Music

The Common Practice Period

• Baroque era: 1600-1760
• Classical era: 1730-1820
• Romantic era: 1780-1910

Characteristics of Common Practice

• Standardized chord progressions
• Avoidance of parallel 5ths and parallel octaves
• Consistent tempo and time signature throughout each piece
• Written music that was meant to be shared and performed

Baroque Era

• Name is actually negative reference to ornateness
• Established opera, concerto, and sonata as popular forms
• Increased demand for organized, public performance
• Lots of development of instruments
• Emphasis on polyphony - lots of layers happening at once

Baroque Composers

• Jean-Baptiste Lully
• Johann Pachelbel
• Antonio Vivaldi
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Georg Frederic Handel

Classical era

• Followed cultural resurgence of emphasis on classics
• Increase in size of ensemble performances
• Emphasis on homophony - melody typically played over supporting music
• Increased use of variety of keys, rhythms, and dynamics
• Focused use of modern instruments

Classical Composers

• Joseph Haydn                              
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Ludwig von Beethoven
• Franz Schubert

Romantic era

• Reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution
• Embodied passion and human emotion
• Drew inspiration from nature and national identities
• Departure from musical conventions and formulas

Romantic Composers

• Felix Mendelssohn                                                          
• Frederic Chopin
• Robert Schumann
• Franz Liszt
• Richard Wagner

Romantic Composers

• Johann Strauss                                                    
• Alexander Borodin
• Johannes Brahms
• Camille Saint-Saens
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Romantic Composers

• Antonin Dvorak                                            
• Edvard Grieg
• Edward Elgar
• Scott Joplin
• Sergei Rachmaninoff