Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled: An introduction to the Western Classical Tradition.

Today, we're gonna be starting to dip our toe into the Western Classical Tradition, having a look at what it is, some of the key features, and how it evolved over the different periods of time.

So let's get to it.

Our outcome is, "I can describe key musical features of the three key periods within the Western Classical Tradition." Some key words: Firstly, we've got Western Classical Tradition.

This is formal notated European art music from the Medieval period to the 21st century and it's sometimes shortened to WCT.

Baroque.

This appeared of music history between roughly 1600 and 1750.

Classical.

This is a period of music history between approximately 1750 and 1820.

And then, finally, Romantic.

This a period of music history between approximately 1820 and 1910.

The first part of today's lesson is focused on the Baroque period.

The Western Classical Tradition is music composed in Europe between the Medieval period and the 21st century.

The music is diverse but usually uses notation and it's written to be performed publicly.

So this does not encompass all music in Europe between these periods, but it's a formal notated art music that is usually written to be performed publicly.

It can be divided into three key periods, the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

And if we had a timeline, the Baroque period is the first of the three, and the approximate dates of that are 1600 to 1750.

The reason we say approximate is because there isn't a clear cutoff of when one period ends and the next begins.

The music evolves gradually between the periods, but these are generally the rough dates that are used.

Then we've got the Classical period that came after from 1750 to 1820 and the Romantic period between 1820 and 1910.

And each of those three periods has typical musical features that are associated with it, and that's what we're gonna be exploring in this lesson.

Let's start off by taking a look at the Baroque period, which is 1600 to 1750.

Now one of the distinctive sounds of Baroque music is the harpsichord, and this was a keyboard instrument, you can see in that picture there, that it was a predecessor to the piano, so it existed before the piano and the piano developed from it.

I'd like to listen to it here.

How would you describe the timbre? Let's have a listen.

(airy dramatic music) So we would probably describe that timbre as bright and twangy and it contrasts a lot with the timbre of a piano, which you might be more familiar with.

Often the harpsichord is heard in the basso continuo.

Now what this is, is this is the group of accompanying instruments in a Baroque orchestra that play the chords and the baseline, so the sort of like the backing instruments in a Baroque orchestra if we were to simplify it slightly.

Usually the basso continuo consists of the harpsichord with a bass stringed instrument, so either the cello or the double bass.

So the harpsichord is playing the chords and the bass stringed instrument is predominantly playing the bass notes of those chords.

Sometimes it features a lute, which is a similar instrument to a guitar as well.

I'd like to listen to this clip of a Baroque orchestra.

Can you pick out the distinct timbre of the harpsichord and what other instruments can you hear? And you'll have to listen closely to try and pick out that bright twangy timbre of the harpsichord because there's a lot going on in this orchestra.

So you can pause my video, have a listen and see if you can do that.

So in that clip there are a variety of different instruments you might have heard.

The Baroque orchestra, which we can see here, consists mostly of stringed instruments.

So you might have heard violin, violas, cellos, or double basses.

It sometimes features a small number of wind and brass instruments as well, such as flutes, trumpets, horns, and oboes.

And what we can see here is a typical layout, but there's a lot of variety in the layouts of the Baroque orchestra determined by which instruments are used, how many performers, are involved and so on.

So this is just an example of how one might be laid out.

Have a listen to this example.

Which wind or brass instrument can you hear in this one? Pause my video and have a listen.

And well done there, then, if you identified that that one included a flute, and that's one of the more common woodwind instruments in the Baroque period.

Let's check your understanding.

What is the typical keyboard instrument of the Baroque period? I'll give you a few seconds to have a think.

And the correct answer here is the harpsichord, which is that typical keyboard instrument strongly associated with the Baroque period.

The Baroque orchestra consists mostly of what? Is it string instruments, woodwind instruments, or brass instruments.

I'll give you a few seconds to choose your answer.

And the correct answer is stringed instruments.

It's mostly string instruments, sometimes with a few woodwind or brass instruments as well.

Now another key feature of Baroque music is in the melodies, which often have distinct features, they often have long wandering melodic lines.

Listen to this typical example.

How many bars does the melody last for without any break? See if you can count.

Pause my video and have a listen.

So well done there if you identified that that melody plays continuously for six bars with no rest and no clear phrases.

And that's really typical of Baroque melodies.

Where you often have these long wandering melodies that meander around and last for quite a long time without any obvious divisions within them.

Another typical feature of Baroque melodies is the use of ornamentation.

So these melodies are often decorated with ornaments.

These are three of the most common ornaments that we come across.

The first is a turn, and in a turn, the performer plays the note above the main notated note.

Then the main note itself, then the note below it, and then the main note again.

So that one note we can see there turns into four notes, above, and then the note, below, and then the note.

Let's have a quick listen to what this would sound like.

(piano chimes) And that's just an effective way of decorating that note.

Another common ornament is the mordent, and there are different types of it, but in this example, the performer would play the notated note, then the note above and then the notated note again.

They play it nice and fast so that one note turns into three.

Let's hear what a mordent would sound like.

(piano trills abruptly) So again, it's just a way of decorating that note with a little bit of embellishment.

And then the final, and probably the most recognizable one that you'll come across is the trill, which is a rapid alternation between the notated note and the note above it.

That would sound like this.

(piano trills) And if you compare the mordent and the trill, you might notice there that the mordent sounds similar to just a very short trill.

That's one way you can identify it by ear.

So let's summarize some of the key defining features of Baroque music.

It can be characterized by the use of basso continuo.

That's that accompanying section of the orchestra consisting of harpsichord and a bass stringed instrument.

Use of ornamentation such as tones, mordents and trills.

Terraced dynamics, which is something we're not looking at right here, but is sudden changes in dynamics rather than gradual changes.

Long flowing melodies like that example we've just looked at where there's those six bars of uninterrupted meandering wandering melody.

Small orchestra consisting mostly of string instruments and a mixture of textures including homophonic textures where all the parts move at the same time, and polyphonic textures where there are at least two independent lines of music.

Again, that's something we're not gonna cover in depth right now, but it's a really defining feature of Baroque music.

Let's check your understanding.

Which Of the following ornaments is a trill? I'll give you a few seconds to choose your answer.

And the correct answer here is the third one.

There we've got the tr written above the note that's short for trill.

First one is a mordent and the second one is a turn.

Now there were many famous composers in the Baroque period, but J.

S.

Bach, which is short for Johann Sebastian Bach, it's probably the most famous.

You might have also heard of composers like Handel or Vivaldi as well.

They're probably two of the other most famous ones.

I'd like to listen to part of his "Brandenburg Concerto No.

4".

Which aspects of this help to identify that it's from the Baroque era? So think about some of those key features that we've explored so far.

Which aspects can you hear here? Pause my video and have a listen.

So hopefully you picked up on some of the following: that it uses a small orchestra consisting mostly of string instruments and it has a harpsichord as part of that basso continuo, that accompanying section of the orchestra.

It also has a long, continuous, flowing melody line.

And remember, that's a really defining feature of Baroque music.

Now let's check your understanding.

I'd like to name a famous Baroque composer.

I'll give a few seconds to come up with one.

And here you might have said J.

S.

Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach.

That's the composer we were just exploring.

But there are many others that you could have mentioned including Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli, Monteverdi, and many others.

So well done if you managed to get one of those or if you mentioned Bach.

For Task A, listen to the extract of Baroque music and answer the questions.

I'd like to list two features of this orchestra that are typical of the period, one aspect of the melody that's typical of the period, in which year is this most likely to have been composed, 1590, 1690, 1790, or 1890? Bearing in mind this is a piece of Baroque music.

And finally, name a composer who might have written this.

So you can pause my video now and have a listen.

Let's go through this task then.

So of Question 1, two features of the orchestra that are typical of the period: it's mostly using string instruments, which are the dominant instruments in the Baroque orchestra.

There's the use of the harpsichord in the basso continuo, that accompanying section of the orchestra, that's a really key feature of the Baroque orchestra.

And there's overall a relatively small ensemble.

So if we're listening to it, we can hear it's not a huge orchestra, it's quite small and compact.

One aspect to the melody that's typical of the Baroque period is the use of ornamentation, in particular, trills.

Well done if you identified that specifically.

In which year is this most likely to have been composed? While the only one of those years that fits within the Baroque period is 1690.

So well done if you chose that one.

If you chose 1590, that's before the start of the Baroque period.

And if you chose 1790 or 1890, those are both after the end of the Baroque period.

And then name a composer who might have written this.

Well, you might have said J.

S.

Bach.

He's probably the most well-known Baroque composer.

This one was actually composed by an Italian composer called Arcangelo Corelli, or you might have said Handel or Vivaldi or other famous Baroque composer as well.

Any of those will be good suggestions for this one.

Now we're gonna move on to look at the next period, which is the Classical period.

I'd like to compare these two clips.

In the Baroque clip, the texture is polyphonic, with multiple equally important melodies playing at the same time.

So you can hear lots of interweaving melody lines.

How is the texture different in the Classical clip? Pause my video and have a listen.

So the key difference in the texture here is that the Classical texture is simpler with a clear melody and a separate accompaniment.

This is called a melody and accompaniment texture.

And that contrasts with the polyphonic texture in the Baroque clip where there are multiple melodies that are equally important playing at the same time.

This melody and accompaniment texture is a key Classical feature and it contrasts with typical Baroque textures.

In this example, we can hear a Classical orchestra.

I'd like to now think about the instrumentation of this orchestra.

How does this differ from the earlier Baroque orchestra? Pause my video and have a listen.

Let's delve into that then.

So the Classical orchestra is larger than the Baroque orchestra, but it is still dominated by string instruments.

It uses a greater variety and number of woodwind brass instruments, and often a few percussion instruments as well.

This was partly due to advances in instrument technology, which made brass and woodwind instruments more versatile.

Now the harpsichord and continuo were not used anymore, so if you spotted they were absent from that Classical orchestra, that's well spotted.

That's a key difference between the two.

This is the typical layout of a Classical orchestra where we can see we have the strings are still by far the largest section.

We have the woodwind section sat in the middle, and then the brass and percussion further back.

True or false? The harpsichord was used in both Baroque and Classical orchestras.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer here is false, and that's because it was used in the Baroque orchestra but not in the Classical orchestra.

So by this point it had been really phased out of the orchestra.

Fill in the blanks.

The most typical texture of the Classical period is called something and something.

Pause my video, see if you can think of these words.

And the correct answer here then is melody and accompaniment where we've got that clear melody line that's very separate from the accompaniment which sits apart from it.

Now, a key development of this period was the creation of the piano and it became more popular than the harpsichord, partly due to its versatility.

It's much more versatile instrument with a greater dynamic range, you can play soft, it can play loud, and more range of timbres and colors to the sound as well.

One of the most famous Classical composers who's called Mozart, who you can see in that picture there, and you may well have heard of, played the piano and he wrote many pieces of music for it.

I'd like to listen to this example, which is a piece by Mozart.

How is the texture typical of the Classical period? Pause my video and have a listen.

And well done there if you spotted it.

The texture is typical because there's a very clear melody and accompaniment.

So there's this melody and accompaniment texture, not lots of different melody lines playing together.

You might also notice there that the melody sounds simpler than Baroque melodies, and this is due to less use of ornamentation.

So there still is some ornamentation, but not as much as in the Baroque period.

And melodies that are based on short, equal-length phrases, so separate phrases, normally two or four bars within the melody.

And this contrasts with the long flowing melodies that were typical of the Baroque period.

That's a key difference between the two is Baroque music often has these long flowing melodies that go without interruption and Classical melodies are often broken up into short phrases that are two or four bars long.

Listen to this famous example by Beethoven, who is another very famous Classical composer.

I'd like to notice that the melody can be broken up into short phrases.

Pause my video and have a listen.

Let's check your understanding.

Would you expect melodies to use more ornamentation in a Baroque or Classical composition? I'll give you a few seconds to choose one.

And the correct answer here is Baroque.

Baroque music typically used lots of ornamentation, whereas in the Classical period, there was still some use of ornamentation but not as much.

So let's summarize the key musical features of the Classical period.

We've got mostly melody and accompaniment texture with a separate melody and accompaniment.

We've got simpler melodies with less ornamentation and clear short phrases.

We've got a larger orchestra with more woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments and that absence of the harpsichord and the basso continuo.

And we've got increasing use of the piano.

These are all key features of the Classical period.

Which of those features can you hear in Mozart's famous "Symphony No.

40"? You might recognize this.

It's a very well-known piece.

Have a look at those four key features.

Which ones can you hear? Pause my video and have a listen.

And in that example there we could hear, mostly in melody and accompaniment texture, a simple melody with clear phrases and there wasn't really any ornamentation, and quite a large orchestra using woodwind, brass, and percussion as well as that big string section.

There wasn't any use of piano in that, but typically in this period you wouldn't have a piano as a normal part of the orchestra.

Let's check your understanding.

I'd like to name a famous composer of the Classical period.

I'll give you a few seconds to think of one.

And two very good answers here would be either Mozart or Beethoven.

There are many, many other Classical composers.

These are just two of the most famous.

Another one you might have heard of is Haydn, who's another very famous Classical composer.

So well done if you managed to get one of those.

For Task B listen to the extract of Classical music and answer the questions.

I'd like you to identify two aspects of the instrumentation that contrast with Baroque music, explain how the texture is typical of the Classical period, choose a year in which this is most likely to have been composed, bearing in mind this is from the Classical period, and name a composer who might have written this.

So you can pause my video now, have a listen to this and answer these questions.

Let's go through this task.

So Question 1: Two aspects of the instrumentation that contrast with Baroque music.

You might have mentioned the larger orchestra with more woodwind brass and percussion and with no harpsichord or continuo, basso continuo.

How's the texture typical? Well, it's a melody and accompaniment texture, which is typical of the Classical period with that clear melody line and then separate accompaniment sitting underneath.

The year this is most likely to have been composed.

Out of those four options, we'd say 1810, because that's the year that falls within the Classical period, 1750 to 1820.

And then name a composer who might have written this.

Well, you could have said Mozart or Beethoven.

Those are probably the two most famous Classical composers.

This piece was actually in fact written by Beethoven.

You might have also mentioned Haydn, who's another famous Classical composer.

So any three of those would've been good suggestions for this one.

Finally, we're gonna move on to look at the third of our three periods, which is the Romantic period.

Now in the Romantic period, which is roughly from 1820 to 1910, music became much more dramatic, emotional, and complex.

Composers often took inspiration from things outside of music like poetry, literature, and nature.

And although the word romantic suggests there's some links with the love or romance, this movement was much more about being expressive through music.

So avoid that common misconception that Romantic music is about love or romance, it's much broader and it's just the name given to the movement.

The orchestra became even bigger in this period with the large woodwind, brass, and percussion sections.

And in many cases, including this clip, the strings are no longer such a dominant section.

So they're still the large section in the orchestra, they're still a really important part of the orchestra, but they no longer dominate to the extent that they did in the earlier periods.

When you listen to this clip, see if you can hear that larger orchestra with the large woodwind, brass, and percussion sections.

Pause my video and have a listen.

Let's check your understanding.

I'd like to match each orchestra to the correct period.

We've got Classical, Baroque and Romantic.

And then we've got three descriptions of orchestras there.

Pause my video while you do this.

And the correct answers here are: The first one is a Baroque orchestra; it's small with a few woodwind and brass instruments.

The second one was a Classical orchestra, which was larger with more woodwind, brass and percussion.

And the third was a Romantic orchestra, which is very large with many woodwind, brass, and percussions.

So were increasing in size and increasing in diversity throughout those periods.

The piano remained really important in the Romantic period and many famous composers from this period were piano players.

The instrument is very versatile, both in terms of dynamics, in terms of timbre, the tone color you can produce, and just the range of the instrument as well.

This allows performers to play very expressive, complex music.

Pause my video and have a listen to this very typical example of Romantic piano music.

Notice how the composer is really exploiting the versatility of the piano.

Pause my video now.

The piano is also well suited to playing in a virtuosic style.

And this is where the music is written to show off a performer's skills.

So it's really trying to show off their skillset and their technical ability.

Virtuosic music is challenging to play 'cause it has to show off these impressive skills and it's also impressive to listen to as well.

And this is a key aspect of a lot of romantic music, is a lot of it's designed to show off the performer's skill.

Have a listen to this clip.

What aspects of this sound virtuosic? So which aspects of the music make it sound technically impressive like the performer is showing off? Pause my video and have a listen.

And you might have picked up on a few aspects there.

There's these big dramatic ground chords that are big and impressive, there's the fast technical runs, and there's the extreme dynamics as well.

And all these create a sense of impressive technical skill.

So that's a typical example of virtuosic writing in the Romantic period.

Romantic music increasingly used chromatic harmony, which is using notes from outside the key as well.

This kind of harmony allows composers to create very emotional, expressive music like this famous melody here.

Pause my video and have a listen to this one and see if you can hear how a lot of the notes sound like they come from outside the key because they're chromatic notes.

Now, composers took all these expressive tools and they used them to tell stories and paint pictures through their music.

This is called programme music when you're trying to create an image of something else or tell a story through music.

One example of this is by the famous Russian composer Tchaikovsky who was from the Romantic period.

And he wrote this piece to tell the tragic story of "Romeo and Juliet," it's a tragic love story that was written by Shakespeare.

Why do you think this music is effective for telling a tragic love story? What is it about the music that might suit that story? Pause my video and have a listen.

And there are many different things we could discuss here, but in general terms, it creates an intense emotional mood which suits that type of story with a very expressive melody.

And this really fits with a tragic love story.

So when composers are writing programme music, that's music that paints these pictures or tells these stories, they have to think very carefully about how they use the different musical elements to fit and suit that story that they're trying to tell.

So to summarize, Romantic music can be characterized by: an expression of intense emotions; complex chromatic harmony using notes from outside of the key; very large orchestras with large woodwind, brass, and percussion sections; the importance of the piano, this was a key instrument during this period; technically challenging virtuosic playing that shows off the performer skills; and the use of music to tell stories or represent things, painting, pictures.

And we call that programme music.

Let's check your understanding.

I'd like to match each composer to their historical period.

We've got Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Bach, and we've got Baroque, Classical, and Romantic.

Pause my video while you do that.

And the correct answers here are: Mozart is from the Classical period, Tchaikovsky was from the Romantic period, and Bach was from the Baroque period.

And as I've said, there are many famous composers from those periods.

These are just three of the most famous.

For task here, you're gonna listen to the following three pieces and complete the table.

For each extract, I'd like to identify which period it comes from, Baroque, Classical or Romantic.

Give a reason for your answer referring to the musical features that tell you it's from that period.

And then I'd like to suggest a composer that could have written that piece of music.

So pause my video now.

Give this task your best shot.

Let's go through this task then.

So the first example was an example of Romantic music.

One reason why you could have mentioned the very large orchestra, you could have mentioned the use of chromatic harmony or the intense emotions and expression that it creates.

And suggest a composer.

Well, you might have said here Tchaikovsky, that's the one we've studied in this lesson.

But there are many other famous romantic composers.

That one was actually written by a lesser known Russian composer called Rimsky-Korsakov.

But if you said Tchaikovsky, well done.

For extract B, which period? Well this was from the Baroque period.

And we know that because there was use of the harpsichord and the continuo, the basso continuo, you might have said.

It was quite a small orchestra that's dominated by strings.

There's ornamentation in the melody and long melodic lines.

And suggest a composer.

Well, J.

S.

Bach is the most famous.

You could have also mentioned Vivaldi, who this piece was actually written, by or Handel.

Those are two other very famous Baroque composers.

And then for extract C, that was a piece of Classical music.

We know that because there was a melody and accompaniment texture with a clear melody and separate accompaniment, the use of the piano, which tells us it wasn't a piece of Baroque music, and short clear phrases in the melody as opposed to those long melodic lines of the Baroque period.

And if you're suggesting a composer, Mozart and Beethoven are the two most famous Classical composers, that piece was actually written by Mozart, or you might have also mentioned Haydn.

Well done in that task if you started to apply some of this knowledge that we're now learning.

There's a lot we've covered there, but hopefully you've got a sense that you're starting to get your head around these different periods.

Let's review today's lesson.

The Western Classical Tradition refers to European art music since the Medieval period.

The three key era are the Baroque period from roughly 1600 1750, the Classical period from roughly 1750 to 1820, and the Romantic period from roughly 1820 to 1910.

The Baroque period uses a small orchestra with harpsichords and ornamented melodies.

Bach was a key composer from that period.

Classical composers, for example, Mozart, began to use the piano and most music had a clear melody and accompaniment.

And then in the Romantic period, music became much more complex, dramatic, and emotive.

Tchaikovsky was a famous composer from this period.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

We've covered a huge amount here, taking a whistle-stop tour through the Western Classical Tradition.

So if you feel like you've not taken everything in, don't worry.

If you've got a general sense of each of those three periods and some of the features from each one, then that's a really good start and that's something you can build on as you go forward and develop your knowledge of the Western Classical Tradition.

Thanks for taking part in today's lesson and I look forward to seeing you in another one.