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Classical music generally refers to the
art music
Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...
of the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , considered to be
distinct from Western
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
or
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also applies to
non-Western art music. Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its
musical form and
harmonic organization, particularly with the use of
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...
. Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, spawning a sophisticated
notational system, as well as accompanying literature in
analytical,
critical
Critical or Critically may refer to:
*Critical, or critical but stable, medical states
**Critical, or intensive care medicine
*Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences.
*Critical Software, a company specializing in ...
,
historiographical
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...
,
musicological
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
and
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
practices. A foundational component of
Western Culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
, classical music is frequently seen from the perspective of individual or
groups
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
of
composers, whose compositions, personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history.
Rooted in the
patronage of
churches and
royal court
A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...
s in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
, surviving early
medieval music is chiefly
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
,
monophonic
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...
and vocal, with the
music of ancient Greece
Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greek ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
influencing its thought and theory. The earliest extant music manuscripts date from the
Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the ...
(800–888), around the time which Western
plainchant
Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text ...
gradually unified into what is termed
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...
. Musical centers existed at the
Abbey of Saint Gall
The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot ...
, the
Abbey of Saint Martial
The Abbey of Saint Martial (french: Abbaye Saint-Martial, Limoges; Limousin: ''Abadiá de Sent Marçau de Limòtges'') was a monastery in Limoges, France, founded in 848 and dissolved in 1791.
The buildings were razed at the beginning of the 19t ...
and
Saint Emmeram's Abbey
Saint Emmeram's Abbey (german: Kloster Sankt Emmeram or ''Reichsabtei Sankt Emmeram''), now known as Schloss Thurn und Taxis, Schloss St. Emmeram or St. Emmeram's Basilica, was a Benedictine monastery founded in about 739 at Regensburg in Bavari ...
, while the 11th century saw the development of
and increasing output from
medieval music theorists
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
. By the mid-12th century France became the major European musical center: the religious
Notre-Dame school
The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced.
The only composers whose names hav ...
first fully explored
organized rhythms and polyphony, while secular music flourished with the
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...
and ''
trouvère
''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French ('' langue d'oïl'') form of the '' langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word ''troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to poet ...
'' traditions led by poet-musician nobles. This culminated in the court sponsored French ''
ars nova'' and Italian
Trecento
The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.
Period Art
Commonly, the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto ...
, which evolved into ''
ars subtilior'', a stylistic movement of extreme rhythmic diversity. Beginning in the early 15th century,
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
composers of the influential
Franco-Flemish School
The designation Franco-Flemish School, also called Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition or ...
built off the harmonic principles in the English ''
contenance angloise
The ''Contenance angloise'', or English manner, is a distinctive style of polyphony developed in fifteenth-century England which uses full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth. It was highly influential in the fashionable Burgundian court ...
'', bringing choral music to new standards, particularly the
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
and
motet. Northern Italy soon emerged as the central musical region, where the
Roman School
In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, during the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore spanning the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produ ...
engaged in highly sophisticated methods of polyphony in genres such as the
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...
, which inspired the brief
English Madrigal School
The English Madrigal School was the brief but intense flowering of the musical madrigal in England, mostly from 1588 to 1627, along with the composers who produced them. The English madrigals were a cappella, predominantly light in style, and gener ...
.
The
Baroque period
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
(1580–1750) saw the relative standardization of
common-practice tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is ca ...
, as well as the increasing importance of
musical instruments
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
, which grew into ensembles of considerable size. Italy remained dominant, being the
birthplace of opera, the soloist centered
concerto genre, the organized
sonata form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
as well as the large scale vocal-centered genres of
oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
and
cantata. The
fugue technique championed by
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
exemplified the Baroque tendency for complexity, and as a reaction the simpler and song-like
galant music
In music, galant refers to the style which was fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s. This movement featured a return to simplicity and immediacy of appeal after the complexity of the late Baroque era. This meant simpler, more song-like melodi ...
and ''
empfindsamkeit'' styles were developed. In the shorter but pivotal
Classical period (1730–1820) composers such as
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
,
Joseph Haydn, and
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
created widely admired representatives of
absolute music
Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is music that is not explicitly 'about' anything; in contrast to program music, it is non- representational.M. C. Horowitz (ed.), ''New Dictionary of the History of Ideas'', , vol.1, p. 5 The idea of abs ...
, including
symphonies,
string quartets and concertos. The subsequent
Romantic music (1800–1910) focused instead on
programmatic music
Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program note ...
, for which the
art song,
symphonic poem and various
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
genres were important vessels. During this time
virtuosity
''Virtuosity'' is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Brett Leonard and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Howard W. Koch Jr. served as an executive producer for the film. The film was released in the United Stat ...
was celebrated, immensity was encouraged, while philosophy and
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
were embedded—all aspects that converged in the operas of
Richard Wagner. By the 20th century, stylistic unification gradually dissipated while the prominence of popular music greatly increased. Many composers actively avoided past techniques and genres in the lens of
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
, with some abandoning tonality in place of
serialism, while others found new inspiration in folk melodies or
impressionist sentiments. After World War II, for the first time audience members valued older music over
contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
works, a preference which has been catered to by the emergence and widespread availability of commercial recordings. Trends of the mid-20th century to the present day include
New Simplicity New Simplicity (in German, ''Neue Einfachheit'') was a stylistic tendency amongst some of the younger generation of German composers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reacting against not only the European avant garde of the 1950s and 1960s, but al ...
,
New Complexity,
Minimalism,
Spectral music
Spectral music uses the acoustic properties of sound – or sound spectra – as a basis for composition.
Definition
Defined in technical language, spectral music is an acoustic musical practice where compositional decisions are often inform ...
, and more recently
Postmodern music
Postmodern music is music in the art music tradition produced in the postmodern era. It also describes any music that follows aesthetical and philosophical trends of postmodernism. As an aesthetic movement it was formed partly in reaction to mod ...
and
Postminimalism. Increasingly global, practitioners from the Americas, Africa and Asia have obtained crucial roles, while symphony orchestras and
opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...
s now appear across the world.
Terminology and definition
Ideological origins
Both the English term "classical" and the German equivalent ''
klassik'' developed from the French ''
classique'', itself derived from the Latin word ''
classicus'', which originally referred to the highest
class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
of
Ancient Roman citizens. In Roman usage, the term later became a means to distinguish revered literary figures; the Roman author
Aulus Gellius commended writers such as
Demosthenes
Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual pr ...
and
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
as ''classicus''.
By the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
, the adjective had acquired a more general meaning: an entry in
Randle Cotgrave
Randle Cotgrave was an English lexicographer. In 1611 he compiled and published ''A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues'', a bilingual dictionary that represented a breakthrough at the time and remains historically important.
Life and w ...
's 1611 ''A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues'' is among the earliest extant definitions, translating ''classique'' as "classical, formall , orderlie, in due or fit ranke; also, approved, authenticall, chiefe, principall". The musicologist
Daniel Heartz
Daniel Heartz (1928–2019) was an American musicologist and professor emeritus of music at the University of California, Berkeley.
Heartz studied at Harvard University. He lived in Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern ...
summarizes this into two definitions: 1) a "formal discipline" and 2) a "model of excellence". Like Gellius, later Renaissance scholars who wrote in Latin used ''classicus'' in reference to writers of
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
;
however, this meaning only gradually developed, and was for a while subordinate to the broader classical ideals of formality and excellence. Literature and visual arts—for which substantial Ancient Greek and Roman examples existed—did eventually adopt the term "classical" as relating to classical antiquity, but virtually no music of that time was available to Renaissance musicians, limiting the connection between classical music and the
Greco-Roman world.
It was in 18th-century England that the term 'classical' "first came to stand for a particular canon of works in performance."
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
had developed a prominent public concert music scene, unprecedented and unmatched by other European cities. The royal court had gradually lost its monopoly on music, in large part from instability that the
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execu ...
's dissolution and the
Glorious Revolution enacted on court musicians. In 1672 the former court musician
John Banister began giving popular public concerts at a London tavern; his popularity rapidly inaugurated the prominence of public concerts in the London. The conception of "classical"—or more often "ancient music"—emerged, which was still built on the principles of formality and excellence, and according to Heartz "civic ritual, religion and moral activism figured significantly in this novel construction of musical taste". The performance of such music was specialized by the
Academy of Ancient Music and later at the
Concerts of Antient Music series, where the work of select 16th and 17th composers was featured, especially
George Frideric Handel. In France, the reign of
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
() saw a cultural renaissance, by the end of which writers such as
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...
,
Jean de La Fontaine and
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
were considered to have surpassed the achievements of classical antiquity. They were thus characterized as "classical", as was the music of
Jean-Baptiste Lully (and later
Christoph Willibald Gluck), being designated as "l’opéra française classique". In the rest of
continental Europe, the abandonment of defining "classical" as analogous to the Greco-Roman World was slower, primarily because the formation of canonical repertoires was either minimal or exclusive to the upper classes.
Many European commentators of the early 19th century found new unification in their definition of classical music: to juxtapose the older composers
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
,
Joseph Haydn, and (excluding some of his
later works)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
as "classical" against the emerging style of
Romantic music.
These three composers in particular were grouped into the
First Viennese School
The First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in Western art music in late-18th-century to early-19th-century Vienna: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Sometimes, ...
, sometimes called the "Viennese classics", a coupling that remains problematic by reason of none of the three being born in Vienna and the minimal time Haydn and Mozart spent in the city. While this was an often expressed characterization, it was not a strict one. In 1879 the composer
Charles Kensington Salaman
Charles Kensington Salaman (3 March 1814 – 23 June 1901) was a British Jewish composer, pianist, and writer. He was the composer of more than one hundred settings of Hebrew texts for the West London Synagogue, as well as numerous songs in Engl ...
defined the following composers as classical:
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...
, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
Weber,
Spohr
Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig, was a German composer, violinist and conducting, conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten Sy ...
and
Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...
. More broadly, some writers used the term "classical" to generally praise well-regarded outputs from various composers, particularly those who produced many works in an established genre.
Contemporary understanding
The contemporary understanding of the term "classical music" remains vague and multifaceted. Other terms such as "art music", "canonic music", "cultivated music" and "serious music" are largely synonymous. The term "classical music" is often indicated or implied to concern solely the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , and conversely, in many academic histories the term "Western music" excludes non-classical Western music. Another complication lies in that "classical music" is sometimes used to describe non-Western art music exhibiting similar long-lasting and complex characteristics; examples include
Indian classical music (
Carnatic and
Hindustani music
Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...
),
Gamelan
Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
music, and various styles of the court of Imperial China (see ''
yayue
''Yayue'' () was a form of classical music and dance performed at the royal court and temples in ancient China. The basic conventions of ''yayue'' were established in the Western Zhou. Together with law and rites, it formed the formal represent ...
'' for instance). Thus in the later 20th century terms such as "Western classical music" and "Western art music" came in use to address this. The musicologist
Ralph P. Locke
Ralph P. Locke (born 1949) is an American musicologist, classical music critic and professor emeritus of musicology at Eastman School of Music. He founded the ''Eastman Studies in Music'' series. He is a contributor to the ''New Grove Dictionary o ...
notes that neither term is ideal, as they create an "intriguing complication" when considering "certain practitioners of Western-art music genres who come from non-Western cultures".
Complexity in
musical form and
harmonic organization are typical traits of classical music. The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' (''OED'') offers three definitions for the word "classical" in relation to music:
# "of acknowledged excellence"
# "of, relating to, or characteristic of a formal musical tradition, as distinguished from popular or folk music"
# and more specifically, "of or relating to formal European music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, characterized by harmony, balance, and adherence to established compositional forms".
The last definition concerns what is now termed the
Classical period, a specific stylistic era of European music from the second half of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century.
History
Roots
The Western classical tradition formally begins with music created by and for the early Christian Church. It is probable that the early Church wished to disassociate itself from the predominant
music of ancient Greece
Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greek ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, as it was a reminder of the
pagan religion
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. In ...
it had
persecuted and
been persecuted by. As such, it remains unclear as to what extent the music of the Christian Church, and thus Western classical music as a whole, was influenced by preceding
ancient music
Ancient music refers to the musical cultures and practices that developed in the literate civilizations of the ancient world. Succeeding the music of prehistoric societies and lasting until the Post-classical era, major centers of Ancient musi ...
. The general attitude towards music was adopted from the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
and
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
music theorists and commentators. Just as in Greco-Roman society, music was considered central to education; along with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, music was included in the ''
quadrivium
From the time of Plato through the Middle Ages, the ''quadrivium'' (plural: quadrivia) was a grouping of four subjects or arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—that formed a second curricular stage following preparatory work in the ...
,'' the four subjects of the upper division of a standard
liberal arts education in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. This high regard for music was first promoted by the scholars
Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' ...
,
Isidore of Seville, and particularly
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
, whose transmission and expansion on the perspectives of music from
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
,
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
and
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
were crucial in the development of medieval musical thought. However, scholars,
medieval music theorists
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
and
composers
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
regularly misinterpreted or misunderstood the writings of their Greek and Roman predecessors. This was due to the complete absence of surviving Greco-Roman musical works available to medieval musicians, to the extent that Isidore of Seville () stated "unless sounds are remembered by man, they perish, for they cannot be written down", unaware of the
systematic notational practices of Ancient Greece centuries before. The musicologist
Gustave Reese
Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...
notes, however, that many Greco-Roman texts can still be credited as influential to Western classical music, since medieval musicians regularly read their works—regardless of whether they were doing so correctly.
However, there are some indisputable musical continuations from the
ancient world
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
. Basic aspects such as monophony, improvisation and the dominance of text in musical settings are prominent in both early medieval in music of nearly all ancient civilizations. Greek influences in particular include the church modes (which were descendants of developments by Aristoxenus and Pythagoras), basic Acoustic theory, acoustical theory from pythagorean tuning, as well as the central function of tetrachords. Ancient Greek instruments such as the aulos (a reed instrument) and the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small harp) eventually led to several modern-day instruments of a symphonic orchestra. However, Donald Jay Grout notes that attempting to create a direct evolutionary connection from the ancient music to early medieval is baseless, as it was almost solely influenced by Greco-Roman music theory, not performance or practice.
Early music
Medieval
![Vielle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Vielle.jpg)
Medieval music includes Western European music from after the fall of the Western Roman Empire by 476 to about 1400. Monophony, Monophonic chant, also called plainsong or
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...
, was the dominant form until about 1100. Christian monks developed the first forms of European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the Church. Polyphony, Polyphonic (multi-voiced) music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
and into the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
, including the more complex voicings of
motets. During the Early Middle Ages, earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgy, liturgical genre, predominantly
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...
, was Monophony, monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphony, Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the High Middle Ages, high medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th and early 14th century. Notable Medieval composers include Hildegard of Bingen, Léonin, Pérotin, Philippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut, Francesco Landini, and Johannes Ciconia.
Many List of medieval musical instruments, medieval musical instruments still exist, but in different forms. Medieval instruments included the flute, the Recorder (musical instrument), recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the Organ (music), organ and fiddle (or vielle) existed. Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone (music), drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into ''haut'' (loud, shrill, outdoor instruments) and ''bas'' (quieter, more intimate instruments). A number of instrument have roots in Eastern predecessors that were Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe, adopted from the medieval Islamic world.
For example, the Arabic rebab is the ancestor of all European bowed string instruments, including the Byzantine lyra, lira, rebec and violin.
Renaissance
The Renaissance era was from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by greater use of instrumentation (music), instrumentation, multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use of the first Bass (sound), bass instruments. Social dancing became more widespread, so musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize. It is in this time that the notation of music on a staff (music), staff and other elements of musical notation began to take shape. This invention made possible the separation of the Musical composition, composition of a piece of music from its ''transmission''; without written music, transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With a Sheet music, musical score, a work of music could be performed without the composer's presence. The invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of music.
![Chigi codex](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Chigi_codex.jpg)
Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be re-created in order to perform music on period instruments. As in the modern day, instruments may be classified as brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind. Brass instruments in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals who were members of Guilds and they included the slide trumpet, the wooden cornet, the valveless trumpet and the sackbut. Stringed instruments included the viol, the rebec, the harp-like lyre, the hurdy-gurdy, the lute, the guitar, the cittern, the Bandora (instrument), bandora, and the orpharion. Keyboard (music), Keyboard instruments with strings included the harpsichord and the clavichord. Percussion instruments include the Triangle (musical instrument), triangle, the Jew's harp, the tambourine, the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums. Woodwind instruments included the double-reed shawm (an early member of the oboe family), the reed pipe, the bagpipe, the transverse flute, the Recorder (instrument), recorder, the dulcian, and the crumhorn. Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined to churches, although there were portable varieties. Printing enabled the standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as instruction in their use.
Vocal music in the Renaissance is noted for the flourishing of an increasingly elaborate polyphony, polyphonic style. The principal liturgical forms which endured throughout the entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms (such as the
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...
) for their own designs. Towards the end of the period, the early dramatic precursors of opera such as monody, the madrigal comedy, and the intermedio are seen. Around 1597, Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote ''Dafne'', the first work to be called an opera today. He also composed ''Euridice (Peri), Euridice'', the first opera to have survived to the present day.
Notable Renaissance composers include Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, John Dunstaple, Johannes Ockeghem, Orlande de Lassus, Guillaume Du Fay, Gilles Binchois, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli, Carlo Gesualdo, John Dowland, Jacob Obrecht, Adrian Willaert, Jacques Arcadelt, and Cipriano de Rore.
Common-practice period
The common practice period is typically defined as the era between the formation and the dissolution of common-practice
tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is ca ...
. The term usually spans roughly two-and-a-half centuries, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.
Baroque
![Baschenis - Musical Instruments](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Baschenis_-_Musical_Instruments.jpg)
Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the use of a basso continuo, a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in comparison with the simple songs of all previous periods.
The beginnings of the
sonata form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
took shape in the canzona, as did a more formalized notion of theme and variations. The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape.
During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ became increasingly popular, and the violin family of stringed instruments took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like the
cantata and
oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
became more common. Vocalists for the first time began adding extra notes to the music.
[
The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice, especially as it enabled a wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard instruments. Although J.S. Bach did not use equal temperament, as a modern piano is generally tuned, changes in the temperaments from the meantone, meantone system, common at the time, to various temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable, made possible his ''Well-Tempered Clavier''.
Baroque instruments included some instruments from the earlier periods (e.g., the hurdy-gurdy and recorder) and a number of new instruments (e.g., the oboe, bassoon, cello, contrabass and fortepiano). Some instruments from previous eras fell into disuse, such as the shawm, cittern, rackett, and the wooden cornet. The key Baroque instruments for strings included the Baroque violin, violin, viol, viola, viola d'amore, cello, contrabass, lute, theorbo (which often played the basso continuo parts), mandolin, Baroque guitar, harp and hurdy-gurdy. Woodwinds included the Baroque flute, Baroque oboe, Recorder (musical instrument), recorder and the bassoon. Brass instruments included the cornett, natural horn, natural trumpet, Serpent (instrument), serpent and the trombone. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord, the tangent piano, the harpsichord, the Organ (music), pipe organ, and, later in the period, the fortepiano (an early version of the piano). Percussion instruments included the timpani, snare drum, tambourine and the castanets.
One major difference between Baroque music and the classical era that followed it is that the types of instruments used in Baroque ensembles were much less standardized. A Baroque ensemble could include one of several different types of keyboard instruments (e.g., pipe organ or harpsichord), additional stringed chordal instruments (e.g., a lute), bowed strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments, and an unspecified number of bass instruments performing the basso continuo,(e.g., a cello, contrabass, viola, bassoon, serpent, etc.).
Vocal developments in the Baroque era included the development of opera types such as opera seria and opéra comique, and related forms such as ]oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
s and cantatas.
Important composers of this era include Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Domenico Scarlatti, Georg Philipp Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Heinrich Schütz.
Classical
Though the term "classical music" includes all Western art music from the Medieval era to the 2000s, the Classical Era was the period of Western art music from the 1750s to the early 1820s—the era of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
.
The Classical era established many of the norms of composition, presentation, and style, and was also when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument. The ''basic'' forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized (although they would grow as the potential of a wider array of instruments was developed in the following centuries). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8 to 10 performers for serenade#Classical and Romantic eras, serenades. Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The ''opera buffa'', a form of comic opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form, and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill. Orchestras no longer required a harpsichord (which had been part of the traditional ''continuo'' in the Baroque style), and were often led by the lead violinist (now called the concertmaster).
Classical era musicians continued to use many of instruments from the Baroque era, such as the cello, contrabass, recorder, trombone, timpani, fortepiano (the precursor to the modern piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
) and organ. While some Baroque instruments fell into disuse (e.g., the theorbo and rackett), many Baroque instruments were changed into the versions that are still in use today, such as the Baroque violin (which became the violin), the Baroque oboe (which became the oboe) and the Baroque trumpet, which transitioned to the regular valved trumpet. During the Classical era, the stringed instruments used in orchestra and chamber music such as string quartets were standardized as the four instruments which form the string section of the orchestra: the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Baroque-era stringed instruments such as fretted, bowed viols were phased out. Woodwinds included the basset clarinet, basset horn, clarinette d'amour, the Classical clarinet, the chalumeau, the flute, oboe and bassoon. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord and the fortepiano. While the harpsichord was still used in basso continuo accompaniment in the 1750s and 1760s, it fell out of use at the end of the century. Brass instruments included the buccin, the ophicleide (a replacement for the bass serpent (instrument), serpent, which was the precursor of the tuba) and the natural horn.
Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical era. While double reed, double-reed instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds was not widely used until Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings.
Major composers of this period include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
, Joseph Haydn, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Luigi Boccherini, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Muzio Clementi, Antonio Salieri, and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
Romantic
The music of the Romantic era, from roughly the first decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, Fantasia (music), fantasias, and Prelude (music), preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized. The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing. The art song (or ''Lied'') came to maturity in this era, as did the epic scales of grand opera, ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Ring cycle.
In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching, performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy) became widely popular with the middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred many piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era. Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini, fulfilled both roles.
European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward the end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.
In the Romantic era, the modern piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
, with a more powerful, sustained tone and a wider range took over from the more delicate-sounding fortepiano. In the orchestra, the existing Classical instruments and sections were retained (string section, woodwinds, brass, and percussion), but these sections were typically expanded to make a fuller, bigger sound. For example, while a Baroque orchestra may have had two double bass players, a Romantic orchestra could have as many as ten. "As music grew more expressive, the standard orchestral palette just wasn't rich enough for many Romantic composers."
The families of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew larger; a process that climaxed in the early 20th century with very large orchestras used by late romantic and modernist composers. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100. Gustav Mahler's 1906 Symphony No. 8 (Mahler), Symphony No. 8, for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400. New woodwind instruments were added, such as the contrabassoon, bass clarinet and piccolo and new percussion instruments were added, including xylophones, snare drums, celestas (a bell-like keyboard instrument), bells, and Triangle (musical instrument), triangles, large orchestral harps, and even wind machines for sound effects. Saxophones appear in some scores from the late 19th century onwards, usually featured as a solo instrument rather than as in integral part of the orchestra.
The Wagner tuba, a modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner's cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. It also has a prominent role in Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 (Bruckner), Symphony No. 7 in E Major and is also used in several late romantic and modernist works by Richard Strauss, Béla Bartók, and others Cornets appear regularly in 19th century scores, alongside trumpets which were regarded as less agile, at least until the end of the century.
Prominent composers of this era include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Medtner, Edvard Grieg, and Johann Strauss II. Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss are commonly regarded as transitional composers whose music combines both late romantic and early modernist elements.
20th and 21st centuries
Modernist
Encompassing a wide variety of Post-romanticism, post-Romantic styles, modernist classical music includes late romantic, impressionist, expressionist, and neoclassical styles of composition. Modernism marked an era when many composers rejected certain values of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. Some music historians regard musical modernism as an era extending from about 1890 to 1930. Others consider that modernism ended with one or the other of the two world wars. Still other authorities claim that modernism is not associated with any historical era, but rather is "an ''attitude'' of the composer; a living construct that can evolve with the times". Despite its decline in the last third of the 20th century, there remained at the end of the century an active core of composers who continued to advance the ideas and forms of modernism, such as Pierre Boulez, Pauline Oliveros, Toru Takemitsu, George Benjamin (composer), George Benjamin, Jacob Druckman, Brian Ferneyhough, George Perle, Wolfgang Rihm, Richard Wernick, Richard Edward Wilson, Richard Wilson, and Ralph Shapey.
Two musical movements that were dominant during this time were the Impressionist music, impressionist beginning around 1890 and the Expressionist music, expressionist that started around 1908. It was a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music, innovations that lead to new ways of organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and changes in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period of modernism in the arts of the time. The operative word most associated with it is "innovation". Its leading feature is a "linguistic plurality", which is to say that no single music genre ever assumed a dominant position.
The orchestra continued to grow in size during the early years modernist era, peaking in the first two decades of the 20th century. Saxophones that appeared only rarely during the 19th century became more commonly used as supplementary instruments, but never became core members of the orchestra. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' and Sergei Rachmaninoff's ''Symphonic Dances (Rachmaninoff), Symphonic Dances'', the saxophone is included in other works such as Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)#Orchestral suites extracted from Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. In some compositions such as Ravel's ''Boléro'', two or more saxophones of different sizes are used to create an entire section like the other sections of the orchestra. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, 20th century works, usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst's ''The Planets'', and Richard Strauss's ''Ein Heldenleben''.
Prominent composers of the early 20th century include Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Arnold Schoenberg, Nikos Skalkottas, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Cécile Chaminade, Paul Hindemith, Aram Khachaturian, George Gershwin, Amy Beach, Béla Bartók, and Dmitri Shostakovich, along with the aforementioned Mahler and Strauss as transitional figures who carried over from the 19th century.
Post-modern/contemporary
Postmodern music
Postmodern music is music in the art music tradition produced in the postmodern era. It also describes any music that follows aesthetical and philosophical trends of postmodernism. As an aesthetic movement it was formed partly in reaction to mod ...
is a period of music that began as early as 1930 according to some authorities. It shares characteristics with postmodern art, postmodernist art – that is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism.
Some other authorities have more or less equated postmodern music with the "contemporary music" composed well after 1930, from the late 20th century through to the early 21st century. Some of the diverse movements of the postmodern/contemporary era include the neoromantic, neomedieval, minimalist, and post minimalist.
Contemporary classical music at the beginning of the 21st century was often considered to include all post-1945 musical forms. A generation later, this term now properly refers to the music of today written by composers who are still alive; music that came into prominence in the mid-1970s. It includes different variations of Modernism (music), modernist, Postmodern music, postmodern, Neoromanticism (music), neoromantic, and Eclecticism in music, pluralist music.
Performance
Performers who have studied classical music extensively are said to be "classically trained". This training may come from private lessons from instrument or voice teachers or from completion of a formal program offered by a Conservatory, college or university, such as a Bachelor of Music or Master of Music degree (which includes individual lessons from professors). In classical music, "...extensive formal music education and training, often to postgraduate [Master's degree] level" is required.
Performance of classical music repertoire requires a proficiency in sight-reading and Musical ensemble, ensemble playing, Harmony, harmonic principles, strong ear training (to correct and adjust pitches by ear), knowledge of performance practice (e.g., Baroque ornamentation), and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom expected for a given composer or musical work (e.g., a Brahms symphony or a Mozart concerto).
The key characteristic of European classical music that distinguishes it from popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
, folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
, and some other classical music traditions such as Indian classical music, is that the repertoire tends to be written down in musical notation, creating a musical part or Sheet music, score. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, where two or more musicians (whether singers or instrumentalists) are involved, how the various parts are coordinated. The written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them: fugues, for instance, achieve a remarkable marriage of boldly distinctive melodic lines weaving in counterpoint yet creating a coherent Diatonic function, harmonic logic. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works and enables Classical musicians to perform music from many centuries ago.
Although Classical music in the 2000s has lost most of its tradition for musical improvisation, from the Baroque era to the Romantic era, there are examples of performers who could improvise in the style of their era. In the Baroque era, organ performers would improvise prelude (music), preludes, keyboard performers playing harpsichord would improvise chord (music), chords from the figured bass symbols beneath the bass notes of the basso continuo part and both vocal and instrumental performers would improvise musical ornaments. Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
was particularly noted for his complex improvisations. During the Classical era, the composer-performer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto. During the Romantic era, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
would improvise at the piano.
Women in classical music
Almost all of the composers who are described in music textbooks on classical music and whose works are widely performed as part of the Western canon, standard concert repertoire are male composers, even though there has been a List of female composers, large number of women composers throughout the classical music period. Musicologist Marcia Citron has asked "[w]hy is Women in music, music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?"[.] Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received 'Western canon, canon' of performed musical works". She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed not to be notable as composers. In the "...''Concise Oxford History of Music'', Clara Schumann, Clara S[c]humann is one of the only female composers mentioned." Abbey Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts."
Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of musicians who are men. Some of the earliest cases of women in music, women being hired in professional orchestras was in the position of harpist. The Vienna Philharmonic, for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than the other orchestras ranked among the world's top five by ''Gramophone (magazine), Gramophone'' in 2008. The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic. As late as February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury, told ''Westdeutscher Rundfunk'' that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity () that this organism currently has". In April 1996, the orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem.
In 2013, an article in ''Mother Jones'' stated that while "[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership—women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic's violin section—and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists," the double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras "...are still predominantly male". A 2014 BBC article stated that the "...introduction of Blind audition, 'blind' auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift."
Relationship to other music traditions
Popular music
Classical music has often incorporated elements or material from popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
of the composer's time. Examples include occasional music such as Brahms' use of student drinking songs in his ''Academic Festival Overture'', genres exemplified by Kurt Weill's ''The Threepenny Opera'', and the influence of jazz on early and mid-20th-century composers including Maurice Ravel, exemplified by the movement entitled "Blues" in his sonata for violin and piano. Some Postmodern music, postmodern, Minimalist music, minimalist and Postminimalism, postminimalist classical composers acknowledge a debt to popular music.
Numerous examples show influence in the opposite direction, including popular songs based on classical music, the use to which ''Pachelbel's Canon#Pachelbel's canon in popular culture, Pachelbel's Canon'' has been put since the 1970s, and the musical Crossover (music), crossover phenomenon, where classical musicians have achieved success in the popular music arena. In heavy metal music, heavy metal, a number of lead guitarists (playing electric guitar), including Ritchie Blackmore and Randy Rhoads, modeled their playing styles on Baroque or Classical-era instrumental music.
Folk music
Composers of classical music have often made use of folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
(music created by musicians who are commonly not classically trained, often from a purely oral tradition). Some composers, like Antonín Dvořák, Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, Smetana, have used folk themes to impart a nationalist flavor to their work, while others like Béla Bartók, Bartók have used specific themes lifted whole from their folk-music origins. Aram Khachaturian, Khachaturian widely incorporated into his work the folk music of his native Armenia, but also other ethnic groups of the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Commercialization
Certain staples of classical music are often used commercially (either in advertising or in movie soundtracks). In television commercials, several passages have become clichéd, particularly the opening of Richard Strauss' ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' (made famous in the film ''2001: A Space Odyssey (film), 2001: A Space Odyssey'') and the opening section "O Fortuna" of Carl Orff's ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana''; other examples include the "Dies irae" from the Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi Requiem (Verdi), Requiem, Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from ''Peer Gynt (Grieg), Peer Gynt'', the opening bars of Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven), Symphony No. 5, Richard Wagner, Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from ''Die Walküre'', Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and excerpts of Aaron Copland's ''Rodeo (ballet), Rodeo''. Several works from the Golden age of American animation, Golden Age of Animation matched the action to classical music. Notable examples are Walt Disney's ''Fantasia (1940 film), Fantasia'', Tom and Jerry's ''Johann Mouse'', and Warner Bros.' ''Rabbit of Seville'' and ''What's Opera, Doc?''
Similarly, movies and television often revert to standard, clichéd excerpts of classical music to convey refinement or opulence: some of the most-often heard pieces in this category include Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach´s Cello Suites (Bach), Cello Suite No. 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik'', Antonio Vivaldi, Vivaldi's ''The Four Seasons (Vivaldi), Four Seasons'', Modest Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky's ''Night on Bald Mountain'' (as orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov), and Gioachino Rossini, Rossini's "William Tell Overture, ''William Tell'' Overture". Shawn Vancour argues that the commercialization of classical music in the early 20th century may have harmed the music industry through inadequate representation.
Education
During the 1990s, several research papers and popular books wrote on what came to be called the "Mozart effect": an observed temporary, small elevation of scores on certain tests as a result of listening to Mozart's works. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in ''Nature (journal), Nature'' suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted students' IQ by 8 to 9 points. This popularized version of the theory was expressed succinctly by the ''The New York Times, New York Times'' music columnist Alex Ross (music critic), Alex Ross: "researchers... have determined that listening to Mozart actually makes you smarter." Promoters marketed CDs claimed to induce the effect. Florida passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music every day, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted $105,000 per year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. One of the co-authors of the original studies of the Mozart effect commented "I don't think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences. But I do think the money could be better spent on music education programs."[Goode, Erica]
"Mozart for Baby? Some Say, Maybe Not"
, ''The New York Times'', 3 August 1999. Retrieved on 16 May 2008.
References
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External links
Grove Music Online
– online version of ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''.
MGG Online
– online version of ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart''
Historical classical recordings
from the British Library Sound Archive
{{Authority control
Classical music,
Music history