In this webpage, I want to deal with a variety of what most people call “classical music”. That term attempts to give focus to music which is NOT “popular” nor “folk”. Classical music was basically developed in Europe, and its origins were largely associated with Christianity. That’s not to say that in the early years that ALL the music was sacred, but much of it was.
In addition to Christianity, one other factor influencing the music was technology. The instrumentation – horns, woodwinds, strings and keyboards – were in some cases also found in other cultures, but the advances were most prominent in the European setting.
As an aside, probably the more common term is “Western” rather than “European”. So “Western Music” does not mean California, Oregon and Nevada! At least in this context.
While some of the early music (i.e., before 1600) is worthy of attention, in modern times, it’s not performed all that much, and in this discussion we’ll simply ignore it.
The style of music has changed over the centuries, and the factors creating those changes are important, but will not be addressed here, other than to note that advances in the technology of instruments DID have an impact on the type of music that was created.
One other important characteristic of “classical” music has been its development and dependence upon notation. Of course these days, most music is generated and supported by notation, but most of that first arose in the “classical” music setting.
In what follows, I’d like to focus on a few generic “eras” of classical music, and in doing so, there is one word that has two uses or meanings, and that is the word, “classical”. In the discussion above, it has been used to differentiate from “popular” and “folk”, but the same word in English is also used in a different way to indicate one of the important eras in the development of Western music.
So here are the eras that will be discussed, with accompanying time frames, and some of the important composers of each era (all European!):
| Baroque | 1600s – mid 1700s | Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Gabrieli |
| Classical | mid 1700s – early 1800s | Mozart, Haydn |
| Early Romantic | Early 1800s | Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms |
| Late Romantics | Mid-late 1800s | Verdi, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Chopin |
| Impressionistic | late 1800s – early 1900s | Faure, Debussy, Poulenc |
| 20th Century/Modern | early 1900s – current | Shostakovich, Elgar, Vaughn-Williams, Ives, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Copeland |
This then is an introduction. What I would like to do is to select a few composers from each era and provide some examples. And I will place that information in a series of webpages linked to this page.
But before that, simply one example from one of the eras.
Baroque: Johanne Sebastian Bach, with a selection from his Christmas Oratorio (“Oratorio” is kind of like an Opera for sacred music). This was first performed in its entirety in 1734, in Leipzig.
In this section, it is a solo for the Bass singer, with a chorale before and after his solo.
Right now, just watch and listen. Later on, if interested I can provide the full lyrics. But for the major solo part, here are the words. Note that they get repeated:
Großer Herr, o starker König,
Great Lord, O mighty king,
Liebster Heiland, o wie wenig
dearest saviour, O how little
Achtest du der Erden Pracht!
you regard earthly splendour
Der die ganze Welt erhält,
He who maintains the whole world
Ihre Pracht und Zier erschaffen,
and created its glory and adornment
Muss in harten Krippen schlafen.
must sleep in a hard crib.
I don’t know how much Bach had to do with the lyrics, but in situations like this, he was more focused on the music to support those lyrics. In some cases of course in this Oratorio, there are direct Biblical quotes.
Before moving on, another “version” of the “Grosser Herr”, this done using “period instruments”, in other words, using instruments that were available in Bach’s day. Trumpet with no keys. Wooden rather than metallic flutes. (Chorales not included).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxr_stB1uJI
And one more quote from the Christmas Oratorio, which provides a good example of what is called a “fugue”. Basically where one has a sequence of notes as kind of a melody, and then a second part comes in with very similar – but not the same – notes and rhythm, and there is kind of a duet going on. In this case there is even a third part to the fugue, but not as noticeable as the two violins.
Of course, the singer “chimes in” as well with that same fugal scheme. Masterful composing by Bach.
One note on the solo singing. At times, there are a whole string of notes on the same word – actually the same syllable. This is a typical feature of Baroque music. The word or syllable being sung is generally verb-like.
In this case, the solo sings:
Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben
I will only you to Honor live
In GOOD English: I will live only to honor You. Crazy Germans, putting verbs at the end!
The point is that the singer sings multiple notes on the FIRST syllable of the verb “live”, but that is the ACTION word: Living. So that extended musical phrase on a single word is for emphasis.
The technical term for those run-together notes is “melisma”.
Another Baroque composed George Fredrick Handel used melisma’s extensively in his Messiah. For example, in his chorus “And He Shall Purify” there are many melisma’s on the syllable “fy” or “purify”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrMpDfMMDc0
Ok. Lesson #1. Baroque music. Examples from Bach. And Handel.
A “Pop” quiz at any time!
(Links to further webpages will be placed here)