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Composers

Plainchant, Organum
- Plainchant (Gregorian chant) is form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin, developed during the 9th and 10th centuries.
- The music of the Roman Rite.
- Organum is a melodic line of a plainchant accompanied by an additional voice, usually at a fixed interval below it. It began developing in the 9th Century, creating early forms of counterpoint and the beginning of harmony.
Hildegard of Bingen, 1098 - 1179
- German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, mystic.
- Her music is monophonic, that is, consisting of exactly one melodic line.
- Her most famous works are Ordo Virtutum, a musical morality play and...
- Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Heavanly Relations), 77 litugical liturgical chants.
Vernacular song, 1100–1350
- Troubadours (southern France), Trouvères (northern France), Minnesänger (Germany/Austria)
- Monophonic secular song, probably accompanied by instruments, sung by professional, occasionally itinerant,
- Bernart de Ventadorn is one of the the most important troubadours.
Polyphony, Counterpoint
Polyphony and counterpoint
- The Notre-Dame school (Léonin, Pérotin) is associated with a highly florid or “melismatic” (having several pitches to a syllable) style of organum.
- Motet, A polyphonic vocal composition, usually with a sacred text, emerged in the 13th, 14th cent.
Ars Nova
- A treatise by Philippe de Vitry (ca. 1320) describing changes in rhythmic notation.
- A style of polyphonic music including new meters and rhythmic flexibility.
- Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300 - 1377), most important composer of French Ars Nova period.

Renaissance, 1400 - 1600

  • Humanism
  • Scientific Revolution, 1543 - 1687
  • The Mass was the central form of sacred music in the Renaissance period. Composers such as Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, and William Byrd wrote elaborate polyphonic settings of the Mass texts, divided into sections like Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
    - Example: "Missa Pange Lingua" by Josquin des Prez
  • Motets and madrigals were particularly popular during the Renaissance period.
  • Motets were usually sacred compositions, often setting Latin texts to music, and featuring intricate polyphony. Composers like Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, and William Byrd were known for their exquisite motets.
    - Example: "Ave Maria" by William Byrd
  • Madrigals were secular compositions, focusing on topics like love and nature with a short poem as the text. While some madrigals had moments of homophony (where all voices move together rhythmically), the overall structure often involves polyphony. Madrigals were known for word painting, where the music mirrored the meaning of the lyrics. For example, a rising melody might accompany lyrics about ascending to heaven.
Guillaume Du Fay, 1397 - 1474
- Associated with composers of the Burgundian School, particularly his colleague Gilles Binchois.
- His most admired work, the polyphonic motet Nuper Rosarum Flores, celebrated the consecration of Filippo Brunelleschi's dome for the Florence Cathedral.
Josquin des Prez, ca. 1450/1455 – 1521
- Best-recognised figure of the Franco-Flemish School of composition.
- Miserere mei Deus, the Renaissance period’s most revered setting of Psalm 50.
- Ave Maria, Virgo serena, Josquin’s most famous and influential motet.
Thomas Tallis, ca. 1505/23 - 1585
- English composer, known primarily for his sacred vocal music.
- Spem In Alium, a 40-part motet for eight choirs of five voices each, considered by some to be the greatest piece of English early music.
Palestrina (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) 1525 – 1594
- Italian composer who was the central representative of the Roman School.
- Primarily known for his masses and motets, which number over 105 and 250 respectively.
- His most famous mass setting is the Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass)
Orlande de Lassus, 1532 – 1594
- Chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school.
- He composed over 2,000 works in a variety of vocal genres, including motets, Italian madrigals and villanellas, French chansons, and German lieder.
- His best known work is his penitential psalms, Psalmi Davidis Poenitentiales (1584).
William Byrd, late 1400s – 1600s
- English composer, renowned for his masses, motets, and keyboard works.
- He wrote various types of church music, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music.
- His works include three masses (for three, four, and five voices).
Italian Madrigals, 1530 – 1600s
- Often texts by major poets, such as Petrarch and Tasso.
- Through-composed, new music for every line, and no repeated lines.
- The importance of the text and its dramatic expression through music, contributed to the development of opera around 1600.
English Madrigal School
- Flourishing in England during the late Renaissance, the English Madrigal School was known for its compositions of secular vocal music, particularly madrigals.
- Prominent composers of this school included Thomas Morley, Thomas Weelkes, and John Wilbye.
Florentine Camerata
- The Florentine Camerata was a group of intellectuals, musicians, and poets who gathered in Florence, Italy, during the late Renaissance.
- They aimed to revive ancient Greek drama and sought to create a new style of music that closely aligned with the emotional expression of the text. This movement had a significant impact on the development of opera.
The Rise of Instrumental Music
- During the Renaissance, an growing number of instrumental works were written down (preserved).
- Major types of early instrumental music include dance music, arrangements of vocal music, and abstract instrumental works.
- Dances include the basse dance, parvane, galliard, allemande.
- Abstract forms developed from the practice of improvisation and include the prelude, fantasia, ricercare and tocatta.

Baroque, 1600 - 1750

  • Battle of Vienna - 1683
  • Enlightenment, 1715 - 1789
  • English Civil War, 1642 - 1660
Harmonic developments
- Transition from medieval modes to functional tonality, with major and minor scales.
- Use of chords, especially triads, the basic building block of functional harmony. See harmony.
- Shift from interwoven melodic lines to progressions, which are sequences of triads. See triad.
- Shift from complex polyphonic textures of five or more voices to simpler textures that emphasize the bass line and melody. See also monody and textures.
- Use of basso continuo, also called continuo, thoroughbass, or figured bass, a system of partially improvised accompaniment played on a bass line, usually on a keyboard instrument.
Opera, 1600s -
- Quintessential art of the 17th cent.
- The Florentine Camerata, discovering that Ancient Greek theater was sung, advocated for setting dramatic texts to music.
- In the Renaissance, several musical-vocal genres, the madrigal, the oratorio, the intermedio and the ballet de cour, paved the way for the birth of opera.
- The first opera was Dafne, Jacopo Peri, 1597.
- Francesca Caccini (1687-1641) first woman to write opera, the “Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina” (1625)
- Oratorio, similar to opera but without staging.
Claudio Monteverdi, 1567 - 1643, Mantua, Venice
Opera, L'Orfeo - earliest opera still regularly staged, Madrigals
Barbara Strozzi, 1619–1677
Italian singer and composer of vocal works
Henry Purcell, 1659 - 1695, London
Dido and Aeneas, first English opera
Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1683 - 1764
French composer and music theorist
Best known for his operas Castor et Pollux and Les Indes galantes
George Frideric Handel, 1685 - 1759, London
Italian Operas, Oratorios, Music for the Crown
Christoff Willibald Gluck, 1714 - 1787, Vienna
Reformed opera, Orfeo ed Euridice
Instrumental and Sacred Music
Arcangelo Corelli, 1653 - 1713, Rome
1st to focus primarily on instrumental works, Sonatas, Trio Sonatas, Concerti Grossi
Antonio Vivaldi, 1678 - 1741
Venetian composer, virtuoso violinist
Composed more than 500 concertos
Georg Philipp Telemann, 1681 - 1767
German composer
More than 3,000 compositions, including 1,043 sacred cantatas and 600 overture-suites.
"Tafelmusik" consists of three orchestral suites and three chamber trios. The chamber trios showcase the interplay between violin, flute, and continuo, with lively and charming melodies.
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 - 1750, Leipzig
Organist, Cantatas, Concerti Grossi, Counterpoint, Keyboard
Domenico Scarlatti, 1685 - 1757
Italian composer and harpsichordist
Known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas

Classical, 1750 - 1820

  • French Revolution, 1789 – 1799
  • Industrial Revolution, 1760 - 1840
  • Napoleon becomes Emperor - 1804
Franz Joseph Haydn, 1732 - 1809, Vienna
Symphonies, String Quartets
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 - 1791, Vienna
Opera, Symphonies, Sonatas, Concertos
Luigi Cherubini, 1760 - 1842
Italian composer of operas and sacred music.
The opera Medea is his best know work.

Transitional

Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770 - 1827, Vienna
Symphonies, Sonatas, Concertos
Franz Schubert, 1797 - 1828, Vienna
Lieder (lē dər, songs - sg. lied, lēt), Symphonies, Chamber Music
Carl Marie von Weber, 1786 - 1826, Dresden
Conductor, Pianist, Der Freischütz (The Marksman)

Romantic Period, 1820 - 1900

  • On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin - 1859
Gioachino Rossini, 1792 - 1868, Naples, Paris
Composer, Bel Canto opera
  • Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
  • Guillaume Tell (William Tell)
Gaetano Donizetti, 1797 - 1848, Rome, Naples, Milan, Paris, Vienna
Composer, Bel Canto opera
  • L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love)
  • Lucia di Lammermoor
Vincenzo Bellini, 1801 - 1835, Naples, Milan
Composer, Bel Canto opera
  • Norma
Hector Berlioz, 1803 - 1869, Paris
First French Romantic, Autobiographical Symphony fantastique, Expanded the orchestra, Did not play an instrument

The Pianists

Fanny Mendelssohn, 1805 - 1847, Berlin
Pianist, Composer
Felix Mendelssohn, 1809 - 1847, Leipzig
Pianist, Composer
Conservative musical tastes
Frédéric Chopin, 1810 - 1849, Warsaw, Paris
Composer, Pianist, Teacher, Romance with George Sand
mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, ballades, études, impromptus, scherzi, preludes
Franz Liszt, 1811 - 1886, Paris, Weimar
Pianist, Composer, Teacher, Affairs with Countess Marie d'Agoult (Cosima) and Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
First Symphonic Poems; Inspired by Hungarian and Romani Folk Tunes
Robert Schumann, 1810 - 1856, Leipzig, Dresden, Düsseldorf
Composer, Pianist
Clara Schumann, 1819 - 1896, Leipzig, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt
Composer, Pianist
Johannes Brahms, 1833-1897
Combined Classical forms and structure with a Romantic expressiveness in his compositions.

Opera Titans

Giuseppe Verdi, 1813 - 1883, German
Composer
Aida, Don Carlos, Falstaff, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Otello, Rigoletto
Richard Wagner, 1813 - 1901, Italian
Composer, Conductor
  • Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), Tannhäuser, Lohengrin
  • Der Ring des Nibelungen:
    • Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)
    • Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)
    • Siegfried
    • Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
  • Tristan und Isolde