THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT AND MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 19002, 25 July 1925, Page 15

THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT AND MUSIC

[All Rights, Reserved.] [Written by Sophie Hall, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] No. L “ It is the addition of strangeness to beauty,” says Rater, “ that constitutes the romantic character m art, and the desire of beauty being a fixed element in every artistic organisation, it is tiio addition of curiosity Lo this desire of beauty, that constibates’ the romantic spirit.” In the revolution of feeling and thought, which came at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning _of tiie nineteenth centuries, and which has been called “ the romantic movement,” is comprised that great galaxy of master musicians from Weber to Wagner, including Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and Berlioz, most, of whom, with the possible exception of Chopin and Schumann, two of tho most advanced exponents of romanticism, _ who were profoundly influenced by Bach, that giant of polyphony, drew their inspiration from Beethoven, in whoso music is blended the old great classical form c new romantic possibilities. All these romantic composers showed tendencies to break away from strict laws, and to follow their own musical bent by creating new laws, to govern new musical conditions. Their music rebelled against tho formalism that had held despotic sway over the art, and sought to disclose tho beauty “ which lies buried in tho world of mystery, in and around ns,” and to give expression to personal reeling, individual passion, aud tho various emotions to which unyielding formalism had refused adequate utterance. In short, it must be remembered that ino generation which succeeded Beethoven paid Isss attention to structure than to expression; they exacted only that the form should be adequate to the expression of the sentiment.

When we come to look back on this romantic period from Weber to Wagner, that is from ‘ Der Freischutz ’ to ‘ Lohengrin/ and ‘ Tristan ’; or from Weber’s overtures to the symphonic pieces of Berlioz and Liszt, it is seen to be imbued on the emotional side with the spirit of romantic poetry and literature; while on the technical side it is a time of transition —a changing over from the formal to the characteristic, from the orderly, lucid, and mat-ter-of-fact style of the classicists, to the love of the mysterious, fantastic, and marvellous, in the romantic school. In other words, a shifting of the emphasis from abstract beauty to personal communication, minute interest in the uttermost detail, and to impassioned insistence on each emotion of the individual, even of whim, fantasy, and humor.

The general tendency of the age, as shown in the French Revolution, tho struggle for Polish nationality, the movements in literature, originating with Goethe and Schiller, and tho dawn of democracy and of a wider outlook generally favored the upheaval, known as the “ Romantic Movement, in music—tho most sensitive and reflective of all the arts. The romantic spirit did not appear in music until after it had already largely affected art, literature, and society. So romantic music is in some sense an off-shoot of literature —a _reflex of poetry expressed in musical terms; and, similarly, it_ is am art “ eager, sensitive, impulsive,” which seeks its ideal of beauty through emotional expression. In literature the word “ romantic was originally applied to that of the middle ages, as distinguished from the “ classics ” of antiquity—the Greek and Latin masters of literature. Literary romanticism about 1800 found a voice for the thoughts and feelings which by natural reaction had begun to invado the rationalistic world of tho eighteenth century. This literary romanticism gave voice to a keen love of the past, especially of the religious aspect of past ages, and to a keen passion for Nature. Beauty became again the object of the imagination. Goethe, who claimed to have been tho first to use the elusive term romantic in contrast to classical, said, when asked what was meant by “beauty i «... Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never manes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as Nature itself.” The earlier of the romantic writers dealt mainly with medieval legends, with magic superstition, with knighterrantry, and tho worship of woman. Mythology and’ poetry, symbolical legend and art, they assorted, must ho considered as one and indivisible. Schlegel says: “ . . . Tho deepest want and deficiency of modern art lies in tho fact that artists have no mythology to fall back upon.” Thus men began to seek among the ruder times of history for wild, natural stories of human life, and the pleasure in these increased, and accompanied the growing love of lonely, even of savage, scenery. The drama was another medium for tho expression of the romantic revolt from the classic formulas. Painting was still another. Romantic painters drew their inspiration from the Middle Ages, from modern history, and from tho Orient rather than from classical mythology. And so, in considering romantic music in general, wo must take into account both the changes in tho society and life of the times, and those in literature and the other arts, as well as the natural independent progress of tho art of music itself. And as the literary romanticists expressed most fully the changes in jesthotic ideas, and their leaders dominated the artistic society of the times, so the political and social changes which were a part of tho romantic movement found expression in the growing tendency of composers to free themselves from tho bonds of patronage, and to take a, more independent place in society and a more conscious part in asserting their national individuality. The tact that the eminent French ■philosopher, Count do Saint-Simon, in his scheme of religion, with its ideas of social equality, popular education, and moral freedom, placed music—with the other arts—as one of the chief means for spiritual uplift, did much to encourage musicians to tako a more active and dignified part in tho social and artistic life of their times.

In tho rise of romanticism, towards the end of the eighteenth century, Rousseau was tho most gifted writer and tho most significant figure, and tho original force of In’s arguments made him the leader in the great battle for the romantic idea.

Rousseau stands primarily for emotional individualism, and his ideas of the peculiar expressive powers of music as distinguished from other arts make him an important precursor of romanticism. Though he was a composer of no mean ability, his conception of the powers of music and his extraordinary insight into the nature and effect of music soared far above his powers of creating music. In one of his essays, published after his death, lie wrote; —“ Sleep, stillness of night, loneliness, even silence, may be painted in music. The composer will not present such scenes directly, but he will call up in our souls the same impressions that vve receive from the real scones.”