PERIODS AND STYLES IN WESTERN MUSICAL HISTORY

The characteristic style of music from a particular period comes from the way in which
composers of the time combine and present the basic musical elements:
Melody: a series of notes organised in a shape that make musical sense to the listener
Harmony: when two or more notes of different pitch are sounded at the same time,
producing chords (concords/consonance = sounds pleasant/notes agree; discords/
dissonance = sounds unpleasant/notes disagree)
Tonality: the relationships between notes, chords and keys found in most Western music;
the organisation of these around a tonal centre (usually called the tonic). A pieces tonality
of a piece may be described as diatonic, chromatic, modal, pentatonic etc.
Rhythm: the ways in which a composer groups together musical sounds, mainly with
regard to duration
Form: the basic plan or design of a piece of music
Structure: how the composer shapes and builds the music within the form
Timbre: the characteristic sound quality or tone-colour of each instrument
Texture: the way the sounds are woven together in a musical composition; how many
layers of sound there are:
Monophonic a single melodic line;
Polyphonic/Contrapuntal two or more melodies weaving along at the same time;
Homophonic a single melody heard against chordal accompaniment; the
accompaniment moves and supports with the flow of the melody;
Homorhythmic moving as a block; all instruments/voices have broadly identical
rhythm
Heterophonic a single melody with a variation of that melody heard at the same time
The six main periods of Western musical history may be seen as:

Medieval: to about 1450

Renaissance: 14501600
Baroque: 16001750
Classical: 17501820
Early Romantic: 18201865
Late Romantic: 18651910 (but Romantic approaches persist well into the 20th century
with some composers)

20th-Century / Modern: 1910onwards

Each period has its own musical fingerprint. Here are the main characteristics:

Medieval

(to about 1450)

Use of modes (a special system of scales excluding major and minor)

Monophonic textures: plainsong and secular songs

Polyphonic textures: motets composed by adding successive layers of melody, sometimes

clashing to form discords
Use of cantus firmus (a foundation tune for the entire composition)
The distinctive timbres (tone-qualities) of Medieval instruments (shawm, pipe, drum,
organ, vielle, hurdy-gurdy)
Harmonic intervals most frequently used are unison, 4th, 5th and octave; 3rds and 6ths
appear more towards the end of the Medieval period

Major composers:
Trouvres (Southern France poet-musicians) and Troubadours (Northern France poetmusicians)
Machaut (France)
Dunstable (England)

Renaissance

(14501600)

Music still based on modes, but these gradually treated with more freedom as more
accidentals creep in
Richer, fuller texture (more layers)
Harmony: a greater concern with the flow and progression of chords; a smoother
treatment of discords
Church music: a capella (sung only) performance, mainly contrapuntal; some music with
instruments, often in antiphonal (call-and-response) style
Secular music: a rich variety of vocal pieces: dances, instrumental pieces
Timbres of Renaissance instruments: instruments starting to form families (the same
instruments in various sizes and pitches)

Major composers:
Josquin (Netherlands)
Tallis, Byrd, Dowland (England)
Palestrina, Gabrieli, Monteverdi (Italy)

Baroque

(16001750)

Polyphonic textures often used

The basso continuo, or figured bass (a bass-line to be played by a low string instrument
that continues through the piece), becomes the foundation for most types of Baroque
music
One mood usually persists throughout an entire piece
Viols replaced by violin family: the string section becomes the basis of the Baroque
orchestra, always with keyboard continuo (harpsichord or organ) filling out the
harmonies above the figured bass
Modes replaced by the diatonic major-minor system
Main forms: binary (AB), ternary (ABA) (da capo aria), rondo/rondeau (ABACAD),
variations (ground bass, chaconne, passacaglia), fugue
Main types of music: chorale, recitative (like speech) and aria (sung), opera, oratorio
(like an opera but religious and in concert), cantata; Italian overture (quick-slow-quick),
French overture (slow with dotted rhythms, quick with imitation), toccata, dance suite,
concerto grosso (a small group of soloists v. a larger group of instruments) and solo
concerto (soloist but sometimes more than one v. orchestra)
Often exuberant music: energetic rhythms, long flowing melodic lines with many
ornaments (trills, mordents), contrasts of timbres, textures & dynamics (often through
terraced dynamics)

Major composers:
Monteverdi (creator of opera); Corelli, Vivaldi (Italy)
Bach, Handel (Germany)
Lully, Couperin, Rameau (France)
Purcell (England)

Classical

(17501810)

Lighter, clearer texture than Baroque; less complicated and mainly homophonic (melody
above chordal accompaniment)
An emphasis on grace and beauty of melody and form, proportion and balance,
moderation and control, elegant character
More variety and contrast within a piece: of keys, tunes, rhythms, dynamics (use of
crescendo/diminuendo)
Melodies tend to be shorter, with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences (the
musical punctuation)
Orchestra increases in size and range: no more harpsichord continuo, woodwind more
prominent and become a self-contained section
Harpsichord replaced by fortepiano and then piano (officially pianoforte); Alberti bass
accompaniment (Haydn, Mozart), piano writing later becoming more sonorous and
powerful (Beethoven)

Importance given to instrumental music: sonata, trio, string quartet, symphony,

concerto, serenade
Sonata form (ternary on a large scale) the most important design used to build up the
first movement of most large-scale works, as well as single pieces (concert overtures)

Major composers:
Gluck, Bachs sons, Beethoven, Weber (Germany)
Haydn, Mozart, Schubert (Austria)

Romantic

(18101910 Early 1810-1860, Late 1860-1910)

A greater freedom in form and design; a more intense and personal expression of
emotion
Emphasis on lyrical, song-like melodies; adventurous modulations; richer harmonies,
often chromatic (notes outside the prevailing key), with striking use of discords
Denser, weightier textures with bold dramatic contrasts, exploring a wider range of
tessitura, dynamic and tone-colour
Expansion of the orchestra, sometimes to gigantic proportions; the invention of the valve
system leads to development of the brass section strings and woodwind sections grow
to balance with brass
Rich variety of types of pieces, ranging from songs and fairly short piano pieces to huge
musical canvasses with spectacular and dramatic climaxes
Closer links with other arts lead to a keener interest in programme music (music which
tells a story)
Shape and unity of large-scale pieces brought by use of ide fixe (Berlioz) or leitmotif
(Wagner)
Greater technical virtuosity especially from dazzling pianists and violinists
Nationalism: reaction against German influences by composers of other countries
(especially Russia, Bohemia, Norway)

Major composers (these include both Early and Late Romantic composers, so cover a huge
range of styles):
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, Brahms, R. Strauss (Germany)
Schubert, Bruckner, Mahler (Austria)
Berlioz (France)
Chopin (Poland)
Liszt (Hungary)
Verdi (Italy)
Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov (Russia)
Smetana, Dvorak (Bohemia)
Grieg (Norway)

 Elgar (England)
Albeniz (Spain)

20th-Century / Modern

(1910-onwards)

Though the 20th century started in 1900, in many ways the first decade belonged to the
end of the previous century. Increasing tension in the years before the war of 1914, the
social & political changes that resulted and the music which mirrored this, mean that for us
the seismic shifts of 20th century music really start around 1910

Exploration and experimentation of trends and techniques

Labels with -ism and -ality; reaction against perceived excesses of 19th-century
Romanticism:
- Impressionism (Debussy, Ravel; creates an impression of something, emphasis on
tone-colour, ambiguous harmony, chords used for colouristic effect, use of modes &
whole-tone scale);
- 20th century Nationalism (Bartok, Kodaly; use of folk tunes, ethnomusicology);
- Jazz influences (Stravinsky, Milhaud);
- Polytonality (Ives, Stravinsky; use of several tonalities at the same time; if only two,
called bitonality);
- Atonality (total absence of tonality);
- Expressionism (Schoenberg; exaggeration, distortion of late Romanticism);
- Pointillism (Webern; brief, single notes in isolation);
- Serialism or twelve-note music (Schoenberg; twelve chromatic notes of a scale used as
a basic series; later, serial techniques applied to other components rhythm, dynamic,
octave);
- Neoclassicism (Stravinsky, Poulenc; strong reaction against late Romanticism,
inspiration from Baroque and Classical music);
- Musique concrte (Varse, Boulez; found sounds recorded onto magnetic tape and
then manipulated);
- Electronic music (Stockhausen, Berio; extension of musique concrte, using sounds
from electronic sound-generators)
- Aleatoric music (Cage, Stockhausen; music determined by chance, e.g. throw of a dice,
whim of the performer)
- Minimalism (Reich, Glass, Adams; music from tiny compositional resources, highly
repetitive)
- Post-modernism (turning away from the avant-garde: for some a return to tonality
e.g. Tavener, Gorecki, Prt; for others an eclectic mix of many different musical styles
and traditions e.g. Turnage, Ades, Martland)

Melodies: include wide leaps, chromatic dissonant intervals; angular and fragmentary;
sometimes no melody
Harmonies: extreme dissonance (more discords); note-clusters (adjacent notes played
simultaneously)

Rhythms: vigorous and dynamic, syncopation (off the beat); unusual time-signatures (5
or 7 beats to a bar) with rapid changes; polyrhythms (many); ostinato (repetitive
melodic figure)
Timbres: strange, exotic sounds; striking, explosive contrasts; expansion of percussion
section; unfamiliar sounds with instruments played in extreme and unusual ways;
electronic sounds

Major composers:
Debussy, Messiaen, Boulez (France)
Sibelius (Finland)
Vaughan Williams, Britten, Tippett, Birtwistle, Ades (England)
Schoenberg, Webern, Berg (Austria)
Stockhausen (Germany)
Bartok, Ligeti (Hungary)
Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich (Russia)
Berio (Italy)
Ives, Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein, Cage, Reich, Adams (USA)
Penderecki (Poland)