Foundations of Western Art Music

The context of performances throughout history revolves around the subject and purpose of the composition. Social events such as weddings and banquets, Religious gathering, accompanying workers during harvest and soldiers on their way to battle and for the Greeks performances were closely tired with sports and athletic games for encouragement and motivation.

The social attitudes surrounding these subjects and purposes heavily influenced composers approaches to writing, use of modes to create moods, instrumentation for texture and even figuration for interest. The Development of instruments plays an important role in the composers work, brass instruments like the Trombone and the French Horn, woodwind like the flute or clarinet or string and plucked instruments like the lute and double bass. Each varying from culture to geographical origin to century. Recently a 500 year old instrument was finally built by Slawomir Zubrzycki, the Viola Organista designed by the great Leonardo Da Vinci who at the time simply did not pocess the means of constructing this magnificent instrument, for if he did we surely would of seen a significant cultural trend amongst the music composers of the era.

In the 17th Century the French Horn began to become an important brass element to music composers. The Instrument began as an invention based on early hunting horns and has origins first being used in late 16th Century, Western Europe Operas. These horns were monotone until 1753 where a German musician of the name Hampel, invented a use of moveable slides in varying lengths to change the key of the horn. In 1760 it was further developed by the discovery that placing your hand over the bell of the French Horn, lowered the tone called stopping. The St...

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...ayed in a specific order or focusing on important notes to be played, created moods. This was most notable in mediaeval times, where tonality revolved around 8 primary modes or 'Church Modes'. All derived from Greek modes before the modern 'key' was established, Dorian, Phrygian, Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Hypolydian and Hypomixolydian.

A Technique developed over the musical periods is figuration or the smallest musical idea repeated or looped to maintain interest. In the early 16th Century Through Composed music was far more common due to its use in musical theatre and operas, Claudio Monteverdi is an excllent example of this, where is comparision to Mozart. Monteverdi's work tend to be continus and uninterrupted where Mozart's work consisted of a collection of songs containing minimal repetition and progressed with interruptions for dialogue.