What is Bachs relationship to the very lengthy Baroque era of Western Art music - Essay Example

What is Bach’s relationship to the very lengthy Baroque era of Western Art music? Profile his technical achievements as acomposer and relate them to at least 2 specific genres. Baroque originated from Portuguese word barroco. It is one of the affluent and the most varied periods in the history of music. Most of the baroque composers came from Italy. They included Vivaldi, Monteverdi and Corelli. In the mid of the eighteenth century, the focus moved to composers from German namely Handel and Bach.

Italy took the prominent part in the formation of genres like cantata, opera just to name a few. In music, the difference among the nations is not only how the music was arranged, but also in performance. Bach used to write some cantatas, for instance, he did not do this because he found it to be motivating, but because the church of Leipzig had employed him. At St. Thomas, he composed over 200 church cantatas. In Germany, the music they formed in Lutheran church slowly became mingled with oratorio.

The oratorio zeal ended in the good works of Bach. In the eighteenth century, Bach and Handel composed a number of concertos for harpsichord and his works in the orchestra included Brandenburg Concretos, orchestral suites and harpsichord concertos, which is one of the genres he made up. He achieved a lot in his choral works (Grout, Burkholder and Palisca 59). Bach achievement lied in the creation and progress of the initial contrapuntal idiom. He also expanded the vocal and recognized frame works of exemplary schools.

His other achievement is his production of organ music that is thought to be one of the important heritages of compositions. His solo music with the keyboard was also highly esteemed. The genres that are related to his achievement were cantatas and oratorios. Beethoven is often understood as a bridge between the Classical and Romantic eras, not quite belonging to either. Please discuss both sides of his work, including reference to at least 2 pieces. Examine also his relationship to Sonata-Allegro form.

Beethoven was seen as an evolutionary between the classical and romantic music. Beethoven was perceived to be classical because he expanded the boundaries of the classical music but never altered its originality as the other composers did after him. Symphony no.6, Pastoral, is known as one of the songs that link the gap in classical and romantic era. The piece is classical because of its origin. However, it can be also viewed as romantic because it has influence on the natural world. Beethoven’s music was thought to be romantic because the song was about flowers.

This made the songs less boring because the songs that were produced before were boring. Beethoven’s ability to put together dissimilar keys and notes that were not usually used released a harmonic which created a sense of musical and empirical space in which the music moved. During the romantic era, Beethoven manipulated the old culture to the new. He wrote more than five symphonies. The famous symphony was no. 5 because it was so entertaining. In sonata, most work is for the instrument either one or two while in symphony it is for the whole group.

The main thing that distinguishes sonatas of the classical period and symphonies is that the number of movements in sonata is three while in symphony, they are four. In 1970s, the initial movements were made up in sonata form. In the romantic era, sonata form allowed instrumental music. In 1795, Beethoven released piano sonatas that had four movements and later again he published piano sonata with two movements. Sonata helps in knowing distinguishing different keys. Beethoven, therefore, expanded this thought of sonata form.

Within the stylistic norms of the classical period, please identify characteristics of Mozart’s music that make it unique. Include the G major symphony #40 in your discussion (at least Mvmt 1). Mozart learnt a lot from Haydn especially the symphonies. He tried and arrived at the peak of Beethoven’s instrumentation. In the eighteenth century, Mozart’s was one of the exceptional composers and the one whose symphonies showed orchestral advancement. Within the timeline that the six symphonies were written, Mozart advanced to modern orchestration.

Thomas stated that Mozart did have two main principles on how the instruments would be used in symphonies. The first one the artistic nature of several winds and the second one the accessibility of the several instruments. Zaslaw states that Mozart’s flute was weaker at the lower part while at the top, it thinned out. Therefore, different instruments are suitable for different circumstances depending on the material and the key. Zaslaw continued to say that Mozart mostly used the flutes in keys of C, D, or E flat.

Mozart wrote symphonies in a very short time with different sections of woodwind. Clarinets were added up to Mozart’s G minor orchestration in order for them to be considered for afterward performance. Mozart changed the orchestration to have a room for the adding up of two clarinets in the key B flat, therefore, making the K.550 (G minor symphony) of particular interest. In Haffner symphony, fractions were added, but in this symphony, the original fractions have been altered to let the clarinets to have a vital role in orchestration.

Mozart lessened the space that was linking the earlier woodwind and his dictation orders. In Mozart’s music, clarity and transparency are some of the classical styles that can be identified. Mozart also made up religious music, dances and other types of entertainment. Schumann’s characterization of K550 enables Mozart’s daemon to be seen more steadily. Another excellent style of Mozart’s music is symphony no. 25 in K550. Work cited Grout Donald Jay, Burkholder Peter and Palisca Claude.

A History of Western Music. New York. W.W.Norton. 2006.