Chapter 23
Ten Periods of Music
History to Explore
In This Chapter
Exploring the variety of classical music
Getting hip to jazz
Expanding your exposure to different kinds of rock
Using the Internet to find the fresh and now
I
t’s one thing to sit and read piles of sheet music and composition books
and learn how notes scientifically fit against one another, but it’s another
thing to truly try to “get” music. To do so, you’ve got to listen to it, lots and
lots and lots of it, and to as many different types as you can. And boy, is there
a lot of music out there to explore.The most interesting periods of music are usually those at the turning point
from one accepted style to the next, such as the break from baroque music to
classical music, guitar rock to Krautrock and later to math rock and so on.
These turning points are generally not recognized at all by general audiences
from that period and are, in fact, often dismissed as passing fads; with hind-
sight, it’s much easier to tell which composers and what period of music
ended up making the greatest impact on the course of Western music.Because this book is mostly concerned with the Western musical tradition of
composition, we’ve confined our choices here to the Western canon. However,
there is more than half a globe not even mentioned here that is worth writing
extra volumes about.Classical Music .............................................................................................
The term classical musichas become sort of a catch-all phrase for any sort of
“highbrow” music that uses orchestral instruments and arrangements —
violins, solo piano, flutes, oboes, and so forth — therefore lumping about