Early Music
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Gregorian chant
Melismatic, neumatic, syllabic
Monophonic (unison male voices)
Non-metric
Conjunct vocal line (scalar)
Range within an octave
Pretty even rhythmic division, sometimes pause on a note but scales tend to be in even rhythm.
Phrases are well-defined, but not even
Modal rather than tonal
Sometimes call & response
Organum
Sustained notes in bassline, based on Gregorian chant
Harmony favors 5ths and 4ths
Melody is much more metric, tends to favor compound meters
Leonin & Perotin: Notre Dame School
Medieval Motet
Still based on chant, however the chant tune might be instrumental
Harmony still 4ths and 5ths
Relatively strong metric feel, especially compared with later motets
Morality play
Spoken dialogue in Latin
Sounds like new age
Drone characteristic
Pentatonic scales
Trouvere song
Words in French
Compound meter
Scalar melody accompanied by drone-like strings
Violin plays melody along w/ vocal in heterophonic texture
Polyphonic Chanson by Machaut
Harmony still based on 4th and 5th
Top melody line sounds like chant
More syllabic/neumatic
Instrumental music (Medieval)
Dance-Like
Instruments: crumhorns, shawms, pipes, vielle (violin-like)
Sometimes the melody is harmonized by parallel 4ths or 5ths.
Short phrases, a lot of repetition with a clearly defined form
Meter: triple or compound
Rennaissance Mass
Transition to 3rds and 6ths as predominant harmony
Tune based on popular song “cantus firmus”
Mass text in Latin
Cantus firmus is hidden in the texture
Rennaissance Motet
Polyphonic: freely woven texture
Sounds more standard for choral music
Harmony based on 3rds and 6ths
Often featured imitation between voices, though not always
Composers: Josquin des Prez, Palestrina
Still modal rather than tonal
Madrigal
Vocal music
Italian or English
More intensely polyphonic
Some dissonance and text painting
Sometimes featured nonsense syllables for a more “instrumental” effect and to display vocal virtuosity
(“fa la la”)
Baroque (1600-1750)
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Transition: introduction of Monody (solo melody line w/
instrumental accompaniment.)
Presence of tonality became the norm
Opera
Overture: instrumental but not based on arias from the opera. “French Overture” would feature a slow
introduction featuring double-dotted rhythms, followed by a fugal allegro section.
o Early baroque operas (Monteverdi) featured sparse
instrumental accompaniment
Aria, recitative (where the action happens), chorus/ensemble
Castrato was the lead heroic role: virtuoso vocal style, very melismatic lines accompanied by driving
orchestration
Often used text painting
Chamber Music
Trio sonata
o Two violins + basso continuo (total 4 instruments)
o Sonata da chiesa: church sonata. Movements titled
by their tempo, song-like
o Sonata di camera: chamber sonata. Dance-like
movements titled by dance type
Solo suites
o Bach cello suites, keyboard suites (French, English)
o Prelude followed by 5 dance movements
 Allemande: German dance: moderate tempo
quad meter
 Courante: French; up tempo triple meter
 Sarabande: Spanish very slow triple meter
 Minuet OR Gavotte OR Bourree
 Minuet: moderate tempo, triple meter
 Gavotte: Stately, duple meter (cut time),
pickup is equivalent to half a bar
 Bourree: faster duple meter (cut time),
pickup equivalent to quarter bar
 Gigue: compound meter, English (Jig) fast.
Baroque orchestral
Concerto Grosso
o Concertino: solo instruments perform as a chamber
ensemble
o Concertino usually 2 violins and a cello, however
could be more violins (4) or include wind instruments
or combination of winds and strings.
o Ripieno: the rest of the orchestra (strings only)
o Key composers: Corelli (6 movements), Vivaldi
(usually 3 movements), Handel (6 movements),
Bach (Brandenburg; three movements each using
diverse instrument combinations)
Solo Concerto
o Vivaldi wrote the most, for all types of instruments.
100’s of Vivaldi concerti, all sounding the same!
o Ritornello style with repeating orchestral melody
Orchestral Suite
o Same structure as solo suite with Overture followed
by dance movements; however, could have more
than 5 dance movements by including minuet AND
bourree AND gavotte, as well as secondary dance
types such as badinerie, passepied, rigaudon,
tambourin, etc.
o Handel: Water Music, Royal Fireworks; Bach
orchestral suites
Choral Music
o Cantata: Secular or Sacred
o Mass: Large Scale work, always the same Latin
words.
o Oratorio: tells a story in the vernacular. Large scale
Fugue
Subject: the main theme of the fugue; presented tonic-dominant-tonic-dominant until all voices in
Countersubject: what the first voice plays after the second voice enters. It recurs and is recognizable,
although not necessarily independently melodic. There may be more than one.
After all the voices enter, there is an “episode” where the subject is not present.
Near the end, the subject may overlap; this is a ‘stretto’
Classical
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“Galante” style (rococo)
homophonic texture
“light” style
much simpler
Composers
Mozart
Haydn
Beethoven
Genres
Symphony
Solo Concerto
Opera
Sonata (piano or solo + piano)
Mass/Oratorio
Chamber Music
Symphony
Strings will be the main part of the orchestra, complimented by woodwinds and horns.
Winds are in pairs: 2 flutes, 2 ob, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, sometimes 2 trumpets, timpani
Four movements, following sonata cycle
o 1st movement Sonata form: Allegro but possibly with
slow introduction.
o 2nd movement slow: Binary or T&V
o 3rd movement dance: Minuet (later, scherzo)
o 4th movement fast: Rondo or Sonata form
Solo Concerto
Same movement cycle as symphony except no dance movement.
1st movement: sonata allegro w/ double exposition
Solo writing very clean, melodic, and scalar
Cadenza was rubato, developed themes and motives from the exposition, usually written by the soloist
or improvised.
Cadenza would display greater virtuosity
Opera
Opera Buffa: Light comic opera, text in Italian
Opera Seria: Tragic or historical, text in Italian
Singspiel: text in German, comic with spoken dialogue
Arias, duets, trios, and choruses alternate with recitative.
Sonata
Piano, solo + piano classified as chamber music
3 movements: Allegro (sonata form), 2nd slow, 3rd fast rondo
Beethoven used a thicker, fuller style of piano writing: more dissonance, chromaticism, sustain pedal,
etc. Up until then, piano music was scalar, Alberti bass.
Choral Music
Mass, Oratorio
Orchestra similar to Symphony with ww and brass.
Evidence of classical aesthetics, but with some baroque elements carried over.
Chamber Music
String quartet was the most common, also piano trio, sonatas (one instrument + piano), duets, ww 4tet
and 5tet, etc.
Romantic
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General Features
Rubato
Fuller, bigger orchestra
More emphasis on virtuosity (concerto)
More singable melodies
Moody, Meaty, Massive, Moving
Nationalism and Exoticism
Heavier
Chromaticism
More counterpoint than Classical
Symphony
Not as bound to classical sonata cycle, but kept skeleton
Emulated Beethoven
Deep and heavy, in general
Style: much more independence of wind part. Solo melodies and ensemble sections.
Lot more brass: 3 trombones. In addition, often more exotic instruments such as piccolo, English horn,
contrabassoon, sometimes a 3rd part. Also, much more percussion: tambourine, CASTANETS! Triangle,
xylophone etc. much more colorful!
Program symphony: a work which portrays an image from outside of the music.
Concerto
As opposed to Classical, much more demonstrative, virtuosic.
Soloist would often enter right away at the beginning of the piece.
A lot of emphasis on the soloist, however there would still be a colorful orchestration.
Much more projection was expected of solo instrument to balance out orchestra and fill hall.
Lieder
Song with piano
Usually came in cycles
Entertainment in the home
Schubert and Schumann, also Fanny Mendelssohn
Forms: strophic or through composed (modified strophic)
Chamber Music
Much more technically demanding than Classical; more fit for concert/recital rather than light
entertainment
Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann
More variety of expressive texture within a piece.
Ballet
A lot of short pieces rather than through-composed
Exoticism, ethnic dances, Pas de deux: two dancers; very colorful music
Tchaikovsky was the biggest: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker.
Ballet suite: collection of the most prominent tunes from the ballet, for concert performance (no
dancing)
Opera
Rossini, Verdi, Bizet, Meyerbeer, Puccini, Wagner.
Rossini: light Italian Opera, comic plots, much like opera buffa.
Verdi: soaring tenor lines, “grand opera” with large chorus, sometimes dancing. Very dramatic
Bizet: French, Carmen was his big hit. Exoticism: Spanish flavored music although he never went to Spain
Puccini: late Romantic, La Boheme, Gianni Schicchi, Tosca, Madama Butterfly,
Wagner: German, invented “Music Drama” which was a through-composed opera. He criticized all the
other opera composers. Very thick orchestration, large orchestra, difficult music to play and to sing.
Important Composers (listed chronologically by date of birth)
Franz Schubert
Hector Berlioz
Felix Mendelssohn
Frederic Chopin
Robert Schumann
Franz Liszt
Richard Wagner
Guiseppe Verdi
Cesar Franck
Bedrich Smetana
Johann Strauss
Alexander Borodin
Johannes Brahms
Camille Saint-Saens
Georges Bizet
Modest Mussorgsky
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Antonin Dvorak
Edvard Grieg
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Giacomo Puccini
Gustav Mahler
Richard Strauss
Jean Sibelius
20th century
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Post-Romantic
Strauss, Mahler
Musical excess: they took the ideals of the Romantic period and stretched them to the limit!
Short time span: 1890-1910.
Foreshadowing of 20th cent. Techniques.
Impressionism
1900-1920
Debussy, Faure, Ravel?
Emphasis on fleeting images rather than progressions.
Used alternate ideas for melody and harmony, such as 9th chords, whole-tone scales, tritones
Orchestral music was of course big, but also style was found in chamber music and piano music.
Expressionism/Primitivism: early 20th century
Almost the opposite of impressionism
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring, Firebird
Nationalism: Russian School
Shostakovich: wrote dry, sardonic, specialized in political satire. Didn’t like Stalin, very oppressed but
successful nevertheless.
Prokofiev: lighter and more optimistic than Shostakovich; used neo-classicism (Symphony no. 1
“Classical”). Also, wrote Peter and the Wolf!
New Viennese School: Atonalism and Serialism
Schoenberg and Berg
Avante Garde
Prepared piano
Aleatoric Music: left up to chance
Other weird ideas not intended to be pleasing or popular!
Minimalism
Philip Glass, Steve Reich
Short motives, repeated sometimes in an unpredictable manner.
World
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Popular
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Jazz
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