MEDIEVAL c500-1450;

MEDIEVAL FORMS; c500-1450.

A SMALL BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF MUSIC

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Vocal music developed before instrumental music and in the early days, the church fostered the growth of music as a composed art.  Church musicians of necessity invented the means of writing music down; and once music is written down, then the combination of sounds [harmony] and the combination of melodies [counterpoint] can be explored.  Improvised music [i.e. made up by the performers] is, in comparison, capable of more limited development.

Our knowledge of the improvised secular music of the Middle Ages and earlier times is obviously scanty and largely conjectual.  When dealing with sacred music, we are on firmer ground.

Sacred Plainson:

[Plainchant, Gregorian Chant]

The Church musicians' method of chanting in unison reached its highest peak in GREGORIAN CHANT.

The first departure from singing in unison was to sing in // '4ths' or '5ths'.  Other intervals would then be used, and experiments could be tried where one voice sustained and another moved.

SECULAR music sometimes survived simply because it happened to be written down by a monk who might have taken a liking to it - for example, the famous 'round' "Summer is icumen in", dating from about 1240.

The art of [mainly unaccompanied] sacred music developed through John Dunstable

[the first English composer of importance - died in 1453], Josquin des Prez [Netherlands] and many others, the style reaching perfection in the work of the Italian, PALESTRINA [d.1594].

Palestrina's English contemporary and equal WILLIAM BYRD [d.1623] - perhaps England's greatest composer - did not confine himself solely to church music, but, along with other Elizabethan composers [Morley, Weelkes, Wilbye etc.] wrote large quantities of secular music.  At this time, there flourished a sort of unacompanied part-song called MADRIGAL.  Each of the voice parts has independent interest and rhythmic life.  Although listeners derive pleasure from madrigals, this sort of music is intended primarily for the enjoyment of the singers. 

Palestrina, Byrd and the Spanish composer VICTORIA or VITTORIA are sometimes referred to as masters of the POLYPHONIC SCHOOL ['Poly' - many, 'phon' - voice i.e. music made up of the inter-twining of seperate voice parts, usually without instrumental accompaniment].

Organum:

Motet.

Secular: Salterello / Estampe,

Rondeau.

Medieval Composers; c.500-1450.

LEONIN - FRANCE;

PEROTIN - FRANCE;

MARCHAUT -  FRANCE;

DUNSTABLE - ENGLAND.

RENAISSANCE c1450-1600;

RENAISSANCE FORMS; c.1450-1600.

[Instrumental]

Fantasia;

Canzona;

Pavan and Galliard;

Allemande;

Recercare;

Divisions [Ornamental Variations]

RENAISSANCE FORMS; c.1450-1600.

Sacred Vocal;

Motet;

MASS [Cantus Firmus Mass]

Secular Vocal;

Madrigal - Balleto - Ayre.

RENAISSANCE COMPOSERS; c.1450-1600.

SUSATO - NETHERLANDS;

TALLIS - ENGLAND;

BYRD - ENGLAND;

DOWLAND - ENGLAND;

PALESTRINA - ITALY;

GABRIELI - ITALY.

The ensuing BAROQUE AGE [c.1600 - c.1760] includes a vast number of composers.

BAROQUE 1600-1750;

BAROQUE FORMS; 1600-1750.

[VOCAL]

Opera [Aria, Recitative, Chorus]

Oratorio;

Cantata;

MASS;

[INSTRUMENTAL]

[Overture; Allamande; Courante; Gigue]

Solo Concerto;

Concerto Grosso;

Prelude and Fugue.

BAROQUE COMPOSERS: [c.1600-c.1750] includes a vast number of composers, the greatest being:

MONTEVERDI;

Early Baroque:

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PURCELL - English [1658-1695]; Operas, anthems, instrumental music.

LULLY  -  French [1632-1687];   Operas.  Composer to Louis XIV.

CORELLI - Italian [1653-1713]; Violinist - composer.

Middle and late Baroque:  

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VIVALDI - Italian [c.1675-1741];  Violinist-composer,  Concertos.

D.  SCARLATTI - Italian [1685-1757]; Many harpsichord 'sonatas'.

J  S  BACH - German [1685-1750]; Most types of music except opera.

HANDEL - German - English, [1685-1759].  Widely travelled [unlike Bach].

TELEMANN - German [1681-1767];  Considered in his day greater than Bach.  Prolific.

COUPERIN - French [1668-1733];  All types, but mainly harpsichord.

RAMEAU - French [1683-1764];  Operas.  Also writer on music.

LECLAIR - French [1697-1763];  Violinist-composer.  Murdered!

A great deal of Baroque music is CONTRAPUNTAL.  [Counterpoint implies the intertwining of different melodic line - cf, 'polyphony'].  The FUGUE, the Baroque form 'par excellence', flourished.  J. S. Bach's ingenuity was of such an order that it is not surprising that his sons C. P. E.  and W. F.  Bach chose in the main to strike out along new paths, rather than be feeble imitators of perhaps the greatest musical brain the world has known. .  Bach's sons were active in furthering what we today have termed the 'Early Classical' style which was already becoming fashionable before J. S. Bach died in 1750.  In his later years, the father was, in the eyes of his sons, obviously not 'with it'.  He was a master of the old, learned style who dismissed the new style as trivial.

The new style however was quickly catching on.  It was lighter than the old and imposed fewer problems on the listener.  Bach's sons, and Stamitz, Dittersdorf, etc. might sound trivial to our ears, but their efforts laid the foundations of the Symphony Orchestra as we know it, and of the Symphony, the Sonata and the String Quartet etc..  Their efforts culminated in the 'CLASSICAL ERA' in music.

CLASSICAL 1750-1820;

CLASSICAL FORMS; 1750-1820.

SONATA  [Piano solo or instrumental solo and piano]

SYMPHONY  [Sonata for Orchestra] 

OPERA  [Aria - Recitative - Chorus - Ensemble]

Sting Quartet.

SONATA FORM;

MUNUET AND TRIO;

RONDO.

CLASSICAL COMPOSERS; 1750-1820.

The four great composers referred to as the VIENNESE CLASSICS [because a good deal of their work centred round VIENNA], were: 

HAYDN [1732-1809];

MOZART [1756-1791];

BEETHOVEN [1770-1827];

SCHUBERT 1797-1828];

What previously appears as a trivial style now achieves perfection.  Contrast of ideas and sudden changes still remain a feature of the music, as they had been in early classical music.  "Sonata-form" is now no longer an experiment in a new sort of musical structure, but is a mature, established scheme, so much so that it almost invariably occurs in the first movement of sonatas, trios, quartets, quintets, symphonies and concertos, and often in other movements as well.  Symmetrical tunes are now no longer naive.  Counterpoint is back, to be used as and when needed.  Certainly the first three Viennese Classics could write a masterly fugue when the occasion arose. 

In many aspects of their music, BEETHOVEN and SCHUBERT also bridge the gap into the ROMANTIC ERA when the emotional and descriptive possibilities of the music were to be considered more important than the beauty of the formal structure and balance.

ROMANTIC 1820-1900;

Romantic Forms 1820 - 1900.

Concert Overture for Orchestra;

Tone Poem;

Lied;

Virtuoso Piano Pieces;

Opera - Symphony - Concerto.

Constantly recurring themes [compare Romantic literature, Wordsworth, Keats, etc.] are love, the yearning for the unattainable or the quest for the unknown, mystery, magic, etc..  Although some composers [e.g. Mendelssohn, 1809-1847 and Brahms, 1833-1897] upheld the ideals of the Classical Era, showing restraint in their music and in their private lives, they were the exceptions.  The main Romantic composers were -

Romantic Composers:

Weber - German [1786-1826]; Romantic operas.  Demons and fairies.

Berlioz - French [1803-1869]; Huge orchestra his ideal.  Developed orchestration and conducting.

Chopin - Poland [1810-1849]; Mainly piano music, much nostalgic.

Schumann - German [1810-1856]; Songs "Lieder".  A critic and writer.  Ended in Asylum.

Liszt - Hungary [1811-1886]; The virtuoso tradition reaches its height.  Pianist, influenced by violinist Paganini who was thought to be possessed by the devil.

Wagner - German [1813-1883];  Lengthy operas on Mythology.

Verdi - Italian [1813-1901];  Operas.  Many deaths.

Standing apart from the fervour of the Romantics were Gounod, Franc and Bruckner [all three of whom incidentally, wrote a good deal of church music].

NATIONALISM:  was an off-shoot of Romanticism.  Composers were proud to emphasise the traits of the music of their homeland.

Smetana - Bohemia [1824-1884].

Glinka - Russian [1803-1857].

Dvorak - Bohemia [1841-1904].

Grieg - Norway [1843-1907].

Albeniz - Spain [1860-1909].

Sibelius - Finland [1865-1958].

Other Russian Nationalists after Glinka were Borodin 1833-1887.

Mussorgsky 1839-1881 and Rimsky-Korsakov 1844-1908.

Tchaikovsky 1840-1893 and Rachmaninov 1873-1943 were less conciously.

Elgar - England;

Delius - England.

ITALY:

Rossini; Verdi; Puccini.

FRANCE:

Berlioz; Saint-Saens; Bizet.

20th Century Styles:

IMPRESSIONISM [again an off-shoot of Romanticism] stemmed from the artistic movement of the same name.  French in origin - DEBUSSY 1862-1918, and to a lesser degree, RAVEL 1875-1937.

As in painting [Monet, Manet, etc.] the intention was to be vague rather than precise, to suggest rather than to depict exactly. 

Composers without an obvious learning to either of the two groups include -

Faure - French 1845-1924.  Very French.

Mahler - German [ 1860-1911].

Puccini - Italian [1858-1924].  Operas.

Richard Strauss [1864-1949].  Very German.  Not related to the 'Walz' Strausses.

ENGLISH COMPOSERS came to the fore after a long, rather blank period in English music, with Parry, Stanford and Elgar who died respectively, 1918, 1924 and 1934.  More 'modern' than these were HOLST [d.1934], DELIUS [d.1934, and VAUGHAN WILLIAMS [d.1959], although of course their music is not modern to our ears in the way that some other 20th century music is.

Neo Classical;

Expressionism;

Serialism;

Music Concrete;

Advante Garde;

minimalism.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY composers, universally accepted as amongst the 'great', include: SCHOENBERG, HINDERMITH, BARTOK, STRAVINSKY and BEN~ BRITTEN.

21st Century Styles;

Details to follow:

Many thanks for the Diss High School Music Department who helped me with the framework of this page, and also The City of Leeds College of Music Foundation for some of the deatails.

E&OE

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