Art Appreciation

Instrumental Music

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Module on
10 Instrumental Music

A recording without vocals is an instrumental, even though certain unarticulated voices, like the shouted
backup vocals in the big band setting, can be included. A wider meaning of the word song can apply to
instrumentals through semantic enlargement. The music is primarily made of musical instruments or solely. A
piece that is played live by a singular instrumentalist or group, which might vary from a Duo or trio, to a large
piece, can be played in a musical notation, once it is composed by a musician; in the mind of the composer
(especially where the composer himself perform the piece as in the case of a blues guitarist or a folk music fiddle
player).
This module will discuss the various genres of music and will introduce you to the notable composers in
each era of music.

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. identify the various genres in music and their development; and
2. name notable composers in each era of music.

GENRES OF MUSIC
A. Baroque Music - known for its great, dramatic and energetic spirit, as well as its stylistic diversity, prevailed
during the period from about 1600 to about 1750. Some of its notable composers are:
1. Johann Sebastian Bach was trained in Eisenach by his father like other composers born to a
musical family. Since his father died in 1695, he visited the schools in Eisenach, Ohrdruf, and
Lüneburg with the pupil Ohrdruf and his uncle Johann Christoph. In 1703, Bach was appointed
organist in Arnstadt, where he remained until 1707, and then in Mühlhausen for one year.

2. Antonio Vivaldi, born in Venice, had been raised as a child in music but an ordained priest in
1703. Although the moniker "Il Prete Rosso," his pictorial surname, soon became the only remnant
of his priesthood while his vocations and striking red hair gained him.

3. George Fredric Handel showed a lot of musical promise in Halle like his friend Telemann but was

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encouraged instead to study law. He became a violinist at the Hamburg Opera House a year later,
while he was admitted in 1702 to the University of Halle. His first two operas, Almira and Nero,
were produced in this town in 1705 and Daphne and Florindo were produced in 1708. Handel then
moved to Italy, first of which was Rodrigo in Venice (1707) and Agrippina in Florence (1708).

4. Arcangelo Corelli was born in Fusignano and studied composition and violin in Bologna, nearby.
After 1675, Corelli was engaged in the concerts of some of Rome's most prominent artistic patrons,
among them the Queen Christina of Sweden.

5. François Couperin (1668) was born in Paris, was the son of the Parisian organist Charles
Couperin (1638–79). Couperin finally became a clapping player on Versailles when he took over
his dad's place at the age of 18. Couperin has been a nonconformist from the beginning of his life.
Couperin divided his works into orders rather than the more traditional suites of his clapsichord
music publications and often avoided standard dance movements to favor evocative bits of
character.

6. Johann Pachelbel, German composer known for his works for organ and one of the great organ
masters of the generation before Johann Sebastian Bach. Pachelbel studied music at Altdorf
and Regensburg and held posts as organist in Vienna, Stuttgart, and other cities. In 1695 he was
appointed organist at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nürnberg, where he remained until his death. He
also taught organ, and one of his pupils was Johann Christoph Bach, who in turn gave his younger
brother Johann Sebastian Bach his first formal keyboard lessons.

7. Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular
vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body
of piano and chamber music.

B. Classical Music - produced or enraptured in Western traditions, both liturgical (religious) and secular. This
article is about the wider time span from the pre-6th century A.D. to this day, which includes the classical
and other periods, although more precisely, it is also used to refer to the period 1750 to 1820 (the Classical
period). The key norms of this era, known as the traditional practice age, were codified between 1550 and
1900.
1. Franz Joseph Haydn was a great composer, who reflected the essence of classical composition,
but his work was always true to form although it wasn't so glamorous as the younger Mozart. Unlike
most composers, Haydn had "trustworthy and reliable" employment with musicians from the royal
Esterhazy house, who were responsible for directing, teaching, performance and management.
During this period, Haydn wrote several musical pieces for the orchestra. He is often called "Father
of the Symphony" or "Father of the String Quartet" by his astonishing work, including more than
100 symphonies and 60 quartet lines.

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 and at the age of five, he became a musical prodigy
who started composition. His dad was able to take his sister with him tours shortly after his talent
was noticed. Mozart died suddenly at 35 years of age. Although his life was short, Mozart advanced
greatly with more than 600 compositions from the classical period. He was even more flamboyant

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in his compositional style and frequently blamed for "too many notes" during his lifetime.

3. Antonio Salieri. The reports of Salieri's poisoning of Mozart may have envied Mozart's artistic
talent, but in reality, speculation. The famous Kapellmeister was Salieri who was best known for
his work on the opera. But Salieri began suddenly composing operas in 1804 and now plays music
for the church. Salieri became Haydn friends and taught Ludwig van Beethoven to compose music.

4. Muzio Clementi was a dominant and articulate proponent of the piano as "The Father of
Pianoforte." Clementi was a musician, a composer, a writer, a teacher, a builder and even an
instrument maker of a large number of musical occupations.

5. Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist whose music ranks amongst the
most performed of the classical music repertoire; he remains one of the most admired composers
in the history of Western music. His works span the transition from the classical period to the
romantic era in classical music.

6. Luigi Boccherini was staying with Haydn. Indeed, musicologists sometimes refer to Boccherini
as the "wife of Haydn." Unfortunately, the music of Bocchernini never surpassed Haydn 's
popularity and, regrettably, died in poverty.

C. Romantic Music - The theory of romanticism, the intellectual and artistic literary movement which became
popular in Europe from about 1800 to 1910. In the context of romantic literature, poetry, art and philosophy,
romantic composers sought to make music that was individual, emotional, dramatic and often programmatic.
Often romantic art was inspired by non-musical stimuli such as nature, literature, poetry or plastic art (or
was tried to evoke them elsewhere).

1. Frederic Chopin was a Polish pianist and composer who was born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,
known for his piano pieces. He specialized in etude, mazurka, night-time, waltz and Polish. He was
able to charge large amounts for private education because of his popularity and his propensity to
work exclusively in intimate settings for social elites.

2. Franz Joseph Liszt is probably one of the greatest pianists to have ever lived Hungarian composer
and pianist. He was a leader and a prominent figure of the New German School. It is recognized
for many aspects, including the capacity of transcripting and popularizing major orchestral works
for the piano.

3. Giuseppe Verdi was a popular Italian composer, including Jerusalem, Rigoletto, Aida and more,
for his operas. He is one of the most famous romantic composers for the ability of his operas to
reach his psyche and lift intense emotion.

4. Clara Wieck Schumann was another great female composer in the Romantic period. She was a
prolific German composer, and pianist. Clara started to visit numerous towns at the age of 8 and
continued to act for more than 60 years.

5. Carl Maria von Weber was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist and critic

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who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, he
was a crucial figure in the development of Romantic Opera.

6. Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor
who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto
and the music for each of his stage works.

7. Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic
period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his
uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann.

8. Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born
in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna.

9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first
Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. He was honored in
1884 by Tsar Alexander III and awarded a lifetime pension.

10. Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a
leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a
successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.

D. Modern Music - The defining characteristic of contemporary music (including modern art in general) is the
breakdown of all conventional aesthetics that unleashes complete freedom in any esthetic dimension
including melody, rhythm and chord growth. Most composers (see Tonality) totally rejected the tradition of
major minor tonality (already heavily emphasized by Wagner and his successors). Only the definition itself
of "rock" has been redefined.

1. Claude Debussy was a French composer born on 22nd of August, 1862 and died on the 25th
March, 1918. Occasionally, although he opposed the concept strongly, he is known as the first
impressionist composer. In the late 19th and the early 20th years, he was the most popular
composer.

2. Arnold Schoenberg. To harmony and development, Schoenberg 's approach became one of the
most influential in harmonic thought in the 20th century. Several composers from Europe and the
USA, from at least three centuries, enlarged his imagination knowingly, while others responded
intensely.

3. Joseph-Maurice Ravel – a French composer, pianist, and director. He and his elder contemporary
Claude Debussy are frequently associated with impressionism, even though the composers
opposed the term. Ravel was considered the best living composer in France in the 1920s and
1930s.

4. John Cage - one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century; was pioneer in the body
of music that he described as 'the current transformation from keyboard based music into all sound
music for the future,' which includes over 16 percussion scores from 1930 to 1950. In the fifties, he

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introduced new methods of composition, incorporating elements of chance and attempts to isolate
the variable from the phase of composition.

5. Philip Glass - raised in Baltimore on 31 January 1937, he trained for the Philip GLASS Ensemble,
with Nadia Boulanger and Ravi Shankar. His first opera, Einstein on the Beach, earned him praise,
and eventually received Oscar awards for scoring the films Kundun: The Hours and Notes on a
scandal. Glass is known to work with artists from a range of backgrounds for its distinctive modern
minimalism.