Octave
“A great conductor is selfevidently much more than just a metronome wearing tails.” Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that concealed immense rigor. B
Use of counterpoint was brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities of his compositional style - which often included religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special codes -- still amaze musicians today.
Analysts have divided Mahler’s composing life into three distinct phases: ➀ a long “first period,” extending from Das klagende Lied in 1880 to the end of the Wunderhorn phase in 1901; ➁ a “middle period” of more concentrated symphony compositions ending with Mahler’s departure for New York in 1907; and ➂ a brief “late period” of elegiac works before his death in 1911.
Francesca Caccini (1587 – 1641), also known by the nickname “La Cecchina” (probably a diminutive of "Francesca") was a prolific Italian composer, singer, musician, poet and music teacher of the early Baroque era. She was proficient at the harp, harpsichord, lute, theorbo and guitar. Her only surviving stage work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is widely considered the oldest opera by a woman composer.
By far the longest era of classical music, the Medieval music period stretches from 500AD to 1400, a time span of 900 years. One of the most significant developments during this time was that music was notated for the first time ever, allowing musical information to spread much more easily. Art at this time was tied closely with religion, and the main form of music was Gregorian chant, or plainsong, which was sung by monks during Mass in the Catholic Church. The music was monophonic: it contained just a single melodic line, sung in unison, with no accompanying harmony parts or instrumental accompaniment.
‘He was the opposite of a gramophone record’. Hans Keller’s typically provocative epitaph on Furtwängler pithily encapsulates why, in an age obsessed with technology and the instantly gratifying soundbite, the great German conductor remains a crucially important figure in the history of music-making. Furtwängler hated the artificiality of recording, preferring visceral contact with a live, flesh-and-blood audience. If his conducting technique was often imprecise (as many claimed it was), it was deliberately so, as he sought to elicit from his players not clinical precision but the ‘melos’, or specific emotional atmosphere, of a particular work or passage.
Frédéric François Chopin (1810 ‒ 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period. He was inexhaustible in discovering colourful new passage work and technical figures; he understood as no one before him the true nature of the piano as an expressive instrument, and he was able to write music that is bound up with the instrument for which it was conceived and which cannot be imagined apart from it. His innovations in fingering, his use of the pedals, and his general treatment of the keyboard form a milestone in the history of the piano, and his works set a standard for the instrument that is recognized as unsurpassable.
Pachelbel’s Canon (also known as the Canon in D, P 37) is an accompanied canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue. Both movements are in the key of D major. Although a true canon at the unison in three parts, it also has elements of a chaconne. Like his other works, Pachelbel's Canon went out of style, and remained in obscurity for centuries. From the 1970s onward, elements of the piece, especially its chord progression, were used in a variety of pop songs. Since the 1980s, it has also found increasingly common use in weddings and funeral ceremonies in the Western world.
Rallentando
Mixolydian 120
1
4
An incredible pianist who toured throughout Europe since the age of nine, and a renowned piano teacher. Yet, alongside this bustling career, she mostly focused on raising a large family and being a dedicated wife to her husband, the famous composer Robert Schumann.
Wagner is chiefly known for his operas or, as some of his mature works were later known, “music dramas”. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first h
Music historians divide the Western classical music repertory into various musical eras based on what style was most popular as taste changed. The major eras are: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modernist, and Postmodernist. There were also Prehistoric music and Ancient music. However, beginning and ending dates are approximate.
To which family of instruments does the piano belong to? String instruments are musical instruments that create sound by vibrating strings. Therefore the piano would fit in this category. But the only way to play it is by hitting the keys, which activates the hammers. So, although the sound is produced by strings, hitting it makes the piano a percussion.
By far the longest era of classical music, the Medieval music period stretches from 500AD to 1400, a time span of 900 years. One of the most significant developments during this time was that music was notated for the first time ever, allowing musical information to spread much more easily. Art at this time was tied closely with religion, and the main form of music was Gregorian chant, or plainsong, which was sung by monks during Mass in the Catholic Church. The music was monophonic: it contained just a single melodic line, sung in unison, with no accompanying harmony parts or instrumental accompaniment.
The 20ᵗʰ century is a case of ‘anything goes’, with the Second Viennese School aiming to show the world that tonal music ain’t all that. Patterns, pictures and abstract sounds float to the surface; Impressionists are doing their thing in France, as are the Minimalists in the US. Brand new art forms emerge, with the cinema offering composers new opportunities. Technology evolves at an astonishing pace and in no time we have strange new sounds competing with (and joining) the orchestra – from the sound waves of the theremin to the Moog synthesiser and beyond. The sky is really the limit for music by the end of the periode.
The double bass, also called the string bass (pronounced “base” as in first base) or just “bass” for short, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed stringed instrument, an octave lower than the cello. While it looks similar to the other members of the string family, it has more sloping shoulders so that the player can reach and move around on the strings more easily despite its large size. It may also have 5 strings rather than 4 with the addition of a lower string. Because of its size (taller than the performer), the bassist stands or sits on a tall stool to play the instrument, which rests on the floor.
The glockenspiel or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. In German, a carillon is also called a Glockenspiel, and in French, the glockenspiel is sometimes called a carillon. It may also be called a jeu de timbres (lit. ‘set of colors’) in French, although this term may sometimes be specifically reserved for the keyboard glockenspiel. In Italian, the term campanelli (lit. ‘little bells’) is used.
Schoenberg is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptized as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Joseph Haydn’s contributions to musical form have led him to be called “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”.
Music is said to be a universal language, but Italian just might be the language of music itself. It’s everywhere, peeking between the lines and spaces (“these notes are played staccato!”), declaring the sections of multi-movement works (The adagio dragged a bit, but man was that scherzo slammin’). At the opera, we might even find ourselves shouting some Italian after a particularly beautiful aria, showering the singers with bravos, bravas or whatever grammatically gendered configuration may be called for.
Assigning a specific syllable to a corresponding note is the foundation of a pedagogical system called solmization. Found in musical cultures all over the world, it is also known as solfège or solfeggio. The name solfège is self-referential — sol and fa are two of the syllables found in that pattern: do-re-me-fa-sol-la-si/ti. Assigning a specific syllable to a corresponding note is the foundation of a pedagogical system called solmization. Found in musical cultures all over the world, it is also known as solfège or solfeggio. The name solfège is self-referential — sol and fa are two of the syllables found in that pattern: do-re-me-fa-sol-la-si/ti.
Debussy is known for setting French poetry to music and questioning the conventions. The analyst David Cox wrote in 1974 that Claude Debussy, “created a new, instinctive, dreamlike world of music, lyrical and pantheistic, contemplative and objective – a kind of art, in fact, which seemed to reach out into all aspects of experience”. Music historians divide the Western classical music repertory into various musical eras based on what style was most popular as taste changed. The major eras are: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modernist, and Postmodernist. There were also Prehistoric music and Ancient music. However, beginning and ending dates are approximate
Beethoven revealed more vividly than any of his predecessors the power of music to convey a philosophy of life without the aid of a spoken text; and in certain of his compositions is to be found the strongest assertion of the human will in all music, if not in all art. Though not himself a Romantic, he became the fountainhead of much that characterized the work of the Romantics who followed him, especially in his ideal of program or illustrative music, which he defined in connection with his Sixth (Pastoral) Symphony as “more an expression of emotion than painting.” Beethoven revealed more vividly than any of his predecessors the power of music to convey a philosophy of life without the aid of a spoken text; and in certain of his compositions is to be found the strongest assertion of the human will in all music, if not in all art. Though not himself a Romantic, he became the fountainhead of much that characterized the work of the Romantics who followed him, especially in his ideal of program or illustrative music, which he defined in connection with his Sixth (Pastoral) Symphony as “more an expression of emotion than painting.”
Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that concealed immense rigor. Bach’s use of counterpoint was brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities of his compositional style which often included religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special codes still amaze musicians today. Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso organist than as a composer in his day. His sacred music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that concealed immense rigor. Bach’s use of counterpoint was brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities of his compositional style which often included religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special codes still amaze musicians today.
In music, texture is how the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition, thus determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece. Texture is often described in regard to the density, or thickness, and range, or width, between lowest and highest pitches, in relative terms as well as more specifically distinguished according to the number of voices, or parts, and the relationship between these voices. The most commonly encountered scales are the seven-toned major, the harmonic minor, the melodic minor, and the natural minor. Other examples of scales are the octatonic scale and the pentatonic or five-tone scale, which is common in folk music and blues. In traditional Western notation, the scale used for a composition is usually indicated by a key signature at the beginning to designate the pitches that make up that scale.
Rhythm is produced by the sequential arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter measures music in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars. The time signature or meter signature specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted or felt as a single beat. Through increased stress, or variations in duration or articulation, particular tones may be accented. There are conventions in most musical traditions for regular and hierarchical accentuation of beats to reinforce a given meter. Syncopated rhythms contradict those conventions by accenting unexpected parts of the beat. Rhythm is produced by the sequential arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter measures music in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars. The time signature or meter signature specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted or felt as a single beat. Through increased stress, or variations in duration or articulation, particular tones may be accented. There are conventions in most musical traditions for regular and hierarchical accentuation of beats to reinforce a given meter. Syncopated rhythms contradict those conventions by accenting unexpected parts of the beat.
