Thursday, 23 February 2012
Romantic period.
Romantic period:
Dissonance- clashy sounds
Composers needed this to make music sound full of emotion.
This was rule breaking in the classical period it was not allowed.
batthoven was the first to experiment with dissonance music.
Virtuoso:
A performer who excels in technical ability.
Lizt:
He is a paino player who wrote pieces of music that were so hard only he could play them.
Tone poems:
A composer that looks at a beautifull painting whist reading a novel and using the music or novel to describe it.
Programme music:
An instrumental composition only no singing. Programme music can go on for quite long.
It's used to describe another stimulus.
Impressionism:
It's a piece of music to describe how they were feeling and to make it sound not tangible.
Romantic symphony:
They latest from about 20-45 minutes, they didn't follow strict rules.
They were more expressive.
Changes in opera:
They were dealing with every form of disaster, death or madness. It's enormous, massive amounts of brass instruments.
Everything Inlarges up to seventy players in the orchestra.
Schumann
Mahler
Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 - February 13, 1883) was a German opera composer and key figure in the development of late Romantic music. He stretched the tonal systems of his day, using chromaticism for dramatic effect. Wagner also introduced the concept of the leitmotiv in his operatic plot development, a recurring musical theme associated with a particular person, place, or idea.
Monday, 6 February 2012
The classical period: From 1750 - 1810
Diatonic music , Music where all the notes are within that key- there wil be no clashy sounds.
Even phrases- lots of equal lengths of music separated by commas (breathing points).
Symphony- it is a large orchestral piece, split into chunks called movements.
First movement- sonata form. Second movement- slower played in a different key, it will aslo have a stronger melody line. Third movement- lielier, more light hearted, in rodo form.
Concerto- a piece of music for a solo instrument and orchestra.A musical composition for a solo instrument,in which the orchestra acts as the accompaniment.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Ground bass: A musical line in the bass that is continually repeated throughout the composition.
A ‘ground bass’ is a short bass line (usually 4 to 8 bars long) which is repeated constantly throughout a piece. While the bass stays the same, the melodic voices develop and change above it. A good ground bass piece will have a clear, simple bass line, with imaginative development of the upper parts. Passacaglia and Chaconne are alternative names for this type of piece.
The part Continuo: An independent bass line, usually in a keyboard instrument like a harpsichord. Also called basso continuo.
Figured bass: Usually played by a harpsichord. Has numbers underneath the bass. String quartet: 2violins, viola, cello.
Figured bass is written underneath the bass line. (Sometimes a bass line with figures is called a "continuo".) The numbers in figured bass tell you what chord to build up from the bass note, and in which inversion.
The single most important thing to remember about figured bass is that the bass line shows you the lowest note, and that you must build a chord upwards from that note. Never, ever write a chord note which is lower than the bass note.
Each number tells you the interval above the bass note which you need to write, in order to create a chord. We will write all our chords as 4-note chords, creating 4 independent voices – soprano, alto, tenor and bass.
Figured bass is written underneath the bass line. (Sometimes a bass line with figures is called a "continuo".) The numbers in figured bass tell you what chord to build up from the bass note, and in which inversion.

string quartet :The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music with most major composers, from the late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.

Baroque opera :
The baroque era (and for this we are taking the period from around 1600 to the death of Handel in 1759) saw both the birth of opera as a musical form and its growth into perhaps the most enduring musical genre.
a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and with orchestral overtures and interludes,
A ‘ground bass’ is a short bass line (usually 4 to 8 bars long) which is repeated constantly throughout a piece. While the bass stays the same, the melodic voices develop and change above it. A good ground bass piece will have a clear, simple bass line, with imaginative development of the upper parts. Passacaglia and Chaconne are alternative names for this type of piece.
The part Continuo: An independent bass line, usually in a keyboard instrument like a harpsichord. Also called basso continuo.
Figured bass: Usually played by a harpsichord. Has numbers underneath the bass. String quartet: 2violins, viola, cello.
Figured bass is written underneath the bass line. (Sometimes a bass line with figures is called a "continuo".) The numbers in figured bass tell you what chord to build up from the bass note, and in which inversion.
The single most important thing to remember about figured bass is that the bass line shows you the lowest note, and that you must build a chord upwards from that note. Never, ever write a chord note which is lower than the bass note.
Each number tells you the interval above the bass note which you need to write, in order to create a chord. We will write all our chords as 4-note chords, creating 4 independent voices – soprano, alto, tenor and bass.
Figured bass is written underneath the bass line. (Sometimes a bass line with figures is called a "continuo".) The numbers in figured bass tell you what chord to build up from the bass note, and in which inversion.

string quartet :The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music with most major composers, from the late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.

Baroque opera :
The baroque era (and for this we are taking the period from around 1600 to the death of Handel in 1759) saw both the birth of opera as a musical form and its growth into perhaps the most enduring musical genre.
a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and with orchestral overtures and interludes,
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Baroque music
The term baroque describes a period or time of european music from 1600-1750.
Baroque music is whatever comes before renaissance but before classical. Baroque music could be fast,slow,happy,sad,magnificent and grand. Ornamentation-frilly, twiddly bits.
Harpsichord-there is a plucking mechanism rather than hammers like a piano has. Lots of string instruments- violins, violas, cello, Organ Flutes Trumpets,horns Smaller groups of instruments.

CHAMBBER MUSIC The first time that opera existed (mixture of singing, instrumental music, drama -it's a play that is sung) The heroic roles in baroque we're generally sung by castrati men who had been castrated as per pubescent boys to preserve there high voices.
Baroque music is whatever comes before renaissance but before classical. Baroque music could be fast,slow,happy,sad,magnificent and grand. Ornamentation-frilly, twiddly bits.
Harpsichord-there is a plucking mechanism rather than hammers like a piano has. Lots of string instruments- violins, violas, cello, Organ Flutes Trumpets,horns Smaller groups of instruments.

CHAMBBER MUSIC The first time that opera existed (mixture of singing, instrumental music, drama -it's a play that is sung) The heroic roles in baroque we're generally sung by castrati men who had been castrated as per pubescent boys to preserve there high voices.
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