lateRomantic

Late Romantic is a term used to describe the later phase of Romanticism in both music and literature, roughly spanning the late 19th century into the early 20th century. It signals a continuation and intensification of Romantic ideals—intense emotion, personal expression, a fascination with nature, the supernatural, and national or exotic subject matter—while also giving way to the stylistic shifts that would lead to modernism. The label is not rigid, and scholars may classify works differently, with some viewing late Romanticism as a bridge to post-Romantic or early modernist approaches.

In music, late Romantic typically covers approximately the 1890s to the early decades of the 20th century. Composers expanded orchestras, experimented with richer chromatic harmony, and pursued expansive, often programmatic or narratively driven forms. The style emphasizes emotional breadth, individuality, and a continued belief in the expressive potential of traditional tonal centers, even as new harmonic and formal ideas emerged. Notable figures often associated with late Romantic music include Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (by some accounts), Jean Sibelius, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, among others. Their symphonies, operas, tone poems, and song cycles illustrate the era’s blend of lush sonorities and heightened subjectivity.

In literature, late Romanticism persists in poetry and prose into the fin de siècle, stressing the imagination, inner life, and the sublime. Authors retain Romantic preoccupations with nature, emotion, and individual genius while engaging with broader cultural shifts, such as symbolism, decadence, and a move toward realism. The result is a literary late Romantic strand that helped shape later modernist sensibilities.

Overall, late Romantic represents a transitional period that preserves core Romantic sensibilities while expanding formal and thematic possibilities, influencing subsequent artistic movements.