Baroque Time Period

1600-1750

Classical Time Period
1750-1820
Romantic Time Period
1820-1900
Baroque Composers

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Monteverdi

Purcell

Corelli

Bach

Vivaldi

Handel

Classical Composers

Haydn

Mozart

Beethoven

Romantic Composers

Basically everybody else

Weber

Rossini

Schubert

Mendelssohn

Chopin

Schumann

Liszt

Wagner

Franck

Smetana

Brahms

Tchaikovsky

Dvorak

Sousa

Puccini

Mahler

Strauss

Twentieth Century Composers

Debussy

Schoenberg

Ravel

Bartok

Stravinsky

Prokofiev

Hindemith

Gershwin

Copland

Shostakovich

Penderecki

Voices

Soprano

(Mezzosoprano)

Alto

Tenor

(Baritone)

Bass

Monophonic Texture
Unaccompanied melody
Homophonic Texture
Accompanied melody
Polyphonic Texture
Many melodies (like a symphony)
Motet
Polyphonic choral piece in sacred Latin
Aria

(emotional) Solo voice w/ orchestral accompaniment

In operas, oratorios, and cantatas

Arioso
Vocal solo more lyrical than a recitative and less elaborate than an aria.
Art Song
Translating poems into song
Augmentation
Lenghthening of fugue subject
Impressionism

France

Debussy

Stresses tone color, atmosphere, fluidity

Ballata

Medieval Italy

A BB AA

Ballett

Dancelike vocal homophonic

fa-la

Renaisssance England

Basso Ostinato

(Ground Bass)

Bass idea consistent while melody changes

Baroque

Camerata

Italian fellowship, began in 1575

Set foundation for the start of opera

Blues

Flat notes in scale

Vocal blues have form A A’ B

Bridge

(Transition)

In Sonata form, transition section between exposition and development
Cantata

For chorus, vocal soloists, and instrumental ensemble

Several movements

Chance (aleatory) Music

The stupidest, most disgusting songs composed by pure randomness

Idiot developer: John Cage in the 1950s

Chorale
Religious German hymn
Church Modes

Medieval

Renaissance

20th Century

Concert Overture

Single movement orchestra piece

Sonata form

Romantic

Concerto Grosso

Several soloists

Baroque

Diminution
Shortening of fugue subject
Episode
Transitional section in a fugue
Etude

French for “study”

Pieces to master techniques

Exposition
First part of sonata-form movement
Expressionism

German, Austrian

20th Century

Emotion and dissonance

Gregorian Chant

Unaccompanied

Sacred Latin

Official music of Roman Catholic Church

Heterophonic Texture

2 or more persons playing same basic melody but w/ different ornamentation or rhythm

Idee Fixe
Theme shared between movements
Imitation
Melodic idea repeated by another player (like a round)
Incidental Music

During a play

Sets the mood;

Inversion
Backwards fugue
Leitmotif

Musical idea associated with a noun

Wagner operas;

Libretto
Opera text
Madrigal

For several voices

Short secular poem

Word painting;

Renaissance;

Mass

Sacred choral piece

Made up of 5 sections;

Microtone
Smaller than half step
Minimalist Music

Trancelike, unchanging

1960s;

Minuet and Trio

A B A

Minuet Trio Minuet;

Strophic Form

Vocal

Same music for each stansa of a poem;

Modified Strophic Form

Some stanzas have same music, while some stanzas have new music

Romantic;

Modulation
Key change in a song
Nationalism
Romantic Period
Neoclassicism

1920-1950

Imitation of 18th Century Music;

New Orleans (Dixieland) Jazz
Improv w/ rhythm section
Oratorio

Messiah

Ostinato
Phrase repeated at same pitch
Pedal Point

1 tone usu. in bass

Held while other voices change

In Fugues;

Pentatonic Scale
5-tone scale in folk music and far East
Polonaise
Triple meter, Polish court dance
Raga
Indian improv
Ragtime
Early 20th Century
Recapitulation
3rd section of sonata in Tonic Key
Reqium
Mass for the dead
Retrograde
Reverse of fugue: last note first
Ricercar
Renaissance imitation
Ritornello
Repeated section of music
Romance

Short piano/piano accompaniment piece

19th Century;

Rondo

A B A C A

Typical of final movements;

Rubato
Bending tempo
Scherzo

A B A

Typical 3rd movement in triple meter;

Sequence
Immediate repetition in a different pitch
Serialism

Mid-20th Century

Ordered group of musical elements;

Sonata Form

Single movement:

Exposition, Development, Recapitulation

A B A;

Sonata-Rondo
A B A – Development – A B A
Sprechstimme

Speech-voice

Schoenberg;

Stretto

In Fugue:

Subject imitated before finished;

Strophic Form
Same music repeated for each stanza
Suite
Same key but different everything else
Symphony
4 Mvmnts

Tone Row

Set

Series;

Particular ordering of 12 tones.
12-tone System
Developed by Schoenberg, early 1920s
Venetian School

16th – 17th Century composers, wrote for several choruses

St. Mark’s Cathedral 

Whole-tone Scale

Six tones each a whole step away from the next

Debussey