<P> Events and changes that happen in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events always affect music . For example, the Industrial Revolution was in full effect by the late 18th century and early 19th century . This event had a very profound effect on music: there were major improvements in the mechanical valves, and keys that most woodwinds and brass instruments depend on . The new and innovative instruments could be played with greater ease and they were more reliable (Schmidt - Jones and Jones 2004, 3). </P> <P> Another development that had an effect on music was the rise of the middle class . Composers before this period lived on the patronage of the aristocracy . Many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music (Schmidt - Jones and Jones 2004, 3). The Romantic composers, on the other hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers, who had not necessarily had any music lessons (Schmidt - Jones and Jones 2004, 3). Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar, showed the world that there should be "no segregation of musical tastes" (Young 1967, 525) and that the "purpose was to write music that was to be heard" (Young 1967, 527). </P> <P> During the Romantic period, music often took on a much more nationalistic purpose . For example, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia has been interpreted to represent the rising nation of Finland, which would someday gain independence from Russian control (Child 2006). Frédéric Chopin was one of the first composers to incorporate nationalistic elements into his compositions . Joseph Machlis states, "Poland's struggle for freedom from tsarist rule aroused the national poet in Poland....Examples of musical nationalism abound in the output of the romantic era . The folk idiom is prominent in the Mazurkas of Chopin" (Machlis 1963, 149--50). His mazurkas and polonaises are particularly notable for their use of nationalistic rhythms . Moreover, "During World War II the Nazis forbade the playing of...Chopin's Polonaises in Warsaw because of the powerful symbolism residing in these works" (Machlis 1963, 150). Other composers, such as Bedřich Smetana, wrote pieces that musically described their homelands; in particular, Smetana's Vltava is a symphonic poem about the Moldau River in the modern - day Czech Republic and the second in a cycle of six nationalistic symphonic poems collectively titled Má vlast (My Homeland) (Grunfeld 1974, 112--13). Smetana also composed eight nationalist operas, all of which remain in the repertory . They established him as the first Czech nationalist composer as well as the most important Czech opera composer of the generation who came to prominence in the 1860s (Ottlová, Tyrrell, and Pospíšil 2001). </P>

Instrumental music of the romantic period 1820 to 1900