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Eras of Western Music
The main periods of classical music, their dates, traits and key composers.
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- Medieval period dates (music)QuestionAbout 500 to 1400
- Renaissance period dates (music)QuestionAbout 1400 to 1600
- Baroque period dates (music)QuestionAbout 1600 to 1750
- Classical period dates (music)QuestionAbout 1750 to 1820
- Romantic period dates (music)QuestionAbout 1820 to 1900
- 20th-century period (music)QuestionAbout 1900 to 2000, with many new styles
- Gregorian chantQuestionUnaccompanied sacred song with a single melody, from the Medieval era
- MonophonyQuestionOne melodic line with no accompaniment
- PolyphonyQuestionSeveral independent melodies at once
- HomophonyQuestionA main melody with chordal accompaniment
- Hildegard of BingenQuestionMedieval composer and abbess, 1098 to 1179
- Guido of ArezzoQuestionMedieval monk who helped develop staff notation and do-re-mi
- MadrigalQuestionRenaissance song for several voices, often about love or nature
- PalestrinaQuestionRenaissance Italian master of church choral music
- Josquin des PrezQuestionRenaissance composer from the Franco-Flemish region
- William ByrdQuestionEnglish Renaissance composer
- Printing press and musicQuestionMade printed sheet music possible in the Renaissance
- Characteristics of Baroque musicQuestionOrnamentation, strong bass line, terraced dynamics, counterpoint
- Basso continuoQuestionA bass line with chords, played by harpsichord and cello in Baroque music
- FugueQuestionA piece where a theme enters one voice at a time and is imitated
- CounterpointQuestionThe art of combining independent melodies
- OperaQuestionA drama sung with orchestra, first developed around 1600
- OratorioQuestionA large choral work with soloists and orchestra, without staging
- ConcertoQuestionA work for a solo instrument and orchestra
- Johann Sebastian BachQuestionBaroque German master, 1685 to 1750
- George Frideric HandelQuestionBaroque composer born in Germany, worked in England, 1685 to 1759
- Antonio VivaldiQuestionBaroque Venetian composer, 1678 to 1741
- Characteristics of Classical musicQuestionBalance, clarity, simple melodies, clear forms
- Sonata formQuestionA structure with exposition, development and recapitulation
- SymphonyQuestionA large orchestral work usually in four movements
- String quartetQuestionA piece for two violins, viola and cello
- Joseph HaydnQuestionClassical composer, called the father of the symphony, 1732 to 1809
- Wolfgang Amadeus MozartQuestionClassical composer, 1756 to 1791, born in Salzburg
- Ludwig van BeethovenQuestionBridge between Classical and Romantic, 1770 to 1827
- Characteristics of Romantic musicQuestionStrong emotion, big orchestras, program music, nationalism
- Program musicQuestionInstrumental music that tells a story or paints a picture
- Nationalism in musicQuestionUsing folk songs and traditions of a composer's homeland
- Frederic ChopinQuestionRomantic Polish pianist and composer, 1810 to 1849
- Franz SchubertQuestionRomantic composer famous for hundreds of art songs
- Pyotr TchaikovskyQuestionRomantic Russian composer, 1840 to 1893
- Johannes BrahmsQuestionRomantic German composer, 1833 to 1897
- Impressionism in musicQuestionMusic of mood and color using unusual scales, led by Debussy
- Claude DebussyQuestionFrench composer linked with Impressionism
- Atonal musicQuestionMusic not centered on a key
- Arnold SchoenbergQuestionComposer who developed twelve-tone music
- MinimalismQuestionMusic built from simple patterns repeated and slowly changed
- Philip GlassQuestionAmerican minimalist composer
- NeoclassicismQuestion20th-century return to Classical balance and form
- Igor StravinskyQuestionRussian-born composer of The Rite of Spring, 1882 to 1971
- Aaron CoplandQuestionAmerican composer who used folk tunes, 1900 to 1990
- Electronic musicQuestionMusic created using synthesizers and electronic sound
- Musique concreteQuestionMusic assembled from recorded real-world sounds
- John CageQuestionAmerican composer known for 4'33" of silence
- Clara SchumannQuestionRomantic pianist and composer, 1819 to 1896
- Fanny MendelssohnQuestionRomantic German composer and pianist, 1805 to 1847
- Florence PriceQuestionAmerican composer, first Black woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra, 1933
- Harpsichord vs pianoQuestionHarpsichord plucks strings; piano hammers strike them and can play soft or loud
- PianoforteQuestionThe original name of the piano, meaning soft-loud
- Absolute musicQuestionMusic with no story or picture, enjoyed for its own sake
- Era known for virtuoso performers like Liszt and PaganiniQuestionRomantic
- Era in which the orchestra grew and the piano became popular in homesQuestionRomantic
- Era when the harpsichord and organ were common keyboard instrumentsQuestionBaroque
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