If the periods of art ever put forth their most-iconic works, Romanticism would surely include “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog,” the oil painting, circa 1818, by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. Like the Romantic period itself, this painting is often called sublime: a word meaning “elevated in dignity,” but also, “to pass from…

The story of Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was one of the most tragic in classical music. When historians look back on his work, they view it equal in every measure to that of Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven. Apart from a few composers of that time (Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms) who found and championed his…

He wrote one of the most widely performed symphonies of the early 20th century but is virtually forgotten today. American composer Howard Hanson (1896–1981) was a self-professed Romantic whose works richly deserve to be revived and restored to global musical consciousness. By “self-professed,” I refer to the title Hanson gave his Symphony No. 2, “Romantic,”…

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher. —William Wordsworth In times when “progress” charts a potentially perilous course for humanity, it’s the role of art to remind us of our connection to life, both inside and outside ourselves. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as the industrial revolution transformed the…