The Romantic Period - Composers and How They Changed Music

The Romantic Period, known for its emotional music, lasted from 1815-1910. The music in the Romantic Period differed from the periods before it by adding more passion and expression in the music. Different composers such as Richard Wagner, experimented with new chords such as the Tristan chord. The Tristan chord consits of an augmented fourth, augmented sixth, and an augmented second above the root note. Wanger used this chord in his work Tristan und Isolde. Besides creating new chords, other composers, including Wanger, used the Cyclic form. Cyclic form is a method of composing pieces with multiple movements.
Claude Debussy was another composer who created and experimented with new things. He created the whole-tone and pentatonic scales. The whole-tone is a scales in any key consisting of 7 total notes with the scale raising a whole-step for each new note. This gave a dream-like feeling to the music. The pentatonic scale is a scale in any key consisting of the root, the second, third, fifth, sixth, and the octave. This type of scale, in my opinion, gives a happy-like feeling to the music because there are no half steps in the scale. However, there are minor pentatonic scales that are used from minor scales that can give the music a sad feeling.
One composer in particular who used expression in his music was Hector Berlioz. In one of his most famous works, Symphonie Fanstastique, he used a new idea in music called the idée fixe. This simply means obsession or fixed idea. The idée fixe he used was a simple melody, usually played by a flute or oboe, as a reminder of his beloved. In all movements of the piece, the melody would appear when the lover thought of his beloved. In the next to last movement, March to the Scaffold, the lover is being executed. On his way to the scaffold, you hear minor and major sounds. Minor symbolizing that death is near and major symbolizing that the townspeople are happy he is about to die. Right before he is hung, the executioner takes off the mask and you her the idée fixe. The lover has just realized that he beloved is the one about to kill him. This is just one example of how the music was used to express emotions.
The Romantic Period was a time of great composers and new advances in music. As you have read, many composers created new methods of music and put them into some of their major works. New types of scales and chords revolutionized the music of the time and gave a base for new musical experiments in the future. As a result, many pieces from this era are still very popular today.