(male professor) As we begin discussing the music of 19th century Europe, we should first acknowledge that leading up to that century, there was a major shift in how music was produced.

Now, for most of the history of the arts in Europe, musicians and other artists had always worked in the patronage system.

Under the patronage system, musicians and artists were in the direct employ of someone wealthy enough to pay them. What we call a patron. A patron was generally either someone royal or someone of nobility.

All the arts had at one time been tied to the patronage system, but especially music, because music was so expensive to produce.

A musical performance required a lot of people, a lot of performers. And you had to purchase instruments and copy out sheet music by hand, it could really add up.

But by the 19th century, society had a new structure with important implications for music.

Because by then, you really have a more expanded middle class than ever before. People who are not actually, you know, wealthy enough to single handedly support a musician the way a patron would have.

But people who did have some money to support the arts and wanted to imitate the taste of the nobility by seeing performances or learning to play music themselves.

One sign of this change was that opera houses became widely successful. Anyone who could afford a ticket could attend.

And this was, in contrast to before when the patron, for example, would pay for a performance, just for themselves and their friends.

And it wasn\'t only opera. Public concerts of instrumental music increased as well.

And because so many people were becoming interested, not only in hearing music, but also playing it themselves.

There started to be widespread purchase of instruments like pianos and guitars.

A new, less expensive printing method meant that cheap sheet music could be produced to meet public demand.

And even music magazines were published, magazines containing things like reviews of musical performances, advertisements for musical events.

So, there were new ways for musicians to make money outside the patronage system.

Of course, for musicians, the downside of these changes had to do with job security.

Under patronage, musicians had a lot of job security. I mean, not only did an individual musician have job security, and basically life-long since musicians often lived in their patron’s household, but a musician’s family would have security, too.

You\'d often have sort of a legacy type training situation where musicians would pass their craft from parent to child.

In the 18th century, for example, Mozart was, without a doubt, a musical genius and incredibly gifted composer.

But he also became a musician thanks to the continuation of the family business. Mozart father was a composer and a musician for a royal court.

And that security is nice, of course, but well, if we take a very contemporary view of what it means to be an artist, it\'s also nice when someone can become a musician because they want to, because they\'re following their passion.

And with the decline of both patronage and legacy training, you start seeing more and more musicians who followed their own less secure paths.

There\'s this great story about the 19th century French composer, Hector Berlioz.

Berlioz’s family was absolutely set on him becoming a doctor like his father was and Berlioz did go to medical school, but the whole time he wanted to be a musician, a composer.

The story goes that at some point, and he wrote this in his memoirs, right in the middle of one of his medical classes, he couldn\'t take it anymore and he actually jumped out the classroom window and ran off to become a composer.

Another nice thing is that musicians now had more freedom to compose what they wanted instead of just what a patron wanted them to compose.

Patrons often had specific tastes. They wanted the music to fit certain expectations.

But when you take patrons out of the picture, then people like to check composer, Antonin Dvorak can become popular.

Dvorak’s works sometimes incorporate elements of folk music, the music of the people, folk rhythms and such. Now a wealthy patron might not have welcomed this.

So, under patronage, these pieces might never have seen the light of day, and almost certainly would not have been particularly successful or well received.