FREE ESSAY ON HISTORY OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

History of Jazz and Classical Music Upon entering a modern record store, one is confronted
with a wide variety of choices in recorded music. These choices not only include a
multitude of artists, but also a wide diversity of music categories. These categories run
the gamut from easy listening dance music to more complex art music. On the complex side
of the scale are the categories known as Jazz and Classical music. Some of the most
accomplished musicians of our time have devoted themselves to a lifelong study of Jazz or
Classical music, and a few exceptional musicians have actually mastered both. A
comparison of classical and Jazz music will yield some interesting results and could also
lead to an appreciation of the abilities needed to perform or compose these kinds of
music. Let's begin with a look at the histories of the two. The music called classical,
found in stores and performed regularly by symphonies around the world, spans a length of
time from 1600 up to the present. This time frame includes the Renaissance, Baroque,
Classical, Romantic and Contemporary periods. The classical period of music actually
spans a time from of 1750 to 1800; thus, the term Classical is a misnomer and could more
correctly be changed to Western Art Music or European Art Music. European because most of
the major composers up till the 20th century were European. Vivaldi was Italian, Bach was
German, Mozart and Beethoven were Austrian; they are some of the more prominent
composers. Not until the twentieth century with Gershwin and a few others do we find
American composers writing this kind of art music. For the sake of convention, we can
refer to Western Art Music as Classical music. Jazz is a distinctively American form of
music, and it's history occupies a much smaller span of time. Its origins are found in
the early 1900s as some dance band leaders in the southern U.S. began playing music that
combined ragtime and blues. Early exponents of this dance music were Jelly Roll Martin (a
blues player) and Scott Joplin (ragtime). The terms Jazz and Jazz Band first surfaced in
the year 1900. Some say this occurred in New Orleans, although similar music was played
at the same time in other places. The most prominent exponents of this early music,
called Dixieland Jazz, included Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. After World War I,
Jazz music had evolved and was aided by the development of the recording industry. The
small dance band ensemble grew into the larger orchestra known as the Big Band. The music
of the Big Bands became known as Swing. Two of the more famous Swing band leaders were
Tommy Dorsey and Harry James. In the late 40s and through the 50s, a different kind of
Jazz became popular. This music, played by a very small ensemble, was much more
sophisticated and complex . Its rich harmonic changes and melodic counterpoint were not
conducive to dance. It became known as Bop, with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie
being the early proponents. In the last twenty years there has been a combination of Jazz
with popular music of the US and Latin America. This modern Jazz music has been called
Fusion. Present day exponents include Pat Metheny and Chic Corea. There has also been a
return to the sound of Bop in the last ten years by such musicians as trumpeter Winton
Marsalis and his brother Branford, a saxophonist. Let's focus on the instrumentation of
the two kinds of music. In Classical music, both large orchestras and small ensembles are
used. But generally, the greatest and most prominent compositions are for the larger
symphony orchestra. The largest part of the orchestra is the string section consisting of
violins, violas, cellos and string basses. These instruments were invented very early in
medieval times but really matured into their present form during the late 18th century.
The wind instruments, comprised of brass and woodwinds, took longer to mature. The brass
section in particular did not posses the ability to play chromatically (in all keys)
until the advent of valves which allowed the length of the instrument to be changed while
playing. This occurred around the middle to late 19th century. Consequently, the brass
instruments are less prominent in the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven along with
their contemporaries. Late 19th and early 20th century composers make use of a very large
orchestra with all the fully developed wind instruments. Some of the master
orchestrator/composers of this time were: Wagner, Rimskey-Korsakov, Ravel and Stravinsky.
Currently, composers also make use of the full orchestra but with the addition of
increasingly larger percussion sections which add many unique and unheard of sounds than
in earlier music. Early Jazz music was played in small ensembles making use of clarinet,
tuba, cornet, baritone, drums, and piano. Dixieland groups of New Orleans had similar
instrumentation. During the Swing era, larger groups were employed to achieve more of an
orchestral sound. The Big Bands of the this era were predominantly wind orchestras
containing alto and tenor sax sections, trumpet and trombone sections, along with piano
and drums. When Bop music arrived, the alto saxophone and trumpet were the preferred
instruments of the major soloists who were backed up by piano, string bass and drums.
With the advent of Fusion, electric instruments such as the electric guitar and keyboard
synthesizer became prominent. How has each of these kinds of music been transmitted to
later generations of musicians? Early in the evolution of classical music, a system of
notation was gradually developed which for the most part remained stable from the
Renaissance on. This gave the composer control over how his compositions were to be
played. Throughout the history of Jazz, however, notation was more like a rough sketch.
This was because the syncopated rhythms of ragtime and the melodic riffs of the blues
were not easily notated. Also, early Jazz musicians were not formally trained; they
usually learned by ear. Some songs were transcribed and written down, but not in precise
ways. Jazz music became more of a passed on tradition that a musician learned through
interaction with other players. In a similar way, the modern Jazz musician must rely on
previous recordings to get a feel for the style and technique which he desires to learn
from. But in classical music, one composer can learn from an older composer by looking at
and analyzing the music that the previous composer wrote down. Likewise, classical
musicians can master the parts they must play by practicing the music that has been
written or published beforehand. These two approaches to passing on tradition are both
valid. However, without the recording medium Jazz music might have developed much
differently than it has. The cohesive element that keeps a musical group together is also
an interesting contrast. In Classical music, the conductor uses a baton and plays the
orchestra as if it were his instrument; he looks at a complete score of all the events
happening in the composition and interprets these events based on his knowledge and
intuition of what the composer intended. Jazz groups rarely utilize conductors. The swing
era employed them for the sake of keeping the larger sized group together but other jazz
styles did not and do not to this day. The drummer of the Jazz ensemble provides the beat
that keeps the group together but even he is interacting with the other soloists as the
song is performed. Perhaps the most interesting point of comparison between the two types
of music is in improvisation. Improvisation is the ability to play and compose
spontaneously on the spot while the music is playing. This has been an important element
of Jazz from it's inception. Although improvisation was less prominent during the swing
era, it regained importance with Bop and onward. Early Jazz was improvised, using ragtime
and blues as a loose structure. In the swing era, popular songs were arranged by an
arranger and soloists played improvisations over the repeating sections in order to
lengthen the song for dancing. With the advent of Bop, improvisation assumed great
importance. The musicians memorized the chord changes to a song, along with the melody,
but then played very loosely and in the end substituted new chords along with greatly
embellishing the original melody to the point of being unrecognizable. These factors,
along with the ability to interact with each other, became important and remains so in
the Fusion music of today. In Classical music, modern listeners are mostly unaware of the
fact that many of the great composers of the past were not only excellent performers but
also great improvisers. Starting with J.S. Bach (1685-1750), the greatest composer of the
Baroque era, he in fact made his living through his great skill as an improvisor. It was
common for the Lutheran Church organist of his day be able to improvise on choral
melodies and Bach was considered one of the greatest at this. There are written accounts
of other composers improvisational abilities including Mozart (1756-1791), Beethoven
(1770-1829), and Franz Liszt (1811-1886). Yet, as time went on, improvising gave way to
the composer's desire to exert complete control over his music. By the late 19th century,
improvising was rare and not used at all in public performances of classical music. In
summation, we can say that Jazz and Classical music represent two approaches to Art
Music. The Classical composer or performer has a long and rich body of music in written
form that he uses to learn from while the Jazz musician uses a body of recorded music to
learn. Because of it's small size, the modern Jazz ensemble allows loose interaction
while the symphony orchestra's large size and diversity of instruments provides many
different sounds and wide dynamic range. In classical music the composer strives for
control; he uses printed music to guide and direct the musicians through the conductor.
In Jazz music, the songs are loosely composed, thus forming a basis for individual
expression within an ensemble. When you go to hear a symphony, you hear an orchestra
conducted by the conductor playing a composition. When you go to a Jazz club you hear a
small jazz ensemble interacting and improvising a song. Both of these kinds of music
provide rich expression and detail to the serious listener. They take different paths to
reach their final form but give a person equal opportunities to appreciate the creative.