Introduction
There are many different musical eras, which have influenced music to be composed the way it is now. The eras are the baroque era, the classical era, the romantic era and the modern era. There have been a number of notable famous musicians and composers of music from various countries across from Europe and the United States of America. These composers came from different periods and have influenced one another in their music. In looking at the composition from all the eras, it is very clear that there is a difference and some similarities of the music.
Baroque era
The baroque period is claimed to be a time when the artistry style used exaggerations in the motion and the details were clear and easy to be interpreted in order to create drama and music. This kind of style is believed to have begun in the 1600s in Rome Italy. It later gained popularity and it spread to the most parts of Europe. The Catholic Church is claimed to have encouraged the baroque style to spread and be more popular (Bukofzer). There have been a number of musicians who used the baroque style such as Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian. In looking at the music composed by these two musicians, one can be able to see that there are a number of differences and similarities in their style.
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi was born in 4th March 1678 and died in 28th July 1741. He was a well-known baroque composer in Venice Italy. His music influenced many people across Europe. He used a variety of musical instruments to compose his music. However, the one that he is mostly known to use is the violin. The four seasons, which is a series of violin concertos is one of the most popular works of Antonio created in 1723. In the four season’s music, the theme of the music is that it looks at the scenes and the moods that are in the four seasons. It is claimed that he has written over five hundred concertos in, which about three hundred and fifty of them uses solo instruments or strings while two hundred and thirty uses the violin. The rest of the concertos use other forms of instruments such as the flutes, bassoon, lute, cello and oboe. In most of the themes of music by Antonio are claimed to be playful, exuberant and flamboyantly.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian was born in 1685 and died in 1750 in German. He was famous for composing music and singing in the baroque period. Most of his music are claimed to have composed organ works. In his work, he usually incorporated the German style in his music. It has been claimed that Bach was influenced by the music of Vivaldi. The father of Bach was well known in their town for being the director of musicians in that town. His father therefore, taught him on how to play the violin as well as other instruments. Johann Christophe Bach who is the brother of Bach taught him on how to use or play the clavichord; he also introduced him to the contemporary music that was popular at that time. The fact that he had access to other musicians when he was younger, the instruments, he came into contact with other people from different cultures such as Italian, and French music and his ability to write music made him to compose some of the energetic musical style that he become famous for producing (Eidam). Most of his songs were religious mostly because Christian songs were in high demand. The other was because of the relationship he had with the Christian God because of his Lutheran traditions.
Classical period
The classical era is claimed to date from 1730 to 1820. The era lies between the baroque period and the romantic period. Two of the most known composers of music at this era are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven. The music in this era is different compared to that of the Baroque. This is because the music is less complex and has clearer and lighter texture compared to that of the baroque (Downs). It is claimed to have a homophonic melody. The timber and mood of the music in that era kept changing. The melodies in the classical era were clear-cut compared to that in the baroque era. In looking at the music style of the musician during the classical era one can be able to see that there were some differences and similarities in the music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791. He was one of the most famous composers of music during the classical era. At a young age, he was already having the knowledge to play the violin and the keyboard. At the age of five years, he was able to compose music, which he performed for the European royalties. This is when his music career began. Some of the finest masterpieces of Mozart are claimed to be simple in composition. Some examples of those compositions are the piano concertos number twenty-four, the opera Don Giovanni and the symphony number forty (Holmes). He exploited the chromatic harmony that was not done by the other composers at that time. His music was influenced by other cultures due to his travelling to different countries. He was able to meet Johann Bach who influenced some of his earlier works. It is claimed that some of his earlier symphonies have Italian overture where there are three movements that are running towards each other. In the operas, he composed changes in the instruments, the colour of the tone and the texture of the orchestra in order to produce dramatic effects.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven was born in 1770 and died in 1827. The music of Beethoven was influenced by the works of Mozart. He is claimed to be one of the people who were responsible for the transition of the western music from the classical age to the romantic age. He has composed many music, which is widely known such as the concertos, symphonies, string quartets and piano sonatas (Cooper). When he was younger, his father Johann Beethoven taught him music. He is claimed to be an innovator in that he was able to widen the scope of the symphony, quartets and the sonata. He also changed the combination between the instruments and vocals to a new way. Most of his famous works were done when he was losing his hearing.
Early Romantic era
The early romantic era is claimed to be the time when the composers of music began to show feelings in their music instead of producing technically perfect music. The transition of music between the classical era and the early romantic’s era happened when the composers began to experiment more with their music. This era occurred in 1800 to 1850. Beethoven is claimed to be the one who started this transition of music. In the music, there was a progress in the structure of music, the size of the orchestra and the instruments combination. Some of the most notable composers of music n this era are Frederic Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn.
Fredric Chopin
Frederic Chopin is one of the greatest Poland composers of music born in 1810 and died in 1849. Most of his music concentrated in the piano composition. His published composition was done when he was seven years old. His mother was the one who exposed Chopin to music and thus the fact that he showed talent caused his parents to employ a musician to teach him music. He was able surpass him and become better than the teacher. Polonaise in G Minor was one of his compositions that he used to perform in the salons. By 1826 he had composed he had composed some piano pieces in various styles and technique. He performed in various countries and thus gained friends from different countries such as Felix Mendelssohn. When he moved to Paris, he was able to get employment as a teacher and a recitalist. This made him to acquire wealth thus he was able to compose music such as the scherzo in B flat minor and nocturnes of opp. 9 (Zamoyski). When he was in a happy relationship with George sands, he was able to produce some of the best music such as the B Minor Sonata, the Opus 56 Mazurkas and the Opus 55 Nocturnes.
Felix Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn was a well-known German composer, conductor and pianist born in 1809 and died in 1847. He was known to compose concerti, chamber music, symphonies and piano music. Some of the works he did that were famous were the Italian symphony, his mature violin concerto, the songs without words, and the incidental music for a midsummer night’s dream. When he was at the age of nine years, he was able to compose 11 symphonies and 5 operas. His first debut was in Berlin. He composed music prolifically and thus ended up founding the Leipzig conservatory of music where he was the directors (Eatock).
Late Romantics era
The late romantic era was in 1850 to 1900. The late romantic era differs from the early romantic era because of the composers were more free to compose the music in whichever way they wanted using emotions and feelings rather than the cold way they did in a sophisticated manner. The music in this era was very popular in that it contributed to some of the music in the modern era. The music was using larger orchestra thereby causing the music to be more textured and layered. There have been a number of composers who are famous in this period such as Richard Wagner and Pyotr Llyich Tchaikovsky.
Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner was among the first composers in the late romantic era. He was born in 1813 and died in 1883. He was a well-known German composer, conductor for operas, polemicist and theatre director (Beckett). He was able to revolutionise the opera in the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, which is known as the total work of art. In the opera, he was able to combine the music, poetic, drama and visual of the work into the music of drama. In the later years of his life, some of the notable works that he did were well known for their complexity in the texture, orchestration and the rich harmonies that it contained. This made his work to be well liked. He advanced the musical language in that he was able to shift the tonal centres and the extreme chromaticism. These facts lead to the development of the classical music.
Pyotr Llyich Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 and died in 1893. He was a well-known Russian composer during the late romantic era. Some of the works that he is notable for composing are concertos, ballet, symphonies, chamber music and operas. He is claimed to be the first Russian composer to have his work have an impression in the international community at that time. Therefore, he was able to be a conductor in other states such as the United States of America and Europe. Some of his best works are in the three ballets that he composed known as the Nutcracker, sleeping beauty and the swan lake. The opera that was famous was the Eugene Onegin (Asafyev).
Modern era
This is the era in the 20th century classical music. The music composed was diverse without any dominant style. This is what made it differ with the late romantic era. Some of the composers began looking back at the past music composed especially after the First World War. There have been a number of notable musicians in this era in that their music have differed are have shown significant similarities between them. Some of the composers are Camille Saints-Saens, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin and Dmitri Shostakovich (Ashby).
Camille Saint-Saens
Camille Saint-Saens was born in 1835 and died in 1921. During this era, he became very famous French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. Some of his well-known works are the Danse macabre, piano concerto number 2, havanaise, symphony number 3, the carnival of the animals and cello concerto number one (Ashby). It is claimed that during his concerts he was restrained, cool and was unmoving while he was playing the piano. This made him to have many criticism where the people thought that he was excessively businesslike thus will not be memorable unlike other charismatic performers.
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland is one of the most famous American classical composers in the 20th century. Aaron Copland was born in 19000 and died in 1990. He was able to incorporate the some of the American music that was popular at that particular tie such as the jazz into his music. He changed the music from the European version of the music and made it different and unique. His work has inspired and influenced many of the American composers after his death. Some of his works that are well known are in the ballet such as the Billy the kid, rodeo and the Appalachian spring. The most famous composition that he made was the El Salon Mexico that produced in 1935 (Smith).
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was well known American composer of the classical music as well as the number of stage and screen work he had done such as opera. When he was fifteen years, he dropped out of school in order to play piano professionally. Soon after, he became one of the most wanted musicians in America. His composition became better because he learned from others and thus was able to improve his work. His musical style was initially influenced by the French composers in the early 20th century (Ashby).
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri is considered to be one of the most inventive composers from the soviet union. He has created a lot of controversy through his work. Dmitri was born in 1906 and died in 1975. In the twentieth century, he was one of the most prominent Russian pianist and composer. In the beginning of his career, he gained fame in the Soviet Union but later own his music made his relationship with the government to be soar. Other composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev influenced his style of music. This caused him to build up the hybrid style. He used the combination of both the post romanticism and the neo classical compositions in one of his singular works. Some of his orchestral works that are well known are the 6 concerti’s and the 15 symphonies. One of his compositions known as the second waltz, op.99 was used in the movie known as the first echelon (Wilson).
In conclusion, there are different periods of music with different composers. The periods are the baroque era, classical era, the romantic era and the modern or the twentieth century era. In the baroque era, there were many famous composers such as Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian. There musical compositions were similar but the difference was that Bach songs were religious as compared to that of Vivaldi. In the classical era, some of the most notable composers are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn. The two composer’s music had some similarities due to the era they were in at that time. However the major difference that can be seen is that Chopin was very energetic and charismatic in that he was able to make a name for himself while Mendelssohn was very conservative thus was very prolific in his work. The romantic era, this is divided into the early romantic era and the late romantic era. These two eras the only difference is that, the music is freer in that the composer's can incorporate feelings and emotions in their music. The modern classical era the music composed has changed a lot and they are able to express their music freely without using the traditional methods.
Work cited
Asafyev, Boris. "The Great Russian Composer." In Russian Symphony: Thoughts About Tchaikovsky. New York: Philosophical Library, 1947.
Ashby, Arved Mark. The Pleasure of Modernist Music: Listening, Meaning, Intention, Ideology. Eastman Studies in Music. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2004.
Beckett, Lucy. Richard Wagner: Parsifal. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Bukofzer, Manfred. Music in the Baroque Era. New York: Norton & Co, 1947.
Cooper, Barry. Beethoven. New york: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Downs, Philip G. Classical Music: The Era of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, 4th vol of Norton Introduction to Music History. New York: Norton & Company, 1992.
Eatock, Colin. Mendelssohn and Victorian England. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009.
Eidam, Klaus. The True Life of J.S. Bach. New York: Basic Books, 2001.
Holmes, Edward. The Life of Mozart. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2005.
Smith, Julia. Aaron Copland. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1953.
Wilson, Elizabeth. Shostakovich: A Life Remembered. Faber and Faber, 2006.
Zamoyski, Adam. Chopin: Prince of the Romantics. London: HarperCollins, 2010.
