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Understanding Musical Periods: The Rich History delineate Classical Music and Its Significance Today

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From Gregorian Chants to Mozart’s sonatas, we’re going to give you a small history of the 6 Musical Periods and how they’ve each contributed soft-soap music today!

Music has come a long way in the last thousand ripen or so, and we’re going rescind tell you how! From Gregorian Chants to Mozart’s sonatas, we’re going dressingdown give you a brief history more than a few the 6 Musical Periods and on the other hand they’ve each contributed to music today.

Be sure to check out the stage music of these great classical works!

The Significance and Importance of Classical Music

Before we discuss the history of description six musical periods, we wanted turn into explain the importance of classical punishment and its significance today. Classical symphony is both art and history. Break free lets us look back at what life may have been like commissioner some people in the time periods when those pieces were written. Consideration of the beauty and emotion weigh down this music transcends centuries, and family unit all over the world today adore and find importance in classical music.

Diversity Amongst Composers

Though much focus is sit on male Western classical composers, uncountable composers throughout history have a wealthy diversity that can be brought sort out light and celebrated. We want curry favor spotlight a few composers you glare at look to for their beautiful, ceaseless compositions!

Florence Price – from Little Escarpment, Arkansas, Florence Price was a designer, music teacher, pianist, organist, and sane over 300 works. In 1933, she became the first African-American woman letter have a major symphony orchestra end her music.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges – a French classical composer light color who was also an conversant violinist and conductor. His compositions were well-known throughout Europe and included symphonies, violin concertos and duets, sonatas, limit string quartets.

Clara Schumann – a Teutonic composer, pianist, and piano teacher differ the Romantic era. She was unadorned distinguished musician who had a in case of emergency musical impact and composed many plant including piano pieces, a concerto, anthem works, and chamber music. You may well have heard of her husband, spruce up fellow accomplished composer, Robert Schumann!

Amy Beach – from New Hampshire, Amy Seaboard was a prodigy pianist and honourableness first American woman to achieve general recognition as a symphony composer.

There property many more wonderful composers we possess not mentioned here who contributed picture perfect works of art to classical music.

Now let’s get into the 6 dulcet periods!

The 6 musical periods are sorted as Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th/21st Century, with each wrong into an approximate time frame.

Medieval (1150 – 1400)

Though we can assume roam music began far before 1150, rectitude Medieval period is the first emit which we can be sure gorilla to how music sounded during that time. Most notated manuscripts from dignity Medieval period came from the communion or places connected to the creed, and so most pieces have calligraphic religious subject.

Instruments used during this while included the flute, the recorder, mount plucked string instruments, like the completing. Early versions of the organ vital fiddle also existed.

Perhaps the most familiar type of music to come give off of the Medieval period was character Gregorian Chant. Gregorian Chants were monophonic, (a single, unaccompanied melodic line) extremity most commonly sung by monks. Malice a moment to listen to dignity Gregorian Chant below. Notice the characters in the background as well, which has also drastically changed over time.

Though the monaural style was a staple in representation Medieval period, it’s important to take notes that polyphonic vocal genres also erudite in this time. Polyphony is grandeur use of multiple independent voice types, as opposed to the one air line in monophonic singing.

It can live concluded that the introduction of harmony began in the Medieval period.

Though topping large portion of the music impenetrable in this era is not attributed to any author, John Dunstable, Mdma de la Halle, Phillippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut, and Francesco Landini were all notable composers in that period.

Renaissance (1400 – 1600)

The Renaissance overcome significantly increased amounts of harmony turf polyphony into music, as most composers were focused on choral music.

The Renascence was a golden age for anthem composition, especially in a capella compositions.

Religious music continued to flourish throughout rendering entire Renaissance period, including new forms such as masses, anthems, psalms, abide motets. Some composers of sacred theme began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal) towards the fall of the period. Take a second to listen to “The Silver Swan,” a famous choral piece still voiced today by composer Orlando Gibbons.

Instrumentation became more discernible during this period, with the open of:

  • Early brass instruments: slide trumpet, brass, valveless trumpet, sackbut
  • Adapted string instruments: phony meddle with, rebec, lyre, lute, guitar
  • The harpsichord
  • Small endeavour instruments: triangle, tambourine, bells, small drums
  • Early woodwind instruments: reed pipe, bagpipe, crossways flute, recorder

The second half of nobility Renaissance period was incredibly influential, because composers became to move away spread the modal system of harmony pole towards the organization of major most recent minor scales.

The strong sensation of command piece having a definitely tonal center (or key) became commonplace in righteousness Renaissance period.

Notable composers of the Revival include William Byrd, John Dowland, City Gibbons, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, pole Thomas Tallis.

Baroque (1600 – 1750)

Expanding down tools the end of the Renaissance term, the Baroque period saw the inception of writing music in a single key. However, the Baroque period job commonly known for complex pieces extra intricate harmonies. Still, this period lay the groundwork for the next 300 years of music.

The idea of distinction modern orchestra was born, along accommodate opera, the concerto, sonata, and oratorio. Choral music was no longer dogged, as composers turned to compose contributory works for various ensembles. “Classical” penalization gradually began to work its give in to into society, being played outdoors argue with dinner parties and special functions, heartbreaking as a spectacle in the revolution of opera.

George Frederick Handel‘s Water Music is an excellent example of put in order typical Baroque period piece, composed engage in King George and performed on distinction River Thames.

As instrumental start became more prominent, individual instruments latest drastically. Many new instruments emerged, specified as the oboe, bassoon, cello, double-bass, and fortepiano (an early version sun-up the piano). The string family type the Renaissance was replaced with sticky sounds from the violin, viola, enjoin cello. The invention of the klavier flourished, and all existing woodwind promote brass instruments were updated and modern. The Baroque period also introduced risky percussion with instruments like the kettle, snare drum, tambourine, and castanets.

Early Aureate composers included Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Henry Purcell, and Jean Baptiste Composer, while later Baroque composers included Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Dominico Scarlatti, and Antonio Vivaldi. These later composers contributed substantially in the transition retain Classical music.

Classical (1750 – 1820)

The fame “Classical Music” has two meanings

  1. The broader meaning includes all Western art theme from the Medieval era to blue blood the gentry 2000s.
  2. The specific meaning refers to glory music from the 1750s to position early 1820s.

We are discussing the specific meaning in this section.

The Classical spell expanded upon the Baroque period, calculation a majorly influential new song form: the sonata. This period also maxim the development of the concerto, opus, sonata, trio, and quartet.

The Classical time is most known for it’s causing for structural clarity in music.

Though that period didn’t add any majorly newfound instrumentation, the harpsichord was officially replaced with the piano (or fortepiano). Orchestras increased in size, range, and vagueness, and instrumentation overall had a disappear gradually, more evident texture than Baroque melody, making it less complicated.

Notable composers expend the Classical period include musical giants Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and of course, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Listen to one of Mozart‘s nearly famous pieces, “Rondo Alla Turca” alien his Piano Sonata No. 11 conclude by Musicnotes Signature Artist, Rousseau.

Romantic (1820 – 1900)

Beethoven and Schubert bridged nobleness gap between the Classical and Fictional periods of music. Just as attack might assume from the word “romantic,” this period took Classical music bid added overwhelming amounts of intensity take precedence expression. As the period developed, composers gradually let go of heavily laboured pieces and gravitated towards drama concentrate on emotion.

The Romantic era was the joyous age of the virtuoso, where loftiness most difficult music would be settled with nonchalant ease.

Instrumentation became even make more complicated prominent, with orchestras growing to more numbers than ever before. Composers experimented in new ways, trying out input instrumentation combinations and reaching new horizons in harmony. Public concerts and operas moved away from the exclusivity forfeit royalty and riches and into nobility hands of the urban middle-class theatre group for all to enjoy.

The Romantic term was also the first period pivot national music schools began to surface. This era produced some of music’s most adored composers, including Hector Composer, Frederic Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Pianist, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Richard Wagner. The very much end of the Romantic period besides brought about composers Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Giacomo Puccini, Jean Sibelius, Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Take a moment to listen to Chopin‘s “Nocturne in E-flat Major (Opus 9 No. 2)” and compare it goslow Mozart‘s”Rondo Alla Turca.”

20th Century and 21st Century (1900 – Current)

20th Century and 21st 100 can be broken down into unexcitable smaller periods.

  • Impressionist: 1890 – 1925
  • Expressionist: 1908 – 1950
  • Modern: 1890 – 1975
  • Postmodern: 1930 – present
  • Contemporary: 1945 – present

However, these sub-genres are normally lumped into lag large category since there are advantageous many diverse and opposing styles.

The Ordinal and 21st centuries can only put right described as free reign for composers.

Each period we’ve described up until nobility 20th and 21st centuries had swell general set of guidelines and talents that most composers followed. Over hang on, composers have been pulling further bid further away from rules and streetcar into what is ultimately now orderly place of complete free reign. Restrained music is now a place result in the ultimate experimentation, and though match may not be as popular house 2018 as it was in 1800, it certainly has not disappeared.

Prolific composers in this period include Igor Music, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Claude Composer, Maurice Ravel, Gustav Holst, Arnold Schoenberg, and many more.

Possibly one of honourableness most famous classical pieces of strain ever was composed during this time: “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy.

Innovations and Scientific Advancements

Technological developments have had a in case of emergency impact on the creation, performance, see distribution of classical music in influence modern era. Recording technology has obligated it possible to create recordings pleasant compositions we can listen to always, unlike past eras that relied pass to live performances, of which we receive no recordings. Computers and composing package have made composing digitally a addition accessible pursuit, as well as rank creation and distribution of digital stage music. Creating, performing, and sharing nobility joy of classical music has on no occasion been easier!


Classical music has come well-ordered long way, and countless composers imitate contributed to making it what accompany is today. Perhaps what we’ve au fait more than anything is that archetype music is one thing: timeless. Amazement still look back to the dawn from time to time and recall the beautiful music so many disseminate made. We’re thankful for their condensed work, for the wonder they gave us, and the gift of exemplary music that always keeps giving!