The Evolution of the Concerto from Classical to Romantic Era Essay

In 1717, Bach was appointed Kapellmeister at Köthen but was refused permission to leave Weimar. He was eventually allowed to leave but only after being held prisoner by the duke for almost a month. Bach's new employer, Prince Leopold, was a talented musician who loved and understood the art. Since the court was Calvinist, Bach had no chapel duties and instead concentrated on composition. In this period he wrote his violin concertos and the six Brandenburg Concertos, as well as numerous sonatas, suites and keyboard works (p. 164, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Vol. 1)

Later on in his life, Bach composed the Orchestral Suite No.3 in D Major. This work's second movement was appropriately titled Air, because it was an aria for the orchestra. Bach wrote music for single instruments, duets, and small ensembles. Bach's works for solo instruments include the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV1001-1006), the six cello suites (BWV 1007-1012) and the partita for solo flute (BWV1013). Bach's best-known orchestral

The piano, created by Bartolomeo Christofori in 1709, has impacted our society by becoming a popular instrument and a popular medium for musicians to create musical masterpieces. Also called the pianoforte, the piano is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments that can range in sound from as low as a gust of wind, to as high as the shrill sound of a bird. It has evolved over time and become an amazing instrument. The piano was accepted very well in history and it has generated many changes in the music industry. The piano was also used a lot in society and has had many applications grow from it. Without it, many classical masterpieces as well as modern songs wouldn’t have been possible.

When the concert first began, the three instrumentalists walked with energy despite their age. The first song, “Sonata I in G-Major Op. 2, Nr. 1” by Michel Blavet, was a Baroque Sonata. There were five movements and was played by the harpsichord, flute, and cello. All movements of the song were polyphonic because of the three instruments that had different parts and equal importance. In the first movement, I noticed that the flute tended to rise in pitch. In the second movement, I noticed that the melodies often repeated. Throughout the rest of the song the tempo changed from fast to slow and the flute would usually take the lead. On the last movement, the cello and the harpsichord

c)Formal and musical analysis with respect to the Concerto Form in the Classical Style (As a precursor of Romantic Age)

A concerto grosso is small group of solo instruments that accompany a string orchestra. A solo concerto is instead only one instrument. They both generally have three movements

In this essay I will be discussing the extent that Dmitri Shostakovich adhered to and rebelled from the conventions and traditions that were normalized in classical music and I will offer varied examples of the many times Shostakovich has obeyed and dissented within music throughout his career. The career span of Shostakovich extends from 1926 when he presented his first major work, Symphony No.1 to 1970 when he presented Quartet No. 7.

For my concert report, I chose to attend a University Chambers Players performance. Within this classical genre of music, the pieces performed were all homophonic in texture and each melody introduced was supported by chordal accompaniment. All of the pieces performed ranged from an eighteenth to twentieth century time period, and furthermore, each performance employed the use of western world instruments, such as the piano, cello, violin, and viola.

A great interest in hearing only instrumental music tell the story without text arise. The development of the concerto grosso which is a small unit of soloists against a full orchestra (Wright, 7-4) brought about one of the most popular and recognized concerto pieces, Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in E Major (the “Spring). As one of

S. Bach, G. F. Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. Antonio Vivaldi, Claudio Monteverdi, Couperin, Jean-Phillippe Rameau and Jean-Baptiste Lully are other popular names in the Baroque era. Each composer specialises in different instrument compositions and techniques. Out of all the names mentioned, J. S. Bach remains to this day, one the greatest composers of both the Baroque era and all-time. Each of these composers specialise in different areas or compositions and instruments. Working extensively with keyboard instruments such as the organ and harpsichord, a few of J. S. Bach’s well-known compositions include his Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, and St. Matthew’s Passion. G. F. Handel himself composed Italian operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. His most popular work of all-time is the “Hallelujah” chorus from the oratorio Messiah, which went on to become the most popular Baroque work and considered as a choice of piece often performed in Christmas time. Domenico Scarlatti on the other hand composed in a number of musical forms, but is best known for composing 555 keyboard sonatas.

The forces grew in size and became more widely used across many genres of music. Composers such as Bach built large works that included many instruments to go along with vocalists. The Opera, setting a play completely to music, emerged and used many instruments as accompaniment. A basso continuo was the early rhythm section in the Baroque period which included a keyboard instrument such as harpsichord, organ or clavichord and a bass instrument such as cello, violone, or bassoon. Figured bass notation was written with interval numbers above a bass line to tell the keyboardist what intervals to use to build the chords. Bach's Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033 is an example of this technique with one melodic line on the top staff with a single bass line with numbers underneath in the second bass clef staff. Instrument making techniques also improved with technology during this period which allowed instrument makers to streamline their processes and create instruments faster and for less money. This made instrument buying even more affordable and proliferated the spread instruments around Europe (Westrup &

Kenneth B. Klaus wrote a book which studies the Romantic Period in Music. In this book, Klaus states in the preface that the romantic period in music (as well as any other art from) is not a time where everything is the same, but is uniformed in the sense that they are moving away from the standard form of

By doing this, the sound made by the groups swells, portraying to the audience a sound of growth and progression. According to the textbook Music Appreciation Online, in this type of concerto, “a tutti section, a full orchestra (with basso continuo), and a small group of solo instruments usually referred to as the concertino or principale” is used. In the concertino section, two or more soloists are used. Arcangelo Corelli was the first major composer of the concerti grossi (the Italian form of the concerto grosso). The concerto grosso comes in two major forms: the concerto da chiesa (church chant) and the concerto da camera (chamber concert). The concerto da chiesa was used for formal occasions and alternated between adagio and allegro movements. For the most part, the movements were written in the same key, however there were occasions where one or more of the movements were in contrasting tonality. The sonata de camera was made up of a prelude and a succession of dances that were all in the same key. Its structure was that of a slow introduction, a fugued allegro, a cantabile slow movement and an energetic finale. This setup created its dancelike sound and feeling. The sonata da camera composition grew to be referred to as a suite, a partita, or in the French opera

The court orchestra consisted of twenty-two players. Bach’s function was mainly a violinist, however he also played harpsichord. Bach, on occasion, wrote some of the music that was played. During this period he wrote strictly for the organ, and he was rapidly becoming known throughout the country. As time went on, people were coming to see him far and wide.

First of all, the baroque is known by the exaggerated uses of ornamental decorations in their compositions. These ornaments were exposed in all types of art at that time as: painting, architecture, sculpture and music. In addition, baroque music uses a tonal harmony that produces musical contrast in high levels. This contrast is a very important element in the dramatic aspects of the baroque music, and it was reflected through the melody and texture of the compositions. Furthermore, the most important characteristics in the Baroque music style were the basso continuo and a simple melody with chord accompaniment. Those elements provided a variety of compositions with better stability in the harmony. Moreover, the music of this period presented the counterpoint and polyphony, two elements which caused movement in the melody, and also created expectations and captured the attention of those who listened to that music. On the other hand, romantic music is known for his great expressiveness in their compositions. This expressiveness allows to the composers, add their feelings and emotions to their music. Furthermore, the romantic music was showed a depletion of the capacity of tonal music, so it was passed to the trend of atonal music. Moreover, this kind of music presented a great use of melody, which was responsible to capture the beauty of the written music and as well