# AI Wiki - Music - Classical Music ## Overview "Classical music" has two meanings, and it helps to separate them. In the narrow sense it names one period, about 1750 to 1820 (Haydn, Mozart, early Beethoven). In the wide sense it means the whole Western art-music tradition written down in notation, from medieval chant to living composers. This article uses the wide sense, and says "Classical period" (capital C) for the narrow one. Three traits set this tradition apart from most of the genres in this wiki. First, the **score** is the main object: a piece exists as a written work, and performers interpret it. Second, composers work with long forms, built over many minutes from a few themes. Third, the tradition developed a very detailed theory of how voices and chords move, which is the base of most of the harmony that jazz, pop and rock still use. You do not need to like classical music to learn from it. If you want to play guitar or piano well, the tradition is a free textbook for technique, reading, voice leading and structure. ## The Periods Dates are approximate and the borders blur. Composers are examples. | Period | Dates | Features | Composers | |---|---|---|---| | Medieval | c. 500 to 1400 | Monophonic chant, early polyphony, motets | Hildegard of Bingen, Léonin, Pérotin, Machaut | | Renaissance | c. 1400 to 1600 | Masses, motets, madrigals; smooth vocal polyphony; the lute | Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, Tallis, Byrd | | Baroque | c. 1600 to 1750 | Opera, concerto, oratorio, cantata, fugue, suite; basso continuo | Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Vivaldi, Handel | | Classical | c. 1750 to 1820 | Symphony, string quartet, sonata; clear phrases, balanced forms | Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (a bridge to the next period) | | Romantic | c. 1800 to 1910 | Expressive, more chromatic harmony; art song, nocturne, piano miniature, symphonic poem | Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky | | 20th century | from c. 1890 | Impressionism, modernism, serialism, minimalism | Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartók, Reich | A few notes on what each period gives you as a player: - **Renaissance**: the lute is the ancestor of the guitar, and many of its pieces are played on classical guitar today. Voices move in smooth, independent lines (counterpoint). - **Baroque**: harmony becomes functional (chords with a direction, tonic, dominant), the figured bass writes chords as numbers under a bass line (the origin of Roman numerals and chord symbols), and Bach writes the best textbook for counterpoint. - **Classical period**: harmony is clear and tonic-dominant based, with regular four- and eight-bar phrases. It is the easiest period to analyse with Roman numerals (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Diatonic Chords and Roman Numerals]]). - **Romantic**: the piano becomes the central instrument; chromatic chords, borrowed chords and sudden key changes add colour (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Borrowed Chords and Modal Interchange]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Modulation]]). - **20th century**: the modes return (Debussy), chords are stacked in new ways (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Modal Harmony]]), and some composers drop the tonal centre altogether. ## Forms Forms are the big architecture of a piece. If you know the form, you know where you are, even in a piece you hear for the first time. See also [[AI Wiki - Music - Song Form and Structure]] for the popular-music equivalents. **Sonata form.** The standard structure for the first movement of a sonata, symphony or quartet in the Classical period and after. It has three parts: 1. **Exposition**: presents the main material. The first theme is in the tonic, a transition modulates, and the second theme (usually more lyrical) appears in the dominant (in a major-key piece) or the relative major (in a minor-key piece). A closing section confirms the new key. 2. **Development**: the themes are broken up, sequenced and moved through other keys. It ends with a transition back to the tonic. 3. **Recapitulation**: the first theme returns in the tonic, and this time the second theme also stays in the tonic, so the key conflict set up in the exposition is resolved. A complete sonata has several movements (fast, slow, dance-like, fast), and the first one is the one in sonata form. The movement may start with an introduction and end with a coda. **Fugue.** A piece for a fixed number of voices (often three or four) built on a short **subject**. The first voice states the subject alone. The second voice enters with the **answer** (the subject transposed, usually to the dominant), while the first goes on with a **countersubject**, a companion line designed to work above or below the subject. When every voice has entered, the **exposition** is over, and the middle section moves through other keys with new entries and episodes. A **stretto** (an entry before the previous one has finished) builds tension near the end. Bach's *Well-Tempered Clavier* has two books of 24 prelude-and-fugue pairs, one for each major and minor key, and it is the model for the form. **Theme and variations.** A theme is stated, then repeated with changes: the melody ornamented, the harmony reworked, the rhythm or mode changed. The structure is easy to follow, and it is a good model for improvisation (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Improvisation]]). Related Baroque forms, such as the chaconne and passacaglia, repeat a bass pattern or chord sequence under changing upper lines. Pachelbel's Canon is the best-known example of a ground bass: the same eight chords under a growing set of melodies. That chord sequence is the root of dozens of pop songs (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]]). ```chords {title: The Pachelbel progression in D} {time: 4/4} {start_of_verse: Eight chords, one per bar, repeated} | [D] / / / | [A] / / / | [Bm] / / / | [F#m] / / / | | [G] / / / | [D] / / / | [G] / / / | [A] / / / | {end_of_verse} {comment: I – V – vi – iii – IV – I – IV – V. The bass line walks down by step, then up.} ``` **Other common forms:** the **suite** (a set of dances: allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue), the **rondo** (A B A C A), **minuet and trio** (the dance movement in a symphony), the **prelude** and the **étude** (a piece built around a technical problem), and the **nocturne** and **impromptu** (free Romantic piano pieces). ## Counterpoint and Voice Leading **Counterpoint** is the art of combining independent melodic lines so that they sound good together while each keeps its own shape and rhythm. **Voice leading** is the related practical skill of moving from one chord to the next with the smallest possible steps in each voice. Baroque and Renaissance music teaches both better than any other repertoire. Some principles that survive in all styles: - Move by step where possible, and use leaps sparingly and for a reason. - Avoid parallel fifths and octaves between two voices, because they make the lines sound like a single voice (hence the traditional rule). - When one voice leaps, the others move by step or hold. - Contrary motion (one voice up, one down) is the most independent. On the piano, counterpoint means that each hand can play more than one line (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Hand Independence]]). On guitar, it means a bass line and a melody played together in fingerstyle (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Fingerpicking]]). Jazz and gospel pianists use the same ideas when they play smooth ii-V-I voicings (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Voice Leading]]). ## What a Guitarist or Pianist Learns from It - **Reading.** Classical music is written down, and most of it has to be read. You learn staff notation and sight-reading, which opens the door to any score (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Reading Standard Notation]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Sight-Reading]]). - **Technique.** Scales, arpeggios, études and finger independence are developed more systematically here than anywhere else. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Warm-Ups and Technical Exercises]], [[AI Wiki - Music - Piano Technique and Posture]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Classical Guitar Technique]]. - **Voice leading and counterpoint.** Covered above. These skills are what makes a reharmonization or an arrangement sound polished. - **Harmony.** You see where the common progressions come from: the circle of fifths, secondary dominants, cadences (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Circle of Fifths]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Cadences]]). - **Form and memory.** Learning a long piece trains structural memory (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Memorization and Spaced Repetition]]). - **Touch and tone.** On guitar, the classical right hand (nails, rest strokes, free strokes) gives fingerstyle control of tone. On piano, the touch needed for volume contrasts and legato lines is trained here first. - **Stage discipline.** Recitals and exams train you to perform under pressure (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Performance Anxiety]]). The cost is that many students learn to play only what is on the page. A useful corrective is to practise the same piece by ear, transposing it, or harmonizing its melody in a different style. ## Entry Repertoire These are common starting points that appear in teaching books. Check the grade with a teacher, because the difficulty of many pieces depends on the edition. **Piano** - Bach, *Minuet in G* (from the *Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach*, now attributed to Christian Petzold), then the *Two-Part Inventions*. - Clementi, Sonatinas Op. 36, and Kuhlau sonatinas. - Schumann, *Album for the Young* Op. 68. - Mozart, Sonata in C major K. 545 ("Sonata facile"). - Beethoven, *Für Elise*, then the Sonata Op. 49 No. 2 and Op. 14. - Chopin, Preludes Op. 28 (No. 4 in E minor and No. 20 in C minor are short). - Satie, *Gymnopédie No. 1*, and Debussy, *Clair de lune* as a later step. **Classical guitar** (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Classical Guitar]]) - Carulli and Giuliani studies, and Fernando Sor's studies (for example Op. 35 and Op. 60 selections). - Tárrega, *Lágrima* and *Adelita*, and the *Romance anónimo* ("Spanish Romance"). - Bach lute and cello suite arrangements, for example the *Bourrée in E minor* (BWV 996). - Villa-Lobos, *Prelude No. 1* and *Étude No. 1*. - Tárrega, *Recuerdos de la Alhambra* (a tremolo study), and Albéniz, *Asturias*, as a later step. A slow piece with a clear melody plays well on both instruments. The rule of thumb is to learn one slow piece and one fast piece at the same time, and to keep a short study for technique. An Alberti bass is the typical left-hand accompaniment in Classical-period piano music: the chord is broken as low-high-middle-high (C3 G3 E3 G3 in C major), over which the right hand sings the melody. See also [[AI Wiki - Music - Left-Hand Accompaniment Patterns]]. ```keyboard notes: C3 E3 G3 C4 E4 G4 range: C2-B4 title: C major triad as an Alberti bass cell (play C3 G3 E3 G3, repeat), melody above ``` ## How to Practise 1. Choose a piece two levels below your limit, so you can concentrate on sound. 2. Learn it in small sections, hands separately (piano) or voices separately (guitar), slowly, with a [[AI Wiki - Music - Metronome and Speed Building|metronome]]. 3. Mark the form on the score: where is the first theme, the second, the return? 4. Mark the cadences and the chord changes with Roman numerals. 5. Play the bass line alone, then the melody alone, then together. 6. Record yourself and listen back (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Recording Yourself]]). 7. Listen to two different performances before you perform, and decide what you want your own to do. ## Key Points - "Classical" in the wide sense covers medieval chant to the present; in the narrow sense, about 1750 to 1820. - The periods in order: medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th century. - The main forms: sonata form (exposition, development, recapitulation), fugue (subject, answer, countersubject), theme and variations, suite, rondo. - The practical gains for a guitarist or pianist: reading, technique, counterpoint, voice leading, harmony and structure. - Good starting repertoire: Bach minuets and inventions, Clementi sonatinas, Schumann's *Album for the Young*; on guitar, Sor and Carulli studies, Tárrega, and Bach arrangements. ## Open Questions - Which graded syllabus (ABRSM, RCM, Trinity) is the best reference for the order of the repertoire above? The lists in this article come from common practice and were not matched to one syllabus. - What is the best order for learning counterpoint as a self-taught player: species counterpoint (Fux), Bach chorale harmonization, or inventions first? - How should the "Alberti bass" and other accompaniment cells be shown in the notation plugin, which shows chord and keyboard blocks but no staff? ## References - Wikipedia, "Classical music": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music - Wikipedia, "Sonata form": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata_form - Wikipedia, "Fugue": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue ## Related - [[AI Wiki - Music - Classical Guitar]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Classical Guitar Technique]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Sight-Reading]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Jazz Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Piano Technique and Posture]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Voice Leading]]