Vivaldi’s orchestra in the Bassoon concerto consisted of a bassoon, Violin 1 and 2, Viola, Cello, and Bass. ******** Composer Beethoven was born in Germany. He was an innovator, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and
Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1770 to Johann van Beethoven and Magdalena Keverich van Beethoven. He was baptized on December 17, 1770. When Beethoven was young, he started taking music lessons from his father, who was a musician in the court of Bonn. Beethoven was exceptionally good even as a child. In 1787 he visited Vienna where he performed and met many famous musicians including Mozart.
A few composers who made music today possible by struggling through the aftermath of the Black Death epidemic would be; Jasquin Des Prez, (who was a big name at the time,) Pierre De La Rue, a very well proclaimed vocalist (The New York Time Company 2012, March 23. Top 8 Renaissance Composers Retrieved from http://classicalmusic.about.com.) One such composer whose name is still heard pretty often would be Johann Sebastian Bach; he is considered as one of the faces of classical music. Like all of us, he started out with baby steps, slowly learning the ways of music. Bach came from a family of musicians who brought him into the whole scene; his father was a director and had several uncles who were musicians (Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2000.)
Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner stretched the limits of music and stood among the elite composers of this great age of musical accomplishment. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was born in a small village in Doborjan, Hungary. Franz came from a musical background. His father worked, as Hadyn once did, at the Esterhazy estate. Franz was like Mozart in that he was somewhat of a child prodigy.
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1750-1825) THE CLASSICAL PERIOD OF MUSIC 1) TIME OF GREAT MUSICAL EXPERIMENTATION AND DISCOVERY 2) CENTERS AROUND ACHIEVEMENTS OF VIENNESE SCHOOL A) HAYDN B) MOZART C) BEETHOVEN 3) THREE CHALLENGING PROBLEMS A) EXPLORE MAJOR-MINOR SYSTEM TO ITS FULLEST B) TO PERFECT A LARGE FORM OF ABSOLUTE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC (THE SONATA CYCLE) C) TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ITS (SONATA CYCLE) VARIOUS TYPES 1) SONATA 2) CONCERTO SYMPHONY 3) ELEMENTS OF THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 1) ELEGANT AND LYRICAL MELODIES A) ELEGANT AND LYRICAL MELODIES B) CLEAR-CUT CADENCES 2) THE HARMONIES THAT SUSTAINED THESE MELODIES A) FIRMLY ROOTED IN THE KEY RHYTHM 3) A) MUSIC WAS IN EITHER 2, 3, 4, OR 6/8 B) STAYED IN RHYTHMIC STYLE IT BEGAN WITH 4) FORM A) UNFOLDED
Haydn was able to begin immediately his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician. During this arduous time, Haydn worked at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually, in 1752, as valet–accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Propora, from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition" Franz Joseph Haydn is the composer who, more than any other, epitomizes the aims and achievements of the Classical era. Perhaps his most important achievement was that he developed and evolved in countless subtle ways the most influential structural principle in the history of music: his perfection of the set of expectations known as sonata form made an epochal impact. In hundreds of instrumental sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies, Haydn both broke new ground and provided durable models; indeed, he was among the creators of these fundamental genres of classical music. His influence upon later composers is immeasurable; Haydn's most illustrious pupil, Beethoven, was the direct beneficiary of the elder master's musical imagination, and Haydn's shadow lurks within (and sometimes looms over) the music of composers like Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.
Vivaldi was a master of the violin and is widely known as the composer of concertos which is a form of music with a small orchestra and solo lead instrument. He was a prolific composer and is well known for composing over 500 concertos, 46 Operas, 73 sonatas, chamber music, and sacred music. Vivaldi was the first composer to use ritornello form regularly in fast movements, and his use of it became a model for later composers. Vivaldi repeatedly looked for contrasting harmonies, creating new melodies and themes. His main goal was to create a musical piece that was meant to be appreciated by a large population opposed to only a certain group of people.
With his command of large-scale musical form, as well as his attention to secular text-setting, Du Fay set the stage for the next generations of Renaissance composers. By about 1500, European art music was dominated by Franco-Flemish composers, the most prominent of whom was Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450–1521). Like many leading composers of his era, Josquin traveled widely throughout Europe, working for patrons in Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Milan, Rome, Ferrara, and Condé-sur-L'Escaut. The exchange of musical ideas among the Low Countries, France, and Italy led to what could be
“The King of Swing: Benny Goodman and his Lasting Influences” Known as the “King of Swing”, Benny Goodman used his love of jazz and classical music to propel a career that spanned nearly six decades and drove jazz varieties to unprecedented levels of popularity. His influences on music included the introduction of the Swing Era, the propulsion of Bebop, and the commission of some of the greatest classical clarinet compositions of all time. Yet Goodman was more than a musician, and his desire to achieve perfection led him to break racial barriers in the music scene at a time when the nation was deeply divided by color. Born to a large, poverty stricken family in 1909, Benny Goodman first discovered the clarinet at age 10 (“Benny Goodman”, 2011). Two years later, while playing onstage at a small regional show, he caught the ear of bandleader Ben Pollack and was given a spot in Pollack’s band.
The Dominant Style of the 18th Century The eighteenth century is characterized by the period of Enlightenment. It was during this period that music and culture flourished across Europe as people everywhere promoted universal education, individual faith, practical morality, and social equality. Amidst the cultural and musical shift that took place during this time, two styles, known as galant and empfindsam, stood out as two of the dominant musical styles of the Classical Period. This paper will use Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Sonata in A Major and the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata in F Major, K.332 to explain the galant and empfindsam style as well as discuss the ideals of the Enlightenment and the social developments of the period as they relate to music making. Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach was one of the most influential musicians of the Enlightenment.