Periods of Western Music

Do you hear these aspects of the music?

Baroque Music (1600-1750) - continuity, action, movement

• Mood: One basic mood throughout

• Rhythm: The beat is emphasized
  Rhythmic patterns are repeated throughout piece

• Melody: Repeated and continuously expanding or unfolding

• Dynamics: Continuous dynamic level for long stretches
  Changes are sudden

• Texture: Typically polyphonic - 2 or more voices/instruments sharing melody

• Other: Basso continuo indicates bass melody and chord

• Composers: George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi

Classical Music (1750-1820) - balance, reason, symmetry

• Mood: Variety and contrast of mood within movements

• Rhythm: Variety of rhythm, including unexpected pauses, syncopations, and changing note values

• Melody: Tuneful, stick in your head
  Balanced melody - two phrases, with the second one sounding more final (Mary Had a Little Lamb)

• Dynamics: Gradual changes from very soft to very loud

• Texture: Flexible between polyphonic and homophonic - 1 main idea happening

• Other: Basso continuo fades away
  Piano replaces the harpsichord

• Composers: Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven
  

Romantic Music (1820-1900) - emotion, imagination, individualism, nature

• Mood: Very individualized mood and feeling
  Expressive feelings from passion and rapture to intimacy and longing

• Tone color: Timbre significant in establishing mood
  Brass section becomes spectacular
  Woodwinds gain contrabassoon, bass clarinet, English horn, and piccolo. Increased brilliance from cymbals, triangle, harp.
  Piano tone is more "singing" and blended

• Rhythm: Complicated, sometimes irregular, rhythms
  Sometimes hard to clap along with

• Melody: Expressive, emotional, not in regular pattern like classical melodies

• Dynamics: Extremely wide range of dynamics from ffff to pppp
  Frequent changes

• Texture: Expanded to many voices and more orchestral instruments

• Other: Generalization is difficult
  Nationalism, exoticism, program music, thematic transformation

• Composers: Frederic Chopin, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner

Twentieth Century (1900-1950-beyond) - innovative, not guided by musical structure/organization of earlier periods.

• Mood: Tone color significantly shapes mood - often major role

• Tone Color: New percussion instruments- xylophone, wood block
  Percussion becomes prominent
  Include odd sounds like sirens, typewriters, etc.
  Piano used as percussion in orchestra

• Rhythm: Irregular, unpredictable rhythm
  Frequent meter changes from 4/4 to 7/8, etc.

• Melody: Varied, sometimes irregular and difficult to sing

• Harmony: Dissonant chords don't have to be resolved

• Other: Tonal system becomes optional
  Not necessarily do, re, me, fa, so

• Composers: Bela Bartok, Arnold Schoenberg

Impressionism (1890-1920)

• Mood: Fluid, misty, impermanence, sensuous

• Tone Color: Tone color changes are crucial to changes in mood
  Rarely does entire orchestra play at once
  Instruments played in odd ranges -flute really low, breathy

• Rhythm: Vague, accent-less, fluid

• Composers: Claude Debussy
  

Neoclassicism (1920-1950)

• Mood: Emotional restraint, clarity

• Other: Use classical period techniques to structure current harmonies and rhythms

• Composers: Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith

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