Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Historical Outline:
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The first attempts at music printing came shortly after the appearance of Gutenberg's
Bible (c. 1455). The first book of music ever printed is a Gradual; the date (probably c. 1473)
and the name of the printer are unknown. Petrucci adapted Gutenberg's process of printing, and
published music quickly became more available throughout Europe.
The primary focus during the Renaissance was music for the voice; however,
instrumental music became more popular. Most instruments were built in sets or families of
graduated sizes with soprano to bass voicing. The basic types of instrumental music included
those derived from vocal compositions, dance music, variations and freely composed and quasi-
improvisatory works.
Instruments in use during the Renaissance included guitars, recorders, flutes, shawms,
cromornes, cornettos, natural trumpets, trombones, viols, organ, lutes and percussion instruments
(drums, bells, bell chimes, castanets, etc.). Many churches in Italy used one large organ and one
small organ. New instruments included those in the violin family, large copper timpani and the
harpsichord and clavichord.
REPRESENTATIVE COMPOSERS
Binchois, Gilles (1400 - 1460)
Byrd, William (1543 - 1623)
Cabezn, Antonio de (1510 - 1566)
Dunstable, John (1390 - 1453)
Du Fay, Guillaume (1400 - 1474)
Frescobaldi, Girolamo (1583 - 1643)
Gabrieli, Giovanni (1553 - 1612)
Hassler, Hans Leo (1562 - 1612)
Josquin des Prez (1440 - 1521)
Lassus, Orlande de (1532 - 1594)
Marenzio, Luca (1553 - 1599)
Monteverdi, Claudio (1567 - 1643)
Obrecht, Jacob (1450 - 1505)
Ockeghem, Johannes (1410 - 1497)
Palestrina, Giovanni Piegluigi da (1525 - 1594)
Tallis, Thomas (1505 - 1585)
Tavener, John (1490 - 1545)
Tye, Christopher (1505 - 1572)
Victoria, Thoms Luis de (1548 - 1611)
Willaert, Adrian (1490 - 1562)
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continuo line. Two types of rhythm prevailed: the regular metrical rhythm vital to dance music
and a flexible, unmetrical rhythm founded on speech. Music notational practices included the use
of figured bass, barlines, meter and key signatures. New printing methods were produced, and by
the end of the eighteenth century, rounded noteheads appeared.
The Baroque period was divided into three distinct developmental time frames: Early,
Middle and Late.
The harmony was diatonic. Chromaticism was used for emotion and expressions of
the text. Harmonies were generated by the bass line (basso continuo or
thoroughbass). Chords above the root position bass were usually single chords.
Harmony was non-functional; that is, not tending toward tonic.
Text was declamatory and expressive with a strong, regular pulse. Rhythm was
dance inspired.
Texture of the music was two-part, a continuo bass and melodic line; trio texture was
two upper melodic parts with bass (the middle part filled in, imitating the higher part
through parallel thirds, sixths).
Dynamics were essentially loud and soft. Very few markings were present.
Short, shifting sections began to expand into larger sections. "Parts" were all
supported by the harmony of the time, and now relationships resulted between the
chords.
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Definite styles and forms developed, which included aria types. Instrumental forms
were the sonata, suite and overture (which affected later instrumental form
development). There were two overture types: Italian (three distinct sections) and
French (two sections, each repeated).
Rhythm began to stabilize, and more stylized dance patterns resulted in sonatas,
suites and overtures.
Trumpets and timpani were placed at the top of instrumental scores; strings and
continuo were added above the horn and flute.
Melodic lines began to expand in length; normal long, extended, continuous lines
resulted; themes were incomplete (fugue subject ending), and repetition and
sequence were common.
Harmony: root movements by fifths were planned; moving bass line; chords changed
quickly with IV, V or VI chords changing frequently per measure which resulted in
faster harmonic rhythm.
Two kinds of fast harmonic rhythms were used: free improvisatory (preludes, toccata
or introductory sections), and patterns, repetitions or recurring rhythmic patterns,
mechanical rhythm.
Stylized instrumental dance music evolved into the suite; the basic format was
allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue (with additional movements optional
anywhere within the sequence).
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The fugue grew out of organ ricercar and the ensemble canzona eventually became
the sonata da chiesa.
There were three principal instrumental compositions for ensembles: the sonata da
chiesa and related forms, the suite (sonata da camera) and related forms and the
concerto.
Some sonatas were written for solo instrument with basso continuo, but most sonatas
written during the last third of the 17th century were primarily trio sonatas; a few were
written for unaccompanied solo violin.
REPRESENTATIVE COMPOSERS
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685 - 1750)
Corelli, Arcangelo (1653 - 1713)
Couperin, Francois (1688 - 1733)
Frescobaldi, Girolamo (1583 - 1643)
Froberger, Johann Jakob (1616 - 1667)
Gabrieli, Giovanni (1553 - 1612)
Handel, George Fredrick (1685 - 1759)
Lully, Jean-Baptiste (1632 - 1687)
Monteverdi, Claudio (1567 - 1643)
Pachelbel, Johann (1653 - 1706)
Purcell, Henry (1659 - 1695)
Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683 - 1764)
Scarlatti, Domenico (1685 - 1757)
Schtz, Heinrich (1585 - 1672)
Telemann, Georg Philipp (1681 - 1767)
Vivaldi, Antonio (1678 - 1741)
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Classical Period (1750 - 1820) -- The Age of Enlightenment
General Characteristics
The Classical period, known as the Age of Enlightenment, brought about many changes
in the style of music performance and the form of music construction. Unlike those works
composed during the Baroque period, which frequently emphasized improvisational or
ornamental techniques (figured bass, ornamentation, trills, etc.), compositions of the Classical
period emphasized tuneful, simple, singable melodies, simple harmony, major and minor modes,
strict formal structure and contrasting dynamics. "Classical" music became more formal, light in
texture and considered by many to be more enjoyable. Instrumental music became more
important. The following characterizes this development and provides additional information
regarding the Classical period:
The structural principal most often used for a movement was sonata form or variant
thereof (sonata-rondo, sonata form used in a concerto, abridged sonata).
The use of theme and variation form continued to develop in the Classical period.
The Viennese Classical idiom, an important part in the development of this period,
was a synthesis of galant, empfindsamer and learned styles. In the 1770s this
Viennese Classical style was firmly established, especially in the instrumental music
of Haydn.
The middle works of Haydn were characterized by clarity, balance and restraint. The
same traits were present in the late works of Mozart and the early works of
Beethoven and Schubert.
Haydn and Mozart developed the characteristic style of the string quartet, each
composing sets of quartets.
Mozart used a three-movement overall scheme for his piano concertos. The first
movement utilized sonata form; the second movement of the piano concerto was
usually an instrumental aria; the third movement a type of rondo.
Etude books appeared in Paris after 1785. The earliest publications were for flute
and violin. Piano tude books were published in the early 19th century.
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Haydn considered himself to be primarily a composer of vocal music. He wrote
numerous operas, masses and other sacred and secular vocal works; he also
composed 104 symphonies.
Beethoven was an innovator with his development of the form of the symphony. His
innovations included commencing a symphony in a key other than its tonic and
modulations to a key a third removed.
Singing schools were started in America to improve the quality of singing in church.
Francis Hopkinson (1737 - 1791), James Lyon (1735 - 1794), William Billings (1746
- 1800) and John Antes (1740 - 1811) all flourished in the second half of the 18 th
century as the first native-born North American composers.
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Classicism to Romanticism
General Characteristics
The latter years of the 18th century involved many changes in cultural and political
events. The French Revolution led the way to most of these changes. Many musical
compositions were composed with heroic attributes emphasized. Musical drama and dramatic
tension began to increase. Instrumental ensembles became important for massed ceremonial and
commemorative activities.
The Paris Conservatoire and the National Guard Band were established.
Many works were written for commemorative purposes and for massed ensembles,
thus leading to the development of wind band instrumental music and ensembles.
At the time of the French Revolution there were several important European
composers. The London school of pianist-composers included J.B. Cramer, Muzio
Clementi, Jan L. Dussek, John Field and George Pinto.
Leading Bohemian composers active in Vienna were Vclav Jan Tomsek, Jan
Vclav Vorsek and Johann Nepomuk Hummel (Beethoven's chief rival in Vienna).
Hummel's style was Mozartean, a restrained Classicism, neat and delicate, with
emphasis on fluent technique and textural clarity.
Much of the 19th century Romantic music was rooted in Beethoven's music.
The doctrine of nationalism gained strength in the middle quarter of the 19 th century.
The Romantic period brought about musical characteristics that emphasized lyricism,
chromatic themes, long sequences, chromatic harmony, harmonic color and new
instrumental color.
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The major musical forms included: symphonic poem, music drama (e.g., opra
comique, Leitmotif), symphonic variations, symphony development, art songs for
voice, character pieces for piano and the concerto.
Along with the freedom of form development and variety in sounds came the
extension and added length to many musical works.
Many new instruments were invented and new ways of performing (fingerings, key
systems, valves, mouthpieces, reeds, etc.) were developed.
Instrumental innovations included the Albert system for the clarinet, the Heckel
system for the bassoon and the Boehm system for the flute and clarinet.
Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann were early Romantic period leaders in the
development of character pieces for piano.
Paganini advanced violin playing through his virtuosic performances and innovative
bowing and fingering techniques, thus improving orchestral string performances.
There were two primary types of music in America during the Romantic period:
native/popular and art music.
Lowell Mason pioneered music education and established music in the curriculum in
the Boston schools in 1837. He was also a prolific hymn writer who composed
and/or arranged more than 1,600 hymns.
Stephen Foster was America's principal son writer; he composed more than 150
songs of varying style.
The New York Philharmonic (Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York) was the
first permanent American symphony orchestra (1842).
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Singing schools in America continued with two main leaders: William B. Bradbury
(1816 - 1868) and Lowell Mason (1792 - 1872).
Wagner composed and produced many great works, particularly his music dramas.
He utilized large ensembles, and many of his works were of great length.
Liszt composed secular cantatas and oratorios and has been credited as the originator
of the symphonic poem.
Brahms is considered by many to have been the most inventive and accomplished
19th century composer.
Anton Bruckner composed 11 symphonies and other instrumental and vocal works.
He wrote fine sacred choral music. The Ninth Symphony has been considered his
best orchestral work.
Five major composers in Russia led the way for nationalism in music (frequently
referred to as the Russian Five): Mily Balakirev, Csar Cui, Modest Musorgsky,
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.
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Dvork, Antonin (1841 - 1904)
Faur, Gabriel (1845 - 1924)
Foster, Stephen Collins (1826 - 1864)
Franck, Csar (1822 - 1890)
Glinka, Mikhail (1804 - 1857)
Liszt, Franz (1811 - 1886)
Mahler, Gustav (1860 - 1911)
Mendelssohn (Bartholdy), Felix (1809 - 1847)
Mussorgsky, Modest (1839 - 1881)
Paganini, Niccol (1782 - 1840)
Puccini, Giacomo (1858 - 1924)
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai (1844 - 1908)
Rossini, Gioacchino (1792 - 1868)
Saint-Sans, Camille (1835 - 1921)
Schubert, Franz Peter (1797 - 1828)
Schumann, Robert (1810 - 1856)
Scriabin, Alexander (1872 - 1915)
Sibelius, Jean (1865 - 1957)
Smetana, Bedrich (1824 - 1884)
Strauss, Richard (1864 - 1949)
Tchaikovsky, Peter (1840 - 1893)
Verdi, Giuseppe (1813 - 1901)
Wagner, Richard (1813 - 1883)
Weber, Carl Maria von (1786 - 1826)
Wolf, Hugo (1860 - 1903)
Impressionism: the Contemporary period started with this movement. The music
emphasized an atmosphere of vague sounds, lack of precise formal development and
varied musical color. Tonality was still prevalent with the use of irregular phrases,
nontraditional harmony, dissonances which were not resolved, parallel chords which
utilized altered tones and special selected instruments that portrayed special images.
Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel were the leaders of French Impressionism.
Other composers of Impressionism were Florent Schmitt, Ottorino Respighi and
Frederick Delius.
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Nationalism: the movement began in the late 19th century and continued into the 20th
century. Composers utilized native folk songs or emphasized some national or ethnic
element in their music. Leaders were the Russian and Czechoslovakian composers,
and concepts of the nationalistic movement continue today. Composers incorporating
nationalism in some of their works included Mikhail Glinka, Bedrich Smetana, Jean
Sibelius, Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bla Bartk, Zoltn Kodly, Heitor
Villa-Lobos, Carlos Chvez and George Gershwin.
Serialism: Arnold Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern are
credited with developing a new style of music construction. The new style, known as
12-tone music or dodecaphony, used all 12 chromatic pitches (pitch classes)
contained in an octave, with each tone equally emphasized. The sound was actually
"a tonic" or atonal, meaning without tonality. A special system to organize the order
and style of the use of these 12 tones was created. This system involved the use of a
"tone row" or "series of tones" within a basic pattern. From this established tone row,
the series could appear in different forms such as forward (prime), backward
(retrograde), inverted, inverted backward (retrograde inversion), and/or in different
transpositions. This construction system allowed for as many as 48 variations.
Multiple tones sounding together created new harmonic sounds. Many current
composers use serialistic elements combined with other contemporary writing
techniques.
Pointillism: Anton Webern is credited with the adaptation of this painting concept to
music. Composing asthmatic music, isolated notes were constructed in a very
pointed or disjunct manner and blended to create certain tone colors and variations of
timbres; for example, a musical line would appear with wide leaps and extreme
intervals and could call for varying articulations, volumes, registers, mutes and other
special effects. Both Webern and Schoenberg used this construction technique.
Currently, many composers utilize pointillistic techniques.
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Minimalism: in the late 1960s a musical construction technique used "repetition," an
ostinato-type concept. This repetition was of short figures, based on a specific
rhythm or series of tones, or both elements were used together, which served as the
basis of the entire work. Many early minimalistic works were quite lengthy with
static harmonies. Today, many composers incorporate this construction technique
along with other contemporary techniques to reiterate musical ideas in their works.
Major composers utilizing minimalism as a dominant construction technique include
La Monte Young, Philip Corner, Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
Electronic music: since the invention of recording devices in the late 19th century,
sound technology has significantly improved and has allowed varying forms of stored
sounds, manipulated sounds and produced sounds, from the early use of magnetic
tape to those generated by computer and synthesizer, many new techniques have been
utilized by composers. Contemporary composers who have utilized this medium
include Philip Glass, Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Pauline
Oliveros and Luicano Berio.
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REPRESENTATIVE CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS
Auric, Georges (1899 - 1983)
Babbitt, Milton (b. 1916)
Bartk, Bla (1881 - 1945)
Berg, Alban (1885 - 1935)
Berio, Luciano (b. 1925)
Britten, Benjamin (1913 - 1976)
Brown, Earl (b. 1926)
Cage, John (1912 - 1992)
Chvez, Carlos (1899 - 1978)
Cowell, Henry (1897 - 1965)
Copland, Aaron (1900 - 1990)
Crumb, George (b. 1929)
Debussy, Achille-Claude (1862 - 1918)
Del Tredici, David (b. 1937)
Durey, Louis (1888 - 1979)
Elgar, Edward (1857 - 1934)
Gershwin, George (1898 - 1937)
Glass, Philip (b. 1937)
Hanson, Howard (1896 - 1981)
Hindemith, Paul (1895 - 1963)
Holst, Gustav (1874 - 1934)
Honegger, Arthur (1892 - 1955)
Ives, Charles (1874 - 1954)
Kodly, Zoltn (1881 - 1967)
Ligeti, Gyrgy (b. 1929)
Messiaen, Olivier (1908 - 1992)
Milhaud, Darius (1892 - 1974)
Musgrave, Thea (b. 1928)
Nono, Luigi (1924 - 1996)
Oliveros, Pauline (b. 1932)
Orff, Carl (1895 - 1982)
Penderecki, Krzystof (b. 1933)
Piston, Walter (1894 - 1976)
Poulenc, Francis (1899 - 1963)
Prokofiev, Sergei (1891 - 1953)
Ravel, Maurice (1875 - 1937)
Reich, Steve (b. 1936)
Riley, Terry (b. 1935)
Schaeffer, Pierre (b. 1910)
Schoenberg, Arnold (1874 - 1951)
Shostakovich, Dmitry (1906 - 1975)
Still, William Grant (1895 - 1978)
Stockhausen, Karlheinz (b. 1928)
Stravinsky, Igor (1882 - 1971)
Tailleferre, Germaine (1892 - 1983)
Varse, Edward (1883 - 1965)
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887 - 1959)
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Williams, Ralph Vaughan (1872 - 1958)
Webern, Anton (1883 - 1945)
Young, La Monte (b. 1935)
The primary sources for the comparative historical chronology include the following: The
Timetables of History (1991), Cyclopedia (1995), A History of Western Music (1996), Exploring
Music (1989), The Development of Western Music (1990), The Enjoyment of Music (1963), and
Teaching Music through Performance in Band (1997). When these sources provided conflicting
information, every reasonable attempt was made to verify the dates listed as closely as possible.
H Historical Event
A Artistic Contribution
DL Daily Life
SI Scientific Contribution or Invention
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