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I was invited by my friend to attend a concert entitled “Music from the Romantic Era“ which was presented by Yamaha Academy of Arts and Music & Yamaha Youth Orchestra.

The first performance was “Pictures at an Exhibition, 1st movement” by Mussorgsky which was presented by their Instrumental Ensemble. I was very surprised by the music which was totally unromantic as how I would have expected.

The emcees for the evening, Eden Ho and Cheah Mun Wei, did a good job in explaining what the music in Romantic era was all about.

Here is the excerpt from the concert handout about Romantic music

A brief history about Romantic Music
The era of Romantic music is defied as the period of European classical music that runs roughly from 1820 to 1900, as well as music written according to the norms and styles of that period. The Romantic period was preceded by the classical period and the late classical period of which music is by Beethoven, and was followed by the modernist period.

Romantic period is related to romanticism in literature, visual arts, and philosophy; through the conventional time periods used in musicology are now different from their counterparts in the other eras, which define ‘romantic’ as running from the 1780s to the 18040s. The Romanticism movement held that not all truth could be deduced from the axioms, that there were inescapable realities in the world which could only be reached through emotions, feeling and intuition. Romantic music struggled to increase emotional expression and power to describe these deeper truths, while preserving or even extending the formal structures from the classical period.

The vernacular use of the term ‘romantic music’ applies to music which is thought to evoke a soft mood or dreamy atmosphere. This usage is rooted in the connotations of the word ‘romantic’ tat were established during the period, but not all ‘Romantic’ pieces fit this description, with some musical romanticism producing strong, harsh sound for agitated emotion. Conversely, music that is ‘romantic’ in the modern everyday usage of the word (that is, relating to the emotion of love) is not necessarily linked to the Romantic period.

The students from the Yamaha academy presented many pieces from other well know composers as well. The more popular ones were “CanCan – Orpheus in the Underworld” by Offenbach and “Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss.

The most interesting presentation was the “Cats” duet by Rossini presented by Lai Mun Ka and Eden Ho. This song has only one syllable –meow. These two ladies were meowing to each other and they did a splendid job. Everyone enjoyed their performance.

Special mention should also go to Eden Ho who was the emcee, violinist, organ player and vocalist for the evening. She was the most versatile contributor to the concert for the evening.