Thursday, August 12, 2010

The European Music



Which musician do you like most? Bach, Mozart or Beethoven? We almost know lots of musicians which come from European music. European music has begun developed from the Renaissance. These are 3 main periods of music to identify European music which is Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. These periods music has different styles, texture, and rhythm even different compositions by typical musicians. Different periods of music represent different culture and history, they also represent the kind of music is popular in European music.


Because the reason I play the piano, I know lots of the european music, and like them especially the romantic music. I'd like to talk about the european music.


Baroque belongs to the much decorated style of music that was common in European in the 17th century. The typical musician of Baroque period is Johann Sebastian Bach (Mar 21, 1685- July 28, 1750), from 1700 he had several positions like singer, violinist and organist. Much of his music contains an extremely convincing of the two styles. At St.thomas he wrote more than 200 church compositions. His orchestral works include the six Brandenburg concertos, four orchestral concertos, and many harpsichord concertos, a format he invented. Today, Bach is considered as the greatest composer of the Baroque era, and the greatest composer of all time. During the period, composers and performers used more tiny musical decoration, made changes in musical item, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music extended the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical style. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.


(this link is about some sample music of Baroque music with some introduction)



The Classical period, from about 1750 to 1820, established many of the forms of composition, presentation and style. In the classical period, the piano became the main keyboard instrument. However, the term classical music is used to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or seventeenth to the nineteenth. In the middle of the 18th century , Europe began to move towards a new style in archecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as Classism. That make music moved away from the Baroque period, towards a style where a melody over a subordinate harmony. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. The typical musician of classical periods is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan 27, 1756-Dec 5, 1791). In his last year he composed the opera The Magic Flute and his great Requiem. Despite his success, he always lacked money and had to borrow heavily from friends.


(The sample music of classical period)

The Romantic movement in music agree with a general Romantic movement in all arts. At this period, the arts of literature and painting began to influence music. In the Romantic era, music achieved lyric or sensible meaning. Romantic music struggled to increase emotional expression and power to describe these deeper truths, it saved even extended the formal structures from the classical period. The romantic music has a freedom in form and design and more intense personal expression of emotion in which fantasy, imagination. The Romantic era produced many great composers whose names and music are still familiar and popular today. Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner are perhaps the most well-known, but there are plenty of others who may also be familiar, including Strauss, Verdi, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Puccini, and Maishler. These composers are i most like. The typical musician is Ludwig van Beethoven, the most famous composer of all, is harder to replace. His early works are from the Classical period and are clearly Classical in style. But his later music, including the majority of his most famous music, is just as clearly Romantic.


(the sample music of
The Romantic period music)


European music had developed for a long time. Baroque, Classical and Romantic, these are different periods have different contributions for European music. Most western music based on these periods of music. It is fun to classify and explode music, even other area music.

Thanks for your reading, do you guys know more about the European music?

How's your feelings ? And do you have some favorite musicans?

What do you think about the European music? What kind of music do you like?

Leave some comments....


11 comments:

  1. I always regret about I didn't learn any musical instrument and didn't even bother to learn music when I was young. My mother have had a piano since I was roughly 5 years old. Nevertheless,I have never had an impulse to seriously learn it untill I was in high school. Then I was just thinking it was too late for me to start learning from scratch by now, so I quited trying.
    Anyway, before I came here, I wanted to learn jazz drum;However, because of the restricted time in China and the unconvenience of living on-campus, I decided to buy one once I had an chance to live off-campus.

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  3. I also like European music very much, and I have to say that every period of that has its own unreplaceable value. Although the popularity of mordern music makes people become less aware of the their beauty, the contribution and influence they have made will never fade away. Moreover, there are always connections between different types of arts. Actually people can still hear early European misic frequently in movies or even pop music.

    Personally I've been listening to classic music more than other two types of European music. But I think Baroque and Romantic is also very good. I think I need to learn more about that in the future!

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  4. For yoyo:
    I hove heard of the name of those musicians and played some of their musics. I have to say my favourite one is Beethoven because I like the style of his musics. When you playing the Beethoven's music, you can feel how Beethoven feels in his situation. Some of his music is as peaceful as night but others are like fighting with his fate. Honestly, I'm not good at paying piano as you did so I only know some of his music. On the other hand, I don't like Mozart, because I think his music is too hard for me.
    I think European music is good. It's just modern people don't have the mood of listening the European music. For instence, I like the music by Linkin Park, those quick, strong music can help me to free my mind from hard works. Maybe I could love in European music after I'm old oneday. ^.^

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  5. You really like music!!
    I remember my first time to access the European music when I was a junior school student. To expand our knowledge of music, my teacher required us to memorize the classic and famous music. We had to listen and memorize all the music in the list, and then had a test. Even though that was a hard time, I appreciate that I can recognize some melody!!

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  6. I don't know about european music except one thing that it was loved by people a few hundred years without trend. Lots of music are showed up then disapper soon nowadays. I think every music is good music, but european music especially have power that can move people's mind. Unfortunately all I know about european music is famous's. I want to try listen european music sometimes, but I didn't know where do I start from. If you don't mind, would you recomment a few? ^^

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  7. Dear Yo-Yo:

    Thank you for this informative explanation of the differences between the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods in music history and evolution. I enjoyed clicking on your links and hearing clips of some of these great composers. I love Johann Strauss--all those waltzes! I also love Mozart, Vivaldi and others. It is interesting that the piano became the main keyboard instrument in the Classical Period. This is a new fact for me!

    --Alexandra

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  8. Hey,Yoyo
    I think European music is the oldest music style in our world. I don't know a lot of information about European music until you tell me. I just know a little about the Romantic movement, many famous composer appeared in the Romantic movement.In my family, only my little sister could play the piano.
    Thanks for your sharing.

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  9. Dear YOYO:
    There is one time I remembered that a tiny group plays in Stony Brook's the lobby of hospital. Everyone who passed by, doctors, nurses, patients, and professors stopped walking and listening carefully. So the power of music is mightier than sword. People play musical instrument or listen to music to give a relief or reduce depression.

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  10. Hello, YoYo.
    You really well organized the history about European music, and you seem that you know the music history very well. Actually, although I had learned playing violin and I like classic music, I don't know the music history well. I envy you :) , and I like Vivaldi. I am curious whether there is the special reason you like Beethoven, and I want to listen the music you play one day.

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  11. Hello, your blog was very interesting. It allowed me to learn more about classical music. I don't really listen music. But when I first started listening music, I started with classical music. I find it very relaxing. It suits me well because I'm a calm person. My favorite one of these three musicians is Mozart. I like " Green Sleeves. I always listen to Mozart, when I'm reading a book.

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