The
common practice period, in the history of European
art music (that is, what is popularly called "classical" music), encompasses those periods identified as
Baroque,
Classical, and
Romantic. It lasted, therefore, from about 1600 until about 1900, and is most often contrasted with much of the
music of the 20th century and with
contemporary music.
General characteristics
Common practice music obeys two different kinds of musical norms: first, it uses conventionalized sequences of chords, such as I-IV-V-I. (For more on this Roman numeral notation, see chord.) Second, it obeys specific
contrapuntal norms, such as the avoidance of parallel fifths and octaves.
Common practice music can be contrasted with the earlier
modal music and later
atonal music. It can also be contrasted with twentieth-century styles, such as rock and jazz, that are broadly tonal but do not obey the harmonic and contrapuntal norms described in the preceding paragraph. Nevertheless, there are often significant similarities between the music of the common practice period and the broadly tonal music of the twentieth century.
The term seems to originate with
Walter Piston, who introduced it in the preface of his book
Harmony (ISBN 0-393-95480-3).
Technical features
Harmony
Common practice
harmony is almost always derived from
diatonic scales, and features particular sequences of
chord progressions. For example, the
major triad built on the fifth
degree of the scale, is unlikely to progress to a
root position triad built on the fourth degree of the scale. However, the reverse progression is quite common.
Rhythm
Rhythmically, common practice
metric structures generally include:
- Clearly enunciated or implied pulse at all levels, with the fastest levels rarely being extreme.
- Meters, or pulse groups, in two-pulse or three-pulse groups, most often two.
- Meter and pulse groups that, once established, rarely change throughout a section or composition.
- Synchronous pulse groups on all levels: all pulses on slower levels coincide with strong pulses on faster levels.
- Consistent tempo throughout a composition or section.
- Tempo, beat length, and measure length chosen to allow one time signature throughout the piece or section.
- (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chapter 3)
Duration
Durational patterns typically include:
- Small or moderate duration complement and range, with one duration (or pulse) predominating in the duration hierarchy, being heard as the basic unit throughout a composition. Exceptions are most frequently extremely long, such as pedal tones; or, if they are short, they generally occur as the rapidly alternating or transient components of trills, tremolos, or other ornaments.
- Rhythmic units based on metric or intrametric patterns, though specific contrametric or extrametric patterns are signatures of certain styles or composers. Triplets and other extrametric patterns are usually heard on levels higher than the basic durational unit or pulse.
- Rhythmic gestures of a limited number of rhythmic units, sometimes based on a single or alternating pair.
- Thetic (i.e., stressed), anacrustic (i.e., unstressed), and initial rest rhythmic gestures are used, with anacrustic beginnings and strong endings possibly most frequent and upbeat endings most rare.
- Rhythmic gestures repeated exactly or in variation after contrasting gestures. There may be one rhythmic gesture almost exclusively throughout an entire composition; but complete avoidance of repetition is rare.
- Composite rhythms which confirm the meter, often in metric or even note patterns identical to the pulse on specific metric level.
- (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chapter 3)
Patterns of
pitch and
duration are of primary importance in common practice
melody, while tone quality is of secondary importance. Durations recur and are often periodic; pitches are generally diatonic. (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chapter 4)
Later trends
Many people have proposed that a "new" common practice period is now discernible in 20th century "classical" music.
George Perle (1990) has argued that this amounts to "Tradition in 20th Century Music", the most significant element of which is the "shared premise of the harmonic
equivalence of
inversionally symmetrical pitch-class relations," among composers such as
Edgard Varèse,
Alban Berg,
Béla Bartók,
Arnold Schoenberg,
Alexander Scriabin,
Igor Stravinsky,
Anton Webern, and himself.
John Harbison refers to symmetry as the "new tonality".
References
- DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
- Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer, pp. 46-47. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06991-9.
- Harbison, John (1992). Symmetries and the "New Tonality". Contemporary Music Review 6 (2), pp. 71-80.
External links
In the history of music, prehistoric music (previously called primitive music) is all music produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history.
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Ancient music is music that developed in literate cultures, replacing prehistoric music.
The development of writing took place in different time periods in different geographic areas.
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History of European art music
Early
Medieval (476 – 1400)
Renaissance (1400 – 1600)
Common practice
Baroque (1600 – 1760)
Classical (1730 – 1820)
Romantic (1815 – 1910)
Modern and contemporary
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20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and continuing through the Neoclassicism of middle-period Igor
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In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to a period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism.
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Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, Western art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to the 21st century.
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History of European art music
Early
Medieval (476 – 1400)
Renaissance (1400 – 1600)
Common practice
Baroque (1600 – 1760)
Classical (1730 – 1820)
Romantic (1815 – 1910)
Modern and contemporary
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The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD) and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century.
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Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. Defining the beginning of the era is difficult, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century.
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Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750.[1] This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era.
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The Classical period in Western music occurred from about 1750 to 1820, despite considerable overlap at both ends with preceding and following periods, as is true for all musical eras.
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misleading. Please see the discussion on the talk page.
The era of
Romantic music is defined as the period of European classical music that runs roughly from 1820 to 1900, as well as music written according to the norms and styles of that period.
..... Click the link for more information. 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and continuing through the Neoclassicism of middle-period Igor
..... Click the link for more information.
In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to a period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism.
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Art music (or serious music or sometimes erudite music) is an umbrella term generally used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations.
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Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750.[1] This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Classical period in Western music occurred from about 1750 to 1820, despite considerable overlap at both ends with preceding and following periods, as is true for all musical eras.
..... Click the link for more information.
misleading. Please see the discussion on the talk page.
The era of
Romantic music is defined as the period of European classical music that runs roughly from 1820 to 1900, as well as music written according to the norms and styles of that period.
..... Click the link for more information. 20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Impressionism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and continuing through the Neoclassicism of middle-period Igor
..... Click the link for more information.
In the broadest and popular sense,
Contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. This could include any kind of present music. However in the strict historical and musicological terminology, the term
Contemporary music exclusively refers to:
..... Click the link for more information. In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony. It has most commonly been identified in Western music, developing strongly in the Renaissance, and also dominant in much of the common
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scale is an ordered series of musical intervals, which, along with the key or tonic, define the pitches. However, mode is usually used in the sense of scale applied only to the specific diatonic scales found below.
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Atonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1907 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used as a primary foundation
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Walter Hamor Piston Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976) was an American composer and theorist.
Life
Piston was born in Rockland, Maine. His father's father, a sailor named Antonio Pistone, changed his name to Anthony Piston when he came to America from Genoa,
..... Click the link for more information. harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in music. The study of harmony may often refer to the study of harmonic progressions, the movement from one pitch simultaneity to another, and the structural principles that govern such
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diatonic scale (from the Greek διατονικος, meaning "[progressing] through tones", also known as the heptatonia prima
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A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in order. Chord progressions are central to most modern European-influenced music and the principle study of harmony.
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major triad
Component intervals
perfect fifth
major third
root Generally speaking, a major chord is any chord which has a major third above its root, as opposed to a minor chord which has a minor third.
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scale degree is the name of a particular note of a scale in relation to the tonic (the note of the scale that is considered the most important). The degrees of the traditional major and minor scales may be identified several ways:
..... Click the link for more information. In music the root (basse fondamentale) of a chord is the note or pitch upon which that chord is perceived or labelled as being built or hierarchically centered upon.
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