People who specialize in thinking and writing about music may become professors or lecturers of music at universities.Ĭlassical music is often heard in popular culture. When they look at pieces of music in this way this is called “musical analysis”. They study such things as harmony and counterpoint to help them understand the way that the composers were thinking when they put the piece together. They normally have formal training at a music college or conservatoire and have lessons from well-known music teachers.Ĭlassical musicians often spend a lot of time thinking carefully about pieces of music, especially about pieces of music that they perform. People who want to be good at performing classical music have to practice hard for many years. Musical training and general use of classical music Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is a good example of a piece which develops from just four notes into a large piece lasting about half an hour. In many of the longer compositions, short tunes are developed and changed during the course of the piece. Classical music can have many forms, including the symphony, concerto, oratorio, opera, sonata, fugue or any combination of dance movements such as suites. Most popular music is based on song form, but classical music has many different forms, some of which can be used over a long time span to make big compositions. Modern trumpets sound much brighter than the straight trumpets of the 18th century. Woodwind instruments developed from Renaissance instruments, while the clarinet was invented in the middle of the 18th century, and the saxophone and tuba came even later. The piano developed from the clavichord which was very quiet indeed. Modern violins are louder than the early 17th century violins, largely because of they have metal strings instead of gut strings. In general, musical instruments have become louder as concert halls have become bigger. This was happening by the beginning of the 17th century, which was the time when opera was invented. The trombone and the triangle have hardly changed for hundreds of years, but the violin family developed from folk instruments such as fiddles and gradually replaced the viols to form the basis of the modern orchestra. Some of the earliest were known in Medieval music. The instruments used in classical music developed at different times. Opera singers, in particular, have to develop very powerful voices which will be heard over the orchestra and project right to the back of an opera house. Singers may be sopranos, altos, tenors or basses, depending on their vocal range. Instruments that play classical music are not normally amplified electronically. This is very different from a typical rock band which has a drummer, a guitarist, one or two singers and an electric bass and keyboard. It has four families of instruments: the string instruments which include the violins, violas, cellos and piano, the woodwind instruments which include flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons together with related instruments of different sizes, the brass instruments: trumpet, trombone, tuba and French horn, and percussion instruments which nearly always includes timpani as well as many other possible instruments which are hit or shaken. The symphony orchestra is the most common group of instruments for the playing of classical music. Instruments usedĬlassical music can be for instruments or for the voice. Some people feel that this kind of music cannot really be described as "classical music". In the 20th century many different ways of composing were used, including music played by electronic instruments or very modern music using strange sounds (experimental or "avant garde" music), for example the music of John Cage. People then started talking about classical music in order to praise the great composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. The term "classical music" was not used until the early 19th century. When composers were experimenting with new ways of writing music they usually did this with secular music, and sacred music caught up later. Claudio Monteverdi uses two different styles for his church and for his non-church music. At some times in music history there have been different styles of composing for sacred and for secular music. For example: the church music of the 16th century composer Giovanni da Palestrina has nothing to do with dance music, but both the sacred and secular music of Johann Sebastian Bach two centuries later is full of dance rhythms. Secular music was largely influenced by dance, and this in turn changed the style of scared music. Sacred and secular music have influenced one another in many ways during the course of music history. The word “secular” means things that are not sacred. This is called “sacred” (religious) music. In Western countries a vast amount of music was written for Christian worship in churches and cathedrals.
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