# An original romantic work in the 20th C.



## ouled nails (Mar 17, 2009)

Can you think of one that really attracts you?

Can we be romantic in the twentieth century?


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## Margaret (Mar 16, 2009)

Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" composed in 1935 - 1936.

"If Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, with the rapt intimacy and romantic passion of its depiction of young love, did not exist, few of his admirers would have felt the need to invent it." -- just a quote from a random site ( http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/1891/op64.html ) I found Googling the date. But it describes the ballet.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

ouled nails said:


> Can we be romantic in the twentieth century?


To keep the focus on music that, sytlistically at least, belongs unabashedly in the Romantic tradition (as opposed to being Romantically influenced, which would widen our net markedly), there is pretty much that whole *Rachmaninoff* catalog, of which Piano Concerto #2, Piano Concerto #3, Symphony #2 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini merit special mention.

By the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, _Richard Strauss_ had finished work on virtually all of his great tone-poems (which places them in the 19th century), but about a decade into the 20th, he wrapped up work on the operatic masterwork _Der Rosenkavalier_...


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## howlingmadhowie (Mar 26, 2009)

there is of course a huge amount of film music that's pretty romantic in style.


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## nickgray (Sep 28, 2008)

Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, um... Elgar... But it's really Rachmaninoff that first comes to mind - the last "true" romantic. It's actually sort of romantic to be the last "true" romantic, I guess


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## hdk132 (Mar 18, 2009)

I don't really think the romantic era ended until 1920. The traits in 20th century music started showing up in some people before romanticism died.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

Chi_town/Philly said:


> To keep the focus on music that, sytlistically at least, belongs unabashedly in the Romantic tradition (as opposed to being Romantically influenced, which would widen our net markedly), there is pretty much that whole *Rachmaninoff* catalog, of which Piano Concerto #2, Piano Concerto #3, Symphony #2 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini merit special mention.
> 
> By the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, _Richard Strauss_ had finished work on virtually all of his great tone-poems (which places them in the 19th century), but about a decade into the 20th, he wrapped up work on the operatic masterwork _Der Rosenkavalier_...


Exactly!!!!! The first name that came to mind was Rachmaninov.. I would add Mahler in there for a few works as well.
Hovhaness has quite a few "romantic" symphonies as well as does David Diamond.

Jim


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## Lang (Sep 30, 2008)

Depends on which definition of romatic you take. The period and style or the content?

But anyway, listen to Schoenberg's _Verklarte Nacht_, which not only is late-Romantic music, but is based on a poem whose subject is highly romantic.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

Lang said:


> Depends on which definition of romatic you take. The period and style or the content?
> 
> But anyway, listen to Schoenberg's _Verklarte Nacht_, which not only is late-Romantic music, but is based on a poem whose subject is highly romantic.


Indeed! I agree. it is one of the few I appreciate of Schoenberg.

Jim


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

howlingmadhowie said:


> there is of course a huge amount of film music that's pretty romantic in style.


I agree.

Miklos Rozsa, composer of music for _Ben Hur _(for which he won an Oscar) also wrote a reasonable amount of concert music. Much of this is influenced by Romanticism, for example the _Hungarian Serenade_(1945), that employs alot Hungarian folkloric material, in similar way to Liszt and especially Kodaly. Rozsa died in 1995.

I think that another composer, Erno Dohnanyi, was also a late romantic (and virtuoso pianist) in the mold of Rachmaninov. Dohnanyi died around 1960.

I suppose there could be a debate about whether composers like this are really Romantic or Neo-Romantic. But that would be complicating matters, I think...


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## ouled nails (Mar 17, 2009)

The distinction between Romantic and neo-Romantic can sometimes be quite noticeable. Howard Hanson composed a symphony which he called "Romantic" and, well, it is written in a traditional Romantic style. To my ears it is quite original too!


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## LvB (Nov 21, 2008)

A few suggestions: Dohnanyi's second piano concerto, composed just after WW2, is highly romantic in all but the chronological sense. Likewise much of Barber's music. There's an Australian composer named Miriam Hyde who, if her two piano concerti, composed in the 1930s, are any indication is quite romantic in the grand manner.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

I just listened ti the Dohnanyi concertos from the Hyperion set. They are indeed a delight and certainly part of the romantic style.

Jim


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## hdk132 (Mar 18, 2009)

I have heard that at present the industry doesn't even want romantic music, they will only publish contemporary stuff. I think the idea nobody wants more Beethoven piano sonatas: they are great but people want something new. Any half decent artist can imitate a Picasso but people want something new.


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## ouled nails (Mar 17, 2009)

Them "people" are mighty powerful!


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## EarlyCuyler (Mar 28, 2009)

Schoenberg's _Gurrelieder_ and Rachmaninoff Symphonies 1,2,3.


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## maestrowick (Feb 23, 2009)

Rachmaninoff definitely! 

I would like to think of myself as one, since I'm surely not a serialist!


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## marinermark (Aug 23, 2008)

Two little-known piano concerti from a VOX "Romantic Piano Concerto" CD: Nikolai Medtner Piano Concerto #3 (1942) and Christian Sinding Concerto in D-flat Major (late 1800s or early 1900s). both very "romantic-sounding."


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## shsherm (Jan 24, 2008)

Don't forget that the 2nd Symphony by Howard Hanson is named "The Romantic" but I don't know if the style is in the Romantic tradition.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

shsherm said:


> Don't forget that the 2nd Symphony by Howard Hanson is named "The Romantic" but I don't know if the style is in the Romantic tradition.


I most certainly would consider it romantic. In fact, i would place his first 2 symphonies in that group and manner. He is another underrated composer from America.

Jim


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