Serialism

In 1923, Arnold Schoenberg developed a new technique of composing music. He called this the "twelve tone system". He used all twelve notes in the octave. At that time, music was played in the same key until this new system of course. In twelve tone music, all 12 notes are equal and there is no key note. It's called "atonal". All music at the time was tonal, and composers seemed to think that every new way of writing and composing had already been done. Notes were organized so that similar notes were heard together, in the same key, making beautiful sounds that were great to listen to. In twelve tone music however, no note was repeated until the eleven others were heard..

To me, serialism is not very pleasing to listen to. It sounds like someone is picking up an instrument for the first time and trying to play it. But it is also brilliant to me because of the way it is written. It can be written in codes. Like taking a series of numbers and assigning each number a random note. This is why it's called serialism; like serial numbers on a manufactured item.

Schoenberg taught two pupils that later became a little famous for their work. (Alban Berg and Anton Webern) Soon, others who could understand and appreciate twelve tone music began to write it in a slightly different way. Benjamin Britten added tonal music AND atonal music together. I think this sounded a lot better than plain atonal music.

Serialism

Romantic Music!

The Romantic era produced many more composers whose names and music are still familiar and popular today: Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner are perhaps the most well-known, but there are plenty of others who may also be familiar, including Strauss, Verdi, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Puccini, and Mahler. Ludwig van Beethoven, possibly the most famous composer of all, is harder to place. His early works are from the Classical period and are clearly Classical in style. But his later music, including the majority of his most famous music, is just as clearly Romantic. (Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, ten violon sonatas, and a few piano trios).

Sometimes a new style of music happens when composers forcefully reject the old style. Early Classical composers, for example, were determined to get away from what they considered the excesses of the Baroque style. Modern composers also were consciously trying to invent something new and very different.

The romantic era lasted from 1850 to about 1910.

The main difference between Classical and Romantic music came from attitudes towards these "rules". In the eighteenth century, composers were primarily interested in forms, melodies, and harmonies that provided an easily-audible structure for the music. In the first movement of a sonata, for example, each prescribed section would likely be where it belonged, the appropriate length, and in the proper key. In the nineteenth century, the "rules" that provided this structure were more likely to be seen as boundaries and limits that needed to be explored, tested, and even defied. For example, the first movement of a Romantic sonata may contain all the expected sections as the music develops, but the composer might feel free to expand or contract some sections or to add unexpected interruptions between them. The harmonies in the movement might lead away from and back to the tonic just as expected, but they might wander much further afield than a Classical sonata would, before they make their final return.

It was also acceptable for music to clearly be from a particular place. People of many eras enjoyed an opera set in a distant country, complete with the composer's version of exotic-sounding music. But many nineteenth-century composers (including Weber, Wagner, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Grieg, Dvorak, Sibelius,and Albeniz) used folk tunes and other aspects of the musical traditions of their own countries to appeal to their public. Much of this nationalistic music was produced in the post-Romantic period, in the late nineteenth century; in fact, the composers best known for folk-inspired classical music in England (Holst and Vaughan Williams) and the U. S. (Ives, Copland, and Gershwin) were twentieth-century composers who composed in Romantic, post-Romantic, or Neoclassical styles instead of embracing the more severe Modernist styles.

Some of the characteristics of romanic music were this:

• A freedom in form and design; a more intense personal expression of emotion in which fantasy, imagination and a quest for adventure play an important part.
• Emphasis on lyrical, songlike melodies; adventurous modulation; richer harmonies, often chromatic, with striking use of discords.
• Greater sense of ambiguity: especially in tonality or harmonic function, but also in rhythm or meter.
• Denser, weightier textures with bold dramatic contrasts, exploring a wider range of pitch, dynamics and tone-colours.
• Expansion of the orchestra, sometimes to gigantic proportions; the invention of the valve system leads to development of the brass section whose weight and power often dominate the texture.
• Rich variety of types of piece, ranging from songs and fairly short piano pieces to huge musical canvasses with lengthy time-span structures with spectacular, dramatic, and dynamic climaxes.
• Closer links with other arts lead to a keener interest in programme music (programme symphony, symphonic poem, concert overture).
• Greater technical virtuosity – especially from pianists, violinists and flautists.

Here's a link to more information. http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-rom.htm

Amadeus

Amadeus is a movie based on the lives of the 2 composers Mozart and Salieri in the 18th century. It is set in Vienna, Austria.

It starts by showing Salieri as an old man. He locked himself in a room, and tried to kill him as he yelled apologies for killing Mozart. I thought he was dead in the beginning, but he didn't. Then, he is out into an asylum. A priest comes in to talk to him about what happened, and to get a confession. Salieri doesn't really want to talk to the priest at first, but he ends up talking to him.

Salieri tells how he wanted to become a composer at an early age. His father wanted him to do something else, but when his father suddenly choked at dinner, Salieri took it as a sign. He thought God wanted him to be a composer. It flashes forward to Salieri as an adult, a court composer in Vienna. Salieri next meets Mozart, but they weren't really introduced. His opinion of him completeky changes, and he thinks he is childish.

Salieri had prepared a Welcome March for Mozart as he met the emperor, and the emperor and his court thought it was great. But Mozart, only hearing it once, played it for them again adding things to it and making it better. Salieri wasn't too happy about this, and he started to envy Mozart even more. But he still thinks his music is perfect and amazing.

Salieri decides to disguise himself as Mozart's father, and asks him to write a requiem mass. He gives him money, and promises there will be a lot more. Mozart doesn't know that as soon as he writes it, Salieri's plot to kill him will work. Salieri doesn't think about how he will kill Mozart, he only thinks about how the court will praise him when he steals Mozart's work.

Mozart continues to srruggle financially, and work on the pieces, soon causing his wife to leave him. He finally finishes, but collapses during the performance from exhaustion. The movie ends with Salieri finishing his story to the priest, who is shocked. He says that God killed Mozart, and is taken away in his wheelchair.

I think this was a great movie overall, but it isn't historically accurate. From what I have read, they were only accquaintances in their time. Mozart supposedly died of a fever...

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Amadeus_(film) I got most of my information from here. http://www.csci-snc.com/WhatKilledMozart.htm

Baroque Period

      The Baroque Period was during 1600 to 1750. The baroque period can be put into three 50 year sub groups: Early Baroque, Middle Baroque, and Late Baroque.

      During the Early Baroque period, Monteverdi was a popular Italian composer. His music marked the transition from the Renaissance period to the Baroque period. Some say he was one of the earliest composers using polyphony. He also wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo. It is still performed today.

      In the Middle Baroque period, Henry Purcell and Jean Baptiste Lully were famous.. Lully was a French composer whose music was known for its power and liveliness but also for its deep emotion.  Some of his most popular works are his passacaille and chaconne which are dance movements. He introduced ballets and rhythm. Lully's music is still played regularly via recordings at the Palace of Versailles during the summertime in the gardens. Henry Purcell was an English composer however. His music incorporated Italian and French elements into it, but it was still considered a unique form of English music.

      In the Late Baroque period, several composers were well known. Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi were some of them.
Bach was a court musician who eventually became a composer. His family was also full of composers and musicians and such. (he was German)  His most famous works include The Brandenberg Concertos, Well-Tempered Clavier and Art of the Fugue. His fame during his lifetime was mostly due to his skills on the organ, but he today he is viewed as an excellent composer.
Handel was a European composer who is well known for writing an oratorio called Messiah. He composed operas while still living in Germany. He later lived in Italy. Handel's most famous works include Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and Zadok the Priest.
Vivaldi was an Italian priest who became a composer. During his time, he was a very influential composer. He is known mainly for composing concertos, (mostly for the violin) as well as 40 operas. His best known violin concerto is The Four Seasons.
After the Baroque period, what is known as the Classical period came ''next''. Music from the Baroque period is appreciated today, and still influences artists.
I got a lot of my information from this website. http://www.ask.com/wiki/Baroque_music 

(to be continued, still need to add pictures and more links...)

Assignment #2...

This assignment is about music during the Medieval Period. It lasted from about 235 AD and ended in 550 AD.  I am going to discuss music in China. In the Medieval Period, Europe was going through harder times, but China was flourishing. New arts and literary work were being established. Below is everything I could find about music in China during the Medieval period. I spent awhile researching it, and I think it was very challenging to find even a paragraph of good information.

This is some kind of guitar or banjo.

The Warring States period (476-221 BC) was an era of importance in Chinese history. Confucius divided this music into two main genres: refined court music (ya yue) and local music. (sa yue). Early Chinese music went through a great transformation during the medieval period, during the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties. During these dynasties China’s borders expanded, and music from other countries blended with Chinese music. In the Sui Dynasty, banquet music was popular. This music was played at feasts and dances. During this era, many foreign instruments were beginning to be used. A group of musician figures from the Sui dynasty emerged.They were a group of 8 female musicians who used various instruments including the sheng (mouth organ), pipa (lute), flutes, gongs, and cymbals.

Flutes.

A Chinese drum.

There isn't much known about music during Medieval times in China, or other countries. I think that there wasn't much written record of things that happened musically in that time. I found planty on their system of governing and political changes, also their religion. I have a few questions about music in China, a few of them being: Was there even time to write music in China during this time, or were people too concerned with surviving? Will people today ever know what music was like in China? Will the future know about music today?

Who knows?

Here are some links to web-sites that helped find information. Click here, or here. For the second one you have to scroll down kind of far. The first link was much more useful. I hope you enjoy this blog post. :) Here is also a good website with pictures of instruments from China.

Music History Assignment.

   Hello. This post is going to be about music history, starting with the 20th century. One of the newest types of music is electronic, which uses computer-made beats as the main part of a song.
   During the 1990s, alternative rock, pop, and rap were very popular. Music from this decade was quickly changing from the music in the 80s. The style and lyrics from both times were very different. The compact discs were becoming more popular than cassettes which somewhat encouraged people to buy more music and enjoy it in a different way.To me, music from the 90s was a bit gloomy. Not all of it, but some of it was.
   In the 1980s, most of the music was upbeat with a lot of rhythm. Music during this period had a lot of catchy melodies. New Wave, Synthpop, Rock, and a new genre called Metal were popular at this time. And of course, Pop was still popular as it was in 70s. Dance music was popular in this time also. World music was becoming popular also, this gave people new beats and rhythms from around the world to listen to. The popularity of vinyl records was declining.

   The 1970s was a time that had a lot of new genres emerging. The first rap song was released in 1979... (destroying music forever... just kidding.) Music in this time had so much rhythm. A lot of new rock bands had established after the psychadelic time was pretty much over with. The deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison had left people wanting newer music. The breakup of The Beatles had left people waiting on something new. There's a pic down there. But by the end of the year, each of them had made a solo album. Rock, disco, pop, and country music had new artists, but yet some of them from the 60s were still popular.

  The 60s was basically about psychadelic rock and pop. The Beatles were one of the most popular pop bands of this time, since they started making music in 1963.There were also many big bands popular in this time. The 40s and 50s also had this. Country music was becoming popular in the 30s and 40s, along with Jazz.

During the 20s and back to the 1900s, Orchestra music was popular. Music like this was played in Carnagie Hall in New York which opened in the late 1800s.
   Music in the 1800s sometimes was used in plays. Johannes Brahms completes his First Symphony  in this time. This time period was 1825-1900. Music then was starting to tell stories, rather than just be a composition. Composers also found ways to make their musical ideas represent people, things, and dramatic situations as well as emotional states and even philosophical ideas.

   The classical era was from 1750-1825. In this time, simplicity, balance and an interest in real emotions were important for the composer. Art and literature were set aside, and music became more essential to people. Being a composer was starting to be looked at as more of a occupation than a hobby. Beethoven and Mozart were popular during this time, even though I think their music was different in many ways. Below is a manuscript of Beethoven's, which gives an idea of the notation of his time.

   The next period was the baroque period, which lasted from 1600 to 1750. Musicians here thought that music could embrace a person in a real and physical way. Opera was the main idea of this theory, it was a blend of music and drama. Composers also made effects on their pieces, when they were used in plays. Vocal and instrumental music developed in Europe, and new types of instruments were made. Many of them were woodwinds. Composers made up new types of techniques unique to themselves, and showed them in their pieces. the instruments often blended with the voices in a compostion.

   The Renaissance period was from 1450 to 1600. This period was a time of rebirth and classical learning, many things were going on, but not just with music. Music books were printed, and many people gave new interests to it. Governments and courts appreciated music as they had never done before in this time. Musical supports was given by churches. The rhythms alternated in different pieces, with smooth sounds to them. The melodies were balanced, and simple dances went with them. There were many Italian composers who were popular during the Renaissance period.

   The final time period I am going to talk about is the Middle Ages, they lasted from 1450 to 400, making this time very long. Music was basically either homophonic or polyphonic, because polyphony had just started to be used.  It was also the beginning of musical notation. Before this time, all music was written for the church, and this changed with the start of the Middle Ages. This is an overview of the time periods of music, from the newest, back to the oldest known. Here is a Link to a music timeline! I used the ideas from this for this post. This one is pretty good too.

Adding Images. Woo.

Pink Floyd! :D
I love this band, but this picture is kind of old. Oh well. :)