Romantic period music characteristics

23 November , | Updated: 14 July ,

From the year to around , Western Classical Music was defined by its soaring melodies and ever-expanding orchestras, its originality and self-expression.

7 composers of romantic period

Famous romantic period composers

Post romantic composers

Romantic period composers and their compositions

Late romantic composers

Here are the composers who made it all happen.

The Romantic period. “So good, they named it twice”, in the great words of composer and Classic FM presenter, John Brunning.

The ‘Early’ Romantic period began around the year with then-Classical great, Ludwig van Beethoven, whose revolutionising of the symphony gave life to a new era in music history.

Fast-forward to the turn of the century, and music was looking wildly different to how it did in the Classical era ().

The Late Romantics, composers like Rachmaninov and Mahler, were expanding the orchestra to unprecedented proportions, adding more colours and instruments and turning music into a vehicle to express the full spectrum of human emotion – from sorrow to joy, passion to g