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It’s important to remember that “classical music” is a term that describes both the classical period (1750-1825) as well as the type of music discussed in this entire history.
Western music officially started with the Christian sacred music form called Gregorian Chant. (It was named after Pope Gregory in 600 A.D. who created the system of musical scales). At its inception, a chant was a simple, haunting melody with Latin words sung in unison by monks. This form stayed around for the entire Middle Ages (450-1450) and would appear again and again, pretty much its original form, throughout time. Many people find chant to be mystical and spiritually moving, which could explain its staying power. As recently as the 1990’s, a Chant CD topped the Billboard Charts.
During the Middle Ages, simple chant got complicated - layers of voices moved at different speeds and singers sang unrelated texts...simultaneously. What a mess!! Fortunately, during the Renaissance Period (1450-1600), music started to take form both rhythmically and structurally and got away from the never-ending meandering phrases. Giovanni da Palestrina took the chant to the next level using this stricter model. He wrote for several independent vocal lines to be sung same time – and voilà –counterpoint was born! In the pop music of the day, national music emerged in the forms of the Italian and English madrigal and the French chanson. This was the beginning of the singer-songwriter craze. This was also the dawning of the age of opera. Monteverdi was the main Italian opera (music drama) composer of the time. During the Renaissance, Europeans invented printing which allowed instrumental music to flourish. Before printing, musicians passed around handwritten manuscripts.
Excessively ornate describes the music of the Baroque Period (1600-1750). There were never-ending trills, mordents – and even inverted mordents (don’t ask!). Clearly, this was a departure from multi-part vocal writing and movement toward melody with accompaniment. The melody was usually heard over a bass line (basso continuo) played by the harpsichord, cello and/or bassoon. The predominant instrumental forms were keyboard suites and sonatas, organ music including various partitas and fugues, and trio sonatas for various combinations of instruments. Music for orchestra included sinfonias, concertos and the concerto grosso.
Baroque music was blessed by the genius of J.S. Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. Bach composed music for almost every genre except opera; he left a huge amount of liturgical (sacred) music, including cantatas. Handel was a German-born composer who studied in Italy and worked many years in England. Like Bach, he wrote in almost every genre, including opera seria and oratorio. Vivaldi (a wildly prolific composer) wrote 50 operas, 40 pieces for choir and orchestra, over 100 pieces for orchestra alone and nearly 500 concertos for various solo instruments with orchestra. The Baroque Period pretty much ended with the death of J.S. Bach. The Classical Period (1750-1825) evolved as a (knee-jerk) response to the decorative Baroque style. Classical music was more reserved and structured and has become a favorite era of many classical music lovers. Mozart and Haydn dominated the music scene of Western Europe during the Classical Period. Since the music was highly structured, melodies were usually in four or eight bar phrases. Also, many of the wind instruments had evolved to the point where they resemble the wind instruments of today. The symphony, sonata, and string quartet were in fashion. On the vocal front, opera seria (serious opera) gave way to opera buffa (comic opera). Opera buffa was a favorite of Mozart’s. Later, Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini embraced the comic opera form.
Then along came Beethoven. It was Beethoven who linked the Classical Period to the Romantic Period (1825-1900). Beethoven’s music departed from the “strict and absolute” style of the Classical Period. He helped define Romantic Music by focusing on dynamics, color and emotion. New forms solidified such as grand opera, lieder, and character pieces for piano. Music had a national style. Tonality and harmonic practices expanded and the important composers of the time included Schubert, Berlioz, Weber, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Wagner, and Verdi.
It was during that Romantic Period that Wagner took opera to new heights and lengths in his masterpiece, Der Ring des Nibelungen (often referred to as Wagner’s Ring Cycle). This four- opera work takes nearly 16 hours to perform. (It’s worth notating that Wagner’s story line for the Ring Cycle is about a magic ring that gets lost and found and lost again. Can anyone say Lord of the Rings?). Wagner’s writing pushed singers to the brink, he expanded the size of the orchestra and gave the story line a greater depth than had been seen previously. Wagner also took tonality (as it had always been understood) to its limit.
The music of the 1900’s was extremely diverse. It started out Romantic and Impressionistic then became dissonant, distant and even, electronic. New instruments were created and popular music made a significant impact on classical composers. Rhythms were highly complex and harmony had no boundaries. Improvisation played a key role, as many composers like Gershwin bridged the gap between classical and jazz music. Not only did classical music fuse with jazz, but the avant garde music and techniques of Webern, Carter, Varèse, Babbitt and Berio appeared in the music of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana. Among the many styles developed during the 1900’s were serialism (Bolez), minimalism (Reich, Glass, Adams) and aleatoric music (John Cage). Interestingly, film music composers embraced all of these styles.
Some of the most prominent composers of the 1900’s were Bartok, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Copland, Rachmaninov, Gershwin, and Stravinsky.
Recordings and broadcasts of the 1900’s revolutionized the way people made, obtained and experienced music. Before this technical revolution, people either composed and played music themselves or attended performances. An individual in the industrialized world had access to radio, television, phonograph and later digital music through such media as the CD or the iPod.
In this new century, the Internet offers new opportunities for musical distribution and creation. In the last century music develped from the chant to the music of Berio, from the church to the iPod. Regardless where music takes us this century, it’s bound to be a fascinating journey.
A Brief History of the (Classical) World
The Boys’ Club
Classical Speak
“Adagio”a guide to classical terms
Classical Starter Kit
Beethoven and beyond... but not too far
Classical 24/7
What Are They Doing Up There?
Now That I’m Here...
Concert etiquette for the rest of us
The Recycled Riff
Rock folks aren’t just lifting from each other
We Couldn’t Have Said It Better
Quotable quotes from all walks