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MUSHL- Categorizing Music

  • Three commonly heard categories for dividing music: Classical, popular, and folk music
    • But the lines between these categories is blurred, so it can be tricky to categorize.
  • Musical genre: a way of making connections between closely-related works and musical artists that share stylistic, formal, and cultural elements
    • There are thousands of musical genres and subgenres, with more emerging every day
    • Genre in this class is used to refer to the subgenres within Western art music.
  • Musical era: a temporal categorization of musical compositions according to popular taste
    • Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th/21st Century
  • Medieval Era c. 1150-1400: Most notated manuscripts originate from the church or religiously affiliated places. Introduction of harmony in musical practice. Most music is anonymous. Mostly religious music because funding came from the church
    • Medieval Era Instruments: flute, recorder, plucked strings, organ, fiddle
    • Medieval Era Genres: Gregorian chant, canso
    • Medieval Era Composers: Hildegard von Bingen, Countess of Dia
  • Renaissance Era c. 1400-1600: The strong sensation of each piece having a tonal center (key) became commonplace. Shift from modal harmony to major and minor scales. Increase in harmony and polyphony because of focus on choral music and religious music. Still very religiously affiliated, but some secular music did show up during this era.
    • Renaissance era Instruments: slide trumpet, cornet, viol, guitar, harpsichord, tambourine, bagpipe
    • Renaissance era Genres: masses, anthems, psalms, motets, madrigals
    • Renaissance era Composers: John Dowland, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
  • Baroque Era c. 1600-1750: Complex melodies, forms, and intricate harmonies. Choral music becomes less prominent. Writing music in one particular key. Orchestra is born.
    • Baroque Era Genres: opera, concerto, sonata, cantata
    • Baroque Era Instruments: oboe, bassoon, cello, fortepiano, violin, cello, updated woodwind and brass instruments, timpani, snare drum
    • Baroque Era Composers: Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Handel
  • Classical Era c. 1750-1820: known for its compulsion for structural clarity in music. Orchestras increased in size, range, and power.
    • Classical Era Instruments: Harpsichord was officially replaced with the piano
    • Classical Era Genres: concerto, symphony, sonata, trio, and quartet
    • Classical Era Composers: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Romantic Era c. 1820-1900: The golden age of the virtuoso. Intensity and expression. Public concerts became more accessible and national music schools appeared.
    • Romantic Era Instrumentation: bigger numbers, new combinations
    • Romantic Era Genres: symphony, string quartet, opera, ballet, "program music"
    • Romantic Era Composers: Hector Berlioz, Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Johan Strauss, Modest Musorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Antonin Dvorak, Amy Beach