Classical Music

Classical Music (1750-1820)

Overview:
The SYMPHONY emerges
CHAMBER MUSIC emerges
OPERA continues & evolves
Three major composers:
BEETHOVEN - wrote for a lot of orchestral pieces
MOZART - wrote for many different pieces
HAYDN - wrote a lot of string quartets

The Classical style:

• Clarity
• Regular phrases
• Contrast becomes structural, even narrative
• Motific rather than melodic
• Motific material is "worked out"
• Motific - repeating pattern (melody)

Haydn - Symphony no. 101, mov. 3

Sonata Form:

Exposition - Development - Recapitulation

Mozart - 3rd movement from Symphony No. 40 in G minor (example of sonata form)

Key Characteristics:

MELODY: short and clearly defined musical phrases with two or more contrasting themes

RHYTHM: Very defined and regular

TEXTURE: Mostly homophonic

TUMBRE: The symphony orchestra was organized into four sections - strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. The harpsichord was  not used

Ornaments

• Trills - notes that are usually a semitone apart, played very fast.

• Appoggiatura - starts on a note that clashes with the chord and then moves to a note that matches the chord. The notes are usually a semitone/tone apart.

• Acciaccatura - Squeezing a short note in between a longer one (playing the short one as fast possible).

• Mordent - Similar to (and start off like) trills, except the last note is slightly longer. 

• Turns - A series of notes that are played tones/semitones apart (see example). There is also an inverted turn.

Vivaldi Set Work

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)

Spring from The Four Seasons Op. 8 no.1, RV 269 (Violin Concerto)

The piece as split into the four seasons. Our set work is on spring. The music reflected many aspects of spring such as the birds and the clear whether. 

Instruments:

The spring piece is string dominated.

Background information on Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi lived from 1678 - 1741 and was one of the greatest musical figures of the Baroque period. He was born into a big family and lived in Vienna. He suffered from asthma. Vivaldi wrote for a variety of instruments, but most commonly for the violin (nearly half of the total). He studied to become a priest he only said mass a few times.

Baroque Music

Before Baroque music, there was renaissance and medieval music

Baroque music (17th Century, 1600 - 1750)

Scientific discovery - Galileo, Newton

Main composers - J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel

Three periods:

• Early: opera, homophonic (chordal) texture
• Middle: instrumental music
• Late: polyphony (different parts all at once)

Unity of Mood: a piece usually expresses one mood

Rhythm: Patterns are repeated throughout, the beat is emphasized

Melody: repeated

Dynamics: Terraced dynamics (alternation between loud and soft dynamics, organ and harpsichord could not crescendo)

Basso Continuo: Common type of accompaniment, Bass line with improvised chords (cello or bassoon on bass, harpsichord or organ on harmony)

Baroque forms: Movements - a piece that sounds fairly complete and independent but is part of a larger composition

Baroque Orchestra:

• Small (10 to 40 players)
• Basso continuo and violin family strings
• Brass, woodwinds and percussion used occasionally
• Tone colour was subordinate (meaning lower rank to;) to the melody, rhythm or harmony
• String dominated orchestra

Baroque Form: Movements that sound fairly complete

Music in Baroque Society
Music written to order: demand for new music,
Main source of diversion in the courts of the aristocracy
Church musicians
Town musicians
Opera houses

Elements of Opera:

• Opera: a drama in which some or all of the lines are sung to an orchestral accompaniment
• Libretto: the test of the opera
• Librettist: the one who writes the libretto
• Overture or prelude: the orchestral introduction to an opera
• Aria: A song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment
• Recitative: A vocal line that imitates speech, accompanied by basso continuo
• Ensembles: compositions for two or more singers
• Oratorio: sacred work based on the bible

The Baroque Sonata:

• A composition in several movements for one to eight instruments (during the early baroque)
• any instrumental soloist with basso continuo 

The Concerto and Concerto Grosso:

• Concerto: piece for instrumental soloist, string orchestra, and basso continuo
• Concerto Grosso: piece for instrumental soloists, string orchestra, and basso continuo

The Concerto Grosso: Performers

• Soloists - between two and four, best paid - better players
• Tutti - string orchestra
• Ritornello form: solo, followed by everyone coming in

Fugue:

• A polyphonic composition based on one theme called a subject
• Written for three, four or five voices (labelled SATB whether sung or played)
• Subject - the melody or theme of a fugue. Subjects are staggered
• Theme - a short melody used to build a larger composition
• The answer is the subject in the dominant
• Countersubject - a different melodic idea which always appears with the subject
• Episode - transitional section
• Stretto - close imitation
• Pedal point - a single held-out tone, usually in the bass
• Drone is two notes
• Chord is 3 or more notes

Bach - Church Cantatas:

• Most of his vocal music is sacred
• No difference between sacred and secular forms
• Used operatic forms such as aria and recitative in sacred cantatas (Italian concerto, Frech suite)
• All genres except opera
• A Cantata is vocal and orchestral

Baroque Suite:

• A set of orchestral pieces
• Usually dances or preludes

Chorale - hymn tune sung to a religious text

Chorale prelude - a short composition played by the organist and based on a hymn tune

Cantata - for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and small orchestra

Cantata:

• Written for chorus, vocal soloists, organ and small orchestra
• Text from bible or familiar hymns
• Used to reinforce the sermon
• Half-hour duration
• Included choruses, recitatives, arias, and duets. (all are also found in opera)
• Bach composed about 295 cantatas

Oratorio:

• a large-scale composition for chorus, vocal soloists, and orchestra
• uses choruses, arias, duets, recitatives, and orchestral interludes (chorus acts as commentary)
• lasts approximately 2 hours
• set to a narrative text
• no acting or scenery
• most are biblical
• originally performed in prayer halls called oratorios

Indian Music

India is a vast country, populated with 800 million people. Music plays a vital role in their religious ceremonies.

Instruments:
Raga - An extended scale used in Indian music. There are over 250 different Ragas in Indian music. It is a cross between a scale and a melody.

• Sitar (melody): India's favoured string instrument - plucked with frets. Has two sets of strings - one for playing the melody and another that resonate with the main strings. It is quite large - it has a long neck and has a resonator near the neck. 

• Sirangi: Most have 3 main strings - bowed. Many other 'sympathetic' strings (accompaniment) tuned to notes of the Raga. Made from one piece of hollowed wood. 

• Sarod (melody): Originally a primitive tribal instrument. Four playing strings, two rhythm strings. Plucked with a plectrum (like a guitar pick). Many 'sympathetic' strings tuned to notes of the Raga. Very similar sound to the Sitar, except it usually has a lower register than the Sitar. 

• Tambura (also spelled Tampura): Four stringed fretless instrument. Wooden body. Harmonic drone. Tuned to emphasis tonic and dominant notes of the Raga. 

• Harmonium: Provides the accompanying drone. It is a reed instrument operated by bellows. 

• Shehnai: Double reed wind instrument with a loud sound. 

• Tabla (rhythm): The tabla is a pair of drums. Each drum is played by one hand. Bass - left, Treble - right. The bass drum - the bayan - is made of copper or brass, with a large skin. The treble drum is made of a kind of exotic wood. The skin is camel skin! 

In the music, improvisation follows strict rules. 

20th Century Music

20th Century Music 

(Characteristics and Composers)

The music of the 20th century is significantly different to other era's such as Classical and Baroque. However, 20th century music can sometimes be influenced by the Romantic period, as the era's are still transitioning. The reason why 20th century music is significantly different is because it has a very abstract style. Baroque and Classical music could easily be recognisable because they had distinct features that you could recognise in almost every piece (for example, Harpsichords in Baroque music, an Alberti bass in Mozart's music etc...). However, 20th century music can have a variation of different features and can sometimes include features from other periods, so it is quite confusing trying to separate it from the other periods. Despite it being a mesh of different musical features, 20th century music includes features such as dissonance, syncopation and unusual time signatures. Here are some more features of 20th century music:

• Unpredictable rhythm pattern
• Unbalanced melodies
• Harmonies that don't match (unusual chords and dissonance)
• Homophonic texture (sometimes polyphonic)
• Includes a wide range of instruments (sometimes played in unconventional ways)

Composers

Ralph Vaughan Williams 

Sir Edward Elgar

George Gershwin

Modest Mussorgsky

Claude Debussy

John Cage

Impressionism

• The music giving an impression of the object it describes. 
• Debussy and Ravel are associated with impressionism music. 
• Impressionism is very implicit. It conveys subtle emotion compared to the strong emotion of the romantic era. Largely programmatic. Traditional scales are replaced with whole tones, advanced chromatic harmonies and dissonance. 
• The orchestra is used to give a wide range of timbres, like the artist uses colours from their palate
• Rhythm is often free and there is an absences of a strict pulse or metre
• Debussy's music includes whole tone scales (a scale that only goes up/down in whole tones)

Minimalism

• Key composers are: Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, John Adams
• Simple melodic fragments, time signature, dynamics etc...
• Extremely repetitive
• Gradual changes to elements; addition/subtraction of rhythms/dynamics etc...
• Contrapuntal texture, when there are lots of melodies going on at the same time
• Ostinato - A short collection of notes that are repeated once and once again
• Layered textures 
• Interlocking rhythms and phrases
• Diatonic harmony

Serialism

• Schoenberg is one of the main composers of the serialism period as well as Alban Berg and Anton Webern
• He felt music was too restricted. He experimented with expressionism and atonal music
• Unresolved dissonance is common as well as an un-obvious pulse (difficult to identify time signature)
• Large leaps in melodic lines (angular melodies)
• Complex rhythm patterns
• Chamber music, very hard to play
• Number of instruments are kept minimal or else it would be too messy when listening to the piece itself
• Prime order: Every note on the chromatic scale must be used but not repeated in the same phrase
• Retrograde: playing a sequence/melody backwards
• Inversion: when the intervals are flipped (e.g. major third UP would be a C to an E but a major third down would be a C to an A flat) 
• Retrograde inversion: playing a sequence backwards with the same interval but an opposite direction
• Klangfarbenmelodie: When the tone row is distributed to multiple instruments to vary timbre
• Lots of cluster chords are used (hence the dissonance)
• Verticalisation: form of harmonization - formation of chords

Neoclassicism

• Neoclassicism makes a return to balanced forms and often emotional restraint, as well as 18th century compositional processes and techniques
• Stravinsky was one of the first composers to experiment with this type of music
• Main composers for Neoclassicism: Poulenc, Tippett, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Hindemith
• Elements from modern music: Bitonality, frequent changes of key, unexpected harmonies, unexpected chord sequences and deliberate 'wrong' notes
• Elements from Baroque and Classical music: Devices such as alberti bass, sequence and imitation, music not describing anything in particular, style devoid of emotion, forms such as sonata, concerto and symphony
• Other main features: clear texture, regular rhythms, clarity of sounds in solos and echoes of earlier composers, use of ostinati (short repeating pattern), 'functional' traditional harmonic and tonal progressions, coloured by deliberately dissonant chords, rhythmically complex - often using polyrhythms, combination of step-wise and angular melodies, deliberate use of older forms and dance styles, quotations from Classical or Baroque repertoire

Latin American Music

Latin American Music

This genre includes music from all the countries of Latin American and the Caribbean. 

Features: 

- Upbeat/fast/lively tempo

- Male singers

Instruments (in traditional Latin American music):

- Quena

- Panpipes

- Guitar

- Bandoneon

Types of latin american music:

- Mariachi

- Folk music

- Traditional