The History of Classical Music Friedrich Nietzsche once said Without music, life would be an error.

As we know, music is influencing every aspect of humans life. It becomes a business commodity, a medium to express feeling, a way to show love, a universal language to talk, or just as a simple entertainment only. One of the most long-lasting music is classical music and people used to love it so much. But nowadays, people start to think that classical music is not interesting and has a boring history. They also think that classical music has only one single style. Actually, classical music has some period and each period has its very own style and characteristic. First, we need to know the beginning of classical music. The oldest music that we call classical music was created in the time of medieval music. Generally, the time frame applied to Medieval Music is from the fall of the Roman Empire (486 AD) to the beginning of the Renaissance (1400). In this era, music was both sacred and secular. The simplicity of chant, with unison voice and natural declamation, is most common. The earliest surviving sources of chant showing musical notation are from the early ninth century, but since creating musical manuscripts was very expensive, due to the expense of parchment, and the huge amount of time necessary for a scribe to copy it all down, only very rich institutions were able to create manuscripts which survived to the current time. Many of the instruments used during the Medieval Period still exist today; the panflute, cornett (an ancestor of the trumpet), recorder, lute, mandolin, and last but not least, the dulcimer. Some of the most well-known composers from this era were Hildegard von Bingen, Guillaume de Machaut, Perotin, and Jaufre Rudel. The coming period after medieval period was renaissance period. Renaissance or "rebirth", a period of significant changes in history including music. This period began approximately in 1400 and ended around 1600. Significant changes occurred to church music such as the chorale, hymns that were meant to be sung by a congregation. Its earliest form was monophonic and then evolved to four part harmony. During the period, secular music had an increasingly wide distribution, with a wide variety of forms. Music printing had been invented, and printing made music more widely available, so much

more has survived from this era than from the preceding medieval period. The instruments used in this period were the ones used in medieval period, with some additions like clavichord, harpsichord, and organ. Some of the musicians were Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlande de Lassus, and William Byrd. The next period was baroque, around 1600 to 1750. The word "baroque" came from the Italian word "barocco" which means bizarre pearl. This word is really fit with the style of baroque music because in general baroque is similar to jazz music. Its similarity with jazz is in the using of variety of improvisation on the performers part. During the Baroque period, the musical form known as opera emerged and composers began to indicate the tempo. Operas were derived from ancient Greek tragedy and there was often an overture at the beginning, then a solo part coming and both an orchestra and chorus are present. Aside from the opera, composers also wrote numerous sonatas, concerto grosso and choral works. Other forms of music like the canons and fugues also involved during this time. Instruments used were brass, strings, especially violins, harpsichord, organ and cello. Some of the composers in this period were Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi. During 1750 and 1820, it was time for classic period. The music in this era had lighter texture than baroque music and it was also less complicated. Melodies tend to be shorter than those of Baroque, with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences. Sonata form develops, and becomes the most important design. It was used to build up the first movement of most large-scale works, but also other movements, and single pieces (such as overtures). Playing of chords, even if they interrupted the melodic smoothness of a single part, became a much more prevalent feature of music. Orchestra increased in size and range, as harpsichord was replaced with piano, violins were accompanied by violas, and basses were used by some composers. The most popular composers from this era were Wolfgang Amadi Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Joseph Haydn. The last period was romantic period which took place between 1830 and 1900. The use of the term romantic music applied to music which is thought to evoke a soft or dreamy atmosphere. Romantic music struggled to increase emotional expression and

power to describe these deeper truths, while preserving or even extending the formal structures from the classical period. Music was used to tell a story or to express an idea in this period. There was an increasing focus on melodies and themes, as well as an explosion in the composition of songs. In opera performance by this time, arias, choruses, recitatives and ensemble pieces often couldnt easily be distinguished from each other in the continuous, through-composed music. The virtuoso piano recital became particularly popular, and often included improvisations on popular themes, and the performance of shorter compositions as well as longer works such as the sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart. Romantic music orchestra used a large number of instruments, contained wind instruments, brass instruments, keyboard instruments, and even voice choir. The famous musicians from this era were Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss, Johannes Brahms, and Frederic Chopin. In short, the music we called classical music is not only a plain boring music, but a very interesting music which also has an interesting history. Thats why I love to listen, play, and learn about classical music very much.