Questions about Classical music
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is classical music and how is it defined?
Classical music is a tradition of art music in the Western world, considered distinct from Western folk music and popular music traditions. It is often characterized by formality and complexity in musical form and harmonic organization, particularly the use of polyphony. The Oxford English Dictionary defines classical in music as of acknowledged excellence, as a formal tradition distinct from popular or folk music, and as the formal European music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Where does the word classical music come from?
The English classical and German Klassik developed from the French classique, derived from the Latin classicus, which originally referred to the highest class of Ancient Roman citizens. The Roman author Aulus Gellius used the term to praise revered writers such as Demosthenes and Virgil. It was in 18th-century England that classical first came to stand for a particular canon of works in performance.
What are the main periods of classical music history?
Classical music history runs through medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modernist eras. The Renaissance lasted from 1400 to 1600, the Baroque period from 1580 to 1750, the Classical era from the 1750s to the early 1820s, and the Romantic era from roughly the first decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century.
Why is classical music a written tradition?
Classical music has been primarily a written tradition since at least the ninth century, spawning a sophisticated notational system. Christian monks developed the first forms of European musical notation to standardize liturgy across the Church. Written scores let composition separate from transmission, so a work could be performed without the composer present and preserved across many centuries.
Who are the composers of the First Viennese School in classical music?
The First Viennese School, sometimes called the Viennese classics, groups Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven. The grouping is considered problematic because none of the three was born in Vienna and Haydn and Mozart spent minimal time in the city.
What was the Mozart effect in classical music?
The Mozart effect was an observed temporary, small elevation of scores on spatial reasoning tests after listening to Mozart's music, with one experiment published in Nature suggesting a temporary IQ boost of 8 to 9 points. Florida passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music daily, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted 105,000 dollars per year to give every child born in the state a tape or CD of classical music.