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Eyes meet, sparks fly \u2013 and the music plays. Lean into the tragedy: we’re here to explore the many phases of love in classical music. Whether it’s those painful stories of unrequited love, the pains of early lust or the beauty of long-term partnership, here are some of the best stories of composers writing love into their music.<\/strong><\/p> From the troubadours who wandered France in the 12th and 13th centuries singing about courtly love to the starry instrumentalists recording love-themed recital albums in our time, from Arne\u2019s comic ballad opera Love in a Village<\/em> (a hit in its day) to Zemlinsky\u2019s breakup orchestral work Die Seejungfrau<\/em>, love has, one way or another, been one of the universal, timeless themes explored in western classical music. <\/strong><\/p> Opera almost wouldn\u2019t exist were it not for people falling in love with the wrong characters or for insatiable passion that drives them to extreme ends. Safe to say that in art as in life, love truly is all around. <\/p> We\u2019re not talking about the love of friends, family or even nature \u2013 although there are plenty of pieces that explore those too \u2013 but romantic love, whether that\u2019s the big, swept-off-your-feet kind or something quieter but no less strong. The sort of love that propels the dramas of Wagner\u2019s Tristan und Isolde<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, Monteverdi\u2019s L\u2019Orfeo<\/em> (which could be the first opera ever written<\/a><\/strong>) or Verdi\u2019s La traviata<\/em> (which we named as one of the best operas for beginners<\/a><\/strong>). <\/p> Or the love that\u2019s spurred countless songs, from the amusing to the heartfelt: try Britten\u2019s \u2018Tell Me the Truth about Love\u2019, or Poldowski\u2019s \u2018To Love\u2019 or Samuel Coleridge-Taylor<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Southern Love Songs<\/em>. Perhaps it\u2019s the kind immortalised in musical miniatures such as Liszt<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Liebestr\u00e4um No. 3<\/em> (Love\u2019s Dream) and Kreisler\u2019s Liebesfreud<\/em> (Love\u2019s Joy). Or that turned into allegory by Palestrina in his Canticum Canticorum <\/em>motets, expressing the pleasures of earthly love via \u2018the divine love of Christ and his spouse, the Soul\u2019.<\/p> Nearly every composer has something to say about the subject, not least because they so often turned their own turbulent love lives into music. No wonder there\u2019s music that speaks to every step of a romantic relationship.<\/p> \u2018Since first seeing him, I think I am blind, Wherever I look, Him only I see,\u2019 sings the narrator of Schumann<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Frauenliebe- und Leben<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, a sentiment anyone who has ever had a crush will recognise (even if this 19th-century song-cycle goes on to present a decidedly patriarchal view of a woman\u2019s loves and life).<\/p> That first flush of romance is fertile ground for composers. Think Rodolfo and Mim\u00ec in the chilly garret in Puccini<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s La boh\u00e8me<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. The poet and seamstress promptly fall in love, expressing their feelings in the rapturous duet \u2018O soave fanciulla\u2019 that closes the first act, ending with a repeated word, \u2018amor\u2019.<\/p> Or how about the most famous western tale of all-consuming love: Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/em><\/a>. Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/a><\/strong> Overture-Fantasy <\/em>embeds a gorgeous love theme in music of fiery tragedy. Prokofiev<\/a><\/strong> went one step further, writing an entire ballet in 1935. Glinting flutes and harp over a soft bed of muted strings set the dreamy mood of the \u2018Balcony Scene\u2019, blossoming into music full of wonder. It leads to a beautiful \u2018Love Dance\u2019 with soaring strings, swelling brass and harp glissandos<\/a><\/strong> that ends with their first kiss.<\/p>Why is classical music so obsessed with love and romance?<\/h2>
The agonising first flushes of a crush<\/h2>