The Romantic Era in music is defined as the period in European classical music from around 1803, when Beethoven wrote his Eroica Symphony to around the end of the 19th century.
The Romantic period was preceded by the classical period, and was followed by the modernist period
Romantic music is related to romanticism in literature, visual arts, and philosophy Romantic music struggled to increase emotional expression and power to describe these deeper truths, while preserving or even extending the formal structures from the classical period.
Early Romantic (1800-1850)
By the second decade of the 19th century, the shift towards new sources of musical inspiration, along with an increasing chromaticism in melody and more expressive harmony, became a palpable stylistic shift. A new generation of composers emerged in post-Napoleonic Europe, among whom were Beethoven, Ludwg Spohr, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. Beethoven was extremely influential as among the first composers to work freelance rather than being employed full-time by a royal or ecclesiastic patron. The chromatic melodies of Muzio Clementi and the stirring operatic works of Rossini, Cherubini and Méhul, also had an influence. The setting of folk poetry and songs for voice and piano, to serve a growing market of middle-class homes where private music-making was becoming an essential part of domestic life, was also becoming an important source of income for composers. Works of this group of early Romantics include the song cycles and later symphonies of Franz Schubert, and the operas of Weber, particularly Oberon, Der Freischütz and Euryanthe. Schubert's work found limited contemporary audiences, and only gradually had a wider impact. In contrast, the compositions of John Field quickly became well-known, partly because he had a gift for creating small "characteristic" piano forms and dances. Early Romantic composers of a slightly later generation included Fran Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, and Hector Berlioz. All were born in the 19th century, and produced works of lasting value early in their careers. Virtuoso concerts ) became immensely popular. This phenomenon was pioneered by Niccolò Paganini, the famous violin virtuoso.The virtuoso piano recital became particularly popular, and often included improvisations on popular themes, and the performance of shorter compositions as well as longer works such as the sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart. During the late 1830s and 1840s, music of Romantic expression became generally accepted, even expected.The music of Robert Schumann, Giacomo Meyerbeer and the young Giuseppe Verdi continued the trends. Also in the 1830s and 1840s Richard Wagner produced his first successful operas.
Late Romantic Era (1850-1900)
During this period, some composers created styles and forms associated with their national folk cultures. The notion that there were "German" and "Italian" styles had long been established in writing on music, but the late 19th century saw the rise of a nationalist Russian style (Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Borodin), and also Czech, Finnish and French nationalist styles of composition. Some composers were expressly nationalistic in their objectives, seeking to rediscover their country's national identity in the face of occupation or oppression, as did for example the Bohemians Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, and the Finn Jean Sibelius
