The Evolution Of The Violin Concerto In The European Romantic Perio

In the history of the development of violin music,Romantic period was crucial for European violin music since the violin technique and its related art of playing were tested to the extreme until new methods of playing were introduced.The distinction between vocal and instrumental writing became even more pronounced while the orchestra grew in both size and instrumental variety.The violin concerto especially was crucial for these changes:the style normally used in the Baroque period for soloist was quite fixed until the romantic period when the german composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy took the courageous decision of putting some elements of innovations in his newly composed E minor violin concerto.Therefore this thesis intends to introduce the reader to a detailed analysis of what were the innovations introduced by Mendelssohn’s violin concerto for the standards of the Romantic violin concerto of that era and how these features consequently inspired those composers that came afterwards.This work consists of three chapters in total:in the first chapter is given a general introduction on how was the violin concerto in baroque era with a quick mention on Antonio Vivaldi’s style of the violin concerto.The second chapter is the main topic of this work,which is Mendelssohn’s E minor violin concerto analysis with a digression of the violin techniques introduced by the composer and the original features of this composition.In conclusion on the third chapter is portrayed a quick analysis of the late romantic period composer Max Bruch’ G minor violin concerto to display how his work was influenced by Mendelssohn’s E minor violin concerto composing style.