Who Invented Classical Music?

Who Invented Classical Music? Many people believe that classical music was invented by Ludwig van Beethoven, but the truth is that the genre has a long and complicated history.

The Baroque Period

Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical era. The word “baroque” comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning “misshapen pearl”. The term “Baroque” is generally used by music historians to refer to a wide range of styles from a period that lasted approximately 150 years.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most important and influential composers of classical music. Often referred to as the “father of classical music,” Bach’s transcendent works span nearly every musical genre, form and style. A profoundly skilled organist, Bach also wrote some of the most intricate and beautiful keyboard music ever composed.

Born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany, into a family of distinguished musicians, Bach began playing the violin and viola da gamba (a bowed string instrument similar to the cello) as a child. He went on to study keyboard and composition, eventually becoming one of the most celebrated musicians in Europe. In 1723, Bach was appointed court composer to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen. It was during this period that he wrote some of his most famous works, including The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of keyboard pieces that established a new standard for musical composition.

In 1747, Bach suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his right side. He died shortly thereafter, but his music continued to live on and influence generations of composers. Today, Bach is recognized as one of the greatest geniuses in Western music history.

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-born Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in England. He is most famous for his oratorio Messiah, and is also well-known for his Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.

Born in Halle, Germany, in 1685, George Frideric Handel was a baroque composer and virtuoso organist. In 1705, he made his first trip to England, where he quickly established himself as a leading composer of Italian opera. However, by the early 1720s Italian opera had fallen out of fashion in London, and Handel turned his attention to writing English-language works such as Esther and Deborah. In 1741 he composed perhaps his best-known work, the oratorio Messiah. Although it was not immediately popular, it eventually became one of the most beloved pieces in the choral repertoire. Handel continued to compose prolifically until his death in 1759.

The Classical Period

The classical period was an era of classical music between 1730 and 1820. The classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic, using a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment, but counterpoint was by no means forgotten, especially later in the period.

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.

Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem Mass in D minor which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35.

The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He is buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in Vienna’s St. Marx Cemetery with little more to him than his name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart chiseled into a small piece of stone near the headstone; there is no record or documentation of what epitaph Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would have wanted on his headstone had he been able to choose it himself.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 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 the city of Bonn in the Electorate of Cologne and raised in a musical milieu by his father—an abusive albeit successful court singer. 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. His hearing began to deteriorate in his late twenties, yet he continued to compose masterpieces, produce groundbreaking symphonies, concertos, piano sonatas, and string quartets that are acknowledged as some of the greatest works ever composed.

During his last 10 years, Beethoven composed some of his most celebrated works including Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9 “Choral”. His hearing continued to deteriorate; by 1814 he had become almost totally deaf. In 1824 he completed his Ninth Symphony, which includes one of the best-known works of classical music,”Ode to Joy”.

The Romantic Period

The Romantic period was a time of great change and development in music. This was the era of the great symphonies, operas, and concertos. The music of this period was very emotional and expressive. The Romantic composers were influenced by the art and literature of their time. Their music was inspired by nature, love, and heroism.

Frederic Chopin

One of the most famous and influential composers of the Romantic period was Frederic Chopin. He was born in Poland in 1810 and is considered one of the greatest pianists of all time. His compositions were incredibly popular during his lifetime and continue to be some of the most performed pieces today. Many consider him to be the father of modern classical music.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) was one of the most beloved composers in history. His music is renowned for its expressive melodies, rich harmonies, and orchestration, as well as its ability to evoke a wide range of emotions. Tchaikovsky’s work includes some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the repertoire, such as the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, and his final Symphony No. 6, the Pathétique.

Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a small town in Russia’s Ural Mountains region. He was one of eight children born to a mining engineer father and a dutiful housewife mother. Tchaikovsky showed early signs of musical talent; by age five he was able to pick out tunes on the piano and had begun copying scores from operas he heard his older sisters rehearsing. When he was 10, his mother died of cholera; the young Tchaikovsky was so distraught that he ran crying from her funeral. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to live with his maternal aunt and uncle in Saint Petersburg so that he could attend the city’s prestigious Imperial School of Jurisprudence.

At the school Tchaikovsky excelled in academics and fitness but chafed under the strict military-style discipline. In 1854 he transferred to the newly opened Imperial School of Music, where he studied harmony with Anton Rubinstein and counterpoint with Nikolai Zaremba. Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865 with honors; by this time he had composed a number of works, including two symphonies (one of which would later be destroyed), an overture entitled Fatum (later revised as The Storm), and several other orchestral pieces. He also wrote a number of songs, piano pieces, and chamber works during this period.

Despite his success at school, Tchaikovsky did not immediately pursue a career in music. Instead he took a job as an assistant secretary at the Ministry of Justice; however, after only four months he resigned due to poor health (a condition exacerbated by his homosexuality). Upon his recovery Tchaikovsky decided to dedicate himself fully to music; with Rubinstein’s help he secured a position teaching harmony at Moscow Conservatory despite having no previous teaching experience. He taught at Moscow Conservatory for 11 years (1866-77), during which time he composed some of his most popular works: three symphonies (the second dedicated to Rubinstein), several concerti (including ones for violin and piano), two string quartets, The Seasons for solo piano, some elementary instruction books on music theory, several vocal works including an opera (Voyevoda), songs set to readings from Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin that later became known as Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Opus 24 1879 – 1880., and much more.

The Modern Period

Classical music is a term that is used to describe a period of time in music history. This period is usually from the 17th century to the present day. The term “classical music” is used to describe a wide variety of styles, including orchestral, chamber, and solo music.

Arnold Schoenberg

Schoenberg is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century. He was a central figure in the development of atonality and serialism, and his influence extends to many other styles and composers.

Schoenberg was born in Austria in 1874. He began his musical training at a young age, and by his early twenties he was already an established composer and conductor. His early work was strongly influenced by the music of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

In 1907, Schoenberg began to develop a new approach to composition that would come to be known as atonal music. This style of music eschews traditional tonality, or the use of a central key, in favor of a more fluid approach to harmony and melody. This new style caused controversy among Schoenberg’s contemporaries, but he continued to develop it throughout his career.

In the 1920s, Schoenberg further expanded his compositional ideas with the development of serialism. This technique uses ordered rows, or series, of pitches and rhythms to create complex structures. Serialism would come to be one of the most influential compositional techniques of the 20th century.

Schoenberg’s ideas had a major impact on subsequent generations of composers, and his work continues to be performed and studied today.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.

Stravinsky’s compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky’s enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His “Russian phase” which lasted until 1919, yielded works such as the orchestral Divertimento from Le Baiser de la fée, The Fairy’s Kiss, Pulcinella, and Renard.