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The ''War of the Romantics'' is a term used by music historians to describe the aesthetic schism among prominent musicians in the second half of the 19th century. Musical structure, the limits of chromatic harmony, and program music versus absolute music were the principal areas of contention. The opposing parties crystallized during the 1850s. The conservative circle was centered on Johannes Brahms, Joseph Joachim, Clara Schumann, and the Leipzig Conservatoire which had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn. Their opponents, the radical progressives in Weimar, were represented by Franz Liszt and the members of the so-called New German School (''"Neudeutsche Schule"''), and by Richard Wagner. The controversy was German and Central European in origin; musicians from France, Italy, and Russia were only marginally involved. Composers from both sides looked back on Beethoven as their spiritual and artistic hero; the conservatives seeing him as an unsurpassable peak, the progressives as a new beginning in music. ==The conservatives== Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms were early key members of a conservative group of musicians. This core of supporters maintained the artistic legacy of Robert Schumann, Clara's husband, who had died in 1856. While Robert Schumann had been a progressive critic and editor of the influential music periodical ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'', which he had founded in 1834, he was never a true admirer of Liszt.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 340.〕 However, as Schumann maintained exceptionally enthusiastic and artistically fruitful friendships with the emerging vanguard of radical romantics — Liszt in particular — as well as with musical conservatives such as Mendelssohn and Gade, he remained cordial with Liszt at first. He praised Liszt's piano playing in ''Neue Zeitschrift'' and reviewed his Leipzig concerts in 1840 favorably.〔 However, as Lisztomania swept through Europe after 1842, both he and Clara believed that Liszt had become self-deluded.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 340-1.〕 After Schumann sold the ''Neue Zeitschrift'' to Franz Brendel in 1845, it became an enthusiastic supporter of Liszt and his circle.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 341.〕 It also openly played down Mendelssohn and other conservative composers.〔 Though the final break between Liszt and Schumanns would not come until 1848, the editorial turn that ''Neuw Zeitschrift'' had taken would color their relations for the rest of their lives.〔 While Liszt remained cordial and at times generous on a professional level toward the Schumanns, they became openly hostile to him.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 342-4.〕 Clara Schumann had long been the more conservative aesthete in the Schumann marriage. She perceived the editorial change in ''Neue Zeitschrift'' as a slight against her husband’s legacy. The young Brahms, who had been very close to the Schumanns during Robert’s decline, also took up the cause.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 351.〕 Joachim, who was a friend of both Clara and Brahms, joined them in his opposition to Liszt and the New German School. A child prodigy, Joachim at 17 had become professor of violin at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he forged close ties with Mendelssohn, the Schumanns and Ferdinand David.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 344-5.〕 Two years later, he became concertmaster of the Weimar Court Orchestra under Liszt's direction.〔Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 345.〕 His three years in Weimar left him with poor impressions of Liszt's conducting and compositions.〔 His opinion of Liszt's music and that of the rest of the New German School was reinforced by his correspondence with Brahms and Clara.〔Swafford, 206; Walker, ''The Weimar Years'', 346.〕 Brahms's personal experience with Liszt had been limited to a single visit to Weimar in 1853, when he presented some of his compositions to a group that included Liszt, Peter Cornelius and Joachim Raff. After Liszt played some of Brahms's work, he performed his own B-minor Piano Sonata.〔Swafford, 67-8.〕 Brahms was impressed neither with Liszt's music nor with that of most of the rest of the New German School.〔Swafford, 68.〕 The exception was Wagner.〔 While he would not attempt to dissuade his fellow conservatives from despising Wagner's music, he respected it privately,〔Swafford, 195, 267-8.〕〔Brahms, a collector of historic music scores and first editions, owned the Wagner's handwritten score of the "Venusberg" music from ''Tannhäuser'' and the concert ending for the prelude of ''Tristan and Isolde'', given to him by friend and pianist Carl Tausig in 1864 (Bozarth, ''New Grove'' (2000), 4:188; Swafford, 269-70) When Wagner learned what Tausig had done, he was outraged. Brahms finally agreed to give back it back—in 1875—in exchange for a deluxe printed score of ''Das Rheingold'' (Swafford, 400-401).〕 More than once told his friends, "I am the best of Wagnerians."〔As quoted in Swafford, 267, 355.〕 Joachim, like Brahms, respected Wagner's music; however, they both also agreed that Wagner's writings were far more dangerous.〔Swafford, 195.〕 The critic Eduard Hanslick was very influential on the conservatives' behalf, as his view of music as "form moving in sound" meshed with their own.〔as quoted in Weimar, ''The Weimar Years'', 361.〕 Associated with them at one time or another were Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Friedrich Gernsheim, Robert Fuchs, and Karl Goldmark, among others. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「War of the Romantics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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