Abstract “Piano works of romantic composers. The musical culture of romanticism: aesthetics, themes, genres and musical language German composers of romanticism

Music has taken a special place in the aesthetics of romanticism. It was declared a model and norm for all areas of art, since, due to its specificity, it is able to most fully express the movements of the soul.“Music begins when words end” (G. Heine).

Musical romanticism as a direction developed at the beginningXIXcentury and developed in close connection with various trends in literature, painting and theater. The initial stage of musical romanticism is represented by the works of F. Schubert, E. T. A. Hoffmann, K. M. Weber, N. Paganini, G. Rossini; the next stage (1830-50s) - the work of F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn, G. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Wagner, J. Verdi. The Late Stage of Romanticism Extends to the EndXIXcentury. Thus, if in literature and painting the romantic direction basically completes its development by the middleXIXcenturies, the life of musical romanticism in Europe is much longer.

In musical romanticism, as well as in other forms of art and literature, the opposition of the world of beautiful, unattainable ideals and everyday life permeated with the spirit of philistinism and philistinism gave rise, on the one hand, to dramatic conflict, the dominance of tragic motifs of loneliness, hopelessness, wandering, etc. ., on the other - the idealization and poeticization of the distant past, folk life, nature. In common with the state of mind of a person, nature in the works of romantics is usually colored with a sense of disharmony.

Like other romantics, the musicians were convinced that feelings are a deeper layer of the soul than the mind:"the mind is mistaken, feelings - never" (R. Schumann).

The special interest in the human personality inherent in romantic music was expressed in the predominance ofpersonal tone . The disclosure of personal drama often acquired a connotation among romantics.autobiography, who brought a special sincerity to the music. So, for example, many of Schumann's piano works are connected with the story of his love for Clara Wieck. Berlioz wrote the autobiographical "Fantastic" symphony. The autobiographical nature of his operas was strongly emphasized by Wagner.

Very often intertwined with the theme of "lyrical confession"nature theme .

The real discovery of romantic composers wasfantasy theme. Music for the first time learned to embody fabulous-fantastic images by purely musical means. In operasXVII - XVIIIcenturies, "unearthly" characters (such as the Queen of the Night from Mozart's "Magic Flute") spoke the "generally accepted" musical language, standing out little from real people. Romantic composers have learned to convey the fantasy world as something completely specific (with the help of unusual orchestral and harmonic colors). A striking example is the "Wolf Gulch Scene" in Weber's Magic Arrow.

If XVIIIcentury was the era of virtuoso improvisers of a universal type, equally skilled in singing, composing, playing various instruments, thenXIXthe century was a time of unprecedented enthusiasm for the art of virtuoso pianists (K. M. Weber, F. Mendelssohn, F. Chopin, F. Liszt, I. Brahms).

The era of romanticism completely changed the "musical geography of the world." Under the influence of the active awakening of the national self-consciousness of the peoples of Europe, young composer schools in Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Norway advanced to the international musical arena. The composers of these countries, embodying the images of national literature, history, native nature, relied on the intonations and rhythms of their native folklore.

Highly characteristic of musical romanticism is the interest infolk art . Like the romantic poets, who enriched and updated the literary language at the expense of folklore, the musicians widely turned to national folklore - folk songs, ballads, epics (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, F. Chopin, I. Brahms, B. Smetana , E. Grieg and others). Embodying the images of national literature, history, native nature, they relied on the intonations and rhythms of national folklore, reviving the old diatonic modes.Under the influence of folklore, the content of European music has changed dramatically.

New themes and images required the development of romanticsnew means of musical language and the principles of shaping, individualization of melody and the introduction of speech intonations, expansion of the timbre and harmonic palette of music (natural frets, colorful juxtapositions of major and minor, etc.).

Since the focus of romantics is no longer humanity as a whole, but a specific person with his unique feeling, respectivelyand in the means of expression, the general is increasingly giving way to the individual, individually unique. The proportion of generalized intonations in melodics, commonly used chord sequences in harmony, and typical patterns in texture are decreasing - all these means are being individualized. In orchestration, the principle of ensemble groups gave way to the soloing of almost all orchestral voices.

The most important pointaesthetics musical romanticism wasthe idea of art synthesis , which found its most vivid expression in the operatic work of Wagner and inprogram music Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt.

Musical Genres in the Works of Romantic Composers

In romantic music, three genre groups clearly emerge:

genres that occupied a subordinate place in the art of classicism (primarily song and piano miniature);
genres perceived by the romantics from the previous era (opera, oratorio, sonata-symphony cycle, overture);
free, poetic genres (ballads, fantasies, rhapsodies, symphonic poems). Interest in them is explained by the desire of romantic composers for free self-expression, the gradual transformation of images.

At the forefront in the musical culture of romanticism issong as a genre most suitable for expressing the innermost thoughts of an artist (whereas in the professional work of composersXVIIIcentury, the lyrical song was assigned a modest role - it served mainly to fill leisure). Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg and others worked in the field of song.

The typical romantic composer creates very directly, spontaneously, at the behest of his heart. Romantic comprehension of the world is not a consistent philosophical grasp of reality, but an instantaneous fixation of everything that touched the artist's soul. In this regard, in the era of romanticism, the genre flourishedminiatures (independent or combined with other miniatures in a cycle). This is not only a song and a romance, but also instrumental compositions -musical moments, impromptu, preludes, etudes, nocturnes, waltzes, mazurkas (in connection with the reliance on folk art).

Many romantic genres owe their origin to poetry, its poetic forms. Such are sonnets, songs without words, short stories, ballads.

One of the leading ideas of romantic aesthetics - the idea of a synthesis of the arts - naturally placed the problem of opera in the center of attention. Almost all romantic composers turned to the operatic genre with rare exceptions (Brahms).

The personal, confidential tone of the utterance inherent in romanticism completely transforms the classical genres of the symphony, sonata, and quartet. They receivepsychological and lyrical-dramatic interpretation. The content of many romantic works is associated withprogramming (piano cycles by Schumann, Years of Wanderings by Liszt, symphonies by Berlioz, overtures by Mendelssohn).

The shortest history of music. The most complete and most concise handbook of Henley Daren

Late Romantics

Many of the composers of this period continued to write music well into the 20th century. However, we talk about them here, and not in the next chapter, for the reason that it was precisely the spirit of romanticism that was strong in their music.

It should be noted that some of them maintained close ties and even friendship with the composers mentioned in the subsections "Early Romantics" and "Nationalists".

In addition, it should be borne in mind that during this period so many excellent composers worked in different European countries that any division of them according to any principle would be entirely arbitrary. If in various literature devoted to the classical period and the baroque period, approximately the same time frame is mentioned, then the romantic period is defined differently everywhere. It seems that the boundary between the end of the romantic period and the beginning of the 20th century in music is very blurred.

The leading composer of 19th-century Italy was undoubtedly Giuseppe Verdi. This man with a thick mustache and eyebrows, looking at us with shining eyes, stood head and shoulders above all other opera composers.

All Verdi's compositions are literally overflowing with bright, memorable melodies. In total, he wrote twenty-six operas, most of which are regularly staged to this day. Among them are the most famous and most outstanding works of operatic art of all time.

Verdi's music was highly valued even during the composer's lifetime. at the premiere Hades The audience gave such a long standing ovation that the artists had to bow as many as thirty-two times.

Verdi was a rich man, but money could not save both wives and two children of the composer from the early death, so there were tragic moments in his life. He bequeathed his fortune to a shelter for old musicians built under his direction in Milan. Verdi himself considered the creation of a shelter, and not music, to be his greatest achievement.

Despite the fact that the name of Verdi is primarily associated with operas, speaking of him, it is impossible not to mention Requiem, which is considered one of the finest examples of choral music. It is full of drama, and some features of the opera slip through it.

Our next composer is by no means the most charming person. In general, this is the most scandalous and controversial figure of all those mentioned in our book. If we were to make a list based only on personality traits, then Richard Wagner would never hit it. However, we are guided solely by musical criteria, and the history of classical music is inconceivable without this man.

Wagner's talent is undeniable. From - under his pen came some of the most significant and impressive musical compositions of the entire period of romanticism - especially for opera. At the same time, he is spoken of as an anti-Semite, a racist, a red tape, the last deceiver and even a thief who does not hesitate to take everything he needs, and rude people without remorse. Wagner had an exaggerated self-esteem, and he believed that his genius elevated him above all other people.

Wagner is remembered for his operas. This composer took German opera to a whole new level, and although he was born at the same time as Verdi, his music was very different from the Italian compositions of that period.

One of Wagner's innovations was that each main character was given his own musical theme, which was repeated every time he began to play a significant role on stage.

Today it seems self-evident, but at that time this idea made a real revolution.

Wagner's greatest achievement was the cycle Ring of the Nibelung, consisting of four operas: Rhine Gold, Valkyrie, Siegfried And Death of gods. They are usually put on four nights in a row, and in total they last about fifteen hours. These operas alone would be enough to glorify their composer. Despite all the ambiguity of Wagner as a person, it should be recognized that he was an outstanding composer.

A distinctive feature of Wagner's operas is their duration. His last opera parsifal lasts over four hours.

Conductor David Randolph once said of her:

“This is the kind of opera that starts at six, and when you look at your wristwatch after three hours, it turns out that it shows 6:20.”

Life Anton Bruckner as a composer, this is a lesson in how to not give up and insist on your own. He practiced twelve hours a day, devoted all his time to work (he was an organist) and learned a lot in music on his own, finishing mastering writing skills by correspondence at a fairly mature age - at thirty-seven.

Today, Bruckner's symphonies are most often remembered, of which he wrote a total of nine pieces. At times, he was seized by doubts about his viability as a musician, but he still achieved recognition, albeit towards the end of his life. After executing it Symphonies No. 1 critics finally praised the composer, who by that time had already turned forty-four years old.

Johannes Brahms not one of those composers who was born, so to speak, with a silver wand in his hand. By the time of his birth, the family had lost its former wealth and barely made ends meet. As a teenager, he made a living by playing in the brothels of his hometown of Hamburg. By the time Brahms became an adult, he, no doubt, got acquainted with far from the most attractive sides of life.

Brahms' music was promoted by his friend, Robert Schumann. After Schumann's death, Brahms became close to Clara Schumann and eventually even fell in love with her. It is not known exactly what kind of relationship they had, although the feeling for her probably played some role in his relations with other women - he did not give his heart to any of them.

As a person, Brahms was rather unrestrained and irritable, but his friends claimed that there was softness in him, although he did not always demonstrate it to those around him. One day, returning home from a party, he said:

“If I haven’t offended anyone, then I ask their forgiveness.”

Brahms would not have won the competition for the most fashionable and elegantly dressed composer. He terribly disliked buying new clothes and often wore the same baggy, patched trousers, almost always too short for him. During one performance, his trousers almost fell off. On another occasion he had to take off his tie and use it instead of a belt.

Brahms' musical style was greatly influenced by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and some music historians even claim that he wrote in the spirit of classicism, by that time already out of fashion. At the same time, he also owns several new ideas. He was especially successful in developing small pieces of music and repeating them throughout the work - what composers call a "repeating motif".

Opera Brahms did not write, but he tried himself in almost all other genres of classical music. Therefore, he can be called one of the greatest composers mentioned in our book, a true giant of classical music. He himself said this about his work:

"It's not difficult to compose, but it's surprisingly difficult to throw extra notes under the table."

Max Bruch was born just five years after Brahms, and the latter would certainly have overshadowed him, if not for one work, Violin Concerto No. 1.

Bruch himself acknowledged this fact, stating with modesty unusual for many composers:

"Fifty years from now, Brahms will be called one of the greatest composers of all time, and I will be remembered for writing the Violin Concerto in G Minor."

And he turned out to be right. True, the Brujah himself has something to remember! He composed many other works - about two hundred in all - he has especially many works for choir and operas, which are rarely staged these days. His music is melodic, but he did not contribute anything particularly new to its development. Against his background, many other composers of that time seem to be real innovators.

In 1880, Bruch was appointed conductor of the Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Society, but returned to Berlin three years later. The musicians of the orchestra were not happy with him.

On the pages of our book, we have already met many musical prodigies, and Camille Saint-Sans occupies not the last place among them. At the age of two, Saint-Saens was already picking up melodies on the piano, and he learned to read and write music at the same time. At the age of three he played plays of his own composition. At the age of ten, he perfectly performed Mozart and Beethoven. However, he became seriously interested in entomology (butterflies and insects), and later in other sciences, including geology, astronomy and philosophy. It seemed that such a talented child simply could not limit himself to one thing.

After graduating from the Paris Conservatory, Saint-Saens worked as an organist for many years. With age, he began to influence the musical life of France, and it was thanks to him that the music of such composers as J. S. Bach, Mozart, Handel and Gluck began to be performed more often.

The most famous composition of Saint-Saens - animal carnival, which the composer forbade performing during his lifetime. He was worried that music critics, having heard this work, would not consider it too frivolous. After all, it's funny when the orchestra on stage portrays a lion, hens with a rooster, turtles, an elephant, a kangaroo, an aquarium with fish, birds, a donkey and a swan.

Saint-Saens wrote some of his other compositions for not-so-frequent combinations of instruments, including the famous "Organ" Symphony No. 3, sounded in the movie "Babe".

The music of Saint-Saens influenced the work of other French composers, including Gabriel Faure. This young man inherited the position of organist in the Parisian church of St. Magdalene, which was previously held by Saint-Saens.

And although Faure's talent cannot be compared with the talent of his teacher, he was a great pianist.

Fauré was a poor man and therefore worked hard, playing the organ, directing the choir and giving lessons. He wrote in his free time, which was very little, but, despite this, he managed to publish more than two hundred and fifty of his works. Some of them were composed for a very long time: for example, work on Requiem lasted over twenty years.

In 1905, Fauré became director of the Paris Conservatoire, that is, a person on whom the development of French music of that time largely depended. Fifteen years later Faure retired. At the end of his life he suffered from hearing loss.

Today Faure is respected outside of France, although he is most appreciated there.

For fans of English music, the appearance of such a figure as Edward Elgar, it must have seemed like a real miracle. Many music historians call him the first significant English composer after Henry Purcell, who worked during the Baroque period, although a little earlier we mentioned Arthur Sullivan.

Elgar was very fond of England, especially his native Worcestershire, where he spent most of his life, finding inspiration in the fields of the Malvern Hills.

As a child, he was surrounded by music everywhere: his father owned a local music store and taught little Elgar to play various musical instruments. At the age of twelve, the boy was already replacing the organist at church services.

After working in a lawyer's office, Elgar decided to devote himself to a much less financially secure occupation. For some time he worked part-time, giving violin and piano lessons, playing in local orchestras and even conducting a little.

Gradually, Elgar's fame as a composer grew, although he had to struggle to make his way outside his native county. Fame brought him Variations on an original theme, which are now better known as Enigma variations.

Now Elgar's music is perceived as very English and sounds during the biggest events of the national scale. At the first sounds of it Cello Concerto the English countryside appears immediately. Nimrod from Variations often played at official ceremonies, and Solemn and ceremonial march No. 1, known as Land of hope and glory performed at proms all over the UK.

Elgar was a family man and loved a quiet, orderly life. Nevertheless, he left his mark on history. This composer with a thick lush mustache can be immediately noticed on the twenty-pound banknote. Obviously, banknote designers found that such facial hair would be very difficult to fake.

In Italy, Giuseppe Verdi's successor in operatic art was Giacomo Puccini, considered one of the recognized world masters of this art form.

The Puccini family has long been associated with church music, but when Giacomo first heard opera Aida Verdi, he realized that this was his calling.

After studying in Milan, Puccini composes an opera Manon Lesko, which brought him his first great success in 1893. After that, one successful production followed another: Bohemia in 1896, Yearning in 1900 and Madama Butterfly in 1904.

In total, Puccini composed twelve operas, the last of which was Turandot. He died without completing this composition, and another composer completed the work. At the opera's premiere, conductor Arturo Toscanini stopped the orchestra exactly where Puccini had left off. He turned to the audience and said:

With the death of Puccini, the heyday of the operatic art of Italy ended. Our book will no longer mention Italian opera composers. But who knows what the future holds for us?

In life Gustav Mahler He was better known as a conductor than as a composer. He conducted in the winter, and in the summer, as a rule, he preferred to write.

As a child, Mahler is said to have found a piano in the attic of his grandmother's house. Four years later, at the age of ten, he already gave his first performance.

Mahler studied at the Vienna Conservatory, where he began composing music. In 1897 he became director of the Vienna State Opera and over the next ten years he gained considerable fame in this field.

He himself began to write three operas, but never finished them. In our time, he is best known as a composer of symphonies. In this genre, he owns one of the real "hits" - Symphony No. 8, in the performance of which more than a thousand musicians and singers are involved.

After Mahler's death, his music went out of fashion for fifty years, but in the second half of the 20th century it regained popularity, especially in Great Britain and the USA.

Richard Strauss was born in Germany and did not belong to the Viennese Strauss dynasty. Despite the fact that this composer lived almost the entire first half of the 20th century, he is still considered a representative of German musical romanticism.

The worldwide popularity of Richard Strauss suffered somewhat from the fact that he decided to stay in Germany after 1939, and after the Second World War he was completely accused of collaborating with the Nazis.

Strauss was an excellent conductor, thanks to which he perfectly understood how this or that instrument in the orchestra should sound. He often applied this knowledge in practice. He also gave various advice to other composers, such as:

"Never look at trombones, you only encourage them."

“Don't sweat while performing; only the listeners should get hot.”

Today, Strauss is remembered primarily in connection with his composition Thus spoke Zarathustra, the intro to which Stanley Kubrick used in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey. But he also wrote some of the best German operas, among them - Rosenkavalier, Salome And Ariadne on Naxos. A year before his death, he also composed very beautiful Four last songs for voice and orchestra. Actually, these were not the last songs of Strauss, but they became a kind of finale of his creative activity.

Until now, among the composers mentioned in this book, there was only one representative of Scandinavia - Edvard Grieg. But now we are again transported to this harsh and cold land - this time to Finland, where Jean Sibelius, great musical genius.

The music of Sibelius absorbed the myths and legends of his homeland. His greatest work Finland, is considered the embodiment of the national spirit of the Finns, just as in the UK the works of Elgar are recognized as a national treasure. In addition, Sibelius, like Mahler, was a true master of symphonies.

As for the composer's other passions, in his daily life he was excessively fond of drinking and smoking, so that at the age of forty-odd years he fell ill with throat cancer. He also often lacked money, and the state gave him a pension so that he could continue writing music without worrying about his financial well-being. But more than twenty years before his death, Sibelius stopped composing anything at all. He lived the rest of his life in relative solitude. He was especially harsh about those who received money for reviews of his music:

“Don't pay attention to what the critics say. So far, not a single critic has been given a statue.”

The last one on our list of Romantic composers also lived until almost the middle of the 20th century, although he wrote most of his most famous works in the 1900s. And yet he is ranked among the romantics, and it seems to us that this is the most romantic composer of the entire group.

Sergei Vasilyevich Rahmaninov was born into a noble family, which by that time had spent a lot of money. He showed interest in music at an early age, and his parents sent him to study, first to St. Petersburg, and then to Moscow.

Rachmaninov was a surprisingly talented pianist, and he also turned out to be a wonderful composer.

Mine Piano Concerto No. 1 he wrote at nineteen. He also found time for his first opera, Aleko.

But this great musician, as a rule, was not particularly satisfied with life. In many of the photographs, we see an angry, frowning man. Another Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, once remarked:

“The immortal essence of Rachmaninov was his frown. He was six and a half feet of frown... he was a fearsome man."

When the young Rachmaninoff played for Tchaikovsky, he was so delighted that he put a five with four pluses on the sheet of his score - the highest mark in the history of the Moscow Conservatory. Soon the whole city started talking about the young talent.

Nevertheless, fate remained unfavorable to the musician for a long time.

Critics were very harsh on him. Symphonies No. 1, whose premiere ended in failure. This gave Rachmaninov severe emotional experiences, he lost faith in his own strength and could not compose anything at all.

In the end, only the help of an experienced psychiatrist Nikolai Dahl allowed him to get out of the crisis. By 1901, Rachmaninoff had completed the piano concerto, which he had worked hard for many years and dedicated to Dr. Dahl. This time the audience greeted the composer's work with delight. Since then Piano Concerto No. 2 has become a beloved classical piece performed by various musical groups around the world.

Rachmaninoff began touring Europe and the USA. Returning to Russia, he conducted and composed.

After the 1917 revolution, Rachmaninov and his family went to concerts in Scandinavia. He never returned home. Instead, he moved to Switzerland, where he bought a house on the shores of Lake Lucerne. He always loved water bodies and now, when he became a fairly rich man, he could afford to relax on the shore and admire the opening landscape.

Rachmaninoff was an excellent conductor and always gave the following advice to those who wanted to excel in this field:

“A good conductor must be a good driver. Both need the same qualities: concentration, continuous intense attention and presence of mind. The conductor only needs to know the music a little…”

In 1935 Rachmaninoff decided to settle in the USA. He first lived in New York, and then moved to Los Angeles. There he began to build a new house for himself, completely identical to the one he had left in Moscow.

Turchin V S

From the book Bretons [Romantics of the sea (litres)] by Gio Pierre-Roland

From the book A Brief History of Music. The most complete and most concise guide author Henley Daren

Three Subsections of Romance As you leaf through our book, you will notice that this is the largest of all its chapters, in which no less than thirty-seven composers are mentioned. Many of them lived and worked simultaneously in different countries. We have therefore divided this chapter into three sections: "Early

From the book Life will go out, but I will stay: Collected works author Glinka Gleb Alexandrovich

Early Romantics These are composers who have become a kind of bridge between the classical period and the period of late romanticism. Many of them worked at the same time as the "classics", and Mozart and Beethoven had a great influence on their work. At the same time, many of them contributed

From the book Love and Spaniards author Upton Nina

LATER POEMS NOT INCLUDED IN THE COLLECTIONS DELUSION I will not return to my former paths. What was, is not to be. Not only Russia - Europe I'm starting to forget. Life is wasted all or almost all. I say to myself: How did I find myself in America, For what and why? - Not

From the book At the rear of the mirror 1910-1930s author Bondar-Tereshchenko Igor

Chapter ten. Romantic foreigners and Spanish coplas An exhibition of Spanish paintings in 1838 captivated all of Paris. She was a real revelation. Spain is in vogue. Romantics trembled with delight. Théophile Gauthier, Prosper Mérimée, Alexandre Dumas (who was slapped

From the book To the origins of Rus' [People and language] author Trubachev Oleg Nikolaevich

From the author's book

History is “alive”: from romance to pragmatism Literary scholars often emphasize their independence from literature and speak about those who, in order to write about ichthyology, do not need to be riba. I'm not fit. Not suitable for the fact that I myself am a riba, I am a writer-literary scholar,

The romantic worldview is characterized by a sharp conflict between reality and dreams. Reality is low and soulless, it is permeated with the spirit of philistinism, philistinism and is worthy only of denial. A dream is something beautiful, perfect, but unattainable and incomprehensible to the mind.

Romanticism contrasted the prose of life with the beautiful realm of the spirit, "the life of the heart." Romantics believed that feelings are a deeper layer of the soul than the mind. According to Wagner, "the artist appeals to feeling, not to reason." And Schumann said: "the mind is mistaken, feelings - never." It is no coincidence that music was declared the ideal form of art, which, due to its specificity, most fully expresses the movements of the soul. It was music in the era of romanticism that took a leading place in the system of arts.
If in literature and painting the romantic direction basically completes its development by the middle of the 19th century, then the life of musical romanticism in Europe is much longer. Musical romanticism as a trend emerged at the beginning of the 19th century and developed in close connection with various trends in literature, painting and theater. The initial stage of musical romanticism is represented by the work of F. Schubert, E. T. A. Hoffmann, K. M. Weber, G. Rossini; the subsequent stage (1830-50s) - the work of F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn, G. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Wagner, J. Verdi.

The late stage of Romanticism extends to the end of the 19th century.

The problem of personality is put forward as the main problem of romantic music, and in a new light - in its conflict with the outside world. The romantic hero is always lonely. The theme of loneliness is perhaps the most popular in all romantic art. Very often, the idea of a creative person is associated with it: a person is lonely when he is precisely an outstanding, gifted person. The artist, poet, musician are the favorite heroes in the works of the romantics (“The Love of the Poet” by Schumann, “Fantastic Symphony” by Berlioz with its subtitle “An Episode from the Life of an Artist”, Liszt’s symphonic poem “Tasso”).
The deep interest in the human personality inherent in romantic music was expressed in the predominance of a personal tone in it. The revelation of a personal drama often acquired a touch of autobiography among the romantics, which brought a special sincerity into the music. So, for example, many of Schumann's piano works are connected with the story of his love for Clara Wieck. The autobiographical nature of his operas was strongly emphasized by Wagner.

Attention to feelings leads to a change in genres - the lyrics acquire a dominant position, in which images of love predominate.

The theme of nature is very often intertwined with the theme of "lyrical confession". Resonating with the state of mind of a person, it is usually colored by a sense of disharmony. The development of genre and lyrical-epic symphonism is closely connected with the images of nature (one of the first works is Schubert's "great" symphony in C-dur).
The real discovery of romantic composers was the theme of fantasy. Music for the first time learned to embody fabulous-fantastic images by purely musical means. In the operas of the 17th and 18th centuries, "unearthly" characters (such as the Queen of the Night from Mozart's "Magic Flute") spoke the "common" musical language, standing out little from real people. Romantic composers have learned to convey the fantasy world as something completely specific (with the help of unusual orchestral and harmonic colors).
Interest in folk art is highly characteristic of musical romanticism. Like the romantic poets, who enriched and updated the literary language at the expense of folklore, the musicians widely turned to national folklore - folk songs, ballads, epics. Under the influence of folklore, the content of European music has changed dramatically.
The most important moment in the aesthetics of musical romanticism was the idea of a synthesis of the arts, which found its most vivid expression in the operatic work of Wagner and in the program music of Berlioz, Schumann, and Liszt.

Hector Berlioz. "Fantastic symphony" - 1. Dreams, passions...

The content of the symphony is associated with Berlioz's beloved, the English actress Harriet Smithson. In 1847, during a tour in Russia, the author dedicated the "Fantastic Symphony" to Emperor Nicholas I.

Robert Schumann - "In the radiance ...", "I meet the gaze .."

From the vocal cycle "Poet's Love"
Robert Schumann Heinrich Heine "In the radiance of warm May days"
Robert Schumann - Heinrich "I meet the look of your eyes"

Robert Schumann. "Fantastic plays".

Schumann Fantasiestucke, op. 12 part 1: no. 1 Des Abend and no. 2 Aufschwung

Sheet. Symphonic poem "Orpheus"

Frederic Chopin - Prelude No. 4 in E minor

Frederic Chopin - Nocturne No 20 in C - sharp minor

Schubert paved the way for many new musical genres - impromptu, musical moments, song cycles, lyric-dramatic symphony. But in whatever genre Schubert wrote - in traditional or created by him - everywhere he appears as a composer of a new era, the era of romanticism.

In the era of romanticism, music occupied a paramount place in the system of arts. This is due to its specificity, which allows you to most fully reflect emotional experiences with the help of the entire arsenal of expressive means.

Romanticism in music appears in the nineteenth century in the works of F. Schubert, E. Hoffmann, N. Paganini, K.M. Weber, G. Rossini. A little later, this style was reflected in the works of F. Mendelssohn, F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Liszt, G. Verdi and other composers.

Romanticism is originated in Europe in the early nineteenth century. It became a kind of opposition to classicism. Romanticism allowed the listener to penetrate the magical world of legends, songs and tales. The leading principle of this direction is the opposition (dreams and everyday life, ideal world and everyday life), created by the composer's creative imagination. This style was popular with creative people until the forties of the 19th century.

Romanticism in music reflects the problems of modern man, his conflict with the outside world and his loneliness. These themes become central to the work of composers. Being gifted unlike others, a person constantly feels misunderstood by others. His talent and becomes the cause of loneliness. That is why the favorite heroes of romantic composers are poets, musicians and artists (R. Schumann "The Love of a Poet"; Berlioz is the subtitle "An Episode from the Life of an Artist" to the "Fantastic Symphony", etc.).

Conveying the world of a person's inner experiences, romanticism in music quite often bears a tinge of autobiography, sincerity, and lyricism. The themes of love and passion are widely used. For example, the famous composer R. Schumann dedicated many piano pieces to his beloved Clara Wieck.

The theme of nature is also quite common in the work of romantics. Composers often oppose it to the state of mind of a person, coloring it with shades of disharmony.

The theme of fantasy has become a real discovery of romantics. They are actively working on the creation of fairy-tale heroes and the transfer of their images through various elements of the musical language (Mozart's "Magic Flute" - Queen of the Night).

Often, romanticism in music also refers to folk art. Composers in their works use a variety of folklore elements (rhythms, intonations, old modes), taken from songs and ballads. This allows you to significantly enrich the content of musical plays.

The use of new images and themes necessitated the search for appropriate forms and thus speech intonations, natural tones, oppositions of various keys, solo parts (voices) appear in romantic works.

Romanticism in music embodied the idea of a synthesis of the arts. An example of this is the programmatic works of Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt and other composers (the symphony "Harold in Italy", the poem "Preludes", the cycle "Years of Wanderings", etc.).

Russian romanticism was vividly reflected in the works of M. Glinka, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. Borodin, C. Cui, M. Balakirev, P. Tchaikovsky and others.

In his works, A. Dargomyzhsky conveys multifaceted psychological images (“Mermaid”, romances). In the opera Ivan Susanin, M. Glinka paints pictures of the life of the common Russian people. By right, the works of composers of the famous "Mighty Handful" are considered to be the pinnacle. They use expressive means and characteristic intonations inherent in Russian folk songs, everyday music, and colloquial speech.

Subsequently, this style was also used by A. Scriabin (the prelude "Dreams", the poem "To the Flame") and S. Rachmaninov (sketches-pictures, the opera "Aleko", the cantata "Spring").

French romanticism

An artistic movement that emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. first in literature (Germany, Great Britain, other countries of Europe and America), then in music and other arts. The concept of "romanticism" comes from the epithet "romantic"; before the 18th century he pointed out some features of literary works written in Romance languages (that is, not in the languages of classical antiquity). These were romances (Spanish romance), as well as poems and novels about knights. In con. 18th century “romantic” is understood more broadly: not only as adventurous, entertaining, but also as ancient, original folk, distant, naive, fantastic, spiritually sublime, ghostly, as well as amazing, frightening. “Romantics romanticized everything that they liked from the recent and distant past,” wrote F. Blume. They perceive the work of Dante and W. Shakespeare, P. Calderon and M. Cervantes, J. S. Bach and J. W. Goethe as “their own”, much in antiquity; they are also attracted by the poetry of Dr. East and medieval minnesingers. Based on the features noted above, F. Schiller called his "Maid of Orleans" a "romantic tragedy", and in the images of Mignon and Harper he sees the romanticism of Goethe's "Years of Wilhelm Meister's Teachings".

Romanticism as a literary term first appears in Novalis, as a musical term in E. T. A. Hoffmann. However, in its content it is not very different from the corresponding epithet. Romanticism was never a clearly defined program or style; this is a wide range of ideological and aesthetic trends in which the historical situation, the country, the interests of the artist created certain accents, determined various goals and means. However, the romantic art of different formations also has important common features regarding both the ideological position and style.

Having inherited many of its progressive features from the Enlightenment, romanticism is at the same time associated with deep disappointment both in enlightenment itself and in the successes of the entire new civilization as a whole. For the early romantics, who did not yet know the results of the French Revolution, the general process of the rationalization of life, its subordination to an average sober “reason” and soulless practicality, was disappointing. In the future, especially during the years of the Empire and the Restoration, the social meaning of the position of the romantics - their anti-bourgeoisness - became more and more clearly outlined. According to F. Engels, “the public and political institutions established by the victory of reason turned out to be an evil, bitterly disappointing caricature of the brilliant promises of the enlighteners” (Marx K. and Engels F., On Art, vol. 1, M., 1967, p. 387 ).

In the work of the Romantics, the renewal of the personality, the affirmation of its spiritual strength and beauty, is combined with the exposure of the realm of the philistines; full-fledged human, creative is opposed to mediocre, insignificant, mired in vanity, vanity, petty calculation. By the time of Hoffmann and J. Byron, V. Hugo and George Sand, H. Heine and R. Schumann, social criticism of the bourgeois world had become one of the main elements of romanticism. In search of sources of spiritual renewal, romantics often idealized the past and tried to breathe new life into religious myths. Thus, a contradiction was born between the general progressive orientation of romanticism and the conservative tendencies that arose in its own channel. In the work of romantic musicians, these trends did not play a noticeable role; they manifested themselves mainly in the literary and poetic motifs of some works, however, in the musical interpretation of such motifs, the living, real-human principle usually outweighed.

Musical romanticism, which manifested itself tangibly in the second decade of the 19th century, was a historically new phenomenon and, at the same time, revealed deep successive ties with the musical classics. The work of outstanding composers of the previous time (including not only the Viennese classics, but also the music of the 16th and 17th centuries) served as a support for the cultivation of a high artistic rank. It was this kind of art that became the model for the romantics; according to Schumann, “only this pure source can nourish the forces of the new art” (“On Music and Musicians”, vol. 1, M., 1975, p. 140). And this is understandable: only the high and perfect could be successfully opposed to the musical idle talk of a secular salon, the spectacular virtuosity of the stage and the opera stage, and the indifferent traditionalism of artisan musicians.

The musical classics of the post-Bach era served as the basis for musical romanticism in connection with their content. Starting with C. F. E. Bach, the element of feeling more and more freely manifested itself in it, music mastered new means that made it possible to express both the strength and subtlety of emotional life, lyricism in its individual version. These aspirations made many musicians in the second half of the 18th century related. with the Sturm und Drang literary movement. Hoffmann's attitude to K. W. Gluck, W. A. Mozart, and especially L. Beethoven as artists of a romantic warehouse was quite natural. Such assessments reflected not only the predilection for romantic perception, but also attention to the features of "pre-romanticism" that were actually inherent in the major composers of the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Musical romanticism was also historically prepared by the movement that preceded it for literary romanticism in Germany among the "Jenian" and "Heidelberg" romantics (W. G. Wackenroder, Novalis, brothers F. and A. Schlegel, L. Tieck, F. Schelling, L. Arnim, C. Brentano, and others), from the writer Jean Paul, who was close to them, later from Hoffmann, in Great Britain, from the poets of the so-called. The “lake school” (W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, and others) had already fully developed the general principles of romanticism, which were then interpreted and developed in music in their own way. In the future, musical romanticism was significantly influenced by such writers as Heine, Byron, Lamartine, Hugo, Mickiewicz and others.

The most important areas of creativity of romantic musicians include lyrics, fantasy, folk and national original, natural, characteristic.

The paramount importance of lyrics in the romantic. art, especially in music, was fundamentally substantiated by him. R. theorists. For them, “romantic” is primarily “musical” (the most honorable place was given in the hierarchy of art in music), because feeling reigns supreme in music, and therefore the work of a romantic artist finds its highest goal in it. Therefore, music is the lyrics. In the abstract philosophical aspect, according to the theory of lit. R., allows a person to merge with the "soul of the world", with the "universe"; in the aspect of concrete life, music by its nature is the antipode of prose. reality, it is the voice of the heart, capable of telling with the highest completeness about a person, his spiritual wealth, about his life and aspirations. That is why in the field of lyrics of muses. R. belongs to the brightest word. Lyricism, immediacy and expression, individualization of lyricism achieved by romantic musicians were new. statements, the transfer of psychological. the development of a feeling full of new precious details at all its stages.

Fiction as a contrast to prose. reality is akin to lyrics and often, especially in music, is intertwined with the latter. In itself, fantasy reveals different facets that are equally essential for R. It acts as freedom of the imagination, a free play of thought and feeling, and at the same time. as freedom of knowledge, boldly rushing into the world of "strange", wonderful, unknown, as if in defiance of philistine practicality, wretched "common sense". Fantasy is also a kind of romantic beauty. At the same time, science fiction makes it possible in an indirect form (and, therefore, with maximum artistic generalization) to collide the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the evil. In arts. R. made a great contribution to the development of this conflict.

The interest of romantics in life "outside" is inextricably linked with the general concept of such concepts as folk and national identity, natural, characteristic. It was a desire to recreate the authenticity, primacy, integrity lost in the surrounding reality; hence the interest in history, in folklore, the cult of nature, interpreted as primordial, as the most complete and undistorted embodiment of the "soul of the world." For a romantic, nature is a refuge from the troubles of civilization; it consoles and heals a restless person. Romantics made a huge contribution to knowledge, to art. revival of people poetry and music of past eras, as well as "distant" countries. According to T. Mann, R. is “a longing for the past and at the same time a realistic recognition of the right to originality for everything that has ever really existed with its own local color and atmosphere” (Coll. soch., v. 10 , M., 1961, p. 322), started in the UK in the 18th century. collection of national folklore was continued in the 19th century. W. Scott; in Germany, it was the romantics who first collected and made public the treasures of the bunk beds. creativity of his country (collection of L. Arnim and K. Brentano "The Magic Horn of a Boy", "Children's and Family Tales" by brother Grimm), which was of great importance for music. The desire for a faithful transmission of the national-nat. arts. style ("local color") - a common feature of romantic musicians from different countries and schools. The same can be said about music. landscape. Created in this area by composers 18 - early. 19th centuries far surpassed by the romantics. In the music the embodiment of nature, R. reached a previously unknown figurative concreteness; this was served by the newly discovered expresses. means of music, primarily harmonic and orchestral (G. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Wagner).

"Characteristic" attracted romantics in some cases as original, integral, original, in others - as strange, eccentric, caricatured. To notice the characteristic, to expose it means to break through the leveling gray veil of ordinary perception and touch the real, bizarrely colorful and seething life. In striving for this goal, a typical for romantics art-in lit. and music. portraiture. Such a claim was often associated with the artist's criticism and led to the creation of parodic and grotesque portraits. From Jean Paul and Hoffmann, the tendency to a characteristic portrait sketch is transmitted to Schumann and Wagner. In Russia, not without the influence of the romantic. music traditions. portraiture developed among composers nat. realistic. schools - from A. S. Dargomyzhsky to M. P. Mussorgsky and N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

R. developed elements of dialectics in the interpretation and display of the world, and in this respect was close to contemporary him. classical philosophy. In the suit, the understanding of the relationship between the individual and the general is enhanced. According to F. Schlegel, romantic. poetry is “universal”, it “contains everything poetic, from the greatest system of arts, which again includes entire systems, to a sigh, to a kiss, as they express themselves in the artless song of a child” (“Fr. Schlegels Jugendschriften”, hrsg von J. Minor, Bd 2, S. 220). Unlimited variety with hidden ext. unity - that's what romantics value, for example. in Don Quixote by Cervantes; F. Schlegel calls the motley fabric of this novel “the music of life” (ibid., p. 316). This is a novel with "open horizons" - notes A. Schlegel; according to his observation, Cervantes resorts to "endless variations", "as if he were a sophisticated musician" (A. W. Schlegel. Sämtliche Werke, hrsg. von E. Böcking, Bd 11, S. 413). Such art. position generates special attention as to the otd. impressions, and their connections, to the creation of a common concept. In music directly. the outpouring of feeling becomes philosophical, the landscape, dance, genre scene, portrait are imbued with lyricism and lead to generalizations. R. shows a special interest in the life process, in what N. Ya. Berkovsky calls the “direct flow of life” (“Romanticism in Germany”, Leningrad, 1973, p. 31); this also applies to music. It is typical for romantic musicians to strive for endless transformations of the original thought, for “endless” development.

Since R. saw in all claims a single meaning and a single chapter. the goal is to merge with the mysterious essence of life, the idea of synthesis of arts acquired a new meaning. “The aesthetics of one art is the aesthetics of another; only the material is different,” notes Schumann (“On Music and Musicians”, vol. 1, M., 1975, p. 87). But the combination of "different materials" increases the impressive power of the artistic whole. In the deep and organic fusion of music with poetry, with theater, with painting, new possibilities opened up for art. In the field of instr. music, the principle of programmability acquires an important role, i.e., inclusion both in the composer's idea and in the process of perceiving music, lit. and other associations.

R. is especially widely represented in the music of Germany and Austria. At an early stage - the work of F. Schubert, E. T. A. Hoffmann, K. M. Weber, L. Spohr, G. Marschner; further by the Leipzig school, primarily by F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and R. Schumann; in the 2nd floor. 19th century - R. Wagner, I. Brahms, A. Bruckner, Hugo Wolf. In France, R. appeared already in the operas by A. Boildieu and F. Aubert, then in a much more developed and original form by Berlioz. Romantic in Italy tendencies were noticeably reflected in G. Rossini and G. Verdi. Common European value received the work of the Polish computer. F. Chopin, Hung. - F. Liszt, Italian. - N. Paganini (the work of Liszt and Paganini was also the pinnacle of romantic performance), German. - J. Meyerbeer.

Under the conditions of national R. schools retained much in common and at the same time showed a noticeable originality in ideas, plots, favorite genres, and also in style.

In the 30s. beings were found. disagreement between him. and French schools. There are different ideas about the permissible measure of stylistic. innovation; controversial was also the question of the admissibility of aesthetic. artist's compromises to please the tastes of the "crowd". The antagonist of Berlioz's innovation was Mendelssohn, who firmly defended the norms of a moderate "classic-romantic" style. Schumann, who ardently defended Berlioz and Liszt, nevertheless did not accept what seemed to him the extremes of the French. schools; he preferred the much more balanced Chopin to the author of the Fantastic Symphony, extremely highly placed Mendelssohn and A. Henselt, S. Heller, V. Taubert, W. S. Bennett and others close to this composer. Schumann criticizes Meyerbeer with extraordinary sharpness, seeing in his spectacular theatricality, only demagogy and the pursuit of success. Heine and Berlioz, on the contrary, appreciate the author's "Huguenots" dynamic. music dramaturgy. Wagner develops critical Schumann's motives, however, in his work he goes far from the norms of a moderate romantic. style; adhering (unlike Meyerbeer) to strict aesthetic criteria. selection, he follows the path of bold reforms. All R. 19th century as an opposition to the Leipzig school, the so-called. New German or Weimar school; Liszt became its center in his Weimar years (1849-61), R. Wagner, H. Bülow, P. Cornelius, J. Raff and others were adherents. The Weimarians were supporters of program music, music. dramas of the Wagnerian type, and other radically reformed types of new music. lawsuit. Since 1859, the ideas of the new German school have been represented by the "General German Ferein" and the journal created as early as 1834 by Schumann. "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik", Krym since 1844 was directed by K. F. Brendel. In the opposite camp, along with the critic E. Hanslik, the violinist and composer J. Joachim, and others, was J. Brahms; the latter did not aspire to disputes and defended his principles only in creativity (in 1860, Brahms single-handedly put his signature under a polemical article - a collective speech against certain ideas of the "Weimarites", published in the Berlin magazine "Echo"). What critics were inclined to consider conservatism in the work of Brahms, in fact, was a living and original art, where the romantic. the tradition was updated, experiencing a new powerful influence of the classic. music of the past. The prospects of this path were shown by the development of Europe. music next. decades (M. Reger, S. Frank, S. I. Taneev and others). In the same measure, the insights of the “Weimarites” turned out to be promising. In the future, the disputes between the two schools historically become obsolete.

Since in the mainstream of R. there were successful searches for nat. authenticity, social and psychological. truthfulness, the ideals of this movement were closely intertwined with the ideology of realism. Such connections are evident, for example, in the operas of Verdi and Bizet. The same complex is typical for a number of nat. music schools in the 19th century In Russian romantic music. elements are clearly represented already by M. I. Glinka and A. S. Dargomyzhsky, in the 2nd half. 19th century - from the composers of The Mighty Handful and from P. I. Tchaikovsky, later from S. V. Rachmaninov, A. N. Scriabin, N. K. Medtner. Under the strong influence of R. young muses developed. cultures of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, Finland (S. Moniuszko, B. Smetana, A. Dvorak, F. Erkel, K. Sinding, E. Grieg, N. Gade, E. Hartman, K. Nielsen, I Sibelius and others), as well as Spanish. music 2nd floor. 19 - beg. 20th century (I. Albeniz, E. Granados, M. de Falla).

Muses. R. actively contributed to the development of chamber vocal lyrics and opera. In accordance with R.'s ideals in wok reform. music ch. role is played by the deepening of the synthesis of art-in. Wok. the melody sensitively responds to the expressiveness of the poetic. words, becomes more detailed and individual. Tool the party loses the character of neutral "accompaniment" and is increasingly saturated with figurative content. In the work of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, Wolf, a path can be traced from a plot-developed song to “music. poem." Among wok. genres, the role of the ballad, monologue, scene, poem increases; songs in pl. cases are combined into cycles. In the romantic opera, which developed in dec. directions, the connection between music, words, theater is steadily increasing. actions. This purpose is served by: the system of muses. characteristics and leitmotifs, the development of speech intonations, the merging of the logic of music. and stage development, the use of rich opportunities symphonic. orchestra (the scores of Wagner belong to the highest achievements of operatic symphony).

In instr. music, romantic composers are especially prone to FP. miniature. A short play becomes a fixation of the moment, desirable for a romantic artist: a cursory sketch of a mood, a landscape, a characteristic image. It appreciates and relates. simplicity, closeness to the vital sources of music - to song, dance, the ability to capture a fresh, original flavor. Popular varieties of romantic. short piece: “song without words”, nocturne, prelude, waltz, mazurka, as well as pieces with program names. In instr. miniature achieves high content, relief imagery; with a compact form, it is distinguished by a bright expression. As in wok. lyrics, here there is a tendency to unite otd. plays in cycles (Chopin - Preludes, Schumann - "Children's Scenes", Liszt - "Years of Wanderings", etc.); in some cases, these are cycles of a "through" structure, where between the individual ones they are relatively independent. plays arise diff. sort of intonation. communications (Schumann - "Butterflies", "Carnival", "Kreisleriana"). Such "through" cycles already give some idea of the main tendencies of romanticism. interpretation of a large instr. forms. On the one hand, it emphasizes the contrast, the diversity of the individual. episodes, on the other hand, the unity of the whole is strengthened. Under the sign of these tendencies, a new creativity is given. interpretation of the classic sonata and sonata cycle; the same aspirations determine the logic of one-part “free” forms, which usually combine the features of a sonata allegro, a sonata cycle, and variation. "Free" forms were especially convenient for program music. In their development, in the stabilization of the genre of the one-part “symphony. poems" Liszt's merit is great. The constructive principle underlying Liszt's poems - the free transformation of one theme (monothematism) - creates an expression. contrasts and at the same time ensures the maximum unity of the entire composition (Preludes, Tasso, etc.).

In the style of music R. the most important role is played by modal and harmonic means. The search for new expressiveness is associated with two parallel and often interrelated processes: with the strengthening of functional and dynamic. sides of harmonies and with amplification of the harmonic. colorfulness. The first of these processes was the increasing saturation of chords with alterations and dissonances, which aggravated their instability, increased the tension that required resolution in the future harmonics. movement. Such properties of harmony best expressed the “languor” typical of R., the stream of “infinitely” developing feelings, which was embodied with particular completeness in Wagner's “Tristan”. Colorful effects appeared already in the use of the possibilities of the major-minor modal system (Schubert). New, very diverse colors. shades were extracted from the so-called. natural frets, with the help of which Nar was emphasized. or archaic. the nature of the music; an important role - especially in science fiction - was assigned to frets with whole-tone and "tone-semitone" scales. Colorful properties were also found in a chromatically complicated, dissonant chord, and it was at this point that the processes noted above clearly touched. Fresh sound effects were also achieved by decomp. comparisons of chords or modes within diatonic. scale.

In the romantic melodic acted the following ch. tendencies: in the structure - the desire for breadth and continuity of development, and partly for the "openness" of the form; in rhythm - overcoming traditions. regularity metric. accents and any automatic repetition; into intonation. composition - detailing, filling with expressiveness not only the initial motives, but also the whole melodic. drawing. Wagner's ideal of "endless melody" included all of these trends. The art of the greatest melodists of the 19th century is also connected with them. Chopin and Tchaikovsky. Muses. R. greatly enriched, individualized the means of presentation (texture), making them one of the most important elements of the muses. imagery. The same applies to the use of instr. compositions, especially symphonic. orchestra. R. developed color. the means of the orchestra and the dramaturgy of the orc. development to a height that the music of previous eras did not know.

Late music. R. (late 19th - early 20th centuries) still gave "rich seedlings", and among its largest successors the romantic. tradition still expressed the ideas of the progressive, humanistic. claims (G. Mahler, R. Strauss, K. Debussy, A. N. Skryabin).

New creativity is associated with the strengthening and qualitative transformation of R.'s tendencies. achievements in music. Newly detailed imagery is being cultivated - both in the sphere of external impressions (impressionistic colorfulness) and in exquisitely subtle transmission of feelings (Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin). The possibilities of music are expanding. figurativeness (R. Strauss). Refinement, on the one hand, and increased expressiveness, on the other hand, create a wider scale of emotional expressiveness of music (Scriabin, Mahler). At the same time, in the late R., which was closely intertwined with the new trends at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. (impressionism, expressionism), the symptoms of the crisis were growing. In the beginning. 20th century R.'s evolution reveals a hypertrophy of the subjective principle, a gradual degeneration of refinement into amorphousness and immobility. A polemically sharp reaction to these crisis features was the muse. anti-romanticism of the 10-20s (I. F. Stravinsky, young S. S. Prokofiev, composers of the French "Six", etc.); late R. was opposed to the desire for objectivity in content, for clarity of form; a new wave of "classicism" arose, the cult of the old masters, ch. arr. pre-Beethoven era. Mid 20th century showed, however, the viability of the most valuable traditions of R. Despite the destructive tendencies intensified in Western music, R. retained its spiritual basis and, enriched with new stylistic. elements, was developed by many. outstanding composers of the 20th century. (D. D. Shostakovich, Prokofiev, P. Hindemith, B. Britten, B. Bartok and others).

Literature: Asmus V., Musical Aesthetics of Philosophical Romanticism, "SM", 1934, No 1; Nef K., History of Western European Music, translated from French. Edited by B. V. Asafiev. Moscow, 1938. Sollertinsky I., Romanticism, its general and musical aesthetics, in his book: Historical etudes, L., 1956, vol. 1, 1963; Zhitomirsky D., Notes on Musical Romanticism (Chopin and Schumann), "SM", 1960, No 2; his own, Schumann and Romanticism, in his book: Robert Schumann, M., 1964; Vasina-Grossman V., Romantic song of the 19th century, M., 1966; Konen, V., History of Foreign Music, vol. 3, M., 1972; Mazel L., Problems of classical harmony, M., 1972 (ch. 9 - On the historical development of classical harmony in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century); Skrebkov S., Artistic principles of musical styles, M., 1973; Musical aesthetics of France in the 19th century. Comp. texts, intro. article and intro. essays by E. F. Bronfin, M., 1974 (Monuments of musical and aesthetic thought); Music of Austria and Germany of the 19th century, book. 1, M., 1975; Druskin M., History of foreign music, vol. 4, M., 1976.

D. V. Zhitomirsky

The ideological and artistic direction, which developed in all countries of Europe and North. America in con. 18 - 1st floor. 19th centuries R. expressed the dissatisfaction of bourgeois society. changes, opposing itself to classicism and enlightenment. F. Engels noted that "... the social and political institutions established by the "victory of reason" turned out to be an evil, bitterly disappointing caricature of the brilliant promises of the enlighteners." Criticism of the new way of life, outlined in the mainstream of enlightenment among the sentimentalists, was even more evident among the romantics. The world seemed to them deliberately unreasonable, full of mysterious, incomprehensible and hostile people. personality. For romantics, high aspirations were incompatible with the outside world, and the discord with reality turned out to be almost the main one. feature R. Lowlands and vulgarity of the real world R. opposed religion, nature, history, fantastic. and exotic. spheres, adv. creativity, but most of all - the inner life of man. Representations about her R. extremely enriched. If antiquity was the ideal of classicism, then R. was guided by the art of the Middle Ages and modern times, considering A. Dante, W. Shakespeare, and J. W. Goethe as his predecessors. R. asserted art, not provided for by models, but created by the free will of the artist, embodying his inner world. Not accepting the surrounding reality, R. actually knew it deeper and more fully than classicism. The highest art for R. was music, as the embodiment of the free element of life. She made great strides during that time. R. was also a period of unusually rapid and significant development of ballet. The first steps of a romantic ballets were made in England, Italy, Russia (Sh. Didlo, A. P. Glushkovsky and others). However, R. most fully and consistently took shape in French. ballet theater, whose influence was reflected in other countries. One of the prerequisites for this was the high development of classical technology in France at that time. dance, especially women's. Most clearly romantic. tendencies manifested themselves in the ballets of F. Taglioni ("La Sylphide", 1832, etc.), where the action usually unfolded in parallel in the real and fantastic worlds. Fantasy freed dance from the need for private everyday justifications, opened up scope for the use of the accumulated technique and its further development in order to reveal the essential properties of the characters depicted in the dance. In the female dance, which came to the fore in R.'s ballet, jumps were introduced more and more widely, dance on pointe shoes, etc., arose. , which perfectly matched the appearance of unearthly creatures - jeeps, sylphs. In the ballet R. dominated the dance. New compositional forms of the classical dance, the role of unison corps de ballet female dance has sharply risen. Ensemble, duet and solo dances developed. The role of the leading ballerina increased, starting with M. Taglioni. A tunic appeared as a permanent costume for a dancer. The role of music has increased, often before that of the national team. The symphony of dances began. actions. The pinnacle of romance. ballet - "Giselle" (1841), staged by J. Coralli and J. Perrot. The work of Perrault marked a new stage in ballet R. The performance now relied heavily on lit. the original source ("Esmeralda" according to Hugo, "Corsair" according to Byron, etc.), and accordingly, the dance was more dramatized, the role of effective compositions (pas d "action" increased), dance folklore was used more widely. Similar aspirations manifested themselves in the work of the most prominent dates Ballet dancer in August Bournonville Dancers F. Elsler, C. Grisi, F. Cerrito, L. Grand, E. I. Andreyanova, E. A. Sankovskaya came forward.

Romantic type. performance, established in the ballets of Taglioni, Perrot, Bournonville, continued to exist until the end. 19th century However, the internal structure of these performances, primarily in the work of ballets. M. I. Petipa, transformed.

The desire for a romantic revival. ballet in its original guise manifested itself in the work of some ballet masters of the 20th century. M. M. Fokin gave R. in the ballet new features of impressionism.

Ballet. Encyclopedia, SE, 1981