Classical Music

Classical music, also called art music, is composed according to certain rules and performed by musicians from written music. It includes symphonies and music for opera and ballet.

There are two principal kinds of classical music - instrumental music and vocal music. Composers write instrumental music to be performed by one instrument, a small ensemble (group of instruments), or an orchestra. Vocal music may be written for one singer, for several singers, or for a large chorus. Many works of classical music combine both instrumental parts and vocal parts.

Most performances of classical music feature highly skilled and extensively trained musicians. A conductor directs performances that involve an orchestra or chorus. The conductor selects the music, rehearses it with the musicians, and guides them during the performance of the work.

Instrumental music. There are three main kinds of instrumental music: (1) solo, (2) chamber, and (3) orchestra. They differ chiefly according to the number of musicians who perform the music. Solo music is played by only one musician. A small group of musicians--in most cases, from 2 to 5--performs chamber music. A large group--as many as 100 musicians or more--plays orchestra music.

Solo music can be composed for any instrument, but much of it has been written for the piano. This instrument enables a musician to play more than one melody at a time and to give the music richness and depth. The organ and the harpsichord are also used. Solo music written for the cello, clarinet, flute, French horn, guitar, harp, oboe, trumpet, viola, and violin often includes accompaniment by a keyboard instrument.

A long solo composition may consist of a number of sections, called movements. The most common form of long composition is the sonata. The movements of a sonata vary in speed and style. Many sonatas have a fast first movement, a slow second movement, a dancelike third movement, and a vigorous fourth movement. The rousing final movement is called the finale. Some of the best-known piano sonatas were written by Ludwig van Beethoven of Germany and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of Austria. Johann Sebastian Bach of Germany composed well-known sonatas for the violin and the cello.

Chamber music is chiefly written for 2 to 5 musicians. But music for as many as 20 players may also be called chamber music. In most chamber music, each musician plays a different part. Chamber music was originally performed in the chambers, or rooms, of private homes, rather than in churches or public halls.

Almost all chamber music is composed for one of several types of ensembles. These groups include the string trio (violin, viola, and cello); the piano trio (piano, violin, and cello); the string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello); the string quintet (two violins, two violas, and cello; or two violins, viola, and two cellos); and the piano quintet (piano, two violins, viola, and cello). Ensembles of six or more musicians vary in makeup.

Orchestra music is written to be performed for large audiences. The size of an orchestra ranges from about 15 to more than 100 musicians. The musicians are organized into groups, called sections, according to the instruments they play.

The chief forms of orchestra music are symphonies, concertos, suites, and symphonic poems. Symphonies express a variety of ideas and emotions. For example, the German composer Robert Schumann dealt with his happiness at being married in his symphony Spring (1841).

A concerto highlights a particular instrument, such as the piano or violin. Composers have written concertos for nearly every instrument. The Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote many such concertos, chiefly for stringed instruments.

During the 1700's, a suite consisted chiefly of a collection of dances. But in the 1800's, it began to include a series of contrasting movements. Well-known suites include the Peer Gynt Suite (1876) by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and the Nutcracker Suite (1892) by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky of Russia. A suite may consist of various pieces of music written for certain parts of a play. Such a suite is known as incidental music.

A symphonic poem expresses the theme of a story or some other literary work. The form of the model determines how the composer organizes the music. Tchaikovsky based his symphonic poem Romeo and Juliet (1870) on William Shakespeare's famous play.

Some orchestra music, including the overture, has only one movement. Such a composition may serve as the introduction to an opera or a play.

Vocal music. There are four chief types of vocal music: (1) songs, (2) choral music, (3) operas, and (4) oratorios.

Songs are compositions for vocal soloists. In classical music, the works are sometimes known as art songs. Many song composers select a poem of literary merit and set the words to music. The music strengthens and emphasizes the meaning of the words. Originally, most singers performed without accompaniment. Today, the majority of singers are accompanied by a pianist.

Choral music is written for a chorus. Most choral music written since the 1400's has parts for four voices-- soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. A chorus may sing a cappella or with accompaniment by an orchestra, a chamber ensemble, an organist, or a pianist. Operas, symphonies, and other musical productions may feature choral music. For example, Beethoven's famous ninth symphony includes a chorus.

Most choral music has been written for religious services. The principal form of such choral music is the mass, a series of pieces composed for the Roman Catholic Mass. Later composers, including Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert, wrote masses with parts for vocal soloists and orchestra accompaniment. The requiem, which is a mass composed for funerals, also involves choral singing. Important requiems were written by such composers as Mozart, Hector Berlioz of France, and Giuseppe Verdi of Italy.

Operas combine drama with vocal and instrumental music. The music, which is set to the libretto (text) of an opera, highlights the dramatic, tragic, or comic aspects of the story. Many operas involve an orchestra, vocal soloists, a chorus, and ballet. The greatest opera composers include Mozart; Verdi, Claudio Monteverdi, and Giacomo Puccini of Italy; and Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner of Germany.

The most important kinds of opera vocal music are recitatives and arias. Recitatives, which performers sing in a simple, speechlike style, carry the action of the opera forward by giving the audience information about the characters or plot. Arias are vocal solos with much more complex melodies than those of recitatives. These solos express the feelings and thoughts of characters in an opera.

Oratorios, like operas, use an orchestra, vocal soloists, and a chorus to tell a story. However, an oratorio has no stage action. Most oratorios have a religious subject. Famous religious oratorios include Messiah (1742) and Judas Maccabaeus (1747) by the German-born composer George Frideric Handel, The Creation (1798) by Joseph Haydn of Austria, and Elijah (1846) by Felix Mendelssohn of Germany. Among the most important nonreligious oratorios are Haydn's The Seasons (1801) and Joan of Arc at the Stake (1935) by the French composer Arthur Honegger.

A short oratorio is called a cantata. Most cantatas are composed for church services. Bach wrote more than 200 cantatas, most of them based on hymns.

The Brief history of classical music. Scholars know little about the music of the earliest civilizations. Musicians and their instruments appear in many ancient works of art. However, early people did not write down music, and so we know almost nothing about how it sounded.

The music of the Greeks was the most influential music of ancient times. To the Greeks, the word music had a much broader meaning than it does today. For example, it included poetry.

According to Greek mythology, the gods invented music. The ancient Greeks associated certain music with certain gods. Such Greek philosophers as Plato and Aristotle believed that music had emotional qualities and influenced human behavior. They thought that people who listened to a certain type of music acquired the qualities associated with it. For example, a slow, steady style of music played on a type of lyre called the kithara was believed to have a calming effect. The Greeks associated such music with Apollo, the god of light, purity, reason, and the sun. A passionate style of music played on the aulos, a wind instrument, was associated with Dionysus, the god of wine. This music supposedly caused wild, unpredictable behavior.

The ancient Romans continued the musical theories and performing techniques of the Greeks. In addition, the Romans developed such instruments as the trumpet and pipe organ.

The Middle Ages. From the A.D. 400's to the 1500's, music became much more structured and complicated. The oldest known Western music was plain song, used in Christian church services. This vocal music developed gradually from early Jewish religious music. Much plain song was set to the words of psalms, lyrical poems from the Old Testament.

Beginning about 900, more secular (nonreligious) songs began to appear. During the 1100's and 1200's, French nobles composed many secular songs and poems. These poet-musicians became known as troubadours in southern France and trouveres in northern France

The Renaissance period in music lasted from about 1450 to 1600. It occurred during the second half of the Renaissance, a time of outstanding cultural achievement in Europe. Composers of the Renaissance period experimented with new arrangements of tones and simpler rhythm. As a result, they produced fuller and richer sounds. Composers of this period included Orlando di Lasso of the Netherlands and Giovanni Palestrina of Italy.

Composers of the 1500's also created new forms of instrumental music. For example, during the late 1500's, composers in Venice developed the concerto.

The baroque period, which lasted from about 1600 to 1750, featured elaborate, vividly expressive music. During this period, composers introduced several important vocal forms, including the cantata, oratorio, and opera. Instrumental music also flourished, especially chamber and orchestra music. Leading composers during the 1600's included Claudio Monteverdi of Italy, Jean-Baptiste Lully of France, Heinrich Schutz of Germany, and Henry Purcell of England.

Baroque music reached its greatest heights in the work of two German composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Bach's works included cantatas and organ compositions written for church services. His music overflows with rich harmonies and elaborate counterpoint. Musicians still study Bach's use of harmony in the Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of 48 preludes and fugues, and in other works. Handel wrote more than 40 operas and over 30 oratorios.

The classical period. During the 1700's, the European middle class grew in size and importance. More and more people acquired an interest in music. Public concerts became increasingly popular, and composers wrote light, simple music that audiences could enjoy easily. Such galant music gradually developed into the classical style, which dominated composition before 1750 to about 1820. This style emphasized balance and contrast among the movements of a work. Galant music expressed emotions in a refined, elegant way.

The greatest composers of the classical period were Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, both of Austria, and Ludwig van Beethoven of Germany. Haydn's works included symphonies, string quartets, sonatas, and operas. His instrumental music consisted of four movements that both contrasted with and balanced one another. Haydn built his movements on phrases that consisted of three or four notes. These phrases are called motives. Haydn's style became a model for later composers of the period.

Mozart composed in a greater variety of styles and forms than Haydn did. Mozart created much instrumental music, including sonatas, chamber music, symphonies, and piano concertos. He also wrote operas, some of which combined serious and comic elements. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (1785), Don Giovanni (1787), and The Magic Flute (1791) rank among the great operas of all time.

Beethoven composed most of his works during the classical period. He specialized in piano sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies. Many of Beethoven's works emphasize nonmusical ideas. For example, his ninth symphony expresses the ideal of human brotherhood. Beethoven wrote longer compositions than did Haydn and Mozart. His later piano sonatas and string quartets have an extraordinary range and power of expression.

The romantic era began about 1820. Composers of this period believed music should be highly imaginative and emotional. A number of them developed characteristic personal styles.

Beethoven composed his later works during the first years of the romantic era. Franz Schubert, an early romantic from Austria, wrote more than 600 lieder, as well as piano solos, chamber music, and symphonies. Felix Mendelssohn, also of Germany, was noted for his piano and orchestra music. Still another German composer, Robert Schumann, wrote expressive symphonies, character pieces, and vocal music. Hector Berlioz of France became known for inventive types of orchestra compositions, many of them based on literary works. The Polish-born composer Frederic Chopin wrote magnificent piano pieces.

In the mid-1800's, Franz Liszt of Hungary and Richard Wagner of Germany gained fame for their extremely complex music. Liszt wrote brilliant piano music and established the symphonic poem as an important form. Wagner combined music, poetry, dance, and other arts in his revolutionary music dramas, which he based on various myths and legends. He used recurrent themes, called leitmotifs, that were associated with various characters and other aspects of the dramatic action.

Composers of the late 1800's used a wide variety of forms and styles. Anton Bruckner of Austria composed symphonies that had both religious and secular elements. Johannes Brahms of Germany wrote music in the classical tradition. Giuseppe Verdi created some of Italy's finest operas. The Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler wrote symphonies to be performed by a large orchestra. Many of these works involve vocal soloists and choruses. Richard Strauss of Germany became famous for his symphonic poems and operas.

About 1850, composers in eastern and northern Europe began to express the feelings of their people in music. They used elements of folk songs and folk dances in works that became known as nationalistic music. Nationalistic composers included Edvard Grieg of Norway; Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov of Russia; and Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak, both Czechs. Nationalistic elements are also important in the music of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, the most popular Russian composer of the 1800's. He became famous chiefly for his symphonies.

The 1900's have brought a number of new developments in classical music. The first principal new musical approach was impressionism, a vivid, descriptive style that had originated in France in the late 1800's. Impressionism became widespread during the early 1900's. Claude Debussy of France, the leading impressionist composer, introduced new ideas in harmony and musical structure. Some of his works have sounds that suggest certain images, such as those of moonlight, wind, and the sea.

During the early 1900's, Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg began writing atonal music. At first, his innovative music aroused protests from audiences and from conservative composers and critics. Schoenberg's students included two other noted Austrian composers, Anton Webern and Alban Berg.

Musical nationalism continued to flourish in the 1900's. The leading nationalistic composer was Bela Bartok of Hungary, who wrote piano pieces, string quartets, two ballets, and an opera. Among the other nationalistic composers were Charles Ives and Aaron Copland of the United States and Sergei Prokofiev and Dimitri Shostakovich of Russia.

Styles of popular music influenced many classical composers. For example, elements of jazz appeared in the works of such French composers as Maurice Ravel and Darius Milhaud.

A movement known as neoclassicism affected much of the music written after 1920. Neoclassical composers based their compositions on musical forms of the 1700's or earlier. The leading early neoclassical composers were the Russian-born Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith of Germany. The early works of Stravinsky included such nationalistic ballets as The Firebird (1910) and Petrouchka (1911). From the early 1920's to the early 1950's, however, he modeled his works on the music of Bach and various other composers of the past. After 1952, Stravinsky began to compose in the style of Schoenberg. Hindemith composed in a variety of forms.

Since 1950, a number of composers have experimented with untraditional styles and with new methods of making sounds. The French-born Edgard Varese became known for his electronic music. In this kind of music, the composer uses electronic equipment to create sounds that have any desired pitch, loudness, tone, and duration. Another American composer, John Cage, helped develop aleatory music. In such music, all or part of the sounds depends on chance. The composer provides only a general outline of the composition.

Since the mid-1960's, minimalism has become an important musical style in classical music. Minimalism uses short melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns that are repeated again and again. These patterns often create a hypnotic effect. Composers of minimalism include Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley.

Today, classical music consists of compositions that vary widely--from traditional to revolutionary--in style and form. Composers of the late 1900's include Elliott Carter, George Crumb, David Del Tredici, George Rochberg, and Charles Wuorinen of the United States; Alberto Ginastera of Argentina; Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen of France; Carl Orff and Karlheinz Stockhausen of Germany; Luciano Berio of Italy; and Krzysztof Penderecki of Poland.

Поиск по сайту: