Chant To Zappa Music through the Ages

1. Johann Sebastian Bach
   The youngest son of Johann Ambrosius Bach who was a town musician. Bach was orphaned at the age of 10 and lived with his brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist at St. Michael’s Church,Ohrdruf.  As time went on he got to work for loyalty, at one time for Prince Leopold.  From 1729 Bach’s interest in composing church music declined, he wanted to compose symphonies.

2. George Fredric Handel
   George Fredric Handel was born on February 23, 1689 in Halle, Germany. Handel became interested in music at a very young age.. His father had discouraged him from playing music. his mother had encouraged him. When Handel got older he attended a local University. He got exposed to opera and ballet at age 18. Besides going to college he conducted at a nearby opera house. Then he moved to Italy where he composed two oratories including "Messiah" in 1741 Handel was most famous for his two oratories. He then died in London, England on April 14, 1759. He had suffered from strokes, and cataracts and blindness and then he finally died.  He is remembered as one of the best composers of the Baroque era
3. Andra Gabrieli
   Andra Gabrieli was composer and organist, uncle of . He brought an international stature to the school of native Venetian composers after a period when Netherlands composers had dominated. Although he was not as profound a composer as Giovanni, his music displays an exceptional versatility. He wrote Ricecare in XII tono
4. Thomas Weelkes
   Thomas Weelkes, whose professional career spanned one of the most fertile periods in England's musical history, is without doubt one of her finest composers. Like Purcell, he had a vivid imagination and love of experiment, and died prematurely at the peak of his creative powers, but not before he had composed a very large amount of music. Nowhere are Weelkes' outstanding musical abilities more evident than in his four sets of madrigals, which appeared between 1597 and 1608, and his splendidly sonorous full anthems. The English madrigal school reached its peak with Weelkes, the most original madrigalist, and , the most polished; both were deeply indebted to , both surpassed him.
5. Antonio Vivaldi
   He was the son of a professional violinist who played at St. Mark's and may have been involved in operatic management. Vivaldi was trained for the priesthood and ordained in 1703 but soon after his ordination ceased to say Mass. he claimed this was because of his unsure health (he is known to have suffered from chest complaints, possibly asthma or angina). In 1703 he was appointed maestro di violino at the Ospedale della Pietà, one of the Venetian girls' orphanages; he remained there until 1709, and held the post again, 1711-16; he then became maestro de' concerti. Later, when he was away from Venice, he retained his connection with the Pietà (at one period he sent two concertos by post each month). He became maestro di cappella, 1735-8; even after then he supplied concertos and directed performances on special occasions.
6. Josquin Desprez
   Perhaps a native of the Vermandois region of Picardy, he was a singer at Milan Cathedral in 1459, remaining there until December 1472. By July 1474 he was one of the 'cantori di capella' in the chapel of Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Between 1476 and 1504 he passed into the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, whom he probably accompanied in Rome in 1484. His name first appears among the papal chapel choir in 1486 and recurs sporadically; he had left the choir by 1501. In this Italian period Josquin reached artistic maturity.

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The Middle Ages (450-1450) were a period when the Catholic Church dominated the musical techniques and performances in Europe.  Gregorian chant was the main musical style to come out of the Middle Ages.  Chant was set to religious texts, and were monophonic, played without instrumental accompaniment.  Gregorian chant employs church modes in its musical structure, giving its sound a calm, serene quality.  Due to an oppressive social scene in which serfdom was prevalent and the Catholic Church ruled all, the Middle Ages weren’t known for its musical innovation.  However, some great musical pieces did come out of it.  For example, Hildegard of Bingen’s O successores is a highly emotional Gregorian chant.  Hildegard also wrote one of the first known morality plays, and was respected across Europe as a composer and a visionary.  Secular music in the Middle Ages was also important to the musical characteristics of the period, despite the predominance of the Catholic Church.  In France, musical noblemen called troubadours or trouveres wrote songs dealing with love and chivalry.  Wandering minstrels also performed for courts and public events, but had little to no civil rights in medieval society.  Later in the Middle Ages, polyphony was developed when monks began to add a second line to already existing Gregorian chant, called organum.  Paris became the world’s center of polyphonic music, and quickly attracted intellectuals, musicians, and scholars to its university.  Work began on the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and its choirmasters, Leonin and Perotin, created new ideas regarding composition referred to as the School of Notre Dame, characterized by the use of clearly defined time values and measured rhythms.  In the 14th century, secular music became more important than religious music thanks to events such as the Hundred Years’ War, the black plague, and the weakening of feudal society and the Catholic Church.  Musical notation allowed composers to specify rhythmic patterns, and syncopations became widely used.  Frenchman Guillaume de Machaut’s Notre Dame Mass is considered one of the Middle Ages’ greatest compositions, being the first polyphonic treatment of the mass ordinary by a known composer.

Like all other art forms, music in the Renaissance (1450-1600) experienced a great upheaval. It was a time of creativity and individualism, and the music reflected these ideas. Every educated person was expected to be knowledgable in music, and the new innovation of printing allowed music to be circulated all over the continent.  The authority of the Catholic Church was challenged by the Protestants during the Counter-Reformation, in which the quality and purity of church music was discussed.  Attempts to restrict sacred music to a monophonic texture failed, and composers proved that a work could be both religiously focused and technically complex. Vocal music was more important than instrumental, and techniques such as word painting were widely used in compositions.  Renaissance music is, for the most part, polyphonic, and sounds fuller than medieval music.  Sacred Renaissance music included mostly motets and masses, which are very similar in style, but not in length.  Flemish composer Josquin Desprez was a master of all kinds of Renaissance music, both sacred and secular.  His work includes motets, masses, and secular pieces, which were all great influences on other composers.  Desprez’s piece Ave Maria is probably one of the best-known motets written during this period, in which he expertly blends four voices using polyphonic imitation to create a feeling of continuous flow.  Many Italian composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina held positions in the Catholic Church, despite its ever-weakening power.  Although not directly responsible, polyphonic compositions such as Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass helped to create a satisfactory compromise between the church and composers regarding the issue of the style being used in religious services.  Secular music also became increasingly popular.  Music was set to poems, and was written for both groups of solo voices and solo voice with instrumental accompaniment. The madrigal, a piece for several solo voices set to a poem, combined homophonic and polyphonic texture, but used word painting and different kinds of harmonies more often than ever had been used before.  Thomas Weelkes’ As Vesta Was Descending is a classic example of the English madrigal.  Instrumental dances were also written on a large scale, and every educated person was expected to be able to dance.  Renaissance dances are characterized by pairing in duple and triple meter, a prime example being Pierre Francisque Carobel’s Passamezzo and Galliard.

The baroque period (1600-1750) was a time known a time when rulers used absolute power over their subjects, and governmental and religious institutions had more of an influence on baroque style.  Baroque music can be separated into three periods: early, middle, and late. Each has its own distinctive characteristics - for example, early baroque composers used homophonic texture extensively, however, by the late baroque period, polyphony texture came back into use. The music we consider “baroque” is mostly from the later phase, and is known mainly because of two composers – George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach.  Baroque instrumental music usually expresses one mood throughout an entire piece, and features continuity in rhythm and melody, as well as extreme shifts in dynamics (known as terraced dynamics), if any at all.  Composers employed a wide range of chords and a harmonic form known as basso continuo, or accompaniment by bass instruments.  Music in this era was written largely for the aristocracy, who had such control over their composers that one could be thrown in prison if a composition didn’t please his master.  Musical forms used in the baroque era included the concerto grosso and ritornello form, operas, cantatas, suites, fugues, and oratorios.  Besides Bach and Handel, its most talented composers included Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell, and Antonio Vivaldi.  Baroque music, especially fugues written by Bach, are known for its extensive use of counterpoint, or a separate melody acting as a harmony.  Operas also became incredibly popular, and the style’s followers – the rich and powerful – reflected the social conditions of the time in which the aristocracy exercised a large amount of force over their citizens.

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Works Cited

                Cole, Richard, and Ed Schwartz.  Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. Online:                                 , 2002.

Collins, Philip. “A Vivid Verdi.” Online: , June 13, 1996.

“Dufay, Guillaume.” Online: , 2001.

Kamien, Roger.  Music: An Appreciation. 4th edition. New York, McGraw Hill, 2002.

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2001. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2001.

“Thomas Weelkes.” Online: , 2001.

Waite, William G.  Leoninus and Perotinus Magister.  Online: , 1994.

“What’s a Ricercar?” Online: , 2002.