Germany Jahrgangsstufe 13 Music
Chapters: 2
1. Western instrumental music history
Western instrumental music history
- Music History: From Chant to Pop – Music is older than writing. Every culture grew its own music, often passed on by ear, like Indian raga, African drumming and gamelan. In the Western tradition the main eras are Medieval (chant, about 500–1400), Renaissance (polyphony, 1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1910) and the 20th century to today (jazz, recording, film, pop, electronic). Each era changed the texture (how many lines sound together), the size of the group and music's place in society.
2. Selected music since 1900
Music since 1900
- 20th-Century Music – In the 20th century composers broke many old rules. Impressionists (Debussy, Ravel) used hazy whole-tone and modal sounds. Expressionists (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern) left keys behind (atonality) and then built music from rows of all 12 notes (serialism). Neoclassical composers (Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Poulenc) went back to clear old forms with sharp new harmony. Bartók and Kodály used folk tunes and uneven rhythms. Later came electronic and chance music, then minimalism (Riley, Reich, Glass) with slowly changing loops, and postmodern mixing of styles. National voices included Copland, Britten, Shostakovich and Messiaen.