It has been the custom among historians of music to consider the epoch of the older masters as the “classic period,” and to apply the term “romantic school” to a long list of modern composers of which Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Spohr and Weber are the most important names. Such a classification is of considerable convenience; particularly as the so-called romantic movement which pervaded literature was not far from contemporary with the appearance of these composers. But it would be difficult to define and enumerate the various elements which enter into the adjective “romantic” as used in this connection; for nearly all the praiseworthy characteristics of these later composers are present in certain great works of the so-called classical composers, not excepting him who is considered so “unsympathetic” by many of the enthusiastic admirers of modern music, Sebastian Bach. It is certainly true that the tone-poems of Beethoven possess romantic characteristics which have been misunderstood or ignored by those who claim for his successors a wholly new direction of musical development. But in a general way we recognize in modern “romantic” music the tendency to set less value on musical construction or form for its own sake than on the subjective expression of musical ideas. Further than this there has been a tendency to enlarge the scope of descriptive music, not only in connection with the drama, but in the application of fanciful titles to instrumental movements as exemplified by the piano pieces of Schumann. [Illustration: JOHANN PETER SCHULZ. ] As we have said, the same period was not without strong indications of similar changes in the domain of letters. We have not space to give details of literary history, but it may suffice to point out that, with the advent of the music of Weber, Schumann and others, Germany was overflowing with intense sympathy and enthusiasm for the writings of Byron and of the prose-poetizer, Jean Paul Richter.