In this volume of the Norton Introduction to Music History series, Leon Plantinga explores the origins of Romanticism, leading the reader through the maze of genres and genuses that proliferated during the turbulent nineteenth century.

Beginning with Beethoven's middle years, the author weaves a narrative in which major composers such as Schubert, Rossini, Liszt, Chopin, Berlioz, Schumann, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Musorgsky are discussed in historical context. Professor Plantinga also places into clear focus slightly lesser figures such as Mendelssohn, Smetana, Dvorak, and others. In a final section that embraces Brahms, Mahler, Bruckner, Strauss, and Wolf, Plantinga rounds out this fascinating survey of the diverging movements and styles that constitute the Romantic century's legacy to the musical arts.