*2.1.1. Romantic musical genres*

Romantic musical genres are akin to the principles of architecture, of generous proportions, with innovative solutions which stir troublesome affects and images.

The lied—centuries old emanation of the German culture, embodying various forms, which have unveiled the lapse of time and determined a constantly different processing of the sound material. It is the genre corresponding to the cultural dimension of the Middle Ages, fitting exactly the pattern of a Romantic genre which feeds on the Gothic era. The poetic images unveiled by the sensitive verses, with frequent temporal tracings in the past, create the expressive Romantic background. We refer to the verses of the poets J.W. Goethe, F. von Schiller, J.P. Richter, Novalis and F. Holderlin. Yet the music is like the verses, with a surplus of vibration which provides ineffable suggestions of magic idealism. Following the trace of the Romantic lied of the nineteenth century, the more than 600 lieder of Franz Schubert (the cycles The Beautiful Miller Girl, Lady of the Lake, Winter Journey, Swan Song) allow us the under‐ standing of an animated style, with interval volutes, with unexpected contrasts, with rhythmic cascades, with involvements of the piano in the spirit of the convincing vocality and dynamic endings of voice and backing.

Parliament (1839–1888) and Tower Bridge (1886–1894) were both built in Neo-gothic style and

Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies (ICIS 2016) - Interdisciplinarity and Creativity

The technique would be the foundation of the architectural aesthetic ambiance. The reality of the end of eighteenth century shall be guarded by a novel repertoire, that of the mechanic, physics and mathematical inventics. The discoveries of Isaac Newton (1687), Robert Hook (1687) and James Watt (1782) are decisive. The cognitive transformation from the field of exact sciences shall support that from the field of arts, each following an alchemical track, worthy

In music, the Romanticism signifies mind-blowing universe dominated by fantasy, imagina‐ tion, feelings, liberty, anxiety, national history, specific folklore, conflict and retreat towards mythical themes. The return to the distant past of the Middle Ages, at the expense and to the discrediting of the Classicism is a global approach in all arts. Musical languages, conditioned by the expressive implications and Romantic impulses, have responded to some social needs, themselves conditioned by the emancipation of thought, caused by the elevation of human consciousness. The early Romanticism, the first blossoming of national schools, Post-roman‐ ticism, are just as many dimensions generated by the thought of creators determined to alter the symmetry and formal balance of classical creations, of tonal functions which imprint a sound much too balanced, much too delicate for the passionate experience of the Romantic

The melody, conspicuous in the first part of the orientation, is increasingly evanescent towards the Post-romanticism. The chromatic insertions would alter its recognized melodiousness, translating a dynamic melodic track, with interval leaps which bring about restlessness, disturbances and even anxieties generating sound intermittences into the level of conscious‐ ness. The harmony, in its expressiveness, through the increasingly atypical, indefinite succes‐ sions, opposable to Classicist rules, joins the characteristics of the melody, so conspicuous,

Both of them combined would shape the vibrant Romantic sound images. The timbrality is the bold renewal of Romanticism, in the sense of its activation after a few centuries of instrumen‐ talism, in which composers have neglected this quality of sound. In Romanticism, melody, harmony and timbrality would be sustained, being integrated into the aesthetic and philo‐

Romantic musical genres are akin to the principles of architecture, of generous proportions,

The lied—centuries old emanation of the German culture, embodying various forms, which have unveiled the lapse of time and determined a constantly different processing of the sound material. It is the genre corresponding to the cultural dimension of the Middle Ages, fitting exactly the pattern of a Romantic genre which feeds on the Gothic era. The poetic images unveiled by the sensitive verses, with frequent temporal tracings in the past, create the expressive Romantic background. We refer to the verses of the poets J.W. Goethe, F. von

with innovative solutions which stir troublesome affects and images.

became some of the landmarks of London and the nation.

of the leap of an aesthetic orientation.

in the Knowledge Society

176

hero, of a predictable timbrality.

sophical principles of the time.

*2.1.1. Romantic musical genres*

clear and transparent in the past aesthetics.

Franz Schubert was followed by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann (A Woman's Love), Franz Liszt with a creation of more than 70 lieder, Richard Wagner with his love story Wesendonk-Lieder and Johannes Brahms with the 11 vibrant lieder volumes.

Post-romanticism is a distinctive school of composition, through the initiatives of its repre‐ sentatives to explore the innovative timbral combinations by Hugo Wolf (Morike-Lieder) or by replacing piano with orchestra by Gustav Mahler (Songs of the Death of Children) or to exceed the limits of the intonational tonal system in the creation of Arnold Schonberg (Gurre-Lieder), Alban Berg (Altenberglieder) and Richard Strauss (Last Four Lieder).

The miniaturist genres of Romanticism are clear-cut playing which creates unity in diversity, in the animated landscape. The small size of studies, waltzes, barcarolles, nocturnes, mazurkas, impromptus, scherzos, ballads, in contrast to the size of symphonic works, are manifestations of instrumental virtuosities which evolve in parallel to the grandiose sounds, with multiplied timbrality and the commanding orchestral dynamics. Composers such as N. Paganini, F. Chopin, F. Schubert, F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, R. Schumann, J. Brahms and F. Liszt have built a literature of considerable musical imagination.

The symphonic genre. The Romantic symphony has perpetuated in the first part of Romanti‐ cism, though its string of creators of the time, F. Schubert, F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, R. Schumann, J. Brahms and F. Liszt, a range of elements which emphasized the classical form of the genre, through the intonational system and architecture. Then, the ideological changes have reconfigured the genre and the programmatic music has exceeded tradition, allowing the prosody to lead the musical thought. H. Berlioz (Fantastic Symphony) and F. Liszt (Faust, Dante) are composers who would evoke the torment and conflicting ideas of the Romantic hero through the size of the sections, timbral combinations and ardent dynamics which uncovers the literary libretto the works are based upon. Then, the last part of the Romantic symphonism, similar to the constant struggle of the creator for the fulfilment of ideals, many times defeated and abandoned, on the verge of the fantastic, grotesque and tragic: G. Mahler, A. Bruckner and C. Franck.

The pragmatism is a tendency of the Romanticism generated by the polyvalent comprehension of this orientation and music is joined by literature in a new vision, differently than in vocal music. A literary theme, written by the composer or undertaken, is the resistance structure of the musical work on which the musical grid is woven. The genres subjected to such transfor‐ mation can be small or large in size, depending on the creator's inspiration: sonata, quartet, concerto and symphony. An illustrious work in music history, the Fantastic Symphony by H.

Berlioz (1830) makes up an incipit of this tendency. It was followed throughout the twentieth century by other creations adjusted to other genres, original architectures of Romanticism.

The symphonic poem is the most important among those works and What is Heard on the Mountain (1849) by F. Liszt, after V. Hugo, became the genre's pattern. It has an obvious logic, being designed for symphony orchestra in an extensive display, in a single part which may include several sections, shaped, however, after different types of lied, sonata and rondo or in composite form. The melodic naturalness and harmonic richness are characteristics of those works which "the composers of Central Europe and Russia would practice in order to praise the native land and its originality, in relation to the established musical powers (Italy, Germany and France)" [7].

Researching the wide range of Romantic genre creation we mention a few important titles: Mazeppa, Preludes, Hungaria by F. Liszt, Night on the Bald Mountain by M. Musorgski, the cycle My Fatherland by B. Smetana, The Sorcerer's Wizzard Apprentice by P. Dukas, The Sea by C. Debussy, Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by R. Strauss, etc.

The Romantic Opera becomes the Romantic drama, the national opera. The genre of lyrical theatre remains prominent in the creation of Romantic composers through its complexity and the complementarity of aspects with regards to music, literature, scenography, choreography and makeup. This genre, designed according to the Baroque pattern, includes the overture, two–three or four acts, soloist moments, choral and ensemble moments with soloists, choir and orchestra, follows the stylistic adjusted on the modulating and transforming stages of this orientation: early Romanticism, middle Romanticism, the first blossoming of national schools and late Romanticism. Thus, we shall gradually emphasize the emergence of several interpre‐ tation styles in this composite orientation, the musical Romanticism. The large concerto range is the pivot of the show, the extension of that of Baroque Aria da Capo. The recitative, constant in the first period, would undertake alterations, being amplified from secco to espressivo recitative, when the orchestral development would achieve an additional stage.

The first stage, that of the seraphic and translucid Carl Maria von Weber (Freischütz, Eur‐ yanthe, Oberon), amplifies the genre of German lied through orchestration and vocality. In Italy of the same period, the triad G. Rossini, V. Bellini and G. Donizetti makes proof of the craftsmanship of bel canto, the technique of vocal agility and virtuosity, which overshadows the importance of text through cavalcades. A few achievements of the time become unique moments, a combination between ideal, expressiveness, virtuosity, cheerfulness and lyrism: The Barber of Seville, Cinderella (G. Rossini), The Elixir of Love, The Daughter of The Regiment (G. Donizetti), Norma, The Puritans (V. Bellini). The era of G. Verdi would mean engaging on a track of musicality, lyrism, of high-pitched female and male voices, of the subtle capitaliza‐ tion of Italic melody and rhythm. It was the undertaking of another stage that of the vocality sustained by the presence of dramatic timbre.

"The dramatic soprano—whose richly nuanced Italian type is entirely the result of the Romantic theatre—dominates the famous musical scores, from Norma by Bellini to Leonora from The Power of Destiny, Aida or Desdemona from Othello by Verdi" [7]. The deliberate passion of the characters, the vocal generosity, the rhetoric of tragic intent, the dramatic peaks, sustained by a melodic musicality on harmonic unfolding are attributed to this period.

Then, the original fantasy of the folk melody would be instilled into the meaningful cultivated musical language, fulfilling the works of the Eastern European lyrical theatre through melodic freshness and rhythmic vitality. The modal principle would support the melodic expressive‐ ness, reconfiguring the harmonic relations. We encounter an original aura in the Russian opera creation where "the signs of harmonic-melodic innovation orientated on the track of modalism are much more obvious" [7]. Grigore Constantinescu suggests to us that there are two directions of modal thought which converge with the cultivated music through the penetration of Oriental elements (Glinka – Ruslan and Ludmila, Rimsky-Korsakov – Sadko, Borodin – Prince Igor) and Russian essence in the Slavic songs and dances (S. Musorgski – Boris Godunov, Hovanscina). The choir, which signifies the people, is invested with attitudes and affects, it would revitalize the genre, bestowing it with authenticity and picturesque.

In the last mentioned period, the main element of the musical language, the melody, would have a track oriented towards the dissolution of expressiveness for the purpose of harmonic and timbral configurations. The avalanche of chromatic scales which would construct the melodic notes foreign of tonal chords, the uncommon modulations towards remote tonalities would shape unexpected harmonic colours. The harmonic-melodic substance changes with the Wagnerian creation, leaving the lyrical and inspired limits becoming more incandescent and more nonconformist. The voices, imprints of human typology, are distinguished through dramatism as the extreme pitches of all types of voices are increasingly preferred. Thus, a particularized stylistic of the Wagnerian interpretation outlines through rhetoric unusual interval leaps and abundant chromatic scales unveil the passionate experiences of legendary heroes: Tristan and Isolde, Lohengrin, The Ring of the Nibelung (Valkyrie, Siegfried), Parsifal. The orchestral background is under permanent watch with the same volcanic outbursts, translated into twisted harmonies and grandiose sound.

Then, the verismo delights us with the vocal maturity of a late Romanticism. The wide unfolding of the musical moments, with minimal pauses, the symphonization of the opera work and instrumentalization of voices because of the psychological profiles anchored in the ruthless social-cultural context describe a new stage in the history of the lyrical theatre. R. Leoncavallo (Pagliacci), P. Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana) and G. Puccini (Tosca, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, Turandot) emphasize the novelty of harmonic language prefigured from R. Wagner.

A century of lyrical theatre, almost with the genre's most important works, depicts us the engaging on a different orbit which combines different stylistics, deep, poetical vocality, sustained and capitalized by the orchestra, through the gradual emphasizing of the elements: melody, timbrality, agogics and rhythm.
