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First of all, a couple of introductory things to enter the main subject are that Classical Music variates on the era the piece was created, there exists 6 main musical periods:
-Medieval (1150 – 1400)
-Renaissance (1400 – 1600)
-Baroque (1600 – 1750)
-Classical (1750 – 1820)
-Romantic (1820 – 1900)
-20th & 21st century (1900 – Current)
Now that we have an idea of the eras, we need to know that there have been many technical improves on the way the music plays, as we can imagine there is a huge difference on how medieval and modern music is elaborated, in my personal preference, I really like classical, romantic, and 20th and 21st century music eras, since my favorite composers composed during their respective time.
When you hear classical music for the first time, you may think it all sound kinda the same, but in classical music you also need to think about the feeling of the person interpretating the piece, how is being played and the style, it may sound confusing but once you hear it and found it you will understand it.
Now for you to achieve this, I recommend searching different people playing the piece, there can be different recordings of a lot of pieces, but mainly concertos for a specific instrument, such as violin concertos, cello concertos, viola concertos, piano concertos, trumpet concertos, etc. Each and everyone of this can be interpretated with a different feeling, they may be playing the same notes but the feeling is different in every soloist, so that’s why I prefer to listen to many versions of a same piece so you can choose which version you like better, also you can base your likings on a era period such as the ones I mentioned before (baroque, renaissance, romantic, etc.) because there are some similarities on each period of time that you will notice once you heard a piece of every era, here is some pieces you can start with of every musical period:
Medieval
I need to clarify that in this period was normally related to the church so many of the pieces that we hear from this era will be mostly based on Gregorian Chants.
-Gregorian chant - Cum vox sanguinis Ursulae
-Gregorian chant - Exultantes collaudemus
Renaissance
This is more based on choral music; this period was the golden age of choral music and was specialized on acapella compositions.
-Orlando Gibbons – The Silver Swan
-Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Sicut Cervus
-William Byrd - Ave verum corpus | The Sixteen
Baroque
Baroque music is known for complex pieces and intricate harmonies, I consider that the pieces in Baroque music have a type of rich sound than other period compositions.
-George Frederick Handel – Water Music Suite No.1
-Georg Philipp Teleman – Viola Concerto in G Major II.Allegro
-Antonio Vivaldi – La Stravaganza | Violin Concerto in E minor I.Allegro
*Extra addition
-Johann Sebastian Bach – Violin Partita no.3 in E Major I. Preludio
Classical
This period didn’t change about the instrumentation, but instead of the Harpsichord in Baroque, this was replaced later by the Piano. The size in Orchestras changed, increasing the size, as well as the sound and power; the sound in this period was a little lighter than Baroque music.
-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No.40 in G minor I.Molto Allegro
-Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No.7 in A Major II.Allegretto
-Franz Schubert – Schwanengesang D.957 No.4 Serenade
Romantic
This period was where the most difficult music would be performed indifferent ease, the orchestras were growing to higher numbers than ever, meanwhile composers experimented more and new ways to portrait their music, trying different instrumentation reaching different types of harmonies.
-Giuseppe Verdi – La Traviata Act. I: Libiamo ne’lieti calici
-Felix Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor I. Allegro Molto Appassionato
-Camille Saint-Saëns – Samson et Dalila: Bacchanale
*Extra addition
-Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Valse Sentimentale No.6
20th and 21st Century
In this period, composers already had a set of guidelines and characteristics that most of the composers used or practiced in their compositions, over the years they have been further leaving the old rules to created free reign masterpieces, which made classical music now a world of free experimentation, of course sadly is not as popular in 2024 as it was in 1800, but thankfully hasn’t disappeared.
-Dmitri Shostakovich – Jazz Suite No.2: VI.Waltz No.2
-Igor Stravinsky – The Firebird (L’oiseau DeFeu) Suite: Finale
-Gustav Holst – The Planets I. Mars
-Gustav Holst – The Planets II. Venus
Classical Music has a long way of history, but this is just an introduction on the big history of classical music, later on this blog im going to give more musical recommendations for you to know more about it, such as different composers history, interesting and amazing facts, etc.
Thank you for reading this blog!
(if you have any questions, let me know in the comments!)
Comments
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𝔅𝔢𝔩𝔩𝔞 𝔒𝔡𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔞
Idk how you made this post so succinct, yet in-depth -- great job!
Also, you make me want to binge classical and opera again lol
degen_aphrodite13
This blog post is zesty af but I LOVE CLASSICAL so this will be a long comment. You made an excellent comment at the beginning on how it all might sound the same but in reality, it is different. It's always important to note the context behind whatever music you're listening to. SO TRUE FOR CLASSICAL IT DOESNT ALL SOUND THE SAME. To be honest I always skip the medieval and Renaissance period... I'm not big on those time periods.
Starting with Baroque,,... how could you have Bach be the extra addition T_T... He's the embodiment of the Baroque period in my opinion. I think Handel is overrated but that's just because I think his pieces are very choral heavy and I'm just not a big fan of how he does it. Bach on the other hand is amazing at crafting intricate choral works that intertwine the holy with the unholy... Dark and grim yet crafted in the name of the lord. His Mass in C minor is my favorite.
Moving onto the Classical period.... I think you could've added Haydn in this category SINCE HE LITERALLY TAUGHT BEETHOVEN... You picked great songs though for this time period. I think I would've added some chamber music in this time period as well since I think it started to gain some traction... Beethoven string quartets are amazing and I can never get enough of them. Excellent choice with Schubert as well RIP.
ROMANTIC ERA. arguably my favorite period and I'm sorry but I have a bone to pick with you!!!! No Wagner??? No Schumann???? you added verdi but not wagner who made one of the most recognizable songs of all time. "ride of the valkyries" He paved the way for more free flowing music and embraced the future of chromaticism!!!!! Schumann is my favorite and his piano suites are THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME.
Stravinsky and Shostakovich are top tier picks.... but not mentioning Shostakovich NO.5 is such a travesty :(... ILL STOP HATING NOW BUT this was a great blog post and I'm glad classical is still being talked about!!!!!
Thank you for your honesty, as for your petition for bach in the Baroque, yes you're right, bach is in my opinion one of the fathers of Baroque music, but as i said in the beginning its just an introduction on classical for those people who want to know more about it! I will later on put more classical music to listen to, including more of Bach!
Moving to the classical, Haydn was on my list, i was going to add a classic piece like the "surprise" Symphony, but i considered more onto the "popular stuff", and i also LOVE beethoven's string quartets! I will be definetely adding them to my next blog!
Now for the romantic, YES I KNOW, i was going to choose Wagner with, as you mentioned, the Ride of the Valkyries or the Tannhäuser Overture! (one of my favorites) but as i said i wanted to put more onto the "classic" reccomendations to begin with and SCHUMMAN WITH HIS PIANO SUITES, i do owe you an apology there since i completely missed schumman! I promise i will put his compositions next blog!
Now yes, Shostakovich is one of my FAAAVORITE composers! I had a LOT of pieces that i wanted to put, i was going to put his Violin Concertos! (THEY'RE SOOOO UNDERRATEED I SWEAR!) as well as HIS STRING QUARTETS OML (String Quartet No.8 in C minor is my personal favorite, especially the second movement!) but i decided to go with the classic Jazz Suite! I also wanted to keep many pieces for my "piece recommendation blog"! Thank you for your review, i also want classical music to be a more popular topic! That's why i wanted to make this blog with a few reccomendations! I promise to watch out for more composers. (I wanted to put Paganini soooo bad, but i considered to put his compositions later onto the blog!) anyways i will stop writting now, thank you for reading!
by mxsicxoxo; ; Report
NOOOOO you should keep writing.... I also had to stop myself from yapping but... This was an epic blog post. I didn't know you were down like that LOL. I love Haydn's Cello concerto NO.1 the third movement specifically... ALSO I LOVE THE TANNHAUSER OVERTURE I think Wagner has the only Operas I can tolerate. I'm actually going to see The Ring cycle this summer and I can't fucking wait!!!!!! I can't wait to see your blog post on piece recommendations! I will be looking forward to reading that one LOL.
As far as Shostavokich goes, I haven't heard much of his chamber music and I haven't heard the violin concertos but I will now... I love his symphonies so much they're SO FUCKING GOOOD!!! They can't beat Beethoven's IMO but they're up there.
Schumann's Carnaval has to be my favorite of his suites. No piano piece can ever come close to beating NO.11 (Chiarina) off that suite. Rachmaninov can try and so can Debussy but that piece to me is just exceptional and the perfect screenshot of the Romantic era of classical. I actually made a blog post specifically on that song cuz it was so beautiful to me. I know you were making an intro post for people who aren't knowledgeable in classical music BUT NO BRAHMS??? I think I definitely would've overwhelmed the reader but this was really concise and digestible so props to you!!
What are your favorite symphonies?? I would have to say Beethoven NO. 3,5, and 7, Brahms No. 4 (4th movement specifically, I swear to god the Bernstein rendition of this is SO HEAVENLY), Shostakovich No.5 and No.7, Mahler No.2 and 5, Mozart No. 29 and.... I can;t think of anymore. Sorry I love classical and its been my obsession for the last year and have been needing to get this out of my system.
SIDE NOTE: have you heard the Elgar concerto that one is also really good.... What are some other thoughts you've been dying to get out id be interested in reading them!!!
by degen_aphrodite13; ; Report