A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Romance
ROMANCE (Germ. Romanze). A term of very vague signification, answering in music to the same term in poetry, where the characteristics are rather those of personal sentiment and expression than of precise form. The Romanze in Mozart's D minor PF. Concerto differs (if it differs) from the slow movements of his other Concertos in the extremely tender and delicate character of its expression; in its form there is nothing at all unusual; and the same may be said of Beethoven's two Romances for the violin and orchestra in G and F (op. 40 and 50), and of Schumann's 'Drei Romanzen' (op. 28). Schumann has also affixed the title to 3 movements for oboe and PF. (op. 94), and to a well-known piece in D minor (op. 32, no. 3), [App. p.773 "add the three pieces by Schumann, op. 28"] just as he, or some one of his followers [App. p.773 "omit the words or some one of his followers"], has used the similar title, 'in Legendenton.' The Romance which forms the second movement of his symphony in D minor, is a little poem full of sentimental expression.
In vocal music the term is obviously derived from the character or title of the words. In English poetry we have few 'romances,' though such of Moore's melodies as 'She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps' might well bear the title. But in France they abound, and some composers (such as Puget and Panseron) have derived nine-tenths of their reputation from them. 'Partant pour la Syrie' may be named as a good example, well known on this side the water. Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words' are called in France 'Romances sans Paroles.'[ G. ]