Ancient Music

Ancient music is music that developed in literate cultures, replacing prehistoric music. Ancient
music refers to the various musical systems that were developed across various geographical
regions such as Mesopotamia, India, Persia, Egypt, China, Greece and Rome. Ancient music is
designated by the characterization of the basic notes and scales. It may have been transmitted
through oral or written systems.
Music has been an integral part of Egyptian culture since antiquity. The ancient Egyptians
credited one of the powerful gods Hathor with the invention of music, which Osiris in turn used
as part of his effort to civilize the world. The earliest material and representational evidence of
Egyptian musical instruments dates to the Predynastic period, but the evidence is more
securely attested in tomb paintings from the Old Kingdom (c. 2575–2134 BC) when harps, end-
blown flutes (held diagonally), and single and double pipes of the clarinet type (with single
reeds) were played (Anderson, Castelo-Branco, and Danielson 2001; Anon. 1999). Percussion
instruments, and lutes were added to orchestras by the Middle Kingdom. Cymbals (Anon.
2003). Egyptian folk music, including the traditional Sufi dhikr rituals, are the closest
contemporary music genre to ancient Egyptian music, having preserved many of its features,
rhythms, and instruments (Hickmann 1957,[page needed]; Anon. 1960,[page needed]).
Although experiments have been carried out with surviving Egyptian instruments (on the
spacing of holes in flutes and reed pipes, and attempts to reconstruct the stringing of lyres,
harps, and lutes), only the Tutankhamun trumpets and some percussion instruments yield any
secure idea of how ancient Egyptian instruments sounded. None of the many theories that have
been formulated have any adequate foundation.

Although there is very little music from ancient times still in existence, we have learned a lot
about it from other sources. For instance, on the walls of caves, temples and pyramids are
illustrations of musicians; there have also been discoveries of instruments in tombs.
History tells that music was an important part in the life of major civilizations. In fact, it was
much more than just entertainment, for it played a vital part in the religious rituals as well as
the social functions of the communities. Ancient music replaced prehistoric music and
developed in cultures such as Egypt, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia and China.

The Ancient Composer

Athenaeus, (Greece) son of Athenaeus (Greek: Ἀθήναιος) was an ancient Greek (Athenian)
composer and musician who flourished around 138–28 BC, when he composed the First Delphic
Hymn. Although it was long thought that the composer of the First Hymn was merely "an
Athenian", careful reading of the inscription shows that it cannot be the ethnic Athenaîos (from
Athens), but rather names Athénaios Athenaíou (Athenaeus, son of Athenios) as the composer
(Bélis 1992, 48–49 and 53–54).

Cai Yan (China), courtesy name Wenji, was a poet and musician who lived in the late Eastern
Han dynasty. She was the daughter of Cai Yong. Her courtesy name was originally Zhaoji, but
was changed to Wenji during the Jin dynasty to avoid naming taboo because the Chinese
character for zhao in her courtesy name is the same as that in the name of Sima Zhao, the
father of the Jin dynasty's founding emperor, Sima Yan. She spent part of her life as a captive of
the Xiongnu until 207, when the warlord Cao Cao, who controlled the Han central government
in the final years of the Eastern Han dynasty, paid a heavy ransom to bring her back to Han
territory.

Flaccus ( Rome ) is a composer from the 2nd century BC, of whom little is known. He was either
a freedman or a slave of one of Terence's patrons and wrote musical scores for Terence's
comedies (playing or composing music was no occupation for a free citizen). Terence mentions
him specifically in the opening didascalia to each of his comedies, and in addition mentions the
type of double reed pipe to be used in each. Some further commentary on the musical modes
employed has puzzled scholars: it is not known whether Terence refers to melodies or musical
metres. Flaccus, has the distinction of being the only composer of Ancient Rome of whom any
music is alleged to remain. A musical phrase accompanying a single line of Terence's play
Hecyra was copied in the 18th century by Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli from a 10th-
century manuscript; however, musicologist Thomas J. Mathiesen comments that it is no longer
believed to be authentic
Forms of Music during the Ancient Peroid

Greek Stone Engraved Hymne Tablet (A.D.)

 Medieval Music

Medieval music ( 500 – 1400 )consists of liturgical music, songs, and instrumental pieces from
about 400 A.D. to 1400. Medieval music was an era of Western music, including liturgical music
(also known as sacred) used for the church, and secular music, non-religious music. Medieval
music includes solely vocal music, such as Gregorian chant and choral music (music for a group
of singers), solely instrumental music, and music that uses both voices and instruments
(typically with the instruments accompanying the voices). Gregorian chant was sung by monks
during Catholic Mass. The Mass is a reenactment of Christ's Last Supper, intended to provide a
spiritual connection between man and God. Part of this connection was established through
music. This era begins with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century and ends
sometime in the early fifteenth century. Establishing the end of the medieval era and the
beginning of the Renaissance music era is difficult, since the trends started at different times in
different regions. The date range in this article is the one usually adopted by musicologists.
 The Medieval Composers

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras or Vaqueyras (fl. 1180 – 1207) was a Provençal troubadour and, later in
his life, knight. His life was spent mainly in Italian courts until 1203, when he joined the Fourth
Crusade.

Raimbaut was from Vacqueyras, near Orange, France. He spent most of his career as court poet
and close friend of Boniface I of Montferrat, with whom he served in battle against the
communes of Asti and Alessandria. Raimbaut claimed he earned a knighthood through
protecting Boniface with his shield in battle at Messina, when they took part in Emperor Henry
VI's invasion of Sicily. He was present at the siege and capture of Constantinople in 1204, and
then accompanied Boniface to Thessalonica. His writings, particularly the so-called Epic Letter,
form an important commentary on the politics of the Latin Empire in its earliest years; it is
generally presumed that Raimbaut died on 4 September 1207, together with Boniface, in an
ambush by the Vlach.
 Perdigon or Perdigo (fl. 1190–1220) was a troubadour from Lespéron, diocese of
Gévaudan (actually in the department of Ardèche next to modern Lozère). Fourteen of his
works survive, including three cansos with melodies.[5] He was respected and admired by
contemporaries, judging by the widespread inclusion of his work in chansonniers and in
citations by other troubadours.

Though his biography is made confounding by contradicting statements in his vida and allusions
in his and others' poems, Perdigon's status as a jongleur from youth and an accomplished
fiddler is well-attested in contemporary works (by him and others) and manuscript illustrations
depicting him with his fiddle. Perdigon travelled widely and was patronised by Dalfi d'Alvernha,
the Baux, Peter II of Aragon, and Barral of Marseille. His service to the latter provides an early
definite date for his career, as Barral died in 1192 and Perdigon composed a canso which
survives with music for him.

According to his vida, Perdigon was the son of a poor fisherman who excelled through his "wit
and inventiveness" to honour and fame, was clothed and eventually armed, knighted, and
granted land and rent by Dalfi d'Alvernha. After this period of his life, which is said to have
lasted a long time, the manuscripts of his vida diverge.
Works of Perdigon
 Gregorian Chants

Saint Godric life was recorded by a contemporary of his: a monk named Reginald of
Durham. Several other hagiographies are also extant. According to these accounts, Godric, who
began from humble beginnings as the son of Ailward and Edwenna, "both of slender rank and
wealth, but abundant in righteousness and virtue", was a pedlar, then a sailor and
entrepreneur, and may have been the captain and owner of the ship that conveyed Baldwin I of
Jerusalem to Jaffa in 1102. After years at sea, Godric reportedly went to the island of
Lindisfarne and there encountered Saint Cuthbert; this will not have been a physical encounter
as Cuthbert had long been dead and was by then interred at Durham Cathedral. This encounter
changed his life, and he devoted himself to Christianity and service to God thereafter.

After many pilgrimages around the Mediterranean, Godric returned to England and lived with
an elderly hermit named Aelric for two years. Upon Aelric's death, Godric made one last
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then returned home where he convinced Ranulf Flambard, the
Bishop of Durham, to grant him a place to live as a hermit at Finchale, by the River Wear. He
had previously served as doorkeeper, the lowest of the minor orders, at the hospital church of
nearby St Giles Hospital in Durham. He is recorded to have lived at Finchale for the final sixty
years of his life, occasionally meeting with visitors approved by the local prior. As the years
passed, his reputation grew, and Thomas Becket and Pope Alexander III both reportedly sought
Godric's advice as a wise and holy man.
 Work of Saint Godric

13th-century manuscript of the four hymns of St Godric

 Renaissance Music

Renaissance music ( 1400 – 1600 ) is vocal and instrumental music written and performed in
Europe during the Renaissance era. Consensus among music historians – with notable dissent
has been to start the era around 1400, with the end of the medieval era, and to close it around
1600, with the beginning of the Baroque period, therefore commencing the musical
Renaissance about a hundred years after the beginning of the Renaissance as it is understood in
other disciplines. As in the other arts, the music of the period was significantly influenced by
the developments which define the Early Modern period: the rise of humanistic thought; the
recovery of the literary and artistic heritage of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome; increased
innovation and discovery; the growth of commercial enterprises; the rise of a bourgeois class;
and the Protestant Reformation. From this changing society emerged a common, unifying
musical language, in particular the polyphonic style (this means music with multiple,
independent melody lines performed simultaneously) of the Franco-Flemish school, whose
greatest master was Josquin des Prez.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 made it cheaper and easier to distribute music and
musical theory texts on a wider geographic scale and to more people. Prior to the invention of
printing, songs and music that were written down and music theory texts had to be hand-
copied, a time-consuming and expensive process. Demand for music as entertainment and as a
leisure activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class.
Dissemination of chansons, motets, and masses throughout Europe coincided with the
unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid style which culminated in the second half of the
sixteenth century in the work of composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlande de
Lassus, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. Relative political stability and prosperity in the Low
Countries, along with a flourishing system of music education in the area's many churches and
cathedrals allowed the training of large numbers of singers, instrumentalists and composers.
These musicians were highly sought throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, where churches
and aristocratic courts hired them as composers, performers, and teachers. Since the printing
press made it easier to disseminate printed music, by the end of the 16th century, Italy had
absorbed the northern musical influences with Venice, Rome, and other cities becoming
centers of musical activity. This reversed the situation from a hundred years earlier. Opera, a
dramatic staged genre in which singers are accompanied by instruments, arose at this time in
Florence. Opera was developed as a deliberate attempt to resurrect the music of ancient
Greece

Theory and Notation during the Renaissance Era

Renaissance notation is under-prescriptive by our [modern] standards; when translated into
modern form it acquires a prescriptive weight that overspecifies and distorts its original
openness. Renaissance compositions were notated only in individual parts; scores were
extremely rare, and barlines were not used. Note values were generally larger than are in use
today; the primary unit of beat was the semibreve, or whole note. As had been the case since
the Ars Nova (see Medieval music), there could be either two or three of these for each breve
(a double-whole note), which may be looked on as equivalent to the modern "measure,"
though it was itself a note value and a measure is not. The situation can be considered this way:
it is the same as the rule by which in modern music a quarter-note may equal either two eighth-
notes or three, which would be written as a "triplet." By the same reckoning, there could be
two or three of the next smallest note, the "minim," (equivalent to the modern "half note") to
each semibreve.

Ockeghem, Kyrie "Au travail suis," Kyrie Eleison

These different permutations were called "perfect/imperfect tempus" at the level of the breve–
semibreve relationship, "perfect/imperfect prolation" at the level of the semibreve–minim, and
existed in all possible combinations with each other. Three-to-one was called "perfect," and
two-to-one "imperfect." Rules existed also whereby single notes could be halved or doubled in
value ("imperfected" or "altered," respectively) when preceded or followed by other certain
notes. Notes with black noteheads (such as quarter notes) occurred less often. This
development of white mensural notation may be a result of the increased use of paper (rather
than vellum), as the weaker paper was less able to withstand the scratching required to fill in
solid noteheads; notation of previous times, written on vellum, had been black. Other colors,
and later, filled-in notes, were used routinely as well, mainly to enforce the aforementioned
imperfections or alterations and to call for other temporary rhythmical changes.

Du Fay was one of the last composers to make use of late-medieval polyphonic structural
techniques such as isorhythm (Munrow 1974), and one of the first to employ the more
mellifluous harmonies, phrasing and melodies characteristic of the early Renaissance (Pryer
1983). His compositions within the larger genres (masses, motets and chansons) are mostly
similar to each other; his renown is largely due to what was perceived as his perfect control of
the forms in which he worked, as well as his gift for memorable and singable melody. During
the 15th century he was universally regarded as the greatest composer of his time, an opinion
that has largely survived to the present day.

Portion of Du Fay’s setting Ave Maris Stella

Instruments in the Renaissance Period

Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or
improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the
present day; others have disappeared, only to be recreated in order to perform music of the
period on authentic instruments. As in the modern day, instruments may be classified as brass,
strings, percussion, and woodwind.
Brass
Brass instruments in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals. Some of the
more common brass instruments that were played.
Slide trumpet: Similar to the trombone of today except that instead of a section of the body
sliding, only a small part of the body near the mouthpiece and the mouthpiece itself is
stationary. Also the body was an S-shape so it was rather unwieldy, but was suitable for the
slow dance music which it was most commonly used for.
Cornett: Made of wood and was played like the recorder (will be mentioned at greater length
later on) but blown like a trumpet.
Trumpet: Early trumpets had no valves, and were limited to the tones present in the overtone
series. They were also made in different sizes.
Sackbut (sometimes sackbutt or sagbutt): A different name for the trombone (Anon. n.d.),
which replaced the slide trumpet by the middle of the 15th century (Besseler 1950, passim).

Slide Trumpet Cornet

Sackbut Trumpet
Strings
As a family strings were used in many circumstances, both sacred and secular. A few members
of this family include:

Viol: This instrument, developed in the 15th century, commonly has six strings. It was usually
played with a bow. It has structural qualities similar to the Spanish vihuela; its main separating
trait is its larger size. This changed the posture of the musician in order to rest it against the
floor or between the legs in a manner similar to the cello. Its similarities to the vihuela were
sharp waist-cuts, similar frets, a flat back, thin ribs, and identical tuning.

Lyre: Its construction is similar to a small harp, although instead of being plucked, it is
strummed with a plectrum. Its strings varied in quantity from four, seven, and ten, depending
on the era. It was played with the right hand, while the left hand silenced the notes that were
not desired. Newer lyres were modified to be played with a bow.

Irish Harp: Also called the Clàrsach in Scottish Gaelic, or the Cláirseach in Irish, during the
Middle Ages it was the most popular instrument of Ireland and Scotland. Due to its significance
in Irish history it is seen even on the Guinness label, and is Ireland's national symbol even to this
day. To be played it is usually plucked. Its size can vary greatly from a harp that can be played in
one's lap to a full-size harp that is placed on the floor

Hurdy-gurdy: (Also known as the wheel fiddle), in which the strings are sounded by a wheel
which the strings pass over. Its functionality can be compared to that of a mechanical violin, in
that its bow (wheel) is turned by a crank. Its distinctive sound is mainly because of its "drone
strings" which provide a constant pitch similar in their sound to that of bagpipes.

Gittern and mandore: these instruments were used throughout Europe. Forerunners of
modern instruments including the mandolin and guitar.
Viol Iris Harp Mandore

Lyre Hurdy – Gurdy Cittern

Percussion
Some Renaissance percussion instruments include the triangle, the Jew's harp, the tambourine,
the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums.

Tambourine: The tambourine is a frame drum. The skin that surrounds the frame is called the
vellum, and produces the beat by striking the surface with the knuckles, fingertips, or hand. It
could also be played by shaking the instrument, allowing the tambourine's jingles to "clank" and
"jingle".

Jew's harp: An instrument that produces sound using shapes of the mouth and attempting to
pronounce different vowels with ones mouth. The loop at the bent end of the tongue of the
instrument is plucked in different scales of vibration creating different tones.

Tambourine Jew Harp

Woodwinds
Woodwind instruments (aerophones) produce sound by means of a vibrating column of air
within the pipe. Holes along the pipe allow the player to control the length of the column of air,
and hence the pitch. There are several ways of making the air column vibrate, and these ways
define the subcategories of woodwind instruments. A player may blow across a mouth hole, as
in a flute; into a mouthpiece with a single reed, as in a modern-day clarinet or saxophone; or a
double reed, as in an oboe or bassoon. All three of these methods of tone production can be
found in Renaissance instruments.

Shawm: A typical oriental shawm is keyless and is about a foot long with seven finger holes
and a thumb hole. The pipes were also most commonly made of wood and many of them had
carvings and decorations on them. It was the most popular double reed instrument of the
renaissance period; it was commonly used in the streets with drums and trumpets because of
its brilliant, piercing, and often deafening sound. To play the shawm a person puts the entire
reed in their mouth, puffs out their cheeks, and blows into the pipe whilst breathing through
their nose.

Renaissance recorders
Reed pipe: Made from a single short length of cane with a mouthpiece, four or five finger
holes, and reed fashioned from it. The reed is made by cutting out a small tongue, but leaving
the base attached. It is the predecessor of the saxophone and the clarinet.

Hornpipe: Same as reed pipe but with a bell at the end.

Bagpipe/Bladderpipe: Believe to have been invented by herdsmen who thought to use a
bag made out of sheep or goat skin and would provide air pressure so that when its player
takes a breath, the player only needs to squeeze the bag tucked underneath their arm to
continue the tone. The mouth pipe has a simple round piece of leather hinged on to the bag
end of the pipe and acts like a non-return valve. The reed is located inside the long metal
mouthpiece, known as a bocal.

Panpipe: Designed to have sixteen wooden tubes with a stopper at one end and open on the
other. Each tube is a different size (thereby producing a different tone), giving it a range of an
octave and a half. The player can then place their lips against the desired tube and blow across
it.

Transverse flute: The transverse flute is similar to the modern flute with a mouth hole near
the stoppered end and finger holes along the body. The player blows in the side and holds the
flute to the right side.
Recorder: The recorder is a common instrument during the Renaissance period. Rather than a
reed it uses a whistle mouth piece, which is a beak shaped mouth piece, as its main source of
sound production. It is usually made with seven finger holes and a thumb hole.

The Recoders of Renassaince Bagpipe

Shawm Panpipes Transverse Recorder Hornpipe

 The Masters of the Renaissance

William Byrd
William Byrd birth date variously given as c.1539/40 or 1543 – 4 July 1623, was an English
composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time,
including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist
school), and consort music. He produced sacred music for use in Anglican services, although he
himself became a Roman Catholic in later life and wrote Catholic sacred music as well.
Byrd obtained the prestigious post of Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1572 following the
death of Robert Parsons, a gifted composer who drowned in the Trent near Newark on 25
January of that year. Almost from the outset Byrd is named as 'organist', which however was
not a designated post but an occupation for any Chapel Royal member capable of filling it. This
career move vastly increased Byrd's opportunities to widen his scope as a composer and also to
make contacts at Court. Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603) was a moderate Protestant who
eschewed the more extreme forms of Puritanism and retained a fondness for elaborate ritual,
besides being a music lover and keyboard player herself. Byrd's output of Anglican church music
(defined in the strictest sense as sacred music designed for performance in church) is
surprisingly small, but it stretches the limits of elaboration then regarded as acceptable by
some reforming Protestants who regarded highly wrought music as a distraction from the Word
of God.
Works of William Byrd
 THOMAS TALLIS (1510-1585)
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 23 November [O.S. 11 November] 1585)was an English composer who
occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music, and is considered one of
England's greatest composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. No
contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: that painted by Gerard Vandergucht (illustration),
dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a likeness. In a
rare existing copy of his black letter signature, the composer spelled his last name "Tallys."
Little is known about Tallis's early life, but there seems to be agreement that he was born in the
early 16th century, toward the close of the reign of Henry VII. Little is also known about Tallis's
childhood and his significance with music at that age. However, there are suggestions that he
was a Child (boy chorister) of the Chapel Royal, St. James' Palace, the same singing
establishment which he later joined as a Gentleman. His first known musical appointment was
in 1532, as organist of Dover Priory (now Dover College), a Benedictine priory in Kent. His
career took him to London, then (probably in the autumn of 1538) to Waltham Abbey, a large
Augustinian monastery in Essex which was dissolved in 1540. Tallis was paid off and also
acquired a volume and preserved it; one of the treatises in it, by Leonel Power, prohibits
consecutive unisons, fifths, and octaves.
Works of Thomas Tallis
 Baroque Music

The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality, an approach to writing music in which a
song or piece is written in a particular key (tonality continues to be used in almost all Western
popular music). During the Baroque era, professional musicians were expected to be
accomplished improvisers of both solo melodic lines and accompaniment parts. Baroque
concerts were typically accompanied by a basso continuo group which consisted of chord-
playing instrumentalists such as harpsichordists and lute players improvising chords from a
figured bass part while a group of bass instruments (viol, cello, double bass) played the
bassline. A characteristic Baroque form was the dance suite. While the pieces in a dance suite
were inspired by actual dance music, dance suites were designed for listening, not for
accompanying dancers.
Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This
era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era. Baroque
music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, being widely studied, performed,
and listened to. Key composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio
Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti,
Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-
Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, Tomaso Albinoni, François Couperin, Giuseppe Tartini,
Heinrich Schütz, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Dieterich Buxtehude, and Johann Pachelbel.
 Baroque

Highly ornamented swarming with life

Intricate Details

Intensly Emotional
SO WHAT IS BAROQUE ?
It is generally use by music historians to describe broad range of styles from a wide geographic
region, mostly in Europe, composed over a period of time approximately 150 years ago.

How can be this applied to musical concepts?

Mordents - is an ornament indicating that the note is to be played with a single rapid
alternation with the note above or below.

Trills – or shake, is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent
notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill.

Acciacaturas and Appogiaturas - A short grace note, typically notated with a slash through
the stem or flag that is a non-harmonic note sounded at the same time as the primary harmonic
note or notes and either quickly resolves to the main note or is immediately released. The
effect is that of dissonant notes being "crushed" together. This is also known as a short
appoggiatura or crushed note. This ornament was common in 17th and 18th century keyboard
performance.
Basso Continuo – is a form of musical accompaniment use in the baroque period, its means
continuos bass.
Basso continuo made an impact to black americans
Sample of a Baroque Music Sheet
 The Masters of Baroque Music

Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi 15 May 1567 (baptized) – 29 November 1643) was an
Italian composer, gambist, singer, and Catholic priest.is considered a crucial transitional figure
between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music history. While he worked
extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, such as in his madrigals, he also
made great developments in form and melody and began employing the basso continuo
technique, distinctive of the Baroque.Monteverdi wrote the earliest opera still regularly
performed, L'Orfeo (1607). Monteverdi's works can be categorized into three categories:
madrigals, operas and church-music.

Famous Composition and Works of Monteverdi:

The titles of his nine Madrigal books are:
Book 1 - Madrigali a cinque voci (1587)
Book 2 - Il secondo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1590)
Book 3 - Il terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1592)
Book 4 - Il quarto libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1603)
Book 5 - Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1605)
Book 6 - Il sesto libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1614)
Book 7 - Concerto. Settimo libro di madrigal (1619)
Book 8 - Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi con alcuni opuscoli in genere rappresentativo, che
saranno per brevi episodi fra i canti senza gesto (1638)
Book 9 - Madrigali e canzonette a due e tre voci (1651)

Opera
L’Orfeo and L’Arianna

Church Music

Vespro della Beata Vergine

by Claudio Monteverdi
 Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (Italian: [ 4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian Baroque composer,
virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric. Born in Venice, he is recognized as one of the greatest
Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. He
composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other instruments, as
well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of
violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. They called him “ The Red Priest “

Many of his compositions were written for the female music ensemble of the Ospedale della
Pietà, a home for abandoned children where Vivaldi (who had been ordained as a Catholic
priest) was employed from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740. Vivaldi also had some success
with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor
Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for preferment. However, the Emperor died soon
after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died less than a year later in poverty.
Total compositions of Vivaldi ,639 Instrumental Works (512 Concertos, 108 Sonatas, 19
Sinfonias, 56 operettas, 34 Opera and 45 cantatas )
The Famous Works of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
Le Quattro Stagionni ( The Four Seasons )
12 sonatas for two violin and basso continuo

La Extravaganza (The Extravagance), 12 violin concertos

Intruduzione al Dixit (RV 595) "Ascende laeta"

Orchestral Score of Antonio Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagionni ( The Four Seasons )

 George Frideric Handel
George Frideric ( 23 February 1685; 5 March– 14 April 1759) was a German, later British,
baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his
operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle
and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712; he became a
naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of
the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the
English nobility with Italian opera. Musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that
"Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order."As
Alexander's Feast (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works.
After his success with Messiah (1742) he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind,
and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His
funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as
one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Water Music, Music for
the Royal Fireworks and Messiah remaining steadfastly popular. One of his four Coronation
Anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed for the coronation of George II, has been
performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign's
anointing. Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late
1960s, with the revival of baroque music and historically informed musical performance,
interest in Handel's operas has grown.

The Famous Works of Handel

Music for the Royal Fireworks
Water Music
The Messiah
The Christmas Oratorrio

George Frideric Handel (left) and King George I on the River Thames

Zadok the Priest ( Dedicated to King George I, Coranation ) Choral Suite

Lascia ch'io pianga. Opera
La resurrezione and Il trionfo del tempo, Oratorios
Acis and Galatea (1719), Hercules (1745) and Semele (1744) Secular Oratorios
Serse, Opera
Organ Concertos No.1 to 7, Concerto
Handel's compositions include 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets,
numerous arias, chamber music, a large number of ecumenical pieces, odes and serenatas, and
16 organ concerti.
 Classical Music

The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as being between
about the year 1730 and the year 1820. However, the term classical music is often used in a
colloquial sense as a synonym for Western art music which describes a variety of Western
musical styles from the Middle Ages to the present, and especially from the seventeenth
century to the nineteenth. This article is about the specific period in most of the 18th century to
the early 19th century, though overlapping with the Baroque and Romantic periods.

The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a
lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic, using
a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment, but counterpoint was by no
means forgotten, especially later in the period. It also makes use of style galant which
emphasized light elegance in place of the Baroque's dignified seriousness and impressive
grandeur. Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before and the
orchestra increased in size, range, and power.

In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture,
literature, and the arts, generally known as Classicism. This style sought to emulate the ideals of
Classical antiquity, especially those of Classical Greece. Classical music was still tightly linked to
aristocratic Court culture and supported by absolute monarchies. Classical music used formality
and emphasis on order and hierarchy, and a "clearer", "cleaner" style that used clearer divisions
between parts (notably a clear, single melody accompanied by chords), brighter contrasts and
"tone colors" (achieved by the use of dynamic changes and modulations to more keys). In
contrast with the richly layered music of the Baroque era, Classical music moved towards
simplicity rather than complexity. In addition, the typical size of orchestras began to increase,
giving orchestras a more powerful sound.

Instruments during the Classical Period

Strings

Violin Viola Cello

Double Bass Guitar

Woodwinds

Besset Clarinet Besset Horn Clarinette D’Amore

Chalumeau Clarinet
Keyboards

Clavichord Forte Piano

Pipe Organ Chamber Organ

Brasses

Ophicleide Buccin
Arrangement of Orchestra during the Classical Period

Orchestra arrangement during the Baroque Period

 The Classical Masters

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes

Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart,[2] was a prolific and influential composer of the
Classical era.

Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent
on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European
royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and
traveled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his
Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial
security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies,
concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time
of his death.

The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his
wife Constanze and two sons.
He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic,
concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of
classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. Ludwig
van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn
wrote: "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years".

The Famous Works of Mozart

Piano Concertos No. 1 to 26
Symphonies No.9,10,12,42 40,44,45 to 48
Eine Kliene Nactmusik Chamber Music
The Magic Flute Opera
Don Giovanni Opera
Violin Concertos and Violin Sonatas
Piano Sonatas, Fantasies and Fugue
 Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and
pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art
music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known
compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16
string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio.

Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire,
Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van
Beethoven and by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe. At the age of 21 he moved
to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and gained a reputation as
a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to
deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave
up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired
works come from these last 15 years of his life.
Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest writers of music to have ever lived. Having
written hundreds of compositions, Beethoven has left the world with some of the most
beautiful and emotional music that has ever been heard.
Most Beautiful Compositions of Beethoven
Symphony No.7 Movement 2
Symphony No.6 (The Pastoral) Movement 1st
Symphony No. 5 ( Allegro con Brio ) Movement 1st
Piano Sonata No.13 Movement 3rd
Piano Concerto No. 21 Movement 1st
Piano Sonata No.14 (Moonlight) Movement 1st
Violin Sonata No.5 (Spring) Movement 2nd
Piano Trio No.6 Movements 1 and 3
Violin Concerto Movement 2nd
Fidelio - The Prisoners Chorus
Missa Solemnis - Sanctus
Fur Elise

The Portrait of Beethoven

As a 13 year old As Young Beethoveen Early Manhood Beethoven

 Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi
Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (23 January 1752 – 10 March 1832) was an
Italian-born British composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano
manufacturer.Encouraged to study music by his father, he was sponsored as a young composer
by Sir Peter Beckford who took him to England to advance his studies. Later, he toured Europe
numerous times from his long-standing base in London. It was on one of these occasions, in
1781, that he engaged in a piano competition with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Influenced by Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord school and Haydn's classical school and by the
stile galante of Johann Christian Bach and Ignazio Cirri, Clementi developed a fluent and
technical legato style, which he passed on to a generation of pianists, including John Field,
Johann Baptist Cramer, Ignaz Moscheles, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Johann
Nepomuk Hummel and Carl Czerny. He was a notable influence on Ludwig van Beethoven.
Clementi also produced and promoted his own brand of pianos and was a notable music
publisher. Because of this activity, many compositions by Clementi's contemporaries and earlier
artists have stayed in the repertoire. Though the European reputation of Muzio Clementi was
second only to Joseph Haydn in his day, his reputation languished for much of the 19th and 20th
centuries.
As the "Father of the Pianoforte," Clementi was a strong and vocal promoter of the piano.
Clementi was a master of many musical trades including a performer, composer, publisher,
teacher, arranger, and even instrument maker. He traveled extensively throughout Europe,
collecting and publishing music manuscripts, including those of Beethoven's, and selling pianos.
He also taught students who went on to teach great composers like Chopin and Mendelssohn
years later. Clementi's most notable body of work are his compositions for piano: Gradus ad
Parnassum and three piano sonatas (op. 50).

The Works and Masterpieces

Gradus and Parnassum
Piano Sonatas No. 1 to 6
Sonatas for Piano and Violin No. 1 and 3
Symphony No.1 and 2 Orchestral Works
12 Waltzes for Piano Triangle and Violin
Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2
Sonatinas No. 1 to 6 Op.6
3 Sonatas For Piano, Violin, and Cello
2 Piano Sonatas and 2 Capriccios
Gradus and Parnassum