That distinction between romantic on the one hand and baroque and classical on the other is interesting. I'd never heard nor realized that.
Yes, "In C" is a fascinating concept. There are many different performances of it, and each one is interesting. Some are truly sublime.
Classical and baroque music relied a lot on following existing music theories of the time, and while expression was encouraged, it was only to a degree. Excessive expression and deviation from theory was frowned upon, which was why Beethoven was also heavily critiqued though also lauded.
The 'In C' that I watched was performed using mostly African instruments, this one
I realized that because of how it was arranged, each is really different from the next, each unique.
Lou Reed once said that writing rock songs was difficult, and that he spent a lot of time on it. He added, as you imply above, that classical composers had it easy, cuz they just had to sit down and follow the rules. Then, everyone would listen to their music.
https://steemit.com/nowplaying/@majes.tytyty/lou-reed-lyrics-22-anyone-who-ever-had-a-heart-from-sweet-jane-now-playing-week-7
I don't know anything about rock, my preferences don't really lean towards it. But I do believe that both genres have their own difficulty in composition :)
Same ensemble, same music, different time and place.
They actually got an authentic African ensemble for it. I thought they just got people from around US for the performance. :)