Master Composers of the Late Romantic Period

The Third Generation of German Romantics

The Generation bridge constituted the third generation of German Romantics, primarily represented by Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner.

Johannes Brahms

Brahms, who was totally opposed to the Wagnerian aesthetic, departs from full German operatic nationalism and continues the work of Romantic intimacy in his piano works, four cycles of symphonies, and Lieder. His link to the final work of the great Beethoven is evident, as he was gifted with the ability to develop complex musical ideas.

Anton Bruckner

Bruckner, after a long career as an organist, began to compose late in life. He is now considered one of the most modern artists of his time for the purity that he gives to his musical language.

The Post-Romantics

By the hand of new nationalisms, their highest levels of lucid spirits show dominion. However, it is a time when colors such as tragic feelings terminate—a music that sings of a paradise lost before.

Hugo Wolf

Hugo Wolf focused almost exclusively on the Lied form. He was a rabid advocate of Brahms and the entire production of Bruckner. Almost all of Wolf's production was created between 1888 and 1896. With him, the German Lied reaches its highest peak: the adaptation of music and poetry is perfect. His wit and humor are only comparable to his exquisite miniaturist ability. His best-known cycles are the Italian Songbook and the Spanish Songbook.

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler served as the orchestra director of the Vienna State Opera and attained a prominent post in New York. As the premier director of his era, Mahler developed as a composer through a creative activity of pathetic, moving, and individual instrumental timbres, extracting their most peculiar effects. In his nine symphonies, he introduced choruses and soloists; the orchestra enlarges to excess. He also cultivated the orchestral Lied, replacing the piano-accompanied Lieder with works such as Songs of a Wayfarer.

Max Reger

Max Reger was an excellent organist and a professor at the Leipzig Conservatory. His extraordinary work is characterized by constant modernity and changing tonalities. He is the author of a treatise entitled Contributions to the Study of Modulation. These elements make for an extremely dense and difficult language. He was a precursor who investigated many aspects of the music of our time.

Late Nineteenth-Century German Music

German composers of the late nineteenth century cultivated symphonism, the Lied, and chamber music. After Wagner, German opera saw a decline.

Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss utilized tone poems in his attempts to create a musical parallel to naturalism. Through a brilliant orchestra, musical feelings are conveyed in works like Don Juan and Don Quixote. In his plays lies perhaps his most interesting contribution to the total abandonment of Germanic mythology, with works such as Salome. Strauss was also the author of the Last Lieder. Having reached the tonal limits of the form, his work stops as if scared of having gone too far. The compositions of his last period remained loyal to a bygone aesthetic, staying far apart from the revivalist movements of our century.

The French School and International Figures

While Italy saw the figure of Verdi, France featured Meyerbeer, Auber, and Gounod (famous for Faust). Georges Bizet created Carmen, and Camille Saint-Saëns produced a body of work including symphonies, chamber music, operas, and symphonic poems, such as the humorous fantasy The Carnival of the Animals. César Franck was a teacher and connoisseur of Bach, followed by Vincent d'Indy.