CM music periods: Composers and Characteristics

Composers and Characteristics of different music periods in history for CM.

Bartok

Hungarian composer for the Contemporary (20th-21st) period.

Use of ornamentation

Used in the Baroque period.

Programme music

Used in the Romantic period designed to tell a story, paint a picture, or evoke an emotion.

Clementi

An Italian composer from the Classical period.

Irregular and changing meters

A Contemporary technique to break away from time signatures.

Diabelli

An Austrian Composer from the Classical period.

Brahms

A German composer from the Romantic period.

Colorful harmonies

A Romantic period technique that gave depth to traditional melodies and chords.

Terraced Dynamics

A Baroque period technique that made shifts from dynamics instant and sharp without any fading or growing.

Sonata Form

A Classical period form; it includes the exposition, development, and recapitulation.

Neo-Classic writing

A contemporary period concept that revives classical music in the modern era.

Atonality

A contemporary concept which lacks a central key and tone.

Copland

An American composer from the Contemporary period.

Use of figured bass

A Baroque period concept that gave numbers under notes to show what chords to play (allows improvising).

Britten

An English composer from the Contemporary period.

Tchaikovsky

A Russian composer from the Romantic period.

Irregular meters

A Contemporary period technique that are rhythmic structures that cannot be divided into equal beats.

Improvisation

A Baroque period technique which composers added extra notes, harmonies, or countermelodies instead of inventing new chord progressions like modern improvisation.

Chopin

A Polish composer from the Romantic period.

Haydn

An Austrian composer from the Classical period.

Prokofiev

A Russian composer from the Contemporary period.

Quartal harmony

A contemporary technique that stacks intervals of fourths rather than the traditional third.

Alberti Bass

A Classical technique which accompaniment notes go in this order: low-high-middle-high.

Corelli

An Italian composer from the Baroque Period

Dello Joio

An American composer from the Contemporary period.

Schubert

An Austrian composer from the Romantic era.