1. Baroque Period The name Baroque may come from the Portuguese barroco, which originally meant irregularly shaped pearls; there is also a theory that it comes from the painter F. Barocci or Baroccio. name. Baroque originally meant "weird", "bad style", "too many scrollwork decorations" and so on. In fine arts, artists used bright and bold colors and exaggerated decoration to enhance their works. Jacob Burckhardt believed that the architecture and paintings of the seventeenth century represented a degraded Renaissance style. However, this view was modified around 1900 AD by Heinrich Wolfflin. He was the first person to point out the positive contribution and great artistic essence of Baroque art. He washed away the term "Baroque". of inferior connotation. As history entered the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the "Holy Roman Empire" had gradually become old and corrupt. Kings, princes, nobles, and merchants who had become rich due to urban development during the Renaissance were all exerting their power. European countries because of their power Struggles for, wars and disasters occurred frequently. In the spiritual field of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church, which has long had absolute authority, has often caused bloodshed due to its confrontation with the emerging Protestantism since the religious revolution. Coupled with the vigorous development of Renaissance humanism, Europe after the seventeenth century moved from unity to opposition in many aspects, and the concept of respecting individuality also emerged from this. The Baroque period roughly began in 1600 AD and ended with Bach's death in 1750, entering the Classical period. Some people classify the Baroque period as the beginning of the Classical period. The Baroque period is also called the "Digital Bass Period". "Digital Bass" is a harmonic method of indicating bass symbols. It uses numbers to indicate the main intervals and chords. This shorthand method was widely used in the Baroque period and was also a part of the Baroque period. Main characteristics of music. For a simple explanation, you can first imagine how young people nowadays use guitar accompaniment when singing. Someone may have noticed that in the songbook they sang, in addition to the simplified score of the melody, there are also some *** marks for guitar playing. The use of these marks is conceptually the same as the "digital bass" of the Baroque period. of. The digital bass leads to two main contours in the structure of the song, namely the melody and the bass, leaving some gaps where improvised harmonies can be inserted. However, in Germany, not only another structure "polyphonic music" that contrasts with this structure is maintained, but it also reaches the peak of perfection in Bach's music. Another important thing about Baroque tense is the emergence of tonal system. The application of digital bass has given rise to a new concept of harmony in music. This new concept of harmony has replaced the previous combination of parts in polyphonic music based on counterpoint. This means that the concept of harmony is based on harmony theory. , minor scale system gradually became the mainstream of music creation during the Baroque period. In addition, the main development of instrumental music also started in the seventeenth century. One of the reasons is related to the development of dramatic music such as operas and oratorios in the Baroque period. Because the performances of operas and oratorios must use harpsichord, organ or orchestral instruments, when composers create operas and oratorios, they have virtually improved their mastery of the timbres and performance techniques of various instruments. This is a rare experience. , making them more successful in writing instrumental music; the second reason is that during the Baroque period, in Cremona, northern Italy, violin makers such as Amadeus, Guarneri and Stradivari appeared. family, they produced a large number of excellent violins of various types, which greatly improved the expressive power of stringed instruments. Good musical instruments and some outstanding performing talents at that time naturally made composers happy to compose instrumental music. Another principle of the Baroque style is "contrasting effects". This principle is manifested in the sudden changes in early songs, the alternation of "solo-unison" in the "Concerto Grosso", and the echo effect of vocal and organ music. Early Baroque music, in its songs and touch pieces, particularly shows amazing willfulness, richness and irregularity, while later composers, such as Carissimi and Corelli, represent There is a tendency towards a more controlled and regular style.
(Bach) 2. Classical music The development of classical music entered the "classical music period" as soon as Bach's era passed. Therefore, the classical music period is regarded as the year of Bach's death in 1750. as a starting point. In addition, because Beethoven's late works showed romantic tendencies, the classical music school ended in 1820 (Beethoven died in 1827). However, it should be noted that although the dividing point between the Baroque and Classical periods is 1750, the formation of the classical style is not as clear as the dividing point between the Renaissance and the Baroque period, which is 1600. Generally speaking, , from about 1740 to 1770 was a transitional period in the formation of the classical style. The abandonment of digital bass, a musical feature of the classical music period: We mentioned in the previous section that the use of "digital bass" is one of the characteristics of Baroque music. However, as soon as the Baroque period ended, the term digital bass also went into history. . By the classical period, polyphonic music was rarely used. At this time, it was almost dominated by main-key music. In main-key music, one part usually plays the main melody, and other parts serve as accompaniment. In the classical period, composers no longer represented the harmonic accompaniment with numbers as in the Baroque period, and then had the digital bass players improvise. Composers during this period had fully written out the harmonies of the tunes and arranged various musical instruments to play them to increase the variety of different timbres. The use of expressions of "crescendo" and "decrescendo" in musical phrases: Today, most people may be accustomed to the expression of musical phrases in crescendo and decrescendo, and take it for granted, but what we must explain here is that this expression method It only started in the classical period. In the era of polyphonic music, polyphonic music emphasizes that each part has the same status and each part must be balanced, so it is not easy to have large differences in strength and weakness. Even the main-key music of the Baroque period emphasized the alternation of strength and weakness between the solo part and the accompaniment part to produce changes in the light and dark of the music. However, the contrast of the strength and weakness of the phrases in the Baroque period was expressed in a clear step-by-step manner. , people at that time did not have the concept of shaping musical phrases into "crescendo" or "decrescendo", so the expression techniques of musical phrases crescendo and decrescendo were only established in the classical period. 3. Romantic Period: Due to the industrial revolution, the feudal system in Western society collapsed and common people rose up. The same was true for the performance of music. No longer only nobles could appreciate music and become musicians. Music went beyond the palace and entered the common people. Romantic music was a very brilliant and rich period in the history of music. There were very few musicians during the Baroque and Classical periods, but many musicians appeared during the Romantic period. The characteristics of music during this period include: Art songs (the biggest feature) were produced, represented by Schubert. Mixed application of music and literature: The poet's poetry, drama and music began to be combined, thus producing symphonic poetry (symphonic poetry is music in a single movement). The harmonies are colorful. The popularity of title music. Produced a concert overture, composed for a concert and not with the opera. In the past, overtures were composed following operas. Their main function was to soothe the audience's mood and serve as a buffer for the performers. Since the overtures were very pleasant, they were composed separately for concerts. (For example: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Bizet, etc., have created many wonderful works.) 4. 20th century music 20th century music, also known as modern music, refers to the music of the entire 20th century since the end of the 19th century. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, due to the influence of symbolism in literature and impressionism in painting, a new style appeared in music, namely impressionism. This new style originated in France, and its founder was the French composer Debussy. The general characteristics of music in the 20th century are: Rhythm complexity. Rhythm gets rid of the accented metrical standard of two beats, three beats, and four beats, replacing it with asymmetrical and odd-number-based beats, such as five beats and seven beats. , eleven beats, thirteen beats. On the basis of absorbing the complexity and flexibility of Asian and African rhythms, several rhythm patterns are used at the same time to create tense, powerful, and explosive basic rhythms and effects. 2. Harmonic dissonance: Break the third-degree-based composition method and use second-, fourth-, and fifth-degrees as the basis to create a harmonic sound. A "skyscraper" complex composed of six or seven notes, such as 1-3-5-7-9-13-15, enhances the tension of the music.
3. The ambiguity of the key center is atonal, the tonic is abolished, the twelve tones are treated as equally important sounds, and they are arranged into a twelve-tone sequence to form the twelve-tone method.
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