Common practice period - Wikipedia

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Common practice period

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the history of European art music, the term

common practice period refers to the era
between the formation and the dissolution of the
tonal system. Though there are no exact dates for
this phenomenon, most features of the commonpractice period persisted from the mid to late
baroque period, through the Classical and
Romantic periods, or roughly from around 1650
to 1900. While certain prevailing patterns and
conventions characterize the music of this
period, the time period also saw considerable
stylistic evolution. Some conventions evolved
during this period that were rarely employed at
other times during what may still be labeled
"common practice" (for example, Sonata Form).
Thus, the dates 1650-1900 are necessarily
nebulous and arbitrary borders that depend on
context. The most important unifying feature
through this time period concerns a harmonic
language to which modern music theorists can
apply Roman numeral analysis.

Contents
1 Technical features
1.1 Harmony
1.2 Rhythm
1.3 Duration
2 References
3 External links

Music eras
Prehistoric
Ancient

before 500 AD

Early

c. 5001760

Common practice

c. 16001900

Modern Contemporary

c. 1900present

Periods and eras of

Western classical music
Early
Medieval

c. 5001400

Renaissance

c. 14001600
Common practice

Baroque

c. 16001750

Classical

c. 17301820

Romantic

c. 17801910

Impressionist

c. 18751925

Modern and contemporary

Modern High modern
20th century
Contemporary Postmodern
21st century

c. 18901975
(19002000)

c. 1975present
(2000present)

Technical features
Harmony
The harmonic language of this period is known as "common-practice tonality," or sometimes the

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"tonal system" (though whether tonality implies common-practice idioms is a question of debate).
Common-practice tonality represents a union between harmonic function and counterpoint. In other
words, individual melodic lines, when taken together, express harmonic unity and goal-oriented
progression. In tonal music, each tone in the diatonic scale functions according to its relationship to
the Tonic (the fundamental pitch of the scale). While diatonicism forms the basis for the tonal
system, the system can withstand considerable chromatic alteration without losing its tonal identity.
Throughout the common-practice period, certain harmonic patterns span across styles, composers,
regions, and epochs. Johann Sebastian Bach and Richard Strauss, for instance, may both write
passages that can be analyzed according to the progression I-II-V-I, despite vast differences in style
and context. Such harmonic conventions can be distilled into the familiar chord progressions with
which musicians analyze tonal music.
Various popular idioms of the twentieth century break down the standardized chord progressions of
the common-practice period. While these later styles incorporate many elements of the tonal
vocabulary (such as major and minor chords), the function of these elements is not necessarily
rooted to classical models of counterpoint and harmonic function. For example, in commonpractice harmony, a major triad built on the fifth degree of the scale (V) is unlikely to progress
directly to a root position triad built on the fourth degree of the scale (IV), but the reverse of this
progression (IVV) is quite common. By contrast, the VIV progression is readily acceptable by
many other standards; for example, this transition is essential to the "shuffle" blues progression's
last line (VIVII), which has become the orthodox ending for blues progressions at the expense
of the original last line (VVII) (Tanner & Gerow 1984, 37).

Rhythm
Coordination of the various parts of a piece of music through an externalized meter is a deeply
rooted aspect of common-practice music. Rhythmically, common practice metric structures
generally include (Winold 1975, chapter 3):
1. Clearly enunciated or implied pulse at all levels, with the fastest levels rarely being extreme
2. Meters, or pulse groups, in two-pulse or three-pulse groups, most often two
3. Meter and pulse groups that, once established, rarely change throughout a section or
composition
4. Synchronous pulse groups on all levels: all pulses on slower levels coincide with strong
pulses on faster levels
5. Consistent tempo throughout a composition or section
6. Tempo, beat length, and measure length chosen to allow one time signature throughout the
piece or section

Duration
Durational patterns typically include (Winold 1975, chapter 3):

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1. Small or moderate duration complement and range, with one duration (or pulse)
predominating in the duration hierarchy, are heard as the basic unit throughout a composition.
Exceptions are most frequently extremely long, such as pedal tones; or, if they are short, they
generally occur as the rapidly alternating or transient components of trills, tremolos, or other
ornaments.
2. Rhythmic units are based on metric or intrametric patterns, though specific contrametric or
extrametric patterns are signatures of certain styles or composers. Triplets and other
extrametric patterns are usually heard on levels higher than the basic durational unit or pulse.
3. Rhythmic gestures of a limited number of rhythmic units, sometimes based on a single or
alternating pair.
4. Thetic (i.e., stressed), anacrustic (i.e., unstressed), and initial rest rhythmic gestures are used,
with anacrustic beginnings and strong endings possibly most frequent and upbeat endings
most rare.
5. Rhythmic gestures are repeated exactly or in variation after contrasting gestures. There may
be one rhythmic gesture almost exclusively throughout an entire composition, but complete
avoidance of repetition is rare.
6. Composite rhythms confirm the meter, often in metric or even note patterns identical to the
pulse on specific metric level.
Patterns of pitch and duration are of primary importance in common practice melody, while tone
quality is of secondary importance. Durations recur and are often periodic; pitches are generally
diatonic (Kliewer 1975, chapter 4).

References
Harbison, John (1992). "Symmetries and the 'New Tonality' ". Contemporary Music Review. 6
(2): 7179. doi:10.1080/07494469200640141.
Kliewer, Vernon (1975). "Melody: Linear Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music". In Aspects of
Twentieth-Century Music, edited by Gary Wittlich,. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
Koneni, Vladimir J. (2009). "Mode and Tempo in Western Classical Music of the CommonPractice Era" (PDF). Retrieved 17 February 2015.
London, Justin (2001). "Rhythm, II: Historical Studies of Rhythm". The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell.
London: Macmillan Publishers.
Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press. ISBN 0-520-06991-9.
Tanner, Paul, and Maurice Gerow (1984). A Study of Jazz. Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown
Publishers. Cited in Robert M. Baker, "A Brief History of the Blues (https://web.archive.org
/web/20090629213200/http://thebluehighway.com/history.html)". TheBlueHighway.com.
Winold, Allen (1975). "Rhythm in Twentieth-Century Music". In Aspects of TwentiethCentury Music, edited by Richard Peter Delone and Gary Wittlich,. Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-049346-0.

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External links
Benjamin Piekut, "No Common Practice: The New Common Practice and its Historical
Antecedents" (http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=58tp00) (February 1, 2004).
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