Final answer:
During the Romantic Period, composers shifted their focus from merely entertaining audiences to expressing emotional and artistic depth, as seen in their richly emotive and complex compositions that often reflected personal and cultural influences.
Step-by-step explanation:
Composers during the Romantic Period became less interested in simply entertaining audiences and more focused on expressing emotional and artistic depth. The answer to the student’s question is C) Expressing emotional and artistic depth. They sought to evoke intense emotions and convey deep philosophical ideas through their music. Composers like Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Schumann exemplified this trend, creating works that were rich in emotional expression and far more complex than what was typically found during the Classical period. The Romantic era saw a shift toward music that spoke to the human experience, drawing on the personal and cultural influences of the composers.
The Romantic composers navigated the balance between the established Classical roots and the desire for personal expression. Some, like Schubert and Brahms, took a more conservative approach, while others, such as Wagner and Strauss, pushed musical boundaries. By the end of the Romantic period, the question of where to go after Romanticism? was on the minds of many, with composers exploring different paths that eventually led to post-Romanticism, Impressionism, and early Modern music.