Differences between Baroque and Classical music

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Differences between Baroque and Classical music

Introduction

The style of western music that was found in the era that follows the Renaissance and it was followed in turn of the classical era is known as Baroque music. The word “Baroque” comes from the Portuguese word barroco, which means “misshapen pearl”. It was a negative description of the heavy and ornate ornamented music of the period 1600 to 1750. The classical music was known for its lighter and clearer style than baroque music. It was based on more dynamics and vibrato was used continuously while playing music. The instruments that were used in Baroque music were out of use in the classical music era. This tradition's central norms became codified in period between 1550 and 1900.

Discussion

This kind of music forms were the major portions of the canon's classical music, that is being studied, listened and performed on a large scale. The best composers of the baroque era were Georg Philipp Telemann, François Couperin, Claudio Monteverdi and Denis Gaultier. In the period of baroque the functional tonality was introduced. Composers and performers were used to elaborate the musical ornamentation, develop new techniques for playing the musical instruments and brought changes in the notation of the music in that era. Many of the musical concepts and terms are still used even today (Kennedy, 2006). Baroque music is considered to have an ornate style that includes lots of grace notes and trills. Solicits often improvise the phrases and melodies. The musicians used less or no vibrato and those vibratos were very narrow arm vibrato (Grout, 1988). Unlike the romantic music, the slides were not acceptable when shifting to higher or lower positions. The use of dynamics is often exaggerated and can be interpreted in a different way by ...