Music

Beethoven, Sonata in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2: III. Allegretto

Romantic music does not, of course, only mean music that makes you want to swoon or cuddle up with your loved one, real or blow-up. This sonata is also known as The Tempest, although Beethoven did not give it this name. The name was allegedly coined by his associate, Anton Schindler, who claimed it was inspired by the eponymous Shakespeare play. The British music scholar Donald Francis Tovey says: “With all the tragic power of its first movement the D minor Sonata is, like Prospero, almost as far beyond tragedy as it is beyond mere foul weather.”

Schumann, Ghost Variations

Robert Schumann is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the romantic era. Composed in 1854, this was his last piano work. A beautifully poetic five-movement work, the music was composed shortly before the poor, troubled composer threw himself into the Rhine. Schumann is a great composer to go to for romantic mood music, but probably not the best for relationship advice.

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, Last Movement

Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony was written during one of the happiest times of the composer’s life. The finale is, as one music critic put it, a piece with an overflowing torrent of “love and counterpoint”.

This fifth movement of his Fifth Symphony – the Rondo Finale – was written during his courtship and marriage to Alma Schindler. Even before the music begins, the music directions give away the mood of this piece: joy.

Rachmaninov: Variation 18 from Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

Rachmaninoff conceived the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – his last piece for piano and orchestra – in the spring of 1934, and composed it, in less than two months, that summer in Switzerland.

There are 24 variations in all and they fall into three distinct movements. Variation 18 is the most famous of these pieces with its well-known passionately, lyrical theme, which is the emotional centrepiece of the rhapsody.

Literature

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

Who can talk about romantic literature without mentioning that emotional rollercoaster of a novel Wuthering Heights? In her first and only novel, Bronte takes her reader along the self-destructive journey of the dark and troubled Heathcliff, as he seeks revenge for losing his soul mate, Catherine, to Edgar Linton. Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are among the most famous fictional couples of all time.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife

They are probably second only to Romeo and Juliet in this regard. Though, contrary to the Shakespearean lovers, who are kept apart by the society in which they live, Catherine and Heathcliff are themselves responsible for their failure to fulfil their love for one another because of their own passionate nature.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“It is a truth universally acknow- ledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”  This book has possibly one of the most famous openings in classical literature and has been so successful that it has inspired hundreds of imitators, though none equalling the sharp-tongued Lizzy and handsome but reserved D’Arcy’s chemistry in the drawing rooms and libraries of Regency England.

Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

If romantic suspense is your thing, then follow the story of the second Mrs Maxim de Winter as she enters the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learns the story of the house’s first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is obsessively devoted in a novel with a title as equally well-known as Austen’s: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again… secretive and silent as it had always been.”

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Despite her miserable childhood at the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre is strong, in spirit and integrity. Our heroine falls in love with Mr Rochester. But this is not just purely a romance novel, it’s a complex work which combines elements of the coming-of-age story, the roman-à-clef and the gothic novel.

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