music

Art of combining sounds into a structured form, usually according to conventional patterns and for an aesthetic (artistic) purpose. Music is generally divided into different genres or styles such as classical music, jazz, pop music, country, and so on.

The Greek word mousikē covered all the arts presided over by the Muses. The various civilizations of the ancient and modern world developed their own musical systems. Eastern music recognizes smaller changes of pitch than does mainstream Western music (with the exception of much 20th-century contemporary art music) and also differs from Western music in that the absence, until recently, of written notation ruled out the composition of major developed works, though these are created through improvisation using melodic and rhythmic patterns governed by particular modes and formal devices. Such improvisations (as in the Indian raga) can last up to 70 minutes, interpreted by virtuosos.

Middle Ages

The documented history of Western music since classical times begins with the liturgical music of the medieval Catholic Church, descended from Greek and Hebrew roots. The four modes (derived from ancient Greek models), to which the words of the liturgy were chanted were first set in order by St Ambrose in 384. St Gregory the Great added four more to the original Ambrosian modes, and this system forms the basis of Gregorian plainsong, still used in the Roman Catholic Church. The organ was introduced in the 8th century, and in the 9th century, music using a very primitive form of harmony began to be used in churches, with notation gradually developing towards its present form.

In the 11th century counterpoint was introduced, notably at the monastery of St Martial, Limoges, France, and in the late 12th century at Notre-Dame in Paris (by Léonin and Perotin). In the late Middle Ages the Provençal and French troubadours and court composers, such as Guillaume de Machaut, developed a secular music, developed from church and folk music (see also Minnesingers).

15th and 16th centuries

Europe saw the growth of contrapuntal or polyphonic music. One of the earliest composers was the English musician John Dunstable, whose works inspired the French composer Guillaume Dufay, founder of the Flemish school. Its members included Dufay's pupil Joannes Ockeghem and the Renaissance composer Josquin Desprez. Other major composers of this era were Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina from Italy, Orlande de Lassus from Flanders, Tomás Luis de Victoria from Spain, and Thomas Tallis and William Byrd from England. Madrigals were developed in Italy by members of the Flemish school and later by native composers, including Giovanni Gabrieli. They were written during the Elizabethan age in England by such composers as Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, and Thomas Weelkes. Notable composers of organ music were Antonio de Cabezon in Spain and Andrea Gabrieli in Italy.

17th century

The Florentine Academy (Camerata), a group of artists and writers, aimed to revive the principles of Greek tragedy. This led to the invention of dramatic recitative and the beginning of opera. Claudio Monteverdi was an early operatic composer; by the end of the century the form had evolved further in the hands of Alessandro Scarlatti in Italy and Jean-Baptiste Lully in France. In England the outstanding composer of the period was Henry Purcell. Oratorio was developed in Italy by Giacomo Carissimi; in Germany, Heinrich Schütz produced a new form of sacred music.

18th century

The early part of the century was dominated by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Bach was a master of harmony and counterpoint. Handel is renowned for his dramatic oratorios. In France, their most important contemporaries were François Couperin in keyboard music and Jean-Philippe Rameau in grand opera and ballet; the later operas of Christoph Willibald von Gluck, with their emphasis on dramatic expression, saw a return to the principles of Monteverdi. The modern orchestra grew out of various movements of the mid-1700s, notably that led by Johann Stamitz at Mannheim. Bach's sons C P E Bach and J C Bach reacted against contrapuntal forms and developed sonata form, the basis of the classical sonata, quartet, and symphony. In these types of composition, mastery of style was achieved by the Viennese composers Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. With Ludwig van Beethoven, music assumed new structural form and growth in expressive function, with his late works providing the basis of Romanticism and even modernism.

19th century

Romantic music, represented in its early stages by Carl Weber, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, and Frédéric Chopin, tended to be more ‘subjective’ in emotional content. Orchestral colour was increasingly exploited – most notably by Hector Berlioz – and harmony became more chromatic. Nationalism became more important at this time, as seen in the intense Polish nationalism of Frédéric Chopin; the use of Hungarian folk music by Franz Liszt; the works of the Russians Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, and, less typically, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky; the works of the Czechs Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana; the Norwegian Edvard Grieg; and the Spaniards Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla. Revolutionary changes were brought about by Richard Wagner in the field of opera creating a new genre of music theatre, although the traditional structure of the Italian style continued in the work of Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giacomo Puccini. Wagner's contemporary Johannes Brahms stood for classical discipline of form combined with Romantic feeling. The Belgian César Franck, with a newly chromatic language, also renewed the tradition of polyphonic writing.

20th century

Around 1900 a reaction against Romanticism was found in the Impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and the exotic chromaticism of Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Skriabin. In Austria and Germany, the tradition of Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss was developed in the new world of atonal, then serial expressionism by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern.

After World War I neoclassicism, represented by Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Paul Hindemith, attempted to restore 18th-century principles of objectivity while combining classical harmony with colouristic dissonance. More forward-looking composers such as Edgard Varèse began using the orchestra to produce blocks of sound to be played off against each other, anticipating later figures such as György Ligeti, Harrison Birtwistle, and Olivier Messiaen. In Paris, composers such as Debussy and Ravel radically altered the use of consonance and form, while composers further from the cosmopolitan centres of Europe, such as Edward Elgar, Frederick Delius, and Jean Sibelius, took the Romantic symphonic tradition forward by extending other parameters than harmony, Sibelius using modernist formal development together with a Romantic harmonic language. The rise of radio and recorded media created a new mass market for classical and Romantic music, but one which was initially resistant to music by contemporary composers. Organizations such as the International Society for Contemporary Music became increasingly responsible for ensuring that new music continued to be publicly performed. Interest in English folk music was revived by the work of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Among other important contemporary composers are Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in Hungary; Olivier Messiaen in France; Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Italy; Dmitri Shostakovich in Russia; and Arthur Bliss, Aaron Copland, Edmund Rubbra, William Walton, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, and Michael Tippett in England and the USA.

Modern developments

The second half of the 20th century has seen dramatic changes in the nature of composition, with many new techniques such as those developed from medieval and biological or natural processes by composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, and the immense complexity and ultra-expression of Brian Ferneyhough. The recording studio has helped in the development of musique concrète, based on recorded natural sounds, and electronic music, in which sounds are generated electrically. These developments meant that music could be created as a finished object without the need for interpretation by live performers. Chance music, promoted by John Cage, introduced the idea of a music designed to provoke unforeseen results and thereby make new connections; aleatory music, developed by Karlheinz Stockhausen, introduced performers to freedom of choice from a range of options, and in Poland, Witold Lutosławski took this further to create immense controlled complexity in sound, while allowing performers much freedom to play naturally. Further initiatives by Stockhausen introduced new musical sounds and compositional techniques, often combining electronic and live performances. Since the 1960s the computer has become a focus of attention for developments in the synthesis of musical tones, and also in the automation of compositional techniques, most notably at Stanford University and MIT in the USA, and at IRCAM in Paris.

music - events

c. 1320	France, Italy	The French composer Philippe de Vitry publishes Ars nova/The New Art, a treatise on the ‘new style’ of music that developed in France and Italy in the 14th century. He also writes Ars contrapunctus/Art of Counterpoint.
1436	France, Florence	French composer Guillaume Dufay composes the collection of motets Nuper rosarum flores to commemorate the completion of the dome of Florence Cathedral, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. The structure of the music reflects the mathematical ratios Brunelleschi used in designing the dome.
1473	Germany	The earliest known example of printed music, the Constance Gradual is published in Germany.
1527	France	The French music publisher Jaques Attaignant publishes the first of his Chansons nouvelles/New Songs in Paris, France. Because of changes to musical notation, the scores can be published at one printing, which means that printed music becomes much cheaper.
1562	Italy, Rome	The Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina composes Missa Papae Marcelli/Mass of Pope Marcellus in memory of Pope Marcellus, who died in 1555.
1603	England	Triumphs of Oriana, an anthology of madrigals compiled by the English composer Thomas Morley, is published posthumously. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, it was compiled in 1601.
1609	England	The English composer Orlando Gibbons publishes Fantazies of Three Parts for viols, possibly the first example of engraved music in England.
1653	France	The French composer Jean-Baptiste Dr. writes music for the ballet La Nuit/Night by Isaac de Bensarade, and is appointed court composer to Louis XIV.
1661	UK	The English composer Matthew Locke is appointed composer to King Charles II of England.
1664	France	The French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully completes his choral work Miserere/Have Mercy.
1673	France	The opera Cadmus and Hermione by the French composer Jean Baptiste Lully is first performed, in Paris, France.
c. 1685	UK	The opera Venus and Adonis, with music by the English composer John Blow, is first performed, in London, England.
1689	UK	The opera Dido and Aeneas by the English composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by English dramatist Nathan Tate is first performed, by Josias Priest's School for Young Women in Chelsea, London, England.
1695	England	The English composer Henry Purcell completes his choral work Elegy on the Death of Queen Mary. His opera The Indian Queen is first performed, in London, England, with a libretto by the poet John Dryden.
1713	Germany, England	The German-born English composer George Frideric Handel completes his choral work Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate to commemorate the Peace of Utrecht.
1721	Germany	The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach completes The Brandenburg Concertos.
1727	Germany	The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach's choral work Matthäuspassion/Saint Matthew Passion is first performed, either this year or in 1729.
1732	UK	The oratorios Esther and Acis and Galatea by the German-born English composer George Frideric Handel are first performed, in London, England, both based on earlier written masques, Acis and Galatea, first performed in 1718, and Esther, first performed in 1720. Esther is the first British oratorio.
1734	Germany	The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach completes his Weihnachtsoratorium/Christmas Oratorio.
1742	Germany	The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach completes his Goldberg Variations and his cantata No. 212, Mer Hahn en neue Oberkeet/The ‘Peasant Cantata’.
1742	Ireland	The oratorio Messiah by the German-born English composer George Frideric Handel is first performed, in Dublin, Ireland.
1749	Germany	The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach completes Die Kunst der Fuge/The Art of Fugue.
1749	UK	Music for Royal Fireworks by the German-born English composer George Frideric Handel is performed in Green Park, London, England, to celebrate the Peace of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle).
1764	Austria	The Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphonies No. 1 (K 16), No. 2 (lost), No. 3 (lost), and No. 4 (K 19), and his Sonatas for Piano and Violin Nos. 1 to 4 (K 6 to K 9).
14 July 1795	France	In France, ‘La Marseillaise’, originally written as a royalist rallying song, is adopted as the national anthem.
1813	Austria	Austrian composer Franz Schubert completes his Symphony No 1 in D (D 82) and his String Quartets No 3 (D 36), No 4 (D 46), No 5 (D 68), and No 6 (D 74).
1814	Austria	The Austrian composer Franz Schubert writes the song ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’/‘Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel’ (D 118). The text is from Goethe's Faust, published in 1808. He also completes his Mass in F major (D 105); and his String Quartets No. 7 (D 94) and No. 8 (D 112).
1889	USA	The US composer John Philip Sousa completes his march Washington Post.
1894	France	The French composer Claude Debussy completes his tone-poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune/Prelude to ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’, inspired by a poem by the French poet Stéhane Mallarmé. The Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky uses Debussy's music for a ballet of this name first performed in 1912.
1902		The English composer Edward Elgar completes his choral work Coronation Ode for the coronation of King Edward VII. The best-known section is the finale, Land of Hope and Glory, adapted from March No. 1 of his Pomp and Circumstance. The words are taken from a poem by the English writer A C Benson.
1939	USA	Americans buy 45 million ‘popular’ music records and 5 million ‘classical’ records.
1958	France, USA	The French-born US composer Edgard Varèse completes his electronic work Poème électronique/Electronic Poems.
1961	England	The English composer Benjamin Britten completes his choral work War Requiem and his Cello Sonata No. 1.
1967	Germany	The German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen completes his electronic work Hymnen/Hymns.
1967	UK	The British rock group the Beatles releases Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, considered their most innovative album to date. They also release the singles ‘All You Need Is Love’ and ‘Hello Goodbye’.
1967	USA	Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu in the USA.
1969	USA	Tape sales represent 40% of the music market in the USA. The total market is worth around $1 billion and 75% comes from purchasers under 30.
1970	USA	US electronics engineer Robert Moog's synthesizer goes on the market in the USA.
1970	England	The English composer Elisabeth Lutyens completes her choral work The Roots of the World.
1973	Italy	The Italian composer Bruno Maderna completes his theatre piece Satyricon.
1979	USA	Digital recording starts, with Stephen Stills the first artist to be recorded digitally.
1980	USA	The US composer John Cage completes his vocal work Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegan's Wake.
April 1981	Netherlands, Austria	The Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan demonstrates the first compact discs, developed by the Dutch company Philips, at the Salzburg Festival, in Austria.
1982	UK	The English rock singer Peter Gabriel launches WOMAD (World of Music, Arts, and Dance) in Shepton Mallet, southwest England. Encompassing African, Latin American, and Asian traditions, WOMAD is instrumental in gaining a greater popularity for world music.
1983	USA	For the first time, cassettes outsell vinyl LPs in the USA.
1985	USA	Demand for CDs and CD players exceeds supply in the USA; manufacturers predict the decline of the LP record.
1986	Japan	The first digital audio tape (DAT) recorders are demonstrated in Japan.
1991	Japan, USA	The Japanese electronics company Sony launches the Mini Disk in Japan and the USA. It holds 74 minutes of music and is 6.4 cm/2.5 in in diameter.
1992	USA	Music compact discs begin to outsell cassettes in the USA.
1993	UK	Music compact discs are outselling cassettes in Britain.
1995	USA	The US composer Steve Reich completes his City Life, which employs sounds taken from everyday life such as boat horns, street noises, and so on.
15 May 1998	USA	US singer and Academy Award-winning actor Frank (Francis Albert) Sinatra, considered by many critics to be the preeminent singer of this century, dies in Beverly Hills, California (82). He made some 1,800 recordings, gathered nine Grammy Awards, and appeared in at least 60 films.

music (redirected from music to ears)