Brief Background of the Romantic Era

The Romantic period, 1850s – 1920s, was a time for change and new concepts. Nationalism became an inspiration to the time of the Romantics; the artists had begun to act upon their admiration for their country. This ideology emerged from the influence of wanting to break free from the restrictions of form that was followed in the Classical era during the mid-1800s until the early 1900s. It was a time when people placed a higher value on their feelings rather than their beauty, ranging from despair to anxiety to depression, rather than the simplistic sad and happy emotions. It was thus, then, that composers were impacted by the time’s need for nationalism and resulted in folk-revolved pieces in order to seek respect and dignity of their heritage.

This new era brought about a new sensation – positive and negative feelings were portrayed in the musicality of pieces in contrast to only the technical difficulties of music in previous time periods. The past generations had strict regulations, whereas the Romantic composers had time to dedicate more thought and feeling. In the past, music was a job; in the Romantic, it was for entertainment. With the focus on inner thoughts, movements became more dissonant and chromatic.

Frederic Chopin was a Polish prodigy who began playing the piano at the age of four. Unlike many other virtuosos, however, Chopin was just a pianistic composer throughout his lifetime, strictly using his time to create piano pieces. But it was Shumann who said Chopin went further. His pieces were considered to have “neo-Romanticism” attributes, as can be portrayed in his “Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2.”