Research Paper on:
Comparison Between Robert Schumann and Franz Haydn

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
music play everything from Bach to Stravinsky. However, to the music historian "classical" music refers to a specific period that lasted from roughly 1775 to 1825 and centers on the  achievements of four masters of the Viennese school - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert (Machlis, 1970). In order to help the student researching this topic differentiate between Haydns string  quartet op. 76 No. 4, --or at least a portion of this movement - and Robert Schumanns "The Poet Speaks" from his Scenes from Childhood - with only one  of these pieces being "classical" --it seems applicable to first define what is meant by "classical." The classical period for music evolved as a synthesis of the intellectual current  of the eighteenth century (Machlis, 1970). The "great theme" of this eras art was humanity itself, with man at its center in his role as a rational creature, "working  his destiny in an ordered universe whose outer garment was the beauty of nature and whose inner law was the clarity of reason" (Machlis, 1970, p. 198). The classical musicians  struck a balance between the evocative nature of emotions and the clear serenity of the intellect. It was an era of "absolute" music, that is, music that was not designed  to evoke an image, or tell a story, but rather was intended to be appreciated as an artwork separate unto itself (Machlis, 1970). This perspective corresponds markedly with the next  period in music history, the romantic. In many ways, the romanticism of the nineteenth century was in direct reaction to the emphasis on reason that had prevailed in  the eighteenth. While Robert Schumann saw himself as a guardian of the classical ideals of Beethoven and Schubert, it is also true that romanticism pervaded his music (Walker, 1972).