Music is an art of sound. It expresses ideas and emotions in many significant forms. Many forms of music are in every culture around the world. Although music has evolved over time, it is a big part of people’s life. Whether it is from the past or present. There have been many great composers of all eras such as, Johann Sebastian Bach of the late Baroque period and Charles Ives in the 20th century. Can we compare the two, or are they just so different in retrospect to music? Bach and Ives came from families with musical backgrounds. According to the text book Listen, Bach’s family, was one of the largest throughout a region of Thuringia with numerous musicians for many generations. (127). As for Ives, his father was a Civil War bandmaster …show more content…
An organist during that time did not mean you just played the organ, it also meant you were required to compose all the music for every church service. This is still somewhat a practice today in the Lutheran church, they have specific readings and hymns for each Sunday of the year as well as for special occasions. Bach composed over 200 secular church cantatas during his time. Even though Ives was an organist for such a short time before college, he did compose songs later for the church and choruses, and also incorporated favorite hymns into other pieces. Ives composing was not his main source of revenue. According to the textbook “Listen”, Ives got his B.A. and took a job as an insurance salesman, and as well as another church organist position, but then reduce music to part …show more content…
Bach composed his works during the late Baroque period 1700-1750. During this period, it was time of absolutism. According to the textbook Discovering Humanities, absolutism is centralized monarchies exerting royal power on the grounds of divine right (314). This means that the right of kings was absolute and that they are chosen by “God.” Also during this time, music was changing, orchestras were getting bigger and works were being composed in different styles. Bach never changed in his way of composing music and was considered old fashioned to modern musicians (Listen, 127). After his passing, his works were well-regarded by Mozart and Beethoven (Listen, 127). When it comes to the era that Ives composed in, it was 20th century America. Ives was considered the first American Modernist composer. As stated by the textbook “Listen” America had no practice of classical music, and it was amazing that a major modernist composer should have emerged in the U.S. as early as 1900 (331). Being a modernist composer meant that he embraced radical changes in music form and experimented in change, a non-traditionalist. This is the complete opposite of Bach. In today’s music, Ives would definitely fit in, because self-expression is not looked down upon as it would have been in the early 20th century. Music is not set to one type or form. Anyone can listen to what ever
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, said to be one of the best organists of his time (Baroque Music). He was born in March 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia as the youngest of eight children. His father Johann Ambrosius was also a musician and a court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach, and Director of the musicians in Eisenach (Baroque Music). Bach came from a family with a music talent, with his family members having held positions as organists, Cantors, instrumentalists in Thuringia.
<td width="50%">Baroque OrchestrasClassical OrchestrasString section and basso continuo central to the orchestra. Other instruments are occasional additions.Standard group of four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Different instruments treated individually.Fairly small; generally 10- 40 players.Larger than baroque; great variation to the numbers of players.Flexible use of timbres, e.g. Timpani and trumpets used generally just for festive music.Standardised sections. Most sections used regularly.Tone colour is distinctly secondary to other musical elements.Greater variety of tone colour and more rapid changes of colour. Timbre is unimportant and therefore a piece written for harpsichord could easily be rearranged for a string section.Each section of the classical orchestra has a special role. And each instrument is used distinctively.Wind instruments mainly used as solo instruments or as part of the basso continuo.The wind section had become a separate unit capable of contrast and distinct colour.The harpsichord generally plays an ostinato under the orchestra. Piano not invented.The piano introduces a third colour-tone to be contrasted with the orchestra
Throughout history many famous concerto pianists composed various types of music. One of those pianists was named Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S. Bach was arguably one of the best composers in Western music history. Born in Eisenach, Germany to a family of musicians, Bach grew up playing the organ and keyboard. J.S. Bach’s music was characterized as a classification of Baroque music. Baroque was an era of dominant European styled art and music in the 17th century. The term baroque is “applied to art of any time or place that shows the qualities of vigorous movement and emotional intensity associated with art in its primary meaning.” Bach’s famous Baroque style was a combination of many notes, simple motoric rhythms, and a steady shift of underlying harmony.
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most famous German composers of his time. All of his work was mostly during the baroque era. The baroque period was from 1600 to 1750 and it is known to be one of the most diverse musical periods as opposed to the other classical music eras. It was in this era that “included composer like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata.”(Classic FM) Johann Sebastian was born in the midst of the Baroque era as he was born on March 31, 1685 in Thuringia, Germany. Johann came from a family of musicians, which is how he himself became one as well. It was his father who showed him how to play his first instrument, which was the violin. His father was also a well-known musician in his town as he “worked as the town musician in Eisenach.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) It is known that Johann Sebastian went to a school that taught him
Bach, who was also his cousin. His works were more notable during this period due to their
When Bach was ten, he was moved to live with his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach who was the organist in Ohrdruf. While Bach lived there he studied, performed and copied forbidden music. Bach’s older brother taught him his first keyboard l...
As the church’s cultural influence continued to dwindle, the fundamentals of music rapidly began to alter. With less church-based restrictions, composers gained newly found freedom that allowed musical experimentation beyond secular and religious pieces. As this new freedom developed new musical advances, this allowed the earlier organum to develop and prosper into the musical harmony of today. The creativity that spawned during this era developed a new level of improvisation through harmonic change as the harmony was developed through the implementation of a figured bass to supplement the
Many prominent musicians produced major works during the romantic period. Among these are Beethoven, Strause, and Bach. But the musician that I think had the most impact, was Franz Schubert. Franz Peter, born on 31 January 1797 was one of fourteen children born of Franz Theodore Schubert and Elisabeth Vietz, four of which survived. He grew up in an apartment that daily converted to a classroom in which his father taught several elementary school classes. He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; family "String Quartet Parties" were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra. At nine years old, this inquisitive little boy auditioned and was accepted for a position as a chorister in the Royal Court Chapel Choir (which would later become the 'Vienna Boys' Choir). The young chorister gained the attention of Antonio Saliere, who saw to the nurture the young boy's education. After leaving the choir, he continued as a student at the school for one unhappy year. Schubert returned to live at home where it was decided that he would help his father teach. This did not last long. A disastrous episode with an unruly pupil was the last straw and Schubert at age nineteen left teaching and his home to pursue what he loved, composing. He moved in to the...
bach/html). This would, of course, influence Bach in many ways. At a young age, Bach was
There are two distinct eras in music that have impacted it immensely throughout time. They are known as the Baroque era and the Classical era. These eras have helped mold and elevate music, building creative pathways that still hold a strong effect in present day music. The differences in both the Baroque and Classical eras are quite immense but they both hold equal importance to the history of music and are high in their overall influential worth.
In 1894, a young, quietly colorful Charles Ives enters Yale University. He enters with a strong musical foundation provided by his father and community and a vision of what he thinks music can be. Horatio Parker, Ives’s composition professor unashamedly informs Ives that his vision of music seems blurry, perhaps even nauseating, to the astute, cultured musician. Ives quickly develops anger towards Parker’s traditional tutelage and rarely recognizes the positive effects Parker has on his compositions. Here begins the battle between new and old that Ives and Parker embarked upon during Ives’s college years, however the story starts and ends far from their four short years together.
Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven both flourished in their compositions of classical music; however, their genre of music differed considerably. Bach was a German composer during the Baroque time era of western music which is estimated to have taken place during 1600 to 1750. It was during this time that he composed prolific church organ music which included such works as the Mass in B Minor, much scared choral music, and the St. Matthew Passion, as well as composing over a thousand works in nearly every musical genre except opera. On the other hand, Beethoven was a German composer whom began to emerge during the classical era of western music twenty years after Bach. This era took place throughout the years1750 and 1830. The large quantity of arrangements, over two hundred works in numerous musical genres composed by Beethoven was significantly influenced by his predecessors, onset of deafness, and his highly personal expression of intellectual depth. Such works include the first an...
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are very famous past composers that have created many pieces that have influenced not just people of their time, but people in modern times as well.
Classical music has a big impact in today’s music; modern music is influenced by music from the Classical, Baroque and Romantic eras. Many of today’s modern songs are inspired or even copied from music of this periods, and even when we don’t realized by listening to modern popular songs we are actually listening in some way to music composed by famous composers of the classical periods of music, that’s why I believe that without the creative intellect of famous composers such as Bach, Chopin, Shubert, Beethoven and many others modern music that we know today it would not exist because many songs are a result of the evolution of music, and their fundamental roots come from classical composers.