Looking back on eras of music before the 20th Century, do you think musicians were stifled by the strict rules governing the composition of music or...

Certainly, there was a greater social and artistic compulsion to adhere to form.  The artist was
seen in a much different light during the periods preceding the Romantic one.  In these
settings, the composer was seen as needing to adhere to the standards outlined by the Church
based authority or one that had to follow the guidelines established by an autocratic one.  In
not respecting these establishments, the composer was maligned and subject to artistic
isolation.  In the Romantic period, the artist was given more freedom to be able to create their
own beliefs about music...