COMPOSERS137
CLASSICAL ERA
Serious music is often called classical to distinguish it from
popular music. However, for musicians, classical music is the
music composed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Classical composers extended the harmony and forms of
the Baroque era. The symphony developed in this period.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) composed
104 symphonies.MOZART
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (1756-91)
of Austria was a
talented composer
and performer by
the age of five. He
went on to write
chamber music,
symphonies, and
concertos, as well
as great operas such
as The Magic Flute.
ROMANTIC MOVEMENT
From about 1820, composers
began to experiment with new
harmonies and forms, achieving
a much wider emotional range.
For composers such as Tchaikovsky,
formal rules were less important
than creating drama, painting
pictures in sound, or telling stories.Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird caused a sensation at its first
performance in Paris in 1910.TCHAIKOVSKY
The Russian composer Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky (1840-93) was unhappy
in his personal life, which brought
great emotional depth to his music.
He wrote many well-known ballets and
symphonies, including the famous
1812 Overture.Playing a tune on
an electric piano
adds the notes
to the score
on the
screen.Mozart performed all over
Europe when he was only six.COMPUTER
COMPOSITION
Computers can help composers write music. The
composer can use an electronic instrument to
enter the melodies into the computer, where
they can be stored, altered, and printed out.Find out more
Dance
Music
Musical instruments
Renaissance
TechnologyCOMPOSERS
800s Composers begin to
write down their music.
At the same time, monks
develop a form of chant,
called plainsong, for singing
church services.
1300-1600 Composers of the
late Medieval and Renaissance
periods start to develop
harmony by combining different
voices together, producing a
richer sound called polyphony.
1597 Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)
of Italy composes Dafne, the
first opera.
1600s Baroque music begins,
and composers gradually make
their music more complicated
and elaborate.
1750-1820 The rise of classical
music introduces simpler,
popular tunes that more
people could enjoy.
1817-23 Beethoven
composes the Choral
Symphony, the first
symphony to use a choir.
1820s The romantic era
begins, and composers start
to look for new ways to make
their music appeal to the
listeners’ emotions.
1850s Composers in eastern
and northern Europe begin
to write nationalistic music,
based on traditional songs and
stories from their countries.
1865 Richard Wagner’s
(1813-83) opera Tristan and
Isolde points the way toward
Modern music.
1888 Russian nationalist
composer Nikolai Rimsky-
Korsakov composes his
Scheherazade, based on One
Thousand and One Nights.
1900s The modern era in music
begins. Composers of the
impressionist movement write
music that creates atmosphere,
movement, and color in sound.
1905 French impressionist
composer Claude Debussy
(1862-1918) writes La Mer
(The Sea).
1924 George Gershwin
composes Rhapsody in Blue for
jazz orchestra and piano.
1959 German composer
Karlheinz Stockhausen (born
1928) writes Zyklus for one
percussion player.BEETHOVEN
The German composer
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-
1827; above) was completely
deaf for the last 10 years of his
life but continued to compose
some of the greatest music in the
world. His late works moved toward
the Romantic movement.MODERN MUSIC
In the 20th century, there
were great changes in
serious music. Russian-born
composer Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971) experimented
with new harmonies,
creating sounds that his
audiences sometimes found
difficult to understand.
Composers such as the
German Karlheinz
Stockhausen (1928-2007)
challenged listeners’ ideas
about music. American
composer Philip Glass
(b. 1937) has composed
operas and symphonies, as
well as music for award-
winning movies.