Music History 102:
The Late Romantics
By the middle of the nineteenth-century, the cult of the composer as genius, cultural icon, or artistic prophet had become a generally accepted one in European musical culture. These years saw the expansion of
Music History 102:
The Late Romantics
By the middle of the nineteenth-century, the cult of the composer as genius, cultural icon, or artistic prophet had become a generally accepted one in European musical culture. These years saw the expansion of the symphony orchestra, from the thirty or forty players of the previous age to almost a hundred or more; the new conservatories and schools for the training of instrumental musicians led composers to demand an incredible amount of technical virtuosity from every instrumentalist in the execution of their scores; composers pursued even more color and emotion in their music by increased use of dissonance and chromaticism while shedding the constraining discipline of the Classical forms. This was an era of music of much richness, opulence, color, and flamboyance, as ca