The Romantic Period, lasting from about 1825 to 1900, saw the beginning of great individualism in music styles. The era consisted of great contrasts in both musical literature and musical esthetics, the branch of philosophy that deals with beauty and taste. The Romantic Era was the period marked by distinctive character of such music forms as the short intimate preludes, music that precedes a fugue or introduces an act in an opera, and the extraordinarily big concertos of Liszt. Romanticism derives its name from medieval "romances," which w ....