Key learning points

1. In the Romantic period, composers often focused on creating dramatic, emotive and highly expressive music.
2. It used complex chromatic harmony and varied textures, timbres and articulation to create vivid musical moods.
3. Many composers wrote programme music, using techniques like leitmotif to tell stories or evoke images through music.
4. The orchestra became larger and more powerful and, as well as symphonies and concertos, tone poems became a key genre.
5. The piano was important, with composers like Chopin exploiting its expressive and virtuosic qualities in various genres.

Keywords

• Romantic period - the period of Western classical music between roughly 1820 and 1910

• Programme music - music that tells a story or creates an image of something

• Chromatic - notes that are from outside the key, creating more complex harmony

• Leitmotif - a short musical idea that represents a character, place or idea

• Virtuosic - music that shows off a performer’s technical skill

Common misconception