584 Ch. 15 • Liberal Challenges To Restoration Europe
Romantic MusicThe romantics also believed
that music, like painting, was
poetry capable of releasing tor
rents of emotion in listeners.
Whereas romantic literature
sought and achieved a sharp
break with the rules of classical
literature, romantic musical
compositions built on the tradi
tions of the eighteenth-century
masters, helping the public
rediscover them. The composi
tions of Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827) bridged the classi
cal and romantic periods, with a
foot firmly in each. The son of
an alcoholic court musician in
Theodore Gericault s Portrait of an Officer of the Rhineland town of Bonn,
the Chasseurs Commanding a Charge (1812). Beethoven was a homely, iso
lated, brooding man.
Beethoven’s music followed classical rules of structure and harmony. The
German romantic composer Richard Wagner would later say that, as
Beethoven became increasingly deaf, he was “undisturbed by the bustle of
life [hearing only] the harmonies of his soul.” Beethoven’s audiences strug
gled to understand his music, which increasingly seemed to defy traditional
structures and harmonies. A critic reacted to one of Beethoven’s sym
phonies, “The composer... takes the majestic flight of the eagle, then he
creeps along rock-strewn paths. After penetrating the soul with a gentle
melancholy he immediately lacerates it with a mass of barbarous chords.
I seem to see doves put in together with crocodiles!” Beethoven’s symphonies
and string quartets were widely played in Europe, and his sonatas helped
popularize the piano. The instrument, which continued to be improved,
became more resonant and was established as a single solo instrument. Part
of the growing popularity of the piano may have stemmed from contempo
rary fascination with fast-moving machines. Whereas only two decades ear
lier Mozart had struggled to make ends meet, Beethoven enjoyed wealth and
fame, freeing himself from the old patronage system of court and church.
Although opera remained the most popular form of musical expression,
drawing crowds with its extravagant staging and elaborate, expensive cos
tumes, romantic music grew in popularity during the first half of the nine
teenth century. The public flocked to public concerts, and more musicians
could now make a living from their performances. Musicians wrote music
for public concerts. The musical “virtuoso” became a phenomenon, going on