Influence from non-musical sources
One of the controversies that raged through the Romantic era in music was the relationship of music to some external text or source. While music with a point or a program—program music—was common to the 19th century, the 19th century began to see the polarization between formal perfection and external inspiration as a crucial aesthetic issue.
The controversy grew with increasing tension beginning in the 1830's with Hector Berlioz' symphony which had an extensive program text associated with it. The Symphony Fantastique, caused critics and professors to pick up their pens. Most prominent among the detractors was François-Joseph Fétis, a Belgian who was the head of the newly founded Brussels Conservatory, who declared that the work was "not music". Robert Schumann defended the work, but not the program itself, saying that good music would not be hurt by bad titles, but good titles would not save a bad work. It was left to Franz Liszt to defend the idea of extra-musical inspiration.
This rift grew more pronounced, with polemics on both sides. To the believers in "absolute" music, formal perfection rested on the ability to express in music while obey the schematics of previous works, most notably the Sonata Form which were only then being codified. To the adherents of program music, the rhapsodic expression of poetry or other external text was, itself, a form. They argued that to bring the artist's life into his work, the form had to follow the narrative. Both sides pointed back to Beethoven as their inspiration and justification. This rift would become codified by the conflict between followers of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner: Brahms was taken to be the pinnacle of absolute music, without a text or other outside reference, and Wagner the believer in the poetic "stuff" shaping the harmonic and melodic flow of the music.
The forces that brought this controversy about are complex. The rise in importance of Romantic Poetry is certainly one of them, as was the increasing market for songs which could be sung in concert, or played in the home. Another is the changing nature of concerts themselves, as concerts moved from having a wide variety of works, to being more specialized, there was increasing pressure to have instrumental works have a greater expressiveness and specifity.
Examples of extra-musical inspiration include Liszt's Faust and Dante symphonies and his symphonic poems, the Manfred Symphony by Tchaikovsky, Mahler's First Symphony based on the novel Titan and Saens Sans suite Animals Suite, from which the very popular "The Swan" is drawn. Composers such as Schubert would use song melodies in their extended works, and other composers such as Liszt, would transcribe opera arias and songs into purely instrumental works.
One of the controversies that raged through the Romantic era in music was the relationship of music to some external text or source. While music with a point or a program—program music—was common to the 19th century, the 19th century began to see the polarization between formal perfection and external inspiration as a crucial aesthetic issue.
The controversy grew with increasing tension beginning in the 1830's with Hector Berlioz' symphony which had an extensive program text associated with it. The Symphony Fantastique, caused critics and professors to pick up their pens. Most prominent among the detractors was François-Joseph Fétis, a Belgian who was the head of the newly founded Brussels Conservatory, who declared that the work was "not music". Robert Schumann defended the work, but not the program itself, saying that good music would not be hurt by bad titles, but good titles would not save a bad work. It was left to Franz Liszt to defend the idea of extra-musical inspiration.
This rift grew more pronounced, with polemics on both sides. To the believers in "absolute" music, formal perfection rested on the ability to express in music while obey the schematics of previous works, most notably the Sonata Form which were only then being codified. To the adherents of program music, the rhapsodic expression of poetry or other external text was, itself, a form. They argued that to bring the artist's life into his work, the form had to follow the narrative. Both sides pointed back to Beethoven as their inspiration and justification. This rift would become codified by the conflict between followers of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner: Brahms was taken to be the pinnacle of absolute music, without a text or other outside reference, and Wagner the believer in the poetic "stuff" shaping the harmonic and melodic flow of the music.
The forces that brought this controversy about are complex. The rise in importance of Romantic Poetry is certainly one of them, as was the increasing market for songs which could be sung in concert, or played in the home. Another is the changing nature of concerts themselves, as concerts moved from having a wide variety of works, to being more specialized, there was increasing pressure to have instrumental works have a greater expressiveness and specifity.
Examples of extra-musical inspiration include Liszt's Faust and Dante symphonies and his symphonic poems, the Manfred Symphony by Tchaikovsky, Mahler's First Symphony based on the novel Titan and Saens Sans suite Animals Suite, from which the very popular "The Swan" is drawn. Composers such as Schubert would use song melodies in their extended works, and other composers such as Liszt, would transcribe opera arias and songs into purely instrumental works.
