Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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EOMBEEG
IIOMBERG 129
qualities are essential to it. Romantic music
does not necessarily desire to call up a given
picture, but to induce a n^ental attitude . Unconsciously
the romantic composer may have
written passages which evoke as clearly, but not
in so limited a degree, some mental image in the
mind of the hearer. The composer has stimulated
the imagination of his hearer, and left it
free to conjure up what it wills. Herein lies
the difference between the two schools. Individualism
orsuJbjectivity, the characteristic mark
of the romantic movement in philosophy and
literature, asserts itself as distinctively in music.
Programme or pictorial music stands on a lower
plane. It is purely iujitative_work on the composer's
part ; it gives no scope for, and makes
no demands upon the iinagination of the hearer.
An undoubted loss of romantic effect was the
consequence of this method. It produced in
the younger French romanticists an excessive
realism, which too readily sacrificed artistic
beauty to originality and vivid representation.
Nor can we deny the frequent obscurity and incoherence
of their compositions, though we are
unable to acquiesce in the imputation so often
fastened upon them that their romanticism was
merely the veil of ignorance, and that they
violated rules because they knew no better. As
a matter of fsict, even those among them who
pushed extravagances to the farthest point were
thorough masters of the strictest rules and
severest forms of musical composition.
To sum up, in conclusion, our obligations to
the masters of the romantic school, we must
acknowledge that they saved music from the
danger with which it was at one time threatened,
of being treated as an exact but dry and cold
science ; that they gave it a freer and more
elastic form ; that theydeveloped the capabilities
and technique of various instruments ; that
being themselves always filled with a deep
reverence for their art they have added, by their
own genius and labour, many a noble masterpiece
to the treasures of music." A. H. w.
ROMBERG. One of those musical families
of whom, from the Bachs downwards, so many
are encountered in Germany. The founders
were Ahton and Heinrich, a pair of inseparable
brothers, who dressed alike, and lived
together in Bonn. They were still alive in
1792. Another Anton, ii bassoon-player,
born in Westphalia, March 6, 1742, lived at
Dinklage (Duchy of Oldenburg), gave concerts
> For the foregoing article the foUowlng worlcB have been consalted
:~SchuiDann, Gaammelte Sclnriften; Liszt, Chopin', Hoatinaky.
Die ijChre der formaten Aathetik; KUater, PapuMrB
rortrSge; La Mara. JtiuHeaUtiAe Stvdien-k5p/e ;
WasielewBlii,
achumann; Welwr. Max v.. C. if. v. Weber; HoiTfnann, SreiOeriana
; Gautder, Siatoire du Btrmantiame ; JV. ZeitMchrift /. Musik,
1834^ : Biehl, CftaraifcterMp/e ; Brockhano, CmviertMiomlexiam
Eokermann, eeaprSche mit aoethej Mendel, LexOtm; Brendel.
OeichitMe dtr MuHk i
Marx, Muetk de» Jfewruehnten Jahrhundertt
KoatUn, GeKhtchu der Hunk; Weitzmann, eeacAichte det ClaviertpidM
Beioaniann, Von Bach biM Wagner ; Lettera from Dr. Zopff
•
and Dr. Lndwig. See alao Prof. F. Nlecka's article on Roraanticiam,
In Mueical Timet, Decemher 1899 ; ToL vL ol the Oxford niAm-y of
MuHc (The Romantic Period), by E. Dannreuther; The Quarteriy
Beview for October 19iW, pp. 387-74; and Daniel Gregory Mason's
From Qrieg to Brdhml, and The Bomantic Componers.
VOL. IV
at Hamburg, and died in Dec. 14, 1814, living
long enough to play a concerto for two
bassoons with his youngest son Anton, born
1777. His eldest son, Beknhakd, born Kov.
12, 1767, at Dinklage, is justly regarded as
head of the school of German violoncellists.
When only fourteen he attracted considerable
attention in Paris during a visit there with his
father ; from 1790 to 1793 he was in the band
of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn, at the same
time with Ferdinand Ries, Eeicha, and the two
Beethovens. During the French invasion he
occupied himself in a professional tour in Italy,
Spain, and Portugal, and was well received,
especially in Madrid, where Ferdinand VII.
accompanied him on the violin. His cousin
Andreas went with him, and on their return
through Vienna late in 1796, they gave a
concert at which Beethoven played (Thayer,
ii. 16). After his return Bernhard married
Catherine Eamcke at Hamburg. From 1801
to 1803 he was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire,
and we next find him in the King's
band at Berlin. Spohr (AiUoi. i. 78) met him
there at the end of 1804, and played quartets
with him. Perhaps the most remarkable fact
he mentions is that after one of Beethoven's
early quartets (op. 18) Romberg asked how
Spohr could play 'such absurd stuff' (barockes
Zeug). It is of a piece with the well-known
anecdote of his tearing the copy of the first
Rasoumowsky quartet from the stand and
trampling on it.
The approach of the French forces in 1806
again drove Romberg on the world, and in
1807 he was travelling in South Russia, but
returned to Berlin, and was Court-Capellmeister,
1815-19, when he retired into private life at
Hamburg. [In 18 14/ he visited England,
giving a concert under the patronage of Prince
Blucher and the Hetman of the Cossacks, at
Willis's Rooms, June 27. A. F. H.] In 1822
he went to Vienna, in 1825 to St. Petersburg
and Moscow, to Frankfort in 1836, and in
1839 to London 2 and Paris, where his Method
for the Violoncello (Berlin, Trautwein, 1840)
was adopted by the Conservatoire. He died
at Hamburg, August 13, 1841.
The great importance of B. Romberg both as
composer and executant arises from the fact
that he materially extended the capabilities
of the violoncello. His celebrated concertos
complete
may be said to contain implicitly a
theory of violoncello playing, and there are
few passages known to modem players the
type of which may not be found there. Probably
no better knowledge of the finger-board
could be gained than by studying these concertos.
Although they are now seldom played
in public, being somewhat too old-fashioned
3 He does not aeem to have played on this occasion ; but a slight
trace of his presence is perhaps discoverable in an overtnre of bia
nephew's, which closes the Fbjlhaiiuonfo progranune of June l7*