Post for 1/21 - Romanticism vs. Rationalism

Learning about romanticism this week, I thought it was interesting how opposed romanticism was to the Enlightenment movement. And really, they did not have much in common. The Enlightenment focused on such things as knowledge and reason, while the whole idea of romanticism was emotion, meditation, and the abstract. It is important to remember that each school of thought has its own positive characteristics. A well-rounded person possesses both knowledge and feelings, so we need both Enlightenment ideas and Romantic ideas in our world.

As a side note, I think it's very interesting how romanticism displayed itself in the music of the day. I play the piano, and I have worked with many classical piano pieces, from baroque to romantic to more modern. Through this, I have noticed a fascinating pattern. Traditional ideas of the time were straightforward and to-the-point; similarly, pre-Romantic music was largely plain and simple. When Romantic ideas presented themselves, the music changed into ornate, flowery pieces with so many extra notes and trills that it is almost overwhelming. But this completely reflects the mood of the time - the expression of abstract feelings and emotions. This goes to show that Romanticism affected many different areas of life, many of which we never think about.

Comments

  1. Jackson HicksJanuary 24, 2022 at 10:59 AM

    Hey! Thanks for your post, I really liked how you spoke on the differences between these two ideas, and your own relationship with romanticism. It was something I mentioned in my own too. I think we can all use a little romanticism in our lives.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Professor StarkFebruary 3, 2022 at 2:51 PM

    Thank you, Seth, for the post. I enjoyed reading about your take on Romanticism and how different it was from the Enlightenment. Your point about a well-rounded person possess traits drawn from both was good and I learned from your discussion of how music changed with the transition to Romanticism.

    ReplyDelete

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