American Romantics, Vol. 3

American Romanticism in music refers to the 19th‑century U.S. adoption and adaptation of the European Romantic idiom—tonal but increasingly chromatic harmony, expansive melody, rich orchestration, and a taste for programmatic or poetic inspiration—filtered through American cultural sources. Hallmarks include songful, folk‑tinged themes; narrative and landscape evocation; and an evolving nationalism that drew on Irish/Scottish melodies, Native American materials (often through the period’s now‑contested “Indianist” lens), African‑American spirituals, and hymns, all cast in Romantic forms such as the symphonic poem, concert overture, parlor song, and late‑Romantic symphony.