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Period: 500 to 1400
Early Music
Early music generally comprises Medieval music. Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical music. -
Period: 1400 to
Renaissance
The Renaissance era of classical music saw the growth of polyphonic music, the rise of new instruments, and a burst of new ideas regarding harmony, rhythm, and music notation. -
Period: to
Baroque
Baroque music is characterised by: long flowing melodic lines often using ornamentation decorative notes such as trills and turns contrast between loud and soft, solo and ensemble. a contrapuntal texture where two or more melodic lines are combined. -
Period: to
Classical
Simplicity: Compared to the Baroque period music that preceded it, Classical period music places greater emphasis on simplicity, tonal harmony, single-line melodies, and enlarged ensembles. -
Period: to
Romantic
Romantic composers sought to create music that was individualistic, emotional, dramatic and often programmatic; reflecting broader trends within the movements of Romantic literature, poetry, art, and philosophy. -
Period: to
20th Century
We are only going to examine 4 genres of 20th Century art music: Impressionism, Expressionism, Neoclassicism, and Electronic Music.
Characteristic texture of the Classical period and continued to predominate in Romantic music while in the 20th century, "popular music is nearly all homophonic," and, "much of jazz is also" though, "the simultaneous improvisations of some jazz musicians creates a true polyphony". -
Period: to
Modern
The defining feature of modern music, and modern art generally is the breaking-down of all traditional aesthetic conventions, thereby unleashing complete freedom in all aesthetic dimensions, including melody, rhythm, and chord progression.
Modernism is importnat,In all of the arts, modernism challenged aesthetic precepts and narrative conventions. I