Hey penni -- I think our disagreement stems somewhat from your understanding of the term Romanticism vs mine. I read this in statements such as, "Unlike the Romantics, he never abrogates what he saw as his responsibility to the music." The logical conclusion is that you believe that the Romantics commonly abrogate their responsibility to the music in pursuit of emotional effect. I don't think this takes place until you get to the very end of the Romantic period where it was basically self destructing and wallowing in emotional excess (some late works of Bruckner and Mahler come to mind, although there are those who would disagree with me). For the best of Romanticism in music, i.e., Brahms, Beethoven (!!), Grieg, early Mahler etc. I believe that form, equilibrium and proportion are all certainly to be found, only their definitions loosen somewhat and particularly they are counterbalanced by a vast expansion of the modes of expression available to the orchestra (particularly removing the strictures of dynamic range and rigorous consistency of tempo within movements which are characteristic of Classical symphonies, for example).
To take another example, the quantum leap from Classical to Romantic may also be found in comparison of, say, Mozart's piano Sonata Alla Turka with Beethoven's Appassionata or Hammerklavier. You are correct in that both App and Hamm show rigorous adherence to form in addition to their titanic modes of expression; however, I would argue that for example, the sonatas of Schubert and Brahms show the same rigorous adherence. |
