Classical

Classical music is normally used to describe a variety of western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, especially the sixteenth and seventeenth to the nineteenth. However the classical period falls between the Baroque and Romantic periods. The texture is clearer than Baroque music and less complex. It is mostly homophonic melody above the chordal accompaniment, but has no counterpoint. The variety and contrast within a piece becomes more pronounced than before. The melodies tended to be shorter than the ones that were seen in the previous period the importance was given to instrumental music, the main type were the sonata, trio, string quartet, symphony, concerto, serenade and divertimiento. All though the sonata developed and became the most important form, being used to build up the first movement of most large-scale works, as well as single pieces. 

Baroque Instruments

Strings

Violino piccolo

Violin

Viol

Viola

Viola d'amore

Viola pomposa

Tenor violin

Cello

Contrabass

Lute

Theorbo

Archlute

Angélique

Mandolin

Guitar

Harp

Hurdy gurdy

Woodwinds

Baroque flute

Chalumeau

Cortol (AKA Cortholt, Curtall, Oboe family)

Dulcian

Musette de cour

Baroque oboe

Rackett

Recorder

Bassoon

Brasses

Baroque trumpet

Cornett

Horn

Serpent

Sackbut

Keyboards

Clavichord

Tangent piano

Fortepiano – early version of piano

Harpsichord

            Organ

1680-1760

The line that divides the middle and late Baroque is a matter open to debate. One is that it could go from 1680 to 1720, because there was no on synchronized transition. However the important time that the transition was evident was when the Baroque music was fully absorbed that tonality was a principal structure.

 The transition between Baroque and the early Classical era is bordered by the mixture of competing ideas and attempts to unify the different demands of tastes, economics and worldview.

1630-1680

The middle Baroque is separated from the early Baroque, because of the systematic thinking to the new style and a gradual institutionalization of the forms and norms, especially in Opera. This period in the Baroque is defined by the emergence in the cantata oratorio, and opera during the 1630s. The ways of the new concept of Baroque came from the melody and harmony that elevated the status of the music to one of equality with the words.

The florid, coloratura monody of the early Baroque gave way to simpler, more polished melodic style that was usually in a ternary rhythm. Those melodies were built from short, cadentially delimited ideas that were often based on stylized dance patterns drawn from the sarabande or the courante. The harmonies in those times were also simpler than in the Early Baroque Period. These harmonic simplifications also led to a new formal device of the differentiation of recitative and aria. The theory that was supported in the time was identified by the increasingly harmonic focus of musical practice and the creation of formal system of teaching.

Music was an art and it converted into one that needed to be taught in an orderly manner. This however had no bearing at all on the theoretical work of Johann Fux. He systematized the strict counterpoint characteristics of earlier ages in his Gradus ad Paranassum. 

1580-1630

The transition from Renaissance to Baroque music began in 1580 by a group of poets, musicians and humanists in Florence. This group rejected the idea based their ideals on Classical, especially ancient Greek, that valued the discourse and oration in their musical drama.  As they rejected the contemporary use of polyphony and focused on monody, they came to the realization that these ideas marked the beginning of Opera. Those in turn turned out to be somewhat of a catalyst for Baroque music.  The musical theory that is seen widespread is the use of the Figured Bass. It developed the importance of harmony as the linear underpinnings of polyphony. Harmony was the end result of counterpoint. The composers of the time began to concern themselves with harmonic progressions, and also employed the triton that was seen as an unstable interval. It created dissonance. In this period harmony was focused in tonality, not in modality as was in the Renaissance. At the end it all lead to the idea that chords, rather then notes could provide a sense of closure, it was one of the fundamental ideas that became known as tonality. 

Baroque

Baroque music began in the 1600 and went on until the mid-1700. In this period the creation of tonality was witnesses and composers as well as performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation. They also made changes in the musical notation and developed new instrumental playing techniques. The baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performances, and also established opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata as musical genres. Many of the musical terms and concepts of those days are seen in modern life. 

Renaissance Intruments

Instruments of the Renaissance

Brass

    Slide Trumpet

     Cornett

     Trumpet

      Sackbut

Strings

     Viol

      Lyre

      Irish Harp

      Hurdy Gurdy

      Cittern

       Lute

     Harpsichord

      Virginal

Percussion

      Tambourine

     Jew’s Harp

·        Woodwinds

o   Shawn

o   Reed Pipe

o   Hornpipe

o   Bagpipe

o   Panpipe

o   Transverse Flute

o   Recorder