Week 2 – Jss 3 Third Term Music Notes

  WEEK TWO
PERIODS IN MUSIC: BAROUQE, CLASSICAL & ROMANTIC
BAROUQE PERIOD (1600 – 1750)
The baroque period flourished from 1600 to 1750. The two giants of the baroque era were George Fredrick Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s death in 1750 marks the end of the period.
The early baroque composers favored homophonic texture over the polyphonic texture of Renaissance music. They felt that the word could be better projected more clearly by using one main melody with a chordal accompaniment.
By late baroque, polyphonic texture had return as this was the texture favored by the two giants of the era. By 1680, the church modes – scale that had governed music for centuries had given way to major and minor scales. The late baroque period 1680 – 1750 produced most of the music of this era heard today. It was in the baroque period that instrumental music became as important as vocal music for the first time.
The main vocal form of the Baroque period includes the Operas, Oratorios, Cantatas, Passions.
The main instrumental forms of the Baroque period were the Sonata, Concerto Grosso, Solo Concertos and the Chorale preludes.
Apart from Bach and Handel, the other composers of the era includes: Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell, Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vilvadi.

 
 CLASSICAL PEROID (1750 – 1820)
The transition from Baroque period to the classical is called pre – classical period; it extends roughly from 1730 to 1770. Among the important pioneers of this style were Bach’s sons, Carl Philip Emanuel (1714 – 1788) and Johann Christian (1735 – 1782). These two became more popular than their father before his death.

 
 
  By the middle of the century, composers had discarded the polyphonic texture and concentrated on simplicity and clarity. The new texture was tuneful melody and simple harmony.
The term classical, no doubt mean many things to mean different people. Many, for example, take classical music to mean anything that is not rock, jazz, folk or popular music.
Classical composition has a wealth of rhythmic patterns unlike the Baroque. In contrast to the polyphonic of late baroque texture, it is basically homophonic. Classical music was very tuneful and easiest to remember.
The instrumental composition of the period consisted of about 4 movements in the following order.

1. Fast movement.
2. Slow movement
3. Dance related movement
4. Fast movement

The master composers of the era were Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), and Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827). Haydn was affectionately known as the “father of the symphony”.

ROMANTIC PERIOD (1820 – 1900)
Romantic period in music extended from about 1820 – 1900. The composers of the period continued to use the musical forms of the preceding classical era. Their preference for expressive song like melody grew out of the classical style.
There are many differences between the romantic and classical music. The romantic works have greater ranges of tone color, dynamics and pitch. Romantic music is so diverse that generalization can be misleading. For example, piano work by Chopin and songs by Schubert

 lasted for only e few minutes while works by Berlioz and Wagner, calls for huge number of performers and lasted for several hours. Mendelsohn and Brahms music were rooted in classical traditions while others like Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner were more revolutionary.
The art song is one of the most distinctive forms in Romantic era. It was a composition for solo voice and piano. Poetry and music are intimately fused in the Art song. Though they were written to be sung and enjoyed at home, they are now performed in the concert halls.
Some of the major composers of the era are listed below:

1. Franz Schubert
   
2. Johannes Brahms
   
3. Robert Schumann
   
4. Giuseppe Verdi
   
5. Clara Wieck Schumann
   
6. Richard Wagner
   
7. Fredrick Chopin
   
8. Franz Liszt
   
9. Felix Mendelsohn
   
10. Hector Berlioz
    

     

Exercises

1. What period of musical history is regarded as Romantic period?
2. Name the musical age represented by the following

   a 1600 – 1750
   b 1750 – 1820
   c 1820 – 1900

3. What do you understand by (a) Monophonic music and (b) Polyphonic Music?
4. What are the vocal form of the baroque period?