# Are you more into the Baroque or Romantic era?



## DeanClassicalTchaikovsky (May 13, 2014)

Which one do you prefer, and why?


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Baroque now but romantic when younger so I think I blame age


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Baroque.

Prefer the regularity. Baroque music is emotional in a rational way, it doesn't wear it's heart on its sleeve and make a rampant display of its feelings.

That is not to say that Baroque music is staid or old-fashioned. You can look at Biber's Rosary Sonatas - a study in scordatura - or Rebel's Les élémens which embodies his use of complex counter-rhythms and audacious harmonies.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Taggart said:


> Baroque.
> 
> Prefer the regularity. Baroque music is emotional in a rational way, it doesn't wear it's heart on its sleeve and make a rampant display of its feelings.
> 
> That is not to say that Baroque music is staid or old-fashioned. You can look at Biber's Rosary Sonatas - a study in scordatura - or Rebel's Les élémens which embodies his use of complex counter-rhythms and audacious harmonies.


My feelings summed up nicer than I could add them together but my excuse is I'm poorly.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

I like them equally. I also would throw classical period into that three-way tie as well. 

I mean how could you choose between the Brandenburg Concertos and Mendelssohn's violin concerto or something like Les Troyens?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I have always preferred the baroque, just as I've always been drawn to folk music and early music. It's the rhythm mainly, I think.

Also the patterns. I am a person who likes order and structure, paradoxically because any little worry or excitement sends me scudding up to high doh. And on the rare occasions that I really lose my temper, I could put a berserker to shame. So I tend to distrust highly coloured emotions; I get a bit embarrassed with emotional throbbing violins, and always have.

That said, there is a lot of romantic music that I like, and I can be moved or excited by it. In my lesson last week, my teacher - who is a baroque violinist primarily - played for me (without music) Kreisler's Preludium & Allegro, a piece he's teaching to his post-A-level students, which he said has 'blown them away'.






It blew me away too.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I prefer neither. My main listening preferences are the classical period with Haydn in particular and the 20th century with too many composers to mention.

I am coming to the realization that the 20th century had the greatest concentration of high quality music in human history.


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

More into romantic, but most into Bach.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Dustin said:


> I like them equally. I also would throw classical period into that three-way tie as well.
> 
> I mean how could you choose between the Brandenburg Concertos and Mendelssohn's violin concerto or something like Les Troyens?


Yep I prefer them all to 20th Century Music. More into Romanticism and late Classicism as of late.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I like them both for similar reasons. The best composers of the Baroque and the best composers of the Romantic were both interested in expanding the formal and emotional limits of preexisting forms, and therefore both gave rise to so very original music.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I'm more inclined towards Romantic and Modern than Baroque or even Classical. Think of the much wider ranges of emotional, instrumental, technical, improvisational possibilities these later eras brought (Wagner, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, then Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Nielsen, Myaskovsky, Langgaard even). I always thought Wagner's Ring (and even Tristan und Isode) the pinnacle of the potential of music and still do, although Stravinsky had something to so say to that with his Rite of Spring (or Ravel with, say, Daphnis or Bolero). 

But Baroque started the fire, sort to speak.


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Give me romantic music over broke music any day! Baroque music is too plain and dull much of the time. Can't someone add some cymbal crashes to Bach? JUST KIDDING about that last bit - please no hate mail. Still...


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Radames said:


> Give me romantic music over broke music any day! Baroque music is too plain and dull much of the time. *Can't someone add some cymbal crashes to Bach?* JUST KIDDING about that last bit - please no hate mail. Still...


Already been done!


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Too bad Schoenberg didn't stick to orchestrating Bach rather than creating the abomination of music.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Radames said:


> Too bad Schoenberg didn't stick to orchestrating Bach rather than creating the abomination of music.


Careful, if you've already used up the word "abomination" on music you don't like, you might just run out of words strong enough to use on things like mass genocide.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Radames said:


> Too bad Schoenberg didn't stick to orchestrating Bach rather than creating the abomination of music.


Wait, Einaudi is Schoenberg's son? I never knew...


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> Wait, Einaudi is Schoenberg's son? I never knew...


I know, between the fact of his granddad's religion and the shame of granddad's dodecaphonism hanging over his head when growing up, Einaudi went out of his way to hide his true ancestry.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Funny, you've skipped my favored eras with your two named alternate eras.

I prefer renaissance -- late renaissance / classical / modern-contemporary music.

I like (a lot) two baroque composers; Rameau and Handel; , and only a few of the romantics i.e. Schubert, Schumann -- big gap -- and Mahler. Somewhere in the mid-to late romantic era, I think classical music went completely off the rails into realms of the aesthetically hideous and perverse, with Mahler being one great exception: I think the likes of Stravinsky and Schoenberg saved classical music's [email protected]@ from completely going down the tubes.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Another wholly unoriginal comment about music from a listener missing the most basic of listener skillsets. Sigh. I will try not to blame their parents or their society, though one is more than tempted to do so.


I just don't understand why someone would waste the word "abomination" on music they don't like.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I have periods where I prefer one over the other, but I always childishly 'return' to Baroque sooner or later. Right now I am more into Renaissance and Wagner/Bruckner but wait a coulple of weeks and It will probably be Ravel and Brahms turn in my loosely held listening routine.


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## Pysmythe (May 11, 2014)

I love the more obvious mathematical/logical elements in Baroque and always respond very favorably to them, but it's still a fairly close one. It's a little odd, too, though, because I personally tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and pour out my emotions at the drop of a hat... Maybe Baroque music generally provides a way to a more stable emotional element than what I feel in my daily life? 

I'm going to lay down on the couch now, doctor...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

violadude said:


> I just don't understand why someone would waste the word "abomination" on music they don't like.


Yes, "anathema" would be preferred. Well, for music *I* don't like, anyway.


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Aww - someone has deleted my witty reply.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Yes, "anathema" would be preferred. Well, for music *I* don't like, anyway.


I think I heard that, i.e. _The Anathema Variations_ on a program side by side with Elgar's _Engima Variations._


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

PetrB said:


> Funny, you've skipped my favored eras with your two named alternate eras.
> 
> I prefer renaissance -- late renaissance / classical / modern-contemporary music.
> 
> I like (a lot) ca. three baroque composers, and only a few of the romantics i.e. Schubert, Schumann, Mahler. Somewhere in the mid-to late romantic era, I think went completely off the rails into realms of the aesthetically hideous and perverse, with Mahler being one great exception: I think the likes of Stravinsky and Schoenberg saved classical music's [email protected]@ from completely going down the tubes.


No Chopin? Ain't you supposed to be a pianist?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> I think I heard that, i.e. _The Anathema Variations_ on a program side by side with Elgar's _Engima Variations._


A triple bill with _The Enema Variations _might be diverting. Although I hope the action is limited to the stage.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

KenOC said:


> A triple bill with _The Enema Variations _might be diverting. Although I hope the action is limited to the stage.


Too much Molliere!


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Baroque was the era where 'prim and proper' was to the extreme, so it's always seemed like the most 'boxed in' of the bunch. Although it's nice to get away from the emotional sappiness of the Romantics... Can't pick.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ravndal said:


> No Chopin? Ain't you supposed to be a pianist?


I like / admire the _____ out of Chopin, an outrageously modern composer of his time, the music still fantastic.

But I agree with a pianist friend (whose tastes are more for the romantic than mine) who said of Chopin, 
"...much more fun / interesting to play than to listen to."


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I like them both almost equally, but if I had guests over I might be slightly less anxious with baroque somehow. I think it's all the hair pulling and sobbing and bravado of music from Beethoven onward I might find unseemly for mixed company.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Vesuvius said:


> Baroque was the era where 'prim and proper' was to the extreme, so it's always seemed like the most 'boxed in' of the bunch. Although it's nice to get away from the emotional sappiness of the Romantics... Can't pick.


You must have a German-centric understanding of the Baroque, eh? Even so, that Biber guy, and Telemann, weren't all that prim... and Abel - hoo-haw.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Ukko said:


> You must have a German-centric understanding of the Baroque, eh? Even so, that Biber guy, and Telemann, weren't all that prim... and Abel - hoo-haw.


Not sure, that's how I see Baroque. It's tremendously sharp in accents and nearly highfalutin. I still enjoy it, though.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

My favorites are the works of Debussy and Ravel moving forward into the tonal works of 20th century composers. Baroque makes me too nervous with its moto perpetuo rhythms and I cannot stand the serial/atonal stuff.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

ROMANTIC ERA because it has plenty of different instruments giving it a different sounds,also it is free in forms there are string sextets,string quintets & quintets with a woodwinds.The works are much longer also.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

violadude said:


> I just don't understand why someone would waste the word "abomination" on music they don't like.


I think it is due to a long ago mistranslated word, in that context 'abomination' includes shellfish, pork, homosexuality, etc. so why not late romantic chromaticism and serial music as well, eh?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

PetrB said:


> I think it is due to a long ago mistranslated word, in that context 'abomination' includes shellfish, pork, homosexuality, etc. so why not late romantic chromaticism and serial music as well, eh?


Hah. Yeah. When I am pseudo-upset about _any_ statement or action, I may declare (in a loud voice) *Abomination!* Is why I am the life of the party.

And... when the word is not emphasized, it is somehow related to abdomen. I have seem some fine abdomens (mostly in pictures), and consider abomination slanderous.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ukko said:


> Hah. Yeah. When I am pseudo-upset about _any_ statement or action, I may declare (in a loud voice) *Abomination!* Is why I am the life of the party.
> 
> And... when the word is not emphasized, it is somehow related to abdomen. I have seem some fine abdomens (mostly in pictures), and consider abomination slanderous.


Great abdomination = six-pack abs.


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Ukko said:


> Hah. Yeah. When I am pseudo-upset about _any_ statement or action, I may declare (in a loud voice) *Abomination!* Is why I am the life of the party.
> 
> And... when the word is not emphasized, it is somehow related to abdomen. I have seem some fine abdomens (mostly in pictures), and consider abomination slanderous.


This is what I think when I hear the word abominable.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

When I hear the term 'abomination of desolation' in the gospels, I think of the atom bomb...


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

There are some music that are abominations like hip hop/rap & heavy metal.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Funny. Listeners to rap, hip/hop and heavy metal, on their forums, are probably writing about the "abomination" that is classical music.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Funny. Listeners to rap, hip/hop and heavy metal, on their forums, are probably writing about the "abomination" that is classical music.


And rightfully so:


__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

The Romantic Era has always been my favorite period of classical music. I love baroque, but there's just not as wide a variety of the music--there's only so much _basso continuo_ I can take before I'd rather hear a Tchaikovsky symphony. But both styles have their place in my listening.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I used to like Baroque more than Romantic back in mid 2000s (Handel and Vivaldi mostly), but with the influence of Dvorak, Borodin and other Romantic Slavic composers, Romantic Music became my favorite. Then German and Austrian Romantic composers enriched my love for Romantic style.

Baroque is nice and beautiful, but Romantic connects more emotionally to me. Those sadness, joy, anger, revenge, glory etc. emotions.

Classic as middle period is quite interesting too. It even looks more academic than Baroque despites it expresses special atmospheres (can't find a better word) better than Baroque.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> And rightfully so:
> 
> View attachment 42481


That cover is sooooo pathetic. How could anybody approve that for a commercial release?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

hpowders said:


> That cover is sooooo pathetic. How could anybody approve that for a commercial release?


Somebody must think/have thought that it appealed to a market? Or, just possibly, it is related to the historically high Dutch social tolerance index. When a society can accept both Pilgrims and nuovo-orthodox Jews, a creatively decorated fat lady is duck soup.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I have to say Romantic. The only Baroque composer I really adore is Bach, the rest I don't care much fore (Vivaldi's fun, though).
I think it might be an age thing. When I first started listening to classical, I was stuck in the Romantic era. I think because of how outright powerful the music was, and to me, it had the most beautiful melodies. I think a lot of original film scores and video game soundtracks reflect the Romantic era, so this music sounded the most interesting to me, and sounded like a lot of things i liked to watch/play. The older I've gotten, I've gained much more interest in the 20th century and the Classical era. Probably some day, I'll grow to love the Baroque era just as much.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Funny. Listeners to rap, hip/hop and heavy metal, on their forums, are probably writing about the "abomination" that is classical music.


That maybe true but there is plenty of negative materials like songs & raps that are a bad influence on people.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Cosmos said:


> The only Baroque composer I really adore is Bach, the rest I don't care much fore (Vivaldi's fun, though).


What do you think of this?


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Cosmos said:


> I have to say Romantic. The only Baroque composer I really adore is Bach, the rest I don't care much fore (Vivaldi's fun, though).
> I think it might be an age thing. When I first started listening to classical, I was stuck in the Romantic era. I think because of how outright powerful the music was, and to me, it had the most beautiful melodies. I think a lot of original film scores and video game soundtracks reflect the Romantic era, so this music sounded the most interesting to me, and sounded like a lot of things i liked to watch/play. The older I've gotten, _*I've gained much more interest in the 20th century and the Classical era*_. Probably some day, I'll grow to love the Baroque era just as much.


Yea, I've found myself gravitating more towards Classical recently. It's not as structurally bound as Baroque, and not as emotionally indulgent as the Romantics. It has an air of detachment, yet not emotionally dry. It's really a great balance of the two.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> What do you think of this?


It's good. I'm glad it's an opera, so that the singing can distract me from the orchestra. One of the problems with Baroque music for me is that the orchestra sounds too dated. I love Bach, but I can't stand the Brandenburg Concertos.



Vesuvius said:


> Yea, I've found myself gravitating more towards Classical recently. It's not as structurally bound as Baroque, and not as emotionally indulgent as the Romantics. It has an air of detachment, yet not emotionally dry. It's really a great balance of the two.


My transition from hating Mozart to loving him was a great one.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Funny. Listeners to rap, hip/hop and heavy metal, on their forums, are probably writing about the "abomination" that is classical music.


Bombin' what nation, dude?


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Cosmos said:


> My transition from hating Mozart to loving him was a great one.


Haydn was the biggest transition for me. I had an initial appreciation, but it was always sort of nonchalant. Now, it's like a stick of dynamite went off in my head... and I can see clearly what he was doing. A mastermind.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Romanticism, including much early 20th-century stuff, by a slim margin. Without Bach the margin would be wider. I like music in which feeling pushes against the bounds of form (but without sacrificing formal interest!), and I love the freer forms in the Baroque which are often called "Romantic " for that reason. I do love complex structures and intricate polyphony as well, and when Bach combines them with deep and intense expression I feel I'm listening to the ultimate in music. But basically I'm just an emotional guy. Put on Rachmaninov or Sibelius and you may have to dump ice water over my head to bring me back to the cold, cruel world.


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## Cantabile (May 24, 2014)

I could not choose between them. Both have a different underlying aesthetic, different qualities- I love L'Orfeo as much as the Ring Cycle....Bach's B Minor Mass as much as the Berlioz Requiem......


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I am more than fond of music by a great many composers from the Middle Ages through the present... including non-classical music (however we define "classical"). I probably listen to the Baroque and the Romantic (and Post-Romantic/Early Modernist) composers equally considering the wealth of splendid music found in each. I admittedly listen a bit less to Medieval, Renaissance, and Classical-era music... although with the latter I have Mozart, Haydn, Boccherini, and a few other favorites.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I've always been into classical and romantic and 20th century, my listening to Baroque was a distant fourth. That is until recently. In the past few months I've given Baroque more of my time. Still probably fourth, but it's catching up, and more balanced with the other periods.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

senza sordino said:


> I've always been into classical and romantic and 20th century, my listening to Baroque was a distant fourth. That is until recently. In the past few months I've given Baroque more of my time. Still probably fourth, but it's catching up, and more balanced with the other periods.


Next stop, World Domination...


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## Serge (Mar 25, 2010)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> What do you think of this?


I think one can never go wrong with The Rockettes. And the men in short skirts.


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Funny. Listeners to rap, hip/hop and heavy metal, on their forums, are probably writing about the "abomination" that is classical music.


I used to listen to a lot of hip hop and was active on a forum similar to this one but they wouldn't talk much about classical, they did talk quite a lot about funk, jazz and soul though.


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## Maritta (Apr 18, 2014)

Handel, Telemann, Bach and Vivaldi are wonderful, but I also enjoy even more Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Tsaikovsky, Berlioz and what not.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Romantic... so I must be a stupid emotion junkie who weeps when he listens to _Swan Lake_ or the Mendelssohn violin concerto, right??

No, wait, maybe rather like someone who listens to Wagner vorspiels and Bruckner scherzos while screaming: "WOAH! EPIC! POWER! AWESOME! DUDE!!"


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Romantic. But then again, I've listened to romantic music the most, by far. I already like a modest amount of music from any other era but given enough time I will like lots of music from any era.


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## Declined (Apr 8, 2014)

Romantic. It seems to me like pre-romantic music just sounds good but lacks emotion.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

I find it strange that anyone would regard Baroque music as "unromantic" Gluck composed some of the most beautiful music ever and to be struck by the beauty of of a work is an emotional response. I couldnt possible chose to live without either Bach or Puccini.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Badinerie said:


> I find it strange that anyone would regard Baroque music as "unromantic" Gluck composed some of the most beautiful music ever and to be struck by the beauty of of a work is an emotional response. I couldnt possible chose to live without either Bach or Puccini.


Gluck is a Classical composer, but otherwise I agree.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

I sit corrected !


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I generally prefer Baroque for vocal music (masses, cantatas, operas, etc.) , and Romantic for instrumental music (symphonies, concertos, string quartets, etc).


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Stargazer said:


> I generally prefer Baroque for vocal music (masses, cantatas, operas, etc.) , and Romantic for instrumental music (symphonies, concertos, string quartets, etc).


Could be because the symphony, concertos, and string quartets weren't fully developed until the Classical era.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Baroque - there is a natural elegance with their harmonies. Romantic (which I do like as well) gets rather rich


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> And rightfully so:
> 
> View attachment 42481


I just tossed my lunch. Do conductors get to approve the cover art? I can't imagine Edo de Waart would approve this.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Romantic all the way for me, but I want to learn to appreciate Baroque music more than I do at the moment. I guess I need to learn some music theory in order to appreciate those mathematical harmonies and logical complexities.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'm one further on both ends - Renaissance and modern are my favorite eras.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Romantic all the way for me, but I want to learn to appreciate Baroque music more than I do at the moment. I guess I need to learn some music theory in order to appreciate those mathematical harmonies and logical complexities.


Bach and his ilk are like that, yes, but there's also other Baroque music around that is rather "romantic" in a way, meaning, expressive, atmospheric, immediate, as opposed to Baroque music that is all about the structure. I'm finding that sort of music in Franch Baroque. Try Sainte-Colombe, Marais, Couperin for example?


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