Most Famous Romantic Era Composers And Their Works

For much of the nineteenth century, classical music was dominated by the Romantic period. It spanned the gap between Mozart and Haydn’s Classical era music and twentieth-century music. The repertoire of today’s symphony orchestras includes a lot of music from the Romantic era.

We generally consider Romantic period to be between 1820 to 1900. It is according to most music historians. The early Romantic musicians, including as composers grew up within the Classical period. But they also contributed to the development of the Romantic vernacular by rejecting the time’s musical norms.

Romantic music promotes drama, spirituality, and a connection with nature above Classical music. One can heard this in early Romantic Chopin’s sad piano nocturnes. Romantic music eventually gave way to expressive opera by composers such as G. Verdi, R. Wagner, and G. Puccini.

Romantic Era Composers Timeline

Whether you’re a classical music student or just a fan, this timeline will help you. It will offer you a good understanding of each period’s major markers.  It will also let you know about the most famous composers.

An extremely fertile period, the Romantic era of music is expressive, dramatic, and orchestral—composed and played with a level of drama and emotionality not seen in previous eras.

Think Wagner’s stirring “Ride of the Valkyries” or Tchaikovsky’s triumphant “1812 Overture.” Composers touched on themes such as romantic love, the supernatural, and even death. Some drew inspiration from the history and folk songs of their native country, while others incorporated foreign influences.

List of Romantic Era Composers

  • Vincenzo Bellini (1801 to 1835)
  • Then, Louis-Hector (1803 to 1869)
  • Also, Johann Strauss I (1804 to 1849)
  • Then, Jacob (1809 to 1847)
  • Also, Frederic Chopin (1810 to 1849)
  • Then, Robert Alexander Schumann (1810 to 1856)
  • Also, Franz Liszt (1811 to 1886)
  • Then, W. R. Wagner (1813 to 1883)
  • Also, G. F. F. Verdi (1813 to 1901)
  • Then, Charles François Gounod (1818 to 1893)
  • Also, J. Offenbach (1819 to 1880)
  • Then, Clara (1819 to 1896)
  • Also, Cesar Franck (1822 to 1890)
  • Then, Anton Joseph Bruckner (1824 to 1896)
  • Also, Johann Strauss II (1825 to 1899)
  • Then, J. Brahms (1833 to 1897)
  • Also, Eduard Strauss (1835 to 1916)
  • Then, Georges Bizet (1838 to 1875)
  • Also, M. Petrovich (1839 to 1881)
  • Then, Peter (1840 to 1893)
  • Also, A. Dvorak (1841 to 1904)
  • Then, Jules Massenet (1842 to 1912)
  • Also, Edvard (1843 to 1907)
  • Then, G. U. Fauré (1845 to 1924)
  • Also, Sir Edward (1857 to 1934)
  • Then, G. Puccini (1858 to 1924)
  • Also, G. Mahler (1860 to 1911)
  • Then, A. C. Debussy (1862 to 1918)
  • Also, Richard Strauss (1864 to  1949)
  • Then, Jean (1865 to 1957)

Romantic Era Composers

  • Also, Erik (1866 to 1925)
  • Then, S. Wagner (1869 to 1930)
  • Also, Alexander N. Scriabin (1872 to 1915)
  • Then, R. V. Williams (1872 to 1958)
  • Also, S. V. Rachmaninoff (1873 to 1943)
  • Then, Arnold Franz (1874 to 1951)
  • Also, Gustav Theodore Holst (1874 to 1934)
  • Then, Charles Edward Ives (1874 to 1954)
  • Also, Joseph Maurice Ravel (1875 to 1937)
  • Then, Béla Bartók (1881 to 1945)
  • Also, Artur Schnabel (1882 to 1951)
  • Then, Igor Stravinsky (1882 to 1971)
  • Also, Zoltán Kodály (1882 to 1967)
  • Then, Anton Webern (1883 to 1945)
  • Also, Alban Berg (1885 to 1935)
  • Then, Sergei S. P. (1891 to 1953)

Romantic Era Composers Program Music

During the Romantic period, programme music blossomed in particular. Literature and folklore influenced the nineteenth-century composers. It was one of the main reasons behind this. In the Romantic era, the tone poem became the most popular bus for program music. It is usually a single-movement orchestral form that develops a poetic idea. It also tells a story, suggests a scene, or creates a mood.

There is a link between Program music and the pure Romantic concept of the drama act. It is a performance combining music, theatre, and the visual arts. It also can evoke a certain experience in the listener beyond simply sitting and listening to performers. Composers thought that the increased sound dynamics available in the Romantic orchestra allowed them to focus. They thought it helps focusing emotions and other intangible aspects of life much more than in the Baroque or Classical eras.

Romantic Era Composers Piano

Romantic Era Composers Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Frederic Chopin was a person with qualities of note pianist, who wrote almost only for the instrument. The piano went through important changes during the 19th hundred as writers of music grew more strongly desiring in range, colors and driving power.

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It became a special sign of viewing things with love. It also showed the needs of music-makers like Chopin. Of his ready acts, song, plays and the like, the Polish story of love, great doings’s own persons given special approval were the first part, in company with which his Nocturnes, Waltzes, Etudes, Mazurkas, Sonatas and music for one chief instrument are still among the most loved one ready acts, song, plays and the like of pianists today.

Romantic Era Composers Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Another composer indelibly linked with the piano, Franz Liszt – dubbed “The World’s First Rock Star” – took virtuoso pianist to new heights.

The great Hungarian composer, among whose collection you’ll recognise the mind-bogglingly sinful La Campanella. He was a showman who revolutionised the art of performance. At his piano recitals, Liszt’s fans would tear off their clothes and scream out his name, a phenomenon the German poet Heinrich Heine styled ‘Lisztomania’.

You’ll often hear Liszt’s enduring and beautiful Liebestraum No. 3 in A flat major played at recitals today.

There were also other composers who presented great work on piano. You can read about them below in the female composers section.

Romantic Era Composers and Their Famous Works

Romantic Era Composers Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

After working as a composer and organist, Giuseppe Verdi began to have his operas staged at La Scala, the opera house in Milan.

Tragedy blighted his personal life. Two of his children died in infancy, followed by his wife Margherita, who was just 26.

Amidst all this some of his works were met with mixed responses and Verdi almost gave up composition entirely.

However, he persevered, coming up with a run of passion-filled works including Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida and Il trovatore, and establishing himself as the king of Italian opera.

After attempting to retire, he made a surprise comeback with three late masterpieces, including a celebrated Requiem.

“La Donna è Mobile”, from Rigoletto, is one of the most recognizable themes in all of Italian opera:

He was associated with the Risorgimento movement, which sought the unification of Italy, and he was mourned as a national hero upon his death from a stroke in 1901.

Romantic Era Composers Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

New instruments, made to order meeting-places, foolishly long works are Richard Wagner’s powers of invention in 19th-century music goes on. Wagner was a music-based person with a view of what could be experienced primarily for his operas. His most ongoing works cover The flying Dutchman and of direction. Yes. His full of Ring wheeled machine, a work of four operas that takes 15 hours to act. To opera, he gave the leitmotif’, a now widely used music-based sign-mark designed to represent a character 7 or chief idea. Yes. Have in mind that of darth Vader’s music in star wars, and you will see what we suggest. End.

Romantic Era Composers Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)

Niccolo Paganini, the Italian composer, was described as a man who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for impossible techniques on the violin. Yes. The truth is, Paganini practiced a lot on the violin from a young age, later on, 15 hours a day to be said, at age 13 his teacher had no more skills to teach him. Most of his works were written for strings, especially violin and guitar, mainly because his father was a Mandolin player so that they could play a duet together. Yes. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin is the bible for violin students, the difficulty and virtuosity remain after 200 years. End.

Romantic Era Composers Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Named after his grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn Germany. Beethoven had a miserable childhood when he played wrong notes his drunken father would beat him which may have attributed to his ear damage. Yes. Beethoven kept his deafness in secret however in a letter to a friend, revealed he was suffering from hearing problems from at least the age of 32. It’s hard to imagine the music giant possibly composed all his late works in silence and never heard them played. Yes. Including the ninth symphony, the late string quartets, and the missus alumnus. End.

Romantic Era Composers Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Johannes Brahms is often referred to, alongside Beethoven and Bach, as one of the “Three Bs”, which gives an indication of his hallowed position in the canon of Western music.

He was born in Hamburg but, like many important composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries, spent much of his career in Vienna.

His deeply emotive works remain a popular part of the concert repertoire. His music often seen as a continuation of Beethoven’s legacy. Brahms acknowledged him as a major influence. Yes. He also wrote a number of pieces inspired by German and Hungarian folk themes.

His oeuvre includes four symphonies and chamber works. It includes a clarinet quintet and various works for piano and strings.

As a virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his works himself.

Brahms was famous for being a massive perfectionist. He destroyed many of his own pieces that did not meet his exacting standards. End.

Romantic Era Composers Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

You say sob-inducing aria’, we say puccini This great Italian writer of music wrote La boheme tosca Madame insect with colored wings, turandot – all among today’s most done operas, all with completely heartrending music at their middle. Yes. In fact, his last opera turandot includes the great high male voice aria Nessun dorma. It is one of the few 20th-century operas to have undergone a solid foot-in in opera houses across the earth. When working on his last work, Puccini said this. “The Father of All God touched me with his little finger and said, write for the building used for the arts – mind, only for the building used for the arts’. “And I have done as ordered his highest need”. End.

Romantic Era Composers and Their Works

Romantic Era Composers Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Robert Schumann never put out to be a player or writer of music, in fact, he went to Leipzig University to learn process Law then made his true strong feelings for music. It was only after 1830 when music was at the inside middle of his life and he took into account as himself a writer of music. Yes. Many of those in existence at the time were taken into account as his works too hard.

But with the late-20th-century musicological discussion, the view has changed. Schumann’s complete works will be with a wide stretch taken in, and he is fully able to be used as one of the great writers of music of the 19th hundred years. Yes. Greatly respected works cover book of pictures for the young, Etudes After paganini caprices, impromptus [on a chief idea by Clara Wieck. End.

Romantic Era Composers Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Mahler was a transitional composer who bridged the gap between the Germanic Romantic tradition and the modernist sounds of the 20th Century.

He found acclaim as one of the greatest conductors of his day, but his compositional output was not fully appreciated for some time, in part due to prejudice. Yes. Mahler, who was born in Bohemia to Jewish parents, met with antisemitism from the press whilst working in Vienna, and later his music was banned across much of Europe by the Nazis.

He is now beloved for his epic symphonies, which capture the breadth of the human experience with their huge range of emotions and moods.

Romantic Era Composers Female

Romantic Era Composers Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847)

She was a major talent, a better pianist than her brother Felix according to him, and the person to whom he took all of his compositions for criticism. Her father and brother discouraged her from having a professional career or publishing, but she was the musical director of one of the most important musical salons in Berlin in the 1830’s and participated as a conductor, pianist and composer . In 1846 a small number of her works were published and she was planning more when she became ill and died. She composed songs, cantatas, oratorios and operas.

Romantic Era Composers Josephine Lang (1815-1880)

She came from Münich where her father was a court musician and her mother an opera singer. Lang was composing songs by age 13, and was only 15 when she wrote the song presented here. Yes. After meeting the young Lang in 1831, Mendelssohn wrote, “She has the gift of composing songs and singing them as I have never heard before. Yes. It is the most complete musical joy I have ever experienced.”

Lang responded to his enthusiasm by idolizing him. Yes. Robert Schumann wrote favorable reviews of her songs, including this one. Lang became a professional singer at the Münich court in 1836, but her career was cut short by marriage and a subsequent move to Tübingen in 1842. Yes. After her husband’s death in 1856, Lang supported her family of six children by teaching voice and piano. Yes. Clara Schumann helped arrange for the publication of her Lieder.

More than 150 were printed, establishing her as one of the most published women composers of the period. Yes. More than half of her songs date from the 1830s and 40s, and were influenced stylistically by Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. End.

Romantic Era Composers Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)

The daughter of a progressive music educator, Clara received the best musical training. Her parents groomed her to become a professional musician. They also encouraged her to compose. Yes. By the time she was 18, she was second only to Franz Liszt among European pianists. She was the first to introduce Chopin’s music to Germany. She was also the first to play Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata in Berlin. Yes. Likewise she was the first to introduce many works by Johannes Brahms and her husband Robert Schumann. She managed to continue her piano career while bearing eight children. Yes.

At 59 she accepted a full-time teaching post at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt where she remained for fourteen years. Yes. When she was 20, she wrote, “I once thought that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up the idea. A woman must not desire to be a composer, not one has done it, and, why should I expect to? Yes. It would be arrogance, though indeed my father led me to it in earlier days.”

These attitudes were a reflection of the society in which she lived, which questioned women’s ability to produce works of art or intellect. Yes. Clara composed little after marriage. She wrote piano works, songs, a piano concerto and three chamber works. End.

Romantic Era Composers Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)

She was a producing great numbers writer of music whose music was done and given high approval during her for all one’s existence. Yes. She grouped together many parts: writer of music, virtuosic pianist, noted person doing teaching, married woman and mother, and person making observations and person in control of paper of more than normal, of note good things done. Yes.

In addition to producing a with substance price list of works for piano, room groups, and orchestra, Louise farrenc was a person doing high-level teaching of piano at the Paris conservatoire for over 30 years. Yes. Her make-up was praised by Berlioz and Schumann among others. As a pianist, she was often heard in the the good of a group of great meeting rooms for new-comers of the French money. Yes. Most of farrenc room music was written in the 1840’s and 50’s, and includes four three person groups, 2 piano 5 babies at birth, a cello sonata, 2 violin sonatas, a group of 6, and a verse of fourteen lines.

Yes. Scherzo from the trio in e not important, small part and Adagio-Allegro (last division of music or play) from operation. Yes. 38 are in this 2-cd group. (The complete trio in e not important, small part is on L.C. #LE304cs). The Clarke work may be given out again in its completeness in the future. End.

Romantic Era Composers Amy Beach (1867-1944)

She signed her music Mrs. H. H. A. Beach was a member of the Second New England School of composers. Yes. Although strongly influenced by German late Romantic music. She also was among the composers who experimented with the fusion of folk and art music in a search for an American national style. It is a fact that has only recently been acknowledged. Yes.

From 1892 almost to her death, Beach quotes, in about thirty compositions. Melodies from Irish, Scottish, African American, Native American, and European sources are few of them. Yes. Franz Boas’s The Central Eskimo, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1888, provided Beach with melodies she used in three works. That’s it about her. End.

Romantic Era Composers Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

She was born in England, began composing at the age of sixteen and was the first woman composer to win the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy. She switched from violin to viola and supported herself as a supply player around London. Yes. A superb musician, she played chamber music with Myra Hess, Casals, Heifetz, Thibaud, Szell, Rubinstein, Schnabel, Pierre Monteux and Percy Grainger, among others. As a soloist, Clarke played throughout Great Britain, made several tours in Europe and America, and in 1923, toured around the world. Yes.

In 1919, her Sonata for Viola and Piano tied with Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Piano for the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge prize, but since there couldn’t be a tie, Mrs. Coolidge cast a vote – for Bloch. Yes. Clarke was in the U.S. when Britain entered World War II, and was not allowed to return for the duration of the war, since she had an American parent and Britain had too many mouths to feed. She remained in America for the remainder of her life, where she continued to teach. Yes. She lectured for many years at the Chautauqua Institute and had a weekly radio program about chamber music. Most of Clarke’s works were written in the first half of her life. Her oeuvre consists of 58 vocal works and 24 instrumental chamber works. End.

Romantic Era Composers Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)

Her mother was a talented singer. Her father was 79 when they gave birth Lili. He taught composition and voice at the Paris Conservatoire. Yes. Lili began to go to music classes with her sister Nadia at the age of three and at age six she sight-read Fauré’s songs with the composer at the piano. When she was 16 she could play piano, violin, cello and harp and she composed long before she studied composition formally. Yes. At 19 she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, the greatest recognition a young French composer could attain.

The prize provided a year’s study in Rome, but illness cut Lili’s stay short, and she died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. She was able to complete more than 50 works during her short life. End.

FAQs on Romantic Era Composers

What are the 3 types of Romantic composers?

We can devide romantic composers into three groups: full, conservative, and regional.

Is Ludwig van Beethoven a Romantic composer?

Composer from Germany. Often regarded as a figure who bridged the Classical and Romantic periods. Musicians typically refer to Ludwig van Beethoven as a “giant straddling two styles”: Classical and Romantic.

Is Chopin Romantic or Classical?

Romantic.

Is Wagner Classical or Romantic?

Romantic composer

Richard Wagner was a revolutionary Romantic composer, born in Leipzig, Germany on 22 May 1913.

Who are the top 25 most famous composers of Romantic era?

  1. Vincenzo Bellini (1801 to 1835)
  2. Then, Louis-Hector (1803 to 1869)
  3. Also, Johann Strauss I (1804 to 1849)
  4. Then, Jacob  (1809 to 1847)
  5. Also, Frederic Chopin (1810 to 1849)
  6. Then, Robert Alexander Schumann (1810 to 1856)
  7. Also, Franz Liszt (1811 to 1886)
  8. Then, W. R. Wagner (1813 to 1883)
  9. Also, G. F. F. Verdi (1813 to 1901)
  10. Then, Charles François Gounod (1818 to 1893)
  11. Also, J. Offenbach (1819 to 1880)
  12. Then, Clara  (1819 to 1896)
  13. Also, Cesar Franck (1822 to 1890)
  14. Then, Anton Joseph Bruckner (1824 to 1896)
  15. Also, Johann Strauss II (1825 to 1899)
  16. Then, J. Brahms (1833 to 1897)
  17. Also, Eduard Strauss (1835 to 1916)
  18. Then, Georges Bizet (1838 to 1875)
  19. Also, M. Petrovich (1839 to 1881)
  20. Then, Peter (1840 to 1893)
  21. Also, A. Dvorak (1841 to 1904)
  22. Then, Jules Massenet (1842 to 1912)
  23. Also, Edvard (1843 to 1907)
  24. Then, G. U. Fauré (1845 to 1924)
  25. Also, Sir Edward  (1857 to 1934)

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