Classical music

This article is about Western art music to the present. For Western art music from 1750 to 1820, see Classical period (music). For other "classical" and art music traditions, see List of classical and art music traditions. For the magazine, see Classical Music (magazine).

String quartet performing for the Mozart Year 2006 in Vienna

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western culture, including both liturgical (religious) and secular music. While a more precise term is also used to refer to the period from 1750 to 1820 (the Classical period), this article is about the broad span of time from before the 6th century AD to the present day, which includes the Classical period and various other periods.^[1] The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period. The major time divisions of Western art music are as follows:

• the ancient music period, before 500 AD


• the early music period, which includes
  
  • the Medieval (500–1400) including
    
    • the ars antiqua (1170–1310)
    
    
    • the ars nova (1310–1377)
    
    
    • the ars subtilior (1360–1420)
    
    
  
  
  • the Renaissance (1400–1600) eras.
  
  
  • 
    Baroque (1600–1750)
  
  
  • the galant music period (1720s–1770s)
  
  


• the common-practice period, which includes
  
  • 
    Baroque (1600–1750)
  
  
  • the galant music period (1720s–1770s)
  
  
  • 
    Classical (1750–1820)
  
  
  • 
    Romantic eras (c.1780–1910)
  
  


• the 20th and 21st centuries (1901–present) which includes:
  
  • the modern (1890–1930) that overlaps from the late-19th century,
  
  
  • 
    impressionism (1875 or 1890–1925) that also overlaps from the late-19th century
  
  
  • 
    neoclassicism (1920–1950), predominantly in the inter-war period
  
  
  • the high modern (1930–present)
  
  
  • the postmodern (1930–present) eras
  
  
  • the experimental (1950–present)
  
  
  • 
    contemporary (1945 or 1975–present)
  
  

European art music is largely distinguished from many other non-European classical and some popular musical forms by its system of staff notation, in use since about the 11th century.^{[2][not in citation given]} Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church. Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches (which form the melodies, basslines and chords), tempo, metre and rhythms for a piece of music.^{[clarification needed]} This can leave less room for practices such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation, which are frequently heard in non-European art music and in popular-music^{[3][clarification needed][4][not in citation given][5]} styles such as jazz and blues. Another difference is that whereas most popular styles adopt the song (strophic) form or a derivation of this form, classical music has been noted for its development of highly sophisticated forms of instrumental music such as the symphony, concerto, fugue, sonata, and mixed vocal and instrumental styles such as opera, cantata, and mass.^[6]

The term "classical music" did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to distinctly canonize the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Ludwig van Beethoven as a golden age.^[7] The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1829.^[1][8]

Contents

• 
  1 Characteristics
  
  • 
    1.1 Literature
    
  
  
  • 
    1.2 Instrumentation and vocal practices
    
    • 
      1.2.1 Medieval music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.2 Renaissance music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.3 Baroque music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.4 Classical music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.5 Romantic music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.6 Modernist music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.7 Contemporary classical music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.8 Postmodern music
      
    
    
    • 
      1.2.9 Post-postmodern instrumentation
      
    
    
  
  
  • 
    1.3 Performance
    
    • 
      1.3.1 Gender of performers
      
    
    
  
  
  • 
    1.4 Complexity
    
  
  


• 
  2 History
  
  • 
    2.1 Roots
    
  
  
  • 
    2.2 Early period
    
  
  
  • 
    2.3 Common-practice period
    
    • 
      2.3.1 Baroque music
      
    
    
    • 
      2.3.2 Classical-era (or -period) music
      
    
    
    • 
      2.3.3 Romantic-era music
      
    
    
  
  
  • 
    2.4 20th and 21st centuries
    
    • 
      2.4.1 Modern, high modern, post-modern, post-postmodern, or contemporary music
      
    
    
  
  
  • 
    2.5 Women in classical music
    
  
  
  • 
    2.6 Timeline of composers
    
  
  


• 
  3 Significance of written notation
  
  • 
    3.1 Literalist view of the significance of the score
    
  
  
  • 
    3.2 Criticism of the literalist view
    
  
  
  • 
    3.3 Improvisation
    
  
  


• 
  4 Relationship to other music traditions
  
  • 
    4.1 Popular music
    
  
  
  • 
    4.2 Folk music
    
  
  


• 
  5 Commercialization
  


• 
  6 Public domain
  


• 
  7 Education
  


• 
  8 See also
  


• 
  9 References
  
  • 
    9.1 Sources
    
  
  


• 
  10 Further reading
  


• 
  11 External links
  

Characteristics

Given the wide range of styles in European classical music, from Medieval plainchant sung by monks to Classical and Romantic symphonies for orchestra from the 1700s and 1800s to avant-garde atonal compositions for solo piano from the 1900s, it is difficult to list characteristics that can be attributed to all works of that type. However, there are characteristics that classical music contains that few or no other genres of music contain,^[9] such as the use of music notation^{[clarification needed]} and the performance of complex forms of solo instrumental works (e.g., the fugue). Furthermore, while the symphony did not exist prior to the late 18th century, the symphony ensemble—and the works written for it—have become a defining feature of classical music.^{[citation needed]}

Literature

The key characteristic of European classical music that distinguishes it from popular music and folk music is that the repertoire tends to be written down in musical notation, creating a musical part or score. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, where two or more musicians (whether singers or instrumentalists) are involved, how the various parts are coordinated. The written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them: fugues, for instance, achieve a remarkable marriage of boldly distinctive melodic lines weaving in counterpoint yet creating a coherent harmonic logic that would be difficult to achieve in the heat of live improvisation.^{[10][clarification needed]} The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works and enables Classical musicians to perform music from many centuries ago. Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music (the melodies, lyrics, forms, and rhythms) being reproduced.^{[citation needed]}

That said, the score does allow the interpreter to make choices on how to perform a historical work.^{[citation needed]} For example, if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction (e.g., Allegro), it is not known exactly how fast the piece should be played. As well, in the Baroque era, many works that were designed for basso continuo accompaniment do not specify which instruments should play the accompaniment or exactly how the chordal instrument (harpsichord, lute, etc.) should play the chords, which are not notated in the part^{[clarification needed]} (only a figured bass symbol in the bass part is used to guide the chord-playing performer). The performer and the conductor have a range of options for musical expression and interpretation of a scored piece, including the phrasing of melodies, the time taken during fermatas (held notes) or pauses, and the use (or choice not to use) of effects such as vibrato or glissando (these effects are possible on various stringed, brass and woodwind instruments and with the human voice).

Although Classical music in the 2000s has lost most of its tradition for musical improvisation, from the Baroque era to the Romantic era, there are examples of performers who could improvise in the style of their era. In the Baroque era, organ performers would improvise preludes, keyboard performers playing harpsichord would improvise chords from the figured bass symbols beneath the bass notes of the basso continuo part and both vocal and instrumental performers would improvise musical ornaments.^[11] Johann Sebastian Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations.^[12] During the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles.^[13] During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto. During the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano.^[14] For more information, see Improvisation.

Instrumentation and vocal practices

See also: Woodwind section, Brass section, String section, Percussion section, and Keyboard section

The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century (often much earlier) and systematised in the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments (such as the piano, harpsichord, and organ). The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for classical music^{[15][not in citation given]} and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion families of instruments. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion families. It generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many concert bands use a double bass. The vocal practices changed over the classical period, from the single line monophonic Gregorian chant done by monks in the Medieval period to the complex, polyphonic choral works of the Renaissance and subsequent periods, which used multiple independent vocal melodies at the same time.

Medieval music

Many of the instruments used to perform medieval music still exist, but in different forms. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ and fiddle (or vielle) existed. Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut (loud, shrill, outdoor instruments) and bas (quieter, more intimate instruments).^[16] During the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line.^[17]Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the high medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th and early 14th century.

Renaissance music

Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be re-created in order to perform music on period instruments. As in the modern day, instruments may be classified as brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind. Brass instruments in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals who were members of Guilds and they included the slide trumpet, the wooden cornet, the valveless trumpet and the sackbut. Stringed instruments included the viol, the rebec, the harp-like lyre, the hurdy-gurdy, the lute, the guitar, the cittern, the bandora, and the orpharion. Keyboard instruments with strings included the harpsichord and the virginals.^{[clarification needed]} Percussion instruments include the triangle, the Jew's harp, the tambourine, the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums. Woodwind instruments included the double reed shawm, the reed pipe, the bagpipe, the transverse flute, the recorder, the dulcian, and the crumhorn. Vocal music in the Renaissance is noted for the flourishing of an increasingly elaborate polyphonic style. The principal liturgical forms which endured throughout the entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal) for their own designs. Towards the end of the period, the early dramatic precursors of opera such as monody, the madrigal comedy, and the intermedio are seen. Around 1597, Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote Dafne, the first work to be called an opera today. He also composed Euridice, the first opera to have survived to the present day.

Baroque music

Baroque instruments included some instruments from the earlier periods (e.g., the hurdy-gurdy and recorder) and a number of new instruments (e.g, the oboe, bassoon, cello, contrabass and fortepiano). Some instruments from previous eras fell into disuse, such as the shawm and the wooden cornet. The key Baroque instruments for strings included the violin, viol, viola, viola d'amore, cello, contrabass, lute, theorbo (which often played the basso continuo parts), mandolin, cittern, Baroque guitar, harp and hurdy-gurdy. Woodwinds included the Baroque flute, Baroque oboe, rackett, recorder and the bassoon. Brass instruments included the cornett, natural horn, Baroque trumpet, serpent and the trombone. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord, the harpsichord, the pipe organ, and, later in the period, the fortepiano (an early version of the piano). Percussion instruments included the timpani, snare drum, tambourine and the castanets.

One major difference between Baroque music and the classical era that followed it is that the types of instruments used in Baroque ensembles were much less standardized. Whereas a classical era string quartet consists almost exclusively of two violins, a viola and a cello, a Baroque or Classical-era group accompanying a soloist or opera^{[non sequitur]} could include one of several different types of keyboard instruments (e.g., pipe organ, harpsichord, or clavichord),^{[citation needed]} additional stringed chordal instruments (e.g., a lute) and an unspecified number of bass instruments performing the basso continuo, including bowed strings, woodwinds and brass instruments (e.g., a cello, contrabass, viol, bassoon, serpent, etc.).

Vocal developments in the Baroque era included the development of opera types such as opera seria and opéra comique, and related forms such as oratorios and cantatas.^[18][19]

Classical music

The term "classical music" has two meanings: the broader meaning includes all Western art music from the Medieval era to the 2000s, and the specific meaning refers to the art music from the 1750s to the early 1820s—the period of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven. This section is about the more specific meaning. Classical era musicians continued to use many of instruments from the Baroque era, such as the cello, contrabass, recorder, trombone, timpani, fortepiano (the precursor to the modern piano) and organ. While some Baroque instruments fell into disuse (e.g., the theorbo and rackett), many Baroque instruments were changed into the versions that are still in use today, such as the Baroque violin (which became the violin), the Baroque oboe (which became the oboe) and the Baroque trumpet, which transitioned to the regular valved trumpet. During the Classical era, the stringed instruments used in orchestra and chamber music such as string quartets were standardized as the four instruments which form the string section of the orchestra: the violin, viola, cello and double bass. Baroque-era stringed instruments such as fretted, bowed viols were phased out. Woodwinds included the basset clarinet, basset horn, clarinette d'amour, the Classical clarinet, the chalumeau, the flute, oboe and bassoon. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord and the fortepiano. While the harpsichord was still used in basso continuo accompaniment in the 1750s and 1760s, it fell out of use in the end of the century. Brass instruments included the buccin, the ophicleide (a replacement for the bass serpent, which was the precursor of the tuba) and the natural horn.

Romantic music

In the Romantic era, the modern piano, with a more powerful, sustained tone and a wider range took over from the more delicate-sounding fortepiano. In the orchestra, the existing Classical instruments and sections were retained (string section, woodwinds, brass and percussion), but these sections were typically expanded to make a fuller, bigger sound. For example, while a Baroque orchestra may have had two double bass players, a Romantic orchestra could have as many as ten. "As music grew more expressive, the standard orchestral palette just wasn't rich enough for many Romantic composers." ^[20] New woodwind instruments were added, such as the contrabassoon, bass clarinet and piccolo and new percussion instruments were added, including xylophones, snare drums, celestas (a bell-like keyboard instrument), bells, and triangles,^[20] large orchestral harps, and even wind machines for sound effects. Saxophones appear in some scores from the late 19th century onwards. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, the saxophone is included in other works, such as Ravel's Boléro, Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst's The Planets, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.

The Wagner tuba, a modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and several other works by Strauss, Béla Bartók, and others; it has a prominent role in Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E Major.^[21] Cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussy's La mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz.^{[clarification needed]} Unless these instruments are played by members doubling on another instrument (for example, a trombone player changing to euphonium for a certain passage), orchestras will use freelance musicians to augment their regular rosters.^{[citation needed]}

The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony

Modernist music

Modernism in music is a philosophical and aesthetic stance underlying the period of change and development in musical language that occurred from 1890 to 1930, a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music, innovations that lead to new ways of organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and changes in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period of modernism in the arts of the time. The operative word most associated with it is "innovation".^[22] Its leading feature is a "linguistic plurality", which is to say that no single music genre ever assumed a dominant position.^[23]

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music is the period that came into prominence in the mid-1970s. It includes different variations of modernist, postmodern, neoromantic, and pluralist music.^[24] However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 musical forms.^[25]

Postmodern music

Postmodern music is a period of music that began around 1930.^[26][27] It shares characteristics with postmodernist art – that is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism.

Post-postmodern instrumentation

Many instruments that in the 2010s are associated with popular music filled important roles in early music, such as bagpipes, theorbos, vihuelas, hurdy-gurdies (hand-cranked string instruments), accordions, alphorns, hydraulises, calliopes, sistrums, and some woodwind instruments such as tin whistles, panpipes, shawms and crumhorns. On the other hand, instruments such as the acoustic guitar, once associated mainly with popular music, gained prominence in classical music in the 19th and 20th centuries in the form of the classical guitar and banjo. While equal temperament gradually became accepted as the dominant musical temperament during the 19th century, different historical temperaments are often used for music from earlier periods. For instance, music of the English Renaissance is often performed in meantone temperament. As well, while professional orchestras and pop bands all around the world have tuned to an A fixed at 440 Hz since the late 19th century, there was historically a great variety in the tuning pitch, as attested to in historical pipe organs that still exist.^{[28][unreliable source?]}

Performance

Youth concert band in performance

Performers who have studied classical music extensively are said to be "classically trained". This training may come from private lessons from instrument or voice teachers or from completion of a formal program offered by a Conservatory, college or university, such as a Bachelor of Music or Master of Music degree (which includes individual lessons from professors). In classical music, "...extensive formal music education and training, often to postgraduate [Master's degree] level" is required.^[29]

Performance of classical music repertoire requires a proficiency in sight-reading and ensemble playing, harmonic principles, strong ear training (to correct and adjust pitches by ear), knowledge of performance practice (e.g., Baroque ornamentation), and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom expected for a given composer or musical work (e.g., a Brahms symphony or a Mozart concerto).^{[citation needed]}

Some "popular" genre musicians have had significant classical training, such as Billy Joel, Elton John, the Van Halen brothers, Randy Rhoads, Ritchie Blackmore, and Dream Theater members.^{[citation needed]} Moreover, formal training is not unique to the classical genre. Many rock and pop musicians have completed degrees in commercial music programs such as those offered by the Berklee College of Music and many jazz musicians have completed degrees in music from universities with jazz programs, such as the Manhattan School of Music and McGill University.^{[citation needed]}

Gender of performers

Main article: Women in music

Historically, major professional orchestras have been mostly or entirely composed of musicians who are men. Some of the earliest cases of women being hired in professional orchestras was in the position of harpist. The Vienna Philharmonic, for example, did not accept women to permanent membership until 1997, far later than the other orchestras ranked among the world's top five by Gramophone in 2008.^[30] The last major orchestra to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic.^[31] As late as February 1996, the Vienna Philharmonic's principal flute, Dieter Flury, told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity (emotionelle Geschlossenheit) that this organism currently has".^[32] In April 1996, the orchestra's press secretary wrote that "compensating for the expected leaves of absence" of maternity leave would be a problem.^[33]

In 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic was "facing protests during a [US] tour" by the National Organization for Women and the International Alliance for Women in Music. Finally, "after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered [on 28 February 1997] in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit a woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist."^[34] As of 2013, the orchestra has six female members; one of them, violinist Albena Danailova became one of the orchestra's concertmasters in 2008, the first woman to hold that position.^[35] In 2012, women still made up just 6% of the orchestra's membership. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said the VPO now uses completely screened blind auditions.^[36]

In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that while "[m]any prestigious orchestras have significant female membership—women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic's violin section—and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists", the double bass, brass, and percussion sections of major orchestras "...are still predominantly male."^[37] A 2014 BBC article stated that the "...introduction of 'blind' auditions, where a prospective instrumentalist performs behind a screen so that the judging panel can exercise no gender or racial prejudice, has seen the gender balance of traditionally male-dominated symphony orchestras gradually shift."^[38]

Complexity

Works of classical repertoire often exhibit complexity in their use of orchestration, counterpoint, harmony, musical development, rhythm, phrasing, texture, and form. Whereas most popular styles are usually written in song form, classical music is noted for its development of highly sophisticated instrumental musical forms,^[6] like the concerto, symphony and sonata. Classical music is also noted for its use of sophisticated vocal/instrumental forms, such as opera.^{[citation needed]} In opera, vocal soloists and choirs perform staged dramatic works with an orchestra providing accompaniment. Longer instrumental works are often divided into self-contained pieces, called movements, often with contrasting characters or moods. For instance, symphonies written during the Classical period are usually divided into four movements: (1) an opening Allegro in sonata form, (2) a slow movement, (3) a minuet or scherzo (in a triple metre, such as 3/4), and (4) a final Allegro. These movements can then be further broken down into a hierarchy of smaller units: first sections, then periods, and finally phrases.

History

Music notation from an early 14th-century English Missal, featuring the head of Christ. Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church.^[39]

Periods and eras of Western classical music
Early
Medieval c. 500–1400 Renaissance c. 1400–1600
Common practice
Baroque c. 1600–1760 Classical c. 1730–1820 Romantic c. 1780–1910
20th-century and early 21st-century
Impressionist c. 1890–1925 Expressionist c. 1908–1950 Modern c. 1890–1975 Postmodern c. 1930–present Contemporary c. 1945–present
v t e

Main article: History of music

The major time divisions of classical music up to 1900 are the early music period, which includes Medieval (500–1400) and Renaissance (1400–1600) eras, and the Common practice period, which includes the Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820) and Romantic (1810–1910) eras. Since 1900, classical periods have been reckoned more by calendar century than by particular stylistic movements that have become fragmented and difficult to define.^{[citation needed]} The 20th century calendar period (1901–2000) includes most of the early modern musical era (1890–1930), the entire high modern (mid 20th-century), and the first 25 years of the contemporary (1945 or 1975–current) or postmodern musical era (1930–current). The 21st century has so far been characterized by a continuation of the contemporary/postmodern musical era.

The dates are generalizations, since the periods and eras overlap and the categories are somewhat arbitrary, to the point that some authorities reverse terminologies and refer to a common practice "era" comprising baroque, classical, and romantic "periods".^[40] For example, the use of counterpoint and fugue, which is considered characteristic of the Baroque era (or period), was continued by Haydn, who is classified as typical of the Classical era. Beethoven, who is often described as a founder of the Romantic era, and Brahms, who is classified as Romantic, also used counterpoint and fugue, but other characteristics of their music^[vague] define their era.

The prefix neo- is used to describe a 19th-, 20th-, or 21st-century composition written in the style of an earlier era, such as Classical or Romantic. Stravinsky's Pulcinella, for example, is a neoclassical composition because it is stylistically similar to works of the Baroque era.^{[clarification needed]}

Roots

Main article: Ancient music

Burgh (2006), suggests that the roots of Western classical music ultimately lie in ancient Egyptian art music via cheironomy and the ancient Egyptian orchestra, which dates to 2695 BC.^[41] The development of individual tones and scales was made by ancient Greeks such as Aristoxenus and Pythagoras.^[42] Pythagoras created a tuning system and helped to codify musical notation. Ancient Greek instruments such as the aulos (a reed instrument) and the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small harp) eventually led to the modern-day instruments of a classical orchestra.^[43] The antecedent to the early period was the era of ancient music before the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD).

Early period

Main articles: Medieval music and Renaissance music

See also: List of Medieval composers and List of Renaissance composers

Musician playing the vielle (fourteenth-century Medieval manuscript)

The Medieval period includes music from after the fall of Rome to about 1400. Monophonic chant, also called plainsong or Gregorian chant, was the dominant form until about 1100.^[44] Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide Church.^[39][45][46]Polyphonic (multi-voiced) music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, including the more complex voicings of motets. The Renaissance era was from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by greater use of instrumentation, multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use of the first bass instruments. Social dancing became more widespread, so musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize. It is in this time that the notation of music on a staff and other elements of musical notation began to take shape.^[47] This invention made possible the separation of the composition of a piece of music from its transmission; without written music, transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With a musical score, a work of music could be performed without the composer's presence.^[44] The invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of music.^[48]

Johannes Ockeghem, Kyrie "Au travail suis" excerpt

Typical stringed instruments of the early period include the harp, lute, vielle, and psaltery, while wind instruments included the flute family (including recorder), shawm (an early member of the oboe family), trumpet, and the bagpipes. Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined to churches, although there were portable varieties.^[49] Later in the period, early versions of keyboard instruments like the clavichord and harpsichord began to appear. Stringed instruments such as the viol had emerged by the 16th century, as had a wider variety of brass and reed instruments. Printing enabled the standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as instruction in their use.^[50]

Notable Medieval composers include Hildegard of Bingen, Guillaume de Machaut, Léonin, Pérotin, Philippe de Vitry, Francesco Landini, and Johannes Ciconia.

Notable Renaissance composers include Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, John Dunstaple, Johannes Ockeghem, Orlande de Lassus, Guillaume Du Fay, Gilles Binchois, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli, Carlo Gesualdo, John Dowland, Jacob Obrecht, Adrian Willaert, Jacques Arcadelt, and Cipriano de Rore.

Common-practice period

The common practice period is usually defined as the era between the formation and the dissolution of the hegemony^{[citation needed]} of common-practice tonality. The term usually spans roughly two-and-a-half centuries, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

Baroque music

Main article: Baroque music

See also: List of Baroque composers

Baroque instruments including hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord, bass viol, lute, violin, and baroque guitar

Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the use of a basso continuo, a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in comparison with the simple songs of all previous periods.^[15] The beginnings of the sonata form took shape in the canzona, as did a more formalized notion of theme and variations. The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape.^[51]

During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ became increasingly popular, and the violin family of stringed instruments took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like the cantata and oratorio became more common.^[52] Vocalists for the first time began adding extra notes to the music.^[15] Instrumental ensembles began to distinguish and standardize by size^{[clarification needed]}, giving rise to the early orchestra for larger ensembles, with chamber music being written for smaller groups of instruments where parts are played by individual (instead of massed) instruments. The concerto as a vehicle for solo performance^{[clarification needed]} accompanied by an orchestra became widespread.

The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice, especially as it enabled a wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard instruments. Although Bach did not use equal temperament, as a modern piano is generally tuned, changes in the temperaments from the meantone system, common at the time, to various temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable, made possible Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.^[53]

Important composers of this era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Georg Philipp Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Heinrich Schütz.

Classical-era (or -period) music

Main article: Classical period (music)

See also: List of Classical-era composers

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) c. 1770

The Classical era, from about 1750 to 1820, established many of the norms of composition, presentation, and style, and was also when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument. The basic forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized (although they would grow as the potential of a wider array of instruments was developed in the following centuries). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8 to 10 performers for serenades. Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The opera buffa, a form of comic opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form, and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill. Orchestras no longer required a harpsichord (which had been part of the traditional continuo in the Baroque style), and were often led by the lead violinist (now called the concertmaster).^[54]

Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical era. While double-reed instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds was not widely used until Mozart expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings.^[55]

Major composers of this period include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Luigi Boccherini, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Muzio Clementi, Antonio Salieri, and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

Romantic-era music

Main article: Romantic music

See also: List of Romantic-era composers

The music of the Romantic era, from roughly the first decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized.^[56] The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing.^[57] The art song (or Lied) came to maturity in this era, as did the epic scales of grand opera, ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.^[58]

In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching, performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy) became widely popular with the middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred a large number of piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era.^[57] Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini, fulfilled both roles.^[59]

The family of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100.^[57]Gustav Mahler's 1906 Symphony No. 8, for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400.^[60]

European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward the end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.^[61]

Prominent composers of this era include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, and Johann Strauss II.

Prominent composers of the early 20th century include Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Aram Khachaturian, George Gershwin, Edvard Grieg, and Béla Bartók. Although composers of this time can be considered Romantic, usually their works are not in the style of the period.^{[clarification needed]}

20th and 21st centuries

Main articles: 20th-century classical music and 21st-century classical music

Modern, high modern, post-modern, post-postmodern, or contemporary music

Igor Stravinsky, by Pablo Picasso, collaborators on Pulcinella (1920)

Main articles: Modernism (music), Postmodern music, and Contemporary classical music

See also: High modernism, List of 20th-century classical composers, and List of 21st-century classical composers

Encompassing a wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through the year 2000, 20th-century classical music includes late romantic, impressionist, neoclassical, neoromantic, neomedieval, and postmodern styles of composition. Modernism (1890–1930) marked an era when many composers rejected certain values of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. The high-modern era saw the emergence of neo-classical and serial music. A few authorities have claimed high-modernism as the beginning of postmodern music from about 1930.^{[26][not in citation given][27][not in citation given]} Others have more or less equated postmodern music with the "contemporary music" composed from the late 20th century through to the early 21st century.^[62][63]

Women in classical music

See also: Women in classical music

Almost all of the composers who are described in music textbooks on classical music and whose works are widely performed as part of the standard concert repertoire are male composers, even though there has been a large number of women composers throughout the classical music period. Musicologist Marcia Citron has asked "[w]hy is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?"^[64] Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received 'canon' of performed musical works." She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed to be not notable as composers.^[64] In the "...Concise Oxford History of Music, Clara S[c]humann is one of the only [sic] female composers mentioned."^[65] Abbey Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts."^[65]

Timeline of composers

See also: List of classical music composers by era