An Analysis of Henry Purcell and his “Ode to St. Cecilia”
Ian Shanks
MUS 265: History of Western Music to 1750
12/7/15
Henry Purcell is widely regarded as one of the greatest English composers of all time. He composed music covering a wide field: the church, the court and the stage. Among his works are over one hundred songs, incidental music to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and the beloved opera, Dido and Aeneas. Henry Purcell began the series of St. Cecilia's Day odes in 1683, but his greatest ode is Hail, bright Cecilia Z. 328 from 22 November 1692. He wrote this piece when he was only twenty-four years old. To see why this ode is his best, we should understand the history of the composer and the musical
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He worked in the Chapel Royal as a composer, organist and singer for most of his life. He's believed to have started learning composition at the age of nine. Purcell was sometimes called the "Orpheus Britannicus" for his ability to combine English counterpoint with expressive, flexible, and dramatic word settings. He was really a genius when it came to setting music and text together—if he had a great poem to work with, he could always produce a masterful piece of music to go with it. He paid attention to what were modern composition techniques in his time, and managed to blend Italian and French styles into his music, all while keeping a uniquely English form of Baroque music. Interestingly the vast majority of his output was in the vocal/choral realm, even though he was extremely proficient in playing the harpsichord and organ. His church music includes many anthems, devotional songs, and other sacred works, but few items for Anglican services. He passed away in 1695, at the early age of 35, just a year after composing funeral music for Queen Mary. His most productive time of output lasted only fifteen
Traditional analysis of Beethoven's use of Sonata Allegro form tends to focus on harmonic or melodic movement and key relationships. This study stretches such investigations to include questions of historical context and philosophic motivations that drive a composer to structure music in a certain way. Ultimately this leads to an inquiry about how these traditions affect us as listeners, and more specifically how they relate to gender issues in a musical tradition primarily made up of male composers.
For almost half a century, the musical world was defined by order and esteemed the form of music more highly than the emotion that lay behind it. However, at the turn of the 19th century, romantic music began to rise in popularity. Lasting nearly a century, romantic music rejected the ideas of the classical era and instead encouraged composers to embrace the idea of emotionally driven music. Music was centered around extreme emotions and fantastical stories that rejected the idea of reason. This was the world that Clara Wieck (who would later marry the famous composer, Robert Schumann) was born into. Most well known for being a famous concert pianist, and secondly for being a romantic composer, Clara intimately knew the workings of romantic music which would not only influence Clara but would later become influenced by her progressive compositions and performances, as asserted by Bertita Harding, author of Concerto: The Glowing Story of Clara Schumann (Harding, 14). Clara’s musical career is an excellent example of how romantic music changed from virtuosic pieces composed to inspire awe at a performer’s talent, to more serious and nuanced pieces of music that valued the emotion of the listener above all else.
Beethoven is viewed as a transitional figure between the classical and romantic eras and from 1800 to 1809 he wrote some of the most revolutionary compositions in the history of western music. This essay therefore will aim to discuss the numerous ways in which Ludwig Van Beethoven expanded the formal and expressive content of the classical style he inherited. From the early 1770s to the end of the eighteenth century the concept of the symphonic style and sonata style dominated most of the music composed. These forms, employed countless times by Mozart and Haydn, stayed relatively constant up until the end of the eighteenth century, when Beethoven began to extend this Viennese classical tradition. Many musicologists have put forward the idea of Beethoven music falling into four periods.
Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. Two composers who marked the beginning and the end of the Classical Period respectively. By analysing the last piano sonata of Haydn (Piano Sonata No. 62 in E-flat major (Hob. XVI:52)) and the first and last piano sonatas of Beethoven (Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor Op. 2, No.1, Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor Op. 111), this essay will study the development of Beethoven’s composition style and how this conformed or didn’t conform to the Classical style. The concepts of pitch and expressive techniques will be focused on, with a broader breakdown on how these two concepts affect many of the other concepts of music. To make things simpler, this essay will analyse only the first movements of each of the sonatas mentioned.
He had a lot of Expectations to live up to with his parents being very talented just as he was. His mother was a very talented pianist who took her music very seriously, urging her son to become just as good as she was at performing different types of music. His father was an amazing Opera singer, he was very well known. He eventually died of cancer. This period of his death was known as Bloody Sunday. This was a very sad day for the people who loved and enjoyed the works that he had performed. He identified himself as the great inventor of music. Considering that he knew a lot about music and was very intelligent.
As all of us know very well, there are many different famous musicians and composers in the world of music. It can be also noted that all of these musicians and composers have always played an important role in the world of music. Therefore, actually it should be detected that if we want to learn something about the musical world, of course, we should also pay attention to the famous musicians and composers, in the other word, it means that no one can learn normally anything regarding the musical world without well-known musicians and composers. In the world of music one of the famous musicians and composers is Ludwig van Beethoven who was really a famous German composer.
Some of these are a result of building on what was begun in the previous era. Both the Baroque era and the Classical era wrote choral music of a sacred nature, and moved from the acapella choirs of the past eras. Prominent composers such as Bach in the Baroque era wrote cantatas for the Lutheran service, and Handel wrote oratorios for the Catholic Church. These were performed with SATB voices with instrumental accompaniment. As was the style of Baroque composers they were dramatic, used imitative polyphony, moved to major and minor scales, and had a type of base line. The basso continuo was very much present in Baroque music. Classical era composers such as Haydn and Mozart wrote oratorios and music for the Mass, and Mozart wrote most of his own Requiem. These works were different in that they were on a much larger scale with the use of more instruments, and were mostly
Bach was born in 1685 in Germany amongst the turmoil of national reconstruction. He lived a quiet life with little musical influence, until the death of his parents at age ten. After their death, Bach’s older brother, who taught the very young Bach to play clavichord and harpsichord, raised Bach. Now, his life had the musical influence that is associated with Bach’s greatness. At the age of eighteen, he joined an orchestra where he learned to play the violin and organ. During this time the musical genius of Bach began to emerge (Jackson 15).
TitleAuthor/ EditorPublisherDate James Galways’ Music in TimeWilliam MannMichael Beazley Publishers1982 The Concise Oxford History of MusicGerald AbrahamOxford University Press1979 Music in Western CivilizationPaul Henry LangW. W. Norton and Company1941 The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Classical MusicRobert AinsleyCarlton Books Limited1995 The Cambridge Music GuideStanley SadieCambridge University Press1985 School text: Western European Orchestral MusicMary AllenHamilton Girls’ High School1999 History of MusicRoy BennettCambridge University Press1982 Classical Music for DummiesDavid PogueIDG Books Worldwide,Inc1997
George Frideric Handel was born musically inclined. As a child he was deprived of musical instruments because his father wanted him to pursue the law profession. However, George was allowed to take music lessons from a local organist, by the name of Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, after Handel had impressed the Duke when he played the organ at the chapel. In his following years, Handel would travel to many places, accepting many different musical occupations. As Handel traveled, he was introduced to many of his musical influences. He wrote operas, oratorios, anthems, secular cantatas, and also wrote scarred music. Throughout his life, Handel would become famous for his compositions, particularly for his English Oratorios, however the most popular ones today include: “Messiah”, “The Water Music”, and “Royal Fireworks.”
Music, throughout history, has been the marker of change in each era. Every period of music with its own distinct style and execution showcasing the change in the values of that time. This is the reason you can listen to multiple eras throughout our world’s history and hear a timeline of our pasts. Listening through the Baroque with composers such as Bach and Vivaldi, or the Classical period with proteges like Mozart or Beethoven. However the period this paper discusses is the Romantic era that brought us great composers like Frederick Chopin, yet another child prodigy who helped shape the next period of music and brought us into the modern music we know today. Chopin, a man who lived during a time of Russian revolutions, and the strife and
His astonishing understanding of musical rudiments was further cemented at age seven by his first teacher Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel, with piano literature ranging from Bach to Schubert to Clementi (Musgrave 10). The young gifted talent quickly matured, with his compositions being sedulously characterized in craft similar to the seasoned taste of aged liquor. Following in the wake of Beethoven, his style of romanticism seemed restrained, and viewed as being confined to classical forms. With his preference towards absolute music, his works demonstrated “as [Ian] McEwan/ [Clive] Linley would have it, at the intersection of emotion and reason” and of “powerful intellect and of passionate expressivity” (Platt and Smith 4). However, being the headstrong romantic that he is, he manipulated the limiting factor into an area of expanse, in which he developed his music into seriously emotional, imaginative works of art.... ...
George Frideric Handel, who is one of the greatest and well known composers of all time, was born on February 23, 1685 and died on April 14, 1759 and his entire lifetime was filled with music and wonder. Although being an English composer and organist Handel was born in Germany. At first he followed his father’s footsteps to study the law but later decided to change his profession to music, but his father stubbornly refused to let him follow his dream and because of this Handel was forced to practice in secret. Soon becoming the pupil of Friedrich Wilhelm Zacchow, Handel was taught composition, the organ, violin and the oboe. In 1703 he joined the Goosemarket Theater as a violinist. After settling in England and becoming a citizen in 1726, Handel’s compositions impressed Queen Anne of England who awarded him with 200 pounds annually, which was raised to 600 by King George soon after. In England, Handel was appointed the composer of music to The Chapel Royal. During the rest of his life in England, Handel completed many more famous compositions including the Messiah. Suffering...
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
Music Appreciation has broadened my view to listen to different eras of music that I was not accustomed to. It was pleasant listening, reading, and learning about different periods of music. This course has given me an exceptional amount of knowledge on different styles of music, identifying different elements in music as well as learning about legendary composers who have influenced music throughout history. Not only has music been around for decades, it has developed a history of great composers who have left an imprint in history by their extraordinary compositions of music they developed during their times of glory, like Ludwig van Beethoven. In this essay I will discuss how Beethoven is known as one of the greatest, ingenuity composers of his time and how the classical period is so fascinating to listen to and learn about. In addition, I will also discuss how Music Appreciation has reshaped the way I perceive and listen to different styles of music that have been created throughout history.