Western Classical Music History Outline - to 1820

In the Blog of session 12 I presented a You Tube video featuring Leonard Bernstein, one of the great conductors and music teachers of the 20th century. The video was of Mr. Bernstein discussing the compositional Mozart implemented in the opening movement of Symphony No. 40 in G Minor. In the presentation he stated how well Mozart carried out the classic concept of balance between chromatic melodic content and diatonic harmonic content. He especially pointed out how Mozart moved from one passage to another and even one key to another using the "cycle of fifths", a concept that had been documented by Bach and other during the late Renaissance and Baroque periods of Western musical history. (The link to the video of Bernstein discussing Mozart's symphony can be found in the previous blog.)

For the remaining class time provides an opportunity to discuss some of the more important facts regarding the development of music in the Western world. Some of those facts are presented in the outline below.

5th Century BCE

1. Pythagoras develops concepts and theories about music that are commonly held to be true even to the present generation
2. The establishment of the relationships in music
1. Perfect octaves - 2:1 relationship
2. Perfect fifths - 3:2 relationship

Medieval Period - Beginnings - 475 through 1400

1. The Early Medieval period (475 - 1100)
1. The earliest music preserved were the monophonic chants of the Roman church
2. Musical notation begins to be developed
3. Heterophony developed (static bass line with melody), understanding of harmony begins to develop
4. Sense of rhythm not fully practiced or documented
5. Hildegard von Bingen (a Catholic nun) is one of the earliest composers
2. The High Medieval period (1100 - 1400)
1. Early forms of polyphony develop as heterophony declines in use
2. Musical notation uses lines and spaces to indicate pitch, various shapes are used to indicate duration
3. Vocal music styles
1. Settings of the mass are put to music with fragments of the chants becoming the cantus firmus of the compositions
2. Motet - sacred, sung in Latin
3. Madrigal - secular, sung in vernacular
4. Music taught at the new universities being established
1. Polyphony develops further at Notre Dame in France
2. Leonin composes for two vocal lines of polyphonic texture
3. Perotin composes for four vocal lines of polyphonic texture

Renaissance - Enlightenment - 1400 - 1600

1. Music continues to evolve as new styles are slowly adopted
1. Interest in humanism leads in secular developments of music
2. Development of printing methods helps in preserving secular as well as sacred music
3. Polyphony becomes more sophisticated
4. Parallel movement through the use of the third (interval) helps in developing a richer sense of harmony
5. Modal music falls from use as tonal music develops (sense of major and minor tonality)
6. Center of music development primarily in Italy, as a result, most musical terms used today are in Italian
7. England was secondary to Italy though the English madrigal became highly developed as a musical art form 
2. Composers
1. John Dunstable
2. Josquin des Prez
3. Giovanni Pierluigi di Palestrina
4. William Bird
5. Giovanni Gabrieli
3. Instruments are used, primarily, for dance music
1. Lutes (forerunner of the guitar)
2. Recorders (forerunner of the flute)
3. Shawms (forerunner of the oboe and clarinet)
4. Viols (forerunner of the string family)
5. Used in consorts (like instruments of different sizes)

Baroque - Ornamentation - 1600 through 1750

1. The word "baroque" came from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl", a negative description of the ornate and heavily ornamented music of this period; later, the name came to be applied also to its architecture and art which was also heavily ornamented.
2. Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music traditions. It is still…
1. widely studied
2. performed
3. listened to.
3. Many concepts and musical practices developed or solidified during the Baroque still exist today
4. Composers of the baroque era include 
1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), remained in Germany
2. George Frideric Handel (1685-1758), born in Germany, educated in Italy, career spent in England
3. Antonio Vivaldi
4. Arcangelo Corelli
5. Claudio Monteverdi
6. Henry Purcell.
5. Tonality becomes functional
1. Definite sense of major and minor
2. Modes become a thing of the past
3. Music theory advances
1. Widespread use of figured bass (also known as "thorough bass") as a type of "musical shorthand"
2. Used for basic accompaniment of soloist using harpsichord (keyboard) and cello (bass) - called the continuo
3. Understanding of dissonant to stable resolution is adopted
4. Forms
1. Concerto
2. Concerto grosso
3. Fugue
4. Invention
5. Many others
6. Instruments improve, particularly the string family
1. Development of new instrumental playing techniques
2. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance
7. Opera developed
1. Greek tragedies set to music
2. Recitative, solo, moves the story along, wordy and dramatically sung
3. Aria, solo, dwells on a particular aspect of the story
4. Chorus, choral, dwells on a particular aspect presented as commentary from the supporting characters in the opera
5. Sacred counterparts
1. Oratorio (lengthy, used in concerts)
2. Cantata (short, used in worship
8. Orchestras are formed
1. 90% of the orchestra composed of members of the string family
2. Early brass and woodwind instruments appear
9. Impact of Reformation on Music
1. Lutheran religion develops the chorale (hymn) - strophic, sung in vernacular, homophonic
2. Church of England develops the anthem - not strophic, sung in vernacular, primarily homophonic with polyphonic passages utilized for contrast
3. Protesting groups (primarily early Presbyterians) develop Psalm singing with the use of the "metrical psalm"
10. Primary patrons of music were large churches and municipalities

Classic - Reason - 1750 through 1825

1. The best known composers from this period are:
1. Joseph Haydn
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Other composers
1. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
2. Johann Christoph Bach
3. Both were sons of J.S. Bach
3. Born during this period but known as composers who transitioned to the Romantic are:
1. Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Franz Schuber
4. Era is sometimes called the Viennese Classic since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven all worked at some time in Vienna, and Franz Schubert was born there.
5. Musical Aspects
1. Polyphony became a musical technique as totally polyphonic works were dropped
2. Homophonic composition became the norm (melody stands out over a subordinate harmony)
3. Structures (forms) were developed that called for specific techniques
1. Sonata (statement, development, recapitulation) became the most important
1. Used to build the first movement of multi-movement works like:
1. Concertos
2. Symphonies
2. Theme and variations (rhythm, harmony, embellishment, instruments, etc.)
3. Rondo (the theme returns between other musical sections)
4. Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before
1. keys (major and minor)
2. melodies
3. rhythms
4. dynamics (using crescendo, diminuendo and sforzando)
5. frequent changes of mood and timbre
5. Melodies tended to be shorter with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences. 
6. Instrumental Music
1. The orchestra increased in size and range (75% strings)
2. Continuo (harpsichord and cello) fell out of use
3. Woodwinds became a self-contained section
4. Harpsichord was replaced by the piano (or fortepiano)
5. Importance was given to instrumental music (without vocal parts) —the main kinds were
1. Sonata
2. Piano trio
3. String quartet
4. Symphony (Haydn wrote the most symphonies)
5. Concerto
6. Overtures
7. Opera
1. Emphasis in tragedies continues but based on contemporary life and not Greek mythology
2. Opera buffa (comic opera) develops in which the protagonist (hero or main character) lives
8. Musical students
1. Mozart was an early student of Haydn
2. Hayden respected Mozart and learned from his sense of creativity and exploration
3. Beethoven also studied from Haydn and expanded on his technics which led to the Romantic
9. Primary patrons of music were members of nobility

Prof. Songer

JCTC - Downtown