Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled Texture and Harmony Across the Eras.

My name is Mr. Norris.

Today, we're gonna be comparing how composers in the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods have used both texture and harmony in their own composition, and hopefully that'll give you some ideas as to how you can use these differently in your own composition as well.

Our outcome is that I can accurately compare the use of texture and harmony across the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

Some keywords.

The first is polyphonic.

This is a texture with more than one equally important melodic line.

Melody and accompaniment.

This is a texture consisting of a melody with a clearly separate accompaniment.

Diatonic.

This is music which uses only notes that are based in the key.

For example, in the key of C Major or the key of F minor.

Chromatic.

This is music that uses notes from outside the key, creating more complex harmony.

And finally, modulation.

This is a change of key during a piece of music.

The first part of our lesson is looking at Baroque, Classical, and Romantic texture.

The way that composers used texture changed significantly during the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

While the textures that were used in each period varied, so it wouldn't be as simple as saying in the Baroque period, this was the texture that was used, there are certain textures that are characteristic of each period.

So there are conventions and norms as to how texture was used in each period, even if there wasn't a lot of variety within those periods.

Now, the most typical texture of the Baroque period is a polyphonic or a contrapuntal texture, in which there are multiple equally important melodic lines heard at the same time, and they often interweave and interact with each other.

You might have come across that word polyphonic before, poly means more than one, phonic comes from the word for sound, so more than one sound, more than one equally important melody at the same time.

We can represent it like this, but there are multiple melodies that are all interweaving and that are equally important.

So there's no one single main melody.

This is often heard in vocal music of the period.

I'd like to listen to this example.

Can you identify how many different voice types are singing melodies at the same time here? Pause my video and have a listen.

And well done there if you identified that there are four different voice types singing melodies at the same time there.

That was an SATB choir, there was a soprano, alto, tenor, bass voice each singing a melody, and that's really a typical polyphonic or contrapuntal texture with those different melodies interweaving, interacting at the same time.

One key genre in the Baroque period was the fugue, in which one or two short melodic ideas were repeated in different parts and developed.

In this example, the melodic idea is first heard on its own, then it's introduced in three other parts, and this creates a complex polyphonic texture, which is typical of the period.

Listen out for that first melodic idea when we first hear it on its own, and then try and pick it out when it's played in each of the following parts as well.

And this is a really typical way that these melodic ideas are used to create a complex texture in a fugue.

(dramatic string music) So hopefully you could hear there that short melodic idea that is used in different parts to layer up this complex polyphonic texture with multiple melodies playing at the same time.

Now, in some polyphonic textures, composers use imitation.

This is where one part imitates or copies a short part of a melody that another part has just played.

So it's like it's echoing it back or copying it back.

In this example you're gonna hear here, the violin uses a very distinct motif that is then copied straight away in the flute.

See if you can hear that imitation, that copying by the flute.

Let's have a listen.

(gentle orchestral music) Now, that's a really clear example of imitation, and we could say that this creates an imitative texture, you might hear that phrase, where the texture is based on that imitation, and this is a type of polyphonic texture because as you can hear there, we have multiple melodies that are equally important all playing at the same time.

Baroque composers also used melody and accompaniment textures, as well as chordal homophonic ones.

So it wasn't just polyphonic textures that they were using.

The melody and accompaniment and homophonic textures were also used.

Now, often, this was to create a contrast in mood, but it was also characteristic of certain genres.

So in this concerto, for example, a melody and accompaniment texture is used to allow the soloist to be clearly heard.

So in certain contexts and genres, it can be useful to use different textures.

Pause my video and have a listen to this example.

See if you can hear that clear melody and accompaniment texture, where there's a clear melody and a separate accompaniment.

And in that solo section, you should have heard that recorder playing solo part, accompanied by that string ensemble with bassoon and continuo.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false? Baroque composers used only polyphonic textures.

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

And the correct answer is false, and that's because they used a mix of textures, but polyphony is the most characteristic.

So composers would use melody in accompaniment textures, they would use chordal homophonic textures, but polyphony is the one that's really distinctive and characteristic of a lot of the music in this period.

Now, in the Classical period, which came after the Baroque period, polyphonic textures became less common, and this is in line with composers' desires for musical symmetry and neatness and tidiness, because most favored a simple melody and accompaniment texture, which was a bit neater, a bit easier to pick out what was going on, and a bit clearer.

Here's how we might represent a melody and accompaniment texture, so we've got a separate melody that sits completely apart from the accompaniment, and the two are very distinct from each other.

Now, this example is typical.

The melody and accompaniment are completely separate, and it's clear that the melody is the most important feature for listeners to focus on with the accompaniment providing support in the background.

We're gonna listen to it now.

What is it that makes the accompaniment sound like an accompaniment and not like a second melody? So listen to the musical features of the accompaniment.

Why does it not sound like a melody? What makes it sit clearly apart from that main melody above? Let's have a listen.

(gentle piano music) So hopefully there you picked up that that accompaniment uses repeated patterns and it uses disjunct movement between chord tones, and those are two really common features of Classical accompaniments that make clear the distinction between the melody and the accompaniment, and this allows the melody to take the spotlight.

Often, the accompaniment is also played more quietly than the melody, so in that example, we've got these patterns that repeat over and over, changing notes to fit the chords, but really not sounding like a traditional melody.

And because they're using disjunct movement, leaping between notes, it doesn't sound like a melody either.

It sounds more like an accompaniment, whereas the melody is using conjunct movement and it's not repeating patterns in such a clear way.

So that's one way that Classical composers made clear the distinction between the melody and the accompaniment.

This Alberti bass pattern that we could hear in that example there is a really typical example.

It repeats the same rhythm and the same pattern of notes, which is the bottom note of the chord, then the top note, then the middle note, then the top note in every chord.

So in that example, we can see there that's C major chord, it's C, E, and G, and it uses the pattern C, G, E, G, bottom, top, middle, top.

It uses disjunct movement.

We can see there, it leaps between those notes, they're not next to each other on an instrument and with quiet dynamics, it doesn't interfere with the main melody, so that makes it an ideal pattern to create some pleasant accompaniment to support the harmony but not to interfere and get in the way of the melody.

Let's listen to that example again, and here, see if you can pick out that repeating Alberti bass pattern, taking the three notes of each chord, playing them in that bottom, top, middle, top pattern, and therefore, filling that accompaniment part of the melody and accompaniment texture.

Let's hear it.

(gentle piano music) Now, to develop texture, composers in the Classical period often used countermelodies.

These are secondary melodies that fit around the main melody, adding interest and complexity.

This creates an impression of polyphony because we can hear different melodies playing at the same time.

But the key difference with countermelody is that countermelody is not as prominent as the main melody.

It's a secondary melody that sits underneath and fits around the main melody.

It's not competing with the main melody for your sole attention.

So we might represent that like this, where we've got our main melody and we've got a second counter melody that sits underneath, adds some interest and complexity to the texture, and then we've got an accompaniment as well.

But this is not a polyphonic texture because the two melodies are not of equal importance and equal prominence.

Listen to this example here, which instruments play the main melody and the countermelody in this string quartet? Remember, the main melody is gonna be the most prominent, obvious one, and the countermelody is the one that is slightly in the background and not quite as prominent.

Let's have a listen, see if you can pick out the instruments that are playing both.

(dramatic orchestral music) And well done there then if you identified that the main melody is played on the violin, and the cello was playing a countermelody in that example, so it was playing a second melody that fitted around the main melody, added some interest to the texture, but was clearly not as prominent or as important as the violin melody, which was the main melody.

Usually, countermelodies contrast with the main melody.

This can be through using contrasting rhythms, different pitches, timbre, or melodic shape, and this allows the countermelody to play without getting in the way of the main melody.

If they sounded very similar, if they're played at the same pitch with similar rhythms and similar timbre, they might interfere with each other and you might not be able to pick out one so clearly from the other.

Whereas remember, when there's a count melody playing, you still want the listener's attention to be on that main melody.

That's where their main focus is because that's the most important melody.

I'd like you to listen again to that example we just heard and focus on the countermelody that's played in the cello.

How does it contrast with the main melody? And think about some of those features I've just mentioned there.

Think about rhythm, pitch, timbre, and melodic shape.

How does this composer create contrast between that cello countermelody and the main violent melody? Let's have a listen.

See if you can come up with a few points.

(dramatic orchestral music) So there are a few things you might have managed to pick up here.

First is that it has contrasting rhythms, so the rhythms of the violin and the cello really contrast with each other, which means they don't clash and interfere at the same time.

It's also played in a different octave, it's played in the cello in a lower octave, which means it's easier to pick out both of them at the same time.

If it was played in the same octave, they would clash and they would get in the way of each other.

And finally, the timbre of the cello contrasts with the violin, it's got a slightly different timbre, and so it creates that contrast in that way as well.

Well done if you managed to identify some of those points, and they're typical ways that countermelodies are written to avoid clashing and interfering with the main melody.

Now, just like in the Baroque period, composers in the Classical period use a variety of textures, and that includes polyphonic textures and cordal homophonic textures too.

However, melody and accompaniment was unquestionably the dominant and the favored texture of the period.

So just make sure when we're looking at all these textures in different periods that you don't just think, Baroque, polyphonic, Classical, melody and accompaniment.

It's not as simple as that unfortunately, but these are the defining and distinctive textures of the period, and certainly in the Classical period, the vast majority of the time, the textures you expect to hear are going to be some version of a melody and accompaniment texture.

Let's check your understanding.

Which two are typical features of an accompaniment? Is it repeating patterns or varied patterns, disjunct movement between chord tones, or conjunct movement using passing notes? I'll give you a few seconds to choose two.

And well done then if you chose these two, repeating patterns and disjunct movement between chord tone.

Remember when we looked at that Alberti bass pattern, it repeats the same pattern over and over again, just changing notes based on the chords, and it uses disjunct movement jumping, leaping between the notes of the chord, and those are typical features of accompaniments because it makes them not sound too much like a melody.

Finally, let's have a look at the Romantic period.

Now, Romantic music built on the foundations of the Classical period.

Composers predominantly used that melody and accompaniment texture, but in this period, the variety and the complexity of texture generally increased, and that's in line with a lot of features of music in the Romantic period generally just becoming more complex and varied.

Composers used the texture that best suited the mood, the emotion, or the message that they wanted to convey.

Remember, one of the defining features of the Romantic period is that composers are trying to be more expressive, to express things through their music, so they would choose the textures that best allowed them to do that.

Take this example from Schubert's "String Quintet," which was written in the early part of the Romantic period and is a really iconic Romantic composition.

It begins with a homophonic chordal texture, where all the instruments are playing the same rhythm and moving through chords together.

Then a melody appears over the top, which creates a melody and accompaniment texture because now, we have this melody with the chords still playing underneath.

See if you can hear those two different textures in this example.

Pause my video now and have a listen.

In the next part, it builds energy, emerging in a complex polyphonic texture with imitation between parts.

So although that might be a texture that we typically associate with the Baroque period, here, we've got a Romantic composer using it for certain effects in their composition.

If you listen carefully in this example, you can hear the original melody that we heard earlier playing in the low cello part.

Pause my video, have a listen for those changes in texture for the polyphonic texture with the imitation, and have a listen out for that cello melody.

You can pause my video now.

And then after that, it returns to a melody and accompaniment texture.

This time, the cellos are playing a sustained melody with a staccato and pizzicato accompaniment from the upper strings from the violins and the viola.

So it's still a melody and accompaniment texture, but now, it's the lower instruments that are playing the melody.

Pause my video and listen out for that.

So this variety of textures we can see here is really typical of the Romantic period.

It's mostly melody and accompaniment, that's the predominant texture, but different textures are used to add drama, emotion, and variety.

And in this example, we've seen some homophonic chordal texture at the start, and we've seen this complex polyphonic texture with imitation as well.

So there's a huge amount of variety just in this short section of this composition.

So let's summarize the difference in texture through the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

In the Baroque period, the most distinctive texture is a polyphonic texture with interweaving melodies and often with imitation.

you might also hear that referred to as a contrapuntal texture.

There is also use of homophonic and melody and accompaniment textures as well, but the most distinctive texture is that polyphonic one.

In the Classical period, there are mostly simpler textures, and primarily, this was melody and accompaniment with a clear melody and a separate compliment.

There was lots of use of countermelody to add interest to the texture.

Remember, countermelody is less prominent and important than the main melody, but there was also use of other textures.

However, this was much less common than in the Baroque period.

And then finally, in the Romantic period, there were varied textures, which were chosen to suit the expressive needs of the music.

So composers have all these different textures to choose from.

They would choose the one that best suited what they were trying to achieve in that particular moment in their composition.

And most often in the Romantic period, the predominant texture was melody and accompaniment, that's still the dominating texture, but it was often complex and changing, so it's not as simple, so it's not used as simply as it was in the Classical period.

Confident that you feel like you've got a good overview of the way that texture is used in these different periods.

Let's check your understanding.

Which two of these are true about texture in the Romantic period? Is it the polyphony was the predominant texture, melody and accompaniment was the predominant texture, texture in a piece was varied and often complex, or texture in a piece usually stayed the same throughout? You can pause my video while you choose the two most accurate statements.

And the correct answers here are that melody and accompaniment was still the predominant texture, and texture in a piece was varied and often complex.

So while that was the most common texture, there was lots of variety in the way that composers use texture sounds.

For task A, I'd like you to listen to the texture of each extract, and you're gonna complete this table.

Identify which period each extract comes from and describe the texture in as much detail as you can.

You can pause my video now, listen to these extracts, and give this your best shot.

Okay, let's review this task.

So the first example was from the Classical period and it had a simple melody and accompaniment texture.

The second example was from the Romantic period, and this was mostly melody and accompaniment texture with countermelodies.

Well done if you picked up there were countermelodies going on there.

Extract C was from the Baroque period, and here, the texture was polyphonic with interweaving melodies, or you might have used the word contrapuntal.

And finally, the fourth example was from the Classical period.

Here, we had a simple melody and accompaniment texture, but there were short moments of countermelody towards the end.

So really well done if you're managing to pick out that extra bit of detail in the texture there, melody and accompaniment, but we've got these countermelodies as well.

Hopefully, you feel now that you've got a clear understanding of the way that different composers in these three periods used texture.

Now, we're gonna move on to compare harmony across the periods.

Now, there are common principles that apply to harmony across the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

In all three periods, composers wrote music in a key, so a piece of music would be in a key.

They used modulation to move to different keys, and they used cadences at ends of phrases and sections.

Predominantly, composers used mostly primary chords as well.

So these features were common across all three periods.

We'd expect to hear these in all three periods.

However, the way that composers approached harmony evolved significantly through those periods.

So we're gonna dig into that a little bit now.

In all three periods, every piece was written in a key.

So every piece has a set of notes that it is based on, and the key signature that tells performers which notes they are.

Remember, that comes at the start of the stave and it tells performance whether they should use sharps, flats, or what notes are in that key.

Keys were chosen for a variety of different reasons, and these included that some keys were easier to use on specific instruments.

So some instruments are better suited to putting certain notes and in certain keys than others.

And composers also chose certain keys because they created or suited a specific mood.

So this was something that Baroque, Classical, and Romantic composers all had in common.

They were all writing music that was in a key, and while this stayed consistent, the way that composers approached modulation between keys did change, and let's have a look at that now.

A modulation is where the key changes during a piece of music.

Every piece begins in the tonic key, so if we're in the key of C major, the piece will begin in C major.

And while many pieces stay in that key, others modulate to different keys.

In the Baroque and the Classical periods, composers generally only modulate to a closely related key.

Usually, these were the dominant key, which is called V, so if we're in the key of G major, the dominant key would be D Major.

The subdominant key, so that's called IV, so for the key of G major, that would mean moving to C major.

Or the relative minor or relative major key.

Remember, that's the key that has the same key signature as the tonic, but is the minor version or the major version of the tonic key.

Now, these keys were chosen because they sound similar to the tonic.

They have a lot of notes in common with the tonic key, so it maintains a feeling of musical coherence if you are using a key that is closely related to and has lots of notes in common with that tonic.

Let's work out some of those modulations.

So if a piece is in the key of C major, the tonic key is C major.

If a composer decided to add a modulation, they would choose from the dominant, the subdominant, and the relative minor, and it's a relative minor because we're starting in a major key, so there's no relative major of a major key.

I'd like to see if you can work out what each of those keys would be if we're in C major.

Here is a piano, we're starting in C major, see if you can work out what dominant, that's called V, would be, the subdominant, which is IV, and the relative minor, which is VI, would be, and remember, to do this, you can number the notes starting at I from C and work out what IV, V, and VI would be.

Pause my video while you have a go at this.

And well done then if you identified that the dominant key would be G major, that's because the dominant chord is G, the subdominant key would be F major, 'cause the fourth chord is F, and then the relative minor, which is called VI, would be A minor.

So these would be the three keys that, in the Baroque and Classical periods, composers would be most likely to modulate to because they're the most closely related keys to the tonic, which, in this case, would be C.

In the Romantic period, however, composers experimented with modulating to less closely related keys.

So rather than just modulating to the subdominant or the dominant or the relative minor or major, they experimented with many other keys.

This was usually done to create a certain emotional or dramatic effect because a modulation to a distant key often sounds quite surprising or harmonically interesting to listen to.

I'd like to compare these two modulations.

Both of these clips start in exactly the same way, but one of them modulates to a closely related key near the end and the other one modulates to a very distantly related key near the end.

I'd like you to see if you can identify which one is the distant key and what effect that has.

Let's listen to the first example now.

(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) And now, let's hear the second example, so try and pick out whether it modulates to a closely related or distant key.

(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) And it can be quite tricky to identify where the modulation goes, but in that case, the first one was the closely related key, in which case we went to chord V, and the second one was to a distant key, which feels more surprising and expressive, and that's the effect that a lot of Romantic composers were going for when they modulated to these distant keys, as they're going for a surprising, really expressive emotional effect created by that.

Now, this different approach to modulation is demonstrated clearly in the way that composers used sonata form.

Remember, sonata form is that three-part structure that has exposition, development, and recapitulation.

Now, both Classical and Romantic composers would introduce two melodies that they called subjects in the exposition section.

So in the first section, we'd hear two melodies.

In both periods, the first subject uses the tonic key, so we're always starting in that home key of chord I.

However, while Classical composers introduced the second subject in a closely related key, which would usually be subdominant form, dominant V, or a relative key, Romantic composers often introduce the second subject in a wide variety of different keys, creating surprising, emotive, and quite dramatic harmonic shifts.

In Schubert's "String Quintet," which we've already heard some of, the first subject is in C major and the second is in E-flat major, which is a very distantly related key.

There are not that many notes that they have in common.

Can you hear the point in this example, which is near the end of the clip, where that quite surprising modulation happens? Can you hear where it suddenly shifts to this different key and this different harmony? Pause my video and have a listen.

Let's check your understanding.

Which keys were the most common to modulate to in the Baroque and Classical periods? Is it II, V, and the relative major or minor, II, IV, and the relative major or minor, IV, V, and the relative major or minor, or IV, VII, and the relative major and minor? I'll give you a few seconds to choose the best answer.

And the correct answer then is it's IV, V, and the relative major and minor.

Those are the most closely related keys and the ones that most often composers would modulate to in the Baroque and Classical periods.

Now, in the Baroque and Classical periods, harmony was mostly what we call diatonic, which means it uses only notes from the key.

Occasionally, composers added notes from outside the key, that's what we call chromatic notes, but these were usually to decorate a melody rather than important notes in the melody.

The main melodic notes were almost always from within the key, so that's a key point in the Baroque and Classical periods.

Diatonic harmony means the melodies were almost always based on notes from within the key.

In the Romantic period, however, composers used chromatic notes much more often, and the crucial point here is they were important notes in the melody.

They weren't just little decorations, little trills, little embellishments of the melody, they were key notes in the melody.

They did things like adding chromatic notes to the chords, which created more complex harmony, they used chromatic notes in melodies to add expression and emotion, and they modulated to distant keys using chromatic notes.

And so we would say that the defining harmony of the Romantic period was chromatic harmony.

This example from Frederic Chopin, who's a very famous composer from this period, illustrates some of these points.

We're gonna listen to it, and I'd like to follow that notation there as well.

Notice the chromatic notes in the accompanying chord, so if you look at the notation of the left hand, you'll see there are lots of sharps, flats, and naturals, and there are chromatic notes in the melody, that's the right hand part there in the treble cleft.

That creates a rich, complex harmony.

Pause my video now, listen to this example, and see if you can pick out some of those chromatic notes and the way that those create this more complex, emotive harmony.

Romantic composers also used a greater variety of chords.

So in the Baroque and Classical periods, compositions were often almost exclusively based on primary chords.

Remember, that's chord I, chord IV, chord V.

And secondary chords were used occasionally to add variety and color, but they wouldn't be the main chords in a chord sequence.

In the Romantic period, composers explored chromatic chords, so that's chords that use notes from outside of the key, as well as making greater use of secondary chords.

Remember, that's the other chords, II, III, VI, and VII.

And while the primary chords, I, IV, and V, were still central to composition, there was much greater variety in chord choice.

So the big theme in the Romantic period is we've seen more complexity and more variety, just like that applied to texture earlier on.

It also applies to harmony.

Composers are experimenting with chromatic chords, they're experimenting with using secondary chords more, and there's just generally more harmonic variety.

Now, one final aspect of harmony we're gonna look at is the use of cadences.

Remember, a cadence is the chords at the end of a section that create a specific effect.

We've got perfect cadence and imperfect cadence, a plagal cadence, and an interrupted cadence.

Those are our four types of cadence.

And while many aspects of harmony change dramatically during the three periods, the use of cadences, in some ways, they stayed relatively consistent.

In all three periods, perfect and, more rarely, plagal cadences were used to create a sense of completeness.

Remember, those are the cadences that finish on chord I, so they feel complete and resolved when we hear them.

And they were used at the end of sections or whole pieces where the composer wanted a feeling of harmonic resolution and completeness.

So this was the same in Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods.

Imperfect cadences were used to create the opposite effect, a feeling of being unfinished, and interrupted cadences were used to create a surprising harmonic shift, where the composer interrupts what we expect to happen with a surprising move to a different chord.

But although these same four types of cadence dominated throughout, the Romantic composers experimented with slightly different approaches to cadences.

And again, this is a theme, isn't it? The Romantic composers are experimenting with different ways of doing things from what came before.

This included delaying the end of a cadence to add expression and tension, adding unusual notes into cadences to create a more complex emotion, and using conventional cadences, like a perfect cadence, to modulate to unconventional keys.

So they're sort of using those tools, but in slightly unusual or unconventional ways.

Let's listen to the end of this same composition by Chopin that we heard a few moments ago.

This is a really good example of how Romantic composers use cadences.

He approaches the final cadence with lots of chromatic notes and chords, so the harmony is quite complex, there are lots of chromatic notes added into the chords and the melody, it's a quite complex harmony, but listen out the cadence at the end.

What cadence is used? Let's have a listen.

(dramatic piano music) And well done if you picked out that that was a very conventional perfect cadence.

that perfect cadence would not be out of place in the Baroque period or the Classical period.

It ends simple chord V and then chord I, and that creates that really finished, complete ending.

So that's a great example of how in the Romantic period, you get this more complex harmony, it's much more complexity to the way composers are using chords, but we still have these fundamental principles that are the same, and in particular, the use of cadences is often quite similar.

So in summary, the Baroque period predominantly used diatonic harmony.

That means using notes from within the key.

Modulation were only to closely related keys, predominantly IV, V, and the relative minor or major.

Mostly primary chords were used and there were four types of cadence that were used, perfect, imperfect, plagal, and interrupted.

In the Classical period, we still used diatonic harmony, so using notes from within the key.

The modulation are the same as the Baroque period, only to those closely related keys.

The chords that were used were mostly the primary chords still, and we still had those same four cadences.

So if we compare those two periods, the use of harmony was really quite similar.

In the Romantic period, there was much more chromatic harmony, so using notes from outside of the key.

Modulation could be to closely related keys, but it could also be to quite distant keys, creating that more surprising complex harmony.

In terms of chords, there was much greater use of secondary chords and chromatic chords as well.

And in terms of cadences, there was more experimental use of the four typical cadences, so you'd still come across perfect, imperfect, plagal, and interrupted cadences, but they might be used in slightly different ways.

Let's check your understanding.

What type of harmony was central to Romantic music? Have a quick think, and I'll give you a few seconds to come up with an answer.

And the correct answer here was chromatic harmony was central to Romantic music, using notes from outside the key.

What type of harmony was used in the Baroque and Classical periods? I'll give you a few seconds to think of this.

And the correct answer here is diatonic harmony.

Remember, that's harmony that uses notes from just within the key.

Well done if you remembered that word.

For task B, listen to these four extracts and complete the table.

Here, I'd like you to describe the harmony and suggest a period for each.

In the type of harmony column, use one of those descriptive words for the general type of harmony that was used, things like chromatic, things like diatonic.

For the column that says harmonic features, I'd like to go into a bit more detail, so describe specific harmonic features that you can hear.

That might be things like modulations, use of cadences, or the types of chords that are used.

So pause my video now and test your knowledge of harmony across three periods in this task.

Good luck.

Okay, let's review this task.

So the first example was from the Romantic period.

It had chromatic harmony, which again, remember, is typical of that period.

And some harmonic features you might have mentioned, there are lots of chromatic notes and chords, there are modulations to both distant and closely related keys.

The second example was from the Baroque period, and that was using diatonic harmony.

Remember, the defining harmony of the Baroque and Classical periods was diatonic.

Some features you might have picked out, there was some decorative chromatic notes, not notes that were the main notes in the melody, but some that decorated the main notes.

And there was a modulation to a closely related key, which, in this example, was the dominant chord V.

There was also use of suspensions, which is not something we've explored in this lesson, but they are a really important harmonic feature in the period.

In extract C, this was from the Romantic period as well, and again, used chromatic harmony.

Some features were chromatic notes and chords, and an interrupted cadence at the end that modulated to a distant key.

So again, these modulated to less closely related keys, which was a defining feature of Romantic harmony.

And finally, extract D was from the Classical period, which means it was using diatonic harmony.

And some of the features you might have picked up there was some decorative chromatic notes, again, not key notes in the melody, but ones that decorated the main melody.

And there were phrases that ended with both perfect and imperfect cadences.

So well done if you're starting to get your ear in the harmony of each of those different periods and some of the more detailed, specific features that you might expect to hear as well.

Let's review today's lesson.

Texture and harmony have both similarities and differences across the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras.

A key Baroque texture is polyphony, while melody and accompaniment dominated the Classical period.

In the Romantic period, music was mostly melody and accompaniment, but it was often more varied and often complex as well.

Baroque and Classical harmony was diatonic and emphasized modulation to closely related keys, while Romantic harmony was often chromatic, meaning using notes from outside of the key, and composers experimented with more complex modulations and chords.

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

Hopefully now you feel that you've got a good grasp of how texture and harmony were used across the Baroque Classical and Romantic periods.

And one good way to further embed and consolidate what you've learned today would be to do some further listening to music from those three periods and get used to thinking about how the texture is typical of that period, what texture features can you hear, and the same with harmony as well.

When you're doing that, really try to embed this technical vocabulary, the proper terminology that we've been using today.

Thanks for taking part in today's lesson, and I'll see you in another one.