Music. The one and only thing that can make all your memories, that you keep fastened under burdensome locks, escape. Music has been around for a profuse amount of years, changing the lives of people along the way. Music has changed throughout the decades and is characterized by that era. How exactly has it changed and why?
The Baroque era, is generally known as a period of artistic flourishing. Known for the intellectual, classical style and much like the Renaissance era, Baroque was a rebellious stage in history. Artists weren’t exactly accepted in this period. They were considered lower than most monarchs. Musicians were only hired to be little more than slaves for the potentate, to play music at their courts. One of these vassals, included the legendary Johann Sebastian Bach. He busted through
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New social classes and ways of life were created. Creators of all kinds became engrossed in incorporating their feelings and emotions in their music, poems, and plays. Romantics wanted to show their uniqueness and that is how they came upon the name. They modified existing instruments and continued to create new ones, which lead to the enlargement of the symphony orchestra. These new instrumental advantages created lavish and immense ballots, symphonies, and concertos. This supremacy lead to one of the greatest composers rising from the depths; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The composer of “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake.”
In the time between the two eras multiple things changed. The feel of the music altered itself to conform to the likes during that period. The Baroque epoch was characterized as unemotional whereas the Romantic period was passionate. Baroque had a limited note range and single-voiced, meaning strings, woodwind, brass, and voice was in unison. Romantic had a wide variety of notes and had many solo instruments and was full of vivid harmonies, making it more complex than the Baroque
Starting with the classical era, documentation and musical education became an important topic. The term of musical appreciation started in the Classical period. Patrons from the time wanted to learn more about the music they were listening to. Patrons also started becoming more involved with the music and their composers. Composers became more of a public icon, and people wanted to see the people behind the music.
...nd rhythmic tone in his music. He also added eight-note melody in the violin resulted in the more up and down in the pulse of the music. The orchestra is much more repetitive than the violin, John Adam used to play it with the eighth and the sixteenth note with alternate repetition. (Heisinger)
This book by John Rupert Martin is a good introductory book in the understanding of Baroque artists and their tremendous variety. Martin defines the Baroque characteristics, but only very broadly leaving a significant amount of room for the reader to make his own deductions. In general, Martin believes that the typical definitions of the Baroque are "too restrictive and hence likely to create more problems of classification and interpretation than it solves." Even the time of the Baroque is left open to the reader when Martin says the Baroque is roughly comprehended by the seventeenth century. It is important to note at the outset that this is only a convenient approximation; for epoch as a whole can certainly not be fitted into such a strait-jacket." This helps to define the Baroque much more generally as a gradual change which can much easily be noticed from the present than the past.
Classicism of the Renaissance has been replenished during the Baroque period. During the Baroque artistic period, the exploration of the fundamental components of human nature and the realm of senses and emotions were very crucial. The Baroque era was a very dynamic time that showed an abundance of radiance and color. Artists of this time are passionate and sensual. Their works were many times considered to have an overpowering emotional effect.
During this period the artists were also a big deal because it is believed their work showed creative views of nature which could have different meanings. This is why instrumental was still the most popular form of music in the period of Romanticism. Instrumental music gave people the ability to experience different interpretations, emotions and spiritual thoughts as well. Romantic composers used music as means of projecting powerful expression and
Baroque era covers the period between 1600 and 1750 beginning with Monte Verdi (birth of opera) and ended with deaths of Bach and Handel. The term baroque music is borrowed from the art history. It follows the Renaissance era (1400-1600). It was initially considered to be a corrupt way of Renaissance by conservatives. The dominant trends in Baroque music correspond to those in Baroque art and literature. Some features of Baroque art included a sense of movement, energy, and tension (whether real or implied). Strong contrasts of light and shadow enhance the effects of paintings and sculptures. Opera is one of the types of music in the Baroque era. It represented melodic freedom. Baroque era was usually referred to as the thorough-bass period. In early Baroque era no tonal direction existed, but experiments in pre-tonal harmony led to the creation of tonality. [1] Baroque genre included instrumental suite, ritornello, Concerto grosso and chant. There were important composers of the Baroque period such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi William Byrd Henry Purcell and George Phillip Telemann. Starting in northern Italy, the hierarchical state -- led by either the urban bourgeoisie or despotic nobles -- replaced the fluid and chaotic feudal system of the middle Ages. [2] For this reason, some historians refer to the Renaissance as the Early Modern Era. Sculptors, building on the techniques of artists such as Giovanni Bernini (1598-1680), found ways to create the illusion of energetic and even violent movement in their works. Painters created larger and more crowded canvases. Virtuosity was used in all the arts. The arts became an important measure of learning and culture. Music moved from the science of number to an expressive art viewed as an equal to rhetoric.
...ic landscapes. The baroque marked the time in which painters considered using subjects other than scenes from the Bible and from classical traditions. The baroque period also was the period in which artists painted portraits, and everyday life scenes. Baroque artist broke away from trying to make the calm balance known to the renaissance artists. Artists from the baroque era were interested in no longer tried in the extreme. They wanted to paint subjects possessing strong emotions; they wanted to capture those emotions and feelings in their work. Instead of just extremes of feeling sometimes, these strong emotions were personal. More often artists tried to portray intense religious emotions. Baroque art attempted to explain how and why their subjects fit as strongly as they did by representing their emotional states as vividly and analytically as possible.
The Romantic period is chronologically defined by the 19th century. It was an era of great turmoil. With the French Revolution, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Crimean War, the Spanish-American War and various revolutions across Europe, a great sense of upheaval was felt by the bourgeoisie and upper class struggling to maintain their affluent lifestyle during this time period. The revolutionaries who were fighting for their rights and independence felt a great sense of freedom, pride and other intense emotions. These intense emotions helped identify the Romantic period. Characteristics of the Romantic period help define it as a whole, and allow for the overall appreciation for the music ...
Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Many dominating baroque musicians endorsed this approach and applied it to their compositions.... ... middle of paper ... ...
It can be considered a time where a new Art movement flourished as people were expressing themselves in the most creative ways possible. Baroque comes from the Portuguese word Barroco, which means something irregular or strange. At this time, art was being changed. Most of the art of this period is complex, to the point that it evoked feelings towards the “audience”, usually in dramatic ways. Baroque Art wasn’t meant to depict the life style of people at that time, however it is usually noticeable that most of the art have some ties with the catholic religion.
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular of all composers. The reasons are several and understandable. His music is extremely tuneful, opulently and colourfully scored, and filled with emotional passion. Undoubtedly the emotional temperature of the music reflected the composer's nature. He was afflicted by both repressed homosexuality and by the tendency to extreme fluctuations between ecstasy and depression. Tchaikovsky was neurotic and deeply sensitive, and his life was often painful, but through the agony shone a genius that created some of the most beautiful of all romantic melodies. With his rich gifts for melody and special flair for writing memorable dance tunes, with his ready response to the atmosphere of a theatrical situation and his masterly orchestration, Tchaikovsky was ideally equipped as a ballet composer. His delightful fairy-tale ballets, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker are performed more than any other ballets. Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's first ballet, was commissioned by the Imperial Theatres in Moscow in 1875. He used some music from a little domestic ballet of the same title, composed for his sister Alexandra's children in 1871.
Baroque art can be described as a “distinctive new style” in which artists embraced “dynamism, theatricality, and elaborate ornamentation, all used to spectacular effect, often on a grandiose scale”. Baroque art encompasses a vast range of art from the dramatic and theatrical Italian pieces, as the quote suggests, to the more simple and every-day life but still fabulous Dutch pieces. Baroque art can hardly be contained in one description because it describes so many types of art, in great part due to the religious, socio-economic, and political scenes of the time. Religiously, the Catholic Church was responding to the Reformation by creating dramatic pieces to invoke piety and devotion. Politically, monarchies and rulers were using commissioned art to emphasize their authority and their given right to rule. Socio-economically, the middle class was rising and therefore wanting to buy and commission pieces of art to boost their reputation and validate their status in the social scene. These three changes were extremely significant but can by no means generalize the entire historical context of Baroque art. Instead, they stand as specific examples of important reasons for the range and breadth of Baroque art.
The Baroque era was the age of magic. Flat surfaces became three-dimensional and paint on plaster became alive. It was the age of masterful illusion. Nothing exhibits this mastery better than Baroque ceiling paintings.
Other societal practice during romanticism is the Romantic Opera. In comparison to the classical and baroque opera, romantic opera has a continuous flow of music in each scene and soon, people pay less attention to tenors and pays equal attention to choruses. To name a few of many composers for romantic operas, Wagner and Bizet are known for their works for romantic opera during the romantic era. Romantic music is also influenced by folk music, tunes, rhythms and themes as many romantic composers wrote nationalist music, which is inspired from folk dances and songs, during the romantic period (http://absoluteastronomy.com). Another factor that contributed to romantic music in defining its traits is the instrumentation.
The emotional intensity during this time period was represented through an individuality of style, nationalism, tone color, dynamic changes, and intricate harmonies. Composers during the romantic era had a specific style to their pieces that made each composition unique. Songs were often viewed as melancholy, emotional, and longing. Nationalistic views using history, language, and dance were incorporated in several romantic pieces. The orchestra was drastically expanded and increased the significance of a variety of instruments.