Romanticism

I would agree with the ment that music is emotional. It could also be said that music is the most emotional of all arts. However I do not agree that music finds its ultimate style in Romanticism. Many composers, before and after the Romanticism movement, can evoke emotion as well. The Romantic style opened the doors for a broader spectrum of emotional music. It broke the standards of music of the time, allowing composers and musicians to express themselves openly. I do respect the Romantic style for that. While I have my favorites, I would not place one music style over another one. This includes the Romanticism era as well.
Romanticism allowed the composer or artist the freedom to express their emotions. Instead of trying to please the audience, the artist wrote and played music for themselves. Lee Marshall explains:
The only appropriate judge of the work becomes the artists himself because only the artist knows whether the work is true and the audience can only abide by Romanticism’s ‘ first law [which] is the will of the creator.’ (33)
The artist pours themselves into a piece of work, which in turn allows the audience to feel the artist’s emotion more clearly. An example would be Shubert’s “ Death and a Maiden”. This piece of music relates how Shubert feels about his impending death.
What I do like about Romanticism is the close ties this style has to classical music. Shubert, one of my favorite composers, stuck toward a classical style. Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann also used this approach. The Romanticism musicians:
continued to write symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and operas, forms that were all popular with classical composers. They also kept the basic rules for these forms, as well as keeping the rules of rhythm, melody, harmony, harmonic progression, tuning, and performance practice that were established in (or before) the Classical period. (Schmidt-Jones)
The only difference was the liberties made by each artist. Some took great liberties, others were more conservative.
The Romanticism era did create a greater emotional experience for the audience. This emotional experience varies from audience member to audience member. Some audience members might feel elated by Beethoven’s “ Furelise”, while others might find the piece tiring. Schubert’s “ Death and a Maiden” might make an audience member sad, angry, or frustrated. The individual music makes different people feel different things. That is the uniqueness of the Romanticism style. It makes everyone have different emotions. In the end, the artist wrote the piece to feel a certain emotion themselves. The audience was a second thought. Their emotions are secondary to the artists’ emotions. This allows the artist to be more creative, delving into their deepest emotions.
The Romanticism style cannot be deemed the best due to the influence this style has had on the music world. Without Romanticism, George Lucas’ “ Star Wars” theme would never exist. “ Fantasia” would never be created as a visual expression of the Romanticism theme. It would be unfair to compare two great masterpieces, just like it would be unfair to deem Romanticism the most emotive.
Music is the most emotional of all arts. The Romanticism started to open up the emotional side of music, but I cannot agree that music finds its ultimate style in Romanticism. Many other musicians not from this period have created emotional music. Romanticism did influence the music after that era. Without the Romanticism era music would not be where it is today.

Works Cited
Marshall, Lee. Bootlegging: Romanticism and Copyright in the Music Industry. New
York: Sage, 2005.
Schmidt-Jones, Catherine. The Music of the Romantic Era. Connexions. 19 Sep. 2008
.