HISTORY OF MUSIC - yippee!!

Well, I know it's not the most exciting bit of the course - but just think of it as a necessary evil . . . and 25% of the GCSE!!!!

So, here's the bottom line on stuff you need to know to get you through the exam . . .

Break music history into 4 main periods -

We use Accelerated Learning techniques to remember these by linking each one to a finger, like this . . .

Each of these chunks of history has it's own identity and sounds different to the others - your job is to learn to spot the clues that tell you which lump of history a piece of music is from. EASY!!!! (well, it will be if you keep on reading . . )

BAROQUE PERIOD

Let's start with the basics . . .

THIS IS A HARPSICHORD.

AND THIS IS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE . . .

If you can spot the sound of a harpsichord, you can identify loads of Baroque music - so play that clip lots of times!

Apart from harpsichords, you are likely to hear 'cellos, recorders, violins, the odd trumpet . . . (if you don't know what they sound like, don't worry - just listen to the next clip!)

Orchestras in the Baroque Period were small - they only included one or two of each type of instrument - here's a picture of an average sized Baroque orchestra . . .

Now compare that to a modern day orchestra and imagine the difference in SOUND.

OPERA

The first operas were composed during the Baroque period. In England, Purcell was the leading composer of this new style.

Baroque operas contained 3 main types of music -

1. Recitative - when a character half sings, half speaks part of the plot
2. Aria - a solo song in which a character expresses their feelings
3. Chorus - when a group of singers confirm information from the recitative or aria

DANCES

Music was often composed to be danced to. No, no - I'm not talking techno techno here, think ballroom dancing instead (big dresses, silly wigs).

Composers wrote SUITES of dances containing music to suit the latest dance crazes of the day.

TERMS and VOCABULARY

Now let's get a bit technical about this Baroque stuff.

The part that a harpsichord plays in a piece of Baroque music is called the CONTINUO.

Baroque music contains lots of 'twiddly bits' and this is called ORNAMENTATION.

Types of pieces you will find in the Baroque period are CONCERTO GROSSO, OPERA, SUITE

Baroque composers - VIVALDI, HANDEL, PURCELL, TELEMANN, CLEMENTI

So, let's sum all this up in a long stream of nonsense . . . .

1600-1750 Harpsichord, Recorder, Violin, 'Cello, Small orchestra, Continuo, Ornamentation, Concerto grosso, Birth of Opera, Suite, Vivaldi, Purcell, Telemann

HURRAH!!!! That's the Baroque Period sorted - now on to the CLASSICAL PERIOD!

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD!!!

Right - OUT with the old, IN with the new . . . . in this case that means no more harpsichords - HELLO PIANO!!! (or pianoforte to give it its full name)

A new instrument called the PIANO had been developed which looked very similar to the harpsichord - but had one very important difference . . . .

THE KEYS WERE TOUCH-SENSITIVE
(which meant that for the first time, the player could control how loudly or softly he wanted to play)

Imagine the difference this made to composers of the time . . . .

Consequently, the Classical Period is full of piano music - demonstrating the flexibility of this wonderful new instrument!!

In fact, the whole of Europe was becoming more and more cultured - music, art, literature were all growing in status.

Instruments from the STRING and WOODWIND families were being developed and gradually the size of orchestras increased to accommodate a wider variety of instruments.

The Classical Period was all about structure and restraint. Pieces of music had to follow set guidelines as to their harmonies and form - in order to be thought of as 'tasteful'.

King of the Classical Period was W. A. MOZART. His music captures the style and grace of the time.

He wrote hundreds of pieces of music - for solo instruments, orchestra, voice . . . just about any combination! Of course, the newly developed piano was an obvious choice - and Mozart wrote many beautiful pieces for it.

Mozart also developed opera into a form of high art. He allowed the music and the story to flow together - bringing more drama, flexibility and humour than had been possible before.

One of his most famous operas is The Magic Flute. Here's a bit to listen to . . .

It wasn't just about Mozart, though. Others such as Josef HAYDN were composing music that was just as important. Haydn took advantage of the developments in stringed instruments and wrote many STRING QUARTETS.

Types of pieces you might hear in the Classical Period -

Concerto, opera, mass, string quartet, oratorio

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Now this is all about EMOTION in music – showing how human emotions are constantly changing and range from great highs to great lows and back again.

Composers in the Romantic Period began to break the strict rules for writing music that had gone before, and experimented with sounds – allowing instruments to be played in more extreme ways, adding DISSONANCE to their harmonies and using massive DYNAMIC CONTRAST to their music.

This picture shows how complicated and dramatic music of this period could be – imagine trying to play it!!

This is where VIRTUOSO players come in – instrumentalists who have the skill to play their instrument to its limits.

ORCHESTRAS grew and contained a huge section of BRASS instruments as these could add weight to the deep emotions required by Romantic composers.

Pieces were composed on a grand scale – and often lasted for well over an hour! SYMPHONIES, CONCERTOS and OPERAS were popular types of compositions in this period.

Yep – this is when OPERA started to mean big ladies with horns on their heads – frightening . . . but they had to have stamina as operas by Richard WAGNER could go on for hours.

Opera plots dealt with people falling in love with unsuitable people, killing anyone in their way, cross-dressing, going mad, and dying . . .

HAPPY,HAPPY!!!

BEETHOVEN is known as the godfather of Romanticism – he was the first to try a bit of harmonic rule-breaking.

Basically, in Romantic music you will hear HUGE CRESCENDOS and DIMINUENDOS, instruments being played in a technically brilliant way by VIRTUOSO players, lots of BRASS instruments, bucketloads of DISSONANCE . . . .

The music will sound like a cross between a rollercoaster and a thunderstorm!!!

TWENTIETH CENTURY

NOW THINGS GO MAD.

Music starts to look like this . . .

and SYNTHESIZERS are developed (but not as we know them . . .)

Composers get fed up with following old guidelines about how music should be written and decide to reinvent music for the new century. They ditch the rule book.

First, they get rid of the idea that music should be written in a ‘key’ and experiment with SERIALISM – a style which involves notes being arranged into twelve note rows . . .

then they decide that all rules to do with harmony are outdated and write ATONAL music (without any key at all)

This isn’t enough for some composers, and by the 1950s, some are composing ALEATORIC (chance) music.

TAPE RECORDING is possible for the first time, and composers use this to devise new forms of music – recording sounds, chopping the tape up, playing back fragments in the wrong order, or backwards or in loops . . .

If you hear a piece of music that sounds disorganised, muddled or just bad, its probably from this period – think bunch of notes!

Famous composers of this era tend to come from Germany or America . . .

SCHOENBERG, STRAVINSKY, STOCKHAUSEN, BERIO, CAGE, LAMONTE YOUNG

"Music For Sideburns", 1987, Lawndale Art and Performance Center, Houston, Texas [The sound of growing sideburns is amplified!!!]

HURRAH FOR THE MADNESS THAT IS 20th CENTURY MUSIC!!!