Early 20th Century
Q: What changed after WWI in music?
A: Music became experimental and less traditional.
Q: What is atonality?
A: Music without a clear key.
Q: Who wrote The Rite of Spring?
A: Stravinsky.
Q: What is the 12-tone system?
A: Schoenberg’s method using all 12 notes equally.