Title: Romantic music : sound and syntax /
Authors: Ratner, Leonard G.
Publisher: Schirmer Books ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Music History and criticism; Romanticism in music; Musical analysis.
Abstract: Profound changes took place in musical sound throughout the nineteenth century. An expanded range of sound in many instruments - including the piano - a new richness of timbre, and a variety of expressive sound effects opened new options for composers. Many, such as Hector Berlioz and Gustav Mahler, used the possibilities of new sounds as a strategy of composition, regarding innovative sounds as important values in their own right. For listeners, too, colorful sound was an immediate clue to the expressive content of a composition. Pushing against the perimeters of Classic syntax to form new Romantic musical styles, composers simultaneously retained the entire traditional apparatus of Classic music, including melodic construction, phrase and period structures, and harmonic progressions, while adding to it a new quality of sound that enriched the traditional possibilities of the music.^