Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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—
ROMANTIC EOMANTIC 125
so arbitrary has been their use by different
writers, that neither .word is susceptible of very
precise definition. The best guide, however, to
the meaning of 'romantic' is supplied by its
etymology. (The poetic tales of the Middle
Ages, written in the old Romance dialects, were
called Romances. In them mythological fables
and Christian legends, stories of fairyland, and
adventures of Crusaders and other heroes of
chivalry, were indiscriminately blended, and the
fantastic figures thus brought together moved
in a dim atmosphere of mystic gloom and religions
ecstasy. These mediiKval productions
had long been neglected and forgotten even by
scholars, when, about the close of the 18th
century, they were again brought into notice
by a group of poets, of whom the most notable
were the brothers August Wilhelm and Friedxich
von Schlegel, Ludwig Tieck, and Friedtich
Novalis. They set themselves to rescue the old
romances from oblivion, and to revive the spirit
of mediaeval poetry in modern literature by the
example of their own works. Hence they came
to be called the Romantic School, and were thus
distinguished from writers whose fidelity to rules
and models of classic antiquity gave them a claim
to' the title of Classical.
It was not long before the term Romantic was
introduced into musical literature ; and it was
understood to characterise both the subjects of
certain musical works and the spirit in which
they were treated. Its antithetical significance
to the term Classical still clung to it ; and
regard to perfection ofJafm-being often subordinated
by so-called romantic composers to the
object of giving free p^ay to the imaginative and
emotional parts of our nature, there grew up
around the epithet Romantic the notion of a
tendency to depart more or less from the severity
of purfly classical compositions. But, in truth,
no clear line divides the romantic from the
classical. As we shall endeavour to show, the
greatest nameS-afJthe Classical school display
the quality:-of romanticism in tha_spjrit or expression
of some of their works,' while, on the
other hand, the compositions of the Romantic
school are freque!j±lj_jnarked by scrnpulous
adherence-io-thaiorais of traditional excellence.
Again, as the associations of the word Classical
convey the highest me£d__o£-^>Eaise, works at
first pronounced to be romantic establish, by
general recognition of their mesitrAj^aim to be
considered classical. What is 'romantic' to-day
may thus grow, although itself unchanged, to
be ' classical ' to-morrow. The reader will thus
understand why, in Reichardt's opinion, Bach,
Handel, and Gluck were classical, but Haydn
and Mozart romantic ; why later critics, in
1 PreTOonltions of nmsical romanticism existed in fact long
before the word came into use. To our modern ears, now conscions
of this special quality, traces are clearly discernible. As examples
we may take J. S. Bach's preludes Nos. 14 and 18 in the second hook
of the Wohltemperirtes ' Clavier.' or the Arioso 'Am Abend da es
JiUhlewar' from the Matthew Passion. Also many passages from
Gluck's and Mozart's operas.
presence of the fuller romanticism of Beethoven,
placed Haydn and Mozart among the classical
composers ; and why Beethoven himself, in his
turn, was declared to-be^ classical.
The propriety of applying the term Roman tic
to-QjiEias -whose sulyects are taken from rmnaiitin
literatm:fi._or_ to songs where music is set to
romantip. words, wi11 not be qumtioTiBd- And
from. such works it is easy to select passages
which present romantic*pictures to the mind, as,
for instance, the Trumpet passage on the long
B|7 in the bass in the great Leonore overture,
the three horn notes in the overture to ' Oberon,'
or the three drum notes in the overture to Der
'
Freischiitz.' But in pure ingtnnnB ntal mu^ic
the marks of romanticism are so fine, and the
recognition of them depends so much on sympathy
and mental predisposition, that the
question whether this or that work is romantic
may be a subject of interminable dispute among
critics. Sometimes the only mark of romanticism
would seem to be' a subtle effect of instrumentation,
or a sudden change of key,
as in the following passage from the Leonore
Overture :
//tutu
Another example from Beethoven is supplied
by the opening bars of the PF. Concerto in 6
major, where after the solo has ended on the
dominant the orchestra enters^ with the chord
of B major. The whole bf the slow movement
of this Concerto is thoroughly romantic, but
perhaps that quality is most powerfully felt in
the following passage :
pdim.
Tutti.
«°i°V
Yet so subtle is the spell of its presence here
thatiit would be difficult to define where its
intense romanticism lies, unless it be in the
abrupt change both in key (A minor to F major),
and in the character of the phrase, almost
forcing a scene, or recollection, or image, upon
the hearer. 2 Indeed, romantic music possesses
in the highest degree the power of evoking in
the mind some vivid thought or conception
as for instance, in a passage from the Adagio of
the Ninth Symphony, where a sudden transition
into D|> seems to say, ' Vanitas vanitatum, omnia
vanitas '
; and again in the ' Eroica, ' where at
the end of the Trio, the long, holding notes and
peculiar harmony in the horns seem to suggest
the idea of Eternity :
B Pater's definition may well be applied to this example
'
: The
essence of romanticism is the blending of strangeness with the
beautiful.'