Romance
The romance in the field of poetic creation, is defined as the result of the grouping, usually brief, of verses whose metric has eight syllables (octosyllabic). In these, the phonetic correspondence is fulfilled in the last vowel of each syllable (rhyme) of those verses whose order agrees with numbers multiples of two, while the rest can dispense with the rhythmic coincidence (they remain “free”). Romance Types Resources and Works
This type of literary composition aims, through the correct use of a series of resources, to decompose an event into its most substantial facts. This is done through a narrative that awakens the reader’s feelings .
In general terms the composers of the romances sought to inform, to educate by means of striking stanzas. The thematic range to be developed in the romances is wide, since it is possible to relate from significant events that occurred in a time of the past, to talk with the intention of transmitting the emotions of the writer.
In this style of poetry, the repeated writing of words or expressions predominates in order to create a dramatic atmosphere . The arrangement of words in the same order to achieve the required and desired musicality was key, as was the omission of an explanatory conclusion.
They also have an explanatory simplicity that facilitates their memorization. These are the most prominent specifications among others that are subject to the types of romances.
Source
There are various theories that seek to explain the birth of romances. These constitute a dilemma that is based on the lack of certainty about which lyrical compositions of this type arose first: oral or written.
The traditionalist theory
This exposes that the genesis of romantic compositions dates back to the 1400s, when they emerged as an extraction of rhythmic oral narratives about the courageous actions of the heroes of that time.
These narrations were shouted by the so-called “street artists” or “minstrels”. These managed to expand and penetrate the inhabitants of the towns in such a way that they made it common for citizens to take and recite the most interesting paragraphs, or where the greatest amount of emotion was concentrated.
After repeating the fragments that were most pleasant to them, they were transmitted from one person to another, spreading at great speed.
In this way, little by little, the poemillas reached neighboring towns, and in the process acquired modifications by those who recited them, becoming works with personal touches and giving rise to the creation of new ones, but of the same kind. Romance Types Resources and Works
The individualist theory
Those who defend this position allege that the first romances took shape from the pen of those cultists who decided to translate their knowledge into poems of collective interest, for later dissemination.
This theory coincides with the one previously proposed in that it also considers minstrels the means of communication available to poets of those times to be able to disseminate their works.
The neo-traditional theory
This represents the agreement between the two previous theories.
Its argument is that the origin of romantic creations is based on the separation of epic narratives in their most important parts by poets, and that it was the minstrels who were dedicated to spreading them.
The only difference that is worth noting is that the fragmentation of the poems is attributed to the street artists.
Other postures
Despite what these theories exhibit, there are those who say that the romantic genre existed as a written composition before being orally transmitted between settlers.
However, according to research, it is currently believed that it is in the 15th century when the songs of romance go from being part of popular speech to being immortalized on paper.
Types
There are different ways in which it is possible to present a romance. The most common are listed below:
According to its origin
Depending on the way in which the romantic poem was created, it can take the form of old or new: old or new.
Old ballads
They constitute those poetic compositions developed between the years 1400 and 1499.
Characteristics
– Fragmentation of a deed song.
– Anonymous.
– Its diffusion is through orality.
– Structure that does not fit four-line paragraphs.
New ballads
They are those made from the 1500s onwards.
Characteristics
– New creation.
– Known author.
– Its propagation is written.
– They are arranged in quatrains.
According to your grammatical disposition
It refers to the way in which the narrated events are organized, the strophic structures that make up each romance. Among these we have: Romance Types Resources and Works
Dramatic romance
It is the one whose story is broken down into different scenes where the characters interact.
Characteristics
– It focuses on the most important moment or peak in history.
– It lacks a beginning and a conclusion.
Traditional romance
In them the events are presented with the usual structure of a narrative. They treat the diverse subjects of the daily life and enjoyed great acceptance among the inhabitants of the provinces.
Characteristics
– The beginning and end of the events are described, they do not focus so much on the intermediate plot.
Repetitive romance
It is one in which words or sentences constantly repeated abound. Although their composition was extremely simple, due to the use of repetition they were the most learned and disseminated by the people.
Characteristics
– Set of verses that is reproduced throughout the poem.
– It is repeated interspersed.
According to your subject
The compositions revolve around specific and well-differentiated themes. Between them we have:
Historical romance
It differs from the others in that it recounts events that marked a specific time due to the changes they generated. It is used as a reference by many students of history for touching points or situations that tend to escape the chroniclers of the time.
Characteristics
– They narrate important events.
– It honors the legends or momentous events of a nation.
Sentimental romance
In this the writer is dedicated to letting feelings lead his imagination and, in turn, his hand. It is closely linked not only to reciprocated love, but also to the melancholy of rejection.
A large part of these compositions deal with the hopelessness and restlessness of denied love, of non-acceptance. These romantic compositions tended to be the most popular together with the moaxajas and their farewell jarchas. Romance Types Resources and Works
Characteristics
– Emotions are its foundation.
– They should not necessarily be about love, but rather the events are related from a subjective point of view.
Heroic romance
Their main function is to highlight the importance of the feats of the saviors who were part of a nation. These compositions enjoyed great popularity among the inhabitants of the different provinces, as they were considered pieces of great value for the protection of the exploits of the best men in each region.
Characteristics
– Is particularized by relating acts of bravery.
– Its protagonists are the heroes of a nation or people.
Resources
In the context of the Castilian language, they are those literary riches that when used help the writing to achieve its communicative or sensitizing purposes. In the case of romances, there are two types that are used in their creation and they are the ones that are exposed below:
Structural resources
They are those that intervene in certain parts of the romance with a modifying purpose in terms of the perception of the writing. They contribute to the position in context of what is described therein. They are explained below:
Setting
They are those figurative scenarios that surround the events that make up the narrative, and that are usually natural landscapes. This aspect varies according to the author on duty.
It is like the fingerprint of the poet. Depending on the literary preparation of this, it is the descriptive quality and the contribution. Romance Types Resources and Works
This resource also includes the time or date in which the event (s) is located. It is worth noting that the setting has served as a historical reference for many scholars to corroborate the veracity of certain events that occurred in those times.
Principle of action
This type of composition is characterized by beginning to relate the activity of some of the characters that are part of it.
They focus on describing the actions of the protagonists and how they affect the rest of those present, generating new events, and complicating the poetic plot until the end.
Textual resources
The most abundant in romantic poems are the following:
Phonetic reiteration
Also called alliteration , it corresponds to the repetition of the same sound (a letter or syllable), in order to create auditory pleasant melodies. In addition to the above, they increase the degree of expressiveness.
This particular resource is one of the richest because it allowed a greater memory fixation of the poemillas in the settlers, thanks to its rhythmic properties. Being the people the real one in charge of the propagation and popularization of romances, it gives more weight to the use of phonetic reiteration.
Structural repetition
It alludes to the repeated appearance of the same grammatical model or organization with a rhythmic objective.
This resource goes hand in hand with phonetic reiteration, it also plays a fundamental role in the memory process. The duplication of strophic structures with words and phrases easily assimilated contributed to the spread of many of the most famous romances.
Sensitive representations
Through these, the exaltation of the five senses is pursued in the narrative: smell, sight, touch, hearing and taste. Romance Types Resources and Works
The enhancement of these qualities makes literary creation much more experiential. Whoever recounts, sings or repeats the compositions not only repeats words at random, but is also generating a memory process at the brain level that involves all the receptors that give reason for its existence.
It is a catalyst that adds much greater intensity to the cognitive pedagogical-andragogical fact that in itself implies the creation of these poetic compositions.
Repetition of words
It is about that repeated writing of visually close words that is done to highlight some important aspect within the romantic plot.
The greater the number of identical or similar words in terms of sounds, the greater the retention of the poems in the minds of the listeners. It is a very simple and functional resource, not only present in this poetic form, but in the vast majority of lyrical manifestations of the time.
Similes
They deal with the use of comparisons, or manifestations of similarity or difference between people, animals or things.
The greater number of associations between the elements that make up structures, beings or things, the easier it is to memorize the poems. People learn more simply with association, neural links emerge more efficiently and effectively.
Major Works
- the publication Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge
- the composition Hymns to the Night by Novalis
- poetry by William Blake
- poetry by Robert Burns
- Rousseau’s philosophical writings
- “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
- the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- the written works of William Wordsworth
- poetry by Mary Tighe
- novels by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- works by German romantic writers such as Ludwig Tieck, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Holderlin, Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim
- “Der Sandmann” by E.T.A. Hoffmann
- Das Marmorbild by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
- a collection of folktales titled Des Knaben Wunderhorn
- Grimms’ Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm
- Hans Christian Andersen’s folk tales
- mythology written by Jacob Grimm
- poets such as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Black, and John Clare
- Rene, a novella by Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand
- classics such as The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Romance Types Resources and Works
- poetry by Alfred de Musset, Alphonse de Lamartine, Gerard de Nerval, and Theophile Gautier
- George Sand’s novels and criticisms
- novels by Stendhal such as The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma
- written work by Konstantin Batyuskov, Vasily Zhukovsky, Nikolay Karamzin, Alexander Pushkin, Michael Lermontov, Eugene Onegin, Ruslan and Ludmila, Fyodor Tyutchev, Yevgeny Baratynsky, Anton Delvig, and Wilhelm Kuchelbecker
- Polish poetry by Zygmunt Krasiński, Juliusz Slowacki and Adam Mickiewicz
- Spanish poetry by Mariano Jose de Larra and Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
- Don Juan Tenorio by Jose Zorrilla
- Folhas Caidas by Almeida Garett
Art Romanticism Examples
The art of Romanticism focused on emotions, spirituality and imagination. It typically included landscapes covering nature, rebellion and childhood. Another common theme included peaceful beauty. Examples of art in Romanticism include:
- Caspar David Friedrich’s paintings: “Morning in the Riesengebirge,” “Monastery Graveyard in the Snow,” “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog,” “Solitary Tree,” “Eldena Ruin,” “Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon”
- Joseph Mallord William Turner’s paintings: “Dido Building Carthage of The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire,” “Staffa,” “Fingal’s Cave,” “The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons,” “The Grand Canal,” “Rain, Steam and Speed”
- Jacques Louis David’s paintings: “Bonaparte Crossing the Alps,” “Cupid and Psyche”
- John Constable’s paintings: “The Hay-Wain,” “The Leaping Horse”
- Eugene Delacroix’s paintings: “Dante and Virgil in Hell, Massacre at Chios,” “The Death of Sardanapalus,” “Liberty Guiding the People”
- Henry Wallis’ oil painting: “The Death of Chatterton”
- Francesco Hayez painting: “The Kiss”
- Theodore Gericault’s painting: “The Raft of Medusa”
- Thomas Gainsborough’s painting: “Blue Boy”
- Francisco Goya paintings: “The Third of May 1808,” “1814,” “The Second of May 1808,”
- Philipp Otto Runge’s painting: “The Morning”
Examples of Romanticism in Music
Like with literature and art, musical romanticism sought to explore emotional expression. However, it also experimented with musical forms to enhance the originality of the pieces. Some of the great musicians of the time period include Beethoven, Chopin and Schubert. Explore examples of Romanticism in music:
- Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
- Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in Flat B Major
- Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
- Chopin’s Waltz in D Flat Romance Types Resources and Works
- Verdi’s Rigoletto (Act III) La donna e mobile
- Max Bruch’s Concerto for Violin No. 1 in G minor
- Puccini’s Nessun Dorma
- Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb minor
- Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words
- Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor
- Dvorak’s Symphony No. 4
We hope that you have read about the different types of Romance.
