- Paperback: 720 pages
- Publisher: Fontana Press; New edition edition (1 Mar 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002557126
- ISBN-13: 978-0002557122
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,289,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #40 in Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Classical Music > By History > Romantic 1820-1910
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
Author/teacher/concert pianist Rosen delivers a monumental follow-up to his award-winning The Classical Style (not reviewed), here concentrating on the generation of European composers who "came of age" in the 1820s and 1830s: Liszt, Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Bellini, and, first and foremost, Chopin. This is not an easy read. The greater part of Rosen's arguments require not only the ability to read music but also a firm grasp of basic music theory. Although we are promised a CD of musical examples (not received for review), it seems questionable whether it could allow a musical layperson to comprehend the twists and turns of Rosen's analyses. The thrust of those discussions is to illuminate some of the more startling and masterful changes in musical form that occurred as "Classical" gave way to "Romantic." Despite the rise of certain specific "Romantic" values (such as the worth attached to the musical fragment), Rosen does not find a wide-scale disintegration of form; rather, he sees old forms reconstituted in new and surprising ways. The unexpected hero of Rosen's musings is Chopin. Arguing persuasively (and at length) for Chopin's innovative formal genius, Rosen removes him from the realm of the salon pianist and places him on a par with Bach in his treatment of large-scale counterpoint and the subtlety of his "inner voices." Rosen is no stranger to controversy, and his advocacy of Chopin will seem provocative to some, as will his decision to omit entirely women composers like Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann on the (questionable) grounds that he does not wish to obscure the "real tragedy" that society prevented them from completing the mature work of which they were capable. The compilation of this volume from disparate previously published pieces and lectures may account for an occasional unwieldiness that largely was edited out of Rosen's earlier works. Still, a valuable and important book. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Winner of the Yorkshire Post Music Award, The Romantic Generation was rapturously reviewed on hardback publication and now, for the first time, is published in an affordable trade paperback.
‘One can say with confidence that The Romantic Generation is the music book not only of 1995 but also of many years to come. The author’s ability to communicate his musical insights and immense learning has developed even beyond the capacities displayed in his earlier volume. Musicians of every kind should partake of both its wisdom and its practical lessons. Among non-musicans anyone interested in the cultural and literary history of the period can feast on Rosen’s introductory and incidental essays about the Romantic Movement as a whole…William Empson distinguished two kinds of critic, the analytical and the appreciative. In Charles Rosen they are perfectly united.’ Robert Craft, Chicago Tribune
The subject of this book is the generation of musicians who came to maturity between the death of Beethoven and that of Chopin in 1849 – Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Schumann, with shorter discussions of Bellini and Meyerbeer, and a prolonged glance back to Schubert. Rosen discusses how they changed the musical language of their era and how their music achieved and achieves the effects it does.
‘The fact that this is a book about music has done nothing to deter its author from examining literature and the arts, and these are brought to bear on Schumann, Schubert and Chopin to brilliant effect… miraculous. [Chopin’s complexity] unfurls like a flower… A majestic book.’ Michael Church, TES
‘A remarkable amalgam of precise, brilliantly illuminating analysis, audacious generalisation, and always interesting synthesis… stunningly effective. No other writer on music has his gift for walking and playing through the pieces, pointing out how memory, quotation, observation are given concrete musical realisation that extends from the printed score, to the hand on the keyboard, to the pedal and then is received by the listener’s ear. No one has been as disciplined, as well-informed, as discerning as Rosen.’ Edward Said, London Review of Books
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While I was studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, it sometimes seemed that the professors chose only the most abstruse works of scholarship as their classroom texts. The worst example was a required text for a 20th Century analysis course, in which the author clearly had nothing to say, and merely strung along interminable chapters of the most irritating technical jargon. To add insult to injury, the campus bookstore stuck me for fifty or sixty dollars for this piece of academic trash. This text, and hordes of others like it, represents the poorest sort of scholarship. I often wonder what these writers hope to accomplish. I imagine their work must have some snob appeal, but education is too important, and life is far too short to waste time on this sort of foolishness. Imagine my elation than, upon discovering the work of Charles Rosen. I first read "Sonata Forms" in preparation for an analysis class I was teaching, and a little while later I read "The Classical Style," one of the very finest books ever written about music. Mr. Rosen has a lot to say, and his style has an engaging quality that would be the despair of many a young novelist. In fact he writes so well, that I frequently had difficulty in putting these books down. His points are well presented and amply supported with musical examples (a great challenge for the "inner ear" although I sometimes cheat and take them to the keyboard). I also enjoy Mr. Rosen's humor, which emerges at all the right moments. On the strength of these works, I devoured "The Romantic Generation" as soon as I could get a copy of it. This is a remarkable book. It maintains and even surpasses the depth of understanding achieved in "The Classical Style." Particularly with the inclusion of a breathtaking study of Romantic literature and painting, which does a very good job of showing the music in its context without going overboard into historical trivia. Mr. Rosen is (as always) very thorough. A special highlight of the book is its study of Chopin. Indeed, the Chopin section is so extensive that the other chapters seem a little cursory at first glance- especially the discussion of Mendelssohn. However, I'm sure this is just a reflection of my personal bias. So many great things are said, with such grace and wit about Liszt, Berlioz and Schumann, that I am reluctant to reiterate it in my own clumsy style, and can only commend to you the original. The only real criticism I have is that the enclosed CD is far too short. Mr. Rosen's performances have a clarity reminiscent of his prose, which is a real joy to hear. For all the penetrating analysis of the Chopin Ballades and the comprehensive study of the Mazurkas, it was odd to find him represented by only two Nocturnes. I was also sorry not to find more examples of the Schumann works: particularly the "Davidsbundlertanze." The Liszt examples though, were very well chosen. There was a time in my life when I felt as though there might be a book in me, I saw myself in the somewhat grandiose armor of a Crusader for Clarity in academic writing. It is a great relief for me, and fortunate for future generations, that Mr. Rosen has already accomplished this and henceforth I'll stick with playing the cello.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"I think it is probable that Beethoven's death hastened the rapid development of new stylistic tendencies which had already made themselves felt and which, indeed, even influenced his own music," states Charles Rosen in his preface to one of the most detailed and enjoyable musical essays I've ever read. The leaders of the 1830s musical avant-garde -- Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann -- heard those "new stylistic tendencies" in Schubert and late Beethoven, and made them the basis of a revolutionary musical style, one offering rhythmic, harmonic, and structural freedom from Classical tradition.
Rosen's focus on the piano is understandable. Apart from being a master pianist, his emphasis in this book isn't on late Romantic decadence, but on early Romantic experimentation, made possible in part by technological innovations in piano making, as well as by the new emphasis on the subjective experience of time, landscape, and memory in poetry and painting (as opposed to the Classical emphasis on the epic subjects of history and religion) -- major influences on an intensely self-reflexive generation of young musical artists.
How would musically conservative audiences have received the new music of the 1830s? Chopin ironically intensifies the sentimental rhetoric of the salon style, embraces the rhythmic and harmonic freedom of dance music, and reinvents Classical counterpoint in terms of Romantic tone color; Schumann dislocates Classical rhythm and subverts the relation of consonance and dissonance, exploiting its expressive potential; Liszt elevates dynamics and tone color to a position of supremacy over pitch and rhythm, exploiting the dramatic and emotional intensity of crowd-pleasing music.
These three musicians are the focus of Rosen's essay; chapters on Berlioz's rhythmic innovations, Mendelssohn's Classical revivalism, and the carefully bland republicanism of the new, middle-class grand opera of Meyerbeer and Bellini are less passionate, but no less interesting.
Rosen's focus on the piano is understandable. Apart from being a master pianist, his emphasis in this book isn't on late Romantic decadence, but on early Romantic experimentation, made possible in part by technological innovations in piano making, as well as by the new emphasis on the subjective experience of time, landscape, and memory in poetry and painting (as opposed to the Classical emphasis on the epic subjects of history and religion) -- major influences on an intensely self-reflexive generation of young musical artists.
How would musically conservative audiences have received the new music of the 1830s? Chopin ironically intensifies the sentimental rhetoric of the salon style, embraces the rhythmic and harmonic freedom of dance music, and reinvents Classical counterpoint in terms of Romantic tone color; Schumann dislocates Classical rhythm and subverts the relation of consonance and dissonance, exploiting its expressive potential; Liszt elevates dynamics and tone color to a position of supremacy over pitch and rhythm, exploiting the dramatic and emotional intensity of crowd-pleasing music.
These three musicians are the focus of Rosen's essay; chapters on Berlioz's rhythmic innovations, Mendelssohn's Classical revivalism, and the carefully bland republicanism of the new, middle-class grand opera of Meyerbeer and Bellini are less passionate, but no less interesting.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Romantic Generation" by Charles Rosen is a fantastic book focusing on critical features of music of the Romantic Period. Sufficient background information is included to put Romantic Music into context, whilst the musical examples are specific enough to aid understanding.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in music and seeks a deeper knowledge of this period. I would also suggest that this book should be read by anybody studying for an academic music degree as it really helps to clarify details and definately improves those analysis essays!
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Charles Rosen's Romantic Generation
Published in 1998, Charles Rosen's "The Romantic Generation" is an extraordinary erudite study of music, its performance, and its cultural history. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Robin Friedman
Thorough, readable, opinionated
Rosen writes engagingly and passionately about all aspects of music, and this book is no exception. But it's not a textbook in the conventional sense -- there's no attempt to be... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Kevin Boone
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