The Changes to Music Performance Throughout Historical Periods - Assignment Example

?Music History Part V-The Enlightenment and the ical Era 4. Write an essay on the history of keyboard music during the Classic period. Who were the important composers, what kind of music did they write, how did keyboard music change during the period, which instruments rose in prominence and which ones declined in importance? Keyboard is a general term applied for all musical instruments, which use musical keyboard to produce music. During the fifteenth century, music composers had a lot of freedom in terms of harmony and polyphony. Composers of this period were all committed to choral music writing using the view available instruments, which could bring impression to their music of being vocal work without the words. The four famous composers of this period included Dunstable, Despres, Ockeghem, and Dufay. Following the beginning of tradition in the sixteenth century, many people who were interested in music readily associated themselves with the classical music leading to the abandonment of the model system of the harmonic music. Many music composers shifted from composing harmony music and started composing classical. Composers moved away from composing these traditional types of music, which had lasted for over three hundred years introducing a strong sensation in songs with a definite tonal key (Gangwere 256). This was also termed as a golden period since many masses, anthems, motets, and madrigals followed this new form of music. In addition, this high demand of music lead to the establishment of instrumental music especially keyboard music, which was in the form of fantasies, variation, and dance movements. Some of the note-composers who emerged during this period included Dowland, Byrd, Victoria, Lassus, Cardoso, and many others. During 11th century, one of the genius music composers Guido applied the concept of music to stringed instruments. His diatonic scale, which had eight full tones and seven intervals with two semitones, was the first keyboard to be in use. This type of keyboard had only twenty keys. There are no reliable historical sources showing the first person who applied the concept of the chromatic scale. Later on in 1548, Guiseppe Zarlino added the remaining two semitones to his keyboard. During the sixteenth century, almost every keyboard manufacturers used chromatic scale, which the same thing associated with the modern pianos. Since the development of keyboard, many amendments have been made to the chromatic keyboard to perfect its performance. In 1811, Dr. Krause constructed an improved keyboard whose semitones were of the same level, and all the keys had a uniform color. Later, another piano maker from Vienna constructed a keyboard in the form of concave. The aim of constructing concave-formed keyboard was to follow the learning of the keyboard players’ arm. This is evidence that, the modern keyboard has gone through many amendment, especially the concept of the keys layout. The layout of the whole and semi-tones has evolved over centuries (Gangwere 272). 5. Examine how Enlightenment philosophy and the spirit of capitalism influenced the music of the Classical period. The enlightenment age began in 17th through the 18th century. This was a cultural movement, which started first in Europe and later in the America. The main purpose of enlightenment age was to bring change to the society helping people abandon their traditional believes and cultural practices, and advancing their living standards through scientific measures. It promoted scientific knowledge, which brought intellectual change hence opposing traditional cultures like power abuses by churches and state. This idea of enlightenment had many impacts on culture, politics, and western government. Enlightenment philosophy had great impacts on art. It brought some emphasis on learning whereby arts and music became widespread especially among the middle class people. It also led to the establishment of many study areas where literature, philosophy, science, and expensive art was taught by highly qualified professionals and patrons. During this era, music depended most on the public support, and this forced many performers and composers involve themselves with public concerts, which enabled them to earn a lot of income. Public concerts and music were more significance because they enabled the composers reach a large audience hence increasing their fame. For example, Handel gained fame due to his operas and oratorios performance. Composers like Haydn and Mozart are regarded as the most in line with the Enlightenment era due to their classical music styles. There emerged a number of musicians following the growth of the economy and middle class. The enlightenment movement allowed women to involve themselves with social music. Although women’s education was limited, they contributed a lot in keyboard music performance. In addition, the desire of many musicians to explore in the music industry brought other significant impacts in music publication. Jean-Jacques published the first dictionary “Dictionnaire de musigue” in the seventeenth century, which had enabled music composers to understand the meanings of musical words such as genius and taste. After these genres became more popular, many composers started composing choral songs, which became the new trend, which publishers capitalized on. Due to the increase of expensive arts study and publishing of music-related, articles lead to many people gaining interest in discussing and reading music. Publishers also started publishing music magazine and reviews, which were helpful materials for amateurs. Part VI-The Romantic Period 4. Compare and contrast the operatic styles of Italy and Germany during the nineteenth century. Cite representative works and composers in your essay. Italian and German Operatic styles are two dissimilar field that share characteristics some of which are common and others are contrasting. For example, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner made use of motifs such as redemption throughout love, patriotism, and sacrifice throughout the operas. Although the theme of betrayal is portrayed in these two operas, it is used to project to different responses. The importance of this comparison shows that although Giuseppe and Richard use the same reference materials such as Victor Hugo or Shakespeare, the German and Italian operas are completely different in terms of the music style used. Dafne was the German opera composed by Heinrich in 1627 but the score of music did not survive. During this period, Italian operas were the most famous over the German countries. In 1644, most of the German opera composers chose to compose their operas in Italian language (Gangwere 44). In contrast to Italian opera , which were mainly composed for the upper-class people, German operas were mainly for public and only featured simple melodies until Mozart worked hard to enable German operas to match the Italian operas. Another difference is that most of the Italian operas during the nineteenth century were the inheritance of Bel Canto traditions, which were mainly melodic. Rossini and Bellini are good examples of early Bel Canto. On the other hand, German Opera mostly rejected the Bel Canto styles. German operettas like Wagner mainly put their concentration on high sounds especially with women who were the best in dramatic sopranos. 5. Discuss the influence of Nationalism on Western art music during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The effects of Nationalism on music in the romantic era The idea of Nationalism in music as in any other field is something that affects music in response to historical factors. Nationalism is one of main factors in the nineteenth century, which influence the growth of music was nationalism. The duration between the Revolution of French and the First World War comprised of Romantic Era and music. During this time span, Europe was experiencing political instability and this led to chaos and wars. In the eighteenth century, there was redistribution of the European boundaries without consideration of how it affected people. Many people witnessed their borders being violated started rebellions some of which were triumphant. Nationalism refers to this form of national feeling. In the nineteenth century, Nationalism underwent a transformation during the first half and in the second half, it had charged to a more aggressive with many nations proposing this change. In music, nationalism is the way many national schools separated themselves from the standards implemented by French, Italy, and German traditions. Folk songs during this era were more popular than any other music of a nation. The use of folk music by the bourgeois was to assure themselves about the authenticity of their patriotism and social barriers. Other purpose of folk songs was to express the spirit of the citizens. Composer during this era not only found ways of expressing their ideas but also chose the style of doing it. Generally, romantic composers slowly discovered how to use folk song in their music. Originally, performance of folk songs was during social work and later people started using them in symphonic work. Since folk songs are harmonies, many composers found it difficult to use them and started practicing some unusual harmonies. Occasionally composers copied other countries’ national idioms to bring positive effects to their music, a practice called Exoticism. Exoticism is the process of searching new folk song’s ideas from other countries, which were believed to be less civilized. Another way in which nationalism influenced music during this century is from an artistic point of view. The traditional way of imitating other countries’ form of folk songs was abandoned and many artists were now interested in unfamiliar music. Part VII-The Early Twentieth Century 4. Discuss the influence twelve-tone composition has had on twentieth-century music. The twelve-tone technique was a method used in music composition to ensure that all the twelve tones of the chromatic scale sounded as one another in a composed piece of music. Twelve-tone technique was to prevent emphasis of one note by the use of tone rows of the chromatic scale, and ordering of the twelve pitches. People describe this technique as the method of composing music with twelve tones, which related to one another, or a form of serialism. This technique was more influential to the twentieth century composers because it enabled them to produce high quality music, which attracted a large audience. The technique became widely spread in the twentieth century with composers like Milton Babbitt and many others taking it up. Many of these composers concentrated on techniques to control musical aspects other than notes in production of serial music. Other composers also subjected all musical elements the serial music. In the United States of America, many music composers join music institutions to learn the twelve-tone technique (Gangwere 495). 4. Select a genre of music (song, opera, string quartet, theme and variations, etc.) and trace its evolution through the twentieth-century. Opera evolution through the twentieth century Operas evolved due to entertainments in the early twentieth century. These operas and ballets were used in marriage celebrations and political occasions , which were used by kings to show off their properties and power. These were propagandas whose their main aim was to impress foreign royals. The entertainments comprised of music, dances, and costume wearing. There were also mythical stories, which draw their themes from classical mythology showing differences between the king and gods or other heroes. The main purpose of operas in such occasion was to entertain, impress visitors, and show the image of good ruling o0f the king and his court. The involved dancers could form geometric patterns on the dancing floor in front of a proscenium arch. The first UK operas The first composer to write an effective and recognizable opera in UK with his message told through songs and music was Monteverdi. The first opera also known as Orfes in Italy was performed in the year 1607. This opera was to re-narrate the Greek myths of musicians Orpheus. Operas became more popular in Italy and in Europe in the seventeenth century. In the year 1636, William Davenant began construction of an opera house in London but because of the Civil wars and subsequent closing of the national theaters, this opera house earned him less profit. The first English opera to be composed was The Siege of Rhodes, which was composed and performed in 1656. For instance, there are four centuries of operas; seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and the twentieth century. In the seventeenth century, a group of musicians was influenced by the Greece Ancient to reject the excesses of polyphonic music. The aim of these musicians was to renew the simplicity of ancient tragedy. The first opera of this century, which is still popular today, was La favola d’Orfeo. These operas were accompanied with small music instruments. There was composition of extra two opera forms in the eighteenth century, opera seria, and opera buffa. A good example of opera seria is Ariodante, which was similar to tragedy and was often enthused from the mythology. On the other hand, opera buffa only dealt with light topics and staged regular characters with tenors and basses playing the main roles. With the increase of nationalism during the eighteenth century, traditional cultures also increased in many countries. The German Romantic era also began with the aid of composers such as Carl Maria. A similar thing also happened in Italy whereby the voice remained major thing. The tradition of Bel Canto also persisted with a combination of opera buffa characters and its themes. The twentieth century continued these trends of the nineteenth century. Puccini being the last Italian opera composer wrote many operas such as Madam Butterfly. Currently, Opera offers mainly into consideration nowadays than ever. The method of staging and settings are the principal factors of any production and opera have become more popular in public entertainments. These techniques also influenced many people who found music so interesting to pursue music career by themselves. Work Cited Gangwere, Blanche. Music History During the Renaissance Period: 1520 - 1550: a Documented Chronology. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Praeger, 2004. Print. Read More