MUSC 2B Theory 2 – Dr. Anderman A Brief Overview of Musical Style Periods

Style period Texture Forms Harmonic language Middle Ages (500 – 1450) Monophonic. Vocally based - Vocal: plainchant mass, secular Modal. Beginnings of through Leonin (from the fall of the Roman instruments usually doubled or song organum (700-900), move towards Perotin Empire to the Renaissance) accompanied voices in the 13th century. Machaut (.) Instrumental: estampie Renaissance (1450 – 1600) Polyphonic choral music Vocal: madrigal, motet, mass, Modal, though leaning toward a major / Josquin becomes the dominant musical minor (tonal) system. Gradual Palestrina texture. Instrumental music development of a triadic harmonic Monteverdi grows in popularity. Instrumental: canzona, ricercare language. Earliest use of dynamics Baroque (1600 – 1750) While vocal music moves Vocal: , cantata, oratorio replaces modality – clear Vivaldi (from the production of the toward homophony, major / minor key centers with Bach first opera to the death of J.S. polyphonic instrumental music Instrumental: toccata, fugue, secondary chords and modulation; Handel Bach) gains in prominence. dance suites, concerto grosso harmony defined by the basso continuo

Classical (1750 – 1825) Generally homophonic, Instrumental: symphony, solo Tonal – generally less ornate and Haydn (from the death of Bach to the emphasis on balance and concerto, sonata chromatic than ; basso Mozart end of the Napoleonic Era) symmetry. Instrumental music continuo abandoned Beethoven surpasses vocal music in Vocal: opera, choral works prominence. Romantic (1825 – 1900) Homophonic, emphasis on Instrumental: program music & Extended tonality – highly chromatic, Schubert (from the end of the personal expression. Taken to tone poems; piano music increasing dissonance, remote Schumann Napoleonic Era to the turn of extremes of scale (miniature modulations, and non-functional Chopin the 20th century) and grand); expanded Vocal: art songs, song cycles, harmony Brahms dynamics and timbral colors opera Post-Romanticism and Homophonic with particular Less emphasis on strict forms – Tonal centers are retained, but Debussy Impressionism emphasis on the sound quality highly individualized and often functional harmony is replaced by Satie (1875 – 1920) of individual chords rather based on visual models increased use of modes and synthetic Ravel than their functionality scales Strauss Modern (1900 – present) Often homophonic, but with Highly individualized Atonality, serialism and other harmonic Schoenberg renewed interest in polyphonic approaches Stravinsky textures Bartok and Early (Dixieland) jazz has Traditional song forms are often Retains the extended tonal system of Armstrong (1900 – present) polyphonic elements, but most re-interpreted through the 19th century largely abandoned in Ellington popular music is primarily improvisation modern “art” music Davis homophonic