ROMANTICISM (IN MUSIC)
The problem is, nowadays practically everyone thinks music is romanticism - meaning, the composer expresses himself, expresses his own personality, through his music. That's romanticism.
It's often surprising to many, but it has not always been the case.
In fact, it has very seldom been the case. Only our civilisation, and only from the end of the 18th century, consider the purpose of music is expressing one's feelings.
A few examples :
- in ancient Greece, there is no "music for music" : it serves only as an accompaniment for speeches, poetry, theatre plays...
- music that brings courage to the soldier's heart before he goes to battle (many civilisations, many times)
- music that brings closer to God and exists only to celebrate a mass (gregorian chant)
- music that brings to a state of trance (African and/or shamanist traditions)
- figuralist music, that celebrates nature or otherwise by imitating it
etc etc etcIndeed, music that expresses one's personality, that's quite rare.
Even Mozart, which is commonly considered as a romantic composer, was not writing music to express his feelings.
Romanticism in music, at least in our civilization, was more or less born in Vienna, Austria, at the end of the 18th century.The first romantic composer would be Schubert. Beethoven may be the archetype for the romantic composer.
Romanticism in "academic" music ended somewhere near 1910 - 1930, and was followed by different tendancies : impressionism, then dodecaphonism, serialism, and so on.
Nowadays, romanticism in music is running strong.
But not necessarily in other media : in the movies, for instance. Most films are not expressing any guy's feelings. The "merely" show, illustrate, propose... something which is hopefully colorful and interesting.
Think about StarWars, the movie : is it the expression of any feeling ? It's more of an epic story. That's something very different.