The Musical Eras and their Composers
Ludwig Van Beethoven
The Baroque Era
The Middle Ages
The Romantic Era
c. 1600-1750
- Foundation for modern music
- Music became main form of entertainment for all
- Instrumental Music dominated
- New Musical Genres
- Opera
- The biggest contribution of the era
- Orchestra
- New musical forms and styles
- The concerto, motet, and cantata
- Harpsichord was invented
The Man Who Changed Music
c. 1150-1400
- Completely Choral Music
- Modal Music in the Church
- Gregorian Chant and Plainsong
- At first was one line of chant
- Organum - The extention of Gregorian Chant and Plainsong
- Featured two or three lines moving a 4th or 5th above the melody homophonically, thus creating harmony
- 12th century Troubadours
- Traveling Musicians in France
- Wrote most of the secular music
- Not many recorded composers from this time
- Many were priest and monks
- c. 1830-1920
- Featured new emotional depth to the music
- Composers used new techniques:
- Exoticsm
- Composers borrow musical techniques and characteristics from foreign countries to create an exotic character.
- Nationalism
- Composers compose songs based on the music of their homeland.
- Program music
- Music that is intended to tell a story. A narrative is often included to pass out to the audience during the performance.
- The symphony, opera, concerto, and other genres continue to grow and develop.
- Ballets are popular in this time period
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Big Name Composers
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377)
Big Name Composers
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706),
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Big Name Composers
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
The Renaissance
The Classical Era
The Contemporary Era
c. 1400-1600
- Freedom for sacred composers increasing (though still strict)
- Harmony a regular occurance in sacred music
- Polyphony: Several musical lines moving indepedently from eachother
- Choral music is still dominant, but a few instrumental pieces appear
- Keyboard music: fantasias, variation, dance movements
- Main Genres
- Masses, motets, anthems, madrigals and psalms
- All unaccompanied, or a capella
c. 1750-1830
- The symphony became largest genre of the era
- The clarity of compositional form became the important aspect of music during this era.
- The sonata allegro form - most popular of the time
- Musical form with an exposition, development and recapitulation of a theme
- The symphony, concerto, quartet, and sonata became much like they are today
- Composers were beginning to become more expressive, especially after toward the end of the century
c. 1920 - Present Music
- Composers began using unorthodox techniques to express themselves
- 12 tone system
- Impressionism
- Found new ways to play traditional instruments
- "Prepared Piano"
- Some still kept with traditional tonal and rhythmic schemes
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Big Name Composers
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
Big Name Composers
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Big Name Composers
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Richard Strauss (1864-1949) Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)