Download File - Western Hills Choir

Piano Period History
Examining significant composers
of piano music through music
history.
Baroque
1600 - 1750
Decorative music (characteristic of
time period)
Fundamental Bass Line
All parts of Baroque music must be
subservient to a bass line.
Fugue: composition with musical line
articulated in one voice and rearticulated
by following voices in repeat, inversion, etc
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685-1750
• German composer
• Was an organist
• Known as one of the
greatest fugue writers.
• Pianoforte was created
in his mid-life
• Listen to Minuet in G
Classical Period
1750-1830
• Orderly music (return of interest in
Greek time period)
• Sonata (composition & form)
• Sonata Form:
Exposition – introduce theme
Development – develop theme
Recapitulation – return of theme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756-1791
•
•
•
•
•
Austrian composer
Melody writer
Wrote many Sonatas
Died young
Listen to Piano Sonata
No. 11 in A Major
Romantic
1860-1920
• Emotion in sound
• Dramatic music through:
– strong dynamic changes
– large instrumentation
– drastic key changes
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770-1827
• Crossover composer - began in Classical
period ended in Romantic period
• THE composer to push the Romantic
style
• Extreme personality helped
in extreme music
• Know for his 9 Symphonies
• Became deaf at end of life
• Listen to Sonata Pathetique
Johannes Brahms
1833-1897
• Structured composer –
followed style of Bach
But incorporated dramatic
Romantic qualities such as
drastic key changes
• Listen to Intermezzo in A
Frederic Chopin
1810-1849
• French composer
• Wrote almost exclusively
for the piano
• Wrote “etudes” (studies)
– Each explored a single
technical problem, usually
set around a single motif.
– Listen to Etude #4 in C# minor,
Op 10, Nocturne in E flat Major
Franz Liszt
1811-1886
• Hungarian composer
• Know mostly for
piano works
• Extremely big hands
and long fingers – which
made for difficult
compositions
• Pieces technically difficult
• Listen to Hungarian Rhapsody
Impressionism
late 19th century
• French movement in the arts
• Characteristics:
– Creating mood
– Asian pentatonic scale
– Whole tone scale
– Tone color
– Irregular rhythm
– Dissonance
Claude Debussy
1862-1918
• French composer
• Didn’t like the label
Impressionist (meant to be
derogatory from the
painters)
• Know for his piano works
• Listen to Claire de Lune
Modern/Contemporary
1920 - present
Breaks with or redefines the conventions of
the past.
Uses experimental techniques.
Show the diversity of society and the
blending of cultures.
• Jazz – syncopation, call & response,
unique harmonies
Scott Joplin
1867-1917
• African American
composer
• Known for writing
Ragtime (style
leading into Jazz)
Duke Ellington
1899-1974
• African American
composer
• Known for Jazz
style