Western Music 

westernization

• occurred in many parts of the world as a result of colonization, which many considered good
• western music emerged in a lot of countries, making the piano a default instrument to learn in many countries

globalization

• led to technological advancements
• trades, transportation, and internet
• explore cultures easily
• reverse influence (eg.kpop)
• ‘soft power’: go into the hearts and minds of people, no literal killing
• singapore- banking system
• music
• ‘hard power’: a nation’s ability to use economic incentives or military strength to influence other’s behaviors
• US
• China
• russia

localization- self dependency

• covid
• trade war
• ukraine

Baroque (1600-1750)

• harmony: stacking diff notes together (diff layers)
• counterpoint: subset of harmony, type of harmony where you take independent melodies and push them together
• instruments
• polyphony: must exist for harmony to exist, you have instrument or piece of music that can combine many songs together
• monophony: single sound (eg. voice)
• composers of baroque:
  • bach (period)
  • vivaldi
• standardization of music
  • patronage
  • basso continuo: provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bass line and chord progression
  • figure base
  • the church controlled music, publication, and presentation of music
  • Stradivarius: the violin, cello, and other string instruments built by the members of the Italian family Stradivari. instrument found in auction houses
  • castrati- group of boys who were castrated before puberty

classical (1750-1825)

• harpsichord: a keyboard instrument in which the string are plucked rather than hit with a hammer
• harmony and counterpoint (complex)
• Prominent composers in the classical period:
• Mozart & Haydn
• age of enlightenment
• moral philosophy than theology
• born free
  • free inquiry
• Patronage
• no longer by church
• independent from employer

romantic (1820-1900)

• period of excess
• huge amount of training of composers
• too much supply→increased competition
• composers differentiated themselves by compressing melody into a bar
  • diversified compositions
• tonal colour: composers take music and manipulate it to get diff textures
• composers during romantic period:
  • liszt
  • wagner

20th century (1910-2000)

• visual arts influences
• 17th century painters
• inward reflections- atonality - break away from the tonal center
  • not able to sing the melody of the song
• 1900-1914→ break away from conventions
• extended technique
• using the technique to scream
• globalization
• piazolla
• other cultures
• westernization+modernization→globalization→
• EDM-’earworm’: repeating melody
• other cultures have made western music their own
• western music has become universal, it doesn’t belong to west alone