On the tails of the Romantic Era, a particularly intriguing form of musical composition evolved: Early Modernism. Composers began challenging formal the formal structure and rigidness of classical composing and created music to depict stories and evoke emotions in listeners. One of the most influential composers of this period was Claude Debussy. Of French descent, Debussy rejected traditional form and musical characteristics as he was taught in his musical training and developed a more artistic and expressive collection of music. Debussy’s experiences in his early life, artistic inspirations, and his French heritage led him to be a successful Early Modernist composer.
Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862 in St. Germain-en-Laye. His parents operated a small china shop and he later became the oldest of five children. At the age of 11, he began musical training at the Paris Conservatory. Debussy originally intended to become a pianist, but settled his focus on composing at the Conservatory. While in school, Nadezhda von Meck hired Debussy as a music teacher for her children; “through travel, concerts and
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Composed in 1899 and premiered a year later, Nocturnes stands as one of Debussy’s greatest works, despite early criticism. The second movement of the piece, “Fêtes,” guides the listener through “the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light.” This work consists of three movements: “Nuages” (Clouds), “Fêtes” (Festival), and “Sirènes” (Sirens). Nocturnes, like the majority of Debussy’s collection, is based off a series of impressionist paintings by James McNeill Whistler. The title, Nocturne, means night, but the work focuses on elements of light and dark rather than physical night. Debussy’s use of instrumentation, extra-musical ideas, and unconventional mode changes contribute to the effective storytelling nature of this
A biography written by gives a good chronological story of her life which will be described in the following paragraphs23. Chopin was born February 8th 1850 in Saint Louis. Her father was from Ireland while her mother was from Saint Louis. From the time she was five years old she went to Saint Louis boarding school known as Sacred Heart. She was very close to her family.
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.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the depiction of family life in art began to change as modernism and capitalist culture was introduced to French society. Edgar Degas, a French Impressionist painter,
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.
A great influential composer is Ludwig Van Beethoven, born in Bonn, who lived from 1770-1826. Beethoven among the masters of classical music such as Mozart and Haydn, set the stage for the creation of the musical canon, which focused on the most famous compositions created. This musical canon set a tradition in the way music was composed, which in turn created the “musical museum”. This “museum” is filled with compositions that followed the musical canon which is what created the
(3) In the Romantic era the compositions were very expressive and inventive. The Romantic composers experimented with already existing forms, and dramatic expressiveness. This grew out of the improvement of instruments and the newly invented genres (Britannica). The limits in music composing were pushed with great contrast in the music. There were tempo changes in the music, difference in dynamics that ranged from pppp to ffff, either gradual or sudden, for a great emotional effect. Chromatic harmony was a popular, new way of making dissonance and unstable chords, prolonging the resolution of dissonance, using tones from the chromatic scale to create tension and unpredictability in the music (“OnMusic”). Other traits of the Romantic style of music were individualism and self-expression. Therefore it is possible to hear who the composer of the piece is (An Appreciation 257, 259). Compositions could be either absolute, which meant that the music was not based on a story or a text, or it could be program, which meant that the music was based on a story or a text. During the Romantic era, the composers mostly preferred program music. Nationalism and exoticism in the music was also common. The composers used dances and rhythms that were common...
When one considers the history of classical music, often images of Vienna, Prague, and other European cities come to mind. Centuries of European musical achievement and development have implanted in society the idea that classical music is an inherently European creation. Considering the accomplishments of countless composers such as J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Antonin Dvorak, this preconception is certainly not unfounded. However, Leonard Bernstein's rise to international fame proved that one cannot neglect American composers in a discussion of the development of Western music. Combining elements of a vast array of musical styles, Bernstein's unique compositions reached a wide variety of audiences and often bridged gaps between distinct musical genres. Through his long conducting career, profoundly influential compositional output, and televised music lectures, Leonard Bernstein left a lasting legacy which came to define American music in the 20th century.
Achille-Claude Debussy was one of the most renowned French composers who stimulated the music of the twentieth-century. Debussy’s life experiences have given an emotional and relatable truth to his work. Works such as Clair de Lune, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, and La Mer are great achievements of Debussy that are the most familiar today. Debussy is worth reviewing because he uniquely structured his compositions that served as a base for musicians in the past, and will easily continue to motivate musical masterpieces for years to come. Claude Debussy (born Achille-Claude Debussy) was born August 22, 1862, in St-Germain-en-Laye, France.
Although Beethoven had a rough life as a child and as he got older, he still was able to produce phenomenal compositions. He refused to conform to traditional musical standards and strived for perfection. Beethoven took composing music to a whole new level. “Beethoven opened up new realms of musical expression that profoundly influence composers throughout the nineteenth century.”
Modernism is defined in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression." While this explanation does relate what modernism means, the intricacies of the term go much deeper. Modernism began around 1890 and waned around 1922. Virginia Wolf once wrote, "In or about December, 1910, human character changed." (Hurt and Wilkie 1443). D.H. Lawrence wrote a similar statement about 1915: "It was 1915 the old world ended." (Hurt and Wilkie 1444). The importance of the exact dates of the Modernist period are not so relevant as the fact that new ideas were implemented in the era. Ideas that had never before been approached in the world of literature suddenly began emerging in the works of many great authors. Two of the pioneer Modernist writers were Joseph Conrad and T.S. Eliot. The tendencies to question the incontestable beliefs embedded in all thinking and to focus on the inner self dominated. Old viewpoints were tossed aside to make way for the discovery of modern man's personal spirituality. Two works that are considered important forbears in the Modern period are T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
My composer is known as an influential minimalist and has written a variety of works such as opera, musical theater, symphonies, chamber music, and film scores and much more. This composer’s identity is none other than Philip Glass. The major focus in this paper are to give a moderately brief background on Philip Glass, examining his style of music along with how others view it and describe one of Philip Glass’s musical pieces. The background or bio about Philip Glass has information primary associated with events surrounding his career. When we reach examining Philip Glass’s style of music, people’s opinions on his music and who he sounds similar too is discussed. The final part of paper basically discuss one of Philip Glass’s works and how it serves as an example to his other music.
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.
In Debussy’s own words: “I should like to see the creation – I, myself, shall achieve it- of a kind of music free from themes, motives, and formed on a single continuous theme, which nothing interrupts and which never returns upon itself. Then there will be a logical, compact, deductive development. There will not be, between two restatements of the same characteristic theme, a hasty and superfluous “filling in.” The development will no longer be that amplification of material, that professional rhetoric which is the badge of excellent training, but it will be given a more universal and essential psychic conception.
A group of poets known as, the Symbolists began poetry in which the words that were used were used purely for their sounds and not for their actual meaning. Symbolists tried to convey impression by suggestion instead of definition. Music compositions from the Impressionism period contained some of the same characteristics of impressionist paintings. Impressionist composers and its music at the time were breaking away from classical techniques. In the impressionism spectrum, Debussy is to impressionist music as Monet is to painting, meaning in that they are both the father figures of their medium in which they portray the impressionist style. Impressionist music was very much like the paintings; they stirred emotions to their audience. Claude Debussy was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music but he never ever considered himself an Impressionist instead he considered himself a “Realist” (Classical 1). Debussy’s style and works are closely similar to those of the impressionists. For instance, in order to achieve an effect that was comparable to that painted by the visual artists, Debussy emphasized those musical elements that could be immediately grasped and understood the instant they were heard, namely timbre and harmonic color. Claude
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).