Out of all the major artistic movements in the past five hundred years, none have seemed to stick to the cultural consciousness as firmly as Romanticism. Even in the aftermath of World War I, when Romanticism seemed like a naïve product of a less complicated time, the presence of Romanticism was still strongly felt in the medium of film (the so-called "Golden Age" of Hollywood).

There seems to be an innately human connection to the unbridled release of emotions—to not only be happy, or sad, or angry, or content, but to feel and convey those emotions in the strongest terms artistically available. Romanticism also offered a view of the world that was rosy and unexplored, where the familiar was nostalgic while the new was mysterious and awe-inspiring. 

Freedom and nationalism (as a result of newfound freedom stemming from the 1848 Revolutions) were also among the sweeping cultural developments towards the middle of the 19th century. Music obeyed the artists intentions, not vice-versa. Classical forms were all well and good, but if they failed to capture an artist's emotions, then they could be modified or done away with completely. 

However, the strengths of Romanticism eventually became its downfall. The taste of artistic freedom for a century led to excess; the unchecked increase in expression led to sentimentality. After a horrific global event like the Great War, the straightforward emotions of Romanticism became too simplistic and insufficient to convey the complex nature of humanity. The world by then was, for the most part, fully explored and charted. Exoticism no longer captured the imagination like it had before. 

But even today, we still tend gravitate towards the Romantics. Why? Perhaps, in a modern era of increasing democracy and individual rights, we are attracted by the artists who first broke free from the chains of their aristocratic masters. We like the idea of not being bound to a certain set of rules. We are still emotionally affected by the sweeping melodies and lush harmonies of Romantic music, even if they are unable to reflect the realities of the modern era. 

A movement as massive and long-spanning as Romanticism cannot be put into boxes, but for pedagogical sake I will try to do exactly that. In this website, I've grouped Romanticism into three major movements (four if you count Proto-Romanticism) in order to give a general sense of the birth, progression, climax, and death of one of the major artistic eras in musical history. I won't pretend that such a complex period of history can be defined by exact temporal ranges, but it's the best that I can do with what I've got.  

—Caleb Hu

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You can also contact me by email: chu42t@gmail.com