Who Created Classical Music?

Many people think of classical music as being old and outdated. However, the genre is still very popular today. Who created classical music and what are its origins?

The Baroque Period

Music historians can place the beginning of the Baroque period as early as 1600, although the period did not gain its defining characteristics until around 1630. The early part of the Baroque era was marked by a return to the grandeur of the late Renaissance. This grandeur is reflected in the work of composers such as Monteverdi, Lully, and Purcell.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685, the same year as Domenico Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel, in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany. He was the last-born of eight children of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. Ambrosius was a string player, employed by the town council at Eisenach. Bach’s mother died in 1694; a year later his father married his second wife, Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young singer. Of the six children born to Anna Magdalena and Johann Sebastian—four girls and two boys—only four survived to adulthood: Maria Sophia (1662–1711), Catharina Dorothea (1666–1739), Johann Christoph friedericus (1671–1721), and an infant son who died within days (1700).

Bach’s earliest musical instruction came from his fatherAmbrosius and other local teachers. He started attending St. Michael’s School in Lüneburg when he was 10 years old, where he stayed until he was 18. There he learned to play violin and trained his powerful contrapuntal technique by studying the works of earlier masters such as Sweelinck (1562–1621)and Willaert (1490–1562). After leaving school in 1700, Bach worked as a violinist for the dukes of Saxe-Weissenfels before moving in 1703 to Weimar; there he served as court organist and concertmaster for Duke Wilhelm Ernst until 1708 when he succeeded his cousin Johann Ernst as court organist at Arnstadt Cathedral.

George Frideric Handel

Few composers have been as well known in their own time as George Frideric Handel. His popular oratorios brought classical music to the people and his public performances were the toast of London. Born in 1685 in Halle, Germany, he received his first musical training from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, a respected composer and organist in the German style. Later, he studied under Georg Philipp Telemann, another leading German composer of the day. After a short stay in Italy, where he absorbed the style of Italian opera composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Handel moved to London in 1712. There he enjoyed great success as a composer of Italian operas. But after a few years, public tastes changed and Londoners turned their backs on Italian opera in favor of a new style called English oratorio.

The Classical Period

The Classical period was an era of classical music between approximately 1730 to 1820. The Classical period is shorter than the Baroque period, which lasted from 1600 to 1750. The Classical period is sometimes referred to as the “Age of Enlightenment” because of the changes that took place during this time.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote: “posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years”.

Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl in Salzburg. Leopold was a well-known teacher of violin and composer in his own right. In 1757 Mozart accompanied his father on a long concert tour that took them to Munich, Mannheim and Paris—the journey lasting almost a year. This trip prefaced an attempt by Leopold to establish his sons as child prodigies like their cousin Maria Anna (also known as “Nannerl”), who had been touring Europe successfully since she was seven years old. In February 1778 he set off with Albert with the intention of going to Italy before continuing on to London; however they did not make it further than Milan where they both fell ill—Albert died soon after they arrived there.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist, who is arguably the defining figure in the history of Western music.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire. He displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and Christian Gottlob Neefe. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death.

By his late 20s his hearing started to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life.

Beethoven is one of the most frequently performed composers; his work is studied by music students across the globe. His compositions comprise symphonies, concertos, piano sonatas, violin sonatas, cello sonatas, songs, operas, masses and other works for choir and orchestra. Many portraits were commissioned by friends; Beethoven also sold personal items—including his gold watch, socks and hair—to raise money for Musical Charity Fund

The Romantic Period

Created in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Romantic period was a time of great change and creativity. Musicians were influenced by the changes in the world around them, such as the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. This led to a new style of music that was more emotional and expressive.

Frederic Chopin

Frederic Chopin, who created classical music, was born in 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland. He was a virtuoso pianist and composer. His parents were both teachers; his mother taught him how to play the piano when he was four years old. When he was six years old, he gave his first public performance.

Chopin’s music is characterized by a very lyrical and melodic style. He wrote mostly for the piano, but also for other instruments such as the violin and cello. Many of his pieces are now considered to be classical masterpieces, such as his Piano Concerto No. 2 and his Prelude in C Minor.

Chopin’s health began to decline in the 1830s, and he eventually died of tuberculosis in 1849 at the age of 39.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia. He was a frail child, and his mother died when he was only 14. Tchaikovsky studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and soon became one of Russia’s most popular composers. His ballet Swan Lake was first performed in Moscow in 1877 and is still one of the most beloved ballets in the world.

During the Romantic period, composers were inspired by stories and legends to create operas and ballets that are still performed today. Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin is based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin, and his ballet Sleeping Beauty is based on a fairy tale by Charles Perrault.

Tchaikovsky’s music is known for its beautiful melodies, rich harmonies, and emotional power. He died at the age of 53, just nine days after the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, which is now known as the Pathétique Symphony.

The Modern Period

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to Western musical traditions from the 17th century onwards. The music of this era is generally characterized by intricate melodies and harmonies, and a wide range of dynamics.During the modern period, a wide variety of new musical styles and genres emerged.

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was an Austrian composer who created atonality and 12-tone composition. He was a leading member of the Second Viennese School, along with Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Schoenberg began his music career writing in a late Romantic style. His early works were influenced by Brahms, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Around 1908, he began to explore new harmonic possibilities, which eventually led him to abandon traditional tonality altogether in his search for what he called “pantonality.” This term referred to music that wasn’t based on any one key or tonality but rather used all 12 notes of the chromatic scale equally. While at first this might sound like noise, Schoenberg developed strict rules for how the 12 notes could be used, which resulted in beautiful and complex works of art.

Some of Schoenberg’s most famous pupils include John Cage, Leonard Bernstein, Lou Harrison, and Kurt Weill.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. He is best known for his ground-breaking work The Firebird, which helped to establish his reputation as a leading figure in the world of classical music. Stravinsky’s music is characterised by its clarity, precision and harmony, and he is widely considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time.