Introduction To Classical Music

Introduction to
Classical Music
Joe Gusmano
Overview
We will cover three important
musical eras:
1 – Baroque (ca. 1600-1750)

2 – Classical (ca. 1730-1815)
3 - Romantic (ca. 1780-1910)
Week 1: J.S. Bach and
Baroque Music
Characteristics of Baroque Music:
• Baroque composers were primarily hired as church
musicians or musical directors. This resulted in a wealth of
sacred keyboard (organ and harpsichord) and choral
music.
• Ornamentation – melodic flourishes (grace notes, trills,
turns, etc.)
Ex: English Suite No. 2, II: Allemande BWV 807 (1715-20) by

J.S. Bach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7bWapkfQ_E
(BWV = Bach-Werke-Verzeichnes, catalogue of Bach’s

music, finished in 1950)
Week 1: J.S. Bach and
Baroque Music
Characteristics of Baroque Music:
• Polyphony - from the Greek polyphonos (poly –
many phonos – voices); music in which two or more
voices have independent melodies that are
harmonized with one another.
ex: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers awake,

the voice is calling us) BWV 140 (1731) composed by
J.S. Bach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sj-NKqR0tw
Other vocal textures
• Homophony - music in which one or more voices
have dependent melodies that move at the same
pace; popular in English chorales and sacred
Protestant music
Ex: Zadok the Priest HWV 258 (1728) composed by
George Frideric Handel, English Coronation Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0su8GuG3UhY
• Monody – music in which one or more voices have

the same melody
Ex: Kyrie Eleison, Gregorian Chant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6oM1iLJH6k
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Biographical Information
• Born in Eisenach in 1685 into a family of musicians
• Learned rudimentary string playing from his father
• Orphaned by the age of ten, he was raised in part
by his elder brother Johann Christoph Bach, who
taught him to play the clavichord
• Studied and performed music at St. Michael’s
church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
• Eventually went on to become the kapellmeister
(musical director) of the Nikolaikirche and
Thomaskirche in Leipzig
• Married twice; second wife – Anna Magdalena
Bach
Important Influences:
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
• Bach copied out much of Vivaldi’s music by hand
• Vivaldi was an incredibly popular Italian composer,
most well known for his exquisite string writing
• Directed the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice
Violin Concerto in A Minor Op. 3 No. 6 RV 356 (ca.

1711)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTPiZup0QmM
Important Influences:
Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707)
• Buxtehude was a Danish-German organist and
composer
• Bach was heavily influenced by Buxtehude’s organ
works (and much of the Northern Germanic organ
tradition)
Praeludium in E Major BuxWV 141
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5SaH1q1EV4
Prelude and Fugue in C
Major
• The first two pieces from Bach’s The Well-Tempered
Clavier (Das Wohltemperirte Klavier) while working
as court composer in Köthen in 1722
• This work is a collection of Preludes and Fugues
written in all 12 major keys and all 12 minor keys
• The Well-Tempered Clavier is a pedagogical work
that is still used to teach early piano students to this
very day
What is a “well-
tempered” instrument?
• Western harmony can trace its roots to early Greek
conceptions of musical harmony as evidence of
divine presence
• Pythagoras and “perfect” intervals
• Well-tempered keyboard has strings which are
tuned to a ratio that reflects a division of the octave
into 12 equally spaced semitones. These pitches are
derived from the overtone series of every
fundamental pitch.
Leonard Bernstein explains overtones!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n3qMB6AD_0
Prelude
• The prelude is essentially a chorale for six voices, that is
broken up into separate notes or arpeggios (the notes of
a particular chord played individually rather than
simultaneously)
• Bach introduces a series of consonances and
dissonances in the left hand, and then harmonizes these
two lines with four more lines in the right hand.
• The piece has a relatively stagnant texture; the number
and position of the voices as well as their rhythmic
patterns remain almost entirely constant.
Prelude in C major BWV 846

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXfkdI1oBqU
Fugue
• A fugue, or canon, is a contrapuntal composition
that passes a short melody (subject) around
interweaving voices
• The fugue subject in this piece is repeated at pitch,
beginning at a different pitch, or in fragment
• Bach is very well known for his fugue writing, and is
thought to be one of the most significant
contributors to the systemization of tonal harmony
(harmony that is derived from a major or minor
scale)
Fugue in C Major BWV 846
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3qnL9ddHuw
Other important Baroque
Composers
• Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
• Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
• Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
• Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de le
Guerre (1665-1729)
• Henry Purcell (1658-1695)

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Introduction to

1 – Baroque (ca. 1600-1750)

Ex: English Suite No. 2, II: Allemande BWV 807 (1715-20) by

(BWV = Bach-Werke-Verzeichnes, catalogue of Bach’s

ex: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers awake,

• Monody – music in which one or more voices have

Violin Concerto in A Minor Op. 3 No. 6 RV 356 (ca.

Prelude in C major BWV 846

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