I’ve loved listening to classical music for many of my life. In highschool, I’d tune into my hometown college’s radio station at evening to hearken to Bach and Beethoven whereas I did my homework. It made me really feel sensible.
I nonetheless hearken to classical music at the moment once I work. I additionally hearken to it on Sunday mornings when planning my week.
Whereas I’d listened to classical music since I used to be younger, I didn’t know a lot about it. Positive, I knew who the nice composers had been and was acquainted with their most well-known compositions, however I couldn’t inform what made Bach’s music completely different from Beethoven’s. Heck, I didn’t even know that calling what I assumed was classical music “classical music” was actually a misnomer. Extra on that beneath.
So, I made a decision to alter that this 12 months. Beginning in January, I started studying books on classical music and listening to an audio course on the topic from The Nice Programs. It’s been a revelation! Whereas it didn’t make me an skilled, once I hearken to classical music now, I get extra out of it as a result of I do know what I’m listening to. It’s made me admire what I’m listening to. I’ve additionally loved studying in regards to the lives of nice composers like Bach and Beethoven. Bach was a workhorse, and I like Beethoven’s Romantic bent (he as soon as wrote that he needed to “seize destiny by the throat” — what an incredible, thumos-filled phrase!).
In the event you’ve needed to get into classical music however have been intimidated in realizing the place to start out, at the moment we start a two-part sequence that introduces the style. The objective is to assist kick off your listening journey and appreciation for the music that we name classical.
Which is a pleasant segue to the very first thing I realized in my very own listening journey…
Why Classical Music Isn’t Classical Music
In the event you’re like me earlier than I took this musical deep dive, you doubtless name all music made with flutes, pianos, and violins, written by dudes who wore powdered wigs and had German final names, “classical music.”
However, yeah, that’s a misnomer.
Technically, Classical music, with a capital C, is a method of Western music that was composed between roughly 1750 and 1827. Beethoven was a Classical composer, however Bach wasn’t (he was a Baroque composer).
If you wish to be extra exact, you’ll wish to name what you name “classical music,” “Western live performance music” or “Western artwork music.”
With that stated, I don’t fear an excessive amount of about utilizing “classical music” colloquially to explain the spectrum of formal, harmonically complicated Western orchestral/instrumental music that individuals sometimes put below that umbrella. I’ll be utilizing it in that sense on this sequence.
Western artwork music/classical music is usually damaged into the next eras:
Greek, Medieval, and Renaissance Eras (2,000 BCE to 1600)The Baroque Period (1600-1750)The Classical Period (1750-1825)The Romantic Period (1825-1900)The Fashionable Period (1900 – at the moment)
Every period had its distinctive model and improvements.
Once you think about “classical music,” you most likely think about music from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. And for good purpose! These durations produced the giants of Western music like Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven. Once you tune into your native classical music radio station, you’ll doubtless hear songs composed throughout these three durations.
One other factor to level out about classical music is that we sometimes consider it as “pure music” — music composed for artwork’s sake reasonably than for filthy lucre or the plenty. You hearken to classical music within the background when doing math issues or considering Platonic Types.
Nicely, I hate to burst your bubble, however even the greats needed to receives a commission and be well-known. Many nice classical items had been written to get wealthy and entice an viewers. And a few of it was downright vulgar (Beethoven composed a track about his digestive points that mimicked farting).
The truth that nice classical music was composed for cash and fame shouldn’t take away from its illustriousness. These composers additionally labored to create artwork that glorified God and impressed people to stay with advantage. Nice classical music transcends time and geography.
Listening to it makes you are feeling extra human and extra alive.
The Origins of Classical Music: Historic Greek, Medieval, and Renaissance Music
To understand the preferred kinds of classical music, we have to look at the historical past of Western music earlier than the Baroque Period.
Historic Greek Music
Music performed an integral position in Greek tradition. The Greeks believed that music might form and mould a person’s character and assist him perceive the cosmos. Music’s energy is why Plato thought it was a vital topic for a younger man to study in his youth.
Epic poems just like the Iliad had been sung and accompanied by lyres and reed flutes, and Greek tragedies had been punctuated with music. The music was designed to extend the emotional affect that the phrases of the poem or tragedy had on the listener.
We solely have a number of remnants of historical Greek music notation, so it’s onerous to say precisely the way it sounded. From the papyrus fragments which were recovered, we all know it was chant-like and monophonic — it had a single melody. The one devices they used had been lyres, cymbals, and reed flutes.
The chanting and easy melody gave Greek music a international and scary vibe. To get a style of what Greek music doubtless seemed like, hearken to this reconstruction of the Stasimon Refrain from the Greek tragedy Orestes:
Western music maintained this straightforward, chant-like attribute for hundreds of years. The traditional Romans adopted Greek music with out making improvements to it. It wasn’t till the late Center Ages that we began to see issues change.
Greek music would affect classical music in the course of the Baroque Period. The opera was created to revive the traditional Greek refrain.
Medieval Music
As Christianity rose to prominence within the early Center Ages, clergy used music to worship God and put individuals in a contemplative and prayerful temper. The plainchant grew to become probably the most broadly composed and carried out music in the course of the so-called Darkish Ages. You most likely know this model of music as Gregorian chant. Like Greek music, it was monophonic. In contrast to Greek music, it was unaccompanied by devices. One of many defining options of medieval music was that it was primarily voice-driven.
Right here’s an instance of plainchant music:
Between the years 900 and 1000, musicians developed polyphony, a combination of two or extra melodies heard concurrently. Organum was the most typical sort of medieval polyphony. One melody would act because the voice of God — it seemed like conventional plainchant — and the second melody would add thrives that represented humanity.
Take heed to this organum entitled “Pastra nostrum.” Take note of the 2 completely different melodies:
I actually get pleasure from listening to plainchant music once I’m considering or meditating. It does a fantastic job of placing you in a reflective temper.
One other musical innovation was launched within the 1300s: isorhythm. Isorhythm includes repeating a hard and fast sample of pitches and a separate, repeated rhythmic sample inside a musical piece. These patterns may not essentially be of the identical size, so their repetitions might go out and in of sync with one another, making a wealthy and complicated texture. Isorhythm music within the medieval interval was principally voice.
Right here’s an instance of isorhythm:
Renaissance Music
Renaissance musicians sought to recreate the beliefs of antiquity. As a substitute of being primarily about worshiping and praying to God, music was seen as a technique to evoke feelings within the listener. To perform this, Renaissance musicians emphasised vocals that might be heard clearly. In addition they used the music to replicate the phrases being sung utilizing a method referred to as phrase portray. So, if the lyrics in a track had been about somebody falling down, the music would attempt to evoke that picture.
New devices and notation schemes allowed musicians to create extra complicated and complex music, and the printing press allowed music to unfold extra rapidly and simply.
A very powerful musical style that developed in the course of the Renaissance was the madrigal. The madrigal was secular music primarily based on poems that had the next traits:
Polyphonal: madrigals normally consisted of six to eight voices singing concurrently. Phrase portray: the music mirrored the which means of the phrases.Emotional expression: the music consists to make you are feeling completely different feelings.
Initially, madrigals had been primarily vocal compositions, however because the Renaissance progressed, musicians started substituting a few of the voices with devices like lutes and viols. We’re beginning to see the shift away from classical music being primarily voice pushed to changing into extra instrumental.
Right here’s an instance of a Renaissance madrigal. Discover the completely different melodies occurring on the identical time.
For some purpose, I think about Robin Hood: Males in Tights once I hearken to a madrigal.
Right here’s an English madrigal entitled “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending.” It’s instance of phrase portray. Discover when the singers sing the phrase “descending,” the tune appears like they’re happening a hill:
Nicely, there you go. A crash course in 4,000 years of Western musical historical past in about 750 phrases. We’re now prepared to try the large three eras of live performance music that produced timeless items that we nonetheless hearken to and carry out at the moment: the Baroque, the Classical, and the Romantic.
We’ll flip to them, in addition to the Fashionable Period, in our subsequent piece.
Sources
The Classic Information to Classical Music: An Indispensable Information for Understanding and Having fun with Classical Music by Jan Swafford. Excellent introductory e-book to classical music. Swafford, himself a composer, does job displaying how the lives of well-known composers formed the music they produced.
How one can Take heed to and Perceive Nice Music by Robert Greenberg. That is an audio course from the Nice Programs. I extremely suggest it. The lecturer, Robert Greenberg (who can also be a composer), is extremely partaking and made studying about classical music enjoyable. He sounds just like the comic Lewis Black. The most effective half is that he contains samples of the music that he’s speaking about.
