Romantism

What's the romantism ?

Romanticism is a cultural movement emerged in the late eighteenth century in England and Germany, and spreading throughout Europe in the nineteenth century, until 1850. It is expressed in literature, painting, sculpture, music and politics. It is characterized by a willingness to explore all possibilities of art to express his feelings : it is a reaction of feeling against reason , exalting mystery and fantasy and seeking escape and delight in the dream, the disease and the sublime, the exotic and the past. Ideal or nightmare of a passionate and melancholy sensibility. Aesthetic and moral values, ideas and new themes soon began to influence other areas, especially painting and music.

What is it about ?

The romantism is opposed to the classicsm, the enlightenment and rationality.

It proclaims the self-glorification, the expression of feelings. It puts the man and the artist before a destiny, unlikely. This dramatic view of humanity is then common to all the arts, the romantics make the reality more expressif, dramatic. According to the philosopher Michael Löwy , the romantic vision is a " self-criticism of reality " that focuses on five main themes: the disillusion of the world, its quantification, mechanization , rationalist abstraction and dissolution of social ties

Romanticism in literature

In the 1760s the Graveyard Poets , particularly Blair and his Elegy of a country churchyard, probe the feelings related to grief, loss and frustration, even horror putrefaction of the bodies, the unseemly emotions.

In 1764, Horace Walpole with his novel The Castle of Otranto, created a new genre: the Gothic novel (The Gothic Novel). Taken over by Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolfe which the Romance of the forest and Italy's been very successful, these black novels exalt the taste for the morbid, terrifying, mystery, much as the uncanny ruins medieval.

With Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published in 1813. Lord Byron knows lightning celebrity. His heroes who drags his disillusioned melancholy across Europe and the East becomes the model of Byronic heroes (archetypal romantic hero)found in its eastern poems: the Corsair, the Giaour, The Bride of Abydos ... his scandalous life and death in 1824 at Missolonghi for the cause of Greek independence, into myth. His poetic and political influence on all European youth is immense: the authors want to write like Byron, revolutionaries want to die for freedom as Byron, described phenomenon of "Byronic".

Romantism in music

In music, the romance takes various forms , giving prominence to the expression of emotion. Many famous composers illustrate in this long period, both instrumental and orchestral music in the lyrical and vocal art.

The fortepiano , replacing the harpsichord, now allows to exploit powerful dynamic contrasts. Similarly , orchestration becomes more daring and sophisticated , especially as some instruments , such as the horn, are modified by instrument makers so as to become more manageable;Throughout the nineteenth century, romantic music will retain its characteristics in continuity. The music began to

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