Romantic_Essay

Bull, 1 Brandon Bull Hum 2234 section number 4642 Professor Gaustad 6/10/09 Romantic Essay # 2 The era of Romanticism took place from the late 18th century to the late 19th century. During this period came the industrial revolution along with the imperialism movement especially in France, Britain, and the United States. Fascination with the unknown, fascination with the remote, love of nature, a revolutionary spirit, and art for art’s sake and individualism are just some of the characteristics that define romanticism. Emotions and dynamics, and beauty are what most of the literary works, art works, and musical compositions focused on during this romantic period. Three works that stand out in this era are: Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, Constable’s “The Haywain” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 6 in F Major, op. 68. William Wordsworth was born in the Lake District of England in 1770 where he began his career as a nature poet. He was the leader of English Romanticism and the inventor of lyrical ballads with his friend Samuel Tyler Coleridge. Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, which takes its origin “from emotion recollected in tranquility.” (Fiero 3). His most famous work was “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.” In this poem he describes deep personal feelings of a place he once visited when he was young. Bull, 2 This place was a medieval monastery located on the banks of the Wye River in southwest England. Here he was able to see the grotesque ruins of this monastery, but also the beauty of how it once looked with trees howling in the background, vines hanging off the massive structure, and the beautiful well lit sky in the background. As you read his poem and image the picture he makes, it feels as if you are there and you feel complete happiness for a moment. You can see the clouds moving briskly across the sky, you can hear the beautiful song birds in the background and feel the warm summer’s air as you sit in his position and just relax and look in awe. In these poems he established three key motifs of 19th century romanticism: the redemptive power of nature, the idea of nature’s sympathy with humankind, and the view that one who is close to nature is close to God. John Constable born in 1776 was England’s leading landscape artist throughout the romantic era. Like Wordsworth he liked to paint old memories and real life events. He worked directly from nature and became best known for his stippling, bits of red and his creation of clouds in the sky. One of his most famous works was “The Haywain” where he captured nature at its finest. In this piece, Constable makes it look like a photograph with just his use of oil paint. It is truly miraculous how talented this man was. He was able to add sublimity to his painting through the lighting in the sky and the beautiful fields and meadows in the distance. He also added a grotesque quality in the sky with his brilliant use of dark shading for some clouds and the murky water in front of the house. He also gave the horses red saddles which draws the eye of the onlooker right towards the center of the painting. He gives his works a relaxing and mellow feeling which is unbelievable in that time period to be able to evoke feelings through use Bull, 3 of oil paints. He was one of the most phenomenal and influential artists of the romantic era, and will be admired for centuries to come. Ludwig Van Beethoven born in 1770 was known as one of the greatest composers of all time, maybe only behind Mozart some would say. He bridged between the classical and romantic period but later became known as the “Prophet of the Romantic period” He was the first composer to ever use elaborate codas and have no pauses between movements. One of his best works as a composer was “Symphony No.6 in F Major, op.68.” In this work he added a fifth movement; he imitated nature sounds and made it very “Pastoral”. Beethoven used huge orchestras, much bigger than Haydn and Mozart to increase the range of dynamics in his works. In this symphony, you can clearly hear when a huge storm is coming and the aftermath and peacefulness once the storm has passed. You can easily distinguish when he is insinuating animal sounds and can also tell when he is angry or happy. The symphony was labeled at its first performance with the title "Recollections of Country Life". (Wikipedia) What is even more remarkable about this symphony is that he couldn’t rehearse it to himself because he was almost completely deaf by the time he finished this piece. Beethoven brought a lot of emotion to all his works, especially this one which is the most romantic because of his love for nature. Beethoven is a composer that will never be matched in success as he laid the groundwork for later composers to come. Romanticism was a beautiful era full of love, sadness, happiness and the full range of emotions. People felt they were able to get closer to God during this period just simply by experiencing nature. If only people today could take some time to truly enjoy their lives and Bull, 4 experience nature instead of being so angry, uptight and job oriented. Romanticism displayed a love of nature, a love of the supernatural, a huge range of emotions and much more. This was a wonderful period of history and we can hope people can take something from this period and instill it in their lives. This era was best portrayed through the great works of Wordsworth with his “Tintern Abbey”, Constable with “The Haywain” and Beethoven with his “Symphony No.6 in F Major, op.68.” Word Count: 1006 Bull, 5 Works Cited Wikipedia. 9 June. 2009. 9 June 2009. Fiero, Gloria. The Humanistic Tradition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.