Ninteenth Century Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Ninteenth Century Music - Essay Example Change, which is in most cases disliked by many, has to come and do its part in order to have a very meaningful life. The problem is, on how to go along these changes. Retaliation is just a part when new ideas are brought in the open to be deliberated, and it is only after the "trial" of such ideas can the real advantages be seen and appreciated. Music's global influence cannot be hidden since history for it had affected one's thinking and influenced life's perspective that made an impact in every society, community, and in every nation. Furthermore, in every office, organization, and in every government. In the occurrence of development, setbacks happen that becomes a key for future progressive developments. Though time and effort are crucial for the accomplishment, what matters is the influence of the legacy left that serves as springboard - for further progression or destruction. The debate raged through the 19th century as to the value of programme music versus absolute music, but the real question is not whether the music was inspired by some outside theme or event, or served as its own inspiration. Instead, it is whether the music moves the audience. A program could give an added value to both composer and listener, but a work cannot be a masterpiece based on that program. The musical merits of the piece alone can determine if it is destined for greatness or to be lost with the passage of time. Programme music is an instrumental music that attempts to convey a scene, feeling, or story to the listener. The "program" or theme of a piece can be simply indicated by its title, or it can be a complex story or poem provided in a separate text. In music theory, it is considered the opposite of "absolute music," that commands attention for itself alone without the support of secondary ideas or associations to give it other than musical meaning. Many different kinds of compositions can be "programmatic," including cantatas, operas, madrigals, overtures, and symphonies. As links were formed between music, painting and literature, composers started to compose programme music - music that tells a story. Issues involved in the debate over programme and absolute music in the 19th Century. Classic and Romantic are troublesome words used in literature and the fine arts and in general history that had great variety of meaning. "Classic" suggests something finished, perfect, exemplary, a standard against which later production may be measured. While the word "Romantic" is constantly used to mean so many different things that it is quite useless for describing a musical style until it has been especially defined for that purpose. Furthermore, the traditional antithesis Classic-Romantic causes confusion in music history because it is not a total antithesis. In a very general sense, all art may be said to be romantic; for though it may take its materials from actual life, it transforms them and thus creates a new world which is necessarily remote from the everyday world to a greater or lesser degree. From this point of view, romantic art differs from classic art by its greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness, with all that such emphasis may imply as to choice and treatment of materials. If remoteness and boundlessness are romantic, then music is the most romantic of the arts. Its material - ordered sound and rhythm