In the 18th century, Handel developed the genre with superb solo arias, and Gluck's Orfeo showed how a libretto's musical and dramatic possibilities could be fully exploited. Opera is generally said to have originated about 400 years ago with Monteverdi. "The Ride of the Valkyries" from Wagner's The Ring Folk melodies and popular song inspired the music of Sibelius, Dvořák, Elgar and Richard Strauss. Whereas previous composers had used dramatic key changes and dissonant chords for expressive effect, Wagner used them continuously to create emotional weight and tension.ĭebussy and Ravel introduced new rhythm patterns and new types of harmony, some based on unconventional scales. Symphonies began to extend over an hour in length, in contrast to the 20-30 minutes of the Classical period.Ĭhamber and choral music declined in importance, but secular song remained popular.Īs the 19th century drew to a close, Romantic composers wrote for increasingly large orchestras and experimented with new kinds of expressive effects. Rhythmic energy and experimentation became important expressive devices, as did the unusual, dissonant chords used by Beethoven. Working during the early to mid-1800s, Romantic composers sought dramatic ways to express their feelings. The symphony came into its own, and some of the finest operas were written. The formal beauty of 18th-century compositions gave way to the "Romantic" period, in which emotional expression was paramount. The sonata reached perfection in late-18th-century Vienna-by then the world's music capital-in the work of Haydn, Mozart, Gluck and the young Beethoven.ĭebussy, "Clair De Lune" movement from Suite Bergamasque The symphony became the most important orchestral form the sonata emerged as the most important form of instrumental music as a whole. It was emotionally restrained, with a new emphasis on a single, tuneful melody in place of Baroque polyphony. Both also helped develop a clear and formal system of key changes and scales that gave music a new technical precision.ĭuring the 1700s and early 1800s, music retained much of the formality of the Baroque period. Both composers brought the twin traditions of polyphonic melody and harmonic chords together in a highly sophisticated way. The most celebrated violins and cellos ever made were produced during this period by Nicolo Amati of Cremona, Italy, whose pupils included Antonio Stradivari.īaroque music reached its finest expression during the late 1600s and early 1700s, in the work of Bach and Handel.īach wrote mainly church music (particularly Passions, religious cantatas and organ pieces), whereas Handel's work was mostly dramatic (opera, oratorios and secular cantatas). Instrumental music rose in popularity through the widespread use of the harpsichord and organ. New instrumental forms also emerged: the sonata (for solo instruments) and the concerto (for a solo instrument backed by an orchestra). A new style of religious music developed-oratorio-written for solo voices, chorus and orchestra. It rejected Renaissance serenity for dramatic contrasts in tone, volume and pace. In the early 1600s, Baroque style emerged in Italy. J S Bach: Harpsichord Concerto No 1, Allegro. It became popular in Elizabethan England and helped bolster the trend toward secular music. The madrigal-a form of secular song in five or six parts-was invented in about 1530 in the Netherlands and Italy. The northern European tradition of elaborate polyphony merged with the southern (mainly Italian) taste for chords and harmonies. In the Renaissance, instrumental music emerged as a separate style from vocal music, and tunes were written specifically for particular instruments. It’s not until music makes its way into Western society that historians begin to form a clearer picture of how antiquated music blossomed into what we listen to today.Įxample of a monophonic Gregorian chant, "Deum Verum" The Hurrians, a people so ancient as to have been all but forgotten, notated complete songs as early as 1400 BC-but aside from what we’ve learned through a few remaining relics, we’ve got a tenuous grasp on how large a part music played in their culture. The Ancient Egyptians played harps, flutes and clarinets-but it’s difficult to even to guess what their creations sounded like. In the millennia that followed, primitive instruments-as simple as the human voice or as intricate as the lute-evolved greatly, as did the uses to which they were put. Though researchers are still trying to discern exactly how long music, in any form, has existed, the oldest instruments ever discovered date back about 42,000 years. Hurrian "Hymn 6" is the oldest recorded melody, dating from 1400BC King help lay the groundwork for the meteoric rise of The Beatles? In a new series, we trace music from its origins to the present day. How did we progress from Gregorian chants to orchestral symphonies? And how did B.B.
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