The Classical Music Book

A

vital part of human culture,

at least since Neolithic

times, music has been

a feature of every civilization,

as cave paintings, frescoes, and

archaeology show. What is loosely

referred to as “classical music” is

the music of Western civilization

as it evolved from medieval times

to the present day. In its broadest

sense, it covers a wide spectrum

of music and not just the orchestral

or piano music that some people

imagine. This book explores how

classical music developed as an

essential part of European culture

and then spread across the world,

delighting, surprising, and sometimes

perplexing audiences as it evolved

through the centuries.

Bold leaps

The development of a musical

tradition, from medieval church

music and courtly trobadors to

the avant-garde music of the

21st century, was often incremental,

but it has also been punctuated

by exciting innovations. The

first operas, staged at the end of

the 16th century, for example,

revolutionized sacred as well as

secular music, while Beethoven’s

“Eroica” Symphony shocked early

19th-century audiences with its

groundbreaking structure and

disregard for Classical conventions,

just as Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre

du printemps (Rite of Spring)

astounded those who attended

its Paris premiere a century later.

Such leaps have defined the

main periods of classical music—

Early Music, Renaissance, Baroque,

Classical, Romantic, Nationalist,

Modern, and Contemporary—

though these are broad distinctions,

with different styles within each

one, and the dividing lines are

not clear-cut.

The role of the Church

Like other art forms, music has

been shaped by external influences

as well as by brilliant individuals.

The first of these was the Church.

Western classical music originated

in a Europe dominated by the

Church. In addition to wielding

considerable political power, the

clergy provided the only source

of learning in society. For the

educated, music was part of an

act of worship, not entertainment.

It was sung by monks without

instrumental accompaniment.

The “New Art”

For hundreds of years, the Church

resisted any change to the simple

chanting of sacred texts, the rise

and fall of which was represented

on manuscripts by “neumes”

(inflective marks). Eventually,

however, new ideas found their

way in. With the invention of

a system of notation by Guido

d’Arezzo, a monk in 11th-century

Italy, choristers began to sing

simple harmonies to the tunes.

They later embellished them with

other melodies, creating polyphony,

a new sound that, in the 14th

century, was hailed as the Ars

nova, the “New Art.” Composers

soon introduced other innovations,

such as an organ accompaniment.

The Church began to lose its

control over music, and culture

in general, a process helped along

by the birth of a new cultural

INTRODUCTION

Music is the social act

of communication

among people, a gesture

of friendship, the

strongest there is.

Malcolm Arnold

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