Music Periods Baroque-Experimentalism

basic what to knows for each period

Baroque

- 1600-1750
- J.S Bach
- harpsichord, and basso continuo

- rhythmic patterns will often repeat throughout piece - pushes music ahead
- mood/tone will remain the same throughout
- generally polyphonic and occasionally homophonic
- terraced dynamics
- melody creates feeling of continuity eg. opening melody repeated throughout.

- small orchestra, chamber music

- Bach's sons carried from Baroque to Classical

Classical

- 1750-1820
-Haydn (teacher), Mozart and Beethoven (students)

- less complicated than baroque (more homophonic)
- more variety + contrast within a piece (tempo, key, mood, timbre)
- shorter melodies
- clear cut phrases + clearly marked cadences

- orchestra increases in size and range
- piano takes over
- importance given to instrumental music
- SONATA FORM

Romantic

- 1820-1900s
- social and political French revolution stresses
- contradicting ideas (capitalism vs freedom of oppression ; science vs faith ; logic vs emotion)

- instill preconceived moods into listeners
- music became more dissociated from real life

- individuality of style
- expressive aims and subjects (love, death, nature, destruction)

- more song like melodies, more lyrical and expressive
- explicit dynamics with many gradations (definite terms)
- variety in rhythm = time signature or tempo changes halfway
- more difficult harmony + dissonance + tensions
- complete performance directions = no improv

- FULLY DEVELOPED GRAND PIANO
- orchestra increases
- more woodwind and brass
- more percussion

Impressionism

- 1900s = start of 20th century
- (initiated by) Claude Debussy
- Monet's sunrise

- static harmony
- melodies that lack directed motion
- surface ornamentation that disrupts or substitutes as melody
- disruption of forward motion and standard harmonic progressions
- AVOIDANCE of traditional music form

- vague, blurred, impactful
- evoke a feeling, capture essence (see a story unfold from a distance)

- instruments played in different ways eg. flutes and clarinets playing lower and darker sounds ; muted horns ; harp, triangle, Glock
- chords added in intervals of three make chords less clear and dissonant (9ths, 11ths, 13ths)
- no proper cadences leave listeners not feeling anchored in one key
- lack of steady and defined rhythm
- whole tone and pentatonic scale

Expressionism

- SECOND VIENESE SCHOOL (A Schoenberg ; A Weber ; A Bery)
- during period of civil rights protests and wars, and separation

- nightmarish, distorted, out of tune instruments = dissonance
- atonal
- dramatic plot centered around the main characters anguish

- contrasting dynamics
- changing textures
- melodic/harmonic distortion
- wild leaps in tempo, rhythm and chord structure
- extreme pitch and tonal change
- absence of cadence

- evoke emotions of anger, grief and despair through disruptive and violent music
- makes us feel disturbed and unsettled

Minimalism

- Philip Glass = metamorphosis
- Steve Reich = piano phase

- layers of ostinato (motifs)
layering is used to create a thicker texture
- repeated patterns have gradual changes
- diatonic harmony
- any changes to dynamics, harmony or melody are all gradual
- other notes can be added to the melody

Experimentalism

- differs radically from traditional forms of music in composition, performance and production
- avant-garde
- may abandon traditional building blocks like rhythm, melody, timbre or tempo in favor of improv or deconstruction

- John Cage = Water Walk and 4.33 (silence)
- the prepared piano

- unique instruments
- traditional instruments played in non-traditional ways eg prepare an instrument with bolts and office supplies
- objects can be used as instruments

Neoclassism

- return to the basics as composers want to reconcile with traditional forms
- 20 year period between WW1 and WW1 provided backdrop for renewed call to order and traditional music theories
- believes it is possible for music to not only imitate but influence life
- Stravinsky and Prokoviev

- draws on past styles like fugues
- drew inspiration as composers sought freedom from rigid forms and structures
- non-western scales and chromatism
- performers can update arrangements/pieces by previous composers