Ludwig van Beethoven Moonlight Sonata Septet op. 20 King Stephan Spring Sonata Romance Pathétique Piano Concerto NO. 4 Fidelio op. 72

The Romantic Movement

Romanticism Reaction against much Enlightenment thought Writers opposed narrow scientific viewpoint of Philosophes Not everything is RATIONAL –Feelings & imaginations are OK –Religion is basic to human nature –Faith is a means to knowledge

Rousseau …We lay too much stress upon words; we teachers babble, and our scholars follow our example. Our real teachers are experience and emotion, and man will never learn what befits a man except under its own conditions. Emile

Immanuel Kant [O]bjective reality is known only to the extent that it conforms to the structure of our mind. The main consequence - discussed in his Critique of Pure Reason - is that God, freedom, etc can simply not be investigated by scientific means.

William Blake Night The sun descending in the west, The evening star does shine; The birds are silent in their nest, And I must seek for mine. The moon like a flower, In heaven's high bower, With silent delight Sits and smiles on the night.

Coleridge "Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming" (from Biographia Literaria, 1817)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round : And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

William Wordsworth "Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished." (from 'Letter to Lady Beaumont,' 1807)

Lord Byron "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know" She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Goethe "If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as he ought to be and could be, he will become as he ought to be and could be"

Johann Gottlieb Fichte …The world is truly the creation of humankind. …. strong persons conceive of it in a particular way and impose their wills on the world and other people KOT p.700

Georg W. F. Hegel "I liken my study of logic to the study of grammar. You only really see the rewards when you later come to observe language in use and you grasp what it is that makes the language of poetry so evocative".

Hegel Thesis—predominant ideas Antithesis—conflicting ideas Synthesis—meshing of ideas into new Thesis Repeating pattern

Questions?