“Generally speaking, leadership of Western culture belonged to France during the later Middle Ages, then to Italy during the Renaissance. Music is an exception to this general account. While later medieval music was indeed led by France, Renaissance music was led by three regions, consecutively: Burgundy, then the Low Countries, then Italy.”- “Western Music”, Britannica encyclopedia, 2010 Summary To conclude my report, I would like to summarize my points. It can be seen that broadly polyphony had been developed thoroughly in the Renaissance period. Although the initial development of polyphony started in the medieval times most of the changes and moderations were made during the renaissance period.
Modern Era The Modern Era is the time period in musical development that began around the turn of the 20th century in which great changes in compositional techniques and styles took place. This era challenged and reinterpreted old styles of music, making it a time of great innovation. Although homophonic textures were used, they were used with less importance and the most dominant texture of the Modern era was contrapuntal texture. Modern era music was unpredictable and the melodies often difficult to sing, which could be partly as a result of the ornamentation that was incorporated into the music. For example in genres such as jazz, as well as in other genres that were becoming increasingly popular throughout the Modern era, grace notes, trills and glissandi were used quite a lot.
This period began when the Renaissance period of music – a period of music full of choral music and chants – began to change. The Baroque period brought with itself key devices such as variation in musical compositions, the enlargement of standard scales and chords and the process of varying one or more properties within a piece; that are used today. In contrast the renaissance period of music whereby music was often sang, contained simple rhythms and melodic lines and was mostly for the purpose of praise, the Baroque period of music started off the use of distinct melodies and harmonies opposed to the polyphony used in the Renaissance period. This new music was then called “…expansive and dramatic”. Famous composers and performers of this period include Henry Purcell, Arcangelo Corelli, Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi and many others.
It expanded the orchestra, providing the depth on timbre. Especially in the middle of the century, with the domination of the German influences, their own-country-styled-music was started to discover by composers of the other country from Germany. The investigation evaluates how this nationalistic movements was influenced musical elements of this period. I have chosen to investigate two Romantic pieces, L’Arlesienne by Bizet and Symphony No.2 by Tchaikovsky. The both music I chose is the music that I have played in orchestra by violin before.
The Renaissance era lasted from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, and was between the Medieval and Baroque eras ("Renaissance Music"). It has many essential attributes such as music built on modes (“Renaissance Music”) which in different terms is music built with the pattern of whole to half steps on a scale (Rios). Other features of Renaissance music include mingling musical sounds instead of making sound stand out against each other, a more intenses feel with four or more parts, and more attention to, “harmony with a greater concern with the flow and progression of chords” ("Renaissance Music"). This means musicians paid more attention to how smooth and flowing the musical sounds were when put together. As time passed Renaissance music began to gain more characteristics such
Shocking rhythms, expansive harmonies and unusual key changes were the norm in Romantic period music. The tonal language began developing rapidly and chromaticism became a technique used in music of the time. Phrases started using dramatic effects and modulations to new keys. This was different from the Classical period as the melodies were becoming more organic and alive with their compositional uses. Contrapuntal lines were often reduced to single, relentless thoughts that often shocked audiences and created discomfort among musicians.
Classical Period Classical music had a less complicated texture than Baroque (more homophonic). It emphasis was on beauty, elegance and balance. It had more variety and contrast within a piece than Baroque (dynamics, instruments, pitch, tempo, key, mood and timbre). A composer for this period is Haydn. Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village on the border with Hungary.
There is also much inconsistency in which composers are regarded as belonging to which time period. For example, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) is often cited as being in the "Romantic" genre, by some of the same sources who claim that the classical period lasted until 1825, e.g. his entire life! Likewise, there is no consistent description of Vienna's Franz Schubert (1797-1828) - sometimes considered "classical" and other times "romantic". This time period is the most critical for the guitar, however, since Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), Ferdinando Carulli (1770 - 1841), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), etc., lived during this era.
Similarly, Copeland also critiqued the traditional canon but through making his music relevant to the time. Copeland's symphony "Fanfare for the Common Man" (1942) reflected the europhic spirit of the country at the time as the US entered World War II (Lecture, 2/1). Through this symphony, Copeland changed the sound of the traditional symphony, a genre that at the time was largely dominated by German musicians and made it sound American (Lecture, 2/1). The point that Copeland wanted to make was that music should have a message and should reflect what is going on at the time. Overall, both of these composers were making the point that music needs to be relevant to the time in which it is being produced instead of sticking with what is traditional and repeating the same message over and over
Polyphany and the complexity of the music show that during the Renaissance, new ways were forming so that music could becme more complex, but it was being held back, due to the main use of vocals in music. Without instrumentation, music was restricted to only what the voice could do. During the Renaissance, people were focused on vocals due to topics like humanism being popular in the academic world. The extreme focus on the human form led to the neglect of instrumentation within music. Secular music becoming popular was also an effect of the Renaissance, as people became less invested in the church, due to a growing rise in movements like the Protestant Reformation.