Hot answers tagged classical-music
14
But there are rhythms, harmonies and melodies in nature.
When you walk, you establish a nice solid beat. Two beats to the bar, at its most basic level - but by adjusting your gait or the way you count, you can think of it as four beats, or three, or as many as you like. Skipping brings in different rhythms.
The musical intervals that make up melodies are ...
11
There may be a small amount of "performance practice fad" about that, but for the most part it does serve a purpose.
Breath is used in many styles of music as a cue. If you think about wind instrument players, for example, every phrase is preceded by a breath, and experienced players will take that breath in rhythm. As a rhythmic gesture, it can be used to ...
10
Why the past tense? How do classical (or rather, orchestral) composers write music? How does any composer write music for instruments they don't themselves play?
Although a composer doesn't necessarily need to be able to play an instrument to a high standard, they do need to understand the mechanics of the instrument, its limitations and capabilities. This ...
8
I don't consider the "classical music" criteria to be a determining factor. A piano is a piano is a piano, and though digital pianos generally do have some feature overlap with things like electronic keyboards and synthesizers and midi controllers, the reason for buying a digital piano should only be because an acoustic piano is impractical for whatever ...
7
The melody (right hand) should be played in time. Don't shift it to try to match something temporally funky in the accompaniment (left hand).
The broken chords should be played so that the last note of the chord occurs in time with the melody. The lower notes should come just ahead of the beat. The reason for this is that the higher notes in the chord will ...
7
To answer your question head on, an experienced teacher will listen to the student's voice for all the qualities you mentioned: "range, tessitura, and voice color". The teacher will then mentally compare those qualities to other singers that they know. They will also be comparing that voice to the kinds of voices they are used to hearing in various roles. In ...
6
The basic idea of the style is that it's in 3/4 time (or other triple meter), with accents on beats TWO and THREE.
The accents are what makes it feel unbalanced. You are probably used to waltz style, where the accents are on ONE and THREE. As such, it may be easy to mistake beat 3 of a mazurka for beat 1 of a waltz, since those accents are in the same place ...
6
There are three different things here: the sonata(-allegro) form, the (multi-movement) sonata form, and the title sonata.
The sonata(-allegro) form is a form of one movement. It's usually fast (hence the allegro) and the big structure is ABA, where the first A is called exposition, B is development, and the second A is recapitulation. Sometimes there's a ...
6
Many classical composers frequently used this method that you stated. Bach wrote over 1120 pieces. Naming 1120 pieces, each with a unique name can be hard. Some were named for where they were performed e.g. the Brandenburg Concertos. It was also common for a composer to number his pieces of the same format. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is also known as Serenade ...
5
Just like in the visual arts, this ability comes with development of the imagination. Imagination can work with any of the senses. Perfumers imagine scents. Chefs imagine tastes and textures and aromas. Musicians imagine music.
The time element is the only real difference between audile imagination (or audiation), and these other, more static images. One ...
5
When asked about how "masterworks" are created, Nadia Boulanger, a French composition pedagogue during the 20th century, had this to say:
"I can tell whether a piece is well-made or not, and I believe that
there are conditions without which masterpieces cannot be achieved,
but I also believe that what defines a masterpiece cannot be pinned
down. I ...
4
The score for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 at PianoStreet.com indicates that the level is "8+"
It seems reasonable to assume that their "levels" correspond to the major music examination bodies' "grades".
4
There is a recording listed in Allmusic.com that lists Rostropovich as the composer and performer of his Humoresque for Cello and Piano, Op 5:
feat. artist: Mstislav Rostropovich
Label: Brilliant
Rovi ID: MQ0000908851
Rovi Work ID: MC0002507948
AMG ID: F 1686750
AMG Work ID: C 380960
Work Title: Humoresque for cello & piano, Op. 5
...
4
These are in fact all different. The D and G and bars 6 and 8 are in square brackets by the editor to indicate that they should be re-attacked, since the preceding note is the same. Bar 8 is not a trill. It should be played as two eighth notes G and F. Bar 12 is a normal trill where its first note (F#) was not the last one played, so no need to indicate it ...
4
By "Classical", I assume you mean "not pop music" rather than the historical Classical Period specifically. The examples you gave weren't actually Classical composers (J.S. Bach was a Baroque composer; Chopin was Romantic).
In Bach's case, his music was always very functional - it almost always served a purpose. As such, it made sense to give functional ...
4
As has been said, music probably originated from imitation of the rhythms of walking, breathing, the melodies of speaking, bird song, etc. etc. Nowadays a lot of music is quite far from that. It's been abstracted and certain laws of music have been found. For example notes close to each other (in any way, like by frequency, time, timbre...) sound like they ...
4
What I Think
Music isn't some kind of mystical half-random thing that is beyond all understanding; it has its rules and regulations --and in some ways, more structural restrictions than other art forms. It can and usually should be somewhat predictable and, really, there are only a few combinations of rhythms out there --it's all about how you put them ...
3
How did the piano as an instrument evolve construction wise? Firstly, higher degree of accuracy in tools allowed for high quality instruments. You could put higher tensions without destroying the frame, etc etc. They also expanded the size of the keyboard and there were a ton of things done with tuning (an excellent intro to such things being "How Equal ...
3
Are you familiar with the concepts of "early music" and "historically-informed performance"?
General background rather than a specific answer: I'm not a keyboardist or instrumentalist, but I work as a volunteer business person with a Baroque orchestra composed of career specialists in early music and historically-informed performance. All I can say is that ...
3
It can be used for communication, as already pointed out - and this certainly seems to be the most cited explanation when you query that of a musician who seems to be doing it excessively! Showing emotion is also a common reason given, that it somehow brings out more authenticity and heartfelt contrast in the piece.
However:
What is up with that? Is ...
3
All I can say is that the more recent the music is, the less scholarly work has been done to study it. This goes along with the timeless principle that "theory follows practice."
But music theory is music theory, and yes, you can study any piece of Western pop music and analyze it according to the established principles of Western functional harmony and ...
3
The purpose of adding so much information is to insure the reader knows which work is in question.
To make up a case, say we start with a Chopin Waltz. We could name the key - Eb, for example - but there could be more than one Waltz in Eb. To narrow it down, we might provide an opus number (when it was composed) or a date in the case of some more recent ...
3
This documents that Mozart's trills started on the upper note, either directly or suspended. Also, the jump from G to E in Luke's answer is certainly wrong. I would suggest continuing to hold the G for one 16th, then FEF as equal 16ths.
3
Let's look at the last 100 or 125 years of Western classical music.
1) American jazz has had a huge influence on 20th-century Western classical music. American jazz originated outside of 20th-century Western classical music. But now its harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary have permanently influenced Western classical music.
2) Minimalism, a la Steve Reich and ...
2
The turkish motives and joining russians to mainstream western music.
Gypsy people is the powerful steering power bringing music from one place to another.
Squeeze-boxes together with harmonicas seems to be originated in China.
Xylophones are very old and not of european origin also.
2
One point I would make in addition to slim's excellent answer is that theory is more to explain composition, not dictate it. In other words, talented composers write the music they do because they are translating what they 'hear' internally, not because the rules of music theory tell them that this is 'right'.
Although understanding theory is certainly a ...
2
You say that the purpose of your piano is practising at home, yet you finish by saying a real piano may bring a [better] sound to performance.
I think you need to think some more about the purpose of the instrument you're buying.
I am no piano expert, but I have played on:
The upright piano my parents bought second-hand for £50 in the 1970s
My piano ...
2
You can listen to the previews for free on iTunes or any online music store.
Mitsuko Uchida and most performers play it as FGFGFEF:
though it is also acceptable to play it as a turn (FGFEF):
2
The evolution of the concerto form (for all instruments) follows the evolution of the musical forms in general. For example, the Classical period favored structure, intellectualism, rationalism, and economy of means; the Romantic period, which closely followed the Classical period, is the direct antithesis and reaction to the relative constraints of the ...
2
The basis for note duration is strictly in the context of the piece regardless of any other influences. The time a note is played is relative to the notes preceding it and following it, and if the note is a part of chord etc. The context will determine the physiological influences. There are no rules regarding how long or short a note is to be played other ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
