Periods of European art music

Early
Medieval (500–1400)
Renaissance (1400–1600)
Baroque (1600–1750\60)
Common practice
Baroque (1600–1750\60)
Classical (1730–1820)
Romantic (1815–1910)
Modern and contemporary
20th-century (1900–2000)
Contemporary (1975–present)
21st-century (2000–present)

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Musicologists

have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.
Characteristics:
Polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed
to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice
accompanied by chords (homophony).
The modal (as opposed to tonal) characteristics of Renaissance music
They began to break down towards the end of the period with the increased use of root
motions of fifths. This later developed into one of the defining characteristics of tonality.
Counterpint – technique of composing
Composers:
John Dunsamble, Guillaume Dufay, Johaness Ockeghem, Josquin Desprez, Adria Willaert,
Giovanii Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso.
Genres
Principal liturgical forms which endured throughout the entire Renaissance period were
masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as
composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal) for their
own designs.
Common sacred genres were the mass, the motet, the madrigale spirituale, and the
laude.
Secular vocal genres included the madrigal, the frottola, the caccia, the chanson, the
canzonetta, the villancico, the villanella, the villotta, and the lute song. Mixed forms
such as the motet-chanson and the secular motet also appeared.
Purely instrumental music included consort music for recorder or viol and other
instruments, and dances for various ensembles. Common genres were the toccata, the
prelude, the ricercar, the canzona, Instrumental ensembles for dances might play a basse
danse (or bassedanza), a pavane, a galliard, an allemande, or a courante.

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Baroque music

Describes a style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750.
It is associated with composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-
Baptiste Lully, Arcangelo Corelli, Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Henry
Purcell. The baroque period saw the development of functional tonality. During the period,
composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in
musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music
expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also
established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are
still in use today.

Characteristic of bearoque music:

-Basso continuo - a kind of continuous accompaniment notated with a new music notation
system, figured bass, usually for a sustaining bass instrument and a keyboard instrument
-Monody - music for one melodic voice with accompaniment, characteristic of the early
17th century, especially in Italy
-Homophony - music with one melodic voice and rhythmically similar accompaniment
(this and monody are contrasted with the typical Renaissance texture, polyphony)
-Polyphony – texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, still used.
-Text over music - intelligible text with instrumental accompaniment not overpowering
the voice
-Dramatic musical expression
-Dramatic musical forms like opera, dramma per musica
-Ornamentation
-Development to modern Western tonality (major and minor scales)

Generes

Vocal- opera, oratorio, cantata, mass, choral

Instrumental- Concerto grosso, Fugue, Suite, Sonata (Sonata da camera, Sonata da
chiesa, Trio sonata), Ricercar, Toccata, Prelude, Chaconne, Passacaglia.

Early baroque music (1600–1654)-

Middle baroque music (1654–1707)
Late baroque music (1680–1750)

FUGUE

Fugue (pronounced is a contrapuntal composition in two or more voices, built on a subject

(theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course
of the composition.
A fugue usually has three sections: the exposition, development, and recapitulation.

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The lament bass is a ground bass, a repeated bassline or chord progression, built from a
descending chromatic fourth, a perfect fourth with all six semitones filled in, from tonic to
dominant (in C: C-B-B♭-A-A♭-G). It is often used in music to denote tragedy or sorrow.

List of Baroque’s composers

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CLASSICISM (1730/40-1820)

In the middle of the 18th century , Europe began to move towards a new style in
architecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as Classicism, which sought to
emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity and especially those of Classical Greece. It
appeard also in music.

The new style was also a cleaner style — one that favored clearer divisions between parts,
brighter contrasts and colors, and simplicity rather than complexity.

Melody over a subordinate harmony —a combination called homophony— was preferred

(in Baroque there was a polyphony). This meant that the playing of chords, even if they
interrupted the melodic smoothness of a single part, became a much more prevalent feature
of music.

Since polyphonic texture was no longer the main focus of music (excluding the
development section) but rather a single melodic line with accompaniment, there was
greater emphasis on notating that line for dynamics and phrasing. The simplification of
texture made such instrumental detail more important.

Forms such as the concerto and sonata were more heavily defined and given more specific
rules, whereas the symphony was created in this period (this is popularly attributed to
Joseph Haydn). The concerto grosso (a concerto for more than one musician) began to be
replaced by the solo concerto (a concerto featuring only one soloist), and therefore began
to place more importance on the particular soloist's ability to show off.

Main characteristics

• Classical music has a clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is
mainly homophonic — melody above chordal accompaniment (but counterpoint is
by no means forgotten, especially later in the period).
• Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before.
• Variety of keys, melodies, rhythms and dynamics (using crescendo, diminuendo
and sforzando), along with frequent changes of mood and timbre were more
commonplace in the Classical period than they had been in the Baroque.
• Melodies tended to be shorter than those of Baroque music, with clear-cut phrases
and clearly marked cadences.
• The Orchestra increased in size and range; the harpsichord continuo fell out of use,
and the woodwind became a self-contained section. As a solo instrument, the
harpsichord was replaced by the piano (or fortepiano).
• Early piano music was light in texture, often with Alberti bass accompaniment,
but it later became richer, more sonorous and more powerful.
• Importance was given to instrumental music — the main kinds were sonata, trio,
string quartet, symphony, concerto, serenade and divertimento.

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 • Sonata form developed and became the most important form. It was used to build
up the first movement of most large-scale works, but also other movements and
single pieces (such as overtures).
• Modulations to related kyes – paralel, dominant, subdominant,

Composers:

Joseph Haydn (1732-1807)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1792)
Ludvig van Beethoven (1770-1828)

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Georg Mathias Monn
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach

(note about Baroque- HOMOPHONY WAS DEVELOPING BUT THE POLYPHONY

WAS ALSO VERY USED, in classicism the leading was homophony)

ROMANTICISM (1815–1910)

Romantic music is a musicological term referring to a particular period, theory,

compositional practice, and canon in European music history, from about 1815 to 1910.

Pieces of romantic period are more passionate and expressive.

Romantic music struggled to increase emotional expression and power to describe these
deeper truths, while preserving or even extending the formal structures from the classical
period.

Musical language:

• Chromatic innovations - chromaticism grew more varied, as did dissonances

and their resolution.
• Composers modulated to increasingly remote kyes
• The greater harmonic elusiveness and fluidity, the longer melodies, poesis as
the basis of expression, and the use of literary inspirations were all present prior
to this period.
• Composers were also influenced by technological advances, including an
increase in the range and power of the piano and the improved chromatic
abilities and greater projection of the instruments of the symphony orchestra.

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Musical nationalism

Many composers expressed their nationalism by using typical elements of music (rhythm,
melody, modality) of their respective nations in their works - folk song, dances, and
legendary histories.
Many composers wrote nationalist music, especially towards the middle and end of the 19th century. Mikhail
Glinka's operas, for example, are on specifically Russian subjects, while Bedřich Smetana and Antonín
Dvořák both used rhythms and themes from Czech folk dances and songs. Late in the 19th century, Jean
Sibelius wrote music based on the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, and his piece 'Finlandia' became a symbol of
Finnish nationalism. Chopin wrote in forms like the polonaise and mazurka, that were derived from Polish
folk music. Many Russian composers, for example Balakirev, Cui, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov shared the
common dream to write music that was inspired by Russian folk music.

The main characteristics of Romantic music

• A freedom in form and design; a more intense personal expression of emotion in

which fantasy, imagination and a quest for adventure play an important part.
• Emphasis on lyrical, songlike melodies; adventurous modulation; richer harmonies,
often chromatic
• Dramatic contrasts, exploring a wider range of pitch, dynamics and tone-colours
• Expansion of the orchestra, sometimes to gigantic proportions
• Rich variety of types of piece, ranging from songs and fairly short piano pieces to
huge musical works
• Closer links with other arts lead to a keener interest in programme music
(programme symphony, symphonic poem, concert overture).
• Greater technical virtuosity – especially from pianists, violinists and flautists.
• Nationalism: reaction against German influences in music by composers of other
countries (especially Russia, Bohemia, Poland, Norway).

Early Romantic (1800-1850)

Composers:
Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Frederic
Chopin

Late Romantic Era (1850-1900)

During this period, some composers created styles and forms associated with their national
folk cultures. The notion that there were "German" and "Italian" styles had long been
established in writing on music, but the late 19th century saw the rise of a nationalist
Russian style (Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Borodin), and
also Czech, Finnish and French nationalist styles of composition. Some composers were
expressly nationalistic in their objectives, seeking to rediscover their country's national
identity in the face of occupation or oppression, as did for example the Bohemians Bedřich
Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, and the Finn Jean Sibelius.