Defining works of Proto-Romanticism

(as well as links to their recordings, because listening to a piece will explain it better than any description can)

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.3, “Eroica”  (1804)

...The greatest, most original, most artistic and, at the same time, most interesting of all symphonies.

—Journal des Luxus und der Moden

A new Beethoven Symphony in E b is for the most part so shrill and complicated that only those who worship the failings and merits of this composer with equal fire, which at times borders on the ridiculous, could find pleasure in it. 

—Berlinische musikalische Zeitung

Beethoven wrote this symphony to convey his admiration for Napoleon, which he later revoked upon Napoleon's ascension to the throne. Massive in scale, novel in form, and unprecedented in its elevation of the artist, the Eroica Symphony is rightfully the first Proto-Romantic symphony and one of the first works aimed at conveying the beliefs of the composer rather than satisfying the audience. Initial reception was divided, with some criticizing its length and "strangeness", but no one could deny its originality.

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.23, “Appassionata” (1805)

...He has once again let loose many evil spirits, such as are already familiar from other grand sonatas of his.

—Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung

The grimness and violence of this sonata are only interrupted by a serene set of theme and variations hardly based on a theme at all; some critics found this work incomprehensible and disturbing. The sheer passion and unusually thick textures are the early hallmarks of a Romantic sonata. 

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Violin Concerto (1806)

A colossus beyond the grasp of most mortals, with his totally uncompromising power, his unsensual and uningratiating way with music as with people.

  —Yehudi Menuhin

This lengthy and serene concerto is the first of the great German violin concerti and elevated the concerto from a virtuoso’s pulpit to that of a legitimately artist-first genre. Like many of Beethoven's most innovative compositions, its size and originality hindered its popularity. Today, it is one of the most oft-recorded violin concertos.  

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.6 "Pastoral" (1808)

Another landmark in Beethoven's compositional literature; the Pastoral symphony is his first large-scale work to be explicitly programmatic. Its musically innovative landscape includes a shepherd's pipe, streams flowing, a thunderstorm, and the songs of several birds (nightingale, quail, and oboe, as Beethoven helpfully points out). It was premiered in a massive (and poorly executed) concert containing the premieres of three other major Beethoven works: the Fourth Concerto, the Choral Fantasy, and the Fifth Symphony.

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.5, “Emperor” (1809)

In the same “heroic” vein as his Eroica, the Emperor concerto expands the language of both the pianist and the orchestra. In this massive work, Beethoven introduces  a number of novel textures that become a mainstay of Romantic concerti, such as the unison octaves in the first movement. 

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John Field - Nocturnes (1812-1836)

Rather than being significant in terms of harmonic or melodic content, Field nevertheless strikes an important nerve with the first in a series of character pieces which would be hugely influential on Chopin and other Romantic composers for the piano. 

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Ludwig van Beethoven -  An die ferne Geliebte (1816)

The first true cycle of lieder, a genre which would become a mainstay of Romanticism. This song cycle follows the mainstream popularity of Romantic poetry, beginning with the Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge. It sets to music the poetry of Alois Jeitteles in six songs.

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Niccolò Paganini - 24 Caprices for Violin (1817)

It would take a book to enumerate all the new effects that Paganini has found in his works, the ingenious devices, the grand and noble forms, the orchestral combinations...

—Hector Berlioz

These 24 studies for the violin contained a range of difficulties so immense that only Paganini at the time had the physical abilities to play them. These works are not particularly significant in terms of harmonic or melodic content, but extremely important as a foundation of Romantic violin technique.  The elevation of the artists as a "hero" was highly influenced by Paganini's tours throughout Europe, where he displayed his technical capabilities developed in these etudes for the violin. 

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.29, “Hammerklavier” (1818)

Beethoven, full of proud self reliance, never writes for the masses; he wishes to be understood and felt, and because of the difficulties which he intentionally creates, only connoisseurs are capable of this… 

—Thalia, German newspaper

Unprecedented in length, scale, symphonicism, dramatic content, and sheer difficulty, the Hammerklavier Sonata elevated the pianist from entertainer to virtually a heroic figure, one who would be tasked with Herculean feats and sacrifice physical and mental powers to overcome near impossibilities. The difficulties and conception of this work are so ahead of its time that no pianist dared to play the work in public until well into Early Romanticism (Franz Liszt gave its public premiere in 1836, although Mendelssohn was said to have performed it in private in 1827). 

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Carl Maria von Weber - Der Freischütz (1821)

The father of all German Romantic operas; previously the genre had been limited to the Singspiel treatments of folklike dramas. The chilling treatment of the supernatural in Der Freischütz and the use of leitmotifs was highly influential on a young Richard Wagner. Von Weber himself was influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann's Undine (1814).

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Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Concerto No. 3 (1822)

Hummel’s mature piano concertos anticipated the gymnastic effects and flashy chromaticism of the Early Romantic concerto.  The piano concerto had already been a genre designed to showcase the abilities of the soloist, but the technical innovations of Hummel brought the virtuoso aspect of piano-writing to a new level. 

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Franz Schubert - Wanderer Fantasy (1822)

The devil may play it! 

                                                  —Franz Schubert

A quasi-sonata in four quasi-movements, the Wanderer Fantasy’s overt virtuosity and dramatic power fascinated the Early Romantics. The work is a significant example of motivic unity throughout all four movements, a concept which many Romantics would try to emulate. Liszt was particularly influenced by the Wanderer Fantasy and would use its cyclical nature in his own large-scale Sonata in B-minor. 

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.32 (1822)

It has pleased Mr. Beethoven to set himself above every rule.

      —Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 

Any number of Beethoven's late works could be selected as forerunners of Romanticism, but it is perhaps his last sonata where Beethoven lays his final stamp on an era. Its two movements alternating violence and serenity, this remarkable work represents a twofold statement on Beethoven’s life and philosophy. This sonata ssentially “killed” the sonata as a vehicle of popular entertainment; many Romantic composers felt that the genre was made sacred by this work.

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Franz Schubert - Die schöne Müllerin (1823)

What an inexhaustible wealth of melodic invention we find in this composer whose career was cut short at such an untimely early age! What lavish imagination and sharply delineated originality!

—Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

While Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte was the first true Lieder cycle, it is Schubert’s seminal Die schöne Müllerin which cemented the song cycle as a lasting and important genre. It is the first of two Schubert song cycles (the other being Winterreise) that are considered pinnacles of the lied genre.

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.9 (1824)

The reviewer now sits coolly at his writing desk, but this moment will remain unforgettable for him; here art and truth celebrate their most brilliant triumph, and one could rightfully say: non plus ultra!—Who could succeed in surpassing this unnameable point?

—Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung

Beethoven, whose last grand symphony with choruses...even seems to hint at the ominous culmination and turning point of this area of tone poetry.

  —Caecilia, German newspaper

So broad in length, massive in scale, unusual in instrumentation (singers in a symphony?), and universal in its themes that Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 transcends all genres and, like certain works of Bach and Mozart before it, simply belongs as a statement of humankind. Unusually for such an innovative Beethoven work, the premiere was received with rapturous applause—perhaps a sign of a changing zeitgeist. 

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Ludwig van Beethoven - Große Fuge (1825)

...An absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever. 

—Igor Stravinsky 

Beethoven’s Große Fuge was so forward-thinking in its dissonance, chromaticism, and difficulty of performance that it would not even receive mainstream acceptance until well into the Romantic era. In fact, the work would not be performed in public after Beethoven’s death until 1853. Rather than being only proto-Romantic, the Große Fuge can even be considered to be proto-Modernist. 

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Franz Schubert - Symphony No.9 "Great" (1826)

And the heavenly length of the symphony, like a thick novel in four volumes, perhaps by Jean Paul, who also never wanted to end, and for the best of reasons—in order to allow the reader to continue creating for himself.

—Robert Schumann

The "Great" Symphony in C major is Schubert's final symphony and his largest, at around an hour of runtime. While it cannot be said to have been influential on the Early Romantics (it was not published until 1849), this work nevertheless anticipates many of the symphonic ideas of the Romantic Era. The work was revived by the efforts of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, who were both amazed by the work's length and richness.

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Vincenzo Bellini - Il pirata (1827)

...Long, long, long melodies such as no one before had written. 

                                            —Giuseppe Verdi

Bellini’s first major opera and one that laid the foundation for the long melodic lines so prevalent in Romanticism. Wagner’s early operas are particularly influenced by this, as well as the melodies seen in Chopin and Liszt.  Bellini himself was unmoved by Classical operas, much preferring "Romanticism and exaggeration... unnatural meetings in forests, among graves, tombs and the like" (the complaint of the librettist Luigi Torrigiani). 

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Franz Schubert - Piano Sonatas D.958, 959, 960 (1828)

Schubert’s last three sonatas were written months before his death. While they lack the sheer innovation of Beethoven’s final sonatas, they still develop unique features including a cyclical formal and tonal design, swift changes in harmony, and chamber music textures. While these works weren’t published until 1839 (and posthumously dedicated to Robert Schumann), they have been admired since for their unusual intimacy and extreme depth of expression.

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Why and how it ended

The Classical era and Proto-Romanticism ended in 1828 due to several major events:

• The death of Schubert (the primary reason for historians placing the end of the Classical era in 1828).

• The birth of the grand opera: Auber’s La muette de Portici.

• Niccolo Paganini tours Europe in 1828 and inspires the new generation of composers in his unparalleled feats of virtuosity.

Other events around this time that signified the end of the old period and the start of a new period:

• Rapid developments in the piano industry during the Industrial Revolution; improvements in keyboard range, dynamic contrast, sonority, and sustain.

• The death of Beethoven in 1827

• Influenced by the solo success of Paganini, Ignaz Moscheles and Franz Liszt usher in the development of the “piano recital”—concerts given solely to exhibit solo piano music. This further elevated the idea of the artist as the heroic figure.

• The stylistic maturation of the new generation of composers—Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner are all born between 1809 and 1813 and begin composing major works in the 1830s.