Week 4 Review Questions
Review Questions
- Compare the characteristics of music in the Baroque era and music in the Renaissance era. Describe several primary differences. Please write a minimum of complete one-two paragraphs. Make sure you have an introduction sentence, supporting information (minimum of three sentences), and a conclusion sentence for each paragraph. (5 points)
Some of the characteristics of the Baroque and Renaissance-era had a minor fix, and some of the characteristics had major changes. The two styles, stile Antico and stile Moderno, existed side by side, particularly in the early Baroque. Composers often wrote in both styles; consequently, a conductor must look beyond the name and dates of a composer to determine the style of the music. Music in the Baroque era became metered, and the barline was used regularly. Tempos in the Music were the same, and they avoided extremely fast or slow tempos. The independent line of polyphony gave way to the concept of a single melodic line supported by chords.
This change coincided with the evolvement of the major and minor systems rather than the modal system of the Renaissance. The modes continued to be used for some time, but the major and minor harmonic structure became more and more important. A wide range of emotions is possible, and warmer tone quality was employed in Baroque Music. Modern instruments are constructed differently than those of the Baroque period; consequently, the tone of our present instruments is considerably different.
In addition to the quality of sound, the balance of instruments and voices must be adjusted. These were some characteristics of the Baroque and Renaissance eras and the impact it has on today’s music. There are many differences between the Baroque and the Renaissance era of music. Some of the characteristics between Baroque era and Renaissance-era Music are: Renaissance era is characterized by smooth polyphony, flowing lines, and homogenous textures while the composers of the Baroque era artists looked for contrast such as loud and soft, solo and tutti or contrasting groups like the different kinds of concerto including vocal motet or instrumental type.
Another difference between the two eras is the role of the bass, instrumental, or vocal is the controlling voice of the harmony in the Baroque, and the role of the bass in the Renaissance normally had the same musical texture as the upper voices. The last difference of many is the polarity of the melodic line, and bass or often of a pair of equal upper lines and bass is a distinguishing feature of Baroque Music. So too is the form of accompaniment that developed to accommodate this new style and its harmonic background: the continuo.
- Identify and describe the characteristics of music in the Classical era. Please write a minimum of complete one-two paragraphs. Make sure you have an introduction sentence, supporting information (minimum of three sentences), and a conclusion sentence for each paragraph.(5 points)
Early Classical symphonies had three movements in a fast-slow-fast format. Another popular type of Classical Music was the solo concerto, which evolved from the Baroque concerto Grosso form. Below are some of the main characteristics of music;
- Emphasis on beauty, elegance, and balance.
Most songs composed in the Classical era all emphasized mainly on elegancy, balance, and, most of all, beauty.
- More variety and contrast within a piece than Baroque (dynamics, instruments, pitch, tempo, key, mood, and timbre).
When it comes to music, the classical era music had more variety within a piece as compared to Baroque.
- Melodies tend to be shorter than those in baroque, with clear-cut phrases, and marked cadences.
As far as music features are concerned, music composed in the classical era tends to have clear-cut phrases and have clear marked cadences.
- Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven were each addressed thoroughly in the Week 4 instructional material. Please write a minimum of one complete paragraph on EACH of these three composers. Make sure you have an introduction sentence, supporting information (minimum of three sentences), and a conclusion sentence for each paragraph. Could you include information on their life/music? (10 points)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite is one of four orchestral suites written by the composer and is his most well-known. It was likely composed in 1730 while Bach was living in Leipzig, although there is very little other information available about the piece’s early years.
Commentator John Keillor speculates that it was most likely fashioned after an earlier piece of Bach’s written around 1720 when the composer was living in Cöthen. It is also possible that Bach wrote more of these orchestral suites. The lighter genre of orchestral music was away from his usual work of composing and performing sacred music and teaching students. Especially compared to contemporary composers like Telemann, Bach wrote very few orchestral suites.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
During Ludwig van Beethoven’s formative years as a composer, the classical concerto was a relatively new genre, having emerged (officially) only months before his birth. This was not the beginning of the concerto itself. Still, as musicologist Roger Fiske explains, there is an “unbridgeable chasm between keyboard concertos Bach wrote in the 1730s, and those Mozart wrote only 50 years later.”
One of the main reasons for this chasm is that the piano was still a new instrument and was only coming into popular use. The harpsichord is unable to produce any real dynamic contrasts and also unable to make itself heard over a full orchestra. This was proving increasingly unsatisfactory to modern composers. The new pianoforte, however, could do both.
Wolfgang Amadè Mozart (1756-1791)
Although certain parts of Mozart’s life and exploits have been exaggerated or even created by centuries of admiration and popular culture, Mozart remains unparalleled as a composer in the collective eye of the twenty-first century.
During the mid-1780s, Mozart was living daringly – that is, he kept himself independent of secure patronage. As musicologist Peter Brown notes, Mozart relied on self-promotion, writing fewer symphonies and more concertos and chamber pieces. It was usual for one of his piano concertos to serve as the focal point of performances during these years, with himself at the keyboard. Symphony, the “Prague,” was composed during this time, along with only five other symphonies, among them the “Haffner,” “Linz,” and “Jupiter.”
Mozart’s Symphony was completed in Vienna in December 1786. It was later titled “Prague” in honor of the city where it was premiered and well received. Although a classical symphony traditionally has four movements, Mozart’s has only threesome musicologists think this point is of such great importance that they call this the “Symphony without Minuet.”
However, as musicologist Sir Donald Francis Tovey points out, this is not the first Symphony to have only three movements. Rather, the more interesting anomaly between this work and others of its kind is the inclusion of a slow introduction, in this case, a longer one than anything in Mozart’s other work.
What composer/performer will you be reporting on for the research paper?
Ludwig van Beethoven