Key features

Key musical features

• There was more freedom of form and design, and an emphasis on intense expression of feeling (contrast to the balance between expressiveness and formal structure in Classical period).
• Romantic music is emotional, with dramatic contrasts of dynamics [Dynamics: The volume at which a note is played. An example of a dynamic instruction is forte which means to play loudly. ], registers, tone colours [Tone Colour: The quality of sound or timbre of an instrument. ] and tempos [Tempo: The speed that a piece of music is played. ].
• It has song-like melodies, often above homophonic [Homophonic: A single melody being played with accompaniment. ] texture.
• Classical forms are expanded, leading to large scale compositionscomposition: composition is what something is made up of.
• Much music was written for soloists (especially on the piano), designed to show off the player's brilliance of technique.

Important composers:

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
• Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
• Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
• Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Types of composition