How are you?
This week's lecture is “History” of Classical Music, the second topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “87. Classical Music: 2. History” introduced on May 13th, 2017.
Western music is classified by period as follows.
1) Ancient music period
(before AD 500)
2) Medieval era
(500–1420)
3) Renaissance era
(1400–1600)
4) Baroque era
(1600–1750)
5) Classical era
(1750–1820)
6) Romantic era
(c.1800–1910)
7) Modernist era
(1890~)
1) Ancient music period
(before AD 500)
 |
| Symposium scene, c. 490 BCE |
Various traces of music can be found in ancient murals and sculptures, and music-related gods are frequent in ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Especially, as Apollon was the god of music among the Greek gods, it can be seen that music was closely related to life for the Greeks.
 |
| Apollon |
However, the music of the Ancient Greece was the basic
one that was mainly composed of simple melodies compared to the music of the
present day, and the music of the Ancient Rome was the succession and
development of this Ancient Greek music. In the Ancient Rome, music developed
enough to hold large-scale musical events in the amphitheatre.
 |
| The Colosseum, the largest amphitheatre ever built |
2) Medieval era
(500–1420)
 |
| Troubadours entertaining a monarch |
The oldest Western music that remains close to the original today are those created in the Medieval era. In this era when everything was stipulated by God, only music that praised God was recognized. The mainstream music in this era was Christian music, and it developed around church music. The motherhood of Western music today is the music of this era, and the most distinctive is Gregorian chant. By the 8th century, monophonic chant gradually developed into polyphonic chant, and by the 11th century, secular music began to appear in addition to chant. The most epoch-making development in the history of Western music during this period was the musical notation method, through which the principles of music was systematically organized, and many people could share the music by putting it on the staff as musical notes.
3) Renaissance era
(1400–1600)
 |
| John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) |
The Renaissance era
refers to the period of literary revival that began in Italy around the 15th
century and spread throughout Europe. Based on the consciousness that humans
should be free from the bondage of religion and the church, this movement
pursued the value that humans should be the center in all areas, including
politics and religion. Secular music and church music have been distinguished
as the value of the existence of music has changed to a human center. As
monophonic music was transformed into polyphonic music, it began to have a more
sophisticated composition with a compositional technique called counterpoint.
During this period, while vocal music became the mainstream, music for keyboard
instruments and lutes were made, and opera began to become popular in Italy.
4) Baroque era
(1600–1750)
 |
| Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) |
During this period of
great social change through the Reformation, church-centered music developed
into court- and noble-centered music as the centralized absolute monarchy was
strengthened in European countries. In this era, all styles, including art
field, were extremely decorative, loud, and took on more complex and diverse
forms, and music of various musical styles with a larger scale and wider range
of expressions were born. The distinction between vocal music and instrumental music
was made clear, and many genres of music such as sonatas and cantata appeared
as keyboard instruments such as harpsichord and organ and many instruments such
as violin, viola and cello were made. The biggest change is that the system of
major and minor in composition has been fully framed and clarified. The musical
features of the Baroque era were compiled by Bach and Handel, and in addition,
Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Telemann gained a reputation as representative
composers of the Baroque era.
 |
| Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) |
5) Classical era
(1750–1820)
 |
| Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) |
While the Baroque era
was a time when musical diversity was dynamically expressed, the decorative and
formalistic aspects were strongly revealed, and a new consciousness against
such authoritarianism began to arise. In other words, as the Lumières, based on
the idea that all human beings are equal, emerged, the consciousness that music
must exist for all people has begun to arise. The Lumières, which began to take
root from the middle of the 18th century to the early 19th century, began to be
expressed mainly in the field of music, centering on Vienna. The music deviated
from a series of styles based on counterpoint, and pursued the beauty of music
itself, and respected harmony, unity and formal beauty based on harmony. This
music style was established as a new style in Mozart and Haydn, whose musical
style later dominated Europe. The most striking characteristic of the music in
this period are that the melody and harmony became simpler and expressed pure
beauty in balance between the melody and harmony compared to decorative Baroque
music. In addition, by marking all chords on the score, the improvisation style
disappeared and the tendency to play as indicated in the score began to settle.
This period was a time when instrumental music represented all music as marked
changes in the field of instrumental music, and the sonata form, the basic
style of symphony and concerto, was established. It was also a time when
musicians were able to engage in independent music activities, whereas in the
past, musicians could not do music without the support of nobles.
6) Romantic era
(c.1800–1910)
 |
| Franz Schubert (1797–1828) |
In the 19th century,
musicians who followed a certain form and theme required by the music of
Classical era gradually showed a tendency to express their own individuality
and feelings, and the music that reflects this tendency is called Romantic
music. While Classical music emphasized contrast or change in the subject
matter in music, Romantic music attempted to express the composer's emotions in
various forms and as a literary theme. The rise of status due to the economic
and social independence of composers and a free creative atmosphere also played
a big role. The composer who opened the door to Romantic era was Beethoven,
followed by Schubert, Weber, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and many other composers to
enrich the music of Romantic era.
7) Modernist era
(1890~)
 |
| Richard Strauss (1864–1949) |
Music in the 20th
century is characterized by its radicality, diversity, complexity, and
experimentation. In this era, the music became very vast in terms of quantity,
and Romanticism, Impressionism, Expressionism and Nationalism coexisted.
Symphony, opera, electronic music, practical music and jazz were mixed, and
several new expression styles were embodied in the work of one composer. The
prosperity of the music recording and audio-related industries due to the
development of technology, and the rise of commerciality resulting from this
are also the hallmarks of this era.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment