The War of the Romantics is a term that has been used by music historians to describe the aesthetic schism that broke out among prominient musicians in the latter half of the 19th century. The principal disagreements were about musical structure, the limits of chromatic harmony, and about the value of programmatic music versus absolute music. The opposing parties crystallized during the 1850s, with the conservative circle, based in Berlin and Leipzig, centered around Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann. Their opponents, the radical progressives, organized in Weimar around Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner (in exile in Zürich until 1861). The controversy was principally German and central European in origin; musicians from France, Italy, and Russia figured only marginally. Composers from both parties looked back upon Beethoven as their spiritual and artistic hero. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in June June 27: Shelby Foote June 27: John T. Walton June 26: Richard Whiteley June 25: John Fiedler June 25: Chet Helms June 24: Paul Winchell June 21: Jaime Cardinal Sin June 20: Jack Kilby... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution... (help· info) is the capital city and a state of Germany. ... (help· info) [] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the Federal State (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ... Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of Romantic music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann (September 13, 1819 – May 20, 1896), wife of composer Robert Schumann, was one of the leading pianists of the Romantic era as well as a composer. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 in Leipzig[1] – February 13, 1883 in Venice[2]) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German composer of Classical music, the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. ...

The Leipzig conservatives

Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms were early key members of the conservative Leipzig-based school. This core of supporters maintained the artistic legacy of Robert Schumann who had died tragically amid mental illness in 1856. Robert Schumann(incapacitated from 1854 till his death) was an enthusiastic admirer, and occasional critic, of Liszt and Wagner in the previous decades. Schumann had been a progressive critic, editor of the influential music periodical Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which he founded in 1834. Schumann was exceptional in his abilities to maintain enthusiastic, artistically fruitful friendships with the emerging vanguard of radical romantics — Liszt in particular — as well as with musical conservatives such as Mendelssohn and Gade. However, after Schumann sold the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik to Franz Brendel, under whose editorial leadership it became a propaganda organ for Liszt and his circle. Clara, who had long been the more conservative aesthete in the Schumann marriage, perceived the change as a slight against her husband’s legacy. The young Brahms, who had been very close to the Schumanns during Robert’s decline, also took up the cause. The conservative critic Eduard Hanslick was very influential on their behalf. Associated with them at one time or another were Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Friedrich Gernsheim, Robert Fuchs, and Karl Goldmark among others. Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann (September 13, 1819 – May 20, 1896), wife of composer Robert Schumann, was one of the leading pianists of the Romantic era as well as a composer. ... Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (June 28, 1831 – August 15, 1907) was a violinist, conductor and composer. ... Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of Romantic music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. ... Front page banner of NZM, issue of 30April 1850 Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (English - New Journal of Music) was a music magazine published in Leipzig, founded by Robert Schumann. ... Mendelssohn (or Mendelsohn) can refer to several subjects. ... Niels Wilhelm Gade (February 22, 1817 - December 21, 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Heinrich Picot de Peccaduc, Freiherr von Herzogenberg (born in Graz on 10 June 1843, died in Wiesbaden 9 October 1900) was an Austrian composer and conductor descended from a French aristocratic family. ... Friedrich Gernsheim (Worms, July 17, 1839–Berlin, September 10, 1916) was a composer, conductor and pianist of German birth. ... Robert Fuchs (February 15, 1847 – February 19, 1927) was an Austrian composer and Professor of Music Theory at the Vienna Conservatory. ... Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark, (born in Keszthely, Hungary on May 18, 1830; died in Vienna on January 2, 1915) was a Hungarian composer from a large Jewish family, one of 20 children. ...

The radical romantics

Besides Liszt and Wagner, other key figures on the Weimar/New German side of the divide included critic Richard Pohl and composers Felix Draeseke, Julius Reubke, Karl Klindworth, Hans von Bülow, William Mason, Peter Cornelius and briefly Anton Rubinstein and Joachim Raff. There were several attempts, centered around but not generally inaugurated by Liszt, to create a lasting and formal society. The Neu-Weimar-Verein was one attempt to form a club, which lasted a few years and had published minutes. The Tonkunstler-Versammlung (Congress of Musical Artists), which first met in Leipzig in June 1859, was a more fruitful attempt. Richard Pohl (September 12, 1826–December 17, 1896) was a German music critic, writer, poet, and amateur composer. ... Felix Draeseke, oil portrait by Robert Sterl (1907) Felix August Bernhard Draeseke (October 7, 1835 – February 26, 1913) was a composer of the New German School admiring Liszt and Wagner. ... Julius Reubke (March 23, 1834 - June 3, 1858) was a German composer and pianist. ... Karl Klindworth Karl Klindworth (September 25, 1830–July 27, 1916) was a German composer, conductor and violinist, born at Hanover. ... Hans von Bülow. ... William Mason (Boston, January 24, 1829 – New York City, July 14, 1908) was an American composer, and a member of a musical family. ... Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. ... Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein (Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн) (November 28, 1829 – November 20, 1894) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor. ... Joseph Joachim Raff (May 27, 1822 - June 24 or June 25, 1882) was a composer, teacher and pianist. ...

One of the central points of disagreement between these two groups of musicians concerned form and forms — very generally speaking, Liszt's "circle", and Liszt himself in composing, were perceived to prefer to write in new styles and new forms, while the Leipzig/Berlin school was regarded as preferring the forms used by the classic masters (and codified by musicologists of the early 19th century.) The increasing use of various kinds of program music (explicitly pictorial and simply suggestive) by the Weimar school, and Liszt's development of the symphonic poem reinforced this perception, as did his motto that new wine required new bottles, though exceptions were not always minor. Program music is music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas, images in the mind of the listener by musically representing a scene, image or mood [1]. By contrast, absolute music stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world. ... A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, in one movement in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. ...

Hanslick was led, first by the publication of Liszt's first symphonic poems and later by the Faust Symphony, to publish a statement of principles, that music did not and could not represent anything outside itself — not only not realistic impressions after the manner of Hector Berlioz, but even impressions and feelings, the motto on the score of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. It should be noted in passing that at least Wagner believed that this was closer to Liszt's intention than any more exact pictorial representation (see his "Open Letter on Liszt's Symphonic Poems", 1857, Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik April 10 1857, which originated as a letter, Feb 15 1857 to Princess Marie von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Caroline's daughter and Liszt's effective — and treated-as — adoptive daughter, see Walker, p 231 note, paperback edition. Liszt's prefaces to the works seem to back this view up, as well.) The Faust Symphony was written by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, based on the work Faust of Johann von Goethe. ... Portrait of Berlioz by Signol, 1832 Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer best known for the Symphonie fantastique, first performed in 1830, and for his Grande Messe des morts Requiem of 1837, with its tremendous resources that include four antiphonal brass choirs. ... Ludwig van Beethovens Symphony No. ...

The Manifesto

One significant event out of many was the signing of a Manifesto against the perceived bias of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. This effort, whose authors were unknown, received at first four signatures among them those of Brahms and Joachim, though more were canvassed and eventually more were obtained. Before the later signatories could put their names to the document, however, it found its way into the editorial offices of the Berliner Musik-Zeitung Echo, and from there was leaked to the Neue Zeitschrift itself, which parodied it on May 4, 1860. Two days later (Walker, p 350) it made its official appearance also in the Berliner Musik-Zeitung Echo with more than twenty signatures, including Woldemar Bargiel, Albert Dietrich, Carl Reinecke, and Ferdinand Hiller. May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... Alan Walker (born 1930) is an English writer on music who presently teaches at McMaster University, where he chaired the Department of Music from 1971 until 1980. ... Woldemar Bargiel (October 3, 1828 – February 23, 1897) was a German composer of classical music. ... Albert Hermann Dietrich (born 28 August 1829 at Golk, near Meissen; died 20 November 1908 in Berlin) was a German composer and conductor, remembered less for his own achievements than for his friendship with Johannes Brahms. ... Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (born June 23, 1824 in Hamburg, Germany; died March 10, 1910 in Leipzig, Germany), musician. ... Ferdinand Hiller (October 24, 1811 - May 12, 1885), German composer, was born at Frankfort-on-Main. ...

The "war" was fought with compositions, words, and even with scenes such as staged catcalls at a concert to show dislike of the musical programme or conductor. Reputations were at stake and partisans sought to embarrass their adversaries with public slights; the Weimar school held an anniversary celebration of the Neue Zeitscrift in Schumann's birthplace Zwickau and conspicuously neglected to invite members of the opposing party (including Clara Schumann). From the point of view of musicians on one side, it pit Brahms' increasingly effective and economical sonata form — say — against Liszt works with no form at all; as seen from the other, it put works in which — to paraphrase again the motto above, this time into an expression used by Cedric Thorpe Davie — musical form best fit musical content — against works which reused old forms without any understanding of their growth and reason. The 20th century brought a diversity of music against which the conflicts of the 19th seem like so many shades of the same color against a rainbow, and often, as Arnold Schoenberg lamented, criticism was one-note* and one-shade in the face of a whirlwind of styles, experimentation, returns-to, but the War of the Romantics, the writing it left and the events we know, provide a very useful insight into the time and its creative artists for all of that. Zwickau is a city of Germany, in the Bundesland Saxony (Sachsen), situated in a valley at the foot of the Erzgebirge, on the left bank of the Zwickauer Mulde, 130 km (82 miles) southwest of Dresden, south of Leipzig and south west of Chemnitz. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1938 For the American music critic and journalist, see Harold Charles Schonberg. ...

As to the victor of this metaphorical war, classical works written in the 20th century were either so far away from the questions addressed for either side to be relevant — Robert Ashley's works for light come to mind as an extreme case of music for which these concerns have no relevance, but there might be pieces even more so before not so very long... — or often benefited from the thoughts and works of both. Nikolai Medtner acquired the nickname the Russian Brahms (mostly for his sure handling of sonata form, actually — his teacher Taneyev saying that he was born with it) but wrote a half-hour, one-movement sonata, op. 25/2 in e, with the internal form of a sonata exposition followed by a fantasy. Nicolai Karlovich Medtner Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (Николай Карлович Метнер) (January 5, 1880 – November 13, 1951) was a Russian composer and pianist. ... Sergey I. Taneev. ...

*Schoenberg's essay — About Music Criticism — published in Style and Idea, page 194, translated by Leo Black, pub. Balmont Music Publishers 1975, paperback edition ISBN 0-520-05294-3, 1984 — remarked that while earlier critics had at least been able to discuss "the problem of whether it is effective or admissible" to reverse the order of the inner movements of a sonata structure, or to have an unusual key sequence in a work (e.g. Brahms' 2nd cello sonata, with slow movement a semitone above the main key,) these problems entirely passed modern critics by; critics could only harp on harmony, tonality, harmony. In this respect even the new profession of criticism — and in the mid-1800s professional music criticism (in newspapers, often by non-musicians, that is, as is the habit today) was very new — may have been marginally better. (Or not.) 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Books

• Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, ISBN 0801497213, Cornell University Press 1993. pp.338 – 367 is entitled and covers specifically The War of the Romantics but it is a theme elsewhere.
• Cedric Thorpe-Davie, Musical Structure and Design, ISBN 0486216292, Dover Publications, 1995. Still available from some retail outlets.