A huge misconception with classical music is that it is all categorized into one big group. There are actually four main musical periods of classical music. They are the Baroque, classical, romantic, and the modern eras. The first major era of classical music is the Baroque era. This period started around 1600 and ended around 1750. The Baroque time period was particularly important as it was a foundation for classical music to develop and grow. Many musical forms were created and developed as well. Some examples are the sonata, the concerto, and the fugue. There were many well know composers who lived in this time period as well, including Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann, Lully, Corelli, and the arguably most important Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S. …show more content…
He is known for his mastery of different forms of music. One of the ways that Bach structured his music was through the use of counterpoints. Having a counterpoint in your music is when multiple melodies come together forming the piece. Counterpoints were important at the time since composers did not think about harmony and a result of a counterpoint was a harmony. They would not think about the harmony at all is it just appeared as a result of the counterpoint. Bach mastered the counterpoint and had many works containing them. Michael Hammer from Piano Noise wrote about Bach’s mastery with the counterpoint and said, “It is, then, a bit ironic, that the universally acknowledged master of counterpoint lived during the Baroque period. His name, of course, was J. S. Bach” (Hammer). This quote from Mister Hammer shows that in classical music and composition Bach is considered the master of the counterpoint. A prime example of his counterpoint is Air on the G String. Bach wrote this piece for a chamber orchestra and there are multiple melodies flowing within the piece. The first violin, second violin, and the contrabass, all get the melody. Not all of them are heard equally, but they are still prominent in the piece. Bach mastered the use of these counterpoints allowing his music to move freely with more complexity. These counterpoints influenced other composers of his time and composers of later centuries. According …show more content…
One of the groups under the counterpoint is the fugue. A fugue is a musical form and when it is made is consists of multiple melodies. The melodies are each played at a different starting point, but at some point come together forming a mix of songs. The melodies would be close in rhythm and there would be the main melody the other melodies followed. According to an article about the fugue in Piano Noise, the fugue is the hardest type of piece to write (Hammer). It is difficult to make the fugue sound musically acceptable because of all the similar melodies playing at the same time. Bach mastered one of the hardest musical forms to compose. He wrote many fugues during his lifetime showing his mastery in each and every piece that incorporated the fugue. Listenlearnanddo’s also wrote on his blog, “Bach was particularly good at writing a special case of imitative counterpoint: the fugue” (Listenlearnanddo). This shows that Bach really was proficient at composing fugues. Bach had hundreds of pieces in the form of a fugue. Some of the most famous are Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Fugue in G minor, Well Tempered Clavier, and The Art of Fugue. What shows his mastery is the how musically all his fugues are. People who are familiar with classical music can tell how magnificent they are. In the world of classical music, Bach is considered the king of the fugue because of his mastery. Listenlearnanddo also wrote, “The Art of Fugue is basically
Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven both flourished in their compositions of classical music; however, their genre of music differed considerably. Bach was a German composer during the Baroque time era of western music which is estimated to have taken place during 1600 to 1750. It was during this time that he composed prolific church organ music which included such works as the Mass in B Minor, much scared choral music, and the St. Matthew Passion, as well as composing over a thousand works in nearly every musical genre except opera. On the other hand, Beethoven was a German composer whom began to emerge during the classical era of western music twenty years after Bach. This era took place throughout the years1750 and 1830. The large quantity of arrangements, over two hundred works in numerous musical genres composed by Beethoven was significantly influenced by his predecessors, onset of deafness, and his highly personal expression of intellectual depth. Such works include the first an...
The music of the Baroque period was focused on having music be a tool of communication to its listeners; conveying an arousal of emotions. Composers of this time thought to use this tool to have this effect or one similar to it to correctly match music from the Roman time period. One composer that goes by the name of Georg Phillip Telemann. He was a German composer born in 1681, he was known as one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque era, “At the age of just ten years old he was able to play four different instruments and had written arias, motets and instrumental works”(Norton Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, 756). As well as learning many skills at a young age, his fame grew immensely in Germany becoming a very famous composer and was even assigned four times as much space as the famous J.S. Bach in some contemporary dictionaries. Telemann composed in all varieties of forms and styles, from Italian-style concertos to French-style overture suites and quartets. The Sonata in F minor was one of his pieces that was played at the concert. The piece first given appearance in 1728 in a German musical periodical; though it was originally written for a bassoon and continuo the piece was altered by the performers to be played with a bass trombone and piano. One way that an individual could tell it is a piec...
Bach used time and structure in his work to force his listeners to set themselves inside the narrative. So, while listening, as
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most famous German composers of his time. All of his work was mostly during the baroque era. The baroque period was from 1600 to 1750 and it is known to be one of the most diverse musical periods as opposed to the other classical music eras. It was in this era that “included composer like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata.”(Classic FM) Johann Sebastian was born in the midst of the Baroque era as he was born on March 31, 1685 in Thuringia, Germany. Johann came from a family of musicians, which is how he himself became one as well. It was his father who showed him how to play his first instrument, which was the violin. His father was also a well-known musician in his town as he “worked as the town musician in Eisenach.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) It is known that Johann Sebastian went to a school that taught him
According to Rowell, "Musical composition became much longer, and composer were forced to evolve new means of maintaining unity and continuity over long time spans" during the Baroque period. Therefore, the texture of music became very important. When I look at the musical texutre of the Cantata No. 78 by J. S. Bach, I realized that this piece was unified very well within a movement and as a whole piece by many techniques. Some of those techniques were found in the text, and the others were in the music.
Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.
Between the 1600s and the 1700s, many would think more of Kings or Queens who ruled their vast kingdoms for years upon years rather than a great composer such as Johann Sebastian Bach, a man who greatly contributed to Germany and many other specific regions of Europe during his life. Born in 1685 Eisenach on March 21, Bach was a member of one of the most excellent musical families of all time as, for over 200 years, the Bach family had birthed some of the most superb composers and performers, many supported by churches, the government, and nobles for their extraordinary works ("Wikipedia"). However, having been orphaned so early on, Bach grew up in the home of his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, in Ohrdruf. During his early life, he attended schools of dance, acted as an organist on many occasions, particularly in Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar, as well as a court music director in Cöthen, and, later in his life, in 1723 to be precise, he became the grand choirmaster of St.Thomas in Leipzig for twenty-seven years and oversaw many events of the school, going so far as to divide the students into four individual choirs and recruiting the talents of the citys professional musicians and university students (pg 1 - 14, Eidam). He continued as a choirmaster until the end of his days, writing various and exquisite pieces that were preformed in front of many audiences, quite a few of which were preformed by those of the four individual choirs he created while he lead them through each piece (pg 1 - 14, Eidam). Though this may not seem as important as the rulings of Kings and Queens at the time, Bach's contribution to his homeland of Germany and its people was mostly certainly memorable and worth consideration. In fact, because of his contr...
In 1749 Bach started a new composition called “The Art of Fugue”, but he did not complete it. Bach tried fixing his sight with a surgery but something devastating happened, he lost his eye sight completely and a year later he suffered a stroke and died. During his life time, Bach was better known as an organist than a composer, “Curiously, Bach refrained from calling himself a composer…” (Wolff 2000, p.3). Bach was able to give different emotions to others with music. Bach died a respected man and having an important position in the world of music.
... The last five years of Bach’s life made up the fifth period of his work. He wrote in a style unique to himself during the Baroque period that became known as the Bach style. He would create a line of melody and establish it in a song. Then, he would create variations of the melody to make up the rest of the piece. The longest composition contains eighteen variations, each distinct, but dependent upon one line of melody. The composers that followed Bach attempted to recreate his works, but none have reached his level of perfection (Jackson 16).
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.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
Getting it's name from art history, the classic period in music extends from 1740 to 1810 and includes the music of Haydn, Mozart, the first period of Beethoven, and Bach's sons. The classical period of music coordinated harmony, melody, rhythm, and orchestration more effectively then earlier periods of music.
His death marked the end of Baroque music. Bach left a music legacy. His music has been studied and continues to be studied by several generations of composers and musicians.
3. BWV in D major. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote four Orchestral Suites. This piece is the second of the five movements that compose his Orchestral suite No. 3. The date it was composed remains unsure, as there is strong evidence that the writing of the piece was done during his years at Köthen, even though the piece is said to have been composed and premiered some years later in Leipzig sometime between 1727 and 1730 by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of his students and himself. Johann Sebastian wrote out the main violin and continuo parts, C.P.E. Bach did the same with the trumpet, oboe, and timpani parts, and Johann Ludwig Krebs, his student, finished with the second viola and violin parts. Regardless the authors of the piece, Johann Sebastian Bach ended up getting all the credit for the piece. Air stands out as one of his most famous and successful pieces of the Baroque period, as well as of his life. The beginning of the piece is one of the most recognizable melodies of the Baroque
Mozart, Beethoven and Joseph Haydn are considered the three main composers of this time. The Classical Period took place from 1750-1820. During this time, scientific advances changed the world view. People gained faith in the power of reason and began undermining traditional authority. Music and visual arts stress balance and structure. String, woodwind and some keyboard and brass instruments were used in this era. Classical music shows a contrast in mood, both between and within movements. It also shows flexibility in rhythm, by using multiple rhythmic patterns in a piece. Classical music is mostly homophonic, but with frequent shifts. Classical music also has a tuneful, easy to sing melody. Emotions were expressed in shades of dynamics, which was related to the development of piano. In the Classical era, orchestras grew in size (though they’re still smaller than today’s). Instruments worked in four movements: fast (first), slow (second), dance-related (third), and fast (fourth). Public, ticket buying concerts became common and the rise of the music instrument manufacturing industry began. Vienna became a place where musicians came to study and seek recognition. The most common compositional forms during this time were sonatas, concerti, and