Romanticism Era
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After the Classical Era, music had shifted to a new paradigmatic style known as Romanticism. Romanticism was the composition and exposition of romantic music. Romantic music shared some traits with classical music, as do many things when a new style rises up, but there were some key distinguishing facts between the two. The music composed in the Romantic Era was strongly provoked by emotion. The composer wanted the listeners to feel the same as they did when writing the piece. According to the Kamien textbook Tchaikovsky wrote, “There is not a bar which I have not truly felt and which is not an echo of my innermost feelings.” (pg. 209)Another thing relatively unique to the Romantic Era was the discontinuation of the contrasting moods in a piece. This was a heavy influence during the classical times, but during the romantic period composers focused more on expressing their own emotions. Johannes Brahms was a composer of the Romantic Era and although he followed many guidelines of pieces from the Romantic Era, his style tended to reproduce some components of the Classical Era. Sonata No.1 in G Major is a perfect example of a typical Brahms piece as it contains components of both the Classical Era and the Romantic Era.
Johannes Brahms was influenced by music at a young age. At the age of seven he was studying piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. In a few years he was accepted for instruction by Eduard Marxsen, who strongly expressed his love for Bach and other composers of the Classical Era. This may be where Beethoven becomes a major influence in Brahms work. Beethoven was a large influence on Brahms work, almost to the point where he might have been intimidated by him. Walter Frisch, of Oxford University, writes, “Beethoven was the yardstick against which Brahms was constantly measured. For Louis Köhler in 1880, Brahms would never rise above epigonal status; without spiritual qualities he could be no kind of Beethoven.” Brahms clearly looked up to Beethoven and his work a strived to be like him. Although, for Köhler Brahms could never meets the likes of Beethoven. Brahms even had a bust of Beethoven in his music room. This desire to be like Beethoven can be where Brahms gets his taste for classical elements in his music.
In Sonata No.1 in G Major there are several elements of both classical and romantic style music. Brahms definitely uses a polyphonic texture throughout many points in the piece; having the violin play the melody while piano plays a counter-melody or vice-versa. At other times just one instrument is playing the melody and there are also moments when they are both playing the melody in a homophonic nature. An additional feature of classical style in this piece is the disparity between the mood of the piece. It is constantly changing throughout the duration of the entire piece. One more classical feature that Brahms uses in this piece is the contrast