The 18th century brought with it a revolution in thought and art. For the first time in history there had arisen a middle class audience for serious music who could understand and appreciate the differences between high art and the lower kind of popular entertainment which had traditionally been enjoyed by those not part of the elite. As a result, composers no longer had to rely strictly on patronage of that every same wealthy elite; mass audiences were becoming available to composers and musicians that existed outside of private, invitation-only command performances and performances at musical academies. A growing and exciting sense of revolution and radicalism was blowing freely in the air throughout Europe and this extended into the music of the Classical era as well. While the aristocracy was hardly abolished throughout the continent, a new bourgeois influence was most definitely being felt.
The Classical period was dominated by two of the most prolific composers in music history, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is Haydn who is generally considered the father of the Classical period; slightly religious and slightly revolutionary. But the epitome of the Classical period is doubtlessly one of the greatest names in musical history: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was himself a man of the people, earthy and a worker since youth. He wrote music both for private performances as well as for public opera houses and concert halls. As a result, his reputation was egalitarian and that spirit of the age is reflected in his choice of subject matter for his operas, which deal frankly with issues involving sexuality, and featuring characters from all walks of life. It has been said that Mozart represents the dividing line between the Classical era and the Romantic era, and it was the third symphony of one Mozart’s former students, Beethoven, the is most often cited as the signature that brides the Classical and Romantic periods.
The Romantic era is notable especially for its attempt to dissuade society of such notions as genre and form and instead focus upon the individual work itself. Partly this is due to a deepening of the proletarian influence introduced during the Classical period as the arts moved away from the aristocratic elite to more fully embrace the masses. Since the masses clearly did not have the education to grasp such intellectually challenging notions of the subtleties of old, they cherished the work for its individual charms. Likewise, since the artists themselves were creating for a more egalitarian audience, it is only natural that subjects for this music moved to concepts more easily grasped by the emotions.
Intellectualism hardly disappeared during the Romantic era, but works such as Wagner’s operas compensated for an audiences lack of understanding of the nuances of Norse mythology by arousing the emotions with thunderous music that left little doubt as to what was really happening on stage. The Romantic era is, therefore, marked by a high degree of individualism on the part of musical artists who began to interject within their compositions intensely personal concerns; the formalism of the Classical period was replaced by a far more subjective motivation. The Romantic era music, while not necessarily always romantic in the sense of being about love, almost always carries with it depths of emotion that are typically more accessible for audiences. The Romantic era is far more of a mirror of contemporary music in which artists casually combine multiple genres and are expected to create music that universalizes their own personal feelings.
