BAROQUE(1600-1750)
-Rebelled against Renaissance
-Outgrowth of Renaissance musical style
-The Baroque, by contrast, loved colossal artistic statements
Classical
term used to reference a specific period of about 60 years. Also used to refer to whole body of Western art music, regardless of when written.
Baroque Music
Exuberance, passion, sudden dynamic contrasts and harmonic and instrumental color. Music has complex, dense textures, constant rhythmic propulsion, changes of pace and more chromaticism (using notes outside the key of the piece)
Baroque Painting
-Huge canvasses exploding with brilliant colors, strong contrasts in light and shade and strong emotions.
-Architecture enormous churches and extravagant palaces.
Noted Composers from Baroque Period
J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Domenico Scarlatti, Henry Purcell and Giovanni Gabrielli
CLASSICAL(1750-1825)
-First 25 years of the classical era (1750-1775) called the Rococo. This was a period of “cooling off” from the heated complexity of the Baroque period.
-Homophonic vs. Polyphonic (Baroque)
-The new trend ushered in music of considerable elegance, restraint, poise, and gentility. Gradually, the surface charm yielded to the greater power and vision of classical composers
-Vienna, Austria became the center of the mature classical style.
-As court life diminished, music was heard in variety of new settings, in public concerts and in social and political events.
Characteristics of CLASSICAL period
Clearer, simpler forms, thinner texture, more use of a single melody supported by accompaniment (called homophonic) rather than numerous, independent parts or voices (called polyphonic) as in the Baroque period.
CLASSICAL noted composers
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven. They expanded the repertoire of chamber music, string quartets and symphonies.
ROMANTIC(1810-1900)
-Musical compositions became larger informs, ensembles, and length
-Emotionally changed vs. Objective (classical)
-Emotion and instinct now were seen as sources of truth.
-Objectivity, equilibrium and restraint of the Classical period gradually yielded to explosive philosophies and emotions.
-Literature and Painting “reflected world filled with supernatural, magical, imaginative freedom and mystery
-Music now allowed lavish, unrestrained harmonic and instrumental color, hot emotions and intense poetic tenderness.
-This period also bred interesting performers and personalities, perhaps like today’s rock stars.
-Franz Liszt, pianist and composer whose technical prowess and dynamic stage presence are legendary – it was said women swooned and even picked up his cigar butts and put them in their bosoms!
-Nicolai Paganini ” violinist who strode onstage in a black cloak and played with such wizardry that it was said he was in league with the devil and that he played the violin with strings from the intestines of his late wife!
Characteristics of ROMANTIC period
Personalization, impulsive emotional display, baring the soul, attraction for the exotic, mysterious, enchanting, fantastic and the natural. Composed works were larger-scale in forms, ensembles and durations.
Noted Composers from ROMANTIC period
Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Tschaikowsky, Grieg, Wagner, Rachmaninoff
IMPRESSIONISM (1890-1925)
-Inspiration is external vs. internal (romantic)
-No steady rhythmic pulse
-No clear harmonic/melodic structure
-Out of the excesses of the previous period came the cool, refreshing alternative of impressionism. Inspiration came from without, not from within oneself.
-Painting “blurred outlines, melting colors into one another. Depictions of sunsets, fog, moonlight, water and fireworks.
-Poetry – nuance was the most important. Symbolist poets used words to suggest an image and to act as a symbol, hence the name “Symbolist”.
IMPRESSIONISM Music Characteristics
-Intended to create atmosphere and project a beautiful moment or sensory effect. New and exotic sounds employed, more flexible rhythms, melodies more serene, less goal-oriented, and harmonies were used to create sonority rather than ground us in a particular key. Often gives feeling of drifting.
Noted Composers from IMPRESSIONISM
Debussy, Ravel, Resphiei, Griffes
20th Century
-Lots of experimentation
-Highly controlled music and free music
-Most fragmented of all the periods. Complicated, turbulent and exhilarating
-One side – music offered highly controlled statements
-Other side – music was totally free in expression
-Experimentation in rhythm, form, melody, tuning of instruments
-Traditional instruments were used but sometimes played with completely new techniques (e.g. “prepared piano “where nails, paper clips, metal, bolts, plastic and paper were placed inside the piano on the strings to create different effects)
-Electronic and computer-generated music came into prominence
-Cross-polinization of world cultures with popular and commercial music
-Some composers looked to the past in neo-baroque, neoclassical and neo-romantic inflections.
Noted composers of the 20th century
Bartok, Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Crumb, Gershwin, Ives, Prokofieff, Schoenberg, Stravinsky
MELODY
-A single line of notes heard in succession as a coherent unit
-Has shape, moving up or down in ways that capture and hold our attention over a span of time.
-Like a story: has a beginning, middle and end
-Note: smallest unit of music, the building block out of which larger structures are created
-Commercial Jingles
Nestle
Slinky
Rice Crispy
RHYTHM
-Rhythm is the ordering of music through time
-Not all music has melody, but all music has rhythm
-Can be steady, or unpredictable
Meter: an underlying pattern of beats that maintains itself consistently throughout work.
Waltz = triple meter
March = duple mete
-Measure: a grouping of beats, determined by the meter
Waltz = 3 beats per measure |1 2 3| 1 2 3| 1 2 3|
March = 2 beats per measure |1 2|1 2|1 2|
HARMONY
-Sound created by multiple notes played or sung simultaneously.
-Enriches the melody by creating a fuller sound than can be produced by single voice
-Helps determine the character/mood of piece
-Melody = Horizontal music
-Harmony = Vertical Music
-Chord = three or more notes played at the same time.
Sad happy birthday
Happy-happy birthday
TEXTURE/TIMBRE
-Texture: based on the number and general relationship of musical line or voices
-Monophonic: a single melody with no accompaniment
-Homophonic: a melody played with accompaniment
-Polyphonic: many independent lines of equal importance
-Timbre: the character of a sound (color)
-Can have many different instruments play the same note, but each their own timbre
-Trumpet demonstration
-Voice demonstration
Hungarian Folk Influences in Classical Music
-Hungarian Gypsy-style bands were everywhere throughout Europe. The earliest mention in literature was made around 1778 by portraitist Johan Martin Stock of Pressburg, depicting a fiddle player, cimbalom player, and double bass player.
-In the beginning of the 20th century, Hungarian Composers such as Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly started to collect folk songs.
-They incorporated these folk materials and developed a distinct Hungarian style
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
-Hungarian Rhapsodies (1846-1853)
-Piano pieces
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
-Hungarian Dances (1869) – piano 4-hands (musical example)
Zotan Kodaly: Dances of Galanta
-The region of Galanta is now in Slovakia. It was one of the estates of the Esterhazy family.
-The piece was commissioned by the Budapest Philharmonia Society to celebrate its 80th anniversary in 1933.
-“One cannot claim that one knows or understands the history of a period if one knows nothing of its music…for there is a level of human feeling and though that can only express itself in music, and in nothing else.”
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
-Czech Composer
-Folk Music of Moravia
-Most famous for his “Slovanic Dances” and “New World Symphony” (symphony no.9)during his visit in the United States (1892-1895)
-Legends, composed in 1881, is on of Dvorak early works
-Originally for piano duet and later arranged for orchestra by the composer
-The ten short pieces represent various elements of the human character, although the composer doesn’t tell you who these legends are.
The Beginning of Jazz
-Jazz came from the only true American music: BLUES
-Early African Slave Christian Church Music
-Black Harry- from “lining out” to Call and Response
Call and Response
-Leader – start the song (call)
-Followers – respond to the call (response)
-Groups – could also have groups of people call back and forth
-Used to communicate directions and keep up morale
-YouTube clip “John the Revelator (Book of the Seven Seals)
Gospel Music
-Creation of Gospel songs combined:
-Christian Subjects and African Vocal and Rhythmic Influences
-Western Art Music focus = HARMONY and MELODY
-African Music focus = Rhythm!
Blues (late 19th Century -1920’s)
•Blues combined
-AFRICAN WORK SONGS AND CHRISTIAN HYMNS
•Work songs used : call and response, rhythms from the tasks being performed, BLUE NOTES, and IMPROVISATION
•Has a chord progression
•I – IV – I – V – I
Blue Notes
Now, blue notes don’t really exist in this scale, the best we can do is flat 3rd not and the 7th (the E and B)
Improvisation
•CREATE MUSIC SPONTANEOUSLY (within the form)
•Things to consider:
o Form (12 bar blues, rhythm changes)
o Which scales he can use (Blues scales, diminished scales, while tone scales, pentatonic scales)
o Styles (Blues, Ragtime, Jazz, Swing, Funk)
o Time and Tempo (Slow feel, Double-time)
o Personal Limitations (Endurance, Experience)
Swing (1930’s)
•During the depression
•Swing music and dancing were inseparable
•Even 4-4 beat = excellent dance beat
•Swing rhythm
o BASED ON TRIPLETS
•One problem: swing is fairly strict style
BeBop(1940’s)
•Rhythmic accents
•Unpredictability
•New chords/forms
•Virtuosic playing
1950’s
-Cool Jazz – texture, tempo, and volume all “cooled off” during this time
o Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool album is best representation of this new style
1960’s
-Modal Jazz –Improvising using Modal scales
o John Coltrane: big influences, led to “free” jazz
1970’s
-Fusion -Combination of jazz and rock
o Miles Davis: Bitches Brew album defined the style
1980’s and 1990’s
– Neo-Classical Jazz
o Wynton Marsalis revisited Dixieland and the styles that helped form jazz in the beginning.