1.
Musical instrument
–
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes
2.
Choir
–
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical repertoire, which spans from the Medieval era to the present. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, a body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus. The former term is often applied to groups affiliated with a church and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls. Choirs may sing without instrumental accompaniment, with the accompaniment of a piano or pipe organ, with a small ensemble, choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six, and eight, choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing, many choirs perform in one or many locations such as a church, opera house, or school hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one mass choir that performs for a special concert, in this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others. Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as a concert, by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face. The primary duties of the conductor or choirmaster are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. The conductor or choral director typically stands on a raised platform, many choral conductors use their hands to conduct. In the 2010s, most conductors do not play an instrument when conducting, although in earlier periods of music history. In Baroque music from the 1600s to the 1750s, conductors performing in the 2010s may lead an ensemble while playing a harpsichord or the violin, conducting while playing a piano may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication is typically non-verbal during a performance, however, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be sung. Conductors act as guides to the choirs they conduct and they choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make certain adjustments, work out their interpretation, and relay their vision to the singers. Choral conductors may also have to conduct instrumental ensembles such as if the choir is singing a piece for choir. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions
3.
Johann Sebastian Bach
–
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bachs compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor and his music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth. He is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Bach was born in Eisenach, in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach and his father Johann Ambrosius Bach was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michaels School in Lüneburg for two years. He received the title of Royal Court Composer from Augustus III in 1736, Bachs health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on 28 July 1750. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany and he was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius, who taught him violin. His uncles were all musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ, Bachs mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, there he studied, performed, and copied music, including his own brothers, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper of that type was costly. He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord, also during this time he was taught theology, Latin, Greek, French and Italian at the local gymnasium. By 3 April 1700 Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann–who was two years Bachs elder–were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michaels School in Lüneburg, some two weeks travel north of Ohrdruf and their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the Schools three-manual organ and he came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany, sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in other disciplines. While in Lüneburg, Bach had access to St. Johns Church and possibly used the famous organ from 1553. His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties, despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir and he called one of them a Zippel Fagottist
4.
Opera
–
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
5.
High culture
–
The term high culture comprehends the cultural products of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as art. The Preface defines culture as “the disinterested endeavour after man’s perfection” pursued, obtained, moreover, the philosophy of aesthetics proposed in high culture is a force for moral and political good. Critically, the term “high culture” is contrasted with the terms “popular culture”, in Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, T. S. Eliot said that high culture and popular culture are necessary and complementary parts of the culture of a society. In the U. S. Harold Bloom and F. R. Leavis pursued the definition of high culture, history The high culture of the West originated in the Classical-world traditions of intellect and aesthetics in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. In the Classical Greco-Roman tradition, the mode of language was published and preserved in works of elevated style. Certain forms of language used by authors in valorized epochs were held up in antiquity and this ideal associated with humanism, was communicated in Renaissance Italy through institutions such as the Renaissance court schools. Renaissance humanism soon spread through Europe becoming much of the basis of upper class education for centuries, of comparable importance are those works of art and music considered to be of the highest excellence and broadest influence. Together these texts and art works constitute the artefacts representative of the culture of the Western world. Cultural traditions In the Western and some East Asian traditions, art that demonstrates the imagination of the artist is accorded the status of high art, much of high culture consists of the appreciation of what is sometimes called High Art. This term is broader than Arnolds definition and besides literature includes music, visual arts. The decorative arts would not generally be considered High Art, such an environment enables artists, as near as possible, to realize their creative potential with as few as possible practical and technical constraints. Art music is a term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations. In this regard, art music frequently occurs as a term to popular music. Art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film using a. According to the film scholar David Bordwell, art cinema itself is a film genre, there was a drive, beginning in the 19th century, to open museums and concert halls to give the general public access to high culture. University liberal arts courses still play an important role in the promotion of the concept of high culture, organisations such as the Arts Council of Great Britain, and in most European countries, whole ministries administer these programmes. This includes the subsidy of new works by composers, writers, there are also many private philanthropic sources of funding, which are especially important in the US, where the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting also funds broadcasting. These may be seen as part of the concept of official culture
6.
Chamber music
–
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a number of performers. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances, because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as the music of friends. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music as four rational people conversing. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions, from its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to the present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, instruments were used primarily as accompaniment for singers, String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were also purely instrumental ensembles, often of stringed precursors of the violin family, some analysts consider the origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera and the sonata da chiesa. These were compositions for one to five or more instruments, the sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes, the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of the Baroque – two treble instruments and an instrument, often with a keyboard or other chording instrument filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the instrument would play the basso continuo part. During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined, often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemanns Tafelmusik, for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, Baroque chamber music was often contrapuntal, that is, each instrument played the same melodic materials at different times, creating a complex, interwoven fabric of sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodies, all the instruments were equal, in the trio sonata, there is often no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance. In the second half of the 18th century, tastes began to change, many preferred a new, lighter Galant style. And clearly defined melody and bass to the complexities of counterpoint, now a new custom arose that gave birth to a new form of chamber music, the serenade. Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends, patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades, nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations, the young Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write several of these
7.
Henry Purcell
–
Henry Purcell was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcells legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music, Purcell was born in St Anns Lane, Old Pye Street Westminster – the area of London later known as Devils Acre – in 1659. Henry Purcell Senior, whose older brother Thomas Purcell was also a musician, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, Henry the elder had three sons, Edward, Henry and Daniel. Daniel Purcell, the youngest of the brothers, was also a composer who wrote the music for much of the final act of The Indian Queen after Henry Purcells death. Henry Purcells family lived just a few hundred yards west of Westminster Abbey from 1659 onwards, after his fathers death in 1664, Purcell was placed under the guardianship of his uncle Thomas, who showed him great affection and kindness. Thomas was himself a gentleman of His Majestys Chapel, and arranged for Henry to be admitted as a chorister, Henry studied first under Captain Henry Cooke, Master of the Children, and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey, Cookes successor. Henry was a chorister in the Chapel Royal until his voice broke in 1673, when he became assistant to the organ-builder John Hingston, who held the post of keeper of wind instruments to the King. Purcell is said to have been composing at nine years old and it is assumed that the three-part song Sweet tyranness, I now resign was written by him as a child. After Humfreys death, Purcell continued his studies under Dr John Blow and he attended Westminster School and in 1676 was appointed copyist at Westminster Abbey. Henry Purcells earliest anthem Lord, who can tell was composed in 1678 and it is a psalm that is prescribed for Christmas Day and also to be read at morning prayer on the fourth day of the month. In 1679, he wrote songs for John Playfords Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues and an anthem, the dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known, perhaps the most notable example is the anthem They that go down to the sea in ships. The challenging work opens with a passage which traverses the full extent of Gostlings range, beginning on the upper D, in 1679, Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil. Purcell now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music, between 1680 and 1688 Purcell wrote music for seven plays. It was written to a libretto furnished by Nahum Tate, and performed in 1689 in cooperation with Josias Priest, a dancing master, priests wife kept a boarding school for young gentlewomen, first in Leicester Fields and afterwards at Chelsea, where the opera was performed. Both works run to less than one hour, at the time, Dido and Aeneas never found its way to the theatre, though it appears to have been very popular in private circles. The composition of Dido and Aeneas gave Purcell his first chance to write a musical setting of a dramatic text. It was his opportunity to compose a work in which the music carried the entire drama. The story of Dido and Aeneas derives from the source in Virgils epic the Aeneid
8.
George Frideric Handel
–
George Frideric Handel was a German, later British baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712 and he was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that Handel was not only a great composer, he was a dramatic genius of the first order. As Alexanders Feast was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works, after his success with Messiah he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759 and his funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. Handel was born in 1685 in Halle-on-Saal, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg Händel and his father,63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Georg Händel was the son of a coppersmith, Valentin Händel who had emigrated from Eisleben in 1608 with his first wife Anna Belching and they were Protestants and chose reliably Protestant Saxony over Silesia, a Hapsburg possession as religious tensions mounted in the years before the Thirty Years War. Halle was a prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry. Even the smaller churches all had able organists and fair choirs, and humanities, the Thirty Years War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. But since the middle of the war the city was under the administration of the Duke of Saxony, the arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata, which did not describe Handels family. Handel was the child of this marriage, the first son died still born. Two younger sisters were born after the birth of George Frideric, Dorthea Sophia, born 6 October 1687 and Johanna Christiana, born 10 January 1690. Early in his life Handel is reported to have attended the gymnasium in Halle, Mainwaring is the source for almost all information of Handels childhood, and much of that information came from J. C. Smith, Jr. Handels confidant and copyist. Whether they came from Smith or elsewhere, Mainwaring frequently relates misinformation and it is from Mainwaring that the portrait of Handels father as implacably opposed to any musical education comes. This did nothing to dampen young Handels inclination, in fact, Mainwaring tells the story of Handels secret attic spinnet, Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately conveyd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep, but Handel had to have had some experience with the keyboard to have made the impression in Weissenfels that resulted in his receiving formal musical training. Somehow Handel made his way to the organ, where he surprised everyone with his playing. Overhearing this performance and noting the youth of the performer caused the Duke to recommend to Georg Händel that Handel be given musical instruction, Handels father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, the young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel
9.
Dieterich Buxtehude
–
Dieterich Buxtehude was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals. He composed in a variety of vocal and instrumental idioms. Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque and he is thought to have been born with the name Diderich Buxtehude. His parents were Johannes Buxtehude and Helle Jespersdatter and his father originated from Oldesloe in the Duchy of Holstein, which at that time was a part of the Danish Monarchy. Scholars dispute both the year and country of Dieterichs birth, although most now accept that he was born in 1637 in Helsingborg, Skåne and his obituary stated that he recognized Denmark as his native country, whence he came to our region, he lived about 70 years. Others, however, claim that he was born at Oldesloe, later in his life he Germanized his name and began signing documents Dieterich Buxtehude. His father — Johannes Buxtehude — was the organist at St. Olafs church in Helsingør, Dieterich was employed as an organist, first in Helsingborg, and then at Helsingør. St. Mary’s in Helsingør is the church where Buxtehude was employed that still has the organ in its original location. Buxtehudes last post, from 1668, was at the Marienkirche, there he succeeded Franz Tunder and followed in many of the footsteps of his predecessor. He married Tunders daughter Anna Margarethe in 1668 – it was not uncommon practice that a man marry the daughter of his predecessor in his occupation, Buxtehude and Anna Margarethe had seven daughters who were baptized at the Marienkirche, however, his first daughter died as an infant. After his retirement as organist at St Olafs Church, his father joined the family in Lübeck in 1673, Johannes died a year later, and Dieterich composed his funeral music. Dieterichs brother Peter, a barber, joined them in 1677, in 1703, Handel and Mattheson both traveled to meet Buxtehude, who was by then elderly and ready to retire. He offered his position in Lübeck to Handel and Mattheson but stipulated that the organist who ascended to it must marry his eldest daughter, both Handel and Mattheson turned the offer down and left the day after their arrival. In addition to his duties, Buxtehude, like his predecessor Tunder. His surviving church music is praised for its musical qualities rather than its progressive elements. The bulk of Buxtehudes oeuvre consists of music, which covers a wide variety of styles, and organ works. Chamber music constitutes a part of the surviving output, although the only chamber works Buxtehude published during his lifetime were fourteen chamber sonatas
10.
Christmas Oratorio
–
The Christmas Oratorio, BWV248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. The date is confirmed in Bachs autograph manuscript, the next performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The Christmas Oratorio is a sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a likely collaborator was Christian Friedrich Henrici, the work belongs to a group of three oratorios written towards the end of Bachs career in 1734 and 1735 for major feasts, the others being the Ascension Oratorio and the Easter Oratorio. All parody earlier compositions, although the Christmas Oratorio is by far the longest and most complex work, the oratorio is in six parts, each part being intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. The piece is presented as a whole or split into two equal parts. The total running time for the work is nearly three hours. The structure of the story is defined to an extent by the particular requirements of the church calendar for Christmas 1734/35. Bach abandoned his practice when writing church cantatas of basing the content upon the Gospel reading for that day in order to achieve a coherent narrative structure. Bach removed the content for the Third Day of Christmas, Johns Gospel and that Bach saw the six parts as comprising a greater, unified whole is evident both from the surviving printed text and from the structure of the music itself. The edition has not only a title—Weihnachts-Oratorium—connecting together the six sections, as John Butt has mentioned, this points, as in the Mass in B minor, to a unity beyond the performance constraints of the church year. The oratorio was written for performance on six feast days of Christmas during the winter of 1734 and 1735, the original score also contains details of when each part was performed. It was incorporated within services of the two most important churches in Leipzig, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, as can be seen below, the work was only performed in its entirety at the St. Nicholas Church. Parts I and III are written in the keys of D major, parts I and III are similarly scored for exuberant trumpets, while the Pastoral Part II is, by contrast, scored for woodwind instruments and does not include an opening chorus. Part IV is written in F major and marks the furthest musical point away from the opening key. Bach then embarks upon a back to the opening key, via the dominant A major of Part V to the jubilant re-assertion of D major in the final part. The music represents a sophisticated expression of the parody technique. Bach took the majority of the choruses and arias from works which had written some time earlier
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
