Periods in Music History Flashcards
Baroque period dates
1600-1750
Classical period dates
1750-1830
Romantic period dates
1830-1900
Contemporary period dates
1900-present
characteristics of the Baroque period
- polyphonic texture - use of ornamentation - improvisation - use of figured bass - dance suite - terraced dynamics
characteristics of the Classical period
- homophonic texture - obvious cadence points - Alberti bass - Sonata form
characteristics of the Romantic period
- programme music - colorful harmonies - lyric melodies - complex rhythmic patterns
characteristics of the Contemporary period
- less use of major and minor tonalities - quartal harmony - bitonality - polytonality - atonality - irregular and changing meters - polyphonic texture - Neo-Classic writing (return to Classical forms, i.e. Sonata form) - serial music - twelve-tone music
what is a dance suite mainly consist of?
includes many different dances performed together - allemande - courante/corrente - sarabande - gigue
what are the optional dances in the dance suite?
- bouree - gavotte - passapeid - polonaise - anglaise - loure - air
what is an allemande?
dance in moderate 4/4 time with a short upbeat often using short running figures that are passed through a semi-contrapuntal texture
what is a courante?
a French dance in moderate 3/2 or 6/4 time which shifts from one of these meters to the other with free counterpoint and a shifting melody
what is a corrente?
an Italian dance with in quick triple meter with continuous running figures and homophonic texture
what is a sarabande?
dance in slow triple meter and dignified style; often accented with an accented or long tone in the second beat
what is a minuet?
a French country dance in 3/4 meter
what is a bouree?
a French dance usually in quick duple meter with a single upbeat
what is a gavotte?
a French dance in moderate 4/4 time with an upbeat of two quarter notes and with phrases usually beginning and ending in the middle of the measure
what is a passapeid?
a spirited dance in quick 3/8 or 6/8 meter
what is a polonaise?
a Polish dance of stately and festive character in moderate triple meter usually containing measure with a repeated rhythmic motive
what is an anglaise?
a dance in fast duple meter
what is a loure?
dance in moderate 6/4 time with dotted rhythms and heavy downbeats from the 16th and 17th century bagpipe term
what is an air?
a song/dance with melodic characteristics
what is a French gigue?
compound duple meter (6/8); contains dotted rhythms and large intervals, and has fugal texture
what is an Italian giga?
quicker, non-fugal, has running passages over a harmonic bass (less frequently found in Baroque)
