Lecture 19
Music of the Romantic Era
Emotion set free
Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, learners will be able to: (1) describe how Romantic composers expanded harmony, dynamics, and form; (2) identify programme music and explain its story-telling aim; (3) discuss how emotion is shaped by musical choices.
Lesson Discussion
Romantic music put feeling first. Learners hear how composers stretched harmony, widened dynamics, and wrote pieces that tell a story without words. We listen to a short programme piece and discuss which musical choices create which feelings. The lesson ends with a creative task: learners choose three musical elements to describe a scene, and the class guesses the scene.
Instructional Materials
Slide deck · Programme music excerpt · Elements-and-emotion chart · Creative scene-setting task · Romantic vs Classical comparison