Instrumentation and Genre

Music Theory9/10/10

Reed Instruments

Brass Instruments

Percussion Instruments

String Instruments

Electronic Instruments…a new age

Genres of music

What are they?

How do they differ from each other?

How do you differentiate?

Classical music

Pieces composed for a group of wind/string instruments (varying sizes and arrangements)

System of staff notation

Technically demanding

Popularized originally by the upper classes

Classical Music Periods

Gregorian Chants

Renaissance

Baroque

Romantic/Late 18th century

19th and 20th century

Famous Classical Musicians

Beethoven

Mozart

Handel

Schubert

Brahms

Beethoven: A Breakdown 1770-1827

9 symphonies, 11 overtures, incidental music to plays, violin concerto, 5 piano concertos, 16 string quartets, 9 piano trios, 10 violin sonatas, 5 cello sonatas, 32 large piano sonatas, many sets of piano variations, an oratorio, an opera, and two masses, etc.

“They are roused by moods which in the poet’s case are transmuted into words and in mine into tones, that sound, roar and storm until at last they take shape for me as notes.”

First period: assimilating Second period: rugged individualism Third Period: reflective and introspective

“One of the great disruptive forces in the history of music”

What is he most famous for?

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Schiller’s Ode to Joy as music

Emphasizes universal fellowship through joy, and its basis in the love of an eternal heavnely Father

Beethoven

“I must live alone like one who has been banished, I can mix with society only as much as true necessity demands. If I approach near to people a hot terror seizes upon me and I fear being exposed to the danger that my condition might be noticed. Thus it has been during the last six months which I have spent in the country…what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard a sheperd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair, a little more of that and I would have ended my life—it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me…Oh Providence—grant me at last but one day of pure joy—it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart…”

A Modernized Version…

Your turn…

For homework, you need to do a detailed breakdown of a musical genre including the following: Instrumentation Different periods and way the music

changed Famous singers/composers Representative singer/composer and

details on that individual