Age of Faith. Intellectual and artistic life centered in the church; first in monasteries. later also in city cathedrals and court chapels. Most music was improvised; generally only sacred vocal music was written down.
Music: monophonic chants with free, declamatory rhythm; polyphony gradually developed regular beat, often with triple meter. Open sonorities with octaves and fifths alternate with strong dissonances.
Characteristic genres: Gregorian chant, organum, polytextual motet, monophonic troubadour songs and minnelieder, polyphonic songs with formes fixes.
Age of Discovery: of the world beyond Christian Europe, but also of the past, especially of Antiquity. Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
Music: Imitative modal polyphony, sometimes alternating with chordal sections, becomes international style, smooth-flowing rhythms, gentle use of dissonances, mostly a cappella. Word-painting.
Characteristic genres: Polyphonic Mass and motet, chanson, madrigal, instrumental dances, canzonas, and ricercars.
Age of Absolutism. Truth revealed by authority (divine, sacred, secular).
Music: ceremonial, grand, complex, regional (national styles). Continuity of mood, of melodic and rhythmic movement. Fast, regular harmonic rhythm. Contrapuntal textures. Walking basses.
Characteristic genres: opera, cantata, concerto grosso, sonata, fugue.
Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. Truth discovered internally, through reason (later on: through instinct, feeling).
Music, pre-Classical: Style galant, "natural," graceful, "good taste." Lighter textures (easy listening). Clearly articulated symmetrical phrases, slower harmonic rhythm, static or drum basses. Emphasis on I, IV, V harmonic functions, mostly major mode. In central Europe during 1770s: small but historically significant counter-movements (Sturm und Drang, Empfindsamkeit) with darker, often shifting moods and minor keys.
Music, high classical: more serious, "noble," universal, more contrapuntal, phrases less regular. Dramatization of modulatory movement, key areas.
Characteristic genres: opera, symphony, solo concerto, string quartet, sonata.
Age of Revolution. In the arts, grand themes: heroism, destiny, love, death. The industrial revolution. Imperialism. First centered on the individual, then on nation (esp. in Germany, but also elsewhere).
Music, early Romantic: individualistic, expression of intimate feelings and grand passions. Ties with other arts. Search for extremes (both large and small). Extension of harmonic language, frequent shifts between major-minor modes and to mediant keys (III, VI). Little interest in formal structures. "Psychological" tranformations of motifs.
Music, late Romantic: trends continue, longer symphonies, larger orchestras. Program music. Expression of philosophical ideas, metaphysical themes. Loosening of key sense due to continual modulation; loosening of rhythmic continuity due to increasing use of rubato and tempo change. Rise of non-Germanic schools ("nationalism"). Split between radical and conservative factions.
Characteristic genres: Lied, short piano piece, opera and music drama, symphonic poem.
Age of Technology. Science and technology embraced by some, despised by others. Man controlled by economic forces (Marx), by the unconscious (Freud). Total wars (WW I & II). Increasing awareness of the third world, politically, economically, intellectually, spiritually.
Music, before 1945: Rejection of excesses of ego-centered expression. New rhythms and sonorities. Rejection of some common-practice traditions (tonal harmony), but preservation of other traditions (concert tradition, instruments). Use of pre-Romantic models.
Music, after 1945: Influence of technology, electronics. Extension of instrumental techniques. Rejection of traditional principles of form. Use of serial and aleatory techniques, mixed media. Post-1970: minimalism, neo-romanticism, post-modernism. Cross-over with jazz, rock, pop, and world-music.
Characteristic genres: ballet (dance oriented), chamber
ensembles with unconventional combinations, song cycles with instrumental
ensemble, performance art.
© A. Silbiger, 1996