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A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated
History of (Western) Classical Music
George Gollin
FAA 199
February 22, 2011
©2011 George Gollin
1
Music is an evolving art
Our species has made music for tens of
thousands of years.
Music may have given Homo sapiens an
evolutionary advantage: easily
remembered songs preserve and
transmit accumulating cultural
knowledge long before written
languages arose. [1]
40,000 year old bone flute, found in
southern Germany in 2008. [1]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Nothing but written fragments…
…remain for music that
predates early Christian
liturgical music. [2]
This 2nd century papyrus
fragment includes musical
notation.
Second century AD papyrus thought to be a
fragment from a collection of songs which
included musical notation. [3]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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A chronology
The development of classical music is often discussed in terms of six
different periods. The use of polyphony and large-scale structure
became increasingly complex; musical instruments evolved too.
•
Medieval (5th century AD – c. 1400)
•
Renaissance (c. 1400 – 1600)
•
Baroque (c. 1600 – 1750)
•
Classical (c. 1750 – 1820)
•
Romantic (c. 1820 – 1900)
•
Modern (c. 1900 – present) [9]
Sometimes (not always) the boundaries between periods are indistinct.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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The Church supported the musical arts
Gregorian chant is a monophonic (single
melody, no harmony) liturgical form that
probably dates from the eighth century. [5]
Musical notation (different from modern
notation) allowed the Church to
disseminate Gregorian chants throughout
medieval Christendom.
Anon: Puer Natus Est Nobis, Benedictine monks of Santo
Domingo De Silos, Castile, Spain
16th century Gregorian chant manuscript. [4]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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There could be conflicts
Early (~10th century) Church policy held that
musical instruments were inappropriate for use
during worship services. [6]
Even so, pipe organs came to be used in
liturgical music. Elfeg, Bishop of Winchester,
“procured an organ for his Cathedral had built
in his cathedral in 951… having twenty-six pairs
of bellows, requiring seventy men to fill it with
wind.” [8]
It is possible that the development of the pipe
organ led to the invention of polyphonic music:
on the organ it was possible to play chords,
combinations of notes. [2]
Bellows for the Halberstadt
Cathedral organ, built in 1361.[7]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Early harmony: organum
Early polyphony used “two melodic lines simultaneously at parallel
intervals, usually at the fourth, fifth, or octave.
The resulting hollow-sounding music was called organum and very slowly
developed over the next hundred years.
By the eleventh century, one, two (and much later, even three) added
melodic lines were no longer moving in parallel motion, but contrary to
each other, sometimes even crossing. ” [9]
We are more accustomed to the sound of triads.
G
C
G
E
C
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Evolution of the instruments
Baroque keyboard musicians played Harpsichords. The keys cause the
instrument’s strings to be plucked by a plectrum; only limited volume
control is possible. The piano was invented later.
Probably a copy of a
Dulcken 1747 [10]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Viola da gamba
Note the frets on this bass viol da gamba,
and the presence of six strings instead of
four.
“Gamba” is like “jambe” (thigh) in French.
Probably a reproduction of a
17th century instrument [11]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Sacbut and Serpent
Sacbut: Renaissance version of the
trombone, first appeared c. 1500. [12]
Serpent: Renaissance bass
cornet, c. 1590. [13]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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It’s progress, not just change
The newer instruments were more nimble and gave musicians greater
control, richer tone, and increased range.
Modern Steinway concert grand piano [16]
“Davydov” Stradivarius cello (1712) owned
by Jacqueline DuPres, photo c. 19 [17]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Evolution of the orchestration
Baroque orchestral pieces were conducted from the keyboard, with the
conductor playing a harpsichord. These were not concerti, in which a
solo instrument plays “against” the rest of the orchestra.
As new orchestration techniques developed, the use of a harpsichord as
an anchor for the music subsided.
Mid 18th century: “Much of our modern performance practice can be
traced to the orchestra at the court of the Elector Palatine, Prince
Karl Theodor, at Mannheim.” [2, 15]
•
the orchestra was large, compared to other orchestras of the time
•
its musicians were better trained, and played with greater precision
•
a variety of new features–loud-soft dynamics, for example–were part
of the orchestra’s style of play.
Mannheim is in central Germany, about 300 miles east of Paris.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Hearing the music, back then
Remember: there was no widely-deployed technology available to
record/replay music until late in the 19th century. [14]
People heard music in Church, saw it performed in live concerts, and (if
they could afford to), played it themselves.
Royal families could patronize the arts by supporting composers; churches
could hire composers to write religious music to be included in services.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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The Baroque period (c. 1600 – 1750)
Some of the composers:
• Claudio Monteverdi, 1567 – 1643. Lived in Venice, Italy; his 1607 opera L’Orfeo
is “widely acknowledged as the first great work in the history of the genre.” [18]
• Antonio Vivaldi, 1678 – 1741. His most famous composition is probably The
Four Seasons, comprising four of the twelve Opus 8 concerti.
• Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750. He didn’t do opera, but was the champion
of everything else during the Baroque era. Bach was enormously prolific.
Monteverdi [20]
Vivaldi [21]
Bach [22]
Bach’s Brandenburg
Concerto no. 3, BWV
1048 (1721) [19]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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The Classical period (c. 1750 – 1820)
New forms of composition, including: the symphony and string quartet.
The works are more layered, more complex. Some of the composers:
• Franz Joseph Haydn, 1732 – 1809. Vienna; he is “rightly regarded as the father
of both the symphony and the string quartet.” [18]
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 – 1791. “Music’s supremely gifted creator,
whose achievements mark a zenith of Western culture.” [18] Also, “the only
composer in history to have written undisputed masterworks in virtually every
musical genre of his age.” [23]
• Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770 – 1827. “The most important and influential
musician in history.” [18] His revolutionary works forced the transition from the
Classical to the Romantic period; he composed works in the style of both
periods.
Haydn [23]
Mozart [24]
Beethoven [25]
Mozart’s Symphony
no. 40, K. 550
(1788) [26]
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A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
The Romantic period (c. 1820 – 1900)
Dramatic changes to the form of the symphony and the string quartet. A
few of the composers (in addition to Beethoven):
• Johannes Brahms, 1833 – 1897. I think: Brahms makes immediate, powerful
emotional statements in the opening notes of his orchestral and chamber works.
• Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, 1810 – 1849. “Polish-born pianist and composer of
matchless genius in the realm of keyboard music.” [18] I think: the Nocturnes
are heartbreakingly beautiful.
• Felix Mendelssohn, 1809 – 1847. Boy genius: her wrote his Overture to A
Midsummer Night’s Dream at the age of 17.
Brahms [29]
Chopin [28]
Mendelssohn [27]
Brahms’ Symphony no. 4,
4th movement, op. 98
(1885)
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Twentieth century
The twentieth century was a time of global war, genocide, and environmental
destruction. It was also the century in which political freedom and human rights
became the norm in most of Europe. The music of that/this century is complex,
sometimes dissonant, unsettled, forceful.
There is an impressive range of styles; I do not know if they all have names.
• Impressionism: Claude Debussy, 1862 – 1918; Maurice Ravel,
1875 – 1937.
• Serialism (12-tone): Arnold Schoenberg, 1874 – 1951; Anton
Webern, 1883 – 1945.
• Béla Bartók, 1881 – 1945; Zoltan Kodály, 1882 – 1967. Both
Hungarian.
• Igor Stravinsky, 1882 – 1971, Russian, lived in Paris.
Rite of Spring,
Igor Stravinsky
(1913)
• Sergey Prokofiev, 1891 – 1953; Dmitri Shostakovich, 1906 –
1975, both Russian.
• George Gershwin, 1898 – 1937; Aaron Copland, 1900 – 1990.
Both American.
Music for
Strings,
Percussion,
and Celesta,
Béla Bartók
(1936)
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A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
The conflict between Art and Power
Paul Hindemith, 1895 – 1963. “German composer, performer,
teacher, and theorist, influential though largely unloved, one of
the most important musicians of the 20th century… When the
Nazis came to power in 1933 they branded Hindemith’s music
‘culturally Bolshevist.’” After the premier of Mathis der Mahler,
Joseph Goebbels called Hindemith “an atonal noisemaker.” [18]
Mathis der Mahler, first movement (1934)
Hindemith [30]
Dmitri Shostakovich. “Russian composer. His 15 symphonies are
the most important addition to the symphonic repertoire by any
composer born in the 20th century… Among his greatest works
are 15 string quartets, which like the symphonies reflect a careerlong balance between musical form and emotional content.”
After Josef Stalin heard Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk District, he “ordered the publication of a review in
Pravda excoriating the music and its creator.” Shostakovich
called his 5th Symphony “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism”
and was “instantly rehabilitated.” [18]
Shostakovich [31]
5th Symphony, first movement (1937)
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The String Quartet
Haydn is credited with developing – some musicologists say “inventing”–
the string quartet. And it was just a lucky fluke!
Haydn's early biographer, Georg August Griesinger, tells the story thus:
The following purely chance circumstance had led him to try his luck at the
composition of quartets. A Baron Fürnberg had a place in Weinzierl, several
stages from Vienna, and he invited from time to time his pastor, his manager,
Haydn, and Albrechtsberger, in order to have a little music. Fürnberg requested
Haydn to compose something that could be performed by these four amateurs.
Haydn, then eighteen years old, took up this proposal, and so originated his first
quartet which, immediately it appeared, received such general approval that
Haydn took courage to work further in this form. [32]
Modern string quartets continue to be written with this instrumentation
in mind: two violins, one viola, one cello.
The structure and organization of a quartet has evolved considerably since
Haydn’s time.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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A few of the more notable composers of
string quartets
Classical period: Haydn, of course. Mozart too, also Beethoven’s six early
quartets: op. 18, 1 – 6.
Mozart: Quartet # 14,
K. 387, 1st movement (1782)
Romantic period: Beethoven’s middle and late quartets; Brahms;
Mendelssohn; Schubert
Beethoven: Quartet # 8,
op. 59 #2, 1st movement (1806)
Brahms: Quartet # 1,
op. 51 #1, 3rd movement (1873)
Twentieth century: Bartók, Shostakovich, Elliott Carter (born 1908)
Bartók: Quartet # 2,
op. 17, 1st movement (1917)
Carter: Quartet # 1,
1st movement (1951)
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Dmitri Shostakovich (1)
From the program for the February 22, 2011 concert. Notes written by
Robert Strong. [33]
Born September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia Died August 9, 1975, in Moscow,
Soviet Union
Dmitri Shostakovich was born to a middle-class family with a history of anti-tsarist political
activism. His musical gifts became apparent when he began piano lessons at age 9, and at
age 13 he was admitted to the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory. A brilliant student,
he had an amazing musical memory and excellent technical skills as a pianist. His First
Symphony, premiered in 1926, won him immediate international recognition and a wellpaying commission from the government’s Department of Agitation and Propaganda to
compose a major work in honor of the Russian Revolution’s 10th anniversary.
Shostakovich was never politically active but was able to thrive in the 1920s because
Lenin’s Commissariat of Enlightenment permitted experimentation in the arts as a means of
wiping out the old aesthetic norms. Stalin’s rise to power in 1929 changed everything,
bringing the arts directly under his control in the service of the Soviet state. Commissions
and privileges were offered to those whose work conformed to the Communist party line,
while the wayward suffered poverty, imprisonment, or death.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Dmitri Shostakovich (2)
Two terrifying official denunciations shaped Shostakovich’s response to the
demands of the state. The first was the 1936 editorial in Pravda criticizing his
opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the start of Stalin’s brutal Great Terror.
Shostakovich was again condemned as a decadent “formalist” in 1948 during
Stalin’s postwar search for “enemies of the people” in the arts community. In each
case, he was officially reinstated only after a public confession of error. From the
mid-1950s until his death, he was honored as the leading Soviet composer and
was put forward as a figurehead of the government’s music establishment in a
succession of political posts, conferences, and government-prepared speeches.
Dmitri Shostakovich was a man of contradictions. In public he appeared fragile,
nervous, and withdrawn, eyes darting behind thick glasses, but with close friends
he could be charming and high-spirited. He loved sarcasm and parody, but his
manners were unfailingly polite and considerate. Contemporaries describe a hard
core of personal strength that he brought to his music.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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Dmitri Shostakovich (3)
Perhaps the most significant contradiction was the double life Shostakovich led
as an “official” composer producing propaganda for the Soviet state and a private
composer pouring his personal feelings into his work. The government’s coercive
mix of threats and honors kept him outwardly compliant and created an
environment in which he struggled to assert his artistic integrity in large-scale
works. His chamber music attracted less official scrutiny, and he turned to string
quartets increasingly over his career.
Shostakovich’s quartets often use traditional sonata form, but he breaks down the
formal structure in a variety of ways to create a sense of unresolved suspension.
This stylistic pattern, in addition to his practice of withholding harmonic resolution,
creates what music historian Judith Kuhn has called “a rhetoric of disintegration.”
Recurring musical elements—sinister waltzes, funeral marches, fragile
harmonies, sudden changes of mood—and the composer’s use of a four-note
musical signature and self-quotation reinforce the highly personal creative
expression to be found in all the quartets.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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The Concert
String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 122
(1966)
1st movement
Introduction: Andantino—
Scherzo: Allegretto—
Recitative: Adagio—
Etude: Allegro—
Humoresque: Allegro—
Elegy: Adagio—
Finale: Moderato
String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Minor, Op. 138
(1970)
Adagio—Doppio movimento—Tempo primo
String Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp Major, Op. 142
(1973)
Allegretto
Adagio—
Allegretto
String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat Minor, Op. 144
(1974)
Elegy: Adagio—
Serenade: Adagio—
Intermezzo: Adagio—
Nocturne: Adagio—
Funeral March: Adagio molto—
Epilogue: Adagio
1st movement
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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The Pacifica Quartet won a Grammy in 2009!
Simin Ganatra
violin
Masumi Per Rostad
viola
Brandon Vamos
cello
Sibbi Bernhardsson
violin
[34]
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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References (1)
[1] “Bone Flute Is Oldest Instrument, Study Says,” James Owen, National Geographic News, June 24, 2009.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090624-bone-flute-oldest-instrument.html
[2] “Music,” Sir Jack Allan Westrup Encyclopedia Britannica vol. 15, University of Chicago, William Benton, Chicago,
1966.
[3] “Fragments of Ancient Greek Songs from the Early Empire: P. Yale CtYBR inv. 4510,” William A. Johnson,
Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati http://classics.uc.edu/music/yale/index.html, visited February 20,
2011.
[4] “Analysis and Synthesis of Palestrina-Style Counterpoint Using Markov Chains,” Mary Farbood and Bernd Schoner,
excerpted from "Analysis and Synthesis of Palestrina-Style Counterpoint Using Markov Chains." Proceedings of
International Computer Music Conference. Havana, Cuba. 2001.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~mary/palestrina.html, visited February 20, 2011.
[5] Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition, Willi Apel, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1973.
[6] “Organ History: the Organ in the Middle Ages,” James H. Cook, Birmingham Southern College,
http://faculty.bsc.edu/jhcook/orghist/history/hist002.htm, visited February 20, 2011.
[7] “Pipe Organ,” Medieval Life and Times, http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/pipe-organ.htm,
visited February 20, 2011.
[8] Two Hundred and Fifty Easy Voluntaries and Interludes, for the Organ, Melodeon, Seraphine, &c., John Zundel,
Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston, 1851, p. 6,
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action;jsessionid=F9761E86CCF0070750964C
380024ADB7?itemId=6329&itemFileId=10122, visited February 20, 2011.
[9] Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music; The Middle Ages, Robert Sherrane, “ipl2:
information you can trust,” Drexel University, http://ipl2server-2.ischool.drexel.edu/div/mushist/middle/, visited
February 20, 2011.
[10] Yves Beaupré, Facteur de Clavecins, http://www3.sympatico.ca/clavecin/fr18.html, visited February 20, 2011.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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References (2)
[11] “The Gamba (bass viol da gamba,” Musica Antiqua, Iowa State University,
http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/gamba_b.htm, visited February 20, 2011.
[12] “The Sacbut,” Musica Antiqua, Iowa State University, http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/sacbut.htm, visited
February 20, 2011.
[13] “The Serpent,” Musica Antiqua, Iowa State University, http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/serpent.htm, visited
February 20, 2011.
[14] “The History of Recorded Music,” Rebecca MacQuarrie, et al., Duke University Sociology 142 class project,
http://www.soc.duke.edu/~s142tm01/history.html, visited February 20, 2011.
[15] Music 555/755: Symphonic Music Literature, “Mannheim,” Lawrence Nelson, Eastern Kansas University,
http://people.eku.edu/nelsonl/mus555/mannheim.html, visited February 20, 2011.
[16] Steinway & Sons web site, http://www.steinway.com/pianos/steinway/grand/model-d/, visited February 20, 2011.
[17] The Davydov Strad, Internet Cello Society web site, http://www.cello.org/heaven/masters/davydov.htm, visited
February 20, 2011.
[18] The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music, Ted Libbey, Workman Publishing, New York, 2006.
[19] Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music, Robert Sherrane, “ipl2: information you can
trust,” Drexel University, http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/MP3/brandenburg.mp3, visited February 20, 2011.
[20] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Claudio_Monteverdi.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[21] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Antonio_Vivaldi.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[22] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Johann_Sebastian_Bach.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[23] Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music, Robert Sherrane, “ipl2: information you can
trust,” Drexel University, http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/clas/mozart.html, visited February 20, 2011.
[24] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Haydn_portrait_by_Thomas_Hardy_%28small%29.jpg,
visited February 20, 2011.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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References (3)
[25] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Croce-Mozart-Detail.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[26] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Beethoven.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[27] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Mendelssohn_Bartholdy.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chopin,_by_Wodzinska.JPG, visited February 20, 2011.
[29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JohannesBrahms.jpg, visited February 20, 2011.
[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Hindemith_1923.jpg, visited February 21, 2011.
[31] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dmitri1.jpg, visited February 21, 2011.
[32] Midland Chamber Players web site: http://www.midlandchamberplayers.org.uk/details.aspx?event=33, visited
February 21, 2011.
[33] Program notes, Robert Snow, for the Pacifica Quartet Shostakovich Cycle, 4th concert, February 22, 2011:
http://krannertcenter.com/images/cm/201056103325950128174106178/PacificaQuartetPart4Program.pdf.
[34] Program notes for the Pacifica Quartet Shostakovich Cycle, 4th concert, February 22, 2011:
http://krannertcenter.com/images/cm/201056103325950128174106178/PacificaQuartetPart4Program.pdf.
A Highly Subjective, Highly Abbreviated History of (Western) Classical Music ©2011 George Gollin
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