Music during the Romantic Era - Essay Example

The paper "Music during the Romantic Era" is a great example of an essay on music. Music during the Romantic Era was characterized by extending the rules which were restricted or formally structured during the Classical Era. Composers during the Romantic Era extended the boundaries in terms of exploring diverse possibilities in movement, harmonies, rhythm, melody, and tones, among other musical elements. There were schools of thought during the era that were delineated in terms of extending the rules conservatively or defying any boundaries and restrictions.
Composers such as Schubert and Brahms manifested a more conservative approach in extending the boundaries of their musical compositions. Franz Schubert’s creative invention of the art song or a form of Lied actually exemplified an extension of boundaries in terms of blending poems and music. Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, on the other hand, exemplifies the composer’s innovative exploration of culture from a foreign land.
Composers who pushed the boundaries were Berlioz and Wagner known to have challenged musical rules of that era. Richard Wagner was notoriously known to have gained controversy during the era due to his extending the boundaries excessively. He was chosen as the favorite composer of the Nazis. Berlioz was famous for challenging musical boundaries through his famous composition, Symphonie fantastique, a unique and innovative structure of musical score which attempted to relay a story with the use of musical instruments alone.
In terms of being coined as entering the “dark side” due to pushing the boundaries of defying rules in dynamics and expressions, one’s personal contention is that these composers were just exploring the extent or limits to the expressions they could manifest from their compositions. Richard Strauss was viewed to have entered the dark side when he chose to remain in Germany during WWII to assume the post of a Jewish conductor that was reportedly removed by the Nazis. However, their analogies to entering the dark side could be interpreted as the era coincided with the Nazi regime whose members also favored composers of those times – but not necessarily meaning that their goals and commitments mirror those identified in notoriety.