New German Music / War of the Romantics

       Beethoven → Hector Berlioz → Franz Liszt → Richard Wagner → Anton Bruckner → 

                              Gustav Mahler → Richard Strauss 
 

                The "New German" Music, composed by the "New German school" was a new style of

        orchestra music that came to prominence in the 1850s.  Originally, Franz Liszt and Richard 
        Wagner were the most prominent composers in the group.  There music was brasher, more 
        dissonent, and often more terrifying than their more conservative counterparts.  They tended 
        to use more brass and percussion than other composers.  Liszt's symphonic poems and Wagner's 
        operas broke old rules in composing and established new concepts in orchestra composing.  The 
        works told stories of death, destiny, revenge, heroism, hell, the devil, and much more.  

                Numerous, more conservative German musicians reacted loudly against the New German 
        music.  Perhaps most vocal were Joseph Joachim, an internationally prominent violinist and 
         conductor, and Clara Schumann, famed pianist and wife of composer Robert Schumann. 

         Johanness Brahms, friend of both Joachim and Clara Schumann, chimed in briefly, too, but 

         said little else about it.  These arguments are known as the War of the Romantics.

                Some of the style of the New German school continued on into the 20th century through 
        composers like Richard Strauss.  Also, film composers took up the style especially to swell the 
        drama of intense actions scenes.  Elmer Bernstein's score for the The Ten Commandments or 

        Danny Elfman's score for Batman.