Brian Guay Music History I Research Paper William Byrd was considered a great English composer of his time, one of the greatest. He wrote for several different genres including sacred music, and he also wrote secular vocal and instrumental music. Byrd lived during the Late Renaissance, a time of reformation and change. However, as people were breaking away from the Catholic Church, William Byrd remained Catholic. The church began to use English in services rather than Latin, however Queen Elizabeth allowed Latin to be used in some sacred music (Burkholder, Grout, Palisca, 222).
- The Baroque gave rise to a remarkable variety of musical style, ranging from the expressive monody of Claudio monteverdi (1567-1643) to the complex polyphony of J.S. Bach (1685-1750). -Baroque also introduce many new musical genres--opera, cantata, oratorio, sonata, concerto, and suite -Despite the quick stylistic changes and all the new types of music created, two elements remain constant throughout the Baroque period: an expressive melody and a strong supportive bass. Expressive Melody: - In early Baroque music, the voices are no longer equal. Rather a polarity develops in which the musical emphasis gravitates toward the top and bottom lines.
It fuses the characteristics of the experimental recitative opera (founded by the Florentine Camerata) and also appears to be modelled upon L’Euridice, an opera composed in 1600 by Jacopo Peri, due to the similarities in subject and the mixture of styles used. However, due to the progress made in composition and also due to Monteverdi’s
Ars Nova The Ars Nova in France was started by Philip de Vitry around 1310 and continued through the 1370’s. Ars Nova was known as the “new art” signifying the new French musical style. It made many improvements in music notation and style, however many people were against this and strongly supported the “ancient art”. The new notation required an open mind and reconstruction of musical time. The first change to be made was allowing the “imperfect” and “perfect” divisions of note values and the second divided the semibreve into minims allowing more rhythmic flexibility and new meters, creating for the first time syncopation.
The Gothic era used techniques which are called ‘dual or triple harmonies’. This technique is used widely today in all music, such as classical music to heavy metal. Another awesome innovation in the Gothic period is using instruments to double vocal parts or essentially use polyphonic texture. Mensural
Rameau contributed to a variety of dramatic forms, continuing, in some, the tradition of Lully. These included tragedies lyriques, comedies lyrics and comedies-ballets. His first success in 1733 was Happily et Archie, but as time went on fashions changed and the stage works he wrote after Les Paladins in 1760 remained unperformed. Orchestral suites derived from some of Rameau’s stage works at least make a certain amount of this music readily available. Sixty of Rameau’s 65 harpsichord pieces were written by 1728, with a final group appearing in 1741.
History Essay Word Count: 1,184 Discuss the historical, cultural, and musical aspects of one of Bach’s Passions. Include musical examples when necessary, and place the works within the larger context of German sacred music of the mid–late Baroque era. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Passions, based on the gospels of John and Matthew, mark the pinnacle of his vocal works. I will be focussing on the St. Matthew Passion, a work that “left behind all that had been customary or even conceivable in sacred music at the time.” I will be discussing the historical and cultural impacts this Passion had and also examine its musical aspects within the context of the era of the Baroque that Bach was active in, where he stood out as a master of his art. To understand how this Passion fits into the history and culture that it was conceived in, one must first understand what the Passion is, in this context.
When solo sections occur, they are followed with choral ripieno standard to the period. Mozart uses cantabile, imitative, homophonic, and fugual choral textures that could be easily categorized as Handelian. The Requiem also contains examples of the new style of music that Mozart and his contemporaries creating. He combines huge stile antico contrapuntal statements with
The fourth and final motif “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it” is sung by the tenors and basses and the majority of notes have the same pitch- A. The texture alternates between homophonic and contrapuntal textures, but there are a few short monophonic sections. Handel often combines different motifs to create polyphonic textures. Instruments often double vocal line although usually at different octaves. The composition is in ¾ and maintains a fast tempo (allegro) until the end when it pauses to create a stretched ending.
Initially, the arts were normally reserved for many formal, religious occasions, and were never really practiced for leisure under the British crown. In Colonial America however, there were schools created for the earliest of choral societies, and the most famous of musicians of the time period stressed the creation of music for self expression and leisure. Traveling operas were created; actors performed stage shows, and entertained the colonists from town to town. Due to the harsh climate that the early settlers endured, music became a welcoming escape, and an attractive hobby that many took up for themselves. The creation of arts and crafts became a trending sensation in Colonial America.