playlist
Here are the absolute basics of our culture's (Western) art music. I'll call it "art music" because "classical" really refers to a specific era; also, I'll say a bit more about the term "art" later, but for now, rest assured that it has nothing to do with looking down our noses at "popular" music. Both are great. Around a thousand years ago, monks began trying to keep track of the huge numbers of chants they were writing. They developed a notation system to help others learn more music faster. This system—sheet music—helps us keep track of more complex ideas than is easy to do just in your brain, and therefore has allowed the growth of very developed, complex music ever since. These were the Middle Ages: composers like Perotin and machaut explored ways of writing multiple vocal lines that went together. Most art music of the era was choral music. People played instruments, of course, but since they largely weren't allowed in church, there's hardly any notated music for them at this time. Along came the Renaissance. Early on (1400s), the music is similar in concept to its predecessors—choral music of increasing complexity, such as that of [Dufay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLwMEBlBBB4). But the rise of cities, a literate middle class, and the eventual availability of music printing allowed for a huge rise in secular art music for the first time. The fascinating stuff in this period is the madrigal (try [Monteverdi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96pp4F5ZMY4) and [Morley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIvhB-zTfc)), the smooth, haunting choral motet (such as this one by [di Lasso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Qjw8oEz70)), and some wacky cool dance pieces for instruments, too. Then came the Baroque. This was signaled above all by the development of opera, thanks above all to [Monteverdi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mD16EVxNOM) (again), [Handel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRe16N_UziY), and [Lully](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N5ODpeSKlc). [Bach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oCX9woz9U) and [Zelenka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfpF3HPMXJ8) set a new standard for compositional excellence, exploring different ways to move to new harmonies and keys, while [Corelli](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxtO9CzF7-o) played a huge role in defining the set of chords we're familiar with today. On to the Classical! People got sick of the ornate styles that were so in vogue, and restrained, orderly music became prized. This is super critical, because it was in the tiny nuanced ways of breaking the squareness of the Classical style that great composers moved the art forward. If there's one era to avoid second-rate music from, it's the 18th century, because it's really square. But the innovators in subtlety were [Haydn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3jxLNx6dUQ) and [Mozart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQW-Askot8). Where's the subtlety? It's in the unpredictable changes in harmony, the unusual phrase lengths, and in the way endings are delayed. Listen for form. Nobody was better at toying with your ear's expectations than [Beethoven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NiaXfv2yGs), and it's with him we enter the Romantic period. Composers like [Schubert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IlMRIHkBBE) and [Wagner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fktwPGCR7Yw) began to focus on the emotional and personal in music, while [Mendelssohn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyyhc9ld-A) blended Bach's approach to vocal writing with the new, larger orchestral forces available in the cities of 19th-century Europe. In the late Romantic period, composers experimented with huge masses of sound and a wide embracing of influences, especially [Mahler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rECVyN5D60I . Well, after Wagner, people thought, "Wow, you can't get much better than that with the chords we know. We need new chords. Heck, we need an entire new musical language." Nationalism was rising, too, and people wanted to express their own countries' tendencies. The early modern era saw [Debussy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVV0jkZC4jI) (in France) and [Vaughan Williams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I45vri18Lxc) (in England) set their sights on blends between the old and the new. And in the little quiet town of New Haven, Connecticut, [Ives](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPlCWI8RImA) raised musical hell like the world had never heard. Meanwhile, in Austria, a guy named [Schoenberg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vHNcNrojDM) invented a new way of organizing notes. This method, called Serialism, scares a lot of people, but rock out to that link! Listen to the phrases and forget the notes. It's practically songlike, like sentences. This was the birth of atonality, an abandonment of typical harmony, which drove a lot of the experimentation of the twentieth century. Plenty of experimentation happened in those early decades of the Modern era. [Stravinsky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFRwKQqbk4) embraced his native Russia; [Honegger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp80cHYVh2Q) embraced the rise of the machine. World War I resulted in a massive drop in available resources, and the resulting Neoclassical period was one of restraint and clarity, but the music fires burned hot: [Weill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQJlvqeXrC8), [Varèse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw), and [Bartók](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLtLW56TH7w) found innovative ways to put music together. With the passing of World War II, composers struggled with new ways to create art in the face of tragedy and ruin. [Boulez](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chJJHbkDR9I), [Cage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8gTKDQ7NQ), and [Messiaen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmAV3pzpR8M) are but a few out-of-the-box thinkers, who tried, as Monteverdi and Beethoven before them, to invent a new musical language. But the past survived WWII, too, and many composers like [Britten](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkbphH8_Ic) found that, like Mendelssohn, blending old approaches with new served to create equally powerful music. The postmodern era finally arrived when some New York composers got sick of Boulez yelling about how his method was the best, despite claiming he was anti-fascist. [Riley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjR4QYsa9nE) and [Young](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArO-vtKMCbM) started breaking boundaries between performers and audiences. [Beaser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExqBHHXxOvU) and [Pärt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHzlXIVfa8E) helped recapture older harmonies for a modern audience. And behold the twenty-first century! It's impossible at this point to name big names, because they're being formed. But a few of my favorites who are big nowadays, or up-and-coming, are James MacMillan, Caroline Mallonée, Ian Dicke, and Steven Snowden. I left out a ton, but there's always more to discover. On a parting note, all that "art" means is that it's designed to push your envelope. By contrast, "popular" music is music that's designed to be more familiar and comfortable. That makes it easier to sing, catchier, easier to dance to. Neither is better or worse than the other! All that being said, art music is supposed to make you cock an ear and probably an eyebrow. This is cool. If you don't get it the first time around, listen again. If you never get it, you've found yourself a damn good piece. Now turn your speakers on and get to it!
sursa
Here are the absolute basics of our culture's (Western) art music. I'll call it "art music" because "classical" really refers to a specific era; also, I'll say a bit more about the term "art" later, but for now, rest assured that it has nothing to do with looking down our noses at "popular" music. Both are great. Around a thousand years ago, monks began trying to keep track of the huge numbers of chants they were writing. They developed a notation system to help others learn more music faster. This system—sheet music—helps us keep track of more complex ideas than is easy to do just in your brain, and therefore has allowed the growth of very developed, complex music ever since. These were the Middle Ages: composers like Perotin and machaut explored ways of writing multiple vocal lines that went together. Most art music of the era was choral music. People played instruments, of course, but since they largely weren't allowed in church, there's hardly any notated music for them at this time. Along came the Renaissance. Early on (1400s), the music is similar in concept to its predecessors—choral music of increasing complexity, such as that of [Dufay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLwMEBlBBB4). But the rise of cities, a literate middle class, and the eventual availability of music printing allowed for a huge rise in secular art music for the first time. The fascinating stuff in this period is the madrigal (try [Monteverdi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96pp4F5ZMY4) and [Morley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIvhB-zTfc)), the smooth, haunting choral motet (such as this one by [di Lasso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Qjw8oEz70)), and some wacky cool dance pieces for instruments, too. Then came the Baroque. This was signaled above all by the development of opera, thanks above all to [Monteverdi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mD16EVxNOM) (again), [Handel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRe16N_UziY), and [Lully](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N5ODpeSKlc). [Bach](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oCX9woz9U) and [Zelenka](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfpF3HPMXJ8) set a new standard for compositional excellence, exploring different ways to move to new harmonies and keys, while [Corelli](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxtO9CzF7-o) played a huge role in defining the set of chords we're familiar with today. On to the Classical! People got sick of the ornate styles that were so in vogue, and restrained, orderly music became prized. This is super critical, because it was in the tiny nuanced ways of breaking the squareness of the Classical style that great composers moved the art forward. If there's one era to avoid second-rate music from, it's the 18th century, because it's really square. But the innovators in subtlety were [Haydn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3jxLNx6dUQ) and [Mozart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQW-Askot8). Where's the subtlety? It's in the unpredictable changes in harmony, the unusual phrase lengths, and in the way endings are delayed. Listen for form. Nobody was better at toying with your ear's expectations than [Beethoven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NiaXfv2yGs), and it's with him we enter the Romantic period. Composers like [Schubert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IlMRIHkBBE) and [Wagner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fktwPGCR7Yw) began to focus on the emotional and personal in music, while [Mendelssohn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyyhc9ld-A) blended Bach's approach to vocal writing with the new, larger orchestral forces available in the cities of 19th-century Europe. In the late Romantic period, composers experimented with huge masses of sound and a wide embracing of influences, especially [Mahler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rECVyN5D60I . Well, after Wagner, people thought, "Wow, you can't get much better than that with the chords we know. We need new chords. Heck, we need an entire new musical language." Nationalism was rising, too, and people wanted to express their own countries' tendencies. The early modern era saw [Debussy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVV0jkZC4jI) (in France) and [Vaughan Williams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I45vri18Lxc) (in England) set their sights on blends between the old and the new. And in the little quiet town of New Haven, Connecticut, [Ives](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPlCWI8RImA) raised musical hell like the world had never heard. Meanwhile, in Austria, a guy named [Schoenberg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vHNcNrojDM) invented a new way of organizing notes. This method, called Serialism, scares a lot of people, but rock out to that link! Listen to the phrases and forget the notes. It's practically songlike, like sentences. This was the birth of atonality, an abandonment of typical harmony, which drove a lot of the experimentation of the twentieth century. Plenty of experimentation happened in those early decades of the Modern era. [Stravinsky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFRwKQqbk4) embraced his native Russia; [Honegger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp80cHYVh2Q) embraced the rise of the machine. World War I resulted in a massive drop in available resources, and the resulting Neoclassical period was one of restraint and clarity, but the music fires burned hot: [Weill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQJlvqeXrC8), [Varèse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw), and [Bartók](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLtLW56TH7w) found innovative ways to put music together. With the passing of World War II, composers struggled with new ways to create art in the face of tragedy and ruin. [Boulez](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chJJHbkDR9I), [Cage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8gTKDQ7NQ), and [Messiaen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmAV3pzpR8M) are but a few out-of-the-box thinkers, who tried, as Monteverdi and Beethoven before them, to invent a new musical language. But the past survived WWII, too, and many composers like [Britten](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkbphH8_Ic) found that, like Mendelssohn, blending old approaches with new served to create equally powerful music. The postmodern era finally arrived when some New York composers got sick of Boulez yelling about how his method was the best, despite claiming he was anti-fascist. [Riley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjR4QYsa9nE) and [Young](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArO-vtKMCbM) started breaking boundaries between performers and audiences. [Beaser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExqBHHXxOvU) and [Pärt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHzlXIVfa8E) helped recapture older harmonies for a modern audience. And behold the twenty-first century! It's impossible at this point to name big names, because they're being formed. But a few of my favorites who are big nowadays, or up-and-coming, are James MacMillan, Caroline Mallonée, Ian Dicke, and Steven Snowden. I left out a ton, but there's always more to discover. On a parting note, all that "art" means is that it's designed to push your envelope. By contrast, "popular" music is music that's designed to be more familiar and comfortable. That makes it easier to sing, catchier, easier to dance to. Neither is better or worse than the other! All that being said, art music is supposed to make you cock an ear and probably an eyebrow. This is cool. If you don't get it the first time around, listen again. If you never get it, you've found yourself a damn good piece. Now turn your speakers on and get to it!
sursa
