Click on a time period for notes given in class

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MIDDLE AGES (450 – 1450)

Rome, Italy, France, Germany

Hildegard of Binen, Perotin, Leonin, Landini, Machaut

Monophonic music dominant

Instruments are used sparingly

Polyphony begins c.700 – 900 (becomes dominate by the 14th century)

School of Notre Dame (measured rhythm)

 

RENAISSANCE ERA (1450 – 1600)

Italy, France, England

Low Countries (Flanders) – included parts of the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France.

Composers from Flanders were referred to as Flemish

Josquin, Palestrina, Gabrieli

Rise of Instrumental Music (vocal music still dominated)

Music printing began

Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Golden Era of Polyphony

Secular vocal music becomes popular

 

BAROQUE ERA (1600 – 1750)

Italy, France, Germany, England

Beginnings of Opera

Figured Bass

Major-minor scale system created

Instrumental music now equal of vocal

Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach (era ends with Bach’s death), Handel

 

CLASSICAL ERA (1750 – 1820)

Germany, Austria

Symphony, String Quartet

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (era ends around the time of Beethoven’s death - 1827)

 

ROMANTIC ERA (1820 – 1900)

Germany, Eastern Europe, Spain

Beethoven spans eras

Expansive forms, ensembles

Program Music

Ethnic Elements

Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, R. Schumann, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mahler

 

20th CENTURY (1900 – PRESENT)

Impressionism

Primitivism

Expressionism

Folk Elements

Experimentalists

Electronics

Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Ives, Gershwin, Copland